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Vol. 2.
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THE FLYING ROLL,
- As 1 was looking over a news
paper of the date of Feb., 13th 18-
91 I noticed the heading of an ar
ticle with the above;and as it gave
the account of a new religious sect
started up in Detroit Ohio; so I
> took up my Bible and turned to
Zechariah fifth chapter and com
menced reading about the flying
roll, and the more I read, the more
* I felt convinced that the name was
more appropriate than the sect is
aware of.
When I first read the chapter it
looked so daik and myterious I
could see nothing in it, but the
more I read and pondered on it,
the more it seemed to open up to
my mind till I received it as one of
; v the most sublime metaphors in the
Bible concerning false religion,
and I thought I would pencil down
a fbw things as it has seemed to
appear to my mind.
“Then I turned and lifted up
mine eyes and looked and behold
a flying roll, and he said unto me,
what seest thou; and I answered,
I see a flying roll; the length there
of is twenty cubits and the breadth
thereof ten cubits. Then said he
str* unto me, this is the curse that
goeth forth over the face of the
wholeearth.
Let me pause and ask what has
been the greatest curse to the earth?
«* shed the first blood? what
brought martyrs to the stake? what
shed more blood that all other
causes? To all this I answer, false
religon.
' speaking therejsbut
F thetnieand the false; but then
false religion may be subdivided
fife'-. into two, and resuming my quo-
fc. * tation in the third verse we have
|||V these two;“For every one that steal-
K eth shall be cut off as on this side
Kfc according to it, and every one that
swearath shall be cut off on that
side according to it.” These are the
representatives of the two branch
fig es of false religion, the thief and
J. him that sw< auth falsely “by my
name” as represented in fourth
* o . verse.No w let us ex amine these two
sea characters, and they are bad onqs.
First, the thief represents all the
religion of the world that looks for
salvation without the mediation of
I a Savior,but all rests on themselves,
■* and is secured by the performance
r of certan moral obligations and
reforms according to certain
Rf’ patterns which they consider a
sufficient cause to secure their ever
lasting happiness here. Os a truth
salvation is of the ■ Lord, and shall
redound to the glory and riches of
his grace; and he will hot give
his praise to another, nor his glory
t to graven images. God is glorified
ip the salvation of his people. Any
one attempting to take the crown
of glory from the great Jehovah
and place it on his own head,
would be trying to take that which
never belonged to him; thus the in
tent would be stealing. For in
stance, if men could build a tower
the top ot which would reach hea
ven would they need to thank God?
They would rather thank their
power to build, and rob God of
glory due his holy name. I think I
| have identified the thief and will
||||. call his name Pagan.
Efe 2nd. “He that sweareth falsely
ggfi ■* ’ by the name of God.” God gave to
Ihr' the Jews a written law and in that
j law was certain requirments and
5 conditions for them to observe
t and do, with the express promise
that if they were obedient they
should eat of the gcod of the land,
and certain chastisements if they
• *' *.- i z*l
* r / z/-/
I / Z
@l)e pilgrim’s fanner.
“THOU HAST GIVEN A BANNER TO THEM THAT FEAR THEE, THAT IT MAY BE DISPLAYED BECAUSE OF THE TRUTH.”—Psalms 60: 4.
— , ‘ t-
were disobedient,but not one word
about eternal salvation; or etcr
nal misery;but still the carnal Jews
believed and taught that they had
eternal life m the scriptures, and
while they professed to follow and
obey this written law they forsook
the law, and made it void by their
traditons.Following the instinct of
all mankind that salvation is
obtanied ty works Ihey u swore the
Lord livethj’ lut tvoie falsely and
denied the cadi by their work, and
it is equally sopow. All the anti
ch ristians powers of the religious
world is found in this division.
They can eat tijeir own bread and
wear their own apparel“cin]y let us
be called by thy name to take
away our reproach,’’Then to swear
falsely is to profess faith in the r
scriptures teach salvation
by grace alone, and then take up
a theory that teaches salvation by
worksjhey are those that say they
are Jews, and are jiot, but are the
synagogue of satan. I have already
named this one anti-ebnst. •
sth verse. ‘‘Then the angel that
talked with me went forth,and said
unto me, “Lift up now thine eyes,
and see what is this that goeth
forth, and I said, “what is it?” And
he said, “This is an ephah that
goeth forth.” He said moreover,
“This is their (the thief and
false swearer) resemblance
through all the earth,” embraces
all the religion of the world. Now
the ephah is their resemblance,and
if we knew w hat is meant by the
ephah we would have a good start
to further identify them. Literally
among the Jews.
Then what is the ephah? To my
mind it represents man’s ability to
peifoim renditions in order to sal
vation, whether contained in a
written.law given by God, or an
imaginary unwritten law.ln speak
• ing of man’s ability to perform con
ditions, and of the conditions, w r e
have to speak of them as though
they existed,but remember we are
treating of false religion that the
world is full of. How did mankind
-
get this false idea that has filled
the woi;]d, with “the curse that
goeth forth over the face of the
whole earth?”
“And the serpent said unto the
woman,ye shall not surely die, for
God doth know that in the day ye
eat thereof then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil.” When
man partook of the forbidden fruit
he accepted what the serptnt said,
and that became a principle of
law in his nature and perpetuated
fin all his posterity,and so it became
! a seed, not littefally, but the off
spring of a wicked spirit the spawn
of satan. There,then is the starting
point of all false theories and all ba
,bel-builders.Ye shall not surely die,
Then man is not dead in trespass
and sin,consequently has power to
perform,and wisdom to choose for
himself, being as gods knowing
good and evil. Then here is the
ephah containing means, imagined
powers to do some good thing to
inherit eternal life.
7th. verse “And behold there
was lifted up a talent of lead, and
this is a woman that sitteth in the
midbt of the ephah. Woman is
chosen to represent the church of
God, the bride the lambs wife, and
also women are chosen to repres
ent all the pagan and anti-chris
tian systems ot the world. Oh; my
soul! look at the difference in
the character of the women, one a
chaste wife leaning on the arm of
her beloved and careing nothing for
DEVOTEDTO THE CAUSE OF CHRIST
VALDOSTA, GA., HAY, 1, 1895.
the smiles of any other; the other
women ready to commit fornica
tion w’ith the kings of (he earth,
also read Solomons description.
Prov. 7 chapter verse 5-277
Then this woman that sitteth in
the midst of the ephah is the pagan
woman from the fall of man
(wherein was started the root of
all false religions) till the giving
of the law. There was but the one
woman.
Bth verse. “And he said unto
me this is wickedness. And he
cast it in the midst of .the ephah;
and he cast the weight of the lead
upon the mouth thereof.
9th verse. “Then* lifted I up
mine eyes and looked, and behold
there came out two women, and
the wind was in their wings; for
they had wings like the wings of a
stork. Stange metaphor indeed, so
mysterious forgone so foolish and
weak to write upon—but it affords
me satisfaction, if it should be only
speculation. The wings of a bird
is its means of travel, and the
cause of its peculiar going forth,
and when applied to these women
would represent all their arts and
tactics used in spreading abroad
their gospel, and the wind in their
wings represents the power by
which these arts and tactics are
put in force. But how unlike that
wind that bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereat
of; but canst not tell whence it
cameth or whether it goeth. So
is every one that is tr'i'ii of the
Spirit. Then this wiiuf represents
the work of the Holy Spirit in the
Suh
their wings is what they substi
tute for the work of the Holy
Spirit. Such as excitement of the
natural mind, aroused by preach
ing hell fire, and the horrid state
of the damned, connected with
singing lively exciting songs and
physical demomtiafions, shaking
hands etc.- Who has ever been at
one of these protracted efforts with
out feeling the force or power of
the wind that sometimes get so
strong as to sweep every thing be
fore it. Some of God’s little chil
dren have felt the influence of this
wind to their own sorrow, and
even learned to perform wing
movements. Nothing but the
true light shining in the heart,
can show any one the false religion.
“For they had wings like the wings
of a stork.” By learning the habits
of the stork it may help to illus
trate the foregoing. I quote from
Brit., Enc., S., p., 605: “Its
food eonsisting mainly of frogs
and insects is gathered in the
neighboring pastures, across which
it may be seen stalking with an
air of quiet divinity, but in the sea
son of love (time ot exciting meet
ings,) it indulges in gestures which
can only be called grotesque hop
ing from the ground with ex
tended wings in a kind of dance,
and absolutly voiceless as it is,
making a loud noise by the clat
tering of its mandibles (beak.)
At other times it may be seen
gravely resting on one leg on an
elevated place to sweep aloft and
circle with a slow and majestic
flights. This shows the rediculous
and grotesque action in times of
excitemeht of persons who or
dinarily walk in a quiet way. Was
you ever at a protracted meeting
and see ten, twenty or thirty leap
ing and dancing around like so
many storks. Further the stork
is voiceless, but. makes a loud noise
with the clattering of its mandi
bles. We regard the singing ot a
bird a praise to its Creator. But
nut one praise is ever hea r d
to the greafeCreator from a gather
ing of anti-typical storks.
s the marbles is the member
used to confey food to the body,
so this repfcnts the collections,
church faiiS, fish ponds, sham post
offices, aril tricks and barters
resorted to raise money and
means to al the mandible of those,
“whose gAlistbek belly whose
glory is .wfeir shame, who mind
earthly thfo'” “And they lifted
up the cjiah between the earth
and heavtf (that is from laying
brick and mortar to speculative
philosophy or as Paul calls it
Spiritual ’ wickedness in high
places.) Then said Ito ‘the an'el
that talked with me. Whether do
these (women ) bear the ephah.
And he sa|fi pnto me, “To build it
a houde inftho land of Shinar; and
it shall be established, and set
there upffn her own base.” This
is an of all the pre
vious parjpf the-chapter.
The la|jl of Shinar is where the
tower of Babel was built. “And
they said laid go to, let us build us
a city, and a tower whose top
may reach unto heaven, and let us
make a name etc. Now as the
ephah represents human ability,
just so tljfe tower does, and the.
building qf the tow r er is a type of
all religequs building whereby the
builders expect to reach 'heaven.
And they said one to another,
“Mt us make brick and burn them
thoroughly, and they had brick
for stone, and slime had they for
mortar.” This is the kind of ma
terial I hiy used to build heaven
yet, they burn their brick
thoroughly by excitement over
hell fire, and bind them together
with slime, or humanly invented
church rules. This city and tower
in the land of Shinar shall be es
tablished on her own base.
And the Lord came dowm to
4
see the city and the tower, which
the children of men builded, and
the Lord said “Behold the people
is one (that is one woman), and
they all have one language, and
this they begin to do, and now
nothing will be received from them,
which they have imagined to do,
so, Go to, let let us go down, and
there confound their language,
that they may not understand one
another speak, so the Lord scat
tered theih, and thej left off to
build the city. Therefore is the
named of it called Babel because
the Lord did there confound the
language of all the earth.” Now
as the Lord confounded the lan
guage of these tower builders, so
that theyiceased to build, will not
He also confound the antitype in
like manner! It is clearly taught
in the Scriptures that Babylon
(derived from Babel) shall fall,
sink to rise no more, and the time
of that is with the Lord. But it
looks like the time had come w’ith
them as with the Babel builders
when it was said “and now nothing
will be received from them
which they have imagined to do,
but their iniquity must be full.
Dec. Bth 1894.
As there has strange things,
taken place in the religious world
of late, I will take up the subject
again, and write something more
about the two women. I have
said there was but one woman till
the giving of the law. When the
Lord came down on Mount Sinai,
and gave the law to Moses, which
was weighty indeed, and may be
represented by the talent of lead
being cast into the mouth of the
ephah, and there came out two
women; then confusion began.
One said slvation, by keeping the
precepts of the law, the other said
said salvation by moral duty, guid
ed by the light of natural reason;
and they have quarreled, and fuss
ed, and waged war on each other
and filled the world with coufu
sion.
Now the-strange pait of my
story is yet to come, and that
w Inch concerns us most. Notwith
tanding their former history of ha
tred and bloodshedding, they havt
lately become friendly, have quit
their hair-pulling andactually me<
on a common level herein Chicago
on the 12th of September to talk
over matters; for they have found
that they are near kin, even sisters;
and hugged, and kissed, and cried
with joy, and took up a new watch
word. “The fatherhood of God,
and the common brotherhood of
man.”
I mean the “Parliament of the
religions of the world.” To many
it has no look of significance more
than a feature of the great fair
But to me it looks ominous. Some
may ask how it is they met on a
common level. I answer by the
Christian woman (by name .only)
selling her (imaginary) Christ for
less than Judas got, or rather gave
him away; although Joseph Cook
did object some to giving-up every
thing and took a leap backward
nearly four thousand years, for
sook their Christ, leaving him only
a good example, not much ahead
of Buddha, .Brahma or Mohamed,
and tifs BtW'set
to take the first place/ as a guide
to truth, and the Bible the second
place, and thus they conceded all
the pagan could ask. No infidel
or sceptic would ask any more
than to place reason first, and then
s ich parts of the Bible as does not
conflict with reason.
I will here make a clip from the
Chicago Tribune of September 12.
“Under the banner of a common
hope, met y esterday the strongest
gathering of men the world has
ever seen. No tie of blood bound
them. Jew sit by Gentile, Rus
sian by Hindoo, Greek by negro,
Saxon by Gaul. There were
black faces and white, yellow and
red, bearded and shaven. No
great scheme of universal power
or conquest held them. Men
were on that platform who owe al
legieuce to the kings of twenty
empires, Yet some of them had
travelled 13,000 miles around the
world to meet under the bare raft
ers ot the Hall of Columbus. To
the eye they had nothing in com
mon. They were men of many
tongues; of all races. They wore
strange robes, turbans and tunics,
crosses and crescents, flowing hair
and tonsured scalps. There were
spots of Oriental color and bits of
Occidental gloom. From the four
corners of the earth these men had
come together to forward the
cause of a common humanity here
and hereafter. They had come to
demonstrate by their presence the
vital power of that universal spirit
which drives men everywhere to
look upward at a star. They had
come to teach the ancient lesson,
professed but never practiced, that
men are brothers and all the world
is kin. They had come to make
memorable the most histone day
of all this latest century. But
yesterday met the disciples of
Chii »t. disciples of Mohamed,
disciples of Buddha, disciples of
Brahma, and standing together in
the name of a common God, asked
a blessing on mankind and all the
works of men. It was the crown
upon the head of many gathered
nations.”
As the Parliament of religions is
now a matter of history open to
all, I will leave it and consider the
religion of the world under the
similitude of the Dragon the beast
and the false prophet.
Ist. The Dragon which is the
same I have been representing by
the pagan woman, is the original
and simplest form' of idolatrous
worship, and represented by the
offering of Cain, without written
aw or any intention or training,
and wholy of a tangible nature,
and I am. told the Greek word that
Dragon is derived from means
wild or untrained animals, and is
represented in typeby Cain’s of
fering, the building of the tower,
etc., and repiesents a religion and
salvation without any help, save
the works ot their own hands; no
need with them of a crucified
Savior or any mediator, for man
kind by nature never thought of
the need of a mediator, and there
is nothing in nature to give man
such a thought.
2nd. The word that beast is
translated from, means tame do
mestic or trained animals,, and
when applied religiously means
the Christian woman that came
out after the giving bf the law and
(rained, disciplined and educated
by it. Then beast" would properly W
mean a catechised or trained Dra
gon, or the prjjteipalof idol wor
dAp changed ,
*wm, thinking they hiad-
life in the scriptures.
3rd. The false prophet which
means Mohamed and his followers.
There is but one thing prevents
them being clashed with the pagan
and that is they have a book
which they regard as infallible in
spiration, but they place Jesus
Christ among the prophets,, Mo
hamed being the greatest one.
Therefore they are a mongrel; half
beast, half Dragon; beast from
their guide book, Dragon from
their rejection of a mediator, and
resting wholly on their own works.
There is another beast I wish to
speak about. “And I beheld an
other beast coming up out of the'
earth, and he had two horns like a
lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
And he exercised all the power of
the first beast before him, and
caused the earth and them which
dwelt therein to worship the first
beast, whose deadly wound was
healed. And he doeth great won
ders, so that he maketh fire come
down from heaven on the earth in
the sight of men; and deceiveth
them that dwell on the earth by
the means of those miracles which
he had power to do in the sight of
the beast. Saying to them that
dwell in the earth that they should
make an image to the beast,
which had the wound by a sword
and did live. And he had power
to give life into the image of the
beast should both speak, and cause
that as many as would not wor
ship the image of the beast should
be killed.—Rev. 13
To make an image or likeness
an artist would first make an out
line of the main features, and then
“touch up” with the peculiar fea
tures of the original, which is the
beast that John saw rise up out of
the sea, also Daniel 7-7 says. Af
ter this I saw in the night visions,
and behold a fourth beast dreadful
and terrible, and strong exceed-
[Concluded on 4th page.]
No. 9