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(79-83) fetish or chaim to ward off the adversary, but take it intelligently, as unto the Lord, and throw your influence in favor of it to all the dear brethren in Christ. There is a blessing in it, and THE WATCH TOWER ALLEGHENY, Pa. the quicker you take it, the quicker you will share in that blessing, which many others are already confessing. “Make straight paths for your feet.” THE NEW COVENANT AND THE NEW TESTAMENT These two words in our English are the same word in the Greek. The explanation of the matter is this:— The blessings of God upon Abraham were ostensibly given to the Jewish nation, but not actually so. A hidden meaning, or spirit, made that blessing, under the Law, applicable only to Jesus, who alone kept the law and inherited its blessings. Secondly, that spiritual inheritance of the law blessing came to all those who accepted Christ as the end of the law and became united to him by consecration unto death. Thus, spiritual Israelites arc the heirs with Jesus of everything pertaining to the Abrahamic Covenant. However, our Lord’s object in keeping the law was not merely to gain life for himself, but by dying and getting the new nature for himself to be able to give to natural] Israel, in harmony with the divine law. the blessings which they had originally received, but were unable to retain through weakness of the flesh. Thus, through Jesus’ death, a testament—good-will—or blessing, was entailed upon natural Israel; but instead of giving them that blessing at once, by divine arrangement it is given first to spiritual Israel, the “holy nation,” the “royal priest hood.” the “peculiar people;” it is given to these conditionally —that they will not keep it to themselves, but dying as members of the body of Christ, they will join with their Head in his will, or testament, giving all those earthly rights as the seed of Abraham, to fleshly Israel. As soon as all the members of the testator shall have died, this New Testament or New Covenant will thereby be sealed, or made effective, operative toward natural Israel. Thus Jesus was the minister, or servant, of the New Covenant which God proposed to make with Israel. Although he had a right to all that is to go to Israel, he kept it not, but freely surrendered it for us and them. We as his brethren, justified through faith in his blood (not through faith in the New Covenant), were permitted to become “able ministers of the New Covenant or New Testament”—able or fully qualified by our justification and by the terms of our sanctification, to be associated with our Lord and Head as sharers in his sufferings, proclaimers of his grace, announcers of the New Covenant, and assistants one of another as members of his body in the filling up of the sufferings of Christ to the intended end. SOME INTERESTING LETTERS Dear BRoTHER RUSSELL: Enclosed newspaper clipping from a Dayton, Ohio, paper is worthy of more than passing notice as a piece of church news :— “Rev, E. E. Baker. formerly of this city, but lately of Los Angeles, Cal., has withdrawn from the ministry to become western manager for the school of salesmanship. In his farewell to his congregation Mr. Baker said :— . “«The pastor of the present day has to preach what his congregation wants him to, or he won’t keep his job. If a minister were not depending upon the people he is supposed to uplift, we would have a broader, truer and more effective work from the pulpit today.’ ” Mr, Baker was pastor of the First Lutheran caurch of Dayton and was one of the most popular clergymen of the city. He resigned his charge to accept a call to the Woodward Avenue Presbyterian church in Cleveland, and later accepted a call to the Los Angeles church. About ten years ago Rev. Baker accepted from me, for criticism, a copy of your “What Say the Scriptures About Hell.” After looking it over, he not only failed to criticise, but stated that a person could not preach from the pulpit all one thought. His taking this stand at this time seems to me to be the result of a ten-years’ battle in his mind, and I am pleased to note that he now has the courage to stand by his convictions. Your brother in Christ, G. C. Driscoir. Dear BROTHER RUSSELL :— We again express to you our continued and growing love for yourself, and also for the work entrusted to your hands. We would also like to express our satisfaction with “the vow” in many, many ways; and particularly blessed have we been by the prayer for you all there and the work in your hands and our humble part therein. This vow has been also the means of bringing home to us the fulness of the consecration vow long since made, and has caused us to be much more careful in our scrutiny of our daily life. not only in the home, but before the world ag well. The Word has been made more precious to us than ever before, and we cannot but feel that the vow has been instrumental in a large measure in this. We are indeed pained to know that some are offended by that which it would appear could not offend any who do not desire to be somewhat entangled in the yoke of sin. The blessing to those who take it in its fulness will surely be manifest in the general church. With kindest regards to yourself and the friends, and especially to Brother Page, who, we note, is with you again, we are, Very sincerely yours, C. H. Dickinson anp WIFE. Vou. XXX ALLEGHENY, PA., MARCH 15, 1909 No. 6 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER CHRISTIAN NATIONS PERPLEXED Our doar friends, who do not believe in a future Millennium, attempt to prove that we are now enjoying the blessings of Christ’s kingdom, and point us to the Christian nations of the world, called “Christendom.” They are greatly perplexed when we inquire why if Christ is King he should have ditterent forms of government, and why his different governments for centuries have fought each other and today are wasting the blessings of our day on armies and navies and fortifications? Alas! the name “Christendom” is a delusion. Satan is still “the prince of this world” and the term “Satandom” would be the truer title. But our “wily” adversary is so crafty that he puts darkness for light and deludes the poor world. Thank God that soon Satan shall be bound for a thousand years that he may deceive the nations (peoples) no more, until the thousand years are finished.—Rev. 20:3, Meantime, however. some useful purposes are being served by the military expenditures. Employment is being given to millions of men not only in military and naval services, but also in the building of guns and forts and battleships,—the mining of the ore, the smelting and rolling of the steel, etc. And not the poor, but the rich, foot the bills in taxes. The following from the Aélantie Monthly is interesting:— CAUSE OF NATIONAL DEFICIT All the great nations are today facing deficits, caused in every case by the military and naval experts. Into what a tangle the finances of Russia and Japan have been brought by militarists is known to everybody. Germany has, in a single generation, increased her national] debt from eighteen million dollars to more than one billion dollars. The German Minster of Finance looks wildly around in search of new sources of national income. Financial experts confess that France is approaching the limit of her sources of revenue. Her deficit is created by her army and navy. The British government is always seeking for new devices by means of which to fill a depleted treasury. Her dreadnoughts keep her poor. Italy has for years staggered on the verge of bankruptcy because she carries an overgrown army on her back. Even our own rich republic faces this year a deficit of over a hundred million dollars, largely due to the one hundred and thirty millions we are spending on our navy. Mr. Cortelyou has called our attention to the fact that while in thirty years we have increased our population by 85 per cent. and our wealth by 185 per cent., we have increased our national expenses by 400 per cent. MANY SECESSIONS FROM THE C@RMAN STATE CHURCH Ecclesiastical circles in Germany are much exercised at the rapidly increasing desertions from the State church. Although the process of official separation from the church is one of the greatest difficulty, delay and expense, it is computed that in Berlin alone considerably over 10,000 persons have severed their connection with the church during the past [4350]