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THE ISLE OF CONTENTMENT

THE RESURRECTION HOPE

A :PECULIAR PEOPLE

' 1935 ,

,41 r.1.44t:

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2

T H E

Issue of July, 193 5

THE DAWN, entered as second class matter a tthe Brooklyn, N . Y. Post Office, October 17, 1932 ;Act of March 3, 1897 . Published monthly—form-erly semi-monthly—by the Dawn Publishers, Inc .—formerly the Associated Bible Students Radio Com-mittee—251 Washington Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.Subscription price, $1 a year .

CONVENTION ANNOUNCEMENT SBrooklyn, N . Y., July 7. This convention has bee n

postponed one week from June 30th . Brother A'. L. Muir, ofTampa, Florida, will be the principal speaker . The conven-tion opens at 10 :00 A. M. All sessions will be held in th eregular meeting place of the congregation, which is, th eLecture Room, Church of the Pilgrims, corner of Henry

and Remsen Streets, Brooklyn, N . Y. Conventient to bothIRT and BMT subways, Borer Hall Station .

Chicago Quarterly Convention, July 7. Thi swill be an all-Hay gathering--morning, afternoon and even-ing—and all sessions will be held at 910 La Salle Street,

Detroit, Mich ., July 4-7. This 4-day conventio nwill be held in the Highland Park Branch of the Y. M. C.

A ., 13220 Woodward Avenue . For full information concern-ing program, rooms, etc., address the Secretary, Mr . N. V .Dorris, 1317 Hancock Avenue . Special rates have been ob-tained in both the Y . M. C. A., and the Y . W. C. A., als oin hotels nearby . A spiritual feast is anticipated . All be-

lievers in the ransom are invited .

Junior Bible Students Convention, Detroit,Mich., July 6, 7. This convention will be held underthe auspices of the Junior Bible Students of Detroit . It wil lbe the third convention of its kitti ; and, judging from th e

others, it will prove to be a rich blessing for the young folk swho attend . It is expected that Junior Bible Students wil lattend from Chicago, Ill ., Buffalo, N . Y., Jackson, Mich . ,

Milwaukee, Wis ., and from other important cities . All ses-sions will be held in the Central Y . M. C. A., Witherall an dMonteath] Streets, Detroit, Mich . ,

Lincoln University, Pa ., July 14. Weather per-mitting, this convention will be held in the open air ; excep t

the public meeting., which will be in the Friend's Meeting

'House, close by . Those attending the convention will go di-rect to the farm home of Brother M . L. Ritchie . Brothe rRitchie will be glad to furnish information as to how t o

reach his home. Address him at Lincoln University, Pa .

Waukesha, Wis., July 14 . For information con-cerning this one-day gathering, address the Secretary, Mr .

H. D. White, R. F. D. 1, Waukesha, Wis .

Saginaw, Mich., July 21 . The friends in Nor-thern Michigan are expecting rich blessings at this gathering .Brother Morehouse, of Chicago, will serve on the program .

Sessions morning' and afternoon, in the Woman ' s Club, 31 1

North Jefferson Street .

Los Angeles, Calif., - August 4 . The mornin gsession of this convention will be held in the Christian Church ,

25th and Magnolia Streets, opening at 9 :30 . The mornin g

session will' be addressed by Brothers W . A. Heath, of Pas-

adena, and G. R. Pollock. of Los Angeles . The afternoonsession will be in the regular meeting hall of the Los Angele sEcclesia, which is the North Star Auditorium, 1631 Wes t

Adams Street . The principal discourse of the afternoon will

D A W N

be given by Brother Taliaferro . There also will be a testi-mony meeting and a symposium . For full information, ad-dress the Secretary, Mr . A. W. Abrahamsen, 2432 1-2Rimpau Blvd ., Los Angeles, California.

Nabnassett, Mass., August 4. Many of th efriends from Boston and vicinity are expecting' to atten dthis gathering . It is about 10 miles west of Lowell, and aconvenient motor trip from all parts of Massachusetts . Fordirections, program, etc ., address Mr. Axel Lundberg . Nab-nassett, Mass .

Brooklyn Labor Day Week-End Convention,Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, 2 . Ail sessions of this gatherin gwill he held in the Lecture Room, Church of the Pilgrims,corner of Henry and Remsen Streets, under the auspices ofthe Associated Bible Students of Greater New York. Theprogram committee is making every effort possible to ar-range a spiritually profitable and encou r aging program .Speakers from a wide range of territory will serve . A cord-ial invitation is extended to the friends everywhere to attendand share the blesssings . For full information address th eSecretary, Miss Norma Mitchell, 360 Third Avenue, Brook-lyn, N. Y .

Minneapolis, Minn ., Labor Day Week-EndConvention, Sept. 1, 2 . This gathering will be hel d

at the regular meeting place of the Minneapolis Ecclesia ,which is 2922 Cedar Avenue . The first session will open at10 : 15 A. M., Sunday September 1 . A cordial invitation i sextended to all who find it convenient to attend . Accom-modations will be provided for the visiting brethren . For ful linformation address the Secretary, Mr. John F. Cedarburg,4715 Bloomington Avenue, Minneapolis, Minn .

Saginaw, Mich., Labor Day Week-End Con-vention, Sept ., 1, 2 . This gathering will be held in th eWoman's Club Auditorium, 311 North Jefferson Street . TheSaginaw convention will be convenient for many of th efried is in Michigan, Ohio, Inliana, Illinois, etc., and a cor-dial invitation is extended to all . An interesting programis expected. For information address the Secretary, Mr . C.PI . Sundbom, 3418 Sheridan Rd., R. 4, Saginaw, Mich .

Vancouver, B. C., Labor Day Week-End Con-vention, Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, 2 . All sessions o fthis gathering will be held in Victory Hall, 535 HomerStreet, and there will be suitable accommodations within ashort distance of the convention hall . This gathering wil lserve well for a large section of the Northwest, both i nCanada and in the United States . The Vancouver friends ex-ten] a cordial invitation to all who can find it convenient toattend. Concerning the blessings anticipated at this gather-ing, the Secretary of the Vancouver Ecclesia of Associate dBible ;Students, writes, "Come and see! " For full particu-lars address, Mr. W. Wainwright, Burnaby, B . C., Canada .

St. Louis, Mo., September 27 and 28 . We areglad to make early announcement of this convention . Furthe rannouncements will be made later. For information addres sthe Secretary, Mr . J. B. Bernoudy, 7033 Lindell Avenue ,St . Louis, Mo.

Pittsburgh Annual Reunion , Convention,October 25-27. The Associated Bible Students of Pitts -burgh already are-making plans for their Seventh Annua lReunion Convention in October, and suggest that the brethreneverywhere keep the date in mind. Further (details will heannounced in The Dawn from time to time. .

Vol . 3, No. 10

JULY, 1935

One Dollar a Yea r

News 0 Views"Share-the-Wealth" Sponsored by President

HE PAST MONTH has been an eventfu lone in America ; especially in governmenta lcircles in Washington. Before the public hadfully recovered from the first shock incurre d

by the supreme court decision which brought to a nend the NRA industrial codes, the President sent amessage to congress asking for new tax laws thatwould practically eliminate many of the super for -tunes of the country, especially the- possibility of pass-ing those fortunes on to others by inheritance an dgifts . The President observes that there is a growin gunrest in America, due in no small measure to th efact that so much wealth is now concentrated in th ehands of so small a minority of the people . Concern-ing inherited wealth, the President says :

"My first proposal in line with this broad policy ,has to do with inheritances and gifts . The transmis-sion from one generation to another of vast fortunesby will, inheritance or gift, is not consistent with th eideals and sentiments of the American people :

"The desire to provide security for one 's self andone's family is natural and wholesome, but it is ade-quately served by a reasonable inheritance. Great ac-cumulations of wealth cannot be justified on the basi sof personal and family security . In the last analysi ssuch accumulations amount to the perpetuation o fgreat and undesirable concentration of control in arelatively few individuals over the employment andwelfare of many, many others .

" Such inherited economic power is as inconsisten twith the ideals of this generation as inherited polit-ical power was inconsistent with the ideals of the gen-eration which established our government . "

This radical proposal for greatly increased taxa-tion of the ultra rich stirred up a veritable "hornet' snest" among the outstanding political and economi cleaders of the country . Senator Huey Long, who' only

a few days before had addressed the Senate for six -teen consecutive hours, outlining many of his ow n"share the wealth " theories, said that he had no com-ment to make on the President's message other tha nto say, "Amen !" Later, however Mr . Long did com-ment on the President 's proposals, saying that if Mr .Roosevelt actually insists that Congress carry out hi sexpressed desires he would immediately move "acouple of hundred thousand" of his Share-the-Wealt hclubs into the New Deal camp .

But Mr. Long is dubious that the White Houseis merely playing politics . He says, "I have no faithin his (the President 's) promise, but if he' ll comealong and actually bust up every big fortune in Amer-ica, we would be out of the depression in 24 hours . "Minority Leader Snell thinks differently. He says,"There are now two kingfishes—Huey Long andPresident Roosevelt . He is trying to get the jump onHuey Long. If there is anything we can do to pre -vent improvement in business it is to adopt that pro-gram . " Thus the "wise men" of "this world" con-tinue to struggle with problems which human self-ishness makes impossible to solve .

The first share-the-wealth program that was everinstituted, of which we have any record, is tha twhich was put into operation in Israel more than fou rthousand years ago. God was the Author of that plan ,and it was given to the nation of Israel at the hand sof Moses . It was known as the law of the jubilee ,and it provided for a full redistribution of wealthevery fifty years . It was an equitable arrangement ,divinely inspired, but the selfishness of the peopl eprevented its being carried out satisfactorily . Thelaw of the jubilee was obeyed half-heartedly for afew times, and then ignored entirely . Can we hop efor any better results from a man-made law that aim sto accomplish a similar though not so radical a nideal ? There is opposition to the President 's new taxplans, although Senator Borah and other liberals ar einsisting on immediate passage .

4

The Social Security Plan

SIMULTANEOUSLY with the President 's outlineof his new "soak the rich" tax plans, the Senate pass-ed his social security measure, which at the time o fthis writing seems assured of becoming law . Themost outstanding immediate result of this law will b ethat within a month after the President ' s signatur eis affixed, every needy person over 65 years of ag ewill receive $15 a month from the federal govern-ment, in states where there is now no old age pensio nlaws in force . In states which have an old age pen-sion lacy, the federal government 's $15 allowancemust be matched by an additional $15 from the stat ebefore it becomes available . Every needy blind per-son will receive $15 a month from the federal govern-ment whether that amount is matched by state fund sor not .

This law, if and when it becomes operative, wil lprove a great boon to thousands of worthy elderl ypeople, as well as many of all ages who are withoutsight, and who now scarcely know where their nex tmeal is coming from . Incidentally it will put millionsof dollars into circulation, which will help to stimu-late business, thus benefiting others . It is a good law ,so far as it goes, and every right thinking person wil lbe glad to see it go on the statute book . It seemstime that some thought should be given to the age dwho have become unwitting victims of a cruel moneysystem controlled by the unrelenting selfishness o fthe over-privileged few .

The Bible student and Christian looks upon thesevarious efforts to patch up the old order and to bette rconditions for the aged and others, from the stand-point of divine prophecy. Bible prophecies show tha tdespite the noble efforts of a few of our lawmakers ,the deep-rooted selfishness of both the rich and th epoor, the employers and the employes, will eventu-ally bring about the downfall of all human authorityin the earth, thus preparing the way for the long -promised Kingdom of God .

A New NRA for a New Day

FOLLOWING the demise of the vital features o fthe National Industrial Recover Act, one of our cbr-t{espondents sends us a suggestion for what he call sa "New Deal for a New Day" ; or rather, he calls ou rattention to a "New Deal" that has been planned fo rall mankind by the Creator, and which is outlined i nthe Bible. Concerning it he says :

"This `New Deal ' was formulated in the mind o fGod before the foundation of the world—'accordingto the eternal purpose which He purposed in Chris t

Jesus our Lord . ' (Eph . (3 : 11 .) For that purpos e

God 'hath 'appointed a day in the which He will judgethe world in righteousness, by that man whom H ebath ordained, whereof He bath given assurance unt oall men in that He bath raised Him from the dead . '

—Acts 17 :31 ."God 's purpose is the `recovery ' of all that wa s

lost 'through the sin of Adam . It is a `New-day Re-covery Act ' because it belongs to the New Day—th eDay in which Christ's Kingdom will rule over the

D A W N

earth . The Supreme Court will not be able to de-stroy God 's New Deal, because His Kingdom `shal lstand forever . '

"The coming New Deal, to be inaugurated by th eMessiah, will be one in which sickness, pain an ddeath will gradually pass away, and `all things' wil lbe 'made new . ' Hail the Millennial Day ! Man ' sNew Deal may be dead, but Jehovah 's is near andwill be everlasting . "

C-a.ek Monasteries Closing Their Door s

AN ITEM IN the German newspaper, Anr:eiger ,tells of the troubles looming up for Greek monasterie sat Athos. We quote :

"Reliably we have learned that within the next fe wmonths the Greek Government will officially decre ethe closing of the densely populated monasteries thatfor 1,000 years have existed on the rocks and cliff sof Athos. The reasons for closing the holy mountai nare the economic difficulties which necessitate heav ysubsidies from the Greek Government . "

Continuing further this news dispatch quotes on eof the residents of Athos as saying :

"All is past, all is over. Before the beginning o fthe war which shook Europe and us, there were 15 ,000 monks : 17 monasteries were Greek, three shelt-ered the Russian, Serbian and Bulgarian monks . 250Kenias or small huts were here—each occupied b ythree or four monks . 150 hermits lived in complet eseclusion. In 1920 we numbered 5140 ; in 1933 wecounted 2500 ; and now, in 1935, we number onl y1935 . "

The report shows that this mystic was certain o fthe approaching doom of the monasteries, due to th e"symbology" of the number "35 . " Strangely enough,the Athos monasteries were founded in the year 935 ,the Greek Government now withdraws support fro mthem in 1935, and in this year also the number o fmonks is reduced to 1935 . Also, the famous marbl ecolumn, called the "Sign of Athos," is just 1935 me-ters high. In America we would call it superstitio nto attach significance to such things . But there i snothing much except superstition within the walls o fboth Greek and Roman Catholic monasteries . It mayseem like "doom's day" for the unfortunate monkswho are now finding themselves without a home, yetin the long run it will be better for them, and bette rfor the world in general .

The time is not far distant when the light from th erising "Sun of Righteousness " will pierce the gloo mof all the monasteries of earth, as well as all the othe rsecret chambers of mental cdi'arkness, and will en -lighten the world with a true knowledge of the lov-ing Creator . Indeed. it will require the drastic measures of the Messianic Kingdom to overcome the evi lresults of monastic influence in the world . Many ofthe God-dishonoring theories that still confuse th epeople in their search for God, were conceived be -hind monastery walls or in the caves of fanatical ,mystical hermits . .

T H E

T H E D A W N

5

THE GOLD STANDARD OF THE BIBLE

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15 " And the angel of the Los e&tlled unto Abraham out of heav e nthe second time,18 And said, By mrsc•lf have I

sworn, &11111 the Loses,, for becausethou bust done this thing, and has(not withheld thy son,thine only so w

17 That in blessing 1 still blessthee, and in nndtiph-mg 1 will mul-tiply thy seed as die stars of th eheaven, and as the sued whichis upon the sea shore ; and thy lseed shall possess the gate of hi senemies ;to And in thy seed shall all the ,

nations of theearth be blessed, Ic- Icanoe thou last obeyed Inv voce I

G ee s 22 :1518

Gal 3And the scripture frrec i n

that Cori would _tiff the heathenthrough faith, preached before thegospel mho Aleat us, saying, 1 a

e shall all nations be h I .,ed.

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HEN it was said that the United States wouldgo ott the gold standard, there were thos ewho saw in this a promise of prosperity.They said, It means that the dollar having

less purchasing power, the prices of practically al lcommodities will rise ; and men, having less confi-dence in money, will spend it more liberally, and wil linvest it in lands and other effects . " Others said i twould bring inflation and disaster . Money conftinue sto occupy man's attention .

Some claim that gold is too scarce to be a standard .It has been said that all the gold in the world coul dbe confined in a cube thirty-six feet square . Gold hasalways been a thing that represented wealth . It hasnot appealed to the world as being of temporary ex-istence,. It has held its head high and has walked it slordly, aristocratic way among the nations of th eearth . But it ceil5ainly has not accomplished the desid-eratum of bringing about lasting, world-wide prosper-ity . The late William Jennings Bryan once said :

"How things have changed in the last eighteen hun-dred years . Look at the people who head he gol dstandard propaganda in the United States . Look a tthe bondholding class and the money changers classes ,Inc brokerage classes who are trying to fasten a per-manent gold standard upon the people of this country ,not openly, but secretly and in disguise ; and then turnback eighteen hundred years when the meek and low-ly Saviour threw the same kind of people out of th etemple because they had made his house a den o fthieves . And 'then think that these people cone andappeal to the ministers of the Gospel and the churchpapers to save them from the wrath to come .

"My friends, when I find these men casting thei r1dt upon that side, and exhausting abusive language intheir description of the great masses of the people o fthis country, I feel like saying to them that if theywill take their chances wi~:h Dives I will take m ychances with Lazarus . "

The Wealth of the "Last Days',

That the financial giants have manipulated theworld's moneys in such a way as to enrich a certainclass--a small class—at the expense of the great corn -

monality of mankind is well substantiated by the Bi-ble . We here give Weymouth's translation of a por-tion of the 5th chapter of James :

"Come, you rich men, weep aloud and howl fo ryour sorrows which will soon be upon you . Yourtreasures have rotted, and your piles of clothing ar emoth-eaten ; your gold and your silver have becom ecovered with rust., and the rust on them will give evi-dence against you, and will eat your flesh like fire .You have hoarded up wealth in these last days . I tel lyou that the pay of the laborers who have gathered i nyour crops—pay which you are keeping back—is call-ing out against you, and the outcries of those wh ohave been your reapers have entered into the ears ofthe Lord of the armies of heaven . Here on earth yo uhave lived self-indulgent and profligate lives . Youhave stupefied yourselves with gross feeding ; but aday of slaughter has come. You have conclemned-you have murdered—the righteous man : he offers noresistance .

"Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the comingof the Lord. Notice how eagerly a farmer waits fo ra valuable crop! He is patient over it till he receive sIthe early and the later rain . So you must also be pa-tient, keeping up your cour age ; for the coming ofthe Lord is close at hand . "

In the foregoing passage from the Scriptures, th eBible lays the blame where it belongs . Schemes o fprofiteering have been carried out on a tremdou sscale . Financial currents have been directed in cer stain channels, which have not operated for the goo dof th e world at large. The reople kyow that this i sso ; but how to find the remedy, they know not . Menare glad to believe that something better will come, i fthere is any proper foundation for this belief. Hasthe tide really turned, and will the incoming tid ebring about a condition of real peace and prosperity ?It would indeed be a remarkable thing if this couldbe accomplished simply by changing from one mone ybasis to anoiher, even though such a change migh tgive some promise for a brief time .

Man Cannot Solve World's Problem s

The real solution of the world's present problem sis not in a man-made gold standard nor the leaving

6

T H E D A W N

of such a standard ; not in a humanly-conceived "newdeal, " nor the voiding of such an arrangement by th esupreme court ; but in the divine Kingdom itself . —the Kingdom for which Christians have prayed fo rnow more than nineteen centuries . When this King-dom is established, the gold standard of the Bible wil loutshine all other standards of wealth and happiness .Jesus held up the greatest of gold nuggets when H esaid : "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thyheart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul ,and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thy -self. On these two commandments hang all the lawand the prophets . " To come to the recognition o fsuch a law is the world's great need .

Action and reaction are incessantly in evidence to -day. That which a man does selfishly and for his ownaggrandizement reacts harmfully to the rest of th eworld . "No man liveth unto himself, and no man diethunto himself ." Here is a lesson that all must learn ,and it is a lesson upon which future human existencewill depend ; for when God 's laws are put in force fo rmankind they will be drastic indeed, and will oper-ate as a "rod of iron ." God 's judgments will then b ein the earth, so that the inhabitants of the world ma ylearn righteousness .—Isaiah 26 : 9 .

No being on this earth ever reached to the heart o fthings as did Jesus. He knew what was wrong withthe world ; and could the world have accepted Hi sprecepts and acted in full conformity therewith, w eshould not find the condition of things tha : now ob -tains . It was Jesus who told His disciples to lov etheir enemies ; for even the scribes and hypocrites, H esaid, loved their friends . He it was who told parable sthat set forth the principles of mercy, forgiveness an dforbearance ; for He knew indeed that only in right-eousness and good-will toward men would the worl deventually find happiness and peace .

Deliverance Will Com e

That God ultimately will deliver mankind from in -justice and oppression was prophetically stated in th epsalms of David and elsewhere . In Psalm 37 we read :"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him : fretnot thyself because of him who prospereth in his way ,because of the man who bringeth wicked devices topass. For evildoers shall be cut off : but those whowait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth . Foryet: a little while, and the wicked shall not be : yea ,thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shal lnot be . But the meek shall inherit the earth ; and shal ldelight themselves in the abundance of peace . . . Thewicked have drawn out the sword, andl have benttheir bow, to cast down the poor and the needy, andto slay such as be of upright conversation . . . But thetransgressors shall be destroyed together : the end o fthe wicked shall be cut off . But the salvation of th erighteous is of the Lord : He is their strength in th etime of trouble. And the Lord shall helm them, anddeliver them from the wicked, and save them, becaus ethey trust in Him . "

That the gold standard of the Bible is to be held upto all mankind in the Millennial age is explicitly stat -

ed in Cod 's Word . "All shall know Me, saith theLord, from the least of them to the greatest of them ;for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, an dtheir sins and iniquities will I remember no more . "God will demand righteousness of the world, unde rChrist's reign . When He holds up the wonderfu lstandard of love, He will require obedience on thepart of all. Then there shall be no more unemploy-ment, no more sorrow, no more death, for all suchthings will be done away with for ever .

There is a growing thought in the minds of manypeople today, that an application of Bible principles t othe world and its affairs would mean a speedy an dpermanent amelioration of the conditions that now ob-tain . There can be no question that such is the truth .All the trouble is due to the violation of the funda-mental principles of righteousness . .If by any possi-bility man could live up to and fully observe thes eprinciples, a drastic and wondrous change would re-sult . We can scarcely imagine the state that societ ywould be in if all people 's rights were duly respected ,and if men fully realized that to every action there i san equal and opposite reaction, and that this law ob-tains as arbitrarily in the moral realm as it does i nthe sphere of material things .

In justice, Selfishness, Greed

Is there anything that God condemns as strongly a sHe does injustice? Hear His words : "For I knowyour manifold transgressions and your mighty sins :they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turnaside the poor in the gate from their right . . . Seekgood, and not evil, that ye may live . . . Hate the evi land love good, and establish judgment in the gate . . .Take away from Me the noise of thy songs : for Iwill not hear the melody of thy viols . L'ut let judg-ment (justice) run down as waters, and righteous-ness as a mighty stream. Hear this, 0 ye that swal-low up the needy, even to make the poor of the lan dto fail, saying, When shall the new moon be gone ,that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we mayset forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shek-el great, and falsifying the balances by deceit ? Thatwe may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for apair of shoes ; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat ?Shall not the land tremble for this, and every onemourn that dwelleth therein ."—Amos, chs. 5 and 8 .

By another prophet He again says : "He bath show-ed thee, 0 man, what is good : and what cloth th eLord require of thee but to do justly, and to lov emercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Mos .6 : 8.) "Thus he sheaved me : and behold, the Lor dstood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumb -line in His hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos ,what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline . Then sai dthe Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the mids tof My people lsrael . "—Amos 7 : 7, 8 .

Truly it will take the Lord and His mighty powe rto square and plumb all things of the earth with th egreat plumbline of justice and truth . But that therewill be no failure on His part in doing this the Bibl egives us abundant assurance. The purpose of His

T H

D A W N

7

administration will be to establish righteousness in

the earth ; and the result of this will be life in all it sfulness, perfectness and endlessness . The mighty pre-cepts of the Bible will be the world's new law, an dthese will be stringently enforced ; for at that time,"when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabi-tants of the world will learn righteousness . "--Isaiah26 : 9 .

Thus we look for the great era when the tru egolden standard of the Bible will be held up . Wefind it hard to wait for this . But it will surely come

ere long . Meanwhile the divine standard is unspeak-ably precious to the people of God . They are glad toknow that it has been so clearly set for.h in God ' sWord, and they try to conform their own lives to it srequirements ; for they recognize the fact that it af-fords the only safe way, the one and only true naythat will ultimately mean happiness to the race ; andthey know also that this way could not have bee nopened up but for the sacrifice of Jesus, which is th ekey that will open the door to manifold world-wideblessings which are yet in store for all manl• :'nd .

THE RESURRECTION HOP EEATH is man's greatest ene -my, causing heartaches andsufferings in every hom ethroughout the entire world .

' .tits monstrous enemy has stalked -upand down in the earth for more tha nsix thousand years . The first one o fthe human family to be struck down bythis grim reaper' was Abel, who wasmurdered by his brother Cain. Thereis no doubt but that the loss of this be-loved son brought much sorrow to hi sparents, Adam and Eve ; and, eventhough death has continued to strik edown one after another of the humanrace ever since that time, yet we ar estill unaccustomed to it. We sometimesspeak of "natural death," but in realitydeath is never natural ; it is just as un -natural and, abhorent today as when i ttook away that beloved son of our firs t

parents in Eden .At the present time approximately

one hundred thousand persons are dy-ing every day . If a thousand peopleare killed in an earthquake it is bi gnews, and is displayed in glaring head -lines in all the papers ; but the appallingfact of one hundred thounsand deathsoccurring every day has ceased to benews . Yet each passing day sees thi sugly enemy invade 100,000 homes ,snatdting away a loved one, and leav-ing behind a vast multitude of sorrow-ing, heartbroken relatives and friends:Perhaps it is just as well that we d onot feel too deeply the sorrows of oth-ers . Indeei, it is better if we can in ameasure keep cheerful in spite of theveil of tears that enshrouds this dyin gworld . The poet gives us good advic ewhen he says :

"Go, bury thy sorrow ;The world has its share .Go, bury it deeply ;Go, hide it with care . "

The best way to hury our sorrow i sto get a clear vision of what the Bibl eholds out as a futu r e hone for th eworld We must not make the mis-take of supposin g that death is not a nenemy . The evidence to our senses, lik ethe testimony of God's Word, is thatdeath means the kiss of life . not an in -crease of life . Watch the dying one,and note hie weakening rowers . mentaland Dhvsical . un +il the s p ark of life be -comes extinct . You have seen nothing

go from him, you have heard nothing he lived nearly to the end of the firs tbut the death-rattle ; you have felt the thousand-year day . His posterity, be-gradual cessation of the pulse, and not -ed the gasping for breath ; and all yoursenses which you can exercise upon thesubject tell you that your friend, you rloved one, is dead—e--alive no longer .

You may look about you, study thesubject, and inquire of others, "Whatnext?" But the answer to your sensesis, "The next thing is corruption ; whe nthe spark of life has gone, the corps emust be buried ; `dust to dust, ashes t oashes ; your senses discern no differencebetween the death of your friend an dloved one and the death of the beast ;you readily note the similarity be -between them . The Scriptures also de -

" clare, "As dieth the one, so dieth th eother ; they have all one (spirit of life )breath ." (Feel . 3 :19-21.) Then, witha longing for a future life implanted i nyour nature by our Creator, you in -quire, `Is there no hope ; bath a manno pre-eminence above a beast?' Thesame Scripture answers your question ;it assures you that physically speaking ,man "'bath no pre-eminence above abeast ."

The Scriptures likewise assure usthat although mankind is not possessedof any power of life beyond that of th ebeast, nevertheless the Creator hasmade a provision for man that He didnot make for the beast ; and that pro-vision is the very thing for which al lhumanity longs, namely, everlasting lif ein a state of health and happiness . The It was in harmony with divine sym -Scriptures point out to us that this pat-by that in due time God sent Hi sprovision for man's everlasting life was only begotten Son into the world fo rmade by the Lord in the beginning—not man's redemption—to give for us the -by implanting a deathless quality in the Ransom-price, that ultimately He ma y

man ' s constitution, but by providing in

recover all who will accept of divine -

the life-sustaining trees of the Garden

mercy, from all the consequences of th e

of Eden the means for continuing his

fall, by a full resurrection from the ,

life everlastingly . However, this pro-

dead . But div i ne love could not make ,

vision was conditional, dependent upon

void divine justice ; it was necessary

man's continued obedience to his Creat-

that God should be just, if He woul dor and Lord

be the justifier of them that believe i n

The Scriptures point out that man's

Jesus ; hence the demands of justice

disobedience brought upon him the sen-

the penalty for sin—must be paid bytence of death, and that the execution our Redeemer, before the work of re -

of that sentence was affected by driv-

lease and restitution could begin .

ing him out of the Garden and away

And here we have the best evider

from the life-sustaining fruit of its

respecting what is the penalty of s' .

trees . Thus driven out, the just sen-

and what . is not; because, since ou r

tence. "Dyin g . thou shalt die . " took ef-

T ord Jesus nays for us the penalty of

feet upon Father Adam gradually, and

sin, what He laid down for us wil l

coming weaker and weaker as genera-tions rolled by, are today (notwith-standing the many advancements in sci-ence, medicine and sanitary measures )reduced to an average of about thirty -five years— "and if by reason ofstrength they be forescore years, yet i stheir strength labor and sorrow" andthey are soon "cut off from the land o fthe living, " to go into " the land of th eenemy "—into the great prison-house ofdeath, in which it is estimated that ove rtwenty thousand millions of our racehave gone already—where " the wicke dcease from troubling, and the weary areat rest ."—Job 3 :17-19 .

"JESUS DIED—THE JUST FO RTHE UNJUST "

The Scriptures answer our inquirie srespecting the dead . While assuring u sof the justice of the divine sentence of .death, they nevertheless declare tha tour Creator is a God of mercy and ofpity ; and when there was no eye to pit yand no arm to deiver us, His Ar mbrought salvation to us . The Scrip-tures, moreover, point out to us theLord Jesus Christ as the Arm of Je-hovah, stretched down for our relie ffrom sin and sickness and pain andtrouble, and for our deliverance fromthe sentence of death, and. for our res-toration to the liberties and privilegesof sons of God.

R

prove what was the :penalty against us .What did He do for us? The Scrip-tures answer : He laid down His lifefor us ; "died for our sins" ; "He died ,the just for the unjust " ; "He poure dout His soul unto death" ; He "madeHis soul an offering for (our) sin, "and "by His stripes we are healed."—Isaiah 53 : 4-6,10,12 .

Nothing is more evident than tha tour Lord Jesus did not suffer an etern-ity of torment as the price of our re-demption ; and hence, if the matterneeds proof we have here the proof thateternal torment was not the penalty o four sins . On the contrary, the fact thatour Lord Jesus died for our sins, an dthat the Heavenly Father accepted o fthat sacrifice of His life on our behalf ,proves that it was our lives that wereforfeited by sin; that the full penaltyof the divine law against us as a rac ewas the deprivation of life. The whol erace, under sentence of death, has gonedown to the great prison-house o fdeath—the grave, sheol, /weirs . And s oour dear Redeemer, when He gave upHis perfect human life for us, wentalso to sheol, /lades, the grave. Ile tookour place, and suffered for us the pen-alty for our sins .

But as Jesus' death ransoms manfrom the sentence of death, so .His res-urrection from death became the as-surance of the justification of all wh oobey Him. The Heavenly Father gaveevidence that the Ransom-price was en-tirely satisfactory ; and our Lord, wh owas thus obedient to the Father, wa sraised from the dead. And now, as th eFather's Agent and Representative,soon He will begin the work of bless-ing the entire world redeemed by Hisprecious blood .

THE PRISON OPENED

.The blessing of the world means thebreaking open of the prison-house an dthe setting at liberty of the captives ,who for six thousand years have beengoing into the prison-house of death .For this reason our Lord is called theLife-giver, because His great work wil lbe to give back life to the world ofmankind who lost life in Adam. Andsince the restoration of life to mankin dwill mean the removal of pains andsicknesses and troubles, which are apart of the dying process, our Redeemeris stylgi the Great Physician .

There is a first, or chief, or specialresurrection, and also a general one lat-er. The first or superior resurrectio nincludes the resurrection of our Lor dJesus Christ , and the entire elec t"church which is His body"—no more,no less. "Blessed and holy are all the ythat have part in the first resurrection ;on such the second death bath no pow-er, but they shall be kings and priest sunto God and shall reign on the earth "—the Messianic Kingdom class .

T H E D A W N

Those who will share in this first res-urrection will experience an instantan-eous "change" from the human natureto the divine nature—the highest formof the spirit natures ; not human, no tflesh and blood, for "flesh and bloo dcannot inherit the Kingdom of God. "Their trial and perfecting of hear ttakes place beforehand, and only the"overcomers" will receive this blessing.Some of the characteristics of thei rchange are indicated by the apostle a;a change from weakness to power ,from dishonor to glory, from corrup-tion to incorruption, from a natura l(human) body to a spirit body. Thetime for this best or chief resurrectionis indicated in the Scriptures to be atthe very close of the Gospel age, at atime when the entire Gospel churchwill be completed . And when complet-ql the true church will reign withChrist during the thousand years ofHis Kingdom.

The first work of Christ and th echurch in the world, for those who havegone down into death, the prison, wil lbe their awakening to physical condi-tions similar to those in which theydied.

The surrounding conditions o fsociety will then be greatly improved ;knowledge will have taken the place o fignorance, and the reign of righteous-ness and the law of selfishness. Satanalso will be bound, so that he shall de-ceive the nations no more during thethousand years . Under the favorableconditions of that Mediatorial Kingdo mall mankind will be required to mak eprogress in the knowledge of the Load ,and in the bringing of their own heartsand lives into accord with His law o flove. Whosoever then will make no ef-fort in the right direction will be cu toff from life, in the second death, afterone hundred years of trial (Isa . 65 :20) ; although he would then, under thechanged conditions, be properly reck-oned as only a lad.

But while judgment will thus pas sagainst one who fails to make progress ,and will cut short his further oppor-tunity, the same judgnent, by the sameJudge, will operate favorably to all whowill seek righteousness and make prog-ress in harmony with the laws of th eKingdom. Hence year by year manwill be growing mentally, physically andmorally stronger—approximating grad-ually the , full, complete standard of per-fect manhoe d, the image and likenes sof the Creator, as first represented i nfather Adam. Thus the resurrection, sofar as the world is concerned, will he agradual work. Its first step will be anawakening from the sleep of uncons-ciousness and nonentity ; while its suc-ceeding steps will be along the lines o frighteousness, judgment—the conduct of

those who are on trial being either ap-proved or disapproved, and culminatin geither in their sentence to the seconddeath as incorrigibles unworthy of th egift of God, eternal life, or else in theirperfection, and their final adjudgmentof worthiness to possess and enjoy thegreat boon of life eternal, under th eblessed conditions which are then prom-ised to prevail . Then there shall be n omore sighing, - no nkore dying, no mor ecrying, because here will be no mor e

sin and none of the penalties for sin ,for all, the "former things shall hav epassed away."—Reg. 21 : 4.

DEATH DESCRIBED AS SLEE P

The condition of all the dead, up tothe time when the resurrection workbegins, is one of total unconsciousness :"There is neither wisdom, nor knowl-edge, nor device in the grave whitherthou goest" ; "-His sons come to hono rand he knoweth it not, to dishonor, -an dhe perceiveth it not of them." Of eachof the Patriarchs of the past it is writ-ten, "He slept with his fathers" ; "Hefell asleep ." And so also in the NewTestament we have a similar record :"Stephen fell asleep." The Apostl ePaul speaks of those who saw the Lordafter His resurrection, and says, "H ewas seen of above five hundred breth-ren at once, of whom the greater par tremian to this present time, but someare fallen asleep ." Again he speaks o fsome which are "fallen asleep i nChrist, " here distinguishing betweenthe church who are "in Christ" as mem-bers of His body, and the world o fmankind in general, who "sleep inJesus ."—Eccl . 9 :10 ; Job 14 :21 ; 1Kings 2 :10 ; 11 :43 ; As is 7 :60 ; 1Cor . 15 :8, 18 ; 1 Tiles . 4 :14 .

The apostle shows that this sleep-coaution will prevail, even as respect sthe church, until the time of the sec-ond coming of Christ. He tells us thatthe living members of the church atthe time of the Lord's second adven twill not be blessed prior to those tha thave fallen asleep ; but contrariw,..se ,the living "shall not prevent (hinder )them that are asleep," because the"dead in Christ shall rise first. "

What a glorious hope, then, is thehope of the resurrection—both for thechurch and for the world! The churchto be exalted to the divine nature, asjoint-heirs with Christ in His thous-and-year Kingdom ; with that Kingdo m(dispensing resurrection blessings to allthe families of the earth—the one hum .red thousand that are dying each daynow, and all who have died from th edays of Eden down to the present time .This resurrection for the world wil lmean a restoration to life everlastin gupon the earth—for as many as wil lthen obey the laws of the new Kingdom .

T H E D A W N

9

~rfhe ffliffiittau fifeUpon the earth distress of nations with perplexity ;the sea and the waves (the restless; discontented )roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear and fo rlooking forward to the things coming upon th eearth (society) ; for the powers of the heavens(ecclesiasticism) shall be shaken . . . . When ye se ethese things come to pass, then know that the King -dom of God is nigh at hand . Look up, lift up yourheads, rejoice, for your deliverance draweth nigh—

Luke 21 :25-28.3 1

A PECULIAR PEOPLE-ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORK S"Who gave Himself for us, that He might redee mus from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a pecul-iar people, zealous of good works."—Titus 2 : 14 .

HE English word peculiar is found in ourCommon Version of the Bible just seventimes. In every instance, with the exceptio nof one, it is used to describe a special quality

belonging to the people of God . The word is usedfour times in the Old Testament with reference t otypical Israel, and twice in the Nei Testament with a sapplying to antitypical Israel—the saints of the Gospe lage . The one other occurence of the word in the Ol dTestament, is a statement by King Solomon, in whic hhe. is relating his great accumulation of treasures o fthis world. He says, "I gathered me silver and gold ,and the peculiar treasure of kings . "—Eccl. 2 : 8.

This use of the word by Solomon gives us the keyto its true meaning. The Hebrew word translated"peculiar" in Solomon's statement is egulla, and it isthis very same word that is translated "peculiar" i nall the other four instances in the Old Testament .Prof. Strong says that this word means to "shut up" ;or to hide away, as when a treasure is hidden awa yfor safe keeping . Quite clearly this is what Solomo nreferred to as the "peculiar treasure of kings"—thatis, those special treasures which kings hold to b emore valuable than all their other possessions ; so val-uable that they deem it necessary to hide them awaywhere they can be protected from harm .

What Makes Us "Peculiar" ?In our text (Titus 2 : 14) the Greek word periious-

ioc is the one translated "peculiar . Prof. Strong saysthat this word means that which is beyond the usual ;or, in other words, unusual . As the apostle in thi stext was speaking of the antitypical Israelites, wemust assume that the thing which is unusual aboutthem is that which was unusual about God's typica lpeople . As already noted, the Old Testament use o fthis expression denotes the fact that Israel was looke dupon by God as His very special treasure—a treasur eso precious to Him that he made every provision t o"hide them away " and protect them against all Hi senemies, and theirs ; and it is in this sense also tha tantitypical Israel is an unusual or special treasure .

But this divine possession of Israel, and their beinghidden away by Jehovah as a specially protected trea-sure, was dependent upon their faithfulness to Hi scommandments . We read : "Now therefore, if ye wil lobey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then y eshall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people :for all the earth is Mine . " (Exo. 19 : 5 .) Biblical his-tory reveals the fact that because typical Israel faile dto heed the voice of the Lord and obey His covenant ,they ceased to be His special treasure . His protectionwas withdrawn from them, and as a result they have"become a hissing and a byword" among all nations .

Now even as typical Israel remained God 's specialtreasure only so long as they obeyed His command-ments, so also it is this same quality of heart-loyaltyto God that makes of the spiritual people of God to -day His "unusual treasure . " This thought is clearlyin our text—"a peculiar people, zealous of goodworks." To be zealous for "good works" is a rar equality, possessed and demonstrated by a relativel ysmall number in this world of sin and selfishness .

But what are "good works"? This is a very im-portant question ; one to which every Christian wil ldo well to find the true answer . Jesus prophesied o fa class that would come to Hine in the end of the age ,recouting the "works' they had performed in Hisname, saying, "Have we not clone many wonderfu lworks in Thy name?" And Jesus says His reply tosuch would be, "Depart from Me v,e workers of in-iquity !" From this we see that it is quite possibbl eto be "zealous" for "works" done in the Lord ' s name ,and ostensibly for His glory . and yet- not be countedby Him as His own "peculiar people, zealous of(truly) good works . "

There is only one true standard of goodness, an dthat is God ' s standard. This would mean that tha twhich is in full harmony with God's standard i s"good, " while that which is out of harmony withGod 's standard is not "good" but "evil . " When th erich young ruler addressed Jesus as " Good Master,"j esus replied, "Why callest thou Me good ? None i s

good, save one, that is God ." (Luke 18 :18, 19 .) Jesusdid not mean by this that Ife Himself was imperfec tor sinful ; He merely was calling attention to the fact

lu

T H E D A W N

that God the Father was the originator, the perfectstandard and the true fountain of all that is good .Jesus Himself "proceeded forth and came from God" ;and He was here on the earth not to work for Him -self, but to "do the works" of the One who had sen tDim .

All the works that Jesus did were "good " works ,because they were God's works . And Jesus was"zealous " in doing these works . Concerning Him th ePs-lmist wrote, "The zeal of Thine house bath eate nMc up . " (Psalm 69 : 9 .) How true it is that our Mas-ter's "zeal " for the good works of His Heavenly Fath-er actually consumed Him . Starting on His ministry.as a perfect man at Jordan, in the short space of thre e-and one-half years He was so nearly consumed that H edid not have strength to carry His own cross up Cal-var v ' s slope . Surely He must have been, and was, a"special treasure " unto His Father . Indeed, of Himthe Father said, "This is My beloved Son, in whomI am well pleased . "

How Can We Be a "Treasure" to God ?

But, someone may say : Jesus was perfect, H ecould perform perfect works ; and because He coul ddo perfectly, of course the Heavenly Father would bewell pleased with Him ; but with us it is different, w eare imperfect, and surely the Heavenly Father coul dnot look upon us as a "peculiar treasure, " as He didin the case of Jesus . With us, imperfect creature sthat we are, is it not rather that the Heavenly Fathe rmerely "tolerates" us, than that He is specially pleas-ed with us? Can it really be that such as we can trul ybe a "treasure" unto Him, worthy of His most tende rcare and protection-as the "peculiar treasures ofkings" ?

Yes, beloved, it is even so! And the apostle ex-plains why this can be . It is because Christ "gav eHimself for us, that He might redeem us from all in -

- iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people ,zealous of good works . " This shows clearly that i tis our standing in Christ that forms the basis of thisblessed relationship we enjoy with the Heavenl yFather . Christ has redeemed us "from all iniquity, "and through His blood we are purified . Not that weare actually made perfect in the flesh—anyone wh omakes a claim of this kind is a "liar" according to theApostle John—but we are given a standing of right-eousness before God, which renders our imperfec t

_ works, if they are "good" works, acceptable to theFather . It is because of this standing "in the Beloved"that we can heartily sing ,

"While joyfully in Thine employ ,The thought shall fill my soul with joy ,

That my imperfect work shall b eAcceptable, through Christ to Thee . "

Why Does He Treasure Us ?

But let us pause for a moment to note what it i sthat God treasures so highly in those who are loya lto Him. We know, of course, that He is pleased withus beacuse we are in Christ, and because the robe o fus because we are in Christ, and because the robe of

His righteousness covers our unwilling imperfections ;yet this fact- alone does not constitute us God ' s pecul-iar people. We are reminded here of one of Jesus 'parables, in which He indicates that there is great"joy in heaven" over one " sinner that repenteth . "This would seem to give us a clue as to what it i sthat specially rejoices the Heavenly Father . It is thatrepentant attitude ; which means that the individualhas fully turned from doing his own will and works ,and has sworn allegiance to Him who justly deserve sthe full obedience of all His intelligent creatures .

Since the time that "iniquity was found" in ,Lucifer—who was one of the bright and morning stars ofcreation, and through whom the great rebellionagainst the Creator was instituted both in heaven andon earth—there have been but very few really "re-pentant" ones who have renounced their allegiance t oSatan and to his ways of selfishness, and who hav ereturned to the true God and have enlisted tinder Hisbanner of love .

Thus it is seen that the quality which makes th edistinction in God 's sight between those who are pleas-ing to Him and those who are not, is whole-heartedloyalty to Him. Even from the natural standpoint w ecan see the reasonableness of this . Is it not this veryquality that constitutes the basis of all true friend -ships among all of us? Can there be true love be-tween husband and wife, or between any two individ-uals, without loyalty? No, the principle of loyalty i sthe very foundation of true love ; whether it be lovefor earthly creatures or love for God . All of our pro-fessions to God and before men, all of our "wonder-ful works" for Him—even though we "give our bod-ies to be burned "—mean nothing to God unless firs tof all He is assured that we have fully turned fro mour own selfish ways and are whole-heartedly on Hi sside in this great battle of the ages .

Why He Values Loyalty

God wants to be sure that we are so loyal to Hi mand to His commandments that we will not, by doin gour own will, betray Him and His cause ; as manyhave done . Hence, it is this quality of absolute loy-alty to God—so rare in the world today—that cause sGod to look upon those who possess it as an "unusua ltreasure" to Him, a treasure that He hides away a sit were, and protects and cherishes . It was this qualit ythat God looked for in His typical people ; but which,except in the case of one here and there, He (lid no tfind. He had said : "Now therefore, if ye will obeyMy voice indeed, then shall ye be a peculiar treasur eunto Me above all people ." (Exo . 19 :5 .) Again ,the prophet says, "To obey is better than sacrifice ,and to hearken than the fat of rams . "—1 Sam. 15 : 22 .

The necessity and importance of full obedience toGod is also apparent in connection with the fact tha tHe has invited us to be "coworkers " with Him in thegreat purpose of "reconciliation" which He is carry-ing out on behalf of the sin-cursed and dying world .God wants this work done in His own way, and thosewho are willing to cooperate with Him on the basi sof full obedience to His commands are very preciou sindeed in His sight . These are the ones who are truly

T H E

D A W N

1 1

"zealous of good works ." There are millions in theworld who are "zealous" of working for the Lord, butthey insist upon working in their own way . Theseare not "zealous for good works," for the only really"good" works are those that are in harmony wit hGod's will—those performed in obedience to His com-mands .

True Belief the Basis of "Good" Works

When the prophet said of Jesus, "The zeal of Thinehouse bath eaten Me up," he emphasizes that Hi szeal was not for His own works, but for the Father' sworks ; not for I-Iis own house, but for "Thine house . "And it was this same Jesus who said that "not every -one that sayeth unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter intothe Kingdom, but he that doeth the will of My Fatherwhich is in heaven." (Matt . 7 : 21 .) These are plainwords, indicating that professions of love for the Lor dand prayers to Him, no matter how long or eloquent ,will avail nothing if His expressed will concerning u sis ignored. It is His will that we love Him . He doeswant us to pray to Him. He is pleased to have u smeditate upon His love and upon His truth. Butthere are other things also that He has willed for us ,and He expects us to take heed to these as well if w eare to be His peculiar treasure—we must be "zealous "for all the "good works" of the Lord .

In John 6 : 29 Jesus says, "This is the work ofGod, that ye believe on Him whom He bath sent . "But this text has been greatly misunderstood by many .It has been used by some to justify a selfish inclina-tion to do nothing in the way of "work" for the Lord .These latter claim that all there is to the Lord's workis simply to give assent to the fact that Jesus came t oearth to be man's Redeemer ; and they seem to thinkthat a true belief in this fact means that we shoul drecognize that there is nothing left for us to do . Thiskind of reasoning may satisfy one who is not whole-heartedly and unselfishly seeking to know the will o fGod in order that he might put forth every effort t odo it . Indeed it appeals strongly to those who seemto be looking for an excuse to hold back from actuallylaying down their lives in the service of God—the ser-vice that is made acceptable through Christ .--Rom .12 : 1 .

Meaning of True Discipleship

To understand Jesus ' words, quoted foregoing, w emust take into consideration the fact that true belie fmeans much more than to give mental assent to some -thing. For a sick man to really have faith in, or tobelieve in, his doctor, means that he will do what th edoctor directs, in order to get well . So, for us to be-lieve in Jesus as the one whom the Heavenly Fathe rsent to be our Redeemer and the Captain of our sal-vation, means that we will obey His commands ; that ,to the best of our ability, we will enthusiastically mee tevery sacred responsibility His commands have im-posed upon us : If we do not do this, then we do nottruly believe . The Apostle James makes this poin tplain when he says that "faith, without works, is 'dead."—James 1 :26 .

Seeing then that true belief in Him whom the Fath-er has sent into the world to accomplish the grea twork of reconciliation involves the fact of full obed-ience to His commands, it becomes vitally importan tfor us to get clearly in mind just what Jesus has com-manded us to be and to do . Just what does it meanto be a true disciple of Christ? Let the Master him-self answer : "If any man will come after Me, let hi mdeny himself, and take up his cross daily, and followMe." (Luke 9 : 23 .) These are heart-searching words ,indeed ; but may it not be possible that they have be -come so familiar, even to many Bible Students, tha ttheir true significance is either forgotten or ignored ?

All too often the matter of walking "in His steps "is thought of as a negative and passive proposition ,rather than as a positive and active principle in ou rlives . Many say, "Yes, in every decision of life, I askmyself the question, 'What would Jesus do' " That' sfine! But in this matter of following in His steps ,how many of us have actually gone beyond the pointof merely seeking to be guided by the moral preceptsof Jesus' life and teachings? How many of us hav eeven mentally comprehended the actual self-sacrificin gcourse that Jesus took, and the long, weary hours o factual labor that He devoted to the task of doing th eworks of His Heavenly Father? And how many eve nof those who have caught this vision of Jesus' life ,have whole-heartedly set themselves to the task of fol-lowing Him in actual sacrificial service even untodeath? How many? Let each of us ask ourselve sthe question, "Have I?"

There have been a few in all parts of the Gospe lage who have caught this vision, but only a few—thetotal number will be only 144,000 . This "little flock"will consist of those who have really followed Jesu s—gone with Him all the way . These have not beenfearful for the loss of earthly advantage or earthlygain. The joys of the Kingdom which inspired Jesu sand enabled Him to endure, has been their sustaininghope also, enabling them to gladly set aside the thingsof this world and to devote themselves entirely an dzealously to the "good works" of God . And howprecious these always have been in God 's sight !

A Much Misunderstood Tex t

The immediate disciples of Jesus, particularly th eapostles, caught this real vision of what it meant tobe like Him and to follow in His steps, and we fin dthe evidence of it in their lives . Concerning two ofthe disciples the record states, "Now when they sawthe boldness of Peter and John, and perceived thatthey were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvell-ed ; and they took knowledge of them, that they hadbeen with Jesus . "—Acts 4 : 13 .

Perhaps there is no text in the Bible that has bee nmore misunderstood and more misrepresented thanthis one. Now we know from many Scriptures tha tJesus was kind ; and we too should be kind . We knowalso that Jesus was just ; and we too must be just . Weknow that Jesus loved His enemies ; and we also mustlove our enemies . We know, in fact, that it is God' swill for us to copy, so far as possible, every trait of

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Jesus ' glorious character. But the foregoing text i snot discussing His kindness, justice or love ; it hasreference to but one thing—the one particular thin gthat caused the public to recognize Peter and John a sbeing disciples of Christ . This one thing was the"boldness" of these two faithful apostles in proclaim-ing the gospel of Christ . It was because they talke dfearlessly about the same thing's that Jesus had talke dabout, and so enthusiastically espoused the cause o fHim whom those unfaithful Jews had crucified, tha tthe people readily recognized that they had been wit hJesus . "i Specifically, the "good works" of the true Christianduring the Gospel age has been that of preaching theglad tidings of the Kingdom, in order that therebythe disciples of Christ may be found and become pre -pared for a position with Him in the future Kingdomwork of reconciliation . Incidentally, also, as this glor-ious truth has been proclaimed, a "witness" has beengiven also to the public in general . Now Jesus gav edirect command to His disciples concerning the na-ture of this work, and no one who is really devoted tothe doing of God 's will will desire to side-step theissue. This general command takes in every featureof service as it relates to the call and development o fthe church .

"Zealous for Good Works"

To be truly "zealous " in this "good work" of theLord means to us, as it did to Jesus, that every ounc eof our energy should be spent in order to its accom-plishment . And we will seek to do it, and in theLord 's own way—"that the ministry be not blamed ."(2 Con. chs. 5 and 6 .) When Jesus was laying downHis life in the accomplishment of God 's work in theearth He was not working for Himself, but for Go dand for the world that God -loved . Ours must belikewise, if we are to be God ' s peculiar treasure—forthis is God-likeness .

Today Satan is putting forth .every effort possibl eto hinder God's people from zealously engaging an ylonger in these "good works " of the Lord . On theone hand some have had their zeal ingeniously direct-ed into channels of "wonderful works " that are nopart of God's program for His people ; and as a re-sult of this the proclamation of the true gospel bythese dear brethren has almost ceased . Many in th epast have recognized this delusion, and still othersare recognizing it today ; and these are earnestly an dzealously seeking now to devote their lives, and to en -courage others to devote their lives, to the true min-istry of Christ and His truth . We believe that thi sis the only proper course for every true disciple today .

On the other hand, many discouraging attempts ar ebeing made to dampen the zeal of those who are hold-ing to the truth and who recognize the importance ofactivity in the Christian life . We are told by somethat "the door is closed " ; but of course there is noScriptural authority for such a statement . We arealso told that the Lord wants us to work merely wit hand for His people from now on . But who arewe to say who the Lord's people are and just where

they are to be found? This indeed has been God ' swill for His people throughout the entire Gospel age .Now if anyone is vise enough to know exactly wh othe Lord's people are today, so that he can visit an dserve them exclusively, then perhaps such an on ewould not be expected to "sow beside all waters . "But the most of us do not feel capable of assumin gsuch a responsibility ; hence we will continue pro -claiming the truth publicly, in the same manner andat such times as the Lord may give us the opportunity—in order that the Lord's people, wherever they areand whoever they are, may hear and be blessed b yit ; and also that a witness may be given even to thos enot of the church .

Excuses for Lack of Zea l

Some confuse the real issue, by hastily claimingthat all those who now wish to zealously engage i nsome effort to make known the glad tidings are "stil lunder the influence of the Society." We wonder ifthese dear friends would make the same accusatio nagainst Jesus and the apostles, the faithful reformers ,Brother Russell, the zealous colporteurs of past days ,the volunteers, the photo drama workers, the pilgrims ,and all . the clear ones back there who gladly spen ttheir money and their strength in order that we mightnow have and enjoy the blessed truth of the divin eplan! Let none be confused by any such tenuous arg-ument as this .

Others have raised the objection that to now pro -claim the gospel is liable to result in "building up an -other organization ." Dear brethren, let us recogniz ethe fact that faithfulness in doing' the "good works "of the Lord does not involve joining or tieing con -trolled by any earthly organization whatsoever . Everyindividual Christian. and every ecclesia should be fre eand independent, hut such freedom and independencedoes not release from responsibility to faithfulness i nthe "good works" of God. You have the truth, an dthrough it you have been called of God into His ser-vice . Regardless of your method of service, or wit hwhom you may be cooperating, are you serving? Isevery ounce of your energy being spent in that servic eof God's truth, in whatever way God 's providenceprovides for you to serve? It will not do to argu ethat we do not now get so many visible results fro mour service, and therefore we will no longer serve .

God has not commissioned us to serve only to th eextent and when and where we obtain immediate, vis-ible results from our labors . What makes us "prec-ious" in God's sight is our willingness to do what H ehas commanded us to do, through Jesus—fully be-lieving and fully obedient. The net visible results oftwo thousand years of such "good works" will b eonly 144,000 joint-heirs with Christ ; hence it shouldnot be expected that one public meeting, or one seriesof meetings, or the distribution of a few thousandtracts, or the loaning of a few books or booklets ,would always result in the finding of one or moregrains of wheat . But every bit of true service to Godrendered by those "zealous for good works," alway sresults in the further spiritual enrichment of thos ewho serve, if nothing more .

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To Served, or to Be Served ?

Another thing that is becoming manifest amon gsome of the friends today is the tendency to fall bac kinto the habits and concepts of the nominal church, i nthe matter of our responsibility toward God . In thenominal church the members are divided into th eclergy and laity . For the most part the clergy are th eservants, while the laity are the ones who are served .The duties of the latter, so far as the vast majorityare concerned, are fully discharged by attendin g"church service" each Sunday and contributing as lib-erally as they can to support the church . The meet-ings of the congregation are called "services, " yet themajority do not attend for the purpose of serving, bu tto be served .

Now it would seem that many Bible Students to -day are gradually developing this same erroneous con-cept of the Christian life, and, without realizing it per-haps, are beginning to feel that all the Lord require sof His people is that they lead good upright lives, an dattend the class meetings once or twice a week. In-deed, in many instances, it would seem that the eldersof the classes are looked to as the ones who should d omost of the serving .

Now the meetings of the ecclesia can be made rea l"services" for all if everyone who attends does so i nthe spirit of helpfulness, by making an effort in ad-vance to prepare the lesson and otherwise to contrib-ute to the blessings of all the members . God bless th efaithful elders in every ecclesia, but let us remembe rthat we all are servants . There, are no clergy an dlaity classes among God 's "peculiar people . " All areexpected to serve—not merely once a week, but to b eon the alert every day in the week, for opportunitie sto serve the Lord and His truth . This zeal for "goodworks," no matter in what way it may find expres-sion, does not depend upon human leadership . Weshould not permit our zeal to be quenched becaus ecertain other members of the ecclesia may only wis hto be served, and not to serve .

The elders of every ecclesia have a very sacred ob-ligation resting upon them—a responsibility that hasto do with the spiritual welfare' of the entire class . Asa rule those who serve faithfully as elders find nearly

all their available time consumed in the service of th eclass . Because of this they fail sometimes to realiz ethat while they themselves are active in the service—and are being richly blessdd thereby—no special av-enues of service are being provided for the class as awhole. Should it not be a part of every elder's dutynot only to be faithful in the service that God has giv-en him, but also to encourage all the friends to b efaithful, by helping them to find ways and means o fserving ?

"Provoke Unto Love and Good Works "No Christian should seek to coerce another Chris-

tian into rendering any kind of service, but it is th eduty of every Christian to encourage his brethren t obe faithful . Paul admonishes us along this line bysaying, "And let us consider one another to provok eunto love and to good works . " (Heb. 10 :24.) W emay think of the expression "love" in this text as be-ing the sum total of true Christian character develop-ment, and the "good works" as the acceptable activitywhich inevitably must result from such Christian de-velopment . It is our duty to exhort to faithfulnessalong both lines . Some say that it isn't necessary t oencourage Christians to be active : that if they havelove in their hearts they can't help being active, bu tPaul doesn't agree with this—he realized that we nee dadmonishing along all lines . Besides the adversary i smaking strenuous efforts to discourage the brethrenfrom now being active and for this reason it is special-ly important today for all of us to keep these Scrip-tural facts before each other .

Some who read this article may wish to criticize u sfor saying' so much about "service ." But why shouldChristians resent being encouraged to faithfulness i nrespect to any phase of the Christian life---especiallywhen we are specifically admonished to "provoke"unto "good works" as well as unto "love" ? It wasJesus ' "good works" that brought upon I-lim the per-secution that finally resulted in His death . Shall w ehold back from doing that which will cost us some -thing in the way of persecution, weariness or earthlygain? Those who are faithful to God's commands ,even though such faithfulness cost life itself, are His"peculiar people. "

THE ISLE OF CONTENTMEN T

HE "Isle of Contentment" is situated in th eSea of Time, which is but a coast-water ofthat vast ocean called Eternity . While th eisle itself is of ample dimensions, it is by no

means thickly populated. In fact, its inhabitants ar eflew, for so expansive a place . The reason for thi smay be that it is regarded iby many persons as beingsomewhat out of the world ; while the desire of th eaverage human mind is to be entirely within the world ,and with no positive aversion to being' absorbed b ythe world .

The location of this secluded Isle of Contentmentcauses it to be protected from the storms that sweep

the mainland, from which it is divided by the Strai tof Confidence and Trust .

This Isle has many features that are interestingand refreshing, and its balmy airs constantly 'waft therich fragrance of many sweet blossoms . The climateis delightful, being kept so by the warm Gulf Streamof Divine Benevolence which flows around it. Itknows not the cold of winter, nor is there any uncom-fortable heat during its perpetual summer. Myriad sof birds of paradise find their homes in the thicklyand beautifully foliaged trees of righteousness, and a natmosphere of great peace pervades this rare real mwhere life's blessings so richly and lavishly abound .

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Signs to Guide Us

When one first lands on the Island he will naturall ybecome interested in the various signboards whic hfor some good purpose have been placed here an dthere by earlier residents . One of these was erectedby a Christian philospher many centuries ago . Itbears the inscription, "I have learned in whatsoeve rstate I am, therewith to be content ." Another bearsa succinct statement of truth in these words, "Godli-ness with contentment is great gain . "

On the summit of a verdant hill is one signboar dthat can be seen from every part of the Isle . It reads :"Take no (anxious) thought, saying, What shall w eeat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shal lwe be clothed? But seek ye first the Kingdom of Go dand His righteousness, and all these things shall b eadded unto you. Take therefore no (anxious) thoughtfor the morrow : for the morrow shall take thoughtfor the things of itself . Sufficient unto the day is th eevil thereof . "

Situated in the very center of the Island is a mag-nificent garden, where many rare and beautiful plant sform a luxurious setting. Glancing among these, onecan see the Rose of Sharon, the Heart's Ease ofQuiet, the Forget-me-not of Loyalty, the Daisy ofSweetness and Simplicity, the White Lilies of Purity ,the Ground-phylox of Humility, and the Chrysanthe-mum of Glory. Then, too, there are Pansies of GoodThoughts ; and here and there peeping up is the Sta rof Bethlehem ; while the Lily of the Valley also smilesforth from its lively leaves of green .

The people who dwell on this Island are a simpl eand hearty folk . One might deem them lacking in am-bition of a worldly kind . Their houses are plain, bu tare so constructed as to permit the entrance of all th etreasures contained in God's sunlight of love . Thefurniture in the homes is anything but costly an delaborate, yet there is a quality about it that speaks o fquiet comfort and rest. In fact the very Isle itselfseems to exhale a peace that steals into the heart an dbanishes afar all worry, anxiety and dread .

We Meet An Old Resident

Here is an old man sitting out before his cottag ein the quiet, gloaming hour of declining day. Heholds a book in his hand . Now and then he raiseshis eyes from the pages before him . It seems thatthere is a far-away look in those optic windows of hi ssoul . What does he see as he gazes far out, appar-ently beyond the things of earth? One hates to in-terrupt his meditations, but we feel that a few word swith him will be well worth while. So we call tohim : "Good evening, sir! The day draws to a close ,and we have travelled far. May we rest for awhileon this rustic seat beside you?"

"You may rest, and you are welcome, " he repliedwith a kindly smile. And such a smile it was—onethat seemed to be, made up of the love of God, offlowers, of little children, of truth, mercy, experience ,hope and joy. It was a smile that we shall long re -member, giving forth the expression of an inner lif eof peace and light, of kindliness and sincerity .

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Then he speaks again . "Yes," he says, "I perceiv eyou have come a long way, and you are weary . Yourgarments have gathered dust from the roadside . Youneed refreshment and rest ; and you shall have these ,for you have entered into a place where such thing sare always to ibe obtained. I too have come a longway, up the hillsides and along the rugged pathway sof life ; but I rest now on this Isle of Contentment ,where my spirit finds the sweetness and joy of lastingrepose . "

"How did life's journey bring you to this beautifu lIsle?" we ask of him .

His Life Story

"It is a simple story," he replies . "For many year sI was ambitious, ardent and strong . I followed thelure of earthly things, and found some pleasure, bu tnot rest of heart . Then one day there came to mean invitation from the Lord of this Isle, a messagethat would gladden all who can receive it. It said ,` Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden ,and I will give you rest.' Verily I needed such rest,for my labors had been many and my spirit had no tfound peace . At first I put the invitation aside, bu tlater I reconsidered it . `Ah,' I said finally, `What i sso good as rest? Truly I will go to Him. So I started .

"But that does not mean that I had no furthe rtrials, " he went on to explain . "I became footsor eand weary . Yet there is a wonderful healing virtu efor the heart in the plants that thrive on this Island ,as well as in the sunshine and the air. And as forthe storms that beat upon the world and the madstrife of humanity, these things do not affect me anymore. And part of the secret of my great peace i sthat the Lord of the Island visits me here . And howshall I tell you of my first meeting with Him ?

"I met Him in the eveningWhen all the wood was still .I had climbed a rugged pathway,And now stood upon a hill .And He was there, and earth and airSeemed waiting on His will .

"His eyes were mild with calmness ,But filled with seeing power ;And o'er the Isle and o 'er the worldHis tall form seemed to tower ;And music fell from words that thrilledMy soul in that blest hour.

"Yes, and His words thrill my soul today, for Hehas taught me the peace and joy of contentment . "

Riches Through Poverty

"Well," we replied, "you certainly have found awonderful secret, when you can find such content-ment in the small amount of earthly things that yo useem to possess . "

"And yet," he responded, "I find that my content-ment lies not in the possession of little, but of much .Indeed it lies in an appreciation of values of the ver y

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existence of, which many persons are not aware . Iactually have the greatest things God has to bestow .First of all comes Truth . This heavenly light beam supon me each day that I live . It is an abiding powerthat nothing can remove . Truth has revealed manythings to me . It has taught me that the great secre tof life's service lies in cooperation with the Eternal .

"Yonder stream that you see is in cooperation wit hthe laws and forces of nature. It has no cause to fearthat it will not increase in volume and ultimately findthe sea . Even so it is with the Christian life here o nthis Isle . Having received a proper start, and bein gdirected by a higher Power, there is no cause what -ever for alarm that it will not achieve its purpose an darrive at the place of final victory . "

"Have you no fear of not being finally successful? "we ask . "

"Why should I have fear?" he replies . "H I weretrusting entirely to myself, such might indeed be th ecase. But I am not. It is a question of faith. Hewho has brought me thus far on life 's journey, as-sisting- me over many rocky and dangerous ways, di dnot do so only to desert me now . My hope is stabil-ized and assured. It is a veritable `anchor' to thesoul, both sure and steadfast, and entereth into tha twithin the veil .' I have everything to encourage me,and nothing to make me afraid . Then, too, I havesaid to myself so many times, `I will trust and not b eafraid' ; so that this has become a fixed principle inmy mind. It has grown into a habit of thought, an dis a wonderful safeguard to me at all times . "

"But are there not other things in :life you wouldlike to have, which you do not now possess ?" we ask .

"Just inside my door, " he answered, "you will seea motto which is very much to the point . It reads :`Let your conversation be without covetousness, an dbe content with such things as ye have : for He bathsaid, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee ." Tha ttext has done much toward keeping my mind fre efrom covetous desires . It helps me to realize tha tGod has given me all the truly great things, the thing sthat really count ; and why, then, should I desir esomething that He in His superior wisdom has no tseen fit to provide? A contrary attitude would mea n

unthankfulness on my part . An appreciation of allthe blessings that have come my way so occupies mythoughts that there is no place therein for faultfindin gor for reaching out for other things which, if the ywere given, would not prove expedient or helpful onthe Christian way but doubtless would be a hindranc einstead, a burden, or perhaps a positive stumblin gstone . "

The Greatest Truth s

"In your opinion what are the ten greatest truth?"we ask him .

"It is a good question," is his thoughtful reply ."The first and greatest truth, I would say, is tha tthere is an all-powerful, all-wise, all-loving God, whohas always existed and always will exist . Anotherclosely related fact is that He through His Son cre-ated all the worlds, including the planet on which we

now dwell ; and then in due time He created man uponthis planet . When we meditate on the wonders o fGod's creation we realize something of the magnitud eof His wisdom and power. This is the primary truthwhich the Bible deals with, and it follows us all alon gthe way .

"The next important fact that we should rememberis that humanity is in a fallen, dying state due to vio-lation of divine law . As the Word of God expressesit, `The whole creation groans and travails togethe runtil now, waiting for the manifestation of the sons o fGod . ' This state of the world is utterly beyond hu-man power to deal with ; so the ultimate relief of the

' situation depends entirely on God . Those who seethat, gladly fall in line with the divine plan and pur-pose for human recovery from sin and death .

"The fourth matter of importance is that God ha spromised to emancipate the world eventually . Thisstrain of divine promise runs all through God's Word .The fifth is that Jesus came to earth and died fo rthe sins of men. The sixth is that He arose from thedead and became `the first-fruits of them that slept . 'The death and resurrection of Jesus as the world' sRedeemer constitutes, in fact, the very foundation up _on which all hope for salvation from death must rest .The seventh is that God is calling and preparing th echurch for and heavenly inheritance. The eighth isthat we are now living in `the days of the presence o fthe Son of Man,' who has come in the first stage ofHis second advent . The ninth is thd exaltation o fthe church to the divine nature . The tenth is theultimate uplift and blessing of all the world--as man yas will—with everlasting life upon a perfected earth . "

"We have heard of all these great truths before, "we tell him ; "but can you not mention some eve ngreater and more special truths than these?" we ask .

"No," he declares, "there are no greater and mor especial truths than those I have named . To becom eacquainted with all the details and ramifications o fthese great fundamental facts, and to make sure tha tthe spirit of these truths is worked out in our lives, i ssufficient to `make us wise unto salvation . ' The sec-ret of contentment is to be satisfied with what Go dgives us . The very purpose of God's Word is to re-veal Himself to us, in order that we may have hop eand trust in Him. Knowing the truth of His plansand purposes causes us to know God Himself ; andthere can be no greater or more important knowledgethan this . Also, there is nothing that conduces mor eto impart to us the quality of ease and contentmentof mind. Trust is the very basis of communion ,friendship and love ; and we derive the power of trus tfrom the perennial streams of His inexhaustible fount-ain of living truth .

"There is an ancient castle on this Isle of Content-ment, and therein you will find books containing th erecords of the lives of men and women who in time spast have enjoyed precious communion with our in -visible Lord . I refer to those who have made truththeir first quest . I invite you to come with me to th ecastle where we may enjoy the evening together .

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THE HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM AND HIS BRID E(Oneness of the Seed, Part 6 )

"Hearken, 0 daughter, and consider, and incline thine derful treasures of the heavenly inheritance becom eear, forget also thine own. people, and thy father's first dimly outlined in our minds, and that from the n

house; so shall the King greatly desi r e thy beauty : on the promise of obtaining these as joint-heirs withfor He is thy Lord, worship thou Him."—Psalnt 45 : Christ has an ever-increasing drawing power in ou r10 :11. lives. Then the love of the Father and of His So n

takes hold upon us—more, perhaps, than the hope o ffuture reward . "The love . of Christ constraineth us, "Paul suggests ; and it helps us to realize that, havin gbeen bought with a price, we should not live unto our -selves but unto Him who loved us and died for us .—2 Cor. 5 : 15 .

ib

ONE of the illustrations in the Bible whic hhave to do with the oneness of Christ and Hi schurch brings out the intimacy of relationshi p

_

between them more clearly than does thi sone of the Bridegroom and His bride. It is a picturethat has to do with both the present and the futur erelationship of Jesus and His followers . Indeed, asindicated in our text, this illustration reaches back t oa time before the Christian even entered into a cove-nant with the Lord by sacrifice ; for it embraces th einvitation or call, through the acceptance of which w ebecome "espoused " to Christ .

But let us pause here just for a moment to empha-size the fact that the `Bridegroom and bride ' symbol -ism, like that of the church ., the temple, the vine an dbranches, etc ., is merely an illustration . We wish tocall special attention to this, because many dear Chris- _tian people have become confused in supposing thatthe "bride" of Christ is an entirely separate companyfrom the "church" of Christ . This error leads to muchconfusion in the study of the Bible, and makes voi dmany of the precious promises which are intended t ocomfort and sustain all the footstep followers of theMaster . The `Bridegroom and bride' picture empha-sizes certain essential details concerning the presen tand future relationship of Jesus and His footstep fol-lowers which do not appear in any of the other illus-trations, and we must endeavor to keep all of thes evarious symbols separate in our minds if we are t oderive the greatest benefit from each of them .

"Hearken, 0 Daughter"

The Scriptures make plain that no one can ente rinto the divine family on his own initiative, but w eare granted this privilege in response to a call or in-vitation. The Bridegroom and bride illustration im-presses this fact upon us most beautifully, as is show nin our text : - "Hearken, 0 daughter, and consider . . . "Was ever a proposal for marriage couched in bette rstyle or more beautiful phrase than this? But there i ssomething unique about this touching invitation, i nthat it does not come from the Bridegroom direct butfrom His Father—which was the oriental custom i nBible times—"Hearken 0 daughter . "

This reminds us of Jesus' own words : "No mancometh unto Me, except the Father which sent M edraw him." And what a wonderful way the Fathe rhas of "drawing" the prospective members of Hi sSon's bride! He does not compel, nor frighten, norcoerce ; but bids them to give ear, to "hearken," an dto "consider . " Our text does not give us all the de -tails ; but experience has taught that as we come t oknow the Lord through His truth, many of the won -

"Forget Also Thine Own People "

It is at this juncture in the drawing process that theconditions attached to the Father 's invitation ar ebrought to our attention . After you "hearken" and"consider, " as our text suggests, then you are in-structed definitely to "forget also thine own peopleand thy (earthly) father's house ." This indeed is aprerequisite to the supreme happiness of even a nearthly marriage. No bride can be the full delight o fher bridegroom, nor can the bridegroom lavish uponhis bride his unstinted love and affection, if the wishesand desires of the bride 's former relationships, whichrun counter to her new life, are permitted to exercis eany controlling influence over her . Yes, experiencehas proved that brides must be all for the bridegroomsand must shut out all "fancily influence, " if a successis to he made of the married life .

What is true in the natural realm is still more truein the spiritual . "Forget also thine own people, andthy father's house"—there can be no mixture of sen-timent in accepting this invitation . Allegiance to her"own people" and to her "father's house" must becompletely renounced . The expression, "own people, "as used in this text, probably refers to the immediateworldly friends and relatives of each one to whom thisinvitation is extended, while the "father's house "would seem to refer to the earthly house of fatherAdam. In accepting the Heavenly Father 's invita-tion it is necessary to make our consecration so com-plete that earthly desires of all kinds, including eve nthe hope of restitution in the next age, must be setaside, in the sense that they will not be permitted t ointerfere with our allegiance to the heavenly Bride-groom. This does not mean that we will completelyignore our earthly friends and relatives, and cease t olove them, but rather that Christ will take first plac ein our hearts and lives .

Our text indicates that it is the fullness of consecra-tion on the part of each individual member of the fu-ture bride that makes them truly beautiful in th esight of the King—"so shall the King greatly desir ethy beauty . " This places a premium on loyalty to thedivine will . Indeed, it is the only quality by which w ecan commend ourselves to the heavenly Bridegroom .We are members of the fallen, sinful race, and in ourflesh there dwells no good thing' ; but our devotion tothe future Bridegroom can and must be complete . If

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there is any disposition to waver in the matter of do-ing His will, then we are not acceptable to Him—ther ethen would be no beauty in us that He would desire .

"For He is thy Lord, worship thou Him ." No oth-er object of affection can be permitted to take Hi splace in our hearts and lives if we . are to be His veryown, and if His tender love is to be lavished upon us .There can be no half-hearted attitude in our worshi pof the heavenly King . That vacillating policy, "someof self and some of Thee, " destroys our beauty in th esight of the King .

Kingdom of God and of Christ

In a great number of the Old Testament prophe-cies concerning the coming Kingdom and its arrange-ments, no clear distinction is made between Jehova hand His beloved Son . For example, Daniel's prophecystates, "The God of heaven shall set up a Kingdom . "Isaiah declares, "In this mountain (kingdom) shal lthe Lord of hosts (Jehovah) make unto all people afeast of fat things ." Now we know that the HeavenlyFather is the Author of the great plan . of human re-demption and restitution, but we know also that HisSon is His active agent in carrying out that plan . "Al lthings are of the Father and by the Son, " is the basi supon which we must interpret all the prophecies, an dwe must keep this point in mind when studying th ePsalm from which our text is taken .

God Himself does the calling, or inviting, as wehave seen ; and Jesus is so fully at-one with His Fath-er that He loves and cherishes everyone whom th eFather sees fit to invite into the family as prospectivemembers of His bride . The Heavenly Father is agreat King—the King of the universe, in fact—henc ethe members of the bride class are His daughters .But Jesus is also a King—the "King of kings an dLord of lords ." Thus, when we read, "So shall th eKing greatly desire thy beauty, for He is thy Lord ,worship thou Him," it would not seem inconsistent fo rthis title to apply to both the Father and to His co -regent Son . We cannot worship and serve Jesus apar tfrom the Heavenly Father, and we cannot render ac-ceptable obedience and service to the Father unless w e"honor the Son, even as we honor the Father . " Thisis because the Father and the Son, in purpose, ar etruly one ; and if we too are to be taken into that won-derful circle of oneness our own wills and preference smust be set aside, and we must worship and serve a sthe Scriptures direct .

An "espoused virgin" should be fully devoted t oher future bridegroom, permitting no other loves t oengross time and attention ; and if she is really enthus-iastic about her future prospects she will delight t othink and talk about them . . Indeed, she will do mor ethan think and talk—she will work ; that is to say ,she will spend her time in preparation for her futurewedding. She will see to it that her wedding appare lis of the proper kind and in proper order . If she i sreally "in love " with her future bridegroom, herthoughts, her conversation, her activities, will all b econcerning him, and for him . Is this true of us re-garding our heavenly Bridegroom?

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"All Glorious Within "

Psalm 45 : 13, 14 reads, "The King's daughter is al lglorious within : her clothing is of wrought gold . Sheshall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle-work." As already noted, the only true beauty wehave in the sight of the King is that of our heart loy-alty to Him, an inward beauty—"all glorious within. "While this is true, and is probably what this expres-sion of the Psalmist refer's to, yet some have suggest-ed a different translation of this text, which convey sto the mind the thought that the glorious beautyof the King's (laughter is a future glory, being in con-nection with her association with the King in Hi spalace—"The King's daughter is all glorious withinthe palace of the King." The idea is true, but whetherthis translation is warranted or not, we are not pre -pared to say.

Certainly there is a present inward beauty that ou rfuture Bridegroom sees in us, to the extent that w eare fully loyal to Him ; and there also is the future act-ual glory and beauty which will be ours in the King-dom—in the King's palace—if we continue faithful t oour betrothal vows "even unto death." And thenthere is an additional beauty which will be the happ ypossession of every member of the future bride . Thatwill be the "raiment of needlework ." This picture em-phasizes the thought that the bride has been doingsomething herself in order to get ready for the wed-ding. And what is there that we can do? Ah, we canlet "God work in us, to will and to do His goo dpleasure . " And how are we to do this? Simply byseeing to it that our wills are fully surrendered to Hi swill, so that His commands as they come to usthrough the truth will really constitute the governin ginfluence in our lives . In this way God's spirit oper-ates in the fully consecrated heart . The truth itself re-veals God 's glorious sharacter to us, and we knowthat we are to be conformed to His character likeness .We know that w'e are to do His will even as Jesu sdid His will .

'Her Raiment of Needlewor k

To the extent that we are emptied of self and self -will, then the Lord, through the truth, fills us withHis spirit . To the extent that we are filled with Hisspirit our lives will reflect the various characteristic sof His spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, faith, forti-tude, kindness, gentleness, etc . These "graces of thespirit" constitute the fine "needlework" with whic hshe will be decorated when presented to the heavenl yBridegroom. "Her clothing is of wrought gold "—symbol of the divine nature—and embellished with th e"needlework" which will give evidence of a fully de-voted heart and life .

Yes, beloved, the only thing of beauty we possess ,in the sight of our heavenly Bridegroom, is our fullysurrendered wills . Even the "needlework" is not ourown. We can wear it only because we have submitte dto the moulding influences of the holy spirit as it oper-ates through the truth. The holy spirit is not our spirit ,but God 's spirit . Our spirit is far from holy—it i sselfish, rebellious, sinful . The graces of the holy spirit

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are not our graces, nor of our making, but are God' sgraces . They become a part of our characters to th eextent that we yield to and obey the divine will .

When, therefore, the King 's daughter is brought in -to the King's palace in "raiment of needlework" H ewill behold but a further evidence of the "beauty'' tha tfirst caused Him to desire her. But let no one supposethat we are here arguing for that conception of th eChristian life which places the individual in the po-sition of doing absolutely nothing . No ; far from that !When the Scriptures point out the necessity of ou rbeing fully surrendered to the divine will, it does no tmean that it is His will for us to do nothing . There i sreal activity in doing the divine will ; indeed it is th edivine will that certain things be done—that certai nresults be accomplished in our lives, and certain effort sbe made on behalf of others . It is in our zeal for wha tGod is doing, and what He wants us to be and to do ,that we reveal our "beauty" to our future Bride -groom .

As the needlework in our characters as caused t otake shape through the influence of the indwellin gspirit of Gpd, as that spirit comes to us through ou rknowledge of the truth, God has so arranged Hisplan that in order to please Him by having the truthmore operative in our lives, we must talk about th etruth. Or, to state the matter in another way, He hasinvited us into His family because He has an activ epart for us in His great plan ; and He has revealedthat plan to us, and is watching to see how enthusias-tic we are about it, as shown by the extent to whic hwe talk about it to others . He has also arranged mat-ters in such a way that the overflow of enthusiasm o nthe part of each individual member of the future brid ewill contribute further to extend the invitation to oth-ers—to those who have hearing ears "—as well as t odeepen the impression of His spirit in our own char-acters.

Are We Truly in Love with Our Bridegroom ?

Beloved, are you so in love with your heavenly -Bridegroom, and so enthusiastic about the plan whic hHe is carrying out for His Father, that your futur emarriage to Him, and the great plan in which He i sthe central figure, are the all-absorbing themes o fyour life? This is not a matter of sentiment, nor o femotion, nor of "feelings ." It is a very practical re-ality ; so real, in fact, that if we take it seriously, i twill, yea it must, eclipse every other interest in ou rlives . The Lord's people today, to an alarming ex -tent, show a tendency to hark back to a mere nominalchurch formality in their. half-hearted devotion t oGod . Would that we were able to say somethin gthat might arouse many who today are permitting th eworld, the flesh and the devil to absorb time, strength ,influence, means and even affections that properly be -long to their future Bridegroom, whom they professto love and whose favor they court .

Nor can we he truly in love with our future Bride -groom without being enthusiastic al,out the work H eis doing . Many today are being mis-guided into th ethought that an evidence of an advanced degree o fChrist-likeness is to take no active interest in making

known His gospel—that the more we become like Hi mthe less inclined we should be to lay clown our lives inmaking known to others the glad tidings of His King-dom! This is perhaps the most subtle error that Satanhas ever foisted upon God's people . It is subtle be -cause it appears to many to be "spiritual ." And thentoo, it has a great show of godliness . But what make sit still more appealing to the flesh is the fact that i toffers an excuse—although not expressed in words--to take our sacrifice off the altar ; for it presents aconception of the Christian life which calls for practi-cally no activity, no work, no labor ; except possibl yon behalf of those who al ready are in the same nar-row way with us, and who appreciate being served .

It is not our desire to be unkind, but we are speak-. ng plainly . Let us be on guard against suggestio,is o fthis nature, which at the best lead to listlessness an dlukewarmness . Jesus ' life, the life that we are to copy ,was one of sacrifice and service . IIe served His own,yes ; but His service was not limited to them, not byany means . Now in being invited to become a partof His bride, this also means that we share with Himin His work—both now, and in the future . Are weenthusiastic about our Bridegroom 's work ; or arewe trying to love Him while ignoring what He i sdoing? Are we still willing to make the supreme sac-rifice in order to demonstrate our full devotion toHim ?

We Must Be One with Him

The reason that our consecration vows must b ewhole-hearted is because the Bridegroom's love fo rHis bride is whole-hearted. She is to become, and Heis to acknowledge her, as His very own . The fulnessof this union with Him is pointed out by the Apostl ePaul, as follows :

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ als oloved the church, and gave Himself for it : that Hemight sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of wate rby the Word, that He might present it to Himself aglorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or an ysuch thing ; but that it should be holy and withoutblemish . . . For this cause shall a man leave his fathe rand mother, and shall he joined unto his wife, an dthey two shall be one flesh . This is a great mystery,but I speak concerning Christ and the church ."—Eph .5 : 25-27, 31, 32 .

Truly Christ and His bride shall be one . But eachindividual member of the bride class, in order to be ad-mitted into this exclusive circle, must "forget alsothine own people, and thy father 's house. " This "mar-riage" illustration is a very comprehensive one—"theytwo shall be one flesh . " The bridegroom in this pic-ture is of course the head, and the bride becomes thepossession of the bridegroom : "flesh of his flesh andbone of his bone ." So it will be with Christ and Hi schurch. In the type Rebecca became a member o fAbraham's family by virtue of her becoming Isaac ' sbride. "Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are the chil-dren of the promise . "—Gal . 4 : 28 .

(Continued on page . 22)

When Was Jesus Begotten ?

QUESTION : Hebrews 1 :5 reads, "For untowhich of the angels said He at any time, Thou art MySon, this day have I begotten Thee . . .?" What be -getting is here referred to ?

ANSWER : The expression, "This day have I be-gotten Thee, " is a quotation from the 2nd Psalm . Thisis one of the Kingdom psalms and is descriptive o fthe first advent of the Messiah into the world as wel las of the establishment of His righteous governmenton earth. Verses two and three declare that "Thekings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers takecounsel together, against the Lord and against Hi sanointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder ,and cast away their cords from us . " These verseswere quoted by the apostle shortly after Pentecos t

.and applied to the death-dealing opposition tha tbrought about the crucifixion of Jesus, the Chief o f"the Lord's anointed ."—Acts 4 : 26.

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Inasmuch as the inspired apostle applied this por-tion of the Psalm to Jesus' experiences as the world' sRedeemer and King, it would be logical to conclud ethat the entire Psalm has to do not -with His prehu-man existence but with the Heavenly Father 's deal-ings with Him as the Messiah. If this is true, asseems logical, then it becomes evident that the "be-gettal" referred to by the apostle, in Hebrews 1 : 5, i sthat beginning of a new life which Jesus experience dwhen the holy spirit came upon Him at the time o fHis baptism at Jordan .

The statement made by the Psalmist and quoted b ythe apostle indicates that the Heavenly Father woul dthen acknowledge Jesus as His Son—"Thou art MySon." In Matthew 3 : 17 we are told that at the tim eof Jesus' baptism there was such an acknowledgemen t—"And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is M ybeloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ." While th eword "begotten" is not used in the passage last quot-ed, nevertheless it is evident that this experience is infulfilment of Psalms 2 : 7 and Hebrews 1 : 3 .

It is true, of course, that Jesus was the "only be -gotten Son" of His Heavenly Father, in the sense tha tHe was the first and only direct creation of God —"the beginning of the creation of God ." There are anumber of passages in the Bible that have referenc eto His original creation as the Logos ; but we shouldkeep in mind that with the advent of the Logos intothe world to fulfil the Messianic promises of God ther ewas a "new creation" started. This began definitelyat Jesus ' baptism. There He became "the Lord's An-ointed" through the outpouring of the holy spirit upo nHim. The word "anointed" literally means Christ, or

Messiah, so we see that Jesus did not become officiall ythe Messiah until IIe was "anointed" with the holyspirit at Jordan .

Since Pentecost the footstep followers of Jesus havealso been begotten to a new life . Thus the apostleshows that those who are "in Christ" are a part ofthe anointed class, and are "new creatures ." (2 Cor .5 : 17 .) In a word, then, these various Messianic pro-phecies indicate that with Jesus' baptism a New Cre-ation was begun, over which Jesus is the Head o rchief . This New Creation is brought forth to rule th eworld during the thousand years of the Messiani cKingdom. The opposition of the "kings" against theLord's anointed has continued since the first advent ,and will continue until the new Kingdom is estab-lished .

Cause of Jesus' Death

QUESTION : It frequently has been said of ou rLord's death .on the cross that He died of a `broke nheart .' Is this true? Do the Scriptures support suchan idea ?

ANSWER : The Scriptures do not say that Jesusdied of a broken heart . There can be no doubt, how -ever, that His emotional nature was deeply stirred,both on behalf of the sin-cursed world, and also be -cause of His necessary experience in losing, momen-tarily at least, His Heavenly Father's favor . We sayHis "necessary experience" because He was there tak-ing the sinner's place, in death and in separation fro mGod . John 19 : 34 says that immediately after thedeath of Jesus the soldiers pierced His side, and that"there came out blood and water . " This statementhas been interpreted by some to indicate that Jesus'heart was literally "broken" by the severe sufferin gHe had just endured ; but of course this is merely atheory of which we have 14p certain proof. The "wat-er" possibly refers to lymph—that clear fluid tha tpermeates the tissues outside the blood vessels—alsothe serum of the serous membranes which surroundthe heart and lungs .

Should Sacrificers Expect Prosperity ?

QUESTION : Psalms 84 : 11 reads, "For the Lordi,s a sun and shield ; the Lord will give grace and'glory : no good thing wi ll He withhold from. then. thatwall? uprightly . " Are we to understand from this tex tthat material prosperity is an evidence of God 's ap-proval of a Christian ?

ANSWER : No! and for the obvious reason thatmaterial prosperity would not be a "good thing" for

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most Christians . Jesus said, "How hardly shall the ythat are rich"—those that are blessed with materia lprosperity—"enter into the Kingdom of heaven ? "The Apostle Pau], who doubtless had God ' s approvalat all times, wrote : "I know how to be abased, and Iknow how to abound : everywhere and in all things Iam instructed both to be full and to be hungry, bot hto abound and to suffer need . "—Phil 4 : 12 .

While Paul and other faithful Christians have fel tthe pinch of hunger, and otherwise have been deprive dof many of the material blessings of this life, vet n o"good thing" has been withheld from them, nor fro many others who have walked uprightly before God .The Christian life is a life of sacrifice, and materia lriches cannot be sacrificed and retained at the sametime. Many Christians have tried to do this, but al -ways to their detriment as "new creatures in Chris tJesus . "

The true "riches " enjoyed by the faithful Chris-tian are spiritual or heavenly riches . While the mater-ial good things of this life are being sacrificed in th eservice of God, the faithful Christian reaches out b yfaith and lays hold upon those eternal riches—the fu-ture joint-heirship with Jesus in His Kingdom .

A faithful Christian is one who follows in the foot -steps of Jesus . Jesus is the true example for all Chris-tians, and God did not manifest His favor upon th esacrificing Jesus by blessing Him in a material way .Quite to the contrary . Jesus, who was rich, for ou rsakes became poor; so poor, in fact, that He Himselfsaid, "The foxes of the fields have holes, and the bird sof the air have nests, but the Son of man bath notwhere to lay His head . " (Luke 9 : 58.) This does notmean that Jesus never found a place to lie down an dsleep at night ; but it does mean that, unlike the bird sand the foxes, He had no place that He could call Hisown.

Probably many Christians today would be inclinedto argue that Jesus could have served better had H egiven more attention to His material comfort . Atleast, some who profess to follow in Jesus' footstep sseem to take that view concerning themselves, an dpoint to their accumulation of wealth as an evidenc eof their high standing in God's favor—although i nmost cases it is an evidence of unfaithfulness, in no tusing in God's service that which they had consecrat-ed to Him .

The Scriptural principle of sacrifice in the servic eof God, outlined, foregoing, applies only to Christian sduring this Gospel age . When the age of sacrifice i sended, and the faithful ones have been exalted wit hJesus in the future glory of the Messianic Kingdom ,then, through the administration of that Kingdom ,God 's favor will be manifested to the people in a ma-terial way. Perfect health and all of the good thingsof earth will then be the blessed portion of_ all man -kind who obey the laws of that new Kingdom—no triches ill-gotten through bribery and oppression, bu tthe abundance of wholesome good things which moth-er earth will provide, and which will be equitably dis-tributed through Kingdom agencies to all the obed-ient ones in that new age .

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dealings with them were in many ways illustrative o fthe manner in which He will bless the world durin gthe Millennial age . God obligated Himself throughthe law covenant with Israel, to bless them in materialthings—"in basket and store ." During the Kingdomage He will bless the world in the same manner, bu tHe has not promised sacrificing Christians that H ewill bless them with an abundance of earthly goodthings. Those who now seem "blessed" with earthlyabundance generally are selfish worldlings . "Now w ecall the proud happy ; yea, they that work wickednes sare set up."—Mal. 3 : 15 .

Paying Tithes

QUESTION : Please explain Mal. 3 :10 "Bringye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may b emeat in Mine house; and prove Me now herewith,saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windowsof heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shal lnot be room enough to receive it . "

ANSWER : This question is closely related to theone just considered, in that it involves the basis uponand the manner in which God bestows His blessings .The paying of tithes by Israel was a part of the de-mands of the law covenant . The tithing' system Was thatof contributing to . the Lord a tenth of one ' s gross in -come. The proceeds of the tithes were used to suppor tthe priestly tribe of Levi . The Levites, at the tim eof the division of the land of Canaan, were not give nany portion in the land, but were set apart to be th eservants of the other tribes in the things pertaining t otheir religious life . Not having any portion in th eland themselves, and . being the servants of all theother tribes, the tithing system was an equitable ar-rangement whereby all could be properly supported .

'Many earnest religionists even today try to carr yout this tithing system, by giving one tenth of thei rgross income, whether it be large or small, to th eLord, for the support of what they consider to be Hi swork . This is a commendable spirit, although the tith-ing system of the law covenant is not obligatory upo nthe Christian . The Christian is not asked to give one-tenth of his income to the Lord ; through his volun-tary vows of consecration he has pledged himself t ogive his all—not merely all of his income, but himselfand all his powers are to be devoted and used as afaithful steward for his Master.

The difference between the position of the Jew andthat of the Christian is that the former was underlaw while the latter is under grace . The Christian i sa free man, and is placed entirely upon his own re-spdnsibility as to the degree of faithfulness he ma ymanifest in carrying out his vow of consecration. Thisis why it has required nearly two thousand years t ofind 144,000 who are one-hundred percent faithful fol-lowers of the Master . It is a trait of fallen huma nnature to do only that which one is forced to do . ButGod is now looking for 'servants who do not need tobe forced to serve, but who are constantly looking fo ropportunities to serve Him .

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As already noted, the Jews were required to giv eone-tenth, while Christians voluntarily agree to giv etheir all ; yet it often is true, that the one who is sup-posed to be gladly giving all, even himself, to th eLord, under his covenant of sacrifice, does not actuallygive the one-tenth that Was required of the Jews unde rthe law covenant . When the Christian enters into acovenant of sacrifice with the Lord, giving himsel fand all that he has to the Lord, he is not expected torecklessly throw away his possessions and make him -self a dependent pauper. No, instead of this, the Lor dmakes him a steward over that which has been conse-crated to Him, to be used wisely in His service as th eLord 's agent .

The Bible gives very specific directions to th eChristian steward governing the use of that which h ehas given to the Lord. Certain earthly obligationsmust be met . He must look after his ,family, and pro -vide things honest in the sight of all men . Aside fro mthis reasonable provision for those who according t othe flesh are naturally and legally dependent upon him ,the Christian is expected to use the remainder of histime and means in his Master 's service. Ile is notcompelled to do this ; but when he made his consecra-tion vow he agreed to do it, and if he is faithful h ewill do it .

In permitting the Christian to act as a steward, an dto Use in the Lord's service everything that he hadvoluntarily given to Him, the Lord thus places eac hone on his own honor . But how many fail because ofthis! How easy it is for us to find excuses for pam-pering our owns selfish desires, rather than to sacrific eourselves and our means in the Lord 's service! Inproviding things "honest " or decent in the sight ofall men we may be inclined to provide things even"luxurious ." In giving necessary time to the uncon-secrated husband or wife or children, . we may beprone to give all our time thereto, leaving little o rnothing for Him, The human heart, being "deceitfu labove all things, and desperately wicked," continuallytries to find plausible excuses to remove our sacrific efrom the altar . Against these selfish, fleshly tendenciesthe Christian must put tip a constant fight .

Now this is what the Lord is talking about in the• rssage under consideration . While it was addresse d

particularly to the natural house of Israel, the princ-iple applies even more forcefully to spiritual Israel- -consecrated Christians . The verses preceding the tex tunder consideration, state : "Will a man rob God ?Yet ve have gobbed Me. - But ye say, Wherein hav ewe robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings . Ye arecursed with a curse ; for ye have robbed Me, even thi swhole nation . " What an indictment this was agains tunfaithful Israel ! Let us make sure that we of s pirit-ual Israel are not robbing God today .

The Lord says, "Bring all the tithes into the store -house. . . and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lor dof hosts, if I will not open you . the windows of heaven,and pour you out a blessing, that there shall - not beroom enough to receive it . " The "tithes" that we asChristians must bring into the Lord's storehouse i sall that we are and have . Have we really brought allto the Lord? To the extent that we actually devote tothe Lord that which we have consecrated to Him, may

we expect to realize His showers of blessing upon u s—but not material blessings, for those are among thethings we are sacrificing . If we are truly faithful toour consecration we should expect to receive, yea, wil lreceive, rich spiritual blessings from the Lord contin-ually . Our lives will be filled with joy, and with apeace that passeth all human understanding . We wil lhave every evidence that God is dealing with us a ssons. The "windows of heaven" will indeed he opento us, and the overflowing spiritual blessings of Go dwill be our daily portion .

The Promise of His Presenc e

QUESTION : Peter declares that in the last day sthere would be those who would ask, " Thbcre is thepromise of His coming?" (2 Pet . 3 :3,4 .) 1 haveheard this statement explained as meaning, "Where isthe evidence of His presence . " Is this latter though tjustified by the Greek teat ?

ANSWER_ : Yes . The Greek word translated "com-ing" in this text is parousia, which, according to al llinguistic authority means "presence," as of an objec tor being which is actually alongside of, or present ,The Greek word here translated "promise" is epa,g-gelia . Prof. Strong tells us that it has the specifi cmeaning of "divine assurance of good ." Another foi mof this word—epaggello—is used by the Biblical writ-ers when they wish to convey the thought of a mer epromise or expectation of coming events .

A good way to get clearly in mind the distinction i nthe meaning of these two words is to compare thei ruse in Hebrews 6 : 13 and 15 . In verse 13 the apostlesays that "God made promise (epag ,gello) to Abra-ham" ; that is, God told him that He intended to bles sall the families of the earth, and that in doing this Hewould use his seed . In verse 15 we are told that afterAbraham endured, "he obtained the promise (epag-gelia) . " Now it is evident that what Abraham ob-tained after he endured was something more than hehad received before he endured, else the apostle wouldnot have taken the trouble to tell us about it .

Now just what was it that Abraham obtained afte rHe had demonstrated his faithfulness to the Lord ?Why, it was the divine assurance, or evidence, thatwhat He had promised would actually cone to pass .It wasn ' t God's due time then to begin the blessin gof all mankind, so He gave Abraham the only othe rtangible evidence or proof that could be given at thattime—He gave him His oath . This oath constitutedproof to Abraham that the promise God had mad ewould be fulfilled .

In Hebrews 11 : 39 this same Greek word is used .We quote : "And these all having obtained a goo dreport through faith, received not the promise (epag-gelia) . " This is a reference to the faithfulness of the` ancient worthies' as a class . Now all of those faith-ful ones, back there received the mere promise of thecoming Kingdom blessings . What was it then tha tthey did not receive? Ah, they did not receive an yevidence or proof from the Lord that the things H ehad promised wotxild actually come to pass ; yet they

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continued to cling to His promises, and died in th efaith that they would be fulfilled .

Now every professed Christian in the world todayknows that the Bible contains promises relative to thesecond coming of Christ . Peter is not talking abou tthe attitude of the heathen world, but about condi-tions in so-called Christendom, where the Bible i saccepted, nominally at least, as God 's Word. No onein Christendom today is denying that certain promise srelative to the second advent of Christ are recorde din the Bible ; but what is now being denied is the fac tthat there is any assurance, or evidence,, that theevents promised in connection with the Lord's returnare taking place in the world— "All things continue a sthey were, " no change is yet visible, they insist .

In order to help overcome this tendency toward, un-belief Peter then goes on to outline the early event sassociated with the actual second presence of Christ .He shows that as a result of Christ's parousia therewould be a general crashing and melting of the sym-bolic elements of the symbolic heavens and earth—a"time of trouble such as never was since there was anation." "Nevertheless, " declares Peter, despite thefact the world will be filled with trouble— "distress ofnations with perplexity " as the immediate result o fChrist ' s return—"we according to His promise (epag-gello)look for new heavens and a new earth, wherei ndwelleth righteousness . "—2 Pet. 3 : 13 .

Peter 's argument seems clear : While the watchfu lChristian sees in the present world-wide "distress ofnations the divine assurance that Christ ' s parousia hasbegun, and is bringing about the destruction of Sa-tan 's empire, he also remembers that God has promis-ed `better things' to come. There was as yet, however ,no visible evidence of the "new heavens and newearth" ; hence Peter tells us that this is still a matterof faith, based merely on God's unfailing promise . Butwe have the visible proof of Christ ' s parousia in theforetold "melting" of the "elements . "

Some may reason that if Christ is now taking ahand in the world 's affairs there should be less trou-ble, and more evidence of Kingdom blessings beingdispensed to the people ; but Peter is reminding usthat before the good things of the Kingdom can berealized there must he an actual increase of trouble .The selfish governments and organizations of earthmust be destroyed—dashed to pieces "like a potter 'svessel. " It is this very increase of trouble that th eapostle refers to as one of the divine evidences or as-surances of Christ ' s parousia .

The Heavenly Bridegroom and His Brid e(Continued from page 18)

The `head and body ' illustration given by Paul, i n2 Corinthians 12, is different from that of the bride be -coming the possession of the Bridegroom, as outline dforegoing ; it conveys to our mind a different view -point concerning the oneness of the seed . In 2 Corin-thians 12, the various members of the body are pic-tured as functioning as parts of a composite whole ,directed by the Head ; and the assurance is given tha tGod has "set every member in the body as it ha spleased Him . " This illustrates unity of action, while

the illustration of Ephesians 5 is that of possession ,in which the bride as a whole becomes the flesh andbones of the Bridegroom . Both of these thoughts ar einvolved in the full oneness of the seed of promise .

"His Wife Hath Made Herself Ready "As already noted, the `bride and Bridegroom' illus-

tration carries over into the future glory of the King -dom. In fact the church does not actually become th ebride of Christ until the first resurrection is complete .Prior to that time the illustration has to do merelywith the invitation to become the bride, and the prep-aration for that glorious future union . Revelation 19 :7 reads, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give hono rto Him : for the marriage of the Lamb is come, andHis wife bath made herself ready . "

What depth of meaning is contained in those fe wwords : "bath made herself ready" ! They describemore than nineteen hundred years of patient but hap-py toil on the part of the footstep followers of the Mas-ter . It began officially at Pentecost, and Peter was th efirst workman . When, by the power of the holy spirit,he delivered that famous discourse, the truth thus pro -claimed began its transforming influence in the heartsand lives of the first members of the church. Thenothers took up the work ; in fact all the faithful onesbegan to "build one another up," first, through anevangelistic effort that reached out and made the firstcontact with the believers, and then the necessary fol-low-up work of strengthening and encouraging eachother to steadfastness in the "good fight of faith ." Andthere also has been the individual responsibility o fevery Christian to see to it that the truth was havin gthe proper effect in his own life .

Thus, all down through the age there has been thi sconsistent zealous work going on . It has been a workof witnessing, teaching, shepherding, and praying ;with each faithful individual Christian humbly an djoyfully submitting to the moulding influences of th etruth, and to the experiences—whether bitter or swee t—that have come to him as a result of his zeal in th eservice of the Lord and the truth . And this work i sstill going on, although there is every indication tha tit is nearly complete. When this "making ready "process has been completed with respect to every in-dividual member of the bride class, then the "marriageof the Lamb " will come .

But think not that this illustration ends with th emarriage ceremony and the exaltation of the brideand her triumphal entry into the "palace of the King . "No, there is still a work to do, a glorious work, th ereal work for which the bride has been chosen. Thatwork will be, under the direction of her heavenlyBridegroom, the "regeneration, " or restoration of allmankind to life and happiness upon the earth . InRevelation 22 : 17 we read, "And the spirit' and thebride say, Come . And let him that heareth say, Come.And let him that is athirst come . And whosoever will ,let him take the water of life freely ." Beloved, let uscherish more fully all the glorious prospects that Go dhas revealed to us through His Word, and endeavo rto "give more earnest heed" to these things, in orde rthat we may be among those who are "ready" ; andwho will enter in with Him to the marriage !

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International Sunday School Lesson s

DAVI D

(The Great Hearted )

July 21—1 Samuel 26 : 5-11 ;

2 Samuel 1 : 23-27

And David arose, and came to th eplace where Saul had pitched : andDavid beheld the place where Saul lay ,and Abner, the son of Ner, the captainof his host : and Saul lay in the trench ,and the people pitched round about him .

Then answered David and said t oAhimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai ,the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab ,Who will go down with me to Saulto the camp? And Abishai said, I willgo down with thee .

So David and Abishai came to th epeople by night, and behold, Saul laysleeping within the trench, and hisspear stuck in the ground at his bols-ter : but Abner and the people layround about him.

Then said Abishai to David, Go dbath delivered thine enemy into thinehand this day : now therefore let m esmite him, I pray thee, with the spear ,even to the earth at once, and I wil lnot smite him the second time.

Then David said to Abishai, Destro yhim not : for who can stretch forth hi shand against the Lord's anointed an dbe guiltless ?

David said furthermore, As the Lordliveth, the Lord shall smite him ; or

his day shall come to die ; for he shal ldescend into battle and perish .

The Lord forbid that I should stretchforth mine hand against the Lord's an-oiintgf : but, I pray thee, take thou nowthe spear that is at his bolster, and thecruse of water, and let us go .

* * *

Saul and Jonathan were lovely an dpleasant in their lives, and in death the ywere not divided : they were swifte rthan eagles, they were stronger tha nlions.

Ye daughters of Israel, weep ove rSaul, who clothed you in scarlet, withother delights, who put on ornamentsof gold upon your apparel.

How are the mighty fallen in themidst of battle! 0 Jonathan, thou \vas tslain in thine high places.

I am distressed for thee, my brothe rJonathan : very pleasant hast thou bee nonto me : thy love to me was wonderful,passing the love of women .

How art the mighty fallen, and th eweapons of war perished !

GOLDEN TEXT : I say untoyou, do good to them that hateyou, and pray for them that de-spitefully use you and persecuteyou .—Matthcw 5 :44 .

ING DAVID stands ou tin the Bible as a veryunusual character . II efirst comes into promi-

nence in connection with the killin gof <<he giant Goliath . He rises intohigh favor in the eyes of the peo-ple ; but he incurs the enmity an djealousy of King Saul, who trie sagain and again to kill this youn gman who had saved the honor o fthe nation and who n€*ver at anytime had injured the- king. Thus ,innocent of any wrong-doing, 1)a-vid is obliged to flee to the hills ;for life is dear to him, and he i syet to play a great part in the af-fairs of his country .

Although David knows thatSaul has displeased the Lord, andthat he himself is some day to b eking, he refuses to take mattersinto his own hands and to take anyadvantage over his enemy whenthe latter is in his power . As heexpresses the matter, he would notlift up his hand "against theLord 's anointed . "

David recognized the fact tha tGod had placed Saul on thethrone, and that it is not for manto interfere with any divine ar-i-angement, but rather to wait inpatience for the outworking o fevents according to the divine pro -gram. Thus Dawid showed wis-dom and a proper spirit of rever-ence for the God of Israel. whom

L~ believed to be shaping the en --re course of affairs in a way thati :himately should prove to be th ebest .

Saul abused the power placed i nhis hands, as have many otherpotentates of the kingdoms of thi sworld . But we are told that "thereis no power but of God ; the pow-ers that be are ordained of God . "That is to say, God has permitte dthem to exist for some wise pur-pose . Hence He permitted Kin gSaul to remain on the throne o fIsrael even after he had set thelaw of God at defiance .

God 's people, however, knowthat ere long all power will be tak-en away from the great: ones o fthe world, and that it will then b evested in the hands of Christ an dHis church ; for in a great pro-phecy of the future we read : "Thekingdoms of the world are becom ethe kingdoms of our Lord and o fHis Christ, and He shall reign fo rever and ever . "—Rev. 11 : 15 .

Knowing that God is in control ,therefore the true Christian, evenas David, does not try to forcematters before the "due time." Heis fully aware of the fact that th eera for the world 's conversion hasnot yet arrived, so he does notnow try to convert the world . Heknows that the time for the finaloverthrowing of earth 's kingdomsis not yet here, so he does not tr yto overthrow them ; that is to say ,he does not join the ranks of th erevolutionists and anarchists t opull something down that Goddoes not yet want pulled down .

When the proper time conies ,God Himself will do the over -throwing work ; for thus it is writ -ten, "In the days of these kings .the God of heaven will set up aKingdom that shall never be de-stroyed ; and that Kingdom shal lnot be left to other people, but i tshall break in pieces and subdu eall those kingdoms, and it shal lstand for ever ."----Dan. 2 : 44.

24

David manfested a beautiful ,humble spirit of waiting on God ,and also a spirit of forgiveness to -ward his enemy . So also should i tbe with the Christian, the childof God in this age . While such a none should always stand for prin-ciple and be on the side of God, heshould paltiently wait for God tomake the great change in earth' saffairs . And in the meantime h eshould witness for the truth, an doffer the prayer, "Thy Kingdomcome, Thy will be done on earth ,as it is done in heaven ." Also heshould be kind and patient towar dhis enemies, that he may thus b eapproved of God and be used inthe world 's glorious uplift in God' sdue time .

QUESTIONS :

How did David incur the jealousy o fKing Saul?

How did Said displease the Lord ?How did David regard the deflection

of Saul, and how did he act toward th elatter on various occasions ?

Why has God permitted so man ypotentates of this world to misuse theirPower ?

What should be the attitude of th eChristian toward "the powers that be" ?

* * *

AMOS(The Social Justice Prophet )

July 28—Amos 8 : 1-1 3

Thus bath the Lord God showed untome, and behold a basket of summerfruit .

And He said, "Amos, what sees tthou? And I said, A basket of summerfruit . Then said the Lord unto me ,The end is come upon My people o fIsrael ; I will not pass by them any

more .

And the sons of the temple shall b ehowlings in that day, saith the Lor dGod : there shall be many deal bodiesin every place ; they shall cast themforth with silence .

Hear this, 0 ye that swallow up th eneedy, even to make the poor of th eland to fail .

Saying', When will the new moonhe gone, that we may sell corn? andthe Sabbath, that we May set forth

T H E D A W N

Wheat, making the ephah small, an dthe shekel great, and falsifying the bal-ances by deceit ?

That we may buy the poor for silver ,and the needy for a pair of shoes ; yeaand sell the refuse of the wheat ?

The Lord hath sworn by the excell-ency of Jacob, saying, Surely I wil lnot forget any of their works .

Shall not the land tremble for this ,and every one mourn that dwellet htherein? And it shall rise up wholly a sa flood ; and it shall be cast out an ddrowned, as by the flood of Egypt .

And it shall come to pass in thatday, saith the Lord God, that I wil lcause the sun to go down at noon, an dI will darken the earth in the clearclay ;

And I will turn your feasts int omourning, and all your songs into lam-entation ; and I will bring up sack-cloth upon all loins, and baldness uponevery head ; and I will make it as th emourning of an only son, and the en dthereof as a bitter day.

Behold, the days come, saith theLord God, that I will send a famine inthe land, not a famine for bread, no ra thirst for water, but of hearing th ewort_ls of the Lord.

GOLDEN TEXT : Let justic eroll down as waters, and righteous-ness as a mighty stream .—Amos5 : 24 .

HIS prophecy of Amosapplied primarily to theten-tribe kingdom of nat-ural Israel . Yet some

statements regarding the punish-ments that came upon Israel re -mind us of similar predictionsmade by our Lord and the pro-phets concerning antitypical Israe lor Christendom .

Through their violations of th edivine law the Israelites broughtupon themselves grievous calami-ties . And likewise, through disre-garding the principles of justiceand fairplay, the peoples of Chris-tendom today are headed for a"time of trouble such as was no tsince there was a nation . " In re •gard to world conditions that no wobtain, a Bible expositor has said :

)"Many are at ease in nomina lZion : many are boasting of their

prosperity, and symbolically areresting upon beds of ivory, takingtheir ease, and gusting that thechurch is being carried forward tothe conquest of the world, alonga pathway which the Master andthe apostles knew not of, a path-way of roses without thorns, apathway that is not narrow no rdifficult nor steep, but that i sbroad, pleasurable, easy .

"The wealthy are very generallymembers of nominal Zion, or atleast liberal supporters of her ar-rangements and services . And sh ein turn is appreciative, and boast sof her wealth, just as she prophet-ically is pictured as doing, by theLord in His description of theLaodicean period of the church .Nominal Zion today is saying, ` Iam great, and increased withgoods, and have need of nothing, 'and knows not that she is `poo rand miserable and blind and nak-ed .' Hence she neglects to pur-chase the true `gold' and the tru e`wedding garment . '

"The announcement today tonominal spiritual Zion, of calami-ties coining upon her in the fore -told `day of vengeance' just a thand, is as ttnacceptablo and a sdisbelieved as was the message ofAmos to those who were prosper-ing and at ease in nominal fleshlyZion, as recorded in our lesson . "

In the sixth chapter of his pro-phecy Amos says : "Woe to themthat are at ease in Zion ; and lieupon beds of ivory, that stretchhem selves upon their couches ,

and eats the lambs out of the flock ,and the calves out of the midst o fthe stall, that chant to the soundof the viol, and invent to them-selves instruments of music, likeDavid ; that drink wine in bowls ,r-nd anoint themselves with th echief ointments . "

The class alluded to chiefly arethose who have exploited the poor ,"making the ephah (measure )small, and the shekel (price)great, and falsifying the balance sby deceit," in order to "buy thepoor for silver and the needy fora pair of shoes ; yea, and sel l(them) the refuse of the wheat . "The Lord says that He will notforget their works, but that He

will cast them out and their wrongsystem with them, and establish asystem of justice, fair-play an dlove in all the earth .

Justice is said to be the veryfoundation of the throne of God .The world's acts of crying injus-tice today are precipitating thepresent social order into the greatmaels',rom of tribulation that lie sjust ahead, and that will cause thecomplete overthrow of the old or -der of things, so that the ne wMessianic Kingdom may be es-tablished upon its ruins .

QUESTIONS :

How is social injustice being exer-cised today ?

Compare the time when Amos wrote,with the present time .

Show how the Christian should bean exetnpler of justice.

Compare justice and love . Can theyalways operate together ?

What is the full meaning of the ex-pression that righteousness and judg-ment (justice) are the habitation o f

God's throne?

* * *

And the king went up into the houseof the Lorli, and all the men of Judahand all the inhabitants of Jerusale mwith him, and the priests and the pro-phets, and all the people, both small andgreat : and he read in their ears all th ewords of the book of the covenantwhich was found in the house of theLord.

And the king stood by a pillar, andmade a covenant before the Lord, t okeep IHis commandments, and His tes-timonies and His statutes with all thei rheart and all their soul, to perform th ewords of this covenant that were writ -ten in this 'book. And all the peoplestood to the covenant .

And the king commanded Hilkiah th ehigh priest, and the priests of the sec-ond order, mid' the keepers of the door ,to bring forth out of the temple of th eLord all the vessels that were made

T H E D A W N

for Baal, and for the grove, and forall the host of heaven : and he burnedthem without Jerusalem in the fields o fKidron, and carried the ashes of themunto Bethel .

And he put down the idolatrouspriests, whom the kings of Judah hadordained to burn incense in the highplaces in the cities of Judah, and in theplaces round about Jerusalem ; themalso that burned incense unto Baal, tothe sun, and to the moon, and to th eplanets, and to all the host of heaven . . .

And the king commanded all th epeople, saying, Keep the passover untothe Lord your God, as it is written i nthe hook of this covenant .

Surely there was not holden such apassover from the days of the judge sthat judged Israel, nor in all the day sof the kings of Israel, nor of the king sof Judah ; but in the eighteenth yearof king Josiah, wherein this passove rwas holden to the Lord in Jerusalem.

GOLDEN TEXT : Thou shaltworship the Lord thy God, an dHima only shalt thou serve.—Matt.4 :10 .

OSIAH was a lad of bu teight years of age whe nhe succeeded his fatherAmon to the throne o fAmon 's reign of two year s

was a wicked one . He endeavoredto re-establish idolatry, and wasfinally assassinated . Josiah, how-ever, was a very different type ofcharacter . His very name means ,"Jehovah will support . " He wasborn during the period when hi sgrandfather Manasseh was carry-ing on a movement of religious re -form. His mother's' name was Jed-ediah, which signifies "the belovedof Jehovah . " She evidently was agodly woman . Thus Josiah hadthe great advantage of good birth ,on his mother 's side at least .

After Manasseli's reformation ,he had gathered about him a num-ber of wise state counsellors ; an dprobably these were the ones whonow gave counsel to Josiah . Athis sixteenth year, the chronicle rsays, "He began to seek after theGod of David his father . " Thu she assumed his own individua lresponsibility to the Lord, and en-

2 5

tered upon the serious business o fruling' the kingdom according t dthe principles of divine law . Godwas pleased with this attitude ofheart . He is ever ready to dra wnear unto those who draw nearunto Him. Truly He has said, " Ilove them that love Me, and theythat seek Me early shall find Me . "

When he came to his twentiet hnyear Kling Jpsiah determined touse his power to abolish all theidols and their worship through -out the kingdom, and for the spaceof six years he devoted his ener-gies to this work. Not onlythroughout Judah was it carriedon, but it spread also over a larg eportion of the territory to thenorth, where remnants of the ten- .tribe kingdom resided . Whateveropposition there was to this enter -prise was broken down by the res-olute monarch . It seems that idolsabounded on every hand, and i t!oolc a cleansing process of si xlong years to get rid of the pollu-tion and thus complete the reform .This in turn was followed by therepair of the Temple of the Lordat Jerusalem.

It is manifest that Josiah wentabout matters in a determined an dproper way . His first step was t oturn to the Lord himself, and givehis own heart completely to God .Then he proceeded to look abou tfor means and opportunities fo rserving the Lord . This is the orde rlaid down in the Bible . It is onlythose who completely give them -selves to God and break downthe idols of pride and selfishnes sin l.heir own hearts, who have anyright to offer themselves to Godfor any service in connection wit hHis great antitypical temple .

Josiah's repairing of the Templ eresulted in his discovering an an-cient manuscript of the Law ,probably the book of Deuteron-omy, either an original or a copyof the text which Moses had writ -ten with his own hand nearly athousand years before. This wasregarded as a priceless treasure ,and was read in the king 's hear-ing. It was so different from thelaw as taught by the apostat epriesthood that the king rent hi sgarments in titter dismay .

JOSIAH

(A Religious Reformer )

Aug. 4—2 Kings 23 :1-5, 21-2 3

And the king sent, and they gathered Judah .unto him all the elders of Judah and o fJerusalem .

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The fact is that idolatry hadabounded for the greater part ofthe three hundred years since thetemple was built ; and those priest swho had remained faithful to Godnot only were in the minority, butthey had incurred the enmity ofthe people. Having no land oftheir own, they depended on thetithes which the people gave them ,and this influenced many of themto teach what the people wanted tohear, rather than the sure word o fGod, even as with certain teacher sin Christendom today .

It is when we are serving Godthat we find the best there is inlife. It is then that the treasure sof 'truth open up before us in alltheir beauty . As Josiah found in,.the Temple the book of the Law ,and also probably the Ark of theCovenant, so have God's peoplenow discovered the riches of trut hwithin His antitypical Temple .They are astonished to find thatthe priests and the exponents ofthe creeds of Christendom did no tmake known these things to them ;but they are glad because theyknow that God has led them intoHis own royal palace of truth andrighteousness .

QUESTIONS :

Were the birth conditions of Josiahfavorable for him or otherwise ?

What steps did Josiah take to wor kout a reform in Judah ?

I47 h-at should those first do who nowdesire to carry on a service for God ?

What did Josiah find in the Temple ?

Ifi'hat treasure is found in connectio nwith God's antitypical Temple today ?

Explain the text, "And the temple o f

God was opened in heaven, and therewas seen in His temple the ark of His

testament"—Rev. 11 :19 .

T H E D A W N

DANIEL

(Temperance and: Health )

Aug. 11— Daniel 1 : 8-2 0

But Daniel purposed in his heartthat he would not defile himself withthe portion of the king ' s meat, nor wit hthe wine which he drank : therefore h erequested of the prince of the eunuch sthat he might nht defile himself .

Now (g od had brought Daniel intofavor and tender love with the princ eof the eunuchs .

And the prince of the eunuchs saidto Daniel, I fear my lord the king whohath appointed your meat and yourdrink ; for why should he see yourfaces worse liking than the childrenwhich are of your sort? Then ye mak eme endanger my head to the king.

Then said Daniel to Melzar, who mthe prince of the eunuchs had set overDaniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azar-iah ,

Prove thy servants, I beseech thee ,ten days ; and let them give us pulseto eat and water to drink .

Then let our countenances be lookedupon before thee, and the countenanc eof the children that eat of the portionof the king's meat : and as thou seest ,deal with thy servants .

So he consented to them in this mat -ter, and proved them ten days.

And at the end of ten days thei rcountenances appeared fairer and fat -ter in flesh than all the children tha tdid eat the portion of the king's meat .

Thus Melzar took away the portio nof their meat, and the wine that the yshould drink, and gave them pulse .

As for these four children, God gavethem knowledge and skill in all learn-ing and wisdom : and Daniel had un-derstanding in all .visions and dreams .

And at the end of the days that theking hail said he should bring them in ,then the prince of the eunuchs brough tthem in before Nebuchadnezzar .

And the king communed with them ;and among them all was found non elike Daniel, Hananiah, Michael andAzariah : therefore stood they befor ethe king .

And in all matters of wisdom andunderstanding, that the king inquired o fthem, he found them ten times betterthan all the magicians and astrologersthat were in all his realm .

GOLDEN TEXT : Know ye notthat your body is the teni le of th eholy spirit?—1 Cor. 6 : 19 .

MONG the captives take nby Nebuchadnezzar wer efour young men of abou tsixteen years of age, wh o

evidently were of good parentag eand were instructed in the Law o fIsrael, and therefore possessed ahigh degree of reverence for theGod of their fathers . While theircaptivity must have seemed a grie-vous trial to them, in the divin eprovidence much good accrue dtherefrom ; and their example an dGod's dealings with them are mat-ters that have proved a great bless-ing to all .of to Lord's peoplethroughout past ages down to th epresent time.

The king of Babylon chose th efour young Hebrews and causedthem to be specially educated. Hedid this because of their manifestintelligence ; and they were placedin a class from which the futurecounsellors of state were to be se-lected . They were given Chaldea nnames ; but this did not changetheir characters . They were yopngHebrews of integrity and sterlin gworth, and capable of being trust-ed in positions of responsibility,.as is shown by the story of thei rlives.

The college where the fourHebrews received instruction wassupplied with meats, wines, andvarious delicacies by the king, wh odesired his prospective advisers tobear the very finest appearance .Most persons would be only to oglad to be regaled with such dain-ty fare, but for reasons known t ohimself it did not appeal to Daniel :

For one thing, the meats pro-vided by the king probably hadbeen dedicated to some heathendeity, one which the Hebrew swould not wish to acknowledge i nany way. But evidently the mostimportant reason for Daniel's ab-stinence was that he knew whatkind of food was best for the hu-man body ; he and his comrade sbeing wise in this as well as i nother matters . They believed thatthey would have better health an d

Lit

HOW MAN BECAME A LIVING SOULOW children, I want to tell you somethingmore about man and his creation—beganUncle Lb . And in order to get directly atthis, let us read something right out of th e

Bible . In the first chapter of Genesis, beginning wit hthe 26th verse, you will find these words :

"And God said, Let us make man in our own im-age, after our likeness : and let them have dominionover the fish of the sea, and over the foul of the air ,and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and overevery creeping khing that creepeth 'upon the earth .So God created man in His own image, in the imageof God created He him ; male and female created H ethem .

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them,Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, an dsubdue it : and have dominion over the fish of the sea ,and over the fowl of the air, and over every livin gthing that moveth upon the earth .

"And God said, Behold, I have given you ever yherb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all th eearth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of atree yielding seed ; to yo'u it shall he for meat . "

Then in the second chapter of Genesis, verse 6, w eread :

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of theground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath o flife, and man became a living soul . "

Man Was Made in God's ImageSo then, you see that in one place it says that Go d

made man in His own image, and in another place i tsays that God made man of the dust of the ground .Do you understand what is meant by these state-men",s? Suppose we look into them and try to see jus twhat the meaning really is .

Did you ever know a boy who was much like hi sfather . and yet didn't look like his father? Most likelytoll l . ; c . Let us suppose that the hov's father is acarpenter . The boy is like the father in that he lovesto use tools, such as a hammer and saw and plane, an dmake things out of wood. Then the boy also mayspeak like his father, and think and act like him a swell . So you may remark, "That boy is exe, tly lik ehis father ; he is just the image of him"—though he i snot as large as his father, and may not look very muchlike him, at least to those who are not well acquainte dwith them both .

In some such way man was made in the image ofGod. This does not mean that man looks like God ; infact, no one knows what God looks like . The Bibl esays that no man could look on God and live, and tha tno man has seen God at any time . Then it also say sthat God dwells in light that no man can approac hunto .

Yet man is like God in certain ways . That is, h ehas a brain and can think . Then, he has a moral na-ture, and can tell what is right and what is wrong .Furthermore, when Adam was first created he wa slike God in the sense that he was perfect . He didnothing wrong at the time, and his thoughts were allgood . Today mail is fallen and has lost much of God' simage ; but it was not so when he was first made .

Man Made out of Dus tBut how did God make man out of the dust of th e

earth? Did God just take up a big handful of dirt, o rfill several large pails with earth or mud, and makeman out of that? That question makesyou smile, be-cause you never saw anything made of dust, did you ?Of course, if you tried to make say a house out ofdust you wouldn't get very far with it ; for it wouldall crumble to pieces before you could get it finished .And if the wind were blowing, it would blow the dus tall away .

But God did not make man out of mud or dust inthe way boys and girls may make mud pies and things .He made man of dust in the sense that He made hi mof the same materials that we find in the world aroun dus . There are certain things in the world called ele-ments . Men have discovered ninety-four of them .These are in the air, the water, the ground, the trees ,the flowers, and in everything that exists in nature .Water is made of two of these elements . They ar ecalled oxygen and hydrogen . No doubt you haveheard of these in school, In the air are oxygen an dnitrogen. In wood there is a great deal of carbon ,which is another element . So, when the Bible say sthat God made man of the "dust," it means that I3 emade man of the elements that are in the earth, an dall around us in the various things that we see an dfeel . The very dust itself is made of these same earth-ly elements which are found in the human body .

So then, God took some of these elements and mad eman. Now man is much the finest being that live supon the earth . Although all plants and animals are

28

T H E D A W N

wonderful, nothing that we have ever seen is so won-derful as a human being. Perhaps you never stoppedto think how many parts there are in your body .

In the first ,lace, there is the framework consistingof two hundred and six bones . Some clay you ma ylearn to name all of these, for each one has a name .If any of you children grow up and become a docto ryou will certainly have to know the bones, and al lthere is to know about them . Then besides the bonesthere are hundreds of muscles and many hundreds o fnerves . Then there are organs, such as the brain ,which is the organ of thought ; the heart, the organ ofcirculation ; the stomach, the organ of digestion ; thelungs, the organs for purifying the blood ; the eyes ,the organs of sight ; the ears, the organs of hearing ;and many others .

When God made man He made all of these organs ,also the bones, muscles, nerves, and everything els ethat is found in our bodies. I think you will admitthat He made a very good job of it .

You and I could not make a single nerve, or asingle hair of our heads, or a drop of blood . Everypart of the body is nourished by the blood ; and thi sincludes the finger nails, the skin, and even the eyes .It took a very wise and skillful Creator to make sucha body . But it was not a difficult thing for God to do .

God Gives Life

I 'm sure you will agree with me when I say thata . human body would not be much good without life .If God had simply created the, body of man and donenothing more than that, His work would have beento no purpose . The eyes would have been there, butthey would not have seen a thing . The ears wouldhave been perfectly formed, but they would haveheard nothing . The brain could have done no think-ing. Man would not have realized his own existence ,for actually he could not have existence without life .Ilis body would have been lying there, but it woul dhave been lifeless and useless .

It required something more than a body to caus eman to think and walk about and see and hear and feel .The thing required is what we call life . Now, pleasedo not ask me what life is, for I do not know . Thegreatest scholars in the world cannot answer thatquestion . Life is an energy, something like electricity ;but it is not actually electricity . Another name for i tis vitality . Life is what makes the grass grow, thetrees bring forth their leaves and flowers and fruits ;it causes the roses, pansies, tulips and other blossom sto adorn the gardens ; it makes the birds sing and fl yabout, the lambs skip over the meadows, and all livin gcreatures the wonderful things that they are .

So, then, after God had made the body of man, thenext creative act of His was to put life in that body .The Bible says that God breathed into man's nostrilsthe breath of life, and that man became "a livingsoul." Then all at once man was able to stand up onhis feet and look around him, and behold the wonder-ful world he was in .

He found himself able to appreciate his beautifu lhome . His sense of smell was appealed to by the

sweet fragrance of the flowers . His sense of hearingpermitted him to enjoy the song birds, the music o fthe flowing rivers, and rustling leaves of the trees .Then he could eat the delicious fruits which must hav eperfectly suited his sense of taste . Everything aroun dhim afforded pleasure . Then he also had pleasure i nhis fair companion, his wife .

"Chi , nerfe , t man could do more things than anyanimal that lived on earth . I am quite sure that no tone of you could tell me how many different things aman can do. Have you ever seen an acrobat ? He i sa man who puts his body through motions that seemimpossible . He can swing from a bar by his feet . Hecan turn somersaults. He can leap from one horse toanother when the animals are in full gallop . Probablyyou have seen an acrobat perform these and man yother wonderful feats . But (lid you ever see a clog ,a cat, a horse, or any other animal do all the strangeand clever things that a man can do? Of course, som eanimals are trained by man to perform certain tricks ,but they cannot begin to compare with what ma nhimself can do . Think of the great buildings and th emighty bridges that man has built . And think of al lthe machines that he has constructed . Man is indeedthe very finest of all beings created on earth .

The Soul—What It Is

Perhaps some of you may have heard some peopl esay that man is superior to the lower animals becaus ehe has a "soul," and that the lower animals have nosoul . To see whether they are right in this or not, le tus see what the soul is . You will remember that whe nGod made Adam, the Bible says that "man became aliving soul . " According to this statement it should h every easy to understand just what the soul is .

You boys probably carry a jackknife in your poc-ket ; and you girls also find yourselves sometimes bor-rowing a knife from one of the boys . Well, if I wereto ask you what parts there are to a knife, you wouldsay, `A handle and a blade .' Yes, it takes just twothings to make a knife, and the blade by itself is notthe knife, but the two together make the knife .

Take another example . Water is composed of oxy-gen and hydrogen, chemically united . Neither one o fthese alone is water ; for water will put out fire, where-as oxygen will burn, and hydrogen will burn . I hopeyou understand this, for it is important . Very oftenit takes two or more things to make a third thing .You have a pair of shoes . Well, it takes chiefly thesoles and the uppers to make the shoes . It takes boththe lead and the wood to make a lead pencil . In eachof these cases one thing is the result of the union o ftwo other things .

So likewise, when God made man, He first mad ethe body, and into this He put life . These were tw oseparate things. And when these two things were pu ttogether, what did they make? The answer is, the ymade a soul . Yes, the Bible says that man BECAMEa living soul . It does not say that he RECEIVED asoul. To become a thing, and to receive a thing arevery different . Now I know a little girl who receiveda nice furry pet cat for a present last Christmas . That

T H E

does not mean that she BECAME a pet cat, does it ?So, when you were born, you BECAME a boy or agirl, as the case may be ; but you did not RECEIVEa boy or a girl at that time . So ehbn, please under-stand that when man was created, he BECAME asoul, but did not RECEIVE a soul .

Now, I can fancy I hear some of you saying, "Wily,then if that is true, every man must be a soul, an devery woman must be a soul." And when you saythat you say something g hat is exactly correct . If manbecame a soul at the time of his creation, he is a sou lyet . And every woman is a soul, too . But remember ,when man was made, he was a living soul ; while to -day he is a dying soul. Yes, death is now in the worldbecause of sin, and all men yield to death's powe rsooner or later . But, living or dying, man IS a soul .So whatever you do, do not forget that very impor-tant fact .

The Wages of Sin—Deat hPerhaps you remember what God said to the man ,

the living soul Adam, after He had made him . Hesaid that if this soul sinned, this soul would die . TheLord was very positive about this. He meant exactlywhat IIe said . It seemed like a hard sentence ; butthen there was no good reason why man should sin .Perhaps some of you have been kept in school some -time for breaking the rules . It seemed hard to be shu tin there when you knew that the others were out play-ing ; but, then remember that you should have obeyedthe teacher and should not have broken the rules . Per-haps you learned something by that sad experience ,and just made up your mind that you would not mis-behave in school any more .

Likewise Adam and Eve did not HAVE to do whatwas wrong . No one compelled them to disobey God .The serpent tempted them ; but to tempt one and tocompel him are two different things . No one can b ecompelled to do a wrong act, to speak a wrong word ;or to think a wrong or wicked thought . We can b etempled to do these things, but. we can resist the temp -ter if we wish to . The Bible says, "Resist the devi land he will flee from you ; draw nigh to God, and H ewill draw nigh to you . "

One day a boy was sent on an errand to a certai n'house . He was taken into the kitchen while the ladyof the house went upstairs to get something for him .While she was gone, he saw some money lying on th etable. He thought it would be a good chance to tak ethis money while no one was near to see him, for h ewanted to buy a very fine coasting sled that he ha dseen in a store window' . So he reached out his han dand slipped the money into his pocket . When thelady came downstairs, she slid not think of the money ,and the boy went home .

After the boy had departed, the lady went to ge tthe money she had laid down . Of course it was no tthere . She felt sure that the boy had taken it ; so sh ewrote to the boy 's mother and told the story . Whenfaced with his sin, at first the boy denied it ; but i tand then he confessed everything. His mother talkedand 'then confessed everything . His mother talkedvery seriously but kindly to him, and he promised

D A W N

29

never again to take anything that was not his own .And he kept his word . .

But the point of my story is that the boy did notHAVE to take that money . He was tempted to takeit because he waned to buy the sled . He did notresist the temptation, but yielded to it . And so it wa swith our first parents. The woman wanted to becomevery wise, so she ,00k the forbidden fruit. ThenAdam also took some of it . Thus they both brokethe divine command . Their punishment was sure tocome, and it did come . This punishment was death .Just what is death? That will be the subject of ou rnext story .QUESTIONS :

In what image did God make man?—Gen 1 : 26, 27 .Has any one ever seen Gq_i?—I John 4 :12 ; John 1 :18.

How do we know what God is like?—John 14 :9 .What material did God use in making man?—Gen . 2 : 7.Is man wonderful?—Psa . 8 :4-9 .What is the soul ?—Gen 2 : 7 .What did God breathe into mon at the time of creation ?What is the difference between the spirit and the soul ?Does the soul die?—Ezek . 18 :4 ; Isa . 53 :12 ; Psa . 88 :48,What is the difference between man and the lower animal s

in death ?—Encl . 3 :19,20 .Are the lower animals souls?—Nunn 31 :28.'Why do animals die?—2 Pet . 2 :12.Why does man die?—Rom . 5 : 12 .

Will man always die?—Rev . 21 :4.How did God cause Adam and Eve to die?—Gen . 3 : 22, 23.What did they retur n to at death?—Gen . 3 :19.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Vest Pocket Manna . We are arranging for a ship-ment of Vest Pocket Manna Books from Australia. Thi sManna Book is practically identical with the original Dail yHeavenly Manna, just a few of the comments having beenchanged—new ones being selected from the old Watch Tow-ers . These books are available at 35 cents for the clothbound and 60 cents for the leather bound edition . Availabl ein about four weeks .

Italian Tracts. An edition of the tract, "Earth' sComing Glory," is to be published in the Italian language.These tracts will be supplied free . It will help us to determ-ine the size of the edition required for immediate use if th ebrethren desiring them will let us know how many they need .

Gad and Reason . The circulation of this book i sbeing richly blessed . Get a supply for use . among yourfriends an-I neighbors . Many who lfw'e never read religiou sliterature before, are now interested . Paper hound edition 20cents each, 7 copies for $1 . Cloth bound 50 cents .

Evolutionists at the Crossroads, Many minis-ters are buying this hook. Why not call on the pastors inyour own community and tell then about it—it will affordyou an interesting experienhe . Single copies 25 cents, 6 cop-ies $1 .

The Divine Plan of the Ages. This time-testedtreatise of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible is availabl ein cloth binding for 30 cents the single copy .

God's Plan in Brief. A condensed edition of th eDivine Plan of the Ages, Paper binding, 15 cents each .

30

Talking Thirsds Ova¢̀ r

II

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~

dWhere It All Leads T o

N that interesting series of pictures knownas "The Photo Drama of Creation, " therewas one view which portrayed Satan pound-ing the keys of a typewriter, and from tha t

typewriter there came forth all sorts of confusing andGod-dishonoring theories—false doctrines that haveplagued the bewildered world all down through th eages. That unusual picture was entitled, "Where i tAll Comes From . "

An up-to-date version of that illustration might no wbe drawn, showing many of the Lord's people "samp-ling" one or another of the erroneous theories comin gfrom Satan's typewriter . Such a modern version ofthe atorementionecl cartoon could be! appropriatel ylabeled, "Where It All Leads To . " This tragic ten-dency on the part of some is vividly impressed uponour minds almost daily by the mail that comes int oThe Dawn office from all parts of the world .

And where does this tendency to revert to dark ag etheories ultimately lead to? Probably it does not hav ean equally baneful effect upon all, but we would lik eto tell briefly of the case of one brother, which over aperiod of about a year has unfolded itself to us. Thisdear brother had been in the truth for some time, an dafter reading an article in The Dawn entitled "Th eMessiah Gospel, " wrote expressing his appreciatio nthat this magazine had so clearly presented exactlywhat it means to live the Christ life and what Chris treally should mean to every Christian, as well as wha tHe ultimately will mean to the entire world .

Then, a few months later, we received another let -ter from this same dear brother, in which he told u sthat he had since come to feel that The Dawn is sadlylacking in evidence that its writers understand verymuch of the "deeply spiritual truths" of the Bible con-cerning the Christian life . Naturally we were muchsurprised to thus learn that the columns of The Dawnhad suffered such a radical spiritual decline in s oshort a time ; and in order to get at the bottom of th ematter we wrote and asked this brother if he woul dkindly explain to us just what he understands to b ethe "deeply spiritual" truths .

In reply to our request he sent us a book written b ya woman, which sets forth the various standard "holi-ness" theories which millions of mystics down throughthe ages have held, none of whom ever had a clea renough view of God and Christianity to enable the mto know that the eternal torture, purgatory and trinitytheories are unscriptural and absurd . The book pre-sents a purely emotional concept of Christianity, in

which Jesus is the "savior " from the "fires of hell .To us it seems obvious that at best this emotiona l

ascetic concept of the "Christ life" is little differen tfrom Hindu asceticism, and goes no further thanwhat the apostle suggests as merely knowing Chris t"after the flesh . " These ascetic writers mean well, an ddoubtless are a measure of help to many, but the yseem to look upon Jesus entirely from a fleshly stand -point . They idealize His manliness, His courage, Hi skindness, His love and His sympathy, and then sto pthere . They visualize this ideal character as hoverin gover them, and almost, if not quite, whispering swee tmessages to them ; with the thought always prominen tin their minds that He has "saved" them—from eter-nal torture, of course .

But the Hindu says these same sweet things abou tBuddha . They might be said about almost any gran dcharacter whom we might wish to idealize in ourminds . In fact all heathen ascetics hold very simila ridealisms concerning the various deities whom the yworship. It seems surprising to us that anyone whoonce understood the divine plan of the ages shoul dnot be able to see the shallowness of this mystic sor tof "spirituality . " The Christian does indeed rejoice.to think of Jesus' glorious character, and will endeav-or to copy it, but his life must also be guided by th eMessianic doctrines of Christ, else there can be n otrue spiritual growth .

But this is not the end of the story! Just recentl ythis same dear brother wrote to us again, declaringthat from now on he desires that all his spare moneybe used in what he has now discovered to be themost important work of the Lord, which is the "say--ing " of the Chinese! In order that we might under-stand thoroughly just what it is that he is now s owhole-heartedly supporting, he sent us a copy of amissionary paper which outlines what he considers tobe the all-important work. One of the announce-ments in this nominal church missionary journa lreads as follows :

"The opportunity to help Christ save China i sours . Shall we accept it, or shall we sleep, leavin gthe Son of God to a succession of crosses? "

Alas, that one who once saw present truth and en-joyed with us the glorious hope of the near estab-lishment of the divine Kingdom, by means of whic hthe knowledge of God 's glory will be caused to fillthe whole earth, should now suppose that he mus t"help Christ save China, " or else see the Son of Go ddoomed, to a "succession of crosses" ! Such a state-ment not only reveals an utter lack of knowledge con-

T H E D A W N 8 1

cerning the glorious Messianic Gospel, but also indi-cates that its writer has no real conception of th epurpose of the "cross of Christ "—else he would haveknown that Christ cannot now be doomed to any fur-ther "crosses," especially in the manner in which hesuggests . The "sufferings of Christ" are still goingon through Ilis body members ; but these sufferings ,instead of being lessened by Christian faithfulness ,are thereby increased, because the more faithful aChristian is in laying down his life in service, th e

Tabernacle Shadows. We are now in a position tosupply Tabernacle Shadow booklets at 15 cents each, includ-ing postage.

Free Tracts . We have tracts on a variety of subjects .The article, "The Resurrection Hope," appearing in thi sissue of The Dawn, will be available in tract form shortly .

more persecution and suffering he will be called upo nto endure—such is the path to glory .

The obvious moral of the foregoing case is tha twe should select our religious reading matter wit hthe same conscientious care we use when we vot efor elders or teachers in the church . Certainly wewould not think it wise, nor pleasing to the Lord, t oelect teachers for our ecclesia who do not understan dthe truth but who continue to believe all the funda-mental errors of Christendom! Would it then be .pleasing to the Lord to place ourselves under th ewritten instructions of such teachers, by continuall yreading their theories for the purpose of obtainin gspiritual food? If we do not obey the injunction to"take heed unto the doctrines " in this practical way ,should we be surprised if sooner or later we toomight not begin to feel the burden of "helping Chris tsave China " from the mythical fires of hell ?

SPEAKERS' APPOINTMENT SDaniel(Continued from. page 26) -

present a finer appearance withoutthe king's rich fare ; and, believingthis, they took steps to secure th eboon that they desired .

The term "pulse" probably de-noted vegetables, and more espec-ially such products of the soil a sbeans, peas and wheat . It has beenproven that such foods contain al lthe elements essential to the nour-ishment of the human body . It i sclaimed by many dieticians thatbeans are more sustaining thanbeefsteak. However, we are no there arguing for vegetarianism ;for we know that Jesus ate meat ,that it was used by the Jews unde rthe Mosaic law, and was also used.by the Christian church in apos-tolic times . But that Daniel andhis friends made a wise resolve—perhaps specially wise for certainreasons at that particular time—i sdemonstrated by the results, whic hwere satisfying in the highest de-gree .

Likewise, the Christian shoul dhave respect- for his individualbody, which the apostle compare sto a temple in which the holy spiritdwells . Into this body he shouldnot introduce defiling thoughts"perfecting holiness in the fear ofthe Lord . " The apostle said, "Ikeep my body under, and bring i tinto subjection, lest having preach-ed to others I myself should be acastaway. " Verily "the spiritlusteth against the flesh, and theflesh lusted) against the spirit ."

BROTHER H . E. ANDERSO NHartford, Conn .,

July 4BROTHER C .

Binghamton, N . Y. ,Belville, Ont . ,Montreal, Que . ,Burlington, Vt . ,Wilton, Me. ,Greenfield, Mass . ,Springfield, Mass . ,

BROTHER C.Duquesne, Pa. ,'Beaver, Pa. ,

BROTHER W. F. HUDGING SPassaic. N. J„

Tuly 2 1BROTHER J . H . HOEVELE R

Woodbury, N. J.,

July 7Bridgeton, N . J .,

7Philadelphia, Pa.,

7BROTHER J. T. JOHNSO N

Youngstown, Ohio,

July 1 4BROTHER J. C. JORDAN

Duquesne, Pa .,

A,ug. 4BROTHER J. G. KUEH N

Detroit, Mich .,

July 6BROTHER M. MITCHELL

Passaic, N . J .,

July 14BROTHER D. J . MOREHOUSE

Saginaw, Mich .,

July 2 1Port Huron, Mich .,

23London, Ont .,

24

Divine help and grace are dailyneeded by all the followers of theMaster.QUESTIONS :

How did God overrule the captivit yof the four young Hebrews for good ?

What special reasons did these Heb-rews probably have for not eating th eking's fare ?

How may the Christian practice tem-perance to his own advantage?

Niagara Falls, N . Y . .D€troit, IV ich . ,Jackson, Mich . ,

BROTHER A. L. MUI R

Jacksonville, Fla .,Richmond, Va . ,Washington, D. C . ,Brooklyn . N. Y . ,East Orange. N . .J .Jersey City, N . .T . .Brooklyn, N. Y. ,

(251 Washingto nProvidence. R. I . ,New Bedford, Mass .,Boston, Mass . ,Lynn, Mass . ,Worcester, Mass . ,Springfield, !Mass . ,Rutherford, N . J . ,Philadelphia, Pa. ,Wilmington, Del . ,Baltimore, Md. ,Roanoke, Va . ,Jacksonville, Fla. ,SorreQto, Fla .,Orlando, Fla . ,

BROTHER W .Duquesne, Pa . ,

BROTHER WALTER. SARGEAN TLincoln University, Pa . .

July 1 4

BROTHER G. M . \VIi .S'\TDuquesne, Pa .,

' July 21E. Liverpool, Ohio,

2 8

BROTHER W. N. WOODWoRTH

Ithaca, N . Y .,

July IErie, Pa .,

2Detroit . Mich .,

4- 6Chicago, Ill . .

7St . Louis, Mo . .

1 0Waukesha, Wis .,

1 4Muncie, Ind .,

1 5Richmond, Ind .,

1 6Cincinnati, Ohio,

1 7Dayton, Ohio,

1 8Columbus, Ohio,

1 9Pittsburgh, Pa .,

2 1

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