(303-307) your hearts no little to hear the fervent prayers that ascend in your behalf at each time of our assembling together for worship. The last TowER has been another sup from the Lord’s cup containing the new wine of our Father’s kingdom: and we are rejoicing in the blessedness of the “hope set before us.” Also there seems to be a deep humility and sense of gratitude pervading the hearts and minds of the Lord's faithful children in our city. All seem to be buckling on the armors still closer; and with facial expression of peace and joy they group themselves together before and after each study hour, discussing these wonderful, glorious things now being brought out from the storehouse of our Father’s Word by those “set” in the body for that very purpose. Truly do our hearts burn within us as we talk together, recognizing our Lord’s continued leading through the one faithful channel. Praise his holy name! May we each and every one be more and more filled with his holy Spirit from day to day that we may increasingly honor him now, and be fitted for a place in the rapidly approaching kingdom for which we have so ardently hoped and prayed. With exceeding joy may we now lift up our heads, knowing that our deliverance draweth nigh. With renewal of assurance of my continued endorsement and my earnest desire to cooperate in every way possible in what there may remain to be done before we go home, I earnestly entreat an interest in your prayers for a fuller measure of the holy Spirit of promise, For many years the friends here have been sc handicapped by poverty that all we had to give was given to our local expenses—hiring haHs for public meetings, etc., but iow that there may be nothing more along that line we hope to send in all we can to headquarters in order to codperate with you. The Lord is indeed pouring out upon us spiritual blessings and our desire is to show our appreciation in the near future. Our Father’s abounding grace be with you, beloved fellow-pilgrims, and grant you always his peace that passeth understanding, and courage to press forward all along the line. Your sister by his favor and goodness, Mrs, C. E. K.—Texas. CHRISTIAN LOVE TO ALL WHO SUFFER MY VERY DEAR BRETHREN :— ‘“Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” I wish to write you just a few lines to assure you of my hearty codperation to the best of my ability and opportunity in all of the work of the Society, no matter who may hold the position of visible head. If it is possible to be more convineed, I am more and more convinced every day that the Lord is using that channel, and will continue to use it; and THE WATCH TOWER PirtssurcH, Pa. therefore that whoever he is permitting to manage the work is doing his will. Is this all the reason I can have for confidence in you— just that I believe that God is using that channel, and that therefore it must be all right? No, indeed! Besides this, we have abundant evidence that the Lord is with you, and that the Society continually has his approval, not only in what the dear friends are permitted to bear for his sake, but also in the rich spiritual food they are dealing out to us in conventions and in Tue Watcu Tower. I have long been wishing that I had the proper words to convey my love and approbation to the dear ones here and elsewhere. The Lord opened the windows of heaven and poured out on the St. Joseph convention a blessing that there wag not room to contain. He also richly blessed me in permitting me to be there throughout the entire four days. Oh, what a blessed feast we had! It cannot help but bear rich fruit in the Kingdom; and I trust that part of it will be in my own heart; for I am sure that I received not only sweet joy there, but needed strength as well. Feeling that I must not take more of your time, I will close now, hoping that in the Kingdom I shall be able to tell your more perfectly how much I love you all. Your Sister by his grace, L. W.—Mo. THE CONSOLATION OF THE KINGDOM Dear BReraRen :— Being blessed by the ministries of yourself and your colaborers, whom the Lord has ordained to serve his church after the departure of dear Brother Russell, the special messenger of the last epoch of the church, we take the opportunity of sending you thia note, which we hope will help to impart a word of comfort in this hour of trial which is upon the church, as well a8 upon the world, and which the Scriptures call “the hour of temptation.” We pray for you always, that in the hour of stress you May remember that this is the condition of our consecration. (Rom, 8:17} We know, dear Brethren, that in all our experiences the Lord has a purpose to be served, even as it was in the case of St. Paul and the other faithful apostles. So may you take comfort and courage from the examples of our Master and those gone before. The glorious Messianic Kingdom, which shall furnish the desire of al) nations, will soon be here, and its honors will more than repay for all our trials. So we are consoled. “For God has marked each sorrowing day, And numbered every secret tear; And blissful ages yet shall pay For all his children suffer here.” With much Christian love to you and all the dear Bethel Family, I remain Your brother in Christ,. G. W. T.—Cawab Zone. Vou. XXXIX PITTSBURGH, PA., OCTOBER 15, 1918 No. 20 THE PURPOSE SERVED BY THE LAW COVENANT “Wherefore the law was our pedagogue to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” “The law had a shadow of good things to come.’—Galatians 3:24; Hebrewa 10:1. In coming into the family of God as sons, we are not to get the impression that we are thenceforth freed from all divine law. On the contrary, we may say that, so surely as God himself had no beginning, just so surely had law no beginning. But from the time that God’s intelligent creatures began to be created, law began to operate; for his righteous will has always been the law incumbent upon those of his creatures who were made in his own image. Since the government of Jehovah is universal and eternal, it follows that there never has been and never can be a time or a place without law, nor a being not subject to Jehovah’s law, or under its control. God’s will is the standard of righteousness; and this will be true throughout the eternity of the future, as it has been throughout the eternity of the ast. P In the creation of angels, God gave them intelligence to distinguish between right and wrong. Their minds are so perfectly balanced that right is always seen to be right and wrong seen to be wrong. Those in heart-harmony with their Creator never mistake wrong for right. This capability of moral discernment on the part of the creature is said to be God’s “image” which, when possessed, obviates the necessity for the written law. The “image” waa possessed not only by all on the spirit planes of life, but likewise by our father Adam in his creation. With the law of God—briefly comprehended in the one word love—written in their very being, how strange it would have seemed to the angels if Jehovah had set up in heaven the tables of the law afterwards given to Israel! Of what service could such a statement of the law of God be to beings who had a much higher conception of it? Such a presentation of the law of Adam in the garden of Eden would have been similarly inappropriate; and none was given, LAW IN MAN’S HEART BLURRED BY SIN After Adam had violated the law of God written in hia being, he passed under the sentence of death, which, working in his members, affected him mentally and morally as well as physically. Thus began the effacement from his heart of that power of discernment, or knowing right from wrong inatinetively. This fallen condition and the state of the unprepared earth into which Adam was driven, where he was compelled to labor in sweat of face for daily sustenance, were all conducive to the cultivation of selfishness; and hence selfishness soon became the rule of life, instead of love, as in God's original creation. As selfishness gradually gained control, the law of God became proportionately erased from man’s heart. The effects of the fall continuing naturally from parent to child as the years rolled on, it is safe to say that in Moses’ day the original law of God was almost obliterated with the vast majority. ,A general picture of the race aside from Israel is given by the Apostle Paul in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, with an account of just what led to so dreadful a condition. [6342]
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