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4:1

@@@^And what can these results be? What else from ideas that are not Heaven-inspired may you expect in the Church but selfishness, egotism, bigotry, worldliness, prejudice, hatred against reproof and light on their evil deeds? Is it not their aim to exalt themselves rather than to exalt Christ and His Truth?

4:2

@@@^“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth.” 2 Tim. 3:1-7.

7:2

@@@^@0@9Matt. 13:45, 46 — “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”@7@^Those who are to inherit the kingdom are here again represented as searching for a very valuable jewel, the Kingdom Truth. And when they find it, they count it not a gamble to sell all they have in order to make it their own. They know that they are getting a bargain, that such an investment will actually make them rich.

9:2

@@@^This is very natural: Those who are satisfied with what the world gives, do not care to get out of it. Here you see why it is easier for a camel than it is for a rich person to get through the needle’s eye (Matt. 19:24). Those whose only difficulty is in trying to get richer, those who are deeply engrossed with this world’s goods, cannot take time to eat of the Master’s supper. Here fits the age old saying, “Almost saved, but entirely lost.” Here is vividly seen that to accept one truth but to reject the next, profits one nothing. The last call to the individual is what counts most.

13:2

@@@^As the oil was available to all ten virgins, the parable makes clear that the message of the judgment of the living is brought to the Church, but that only half the virgins availed themselves of it. When the judgment of the living begins and the cry is made, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go ye out to meet Him,” they will all arise, but only half of them will gain admittance. The other half will have sinned against the Holy Spirit, will have rejected His Truth! Consequently when they knock on the door, the Bridegroom’s answer will be, “I never knew you.” What foolishness! and what a disappointment that will be!

13:3

@@@^This, you see, is not man’s theory, Brother, Sister. It is God’s plain Truth. How sad the case, then, for those who are not only neglecting their own vessels, but are even preventing others from getting the extra oil now while it is dispensed to all. Indeed, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth unless all the lukewarm Laodiceans now at their first opportunity change their minds about being rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing.

2:2

@@@^“Many feel a sense of estrangement from God, a realization of their bondage to self and sin; they make efforts for reform; but they do not crucify self. They do not give themselves entirely into the hands of Christ, seeking for divine power to do His will. They are not willing to be molded after the divine similitude. In a general way they acknowledge their imperfections, but they do not give up their particular sins.... The only hope for these souls is to realize in themselves the truth of Christ’s words to Nicodemus, ‘Ye must be born again.’ ‘Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ True holiness is wholeness in the service of God. This is the condition of true Christian living. Christ asks for an unreserved consecration, for undivided service. He demands the heart, the mind, the soul, the strength. Self is not to be cherished. He who lives to himself is not a Christian.”

12:3

@@@^“This is the religion of Christ. Anything short of it is a deception. No mere theory of truth or profession of discipleship will save any soul. We do not belong to Christ unless we are His wholly. It is by half-heartedness in the Christian life that men become feeble in purpose and changeable in desire. The effort to serve both self and Christ makes one a stony-ground hearer, and he will not endure when the test comes upon him.”

2:2

@@@^This reading commands us to pray that the seed sown in our hearts may fall in good soil, that it may take root; that we be free from the cares of this life and from sin, for no matter how impressive the Truth that goes into one’s ears, It will never reach the heart if there is any cherished sin therein.

4:1

@@@^You know that man naturally starts out with his right foot. Now, since the angel’s right foot was upon the sea and his left foot upon the land, the symbolism shows that he starts out on the sea, the province of Daniel’s beasts (Dan. 7), then on earth, the province of the two-horned beast (Rev. 13:10-18). His work, therefore, starts in the Old Country, and should include the very first truth that was disclosed from the book of Daniel. All in all his message and power prove to be world-wide — land and sea.

7:6

@@@^In these verses we see a slaughter taking place, a slaughter which takes away the transgressors of the Truth. Those that escape the slaughter of the Lord are sent to the nations who have not seen God’s glory, or heard His fame, and they are to bring all their brethren out of “all nations.” Plainly, then, the slaughter is in the Church, for those who escape are sent to preach to the Gentiles that know nothing of God. Sending the faithful to the nations, after the slaying of the unfaithful, presupposes a reorganization. And the commission at last is to go, not to many nations, but to all nations. If they are to bring all their brethren out of all nations, then they must be the last, the ones to finish the work, “the Mystery of God,” to bring probation to a close and the world to an end.

10:1

@@@^@0@9Verse 5 — “And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.”@7@^From this we see that though the Bible is the best friend to Its friends, It is a terrible enemy to Its enemies. When Truth cannot save, it kills.

11:1

@@@^@0@9Verses 12, 13 — “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.”@7@^The Bible points out that but one bottomless pit was opened, the pit out of which the locusts came (Rev. 9:2), and it was the heavenly Star that opened the pit to let out its captives, — the locusts who were to hurt only those men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads. Since the locusts were capable of knowing who had and also who had not the seal of God in their foreheads, and since they were friends to God’s sealed people, the truth is obvious: The Star that liberated them from the pit is Christ, and the locusts are the Christians, the people that were rescued from apostate Judaism.

12:3

@@@^Moreover, the fact that the Mystery of God is finished when the seventh angel begins to sound, and also the fact that the shaking is here shown to take place during the sounding of the sixth angel, the Truth stands out that the shaking takes place before the Gospel work is finished. The Spirit of Prophecy in our day also foresaw this shaking:

12:4

@@@^“I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen, and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver, and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this is what will cause a shaking among God’s people.” — @9Early Writings@7, p. 270.

16:2

@@@^Now, the questions naturally arise, If Christ is the One Who brought forth the Christian church, then how can she be His mother? And was not Christ born at least thirty years before the Christian church came into being? Is not the egg laid before the chicken is hatched? And finally, is it not true that if we blunder forth on an erroneous premise that we shall find ourselves further and further from the truth on the subject? — Most assuredly. Let us, then, make certain of the foundation upon which we build.

17:1

@@@^We all know that Christ was born, not to the Christian church, but to the Jewish. This being so, then how can we escape the truth that this twelve-star-crowned woman is primarily the Jewish church who travailed and gave birth to the “world’s Redeemer” in the Old Testament period?

21:2

@@@^The Dragon, though, is again to miss the mark, for the earth is to open her mouth and swallow up the flood; that is, Inspiration definitely forecasts that those who join the Church for some purpose other than to follow and practice the Truth, shall be disposed of by a miracle, be swallowed by the earth, as it were. And when this comes to pass Satan shall have met his third defeat. Summarized, here are his three defeats: No. 1 — Failing to devour the child; No. 2 — Losing the war in Heaven; No. 3 — Failing to paganize the Church by flooding her with the unconverted.

22:2

@@@^Obviously, the remnant are those who are left after the earth opens her mouth and swallows up the flood. They as a body keep the commandments of God, and have the living Spirit of Prophecy, the Spirit Who dictated the Scriptures, Who has led God’s people into all Truth down through the ages, and Who still is. Thus it is that the Dragon’s wrath, and the Church’s purity, caused by the Dragon’s third defeat, are to bring the time of trouble such as never was:

22:4

@@@^Nothing in the world is worth as much as having our names written in the book. And therein we may have our names if we choose to follow the Spirit of Truth and to keep the commandments of God. Here we have seen that those who think that the law, the ten commandments, is “abolished,” that their lives need not comport with the law; and those who think that the Spirit of Prophecy is a thing of the past, that God has left the world to get along as best it can, that He no longer bothers Himself to send a prophet; that all such shall find themselves in league with Babylon the Great, the seat of the Dragon, and rather than having their names written in the Book, they will have the mark of the beast, and have a part in persecuting the remnant which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.