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REVIEW OF THIRD QUARTER.—SEPT. 30.

“Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”—Jas. 1:22.

Reviews are frequently profitable, and especially so when conducted in the light of this Golden Text; with a view to noting to what extent we have heard the voice of the Son of Man, and to what extent we have been obedient to his messages. To fancy ourselves as making spiritual progress merely by gaining information respecting the Lord, his miracles, his teachings, etc., is to get the nut and crack it and drop the kernel, the thing of real value.

It is in harmony with this thought that our Lord declared, “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and they that hear shall live.” The dead are the entire human family, all of whom must hear the voice, the teaching of this great Prophet, whom the Father has sent, not only to redeem, but also to restore so many of the human family as will accept his favors upon his terms. All must hear eventually, but comparatively few have the hearing ears at the present time. The prince of this world blinds the mind, closes and stupefies the ear, or makes what may be heard of no effect through traditions of men, or through hardness and selfishness of the hearer’s own heart. Blessed are our eyes if, seeing and hearing of the Lord’s grace and goodness toward us and toward all of his creatures, we at once fall into obedience to the spirit of the great Teacher’s instructions. In so doing we will have passed from death unto life—gradually, until, under the ministry of the great Prophet, as sharers in the first resurrection, we shall be perfected and possess life in perfection, yea, life more abundantly,—immortality.

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— September 1, 1900 —