Change language 

::R4651 : page 234::

THE MEMORIAL—HOW MANY CELEBRATED

THE number reported to have participated in the Memorial Supper this year amounts to 9,664. We confess some disappointment of this, for it is only 419 more than is reported for 1909. At first we were disposed to think that many had neglected to send the post-card with particulars, as requested. But we afterward concluded that quite probably all in full harmony with THE WATCH TOWER presentations of the Truth responded. Anyway we are glad to note that there are “more than 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

We would not be misunderstood. It is not our thought that all who are the Lord’s people, that all who have been begotten of the holy Spirit, have already come to a knowledge of the Present Truth to the extent of fully appreciating it. Daily we are finding these—or rather the Lord is finding them. Indeed, never since the harvest began has the outlook for the spread of the Truth throughout Christendom been so grand and so hope-inspiring as now. Thousands are getting their eyes of understanding opened and making rapid progress towards the light. Nor do we think that these thousands on the way are to take the crowns of those who held the Truth for a time without proper appreciation. On the contrary, it is our understanding that the majority of those who will constitute the “great company,” losing the crowns and getting instead palm branches, have been in Babylon and under Divine inspection for years as to their worthiness of greater light.

We are free to confess, however, a measure of disappointment in connection with this matter. Our list of nearly 30,000 TOWER subscribers should represent twice that number of deeply interested readers—60,000. And we would expect that every one of these would have been anxious to celebrate the Memorial of the Redeemer’s sacrifice and his own consecration to participate in the same.

We are not forgetting that the standard lifted in these columns is a very high one; that not many could be

::R4651 : page 235::

expected to leave all and take up the cross and follow in the Master’s footsteps; not many could be expected to present their bodies living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God; not many could be expected to appreciate the privilege of being members of the one loaf, the one body now being broken; not many could be expected to rejoice in the privilege of sharing in “his cup.” We surely were disappointed in that there were not more than reported.

====================

— July 15, 1910 —