The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

"Time, and Its Relation tothe Divine Plan"Bible Students' Convention, St. PaulTuesday Evening, 7:30 P. M.Discourse by Bro. John Edgar. Subject, "Time, and Its Relation to the Divine Plan "Brother Edgar's discourse on "Time Features," was in substance as follows:Dear Friends: It gives me great pleasure indeed to meet you all. I have come all the way from Scotland to meetyou, and to bring to you the warm greetings of the friends over there. I see the same spirit displayed here that Isee there; - we all have the one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism, and the one spirit.Before making up our minds to come, my wife and sister and I sat down and counted the cost. It meant aconsiderable sacrifice of money and of time, and of ease; but after we did make up our minds, and especiallysince we came, the sacrifice has turned into pleasure, and I suppose you all recognize that it is the Lord's way ofdoing. We have not come to study the customs, or see the sights of the country, but we have come for the sakeof the truth; we have come to meet the "Truth" people; we have come to be filled somewhat more withenthusiasm in the Lord's cause, and to carry that enthusiasm back and invest our brethren over the sea with thatenthusiasm, and I want you all, dear friends, to help us as much as you can, because the time is now so short.We have been helped a great deal today by our dear Brother Russell's address, and for the valuable hints BrotherCole gave us. Ali of these things are great helps to the Lord's people everywhere, and we over in Britain needthat help perhaps more even than you do.Now, dear friends, as you are all aware, the first and most important study for all the Lord's children is how todevelop the graces of the spirit. The time prophecies are altogether secondary to that. In order to be anovercomer we must understand what the graces of the spirit are, and how to develop them; and we must put thatknowledge into practice. Nevertheless, the time features of God's plan are of great importance. There are someof the Lord's people who have no great talent in the way of figures; some cannot understand the time propheciesvery well, and such are required to take a good deal on faith from those who do understand them. But the morewe do understand these matters, the more we become established, and the more we increase in faith towardGod, and the more we have confidence in His wisdom, and love and power; and we get a clearer understandingof that wonderful book, the Bible, and a clearer knowledge of God's wonderful plan of salvation. The timeprophecies have been hidden in the past, but are now revealed so as to give us an understanding of the time inwhich we now live-the time of the harvest of the Gospel age, the time of the end. It is very important that as theLord's children we should direct our energies in the way in which God wants us to direct them; and unless wedo understand that we are now in the harvest period, we cannot do this. But if we do understand and fullycomprehend that this is the harvest period, then we shall hear the Master's voice, "Gather my saints togetherunto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." This is the harvest message. It is no longer thetime for going out and sowing the seed only, but the special work now is a reaping work, the harvest work; andthese come in the time prophecies. We now know how to direct our energies, and our hearts are lifted up as wesee that the time is so near when we shall be forever with the Lord. No wonder Daniel exclaimed, "Blessed is hethat waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days." We have come to that time.