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VOL. XII. DECEMBER, 1891. NO. 12

GREAT CAUSE FOR THANKSGIVING

A DISCOURSE BY THE EDITOR, AT BIBLE HOUSE CHAPEL, ALLEGHENY, PA.

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.”—Col. 1:12,13

A day of formal national thanksgiving to God for peace and plenty, for bountiful harvests, abundant rains and smiling skies, and for general national health and security, has just passed, and the occasion naturally leads those who are only aliens and foreigners here to consider, What have we to be thankful for? and how deep does the spirit of thankfulness penetrate our hearts?

The above language of the Apostle calls forcibly to mind our wonderful favors over and above all those that call for the general rejoicing and thanksgiving. While as aliens and foreigners, as pilgrims and strangers sojourning in the most enlightened and civilized lands of the earth, we are blessed with a large measure of temporal prosperity, we are specially favored, first, in that we have been delivered from the power of darkness; secondly, in that we have been translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son; and thirdly, in that we have been made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

Sometimes, when opportunities for comparison of circumstances are lacking, or those less favored in life do not come closely under our observation, we fail to rightly appreciate the common temporal blessings that fill our daily pathway. If the humblest in this favored land could form an idea of the gloom and want and degradation of millions of their fellow men abroad, they would indeed see much cause for rejoicing over their richer inheritance. There are the poverty-stricken, ignorant, starving millions of Russia, the hunted and persecuted Jews, the benighted sons of Africa, China, India, the toiling exiles of Siberia and the poor of Palestine and Egypt, to whom the humblest little American home would be a great luxury. Let us not forget to thank God that the lines of his providence have fallen to us in such pleasant places—that civilized ideas have scattered the dense darkness of the ages past, that we are permitted to live in a land of liberty, of education and of general enlightenment. What a blessing it is to be relieved from the superstitions which retard the progress of so many of our fellow-men from advancement in civilization; and how great are the temporal advantages arising from progressive ideas, general education and personal liberty: advantages of peaceful home and family life, of comfortable dwellings and neat and convenient furnishings, of medical skill, of commercial enterprise, of religious freedom, of a free press and an open Bible. What inestimable privileges are these. And yet we who enjoy them are only a minority

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of our common humanity. Thousands, if they had the means in their hands, would not know how to make life comfortable. The Mohammedan, for instance, marries several wives, and shelters them all with their families in one room, and often with a brother or a father and his several wives; and he feels at liberty to abuse them as he pleases, while the poor slaves know no other alternative.

Let us appreciate these temporal favors more and more, and use them to the greater honor of God. And while we realize the inability of our own efforts to lift the pall of darkness, ignorance and superstition from the rest of the world, let us rejoice in the near approach of the kingdom of light and peace, and the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, which in due time will scatter all the gloom. And let us further consider that our present vantage ground is not ours because God is a respecter of persons, but

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because he is thereby preparing us to have part in his great plan for blessing all the families of the earth. As he prepared an Eden, like an oasis in the great world-desert, to be a suitable place for the trial of Adam and Eve, so he has prepared certain places and conditions for the development and discipline of his Church: not an Eden, however, but a place and station where civilized conditions exist, and where the general enlightenment may be used for either good or ill, and thus the choice of the individual be made manifest.

These temporal advantages are our general favors; but let us consider the special favors granted us over and above these, first, in being delivered from the power of darkness and translated therefrom into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.

The power of darkness is the power of ignorance, superstition, sin and death—the power of Satan, who works in darkness. From this kingdom of darkness we have been graciously translated, lifted over, into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. While yet we sat in darkness the message came to us that the price of our redemption had been paid, and that, if we had faith in the message and desired deliverance, we could be at once translated into the kingdom of light and peace—the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Gladly we heard the message and gladly we accepted the free favor thus offered; and, as a reward of our faith, came the sweet peace of God into our hearts. The first new ray of light admitted was followed by more and more; and the darkness of ignorance of God and his ways, and of superstition and error, began to flee away, and the soul was flooded with light and joy and a peace that surpassed all understanding to the hitherto darkened soul. Great was our joy when we first realized this blessed change, when we were told that now we were the children of light, and were counseled to walk thenceforth as children of the light.

As children of light and subjects of Christ, our Redeemer and King, we have been walking from day to day and from year to year in the light of his countenance and of his Word, going on from knowledge to knowledge and from grace to grace. The old errors of ignorance and superstition have been gradually replaced with truth and an intelligent faith in the pure Word of God. And daily, as we are enlightened by the truth, we endeavor to bring ourselves into fuller subjection to our King; and thus, having been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, our precious Redeemer, we grow more and more fully into the divine likeness and favor.

But in addition to all this favor we are further informed of our privilege to become partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, which inheritance is that of joint-heirship with Christ in his kingdom and glory, when in due time his kingdom shall be established in all the earth, and also to be made with him partakers of the divine nature. For such a position we naturally feel our unworthiness; for what are we, or what good thing have we done, to make us worthy of such an inheritance. We look at the pit whence we were digged, and then at our present imperfection as measured by the standard of God’s righteous and perfect law, and doubtfully say, That call must have been a mistake: it surely was never meant for me. Yet the heart bounds with joy at the first suggestion of such a favor, and when trembling faith is reassured by the statement that God

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hath made us meet for that inheritance, and that “Faithful is he that hath called us, who also will do it,” we take courage and reckon ourselves henceforth as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.

By nature, or of our own selves, we know that we are not meet for that inheritance. Our sufficiency is in Christ, whose merit, applied to us through faith in his blood, makes up all our deficiency, while we earnestly strive to conform to the divine will. Thus we are now reckoned of God as meet for the glorious inheritance with Christ, until in due time our actual fitness shall appear, when, having fully submitted ourselves to the guidance and discipline of Christ our King, he will present us to himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.—Eph. 5:27.

Such, dear faithful ones in Christ, is our occasion for thanksgiving. Shall we set apart a special day in which to render praise and thanks to God for such unmeasured favor? Or, rather, shall we not set apart every day as a day for the expression, in deeds as well as in words, of our hearty thanksgiving to God for all his multiplied favors to us. Thanks be to God for preparing our way before us in a land where, though we are merely aliens and foreigners, we have such inestimable privileges and advantages for growing in knowledge and in grace, and for advancing the cause of truth; and thanks be to him for delivering us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and peace, and calling us to be the bride of Christ and joint-heirs of all things with his dear Son.

In the few succeeding verses the Apostle endeavors to convey to our minds some idea of the glory of our inheritance in becoming the bride of the Son of God, saying, “He is the image of the [to us] invisible God, the first born of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or powers: all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

What a glorious Bridegroom! truly the chiefest among ten thousand, the one altogether lovely, and the heir of all things; for by him and for him were all things created. And all things are ours also, if we are Christ’s—all dominions and principalities, all power and wisdom and might and glory and honor and blessing. And he is able “to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight, if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard.”—Ver. 22,23.

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THE ANGLO-ISRAELITISH QUESTION

To the Editor of THE BANNER OF ISRAEL—

DEAR SIR:—The articles by Mr. J. G. Taylor reviewing Millennial Dawn, Vol. III., and especially its reference to the Anglo-Israel Question in connection with the return of the Jews to Palestine, have only now come to my attention; and as they seem to inquire for a reply I hasten to answer them briefly.

Passing by Mr. Taylor’s sarcastic flings and nudges, we would advise him and all of your readers that, by the grace of God, we have gotten past the point of boasting of being a “loyal Pennsylvanian,” or of having any pride of ancestry according to the flesh, and have reached the position advised by our Lord and by the great Apostle, where we recognize that he is not a real Jew who is merely such outwardly and of fleshly descent, but that only such as are of the faith and covenant of Abraham are the children meant in God’s promise—Israelites indeed in whom is no guile.

The point of discussion turns upon the question whether after the separation of the ten tribes from the two tribes of Israel, in the days Rehoboam, they ever again became united, either actually or reckonedly. Mr. T. claims that there was no reunion and that the name, Israel, from that date forward belonged exclusively to the ten tribes and not to the two tribes, the Jews. This seems necessary to his theory; for he holds that the Anglo-Saxon people are those ten tribes, and that their prosperity is due to

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this fact. We hold that from the period of the seventy years desolation, and especially from the return from Babylonian captivity, the nation of Israel has been recognized by God as one, including all of every tribe who respected God’s promises and went back to Palestine when Cyrus issued his decree of permission. We hold that all who did not return were not of the commonwealth of Israel, not Israelites indeed, but reckoned thenceforth as Gentiles. We affirm, too, that those “lost” ones who were not Israelites indeed will require recognition and blessing under the new covenant during the coming Millennial age, and not during the Gospel age. Upon some points there seems to be a slight misunderstanding of our position. We do not deny that the ten tribes separated from the two tribes, or that the ten, representing the majority, retained as such the original name of all—Israel, or that the two tribes became known as Judah, or that there was considerable cause for the separation, or that it was in accord with God’s plan for their chastisement, or that the ten tribes went into captivity some seventy years before the two tribes, or that God possibly has some portion of blessing for the descendants of the ten tribes, as well as for those of the two tribes and for all the families of the earth, during the “times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began.”—Acts 3:19-21.

What we do claim is, that the Great Teacher was right when he declared that “Salvation is of the Jews,” and that the great Apostle was right when he declared that God’s order is—”Glory, honor and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile; for there is no respect of persons with God.” (Rom. 2:10.) Our understanding of this is, that after the Babylonish captivity the name Jew became synonymous with Israelite, and included all who held to the Law and hoped for the fulfilment of the Abrahamic promises—including some from the ten tribes as well

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as proselytes from the Gentiles—all who were circumcised. Moreover, even at the time of the revolt of the ten tribes all the individual members of those tribes did not join in it. Some continued faithful to the Kingdom of Judah and continued to live among the Jews.—1 Kings 12:17.

We have found, and have pointed out the fact, that our Lord and the Apostles addressed the “twelve tribes” under one name—”the House of Israel”—and this, too, in speaking directly to the people living in Jerusalem, who, all admit, were chiefly of the tribe of Judah, but partially of all the twelve tribes. The fact that the Lord and the Apostles thus addressed the twelve tribes as one nation, and applied prophecies to them as such, seems to us quite sufficient reason for doing the same.

To quote the texts of Scripture bearing on the different phases of the subject would require a great deal of time and space. Whoever will take a copy of Young’s Concordance and turn to page 528, and note the various instances in which the word Israel is used in the New Testament, will have what seems to be overwhelming evidence that the House of Israel was no longer regarded by our Lord and the Apostles as the “ten tribes” merely, but, as it is expressed, “All Israel.” Note especially the following texts: Matt. 8:10; 10:16; 15:24,31; 27:9,42; Mark 12:39; 15:32; Luke 1:54,68; and especially verse 80; also 2:25,32,34; 24:21; also note carefully John 1:31,49; 3:10; 12:13; also Acts 2:22,36; 3:12; 4:10,27; 5:21,30,31,35; 18:16,24; 21:28; Rom. 9:6,31; 10:19; 11:25,26; 1 Cor. 10:18; Gal. 6:16; Eph. 2:12; Phil. 3:5; Heb. 8:8.

“Salvation is of the Jews” or covenant-keeping Israelites in the sense that (1) our Lord Jesus, the Savior, came in this line, and in that (2) a remnant of these Jews (the Apostles, the early Church, etc.), called a remnant of Israel (Rom. 9:27; 11:1,5,7), became ministers of reconciliation to bear the message to the Gentiles, and in that (3) the Lord’s provision is that, in the restitution work of the future, fleshly Israel, recovered from blindness, shall be used as a medium through whom the streams of salvation, issuing from the glorified, spiritual Israel, shall flow to all the families of the earth; as it is written, “The law shall go forth from Mount Zion [the Gospel Church, or spiritual Israel glorified] and the word of the Lord from

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Jerusalem [the re-established fleshly Israel.]”—Isa. 2:3.

But in any case the ten tribes are left out of this and all such promises; for neither Zion nor Jerusalem [neither the typical nor the real] belonged to them. To have a share at all in the covenant made with Abraham, either they must be united to the spiritual Israel, of which the Lion of the tribe of Judah is the head, or they must become associated with the literal Judah at Jerusalem, in order to share his portion in the coming times of restitution; for “the Lord shall save the tents of Judah first.”—Zech. 12:7.

The arguments of Mr. Taylor, aside from his sarcasm, seem to be summed up in the following extracts, which we quote from your journal. He says:—

“As to the non-return of Israel, a comparison of Jer. 29:1,4,10 with Ezra 1:1 shows that the edict of Cyrus was in fulfilment of a prophecy which referred exclusively to the Jews, and from Ezek. 4:3-8 it is patent that Israel’s term of captivity had to extend far beyond Judah’s. There is no proof whatever that the Ten Tribes were embraced in the offer of Cyrus.”

We must take exceptions to such statements and ask Mr. T. and your other readers to examine more carefully the very texts cited. Jeremiah (29:1-10) does not advise the people to settle down contentedly, never expecting to return to Jerusalem, but that they should make themselves comfortably at home in the land of Babylon, because there would be no deliverance for seventy years—a much longer period of captivity than they had ever before experienced.

Ezra 1:1 does not limit to the members of Judah and Benjamin the privilege or liberty to return. On the contrary, verse 3 declares that Cyrus extended the offer to “Whoever among you that is of all his people;” verse 4 repeats the “whosoever” and makes the invitation worldwide, as was Cyrus’ dominion, by the words “in every place;” and verse 5 declares that not only the chiefs of Judah and Benjamin responded, but also “the priests and the Levites, with all those whose spirit God had awakened”—i.e., all whose hearts, like Simeon’s, were “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” Among such were some from the ten tribes, even though they were fewer. For instance, among those who with Simeon waited in the Temple for the consolation of Israel was Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.—Luke 2:36.

As for the citation from Ezekiel (4:3-8), Mr. T. offers no suggestion as to when he thinks the forty years upon Judah, or the three hundred and ninety years upon the remainder of Israel, were fulfilled. He apparently, however, overlooks the fact that although this trouble is divided into two portions it is all represented as coming against one people, as illustrated by the one capital city, Jerusalem, which was portrayed by the prophet as a part of his tableau teaching. Some suppose the lesson taught to be that God’s wrath against the ten tribes dated from the time of the revolt, when they went into idolatry, about 390 years before the desolation of Jerusalem, and that the wrath against the two tribes dated from forty years before the desolation, when, under King Manasseh, the two tribes became idolaters, and that God’s wrath ceased, or was assuaged, by the expiation for their sins in the utter desolation of Jerusalem and the land. If this be correct, his favor returned, while they were in Babylon, to all who revered his promises and waited for the seventy years of desolation to expire, that they might return to God’s worship in his holy city and temple.

We answer, then, that Mr. T. is in error: that there is no evidence that the willing, faithful ones of the ten tribes were hindered and did not return to the holy land after its seventy years of desolation. On the contrary, the evidence shows that they had the liberty to return and that some of them exercised it.

After quoting from Millennial Dawn, Vol. III., “They [the ten tribes] deserted the Israelitish covenant, and became idolaters, unbelievers, and practically Gentiles,” Mr. T. continues:

“This is perfectly correct: the Ten Tribes did apostatize, and were formally divorced from the Mosaic covenant (Jer. 3:8). But he overlooks the companion jewel—namely, they were to be remarried in a new and better covenant (Isa. 54:4-8; Hos. 2:7,19; Jer. 31:31-33). The Israelites were indeed practically Gentiles, and are esteemed Gentiles to this day; but that is concordant with prophecy, for Ephraim’s ‘multitude of nations’ are goyim or nominal Gentiles (Gen. 48:19); and the children of Ephraim-Israel, ‘which cannot be measured nor numbered,’

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are the offspring of Lo-ammi, or nominal Gentiles.—Hos. 1:9,10.”

We beg to differ regarding the above statement. We deny that the Lord has remarried or ever will remarry the ten tribes. The citations prove nothing of this kind. Hosea gives some hard pictures of a bad people. Chapter 1:6,7 seems to mention the ten tribes separately from the two, but promises no more mercy—instead, an utter taking away of the ten, and mercy upon Judah. Verses 9 and 10 show the rejection (for a time) of all Israel the (natural branches of the olive) and the grafting in of spiritual Israel upon the original root or promise—those from among the Gentiles who formerly had not been recognized by the Lord as his people, who had been strangers and foreigners and aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, but who are now brought nigh and made partakers through Christ. This application of this Scripture is made by the Apostle Paul. (Rom. 9:23-26.) Verse 11 declares that “then,” at the time of their rejection and at the time of the recognition of spiritual Israel, Judah and Israel would be reunited under one head.

Hosea 2:1-7 includes one of Mr. Taylor’s proofs; but the most careful search in these verses discloses no promise from the Lord that he will remarry them. Reading down to verse 13 proves to the contrary. Then verses 14-18 show the “door of hope” for these rebellious people, which the Millennial reign of the true spiritual seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:16,29) will inaugurate; for verse 18 locates the date of this “door of hope” by declaring it to be after the time of trouble, when wars shall be no more.

Verses 19 and 20, if applicable to the fleshly seed at all, should be applied to “all Israel” (last before mentioned)—see Chapter 1:11—and in that case would not call for fulfilment before the close of the Gospel age, when wars shall be no more. But there is good reason for believing that these verses (19 and 20) relate to the spiritual class, selected during the time when fleshly Israel has been cast off. To this view the 23rd verse as well as Chapter 1:10 give support, both being quoted in Rom. 9:23-26, and agreeing well with the Apostle’s other statement, “Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded.”—Rom. 11:7.

As for Isaiah 54:1-8, the Apostle Paul has thrown the light of superhuman wisdom upon it, and has applied it to spiritual Zion, our mother or covenant, symbolized by Sarah. The fleshly seed of Abraham had been cast out from being heir of the promise, and the true seed, Christ (typified by Isaac and Rebecca), had been received as the only seed of promise.—Gal. 4:22,24,26-31.

Jeremiah 31:29-33 is quite to the point. It was written at a time when the ten tribes, called

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Israel, were separate from the two, called Judah, and hence it was necessary for the prophet to mention both, in order not to be misunderstood to mean the ten tribes only. But here, in verse 31, he puts the two together, and, after thus joining them as one, he uses the one name for all, in verses 33 and 36; and this is confirmed by verses 38-40, which describe places lying in the portion of the two tribes, in and about Jerusalem.

But next let us notice that this is a prophecy not yet fulfilled, so that the ten tribes, even if they could clearly identify themselves now, have no cause for boasting yet. They would better wait until the New Covenant is made with them and until the law of that New Covenant has been written in their hearts. Then surely they will no longer boast themselves of their old covenant, but of the new.

During the Gospel age the New Covenant and its blessed heart-writing and spirit-teaching is not for the ten tribes, nor for the two, but only for the remnant selected from the twelve, and the residue selected from among the Gentiles; the fleshly seed (Ishmael) must wait until the spiritual seed (Isaac) has inherited all, and must then get his portion through Isaac. In those days—when the fleshly seed receives its portion—the blessed Millennial privileges, mentioned in verses 29 and 30, will be realized.

Beloved, let us make our calling and election sure by the obedience of faith, and not hope for spiritual blessings to come to us because of fleshly connections—which the Lord’s Word clearly shows us cannot be. If the Anglo-Saxon races are the literal descendants of the ten

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lost tribes, it certainly is to their advantage that the Lord will overlook the relationship and count them as Gentiles; for his favor was withdrawn from the natural seed when the remnant had been selected, and he turned to take out the people for his name from among the Gentiles, who previously were not his people; and, as we have seen, no return of his favor is promised until the elect Church shall have been completed, in the Millennial Dawn.

Nothing in our understanding of the teachings of the Scriptures is in opposition to the idea that Great Britain, Germany and the United States may contain some of the descendants of the ten tribes which separated from the two tribes in the days of Rehoboam. It could not be claimed, however, by any one who is familiar with the racial mixture which prevails, especially in the United States, that any of these nations are of pure Israelitish stock. Neither do we debate the question whether the prosperity of these nations, more than that of some other nations of the world, is due to their lineage. Perhaps this is true. What we do maintain, however, is that, so far as the Lord’s “high calling” of his Church is concerned, the middle wall of partition having been broken down, the Israelitish origin of an individual or a nation would gain the individual or the nation no advantage over other individuals or nations of a different race under the terms of the New Covenant. From it “all Israel,” “the natural branches,” were broken off, except a “remnant” which accepted of Christ, the mediator of the New Covenant; and that “remnant” had no pre-eminence over others because of nationality. God, through the Apostles, has preached no favors to Israel according to the flesh during the period of the selection of spiritual Israel; but he has declared that when the company of spiritual Israel is complete, his favor will return to the fleshly house.

Because we believe that the spiritual Israel is nearly complete, therefore we are expecting blessings upon the Israelites who are according to the flesh, and the turning away of their blindness, anticipating that they will be the first of the restitution class to be blessed by spiritual Israel, and so “receive mercy through your mercy.” (Rom. 11:31.) After they have thus received mercy through the complete and glorified Church of Christ, they will indeed be used as the Lord’s instruments for blessing all the families of the earth, and thus the Abrahamic promises will be fulfilled unto both the seeds—both that which is according to the flesh, and that which is according to the spirit—”To the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham.”—Rom. 4:16. Yours truly,

The Author of MILLENNIAL DAWN.

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VERBAL INSPIRATION

DEAR WATCH TOWER: The following examples, from the Youth’s Companion of May 24th, 1888, of mistranslations from modern and secular writers may prove interesting and instructive to some good readers who, believing in verbal inspiration, apply it to the King James version rather than to the original languages in which the Bible was written, and thus fail rightly to divide the Word of Truth. Yours,

W. M. WRIGHT.

QUEER TRANSLATIONS

“Not only do school boys and girls, when studying a language, make absurd mistakes in translation, but authors who consider their efforts correct enough for the dignity of print are also likely to fall into the pit of blunders. In Cornhill are to be found numerous examples of mistranslation, which would do credit, or discredit, to a very young linguist.

“A French writer, in translating the passage from Shakespeare:

‘A man. … So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,’

renders the italicized words:

‘Thus, grief, go away with you!’

“A word used in a purely technical sense is apt to prove a stumbling-block to the translator. Thus an English historian says that Lord George Sackville was ‘broken’ for cowardice

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in battle, meaning simply that he was cashiered. A French writer translates the word into one indicating that the timid nobleman was broken on the wheel. As if to convince the reader of his unwavering belief in this interpretation, he adds a foot-note to the statement, commenting on the barbarity of this torture.

“Miss Cooper, a daughter of the novelist, says that in a French translation of ‘The Spy,’ the phrase, ‘He tied his horse to a locust,’ was rendered, ‘He tied his horse to a grasshopper.’ The author of this obvious blunder then drew upon his imagination to justify the improbable statement, and informed his readers that the grasshoppers in America grew to an enormous size, and that one of them, dead and stuffed, had thus been employed for a hitching post.

In one of Sir Walter Scott’s novels, a party was served with ‘Welch rabbit’ for supper, and a translator, not aware that the term applied to a compound of toasted cheese—it is now spelled rarebit—set down the phrase as ‘a rabbit of Wales.’ Not content with this, he also inserted a foot-note informing the credulous reader that the rabbits of Wales were of such superior flavor that they were in great demand in Scotland, and were forwarded to that country in large numbers.”

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THE DEAREST NAME

If Jesus from our faith to-day
Were stricken, and we knew
A Godless creed must meet our need—
That nothing else were true;
If Jesus from our heart were cast,
From pages to be read,
What word, in all the realms of thought,
Would answer us instead?

If Jesus, ‘midst the mists of time,
Were lost, and we could know
He never died, our crucified,
What could the new creed show
To take his place, to vibrate through
The prostrate human mind,
To give the race a standing place,
A hope for human kind?

If Jesus from our faith to-day
Were stricken, who could trace
Another word the world hath heard
To ever take its place?
Could ever frame a sound so sweet?
In all the realm of art,
Who yet hath shown a single tone
So priceless to the heart? —G. Klingle.

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A NEW GOVERNMENT FOR PALESTINE PROPOSED

COPY OF A LETTER OF SUGGESTION, WRITTEN BY THE EDITOR WHILE IN PALESTINE, TO THE TWO LEADING HEBREWS OF THE WORLD, BARONS ROTHSCHILD AND HIRSCH.

November 20th, 1891.

The following is a copy of a letter, written while in Palestine, but afterward separated from me by the loss of my luggage en route, and only recently recovered. C. T. R.

Jerusalem, August 18th, 1891.

To the Honorable BARON HIRSCH.

RESPECTED SIR:—I, a Christian, but a lover of the seed of Jacob, especially because of the promises of God yet remaining to them and the Holy Land, address you upon a subject which I know lies close to your heart.

That you may know of my interest in your people, I will cause to be sent to you a copy of each of two volumes of my own writings, in which the promises of God to your nation are cited and commented upon.

At present, accompanied by my wife, I am in Palestine, taking a hasty view of the land of promise and its people, and considering the prospects of the soon fulfilment of the predictions of the prophets. As you will see from my books, we find the testimony of the prophets to be, that your nation will be greatly blessed and returned to divine favor between now and the year 1915, A.D.

The present persecutions in Russia we believe to be a mark of divine favor rather than the reverse. The Lord declares that he will drive them out of all lands whither he has

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scattered them. We believe that so far from this persecution abating, the near future may see it greatly increased among the various nations of Europe in the midst of which Jews reside.

We believe that the Lord’s Word teaches that the people are to be in great part gathered into the land of Palestine, and the fact that all entrance thither has recently been barred inclines us to think that the time has come for opening the door thither yet wider than ever before. This seems to be indicated in the words of the prophet.—See Jer. 32:37-44; 33:6-22.

As I do not own an inch of ground in this land, I cannot be accused of having any selfish reasons for offering the following suggestions of what appears to me to be the only immediate solution of the difficulty. My suggestion is as follows, and refers to all Syria:—

The revenues derived from Palestine by the Government amount to about L.100,000 per annum. This sum, however, is absorbed by the local government of Palestine, and it is doubtful whether Turkey ever receives one piaster of it—except in the way of bonuses paid by those who obtain official positions in the land. I have been unable to obtain any reliable figures respecting the taxes of Syria as a whole, but it is safe to assume that the results to Turkey are no more profitable than those from Palestine.

My suggestion is that the wealthy Hebrews purchase from Turkey, at a fair valuation, all of her property interests in these lands; i.e., all the Government lands (lands not held by private owners), under the provision that Syria and Palestine shall be constituted a FREE STATE, the government of which shall be in the hands of a board of thirteen Directors, appointed as follows: One Director to be chosen by each of the following Governments:—Great Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, Russia, Austria, Italy, Turkey, Greece, and the United States of America, should they approve the scheme; and the remainder of the thirteen to be elected by the suffrages of the people of Syria, none being eligible to said election who has not lived in the land for three consecutive years.

Religious liberty should be fully guaranteed to all the inhabitants. Each Director should be a resident of the land during the tenure of office, and should receive L1,000 sterling per annum, and no other fees, emoluments or bribes, under penalty of disgrace and banishment. Those Directors appointed by the various Governments should also be the Ministers Plenipotentiary of those Governments without additional fees therefor.

Each of the nations invited to join representatively in the government should be required to contribute a sum of money, say L10,000, for the carrying out of the project and as a test of its interest in the welfare of the land and its people. Just at present all nations are interested in providing a home for the Russian exiles; and the poverty of Turkey would facilitate the purchase of her estate in Syria at reasonable figures. This I conceive to be a feasible plan, because all of the above nations are interested in Palestine, having directly or indirectly expended

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large sums of money there. The plan of making it a free state, under the control of all, I believe would be pleasing to all; whereas, to put the land under the control of any of them exclusively, would be strenuously opposed by the others. The land should, however, be free from all other nations, except through their appointed representative Directors.

A liberal Constitution should be drawn up, alterable only by the consent of at least nine of the thirteen Directors. In all other matters the majority should rule—under the limitations of said Constitution. The new blood and new ideas thus introduced into the government would soon show upon the people and the land, and they would rapidly advance to civilized conditions in every particular.

You are no doubt well aware that, notwithstanding the large sums of money sent here by Hebrews and others, many of the people here are far from comfortable; and all will agree that the two things most needful to this land are a wise, just and good government and plenty of water.

The water is indispensable to health. The stench is dreadful as one passes through the city, especially in the Jewish quarter. I can only account for the absence of some plague by the extreme purity of the mountain air. In almost

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every other climate such filth and drouth would surely bring pestilence. In one more month, I am told, water will be selling at two or three piasters a skin.

The present government and laws, although said to be a great improvement on those of the past, all will admit are very far from good. The poor peasants or fellah are robbed of almost all they can earn—first, by the money-lender, who exacts from 10 to 50 per cent interest, paid in advance, and secondly, by the tax-collector, who extorts all he can possibly squeeze of the balance. Many of the Jews coming from Russia are poor, and many are wealthy. Seemingly, the latter consider it their business to grind profits out of their brethren and neighbors instead of helping them, while the former, following the example of Romanists and Greeks, think it their duty to spend all their time in prayer and ceremonies, while they are supported by the donations of friends in Europe and America. Your charities and those of Baron Rothschild and Sir Moses Montefiore have been productive of great good and are still beneficial (except, perhaps, the payment of so many francs per head for support of some of the colonists, which is leading some to multiply their children and grand-children as rapidly as possible in order to increase their income).

What is needed here, therefore, next to water and cleanliness, is a good government which will protect the poor from the ravenous and wealthy.

Banking institutions on sound bases, and doing business honorably, are also greatly needed. The poor, I am told, hide whatever money they can save, in holes in the earth, where it is ultimately lost to themselves and the world. These, no doubt, would deposit in banks of whose standing they would have no doubt.

I suggest further that as Jerusalem is so full of items of deep interest to the civilized world, as well as to the Jews, it would meet with general favor to introduce into the Constitution provisions guaranteeing that Jerusalem shall remain practically as it is at present—except that it be cleaned up—that all shops and business be prohibited inside the walls; that sanitary regulations be strictly enforced; that the city be sewered thoroughly—a very practical matter and one of but moderate expense if “Solomon’s Quarries,” underlying a great portion of the city, be utilized for the laying of the larger sewer pipes.

Outside the city the minimum width of the streets and the minimum size of building lots should be subjects of law, as the people have narrow ideas as to what “will do.”

Under such an arrangement as above referred to, much money would be provided by lovers of the Holy Land for water, aqueducts, artesian wells, etc., etc., and soon the barren places would become a paradise.

I believe that now is the Lord’s time for the long promised deliverance of Israel (and my reasons for so believing you will observe in my two works mailed to you and above referred to); and that it will be accomplished by some such concerted project among the nations is, I believe, indicated by the prophet Isaiah:

“And they shall bring all your brethren out of all nations as an offering unto the Lord, upon horses and in chariots and in litters and upon mules and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, saith the Lord. … For as the new heavens and the new earth (the Kingdom of God) which I will make shall have permanence before me, saith the Lord, so shall exist permanently your seed and your name.”—Isa. 66:20,22.

See also Jeremiah 32:43,44:—”And the fields shall yet be bought in this land whereof ye say, It is desolate, without man or beast. … Men shall buy fields for money and write it in deeds and seal it and certify it by witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the environs of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the lowlands, and in the cities of the south; for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the Lord.”

May the God of Jacob direct you, my dear Sir, and all interested with you in the deliverance and prosperity of Israel, and blessed will they be who, to any extent, yield themselves as his servants in fulfilling his will as predicted.

But please note, my dear Sir, that the sacred Scriptures predict the return to Palestine, and not a further wandering to the ends of the earth—to America or elsewhere. And, therefore, it is my humble opinion that Israel will find no rest for the sole of his foot until he finds it in the land of promise; and I pray you,

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therefore, not to waste your efforts in assisting emigration elsewhere, but concentrate them in the direction where God has indicated success. God bless you.

Yours in the Faith of the Sacred Scriptures,

C. T. RUSSELL.

P.S. A copy of this letter has also been sent to your compatriot, Baron Rothschild.

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HELL OR ANNIHILATION

[Brother Wakefield has been seeking to serve the truth, by the use of his pen, through the columns of the secular press. We give below an article of his which may be of interest to some TOWER readers. We commend this plan of service to those who have a clear understanding of the truth, and the talent and education needful to a clear presentation of it.]

Editor of the New York Sun:—You say of the “Brooklyn Conference of Baptists, who are looking for the second coming of the Lord at an early day,” that “they think it vain to look for the bringing of all men to Christ before the second advent, and hence they are pre-millennialists.” The Scriptures being true, they could not with any show of reason have entertained the notion of “bringing all men to Christ before the second advent” at all; but the reverse.

The Lord’s own statement concerning the matter is unequivocal: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives and were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” Also, as it was in the days of Lot and Sodom, “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” (Luke 17:26-30.) Paul’s testimony is equally emphatic and pointed: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, proud, boasters, blasphemers, without natural affection, incontinent, fierce, untruthful, unholy, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”—2 Tim. 3:1-5.

Scriptures of like import might be largely quoted, but with those already before us, it is enough to say that had the Brooklyn Conference really believed the testimony of the Lord and of his inspired apostle they could not have thought of such a thing as the conversion of the world before the second advent. But the confession of the hopelessness of human efforts being successful in the reformation of mankind before the second coming of Christ, and that he himself must appear as the personal head or leader of the grand campaign that is to culminate in the acknowledgement of Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords by all the nations of the earth, is a long step forward in the cause of truth.

The language of the prophet Daniel (7:13,14) is very clear: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”

But it then would seem that it is not the prevailing wickedness of the human race only that discourages these good people: the spread of Universalism is a matter of serious moment;

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and the effort “to abolish hell” they regret as the latest work and “one of the most dangerous artifices of the devil.” Concerning Universalism I will only say that if within the next seven days the world should be converted to that faith it would still remain for the Universalists to be converted to the truth. For am I persuaded that the Universalists have no truer conception of God’s plan of saving the world than the so-called “orthodox;” and they are evidently at sea without rudder or compass. If “the orthodox faith is in present peril from enemies who have arisen and are multiplying in the very citadel of its defense,” it is a sure evidence that “judgment” has already “begun at the house of God,” and that the Laodicean church, while

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she imagines herself to be rich and needing nothing, is in reality “poor and blind and naked,” and that she is shortly to be “spewed out,” a “lukewarm,” nauseous thing. It is another step toward the consummation.

As to the atrocious dogma of an eternal hell of inconceivable torment, does our “sensitive modern philosophy” imagine that it has outgrown the Scriptures? Do men who “could not bear to see a dog in pain,” to whose enlightened reason and refined sensibilities “the goodness and loving kindness of God seems to be totally inconsistent with the torments of hell,” and who therefore refuse to believe their infliction possible, still believe that this frightful hell torment is the doctrine of the Bible? Alas, that the people of this day of Gospel light should still be willing to stumble along in the darkness of the middle ages!

The Bible statement of the doctrine of future punishment is simple and straightforward, and not at all befogged with the horrible fancies which our theologians have thrown around it. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” is the simple statement of God’s Word. Another of equal directness is, “The wages of sin is death.” “Ah, yes!” says the theologian, “but the soul is immortal and can never die, and therefore the Scriptural idea of the death of the soul is a state of endless suffering, eternal torment. And when the apostle says the wages of sin is death, he must mean eternal death, which is simply eternal life in torment!” How very plausible such reasoning seems to be, and how easily it can be shown that “the wisdom of men is foolishness with God.”

There are several things that the clergy know and that the laity ought to know. The clergy, every man of them, know that the “immortality of the soul” is never once affirmed in the Bible. They know that in all the over nine hundred times that the word “soul” occurs in the Scriptures, there is never used in connection with it any word or phrase to indicate unending existence. On the contrary, they know that the “soul” is everywhere in Scripture spoken of as being subject to death or liable to die. And they know that the same word “soul” that is applied to man is also used with reference to the creeping things and fowls and beasts of the earth. The Scriptures being true, a moment’s reasoning will show the absurdity of attributing deathlessness to the soul.

Take the first text above referred to: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Consider death in any light you please, as physical, spiritual, eternal, political, or any other. Death is the opposite of life.

But, again, the penalty of sin is death. Such qualifying terms as “temporal,” or “eternal” death are never used in the Scriptures. The Word of the Lord is content to say “the wages of sin is death,” and such as shall not be found written in “the book of life,” in the judgment day, or age, shall be the subjects of the “second death.” The “punishment” of the wicked will be “everlasting,” without doubt, but the terms used in Scripture to define that punishment necessarily convey the idea of extinction. Thus the “everlasting punishment” in Matt. 25:46 is “kolasin aionion,” literally, “cutting off enduring.” The righteous are received into “zoen aionion,” life everlasting, and the wicked are punished by “kolasin aionion,” “everlasting cutting off” from life.

Truly, “an implacable God would be a hideous monster,” and the creation of men predestined to hell from before the beginning of time outrages every sense of justice as diabolic sport with helpless mortals. And “this sentiment, which was once denounced as the expression of infidelity and impiety,” and is now “prevalent among Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and even Baptists,” is but the beginning of the grand theological revolution which shall disrupt and utterly sweep away the present system of so-called “orthodox Christianity.” It is the opening of a better, brighter day, in which, as the Apostle Paul says, God will have all men “come to a full knowledge of the truth.” This will be “the day of judgment,” “the times of restitution,” the times in which the Prince of Peace “shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth;” when “he shall judge the people with righteousness and the poor with judgment: he shall deliver the poor and needy and break in pieces the oppressor;” when truth “shall

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go forth as brightness, and righteousness as a lamp that burneth,” “and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” This will be the day of the world’s probation, after Christ has come, when the dead shall be raised; in which, with full knowledge and understanding of the truth, every man shall have privilege and opportunity to decide for himself whether he will serve and obey the King or not. If he will, he shall be promoted to the inheritance of the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world; if he will not, he shall be adjudged unworthy of life, and shall perish in that aionion fire (the fire of the age) in which sinners and sin, death, hades, the devil and all that is evil shall be destroyed together, and shall be no more forever. And so, ultimately, God will be glorified in all the works of his hands.

R. WAKEFIELD.

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SPECIAL ITEMS TO REGULAR READERS

The only article in the present issue bearing upon the subject of our journey abroad is the copy of the Letter to Barons Rothschild and Hirsch, which we believe will interest all of our readers.

The January TOWER will contain our View of Foreign Mission Work, and, in connection, a report upon the Home and Foreign Tract and Mission Work as connected with the WATCH TOWER office and its co-workers. This will be followed by a brief account of our travels and observations in Great Britain and Europe, from the pen of Sister Russell. Subsequently the story of our sojourn in Palestine and our views of the European situation will be given as opportunity may permit.

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So far as heard from, the proposition to increase the size of the TOWER meets with general favor. Some, however, urge that instead of it having more pages, its visits be twice a month, as they get too hungry between them. We have concluded to grant the request. Accordingly (D.V.) the issues will be at the 1st and 15th of each month during 1892. This will busy us still more, and you must expect still fewer and shorter personal replies to letters.

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We correct our TOWER subscription list quarterly, but make special changes at the first of each year. As this involves considerable labor, we ask that those whose subscriptions expire with the present issue and those in arrears and those whose subscriptions would expire during the year 1892 send the amount that will pay their dues up to Dec. 1892 at once. Remember that the price of the TOWER for 1892 will be one dollar.

Those who have been on our paid list for some time and who do not desire its continuance will oblige us by sending a postal card to this effect.

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Those interested readers who, because of age or other infirmities or disadvantages, are unable to pay for the TOWER, and to whom it is supplied FREE as unto “the Lord’s Poor,” will please remember to send at least a postal card in December, stating their interest, their inability still to pay, and their acceptance of it as a favor from the Lord under this offer made them in his name.

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The Tower Tract Society has received promptly quite a number of responses upon the blank slips furnished in the last issue. The evidences are that the harvest work for 1892 can be made much more effective even than this year; although this too has been a blessed year, as you will see by the report to appear in our next issue.

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We have a number of binders for the old TOWERS left over, which we offer much below cost—at 75 cents each. These patent binders will hold all back issues of the WATCH TOWER up to Jan’y ’91. They will be found a great convenience for preserving your old Towers.

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Do not forget the Missionary Envelopes. We have a new lot and supply them now at the reduced price of 25 cents per hundred, and 2.00 per thousand. This includes delivery to you at your Postoffice.

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EXTRACTS FROM INTERESTING LETTERS

New York.

DEAR BRO. IN CHRIST:—I am just opening up a practice here and, having some leisure, I asked a friend for a book to read to pass away time. He gave me MILLENNIAL DAWN, VOL. I., The Plan of the Ages. I have believed in the pre-millennial coming of my blessed Savior for twenty-five years. With some prejudice, however, I read it casually, i.e., not looking up the references. I am now re-reading it carefully. If it is Scriptural it is the most wonderful book I ever read. If it is true it is most marvelous, and marvelous also that I have never learned its precious truths before. I am inclined to be too credulous and cannot detect sophistry as soon as some, perhaps, but this seems not only Biblical but logical and reasonable, and I drink it in as a revelation from my Father, and it has made me unspeakably happy.

If God’s Word teaches a full trial of perhaps one hundred years under favorable circumstances for all our race, it would lift a great burden from my heart.

You say this age is not for the conversion of the world, but for witnessing. What, then, is the legitimate work of Christians? I suppose it must be to get as many as possible fully saved and fitted for the bride of Christ. I must refer to my own experience. I was converted forty-four years ago under the labors of a man who taught that it was the privilege of even young converts to obey Rom. 12:1,2. I made the consecration, but was not steady until twenty-five years ago. After repeated scourgings in the holiness movement in the M.E. church in Illinois, I made an intelligent and complete consecration of all to God, which I have ratified many times, but from which I have never receded.

I have been engaged in holiness meetings of various kinds most of the time since. Your teaching on that subject seems to me to be eminently Scriptural. I have suffered much with and for Jesus, and have by the grace of God classed myself with the overcomers, and have expected with them to sit with Jesus in his throne.

I am not aware that there is any inharmony between my will and the will of my God. I have hoped for all you assert as the privileges of the little flock. But it seems to me so much above and so much more to be desired than the unsinning state of Adam restored, that I fear I cannot attain unto it. [“Faithful is he that hath called you, who also will do it.” Trust him and be faithful unto death.—ED.] I have been hoping Jesus would come and that I, with all those who love his appearing, would be caught up to meet him in the air; and to be forever with the Lord has been my holiest aspiration. God is no respecter of persons. What you say about Christians justified only, preferring Adamic perfection in the world to being made partakers of the divine nature with Jesus, may be true, but the Word says without holiness no man shall see the Lord. There seems to be something necessary beyond justification even to occupy Adam’s holy state. [Yes, there must be consecration and obedience to the extent of ability until perfection is reached.—ED.]

Please send me Vol. II., The Time is At Hand, and some sample tracts and copies of ZION’S WATCH TOWER. Inclosed find amount in payment.

I am yours and Christ’s, J. E. VOAK.

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Chicago.

DEAR TOWER BRETHREN:—I am very glad that MILLENNIAL DAWN ever came to my hands. I read it carefully (two volumes), and am convinced that it presents the truth. I was born and brought up in a Catholic country (Russian Poland) by Catholic parents. There is a long story, how I came from one light to another, from truth to truth. I sought the truth in many Protestant churches, but could not find it, though from time to time I believed I had it. For the last two years I have not belonged to any church, because I know their creeds are of men, and not of God.

Several weeks ago I met a young Pole, who had just come from Poland. This man had sought the truth for eighteen years. When I presented the truth to him from the Bible, he accepted it with his whole heart, and wept for joy. We come together nearly every evening and every Sunday to study the truth in the light of the Bible, to which the DAWN is the true helping hand. I have to do the interpretation, as he does not understand English, though he speaks several other languages. We believe that the Lord brought us together to show the light to our own people. There are over 100,000 Poles in this city, and about 1,500,000 in this country. Besides, I speak English and German, and having the DAWN in these two languages, I hope soon to begin to spread the books, and give my time entirely to it.

Many Poles begin to see that the priests do not lead them right, and therefore cease to have confidence in them. In general the Poles do

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not read English, except the young people. Some of them read German, but do not like to read religious books in this language, because they regard the Germans as their political enemies. What they do read, and like to read, is Polish.

Oh, I wish we had the truth in Polish also! I want to give myself entirely to spreading the truth. The Lord has been so good to me, showing me his light, his truth, his love, I like to be his witness. Brother O. is willing to do the same. We spend every Sunday with Polish families, teaching them the good tidings. We do here all we can.

In Christian love, I remain your brother,

C. ANTOSZEWSKI.

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Newcastle on Tyne.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—It gives me pleasure to note that you are safe at home again. I am looking with great interest for the promised account of your journey. I can easily understand that your time was fully occupied. I wonder how you arranged to crowd so much into it. I would have been delighted to meet you, but we cannot do impossibilities. I thank you for your words of brotherly encouragement, and gratefully acknowledge that your presentation of the divine plan has been to me a mental stimulus of immense value.

What a miracle in stone the Great Pyramid seems to be! Its testimony is almost overpowering. I am just beginning to apprehend something of its sublime uniqueness. Of old the Pharisees said unto Jesus, “‘Master, rebuke thy disciples.’ And he answered and said unto them, ‘I tell you, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.'” So it appears to be still. Bless his holy name!

With best wishes, Yours truly,

JOSEPH MOFFITT.

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New York.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—There is one question I would like to ask. Please answer, either by letter or through the columns of the TOWER.

In your talk at Brother Fairchild’s, in answer to a question in relation to the Sabbath, you made the statement that the Sabbath, as given to the Jews, was a type. In making such a statement to any of our “Seventh Day” friends, they meet us with this: Then “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not kill,” and so on, are types? I desired to ask you then, how you would reply, but lacked the opportunity for want of time. I have been met in this way, and must admit to being nonplussed by it.

I call upon you to bridge over this difficulty, as you have so many others in the past through your publications. The brethren from here, who attended the reception at Brother and Sister Fairchild’s, at our regular meeting yesterday all bore testimony to the blessing received there, and have come home with renewed strength and courage to press the battle to the very gate of the enemy, and to “run with patience the race set before them.”

I have just heard from a DAWN that has gone into the “wilds” of Sullivan county, this state, and reached a former “dyed in the wool” Methodist. It has taken all the Methodism out of him and his wife, and they have become enthusiastic believers in the real full and free salvation. Praise the Lord—so it goes.

Praying that our God will abundantly bless you, I remain yours in Christian love and fellowship, WM. H. CHEEKS.

[We reply that not only was the fourth commandment typical of the rest into which we, Israelites indeed, enter, but that all of the commandments, as well as all other features of the law, were typical. They were typical of the higher law “which is briefly comprehended in one word”—love. The commandments, Thou shalt not kill, steal, covet, etc., are far inferior to the one commandment which is the basis of the new covenant. Any one who has accepted the new covenant of grace through Christ, with its law of love, has no need whatever of the ten commandments of the Jewish covenant. Can we suppose that if I love my brother that I would kill him? or steal from him? or bear false witness against him? Surely not. It is evident, then, that the Jewish law was only a less refined statement of the higher law which we now recognize, under which our covenant places us. It is therefore in perfect harmony with all other features of this, our higher law, to find that we have also a higher rest than had the typical Israel. Ours is not merely a rest of body: it is a rest of heart, a rest of faith, a rest from our own works as means of justifying ourselves before God, and a rest in the perfect work of Christ our Lord as the perfect law keeper, making full satisfaction for all our imperfections. It is by this resting (keeping Sabbath) in him, controlled by the spirit of love, that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh.—EDITOR.]

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INDEX FOR ZION’S WATCH TOWER

VOL. XII., 1891

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JANUARY.—

View from the TOWER……………………………….Page 1
From Glory unto Glory (Poem)………………………….. 5
Thoughts for the New Year (Our Talents, Their Use)………. 6
The Throne of His Glory………………………………. 10
An Important Question………………………………… 13
Reply by the Editor………………………………….. 14
Meetings in Toronto………………………………….. 14
The Anniversary Supper……………………………….. 14
Extracts from Interesting Letters……………………… 15
Allegheny Church Meetings…………………………….. 15

FEBRUARY.—

View from the TOWER………………………………….. 17
Notices…………………………………………….. 21
I am the Way (Poem)………………………………….. 22
The Prince of This World……………………………… 22
Your Righteousness…………………………………… 26
The Kind of Punishment……………………………….. 28
Extracts from Interesting Letters……………………… 29

MARCH.—

The Coming Anniversary Supper…………………………. 33
At All Times (Poem)………………………………….. 43
A Jewish Kingdom Proposed…………………………….. 44
As Viewed by Others………………………………….. 45
Harvest Work and Meetings in Canada……………………. 46
The Plank Bears……………………………………… 47

APRIL.—

Acceptable to God……………………………………. 49
The Jewish Hope (Poem)……………………………….. 51
Jerusalem Reviving…………………………………… 52
Strong Delusion……………………………………… 53
A Criticism…………………………………………. 56
Progressive Japanese…………………………………. 62
Rogue Catch Rogue……………………………………. 62
Special Notices……………………………………… 63
Extracts from Interesting Letters……………………… 63

MAY.—

View from the TOWER………………………………….. 65
Joseph Rabinowitsch and Israel………………………… 69
A Seasonable Word on “Christian Science.”………………. 71
A Voice from the Jews………………………………… 76
Items of Interest……………………………………. 77
Extracts from Interesting Letters……………………… 78

JUNE.—Special Issue—Millennial Dawn, Vol. III.

JULY.—

View from the TOWER………………………………….. 81
Presbyterian Creed Revision…………………………… 87
Your Representatives Abroad…………………………… 95
Special Notices……………………………………… 96

AUGUST.—

View from the TOWER (Dr. Briggs’ Doctrine)……………… 97
Deliverance (Poem)……………………………………108
God is in the Midst of Her…………………………….108
Items of Interest…………………………………….109
New Tracts…………………………………………..110
Jewish Items…………………………………………111

SEPTEMBER.—

View from the TOWER (Perilous Times at Hand)…………….113
Temptations………………………………………….118
What of the Night? (Poem)……………………………..119
The Prophet Like unto Moses……………………………119
Jewish Population of Russia……………………………125
Letter from Russia to the Church at Allegheny……………126

OCTOBER.—

View from the TOWER (As I have Loved You)……………….129
Renew a Right Spirit (Poem)……………………………134
Divine Love and Human Reciprocation…………………….134
The Bond of Perfectness……………………………….139
Arrival of Bro. and Sr. Russell………………………..141
Mr. Gladstone on the Bible and Science………………….142
Extracts from Interesting Letters………………………143

NOVEMBER.—

View from the TOWER (The Harvest Field Abroad)…………..145
Further Complications for Presbyterianism……………….151
Living for Jesus (Poem)……………………………….152
Russia’s Chastisement…………………………………152
Farmers’ Alliance Circulars……………………………153
The Blood of Jesus……………………………………158
Extracts from Interesting Letters………………………158

DECEMBER.—

Great Cause for Thanksgiving…………………………..161
The Anglo-Israelitish Question…………………………163
Verbal Inspiration……………………………………167
The Dearest Name (Poem)……………………………….168
A New Government for Palestine Proposed…………………168
Hell or Annihilation………………………………….171
Special Items to Regular Readers……………………….173
Extracts from Interesting Letters………………………174

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