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JUNE 15, 1929 The WATCH TOWER 187

lasting destruction is his penalty for wilfulness, Jehovah God has given many illustrations, which are recorded in his Word. The Bible does not say that God will eternally torment anybody, and that is why there are no illustrations of eternal torment found in the Bible. Such illustrations are found in man-made ereeds and in books like Dante's Inferno. What are the lessons which God wishes to teach the race of mankind? There are many of them; too many, in fact, to list them all in one lecture. But here is a partial list. God desires all men to know that he is the only God; that he is the creator of everything; that nothing but good and perfect gifts ever come from his hand; that he is entirely caselfish and has nothing but the best interests of his creatures at heart; that he is wise, just, loving and powerful, and that he never uses any of these attributes to the injury of his creatures; that obedience to his laws and arrangements brings peace, happiness, liberty and everlasting life, while disobedience to the same brings sorrow, regret, suffering and, eventually, everlasting death or destruction. He is also teaching the race that when either men or angels follow their own wisdom, their own devices, their own ways and their own sehemes, no matter how wise and proper these may seem, they always get into difficulty. He is showing up the wisdom of this world and revealing that it is foolishness with God. He is teaching the race that there is no other way to get blessings, no other way to get everlasting life, liberty, peace and happiness, except by obedience to his laws and fullest submission to his plans and arrangements. All these lessons are clearly stated in his Word, but Jehovah knows, as ---- wise schoolmaster knows, that it is not sufficient simply to commit to memory certain rules and laws, but that practical experiences are necessary to so impress the lessons that they will never be forgotten. --- he has set apart seven thousand years for the purpose of giving these experiences. Chief among these practical experiences for man is that God has considered it wise to let mankind try their own ways, plans, and schemes, knowing full well that every one of them would be a failure. For over six thousand years God has let man try out his wisest sehemes, financial, political and religious. Those six, thousand years are strewn with the wrecks of man's sehemes, man's hopes and plans. Every financial, political and religious scheme that earth's wisest men could conceive has been a failure, and yet mankind has not learned the lesson so clearly and pointedly stated in God's word, namely, that "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God".

The reason that men's schemes fail is because they are selfish, while God's plans are founded on love; for Jehovah himself has decreed that' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself'. Any scheme or plan for the blessing of the race, if founded on any other basis than love, is doomed to failure, with its accompanying sorrow, disappointment, and regret. Six thousand years of man's wisdom, with all its failures, disappointments and heartaches, have not yet taught man the lesson that God's law and plan is best. Why is mankind so slow to learn these lessons? The answer is that since man is fallen as a result of sin he has become proud, arrogant, boastful, obtuse, perverse, stiff-necked and hard-hearted, wilful and rebelious. This condition hinders him from profiting by his experiences. All this can be summed up in the one word, selfishness. Selfishness is of Satan, and is the opposite of love, which is of God. Fallen men, even the best of them, are controlled by selfishness. God planned to have a race of sinless and happy beings live for ever on the earth. He started this race in Adam and told him to multiply and increase and fill the earth. He told him in plain and emphatic language that if he obeyed he would live, and that if he disobeyed he would die. Adam was not ignorant of what God required of him. Paul says: "Adam was not deceived." (1 Tim. 2: 14) He had God's spoken word, but did not have any practical experiences to confirm it; and so when a crisis came, he lacked a proper confidence, reverence and devotion to his Creator, and deliberately chose to follow his own course. Doubtless he thought he was choosing wisely, and God let him do as he chose. The result was that sin and death, wars, crimes and every evil thing came into existence. God executed the penalty against Adam by driving him out of the garden and leaving him alone to follow out his own plans and devices. After 930 years of futile effort he died. But what a terrible legacy he left his posterity! It is recorded in Romans 1:21,31. I quote in part: "When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God.... Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness,... who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator... For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections; ... and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to par