APPENDIX

We append a letter from a missionary in China, received while this volume is on the press. It serves to illustrate how, under divine providence, the message of present truth is being sent to the truth-hungry in every quarter of the world. Evidently the Lord of the harvest is so directing the work of the reapers that not a solitary one of his wholly consecrated saints will be left in darkness—1 Thes. 5:4.

MY DEAR MR. RUSSELL:—It is now several years since an apparently incidental conversation on some religious topic led my good friend, Miss Downing [also a missionary, and for some years a TOWER and S. STUDY reader] to place a number of THE WATCH TOWER in my hands. Above I say incidental. I will now correct myself and say providential; for this I most firmly believe it to have been, inasmuch as from that day to this I have been, not only what the periodicals call a "constant reader, ardent admirer," etc., but one who has been truly blessed, comforted, enlightened and strengthened, yea, and spiritualized, too, by the seemingly entirely new (but really the old and true), the fearless and dignified (yet humble and Christlike), the indisputably orthodox (yet reckoned heterodox) expositions of divine truth, which you and your helpers have been privileged to publish, and I, together with so many others, have been privileged to read in its monthly addresses.

But if all this can be said of its serial outcomings, what shall I now say when we are placed on the higher vantage ground of the two volumes of the SCRIPTURE STUDIES, in their compact, methodical, chapter after chapter extending view of these divine mysteries, now given to the Church

378 Thy Kingdom Come.

for the mere trouble of reading them as they issue from a sacrificing Church and a loving God. Truly does it seem that but a few more steps remain ere we reach the very top balcony of the Watch Tower, and see spread out before our wondering eyes, in rich panoramic undulations, all the glories of the day of God's unfolding; all the startling promises relating to earth's harvest fulfilling: the descent of the crowned Reaper, the numbering of the jewels, the sifting of the Church, the binding of Satan, Jehovah's account with the world settled, earth's turmoil over, the way of holiness opened, glimpses of the bright age beyond, even to the age of perfection and glory, when God shall be all in all.

Is it not wonderful to observe the ways and means which God, by his Spirit, has been employing (more emphatically during the last twenty years) in bringing numbers of his people into a clearer understanding of Bible truths, cleansing the Word, as it were, from the dust of centuries, bringing out things new as well as old to the forefront for examination, clinching and dovetailing its various books so that it can be seen that not a single one can in anywise be done without, and causing the whole Scripture to shine forth in all its undimmed glory as the one great, glorious, all-sufficient, perfect Word of God to our fallen but Christ-redeemed world? How truly can we watchers see, not merely the promise of the morning which has gladdened the Church through the past eighteen lingering centuries, but the actual dawning of the Sun; not the forefulgence, merely, but the actual body of the great luminary himself; and this not on a level with—or just above and beyond—but a good way up above the horizon.

On the plain, perhaps only the light before the dawn may be visible; but ascend the ladder, mount the watchtower, use the telescope, apply the sextant, then take your bearings and see if it is not the very sun himself. To be further convinced of this, let us just get to where his rays focus a bit, hold up the Bible to its light, and see how it causes every page to shine forth with the divine effulgence

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of truth; how its foundation doctrines stand out aglow to whiteness of brilliancy, dearly revealing to the humble ones the hitherto hidden purposes of God; laying bare, as it were, the mind of infinite love; yea, in a manner disclosing those very mysteries that angels desired to look into, and were not able.

The world may be in darkness still, and will probably remain so till the more open display of his power discloses the fact of his presence; but to his Church, to the really watching ones, to those who look for his coming in the manner in which he said he would come—what do these truths say to them? What is the meaning of this supernatural glow, this focusing of prophetic truths on these few latter days of the earth's harvest, this intensifying of light, this increase of knowledge, this ardent longing of the soul, this breaking asunder of creed bonds, this spiritual discernment? Sir, to me the one word, parousia, explains it all. Christ is present, the King of glory is here, the time is fulfilled, the divine Jesus, the Anointed of God, the exalted Bridegroom, is already amongst us, arranging the preliminaries of his earthly reign. In all probability the first resurrection of the saints who slept is an accomplished fact, and in some important measure it may be due to their sweet influences—the impetus which we experience, the constraining, spiritual, forcing power which we feel and which leads us, as it were, to look and long for Christ, may be the offspring of their early efforts in their divine Redeemer's cause. Soon the living saints shall all have received in their foreheads the mark of their King; soon every jewel shall be numbered, the last consecrated life shall be completely offered, the victory of all the saints openly asserted, the momentary change from human life to divine glory effected. Then the whole Church, with Christ at its head, shall be revealed in power, the kingdom shall be given to him whose right it is, the mighty One shall marshal his hosts for battle. A short but sharp, a hand-to-hand but effectual, conflict with the powers of darkness takes place. And then, O happy thought,

380 Thy Kingdom Come.

the fallen-human order of things on earth shall give way to the divine. O blessed hope, O glorious consummation, O happy, happy day, O joyous heaven, O gladsome earth, O infinite Son of God, O worthy exalted Savior! Who that feels anything of these powers of the world to come would not reiterate, in the dosing words of the Book of God, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"

I crave your pardon, dear sir, if, in my overflow of thanks, I have obtruded too much on your valuable time. I had no intention of doing so, but when I began to write I found the subject was a widening one, and I desired to express recognition and thankfulness to my Heavenly Father as well as to yourself. The fact of the matter is, I am a believer in the great truth you enunciate; viz., that we are in the time of the world's harvest. By God's grace I am a watcher, and can therefore see the dawn for myself; and what is more precious still, I can feel it, and do not hesitate to say I know it is true. Can I therefore but be most deeply interested in all subjects (and they are many) radiating around Millennial Dawn?

In my humble opinion, your works, the volumes of SCRIPTURE STUDIES and the issues of THE WATCH TOWER, furnish the very best commentaries and helps I have met with, on the Scripture texts and prophecies relating to the second coming of our Lord. I read them again and again with ever increasing pleasure, and my writing is simply the embodiment in words of a sense of obligation which has long urged me to write an acknowledgment, thanking you, as the human instrument, for the good I have derived from them. I trust, therefore, that, though I am an entire stranger to you, you will receive my epistle as the outflowing of a grateful heart, from one who not only feels, but desires to express, his obligations for any help and enlightenment received and appropriated, on what is to him the first of all subjects, the coming or actual presence of our divine Lord and savior.

I remain, dear sir, yours in the love of Christ,

W. R. FULLER.

March 2, 1891.

Appendix. 381

SOME NOTES ON VOLUME III.

THAT there were some immaturities in Volume III was well known by our Pastor, as his corrections of some of them from time to time prove. The reason for the existence of these is that until due no amount of learning, of divine uses made of the agent, or of piety, can open up a Biblical thought; and some of the things treated in Volume III were not fully due at the time it was written. These immaturities were mainly on things connected with trials at the time of their fulfillment, such things never being understood until after the pertinent trials are successfully met by the faithful; for if clearly seen beforehand, such knowledge would undo the trialsomeness of the experiences, and thus nullify God's purpose in requiring the trials to be had by His people. As illustrations of such immaturities held by our Pastor when he wrote Volume III, among others the following may be instanced: the deliverance of the Church by 1910, the time of the end, the day of preparation, closing in 1914, the deliverance of the Great Company by 1914, Israel's return to Palestine completed by 1914, the great tribulation ended by 1914, the establishment of the kingdom by 1914, the Gospel Age the day of the Penny Parable, etc.

All of these immaturities and others occur in the earlier editions of Volume III; but from time to time, as due, some were corrected. It was especially from 1904 onward that these corrections were made, as can be seen from Z '04, 197-199; 229-230; where the thought was set forth that the Time of Trouble would begin, not end, in 1914. Some of these corrections were by our Pastor entered into their proper places in the book; others of them were made in the Tower, etc.; and still some other things needing correction were not seen aright until during the Epiphany. These notes will call attention to them in the interests of the Truth, not in a hostile, vain or fault-finding spirit, but in the spirit that animated our Pastor when he made the corrections due in his times. He is not, for the reason given above, to be faulted for such immaturities any more than our Lord is to be faulted for not knowing the time of the day of judgment and the restoration of the kingdom to Israel before it was due to be known—Mark 13:32; Acts 1:7.

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NOTE I—FOR PAGES 23-59

Our first note relates to the length of the Time of the End (pp. 23-59). Believing at the time of writing the book that 1914 would not only witness the complete annihilation of the kingdoms of this world, but also the full setting up of God's kingdom, our Pastor naturally expected the Time of the End to be over by October, 1914, and so presented the matter on page 23. On that page and on the top of the next page he taught that by the close of the Time of the End, state, church and capital as now existing will have been overthrown. On the top of page 48 he states that by its close every vestige of Papacy will be destroyed. He was right in placing these events in the Time of the End; but the facts prove that they did not occur by October, 1914. Why not? Because, unknown to our Pastor, the forty years of the reaping time, the Parousia, were to be followed by the forty years of the trouble time, the Epiphany, during which Epiphany those institutions were to be destroyed. Hence the Time of the End is to be forty years longer than our Pastor supposed. When, as the above citations show, in 1904 he came to see that the trouble would not be over, but would begin in 1914, he taught something that implied that the Time of the End would reach beyond 1914, though so far as we know he never so expressed himself on the subject. From his standpoint of the Time of the End witnessing the full overthrow of this world's kingdoms and Babylon, it is evident that we are still in the Time of the End, since these kingdoms have not yet been finally overthrown; and we will be in it until 1954, to prove which is the object of this note.

Since the Time of Trouble and the Epiphany are one and the same thing, and since during the Epiphany Papacy is to be destroyed (2 Thes. 2:8), as well as the kingdoms of this world and Babylon (Rev. 16:18-20; 18:21), if we can prove that the Epiphany is a period of forty years, it will follow that the Time of Trouble, with which the Time of the End closes, is a period of forty years, and consequently that the Time of the End lasts from 1799 to 1954. The following considerations prove that the Epiphany is a period of forty years:

(1) In the same connections the Parousia and the

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Epiphany are called days, and each of them is separately called a day—a symbolic day. (Luke 17:22—the Parousia was the "one" of the two "days" of the Son of Man; 26, "days"; 28, "day"—the Epiphany is the day of our Lord's revelation; 2 Tim. 3:1; 2 Pet. 3:3.) Since each is called a day and both are spoken of together as days, and since the Parousia day is forty years, it follows that the Epiphany day is likewise forty years.

(2) Moses' twofold stay of forty days in the mountain types these two periods: the forty days in each stay typing forty years, forty for the Parousia and forty for the Epiphany, the mountain representing the kingdom, ascended by the Christ from two standpoints, the Parousia and the Epiphany standpoints.

(3) Periods of forty years each for both the Parousia and the Epiphany are required to fill out the symbolic night from 1799 to 1954, in order to make Apr. 1877 the exact midnight (for from Oct. 1799 to Apr. 1877 is the same length of time as from Apr. 1877 to Oct. 1954) required by the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins and the fulfilled facts as to Apr. 1877 as the time that the cry went forth, Behold, the Bridegroom.

(4) Forty years seem to be the Bible period for trial along the lines of certain principles, like the forty years' typical trial in the wilderness, the forty years' reigns of Saul, David and Solomon, as typical trial times, and the forty years of trial during the Jewish and Gospel Harvests, typed by the forty days of spying the land, etc., etc., etc.; accordingly we would expect the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies as classes similarly to have forty years—the Epiphany (2 Tim. 4:1; Rev. 7:14)—set aside as their trial period along the lines of pertinent principles.

(5) The Lord's assigning twelve hours to a working day (John 9:4; 11:9) and his providing in the parable of the Penny for an eventide, and consequently a night to follow the (forty years) day of reaping (Matt. 20:8), show that the symbolic twelve-hour night period that follows the Parousia day of reaping (the twelve-hour day of forty years) must be of equal length, thus proving that the Epiphany is likewise forty years long, the former being not only the day and the latter the night of the parable, but also the day and the night of Ps. 91:5, 6 and 121:6.

(6) The fulfilled facts of six of the Large Eight

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Wonderful Days prove that they are eight decades (eighty years), and likewise prove that their first forty years, 1874 to 1914, cover the Parousia, and that the second forty years cover the Epiphany, 1914 to 1954.

(7) In Lev. 12 the purification of the mother of a son during forty days represents the purification of the Little-Flock-developing Truth and its servants during the forty years of the Parousia, while the purification of the mother of a daughter during eighty days represents the purification of the Great-Company-developing Truth and its servants during the eighty years of the Parousia and Epiphany combined, which accordingly proves that the Epiphany is a period of forty years.

(8) Because the time of our Lord's secret presence (the Parousia and the Epiphany) is a period of darkness to the world (Is. 60:1, 2; 1 Thes. 5:1-5; Luke 17:26-30; Matt. 24:37-39), it is symbolically called a night (Ex. 11:4; 12:29) in whose exact middle the great tribulation would begin and thus begin to slay the antitypical firstborn, which proves that 1914 is this exact middle, hence 1954 must be its end, since 1874 was its beginning.

(9) The forty years of Israel's wandering in the wilderness have a twofold application according to our Pastor: These proved to be (1) the Gospel Age as a time of symbolic wandering of God's people (except the Faithful) because of their unbelief in the Jewish Reaping time, and (2) the Epiphany period as a time of symbolic wandering of God's people (except the Faithful) because of their unbelief in the Gospel Reaping time. Hence the Epiphany is a period of forty years' assignment in the smaller picture of this type, as a miniature Gospel Age. These points, then, from the identity of the Epiphany and the Time of Trouble, prove that the Time of Trouble lasts forty years and, since its end marks the close of the Time of the End, that the Time of the End closes in 1954.

(10) Under point (3) above we gave a proof for the Epiphany's being forty years long, which point in this connection requires further comment to bring out the full force of the argument and a related argument, which is our tenth point that the Time of the End lasts until 1954. The argument is pivoted on several passages. The first of these is Matt. 25:1-13, particularly v. 6, which tells us that at midnight the cry arose, Behold, the Bridegroom.

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It was in April 1877 that a concerted campaign of proclaiming our Lord's second presence as having taken place set in. This campaign was the fulfillment of the midnight cry of the parable. The following facts prove that this campaign began in April 1877. By Oct. 1876 Bro. Russell was fully convinced that our Lord's second advent had occurred in the fall of 1874. This was through his studies with Mr. N. H. Barbour during the evenings of the late spring and of the summer of 1876, at Philadelphia, where, taking advantage of the Centennial Exhibition, he was operating a store. (Z '16, 171, par. 10.) It was early that fall that our Pastor financed and directed the preparation of the booklet, The Three Worlds, written by Mr. Barbour (par. 12); and it was published April 1877. (Vol. II, 223, par. 1.) This booklet was the main literary means of announcing the message, Behold, the Bridegroom. Immediately on coming off the press it began to be circulated. Our Pastor, Nov. 11, 1876, the day after the closing of the Centennial Exhibition, began to wind up his business at Philadelphia, preparatory to returning to Allegheny. He spent there the winter in preparing his business, lectures, etc., for his part in the campaign of heralding the Bridegroom's presence. Supported by the sales of the booklet and our Pastor's purse (par. 13), he and Bro. Barbour in April 1877 started out as pilgrims to preach and lecture on this message, and thus began the fulfillment of the midnight cry of Matt. 25:6. Accordingly, the fulfilled facts prove that the midnight of this parable was April 1877. This proved, let us examine related things.

But when did this night begin and when will it end? We answer: It began Oct. 1799 and will end Oct. 1954. We reach this conclusion as follows: There are at least five symbolic nights referred to in the Bible: the night of sin, lasting 6,000 years (Ps. 30:5); the night of the Time of Trouble (Is. 21:11, 12; Ps. 91:5, 6); the night of the Time of the End (Matt. 25:1-13; Mark 13:35; Luke 17:34-36); the night of the Gospel Age (Ex. 12:12—see Comment); and the night of the Parousia and Epiphany (Ex. 12:29). The night referred to in Luke 17:34-36 cannot be the night of the Trouble Time, i.e., the Epiphany, because the reaping there described is a Parousia matter. It is not the Gospel Age night, for the same reason; nor the Parousia and Epiphany night, for

386 Thy Kingdom Come.

the latter is called a day in this connection (v. 28). It must therefore be a night which, among other times, includes the Parousia, which in itself alone is called a day, whose night is the Epiphany (Ps. 91:5, 6). Evidently it is not the night of sin, for Jesus, living and speaking during it, would not have spoken of it as "that night," i.e., as a night far distant. Hence the night of Luke 17:34-36 is the night of the Time of the End, which from another standpoint, i.e., that of increase of knowledge, is called, the day of preparation. The night of Matt. 25:1-13 cannot be the night of sin, since it was just before, and after, the end of that night that the parable treats. Nor can it be the Epiphany night, because when those virgins started out (during this night), it was 85 years before the Epiphany began, and because its midnight was 37½ years before the Epiphany began. Hence the night of the parable of the ten virgins was the night of the Time of the End. Again, the parable of the servants watching for their master's return (Mark 13:34-36) could not symbolize the Epiphany night, because our Lord was to come at the beginning of the Parousia. Nor could it mean the night of sin, since in Jesus' time they were already past the beginning of its cock-crowing watch—2 A.M., nor the Gospel Age night, since Jesus knew he would come at its end, while Jesus refers to a night whose first watch—"even," 6 P.M.—had not yet come. Nor can it mean the Epiphany night, as he was to come at the beginning of the Parousia; nor could it be the Parousia-Epiphany night, since his presence was to be recognized long before its midnight. Hence, too, the night of this passage must be that of the Time of the End. But since that night began Oct. 1799 and its midnight was Apr. 1877, i.e., 77½ years after its beginning, its end must come 77½ years after its midnight, i.e., Oct. 1954. Jesus, of course, knew that he would come some time during the Time of the End. He also knew that he would come before its midnight, the middle of its second watch, when he knew his presence would be heralded (Matt. 25:6), but at what hour of that night he did not know (Mark 13:32); and none of his disciples would know the hour, or even during which of its four watches (Mark 13:32, 35) he would come. Hence the night of Mark 13:35 is the night of the Time of the

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End. The considerations set forth in this paragraph prove that the Time of the End closes Oct. 1954.

NOTE II—FOR PAGES 129-134

In this, our second note, we desire to prove that the position taken in Volume III, 129-134, that the reaping began in 1874 and ended in 1914, is thoroughly true. While before it was finished the duration of the gleaning work was not known, it later became known as ending at the Passover of 1916, April 16. As these dates have been controverted, we will give a long list of arguments proving them, numbering each one, and thereafter will give other corroborative matters. Unfortunately our Pastor repudiated the date 1914 as the end of the harvest in an article in Z '16, 263-265, as also a month and a half later he did the same in the Foreword of Volume III.

(1) In John 9:4, according to the Improved Version, we find the first of these proofs, in the words: "We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; night is coming when no man can work." The work that Jesus and the Apostles then were doing was a reaping work. Hence the work referred to in this text is reaping work, which could no more be done when the night would come. The night is the Time of Trouble (Is. 21:11, 12), which began with each country of Christendom as it became involved in the World War. Hence after the war had balefully affected all Christendom the night had overtaken all Christendom. This was true before the Fall of 1916. Hence no more reaping work could be performed thereafter. Therefore the reaping and gleaning work ended before the Fall of 1916. (2) The Elect in each country were all to be sealed in the forehead, reaped, before the Tribulation, which began with the World War, involved that country. (Rev. 7:1-3.) Every country of Christendom was involved (not necessarily as a belligerent) in the war before the Fall of 1916. Hence all of the Elect were sealed in the forehead, reaped, before the Fall of 1916. (3) According to Is. 66:7, at every place where Nominal Zion was, before she would there begin to travail the Little Flock would there leave her. Her travail began with the World War and quickly spread until in early Spring of 1916 it was universal for Christendom, which proves that by then both the reaping and the gleaning were finished. (4) According

388 Thy Kingdom Come.

to Rev. 6:9-11, all of the saints were to be slain under the Altar [consecrated under Christ, their Head] before vengeance was to come upon Christendom. But vengeance started with trench warfare, Sept. 21, 1914. Hence before Sept. 21, 1914, all the Christ class had been consecrated and spirit-begotten, which ended the reaping as distinct from the gleaning. (5) According to Amos 9:13, the plowman and the grape-treader overtook the reaper and the sower and put an end to their work. The plowman overtook (and thus made impossible his further work) the reaper (including the gleaner) and the grape-treader overtook the seed-sower everywhere as soon as all Christendom was involved in the World War, which was in the Spring of 1916. Hence in the Spring of 1916 all reaping and gleaning were finished.

(6) All the saints were to share in the honor of executing (spiritual) vengeance and punishments on the nations and peoples and of binding their kings and nobles. (Ps. 149:5-9.) This was done from the Fall of 1914 to that of 1916. Hence to have participated in that work all of the saints must have been reaped before the end of that period. (7) Antitypical Elijah's last work before losing his mantle was to smite Jordan (2 Kings 2:8), which was done from the Fall of 1914 to that of 1916. To be a member of antitypical Elijah one would have had to have the Truth, would have had to be reaped, in time to participate in his last work with the mantle. Hence all of these were reaped before the Fall of 1916. (8) The Bible teaches (Lev. 16:20, 21) that the last general work of the World's High Priest as to Christendom would be to deal with Azazel's Goat in confessing over it Christendom's sins, leading it to the gate, delivering it to the fit man and abandoning it to Azazel. Hence before the first of these works could be completed all the members of the World's High Priest had to have the Truth to partake in this work, since as his last work all his members had to take part in it. The first of these works was begun in the Fall of 1914 and completed in the Fall of 1916. Hence the last member of this Priest had the Truth, was reaped, before the Fall of 1916. (9) The separation of antitypical Elijah and Elisha, which started June 27, 1917, proves that before that time all the "Very Elect" had the Truth; for before that time they had to complete their work with their mantle toward Nominal

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Spiritual Israel, before losing it for this Age. (10) The first distribution of the Penny (Matt. 20:8, 9), granting the privilege of sharing in Jordan's first smiting, had to be completed before the Fall of 1916, when that work ended. Hence all must have been reaped before that time; for their reaping preceded their receiving the Penny. (11) The evening of the Penny Parable ended the reaping, because at its coming the steward began to give the penny to the reapers as the hire for the completed day's work. But the penny was the privilege of smiting Jordan, which began Sept. 20, 1914; hence the reaping ended before Sept. 20, 1914. (12) Only the five reaping-time siftings coming during the end (reaping time) of the second of the two Ages (1 Cor. 10:11), the Harvest must have ended before the sixth sifting occurred, which began in the Fall of 1916 in England and in the Summer of 1917 in America. Hence the end of the Age (reaping) must have come before the Fall of 1916.

(13) "That Servant" had charge of the work of the whole household (Matt. 24:45-47); hence all were reaped and were serving under his direction before Oct. 31, 1916, the date of his death. (14) As the leader of the class represented by the man with the writer's ink horn (Ezek. 9:2-5, 11), our Pastor, in the toga scene, Oct. 30, 1916, began the report of that symbolic man, to the effect that his work was finished, i.e., putting the ink on all that sighed and cried in the city, sealing the Elect, reaping all of them. Hence before Oct. 30, 1916, the reaping was completed. (15)The Great Company's announcement of the completion of the reaping (Rev. 16:17) Mar. 27, 1918, with its antecedent events, proves that the reaping was done before the Fall of 1916. (16) Their work, described in Rev. 19:1, 2, which began in the Fall of 1917, proves that some time before the Fall of 1916 the Little Flock had all been reaped. (17) Antitypical Gideon's First Battle, beginning 1914, as the type shows, at the end of the antitypical Seven Years (Judg. 6:1), the Times of the Gentiles, and ending in the Fall of 1916, proves that all of the Very Elect had previously been reaped; for all of them having shared in that battle, they had to have the Truth before they could participate therein. (18) The antitypical Merarites and Gershonites (Num. 7:1-8) having received their six symbolic wagons, organizations,

390 Thy Kingdom Come.

which began to be given in 1916, the antitypical Tabernacle must have been completed and anointed before, which implies the completion of the reaping work. (19) Since the last time that "that Servant" took up anew the subject of vitalized justification was the period from 1915 until just before he died, some time previously the opportunity of spirit-begetting, whose end completed the reaping, and which is preceded by vitalized justification, ceased, i.e., when the gate symbolizing entrance into vitalized justification closed. (Ezek. 44:1, 2). This shows that the reaping, as distinct from the gleaning, had ceased some time before 1915. (20) "The hour to reap" (reaping in the wider sense of that term, which includes also the gleaning work, Rev. 14:15, Diaglott; Matt. 24:36; 25:13)—1/24 of a day of 1000 years, i.e., 41 years and 8 months—proves that by May 2, 1916, all the reaping had been finished. (21) Gen. 15:7-21 proves by the ages of the animals and birds that the reaping and gleaning were completed by Apr. 16, 1916.

We now proceed to present briefly other Biblical reasons proving that the reaping and gleaning are past. (22) The day of 2 Kings 2:3—a day of 40 years, from 1878 to 1918—having been fulfilled, and not ending until, as predicted, the antitypical Elijah and Elisha had been separated, proves that the reaping was over some time before 1918; for all had to be reaped before antitypical Elijah temporarily disappeared from the scene, leaving his mantle with antitypical Elisha. (23) The hour of temptation—41 years and 8 months (lunar time)—from Passover 1878 to Dec. 6, 1919, having passed, is a proof that the reaping, including the gleaning, was then for some time over; for all had to be reaped some years earlier to have had special trials within that time. (24) The very marked separation of human society into two classes, the Conservatives and the Radicals, proves both smitings of Jordan to have been finished, and thus proves that the reaping had been previously completed. (25) The activity of antitypical Jehu and Haziel likewise proves that we are beyond the time of antitypical Elijah's losing his mantle, since antitypical Elisha in possession of the mantle saw to their anointing, and therefore we for years have been beyond the reaping time. (26) The many years' manifestation of that evil servant, which followed the completed work of

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the wise and faithful servant (Matt. 25:45-47, 48-51) has occurred, and therefore we are many years beyond the reaping time. (Ezek. 9:11). (27) The fact that the Society adherents over 17 years ago again said, "Hallelujah" (Rev. 19:3), and were joined therein by the other Great Company groups, proves that we are more than 17 years beyond the reaping time. (28) The three groups of antitypical Levites, under the picture of the men of Naphtali, Asher and Manasseh, having 19 years ago entered into the warfare against the antitypical Midianites, proves that the reaping was then over; for the reaping was finished before antitypical Gideon's First Battle ended; while these three groups entered their warfare afterwards, beginning it in 1917.

(29) The manifestation of the Youthful Worthies, the antitypical men of Ephraim, as early as 1917 (Judg. 7:24-8:3), is a further proof that the reaping was over 19 years ago completed; for as a class they could not be known until the reaping and gleaning were over. (30) The manifestation of the Levites in eight groups under bad leadership proves the completion of the reaping; for the Little Flock had to be complete before these could be made manifest by their revolutionism in opposition to the Little Flock. (31) The Second Battle of antitypical Gideon now being waged since 1920, the reaping, having been completed before His First Battle was over, must for at least 20 years have been finished. (32) The Nominal Church section of Azazel's Goat being dealt with now for 16 years, following the High Priest's dealing with the Truth section of Azazel's Goat under bad leaders, it, of course, follows that the reaping, which was finished before the exclusive dealing with the Truth section of Azazel's Goat began, must more years ago have been finished. (33) The last member of the World's High Priest having been spirit-begotten immediately after the merit was imputed for him (Lev. 16:16-19), and this preceding the dealing with Azazel's Goat, which, as we have shown, began on Sept. 20, 1914, the reaping in the narrow sense of the word—not the gleaning—was then completed. (34) The last new creature to lose his crown having lost it before the last one was begotten of the Spirit, the reaping work in the narrow sense of that term has been finished some years ago. (35) Antitypical Elijah's reappearance, occurring

392 Thy Kingdom Come.

after his temporary disappearance, having set in about 16 years ago, the reaping must have been completed some years before. (36) The Pyramid's testimony that antitypical Elisha as such would be manifest June 27, 1917, and the event fulfilling on that date, the reaping was over before that date. (37) The Pyramid's testimony that antitypical Elijah's reappearance would occur July 18, 1920, and this event fulfilling on that date, it, of course, follows that the reaping had been completed years before.

FORTY YEARS' REAPING—A BIBLE TEACHING

Before giving the remaining proofs on this point we desire to call attention to the fact that all Truth people formerly, and that properly, believed that the reaping began in 1874, but now some of them deny that it was in any sense to last forty years, claiming that our Pastor just before his death gave up this thought as being taught in the Parallels. So far as the Parallels are concerned, it is to be conceded that we do not now positively know the exact event of the year 69 A.D. which ended the reaping of the Jewish harvest. Though we may not of a certainty know such an event, it was signalized by the brethren (Luke 21:21) fleeing from Judaea and Jerusalem in Oct. 69; for there were two encompassings of Jerusalem, one from afar, by which the Romans took possession of the territory about 30 miles from Jerusalem on all sides in the Fall of 69, which, however, left gaps enough for the Christians to escape to Pella beyond Jordan, and one in the Spring of 70, which was within a short distance from the city, and which was so compact as to prevent an escape. We are in possession of many facts proving that the harvest parallels continued to work up to the years 66 and 69 A.D. with reference to the true Church, and the dispensation parallels up to 73 A.D. with reference to the Jewish Church State.

However, we are not limited to the parallels for proof that forty years covered the period of the reaping which preceded the gleaning; for the Scriptures and the Pyramid give us other proofs from the standpoint of a forty years' harvest that the reaping apart from the gleaning ended in 1914, all of which are in harmony with the thought that the reaping is now ended. We will enumerate them with the figures following those given above. We continue our discussion of the proofs with the 38th reason: (38)

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The day of the parable of the Penny, a period of forty years, is proven by the facts to be the reaping period from 1874 to 1914; therefore the reaping, apart from the gleaning, which was finished April 16, 1916, ended by the Fall of 1914. (39) Elijah's forty days' journey to the Mount of God (1 Kings 19:5-8), after the second awakening and eating, types the forty years of reaping, as distinct from gleaning, reaching to the time when the last one was begotten, and thus antitypical Elijah had fully and fixedly, though reckonedly, reached the antitypical Mount of God, the Kingdom of God, which event marks the end of reaping as distinct from gleaning. (40) The forty days of spying the land of Num. 13:1-25, represent the time from 1874 to 1914, during which the crown retaining and crown losing leaders, in and out of the Truth, were searching out their inheritance, they being stopped from further investigation of new Parousia things early after the war's start. The first work as to them as distinct companies began with the confession of the sins over Azazel's Goat, 1914-1916. This proves that the reaping as distinct from the gleaning ended in 1914.

(41) The 40 days of Ezekiel's lying on his side for Jerusalem (Ezek. 4:6) symbolize the true Church's besieging of Protestantism 40 years, as the 390 days of his lying on his other side symbolize the true Church's besieging Romanism 390 years. These 40 days represent the reaping time, during which, by a besieging of Protestantism, the true Church won from her reaped (as distinct from the gleaned) brethren. This siege began with opposing to Protestantism the first harvest Truth, The Manner of Our Lord's Return, which was made clear to our Pastor in late Sept. 1874, and he immediately began to oppose it to a Second Advent of our Lord in the flesh, as a wielding of the harvest sickle, which proves that this siege, reaping, ended in 1914. (42) The preceding point involves the thought that our Pastor was the first grain of wheat reaped in the Gospel harvest, and that by Oct. 1874, which likewise proves that the 40 years' reaping ended in 1914. (43) Goliath's defying Israel 40 days (1 Sam. 17:16) types evolution during the entire harvest time strutting in defiance of God's people; but the War as the symbolic wind (Rev. 7:1) ended its boasts on the progress of modern civilization as being proof positive of its veracity,

394 Thy Kingdom Come.

as it furnished our Pastor with his final effective argument against evolution. Hence the 40 years of harvest (reaping) ended in 1914. (44) Moses' first stay of 40 days in the mount types Christ's first 40 years' possession of His Kingdom authority, which He received just before His Second Advent. (Ps. 45:3-6.) Moses' coming down at the end of the 40 days types Christ's starting by the trench warfare, as the beginning of the wrath, to weaken Christendom for its complete overthrow. But the reaping (as distinct from gleaning) was to end before the wrath would start. Hence before Sept. 21, 1914, when trench warfare began, the reaping was over. (45) Jeremiah's 40 years' ministry (Jer. 1:2, 3; compare with the concurrent lengths of Josiah's, Jehoiakim's and Zedekiah's reigns, Vol. II, 50), as proven by the 2520 years' parallel (double), parallels the period from 1874 to 1914; and his ministry, both as a type and as a parallel, represents the reaping ministry of the Church from 1874 to 1914. Hence the 40 years of reaping ended in 1914.

(46) Our Lord's 40 days' pre-ascension ministry, testifying to the things of the Kingdom (Acts 1:3), types the 40 years of the Church's reaping ministry with the Kingdom message, which ended for the Church in 1914, because immediately thereafter, instead of giving the Kingdom message as the reaping message, the Faithful, leaving that message to the Great Company and Youthful Worthies for their gleaning work, began to smite Jordan, confess Christendom's sins over Azazel's Goat, execute the judgment written, i.e., proved Christendom guilty of much willful sin and pronounced the sentence of destruction on it, and fight antitypical Gideon's First Battle. Hence the end of our Lord's 40 days' pre-ascension ministry types the Church's ending her reaping ministry in 1914. (47) Jesus' being tempted 40 days in the wilderness, while studying God's Word, represents the Church's 40 years' temptation in the antitypical wilderness from 1874 to 1914, while studying God's Word, this period corresponding with the Church's reaping ministry, during which she was especially tempted. (48) The 40 days of cleansing that the mother of a son had to undergo (Lev. 12:2-4) represent the 40 years (1874 to 1914) during which the Little-Flock-developing Truth and the servants who applied it to the Little Flock were cleansed. This cleansing began

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Oct. 1874 by cleansing the first harvest Truth and the first grain of wheat from the error of Christ's Second Advent being in flesh, through giving him the Truth on the manner of our Lord's Return. Hence this consideration proves that the reaping began in 1874 and ended in 1914. (49) Jonah's announcement of punishment upon the Ninevites types Nominal Church mouthpieces preaching no future probation, but eternal torment as the wrath coming at the end of the Harvest ("40 days"). God's reversing such preaching through the harvest message of future probation—restitution—from 1874 to 1914 is typed by God's setting aside Jonah's message, which proves that the harvest message of restitution won adherents—reaped—for 40 years from 1874, which proves that the 40 years of reaping were from 1874 to 1914, and with the latter date the reaping as distinct from the gleaning ended.

(50) The High Priest, immediately after making imputation for the last one to be spirit-begotten (Lev. 16:16-19), beginning to confess the sins over Azazel's Goat, which confession started in the Fall of 1914, the reaping as distinct from gleaning was ended forty years from its beginning. (51) The fact that the symbolic winter-time of trouble, which began in 1914 to involve part, and in 1916 involved all of Christendom—signalized that then only crown losers had not yet been saved from error, proves that previously all the faithful had been delivered from Babylon, as Jeremiah testifies (Jer. 8:20). (52) The fact that the gleaning was done by the Great Company ("the poor," who are so because bereaved of the riches of the high calling) and by the Youthful Worthies ("the stranger," who are so because not of Spiritual Israel) (Lev. 19:9, 10), while the Little Flock executed the judgment written, smote Jordan in its first smiting, fought the First Battle of antitypical Gideon and confessed the sins over Azazel's Goat from the Fall of 1914 to that of 1916, proves that the reaping as distinct from gleaning lasted forty years, and that the gleaning alone did not last quite two years. (53) The hour of temptation, beginning Apr. 18, 1878, and ending Dec. 6, 1919, by comparison with the hour of reaping, proves that the gleaning was over in the spring of 1916; and this is in harmony with the thought that the reaping as distinct from the gleaning ended forty years after the reaping began. (54) The Pyramid, by

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marking the date Sept. 16, 1914, as the time of the last spirit-begettal, corroborates the Scriptural proof that the reaping as distinct from the gleaning lasted forty years and ended by Oct. 1914. (55) The steadfast progress of the Levitical groups toward their 60 forecast divisions, of which over 50 now exist, beginning in the Fall of 1916, proves that the Little Flock was previously reaped. (56) The unfolding of the Epiphany Truth beginning in 1916 proves that previously the Parousia Truth had been completed and hence had done its work of reaping the Church.

VAIN ATTEMPTS TO ANSWER

But how do some try to meet the most of the above-given arguments? By denying our Pastor's explanations on which they are based and offering "new views" instead. But the above 56 reasons in proof of the reaping's and gleaning's ending in 1914 and 1916, respectively, we believe will stand. Sophistries and the accumulation of declamatory words and irrelative ideas and "new views" contradicting our Pastor's, as the custom of some is, may be brought forward against them; but these will not stand, for their folly will soon be made known (2 Tim. 3:9); for the Lord has promised his mouthpieces irrefutable arguments (Is. 54:17; Luke 21:15) against all their adversaries. And as he in the Parousia fulfilled these promises to our Pastor; so during the Epiphany he has been graciously fulfilling these to us, as every controversy into which we have been drawn proves. Antitypical Jannes and Jambres have not been and will not be able to withstand antitypical Moses' mouthpieces very long.

To justify their view of the reaping beginning in 1878 and ending in 1918, they continually cite our Pastor's article in the Sept. 1, 1916, Tower, entitled "The Harvest [Reaping] Is Not Ended." But that article neither gives the date 1878 for the reaping's beginning nor 1918 for its ending, nor does it hold to the 40 years' length of the reaping. In two places in that article our Pastor mentions 1918, but he does it to point out wrath parallels as to the nominal Jewish Church and as to the nominal Christian Church, and rightly denies that the dispensation parallel affected real Fleshly and Spiritual Israels in the last 36.5 years of their harvests, and therefore rightly denies that they point out the reaping's end in 40 years from its start. The point that he is discussing is not the reaping of saints,

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but the punishments of the two nominal houses. These references are found in Z '16, 264, col. 2, pars. 2 and 6. Nowhere else in the article does he mention 1918, and anyone who will mix up a wrath feature in the parallels with a grace feature such as reaping is, is either ignorant, or confused, or dishonest on the subject. Our Pastor expressly states in the article that he did not know when the Gospel harvest, reaping, would end—"We know no time limit here." On page 263, in par. 2 of the article, he gives two reasons why he changed his mind on the harvest ending in 1914. The first of these is that too many new creatures were coming into the Truth to constitute a gleaning. The Lord for very wise reasons withheld from him the understanding that the bulk of these new creatures were antitypical Lot escaping from antitypical Sodom in America before antitypical Sodom here would begin to go into destruction, the gleaned being thus few in number.

The second of these reasons, also given in that paragraph, is that he thought that during the smiting of Jordan, which he expressly said in the next paragraph would take probably at least three years, grains of wheat would be won. Hence he implied that the reaping might go on at least until the Fall of 1919, if not longer. But in the last paragraph referred to he cautions the brethren to keep in mind that he expressly refrains from giving a date for the end of Jordan's smiting and for what he expected to be its reaping work, saying that he knew of no time features for the Church beyond the date of his writing, giving Elijah's and Elisha's going to no definite place as the proof thereof. Hence he does not in this article fix Apr. 1918, nor any other date, as the end of the reaping. Apr. 1918, as the reaping's end, is a pure guess, contrary to his express teaching. But these guesses, the proponents of the reaping's end as of 1918 say, we must read between the lines and conclude that our Pastor meant 1918 as the reaping's end. To this we reply that one who claims to read between the lines a thought that contradicts what is written in the lines is not reading between the lines, but is inserting a thought of his own—evidently contrary to what is in and between the lines. When our Pastor says (Z '16, 264, col. 2, par. 2) that "the 3½ years of Jesus' ministry were more [italics ours] a time of preparation of the apostles to be instruments for the

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harvesting and a sharpening preparation of the sickle of Truth for the later work which began at Pentecost," he certainly tells the truth; but the very terms that he uses prove that, while the pre-pentecostal work was such mainly, "more," it was not such exclusively, but was on a smaller scale another work, i.e., a reaping work, as Scriptures and facts that he gives prove it to have been.

Bro. Russell in the article under discussion (Z '16, 264, par. 5) expressly states that 1874 was the beginning of the harvest time and work: "ever since then [1874] a new song [the harvest message] has been in the mouths of the Lord's people [harvest work], as they have learned of His goodness through the Divine plan of the Ages." This passage shows that the Lord's people had been doing harvest work ever since 1874. But note the sophistry that is used to evade our Pastor's plain teaching here and elsewhere in the pertinent article, that the harvest message began to be proclaimed ever since the end of the 1335 days, 1874! It is claimed that 1874 was the date for the beginning of the harvest time, but 1878 was the date for the beginning of the harvest work. The fact that ever since then, 1874, a new song had been in the mouths of the Lord's people, i.e., ever since 1874 they had been preaching the harvest message, proves that ever since 1874 they had been doing harvest work; for what was harvest work but singing the new song (Rev. 15:2-4), preaching the harvest message? That distinction here applied is sophistry, contradicting our Pastor's given date, and what had been done up to 1914 ever since that date. When the time comes for God to do a thing, God does it promptly, as in this case it is expressly shown in Rev. 14:15; "Thrust in Thy sickle and reap; for the time TO REAP [time of harvesting] is come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe." If one stresses our Pastor's statement on Jesus' resurrection "before the Church harvesting began" as a proof that reaping began at Easter, or Pentecost, 33 A.D., and hence that our harvesting began in 1878, we reply two things: (1) Since the article under review denies any dispensation parallels between the work toward Israelites indeed in the Jewish harvest and Spiritual Israelites in the Gospel harvest, our Pastor could not have meant this remark to be taken to prove the Gospel harvest to have begun at Easter, or Pentecost 1878. (2) Of course, Church

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harvesting could not have begun before Pentecost, for that very term implies the gathering of new creatures as the Church, of whom there were none until Pentecost. But the reaping of Israelites indeed, beginning with our Lord, the first grain of wheat (John 12:24) and proceeding with the apostles, the 70 and others, until at least 500 disciples were gathered (1 Cor. 15:6), continued from Oct. 29 A.D. to Pentecost without new-creatureship, except in case of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Pastor rightly denied that the dispensation parallels acted toward real fleshly Israel after 33 and toward real Spiritual Israel after 1878. While these did not then work, the harvest parallels operated from 29 to 69 and 1874 to 1914. The failure to note the difference between these two kinds of parallels has wrought confusion as to some of our Pastor's thoughts in the article, The Harvest Is Not Ended, in the Sept. 1916 Tower.

Bro. Russell's article under discussion does not give up 1874 as the date of the reaping's beginning. It asserts it as the date of such. Nor does it deny Oct. 29 A.D., as the date for the beginning of reaping the Jewish harvest. What the article denies is that the Jewish harvest ended in 69 A.D., and the Gospel harvest in 1914. It claims that in each case the reaping went on indefinitely beyond these respective dates. In other words, the article repudiates the 40 years as the reaping's duration. In this repudiation our Pastor, when a sick, weakened and dying man, gave up a truth that when in better health and consequently in better intellectual strength he Scripturally and factually proved to be true, as did also the Edgar Brothers. The fact that this repudiation occurred after 1914, at which time the Little-Flock-developing Truth was completely free of error, proves it to be a mistake, since the two involved truths are Little-Flock-developing truths. Hence we hold to the pertinent presentations of our Pastor taught by him faithfully for many years before and for nearly two years after Oct. 1914. We will now submit a series of arguments that prove that the reaping of the Jewish harvest began 29 A.D., continuing beyond Pentecost.

REAPING BEGAN IN 29 AND 1874 A.D.

(1) Jesus as the first grain of wheat was reaped in the Fall of 29 A.D. In order to overcome the force of

400 Thy Kingdom Come.

this argument it was denied that Jesus was a grain of wheat, the claim being made that a grain of wheat must be a fallen member of our race. Jesus disagrees with this claim and definition on this point; because He called Himself a grain of wheat. (John 12:24.) A ripe grain of wheat is a character, whether perfect or imperfect, fitted for the harvest Truth in the reaping time. Such Jesus was, and Jehovah reaped Him, October, 29 A.D.

(2) The 12 and the 70 were reaped some considerable time before they were sent forth as messengers of the Gospel to reap others.—Matt. 4:18-22; 9:9; John 1:35-51; Matt. 9:37-10:7; Luke 10:1-9.

(3) Many other Israelites were reaped during our Lord's ministry, of whom over 500 remained steadfast despite the sore sifting incidental to His last earthly experiences.—Luke 6:13; 1 Cor. 15:6.

(4) Jesus' statement in John 4:34-38, uttered about seven months after His baptism, expressly says that not only were they in the harvest time, but that the disciples had already done some reaping: "I have sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor; other men have labored, and ye are [have] entered into their labors." This passage also refutes the view that while 29 A.D. began the harvest time, harvest work, reaping, did not begin until Pentecost, 33 A.D.

(5) Other express passages show in so many words that Jesus and His disciples did a reaping work between 29 and 33 A.D.—Matt. 9:35-10:7; Luke 9:1-6; 10:1-9; Mark 3:13-19.

(6) John the Baptist, using the figure of the Bridegroom, Bride and the Friend of the Bridegroom, and showing, after Jesus had entered His ministry, that he was seeking and winning some for Jesus' Bride, did a work which under another figure is called a reaping work.—John 3:29, 30.

(7) Before Pentecost, when garnering, the last harvest process, began, the six preceding harvest processes, whose first one is reaping, had been in operation. The other five are: sheaving (gathering into classes), drying (developing in grace, knowledge and service), threshing (testing to strengthen character), winnowing (separating from outsiders), and sifting (separating from Second Deathers and the Great Company). Passages previously quoted

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prove that reaping work, the first of the seven harvest processes, was done from the beginning of our Lord's ministry; and Luke 22:31 shows that Peter was sifted; while the final accounts of our Lord's career imply that all of the apostles and many others were sifted before Pentecost. Sifting is the sixth harvest process; hence the preceding processes were in operation before our Lord's betrayal. The fact that the last harvest process, garnering, began to operate at Pentecost (Z '16, 264, col. 2, par. 2), proves that the other harvest processes operated before Pentecost, and that the first of these, reaping, must have begun a considerable time before Pentecost, even, as we have proved, in 29 A.D.

Having already seen that the reaping, including the gleaning, was finished in the Spring of 1916, and having already given arguments that in part prove that the reaping began in 1874, we now proceed to prove by some other considerations that the reaping began Oct. 1874, as our dear Pastor taught to the end of his life; for, while in Z '16, 263-265, he taught that the reaping was not yet over and might last three years, he nevertheless taught in that article (p. 264, col. 1, last par.) that the reaping began in 1874.

(1) Reaping having been in operation for over 3½ years before the Pentecost of 33 A.D., it follows from the parallel harvests that reaping was in operation from Oct. 1874, not Apr. 1878.

(2) Daniel's 1335 days (Dan. 12:12), as we know, ended in Oct. 1874. From that time onward the sickle of Truth, according to this passage, blessed with most heart-cheering enlightenment the Faithful, as it reaped them. Previous to that time our dear Pastor had learned to understand the Ransom, Restitution and the Object of our Lord's Return. In late September of that year he learned to understand the Manner of our Lord's Return, and with these doctrines and others as a sickle he began immediately an active campaign on these subjects, among other ways circulating these thoughts in 1875 in the first harvest publication, "The Object and Manner of our Lord's Return." (Z '16, 171, col. 1, pars. 1-3.) Hence Daniel's 1335 days and their fulfilled facts prove that the reaping began in Oct. 1874.

(3) Elijah's second awakening and second meal

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(1 Kings 19:5-8) likewise prove that the reaping began in 1874. The first awakening and meal of the antitypical Elijah began in 1829; his second falling asleep began just after the disappointment of 1844; and his second awakening and meal began in 1874. (Matt. 25:1-6.) The first part of the second meal in part consisted of the truths mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The 40 days of journeying represent the 40 years of reaping (Z '08, top of page 223), which ended in 1914, and were followed by a gleaning period of 19 months. The facts mentioned in the preceding paragraph prove the date 1874 as the beginning of the reaping work from the standpoint of antitypical Elijah's second awakening and meal.

(4) The midnight cry (Matt. 25:6) as the first concerted reaping work, preceded for 2½ years by individual reaping work, and beginning Apr. 1877, exactly in the middle of the night of 155 years—1799 to 1954—proves that reaping work began before Apr. 1877.

(5) The facts symbolized in the day of the Parable of the Penny teach the same thought; for they show among other things that Jesus started our Pastor to work in the vineyard in Oct 1874.

(6) The account of the Crowned Reaper and of His work (Rev. 14:14-16) proves that the reaping began in 1874. The golden crown as a symbol represents Divine Authority as King. (Z '11, 120, col. 1, part 3.) Jesus received this authority just before His Second Advent. (Ps. 45:3, 4.) The sharp sickle is the Parousia Truth. The reason why the "One like unto a Son of man" is asked to reap is: "Because the hour [the first 41 2/3 years of the 1000 years] to reap is come." In God's harvests reaping time implies the doing of the reaping work. Hence reaping time and reaping work are contemporaneous. This hour, beginning with the 1000-year day, set in Oct. 1874; hence the reaping then began; because God is punctual. When His time to do a thing comes, He does it, and does not procrastinate. (Hab. 2:3.) This answers the claim that the harvest time, but not the harvest work, began in 1874. The cry of the angel—"Thrust in thy sickle and reap"—represents the prayers of the Lord's people for him to send forth and prosper what proved to be Parousia truths, and this began before the first presentations of these truths. The thrusting in of the sickle

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began, as shown above, in the Fall of 1874; hence the reaping began in that year. A caution should be here given: let us not confound the possession of the crown, Divine authority as a King, with the exercise of such kingly authority. Jesus possessed this authority before His Second Advent (Ps. 45:3, 4) and while in possession of this authority, began in 1874 to reap, three and one-half years before He began to exercise such kingly authority, in casting off Babylon and in awakening the sleeping saints, Apr. 1878.—Is. 52:7.

(7) Facts abundantly prove that reaping was going on from Oct. 1874, to Apr. 1878. The reaping process implies two things: (1) that the sickle of harvest Truth be wielded; (2) that it cut down the stalks of grain, i.e., separate them from their places of growth. The following facts prove that these two things operated from Oct. 1874, onward: (a) During the time in question the following harvest truths were proclaimed in conversations, lectures and Bible studies: "The Mortality of the Soul"; "Death, not Eternal Torment, as the Penalty of Sin"; "The Ransom"; "Restitution"; "The Time, Manner and Object of our Lord's Return"; "The Election of the Church"; "The Millennial Reign of Christ"; "Future Probation"; "The Permanence of the Earth"; etc., etc. (b) In addition to the oral proclamation of these truths during those years, the following publications at that time carried these same truths to many by the printed page: The booklets, "The Object and Manner of Our Lord's Return," by our Pastor, published and circulated in 1875; and "The Three Worlds," by Mr. Barbour, circulated from Apr. 1877 onward; and the monthly periodical, "The Herald of the Morning," edited by Bros. Barbour, Russell and Paton, among other things teaching in the Jan. 1876 issue that the Lord's Second Advent had quite probably set in about Oct. 1874. (c) As a result of this propaganda hundreds of brethren were won by these truths and severed themselves from Babylon. Thus grains of wheat were separated from the stalks on which they grew by the sickle of Truth, i.e., reaping was in operation from 1874 onward. (d) Again, the fact that there were a number of classes of Truth people formed during those years proves that the second process of the harvest work was in operation, i.e., sheaving. There was a class at Allegheny, Pa., another at

404 Thy Kingdom Come.

Rochester, N.Y., and a third at Almont, Mich., a fourth at Danville, N.Y., and elsewhere there were smaller groups of brethren. (e) The fact that there was a sifting of disgruntled individuals beginning at Passover, 1875 (corresponding to Christ cleansing the temple the first time, John 2:13-17), among the disappointed brethren who expected Christ to appear in the flesh in 1874, proves the same thing. A sifting implies previous reaping. (f) Furthermore, the fact that, as the sixth harvest process, the first general sifting of the Gospel harvest began at the Passover, 1878, paralleling the sifting connected with our Lord's death, proves that before the Pentecost of 1878 six of the harvest processes had been in operation, and that, therefore, the Gospel harvest began some considerable time before 1878. Thus the facts prove that the reaping began in 1874. (g) These facts are corroborated by the Pyramid, e.g., the floor-line measurement of the Grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid, terminating with 1914, as symbolizing the end of spirit-begetting, i.e., of invitations to the high calling, proves that the 40 years' harvest work began in 1874. These arguments are sufficient to prove that facts show the reaping to have begun in 1874.

NOTE III—FOR PAGES 129-134

In the foregoing discussion we alluded several times to the harvest parallels and dispensation parallels as separate and distinct. As our third note we will give some details thereon that will prove helpful in clarifying some ambiguities arising through reading into the article on, The Harvest Is Not Ended (Z '16, 263-265), and The Foreword of Volume III, things not stated nor implied therein. Pastor Russell was right in setting forth our Lord's death in 33 A.D. as the beginning of the second of the parallel dispensations, even as the death of Jacob, exactly 1845 years before, was the beginning of the first of the parallel dispensations. Hence the first member of the parallel dispensations operated alone until our Lord's death, Nisan 10-14, 33 A.D. before it began as such to lap into the Gospel Age for 40 years; and the second member of that parallel operated alone until Nisan 10-14, 1878, before it began as such to lap into the Millennial Age for 40 years. While Israel was tested for 3½ years, Oct. 29 A.D. to Apr. 33 A.D. (this being favor), wrath

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did not set in on them until Nisan 10, 33 A.D., when favor was removed from Israel as the nominal house, though for 3½ years longer it was confined to individual Israelites. So favor was shown to the Nominal Christian house until Apr. 1878, though from Oct. 1874, to Apr. 1878 (3½ years) it was tested, but as favor, and though favor was limited to individual Church members for 3½ years. Hence the wrath parts of the parallel dispensations are from Nisan 10-14, 33 A.D. to Nisan 10-14, 73 A.D.; and from Nisan 10-14, 1878, to Nisan 10-14, 1918. Hence as our Pastor rightly shows in the above citations, we are not to look for parallels in Israel's house going to destruction from 33 to 73 A.D. in favors shown the true Christian Church from 1878 onward. Additionally, wrath acts and favor acts are never to be paralleled, because they are not parallel acts; for wrath parallels wrath and favor parallels favor. Hence the wrath period of the Nominal Jewish house, from 33 to 73 A.D., is to be paralleled with the wrath period of the Nominal Christian house, from 1878 to 1918. Thus, so far as the dispensations' parallels are concerned up to 33 A.D., constructive gracious acts, corrective gracious acts and wrath acts are to be respectively paralleled with constructive gracious acts, corrective gracious acts and wrath acts 1845 years later, until 1878. These, then, are the dispensations' parallels without their following 40 years' exclusive wrath periods. If the dispensations' parallels are thus viewed and restricted we have our Pastor's thought on them correctly. Our Pastor never gave us these parallels and their wrath periods.

But in addition to the dispensations' parallels we have many other parallels in the Bible, e.g., the 2520 years' parallels, and also others, as shown in the Edgar chronology charts of the Berean Manual, page 12. To these many other parallels belong also the harvest parallels, from 29 to 69 A.D. and from 1874 to 1914, respectively. That these reaping times are parallels St. Paul indicates in 1 Cor. 10:1-14. In this section he refers to constructive and corrective or purifying acts of grace and to wrath acts as parallels throughout their respective 40 years, "Ends of the Ages." The constructive acts of grace for both harvests are described in vs. 1-4, and the corrective and purifying acts of grace and certain wrath acts are indicated in vs. 5-10. V. 6 shows us that both

406 Thy Kingdom Come.

sets of acts are typed in types of the Church; and v. 11 applies them as types of the Church in the ends of the Ages—the two harvests, reaping times. The constructive acts of grace especially apply to the privileges, opportunities and experiences connected with the five harvest calls, and in certain respects with the five harvest siftings. The facts as given in the Gospels and the Book of Acts show that these two sets of acts are in their five divisions 1845 years apart, which proves that the harvest parallels, as well as the dispensations' parallels, are 1845 years apart.

The following tables show this of both sets of acts:

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408 Thy Kingdom Come.

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Above we stated that the dates for the fifth call of the Jewish harvest were partly conjectural; and the same remark applies with less force to the fifth sifting. The Book of Acts gives no information on the fifth call and sifting, because, according to the Gospel harvest parallel, these were not to begin until about eight months after Acts closed. But Heb. 13:23, 24, proves that Paul had been freed from his first Roman captivity before he wrote this epistle; otherwise, seeing that he wrote from Italy, where he remained awhile after being freed, he could not have promised the Palestinian brethren a visit after Timothy would come to him. Thus this epistle, which was the main Truth production in the Jewish harvest Contradictionism sifting, could not have been written before the summer of 62. The date often assigned to it is 64 A.D., and that is just 1845 years before the main Truth productions in the Contradictionism sifting of the Gospel harvest. It is these facts that make us state that the dates of the Jewish harvest's fifth call and sifting are partly conjectural, the former more so than the latter.

It will be noticed that in the first table above, under the third call, we stated that Paul was converted in 34 A.D. This fact we base on Bro. Russell's having in

Appendix. 409

1879 been made "that Servant" in charge of the storehouse, and thus made the person in charge of some of its greatest truths, e.g., on Lev. 16. Reasoning back, we say that Paul's being made an Apostle made him one of the Twelve, who from then on came into charge of the greatest and most important parts of the Truth. This put Bro. Russell in 1879, as the Gospel harvest Eleazar, in the same relative position toward the storehouse as the Twelve, the Jewish harvest Eleazar, sustained toward it in 34 A.D., when the scope of their powers as antitypical Eleazar was increased by Paul's accession to their number; for be it noted that before Bro. Russell in 1879 became that Servant he had sole executive charge of the work, i.e., from Pentecost, 1878, when the break with Mr. Barbour was completed, onward, though he was in executive charge earlier than Pentecost, 1878—Oct., 1876, and still earlier. The parallel powers that came to Bro. Russell late in 1879, and that came to the Apostles through Paul's accession to their number, make us conclude from the harvest parallels that Paul was converted late in 34 A.D. We hope sometime, D.v., to bring out in detail the parallels between the Twelve and our Pastor, the parallel antitypical Eleazars, as revealed by the parallel harvests, in the Apostolic work recorded in the Acts and in Bro. Russell's work in the Parousia.

Our Pastor never gave up the harvest parallels from Oct. 29 to Apr. 33 A.D., and from Oct. 1874 to Apr. 1878. What he did do in the article, The Harvest Is Not Ended, was to remain silent on the rest of the harvest parallels as touching the True Church from Apr. 33 A.D. to Oct. 69 A.D., and from Apr. 1878 to Oct. 1914 (for he did not repudiate them, though he denied certain perversions of them); but he did give up the harvest (reaping) as being 40 years long. The above facts in the tables prove that the harvest parallels went on after 33 A.D. and 1878. In B 235 our Pastor paralleled the call going out to Cornelius, etc., with the special calls going out in 1881 to certain ones in the field, i.e., outside the nominal church, as Cornelius was outside the Jewish church. And certainly these facts come under the harvests', not the dispensations' parallels. The following facts prove that while the Jewish dispensation lapped over into the Gospel age from 33 to 73 A.D., the Gospel age

410 Thy Kingdom Come.

lapped back into the Jewish age from Apr. 33 to Oct. 29 A.D., covering Christ's spirit begettal, spirit development and spirit birth. These cannot belong to the Jewish age, which was a fleshly one under the Law, under which as a new creature our Lord was not. Jesus as a new creature belongs to the Gospel age. While the favor of the kingdom offer between Oct. 29 and Apr. 33 A.D. undoubtedly belonged to the dispensations' parallels, and also to the harvest parallels, the acceptance of that favor, which was one's reaping, does not belong to the dispensations' parallels, but to the harvest parallels. This is very evident from the fact that not only was Jesus on trial for life as a new creature in those 3½ years, but the 12 and the 70 (John 17:20; Luke 10:20) by possessing the pre-anointing (Matt. 10:1; Mark 3:14, 15; Luke 10:1, 6, 17, 19) were put on trial for life, though not yet new creatures, as is evident from Judas, one of these 82, going into the second death without spirit begettal. While the rest of the over 500 pre-Pentecostal reaped grains of wheat (1 Cor. 15:6), not having the pre-anointing, were not on trial for life, they, as grains of wheat by virtue of their reaping, belonged to the Gospel age in the harvest parallels; for the two sets of parallels are separate and distinct. Of course the parallel dispensations cannot give us the real Church's experiences of the Jewish harvest paralleling the real Church's experiences of the Gospel harvest; for this would be confusing the harvests' and dispensations' parallels. But the harvest parallels do give us the real Church's experiences in the Jewish harvest and in the Gospel harvest as parallels.

NOTE IV—FOR PAGES 195-223

Our fourth note is on our Pastor's discussion of the door (pp. 195-223), which is by Scriptures and facts proven to be correct. That the door of Matt. 25:10 cannot mean access to consecration and spirit begettal (Matt. 7:13, 14) is evident from the fact that both the wise and the foolish virgins at their consecration and spirit begettal, which made them virgins, already had entered and were within that door or gate. It is evidently, also, not access into the kingdom beyond the vail, because facts prove that members of the Church are still on this side of the vail, and that the Lord has for years through the

Appendix. 411

Epiphany message been telling the foolish virgins that the door is closed, and that he does not recognize them as his faithful. The definition that our Pastor gives to the open door—the opportunity to lay down life with Christ in the reaping work, as the work done in the time of the harvest—

is evidently correct; as is also his definition that the closed door is the end of all such opportunity to suffer with Christ in doing the reaping work, the final work of the Church as known to our Pastor even up to his death. We have italicized the kind of work in connection with which such sufferings were brought upon one from the standpoint of the parable, whose door is open only during the Parousia, before the trouble would begin. Not only does all that he says on the kind of work that would be impossible to do after the door is closed prove this; but the Scriptures that he quoted on the subject also prove it. (Matt. 20:1-16; John 9:4; 11:9; Is. 21:12; Luke 13:24-28.) While when writing Volume III, in fact even up to his death, our Pastor did not see the details of the Time of Trouble and the work of the Priesthood during that time, he certainly was right in insisting that no more work of the kind referred to in John 9:4, reaping work, would be done anywhere after that night set in there, i.e., after the trouble reached that place.

NOTE V—FOR PAGES 223-225

Our fifth note is on the parable of the Penny, which is treated in Volume 3, pp. 223-225. Our Pastor from 1909 onward changed his mind, giving up the view presented in this citation. He expressed the difficulties in the way of his former interpretation and the things favoring his later view in Z '14, 171, pars. 1-5. He gave no details on his later view in that place, doubtless because the Sunday School lessons, of which this was one, at that time were being published in the newspapers and in separate form for Sunday School teachers, for whom the full interpretation would have been too strong meat. There are insuperable difficulties in the way of interpreting the day of the parable as being the Gospel age, since it would have required those called early to have lived many centuries, e.g., the Apostles over 1900 years. Moreover, the call periods of the parable could not be made to fit chronologically and numerically the call periods and the calls

412 Thy Kingdom Come.

between the two harvests. Again, the murmuring would have to take place in the kingdom—which is unthinkable. And, finally, the rewarding of the late comers first and the earlier comers last contradicts the Scriptures that teach that the sleeping part of the Church would experience the rewards of the first resurrection before those of the Church who would live during the Lord's presence in the Parousia and the Epiphany. In 1909 a brother presented to him a view which he accepted, and to which he gave partial expression in Z '14, 171, pars. 1-5, but, for the reasons given above, avoided giving its full expression.

We have given details on this parable in P '35, 126-135. Here we will offer a brief summary of our Pastor's later view: The parable's day of twelve working hours (John 9:4; 11:9) was the reaping period of forty years, 1874 to 1914. Accordingly, each of its twelve hours were three years and four months. Its first call period ("early in the morning") was from Oct., 1874, to June, 1881, covering two hours. Its third hour was from June, 1881, to Oct., 1884; its sixth hour, from June, 1891, to Oct., 1894; its ninth hour, from June, 1901, to Oct., 1904; its eleventh hour, from Feb., 1908, to June, 1911; and its, evening, the end of the twelfth hour, began Oct., 1914. During the hours specified in the parable specially large numbers were called into the Truth and its service, each succeeding call adding at least one new form of service to the preceding ones for calling purposes. The householder is the Lord Jesus and the steward is "that servant." (Matt. 24:46.) The penny is the hundredfold (Matt. 19:29, 30) given the Lord's servants in this life in the special form that it assumed in the parable's evening—the privilege of service in smiting Jordan. Its first distribution, to the crown retainers, began about Oct., 1914. These as a rule consisted of those called in the eleventh hour. The second distribution was to come to the crown losers, later.

So far did our Pastor see things up to the time of his death. Since his death the rest of the parable became due to be understood. The facts of the fulfilment prove that the first use of the Penny, the first smiting of Jordan, was from Oct., 1914, to Nov., 1916, being thus finished shortly after our Pastor's death. The second distribution of the Penny occurred during about the last six months of his life, whereby he arranged in various ways for the

Appendix. 413

second smiting of Jordan, by putting the crown losers (though unknown to him at that time as such) into a position for effecting the second smiting of Jordan. Their use of the Penny, the second smiting of Jordan, occurred in the Society's "big drive" from Oct., 1917, to May, 1918, and was terminated by the arrest of the Society's leaders. The desire for more than that received at the first distribution and the murmuring of those who received the Penny at the second distribution represent the unholy ambition and power-grasping of the Society leaders and their followers in 1917 and their dissatisfaction at what was given them by the Lord through "that servant." The "friend" among the murmurers was the Society leaders who were by the Lord rebuked for their unholy ambition, power-grasping and dissatisfaction at what the Lord actually gave them. His being bidden by the Lord to go his way represents the Lord temporarily abandoning them and their Great Company followers to their way of self-seeking, which landed them into the hands of the "fit man"—unfavorable circumstances and persecuting persons and of Azazel—Satan. (Lev. 16:21; 1 Cor. 5:5.) The householder's vindicating his pertinent course with the two classes of laborers represents our Lord through the Epiphany teachings (first oral, later printed) vindicating his course in making the two-fold distribution as he did. This interpretation agrees with all seven axioms of Biblical interpretation, and is by the fulfilment proven true. These axioms are the following: Interpretations and teachings to be true must be self-harmonious, harmonious with all other true Bible explanations, true Bible teachings, with God's character, the ransom, facts and Bible aims.

NOTE VI—FOR PAGES 227-242

In this, the sixth note, we desire, as an interesting illustration of the principle that the Truth gradually advances from obscure to ever clearer views (Prov. 4:18), to describe the progressive growth that the Truth on the time of the Church's deliverance made in our Pastor's mind. When he wrote Volume III, basing his thought on the measurement of the floor line of the Great Pyramid's Grand Gallery, from its north wall to the Step and along the front and top of the Step, he concluded that the Church would leave the earth by Oct., 1910 (pp. 362-364).

414 Thy Kingdom Come.

Later he came to see that, the Scriptures nowhere giving such a date, the thought should be given up. In 1903, yet believing that the trouble would likely begin between 1910 and 1912 and would end Oct. 1914 (F 579, par. 2), he concluded that some time between 1910 and 1914, rather nearer the latter than the former year, the Church would leave the world. When in 1904 (Z '04, 197-199, 229, 230) he came to see that the trouble would begin, not end, in 1914, his position—that some of the Church would remain until sometime during the third, or anarchistic phase, of the trouble—implied that the Church would remain here until after Oct., 1914; yet he did not then nor until eight years later draw this conclusion from that premise, but did conclude that the Church would remain here until Oct., 1914, which thought he held until sometime in 1912.

There were especially three things that led him in 1912 to conclude that the Church would remain here until some time after 1914: (1) Since the reaping was only the first of the harvest processes and was to end Oct., 1914, the completion of the other harvest processes would require the Church to remain in the earth some time after Oct., 1914. (2) Palestine in 1912 was not sufficiently advanced in its returning Jewish population, especially in returning wealthy Jews, and in its progress and prosperity, nor could it in natural ways be sufficiently developed in these respects within the two years remaining until 1914, to warrant the presence of the conditions described in Ezek. 38:11-13 by 1914. (3) The trouble beginning in 1914 implies that the Church would remain here for some time thereafter, since it was to remain here well into the last phase of the trouble, anarchy. These three considerations proved to him that the prophetic viewpoint of things required the Church to remain in the earth after Oct., 1914. Accordingly, he made the necessary changes in the various volumes of the Studies. Repeatedly thereafter he taught that he did not know of the date or year of the Church's leaving the earth. Not knowing that the Epiphany would last so long as we have since learned that it is to last—forty years—he did not imagine that the Church would remain in the earth so long after Oct., 1914, as it has remained and still will remain here. This need not surprise us, since his ministry was limited to the Parousia, including its period of lapping into the Epiphany; hence

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his lack of information on the details of the Epiphany and the time for the Church to leave the world, a thing that we do not expect to occur until several years after 1949, according to the Large Eight Wonderful Days picture, when the Church will begin its final public work. The exact year for this, so far as the remaining members of the Church in general are concerned, we do not know; but we have the assurance that it will occur sometime between early in 1949 and Oct., 1954, with at least one of its members remaining until the lapping of the Epiphany into the Basileia, Kingdom, is over. Certainly our Pastor's increasing approach to the full truth on this subject is a splendid illustration of the gradual unfolding of the Truth as due.—Prov. 4:18.

NOTE VII—FOR PAGES 362-364

In addition to the pertinent remarks in the preceding note, pp. 362-364, in what they give on the dates Oct., 1874, 1881 and 1910, would require a few remarks. As the earlier editions of Volume III show, one of the pertinent measurements was by our Pastor understood to mean that the Church would leave the earth by Oct., 1910; but after 1904, as a result of his seeing that the trouble would begin, not end, in 1914, he concluded that the Church would remain here until Oct., 1914. This moved him to change the thought first held on the measurement understood as marking Oct., 1910, as the date for the deliverance of the Church into the thought that is now expressed thereon in the pertinent pages. But before Oct., 1910, came, as can be seen from the questions and answers on that date in the book, What Pastor Russell Said, pp. 77 and 555, he gave up that thought. But he never changed the subject matter on this point on pp. 362-364, the condition of the plates doubtless making the changes impracticable.

All three of the measures given in the section under comment should have been [Corrected: PT '37, p. 16] made, not from the intersection point of the Grand Gallery's floor line and the projected line of its north wall, but 33½ inches north of that point of intersection and thus 33½ inches down the First Ascending Passage from the Grand Gallery's beginning—at a point indicating our Lord's birth: Oct. 2 B.C. According to Prof. Flinders Petrie, with whom Prof. Smyth and the

416 Thy Kingdom Come.

Bros. Edgar are in substantial agreement, the length of the Grand Gallery's floor line from the north wall to the foot of the Step is 1815½ British, or 1813½ Pyramid inches, while the floor line projected through the Step to its intersection with the projected line of the Grand Gallery's south wall is just about 68 inches, which makes the entire length of the Grand Gallery 1881½ Pyramid inches. As generally recognized by Pyramid students, its north wall marks our Savior's death, Apr. A.D. 33, as the point marking the beginning of the high calling, and its south wall marks the end of spirit begettal, Oct., 1914; for 1881½ years since Apr. A.D. 33 bring us to Oct., 1914. Our Pastor measured the distance of the projected floor line within the Step by paper, which he later recognized to be incorrect, as can be seen from his pertinent remarks in the citations above given. He, accordingly, dropped two applications, (b) and (c), of the section under comment, as incorrect, though he made no changes in the plates to indicate this, since so many changes would have required a change in the paging of the rest of the book. He seems to have depended on the brethren, instructed by his thoughts given elsewhere, to note the corrections. Logically he should have dropped application (a), but whether he ever did it we do not know, for the floor line from the north to the south wall of the Grand Gallery is 1881½ inches (its south end marking Oct., 1914), of which the distance within the Step is about 68 inches, and the top of the Step is 61 inches; hence the floor line up to the bottom of the Step and along the top of the Step, the height of the Step's riser being omitted, would be 1874½ inches and thus would mark Oct., 1907, which, not being a Bible date, proves the measurement was not symbolic. The inaccuracy of the three applications was due to our Pastor's thinking the three pertinent measurements began at our Lord's birth, marked 33½ inches north of the Grand Gallery's beginning, whereas they began at His death, marked at the Grand Gallery's start.

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