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REPRESENTING THE LARGEST COLLECTION OF 2X2 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS ON THE INTERNET
ADDRESSED TO:
Kerrs - January 22, 1923
Roy, George -February 15, 1923
Skerritt, Robert - February 5, 1923 - NEW
Cooney, Edward - March 2, 1923
Gerow, Neomi - March 15, 1923- NEW
Skerritts - March 24, 1923
Skerritts - June 6, 1923 - NEW
Edwards & Skerritts - August 17, 1923
Edwards - August 31, 1923 ------------ Military Service
Dunbars - September 12, 1923
Skerritts - October 13, 1923
Skerritts - November 6, 1923
Loitz - November 6, 1923
Loitz - November 20, 1923
Skerritts - December 14, 1923
Skerritts - December 31, 1923
William Irvine’s Letter to: Kerrs
January 22, 1923
Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Joe, Sarah and George:
I was glad to have yours and see you are all well and prosperous, and not sorry to be amongst those who are the victims of scandal and iniquity. For surely it’s better to have iniquity laid on us, than to lay it on others. All men seek their own, and not the things that are Jesus Christ’s. This is iniquity. To offend by scandal, is the other mark by which the wicked are made known to the Angels, who are the separators. And so, we may be sure they are marked in their foreheads for death, just as sure as God is marking His own.
The Parables of Matthew 20 to 25 are perfect to reveal the whole fact. The last shall be first, as surely as the first shall be last; FOR Many are called, but few chosen. And, to those that have God, shall be given, and he shall have overflow; but to him that hath not, shall be taken away, even that which he seemeth to have. With man, these things are impossible; with God, all things are possible. There is a short statement of the whole facts of the case. A man would have to be very blind and dead not to see the difference between those who are only called, and those who are called, chosen, and faithful. Between those who are first, by calling; and those who are last, by choosing. Men are justified by faith in their calling. But justified by works in their choosing. Abraham was not only called, but chosen. And we can see quite distinctly this mark in all God’s dealing with His own. And so, we see the few chosen become the heirs to all the promises, while the others are left out in their human unregeneracy. The very fact that they were called to privilege and missed it, shows they were not honest at the first in the secret of their hearts, and so cannot be at the last.
Abraham and Rahab were justified by their works. Abraham, by his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, or give to God, what God had given him. And his faithfulness to the Voice of God, though it seemed so strange and trying, was seen in his willingness to lay Isaac on the altar. And also, to stop the knife when the voice of God said, “Lay not thy hand on the child,” and be perfected in mercy, as God was.
For the Mercy Heart must ever recognize, the righteousness of God demands the death of all. But through the Lamb, slain, shall all flesh be justified. And it can only be seen in our dealing with others.
It’s one thing to believe that Jesus died for us; quite another to believe, by our works, that Jesus died for others, and the blood, which cleanses us, must cleanse others, if we walk in the Light, as Jesus walked in the Light. Which bore the sins of others, rather than laid them on. All our faith will be tested. And if it has not brought the nature of God, it has been vain. And this can only be revealed through one’s dealings with the Anointed of God. For, surely, Isaac was the Anointed of God. And the proof of Abraham’s anointing was seen in the fact that he heard the Voice of God, both in the command to slay, and the order to stay.
Rahab’s faith is seen in her willingness to risk her life for the two messengers who came to her. We also see the same in the widow who was commanded to feed the Prophet, Elijah. And in doing what the Voice of God said, she was provided for, when others were starving. If God be for us, who can be against us? But we will always show, by our works, that we are for Him. This is the condition of fellowship with God. The human always becomes self-righteous by their own works in the choosing days; while the Anointed always have their self-righteousness destroyed and become the victims of scandal and iniquity, but have the seal and comfort of God, only.
The fiery trial, which comes at the end, through the evil and wickedness of the human imitators, is the seal of our acceptance and choosing. God destroys everything that would make us believe that what He has done in and by us, was owing to our righteousness, rather than proof of His Grace. So, we welcome all the suffering and shame, if so be, that God can prove and perfect us in our knowledge of Him. To be called is gold; to be chosen is diamonds or pearls. To be called and miss it, is to become Sons of Belial, with a form, but no life and power to produce the same in others.
You will have had a chance of Percy revealing where he is; and those who try to justify his hidden wickedness only reveal their own secret heart, and you can’t make any mistake. It is God that justifies, and if He’s not sealing, how can we know? This is the meaning of Judgment: ability to discern where God is, and where He is not. Mercy is the other mark seen towards others. Faith is seen in our ability to see and say as God does. These marks were lacking in the Scribes, Pharisees and Hypocrites. And are still quite easily seen, no matter how people whitewash and attend to all the outward appearances in little things. God is not dealing with philosophers, but with Children of God, and of the Devil; and the one is as clearly known, as the other.
Things are all going just as expected, and the day is not far off, when the furnace will be ready for the Wicked, and we will shine forth in the Kingdom of our Father.
William Irvine
Wm. Irvine’s Letter To: Robert Skerritt
February 5, 1923
P.O. Box 553, Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Bob and Nan:
I was very pleased to have your letter, photos and bills, for all of which I think you heartily. I notice you speak of your hearlimp. Don’t worry bob, it’s only for a little and your bones shall flourish and your nerve energy be greater than it ever has been. Isa. 60:14 means just what it says, and you should rejoice that you are counted of being worthy to bear the mark of the high calling of God. Jacob crossed the Brook Jabbok at seeing of the sun, full of fear, doubt and darkness, but he crossed at Penial after a terrible night, limping, and the sun rose upon him. Wherefore dost thou ask for my name? He had seen the face of God, as he had heard of Him at Bethel 25 years before. Job saw what he had heard so much of for so many years, and we see how little his three accusing, comforters knew of God truly by all their wicked human interpretation. Little did they know the man they were accusing was one day going to pray for them that they might be saved from wrath. Things are not always as they look to men’s eyes. I have no doubt but that your friends will attribute your being a sharer in my delusion of the Devil – to your weak, limping nerves. You need not put yourselves in amongst those who rejected the bidding to the wedding.
Nan was given you for a comforter in your need and will be to you as Sarah to Abram, Rachel to Jacob. She bears the marks of a true sensible woman and you need not worry at having no family. For I suspect you have very big days of service ahead in the highways of Sweden, which I can understand your love and passion for. The night has come when no man can work, but the morning draweth near when we shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stalls with the tares turned to ashes under our feet—Malachi 4. The air is electric with expectation these days and fear is in many hearts in spite of their brass faces and hard hearts.
I had 4 letters last month from some of our despisers. Take heed that ye despise not one of the least of these who believe in me, for their angels do always behold the face of my Father – does not apply to babes, but to those who have become the least while the others have become the greatest. Hands, feet, and eyes are very deceitful things when the heart errs as does all those who profess to be Hid people. One of the sweetest readings in the Book is the childless women of it, who seed was by the power of God. And I don’t see any difference between Sarah, Rachel, Hanna and Mary and Elizabeth. It was all the working of the same Eternal God, and He’s not head, nor sleeping, nor on a journey that we need to cry or jump or cut ourselves with knives as out Baal brothers think. Just be as happy, cozy and content as were Abram and Sarah, Jacob and Rachel, for your work is very much the same as was theirs on Montana Mountain.
About land—don’t worry, there will be plenty of land cheap and no name for it for those who need it. So don’t worry, His farm business and family will be your chief interest as we are going to the Wedding of the King’s son, the greatest event of all the world’s history and hope of God and all who are His from the foundation of the world. All God’s hope and expectation has been centered in the Marriage of His only begotten son to an earthly Bride which will bear much fruit for 1,000 years on the earth till caught up to be forever with the Lord, when the old earth home is left like a deserted nest in the universe of God, while the young have taken wing to make nests of the other worlds which are as the stars in the Heavens and as numerous as the sands of the Seashore. God is a Father, seeking to procreate and people with His own seed His universe and we are only as babes with the same eternal possibilities we have seen revealed in Jesus. Wait till we have grown up Bob, and then we will speak with the enemies in the gate. I can understand the comfort it brings being of the farm and in the fresh air. For the sleep of the laboring man is sweet, and to have only a sympathetic loving mate is of all things the next comfort. I suppose if I had needed one, I might have got one too, but I get along all right with my dog and cat. But I do all the chores—cook, wash, darn and mend—and would not change places with King George. I have been quite busy getting a few stores on hand; if I don’t, some other may find them useful. I find increased interest amongst the people to whom I have witnessed of what’s coming. Even in their unbelief they know when they have heard the meaning of what we see going on in the world, and the Highway people are always the most hopeful.
It’s wonderful to see how the churches are being left desolate and the highways being crowded with good and bad, awaiting our pleasure in the coming days. Isaiah 55 is a wonderful revelation of what is going to happen, and the last 3 verses are sweet as the Thorn of one past experience with one who professed, shall come up the Fir tree. Instead of the wicked Briar shall come up the Myrtle and it shall be to the Lord for a name, an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off any more, as it has in all the other wicked ages. The Kingdom to be set up is to endure forever and not be given to any other as in past days. Daniel 12:44 and 7:14, 18, 27.
Poor Gus’s letters are like a man facing a cold river with a bush fire at his back in the darkest hour of the night just before the dawn. I know better than they can tell me what they have had to face these past years, and no matter how they pretend, we can see and hear enough from many sources to confirm our reading of the Book. The bundle is all they have to comfort them and it’s cold, dead, dry, rotten comfort. Isaiah knew well what was in Israel and how thirsty must have been every honest heart in it, and no waters any other place that would refresh and satisfy their soul need.
Best love and thanks to both, and when the parcel arrives, I shall write Nan one all for herself.
Yours very truly in Him,
Wm Irvine
Wm Irvine’s Letter to: George Roy
February 15, 1923
My dear George and Family:
For I guess we will expect it will be a family affair again as it was in Noah’s day. I was pleased to have your letter and enclosures for which I thank you. I noticed David Fisher’s death in the papers – Evening News or Daily News. I remember the first time I had David in a corner at Gateside Wood; I was going to Kirk just after I got saved and met him and his squad. So Dave stopped and I chatted to him for an hour and was mightily moved and from that he began to move, but the Westport Hall made a snare of the Devil to catch them all in a net. Poor Dave, he’ll know the difference now; and Andrew is married and a silver set is only like a false prophet.
Never mind George, we have wealth in Diamonds they never dreamed of. God had only one Son and so He could only redeem one world at a time, but when He has made Him a multitude as the stars in the Heavens and the sands on the shore, so surely will He do for others worlds what He has done with this. This same story we read in the Book is a sample of what will take place on every star in the Heavens. What would be the use of being conformed to the Image of the Son of God if it were not to have the same possibilities in our Eternal Life as we see to have been in Him towards our poor world? What would be the use of putting a human family on a world if there was no redeemer?
We are created human to be recreated in Christ Jesus and made partakers of the Divine Nature so that we may propagate His seed throughout Eternity and His Universe, and all that we suffer or endure in having this accomplished is cheap compared to the Eternal possibilities, and the greater we become in Value in God’s purpose will reflect all the more Glory on Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own Blood. His bride, blood-bought, wooed and married, and fruitful for 1000 years has all reference to this earth, but we are to be caught up to be forever with the lord in the Eternal purpose of God, and I know nothing so foolish as to think of making us to do nothing or be nothing.
The universe is like a big empty house, waiting to be peopled with Sons of God, and if the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, it’s waiting on the manifestation of the Son of God, who alone can bring everything into glad, willing, loyal, loving obedience to God. The world was for millions of years under the control of brute creation waiting for man’s advent, and we see what a mess the human has made of the world, waiting for the world to be brought under the control of God by the Meek coming back to inherit the earth and reign with Him.
If humans have made a Hell of this old world, we will see it become a Heaven on earth by the Sons of God coming to rule. All the wrongs of the world today, are only because the whole 6000 years has been under human control and they always under the Devil’s power, and the few exceptions have been hated and persecuted as strangers and pilgrims seeking a better country, and so they are all safely in Heaven waiting the day when the Kingdom of God will be set up on the earth.
The Scriptures is a record which will be repeated in the history of God redeeming unto Himself a people for His Name. These are the unwritten but clearly revealed things of God, which are only as Pearls to swine but are the Jewels which sparkle in His Crown.
We don’t bring up our children to make mummies of them, but that they may propagate our species, and so with God; to be Sons of God is not the end but the beginning, and when we have been perfected on this earth, it will be to be sown in the universe in giving ourselves as heartily to His purpose as He did in this.
We don’t fatten sheep to make ornaments of them. The human bulks so big in our eyes today that we can hardly see beyond to the greater and more eternal glory. And so you can see the need of knowing to the full what being a sinner means, and also tasting the depths of wickedness as well as the fathomless Grace of God that we will be entrusted with to a sinner world, as Jehovah was from Adam’s creation to the day when the redeemed will be caught up to be forever with the Lord. To have missed this is to have perished and the suffering of those who perish will be proportionate to the privileges they enjoy, but through their own iniquity and self-seeking made these things impossible. This is part of the Pearl Truth which Pigs and Dogs don’t appreciate, so you need not mind if they don’t care to have it mixed with their swill.
A hog or a dog is fond of hearing about what he can get for nothing. True seed of God is always glad to hear what God will get out of His blood-bought Sons and Daughters of God. Abram was as willing to give Isaac as he was to get him from God, and the test of our sonship and friendship with God will be justified by our works of willingness to suffer even to the death. The mark of the prize of this high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
No George, the pig and the dog gets a hump on his back through attending to the trough too much. We can have it on our chest as we look up and on, and out, into God’s great universe and try to see and fathom the boundless Universe which was created as a home where the great heart of God might have scope for all His loving, living activities throughout eternity.
Your baby child knows little of the wonderous possibilities of a human life, and we are likewise as Sons of God; but George, we have got the nature and we know it by the appetite we have for the milk and the meat and we have a little earnest of the possibilities in the Spiritual thrills and visions and dreams which come to us unbidden. Just as a child dreams and feels like being papa or mama even when they are just babies.
We have much to learn from the children as they play at house, and there can be no harm in us letting ourselves play at papa and mama and our elder brother in our little innocent simple fashion.
We can’t look over the edge of the world, but we can look up into the Heavens and there see the extent of our calling. The Lord told Abram to look up and see if he could count the stars, and that his seed would be as the stars for multitude. Our present vile body is like a corpse – so far as enabling us to see the possibilities of our life in Christ. I expect that when we put on our house which is from Heaven, we will be better able to grasp what we are in Christ Jesus.
You know how often the snare of having to be up in the morning to get a share of the worms has cut off our dreaming or communing. We are like chained eagles even now, but we have glimpses in between, when the weight of the wicked world existence lifts and lets us get a peep of the Blue Beyond. Eyes hath not seen nor ear heard the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him, but these He hath revealed by His Spirit.
2 Cor. 4:17-18, coupled with what comes in chapter 5 is good for giving us a peep beyond our light affliction which is but for a moment – worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory. While we look not at the things seen and temporal but the unseen and eternal, for in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven, and so groan away, George, we can’t escape that house and millions through us throughout Eternity. We will forget Kilsyth and the Westport Hall and the Testimony some day, as the butterfly forgets the shell it came out of.
I’m afraid this will make you lay down the Book some times and scratch your head, or knock it on the roof to see if you are awake or asleep, or dreaming, but George, it’s part of the stuff that gives us comfort under every possible trial and trouble. It was this that kept Jesus calm when they put the nails in His hands after beating His back and crowning Him with Thorns.
They could chop off Paul’s head, but they could not dim the vision, but set his spirit free to eternally enjoy all that was given him by Grace through the blood purchase and fellowship, and communion of the Holy Ghost. Our Spirit is like a bird, it’s meant to fly and we may be sure, guided by the Holy Ghost, it will be the better for it at times, caged as it very often is by all that’s not of God, but surely of the Devil.
Best love and thanks,
Yours truly in Him,
Wm. Irvine
Wm. Irvine’s Letter To: Neomi Gerow
March 15, 1923
PO Box 553, Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Neomi,
I was glad to have 3 from Santa Barbara. Sorry to hear of your father. In Ruth’s I have said all I know on the subject. Your kindness in sending me some of the crumbs which have fallen from the rich mans table. Rich men don’t hear of that which is defiled even by the touch of their clean fingers – because that which goeth into a man defileth him in men’s eyes – while that which cometh out is more important in Gods eyes for it reveals the thoughts & intents of the heart which is hid from men’s eyes but is the fount out of which God can alone give living waters. Lazarus had not much that would have made him appear clean in men’s eyes, laid daily at the rich mans gate in the road as we see them in Palestine quite common. Tags, sores, willing to eat what was food for dogs what came from the waste bucket which is a very common () of dogs & beggars. Your letter suggested quite a few fresh thoughts and this is one reason I value letters for they are like pitchers which may hold some water from the tips of my fingers by pen.
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Draw me & we will run after thee is the language of the bride to be makes me recognize that all who value what He has to say, or the leading He may have to give them, is the opportunity given me to supply as far as I can. Your desire to drop in & have a chat is quite natural but it’s a relic of Calling Days. The living waters which the rich man in hell valued so much was what came from the tips of Lazarus’ fingers – type of what all the anointed of God had to do in supplying the needs of the few who were being chosen as the Bride. The scripture is one long love letter to such tho it was very much hid from our eyes in the Calling Days. Your experience with the Presby patient & listening to them was good for you, for you had a chance of the rich man clothed in purple & fine linen side.
The praying for healing & money & all the others things which make up the Mammon of unrighteousness becomes very clear when you see how anxious the Devil was to take all Job had from him. I suppose the same Devil would just be as anxious to give all he could to those who were his loyal servants. He robs violently the anointed of God. He gives lavishly to all who are moved by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that ruleth in the children of disobedience. He not only took all from Job, but he afflicted his body attacked him mentally and spiritually as well as physically and finances & family. It had not always been so with Job for he had prospered and been made a great blessing to others in every sense of the word, and now he was broken in every department so to speak & only his life was preserved as God had said Satan was to let alone.
How far this may apply to each of us will depend very much on what we appear to be before God & Devil in heavenly places now we appear before men or even in our own eyes. He not only took all he could but he sends his dogs to lick poor Job's wounds as we might say – which added very much to Job's trials. His nearest flesh friend his wife did not make it any easier for him & even those who would gladly have obeyed him at one time became scorners of this authority. You can apply all this to yourself these days & see how much you are being made to feel how unworthy you are & your unworthiness many be the measure of your true worthiness in the sight of God, for it was according to Jobs worthiness that he was made worthless in the sight of Men. Jesus was worthy to hang between 2 thieves in place of Barabbas the murderer. But God thought Him fit to sit at his right hand & these extremes can be applied to all who will be His Bride. I must say that my heart warms to all who are made to suffer in any shape or form & appear less worthy in the sight of men – so long as I find they cleave to God and value the Living Water from the tips of anointed fingers.
I am satisfied that God does not take stock in any historical or traditional religious people. The test in the Book is always applied to that which has been privileged with apostolic or prophetic Testimony – as we see in Cain’s day Noah’s & all through the whole Book. The message of Rev. was to the 7 churches which was the best of Pauls work in the 3 goals that he made Ephesus his centre. So that we may be sure Job & his comforters were all of apostolic privilege & it was very likely that Job was Gods chosen instrument for the choosing of those who were the Bride of that day - & as they came & worshipped at his feet & confessed that God had loved him more than others it shows us what we may expect. I don’t think that Job or Lazarus’s prayers for deliverance would or could be heard anymore than the anguished cry of Jesus for deliverance. Flesh & blood dies hard at the hang of God’s testing & so strong crying & tears of blood find only one answer that of the wickedness around us let loose to show what is in their hearts.
Paul said to Timothy remember that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead according to my gospel. Showing that death must come before the manifestation of the power of God on our behalf. So that your prayers which would have been answered on other days fail – the reason is not in us or in God but for the purpose of revealing the secrets of the wicked hearts around us, specially our fellow professors. So we endure the cross, despise the shame& our joy is in looking forward to the day when we will find a place amongst those who were counted as the filth & off scouring of the earth – who were being chosen in the furnace of affliction for the great day of the manifestation of the Sons of God. If we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him points to the fact of suffering & that at the hands of those who are most outwardly righteous before men but who in heart are the most devil possessed.
The Bride of Solomon was dark but comely. Her mothers children were angry with her. They made her the keeper of the vineyard till she was burnt black. But her own vineyard she had not kept. So that she was doubly guilty in the eyes of those who were her fellows in the same family. We are expected to give more & find we fail most. It’s very painful to smile & frown on man & woos & wins us to Him who is our Bridegroom to be. The poor beggar at the rich mans gate would have prayed much for healing or deliverance from these dogs, or to have his rags changed to scarlet & fine linen or his leprosy changed to health & happiness. All he had was the living water from the tips of his fingers to give others & we may be sure that is about all the value any of us have today.
We can comfort others with the comfort wherewith we are comforted. But to pray as in the old days don’t seem to work. When the Devil is allowed to reveal what is in the hearts of wicked men the fount of life which comes forth from our own in spite of all that men can do & seem to make us. Those who seem to be most in the days when the anointed seed of God are suffering will be found as tares when His wrath is poured out. Now is the day of the Devils wrath. Tomorrow will be the day of His wrath. The wicked husbandmen & the despisers of the bidding to the marriage of the Kings Son had their day of wrath against the servants. But the Kings wrath came after & destroyed those murderers & so will it be again.
The more clearly we grasp the 2 sorts of righteousness the more comfort we will have. Purple & fine linen righteousness before men is very nice to look upon but we view it in the light of where & what it brought to the rich man after death. The groaning table of fellowship & the safety of the inside of the gate all look well to those who can’t see afar off, just as the beggar in rags and sores outside the gate is a pitiable object to those who are shortsighted. Put your values on the inward living waters & not on outward appearance or on happiness or feelings – for God is deeper than our feelings good or bad & beyond that comes the fount of life which is the seal of one being chosen.
I shall be pleased to hear of all your unworthiness for that pleases me best.
Yours very truly in Him,
William Irvine.
Wm Irvine's Letter To: Edward Cooney
March 2, 1923
My dear Edward (though I like Eddie best),
I was pleased to see your letter and to hear of some evidence of returning humanity in three of you, for that will precede any hope of deliverance from the snare of the Devil, into which you have all fallen, and which accounts for the deadness and corruption, which characterized the whole Testimony these 9 years. And if nobody else knows it, I do; and always knew more of these conditions than anyone else. And rightly so, for The Testimony was the Seal of God and proof of my anointing. And if I was not the father, certainly I was not the brother of any. God never gathered brethren but by a father, and all your attempts to change these facts only reveals the secrets of your hearts and leaves you where you began, and as you began—without God, and knowing it not, though full of zeal, knowledge, profession and fruit, which you long ago recognized was only adding to the wickedness of the world.
The scriptures take no notice of anything which has not been produced by prophets, sealed and sent of God. The foundation of the Church, in every age, is the true prophet and apostles whom He has sent. False prophets may be produced by the historical and traditional, or by the true Prophet and Servant of God. Cain and Abel were the seed of Adam-natural and spiritual, but at the end of days, or the lap as you call it, we see the greatest and the least; the strong and the weak; the kings and the slaves; the Rich Man and Lazarus; The Elder Brother and the Prodigal; the killer and the killed; the rejecter and the rejected; the judge and the judged. The one, not fit to live on the Earth, going home to Heaven to wait the manifestation of the Sons of God; the other, going forth on the Earth to multiply and build cities and all their abominations, which have characterized these past 6,000 years, and finding himself at the end of a long life, protected by God with the cry of the Rich Man in Hell, and the gulf fixed.
I am the one God used altogether—not most. No William, no Testimony. The mountains echo and re-echo the human voice, and so The Testimony was the echo and re-echo of the Voice of God through my lips, though I knew it not then, as I do today. For the prophets and apostles only got to know who they were, when they found themselves the victims of the iniquity and scandal of those who were called the Church, or seal of their anointing. Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John speak in the days of their rejection, with a much more certain end. And I know, from experience, how these things can be and need it, when the Church is left desolate and Godless, to have the secrets of their hearts made manifest; so that the few may be gathered out, and the many gathered in bundles to burn, as we see being made manifest in these days in fulfilling Matthew 13:34-43.
The Bride is the few who cleave to the Anointed of God; for many are called, but few chosen. And the first in men’s eyes, are the least in God’s and vise versa. Let both grow together till the harvest, is true of every generation, as well as for the last and finish of the age we are now in. The harvest came in Paul’s work in 60 A.D, when he was apprehended and put in jail. Then, the secret of men’s hearts were revealed and Paul had to learn, by experience, as all God’s chosen have, the meaning of it all bit by bit. The men who then, or now, could believe that God was in the churches or apostles who forsook Paul, were neither human, nor divine, but Devil-possessed and did not know it, and so went on with the whole activities of word and form till the end of their natural life, like Cain and Esau, while Paul had been gathered home to wait the manifestation of the Sons of God by the Roman headsman’s axe, to their shame and confusion.
Paul was the Lazarus of his time, laid at the gate of the Rich Man, feeding on the crumbs, which came from his table—the pieces of bread, which they thought were not fit to be received into their holy, Devil-possessed bodies. Just as I have been feeding on the crumbs, which my deluded ‘Bride ‘ friends have given me. The Dogs love to lick the sores on Paul, produced by his thorn in the flesh--The Messenger of Satan to buffet him for his perfecting, and they revealed the scandal and iniquity which had been hid in their hearts so long, as they had never been known of God.
If you can find any man in the Book, who was the Truly Anointed of God and lost it, I would be glad to find it; Yet all of them were cast down and cast out, and became as the hand that knocks at the door to call the Bride. The sedition of Miriam and Aaron was the beginning of the end of days for Moses. Then, the people murmur, and only Caleb and Joshua-one per million of those who left Egypt. The revolt of iniquity was by Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and the 250 Princes of the Assembly, famous in the congregation and men of renown--Just such as I gave you the chance of being, and which was used for your fame and renown. Your attempt to call me “Brother” and “Leader” is of the same nature as Korah, Dathan and Abiram & Co., but it was the revealing of the secrets of their hearts. They were but the echo of the Voice of God through Moses, but they could not know the difference, being unregenerate.
You can see the harvest days leave Noah with only his own family in the ark, while the Sons of God and Daughters of Men filled the Earth with their wicked violence. Noah preached 120 years, but only 7 were chosen out of the wicked generation.
Jacob had 10 sons during the 25 years, when he had no lame leg, but the 2 he got after getting the lame leg, were the deliverance of the world in famine, and the comfort of his old age. And you see how the Lord treated the one who was to be deliverer. All working out in perfecting, and in Enoch’s life—very clear from Jude.
Then you have Samson harvesting the secrets of the Philistine heart; in prison with his eyes out, while God was preparing to honor Samson and destroy those who were his enemies in Israel.
Job, you are familiar with, and if you go over all that’s said by the four friends of Job, you will find it like a looking glass to your comforters of William. David’s harvest day began with his sin, but how many rotten hearts were revealed, can only be learned by the whole of the Psalms.
They could either believe the words of Eternal Life from His [Jesus’] lips and live, or pray, read, listen, think and perish; for there never has been any other salvation than by the lips of God by a man. The more you pray, read, preach, and listen to me, the blinder, drunker, and more devil-possessed man becomes. The Devil works his way into every church or Testimony, just as surely as God works His way out. The harlot-hearted, are Church--Devil-possessed. The Bride are the God-possessed, put out and called out by the Voice of Him who stands at the door knocking, so that people may know that He’s outside. Revelation 3:20-22 is not part of the Laodicean’s message, but is general for all the 7, and shows how the Bridegroom calls the Bride of all the 7 churches; even the fact that the Devil was getting control inside, just as the Lord was outside. John was outside in Patmos, rejected by the churches for 6 years, when he got the Revelation of the final harvest, which we are now in the midst of. These past years, since 1914, have been the ripening days. The cutting down, or falling away period, comes as soon as they say Peace and Safety, which is now hanging in the balance. Lausanne Conference began with earthquake and tidal waves, and finished on 3rd Feb. with same in Hawaii, and another on the 26th Feb.
I am not surprised you enjoy the fellowship of John Hardie and Wilson. [McClung] Are you not brethren? I would to God you all enjoyed my fellowship, which is 10 times better today, than of yore. And I know best, both ends of it. But it’s hid from your eyes and ears by the condition of heart, as Isaiah, Jesus and Paul found it in those they reasoned with in their day, who professed to know God, but were never known to God. Their hearts had waxed gross through hearing and handling of the things of God, without being born and sealed of God. If you read the parables in Matthew 20-25, you will find I planted the Vineyard and it has fallen into the hands of wicked husbandsmen. And I am the Servant sent to find the fruit; and those who mistreat the Servant are the same as the killers of the Son and Heir, as Paul found in his day in Philippi, spoken of, whose end is destruction.
I, also, have given you the bidding to the Marriage of the Kings’s Son, but you would not listen. And these have gone their own ways to farm, merchandise and marriage, while a remnant have treated it despitefully, but the wrath of the King is absolute to send forth His armies of war, famine, pestilence and plagues to destroy those murderers. And we will go to the highways with the Everlasting Gospel to gather guests for the Wedding—the greatest event in all ages. And the one to which God and all His Bride have been looking for, for 6,000 years; and as the only hope for the poor, suffering creation.
Then, we will see the Rapture people crying for a little of the Water to cool their parched tongue, which they refused from the Man who was laid at their gate, full of sores for the revealing of the secrets of their hearts and their salvation, if they had had ears to hear and a heart to understand. Then, you will be sure of why I am who and where I am, and what I have been doing. This is the key to the Foolish and Wise Virgins. The Foolish will be revealed, and the Wise-- when the war, famine, pestilence and plagues begin, at the finish of Peace and safety, or the winding up of the late war, which is now in the hands of the Turks—the Wise will go in; the Foolish be shut out from the Everlasting Gospel led by the 2 Witnesses of Revelation 11.
By the way, would I not be foolish to fail to see the end of my life? To lie, 3 ½ days, dead in the streets of Jerusalem and rise and be caught up to Heaven is good enough for any old fool like me, so that I neither feel old, nor look to a cold tomb and a hot hell. And I’m just as serious about this, as anything you ever heard come from my lips and life in the days of yore. Days of yore have no attraction for the Anointed of God. It’s always better as we go along, even though it may seem to be harder in men’s eyes, who measure things by human standards, because they have no other.
Do you think that David, Samson, Jacob, Joseph, Noah, or Abel would want the day of yore? The Angel had to give Jacob a lame leg, ere he could convince him that he was chosen a Prince, having power with God and Man; and when we have learned this lesson, we don’t want to be Jacob anymore, when we know we have become Israel—His chosen, Elect Bride. There is not much illness in a man, when he can get 1,000 words out of his pen a day, and never less than 500 any day (other). I find I am fitter today, than any time in my life—10-20 miles of a walk; I do all my own chores, and at all time. I have just finished putting in 3 ½ years supply of food. If I don’t need it, some of those who will come to worship at my feet, and confess that God had loved me in all my rejection, will be glad of it. I have, all along, been willing to help the few whom I found in need, and have no fear, worry, doubt or trouble. I speak honestly before God and man. If I were wicked, I would have counted it an insult for anyone to send me money who had not the humanity to answer my letter, but as I am not wicked, nor humanly in bondage to the Devil or any of his fellowship, I can honestly thank you for your kindness and hope it may be the means of waking you to the awful condition I find you in.
The Rich Man could not see as clearly as the man that lay outside his gate, for when once a man is fool enough to be deceived by purple and fine linen righteousness, there is no hope but in the Man with the sores, which the dogs love to lick. To be called in vain, is to receive one talent; and to hang on to it like death, hid in the Earth—all our human understanding, etc. To be called and become partakers of His divine Nature is two talents. Our gaining of other two as Saint, means that we will also become the Chosen, as well as the Called. To be called [and] effectually sealed of God is five talents, to which we gain choosing as well as calling as a servant. There can be no gain in a man who has been called in vain, just as a man who is truly called, is bound to go on and gain. And so the servant will be chosen as Bride and also share in the Everlasting Kingdom about to be set up by the Everlasting Gospel and Witnesses.
The unregenerate marks are seen in the conception of the One Talent Man, both of the gift, and the nature of the giver. From him shall be taken away even that, which he seemeth to have; for to him that hath, (the nature and seal of God) shall be given and vice versa. For many are called, but few chosen. The Goats and the Sheep are enough for any man, and had no meaning in other days, but is for today. And happy are they, who have been made hungry and thirsty, etc. in the Choosing Days. We did not know the difference at the time; now we do, and rejoice. These are the great truths of The Omega, or finishing days, and if I was ignorant of them, what chance was there for any others in The Testimony to know them? And if they believe not when I tell them, what hope have you of ever finding them out in your present condition? And it’s only sporting with death to go on as you are today—despising the Man and Message, which can give you hope.
In the calling, we are justified freely by His Grace from all things that God may work in us, but in the choosing days, men are justified by the fruits, which is the proof of God’s nature having been wrought in them. Hence, Peter’s injunction to make your calling and election sure. And I have no doubt that the whole Testimony today, is making its calling and election impossible by their words and works. I have borne ample proof of their scandal and iniquity of me and many others. And worst of all, [they] try to justify it by the scriptures, as has always been the case.
To measure any of the Anointed of God by their sins, has been the fatal marks in all who have failed of the Grace of God in the record of the whole Book. And all others’ righteousness is but filthy rags which appear righteous before men, but are abomination in the sight of God. The bundle has always been for the fire; the few gathered by rejection and the Voice of God, have been the Bride.
You can be sure that the Stone of Stumbling and Rock of Offense has ever been the Anointed of God, while those who stumbled were the seed of the Serpent generation of vipers, who could not escape the damnation of Hell. I ask you, seriously, to stop and think what the end of all this campaign of wickedness is going to mean for all who has any part, or lot, in it. If the signs of these past 8 years don’t cause people to recognize the near approach of Tribulation, then it’s because it’s hid from their eyes. The gulf is not yet fixed, but may be very soon. And if you don’t get where I am and be more hearty with me, than you were ever before, then it will be eternal separation and the gulf fixed, where there will be no more living to despise and reject.
The Choosing Days at the end of Jesus’ 3 ½ years of work, is part of the Jesus Way, which people seem to be strangers to. The multitudes that were called, faded into nothingness, as we see the few stay with Him to the end, but in weakness, scattered and were filled with doubts and fears; but they became the Bride and seed of the church of the next generation. To make loose straws or chaff as the test as to where God is, is foolish and begging the question, as they can be blown about by any wind which blows hot or cold.
I have not written these things to exasperate you or grieve you, but to give you the only hope that lies your way. I have nothing to gain but you. Your silence to me has been the most terrible witness against you, for such is seen through the whole Book as the mark of those who were the Cain Seed. And the Book leaves no room for doubt about the end of such, as truly as the rejected of every age bring the seal of God on their lips and witness. The many prophets and professors of every Testimony in the world’s history—uniformly doomed and damned by their own words and actions towards the very few true Prophets and their Chosen Seed are many, or few, right today.
As it was in Noah’s day, so shall it be in the day of the Son of Man of every Age. Son of Man is the man whom God has anointed against all who were but echoes of His Voice and words. I have had 30 years of a long, up-hill battle, single handed, but the end becomes the more wonderful to me, for I know, and am assured, that life and death, not only to The Testimony, but to the world, is in my hands. Put there by the God whom I have served faithfully and well; through good and bad report, and the finish is just as clear, bright and glorious as the beginning was very dark and obscure.
The one half of Revelation has been fulfilled, and the last lap—the 7 years of Tribulation--about to begin when death and doom await all whose eyes and hearts are not centered in Jerusalem and the 2 men of God’s choice, for the gathering of the guests for the wedding feast out of the highways.
If you were reading my life work, as you read Moses’, and as it appeared to Moses and God, you might have more silent wonder at the marvelous Grace of God. Looking back over the 30 years since I forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of Kings, it’s truly wonderful.
You will find it very useful to read Matthew 5, 6, 7, 13, 18, 20, & 25 and see the 2 seeds all through. The many always tares, while the few have been the seed of God at the harvest. Give God and me a chance. Be final, and you will have to taste the consequences very soon, and you must surely have lost all sense of proportion, if you don’t see that I offer you life or death. The Book is one long record of one man against the world, and it’s the same today, if you had eyes to see, or ears to hear what the Spirit saith from Jerusalem, as He spoke by John from Patmos. The church was never the channel through which God spoke, if we believe the record. And, especially, when judgment was on hand, as it is today.
Yours very truly, and gladly in Christ, Jesus,
Wm. Irvine
Wm Irvine’s letter to: Skerritts
March 24, 1923
Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Bob and Nan:
I was glad to have yours today with enclosures from your sister. If they believe not Moses and the Prophets, neither would they believe if one rose from the dead. Moses and all the Prophets reveal the same conditions at the end of every man of God’s life, or the generation in which they lived--or that which they produced. The Gospels were all written at the end of the days of the Apostles, when they were no longer able to give water from the tip of their tongue; and so, had to do it by the tip of their finger by pen. This explains how the scriptures were written.
Luke was with Paul in Rome up to the time of his death, and then wrote Acts and Gospel. John and Mark’s Gospel bears marks of having been with Peter. John was either in Patmos, or on the way out, when he wrote his Gospel. Each of the Gospels falls into two parts: the calling days, and the choosing days. The time when He was calling, ending in the choosing and sending of apostles, which is the seal and crown of the calling work. But from Chapter 10 on, we see how the whole, center on the manifesting of the two seeds, who had been called. The many walk no more with him; the few are brought into closer touch and perfected.
Luke 13 to 22 covers, really, the last week of His ministry to the Disciples, revealing the hearts of those who are the Accusing Seed, and the revealing of the hearts of those who was chosen from amongst the Called. John 13 to 17 is similar. Mathew 13 to 25 is on the same line. Mark is more interspersed, but gives the same marks in each case, leading up to the crucifixion, when we see the Bride, Saints, and Servants gathered to see the final triumph, when He comes to reign with them. These last things could only be understood by those who went on to find that what they had seen in Him, was to be fulfilled in them. And what He had done for His chosen, they had to do for their chosen.
How clearly the Spirit of God had outlined the whole of the events of His life, when they were left to look back over the thirty years or more, since they had first found the Messiah and got to share the anointing of God. How foolish to think that Apostles were writing only what they saw and heard. They had but the eyes and ears of Babes, till they found themselves at the end of the path and the Mark of the prize in sight. I like what you say of looking back over your life and seeing that I have given you a little of what has made it possible for you to be with me in seeing, hearing, and understanding as I do. Such a vision could only be possible to the Disciples of Jesus, and part, as they come to the end of their fellowship with the Anointed. And that I should have had another of similar nature today along the same line, from a very obscure Sister Saint, gives me joy. She has had more to try and test her than most, and is only a young married woman. But I have noticed that she valued the water from the tip of my pen, or finger, all along. And the many little things, which give evidence of her heart, are very sweet to look back on. They named one of their babies after me in the midst of the hottest part of the conflict, which was more a surprise to me, than it could be to any other. It proved they were not dogs, at any rate, who give more attention to the sores, than to the Water. How many dogs I have found out in this way, long before I noticed it in the rich Man and Lazarus.
Luke 10 begins sending seventy. Gives us the two seeds revealed, in the man going from Jerusalem to Jericho, falling amongst thieves. The priest, who stands as the link between God and Man: The Levite—the interpreter of the Book. The Samaritan; neither, much in profession of either, revealing that he had the heart of God, as truly as the others knew nothing of that in heart, while the others lived by having it. Martha and Mary are types of the Bride, Saints and Servants.
Luke 11 gives us the Disciples wanting Him to teach them to pray, while
the Pharisees began to accuse and say He cast out Devils by the Prince
of Devils. Disciples’ heart confidence revealed, while blasphemy
of the hearts of the Pharisees is revealed.
1
Luke 12 deals with hypocrisy (outward rightness, and inward Devil possession.)
What was spoken in secret, was to be made manifest on the housetops.
The secrets of the hearts made manifest in both seeds; the tender care
of God for those who are poor, and becoming poorer; and the sure doom who
lays up for himself, treasure; the Kingdom, sure for those who seek it;
the treasures gone in one day, which men coveted after--not earthly riches
in the wold sense, but the riches which come to men, who seek their own
in name of God.
Luke 13 shows the need for the repentance amongst His own Disciples, who showed they had the Accusing Seed marks, in telling Him of the sins of others. The fig tree, with plenty of wood and leaves, but not fruit—allowed to be cared for, until finally cut down.
Chapter 14: The Rich Pharisee house and table revealed by the Watchers, and the man with dropsy. How often I noticed the Watchers long ago. And how truly my thoughts have been fulfilled in them. The Supper—those who choose the chief seats, and the danger of it. How few seek the low seat. How many want the chief seats. Take The Testimony, for example. Then, the bidding to the Marriage Supper revealed in the secrets of their heart being manifested in the choice they made.
Luke 15: The Ninety Nine, who went not astray, and the one who went astray, revealing God’s method of revealing the secret of men’s hearts. The Prodigal story was one of the first the Lord opened to me five years ago. And my heart sang for months over it. It was only time in my life that I was tempted to write poetry.
Luke 16: How full is the outline of the whole past conflict. The accusers revealed in the accusing of the Steward, that he had wasted his master’s goods, ending in the accused becoming Lazarus, and the accusers—the Rich Man dressed in purple (kingly authority) and fine linen (outward righteousness.) The accusing, covetous-hearted taking kingly control over the Table and Gate, was very patent to me, when it took place, while the accused, who had wasted his master’s goods and reduced the bill against his master’s debtors, finds the outside of the Gate in rags, sores, and crumbs. But they could not steal the Living Fountain, though they changed it from the tip of his tongue to the tip of his fingers. They got all that had been produced, but not the producer. They were the covetous Pharisees, who get what appeals to men’s eye, but makes them abominable in God’s sight. Just as Lazarus got what made him abominable in the eyes of men, but well pleasing to the eyes of God, and all that’s of God. For, surely, as Godly seed will but value the marks which mark out the anointed of God at the end of days.
I often wondered how the mark of the Prize would come, or how it was possible to be attained. And no matter how painful the process, I never lost confidence in the end of it. Even if I tried, it would not come, and I was sure that the War in Europe, and the conflict in The Testimony was one whole, as I am today.
What a calamity it would have been, if there had been people (crumbs) falling from the Rich Man’s table, if there had been nobody outside the gate desiring to be fed by them. And how sweet it is to see that you and W. Edwards were two of the first. And what joy and satisfaction it has been to my heart. For it would be awful to have water at the tip of your fingers and nobody to value it. And how disappointing to find dogs cast out, who thought to feed their dog on your sores, and despise the water. I’m sure you will get plenty without my pen from this very wonderful chapter, so full of comfort and hope for all who are outside the gate.
Luke 17: It is impossible but offences come, but woe to the man by whom the offence cometh. The greatest will be caught by their perfect hands, feet, and eyes, and will bring the offence against the Love of God. The man ploughing, and feeding, in the field is proved by his willingness to serve his master at the end of the day. The master must eat and drink first, then, the Servant, is God’s order. If we put our own claim first, we see where the offence comes, and how natural the test.
Ten lepers cleansed, but only one of ten returned to glorify God, showing us that we must not expect too many from those who have been cast out to become the chosen of God. How many think of being in the Kingdom; how few realize it’s the Kingdom in us that counts. I have noticed this is much of the talk about being in or out of The Testimony. It’s not in or out, but must be in us. “Lo here,” “Lo there” are words that speak loudly of a human conception of the things of God.
Luke 18: The Pharisees and the Publican; Illustration of the Widow
and her adversity, which is the condition of the Elect to be. How
sure is our avenging, and how present the reward to the
Publican and the Pharisee. The one justified; the other, only
his own delusion.
Luke 19: The Publican of short stature up the tree, versus the many tall stature down at the foot, ready to accuse. The ten Servants, who got the pound. How scrappy was all our reading of these things in the past. And it must have been so to the Apostles, till they got to the end, and could look back through them all with the eyes anointed of God, and opened by their own experiences.
I will leave you and Nan to change the gold of past days into the Pearl of Great Price, which is the object of all.
Yours truly in Him,
William Irvine
Wm. Irvine's Letter To: Skerrits (…Nan's impending death)
June 6, 1923
P.O. Box 553, Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Bob and Nan:
Little did you think on your marriage day that you were taking a companion for a thousand and some odd years. Neither of you could see that, but that’s the facts as they have turned out, and all our letter writing and talking would mean little more than the mob if these things are not so. If circumstances had made it necessary to part for 7 years, a very common experience these past years, it would have been faced by many with a tremble in the heart and a stiff upper lip, with much less chance of seeing and maybe hearing than may be possible in your areas.
Both Bob and Nan have given me evidence that the separation is not so serious or hopeless as that we see around us every day. For the elect of God in heaven and the elect of God on the earth are the only victors during these coming and the great day of the Marriage of the King's Son, will gladden your eyes and hearts as you are reunited in a way you could hardly believe today. Human flesh and blood can never understand these things nor have any hope of their fulfillment, only those who are Babes and Sucklings with the Light of Life and the Seal of God can have any such conception of your present circumstances.
I am satisfied that the elect in Heaven will be as active and interested in the Judgment of the nations and the rearranging of the old Heaven and old earth preparing for the New. So that you will be privileged to have a part in the heavenly and earthly operations.
Your being called to taste the bitterness of drinking the cup which the whole creation has had to drink these past 6,000 years, as they sigh and groan waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God which will end all this suffering which science and Religion can only mollify at best. This will only give each of you a keener sense of the wondrous change to be wrought in putting off the old wicked regime and on the New and eternal reign of Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, with His Bride. The Hope of God: and man, the world and the whole creation – from the foundation of the world.
That Nan should have been given is the Seal of your apostleship in the day when you were wronged and robbed of all your life fruit and labour . She to be your crown, your bride and His, is not empty sentiment, but the most Godlike honour He could bestow on you.
This light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for you a far more and exceeding weight of Glory while we look not at the earthly and temporal, but the unseen and eternal, means more to you two today than you can dream of.
If either of you shed tears let them be of Joy, and not regret, - of faith Triumphant and not unbelief. For the things which were once very shadowy are now taking substantial shape as they have never done in the world’s history. Whatever would hinder us believing and seeing things in the light of the greatest event of all time and eternity, - The Marriage of the King’s Son and our taking part in that great event as His elect, - is only sand or dust thrown in our eyes by the old adversary, the devil, whose race is nearly run for there will be no place for him during our reign on the earth.
You will look back on this as one of His greatest mercies in making these things realities in your Joint lives. You have been made one in a double sense and beyond your most passionate dreams or desire.
If Revelation does not give me warrant in what I write, then I fail to read it aright. For there we see Him and His Bride active and working in closest harmony in the preparatory work being carried on by Him ad His elect on the earth, and only earthly shadows can hinder us, seeing and enjoying the cooperation. The old idea of going to heaven is as different as day and night to the clear outshining of His soon coming, and we can trace His every move, for that is the meaning of watch.
Can you think of Abram coming back to reign without Sarah, or Isaac without his Rebekah, or Jacob without his Rachael. No, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are as the angels. But the earth bonds which become Heavenly will never be broken, and there will be the eternal yoke fellow, developed out of the earthly. So I can give you assurance gladly and joyously that your parting is one of the most reassuring which could be given to any of those who have gone before our day. To doubt these words would be to despise what is more to me than life, and I can’t do more than ask you to accept them as the best I have and part of the great problem now being solved, and wrought out in your lives. You will both of you say it was God’s best and highest honour when you talk it over when reunited, and your hearts be enlarged, quickened, and developed more by this than if you had lived to part because your strength and time had ebbed away like Abram and Sarah. You need not wonder at the fortitude you will find in each other in this seeming hard blow. We can find explanation of this in the clearer vision and surer and more lively hope. To be parted that you each may take part in the greatest realization of all the Hopes of God and His people of all ages – does not seem a hardship – and only the perfecting of each for the work you are best suited for. Nan will just be as well suited for her part in the environment in Heaven and Bob has been for his part on the earth by long years of hard life and experience. I assure you I’m quite human in all I write and you can be sure my feelings are not dead, but very much alive, while expressing what is the light of God in a dark day.
Yours in the Light of all these things being fulfilled to both,
Wm. Irvine.
P.S. Your P.S. was most interesting. I also have proved all these things but only to find that they could never rise beyond the human plane. You will find some help in Isaiah VIII on this point. Why should we not have turned in all our distress and darkness to such sources. But how could they ever rise to meet the needs of those who are the elect of God.
I always found them in a fog whenever they touched the relationship to God and His purpose being fulfilled in our life. Where would you find such a glorious ending to your earthly life as I have outlined for both of you in Sincerity and truth. No, Bob, when the whale swallowed Jonah, it took him down to the foundation of the world and we have tasted all that this means. But the same whale could not digest Jonah and so vomited him up, where his greatest work for God and man was done. You can rest assured that you have had all the care of God and the angels during these past years, and will find yourself in the place and condition which means so much for many who today don’t know their right hand from their left. Nan was given you of God for a much higher reason than that of being your wife in Adam and both of you have proved it, beyond any power that is possible to those familiar spirits who peep and mutter. Every path can only lead to God in the case of those who are His. This is no religious cant or bluff but proved in my own experience these past years.
When Isaiah saw the end of Ussiah, the Leper King, God gave him a vision of his own end in contrast and it’s the end of all who are His, and we now are about to see the fulfillment of that vision not in our own lives but of all who were anointed.
We are all men of unclean lip and we dwell amongst such a people. But when He convinces us of that we are sure of angel ministry to touch our lips with a live coal from the alter which is proof that our iniquity is taken away and our sin purged. Whatever part this present touch may play in our life and work I feel sure that it will result in leaving you where Isaiah found himself, with the same message and consequences to the dead and the living.
No, Bob, we will see the end of the lepers but it will only lead us to the place of our anointing and sealing as His mouthpiece in the Judgment of the nations as well as those who are His vineyard – our work is only beginning in the truest sense when the Lepers finish their Kingship. Yours in the bonds which only can be known by those who have had the vision and touch which makes their words Life or death to all men.
W.I.
Wm Irvine’s Letter to: Edwards & Skerritts
August 17, 1923
Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Wm., Rose, John, and Bob:
Only 23 days have gone since Peace was signed, but the developments are very big to those who can see. President Harding’s death and burial filled the eye and ear of the world, till the 10th August. On the 11th, the British note to France, which is equal to the finish, or the beginning of the end of what the hope of the world depended on for a solution of the European question, and reparations in particular. Now, it’s farther off than ever, as the principal of the Entente come to an end, which must have great effect on the strength of the League of Nations.
This will prove to be the downfall of the foundation work of Peace and Safety. The Versailles Treaty coming so close on the death of the man who was the mouthpiece of what made success impossible is all the more striking. I notice today’s paper says they are to have a “hartal,” or holiday all over India, which is a big thing, to protest against the Kenya decision. Things are very quiet in the East, as they have very few papers to give voice to their thoughts, etc., but from what we know, they are very busy. We have some little straws in Palestine, which shows how the wind blows. The things which took place about the Peacetime across the Jordan are only little things, but we have always the cloud before the rain.
The hardening of the French in their determination to hold the Ruhr, and the hardening of Germany to continue passive resistance, is all in line with hardening of feeling in British Empire on the other side. The fall of the Mark from 1 to 28 million gives the cue to the people, through hunger, to make trouble. The change of the Premier is only another mark of danger in Germany. The withholding of reparations payments in kind to British and Italy in order to the Germans to pay for passive resistance, which means paying the German people not to work for France, or make it possible for them to continue in the Ruhr.
If the Versailles treaty fell through, what of all the other Peace and Safety activities? They will all prove to be scraps of paper. America’s willingness, now, to take a hand in the affairs of Europe, where they affect her interests, will strengthen Britain. But whatever strengthens her will react in Germany, and not soften France. Poincare saying they had both the right and the means to hold the Ruhr. Other elements of the British note render France’s position and condition the more dangerous; people will be saying, where is the sudden destruction, which was to follow Peace and Safety? Little do they know how this matter affects the whole world under the strong stress of strong feelings, which exist; though little expressed. Not to speak of the success of the Turks at Lausanne. Today’s paper says the greatest defeat the British ever had, since Majuba, was Lausanne Conference. And we can be sure the East takes notice of all their dealings with England. Russia is not asleep, as she watches her chance to back any Bolshi activities in Germany or anywhere else. Germany’s food scarcity and inability to buy from outside is the source of the Bolshi activity there. And when we remember Russia and the way it developed from revolution, and republic to Bolshivism, is quite a parallel case. France assumes any serious aspect, putting the payments to England. And USA, still farther off not helping any.
I think the bringing forth of the Manchild will be the period when the things we saw and said begin to take shape. And the Tribulation will begin, when they are ripe. And John will be on the job for sure. And the seal to all who have honestly recognized that our words are true and of God, as they see them being fulfilled. I expect the door will be shut by that time, and the woman and Manchild under the care of God, as surely as the others will come under wrath.
I look on Bob and you being united as very clearly of God; and the links between Heaven and Earth in Mrs. Gerow and Nan are very sweet to me. The one at the beginning, and the other at the end. And both by Cancer, and each bearing the same marks of sound heart for The Manchild, with but few privileges compared to the many. If you contrast them with many who proved to be Moon—wanting light, but not the Man it came through, it’s very enlightening. The Moon under her feet, and the crown of 12 Stars on her head; crying and pained to be delivered, are all too clear to need any word from me. It brings John the nearer to my heart, in that he wrote these words so long ago, which fit our needs so well, as the whole of Revelation 12 does. I expect he is just enjoying them being fulfilled as much as we do, for I don’t expect he was able to digest it all, when he wrote it, else he would not have been told to eat the little book and come back to prophesy again. So I guess he’s eating it, as we have been doing these past years. And I feel sure all the other Prophets and Apostles are understanding the meaning of much they wrote not fully grasping its import. I can see Paul watching, as eagerly, Peace and Safety, as we did these past years; for they are more alive than we.
Daniel’s whole prophecy in connection with the fall of Babylon can only be a guide to us in the fall of the greater Babylon, of which Jerusalem is the head; for it was specially for the latter days. The last chapter is so clear on this, in Michael and the trouble. And, also, in the 2 periods mentioned; and, also, the man on this side of the river; and the man on the other side. Daniel 12 seems to deal with the Tribulation as a whole. Michael standing up to deliver those whose names are written in the book of Life. Then, the resurrection is mentioned, which would encourage this. Daniel was to shut up and seal the book. Then, the running to and fro and the increase in knowledge given as a sign, which surely is being fully fulfilled, if nothing else were true. Is the man on the waters clothed in linen? How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? Somebody on the job now? I can’t see it clearly, but the marks are those of the Angel of the Lord. It may be Michael, but the answer refers to the Anti-Christ and his period—the last of the 7 years. Times, time, and half a time is usually used to give us the 2nd 3 ½ years, when the holy people have been scattered from Jerusalem by the Jewish Anti-Christian reign.
The time that the daily sacrifice ceases is very probably when He ceases
to intercede in Heaven, and wrath of the Lamb begins. There are 2
periods of 1290 days—3 ½ years,
Christian time. And 1335 days, probably the 2nd period till the
coming of the Lord and the Saints, after the destruction by earthquake
and hail and fire on Jerusalem. Strange to notice that all the Prophets
and Apostles have a part of the Truth for these days, and only by the Spirit
putting it together, can we get it clear and full. And John had more
detail than any other, but Revelation 12 is the part which I am most
interested in these days. And you know that this was where Alphie
fell in or fell out. And it was the means of giving me the first
opening I had on it regarding the Great Red Dragon, which was partly right.
Though only at Peace and Safety did I see that it was specially for Jerusalem,
while it’s true for the whole world as the Dragon is to make war on The
Testimony; showing the same power worldwide, but nowhere is it so perfect
a description as Jerusalem.
I have been reading all the Minor Prophets and find each give Truth according to their treatment. And we can see that God’s comfort has always come according to their measure of need. And the fulfillment will cover all their words, as the world is to wax worse in wickedness to the end, when the blood of all Prophets and Saints is to be avenged on them that dwell on the face of the Earth. And we have found in our reading how the whole Book has opened, giving us comfort from everyone. And I expect we need it more, living in the most wicked age of the world’s history. And having the Great Red Dragon with 7 heads, 10 horns, and 7 crowns on the 7 heads, and 1/3 part of the Stars drawn by its tail. The Dragon could not have 7 heads and 10 horns in Jesus’ day in the sense it was today in Jerusalem and the world.
It speaks about the Beast whose head was wounded to death—the Jew, no doubt—becoming part of the greater Beast at the end in Revelation 13. Beast seems the whole political and religious powers united against the power of Michael and his Angels and the Seed of God. The crowns are on the 10 horns, and the names on the 7 heads of blasphemy, or putting the name of God on the work and Servants of the Devil. Revelation 12 is the Religious and Political in Jerusalem. Revelation 13 may be the religious and political in the world. Revelation 13 may be the power who come to take Jerusalem and set up the Jews, after the Moslems have carried them away as in Zechariah 14:2. For the Beast that was wounded was to be healed.
They will restore Palestine to the Jews, who will then set up a government, which has not been done in this present man. [mandate] fiasco in returning the Jews. This would indicate that the Lion, the Leopard, and the Bear will all have part in the He-goat who comes from the West, not touching the ground, in the driving out and avenging the taking of Jerusalem and the holy places, and carrying away the Jews.
No doubt the Dragon will be willing to give them power, seat, and great authority. They worshipped the Dragon and the Beast saying, “who is able to make war against the Beast” from the West, who has re-taken Jerusalem from the Eastern nations? And power was given to him to continue 42 months, which would encourage us to believe that the beginning of Tribulation will be the taking of Jerusalem, as per Zechariah 14. And John will come about that time, also. And this may cover the 5 months of Revelation 9, dating from Peace and Safety.
These things are new to me, but they cover ground, which has been somewhat hard to trace and fill in the lacking detail. From Peace and Safety, destruction begins; ending in the taking of Jerusalem from the East. Then comes the Beast of Revelation 13 and re-takes and avenges the carrying away of the Jews, and re-settles them as a National People. John comes, and the Tribulation period of 7 years begins, which is covered by the Beast, who is given power by the Dragon of Jerusalem. And the National Jewish people take control in the AntiChrist period.
I will be abler to give you outline on this by next letter, but it’s all good, full, and fresh. Though it puts Tribulation and John back for 5 months yet. But we have the recompense of being brought forth and made manifest in seeing our words fulfilled. I feel sure you are enjoying a good time together and being fitted for coming days, as we all are.
Yours very truly in Him,
William Irvine
Wm Irvine’s Letter to: Skerritts
October 13, 1923
Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Bob:
I wonder how you are getting along on the ranch these days? I’m glad to know you are not alone, though in some ways it will be lonely enough. But to be away from the strife of tongues has many advantages, when we take God into the affairs of life. To endure as seeing Him, who is invisible, is still the supreme test of all living.
My two nearest neighbors died on the 29th Oct., one, 53; the other, 70. One, an artist, had gone to Paris and had to have an operation for bladder trouble and died 3 days after. He went away very cheery and brave, but the change of climate, etc., was too much for him, as he had been suffering for 3 years past. My other neighbor’s nearest friend here in Palestine died on 30th in hospital. The Jews mourn 7 days, sitting on the floor. Rabbis come every day to pray for the departed. They read the 49th Psalm, and this was very interesting to me. You can see what it says, low and high, rich and poor, wise, foolish, and brutish die and make much to do in life. But David says, He shall redeem my soul from Hell and the grave. Last verse, “He that is in honor and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish. Like sheep, they are laid in the grave. Death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning.” It is a clear statement of the place men may have in their own and the eyes of men, because of what they have and the position they hold. But the grave will hold and consume them, as sure as it can’t hold those who are His. It reveals how blind we are to the real and great difference between those who die twice and those who die and rise again. This is immortality. The Christ nature may bring much affliction and tribulation, but it ends in triumph, when the others are vanquished. The Psalms following gives us a very clear outline of the difference, when living and dead. The wicked always evil, and the violent; while the full of his words and sacrifice, which can only add to sufferings of those who are his, as well as the sinner world. But their end; and the end of the age and judgment are ever before David’s heart and mind to comfort him. You can see what it would mean for those who can’t see who they are, and whom they serve. And their end, and the end of their seed on the Earth at the end of the age.
Isaiah 7:14 The Lord, Himself, was to give triflers of Israel a sign of judgment, which was to overtake Israel and Judah. What a sign, is the Virgin, Joseph and the Child born in a stable and cradled in a manger! A very sordid sign to be the exalted of Earth, but how perfectly it revealed the hearts of men by their own words and works toward the sign.
Isaiah 20 The Prophet is to be a sign and wonder to Israel. He was to go naked and barefooted for 3 years—a sign and wonder to Egypt and Ethiopia. The Children of Israel were tempted to put their confidence in Egypt and Ethiopia, as a door of safety from judgment, and so the Lord showed them what was to happen to them. They were carried away captive and naked. You can see how the people would look on the Prophet, and how it would be quite impossible; for their blind, unregenerate hearts would be revealed. All their confidence would be in what they knew and could see in the Egyptian. But it was all like a snare to them.
Zechariah 9:9 gives us a similar message to the Daughters of Zion. John 12:15 and Matthew 21 are good as showing how the King was to come. You will have quite a feast, if you get a grip on the Truth in Matthew 21—sitting on an ass, and the colt with it. The Disciples clothes spread on the ass, and those of others in the way; while those, who had no garments to spare, spread branches on the ground. It bears the mark of meekness, as we could see it would be in Palestine today. But to the Romans and the priestly Jews, what an insult to them and their god! Surely it was a sign and a wonder, which they could not receive. How the human and devil-possessed heart always thinks God, as one who receives and values their regal marks, as they do; while it’s exactly the opposite. It was all as obnoxious to them, as was the naked flesh of Isaiah, and the stable-manger birth, by the Virgin, of the son of God.
You see what presumption it would appear in their eyes. Fancy the man that had been guilty of making such a scene in holy Jerusalem, daring to overthrow the tables of the Money Changers; and those who sold doves, He drove out. Little did they dream that this was God judging them. Cursing the fig tree of Matthew 23 and overturning the mountain of Jerusalem, with all it’s holy tradition and ancient stability, and casting it into the sea. Think of all the Jews have had to suffer these 2,000 years. And they are as blind to what happened that day, as ever. And where can we find anything Christian that would accept such a king, if he came under similar circumstances? The cursing of the Fig Tree is good, if read with Matthew 23. And the mountain with Matthew 24.
Matthew 21:23 shows us the power and place that prayer has in the judgment of the Wicked Seed of the Earth. You can see how David’s sufferings seemed to work in this direction of making him desire the death and destruction of his enemies. And the assurance he was very significant, showing that the Spirit which moves the Saints in heaven to cry for vengeance, is also making the hearts of His own on the Earth. All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. This gives us some idea of what Jesus was praying about towards the end of His ministry, when He found the whole wicked Seed aroused against Him and His, after He had given them such clear evidence of God in and with him for 3½ years.
If they missed life they could not escape death. This is a side which we are too apt to forget, and so our faith is weakened, as we look at the wicked like a green Bay Tree. But the end is as sure for them, as it is for the righteous. The power and majesty of God, had in the meek and lowly marks, is very suggestive. The reproach, persecution and death of Isaiah was only accumulated proofs of their wickedness. It could only hasten and make sure, the very things he witnessed to. The Miracles of His wrath are as sure as the miracles of His grace. But always according to what has been revealed as their heart condition. The reception of the Immanuel, the King coming in Judgment, was only ripening them for death and destruction. The contrast between the signs and wonders given in the Woman and Manchild of Revelation 12, and the great Red Dragon with 7 heads, crowned, and 10 horns, standing ready to devour the child as soon as it is brought forth, is very significant. Heavenly powers in Earthly weakness versus hellish power in all its greatness in the eyes of men. The weakest and least likely thing in the world to become the destroyer; while the most likely power in the eyes of men, is to be defeated and cast out of Heaven and down to Earth, and, finally, into the pit. And with a whole Bible full of such things, how blind are men to the Way of God--the in Grace and Judgment. These signs and wonders of today, are the greatest of all times, and the test of our faith, and that of all men.
The more honor which cometh from God, only the greater weakness and humiliation. The more recognition from men, the surer the doom. Men can never believe that God lifts up and hardens men’s hearts before He casts them down to destruction. Thus giving to every man according to his heart’s desire, that the test of our fitness for honor of God, is our willingness to be made the last and least amongst men. But such is the eternal way of God; His mercies endure forever. The greater and more fierce Pharaoh was, the nearer he was to the Red Sea, which will cover Him and his hosts. The rabble mob of Israel shivering on the Red Sea shore, while the dust of Pharaoh’s hosts behind them, only pointed to their victory. But only to the eyes of Moses and Aaron, who had learned through 40 years of solitude, God’s way of working. How slowly we take it all in, and how fearful are our hearts, and how faithless at our best.
The travailing Woman and the weakness of her child, in contrast to the great Red Dragon, is surely, of all things, the contrast which proves god’s mercy and judgment to be nigh, and they shall not escape.
Proverbs 1:24-33 is very apt for these days, and don’t lose sight of the last verse. “Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall swell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil,” or all the power of the Devil. The end of the age summed up in the Woman and Manchild, versus the great Red Dragon. But God, Michael and his Angels are masters of the situation, and we can trust and not be afraid.
With best love in him, who is on the Throne,
William Irvine
Wm. Irvine's Letter To: Edwards (part of letter)
August 31, 1923
The world is like a ship full of passengers, all bent on their own purposes, pleasures and destination. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and crew with officers with her sea cock opened and nobody aware of the fact, and each so busy that they don't notice it till it will be too late. Then the hubbub will come and the S.O.S. will be wirelessed without any chance of reply. They will go down singing "Nearer my God to Thee" little reckoning where the trouble came from. So blind have men become through all their Godless words and works. But it's like a snare and a trap for them because of their blind eyes and deaf ears.
Eddie Cooney now preaches that we are drifting into a famine. If that were all we would not have much to fear. I suppose he will be preparing for a further delusion. I wonder if there are many strong on the rapture? I enclose a cutting from Auckland showing their attitude towards military service. Very far from all I taught. The whole Old Testament shows that the Jesus of the New Testament was the Lord of Hosts who never failed to be with the Nations that used the sword against those who used the sword wickedly, and Pacifism is the worst form of delusion one could imagine, and proves them to be just as blind to who Jehovah of the Old Testament was and is, as are the Jews concerning the Jesus of the New Testament. How can a man fear God and honor the King and refuse to pay his share in money and service in defence of his country and home? It's just as unchristian to refuse to use the sword of the Lord of Hosts against the sword of the wicked one, as it would be to take the sword of the wicked aggression against others. Zech. 14:3 shows that the Lord will go forth and fight against those who take Jerusalem as in days gone by, and that by the Christian nations in vengeance of God against the Moslem World.
I suspect out of this will come the Dragon making war against those who have the Testimony of Jesus, and they will well deserve it, just as the man who would not help put out the fire which was destroying another man's house is sure to have his own in danger. God not only made all men of one blood, but He also fixed the bounds of their habitations, making it a sacred duty of every man that wants to dwell in any part of the world to be willing to defend their frontiers and rights as he would defend his own family, blood, or home. The method of doing this must be determined by his willingness and ability, but no man can escape the responsibility and have the Spirit of God in him. Neither can a man have the Spirit of Christ or God and do violence to his neighbor's landmark consciously. Those who take the sword in defence of the Man of God shall perish by the sword, for God cannot honor or protect such, but will leave them to the consequences of their own. Non-resistance is the way of bringing God to our deliverance. To use this as an argument against warfare in defence of our Land and Home is to prostitute the words of Jesus.
Yours very truly in Him,
Wm. Irvine
Wm. Irvine's Letter To: Dunbars
September 12, 1923
Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Dunbars:
I was glad to have yours today. Nothing greater can come to me than to be of use to others and I don't need to tell you the days of rejoicing are only beginning. Isaiah 54 is good and comforting and for today, when those who used to sing begin to mourn; our time to sing and cry aloud. You will find the first and last verses true in our experience. 20 years today since I first saw USA and 9 years ago since I landed in New York for the last time--going.
Yesterday, 11th September, was the Jewish New Year, which gave me further light on 24th July, which was the 11th day of the 11th month, Jewish time. I had mistaken it for the 10th day of 10th month, owing for the Jews keeping their fast and mourning in memory of losing their Temple and Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and then by the Romans. So the late war began on the 11th day of the 11th month, Jewish time and finished on the 11th hour of 11th day of the 11th month, Christian time, which makes it all the more wonderful. Why the Jews should mourn that week, I don't quite understand and the Moslems hold their feast in memory of Abram's offering on Mt. Moriah, but I think we may be sure this is the day the four angels are let loose. The hour, day, month and year have more meaning when we see the hour on which war finished. So peace was signed same day and month (Jewish) as the war began and the war finished same day and month – then reckoning.
Today's paper tells of the wrecking of seven destroyers on the Pacific, north of Santa Barbara, through running on the rocks in a fog. A very extraordinary thing; and along side that news is given news of four cruisers being sunk by the tidal wave in Japan. A cruiser is one of the fastest and most valuable Navy ships for attack and would cost 25 million to build, each. The thing which I like best about this now, is that it links up Frisco and Japan again; as Harding's death and the quake did. Between these points we have the cities of the whole nations, which are to be destroyed by The Great Earthquake, "such as was not since men were on the earth," so mighty an earthquake in force and power and so great in extent. Jerusalem is to be divided in three parts and the cities of the nations fell; but Jerusalem is to receive special wrath by fire and hail. The plague of hail is to be exceeding great, also.
Harding's ship, The Henderson, sunk another Navy ship in a fog on 27th of July. England, (Greenwich time); part of London sits on 0, and 10,000 miles East and West, taking in all the land except the islands in the Pacific, so England is right in the center from West and East. The wrecking of the ships of the Navy on their own coast is a very strange thing, for they are the most carefully navigated of all ships. The British lost a submarine in the Hong Kong typhoon a month ago.
You notice "Every island fled away and the mountains were not found," or became plains. In Revelation 21 it says, "there was no more sea," I expect showing that the whole islands of the nations will become one vast continent over which He will reign and His name ONE, in place of thousands today. This will be beyond all the scientists' explanations about earth slips and other rubbish. There is earth activity all over the world at the time to remind men that God is always at work, but men try to make out it's the earth working; anything but believe in a living, working God in ALL things right here amongst men and in all His universe.
Science only reveals the utter Godlessness of men on the earth, but He will convince all of His presence, power and authority over all things created. Science is little else than the Devil's interpretation of God's work; as Theology is the Devil's reading of God's truth. He keeps them all guessing all the time.
If we have found it hard to get all these day dates, you can see where the world is, for I have never heard them mentioned in spite of all the guessing but I knew the 11th day of the 11th month had meaning to it from the beginning; even more than being the day Noah was to enter the Ark.
Wm. and Mary show good marks and reveal the fact that crying, travail and pain, in the desire to see The Manchild brought forth, is the final test. If people fail here I'm afraid they'll have little hope. I noticed blindness happened to all others, no matter who they be inclined to put in place of The Manchild. Percy's influence has that mark and we know McGowan and all they produced. Their wickedness is the positive side; while lack of gratitude for what God revealed by the 12 star crown on my head is a double witness against them and shows how perfectly God draws the line. "SHE BROUGHT FORTH THE MANCHILD," shows the condition and attitude of all who will find provision in the wilderness and makes their attitude to The Manchild the final test; and all their excuses will be hard to swallow and weeping, wailing and gnashing of the teeth will be their portion, in place of song and security.
You can be sure that all the light of God for these days will concentrate on producing The Manchild and gathering The Woman, ready to flee into the wilderness. All self-centered light will prove to be darkness. Mrs. M.'s cry has not the right ring to it, she is more troubled about herself than me. The Woman will be more anxious about me than themselves; this puts them all in their place. "He that is not for me, is against me." "He that gathereth not with me, scatters," etc., is more true today than ever. It was true of The Godchild and will be of The Manchild. Most of them have been as anxious to starve me as they have been anxious to feed their own dog, hog, goat and wolf. It would be very queer if God were to be in people who have no interest in The Man who is to rule the nations with a Rod of Iron and caught up to God and His throne and with Me so much evidence in past thirty years of my life; and they turn to their own reflections in a glass for comfort and light. It all looks as if God had hid these things from them, as He has revealed them to us.
We can give people light, but if they have not got The Light of Life, it will be of little use to them. The moonlight under foot and the light of 12 stars on the head, are real separating marks. It would be foolish to think that there were not a multitude OUTSIDE the Ark who had known Noah very intimately and heard all he had to say and seen him preparing the Ark and even helped in some measure and way, but it was the seven who were with him when he was told to enter, that counted. (Genesis 6 & 7)
What can people expect who dishonor or despise the head that God puts the 12 star crown on? Noah's head had the 12 star crown. He, it was who saw what was coming and what was needed to save himself and his house; as well as condemn the world who had no time for The Man God had crowned; and the four marks of The Woman covers all that we can rely on as marks of God today, clothed with the sun, moon under her feet, crown of stars on her head, crying in travail and pain for HER child; and "child" shows what will be in the "inward" experience of all who are The Woman. (Revelation 12:1) You can see in Elizabeth and Mary how their thoughts would be centered on the bringing forth of the child. The one a Manchild, the other a Godchild. John Baptist being type for The Manchild of today; as The Godchild, type of the coming of Jesus and His Bride.
You can see where most of them fell in, by a look back to the past and who they profess through, etc., rather than concentrating on what is and what is to be. They: McGowan, Percy, Jim and Company all wanted to be co-equal, or more, and missed all, while The Testimony claim I was only one of the twelve apostles and my place was entirely one with them; and God surely has given them all their recompense in attempting to steal what God gave me. They put crowns on their own heads and shown by the reflections of what they got from me and I got moonlight served up to me for many years.
I often enjoy the times I went out of the way, because they were afraid to speak in my presence. Their moon did not shine very bright till I got out of sight and they were always best when they knew I would not come on the scene and I can imagine what my presence would be in any of their Conventions today. Darkness must reign if moonlight is to be valued, but The Woman, any part of her, would upset all their moonlight, so they must shut the door and windows tight, but what would be the value of all sunlight or moonlight or woman, if The Manchild is not brought forth? This is the key to the whole. There is no hope apart from this and what value is it to speculate about it being some body when we see so clearly that The Woman will know and all her hope and expectation will be centered on the one thing that interests God most.
If the world is to be judged, He needs a man. He always produced His man by a woman, why not now? It would be foolish to think He would pass those whom He has honored most for thirty years and who have suffered in witnessing against the whole dragon family, who single handed called many out of their powers – who form The Testimony – but though saved from the dragon, they failed to get the nature of The Lamb.
There is a big difference between saved from the dragon to keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus and to shine by being clothed with the sunlight, love and light of God towards The Man who called them out of the dragon's mouth. If God had worked in them they would have been clothed with the sun and been interested in what God is seeking to bring forth. They called it a New Gospel when tested to see what was IN them. They put thorns where God put stars. They chose the righteousness, which is of men, rather than that which is from God only.
Notice the last verse of Isaiah 54, "THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS is from ME, saith the Lord," and all such He will destroy self-righteousness in. The ceasing to have interest in me has been death to all of them and unless they see this and repent very thoroughly of it, I don't see one ray of hope for any of them. They have all had enough experience to know that no other has ever taken my place in being able to give them what was living and brought The Seal of God with it; and if they allow the cloud to hide the light, then it's their own choice and all attempts to blame the cloud is only trifling.
God still protects the "Tree of Life" with a sword which turns every way (Genesis 3:24) so that no unregenerate can eat. When you think on a world full of all sorts of darkness and activity and how few can be interested in the bringing forth of The Manchild, it proves where faith is and how little of it there is on the earth; for The Manchild is the test for all that's of God on the earth and must be; and when people try to make The Godchild The Manchild, you see where they are.
So many talk about Jesus today, just as they talked about The Lord and dishonored His body when on the earth. It was death to Cain in failing to recognize God was in Abel. Same of all who failed to recognize God in Noah, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, Job, David and all the prophets and apostles and the test was when they were under the cloud and with a whole Bible full of that, men are as blind today as ever they were. The hiding of The Manchild in The Woman is a master stroke, as was the birth of John and Jesus. It finds out the hypocrites and reveals the secrets of their hearts.
See how God has always chosen the least likely, by whom His purpose was to be fulfilled. Think on The Great Red Dragon with seven heads and ten horns and crowns on his seven heads and his tail drawing one-third part of the stars of Heaven, in contrast with The Woman bringing forth a child. STRENGTH of the religious, political world – in contrast with the WEAKNESS and HELPLESSNESS of a Woman in distress. Heaven looking on and Michael and his angels ready to help and the victory SURE and planned from the foundation of the world.
The Testimony standing as far off as they can; but the dragon will not devour The Manchild or The Woman, but The Testimony which is as far from The Manchild and Woman, as verse 1 is from the last 5 verses of Revelation 12. Only God could put them all in place as they are in Revelation 12. It's good to contrast the first and last verse of chapter and see how God gives them all their own. The high-ups cast DOWN to the earth. The Manchild caught UP to God. The Woman safe in the wilderness. The dragon devouring The Testimony.
Yours very truly in Him,
Wm. Irvine
Wm Irvine’s Letter To: Skerritts
November 6, 1923
Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Bob:
I was glad to have yours and to learn that you had got some grind off you in your partial sale. Farm fare and surroundings don’t always make for getting the victory you speak of. I have wondered for long, why God, manifest in the flesh, (who was our righteousness) should be branded, by choice, as a child of fornication; and the most favored amongst woman, as mother of a bastard, under the most ignominious conditions possible to a woman. Think the preeminence given to His relationship to harlots, natural. You can see Simon the Pharisee incident, in the light of the name He bore, would brand Him much more than any ordinary person. This, in the light of what He did for the Woman taken in adultery, made His reputation all the worse. But in the whole, we can see how it revealed the harlot-heart in those who saw and heard Him. They had no choice but measure Him either by His anointing, and by theirs; or choose and judge according to the sight of their eyes and the hearing of their ears.
You notice how Adam made aprons of fig leaves, while the Lord made them coats of skin. The one, probably suggesting covering their nakedness, while the latter neglected that item. You notice how Noah was uncovered, when God revealed, by His salvation from the flood, his acceptance beyond the shadow of a doubt. The killing of Abel was not for his goodness, but because there was some mark which gave occasion to his wicked-eyed-eared-hearted brother. You can see the mark of the Ham Seed as always the looking for the nakedness, as you find the mark (naked) on those whom He has sealed and accepted.
It was when Jacob was being sealed and accepted and his name changed, that he got the mark of a lame leg before men. When we have power with God and man, as the Servants of God, we will bear the mark of being a stumbling block to them; so that our righteousness is from Him, and not self-righteousness, which always commends itself to the eyes of Ham. You notice how the heart condition of Shem and Japeth was revealed as was the heart of Ham; shows the contrast and separation, which ends in the gulf fixed. The Lazarus man was the accused Steward, who lost his stewardship, while the rich Man, whose eyes were opened in Hell to see the difference between the Man, who is outwardly full of sores, while inwardly full of God.
Look carefully at Isaiah 54, and specially the last verse, which reveals the fact that the righteousness of His Servants is from Him. Few men could see past Isaiah’s nakedness to the fact that he was anointed of God for their judgment. Isaiah 20, read carefully. Just as the Devil reveals the need for covering our nakedness and perfecting our self righteousness before men, so God clothes us; reveals our nakedness at the end, when we are righteous with His righteousness—of God, His nature and Spirit. He will uncover us every time, so that you should suffer from them in the flesh, as Paul—the messenger of Satan to buffet him, which God would not, and did not remove, but said that His Grace was sufficient. And I bear witness to the fact that no man can fathom the depths of the Grace better than by such an affliction as you refer to.
Job 30:27-31 and Chapter 31 along with it, gives you much light on the subject and shows how God allows Satan to perfect us, by destroying all our righteousness in the eyes of men. You notice that all that happened to Job was the destruction of the righteousness, which appealed to his friends. And the perfecting of that which is of God, leaving him heir to all that his Father, in Grace, had for him, as is revealed in the Prodigal. It takes some hard experience and the courage, which only God can give, to see and say those things. You will say, some day, that the last and greatest blessing of all, is to be perfected in the Nature and love of God, which can look on the nakedness of a world full of sinners and have nothing but compassion in your heart for them, as He has. We could never be fit for the work of redeeming a world unto God, as He has, in any other way, than by personal experience of the needs of men.
Job had heard by the hearing of the ear, “Now mine eye seeth thee,” or I see eye to eye with thee, “and I repent in dust and ashes.” Job did not know how much self-righteousness he had till God had taken it all away and left him a righteousness that covered the needs of all men, while the Seed of Ham (natural) are known to all the world by the Negro blood and marks, so (spiritually,) the Seed of Ham are known by the marks of measuring the Anointed by their nakedness. The drink which made Noah drunk, only revealed “the wine of her fornication,” which made Ham. Ham was more drunk spiritually, than Noah was, naturally. Apply this to all the cases in the whole book where sin is revealed in the Chosen of God, and you will get much light. These things can not be learned by the hearing of the ear, but by actual eye opening experience, that we may see God as He is, to us and to the world.
Give Truth like this to hogs, dogs, goats, and wolves and see what they will do with it. It was the grasping of this Truth, which caused the Angel to wrestle all night with Jacob. And you may have some similar experience in being convinced that you are chosen of God, and the mark is as you confess it to be. The whole world looked very dark to Jacob as he went over the Brook Jabbok at night, both legs strong. But he saw the Sun rise in the morning, leaning on a staff and halting. But there was a light in his eye and heart that had never been there before; and I expect you will have similar experience, when you recognize the experience you have had these years past.
The dead Prophets are judged by their anointing of God. The living are judged by their lame leg. But in Hell, the man dressed in purple and fine linen, or perfect self-righteousness, can see the difference. And the great gulf fixed between those who have become the friends of God, not in name, but in nature and experience, and so are fitted for a place in His Bosom, as His friends. Abram would not pass muster today amongst men, if you measure him by his works. His deceit in the matter of Sarah being told to profess to be his sister on two occasions, is a very serious matter in the East. Then, he was father of Ishmael. Jacob, I have mentioned. Then, see the marks of moral smudge in the 10 sons of Jacob in their attitude to Joseph.
Then, Moses went to the wilderness, a murderer of an Egyptian, which would be equal today to killing a Britisher by a Jew. The fear of this was on him for 40 years. When he came, it was as the deserter of his wife and two children—a very serious thing in men’s eyes, but God was with him; and the Egyptians found it out to their cost in the Red Sea. And they were the essence of all that self-righteousness can do for a nation.
No man can be Devil-possessed in the fullest sense of the word, till he is ready to betray the Anointed of God, because of what he can see with his eyes and hear with his ears, as did Judas. No man can be fully possessed of God, till he hears the other marks, which makes him an easy target for the Wicked One. Those things give new meaning to Paul’s words, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” Was this not so in Samson and David’s life? When Isaiah went naked for 3 years through the streets of Jerusalem, then he was strong, and his words had power with both God and Man, as the Jews found out to their terrible cost. And the Philistines, when Samson pulled the house down on them, killing more in his death of the Accusing Seed, than in his life. You notice in James’ reference to Abram and Rahab’s faith, the two extremes. Elijah was a man of like passions to us, and he prayed, etc. Why should Elijah be sent to the widow of Sarepta, with her bastard son, that he may share in their last meal; and God provided for them miraculously? Think on what the prophets of Baal would say and think of such an arrangement. This is the sting on the words of Jesus, when He spoke in the synagogue after being anointed. Job’s affliction ceased only when he said, “Mine eye seeth thee.” And I find there is something to it.
If Nan was a staff and stay to comfort you, and you need another, be sure you don’t take one that will pierce your hand; so that you may be saved the suffering, which is possible under any other circumstances. I expect you will find your way to Jerusalem as part of the woman, for her flight the 2nd time is to be from where the 2 Witnesses are killed. So cheer up, Bob. The morning and the sunrise, as you re-cross the Jabbok, after a dark night of wrestling, will be as glorious, as the other was terrible.
William Irvine
Wm. Irvine's Letter to: Loitz's.
November 20, 1923
Box 553 P.O.
Jerusalem, Palestine
My Dear Wm. and Mary;
I was pleased to have yours with pictures of the mountaineers in war paint. The only reason I did not like the pictures is because I was not there. It certainly was a nice place away from the strife of tongues which grow worse in all the world every day.
Matters are very grave in Europe, endangering the peace of the world, and the only comfortable place I know is in the secret place where He dwells and the safest place for all who want peace and protection till He come whose right it is to reign. It makes one sick to read of all the suffering people in the world and can only produce the cry of the Saints in Heaven "How long Oh Lord, how long?" and it won't be long till we hear the answer.
Washing dirty rags is better done in private than in Public. But take no notice of what won't edify or build up and abstain from every form of evil in thought, word and action. You may be glad to have a few who can get along and stick to them. God is seeking to perfect us in loving and forgiving else these things would not happen and it's better to suffer wrong than to be the wrong doer.
Peace means peace even when others make war, and we can be sure that God will not make any mistake in judging the hearts of men. At this distance it looks very different from what it does there. Don't forget there is a very active Devil and Satan whose whole aim is to violate love to our brethren or sister under any form of excuse he can get us caught by. To measure others by their faults is not wise; but rather forgive and love tenderly. The effect of violating this spirit is on our own heart because it hinders the vision of God and Grieves His Spirit. It's best to keep away from where there is not friendly spirit as it does not help them nor yourselves.
The letters of the Book are true and tried, but I can't see how anybody can despise what I try to give them. Jesus said this is life eternal to know thee, the living and true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. Those who despised the man sent of God did not know God is the message of the whole Book. Here men stand or fall:- to love the dead prophets and their letters and to despise the living is where people have fallen in always and will again.
Fellowship with God and the man of God have never been separated all through the Book and we can only pity those who despise what is given for their healing and help. I would rather see people blame themselves than others for their own want of heart. Nobody could come between the Ritzman family and me but their own actions. But let that matter rest and don't mind, it's not your business. If Wm. Edwards can help them, then it will rejoice my heart and be good for them.
Let there be no vain glory in the use of my letters, keep them amongst yourselves and treat each other with perfect love and confidence and do all you can to heal the wounds existing.
The 144,000 are the servants who will be gathered to Jerusalem by the 2 witnesses during their 3 1/2 years witness, as Jesus gathered 12, 70 and 120. They are being sealed in their foreheads these days, by being rejected of the Harlot and her daughters. You notice it says of them, they had not been defiled with women and followed the Lamb withersoever He leadeth. They will all be recognising the Lord has become Judge and recognise His work in judgment these past years. They are like the people who were being prepared for Jesus' anointing. The poor brokenhearted prisoners blind and bruised and hopeless. The outcasts of Israel to whom He sent His disciples. They are the wood (gopher) wood out of which Noah was going to build the ark. It had to be cut and gathered before the ark could be built. The building will begin when they are gathered by the 2 witnesses and each put in its place with the name of the Father on their foreheads. They are the first fruits unto God and the Lamb by the everlasting Gospel as the apostles were in Jesus' day. They were redeemed from amongst men on the earth today. They can sing the New Song which is the sum of the songs of Rev. from Ch. 4 to 15. By them will the Gospel go to the uttermost ends of the earth, when they are scattered by the Jewish antichrist reign and many of them will be killed during the period after the finish of the 2 witnesses.
I have written you on this matter some last week. God is not going to destroy all flesh from off the earth this time: only the wicked. While the Everlasting Gospel by the 144,000 will be as an ark for all who will call on the name of the Lord.
During the 1,000 years from the 2 witnesses begin their witness, the wicked will die off just as the righteous were killed off during the past 6,000 years while the E. Gospel will give men every opportunity of being saved. Men will only die when they begin to blaspheme by idle words against the Holy Ghost. You see they did not die off in Jesus' or Paul's day,- They persecuted to the death the anointed of God.
You need no more to enable you to grasp the 144,000 I think. It will all become clearer as the days go by. But it gives me hope that there will be a big gathering to Jerusalem, and I will be glad to see some of my friends there. I think the 2nd flight of the woman will be from Jerusalem, when the 2 witnesses are killed. So we may have a look of you all before we go home which would be a great joy. Our mourning will be over when the tribulation begins.
Now keep sweet and Heap coals of fire on the heads of those who despise rather than pour cold water on them. You can pray for the fulfillment of these things everyday.
Yours very truly in Him,
Wm. Irvine.
P.S. The Jews were type of God's chosen out of the world. So we need to read it thus to get any real sense out of the 12 tribes. If we fail to recognise Jew for type of God's chosen people out of both Jew and Gentile, we miss the whole point. This is where so many find it hard to read the prophets.
They take Jew literal as the people to whom the promises of the Kingdom are to be fulfilled. The Jews read it in this way and think they will reign for 1,000 years; whereas its God's true chosen spiritual seed of Abram. It's the meek of the earth who will inherit the earth. Only the seed of God have any chance. Neither Jew or Gentile will have any claim to a place in the kingdom as such.
All who bear the same relationship to God Abram, Isaac and Jacob had, are those who will reign and the 12 tribes covered the whole of the Jews - probably teaching us that it will be out of the whole world the 144,000 will come. Jerusalem will become the center of the coming conflict and so all people in the world will be looking towards it and the drought, pestilence and plagues as well as the war will be centered there. So it's easy to see how people from everywhere will be interested enough to come see and hear.
It's all so new and big and contrary to all our past experience that we can hardly take it all in at once and especially when we are still in the dark hours of the night. But the sun will shine out.
Malachi 4:2 Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings and ye shall go forth as the calves of the stalls; and ye shall tread down the wicked. They shall be as ashes under your feet;- in the day that I shall do this saith the Lord of Hosts. The righteous have been under their feet so long they can hardly believe that there is to be a change.
He is to sit on the Throne He now occupies till He has put all His enemies under His feet who are on the earth today, and they never were stouter hearted than today. But He knows how to do His own work and take the victory when His wrath is kindled but a little.
England is going to have an Election and it will be a great fight as free trade has been the cry of the country for a long time and it will stir up old controversies. While the pots boil over worse and worse in Europe.
The Emperor of Rome fiddled while Rome burned is not ancient history this time. But they all seem to be at their wits end as what to do or how to do it and most of the wise seem to fear. It can only end in a greater war than the last. But the old Book must be fulfilled and our heart's confidence is in Him who will thoroughly purge His floor.
Wm. Irvine
Wm Irvine's Letter To: Loitz's.
November 6, 1923
Box 553 P.O.
Jerusalem, Palestine
My Dear Mary, Wm. & Co.,
I was pleased to hear of your trip & all your plans which are all proof in the right direction. You can be sure that if you have nothing but the faith of God perfected in you for all your efforts, you will have a rich reward for that is the hope we have of being found under His wings which are the Almighty.
Wireless is one of the things which I have taken little detailed interest in, as it's but of quite recent development. So I could give you no valuable hints regarding battery. But you are in the very center of it and I feel sure it can do no harm to have a receiver at any rate for I expect it will be the most effective way of knowing what is going on in the world, and I feel sure much of future happenings in Jerusalem will reach the world in this way;- Though its only Government messages which are handled by wireless here so far.
I can see there is some chance for the Woman finding her way to Jerusalem from where the 2nd flight of the woman is to take place on the wings of a great eagle with a flood of water or scandal and hatred after her as a flood. This will take place when the 2 witnesses are killed and the earthquake which accompanies their ascent to heaven will cause the waters to be swallowed up as the world sees that the men who tormented the earth were of God, so that they will fear to hurt the woman. If the 144,000 servants are to be gathered from the 4 quarters of the earth, there will be room enough for the Woman with them. As Jesus took 3 1/2 years to gather His apostles, so will the 2 witnesses gather apostles, who will stand with them on Mt. Zion at the end of their witness. I think this is the meaning of Rev. 14. A Lamb, not the Lamb, and 144,000. Then they will be scattered to the whole earth with the everlasting Gospel by the coming into power of the Jewish antichrist who will persecute and kill some of them. So there is hope in my heart that I will see some of you at any rate.
You notice that the mother of Jesus was with the apostles toward the
end of His ministry, though separated from Him at the beginning and you
notice the care He took over her at His death in saying to John, "Behold
thy mother" and to His mother, "Behold thy
son."
If you read New T. as prophetic of the beginning of the Everlasting Gospel, you can get many hints. The Old T. is prophetic of Jesus ministry, so His is typical of the greater day, now coming.
Noah built the ark though he did not know exactly the day, but when the ark was finished the Lord told him 7 days before hand, and I expect John's coming will be before the great and dreadful day of the Lord cometh as per Mal. 4. You have always the sure hope that food will be better than money when the drought begins, and food will be good value for all else you can or need to purchase. So well preserved, selected foods can't go far wrong. For money will be as valueless as the German mark is today when famine comes. Americans call dollars beans, but it will be the other way about - beans will be dollars. I notice the verdict of the court on the naval disaster was negligence and inefficiency in the officers. I guess this will prove to be the verdict on those who are the officers of the world when tribulation comes. They will be on the rocks full speed, as were the 7 ships.
All I see happening and to happen gives no concern regard what I advise you to do in the matter of food,- even if you lose some of it. To store money in the safest bank, there is always some loss. Real estate will be of little value. If California was to have earthquake and tidal waves as had Chile last Armistice day, you would have a gold mine in the mountains where others would lose everything. You notice Jesus went to the wilderness where He was anointed at the beginning of His ministry and then at the end of His ministry you see them going towards Jericho because it was too dangerous for them in Jerusalem. This gives us a hint as to the two flights of the woman, which may be useful. Noah prepared food; Joseph, also,- the widow of Sarapta; while the mark of the unregenerate was they did not know so they could not do it. Our confidence is not in the food but in the God who has given us light to see what is coming.
You can see that Noah's family had to take it 2nd hand from Noah, but it was the same faith and all benefited alike in the flood. I notice that preparation has been a good test for the woman for all who have wicked marks have been inclined to make light of it and speak evil of it which is a hopeful sign to us. I noticed in Alfie McGowan he spoke of storing food while there were some starving in the world; Percy also in one of his recent letters gave the same impression. Something of the same marks seen in Judas when he questioned the wisdom of Mary anointing Jesus' body in comparison with selling it and giving it to the poor who are always with us. The same could be said of all Noah's preparation.
The Passover feast was the last big feed the Israelites got before they left Egypt and went to the desert where God had to give them Manna as soon as their unleavened bread was finished. All the marks Jesus gives in connection with the flood and destruction of Sodom were those of preparing to live on & have a good time as if nothing was going to happen. Noah put his all in the ark and Abram had his all on the Mt. No body today has any doubt about Noah's choice or between Abram who chose the Mts. rather than the well watered plains. Lot would change his mind when he saw Sodom burning; and be glad that Abram had chosen the mountains and all these things are there for our comfort in trying days that our faith may be strengthened when it is apt to be weakened by the Sodom attractions. We can't go far wrong to err on God's side. It is almost sure to compel God to honour us. Abram had longer notice than Lot of what was coming and that from the Lord Himself, while Lot only had it by the 2 servants who went down to deliver him.
You would have as many friends as you have enemies today if you had even what Japan or Chile got in the past year. The prolonging of peace making showed that many were waiting to see rather than seeing by faith. Skinner said some of his food was rotten, but he did not notice that his faith was rotten also because it had no root in God. It's little use to act only on what I might say, we need the root or vessel to hold the oil. The light is not enough for the wise virgin. Every signal stands at danger today to those who are honestly trying to see and the more the great of the earth try to make peace, the more they seem to be defeated till the whole is a great big farce viewed from any standpoint.
The German mark has fallen from one million to a million million since 24th July when they signed peace and safety. 7 countries in Europe are under dictators or military rule, while they all talk democracy for 5 years. Germany is now rent asunder in 4 parties, all of which makes it ready for the bear to arise and devour much flesh. Trotsky says German conditions are all according to plan.
You will find a good deal to guide you in keeping in friendly touch with all the others who have shown any heart for me and what I say in Noah's building of the ark. There is only one body as there was only one ark and all are builders. So keep away from all that would weaken the hands of any who desire to be builders or part of the body. Those who build the top are building as those who work on the lower part and all should fit their work into each other, neither one despising the other or his work. So build all you can and let and encourage all to do likewise. Ham would see more faults in Japheth and Shem than they would see in him. So take the mantel of charity and walk backwards to cover the faults of the builders rather than look on their nakedness in any shape or form. Only say and do what will encourage the building and preparing; all else is useless and worse. So shall you be wise and your work such as God will honour. Be thankful there were 3 sons and their wives in the ark and live and act as if you had a year to spend in the ark so that it may be pleasant for all.
Wm. Irvine.
I feel sure you are all glad to be out of the strife of Europe. It makes
you sick to see great men talk and strive, while millions of women and
children starve. This shows the value of all that violates the love and
grace of God.
W.I.
Wm Irvine’s Letter to: Skerritts
December 14, 1923
Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Bob:
Thanks very much for your letter, picture of Nan, and the mugwumpsical* hymn. Your sister’s letter is very sisterly, but bears the mark of trampling your Pearls underfoot. I’m glad you will be able to get free and have not lost anything; for when you think on the experience of many in these years, they could not say, as you say.
Thanks for your consideration of my needs, but I’m all right. And when “The Day” comes, that will be finished I expect. If you could send us over a little of your rain, here, it would be welcome, as we have had no early rain. And it’s over 2 months overdue, and the farmers are not able to plow or seed, as they usually do in October and November. They are bringing it by truck from Nablus, 20 miles north of Jerusalem, and selling it at 10 cents per oil tin, which means 20 cents to us at home.
Nablus is where Abram got the promise of the Land and went down to Egypt because there was drought in Palestine. It’s mostly Moslems who control that city, as they lay claim to Abram through Ishmael, very strongly. Rain has been more plentiful in other parts of Palestine, but practically none in Jerusalem. And last year, was only one half rain all over Palestine. The praying people are all busy, but the wind remains East and North; from which direction, we never get rain.
England is having her own share of trouble these days with floods, frost and snow. Election, which has ended in a stalemate, when they were in need of a strong government with a good home and foreign policy; neither of which will complicate matters more than ever. Then, today’s paper says that Foot and Mouth disease has been very serious; 20 counties involved. And they are destroying 70,000 lbs. worth of cattle every day and, yet, it spreads. This is very serious along with conditions, as they have been in agriculture for past years; and the recent floods, 6 inches of rain fell in 3 days, beginning Armistice Day.
If we did not know that He is guiding all men that dwell on the face of the Earth into a snare, we would be puzzled, indeed.
I’m glad you tumbled on Jeremiah and Ezekiel. How little they knew how much comfort it would be to us—what they suffered and did. And we should be very happy in being able to suck a little honey out of the rock experience they had. We did have the privilege of seeing fulfilled the things which were typified in all Jewish experience, as well as, the comfort of seeing how God made the Prophets a sign and wonder in their day and generation.
Flesh covers all that a man can be without God. Spirit covers all that God can ever be to us by His power working in us. This gives us a clearer grasp of Galatians 6, than the old mired idea of having both flesh and Spirit. No doubt a child of God can have works of the flesh, but the Unregenerate can never have anything else.
That there should have been so much notice taken of the parts where Paul did most of his preaching, these past years, is very striking. Turkey and Greece, Syria and Palestine are much in the world’s eyes, while Mesopotamia (Babylon) and Egypt are also much in evidence. As well as Moab and Ammon (or Transjordania) as it is now called. While Italy has not been out of sight these past days, as well as Spain, where Paul had hoped to go some day. Macedonia and Albania also.
I notice the USA government are being challenged regarding the Lausanne Treaty, which brings them into conflict with Turkey, owing to certain privileges which were withdrawn from the American institutions in Turkey. The past 3½ years, or more, have been entirely centered in the places mentioned in the New Testament, as if to draw the eyes of the world to that sphere. Certainly, there are no marks which are anything like what we find in Galatians, Ephesians, Smyrna, Salonika, Philadelphia, etc., as we find in the Book.
Even the name of Christian is hated and practically wiped out in Turkey. And whatever of the name remains, the Turks are pledged to stamp out and destroy. And I expect the Lord has not ceased to remember where the Gentile Gospel was first preached. I expect there are many in Heaven, who suffered there in the early days, who will be itching to see judgment fall on it. And I hope to see the battle lines for their avenging spread over that country, when the great conflict comes. And, Certainly, the challenge is thrown down to USA by the Lausanne Conference, more than to any other nation; and no other nation would be ready to defend their Christian institutions, as would the Elephant of USA.
The delay in the breaking forth of the things of Revelation 9, last half, is only the deep, thorough preparation for the work. And the loosing of the 4 Angels, no doubt, has reference to the loosing of Moslem hatred, not only against Jerusalem, but also against the Christians of these parts. Anything like massacre or Anti-Christian activities involving the USA, Christian people, or missions would precipitate trouble straight away. So, there may be a link between what is happening these days in Washington and at Angora—both claim to be Republican.
I suppose you are not beyond the time, when you take sane stock on the last day of another year. And being alone helps to make it more impressive, though we have nothing but the wreck of what we once counted dearer than life, the future is all the more glorious as we have it revealed to us by His Spirit.
The laying of the foundations of the Everlasting Gospel, coupled with the beginning of the overthrow of the whole wicked systems of the world, thrill our hearts. And our joy, is that the things, which appear were not produced by what we can see, but came from the unrevealed heart and purpose of God and by His spirit. Too often we look for some seen thing, which is to create new and eternal conditions. This is the influence of our old bodies.
Best Love and a happy New Year,
Yours very truly in Him,
William Irvine
NOTE: *In 1884, the term Mugwump was applied to anyone who bolted from the Republican Party. Today it means a political independent. (bjj)
Wm Irvine’s Letter to: Skerritts
December 31, 1923
Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Bob:
Your letters are more enjoyable all the time. And I feel sure you are not alone in your lonely cabin in Montana. It’s wonderful how people fail to see how much better it is to have the Trinity of God dwell in us, than all the other fellowship we can have of a human kind. And though they believe in the doctrine, they know nothing of the experience. The whole Book is a record of lonely people who had little else but God in them, with them, and for them. This is the true meaning of Christian.
We have just celebrated Christmas at Bethlehem, where the Virgin brought forth her first born and laid it in a manger of the stable. Where she had to lodge, having been summoned to come up for tax registration by the Roman government, which was, then, what the British are in Jerusalem today. How few there were who knew anything of that greatest of all events—the putting on of a human body by the Son of God, that He might be manifested to the world in flesh, revealing the heart of God. His purpose and plan towards the sinner world. And, also, revealing the secrets of the wicked hearts of men in high places.
If the world was dead to that First Advent, how much more are they dead to the Second Advent in all its parts. If Mary was little known, only to God and Elizabeth, is it not likely the Woman and Manchild will be as little known, and as little prepared for, as he was? It’s hid from their eyes. He was put to death as the Chief of Sinners, who knew no sin while representing us. Why should it not be likely that The Manchild should be the Chief of Sinners, who is to represent Him? Paul did not call himself the Chief of Sinners in any hypocritical way, but as a real experience and deep conviction. While he never hesitated to state, clear and strong, that he was an Apostle and Servant of Jesus Christ. Not by the will or power of man, but of God.
I enjoyed reading Galatians the other night. They were the Christians in what we now call Turkey. And which finally turned away from Paul, as the Christian Jews got power over them to keep the Law, as did the Jews. And which was the cause for Paul being cast into prison and finally killed.
The old form assuming mastery over them, proving they had never been born of God. They were the Hagar Seed, so could never inherit the inheritance of Him who was born of God, as was Isaac. “In Isaac shall thy seed be called,” just means that only those who are born by the power of God can ever inherit the Kingdom. And today, it’s an impossibility owing to the fact that they have all become flesh, as in Noah’s day.
The Everlasting Gospel is different from what we have had, in that those who become wicked will be cut off, while those who are perfected will be changed and live on for 1,000 years. In the past, it was the Righteous who was cut off and taken home to be with the Lord. Paul says, "absent from the body, present with the Lord," because He is in Heaven, so they were gathered there. For God is the God of the living. But when He comes to dwell on the Earth, he will gather His own there and cut off all who blaspheme, so that there will be no wicked in power, because the King and Kingdom will be here. So that Romans 8:18-25 will be changed into Revelation 21. You can see what contrast is presented. Tears will be wiped away. No more death for the Seed of God, only for the Wicked; neither sorrow nor crying for the Wicked, nor pain, for the former things has passed away. But it has been tears, death, sorrow, crying, [and] pain for all who have been His Seed during the wicked reign from Abel till Bob and Nan. The reason for the change is that the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God, himself, shall be with them.
These things are quite new to us, but reveal the very opposite conditions from all we have seen and known. And we can claim all these things in promise, and enjoy the contrast, as we look around today. It comforts under the most trying circumstances. No wonder the Wicked don’t believe these things. Nor can they feel comfortable in the light of them. “Son, remember, thou in thy lifetime had good things, and he, evil.” So we can rejoice in all the evil that is our lot, just as we don’t envy them, who have these good things.
I was pleased to hear that we have the first fruits in Queensland in a member having taken a stand against the recent developments there. They have been very slow, but I’m sure they will get some benefit from my letters now and respond to them. It might be a nice trip for you to go to Auckland, where there are a number of friends, and then up to Queensland, if you tire of the Pacific Coast. A little look around would not hurt you, and you could do a little work in any place for a living. But I expect you will want to be one of the 144,000, who will gather to Jerusalem as soon as things are ripe for it.
Fare from Frisco to Auckland will be about 25 lbs., steerage, which is good enough. About 10 from Auckland to Queensland, or if you book through to Queensland with a stopover in Auckland. Then from there, to Port Said would be about 20 lbs., or less, and you could have a stop off at a number of ports in Australia on the way from Queensland. No harm renting your place, if you can’t sell. But if things happen as we expect, there will be little value to land in a short time, so that selling would have given you advantage now. You can’t go far wrong so long as you are able and willing to work on a farm. I feel sure you will get benefit from the dieting I suggested to you, and you have a multitude of advisers in that direction, so choose wisely.
Yours very truly in Him,
William Irvine
P. S. Port Said is only 18 hours from Jerusalem by train or boat,
which ever you choose.
W. I.
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