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

During the corresponding time there has been a similar work going on in Christendom. First of all, thereformation took its rise; then during this interval a fall, chiefly into two parties: One party holds to the Word ofGod, and say they believe every word of it, but what they believe is the traditions of the elders, and they havebound themselves faster and faster in those traditions; then there is the other party who are free thinkers, whohave begun to criticise the Bible, and disbelieve great parts of it, the higher critics, evolutionists and that class,and interfering more in the politics of this world; and the result was, when our Lord came the second time to Hisown His own received Him not; but again, to as many as received Him, to them He has given power to becomethe sons of God. So we see a wonderful parallel in allWhat I have said will, I hope, have this effect, viz.: To make sure to you that God has been acting in everythingaccording to His own appointed times, and all of these events in the past have occurred just exactly in the wayGod intended them to happen. Some might say, "What matter is that to us? They are in the past, we havenothing to do now with them, they were already gone." But the point is this: If these things happened in exactyears in the past, and God made them to happen as we say He has, then with equal confidence we can lookforward to the future, and to this year 1915, and say that just as surely will Christendom be destroyed in thatyear. In October, 1914 the marriage of the Lamb and His Bride will have come. What does that mean? It means,dear friends, that out of a whole period of forty years' harvest 32 have now gone, and only 8 remain; andpossibly the reaping work will be finished in less than that time, because you know the reaping work is followedby a threshing work, a sifting work. So we expect the reaping work will be finished possibly before that time!And In any case many of us will have finished our work before that time, but those who live to the very end ofthe time have at the very most only 8 years left. Surely we must be up and doing to make our calling andelection sure; surely we must be up and doing the Lord's work of the harvest, gathering His saints together untoHim, those who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice. Is not that the reason we are gathering together?Are we not the Lord's saints, and that is why we are gathering together unto the Lord, our great Head? And wewant to gather out those who are still in Babylon. We want to carry on His work. We have a short time to do it,and we must be up and doing if we are to be pleasing to the Lord. But we are not to be over-anxious. We are notto think it rests on us; we must not be worried about the matter; we must trust in the Lord. I always take greatpleasure in a verse which was brought to my attention by Brother Hemery in England:"In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength."That does not mean quietness and confidence in yourself; it means quietness and confidence in the Lord shall beyour strength. The Lord is 'doing the work, and simply using us as His instruments. So when we realize that wehave the peace of God ruling in our hearts; we do his work but we do not worry about it; we do the workconscientiously, - having a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men; then we can take pleasurein the Lord's words when He says, "Lift up your heads and rejoice, knowing that your deliverance drawethnigh."Dear friends, although we see the kingdoms shaking, although we know that soon these kingdoms will be castinto the midst of the "sea," nevertheless there is a river, the great river of the water of life that is to flow throughthe Millennial age, that great river of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. "There is a river, the streamswhereof shall make glad the city of God." These streams of truth that are coming now make up that great river,the streams whereof make glad the city of God. Yes, dear friends, we who form this city of God are gladbecause of the truth that is coming to us now, - this truth that the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ is soon tobe established, and that if we be overcomers, if we be faithful unto death, we shall share with Him in thatkingdom.