TOWER PUBLISHING COMPANY,
"BIBLE HOUSE"
ARCH STREET, ALLEGHENY, PA., U.S.A.
C. T. RUSSELL, EDITOR; MRS. C. T. RUSSELL, ASSOCIATE.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $1.00 A YEAR, IN ADVANCE,
INCLUDES ALSO A SUBSCRIPTION, FOR ONE YEAR,
TO "THE OLD THEOLOGY" (TRACTS), QUARTERLY,
By Express Order, Postal Money Order, Bank Draft, or Registered Letter. Foreign only by Foreign Money Order.
N.B.—Those of the interested, who by reason of old age or accidents, or other adversity, are unable to pay, will be supplied FREE, if they will send a Postal Card each December, stating their case and requesting the paper.
We are always pleased to hear from TOWER readers everything pertinent to their spiritual welfare and the progress of the truth. In fact, we are disappointed to get a mere business order, and nothing more, from personal friends. But please always keep your general letter separate from your business order. This will be to your advantage, as well as ours.
MARKED CLIPPINGS IN ENVELOPES.
Friends who have access to Literary Magazines and prominent daily papers often notice interesting items of news more or less related to the topics discussed in the TOWER; and many of them send these to the Editor. This kindness is very helpful, and is highly appreciated. We suggest to these friends that, instead of sending the entire paper, they clip the interesting items, and write on the back, or on the margin, the name and date of the paper or magazine from which it is taken. In an unsealed envelope, one cent postage will do.
ADDRESSES FOR FREE READING MATTER.
Many of the friends send in long, written and printed lists of excellent addresses, of parties likely to become interested, to have TOWERS and TRACTS sent them. This is an excellent work, and we are glad to send out matter freely to such. But just now the office is so overcrowded with work that many of these lists must lie over for a long time, because no one has the time to address the wrappers.
We suggest, therefore, that our friends who have the time for it can help along the cause by writing the addresses in a plain hand on wrappers (about the center), and mailing us the addressed wrappers, which can readily be filled and sent out. The wrappers should be about 5 x 10 inches; or address-labels could be written 1 x 3 inches, which we could have pasted on wrappers. These can be mailed to us at the rate of two ounces for one cent. Those who have many addresses, but who cannot procure suitable paper, may drop us a postal card, and we can send what is needed.
This, of course, does not apply to cases where only a few names are sent in, nor when the sender lacks the time for writing the labels.
Colporteurs, who would water the seeds of truth which they are planting, should be careful to note those they meet who seem to be specially consecrated to the Lord, and should send in their addresses for TOWER samples.
1893 "DAILY BREAD CALENDARS" FREE.
Messrs. Ward and Co., of New York City, importers of "Our Daily Bread" Calendars, for 1893, have kindly donated to our readers the remnant of their stock of these calendars. So now whoever will send five cents each for the mailing may order them of us. If several TOWER readers choose to order together, they may do so.
Of course over one-third of the year is gone, but daily texts for over two hundred days are as good as ever. This food, taken at or before breakfast, should mean a blessing for the entire day. These Calendars retail generally at 35 to 50 cents, plus postage.
Do not forget the Missionary Envelopes. We have them in good supply now at the reduced price of 25 cents per hundred, or $2.00 per thousand. This includes free delivery to you at your Postoffice.
r1521 VOL. XIV. MAY 1, 1893. NO. 9.r1527 THE GROWTH OF RITUALISM.
TOWER PUBLISHING COMPANY,
"BIBLE HOUSE"
ARCH STREET, ALLEGHENY, PA., U.S.A.
C. T. RUSSELL, EDITOR; MRS. C. T. RUSSELL, ASSOCIATE.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $1.00 A YEAR, IN ADVANCE,
INCLUDES ALSO A SUBSCRIPTION, FOR ONE YEAR,
TO "THE OLD THEOLOGY" (TRACTS), QUARTERLY,
By Express Order, Postal Money Order, Bank Draft, or Registered Letter. Foreign only by Foreign Money Order.
N.B.—Those of the interested, who by reason of old age or accidents, or other adversity, are unable to pay, will be supplied FREE, if they will send a Postal Card each December, stating their case and requesting the paper.
"Very little authentic information is obtainable thus far concerning the discovery by some ladies of a palimpsest manuscript of the Gospels in the library of the Convent of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai, except that the find is looked upon by Biblical scholars all over the [R1530 : page 146] world as a most important one. Dr. Isaac H. Hall, curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a well-known student of Syriac, and knew of the discovery long before the news was made public in the newspapers. He said yesterday that he expected to receive definite information from Syria in a few weeks.
"As much as he knows now is that these ladies were visiting the convent last year, and while looking over some manuscripts saw one to be a palimpsest. This is the name given to a parchment roll from which the original writing has been erased in order that the parchment may be written on again and which has been written on again. No matter how well the original ink is removed, in the course of time the chemicals in the fluid assert themselves, and a faint marking of the original tracings can be seen.
"In the case of the present find the ladies did not know whether the parchment was of any value or not, but, being equipped with cameras, they photographed several pages and carried them back to London. There the copies were studied by Messrs. Burkitt, R. L. Bensley, and J. Rendel Harris, who found that this was a very old Syriac version of the New Testament. These gentlemen were shortly afterward sent to Mount Sinai by the Pitt Press at Cambridge to make a complete copy and recovery of the valuable Syriac text.
"They have thus far learned that the new manuscript contains the Gospels complete, but whether it contains more of the New Testament than the Gospels has not yet been told. This palimpsest omits the last twelve verses of the Gospel of St. Mark, which Biblical scholars have for a long time considered spurious, and which the two oldest Greek manuscripts omit.
"The library of the Convent of Mount Sinai has been a very fruitful field of discovery. In 1844 Tischendorf found there the famous Sinaitic manuscript of the whole New Testament and parts of an old Greek Biblical manuscript of the fourth century." —New York Sun.
Through a mistake of the binders we have on hand a large lot of cloth-bound DAWNS of the three volumes, which are not perfect matches—the color of the cloth covers is the same, dark green, but the shade varies a little.
The retail price of the DAWNS in cloth is one dollar per volume, the wholesale price fifty cents (TOWER subscribers being supplied at wholesale rate for their own use and for use in selling, loaning and giving to others). But these books are not up to the standard we wish hereafter to adopt, so we now make a special offer of them to our readers. We will sell these imperfectly matched volumes at twenty-five cents each, plus postage ten cents, or the three volumes postpaid for one dollar. Or order as many as you choose by express or freight, at your own charges, for twenty-five cents each.
This will give some, who loan many books, a chance to lend the cloth-bound, which will stand more usage and scuffing. And some who have felt too poor to have the cloth-bound edition can now get them, and have their paper covered set for loaning. Order soon!
r1527 VOL. XIV. MAY 15, 1893. NO. 10.r1528 RESURRECTION WITHOUT COMMOTION.
r1530 PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.
r1531 GRACE AND PEACE MULTIPLIED.
r1531 ARE THE LATTER DAYS AT HAND?
SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS DESIGNED TO ASSIST THOSE OF OUR
READERS WHO ATTEND BIBLE CLASSES WHERE THESE
LESSONS ARE USED; THAT THEY MAY BE ENABLED TO
LEAD OTHERS INTO THE FULNESS OF THE GOSPEL.
PUBLISHED IN ADVANCE, AT THE REQUEST OF FOREIGN READERS.
II. QUAR., LESSON X., JUNE 4, ECCL. 5:1-12.
Golden Text—"Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord."—Rom. 12:11.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, presumably written in Solomon's later years, we have an important question raised, considered in various aspects, and answered from the standpoint of a wide and varied human experience. The question (chap. 1:3) is—
"What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?"
The question is an important one, especially for the young; but all would do well to carefully consider it in the light of Solomon's experience, and with the prayer of the Psalmist in their hearts—"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."—Psa. 90:12.
Hear the words of the Preacher. He says, "I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit."
Thus testifies one of the most successful men, from the world's standpoint, that ever lived. He had all the comforts and blessings that wealth and power and honor and fame and natural qualifications of mind and body and education, and even specially granted superhuman wisdom could bestow upon him. And all of these he used chiefly for his own personal, present gratification. He says, "I said in my heart, Go to, now, I will prove thee with mirth....I sought to give myself unto wine; I made me great works; I builded me houses, I planted me vineyards, I made me gardens and orchards; I got me servants and maidens and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions. I gathered me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got me men singers and women singers and musical instruments of all sorts: also my wisdom remained with me."
Thus he proceeds from chap. 1:12 to 2:26 to show how he delved into every luxury to seek full satisfaction and to find in these things the chief end of his existence. But, after all, he pronounces the whole experience "sore travail."
In chapters 3, 4, and 5 Solomon gives us the results of his wide experience and observation from a business and social standpoint. [R1532 : page 158] He sees men laboring hard to amass wealth, and wisely inquires (3:9), "What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?" Then he adds—and how truthfully his experience agrees with all our own observation and experience—that "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance, with increase. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?" (5:10,11.) So business prosperity he regards as an empty bubble, and the excessive labor to accomplish it as laboring for the wind.
In the adjustment of human affairs he further perceives that iniquity and injustice prevail everywhere, and to such an extent that there is really no redress and no comfort to those who lay it to heart, except in the thought that God is above all the judges of the earth, and that his judgments will some day be manifest and prevail. (5:8.)
Chapter 6 shows how vain and unsatisfactory is every earthly good, when there is no hope beyond the present life. Chapter 7 gives some advice which, from the standpoint of present selfish advantage, is good. It counsels such as seek merely present ease, etc., to be careful to maintain a good name (verse 1), not to be hasty tempered (verse 9), to be sympathetic with those in sorrow (verse 2), etc. But since righteousness is not rewarded in the present time with prosperity, but rather with adversity, the ease and pleasure seeker will find it to his present advantage not to be "righteous over much," neither to be "wise over much." Neither should he be either wicked or foolish. (Verses 16,17.) In other words he should keep his finger on the popular pulse, and regulate himself according to popular ideas. This is not the proper course for the children of God, but it is the wise course from the standpoint of worldly policy, which, alas! is too often adopted by his professed children. It is the policy of the "tare" element in the nominal Christian church; but it is not the policy of the truly consecrated children of God who prefer to suffer for righteousness' sake, rather than to win a good name among men by a compromising policy.
In chapter 8:16,17 and chapter 9, Solomon declares that, in view of God's mighty works, he had sought to find out the deep mysteries of his plan for his creatures, but that he had sought in vain. A knowledge of his plan was not then due; and so (chap. 9) he considered that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God, but he could not tell certainly from the book of nature whether God loved or hated them; for he said, "All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked." So from this skeptical view he concluded to take all the pleasure he could out of the present—to make merry, and live as joyfully as he could, seeking, first [R1533 : page 158] of all, his own ease and pleasure, and, secondarily, the pleasure of others so far as it did not interfere with his own. Upon these very principles Solomon acted until, surfeited with self-gratification and sick at heart, he cries out at last, as does every one who drains the cup of worldly pleasure, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity."
Chapter 12 now turns away from the disgusting sweets of worldly pleasure, and counsels youth to pursue a different course from that the king had taken, saying, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth," etc., and adds that the conclusion of the whole experience of his life is that the proper course is to "Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man; for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil."—Verses 1,13,14.
Well would it have been with Solomon had he learned this lesson in his youth from the law and the prophets, instead of ignoring these and turning to poor human philosophy—his own reasonings—and then, by the experience of a wasted life, finally proving the vanity of every other course save that of God's appointment and direction, and losing the reward of divine favor which a course of entire faithfulness to God would surely have brought in due time. The course which Solomon chose and followed brought the temporal advantage which was very unsatisfactory; but it surely did not entitle him to a place among the ancient worthies, some of whom Paul enumerates in Heb. 11, who are to have an honorable position in the earthly phase of the kingdom of God. (See MILLENNIAL DAWN, Vol. I., Chapter xiv.) Then those who faithfully suffered for righteousness' sake will be exalted as princes in all the earth (Psa. 45:16), while such as Solomon will have a much lower station.
The Golden Text—Be not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord—is the counsel of the Apostle Paul to such as have consecrated themselves to the Lord. These, devoted to the special work of the Lord, he would have remember not to be slothful or indifferent to the duties and responsibilities incumbent upon them and pertaining to the present life—such as providing for their families, etc. They should not be slothful in these things, but active, and at the same time fervent in spirit in serving the Lord.
The golden text is very suggestive of the different standpoints of the Apostle Paul and King Solomon. The latter, living before the Gospel age and its high calling began, counseled an easy course of moderation: saying, Why should one become overmuch interested in anything? Why not take life easy? But the Apostle saw a prize that inspired his zeal to the point of fervency; and he advises all who are running for the same prize to be fervent in spirit, in the service of God now open to them;—an opportunity not open to Solomon, and not then even revealed.—Eph. 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:12.
II. QUAR., LESSON XI., JUNE 11,
ECCL. 12:1-7,13,14.
Golden Text—"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."—Eccl. 12:1.
VERSES 1-5 present a vivid pen picture of old age—"the evil days" of physical decline and infirmity, "when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." The world offers its pleasures to the young, who snatch at the delusions; but age has proved them all empty bubbles. The world has nothing substantial to offer, and therefore, unless the mind has found its satisfaction in God, there is indeed no pleasure in old age.
VERSE 2 refers to the dimness of vision, both mental and physical, and to the fact that clouds of trouble of one kind or another quickly succeed each other after every refreshing rain which brings hope of succeeding sunshine of prosperity.
VERSE 3. "The keepers of the house [the arms and hands] tremble; and the strong men [the lower limbs] bow themselves [unable to support the weight of the body], and the grinders [the teeth] cease [to perform their office], because they are few; and those [various mental faculties] that look out of the windows [the eyes] be darkened [or dimmed]."
VERSE 4. "And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low."—When the work of life is done there is little in common with the rising generation, and therefore less and less communication. "He shall rise up at the voice of the bird [—early, being unable to sleep well], and all the daughters of music shall be brought low [the failing powers cease to catch the strains of earthly enchantments]." But if he have the ear of faith, he catches the sweeter strains of heaven's melodies, of which Solomon in all his glory never knew.
VERSE 5 represents the great burden, labor and sorrow of extreme old age with all its infirmities, until all earthly desires fail and he goes to his long home—the grave—there to await the morning of the resurrection. "Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning."—Psa. 30:5.
VERSES 6,7 represent death—the silver cord of life being loosed, the golden bowl (the body which contained the precious life-blood), broken; the pitcher (the lungs which drew in life from the fountain, the surrounding atmosphere), broken at the fountain; or the wheel (the heart), broken at the cistern. Then, when the body can no longer perform its offices, the dust of which it is composed returns "to the earth as it was [mere inanimate dust] and the spirit [ruach, breath, wind] shall return unto God who gave it," going back into his great reservoir of wind, breath—the surrounding atmosphere; and the being, the soul, is no more, save as it is engraven indelibly upon the tablet of God's memory to be reproduced again in the resurrection at the last day—now so near.
VERSES 13,14. This conclusion of the whole matter of a life's experience is that to which all men come sooner or later. "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity" is, after a wasted life, the poor world's dying refrain, when they see it would have been better to have feared God and kept his commandments. And that they may effectually prove this conclusion is God's object in letting them have the present experience under the dominion of Sin, which even Solomon in all his glory called "sore travail:" that they may be ready for the duty of submission to God, which will be enforced in the coming Millennial age of the world's probation. This object is distinctly stated by Solomon in Chapter 1:13 and 3:10.—"I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised [by experience] in it."
r1533 "OUT OF DARKNESS INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT."