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Vol. 2. » 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