Fesruary 1, 1902 God is able to kill the soul—able to blot out existence entirely—and he has threatened to do so in all cases of wilful deliberate sin, against full light and knowledge. This is a cause both for comfort and for fear. For comfort, as opposed to the false human teaching that the masses will spend an eternity of woe: for fear, lest after having tasted of divine goodness and learned of God’s gracious provisions for such as obey him, any of us should seem to come short and lose our all—life! To have the proper course in life, to be able to meet the ZION’S WATCH TOWER (46-51) trials and difficulties of life as they come to us, and to meet them in the proper spirit which the Lord directs—im the spirit of rejoicing in tribulation, and counting such experiences all Joy,—it is necessary that all fear of man, which brings a snare, shall be removed. And it is our Lord’s direction that we shall fear Jehovah, and not fear our mortal fellows. The righteous are bold as a lion, as well as gentle as a dove, and meek as a lamb. This peculiar combination should be found in every Christian, and we doubt if it will be found elsewhere. “BETWEEN EVENINGS’—A JEWISH VIEW Dear Brother Russell:—Allow me to express to you my deep gratitude for your kindness in supplying me gratuitously with the Watch Tower and booklets. I have not language at my command to convey to you how thankful I feel to our heavenly Father for raising you up as one of his honored servants in the spreading of the present truth, and trying to build up and assist those of the household of faith in their walk in the narrow way. It is proving a great blessing to me. I lay awake for hours mediating on the great and precious promises of God and the glorious prospect there is in store for those whom he has called according to his purpose. In reading the last Tower for December Ist, I was much helped by your interpretations of “The Voices of the Three Signs,” also with the typical meaning of “The Passover Lamb.” But I can not quite understand what you mean when you say, “On the fourteenth day of the month it was to be killed between evenings (between six o’clock the one evening and six o’clock the next evening—the usual Jewish day).” If the lamb had to be killed on the fourteenth day, between the evening of that day and the evening of the next, which would be the fifteenth, it would have to take place after six o’elock in the evening on the fourteenth day, and that would not correspond with the time of the death of the antitype as recorded in Matt. 26:45, 46, 50; Luke 23:44, 46, and yet the properties which the passover lamb was to possess, the manner in which it was to die, the effects which were to be produced, and the ceremonies which were to be observed, as recorded in the twelfth chapter of Exodus, have been fulfilled in a most remarkable and striking manner in the promised Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, our blessed Lord. Having been brought up in the Jewish faith up to the age of 20, I always understood the matter to be thus: The killing of the lamb was on the evening of the fourteenth day, or more correctly speaking, according to the original, Bain Haarbayim, between the evenings, that is, between the sun’s declining west and his setting about three o’clock p.m. For the Jews observe two evenings in each day. The first commences after twelve o'clock at noon, and the second at thiee o’clock p m. Between these two evenings the daily evening sacrifice was offered up and immediately after the passover lamb was killed and prepared. But if the passover fell on the weekly Sabbath, 7. ¢., on Friday, they began an hour sooner, that they might despatch their business by the time that the Sabbath began. Hence that day is called the preparation of the passover.—John 19:14. The Jews computed their days from evening to evening; i. €., from the setting of the sun of one day to the setting again on the next day. This appears to be the command given by Moses, “From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath.” (Lev. 23:31) Moses, in giving an account of the Creation, says, “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” (Gen. 1:5) By the evening and the morning the Jews understand the same portion of time that we call day and night, or twenty-four hours; the former continued from the rising of the sun until its setting, and from that time till his reappearance was called the night. The division of time into hours was not known in the days of Moses.—Compare Gen, 15:12; 18:1; 19:1. The day was again divided into two equal portions, from the rising of the sun until noon was the morning, and after that, until the sun had gone down, was the evening. Hence we read only of morning and evening sacrifices. Again, the morning and the evening were divided each into two equal parts, for the regulation of the morning and evening sacrifices and prayers. The morning saciifiee and praver was allowed to be offered at any time between the rising of the sun and the third hour, t. €., 9 a. m., and the evening sacrifice and prayer may be offered up at any time during the first evening. Hebrew, crep katon, the short or lesser evening, i. e., from noon until ninth hour, or 3 p. m.; and from that time until sun setting, is called in the Hebrew erev gadol, i e., the greater evening. It was between these two evenings the pasechal lamb was to be slain, and so was Jesus, the antitype, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world as recorded, I remain, dear Brother Russell, Faithfully yours in the Lord, J. Gronowsky,—England. Vou. XXII ALLEGHENY, PA., FEBRUARY 15, 1902 No. 4 THE HOPES OF THE EARLY CHURCH RESPECTING OUR LORD’S SECOND COMING Some earnest and faithful Bible student has published a little tract treating the above subject so simply and beautifully that we feel constrained to lay before our readers copious extracts therefrom, as follows:— No one can read the New Testament with care without discovering that the members of the early church were men of hope as well as men of faith. Indeed, hope seems, more than faith, to have been the outstanding feature of the character. Not that they really had more of this than that; the twain were one; they formed one noble edifice, one stately ship. But faith was the foundation work; hope, raised upon it, caught the eye of the beholder. Faith lay beneath the water line; hope reared the mast and spread the sail high in the sight of men. Their faith looked back to Calvary; but, in a sense, it was an act completed. They were not always looking backward; forward they peered, with steady gaze. The attitude of expectation was their daily, hourly attitude. Something was about to happen—someone was coming—and they are seen to be on tip-toe, looking for and hasting unto the event. To them it clearly seemed a consummation most devoutly to be wished. They constantly referred to it as “a lively hope.” “that blessed hope,” “this hope,” “one hope,” “our hope,” “the hope of our calling,” “the hope set before us.” Every reference shows that it completely filled their hearts, and was the dominating influence in their lives, It almost diverted them from ordinary work and duty, the warning being required not to stand “gazing up into heaven,” The hope thus cheri»hed was not of a private kind, attainable by this believer at a certain time, and that one at another. It was one great hope, to be fulfilled to all the church, not even excluding them that slept, at one defined and seltsame time. ‘‘No prophecy of Scripture is of a private inte pretation,” and this hope, it is evident, was not to be fulfilled to individual believers. It was not a matter of personal and private experience; not the coming of Chiist to the individual heart. nor the approach of death to each separate person, but something affecting the entire community of Christians at the same point of time. J. What was that hope which so controlled and cheered those carly saints? None other than “that blessed hope. the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.” They believed with all their hearts in Jesus Christ. in his wondrous life of miracle and grace, and in his sacrificial death on Calvary’s sad tree. They believed that he had triumphed o’er the grave, and had come forth to resurrection life. Many of them had seen him in his resurrection form, and had been witnesses of his ascension to the heavens. They remembered the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said unto them, “I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I] am, there ye may be also.” They had heard “two men in white apparel” say, “This same Jesus [2953]
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