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SI\PTI\MBI\R
I,
1912
THE
WATCH
TOWER
(283-287)
Elders,
and
the
Pharisees
neglected
the
Word
of
God
and
held
to
the
traditions.
What
are
we
as
Christians
doing
to
day?
"Let
us
hold
fast
the
faithful
Word,"
"The
Word
of
God,
which
is
able
to
make
us
wise."
Let
us
search
the
Scriptures
daily
and
critically,
and
let
us
abandon
every
thing
which
conflicts
therewith.
WHAT
IS
GOD'S
KINGDOM?
Our
text
is
frequently
misunderstood
to
mean
that
God's
kingdom
consists
in
righteousness
and
peace
and
joy
in
the
holy
Spirit.
The
context
shows
that
this
is
entirely
a
wrong
thought.
Let
us
follow
the
context
and
see.
Let
us
bea.r
in
mind
what
we
have
already
seen
respect
ing
the
kingdom
mentioned
in
the
Bible-that
it
is
the
glori
ous
reign
of
Messiah
for
a
thousand
years,
for
the
uplift
of
the
human
family,
and
that
during
that
reign
the
church
will
be
associated
with
Jesus
in
his
kingdom
glory,
power
and
honor.
The
call
of
this
Gospel
age
is
to
select
this
bride
class
and
to
develop
them
and
make
them
"meet
for
the
in
heritance
of
the
saints
in
light."
We
have
seen
that
in
the
present
time
these
called
out
ones-called
to
be
the
"bride,
the
Lamb's
wife"-a.re
the
kingdom
in
embryo
or
in
an
undeveloped
state.
These
probationary
members
of
the
kingdom,
the
Scriptures
tell
us,
are
not
under
the
Law
of
Moses,
expressed
in
the
Ten
Commandments;
they
are
not
hoping
for
eternal
life
through
them,
but
they
are
under
Grace-under
a
gracious
arrange
ment
which
God
has
made
for
them
through
the
merit
of
Christ's
death.
St.
Paul
points
out
that
while
these
are
free
from
the
various
commands
of
the
Jewish
law
they
are
not
without
law,
but
under
the
great
divine
law,
as
mem
bers
of
the
body
of
Christ.
He
says
that
thus
we,
as
new
creatures,
do
fulfil
the
real
meaning
of
the
divine
law
when
we
"walk,
not
after
the
flesh,
but
after
the
spirit,"
even
thou~h
we
be
not
able
to
walk
fully
up
to
the
spirit
of
the
law
because
of
weaknesses
of
our
flesh.
It
is
the
new
crea
ture,
the
desire,
that
is
being
judged
and
not
the
tlesh.
Accordingly
the
Gentiles
who
came
into
membership
in
the
body
of
Christ
were
not
required
to
conform
themselves
to
the
demands
of
the
Jewish
law.
For
instance,
a
Jew,
according
to
the
law,
might
not
eat
fish
that
had
no
scales,
mackerel,
etc.,
neither
might
he
eat
rahbit
meat,
nor
pork,
etc.,
and
in
a
variety
of
other
ways
he
was
restrained
and
limited
in
his
eating
and
drinking.
But
none
of
these
re
straints
apply
to
Christians
who
had
come
from
amongst
the
Gentiles
and
who
never
had
been
under
the
Law
Covenant.
In
our
text
St.
Paul
urges
that
these
liberties
respect
ing
what
they
might
eat
and
drink
were
not
to
be
esteemed
as
the
real
blessings
of
this
embryo
kingdom
class
in
the
present
life.
Far
from
it;
the
real
blessings
of
this
class
consisted
in
their
enjoyment
of
righteousness
and
peace
and
joy
in
the
holy
Spirit.
Transformed
by
the
renewing
of
their
minds,
they
had
come
to
appreciate
and
love
righteous
ness
and
truth;
good
things
rather
than
evil
things;
pure
things
rather
than
impure
things;
spiritual
things
rather
than
earthly
things;
their
citizenship
BOW
was
in
heaven
in
stead
of
being
an
earthly
one.
They
had
come
to
appreciate
"the
peace
of
God
which
passeth
all
understanding,"
and
its
rule
in
their
hearts
was
one
of
the
grand
blessings
whieh
they
enjoyed
as
members
of
the
embryo
kingdom
class.
"There
is
no
peace,
saith
my
God,
to
the
wicked."
"The
wicked
are
like
a
troubled
sea
which
cannot
rest."
Our
heavenly
peace
and
confidence
in
God
are
the
result
of
our
union
with
Christ
as
members
of
his
kingdom
class.
This
we
prize
and
not
specially
the
privilege
of
eating
pork
or
Bome
other
thing
fOTibidden
to
the
Jews.
Joy
in
the
holy
Spirit-fellowship
with
the
Father
and
with
the
Son
and
with
all
who
possess
the
spirit
of
righteousness-is
the
blessed
privilege
of
every
member
of
the
embryo
kingdom
class,
every
member
of
"the
church
which
is
the
body
of
Christ."
Thus
the
Apostle
would
have
his
hearers
place
a
proper
valuation
upon
the
various
favors
which
they
had
received,
80
that
if
the
interests
of
the
Lord's
cause
or
the
interests
of
the
brethren
in
Christ
should
ever
require
them
to
forego
their
liberties
in
respect
to
food
and
drink,
they
would
count
such
self-denials
for
Christ's
sake
and
for
the
brethren's
sake
as
nothing-as
sacrifices
they
could
make
with
joy,
be
cause
they
would
not
interfere
with
or
disturb
in
the
least
the
Teal
value
of
the
blessings
and
privileges
which
are
ours
\n
Ohrist.
VOL.
XXXIII
BROOKLYN,
N.
Y.,
SEPTEMBER
15,
1912
RESPONSIBILITIES
OF
CHRISTIAN
CITIZENSHIP
No.
18
"The
night
is
far
spent,
the
day
is
at
1wJnd}'
let
us
therefore
cast
off
the
works
of
darkness,
and
let
11S
put
on
the
armor
of
light.
Let
us
walk
honestly,
as
in
the
day;
not
m
rioting
and
drunkenness,
not
in
chambering
and
WlPntonne8s,
not
in
strife
and
envying."-Romans
13:
12,
13.
The
Scriptures
call
attention
to
the
fact
thak
there
is
a
great
time
of
trouble,
"become
the
kingdom
of
our
Lord
and
night
of
weeping
in
contrast
with
a
day
of
joy.
(Psa.
30:
5)
of
his
Christ."'-Rev.
11:
15.
The
"night"
is
that
period
of
darkness
which
set
in
after
The
Scriptures
inform
us
that
the
period
of
time
dur-
Adam
fell.
By
one
man's
disobedience
sin
entered
into
the
ing
which
the
present
dominion
of
Satan
shall
become
the
world.
and
death
as
the
result
of
sin.
(Romans
5:12,
19)
kingdom
of
God's
dear
Son,
will
be
a
specially
evil
day.
It
Evil
has
brought
sorrow
and
the
darkness
of
ignorance
and
will
be
a
season
in
which
all
the
children
of
light
shall
be
superstition
among
mankind
until
human
affairs
have
be-
crucially
tested;
a
day
that
will
try
every
man's
faith
and
come
demoralized.
As
the
Prophet
Isaiah
says,
"Darkness
work;
a
day
of
fiery
trial
through
which
only
"the
gold,
shall
cover
the
earth,
and
gross
darkness
the
people.-
the
silver
and
the
precious
stones"
will
pass
unharmed
and
Isa.
60:2.
in
which
all
the
"wood,
hay
and
stubble"
of
error,
sin
and
There
is
however
a
morning
promised.
That
morning
human
tradition
will
be
entirely
consumed.-l
Cor.
3:
12,
13;
iq
to
be
usherl'd
in
by
the
Sun
of
Righteousness.
rising
with
1
Pet.
4:
12.
healing
in
his
beams.
(Mal.
4:2)
That
Sun
of
Righteous-
"AND
ALSO
THE
NIGHT"
ness
is
Christ
and
the
church
with
him.
"Then
shall
the
While
we
observe
the
glorious
dawn
of
the
new
dis-
righteous
shim>
forth
as
the
sun
in
the
kingdom
of
their
pensation,
we
notice
clouds
also.
The
Bible
forewarns
us
Father"
(Matt.
13:43)-Christ
as
the
head
of
the
church,
that
before
the
kingdom
of
heaven
shall
have
been
set
up
which
is
his
body.
fully
there
will
be
a
very
dark
hour
for
the
world-a
period
Another
Scripture
speaks
of
the
present
as
daytime:
"I
in
which
sin
will
have
great
liberty
in
its
operation,
and
must
work
the
works
of
him
that
sent
me,
while
it
is
day;
during
which
the
saints
of
God
will
suffer
persecution.
At
the
night
cometh
when
no
man
can
work."
(John
9:4)
the
same
time
we
can
see
the
reflection
from
the
"Sun,"
al·
While
for
many
centuries
there
has
been
a
period
of
dark-
though
it
has
not
yet
arisen;
we
are
now
in
the
early
ness,
nevertheless
sinpe
the
first
advent
of
our
Lord
the
dawn.
But
the
coming
darknesq
will
make
matters
appear
as
glorious
light
of
truth
has
had
more
effect
upon
the
world
though
the
morning
will
not
come,
as
though
the
night
had
than
at
any
previous
time;
for
with
the
coming
of
our
Lord
again
set
in,
as
though
the
divine
recognition
of
all
things
Jesus
a
blessing
came
upon
the
world.
At
th'lt
time
so
much
had
ceased.
light
carne
in,
that
the
Gospel
age
may
be
called
day
in
con-
There
is,
however,
a
silver
lining
to
the
clouds.
Soon
trast
with
previous
experiences.
This
day,
in
turn,
gave
the
Sun
of
Righteousness
will
arise
with
healing
in
his
place
to
a
long
period
known
as
the
dark
ages.
Then.
since
beams.
The
church
in
glory
with
her
lord
will
put
down
sin,
the
Reformation,
a
measure
of
light
came
in
again,
through
will
dispel
the
superstition
and
evil
whiph
now
becloud
the
pertain
influences
which
have
brought
blessings
to
the
Lord's
minds
of
men
and
will
give
clear
light
to
the
people
respect-
people.
Now
it
is
time
for
the
-
:-lun
of
Righteousness
to
ing
God
and
His
·Word.
-
"I
will
turn
a
purl'
language
[mes-
rise
with
healing
in
his
beams.
sagel
to
thEl
people,
that
they
may
all
call
upon
the
name
We
believe
that
the
day
is
aptually
at
hand;
that
we
of
the
Lord,
to
serve
him
with
one
consent."
(Zeph.
3:9)
pre
living
in
the
early
dawn
of
a
new
disppnsation.
and
The
mesqage
was
originally
given
in
its
purity.
but
this
free-
that
as
soon
as
the
harvest
of
the
Gospel
age
shall
have
dom
from
adultE'ration
it
did
not
retain.
It
has
been
more
been
garnered,
"the
kingdoms
of
this
world"
shall,
during
a
or
less
obscured
by
ignorance
and
superstition.
When
through
[5097]
SEPTEMBER 1, 1912 Elders, and the Pharisees neglected the Word of God and held to the traditions, What are we as Christians doing today? “Let us hold fast the faithful Word,” “The Word of God, which is able to make us wise.” Let us search the Scriptures daily and critically, and let us abandon everything which conflicts therewith. WHAT IS GOD’S KINGDOM? Our text is frequently misunderstood to mean that God’s kingdom consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Spirit. The context shows that this is entirely a wrong thought. Let us follow the context and see. Let us bear in mind what we have already seen respecting the kingdom mentioned in the Bible—that it is the glorious reign of Messiah for a thousand years, for the uplift of the human family, and that during that reign the church will be associated with Jesus in his kingdom glory, power and honor. The call of this Gospel age is to select this bride class and to develop them and make them “meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.” We have seen that in the present, time these called out ones—called to be the “bride, the Lamb’s wife’—are the kingdom in embryo or in an undeveloped state, ‘lhese probationary members of the kingdom, the Scriptures tell us, are not under the Law of Moses, expressed in the Ten Commandments; they are not hoping for eternal life through them, but they are under Grace—under a gracious arrangement which God has made for them through the merit of Christ’s death. St. Paul points out that while these are free from the various commands of the Jewish law they are not without law, but under the great divine law, as members of the body of Christ. He says that thus we, as new creatures, do fulfil the real meaning of the divine law when we “walk, not after the flesh, but after the spirit,’ even though we be not able to walk fully up to the spirit of the law because of weaknesses of our flesh. It is the new creature, the desire, that is being judged and not the flesh. Accordingly the Gentiles who came into membership in the body of Christ were not required to conform themselves to the demands of the Jewish law. For instance, a Jew, according to the law, might not eat fish that had no scales, THE WATCH TOWER (283-287) mackerel, etc., neither might he eat rabbit meat, nor pork, etc., and in a variety of other ways he was restrained and limited in his eating and drinking. But none of these restraints apply to Christians who had come from amongst the Gentiles and who never had been under the Law Covenant. In our text St. Paul urges that these liberties respecting what they might eat and drink were not to be esteemed as the real blessings of this embryo kingdom class in the present life. Far from it; the real blessings of this class consisted in their enjoyment of righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Spirit. Transformed by the renewing of their minds, they had come to appreciate and love righteousness and truth; good things rather than evil things; pure things rather than impure things; spiritual things rather than earthly things; their citizenship now was in heaven instead of being an earthly one. They had come to appreciate “the peace of God which passeth all understanding,” and its rule in their hearts was one of the grand blessings which they enjoyed as members of the embryo kingdom class. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” ‘The wicked are like a troubled sea which cannot rest.” Our heavenly peace and confidence in God are the result of our union with Christ as members of his kingdom class, This we prize and not specially the privilege of eating pork or some other thing forbidden to the Jews. Joy in the holy Spirit—fellowship with the Father and with the Son and with all who possess the spirit of righteousness—is the blessed privilege of every member of the embryo kingdom class, every member of “the church which is the body of Christ.” Thus the Apostle would have his hearers place a proper valuation upon the various favors which they had received, so that if the interests of the Lord’s cause or the interests of the brethren in Christ should ever require them to forego their liberties in respect to food and drink, they would count such self-denials for Christ’s sake and for the brethren’s sake as nothing—as sacrifices they could make with joy, because they would not interfere with or disturb in the least the real value of the blessings and privileges which are ours in Christ. Vou. XXXII BROOKLYN, N. Y., SEPTEMBER 15, 1912 No. 18 RESPONSIBILITIES OF CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP “The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not m rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.’—Romans 13:12, 13. The Scriptures call attention to the fact that there is a night of weeping in contrast with a day of joy. (Psa. 30:5) The “night” is that period of darkness which set in after Adam fell. By one man’s disobedience sin entered into the world, and death as the result of sin. (Romans 5:12, 19) Evil has brought sorrow and the darkness of ignorance and superstition among mankind until human affairs have become demoralized. As the Prophet Isaiah says, “Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people.— Isa. 60:2. There is however a morning promised. That morning is to be ushered in by the Sun of Righteousness, rising with healing in his beams. (Mal. 4:2) That Sun of Righteousness is Christ and the church with him. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43)—Christ as the head of the church, which is his body. Another Scripture speaks of the present as daytime: “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work.” (John 9:4) While for many centuries there has been a period of darkness, nevertheless since the first advent of our Lord the glorious light of truth has had more effect upon the world than at any previous time; for with the coming of our Lord Jesus a blessing came upon the world. At that time so much light came in, that the Gospel age may be called day in contrast with previous experiences. This day, in turn, gave place to a long period known as the dark ages, ‘Then, since the Reformation, a measure of light came in again, through certain influences which have brought blessings to the Lord’s people. Now it is time for the Sun of Righteousness to rise with healing in his beams. We believe that the day is actually at hand; that we ere living in the early dawn of a new dispensation, and that as soon as the harvest of the Gospel age shall have been garnered, “the kingdoms of this world” shall, during a great time of trouble, “become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.’”’—Rev. 11:15. The Scriptures inform us that the period of time during which the present dominion of Satan shall become the kingdom of God’s dear Son, will be a specially evil day, It will be a season in which all the children of light shall be crucially tested; a day that will try every man’s faith and work; a day of fiery trial through which only ‘‘the gold, the silver and the precious stones” will pass unharmed and in which all the “wood, hay and stubble” of error, sin and human tradition will be entirely consumed.—1 Cor. 3:12, 13; 1 Pet. 4:12. ‘“‘AND ALSO THE NIGHT’’ While we observe the glorious dawn of the new dispensation, we notice clouds also. The Bible forewarns us that before the kingdom of heaven shall have been set up fully there will be a very dark hour for the world—a period in which sin will have great liberty in its operation, and during which the saints of God will suffer persecution. At the same time we can see the reflection from the “Sun,” although it has not yet arisen; we are now in the early dawn. But the coming darkness will make matters appear as though the morning will not come, as though the night bad again set in, as though the divine recognition of all things had ceased. There is, however, a silver lining to the clouds. Soon the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in his beams. The church in glory with her lord will put down sin, will dispel the superstition and evil which now becloud the minds of men and will give clear light to the people respecting God and His Word. “I will turn a pure language [message] to the people, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.” (Zeph. 3:9) The message was originally given in its purity, but this freedom from adulteration it did not retain. It has been more or less obscured by ignorance and superstition. When through [5097]
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