FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE: THE Passover

(Notes from an Elder’s discourse are included.)

"At the very foundation of all Christian doctrine lies the doctrine of the Ransom, the Scriptural teaching that ‘we were bought with a price,’ a corresponding price for Adam’s sin. Any teaching, therefore, which either openly denies or quietly ignores this foundation doctrine, ‘the Ransom for all, to be testified in due time,’ must be a doctrine at variance with God’s revelation... Our attitude toward it should be prompt and decided opposition. If others waver, we who have learned that the ransom is the test by which all doctrines are to be proved, need not waver, and should not... Lend them a hand wherever possible... by reminding them of the Rock Christ Jesus, whereon our feet are firmly established, and by throwing to them the rope of divine promises, throughout which is woven the scarlet thread of the ransom of Christ." ‘16-R5948 "The doctrine of a ransom for all... is the scarlet thread running all through the Scriptures.”‘86-R876

THE Passover (from a discourse by an elder—a saint)

We of all people are the most highly blessed with a knowledge of God through Present Truth. We know Him as the Self-existent, ever-living One who had no beginning. We know Him as the Infinite One and that He has manifested this in Justice, Wisdom, Love and Power, and through the Divine Plan of the Ages. He has taught us to know Him aright and to rejoice in His glory and His goodness. We know Him as the Architect of the Plan of the Ages, requiring ages for its accomplishment in regard to mankind and this home on the earth. We know him as the One who has showed forth His love and care to His children, those who ARE His children that love Him and trust him, to which we are witness this day as New Creatures in Christ. We realize more and more a sense of His great love toward us, and His fatherly care in the smallest detail, supervising our interests, Spiritual and temporal, all working together to give us established membership in Christ: to give us a character-likeness to His; crystallized—all coming from Him, even the spirit of sonship, for which we praise His name.

We recognize Him as one who has chosen a man to represent Himself and who gave him three wives whereby He might illustrate what was in His own mind: to illustrate the Divine Plan of the Ages; to counteract the wages of the ravages of sin and the Permission of Evil; and to take out a glorious company for Himself.

We see the relationship of these three wives to Abraham, illustrating God’s relationship to the three great Covenants through which he operates to carry out the Plan of Salvation. One of these wives was an Egyptian bondslave; and her relation to Abraham well illustrates the relationship to God through the Mosaic or Law Covenant. God has set forth these Covenants Himself as the only one capable of so doing. So He used Abraham to illustrate this covenant which He intended to make with Abraham’s children. But Hagar died; and Ishmael died. Abraham died; Sara died. Isaac and Keturah and her six sons all died and there was nothing 517 further. Ishmael’s children grew into the great nation of twelve tribes and was joined by children of Keturah. Isaac’s children grew into a great nation of twelve tribes, separate from the others, and especially in their experiences. They went down into Egypt because of famine in their own Land and there they were held in bondage. They increased so rapidly that the Egyptians became fearful and attempted to destroy them; not instantly, but gradually; working them to death, starving and beating them to death. That matter illustrates the wages Satan pays to those who serve him. What the children of Israel experienced in Egypt typifies Satan’s dealings with the world: he takes away from them all comforts of life, even life itself, and opens not the door of the prison; he is cruel and merciless.

After more than 400 years had passed God chose a man by the name of Moses to bring in a Covenant that He had illustrated with Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael. That man was eighty years old. God spoke to him to deliver the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt, and thus to illustrate His Plan for deliverance of the children of the world from the bondage of sin and Satan. He gave Moses power to deliver the Israelites from Pharoah. He began the operation of this phase of His Plan about a year before entering into the Law Covenant with them, for two reasons.

One reason was to teach Israel and the people of Egypt the difference between Himself and the gods of Egypt. He caused plagues to come upon the Egyptians that would challenge their different gods; and none of them could do anything about it. God sent the plagues; and God sent the plagues away. Their gods were proven imaginary. Thus He proved to His people a great lesson to keep them from idolatry. But it seems they forgot the lesson and were taken away into Babylon where once more they witnessed the contrast between God and the hapless gods of Babylon, so remarkably that they declared there that Jehovah was God. They never again went into idolatry after that experience.

A second reason was to bring Pharaoh to the point where he would be willing to let Israel go. He gave the Egyptians nine plagues. Pharaoh was still hardened in heart. The tenth plague would affect him personally in his firstborn, and would include also their cattle in Egypt.

As the time for the Covenant drew on, God proposed to bring the Israelites out of Egypt on the last day of the 430th year of the Covenant with Abraham. On the day preceding the exodus, He had instructed the Jews to kill the lamb, sprinkle the lintel and doorposts of each dwelling with the blood; the angel of death would pass through that night slaying the firstborn where no blood was sprinkled; but passing over the firstborns where the blood was sprinkled.

So it came to pass that 430 years after the Covenant with Abraham, and His dealings with Hagar and Ishmael who was born thirteen years before Isaac, He made a Covenant, not with Hagar’s children through Ishmael. but with Sara’s children through Isaac. He had merely used Hagar to represent His relationship to Abraham. Thus he separated Himself from them by a Mediator though He Himself said He was a husband of the Hagar Covenant: ‘’Though I was an Husband unto them I regarded them not." The Hagar Covenant brought forth no children for him because separated by a mediator who was unable to bring forth any children by that Covenant.

The Covenant was made with the children of Isaac through God’s promise to Abraham, and they were caused to kill the lamb on the fourteenth of the month at the full moon. The lamb was taken out on the tenth day to typify His dealings with Israel, according to the time features. Pharaoh urged the people to go, and gave to them their back wages to be rid of them, and the Egyptians were destroyed in the Red Sea. The Israelites crossed safely—another Passover. Nothing further in fulfillment seemed to come of this Passover for over 1600 years.

How slowly apparently God moves in the Divine Plan of the Ages—about 1600 years—from the human standpoint: promising a covenant; making a covenant; bringing in the antitype of that covenant of the Passover Lamb, because He intended to have a day of atonement and He wished to show the Israelites, and then the world—us in particular—that those who have received the benefit of the Atonement, stand liable to the Second Death from which there is no resurrection.

The Passover was instituted three months before the Covenant went into operation: to remind them they must be faithful to the Atonement and its promises for atonement for sin. Otherwise there would be a penalty of Second Death. The Jews entered into that Covenant voluntarily, willingly. The penalty for failure to keep the Covenant was a death penalty; not second death, but a second, death penalty. If anyone was condemned to death by the Law, such death would be a type of the second death. Unable to keep the Law perfectly, they died under its penalty—a second penalty of death, but not a second death penalty. Only those condemned to death by the Sanhedrin, for instance, would be typical of the second death. The first penalty of death was in Adam, by heredity; the second penalty of death was in their failure to keep the Law as they had covenanted to do, saying, All these things will we do.

THE BLOOD OF SPRINKLING OF THE Passover

"When He seeth the blood the Lord will pass over the door and not suffer the destroyer to smite you"—Exodus 12:23. ‘15-R5640 to R5643 That night, the firstborns who perished, and of course those of the Israelites likewise, represent those who go into the second death from which they could have been spared had they been faithful to His instructions to sprinkle of the blood of the Passover lamb on the lintel and doorposts. The lintel was the top cross-piece between the two posts.

The observance of the Day of Atonement came to an end with the overthrow of the kings, the typical kingdom. But it was continued in the Passover until the antitype came of the Passover Lamb. The blood sprinkled on the lintel and doorposts represented the blood of atonement sprinkled on the people, by the people for the people.

The difference between that and the blood of the Day of Atonement in the fall, the tenth day of the seventh month, 518 is that in the fall the High priest alone sprinkled the blood of the bullock on the Mercy Seat. But in the Passover picture the people sprinkled it themselves. Therefore, where the first which occured in the fall represents Justification, the latter in the Spring represents APPRECIATION OF JUSTIFICATION. The people could not justify themselves. It is a picture of the people applying the blood to their own hearts in appreciation of the atonement made for them. This is further illustrated in eating of the Lamb, by faith in the perfect human nature of our Lord.

So when more than 1600 years had passed away and the type was explained for us, NOW we note the significance and meaning of these things that God had in mind when He arranged for this Hagar feature of the Abrahamic Covenant. It is most important for the Church because when the antitype came, and the last Passover which He observed, He instituted a Memorial of His own death as an antitype of the Passover Lamb. And He used different emblems for the Lamb and the Blood. He used bread and wine; and while in the Lamb ‘’Not a bone of Him was broken,”He wished the bread to represent that He was sacrificed; and he said, ‘’This is My body which is for you; and we have the Apostle’s word that "as oft as ye do this, ye do show forth His death ‘till He come.’ ‘’ As an antitype of the Passover, this is very important for the Lord’s people, members of His body. The wine represents the blood of the New Covenant, It also represents doctrine. So, while we do not get the literal body of our Lord or the literal blood of our Lord, we do get the doctrines which illustrate the literal things of the Passover; and we understand the breaking of His body doctrinally and the shedding of his blood doctrinally, and sharing therein, doctrinally.

”By faith... appropriating to ourselves all the merits and perfections and rights which the MAN Christ Jesus possessed and laid down in death for us, we really feed our hearts upon the true unleavened bread of everlasting life, the Bread which God sent to us from heaven... THE FLESH WHICH HE GAVE... that all the dead and dying race may have life... It is a memorial of THE RANSOM of Adam and his family from the bondage of sin and death." ‘98-R2271 We understand these things from the standpoint of doctrine which was brought in by the Lord and the Apostles when He brought life and immortality to light through the preaching of the Gospel. There was, the Apostle points out, a participation for the Church in what the broken loaf, and wine, represent. He said, that Bread, broken for our sakes, represents a loaf in which the Church are sharers: a communion in the Body of Christ, of His broken body, of ours to be broken with Him; and the cup is the communion of the blood of Christ, showing that while we partake by faith, actually, by Justification in heaven, by faith here on earth we also share with Him in this consecration unto death and sacrificing of the body—a shedding of the blood, all by faith, and by doctrine explained—for the benefit of the world.

This Passover observance in antitype, as a Memorial of our Lord’s death, is so important for us that we see it in its beauty and accept it in its fulness; we do renew our vows of consecration to the will of God unto death, now that we know what His will is. Our consecration enlarges to take in these things and we are willing that God’s will shall be done. Salvation is provided for the world which shall be accomplished by another covenant represented by Keturah and her six sons. So we rejoice in the doctrine of the Passover. We see how it represents our Lord and the Passover for us, when we are passed over by a vitalized justification in Heaven, by faith, while we are amenable to the Second Death. The only ones amenable to the second death are those for whom the blood has been applied, the merit of our Lord. The HEART APPRECIATION OF OUR JUSTIFICATION will protect us from any danger of the second death.

God first provided for the SAFETY of the Passover, which became the first feature of the Law Covenant made with Israel three months later, and has continued ever since until the ANTITYPE came. Looking through the type to the Antitype, we rejoice in our justification by faith in the merit secured on the tenth day of the seventh month, the merit of the slain bullock. We also rejoice that the Church in the Spring of the year receive the first application of His death, that He died in the Spring; the Church have become liable to the second death. But by the Passover Lamb, the angel of death passes over the firstborn who have the blood on the lintels and the door posts of our hearts.

Let us never undervalue the merit of our Lord; neither by estimate of our own unworthiness which is our greatest danger, nor any pressure that may come into our lives of any fault that would cause us to neglect giving the full value of the merit of our Lord’s sacrifice, thinking ourselves condemned, by not giving a sufficient value to His merit, becoming doubtful and discouraged because of our own shortcomings, imperfections, unworthiness. This is the time of year when the adversary will use that means to discourage the members of Christ’s Body. Let us always throw such suggestions of doubts to the winds by the consideration of our Lord’s merit as the Passover Lamb for us, and that God gave that provision first, making it as it were, the most prominent sacrifice or ceremony of all, because he knew that when salvation had been provided, that ended all he could do for mankind. After that, was second death. He provided a protection, by the merit that had already been supplied, against second death. The Passover Lamb was slain in the Spring. The Day of Atonement bullock sacrificed in the Fall, providing atonement, was carried along into and by the Passover observance of our Lord’s Memorial of the Antitype; and our constant heart appreciation of His sacrifice for us. Thus we have a conscience void of offense. We have assurance toward God as we give our Lord’s merit full value to take care of all our shortcomings, imperfections, unworthiness—aside from wilful sin.

THERE WERE TWO PASSOVERS

"Not until the sacrifice of the goat had been complete, and its blood had been sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat, was there a passing over or remission of the sins of the people. "‘ 04-R3319 p3 "But let us look at this type of the Passover—let us notice that it was God’s intention to save all Israelites, and that as a nation they represented all mankind that will ever come

519 into harmony with God and be granted eternal life in the Land of Promise. Let us notice that there were two passovers; a great one, when the whole nation by divine power was miraculously delivered by the Lord and led by a sandbar across the channel of the Red Sea especially prepared for them by the accentuation of winds and tides." ‘07-R3959 "... Let us notice also that there were two passovers ... That picture, or type, shows the ultimate deliverance from the power of sin and Satan of every creature who will ultimately come into accord with the Lord and desire to render him worship—not an Israelite was left behind... The church of the first-borns, alone, are... at the present time—being passed over—those who are under the blood... whose names are written in Heaven. "‘ 15-R5640, R5641 ... Let us note that there were two Passovers— the one in which only the first-borns were passed over; and another greater one at the Red Sea... These passed over dry shod and were saved; while the hosts of Pharaoh, representing all who eventually will go into the second death, were overwhelmed in the Sea. The Passover at the Red Sea pictures the ultimate deliverance from the power of sin and death of every creature of Adam’s race who desires to come into accord with the Lord and to render Him worship, all who will ever become a part of Israel; for not one Israelite was left behind in Egyptian bondage.”16-R5870 The Apostle Paul points out that, besides the Church, the whole world are to receive the benefit of that Passover Lamb. And John was led to say, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," the Passover Lamb that will protect them from the second death when the Atonement has been applied for them (Leviticus 16:15). So he brings out in the communion of the Church what a valuable part, and prominent part, we have with our Lord in this. The loaf consisted of many grains; the cup, of many grapes. The 144,000 with our Lord will form the Passover for the world.

Jehovah is very great. He is not doing anything in a haphazard manner or for the sake of convenience.

"Truly a reasonable God gives reasonable commands; and in due time Jehovah will cause His faithful people to understand the significance of every requirement." ‘16-R5869

TWO QUESTIONS ANSWERED

We go back to the observance of this last Passover and the first occurrence of the Memorial of the anitypical Passover—the Memorial of the Antitype. There are two questions to be answered: 1) A goat was permitted. 2) The family partook of the Passover Lamb who were in no danger that night. Ex. 12:5: ‘’... Ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats." For the goat’s part in "passing over the sins of the people," please see ‘04-R3319 p 3.

”That the blood covers more than the first-borns is shown by the fact that in the type it was sprinkled not merely upon the first-borns, but upon the house, as indicating the household of faith." ‘13-R5273 c2 p4 In Reprints R2270 and R5191, Pastor Russell points out that the ninth chapter of Numbers (Num. 9:8-13) allowed some to observe the Passover on the second month, which represents the world in the Millennial Age.

There is a wonderful article (02-R3084 to R3086) on "Crossing Jordan Into Canaan,”showing how the Ark of the Covenant was taken into the midst of Jordan while the people passed over. Jordan means "judged down" and represents first, the Adamic death penalty: But for those who have received the benefit of the atonement, Jordan represents the second "judged down, " the second death. As the Ark passed into Jordan and remained there until the people passed over, so Christ is to remain there until the whole world passes over: First of all supplying the Atonement for the Adamic death penalty; and then the passing over for the world during the Millennial Age when amenable to the second death.

Then he speaks of the twelve stones taken out of Jordan and set up on the land. There were also twelve stones taken into Jordan and placed where the ark was. Those stones represent the Royal Priesthood who go down into Jordan with our Lord and remain there that the world may pass over: first of all, as a part of the Sin-offering; and then, that the world may pass over by heart appreciation of their sin-offering. This amplifies Paul’s statement that the loaf and the cup represent communion and participation with our Lord in the Passover.

CHRIST OUR PASSOVER WAS SACRIFICED FOR US

Exodus 12:1-17 ‘’Pharaoh’s heart seemed to grow harder and harder under divine mercies, as one plague after another was stayed at his request, through Moses. The goodness of God, instead of leading him to repentance, would seem to have made him only the more determined, as God had foreseen and foretold. God, however, informed Moses that the tenth and final plague would be sufficient to break down the opposition of this hard man, and compel his acquiescence, with the requirement that Israel should go free. Before the infliction of this plague Moses enquired whether or not Pharaoh were willing to let Israel go, and upon receiving the negative response he warned Pharaoh that in consequence a dire calamity would befall the Egyptians. Apparently he immediately departed for the land of Goshen, there to put the people in readiness for the exodus. Their Egyptian neighbors gave them liberally jewels of gold and of silver and various articles of value, evidently anxious to have them go, and regretful that their ruler was so stubborn. They realized also, no doubt, that in some sense God was with the Israelites, and against the Egyptians, a matter which it seemed difficult for Pharaoh, their king, to discern.

"How much time they may have consumed in preparation for the Journey we know not, but we may well suppose that this was a time of suspense upon Pharaoh and all who knew of the last threat presented to him by Moses and Aaron. We are certain that the preparations required several days. if not weeks, because amongst other instructions each family was to select for itself a representative male lamb of the first year, unblemished, as the foundation for the religious ceremony, known as the Passover, ever since observed by that nation. The lamb was to be selected, accepted, separated from others, and cared for specially from the tenth day of that month, Abib (later known as Nisan), and on the fourteenth day of the month it was to be killed between evenings (between six o’clock the one evening and six o’clock the next

520 evening—the usual Jewish day). Its flesh was to be roasted for eating the following evening, and its blood was to be preserved for sprinkling upon the lintels and door-posts—the door frame, above and at either side. It was in the night following the fourteenth day that the roast lamb was to be eaten, with bitter herbs, the eaters being gathered in family groups, and all in expectation for the journey, sandals on their feet, and staff in hand, etc., ready to depart out of Egypt early in the morning of the fifteenth.

"The story, as recorded in Exodus, is an interesting one, and has ever been one precious to the Hebrews, the law concerning it serving as one of the most prominent landmarks in the history of that nation. But to the Christian the meaning of this incident is of still greater importance. To him, as the anit-typical Israelite, the whole transaction speaks of the anti-typical deliverance at the hands of the anti-typical Moses at the close of the anti-typical night, and at the opening of the anti-typical Passover day. Our Golden Text, ‘Christ, our Passover, is slain for us’ {1Co 5:7}, identifies the Lord Jesus as the anti-typical Lamb, and identifies the sacrifice which he gave, with the deliverance which we are now hoping for, as near, even at the door.

..The taking up of the lamb on the tenth day of the month found its correspondence at the first advent of our Lord Jesus, when he presented himself to Israel at the close of his ministry, as their King, riding upon the ass, exactly on the 10th of Nisan. It was then that that nation should have accepted him, should have received him; but instead ‘they hid, as it were, their faces from him,’ and saw not in him the beauty for which they were seeking, as a nation.

BETWEEN THE EVENINGS

—Exod. 12:6, see margin.

”It was on the fourteenth day of Nisan that our Lord partook of the Passover with his disciples, early in the evening. Later on in the same night he was betrayed. The next morning of the same day he was condemned and crucified. Later in the same day he was buried. All this was on the fourteenth day between evenings, between six p.m., where the day began, and the next six p.m., where it ended: and it was on the next day, the 15th. in the evening. that the Passover feast of the Jews was celebrated. We celebrate that feast anti-typically, continuously feasting and rejoicing in the grace of God toward us. But the Lord’s Supper belongs to the 14th of Nisan and commemorates the killing of the Lamb of God. That night in which the Passover feast was eaten represents this Gospel Age—a dark time, in which sin and evil still triumph, and darkness is abroad, and in which the Lord’s people feed upon the merit of Christ, our Passover Lamb, slain for us, and realize that his ‘flesh is meat indeed.’... But the deliverance did not come in the night in which the Passover was eaten, but in the morning which followed it. And so the deliverance of the spiritual Israelite does not come during the night of sin and trouble in which the god of this world reigns. It comes in the Millennial morning, for which we wait and hope and pray, Thy kingdom come.’ ‘God shall help her. early in the morning’—Psa. 46:5.

‘It is the mistake of some to suppose that the Passover refers, either directly or indirectly, to the passing of the children of Israel across the Red Sea. Nothing of the kind. The name was given with reference to the passing over or sparing of the first-born of Israel during that night in which the lamb was being eaten, and during which the blood was on the door-post without... The blood was the mark of distinction between those who were the Lord’s people and those who were not his people." ‘01-R2917, R2918 "Christ died not merely for the church, but, as the Scriptures declare, for the sins of the whole world. The church consituted only a small portion of the world; namely the firstborn portion. As St. James declares {Jas 1:18}, we are a kind of first-fruits unto God of his creatures. The church is passed over in the night, especially saved in advance of others; but none are spared except through the merit of the blood... In the type it was sprinkled not merely upon the first-borns, but upon the house... the household of faith." ‘13-R5273 "Only the church are being passed over now. The general deliverance of the world will be in order soon. That deliverance could not in God’s order take place without first the passing over of the firstborn...

"The Day of Atonement sacrifices were divinely placed exactly at the opposite end of the year, apparently to disassociate the two types. They give a detailed illustration of the work of Atonement, as far as God is concerned... The second sacrifice of the Atonement Day—’the Lord’s goat’ [Leviticus 16:15]... was treated just as the bullock was treated [Leviticus 16:14]—just as we are assured that the Bride class must suffer with Christ and have similar experiences to his... The blood of ‘the Lord’s goat’ was sprinkled in the Most Holy as was the blood of the bullock. The antitype of this will be at the close of this age, when the merit (blood) of Christ, passed through the Church, will be applied on the Mercy Seat ‘for the people’—atoning for their sins and sealing the New (Law) Covenant and its Mediatorial kingdom. Both of these animals represented the High Priest: the bullock, our Lord and Head; and the goat, His body, the church.

"... Other Scriptures show us that the merit of Christ when passed through the church will be made available in the end of this age for the sin of the world. Thus and then the Lamb of God will take away the sin of the world—in God’s due time and order.”‘09-R4493 THE PEOPLE S BURNT-OFFERINGS {Le 1}: To this altar {Le 6:9,12,13} the Israelite brought his free will offering... a sacrifice of sweet savor unto the Lord. This would serve to typify a thankful prayer to Jehovah—an acknowledgement of his mercy, wisdom, and love, as manifested in the broken Body of the Christ—their ransom.”T97—(in the sense that they have to go to them to get the benefit of the Ransom. The ransom price is with justice).

"Thus saith Jehovah, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages" (the whole Gospel in one verse)—Isa. 49:8.

”God bath made us able ministers of the New Covenant"—2 Cor. 3:6.

521 ‘’Thus the Church will have a share with her Lord in the sufferings of the present time that she may be a part of the sin-offering. This does not imply that they will have a share in the ransom-price, because one man is the ransom-price, (’The man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all’—1 Tim. 2:6), and not many men. The Church’s share, therefore, as a part of the sin-offering is not to be confounded with our Lord’s work as a ransom-price.”‘11-R4747 What a wonderful view is given us in these different thoughts from the various articles, of the Passover from the beginning to the finish; and of the Millennial Age when the New Covenant shall have done its work until no Mediator will be needed. The world will stand before God as Adam before he sinned. Those who go into the second death in the Millennial Age will be as those who go into the second death in the Gospel Age, because they lose sight of the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb, the Son of God.

Thus we enter more fully into the matter of our Lord’s Memorial celebration—its meaning, its significance: the emblems; the bread, His sacrificed body; and the cup, His shed blood. And we renew our vows of consecration at such a time. The Heavenly Father deals with us throughout the year accordingly. If we are sincere in the matter and faithful, He will bless us through the year with Truth and more Truth; clearer understanding and deeper appreciation; more trials, disciplinings, with the Truth and its Spirit to prove us as New Creatures in Christ. Lacking that sincerity, His dealings with us will lack that fulness of both the Truth and our experiences.

He brings out another feature that we must not miss because it is so encouraging. The cup not only represents the shed blood for the sealing of the New Covenant which is the blood that justifies, plus the sufferings of the Church in sanctification; but the cup overflows with joy as well; and it represents what our Lord meant when He said, I will not partake of this again until I partake of it new with you in the Kingdom. Beyond are pleasure supernal and joy unalloyed and everlasting; fullness of joy in the presence of the Master and our Heavenly Father; rejoicing in the protection of the Passover Lamb now, and then our share in blessing of the world during the Millennial Age, the associates of our dear Lord in the Kingdom—if we are faithful now.

”The more of the true knowledge of the Lord we possess—the more of the knowledge which perfects our love for the Lord—the greater will be our faith, the more precious will be the results in this present life as well as in the life to come." ‘07-R4064 "The Bible supplies the Manna of Divine Truth. The truth needs to be gathered, ground and baked, but it is God’s provision. It is wholesome and nutritious; it is the very thing that we, as the people of God, need for our strengthening and perfecting." ‘13-R5307 p 1 HE IS DESPISED AND REJECTED OF MEN; A MAN OF SORROWS, AND ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF... FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS... FOR OUR INIQUITIES... HE HATH POURED OUT His SOUL UNTO DEATH: THE PLAN OF JEHOVAH SHALL PROSPER IN HIS HAND. HE SHALL SEE OF THE TRAVAIL OF HIS SOUL, AND SHALL BE SATISFIED—Isa 53???.

I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE Joh 14:1-14.

”After washing the disciples’ feet, and after the sop had been given to Judas, and he had gone out; and after telling the disciples that they all would be offended that night because of him, and answering Peter that he would deny him thrice before the cock crew, we may well suppose that the hearts of the eleven were heavy, disturbed, troubled with fearful forebodings... Only five days before, he had received the hosannasof the multitude as the Son of David, the King of Israel ... What could it mean that the Master was now ‘exceeding sorrowful’ and spoke of betrayal, and of their dispersion and of his own death?

"It was in answer to these their troubled thoughts that our Lord spoke to them the beautiful words of comfort and consolation recorded in the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th chapters of John’s Gospel, beginning—‘Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”‘99-R2453

AGONY IN GETHSEMANE: DAY OF SUFFERING

"About midnight Jesus and the disciples crossed the city to the gate and thence crossed the valley Kedron and ascended the sloping side of Mt. Olives toward the Garden of Gethsemane.”After the dreadful events of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest in the Garden, ‘’Our Lord, his hands bound, was led away to Annas.”Trial before the Jewish authorities began about 1 A.M.—unofficial.

He was brought before Caiphas about 2 A.M. Friday. He was charged with blesphemy before the Sanhedrin. ‘’The preliminary hearing before Caiphas was held for the purpose of formulating charges on which to convict Jesus at sunrise. Caiphas immediately, and illegally, began the examination of Jesus, calling for witnesses.”Finally they found two FALSE witnesses but their garbled accounts did not agree. Caiphas was foiled. Then he put Jesus under oath to tell if He was the Messiah—the Son of God. ‘’Caiphas could not hope to have a clearer expression, nor anything that would come nearer justifying his predetermined verdict of guilty of blasphemy," than our dear Lord’s reply. "Hence with a mocked expression of righteousness he tore his ‘simla...”"The rabble in the court hearing the commotion felt at liberty to abuse the prisoner as they had the others. They showed their contempt by spitting upon Him. They blindfolded Him, and struck Him, saying, ‘Prophesy who smote thee.’ These insults were committed by the servants. They manifested the same spirit as their masters. Thus Christ was subjected for 7IVO HOURS to the MOCKERY and insults of the servants while he was waiting the time for the legal meetings of the Sanhedrin at daylight (when they fain would legalize their predetermined verdict of guilty resulting from their illegal proceedings of the night before). This interim was between 3 and 5 A.M. when HE STOOD BOUND in the high priest’s palace.”His arrest, the scattering of his disciples, the hearing before the high priest’s Court, the railery, the smiting, the pulling of the hair of his face, the spitting upon him, his being blind 522 folded, etc., all this ignominy He endured patiently and then, it being contrary to the Jewish law to condemn a man in the night, his further trial was postponed until the members of the Sanhedrin could be called at daybreak to formally condemn Him. Meantime his dear followers had all scattered like sheep and the Beloved Peter had denied Him even with cursing before the cock crowed.

"With the sunrise the Sanhedrin met officially and accepting the testimony of the high priest that he had examined the witnesses and it had been proven that Jesus had blasphemed God and the Temple, the verdict was reached that He should die.”The Sanhedrin ‘’must take Him before Pilate who they knew would not recognize blasphemy as a cause of death, so they charged Him with being a seditionist and raiser of disturbances; that he claimed to be a King and thus having him free was inimical to the interests of the Roman Government.

”The trial before Pilate was about 8 A.M., Friday. "They bound Him and led Him to Pilate to give the impression that He was a dangerous character. He stood before the representative of the greatest empire in the world greatly disadvantaged yet remarkably calm and self-possessed. After passing through all these experiences, and probably WITHOUT HAVING BEEN FURNISHED WITH REFRESHMENTS, it is remarkable that our Lord—WEAKENED THROUGH HIS MINISTRIES and the GIVING OUT OF HIS VITALITY IN THE HEALING of others—should have been so calm and strong as He stood before Pilate.”‘10-R4711;’05-R3553, R3554 Finding that by birth Jesus was a Galilean, Pilate found a loophole: ‘’Then He belongs to Herod’s jurisdiction, and I transfer the whole matter to Herod’s Court... Then our Lord publicly accompanied by a squad of Roman soldiers was sent to Herod, who had a curiosity to see him.” ‘’As Pilate had turned the prisoner over to Herod declaring he found no cause for death in him, Herod turned the compliment by returning the prisoner again to Pilate”—verdict NOT GUILTY!

"The crucifixion took place at 9 A.M. the third hour," of "JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS!" He died of a broken heart at 3 P.M.—The antitypical Passover Lamb was slain—when He took the sinners’ place of alienation from the Father! ‘’And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "... My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 15:34.

”The slaying of the paschal lamb was fulfilled in the death of Christ, the ‘Lamb of God,’ and there began the special blessing upon the antitypical firstborn, the believers of the Gospel age. The blessing, foreshadowed in the type... began with the death of Christ, our Passover Lamb... And the particularity with which the observance of every detail of the types was enforced throughout the Jewish age. give emphasis to our Lord’s words: ‘Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass. one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled’— Matt. 5:18—that every minute particular, every jot and little, must be as particularly fulfilled as it was carefully enforced in the ceremonies of the Law. ‘ B 174

ISRAEL’S KING REJECTED

—Mt 21:1-17.

”Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!’

Zechariah 12:10: "We rejoice to think that ‘that day’ when they shall say, ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,’ is nigh at hand. But, we reflect, that the time of special favor to spiritual Israel must be correspondingly drawing to a close.

"That spot where Jesus stopped to prophesy Israel’s future was the same one over which, a little later, the army of Titus marched to the destruction of Jerusalem, and, amidst famine, accomplished the destruction of the city, taking, according to records, ninety-seven thousand prisoners. One million, one hundred thousand were said to have perished through famine and war. The ground around the City of Jerusalem, the Romans planted thick with crosses, on which Jews were crucified, until there was room for no more, says history." Please see Psa. 118:20-26; Matthew 23:37-39; Luke 13:34-35; Luke 19:35-48; ‘95-R1846, R1847; ‘10-R4670 top.

CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY

—Mark 15:22-37; Matt. 27:31-66; Luke 23:26-56; John 19:16-42.

"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"—Romans 5:8.

Mark 15:22. "The sentence of crucifixion having been obtained, the excited mob, inspired with Satanic zeal, hurried the prisoner to the place of execution, which was reached about nine o’clock Friday morning. WHAT AN AWFUL NIGHT HE HAD PASSED! Beginning with the sad scenes of the last supper with his disciples, call to mind the agony of Gethsemane, the hurried march to Annas, then to Caiaphas, to Pilate, to Herod and back again to Pilate; how DURING ALL THE NIGHT, He was shamefully treated—mocked, buffeted, spit upon, reviled, ridiculed, falsely accused and finally crowned with cruel thorns and scourged.

"After such experiences it seems marvelous that any vitality remained for the ordeal of crucifixion. It would seem that the intense and long continued nervous strain and weariness and physical suffering would have exhausted the forces of nature; but our Lord, as a perfect man, had extraordinary powers of endurance, though he had voluntarily sacrificed much of physical strength in the labors of his ministry.”His healing of others was at the expense of His own vitality. "That He was greatly exhausted, however, is manifest from the fact that assistance in the bearing of his cross to the place of crucifixion was imposed upon another—Luke 23:26.

"Mark 15:23. Wine mingled with myrrh was offered as an anaesthetic to relieve the sense of pain. It is said that some of the women of Jerusalem undertook this office of mercy on behalf of criminals to be executed by the terrible methods of the Romans. Jesus acknowledged the kindness of the offer by tasting it, but declined it further, preferring to have his mind awake and clear to the last. Had he taken it, we should have missed the tenderness which committed his mother to the care of John, and those last words so full of meaning to us—’It is finished.’ And we should all have failed to 523 realize how much the Lord’s thoughts were upon others even amidst the agonies of such a horrible death.

"Mark 15:25-28. The crucifixion occurred at about nine o’clock A.M., and ended in death at 3 P.M. between two thieves in fulfillment of Isa. 53:12. ‘He was numbered with the transgressors.’" By the sacrifice of himself... He bore the penalty of our sins in his own body on the tree.”"Jesus said to some of His friends who were weeping and bewailing Him, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children... for if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?’ (Luke 23:27-31) This He said in reference to the atrocities which should mark the overthrow of their nation and the destruction of Jerusalem, which would display the same wicked spirit which was then being manifested toward him. And it was even so; for the troubles upon that people were not alone from enemies without, but also from civil strife; for every man’s hand was against his neighbor. It is said that at the time of the siege of Jerusalem hundreds of Jews were crucified at once, and left hanging in sight of the city walls.

"Mark 15:33, 34. The darkness that brooded over the land from the sixth to the ninth hour... was doubtless sent as an expression of the divine wrath, and was typical of the darkness o, alienation from God into which that long favored nation had plunged by this act. "‘ 95- R1815, R1816 "As the penalty against Adam included his isolation from the Father as a condemned rebel, so it was necessary that our Lord Jesus, in taking Adam’s place, should experience (if only for a short time) the full meaning of a sinner’s separation from God.

”Very mercifully, the Father permitted this feature of Adam’s penalty to rest upon our Redeemer only at the very close of his sacrificial ministry. It was the fact of his communion with the Father that permitted Jesus to pass through all the trying experiences of that day and the preceding night with such great courage; but now, when the Father’s sustaining grace and fellowship and communion of spirit with him were withdrawn, and our Redeemer, with all his fine sensibilities was utterly bereft of solace from his dearest friend, it led his breaking heart to cry out these words of anguish. Evidently it had been hidden from him up to this time that he must suffer this phase of the punishment of Adam’s transgression." ‘99-R2474 "Israel’s great national sin was the rejection and crucifixion of the anointed Son of God... The whole nation, except the remnant that believed, were either actively or passively involved in the great sin of the rejection and crucifixion of the Lord... Both the active and the passive of the nation of Israel suffered alike for their national crime... The punishment inflicted upon the nation extended, not only to the inhabitants of the capital city, but to the whole people (estimated at 6,000,000), driving them out of their own land and scattering them as fugitives among all nations, never again to be reinstated until their King should come ‘a second time, without a sin-offering, unto salvation’; when their blindness shall be turned away and they shall say, ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.’ ‘’ ‘95-R1846

DIVINE JUSTICE WOULD SQUARE ACCOUNTS AND VINDICATE HIM!*

"Yet thou saidst, ‘I am innocent! surely his anger is turned away from me’:Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee, because thou sayest, ‘I have not sinned!’ "—Jeremiah 2:35.

Palestine had an estimated population of about six million in our Lord’s day—over three million in Galilee where most of His miracles were performed. ‘04-R3334 In Solomon’s day their population was estimated at about six million. ‘03-R3278 Six million Jews of Europe perished in the Hitler holocaust before the Republic of Israel was formed in the Promised Land of Israel—thus squaring the books of Justice on that score.

"God keeps a very exact accounting of all. Every sin must receive a just recompense of reward." ‘16-R5874 God overruled so that the true title was written above the head of Jesus at the crucifixion, and Pilate refused to change it:

THE KING OF THE JEWS

"Up from the grave He arose With a mighty triumph o’er his foes! He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ Arose!’

"HALLELUJAH! WHAT A SAVIOUR!”"Hosanna, peace on earth, good will toward men, All honor to the LAMB! Amen! Amen!’

HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST!

"The Lord’s house is not to be a house of merchandise. The Lord seeketh such to worship Him as worship Him in spirit and in truth, and not those who seek the loaves and fishes or any earthly advantage. He will therefore present the truth in such a form that it will be a blessing to the proper class, and separate all of the improper class by a measure of odium in connection with the King and his faithful. At the present time the Lord, the truth, with a whip of small cords, is injurious only to those who are in the temple for purposes of merchandise, and not injurious to others.”06-R3851

CLEANSING THE TEMPLE —Joh 2:13-22 "Holiness becometh thy house O Lord, forever”—Psalm 93:5.

"Our thought is that the antitypical cleansing of the Lord’s Temple has been in progress since the spring of 1878.

”Within the hallowed precincts of the nominal Temple of today are many who have long been making merchandise of their privileges, opportunities and knowledge. All intelligent people well know that religious matters are to a large extent made merchandise of. Amongst the Roman Catholics everything possible is hedged about with penalties and prohibitions and limitations, so that the people are led *Please see 11-R4758 in connection with 2Ki 2:23: ‘’Elisha did not swear at the children... he condemned them, just as Jesus said to some with most kindly art, ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,’ etc. {Mt 23}. So Elisha pronounced woe or blight upon those youths who taunted him... Divine justice would square accounts and vindicate him.” Israel’s King was rejected and Crucified!!

524 to believe that they can present nothing acceptable to God except as they receive it through their priesthood. They are expected to pay the priesthood for every birth and the baptism of the child; they are expected to pay at every service, that they may be participants in the blessings of the common mass; they are expected to pay for every blessed scapular sprinkled with holy water; they are expected to pay for every funeral service and for every prayer, as well as for the privilege of bing buried in holy ground. In all this we have a close counterpart to that which our Lord denominated a den of thieves, making merchandise of divine things.

"As for the Protestants, there are many evidences of the same spirit amongst them, but as they represent a more intelligent class, the exactions upon them by the clergy are the more refined... Our Lord’s condemnation fell upon those who were making merchandise of the opportunity, circumstance and conditions... The principle is all wrong. Whatever is given to the Lord should be voluntarily done, with love for Him, with a desire to render unto Him the firstfruits, the best of all that we possess, time, influence, money, etc. "‘ 08-R4123 "1 Corinthians 12:27: We see that as human beings our Lord the Head, and all the members of his body, have been suffering the destruction of the flesh, have been sacrificing their human nature throughout this Gospel age; and we see that in due time this glorious church, the new creation, will in the first resurrection come forth a glorious temple of God, composed of living stones and filled with the glory of God. This will be on the third day also, for if we consider the six thousand years past as six days of a great week, and the Millennial age as the seventh or Sabbath day of that week, we find that it was early in the fifth of these days that our Lord sacrificed; that many of his followers suffered likewise during that and the following sixth day; and that the seventh day, into which we have chronologically entered since 1872, is thus the third day, in which, very early in the morning, the entire body of Christ, the King of glory, will be perfected. Then the great temple of God will be complete and ready for the great work of the Millennial age, the blessing of all the families of the earth; and through it they all may have the opportunity of coming into full harmony with God and gaining the blessing thereof—eternal life." ‘08-R4123, R4124 1Pe 2:4: "Considering the time from the Lord’s standpoint—’A day with the Lord is as a thousand years’—our Lord died in the year of the world 4161—after four days had passed and the fifth day had begun.

"The destruction of the temple of God, which is the church, began there in the destruction of the Chief Corner Stone and has progressed since—during the remainder of the fifth day, all of the sixth day, and we are now in the beginning of the seventh day—’very early in the morning.’ And the promise of the Lord is that the Lord’s resurrection shall be completed about this time—’The Lord shall help her early in the morning’ (Psa. 46:5). Thus we view the matter, that the Lord was a part of the three days dead, and rose on the third day, early in the morning; and that likewise the first resurrection will be completed—the entire body of Christ will be raised on the third day, early in the morning.”

ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE TRUTH ARE WEAK

"Before the arrival of any of the disciples, while the Roman guard was still on duty at the tomb, an angel of the Lord appeared on the scene and a shock like that of an earthquake was experienced, and the guard, or ‘watch,’ became as dead men—almost fainted—but, recovering, hastened from the spot to make their report to the chief priests, at whose instance they had been appointed to this service. The chief priests induced them to circulate the report that the body had been stolen by his disciples while they slept; and this report was evidently current for quite a time subsequently, as we read, ‘The saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day’—up to the date of writing Matthew’s Gospel, which is supposed to have been written some nine years after the event. Like all arguments against the truth, it was a weak one, but the best they could do. How foolish would be the testimony of men who would say what took place while they were asleep!

”Meantime, while the guard was on its way to the priests to report matters, the Lord’s friends began to gather, with their love and spices, etc. The women of the company arrived first, and in so doing, attested for all time the love and sympathy of their hearts; and honored, yea glorified, their sex in so doing. The three mentioned in our lesson (Matt. 28:1-1C) have since had noble mention by the poets of all nations... ‘’‘ 04 -R3375 "Her love, her devotion, her persistence, gained for Mary Magdalene the great honor of being the first to whom the Lord revealed himself after his resurrection. She had been forgiven much, and she loved much, and our Lord manifested his appreciation for her devotion... ‘Go to my brethren, and say to them... that I will be with them a while before I go to the Father: thus you will do a work of preparing them for my subsequent manifestations.’ And having the true love which manifests itself in obedience, Mary immediately undertook the mission assigned her.”‘99-R2478

BEHOLD THE MAN!

—JOHN 19:5 "Pilate announced his decision, ‘I find in him no fault at all.’... Never before had he seen so splendid a specimen of the human race. He was such a one as any people might have been glad to honor as their King... Pilate washed his hands saying, ‘I am guiltless of the blood of this just person.’ "Lest the friends of Jesus, and the multitudes who had been healed and taught by him, should come to his assistance and overpower them, they answered Pilate that according to their law Jesus should die, because he made himself the Son of God. They perverted the truth in their endeavor to uphold their course; for the Law did not prescribe death as a penalty for the claim of being the Son of God. Had our Lord claimed to be the Father he would have come under the terms of the death penalty for blasphemy; but there was no such penalty, nor was it blasphemy, to call himself, as he did, the Son of God." He told the Truth. He never claimed, nor did any of His faithful followers, ever make the fraudulent claim that he was the Father, Jehovah. Quite to the contrary, Jesus told the Truth that He was the Son of God, and He so honored Him in all things, as in the statement, ‘My Father is greater than I." ‘99-R2472 525 He never wavered, He never faltered, He set His face like a flint {Isa 50} and went up to be crucified when His hour was come. He was going HOME! Exalted now in His Father’s own Divine Nature, the exact impress of the character of His substance; the ‘loneliness, home-sickness, friendlessness" are all in the past—He remembereth no more the anguish—FOR JOY illimitable!!! "WORTHY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN!’

"The rending of the Temple vail (60’x 30’x5’) apparently took place at the same time as the earthquake—the moment of our Lord’s death.... The completion of our Lord’s sacrifice opened up for us a new way of life beyond the vail, through the sacrifice of his flesh. In a figure, the Lord God, by the rending of the vail, declared that the death of Jesus made possible the way into the Most Holy, even Heaven itself; and the fact that the vail was rent from top to the bottom implied that the work was God’s...

FATHER, INTO THY HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT

‘’Jesus, the Life-giver... had life rights (human) and was committing these to the Father as the Ransom price for Adam and his forfeited spirit of life. Our Lord was firmly trusting to the Father’s promise to raise Him from the dead, perfect in the Divine Nature, with its glory, honor and immortality. Thus our Lord gave up his spirit of life—he died, and remained dead until the Father raised him from the dead on the third day by his own power.”‘01-R2788 "Of my own holiness I will declare the decree: Jehovah bath said unto Me, Thou art my son; this day have I borne thee (delivered thee from death by a resurrection) Psalm 2:6, 7. ‘97-R2149 "As the darkness came down over the land at noon until 3 o’clock, the taunts of his enemies ceased." Mark 15:33

TRULY THIS WAS THE SON OF GOD!

Mark 15:39 ‘’The darkness over the land for three hours pictured well the temporary triumph of the powers of darkness over Him who is the light of the world.”‘06-R3902 ‘’The crucifixion took place at the third hour, Jewish reckoning; or nine o’clock. our reckoning." ‘04-R3370”And it was the third hour; and they crucified him"—Mark 15:25.

”In the Lord’s providences the true title was put above his head, ‘Jesus, the King of the Jews.’ Those of us who are not Jews have reason to rejoice that he is more than this—that by God’s providence he is heir of the world and is surely to be the King of the world, and is already King of saints. "‘ 04-R3370 "Let us, when we celebrate this grand memorial, not forget to give thanks to the Lord for our justification. and also for the grand privilege we enjoy of being fellow-sacrificers with our Redeemer, and filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. And while sorrowful and thoughtful, meditative and full of heart-searchings on this occasion, let us, as did the Lord, triumph through faith and go forth singing praise to him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. and who has privileged us thus to have fellowship in the great transaction now in progress.”‘01-R2773

JESUS CRUCIFIED

"Comparing the details as given in the different Gospels, some are inclined to think a difference exists between St. John’s statement in Rev. 19:14 and St. Mark’s in Mark 15:25. We think both are correct. St. John evidently followed the Roman custom of reckoning from midnight to midnight. He does not mention the hour of the crucifixion, but the hour when Jesus was first presented before Pilate which, according to St. Mt 27:1,2 was early in the morning, probably shortly after sunrise. St. John omits many details; and, were it not for the other Gospels, we might infer that the crucifixion followed immediately. Note a similar abbreviation in Luke 24:50-53 as compared with St. Joh 21 and Acts 1:1-10.

"The examination of Christ before Pilate, thence to Herod, thence back to Pilate, and the trip to Calvary, would surely occupy three hours. St. Mark states particularly that Christ was crucified at the third hour. If this were Roman reckoning, it would be three o’clock in the morning, but the Jews frequently reckoned a twelve-hour day—sunrise to sunset. See Matthew 20:1-6; John 11:9. The third hour would, therefore, be about nine o’clock in the morning. Critical students agree that the expression, ‘from the sixth hour until the ninth hour’ (Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44), indicates from noon until three in the afternoon. According to the Jewish Law, the body must be removed before sunset. This would, therefore, give ample time for the removal of Christ’s body from the cross to the tomb before the closing of the twelfth hour, which according to the Law, would be the last hour of the day." ‘17-R6097 "The crowd stood around gaping, and the rulers joined with them in deriding the one who so recently had ridden into Jerusalem as the King of the Jews. They made light also of his miracles of healing, and of awaking the dead... How deceived they were, and what a lesson it should teach us of the fallibility of human judgment and the necessity for looking deeply, especially in matters pertaining to God and His Word.

.. Doubtless the hour will come when measures of force will be used against all who stand faithful to the Lord and his Truth; and they, too, will suffer under the claim that their death will be for the good of the cause, that it is expedient that injustice in some measure be done to a few rather than that their influence should prevail to any further extent against the systems in power." ‘06-R3901. Lu 23:35 Joh 18:14 11:49,50,41-53.

"Spurred on by the influence of the Jewish rulers, the Roman soldiers also derided the one just crucified as the King of the Jews; and the whole multitude, as they read over his head the words, ‘This is the King of the Jews: in Greek, the language of literature; in Latin, the language of the Romans, their rulers; in Hebrew, the language of their own nation.

"They were struck with the absurdity of the situation—its impossibility, so to speak—that a king of the nation should be thus completely denounced and rejected by the people of his realm! Alas, how little they understood his power! He could indeed have come down from the cross, could have refused to die, could have resisted their insults, could have had ‘more than twelve legions of angels’ for his 526 defence (Matt. 26:53). But this would not have been in accord with his consecration, nor in accord with the Father’s will, and would have left us, as the race of Adam, under the sentence of death, without hope of a future life—dead as brute beasts.

"How we may rejoice that the dear Redeemer when He was reviled did not revile again; when He was maltreated He did not do injury to his executioners. How we may rejoice in His faithfulness and love, which enabled him to present the acceptable sacrifice on our behalf. How we can exult also in the great glory, honor, dominion and power everlasting, which have come to Him as a reward and as a token of the Father’s approval; and what a hope it gives us that we also by his grace and assistance, may attain to joint-heirship with Him in His Kingdom." ‘06-R3901, R3902

THE GREAT PYRAMID—"A MIRACLE IN STONE" C, Ch. 10.

In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt—Isaiah 19: 19, 20.

The ancients recounted seven wonders of the world, and at the very head of the list named the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. It is situated in Egypt, not far from the present city of Cairo. No other building in the world equals it in size. One of the leading granite men of this country, who made a personal inspection of the Great Pyramid, says: "There are blocks of stone in the Pyramid which weigh three or four times as much as one of the obelisks. I saw a stone whose estimated weight was 880 tons. There are stones in it thirty feet in length which fit so closely together that you may run a penknife over the surface without discovering the breaks between them. They are not laid with mortar, either." It covers an area of about thirteen acres. It is 486 feet high and 764 feet broad at its base. It is estimated that the Great Pyramid weighs six million tons. It is evident that its great designer intended that it should be an enduring monument.

Viewed from whatever standpoint we please, the Great Pyramid is certainly the most remarkable building in the world; but in the light of an investigation which has been in progress for the past century, it acquires new interest to every Christian advanced in the study of God’s Word; for it seems in a remarkable manner to teach, in harmony with all the prophets, an outline of the plan of God, past, present and future.

All the other pyramids are inferior attempts to copy it, and unlike the Great Pyramid, they contain no symbolic features, but were evidently designed and used as sepulchers for the royal families.

The Great Pyramid, however, proves to be a storehouse of important truth—scientific, historic and prophetic—and its testimony is found to be in perfect accord with the Bible, expressing the prominent features of its truths in beautiful and fitting symbols. It is by no means an addition to the written revelation: that revelation is complete and perfect, and needs no addition. But it is a strong corroborative witness to God’s plan; and few students can carefully examine it, without feeling impressed that its construction was planned and directed by the same divine wisdom, and that it is the pillar of witness referred to by the prophet in the above quotation.

Isaiah, as above quoted, testifies of an altar and pillar in the land of Egypt, which ‘’shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. And the context shows that it shall be a witness in the day when the great Savior and deliverer shall come to break the chains of oppression and to set at liberty Sin’s captives—of which things Messiah preached at his first advent (Luke 4:18). The scope of this prophecy is but dimly seen, however, until Egypt is recognized as a symbol or type of the world of mankind, full of vain philosophies, which only darken their understandings, but ignorant of the true light. As Israel typified the world which shall be delivered from the bondage of Sin by the great antitype of Moses, and whose sinoffering has been given by the antitype of Aaron, so Egypt represents the empire of Sin, the dominion of death (Heb. 2:14), which for so long has held in chains of slavery many who will be glad to go forth to serve the Lord under the leadership of one like unto but greater than Moses—Acts 3:22, 23.

It will be after all human plans and schemes have failed them, and when men shall have learned their own sinfulness and helplessness, that they will begin to cry unto the Lord for help. Then Jehovah will show himself a great Saviour; and he has already prepared the Great Pyramid as a part of his instrumentality for convincing the world of his wisdom, foreknowledge and grace. (Isaiah 19:19-22) The additional, corroborative evidence given by the Great Pyramid to the written Word of God will be chiefly for the world of mankind during the Millennial age. The testimony of this peculiar and remarkable witness will give to mankind fresh ground for faith and love and zeal, when in due time their hearts are prepared for the truth. It is remarkable, too, that (like the Plan of the Ages in the written Word) this stone ‘’Witness" kept silence until now, when its testimony shall shortly be delivered to (Egypt) the world. Only when ready to obey the Lord can any appreciate his witnesses. Jeremiah 32:20, when speaking of God’s mighty works, declares that he bath ‘’set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day." God showed signs and wonders in Egypt when he brought Israel out in triumph; but he also ‘’set signs and wonders”there, which remain ‘’even unto this (our) day." The Great Pyramid, we believe, is the principal one of these very signs and wonders; and it now begins to speak to scientists in their own language, and through them to all men.

The Lord’s questions and statements to Job 38:3-7, concerning the earth, find a remarkable illustration in the Great Pyramid, which is believed, in itself and by its abundance of significant measurements, to represent the earth and God’s plan with reference to it. "Who bath stretched the line upon it?" The perfection of the shape of the Great Pyramid, and its exactness in every respect, prove that its construction was guided by some master architect. "Whereupon are the sockets thereof made to sink?”The Great Pyramid has four corner socket-stones sunk into the solid rock. "Or who laid the corner-stone thereof?" A pyramid has five corner-stones, 526 but the reference here is to one particular corner-stone—the top stone. The four sunk as socket-stones into the rock have already been referred to, and the remaining one is the top corner-stone. This is the most remarkable stone in the structure—itself a perfect pyramid, the lines in the entire structure conform to it. The question, therefore, with reference to it is significant, and calls attention to its peculiar fitness, and the wisdom and skill which prepared and placed it as the top stone.** ‘In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar (pyramid) at the border thereof, to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt." The Great Pyramid is located in the geographical center of the land surface of the world—including North and South America, unknown for centuries after the location and construction of the Great Pyramid. It is at the same time at the border where the Orient and the Occident meet.

Could such exactness in matters which concern six thousand years of history on the one hand, and thousands of inches of Pyramid measurements on the other. be a mere accidental coincidence? Nay; but verily truth is stronger and more wonderful than fiction. ‘’This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.’

Surely in the Great Pyramid "The invisible things (plans) of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen; being understood by the things that are made”—Rom. 1:20.

Some may scoff at the testimony of this stone "Witness, " as they scoff at God’s written Word; but to their scoffs we answer: Account for this peculiar fitness of things, or else venture to prophesy of the future, and see how your prophecies will result. Prove to us that it requires no inspiration to foretell future events. Show us a sample of worldly wisdom. ‘’Produce your cause. saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth and show us what will happen; let them show the ftJrme/ things, what they be, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them; or declare to us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods (might ones).”Isa. 41:21-23 Not only does the Great Pyramid confound atheistical scientists, but it refutes utterly their modern and antiScriptural theory of "Evolution”—on which subject we cannot do better than quote the following words of Dr. Joseph Seiss, from his excellent treatise on the Great Pyramid entitled ‘’A Miracle in Stone.”He says: ‘’If the primeval man were nothing but a gorilla or troglodyte, how, in those prehistoric times, could the builders of this mighty structure have known what our profoundest savants, after a score of centuries of observation and experiment, have been able to find out only imperfectly? How could they know how even to make and handle the tools. machines and expedients. indispensable to the construction of an edifice so enormous in dimensions, so massive in its materials, so exalted in its height and so perfect in its workmanship that

**The top corner stone, "the head-corner-stone," the "precious corner-stone," the "Chief Corner stone," pattern for the whole structure, is mentioned in THE MINOR PROPHETS: HOSEA TO MALACHI, pages 274-276, in comment on Zechariah 4:4-7. to this day it is without a rival on earth? How could they know the spherity, rotation, diameter, density, latitude, poles, land distribution and temperature of the earth, or its astronomical relations? How could they solve the problem of the squaring of the circle, * calculate the proportions or determine the four cardinal points? How could they frame charts of history and dispensations, true to fact in every particular, for the space of four thousand years after their time, and down to the final consummation? How could they know when the Mosaic economy would start, how long continue, and in what eventuate? How could they know when Christianity would be introduced, by what great facts and features it would be marked, and what would be the characteristics, career and end of the Church of Christ? How could they know of the grand precessional cycle, the length of its duration, the number of days in the true year, the Great Pyramid was built? How could they devise a standard and system of measures and weights, so evenly fitted to each other, so beneficently conformed to the common wants of man, and so perfectly harmonized with all the facts of nature? And how could they know how to put all these things on record in a single piece of masonry, without one verbal or pictorial inscription, yet proof against all the ravages and changes of time, and capable of being read and understood down to the very end?

"Men may sneer, but they cannot laugh down this mighty structure, nor scoff out of it the angles, proportions, measure, nature references and sacred correspondencies which its Maker gave it. Here they are in all their speaking significance, stubborn and invincible beyond all power to suppress them.’

The voice of this wonderful "Witness”brings forcibly to mind the words of our Lord on that notable occasion of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when he typically presented himself to Israel as their king, amidst the acclamations of the whole multitude of his disciples, who were loudly praising God for the mighty works that had been done, saying, "Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord! peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." And when the Pharisees were urging him to rebuke them, he answered, "I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:37-40). And so it is today: While the King of glory has actually come, and while the great majority of his professed living witnesses, who should be loudly rejoicing, and saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord, are dumb—some from fear of being put out of the synagogue, and some from drowsy slothfulness, or from the intoxication of worldliness which keeps them in ignorance of the time of our visitation—lo, the very stones of this Great Pyramid of Testimony are crying out in no uncertain tones. Every inch of this massive structure is eloquently proclaiming the wisdom and power and grace of our God.

*The Perimeter of the base of the Pyramid divided by twice the height of the Pyramid = pi. (P/2h = pi.) The Area of the base of the Great Pyramid equals pi times the height of the Pyramid squared. (A = P h2) The Greek letter "pi "( P) here used represents the approximate number3. 1416.

528 Firmly incased in this solid rocky structure, beyond the power of nature’s storms or of the ruthless hand of the destroyer, the outline drawings of God’s great plan have stood for four thousand years, prepared to give their testimony at the time appointed, in corroboration of the similarly revealed, but for ages hidden, testimony of the sure Word of Prophecy. The testimony of this "Witness to the Lord in the land of Egypt,”like that of the written Word, points with solemn and unerring precision to the final wreck of the old order of things in the "Pit" of oblivion, and to the glorious establishment of the new, under Christ Jesus, the great Chief Corner-stone of God’s eternal building, in conformity with the lines of whose glorious character all things worthy of everlasting existence must be built up under him. Amen! Amen! Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven!

”The Great Pyramid," Chapter X—”The Testimony of God’s Stone Witness and Prophet, the Great Pyramid in Egypt"—pages C311-C380, THY KINGDOM COME, which please see.

Note: In the Great Pyramid, granite is used to symbolize divine things or the divine nature, just as gold symbolized it in Israel’s typical Tabernacle and Temple: the low passages leading into the ‘’Ante-Chamber”and into the "King’s Chamber" correspond to the veils before the Holy and the Most Holy; and the granite coffer (This coffer corresponds with the sacred ark of the Mosaic Tabernacle in capacity), the only furniture in the ‘’King’s Chamber," corresponds to the Ark of the Covenant, which was the only furniture in the Most Holy of the Tabernacle and the Temple. What in the one was gold, in the other was granite, and of the same symbolic significance. C355

TRUE HUMILITY SUBMISSION A TEST OF LOYALTY

‘’When the Lord felt the Father’s hand pressing down, he meekly bowed himself beneath the weight, in humble acquiescence to the will of the One whose purpose he had come to carry out. But the Hand did not crush him... It was the hand of love, testing his obedience to the full. When his obedience was fully tested, the same Hand lifted him up and ‘set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places; far above all... not only in this world, but also in that which is to come—Eph. 1:20-23.

"Thus it will be with us, if we are found faithful... not faith only, but loyalty also, is necessary... Without these, we would be quite unfit for the kingdom; and so the various tests of the present time are tests of faith and loyalty to God, and of entire submission to his will. It is to those ‘who, by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality’ that God has promised ‘eternal life’—Romans 2:7.

THE HIGHEST STANDARD OF OBEDIENCE

"The Apostle Paul urges that the church cultivate the mind of Christ. He says, ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.’ He had been reciting the qualities necessary to the church in order that they could be acceptable to the Father. Amongst these was an eager desire to please God.

The Apostle exhorts all such to pursue the course of humility and submission taken by our Lord as the only proper path for the Master’s footstep followers. St. Paul was endeavoring to impress that the mind of Christ was eminently worthy of imitation and painstaking cultivation.

"As a further evidence of the Master’s great humility, the Apostle brings forcefully to their attention what Jesus was in his prehuman existence. As the Logos, he was in the form of God—the spirit condition... The Logos thought not to usurp the Father’s place, or to claim equality with Him, but manifested a very different disposition—an attitude of humility. Then ‘let this mind be in you,’ urges the Apostle. ‘Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.’ Consider that God has called you with the same high calling, that you might attain to a place at the right hand of Christ, even as he attained to a place at the Father’s right hand. Realizing this, permit this mind of Christ to be in you.

"God was not seeking to force this mind upon Christ, nor is he seeking to force it upon us. Our Lord having taken this position of humility, in order to be man’s Redeemer, it was needful that he maintain that mind in order to work out the blessed fruitage of patience. Three and one-half years were required for Jesus to complete his work; and it was not until after he reached the cross and could say, ‘It is finished,’ that he was ‘set down with the Father in his throne.’ If we have become Jesus’ disciples, if we have accepted the conditions of the high calling, if we have received this mind; then we are to let, or permit, this mind to work out in us the character likeness of our Head.

THE UNIVERSAL STANDARD OF OBEDIENCE

‘’It is a principle of the divine government that ‘He that exalteth himself shall be abased, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.’ ‘Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time’—Lu 14:11 1Pe 5:6.

"Every creature of God, whether angel or man, should have this humble mind. This is the only proper attitude. This test comes during the Gospel age to only the Lord and the church... Those who have the right disposition will desire to do the Father’s will at any cost...