(447-451) I hoped to convince you of your error, but I see you are too well established in it to be moved.” (Oh, how I thanked our heavenly Father for the encouragement thus brought to my heart!) I asked him if he had ever read the Divine Plan of the Ages. He replied that he had done so, and that its author crossed the Bible, human reason and common sense, besides crossing his own arguments, “Tf that is so, I replied, “I want to know it. book. Please show me his first error.” He nervously turned the pages of the book and said, “I don’t seem to see any place now.” I urged him to hunt, or, if he was very busy, to take the book home, and when he found such a place to show it me. After a few more spasmodic attempts he turned to me with a distressed look and said he was not familiar enough with the work to really find such Here is the ZION’S WATCH TOWER ALLEGHENY, Pa, places. After begging his pardon if anything in my manner was not becoming to my youth, I urged him to either become sufficiently acquainted with the book to warrant such assertions, or else be very cautious about bringing such accusations, He left me very soon, and despite the fact that he insisted to our neighbors that I was possessed of the devil, I rejoiced in the privilege of thus serving our Master. I truly realized that the brother’s defeat was not occasioned by his inferiority as a student, for I am sure that he was recognized, and doubtless justly too, as a Bible scholar; and I realized then my own insufficiency, but perceived that God allowed the Truth to triumph, to encourage me at that time. This fills my heart with joy, and I can indeed say with the Apostle, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” Yours in him, W. H. B.—Rhode Island. Vou. XXIV ALLEGHENY, PA., DECEMBER 15, 1903 No. 24 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER HUMILITY AT A DISCOUNT WITH CLERGY The louder a man boasts of himself and the more domineering over others he becomes the more will he be reverenced. This is true in all religious circles today amongst the “clergy.” It was so, too, in St. Paul’s day. He pointed it out to the Corinthians, saying, in substance: The more a religious teacher brow-beats you and the more he exacts from you of money and reverence, the more you will esteem him. (2 Cor. 11:20) This still seems to be the trend of unbalanced human nature. It is exemplified in every church organization except the true one, where alone meekness, gentleness and patience are recognized as the proper adornments of Christ’s representatives. As an extreme example note the following proclamation of John Alex. Dowie to his deluded followers, clipped from his own publication: “The time has come when the world shall no longer make money out of Zion investments, for Zion can now invest more profitably in Zion industries, through Zion’s own Financial Institutions. Therefore I say to you, are you loyal to Zion when you are backing up worldly institutions outside when Zion needs your resources and your strength and can use these to God’s glory, and to your increased prosperity? I say to you, and I say to Zion everywhere, that you will have to recognize fully the tremendous fact that I was within my rights and only fulfilling my Divinely imposed and positive duty when I issued the Command of September 2ist. After due time given for the prayerful consideration of that Command, every man or woman throughout the world who says, ‘I will not obey,’ is asked to send in his or her resignation. If you will not obey, then I will know that you are outside of Zion. My responsibility as your leader, under God, will cease; for you will have found another leader, or be a ‘wandering star.’ . . I do not want you in Zion. You are a curse to Zion and the quicker you get out the better off Zion will be.” HEBREW, INFIDEL, PREACHER Felix Adler, rabbi and D. D., has been discoursing on prayer to New Yorkers. He said.— “Prayer also gives vent to that instinct in the human heart to worship God. But here, too, in regard to worship, I cannot sympathize with the kind of worship of which we do so much nowadays—characterized by the posture in praying— by kneeling. When a congregation falls on its knees I recoil. I find it repugnant to my whole nature. “Prayer is said to have the effect of putting before us a divine model. But the idea of God, when it rises in the mind, fills it with a kind of nebulous light, but doesn’t present the clear outlines of a model. “I think men are really better and abler examples for behavior and serve us better as models than deity—such men, for instance, as Socrates, Brutus and Lincoln. They furnish definite models, not a vague notion of perfection; they do us good. Let us have moral heroes, human exemplars.” Mark how vain Evolutionists speedily become. Pluming themselves on their humility in acknowledging protoplasm, jellyfish and monkeys as their progenitors, they pride themselves on having attained so high a dignity that it causes a shudder to see others bow to him whom they acknowledge as their Creator. As for Mr. Adler’s preference for a human rather than a divine model, let us remember that he rejects the human model provided by Jehovah—‘the man Christ Jesus.” Let us remember, too, that the horrible “doctrines of devils” promul gated by Satan (through Heathen, Jewish and Christian “Doctors of Divinity”) so misrepresent the plan and character of God as to make any half-decent man a “model” of justice in comparison. Thank God that Satan is soon to be “bound,” that he may deceire the nations (peoples) no more. Then Felix Adler’s eyes and all the other blind eyes shall be opened, and they shall see the glorious character of the great Creator. Then Felix Adler and all others will bow the knee: as it is written, “Unto me every knee shall bow.” If he bow willingly and adoringly he may then go up the “highway of holiness” to everlasting life under the guidance of the wonderful teachers of the Millennium. If he refuse to bow his heart he, with all such, will “perish” in the Second Death. REV. DR, DIX WARNS THE GREEDY RICH In the pulpit of the richest church in America Dr. Dix preached a Thanksgiving Day discourse of which the following is an extract: “The account between God and man is still open, our debt to him still unpaid. True, there is ample material whereof to bring a thank offering to Almighty God. “Peace is within our borders. The horrible nightmare of the past winter induced by the coal strike no longer makes heads sick and hearts faint. The spirit of anarchy has done no more murder in high places. The state is secure from foreign assaults and domestic disaffection. For these and countless other instances of the divine favor and goodness we do give thanks.” Then the eloquent preacher drew the other side of the picture and surprised his hearers with these words: “Still, shadows fall, and under them we add intercession to thanksgiving. What casts some of those shadows? Class alienation, The insolence of wealth and the angry discontent of the poor, the growth of riotous living, the misuse of money and its reckless squandering on pleasure and pride; education without religion; the steady breaking up of homes by divorce and remarriage; the appearance of vast systems of religious imposture and their success in making converts; the spirit of gambling in every place where it can be practiced. “Others are the cold-blooded assaults on private property by those who attack corporations and drag them down to bankruptcy in order to enrich themselves; the insecurity of life through contempt of the law, and the freedom of assassins, whether sane or insane, to wreak their will upon their innocent victims; the steady decline of womanhood from its old ideals and its deterioration through copying the ways and invading the sphere of men. These are some of the things that cast a shadow on the years. No one sees how they are to be stopped, and no one who thinks it over from a Christian standpoint can doubt that if they are not stopped the harvest will be frightful beyond telling.” HIGHER ORITICS CONTRADICT EACH OTHER Rev. Sheraton of Wycliffe College, Canada, recently, de fending the Pentateuch, said: “One good reason for rejecting the radical theory of the higher critics is that their criticisms have been nothing less than a series of speculations since their inception, each one contradicting all those that preceded it. Originally the crude objection was made that Moses could not have written the Pentateuch, because of the illiterate character of the age in which he lived. Discoveries in Bible lands, however, make it abundantly plain that there was a regular mania for writing and recording in ancient Egypt; and that tablets were erected [3286]
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