The Watchtower, July 1, 1889

VOL. X. ALLEGHENY, PA., JULY, 1889. NO. 9.

Zion's Watch Tower

AND

HERALD OF CHRIST'S PRESENCE.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY.

TOWER PUBLISHING COMPANY.

BUSINESS OFFICE: No. 151 Robinson St., Allegheny, Pa. C. T. RUSSELL, EDITOR.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.

DOMESTIC,--Fifty cents a year, in advance, by Draft, P.O. Money Order, or Registered letter.

FOREIGN,--Two shillings per year. Remit by Foreign Postal Money Order.

TO POOR SAINTS.

This paper will be sent free to the interested of the Lord's poor, who will send a card yearly requesting it. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat--yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." And you who have it-- "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently--and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." --`ISAIAH 55:1,2`.

Entered as SECOND CLASS MAIL MATTER, at the P.O., Allegheny, Pa.

DAMAGED DAWNS.

Our supply was quickly exhausted in answer to last month's notice--except VOL. II., cloth bound; of these we have a few left at 40 cents each, postage included.

OLD THEOLOGY POOR FUND.

It is suggested that, as the OLD THEOLOGY TRACTS are evidently destined to become quite a feature of the "harvest work," some arrangement should be made for supplying them free to the Lord's children who have the time and heart to give to this sort of preaching, but who could not afford to pay for the one-thousandth part of what they could wisely circulate.

Nor would it be right to absorb the general fund, called "Tract Fund," in this work, for already it finds more to do than it can do, in the other branches of the work. (The Tract Fund will do this, however, toward putting a little ammunition in the hands of those who would be sure to use it and that wisely: It will pay the subscription for one year on five tracts quarterly to any WATCH TOWER subscriber too poor to purchase them, who will send in the request.) Besides, some deeply interested in the OLD THEOLOGY "hail" desire such a special fund so that they may specially help and forward that part of the work.

A start has already been made in this direction. One sister contributes $68 for 3000 tracts, quarterly, this year (12,000 tracts in all), to be sent to Baptist ministers throughout the United States. We have thought best to fill this order by sending Tract No. I to all as a sample, so far as it will go, and accordingly the 12,000 are already send out. As there are about 22,000 Baptist ministers, this sister's wise stewardship of the Lord's funds entrusted to her care sends some "meat in due season" to more than one half of the Baptist preachers--some of them we trust will produce an abundant yield.

A brother of this city, himself so situated that he cannot engage in circulating them, as he would like to do, contributed $110 for 20,000 tracts, of any or all the numbers of the present year, for circulation in the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny: remarking that he knew of no other way of doing so much good with the same amount of money; that he could think of no better topic for the general reader than Tract No. I, and that even if he could prepare as good, only about one half as many, for the amount of money, could be procured in the ordinary way from printers; adding that, if permitted, he hoped from time to time to provide for others of our large cities, thus to aid representatively in preaching the truth to thousands who as yet know only very imperfectly--

"The message of salvation

From God's own holy Word."

The work was taken hold of here with a will by some who appreciate the privilege of the service, (some doing more and some less) three brethren and five sisters having already distributed about 6,000--to church-goers, to street car passengers, etc. A plan found to be good, is to have along also some of the Arp Tracts, which are less expensive (and supplied free), to give to such as appear less likely to become interested.

If all TOWER readers, not otherwise in the service, would take hold of this work earnestly, a million or two of these "hail" stones would quickly be poured forth to sweep away the refuge of lies.--`Isa. 28:17`.

MISTAKEN EXPEDIENCY.

Among Romanists there is a recognized principle, which might be termed the law of expediency; which, briefly expressed, is--"The end justifies the means." The all important end is the glory of the Church, let the means be what they may; and every reader of history knows how vile the means have been. And while Protestants do not admit this principle openly, and are scarcely aware that they admit it to any extent, the question of expediency is often raised, and sometimes with considerable bitterness, against the truth--the old theology of the Lord and the apostles and prophets.

Very many of God's children who long since got their eyes open to the fallacy of the doctrine of everlasting torment, and who realize it to be a horrible blasphemy against God's character, permit Satan to seal their lips, and to destroy their influence as children of the light, by getting them to cover their light with the bushel of expediency. He raises before their minds dreadful pictures of what would result if this truth, which so much relieved their minds and refreshed their hearts, and which lifted them into a new atmosphere of joy and peace and love, should become generally known. He points out that they first approached the Lord through fear and under the influence of this error, --without pointing out that they might have received the Lord much sooner under the presentation of the truth, and under the constraining power of love. He points out that they themselves had finally found peace while holding this error, but does not mention how unsatisfactory a peace it was, which continually had unrest for fear of a final slip into eternal torment, either of themselves or their loved ones. Nor does the adversary point out that the proportion in which any obtained peace was to the degree that they forgot or disbelieved the horrible error.

The adversary, furthermore, urges the inexpediency of proclaiming this and other truths on still other grounds; he reminds his victim that though neither reason nor the Bible endorses the doctrine, yet upon it all the creeds and sects of Christendom are built; and that to attack that error is to attack the entire nominal church and to gain the opposition in every way of the most powerful human institution; and that he has no chance for success; and that if he should succeed in overthrowing the error, it would shake and break sectarianism entirely, create a great commotion, and paralyze sectarian efforts at home and in foreign lands.

He does not suggest, however, that the breaking of false creeds, confessions, and of the sects which hold them, would be a great blessing to all the true "wheat," the true church, and would result in bringing them into true unity upon the basis of God's Word and under the bonds of love; and that the only evil would be to the "tare" class, who have no knowledge of God's true church whose names are written in heaven, and who recognize only sectarian systems and memberships whose names are written on earth; and who worship and serve the institutions of their own organizing.

Alas! How many are bound by mistaken expediency, almost as firmly as they

were formerly by errors, from which these truths, which they are ashamed or afraid to acknowledge, set them free.

To stimulate this mistaken idea of expediency, the adversary emboldens some of the shallowest minds and hearts to unreasoningly cry aloud, "Awful heresy!" "Infidelity!" etc.

This he does to draw attention away from the fact that it is the error that is "awful," "blasphemous," "heresy," and veritable infidelity to God's Word.

This cry comes with greatest emphasis from those whose earthly interests of bread and butter, and ease, and comfort, and reputation, and honor, and pride are bound up with this long admitted and established doctrine of fear. And every zealous supporter of so-called Orthodoxy re-echoes the cry of alarm; and as the message of truth, "the good tidings of great joy to all people," goes forth, it is everywhere confronted by the zealous heralds of the bad tidings--of eternal misery to all people, except a holy few who expect to become so God-like that they will praise God the louder when they witness the wretched despair and hopeless eternal torment of their fellow-creatures, who were so unfortunate as never to have received as good a chance as themselves to escape the awful ruin.

These notes of alarm from Babylon, probably hinder many of the Lord's sheep from apprehending his truth. Having trusted too implicitly to the teachings of a self-exalted clergy, and failed to search the Scriptures for themselves, like the "noble Bereans," that their faith might stand in the wisdom of God and not in the wisdom which this world teacheth, they are afraid to disregard their commands now,--afraid to believe their own senses in the study of God's Word.

Let us remind such of the words of the Prophet Isaiah--"Their fear toward me is taught by the precepts of men;" and again, of the Apostle Paul--"For God hath not given to us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (`Isa. 29:13`; `2 Tim. 1:7`.) That the spirit of love and of a sound mind is a power, "Orthodoxy" fails to see. The scourge of torment, the mean incentive of fear, is held to be a necessity, to restrain men from vice and to inspire them to morality and virtue and secure their admission to heaven when they die.

Before considering the wisdom of God's course, let us first inquire, Has the doctrine of fear accomplished the end which it claims to have in view? No, we answer. The result of this error have only been bad, and that continually; and any good which has been accomplished is due, not to the error, but to the all-powerful truth, --withstanding the friction of error which everywhere opposed its progress. As the result of this error, what do we see, after centuries of effort ostensibly to convert the world, to turn men to God and righteousness? We see just what we should expect to be the miserable fruitage of such doctrine--that it has not only failed to accomplish the world's conversion, which Orthodoxy claims to be its mission, but that it has accomplished the demoralization of the church (nominal) and of all influenced to any extent by it.

Under its influence and misrepresentation of the character of God, every device of tyranny and persecution and torture, in the name of God and religion, has flourished, and largely accomplished its diabolical mission of stamping out truth and righteousness. And as a consequence, we see to-day great antichristian systems of error, built up by centuries

of false teaching and so subtle in their influence as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. Their form of godliness draws one class which desires to live godly; but their lack of the power of godliness, truth, soon deadens every real spiritual aspiration. They also draw and encourage a mean hypocritical class of those who assume the garb of Christianity for mercenary and base purposes. And amid an overwhelming host of deceived and hypocritical pretenders, those possessing the genuine article of living faith in the true Word of God, and vital godliness, are to-day at an immense discount among the loudest professors of Christianity. And thinking men of the world--and the thinkers are fast multiplying--are beginning to see, in the light of a better civilization, that this monstrous blasphemy of eternal torment has no foundation in common sense and that it can in no sense be compatible with their natural ideas of morality and virtue and godliness: and, say such, if the Bible teaches this doctrine, as all branches of the church claim, the Bible must be a bad book, and the God of the Bible, if there be such a God, is unworthy of love or worship, or even respect. And some to whom nature and reason whisper, There must be a God, conclude that nature and reason are the only channels through which he may be known or traced. And thus the thinking and nobler minded of the world are driven to Infidelity and Atheism; and the ignorant and the credulous, while they still fear that eternal torment may be a reality, are generally willing to incur the unlikely risk of realizing it, that they may enjoy the pleasures of sin while the opportunity lasts. And the heathen nations never have been and never will be influenced by it.

Such, in brief, have been the results of the doctrine of fear. It has repelled the world from God, and reduced (nominal) Christianity to sham and hypocrisy, and stimulated vice and immorality to the crimes of treason against God and persecution of truth and virtue.

But let us now consider, on the other hand, what power there is in the spirit of love and of a sound mind. A sound mind is a reasonable mind, a mind governed, neither by fickle impulse, nor by superstition, fear, prejudice, nor any other than the noblest faculty which God has given it, namely reason. And reason, if not perverted by pride, or prejudiced by false teaching, leads directly to the fountain of truth in God's inspired Revelation (See, M. DAWN, Vol. I., Chap. iii.); and to one so led, faith in the inspired revelation of the omnipotent God is a most reasonable thing. This reasonable faith, rooted and grounded in the divine testimonies and promises, calls into exercise all the noblest faculties of our moral nature and centers the affections upon the great Author of all truth, whom to know is to love and worship and adore. And this faith, working by love, purifies the heart and transforms the character into the glorious likeness of the blessed God.

Such is the power of love and of a sound mind. It serves God from purest filial love and gratitude, and the only fear it knows is that filial fear of failure to fully manifest love and thankfulness, which is the fear mentioned by the `Psalmist (111:10`) as the beginning of wisdom. Perfect love casts out all servile fear, and brings the studious and devoted servants of God into active co-operation with all his benevolent plans for the blessing of all his creatures. This is the kind of service God accepts: Those who worship him acceptably must worship him in spirit and in truth--in love and verity, and not hypocritically through fear.

Such results never have been and never can be produced by the "orthodox" doctrine of fear. Why, then, should it be deemed expedient to suppress the true plan of God and still advocate the blasphemous error of eternal torment?

The earnest, sound-minded Christian sees no sufficient reason; though the supporters of Orthodoxy see very grave and weighty ones. They see at once that to renounce this doctrine would be to destroy their systems of theology and completely disintegrate their various organizations, to give the lie to their false teachings, to expose a vast amount of hypocrisy and deceit in high places, to discontinue the gains of oppression, and to humble their pride and assumed dignities and honors in the dust. And truly, before this spirit of fear could be supplanted by the spirit of love and of a sound mind among the great masses of men, these, released from the bondage of fear and not yet restrained and constrained by the power of love and of a sound mind, would suddenly become a dangerous element in the world.

And just this, which "Orthodoxy" fears, the Scriptures declare shall actually come to pass--a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation--a fearful recompense to great Babylon for her blasphemous misrepresentation of the character and plan of God. Fearful plagues are to be visited upon Babylon, and no wonder she raises the cry of alarm when she sees them coming. To preach the truth is not expedient, she declares,-- "The end (the preservation of the old order of things) justifies the means;"-- the perversion and suppression of truth.

Had the truth been preached by the church from the days of the apostles to the present time, the centuries past would have so fully accomplished the development of true Christian character that the present time, we might safely say, would witness a truly "Christian world." But as it is, when the old errors are overthrown, it would be unreasonable to expect to see a sudden conversion of the world to truth and righteousness. Time is an important element in the arrangements for the world's conversion. It will require a thousand years to accomplish it under the reign of Christ, and since the church (nominal) has frittered away nearly two thousand years and accomplished worse than nothing in this direction, she must reap the reward of her doings--the punishment due her misarranged systems.

God's time to speak has come; and let the prayer of every loyal son of God be, O send forth thy light and thy truth! God will send it forth and is sending it forth: he will vindicate his character and

his cause before an astonished world, and the glorious end will be the peaceable fruits of righteousness in all the earth, when the truth is fully known and its blessed influences have had sufficient time to accomplish the great work of transformation.

If we would be in harmony, and co-workers together with God, therefore, our chief business in life must be the vindication of his character by the preaching of his truth. And so far as our testimony can reach, let the message of his gracious designs be coupled with the wholesome restraints which his justice insures. There shall be a just recompense of reward to every man. The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good, and every work shall be brought into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Not the benevolent gift of a cup of cold water shall lose its reward; nor shall any wilful sin against light and opportunity escape its deserved punishment.

It is our business to declare these truths, to preach the gospel without any mixture with the traditions of men, to declare the whole counsel of God, as the church should have done since the days of the apostles, and the results God will take care of, and out of the confusion of the great time of trouble he will bring order and harmony and a grateful recognition of and submission to his righteous authority, based upon the principles of truth and justice. Our effort should always be, however, to accomplish a conversion so complete that it will not only turn men away in disgust from the old errors, but also turn them fully to righteousness. And such conversions there are, when the truth is wisely presented by those who are imbued with its blessed spirit. It is only by the presentation of a measure of truth sufficient to turn men away from doctrinal errors, and yet leave them in their sins, that violence and confusion shall be brought about.

We may not teach men that God is so loving that justice can never exert its power, but, on the other hand, that his justice is so unswerving that his love can in no degree conflict with it, or act contrary to it, and that so important was it that his justice should stand inviolate, that only through the sacrifice of his only begotten Son did his love accomplish his purpose for man's redemption and restitution: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life."

Through Christ alone, therefore, is the great salvation attainable--"through faith in his blood." Without faith in his blood, we can only be judged by God by the rule of strict justice, and it is a fearful thing to fall thus into the hands of the living God; for outside of God's plan for our redemption through Christ, his justice can only condemn us as unworthy of life. Nor do we teach that having once come to a clear knowledge of the truth, we may reject it and sin against it with impunity, or postpone our personal submission and conformity to it, without receiving the penalty for so doing;--the penalty for rejection of full light and opportunity being the second death, from which there is no recovery. By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified by the truth; but that offering intelligently rejected, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sin, but a certain looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary. But having come to the knowledge of the truth--to which God purposes to bring all men--and to obedience, and to faith in God's appointed way of salvation, not attempting to climb up like a thief or a robber by some other way, the end of such faith and obedience will be everlasting life.

It is expedient, therefore, from God's standpoint of view, that the truth should be fully and clearly proclaimed without regard to the cry of alarm from Babylon, and equally without regard to the disastrous consequences to that system, against which the fiat of destruction has gone forth from Jehovah. "This is the will of God, who will have all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."

So far as our knowledge and observation have gone, a knowledge, even of the general outlines of God's plan, does not produce carelessness or indifference or a desire to procrastinate coming into conformity with it. On the other hand, we do know of hundreds of sound conversions from sin and infidelity and from every evil course. At the present time there are on our list of subscribers to the TOWER five names of criminals in various prisons who have received the truth, and who have been converted by it. And another whose term expired a few months ago, having been imprisoned for highway robbery, was soundly converted through the reading of The Plan of The Ages and the TOWER while in prison, and has now become an active minister of the gospel, and in the past two months has sold 800 copies of DAWN, Vol. I. Raised in the Methodist church under the influence and fear of the doctrine of eternal torment, he became a highway robber, while under the influence of the truth he became a minister of the gospel. Yes, praise the Lord! it is expedient to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; and we rejoice to know that God will continue to send forth his light and his truth until the earth is filled with his glory, and blessed is every man who is privileged to bear the message.

CHEERFULNESS.

Cheerfulness is one of the loveliest graces of the Christian character. It belongs to those noble natures whose very presence carries sunshine with them wherever they go.

Sometimes we look into a face which is so cold and repulsive, dark and gloomy, that it makes us feel almost blue to look at it, and which betokens no joy in the heart, no nobility in the soul, no generosity in the nature; the whole character as cold as an iceberg. And again we meet a face so bright, smiling, cheerful, happy, that one glimpse of it does our very souls good, and is like an inspiration to us. And we feel more cheerful ourselves. If we possess a hopeful spirit it will enable us to discern the silver lining of the darkest cloud, behind which ever shines the light of divine promise and help.

True religion is not gloomy, "her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."--Selected.

"Blessed is he who learns to profit by his wants and infirmities, and who, in all the privation he endures, is still submissive to the Word of God."

Much remains

To conquer still; Peace hath her victories,

No less renowned than War; new foes arise

Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains.

Help us to save free conscience from the paw,

Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw.

--Milton.

COURAGE! PRESS ON.

"Tired! well, what of that?

Didst fancy life was spent on beds of ease,

Fluttering the rose leaves scattered by the breeze?

Come, rouse thee! work while it is called to-day:

Courage! arise! go forth upon thy way.

"Lonely! and what of that?

Some must be lonely; 'tis not given to all

To feel a heart responsive rise and fall,

To blend another life within its own:

Work can be done in loneliness. Work on.

"Dark! well, what of that?

Didst fondly dream the sun would never set?

Dost fear to lose thy way? Take courage yet!

Learn thou to walk by faith, and not by sight;

Thy steps will guided be, and guided right.

"Hard! well, what of that?

Didst fancy life one summer holiday,

With lessons none to learn, and naught but play?

Go--get thee to thy task! Conquer or die!

It must be learned; learn it then, patiently."

--Sel.

CALAMITIES--WHY PERMITTED.

"EXCEPT YE REPENT, YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH."

"There were present at that season some who told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

"Or, those eighteen, upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."--`Luke 13:1-5`.

Noble and good in the sight of both God and man are the generous impulses, of charity and sympathy, awakened by great calamities in recent years. And when this is said, it leaves little more of good to be said favorable to calamities or their influence.

While these charities should not be misconstrued to signify that God's consecrated saints are rapidly multiplying--for many of the charitable are not the consecrated, and some are even infidels,--yet they are an evidence that at least some of the original God-likeness of our race remains; that it has not been wholly obliterated by the degradation of the fall, nor wholly poisoned by the bad theology of the dark ages. While we live in perhaps as selfish and money-loving a period as any known to history, yet millions of dollars are generously poured forth to aid suffering humanity. And yet many who in times of calamitous distress show that they have a tender spot, somewhere, in their hearts, would and do at other times lend time and brain and skill to the arts of war, and in designing the most horrible implements of warfare; and on occasions when bitter passions are aroused would relentlessly and pitilessly slaughter a thousand times as many as the accidents of nature. Yet, for all this showing of the two elements in the same men, we rejoice

that the God-like element of sympathy exists as a partial offset to the devilish qualities of selfishness and heartlessness, which, under the degrading influence of man's fallen state, have grown strong during the past six thousand years.

Preparatory to looking carefully, reasonably and Scripturally at the question of why does God permit calamities, let us note some of the absurd views of some Christian people, who should know God's Word and character much better than they seem to. Some whose hearts overflow with sympathy and God-like love in the presence of great calamities (which proves their hearts better and more sound than their theology), declare that God is the director and cause of all disasters and troubles. Hence whatever men may do to alleviate such distresses would, according to this false view, be so much done in opposition to God; and whatever love and sympathy they feel, is as much sentiment opposed to God's sentiments, --which are thus made to appear malicious.

But the hideousness of such a character, as is thus ascribed to the God of love, is intensified, when the same good, tender-hearted, but wrong-headed, Papacy-deluded people (whose theology was formed in the "dark ages" when the Bible doctrines concerning God's character and plan had become over-grown with papal superstition and human tradition), tell us their faith in God and their view of his character, is that, He not only looks without pity or sympathy upon man's present calamities and distresses, and fore-ordained them, but that he has furthermore fore-ordained and made fullest preparation for engulfing the vast majority of his creatures in a calamity in comparison with which all the horrors of all earth's calamities united in one would be nothing;--but mere preludes to that most awful, indescribable torment, which would be wholly unendurable, but that God with fiendish cruelty will perpetuate life under such awful conditions, forever and forever, in order to have them suffer, and will never relieve them. And why? Simply because, when told that such was God's character and plan, they would not love him, nor praise as good and just such a plan; or because millions of others had died in ignorance of the Lord Jesus, through faith in whom, alone, any can be acceptable before God.

It is surprising that any who possess the spirit of God, to any extent, can thus blaspheme his holy name? It is surprising that they do not know more of the character of the Creator than this, even without the Bible testimony to his character of love and justice, to advise them of his plan in Christ for blessing all the families of the earth; the declaring of which plan constitutes the "good tidings of great joy [not of eternal torment] which shall be unto all people." Verily, God is more villified by many of his children than by the infidel world. And yet, how strange! the very Bible which declares God's true character of love and justice, they have been led to consider as the authority for these devilish doctrines and false interpretation of our Lord's parables and of the symbols of the book of Revelation, originated by those who during the "dark ages" used to burn and torment Bible believers.

GOD'S LOVE--HOW SHOWN.

When we declare that whatever there is of love and sympathy in man, is only the remnant of the original divine likeness, in which Adam was created, not wholly effaced by six thousand years of degradation in sin, it at once raises the question: In what way does God manifest his sympathy and love in such emergencies, when even the hearts of fallen human beings are touched, with sympathy and love, to acts of kindness and succor?

A correct answer is, that God is represented in every act of kindness done, whether by his children or by the world; because their actions under such circumstances are the results, in some measure, of his character and disposition. And yet this answer is not full enough to be satisfactory. But, thank God, a fuller investigation, in the light of his Word, reveals a boundless sympathy on God's part,-- providing also an abundant succor, which is shortly to be revealed.

But why does not God immediately succor his creatures from calamities? Or, to go still farther back, why does he who has all wisdom to know and all power to prevent, permit calamities,--cyclones, earthquakes, tidal-waves, destructive floods, pestilences, etc.? And while we are about it, we may as well include all the evils which God could, if he would, prevent --all the forms of sickness and pain and death; every form of destruction-- wars, murders, etc.; every thing which causes pain or trouble to those willing to do and be in harmony with God? The answer to one of these questions will be the answer to every question on the subject; for all human evils are related and have a common source or cause.

To fully comprehend this cause, we must go far back, to the very beginning of sickness, pain, death and sorrow,--to the Garden of Eden, where neither famine, pestilence, cyclones, earthquakes, nor death in any form was permitted; where man and his surroundings and conditions were pronounced "very good," even by God himself, and certainly greatly appreciated by man, who had to be driven out and prevented from returning by the fiery sword which kept the way of access to the life-sustaining fruits of the trees of the garden.

How came it that the Creator, who so graciously provided for the life and comfort of his creatures, and who communed with them and gave them his blessing and the promise of everlasting life upon the sole condition of continued obedience, should so change in his attitude toward his creatures, as to drive them from the enjoyments of those Eden comforts and blessings, out into the unprepared earth-- to toil and weariness and insufficient sustenance, and thus to death?

We must remember that only the Garden of Eden was "prepared," and fit for man's comfortable enjoyment of the favor of life. The preparation of the whole earth for man, requiring in a natural way seven thousand years more to entirely fit it for the habitation of perfect, obedient, human children of God, the Creator specially or miraculously prepared the Garden of Eden in advance merely as a fit place for Adam's trial. God foresaw the fall of his creature, and provided that the penalty for sin, "dying thou shalt die," instead of being suddenly inflicted as by a lightning stroke, or other speedy method, should be served out gradually by conflict with the unfavorable conditions (of climate, sterility of soil, storms, miasms, thorns, weeds, etc.,) of the as yet unprepared earth.

Adam and Eve, therefore, went forth from Eden convicts, under sentence of death; self-convicted under the most just of all judges, their Creator and friend. The convicts esteemed it a mercy to be let die gradually rather than suddenly; while to the Creator and judge this was expedient because of a plan he had for their future, in which such experience with imperfect conditions would be of great value;--a plan for the increase of the race, and for its discipline and final redemption and restoration.

The death penalty, inflicted in this manner, God foresaw would furnish man, through experience, such a lesson on the exceeding sinfulness of sin and its baneful results as would never need to be repeated; --a lesson, therefore, which will profit all who learn it to all eternity; especially when Christ's Millennial reign of righteousness shall manifest in contrast the fruits of righteousness: God also designing that the exercise of man's mental faculties in coping with the disturbances and imperfections of his surroundings and in inventing reliefs, and the exercise of his moral faculties in combating his own weaknesses, and the calls upon his sympathy should prove beneficial.

Had the sentence of God (in addition to a loss of Eden's comforts and experience with sin and death,) condemned his creatures to an eternity of torment and anguish, as so many now believe and teach, who could defend such a sentence, or call the Judge just, or loving, or in any sense good? Surely no one of a sound mind!

But when it is seen that the Scriptures teach that death (extinction), and not life in torment, was the penalty pronounced and inflicted, all is reasonable. God has a right to demand perfect obedience from his perfect creature when placed under perfect conditions, as in Adam's case. And the decree that none shall live everlastingly except the perfect, is both a wise and a just provision for the everlasting welfare of all God's creatures.

There is a depth of meaning in the Creator's words, as he sent forth his fairly tried and justly condemned creatures, among the thorns and briars, to labor and pain, and sorrow, and disease, and to be subject to the casualties and calamities of nature's unfinished work. He said:-- "Cursed is the ground FOR THY SAKE:" i.e., the earth in general is in its present imperfect condition for your profit and experience; even though you may not esteem it so. Adam would have sought to retain continual access to the garden fruits, to avoid severe labor and to enable him to fully sustain his vital powers and live forever; but in loving consideration for man's ultimate good, no less than in justice, and in respect of his own sentence of death, God prevented this and guarded the way back to the garden, in order that the death sentence should not fail of execution, in order that sinners should not live forever and thus perpetuate sin.

The children of the condemned pair inherited their fall, imperfections and weaknesses, and also the penalties of these; for "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" The whole race, therefore,

as convict laborers, have not only been learning what sin and evil are, and their undesirable results, but by their labor and skill they are serving to prepare the earth and bring it as a whole to the full perfection designed for it, and illustrated in the condition of Eden--ready for a further purpose of God of which none but his children (and not all of them) are made aware through the Scriptures.

We can see, then, that labor and toil were prescribed for man's good. They have kept him so employed that he could not plan and consummate evil to the same extent that he otherwise would have done. And as the earth becomes more fertile, approaching perfection, man's vitality becomes less; so that now, with greater leisure to plot and scheme and grow wise in evil, the period of life in which to do so is shorter. What a mercy in disguise present shortness of life is, under present circumstances. Were some of our "shrewd business men" who accumulate millions of money, and grasp great power, in a few short years, to live 930 years, as Adam did, what might we expect but that one man, or at most a syndicate or trust, would own every foot of land, control every drop of water and every breath of air, and have the rest of the race for their dupes and slaves?

God's action, then, in exposing his creatures to death, pain and various calamities, it must first of all be seen, was one which related only to his present life on earth, and to no other; for of any continuance of life, in any other locality, God did not give him the slightest intimation. On the contrary, the words of the

penalty were, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,"--"dying thou shalt die."--`Gen. 3:19`; `2:17`, margin.

True, God gave promise that, somehow and at some time, a son of the woman should accomplish a deliverance. But it was vague and indefinite then, merely a glimmer of hope, to show them that though God dealt severely with them, and on lines of law and justice, he yet sympathized with them, and would, ultimately, without violating justice or ignoring his own righteous sentence of death, bring them succor.

Paul tells us that God adopted a method for the recovery of man, from that original sentence of death which came upon all as the result of Adam's fall, which would show the justice of his sentence and the unchangeableness of his decrees, and yet permit such as are sick of sin to use their experience wisely, and to return to harmony and obedience to their Creator and his just and reasonable laws and regulations.

This divine plan, by which God could remain just and unchangeable in his attitude toward sin and sinners, and yet release the well-disposed from the penalty of sin (death and disfavor), is stated by the Apostle in `Rom. 3:24-26`.

In brief, this plan provided that another man who, by obedience to the law of God, should prove his worthiness of eternal life, might, by the willing sacrifice of the life to which he was thus proved worthy, redeem the forfeited life of Adam and of his posterity who lost life through him; for it is written, "In Adam all die," and "By the offence of one sentence of condemnation came on all men."--`1 Cor. 15:22`; `Rom. 5:12,18`.

Since the condemnation to death was thus upon all men, and since another man newly created and inexperienced as Adam was, though just as favorably situated, would have been similarly liable to fall, God devised the marvelous plan of transferring his only begotten Son from the spiritual to the human nature, and thus provided a man fit for sacrifice-- "the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all;" "who, though he was rich [though he was possessed of glory and honor and riches of wisdom and power above both angels and men], nevertheless for our sakes became poor [humbling himself to a lower nature, even as a man, becoming obedient even unto death] that we through his poverty might be made rich."--`1 Tim. 2:5`; `2 Cor. 8:9`.

Thus the one first created, "the firstborn of all creation" (`Col. 1:15`), "the beginning of the creation of God" (`Rev. 3:14`), the one who had known God's character longer, more fully and more intimately than any other being, the one in fact who had been Jehovah's chief and honored, intelligent and active agent in the creation of angels as well as of men, the one by whom all things were made, and aside from whom not anything was made (`John 1:3`; `Col. 1:16,17`) --this great being, Jehovah's Prime Minister, and next to himself in dignity, the Almighty entrusted with the great work of redeeming and restoring mankind.

To redeem them would cost the sacrifice of his own life as their ransom-price, with all that that implied of suffering and self-denial. To restore them (such of them as shall prove worthy--whosoever wills,) will require the exercise of divine power to open the prison-house of death, and to break the fetters of sin and prejudice and superstition, and give to all the redeemed the fullest opportunity to decide whether they love good or evil, righteousness or sin, truth or error, and to destroy all who love and work iniquity, and to develop and perfect again all who love and choose life upon its only condition--righteousness.

To know the Father's plan and his privilege of co-operation in its execution, was to appreciate it and joyfully engage therein. Willingly our Lord Jesus laid aside the glory of the higher nature which he had had with the Father from before the creation of man. (`John 17:5`; `2 Cor. 8:9`.) He was "made flesh" (`John 1:14`; `Heb. 2:14`), became a man at thirty years of age, and then began the great work of sacrifice, the sacrifice of himself, a perfect man, for the cancellation of the sin of the first man, to recover Adam and his race by dying on their behalf, as their Redeemer. By giving to Justice the price of their liberty from divine condemnation, he secured the legal right to cancel the sentence of condemnation to death against them, and hence the right to resurrect or restore to life and to all the lost estate and blessings, "whomsoever he wills." (`Rev. 22:17`.) And he wills to restore all who shall prove worthy. And to prove who are worthy will be the object of the Millennial reign.--`1 Tim. 2:4`; `2 Pet. 3:9`.

This fact that our Lord's mission to earth at the first advent was to undo for the race, legally, the results of Adam's transgression, and to secure the right to resurrect them and restore them, is clearly stated by the Apostle.--See, `Rom. 5:5-12`, `16-19,21`; `1 Cor. 15:21-24`.

Though tempted in all points like as we (his "brethren") are, he ignored his own will (`Luke 22:42`; `John 4:34`; `5:30`) and all suggestions from others contrary to God's plan (`Matt. 16:23`; `Luke 4:4,8,12`), and obeyed God implicitly. And therein lay the secret of his success. Temptations did not overcome him, as they did even the perfect man Adam, because of the fulness of his consecration to the divine will and plan; and this fulness of consecration and trust was the result of his intimate knowledge of the Father and his unbounded confidence in his wisdom, love and power. He had recollection of his previous existence as a spirit being with the Father. (`John 17:5`; `3:12,13`.) Our Lord's success, then, was the result of being rightly exercised by his knowledge of God; as it is written: "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, while bearing their iniquities." --`Isa. 53:11`.

The suggestive thoughts here are two: First, that even a perfect man failed in trial because of the lack of full appreciation of God's greatness, goodness and resources. Secondly, the knowledge (as in Satan's case) would be valueless, if unaccompanied by sincere love and consecration to God's will. A lesson further, to Christ's "brethren," is, that knowledge and consecration are both essential to their following in the Master's footsteps.

Among men he and his mission were not really known; even his most ardent followers and admirers at first supposed that his mission was merely to heal some of the sick Jews, and to advance their nation to the rulership of a dying world, and to be a teacher of morals; they saw not at first that his mission was to lay the foundation of a world-wide empire, which should not only include the living, but also the dead, of Adam's race, and which should insure peace and joy everlastingly to all the worthy, by eradicating, forever, sin and all who love it after fully comprehending its character in contrast with righteousness. Even his friends and disciples were slow to realize these grand dimensions of his work, though he continually repeated them, and bore witness, saying: "The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many;" "Verily, verily, the hour is coming* when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear [obey] shall live." "The Lord hath sent me to preach deliverance to the captives [of death] and recovering of sight to the [mentally, morally and physically] blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised"--injured by the Adamic fall.--`Matt. 20:28`; `John 5:25`; `Luke 4:18`.

The sacrifice of the Redeemer's all, as man's ransom price, was offered at the time he was thirty years old--at his baptism. And there the offering was accepted by Jehovah, as marked by his anointing with the spirit. Thenceforth, the three and a half years of his ministry he spent in using up the consecrated life already offered; and this he completed at Calvary. There the price of our liberty was paid in full. "It is finished!" It holds good; it is acceptable by the grace of God, as the offset and covering for every weakness and sin of the first man, and his posterity, resulting either directly, or indirectly, from the first disobedience and fall. All that is necessary since, for a full return to divine favor and communion, and to an inheritance in the Paradise of God, which

*Sinaitic MS. omits the words and now is.

the great Redeemer in due time has promised to establish in the entire earth, as at first in the Garden of Eden, is, a recognition of sin, full repentance, and a turning from sin to righteousness. Christ will establish righteousness in the earth by the Kingdom of God, which he has promised shall be established, and for which he has bidden us wait and hope, and for which he taught us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth even as it is done in heaven."

Under that blessed and wise rule of Christ as King of nations,* all the evil, depraved tendencies inherited from the fall and from the six thousand years of degradation, will be restrained, held in check, by super-human wisdom, love and power; and all being brought to a clear knowledge of the truth in its every phase, all will be fairly and fully tested. The lovers of righteousness will be perfected and given control of the perfected earth, while those loving unrighteousness under that clear light of knowledge and experience will, as followers of Satan's example, be utterly destroyed in the Second Death. The first death is the destruction to which all were subjected by Adam's sin, but from which all were redeemed by the Lord Jesus' sacrifice; and the second death is that destruction which will overtake those who, though redeemed by Christ from the first death, shall, by their own wilful conduct, merit and receive death again. This second death means utter destruction, without hope of another redemption or resurrection; for Christ dieth no more. Nor could any good reason for their further trial be assigned; for the trial granted during the Millennial age under Christ, as Judge, will be a thorough and fair and individual and final trial.--`1 Cor. 15:25`.

*Not visibly in flesh, however, for he is no longer flesh, having been highly exalted again, after he had finished the flesh-life by giving it as our ransom price.--See, "The Time at Hand," Chap. v.

"YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH"

UNLESS YE REPENT.

Death, in whatever form it may come, is perishing, ceasing to exist. All mankind, through Adam's transgression, came under condemnation to loss of life, to "perish," "to be as though they had not been." And only one way of escape from that condemnation has been provided. (`Acts 4:12`.) Because of Christ's redemptive work all may escape perishing by accepting the conditions of life. During Christ's Millennial reign those whom Pilate slew, and those upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and all others of the race, sharers in the death penalty now upon all, will be released from the tomb, brought to a knowledge of Christ, his ransom work, and their privilege of repentance and full restitution to divine favor,--life, etc. Thus seen, the Adamic death penalty was--to perish; but it has been canceled by Christ's Ransom, so far as it relates to those who, when brought to know the Redeemer, shall forsake sin. No longer should it be regarded as a perished condition, but as a "sleep" (`John 11:11-14`; `Matt. 9:24`; `1 Thes. 4:14`; `5:10`), from which the Redeemer will awaken all, to give each who did not have it before being overtaken by Adam's death, a full, individual opportunity to escape perishing and live forever. Yet, finally, all who shall fail to repent and lay hold upon the gracious Life-giver shall perish; they will fail to obtain the full restitution provided; they shall never see [perfect] life [full restitution] for the wrath or condemnation of God will abide on them, condemning them to death as unworthy of life. As this will be their second condemnation, and an individual one, so the penalty will be the second death, which will not be general to the race, but only upon such individuals as refuse God's favor of reconciliation and life.

As our Lord Jesus used the calamities of his time, as illustrating the just penalty against all who do not flee sin and lay hold upon the Redeemer and Life-giver, so we use them. We declare that destruction, perishing, is the just penalty of sin taught in the Scriptures. We denounce the eternal torment theory, so generally believed by God's children, as unscriptural; as one of Satan's blasphemous slanders against God's character. And we proclaim that only by faith in the Redeemer, repentance and reformation, can the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, be obtained. Whoever hears the offer of life is responsible to the extent that he understands it; and according to God's promise and plan all mankind shall, at some time, either during the Gospel age, or during the coming Millennial age, be brought to a full, clear appreciation of these conditions and opportunities, with fullest opportunities for repentance and life.

Calamities, then, are to be regarded, generally, as accidents, attributable to human imperfection and lack of experience, or to disturbances incidental to the preparation of the earth for its more quiet and perfect condition during the Sabbath or Seventh Thousand years (the Millennium), and for its state of absolute perfection forever after the Millennium, which, under Christ's direction, shall give it its finishing touches and make it fully ready for the redeemed race, which his reign shall prepare also to rightly use and enjoy and rule the perfected earth. And man is exposed to these calamities and accidents, and not defended from them by his Almighty Creator, because, first, man is a sinner condemned to death anyway, and is not to be spared from it, but must be allowed to pass through it; and secondly, by the present experiences with trouble and sorrow and pain, all of which are but elements of death, mankind is learning a lesson and laying up in store an experience with sin and its awful concomitants, sorrow, pain and death, which will be valuable in the Millennial age, when each shall be required to choose between good and evil. The evil they

learn first, now; the good and its blessed results and rewards, but dimly seen now, will be fully displayed then,--during the Millennium.

But some one inquires, If this be God's plan, for redeeming the world by the death of his Son and justifying and restoring all who believe in and accept of him, and obey and love righteousness, why did not the Millennial reign of Christ with its favorable conditions and powerful restraints begin at once, as soon as Christ had given the ransom price at Calvary; instead of compelling those who would follow righteousness, to sail through bloody seas and suffer for righteousness sake? Or else, why not have postponed the giving of the ransom until the close of the six thousand years of evil and the inauguration of the Millennial reign? Or, at least, if the present order of events is best in the divine wisdom, why does not God specially protect from calamities, accidents, sorrow, pain, death, etc., those who have fully accepted of Christ and who have sacrificed and are using their all in the service of righteousness?

Ah yes! The subject would be incomplete were this point left untouched. The consecrated saints, the church of the Gospel age, are a "peculiar people," different from the rest of the redeemed race; and God's dealings with them are peculiar and different also. Inasmuch as it was God's purpose to highly honor and exalt our Lord Jesus far above all others, because of his faithful obedience even to self-sacrifice, so it was his purpose to select a "little flock" for his companionship in glory, who, after being justified by Christ's sacrifice and reconciled to God by the death of his Son, should develop so much of a likeness to his Son, by intently following his words and example, that they, like him (though far less fully than he because of weaknesses of the flesh), should likewise so love righteousness and truth, and so delight to do God's will, that they would do it at any cost or sacrifice of earthly pleasures, or comforts, or esteem among men--even unto death.

The space of time between the giving of the ransom for all, and the establishment of the kingdom which is to bestow upon mankind the blessings purchased, is for the very purpose of selecting a "little flock" of under kings and priests, Christ's companions in the honors and work of the Kingdom, otherwise called, as a class, "the Bride, the Lamb's wife." The selection of this class must take place during a time when evil, trouble and sin have sway in the world; for it is by the special opposition of evil and sin, to God's plan and to all in harmony with it, that these are to be specially tried and tested; that only "overcomers" shall be selected and given this very honorable and responsible position.

Not only is this class required to follow after righteousness and truth, and to support them and oppose sin, to their present discomfort and loss, but they are required to do all this on the strength of faith, outward evidences being often contrary to faith. A part of their test is, that they must walk by faith and not by sight. They are to believe God's promises though every outward circumstance seems to contradict it. This is part of their lesson as well as part of their trial.

They are to believe God's testimony, that death and trouble entered the world as a result of Adam's sin, and that a fall from perfection took place in Eden, no matter what speculations among scientists may suggest to the contrary,--as that Adam was evolved from an ape, and that the Bible story of the fall, the condemnation and the redemption are alike unscientific; that Christ, like Confucius, was a great teacher, but nothing more; that he accomplished no redemption and that none could have been needful or required. The saints are to shun all such babblings of science and philosophy, falsely so-called, and to walk by faith in God's revelation.-- `Rom. 5:12-20`.

Though they see errors flourish and Scriptural truths spurned and disregarded, they are to disregard numbers and human traditions and, by faith, hold to God's Word. Though told by God that they are redeemed and no longer under his

condemnation and disfavor with the rest of the world, they are to believe and walk by faith, nothing doubting, even though they are not the recipients of special earthly favors, and even though they, like others, have a share of sickness, pain and death.

Their advantages are often less than those of other men, and their course often much more up-hill and rough. They walk by faith and not by sight, however; they endure as seeing him who is invisible, and the crown which is invisible, and the kingdom which is invisible, and as though they already had everlasting life, though they die like other men. In all these things, yea, in everything, they are required to walk by faith and not by sight, if they would be crowned overcomers and made heirs in the coming kingdom.

Their advantages are all invisible to the world, and are seen only by the eye of faith. Their peace and joy are dependent upon their knowledge and trust of God and his plan; and their knowledge and trust depend upon their faith in his Word of promise. By faith they "know [even when outward evidences seem contrary] that all things are working together" for their ultimate good, and that the glories and blessings of the future shall far over-balance all the trials and troubles and wounds of the present; and so believing from such a standpoint, it is well said that these have a joy and peace, even amid tribulation, which the world can neither give nor take away.

What advantage, then, hath a true, consecrated Christian in the present time? Much every way; both in the life that now is, and also in that which is to come. All things are yours; for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's, and ye are accepted of God in and through the merit of Christ.

"Soul, then know thy full salvation,

Rise o'er sin and fear and care;

Joy to find in every station,

Something still to do or bear."

No matter how dark the clouds, no matter how unfavorable the circumstance on its surface, thou hast the heavenly assurance, that--

"All must work for good to thee."

Even those things which may seem to be, and to the world are, accidents, cannot be so regarded in connection with these so peculiarly precious in God's sight. Nothing transpires without your Father's knowledge --not even a sparrow falls, nor a hair of your heads. And since infinite wisdom, infinite love, and infinite power are pledged to our aid, and guarantee us against all that would not be for our ultimate good, with how much confidence and trust all such may free themselves from harassing care and anxiety, and with how much courage they may press on, committing their way unto the Lord, and engaging heart and hand and brain in his service; for we also "know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord." Like their Master, such shall yet see results for all their travail of soul which will fully recompense or satisfy them. Such may rejoice even in tribulation, knowing the results. Even the families of the saints, and all that concerns them, are precious to the Lord for their sakes.

Courage, then, dear family of God! Be strong! quit you like men! Endure hardness as good soldiers; endure as seeing the Lord and the prize, though they are invisible except to your eye of faith. Expect not to reign, nor to be exempted from trial and sufferings, until the battle is ended--until Evil (sin, as well as disaster, trouble and death, its accompaniments) shall be removed by our Redeemer, who soon is to take his great power and reign to deliver the groaning creation from all its present distresses.

"Behold, we bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people." (`Luke 2:10`.) Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord; for though for a little moment he hid his face and permitted calamities to scourge and destroy his creatures because of their transgression, yet in great mercy he hath provided our ransom price; yea, he hath highly exalted him to be both Priest and King to cleanse from sin, and to rule to perfect all who will then submit their hearts to him and obey him. From such he shall wipe away all tears; and sorrow and dying, and every evil, shall be no more. "Behold, I make all things new."

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