SEPTEMBER

1937

SPEAKERS' APPOINTMENTS

BROTHER J . A. BELLBrooklyn, N .Y Sept . 5

BROTHER C. P. BRIDGE SBrooklyn, N . Y Sept . 4

BROTHER"DAVID DINWOODI EBrooklyn, N . Y Sept . 4Camden, N. J 2 6

BROTHER ED WARD FAYBrooklyn, N . Y Sept . 4Camden, N . J 1 2Denton, Md 1 9

BROTHER A . C. FREYBrooklyn, N . Y Sept . 5Hartford, Conn 2 6

BROTHER C. F. GEORGEDuquesne, Pa Sept. 1 9

BROTHER J . T. JOHNSONE. Liverpool, Ohio Sept . 1 2

BROTHER E. W. KEIBDuquesne, Pa Sept . 5

BROTHER P. KOLLIMANBrooklyn, N . Y Sept . 6Easton, Pa 12Denton, Md 19

BROTHER J . C. LAIRDBrooklyn ; N . Y Sept . 1 9

BROTHER 0 . MAGNUSONBrooklyn, N . Y Sept. 6

BROTHER EDWARD MAURERBeaver, Pa Sept . 19

BROTHER MARTIN MITCIELLBrooklyn, N . Y Sept 1 2Passaic, N . J 1 9

BROTHER ROY E . MITCHEL LBaltimore, Md Sept . 1 2

BROTHER N . M. MOLENAARSan Bernardino, Calif Sept . 1 2

BROTHER A. L. MUIRSt . Louis, Mo Oct. 3

BROTHER ROBERT E. NASHVancouver, B . C Sept . 4- 6San Francisco, Calif 9Stockton, Calif.

1 0Fresno, Calif 1 1

BROTHER EDWIN PROCTO RBrooklyn, N . Y Sept. 6

BROTHER R . C. REYNOLDSMinneapolis, Minn Sept 4-6Chicago, Ill 1 2Nashville, Tenn 25Memphis, Tenn 2 6Blackton, Ark 27Cameron, Okla 28Oklahoma City, Okla 2 9

BROTHER A . I . RITCHIEHawthorne, Calif Sept. 1 9

BROTHER A . M. SAPHORET3rooklyn, N . Y 'Sept. 4

BROTHER WALTER SARGEAN TBrooklyn, N . Y Sept . 5Passaic, N. J 12Brooklyn, N . Y 2 6

BROTHER J . HENRY SONNTAGBrooklyn, N . Y Sept. 5

BROTHER J . H. L . TRAUTFELTERBrooklyn, N. Y Sept. 5

BROTHER J . I . VAN BORN EDuquesne, Pa Sept . 1 2

BROTHER E. A. S. WHITFORDBrooklyn, N . Y Sept . 5

.BROTHER G. M. WILSONBrooklyn, N . Y Sept. 5, 6E. Liverpool, Ohio 26

BROTHER W . N. WOODWORTHRugby, England Sept . 1Malvern 2Abertillery 3Pontypool 4Cardiff 5Bournemouth 6Guilford 7, 8Welling 1 0Leicester 1 2

BROTHER C . W. ZAHNOWChicago, Ill Sept . 4Saginaw, Mich 5, 6Flint, Mich 10Jackson, Mich 1 1Grand Rapids Mich 1 2Detroit, Mich 1 3Lorain, O 14, 1 5Cleveland, Ohio 16, 1 7Akron, Ohio 18, 1 9Magadore, 0 2 0Ravenna, O 2 1Warren, 0 .

2 2Youngstown, 0 2 3E . Liverpool, 0 24, 2 5Pittsburgh, Pa 2 6Washington, Pa 2 7

COMING CONVENTION S

LABOR DAY CONVENTION SSEPTEMBER 4, 5, 6 .

BROOKLYN, N. Y . The friends in Brooklyn ar elooking forward to this being the biggest and bes tconvention they have had since the first annualconvention l;aeld seven years ago . A hearty welcom eis extended to all who love the Lord, the truth an dthe brethren. All sessions will be held at the usuallocation, Lecture Room, 109 Remsen Street, cornerof Henry, near Borough Hall, Brooklyn . Any friend sdesiring to be immersed at the convention are requeste dto advise us immediately in order that arrangement sfor a baptismal service may be made . Address Mis sNorma G. Mitchell, 360 Third Ave, Brooklyn, N . Y .

CHICAGO, ILL., JUNIOR BIBLE STUDENT SCONVENTION, The young people will gather for this

convention at 2 :00 P . M. Saturday. All sessions willbe held at the Central Masonic Temple, 910 N . LaSalleStreet. Further information may be obtained by ad-dressing Miss Sophia Durka, 1916 South ChristianaAvenue, Chicago, Ill .

SAGINAW, MICHIGAN . The friends are planning aweek-end convention beginning Saturday afternoonand continuing through Monday, Labor Day. All ses-sions will be held at the Woman's Club, 311 N. Jeffer-son Street . Friends everywhere are cordially invited .

RICHMOND, IND. The friends are planning a twoday convention for Sunday and Monday . The meetingswill be held in the High School Auditorium, cornerof 9th and North B Streets, ground floor . The Aud -

(Continued on page 29)

S

7he DAWNA Herald of Chrlsf's Presence

Vol . 5, No. 12

SEPTEMBER 1937

One Dollar a Year

Entered as second class matter at the Brooklyn, N . Y. Post Office, October 17, 1932, under Act of March 3 ,1897 . Published monthly by Dawn Publishers, Inc ., 136 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. British Address : Bibl eStudents Committee, 24, Darwin Road, Welling, Kent . England ; Australian address : Berean Biblical Institute ,

No. 19 Ermington Pl., Kew E. 4, Melbourne, Vie., Australia.

NEWS AND VIEWS :An Air Raid Over Londo nGod's Hand Over Israe l

THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL :Messiah in Prophecy—The final in this series whic hpresents the Scriptural proof that Jesus is the tru eMessiah of Israel .The End of the World—Another chapter from th ebooklet "God and Reason . "

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE :The Epistle of Christ—This article should help to in-crease one's appreciation of the truth and its value inthe Christian life as it shows that through the truth o fthe divine plan the law of the New Covenant is beingwritten in the hearts of God's people, thus preparingthem to share in the work of mediating that covenantduring the age to come ; and that this present prepara-tory work was illustrated by the writing of God's lawon the typical tables of stone .Taking Heed Lest We Fall--Many are the admonition sof the Scriptures for the Christian to "take heed "This article calls attention to some of these, and make ssuggestions as to how we e may be more watchful of ou rwalk in the narrow way .The New Covenant—A summary of a number of inter-esting facts concerning the preparation and inaugura-tion of the New Covenant—stated in brief .Love—The Fulfilling of the Law—Showing that love i sthe essential quality which prompts obedience to th ewill of God, in all its requirements . This article shoul dstimulate the development of this highest grace .

2 0

INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS :Choices and their Consequences in a Nation's Life

2 3God in the Making of a Nation

2 4Christian Sonship

2 5The Christian in God's Keeping

2 6THE CHILDREN'S HOUR :

Abraham Offers up his Son

2 7OUTLINE FOR BEREAN STUDY :

2 9

TALKING THINGS OVER :The London Convention

3 0An Opportunity

3 2

"GOOD HOPES" REPORT

33

NEXT i of 'rliilTHE ARK OF TH E

COVENANTThe Ark of the Covenant with

its mercy seat and cherubims ;and the tables of the law,Aaron's rod that budded, andthe golden bowl of manna thatwere kept in the Ark constitut ea comprehensive picture of howGod will deal with and blessthe people through the Christ .This article examines some ofthe points of interest containe din the symbolism of the Ark, an dsuggests practical application sof the sadie to the Christian life .

TREASURES FROM GODAn article which stresses th e

importance of doing the thingswhich would ensure to Christian sthe Heavenly Father's blessing.It points out the truthfulnes sof the statement that ``thethings which are seen are trans-itory, but the things which ar eunseen are eternal," and en-courages a striving for suchenduring things .

THE SECRET PLACEHow may we be assured o f

the divine watch care over us ?This is a question that oftenpresents itself to the followersof the Master. The Psalmistdeclares that He who "dwell-eth in the secret place of theMost High shall abide under theshadow of the Almighty." (Psa.91 :1 .) What is this "secretplace"? and how may we beassured of dwelling therein?The article dealing with thes equestions should prove to b every encouraging.

rh~u s i iox'ri-a

4

12

17

AN AIR RAID ON LONDO N

JRING the night of August 9-10 four hun-dred air planes "battled" each other 5,000feet above the city of London, England—22 2defending fighters pitted against 176 . raiding

bombers . It was, of course, a sham battle, but stagednevlertheless for practice purposes, and with the-v1ew of gaining valuable information that can b e'utilized in defending the city against real enemie slater, when the expected Armageddon of Europ efinally breaks loose in all its dreadful fury. Thisdemonstration of British power in the air followed amore or less widespread discussion of peace proposal ssuggested by the United States . England herself ac -'quiesced in America's proposals, but the London ai rraid, staged for practice purposes, demonstrate dher lack of confidence in anything that might now b edone to avert the coming conflict .

Ninteen years have now passed since the clos eof the "war to end war," and all that time the peaceadvocates of the world have struggled valiantly butvainly to promote good-will among the nations, sothat today the clouds of war are hovering more om-inously over the earth than at any other time sincethe signing of the arnstice . All the leading nationsof the earth, and many of the smaller ones, are pre-paring for war on an unprecedented scale . This

:present armament program of the nations seems afitting fulfilment of the words of the Prophet Joel ,when he says :

"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles ; Preparewar, wake up the mighty men, let all the men ofwar draw near ; let them come up : Beat your plow -shares into swords, and your pruninghooks intospears : let the weak say, I am strong. Assembleyourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gathe ryourselves together round about : thither cause thymighty ones to come down, 0 LORD . Let the heathenbe wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehosha -phat : for there will I sit to judge all the heathenround about ."—Joel 3 :9-12 .

It is now a well recognized fact that the year 191 4marked the beginning of a revolutionizing periodin the world 's history . The national and internation -al changes that were set in motion at that timewere "so far-reaching that all thinking persons rec -ognize that since that time we have been living in adifferent world—a world of uncertainty and change ,in which the cross currents of human ambition an dselfishness are battling with each other for ascend-

These forces are struggling, some in the nam eof Democracy, others in the name of Communism ,still others in the name of Fascism, etc., with vary-

ing 'degrees of sincerity. And while all thedis -contented classes of the earth would no doubt prefe rpeace rather than war, yet they are so determine dto accomplish their ends, so set upon usheringin their own forms of "peace on earth" that they arewilling to engage in war in order to do it .

Actually there has been no real peace since 1914 .True, an armistice was signed by the warring nation sin 1918, and later a peace treaty negotiated, but th eworld did not return to "normalcy ." In the struggl efor power and for various forms of Utopias tha thas followed the signing of the armistice, the directand direct loss of life has been colossal . The Am-ritsar riots in 1918 resulted in 400 deaths. Thencame the Third Afghan War with its heavy loss oflife, followed by the Waziristan campaign in 1920in which the real loss of life was concealed by th eindefinite report of "heavy British casualties . "

In Malabar the Moplah uprising in 1921 cost a tleast 14,000 lives. The upheavals in Russia cause dlosses of life on a scale never known before . Faminesfollowed, and Moscow admits that in 1921 there wer e13,772,613 victims in the Volga Valley alone . TodayTurkey takes her place among the nations, but wha ta blood bath preceded the foundation of the newTurkey ! There was a war with Greece . The Turkswon. Then they almost involved themselves in an -other war with England . By the time they had de-feated the Greeks, Smyrna, one of the great port sof the world, was in ashes . More than 400,000 diedin the space of six months . Mustapha Kemal is aruthless soul . In the Autumn of 1920 some Armeniantribes revolted . They were exterminated . Shortlyafterwards, there was discontent in certain section sof the army and 23,000 malcontents were shot .Forty-six great chieftains were hanged in the squareat Diarbekir on a single afternoon .

The great Fascist revolution began in Italy in1922 . From the point of view of bloodshed at th etime. it was insignificant . Instead of thousands ofthe unhappy masses being shot out of hand, thatfate was reserved for a few hundreds of the most in-t e llectual and progressive minds in the community .There have been bloody revolutions in other coun-tries as well—in Greece, Portugal, Yugo-Slavia, Ru-mania, and in Austria, where the Chancellor Dolfuswas shot and allowed to bleed to death . Each ofthese incidents has helped to impress the grim factthat the "war to end wars" did not end war, and thatthe peoples of the earth have been vainly cryin g"peace, peace, when there is no peace . "

Then there has been the sporadic warfare betweenJapan and China. And what terrible loss of life re -sulted from the Japanese invasion of Manchuria !

September 1937

Nor have these post-war conflicts been limited to th e"old wort :.' ." For years there was a war in SouthAmerica, between Bolivia and Paraguay .' Few peopl eseemed to know what it was all about, least of all thesoldiers who nearly all fought to the death . Peacecame only when there were no more men to fight

. And then there has been the more recent Italianinvasion of Ethiopia, with its tremendous loss of lif e—some claim as many as a million . And now w ehave the Fascist-Communist war that is being stage din Spain, with all the great powers of the eart hlooking on, watchfully waiting, and hoping agains thope that it may end without the necessity of theirtaking a hand in it . Such, in brief, is the grim storyof the past nineteen years of "peace ." And still th enations continue . the mad rush to increase theirarmaments . Fantastic amounts of money are bein gspent daily in'the manufacture of machinery for deal-ing out death .

Surely it is evident that the year 1914 was a turn-ing point in world affairs ; and the Bible alone offer sthe only reasonable answer as to why this was so . Itwas the legal end of the "times of the Gentiles," henc ethe time when the "old order " would definitely beginto crumble and fall .

GOD'S HAND OVER ISRAELTT-If International Zionists' Congress which me t

in Zurich, Switzerland, in August accepted the Britis hproposal for a three-way division of the land o fPalestine as a basis for negotiation, looking towar dthe settling of the controversy between the Jews andthe Arabs ; and while the proposal was obviousl yfar from: popular it has appointed a commission t onegotiate for a better arrangement with Great Brit-ain . Many protests are being voiced against thepresent very limited quota of Jews now being per-mitted to enter the Holy Land . In view of the pres-ent wide-spread persecution of Jews in other coun -tries, Palestine has become to them a life and deathnecessity ; hence the present attitude of the Britis hGovernment, in its failure to carry out the term sof the Balfour Declaration, produces a very seriou ssituation for them.

But undoubtedly God 's hand is in all of this !When Christ and the Church shall reign and God'sKingdom is finally established and operating fromJerusalem through the ancient Worthies and the re -stored Jewish nation, the fact will be recognized thatGod has set up that Kingdom, rather than that menand nations have been responsible for it .(Dan. 2 :44 . )For this reason He permits situations to develo pwhich are calculated to teach the Jews that theycannot put their trust in the promises of men, tha tthey must look to God to deliver them . For thisreason, too, those who now have faith in the plan o fGod for the Jews, and who realize that the timehas come for them to be regathered to their home-land preparatory to the establishment of the Messi-anic Kingdom, need not be unduly concerned at th epresent sorry plight of the Jews .

If God wants the doors of Palestine opened up for

neither Great Britain nor any other earthly govern ;ment can keep those doors closed. When God firstbegan to carry out His purpose in connection withthe natural seed of Abraham He chose a barrenrwoman, and then waited until both she and herhusband were old in order that it might be realizedthat only by divine power was the birth of Isaacmade possible . So today, God is permitting thes everious hopeless situations to develop in order tha tdivine power may again be manifested in the rebirt hof the Jewish nation . Yes, when the time comes,God will fight for Israel as He did in the days ofold .

The Christian today, has a wonderful privilege„as opportunity affords, to "speak comfortably t oJerusalem," pointing out to her that the promises ,of God are certain to be carried out, and that th etime has come for the natural seed of Abraham topossess the land ; that the surety of this is based ,not on the Balfour Declaration, but on God 's dec-laration ; not on the mandate of the League of Nations ,but on the mandate of the King of heaven .

And who knows but that the hand of the Lor dis more definitely in Israel's difficulties than what ma ynow be apparent? Certainly God has not been take nseriously into consideration by the great majorit yof the Jews who have been most instrumental in th epresent rehabilitation work in Palestine . The money-god has been permitted to wield much more influenceamong the Jews in Palestine during the last twentyyears than has Jehovah. This, of course, has notbeen true in every case . There have been manynoble, God-fearing Jews working for the reestablish-ment of the Homeland because they believed it wa sGod 's will for His people, but these have been in th eminority, yes, very decidedly in the minority .

Surely, the Jews must be brought face to face wit hsome very serious difficulties in which they will beable to see the hand of God definitely working fo rtheir deliverance, before they will be ready and will -ing, as a whole, to put their trust in Him. So thos ewho are keeping their eyes on God's dealings wit hIsrael as one of the present signs of the approachin gKingdom, need not be surprised to see apparentl yinsurmountable difficulties placed in the way of th eJewish homecoming ; but, we can rest assured, Go dwill remove these barriers in His own time and way .Mr . A . L. Easterman, writing in the London DailyHerald ,referring to conditions in Palestine unde rthe British mandate, calls it a "land of broken prom -ises . " But man-made promises are the only ones thathave been broken . God 's promises to Israel predatesand supersedes these man-made promises, and aresure to be carried out . In the carrying out of Hi spromises, God will use human agencies insofar as .they suit IIis purposes, but He does not depend uponhuman help . Let us, then, continue to watch His .providence on behalf of natural Israel, in full faiththat He doeth all things well and will surely fulfil'.all the promises He has made to His ancient people, .Israel .

3.

a further influx of the natural seed of Abraham

1

lb And the angel of the Lot mcalled unto Abraham out of !warnthe emend time,

16 And mid, By myself have Iswam, with the land, for becausethou host done this thing, and hest

d notwithheld thy$pgqo,thineonly son :f 17 That in bWaain~ I will bless

thee, and in multiplyrng I will mul •tiply thy seed as the *tors of theheaven, and as the sand whichis upon the ma shore ; and thy

s seed shall lasses the gate of hi sCtMmie® ;

I. 18 And in thy seed shall all thenations of the earth be blessed, bc-catae thou last obeyed my voice.

Gen.22 :15-18'~

a1 . 38 And the scripture, foreseein g

that God would justify the heathenthrough faith, preached before thegospel unto Abraham, saying, Inthee shall all nations be blessed.

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2 And I John saw the holy {y.new Jerusalem, coming down 1rmGod out of heaven, prepared 'asa bride adorned for her husband

of heaven saving, Behold, the ta .bernaele of !loch is with men, an dhe will dwell with them, and the yshall be his people, and God him.self shall be with them, and betheir God .4 And God shall wipe away al ltears from their eyes ; and there

shall be no more death, neithe rsorrow, nor trying, neither shal lthere be anymore pain : for th eformer, things are passed away.5 And he that sat upon the thron e

said, Behold, I make all things new.And he said unto me, Write : forthese words are hue and Wilful .—`-'

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20, z9

Messiah in ProphecyJewish Double

Now let us consider another re-markable fact . Jewish history natur-ally divides itself into two exactl yequal. parts ; the first of which was atime of favor intermingled with dis-ciplines, but favor nevertheless ; andthe second part, one of disfavor an dexclusion from divine fellowship .All know that for many centuries ,Israeli has been without prophet ,priest and ephod and without com-munion with Jehovah, just as fore -told by the Prophets ; whereas, atone time, they were Jehovah's fav-ored and chosen people .

Speaking to Israel through theprophet Jeremiah, Jehovah says,"And first I will recompense theiriniquity and their sin double ; be-cause they have defiled My land . "(Jar . 16 :18.) The prophet Zechar-iah also mentions this double, saying ,"Turn ye to the strong hold, yeprisoners of hope : even TO-DAY d oI declare that I will render doubl eunto thee." (Zech . 9 :12 .) The word"! double" here is the same word use dby the prophet Jeremiah, "mish-neh," meaning a repetition or an-other equal portion . And the pro-phet Isaiah, referring to the end ofthis double says, "Speak ye comfort-ably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her ,that her APPOINTED TIME IS AC-COMPLISHED, that her iniquit yis pardoned ; for she hath receive dof Jehovah's hand DOUBLE for al lher sins ." (Isa. 40) Note that theHebrew word here translate d"double" is "kephel'' which sig-

nifies "double'' in the sense of athing having been folded in themiddle .

The period of Jewish disfavor i sthe second part of the double. I tseems quite evident from this arrayof testimony from the Word of Je-

(Part 3)

hovah that Israel's double is nowfulfilled, that Israel's blessing ha salready begun and is even now inprogress. Zionism has arisen and en-gendered the hope of the Jew inevery land and turned their eyestoward the Land of Promise . Whathas awakened the Jew to Zionis mat this time is all a part of God' sarrangement; but it appears thatthe Jews' interest in Zionism is more -political than religious . However, i thas served a wonderful purpose—it is getting the Jew ready for th epower that is going to move them .

The power that will move th eJews is the power of Jehovah . Inmore than eighteen centuries th eJew has not been so comfortably,nor so favorably fixed, as he is to -day. But his blessing is only be -ginning. Soon, ,we believe, divinefavor will accomplish for His chosenpeople all the precious promises ofthe Law and of the Prophets. Al-ready many Jews are awakening t oa realization of this truth. How-ever, too much in this directio ncannot be expected now—not untilafter Jacob's trouble .—Ezek. 38,39 ;Zech . 14 :1-9 ; Jer. 30 : 1-11 .

A voice is sounding from the wil-derness and the Jews everywhere ar ehearkening to it . It does not cal lthem to become Christians—but t oremain Jews, and to realize as Jews,the ideals set before them by Jeho-vah in the Law and in the Prophets .To all those exercised thereby, agreat blessing is near which wil lmore than compensate for all th esorrows of the past, and which wil lhelp them to face the future wit hfortitude and courage.

Neither by swords, nor guns, no rwarships, neither by airships nortorpedos will Israel's great victory

be gained ; neither by money powerand worshipping the golden calf o ffinance, nor by trust in the arm offlesh or any powerful nation, but BYLOOKING TO JEHOVAH-FROMWHOM WILL COME THEIR HELP .

There are still many Jews who d onot know about this "double" forthey have not been studying thei rHoly Scriptures, but looking more tothe teachings bf the ancients a spresented by the Talmud . NoticeJeremiah's prophecy in Jeremiah 16, :18 . After speaking of Israel's sinsand the punishment which shouldensue as a result, the prophet speak sof the regathering of Israel out o f"the land of the north, and fro mall the lands whither He, (Jeho-vah], had driven them" and theirrestoration to their Homeland ; thenthe prophet says, speaking as Je-hovah's mouthpiece, "And first Iwill recompense their iniquity andtheir sin double ." Let us bear inmind that Jeremiah's prophec ylooks down to the "double" fromhis day, which was more than si xhundred years before the second par tof their double began .

Now turn to Zechariah's prophecy ,and note that prophetically thisprophet takes his stand at the verytime when the second part of th edouble began. Note carefully hiswords, "Even today do I declarethat I will render double unto thee . "(Zech. 9 :12 .) And carefully not ethe sign that was given to mark th ecommencement of the second par tof the double, in the ninth verse .

Blessings Now Due to the JewsComing now to the prophet Isaiah,

we find that he takes his stan dright down in our day and views thematter from the standpoint that th edouble of experience has been ful-

September 193 7

filled . Listen to his ,message of com-fort, cheer and encouragement t oevery Jewish heart . "Comfort ye,comfort ye My people, saith yourGod . .Speak ye comfortably to Je-rusalem, and cry unto her, that herAPPOINTED TIME IS ACCOM-PLISHED, that her iniquity is par-doned, : for she bath received ofJehovah's hand double for all hersins." Yes, she has received the twoequal parts .—Isa. 40 :1, 2 .

It is our understanding from thelight of Holy Scriptures that thi sdouble reached fulfilment in the yea r1878 A. D., and we are, to thevery best of our ability, assuringJehovah's chosen people that theirperiod of disfavor has ended, andthat ere long they shall realize Je-hovah's favor and blessing returningto them once more .

Some may ask how we may kno wwhen the turning point of Israel' sdouble took place, how may we b esure that the double was complete din the year 1878 A . D . ; and our repl yto this question may be startlin gto our Jewish friends . We reply thatthe answer to the question necessi-tates an acknowledgment of Jesu sof Nazareth as the Messiah. Israel' srejection of Jesus as their Kingmarks the turning point of Jehovah' sfavor as the prophecy of Zecharia hdistinctly shows .—Zech. 9 :9, 12.

It seems very strange that neithe rJews nor Gentiles have appreciate dthe full import of the incident re-corded—that five days before Hi scrucifixion, Jesus rode into the cityof Jerusalem upon an ass, after themanner of Jewish kings, a -multitudesurrounding Him and going beforeHim, shouting, "hosanna to the Sonof David ; Blessed is He that comethin the name of Jehovah ." This in-cident recorded in the Gospels, is aremarkable fulfilment of prophecy ;for the Prophet Zechariah calledattention to this very incident cen-turies before it occurred, saying ,"Be greatly glad, 0 daughter o fZion ; shout, 0 daughter of Jerusa-lem ! Behold, thy King will com eunto thee, righteous and victoriousis He, lowly and riding upon an ass ,and upon a colt the foal of a she-ass" (Zech . 9 :9 ; Leeser) . And thi ssame prophet, makes the declaration ,"Even TO-DAY do I declare thatI will render double unto thee ."—Zech . 9 :12 .

Jews a Natio nIsrael's history as a nation began

with the death of Jacob just priorto which he gave his blessing to his

twelve sons. The period from thattime to the death of Jesus, accordingto the Scriptures, was a period of1845 years ; and a like period of dis-favor, measur;;ng from the days ofJesus' rejection, marks the year1878 A . D. as the end of Jewish dis-favor and the time when the mes-sage of comfort should go forth tothe Jews.

However, let us remember thatdivine favor was only graduallytaken from Israel, and history show sthat a period of 37 years intervene dbetween the death of Jesus and theutter destruction of Jerusalem. Sim-ilarly we would expect that the re -turn of favor would be gradual,and would be a period of 37 years .Such being the case, 1878 plus 3 7brings us to the year 1915 A. D . —beginning in the fall of 1914— a sthe time when Jehovah's favor to -ward His people would be publiclyand openly manifested .

Today, this is an accomplishe dfact ; for the only people to receiveany blessing out of the terrible de-vastation of the World War, were theJewish people . Prior to the war, i fyou had asked a Jew whether they,as a people, were a nation, thereply would have been, "How can w ebe a nation'? we have no country ;we have no king ; we are scattered ;we are driven from pillar to post ;we are only a wandering peoplehounded amongst the nations of th eworld . "

But what a noticeable chang esince the World War! The Jews no tonly Rook upon their race as a nation ,but other nations of the world haverecognized them as such . And mor ethan this, they are making rapi dstrides in the establishment of anational home in Palestine, thei rHomeland, promised to them byJehovah .

The main point, however, we wishto bring forward for careful consid-eration is this—that without Jesus i twould be utterly impossible to kno wthe turning point in Israel's double,nay further, without Jesus therewould be no turning point in thedouble and there would be no fur-ther blessings for the Jewish peopleor for any other member of the hu-man race .

Only One MessiahThe prophecies make it very clea r

that there is only ONE Messiah,and they portray this One from thre edifferent standpoints :

(1) In His high position as Je-

hovah's First-Born Son, in theHeavenly realm, as we read in Pro-verbs 8 :22-30 (Leeser), "Jehovahcreated Me in the beginning of Hisway, the first of His works from th ecommencement. From eternity wasI appointed chief . . .when He pre-pared the heavens, I was there . . .then was I near Him, as a nursling ;and I was day by day (His) de-lights ." And as verified by theProphet Micah speaking as th emouthpiece of Jehovah regardingthe Messiah, and saying, "whoseorigin is from olden times, frommost ancient days . "--Micah 5 :1,Leeser .

(2) Then we read about Messiah inHis body of humiliation, when H eleft the Heavenly Courts of Jehovahand took upon Himself the form o fa man, as recorded in Heb . 10 :5, " Abody hast Thou prepared Me," an dso graphically portrayed- for us b ythe prophet Isaiah, "He had no formnor comeliness, so that we shouldlook at Him ; and no countenanceso that we should desire Him .He was, despised and shunned bymen ; a man of pains, and acquainte dwith disease . . . and we esteeme dHim not ."—Isa . 53 :2, 3, Leaser.

(3) Then we are given manybeautiful prophecies of this sameMessiah in His highly exalted pos-ition—after Jehovah raised Hi mfrom the dead, as foretold in Psal m16 :10, "Thou [Jehovah] wilt notleave My soul in SHEOL ; neitherwilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One t osee corruption," and appointed Hi ma position next to Himself in dignity ,honor and power . We are also toldof His second coming to earth, no tin the form of a man, not in humil-iation, not to suffer, but as a MightySpirit Being to reign in power andgreat glory and bless first, the Jew-ish nation, and then, through theJews, all the families of the earth.

Emphasizing still more explicitlythe fact that there is only one Mes-siah and stressing the three mai nfeatures of His marvelous career,we read in Micah 5 :2, C. V . andLeeser, "But thou Bethlehem Eph-ratah, though thou be little amongthe thousands of Judah, yet out o fthee shall He come forth unto Me ,that is to be ruler in Israel ; whos egoings forth have been from of old -en times, from most ancient days ." -And then Jehovah, speaking throughthe Prophet Isaiah, says, "Behold ,My servant [the Messiah] shall beprosperous, He shall be exalted an dextolled, and be placed very high .

Just as many were astonished atThee, so greatly. was His countenanc emarred more than any (other )man ' s, and His form more than (tha tof) the sons of men,—thus will Hecause many nations to jump up in(astonishment) : at Him will king sshut their mouth ; for what had no tbeen told unto them shall they see,and what they had never heard shal lthey understand . "—Isa. 52 :13-18 ,Leeser.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—Princes in All the Earth

We must admit that it was th emost natural thing imaginable fo rthe Jewish nation to suppose thatthe giving of the Law to them atMount Sinai, through the Mediator .ship of Moses, was the fulfilmen tof the promise to Abraham ; never-theless, we can now see that theywere mistaken. Israel's Mediator,the sacrificing priests, and the sac-rifices they offered, their tabernaclewith its Holy and Most Holy, th eTemple and all its features, weretypes or foreshadowings of the bet-ter sacrifices, the Higher Priesthood,the better Mediator, and the gloriou sblessings of eternal forgiveness an dreconciliation yet to be accomplished .

God's arrangements for Israel ofold served not only to furnish type sand shadows and to propheticallyforeshadow important events to tak eplace in the future, but at the sametime, a very special class of Agent swere being selected for a grand fu-ture work ; for known unto Jehovahare all Hi.s works from the begin-ning. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Mose sand all the faithful prophets an dworthy ones of the Israelitish Dis-pensation, and who were fully con-secrated to Jehovah, at that timequalified themselves for the Kingdomconditions by their unswervingfaith and loyalty to Jehovah unde rvery trying conditions .

The Scriptures show that all thes e"fell asleep"—and they are stil lasleep—in the dust of the earth ,awaiting the glorious resurrectio nmorning. It was to this hoped-forand long-expected resurrection thatfaithful Job referred when he said,"0 that Thou wouldest hide me insheol, that Thou wouldest keep mesecret until Thy wrath be past, thatThou wouldest appo5nt me a se ttime, and remember me! If a mandie shall he live again? All the day sof my appointed time will I wait,till my change come . Thou shaltcall, and I will answer Thee : Thou

wilt have a desire to the work ofThine hands ."—Job 14 :13-15 .

These worthy ones during thei rlife-time were styled "the fathers "because Messiah was foretold to b eof the posterity of Abraham and wa sfurther spoken of as "David's son . "From the Scriptures we are shownthat "David's son" and "Abra-ham's seed" is to be Lord andFather of both David and Abraham ;thus we read, "Instead of thy fath-ers shall be thy children - who mThou mayest make princes in all th eearth ." Here is the reason tha tDavid called the Messiah, "Adon, "saying, "Jehovah said unto myAdon [Messiah—'my Lord'], Si tthou at My right hand, until I makeThine enemies Thy footstool ."—Psa .45 :16 ; 110 :1 .

David's Son, the Messiah, willthus be David's Father or Life-Giverwhen He will eventually raiseDavid from the dead ; and in likemanner, Messiah will be the Fatheror Life-Giver of all the Ancien t'Worthies when He calls them forthfrom the grave ; and as David's Mes-siah, it will be His pleasure to ap-point to high and honorable posi-tions, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Mose sand all the faithful ones of thatJewish Dispensation, and give thema share with Himself in His gloriou sMessianic Kingdom, to bless Israel,and through Isradl, all the nations o fthe earth .

Surely this will be a great honorfor all those faithful ones of th eJewish nation when the Messiahshall make them "Princes in al lthe earth"—princely representative sof His invisible Kingdom, when se tup and when the Law shall go forthfrom Zion and the Word of Jehovahfrom Jerusalem, which shall thenbe the seat of Government of tha tmighty Kingdom which shall ruleand bless all mankind . Jesus, theMessiah, will then fulfil all the glor-ious things that the Jews have beenwaiting for and which all the worldare hoping for .

Blessings Imminen tWe believe that the time has com e

for the blessings promised by Je-hovah to begin to flow to the Jew ,and, ultimately through them, to allthe poor suffering ' human race .Surely, we see the need of a GreatDeliverer for the Jew ; and we canalso see the necessity of a GreatDeliverer for the whole world o fmankind, because the whole creatio ngroaneth and travaileth in pain to -

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gether, waiting for the Messiah, "forthe manifestation of the soils ofGod.''—Isom. 8 :16-22

The Scriptures tell us that underthis Messianic Kingdom when Mes-siah shall take His great power andreign, Israel shall be the first to b eblessed . It shall come to pass, evenas Jehovah has said, "Behold, th edays come, saith the Lord, that Iwill make a New Covenant with th eIlouse of Israel and with the Hous eof Judah, not according to the Cov -enant I made with their fathers, "but a New Covenant, like the former ,only more glorious .— Jer . 31 :31, 32 .

As the first covenant had a med-iator, so this New Covenant will hav ea Mediator, a better Mediator, Jesus ,the Messiah, and His faithful foot -step followers . As Moses led thepeople in the right way, so, also, wil lthe antitype of Moses do for allpeople . Jesus, the Messiah, will b ethe One through whom all the prec-ious promises of Jehovah will coneto Israel, and through Israel, to al lthe families of the earth .

To our understanding, the Scrip-tures clearly show that this Ne wCovenant will be for Israel only andthat all the other nations of th eworld, if they desire to share in th eblessings of that Covenant, must be-come Israelites ; as foretold by theProphet Micah when he states thatall people shall flow into that King-dom, and adds, "And many nation sshall cone, and say, Come and let usgo up to the mountain [kingdom ]of the Lord, and to the house of th eGod of Jacob, and He will teach usof His ways, and we will walk inHis paths : for the law shall go forthof Zion and the word of Jehovahfrom Jerusalem. And he shall judgeamong many peo ple, and rebukestrong nations afar off ; and theyshall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruninghooks, nation shall not lift up asword aga inst nation, neither shallthey learn war any more . But theyshall sit every man under his vin eand under his fig tree ; and non eshall make them afraid ; for themouth of Jehovah of hosts bat hspoken it 2 Micah 4 :1-4.

What / marvellous Justice! Ho wperfect ' and equal are the ways ofJehovah! Just to think that all thos enations which have despised, perse-cuted and slaughtered the Jews wil lfinally have to accept any blessingsthey receive from Messiah, throughthe hands of the Jewish people.

Then will be fulfilled the prophecy

September 1937

of Zechariah which reads; "And it and ye shall be a blessing : fear not ;shall collie to pass, that in the same let your hands be strong. Thus hathdegree as ye have been a curse among said Jehovah of hosts, In those daysthe nations, 0 House of Judah, and\_(it-'shall happen), that ten men ou tHouse of Israel, so will I save you of all the languages of the nations

The End of the World

shall take hold-yea, they shall takehold of the skirt 6f him that is a Jew,saying, Let us go with you ; for w ehave heard that God is with you.''-Zechariah 8 :13, 23, Leeser.

BIBLICAL truths pertaining tothe "end of the world" have been s odistorted by superstition and Satani cdeception that, in the minds of manythinking people, they have be -come almost revolting . How manythousands of sincere people have fel ttheir blood almost stand still in thei rveins when they thought of this tra-ditionally terrible ' calamity that ha dbeen imaginatively pictured to themby over-enthusiastic evangelists ! No tmany years ago a noted clergymansought to encourage humanity by an-nouncing the end of the worldwould not come for fifty millionyears . Doubtless many noble relig-ionists felt greatly relieved by thi sstatement, and rejoiced that such acalamitous event would at least no tbefall the earth in their day

But what a different viewpoint o fthis subject we obtain when we ex-amine the Biblical record apart fro mthe influence of dark-age creeds . Inthe sacred Word we find that the"end of the world is held out a ssomething to which all should joy -fully look forward . Indeed, when al lthe Bible prophecies relating to th esubject are fully understood, it wil lbe found that when Jesus taught Hi sdisciples to pray, "Thy Kingdo mcome,Thy will be done on earth as i tis done in heaven," He really wasinstructing them to pray for the endof this present evil world, and for abetter one to take its place .

The Earth Abideth Foreve rThe many hallucinations in the

minds of the people concerning th eend of the world are not taught i nthe Bible at all . What the Scrip-tures do say on this subject has noth -ing whatever to do with the burningup or destruction of the literal earth .

Concerning this physical planet onwhich we live the Prophet Isaiahsays : "Thus saith the Lord that cre-ated the heavens, God Himself thatformed the earth : He created it no tin vain, He formed it to be inhab-ited." (Isa . 45 :18.) Another of theBible prophets tells us that "theearth abideth forever ." (Becl. 1 :4 . )Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount ,said, "Blessed are the meek, for theyshall inherit the earth ."

These

passages all indicate that it is notGod's purpose ever to destroy th eliteral earth itself ; but that it is tobe used as a home for man .

The word "world" is used in th eBible very similarly to the way weoften use it today ; meaning not theearth, but the associations of peopleupon the earth—society in general .If, for example, we should read thatthe world is being greatly disturbedand shaken over the political situa-tion in Germany, or Italy, or Spain ,we would not understand it to meanthat literal mountains are being top -pled over ; or that the crust of th eearth is in any way affected .

The Bible uses language in thissame manner when foretelling th edistressing events to take place atthe end of the present age ; events bywhich the existing social order is t obe destroyed to make way for theKingdom of the Messiah .

The term `world'' is also used inthe Bible to denote an age . Severalworlds, or ages, are mentioned in th eBible . Fir e are told, for example, o fa world that ended at the time of th eflood—yet the earth itself was notthen destroyed . The Bible also speak sof another world that began afterthe flood, and which is to be destroy-ed at the second presence of Christ .And there is still another worl dwhich will begin with the "end'' o fthe present one . This latter worl dwill continue on indefinitely into thefuture . It is this third world tha tis to be established through the oper-ation of the Messianic Kingdom .

These "worlds," all of which arethus seen to function on the litera lplanet, earth, are subdivided by th eApostle Peter into their spiritual andmaterial aspects, under the symbol sof "heaven" and "earth." See 2Peter 3.) It is plainly evident thatthe apostle's language as used in thi schapter is pictorial rather than literal, for we would be forced to the ab-surd conclusion that the Creator in-tends to destroy His entire universe ,if we insisted upon a literal meaning,because St . Peter makes it plain thatthe ''heavens" as well as the"earth" will pass away with a''`great noise:"

In this same prophecy the apostl euses the symbol of "fire" to describ ethe destructive influences which wil lbring to an end the present evil or -der of things, and purge and prepar ethe way for the full establishmentof God's Kingdom—the "new heav-and new earth, wherein dwellethrighteousness . "

St. Peter also tells us that the"elements" will melt with ferventheat . That this does not have ref-erence to the elements of the literalearth is evident from' the fact tha tPaul uses this same word when h eadmonishes the Christian not to "b eentangled again with the weak andbeggarly elements of this world . "

The Tammany TigerAn interesting example of the fac t

that the word "earth" when used inthe Bible does not always mean th eliteral planet upon which we live, i sfound in Daniel 7 :23 . Here the pro-phet tells about a great and terribl e"beast" that devours the whol e"earth, ." This would be a "tallstory" indeed if it were intended t obe ; understood literally; for wherewould this gigantic beast stand whil edevouring this planetary morsel ?

As a symbol, however, it conveys avery meaningful lesson—the beas tas well as the earth are symbolic.

All are familiar with the fact ; thatmans+ nations of the past and presentare symbolized on their coat of arm sby beasts of various kinds . Thereigning pharaohs of Old Egypt useda "lion" to indicate their authorityof rulership, and England today als ouses the lion on her standard for th esame purpose . Then there is theChinese "dragon," the Russia n"bear," and the American "eagle ."We also have the Tammany "tiger "of New York, the "donkey'' of th eDemocrats, and the "elephant" ofthe G. O. P .

Now the Bible employs a similarsymbolic method to designate variou sgreat world powers of history . Hencein the passage cited above, the sym-bolic "earth"—organized society—is pictured as being devoured by a"beast ." It is an apt portrayal o fa selfish ruling class organization ap-

8

propriating the resources of societyfor its own selfish use . Republican sof New . York City might be tempte dto picture the Tammany "tiger" de-vour'ing the metropolis ; and if theyshould we would have no difficulty inunderstanding what they meant .Why then should we experience anyspecial difficulty when we find simila rsymbolisms in the Bible ?

The term "mountain" also isoften used in a symbolic sense in theBible ; and when so used it denotes akingdom—either one or more of thekin, :doms of this world, or else th eMessianic Kingdom of the next age .

The "sea," when used pictori-ally in the Scriptures, represents th emasses of the people ; and the "roar-ing" of the sea, the restless, discon-tented condition of these masses. —See Isaiah 17 :12, 13.

One of the Bible prophecies rela-tive to the progress of events nowtaking place in the earth, tells of the

"'mountains" being carried into th emidst of the "sea.'' This indeed isa fitting illustration of the fact tha tmany of the strongest kingdoms ofthe earth already have fallen into thehands of the clamouring masses o fthe people—and that other mighty"mountains" of civilization willlikewise be engulfed as the rising tid eof discontent surges more and mor epersistently against their bulwarks .

An example of the Scriptural us eof these striking symbolisms, por-traying the disintegrating processesby which the present "world" is be-ing destroyed, is that of the 46t hPsalm. Here the Lord's prophet says :

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the sea, and no sea into which th emountains could be carried.

Later in the chapter the prophetinterprets in part his own symbolicstatements when he says : "The hea-then raged, the kingdoms were mov-ed. And then, reverting to symbol-ic phrase again, he continues : "He(the Lord) uttered His voice, th eearth melted . "

That this "melting" of the earthdoes not mean the destruction o fthis literal planet on which we live i sfurther evidenced in the closingverses of the chapter, where the pro-phet shows that the moving and melt-ing have reference to the destruc_'tion of the war thirsty government snrior to the establishment of God' sKingdom .

Note—The above article is fromthe booklet "God and Reason"—Chapter 5 . Succeeding chapters willappear in order .

"We will not fear though th eearth be removed, and though th emountains be carried into the midstof the sea ." Manifestly this could'n tbe understood literally, because ifthe literal earth were actually re-moved, or destroyed, there would b eno mountains left to be carried into

Three Vest-Pocket BookletsTHE DAY OF JEHOVA H

Chapter 15 of The Divine . Plan of the Ages i swonderfully well adapted for public distribution a tthe present time. It is now published in vest-pocketbooklet size, with appropriate introduction callin gattention to the fact that it was written more thanfifty years ago .

GOD AND REASONThis 128-page booklet presents a brief outline o f

the divine purpose for man, together with signs o fthe approaching Kingdom . It formerly retailed fo r20 cents, but is now available in vest-pocket siz efor 5 cents each. Friends who have seen copies o fthis new edition of "God and Reason" are enthus-iastic about it, and we are hoping that its conven-ient size and very low cost will contribute to a great-ly increased circulation.

WHAT IS MAN ?This booklet consists of the greater portion o f

Chapter 12 of Volume V, Studies in the Scriptures .The "Orthodox" and Scientific answers are consider-ed as well as the truth from the Bible standpoint .As there is yet much confusion of thought respectin gthis vital subject, the circulation of this little boo kshould accomplish some good.

Special Features and Advantage sOn the outside back cover of these booklets is a

well-displayed advertisement of "The Divine Plan o fthe Ages." Thus the reader is put definitely i ntouch with this wonderful text book on the Bible .

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They are most convenient for reading on trains ,trolley cars, etc ., and can be carried in the vest poc-ket or in a lady's hand bag .

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You will be able to think of many ways thesetimely little booklets can be circulated, such as send-ing them to, friends, loaning them to neighbors, a tpublic meetings, etc .—and the cost is so small .

Think of it : only five cents a week will put 52 ofthese truth messages into circulation in a year !Many will not be satisfied to give out only one eachweek .

All of these vest-pocket booklets are speciallypriced at 5 cents each, in any quantity, postpaid .Address orders, for any quantity, toTHE DAWN, 136 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, N . Y .

FREE TRACTSTracts for personal witness work, as well as fo r

general distribution, are available for all who desirethem, free . These tracts are small in size, makin gthem convenient for mailing purposes . Please feel freeto order all you are in a position to use . The followingare some of the subjects now in stock :

"Coming Back From Hell Soon ""Do You Know? ""Earth's Coming Glory ""The Coming World Dictator ""The Hope of Universal Peace ""What Is the Soul?' '"Where Are the Dead? "

THE DAWN, 136 Futon Street, Brooklyn, N. Y .

"Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to b ethe epistle of Christ ministered by us, written no twith ink, but with the Spirit of the living God ; no ton tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of th eheart ."—2 Corinthians 3 :3 .

HE WRITINGS of the Apostle Paul arerich with quotations and illustrations fro mthe Old Testament Scriptures, thus furnish-ing us with most valuable inspired comments

and explanations as to the meaning of the types andprophecies which God gave back there for the edifi-cation . of His people "on whom the ends of the ageshave come" (1 Cor . 10 :11, - Diaglott) . Our textis a wonderful example of how the inspired apostl epresents type and antitype and makes a practicalapplication of the lesson to the mission of the churchin this age: Note his reference to the tables of th elaw, given by God to Moses, and of the suggeste dantitype, the "epistle of Christ" written in the heartsof the consecrated followers of the Master .

Those tables of the law constituted the basis . o fthe old Law Covenant ; hence we get the unmis-takable thought that God, through His spirit, i snow preparing His church to be associated wit hChrist, the Mediator of the New Covenant, in th eadministration of its laws. Thus, also, do we seethat the New Covenant has not yet been inaugurate dfor the reason that the preparatory work therefor ,has not , yet been completed. How valuable, then ,are these words of the apostle, in helping us to seethe harmonious arrangements of God 's covenants ,in His divine plan for human reconciliation .

In Exodus 24 :12, we are told. that the tables of thelaw were given to, Moses in order that he migh tteach the people. Such is the mediatorial relation -ship of the entire Christ to the New Covenant whic hk to be inaugurated with Israel and through Israe lwith the whole world at the beginning of the thous-and-year period . In 2 Corinthians 3 :6, the apostletells us that we are made "able ministers of the NewTestament," or Covenant . Moses was a servant o fthe old Law Covenant . Indeed, he served that Coven-ant even while it was being prepared . So we are nowserving the New Covenant, in the sense that we areparticipants in the work of preparing it, getting readyto minister it to the people. The fact that faithfu lChristians of this gospel age are thus shown to beservants of the Covenant indicates clearly that theyare not to be among those to be blessed or serve dby that Covenant .

In 2 Corinthians 5 :18, 19, the apostle indicatesthat our ministry of the Covenant is one of reconcil-iation. Indeed, the great work of The Christ during

the next age will be to reconcile the world to God .But thosewho are to be judged worthy' of partici-pating in that future -glorious work of reconciliationmust themselves first be reconciled tq God, and beprepared as the epistles of Christ to administer" th elaws of that New Covenant . We are admonishedto walk. honestly as in the day; that is, we are tolive now as though the righteous laws of the King-dom were already in force : Even so, while the NewCovenant is as yet merely in the course of prepara-tion, its law, which will then be in force, shoul deven now become a part of our being . It is uponthis basis that the "epistle or Christ," the antitypicaltables of stone are now being written, not with ink ,"but with the spirit of the living God . "

The apostle -adds , a further word of explanationby saying that these "epistles of Christ" are "minis-tered by us"- by the apostles, and by all the church,as we build each other up in the most 'holy faith .True, this epistle is- being written "by the spirit ofthe living God," yet that spirit,' during this age, oper -ates through the truth, and each consecrated followe rof the Master is authorized by the spirit to be acommunicator of the truth—a minister of, God andof His spirit . Yes, it is as we speak the truth in lovethat we grow up into Him in all things-Eph . 4 :15 ;5 :18, 19 .

Thus we have brought home to us in still anothe rway, the fact that the work of the church in this ageis not to convent or reconcile the world to God bu tto make- herself ready for participation with Christin that blessed future work of the Kingdom ." Butin carrying on this present work of the ministry,we are to be energetic in proclaiming the truth ; forin God 's plan He has arranged that through suchfaithfulness in witnessing, all the ministers of . theNew Covenant will be found and prepared for thei rfuture work .

Inasmuch as the apostle makes it clear that the ta-bles of stone on which was written the Law in Moses 'day are ' illustrative of the "epistle of Christ" beingwritten in the hearts of God's people during this gos-pel age, it is interesting to note some of the circum-stances in connection with the preparation of thattypical "epistle"—the 'great Law of Sinai . An ac-count of this is given Aus in Exodus 34 :4-7, as fol-lows :

"And He [Moses] hewed two tables of stone like

1 0

unto the first ; and Moses rose up early in the morn-ing, and went up into Mount Sinai, as the LORDhad commanded him, and took in his hand the tw otables of stone. And the LORD descended in the cloud ,and stood with him there, and proclaimed the nam eof the LORD . And the LORD passed by before him ,and proclaimed, The Loan., the LORD God, mercifuland gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodnes sand truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgivin giniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by nomeans , clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of thefathers upon the children, and upon the children 'schildren, unto the third and to the fourth generation."

Typical and Antitypical FeaturesThe original tables of law were destroyed by Moses

on account of the sin of Israel in turning away fro mGod and worshipping the golden calf . This remind sus that the original covenant relationship that existe dbetween God and man was destroyed because o fman's sin . Also that the Law Covenant was brokenbecause of sin—"which My covenant they brake, "the Lord tells us . ( Jer . 31 :32.) Thus it would seemthat the second two tables of stone on which Go dwrote His Law would very fittingly represent theLaw of the New Covenant ; or, to be more exact ,the method by which that Law would reach th epeople ; and in our text Paul shows that this will b ethrough the church, as the "epistle of Christ . "

Moses hewed those stones and took them up untoMount Sinai, and there God wrote His law on them .So the "epistle of Christ" is hewn or called out fromthe world, by Christ . After His resurrection from thedead, He ascended to the Father 's presence and there"appeared for us ." Thus, He bore His followersbefore the Father, and throughout the age these havebeen seated together in "heavenly places in Chris tJesus"—not on literal Mount Sinai, but by faith, onMount Zion. (Eph. 2 :6 .) It was while Moses, bear-ing the tables of stone, was with the Lord in - th ecloud that God 's Law was written on those tables ;so, it is while the prospective joint-heirs of Chris tare, throughout the age, dwelling with Him in heav-enly' places and thus by faith in the presence of God ,that the Law of God, the Law of the New Covenant ,is written in their -hearts and they are thus preparedto administer that Law as co-judges,with Christ inthe Mediatorial Kingdom yet future .

And -how wonderful was the experience of Mose sin connection with the preparation of those typicalTables of the Law ! God talked to Israel's leader andtold him of His own glorious attributes . So in theantitype, God talked to Christ, and through Christ—who "bath in these -last days spoken unto us "—thatsame message of God 's glory comes to us . And thu sit is, thatwhile seated with Christ in heavenly place swe hear the voice of God, through the glorious truthof His plan, and thereby learn of His glory in orde rthat His attributes may be written in our hearts .

The object of the Mediatorial reign of The Chris tis that the world of mankind may be brought backinto harmony with God and restored to His image

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and likeness . Thus it is necessary that the Law o fthat New Covenant as it will be presented to thepeople by those who now are constituted the "epistl eof Christ," reflect the glorious attributes of Jehovah 'scharacter in order that the people, through obedienc eto that Law, may learn to know and serve God ac-ceptably . Indeed, the Lord tells us that this is to bethe happy result of the making of that New Coven-ant—"for they shall all know Me, from the least ofthem unto the greatest of them, saith the LoRD"—Jer. 31 :34 .

God's Plan in Review

What a wonderful vision of God 's glorious char-acter was given to Moses at the time those typicaltables of the Law were prepared —"And the Lordpassed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, theLORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering andabundant in goodness and truth . -Keeping mercy fo rthousands, forgiving iniquity and ,transgression an dsin, and that will by no means clear the guilty ; vis -iting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children ,and upon the children's children, unto the third an dto the fourth generation! "

And, brethren, through Christ, and by means of th espirit of truth, God speaks to us now ; and in tha tglorious message of truth, we see reflected all thevarious qualities of the Divine Character that wer ebriefly stated to Moses . Indeed, the import of thedivine-plan message is that through it we may learnto know God, receive the impress of His characte rin our hearts, and thereby be prepared to be co -workers with Him, as the "epistle of Christ, incausing the knowledge of His glory to fill the wholeearth "as the waters cover the sea ."—Isa . 11 :9 ;Hab. 2 :14 .

Let us note the qualities of God 's character as they -were stated to Moses on Mount Sinai : - "Mercifuland gracious ." How wonderfully the divine planreveals to us the mercy and graciousness, or grace ,of God ! And how absolutely void of these character-istics is the demon god of the dark-age creeds ! Here ,again, is brought forcibly to our attention the vita limportance of the truth in the Christian life ; for i tis by the truth,. not error, that we are set apart t othe divine service. Yes, God is merciful and full o fgrace . We see this manifested in the fact that whil eHis justice condemned our first parents to death be -cause of their disobedience, and through them th ewhole world lost life, yet He was not content to le tit go that way forever ; so His mercy and grace andlove "contrived a way to save rebellious man ."

-And "longsuffering ." Oh, how longsuffering ou r

Heavenly Father has been! For six thousand year sand more He has witnessed the rebellion and sin o fHis earthly creatures ; yet He still loves them, andstill plans to bless them . And He is also longsuffer-ing toward His saints, - who because of their fleshlyimperfections, often fall far short of the goal in thei refforts to do His will . How glad we are for themany promises of His longsuffering attitude towardus! We could not truly know and appreciate ou rHeavenly Father's longsuffering toward us and to-

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ward the world in any other way except through a nunderstanding of the divine plan .

"Abundant in goodness . " Yes, "God so loved th eworld that He gave His only begotten 'Son, that who-soever believeth in Him should not perish, but haveeternal life ." (John 3 :16.) What an abundance ofgoodness we thus see manifested in the One who isso loving, that it is said of Him that "He is love."Not only does the divine plan reveal this abundantlove and goodness of our Heavenly Father in thegift of His Son to be man 's Redeemer, but it shows ,also, a still further manifestation of His love in thewonderful arrangement He has made whereby th emerit accruing from His great gift may becomeavailable for the actual blessing of the world . Thinkof the love that is revealed in His plan to select ahundred and forty-four thousand representative sfrom among the world of mankind to sit with Chris ton the board of mediation which is to reconcile theworld to God during the Kingdom period. And howcould we see this vision of God 's love except throughthe divine plan ?

And He is abundant in "truth," also . The thoughtof the word truth, in this instance, is probabl yequity or justice . Yes, God is just, even as He i sloving ; and that is the reason we can depend uponHim. This thought is amplified in the further state-ment made to Moses ; namely, "keeping mercy fo rthousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression andsin," and yet, "will by no means clear the guilty ;visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children ,and upon the children's children, unto the third an dto the fourth generation ." A wonderful balance ofthe divine attributes of Love and Justice is fur-nished us in these words .

Yes, God is love, and merciful, yet at the sam etime, just . It was His justice that condemned therace to death because of sin ; and it is only throughthe divine plan that we can understand how it i spossible for Him to continue being just in this mat-ter, and yet be the "justifier of him which believet hin Jesus ." (Rom. 3 :26.) Thank God for this gloriou struth which has so clearly revealed the divine char-acter to us! Yes, it is the truth that reveals why Go dhas permitted evil, how His justice has operated ,how His Love is manifested, how His Wisdom plan-ned it all, and how His almighty Power guarantee sthe accomplishment of His loving, just, and wis edesigns .

The Vision is Important

And how important is this vision of truth to u swho are now being prepared as the "epistle ofChrist." We must know God in order to be like Himand put our trust in Him . If God were not just, fo rexample, how could we depend upon Him? Thi sseems to be the import of the information given t oMoses, that God would by no means clear the guilty .God wanted Moses to understand, and He wants usto understand—indeed, through the divine plan, ha salready made us to understand—that while He i sabundant in goodness and mercy, longsuffering andkind, yet that the wages of sin is death and that those

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found wilfully guilty must suffer that penalty, andthat through the law of heredity, the penalty has;passed on down through the centuries affecting thesucceeding generations .

That 's the way God's justice was operating inMoses' day, yet His love and His wisdom were all thewhile planning for a future blessing for the peopl ein that the original penalty of death was to be setaside by another . But even when the Adamic con-demnation is set aside, still God ' s justice will operate ;and it will still be true that He will by no means:"clear the guilty . " Then, however, each one will b edealt with individually . No longer will it be a caseof the father eating the sour grape of sin, and his;children's teeth being set on edge ; but every oneshall die for his own iniquity . See Jeremiah 31 :29,30, and note that this is descriptive of God's methodof dealing with the people under the New Covenant ,as shown in verses 31-34 .

Thus we are learning to know God, not only as aGod of love, but also as a dependable God, a Godwho makes promises and keeps them, who has estab-lished a penalty for sin, and inflicts it . In fact„every attribute of His glorious character is becoming -more and more apparent to us as we continue tolook into and study.His divine plan for human sal-vation . And as the brightness of the vision increases,the beauties of 'God 's character and Law should be-come more and more indelibly stamped upon andimbedded in our hearts .

The Sealing WorkThe great message of truth back in the type was

spoken directly to Moses while he had the table sof stone with him on Sinai . In the antitype this i salso true. We receive the message through Christ ,as it is passed on from one to another of His faithfu lfollowers. (See Hebrews 1 :1, 2 ; 2 :3 .) Thus it isthat by our faithfulness in disseminating the truthand manifesting its spirit, we are helping to write th e"epistle of Christ"—helping to impress the seal ofHis character as it is displayed in His plan, upon th ehearts of the consecrated ones . Paul says that this"epistle of Christ" is being written by the Spirit ofGod ; and, as the Spirit of God is writing this mes-sage of life and love on His willing and obedientservants, its grandeur, harmony and beauty is alsobeing transmitted through them to yet others— thei rlives thus reflecting the truth of the Divine Plan .

Now let us note briefly the final conclusion whic hthe inspired apostle reaches with respect to those saidto be the "epistle of Christ " and the purpose forwhich this epistle is now being written. Throughoutthe 3rd, 4th and 5th chapters of 2 Corinthians he dis-cusses various details of God's plan for human rec-onciliation, calling our attention to type and anti-type—with an occasional parenthetical suggestion no tso directly related to his main theme . He reminds usof the present ministry of suffering in which thechurch participates, preparatory to the glory thatshall follow, as typified by the glory on Moses' 'countenance as He cane down from Sinai . He tell sus of the ministry of reconciliation that has been

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given to us, as servants of the New Covenant, an dthat as such servants we are co-workers with Christand with God .

And then, in the 2nd verse of the 6th chapter he'reaches the final point of his lesson and quotes hi sproof text from the Old Testament . He admonishesus not to receive in vain this great favor of being aco-worker with God, and assures us of divine grac eand help to carry on if we will but do our part . "ForHe saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, " he'quotes from Isaiah, and then adds, "now is the ac-'cepted time . " Turning back to Isaiah 49 :8-10 fromwhich Paul quotes, we find a wonderful prophecy o fthe New Covenant and the restitution blessings itwill bring to the people .

We quote "Thus saith the . LORD, In an acceptabletime [which Paul shows is this Gospel age] have Iheard thee [Paul applies this to the church,] and i na clay of salvation have I helped thee : and I will pre-serve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people ,to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolateheritages : that thou mayest say to the prisoners, G oforth ; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves ,They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shallbe in all high places. They shall not hunger northirst ; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them : forHe that bath mercy on them shall lead them, eve nby the springs of water shall He guide them . "

What a glorious blessing is thus coming to th e'world, when those who are the "epistle of Christ " aregiven "for a covenant of the people ." In the type ,Moses came down from Mount Sinai bringing withhim the tables of stone upon which was written theLaw which formed the basis of that typical covenant ;and here the Lord is telling us—and Paul has ex-plained it for us—that the joint-heirs of Christ, inwhose hearts has been written the unchangeable La w'of God, the Law of the New Covenant, will be pre -,sented as " convenant of the people." Or, to put it in,other phrase : Just as the typical tables of the lawwere given to Moses in order that he might teachthe people, so these antitypical tables, the "epistle o fChrist," are to be used throughout the age as th einstrumentalities through whom Christ, their Head,

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will instruct the world in the Law of the New Coven-ant . Thus they are indeed given "for ,a covenant ofthe people . "

No wonder Paul declares that the whole creationis waiting "for the manifestation of the sons of God " !No wonder he says that we are being "baptized forthe dead . " No wonder we are promised a share inthe glory of The Christ . No wonder we are said tobe "ministers of reconciliation ." Paul gives us afurther beautiful thought in this connection, in Ro-mans 11 :26, 27, saying, "And so all Israel shall besaved : as it is written, There shall come out of Sio nthe Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness fromJacob : For this is my covenant with them [ Jer .3 131-34] when I shall take away their sins ." Mosescame out of Sinai and established the' typical cov-enant, and here the apostle . is telling us that th egreater than Moses shall "come out of Sion," an destablish the antitypical covenant . Moses broughtwith him the tables of the Law, and Christ will brin gwith Him, as His joint-heirs, all those who ar eHis "epistle," to be given as a "covenant of thepeople," and through this glorious mediatorial ar-rangement, ungodliness will be turned away fro mJacob and from the world-they will be taught toknow the Lord and to be like Him.—Isa . 34 :13 .

So completely and universally will these who ar ethe "epistle of Christ " proclaim and teach the knowl-edge of God and of His law throughout the thous-and years during which the New Covenant is beingmade with the people, that when the work is completethere will be no further need of teachers or epistle sof any kind ; for, says the prophet : "̀ they shall n omore teach every man his neighbor, and every manhis brother saying, Know the LORD : for they shal lall know Me, from the least of them unto the greates tof them, saith the LORD : for I will forgive their in-iquity, and I will remember their sin no more . "—Jer. 31 :34 .

In a subsequent article will be discussed the sig-nificance of the Tables of the Law having been placedin the Ark of the Covenant, along with the goldenbowl of manna and Aaron ' s rod that budded .

Taking Heed Lest We. Fall"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth tak e

heed lest he fall . "— 1 Corinthians 10 :12 .

UR TEXT is but one of many in the sacredrecord which remind us of the possibilityof falling away from the position of special

Y' favor with the Lord . The apostle ' s word salso indicate clearly that there is a very definite partwe must play in maintaining this standing—a part'which he describes by the expression "take heed."To "take : heed" means to give attention, to be warned ,to observe silently, to watch, to look at . Taking heed ,to the Christian, 'means to "stop, look, and listen"in his spiritual affairs that he may know of the dan-gers ahead; and be prepared to cope with them .

The apostle indicates that the importance of ourtaking heed is in order that we may not "fall ." Thatthere is danger of the Christian falling is prophetical-ly indicated by the spirit through the words of th ePsalmist, saying, "A thousand shall fall at thy side ,and ten thousand at thy right hand ; but it shall no tcome nigh thee . " (Psalms 91 :7 .) A study of theprophet's words, just quoted, indicates that thereason ascribed for . some not falling is that theydwell "in the secret place of the Most High," andhave made His truth their "shield and buckler . "

Obviously, no one could fall away from a stand- .ing with the Lord unless he had at one time enjoye dsuch a standing ; so it is important to have clearly in

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Mind just what it means to "stand," in order thatwe may intelligently take heed lest we fall . TheScriptures outline our standing from various view -points, and as we put together the various testimon-ies of the Word bearing on the subject we learn tha tto "stand" in God's sight is a very definite an dvital thing, and that to lose this standing would be,indeed, tragic for a new creature in Christ Jesus .

Standing in the Lor d

For example, Philippians 4 :1 reads : "therefore ,my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joyand crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearlybeloved . " To stand in the Lord means to be trustin gin the merit of the shed blood, and, through ful lconsecration and immersion of our wills into Hi swill, to be counted in as members of the 'anointedcompany of which Christ is the Head . What a blessedstanding this is!, It implies and requires humility i nrecognizing our need of the saving grace of God ,through the blood. It calls for the full and unqual-ified devotion• of our wills to the doing of the divin ewill . And to "take heed" in maintaining this standingmeans a daily searching of our hearts to make surethat we have no cross-grained will of our own tha tis in opposition to the will of God as , it is expressedthrough our Head, Christ Jesus .

But to stand in the Lord implies a standing alon gother lines, also . Again Paul says : "Watch ye ,stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong . "(1 Cor . 16 :13 .) The faith in which we are to "stand"is, of course, the "faith once delivered unto th esaints . " This faith has been almost entirely lostsight of by nominal churchianity. This is the faiththat was first of all delivered to Abraham, and thento Isaac and Jacob, and to all the prophets . The greatcentral theme of this faith is the Messianic hope o fa future Kingdom to bless all nations, and God ' shigh calling to the Christian to be joint-heirs wit hChrist in that Kingdom. Are we standing fast inthat faith? Or has it become a mere tale, that is ol dand uninteresting ?

St . Paul indicates that it will require strength tostand in the faith . "Quit you like men, be strong,"he says . It has always required courage to stan din the pure faith of the gospel . This is manifest bythe rapid "falling away" that occurred after th eapostles fell asleep . It wasn't long before the pur edoctrines of the faith were corrupted, and those .whowere seeking spiritual comfort were fed on Orienta lmysticism', and emotionalism . And even now, thereis a tendency on the part of some to feel that thesedark-age substitutes for the "faith once delivere dunto the saints" are the more desirable ; the claimbeing that they bring us nearer to the Lord. But weshould always remember, that if we want to dwellclose to the Lord in our spirit of fellowship, we mus tbe interested in what He is doing, and spend ou renergy where He is working ; and that is only pos-sible as we stand fast in the faith of the divine plan .

If we are truy standing in the Lord, we will b estanding in the liberty of Christ . We quote : "Standfast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath

made us free, and be not entangled again with th eyoke of bondage ." (Gal . 5 : h) Ta stand in the libertyof Christ means to have liberty to do everything thatChrist Would have us do . . Liberty in Christ impliesbondage to Christ, in that we are bondslaves to Him .Such slavery to Christ means that we cannot be sub-ject to the will of man, nor to nian-made institutions .If we find ourselves in restraint to the will of man ,and thereby being held back from saying and doingthe things which we know to be pleasing to God an dto Christ, then we are not wholly standing fast in theliberty of Christ . So let us "take heed" along thi sline in order that we may not fall .

The apostle mentions still another important phaseof our standing in the Lord ; namely, that of standing :fast "in one spirit ." He says : "Only let your con-versation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ : thatwhether I come and see you, or else be absent, Imay hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in onespirit, with one mind striving together for the fait/p-oi the gospel ." (Phil . 1 :27.) There is a remarkableblending of important Christian principles set forthin these words. The apostle urges that we "standfast in one spirit, " not by compromising the faith ,but by "striving together" for that faith . How differ-ent is this from the modern receipt for unity of th espirit, so prevalent in nominal church circles, whic hadvocates unity, not by striving together for the faith,but by ceasing to strive or to' "contend earnestly forthe faith once delivered unto the saints " !

It is the "spirit of the truth" in which we are t ostand together ; and how can we stand in the spiri tof the truth, unless we strive together for the truth ?Obviously, standing together in the spirit is veryclosely associated with standing for the faith ;- and tocontinue in such a stand will require courage ,strength, fortitude, and the help of God to enable u sto strive together, to contend, to fight the good figh tof faith . This means that we must be . "strong in th eLord, and in the power of His might . "—Eph. 6 :10 .

Pride Goeth Before Destructio n

There are various danger signals by which we maybe forewarned of an impending fall, signals whic hare readily discernible if we are alertly taking heed .One of these is the spirit of pride . " Pride goethbefore destruction, and an haughty spirit before afall," the spirit testifies . (Proverbs 16 :18.) Andhow easy it is for the spirit of pride to enter int oour hearts, causing us to be "haughty and self-important . The spirit of humility engenders meek-ness, gentleness, teachableness, patience and forbear-ance. How important then that none "think o fhimself more highly than he ought to think." ---Rom. 12 :3.

Another danger signal is that of indifference to -wards the truth . The truth is God's voice speakingto us ; and if we are to maintain our standing in Him ,how alert we should be to listen to His voice . Andhow attentive and how obedient we should be to th emessage ! Yes, our standing in the Lord depend supon our obedience to His truth, for it is by the

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truth that we are sanctified . ( John 17 :17.) Satanwould like to have us believe that to stand in theLord is one thing, and that to stand in the truth i ssomething else . He would like to have us believethat it doesn ' t make any difference where we standwith respect to the truth as long as we love the Lord .But this is false theology. It is one of those "wiles o fthe devil" by which he is endeavoring to draw usaway from the Lord by causing us to lose our appre-ciation of His glorious message of truth—that mes-sage through which He speaks to us and guides usin the narrow way . Let us, then, continue to cheris hthe truth, to feed upon it, that thereby, we may gro wstrong and remain strong, so strong that we will notfall, because we have made the truth our shield an dbuckler .

Failure to meet with the brethren, or indifferenc eto the privilege of fellowship, is another danger sig-nal . God has so arranged the church's affairs as tomake fellowship with others of like precious faith on eof the important means of grace . If we fail to ap-preciate this provision of the Lord for our strengthen-ing in the faith and in the spirit, whenever, possible ,we are thereby neglecting one of the important mean sby which we are kept from falling .

The spirit of bitterness and hatred is anothe rdanger signal which should be readily discerned bythose who are properly taking heed . These unholymanifestations of evil are the very opposite in na-ture to the spirit of love, which is the spirit of God .To permit their entrance into our hearts, and stil lworse, to harbor them, will sooner or later result inthe complete fall of the new creature, the completeloss of his standing in Christ Jesus . Let us, brethren ,diligently take heed in this respect, by quickly andeffectively, through prayer, rooting out every though tof bitterness from our hearts, and, instead, seek t obe filled with and controlled by the spirit of love .

Nor should we permit the spirit of the world t otake control of our hearts and lives . The spirit of theworld is the spirit of self-seeking, of ambition toshine before others, of vain-glory . In short, it is thespirit of selfishness which is the spirit of the devil .We should take heed that this spirit does not posses sus . If we find the spirit of the world beginning t oencroach upon our minds and hearts we should rec-ognize it as a danger signal of pitfalls and snare sahead by which the adversary is endeavoring to brin gabout our fall from steadfastness . Let us seek to befilled with the spirit of the Lord-so filled with thatspirit, and so occupied with the things of the spirit ,that there will be no time or place for the spirit o fthe world to gain even the slightest entrance into ourlives.

How We Fal lThere are many ways by which, through failure

to take heed, we may fall away from the position o ffull faithfulness before the Lord, and from our bless-ed standing in His grace . `'ire may, for example, fallasleep spiritually by permitting a spirit of letharg yto creep over us, dulling our spiritual senses . Thi sresults, gradually in a lack of appreciation of the

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truth, a carelessness in seeking to do God 's will, alack of zeal for His service and a coldness and in-difference toward our brethren in Christ and theprivilege of laying down our lives for them .

We may fall from grace by doing despite unto th espirit of grace . We may fall into condemnation byunfaithfulness along almost any line, and particularl yby not seeking the services of our beloved Advocat ewhen we transgress the divine law . We may fallinto iwproach by stubbornly endeavoring to carryout our own plans irrespective of what the clearlyexpressed will of God may be . We may fall intotemptation by not faithfully taking heed to the dangersignals along the way, and thus become enmeshedin one or more of Satan 's snares .

We may fall away from the faith, the truth, o rfrom its service . We may fall away from our lov efor the brethren and our love for God . We may fallinto the hands of the living God by wilfully ignorin gthe divine provisions for us through Christ an dwantonly going contrary to the leadings of the holyspirit . We may fall from our steadfastness by failingalong any line of Christian endeavor to remain "sted-fast, unmoveable, " and failing to "always abound inthe work of the Lord" in all its glorious aspects .-1 Cor. 15 :5g .

"Ye Shall Never Fall"

The Apostle Peter gives us a splendid formulaby which we may keep from falling . He reminds usof the precious promises upon which our hope fo rthe divine nature is based, and indicates that thesepromises are also the groundwork of our faith . Thenhe bids us add to our faith virtue, knowledge, temp-erance, patience, godliness, brotherly-kindness, andlove. "For if these things be in you and abound,"the apostle says, "they make you that ye shall neitherbe barren [idle] nor unfruitful in the knowledge ofour Lord Jesus Christ . But he that lacketh thesethings is blind, and cannot see afar off, and bathforgotten that he was purged from his old sins . "But, "if ye do these things, ye shall never fall : for soan entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantlyinto the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Sav-iour Jesus Christ . "—2 Pet . 1 :4-11 .

But we should remember that when the Biblespeaks of "falling" it means more than mere "stumb-ling." In a sense, we stumble every time we mak emistakes . Because of fleshly imperfection, we stumbleand blunder more or less as we walk the narrow way ;but if our hearts are pure before God, He will watchover us, and His everlasting arms will be under u sto bear us up and start . us out afresh every time weneed His grace. Let us then take courage and pres salong in the blessed task of doing His will, knowingthat eventually, if we continue taking heed, we wil lcome off more than conquerors through Him wh oloved us and died for us .

We must hear the message of truth with an under -standing heart, and with a spirit of appreciation ,else it will fail to have the desired effect in our lives .

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Jesus said : "Take heed therefore how ye hear : forwhosoever bath, to him shall be given ; and whoso-ever bath not, from him shall be taken even thatwhich he seenieth to have ." (Margin, "thinketh thathe bath.") (Luke 8 :18.) Rath used, and bath notused, is apparently the thought of the Master 's

-words ; and thus He shows that if we take heed howwe hear the truth it will mean that we recognize theresponsibility our hearing of it imposes upon us . Inother words, that we shall be "doers of the word, andnot hearers only."—Jas . 1 :21

Effects of Hearing the Truth

And for what purpose has the Lord given us thetruth? Jesus says that we are to be sanctified by it .(John 17 :17 .) This sanctifying work of the truthin our hearts is two-fold . Through its precepts, ou rlives should be more and more conformed to th ehigh standards of righteousness and Godliness ex-emplified in God's law ; and then, these transforme dlives are to be devoted to the service of God, as di-rected by the truth . We are in the school of- Christ t olearn and apply the truth, in order that we may beequipped to serve as the ambassadors of Christ now ,and through faithfulness to the divine will, may b eworthy to serve in the future work of the Kingdom,as joint-heirs with Christ .

And if we hear the truth with appreciation, ou rlove for it will be demonstrated by the amount of en-ergy we exert to defend it . Has our hearing of thetruth so inspired us that we are willing to die "forthe witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God" ?If we thus take heed to how we hear the truth, theneach day will find us busily engaged in using it t othe divine glory, in proportion to our talents and op-portunities . Failing in this full appreciation of th eprivilege that is ours of hearing the voice of Go dspeak to us through the truth, we become more o rless subject to the deceptive influences of the adver-sary by which he is endeavoring to bring about ou rfall from divine grace and favor .

A proper taking heed to the manner in which w efirst hear the truth, and continue to hear it, is illus ~trated in the parable of the Sower . Some of the seedfell by the wayside. In this case there werehearing ears at all . Some fell among the rocks . Herethe message was heard, but soon forgotten—the hear-ers did not take -heed how they heard or what th ehearing really meant, hence the sun of oppositionand persecution soon stopped their growth . Some ofthe seeds of truth "fell among thorns . " Here was aclass that heard with some appreciation, but the care sof this life, the spirit of the world, and variou sother adverse influences, stultified the growth thatshould have taken place in their hearts .

The seed that fell on the "good ground " repre-sents the true hearing of appreciation and hear tunderstanding . The good-ground hearers are thos ewho take heed what they hear and how they hear ,with the result that a fruitage is produced—a fruitageto the glory of God . These become sanctified by thetruth and serve faithfully as its ambassadors, letting

their light shine, rather than keeping ibushel .

"Take Heed That No Man Deceive You"

Deception is the method frequently used by Sata nto lead God's people into his various snares an dpitfalls ; and he usually practices his deception sthrough human agencies . Hence we are warned byJesus to "Take heed that no man deceive you . "(Matt . 24 :4.) This particular warning has to d owith the truths pertaining to our Lord 's secondpresence and the end of the age ; and how the pro-fessed followers of the Master have been deceive dalong these lines. And if it were possible, Jesus re-minds us, the very elect would be deceived ; butevidently this is not possible ; and largely, no doubt ,because they are the faithful ones who "take heed ."

The Apostle Paul also reminds us of the necessityof taking heed lest we be deceived. We quote : "Letno man deceive you with vain words : for because ofthese things cometh the wrath of God upon thechildren of disobedience ." (Eph.5 :6 .) "Vain words"would be words not in harmony with the plan andwill of God ; especially those words which appeal t ohuman vanity. Flattery is one of the adversary' schief methods of deceit ; and if we are properlytaking heed we will "stop, look and listen" verycarefully when we hear the voice of flattery appeal-ing to us to turn to the right hand or to the left .

And vain words of flattery are not always easilyrecognized . Satan is usually careful not to make hi sflattery too apparent . No, rather, he appeals to hu-man pride by means of vain philosophy. Frequentlyhe appears as an "angel of light" in order to do this .As for example, in the nominal church holines stheory . It is flattering for one to believe that "he hasnot sinned for twenty years . " "And doesn't- Godwant us to be holy ?" reasons the flatterer . Ah, howsubtle are these vain words with which Satanattempts to deceive . Our protection against themis to take heed, and, in the spirit of full consecratio nto the divine will, allow God to talk to us throug hHis Word and thereby to be continually guided b yHim in the narrow way .

The warning, "Let no rnii. deceive you, " remind sus of another apostolic warning to the effect that "o fyour own selves men shall arise, speaking pervers ethings, to draw away disciples after them ." (Act s20 :30.) The deception of human leadership is per-haps one of the most subtle with which the saint o fGod has to contend . There is the constant temptationupon elders and teachers to become leaders ; and thereis also the willingness on the part of so many of theLord's people, because of human weakness, to be led .It seems so much easier to follow the Lamb, we oftenimagine if we can see Him represented in som ehuman head or leader ; and it is so flattering to a nindividual, or group of individuals, to believe tha tGod is leading His people through him, or them .Oh, how much we all need to take heed along thi sline !

In this respect, the elders need to specially take

heed, for their responsibility is great . To the elder sat Ephesus and to the elders in all the classes today ,Paul says : "Take heed therefore unto yourselves ,and to all the flock, over which the Holy Spirit bat hmade you overseers, to feed the church of God ,which He hath purchased with His own blood . "(Acts 20 :28.) Note that proper taking heed on th epa,rt of the elders means that they will "feed theflock of God." This is their privilege, their duty ;but they are not to lord it over God's heritage, norassume leadership or headship in the church .

But all in the church should take heed how andwhat they are fed . We should not shift our individ-u.hi responsibilities upon the elders of the class .How much sorrow could be avoided ofttimes, simplyby all the brethren taking heed not to permit am-bitious brethren in the church becoming leaders .

And the leader-complex is not necessarily manifeste din a desire for a large following . No, the desire t olead is often satisfied by having a mere handful offollowers—perhaps just a small class of two or three .But often these small groups are led to separat ethemselves from! an ecciesia of the saints for n olegitimate reason, simply because they have allowedthemselves to be influenced by the vain words of abrother who seems incapable of being just one of thebrethren along with the others . Friends, let us takeheed along this line, remembering that "one is you rMaster, even Christ ; and all ye are brethren . " (Matt .23 :8 .) There are no super-brethren in the church o fGod !

Take Heed How We Build

"For we are labourers together with God ;" St.Paul says, "ye are God's husbandry, ye are God ' sbuilding. According to the grace of God which i sgiven unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have lai dthe foundation, and another buildeth thereon . Butlet every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon .For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid ,which is Jesus Christ . Now if any man build upo nthis foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood,hay, stubble ; every man 's work shall be made man-ifest : for the day shall declare it, because it shal lbe revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every nun ' swork of what sort it

Cor . 3 :9-13 .The manner in which a Christian builds for th e

future, as a coworker with God, is thus clearly out -lined . First, there must be the foundation of th eransom ; and this means that everything built thereonmust square with the ransom. Upon this must b ebuilt the superstructure of faith and character . Andif we take heed how we build, and build as coworkerswith God rather than along lines of our own choosin gour building will be capable of withstanding all th estorms which are permitted to test us, and the fierytrials too, which "shall try every man ' s work, of wha tsort it is . "

The foundation of this building of God is th e

great . doctrinal fact of the ransom, and our ow nacceptance and conformity thereto. This meansthat the things which are built upon the foundationmust be the other doctrines of the divine plan, togeth -

TheDaunr

er with the outgrowth of Christian character resultin gtherefrom . This means that a proper taking heedhow we build implies a carefulness in our study o fdivine truth and its proper application in our lives .In other words, we cannot ignore the doctrines o fthe truth and expect to build acceptably to God .As the ransom is the foundation, so the other doc-trines are the framework around which, by God ' sgrace, we must carefully build with personal works o ffaith and love. If we thus take heed how we build w ewill have a structure that will stand up against al lthe winds of false doctrine and withstand the "fire" inthis day of special trial .

Departing from the Living God

In Hebrews 3 :12, the apostle mentions anothe rmanner in which we should take heed. He says ,"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you anevil heart of unbelief, in departing from the livin gGod . " The context here refers to the unbelief ofIsrael in the wilderness . That unbelief was manifest-ed in their tendency to so soon forget the miracle sGod had wrought on their behalf, and their disposi-tion to turn away from Him to the worship of othe rGods. Thus, through lack of appreciation, the ydeparted from the living God .

How is it with us? Have God's blessings tha tcame to us through the truth, become commonplace ?Do we still appreciate the miracle of His grace as i tabounded, and kill abounds, toward us throughChrist Jesus? Or, have we permitted the trials of th eway to mar the sweetness of God 's loving watch -care over us? Do we still hear the voice of Go dspeaking to us through His truth, or are we listeningfor other voices—voices that may bid us walk in away less narrow and in paths more pleasing to ourflesh? How is it with us, brethren? Are we takingheed that we do not depart from the living Go dthrough failure to appreciate constantly the miracl eof His truth revealed to us, counting as common-place the fact that He has taken us into His confi-dence and revealed to us the secrets of His divineplan ?

Take Heed to the Ministry

In Colossians 4 :17 we read : "Take heed to th eministry which thou hast received in the Lord, thatthou fulfil it ." In this particular apostolic injunc-tion, the taking heed is enjoined in order that w emight fulfil the ministry . St. Paul seems to hav erealized that there would be a danger of our neglect-ing to be ministers, or servants of the truth. Andhow easy it is to fall away from our steadfastnes salong this line ! Satan is always active in his en-deavor to draw us away from the ministry ; but i fwe are properly taking heed, we will recognize hi scunning devices, his misleading philosophy, and no tbe affected thereby .

Jesus, our example, came into the world to serve ,to be a minister in the great work of reconciling alost world to God . Our calling is to cooperate with

Jesus in this ministry, or service ; thus, no matte rhow faithful we may be in meeting all the other re-

September 193 7

quirements of the truth, if we neglect the ministry,we fall short of the very purpose back of our calling .Lei, us, then, indeed take heed unto the ministry ,that we "fulfil it."

But not alone in fulfilling the ministry should w etake heed thereunto . We have an important respon-sibility in connection with the manner in which th eministry is conducted, especially our own part there -in. Note the apostle's words in 2 Corinthians 6 :3 :"Giving no offence in anything, that the ministr ybe not blamed." The entire 6th chapter of 2nd Cor-inthians is a wonderful admonition, going into detail sconcerning the things to which we should take hee din order that the ministry be not blamed .

Purity of faith and practice, longsuffering, .patience ,love, self-sacrifice, and the whole armour of right-eousness, are among the things to which we shoul dtake heed according to the apostle, if we are not t obring reproach upon the ministry . Separatenes sfrom temples of idols is another prerequisit ewhich he mentions . There are hideous creed idol stoday, enshrined in the various temples of nominalChristianity . The pageantry of outward show in thes emodern temples is alluring to the devotional instinct sof some of the Lord ' s people . But let us rememberthat these temples are defiled by their blasphemou screeds . That their demon god is not our God—thatnur God has bid us to "come out from among them ,and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no tthe unclean thing ; and I will receive you ; and be y eclean that bear the vessels of the Lord . "—2 Cor .6 :17 ; Isa . 52 :11 .

Ah yes, that is our ministry to "bear the vessel sof the Lord," the vessels that contain the pure wate rof His _truth ; and how vital it is that we keep thos evessels clean, that those who drink therefrom maybe truly refreshed with the living waters of divinetruth-refreshed with the glorious intelligence tha t"God is love ." Only as we minister the truth of th edivine plan can we hope for God 's blessing upon ou rministry . Only as we keep that truth pure in ourown minds and hearts and minister it in its purit yto others, are we truly taking heed to the ministry .

It is along this same line that Paul admonishe dTimothy, saying : "Take heed unto thyself, and unto)the doctrine ; continue in them : for in doing this thou..shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee ."(1 Tim . 4 :16.) Here we have, in reality, a summary-of all that is involved in our , taking heed lest we fall .It means to take heed to ourselves, in every way ;,and to take heed to the doctrines of the truth . Or,as indicated by the apostle, we take heed unto our -selves ,by continuing in the doctrines . But note, to ."continue in the doctrines" means much more thanto merely give mental assent to them . To continue"in the doctrines " or teachings of the gospel meansto believe them, yes, and to defend them, most as-suredly, but also, to be guided by them in our own.Christian conduct and ministry .

Failing in the latter, would mean failing in the de -velopment of divine love in our hearts and lives ; andthis would mean that even though our ministry maybe couched in the oratory of "men and of angels, "it would be, in God ' s sight, but as "sounding brass ,or a tinkling cymbal, " (1 Cor. 13 :1 .) Obviouslythen, a proper taking heed unto the doctrines ispossible only as we make sure that the doctrines ar etaking full control of our own lives, and producingin us the peaceable fruits of righteousness . Only inthis way can we fully appreciate the doctrines our-selves, and read in them the shining letters of God' slove, and be inspired with the determination to b elike Him .

By thus taking heed unto ourselves and unto thedoctrines we will become equipped with the armou rof God, the armour of truth, and will be enabled t ogo forth as valiant soldiers of the cross. Then we wil lbe able to defend the faith once delivered unto thesaints, in love, and our words will minister graceunto the hearers—to all those who really have ahearing ear for the simple truth of the gospel . Thus,as we take heed in the divinely prescribed way, wewill buttress our standing in the Lord, and in Hi struth : and our ministry of the truth will be continu-ally blessed with the refreshing smile of His approv-al.

The New CovenantWe are publishing the following notes on the New

Covenant with the thought that they may be stimu-lating to the minds of some and lead them to a furthe rstudy of the subject . To those who would prefer th esubject treated in an article form we would highl yrecommend the re-reading of the article in the October ,1936, Dawn, entitled, "The Church and the New Cov-enant . "

IN the Scriptures a covenant usually is a promis eof blessing to be fulfilled on the performance of acondition ; however, God sometimes makes an un-conditional promise, as was the case with Abraha mwhen He made the promise, "In thy seed shall al lthe nations of the earth be blessed . "—Gen. 22 :18 ;12 :3 .

The New Covenant is to be a ratified, unalterabl eagreement between God and those of the humanfamily, who come under its benevolent influences ;and respond in kind, during the Millennial Age.

By the New Covenant, we mean the contract be-tween God and Israel of which the prophets spoke ,and which was to supersede the old law covenant ,being introduced by better sacrifices that that of"bulls and goats . " The Law Covenant, which wasadded to the original Abrahamic Covenant becaus eof sin, was given to serve three particular purposesfirst, it proved Israel 's inability to keep God's per-fect law ; secondly, it shadowed forth God 's methodof eradicating sin arid its effects ; thirdly, it preparedthe way for the acceptance of Jesus as the "Lamb,

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of God" and Messiah.—Rom. 3 :20 ; 7 :7 ; Heb. 10:1 ,11, 12 ; Gal . 3 :24, 25 .

New Covenant is not for the Church

'With whom is the New Covenant to be made? St .-Paul quoting from Jeremiah 31 :29-34, in answer toour question, said : "This shall be the covenant thatI will make with the house of Israel ; After thosedays, [of blindness] saith the LORD, I will put Mylaw in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts .. . . And they shall teach no more every man hi sneighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Knowthe LoRn : for they shall all know Me, from the leas t'of them unto the greatest of them, "

The import of the foregoing seems to be that theNew Covenant is to be made with the same people —fleshly Israel—with whom the old Law Covenantwas made although having a better Mediator and i s'to be mediated similarly during the Messianic reign ,.t the end of which time the great Mediator—th e

Christ, Head and body—will step aside leaving manin at-one-ment with God .

It is nowhere stated that the New Covenant wa sto be made for or with the church . If the Christianchurch is not being developed under the New Covechant, then what relationship, may we ask, doe sthe church bear to that Covenant? St . Paul tells u sthat God, "bath made us able ministers of the NewTestament [Covenant] ." (2 Cor. 3 :6.) If ministersor servants of the New Covenant, obviously, they'cannot be those to be served by that Covenant . Wherethe word servant is used, it always implies tw opersons or classes, those being served and the ser-vants .

If the members of the church are servants, or min-isters of the New Covenant, what service do the y-render? St . Peter tells us that the prophets testi-fied beforehand of the sufferings of the Anointed an dthe glory that should follow . (1 Peter 1 :10, 11 . )These two stages in the Christian's life were picture dby the clothing worn by Aaron ; first, the linen gar-ments and then those of glory and beauty . Thereis no more outstanding truth in the Scriptures thanthat which pertains to the preparatory period of thechurch's suffering upon the basis of which and thesatisfactory completion of which their exaltatio nwith Christ is predicated . Consider the words of St .Paul as recorded in Romans 8 :16, 17 : "The Spiri titself beareth witness with our spirit, that we ar ethe children of God : And if children, then heirs ;heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ ; if so bethat we suffer with Him, that we may be also glori -`tied together . " In this same chapter from the nine-teenth verse on, it is obvious that the church is t ohave a part in the blessing of the world, for there weread (Diaglott) that the "earnest expectation of th ecreation longs for the revelation of the sons of God . "

But why must the world wait? There are tworeasons . First, the blood of Jesus, pictured by th eblood of the bullock, is now the basis for the justifica-tion of the household of faith only, as was indicate dby the words of St. Paul when he said : "For Christ

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is not entered into the holy place made with hands, ... but into heaven itself, now to appear in the pres-

ence of God for us ." (Heb . 9 :24 .) Second, the worl dmust await the development of the blessing agenc y—the ministers, the priests, the second Adam an dHis bride.—Acts 15 :14-17 .

While it is clear that our Lord is the Saviour ofthe world, it is equally a Scriptural thought that th echurch enjoys the great honor and distinction of"`filling up that which is behind of the afflictions o fChrist ." (1 Pet . 4 :13 ; Col . 1 :24 ; Acts 9 :1-5 ; 2 Cor .4 :8-10) Many Scriptures indicate that the glory andhonor of the completed church is to be the rewar dfor their suffering for righteousness sake, wherea sno mention is made concerning those who shall beunder the New Covenant as being required to suffe rfor right doing .

Some Convincing Types

Some of the Scriptural evidence that the sin-offering was to be in two parts, and therefore con-sistently referred to in the plural sense, is as follows :Moses offered sacrifices of both bulls and goats andour Lord offers the "better sacrifices" of Himsel fand those who follow in His footsteps . (Ex. 24 :3-8 ;Heb. 9 :11-15.) Jesus gave His flesh for the life o fthe world and the church are "baptized into Hisdeath." St. Paul also tells us that they are "baptize dfor the dead." (Rom. 6 :3 ; 1 Cor. 15 :29.) This har-monizes with the statement that "Saviours shall comeupon mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau ; andthe Kingdom shall be the LoRD ' s .—Obadiah 21 .

In the type, the Lord's goat was treated exactlylike the bullock . When our High Priest appeared inheaven for "us, " the church, the holy spirit cam eupon the waiting disciples as a token of their accept-ance ; and when He shall again come forth, havingsprinkled the blood of the antitypical Lord's goatclass, as Aaron sprinkled the blood of the goat forall the people ; then shall come the second outpour-ing of the spirit "upon all flesh."—Joel 2 :28, 29 .

Adam, the responsible head of the human family ,sinned his life away. His dying life was transmitte dto his children through mother Eve, which resulte din a dying human race. The second responsible headof the human family, Christ Jesus, having purchase dmankind by giving His own life for them, will trans-mit eternal life to as many of Adam 's children aswill receive it, through His Bride, the Church . —Romans 5 :12, 18-21 .

In the type, the basic authority of the covenan twas the tables of the law, written by the finger o fGod. In the antitype, the judicial authority through -out the Millennial age will be vested in The Christ—Jesus, the Head, and the church, His Body . In Acts17 :31, we read that God "bath appointed a day, i nthe which He will judge the world in righteousness bythat man whom He hath ordained . " In 1 Corinth-ians 6 :13, St . Paul criticized the brethren for goingto law with one another saying, "Do you not kno wthat the saints shall judge the world? and if th eworld shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to

judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that weshall judge angels ?" This certainly shows that bothJesus and the church, having proved their worthiness ,are to be judges in their future ministry .

Preparing for the New CovenantIt is obvious that before a covenant or a contract

can be entered into by two parties, who, because o fmisconduct on the part of one of them, are at enmity ,that there must be a mediator and rules provide dfor their re-approachment and reconciliation . Thelaw of God by Moses as mediator, served that pur-pose in the type . The writing of the law, therefore ,was but a step toward the great objective—that of)covenant relationship between God and Israel ,through a third party, the mediator, who stood a ssponsor for and representative of that Law of God .From Exodus 24 :12, we learn that the tables of th elaw were given to Moses in order that he migh tteach the people, thus picturing the work of enlight-ening the human family during the Millennial age ,(1 Tim, 2 :4 .) It seems clear that the New Covenan tcannot become operative until the antitypical table shave been prepared and the offerings consumed .Another evidence that the New Covenant is not nowin operation is that man is still dying for Adam' stransgression . That it is to be made for the purposeof effacing Adam 's transgression and eradicatingthe "sins of the world" is evidenced by the fac tthat babes of but a few minutes or hours die not fortheir own sins, but as a result of the penalty stillresting upon the race on account of the original sin .( Jer . 31 :29-34 .) One of the basic changes to com einto the lives of the fleshly house of Israel underthe New Covenant, is that the children's teeth nolonger will be set on edge, because the fathers hav eeaten the sour grapes of sin ; but everyone who the ndies, shall die for his own iniquity. Furthermore,the Scriptures declare of the time when the Ne wCovenant is in effect, that "I will put My Law intheir inward parts, and write it in their hearts . "(Jer . 31 :33 .) From this statement, it is quite eviden tthat the work of rewriting the Law in the heart sand lives of His people Israel, is still future ; forIsrael is still blind in part and must remain so "unti lthe fulness of the Gentiles be come in" at whichtime "there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer ,and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob : for thi sis my covenant unto them, when I shall take awaytheir sins ."—Rom. 11 :25-27.

In 2 Corinthians 3 :3, we find a statement of thework of this Gospel age . There the church is "declar-ed to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, writ -ten not with ink, but with the Spirit of the livingGod ; not in tables of stone [as in Moses' case], butin fleshly tables of the heart ." The contrast is madebetween the preparatory stage which introduced theold Law Covenant and that which introduces theNew Law Covenant . The apostle is here showingthat before that NEW Covenant can become effec-tive toward natural Israel these who will constitutethe Greater (than Moses) and Better Mediator wil lfirst have to be prepared for that stupendous work

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of the future by having the Master's likeness in sucittfulness that the apostle could say they were "the .epistle of Christ ministered by us [the apostles] . Inother words, the basis for the old Law Covenant,.namely, the written Law of God, had to come firs tbefore any covenant could be made with the people

`and just so will it be with the New Covenant . Godfurther favored the race in that from them He ar-ranged - that 144,000 redeemed from mankind, shouldbe accounted worthy thus to be associated with Hi sSon on this board of mediation, which is to admin-ister the covenant through which reconciliation is t obe effected . Both Scripture and the signs of the timesstrongly indicate that the preliminaries to the grea tfuture work of reconciling the world to God ar ealmost complete .

Moses and Law Covenant Typical`Evidently Moses, like our Lord, : was chosen to do

the work of mediating the Law Covenant long be -fore the work actually began. Jesus, as the pre -human Logos, was designated "the Messenge r[Deputy, Ambassador, Angel], of the Covenant_ "'(Malachi 3 :1 .) Moses was leader of Israel at theExodus, and before ; and certainly he was doing a .work preparatory to the coming Law Covenant allthat time. However, in the fullest sense, he did nottake up his work of mediation until three days be -fore the covenant was made . Inconfirination of thisthought, we read in Exodus 19 :10, 11 "And- theLORD : said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanc -tify them to - day and to morrow, and let them washtheir clothes, and be ready against the third day :for the third day the LORD will come down in thesight of all the people upon mount Sinai ." And in ,the 16th and 17th verses of the same chapter, we ar etold : "And it came to pass on the third day in themorning, that there were thunders and lightnings, -and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice o fthe trumpet exceeding loud ; so that all the peopl ethat was in the camp trembled . And Moses brough tforth the people out of the camp to meet God . "The thunderings, lightnings and thick cloud at thebeginning of the third (Millennial) day, may welldepict its dawning and the closing scenes of thisGospel age . This was followed by "the trumpetexceeding loud "—the trump of jubilee proclaimingliberty to .Earth 's captives, the trump of God's truthwhich shall be "exceeding loud " throughout the Mes-sianic day, following the storm of the early morning,or dawn .

Even as Moses was preparing for his Mediatorialadministration during these three days—Exodus 19 :10, 11—right on up to the moment the Law Covenantwas made and sealed by the sprinkling of blood, so ,also, Jesus and the Church have been preparingfor their joint-office of Mediatorship of the "bette rcovenant " throughout these antitypical "three days .As Moses slew animals and provided blood in basins, .all of which was connected with the work of prepar-ation for the making of the covenant, so also Jesu smust provide "the blood of the new covenant" which

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later He will use to sprinkle first the altar [thu spicturing the requirements of Justice satisfied], andthen the people on the "third day" and thereby makethem fit parties to join in a solemn covenant wit h;Jehovah God .

It is quite evident from all the figures and typesof the Old Testament Scriptures together with th eplain statements of the New Testament that the NewCovenant is to be made with the natural seed o f

Then one of them, which was a lawyer, aske dHim a question, tempting Him, and saying,

.Master, which is the great commandment in the

law?Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy

God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and withall thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy

neighbor as thyself .Ora these two commandments hang all the law

add the prophets .—Matt . 22 :35-40 .

ROM time immemorial, some of the religiousamong philosophers and thinkers, seem tohave questioned, speculated, and debated asto which of God's laws was the most import-

nt. This seems to have been especially true after th egiving of God's law to Israel by Moses . In any case ,"Which is the great commandment in the law ?" was

. still a question of sufficient interest to evoke contro-versy in the time of Jesus . Evidently, at that time ,there were lawyers, scribes, and doctors of the law ,who were very adept at magnifying some part of th elaw out of its true proportion ; and minimizing someother portion, with the result that their interpreta-tions were often at variance with the very intent ofthe law .

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Abraham, the houses of Judah and Israel, andthrough them with all others—the Gentiles . Thi sbeing the case, it can be readily seen that the Churchof this Gospel age is not developed and perfectedunder that New (Law) Covenant—they being theones to act as part of the Greater Mediator—Christ,the Head, and the Church, His Body.—Jer . 31 :31-34 ; 1 Cor. 12 :12 ; 10 :16, 17 ; Rom. 12 :4, 5 ; John17 :21 ; Eph . 1 :22, 23 ; 4 :15, 16 .

did just this, magnifying, making honourable an demphasizing the underlying principles of the lawas being love toward God and man . This He showedto be the essential spirit of God 's law and the mean sby which its just requirements would be fulfilled.Thus He passed over what doubtless seemed to manyof His time, the great commandments of the law-the keeping of the Sabbath, the offering of gifts andsacrifices, the paying of tithes, etc .

Why is to love, of such paramount importance ?Because to love, to have love as the dominant char-acteristic of our heart is to attain the greatest degreeof godlikeness . To love—to have love for God andman—will mean, also, that we will find ourselvesdoing, almost, if not quite, involuntarily, many thing sthat ordinarily we would not do. And this would b elove 's action even were there no specific command .It is only natural for divine love to fulfil the law o fGod. Does not Jesus verify this thought? Note Hi swords, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments ."And if we really love Jesus, we will keep His com-mandments . Any failure to keep'them, then, (accord -ing to our ability) shows the smallness of our love ;for . " love is the fulfilling of the law . "—John 14 :15 ;Rom. 13 :10 .

Mosdc Law—Comprehended In Lov eWe know that the perfect keeping of God's law

is impossible for any imperfect being . However, ifthe Jewish people had possessed greater love forGod and for one another, it most certainly woul dhave led them to an acceptance of Jesus, who di dfulfil all the requirements of the Divine Law. Also ,they would have been the recipients of greater bless-ings under their law covenant . Is not this what theApostle Paul is saying in Romans 13 :8-10? "For hethat loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this ,Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt notkill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bearfalse witness, Thou shalt not covet ; and if there beany other commandment, it is briefly comprehende din this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbo ras thyself . Love worketh no ill to his neighbor :therefore love is the fulfilling of the law . "

As we consider the aforementioned, "thou -shaltnots," how obvious' it is that love would be the an-swer to their keeping . "Thou shalt not commit adul-tery !" How could one seduce a neighbor ' s wife if oneloved one 's neighbor? "Thou shalt not kill !" Doe s

Instead of clarifying the law and showing the greateternal principles on which it was based, the scribe sand Pharisees so distorted it that Jesus declared ,"`Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, an dswallow a camel . . .ye pay tithe of mint and aniseand cummin, and have omitted the weightier mattersof the law, judgment, mercy, and faith : these oughtye to have done, and not to leave the other undone ."(Matt . 23 :23, 24 .) Jesus, when asked, "which is th egreat commandment in the law? " did not equivo --cate, but unhesitatingly declared, "thou shalt lov ethe Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with al lthy soul, and with all thy mind . . .and . . .thoushalt love thy neighbor as thyself . On these two,commandments hang all the law and the prophets . "

In' Isaiah 42 :21 we read, "The LORD . willmagnify the law, and make it honorable . " Jesus'own words are, "Think not that I am come to destro ythe law, or the prophets I am not come to destroy,but to fulfil. " (Matt . 5 :17.) Surely our Lord Jesus

Love—the Fulfilling of the Law

September .1937

love commit murder? .Surely not ! "Thou shalt no tsteal!" Steal from a loved one? ` No, not love . And aslove- loves all, love would not steal from anybody ."Thou shalt not bear false witness!" One would nottestify falsely against one whom he loved . "Thoushalt not covet !" "Love . . . seeks not that which i snot her own . " (1 Cor. 13 :5, Diaglott .) Love find sexpression in giving— the very opposite character-istic to covetousness . Truly, as the Master said, o nthese two great commandments, "hang all the lawand the prophets ." And as the Apostle declares, " I fthere be any commandment, it is briefly comprehend-ed in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neigh-bour as thyself ."—Rom. 13 :9 .

God's LoveGod's actions and dealings, we are not surprised

to find, are in harmony with His own law . Yes, "Godis love" and "God so loved the world, that He gav eHis only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth inHim should not perish, but have everlasting life . "(John 3 :16.) Indeed, was it not the love and merc yof God and Christ which constrained us and led u sto both repentance and consecration? "For the lov eof Christ constraineth us . " (2 Cor . 5 :14.) And againwe read, "But God commend'eth His love toward us ,in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died fo rus."—Rom. 5 :8 .

Do we as Christians need any other law asidefrom God ' s law of love? We believe not . Could wehate our brother if we loved him? Would we injurehim if we loved him? Would we set him aside o rneglect him if we loved him? Would we slander o rspeak evil of one we loved? Could we forget to serve ,,or fail to minister to our brother if we really love dhim?. ' How apparent it is that in both our humanand spiritual relationship, love ' s possession woul ddictate our proper conduct .

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Love--Fulfils God 's Will—AssemblesLet us examine some of the commandments and

exhortations of the Scriptures and see how love ful-fils all requirements . St. Paul writes, "not forsak-ing the assembling of ourselves together . (Heb. 10 :

_25.) Cannot we see how naturally love would followthis exhortation? With a great love for God and Hi schildren, would we not be glad, would we not want ,to meet together, to talk together and fellowship on ewith another? After Jesus' resurrection, the apostles ,without any instructions, and of their own accord ,came together on the first day of the week, and thu sstarted a custom which has come down to us, andwhich we still follow when we come together for wor-ship on Sundays .

However, in many nominal Christian churches ,where love for God and His Word is lacking, w efind that their worship has degenerated into a mer e"form of godliness "--a formalism. Without love asthe motivating power to bring them together, oftenthey have sought out .,base substitutes ; until today,in many churches, they have to be entertained withsocials, dancing, card parties, bingo and bunco part-ies, etc. This condition is, no doubt, largely the re -

,

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suit of the teachings of the creeds 'of the dark ages ,when the clergy thought to drive people into thechurches through fear . Now that increased knowl-edge and 'reason have largely dispelled those ` fears ,

- though not replaced them ' with the love of God, wesee the general indifference toward religion . Howstrikingly Isaiah 's words have been fulfilled in Con-nection with nominal churchianity : "This people drawnear Me with their mouth, and with their lips- d ohonour Me, but have removed their heart far fro mMe, and their fear toward Me is taught by the pre-cept : of men, Therefore, behold, . . .the Avisdomof their wise men shall perish ." (Isa'. 29 :13, 14 . )God only desires such to worship Him as worshipHim in spirit and truth, and in the beauty of holiness .

Love—StudiesAnother Bible admonition is, to "Study to shew

thyself approved unto God, a workman that needethnot to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word o ftruth ." (2 Tim. 2 :15.) Most of us may agree withthe wise man that, "much study is a weariness of theflesh." (Eccl . 12 :12.) Therefore, if we but considerour flesh, we will do very little studying . However,if the internal pressure of our love for God and fo rHis Word is sufficient, it will stimulate our desireto acquire more knowledge of God and His Plan o fRedemption, causing us to study and thus to triump hover the weakness of the flesh . "If ye through theSpirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shal llive . " (Rom. 8 :13.) If we combine the 'thought o f"assembling" ourselves together with that of "Studyto show thyself approved unto God " does it not giveus the thought of a group Bible study? This, too, i scommended in the Word of God . Referring to th eBereans we read, "These were more noble than thos ein Thessalonica in that they . . . searched the Scri ptures daily, whether those things were so ." —Acts 17 :11 .

Love—Preaches"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations . " (Matt.

28 :19.) Our Lord Jesus Christ, while here on earth,spent a great deal of His time in preaching andteaching . In the text just cited He authorized Hi sdisciples to preach and teach in His' name . Thepreaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is their lifework . It is both the privilege and duty of every realChristian to carry out this commission . Note Paul' swords in 1 Corinthians 9 :16 : "For though I preachthe gospel, I have nothing to glory of : for necessityis laid upon me ; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach no tthe gospel !" Paul continues, however, that if hepreached it willingly, he had a reward . And howwillingly he did preach the Gospel from a heartwhich was full of faith and love ! It surely seem sthat those followers of the Master whose faith an dlove is greatest , are, also, those who are most activ ein proclaiming the truth .

It is the spirit of God in our hearts that shouldactuate our preaching for, said St. Paul, "though Ispeak with the tongues of men and of angels, andhave not love I am become as sounding-brass, or tink-

ling cymbal ." (1 Cor. 13 :1 .) Jesus, after His res-urrection, in speaking to St. Peter (who had pre-viously denied Him thrice) asked him three times ,"Lovest thou Me ?" Then, upon St . Peter's thriceaffirmed declaration of love, the Master each timeanswered either "feed My lambs" or "feed My sheep ."(John 21 :15-17.) How beautifully the thought oflove for the Master is here connected with that o fGod 's wish for us to concern ourselves with th espiritual interests of His followers in the feeding ofHis sheep .

Prayer is primarily a privilege, but is so essentia lto our well being as Christians that it is enjoinedupon us as a constant necessity . As we read someof the prayers of Jesus Himself, we find it hardlyconceivable that He viewed prayer other than as aprivilege . Prayer to Him was a means of communin gwith His Heavenly Father, of fellowshipping withHim, and of receiving spiritual strength . His prayer sexpressed praise, thanksgiving and trust. He prayedvery particttlarly for His disciples, and all wh oshould believe on His name. He also made requestsin prayer . His prayers express both love for God an dfor His followers . The privilege of prayer in itsfullest sense, is only accorded those who are con-secrated followers of the Master . To them He says ,"Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name : askand ye shall receive, that your joy may be full . "(flohn 16 :24.) Increased love for God, for His .

Word, and love for our brethren will certainly man-ifest itself in greater constancy in prayer .

Love in the Next AgeWe find nothing in the Bible to indicate that God's

law for the next' age, when all shall know the Lord ,from the least to the greatest, will be anythingdifferent from this same universal and eternal la wof love. (Heb. 8 :11 .) We read in Ezekiel 36 :26, "Anew heart also will I give you, and a new spirit willI put within you : and I will take away the ston yheart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart

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of flesh . " This prophetic scripture tells us that thehearts of mankind will be changed from selfish one sto hearts of love. That is the day when the Lord shal lpour out His "spirit upon all flesh ."—Joel 2 :28 .

Love DefinedIs love, some fragile sentiment of good ?Is love, some introverted and delicate hot hous e

plant of feeble growth ?Is love, some pious emotionalism ; benign but sel f

sequestered ?No! Love is none of these .Love is an active - goodness of the heart, grow n

strong to serve .Love is a fragrant flower of extroverted hardy

growth.Love is an operative good, which spends itsel f

in constant service for God and fellow man .Love is that which finds its greatest joy in giving .

Reviewing our subject, then, we have seen thatlove is the law of God Himself . Also, that it wasthe law of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that He 'lived according to, and expounded that law whil ehere . Secondly, we see it to have, been the very basi sof the law given to Israel . Thirdly, we recognizethis law of God and Christ to have been given a sthe law for the followers of Christ—the New Crea-tion. Furthermore, we have seen that its sacred andbenign influence will lead to the doing of God's wil las expressed in the various commands of His Word .Fourthly, we have seen it to be the law under whic hthe New Covenant will operate during the reign o fthe Millennial Kingdom . ' In fact it will be God' seternal law for all His intelligent creatures. Themoral attributes of God 's character of Justice an dLove, do not change, and neither does His lawchange . God, like Jesus, is the same yesterday, andtoday and forever . God is love, and love will alwaysbe the governing principle in all His universe .

THE DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGESThis new edition is printed on heavy, white an-

tique book paper and is bound in blue cloth, stampedin gold . Single copies, 50 cents, postpaid, maile danywhere . 10 or more copies to one address 30 centseach, postage extra . If those ordering 10 or more o fthese books for use in the colporteur work will s ostate when placing their orders, we will pay th eshipping costs .

SCRIPTURE STUDY SETSWe are glad to announce that a limited number

of complete sets (6 volumes) of Studies in the Scrip-tures are now available . These volumes are all insound condition, although not as bright and clea nas when first published. They are all cloth bound ,but in getting the sets together it has not been pos-sible in every case to secure them in a uniform styl eof binding. However, these sets are excellent forpersonal use, or for loaning .

While they last we will be glad to supply thesefull sets of Studies in the Scriptures for $1 .50,postpaid to any place in the United States or Canada.

THE TRUTH ABOUT HELLThere are still many who believe in the theory o f

eternal torture for the wicked ; also large numbers ivh ohave rejected this superstition, yet suppose that it i staught in the Bible, hence you will find this bookleta valuable one to use in bearing witness to the truth .It is a slightly condensed edition of Pastor Russell 'sfamous treatise on this subject . Single copies 10 cents ,in quantities, 5 cents a copy .

ZIONISM IN PROPHEC Y7 Copies for $1 .00

The new price scale for "Zionism in Prophecy'' is ,single copies, 20 cents ; 7 copies $1 .00 ; 50 or more toone address, 10 cents each .The Dawn, 136 Fulton St ., Brooklyn, N. Y.

CHOICES AND THEI RCONSEQUENCES IN A

NATION'S •LIF E

September 19-Deut . 11 :8-12 ; 26-32 .

Deut . 11 :8 : Therefore shall y ekeep all the commandments whichI command you this day, that y emay be strong, and go in and pos-sess the land, whither ye go t opossess it ;

9 And that ye may prolong yourdays in the land, which the Lordsware unto your fathers to give unt othem and to their seed, a land tha tfloweth with milk and honey .

10 For the land, whither tho ugoest in to possess it, is not as th eland of Egypt, from whence ye cameout, where thou sowedst thy seed ,and wateredst it with thy foot, as agarden of herbs ;

11 But the land, whither ye go topossess it, is a land of hills andvalleys, and drinketh water of th erain of heaven :

12 A land which the Lord thy Go dcareth for : the eyes of the Lord thyGod are always upon it, from thebeginning of the year even unto theend of the year.

* * *

26 Behold, I set before you thi sday a blessing and a curse ;

27 A blessing, if ye obey the com-mandments of the Lord your God ,which I command you this day :

28 A>zd a curse, if ye will no tobey the commandments of th eLord your God, but turn aside outof the way which I command youthis day, to go after other gods,which ye have not known .

29 And it shaill come to pass, whenthe Lord thy God hath brought theein unto the land whither thou goestto possess it, that thou shalt pu tthe blessing upon Mount Gerizim ,and the curse upon Mount Ebal .

30 Are they not on the other sideJordan, by the way where the sungoeth - down, in the land of the Ca-naanites, which dwell in the cham-

paign over against Gilgal, beside th eplains of Morels. ?

31 For ye shall pass over Jordanto go in to possess the land whichthe Lord, your God giveth you, andye shat possess it, and dwell therein.

32 And ye shall observe to do allthe statutes and judgments whichI set before you this day .

GOLDEN TEXT : "Choose you thisday whom- ye will serve" —

Joshua 24 :15 .

HETHER it be in the lifeof a nation or in that of anindividual, choices are

very important . God leave sto us the choice of doing right o rwrong. Had he wound up man likea clock, giving him the capacity t odo only right, then man would havebeen only a machine, and not a free-willed individual with a mind ofhis own. The principles of rightand wrong have always been in ex-istence ; but for a long time, onlyright was operative, for the holyangels did not think wrong or dowrong .

God wants people to do rightfrom choice not from compulsion .Even an earthly parent takes plea -sure in those children who yieldhim obedience of their own willand accord ; and the best trainingthat children can receive is thatwhich helps them to decide to walkin the ways of righteousness, an dnot that which merely compels a noutward semblance of right-doingwhen their hearts are far remove dtherefrom .

The first principle of divine lawis that of allegiance to God. Verily ,God has a right to require this fromHis intelligent creatures . It meansthat He is the great Head of theuniverse, and that no one else noranything else can take His place .As the Head, God preserves order ,and without that order there woul dbe chaos . Every wrong-doer is arebel against divine authority. Godwants people to do right for thei rown good and for the promotion o ftheir own happiness . Nations are

but collections of individuals, andthe same general laws that apply to,an individual apply to fhe nation_of which he is a part .

On one occasion when Mosescame down from the mount an dfound the Israelites worshipping a,calf, he became very angry, an drightly so . He had the golden cal fground to powder and put this inthe water and made them drink it. ,Then he called upon all those who ,were loyal to Jehovah to sho wthemselves, and all the sons of Lev icame forward. These sons of Leviwere then employed as the instru-ments for punishing the rest . Godthus showed that He would notbe- trifled with, and that the special :nation which He was leading andtaking care of must be loyal to Himand obey His laws .

Because the Israelites flagrantlytransgressed the divine laws, Godeventually gave them over to thepower of their enemies, saying t othe last Jewish King, Zedekiah,that He would wrest the crownfrom him, and then turn the king-dom over three times "until Hecomes whose right it is, and Iwill give it to him ." (Ezek . 21 :27 .)And God carried out this programexactly as He said He would do,for the Jewish kingdom was takenaway from Zedekiah, and then wassuccessively turned over to Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome . More-over, it has been no more an in-dependent kingdom, nor will it b eso until He, "whose right it is, "even Christ, becomes its Ruler andLord .

When Jesus came to the world,the great thing that He held upwas the law of God . He was anexemplar of the righteousness ofthat law in the most absolute sensepossible . He did not violate anyprecept of the divine commands ;for, as a Jew, it devolved upo nHim to keep the Law inviolate, andthis He did . In all things He lion-ored His Heavenly Father, saying"The 'Son can do nothing of Him -self, but what He seeth the Father "do , ' and again, "Not as I will but

24

as Thou wilt ." And this great lawof the divine will is written in the:heart of every consecrated followerof the Master, even as' it will bewritten in the hearts of the willin gand obedient of mankind in duetime.—John 5 :19 ; Matt . 26 :39 .' In the Millennial age the people s

of the world will be taught the valueof righteousness, and will graduallylearn to choose it and to thus wal kin the great Highway of Holines sthen opened up to all . (Isa. 35 . )They will come to realize that pride,selfishness, greed, dishonesty, cru-elty, oppression and other forms ofiniquity and wickedness militat e'against their highest interests i nthe strongest possible way . Thusthey will see that God is right, an dHis law is right, and will come tolove Him and to worship Him, notof compulsion, but gladly and will-ingly . And when the peoples ofearth thus find themselves in har-mony with God, all will be wel lwith them .

QUESTIONS tWhat is the value of choice °d Wh y

`did not God endow man with only'the capacity to do right ?

What is the best training thatchildren can receive ?

What is the first principle of di-vine law? Why is this so important ?

On what occasion did God punishthe Israelites? And why ?

In what ways was Jesus a grea t-exemplar of the righteousness ofGod ' s law ?

How will people learn righteousness in .the Millennial age ?

GOD IN THE MAKIN GOF A NATION

September 26-Deut . 8 :11-20 .

Deut . 8 :11 . Beware that thou for-get not the Lord thy God, in no tkeeping His commandments, and Hi sjudgments, and His statutes, whic hI command thee this day :

12 Lest when thou hast eatenand art fall, and hast built goodlyhouses, and dwelt therein ;

13 And when thy herds and thyflocks multiply, and thy silver an d'thy gold is multiplied, and all tha tthou hast is multiplied ;

14 Then thine heart be lifted up ,and thou forget the Lord thy God ,which brought thee forth out of th eland of Egypt, from the house o fbondage ;

15 Who led thee through tha tgreat and terrible wilderness, where-in were fiery serpents, and scor-pions, and drought, where there wa sno water ; who brought thee forthwater out of the rock of flint ;

16 Who fed thee in the wildernes swith manna, which thy , father sknew not, that He might humbl ethee, and that He might prove thee ,to do thee good at thy latter end ;

17 And thou say in thine heart ,My power and the might of min ehand hath gotten me this wealth .

18 But thou shalt remember th eLord thy God : for it is He thatgiveth thee power to get wealth..that He may establish His covenant,which He sware unto thy fathers,as it is this day.

19 And it shall be, if thou do atall forget the Lord thy God, an dwalk after other gods, and . servethem, and worship them, I testifyagainst you this day that ye shal lsurely perish .

20 As the nations which the Lor ddestroyeth before your face, so shal lye perish ; because ye would not b eobedient unto the voice of the Lor dyour God .

GOLDEN TEXT : Beware that thouforget not the Lord thy God, in notkeeping His commandments and Hi sjudgments, and His statutes, which

I command thee this day . —Deut. 8 :11 .

OD'S leading of the Israel -ites is one of the most inter-esting things in Biblicalhistory. They were a na-

tion chosen and selected from al lother peoples of the world to b especial recipients of divine favor .To them the Lord said, "You onlyhave I known of all the families o fthe earth. " They were the linea ldescendants of Abraham, who wa sthe friend of God, and God neve rforgot the great promise He ha dmade to that patriarch .—Amos 3 :2 .

Moses, the leader of the people,whom God had chosen for thi swork, was very faithful to the task

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assigned to him . He had given upeverything that the world prizesfor the sake of serving the Lord' speciple . When the Israelites fel linto idolatry and set up a goldencalf to worship, Moses prayed t oGod to spare the people from de-struction ; and if some one mus tpay the final penalty of death, tha the should be the one to be blotte dout of the book of life. What anunselfish prayer this was ! Trulythe people had a great leader, aman appointed by God . Theyshould have loved him and followe dhis instructions in all things .

Moses tells the people that theyshould remember past benefits re-ceived at the Lord's hands . Al-though they were allowed to wan-der through a vast wilderness-andthis was purely because of lack offaith on their part—they had theirneeds supplied, and were not per-mitted to perish for lack of food .God took care of them even whe nHe employed miracles for the pur-pose . And always before theirmental vision they had the goal ofall their hopes and desires, eve nthe promised land—"a land flow-ing with milk and honey . "—Exod .3 :8 .

What Moses said to the Hebrew sof his time, the great antitypicalMoses, . Christ Jesus, says to theantitypical Israelites, the church o fGod, whose names are written i nheaven, and who are called to be-come the heirs of all the great di-vine promises . The followers of theMaster were called out of Egyptianbondage, which is that of the worldand of false religious systems, t owander in the wilderness of eart hfor a time .

Many of their experiences closelyresemble those of natural Israel.The Apostle Paul reminds theChurch at Corinth of this . He says :"I would not that ye should be ig-norant, how that all our fatherswere under the cloud, and all passedthrough the sea ; and were all bap-tized unto Moses in the cloud andin the sea . . .Now these thingswere our examples, to the inten twe should not lust after evil things ,as they also lusted . Neither be yeidolaters, as were some of them .Neither . let us ; tempt Christ, assome of them also tempted, an dwere destroyed of . serpents. . Neith-

er murmur ye, as some of them als omurmured, and were destroyed ofthe destroyer . Now all these thingshappened unto them for ensamples :and they are written for our ad -monition, upon whom the ends o fthe world [ages] are come" —1 Cor. 10 :1-11 ,

God's people of today, then ,should look back on the historyof the Jews and profit by their ex-periences . They should rememberthe Lord's leadings of the past—the pillar of fire by night and ofcloud by day. They should call tomind the fact that when they werehungry for the bread of life whic hthey could not obtain in the nom-inal church systems, the Lord sen tthem the truth . And He supplie dto them the pure water which is a sa well or fountain "springing upinto everlasting life ."—John 4 :14 .

Then they have the prospect ofthe Promised Land . And what ahomecoming that will mean forthem. One of our sacred songs ex -presses the following thought,"An unchangeable home is for yo u

and for me ,Where Jesus of Nazareth stands .The King of all Kingdoms forever

He'll be,And His saints will be crowned a t

His hands . "

The experience of the Israelite salso shows the danger that lies inthe increase of earthly possessions .The tendency of such is to draw theheart away from God and to causeus to take the credit for our succes sto ourselves . Moses well knew th edanger of this and therefore gav ethe people the necessary warning.

QUESTIONS :Why is God's leadings of the Nat-

ural Israelites especially interestin gto us today ?

Point out what qualities Mose spossessed as a great leader of th epeople .

What were the past benefits thatthe people were told to remember ,

Draw a comparison between th eexperiences of the Hebrews in thewilderness and the Lord's follower sof today .

What danger lies in the increase ofearthly possessions? Quote Scrip-ture texts to prove your point.

October 3--John 3 :1-6, 18-24 .

John 3 :L There was a man of th ePharisees, named Nicodemus, a rulerof the Jews :

2 The same came to Jesus by night ,and said unto Him, Rabbi, we kno wthat thou art a teacher come fromGod : for no man can do these mir-acles that thou doest, except God bewith him.

3 Jesus answered and said unt ohim, Verily, verily, I say unto thee ,except a man be born again, he can-not see the kingdom of God .

4 Nicodemus saith unto Him, Howcan a man be born when he is old ?Can he enter the second time intohis mother's womb and be born ?

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily,I say unto thee, Except a man beborn of water and of the Spirit ,he cannot enter into the kingdom ofGod .

6 That which is born of the flesh -is flesh ; and that which is born o fthe Spirit is spirit.

* * *18 He that believeth on Him is no t

condemned : but he that believeth no tis condemned already, because -hehath not believed in the name of th eonly begotten Son of God .

19 And this is the condemnation ,that light is come into the world,and men loved darkness rather thanlight, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evilhateth the light, neither cometh t othe light, lest his deeds should b ereproved.

21 But he that doeth truth comet hto the light, that his deeds may b emade manifest, that they arewrought in God .

22 After these things came Jesu sand His disciples into the land o fJudea ; and there He tarried wit hthem, and baptized .

23 And John also was baptizing i nAenon near to Salim, because therewas much water there : and theycame, and were baptized .

24 For John was not yet cast int oprison .

GOLDEN TEXT : But as many asreceived Him, to them gave He the

25power to become the sons of God,

even to them that believe o nHis name.—John 1 :12 .

EOPLE had various idea sabout Jesus . Some thoughtthat He was the Messiah ,and others believed that He

was a prophet . Nicodemus hadheard of the miracles wrought byJesus, and possibly had seen som eof these performed. He believedthat a personal interview with th egreat teacher would probably bethe means of clearing up some mat-ters in his mind, and cause him tomore definitely understand exactlythe position that Jesus occupiedand His mission in the world . So,he came to Jesus by night, possiblybecause he thought that under coverof the darkness he would onot beobserved .

The way that our Lord blockedthis Pharisee at the very beginnin gof the conversation is remarkable .The Master evidently knew tha this visitor would not understandthe nature of the divine Kingdomeven if it were explained to him,and so He made the astonishingstatement, "Except a man be bornagain, he cannot see the Kingdomof God . "

The Greek word translated "see",here is "eido," which signifies "toknow" or be acquainted with.Even the disciples of Jesus did notknow the character of the divineKingdom at this time, nor wasthe matter clearly revealed to themuntil the coming of the holy spiri tat Pentecost . But the disciples didfollow the light that they had, an dthis was necessary before morelight should be sent to them . Theyknew that Jesus was .good and true,and that He was operating in th espirit of God ; and so we read con-cerning certain ones that "the yforsook all, and followed Him ."—Luke 5 :11 .

As to the word "born" whichJesus used, there has been muchcontroversy concerning it . A mod-ern commentator has said : "TheGreek word `gennao' and it sderivatives, sometimes translated`begotten' and sometimes, `born, 'really contains both ideas, there-fore it should be translated b yeither one of these two Englishwords, according to the sense of

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the passage in which it occurs .When the active agent with which`gennao' is associated is a maleit should be translated 'begotten ; 'when a female, `born .' Used inconnection with `ek' , signifying`from' or `out of,' it should betranslated ` born . ' So in John 3 :5 ,6, `gennao ' should be translated` born,' as indicated by the wordek' , or `ex . "The Master stated a great truth

when He said, "That which ishorn of the flesh is flesh, and thatwhich is born of the Spirit i sspirit. " Then He went on to say ,"The wind bloweth where it listeth,anct thou hearest the sound thereof ,but canst not tell whence it cometh ,and whither it goeth : so is ever yone that is born of the Spirit . "

That which stamps the nature ofany being is its body . He who hasa human body is a human being ;and he who has the body of an an -gel is an angelic being . Those whoare born into the spirit world pos-sess different bodies from those o fearthly creatures ; and those borninto the spirit realm can come andgo like the wind, and no one cantell whence they come or whitherthey go. Nicodemus was a Phari-see, and his interpretation of th eScriptures taught him to believein angels, and spirits, so there mayhave . been imparted to his min d,some meaning of the Master' s'words in this particular connec-' tion ; yet lie asked the question ,

.'How can these things be?" for,doubtless, he wanted some furtherelucidation 'of . the entire matter .And thereply of Jesus was, "Artthou a master of Israel, and know -tit not these. things ?"

Alas, how many masters ther eare in nominal spiritual Israel,or Christendom, today who do notknow these things ! What confus-ion of teaching there is! Mos tpeople know nothing at all aboutthe earthly phase of the divineKingdom, and the reason for takingthe church to heaven is entirelymisunderstood . Some blend to-gether the earthly and the spiritnatures, claiming that man containsa spark of immortality and neveractually dies . They seem quite, ignso rant of the fact that, God cre-ated every being on its own planeof life, and that the blending of

different natures is contrary to Hi slaw .

The whole human family is con-demned in Adam, and that is whatthe Master meant by saying, "Hethat believeth not is condemnedalready ."

QUESTIONS :Why Klid Nicodemus come t o

Jesus? Why did Jesus reply to him as

He did? Had the time come for thetruth concerning the Kingdom to b efully revealed ?

Explain the meaning of the Gree kword that has been translated "see"in the sentence, "He cannot see th eKingdom of God . "

Tell what you know , about th eword translated "born . "

What stamps the nature of anycreated being ?

Point out the various irregularitie sand inconsistencies of some of theteachings of Christendom at th epresent time .

THE CHRISTIAN IN GOD' SKEEPING

October 10—Jude 1-4 ;' 17-25 .

1 Jude, the servant of Jesu sChrist, and brother of James, tothem that are sanctified by God theFather, and preserved in JesusChrist, and called :

2 Mercy unto you, and peace, an dlove, be multiplied.

3 Beloved, when I gave all dili-gence to write unto you of the com-mon salvation, it was needful fo rme to write unto you, and exhortyou that ye should earnestly con -tend for the faith which was onc edelivered unto the saints .

4 For there are certain -men crep tin unawares, who were before of oldordained to this condemnation, un-godly men, turning the grace of ourGod into lasciviousness, and denyingthe only Lord God, and our Lor dJesus Christ .

* 5

17 But, beloved, remember ye th ewords which were spoken before o fthe apostles of our Lord Jesu sChrist ;

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18 Tow that they told -yau 'thereshould be mockers , in the last time,who should walk after :their ownungodly lusts . "

:19 These be they, who separatethemselves, sensual, having not th eSpirit .

20 But ye, beloved, building upyourselves 'on your most 'holy faith ,praying in the Holy Spirit,

21 Keep yourselves in the love o f-,God, looking for the mercy of ourLord Jesus Christ unto eternal life .

22 And of some have 'compassion ,making a difference :

23 And others save with fear, pull-ing them out of the fire ; hatingeven the garment spotted by. theflesh .

24 Now unto Him that is able tokeep you from falling, and to presen tyou faultless before the presence o fHis glory with exceeding joy,

25 To the only wise God ourSaviour, be glory and majesty, do:-minion and power, both now andfor ever . Amen .

GOLDEN TEXT : Keep yourselve sin the love of God, looking for th e

mercy of our Lord Jesus Chris tunto eternal life .—Jude 21 .

From Zion's Watch Tower re -prints of June. 15 1907, page4008, we take the following :

"We must hold to the faith, oncedelivered to the saints, that ourLord left the glory which He hadwith the Father before the worldwas, that He humbled Himself an dwas made flesh . . . tasted death fo revery man . ._This means addition-ally that we must contend that Hisdeath was a real death, the justfor the unjust. . . .We must alsohold to and contend earnestly forthe great fact that God's work dur-ing this Gospel Age is the selectio nof the bride of Christ—the churchof the first-born-and that thiselection, completed at our Lord 'ssecond coming, will have its con -summation in the resurrection o fthe little flock to glory, honor andimmortality in the Kingdom, as theroyal priesthood under Christ theirroyal Head and High Priest, that

(Continued on page 32)

WANT someone to read the first verse of the22nd chapter of Genesis," said Uncle Eb ,when we were all ready for our Bible story .Peter quickly found the verse and read :

`'And it came to pass after these things, that God di dtempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham : andhe said, Behold, here I am . "

"All right, Peter, " said Uncle Eb . "Now who cantell me what it means to tempt?"

"I think it means to try to get another person to dowrong," said John .

"Yes, that is generally the meaning of the word, "replied Uncle Eb . "But tell me this : does God temptpeople to do wrong ?"

"No, I don't think He does," answered Ruth ."That is quite correct, " answered Uncle Eb . The

Bible says : `God cannot be tempted with evil, neithe rtempteth He any man.' And yet Peter has just readthat God tempted Abraham . The solution of thematter is this . The Old Testament was written i nHebrew, not in English, and it had to be translate dinto our language. In the Hebrew, the word use dmeans `to test, ' not ` to tempt . ' God tests people,but He does not tempt them to do wrong . Now hereis another question for you : What is a sacrifice ?"

"It is something that a . person offers up to God, "said Paul.

"Yes, that is a very good answer, " replied UncleEb . "You will remember that Cain and Abel bothoffered up sacrifices to God, and that God was pleasedwith Abel's offering, but not with Cain's . Abel's giftwas an animal, and it was rendered in faith . Cain ' sgift consisted of `the fruit of the ground,' and it wasnot given in faith . When Noah came out of the ar kwith his family, he offered a sacrifice to God . It wascustomary in those days to offer up sacrifices quit efrequently .

"Now you know about Isaac, for he is one of thegreat characters of the Old Testament . He was theson of Abraham 's old age, for the patriarch was ahundred years old when Isaac was born . Isaac was avery noble boy and he grew up to be a fine youn gman. Abraham was then living in the land of Can-aan. You will remember that God had called hi mto come forth from the land of Chaldea because of th egreat idolatry that prevailed in that country . The

Lord said that He would make of Abraham a greatnation, and bless all the world through him and hisseed . Now Isaac was the seed of Abraham, the onlyseed that God recognized, and that makes it seem al lthe more strange that God should have asked Abra-ham to do the thing that He did .

"Yes, God asked Abraham to do a very remarkablething, indeed . What do you suppose it was? Pro-bably you remember it from former stories . God ask-ed the patriarch to sacrifice his son . And that mean tto actually kill him . We'll now have John read th e2nd verse of Genesis 22 . "

"Here it is, " said John, who read, "And He sai dTake now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom tho ulowest, and get thee into the land of Moriah ; andoffer him there for a burnt offering upon one of th emountains which I will tell thee of ." -

"All right, John. We can suppose that Abraha mwas tremendously surprised at receiving such a com-mand as that from the Lord . There is no other com-mand like it in the Bible . Of course, Abraham couldhave refused, had he so desired . God would not hav ecompelled him, for He wanted willing obedience, no tthe kind that 's forced, and, moreover, the Lord wish-ed to find out if Abraham had enough faith in theLord to do such a thing .

"When people don't want to do something, theygenerally try to reason themselves out of it . That i sthe way of the world. I knew a boy one time who di dthis . His father had asked him to do some weedingin the garden, and the boy reasoned that it woul dnet be good for the garden to weed it while the sunwas shining brightly, so he would leave it till theevening ; but when the evening came, he found some -thing else to do, so the garden didn't get weeded a tall .

"But that was not the way with Abraham. He didnot indulge in any false reasoning in the matter .He thought that if God wanted him to sacrificeIsaac, he would certainly do it . He arose very earlyin the morning, before the sun had come up . He had.a three days ' journey before him . He took Isaac an dsome young men and some animals . On the thirdday, he found himself near Mount Moriah, and hetold the young men to stay behind and he and hi sson would go up into the mountain to worship and

28

that later on they would rejoin them. I wonder i fhe thought that Isaac would actually return wit hhim. Perhaps he did, for the Scriptures tell us thathe believed that if he killed his son, God couldxaise him up from the dead. All this goes to sho wthat fie had great faith in God .

"Abraham took wood with him for the sacrifice .In tact, Isaac carried the wood, for his father was a nold man. There was also a great sharp knife whichhad been taken for the purpose of killing something..But what was that something? Isaac did not know ,:for he said to his father, 'nehold the hre and theWood : out where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 'rind Aoraham said unto him, ' My son, God wil lprovide himself a lamb for a burnt offering . '

Now can ' t you imagine that you see these twotramping up the mountain side? Isaac did not kno wwhat was to take place, but the heart of his father

must have been very sad . His son had been the prid e

and joy of , his life . It surely was a terribly hardthing that God had asked him to do . But his resolu-tion never seemed to waver : his mind was bent ondoing exactly what God had required of him . At'length, the two reached the place where God had tol d

them, to go ."Abraham built an altar, and then he bound Isaa c

and laid him on the wood. No doubt Isaac coul dhave resisted him, for he was a big, strong young

man ; but he seemed to be quite willing to be killedif that was the right thing . Then Abraham raisedhigh the glittering knife and was about to plungeit into the ,heart of his son, but suddenly the ange lOf God called to him and said, `Lay not thine handupon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him :for now I know that thou hast reverence for thy

God ; seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thineonly son, from me . '

"Then Abraham beheld a ram caught in the thick -

et by his horns ; so Abraham went and caught therani and offered him up as a burnt offering in plac e

of his son. And now we'll ask Esther to read Gen-esis, chapter 22, beginning at the 15th verse . "

So Esther read as follows : "And the angel of the

LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the secon dtime, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith th e

LORD ; for because thou hast done this thing, andhast not withheld thy son, thine only son ; That inblessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I wil lmultiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and a sthe sand which is upon the sea shore ; and thy seedshall possess the gate of his enemies ; and in thy seedshall all the nations of the earth be blessed ; becausethou hast obeyed my voice . "

"All right, Esther ; thank you," said Uncle Eb .'And now I have a question to ask you . Any onemay answer it . Is there any other case mentionedin the Bible where we are told that a father offere dup his son? Well, Peter, you seem to be ready wit han answer, so what do you say ?"

"The only other case I know," replied Peter, "was

The Dawn

when God, the Heavenly Father, offered up his Son ,Jesus ."

"Yes, exactly," said Uncle Lb . "Of course, ther ewas no command laid upon God to do this ; for nonecould command God . Neither did the Heavenly Fath-er compel Jesus to die . It was love that prompted thegreat sacrifice . Jesus gave himself as an offeringfor the whole world of mankind . First of all, Heleft the heavenly glory and consented to be born int othis sinful world. And you all know how He wa sborn in a manger . "Then, in due time, He became aman and preached to the people and worked mir-acles . And then, finally, he was crucified on Cal-vary. He died for all of us, so that we may gainhe in the future . That was a wonderful sacrifice ,indeed. Then, on the third day, God raised Jesusfrom the :dead, and forty days later, He ascende dup to heaven ; and He has been there throughout th eGospel age down to this present time .

"Uncle Eb ." said Paul, "couldn 't the HeavenlyFather have saved the world in some other way than .by sacrificing his son? "

" That is quite a question, Paul," replied Uncl eEb. "The fact is, however, that the Heavenly Fatheralways does what's right and what 's best . You see ,Jesus took the death sentence upon Himself, and fo rthis reason God ***ill lift that sentence off the world ,in due time. People are dying today at the rate o fmore than a hundred-thousand in every twenty-fourhours . The Apostle Paul tells us that because ofHis sacrifice, Christ Jesus will reign till He has putall enemlies under His feet, and the last enemy to b edestroyed is death . Then the book of Revelation says,'There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, no rcrying, neither shall there be any more pain : for theformer things are passed away .' So, then, you cansee the glorious conditions that shall arise on theearth because Jesus died. Just as God conferred ablessing upon Abraham, even so He conferred oneupon Jesus ; for the Scriptures say that ` God alsobath highly exalted Him, and given Him a namewhich is above every name : that at the name of Jesu severy knee should bow, of things in heaven, andthings in earth, and things under the earth [in thegrave] ; and that every tongue should confess thatJesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father . '

"Isaac is said to be a type or kind of picture o fJesus . You see, Isaac was a willing sacrifice, and s owas Jesus . Then, Abraham becomes a picture of theHeavenly Father, for He was willing, too . Andas Isaac was Abraham 's heir, so also, Jesus becamethe heir of great favor and blessing, and, in du etime, He will bless the world with health, peace ,happiness and life . And the church, Christ ' s gloriousbride, will be associated with Him in this work . Inthe Scriptures the days when such things will tak eplace are called `times of restitution'—meaning tha tn nkind will be given a very good chance of gettingback all that was lost through Adam's disobedience ,and, as you know, that includes life and the domin-ion of earth . Such blessings have been made possiblethrough the death of God's dear Son."

LABOR DAY CONVENTION S(Cont ;niied from inside front cover )

itorium is cool, comfortable and easily accessible .Friends everywhere are cordially invited. For addi-tional information address the class secretary : Mrs .B. H. Graffis, 199 S. Easthaven Avenue, Richmond ,Indiana.

OTHER COMING CONVENTIONSSPRINGFIELD, MASS.—ITALIAN CONVENTION ,

September 12 . The Italian friends will hold this con-vention in the King Philip Stockade, Forest Park.There will be an immersion service ear'ly in the after -noon .

BROOKLYN, N. Y., September 19—The HarvestTruth Ecclesia, meeting at the Y . M. C. A., CarltonAvenue, will hold a Convention on the above date ,beginning at 9 :45 A. M. A cordial welcome awaits al lwho may be able to attend .

DENTON, MD . September 19. All meetings wil lbe held in Firemen's Hall . For further particular saddress : Mr . C. Ellwood Bright, Hobbs, Md .

ST. LOUIS, MO ., October 2, 3 . The friends in St .Louis are anticipating a spiritual feast at their two -

par . (Reprints—top 2099)—1915, pageprints—5726, par . 5-7 )

(4) `We"-nnderpriests .Heb . 3 :1, 2 ; 4 :14 ; 13 :10-16 . 1Peter 2 :9.Tabernacle Shadows—page 22-23 ; chapter III .Watch Tower—1903, page 405, last 2 par : (Re-prints—3265, par . 3, 4) 1914, page 359, col . 2 .(Reprints—5585, col. 2, par. 6 to end )

(5) Other illustrations of our relationship to Christ .a—Bride . Revelation 19 :7 ; 21 :9 ; 22 :17 .

Watch Towers—1911, page 86, par. 5-10. (Reprints-4783, col . 2, par. 3 to 4784, par . 3 )

b—Soldiers . 2 Tim. 2 :3 ; Eph. 6 :11, 13.Watch Towers1903, page 84 (Reprints—3162 ,col. 2) 1914, page 54 . (Reprints—5404, par . 2 t oend) .

c—Sheep . John 10 :1-16 .Watch Towers—1900, bet . page 229 to end (Re-prints—2672) 1899, page 64, par . 5-8 (Reprints-2442, top half )

d—Temple Stones . 1 Cor. 3 :16, 17 ; 1 Peter 2 :4, 5.Watch Towers—1905, page 317, par . 5-7 (Reprints-3651, par. 3-6) 1914, page 220, par. 5 to top ofpage 221 (Reprints—5504, top half )

e—Disciples . Luke 14 :26, 27, 33 ; Matt. 10 :24.Watch Towers—1915, page 154, (Reprints—5691 ,par . 1-4) 1914, bot . page 90 to 91 par. 8 . (Reprints-5425, bet . 5426, col . 1 .

day convention . For further information write : Mr . J.B. Bernoudy, 7033 Lindell Blvd . ; St . Louis, Mo .

CHICAGO, ILL ., October 3 . This semi-annual con-vention will be held in the regular meeting place o fthe Chicago Bible Students, 910 N . La Salle Street.Further information obtainable from the secretary :Mr. I . C. Foss, 5944 N . Knox Avenue, Chicago, Ill .

COLUMBUS, OHIO, October 10 . The Bible Student sclasses at Zanesville, Newark and Columbus are co -operating to make this gathering a success . At 3 P. M.there will be a public meeting in the High School aud-itorium. Additional information obtainable from :Miss Mary Christian, 65 Chestnut Street, Newark,Ohio .

JACKSON, MICH ., October 17 . This will be the4th Annual Reunion gathering of the Jackson friend ssince they organized as an independent Bible Studentsclass . Further information obtainable from : Mr. A. A.Lutz, 743 W. Morrell St ., Jackson, Mich .

PITTSBURGH, PA ., October 22-24. The Ninth An-nual Reunion Convention will be held a week earlie rthan usual this year in the old Bible House on Arc hStreet For particulars, write the class secretary, Mr .J . C. Jordan, 247 Greenwood Avenue, Pittsburgh, 2, Pa .

THE DIVINE FAMILY

TEXT : To us there is but one God, the Father ,of whom are all things, and we for Him ; and one

Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we

by Him,—1 Corinthians 8 :6 .

Third Part—We, the Church, to be treated i nfour sections :

Section I . "We"—in our relationship to God .Section II . "We"—in our relationship to Christ .Section III .—"We" in our relationship to each

other .Section IV. "We"—our individual responsibility .

Section IhOur relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ .(1) What is meant by "and we by Him" ?

Watch Towers—1887, page 7 (Reprints—965 )

(2) "We"—His body, His brethren, His joint-heirs.1 Cor . 12 :27 ; Eph. 5 :23 ; Heb. 2 :11, 12 ; Rom. 8 :17, 29 .Scripture Studies—Vol . 5, page 109, 144-147 .Watch Towers—1901, page 183 last par. (Reprints-2824, par . 1)—1895, page 132, col, 2 to 133 par . 1(Reprints—1820, par . 4-7) .

(3) "We"—servants, bond-slaves of Christ .1 Cor . 6 :20 ; 7 :23 ; 1 Peter 1 :18, 19 .Scripture Studies—Vol . 5, page 432, par . 1, 2 ; pag e452, par 3, 4 . Watch Towers-1897, page 34, last

Talking Thingf Ov¢ r

THE LONDON CONVENTIO N

`3E following report of the London, England,Convention, held July 31-August 2, will be ,we believe, of interest to all . It is encour-aging to realize that there are dear brethre n

in Christ in other parts of the world who are rejoic -ing in the same precious truth that so rejoices ou rown hearts, and while customs may vary, yetthe truth is the same in every land . Our LovingHeavenly Father, whom we have learned to knowthrough the truth, is caring for and guiding Hi speople wherever they may be . The report follows

"Within ten minutes ride of Buckingham Palace ,the home of the king and queen of the world 's largestremaining empire, there gathered on July thirty-first and August first and second, a little company o fearnest Bible Students, for the purpose of consider-ing together the vital issues concerning their hopeof some day becoming kings together with the Kingof kings, in that future and glorious Universal Em-pire which is to rule `from sea to sea, and from th erivers unto the ends of the earth . ' Judging from th eoutward appearance, however, one would never sup -pose that these saints of God, unknown and unrecog-nized by the world, were so rich in hope .

"They were just the ordinary kind of folk, even a strue Christians for the most part have always been .`Not many rich, not many noble,' but chiefly the poorof this world, rich in faith were among them ; and yet ,by the authority of God's Word, and in all humility ,they told you that they had been Made partakers o fthe `high calling of God in Christ Jesus,' and tha tif they should `suffer with Him,' they were certainthat they would also `reign with Him . ' In view of th efirm foundation upon whir: h their faith rested, onecouldn't help believing than their hopes were full yjustified. Indeed, to meet th them and to convers ewith them, caused one to e : : 1aim

'Ain these are of a royal line,All children of a King.

Heirs of immortal ., ce'vns divine ,And lo, for joy ti,ey sing !

`Why do they, then, appear so mean ?And why so mu(1, despised?

Because of their rich: robes unsee nThe world is not apprised. '

"To a visitor from America there were a numberof things about the London Convention that stoodout in pleasing contrast to similar gatherings in the

United States . One of these was the manifestly sin-cere reverence displayed at all the sessions . This wasimpressed upon our minds at the very first meeting .Just before the meeting started the friends were, a susual, greeting each other and engaging in genera lconversation among themselves ; but when the chair-man arose to open the meeting, he asked for a mo-ment of silent meditation and prayer before singin gthe opening hymn ; and his request was instantlyheeded and granted by all present. One couldn'thelp realizing how much better this was, than to have rthe opening hymn of a meeting sung by a fewfriendsin the front seats while the remainder continue t otalk among themselves in the rear of the hall, as is so

often the case. After all, our hymns are really pray-ers to God, and praises for His love, for His truth ,for all that He means to us and has done for us, andwhy should we not sing them attentively and rev-erently ?

"And then at the close of each session, the friendsremained in their seats for a moment or two, as i floathe to leave the presence of God, or to withdrawthemselves too hastily from His sanctuary of bless-ing . This, too, seemed like a beautiful custom to onewho has been familiar with the rush of Americanlife .

"The fellowship at the London Convention wassweet and blessed . `Tea' was served between ses-sions. On these occasions, when the friends wereall seated around the tables, ready to eat, instead o fcalling upon one brother to return thanks, all joinedin `singing the blessing,' joining together in thefollowing words and music :

REMINGTO N

"The `Messages and Greetings ' that reached theconvention from those unable to attend `were no tonly cordial and inspiring, but were unusual in tha tthey came from such a widely-spread territory—fro mas far as Vancouver, B . C., in the West, to German yin the East ; and of course, from a large number o fplaces in Great Britain . Outstanding among thesemessages was one from a sister in Germany . Thismessage was sent in the form of a letter—the letter

September 193 7

having been opened and read by the German author-ities before it was permitted to leave the country .Naturally the sister was not able to say much as t othe condition of the friends in Germany, else he rletter would not have passed the authorities ; but sh edid explain that she had been hoping to attend th econvention, but was not permitted to do so . Alsothat she was passing through Calvary experiences,that the friends there had not sung a hymn for a longtime, etc . Surely the brethren in Germany and cer-tain other parts of Europe do need the prayers of thesaints everywhere .

-

-"The convention, in turn, voted to send a message ,

of love and greeting to the brethren generally, andparticularly in response to the greetings received :Ephesians 3 :14-21, and 2 Timothy 3 :14 were chose nas representing the sentiments of the convention to -ward the brethren throughout the world. Thesepassages read :

"'For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father o four Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family i nheaven and earth is named, that He would grant you ,according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthene dwith might by His Spirit in the inner man ; that Christmay dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being root-ed and grounded in love, may be able to comprehen dwith all saints what is the breadth, and length, an ddepth, and height ; and to know the love of Christ ,which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled withall the fulness of God . Now unto Him who is able t odo exceeding abundantly above all that we ask orthink, according to the power that worketh in us, unt oHim be glory in the church by Christ Jesus through-out all ages, world without end . '

`'But continue thou in the things which thou hastlearned and hast been assured of, knowing of who mthou halt learned them .'

-

-

$1-

ed him of the Scriptural proverb, which reads, Th eslothful man saith, There is a lion without, -I- shallbe slain in the street . ' —ProtTerbs 22 :11

"Brother Wenborn then explained that in largemeasure the British `lion' had been slain, in that i tcould no longer be said that there is no way of serv-ing the Lord. He related the experiences of some ofthe ,brethren in distributing `Kingdom Cards,' andthe fact that there had been an average of one re-sponse from each two hundred cards distributed ,which is about five times greater than the averageresponse from tract distribution even during th etime when the harvest work was going in `ful lswing .' And the interesting part of it, Brother Wen -born explained, is that the means have been unex-pectedly provided specifically for the purpose o ffurnishing these Kingdom Cards free to all thefriends in Great Britain who wish to use them .In view of this, he said there was no reason why anyof the brethren in the British Isles should now hol dback from bearing witness to the truth . *

" Brother Luttichau, in one of his talks, told o fsome interesting experiences he had enjoyed i nserving the Lord, the truth and the brethren in Den -mark and other European countries, as well as i nGreat Britain . One incident he related emphasizedthe fact that in Denmark, as well as in other part sof the world, there are still those who have a hearingear for the truth, and that the brethren who arealert will find opportunities to serve . He said thata number of years ago lie had been called to serveat a funeral, and that recently, a lady who attendedthat funeral service—a person with whom he wa snot at all acquainted—called him on the telephon eto ask a number of questions pertaining to the Bible.After replying as best he could over the 'phone, hesuggested that he would be glad to come to her home

"The address of welcome was given by Brother and talk these matters over further . She was please d

F . T.S P daddress

London .welcome wa

swho served on the with the suggestion, and a few days later telephone d

program, were : Brothers H . Osborne of Warring- again, explaining that her r husband was also muc hinterested, and that they would like- to have him

ton ; C. T. Ward of Kettering ; E. W. Wenborn of come on a certain -evening and - discuss the trut hLight—water ; C . Luttichau of Denmark ; W. N . Wood- with them . When he arrived at their home he foun dworth of Brooklyn ; G. Absalom of Beeston ; and that they had invited their friends also, so that ther eC. F. Barratt of Leicester . God 's power to keep was quite a company to whom he had the privilegeHis people ; the necessity for an individual faith in of witnessing the truth . He said that the interes tGod and in His promises ; loyalty to the truth which has continued so that now these folks are deeplywe have received ; the vital importance of brotherly interested in the truths of the divne plan .love; our privileges as ambassadors of Christ in let "Four brethren were immersed at the convention ,ting our light shine out for the blessing of others

; and at the other end of London on the same day .and Christian growth in grace and knowledge, wer eamong the principal themes discussed by these var - eight others symbolized their consecration to be dead

ions bretlu en,

with Christ—to `follow the Lamb withersoever He .

"Brother Wenborn pointed out with emphasis goeth .' (Rev. 14 :4 .) By this means also, we ha d

that we cannot hope to hold the truth ourselves, and impressed upon us that the Lord is working the sam e

continue to rejoice in it, except as we use every avail- - way in Great Britain as He is in other parts of the

able opportunity to share it with fathers. In dis-

world, that His truth is still being proclaimed here ,and that by means of the truth some are still re-

cussing this point he mentioned the reluctance of sponding to the call and entering the race `for thesome of the brethren to he active in the service __—of the truth due to the supposed lack of opportunities "Experiments with these Kingdom Cards are bein gand facilities for service . He said that it always was made in the United States, and if they are as effectiv eeasy to find excuses to justify ourselves in being idle here as in Great Britain, The Dawn will be glad t oChristians ; and that these excuses sometinzies remind- furnish them free to all who desire to use them .

32

prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus . '"It was a blessed convention, long. to be remem-

bered by all who attended . "

AN OPPORTUNITYWe believe the following report of an opportunit y

to preach the truth at a funeral service held in Ind-iana, will he of considerable interest :

"Many years ago Brother Aaron and Sister SarahKlepinger, members of a Dunkard community, nea rPeru, Indiana, received the truth. Their daughte rNina, though raised in the truth, never saw the priv-ilege of consecration, but believed in the `Plan of God 'are, :oDked forward to restitution . Seven years ago shemarried and with her husband located in Peru, wher eshe has been very active in business and professiona lwomen's clubs, and where she added to a host of child -hood friends. Her parents continued to live on the oldhomestead in the country.

"The young woman passed away on July 18th, andby reason of long and old associations, the Pipe Cree kTownship Community Church of the United Brethre nwas made available for the funeral service on July20th, where were gathered between three and fou rhundred friends of the deceased and her family, rep-resenting .a cross-cut of the whole social life of thecommunity, including business, professional and work-ing people from the city, with a preponderance of th ecountry folk, including a generous representation fro mthe congregations of the United Brethren and th eDunkards— the ladies wearing their sombre garband quaint little bonnets, and the men with their longbeards and broad-rimmed black hats .

"The minister of the church and his wife and thre eof their congregation provided the musical numbers

The Dawn

for the service which was conducted by Brother Er-nest Wylam of Chicago . The discourse consisted of aresume of God's plan from the creation to restitution ,with emphasis being laid upon the true doctrines o fmortality and immortality, the trinity, resurrection an drestitution. Thus a rather wide witness was given t oa very considerable number of people who would no tordinarily have been willing to listen long enough toa discussion of the truth to acquire a rational knowl-edge of what it is all about, and it is hoped that muc hgood may result immediately from this effort to furthe rspread the knowledge of the kingdom . Whether this beso or not, we are sure that the listeners will ulti-mately be benefited by thus hearing about God's plan .

"Sympathy is expressed for the relatives and friendsof- the deceased . "

RESULTS FROM PUBLIC WITNESSThe following letter from the Los Angeles clas s

becomes another evidence that the Lord is still bless-ing efforts to proclaim His truth .

"Dear Brethren : You will be glad to know that thepublic witness given at our recent convention, her ein Los Angeles, has produced some very encouragin gresults .

."Our follow up work, calling on people who request-

ed the booklet "God and Reason," shows conclusivelythat there is still an opportunity to reach hungry .hearts . Many who had read the booklet were anxiou sfor more light. The workers were able to place 1 6copies of `The Divine Plan,' (new edition), and almos tevery one took the booklet, `Day of Jehovah . '

"We offered them a trial subscription to the Daw nfor three months, and from the enclosed list you will se ethe result—54 names . Your brethren in the Service . "

Christian in God's Keepin g(Continued from page 26)

as the spiritual seed of Abrahamthey may fulfil the AbrahamicCovenant, 'In thy Seed shall all thefamilies of the earth be blessed . '

"For all these fundamentals o four religion, including the declara-tion that sin entered into the worldby Adam's transgression and thatwe are all partakers of his sin andits penalty, and all need redemp-tion--all these first principles o fthe faith we must stand for, con-tend for . . . . But aside from suchfundamentals, the Lord 's peopleshould seek to exercise great mod-eration amongst themselves uponany point of doctrine not clearlyenunciated .

" `Building up yourselves on you rmost holy faith . ' This expressionimplies that God expects growth,development, on the part of Hispeople . We are to keep ourselves in

the love of God. If we find our-selves lacking in the love of th eLord or love for His people, w eshould earnestly seek to get more o fthis divine attribute into our hearts .

" `And of some have compassion ,making a difference . ' This sig-nifies that we should see the dif-ference between those who ar ewalking after the flesh and thos ewho are walking after the spirit,and should act accordingly . Some,whose hearts are right, are merelytrapped by the adversary on som epoint of behavior or of doctrine .Others, again, are drawn into sinsof a more serious character, an dtheir actions have, to some ex-tent', the consent of their wills .To such we may have to use greatplainness of speech, clearly pointingout to them the error of theirways ; for in saving them from sin,we are saving them from the seconddeath, as it were, 'pulling themout of the fire .'

"'Now unto Him that is able to

keep you from falling' —Yes, in -deed, the Lord can keep our -fee ton the pathway if we trust in Himand keep close to Him in faithin communion, and in love . "If ye'do these things ' ye shall nevierfall," said the Apostle Peter . Thesewords and the things referred toare set forth in 2 Peter 1 :5-10.By doing such things, the mindtakes on a `crystallized characte rof righteousness, which means th eability to resist temptation and tostand against the world, the fleshand the great adversary, who isever on the alert to entrap the un-wary and those living beneath thei rprivileges . "

QUESTIONS :What is the "common salvation "

alluded to by the apostle ?Explain how certain ones turn the

grace of God into lasciviousness an ddeny the Lord .

How is the development of Christ-ian character accomplished?

September 1937

33

"GOOD HOPES" REPORT(For Months of April, May and June, 1937 )

FREE TRACT FUN DA1-407-431 $ 18 .9 51-410 10 .0 01-411 50 01-414 25 .0 01-415 8 .0 01-416 5 .0 01-425 6 .0 01-430 5 .00Balance April 1 53 .0 6From General Fund 600 .00

Total $736,.01Total number of tract pages of free literatur eof various kinds sent out and charged againstthis fund, 761,160 .

Total cost of printing and shipping $627 .71

Balance in Free Tract Fund $108 .3 0

ADVERTISING FUN D1118-64-66 $ 2.0 08-63 10 .0 08-65 20 .0 0Balance April 1 192 .0 0

Total $224 .0 0Charged against this fund 16 .24

Balance in Advertising Fund $207 .76

FREE SUBSCRIPTION FUN DE5481-90 $ 9.9 051-82 51.005 -89 25 .0 0Balance April 1 73 .8 3Transferred from General Fund 300 .0 0

Total $413 .7 3Number of 3-months subscriptions charged tothis fund, 1101, at 25¢ each : $275 .25 . Num-ber of annual subscriptions charged agains tthis fund, 116 at $1 each : $116 .

Total charge $391.25

Balance in Free Subscription Fund $22.48

FREE BOOK FUND7-58 $5 .0 0Balance in Free Book Fund 6 .8 5

Total $11.8 5Charged against this fund, 61 books at 13 0each 7 .93

Balance in Free Book Fund $3 .92

TRAVELING SPEAKERS FUN DC3-411-516 78 .65 3491 $10 .0 03-415 . . . . . . . . . . . 10 .00 3493' 5 .0 03-457 . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .00 3-495 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .003-459 . . . . . . . . . . . 10 .00 3-498 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .0 03-460 . . . . . . . . . . . 10 .00 3(499 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .0 03-461 . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .00 3-500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .003-462 a 7 .00 3-502 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .003-462 . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 .00 1-504 : 10 .0 03-464 . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00 3-507 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .0 03-465 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .00 3-508 10 .0 03-468 . . . . . . . . . . 10 .0,0 3-509 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.0 03-469 . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .00 3-510 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .0 03-475 . . . . . . . . . . . 15 .00 3-511 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 .0 03-477 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 .00 3-512 10 .0 03-486 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .00 3-513 8 .0 03-487 5 .00 3-514 5 .3 03-488 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 Bal . April 1 68.9 43-490 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 .00 Transferred 50 .00

Total $437 .8 9Traveling Expenses of speakers 417.6 6

Balance in Traveling Speakers Fund $20 .2 3Number of class meetings served, 206, tota lattendance, 5,12 7Number of public meetings served, 22 ; tota lattendance, 2,493 .

GENERAL FUNDF6-1048-1140 $82 .65 6-1095 : $ 10 .0 06-1046 20 .00 6-1097 5 .0 06-1047 25 .00 6-1098 5 .0 06-1049 10 .00 6-1099 49 .0 06-1050 22 .00 6-1100 15 .0 06-1051 8 .00 6-1102 25 .0 06-1054 25 .00 6-1106 5 .0 06-1055 10 .00 6-1109 20 .0 06-1056 7 .35 6-1110 5 .0 06-1059 5 .00 6-1111 5 .0 06-1060 25 .00 6-1112 30 .0 06-1065 5 .30 6-1114 5 .0 06-1066 24 .00 6-1117 25 .0 06-1068 5.50 6 7118 10 .0 06-1069 10 .00 6-1119 25 .0 06-1071 5 .00 6-1121 . . . . : 10 .006-1075 5 .00 6-1124 5 .0 06-1076 20 .00 6-1125 5 .0 06-1077 10 .00 6-1128 5 .0 06-1078 5 .00 6-1131 5 .0 06-1079 20 .00 6-1132 5 .0 06-1080 5 .00 6-1136 20 .0 06-1081 30 .00 6-1141 5 .0 06-1082 10 .00 6-1142 10 .0 06-1084 5 .00 Bal . April 1 323 .3 76-1085 25 .00

Total $1142 .1 76-1088 5 .0 06-1091 10 .00 Transferred 950 .0 06-1093 50 .00

Balance

$192 .1 76-1094 20 .0 0

Co loo tine %c tptureo Qtleacip aCeac b

That the Church is "the Temple of the Living God' '—peculiarly "His workmanship" ; that its construc-tion has been in progress throughout the Gospel age —ever since Christ became the world's Redeemer an dthe chief corner stone of this Temple, through which ,when finished, God's blessings shall come "to all peo-ple," and they find access to Him.—1 Cor . 3 :16,17 ;Eph. 2 :20-22 ; Gen. 28 :14 ; Gal . 3 :29 .

That meantime the chiseling, shaping and polishing ,of consecrated believers in Christ's atonement for sin ,

s.~,. ..,_`<- ►i1

progresses ; and when the last of these "living stones, ""elect and precious," shall have been made ready, th egreat Master Workman will bring all together in th eFirst Resurrection ; and the Temple shall be filled wit hHis glory, and be the meeting place between God an dmen throughout the Millennium,—Rev . 15 :5-8 .

That the Basis of Hope for the Church and th eWorld, lies in the fact that "Jesus Christ, by the grac eof God, tasted death for every man," "a ransom forall," and will be "the true light which lighteth everyman that cometh into the world," "in due time."—Heb. 2 :9 ; John 1 :9 ; 1 Tim. 2 :5, 6 .

That the Hope of the Church is that she may be lik eher Lord, "see Him as He is," be a "partaker of th edivine nature," and share His glory as His joint-heir .-1 John 3 :2 ; John 17 :24 ; Rom. 8 :17; 2 Pet . 1 :4 .

That the present mission of the Church is the per-fecting of the saints for the future work of service ; t odevelop in herself every grace ; to be God's witness t othe world ; and to prepare to be the kings and priest sof the next age .—Eph. 4 :12 ; Matt . 24 :14 ; Rev. 1 :6 ;20 :6 .

That the hope for the World lies in the blessings ofknowledge and opportunity to be brought to all byChrist's Millennial Kingdom—the restitution of allthat was lost in Adam, to all the willing and obedient ,at the hands of their Redeemer and' His glorifiedChurch—when all the wilfully wicked will be destroyed.—Acts 3 :19-23 ; Isaiah 35 .

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