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

gentiles. We know that for various reasons besides what I have given you. For instance, God said toNebuchadnezzar, "Seven times shall pass over thee," and we know that for seven years he lost' his reason. Thattypifies the fact that men have lost their reason in thinking they can govern the world. Nebuchadnezzar thoughthe could govern the world, and that was simply a symptom of insanity. Do you know that one of the mostmanifest features of all forms of insanity is an exaggeration of egotism and selfishness, which we all possessmore or less. Sometimes it takes the form of self-glorification, thinking very greatly of one's self; other times itis selfdepression, melancholia; but in all forms of insanity in those who can think and reason at all, self is themost prominent feature. Now, dear friends, we are all possessed of that insanity more or less; we are allpossessed of this want of judgment; we all are inclined to think of self first, and that is one of the greatest fightsthe child of God has, to keep self under. Nebuchadnezzar had this insane idea, and God gave him permission toreign, knowing that the lesson would be beneficial to him in the future, and to all others, and knowing that theresult would be confusion, misery and death. That typifies the fact that Babylon the Great-the Roman CatholicSystem, Christendom-has also the same thing. The church of this Gospel age has thought that she could rule theworld, which was an insane idea, and God has permitted it in order to teach the church a lesson. Now, the timeis coming when this Bablyon the Great will a overthrown, just as Cyrus overthrew this first Babylon the Greatin the year 536 B. C. In the 44th and 45th chapters of Isaiah we are told that a certain one Cyrus, who wascalled by his name before he was born, would come and do this great work. Now we can understand that thisheathen king was there named by his name in order that he might prefigure a greater Cyrus who will do asimilar but a greater work. Let us understand what he did. The word Cyrus means "sun." This original Cyrus,who in the year 536 B. C. conquered Babylon and let the captive Israelites go free, was a sun to them, becausehe brought light and warmth into their hearts. Nothing cheered them more than the fact that they could return totheir beloved land and there build the house of the Lord. But in due time, dear friends, in the year 1914, thegreater Sun, the Sun of Righteousness, shall arise with healing in his -wings; he will take his great power at thattime and do a similar work to Cyrus. What did Cyrus do? He overthrew Babylon. So the greater Cyrus willoverthrow the greater Babylon. The first Cyrus let the captive fleshly Israelites free-as many as were willing togo free; this greater Cyrus will also let the captive spiritual Israelites go free, but no one will be forced. We arenot to imagine that God is going to force any one to free himself from Babylon and to build the house of theLord, but He is giving an invitation; He says, "Come out of her my people." There is no force employed. It is afree invitation, and we must accept it. When Cyrus freed the captive Israelites they went to Jerusalem and builtthere the Temple, and the walls of the city; and so in this same way we understand that the Israelites who werecaptive in Babylon all of this time will be set free to build the great house of the Lord, the great Temple, andbuild the walls of the greater Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem. And then we know that this Cyrus, way backhere in 536 B. C., by this act of overthrowing Babylon became the emperor over that whole world, the universalempire; just as our Lord will also become the great King, the King of' Kings and Lord of Lords, in October.1914.Then again we understand this first Cyrus had a dual kingdom. His kingdom was called the MedoPersianKingdom, because it was composed of two parts which were not divided, but were conjoined, as signified bythe fact that the bear, which symbolized that kingdom was raised on the one side, and in the other vision the onehorn of the ram was higher than the other horn. So we understand that signified that the Persian kingdom wasgreater than the other kingdom, the kingdom of the Medes, the Persian kingdom being the one to which Cyrusbelonged.This beautifully prefigures the Millennial kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, which will also be a dual kingdom- a kingdom with two phases, the spiritual and the earthly; but the spiritual phase, to which our Lord belongs, isa much higher than the earthly phase as the heavens are higher than the earth.And then, lastly, dear friends, there is this point: We are told that the laws of the Medes and Persians wereunchangeable. Does not this apply in a, wonderful way to this greater kingdom, the Millennial kingdom, the