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33:2

@@@^The work of the harvest, very obviously, is synonymous with the Judgment that decides who are tares and who are wheat—who are to be burned and destroyed as noxious weeds, and who are as precious wheat to be admitted into “the barn,” the Kingdom. Thus it is that the Judgment is the cleansing of the sanctuary (Dan. 8:14), “the house of God,” the temple to which the Lord suddenly comes and purifies His servants, the Levites. Here is the way the latter scripture reads:

37:2

@@@^@0@9Rev. 14:14-19 — “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to Him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in Thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in His sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.”@7@^Here we are again told that there are two reapings, one by the Son of Man, and another by an angel. The reaping by the Son of Man precedes the reaping by the angel. “Son of Man,” therefore, gathers the firstfruits, and the angel gathers the second fruits. (The vines, not the fully ripe grapes, he casts in the wine press.) The Son of Man Himself obviously reaps the firstfruits because His servants (figuratively the angel of the church of the Laodiceans) are in no condition to do such a work, for they themselves are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked,” and know it not (Rev. 3:14-18).

41:1

@@@^@0@9Rev. 3:14-18 — “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”@7@^Another view of this tragic truth is given in—

41:2

@@@^@0@9Luke 14:16-24 — “Then said He unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent His servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his Lord these things. Then the Master of the house being angry said to His servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as Thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that My house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of My supper.”@7@^In this parable are seen two periods of time. The first period is while the gospel has “@9bade many@7” (Luke 14:16) to the marriage supper, the time from the Apostles to the time of His last servant with the last message God sends to His people, the time all things are “ready.” The next period is the time in which His last servant served (Luke 14:17). This servant is sent, we are told, at “supper time,” at the end of the day, indicating that he bears the last message. Moreover, he is at first sent to those who have previously been “bidden”; that is, to those who were already in the gospel truth, in the church. At the outset he is to contact a class of people deeply engrossed with the cares of this life, and is to tell them that “all things are now ready,” that if they wish they can now prepare and go to the wedding, there to enjoy the Bridegroom’s banquet. This is the last call for the supper.

49:2

@@@^@0@9Micah 3:12; 4:1, 2 — “Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.... But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”@7@^Here we are told that in the latter days, in our time, the ancient Kingdom that was destroyed will be reestablished and exalted above all other Kingdoms. Then people shall “flow into it” because “the law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” The gospel work, therefore, is to be finished while its headquarters stand in the Holy Land. Thus the Kingdom is set up in probationary time, in time of salvation and judicial purification, for after it is set up other people from many nations flow into it.

51:1

@@@^@0@9Zech. 1:14-17, 20, 21 — “So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. Therefore thus saith the Lord; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: My house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.... And the Lord shewed me four carpenters. Then said I, What come these to do? And He spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.”@7@^Obviously one part of the Gentile nations shall come against the part that is in the Holy Land, and chase them out to make room for God’s people. Then will the Lord’s feet stand on Mount Olives and the Mount shall cleave in the midst thereof and make therein a very great valley. Thus shall the Lord open the way for His people to flee there to the “valley” where the Lord’s feet stand, and all the saints with them (Zech. 14:4, 5).

2:3

@@@^“Prayer and faith are closely allied, and they need to be studied together. In the prayer of faith there is a divine science; it is a science that every one who would make his life work a success must understand. Christ says, ‘What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’ He makes it plain that our asking must be according to God’s will; we must ask for the things that He has promised, and whatever we receive must be used in doing His will. The conditions met, the promise is unequivocal.

2:5

@@@^“We need look for no outward evidence of the blessing. The gift is in the promise, and we may go about our work assured that what God has promised he is able to perform, and that the gift, which we already possess, will be realized when we need it most.” — @9Education@7, pp. 257, 258.

3:3

@@@^Surely all of us agree that this passage of Scripture is a forecast of the Emmanuel of Matthew 1:23 — Christ at His first advent. The fact, however, that Christ ate all manner of lawful food, and was even accused of being a “gluttonous man, and a winebibber” (Luke 7:34), eating with “publicans and sinners” (Mark 2:16), makes it transparently clear that this diet of “butter and honey” is not literal. Moreover, the fact that butter and honey possess absolutely no virtue to endue one with wisdom and will to choose the good and to refuse the evil, no, no more than do other articles of food, shows conclusively that this “butter and honey” are figurative of something special, just as the fly and the bee of Isaiah 7:18 are figurative of Egypt and Assyria. And of what else could it be but of spiritual food, the kind that builds up moral character, that makes one “refuse the evil, and choose the good?” And from what source other than the Scriptures could such food come? And what else, moreover, could the honey represent but the sweet Spirit of God that blesses everyone’s sincere study of and simple faith in the Word?

4:1

@@@^Manifestly, therefore, this butter-and-honey symbolism infallibly tells us that Immanuel, Christ, was enabled to discern and to overcome sin by His study of the Bible — by digesting Its contents and allowing them to become a part of Him. This was His sweetest delight, as the symbolical honey reveals. Thus it was that “He said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of” (John 4:32), and, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matt. 4:4.

5:2

@@@^In these verses Inspiration directs our attention to three butter-producing creatures — two sheep and a young cow, and forewarns that only those who eat of their products will have the right to live in “the land” — in the land of God’s people. None others, no, not another one, will be there.

6:2

@@@^“And I fell at his feet” [at the feet of the one who unfolded the prophecy to John] “to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Rev. 19:10.

7:1

@@@^“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Pet. 1:19-21.

8:4

@@@^In the logic of this illustration, it follows that Jesus Christ is the great dynamo, and the Father the power thereof. When, therefore, the whole church, not a member excluded, connects herself with Heaven’s Power House, then the earth will be lightened with the glory of the angel (Rev. 18:1). (For this very reason the “laying on the hands” is the Biblical method of transmitting the Spirit of God from one person to another.) Consequently a church not having this vital connection with Heaven is a spiritually dead church, one which is bound to be “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Rev. 3:17. Hence likewise is every individual who is not in contact with the church. Only this power enables the individual church member to choose the good and to refuse the evil, and to go through the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Accordingly, it is now seen anew that what is applicable to the church as a body, is applicable to the individual members of it.

9:3

@@@^“And the earth helped the woman [church], and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood [the wicked] which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed [with those that are spared], which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ....for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.” Rev. 12:16, 17; 19:10.

10:3

@@@^Under the particular care of a never-erring “Husbandman,” Christianity, as we have already seen, is a combination of both the human and the Divine. Moreover, with the use of the spiritual butter and honey, the saints are enabled to live a fruitful and useful life even now, and thuswise they are to survive the judgments of God.

11:3

@@@^This scripture reveals that Christ is not only our Saviour but our Creator as well; that He created not only our world but all other worlds too; and that He is one with the Father. It is for this reason that “God (the Father) said (to the son), let @9Us@7 make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” — Gen. 1:26. And while the Exodus Movement was afoot, all “did...drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” 1 Cor. 10:4.

13:3

@@@^In addition, Christianity is like the wind: no one except God and the “born again” know either whence they come or where they go, for “the wind [@9Christianity@7] bloweth where it listeth, and thou [@9the not-born again@7] hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so [@9imperceptible to the unborn again@7] is every one that is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8.

13:4

@@@^Accordingly, it is impossible for the non-Christian to know what real Christianity is. For this very reason the Scriptures emphatically warn: “...but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand.” Dan. 12:10. Let the sinner, therefore, renounce his sin, pray for the Spirit of Truth, and then understanding will come to him. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon Him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa. 55:6-9.

14:1

@@@^But Christianity is still more than all these. It is bread for the hungry, a home for the outcast, a wardrobe for the naked, a physician and an inn for the sick. In short, it is everything to everybody in the household of God. And here is the challenge to its adherents: