in some aspects to typify the Great Company class (Z.'811-7), but succeeds in gaining the higher reward, probably because of being the companions of those that occupy more advanced positions in the Body. Thus the humbleminded and faithful servants and companions may and do fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ, even though their personal sufferings be slight.-Heb. 10:33.

Of the tribe of [Benjamin were sealed] JOSEPH twelve thousand.-The Sinaitic MS. mentions Joseph last, with peculiar fitness. Joseph was one of the most beautiful characters of the Bible. His name signifies Whom may God increase. He had so many virtues that it is inadvisable to attempt their enumeration, but the story is told at length in Gen. 37-50. He is one of the very few characters named in the Bible about whom nothing uncomplimentary is expressed. He well represents all the other members of the Divine family, all of whom have attained the Divine likeness in their hearts and given expression to that likeness as well as the frailties and weaknesses of the flesh would permit.

The

It will be noticed that the tribes of Dan and Ephraim are omitted from the foregoing list. Dan evidently represents the class that goes into the Second Death. name signifies "God hath judged me." (Gen. 30:6.) We know that all God's judgments are just and look for the reason for Dan's rejection. Jacob prophesied that it would be Dan "that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward." (Gen. 49:17.) Horses are symbols of doctrines. Dan evidently represents a class tampering with doctrines, resulting in the overthrow of the New Creature. A study of the history of the tribe of Dan confirms this. Originally Dan was given one of the choicest parts of Palestine, one of the most fertile and the most secure. It was completely embraced by its two brother tribes Ephraim and Benjamin, while on the south-east and south it joined Judah, and was thus surrounded by the three most powerful states of the whole confederacy. The Danites however failed to conquer the land originally as signed to them (representing the failure of the New Creature to gain the victory over the mind of the flesh) and chose another inheritance to the far north (Judges 18:131). This selection of the farthest north resembles Satan's similar choice (Isa. 14:13) and suggests that the Danite New Creatures were led away from their original inheritance by ambition The context shows an unreasonably high valuation of their own judgment and a wilful interference with the priestly office, and this we may judge has

been a frequent offense of those who commit the great sin that lies just beyond the sin of presumption. (Psa. 19:13; 2 Sam. 6:6, 7.) THE TEST IS ON; take heed! take heed!

The half tribe of Ephraim represents the Great Company, mainly to be found in the Nominal Church. They are more or less intoxicated with error (Isa. 28:1, 7), they fear to let go of their idols of creeds and catechisms (Hos. 4:17), they are, in a way, half-baked Christians, not wholly devoted to the Lord-"Ephraim is a cake not turned." (Hos. 7:8.) From first to last the prophecy of Hosea is eloquent with Jehovah's pleadings to the Great Company class not to miss the great prize of Immortality. 7:9. After this, I beheld, and lo, a great multitude.— When the Apostle tells us in 2 John 8, "Look to yourselves that ye lose not those things which we have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward," he is teaching that a Heavenly reward may be gained that is not as full as if a course more pleasing to the Heavenly Father is pursued. Instead of teaching that the saved of our race will all be saved to the same thing, the, Scriptures show two degrees or kinds of Heavenly salvation, and two degrees or kinds of earthly salvation. In the second chapter of Genesis the stream which went forth from the Garden of Eden was divided into four parts. This is a Scriptural recognition of the fact that from Adam, the original fountain of life, will flow four streams: The Little Flock, who are to sit down with Christ in His Throne; the Great Company, who are to stand before the Throne, having the palms of martyrdom but without the crowns of glory; the Ancient Worthies, the Jewish fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Daniel, etc., who are to be made princes in all the earth; and the world of mankind, who will constitute the subjects of the Kingdom over which the Ancient Worthies will rule. The same lesson is taught in the division of the Levites into four camps, each located on a different side of the Tabernacle. (Num. 3:15; F128, 129.) It is also taught in the Apostle's statement in 2 Tim. 2:20, that in God's great House there will ultimately be found four classes of vessels to His praise.

The question for the saints is not as to which of the earthly classes may ultimately include them, for they have given up their earthly hopes in exchange for Heavenly hopes. The question is whether they shall be wise virgins, faithful students of the Word, building with the gold, silver and precious stones of Divine Truth instead of foolish virgins (pure of heart) (Matt. 25:2; C91; F75) who build faith structures with the wood, hay and stubble of human tradition. The Apostle says the fiery trials of life will

try every man's work so as by fire, and intimates that those who do not build wisely shall suffer loss-not go into eternal torment, but fail to gain the great reward which otherwise might be theirs. (1 Cor. 3:15; T69.) The question is whether as branches in Christ the Vine, to go onward to fruit-bearing, or as other branches, to be principally devoted to leaves (professions), or tendrils (feelers after earthly honors and emoluments). (John 15:2; F78, 170.) Christ said of a similar class in His day, "How can ye believe [effectively] which receive honor one of another, and seek not the praise which cometh from God only!" The question is whether we are to be termed children of disobedience (Col. 3:6; Z.'99-140) because, though God's children, we have failed to mortify, or put to death, our earthly and sinful tendencies; whether we are sinners against the covenant we have made with God to lay down our lives in His service (Psa. 1:1; Z.'00-281), whether, like Lot's wife, we look back to the earthly good things we have given up (Gen. 19:26; C194), or whether we retain the singleness of heart and purpose, without which the prize of the High Calling cannot be gained.

The question is whether, as babes in Christ, we shall wink at the unscriptural divisions of God's people, into followers of Paul or Apollos, Cephas or Luther, Calvin or Wesley (1 Cor. 3:4; D17); whether, like Rahab, we shall be in the citadel of error when it falls, or like Joshua who caused it to fall (Josh. 6:25; Z.'07-267); whether, like the fitches and cummin, we shall easily divest ourselves of the entangling associations of life, represented by the pods from which the fitches and cummin are so easily shaken, or whether we shall be like the "bread-corn" which requires a vast amount of threshing before it will let go of the close-clinging chaff. (Isa. 28:27; Z.'84-1-4.) The question is whether, like the rejected members of Gideon's army, we shall forget our mission, and bury our heads in the waters of truth; or whether, with equal appreciation of its message, we shall remember why the Lord gave it to us, and shall drink of it, with our eyes out over the horizon, seeking to serve, to spend and be spent in the Master's service. (Judg. 7:6; Z.'07-331.) The question is whether, like Caleb and Joshua, we shall retain our confidence in Him who has called us, and bring back true reports of the land we hope ere long to possess, or, whether we shall be of the larger company that through fear and faint-heartedness never enter in. (Num. 13:31; Z.'07-251.) Shall we rejoice to lay down our lives for the Lord's brethren, or shall we, through fear of this sacrificial death, be all our lifetime subject to bondage? (Heb. 2:15;

T70, 71.) The question is whether we shall be like the servant who hid his Lord's talent in the earth (in earthly enjoyments and pursuits) (Matt. 25:24; Z.'01-61; Z.'06-318), whether we shall be double minded, having some idea of attaining heavenly things and some idea of getting all we can of earthly things (Jas. 1:8; Z.'07-316), whether, like Obadiah, we are merely friendly toward the Truth and those who stand for the Truth, but conceal our interest for fear of the consequences to ourselves and our families.1 Ki. 18:3; Z.'04-221.

If, in these tests of faith and character, we come off victorious in the Lord's sight, we shall not need to be of those who wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb, in the great tribulation with which this Age will close, but shall keep our robes unspotted so that they will not need such a general cleansing. If we have fled to the Lord before the winter time of His disfavor has come upon the man-made systems of our day, we shall be spared the rigors of the flight, of which He said, "Pray that your flight be not in the winter [of 1917-1918 (?)]" (Matt. 20:10; D578), and we shall be spared, too, the bitter disappointment of saying at that time, "The Harvest [the time of special favor] is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved" [not saved with the chiefest salvation, with the salvation to which we aspired]. (Jer. 8:20; D578.) In the time of Zion's travail these children of God will all be delivered. (Isa. 66:8; Z.'94-135.) Let us be glad of our hope that we shall be of the Man-child delivered before that travail comes. Let us hope we may not be of the lambs (Isa. 34:6; D17) or the goats found together in the nominal sheepfolds when the time has come to wind up present ecclesiastical systems. All down the Age, some of God's children have been "turned over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord” (1 Cor. 5:5; T69, 71), because they have not lived up to their covenants. The sufferings of the scapegoat class, turned into the wilderness, dying of thirst, hunger, snake-bites, thorns, briars, burrs, fleas or attacks of wild animals, were far greater than those of the Lord's goat, killed sacrificially. (Lev. 16:7-10; T60.) Those who withhold from the Lord what they have promised Him suffer far more than those who fight manfully the good fight of faith and lay hold with both hands on the hope set before us.

The Great Company class will say "Alleluia" as soon as they perceive that the Church is complete. (Rev. 19:1; A240; F128.) But like Rebecca's damsels of old, they must go the same long journey as the Bride class, only to

be received as servants in the end. (Gen. 24:61; Psa. 45:14; F121, 171.) Shall we enter fully into our inheritance now, while the door is still open to do and dare in the Master's Cause; or shall we be like the class mentioned in Ezekiel 44 that finds the door shut because the start is made too late, and must know that forever the Heavenly Priesthood, the prize of the High Calling, is closed, and that the most that can be then attained is the place as keepers or servants in the Temple? (Ezek. 44:114; Z.'05-269.) Let us rejoice if we are heirs of salvation at all; but let us resolve, by God's grace, that we shall, in the words of our text, "Look to ourselves, that we lose not those things that we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward”—all that the Father is pleased to give to those who love Him supremely.

"What we see going on about us seems natural to our minds. The way in which other people spend time and money is a temptation to the Lord's people which must be steadfastly resisted. For us to do what others do, and to devote to the Lord's service only what the world considers a reasonable day's work, would not be fulfilling our Covenant of Sacrifice at all. Those who seek merely to do right, and to put in eight hours or so a day faithfully, after the manner of the world, will be judged from this standpoint; and they will merely obtain a place in the Great Company. They are not fulfilling the conditions of the Covenant of Sacrifice."-Z.'14-71.

"We do not think we should understand the Scriptures to teach that the Great Company will attain to the same degree of spiritual development as the Little Flock. They fail to display that love and zeal which the Lord has set as the mark for participation in the Royal Priesthood." (Z.'14-68.) "In determining to sacrifice themselves piecemeal when and how they and their friends might please, is the primary mistake." (Z.'96-191.) "While the living members of the Bride are being separated from others by the Truth, the ears of this class are dull of hearing and they are slow to believe and slow to act." (A240.) "In one parable the Lord styles this class a wicked and slothful servant. He does not deny him the honor of being a servant, He does not charge him with becoming an enemy. He is counted wicked and slothful because, having undertaken certain responsibilities as a servant, he has failed to manifest the proper spirit of earnest devotion."Z.'07-315.

Which no man could number.-"Whose number no man is able to tell (i. e., it is not a foreordained or fixed number -none were called to be of this company.)"-Rev. 5:11.