THE PROPHETIC TESTIMON Y

PITTSBURGH CONVENTION REPORT

.REVIEWING THE YEAR 1938

SPEAKERS' APPOINTMENTSIT IS desired to make the listing of speakers' ap-

pointments a greater service to the friends generally ,and for this reason we are undertaking to list the ad -dresses where the lectures are to be given, as well a sthe hour of the meetings . It; is not possible, of course ,to furnish this information in every instance . We willhe glad however, if the classes being served by visitin gspeakers will, if they so desire, forward the necessaryinformation to us so that in future issues we can giv ea fuller listing of the time and place of meeting .

BROTHER Ti . E . .ANDERSO NBrookvin, N. Y., 109 Remsen Street. 3 P . 5! Dec . 25

BROTHER T. E. BARKERBever] v,Mass Dee . 4Woreest or, Mass 1 113oston, Mass ., 1Tnutington Ave :1 S

BROTHER J. A . BELLBaltimore, Md. (Co vention*) 1 1Brooklyn, N . Y., 109 Benison Street, 3 P . M 1 8

BROTHER C . P. BRIDGESBoston, Mass ., 30 Huntington Avenue Dee . I T

BROTHER F . A. BRIGHTPaterson, N. J ., 169 Van Holden St ., 3 P. M Dec . I S

BROTHER N . CONSTAN TNew Haven, Conn ., 19 Elm St Dee . 1 8

BROTHER, S . C . DE GROO TChicago, ill . (Convention') Dee . 31 . Tan . 1, 2

BROTHER A . C. FREYBrooklyn, N . Y., 405 Carlton Ave . . 3 P. M Dee . 4

BROTHER E. L . FOWIAi RSanta Anli, Calif ., 1342 Cy press . 10 :30 A . AI . . .Dee . 1 S

BROTHER WILLIAM J . HOLLISTERPhiladelphia, Pa . . 18th and Arch , V . '\V . C. A .Dee . 1 1

13ROTITER J . T. JOHNSONEast Liverpool, Ohio Dee . 1 1

BROTHER P. KOLLIMANBaltimo re, Md . (Convention') Dec 1 1

BROTHER 0 . MAGNUSONBaltimore, Md . (Convention*) 1 1

1BROTTIER PPW1'ARD STAITRE RDuquesne, Pa Dee . 4

BROTHER GEORGE R . MAYNARDMentoie, Calif ., 1352 Olivine Street, 2 :30 P . Sf . .Pee . i i

BROTT-IER. J . A . MEGGISONChicago, ill . (Convention*) Dee . 31, Jan . 1, 2

BROTHER M. C. MITCHELL

Philadelphia, Pa ., 1.8 & Arch, V. W. C. A . . .Dee . 1 8

BROTHER A . L. MUIRChester, Pa 6Wilmington, Del 7Laurelt:on . N. Y., 130-33 228th St ., 8 P . M 8Rutherford, N. J 9Brooklyn, N . Y., 109 Remsen St ., 3 P . M 1 1ITartford, Conn 1 2Rail River, Mass 1 3

Providence, R . T 1 4New Bedford, Mass 15Brockton, Mass 1 .6

Lynn, Mass .

17

Boston, Mass . (Convention`) 1. 8Worcester, Mass 1 9North Brookfield, Mass .

2 0Feeding liills, Mass 2 1Syracuse, N . Y 22

Buffalo, N. Y 23

Detroit, Mich 2 5

Port Huron, Mich 2 6Flint, Mich 2 7_ ~Saginaw, Mich 2 8Grand Rapids, Mich 2 9

South Bend, Ind Dee 30

Chicago, 1 .11 . (Convention Dee . 31, dim . 1, 2

13J3OTHER A . NEWELL ,Chicago, Ill . (Convention's ) Dec. 31, Jan . 1, 2

BROTHER A . ()BENZ A N DChicago, 111 . (Convention") Der . 31 . fan . .1, 2

BROTHER C. C. PEOPLE SPiqua, Ohio territory Dee . 4, 11, 1 8

BROTHER WALTER, SARGEAN T

Buffalo, N . V O

A"(nng,touu-n, ohm : 7

Akron, Ohio

8, n

Cleveland, Ohio 1 11tvesville, Ohio 1 2East Liverpool, Ohio 1 3('onnellsville, Pa 1 4Ilarrishnrg, Pa I S

BROTHER . C. A . SUNDIIO MChicago, .111 . (convention) 1)ee, 31, ,fail . :I, 1?

BROTHTER H . V. WARRE NHawthorne, Calif' ..13110 lof, 7 : 45 P . 51 Dec . 1 S

BROTHER G. M. WILSON

(in'agn, ill . (Cmnentinn ' ) 1%'' . 31, Lau . .I, .

'BROTHER W. N . AVOODAVORTl lilalifat, Nov a Scotia 1 6

St . John's, N. B .

1 . 7

Boston, Mass., (Convention*) 1 8

Paterson, N. J .,169 I ran Holden St ., 3 1' . AI 2 5

1'.raol,lyn, N . Y' ., 109 Remsen St fan . 1BROTHER IT .

YOUN GEaston, Pa Dee . 1 8

BROTHER C . W. ZAHNOW

Wilmington, Del ., territory Der 1 to 1 8

Harrisburg, Pa 5

Rheems, Pa (3

York, Pa 7

Gettysburgh, Pa 8

Lebanon, Pa 9

Lancaster, Pa ., 3 P .MI M 1 1

Wilmington, Del ., 907 'Patna]] St ., 7 :30 P . M 1 1

Pen Argyl, Pa 1 2

Lehighton, Pa 13

Allentown, Pa .

4

Pottstown, Pa 1 5

Norristown, Pa ., 3 P. M 1-8

Wilmington, Dell ., 7 :30 P . M. , 907 Tatnall St 1 -8

Scranton, Pa .

19. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Elmira, N. Y : 20

Ithaca, N. Y 2 1

Kent, Ohio

f5

(Convention a)nrouluem'nts on page 32)

eDAWA Herald of Christ's Presenc e

Vol . 7, No. 3

DECEMBER 1938

One Dollar a Year

THIS MONTHNEWS AND VIEWS

The Nations—Nominal Christianity—The Jews

2

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

The Birth of the World's Redeemer--Another articleon the miracle of God's love in sending His Son t oearth to be man's Redeemer—the assurance thus give nof an opportunity to all members of Adam's race forattaining life and the liberty of sons of God .

5

7

8

9

1 0

1 1

1 3

1 3

1 3

Praise and Testimony Meeting—October 22

1 4

Discourse by Brother E. G. Wylam

1 5

Discourse by Brother L . H. Norby

16

Discourse by Brother C. P. Bridges

17

Praise and Testimony Meeting—October 23

1 9

Discourse by Brother S . C. DeGroot

2 0

Discourse by Brother E . H. Herrscher

2 0

Discourse by Brother O . Magnuson

2 2

Discourse by Brother A . L. Muir

2 3

Public Lecture by Brother C . W. Zahnow

24

INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS

Christ's New Commandment

(December 18)

2 6

God's Great Love

(December 25)

2 7

Peter Called to Serve

(January 1)

28

Peter Commended and Rebuked (January 8)

2 9

TALKING THINGS OVER

The Year That Is Ending

Financial Report

Entered as second class matter at the Brooklyn, N. Y. Post Office, October 17, 1932, under Act of March 3 „

1879 . Published monthly by Dawn Publishers, Inc ., 136 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. British Address : Bibb

Students Committee, 24, Darwin Road, Welling, Kent ; England ; Australian address : Berean Bible Institute,,

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

PITTSBURGH CONVENTION REPOR T

The Bible House Chape l

Opening Meeting —October 2 1

Discourse by Brother C. A. Sundbo m

Discourse by Brother T . E. Barke r

Discourse by Brother W. N. Poe

Discourse by Brother W. J. Hollister

Memorial Service at Pastor Russell's Grav e

Baptismal Service

Illustrated Lecture by Brother G. S. Kendall

30

33

IF THINE EYE BE SINGLEAn examination of our Lord' s

words which indicate that prog-ress in the receipt of light is con-ditioned upon the possession of asingle eye; and that likewise,development of the evil eye willresult in loss of light . The mean-ing of the "single eye" and"evil eye" discussed .

The conclusion of the discussionappearing in the October issue,which deals with the manner inwhich God controls His intelli-gent creatures through their v01-untary obedience to His laws . TheRevelator's mention of the open-ing of the "books" during the,future judgment day, will be e xamined .

APPARENT FAILURE SAs we enter 1939 it is well to,

note the divine loadings of thepast year, and the wonderful man-ner in which God has caused al lthings to work together for ourgood ; and, in the strength of Hisassurance of continued help, topress forward in the narrow way .This article, adapted from a, con-vention talk, should prove helpfu lalong this line .

THE CHASTENING SOF THE LOR D

This article has been promise dpreviously, but delayed by un-avoidable circumstances.

NEXT MONTH

THE JUDGMENT DAY .

antiTHE NATIONS—

NOMINAL CHRISTIANITY--THE JEWS

FROM the standpoint of prophecy, three out -standing events continue to hold the attention o fmany students of the Bible ; namely, (1) The un-mistakable gathering of the nations of the world fo rthe great and final conflict of Armageddon ; (2) Thegradual weakening of the influence of both Catholi-cism and Protestantism ; and (3) The most un-usual situation that is developing with respect tothe Jews in various parts of the world . It would beunwise to attempt a prediction of how the details o fthese events may work out during the months an dyears to come ; but it is stimulating to faith to notewhat has already happened, and to realize thereb ythat the prophecies of God 's Word pertaining t othese things are indeed being fulfilled before oureyes .

The Bible presents two viewpoints with respectto the gathering of the nations . One is that theyare gathered by the Lord, and the other is thatthey are gathered by the influence of the "threeunclean spirits like frogs" which ' come out of th emouth of the "dragon." the "beast," and th e"false prophet . " From these two viewpoints we getthe thought that the Lord takes the responsibilityfor the gathering, yet that He accomplishes the worklargely by merely permitting human selfishness, en -lightened by the modern increase of knowledge, to

take its natural course .---Zeph . 3 :8, 9 ; Rev . 16 :13-16 .

In Isaiah 42 :13, 14, the prophet says : "The Lordshall go forth as a mighty man, He shall stir u pjealousy like a man of war : He shall cry, yea ,

roar ; He shall prevail against His enemies . I have

long time holden My peace ; I have been still, an drefrained Myself ; now will I cry like a travailin g

woman ; I will destroy and devour at once ." Noticethat in this passage the work of the Lord is said t obe accomplished by His voice . A similar thought i s

suggested in Revelation 19 :21, where a slaying workis described as being accomplished by a sword thatproceedeth out of the mouth of Him that sitteth upo n

the white horse .

This sword of His mouth, the crying and the roar-ing, seems in a general way to symbolize the sprea d

of knowledge, of truth—truth of all kinds . Appar-

ently the various prophecies along this line are cal-culated to explain the ultimate result on the nation sof the "increase of knowledge " that was to be oneof the outstanding signs of the "time of the end . "Indeed, Daniel 's prophecy of the increase of knowl-edge is closely associated with the standing up ofMichael, and the great "time of trouble such asnever was since there was a nation ."--Dan . 12 :1-4 .

It is only as we compare the conditions of todaywith those of past generations that we get an ade-quate conception of the measure to which moder nenlightenment along all lines is affecting the nations ,and of the. suddenness with which this state of af-fairs has come about . Mr. Arthur H. Compton ,writing in Science magazine, emphasized the recen tincrease of knowledge in a dramatic way by compar-ing the entire known period of man ' s life on the eart hwith one of our years . While Mr. Compton hasgreatly exaggerated the length of time man has bee non the earth, yet by his comparison he shows tha tit was only, as it were, a few hours ago that ou rmodern knowledge came to man . He says that `"Ou rlife today differs from our grandfather's more thandid theirs from the life of 2,000 years ago . "

The scientist who has no faith in God nor in theBible :naturally attributes this sudden increase ofknowledge to the efforts of man ; but the Bible show sotherwise . Actually, man is no more brilliant toda ythan he was a thousand or two years ago . Indeed ,few of the world's millions have had anything to dowith modern scientific advancement except to us ethe blessings provided thereby, and to dread th ecurses it has brought in the form of bombing plane sand poison gas . The underlying principles of mostscientific knowledge have been discovered quite byaccident . The reason why these "accidental" dis-coveries were not made thousands of years ago i sbecause the time had not come in the divine planfor this turning on of the light. While small be-ginnings were made in the increase of knowledgeprior to the last half century, yet the great effulgenc eof light that has enabled men to talk and to flyaround the world has come as a part of the brigh tshining of the Master's second presence, which Hesaid would shine from the Bast even unto the Wes t—world-wide .

This general increase of. knowledge has not onlybrought the development of the many scientific mir-acles of today, hut at the same time, by means of uni-versal education, has brought general dissatisfactio namong the nations and the people of the nations .Individuals and nations today are clamoring forwhat they consider to be their rights . What worldlywriters call the " Have Nots" are determined t oseize a part of what is possessed by the `" Haves . "Until the modern increase of kowledge made itsel ffelt in the earth, most people were quite content t ogo on living as their parents did . And while therulers of the various nations were always on th ealert to increase their possessions, by war if nec-essary, yet the effect of human selfishness, eve

nin war, was kept measurably localized by the inade-quate means of communication and travel ; whilethe illiteracy of the people rendered them wholly

December 1938

incapable of offering successful opposition tp th ewishes of their rulers .

But now the light has been turned on, with theresult that the "common man" has become equa lwith his ruler in knowledge, and in desire. Nolonger are men willing to abide by the idea thatkings rule by the grace of God, and that eterna ltorture awaits any who dare question their authority .House painters and cobblers become dictators, andlaboring men move into the lawmaking bodies o fthe nations ; and the desires of the enlightened masses,who still at heart are governed by the principles ofselfishness, know no bounds .

How true to the prophetic picture, therefore .is the result of the Lord's crying, or speaking—the issuing forth of the sword of His mouth ! Truly ,as the prophet indicates, one of the first effect sis that of stirring up jealousies among peoples an dnations. It is these jealousies, backed up by bomb-ing planes, poison gas, and other scientific methodsof warfare, that will yet make a complete end ofthe present social order, including the war machin eby which it is supported . (Isa. 34 :1-3.) Statesmenof the world clearly see what the outcome of presenttrends must shortly be if something is not don eto turn the tide of human selfishness and aggression .On November 1st Mr. Cordell flull, the UnitedStates Secretary of State, speaking at a dinner ofthe National Trade Convention in New York, sai dthat the world is at the cross roads. Mr . Hull furth-er said :

"One of the roads that wind into the future is tha tof an increased reliance upon armed force as an in-strument of national policy . . . . All nations find them-selves compelled to divert to preparation for self -defense an increasing part of their substance and ef-fort . . . . If the nations continue along this road, in-creasingly strewn with the wreckage of civilize d

man 's most precious possessions, they will be march-ing toward the final catastrophe of a new world war ,the horror and destructiveness of which pass huma n

imagination .

"The other of the two roads is that of ever-in-creasing reliance upon peaceful processes, and uponthe rule of law and order in the conduct of relation s

among individuals and among nations. Even for

us there will be no escape from dismal outlook, if ,unhappily, the rest of the world should choose th eroad that must lead to another major armed conflict . "

Mr. Hull as well as all right thinking people ,would like to believe that the nations will actuall y

choose the better way ; but is not this too much toexpect? Is there any reason to suppose that sud-denly, after six thousand years of the growth o f

selfishness in the hearts and lives of the people ,they will abandon this principle and conduct them -selves along the lines of justice and love? Evidentl yGod did not forsee such a possibility, else He woul dnot have foretold the complete wreck of the presentorder in a time of trouble such as never was since

there was a nation . No, not until man's selfish ef-forts have completely failed will he be willing toseek and to obey the Lord's ways .—Micah 4 :1-4 .

3

Mr. Hull says that "all the nations find themselvescompelled to divert to preparation for self-defens ean increasing part of their substance and effort . "This seems quite in keeping with the prophecy of

Joel 3 :9-14, where the nations are described as beat-ing their plowshares into swords and their prunin g

hooks into spears ; and the weak are heard to say"I am strong . " These events are shown to be thoseconnected with the gathering of the nations intothe great valley of decision, where they are weighedin the balances and found wanting. And surely,in the gathering of the nations now going on, the

weak are saying "I am strong . " Germany ,for ex -

ample thoroughly weakened by the first great spas m

of trouble—the World War--and forbidden by th eother nations to rearm, has said " I am strong"with such force that the world has been made totremble .

As suggested in the beginning, it isn't wise to at -tempt a forecast of the details of coming events .Events that are past -are clearly discernible on the

prophetic page ; and we must be content to readthe picture as it unfolds . Today we see the gath-ering of the nations ; and we can also see somethingelse, namely, the gradual downfall of nominal Chris-tianity . This too, according to the prophecies, is Lo

be looked for, because the Lord will have no us efor any of the false systems of religion in His King -dom. The destruction of the harlot woman, Baby-lon, and the burning of her flesh with fire, woul dalmost seem to have started, Certainly the poperealizes that something is happening over whichhe has but little con,trol . On October the 20thspeaking before 300 Italian archaeologists, the pop esaid, in part :

"Not far distant from the sphere of our everyday lives there is being practiced a different kind o farchaeology than yours . There are being calledupon the scene of everyday life personages bette rleft in oblivion. Bad, had archaeology . Sinisterfigures have been exhumed to put into action siniste revents . Julian the apostate rises again . IIis perse-cution was one of the hloodiest, one of the mos tastute, carried out with Latin energy and Greekduplicity .

"He had an apostle similar to the apostle Judas .This persecution in Germany, to the amazement ofthe world, continues to be denied in Germany andAustria with an audacity which is amazing in th eface of evidence which the pope sees daily arrivin gupon his table, and documented with absolutely cour-ageous proof of new dangers and worse menace, "

This bitter attack against Hitler and Nazism wa smade the next day after an announcement appearedin the daily press that church property in Austriawas to be confiscated by the government ; so, ap-parently the pope was particularly stirred at th etime. On October 19th, an article appeared in th eDaily Herald, London, stating that plans have bee ndrawn up in the office of Herr Buerckel, Nazi Com-missioner for Austria, to appropriate the Catholi cChurch and seize its entire fortune for the benefit o fthe state and the party . The Herald article also says :

"Though it is impossible to assess the actual valueof church possessions in Austria it is estimated tha tits holding in land, industries, buildings and moneyamount to nearly ten million pounds [almost fift ymillion dollars] . . . . During the inflation in Austri athe church authorities succeeded in investing thei rfortune in stable objects, with the result that th echurch suffered least from the crash of the Austria ncurrency. From this time dates the possession bythe church and the monasteries of industries, brew -eries, hotels, mills, and forests which is now bein gheld against them . The Nazis intend to point tothis fact and stigmatize the church for its industria land commercial activity . "

And so "her flesh" is apparently being consumed.And in view of the very close friendship of Hitle rand Mussolini, the pope is doubtless wonderin gwhat may yet happen to church property in Italy ;especially as the military needs of the nation becomeincreasingly pressing . But it doesn ' t seem as thoughthe pope's fiery speech, reported above, changedIlitler's mind to any great extent, because a fe wdays afterward (October 25) a sharp attack on th epope for his criticism of Nazi policy on Catholicismappeared in Dr. Goebles' Angriff, central organ o fthe Nazi party. Under the heading, "Monstrousaccusation of Germany, " the paper said, in part :

"Quite apart from the question of what antiquitie shave to do with world politics in the twentieth cen-tury, it must be asked what the pope has to do withthese politics. Above all: what right has `Christ' srepresentative ' to make allegations, in the style ofJewish warmongers, about the political intentions ofthe German Reich, allegations which must be classedas calumnies filled with hatred . . . . This attitude onthe part of a man who permits himself to be honore das the father of all mankind pronounces judgmen tupon itself . This is blind hatred . "

It is becoming more and more . apparent that wher eNazism spreads it influence, the church must takea secondary place, and possibly suffer destructio naltogether . In view of this trend, we begin to wonde rif in the general picture of the gathering of th enations this phase of it may be the Lord's way t oput an end to those systems of error that woul dotherwise stand in the way of the sending out ofthat "pure language " by which all will learn to "cal l-upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with on e

consent ."—Zeph. 3 :9 .

Nazism's attack on the Catholic and other churche sis not merely an expression of hatred on the part o fHitler, but, rather, it represents a trend in huma n'thought that is everywhere apparent and on the in -crease. The first major stroke in , this direction wasaccomplished by Russia shortly after the close of th e

world war. While from time to time prominentones in the churches have sounded warnings, yet

the so-called "New Paganism" has kept marchingon . S. J. Marriott, Canon of Westminister (Lon-

-don) . in an article published on October 12th, says :

"We have all had a pretty severe shaking in thi srecent crisis, and, unless I am very much .'Mistaken ,the result has been to make many men realize tl at

The Dawn

the Christian faith is slowly but surely being ouste dfrom the life of Europe . . . . Now we are beginningto realize exactly what power politics mean . Whatit means when the life of Europe is 'governed with -out any reference to the principles or the restraintsof religion . Practical Atheism is something new inthe life of Europe, and not till the other - day didwe realize exactly what it means . It was not fea rthat gripped us in the recent crisis, but horror—hor-ror at the sight of hell . "

And so the picture progresses, and only the Bibl eis capable of forecasting the final : outcome, which ,of course, will be the establishment of the MessianicKingdom. In the picture as it appears on the screenof world events today, is another figure—the Jew .Indeed, he has been in the picture with increasin gprominence practically ever since the spasms of tra-vail began to be felt by the world in 1914 . At first ,everything seemed to be going his way . His ancientland was opened up to him, and he was guaranteedtherein a place of protection ; this guarantee beinggiven by a League of the outstanding Gentile nationsof the world . Thus, instead of being "trodden down " ,by the Gentiles, as they had been through the centur-ies, the Jews were officially protected by them' ; andprovisions were made for them to return to and buildup their own land—the land of Palestine .

More than two hundred thousand- of them did re-turn to Palestine ; and a considerable portion of the"promised land" was reclaimed and has been madeto blossom as the rose . So productive and - pros-perous has the New Palestine become that it hasbegun to send its produce into the markets of othercountries . A great deal of Palestinian fruit, fo rexample, is now eaten in Great Britain .

But suddenly the sunshine of blessing and hop ethat was beginning . to revive the soul of the Jewishnation in Palestine, began to go into eclipse, as itwere. The Arab population of the holy land eggedon by outside influence, started to cause trouble for -the Jews . This resulted in almost a- -total closin gof the doors of Palestine to further Jewish --immigra-tion. Almost at the same time there arose bitterpersecution against the Jews in many of . the countrie sof Europe. And now, thousands of them, plunderedand stripped of their possessions, and maltreated ar ewithout either home or country .

And so, as the world-picture progresses, we see theJew, at the moment, unarmed and helpless befor ehis foes, being driven out of one country after an-other, not knowing where to go, nor what to do .Indeed, the outlook for the Jew, apart from the prom-ises of God's Word, is a tragic one . But when weturn the light of prophecy upon the picture we cansee that this situation is exactly what should . be ex-pected ; that in the closing scenes of the age the Jewwas to be placed in a position where ultimately th eLord would take a definite hand in his affairs, fight-ing for him as in the days of old . Indeed, the proph-ecies clearly indicate that it will be the Lord's in-tervention on behalf of Israel that will have muchto do with convincing the world that a new Kingdom ,the Messianic Kingdom, must be recognized--that anew King has taken control .

December 1938 5

The Birth of the World's Redeeme rThe old sweet story. The angels and the

shepherds. A journey to Bethlehem on thewings of divine truth. Divine revelations tothe humble.

HE birth of Jesus, the world's Redeemer,may be said to mean the birth of hope forfallen and lost humanity, the tangible ex -pression of divine love, the birth of the Gos-

pel dispensation, and "good tidings of great joy ,which shall be to all people," as well as the angels'song of "Glory to God in the highest, and on eart hpeace, good will toward men . "—Luke 2 :10, 14 .

While the birth of Jesus was by far the greatestevent in the six thousand years of the world 's his-tory, it is to the Christian heart that the event is es-pecially dear ; for as yet the world has not discernedits full meaning. As for the Jews, God 's chosenpeople, they also failed to behold the star of Bethle-hem or to discern its import . It is rather the Chris-tians of the Gospel age wbo have said, as did the wise

men, "We have seen His star in the east, and ar ecome to worship Him . " (Matt. 2 :2 .) It is they whohave brought Him their gifts of praise, thanksgiving ,worship and love . It is they who have heard th eheavenly refrain and have found Him in the manger .And it is they who have rejoiced with exceeding greatjoy because they have recognized Him, and hav eknown that in God's due time "His name shall becalled Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, Th eeverlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."—Isaiah 9 :6 .

The Gifts of GodSpeaking of the birth of Jesus, a modern write r

has said, "When God sent His Son into the world,angels discovered something new in God, somethin gthey had never seen before . Not power, not wisdom ,not love. They knew all that before. But when Godsent His Son into this world, then angels saw th espirit of self-denial in God, the spirit of self-sacrific ein God. It is easier to love an angel of light than athief on the cross . When angels saw God—the Go dwho would not allow the most insignificant angelin heaven to be hurt—give up His Son, His only Son ,they saw something they had never thought of before ;and I should not wonder if when Christ started ou ton that pilgrimage, the angels in heaven shouted intriumph and called on all the hosts in heaven to helpthem celebrate it, and sang so loud that the Bethle-hem servants heard it : `Glory to God in the high -est . ' "

God's Message of PeaceAgain we quote from a modern writer, "Oh, if we

could but take our position on some high point an dsee the world 's armies march past ! What a spec-tacle it would be! There go the hosts of Israelthrough a score of Red Seas—one of water, all therest of blood. There go Cyrus and his armies, withinfuriate yell rejoicing over the fall of the gates of

Babylon . There goes Alexander leading forth hishosts and conquering all the world but himself .There goes Fernando Cortez, leaving his butcheredenemies on the table-lands once fragrant with vanillaand covered over with groves of flowering cacao .There goes the great Frenchman leading his arm ydown through Egypt, like one of it plagues, and u pthrough Russia, like one of its icy blasts . Yonderis the grave trench under the shadow of Sebastopol .There are the ruins of Delhi and Allahabad, and yon -der are the inhuman Sepoys and the brave regimentsunder Havelock avenging the insulted flag of Britain ;while cut right through the heart of my native lan dis a trench in which there lie one million Northernand Southern dead. Oh, the tears ! Oh, the blood !Oh, the long marches ! Oh, the hospital •wounds !Oh, the death !

`But brighter than the light that flashed on al lthose swords and shields and musketry is the ligh tthat fell on Bethlehem ; and louder than the bray ofthe trumpets, and the neighing of the chargers, andthe crash of the walls, and the groaning of the dyingarmies, is the song that unrolls from the sky, sweptas though all the bells of heaven had rung a jubilee :`Peace on earth, good will toward men . ' Oh, whenwill the day come—God hasten it!—when men shal l`beat their swords into plowshares and their spear sinto pruning hooks, and nation shall not lift up swor dagainst nation, neither shall they learn war anymore . ' "

Back to BethlehemIt is good for us to let our minds travel back, at

times, to the birth of Jesus . We are living in a bus yworld of affairs . It is a blessed thing to get awayfrom all the hubbub and humdrum of present dayaffairs and to permit our thoughts to rise on to theviewless wings of divine truth and once more to lis-ten to that sweet angelic refrain even as we haveheard it so exquisitely sung, ringing doyen to us fro mthe years of the past . It is good to see the heavenlylight and to hear God 's messenger say to our hearts ,like was said to those she pherds of B,, thl'.hem'scountryside, "Fear not !" Then shall we go in ou rthoughts to the little town of Bethlehem and seek th ebabe lying in a manger? Shall we be humble enoug hto do this? And then, having found Him, shall weworship Him ? Shall we bar out the world and justenjoy this feast of love with Him, the blessed One ,who left the heavenly glory to be born in a stall ?Ah, verily, "He came unto His own, and His ownreceived Him not ; " but, thank God, that "as manyas received Him, to them gave He power to becom esons of God, even to them that believe on His name ."—John 1 :11, 12 .

The birth of the World 's Redeemer has meantmuch wherever the Gospel story has gone. ,Althoughit has not been fully understood , by the majority of

(Continued on page 25)

Convention of Bible StudentsPittsburgh, Pa., October 21-23, 193 8

THE Tenth Annual Reunion Convention of Bible and Brother Russell ' s study, and the street floor andStudents sponsored by the Bibles Students Ecclesia basement were used for office, storage and packingof Pittsburgh, brought together the largest number rooms . One of the items not on the program wa sof the free brethren of any convention in recent years. an opportunity kindly granted by the caretaker of theProbably 500 to 600 attended some or all of the building to visit the rooms above the chapel . Thosemeetings . Canada, and twenty-one of the states were of the visiting brethren who desired were piloted

represented, namely : Arizona, California, Connec- through that part of the building by one of the sister sticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, who had visited the Bible House (as a girl of fifteen )Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mich- in those early days when the work centered in Al-igan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, legheny and who was thus able to give a word-pic -Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia . ture of the arrangements and daily round of activity .

Doubtless no other city awakens in those in Pres

Following are some of the details she gav e

ent Truth the deep interest and tender memories as "One first entered the large sitting room, easily

does the mention of Allegheny, or, as it is now known, seating a circle of twenty . The furniture was simpl e

North Side Pittsburgh. There, nearly seventy years —an organ, a sideboard, a large filing cabinet and

ago, Brother Russell started in a small way but with an assortment of living room chairs . Each morning

enthusiastic spir- . the family assem-it, ,the work of `'

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After break-Lord; began the

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the living room ,vest of the Gos

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pel Age. The har-

lcet list, put it an dvest message, under God's guidance and blessing, was money to pay for the purchases into a small purs eheard around the world, translated into many tongues that was left in the market basket in the living room .and reached hundreds of thousands of people . The

"The study opened off from one corner of thebrethren gathered in this convention were a few

sitting room. This was a fair-sized, square room ,among the many whose knowledge of God's great one side lined with book cases, and Brother Russell' splan and His glorious attributes can be traced to the

desk, study table, etc ., on the opposite side . Therework begun and carried on for many years in Alle- was also a "Morris" chair and a davenport bed o ngheny .

which were several cushions, all gifts from friends .

Especially interesting in connection with these an "From the 'study one entered Brother Russell' s

nual conventions in Pittsburgh is the fact that the bedroom . This he sometimes shared with guests .

Pittsburgh Ecclesia, under whose auspices the con- Guests were always welcome at the Bible House .

ventions are held, still meet in the chapel of the old

There is nothing outstanding in the appearanceof these old rooms, but they bring back many blesse d

Bible House which Brother Russell built for the memories of faithful service to the Truth and to th epurpose , of housing the workers and carrying on the Lord's brethren—service from which all of us hav eactivities of the Harvest work. In the same auditor-ium where the meetings of the convention were held, derived such rich benefit . "

Brother Russell for many years regularly preached

The platform of the chapel was decorated for thethe message of God 's grace. In the rooms above convention with flowers and plants and presente dwere ,accommodations for the Bible House staff

a strikingly beautiful appearance . Several of the

December 1938

brethren brought their violins or other instrument sand contributed to the volume and spirit of the con-gregational singing of the hymns, which was trul yinspiring. The convention program consisted of th eusual meetings for praise and testimony and address -es on Scriptural topics by a number of the brethren .A synoptical report of the discourses is given hereinand it will be seen that though the topics chosen b ythe speakers covered a wide range, they were alsocomplementary and practically all phases of the Pres-ent Truth were covered : the fundamental doctrines ;responsibility of God 's people to serve the Truthand give to others the glad tidings which have s oblessed and refreshed them ; wise methods of pre-senting the message of Truth ; water, and symbolic ,baptism ; tabernacle types ; prophecies relating to theend of the Gospel age ; and a number of addresses onother features of the Christian life . One of thethings which was noted with satisfaction, was the una-nimity of thought and expression in regard to Pres-ent Truth and it service. The zealous missionar yspirit of the true Christian was emphasized, and alsoequally emphasized were the spirit of devotion an da life in accord with the holy principles of God'scharacter which must characterize every saint .

Friday, October 21st, 1938

Chairman of the Day—BROTHER J . I . VAN HORN E

10 :45 A . M .—Address of Welcome by Chairman

11 :00 A. M.—Praise and Testimony Meetin g

2 :15 P.M.—Praise Service2 :30 P. M .—Discourse

Brother C. A. Sundbom ."His Marvelous Light ." 1 Peter 2 : 9

4 :00 P . M .—Discourse

Brother T. E. Barker ,"The Atonement Day ." —Lev. 16 .

6 :45 P.M .—Praise Service

7 :00 P . M,—Discour se

Brother W . N. Poe,"Christian Responsibilities"

8 :00 P . M.--Discourse Brother Wm. J . Hollister"Butilded Together for an Habitatio n

of Cod"—Eph . 2 :2 2About 140 friends gathered for the opening meet-

ing and listened to the address of welcome by th eChairman of the Day, Brother Van Horne of Pitts -burgh, as follows :

"My dear brethren, We of the Pittsburgh Ecclesi aextend you a most hearty welcome to this, our Tent hAnnual Convention .

"The very fact that there are so many here is initself proof that we are heeding the Apostle's admon-ition that we neglect not the assembling of ourselvestogether, especially as we see that day approaching.that day the Lord has set aside to gather His saint stogether, those who have made a covenant with Hi mby sacrifice .

"In these convention assemblages we all derive arich blessing in helping to build ourselves and eachother up in the most holy faith : in prayer, in testi-mony, in song, all to magnify the name of our lov-ing Heavenly Father .

"Let us see to it, dear brethren, that we are loyaland faithful to the covenant of sacrifice we made,

7

striving daily to attain a closer walk with God, watch-ing closely unto prayer, ever on guard to discern anytendency, however slight, toward error .

"Let us steadfastly hold to the profession of. ourfaith without wavering. We are reminded mos tforcibly at this convention time of the loyal, lovin gand faithful service of our dear Brother Russell in

'giving the meat in due season to the household offaith, always a wise counsellor, a faithful and tru ewitness . His ministry was an inspiration to us all .

"And now again, we extend to you the hospitalityof the ecclesia here in Pittsburgh, and it is our prayerthat all our hearts may be in a receptive attitude, sothat the rich blessings that the Lord has for us mayfall upon fertile soil, thereby bringing forth a richharvest of blessings, making all come to the reali-ation that it has been indeed good to have been her e

in convention once again . "

The Praise and Testimony meeting which followe dwas led by .Brother Buhl of Richmond, Indiana .The central thought was the Manna text for th eday : "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed b eThy name . " (Luke 11 :2 .) Our notes indicate thatthe time was well used, and while we are not abl eto record all, some of the expressions of the breth-ren are given below :

Brother Mahloek, Piqua, Ohio—I wish to bringthe love and greetings of the Piqua Ecclesia and o fBrother Peoples to the friends assembled here . Iam rejoicing in the Truth and thankful to our heav-enly Father that he has called me out of darknessinto His marvelous light .

Brother Robertson, Brooklyn, N . Y.—We camehere for further revival and, as usual, we have al lbeen revived I am sure . I want to feel it was mos tpleasant to have been here and that the Lord 's Spiritwill stay with us .

Sister Thomas, Delaware, Ohio .—"Praise th eLord, 0 My soul ." I cannot express to you peoplewho have been in the Truth a good many years ,what a joy it is to be here in this place so sacredby one who started the message around the worldfrom here years ago. I want to lay aside everyweight and run with patience the race set before me .If we are filled with the knowledge of God we wil lmake our calling and election sure .

Brother Bright, Brooklyn, N . Y.—I received th eprivilege of prayer when I came to a knowledge o fthe Truth. This is the first time I have ever bee nin Pittsburgh, but nevertheless, when I look bac kto the time when I received the message which orig-inated here, it was from the heart that I receive dthat message of God ' s goodness .

Sister Fisher, Scranton, Pa .—I am deeply grate-ful to the Heavenly Father to be able to come to thePittsburgh Convention. The way opened up so tha tI am here and rejoicing. I live alone out in thecountry. When I first went there it was almostimpossible but since then I have learned preciou slessons of living with the Lord alone. I am safefrom all danger while under His wings .

Brother Schultz, Carbondale, Pa . —We can say ,"Our. Father Who art in heaven ." It is not every-body who can say that . I never appreciated thatprayer as. much until I came into the Truth in 1905 .I am trying to walk up to my covenant to the bestof my ability.

Brother Kendall, Washington, Pa .—About fortyyears ago I came in that back door and saw BrotherRussell standing on the platform . Never since theApostle ' s, has God raised up a leadership like Broth -er Russell's . That movement filled the earth wit hthe glory of God . I am glad I can lift up the stand-ard of God while many who have claimed to see ,are trailing it in the dust . I ask an interest in

your prayers • that I might be faithful and stan d

through the darkest hours .

Brother Stiles, Washington, D. C.—I wish to

extend Christian love from the Ecclesia in Washing-

ton. For my personal testimony, I am very happyto be able to testify that the Lord is more preciou s

to me than ever . He contsantly grows more precious .

May we rejoice in that clear Son and may we all le t

our light shine on the road that leadeth to the Lamb .

Brother Newell, St . Louis; Missouri .—I find in

the world today less reverence for the Heavenl y

Father and there is a certain amount of irreverence

The Dawn

that is apt to stick to us if we are not careful . II do give thangs to the Heavenly Father for th egracious thing He has given us and shown usthrough Present Truth .

Brother Jones, Connellsville, Pa .—I think of Joh nwhen he says, Who shall not reverence Thee for Thyrighteous acts? That seemed to strike a chord i nmy heart . We will reverence the name of our Lord .We are not trusting in any organization any more .Praise the name of the Lord !

Brother Johnson, Duquesne, Pa .—I feel that weowe these brothers and sisters something that w ecannot pay . We couldn ' t have this convention with-out them. I personally feel, and know, I am voic-ing the sentiments of the brethren at Pittsburgh,that we owe you a debt of gratitude for coming andhope you get well paid .

It is indeed gratifying to see in the testimoniesof, the brethren continued love for the Harvest mes -sage of Truth and its Great Author, and their earn-est desires to be faithful in carrying out their conse-cration to follow in the Maste r ' s footsteps unto death .Surely we can thankfully say : "Blest i)e the . tie thatbinds our hearts in Christian love." The discourseswhich followed during the ' day were reported i npart as follows .

HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT

Brother C. A. Sundbom, Saginaw, Michigan

GOD'S WORD is a light unto our path . (Psa.

11 9 . :105 . ). It shows us HOW. to walk in the Narrow

V\T ay that leads .. to glory, honor and immortality .Walking represents our conduct, the things we d oand how we do them . Some "walk after their own

,ungodly lusts ." (Jude 18.) We should walls "worth y

.of the Lord ." (Col. 1 :10 .) The light of God's Wordshows us HOW to thus walk .

The disobedience of Adam plunged the world int o

darkness ; but "Light is sown for the righteous . "

(Psa. 97 :11 .) Literal seeds require some time afterplanting to sprout and grow . Similarly, the seed s

of truth and 'hope did not sprout, i. e ., begin to beunderstood, until Jesus came and opened the Nar-xow Way. (1 Pet . 1 :12 .) At His first advent theprophecies of the Old Testament were harmonizedand it began to be understood that God had a defin-ite Plan. Those who consecrated themselves fully

to do God's will were given a clear insight into what.God was doing, what in particular He wanted them

tO do and T-TOW to do it . This gave them fill aecnr-

anace for their hope . It is not strange that Peter

called it a MARVELOUS LIGHT.

under the darkness until by 1846 A . D. the 2300 daysof Daniel 8 :14 ended, and the sanctuary was cleansed.Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 3, pp . 110 to 120.

All of this cleansing was to make ready for thesecond presence of Christ in 1874 . He had said thatno one would know the day nor the hour of His ar-rival . No one did know until shortly after He hadreturned . Then He girded Himself and served onl ythose whose loins were girded and who were watc hiho- . (Luke 12 :37.) Those He served with the Ligh t(Truth) of the DIVINE PLAN just as we enjoy it .In t h is very city of Pittsburgh the glorious messaffeof PRESENT TRUTH began to be sent out into th eworld by that Faithful and Wise Servant of the Lord .

Just as the Old Testament truths were harmon-ized at the first advent, so at the second advent th eTruths held by the Cleansed Sanctuary were har-monized . New Truths, meat in due season, werealso given. Again, the true Christians rejoiced inknowing God has a definite Plan . The Light wasthen, and has since continued to be, more marvelou sthan ever .

"Polaroid" is a new glass-like substance. It givesdefinite direction to light rays which ordinarily reachthe eves chaotically and cause painful glare . TheDIVINE PLAN does for the light of the Bible wha tPolaroid does for natural light rays . Through th ePLAN all rays of Divine Truth come to us in theirproper orderly setting . For instance, the doctrine o fELECTION, considered separately, appears unjust .

Soon after the death of the Apostles, the adversarygot in his work, and the "dark ages " came. Grad-ually the truths of God's Plan were taken away,twisted or made void by the creeds of men. God

„gave a "little help" (Dan . 11 :34 .) in the Reforma-

tion . In the years that followed Luther, each ne wsect of Protestants brought out some truths from

December . 1938

But when harmonized with other Bible truths it i sreasonable and beautiful . The DIVINE PLAN alsogives definite direction to the rays of truth respecting

obligations to God . Many well-meaning people be-lieve the Ten Commandments apply to Christians .Yet experience has abundantly proven that no on eis able to keep every feature of the Jewish Law re-quirements . (James 2 :10.) The DIVINE PLANshows that we must "rightly divide the Word ofTruth." The Ten Commandments were given onlyto the Jews, as a "schoolmaster to lead them toChrist" and they should have recognized their in -ability to keep the law and attain life thereby . Thosein Christ must fulfil the righteousness of , the Lawby walking after its spirit, which is greater than th eletter of the Law, is higher, and, in some ways ,more difficult .—Matt . 5 :21, 22 .

Yes, the harmonizing of Bible Truths is mostimportant . It is this harmony that makes His Ligh tso MARVELOUS .

"The light of the body is the eye if therefore thin eeye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light . "(Matt . 6 :22.) A "single eye" is one which look sOnly to God to see what His will is . (Matt . 6 :24 . )If our eye is thus only on Him, we will have divin elight for our Christian walk in all branches of Hisservice . We will know what He wants done, andwhy. We will also know- HOW to do it so as t oplease Him .

ON the first day of the first month in the secon dyear, the tabernacle was set up at Sinai .` (Ex. 40 :2 . )The events of the 8th, 9th and 10th chapters of Le-viticus and many other things were carried out unti lat last the cloud began to move that was over thetabernacle . So they took their long journey of 160miles arriving at the border of the promised land.about the close of our July . Read Num. 13 :17, 18 .

In Leviticus, chapter 16, we see Aaron clothe dfor service, the linen garments emblematic of purity .The bullock represented Jesus at the age of 30 .(Matt . 3 :13-17 .) The sin-offering illustrated th esacrificial death of the Redeemer . The burnt offer-ing, God's manifestation or acceptance of the sinoffering .

This chapter shows the application of the meri tof the sin offering, first for the church, second fo rthe world .

After the sacrifice of the bullock, which representsthe humanity of Jesus, Aaron presents the two goatson the north side of the altar, before the Lord. Thesetwo animals are for a sin offering for the people .The Lord made the choice one, the Lord's goatand the other, the scapegoat, showing that God i sno respecter of persons .

Who are you? Will you be of the great companyclass, or of the little flock? You, yourself, will be

'9

If, on the other hand, we look through our ownideas of some things (ideas out of harmony withGod 's Plan) to that extent at least our path will b edark. Those who study the Bible with the idea thatit is God 's Plan to convert the world now, wonderwhy they have so little success . To this extent atleast they walk in darkness . Similarly those whofeel that the Lord MUST have a visible earthly or-ganization are in doubt as to what to do when thei rparticular organization does things manifestly con-trary to God 's Word . For a time, at least, they wal kin darkness. Only by laying aside our own ideasand prejudices as to what God is cloning or ought t ohe doing, can we learn what His will is . In additionwe must keep His commandments, be doers of theWord, to walk in the LIGHT .—1 John 2 :3-7 .

We repeat that those who are in the LIGHT kno wwhat God is doing, why it is being done, and HOWto do what He wishes done . This gives full assur-ance of faith and hope. A clear understanding ofwhat to do is important in any kind of undertaking .Without this, the most ambitious and energetic soonlose interest . This is even more true in the ChristianWay where much of the walk is by faith, and th evisible results meager . A failure to have Light onGod's will tends to discouragement and a gradualcooling of love for God. On the other hand, havingHis Marvelous Light has the beneficial effect 6fgiving confidence, not in ourselves or our ow nstrength, but that we will succeed because we ar edoing what He desires done .

the one to determine the issue—it depends upon theway you live up to your consecration .

Now the choice is being made. Let us take a goo dlook at that goat . He has his head up—it picture ssubmission . He came, just as you and I came up tothe Lord and asked to be crucified, to die sacrifi-cially—it pictures one who says, I do not want tohave any will of my own ; I want the Lord to haveHis will done in me . He is ready, therefore, to beoffered, ready to die sacrificially, to fulfil His coven -ant, as he came - in there as a sin-offering . Nowlook at this other goat—the scapegoat . I hope you d onot see yourself in that goat—his head is down—h edoes not like that man who has the knife .

-

Some of God 's people are going to lose out be -cause they said they wanted to die ; the Lord said ,I will take you at your word ; but they do not wantto die just that way, or do not like to die quite s oquickly. If a brother or sister has consecrated hi slife to God, the Lord is going to see to it, as long a she is under the blood, that he <lies, whether willingl yor unwillingly—but, willingly or unwillingly, he i sgoing to die .

The Lord's goat was taken to the north side o fthe altar . What does that picture? It pictures thechurch, the bride of Christ, - the 144.000 who havecome to die, and are willing to die, willing to sacrifice

THE ATONEMENT DAYBrother T . E. Barker, Arlington, Mass .

10

everything to accomplish that sacrificial death, an daccordingly, whose names are written in heaven . Yo uwill be one of them if you are working out your lif ein harmony with your covenant . There is no needfor any boasting or self-exaltation of any brothe ror sister who sees himself or herself in that goat ;you are but one of those 144,000 pieces of the Lord' slamb. Humble yourself under the mighty hand o fGod, that He may exalt you in due time .

The same thing that was clone to that goat wa sdone to the bullock ; but the' hides of both animal swere taken outside the court and burned, represent-ing the ignominy of Christ, the Head and the church ,His body. That fire started with the Lord at Jor-dan, and with the church at Pentecost, and it is stil lgoing on, because the Lord's people are still layin gdown their human lives in harmony with the Lord' swill. The church is still suffering and only the Lor dknows what lies ahead of us . The blood of this ani-mal was taken into the Most Holy and sprinkle don and before the Mercy Seat in the form of a cross .The bullock 's blood was for "himself and his house, "but the blood of the goat was for the people—as apart of the sin-offering. However, the goat hasno part in the ransom ; but has the privilege of bein gidentified with that wonderful offering that is to brin g

` a blessing to mankind .

On his return, the priest found the other goat-the'scapegoat having previously had a piece of red clot htied around its horns, picturing that it is still underthe blood . The priest with both hands on its , headconfesses the sins of the people over him. Whatsins? Nothing the Christ, Head and Body, couldbear away. It is sin that God could not forgivewithout expiation . Brother Russell said, "The suf-ferings of . the great company will expiate the wilfu lor deliberate sin against the Lord's people : all othe rsins will be atoned for by the merit of Christ ."

The Dawn

Then, that goat was taken outside the ' camp .` Ti efirst 'row of tents from the court fence - was tw othousand cubits away . Tradition says' that when, tha tgoat was led into the camp of Israel, every one whocould get near enough to him could punish himand beat him, all the way through the camp, and ,when he reached the end, he was cast out to die .What is the lesson? Mark you, during the timethis is taking place, the priest has gone into th etabernacle of the congregation, has changed hisclothes and taken off his white raiment, has washedhimself and put on his glorious garments, While th escapegoat is going through the camp, thus repre-senting the deliverance of the Christ body whilethe great company is going through its affliction andtrouble . In other words, when every man ' s handshall be against that of his neighbor, these represent-ed by this goat will be the ones who will receive th egreatest persecution, because they will then uphol dthe banner of Christ . Unless they do that, they. wil ldie the second death—they must all overcome finally .

Two more animals were offered after the pries thad changed his clothes . These two animals arenot offered antitypically until the church has bee nglorified. By and by the last member of the body ofChrist will pass beyond the wail and the door to th ehigh calling will be closed. The Lord will then haveall His merit in His hands and will be released fromthe little flock. He will not ` take His bride, thechurch, home to glory immediately but will tarryfor the great company, the virgins, her companions .

He would not go into the presence of Jehovah with-out all His merit . And thus while they tarry . theyhave a beautiful, happy honeymoon together . Manythings will be told to them and they will be full y

instructed in all the ways of the Lord before Hewill take His bride home to glory as one 'corrmleteun i t for all thewonderful work of the ages to come .Hallelujah ! what a- Saviour!

CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITIES

Brother W. N. Poe, Cincinnati, Ohio

OUR subject suggests that we have assumed defi-nite obligations and many scriptures tell of the great-importance, to ourselves, of the meeting of thes e-obligations .

We shall consider these from the standpoint ofthe experiences of Israel as recorded, principally, i nthe book of Judges, chapters 1-8.

God speaking through Moses told Israel "Whenthe Lord thy God shall bring thee into the landwhither thou goest to possess it . . . thou shalt smitethem [the peoples of the land], and utterly destroythem ; thou shalt make no covenant with them, norshew mercy unto them ; neither shalt thou make-marriages with them ; . . : for they will turn awaythv sons from following Me, that they may serve-other, gods . "—Deut . 7 :1-4 .

Not only were they to drive the people out of the:land, but also they were to rid the land of every evi-dence of false worship, to "destroy their altars, break

their images and cut down their groves ."—Ex. 34 :13 . '

The second chapter of Judges tells us that the nextgeneration of Israelites not only failed to obey,` but"they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, . . . andfollowed other gods . . . of the people that were roundabout them, and bowed themselves unto them, " in-dicating that there was a gradual breaking down o fthe true faith .

The third and fourth chapters tell us that whe nIsrael cried unto the Lord because of their great dis-tress, that deliverance was provided, revealing th etruth that God stands ready to deliver, but will notdo so until there is a true desire for deliverance an duntil those in bondage are willing to cooperate whole-heartedly . —Matt . 6 :12 . (See Berean Comments .)

Our most enlightening object lesson, perhaps, isfound in the sixth chapter from which we learn tha tIsrael 's enemies came up against them like grass-hoppers, when they did evil in the sight of the Lord,

,l).peembeir 1938

greatly impoverishing them, resulting in what seem sto have been a genuine realization of their difficulties .

When Israel cried unto the Lord, a prophet wa ssent . The particular feature of interest here is th emethod used by the prophet in dealing with the re-pentant Israelities .

The prophet, obviously, was one who had con-sistently served the Lord even while Israel followe dother gods, and we might have expected him to say :"I told you so" or "you got just what you deserved,"but the prophet being under the direction of the Lord ,did no such thing . Instead, he took them on a trip o fretrospection reminding them of the Lord ' s kindnessin the years that were past, saying : "Thus saiththe Lord God of Israel, I brought you up fro mEgypt, and brought you forth out of the house ofbondage ; and I delivered you out of the hand of th eEgyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressedyou. The record being only a synopsis of what wa sreally said, we may imagine that he went into detail ,reminding them of the methods used and the jo yit brought to their hearts.

This, riv e believe, is the key to one of our mostdifficult questions today—that of assisting our breth-ren who remain in bondage . Have we not a dut ytoward them? And could there be a better way o freestablishing them in the faith once delivered unt othe saints? Would not our hearts burn within u sif it should be our privilege to re-live with them, inpleasant conversation, the years that are past, remind-ing themof how they were delivered from antitypica lEgypt, and the many false doctrines that hound themthere? There seems to be but one antidote for muchof the spiritual sickness that exists today, viz ., areview of God ' s Word using the six volumes o fScripture . Studies as a helping hand .

God severely tested Gideon by commanding himto destroy his own . father's shrines . This seemsstrangely reminiscent of the duties which hones tconviction moved us to meet when we, too, learnedthat retrogression had taken place . Oh, the painof displeasing the loved . ones and the broken. bondsof friendships ; how they did tug at our . heart-strings ,but how sweet is the Lord's favor and greater to b edesired !

Even though the angel had appeared unto Gideon,he was not sure that the Lord would have him oppos esuch great odds, but after he had tested the Lord and

.1 1

received answer through the fleece, he was convincedand proceeded accordingly . Has the Lord spokento us? Have we proved what we profess? If so,why continue in doubt ?

It is noted that this was an orderly campaign.Gideon and his 300 stationed themselves in strategi cpositions, within seeing and hearing distance of theenemy, and at a given signal broke their pitchersand blew their trumpets in unison, creating con-sternation among the Midiapites . A more nearlyperfect picture of team-work, unanimity of boththought and action, could not be conceived, thu sindicating, we believe, that the Lord (antitypicalGideon) will and does have a small company o fbrethren in the earth, who will continue to shout"the sword of the Lord and of Gideon! "

In these days, when every man's hand seem screasingly against his neighbor, true Christianity bycontrast, becomes the more beautiful and desirable.Is not the very spirit of Christianity one of lovingcooperation and service to the brethren? Are wenot to consider one another to provoke unto lov eand to good works? And did not the Faithful an dWise servant have fellow-servants ?

The cause of the confusion and great destructio nwhich came upon Midian, was the torch light an da small company of trumpeters under the direction o fGideon, which accurately depicts the true causes o fthe impending catastrophe, which now confronts th eworld of mankind. Is it not a fact that much of theworld 's trouble is the result of increased light alongevery line, lust as the prophet Daniel foretold i twould be ?—Dan . 12 :1, 4 .

This Paul also foretold when he wrote : "Then 'will be revealed the lawless one ; whom the LordJesus will consume with the breath of . His • mouth,and annihilate by the appearing of His presence,"or to use the original words : He shall annihilate b ythe "epiphania" (bright shining) of His "parousia"(presence) .-2 Thes. 2 :8, Diaglo tt .

As a fitting climax to this picture, the eighth chap-ter tells us that the men of Israel said unto Gideon :"Rule over us, . for thou bast delivered us fro mthe hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them :I will not rule over you . . . the Lord shall rule overyou," bringing us in figure to the grand climax whenour Heavenly Father shall be "all in all . "

"BUILDED TOGETHER . FOR A HABITATION OF GOD"Brother W. J. Hollister, Brooklyn, N . Y .

IN THE BIBLE the thought of God's dwellingplace is used in several connections . First, it is as-sociated with Israel's Temple and the city of Jeru-salem. Moses speaks of the place in which God would"put His name [renown] ." (Deut : 12 :5-7.) Solomonuses the same words in speaking of the temple whichhe built in accordance with God 's instructions. ( 2Chron. 6 :19, 20.) Both of these leaders of Israelrecognized that these creations of men were no tplaces where God would actually dwell, for both

spoke of His habitation as in the heavens . (Deut . 26 :15 ; 2 Chron . 6 :180 The temple was merely the ,placewhere God gave a supernatural representation ofHimself, and where He would receive the worship ofIsrael, and they receive His instructions .

Another thought associated with the habitation o fGdd is the holy principles in accord with which Heexercises His great power, as we read in Psalm 89, ;14 : "Justice and judgment are the habitation [fixedplace, or base] of Thy throne : mercy and truth shall

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The Dawngo before Thy face . " And again; "Righteousnes sand judgment are the habitation of His throne . "—Psa. 97 :2 .

Still another thought in regard to God 's dwellingplace is given us in Isaiah 57 :15, where we read :"Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabitetheternity, whose name is Holy ; I dwell in the highand holy place, with him also that is of a contriteand humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble ,and' to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Thethought here is that God, can work in the heart of th ehumble and contrite, to revive, comfort and bless .

But the Bible presents a further and a more com-prehensive thought regarding the habitation of God ;namely, a being, and a group of beings, so thoroughlyin accord with His principles that He can dwell i nthem and exercise His benevolent and glorious at -tributes through them. In other words, a livinghabitation in which, as the Apostle says in our text ,He can dwell "in spirit." (See Emphatic Diaglott . )That God desires such a habitation is recorded i nPsalm 132 : 13, 14 : "For the Lord hath chosen Zion ;He hat]) desired it for His habitation . This is My

rest forever : here will I dwell ; for I have desired

it ." Thus we see that God's habitation in the high-est sense of the term, the dwelling place which H edesires, is the Christ, composed of those in whos ehearts and characters is room for full fellowship

(1 John 1 :3 .), and through whom God can manifestHis principles, disposition and power. As our Lordlikewise said, "The Father seeketh such to wor-ship Him" as worship "in spirit and in truth, "—John 4 :23 .

In the New Testament three phases or aspects

are given of this dwelling place of God. First ,Clod recognizes the individual members of the Bod yof. Christ as His dwelling place, the temple of His

spirit, as we read : "What? know ye not that your

body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is i nyou, which ye have of God, and ye are not you r

own ?" And again : "Know ye not that ye are th etemple' of God, and that the Spirit of God dwellet h

in you?" (1 Cor . 6 :19 ; 3 :16 .) Each member of th eBody is also recognized as a builder—a builder o f

character . (1 Cor. 3 :9-15 .) In the spiritual building ,as in material buildings, a good foundation is a

prime essential ; and the building itself must confor mto the lines and angles of the foundation. In the

passage just cited St . Paul says we have in Jesu sthe one and only dependable foundation . A similar

thought is found in 2 Timothy 3 :16, where St. Paulsays the Scriptures are profitable for "doctrine . "

This word, doctrine, means teaching, but has th eadditional thought of "substance . " And thus wesometimes speak of the Ransom provided by Jesu sas the foundation doctrine of the Bible, and th efoundation of our faith and character structure .

St . Peter evidently refers to the antitypical Templewhen he says that we come unto Tesus, as unto a

living stone, "a chief corner stone," chosen of Godand precious, and that we also, as living stones, ar e"built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood . . .(I Pet. 2 :4-6.) Building materials must meet cer -

tain specifications and tests in order to be accept-able and useful . And so it is with us . We are teste dto see that we are not too hard through pride o rselfishness or self-will . Or we might be too soft,like Eli the . priest who lost the priesthood becausehe lacked strength of character, and failed to restrainhis sons in their wrong course . (1 Sam. 3 :13, 14 . )Some materials must be tested for tensile or stretch-ing strength, and others for breaking strength. Sowe too are tested and exhorted to " let patience hav eher perfect (ing) work, that ye may be perfect an dentire, wanting nothing ;" able to "suffer long an d[yet] be kind." (James 1 :4 ; 1 Cor. 13 :4.) Thensome materials are rejected because of concealed de-fects—not visible on the outside. And so with theChristian : it is possible for defects of character tobe present but concealed from others, until the tes tis applied . Then it may be found that secret faults ,self-indulgence, unjust conduct, compromising withthe world, neglect of the Word of God, have weak-ened and made one's character building unfit for th eLord's use as a member of His Body . How import -ant is this individual building work ! As St . Paulexhorts, let us"take heed" how we build .—1 Cor .3 :10.

The second aspect of the habitation of God—"i nspirit" is in the local ecclesia or church . Here wehave a group of those who, by God's grace, are en -gaged as individuals in building upon the founda-tion, Jesus, a character like His, being "conforme dto the image of His [God ' s] Son . " (Rom. 8 :29 . )These individual builders all have the Lord as thei rideal and pattern, but have different minds, experi -ences, and handicaps in their imperfect vehicles o fexpression . Association with one another in thechurch is therefore of great value because if we "looknot every man on his own things, but . . . also on thethings of others, " we see in our brethren inspirin gillustrations of the work of God : this one's humility ;that one ' s patience : this brother's zeal in service of thebrethren and the truth ; that sister's meekness an dgentleness, etc. (Phil 2 :4 .) And these all become in-centives to us to run with patience the race set be-fore us . How much we, individually, gain from as-sociation with other brethren in the church; wil llargely depend upon how much of time, thought ,prayer and loving service we invest in it . It is agreat privilege to have fellowship with others who ,like ourselves, are engaged in the most momentouswork that ever occupied members of our race .

The third view of God's habitation in the Churc his presented in our text, Eph. 2 :22. What preciousabode that complete body, with its glorious Head ,will be! All will be graduates of the School ofChrist ; all perfected as their Master—in His image .All will be virgins, glorious within (in character) ;without guile ; veterans of the Narrow Way, who fol-lowed the Lamb whithersoever He went . Yes, theywill be "filled with all the fulness of God ." (Eph .3 :19.) What unspeakable glory it will be to be. amember of that exalted Church ; a habitation that th egreat Creator has desired, through which He ca nexpress Himself, and, in which He will dwell forever .

December 1938

Saturday, October . 22nd, 1938

Chairman of the Day--BROTHER CLARENCE GEORGE

9 :00 A . Al.-Praise and Testimony Meeting

10 :00 A . M.—Discourse

Brother E. G. hi lylam ,"Peace, Purity and Principle"

11 :00 A. M . —Discourse

Brother L . H . Norby,"Fishers of Men "

SPECIAL PROGRAM DEDICATED TO

TNiE MEMORY OF BROTHER RUSSELL

1 :45 P . M .•—Service at Pastor Russell 's Grave(In Charge—Brother Horace Blinn )

2 :45 P.M . -Discourse

Brother C. P . Bridges ;"Risen Will, Chrisl "

4 :15 P . :AI .—Baptismal Servic e

6 : - I 5 P . N .---Praise Service

7 :00 P . Al . --Service Conducted byBrother G . S . Kendal l

One of the specialfeatures of the annua lPittsburgh conventio nis the memorial serviceat the grave of BrotherRussell . This year theweather was favorableand about 150 or moreof the brethren wer epresent at the ceme -tery, where the servic ewas held in the openair, directly at th egrave. The grave wasdecorated with a beau-tiful floral tribute pre-sented by one of thebrethren who is aflorist . The meeting

opened with a hymn and prayer . Brother Blinn ofCincinnati, made a short address and called on sev-eral other brethren who had been closely associ-ated with Brother Russell, for brief remarks . among _these were Brothers George Kendall of Washington ,Pa., Oscar Magnuson of Brooklyn, C . P. Bridgesof Lynn . Mass., and L. F. Zink of Brantford, Ontar-io . All of these brethren had known of the truthand had been acquainted with Brother Russell fo rmany years, one having met him about fifty yearsago . Deer appreciation was expressed for the clea rlight on God 's Word they had received throughBrother Russell's ministry, for his example of faith -fulness and zeal, and the privilege of associatio nin the work of proclaiming God's great plan and th epresence of Christ, supervising the work of the har-vest of the church and preparing for the establish-ment of His Kingdom in the earth . The Memoria lmeeting was a solemn and inspiring occasion as th elittle company of fellow-servants met that beautifu lfall afternoon to again pay tribute to the one wh ohad so kindly and faithfullly led in preaching an dteaching the Present Truth, in exhorting the brethren

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to follow, the footsteps of our Head in every detai lof life ; one who we feel sure was faithful unto deathand we believe is now with the Lord in glory .

Following the return to the Bible House an ad-dress on the subject of Baptism was given by Brothe rBridges (reported elsewhere herein), and this wa sfollowed by the water immersion of six symbol -izing their full consecration to follow the Lor deven unto death. The immersion service was con-ducted by Brother E . F. Williams of Duquesne, Pa. ,at the First Christian Church located on Arch Stree tnearby .

Saturday evening Brother George Kendall ofWashington, Pa ., who has travelled extensively inforeign lands, gave a very instructive lecture, illus-trated with beautifully colored slides made fromphotographs taken in his travels . The lecture wasgiven in two parts, the first on "The Wonders o fthe Ancient World," and the second, after a shor tintermission, on "The Holy Land—Home of th eProphets ." In the first section many views wer ethrown on the screen of the wonderful building sand monuments in Egypt, and in the accompanyinglecture an explanation given of their stupendou ssize . The means by which the enormous stones i nthese buildings were transported many miles fro mthe quarries is a mystery to this day, Brother Kendallexplained, a task for which our modern methodsand machinery are unequal ; and they were erecte dwith such close fitting joints as cannot be duplicate dtoday . These "wonders of the ancient world" im-pressed the great truths for which the lecture wasdesigned . namely, that man is not a creation of evo-lutional development and that the ancients posses-sed wisdom, arts and skill of which modern scienc eis ignorant .

The second lecture presented the scenes sacred t oJews and Christians : scenes of Palestine associatedwith the history of Israel, and with the life, deathand resurrection of our Lord . Also shown werescenes of modern Palestine to which the Jews hav ebeen returning in large numbers . These viewsbrought home with renewed emphasis the fulfillmentnow in progress of the prophecies respecting the re -turn of Israel to their promised land, and the con-firmation therein that the establishment of God ' sKingdom in the earth is near at hand .

Brother Kendall was ably assisted by his wife wh ohandled the stereopticon lantern, the pictures foI-lowing in harmonious sequence as the lectu res pro-ceeded . The long lecture—in fact, two lectures i none—must have been quite an effort for Brothe rKendall, but was much avpreciated by his audience .

The Praise and Testimony meeting with whichSaturday 's sessions opened was led by Brother A .Newell of St . Louis, Mo. The suggested subject wasthe Manna text for the day : "Are ye able to drinkof the cup that I shall drink of?" (Matt. 20 :22 . )Again the time seems to have been well filled and w eare recording below some of the testimonies of th ebrethren expressing their faith, hope and love, an dthe experiences through which they are being ledin their journey to the Kingdom .

-

The late Pastor Russell

Sister Sundbom : This morning a little cuplet cameto .my mind : "Greatness in humility ; victory throughservice. This has been mighty helpful to methrough the years past. I am thankful to the Lord'skeeping power and for the experiences of yesterday.This is just like being in heaven. Then we will bemeeting the dear ones we knew in the past and whohave made their calling and election sure . I bringthe love of my sister, . Esther Kuehn, Brother FredMason and Brother Wyndelts .

Sister Dale, Los Angeles, Calif . : Greetings fromeach and every one in the Los Angeles class, who ar ewith us in spirit . Glad to be here myself and re -quest number 23 be sung .

Sister Corey Mitchell, Brooklyn, N . Y . : I wasthinking, What is the tie which binds our hearts ?It seems to me it is the spirit of the Lord . To theextent that we each have the spirit of the Lord, adesire to do His will and to be fully subject to Hi scomands as revealed in His Word, we are boundtogether. It is my heart's desire that I may never doanything to in any way weaken that tie which bind sus to the Lord and to one another . I ask your pray-ers to that end .

t `Sister Sogan, New Haven, Conn . : I am Slovak ..We have some Italian, Polish and Russians in ou r-class . I have come here to get spiritual strength .I have lost my husband and am in trouble . Pray forMe. -

Brother Sweiger, Baltimore, Md . : I bring theChristian love and greetings from the Baltimore ec --elesia. They all had a desire in their hearts to b e'here . I thank the Father for this privilege. I amdrinking of His cup and have been for the pas t22 years while walking in that narrow way . He hasbeen blessing me and giving me the desire that Ihad been seeking—the present truth . It is becauseof this truth that I am here this morning . I wantto walk in Jesus' footsteps and suffer with Him .

Brother Kolliman, Wilmington, Del . : I want torelate a little experience we had about four weeks

ago. It was a Sunday that we had no schedule ar-

-ranged, and were thinking of resting that Sunday .

But at about ten o 'clock in the morning I told Siste r

Kolliman, Would you like to take a little trip with

me today? She agreed. Once in 1923 we ran acros s

a brother who had left the Society in 1917 . We had

supper and spent the evening together . We hadquite a conversation . He was anxious for himsel fbecause of inactivity. He was worried—couldn ' tcooperate with any of the Society friends . All byhimself . That was in 1923 and four weeks ago Ithought I might try to find him. So we travelleddown to Rising Sun. We found him about fifteenmiles away from anywhere at a little town we neve r

heard of. I recognized him. We got acquainted

again. He said he was sick and tired of idleness . Noinspiration from any source. No cooperation fromanyone. Waylaid, and left adrift . Because of hi sdesire to serve the Lord he tried to forget the erro r

he knew and worked fora year selling books. The

The' Dawn

brother was nearly at his wit's 'end . So .you see,we. merely took the cup, and made the trip of. about30-35 miles. That cup, when we got down there,was a cup of joy. I hope all the friends will 'try it."

Brother Burton Brown, Los Angeles, Calif . : Ithank Him for the wonderful Word and the truth sHe has given to me, and I want to say that I ;amalso thankful for the Lord's blessed promise that weare all going to meet later on in a more gloriousconvention beyond the vail . I pray that I may holdfast that which is good and be able to see you there .

Brother Blinn, Cincinnati, O . : This convention re-minds me of place-cards around the table at thisfeast of fat things. So I represent the brethren inCincinnati who commissioned us to send their loveand greetings . One thing always comes to my min despecially in this convention in Allegheny-the deep,genuine spirit of thankfulness . How thankful we areto God that another year has passed and He haskept our feet from falling.

Sister Kemp, Boston, Mass . : Although I havebeen away from Boston for three months, the friendsthere want to be remembered, according to letter sreceived. Praying that the Lord 's blessing migh tbe here and to be able to pass it along to others whenwe go back. I ask an interest in your prayers .

Brother Janke, Tonawanda, N . Y. : I am glad to behere and see so many of the dear friends again . Ayear ago at the convention here the final plans wer emade by some of the speakers to see what could b edone to get some of the people together in the Buffal oarea. VVe thought surely there must be some aroundBuffalo that would like to get together . Sixtyto seventy came out, showing that they hadn't al lgone astray. We put forth the effort ; the Lord didthe rest . A lot of friends were bewildered, and arenow ; they don't know where to turn for help . Myown experience is that nine years ago I was in thesame condition—didn't know where to turn . Ahelping hand was extended and I must say I appre-ciate it very much .

Sister Walbach, Brooklyn, N . Y . : I wouldn't havebeen in the truth today if it hadn't been for the cuppoured for me. Brother Russell used to say : "Re-member that when you are in the Lord's service theLord has spoken of you as the angels that fly in th emidst of heaven giving the message to the world ?

Sister E. Cooksey, Youngstown, Ohio : This is aglad day for me. I would like to say that your workis not in vain . The Lord knows those that are His.None comes unless they are the Lord's. I got somany blessings from the dear friends this year . Ididn't think I was worthy of so many blessings andfriends coming miles to visit me . Sweet incense t othe Lord. I am truly thankful .

On Saturday three more helpful discourses weregiven, in addition to the lecture by Brother Kendal land the Memorial service at Brother Russell ' s grave.A synopsis of these discourses follows :

.12.eeeulber; 1938

PEACE, PURITY AND PRINCIPLE

Brother E . G. Wylam, Chicago, Illinois

WHILE the subject of our discourse is Peace,Purity and Principle, these subdivisions will be dis-cussed in the reverse order : Principle, Purity andPeace .

Principle is a rule of action : A wrong rule ofaction leads to or results in wrong action. A rightrule of action leads to or results in right action .God 's Ten Commandments, as given to Israe lthrough Moses, constituted an epitome of properprinciples or rules of action, even though only twoof them are positive and the other eight negative .(Exod . 20 :3-17.) These rules for proper action an dconduct became the basis of God's Covenant withIsrael, the purpose of which was, as a pedagogu eor school-teacher, to bring them to Christ . By reasonof the fall, it was impossible for Israel to perfectlyobserve these commandments ; it is equally impossiblefor us to do so .

Their apparent simplicity was delusive, for under-neath the surface was a hidden meaning . Hatredof a fellow was equivalent to murder . An adulterousdesire constituted a violation of the 7th Command-ment . Any division of heart, mind, soul or strengt hviolated the Law . The Mosaic Law was not God' soriginal Law ; it was not given to mankind, but toIsrael . God's Original Law was given to Adam i nEden. It was, with the course of time, to be writtenand engraved upon his heart. The divine image i nwhich he was created made this possible . As long:-.as Adam's actions were in conformity to the Lawof God, purity and peace prevailed .

How sudden and marvelous and terrible was thechange which followed the fall ! The devastatin ginfluence and. aftermath of this departure from God' sLaw is exemplified forty centuries afterward in th ecase of Paul, who though a spiritual giant as compar-ed with most of us, testified that for this very reason ,the things that he would, he did not do, and th ethings that he w"puld not, those things he did . Thechaotic state of the minds and affairs of men today ,is further evidence of the disastrous effect of the non-observance of right, Godly principle .

Following the curse and expulsion from Eden ,in rapid succession came bitterness, resentment an danger ; with the sudden catastrophe of the murder o fAbel at the hands of his brother Cain . There wasno peace there ; and as we trace the 6000 Years o fhuman history, we find, indeed, that the only hop efor mankind is through Jesus Christ, who kept th eLaw .

As we a pproach the subject of Purity, particularl yas it pertains to the Church . we find that it is no tonly required outwardly . but that purity within iseven more essential, and if we have purity within ou rhearts, it will express itself outwardly in a lifeof righteousness, manifested in an observance of an dcompliance with principle or the right rules of ac-tion. In other words, principle is an outward expres-sion of purity within . The two are inseparable .

Purity is spoken of in the Bible as a condition ofheart, a condition of mind and a condition of con-science in support of which the following texts ar esubmitted. As a condition of heart : "Blessed arethe pure in heart, for they shall see God," "Callon the Lord out of a pure heart," "Charity out ofa pure heart," "I have made my heart clean, I ampure from my sin . " (Proverbs 20 :9.) A pure con-dition of heart is to he attained by the Christian _and then maintained. Concerning peace as a con-dition of mind, we read in 2nd Peter 3 :1, "I sti rup your pure minds by way of remembrance," an dagain Paul's statement to Titus, "Unto the pureall things are pure." (Titus 1 :15 .) As to conscience ,"Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure con -science, " is one of the requirements of eldership . —1 Timothy 3 :9 .

How can we acquire this sublime condition o fpurity of heart, mind and conscience? The Bibl egives us the answer ; "Every man that bath this hopein him purifieth himself, even as He is pure . " (1 John3 :1-3.) Thus hope is held up to us as a means ofpurification, as are also the promises of God, as weread in 2 Corinthians 7 :1 : "Having therefore thes epromises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves"from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfectingholiness in the fear of God ." In illustration of whichwe may consider the priests and the sacrifices, a sthey were washed at the laver in the Court, the waterspicturing Scriptural Truth . In further confirmationof this we read in James 3 :17 . "The wisdom thatis from above is first pure, then peaceable . "

In the dispute which arose amongst the earlyChurch at Jerusalem as pertaining to circumcision „"Peter rose up, and said unto them, . . . God, whichknoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them•the Holy Spirit, even as IIe did unto us ; and putno difference between us and them, purifying thei rhearts by faith . "—Acts 15 :7-9 .

Hope, knowledge and faith, however valuable aspurifying influences, are not alone sufficient . Obedi -ence is essential . "Seeing ye have purified your soulsin obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeign-ed love of the brethren, see that ye love one anotherwith a pure heart fervently . "—I Peter 1 :22 .

In addition to these helps and means of purifi-cation, God also, actively assists through the purgin gprocess of His providences . Malachi 3 :3 reads ,"And IIe shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silve rand He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge the mas gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lor dan offering in righteousness . " This is brought aboutby the bitter experiences of life, as pictured in thePassover by the sprinkling of the blood upon th elintels and doorposts of the houses with a branchof bitter hyssop and further emphasized in the eatingof the lamb roast with fire and accompanied by thebitter herbs . David in the 51st Psalm, sneakingprophetically for the Church, cries out in the 7th

1 6

verse, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean ;wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow . "

IIaving attained a state of purity, Timothy wa s

admonished by Paul in 1 Timothy 5 :22, "Keep thy-self pure," and James says, that "If any man among

you seenieth to be religious, " he would, among other

things, "Keep himself unspotted from the world ."—

James 1 :26, 27 .

As we look about us in the world today, eithe rfar or near, we find that peace is almost non-exist-ent . Man thinks that peace comes from without . Hespends his life to attain it, only to find as did . Solo-mon in his declining years, that "all is vanity, an d

vexation of spirit . " God 's peace comes from within ,

not from without . It is dependent upon the prope r

balance of mind and a perfect condition of heart .

When in meditation we consider Jehovah, we canconceive of no lack of peace. Regardless of theturmoil and hubbub which exists upon this littl edot in His universe called the earth, and the re-bellion in His courts brought about by Lucifer, w erealize that He is unperturbed . Jesus also enjoye dsuch peace . Amidst the violence of the storm upo nthe sea of Galilee, we find Him asleep and even i nbeing so suddenly awakened, we find Him at eas ein heart and mind . When His enemies would hav edestroyed Him, He quietly walked away. In theclamor of Gethsemane, we find Him the most tranqui l.of them all .

The Dawn

This priceless legacy He left to us, "Peace I leavewith you, My peace I give unto you : not as the worl dgiveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart betroubled, neither let it be afraid . " (John 14 :27 . )IIe left it with us, He gave it unto us . Do we en-joy it? If not, why not? It is attained by faith—"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peac ewith God through our Lord Jesus Christ . " (Romans5 :1 .) Like purity, it is attained from the Word ofGod. It is also attained by prayer, as we read inPhilippians 4 :6, 7, TWVeyonotith rendering, "Do notbe over-anxious about anything, but by prayer andand earnest pleading, together with thanksgiving,let your requests be unreservedly made known in th epresence of God . And then the peace of God, whic htranscends all our powers of thought, will be a gar-rison to guard your hearts and minds in union wit hChrist Jesus . "

The world, the flesh and the devil would flood u swith fretful cares and overwhelming anxieties whichwould rob us of this priceless heritage, but peacepersists despite adversity for those of faith . - "Ac-cording to thy faith be it unto thee . "

The crux of the whole proposition of Peace, . Purityand Principle is the application of these things t oself, among our brethren, in. the Church, in thehome, in business and in all of life's contacts . Pres-ent conditions will oppose them, but it is possibl eto attain, maintain and retain Peace, Purity AndPrinciple . "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace ,whose mind is stayed on Thee . "

FISHERSBrother L . H. Norby,

THE WORDS of our text, while addressed to theApostles, are generally understood to apply in asense to the Lord 's people throughout the Gospe lage. This Scripture, as do so many others, indicate sthat drawing men to the Lord should be an importan tpart of our Christian endeavor . However, it alsoimplies much concerning the proper methods to use .

It is our understanding of the Scriptures that w eshould seek to be tactful in presenting the message .In Matthew 10 :16, our Lord tells His disciples t obe "wise as serpents and harmless as doves ." It i svery hard to be "wise as serpents" as well as harm -

less . However, the Lord Himself intimated that

God 's people would need to cultivate wisdom, whenHe declared (Luke 16 :8 .), "For the children of thisworld are in their generation wiser than the childre n

of light . "Our Lord further told His disciples, "when they

persecute you in this city, flee ye into another . "

(Matt. 10 :23.) This suggests that we are not t o

challenge the civil power or religious systems jus t

to display our courage . In the final test, God will

not support us if we disobey His Word. The adver-sary would like to have us unduly expose ourselve s

to criticism and attack in order that the enemies o fthe Truth might have an excuse to close down on

OF MENMinneapolis, Minn .

the work. Thus we would defeat our very purpos eby disobeying the Lord's instructions.

If we are true followers of the Lord, we will us eonly conservative and dignified methods of promul-gating the Truth as did He. He fulfilled what th eprophet Isaiah had written concerning Ilim, as re-corded in Matthew 12 :19, "IIe shall not strive, no rcry ; neither shall any man hear His voice in thestreets . "

Jesus told His disciples, "I have yet many thingsto say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now . "(John 16 :12 .) Thus He did not stumble them b ygiving them everything at once. This is in harmon ywith the account in Matthew 12 :20, where it declaresthat Jesus fulfilled Isaiah 's prophecy, "A bruisedreed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shallBe not quench."--Isa. 42 :1-3 .

Paul had a tremendous influence for the Truth ,due in large measure to his tact and kindly spirit .Take, for example, his experience at Athens . Paul,being a Jew, was naturally opposed to idol worship .and "his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw thecity wholly given to idolatry ." (Acts 17 :16.) Butsince he really wanted to promote the Lord 's causeand help these people, he did not arouse their an-tagonism by first condemning their error, but even

December 1938

found something to commend them for . We read,"Paul . . . said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive thatye are much given to reverence . [Young's'Concord-ance rendering] For as I passed by, and beheld yourdevotions, I found an altar with this inscription, Tothe unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantlyworship, Him declare I unto you." (Acts 17 :22,23 . )Then he proceeded to show them how superior thi sGod was, Now what was the result of this proced-ure? It was a difficult situation, but . we read thatsome said, "we will hear thee again of this .matter . . . .Howbeit certain men slave unto him, and believed."---Acts 17 :32-34 .

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Paul thus put into practice a rule which is com-monly recognized today, namely, "agree before yo udisagree . " Primarily, we do not want to . win anargument but to win the individual to the Lord ,being "fishers of men ." This being our •purpose ,we will not wish to use methods that will defeat thatvery purpose . Nor need we be insincere in sympa-thizing with our fellowmen when we recognize th eruinous effects of the fall, and know that the law o fheredity made it possible for One Man to, ransom th ewhole human family .

The Truth should not be represented as somethin gnew, because it really is as old as the Prophets an dApostles. We have no revelation from. God apar tfrom His Word . "Thine ears shall hear' a wor dbehind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it ,when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn tothe left ."--Isa. 30 :21 .

Suppose some one asks us if we believe in. Hell .We know that he means eternal torment, or some-thing concerning suffering, and we are apt to replythat we don't, and then show Scriptures, to disprovethat God-dishonoring doctrine . But is this the bestprocedure? One point in the inquirer's mind is ,Do we believe in punishment for sins? Hence ourreply would have created the impression that we di dnot. Surely we would not wish to leave such an er -roneous impression, when the Scriptures declare t o

i

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the contrary . (See Matt . 12 :36 ; Rev.2 :27 ; Luke12 :47, 48 and 1 Tim. 5 :24 .) Affirming our belief inthese Scriptures would. seem to be the best start inanswering the question. Then the inquirer couldactually be put on the defensive for believing in adeath-bed repentance as providing complete escapefrom punishment and entrance into heaven itself . Itcan be pointed out that the Truth is a greater deter -rent to sin ; for this world loves to gamble even withthe issues of life . Now we would be better preparedto say that we believe in the Bible hell and to sho wwhat it really is .

Since most . people understand "mortal" to mean acondition in which death : is unavoidable, they conse-quently reason that Adam was immortal . In ouropinion, to bluntly declare that the soul is not- im -mortal will make thesepeople think we are infidel sor materialists and they may end the discussion be -fore we can make the matter clear. People caneasily get the wrong impression concerning our views ,on the trinity, wihch is, sacred to them . But if weaffirm our belief in our Lord's perhuman existence ,IIis separateness- from, sinners while on earth, an dHis high exaltation to the right hand of God, ou rviews are more properly presented and meet wit hless objection. However, we do not think these top-ics are the best with which to start a discussion .

When Paul says (Heb. 6 :1 .), "Leaving the prin-ciples of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on untoperfection," he did not mean that those to whom h ewrote should abandon the preaching of the Gospel .He- evidently means ;. that these fundamentals shouldbe- -learned quickly and thoroughly in order thatothers may he taught them, as note his statement tothis effect in the 12th verse of the preceding chapter,"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, yehave need that one 'teach you again which be thefirst principles of the oracles of God . " Though wemay mistake his teachings, we cannot mistake hi sexample. Let us then seek to be good "fishers ofmen . "

"RISEN WITH CHRIST "Brother C. P. Bridges, Lynn, Mass.

12Y MIND goes back nine years to the time w eheld our first convention after our separation fromthe Society . I remember the subject that I usedat that time ; it was called, "Our reasonable serv-ice" and I endeavored to set forth as clearly as Icould just what it meant to be a Christian . Now Idesire to do the same thing and if possible, make i tmore emphatic . The text that I shall use' is foundin Colossians 3 :1 ; "If ye then be risen with Christ ,seek those things which are above, where Chris tsitteth on the right hand of God . "

What could Paul have meant by being "risen wit hChrist" ? Surely since Christ died many years be -fore the epistle to the Colossians was written, h ecould not have referred to that time when Christwas raised from the dead . No ; he did not refer t othat . It is obvious that if one is raised with Christ,

he must have died with Christ ; and that is just whatthe Apostle had in. mind in writing these words .Let us see how this is' expressed by him in otherplaces. In Romans 6 :10, 11, Diaglott, we read, "For[the death] which IHe died, He died by sin once ;but [the life] which He lives, He lives by God .Thus do you account yourself dead . indeed by sin ,but living by God in the Anointed Jesus . "

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If we are risen with Christ, then. we have enteredinto a new life, and are new creatures in Christ . Weare not reckoned new creatures, but are really newcreatures . Since we are new creatures in Chris tJesus, God does not deal with us as fleshly beings,but as spiritual beings. Now as new creatures, wemust have a body through which to express ourselves .Let us note that the body is merely the mediumthrough which we express ourselves, either as human

beings, or as spirit-begotten. new creatures . As intimes past, we yielded our members as servants o fsin, so now as new creatures we yield the same mem-bers as servants of righteousness unto holiness. (Rom .

6 :19.) God is dealing with us as new creatures ,never as fleshly beings ; but He requires that we ,as new creatures, deal with our fleshly bodies. So

the Apostle writes of himself, "I keep under mybody, and bring it into subjection ."—1 Cor. 9 :27.

We have mentioned that -the new life has alrready

begun. So Paul writes, "Be ye transformed BY

THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND." (Rom.

12 :2.) This mind is the mind that was in ChristJesus and its only interest is to do the will of God .

(Phil . 2 :5 .) Our Lord said, "I do always thos ethings that please Him [the Father], and inasmuch

as we have the mind of Christ we will be doing th esame thing. This is being risen with Him .

Every Christian who shall share Christ 's glory

MUST BE baptised. The only way to be a memberof Christ, is to be baptised into Him . Let us readhow this' is expressed by Brother Paul . "Know yenot that so many of us as were baptised in Jesu sChrist were baptised into His death? Therefore w eare buried with Him by - baptism into death ; that

like as Christ was raised up from the dead by th e

glory of the Father, even so we also should walk

in newness of life . For if we have been planted to-gether in the likeness of His death, we shall be also

in the likeness of His resurrection . "—Rom. 6 :3-5 .

Now let us get the thought in our text . We arerisen with Christ if we have died with Him. It isnecessary to die before we can be raised ; and thisdeath and resurrection are pictured in water baptism .It will take all our natural life for this real baptism

to be accomplished . When we have submitted ou rwill to Him, we have been baptized into Flint Now

The Dawn

God counts us as really having died with Christ ;and He says, "Now you are no longer a fleshly be-ing, but I have begotten you to a new nature, andyou are a new creature . " Thus our text tells us thatif we are risen with Christ we should seek abov eeverything else, those things that go with our ne wnature .

It was Jesus ' intention that all who would be Hi sdisciples should be immersed, and so He instructedHis apostles to baptize them in the name of the Fath-er, the Son, and the Holy Spirit . No one who hasbeen blessed with the privilege of the high calling ,should hesitate for a moment, in giving this witnes sof his death with Christ, and of the new life that has

been given him by God .

Now note the words of Romans 6 :4, "we are bur-ied with Him BY BAPTISM into death : that likeas Christ was raised up from the dead by the glor yof the Father, even so we also should walk in new -ness of life . " Not buried by baptism in water, butin DEATH . When we accepted the mind of Christ ,we became dead to our carnal mind . Henceforth ,we were to be controlled by the new mind ; and beingcontrolled by this new mind, we would walk in new-ness of life . Since we have died with Him, we havebeen raised with Him, and are now new creatures inChrist Jesus. With this understanding, how beauti-fully water baptism pictures the death of our humannature, and the new life that has already begun .

Baptism is progressive. It will take all our lifeto be completed ; but while We are dying dailywe daily are becoming more Christlike, even as th eApostle expresses it, "though our outward man per-ish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day . "(2 Cor. 4:16.) Let us rejoice, dear ones, that wehave the privilege of symbolizing this by water bap-tism. .

Sunday, October 23rd, 193 8

. Chairmann of the Day—BROTHER G. M. WILSON .

9 :00 A. M.—Praise and Testimony Meetin g

. 10 :00 A. M.—Discourse

Brother S . C. DeGroot ,

"Harvest"

11 :00 A. M.—Discourse Brother E. H. Herrscher ,

"Our Share in the Sufferings of Christ "

1 :30 P . M.—Praise Service

1 :45 P. M.—Discourse Brother O. Magnuson ,

"Waiting Upon the Lord "

3 :03 P .M.—Discourse

Brother A. L. Muir ,

"Tolerance"

4 :15 P . M.—Love Feas t

CARNEGIE MUSIC HALL, NORTH SIDE

8 :00 P . M.—Public Discourse Bro . C. W . Zahnow ,

"God's Remedy—For a World Gon eMad"

Special features on the last day of the convention

were the Love Feast, the lecture for the public by

Brother Zahnow at Carnegie Music Hall, and th e

reading of a number of messages conveying love and

greetings from brethren at a distance. Among these

were messages from the following :

Powell River (13 . C .) Biblical Institute ,

Vancouver (B. C.) Ecclesia ,

Brother W. N. Woodworth ,

Sister Margaret P . Willson, Burnaby, B . C .

Brother J . R. Land, Santa Monica, Calif . ,

Bro. and Sr. Philip Ripper, Lawndale, Calif . ,

Sister Merritt, Galveston, Texas ,

Sister Jessie Bechtel, Pottstown, Pa. ,

Sister F. Burdett, Vancouver, B . C . ,

Sister M. K. Makechnie, Everett, 11'Iass . ,

Bro. and Sr . G. P. Ripper, Monterey Park, Calif .

De6ii-gb

1938

The Testimony meeting with which the day opene dwas in charge of Brother Peter Kolliman of . Wilming-ton, Delaware . The central thought was the Mannatext : "Whosoever will be chief among you;, let himbe your 'servant. " (Matt . 20 :27.) That it'- was a bless-ed opportunity for personal expressions and, of fait hin the 'Lord' and His goodness, appreciafiori of theTruth and love of the brethren the following testi-monies indicat e

Sister Gibson, Dayton, Ohio : T feel "so''bubblingover this morning, I want to be first . \V'Iiraise theLord ; He has answered our prayers ." Pray for me .

Brother Rayner, Detroit, Mich . : When I meetwith a company such as here this morning .it thrill sme with joy to know that. some at least amdng the mwill live and reign with Christ . I want to renderhonor to our Heavenly Father for such a'privilegeof walking in the footsteps of Jesus. I pray for al lwho are running for the prize .

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am thankful my wife and I came in together. I askan interest in your prayers that we may be able to .make our calling and election sure .

Sister Norma Mitchell, Brooklyn, N . Y. : I amvery thankful to be, her e . I am enjoying the con-vention a great deal. We brought a message o flove from the Brooklyn Class . About thirty mettogether last Wednesday night and voted to sen dtheir love to the convention. This is the burden ofmy message .

Brother Peter Hazy; , Perryopolis, Pa . : I neverspent even one day in English school—learned anothe rlanguage (Russian—so . I . cannot tell the joy I have ,received . Enjoyed thetestimonies of the brothersin Truth half a century--but the half has never yetbeen told. I rejoice some day the whole worldwill be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, no mat -ter what language people speak . I also thank theLord for that faithful servant of the Lord . He wasnot a teacher in some, great school, but in th eSchool of Christ ; . 'among the foreign-speaking a swell as the English-speaking .

Brother Shepherd,, Cleveland, O . : I am one of thebeginners, who symbolized yesterday, and I believ eit was the best deed of my life. I feel a great peace.I have always been familiar with the Bible . But tohave the holy spirit of the Lord in your heart is the

Sister Magnuson, Brooklyn, N . Y. : .I . have hadmuch greater blessing than anticipated, . . and havebeen impressed by the many details of the Plan, madeso beautiful again. Have been thinking , of the glo-rious treasures the Lord has given us . If entrustedwith valuables belonging to some one else , wle wouldcertainly defend them against robbers . Do 'I treas-ure this Truth sufficiently to protect it against ever yerror that might be presented, and am I protectin gothers as much as I can? We must love it so that w ewill fight for it and keep it pure .

Brother Kemp, Boston, Mass . : We have the pray-ers of all those in Boston . for the success of .and bene-fits to all at this convention . I thank they Lord H ehas supplied me with that three-fold cord, FAITH ,HOPE, and LOVE, by which our sacrifice is boun dto the horns of the altar . A rope will not completel ysever until ALL its strands are broken ., Thoughfaith may wane, the other strands make up, and holdus. Our Lord will hold us even though', we los esome of those qualities for a time. He will continu eto deal with us for we are still bound, under- ou rresolve and our covenant of sacrifice . The Apostl edid not cease to minister to the Galatians even thoug hbe had to scold them . When there is ai sick. one .still bound by one or two strands of the cord to th ehorns of the altar, it is our bounden duty to hel pthose ; seek to recover not drive them away . Prayfor me that I may be faithful in ministering to others ,and make my own calling and election sure.

Brother Sachtleber, East Orange, N . J . : Glad tobe here ; quite a trip for some of us, but it paysto take the time to come to such a good convention .This is my fifth ; every time I come I get a greaterblessing . I bring the love and greetings of the Pat-erson Class . There is a wonderful spirit manifeste dthere . I was much impressed at the grave of , BrotherRussell . We have had a wonderful servant of th eLord . I can say my happiest moments were the fe wI spent at Bethel home . The Truth is new everymorning and fresh every evening .

Brother Kahn, Richmond, Ind . : I have been in theTruth just this year. I do not know a whole lotabout it, but what I have learned is wonderful . I

greatest joy .

Brother, Zahnow, ' Saginaw, Mich . : I any rejoicinggreatly for this brother. who just testified . It didmy heart so much good to see him taking the righthand of fellowship yesterday . I am greatly rejoicingfor those who are taking the stand today.

Brother Bielecki, (Junior), Detroit, Mich . : I amso glad I just don 't :know how to express myself . Ihave heard the Voice . of God through That Servan twho served here so many years. Pray for me and Iwill pray for you that . we may meet in the greatconvention.

Sister Stocker (Ju'nibr), Detroit, Mich . : I amgrateful to be here and express my thanks for m yshare of these blessing's .''(I am thankful for so man yof the older brethren whose faithfulness helps me t ocarry on, and thankful 'for the opportunity to see tha tplatform where Pastor Russell stood .

Brother Kolliman, Wilmington, Del . : Our programat this convention contains the name of no outstand-ing brother, yet it is larger than any previous con-vention here . It means: the friends follow not man ,but the Lord. I don't think one here excludes fromfellowship any one in the Truth . They are findingtheir balance again, making the truth the line and th eplummet . He that . would be greatest let him showit by being servant of all . Let us mingle with thebrethren, earn their confidence, and find joy in th efellowship of His people and in the service of th eLord. I am willing to give my life for any other"piece" that will go to,make up that Temple.

Four more discourses were included in Sunday'sprogram at the chapel,, and these have been, summar-ized for our report and are given below .

IN THE Greek, the word "harvest" means acrop, either cut or ready to be cut . , Jesus in inter-preting the parable of the wheat and tares said tha tthe harvest or crop of the entire age would be at th eend thereof, which means that not a single one of thesaints would be gathered into the garner before th eend of the age . All would sleep in death throughou tthe age and at the end of the age the first ones to b egathered into the barn would be the sleeping saints ;and the ones who die during the end of the age woul dnot sleep but be changed in a moment at the time o fdeath . That the garner is heaven itself there can b eno question as Jesus so stated .

The thought entertained by some, namely, that th etares represent erroneous teachings is not correct fo rthe reason that Jesus said that the tares are people ,wicked ones, sowed in the field shortly after the tru echildren of the Kingdom were sown in the field atthe beginning of the Gospel Age . The field is the"world" and in this use of the word "world" it comesfrom the Greek meaning "the', civilized world . " Thefield was in existence a long time before the goo dseed was sown in it . The civilized world referred t obegan at the flood . Up to the day of Pentecost, notone of the Seed of Abrahar , other than Jesus, wa sto be found, but on that day the first sowing too kplace . Shortly thereafter the Devil sowed imitatio nor counterfeit Seed of Abraham all through the wheatfield . While the Devil had ,plenty of children in th eworld before Pentecost, he had, no imitation See dof Abraham because there was none to imitate .

When it was discovered by, the servants of th ehouseholder that imitation Christians were all throughthe wheat in the field the natural question was raisedas to the advisability of rooting out these tares . Thehouseholder, however, settled that question for uswhen He stated "let both grow together until th eharvest "--the end of the age . That this parable i sa true picture of the way Christians and the Wickedhave existed together on earth all through the Age i s

self-evident to the student of history ; yea, that sucha condition still exists is evident from the facts as

we see them today . This is proof that the "harvest "has not yet ended .

The "harvest" will not be ended until the cropis in the barn (heaven) . As long as there are anymembers of the Seed of Abraham (heavenly) o nearth, the harvest work is in process . How can one

know outside of Scriptural testimony that the har-vest has not ended? Jesus told the people at th e

end of the. Jewish Age that they should use theireyes—``look, for the field is ripe, already to harvest . "It should be remembered that there are two crops i nthe parable, not only of wheat but also of tares . Aslong as the wicked are in the field that portion of the

harvest work remains to be completed ; that is, thework of ridding the earth of the children of theWicked one. The wickedness of the seed of theDevil is practically mature today . Soon the "fire"of the Battle of Armageddon will consume the chil-dren of the evil one ; then the last one of the Kingdo mof Heaven class will have passed beyond into th eHeavenly reward . What will be the situation? Atthat time will be heard the words "the harvest i sended and we are not saved ." Then will be true fo rthe first time the statement that the harvest is over .In other words, when the harvest is over, there wil lbe no question about it--either we will be in th eheavenly garner or know that we are of those wh omissed being of the Kingdom class .

What, then, is our privilege at this time? Knowin gthat the harvest is not ended we are first of all t o`"hold fast that which thou Nast, that no man tak eTHE crown"—thv place in the Kingdom of heavenclass about which so many of the parables were con-

cerned. Secondly, -knowing that it is possible fo rsome to lose their crowns at this late date, we arereminded of the parable of the eleventh hour workers .Surely now we are in the last clays of the harvest ,therefore now is the time when we hear on ever yhand the words in paraphrase—"we are waiting t o

go in the harvest field, but no one has hired us, it ma y

be too late in the day." What is the answer? "Goye also into the vineyard" and I will give you tha twhich is right . What did these eleventh hour workersreceive in the way of wages? They received jus twhat the workers all through the day received . Thisproves that it is possible for a new one coming intothe light of the truth to make his calling and electio nsure in less than the normal time . Let us, therefore ,give all diligence to "make our calling and ELEC-TION sure." Let us also hold out the opportunity toothers to he of the Heavenly class ; at least, to workin the vineyard zealously and the Chief Reaper wil lgive a due reward .

Brother S . C .

HARVEST

DeGroot, Grand Rapids, Michigan

THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST

Brother E . It. Herrscher, Phoenix, Ariaon a

WE HAVE no apologies to make for the consid-eration of this subject . . It is not only meat in du eseason now, but was meat in due season in Paul' sday and evidently was clearly understood by him an d

the church of his time .

Our text is the statement of Paul to Timothy as

found in 2 Timothy 2 :12 and a companion text to

that of Romans 8 :17-18 . You will note that in bot hthese texts the element of suffering with Christ i s

brought to our attention .

The appreciation - of these sufferings and thei r

purpose is- equivalent to our appreciation of the mys-tery hid - from ages and generations and now mad e

known to the saints .

December 1938 .

It is with considerable concern that we find inour travels the evidence that many who once walke dwith us now, either openly or covertly ; 'deny ourshare in the mystery ; i. e., our share in the sin-offering. Our Heavenly Father is a great economist ,therefore we conclude that these sufferings of Christare for a particular purpose' in connection with Hi sDivine Plan of the Ages. With this in mind, wesearched the Scriptures to get the Divine viewpoin tof these sufferings and therefore wish to call t oyour attention the following examples which dem-onstrate the difference between the sufferings andthe death of Christ .

Abel 's acceptable offering was an animal whichwas first killed (Christ figuratively died asat Jordan) then burned or roasted on the altar, nic-turing the sufferings of Christ for three' and . one-hal fyears .

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Again, in the experiences of Abraham;.' the samelessson is shown, this time demonstrating the suf-fering of the Heavenly Father (Abraham) sacri-ficing His Son Jesus (Isaac) . It is not difficult t opicture the anguish of Abraham during that journe y—how many times he must have gone over th eprospect of killing and offering Isaac, the . one inwhom all his hopes were centered, the one who wa sto be his heir, the one in whom he hoped the prom-ised blessing of the whole earth might be fulfilled .No doubt many times he wished it were• he thatshould die instead of Isaac. Then when Isaac askedabout the sacrifice that was to be offered we can im-agine the anguish this query brought to Abraham' sheart, yet he never faltered, saying, "the Lord willprovide . " He drank that cup of suffering to thehitter end ; so that Paul, referring to the matter ,states "he [Abraham] received Isaac as from th edead ." Ah, yes, he had gone through all the suffer-ing just as intensely as though he had actually killedhis son. Here, then, is the most intimate pictur eof what it cost our Heavenly Father to give His onl ybegotten Son, thus illustrating His supreme love andinterest in the welfare of others at the cost of self-sacrifice. This truly is disinterested (agape) love .

And Jesus possessed the same kind of love a sillustrated in Isaac 's perfect submission to Abraham :"Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is writte nof Me ) to do Thy will 0 God," and. "No mantaketh My life from Me." "I GIVE My life for thelife of the world ."—Heb. 10 :7 ; John 10 :18; 6 : 51 .

Here, then, is demonstrated Divine love—supremeinterest in the welfare of another at the cost of self-sacrifice . Jesus did not HAVE to give. His life orsuffer the just for the unjust . God 's justice couldnot demand this—it must be a willing sacrifice . Norwas the giving of the Logos obligatory: ; upon theHeavenly Father. Adam was justly condemned ,but God 's love going beyond the realm of . justice,GAVE His only begotten Son for an enemy race—as the apostle puts it, "while we were yet sinnersChrist died for us ."

The element of suffering "fiery trial" is illustrate din the . roasting of the passover lamb, also . in theburning of the carcase, the hide, hoofs, .etc ., of the

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atonement day sacrifices . The purpose of this i sstated by the apostle when he says, "Think it no tstrange concerning the fiery trial that is to try you ,as though some strange thing happened unto you :but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are PARTAKERS ofChrist 's sufferings ; that, when His glory shall b erevealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy ."Calling our attention to the type, Paul appeals t othe Christian : "let us go forth unto Him withoutthe camp, bearing IIis reproac h"—the same reproach ,the same suffering that Jesus endured for three an done-half years following His consecration at Jor-dan.—1 Pet . 4 :12 ; Heb. 13 :13 .

The philosophy of all this is expressed in thestatement, "For it became Him, . . . in bringing manysons unto glory, to'make the captain of their salva-tion [the great salvation that we are not to neglect ]perfect through sufferings." And again, "thoughHe were a son, yet learned He obedience by th ethings which He suffered. "—Hcb . 2 :10 ; 5 :8.

But someone will ask, was not Jesus perfect a tthirty years of age; . "holy harmless and separat efrom sinners" ? Yes, we answer, His keeping of th eLaw perfectly attested' this . Holiness is the standardof the law, but the' Christian 's standard goes evenbeyond this—a much higher standard. To illus-trate, the Law required a life for a life ; i. e.,'thelife of • the one who had taken a life ; but the law o fChrist, (the law of love), leads the innocent one togive his life for the guilty, which is something thatjustice could never deinand .

Following this thought, then, the apostle states ,"know ye not, that 'so " znany of us as were baptizedinto Jesus Christ were baptized into HIS DEATH."We do not add anything ,to His death, but have bee nincluded into His death . • We, being many are ONELOAF—we have not added to that loaf. Thus webecome sharers in the sin-offering, sharers in thesufferings "Christ in you, the hope of glory ." "We ,as Isaac was, are the children of the promise ." Therecan be no question as td the apostle 's meaning here ;i . e., that our death has been included in the deathof Christ (Isaac) .

The point is, then, that every one of the member sof the body of Christ must have the same mind"let this mind be in you which was also in Chris tJesus," i . e ., that if we had been in His place and hadbeen actually perfect as . He was at Jordan we wouldhave done exactly the same thing . Thus we see thelogic of the statement "whom He [God] did fore -know, He also did predestinate to be conformed t othe image of His Son," and because we do have thesame mind we are privileged to suffer with Christand fill up that which is left behind of the suffer-ings of Christ, for I-iis body 's sake, which is th eChurch—to complete the body, all of one SACRI-FICIAL mind . Note• that this is the salvation theprophets searched for . • See 1 Peter 1 :10-12 ; alsoMatthew 13 :17. And when the sons of Zebedeecame to Jesus asking' kingdom favors did He say,"Be holy, lead blameless lives " ? No, Indeed! IIeanswered, "are ye . able ,to drink of the cup that I

a man

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shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptis m

that I am baptized with ?"—Matt . 20 :22 .

What is the purpose of this death-baptism? Weanswer, the object is the development of the ne w

creature. It was true of Jesus our Head, and i tmust also be true of us, His body members . From

Jordan to the cross, Ife was perfected as a new

The Dawn

creatures ;bythe things which He su.ffered. The

MAN Jesus laid down the ransom-price, but it is th enew creature Christ Jesus who is to administer th e

benefits of that Ransom. The Church shares Hissufferings and are thus developed as new creature sbecause they have the same mind, the same spirit,

and thus become JOINT ADMINISTRATORS of

the benefits of the ransom under the New Covenant .

"WAITING UPON THE , .LORD"

Brother 0 . Magnuson, Brooklyn, N . Y .

TIME is an important element in God 's plan, aplan which will bring blessings to all His creatures .No one who has been waiting upon the Lord will bedisappointed. Let us take a few examples of thosewho failed to wait for His "due time" and note thetrials and difficulties and losses they sustained i ncomparison with the wonderful blessings that cameto those who did wait .

Abraham waited upon the Lord and as a resultreceived that wonderful promise of blessing all thefamilies of the earth through ; him and his seed . AsAbraham grew very old and had as yet no seed ,through Hagar he brought forth Ishmael . He meantwell, but the Ishmaelites caused much trouble . Infact, it was through the Ishmaelites that Joseph wassold into slavery in Egypt . In this Abraham didnot "wait upon the Lord . "

In the same way the Jews failed to wait for Mose swhen he went up into the Mount to receive the Law .They had agreed that whatever God required of themthey would abide by it, but before Moses came dow nthey were worshipping a golden calf . And how grea twas the trouble that came upon them as a conse-quence !

King Saul lost his kingdom by not waiting a fewhours for Samuel . The Philistines were before Is-rael with a mighty army ; the people were pani cstricken ; Saul was at his wit's end . He was to wai tseven days for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice .The 7th day was drawing to a close and Samuel hadnot come. Saul ordered the burnt offering brought,and he offered it himself—a violation of God 's law .Just as he finished, Samuel came, asking, "Whathest thou done? " Saul explained that the Philistine swere upon him, the people deserting him and h ecouldn ' t wait longer to make supplication to the Lord .Some would say, "His motive was good, why shouldhe he punished ?" Because, "to obey is better thansacrifice . " Saul thought Samuel was overdue and hetook matters into his own bands . Have you heardanyone say that the time is overdue? Yes, some tel lus that the Lord is 60 years overdue . They arespending their time setting dates, figuring time para-lells, etc., instead of engaging in the re-gathering o fthe Lord 's people. The Lord ' s commission was ,

"Preach the Word : be instant in season and out o f

season . " Be thou faithful unto death and I wil l

give thee a crown of LIFE . "

David took a different attitude . He had beenanointed to take the place of Saul as king . , He was

being persecuted by Saul, and had two opportunitiesto destroy him. His men suggested to him that . evi-dently the 'Lord had thus placed Saul in his powe rso he could kill him. But David quoted Scripture-"Touch not mine anointed, and do My prophets noharm . " God *as testing the patience of David, andDavid was loyal to the principles laid down. InGod ' s "due tune ' ' David became king. He was "aman after God's own heart" in that when he recog-nized his error 'he was not slow to repent and makeamends for all that he had done .

Many are the examples given us in the Scripturesof those who waited for the Lord and were blessedas a result of that waiting . God, in His great andglorious plan', has been waiting to be gracious to Hi screatures "He' 'longs to see the earth filled with per-fect human 'beings in harmony with that plan whichHe has marked t out, which will be carried out t oits completion . Therefore, God has been waitin glonger than 'anyone else, but the results will be ever -lasting

Jacob, also, said he was waiting for the salvationof God J-1.e was looking down prophetically to thetime when that wonderful kingdom would be estab-lished , when that seed which was promised to Abra-ham would be found, and the blessings from tha t

seed would go out to all the families of the earth . Al l

the Ancient Worthies likewise, were looking forwar dto the time when God would set up His Kingdom ,

Moses was riven the opportunity to choose between

the throne of Egypt or to throw in his lot with th e

slaves of Israel'. He chose rather to suffer with th e

people of Goat than to be ruler of Egypt .

They were looking forward to the promised Mes -

siah . When `Jesus was horn "all mien were in expecta-tion of Him, but few recognized Him because H ewas only a babe . But that was the beginning of th efulfilment of the promise, because He came for aparticular' purpose—to die—and His death was t o

be the means through which all the families of the

earth were to be blessed. Those who had waited fo rthe fulfillment of that promise were blessed at thattime, as was' Simeon who said, "Now lettest ThouThy servant depart in peace . . . for mine eyes have

seen Thy salvation . "—Luke 2 :25-32 .

In due time our Lord chose His disciples who were

also called upon to wait . They thought that herewas the king that would deliver them from th eRoman yoke` They said, "Wilt Thou at this time

restore again ' the kingdom to Israel ?" He replied .

Dece'm ber . 1938

"It is not for you to know the times or the+seasons ,which the Father hath put in His own power . Butye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit i scome upon you . "

After His resurrection, He revealed Himself tothem assuring them that He was the same bile whohad walked in their midst and had been their teacher.They were told to wait until they would be endowe dwith the power from on high—until the. holy spiri twould come down upon them . It ; was indeed atrial for them to wait for ten days ; but'-;"in duetime" they were rewarded by the pouring-out of th eholy spirit, thus giving them the privilege to be God ' srepresentatives on earth .

Now were are living in the .most wonderful per-iod in the world ' s history, and if the 'whole plan ha dbeen opened before us and we had been -privilege dto choose at what time in ' the world's history w ewould like to live, I think you would say with me ,"I would like to live right now, today ; becai'se it i sin this day of knowledge and enlightenment that w ecan see the masterly unfolding of God '' s, gloriousplan of salvation ."

The prophet Isaiah calls attention, in, our text ,to those that wait upon the Lord . What•• shall they

23,

do? "They shall renew their strength ; they shal l

mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run, an dnot be weary ; and they shall walk, and not faint . "Whit did the nrophet really mean by that? Oneversion gives the thought that they shall rene wtheir strength as the , eagle renews its strength . Howis that? That version says, `They that wait upon theLord gather new strength', they get new wing featherslike the eagle . Thus they haste along without bein gweary, they travel "forward without getting tired . "The Psalmist says ; , "Under His wings shalt thoutrust"—the wings of protection of God's Word (th eOld and New Testaments) . Just as the mother he ncalls to her chicks-when : the hawk is near, warningthem to get under her wings, so the adm o nitions an dpromises of God 's Word furnish us with full pro-tection . As time goes 'on and prnphee ies ar t beingfuFlled . we gather hew' strength and our joy and'faith are increased,• and we are thrilled, with a mount-'ing desire to press along.

My desire for myself and for everyone of us is tha twe. take a fresh hold on our consecration vows, an dpress down upon the 'MARK for the prize of ou rhigh calling. May the Lord help us to be more an dmore like our Master!'

Brother 4. L. Muir, Dunedin, Florida

AS A BASIS for our remarks we use the word sof St . Paul in 2 Timothy 2 :24-26 :"The servant ofthe Lord must not strive ; but be gentle unto allmen, ' apt to teach, patient, in meekness' instructin gthose that oppose themselves ; if God peradventur ewill give them repentance to the acknowledging ofthe truth ; and that they may recover themselves ou tof the snare of the devil, who are taken captive byhim at his will . "

In these words of the Apostle there is Somethingvery significant in the manner in which he empha-sizes two things : first, that correct knowledge of theTruth is necessary as a background fors teachingothers ; and second, that those who wander away fro mthe Truth do so because of either a wrong hear tcondition, or through negligence or carelessness, thu sallowing the adversary to capture them . ; ; .

Let us note carefully that Tolerance is a disposi-tion—part of the Lord 's mind or disposition—an dthat Toleration is the behaviour in which that dis-position finds expression .

Tolerance is composed of two elements : first, posi-tive conviction ; and second, sympathy for those whos eopinions differ from ours .

Intolerance results from a meagerness of the Chris-tian life and is to be definitely avoided. Let us herenote a distinction between the members of the House-hold of Faith and those whom the Lord. has set overthe Household by the holy spirit . We are not per-mitted to analyze the motives of anyone, but we arecertainly instructed by the Scriptures 1 to . considerthe official conduct and teachings of those mho min -

ister to us the Word of God. They are the oneswho can either build us : up in the faith, or give u sthat which would tend 'to distort or weaken our faith :It is such ' as have thus : been misled, or weakened:who need our sympathy- nd greatest helpfulness .

Now in order that we may properly grasp theargument of the Apostle; 'let us consider several stepswe take in the development of our Christian faith :

First : Consecration does not bring with it fulnessof knowledge, in support' of which I quote Colossians1 :9,10, "For this. cause 'we also, since the day weheard it, do not cease, to pray for you, and to desirethat ye might be filled with the knowledge of Hi swill, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding ; thatye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing .being fruitful in every good work, and increasingin the knowledge of God." Notice the stress St.Paul places upon knowledge as a necessary item inprogressing in the way ' of the Lord.

It will thus be seen that knowledge and fait hand fruitfulness go hand in hand, each one beingessential to the others . This being true, it follow sthat on this side the wail there will never be uni-formity either of knowledge nor of faith . but rathe ra constant pressing onward and growth in faith ,grace and knowledge .

In the second place : . our minds are renewed u ~to the extent the Truth Penetrates . The Apostlestates the matter thus in . Philippians 3 :13-16, Mofratrendering— "Brothers, I for one do not considermyself to have appropriated this ; my one thought is ,by forgetting what lies behind me and straining to

24

what lies before me, to press on the goal for th eprize of God 's high calling in Christ Jesus . For allthose of our number who are mature, this must b ethe point of view : God will reveal this to any of yo uwho think differently . Only, we must let our step sbe guided by such truth as we have attained . "

The Apostle did not believe that his attainment i nknowledge and faith were all by his own effort, butthe Lord made it known to him because of his single-ness of purpose in seeking to possess all that Go dhad offered to him in Christ . Out of the depth ofthat experience he speaks to us and urges us to hav ethe same point of view, and . adding that, under suchcircumstances, the Lord will graciously make matter splain to us .

Not only do we find gross errors being held bysome in the Household of Faith, but we also seesome of the more subtle forms of error being intro-duced under the guise of further light . It has beenmy observation that many fall for these things be -cause of being insufficiently acquainted with ou rHeavenly Father ' s purposes, while others fall becaus eof growing weary in well-doing and thus losing th eincentive to press onward .

Another point to be considered is : Deception formsin the mind and God does not protect us therefrom .You remember Paul's word in Galations 2 :11-14 :"But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstoo dhim to the face, because he was to be blamed . Forbefore that certain came from James, he did eat withthe Gentiles : but when they were come, he withdrewand separated himself, fearing' them which were ofthe circumcision. And the-other Jews dissembledlikewise with him : insomuch that Barnabas also wascarried away with their dissimulation . But when Isaw that they walked not uprightly according to thetruth of the Gospel, I said unto Peter before themall, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner ofGentiles, and not as -do the Jews, why compelles tthou the Gentiles to live as the Jews?"

Here is the case of an Apostle, enjoying the fel-lowship of both Jew and Gentile believers, and yetupon the arrival of Judaizing teachers from Jerusa-lem, withdrawing from the Gentiles and confininghimself to the Jewish fellowship . So powerful wa shis example that other brethren, even including

The Dawn

Barnabas, dissembled likewise, and therefore, in th einterests of the Truth and consistency, Paul broughtthe matter plainly to Peter 's attention in the presenceof friends and condemned his dissimulation :

That Peter was deceived there can he no doubt .and God did nothing to prevent the deception . Onthe contrary, the experience became an illustratio nfor Paul and we have the benfit today . Our protec-tion under similar circumstances is to review the re-vealed plan of God, and especially such incidents andillustrations as the Word contains bearing upon thesubject . If we do this, then we can find the mean sof offsetting the particular deception, resulting inincreased faith and ability to resist future temptations .

And finally : The neind must continually be opento receive Truth . In 1 John 3 :22, we read-"What -soever we ask, we receive of Hind, because we kee pHis commandments, and do those things that arepleasing in. His sight ."

As soon as our _ minds become closed to the con-tinuous increase of knowledge, then we begin to fee la propriety interest in the Truth, and gradually cometo believe that we have a special ministry to follow .On the contrary, John says that as we carry out ou rpart of the covenant which we made with the Lord ,then whatever we ask is fulfilled, meaning that th eLord is graciously pleased to answer because of ou rheart desire tee know and to do His will .

Gathering . all these threads of facts together, wecome back to our text . It is useless for the servan tof the Lord to strive about the Truth, for the Truthwill vindicate itself . When we feel that we mus tvindicate the Truth by force then we lose the abilityto be real teachers, and will fail to win over thosewho are wandering away from the faith and therebyopposing themselves .

The only . sure way of awakening our brethren fro mthe error of their ways is by our personal adherenc eto the faith and refusal to countenance wrong teach-ings. By doing this we establish the fact of ou rpositive convictions .

Furthermore a sympathetic heart is necessary i fwe are to be really helpful to those who become en -tangled in the various snares of the Adversary--"tak-en captive by him at his will . "

At the close of Brother Muir's discourse, the finalmeeting of the convention except for the public meet-ing, took, place . This was the general fellowshi pmeeting which has been happily named the LoveFeast . As usual the brethren who had taken part i nthe program were asked to come to the front of thechapel and stood in front of the platform while thecongregation filed past shaking hands and biddin gfarewell and "God bless you . "

In the evening at Carnegie Music Hall, the largestauditorium in North Side Pittsburgh in the centerof the city, about seven hundred gathered and listenedto Brother Zahnow on the topic, "God's Remedy fora World Gone Mad . " Of the audience it was esti-mated about five hundred were strangers, and some o fthese lingered long after the meeting asking question sand desiring to know more about the Bible proph-

ecies brought to their ' attention in the discourse .Seventy-six names were handed in requesting lit-erature, and quite a number came to the Bible Housethe next Sunday evening to hear Brother Zahnowagain on the subject, "is There a Hope Beyond theGrave?" The brethren of the Pittsburgh Ecclesiafelt encouraged with the response to the advertise dmeeting for the public . To quote from a lette rfrom one of the brethren there : "It is very eviden tthat one of the outstanding features of the conventio nin Pittsburgh this year was the unanimity of thoughtand action 'with respect to the Lord's service andmany of the friends have commented on this phase

of our convention . We all felt the same way an dbelieve the Lord blessed our gathering together inmore ways than one . "

Two more items not previously mentioned are o fspecial interest . One was the large number of youn gpeople at the convention. On Sunday the chair-man asked those who were members of Junior BibleStudent classes to rise and about 40 to 50 responded ..It is a great satisfaction to know of the deep interes t'of these younger_ brethren in the Lord's Word an din a life of obedience to it.

The other item was the theme song of the con-vention . "When Jesus is King"—reprinted below an d;sung to the tune of "The Glory Song . " The brethrensang it a number of times during the convention an dit evidently well expressed their joy in anticipatio nof . the Lord ' s long-awaited kingdom now, we . fell as-sured,so near at hand .

1ben 3Ic uo ]i 1Ing

P RAISE to our King who is coming to reign ,Glory to Jesus the Lamb that was slai n

Life and salvation, His empire shall bringJoy to the nations—when Jesus is King .

Chorus

Oh, that will bring, praise to our Kin gPraise to our King! Praise to our King !Sing the glad song who to Jesus belongGlory to Jesus, to Jesus our King. .

All shall come back who have lived long ago,Love like a banner shall over them flow ;Sin shall be conquered as light shines within ,0 hail happy day—when Jesus is King .

All men shall dwell in His marvellous light ,Races long severed His love shall unite ,Justice and truth from His sceptre shall spring,Wrong will be ended—when Jesus is King .

Men shall learn right; in His kingdom of Peace,Freedom shall flourish and wisdom increase .Foe shall be friend when His triumph we sing,Sword shall be sickle-when Jesus is King .

THE BIRTH OF THE WORLD'S REDEEME R(Continued from page 5 )

people, its influence . has been for good: ; .. If onlypeople knew the real truth of the matter-that Jesu sstood in the sinner 's place, that as the' apostle says ,"He became a man for the suffering of death," giv-

ing a perfect human life for a perfect human lif eforfeited, so that, in due time, the penalty for Adami csirs• may be cancelled, and, as Jesus stated . . the greatfact, "The hour is coming, in the which all• that are

in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall comeforth ." Oh! what• a light it would throw on the birt hof Jesus ; for it would mean the, birth of HOPE forall men. But, thank God, the real hope is shining

out whether people see it and know .. of it, or not .In due time, they ' ll all know it . For "when the Sonof man shall come in His glory, and all the holyangels with Him, then shall He sit on the 'throne ofHis glory . " (Matt . 25 :31 .) And then He will' instructthe people in the ways of righteousness, and dividethem by the power of the truth during the thousandyears of His reign, setting the sheep on His right hand

and the goats on His left, and finally rewarding witheternal life, those worthy of such a boon.

Tell me about the Master ,

Tell me about the glo w

That came to the Bethlehem shepherds

One night so long ago ,

And the song that rang while th eThat we seem - to hear again :

"Glory to God in the highest ,And peace, good will to men . "Tell me about the mother ,Who laid the Christ child's headIn a lowly manger-cradle ,With the crude straw for His bed :And I ' ll take my journey backward,Over the years ' long line ;By these all I'll kneel ,And my heart shall feel ,The flame of a love divine .

angels sang,

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International Stmdcty School Lessons

CHRIST' S

NEWCOMMANDMEN T

Dec . 18—Matt . 5 :43-48 ; 22 :34-40 ;John 13 :34, 35 ; 15 :12-1 4

(Luke 10 :25-37 and Gal. 5 :13, 14also included in lesson, but not cite d

below. )

Matt . 5 :43 Ye have heard that ithath been said, Thou shalt love thy

neighbor, and hate thine enemy.

44 But I say unto you, Love yourenemies, bless them that curse you,do good to them that hate you, andpray for them which despitefully us eyou, and persecute you ;

45 That ye may be the children ofyour Father which is in heaven : forHe maketh His sun to rise on the evi land on the good, and sendeth rai non the just and on the unjust.

46 For if ye love them which loveyou, what reward have ye? do no teven the publicans the same ?

47 And if ye salute your brethrenonly, what do ye more than others ?do not even the publicans so ?

48 Be ye therefore perfect, even asyour Father which is in heaven i sperfect.

Matt . 22 :34 But when the Phari-sees had heard that He put the Sad-duces to silence, they were gatheredtogether.

35 Then one of them, which was alawyer, asked Him a question, tempt-ing Him, and saying,

36 Master, which is the great com-mandment in the law ?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shaltlove the Lord thy God with all thyheart, and with all thy soul, and withall thy mind .

38 This is the first and great com-mandment .

39 And the second is like unto it,Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy-self .

40 On these two commandmentshang all the law and the prophets .

John 13 :34 A new commandment Igive unto you, That ye love one an -other ; as I have loved you, that yealso love one another .

35 By this shall all men know thatye are My disciples, if ye have lov eone to another .

John 15 :12 This is My command-ment, That ye love one another, asI have loved you.

13 Greater love hath no man thanthis, that a man lay down his lifefor his friends.

14 Ye are my friends, if ye d owhatever I command you .

GOLDEN TEXT : A new command-ment I give unto you, That ye love

one another ; as I have loved you ,that ye also love one another.—

John 13 :34 .

HE law that 'Jesus gave un-to His disciples is the great

' law of life. That is, in al l

matters it should govern

life. If it were put into full oper-ation for even a year, it would com-pletely reform society. The Jewishlaw was commonly regarded as a

law of justice, but under the inter-pretation of Jesus it becomes love .

To love one's friend and hate one' senemy was the general practice of

the people and was well understood .It was indeed the natural thing todo, and in the doing of it one wasfollowing the path of least resist-ance . Even wicked men have a cer-tain kind of love for their friends .

There is therefore no special , merit

in this. But Jesus has something

that transcends it, something of

Godlike quality . "I say unto you ,

Love your enemies . " What a com-mand ! And what the keeping of itwould mean to a sin-sick world !

On one occasion Jesus told the

story of the man who fell among

thieves while on a journey from

Jerusalem to Jericho. This poor

fellow was robbed of all his goods ,

beaten and left to die on the road-

side. A priest and a levite both

saw him, but continued on thei r

way and passed him by . Possiblythey gave him a pitying glance, butthat was all . Then came a Samar-itan, who was not supposed to beon any kind of friendly terms with

the Jews. Naturally, these twowere enemies. But this Samaritan

had love in his heart. He convey sthe Jew to shelter, has his wound s

dressed, gives the landlord of theinn a sum of money corresponding

to about ten dollars in present cur-rency, and thus he did all that was

possible for him to do. That waslove in action, a most beautifulthing .

The law of love is especiallybinding on the disciples of Jesus .The world has not, as yet, come toknow the meaning of divine love ,because the world does not kno wGod . In another article appearingin The Dawn, divine love is com-pared to the law of cohesion whic hhinds the particles of matter to-gether, for it binds together thevarious members of the body ofChrist . So great is the value placedon love that a reward is promise dto him who gives a disciple a cu pof cold water only in the name o fa disciple .—Matt . 10 :42 .

It is written of Jesus that "hav-ing loved His own which were i nthe world, He loved them unto theend." (John 13 :1 .) He did not for-sake them, although there came atime when all forsook Him. Hislove never faltered . He saw inthem the pure gold despite thei rweaknesses and defects . For, ver-ilv, " love shall cover the multitudeof sins ." (1 Pet. 4 :8.) Instead ofparading them, it seeks to concealthem. Therefore, it has been saidthat where love is thin faults arethick, and vice versa.

Verily, we are in the school o fexperience chiefly for the purpos eof developing a Christ-like char-acter of love, and if we succeed i ndoing this, some day ere long we'l lgraduate, receive our diplomas an dbe considered qualified to instructthe world in the ways of love for athousand years .

QUESTIONS :

W hat are the elements of divin elove ?

How did Jesus illustrate love ?

Quote some Scripture texts whichtell of the power of love

How does God's plan bring outthe quality of love ?

How can we grow in the strengthof love?

December 1938

GOD'S GREAT LOVE

Dec. 25-Matt . 2:1-1 21 Now when Jesus was born in

Bethlehem of Judea in the days o fHerod the king, behold, there camewise men from the east to Jerusa-lem ,

2 Saying, Where is He that i sborn King of the Jews? for we haveseen His star in the east, and arecome to worship Him .

3 When Herod the king had hear dthese things, he was troubled, an dall Jerusalem with him.

4 And when he had gathered allthe chief priests and scribes of thepeople together, he demanded ofthem where Christ would be born .

5 And they said unto him, InBethlehem of Judea, for thus it iswritten by the prophet,

6 And thou Bethlehem in the lan dof Juda, are not the least among th eprinces of Juda : for out of thee shallcone a Governor, that shall rule mypeople Israel .

7 Then Herod, when he had privilycalled the wise men, inquired of the mdiligently what time the star appear-ed.

8 And he sent them to Bethlehem ,and said, Go and search diligentl yfor the young child ; and when yehave found Him, bring me wordagain, that 1 may come and worshi pHim also .

9 When they had heard the king;they departed ; and, lo, the star ,which they saw in the east, went be-fore them, till it came and stoo dover where the young child was .

10 When they saw the star, theyrejoiced with exceeding great joy.

11 And when they were come int othe house, they saw the young chil dwith Mary His mother, and felldown, and worshipped' Him : andwhen they had opened their treas-ures, they presented Him with gifts ;gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

12 And being warned of God in adream that they should not return toHerod, they departed into their ow ncountry another way .

GOLDEN TEXT : God so loved theworld, that He gave his only be-gotten Son, that whosoever be-lieveth in Him should notperish, but have everlasting

life .—John 3 :16 .

HE story of the Magi is onethat contains some inter -esting features. Althoughsome think these men were

believers in astrology the Bibleavers they were "wise men from th eeast" and some authorities asser tthat they were "deeply versed i nscience. and philosophy . " (OxfordCyclopedic Concordance .) Of onething we can be sure, they wereevidently sincere at heart . Theywent far and sacrificed much i norder to find Christ . It would see mthat they were quite well versedin the lore of the Jewish prophets ,and knew something of the divin etimes and seasons, especially thosein connection with the expectedbirth of the Saviour . To be sure ,a star led them to Jerusalem, andwhile we do not know why this oc-curred, it would appear that even

the physical heavens were coordin-ated thus to show these wise men

from the east the way to the Chris tchild. However, we do know tha t

God interposed through a dream t owarn these wise men not to disclose

the child's whereabouts to Herod ;and, accordingly, they obeyed the

heavenly vision and returned totheir own country by another route

from the one they had taken to

reach Jerusalem . We must remem-

ber, too, that this was a transitionalperiod, and God still used vision s

and dreams to instruct and warn.

The gifts presented by the Mag iwere valuable and significant : Thegold was an appropriate gift for aking; the frankincense the rightkind of present for a sacrificing

priest ; and the myrrh symbolizeddeath. Thus the three-fold signi-ficance of these gifts was that Jesu swas thus hailed as King, Priest, an dthe Lamb of God that was to dieon Calvary. Also these threethings would seem to picture thesacrifices of God's people through-out the Gospel age—the gold of

heart's devotion and love ; frankin-cense that means the giving up ofearthly, interests for Kingdom in-terests, and myrrh that symbolize sthe great truth that "if we be deadwith Him, we shall also live withHim,"

27

In Luke's account of the birth o fJesus he tells a beautiful story ofcertain shepherds out in the fieldsguarding their flocks by night .These men beheld a,.supernatura llight, too, and the angel of th eLord appeared to them, telling the mnot to be afraid because he wassimply announcing the nativity o fChrist. He spoke of "good tidings

of great joy, which shall be to al lpeople ." Then a multitude of th e

heavenly host sang the song o f

"Glory to God in the highest, andon earth peace, good will towardmen . " Then the shepherds went toBethlehem and found the infantSaviour even as the angel had sai dthey would, and they worshippedHim .

All well informed Bible scholar sknow that, in fulfilment of Daniel' sprophecy, Christ could not havebeen horn on the 25th . day of De-cember, but must have been bornin the' fall of the year. However,we are not told the exact date ofHis birth, and surely we shoul dfind no objection to having ou rthoughts directed to this wonderfulevent no matter what time of th eyear the so-called Christian worldelects to celebrate it .

To be sure, God will have won-derful gifts for the world in theMillennial age, but they will not besuspended upon a literal pine tree .Their gifts of everlasting peace an djoy will come to them—if willing ,and obedient to all the rich provis-ions then in force—through thesymbolical tree of life .

QUESTIONS ;

Tell the story of the Magi. Whatis the symbolic significance of theirgifts'?

Tell about the shepherds. Explainthe "Good tidings of great joy . "

Why are we certain that Chris twas not born on December 25. Citesome Scriptural proof to this effect .

What gifts will God have for th eworld in the Millennial age??

What gifts have the members o fthe church already received'? Andwhat gifts has God in reservation forthem in the future?

John 1 :40 One of the two whic hheard John speak, and followed Him ,was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

41 He first findeth his own brotherSimon, and saith unto him, We hav efound the Messaias, which is, beinginterpreted, the Christ.

42 And he brought him to Jesus .And when Jesus beheld him, He said ,Thou art Simon the son of Jona : thoushalt be called Cephas, which is, b yinterpretation, A stone .

Luke 5 :1 And it came to pass ,that, as the people pressed upon aimto hear the word of God, he stood bythe lake of Gennesaret,

2 And saw two ships standing bythe lake : but the fishermen were gon eout of them, and were washing theirpets .

3 And He entered into one of theships, which was Simon's, and pray-ed that he would thrust out a littl efrom the land. And He sat dow nand taught the people out of th eship.

4 Now when He had left speaking,He said unto Simon, Launch out int othe deep, and let down your nets fora draught .

5 And Simon answering said unt oHim, Master, we have toiled all th enight and have taken nothing : never-theless at Thy word I will let dow nthe net .

6 And when they had this done ,they inclosed a great multitude o ffishes : and their net brake.

7 And they beckoned unto thei rpartners, which were in the othership, that they should come and helpthem. And they came, and 'fille dboth the ships, so that they began t osink .

8 When Simon Peter saw it, hefell down at Jesus' knees, saying,Depart from me, for I am a sinfulman, 0 Lord.

9 For he was astonished, and allthat were with him, at the draugh tof the fishes which they had taken :

10 And so was also James, an dJohn, the sons of Zebedee, whic hwere partners with Simon. AndJesus said unto Simon, Fear not ;from henceforth thou shalt catc hthen .

11 And when . they had broughttheir ships to land, they forsook,all, and followed Him .

GOLDEN TEXT : Come ye after Me,and I will make you to become

fishers of men .—Mark 1 :17 .

ESUS was on the shore ofthe Sea of Galilee, and th epublic were pressing uponHim to hear more of the

wonderful words which He waswont to speak to them . Then it wa sthat He stepped into one of th efishing boats, and requested Peter ,its owner, to push the boat out fromthe shore, from which place o fvantage He could the more easil yaddress the multitude . Peter andAndrew were managing one of theboats, and James and John another .The fishermen had been out al lnight, and were now mending thei rnets in preparation for another ef-fort to take place the followin gnight. While thus employed, nodoubt they were giving eager at-tention to what our Lord was say-ing .

When Jesus had finished His dis-course, He suggested that Pete rlaunch out into deeper water and letdown the net again. This wassurely a test of faith on Peter 'spart, for after trying for fish al lnight, it would surely seem useles sto make a further attempt. But tothe unbounded astonishment of thedisciples, the fish were right therewaiting to be caught . Soon thenet was filled, and began to break .The other boat came and shared thecatch, and both boats were filled .There was no question in the mindof Peter that this was a miracle.He fell down before Jesus and said ,"Depart from me, for I am a sin-ful man 0 Lord . " Then the Mas-ter told him that henceforth he wasto become a fisher of men.

Speaking of fishing on the Se aof Galilee, a certain writer said :"The Sea of Galilee was alwaysfamed for the number and varietyof its fish . There are more thanfifty kinds. The thickness of theshoals of fish in the Lake of Gen-nesaret is almost incredible to anyone who had not witnessed them .They often cover an area of ove ran acre ; and when the fish moveforward slowly in a mass, and 'ar erising out of the water, they are

packed so close together that itap-

The . Dawn

pears as though a heavy rainwere beating upon the surface ofthe water ."

The incident recorded in our les-son marked a change in the lives o fthese fishermen . Henceforth theywere to fish for men, and soon the yentered whole-heartedly into thi sgreater calling which had come t othem. They did not need to catchthe shiny spoil from . Galilee's Lak eany more, for their heavenly Fathe rwas quite able to take care of thei rneeds, and in pursuing their , newvocation they found that they didnot lack for any necessary thing .All through the Gospel Age thi sfishing has taken place, for the Lordhas been gathering certain one sinto His Kingdom class. Then atthe end of,the age comes a time o fspecial separation, when, as Jesu ssaid in a parable, the net is drawnto shore and the good 'fish takenout and put into baskets, and theothers are discarded as not beingfit for the Master 's use.

Every true disciple of Jesus to -day is cooperating with Him in do -ing His work in this closing tim eof the age. With the end almost insight, we know that the special ser-vice of the Gospel dispensation wil lsoon be a thing of the past . Mayeach one of us be found amon gthose who have not hidden awaytheir talents, but of those who haveutilized time, money and all otherpossessions in witnessing for thedivine kingdom, and in thus show-ing forth the praises of the Lord,so that we may finally hear the gladand blessed, "Well done . "

QUESTIONS :

Tell the story of the miraculousdraught of fishes .

What has been the nature of theGospel fishing during the presentage'!

What qualities should a good . fish-erman possess ?

What change takes place at th eend of the age?!

What will Millennial Age fishin g

he like°!

2&

PETER CALLED TO SERVE

Jan, 1—John 1 :40-42 ; Luke 5 :1-11

HE great event to which membership in His body, thethe Jewish people had look- church.ed forward for hundreds o fyears was the ' coming of

their Messiah ; yet when He actual-ly came, they did not recognizeHim. Some thought He was Johnthe Baptist, and others believed H ewas one of the prophets risen fromthe dead. They could accept Hi mfor almost anything but what Hereally was. It was for SimonPeter to give the greatest of alltestimonies concerning the Master ,saying as he did, "Thou art theChrist, the Son of the living God ."Then Jesus told him that he hadreceived this enlightenment no tfrom men, but from Source divine ,even from God Himself .

13 When Jesus came into thecoasts of Caesarea Philippi, He ask-ed His disciples, saying, Whom domen say that I the Son of man am ?

14 And they said, Some say thatThou art John the Baptist : some ,Elias ; and others, Jeremias, or on eof the prophets .

15 And He saith unto them, Bu twhom say ye that I am ?

16 And Simon Peter answered an dsaid, Thou art the Christ, the Son o fthe living God .

17 And Jesus answered and sai dunto him, Blessed art thou SimonBar-jona : for flesh and blood hathnot revealed it unto thee, but MyFather, which is in heaven.

18 And I say also unto thee, Thatthou art Peter, and upon this rock Iwill build My church ; and the gate sof hell shall not prevail against it.

19 And I will give unto thee th ekeys of the kingdom of heaven : andwhatsoever thou shalt bind on eart hshall be bound in heaven : and what-soever thou shalt loose on eart hshall be loosed in heaven .

20 Then charged He His disciple sthat they should tell no man thatHe was Jesus the Christ. .

21 From that time forth began Je-sus to shew unto His diciples howthat He must go unto Jerusalem, andsuffer many things of the elders andchief prieats and scribes, and bekilled, and be raised again the thirdday. .

22 Then Peter took Him, and be-gan to rebuke Him, saying, be it fa rfrom Thee, Lord : this shall not beunto Thee .

The keys that Jesus gave to Pe-ter were the privilege of openingthe door of opportunity to certai npersons to become members of th ekingdom class. This great favorwas first granted to the Jews atPentecost, at which time that spec

-

ial door was opened. Then, threeand a half years later, it was open -ed . to the Gentiles, when Corneliuswas converted . On the first occa-sion Peter preached a sermon, andthree thousand persons were added

to the church, and on the second o c-casion Peter took the Gospel mes-

sage to Cornelius. Thus, it is evi-dent :that he used both of the key sthat the Lord had entrusted 'to him .

And upon this mighty rock It was hard for the disciples tofoundation truth our Lord was to understand why Jesus should suf-build His church, and the gates of fer and die . In fact they could no thell (death) were not to prevail fully comprehend it till their mindsagainst it . There are those who became illuminated by the holy spir-suppose that Jesus alluded to Si- it at Pentecost . Thus Peter triedmon Peter as the foundation of the to dissuade Jesus from a course ofchurch, but this could not possibly suffering, and the Master adminis-be, for the Apostle tells us that, tered a rebuke . The disciples, as"Other foundation can no ' man lay . well as the Jewish people, seemedthan that is laid, which is to have completely missed theJesus Christ. Now if any man prophecies relating to the persecu-build upon this foundation gold, tion of our Lord, while at the sam esilver, precious stones . . : : . every time accepting those propheciesman's work shall be made mani- pointing to His kingship and Hisfest. "—1 Cor. 3 : 11, 12, 13. . great glory. So, then, it is littl e

wonder that the minds of the Mas-ter's ' followers were confused andmystified because of the trend ofcircumstances that brought Jesus tothe cross .

"Whosoever will save his lifeshall lose it ; and whosoever wil llose his life for My sake shall findit . " And that is as true today aswhen it was first spoken.

Throughout the Gospel age ther e

have been some who have built in

the proper manner upon the right

foundation. Jesus Himself illus-

trated this matter by the parable ofa man who built his house on a rockand another who built his on thesand. In the first case, when th estorm arose, and the winds increas -ed to violence, and the waters bea tupon the house, the structure stood ,for it was founded upon a rock. Inthe second case the building was Why could not the Jews reeog-

washed away, for it had been built nine Christ when He came ?

upon the sand. Jesus said, "ram What was the foundation uponthe way, the truth, and the life . No which Jesus was to build IIis church d̀man cometh unto the Father but Why could not hell (death) prevail

QUESTIONS :

23 But He turned, and said untoPeter, . Get thee behind Me, Satan :thou art an offence unto Me : forthou savorest not the things that beof God, but those that be of men .

24 Then said Jesus unto His dis -ciples,If any man will come afterMe, let him deny himself, and tak eup his cross, and follow Me .

25 For whosoever will save hislife shall lose it : and whosoeve rwill lose his life for My sake shal lfind it .

GOLDEN TEXT : Thou art theChrist, the Son of the liv-

ing God.-Mat. 16 :16 .

by Me . " When we accept Him, we against it ?

accept the truth ; and when we ac- Explain the difference betweencept the real truth, we accept Him . building upon the true rock and upo nThe Apostle Paul calls Him the false foundations .

great High Priest of our profession . . -what were the keys that Jesus :By Him alone we have access to gave to Peter? What doors did h ethe Father and to the privileges of . open %

December 1938

PETER COMMENDE DAND REBUKE D

Jan. 8-Matt. 16 :13-25

THE YEAR THAT IS- ENDING

WHILE our present calendar arrangement whichmakes December the last month of the year is a narbitrary division of time, instituted by man, never-theless it affords an opportunity for the Lord's peo-ple to take stock, spiritually, of the manner in whic hthe Heavenly Father has blessed them during th eyear that is past, and in the light of those blessing sto renew their determination to continue pressin g

.forward in the narrow way throughout the yearsthat are to come . Very appropriate indeed in thi sconnection is the text and comment in the DailyManua for December 30. We quote :

"Thou crownest the yea r with Thy goodness . "—Psa. 65 :11 .

"As we review the leadings of divine providenc eduring the year that is past, let God's goodness an dmercy stimulate our faith and confidence in Him a srespects the New incoming Year. A proper retro-spect on the part of a proper child of God will enabl ehim not only to render thanks for the past, but t olook up and lift up his head, realizing that our de-liverance is nearer than when we first believed ; andthat He that began a good work in us is both able andwilling to complete it, if we will but continue t osubmit our wills, our lives, our all, to His wisdomand loving care."—Z. '00 365 .

How wonderfully up-to-date is the suggestion byBrother Russell that we look up and lift up ou rheads, knowing that our deliverance is near ! Thi slanguage is that of Jesus, and is in the nature of a nadmonition to those who would he privileged to se ethe signs of Ilis second presence. "When thesethings begin to come to pass," said Jesus, "then loo k

+.p, and lift up your heads . " (Luke 21 :2g.) Surelyit has been the privilege of the watchers in Zion t osee these things during the past year in greate rreality than ever before. From this standpoint aloneit has been a remarkable year; a year that should havedone much to strengthen our faith in the veritie sof the present truth . To those who are able to seethe significance of passing events in the world, Godhas been brought nearer, and made dearer, thanever before. One brother has said that the evi-dences of Christ 's presence and the nearness of th eKingdom are now so real that when telling othersabout them it makes him feel . as though he were al -most face to face with God .

In view of the present conditions in the world ,with what great force the words of the apostle comehome to us now—"Seeing then that all these thing sshall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye

to be in all holy conversation and godliness ." (2 Pet .3 :11 .) Surely we should look well to our standin gin the Lord, and to the conditions of faithfulnes supon which a continued standing in Him is assured .It is a time of shaking, and only those things whichare wholly in line with the divine will are to be permitted to stand. We have the assurance that "Go dis in the midst of her ; [and] she shall not be moved . "(Psa. 46 :5.) But, the point for us to make sure of .is that we are fulfilling the conditions that mak eus a part of "her"- the Zion class—that shal lnot be moved .

The Zion class that will not be moved from a posi-tion of favor with the Lord, and who will be helped ,or delivered and united with the Lord in the ne wKingdom now so near, are identified by the Psalm-ist as those who are dwelling in the "holy of thetabernacles of the Most High . " (Psa. 46 :4 .) Briefly ,this is a reference to that condition of full consecra-tion that is typified by the first compartment of th etabernacle—the "secret place of the Most High ."—Psa. 91 :1 .

Dwelling in this secret place, we are enlightene dby the light of the golden candlestick . This is thelight of the divine Word as it is held forth by th echurch . And we are also privileged to feed upo nthe shew bread, which is thei food of the divine Word--"every word that proceedeth out of the mouth ofGod." (Matt. 4 :4.) Upon this we live, and upon thi swe grow "strong in the Lord, and in the power ofHis might . " (Eph . 6 :10 .) And if our consecration i scomplete and unreserved, we will, in the light o fthe golden candlestick; and in the strength of theshewbread, proceed to the golden altar and ther eoffer ourselves in sacrifice to the Lord, in the as-surance that even though imperfect in the flesh, ou rsacrifice will be, through Christ, "holy and accept -able" to Iiim— a sweet incense unto the Lord .

This makes true consecration something that i sall-comprehensive in our lives . It is something tha timplies receiving and also giving. We receive thelight of truth from God, through His Word, bythe ministry of His people . Then it is our privil-ege, by the aid of the light and the food, to go for -ward in sacrifice, in giving—giving all that we ar eand have in the service of the Lord, even as Jesusdid. It is such a spirit of full consecration to th eLord that assures us continued habitation in th esecret place of the Most High : and, it is the same

full consecration that will assure us an entrance int othe most holy, even heaven itself, when our sacri-ficing at the golden altar shall have resulted in thefull consuming• of our all in the joyful service of

December 193 8

our God. May God grant that the development ofworld events, and the significance of those events ,will help us all to consider more seriously our fait hrelationship to the incoming new Kingdom, an dtherefore to bind our sacrifice more tightly to th ealtar that it may be wholly consumed in God's duetime and way .

Not only has the year nineteen hundred and thirty-eight been a momentous one in connection with th eprogress of the Lord 's day of vengeance .upon theworld, but it has also been one of marked progres sand rich experiences among the brethren . Therehas been a renewal of faith and hope and zeal on thepart of many, and an increase of love and devotio nin the hearts of all those who are sincerely pressin gdown upon the mark for the prize of the high callin gof God in Christ Jesus. The closing of this year find smany of our brethren rejoicing in the truth and infellowship with others of like precious faith, who ayear ago were truly "mourners in Zion ." This i ssomething in which we all can and do .rejoice . Itis one of the blessings in which we are all able toparticipate, because in one way or another we al lhave the privilege of helping to give "beauty fo rashes" to those who are so much in need of our helpat the present time .

Tcglay, new ecclesias are rejoicing in the Lordwhere a year ago no ecclesias existed. Not onlyhave many been reached and helped who formerly re-joiced in the truth, but new ones also have receive dthe light of the truth during the year past . Indeed,there are not a few who, a year ago, knew nothingof the divine plan, yet today are rejoicing with u sin this glorious light of the gospel of Christ . Theseare all matters for which we can be truly thankful .Thankful first of all that others are being blessed .and thankful also that in some small way we have ha dthe opportunity of helping to . bring the blessing tothem .

All of our thanksgiving should be to the Lord, fo rafter all is He not the fountain-source of all our bless-ings ? Even the privilege of helping others is ablessing from Him . While we may in the mornin g"sow the seed, and in the evening withhold not ou rhands, yet, unless He gives the increase, the blessing

will not reach others . (Psa . 11 :6 .) We are sure to

get a blessing ourselves from our efforts to hel p

others, because the definite promise is that he wh o

waters shall himself also be watered ; but the resul t

of the watering is in the Lord's hand . If our con-secration is complete, we will delight in the privil-ege of continuing to sow and to water, and will b e

quite happy to wait for God to give the increase .

But, in His kindness the Heavenly Father doe spermit us from time to time to see some little evi-dence of how He blesses the efforts of His peopl eon behalf of the one here and there who respond sto the message. Just as many hands, from the tillerof the soil to the delivery man who brings a loaf ofbread into the home, contribute in the providing o fthat food, so with the bread of life, while individualsor classes here or there may be used to deliver th ebread, so to speak, it is because the Lord's peopl eas a whole have cooperated with the Lord and with

3 1

each other, that the blessing ultimately reaches thos ewho have the hearing ear . For this reason, the en-couraging experiences of the brethren in one class ,or in one part of the world, are equally encouragingto the Lord's people everywhere, because all have ha da share, directly or indirectly, in the one great proj-ect of holding forth the Word of life .

From a wide area we hear the good news of thosewho have responded to the Gospel message of theKingdom and who are now rejoicing in that sam eblessed hope that has cheered our hearts throughoutthe years. A large number of conventions, loca land general, have been held during the year, an dreports indicate that at many of these, immersionservices have been .held . This alone indicates thateven though individual efforts of the brethren t ospread the truth have apparently not always resulte din an increase of new, interest, yet as a whole Go dhas blessed the sacrifices of His people . One of thevery encouraging letters recently received is fromNewfoundland. We quote in part :

"We are greatly encouraged with the way the Lor dis reviving His work here . The old friends are takin gnew interest and new ones are coming into the truth .We realized that we were greatly blessed when th eway opened up to broadcast the message over th eradio. The manager of the broadcasting station hasfully accepted the truth and has symbolized his con-secration . . . . The public, also, is taking more interest . "

A newly interested person in a small community i nthe state of Tennessee, writing concerning a proposed "pilgrim visit, says :

"We would be glad to have you [Brother Herrseher ]come with a message of truth which is almost unknown .in this community. Have only had one meeting here ,which was by Brother Procter . It created much in-terest . We are located in a rural community abou tseven miles from Leona station. We have a four-room school building, and f have permission to use on eof the rooms for adult educational work (WPA), andI am privileged To use this room for any kind of lec-tures that are free to the people ;-but have the us eof it only at nights, so the meetings must be planne dfor the evening. But reallly this is the best .time toget the people out during cotton picking time . I canannounce it easily by posting a public notice at th ecommunity store, and announcing it in the other even-ing meetings .

"I have been interested in the Gospel of the Kingdo mfor several years, in fact, from Bible reading sincechildhood I had noticed things which none of th e`church members' could explain . Hence, when I re-ceived a copy of the Divine Plan of the Ages sent ou tby Brother Stanford I felt that it was in answer t oprayer for understanding . I do not feel competent t oteach these people the truth ; but we discuss it asbest we can. And I'm so desirous of learning more,and for the people to know . "

From the Gosport (England) Ecclesia comes th efollowing encouraging message :

"Dear Brethren : We are writing to tell you of theencouraging results we have had from the distributio n

of the Kingdom Cards . . . .During the last few years

we have begun to cooperate with the Bible Student sCommittee in this country, and this has brought u sin contact with many others of the scattered sheen ,but it was not until this summer that we have mad eany general distribution of the Kingdom Cards .

"The result from the distribution of the first 2,00 0cards was 16 enquiries ; several having written twice .Ten of these are now reading, or have finished rea ding, Volume One, of the Scripture Studies . Severalhave expressed a desire to come to the Sunday meet-ing, and we have every hope of their coming along inthe near future. Three did attend a lecture here re-cently. "

And from Seattle, Washington, more than 6,000miles from-Gosport, conies the following brief, bu tvery encouraging letter :

"Gentlemen : A minister gave me your little book-let, `God and Reason .' On its cover page you offer yourmagazine free for three months. I should like verymuch to receive it, Should it prove as interesting a sthe booklet, I shall want it regularly . Very trulyyours . "

So we might go on quoting from letters and tellin gof interesting experiences the brethren are having invarious parts of the world as they endeavor faithfully ,in obedience to Jesus' command, to let their light shineout as from a city set on a hill where it cannot behid. Never has the time been more opportune forbearing witness to the truth than now . The experi-ences through which the world has passed during th epast year have struck deep into the hearts of many,

causing them to indeed wonder what the world i scoming , to. The divine plan of the ages holds theonly statisfactory answer ; and with the Kingdomhope set forth in that plan it is our privilege to "com-fort all who mourn" because of the distressing cir-cumstances of the day of vengeance .

Sometimes the question is asked, What can we doto help our brethren ? The answer is, first of all ,pray, and then let us do all we can to hold high th e

banner of truth where it can be seen. The preaching

of the truth is not limited to any one certain way.Public meetings are good where such are possible .The distribution of tracts, or Kingdom Cards, o rboth, is also another way, The important thing i sto keep the spirit of. helpfulness in our hearts . Ifwe do, and the words of the Lo•d are like a burnin gfire shut up in our hones, we will find a way of giv-ing it out, even if it is only in e very limited man-ner . God is able to find a way for the willing hand sto serve ; and if He doesn ' t, and bids us for a littlewhile to stand and wait, then we can continue i : opray for the divine blessing upon the ministry o fothers . This , is a privilege in which all can share .

So, then, let us rejoice in the blessings the Lor dhas poured out for us during nineteen hundred an dthirty-eight, and (luring all the years that are passed :and let us look forward in hope to the blessings o fnineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and of eternity .Yes, let us give thanks for His abundant mercy, an dlook to Him for help in every time of need .

COMING CONVENTIONS

BALTIMORE, MD ., 'December 11 . The Baltimor ejoin with them in this one-day convention to be hel dat 4 W. Eager St . For more details write the clas ssecretary : Mr. J . H . L. Trautfelter, 2408 W. LafayetteAve., Baltimore, Md .

BOSTON, MASS ., Dec . 18 . The Boston class has ar -ranged a one-day convention on this date . Friends fa rand near are cordially invited to attend . For furtherdetails write the secretary, Miss L . Thain, 64 Thursto nSt., Somerville, Mass.

CHICAGO, ILL ., Dec . 31, Jan. 1, 2 . "Come all y esons of truth, to Chicago for a three-day conventio nto take place during the last day of this year, and th efirst two days of 1939 . And what better way coul dthere be to begin the New Year than by a convoca-tion of those who love the Lord and who desire tocome together to a banquet where the table is sprea dby the Lord Himself ?

"There will be discourses by Brothers Obenland, Sund-bom, Muir, DeGroot, Wilson, Meggison and A . Newell .There will be a message for the public to be delivere dby Brother Wilson. Luncheon will be served in th eauditorium each day . There will be a watch-nigh tgathering, song services and testimony meetings . Thisconvention will serve as a rally call to God's neonl eto find their joy in the divine love and to offer to th eLord the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and awhole-hearted service at this ending time of the age . "For details write, Mr . I . C . Foss, 5944 N. Knox Ave . ,Chicago, Ill .

VANCOUVER, B. C., Jan., 1 2 . A the friends wereunable to secure the ball for Saturady evening', th econvention will begin Sunday morning instead of Sat -urday evening as previously announced . All-day sessionswill be held January 1 and 2 . An interesting progra mis being arranged and a. hearty invitation is extende dto all to share in the blessings of this gathering . Theconvention will be held in Victory Hall, 535 Homer

Street. Light lunches will ' be served . For further,

particulars write the class secretary : Mrs. Henry Bur-

dett, 2591 E. 20th Ave., Vancouver, B . C.

BROOKLYN, N . Y., Jan. 1 . Soeeial in:eetinas wil lbe held beginning at 2 P ., M., at 109 Remsen Street .

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF ., Jan. 8 . This is the reg-ular gathering of the friends in San Francisco terri-tory, which is held on the second Sunday, every othe rmonth .

JERSEY CITY, N . J ., January 15 . One-day con-

vention . Sessions morning and afternoon, with 9n ad-vertised meeting for the public at 3 P . M. All .ses-sions in Lawyers Building, Bergen Square .

BROOKLYN, N. Y., Jan . 29 . The usual Fifth Sunday

Convention will be held at 109 Remsen Street . Lunch

served in the hall at noon. Secretary, Mr . Wm. Josiah ,

117-34 123rd St ., So . Ozone Park, L . I ., N . Y .

WEATHERFORD, TEXAS, Jan . 29 . Friends in

the vicinity of Weatherford plan to hold another oftheir Fifth Sunday Conventions on January 29th . For

further details, inquire of Mr . J . Wyndelts, 371 .5 Uni-

versity Boulevard, Dallas, Texas .

"GOOD HOPES" REPORT(Months of July, August, September )

FOR the benefit of new readers ewe wish to ex -plain that the method of listing each donation of $5or more in connection with a key number has bee nadopted for the purpose of giving all contributors th eopportunity of noting whether their contribution shave been received and properly accounted for i nharmony with their expressed wishes : these keynumbers being on the receipts sent to contributor ,when donations are acknowledged . The first itemlisted in each Fund includes all donations under $5 .

FREE SUBSCRIPTION FUN DE5 -119-124 $ 7.9 0Balance July 1 61 .25'1 ransferred from General Fund 400 :0 0

Total $469 .1 5Number of 3 months subscriptions . hirrgedthis fund, 587 at 251` each : $ 146 .75 . Numbe rof annual subscriptions charged to this tmld .217 at $1 each : $217.0 0

Total charge $363 .7 1

Balance $105 .4 0

FREE BOOK FUN DG7 -73 $ 2.0 07-72 5 .0 07-74 5.0 0Balance July 1 73 .6 7

Total $85 .6 7Booklets charged against this fund, 976 c i5e each : $48 .80 . Other books, $4 .80 .

Total charge $53.6 0

Balance $32 .0 7

TRAVELING SPEAKERS FUN DC3-1103-C3-1189 $101 .23 3-1148 $ 5.0 031110 5 .00 31.150 5 .0 03-1111 5 .00 31151 1 .0 .5 03-111.2 5 .00 3-1155 5 .0 03-1114 10 .00 3-1162 10 .0 03-1115 5 .00 3-1164 5 .0 03 -111 .7 5 .00 3-1165 5 .0 03-1118 10 .00 3-1166 10 .0 03 -1120 5 .00 3-1168 5 .0 03 -1121 145 .00 3-1.170 5 .0 03 .. 1127 5 .00 3-11.74 1. 5 .0 03-1128 5 .00 3-11 .79 5 .0 03-1130 5 .00 3-1180 5 .0 03-1132 10 .00 3-1181 : 5 .0 03-1134 5 .00 3-1184 7 .0 03-1135 25 .00 3-1185 5 .00

3 -1136 5 .0 0

3 -1137 20.0 0

3-1138 6 .00

3-1141 10 .0 0

3-1142 6 .0 0

3-1143 5 .0 0

3-1145 5 .0 0Balance $106 .2 9

Number of class meetings served, 356 : tota lattendance, 10,874.Number of Public meetings served, 39 ; total

FREE TRACT FUN D

A1-554-581 $ 31 .85

1-556 5 .0 0

1-560 5 .0' )

1-561 30 .0 0

1-567 5 .0 0

1-569 5 .0 0

1-573

5 .6 61-575 5 .0 01-576 10 .0 0

1-578 10 .0 0

Balance July 1 90 .3 0Transferred from General Fund 400.01 )

Total $602 .9 0

Total number of tract pages of tree literatur eof various hinds sent out and charged agains tthis fend, 750,425 .

Total eost of printing and shipping' $533 .6 8

Balance $ 69 .2 2

CLASS FORMING FUN D

112-04 $ 2.01 )

2 -01 5.0 0

2-02 35.0 02-03 25 .5 02 -05 15 .0 02-06 5 .0 02 -07 5.0 02-08 5 .00Transferred from General Fund 2 00 .0 0

Total

$297 .5 0

Total charge 226 .25

6-1518 20 .0 0

6-1519

5 .0 0

6-1520 10 .0 0

6-1522 5 .0 0

6-1527 10 .0 06-1 .530 10 .0 06-15 :31 10.0 06-1 .532 15 .0 06-1534 50.0 06-1537 25 .00 Balance July 1 . . . . 858 .4 6

6-1538 25,0 06-1539 5 .00 Total $1452 .61

6-1551 10 .00 Transferred 1150 .0 0

6-1553 23.35.,,--

. $302 .6 1

Balance

GENERAL FUND

$ 71 .25

3-1188 5 .0 0Balance July 1 120 .9 7Transferred 150 .0 0

Total

$791 .7 0Traveling Expenses $685 .41

F6-1526-1578 $ 71 .3 0

6-1503 10 .00

6-1504 10 .0 0

6-1510 10 .006-1511 25 .0 0

6-1515 10 .5 0

C-1516 50 .00

6-1554 $

6-1555(1-15556

6-1 .5576-15616-15646-15656-15676-15686-15696-15716-15736-15756-15766-15796-1580

15 .0 0

5 .0 05 .0 0

5 .0 010 .0 0

5 .0 0

25 .0 0

10 .0 0

9 .0 0

10 .0 05 .0 0

25 .0 01- 0 .01)30 .01 )10 .0 0

5 .00

Co o the ctiptureo QLleatlp Ceacb

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

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

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

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

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

That the hope for the World lies in the blessings o fknowledge and opportunity to be brought to all byChrist's Millennial Kingdom—the restitution of al lthat was lost in Adam, to all the willing and obedient ,at the hands of their Redeemer and His glorifie dChurch—when all the wilfully wicked will be destroyed .

—Acts 3 :19-23 ; Isaiah 35.

S i

Ar-