1885 Watch Tower - A2Z.org

their present Prince has ever provided. "The whole creationgroaneth and travaileth in pain together until now waiting[ignorantly] for the manifestation of the Sons of God" clothedwith heavenly power to lay justice to the line and righteousnessto the plummet. Then "a king shall reign in righteousness andprinces shall execute judgment [justice] in the earth." Then "allthe families of the earth shall be blessed," and every man may situnder his own vine and under his own fig tree with none tomolest or make him afraid. Micah 4:1-4.While looking forward to the World's emancipation day, let usnot forget that though the coming trouble is the preparation forthat lasting peace, yet, the saints have no share in any conflictwith carnal weapons. Our foes and besetments in this same "evilday" are of another, though not less dangerous character.Combined with and a part of these kingdoms which callthemselves Kingdoms of God, are church systems callingthemselves churches of God whose doctrines on religioussubjects are as much a libel on God's truth as the earthly empireswith which they are associated are libels on God's Kingdom. Thetwo go hand in hand. The soldiers and guns and swords tocompel submission, taxes, etc., and false doctrines to bind andfetter the poor heathen with fears of hell more awful than eventheir barbaric minds had ever conceived, and to uphold anddefend the action of their kingdoms, as of God's appointment andthe enslavement and robbery of the heathen as a mark of God'sgrace.For these so called kingdoms of God and their armies, prayersare offered to God in the name of him whose command is peacegood will toward man, and who announces himself as the onewho shall set at liberty the captives and proclaim love, peace andliberty throughout the earth to all--for whose liberty he died.Thank God the emancipation proclamation is going forth;shackles theological and political begin to break, and thegroaning creation must shortly be delivered into the true libertyof sons of God under the dominion of Immanuel.====================page 1EXTRACTS FROM INTERESTING LETTERS.Blackburn, Eng., Jan. 13, '85.DEAR BROTHER:--I am happy to be able to give an evidenceof the hope that is in me. I had been a teacher for fifteen years inthe Sabbath school in connection with the Church of England,but I had taught myself fast; in fact I taught things I neither