KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

"Teaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God. . ."

THE HEAVENS DECLARE

Part 26

SAGITTARIUS--THE ARCHER

(continued)

The first of the Decans (minor constellations) in the house of Sagittarius is THE HARP (LYRA). The harp is the oldest of stringed instruments of music, mentioned in scripture almost from the beginning of history. Throughout both the Old and New Testaments the harp is the supreme symbol for praise and worship. Modern atlases depict the constellation of Lyra by an eagle holding the harp, or a harp placed over the eagle. There can be no doubt about the meaning -- that praise shall ascend up AS AN EAGLE TOWARD HEAVEN. Two other conspicuous stars in this constellation are Shelyuk, which means "an eagle" and Sulaphat, meaning "springing up" or "ascending" -- as in praise. And this praise is associated with the going forth of the victorious Horseman. It is the celebration of His triumph in us, the extension of His Kingdom over our land. It is also interesting to note that the name of the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra is Vega, meaning He shall be exalted. Its actual magnitude is very great, perhaps a hundred times that of our sun. This sparkling gem of the summer sky directs our attention to the theme of universal praise as every creature in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and upon the sea, and all things in all realms are heard singing, and saying, "To Him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion for the ages of the ages!" (Rev. 5:13).

It is my purpose in these articles on THE HARP to take the harp out of the starry heavens above and out of the inspired pages of holy writ, and, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to touch the strings and bring out of them melody for our souls. Our heavenly Father has acknowledged us as His children. He tells about how He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and how we were with Him in the celestial councils when the worlds were framed, when the gargantuan galaxies and the distant array of spiral nebulae came into being, when in the heat of nuclear fury the first photon burst forth at the fastest of all speeds at the command of the One who said, "Let there be light" -- with that command a universe of raging infernos came into existence -- and you beheld all this! And every time a new sun was born, or a new solar system came into being, or a new life was formed, you were filled with joy at the wonder of Father's great and glorious plan, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, all the morning stars sang together, rejoicing over each creation, its splendor, its magnitude. My beloved, you are not an insignificant, purposeless blob of earth trapped on a smaller-than-usual planet full of ailments and disorders, lost amidst millions of other whirling galaxies. YOU ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE MOST HIGH. I want you to know that your names were written down in the Family Book in the heavens, the Lamb's book of life, before the light of the sun ever brought the beauty of the dawn or kissed the everlasting hills. Never forget -- the sons of God were with the Father before the world was, eternal children of the heavenly Father whose plan and purpose and power and love reaches out throughout all time, and who gave the world His best when He sent His First-begotten into the world. He has redeemed His own, He has brought forth a first-fruits of that redemption, He has established them into a Kingdom, to bring a wayward world devoid of spiritual consciousness back into relationship with Him. This earth, this solar system, this vast universe beyond is not going to be left to someone else. No one is going to come in some distant age and behold the desolation and ruins of this planet, as they look at the ruins of ancient empires, and say, Here it is, the place where the christians lived; here it is, the planet where Jesus lived and died and rose again; here it is, the world where the sons of God once aspired to deliver the whole race from the bondage of sin, sorrow and death, and lift it up to righteousness, joy, peace and life in the Spirit. That chapter of history, precious friend of mine, is never going to be recorded, because you are a part of God's bright today and His endless tomorrows, for you have been with Him from the beginning, and are going to be with Him in His creative and redemptive and reconstructive work in all the glorious age and ages to come, when every knee shall bow in homage and every tongue shall frankly and openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This is the message of the Kingdom! This is the great gospel of God! This is the word of the sons of God, that mighty household of warriors in the earth! This is the unmistakable message proclaimed from times immemorial by the portentous portrait in GOD'S BIBLE IN THE SKY, the wonderful picture of Lyra, the Harp, held high by the Eagle. The message is clear -- in all, through all, by all, and unto all THE LORD SHALL BE PRAISED! The Oracle can by no means fall short; the Prophecy cannot fail. It is written in the Signs of the heavens, it is written in the pages of Holy Writ, it is written in the minds and hearts of God's sons. The almighty Father calls on you to stand, to conquer the darkness, to break the power of the adversary, to vanquish death, to know that you can move forward with new assurance, new faith, new strength, new understanding; for His purposes for you abide forever.

"And I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with Him a hundred and forty four thousand who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads; and they sing a NEW SONG before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever He goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless" (Rev. 14:1-5, R.S.V.).

We have pictured here for us the company of the firstfruits unto God. These are a company of overcomers as signified by their having the Father's name and the name of the Lamb written on their foreheads. "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God...and I will write upon him My new name" (Rev. 3:12). The number of them is 144,000. The number is symbolic, as are all the scenes in the Revelation. Twelve is the number of divine government. The number is twelve squared: twelve times twelve. It is divine government brought to its fullest and ultimate expression and reality. It is not a literal one hundred and forty four thousand; it rather means that all who make up this company have attained unto a place of rulership with the Lamb in the Kingdom of God. There are some things said about this group to which I would draw your reverent attention. Besides having the name of the Father and the name of the Lamb written on their foreheads, which indicates the position unto which they have attained, they sing a new song which no one else can sing but the hundred and forty four thousand. A name in the scriptures is descriptive of the character of the one who bears that name, especially when God gives the name to that person. Names are very important and this is why God many times changed the names of some. Jacob, the deceiver, the supplanter, had his name changed to Israel the prevailer, a prince, a ruler with God. His name had to be changed because he had a change of nature and his old name was no longer descriptive of him. Abram, a high father, was changed to Abraham, a father of multitudes. Abram's wife Sarai, which means Yah is Prince, was changed to Sarah, a princess, because from her kings would be born. This first-fruits company bore the name of God and the name of the Lamb, which tells us that they had attained unto the image and likeness of God and were filled with His fullness.

They sang a song that no one else could sing. A song bespeaks of an experience. Aboriginal people often do this. We civilized ones do not; it is something we have lost through our civilization. A dear brother told of his experience while in missionary work in Liberia. He said, "While we were in Liberia we often witnessed people singing out their experience. If a hunter had killed an elephant, a buffalo, a leopard or some other large animal, the village people would all gather around him to hear about the hunt. They would all sit in a circle and he wouldn't just tell them about it, he would put his experience into a song and he would sing it and dance, acting out how he stalked the animal and killed it. This was his song, no one else could sing it. It illustrated his experience in the hunt and he would sing and dance to the enjoyment of all the villagers." The new song the hundred forty and four thousand sing is of their experience and theirs alone, which they have had while following the Lamb. It is a song of victory over death, of conformation to the image of God, of life and triumph for evermore. Others cannot sing this song, for they have not had the same experience.

Today God is declaring new things...and every time God declares a new thing there is a NEW SONG. The new song of the Spirit that is being sung throughout the earth in this hour is not the work of accomplished musicians whose talents have birthed a new sound -- but the new song of the Spirit is the expression out of a people of the "new thing" that God is speaking and doing in the midst of His elect. Long millenniums ago the sweet singer of Israel intoned, "O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth..." (Ps. 96:1). It is the song that God gave David at the time of the dedication of the Ark of God on Mount Zion...and it concerned the "new thing" that God was doing then. But it was really prophetic of the "new thing" that God is doing now. It is the song of His Glory, the song of His Kingdom, the song of His righteous judgments in the earth, the celebration of His immortal and incorruptible life formed in a people. The voice from heaven (Rev. 14:2) as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder, and as the voice of harpers harping with their harps, appears unquestionably to be the voice of the company of the redeemed as they celebrate the consummation of God's great redemptive process. The new song can only mean that they have experienced within their lives the last, the final, the full and complete outworking of redemption. It is called the new song because the old song was the song of creation "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). At creation, when life sprang forth into the conscious enjoyment of celestial being, the heavenly chorus filled all the vast realm of visible and invisible things with rapturous and melodious praise and thanksgiving for the privilege of life in all the intensity and beauty and wonder and mystery of it. The creation of man was designed to be the topstone of this mystery as there was entrusted to him the dominion of the lower creation in anticipation of his ultimate rule over the entire creation. The disruption of this unspeakable joy by the fall of man, opened the way for a yet higher creation -- the NEW CREATION -- by which God would participate in the infinite sorrows of that which had fallen, and bear through death its curse, its pain and its tears, to establish that new creation of unsullied joy and peace, love and truth, life and glory which, because united with deity incarnate, could never fall again. Hence the "new song" which can only be sung when redemption is finally accomplished, and realized in the triumph of the Redeemer over all forces and powers of evil, including the Last Enemy which is Death. Singing is the antithesis of sorrow. There will be no cessation to the new song, because within those who sing it Christ has put an end to the reign of sin and death from which all sorrows spring.

No man can learn that song but the hundred forty and four thousand which are redeemed from the earth realm, from the power of sin and the dominion of death. As the triumph of His life works within we are more and more learning to sing that song, the new song. The melody of praise which arises from the soul set free is rising as a sweet incense unto the Lord. All praise to the Lamb who hath redeemed us! All praise to the Lamb who hath given us of His victory! He alone shall be exalted! He alone hath gotten the victory! The new song, no mortal can learn, for it is born of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Even now there are beginning to vibrate within those chords of Life, Light and Love which shall burst from our being in manifestation as the shackles of sin and the grave clothes of death are left behind. At the dawn of creation we sang the Song of the ages, when once the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. How glorious it was! Yet this new song shall be greater far than that primeval song -- for the Song of Redemption exceeds the Song of Creation, as the new creation transcends the old. It is the blessed privilege of every apprehended one to join in the glad tidings of victory as we approach our destiny in God. We were begotten, called and ordained in the bosom of the Father in an environment of singing and rejoicing. And when we are restored to the glory that we once had with the Father before the world was, we shall surely embody a Song as we never have before. As Paul Mueller so aptly wrote: "Surely all the Lord's apprehended ones can sing and give praise to the Lord for His goodness and mercy. By His omnipotent Spirit, the Lord is able to put a song in the heart, even though that one may be bound up and imprisoned by the soul that is darkened by doubts, fears and unbelief. Because of His life within, we are able to Sing and praise the Lord. We have been given a glimpse of the glory before us and can now sing and rejoice in the spirit of triumphant victory. We should be comfortable midst the true spirit of praise, worship and rejoicing, for we received our instructions in that environment, and we are also returning to that same divine realm of glory, light and life. We will lift up our hands in the holy sanctuary of the Lord, and will bless Him when we have arrived at the end of our journey to His house. Then our praises to Him will bring forth His blessing out of Zion (Ps. 134:3).

"The prophet foretold our ascent up to the hill of Zion in this very night, when he said, 'Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel. And (in the same night-time) the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of His arm...with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering and tempest, and hailstones' (Isa. 30:29-31). The good news we may now receive and cherish is that we shall have a song to sing during this present time which is the night of this dying age of man. The song we now sing is not a song of doom, gloom, and despair, but a song of victory, of triumph, and of jubilant fulfillment. In spite of the darkness and gloom all about us, we have a song to sing that defies all human reasoning and understanding. It is the song of the redeemed, the song of the Lamb and the song of Moses (Rev. 5:9 14:3 15:3). This song we now sing was not given us by man, nor could we have ever sung it while in captivity in Babylon's strange land. No man can sing this new song but those who have been caught up in His glory. In the midst of this night the Lord has given this promise for His chosen ones: 'But for you will there be a song, as in the night when a sacred festival is held, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out with a flute, to go to the mount of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel' (Isa. 30:29, Smith-Goodspeed). Brethren, we are not in darkness. This day has not overtaken us as a thief in the night. We are sons of the new day, sons of light. Children of the night and of the darkness of this world sleep on, but we will watch and be sober, waiting for His appearing. The Lord hath appointed us to obtain full salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. REJOICE, YOUR REDEMPTION DRAWETH NIGH!" -- end quote.

THE SONG OF MOSES AND THE LAMB

In chapter fourteen of Revelation we have the 144,000 singing a new song, accompanied by harpers harping with their harps, and shortly there follows another of these beautiful and illuminating passages wherein we read, "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, thou King of saints" (Rev. 15:2-3). "The song of Moses and the Lamb" -- whatever can it mean? Well, we will see, for we will turn to the passages in the scriptures, in which the idea is referred to. We will take the song of Moses first. You will find it in Exodus 15. It is the song of the great leader of Israel just after he and his followers had passed in safety through the Red Sea. "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my Father's God, and I will exalt Him" (Ex. 15:1-2). Now to enter into the full significance of this song we shall have to enter into the secret place of the heart of Moses himself. We cannot do that in its entirety as it ought to be done, but we are able now to measure and to estimate the value of the life of Moses as those who stood near him could not possibly do. Now, to understand why this song is put into his mouth, we must try to enter into his experience at the moment when it was first sung. This man of faith and courage has been leading a poor slave-hearted people out of bondage. There never was a more lonely figure in all history than he, and not one amongst his followers could understand the greatness of the sacrifice he had made. "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season" (Heb. 11:24-25). Thus Moses leaves behind him all the advantages of Egypt and the favor of its king; and for the sake of his "father's God" he deliberately chose the hard way, the solemn way, the way of Yahweh, and now he sings his paean of praise for victory granted. It could not have been but that he sang it all alone; there was not another man in the whole host who was worthy to sing it with him. It says the host of Israel sang, I know, but, for all that, Moses sang alone, and I think the Spirit has really entered into the situation when He makes Moses say, "My God, my strength, and my song. He also is become my salvation." For this man, all alone, has wrought for God, all alone has he been chosen to be the deliverer of Israel, and even now he sings his song of triumph on the very eve of a long pilgrimage. For his probation is not over. I pray you not to miss this point. Moses is not singing in the promised land, he is singing on the desert journey, he is singing on the borders of the Red Sea, he is singing amid trials and wearinesses innumerable. Moses' hardest battles had still to be fought, yet he is singing, "The Lord is my strength and my song." This, then, is the song of Moses. It is the song of a victory and salvation being inworked and wrought out by faith through the crucible of the journey. And none can learn this song but those who are experientially pressing forward against all the odds to lay hold upon the prize of HIS LIFE.

Now what is the song of the Lamb? The teachers and preachers in the church systems suppose it means that the blood-washed throng, the believers out of all the ages, around the throne of God in heaven, whose toils are over and done with for evermore, are there singing "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." And among this throng they include all who are saved by free grace alone, including the last murderer who has paid the penalty of his crime, and died in the odor of the electric chair; or the loathsome degenerate, whose flesh has reaped corruption as a result of his immoral life style, but who has achieved an eleventh-hour death-bed repentance, and now stands with Moses and the saints of all ages before the throne of God in heaven singing, "Worthy is the Lamb!" If this is your conception, my friend, you frustrate the meaning, for that is not the thought conveyed by the Spirit of God in this beautiful passage. The Seer of Patmos, who was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, looks as it were from heaven, but it was upon earth that he gazed. "I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous" (Rev. 15:1). What he saw from heaven was what you and I are doing, and he describes the sons of God on earth as singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. True, it is the song of heaven too, but it is a song that is begun on earth, and only those who have sung it here are entitled to sing it there.

Let us see now some of the references to this in the New Testament. The Lamb is first and foremost our Lord Jesus Christ, together with the body of the Lamb, that glorious company who have followed Him all the way to Mount Zion by way of Mount Calvary. If you turn to Mark's gospel you will discover one most illuminative phrase in his account of the eve of the Passion of our Lord. It is this: "And when they had sung a hymn they went out" (Mk. 14:26). More accurately: "When they had sung a song." What was it! It was one of the songs of Israel, one of the prophecies of Himself. In all probability this was the song that Jesus sang on the eve of Gethsemane, and in the shadow of Calvary: "Bind the sacrifice with chords, even unto the horns of the altar." "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, because His mercy endureth forever." Now, brethren, consider: twelve men were singing that song, but one that had been of the company was on his way with busy feet to betray his Master; and the other eleven sang as loudly as Jesus, we may be sure, like the host of Israel on the shores of the Red Sea; but, for all that, Jesus sang alone. No other could possibly sing that song and know what Jesus knew, feel what Jesus felt, do what Jesus did. August loneliness of the Son of God, singing His death-song in the shadow of betrayal and torture and death! This was the first note of the song of the Lamb that was slain; and yet, I say, though it was the first note, in a sense, it was not. The whole life of Jesus, the oblation that He made from the day of His call unto the day of His death, was the song of the Lamb that was slain, the song that was heard in heaven, but the song that was sung on earth and is still sung on earth by those who follow in His footsteps. Jesus began His song when He began His oblation of the life that was laid down for mankind, and still Jesus is singing that song, for the Lamb that was slain has not ceased His activity -- He is going forth to the ends of the earth conquering and to conquer.

Of that on-going song we read, "And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters" (Rev. 14:2). John was listening as from heaven, and the voice that he heard was not only there, it was here, singing, as it were, a new song. "And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song...and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth" (Rev. 14:2-3). He does not mean that they had been plucked away from the earth, for our Lord's prayer had to be answered: "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil" (Jn. 17:15). And, lastly, our text: "And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire" -- like the Red Sea -- "and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints" (Rev. 15:2-3). So Jesus from His throne, and the saints around it, and the warriors on earth, join in one glad triumphant song; IT IS THE SONG OF MOSES AND THE LAMB. The song of the Iamb is not the song of sinners saved by grace; it is the song of joy out of sorrow, of peace in the midst of storm, of perfection out of suffering, of light out of darkness, of righteousness triumphing over sin, of victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, of life conquering death. It is the song of the overcomer! The "Lamb" bespeaks of the humiliation and suffering that leads to life and exaltation. Ah, there is no victory without a battle, no overcomer without the powers of death and hell. My soul, consider! what was that which to the Seer of Patmos made the harmony complete? It was the vision of a vast multitude taking up the song -- the experience -- of the Lamb of sacrifice. There was a time when, to that multitude, the spectacle of sacrifice would have brought discord to the heart; but in the completed harmony it brings joy. The sweetest music is the song that is born of experience. The universe is all music, but it is not all music to our ear. We only hear a few chords, and they are minor chords. The minor chords seem discords when they stand alone; they lack the full symphony to bring out their symmetry. Thou art living in a world of perfect music, only thou hearest but a small portion of the music. Often art thou saying that the coming melody shall atone for the jarring chords. Nay; say rather that the jarring chords themselves shall be revealed as part of the completed harmony! The melody is not to come; it has come already; it has only to be revealed, and then the harpers stand upon the glassy sea. Until we thoroughly understand how suffering is preparation for reigning, we shall never be enthralled by the song of the Lamb. The minor chords get a meaning and receive a vindication when we stand upon the sea of glass and sing and harp this song. Do you not know that this was from the outset the goal of your being -- to be made perfect through suffering? It was for this that your first innocence was clouded. It was for this that your first joy was dimmed. It was for this that you were lowered from the garden of God to the field of thorns and thistles. It was for this that your first hope was shaken -- that you might reach Mount Zion by the steps of Mount Calvary. The minor chords of testing and trial played together with the chords of faith and patience harmonize into the symphony of perfection and glory. The wilderness of the Son of man is better than the garden of Adam. The morning stars sang together over your untried nature; but there awaits a yet grander music -- when the harps of God shall proclaim that you have conquered all and stand triumphant in His image!

Just as the Israelites of old, after having passed through the Red Sea dry shod, stood upon the shore singing the song of Moses, Miriam and the women playing upon their timbrels, while their enemies perished in the waters, so these victors of our text, having passed over another sea and through the fiery trials of this earth life, stand at the transparent sea mingled with fire, where all is purged, purified, and transformed, singing a similar song of triumph for the manifestation of divine judgment, which is called "The song of Moses and the Lamb." What might this company be? What might be the sea upon whose shore they sing the song of victory to their Lord and Deliverer? Me thinks I have stood upon that very shore. This song is sung by a people who have been redeemed from the world systems symbolized by Egypt. This song of deliverance and triumph is sung by all who get the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name. Our deliverance from the Babylon systems is much greater than Israel's deliverance from Egypt. Greater. Think of it! But the deliverance is on-going, and the song is ever intensifying in tone and fervor. Our full deliverance will involve even our bodily transformation, as Paul Mueller wrote, "Only as we are delivered from this body of sin and death can we realize fully the victory of this prophetic song. He who is Lord of all is just as able to change these bodies as He was to wall up the waters of the Red Sea so that the people walked over on dry land. Then, He who is declared to be 'King of saints' shall in truth and in fact be that which the term implies, for He has caused them to triumph victoriously over sin and death. We shall then be overcomers indeed! When we have experienced the predicted deliverance, we shall then sing the song of Moses with joy and victory, saying, 'I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is His name. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against Thee: Thou sentest forth Thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of Thy arm they shall be as still as a stone; till Thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over which Thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever' (Ex. 15:1-18).

"What a wonderful Kingdom song! Moses and all Israel with him sang this song and prophesied that those of Palestina, Edom, Moab, and Canaan would be 'still as a stone till Thy people pass over' into the promised land. The Canaanites possessed the land that God promised to Israel, but they were assured that the Canaanites would be 'still as a stone' while Israel inhabited the land. This is truly one of the examples that our God has provided for us. It is an example illustrating His faithfulness to lead us into the abundant land of the Kingdom of God, just as He led our forefathers into Canaan's fair land. As historical Israel was delivered out of Egypt and led into the promised land, even so shall we be delivered of the conglomerate Babylon systems of this worldly order and into the Kingdom of God. And then we shall sing the song of Moses with the experiential knowledge of the prophetic truth this inspired song foretells. The Lord Himself was the song that Moses and all Israel sang just as He is for us today. The fresh, new wine of the Spirit is beginning to flow in our lives. We are now beginning to sing a new song, even a song of praise to our Lord, for He is being revealed as our salvation unto the fullness. While all else around us may be quiet and uneventful, we are beginning to sing a new song unto the Lord. Our spirits within us are becoming alive to a new and greater salvation. The Christ within is the song we sing, just as He was the song that enabled Moses and all Israel to sing unto Him. As the Lord sings His praises within us, nothing can stop the flow of life that comes from the wells of salvation. Therefore, with joy we will continue to draw water out of the wells of salvation" -- end quote.

Soon after John the Baptist was thrown into prison, Jesus left the country near Jerusalem with His disciples, and went toward Galilee, the province in the north. Between Judea in the south and Galilee in the north lay the land of Samaria, where the Samaritans lived, who hated the Jews. They worshipped the Lord as the Jews worshipped Him, but they had their own temple and their own priests. And they had their own scriptures, which was only the five books of Moses, for they would not read the other books of the Old Testament. The Jews and Samaritans would scarcely ever speak to each other, so great was the hatred between them. It was a long and tiring journey from Judea back to Galilee, and as He walked along the broad, hot valley floor of the ascent of Lebonah, Jesus would have seen the low-lying hills to the east and the gradually rising heights to the west. He would then come to Sychar, near the ruins of the ancient Shechem. And here, being much wearied from their journey, Jesus and His disciples paused to rest at the well at Sychar. This well had been dug by Jacob, the great father of the Israelites, many hundreds of years before. It was an old well then in the days of Jesus, and it is much older now, for the same well may be seen in that place still. Even now travelers may have a drink from Jacob's well. It was early in the morning, about sunrise, when Jesus was sitting by Jacob's well. He was very tired, for He had walked a long journey; He was hungry, and His disciples had gone to the village near at hand to buy food. He was thirsty, too; and as He looked into the well, he could see the water, a hundred feet below, but He had no rope with which to let down a jar to draw up some water to drink.

Just at this moment a Samaritan woman came to the well, with her water jar upon her head and her rope in her hand. Jesus looked at her, and in one glance read her soul and saw all her life. He knew that Jews did not often speak to Samaritans, but He said to her, "Please give me a drink." The woman saw from His looks and His dress that He was a Jew, and she said to Him, "How is it that you, who are a Jew, ask drink of me, a Samaritan woman?" Jesus answered her, "If you know what God's free gift is, and if you knew who it is that says to you, Give me a drink, you would ask Him to give you living water, and He would give it to you. There was something in the words and the looks of Jesus which caused the woman to sense that He was not a common man. She said to Him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where can you get that living water! Are you greater than our father Jacob, who drank from this well?" "Whoever drinks of this water," said Jesus, "shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. "Sir," said the woman, "give me some of this water of yours, so that I will not thirst any more nor come all the way to this well. Jesus looked at the woman and said to her, "Go home and bring your husband and come here." "I have no husband," answered the woman. "Yes," said Jesus, "you have spoken the truth. You have no husband. But you have had five husbands, and the man you are now living with is not your husband." The woman was filled with wonder as these words penetrated her soul. She saw that there was a man who knew what a stranger could not know. She felt that God had spoken to Him and she said, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet of God. Tell me whether our people or the Jews are right. Our fathers have worshipped on this mountain. The Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where men should go to worship. Now, which of these is the right place?" Her concern, and the major issue of the moment for her, had to do with the specific proper location for worship. In this respect, this woman differed little from multitudes in this hour who ask, "Where should we worship! What church should we attend" "What ministry should we submit to?" The Lord did not dodge her question. Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." The time would come, said the Lord, when both "this mountain" and "Jerusalem", as well as any other geographical locality, or appointed structure, would be considered completely irrelevant as a condition to worship.

A recent newspaper article was entitled, ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS STRIVE FOR SPIRITUAL AND POLITICAL HOME. It included the views of a rabbi and a Palestinian activist. The interview with the rabbi stated, "Today, Jews believe that worshipping in Jerusalem is essential to serving God, many of whose 613 Biblical commandments can be fulfilled only here." At the same time, the interview with the Palestinian pointed out, "So sacred is Jerusalem, Muslims believe, that a good deed committed here has 1,000 times the normal weight, while a sin committed here has 1,000 times the normal gravity. Opinions and sentiments concerning Jerusalem still run deep and are strongly felt by the carnal-minded after two thousand years! The modern city of Jerusalem still is the object of a struggle for power involving pride, envy, oppression, tyranny. The Samaritans for generations had worshipped God in Mount Gerizim and the Jews had for generations worshipped in their temple in Jerusalem. Each scorned the other's place of worship and Jesus is here speaking to the woman of Samaria and telling her that PLACES ARE OF NO CONSEQUENCE. God is spirit -- and mountain worship will not be acceptable. Neither will temple worship in Jerusalem be acceptable to God. If man is to worship God, then man must worship God AS HE IS, and not as man thinks He is or where man thinks He may be. Carnality and the natural man attempt to bring God into a realm that will enable them to see God according to their belief. Therefore some worship idols or images of metal, wood, or stone. Others worship the sun or the elements. Some must go to a building to worship God and others must have all manner of rites and ceremonies. Some must have a Jesus in a body of flesh, before they can worship God. But Jesus said that God was seeking a people who would worship God in the realm and sphere in which God is -- in Spirit and in Truth. Worshipping a physical location is not spiritual worship. "Oh," you say, "I do not worship the location, I just go there to worship God." Precious friend of mine, if you must go there in order to worship God, you are worshipping the place! When we worship God in spirit and in truth, it separates us from all the "helps" and "crutches." Such a worship takes away all the traditions of men, all the ceremonies and all the rituals and all the forms that every religious body of people are cumbered with. We won't go to a mountain, neither will we find it necessary to go to a temple. We will not have to work anything up or pray anything down. Certainly the Lord draws His people together for seasons of fellowship, praise, instruction, and edification. We do not oppose such gatherings, as the Lord ordains. But true worship will not take place just on Sunday morning or perhaps a night or two each week. True worship is a CONSTANT, CONTINUAL STATE OF BEING. God is spirit, and who can know spirit except God take us unto Himself in the realm in which He abides. God, Spirit and Truth, fills all space, is everywhere present, eternal and unchanging. When we live and walk in the spirit we are always dwelling at home in Him. We are always able to know and experience Him in the heaven of His presence, the true home and heaven of the consciousness of the life, reality and substance of God within.

This is one of the great truths that the vast majority of church members have not grasped to this day. That is, that the place of worship has no bearing whatsoever on the act of worship. Today, in order to hold together the system, the religious system men have developed, there must be a place of worship, and men must gather themselves together at that place so that they may worship. Anyone who claims to be able to worship God at any time and in any place becomes a heretic to the organized religionists. For, if the places of worship were taken away, and men truly worshipped in spirit and in truth, the whole religious system would fall apart. There would be no reason for it to continue. The whole religious system is builded upon having a "place" for people to come to so that the works of men may continue to be carried out. Again, let me affirm that God does indeed gather His people together, but such gathering together is UNTO HIM, and the place and order becomes inconsequential. It is when the place becomes important, it is when preachers and organizations demand your attendance, your submission, and your allegiance to them and their program, asserting that you cannot make it in to heaven, or the Kingdom, or sonship, or immortality apart from their teaching, their method, their order, their program -- it is there that worship in spirit and in truth is usurped by worship in "this mountain" or in "Jerusalem." Religion always tells us where, when and how to worship. Ah, but the Spirit, like a rushing wind carries us off to that realm of spirit and truth...far beyond place, time and methods...into the very presence of the Father...for it is there we gather to worship!

Let all who read these lines know of a certainty that worship in spirit and in truth is the worship of the New Covenant. This worship of the New Covenant and Testament is a new worship, which Christ Jesus, the heavenly spiritual Man, the second Adam, set up almost two millenniums ago; and then put down and abolished the worship at the mountain, and the worship at Jerusalem, when He set up this worship in spirit and in truth. And this spirit and truth must every man and woman know within themselves, by which they may know the God of truth, who is a spirit, within their spirit. The Jew inward worships in temple, his body being the temple of the Holy Ghost. And the Jew outward, in the Old Covenant and Testament; they sing and pray and preach in their temple, an outward temple made with hands. But the Jew inward, in the spirit, in the New Covenant and Testament, the new and living way, sings and rejoices and ministers and prays in the Holy Ghost, their bodies being temples of the Holy Ghost. And not yet the outward body of flesh, but the body of the inward man, the house from heaven, the spiritual body, the body of the Christ which every man who is putting on Christ is building within his own reality of Christ within. The type has passed, and we know that the temple built with hands is no more. But what do we see! Men are trying to reproduce it or to invent a substitute for it, thus perpetuating the Old Covenant, to walk as outward Jews. Church buildings, cathedrals and temples are pawned as the meeting place with God! Call these "churches" if you will. THEY ARE NOT CHURCHES. The very name is a blasphemy. They

are mere buildings; and there is nothing sacred or holy about them. They are not the "house of God" as the ignorant love to call them. We praise God for the privilege of gathering together with those of "like precious faith," and rejoice in any assembling of saints that is truly unto Him: but in point of fact it is not in any building made with hands that the Father is worshipped. Ah, how greatly we misconceive our true position! We certainly need not the Tabernacle of Moses, the Temple of Solomon, nor any cathedral or so-called church building to worship the Father or to minister as the Lord's anointed; because we are constituted priests of the HEAVENLY TABERNACLE, which no human hand ever reared, and which is the true meeting-place between God and His spiritual priesthood, yea, of all who come to God.

It is an indisputable fact that in all of the recorded history of the human race men have been prone to associate their worship of God with places and things, and to attach some special sacredness or power to that place of thing, until the places and things become more important than God Himself. Many precious folk imagine that because they met God in some glorious experience in such and such a building, room, or seat, they will find Him there again. I remember seeing people during the great healing campaigns of the late 1940's and early 1950's, long after the tent was folded, the lights out and the trucks departed, returning to stand in the saw dust at the exact spot where the glory of God had been seen, expecting to meet God in just the same way again. Jesus said: God is not a place, a building or a mountain; God is SPIRIT. You cannot confine God to a temple or a time. God does not move exclusively on Sunday morning at twenty minutes past eleven, following three choruses and two minutes of singing in the Spirit. His Spirit is everywhere, all the time. Whatever your expression or ministry is it should be able to function at any time and in any place, just as well as it does at "church. That is how Jesus ministered. He ministered in the fields, in the mountain, in the streets, in the homes, on the lake, and in the temple. His meetings never started at ten and ended at twelve. He was the temple of God at all times and in every place. And God manifested in His temple at all times and in every place. This will be the mark of the manifested sons of God. Their ministry will not be in church buildings nor in auditoriums. Their meetings will not be scheduled for certain hours on Sunday and Wednesday. There will be no newspaper or television advertising. There will be no campaign manager, music director, or prescribed order. They will appear and show forth the glory of the Father in the restaurants, in the homes, in the fields, in church buildings, on ships at sea, in airplanes streaking through the skies and trains racing through the night. It will be the sovereign, spontaneous, continuous, unrestrained, unplanned, unrehearsed, omnipotent outflow of Life, Light and Love. It will change lives, transform churches, revolutionize cities, conquer nations. It will redeem society and sweep the nations and all things into the Kingdom of God. IT IS THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. Even now we must learn to live and walk in the Spirit if we treasure the beautiful hope of sonship to God. They that worship God must do so in a state of being: in spirit and in truth.

I was greatly blessed many years ago by the following words written by George Hawtin: "There is a place in God where saints may dwell ten thousand times more real than any natural realm. There is a true temple, NOT MADE WITH HANDS, eternal in the heavens. It is the mystical temple, which is HIS BODY. There is a church which is THE TRUE CHURCH. Its happy saints dwell in the realm of the Spirit, and, because they do, they continually worship God in spirit and in truth. I anticipate that many will ask, 'How do we worship God in Spirit?' But this you will not discover until the hour comes when you learn that neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, nor in the church system, nor in the denomination, nor in the mass, nor in the ordinances, nor in any such thing do men worship the Father. When you have departed from all these things and broken these idols from off your neck and cast their image from before you, then you will see no man but Jesus only, and then only will you understand what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. When this wisdom is sweet to your soul, then like the woman of Samaria you will drop that jug with which you for so long a time drew natural water from a natural well, and you will run off as she to unashamedly declare, 'Is not this the Christ?" -- end quote. May God help all who have received the call to sonship to realize that we do not have to go to Jerusalem or to a mountain, or be at a special time or place to worship the Father, or use special words or a certain form, or go through the religious exercises the whole church world goes through every Sunday, but that we worship the Father at all times and in all places because our whole life IS WORSHIP. The great apostle Paul declared, "I am poured out like an oblation." Like incense, his whole life was an offering to God. May God almighty do a work in us and cause us to be true worshippers, that whether we are in the desert, or in the mountain, or in Jerusalem, or at home, or in a gathering of the saints, whether by voice, or by offering up, or whatever we are doing, reality be in us, so that whatever we do, we are doing it out of that reality. Strange, isn't it, that most "gifts of the Spirit" only work after three choruses or at the close of the sermon! Let us ask God to help us not to be PROFESSIONAL WORSHIPPERS, but to be TRUE WORSHIPPERS of the Father.

There is a wonderful scripture passage which is troubling to many wherein the inspired writer admonishes, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching" (Heb. 10:25). Be not alarmed or distressed because of those who would use the letter of this word as a hammer to bring condemnation to one who does not attend their weekly or daily set times of assembly! Nor, on the other hand, should you use your "liberty" as an excuse to "do your own thing," becoming self-righteous in your "freedom," independent and exalted in your own "spirituality," cutting yourself off from the body of Christ! Both extremes are unbalanced. On the one hand, there is the person who is in bondage to a group or leader or religious system, being careful to observe the letter of the law, attending every time the group assembles, regardless of the spiritual quality of the meeting. The other extreme is the one who is so independent and self-sufficient that he holds nothing but contempt for any gathering, regardless of the presence and leading of the Holy Spirit. In seeking to be free, he has come into bondage to lawlessness and rebellion. He is going his own self-righteous, puffed-up way, not being led by the Holy Spirit. May the Lord, the righteous Judge, bring us into balance, that we may truly be free in our spirits from man's religious requirements and bondages, yet humble before the Lord and before our brothers and sisters in Christ, ready to serve one another, and ready to receive from each other, as He leads, and gathering together as He directs, with meek and receptive hearts.

But there is a truth in this passage beyond all this. The Greek word for "assembling" is EPISUNAGOGE. It is a compound of the Greek prefix EPI with the word SUNAGOGE from which we get our transliterated English word Synagogue. EPI means super-imposition -- that which is above, higher than, highest, upon. SUNAGOGE means a meeting, assembly, of gathering. Putting these two together, EPI-SUNAGOGE means THE ABOVE SYNAGOGUE, THE HIGHER MEETING, THE HIGHEST ASSEMBLY, THE HIGHER-THAN-ALL-GATHERINGS! It bespeaks of something greater far than merely collecting so many breathing bodies together in one place. It is a meeting in a higher realm, on a higher plane, in the high places of the Spirit, and in the heights of Truth. It is a gathering together in a dimension above. It indicates an assembling IN THE SPIRIT, as Paul also testified, "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6). Tens of thousands, yea, tens of millions of believers gather together in "church buildings" every Sunday morning, and because they make the effort to get out of bed, get the family ready, and drive off to warm a pew, they are convinced that they have met the requirements of the divine fiat: "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. My beloved, they have not even touched the hem of the garment of this truth! We are not to forsake or neglect that wonderful seating we have together WITH CHRIST IN THE HEAVENLIES! That is precisely what the passage is saying. Hebrews 10:25 is nothing but lifeless words, until one sits in the presence of the Father, joined in worship with kindred spirits, and partakes of that holy communion within the veil! It is only as spirit calls to spirit that the depths of eternal truth are opened. And multitudes who meet together every week for singing, teaching, etc., have never discovered the glorious and eternal reality of that ABOVE SYNAGOGUE. They do not meet or minister or live from that higher-than-all-heavens realm of HIS LIFE.

When we meet with a company of the elect, we are not to think of them as the whole of those with whom we worship and minister. The true priest is one of a great festal throng, which is comprising the spiritual temple built of the living stones of redeemed and transformed men and women. As priests in the HEAVENLY SANCTUARY, the TRUE TABERNACLE which is above, we are but part of a great and universal congregation consisting of all the elect saints who have gone before, and those now living, gathered out of all ages, and throughout the vast universe of God. The preacher, the prisoner, the traveler, the mother, the king -- all meet there IN THE SPIRIT REALM, and worship and minister from thence. All are priests, and yonder is the great High Priest of our profession, who has pressed through the heavens and ever lives as the Minister of the heavenly sanctuary. He is "a minister of the true tabernacle." And such are we! He has raised us up and made us sit together with Him in these heavenly places, and He has made us to be a kingdom of priests. It is not "in church" on Sunday morning that we know the power of this priesthood; it is IN THE SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH, it is ASSEMBLED TOGETHER IN THE ABOVE SYNAGOGUE, in reality wrought within, every moment and everywhere and in every situation and circumstance as we live and walk and move in HIS REALM.

The regenerated spirit becomes a component factor in the sweet harmony of God's spiritual Kingdom. And what a Kingdom! And what a harmony! In duration it is from everlasting to everlasting. The granite hills shall melt away; the earth shall leave its orbit and fall into the chaos of crashing worlds; Orion, Arcturus, and Pleiades shall cease to travel the holy aisles of heaven; the sun shall be turned into darkness; the heavens shall be rolled back as a scroll, and as a vesture shall they be folded up; but beneath the scepter of the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, our Father, the Kingdom of Heaven shall still remain and move on in sweetest harmony with His holy will. For in this high and holy Kingdom no forces ever dash, no laws ever fail, no truth ever goes astray, no beauty ever fades, no light ever loses its luster, no good ever grows less, no life ever gets old, no love ever becomes cold, no joy ever ceases, no harmony ever has a discord. From the time when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God first shouted for joy, rhythm and rapture have rolled upward and onward through all the boundless and eternal spiritual universe as the sweet expression of the mind and will of almighty God. This universe, this higher-than-the-heavens universe, this Kingdom of Heaven, is the home and heritage of every son of God. He belongs to it, and it belongs to him. He is in it, and it is in him. He holds himself in harmony with it, and it fills his soul with its songs. He apprehends its truth, enjoys its beauties, and partakes of its holiness. There is no place in it where he may not feel at home -- no place where he has not a right to be; for it has been the Father's good pleasure to give him the Kingdom. His life is not measured by years, but by its possibilities and expansiveness. He has already been translated into this Heavenly Kingdom (Col. 1:13)! And the inner man which is renewed day by day, the heavenly man born from above by the incorruptible seed of the word of God, the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness cannot, by the very nature of his being, ever be separated from the consciousness and reality of this heavenly existence, contrary to the

contentions of those who teach that departed saints are dead like dogs, without consciousness or being, until the day of resurrection. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col. 3:1). Divinity and eternity are born within the man who is born of the Spirit. Now he is a child of God, but it doth not yet appear what he shall be. We are not to forsake this UPPER-SYNAGOGUING of ourselves together -- the communion and fellowship and expression together in this highest of all realms -- THE SPIRIT! Though we should meet and sing a thousand songs of praise and preach a thousand sermons out of the Good Book -- if we fail to touch that high realm of life and reality in the spirit we have not "upper-synagoued" at all -- having merely assembled and done some religious things on the low plane of soulish activity.

THE CELESTIAL SONG OF CREATION

More than a hundred years ago a preacher by the name of George T. Lemmon penned the following report: "At the last session of Parliament Tomlinson brought his wonderful Apollo Chorus of four hundred and fifty voices. The members of this Chorus were his own choice from the twelve thousand members of his four great classes of the three preceding years. Every member of the Chorus was a soloist of skill and power, yet all were here massed as the keys of a splendid human instrument of harmony. For the closing session of this remarkable assembly they were to sing the "Hallelujah Chorus." Dr. Barrows had pledged the Parliament that they would hear such music as had never charmed their ears before, and the music that thrilled six thousand souls that night more than fulfilled the pledge. The Chorus rises. The gallery has been given over to their use. Here at the right rise one hundred basses. Next to them stand eighty tenors. Across on the left are one hundred and twenty altos, and stretching in a double row from end to end of the rear gallery are one hundred and fifty sopranos. No orchestra is to share tonight with the full, rich melody and uplifting power of the human voice. The piano gives the chord, and then the only instrument that aids the choral host is the tiny baron in their leader's hand. The moment has come in the movement of the oratorio for the songs of men to lift their ascription of praise and honor to the Christ of God. First bursts forth the deep tones, repeated over and over again, of the rolling, stirring bass: 'He shall be King of kings. He shall be King of kings.' Then the altos lift the same great title on the pinions of their melodious tones: 'He shall be King of kings. He shall be King of kings.' The tenors are now inspired, and still higher they raise the glorious strain: 'He shall be king of kings. He shall be King of kings.' Now with full voice the one hundred and fifty sopranos ring out high over all 'And Lord of lords. And Lord of lords.' And then the four hundred and fifty joining, voice to voice, swell the exultant unison: 'He shall be King of kings, and Lord of lords. He shall be King of kings, and Lord of lords. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

"Then, as if from out of the eternal splendors, a voice that would sound the hearts of men put the query: 'How long will your hallelujahs ring! How long shall Christ be King of kings, and Lord of lords?" The Chorus gives reply. Deep as from hearts long schooled in sorrow, but now alive with joy, rolling out the profound utterance of the bass "He shall be King of kings, and Lord of lords, forever and forever and ever and ever and ever.' Then the altos lift the confident acclamation, as from hearts in which the Christ was newly born "Forever and forever and ever and ever and ever.' Higher still the tenors steadily raise the resounding note of faith, as though they would conquer the world with song: 'Forever and forever and ever and ever and ever.' Then, like a prophecy of the music that carols from the spirits of the ten thousand times ten thousand burst out the sopranos with the same unending song. Once again the full Chorus unite their soul-revealing voices, and on and on and on as though time were already dead, they repeat the stirring truth. This time not four hundred and fifty merely, but thousands added unto them, are singing the spirit-inspired chorus. For once at least God heard from hearts His Spirit taught that matchless chorus sung, and as I joined my voice to that heavenly throng moved by the anointing of worship there flashed upon my mind a vision of the day that is to be, when from out of the everlasting city the Son of God shall come enthroned in glory and the gathered host bend adoring hearts to the Lamb who for them was slain. Then, as about that great throne there gathered the people from the ends of the earth, and the kings of all nations laid down the scepters of their power, I heard the thunderous bass of Africa's ransomed millions roll out the adoration of their hearts to Him who broke the shackles of their darkness. Europe, her millions upon millions singing with all the gladness of victorious faith, lifted voice to swell far and wide her melodious alto. From the vigorous host that come from the two Americas there rings out such a triumphant tenor that a smile answers them on the face of Christ. And then Asia, old Asia, the mother of all religions, bows at the feet of Him who brought the true, and from her reverent host that outnumbers all the rest, the glorious climax rises,'He shall be King of kings, and Lord of lords, forever and forever and ever and ever.' Onward, ever onward rolls the glorious song, and as in my ears that choir keeps singing ever louder and more glad my soul beats high with exultation as I pledge it a part in that world-ending, heaven-enlarging chorus; ever rolling onward until every created thing, every living, pulsating, vibrating spirit in the vastnesses of infinity shall be as harps in tune, which, with individual variations, and yet in perfect symphony, will make universal melody unto Him. And to the sons of God who pray with me that that day may quickly come I would repeat over and over the message that commands my soul: The world, and the whole of it, for God and His sons. No less will satisfy the Father. No less will satisfy His sons" -- end quote.

I cannot tell how all the lands shall worship.

When, at His bidding, every storm is stilled,

Or who can say how great the jubilation

When all the hearts of men with love are filled.

But this I know, the skies will thrill with rapture,

And myriad, myriad human voices sing.

And earth to heaven, and heaven to earth, will answer,

At last the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is King!

Thirty centuries ago the Psalmist cried out in spirit, "Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being" (Ps. 146:1; 104:33). All the way through the book of Psalms, even in its most sorrow-laden passages, you feel that you are walking in a smoldering volcano of praise, liable to burst out at any moment into a great flame of thanksgiving to God. And as the book draws to its close, the flame leaps high from the crater: here you have praise, and nothing but praise. You have perhaps watched a great conductor bringing every member of his orchestra into action towards the close of some majestic symphony, have seen him, as the music climbed higher and higher, signaling to one player after another, and always at the signal another instrument responding to the summons and adding its voice to the music, until at the last crashing chords not one was left dumb, but all were uniting in a thrilling and triumphant climax. So these final Psalms summon everything in creation to swell the glorious unison of God's praise. They signal symbolically to the sun riding in the heavens, "You come in now, and praise Him!" Then to the myriad stars of night, "You now, praise Him!" Then to the mountains, piercing the clouds with their summits, "Praise Him!" Then to the kings and judges of the earth, "Praise Him!" Then to manhood in its strength and maidenhood in its grace and beauty, "Praise Him!" Then to the multitude of the redeemed in earth and heaven, "Praise Him!" The crescendo continues until the wide universe is shouting with every voice the praise of God alone. The Psalms in their sequence show forth the redemptive progression that can only end when every heart beats in unison with the heart of God; when every mind shall harmonize with divine wisdom and purpose; when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father!

Herein is fulfilled the Oracle of Lyra in the heavens, the prophecy of the Harp written eternally in the shimmering night skies above! The loving, praising, worshipping attitude of the whole universe is to be complete and perfect. Thus all the ends of the earth shall offer up their praise and thanksgiving to Him for His great love and salvation and inflow of life. What a THANKSGIVING DAY that will be! Every knee on this globe, and in the heavens above, and in the underworld shall confess the Lordship of God and His sons. What a TESTIMONY MEETING! There has never been one like it. The summing up of the universe is the revelation of harmony. It is not that the harmony comes at the end, but that the harmony is revealed at the end. The universe is all music, but it is not all music to our ear. We only hear a few chords, and they are minor chords. The minor chords seem discords when we hear them in their fragmented position; they lack the full symphony to bring out their symmetry. Often our hearts cry out that we are living in a world filled with discords. The Father must teach us that we are living in a world of perfect music, but we only hear a small portion of the music. Sorrow, pain, disappointment, heartaches, frustration, and travail, not to mention sin and death, seem to our ear sad and discordant notes. Often we feel that the coming melody shall atone for the grating chords. Nay, my brother, my sister; say rather that the grating chords themselves shall be revealed as parts of the completed harmony. Then shall we fathom the depths of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, then shall we understand His ways that are past finding out, then shall we see just how it is that all things work together for good. The melody is not to come, it has come already; it has only to be completed to be revealed, and then the harpers shall stand upon the glassy sea.

To Be Continued...

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