THE HERALD
of Christ's Kingdom

VOL. LXIV. November/December 1981 No. 1
Table of Contents

The Sin That Does So Easily Beset

Israel's Title Deeds

At Eventide It Shall Be Light

Final Words

Graveside Eulogy of R. Robert Hollister

Entered Into Rest

New Year Thoughts

"WATCH!" - Mark 13:37

THIS SINGLE word, "WATCH," is suggested to the Israel of God as the key thought for the new year into which we are entering. There is an impressiveness and force in it, thus isolated, that may well stir our hearts, for it is the direct admonition of our Lord uttered in connection with the prophecy concerning his return. The lapse of nineteen centuries has not diminished its strong note of concern, exhortation, and warning. The fleet passing of another of our own few years but emphasizes' the need for solemn alertness as we face the significant future. It comes to us all individually as a personal message from the Master himself and thus, alone and apart from our fellow Christians, we must heed its warning implications. But hear the context!

"Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, WATCH." - Mark 13:32-37.

Four times in the span of these few verses do we note this all-important word, WATCH -- in each case the Greek word, Gregoreo, meaning to be awake and vigilant. Concerning the great and notable day of which Jesus here spoke, two facts only are announced -the certainty of its coming, and its suddenness or unexpectedness. The element of uncertainty is intended not to excite the imagination to curiosity, but to arouse the conscience to vigilance, and the heart to fidelity. Each servant of Christ holds everything in trust for his Lord, and uses time, talents, means, life itself, for his glory. Fidelity to such trust shall be rewarded, if persevered in to the end. 'Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And it he shall come in 'the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants." - Luke 12:37, 38.

The return of Christ and our gathering together unto him is the most cherished hope in the heart of each true Christian. In these latter days so much study and thought have been devoted to a consideration of the Scriptures bearing on this subject that perhaps little more can be added. It is probably true that at this late stage of the Church's experience, each individual has more or less become set in his own convictions. In a spirit not of compromise but of conciliation, it were well for us to seek a common ground .of understanding. It is impossible to avoid the conclusion, when we carefully consider all our Lord's words bearing on his return, that fulness of knowledge will not be ours until we have passed beyond the veil. There will be room for individual faith and for patience with one another to the last day of our earthly pilgrimage.

But let us examine ourselves as a collective body of believers in "Present Truth." Primarily, we can all meet on the broad platform of the Apostle's words: "all them that love His appearing." (Gk. Epiphaneia.) Such a love is engendered by Christ himself and is a natural consequence in any mind "fixed on Jesus." Thus we are all believers in the Second Advent and its glorious objective, the restitution of all things. Additionally, we believe we are living in "the last days, a time which is seeing the dissolution of human institutions to be superseded by the Divine Kingdom on earth. Our hearts jointly thrill in the realization that earth's long night of weeping is soon to terminate in a wonderful morning of joy. The fruition of our hopes in just before us.

But as regards the details of this extraordinary time, candidness and honesty require, yea, compel us to recognize that we all lack full knowledge. Undoubtedly some see more clearly in God's Word than their brethren. It will not do, however, to naively assume that any variation by others from our Scripture-interpretations is because- of moral defection on their part. Such reasoning may appeal to the natural man, an attitude which is responsible for the dreadful record of God-dishonoring religious persecution of past ages, so contrary to the spirit of Him who set the broadest example of tolerance, even to the seed of the Evil One, by his words "let both grow together until the harvest." (Matt. 13:30.) The spirit of Christ constrains us to accept the fact that brethren fully consecrated to the Lord and bearing outward testimony to their spirit-begettal, can and do, sincerely and honestly, differ in their understanding of Scripture. "Now I know in part," the great Apostle could testify, and so may all God's people. Omniscience can be no human claim. We must wait the future for perfection of knowledge.

Many of us believe that our Lord's return is an event of the past; that he has been invisibly present for some years now-since 1874, 1893, 1914 or some other date we have determined upon as correct. Does this sincere conviction make further watching, further alertness, unnecessary? Of course not! There are other phases of watching that are of vital importance. Consider Revelation 16:15: "Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame."

On the other hand our many brethren who, sincerely believe the Lord's presence is a future, though imminent event, have all the more reason to watch, to be alert, to be awake. For what if the Lord's presence is indeed a reality now! Will the heart-growth be such that it will survive the revelation of head errors? Neither pride nor self-will may be found in the overcomers. Therefore to have our portion with them, we must watch and keep our garments. It is a reasonable belief, the writer feels, that every one of the overcoming class will pass beyond the veil still hampered by some erroneous views. If we accept this thought as true (for who can claim to understand all spiritual truth perfectly?), it will move us to larger measures of patience and forbearance with one another. For obviously if we knew, each one of us, what we believe erroneously, we would immediately remove every last vestige of error. But since we do not know upon exactly what our heads may be wrong, it behooves us to be very careful in judging our brother, for it may be that we ourselves are the ones in error. What humility of mind this thought should stir within us! How happy we should be that each "to his own Master stands or falls. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to, make him stand." - Romans 14:4.

This generous, true-brotherly attitude regarding our beliefs and message is well reflected by Brother Russell's words of fifty years ago:

"The teachings which were to be presented to the nations are specified by our Lord as being --'Whatsoever I have commanded you.' This, then, proves that the kernel of the Gospel is not the Jewish Law, nor certain scientific theories and abstruse problems; but the simple teachings which our Lord delivered to the Apostles. What are these?

"(1) He taught that all men were sinners.

"(2) That he came into the world to 'give his life a ransom' -- a corresponding price for the sins of the whole world.

"(3) That no man could come unto the Father, but by him.

"(4) That all who would come by, him, must, in addition to the exercise of faith in him, also take up, his cross and follow him.

"(5) That all believers are one with him, as the branches of a grape-vine are parts of the vine.

) That every branch to abide in him must bring forth fruit, else it will be taken away.

"(7) That those who trust in him are to hope for and to expect his second coming -- I will come again, and receive you unto myself.'

"(8) That the ultimate end of our hope for all promised blessings is in and through a resurrection of the dead.

"(9) That love is the law of the New Covenant -'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength; and, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.'

"We are fully authorized, therefore, to teach, and to believe that these are the points of, faith and practice which are necessary to both, Jews, and Gentiles who shall be favored with the call of this Gospel Age; and that nothing else is necessary or pertinent to the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ or 'the faith once delivered to the saints.' Whoever makes the tests greater or less than these is in ERROR." - R2319.

Let then the New Year find us watchful, for watchfulness is a habitual attitude of spiritual alertness. We are not of the night but of the day, therefore let us not sleep as do others. The consummation of our hopes is at hand. Let us earnestly take heed to moral and spiritual environments, noting especially exposures to harm and loss from inimical forces within our own hearts and wills, from worldly allurements and Satanic temptations. Let there always, be a deep consciousness of spiritual danger axed damage impending from these foes within and without. And may our watchfulness include a profound sense of weakness, insufficiency, and utter unreadiness on our own parts to meet and avert or resist -these assaulting spiritual foes. Let there be a constant recognition of God's efficient interposition and a conscious dependence upon his proffered help. Our watchfulness must further imply an actual reliance upon his direction, guardianship, and deliverance, and a looking for and expectation of a blessed result, by reason of his certain and assuring promises.

Let us take heed, watch and pray always (Mark 13:33), watch and pray lest we enter into temptation (Matt. 26:41), watch and stand fast in the faith (1 Cor. 16:13), watch and be sober (1 Thess. 5:6), watching thereunto with all perseverance (Eph. 6:18), watch with thanksgiving (Col. 4:2), watch unto prayer (1 Pet. 4:7), be watchful and strengthen the things that remain. - Rev. 3:2, 3.

"And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." - Luke 21:34-36.

For some of us, this may be our last year of watching. What shall be the results of such faithful alertness to the end? "Blessed is the man that heareth Me, watching daily at My gates. "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching." "Blessed is he that watcheth." (Prov. 8:34; Luke 12:37; Rev. 16:15.) For such shall enter into the "joys of their Lord." They shall stand before the Son of man.

"I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me." - Hab. 2:1.

And still, as of old, so today does our Master speak:

"I say unto all, WATCH!"
"My soul, be on thy guard;
Ten thousand foes arise;
The hosts of sin are pressing hard
To draw thee from the prize.

"O! WATCH, and fight, and pray;
The battle ne'er give o'er;
Renew it boldly every day,
And help divine implore.

"Ne'er think the vict'ry won,
Nor once at ease sit down;
Thine arduous work will not be done,
Till thou halt gained thy crown."

- W. J. Siekman.

Jehovah's Footstool Made Glorious

"Thus saith Jehovah, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." "And I will make the place [footstool] of my feet glorious." "And his [Jehovah's] feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives." - Isaiah 60:13; 66:1; Zechariah 14:4; Matthew 5:35; Acts 7:49.

GOD'S footstool has been any thing but glorious for the past six thousand years: sin, pain, crying, mental and physical suffering and death have made it one vast charnel house in which now, conservatively estimated, at least fifty thousand millions of humanity wait for the time to come when the curse of divine justice shall be lifted; and the light of divine favor, shining in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord, shall rise as the Sun of righteousness,--

"Chase away sin's dismal shadows,
Light the gloom with healing ray."

To this end God has made abundant provision. The ransom for Adam, and for all who suffered loss through him as his children, bought the whole world, and secured for each member of our race an opportunity for a trial for everlasting life under favorable conditions; but it did more, it purchased back Adam's Paradise home (lost by his transgression), and his dominion as earth's king, representative of God, his Creator and Father.

Hence we read, "And thou, O Tower of the flock [Chris, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion." (Micah 4:8.) The Apostle Paul also, speaks of the "redemption of the purchased possession." (Eph. 1:14.) Our Lord in one of his parables referred to this also, showing that he purchased not only mankind, the treasure, but also the field, the world, the earth from under the curse: and that all who join with him, as members of the Kingdom class, share in that purchase of the field and the treasure. - Matt. 13:44.

The entire work of the Millennium will consist in reordering and making glorious God's footstool. Paradise, when lost through sin, was but a "garden" in a corner of the earth; but inasmuch as the race of Adam has multiplied to fill the earth, in accordance with the divine intention (Gen. 1:28), and inasmuch as they all have been redeemed, it will be necessary to provide a Paradise sufficiently large to accommodate all: and this will imply that the entire earth shall become as the Garden of Eden for fruitfulness and beauty and perfection. And all this is promised as the grand future consummation of the divine plan. - Acts 3:20, 21; Revelation 2:7; 2 Corinthians 12:4.

But the richest jewel of the Lord's glorified footstool in the close of the Millennium will be mankind, in whose perfection, liberty, and likeness to God, in moral and intellectual graces, will be reflected the very image of Divinity. And most gloriously will the perfect man reflect honor upon his Maker and his wondrous plan for his creation, redemption and restitution. And with that wonderful plan will always be intimately identified first the Lord Jesus, Jehovah's "Word," and second the Bride, the Lamb's wife and joint-heir in disbursing the blessings secured by the ransom.

This beautifying and glorifying of the Lord's "footstool" will not be completed until our Lord Jesus, as the Father's honored agent, "shall have put down all [conflicting] rule, and all authority and power. For he must reign until he bath put all enemies under his feet, before he delivers up the Kingdom at the close of the Millennium." - 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.

The period of the reign of Sin and Death is represented as the time when God "remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger" (Lam. 2:1); but following the beginning of the Millennium, the people are prophetically called upon to -- "Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool, for he is worthy." (Psa. 99:5.) And this thought, that the establishment of the New Jerusalem, the Church of God glorified, as the new government in the earth, will mean the beginning of the restoration of divine favor to Jehovah's footstool, is clearly set forth through the Prophet Zechariah (Zech. 14:4, 5).

JEHOVAH'S FEET ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES

This prophecy is generally misunderstood, and applied to the feet of our Lord Jesus, at his second advent: and indeed, those who thus err generally go farther and assert that it will be the feet of flesh, pierced with the nails of Calvary;-not realizing that our Lord gave his human nature, complete and forever, as our ransom; and that he was raised from the dead, by the Father's power, a glorious spirit being -- "the express image o the Father's person."

But a glance at the preceding verse (3) shows that the Prophet's reference is to the return of Jehovah's feet; for the statement (referring to the trouble by which the Kingdom will be established) is: "Then shall Jehovah go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle [in olden times for Israel] and his feet will stand in that lay upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be divided in its center, from east to west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove northward and half southward."

As soon as any recognize the fact that the feet mentioned are Jehovah's feet, they will not dispute that this language is symbolic, and refers to the Lord's reestablishment of his dominion in the earth, which has long been comparatively abandoned to the "god of this world" Satan; -- except as the Lord was represented first by the typical Tabernacle, secondly by the Temple at Jerusalem, and lastly by the present tabernacle condition of the Church of Christ, during this Gospel age. Surely, no one will err and get the thought that Jehovah literally rests his feet upon this earth as a "footstool."

And if the placing and resting of Jehovah's "feet" is symbolic, and signifies the return of divine favor and dominion to earth, so, we may be sure, other features connected in the same prophecy are symbolic: the Mount of Olives, its peculiar division, its valley, the flight of the people, the waters of life from Jerusalem (Compare verse 8 with Ezek. 47:1-9), etc., are all symbolic statements, -- pictures of grand spiritual truths.

The olive is a symbol full of meaning: in olden times it was the source of artificial light, its oil being generally used for this purpose. (Exod. 27:20.) Indeed, in the Hebrew the olive tree was called shemen or oil tree. Olive oil was also used the basis of man of the precious ointments of olden time -- such as that used in anointing the priests and kings, typifying the holy spirit upon the antitypical "royal priesthood." (Exod. 30:24.) And from time immemorial the olive branch has been used as a symbol of peace. - Genesis 8: 11; Nehemiah 8:15.

If then the olive be the symbol of light, peace and divine blessing through the holy spirit, and if mountain be considered as elsewhere the symbol for a Kingdom, the significance here of the term Mount of Olives is easily seen to be-the Kingdom of Light, Peace and Divine Blessing. And the standing or establishment or fixing of Jehovah's "feet" upon it, signifies that the divine favor and law will be reestablished in the earth by and through the holy Kingdom.

This application of the term Mount of Olives, is in full accord with the Apostle's statement (Rom. 11:17, 24) in which he compares Fleshly Israel with the original cultivated olive tree, and Gentile converts to wild olive branches grafted in where the natural branches had been broken off. (Compare Jer. 11:16, 17.) And he explains that the root of the tree is in the promise of God, -the Abrahamic promise, that the seed of Abraham should eventually bless all the families of the earth, etc. Eventually the same root or promise will bear two kinds of branches -- the ingrafted wild olive branches, and the reingrafted natural branches: when fleshly Israel shall have his blindness turned away, and shall look with the eye of faith upon the Savior crucified and pierced eighteen centuries ago;-a sacrifice for sin. We remember also that fleshly Israel was God's typical Kingdom or mountain for a long time, and that spiritual Israel of the Gospel age is called to be the real Kingdom of God, as our Lord declared, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom."

Moreover, from these two Kingdoms (even before Jehovah's glory rests upon them, to make them his channels of blessings to the whole world of mankind) has proceeded all " the light of the world" during all the darkness of the past: for are not these the representatives of the Old and the New Testaments, the old and the new Covenants? Do not these correspond to the Lord's two witnesses and to the two olive trees of Zechariah (Zech. 4:3, 11, 12) distinctly mentioned also in Revelation (Rev. 11:4)? -- in that these two parts of the mountain symbolize the outcome of those covenants, the results of the witnessing-the Kingdom in its heavenly and its earthly phases?

Here we see, then, that the two halves of the Mount of Olives signify the two parts of the Kingdom of God, distinctly separated according to a divine order or arrangement. The separation indicates no opposition between the two parts of the Kingdom. It is, on the contrary, for the purpose of producing the "Valley of Blessing" between -- to which all who desire divine aid may flee and find succor under the blessed protection of both the heavenly and the earthly phases of the Kingdom.

The removal of one part of the mountain to the north and the other to the south is significant; the North is the direction of the group Pleiades, the celestial center of the universe, the supposed seat of divine empire. This would seem to indicate the "change" of the Gospel Church at this time, from human to spirit conditions as "partakers of the Divine nature": and the removal of the other half of the mountain would seem to signify the complete restitution, to perfect human conditions, of those ancient worthies accounted worthy to constitute the earthly representatives of God's Kingdom.

The valley thus produced would be one full of light-free from shadows: for the sun would stream through it from east to west. This speaks symbolically of the Sun of Righteousness and its full light of divine truth and blessing scattering the shadows of sin, ignorance, superstition and death, and healing and restoring the willing and obedient of humanity who will flee to this valley of blessings, and valley of mercy. The valley of mercy, between and under the care of the spiritual and human phases of the Kingdom of Light and Peace (the establishment of Jehovah's feet) will surely be a "Valley of Blessings" to all who enter it with broken and contrite hearts.

We must remember, further, that while it is to Israel only that it is said, "Ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains," yet as a name Israel signified "The people blessed of the Lord," "The people of God," "The Lord's people." (2 Chron. 7:14.) And wile, as we have seen, the first or spiritual blessing of the Kingdom shall come to spiritual Israel, and the second or earthly blessing shall begin with Israel according to the flesh, yet it will not stop there; for whosoever will may

become an Israelite: by exercising the faith and obedience of Abraham, all mankind may become Israelites indeed, -- "the people of God." And hence the Prophet Isaiah declares that when Israel is called back to divine favor, at the establishment of the Kingdom, it will include "Every one that is called by my [Jehovah's] name: for I have created him for my glory; I have formed him, yea, I have made him." (The name Israel will then apply to all who are God's people.) - Isaiah 43:7; Romans 9:26, 33; 10:13.

"And [thus] will Jehovah my God come in, and all the holy ones shall [thus] be [united] with him." (Zech. 14:5.) When God's time shall have fully come, when the lease of power to the Gentiles shall have run out, when the sacrificing of the great Day of Atonement (the Gospel age) shall have ceased, when the High Priest shall have finished making atonement, not only for his own "body," the Church, but also for his "house," and for "all the people," and he shall come forth to bless all the people, then Jehovah's curse, or sentence of death, shall be lifted from the earth, his footstool tabernacle will again be recognized, and its beautifying in righteousness and truth and in the holy spirit of love shall begin and progress, until, in the end of the Millennium, all the willingly righteous shall have reached perfection, or been reunited with Jehovah, and all the unwilling shall have been destroyed. - Acts 3:23; Revelation 20:9.

Carrying the picture further, the Prophet declares, respecting that day in which gradually the earth shall be made glorious as Jehovah's footstool: --

"And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be bright nor the darkness thick; but the day shall be the one foreknown to the Lord-neither full day nor night: but it shall come to pass that at its close [evening] it shall be [clear] light." - Zechariah 14:6, 7.

Some confounded the "day" here described with the "day of Vengeance" which is "a day of clouds and thick darkness with no light in it" (Joel 2:2; Zeph. 1:15) and the translators have, seemingly, generally tried to harmonize the translations. But not so; the day here referred to by Zechariah as only partially bright is the Millennial day, although in it the Sun of Righteousness will arise and shine, to scatter earth's miasma of sin and superstition and death. It will nevertheless be only partially bright, because it will throughout be dealing with generation after generation of the fallen race as brought from the tomb, and in various stages of restitution toward perfection. But how refreshing it is to be assured that in that day of the reestablishment of Jehovah's feet upon his footstool, there shall be no more "thick darkness"; and that at the close of that Millennial Day, instead of growing darker, the world will only have reached the high noon of its "light of the knowledge of Jehovah"; and that its sun shall never set.

The reference to the rivers of living waters flowing from Jerusalem, during this Millennial Day of the reestablishment of Jehovah's feet upon his footstool ( ch. 14:8, 9), reminds us of the corresponding testimony of Ezekiel (47:1-12) and of John's Revelation (22:1, 2) which, under this same symbol of living waters proceeding from the throne of the Millennial Kingdom, show us the restitution blessings under the symbols of "waters of life," to which whosoever will may come and drink freely, and fruitful trees of life everlasting whose leaves will heal the repentant peoples of the earth of all imperfections.

Ah yes! "In that day the Lord shall be King over all the earth"; his Kingdom shall have come as his faithful have long prayed; and by the end of that day his will shall be done on earth even as it is done in heaven. God's footstool shall then be glorious indeed: as it is written: -

"As Truly as I Live, the Whole Earth Shall Be Filled With the Glory of Jehovah." - Numbers 14:21; Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14. - C. T Russell

The Sin That Does So Easily Beset

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." - Hebrews 12:1.

NO MAN has a right to sin. Yet, on the other hand, everyone does, even as the Apostle John indicates: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). The next verse tells us what to do. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The cause of sin is selfishness. Sin destroys individuals, wrecks nations, and it will overthrow the world. This insidious and hereditary evil must be blotted out by every spirit-begotten child of God. Love must be put in its place. It must be the governing impulse in our lives. This is the love spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13:4: "Charity envieth not, charity is kind; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up."

SHINING THE SPOTLIGHT

The search of our hearts and the cleansing of secret faults must be done, but first we must desire it. We must pray for God's help, because this task is impossible for any of us to perform. God helps us by shining the spotlight of His word on our lives. Then we see the reality of self. When the spotlight is on, we become aware of areas in which we need correcting.

One of these is jealousy. It is written: "Jealousy is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame" (Song of Solomon 8:6). Jealousy is one of the greatest foes confronting every Christian. Jealousy will destroy anyone who harbors it.

Another is self-conceit. It is that self-centered smile of superiority. The smile of feeling content in dominating or being head and shoulders above others. This blocks the way to true progress and usefulness in God's service.

The best weapon for attacking the enemy is to become more like the pattern before us. We must make God's attributes our attributes. Godlike wisdom dictates a distrustfulness of self. It requires a continual remembrance of self weaknesses and imperfections. It calls for a greater reliance upon Him.

The searchlight takes us to Philippians 3:13, 14: "Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do ... I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." The moment anyone feels that he has attained tQ a satisfactory spiritual state marks the date of the beginning of his spiritual decline. No present attainments can be satisfactory to a sincere follower of Christ. Our weaknesses and shortcomings are kept before us when we keep our vision locked on the perfect pattern. This will result in spiritual growth.

Humility is needed to put us on a proper level. It keeps us lowly. We must genuinely see in everyone else some good qualities. And we must recognize them as being superior to our own. "Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory ; but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than self." - Philippians 2:3.

ECCLESIA AFFAIRS

The real application of this takes place in ecclesia living. The important thing is how and why everything is being done, not who does it. Every single movement and function performed by every single individual in every single ecclesia is observed by God. It is an evidence to Him of how we would act and react if we were on the other side of the veil. Only God knows the real intent of our minds and hearts. He can translate our wills and intent of mind and heart. That which started here, grew and developed, will be taken beyond the veil and given a new body there.

This is what makes everything we do in. our ecclesia so important, whether it is giving a discourse or performing a critical function in public witness work, or if it is just being cordial and sweet to our brethren. Whatever we do is usually done for present or future (beyond the veil) rewards. The former sometimes involves carnal motives, but the latter is done as unto the Lord and has eternal value.

The ecclesia, then, becomes the all important location for dealing with God. He considers each one a miniature example of the glorified Church. Thus God looks upon each ecclesia exactly as he will the complete body on the other side of the veil. God gives all of his children some of his holy spirit. He also gives each one a stewardship, both temporal and spiritual. Then He places each one where he sees best.

Now, can you imagine that after God does all of this, that anyone should complain about what he has been given or others have received or where he has been placed? Yet this is exactly what happens. God is offended when anyone expresses disruptive dissatisfaction about ecclesia affairs.

SPIRITUAL MURDER

Yet, there is still something more offensive in God's sight. This is to slander, injure or destroy the good name and character of another body member. The Bible calls this spiritual murder. See Matthew 5:21, 22 and 1 John 3:15).

To see someone murdering a fellow body member is a most sickening and depressing sight for God to behold. God sees sin wherever it is committed. But just as during the Jewish Age when God dealt exclusively with the nation of Israel, he is now turning all of his attention to the Church. So is it any wonder that God loves and cherishes each member of every assembly? To injure an part of the Body of Christ is to affect God Himself.

Ephesians 4:31 states: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and -anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice." This is good advice for all of us. It is sometimes said: "I certainly would never say anything about another brother that would point out or magnify his errors and mistakes, unless it were true. And, I must tell the truth." Let us beware this be not sophistry. The truth we are commissioned to preach is the truth about God and his character and purposes. We are not commissioned to preach the truth about the weaknesses of our brethren.

If at any time we find ourselves talking about someone else to a third person and it results in his dropping that first person, it probably becomes a sordid gain for us personally. If this happens, selfishness was most likely the primary motive for our saying what we did.

That is sin. However, to not become involved in a situation in God's household that is wrong and needs correction would be disobedience to the principles of righteousness.

The sin of slandering someone's character is a sin that can easily beset the new creature. In spite of our great cloud of witnesses, we still can get "weighed down" by it. So let us remember the words of our risen Lord: "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life." - R. Rawson

Israel's Title Deeds

"In the latter years you [Gog, of the land of Magog - v. 2] will go against the land that is restored from war, the land where people were gathered from many nations upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continued waste; its people were brought out from the nations and now dwell securely, all of them.... and you will devise an evil scheme and say, 'I will go up against the land of unwalled villa yes; I will fall upon the quiet people -- who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates; to seize spoil and carry off plunder; to assail the waste places which are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have gotten cattle and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth" - Ezekiel 38:8-12, R. S. V.

The invasion of the Holy Land by the hosts of "Gog and Magog" is the last great event of this Age. The overthrow of that great host is the signal for the establishment and announcement of the Kingdom of God upon earth. From that point of time Restitution processes will commence, and the work of world conversion, the restoration of the earth and rehabilitation of the human race, go forward. A clear understanding of the prophecy in the light both of Biblical lore and of contemporary knowledge is an essential for those who desire to keep abreast with the outworking of the Divine Plan.

The central feature of the prophecy is the land and its people, and a question immediately arises, "Where is the land and who are the people?" The old-time theology, inspired mainly by St. Augustine, declared that the whole passage is symbolic, that it depicts the final triumph of Christ and his Church over the forces of evil. Such explanation will not satisfy students of the Bible who understand and look for the coming of Christ's Kingdom upon earth. Quite clearly, this passage is directly related to the Divine destiny for the ideal Israel of the End Time and to the establishment of the Kingdom, and must therefore be understood in a dispensational sense and in an earthly setting. Putting it briefly, the time of the prophecy is at the end of this Age and the place of its fulfillment is upon this earth.

The Old Testament, from the Book of Genesis onward, maintains a consistent claim that God promised the patriarch Abraham that of his descendants there would be developed a nation which should possess to all perpetuity the land over which he wandered and in which he lived. In that land this nation is to become the Divine instrument, to be a light to the nations and declare God's salvation to the ends of the earth. The New Testament takes up the promise and shows that it will become reality at the end of the Age. In the meantime Abraham's descendants, while admittedly constituting a power for good in history, have never reached up to the standard demanded for this historic destiny, but when the time comes such a nation will be ready in the land thus promised; Ezekiel's prophecy refers to that fulfillment. It is to be taken as a basic- principle, therefore, that the land promised to Abraham nearly four thousand, years ago, the land in which he spent his life, the land in which his descendants Isaac and Jacob, and the nation of Israel which sprang from Jacob, played their respective parts on the stage of history, is the land of the promise and of the prophecy. There it is that a people will be gathered to fulfill in every respect the description given by Ezekiel. Although the contemporary modern political state of Israel is but a small country the size of Wales the ancient nation of Israel did in fact occupy a larger area; the promises to Abraham and his successors define an even greater expanse of territory destined to form the Holy Land of the Kingdom Age. It has to be accepted that not only modern Israel but a number of other recently created sovereign States in that part of the world will eventually be merged to form the stage upon which this last act in the drama of this "present evil world," to use St. Peter's description, is to be played.

It is noteworthy that God seems to have selected this part of the earth's surface as the scene of those events which mark definite steps or epochs in the development of his purposes. The travels of Abraham, from Ur of the Chaldees in the southeast Euphrates valley, to Haran in the north, down through Canaan into Egypt in the southwest, and back into Canaan, there to settle, mark out a great triangle which roughly defines the area promised to him and to his seed by Divine covenant. Within or immediately adjacent to this triangle practically the whole of the incidents in the Old Testament were enacted, with the three exceptions of the landing of the Ark in the far northeast, Jonah's mission to Nineveh, and the story of Esther.

There is a very significant expression in verse 12 of chapter 38 (Eze. 38:12). The regathered nation is said to dwell "at the center of the earth." Now this is, geographically, literally true of the land of Israel and its surroundings. Of all the circles of latitude encircling the earth, that passing through the Middle East traverses the greatest length of land, nearly ten thousand miles. Israel is situated at the junction of three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is roughly midway in distance between the West Coast of Africa and the East Coast of China, between the southernmost limit of Africa and the northernmost of Siberia. If a point had to be selected which could be said to be the center of the land masses of the earth then Israel would logically be that point, and can claim more than anywhere else to be called the "center of the earth." As the administrative seat of the World Government which will be in operation during the Millennial Age no more suitable place could be chosen. It is tempting to think that God deliberately selected this particular part of the earth's surface for its historic mission because of its physical suitability.

Now the actual extent and boundaries of this future Holy Land are defined in the Scriptures with a certain degree of precision and in good legal form. The ancients of Abraham's day were quite accustomed to the drawing up of legal documents embodying the title to ownership of land-many such tablets exist today in the British Museum among other places- and the promises of God regarding the land he has set aside for the administration of the Kingdom are set out in precise style. There are four such "title deeds" incorporated in the Old Testament, each defining the land in a different manner, by their united testimony affording the student a very fair idea of the boundaries of the land that is to be.

The accompanying map is an endeavor to show how these four Scriptures between them indicate the general extent of the land.

TITLE DEED No. 1

The first definition was given to Abraham and recorded in Genesis 15:18-21. The Lord had concluded a covenant with the patriarch under the terms of which his seed was to become the means of blessing all families of the earth. Later events showed that the line of descent to the "seed of blessing was to be traced through Isaac, Jacob, and eventually the twelve tribes of Israel. Said the Lord, "Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." A significant element in this passage is the list of peoples then existing whose territory is to be included in the Holy Land.

The river Euphrates rises in the mountains of modern Turkey and after traversing northern Syria flows through Iraq into the Persian Gulf. The empires of Sumeria, Assyria, Mari, and Babylon rose and fell on its banks. Abraham's migration from Ur to Haran followed the course of the river for a great part of its length. David and Solomon extended the commercial influence of the Kingdom of Israel to the Euphrates where it now flows through Syria. According to this title deed the eastern frontier of the Holy Land is marked by the Euphrates.

The "river of Egypt" is the Nile. The same expression is used some half dozen times in the Old Testament to describe the Wady-el-Arish, a seasonal stream running down from the middle of the Sinai peninsula into the Mediterranean sea at El-Arish. In these cases the word for river is "nachal" meaning a torrent bed dry in summer and flooded in winter -- the Arabic "wady." When the Nile is intended, as in Gen. 15:18, the word is "nahar meaning a permanent running stream. The Nile delta or its vicinity would therefore appear to be the western frontier of the Holy Land. David's Kingdom reached as far as the Wady-el-Arish.

The ten nations mentioned as occupying this territory in Abraham's day have long since disappeared from history, although in most cases a good deal is known about them.

TITLE DEED No. 2

The second title deed was the gift of God to the emerging nation of Israel at the time of the Exodus. "I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river" (Exod. 23:31). This statement defines the north-south and east-west limits of the land. The expression "Sea of the Philistines" is in itself an interesting internal proof of the early date of the Book of Genesis. The Philistines were immigrants from Crete (Caphtor in the Old Testament, Egyptian Keftu - see Jer. 47:4 and Amos 9:7) and were settled on the coast of Canaan primarily for the purpose of growing corn for their homeland. Crete was the dominant sea power in the Mediterranean in the days of Abraham and that sea was then known as the "Sea of the Philistines." Less than a century after the Exodus the supremacy of Crete was broken and her sea power passed to the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon. From then the sea was known to the Hebrews and in the Old Testament as the "Great Sea."

From the Red Sea to the Mediterranean; from the desert to the river! "Desert" here is "midbar" which defined the desert of Sinai and northwestern Arabia, in the former of which Israel was at that moment encamped. "The river," when not otherwise qualified, always denotes the Euphrates in the Old Testament. The Red Sea, the Arabian desert, the Euphrates and the Mediterranean coast are declared to be the ultimate boundaries of the land, agreeably to the definition given to Abraham in Gen. 15:18 four centuries earlier.

TITLE DEED No. 3

The third title deed was awarded a few months later, when Israel was about to leave Sinai. "Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the Mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them" (Deut. 1:7, 8). The Mount of the Amorites was the elevated region extending for many miles east of the Jordan; the "plain" (arabah), the deep valley in which the Jordan flows from Galilee to the Dead Sea; the "hills" (har-high peaks), the hill country of Judea and Samaria; the "vale" (ha-shephelah), the low plain extending from Joppa southward; the south (negeb), the territory toward Sinai and the Gulf of Akaba, the seacoast in the west, Lebanon in the north, sweeping across to Euphrates in the east. This vast terrain was only partially won, even in the days of David; the full accomplishment of the Divine mandate lies still in the future.

TITLE DEED No. 4

The fourth title deed, given forty years later as Israel was at long last about to pass over Jordan into the land, is confirmatory of the third. Said Moses, "Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours, from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be (Deut. 11:24). "Wilderness" here is midbar, rendered "desert" in the second title deed (Ex. 23:31), so that the boundaries here defined also extend from the Arabian desert in the south to Lebanon in the north, from the Euphrates in the east to the Mediterranean ("uttermost sea" is acharon, the "hinder sea" a Hebrew term for that sea) in the west.

THE FOUR TITLE DEEDS ARE IN AGREEMENT

So the four declarations, separated from each other, first to last, from the time of Abraham to that of Joshua, agree together on the boundaries of the land as it is finally to be constituted when the Divine purposes come to fruition and the Kingdom of God upon earth is at hand. The fact that Israel of old never possessed more than a part of this great area is immaterial; Israel's failure to measure up to the conditions of her calling accounts for this as well as many other deficiencies in her attainments in history. This is the land as it will be when the ideal Israel, the Holy Nation of the End Time, takes its stand for God in face of world opposition.

THE TERRITORIAL CHANGES FORECAST ARE NOT TO BE
ACHIEVED BY PHYSICAL FORCE OR AGGRESSIVE WARFARE

The territory thus defined includes not only contemporary Israel but the whole of the State of Jordan and parts of Egypt, Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. There must obviously be a considerable political adjustment of frontiers to be effected before the Holy Land assumes the shape foreseen in the Pentateuch, and nothing in the prophetic Scriptures gives ground for thinking this is to be attained by physical force or by aggressive warfare. Any territorial changes achieved by conflicts between the present State of Israel and her Arab neighbors have to do with the fortunes of the kingdoms of this world rather than those of the next. And in any case, the Israel of today is very far removed from that God believing "Holy Nation" of the future which is going to survive the great attack because it has put its trust in God instead of in armed force.

ARAB-ISRAEL PROBLEMS TO BE SETTLED PEACEFULLY

It must be expected, therefore, that the future holds in prospect a much more peaceful settlement of Arab-Israel problems than at the present time seems possible. It has to be remembered that in the past these two peoples have not always been at variance, that their present antagonism is largely inspired by the conflicting commercial interests of other nations. Most important of all, the same series of Divine promises which set the sons of Isaac apart for a specific destiny also provided specially for the sons of Ishmael. The Arab race originated from a number of sources but for the most part are of Semitic stock, in the main from the thirteen sons of Joktan (Gen. 10:26-30) and the twelve sons of Ishmael, many of their names surviving as main Arabic divisions to this day. Concerning Ishmael God declared that he would make of him a great nation and multiply him exceedingly, so that he could not be numbered for multitude. Four times in Genesis is this promise reiterated. ' I am with the lad," said the Most High, "I have blessed him; I will make him a great nation" (Gen. 16:10-12; Gen. 17:20; Gen. 21:13, 18). These words are not meaningless and the very significant fact that not one of the Semitic Arab nations appears in Ezekiel's list of those who join the forces of Gog in the attack provokes the question as to their whereabouts and their attitude at that time. The land of Arabia proper, one-third the size of Europe and something like four times the size of the Holy Land of the End Time, if restored to the fertility it enjoyed in early ages, could support many times the present populations of the Arab nations of the Middle East. Calling to mind the progress now being made in restoring the present land of Israel from its past desolation it is not too fanciful to surmise that something of the same kind might be achieved in Arabia. God said of Ishmael that he was to dwell to the east of his brethren, i.e., of Isaac (Gen. 16:12). The geographical definitions of the land originally settled by the sons of Joktan (Gen. 10:30) cover the whole - of Arabia to the Indian Ocean. History concurs in pointing to that land as the natural home of the Arab peoples just as Israel is that of the Israelis.

It might well be, therefore, that the outlines of the promised Holy Land will begin to take shape in proportion -- as a hitherto unlocked for settlement of the differences between these two peoples looms on the political horizon.

OUT OF ZION SHALL GO FORTH THE LAW, AND
THE WORD OF THE LORD FROM JERUSALEM

This is the land, therefore, which is to become the center of the closing events of this Age and the opening events of the next. It will be literally true that "Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isa. 2:3). Not for nothing has the Holy City preserved its existence and its name for so many centuries. It was already there when history began-the earliest records we have speak of Urusalim, the City of God of Peace, a place sacred to the worship of the Most High God. To the three great religions of the world-Judaism, Christianity, Islam -- it is still a sacred city. Besieged, overthrown and destroyed at least seventeen times, leveled with the ground and plowed up more than once, stripped and despoiled of its treasures time after time, always has the city risen again, still it stands, a symbol of the eternal things that can never pass away. Where else in all the world could God find so fitting a land and city- to be the center of administration for the new earth which is to be? "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, . . . the city of the great King" (Psa. 48:2). There is much in all the Scriptures which speak of the day when God sets his hand to recover to this land a people which will build up the desolate wastes and raise- a standard of righteousness in the eyes of all nations. Here, where Europe, Asia, and Africa meet, it is the Divine intention to create a gathering place for -that nation which shall enter the most fiery trial that has ever confronted a people - and, in the power of God, emerge victorious.

- A. O. Hudson, Eng.

At Eventide It Shall Be Light

Israel! my Israel! how weary thou, and worn.
Israel! my People! how rifled, robbed, and shorn.
Though nations through the centuries have scorned and injured thee,
Thou art my People still today,
For I have Purchased thee.
Israel! my chosen! my beloved vineyard fair!

Long have I sorrowed over
Thy branches, stripped and bare.
Thy wanderings and thy sorrows
My Heart to thee have turned.
At eventide thy light shall rise,
My name thou shalt have learned.

With mercies will I gather thee,
Thou art my very own.
I long to heal thy sorrows
And Bless thee from my Throne.
The Writings of the Prophets,
Graven on the Sacred Page,
The Light and hope of Israel --
Which lives from age to age.

With mercies will I gather thee,
Thou scattered of my Wrath!
'Twas only for a moment,
And not meant for thy death.
'Tis time to seek my favor
And to own my cross and live.
My kingdom still is waiting,
Which in Kindness God will give.

When Thou wilt cry, "My Father,"
As the Prophets spake of old,
The mighty arm of Israel's God
Wilt Israel's sons uphold.
Then wilt thine eyes be opened,
And thy Blindness fall away.
At eventide Thy light shall rise
To bring thy Glorious day.

Final Words

(Closing paragraphs by H. Gratton Guinness in his volume
"The Approaching End of the Age" written in 1879.)

THE prospect of the judgments which are to bring to a close this dispensation, and which are described in terms of appalling strength by inspired apostles (2 Thess 2; 2 Peter 3; Rev 18; Rev 19), cannot in itself be an attractive one to the Christian heart. It must, when they realize it, excite in his people, the compassions of Christ; and incline them, as they see the ungodly turning from the only way of escape, to weep, as their Master wept over Jerusalem, in the prospect of its coming doom, and to exclaim with Him, "If thou hadst known, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace I But now they are hid from thine eyes!"

Yet, while sorrowing in Christlike compassion, we can also acquiesce in Christlike righteousness with the just judgments of God. It needs but a glance over the wide extent and awful character of the evils which those judgments are to remove, and the unspeakable, multiplied, and universal blessings which they are to introduce; to make a true Christian even from motives of humanity desire the hastening of the day of God. If use had not familiarized us with the miseries born of sin, if our standard of human duty and human privilege, had not been debased by ages of acquaintance with things as they are, if our ideal of the destiny of mankind was the true one, -- that it is, "to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever," -- the present state of the wide world would fill us with grief and amazement, and with impatient longings for a change.

Where in the wide world can we then find purity and peace? Where holiness and happiness? Oh, the foul lives, the defiled consciences, the troubled minds, the broken hearts, the crying oppressions, the multiplied miseries of our race! What a world of sin and woe is contained in that one word, WAR, and in that other word, SLAVERY! What famines and pestilences, and revolutions and massacres arise from MISGOVERNMENT! How truly the whole creation groans, and travails in pain together, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God I The deepest and truest compassion for the sufferings of humanity must prompt the cry, How long, O Lord? And apart altogether from the joy that is to be brought to her by the revelation of Jesus Christ, the church must long for his coming, that the creation itself may be delivered from the bondage of corruption, and brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Israel’s conversion, and the world’s jubilee of liberty and gladness, date alike from the coming of the Lord with all his saints, to execute judgment on the ungodly. Of the blessed condition of things which shall succeed, during the world’s millennial sabbath, Scripture gives many a glorious sketch! and though we may be, and must be, unable to image it to ourselves in its detail, we know its broad essential features, and they imply almost all we can desire. Satan, the source of all sin, the great deceiver and seducer of men, is to be bound, imprisoned, rendered perfectly powerless and inoperative; Christ, the source of all blessing, spiritual and temporal, is to reign, to govern the nations of the earth Himself, suffering no sin or oppression, and protecting the poor and needy. The seventy-second Psalm, the thirty-second chapter of Isaiah, and similar scriptures, describe his glorious, peaceful, righteous reign, and its blessed results to mankind.

And while compassion for our fellow-creatures would make us long for the dawn of the day of Christ, how much more, desire for his glory! Can we, who own Him Lord, be content to have Him despised and rejected still by his ancient people Israel, denied, mocked, and insulted by the vast infidel host, displaced from his rightful throne, by this self-styled Vicar on earth, robbed of all his peculiar glories by an apostate priesthood, unknown to the great majority of the sinners He died to save, poorly obeyed and honoured by his best friends and followers, and practically forgotten and disowned by the mass of those who bear his name? Can we be content with a continuance of this treatment of the only begotten Son in whom God is well-pleased? Can we endure to see this treatment still accorded to Him Who for our sakes humbled Himself and became of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross? Is He to have nothing but what He had before, the adoration and love of the heavenly hosts? Or, rather, is not every knee to bow to Him, and every tongue to confess Him Lord, to the glory of God the Father? Are not our hearts impatient for the day when earth shall own her King, and Israel its Messiah, and our blessed Lord alone be exalted? Do we not cry, --

Our longing eyes would fain behold
That bright and blessed brow,
Once wrung with bitterest anguish, wear
Its crown of glory now?

And does not the cry gush from the depth of our souls? The near approach of the day of Christ, must rejoice the heart that adores Him; for never till then will He have his rightful place, or receive from the sons of men, the love and the sub mission which He so richly deserves.

And without being selfish, we rejoice and must rejoice for our own sakes in the prospect of the near approach of the end of the age, notwithstanding its accompanying judgments.

For whatever the exact portion it may bring to others, whatever its immediate and precise effect on Israel, on Christendom, and on the heathen nations of the earth, -- and there maybe room for some doubts and differences of opinion as to these, -- there can be no question whatever, as to the portion it brings to the true church and to each individual Christian. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," the dead in Christ shall rise, and the living "in Christ" be changed, the corruptible put on in-corruption, and the mortal immortality, when the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God; we shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be for ever with the Lord. We shall see Him, and be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; we shall go in, clad in pure linen, clean and white, to the marriage supper of the Lamb; we shall, as his blood-bought bride, sit with Him on his throne, and share his glory, according to his word, "the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given them." Simple, clear, abundant, and unmistakable are the predictions with reference to our portion at the coming of the Lord. "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to those that trouble you; and to you Who are troubled REST WITH US when the Lord Jesus shall he revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when He shall come to be GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS, AND ADMIRED IN ALL THEM THAT BELIEVE in that day" (2 Thess. 1.6-10).

Rest! that is to be one feature of our portion, rest with Christ, rest with the saints and martyrs that are gone before. Rest from conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil; rest from the life and walk of faith, in the more glorious life and walk of sight, for we shall behold his face, and see Him, whom not having seen we love; rest of heart in love’s full fruition, in complete and eternal union with our Lord, -- the marriage of the Lamb; rest of mind, in perfect knowledge, for then shall we know, even as also we are known; rest from the burden of this body of humiliation, rest from laboring in vain, and spending our strength for nought, rest from all care and fear, from all strife, and all pain and sorrow; and from the heart-ache produced by the daily sights and sounds of ungodliness. The day of Christ shall bring rest to the weary! Nor rest only, but fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore l The joy of seeing HIM glorified and acknowledged by all, and the joy of being glorified and acknowledged ourselves by Him; the joy of perfect holiness, the joy of possessing a new and incorruptible spiritual body in which to serve Him as we cannot do here, and to enjoy his glory, as would now be impossible. "Beloved! now are we the sons of God; but it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is."

Ours shall be the joy, not only of being like Him ourselves, but of beholding all those we love like Him also -- the joy of seeing eye to eye, and of having every feeling in perfect unison, with all the children of God, the joy of meeting the saints of other days, the patriarchs and prophets and apostles, and the noble army of martyrs; of seeing, crowned with crowns of life, those who loved not their lives to the death -- the joy of unhindered communion and worship, the joy of perpetual and perfect service. And all these joys sweetened by the assurance that they are ours for ever, that we shall go no more out from the temple of the immediate presence of God, that we are to be for ever with the Lord! Earth’s millennium is to end, like all previous dispensations, in apostasy and judgment; but to the risen saints no change; no apostasy can ever come. Christ is their life; because He lives, they live also, in Him and with Him indissolubly and eternally one. Their eternal state begins at his Epiphany, at the Second Advent for which we wait.

Brethren, are these things so? Have we a hope thus full of glory, and does our hope draw nigh, yea very nigh? "What manner of persons then ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?"

Graveside Eulogy of R. Robert Hollister

Who was gathered home October 28, 1980

I SHALL quote a few Scriptures that were favorites of Robert's and make a few comments on, and applications of them. The first, John's Gospel 14:1-3, Jesus speaking: "Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." These words were not spoken to the world, but to His few footstep followers, and those who throughout the Gospel Age like Robert, were dedicated, sacrificing Christians. At an early age Robert believed in Jesus' ransom for all, that He died for him, Robert, personally, and he was thus justified, recorded righteous and perfect. Then Robert accepted the invitation in Romans 12:1, 2, where Paul says: "I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God." Since the age of 20 Robert had been diligently adding to his faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and benevolent love as he was instructed to do in 2 Peter 1:5-7.

At the tender age of 24 to 26, Robert called on newspaper publishers in this country, Canada, and England, to get them to print and pay for as news, weekly sermons on the truths I am now pointing out to you. Contracts were signed with more than 3,500 newspapers representing many millions of readers each week. More than 1,000 of these contracts were obtained by Robert. He organized this work in Great Britain and signed up 600 newspapers there. Later he was sent alone to India, China, Japan, and Korea, and had many thousands of pamphlets translated into local dialects and languages and distributed by native Christians in goodly parts of those countries. This work was stopped by World War One in 1914.

Continuing with John's quotation of Jesus' words: "Let not your heart be troubled ... in My Father's house are many mansions . . . I go to prepare a place for you ... and I will come again, . . . that where I am ye may be also." Note well the words "in My Father's house are many mansions." This means that in God's family of individuals, made in the mental image of God, there are many glorious places of existence, like living in a large, impressive, stately residence now. Jesus has prepared in the heavenly realm a plane of spirit, ethereal, existence, for His Church or Bride whose names are written in Heaven. That is where Robert will be.

John 5:28, 29 tells the glorious future of the whole race of mankind: "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the grave shall hear Jesus' voice and shall come forth, they that have done good [like Robert] unto the resurrection of life [immediately], and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment" (American Revised Version). Isaiah 26:9 explains that "when God's judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." God's judgments are not in the earth now. Satan is the god of this world. God's judgment day (a thousand year day, says 2 Peter 3: 7, 8) will come after the present evil world is destroyed. You remember that God told Adam in Genesis 2:17 not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! But he did so, and in the present life mankind has learned evil; but Isaiah 26:9 assures us that in the next, the Millennial Age, all the partakers of the "Resurrection of Judgment" will then learn righteousness if willing and obedient, because Jesus made the atonement for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world, as says 1 John 2:2. Also in 1 Timothy 2:6: 'Jesus gave Himself a ransom for all to be testified [to all] in due time." Now is the due time for believers; NOW The Millennium will be the due time for the rest of mankind.

Jesus said, "ye believe in God, believe also in Me." So don't say "the world cannot hold all the thirty thousand million (thirty billion) or more who have lived and died on the earth," but instead believe that Jesus knew the earth can hold them and also believe that He who fed the five thousand men besides women and children with only five loaves and two fishes, and had twelve baskets full of fragments left over, as recorded in Matthew 14:17-20 when a perfect man on earth, will be even more able in the next age to arrange for the housing, feeding, and clothing of the whole human race raised from the sleep of death to human life again. Because after His death on the cross He was raised from the grave on the third day a Divine Being in the image of and of the same substance as Jehovah, and given all power in heaven and in earth, as Hebrews 1:1-3 and Matthew 28:18 tell us.

What a wonderful time it will be. No more graves like these around us, no more cemeteries, undertakers, doctors, nurses and hospitals. Isaiah 33:24 says, "the inhabitants shall no more say I am sick." Revelation 21:4 assures "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

Only for a little season, at the end of the Millennial Age will God allow Satan's release from the chains that shall bind him for the thousand years, according to Revelation 20:1-3.

This will be to test the perfected race, to demonstrate those who obey only because compelled by force to do so, and to show up those who after the thousand years of blessing have not learned to love righteousness and hate iniquity. Even one who has sympathy for sin, though outwardly obedient, will fail under the test, and all such will be mercifully cast off from among the people (Revelation 20:7-9).

Again I repeat Jesus' words in John 14:1, "Let not your heart-be troubled," for Jesus will give Adam and every member of the general resurrection, a full, fair, free opportunity to gain everlasting life. All the willing and obedient will be successful, and only the incorrigibly wicked will die the second death from which there is no resurrection.

God is love. His throne is established by justice and judgment. He is the Father of Mercies and the God of all comfort (1 John 4:8 and Psalm 89:14).

God help us to always remember these truths Robert stood for and taught for 75 years.

Goodbye, dear Robert, you have fought a good fight and have kept the faith. We fully believe there is a crown of righteousness laid up for you which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give you at that day (2 Timothy 4:7, 8).

-Ben F. Hollister

Entered Into Rest

Anthony E. Bogdanczik, Holiday, Fla.
Helen M. Carr, Oakland, Cal.
Tolman Christensen, San Jose, Cal.
Robert Collins, Yeovil, England
Harry E. Eaton, Gardiner, Maine
Elsie B. Gammill, Devol, Okla.
R. Robert Hollister, Monroe, Ohio
Casimer Lanowick, Paradise, Cal.
Mary A. Love, West Allis, Wis.
R. Ernest Ludlow, Assiniboia, Sask.
Corrine M. Martin, Fond du Lac, Wis.
Clifford R. Miles, Bremerton, Wash.
Rosa E. Paschall, Richmond, Va.
John Petran, Peoria, Ill.
Katherine Ranier, Hotchkiss, Colo.
Winifred M. Staub, Sacramento, Cal.
Gordon Teske, Burlington, Wis.
Olive Vellines, Irvington, N. Y.
Beulah Williams, Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Bernice Zapuscienski, Kenosha, Wis.

1981 Index