DO YOU KNOW

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DO YOU KNOW?

Dear brethren in Laodicea, do you know that prophecy positively declares that the people of God in the Laodicean church are in a critically dangerous condition and know it not? Well, brethren, whether or not you realize it, whether or not you believe it, that precisely is the case. And if you hope to enter into eternal life, you must believe it, and that without delay. Whatever else you may believe or disbelieve, this one thing you must, "for it is the True Witness who speaks, and His testimony must be correct."--Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 253.

And remember that above all people, the Laodiceans should not only be the last but the least inclined to criticize, for they themselves, says the True Witness, are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," without so much as suspecting it, but are indeed even imagining that they are "rich, and increased with goods, and" in "need of nothing" (Rev. 3:17). How, then, can they be in a position truly to know anything about others!

Think, brethren, and rouse to life! This cannot possibly be the voice of an enemy.

And remember that the Lord "surprises us by revealing His power through instruments of His own choice, while He passes by the men to whom we have looked as those through whom light should come. God desires us to receive the truth upon its own merits,--because it is truth."--Testimonies to Ministers, p. 106.

"No matter by whom light is sent, we should open our hearts to receive it with the meekness of Christ....We should all know what is being taught among us; for if it is truth, we need it."--Gospel Workers, p. 301.

"But beware of rejecting that which is truth. The great danger with our people has been that of depending upon men, and making flesh their arm. Those who have not been in the habit of searching the Bible for themselves, or weighing evidence, have confidence in the leading men, and accept the decisions they make; and thus many will reject the very messages God sends to His people, if these leading brethren do not accept them."--Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 106, 107.

"He will use men for the accomplishment of His purpose whom some of the brethren would reject as unfit to engage in the work."--Review and Herald, Feb. 9, 1895.

Now, in the light of the foregoing statements, will you not, Brother, Sister, take time carefully and prayerfully to ascertain whether or not God is leading in this reformatory work? He has promised to all who will do this, that He will not leave them in darkness but will guide them into all Truth! So will you not take Him at His Word, and try Him?

We plead with you to, for already "the agencies of evil are combining their forces, and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great

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crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world," says Inspiration, "and the final movements will be rapid ones....The time is coming when in their fraud and insolence men will reach a point that the Lord will not permit them to pass, and they will learn that there is a limit to the forbearance of Jehovah....Those who hold the reins of government are not able to solve the problem of moral corruption, poverty, pauperism, and increasing crime. They are struggling in vain to place business operations on a more secure basis....Soon everything that can be shaken will be shaken, that those things that can not be shaken may remain....

"It is impossible to give any idea of the experience of the people of God who shall be alive upon the earth when celestial glory and a repetition of the persecutions of the past are blended. They will walk in the light proceeding from the throne of God. By means of the angels there will be constant communication between heaven and earth."--Testimonies, Vol. 9, pp. 11, 13, 15, 16.

In view of these solemn realities even now looming before our eyes, no longer, Brother, Sister, hide yourself in the darkness. Stand in the light, lest you stumble and fall and not be found. Come, take time, and

LET US REASON TOGETHER.

The Laodicean church, the last of the seven churches (Rev. 2, 3), being figurative of the Christian church in her last period, our time, the message on record to her is therefore the last message to the church. So, plainly, if there is any Bible subject essential for the church to study, the message to the Laodiceans certainly is.

Although satisfied with their attainments, the Laodiceans who believe and take God at His Word will not question Him concerning their condition but will, whether they see it or not, acknowledge that they are in a "sad deception..... wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Rev. 3:17. Having honestly made this acknowledgment, they will, in consequent obedience to the True Witness's counsel to buy of Him eyesalve which He alone can supply, be enabled to anoint their eyes with it.

Those, though, who recline in the false security of self-complacence, will pay no attention to the warning counsel, and will as a result lose everything--be spued out (verse 16)! Yet how few does this dread threat alarm! How few does it impel to find out where the trouble lies and how they stand! How few, indeed, does it even trouble! And O how few incline to inquire into it for fear that it may rebuke their evil course and deprive them of some sinful pleasure which they dearly cherish! Surprisingly, yet all too truly, hundreds!

Then, too, there being instilled in them a great fear of false prophets, and not at all awakened in them the expectation of true ones (although there

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can be no false where there are no true), they are now therefore almost beyond reach.

Behind their careless attitude is seen the truth that "the pains of duty and the pleasures of sin are the cords with which Satan binds men in his snares" (Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 53), while behind the deeply instilled fear of false prophets, is seen the false watchman's carefulness to keep them from coming in contact with the messengers whom God has sent to them.

This friendly visitor is endeavoring, therefore, to awaken an interest in you, dear Laodicean, to go to the bottom of the matter, to make sure of your salvation. So will you not be courteous enough to sit down with it in humble, impartial, prayerful study which must repay you many, many, times more than what you put into it?

"As many as I love," says the Lord, "I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Rev. 3:19-22.

There is a divine law that converts every honest effort into joy, a personal experience with God, and eternal life. So awake, my friend, and take note, not of what you think you are or will be, but of what the Lord says you are and must be. Begin your investigation with the ensuing

SEVEN QUESTIONS UNDER CONSIDERATION

1. Who is Laodicea?

2. Whom does the angel represent?

3. What is meant by being wretched and

miserable and poor and blind and naked?

4. What is it to be "lukewarm"?

5. Why does God prefer one either cold

or hot rather than lukewarm?

6. What is the eyesalve

7. Should Laodicea fail to repent, how

would her shame be uncovered?

IN NEED OF NOTHING?

The right answers to these seven important questions to every truth-seeking Christian today will, if understood and heeded, rescue each from the shameful and dangerous Laodicean condition, and safeguard his salvation. This it will do ever so soon as he takes to heart

THE FACTS ON THESE SEVEN QUESTIONS.

The Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, describes the condition of each of the seven churches, the last of which is the Laodicean. These churches, admittedly, portray the Christian church in seven different periods; the seventh, Laodicea, depicting her in the period just before the "harvest," the last in which the "wheat and tares" are commingled, and

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the one in which she is to experience the separation of the bad from among the good (Matt. 13:30, 47-49).

Since in her every section, the church must be true to her name (it alone being her identification), we shall therefore consider

THE NAME, LAODICEA.

Being compounded of the Greek words "lao" and "deci," the one meaning "people," also "speak," the other meaning "judgment," the two together meaning people proclaiming judgment, the name Laodicea, therefore, identifies a church proclaiming the judgment hour (Dan. 7:9, 10; Rev. 14:6, 7).

As the S.D.A. church is the only one to proclaim judgment, and as each of the seven messages is addressed to the angel of the respective churches, the message to Laodicea is accordingly

ADDRESSED TO THE S.D.A. ANGEL

In The Revelation, chapter 1, the churches are symbolized by seven candlesticks, and the angels of the churches, by the seven stars (Rev. 1:20).

Being the attendants of the candlesticks (churches), the angels are thus seen to be the ministry, whose responsibility is to have the lamps trimmed, filled with oil, and burning brightly, so that the church may give light to all about her.

Hence as the Laodicean angel, him to whom the condemnatory message is sent, is symbolical of the ministry in Laodicea, he should consequently be the more anxious to discover where the trouble lies, for he is, says the Lord,

WRETCHED, MISERABLE, POOR, BLIND, AND NAKED.

With a ministry wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, what church (candlestick) could possibly stay lighted? And with her light thus gone out or but flickering dimly, how could she lighten the world as God has set her to do? Through the eyes of the True Witness, therefore, the tragedy of Laodicea is starkly seen--"sleeping preachers preaching to a sleeping people" (Testimonies, Vol. 2, p. 337), while a sin-benighted world plunges on hell-bent in its darkness! O what a piteous plight! And yet it is so utterly overlooked!

With both ministry and laity in such a pitiful state of darkness, it is clear to be seen that though the Laodicean church is the last in the order of the seven, God cannot lighten the world and prepare His people for the Kingdom with her when she is in darkness and unprepared herself. Hence the necessity of a new order, a new ministry, as predicted in Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 80, and in Zephaniah 3:11, 12.

Then it will come to pass that "only those who have withstood and overcome temptation in the strength of the Mighty One will be permitted to act a part in proclaiming this message when it shall have swelled into the Loud Cry."--Review and Herald, Nov. 19, 1908.

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In the light of these facts, the prophetic message to the angel of the Laodiceans must obviously be brought and proclaimed by someone other than the angel himself. But this, of course, is the very thing that neither the ministry nor the laity expect or wish to happen. For the sake of the faithful, nevertheless, it is happening.

So since God's Word says that the ministry of the Laodicean church is wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, and that neither they nor the laity are aware of the fact, it lends heavy underscoring to the statements: "Sleeping preachers preaching to a sleeping people!" (Testimonies, Vol. 2, p. 337); and "the message of the True Witness finds the people of God in a sad deception, yet honest in that deception."--Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 253.

Although they are in this horrible predicament, one which should make them tremble and fear, and give anything to get out of, yet they continue

LUKEWARM--NEITHER COLD NOR HOT.

Deceived and about to lose their lives, though as ignorant of their peril as a mouse before the trap snaps shut, they are satisfied (lukewarm) in the devil's trap, as they make toward its delectable bait--a false hope of enjoying the feast in Paradise!

When one finds himself in a climate which is neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, a temperature desired and sought by all, there he basks as a pauper become a prince! So it is with the Laodiceans, as represented in prophecy, though their supposed palace is nothing but a death trap!

To rescue one from such a "terrible deception" is a task which calls for the utmost wisdom not only because the victim is blindly inured to the perilous condition he is in, while his rescuers are endeavoring to save him from perishing, but also because he considers them as his enemies, false prophets, instead of as his friends and deliverers, messengers from God!

From the life line, the saving message, which they pleadingly hold forth to him, he recoils. And consequently by his attitude against them, he shouts: Away, away, I am rich and increased with goods: I have need of nothing; I have all the truth. "I am satisfied with my position. I have set my stakes, and I will not be moved away from my position, whatever may come."--Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work, p. 65.

In protesting that they are not wretched (not unhappy), not miserable (not troubled), not poor (not in need of truth), not blind (not benighted or illiterate), not naked (not without the righteousness of Christ), the Laodiceans are contradicting the True Witness, rejecting His counsel, and discrediting His remedy--

THE EYESALVE.

As only the "salve" (truth) will heal them from their deadly Laodicean malady, hence if they fail to avail themselves of the cure (to search for truth

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as for hidden treasure) and to apply it (to repent), they will be spued out. O, Brother, Sister, will you not call for the "salve"? or will you continue in your wretchedness, miserableness, poverty, blindness, and nakedness, and thus compel Him to spue you out and to

UNCOVER YOUR SHAME?

So far, my brethren, that your shame might not appear, God has not exposed the sins which you have cherished and kept under cover. No longer, though, will He bear with you. So for your soul's sake, cease adding sin to sin; repent, and return to the Lord; argue no longer that you have all the Truth, but come have a good feast of It. God will just as gladly accept you and make a feast for you as did the father of the prodigal accept his son and make a feast for him.

Be not like the Jew. But open your heart; cast out its pride, its prejudice, and its self-conceit; let them not deprive you of eternal life at such a late hour as this. If you repeat the mistake of the Jews, your shame and your loss will be much greater than theirs--as much greater as are your light and your opportunities and privileges. Yea, beyond comparison!

So will you not, then, we plead with you, end your long Laodicean sickness and poverty, and no longer imagine that you are

RICH, INCREASED WITH GOODS.

Never do you even so much as intimate that you have all the buildings, all the institutions, all the money, all the workers, all the converts you need! Your only boast is of having no need of truth! This attitude, therefore, God says, is the way in which you are saying, "I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." It is the source of your trouble, and the thing which the Lord expects you to confess and to repent of.

The angel's (the ministry's) false claim of being rich and increased with goods, and in need of nothing, does not make him a liar, but rather shows him to be a victim of ignorance and delusion. But his thinking that he has and knows all the truth, makes his condition even more perilous than a liar's, for a liar knows that he is lying. O awake, Brother, Sister, awake! awake!

DO AS DID NATHANIEL.

Come and see!

See what? Others also as yourself, rich and increased with goods, and in need of nothing? with the excuse that the need to take care of the material things of life (Luke 14:15-19) forbids their accepting the invitation?

Indeed not!

See the Laodiceans from the streets and lanes--"the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind" (Luke 14:21), gladly availing themselves of the remedy!

But, alas, not all who come, remain, for "when any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and un-

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derstandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side." And others, "when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word," are offended. These are they "that received the seed into stony places." "But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty." Matt. 13:19-23.

Though the "bad" along with the "good" are still coming (for we are yet in the period in which the wheat and the tares are commingled, the good and the bad fish are together in the net), you need not be of the tares or of the "bad fish." Be of the wheat, do as the "good": lay aside your own thoughts and ways, then take the Lord's, for He says: "...My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways... For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. 55:8, 9.

And finally, never be like a Pharisee who can see the mote in his brother's eye, but cannot see the beam in his own (Matt. 7:3). For after all, "Who art thou?" asks the Lord. Art thou thyself not a Laodicean? How "judgest" thou "another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand." Rom. 14:4.

Never mind the other fellow, my lukewarm brethren: you have barely enough time to look after yourself. And moreover, do not measure the truth with the rod of man, but with the rod of God: "Hear ye the rod, and [Him] Who hath appointed it" (Mic. 6:9) urges the Lord.

Will you not take His counsel? If you will, then without further delay, send your name and address for Present Truth literature--the feast which, though worth everything, will cost you nothing. And besides being the only cure for your blindness, it will thrill and satisfy your hungry soul with something truely rich and extraordinary!

Then all of us together "shall have spiritual eyesight to discern the inner courts of the celestial temple. We shall catch the themes of song and thanksgiving of the heavenly choir round about the throne. When Zion shall arise and shine, her light will be most penetrating, and precious songs of praise and thanksgiving will be heard in the assemblies of the saints....As we apply the golden eye-salve, we shall see the glories beyond. Faith will cut through the heavy shadow of Satan, and we shall see our Advocate offering up the incense of His own merits in our behalf. When we see this as it is, as the Lord desires us to see it, we shall be filled with a sense of the immensity and di-versity of the love of God."--Testimonies, Vol. 6, p. 368. And then we shall no longer ask:

WHOSE ADVICE IS TO BE FOLLOWED?

Now we want you to know that we truly appreciate your concern for our spiritual welfare, as ex-

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pressed in many of your criticisms, and we assure you that we fully realize that, be we wrong, your advice is surely as valuable to us as, be we right, our advice is to you. So we are confident that you will be agreed with us that we must settle the question,

WHO IS WHO?

To begin our investigation, it is, necessary, in fairness to both sides, to take into account the experiential knowledge of each.

In view of our long experience with the Third Angel's Message in both its first part and its present addition (Early Writings, p. 277), as brought in The Shepherd's Rod, and yours in the first part only, we are constrained to believe that the possibility of your being wrongly led by the angel of the Laodiceans, is greater than the possibility of our being wrongly led by the Rod.

Were you in a position, such as we are in, to be fully informed in both messages,--in the one of 1844 and in the one of today,--then the possibility of your being right and of our being wrong, as against the possibility of your being wrong and of our being right, would be about equally balanced. Inasmuch, though, as you are conversant with the former only, it is more probable that our position carries a greater percentage of possibility of being correct than does yours.

Moreover, whether the Rod is right or wrong, "the angel of the church of the Laodiceans" is, as the Lord Himself has made acutely clear, in a "sad....fearful," and "terrible" deception" (Testimonies, Vol. 3, pp. 253, 254, 260), and about to be spued out.

In view, therefore, of the consequent greater responsibility resting upon us, we could not be less interested in you than you are in us. And you could not afford to be less mindful of our advice to you than we could of yours to us.

And finally, believing that you are as honest as we are, we are confident that you will candidly consider the following paragraphs.

Our being, as you know, unswerving adherents of the Bible and of Sister White's writings, full-fledged S.D.A.'s, we are sure that both the Bible and Sister White's writings support the Rod one hundred per cent. All three, therefore, we see in perfect harmony with one another, with the Rod giving "power and force" to the message as given since 1844. (See Early Writings, p. 277.)

In view of our sustaining this solid conviction, you can readily understand that your rejecting the Rod on the ground of its being out of harmony with Sister White's writings, is not at all to us the actuality it seems to you.

Then, too, having every reason to believe that our minds are fully rational, we accordingly have every reason to believe that we are no less able than others intelligently to study both the Bible and Sister White's writings. So let us, as Christians who really want to know the truth, together begin

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EXAMINING BOTH YOUR POSITION AND OURS.

To begin with, is it not correct that the Christian's text-book is the Bible? If your answer to this fundamental question is in the affirmative, then it compels us to study Sister White's writings in the light of the Bible, not the Bible in the light of her writings. This, in fact, she herself plainly says:

"Only those who have been diligent students of the Scriptures, and who have received the love of the truth, will be shielded from the powerful delusion that takes the world captive. By the Bible testimony [not by hers], these will detect the deceiver in his disguise....Are the people of God now so firmly established upon His word that they would not yield to the evidence of their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling to the Bible, and the Bible only?"--The Great Controversy, p. 625.

Clearly, therefore, her work must never be interpreted in such a way as to contradict the Bible, but always to clear it. If you undeviatingly follow this absolute rule of interpretation, you can never possibly have any trouble with the Rod or with any message the Lord may ever send.

Your interpretations of many of Sister White's writings, most notably, perhaps, those concerning the Kingdom, being manifestly contradictory to the prophecies of the Bible, cause the one who accepts her writings, to doubt the Bible, and the one who holds to the Bible, to be set against her writings, thus bringing in dispute and schism among the brethren. Such interpretations, one-sided and division-making, are therefore grievously unfair not only to the Bible and to Sister White's writings but also to yourself, and consequently to the cause of Truth.

So you will, we trust, see that while you are intentionally endeavoring only to prove the Rod wrong, you are unwittingly endeavoring in reality to prove Sister White at odds with the Bible--a work which is scattering from Christ rather than gathering to Him.

As both your and our doctrinal positions must be in perfect harmony with the Bible, we are therefore asking you to harmonize your position on the Kingdom with Daniel 2:44; Jeremiah 51:20; Hosea 3:4, 5; Isaiah 2:1-4; Micah 4:1-6; Isaiah 11:12-16; Jeremiah 30:18, 21; 31:2-13; 32:37; Ezekiel 37:15-28.

We hold it to be a simple, self-evident truth that as the stone (Dan. 2:34) is symbolical of the Kingdom, and that as it smites the toes of the image, it necessarily must be set up before it smites them, just as Daniel said: "In the days of these kings [toe-kings: the kings of today] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom." "In the days of these kings," cannot mean after their days. And unless the Kingdom is set up (brought into being), it cannot smite the nations.

If, moreover, Judah and Israel (both kingdoms) are not gathered together into one kingdom, as the prophecies say they will be (Ezek. 37:15-28), then

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how can they be His "battle-ax" (Jer. 51:20)? And how can the prophecies be fulfilled?

It is equally as self-evident that the "many days" (Hos. 3:4, 5) are the long years from the time the kingdom went down until it is set up again. Wherefore the word "return" cannot mean anything other than that those dispersed "many days" are to go back to the land whence they were taken captive.

This, furthermore, is the only position, consistent with all relevant Bible doctrines, that gives assurance of fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 2 and that of Micah 4.

Again: from Isaiah 11 we see that the Lord is to 'set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people" (verse 11), and that when He does so, He will prepare a way for them "like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."Verse 16.

And Jeremiah testifies that the Lord "will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap...and their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them." Jer. 30:18, 21.

To Ezekiel, moreover, "thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land." Ezek. 37:21.

The Bible is either right or wrong. If you believe it is right, take It to heart, and take your stand upon It, at least upon such open passages as the ones herein quoted, scriptures which need no interpretation.

And certain it is that no one will succeed in excusing himself in trying to side-step them, so plain and positive as they are. Neither will he succeed in excusing himself in trying to get away from God's judgments, by endeavoring on the one hand to dodge through what he thinks to be loopholes in the Rod, and by endeavoring on the other hand to set up in Sister White's writings stones to take cover behind.

Such vain attempts will leave him today no more excusable (in fact, less so) than the efforts of the Jews yesterday left them in their attempt to discover loopholes in Christ's work by the use of Moses' writings.

If one's excuse be that the Rod's teachings are not sanctioned by Sister White's writings, no more will he be excused for rejecting its voice on such grounds than are the Jews for fighting and rejecting the New Testament Scriptures on the grounds that they are not found in the writings of the prophets.

If you are really a sincere and faithful believer in both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, you will obey this counsel: "If a message comes that you do not understand, take pains that you may hear the reasons the messenger may give."--Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work, p. 65.

Your integrity in renouncing the sealing message, on the ground that it contradicts Sister White's writings, will be tested by your response

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to her urging you to reason with the messenger rather than to reason with his enemies.

What to some of you seems to set the Rod squarely in contradiction to Sister White's writings, is not half so plausible as is that which to all appearances sets the Lord's statement in Matthew 10:23 solidly in contradiction to His promises. "Ye shall not," says the Scripture, "have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come." But the apostles did go preaching the gospel not only to the cities of Israel but also to "every creature which is under heaven" (Col. 1:23), and as yet the Son of man is not "come," though 1900 years have passed since that time. Christ must have spoken the truth, but it is not understood, just as many points in connection with Present Truth are not understood, and hence in most cases are misconstrued.

When Moses wrote the first part of the Bible, he was not given the privilege to write the whole truth which God intended to reveal to His people. Later in the Old Testament period came Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, et al. Then in the New Testament period came John the Baptist, Christ, the apostles, the reformers, Miller, and Sister White, each one in turn teaching truths which could not, however, be maintained by Moses' writings. This is the divine rule of unfolding truth. And only to one's own loss will he refuse to acknowledge that it is operative the same today as ever, even though the message today is derived entirely from the inspired writers before it.

Though there is much more to be said on these matters, suffice these lines for the present, for unless for your life's sake you respond to them, more would be only a weariness to you and a loss of time to us.

Our sincere prayer and earnest hope, therefore, is that the valuable and irrevocable time expended in this effort of good will and deep concern for your souls, will be the means of bringing you to rejoice in the glorious hope which the Rod sets before you. May your heart yet be responsive to the "Lord's voice" which still "crieth unto the city,...hear ye the rod, and Who hath appointed it." Mic. 6:9.

If you wish to comply with this injunction, and with one in Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work, p. 65, to take pains to hear the reason for things, and thus to ask questions, whether on the Bible or on Sister White's writings, you may write us, and we shall gladly do our honest best to clear whatever is involved.

And now as it is clearly seen that the Laodiceans are in dire need of truth, let us go on from knowledge to knowledge by studying

A STEPHEN-SERMON TO THE

CHURCH TODAY.

"Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country,

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and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee." Acts 7:2, 3. "So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him" (Gen. 12:4), and went at His lead into Canaan, wherein he dwelt though the Lord "gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child." Acts 7:5.

Then in time, the Lord purposed to lead Jacob and his household out of the land of Canaan, down into Egypt. Knowing, though, that the sons of Jacob would not go as did Abraham, by His simply telling them to, He therefore in His providence put into the heart of Jacob a greater love for Joseph than for his other children. This begot in them envy and jealousy, which in turn begot hatred and greed, manifesting itself in their cruel treatment and sale of Joseph, which resulted in his being carried away a slave into Egypt.

Recognizing Providence in the whole matter, Joseph said unto his brothers as he "made himself known" unto them: "Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life...and...to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance." Gen. 45:1, 5, 7.

Thus the Lord providentially exalted Joseph to share the throne of Egypt in order to predispose Pharaoh to grant Israel permission to enter into the land.

Next, to draw them there, He brought thereabouts the seven years of plenty, followed by the seven years of famine. Whereupon He sent word to Jacob that Joseph was yet alive. At the joyous news, there sprang up in the father an irresistible desire to see his son. This and the life-taking hunger upon Joseph's brethren, compelled them to remove into Pharaoh's land of plenty, where they lived like kings.

Not purposing, however, to leave them there forever, the Lord did not let their living continue as pleasant as at the first, lest they refuse to take heed to Moses when he should come with the word that the time had arrived for them to go back home. But He brought about another saving providence, this time permitting unbearable hardship to befall them, so that when called, they would respond gladly. So slaves they had to become; and still worse, they had to be bereaved of their male children, then mercilessly driven with cruel lashes upon their backs, to produce ever more bricks.

Thus the power of the Spirit combined with the horrible suffering from their hard Egyptian servitude, was an over-powering force compelling them to forsake the heathen land and to return to their own.

Then, on their way back they met with another Providence--their long wilderness sojourn, forty years in all--which God permitted for the express purpose of separating from them the unbelieving, unfaithful multitude who accompanied the movement out of Egypt. These destroyed after the

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nation was freed from slavery, the survivors miraculously crossed the Jordan (Josh. 3:14-17), just as they had forty years before crossed the Red Sea (Ex. 14:19-31). Their removing from their midst the one sinner, Achan (Josh. 7:25), who then sprang up among them, they entered into the promised land and became the most glorious kingdom in their day (I Kings 10). Slaves become kings--what a miracle indeed!

Naturally one would think that a people whom God had so miraculously freed from slavery, and of whom He had subsequently just as miraculously made a kingdom, would never fall now that they were strong. But losing sight of their Strength, they again fell away into captivity! In weakness as slaves to Pharaoh, God had brought them to strength over their Egyptian masters; now in their strength as masters, themselves, over the nations about them, He brought them down to servitude to those over whom they had formerly held sway!

Twice a miracle, here is proof positive that the Lord built them up, and also tore them down (2 Chron. 36:13-23), "that they," says the Lord, might "know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside Me. I am the Lord, and there is none else." Isa. 45:6.

In the course of time, with the fulfillment of the seventy years of which Jeremiah prophesied (Jer. 29:10), God once more brought Israel into their own land. But as the years wore on, replacing the old generations with new ones, Israel again lost sight of their Strength, this time so completely that when the long-looked for Messiah finally came, they rejected and crucified and spat on Him!

In divine retribution, God turned away His face in anger, and delivered them into the hand of the oppressor, who destroyed their temple and their city, drove them from their own land, and left them forsaken, an outcast race without God, without coin, without country, a people execrated by all nations from that day till this!

Not all, however, were thus cast away. A multitude of them had their eyes opened to the fact that their great men were falsely accusing the Lord, misapplying the prophecies concerning Him, and deceiving the people. Through those who remained faithful, He preserved the seed of Israel. Accepting Christ and becoming Christians, these faithful sons of Jacob had their name changed from Jews to Christians, as was foreshadowed in God's changing their father's name from Jacob to Israel, and their grandfather's, from Abram to Abraham.

Starting out with 120 Spirit-filled disciples, this Jewish-Christian church converted 3,000 souls on the day of Pentecost by the preaching of one simple, Spirit-indited sermon, and then "added to the church daily such as should be saved." Acts 2:47.

This great ingathering of souls so angered Satan that he avengingly "persecuted the woman [the Jewish-Christian church] which brought forth the man child" (Rev. 12:13), so as to prevent her from making converts, and to prevent those whom she succeeded in making, from fellowshiping with her.

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(The bed rock facts that the woman's child, Christ, Who was "caught up unto God" (verse 5), was born to the Jewish church, and that the Christian church emerged from the Jewish, solidly establish the woman as a figure of the faithful servants of God in both the Old and the New Testament churches.)

As a result of persecuting the woman, Satan was, ironically, only helping rather than hindering the divine purpose. Indeed, the church's field (Matt. 13:38) grew only pure "wheat," the "net" (verse 47) caught only good "fish," because against such a persecution, only the faithful dared take their stand for Truth and to become members of the hated sect. So, seeing the results of his oppression, he quickly changed his tactics.

"By the edicts of toleration," says Gibbon, "he [Constantine] removed the temporal disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progress of Christianity; and its active and numerous ministers received a free permission, a liberal encouragement, to recommend the salutary truths of revelation by every argument which could affect the reason or piety of mankind. The exact balance of the two religions [Christian and Pagan] continued but a moment.... The cities which signalized a forward zeal by the voluntary destruction of their temples [the Pagan's], were distinguished by municipal privileges, and rewarded with popular donatives....The salvation of the common people was purchased at an easy rate, if it be true that, in one year, twelve thousand men were baptized at Rome, besides a proportionable number of women and children, and that a white garment, with twenty pieces of gold, had been promised by the emperor to every convert." This was "a law of Constantine, which gave freedom to all the slaves who should embrace Christianity." Gibbon's Rome, Vol. 2, pp. 273, 274 (Milman Edition).

Just as soon as Satan caused his agents to cease oppressing the Christians, and to start fellowshipping with them, he beguiled them into thinking him their friend. Thus being eased of his persecution, they spiritually fell asleep; and while they slept, he sowed the tares.

Yea, he made a complete turn-about and even compelled the heathen to join the church, thereby casting out of his "mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood." Rev. 12:15. From persecuting those who would unite with the church, he turned to persecuting those who would not, so that she might be flooded with unconverted heathen and there-by "carried away of the flood." Rev. 12:15.

In the days of the reformers, in order to keep the multitude in darkness he put his clamps on them, then opened wide his extinguisher against the burning light, and when it failed him, he set "sleeping preachers preaching to a sleeping people.' Testimonies, Vol. 2, p. 337.

This highly successful course he has unremittingly pursued ever since, until as a result the church today is almost choked with tares. It is, as it were, infiltrated with a fifth-column.

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"That night I dreamed," says the servant of the Lord in a remarkable view of this very condition. "that I was in Battle Creek looking out from the side glass at the door, and saw a company marching up to the house, two and two. They looked stern and determined. I knew them well, and turned to open the parlor door to receive them, but thought I would look again. The scene was changed. The company now presented the appearance of a Catholic procession. One bore in his hand a cross, another a reed. And as they approached, the one carrying a reed made a circle around the house, saying three times, 'This house is proscribed. The goods must be confiscated. They have spoken against our holy order.' Terror seized me, and I ran through the house, out of the north door, and found myself in the midst of a company, some of whom I knew, but I dared not speak a word to them for fear of being betrayed. I tried to seek a retired spot where I might weep and pray without meeting eager, inquisitive eyes wherever I turned. I repeated frequently, 'If I could only understand this! If they will tell me what I have said, or what I have done!'

"I wept and prayed much as I saw our goods confiscated. I tried to read sympathy or pity for me in the looks of those around me, and marked the countenances of several whom I thought would speak to me and comfort me if they did not fear that they would be observed by others. I made one attempt to escape from the crowd, but seeing that I was watched, I concealed my intentions. I commenced weeping aloud, and saying, 'If they would only tell me what I have done, or what I have said!' My husband, who was sleeping in a bed in the same room, heard me weeping aloud, and awoke me. My pillow was wet with tears, and a sad depression of spirits was upon me."--Testimonies, Vol. 1, p. 578.

The promise, however, is that the flood of tares will remain therein only until the harvest, the natural time for their separation--the end of the world.

So long as Satan can successfully carry on this subversive work of flooding the church, he will never move a finger to persecute any for joining her, lest thereby he thwart his own evil design to honeycomb her ranks with his agents--the flood, the tares. To insure the success of this insidious work, he casts out those who dare live a consistent Christian life there among the tares, while he is going about with his extinguisher turned on, trying, to put out every life-spark of light.

Finally, though, as prophecy discloses, the tables are turned, and the long controversy ends by the Lord's casting out and destroying (Rev. 12:16) Satan's agents, the "flood" (the tares, the bad fish), and then lighting the earth with the glory of His angel (Rev. 18:1)!

Here we see that the coming work of making rid of the flood, thereby freeing the church from the unconverted, is the work of "the harvest" in "the end of the world." Matt. 13:39. Next we must ascertain whether the "end of the world" brings the millennial age of peace or the great time of trouble

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such as never was. To determine this, we must consult subsequent events.

Since it is after the earth swallows the flood, that the dragon is to be wroth with the woman and to go "to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 12:16, 17), there is no escaping the conclusion that the harvest, in taking away Satan's flood, his multiplied tares, does not bring the millennium of peace. Indeed not, but rather it brings his wrath--the time of trouble such as never was: the time in which God's people in Babylon are called to "come out of her" and into His purified church--the Kingdom.

The harvest, therefore, is a short period of time just before, rather than the moment at, the appearing of Christ in the clouds. It is the very last days of probation for earth's kingdoms,--the days and work which bring the end of the world.

The fact that there is a remnant (that which is left) of the seed of the woman, shows that her seed is divided into two parts, and that consequently the symbolism represents three groups of people: (1) the woman; (2) the first part of her seed--those who in this instance are not the remnant; (3) the second part of her seed--those who are the remnant.

In the light of this symbolical representation, the woman, herself, is seen to symbolize the mother-part of the church--God's appointed and Spirit-filled ministers who bring in the born-again (John 3:3) converts. The first part of her seed must, accordingly, be the first fruits, the 144,000, who, separated from the sinners that were among them, are taken to Mount Sion, there to stand with the Lamb (Rev. 14:1). Hence, "the remnant of her seed" are in this instance those who are yet in the world when Babylon rides the beast (Rev. 17). Thus they are the second and last fruits which are to be taken to the purified church, the kingdom, where there is neither sin nor fear of the plagues falling (Rev. 18:4).

And now, since in her progression of time, the woman represents each successive ministry, therefore at the time that the dragon is wroth with her, she necessarily must represent the last ordained ministry, the 144,000, those who bring all their brethren from all nations to God's "holy mountain Jerusalem." Isa. 66:20.

With this light shining on the subject, the truth is clearly seen that after the earth swallows the flood, after the angels separate the wicked ("the tares," the "bad"--"fish") from the righteous (the "wheat," the "good"--"fish") in the church, and take the righteous to Mount Sion ("the barn," "the vessels"--Matt. 13:30, 48), the dragon will then be angry with the woman (the servants of God), and as a result will war against the remnant (the second fruits, those who are then to be called out of Babylon--Rev. 18:4).

"In the last days," says Micah in his forecast of the time in which the first fruits stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion, and in which the second

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