severity three times-in war, revolution and anarchy. The Sword of the Spirit was to be wielded by Pastor Russell twice three times, in his six volumes of Studies in the Scriptures. The weapons of destruction will pursue all the great ones of earth, penetrating into all their most secret places. The Sword of the Spirit will search out all the lords of God's heritage (1 Pet. 5:3), the clergy, exposing their inmost ideas contrary to Jehovah and His Plan. 21:15, I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! It is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter. The point of the sword against ecclesiasticism, revealing its true nature and imminent fall, is the present exposition of the prophecies of Revelation and Ezekiel. The Hebrew says that it is made "lightning brightness." It is an illumination of the whole Babylonish system, for ages wrapped in the mystery of types and symbolisms. How gladly the clergy would have destroyed these two books of the Bible, had they known what they taught!

21:16. Go thee one way or the other, either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.-Wher soever Pastor Russell and the Truth people set their face to go, it is authorized for them by the Lord.

21:17. I will also smite Mine hands together, and I will cause My fury to rest: I the Lord have said it.-God will manifest His anger and cause His fury to rest upon ecclesiasticism.

21:18, 19. And the Word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.There were two ways that the weapons of war, revolution and anarchy might strike; in either way the blow would come from Satan, the king of anarchy. It was to come from Riblah, the fork of the roads. Riblah means "desolate." Since 1878 the worldly churches, and since 1914 the worldly governments, have been "left desolate" (Matt. 23:38) and subject, the one to desolation by the Sword of the Spirit, the other to desolation by carnal weapons.

21:20. Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.-The sword might go east of Jordan against the Ammonites (Amos 1:14; Jer. 49:2), or west of Jordan, directly at Jerusalem, first of all. It might strike the Great (Rabbath) Company (Rev. 7:9) of "fellow companions" (Psa. 45:14) (Ammonites), or directly and first strike against churchianity (Judah) and ecclesiasticism proper

"the fenced off," exclusive, superior, "best" people, hitherto so thoroughly defended from harm.

21:21. For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.-The forces that will overthrow Chris tendom are thoroughly under the influence and guidance of evil spirits as is suggested by the shuffling of arrows named for the two cities, by the consulting of idols (theo ries), and by the looking in the liver (spiritism), by inter pretation. The Devil chooses bitter words (arrows) (Psa. 64:3), consults evil spirits (images), and is guided even in his opposition to Jehovah by his own interpreta tions of Scripture.-Matt. 4:6; 2 Cor. 11:14.

THIS WILL NOT BE BELIEVED

21:22. At his right hand was the divination for Jeru salem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort. The proof from the Scriptures shows that the evil spirits directed that the revolutionary and anarchistic movement should proceed first to the destruction of Christendom. The ex-Czar of Russia was a spiritualist, and maintained mediums for consultation. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, for years prior to the great war, followed the guidance of a demon which spoke to him clairaudiently, urging him to his present course. A surprising number of prominent men consult spirit mediums. The voice of the spirits was for war by every conceivable means, nation against nation, but destined to effect the desolation of ecclesiasticism as well.

21:23. And it shall be unto them as a false divination In their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but He will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.In the sight of those that have sworn allegiance to eccle siasticism's god, the father of lies, this true prediction of the downfall of the nations will seem an erroneous ex pectation-as it has appeared to all the great ones of Christendom. They have thought that this war would be as other wars. But the end of the Age (world) has come; and ecclesiasticism's iniquities shall no longer go unpunished.

21:24. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to

remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.-Universal muck-raking by Socialists, Anarchists, magazine writers, social surveyors and reformers has caused Christendom's forgotten iniquities to be freshly remembered, and her transgressions uncovered, so that there is no department— commercial, financial, political or religious-in which her sinful practices do not appear. These things God has permitted to be made manifest that she may be taken redhanded.

21:25. And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end.-The profane and wicked prince of the Jews was Zedekiah, their last king. (A248; Z.'04-343.) The antitype is churchianity's lordly class, the clergy, profaning the holy Temple of God, the Church, the Body of Christ, with doctrines of devils (1 Tim. 4:1), as wicked in the sight of God as were their prototypes, the scribes, doctors and Pharisees, with their hypocritical pretense of holiness. Their time has come-1918-when iniquity in the House of the Sons of God shall have an end.

21:26. Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. Thus says Almighty God: Remove the mitre (mistranslated “diadem"). The mitre was a band of linen about the forehead, typing the righteousness of Christ, supposed to be in the minds of the clergy, but no more actually in them as a class than in whited sepulchres. (Matt. 23:27.) The king wore a golden crown on his head, held there by a white linen mitre (A248; B76, 79; Z.'98-359.) The clergy, the lords of God's heritage, have crowned themselves with the rulership of earth, in the person of the pope and in the general desire of clergymen to rule in the affairs of men, a lordship based upon their supposed righteousness (mitre). This great crisis will not be like the temporary setbacks of ecclesiasticism in past centuries. The lowly, revolutionary, anarchistic masses will exalt themselves to power in the Time of Trouble, and the lofty clergy shall be utterly abased.-Matt. 23:12.

21:27. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.-In warfare, revolution and anarchy Jehovah will triply overthrow Christendom until Christ in great power will take the crown and rule the affairs of earth.E147, 133; A248; B76, 79; Z.'05-253; H61.

21:28. And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the

sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering.-Nor will the openly worldly, professing Christian escape, for war, revolution and anarchy are abroad-"the sword is drawn"-to consume the worldly, too.

21:29. While they see vanity unto thee, while they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their Iniquity shall have an end.-Destruction will come even when the worldly-wise are mistakenly asserting that it will not come nigh them.

21:30. Shall cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.-The tribulation shall not be quieted— the sword shall not "return unto his sheath;" for God will condemn the worldly Christian also, in the condition of unbelief wherein they have been.

21:31. And I will pour out Mine indignation upon thee; I will blow against thee in the fire of My wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.God will pour out His wrath upon the worldly professing Christians. He will blow upon them fiery blasts of war, revolution and anarchy. They shall be delivered into the hands of a revolted soldiery, brutal, destructive, pitiless, skilled in the arts of slaughter, taught by Teutons and Allies to know the utmost efficiency in war. The Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, too, will be in the hands of consecrated ones, seemingly but not actually cruel, skilled through Divine power to use it with telling effect.

21:32. Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the Lord have spoken it.-Institutions Divinely condemned shall be as fuel for the fires of bloody anarchy and pass into oblivion. The war is the melting-pot of ecclesiasticism.

Beautiful hands are they that do

The work of the noble, good and true,
Busy for them the long day through;
Beautiful faces-they that wear
The light of a pleasing spirit there,
It matters little if dark or fair;

And truly beautiful in God's sight,

Are the precious souls who love the right."

EZEKIEL 22

THE MELTING POT OF WAR

22:1-4. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations, then say thou, Thus saith the Lord God; the city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself. Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries. In Chapter 22 the various iniquities of Jerusalem are related. (22:1-12.) Their punishment is described under the figure of a melting-pot. (22:13-22.) Christendom, and especially ecclesiasticism, is guilty of bloodshed and of defiling paganism. This, by a natural process, has brought about a situation which could not continue. The present outbreak of evil and trouble, in view of the lofty pretenses of the past, has made paganized Christendom a byword among acknowledgedly pagan peoples.-D72.

22:5. Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, which art infamous and much vexed. The unbelievers, both in and out of "Christian" countries, scoff at "Christendom"-now defiled of name and "full of tumult."

22:6. Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were In thee to their power to shed blood.-In Christendom all the rulers, in the mania for war, have used every power to promote bloodshed. The spiritual rulers have, by false teachings, destroyed the spiritual hopes of millions.-Luke 11:52.

22:7. In thee have they set light by father and mother: In the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow. They have dealt unjustly by the classes needing help. Spiritually they have despised our Father and His Covenant of Grace, and oppressed those who are His pilgrims and strangers in the world.-1 Pet. 1:1.

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