“But,”says one,“where is the fiery chariot that is to accomplish a cleavage between the Elijah and Elisha classes?”We offer the suggestion that the fiery horses are lurid prophecies; the horsemen are Ezekiel and John, and the chariot is the vehicle in which their Message is brought to the Elijah class. And do the Elijah class take to that vehicle? Theydo. And why? Because“the sheep follow Him; for they know His voice.”(John 10:4.) The separation between the Elijah and Elisha classes will be brought about in a perfectly natural way, by some using the chariot which the Lord provides, and others recognizing it, but not attempting to use it to mount to the skies. And what should we expect such a fiery chariot would do when caught up into the heavens? The answer is prophetic,“The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved;”“The heavens shall pass away with a great noise;”“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf[pg 064]falleth from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.”(2 Pet. 3:12, 10; Isa. 34:4.) Evidently the circulation of the penny will have something to do with the burning of the tares!—Matt. 13:40-43; Isa. 21:9.Forty days after Christ's resurrection His ascension occurred. This confirms the hope of the Church's glorification forty years (a year for a day) after the awakening of the sleeping saints in the Spring of 1878. The seven days before the Deluge may represent seven years, from 1914 to 1921, in the midst of which“week of years”the last members of the Messiah pass beyond the veil. The Great Company class shall be cut off at its end—the fact that we see the first half of this week so distinctly marked would lead us to expect three and one-half years more of witnessing by the Great Company class; for it seems to be the Heavenly Father's way to accomplish His work by weeks and half weeks, from the very beginning of creation until now. The covenant with Abraham, 2045 B. C., was half way (2081 years each way) between the fall of Adam, 4127 B. C., and the conversion of Cornelius, A. D. 36. The last observance of a typical jubilee by Israel, 626 B. C., was half way (2500 years each way) from the end of Adam's Day, 3127 B. C., and the beginning of the Times of Restitution, A. D. 1874. The captivity, 606 B. C., marks the beginning of the Times of the Gentiles, half way (2520 years each way) between the end of Adam's 1000-year day, 3127 B. C., and the end of Gentile Times, A. D. 1914. The captivity, 606 B. C., marks a point half way (3520 years each way) between the fall of man, 4127 B. C., and his full restoration to Divine favor, A. D. 2914. Christ's death, A. D. 33, marks a point half way (1845 years each way) between the death of Jacob, 1813 B. C., and the restoration of favor to Israel in 1878 A. D. The death of Christ, A. D. 33, was half way (three and one-half years each way) between His baptism, A. D. 29, and the conversion of Cornelius, A. D. 36.Chronological Chart of RevelationThe awakening of the sleeping saints, A. D. 1878, was just half way (three and one-half years each way) between the beginning of the Times of Restitution in 1874 and the close of the High Calling in 1881. Our proposition is that the glorification of the little Flock in the Spring of 1918 A. D. will be half way (three and one-half years each way) between the close of the Gentile Times and the close of the Heavenly Way, A. D. 1921. The three days' (three years—1918-1921) fruitless search for Elijah (2 Kings 2:17-18) is a confirmation of this view. We shall wait to see; but we shall not be indifferent while we wait, lest peradventure another, more zealous, take the[pg 065]crown we have. The time is not long: but if we have to go on for fifty years, why should we care? We are the Lord's. Let Him do as He will with His own.The Seven Messengers To The ChurchWrite.—Pastor Russell was the most prolific writer of Biblical truth that ever lived.—Ezek. 9:2, 3.These things saith the Amen.—The same word translated“verily”in the Gospels and so often used by our Lord as a solemn prefix to some important announcement.AND the faithful and true Witness.—Trinitarians witness that Christ and the Father are one in person. Christ Himself witnesses,“It is also written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me.”(John 8:17, 18.) Christ was one, and the Father was one; and one plus one are two. (This lesson in mathematics is for Doctors of Divinity; school children will not need it.)—Rev. 1:5; 19:11.AND the Beginning of the [creation] CHURCH of God.—Either reading is correct. Our Lord was the Beginning of the New Creation, but, more than that, He was the Beginning ofallcreation.“He is the Image of the invisible God—First-born of all creation; because by Him were all things created, those in the heavens and those on the earth, visible and invisible—whether thrones, or lordships, or governments, or authorities: all things were created by Him and for Him, and He precedes all things, and in Him all things have been permanently placed. (Col. 1:15-18.) Hear also the word of prophecy concerning the Only-Begotten, not only declaring His coming exaltation as King of earthly kings, but describing Him as already being Jehovah'sFirst-born, saying,‘I will make Him, My First-born, higher than the kings of the earth.’(Psa. 89:27.)”—E.95, 86.3:15.I know thy works.—“The Laodicean Church has much zeal, but not according to knowledge. She claims that her principal object is to convert sinners, to bring forth spiritual children. The Prophet puts these words into the mouth of nominal Christians when they awake to a knowledge of the situation:‘We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the earth fallen (become converted).’(Isa. 26:16-18.)”(Z. '16-347.) The literal city of Laodicea was distinguished for the raven blackness of the fleeces (black sheep) there to be had.That thou are neither cold.—Making no pretense whatever to be exponents of God's Truth.—Luke 7:36-50.[pg 066]Nor hot.—Full of warm, loving devotion to Christ.—2 Tim. 3:5; Ezek. 5:6.I would thou wert cold or hot.—“Ephraim is a cake not turned.”—Hos. 7:8.3:16.So then.—“The Spring of 1878, corresponding to the date at which our Lord assumed the office of King, rode on the ass, cleansed the Temple of its money-changers, and wept over and gave up to desolation that nominal church or kingdom, marks the date from which the nominal church systems are not the mouth-pieces of God, nor in any degree recognized by Him.”—B. 235.Because thou art THUS lukewarm and ART neither [cold nor hot] HOT NOR COLD.—“Retaining the forms of worship and faith in a Creator and in a future life, but viewing these chiefly through their own or other men's philosophies and theories, and ignoring the Bible as an infallible teacher of the Divine purposes. These, while retaining the Bible, disbelieve its narratives, especially that of Eden and the fall. Retaining the name of Jesus, and calling Him the Christ and the Savior, they regard Him merely as an excellent though not infallible Exemplar, and reject entirely His Ransom-sacrifice—His cross. Claiming the Fatherhood of God to extend to sinners, they repudiate both the curse and the Mediator.”—C. 167.[I will spue thee out of My] REFRAIN THY mouth.—She is bidden to hold her peace. She needs tostudy, not to teach; and so the following verses indicate.—Hos. 5:6; 9:12.3:17.Because thou sayest I am rich.—I have all the spiritual light that exists in the world.“I have much goods laid up for many years.”(Luke 12:19.)“I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”—Rev. 18:7; Hos. 12:8; 1 Cor. 4:8.And Increased with goods.—“Laodiceans count their numbers and their donations by millions, and say,‘We are rich as never before.’Alas, that they do not realize that these are earthly riches of the kind which our Lord declares are no evidence of His favor during this Gospel Age, but rather to the contrary! And they see not the true riches which the Lord admires, and which are the foretaste of His favor and the coming Kingdom wealth.”—Z. '01-56.And have need of nothing.—“They will not own that they have departed from the right ways of the Lord: in their own estimation they are rich and increased with goods, spiritual as well as temporal, and have need of nothing.”—Mal. 3:7; Z. '92-261.[pg 067]And knowest not that thou.—Of all others, so the Greek indicates.Art wretched.—“To our eternal disgrace, the United States leads all civilized countries in homicides—over 8,000 yearly. There are twelve murders in New England to one in London; in California seventy-five to one; in Nevada 245 to one.”(Z. '08-83.)“Each nation feels that theirs is the greatest talent, theirs are the finest guns, theirs the best everything; and it is this feeling of self-sufficiency that led the nations into the present conflict. They think that they are so good and so great that God could not help giving them the victory.”—Z. '15-174.And miserable.—“How blind we all have been not to have noticed: (1) That the numbers of the heathen in proportion even to the nominally Christian doubled last century; (2) That if we could bring all the heathen up to the standard of our most civilized nation it would mean that God's will would be less done the world over than it is now.”—Z. '08-83.And poor.—“The Laodicean Church is poor in that she has so little of the Master's Spirit, so little of the Truth and of the Spirit of the Truth.”—Z. '01-56.And blind.—“She cannot see afar off, cannot see either the High Calling of the Church or the blessed provisions of Restitution for the world in general.”—Z. '98-128.And naked.—“The clergy, under the name of Higher Criticism and Evolution, are rapidly denuding her, making her naked, taking from her the robe of Christ's righteousness, and leading her to trust, not in the precious blood of the Redeemer, but in an evolutionary process which needs no Savior, which denies that there is, or has been, any sin to make atonement for.”—Z. '01-56.3:18.I counsel thee.—“Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me into glory.”—Psa. 73:24.To buy of Me.—“Not until we lay hold by faith upon theexceeding great and preciouspromises is there any of the‘gold’of the‘Divine nature’in us. This treasure can bepurchasedonly at the cost of entire consecration, or sacrifice of all that we have, to Christ”—Z. '96-44; Prov. 23:23; Matt. 13:44.Gold tried in the fire.—“If we would purchase the‘goldtried in the fire,’it must be at the cost of faithful and constant submission to the discipline of the Lord in fiery trials. How otherwise can the dross be eliminated? There is no other way. Wherefore, think it not strange; let the fire burn; let the dross be consumed; and see to it, beloved, that in the heat of the flame you remove not the‘living sacrifice.’”—Z. '96-44; 1 Pet. 4:12.[pg 068]That thou mayest be rich.—“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”—2 Cor. 8:9; Prov. 10:22; Lu. 12:21; 1 Tim. 6:18; Jas. 2:5; Rev. 2:9.And white raiment.—“The robe of Christ's imputed righteousness, which so many are now discarding, to appear before God in their own unrighteousness.”—D. 42; Rev. 19:8.That thou mayest be clothed.—“A glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”—Eph. 5:27.And that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.—“Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”—Rev. 16:15; Matt. 22:11-13; Isa. 47:3.And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve.—From the Great Physician. (Mark 2:17.)“Complete consecration and submission to the Divine will as expressed in the Scriptures.”—D. 42.That thou mayest see.—“The‘master of the house’or‘householder’of the present dispensation is notourLord, butourAdversary, the Devil—‘the god of this world,’‘the prince of the power of the air,’‘the prince of this world,’who now ruleth in the children of disobedience,blindingthe minds of all that believe not.”—D. 611; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; Psa. 13:3; 19:8; John 9:6, 41.3:19.As many as I love.—“As many as are honest and at heart loyal to God.”—Z. '92-59.I rebuke and chasten.—“‘My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.’—Prov. 3:11, 12; Heb. 12:5-8.”—Z. '96-44; Job 5:17; Jas. 1:12.Be zealous, therefore, and repent.—“The lawyer who makes legality his test instead of justice; the merchant who is satisfied simply to conform to the code of his trade, whose excuse for any dishonesty is,‘They all do it’; the‘gentleman’or‘lady’who puts good form and manners in the place of sincerity and kindliness of heart, and politeness in place of courtesy—all are alike animated by the ecclesiastical conscience. It was this ecclesiastical mind and this ecclesiastical conscience which crucified Jesus Christ (Rt. Rev. Chas. D. Williams, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Michigan.)”—Z. '15-339.3:20.Behold, I stand at the door.—Some of the Scriptures, which, when understood in their connections and significance, prove that the Lord's Second Advent occurred in the fall of 1874 are as follows:“Speak ye comfortably[pg 069]to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's handdoublefor all her sins.”(Isa. 40:2; B. 227.)“And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sindouble.”(Jer. 16:18; B. 218.)“Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: eventodaydo I declare that I will renderdoubleunto thee.”(Zech. 9:12; B. 224.)“Thefourteenthday of the second month, at even, they shall keep it.”(Num. 9:11; Z. '98-68.)“And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there weretwins.”(Gen. 25:24; Z. '94-63.)“And when he was fullfortyyears old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren. And whenfortyyears were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord.”“Wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the Wildernessfortyyears.”—Acts 7:23, 30, 36; Z. '11-215.“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.”(Dan. 12:12; C. 83.)“Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement.”(Lev. 25:9; B. 187.)“As long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.”(2 Chron. 36:21; B. 195.)“In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.”(Isa. 19:19, 20; C. 315.)“The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.”(1 Pet. 3:21; Z. '05-181, Diagram.)“In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, he made a proclamation.”(Ezra 1:1; Z. '05-185.)“This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.”(Ezra 6:15; Z. '05-185.)“This Ezra went up from Babylon.... And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.”(Ezra 7:6-8; Z. '05-185.)“In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king.”—Neh. 2:1; Z. '05-185.Besides the above Scriptures, time-proofs of the Lord's Return, are the fulfilments of the promised signs: The Gospel has been preached in all the world for a witness: (Matt. 24:14; A. 91); the abomination has beenseenin the holy place (Matt. 24:15; D. 572); the flight of the saints from the antitypical“Judea”has occurred (Matt. 24:16; D. 573); the great tribulation has commenced (Matt. 24:21; D. 540); the false Christs are with us (Matt. 24:23; D. 580); the eagles have gathered to the carcase[pg 070](Matt. 24:28; D. 610); the sun and moon have been darkened (Matt. 24:29; D. 590); the Man of Sin has been revealed (2 Thes. 2:8; T. 86; B. 271); the Elias has come (Mal. 4:5; B. 251); the regathering of the Jews has begun (Jer. 31:8; Z. '06-84); the refining of the sons of Levi progresses (Mal. 3:1-3; Z. '05-378); the true faith was nearly extinct in the earth (Luke 18:8; Z. '06-265); the doctrines of devils are rampant (1 Tim. 4:1; F. 621); the perilous times and all associated evils are here (2 Tim. 3:1-7; Z. '99-99); the Lord God has given the sinners water of gall to drink (Jer. 8:14; C. 158); the mighty angel has roared,“Come out of her”(Rev. 18:4; C. 155); the running to and fro is in evidence (Dan. 12:4; C. 63); the antitypical Josiah has kept the great Passover (2 Chron. 35:19; Z. '05-180); the land shadowed with wings has played its part (Isa. 18:1; Z. '04-230); the watchman has stood upon his tower (Hab. 2:1; C. 89); the wheels within wheels are made clear (Ezek. 1:15); the Prophet has come to the rebellious house (Ezek. 2:3); he has eaten the book of her fate (Ezek. 2:9); the seven years of astonishment are finished (Ezek. 3:15); the sieges of 390 years and 40 years are at an end (Ezek. 4:5, 6); the image of jealousy has been disclosed (Ezek. 8:3); the man with the writer's inkhorn has performed his task (Ezek. 9:2); the removing is at an end (Ezek. 14:21); the sword has been doubled the third time (Ezek. 21:15); the point of the sword has been made bright (Ezek. 21:15); ecclesiasticism has been delivered unto brutish persons (Ezek. 21:31); the desire of the faithful servant's eyes has failed (Ezek. 24:16); the stilled voice is speaking again.—Ezek. 33:22.The seven thunders have uttered their voices (Rev. 10:3); the seven last plagues have been poured out (Rev. 15:6); the voices of the three signs have been uttered (Exod. 4:3-9; Z. '07-276); the ribband of blue (the Vow) has done its work (Num. 15:38); the tares and wheat have been separated (Matt. 13:30; C. 139); the net has been drawn to the shore and the fish sorted (Matt. 13:48; C. 214); the ambassadors of peace have wept bitterly (Isa. 33:7); the foolish virgins have had their sound sleep (Matt. 25:5; C. 92); the seven seals have been opened (Rev. 8:1); the seven angels have sounded (Rev. 10:7; B. 149); the nations are angry (Rev. 11:18); the winepress of God's wrath has been trodden (Rev. 14:20); the horses and chariot of fire have come for Elijah (2 Kings 2:11); the chariots are running like lightning (Nah. 2:4; C. 272); the mighty angel has flown in the midst of heaven (Rev. 14:6); the false worshippers have been tormented[pg 071]with fire and brimstone (Rev. 14:10); Behemoth and Leviathan have been beheld doing their work (Job 40:15-23; 41:1-34); the secret of the Lord has been shown (Psa. 25:14; Z. '97-255); the Lord is judging His people and gathering His saints (Psa. 50:4, 5; D. 75; B. 164); the lightnings have enlightened the world (Psa. 97:4; A. 171); the hills have melted like wax (Psa. 97:5; D. 551); the banner has been lifted on the high mount (Isa. 13:2; D. 40); the tables are full of vomit (Isa. 28:8; Z. '07-91); the dumb dogs have failed to bark (Isa. 56:10; F. 287); the silver has been cast into the streets (Ezek. 7:19); the nations have all been shaken (Hag. 2:7; D. 528); the rain, floods and winds have come on Christendom (Matt. 7:27; Z. '06-95); the King has come in to see the guests (Matt. 22:11; C. 197); the speechless one has been bound hand and foot and cast out (Matt. 22:13; C. 201); the Master is reckoning with His servants (Matt. 25:19; F. 419); the seas and the waves are roaring (Luke 21:25; D. 551); the 144,000 are standing on the sea of glass singing (Rev. 15:3; C. 237); the Devil has risen up against himself (Mark 3:26; F. 641); the blood, fire and vapor of smoke are here (Acts 2:19; D. 592); the brethren are not in darkness and all others are (1 Thes. 5:4; B. 121); the teachers having itching ears have turned unto fables (2 Tim. 4:3; 4; F. 287; Z. '07-308); the twenty-four elders have cast their crowns before the throne (Rev. 4:10); the predicted scoffing has taken place (2 Pet. 3:3; B. 167); the laborers have received their penny (Matt. 20:8); and these are but 88 of the proofs hastily collected.And knock.—“The knock, or proclamation of the Lord's Presence, as indicated by the Old Testament prophecies, has been given since 1875 and is still being given.”—Z. '04-124; Lu. 12:36; Cant. 5:2-6.If any man hear My voice.—“The knock is to be the evidence of the Presence; and the servants are not to know in advance, but are to know at the time of the arrival and that without seeing.”—Z. '04-123.[And] I WILL BOTH open the door.—When once we give the Lord a welcome to our hearts, how He does open the doors to joys we ne'er before knew![I will] AND come in to him.—“If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.”—John 14:23.And will sup.—Take the evening meal.—Lu. 12:37.With him.—The Master Himself is feasting on the same joys of the Father's Plan that delight our own hearts.[pg 072]And he with Me.—“This serving of the servants by the Master should be understood to be an individual work, and not merely a collective service and feast.”—Z. '04-124.3:21.To him that overcometh.—“Let us not avoid the Gethsemane moment if it come to us in the Lord's providence, but let us also with strong cryings and tears look up to Him who is able to save us out of death by the glorious First Resurrection; and let us remember that if we abide in His love, He is able and willing to bring us off conquerors, yea, more than conquerors through His own merit.”—Z. '06-348.Will I grant.—If they prove faithful unto death.To sit with Me.—“With the early Church, the promises of Kingdom honor and joint-heirship with the Master were strong incentives to faithfulness under present trials and persecutions, which they had been forewarned to expect.”—A. 285.In My Throne.—“God's appointed means of blessing the world and causing the knowledge of the Lord to come to every creature.”—A. 91; 1 Cor. 6:2; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 2:26, 27; 22:1.Even as I also overcame.—“God sent an angel to comfort and minister unto Him; to assure Him still of the Divine favor, and thus to give Him fresh courage, strength of mind and steadiness of nerve to endure all that was before Him, even unto death. The bitterness of the mental conflict was now over, and the light of Heaven shining into His soul chased away the deep gloom that had hung over Him like a funeral pall.”—Z. '06-348.And am set down with My Father in His Throne.—“The thousand years of the Millennial Reign will constitute but a beginning of the exercise of the glory, honor and immortality of these New Creatures. At its close when the Kingdom shall be delivered up to‘God, even the Father,’and to mankind as the glorified agents of the Father to rule the earth, a still larger sphere for the exercise of their glory, honor and immortality will open before the New Creation.”—F. 69; 1 Cor. 15:24-28.3:22.He that hath an ear.—“Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.”—Matt. 13:16.Let him hear.—“For verily I say unto you, That many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.”—Matt. 13:17.What the Spirit saith unto the churches.—Unto the seven epochs, ending, respectively, in A. D. 73, 325, 1160, 1378, 1518, 1874 and 1918.
“But,”says one,“where is the fiery chariot that is to accomplish a cleavage between the Elijah and Elisha classes?”We offer the suggestion that the fiery horses are lurid prophecies; the horsemen are Ezekiel and John, and the chariot is the vehicle in which their Message is brought to the Elijah class. And do the Elijah class take to that vehicle? Theydo. And why? Because“the sheep follow Him; for they know His voice.”(John 10:4.) The separation between the Elijah and Elisha classes will be brought about in a perfectly natural way, by some using the chariot which the Lord provides, and others recognizing it, but not attempting to use it to mount to the skies. And what should we expect such a fiery chariot would do when caught up into the heavens? The answer is prophetic,“The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved;”“The heavens shall pass away with a great noise;”“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf[pg 064]falleth from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.”(2 Pet. 3:12, 10; Isa. 34:4.) Evidently the circulation of the penny will have something to do with the burning of the tares!—Matt. 13:40-43; Isa. 21:9.Forty days after Christ's resurrection His ascension occurred. This confirms the hope of the Church's glorification forty years (a year for a day) after the awakening of the sleeping saints in the Spring of 1878. The seven days before the Deluge may represent seven years, from 1914 to 1921, in the midst of which“week of years”the last members of the Messiah pass beyond the veil. The Great Company class shall be cut off at its end—the fact that we see the first half of this week so distinctly marked would lead us to expect three and one-half years more of witnessing by the Great Company class; for it seems to be the Heavenly Father's way to accomplish His work by weeks and half weeks, from the very beginning of creation until now. The covenant with Abraham, 2045 B. C., was half way (2081 years each way) between the fall of Adam, 4127 B. C., and the conversion of Cornelius, A. D. 36. The last observance of a typical jubilee by Israel, 626 B. C., was half way (2500 years each way) from the end of Adam's Day, 3127 B. C., and the beginning of the Times of Restitution, A. D. 1874. The captivity, 606 B. C., marks the beginning of the Times of the Gentiles, half way (2520 years each way) between the end of Adam's 1000-year day, 3127 B. C., and the end of Gentile Times, A. D. 1914. The captivity, 606 B. C., marks a point half way (3520 years each way) between the fall of man, 4127 B. C., and his full restoration to Divine favor, A. D. 2914. Christ's death, A. D. 33, marks a point half way (1845 years each way) between the death of Jacob, 1813 B. C., and the restoration of favor to Israel in 1878 A. D. The death of Christ, A. D. 33, was half way (three and one-half years each way) between His baptism, A. D. 29, and the conversion of Cornelius, A. D. 36.Chronological Chart of RevelationThe awakening of the sleeping saints, A. D. 1878, was just half way (three and one-half years each way) between the beginning of the Times of Restitution in 1874 and the close of the High Calling in 1881. Our proposition is that the glorification of the little Flock in the Spring of 1918 A. D. will be half way (three and one-half years each way) between the close of the Gentile Times and the close of the Heavenly Way, A. D. 1921. The three days' (three years—1918-1921) fruitless search for Elijah (2 Kings 2:17-18) is a confirmation of this view. We shall wait to see; but we shall not be indifferent while we wait, lest peradventure another, more zealous, take the[pg 065]crown we have. The time is not long: but if we have to go on for fifty years, why should we care? We are the Lord's. Let Him do as He will with His own.The Seven Messengers To The ChurchWrite.—Pastor Russell was the most prolific writer of Biblical truth that ever lived.—Ezek. 9:2, 3.These things saith the Amen.—The same word translated“verily”in the Gospels and so often used by our Lord as a solemn prefix to some important announcement.AND the faithful and true Witness.—Trinitarians witness that Christ and the Father are one in person. Christ Himself witnesses,“It is also written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me.”(John 8:17, 18.) Christ was one, and the Father was one; and one plus one are two. (This lesson in mathematics is for Doctors of Divinity; school children will not need it.)—Rev. 1:5; 19:11.AND the Beginning of the [creation] CHURCH of God.—Either reading is correct. Our Lord was the Beginning of the New Creation, but, more than that, He was the Beginning ofallcreation.“He is the Image of the invisible God—First-born of all creation; because by Him were all things created, those in the heavens and those on the earth, visible and invisible—whether thrones, or lordships, or governments, or authorities: all things were created by Him and for Him, and He precedes all things, and in Him all things have been permanently placed. (Col. 1:15-18.) Hear also the word of prophecy concerning the Only-Begotten, not only declaring His coming exaltation as King of earthly kings, but describing Him as already being Jehovah'sFirst-born, saying,‘I will make Him, My First-born, higher than the kings of the earth.’(Psa. 89:27.)”—E.95, 86.3:15.I know thy works.—“The Laodicean Church has much zeal, but not according to knowledge. She claims that her principal object is to convert sinners, to bring forth spiritual children. The Prophet puts these words into the mouth of nominal Christians when they awake to a knowledge of the situation:‘We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the earth fallen (become converted).’(Isa. 26:16-18.)”(Z. '16-347.) The literal city of Laodicea was distinguished for the raven blackness of the fleeces (black sheep) there to be had.That thou are neither cold.—Making no pretense whatever to be exponents of God's Truth.—Luke 7:36-50.[pg 066]Nor hot.—Full of warm, loving devotion to Christ.—2 Tim. 3:5; Ezek. 5:6.I would thou wert cold or hot.—“Ephraim is a cake not turned.”—Hos. 7:8.3:16.So then.—“The Spring of 1878, corresponding to the date at which our Lord assumed the office of King, rode on the ass, cleansed the Temple of its money-changers, and wept over and gave up to desolation that nominal church or kingdom, marks the date from which the nominal church systems are not the mouth-pieces of God, nor in any degree recognized by Him.”—B. 235.Because thou art THUS lukewarm and ART neither [cold nor hot] HOT NOR COLD.—“Retaining the forms of worship and faith in a Creator and in a future life, but viewing these chiefly through their own or other men's philosophies and theories, and ignoring the Bible as an infallible teacher of the Divine purposes. These, while retaining the Bible, disbelieve its narratives, especially that of Eden and the fall. Retaining the name of Jesus, and calling Him the Christ and the Savior, they regard Him merely as an excellent though not infallible Exemplar, and reject entirely His Ransom-sacrifice—His cross. Claiming the Fatherhood of God to extend to sinners, they repudiate both the curse and the Mediator.”—C. 167.[I will spue thee out of My] REFRAIN THY mouth.—She is bidden to hold her peace. She needs tostudy, not to teach; and so the following verses indicate.—Hos. 5:6; 9:12.3:17.Because thou sayest I am rich.—I have all the spiritual light that exists in the world.“I have much goods laid up for many years.”(Luke 12:19.)“I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”—Rev. 18:7; Hos. 12:8; 1 Cor. 4:8.And Increased with goods.—“Laodiceans count their numbers and their donations by millions, and say,‘We are rich as never before.’Alas, that they do not realize that these are earthly riches of the kind which our Lord declares are no evidence of His favor during this Gospel Age, but rather to the contrary! And they see not the true riches which the Lord admires, and which are the foretaste of His favor and the coming Kingdom wealth.”—Z. '01-56.And have need of nothing.—“They will not own that they have departed from the right ways of the Lord: in their own estimation they are rich and increased with goods, spiritual as well as temporal, and have need of nothing.”—Mal. 3:7; Z. '92-261.[pg 067]And knowest not that thou.—Of all others, so the Greek indicates.Art wretched.—“To our eternal disgrace, the United States leads all civilized countries in homicides—over 8,000 yearly. There are twelve murders in New England to one in London; in California seventy-five to one; in Nevada 245 to one.”(Z. '08-83.)“Each nation feels that theirs is the greatest talent, theirs are the finest guns, theirs the best everything; and it is this feeling of self-sufficiency that led the nations into the present conflict. They think that they are so good and so great that God could not help giving them the victory.”—Z. '15-174.And miserable.—“How blind we all have been not to have noticed: (1) That the numbers of the heathen in proportion even to the nominally Christian doubled last century; (2) That if we could bring all the heathen up to the standard of our most civilized nation it would mean that God's will would be less done the world over than it is now.”—Z. '08-83.And poor.—“The Laodicean Church is poor in that she has so little of the Master's Spirit, so little of the Truth and of the Spirit of the Truth.”—Z. '01-56.And blind.—“She cannot see afar off, cannot see either the High Calling of the Church or the blessed provisions of Restitution for the world in general.”—Z. '98-128.And naked.—“The clergy, under the name of Higher Criticism and Evolution, are rapidly denuding her, making her naked, taking from her the robe of Christ's righteousness, and leading her to trust, not in the precious blood of the Redeemer, but in an evolutionary process which needs no Savior, which denies that there is, or has been, any sin to make atonement for.”—Z. '01-56.3:18.I counsel thee.—“Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me into glory.”—Psa. 73:24.To buy of Me.—“Not until we lay hold by faith upon theexceeding great and preciouspromises is there any of the‘gold’of the‘Divine nature’in us. This treasure can bepurchasedonly at the cost of entire consecration, or sacrifice of all that we have, to Christ”—Z. '96-44; Prov. 23:23; Matt. 13:44.Gold tried in the fire.—“If we would purchase the‘goldtried in the fire,’it must be at the cost of faithful and constant submission to the discipline of the Lord in fiery trials. How otherwise can the dross be eliminated? There is no other way. Wherefore, think it not strange; let the fire burn; let the dross be consumed; and see to it, beloved, that in the heat of the flame you remove not the‘living sacrifice.’”—Z. '96-44; 1 Pet. 4:12.[pg 068]That thou mayest be rich.—“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”—2 Cor. 8:9; Prov. 10:22; Lu. 12:21; 1 Tim. 6:18; Jas. 2:5; Rev. 2:9.And white raiment.—“The robe of Christ's imputed righteousness, which so many are now discarding, to appear before God in their own unrighteousness.”—D. 42; Rev. 19:8.That thou mayest be clothed.—“A glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”—Eph. 5:27.And that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.—“Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”—Rev. 16:15; Matt. 22:11-13; Isa. 47:3.And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve.—From the Great Physician. (Mark 2:17.)“Complete consecration and submission to the Divine will as expressed in the Scriptures.”—D. 42.That thou mayest see.—“The‘master of the house’or‘householder’of the present dispensation is notourLord, butourAdversary, the Devil—‘the god of this world,’‘the prince of the power of the air,’‘the prince of this world,’who now ruleth in the children of disobedience,blindingthe minds of all that believe not.”—D. 611; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; Psa. 13:3; 19:8; John 9:6, 41.3:19.As many as I love.—“As many as are honest and at heart loyal to God.”—Z. '92-59.I rebuke and chasten.—“‘My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.’—Prov. 3:11, 12; Heb. 12:5-8.”—Z. '96-44; Job 5:17; Jas. 1:12.Be zealous, therefore, and repent.—“The lawyer who makes legality his test instead of justice; the merchant who is satisfied simply to conform to the code of his trade, whose excuse for any dishonesty is,‘They all do it’; the‘gentleman’or‘lady’who puts good form and manners in the place of sincerity and kindliness of heart, and politeness in place of courtesy—all are alike animated by the ecclesiastical conscience. It was this ecclesiastical mind and this ecclesiastical conscience which crucified Jesus Christ (Rt. Rev. Chas. D. Williams, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Michigan.)”—Z. '15-339.3:20.Behold, I stand at the door.—Some of the Scriptures, which, when understood in their connections and significance, prove that the Lord's Second Advent occurred in the fall of 1874 are as follows:“Speak ye comfortably[pg 069]to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's handdoublefor all her sins.”(Isa. 40:2; B. 227.)“And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sindouble.”(Jer. 16:18; B. 218.)“Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: eventodaydo I declare that I will renderdoubleunto thee.”(Zech. 9:12; B. 224.)“Thefourteenthday of the second month, at even, they shall keep it.”(Num. 9:11; Z. '98-68.)“And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there weretwins.”(Gen. 25:24; Z. '94-63.)“And when he was fullfortyyears old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren. And whenfortyyears were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord.”“Wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the Wildernessfortyyears.”—Acts 7:23, 30, 36; Z. '11-215.“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.”(Dan. 12:12; C. 83.)“Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement.”(Lev. 25:9; B. 187.)“As long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.”(2 Chron. 36:21; B. 195.)“In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.”(Isa. 19:19, 20; C. 315.)“The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.”(1 Pet. 3:21; Z. '05-181, Diagram.)“In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, he made a proclamation.”(Ezra 1:1; Z. '05-185.)“This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.”(Ezra 6:15; Z. '05-185.)“This Ezra went up from Babylon.... And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.”(Ezra 7:6-8; Z. '05-185.)“In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king.”—Neh. 2:1; Z. '05-185.Besides the above Scriptures, time-proofs of the Lord's Return, are the fulfilments of the promised signs: The Gospel has been preached in all the world for a witness: (Matt. 24:14; A. 91); the abomination has beenseenin the holy place (Matt. 24:15; D. 572); the flight of the saints from the antitypical“Judea”has occurred (Matt. 24:16; D. 573); the great tribulation has commenced (Matt. 24:21; D. 540); the false Christs are with us (Matt. 24:23; D. 580); the eagles have gathered to the carcase[pg 070](Matt. 24:28; D. 610); the sun and moon have been darkened (Matt. 24:29; D. 590); the Man of Sin has been revealed (2 Thes. 2:8; T. 86; B. 271); the Elias has come (Mal. 4:5; B. 251); the regathering of the Jews has begun (Jer. 31:8; Z. '06-84); the refining of the sons of Levi progresses (Mal. 3:1-3; Z. '05-378); the true faith was nearly extinct in the earth (Luke 18:8; Z. '06-265); the doctrines of devils are rampant (1 Tim. 4:1; F. 621); the perilous times and all associated evils are here (2 Tim. 3:1-7; Z. '99-99); the Lord God has given the sinners water of gall to drink (Jer. 8:14; C. 158); the mighty angel has roared,“Come out of her”(Rev. 18:4; C. 155); the running to and fro is in evidence (Dan. 12:4; C. 63); the antitypical Josiah has kept the great Passover (2 Chron. 35:19; Z. '05-180); the land shadowed with wings has played its part (Isa. 18:1; Z. '04-230); the watchman has stood upon his tower (Hab. 2:1; C. 89); the wheels within wheels are made clear (Ezek. 1:15); the Prophet has come to the rebellious house (Ezek. 2:3); he has eaten the book of her fate (Ezek. 2:9); the seven years of astonishment are finished (Ezek. 3:15); the sieges of 390 years and 40 years are at an end (Ezek. 4:5, 6); the image of jealousy has been disclosed (Ezek. 8:3); the man with the writer's inkhorn has performed his task (Ezek. 9:2); the removing is at an end (Ezek. 14:21); the sword has been doubled the third time (Ezek. 21:15); the point of the sword has been made bright (Ezek. 21:15); ecclesiasticism has been delivered unto brutish persons (Ezek. 21:31); the desire of the faithful servant's eyes has failed (Ezek. 24:16); the stilled voice is speaking again.—Ezek. 33:22.The seven thunders have uttered their voices (Rev. 10:3); the seven last plagues have been poured out (Rev. 15:6); the voices of the three signs have been uttered (Exod. 4:3-9; Z. '07-276); the ribband of blue (the Vow) has done its work (Num. 15:38); the tares and wheat have been separated (Matt. 13:30; C. 139); the net has been drawn to the shore and the fish sorted (Matt. 13:48; C. 214); the ambassadors of peace have wept bitterly (Isa. 33:7); the foolish virgins have had their sound sleep (Matt. 25:5; C. 92); the seven seals have been opened (Rev. 8:1); the seven angels have sounded (Rev. 10:7; B. 149); the nations are angry (Rev. 11:18); the winepress of God's wrath has been trodden (Rev. 14:20); the horses and chariot of fire have come for Elijah (2 Kings 2:11); the chariots are running like lightning (Nah. 2:4; C. 272); the mighty angel has flown in the midst of heaven (Rev. 14:6); the false worshippers have been tormented[pg 071]with fire and brimstone (Rev. 14:10); Behemoth and Leviathan have been beheld doing their work (Job 40:15-23; 41:1-34); the secret of the Lord has been shown (Psa. 25:14; Z. '97-255); the Lord is judging His people and gathering His saints (Psa. 50:4, 5; D. 75; B. 164); the lightnings have enlightened the world (Psa. 97:4; A. 171); the hills have melted like wax (Psa. 97:5; D. 551); the banner has been lifted on the high mount (Isa. 13:2; D. 40); the tables are full of vomit (Isa. 28:8; Z. '07-91); the dumb dogs have failed to bark (Isa. 56:10; F. 287); the silver has been cast into the streets (Ezek. 7:19); the nations have all been shaken (Hag. 2:7; D. 528); the rain, floods and winds have come on Christendom (Matt. 7:27; Z. '06-95); the King has come in to see the guests (Matt. 22:11; C. 197); the speechless one has been bound hand and foot and cast out (Matt. 22:13; C. 201); the Master is reckoning with His servants (Matt. 25:19; F. 419); the seas and the waves are roaring (Luke 21:25; D. 551); the 144,000 are standing on the sea of glass singing (Rev. 15:3; C. 237); the Devil has risen up against himself (Mark 3:26; F. 641); the blood, fire and vapor of smoke are here (Acts 2:19; D. 592); the brethren are not in darkness and all others are (1 Thes. 5:4; B. 121); the teachers having itching ears have turned unto fables (2 Tim. 4:3; 4; F. 287; Z. '07-308); the twenty-four elders have cast their crowns before the throne (Rev. 4:10); the predicted scoffing has taken place (2 Pet. 3:3; B. 167); the laborers have received their penny (Matt. 20:8); and these are but 88 of the proofs hastily collected.And knock.—“The knock, or proclamation of the Lord's Presence, as indicated by the Old Testament prophecies, has been given since 1875 and is still being given.”—Z. '04-124; Lu. 12:36; Cant. 5:2-6.If any man hear My voice.—“The knock is to be the evidence of the Presence; and the servants are not to know in advance, but are to know at the time of the arrival and that without seeing.”—Z. '04-123.[And] I WILL BOTH open the door.—When once we give the Lord a welcome to our hearts, how He does open the doors to joys we ne'er before knew![I will] AND come in to him.—“If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.”—John 14:23.And will sup.—Take the evening meal.—Lu. 12:37.With him.—The Master Himself is feasting on the same joys of the Father's Plan that delight our own hearts.[pg 072]And he with Me.—“This serving of the servants by the Master should be understood to be an individual work, and not merely a collective service and feast.”—Z. '04-124.3:21.To him that overcometh.—“Let us not avoid the Gethsemane moment if it come to us in the Lord's providence, but let us also with strong cryings and tears look up to Him who is able to save us out of death by the glorious First Resurrection; and let us remember that if we abide in His love, He is able and willing to bring us off conquerors, yea, more than conquerors through His own merit.”—Z. '06-348.Will I grant.—If they prove faithful unto death.To sit with Me.—“With the early Church, the promises of Kingdom honor and joint-heirship with the Master were strong incentives to faithfulness under present trials and persecutions, which they had been forewarned to expect.”—A. 285.In My Throne.—“God's appointed means of blessing the world and causing the knowledge of the Lord to come to every creature.”—A. 91; 1 Cor. 6:2; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 2:26, 27; 22:1.Even as I also overcame.—“God sent an angel to comfort and minister unto Him; to assure Him still of the Divine favor, and thus to give Him fresh courage, strength of mind and steadiness of nerve to endure all that was before Him, even unto death. The bitterness of the mental conflict was now over, and the light of Heaven shining into His soul chased away the deep gloom that had hung over Him like a funeral pall.”—Z. '06-348.And am set down with My Father in His Throne.—“The thousand years of the Millennial Reign will constitute but a beginning of the exercise of the glory, honor and immortality of these New Creatures. At its close when the Kingdom shall be delivered up to‘God, even the Father,’and to mankind as the glorified agents of the Father to rule the earth, a still larger sphere for the exercise of their glory, honor and immortality will open before the New Creation.”—F. 69; 1 Cor. 15:24-28.3:22.He that hath an ear.—“Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.”—Matt. 13:16.Let him hear.—“For verily I say unto you, That many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.”—Matt. 13:17.What the Spirit saith unto the churches.—Unto the seven epochs, ending, respectively, in A. D. 73, 325, 1160, 1378, 1518, 1874 and 1918.
“But,”says one,“where is the fiery chariot that is to accomplish a cleavage between the Elijah and Elisha classes?”We offer the suggestion that the fiery horses are lurid prophecies; the horsemen are Ezekiel and John, and the chariot is the vehicle in which their Message is brought to the Elijah class. And do the Elijah class take to that vehicle? Theydo. And why? Because“the sheep follow Him; for they know His voice.”(John 10:4.) The separation between the Elijah and Elisha classes will be brought about in a perfectly natural way, by some using the chariot which the Lord provides, and others recognizing it, but not attempting to use it to mount to the skies. And what should we expect such a fiery chariot would do when caught up into the heavens? The answer is prophetic,“The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved;”“The heavens shall pass away with a great noise;”“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf[pg 064]falleth from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.”(2 Pet. 3:12, 10; Isa. 34:4.) Evidently the circulation of the penny will have something to do with the burning of the tares!—Matt. 13:40-43; Isa. 21:9.Forty days after Christ's resurrection His ascension occurred. This confirms the hope of the Church's glorification forty years (a year for a day) after the awakening of the sleeping saints in the Spring of 1878. The seven days before the Deluge may represent seven years, from 1914 to 1921, in the midst of which“week of years”the last members of the Messiah pass beyond the veil. The Great Company class shall be cut off at its end—the fact that we see the first half of this week so distinctly marked would lead us to expect three and one-half years more of witnessing by the Great Company class; for it seems to be the Heavenly Father's way to accomplish His work by weeks and half weeks, from the very beginning of creation until now. The covenant with Abraham, 2045 B. C., was half way (2081 years each way) between the fall of Adam, 4127 B. C., and the conversion of Cornelius, A. D. 36. The last observance of a typical jubilee by Israel, 626 B. C., was half way (2500 years each way) from the end of Adam's Day, 3127 B. C., and the beginning of the Times of Restitution, A. D. 1874. The captivity, 606 B. C., marks the beginning of the Times of the Gentiles, half way (2520 years each way) between the end of Adam's 1000-year day, 3127 B. C., and the end of Gentile Times, A. D. 1914. The captivity, 606 B. C., marks a point half way (3520 years each way) between the fall of man, 4127 B. C., and his full restoration to Divine favor, A. D. 2914. Christ's death, A. D. 33, marks a point half way (1845 years each way) between the death of Jacob, 1813 B. C., and the restoration of favor to Israel in 1878 A. D. The death of Christ, A. D. 33, was half way (three and one-half years each way) between His baptism, A. D. 29, and the conversion of Cornelius, A. D. 36.Chronological Chart of RevelationThe awakening of the sleeping saints, A. D. 1878, was just half way (three and one-half years each way) between the beginning of the Times of Restitution in 1874 and the close of the High Calling in 1881. Our proposition is that the glorification of the little Flock in the Spring of 1918 A. D. will be half way (three and one-half years each way) between the close of the Gentile Times and the close of the Heavenly Way, A. D. 1921. The three days' (three years—1918-1921) fruitless search for Elijah (2 Kings 2:17-18) is a confirmation of this view. We shall wait to see; but we shall not be indifferent while we wait, lest peradventure another, more zealous, take the[pg 065]crown we have. The time is not long: but if we have to go on for fifty years, why should we care? We are the Lord's. Let Him do as He will with His own.The Seven Messengers To The ChurchWrite.—Pastor Russell was the most prolific writer of Biblical truth that ever lived.—Ezek. 9:2, 3.These things saith the Amen.—The same word translated“verily”in the Gospels and so often used by our Lord as a solemn prefix to some important announcement.AND the faithful and true Witness.—Trinitarians witness that Christ and the Father are one in person. Christ Himself witnesses,“It is also written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me.”(John 8:17, 18.) Christ was one, and the Father was one; and one plus one are two. (This lesson in mathematics is for Doctors of Divinity; school children will not need it.)—Rev. 1:5; 19:11.AND the Beginning of the [creation] CHURCH of God.—Either reading is correct. Our Lord was the Beginning of the New Creation, but, more than that, He was the Beginning ofallcreation.“He is the Image of the invisible God—First-born of all creation; because by Him were all things created, those in the heavens and those on the earth, visible and invisible—whether thrones, or lordships, or governments, or authorities: all things were created by Him and for Him, and He precedes all things, and in Him all things have been permanently placed. (Col. 1:15-18.) Hear also the word of prophecy concerning the Only-Begotten, not only declaring His coming exaltation as King of earthly kings, but describing Him as already being Jehovah'sFirst-born, saying,‘I will make Him, My First-born, higher than the kings of the earth.’(Psa. 89:27.)”—E.95, 86.3:15.I know thy works.—“The Laodicean Church has much zeal, but not according to knowledge. She claims that her principal object is to convert sinners, to bring forth spiritual children. The Prophet puts these words into the mouth of nominal Christians when they awake to a knowledge of the situation:‘We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the earth fallen (become converted).’(Isa. 26:16-18.)”(Z. '16-347.) The literal city of Laodicea was distinguished for the raven blackness of the fleeces (black sheep) there to be had.That thou are neither cold.—Making no pretense whatever to be exponents of God's Truth.—Luke 7:36-50.[pg 066]Nor hot.—Full of warm, loving devotion to Christ.—2 Tim. 3:5; Ezek. 5:6.I would thou wert cold or hot.—“Ephraim is a cake not turned.”—Hos. 7:8.3:16.So then.—“The Spring of 1878, corresponding to the date at which our Lord assumed the office of King, rode on the ass, cleansed the Temple of its money-changers, and wept over and gave up to desolation that nominal church or kingdom, marks the date from which the nominal church systems are not the mouth-pieces of God, nor in any degree recognized by Him.”—B. 235.Because thou art THUS lukewarm and ART neither [cold nor hot] HOT NOR COLD.—“Retaining the forms of worship and faith in a Creator and in a future life, but viewing these chiefly through their own or other men's philosophies and theories, and ignoring the Bible as an infallible teacher of the Divine purposes. These, while retaining the Bible, disbelieve its narratives, especially that of Eden and the fall. Retaining the name of Jesus, and calling Him the Christ and the Savior, they regard Him merely as an excellent though not infallible Exemplar, and reject entirely His Ransom-sacrifice—His cross. Claiming the Fatherhood of God to extend to sinners, they repudiate both the curse and the Mediator.”—C. 167.[I will spue thee out of My] REFRAIN THY mouth.—She is bidden to hold her peace. She needs tostudy, not to teach; and so the following verses indicate.—Hos. 5:6; 9:12.3:17.Because thou sayest I am rich.—I have all the spiritual light that exists in the world.“I have much goods laid up for many years.”(Luke 12:19.)“I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”—Rev. 18:7; Hos. 12:8; 1 Cor. 4:8.And Increased with goods.—“Laodiceans count their numbers and their donations by millions, and say,‘We are rich as never before.’Alas, that they do not realize that these are earthly riches of the kind which our Lord declares are no evidence of His favor during this Gospel Age, but rather to the contrary! And they see not the true riches which the Lord admires, and which are the foretaste of His favor and the coming Kingdom wealth.”—Z. '01-56.And have need of nothing.—“They will not own that they have departed from the right ways of the Lord: in their own estimation they are rich and increased with goods, spiritual as well as temporal, and have need of nothing.”—Mal. 3:7; Z. '92-261.[pg 067]And knowest not that thou.—Of all others, so the Greek indicates.Art wretched.—“To our eternal disgrace, the United States leads all civilized countries in homicides—over 8,000 yearly. There are twelve murders in New England to one in London; in California seventy-five to one; in Nevada 245 to one.”(Z. '08-83.)“Each nation feels that theirs is the greatest talent, theirs are the finest guns, theirs the best everything; and it is this feeling of self-sufficiency that led the nations into the present conflict. They think that they are so good and so great that God could not help giving them the victory.”—Z. '15-174.And miserable.—“How blind we all have been not to have noticed: (1) That the numbers of the heathen in proportion even to the nominally Christian doubled last century; (2) That if we could bring all the heathen up to the standard of our most civilized nation it would mean that God's will would be less done the world over than it is now.”—Z. '08-83.And poor.—“The Laodicean Church is poor in that she has so little of the Master's Spirit, so little of the Truth and of the Spirit of the Truth.”—Z. '01-56.And blind.—“She cannot see afar off, cannot see either the High Calling of the Church or the blessed provisions of Restitution for the world in general.”—Z. '98-128.And naked.—“The clergy, under the name of Higher Criticism and Evolution, are rapidly denuding her, making her naked, taking from her the robe of Christ's righteousness, and leading her to trust, not in the precious blood of the Redeemer, but in an evolutionary process which needs no Savior, which denies that there is, or has been, any sin to make atonement for.”—Z. '01-56.3:18.I counsel thee.—“Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me into glory.”—Psa. 73:24.To buy of Me.—“Not until we lay hold by faith upon theexceeding great and preciouspromises is there any of the‘gold’of the‘Divine nature’in us. This treasure can bepurchasedonly at the cost of entire consecration, or sacrifice of all that we have, to Christ”—Z. '96-44; Prov. 23:23; Matt. 13:44.Gold tried in the fire.—“If we would purchase the‘goldtried in the fire,’it must be at the cost of faithful and constant submission to the discipline of the Lord in fiery trials. How otherwise can the dross be eliminated? There is no other way. Wherefore, think it not strange; let the fire burn; let the dross be consumed; and see to it, beloved, that in the heat of the flame you remove not the‘living sacrifice.’”—Z. '96-44; 1 Pet. 4:12.[pg 068]That thou mayest be rich.—“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”—2 Cor. 8:9; Prov. 10:22; Lu. 12:21; 1 Tim. 6:18; Jas. 2:5; Rev. 2:9.And white raiment.—“The robe of Christ's imputed righteousness, which so many are now discarding, to appear before God in their own unrighteousness.”—D. 42; Rev. 19:8.That thou mayest be clothed.—“A glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”—Eph. 5:27.And that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.—“Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”—Rev. 16:15; Matt. 22:11-13; Isa. 47:3.And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve.—From the Great Physician. (Mark 2:17.)“Complete consecration and submission to the Divine will as expressed in the Scriptures.”—D. 42.That thou mayest see.—“The‘master of the house’or‘householder’of the present dispensation is notourLord, butourAdversary, the Devil—‘the god of this world,’‘the prince of the power of the air,’‘the prince of this world,’who now ruleth in the children of disobedience,blindingthe minds of all that believe not.”—D. 611; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; Psa. 13:3; 19:8; John 9:6, 41.3:19.As many as I love.—“As many as are honest and at heart loyal to God.”—Z. '92-59.I rebuke and chasten.—“‘My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.’—Prov. 3:11, 12; Heb. 12:5-8.”—Z. '96-44; Job 5:17; Jas. 1:12.Be zealous, therefore, and repent.—“The lawyer who makes legality his test instead of justice; the merchant who is satisfied simply to conform to the code of his trade, whose excuse for any dishonesty is,‘They all do it’; the‘gentleman’or‘lady’who puts good form and manners in the place of sincerity and kindliness of heart, and politeness in place of courtesy—all are alike animated by the ecclesiastical conscience. It was this ecclesiastical mind and this ecclesiastical conscience which crucified Jesus Christ (Rt. Rev. Chas. D. Williams, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Michigan.)”—Z. '15-339.3:20.Behold, I stand at the door.—Some of the Scriptures, which, when understood in their connections and significance, prove that the Lord's Second Advent occurred in the fall of 1874 are as follows:“Speak ye comfortably[pg 069]to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's handdoublefor all her sins.”(Isa. 40:2; B. 227.)“And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sindouble.”(Jer. 16:18; B. 218.)“Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: eventodaydo I declare that I will renderdoubleunto thee.”(Zech. 9:12; B. 224.)“Thefourteenthday of the second month, at even, they shall keep it.”(Num. 9:11; Z. '98-68.)“And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there weretwins.”(Gen. 25:24; Z. '94-63.)“And when he was fullfortyyears old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren. And whenfortyyears were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord.”“Wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the Wildernessfortyyears.”—Acts 7:23, 30, 36; Z. '11-215.“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.”(Dan. 12:12; C. 83.)“Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement.”(Lev. 25:9; B. 187.)“As long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.”(2 Chron. 36:21; B. 195.)“In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.”(Isa. 19:19, 20; C. 315.)“The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.”(1 Pet. 3:21; Z. '05-181, Diagram.)“In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, he made a proclamation.”(Ezra 1:1; Z. '05-185.)“This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.”(Ezra 6:15; Z. '05-185.)“This Ezra went up from Babylon.... And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.”(Ezra 7:6-8; Z. '05-185.)“In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king.”—Neh. 2:1; Z. '05-185.Besides the above Scriptures, time-proofs of the Lord's Return, are the fulfilments of the promised signs: The Gospel has been preached in all the world for a witness: (Matt. 24:14; A. 91); the abomination has beenseenin the holy place (Matt. 24:15; D. 572); the flight of the saints from the antitypical“Judea”has occurred (Matt. 24:16; D. 573); the great tribulation has commenced (Matt. 24:21; D. 540); the false Christs are with us (Matt. 24:23; D. 580); the eagles have gathered to the carcase[pg 070](Matt. 24:28; D. 610); the sun and moon have been darkened (Matt. 24:29; D. 590); the Man of Sin has been revealed (2 Thes. 2:8; T. 86; B. 271); the Elias has come (Mal. 4:5; B. 251); the regathering of the Jews has begun (Jer. 31:8; Z. '06-84); the refining of the sons of Levi progresses (Mal. 3:1-3; Z. '05-378); the true faith was nearly extinct in the earth (Luke 18:8; Z. '06-265); the doctrines of devils are rampant (1 Tim. 4:1; F. 621); the perilous times and all associated evils are here (2 Tim. 3:1-7; Z. '99-99); the Lord God has given the sinners water of gall to drink (Jer. 8:14; C. 158); the mighty angel has roared,“Come out of her”(Rev. 18:4; C. 155); the running to and fro is in evidence (Dan. 12:4; C. 63); the antitypical Josiah has kept the great Passover (2 Chron. 35:19; Z. '05-180); the land shadowed with wings has played its part (Isa. 18:1; Z. '04-230); the watchman has stood upon his tower (Hab. 2:1; C. 89); the wheels within wheels are made clear (Ezek. 1:15); the Prophet has come to the rebellious house (Ezek. 2:3); he has eaten the book of her fate (Ezek. 2:9); the seven years of astonishment are finished (Ezek. 3:15); the sieges of 390 years and 40 years are at an end (Ezek. 4:5, 6); the image of jealousy has been disclosed (Ezek. 8:3); the man with the writer's inkhorn has performed his task (Ezek. 9:2); the removing is at an end (Ezek. 14:21); the sword has been doubled the third time (Ezek. 21:15); the point of the sword has been made bright (Ezek. 21:15); ecclesiasticism has been delivered unto brutish persons (Ezek. 21:31); the desire of the faithful servant's eyes has failed (Ezek. 24:16); the stilled voice is speaking again.—Ezek. 33:22.The seven thunders have uttered their voices (Rev. 10:3); the seven last plagues have been poured out (Rev. 15:6); the voices of the three signs have been uttered (Exod. 4:3-9; Z. '07-276); the ribband of blue (the Vow) has done its work (Num. 15:38); the tares and wheat have been separated (Matt. 13:30; C. 139); the net has been drawn to the shore and the fish sorted (Matt. 13:48; C. 214); the ambassadors of peace have wept bitterly (Isa. 33:7); the foolish virgins have had their sound sleep (Matt. 25:5; C. 92); the seven seals have been opened (Rev. 8:1); the seven angels have sounded (Rev. 10:7; B. 149); the nations are angry (Rev. 11:18); the winepress of God's wrath has been trodden (Rev. 14:20); the horses and chariot of fire have come for Elijah (2 Kings 2:11); the chariots are running like lightning (Nah. 2:4; C. 272); the mighty angel has flown in the midst of heaven (Rev. 14:6); the false worshippers have been tormented[pg 071]with fire and brimstone (Rev. 14:10); Behemoth and Leviathan have been beheld doing their work (Job 40:15-23; 41:1-34); the secret of the Lord has been shown (Psa. 25:14; Z. '97-255); the Lord is judging His people and gathering His saints (Psa. 50:4, 5; D. 75; B. 164); the lightnings have enlightened the world (Psa. 97:4; A. 171); the hills have melted like wax (Psa. 97:5; D. 551); the banner has been lifted on the high mount (Isa. 13:2; D. 40); the tables are full of vomit (Isa. 28:8; Z. '07-91); the dumb dogs have failed to bark (Isa. 56:10; F. 287); the silver has been cast into the streets (Ezek. 7:19); the nations have all been shaken (Hag. 2:7; D. 528); the rain, floods and winds have come on Christendom (Matt. 7:27; Z. '06-95); the King has come in to see the guests (Matt. 22:11; C. 197); the speechless one has been bound hand and foot and cast out (Matt. 22:13; C. 201); the Master is reckoning with His servants (Matt. 25:19; F. 419); the seas and the waves are roaring (Luke 21:25; D. 551); the 144,000 are standing on the sea of glass singing (Rev. 15:3; C. 237); the Devil has risen up against himself (Mark 3:26; F. 641); the blood, fire and vapor of smoke are here (Acts 2:19; D. 592); the brethren are not in darkness and all others are (1 Thes. 5:4; B. 121); the teachers having itching ears have turned unto fables (2 Tim. 4:3; 4; F. 287; Z. '07-308); the twenty-four elders have cast their crowns before the throne (Rev. 4:10); the predicted scoffing has taken place (2 Pet. 3:3; B. 167); the laborers have received their penny (Matt. 20:8); and these are but 88 of the proofs hastily collected.And knock.—“The knock, or proclamation of the Lord's Presence, as indicated by the Old Testament prophecies, has been given since 1875 and is still being given.”—Z. '04-124; Lu. 12:36; Cant. 5:2-6.If any man hear My voice.—“The knock is to be the evidence of the Presence; and the servants are not to know in advance, but are to know at the time of the arrival and that without seeing.”—Z. '04-123.[And] I WILL BOTH open the door.—When once we give the Lord a welcome to our hearts, how He does open the doors to joys we ne'er before knew![I will] AND come in to him.—“If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.”—John 14:23.And will sup.—Take the evening meal.—Lu. 12:37.With him.—The Master Himself is feasting on the same joys of the Father's Plan that delight our own hearts.[pg 072]And he with Me.—“This serving of the servants by the Master should be understood to be an individual work, and not merely a collective service and feast.”—Z. '04-124.3:21.To him that overcometh.—“Let us not avoid the Gethsemane moment if it come to us in the Lord's providence, but let us also with strong cryings and tears look up to Him who is able to save us out of death by the glorious First Resurrection; and let us remember that if we abide in His love, He is able and willing to bring us off conquerors, yea, more than conquerors through His own merit.”—Z. '06-348.Will I grant.—If they prove faithful unto death.To sit with Me.—“With the early Church, the promises of Kingdom honor and joint-heirship with the Master were strong incentives to faithfulness under present trials and persecutions, which they had been forewarned to expect.”—A. 285.In My Throne.—“God's appointed means of blessing the world and causing the knowledge of the Lord to come to every creature.”—A. 91; 1 Cor. 6:2; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 2:26, 27; 22:1.Even as I also overcame.—“God sent an angel to comfort and minister unto Him; to assure Him still of the Divine favor, and thus to give Him fresh courage, strength of mind and steadiness of nerve to endure all that was before Him, even unto death. The bitterness of the mental conflict was now over, and the light of Heaven shining into His soul chased away the deep gloom that had hung over Him like a funeral pall.”—Z. '06-348.And am set down with My Father in His Throne.—“The thousand years of the Millennial Reign will constitute but a beginning of the exercise of the glory, honor and immortality of these New Creatures. At its close when the Kingdom shall be delivered up to‘God, even the Father,’and to mankind as the glorified agents of the Father to rule the earth, a still larger sphere for the exercise of their glory, honor and immortality will open before the New Creation.”—F. 69; 1 Cor. 15:24-28.3:22.He that hath an ear.—“Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.”—Matt. 13:16.Let him hear.—“For verily I say unto you, That many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.”—Matt. 13:17.What the Spirit saith unto the churches.—Unto the seven epochs, ending, respectively, in A. D. 73, 325, 1160, 1378, 1518, 1874 and 1918.
“But,”says one,“where is the fiery chariot that is to accomplish a cleavage between the Elijah and Elisha classes?”We offer the suggestion that the fiery horses are lurid prophecies; the horsemen are Ezekiel and John, and the chariot is the vehicle in which their Message is brought to the Elijah class. And do the Elijah class take to that vehicle? Theydo. And why? Because“the sheep follow Him; for they know His voice.”(John 10:4.) The separation between the Elijah and Elisha classes will be brought about in a perfectly natural way, by some using the chariot which the Lord provides, and others recognizing it, but not attempting to use it to mount to the skies. And what should we expect such a fiery chariot would do when caught up into the heavens? The answer is prophetic,“The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved;”“The heavens shall pass away with a great noise;”“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf[pg 064]falleth from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.”(2 Pet. 3:12, 10; Isa. 34:4.) Evidently the circulation of the penny will have something to do with the burning of the tares!—Matt. 13:40-43; Isa. 21:9.Forty days after Christ's resurrection His ascension occurred. This confirms the hope of the Church's glorification forty years (a year for a day) after the awakening of the sleeping saints in the Spring of 1878. The seven days before the Deluge may represent seven years, from 1914 to 1921, in the midst of which“week of years”the last members of the Messiah pass beyond the veil. The Great Company class shall be cut off at its end—the fact that we see the first half of this week so distinctly marked would lead us to expect three and one-half years more of witnessing by the Great Company class; for it seems to be the Heavenly Father's way to accomplish His work by weeks and half weeks, from the very beginning of creation until now. The covenant with Abraham, 2045 B. C., was half way (2081 years each way) between the fall of Adam, 4127 B. C., and the conversion of Cornelius, A. D. 36. The last observance of a typical jubilee by Israel, 626 B. C., was half way (2500 years each way) from the end of Adam's Day, 3127 B. C., and the beginning of the Times of Restitution, A. D. 1874. The captivity, 606 B. C., marks the beginning of the Times of the Gentiles, half way (2520 years each way) between the end of Adam's 1000-year day, 3127 B. C., and the end of Gentile Times, A. D. 1914. The captivity, 606 B. C., marks a point half way (3520 years each way) between the fall of man, 4127 B. C., and his full restoration to Divine favor, A. D. 2914. Christ's death, A. D. 33, marks a point half way (1845 years each way) between the death of Jacob, 1813 B. C., and the restoration of favor to Israel in 1878 A. D. The death of Christ, A. D. 33, was half way (three and one-half years each way) between His baptism, A. D. 29, and the conversion of Cornelius, A. D. 36.Chronological Chart of RevelationThe awakening of the sleeping saints, A. D. 1878, was just half way (three and one-half years each way) between the beginning of the Times of Restitution in 1874 and the close of the High Calling in 1881. Our proposition is that the glorification of the little Flock in the Spring of 1918 A. D. will be half way (three and one-half years each way) between the close of the Gentile Times and the close of the Heavenly Way, A. D. 1921. The three days' (three years—1918-1921) fruitless search for Elijah (2 Kings 2:17-18) is a confirmation of this view. We shall wait to see; but we shall not be indifferent while we wait, lest peradventure another, more zealous, take the[pg 065]crown we have. The time is not long: but if we have to go on for fifty years, why should we care? We are the Lord's. Let Him do as He will with His own.The Seven Messengers To The ChurchWrite.—Pastor Russell was the most prolific writer of Biblical truth that ever lived.—Ezek. 9:2, 3.These things saith the Amen.—The same word translated“verily”in the Gospels and so often used by our Lord as a solemn prefix to some important announcement.AND the faithful and true Witness.—Trinitarians witness that Christ and the Father are one in person. Christ Himself witnesses,“It is also written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me.”(John 8:17, 18.) Christ was one, and the Father was one; and one plus one are two. (This lesson in mathematics is for Doctors of Divinity; school children will not need it.)—Rev. 1:5; 19:11.AND the Beginning of the [creation] CHURCH of God.—Either reading is correct. Our Lord was the Beginning of the New Creation, but, more than that, He was the Beginning ofallcreation.“He is the Image of the invisible God—First-born of all creation; because by Him were all things created, those in the heavens and those on the earth, visible and invisible—whether thrones, or lordships, or governments, or authorities: all things were created by Him and for Him, and He precedes all things, and in Him all things have been permanently placed. (Col. 1:15-18.) Hear also the word of prophecy concerning the Only-Begotten, not only declaring His coming exaltation as King of earthly kings, but describing Him as already being Jehovah'sFirst-born, saying,‘I will make Him, My First-born, higher than the kings of the earth.’(Psa. 89:27.)”—E.95, 86.3:15.I know thy works.—“The Laodicean Church has much zeal, but not according to knowledge. She claims that her principal object is to convert sinners, to bring forth spiritual children. The Prophet puts these words into the mouth of nominal Christians when they awake to a knowledge of the situation:‘We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the earth fallen (become converted).’(Isa. 26:16-18.)”(Z. '16-347.) The literal city of Laodicea was distinguished for the raven blackness of the fleeces (black sheep) there to be had.That thou are neither cold.—Making no pretense whatever to be exponents of God's Truth.—Luke 7:36-50.[pg 066]Nor hot.—Full of warm, loving devotion to Christ.—2 Tim. 3:5; Ezek. 5:6.I would thou wert cold or hot.—“Ephraim is a cake not turned.”—Hos. 7:8.3:16.So then.—“The Spring of 1878, corresponding to the date at which our Lord assumed the office of King, rode on the ass, cleansed the Temple of its money-changers, and wept over and gave up to desolation that nominal church or kingdom, marks the date from which the nominal church systems are not the mouth-pieces of God, nor in any degree recognized by Him.”—B. 235.Because thou art THUS lukewarm and ART neither [cold nor hot] HOT NOR COLD.—“Retaining the forms of worship and faith in a Creator and in a future life, but viewing these chiefly through their own or other men's philosophies and theories, and ignoring the Bible as an infallible teacher of the Divine purposes. These, while retaining the Bible, disbelieve its narratives, especially that of Eden and the fall. Retaining the name of Jesus, and calling Him the Christ and the Savior, they regard Him merely as an excellent though not infallible Exemplar, and reject entirely His Ransom-sacrifice—His cross. Claiming the Fatherhood of God to extend to sinners, they repudiate both the curse and the Mediator.”—C. 167.[I will spue thee out of My] REFRAIN THY mouth.—She is bidden to hold her peace. She needs tostudy, not to teach; and so the following verses indicate.—Hos. 5:6; 9:12.3:17.Because thou sayest I am rich.—I have all the spiritual light that exists in the world.“I have much goods laid up for many years.”(Luke 12:19.)“I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”—Rev. 18:7; Hos. 12:8; 1 Cor. 4:8.And Increased with goods.—“Laodiceans count their numbers and their donations by millions, and say,‘We are rich as never before.’Alas, that they do not realize that these are earthly riches of the kind which our Lord declares are no evidence of His favor during this Gospel Age, but rather to the contrary! And they see not the true riches which the Lord admires, and which are the foretaste of His favor and the coming Kingdom wealth.”—Z. '01-56.And have need of nothing.—“They will not own that they have departed from the right ways of the Lord: in their own estimation they are rich and increased with goods, spiritual as well as temporal, and have need of nothing.”—Mal. 3:7; Z. '92-261.[pg 067]And knowest not that thou.—Of all others, so the Greek indicates.Art wretched.—“To our eternal disgrace, the United States leads all civilized countries in homicides—over 8,000 yearly. There are twelve murders in New England to one in London; in California seventy-five to one; in Nevada 245 to one.”(Z. '08-83.)“Each nation feels that theirs is the greatest talent, theirs are the finest guns, theirs the best everything; and it is this feeling of self-sufficiency that led the nations into the present conflict. They think that they are so good and so great that God could not help giving them the victory.”—Z. '15-174.And miserable.—“How blind we all have been not to have noticed: (1) That the numbers of the heathen in proportion even to the nominally Christian doubled last century; (2) That if we could bring all the heathen up to the standard of our most civilized nation it would mean that God's will would be less done the world over than it is now.”—Z. '08-83.And poor.—“The Laodicean Church is poor in that she has so little of the Master's Spirit, so little of the Truth and of the Spirit of the Truth.”—Z. '01-56.And blind.—“She cannot see afar off, cannot see either the High Calling of the Church or the blessed provisions of Restitution for the world in general.”—Z. '98-128.And naked.—“The clergy, under the name of Higher Criticism and Evolution, are rapidly denuding her, making her naked, taking from her the robe of Christ's righteousness, and leading her to trust, not in the precious blood of the Redeemer, but in an evolutionary process which needs no Savior, which denies that there is, or has been, any sin to make atonement for.”—Z. '01-56.3:18.I counsel thee.—“Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me into glory.”—Psa. 73:24.To buy of Me.—“Not until we lay hold by faith upon theexceeding great and preciouspromises is there any of the‘gold’of the‘Divine nature’in us. This treasure can bepurchasedonly at the cost of entire consecration, or sacrifice of all that we have, to Christ”—Z. '96-44; Prov. 23:23; Matt. 13:44.Gold tried in the fire.—“If we would purchase the‘goldtried in the fire,’it must be at the cost of faithful and constant submission to the discipline of the Lord in fiery trials. How otherwise can the dross be eliminated? There is no other way. Wherefore, think it not strange; let the fire burn; let the dross be consumed; and see to it, beloved, that in the heat of the flame you remove not the‘living sacrifice.’”—Z. '96-44; 1 Pet. 4:12.[pg 068]That thou mayest be rich.—“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”—2 Cor. 8:9; Prov. 10:22; Lu. 12:21; 1 Tim. 6:18; Jas. 2:5; Rev. 2:9.And white raiment.—“The robe of Christ's imputed righteousness, which so many are now discarding, to appear before God in their own unrighteousness.”—D. 42; Rev. 19:8.That thou mayest be clothed.—“A glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”—Eph. 5:27.And that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.—“Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”—Rev. 16:15; Matt. 22:11-13; Isa. 47:3.And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve.—From the Great Physician. (Mark 2:17.)“Complete consecration and submission to the Divine will as expressed in the Scriptures.”—D. 42.That thou mayest see.—“The‘master of the house’or‘householder’of the present dispensation is notourLord, butourAdversary, the Devil—‘the god of this world,’‘the prince of the power of the air,’‘the prince of this world,’who now ruleth in the children of disobedience,blindingthe minds of all that believe not.”—D. 611; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; Psa. 13:3; 19:8; John 9:6, 41.3:19.As many as I love.—“As many as are honest and at heart loyal to God.”—Z. '92-59.I rebuke and chasten.—“‘My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.’—Prov. 3:11, 12; Heb. 12:5-8.”—Z. '96-44; Job 5:17; Jas. 1:12.Be zealous, therefore, and repent.—“The lawyer who makes legality his test instead of justice; the merchant who is satisfied simply to conform to the code of his trade, whose excuse for any dishonesty is,‘They all do it’; the‘gentleman’or‘lady’who puts good form and manners in the place of sincerity and kindliness of heart, and politeness in place of courtesy—all are alike animated by the ecclesiastical conscience. It was this ecclesiastical mind and this ecclesiastical conscience which crucified Jesus Christ (Rt. Rev. Chas. D. Williams, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Michigan.)”—Z. '15-339.3:20.Behold, I stand at the door.—Some of the Scriptures, which, when understood in their connections and significance, prove that the Lord's Second Advent occurred in the fall of 1874 are as follows:“Speak ye comfortably[pg 069]to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's handdoublefor all her sins.”(Isa. 40:2; B. 227.)“And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sindouble.”(Jer. 16:18; B. 218.)“Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: eventodaydo I declare that I will renderdoubleunto thee.”(Zech. 9:12; B. 224.)“Thefourteenthday of the second month, at even, they shall keep it.”(Num. 9:11; Z. '98-68.)“And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there weretwins.”(Gen. 25:24; Z. '94-63.)“And when he was fullfortyyears old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren. And whenfortyyears were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord.”“Wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the Wildernessfortyyears.”—Acts 7:23, 30, 36; Z. '11-215.“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.”(Dan. 12:12; C. 83.)“Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement.”(Lev. 25:9; B. 187.)“As long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.”(2 Chron. 36:21; B. 195.)“In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.”(Isa. 19:19, 20; C. 315.)“The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.”(1 Pet. 3:21; Z. '05-181, Diagram.)“In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, he made a proclamation.”(Ezra 1:1; Z. '05-185.)“This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.”(Ezra 6:15; Z. '05-185.)“This Ezra went up from Babylon.... And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.”(Ezra 7:6-8; Z. '05-185.)“In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king.”—Neh. 2:1; Z. '05-185.Besides the above Scriptures, time-proofs of the Lord's Return, are the fulfilments of the promised signs: The Gospel has been preached in all the world for a witness: (Matt. 24:14; A. 91); the abomination has beenseenin the holy place (Matt. 24:15; D. 572); the flight of the saints from the antitypical“Judea”has occurred (Matt. 24:16; D. 573); the great tribulation has commenced (Matt. 24:21; D. 540); the false Christs are with us (Matt. 24:23; D. 580); the eagles have gathered to the carcase[pg 070](Matt. 24:28; D. 610); the sun and moon have been darkened (Matt. 24:29; D. 590); the Man of Sin has been revealed (2 Thes. 2:8; T. 86; B. 271); the Elias has come (Mal. 4:5; B. 251); the regathering of the Jews has begun (Jer. 31:8; Z. '06-84); the refining of the sons of Levi progresses (Mal. 3:1-3; Z. '05-378); the true faith was nearly extinct in the earth (Luke 18:8; Z. '06-265); the doctrines of devils are rampant (1 Tim. 4:1; F. 621); the perilous times and all associated evils are here (2 Tim. 3:1-7; Z. '99-99); the Lord God has given the sinners water of gall to drink (Jer. 8:14; C. 158); the mighty angel has roared,“Come out of her”(Rev. 18:4; C. 155); the running to and fro is in evidence (Dan. 12:4; C. 63); the antitypical Josiah has kept the great Passover (2 Chron. 35:19; Z. '05-180); the land shadowed with wings has played its part (Isa. 18:1; Z. '04-230); the watchman has stood upon his tower (Hab. 2:1; C. 89); the wheels within wheels are made clear (Ezek. 1:15); the Prophet has come to the rebellious house (Ezek. 2:3); he has eaten the book of her fate (Ezek. 2:9); the seven years of astonishment are finished (Ezek. 3:15); the sieges of 390 years and 40 years are at an end (Ezek. 4:5, 6); the image of jealousy has been disclosed (Ezek. 8:3); the man with the writer's inkhorn has performed his task (Ezek. 9:2); the removing is at an end (Ezek. 14:21); the sword has been doubled the third time (Ezek. 21:15); the point of the sword has been made bright (Ezek. 21:15); ecclesiasticism has been delivered unto brutish persons (Ezek. 21:31); the desire of the faithful servant's eyes has failed (Ezek. 24:16); the stilled voice is speaking again.—Ezek. 33:22.The seven thunders have uttered their voices (Rev. 10:3); the seven last plagues have been poured out (Rev. 15:6); the voices of the three signs have been uttered (Exod. 4:3-9; Z. '07-276); the ribband of blue (the Vow) has done its work (Num. 15:38); the tares and wheat have been separated (Matt. 13:30; C. 139); the net has been drawn to the shore and the fish sorted (Matt. 13:48; C. 214); the ambassadors of peace have wept bitterly (Isa. 33:7); the foolish virgins have had their sound sleep (Matt. 25:5; C. 92); the seven seals have been opened (Rev. 8:1); the seven angels have sounded (Rev. 10:7; B. 149); the nations are angry (Rev. 11:18); the winepress of God's wrath has been trodden (Rev. 14:20); the horses and chariot of fire have come for Elijah (2 Kings 2:11); the chariots are running like lightning (Nah. 2:4; C. 272); the mighty angel has flown in the midst of heaven (Rev. 14:6); the false worshippers have been tormented[pg 071]with fire and brimstone (Rev. 14:10); Behemoth and Leviathan have been beheld doing their work (Job 40:15-23; 41:1-34); the secret of the Lord has been shown (Psa. 25:14; Z. '97-255); the Lord is judging His people and gathering His saints (Psa. 50:4, 5; D. 75; B. 164); the lightnings have enlightened the world (Psa. 97:4; A. 171); the hills have melted like wax (Psa. 97:5; D. 551); the banner has been lifted on the high mount (Isa. 13:2; D. 40); the tables are full of vomit (Isa. 28:8; Z. '07-91); the dumb dogs have failed to bark (Isa. 56:10; F. 287); the silver has been cast into the streets (Ezek. 7:19); the nations have all been shaken (Hag. 2:7; D. 528); the rain, floods and winds have come on Christendom (Matt. 7:27; Z. '06-95); the King has come in to see the guests (Matt. 22:11; C. 197); the speechless one has been bound hand and foot and cast out (Matt. 22:13; C. 201); the Master is reckoning with His servants (Matt. 25:19; F. 419); the seas and the waves are roaring (Luke 21:25; D. 551); the 144,000 are standing on the sea of glass singing (Rev. 15:3; C. 237); the Devil has risen up against himself (Mark 3:26; F. 641); the blood, fire and vapor of smoke are here (Acts 2:19; D. 592); the brethren are not in darkness and all others are (1 Thes. 5:4; B. 121); the teachers having itching ears have turned unto fables (2 Tim. 4:3; 4; F. 287; Z. '07-308); the twenty-four elders have cast their crowns before the throne (Rev. 4:10); the predicted scoffing has taken place (2 Pet. 3:3; B. 167); the laborers have received their penny (Matt. 20:8); and these are but 88 of the proofs hastily collected.And knock.—“The knock, or proclamation of the Lord's Presence, as indicated by the Old Testament prophecies, has been given since 1875 and is still being given.”—Z. '04-124; Lu. 12:36; Cant. 5:2-6.If any man hear My voice.—“The knock is to be the evidence of the Presence; and the servants are not to know in advance, but are to know at the time of the arrival and that without seeing.”—Z. '04-123.[And] I WILL BOTH open the door.—When once we give the Lord a welcome to our hearts, how He does open the doors to joys we ne'er before knew![I will] AND come in to him.—“If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.”—John 14:23.And will sup.—Take the evening meal.—Lu. 12:37.With him.—The Master Himself is feasting on the same joys of the Father's Plan that delight our own hearts.[pg 072]And he with Me.—“This serving of the servants by the Master should be understood to be an individual work, and not merely a collective service and feast.”—Z. '04-124.3:21.To him that overcometh.—“Let us not avoid the Gethsemane moment if it come to us in the Lord's providence, but let us also with strong cryings and tears look up to Him who is able to save us out of death by the glorious First Resurrection; and let us remember that if we abide in His love, He is able and willing to bring us off conquerors, yea, more than conquerors through His own merit.”—Z. '06-348.Will I grant.—If they prove faithful unto death.To sit with Me.—“With the early Church, the promises of Kingdom honor and joint-heirship with the Master were strong incentives to faithfulness under present trials and persecutions, which they had been forewarned to expect.”—A. 285.In My Throne.—“God's appointed means of blessing the world and causing the knowledge of the Lord to come to every creature.”—A. 91; 1 Cor. 6:2; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 2:26, 27; 22:1.Even as I also overcame.—“God sent an angel to comfort and minister unto Him; to assure Him still of the Divine favor, and thus to give Him fresh courage, strength of mind and steadiness of nerve to endure all that was before Him, even unto death. The bitterness of the mental conflict was now over, and the light of Heaven shining into His soul chased away the deep gloom that had hung over Him like a funeral pall.”—Z. '06-348.And am set down with My Father in His Throne.—“The thousand years of the Millennial Reign will constitute but a beginning of the exercise of the glory, honor and immortality of these New Creatures. At its close when the Kingdom shall be delivered up to‘God, even the Father,’and to mankind as the glorified agents of the Father to rule the earth, a still larger sphere for the exercise of their glory, honor and immortality will open before the New Creation.”—F. 69; 1 Cor. 15:24-28.3:22.He that hath an ear.—“Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.”—Matt. 13:16.Let him hear.—“For verily I say unto you, That many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.”—Matt. 13:17.What the Spirit saith unto the churches.—Unto the seven epochs, ending, respectively, in A. D. 73, 325, 1160, 1378, 1518, 1874 and 1918.
“But,”says one,“where is the fiery chariot that is to accomplish a cleavage between the Elijah and Elisha classes?”We offer the suggestion that the fiery horses are lurid prophecies; the horsemen are Ezekiel and John, and the chariot is the vehicle in which their Message is brought to the Elijah class. And do the Elijah class take to that vehicle? Theydo. And why? Because“the sheep follow Him; for they know His voice.”(John 10:4.) The separation between the Elijah and Elisha classes will be brought about in a perfectly natural way, by some using the chariot which the Lord provides, and others recognizing it, but not attempting to use it to mount to the skies. And what should we expect such a fiery chariot would do when caught up into the heavens? The answer is prophetic,“The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved;”“The heavens shall pass away with a great noise;”“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf[pg 064]falleth from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.”(2 Pet. 3:12, 10; Isa. 34:4.) Evidently the circulation of the penny will have something to do with the burning of the tares!—Matt. 13:40-43; Isa. 21:9.
Forty days after Christ's resurrection His ascension occurred. This confirms the hope of the Church's glorification forty years (a year for a day) after the awakening of the sleeping saints in the Spring of 1878. The seven days before the Deluge may represent seven years, from 1914 to 1921, in the midst of which“week of years”the last members of the Messiah pass beyond the veil. The Great Company class shall be cut off at its end—the fact that we see the first half of this week so distinctly marked would lead us to expect three and one-half years more of witnessing by the Great Company class; for it seems to be the Heavenly Father's way to accomplish His work by weeks and half weeks, from the very beginning of creation until now. The covenant with Abraham, 2045 B. C., was half way (2081 years each way) between the fall of Adam, 4127 B. C., and the conversion of Cornelius, A. D. 36. The last observance of a typical jubilee by Israel, 626 B. C., was half way (2500 years each way) from the end of Adam's Day, 3127 B. C., and the beginning of the Times of Restitution, A. D. 1874. The captivity, 606 B. C., marks the beginning of the Times of the Gentiles, half way (2520 years each way) between the end of Adam's 1000-year day, 3127 B. C., and the end of Gentile Times, A. D. 1914. The captivity, 606 B. C., marks a point half way (3520 years each way) between the fall of man, 4127 B. C., and his full restoration to Divine favor, A. D. 2914. Christ's death, A. D. 33, marks a point half way (1845 years each way) between the death of Jacob, 1813 B. C., and the restoration of favor to Israel in 1878 A. D. The death of Christ, A. D. 33, was half way (three and one-half years each way) between His baptism, A. D. 29, and the conversion of Cornelius, A. D. 36.
Chronological Chart of Revelation
The awakening of the sleeping saints, A. D. 1878, was just half way (three and one-half years each way) between the beginning of the Times of Restitution in 1874 and the close of the High Calling in 1881. Our proposition is that the glorification of the little Flock in the Spring of 1918 A. D. will be half way (three and one-half years each way) between the close of the Gentile Times and the close of the Heavenly Way, A. D. 1921. The three days' (three years—1918-1921) fruitless search for Elijah (2 Kings 2:17-18) is a confirmation of this view. We shall wait to see; but we shall not be indifferent while we wait, lest peradventure another, more zealous, take the[pg 065]crown we have. The time is not long: but if we have to go on for fifty years, why should we care? We are the Lord's. Let Him do as He will with His own.
The Seven Messengers To The Church
The Seven Messengers To The Church
Write.—Pastor Russell was the most prolific writer of Biblical truth that ever lived.—Ezek. 9:2, 3.
These things saith the Amen.—The same word translated“verily”in the Gospels and so often used by our Lord as a solemn prefix to some important announcement.
AND the faithful and true Witness.—Trinitarians witness that Christ and the Father are one in person. Christ Himself witnesses,“It is also written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me.”(John 8:17, 18.) Christ was one, and the Father was one; and one plus one are two. (This lesson in mathematics is for Doctors of Divinity; school children will not need it.)—Rev. 1:5; 19:11.
AND the Beginning of the [creation] CHURCH of God.—Either reading is correct. Our Lord was the Beginning of the New Creation, but, more than that, He was the Beginning ofallcreation.“He is the Image of the invisible God—First-born of all creation; because by Him were all things created, those in the heavens and those on the earth, visible and invisible—whether thrones, or lordships, or governments, or authorities: all things were created by Him and for Him, and He precedes all things, and in Him all things have been permanently placed. (Col. 1:15-18.) Hear also the word of prophecy concerning the Only-Begotten, not only declaring His coming exaltation as King of earthly kings, but describing Him as already being Jehovah'sFirst-born, saying,‘I will make Him, My First-born, higher than the kings of the earth.’(Psa. 89:27.)”—E.95, 86.
3:15.I know thy works.—“The Laodicean Church has much zeal, but not according to knowledge. She claims that her principal object is to convert sinners, to bring forth spiritual children. The Prophet puts these words into the mouth of nominal Christians when they awake to a knowledge of the situation:‘We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the earth fallen (become converted).’(Isa. 26:16-18.)”(Z. '16-347.) The literal city of Laodicea was distinguished for the raven blackness of the fleeces (black sheep) there to be had.
That thou are neither cold.—Making no pretense whatever to be exponents of God's Truth.—Luke 7:36-50.
Nor hot.—Full of warm, loving devotion to Christ.—2 Tim. 3:5; Ezek. 5:6.
I would thou wert cold or hot.—“Ephraim is a cake not turned.”—Hos. 7:8.
3:16.So then.—“The Spring of 1878, corresponding to the date at which our Lord assumed the office of King, rode on the ass, cleansed the Temple of its money-changers, and wept over and gave up to desolation that nominal church or kingdom, marks the date from which the nominal church systems are not the mouth-pieces of God, nor in any degree recognized by Him.”—B. 235.
Because thou art THUS lukewarm and ART neither [cold nor hot] HOT NOR COLD.—“Retaining the forms of worship and faith in a Creator and in a future life, but viewing these chiefly through their own or other men's philosophies and theories, and ignoring the Bible as an infallible teacher of the Divine purposes. These, while retaining the Bible, disbelieve its narratives, especially that of Eden and the fall. Retaining the name of Jesus, and calling Him the Christ and the Savior, they regard Him merely as an excellent though not infallible Exemplar, and reject entirely His Ransom-sacrifice—His cross. Claiming the Fatherhood of God to extend to sinners, they repudiate both the curse and the Mediator.”—C. 167.
[I will spue thee out of My] REFRAIN THY mouth.—She is bidden to hold her peace. She needs tostudy, not to teach; and so the following verses indicate.—Hos. 5:6; 9:12.
3:17.Because thou sayest I am rich.—I have all the spiritual light that exists in the world.“I have much goods laid up for many years.”(Luke 12:19.)“I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”—Rev. 18:7; Hos. 12:8; 1 Cor. 4:8.
And Increased with goods.—“Laodiceans count their numbers and their donations by millions, and say,‘We are rich as never before.’Alas, that they do not realize that these are earthly riches of the kind which our Lord declares are no evidence of His favor during this Gospel Age, but rather to the contrary! And they see not the true riches which the Lord admires, and which are the foretaste of His favor and the coming Kingdom wealth.”—Z. '01-56.
And have need of nothing.—“They will not own that they have departed from the right ways of the Lord: in their own estimation they are rich and increased with goods, spiritual as well as temporal, and have need of nothing.”—Mal. 3:7; Z. '92-261.
And knowest not that thou.—Of all others, so the Greek indicates.
Art wretched.—“To our eternal disgrace, the United States leads all civilized countries in homicides—over 8,000 yearly. There are twelve murders in New England to one in London; in California seventy-five to one; in Nevada 245 to one.”(Z. '08-83.)“Each nation feels that theirs is the greatest talent, theirs are the finest guns, theirs the best everything; and it is this feeling of self-sufficiency that led the nations into the present conflict. They think that they are so good and so great that God could not help giving them the victory.”—Z. '15-174.
And miserable.—“How blind we all have been not to have noticed: (1) That the numbers of the heathen in proportion even to the nominally Christian doubled last century; (2) That if we could bring all the heathen up to the standard of our most civilized nation it would mean that God's will would be less done the world over than it is now.”—Z. '08-83.
And poor.—“The Laodicean Church is poor in that she has so little of the Master's Spirit, so little of the Truth and of the Spirit of the Truth.”—Z. '01-56.
And blind.—“She cannot see afar off, cannot see either the High Calling of the Church or the blessed provisions of Restitution for the world in general.”—Z. '98-128.
And naked.—“The clergy, under the name of Higher Criticism and Evolution, are rapidly denuding her, making her naked, taking from her the robe of Christ's righteousness, and leading her to trust, not in the precious blood of the Redeemer, but in an evolutionary process which needs no Savior, which denies that there is, or has been, any sin to make atonement for.”—Z. '01-56.
3:18.I counsel thee.—“Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me into glory.”—Psa. 73:24.
To buy of Me.—“Not until we lay hold by faith upon theexceeding great and preciouspromises is there any of the‘gold’of the‘Divine nature’in us. This treasure can bepurchasedonly at the cost of entire consecration, or sacrifice of all that we have, to Christ”—Z. '96-44; Prov. 23:23; Matt. 13:44.
Gold tried in the fire.—“If we would purchase the‘goldtried in the fire,’it must be at the cost of faithful and constant submission to the discipline of the Lord in fiery trials. How otherwise can the dross be eliminated? There is no other way. Wherefore, think it not strange; let the fire burn; let the dross be consumed; and see to it, beloved, that in the heat of the flame you remove not the‘living sacrifice.’”—Z. '96-44; 1 Pet. 4:12.
That thou mayest be rich.—“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”—2 Cor. 8:9; Prov. 10:22; Lu. 12:21; 1 Tim. 6:18; Jas. 2:5; Rev. 2:9.
And white raiment.—“The robe of Christ's imputed righteousness, which so many are now discarding, to appear before God in their own unrighteousness.”—D. 42; Rev. 19:8.
That thou mayest be clothed.—“A glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”—Eph. 5:27.
And that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.—“Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”—Rev. 16:15; Matt. 22:11-13; Isa. 47:3.
And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve.—From the Great Physician. (Mark 2:17.)“Complete consecration and submission to the Divine will as expressed in the Scriptures.”—D. 42.
That thou mayest see.—“The‘master of the house’or‘householder’of the present dispensation is notourLord, butourAdversary, the Devil—‘the god of this world,’‘the prince of the power of the air,’‘the prince of this world,’who now ruleth in the children of disobedience,blindingthe minds of all that believe not.”—D. 611; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; Psa. 13:3; 19:8; John 9:6, 41.
3:19.As many as I love.—“As many as are honest and at heart loyal to God.”—Z. '92-59.
I rebuke and chasten.—“‘My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.’—Prov. 3:11, 12; Heb. 12:5-8.”—Z. '96-44; Job 5:17; Jas. 1:12.
Be zealous, therefore, and repent.—“The lawyer who makes legality his test instead of justice; the merchant who is satisfied simply to conform to the code of his trade, whose excuse for any dishonesty is,‘They all do it’; the‘gentleman’or‘lady’who puts good form and manners in the place of sincerity and kindliness of heart, and politeness in place of courtesy—all are alike animated by the ecclesiastical conscience. It was this ecclesiastical mind and this ecclesiastical conscience which crucified Jesus Christ (Rt. Rev. Chas. D. Williams, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Michigan.)”—Z. '15-339.
3:20.Behold, I stand at the door.—Some of the Scriptures, which, when understood in their connections and significance, prove that the Lord's Second Advent occurred in the fall of 1874 are as follows:“Speak ye comfortably[pg 069]to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's handdoublefor all her sins.”(Isa. 40:2; B. 227.)“And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sindouble.”(Jer. 16:18; B. 218.)“Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: eventodaydo I declare that I will renderdoubleunto thee.”(Zech. 9:12; B. 224.)“Thefourteenthday of the second month, at even, they shall keep it.”(Num. 9:11; Z. '98-68.)“And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there weretwins.”(Gen. 25:24; Z. '94-63.)“And when he was fullfortyyears old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren. And whenfortyyears were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord.”“Wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the Wildernessfortyyears.”—Acts 7:23, 30, 36; Z. '11-215.
“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.”(Dan. 12:12; C. 83.)“Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement.”(Lev. 25:9; B. 187.)“As long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.”(2 Chron. 36:21; B. 195.)“In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.”(Isa. 19:19, 20; C. 315.)“The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.”(1 Pet. 3:21; Z. '05-181, Diagram.)“In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, he made a proclamation.”(Ezra 1:1; Z. '05-185.)“This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.”(Ezra 6:15; Z. '05-185.)“This Ezra went up from Babylon.... And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.”(Ezra 7:6-8; Z. '05-185.)“In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king.”—Neh. 2:1; Z. '05-185.
Besides the above Scriptures, time-proofs of the Lord's Return, are the fulfilments of the promised signs: The Gospel has been preached in all the world for a witness: (Matt. 24:14; A. 91); the abomination has beenseenin the holy place (Matt. 24:15; D. 572); the flight of the saints from the antitypical“Judea”has occurred (Matt. 24:16; D. 573); the great tribulation has commenced (Matt. 24:21; D. 540); the false Christs are with us (Matt. 24:23; D. 580); the eagles have gathered to the carcase[pg 070](Matt. 24:28; D. 610); the sun and moon have been darkened (Matt. 24:29; D. 590); the Man of Sin has been revealed (2 Thes. 2:8; T. 86; B. 271); the Elias has come (Mal. 4:5; B. 251); the regathering of the Jews has begun (Jer. 31:8; Z. '06-84); the refining of the sons of Levi progresses (Mal. 3:1-3; Z. '05-378); the true faith was nearly extinct in the earth (Luke 18:8; Z. '06-265); the doctrines of devils are rampant (1 Tim. 4:1; F. 621); the perilous times and all associated evils are here (2 Tim. 3:1-7; Z. '99-99); the Lord God has given the sinners water of gall to drink (Jer. 8:14; C. 158); the mighty angel has roared,“Come out of her”(Rev. 18:4; C. 155); the running to and fro is in evidence (Dan. 12:4; C. 63); the antitypical Josiah has kept the great Passover (2 Chron. 35:19; Z. '05-180); the land shadowed with wings has played its part (Isa. 18:1; Z. '04-230); the watchman has stood upon his tower (Hab. 2:1; C. 89); the wheels within wheels are made clear (Ezek. 1:15); the Prophet has come to the rebellious house (Ezek. 2:3); he has eaten the book of her fate (Ezek. 2:9); the seven years of astonishment are finished (Ezek. 3:15); the sieges of 390 years and 40 years are at an end (Ezek. 4:5, 6); the image of jealousy has been disclosed (Ezek. 8:3); the man with the writer's inkhorn has performed his task (Ezek. 9:2); the removing is at an end (Ezek. 14:21); the sword has been doubled the third time (Ezek. 21:15); the point of the sword has been made bright (Ezek. 21:15); ecclesiasticism has been delivered unto brutish persons (Ezek. 21:31); the desire of the faithful servant's eyes has failed (Ezek. 24:16); the stilled voice is speaking again.—Ezek. 33:22.
The seven thunders have uttered their voices (Rev. 10:3); the seven last plagues have been poured out (Rev. 15:6); the voices of the three signs have been uttered (Exod. 4:3-9; Z. '07-276); the ribband of blue (the Vow) has done its work (Num. 15:38); the tares and wheat have been separated (Matt. 13:30; C. 139); the net has been drawn to the shore and the fish sorted (Matt. 13:48; C. 214); the ambassadors of peace have wept bitterly (Isa. 33:7); the foolish virgins have had their sound sleep (Matt. 25:5; C. 92); the seven seals have been opened (Rev. 8:1); the seven angels have sounded (Rev. 10:7; B. 149); the nations are angry (Rev. 11:18); the winepress of God's wrath has been trodden (Rev. 14:20); the horses and chariot of fire have come for Elijah (2 Kings 2:11); the chariots are running like lightning (Nah. 2:4; C. 272); the mighty angel has flown in the midst of heaven (Rev. 14:6); the false worshippers have been tormented[pg 071]with fire and brimstone (Rev. 14:10); Behemoth and Leviathan have been beheld doing their work (Job 40:15-23; 41:1-34); the secret of the Lord has been shown (Psa. 25:14; Z. '97-255); the Lord is judging His people and gathering His saints (Psa. 50:4, 5; D. 75; B. 164); the lightnings have enlightened the world (Psa. 97:4; A. 171); the hills have melted like wax (Psa. 97:5; D. 551); the banner has been lifted on the high mount (Isa. 13:2; D. 40); the tables are full of vomit (Isa. 28:8; Z. '07-91); the dumb dogs have failed to bark (Isa. 56:10; F. 287); the silver has been cast into the streets (Ezek. 7:19); the nations have all been shaken (Hag. 2:7; D. 528); the rain, floods and winds have come on Christendom (Matt. 7:27; Z. '06-95); the King has come in to see the guests (Matt. 22:11; C. 197); the speechless one has been bound hand and foot and cast out (Matt. 22:13; C. 201); the Master is reckoning with His servants (Matt. 25:19; F. 419); the seas and the waves are roaring (Luke 21:25; D. 551); the 144,000 are standing on the sea of glass singing (Rev. 15:3; C. 237); the Devil has risen up against himself (Mark 3:26; F. 641); the blood, fire and vapor of smoke are here (Acts 2:19; D. 592); the brethren are not in darkness and all others are (1 Thes. 5:4; B. 121); the teachers having itching ears have turned unto fables (2 Tim. 4:3; 4; F. 287; Z. '07-308); the twenty-four elders have cast their crowns before the throne (Rev. 4:10); the predicted scoffing has taken place (2 Pet. 3:3; B. 167); the laborers have received their penny (Matt. 20:8); and these are but 88 of the proofs hastily collected.
And knock.—“The knock, or proclamation of the Lord's Presence, as indicated by the Old Testament prophecies, has been given since 1875 and is still being given.”—Z. '04-124; Lu. 12:36; Cant. 5:2-6.
If any man hear My voice.—“The knock is to be the evidence of the Presence; and the servants are not to know in advance, but are to know at the time of the arrival and that without seeing.”—Z. '04-123.
[And] I WILL BOTH open the door.—When once we give the Lord a welcome to our hearts, how He does open the doors to joys we ne'er before knew!
[I will] AND come in to him.—“If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.”—John 14:23.
And will sup.—Take the evening meal.—Lu. 12:37.
With him.—The Master Himself is feasting on the same joys of the Father's Plan that delight our own hearts.
And he with Me.—“This serving of the servants by the Master should be understood to be an individual work, and not merely a collective service and feast.”—Z. '04-124.
3:21.To him that overcometh.—“Let us not avoid the Gethsemane moment if it come to us in the Lord's providence, but let us also with strong cryings and tears look up to Him who is able to save us out of death by the glorious First Resurrection; and let us remember that if we abide in His love, He is able and willing to bring us off conquerors, yea, more than conquerors through His own merit.”—Z. '06-348.
Will I grant.—If they prove faithful unto death.
To sit with Me.—“With the early Church, the promises of Kingdom honor and joint-heirship with the Master were strong incentives to faithfulness under present trials and persecutions, which they had been forewarned to expect.”—A. 285.
In My Throne.—“God's appointed means of blessing the world and causing the knowledge of the Lord to come to every creature.”—A. 91; 1 Cor. 6:2; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 2:26, 27; 22:1.
Even as I also overcame.—“God sent an angel to comfort and minister unto Him; to assure Him still of the Divine favor, and thus to give Him fresh courage, strength of mind and steadiness of nerve to endure all that was before Him, even unto death. The bitterness of the mental conflict was now over, and the light of Heaven shining into His soul chased away the deep gloom that had hung over Him like a funeral pall.”—Z. '06-348.
And am set down with My Father in His Throne.—“The thousand years of the Millennial Reign will constitute but a beginning of the exercise of the glory, honor and immortality of these New Creatures. At its close when the Kingdom shall be delivered up to‘God, even the Father,’and to mankind as the glorified agents of the Father to rule the earth, a still larger sphere for the exercise of their glory, honor and immortality will open before the New Creation.”—F. 69; 1 Cor. 15:24-28.
3:22.He that hath an ear.—“Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.”—Matt. 13:16.
Let him hear.—“For verily I say unto you, That many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.”—Matt. 13:17.
What the Spirit saith unto the churches.—Unto the seven epochs, ending, respectively, in A. D. 73, 325, 1160, 1378, 1518, 1874 and 1918.