Bible Review V15: October 1916 - March 1918 - Iapsop.com

1917 'ms LioN or con 165
down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and
blessed be he that blesseth thee."(Gen.xxvii.28-29.) This
birthright or heritage was given unto the SONS of Joseph.
(1 Chron. v. 1; Gen.xlviii. `5-20.) And of course, the birthright
having been given to Ephraim and Manasseh, the
sons of Joseph, it has past down the centuries thru and to
their lineal descendants; out of whom will be gathered the
iirst ripe fruit of the earth, the 144,000. This body, which
is to constitute the Messiah of the age presently to be
ushered in, will consist of an equal number from each
sign of the zodiac, all literal descendants of Joseph. The
body will therefore be the Shepherd, the stone of Israel.
Here, then, is, the solution of Ezekiel's wheel within a
wheel. The writer has long entertained the opinion th at
Hiram E. Butler, now at rest with his fathers,* was none
other than Joseph himself. As _I have read his almost affectionate
references tothe Golden Sign of Leo, and of
him who was separated from his brethren, there has
come to my mind that sonnet of the bard of Avon:
"Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods and to compounds strange_?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
What every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth and where they did proceed?
O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
'We who know Brother Butler the best have the evidence within ourselves tlzat
he is serving in that great Body of the Elohim of which he had been so long a
member while on earth, and with whom he had been so
long in constant touchf-
Lilerary Ed.