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TUESDAY, Dec. 31, 1911--The great day came when we were

to leave America for the far East, and hurry home, by way of

India, Egypt, etc. Arrangements were made to sail on the

Japanese boat, "Shinyo Maru," which signifies "Springtime on

the Ocean." The weather was almost like July, the air brisk and

the skies as blue as indigo. There were about fifty friends at the

wharf to see the party off. Besides these, there were many

others, friends of the other passengers. Our friends came on

board and inspected our new home for the next few weeks.

Incidentally, they left Brother Russell many bouquets, decorated

his berth with flowers, gave him several boxes of candy, etc., all

tokens of their Christian love and esteem, for his work's sake.

Just before leaving the ship they assembled before the stateroom

door and sang, "God be with you till we meet again." In

response he offered a brief prayer and a parting blessing upon

them all.

We lifted anchor at one o'clock, the immense crowd of people

on the wharf waving their handkerchiefs to their friends on

board. It was a very impressive sight.

We soon passed out through the "Golden Gate" and were then

on the great Pacific Ocean, with an average depth of two miles,

and six thousand miles across. This reminded us of the hymn,

"There is a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the

sea"; also of the one, "His love is deeper than the deepest sea";

also of the Scripture, "The knowledge of the glory of the Lord

shall fill the whole earth, as the waters cover the great deep."

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SHINYO MARU.

ALL then went to our state rooms and began to arrange our

things for about a four weeks' stay on the boat. She is

comparatively a new boat, 550 feet long, 63 feet wide, and 38-

1/2 feet deep. This is her third voyage.

On board such a ship as this one is surrounded by all the

comforts and requirements that can be desired. The spacious

dining-saloon, social hall and library, and--what is so essential

to comfort on a steamship--the large, well ventilated cabins and

bath rooms, make the traveler feel that he has left none of the

luxuries of modern life behind him.

The captain is an Englishman, the purser, first mate, steward and

doctor are Americans, but the rest of the officers are

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Japanese. The rest of the crew are mostly Japanese, and some

Chinese. It seemed queer at first to have so many Japs and

Chinamen about us, but we have gotten so used to it now that

we think nothing of it. The dining room is very nice and the bills

of fare elaborate and wholesome.

Brother Russell was soon ready to begin work and began

dictating. Very little time goes to waste if he can help it, and he

is a wonderful example for all. The rest of the party put in the

time in various ways, some walking the decks, the others

reading, and some taking it rather easy, for they began to have

queer feelings, even though the sea was quite smooth. All were

at dinner, however, some appreciating it more than others.

Everything is very nice on board the ship, meals good, and the

state rooms quite large, and in fact, the appointments of the entire

ship are first-class. While not as large as the great Atlantic

liners, it is equal to them in many respects.

It is said that a trip around the world in this day of rapid,

inexpensive and luxurious travel--the very contemplation of

which would have awed our grandparents, is looked upon now

almost as an essential part of the education of a scholar, the

politician, and the man of business.

The days on the water are much alike, nothing but water in

sight. We have not passed a ship. During the day Brother

Russell is busy dictating, part of the time to me and part of the

time to Brother Robison. The rest of the committee meet each

morning for a Dawn Study, which Brother Kuehn conducts.

Occasionally some of the passengers come in also, but the

hearing ears are few and far between. Occasionally the wind

gets boisterous and kicks up quite a sea, and the presence of a

number of the passengers is conspicuous by their absence. I

have been feeling fine and have not lost a meal, either by not

eating it or after eating it.

The dining-saloon is an oft-recurring attraction. The sea air, the

sea breezes, the exercise on deck (on board this ship a walk

eight times around the deck equals a mile), the joys of good

company, all tend to put the traveler on the best of terms with

his appetite. The well equipped tables, the snowy damask, the

silver and the other accompaniments, joined with the triumphs

of kitchen art placed before one by Oriental waiters, in spotless

white, all tend to bring joy and content.

December 14, 1911. This is Wednesday, and a very clear day,

though somewhat chilly. They tell us that we will strike warmer

weather in a day or two. As it is, an overcoat is quite welcome,

even inside, but especially out on the deck. All seemed to have

had a good night's rest. A number got up at what they thought

was reasonable time for breakfast, but after waiting quite a

while, they learned that the time drops back about thirty minutes

every half day, so that it was really thirty minutes earlier. It is

now three hours and a half earlier here than in New York, or two

hours and a half earlier here than in Chicago, because we are

running away from the sun all the time. Soon we will come to a

place, they tell us, where we cross a certain line and will have

lost an entire day. In other words, at that time, today will be

yesterday.

Brother Russell and his two stenographers have been busy all

the morning, while the rest of the party have begun the reading

of the Scripture Studies, hoping to read them all during the trip.

It is now afternoon. All the party except two were at the tables

for lunch, which was nicely prepared and served by Japanese

and Chinese waiters. The Japs wear white jackets, while the

Chinese wear long blue aprons, reaching nearly to the floor.

Some have queues and some have cut them off. They seem

to understand us pretty well, but we cannot understand much they

say, and, of course, absolutely nothing when they talk in their

native tongues.

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SUNDAY ON THE PACIFIC.

NEARING HONOLULU.

BY special request from Captain Smith, of the Shinyo Maru,

Pastor Russell conducted a service for Divine worship from

eleven to twelve o'clock. A number of the passengers were

present, besides the committee and those traveling with them.

Bro. Ernest Kuehn presided at the piano, and the entire

congregation joined in the singing. The service opened with the

singing of "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name."

Prayer by Pastor Russell.

Hymn, "The Church's One Foundation."

Reading of 27th Psalm by Pastor Russell.

Hymn, "How Firm a Foundation."

Text: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the

moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that

thou are mindful of him? and the Son of man, that thou visitest

him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and

hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to

have dominion over the work of thy hands; thou hast put all

things under his feet: All sheep and all oxen, yea, and the beast

of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and

whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our

Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth."--Psalm 8:3-9.

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THE suggestion of the prophet respecting man is one which we

believe has occurred to every intelligent being. As we look out

upon the vast expanse of water and the riding of our vessel upon

it, we think, How little is man; how small a speck in the

universe. When we look up into the heavens and realize that

they represent so much more of divine power, we are still more

surprised. When we consider the heavens and realize that all

these stars, except the planets which belong to our own system,

are really suns and that around each of these suns revolve

planets as our earth revolves around our sun, and when we think

of the number of those suns and their planets, we are amazed,

and we feel

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our own littleness all the more. We ask astronomers as to the

number of those suns, and they tell us that there are a hundred

million of them in sight, and if we would average the planets around

those hundred million suns at ten, it would be ten

hundred millions of planets. And then they tell us further that if

we could take our stand upon the very farthermost one of these

we would see still beyond us as many more, and as many more.

Our minds are appalled as we begin to think of the heavens, the

work of God's fingers, and then to consider man, how small a

work in God's sight. We have an appreciation then of what the

Scriptures say man is like in God's sight, as "the dust in the

balance," that is not worthy to be taken into account. We have

all been in the grocer's shop and noticed that he pays no

attention to the dust in the scoop of his scale. So man is so small

in the sight of the great Divine Creator that we wonder that God

should have any interest at all in humanity.

Only for the Bible, dear friends, we should have no knowledge

of God's interest in us, and we might think that God is so great

that he would have no heed for us. But, when God reveals

himself to us in the Bible, we begin to see that there is not only

divine power exercised and manifested in the creation of all

these worlds, we also have this divine power manifested in

God's dealings with us, and also the love of God which the

Scriptures state, "Passeth all understanding." What wonderful

condescension on the part of the Creator that he should have

heed to us.

But our text goes on to give us further information on this

subject. "What is man that Thou are mindful of him, and the Son

of man that Thou visiteth him, for Thou hast made him a little

lower than the angels." Only a little lower is the thought. Of the

angels the Scriptures give us to understand there are various

ranks, some higher and some lower, but all perfect. Then in the

world we have various orders of animal life, the beast of the

field, the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and man as the

highest of these earthly beings, and he stands related to all these

lower creatures as God does to the entire universe, and this is the

honor with which our great Creator endowed his human

creatures. So we are told in this Psalm, "Thou madest him to

have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all

things under his feet." What a wonderful creature man is, then,

from this standpoint! While he is a little lower than the angels so

far as his nature in connection with the earth is concerned,

whereas the angels are more excellent so far as their natures are

concerned, but in this psalm it speaks of man as being superior

in this respect, that he has a dominion. The angels do not have

dominion over other angels, but all are subject to the great

Creator, God. But man, in the likeness of his Creator, has been

given a dominion over the lower creatures, and in this respect it

is a wonderful honor with which he has been crowned--"Thou

crownedst him with glory and honor, and hast set him over the

work of Thy hands." It might be said with great propriety that if God is thus careful of

humanity and has so highly honored his human creatures, why

should He not have made a still better preparation for us in the

world? Why is it that they are subject to such unfavorable

conditions under which we now exist? Why is there sorrow,

pain, sighing, crying and dying? Why have we tempests, storms,

cyclones and tornadoes, famine, drought and pestilence--why all

these things if God is so careful of us as his creatures? We

would have no answer for all these questions were it not

provided in the Bible. In this wonderful book of all books, we

have the key to the answer, the explanation, and that is:

Originally God provided that man should be subject to none of

these difficulties and disasters. Man was made perfect and

placed under favorable and perfect surroundings in a perfect

garden, Eastward in Eden with everything necessary for his

welfare. No storms, no sickness, no tempests, no difficulties,

and man himself might have lived forever. Such was the

wonderful dominion of this human Son of God.

Why then the change? This wonderful book answers that the

change all came about because of sin, and so we read. St. Paul

says, "By one man's disobedience sin entered into the world."

(There was no sin in the world before) "and death came as a

result of sin." There was no dying on the part of man until sin

came. So, all the aches, pains, sorrows and sicknesses which we

experience are all part of this dying process. And so the

difficulty with us all, then, my dear friends, is that by nature we

are children of wrath. Is divine wrath torture? No, indeed. That

was handed down to us, perhaps, by our well-meaning

forefathers. Oh no, Oh no. The wrath of God we see on every

hand, as the Apostle Paul declares. "The wrath of God is

revealed" --in our own bodies, our aches and pains, mental

imperfections, physical imperfections and moral imperfections,

all of which are parts of this great penalty for sin, because we

read that when man became a transgressor God sent the holy

angel to drive our first parents out from the Garden of Eden,

away from the trees of life that were to sustain them in

perfection, out into the unfinished earth. While the whole earth

could have just as easily been made perfect, God left it

unfinished, unprepared for man, and merely prepared a garden

Eastward in Eden for the trial of our first parents; because divine

wisdom foresaw that man would sin, and instead of making the

whole earth perfect, God left it in an imperfect condition, except

the Garden of Eden. So we read that when God thrust our first

parents out of the Garden of Eden, he said, "Cursed is the earth"

(not that I will make it unfit, but it is already) for thy sake.

Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth, and in the sweat of thy

face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return to the ground, for out

of it wast thou taken. Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou

return." In other words, dear friends, the great penalty against our race is

a DEATH PENALTY, "Dying thou shalt die." Gen. 2:17. This

has been upon our race for six thousand years, from the time that

sin entered into the world. So all the pages of history from

Adam's day to this are marked with sin and sorrow, pain and

sighing; because we are all sinners, and because we are sinners

God is treating us according to His own purpose, "Dying thou

shalt die."

But this is the sad side of the matter. Is there no other side to the

matter, is there no hope for us? The same blessed book--the

Bible--tells us. The Gospel message, which signified "good

tidings," tells us that God has some good tidings for those whom

he condemned to death. We inquire, What is this good message?

The Scriptures answer, the good message is that he who

condemned us as unfit for eternal life has provided for our

redemption, that his Son became our Redeemer, that Christ died,

the "just for the unjust," that he might bring all back into

harmony with God. Oh, we say, but did not Jesus die eighteen

hundred or more years ago? Yes, truly. And have we not the

same reign of sin and death as then? Yes. Where, then, is the

blessing which has come through Jesus. Well, we answer, a two-

fold blessing has been provided. First of all, a blessing of hope

which some of God's people enjoy, a blessing of knowledge that

in God's due time He will bring in the great blessing that this

gospel message tells of.

WHAT IS THE GOSPEL MESSAGE?

 Oh, it is that God provided a Redeemer and that, therefore,

there shall be a resurrection of the dead; they shall

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not remain dead, but come forth. There shall be a new

dispensation, a glorious morning in which all sin and sorrow

will be done away. So, the Scriptures assure us of that time that

there shall be no more sighing, no more crying, no more dying,

because all the former things, all the things of sin, the things of

death will all have passed away. And we inquire, who is so

powerful as to overthrow sin and death, and lift up humanity

from death out of sin and weakness and imperfection and bring

him back? The Bible answers this question that the One who

will do this is the great One who sits upon the throne of God, as

we read, "He that sitteth upon His throne said, Behold, I make

all things new." But who is this? Oh, the very same One, who,

by the grace of God became our Redeemer, Jesus; He is to be

the great King of Kings and Lord of lords, and is to reign from

sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth, and under

the blessed influence of that kingdom the full blessing of God

shall come to the earth again. "All the blind eyes shall be opened

and all the deaf ears shall be unstopped," the glory of the Lord

shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. These are words

of the prophet given to us for our hope and strengthening

of our hearts that we might turn from sin and become more and

more the children of God.

We have spoken about the world and how it is to be blessed by

the Messianic Kingdom, the Kingdom of God's dear Son, the

Kingdom Jesus taught us to pray for, "Thy kingdom come, Thy

will be done on earth as it is done in heaven," but we see not all

these things accomplished yet. We see not mankind brought

back to perfection, nor the great work of good tidings

accomplished amongst men. But we have a word from the

Apostle upon this subject. He said, But we see not all things put

under man, but out of harmony. But, says the Apostle, we see a

beginning of God's work; we see Jesus, who by the grace of God

has tasted death for every man. We see more than that, my

friends. More than eighteen hundred years have passed. Not

only Jesus has tasted death, but a great many have been going

into death, in answer to the call to be of the Bride of Christ, the

Church of the First Born, to be associated with our Lord--this is

the church we sang about in our second hymn:

The Church's one foundation,

Is Jesus Christ her Lord;

She is His new creation

By water and the Word.

From heaven He came and sought her

To be His holy Bride;

With His own blood He bought her,

And for her life He died.

 This is the first work, then, of God in the redemption of

mankind--the gathering of the Bride of Christ, the Church, to be

associated with Christ, and to share in His glory, honor and

immortality. We hope to be of this class, and to this class belong

all the great promises that they with Him shall share with Him in

the first resurrection, and then bless all the families of the earth

with restitution. The world of mankind is to be restored to all

that Adam had and lost, all of which Jesus redeemed at Calvary,

and associated with Him will be the Church, called out of the

world, a saintly class who have been walking in the footsteps of

Jesus, as we read again in the words of Jesus, "Blessed and holy

are those who have a part in the first resurrection, on such the

second death hath no power; they shall be priests unto God and

Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years." The thousand

years of Messiah's reign, the thousand years of the world's uplift,

the thousand in which Satan will be bound, the thousand years

in which knowledge shall fill the whole earth, the thousand

years in which the world shall be brought to the paradisaic

condition, which was symbolically represented in the Garden of

Eden, and when every creature in heaven and earth and under

the earth shall be brought to that glorious condition where they

will sing praises to God and to Him that sitteth upon the throne

and to the Lamb for ever and ever.

And yet there is another side, for the same Scriptures which tell

us of the exaltation of the Church to glory and the blessings of

the world through the Kingdom of Messiah, which tell that the

earth will be the Paradise of God, they also tell us of a class of

incorrigibles which will be punished. After this class have been

brought to a full knowledge of God and then wilfully sin against

divine light and blessings, the punishment against these will not

be eternal torment, but destruction from the presence of the Lord

and the glory of His power, as said St. Paul.

The service closed with the use of "Nearer my God to Thee."

Prayer by Pastor Russell.

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