wisdom and love God has been working out his great plan to this end. Now the time has come for the peoples of the earth to begin to get a clearer vision of God's great plan of salvation and to learn how and when he will bring about man's complete deliverance.

M

Hypocrisy and Faithfulness

Chapter III

UCH of the Bible is written in symbolic language and could not be understood until God's plan had progressed in course of fulfilment, and not then until God's "due time".

The serpent is used as a symbol of Satan the enemy, and those who yield willingly to the influence of the Devil and support his cause are called "the seed of the serpent". Woman is used as a symbol of the righteous organization of Jehovah God; and those who love right eousness and hate iniquity and who strive to follow in the righteous way are spoken of as "the seed of the woman". When God pronounced judgment at the time of the rebellion he said to the Serpent, the Devil: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and be tween thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:15) From that very day forward Satan the Devil has opposed God and fought against every one who has diligently tried to serve Jehovah. By resorting to ridicule and mockery Satan has delighted to reproach God in every possible way. Of course God could have imprisoned or destroyed the Devil; but his Word discloses that it has been the purpose of Jehovah to let this evil one come to the full in evil doing, before he executes his final judgment against the Devil.

About 250 years after the expulsion of Adam from

Eden, Enos the grandson of Adam was born. By that time, so far as the Bible discloses, every one of the human race followed the course of wickedness. The Bible record does not indicate that between Abel and Enoch there was even one good man who loved God and righteousness. This warrants the conclusion that all were under the control of Satan the wicked one. That being true Satan must have thought that he had succeeded in having all men to worship him, in turning away all men from God; and that therefore by mockery and hypocrisy he would reproach God for ever. It was in the days of Enos that hypocrisy began to be manifest for the first time, and that was in connection with religious worship. It is written: "Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord." (See margin, Genesis 4:26) It seems quite clear that this was a scheme of Satan to have men call themselves by the name of the Lord and yet to pursue a course in opposition to God, thereby to ridicule God and hold his name up to scorn. These men were tools of Satan the Devil and were therefore hypocrites.

This discloses a scheme of Satan which he has ever followed since; namely, to have in his system of govern ment an organized religion by which means he could weceive the people and ridicule Jehovah God. This is mentioned here because it discloses the fixed policy on the part of the Devil to use religion as a part of his deceptive and fraudulent schemes. Evidently he does this because he knows men are so constituted that they will worship something; and if he is unable to induce them to worship himself directly he will cause them to worship something else or to ridicule God at any cost. It is observed that he has many such schemes in vogue

now on the earth, causing the people to worship anything except the true and living God.

A few generations later Enoch was born. He was the seventh generation from Adam. Of course Adam was evil, because he had violated God's law and continued in the evil course. Aside from Abel every one from Adam to Enoch was evidently evil. The human race was going the road of corruption and wickedness. Enoch was the exception. He believed in Jehovah God. He believed that some day God would reward all those who would obey him. Satan the Devil had been so active that the peoples of earth by that time even doubted the existence of Jehovah God. It was necessary for Enoch to exercise faith that God actually exists. This was necessary in order for him to please God. "Without faith it is impossible to please him [God]; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he' is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11: 6) That he pleased God is shown by the following statement: "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." (Genesis 5:24) To the same effect St. Paul testifies: "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." -Hebrews 11:5.

Enoch, because of his faith in God, was an outstanding figure amongst all the men of earth. He was a witness on the earth for God. Surely he was known amongst the other men and known by the fact that he believed on God and served him while all others were against the Lord. Such faith under such adverse conditions was pleasing to God, and God rewarded that

faith by translating Enoch. In those days it was usual for men to live upwards of eight hundred years. Enoch lived 365 years and then God took him away. No one saw him go, no one buried him, and no one knew where he went. Satan the Devil had the power of death, and without doubt would have killed Enoch had not God prevented him from so doing. God has the power of death, of course; but he did not put Enoch to death for any wrongful act on Enoch's part. Nor did Enoch die because of sickness, the result of the inheritance from Adam, his grandfather. The Devil had nothing to do with putting Enoch to death. He was a young man compared to other men of his day. While in the vigor of youth, and while he walked with God and joyfully conformed himself to God's righteous law, the Lord manifested his pleasure in the faith of Enoch by taking him suddenly away from earth's wicked scenes, putting him peacefully to sleep without his having to pass through the bitter waters of a violent or agonizing death.

It seems reasonable that Enoch never saw any one die; because St. Paul testifies that Enoch did not see death. The apostle, after enumerating a number of faithful ones, including Enoch, says, "These all died in faith." (Hebrews 11:13) It follows, of course, that Enoch was not taken away to live on some other planet, but that God took him quietly and suddenly putting him to sleep without pain or anguish and without fear of the terrible monster death. Here God began to indicate that at some time he would destroy death and deliver all those who have faith in him from all their enemies, including the enemy death.-1 Cor. 15: 25, 26.

It is recorded that Enoch prophesied that in some