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Fesruary 15, 1912 as we will explain. We read, “All his work is perfect.” It is the divine method that every creature of God shall be so perfect as to need no forgiveness, no allowance. Then angels were created perfect, hence there was no need to provide forgiveness for them, because there would be no excuse for their sinning. Likewise man was thus created perfect, in the image and likeness of the Creator, and was without excuse, and therefore needed no provision for mercy so long as he was in relation with his God. When temptation came, man fell from obedience into sin, and from divine favor and life into disfavor and under the death sentence. He was without excuse and justice made no provision. But another feature of the divine character, love, while not in control, was brought into exercise for man’s relief. But divine love or mercy could not override or interfere with divine justice. In other words, God could not forgive a sinner whom He had sentenced to death. What He could do, and did do, was to provide in due time for man’s redemption. All of divine mercy, therefore, flows through the channel of redemption. Applying this principle to our Savior and to his teachings, we ask, How could he forgive sins when divine justice could not forgive sins, nor set aside the penalty of sin? The answer is, Jesus was the representative of divine mercy, and was at that time amongst men for the purpose of giving his life as a sacritice on man’s account, and therefore to him belonged the distinetive honor of forgiving sins. But someone answers that Jesus had not vet died for man’s sins, that he had not yet risen for man's justification, that he had not even appeared in the presenee of God for the “household of faith.” We answer that while it is true that he had not accomplished this work, and indeed has not yet fully accomplished his work (as the Redeemer and Restorer of men), nevertheless, he had begun the work, he had presented himself as man’s Atonement price at Jordan, at the time of his baptism. According to the Scriptures and the type, he at that moment surrendered his earthly all on man’s behalf. Vou. XXXII THE WATCH TOWER BROOKLYN, N. Y., MARCH 1, 1912 (71-75) However, his surrender of his all did not give him the authority to forgive sins. It was the heavenly Father’s acceptance of his consecration—divine acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice that counted. God’s acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice was manifested in his impartation of the holy Spirit, which lighted upon Jesus like a dove, as was testified by John the Baptist, and also testified by divine power which thereafter operated in and through Jesus for the healing of diseases. We see, then, that our Lord’s words to the palsied man, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” were justified by the fact that he was in the position of making satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and that the Father had already indicated the acceptance of the sacrifice which was then in process. ‘“‘BLESS THE LORD, 0 MY SOUL’’ The text for this study comes from the Psalms, and is most interesting. The Prophet David may have appropriated the words to himself as a Jew, and may have thought of his own physical healing and blessing as evidences of the Lord’s favor under the Law Covenant. But the prophetic application of this Psalm to spiritual Israel is still more interesting. The spiritual Israelites are new creatures, and have this treasure in earthen vessels, With these it is the new mind that recognizes his healing. his forgiveness, his reconciliation to God; and, according to God’s promise, all things are working together for good to him, because he loves God and has been called according to the divine purpose. Continually the new creature has cause to exclaim, “Bless the Lord, O my soul. and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases!” St. Paul, carrying out this same thought, declared that the great Redeemer will ultimately present his church before the Father faultless and perfect in love—“sown in weakness, raised in power; sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown an animal body, raised a spirit body.” We shall be like him and see him as he is and share his glory. No. 5 THE GOSPEL ST. PAUL PREACHED “For I am not ushamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”—Rom. 1:16. There are many religions, and it is a mistake that we have perhaps said in the past that there is no religion but one. A religion would properly be considered “Any system of worship by which any people recognize the Almighty and seek to do him honor.” We are, therefore, to recognize the various great religions that are in the world in the sense that we could not properly ignore them. We have, for instance, the Confucian teaching, the Brahmin teaching, the Buddhist teaching, the Mohammedan teaching, the Jewish teaching and the Christian teaching. These all present themselves to us as_ religious teachings. They all believe themselves more or less rational; they all believe themselves more or less reasonable. Every man tries to think that his own theory on any matter is a reasonable theory; and he is proper in so doing, In harmony with our text, we propose to compare the religion of Jesus with all other religions. In the beginning, we state with the Apostle, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.” Whatever may be said of other gospels, we believe, as Christians, that in the Christian religion we have that of which no man need be ashamed. There may perhaps be certain features and forms of certain creeds of which we might be ashamed—that do not come up to our highest ideals. But the Christian religion, as presented in the Word of God, should be the standard of Christendom: and of that we are not ashamed. Jt will compare with all other religions in the world, and come off victorious, in every sense of the word. All of these various religions seem to recognize that man is in an imperfect, unsatisfactory, sinful condition; therefore, each of these religions secks to present certain tenets, or teachings, that will help man up out of his imperfect condition, back into harmony with his God. A COMPARISON OF RELIGIONS lf we eonsider the teachings of the Mohammedans, we find that they have certain qualities which are very advantageous, and other qualities which we could not so highly commend. Their endeavor is not to do injury, hut to make men better. Their theory is that mankind are fallen and need lifting up out of their fallen condition. The same may be said of the teachings of the Brahmin, the Confucianist and the Buddhist. They are all more or less presentations of what are supposed to be cures for man’s fallen condition, cures for his unsatisfactory attitude. Some of these religions pronounce one kind of penalty for those who will not accept them, and others declare other kinds. Some offer one kind of reward for those who accept and follow their teachings, while others offer other kinds of rewards. But all agree that man needs to be elevated and lifted up out of his fallen condition, which is sinful and unsatisfactory. There seems to be in every man, naturally, without any education on the subject, something which tells him that he is not perfect; that he is not in full accord with his own conscience, not in accord with his own highest ideals of the divine mind, All religions, therefore, recognize this principle of sin and propose remedies therefor. We see the evidence of this as manifested in their disciples everywhere. Many seek to crucify the flesh in one form or another—some by flagellations, some by restraints upon the various liberties of life, some by holding their hands in the air for days, seeking to become holy and thus appease their god. But none of these things, in the light of the Gospel of Christ, seem to be the highest and noblest ideals. Doubtless all have done some good and uplifted some men out of the degradation in which they were. Mankind might have been worse off if it had not been for these religions. But now, if we compare these with the religion of Jesus Christ, we believe everything is to be said in favor of the religion of Christ. In the first place, all these religions more or less resemble the Jewish religion, which is of God, and hence all these religions are more or less in harmony with God's proposition. God's proposition to the Jews was, “Do these things and ve shall live,” have everlasting life. That was the covenant made by God with them at Mount Sinai, at the hands of Moses. They thought at first that they would surely be lifted up out of sin, because God had given them a law, and by keeping it they would be perfect and be brought into harmony with God. Jn this they were mistaken, for, as they found out, as the centuries passed, none of them were able to keep the law, because it is the measure of a perfect man’s ability; and none of them could measure up to the perfect man. Tsracl found, therefore, as the Apostle states it. that “by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in God’s sight.” And they found also that the law, instead of perfecting, justi [4981]