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

FAREWELL ADDRESS BY BROTHER RUSSELL 301I think it is often like it is in our visits to some homes in thewinter time. Sometimes we go into a house and there is a babethere, and the mother is very proud of it, and she wants you tosee the little babe, and the babe when brought out is all wrappedup in blankets, and you hardly see how you are going to seeit at all; but by and by you see a little place there, a little holebetween the blankets, and you look through it and can see acorner of the baby's nose, and the mother says, "Don't youthink he is the image of his father?" "I cannot see enough ofhim to tell, but I suppose he is." That is the way with God'speople. They are all the image of the Father, only you mustnot expect to see too much of the image; that image is wrappedin a blanket of flesh, as it were, and you and I want to be amongthat class that will not think of one another according to theflesh, but remember how the apostle says, "We know no manhenceforth after the flesh."Dear friends, let us not then forsake the assembling of oul-selvestogether. Let us be among those who appreciate fully thisopportunity for communion. May the Lord bless us as we gofrom this great gnthering to the little gatherings where we arelocated. May the seasons we have enjoyed here togetherstrengthen us in the Spirit of the Lord, so that when we go tothat little company, that companywillbe strengthened and helped,not merely by what we are able to say, but by the spirit w-eshow, the life we live; and if this convention has lifted us toa little higher plane than we have been on before, our suggestionis, stay on that plane; do not go back to the old planeindeed,do not stay on that higher plane, but try to go to a still higherone, until by and by in God's providence, having enjoyed theblessings of these little gatherings, we may all be prepared andfitted for a place in that great gathering we hope to share withour Lord and Master.EAR FRIENDS, we have come to the closinghour of the convention. From all that I canlearn, I am sure all of those in attendance havebeen greatly pleased by this session of fellowshiptogether and study of God's Word. Weare learning more and more how precious isour heavenly Father's Word. We are learningmore and more that in past ties we have misunderstoodit greatly, and that a great blessingcomes to us in connection with its study. It is not inappropriatethat we remind all of the dear friends that the Bible is not understoodby the majority of people, and not intedned to be understoodby the majoritjr. Our heavenly Father's plan is that tothe great mass of mankind it shall be a sealed book. The onlyones to whom he is pleased to reveal the secret oi that Book arethose who are his people. And by his people we mean not thoseof any particular sect, or party or denomination or shibboleth,but those who are his through consecration of their hearts,through full devotion to the Lord-the class that is mentioned,you remember. by the Lord when he says, "The secret of theLord is 6th them that reverence him, and he will show themhi covenant."So then, I trust that the Bible studenta at this conventionhave for the major part been of this fully consecrated class,and I trust therefore that their eyes being anointed by the HolySpirit they have been enabled more and more to see and knowand appreciate the deep things of God, the things pertainingto the divine plan, as it relates to the present life, and also thosefeatures of the divine plan which relate to the life which is tocome, both,for the church on the plane of glory and for the worldon the earthIy plane, because the secret of the Lord is for those,-Farewell Address by Brother Russelland they may know it more and more as they seek to grow ingrace, grow in knowledge, and grow in love, and grow in all thefruits and graces of the Holy Spirit. I will trust, then, that youhave made progress, and as you go from here this afternoon,or tomorrow morning, to your homes that you will carry blessingswith you to the other dear friends there, many of them justas sincere as ourselves, and their heart sympathies and prayershave been with us I know, and many letters tell us so. As yougo back to your homes I wish you would carry, amongst otherthings, my love to the dear ones at home; tell them they wereremembered here every day; that we were of those who werefavored with the opportunity and means to come, and we thoughtof the others not thus highly favored, not thus highly privileged;and that while we were drinking at the fountain of grace andtruth, we were hoping and prayhg that some blessing wouldextend out to them; and then in harmony with those prayersand those desires, as you go to your homes try to unfold to otherssome of the blessings you have received, As your cup has beenfilled, may it continue to overflow like the widow's cruse of oil,you remember, they brought vessels and poured oil into themuntil they were filled, and then more were filled, and they keptbringing more vessels, and they were filled; and so it is with God'sHoly Spirit: if we shall as vessela of the Lord go from here fullof the Spirit of the Lord, his blessing will be with us so thatthese shall overflow upon all the dear ones with whom we comein contact, that they may have a share of these blessings. Godwho is rich in grace is able thus to provide for thoae afar offas well as those who are near.And now may the God of grace and peace be with us andbless us, and may we carry with us to our homes the divineblessings. Amen.God's Plan of Salvation in the Great PyramidLecture by Morton EdgarT MAY appear strange that the Great Pyramid symbolize in a remarkable manner the evil propensities of theof Egypt should be chosen for a religious topic, wicked or unrighteous man.for one properly associates religion with spirit- These are only two of the many hundreds of material symbolsual things which cannot be seen with our natural used in the Scriptures to illustrate spiritual truths. Yet it mayeyea, nor touched with our natural hands. The be answered that we have Scriptural sanction for using variousGreat Pyramid is so material; it measures close kinds of trees to symbolize different characters of men, but haveon 500 feet high, and 762 feet along the base, or we Scriptural authority for using the Pyramid as a symbol tonearly Wo-thirds of a mile round its four sides. illustrate any feature in God's great plan of redemption? Yes,It weighs 6,000,000 tom in all. There certainly the Scriptures undoubtedly refer to the pyramidal form of buildappearsto be little that is spiritual about the Great Pyramid. ing, and uses it to symbolize the most important truth in allNevertheless, we have Scriptural authority for choosing God's glorious plan of salvation, namely, the exalted pre-eminencematerial things to illustrate or smbolize great spiritual truths. of our Lord Jesus Christ.In the first Psalm, for instance, a tree is likened to a righteous Turn to Matthew 21:42-44, and we shall fin$lthat Jeaus himaelfman. There is nothing in common between a tree and a man to referred to the pyramidal form of building: Jesus sayeth untooutward appearance. Why, then, did the Pealmist liken a tree, them, did ye ever read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the"Planted by the rivers of water," to a righteous man? For the builders rejected, the same is become the head of thf: corner:inspired writer to have made such a comparison, it must have This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therebeenrevealed to him that, in some important features, the one for say I unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken fromsymbolized the other. And so we find, when Fe study the tree you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.planted beside a flowing river, that its various properties corre- And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but onspond in a wonderful way to the various attributas of a good man, whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."and the more we know of the tree and compare its properties Here we see that Jesus likened himself to a stone in somewith the righteous characteristics of the man, the more we realize building, which at first was rejected, but afterwards became thehow well the one symbolizes or illustrates the other. Then again, head corner-stbne of the edifice. When we look around us stin the 37th Psalm, the wicW man is symbolized by a different the various forms of buildings, and compare them with thekind of a tree: "I have seen the wicked in great power, and symbolical language used by Jesus in our text, we at once seespreading himself like a green bay tree." Here again we find on that he had the pyramid form of building in view. It is trueinvestigation, that the peculiar properties of the green bay tree that every important building, such as, for instance, a national