11

1

11

download/literature/watchtower/1905-22.pdf

../literature/watchtower/1905/22/1905-22-1.html

(335-339) has called us, who also will do it,” (1 Thess. 5:24)—he will do all he has promised to do, exceedingly more abundantly than we could have asked of him or expected. The whole matter is with us: if our consecration is based upon faith in the redemptive work of our Lord, if it is a full and complete consecration, and if we live it out day by day, the results will be all and more than we ever expected, ‘“‘LET EVERYTHING BE DONE DECENTLY AND IN ORDER’’ Our lesson shows that Ezra divided the wealth contributed by the Jews throughout Babylonia and Persia and by the king amongst twelve prominent men of the Levitical tribe, strict count being kept of what each received and he being held responsible for the delivery of that amount to the properly constituted representatives of the Jews at Jerusalem. Thus our Lord, who is the Captain of our journey and who is bringing us to the heavenly kingdom, gives to every one of his followers pounds and talents for which they must ultimately give account, In verse 28 Ezra said to these twelve men, “Ye are holy unto the Lord and the vessels are holy, and the gold and silver are a freewell offering unto God, the God of your fathers. Watch ye and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the Levites and the princes of the fathers’ houses of Israel at Jerusalem in the chambers of the house of the Lord.” The chambers of the Temple were the little rooms of the court, separate from the Temple yet connected therewith. In these the officiating priests lived, and in them were stored the treasures belonging to the Temple and its service; they were, therefore, the safety deposit vaults of that time for the Lord’s treasury. We can see the responsibility that rested upon those men, yet still greater responsibility rests upon us who have received of the Lord’s spiritual gifts and treasures, his great truth. If it was required of those men handling earthly treasures that they should be faithful and watchful, diligent, much more may this be reasonably required of us—‘A charge to keep I have, a God to glorify.” All of these lessons should come to us as fresh reminders of our responsibility, not for our discouragement, but reversely to make us more watchful, more careful, more zealous, more appreciative of the riches of God’s grace committed to us. Those of old time were to hide their treasure, but we are commanded to show ours on every oceasion—“Let your light so shine before men, that they seeing your good works may glorify your Father who is in heaven.” The more we let our light shine, the brighter it will shine; the more we use and display the riches of God’s grace entrusted to us, the more valuable will be our treasure and the more safe we will be, for it is a treasure which our enemies will not really covet, and our faithfulness in acknowledging the Lord in all our ways will assure us of his protection and care. AT THE JOURNEY’S END Ezra and his company, after a four months’ journey, arrived safe at Jerusalem, the Lord having indeed kept them and delivered them from the marauding bands of enemies on the journey. Then it was that Ezra’s real work began. He found matters at Jerusalem and throughout Judea in a much worse condition than he had anticipated, and was used of the Lord in instituting a very radical national reformation which proved a great blessing to the people, though it sifted out some of their number. Ezra magnified the Law, showing the people how the calamities that had befallen them as a nation were all foretold in the Law and were all the result of a failure to keep the Law, and the proper course now was not only to rebuild the Temple, as they had done, but to go back to the Law and seek ZION’S WATCH TOWER ALLEcHENY, Pa. to keep it inviolate to the best of their ability. He pointed to the fact that they had made unlawful unions with the tribes and nationalities surrounding them, and that the only course remaining was to separate themselves from all heathen people. This involved special trouble and trial in cases where Jews had married heathen wives, and Ezra’s course would be toundly denounced by the entire civilized world today; but evidently he did the proper thing at the proper time in God’s estimation, and was the divine instrument in sharply separating between the Jews and other peoples. This spirit has persisted amongst the Jews ever since, and the effect has been what the Lord desired, the keeping of that nation and people comparatively separate and distinct from all others. True, it wrought great hardship upon the wives who were put away and the children who were thus alienated, though much the same course is today prescribed by law against the Mormons, and the wives of plural marriages and bigamists. A lesson for spiritual] Israelites may be found herein, though not according to the exact letter of Ezra’s teaching. The spiritual Israelite is directed by the Captain of our Sa vation, through the Apostle Paul as his mouthpiece, to be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers in marriage, and to have as little as possible to do with the world in general, Nevertheless the spiritual Israelite is enjoined that if the unbelieving husband or wife remain and it be possible to live together in unity even under trying circumstances, they should do it; but if the unbelieving one depart, let him depart, consider it to be of the Lord’s providence that the Israelite should be free from a vexatious alliance, though he would not be free to remarry. “HOW LOVE I THY LAW!’’ The call of Ezra’s teaching, enforced by the word of the Lord through the Law upon the Israelites who had gotten into worldly conditions and alliances, must have been very similar to the proclamation of present truth today amongst Protestants. After having come out of Babylon to the extent of leaving Roman Catholicism, they have become involved with the world in a system which may very properly be termed Babylonish—churchianity. The Lord’s people have entered worldly alliances through worldly sects and parties, contrary to the divine injunction and the spirit of the divine law, which commands us to be subject in religious matters to the Lord and to him alone. These misalliances with the daughters of Rome are so general in our day that only the Israelites indeed will have the spiritual ears to hear the message or the spiritual courage to break off the improper union, to stand out separate from all earthly alliances as the people of God, recognizing one Head of the one church whose names are written in heaven—recognizing as brethren all who are united to that one Head, and repudiating all false bodies of Christ (churches) as well as the false heads to which they are united. This is the particular trial apparently of our day. The voice of the Lord is being sounded forth in every quarter of Christendom, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Come out of her, my people, that ye partake not of her sins and receive not of her plagues.” The churchianity of Protestantism is but a transplanting of the spirit of Babylon to new ground, and brings into bondage all those who will associate with these sects and parties; and all who would be in full accord with the Lord and have his fullest blessing must be faithful to his message and stand firm and loyal to him at any cost. To such and such alone the message of the Lord is now going forth, proving a glorious blessing and uplift, bringing them nearer to the Lord and into closer fellowship with those who are truly his and most completely under the blessing and provisions which he has made for his faithful. Vou. XXVI ALLEGHENY, PA., NOVEMBER 15, 1905 No. 22 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER A BISHOP’S GLOOMY SURVEY “The growth of divorces and suicides, the trying controversy with regard to the education question, and many other things, had made many people anxious as to the future of the country, not to speak of the church.” This pessimistic utterance was made at a conference of clergy and church workers at Blandford by the Bishop of Salisbury, who added that there had been revealed to them the terrible fact that a great many were giving up public worship, and that a large proportion of the people of England paid little attention to religion at all. . The press states that when at the last convention of the “Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor” at Baltimore, the reports were read, showing the great growth of the Society in recent years, a delegate caused consternation by inquiring why every form of evil seems to be growing proportionately more rapidly. The same question would apply to nearly all the reports of Babylon’s expansion and federations. The trouble seems to be that it is not the right kind of religion that is being promulgated and “compassing sea and land.” ‘The fear of a hell of torment has for so long been the basis of all religious effort that now, when sensible people can no longer swallow it, and when it is no longer preached in intelligent communities, there is little left as a basis for Christian life. The public in general are ignorant of the faith and hopes set forth by the Bible; they are but “babes,” and the majority [3660]