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

souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Those who accepted that gracious invitation, dear friends,found themselves out of this first ascending passage into the Grand Gallery, into the high calling. The yokeslipped from their shoulders and they stood fast in the liberty wherewith Christ made them free. The GrandGallery is seven times the height of the first ascending passage; it is 28 feet high. There is no need any longer tostoop. But before passing up the Grand Gallery, which signifies the High or Heavenly Calling, they mustrecognize the "Well," which is at their feet on the right side of the lower end of the Grand Gallery. As I havealready explained, the "Well" represents "hades" or the "death state," and the appearance of an explosion at itsopening, represents the resurrection of Christ and the opening up of the new and living way to life andimmortality. It was necessary, then, for the Israelites, before being accepted as partakers of the HeavenlyCalling, to recognize the love and the righteousness of God in giving His only begotten Son as a sacrifice ontheir behalf and the loving obedience of the Son in drinking the cup which was given Him by His Father, andalso the mighty power, by which God raised Him from the dead and set him on His own right hand on high.Hallelujah! what a. Savior! As we know, very few of the Israelites took advantage of the grand opportunitypresented to them. The nation rejected the offer and was. in consequence, cast off and in due time passed into"hades," the "death state."Time Features of First Ascending PassageFirst of all I should like to draw your attention to the measurement given by Bro. Russell in his appendix to thethird volume.. You remember how he supposes that this granite plug should be pulled down its entire length. Ofcourse you cannot actually pull down the plug. It is jammed so firmly that although men have tried again andagain to displace it, they have not been able to succeed. But if you will do it in imagination, and then measurefrom the bottom of it thus extended, you will find that if the lower edge be taken as representing the date of theexodus from Egypt, April, 1615, B. C., the upper edge represents the date of the death of Christ, April, A. D. 33.Those of you who remember what is stated in the appendix of the third volume of Dawn will see that I havediffered a little from Bro. Russell in this respect; Bro. Russell makes the measurement end in the fall of A. D.36. When I found that I differed from him I felt some misgiving at first, because I knew that he had made aspecial study of these matters, and I have so frequently found that when I have differed from Bro. Russell atfirst I have come, on further study, to agree with him. Accordingly, my brother and I went over the figures againand again, and we invariably found the same result. So now I feel confident in saying that it was from theexodus to the death of Christ, and I shall explain to you how the difference comes about. It is in this way, dearfriends: Bro. Russell has made the little mistake that my brother and I made very often when we were makingthe various time - measurements in the Pyramid. Again and again when we were estimating the different timefeatures we found that our results did not coincide by a year or two or three with what we had expected, and wefelt non - plussed; they were so near and yet not quite right, until we remembered that we had forgotten todeduct the necessary number to bring the British inches down to pyramid inches. Now, dear friends, that isexactly what Brother Russell did-he forgot that he was dealing with British inches. Perhaps you will rememberthat Brother Russell's measurements are all in round numbers and even with that he finds himself a little over aninch wrong, and has to note the fact that the plug is chipped a good deal, and supposes that possibly anotherinch ought to be added on that account. But if we measure in Pyramid inches we shall require to make noaddition for chipping and we will find that the length of the passage represents exactly to the fraction of an inchthe period from the spring of 1615 B. C. till the spring of 33 A. D. You can measure it for yourself - 1470British inches from the top of the passage down to the lower end of the plug, and then the length of the plugitself which is 1783/4 inches, =16483/4 British inches or 1647 Pyramid inches. This represents exactly theduration of the period from the exodus in April 1615 B. C., till the death of Christ in April 33 A. D., for 16143/4 + 32 1/4 = 1647.This gives the best result for two reasons: (1) In the year 1615 the law was given to Israel; in the year 33 the law