the present troubles are over. Present Truth, "the roll of the book," also contains hidden, deep truths, discernible only to those who have the Holy Spirit. It possesses features impossible for natural men, not anointed with the Spirit, to perceive. "The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit, neither can he know them; for they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14.) Many thousands of consecrated Christians are upheld, comforted and rejoiced by the deep things of God, made clear for the first time in centuries by the "roll of the book."

2:10. And He spread it before me; and it was written within and without; and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.-What an honor to be the person before whom the Almighty would clearly spread out His purposes,-the honor which came to Pastor Russell, and with it a witness work of vast extent and responsibility! The purpose of Present Truth is to inform the Lord's people and the people of the world, as far as they may listen, concerning the significance of the times. All classes profit more or less from the warning of Pastor Russell, as the message goes broadcast throughout the world. It comes with a different significance to Church and to world. To the Church it is a trumpet call of truth (Rev. 10:2-7), to get ready quickly for deliverance, resur rection glory, honor and immortality. To the world, the worldly-minded, the Present Truth is something to be dreaded. (Isa. 28:19.) This world, age, state of affairs, is in process of destruction. The destroying agencies, as portrayed in the Scriptures (1 Kings 19:11, 12; Z.'04-249; Z.'98-207, 208) are world-wide war, then revolutions on an unprecedented scale, and finally universal anarchy-sav. agery. The significance of anarchy is appreciated by but few. It means an utter absence of government, first the paralysis, and ultimately the ceasing, of the governmental functions which now afford protection, peace and safety to property and life. As matters progress to the climax, as disaster after disaster overtakes human effort, and disintegration descends into the dissolution of law and order, the whole earth will be "filled with violence" (Gen. 6:11; Micah 6:12); and men's hearts will utterly fail. (Luke 21:26.) Picture the worst revolutions ever known; this trouble will outdo them all. Paint the darkest picture, and none will be as black as the sable pall of this dreadful night, this reign of terror already settling down upon mankind. Truly, "mourning, lamentation and woe" were the burden of God's Prophet Ezekiel, as he foresaw the destruc tion of his beloved city, Jerusalem-and of Pastor Russell, as he foreknew the desolation of a world!

EZEKIEL 3

PASTOR RUSSELL'S DIVINE ORDINATION

3:1. Moreover He said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.-The Prophet was to find something. As Ezekiel ate the book in the hand of God, so the "faithful and wise servant" of this day absorbed, assimilated, the Plan of the Ages which was in the power (hand) of the Almighty. Pastor Russell searched diligently to find all that he could of the purposes of God. As he understood, he was to go speak to "the House of Sons" (Heb. 3:6), all the children, sons of God-to nominal Spiritual Israelites.

3:2. So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that roll. "I never knew any one so willing to do the will of God," said the private secretary and traveling companion of Pastor Russell. He was eager to learn all he could about the Heavenly Father's will. It was not of himself that he learned and taught the Divine Plan; but God Himself caused him to learn, believe and teach.

3:3. And He said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.-No mere casual scanning of Present Truth would suffice. The man of God was to be filled with the great Message. (Rev. 10:9, 10.) "The sweetest story ever told" (Psa. 19:10; 119:103) brought inexpressible peace. It sweetened the experiences of a life of sacrifice. Whoever eats, assimilates Present Truth, finds every heart question answered, every doubt silenced. He learns "the peace of God that passeth understanding" (Phil. 4:7), and a sweetness as of honey in the promises, plans, and purposes of the Father of Love.

3:4. And He said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with My words unto them.From apostolic days to today all to whom the Spirit gives utterance begin to speak (Acts 2:1-18) because constrained to do so, because they "love to tell the story." To Ezekiel,

and to the greatest preacher of modern times, came a readiness of speech, when Jehovah Himself gave them His Spirit, and commanded to "get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with My words unto them."

3:5. For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel.Present Truth was not to go to the heathen, the drunkards, unbelievers, but to the Christian people of the world, the spiritual House of Israel.

3:6. Not to many people of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.-If the Message of Present Truth had been sent to the heathen with its glad tidings for all, they would have turned from devil worship, to worship the true God. (Matt. 11:21, 23.) On two occasions the trumpet sound was heard by "people of a strange speech and of a hard language." Pastor Russell passed through Japan and India on a round-the-world tour. In Japan the people requested that he stay. It was the message they had longed for. In India the natives heard him gladly. In eastern and southern Africa a believer in Present Truth found his way from Nyassa to the Cape, and many thousands of natives embraced the Truth and were baptized.

3:7. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.-Christendom has never hearkened unto God. They hear and do not. (Jas. 1:22.) They are forgetful hearers of the Word. 1:25.) They know their Master's will and do it not. (Luke 12:47.) Because they hear not God, they heed not the Word of God when brought to them by His servants.

(Jas.

3:8. Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.— Whatever situation Pastor Russell faced, God made him more than equal to it. This last and most illustrious of the reformers never asked for money; yet he had enough entrusted to him to carry on the work. Champions of Christendom met him on the debating platform; each encounter widened and strengthened the witness for Present Truth. He faced the modern enemies of Reformation with books by tens of millions, and they were unable to combat their power. "To read the Studies in the Scriptures,” admonished a Southern preacher to his flock, "is to believe them." No argument could be devised to stem the flood of Truth, only a ban on the reading of the books. In innumerable places priestcraft caused the public burning of the books. Practically every home in America, Eng land, Germany, Sweden, Australia, and other Protestant countries was reached by a deluge of free tracts. Such a tracting of the world with billions of pages, was never known. The enemies of Truth were wholly unable to

check the spread of knowledge. A further situation faced was the production of the free Photo-Drama of Creation, seen and heard by twelve millions. No answer could be put forth by clerical foes of truth, but baseless, cruel libels on the private life of one of God's noblemen. Audiences by the thousands listened to Bible lectures by Pastor Russell and by hundreds of public speakers, and their voice is still heard all over the world. Stinging assaults of slander were ignored by a man of destiny, who had too much of God's work to do to pay attention to the yelpings of little men of the D. D.'s of Christendom (Isa. 56:10), who love slumber, but who snarl and bite when disturbed in their dreams of "peace, peace" (Jer. 6:14), social and civic gospels, church unity, and evangelistic raids on the pockets of the masses. Not a situation or a person but was faced victoriously.-Isa. 54:17.

3:9. As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead; fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. The forehead is symbolic of wisdom. A man of high forehead, as was Pastor Russell, is of a high type of intellect. Pastor Russell's mind was made strong against opponents of the Reform which is ushering in the everlasting Kingdom of Messiah. It is impossible for error to withstand truth. (Luke 21:15.) As in apostolic days, believers in Present Truth call themselves "in the Truth" (2 Pet. 1:12), the teachings of the Word of God are termed "the Truth" (1 John 3:19), and those who believe them are known as "Truth people." (3 John 4.) The mind of Pastor Russell was filled with Truth. Crystal clear, with hard, irresistible logic, the Present Truth, which constituted his wisdom and understanding, was the hardest proposition ecclesiasticism ever encountered. (Isa. 50:7.) The mind of God's steward was as adamant. Adamant is literally, in Hebrew, “a diamond point." With diamond hardness (Rev. 4:3), the Present Truth cuts its way through all opposition, though the opposing thought be hard as flint. The diamond is the most crystal clear of stones, and represents the truth in irresistible form. It is futile to oppose the mind of any Present Truth believer, for truth is irrefutable. To those who have it, it imparts the mind of an intellectual giant-the mind of Christ, of God. (1 Cor. 2:16.) Their foreheads are made as diamond. In the light of the sun the diamond sparkles with indescribable beauty. It breaks the sunlight up into its component parts and reflects and refracts in prismatic flashes of rainbow colors. The sun is the Gospel of Divine Love and its embodiment, Jesus Christ. The component parts of Christian love are the

character fruits. "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." (Galatians 5:22-3.) The minds, wisdom, characters of God's true people are full of manifestations of the shining upon them of the glorious Gospel of the Sun of Righteousness-full of the beauty of righteousness. The minds of God's saints are made as the diamond in its excelling hardness and sunlit radiance.

3:10. Moreover He said unto me, Son of man, all My words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.-Like Ezekiel, Pastor Russell was to hold back, pervert, or wrest nothing.

3:11. And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear. It was to be a message for the Lord's people in captivity to the king of this world, Satan, bound in Mystic Babylon the Great, the governmentalecclesiastical-commercial system of Christendom.

3:12. Then the Spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place. Through the begetting of the Holy Spirit we are raised up to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4), to sit with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6), in the Spirit-begotten condition. The Spirit raised Pastor Russell up to an understanding and appreciation of Heavenly things. (Matt. 3:16.) At Pentecost the place where the Apostles were sitting was filled with a rushing sound as of a mighty wind, and they received the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:2.) The mighty rushing sound represented Pastor Russell's receiving a rich endowment of the Spirit of God, to whose leadings he was fully consecrated and to whose influence and guidance he wholly devoted his life. The words of Christ and of God are contained in the Bible, written thousands of years ago, behind in the stream of time. It was in the Word of God, behind him in time (Isa. 30:21), that Pastor Russell perceived the rushing sound, the utterances of the Holy Spirit. The message of the Bible has been perverted by Catholic and Protestant misunderstandings into anything but a glorious and blessed Gospel. It is a thing to be dreaded, if the glory of God is to eternally torment the vast majority of humans. But the Message of Truth sounded forth by Pastor Russell declares the grace of the Gospel which is to reach every man, woman and child (1 Tim. 2:6) with its blessed influence, power, wisdom and love, so that all creation in due time may join in a mighty paeon of praise, "Blessed be the glory of Jehovah from His place."-Psa. 106:48.