Prophecy and world events

1. Be Doers: Memory, Readiness and Christ’s ReturnNo. 2 · 1 January 1868 · 16 min read aloud · Read: James 1

   Observes that the breaking of bread directs thought to Christ, and that the Roman Question and the expected end of the Papacy’s 1260 years point to his return, as in Daniel 7.

2. Serving Christ while awaiting the good timeNo. 25 · 1 November 1870 · 23 min read aloud · Read: Revelation 6

   The exhortation contrasts the present violent, vain world with the good time coming through Abraham and his seed, and urges that those who belong to Christ be a peculiar people who do good without ostentation, obey his commandments, and sow to the spirit rather than seek worldly pleasure and riches.

3. Watching for God’s three great interventionsNo. 27 · 1 May 1871 · 21 min read aloud

   The speaker reviews three occasions when God intervened in human affairs while most people noticed nothing: the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the coming of Christ, and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

4. Waiting for Christ: Delay, Patience and ComfortNo. 57 · 1 August 1874 · 17 min read aloud · Read: Psalm 10

   Argues that Christ’s allusions to his second coming presuppose a period of waiting, and that the apparent delay is no delay from the Lord’s point of view but a matter of our expectations, since the end and the time of the end are different things.

5. The Table’s Panorama: Christ Behind and BeforeNo. 58 · 1 September 1874 · 19 min read aloud

   Gathered at the table, the exhortation surveys the Bible story as a landscape coloured with Christ: behind, his birth, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension and the apostolic age, followed by the decline into apostasy and the rise of the Papacy; ahead, his reappearing, the judgment, the time of trouble among the nations and the kingdom of God filling the earth.

6. Humility, Prayer and Mercy: Principles of the KingdomNo. 61 · 1 December 1874 · 21 min read aloud · Read: Psalm 28, Daniel 2

   Noting that the events of Daniel’s image have run their course without us and that the end is near, the speaker says the question at Christ’s appearing will be whether our lives have been in harmony with the principles of the kingdom, which differ from the world’s wisdom.

7. God Exalted: Confidence from Psalm 46No. 64 · 1 April 1875 · 21 min read aloud · Read: Psalm 46

   Takes two points from Psalm 46: the confidence in God that sustains believers in trouble (verse 1) and the declaration ‘I will be exalted’ (verse 10).

8. Remarks on the Death of Brother AllsoppNo. 66 · 1 June 1875 · 19 min read aloud

   Spoken on learning of the sudden death of brother Allsopp, who led the singing; praises his usefulness, Scripture-reading and zeal, and suggests the loss may be like rain on the garden, sent so that the Word planted in believers may bear fruit.

9. God Our Sun and Shield: Comfort in TrialNo. 73 · 1 January 1876 · 30 min read aloud · Read: Psalm 84

   Taking the Eastern Question as a sign that the Lord is near, the exhortation turns to the comfort of Psalm 84, “The Lord God is a sun and shield”, and to the kindness of God shown in reconciling the world through Christ.

10. Obedience to Commandments, Not Mere Interest in ProphecyNo. 84 · 1 May 1877 · 18 min read aloud

    The basis of the ecclesia is the work of the apostles, and the first-century brethren were faithful without the excitement of the political signs of the times.

11. Russia’s War on Turkey and the Coming ChristNo. 85 · 1 June 1877 · 24 min read aloud

    Taking notice of Russia’s declaration of war against Turkey, the speaker says it is the event long looked for from Daniel, Ezekiel and John, and contrasts the situation with that of 1854, when Papal power, France, Turkey and the state of the Holy Land and of believers made the time not yet ripe.

12. The Enduring Word, Damascus and Spiritual WorshipNo. 86 · 1 July 1877 · 29 min read aloud · Read: Isaiah 17

    Taking the statement that “the word of the Lord endureth for ever”, the exhortation says it assures the stability of the universe and, more importantly, the certainty of what God has said to individuals.

13. Zephaniah’s Warning: Deism, Pride and PatriotismNo. 92 · 1 February 1878 · 24 min read aloud · Read: Zephaniah 2

    From the oracle of Zephaniah 2, the exhortation says that Scripture written about ancient peoples is for our instruction, and that the ‘men settled on their lees’ who think God does nothing, good or evil, hold what is now called Deism.

14. Remembering Christ Together with the FatherNo. 95 · 1 May 1878 · 23 min read aloud

    At the breaking of bread we are to remember Christ in all his aspects, including as the manifestation of the Father, who dwelt in him and whose love Christ himself declared.

15. The Day of the Lord Comes as a ThiefNo. 97 · 1 July 1878 · 24 min read aloud · Read: 1 Thessalonians 5

    From Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, the speaker explains that the day of the Lord will come as a thief and a snare upon the unwatchful world, but not upon the brethren who watch and know the signs.

16. Zion’s Dawn: Cyprus Protectorate and WatchfulnessNo. 99 · 1 September 1878 · 21 min read aloud · Read: Jeremiah 4

    Beginning from the heavy tidings against Zion in the portion of Jeremiah read that morning, the speaker turns to the promises of her comfort and restoration, and says the time of Jerusalem’s desolation is now past.

17. Gentile Believers Stand Conditionally: Israel’s WarningNo. 104 · 1 February 1879 · 25 min read aloud

    Beginning with the privilege and present comfort of knowing the truth in a time of gathering tribulation, the exhortation recalls that the Gentiles were called when Israel declined the invitation.

18. Election Signs, Christ’s Coming, Fruits of the SpiritNo. 119 · 1 May 1880 · 22 min read aloud · Read: Galatians 5

    Takes the 1880 general election as a sign of the times and says that the Liberal victory must serve the purpose of God, as Joseph’s sale into Egypt did, so that believers can only watch the developing latter-day situation.

19. Daniel’s Prayer: God’s Greatness, Seventy WeeksNo. 126 · 1 December 1880 · 33 min read aloud · Read: Daniel 9

    Taking the Daniel 9 reading, notes that Babylon’s fall shows God’s purpose standing sure and that reading the Scriptures together relieves the feeling that present evils must last.

20. Facts, Fulfilled Prophecy and the Apostles’ WitnessNo. 127 · 1 January 1881 · 27 min read aloud

    Taking Christ’s words ‘If ye believe not me, believe the works,’ the speaker argues that God’s appeal to man has always rested on facts, and that believers today stand on a long record of fulfilled prophecy, including the prophecy that prophecy would cease for a time.

21. Waiting Patiently and Watchfully Until He ComeNo. 129 · 1 March 1881 · 27 min read aloud

    Taking the words “until he come” from Paul’s remark on the breaking of bread, the speaker contrasts the first disciples, who had known Christ personally, with believers now, and says the Lord’s return is more nearly due than ever, though the exact time has been withheld.

22. Right Views of Life: Tyre, Britain, PaulNo. 135 · 1 November 1881 · 29 min read aloud · Read: 1 Chronicles 15, Ezekiel 27, Ezekiel 28, Galatians 1

    The exhortation argues that right views of life are of great consequence, since human life and history look aimless without the testimony of Scripture.

23. Appeal for Relief of Persecuted Russian JewsNo. 138 · 1 April 1882 · 24 min read aloud

    The exhortation proposes a collection that morning for the Jews suffering persecution in the Russian empire, on the ground of the general command to do good to all men and, above all, because they are Abraham’s descendants, the nation to whom the promises belong.

24. Prophecy’s Delay and the Parable of the SowerNo. 150 · 1 November 1883 · 23 min read aloud · Read: Ezekiel 12

    Taking Peter’s call to desire the sincere milk of the word, the speaker turns to Ezekiel 12, where the proverb ‘the days are prolonged and every vision faileth’ was rebuked, and compares it with the scorn now met at the delay of Christ’s coming.

25. The Jews God’s Monument: Helping IsraelNo. 152 · 1 January 1884 · 26 min read aloud

    The speaker says the ecclesia has the honour of uniting that morning to do good to Israel after the flesh, and that God’s friends must not add to the affliction of a people scattered as foretold.

26. Jerusalem and Rome: Their Present State and FutureNo. 159 · 1 August 1884 · 28 min read aloud · Read: Isaiah 54, Revelation 17, Revelation 18

    Taking the readings from Isaiah 54 and Revelation 17 and 18, the speaker contrasts two cities: Jerusalem, now desolate because God has forsaken her for a time, and Rome, which has long ruled the nations as the harlot of the Apocalypse.

27. Ezekiel’s Three Visions of God’s GloryNo. 183 · 1 October 1887 · 26 min read aloud

    Taking the book of Ezekiel read that morning, the exhortation says it has a beginning, middle and end, in each of which the prophet witnesses the glory of the Lord: first in the vision by the river Chebar, then in the glory’s departure from Jerusalem, and finally in its return to the future temple.

28. Why the Prophets Condemn and Judgment ApproachesNo. 184 · 1 November 1887 · 24 min read aloud · Read: Ezekiel 20, Luke 18

    The exhortation asks why the prophets, unlike other national writers, are full of condemnation of Israel, and answers that they spoke by divine impulse because Israel had set God aside, and that it is reasonable for God’s will to be law since all things are of Him.

29. Daniel 8, Rome and the Coming ChristNo. 185 · 1 December 1887 · 22 min read aloud · Read: Acts 8, Daniel 8

    Beginning from Philip preaching Jesus to the eunuch out of Isaiah, the exhortation takes the eighth chapter of Daniel and shows its connection with Christ: the ram, the he-goat and the little horn are explained as Persia, Greece and Rome, and Rome is said to complete the prophecy by standing up against the Prince of Princes at Christ’s coming.

30. Zechariah’s Candlestick Vision and the KingdomNo. 250 · 1 February 1894 · 22 min read aloud · Read: Zechariah 4

    Taking the morning’s reading from Zechariah 4, the speaker says prophecy is deliberately given in dark figures that must be searched out, and reads the waking of Zechariah as a figure of resurrection.

31. Looking Up: Signs of Christ’s ReturnNo. 253 · 1 May 1894 · 22 min read aloud

    Answering the charge that believers live in the past or future, the speaker says the table of the Lord links the first century to the present, and urges reading the New Testament as true eye-witness record.

32. Isaiah 17 and Britain’s Place in ProphecyNo. 255 · 1 July 1894 · 22 min read aloud · Read: Isaiah 17

    Taking Isaiah 17, the speaker says forgetfulness of God is the ultimate cause of human ruin, and that the desolation foretold of Damascus, Aroer and Ephraim is seen in Israel’s present state.

33. Fulfilled Prophecy of Tyre and the Overcoming LifeNo. 259 · 1 November 1894 · 22 min read aloud · Read: Ezekiel 25, Ezekiel 26, Ezekiel 27, Ezekiel 28

    The speaker says believers stand between the old man and the new, and that God alone can make all things new, which is why His words are to be trusted as true.

34. Remembering the Living Christ PersonallyNo. 307 · 1 June 1899 · 18 min read aloud · Read: Revelation 13, Revelation 14 F. W. P.

    The exhortation contrasts the world’s gatherings with the remembrance of Christ at the table and urges each believer to dwell on Christ as a living person with whom he will deal individually.

35. Obedience, Isaiah’s Servant and the Rainbowed AngelNo. 309 · 1 August 1899 · 22 min read aloud · Read: Isaiah 50, Revelation 10, Revelation 11 C. C. Walker

    Meeting at the emblems in obedience to Christ’s command, the speaker says the obedience asked of believers is that of intelligent friends rather than mere servants, and turns to the day’s readings.

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