9

1

9

download/literature/watchtower/1907-13.pdf

/../literature/watchtower/1907/13/1907-13-1.html

(191-195) Why require the full payment for all the wrongs of the ages at their closing?—is it asked? Because the chief light of each age comes at its close, and because those who sin against such light are worthy of more severe judgment than similar evildoers preceding them who had less light. It was on this principle that our Lord charged the Jews of his day, who opposed the true light, with being more guilty than all their predecessors who had persecuted the just. And on the same principle he declares to us, ‘‘Come out of her [‘Babylon’], my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues.’’ Those who remain in Babylon now, in the light of present truth, are endorsers of Babylon ZION’S WATCH TOWER ALLEGHENY, Pa, and indirectly endorsers of all of her past wrong doing. And to endorse the wrongs of the past in the light of the present is to double the responsibility and to deserve the plagues of the whule, is the Seriptural argument. Let us, then, see that in the scape-goat type the Lord pictures the sending into the ‘‘wilderness’’ of isolation and persecution the ‘‘great company,’’ who after consecration were unwilling to go voluntarily ‘‘outside the camp, bearing the reproaches’’ of the Christ. They shared not in the sinatonement, but will be permitted, yea forced, to bear the weight of the world’s sins and thus to become dead to the world—-that their spirit-being may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. AN INTERESTING LETTER Dear Brother :— I am meeting with larger suceess than ever before in getting people to read Vol. 1 by using the following two simple plans: (1) I fold the 5¢ Dawn and carry it in my hip-pocket under my coat. When I find someone that I can interest, I immediately tell him I have a book I have been reading and pull out the copy. I then give him a regular Colporteur’s canvass as though to sell it to him but finally loan it to him under his promise to read and return when through with it. Loaning it gives me the right to look it up after a lapse of time. Vou. XXVIII ALLEGHENY, PA., JULY 1, 1907 (2) Carrying several 5¢ copies in this way and canvassing house after house, beginning right next door to my house, 1 get the right party by inquiring, ‘‘Is there anyone here who is specially interested in the Bible?’’ My object is to get Vol. 1 in the hands of the most religiously inclined person in each house. I loan it saying I will call after two or three weeks, The call gives an opportunity to water seed or to secure the book. Right in my own block I have found about six or seven interested readers already. There is nothing like being prepared. Your brother, G. H. FisHer. No. 138 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER IS PROSPERITY WANING? The question whether a period of hard times is approaching is one upon which the experts are unable to agree. Mr. Jacob H. Schiff has predicted an era of great suffering among the poor. Mr. August Belmont told the assembled capitalists and workmen at Mr. Carnegie’s industrial peace conference that we were about to have a halt in industry, which might not be altogether undesirable. Mr. James J. Hill, who has often seemed pessimistic in his views, denies that he has predicted a collapse of industry, but thinks that there will be a not unhealthy slackening. The view that trade has been going ahead too fast, and that it will have to slow down to give capital a chance to catch up, is pretty generally expressed. On the other hand, Chairman Gary, of the United States Steel Corporation, can see nothing but bright skies ahead, and a number of foreign observers take the same view. Upon the theory of periodical crises it is not yet time for a great industrial depression. We had such disasters beginning in 1819, in 1837, in 1857, in 1873, and in 1893. The normal interval between them is twenty years. The shortest hitherto has been sixteen years, between 1857 and 1873, and the effects of the Civil War furnished ample explanation of the curtailment in that case. According to experience we should not expect another severe crisis until sometime between 1909 and 1913. There has usually been a mild reaction from the prevailing prosperity about halfway between two great panics. We had one in 1884, a little over half-way from 1873 to 1898. The corresponding break in the present period of good times came in 1903, just ten vears after the panic of 1893. According to precedent that ought to last us for nine or ten years longer. In the United States prosperity is largely dependent upon the state of the crops. The Baring panic of 1890 would have brought on our panic of 1893 two years ahead of time if the disaster had not been stayed by the bonanza harvests of 1891. The present crop prospects, therefore, are of vast importance in estimating the prospects for 1907. If the extraordinary succession of good crops with which this continent has been favored can be continued for another year, there will be pretty good assurance of another year of prosperity. The next three months will tell most of the story.—Collier’s Weekly. ¥ * + We are glad that the present prosperous times are being made use of by many of the dgar truth friends as a special opportunity for spreading the good tidings of great joy. The ‘‘harvest’’ work is the most important of all. It 1s ‘(the King’s business’’—the Father’s business. The numbers entering the Colporteur work lead us to surmise that this year may even exceed last year in its phenomenal output of Dawn-SrupDIEs. A NOTABLE PREACHER’S VIEWS ‘“‘T have been twenty-five years in the ministry; and I regret to say it, but it is my honest conviction that there is more real brotherhood in the lodges than you find in the churches, and that there is infinitely more charity, sympathy and kindness in those outside of the church than you will find in Mr. Lordly and Milady and their coterie who are running the churches as private clubs.’’ * * * With the above explanation Rev. M. C. Peters withdrew from the pastorate of one of the most prominent New York City churches. Apparently the ‘‘wheat’’ class is getting scarce in all denominations. An exchange says:— ‘“Rev. Madson C. Peters, pastor of one of the leading Baptist churches of New York City, is reported as saying that, with an investment of $5,000,000, and an expenditure last vear of $400,000, the seventy Baptist churches in that city had a net increase during that time of only nine members. ‘*He says also that the other churches of the city did little better. What is wrong?’’ POWER OF THE CHURCHES ‘*A timely illustration of the tremendous and effective power which may be wielded by the churches when they unite is afforded by the closing of the gambling dens at Saratoga, a result brought about by the action of the church federation of Saratoga county. Thus a condition which has been a notorious scandal and disgrace to the state for years, which has hitherto successfully defied all efforts at reform, and had come to be regarded as practically hopeless, has been effectively remedied by the joint action of the churches. What has been done at Saratoga can be done elsewhere in a similar way. The case is also an example of the practical usefulness of church federation, local, state and national, and a good reason why the federation movement should receive the cordial support of all good citizens. Many public evils other than gambling come within the seope of church federation activities, and no organizations existing in the country, of any name or nature, have the equipment, the power, and the special advantages for effective service such as these federations possess. We hope the time is not far distant when the churches throughout the entire country will be brought into the federation movement. A more promising work than this for the good of the world has not appeared among the religious activities of modern times.’’—Leslie’s Weekly. [4016]