ZION'S WATCH TOWER

AND

HERALD OF CHRIST'S PRESENCE.

----------

PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH.

----------

TOWER PUBLISHING COMPANY,
"BIBLE HOUSE"
ARCH STREET, ALLEGHENY, PA., U.S.A.

C. T. RUSSELL, EDITOR; MRS. C. T. RUSSELL, ASSOCIATE.

----------

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $1.00 A YEAR, IN ADVANCE,

FREE TO THE LORD'S POOR.

N.B.--Those of the interested, who by reason of old age or accidents, or other adversity, are unable to pay, will be supplied FREE, if they will send a Postal Card each December, stating their case and requesting the paper.

----------

THE "DO YOU KNOW?" TRACT.

----------

The demand for this tract is phenomenal. Nearly a quarter of a million have already gone out; and the orders are still coming in at the rate about 2000 per day. Some good results are manifest, too: quite a number have been interested by this means. Let the good work go on. Let the light shine everywhere. And let all that you do in this and every direction be done in love --love for God, for his people and for his Word.

All whose names are on the TOWER list are recognized as members also of the Tract Society, and may order free as many tracts as they can properly use as samples for free distribution. Each should also be an agent or solicitor for the WATCH TOWER. A TOWER subscription includes a subscription to these Old Theology Quarterly Tracts, with the privilege of ordering additional tracts. These tracts are published out of the voluntary donations to the Tract Fund, "Good Hopes," etc.

Brother Otto Koetitz, now a valued helper in the TOWER office, has translated this tract into German, and it will soon be published in that language.

----------

[R1682 : page 274]

ROMANISM IN NEW YORK.

----------

The American Journal of Politics, referring to the way in which the Church of Rome is obtaining complete sway in American politics says: "In New York the following are Roman Catholics: The mayor, the sheriff, the comptroller, the counsel to the corporation, the whole Board of Assessment, the commissioner of public works, the superintendent of the street cleaning department, the clerk to the board of aldermen, the majority of that board, every member of the Board of Tax Commissioners, several justices of the Supreme, Superior, and Common Pleas Courts, the controllers of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, the majority in many of the ward boards of trustees, a large portion of the Board of Education, the controllers of the Department of Charities and Corrections, the majority of the police force, the controllers of the fire department, of the Board of Street Openings, the whole of the Armoury Board, the registrar of deeds, the commissioner of jurors, one-half of the commissioners of accounts, the supervisor of the city records, the collector of the port, the sub-treasurer, a majority of the commissioners of the Sinking Fund, and, finally, the majority of the delegates to Congress, and in the State Senate, and Assembly."--Evangelical Churchman.

====================

====================

STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

--INTERNATIONAL S.S. LESSONS.--

SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS DESIGNED TO ASSIST THOSE OF OUR
READERS WHO ATTEND BIBLE CLASSES WHERE THESE
LESSONS ARE USED; THAT THEY MAY BE ENABLED TO
LEAD OTHERS INTO THE FULNESS OF THE GOSPEL.

----------

[R1702 : page 288]

JESUS AT JACOB'S WELL.

----------

III. QUAR., LESSON XII., SEP. 16, JOHN 4:9-26.

Golden Text--"Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst."--John 4:14.

As we read these gracious words of the Master, and especially his reply to the woman's reference to the Messiah, the hope of Israel--"I that speak unto thee am he"-- our hearts also thrill with a solemn gladness; for the blessings of his advent and the water of life which he gives have come to us also.

Several points in this lesson are worthy of special notice. (1) Observe the simple condescension of the Lord in thus endeavoring to make plain the way of life to one who had strayed far from the path of rectitude; (2) the natural and earnest manner [R1703 : page 288] of introducing the subject and pointing the lesson; and (3) the teaching.

He offers the water of life--the refreshing hope of life through faith in him as the Redeemer, which hope would be like a perennial well-spring continually rising up in her heart. (Verse 14.) So it is now; but by and by when the hopes of the believing Church are realized and God's Kingdom is fully established, these wells will flow together, and a mighty river of the water of life will come forth from underneath the throne of God for the refreshment of all who will partake of it.--Rev. 22:1.

Then--in that Millennial age of glory and blessing--all who worship God will worship him in the spirit of the truth.--Ver. 24.

We who have partaken of the water of life and truth which Christ has furnished us can truly say, It satisfies our longing souls as nothing else could do. And those who are drinking of it have no cravings for the vain philosophies of men which make void the Word of God. We are still drinking; but according to our Lord's words we shall soon be satisfied (Matt. 5:6)--when we awake in his likeness, in the first resurrection --Psa. 17:15; Phil. 3:11.

====================

ZION'S WATCH TOWER

AND

HERALD OF CHRIST'S PRESENCE.

----------

PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH.

----------

TOWER PUBLISHING COMPANY,
"BIBLE HOUSE"
ARCH STREET, ALLEGHENY, PA., U.S.A.

C. T. RUSSELL, EDITOR; MRS. C. T. RUSSELL, ASSOCIATE.

----------

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $1.00 A YEAR, IN ADVANCE,

FREE TO THE LORD'S POOR.

N.B.--Those of the interested, who by reason of old age or accidents, or other adversity, are unable to pay, will be supplied FREE, if they will send a Postal Card each December, stating their case and requesting the paper.

----------

"WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?"

----------

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:--One of our dear friends writes of disappointment, in a small town, among strangers; and of lonesomeness, with no companionship but the Savior. Christians must follow Christ. He trod the wine press alone, absolutely alone: without companionship even of the Father, who hitherto had been one with him. Happiness in the society of many sympathizing friends may be taken as indication of weakness, and of necessity for such sympathy. The wind is tempered to the shorn, weak lambs.

Some, who appear to have much company, really do not. Some, earnest for the truth, appear to stand in the midst of large and ever increasing groups of friends. But they really each stand alone; snow-capped and clear above the clouds, like bleak mountain tops, towering their grand, neighboring but isolated peaks above, and always higher than the aspiring, friendly, lesser mountains and hills composing their chain.

Alone! What an awful significance! And to think that he whose righteousness was not imputed did really agonize alone. Absolutely without companionship! In his excruciating despair he cried, "My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me!" What wonder, then, that he who was justified to live, but was permitted to lay down his life, should thus cry out in agony when he yielded up the spirit of life!

Why should any who aspire to be with and like him, in the glorious immortality of the Divine Nature, hope to escape similar experience? The thorns, the cross and the piercing nails may not be from the bush, the tree or the mine; but they will, none the less, be real, tangible and terror striking. We may pray that, if possible and without drinking, this cup may pass from us, assured also that, if possible, the request will be granted; but we must also add with resignation, if not with cheerfulness, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."

W. M. WRIGHT.

----------

TRACT NO. 21--DO YOU KNOW?--is being prepared in German. Order in advance what you can use judiciously. The English edition is exhausted; but a new lot is under way, which will run the total above half a million copies.

====================

====================

STUDIES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

--INTERNATIONAL S.S. LESSONS.--

SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS DESIGNED TO ASSIST THOSE OF OUR
READERS WHO ATTEND BIBLE CLASSES WHERE THESE
LESSONS ARE USED; THAT THEY MAY BE ENABLED TO
LEAD OTHERS INTO THE FULNESS OF THE GOSPEL.

----------

[R1708 : page 302]

DANIEL AND HIS COMPANIONS.

----------

III. QUAR., LESSON XIII., SEPT. 23, DAN. 1:8-20.

Golden Text--"Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself."--Dan. 1:8.

In this lesson we have before us four more of those beautiful characters among the ancient worthies whose examples the Apostles taught us to emulate (Jas. 5:10; Heb. 11.) In these four men we see the grandeur of the fixed purpose of noble and loyal hearts. Severe temptations were set before them, but not for an instant did they sway them from the path of rectitude.

At an early age, at the beginning of the seventy years captivity of Israel in Babylon, they were carried to Babylon and obliged to enter the service of the royal court, where the king's command as to their course of life was such as implied the forsaking of their own religion and their God, even their names being changed to those of idolatrous significance. The luxurious diet of the king, of course, would not be subject to the restrictions of the Jewish law (Lev. 11; Deut. 12:23-25); and this first command, which conflicted with the law of God, they sought if possible to avoid,--no doubt praying God's providential favor to this end.

In this they self-denyingly ignored the luxuries, and ran the risk of encountering the wrath of a despotic king in whose hands was the power of death, to be executed on the merest caprice; while on the other hand his favor was likely to advance them to honorable distinction in the kingdom.

God favored them so that the wrath of the king was not incurred, and they became, to that great Gentile nation, living witnesses of the power and grace of the God of Israel. But the time came in the case of each of these four witnesses when they were called upon to seal their testimony with their blood; and they met those tests of fidelity with an unflinching, resolute purpose. Notwithstanding the king's command to pray to him and to no other god, Daniel still adhered to his usual custom of praying to the true God three times a day with his window open and his face toward Jerusalem; and for his fidelity he calmly yielded to the persecuting spirit which cast him into a [R1708 : page 303] den of lions. His three companions with equal fortitude refused to worship the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and paid the penalty by going into a burning, fiery furnace, saying, Our God is able to deliver us if it please him, but, leaving the matter of deliverance or destruction to his will, of one thing we are sure, We will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

What heroic examples of godly zeal and fortitude, and of friendship cemented by the bonds of a common noble purpose. Four young men devoted to God mutually agree to set their faces like a flint against temptation, and to live righteously and godly in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; and truly they have shone as lights, not only in their own day, but down even to the present time. In youth they chose the right ways of the Lord, and they gave a life-long testimony to the praise of his grace.

Let our purpose be like theirs, and as the Psalmist expresses it,--"My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed."--Psa. 57:7. [page 303]

REVIEW.

----------

III. QUAR., LESSON XIV., SEPT. 30.

Golden Text--"The kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."--Mark 1:15.

A thoughtful, reverent, prayerful review of the lessons of this quarter on the incidents and teachings of our Lord's earthly life cannot fail to bring the soul into fuller sympathy and fellowship with him, and thus prepare us for his Kingdom, now so close at hand,--not merely in its embryo condition, but in its completeness and glory.

====================

====================