Reviving The Two Witnesses - Raised Again!

 The public press joined the clergy in villifying God's people, one paper saying:  "The finis of the Finished Mystery has been given."  Nothing, though, could been further from the truth!   The two witnesses did not stay dead.  We read:  "And after three and a half days spirit of life from God entered  into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon those beholding them. And they  heard a loud voice out of heaven say to them: 'Come on up here.'  And they went into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them." (Revelation 11:11,12)   Thus, they had an experience similar to that of the dry bones in the valley that Ezekiel visited in vision.  Jehovah breathed upon those dry bones, and they came to life, providing a picture of rebirth of the nation of Israel after 70 years of captivity in Babylon.  (Ezekiel 37:1-14) These two prophecies, in Ezekiel  and in Revelation, had their striking modern-day fulfillment in 1919, when Jehovah restored his "deceased" witnesses  to vibrant life.

What  a shock for those persecutors!  The corpses of the two witnesses were suddenly alive and active again.  It was a bitter pill for those clergymen  to swallow, the more so since the Christian ministers whom they schemed to put in prison were free again, later to be fully exonerated.  The shock must have been even greater when, in September 1919, the Bibler Students held a covention in Cedar Point, Ohio, U.S.A.  Here J.F. Rutherford recently released  from prison, stirred conventioners with his talk "Announcing the Kingdom," based on  Revelation 15:2 and Isaiah 52:7.  Those of the John class once again  to "prophesy," or  preach publicly.  They advanced from strength to strength, fearlessly exposing Christendom's hypocrisy.

Christendom tried again and again to repeat her of  1918.  She rejected to mob action, legal maneuvering, imprisonment, even executions-all to no avail!  After 1919 the spiritual domain of the two witnesses was out of her reach.  In that year Jehovah had said to them:  "Come on up here."   And they had ascended to an elevated spiritual state where their ememies could see them but not touch them.  John describes the shocking effecgt  their restoration on the great city:  "And  in that hour a great earthquake occurred, and a tenth of the city fell; and seven thousand persons were killed by the earthquake, and the rest  became frightened and gave glory to the God of heaven." (Revelation 11:13)  There were truly great convulsions in the realm of religion.  The ground seemed to move under the leaders of the established churches as this body of revivified Christians got to work.  One tenth of their city, figuratively 7,000 persons, were so profoundly affected that they are spoken of as being killed. 

The expression "a tenth of the city" reminds us  that Isaiah prophesied regarding an ancient Jerusalem that a tenth would survive  the destruction of the city as a holy seed.  (Isaiah 6:13)  Similarly,  the number 7,000 remids us that when Elijah felt tha the alone remained faithful in Israel, Jehovah told him that there were, in fact, still 7,000 who has not been to Baal.  (1 Kings 19:14, 18)  In the first century, the apostle Paul said that these  7,000 pictured the remnant of the Jews who had responded  to the good news about the Christ.  (Romans 11:1-5)  These scriptures help us to understand  that the "seven thousand" and the "tenth of the city" in Revelation 11:13 are those  who respond to the restored two witnesses  and abandon the sinful great city.  They die, as it were, to Christendom.  Their names are taken off her membership rolls.  They no longer exisrt as far as she was concerned .

Next time: Reviving the Two Witnesses - Conclusion of Raised Again! 

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Reviving the Two Witnesses - The Two Witnesses Are Killed

 So severe  was the plague on Christendom that after the two witnesses had prophesied for 42 months in sackcloth, Christendom used her world influence to have them killed."  John writes:   "And when they have finished their witnessing, the wild beast  that ascends out of the abyss will make war with them and conquer them and kill them.  And their corpses will be on the broad way of the great city which is in a spiritual sense called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord also impaled. And those of the peoples and tribe and tongues and nations  will look at their corpses for three and a half days, and they do not let corpses by laid in a tomb. And those dwelling on the earth rejoic over them and enjoy themselves, and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those dwelling on the earth." - REVELATION 11:7-10. 

This is  the first 37 references in Revelation to a wild beast.  In due course we will examine this and other beasts in detail.  Suffice  it to say for now that "the wild beast  that ascends out of the abyss" is of Satan's design, a living political system of things." - Compare REVELATION 13:1; DANIEL 7:2, 3, 17. 

From 1914 to 1918 the nations were occupied with the first world war.  Nationalistic feeligns ran high, and in the spring of 1918, the religous enemies of the two witnesses took advantage of the situation.  They maneuvered the State's legal apparatus so that responsible ministers of the Bible Students were imprisioned on false charges of sedition.  Faithful coworkers were stunned.  Kingdom activity almost ceased. It was as though the preaching work were dead.  In Bible times it was a terrible indignituy  not to be interred in a memorial tomb.  (Psalm 79:1-3; 1 Kings 13:21, 22)  Therefore, great reproach  would attach  to leaving the two witnesses unburied.  In the hot Palestine climate, a corpse in the open streed would really start to smell after three and a half literal days." (Compare  John 11:39.)  This detail in the prophecy thus indicates the shame  that the two witnesses had to endure. Those metioned above who were imprisoned   were even denied bail while their cases  were on appeal.  They were exposed publicly long enough to be a stench to the inhabitants of "the great city."  But what was this "great city"? 

John give us some clues.  He says that Jesus was impaled there.  So we immediately  think of Jerusalem. But he also says tha tthe great city was called Sodom and Egypt.  Well, literal Jerusalem was once called Sodom because of her unclean practices.  (Isaiah 1:8-10; compare Ezekiel 16:49. 53-58.)   And Egypt, the first world power, sometimes   appears as a picture  of this world systen of things.  (Isaiah 19:1, 19; Joel 3:19  Hence, this great city pictures a defiled "Jerusalem" that claims  to worship God but that has become unclean and sinful, like Sodom, and a part of this satanic world system of things, like Egypt. It pictures Christendom, the modern equivalent of unfaithful Jerusalem, the organiztion whose members had so m uch reason to rejoic when they silenced the disturbing preaching of the two witnesses.

Next time: Reviving of the Two Witnesses - Raised Again!

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Reviving the Two Witnesses - Conclusion of The Two Witnesses

  What of Elijah?  In the days of the kings of Israel, this prophet proclaimed  a drought ass an expression of Jehovah's indignation on the Baal-worshipping Israelites.  It lasted three and a half years.  ( 1 Kings 17:1; 18:41-45; Luke 4:25;  James 5:17) Later, when unfaithful King Ahaziah sent soldiers to force Elijah into his royal presence, the prophet called down fire from heave to consume the soldiers.  Only when a military commander showed respect  for his position as a prophet did Elijah consent to accompany him to the king.  (2 Kings 1:5-16) Likewise, between 1914 and 1918, the anointed remnant boldly  drew attention to the spirirtual drought in Christendom and warned of fiery judgment at "the coming of the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah." - MALACHI 4:1, 5; AMOS 8:11.

John goes on to say of the two witnesses:  "And they have authority over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every sort of plague as often as they wish." (Revelation 11:6b) In order to persuade Pharaoh to let Israel go free, Jehovah used Moses in striking oppressive Egypt with plagues, including turning the water into blood.  Centuries later, the Philistine enemies of Israel  well remembered Jehovah's acts against Egypt causing them to cry:  "Who will save us from the hand of this  majestic God?  This is the true God that was the smiter of Egypt with every sort of slaughter ["plague," Revised Standard   Version] in the wilderness."  (1 Samue;l 4:8; Psalam 105:29)   Moses portrayed Jesus, who had authority to pronounce God's judgments on the religious leaders  of his day.  (Matthew 23:13; 28:18; Acts 3:22) And during the first world war Christ's brothers, the two witnesses, exposed  the death-dealing quality of  "the waters" that Christendom was serving to her flocks.

Next time: Reviving The Two Witnesses - The Two Witnesses Are Killed

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Reviving the Two Wiitnesses - The Two Witnesses-Continued

 Zechariah lived in a timeof rebuiding, and his vision of the two olive trees meant that Zerubbabel and Joshua would be blessed with Jehovah's spirit in strengthening the people for the work.  The vision of the  lampstand reminded Zechariah not to 'despise the day of small things' because Jehovah's purposes would be carried out-"not by a military force,  nor by power, but by my spirit,'  Jehovah of armies has said." (Zecariah  4:6, 10; 8:9)  The small band of Christians persistently  carrying the light of truth to mankind during the first world war would  similarly be used in a rebuilding.  They tooo would a source of encouragement and few as they were, would learn to rely on Jehovah's strength, not depising the day of small beginnings.

The fact that they were described as two witnesses also reminds us of the transfiguration.  In that vision, three of Jesus' anointed apostles saw him in Kingdom glory, accompanied bu Moses and Elijah. This foreshadowed Jesus'  sitting down on his glorious throne in 1914 to accomplish work prefigured by those two prophets.  (Matthew 17:1-3)  Fittingly, the two witnesses are now seen to perform signs reminiscent of thsoe Moses and Elijah.  For example, John says of them:  "And if anyone wants to harm them, fire issues forth from their mouths and devours their enemies; and if anyone should want to harm them, in this manner he must be killed.  These have the authority to shut up the  heaven that no rain should fall during the days of their prophesying." - REVELATION 15:5, 6a. 

This reminds us of the time Moses' authority was challenged in Israel. That prophetr uttered fiery words of judgment, and Jehovah destroyed the rebels, consuming 250 of them by literal fire from heaven. (Numbers  16:1-7, 28-35) Simarily, Christendom's  leaders defied the Bible Students, saying that these had never graduated from theological colleges. But God's witnesses had higher credentials as ministers: those  meek  persons who heeded their Scriptural message.  (2 Corinthians 3:2, 3)  In 1917 the Bible Students published The Finished Mystery, a powerful  commentary on Revelation and Ezekiel. This was followed by the distribution of 10, 000,000 copies of the four-page tract The Bible Students Monthiy with the feature article entitled "The Fall  of Babylon-Why Christendom Must Now Suffer-the Final Outcome."  In the United States, the irate clergy used the war hysteria as an excuse to get a book banned. In other countries the book was censored.  Nevertheless, God's servants kept fighting back  with fierty issues of the four-page tract entitled Kingdom News.  As the Lord day proceeded, other publications would make clear Christendom's spirit defunct condition. - Compare JEREMIAH 5:14. 

Next time: Reviving the Two Witnesse - Conclusion of The Two Witnesses

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Reviving the Two Witnesses - The Two Witnesses

 Even while being trampled on, these loyal ones do not cease to be Jehovah's faithful witnesses.  Hence, the prophecy continues: "And I will cause my two witnesses to prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days dressed in sackcloth.' These symbolized by two olive trees and two lampstands and are standing before the Lord of the earth. " - REVELATION 11:3, 4. 

These faithful anointed Christians needed the qualityof endurance, for they had to prophesy "in sackcloth."  What does this mean?  In Bible times sackcloth often symbolized mourning.  Wearing it was a sign that the person had been brought low in sorrow or distress.  (Genesis 37:34; Job 16:15,16; Ezekiel 27:31)  Sackcloth was associated with the mournful messages of doom or grief that God's prophets had to proclaim.  (Isaiah 3:8. 24-26: Jeremiah 48:37; 49:3)  The wearing of sackcloth could indicate humilty or repentance in view of divine warning. (Jonah 3:5) The sackcloth worn by two witnesses appears to indicae their humble endurance in announcing Jehovah's judgments.  They were witnesses proclaiming his day of vengeance  that would bring mourning also to the nations. - DEUTERONOMY 32:41-43.

The John class had to preach the message for  definitely stated time: 1,260 days, or 42 months, the same length of time that the holy city was to be trampled underfoot.  This period seems to be literal, since it is expressed in two different ways, first in months and then in days. Additionally, at the beginning of the Lord's day, there was a marked period of three and a half years when the hard experience of God's people matched the events prophesied here -starting December 1914 and continuing to June  1918.  (Revelation 1:10) They preached a "sackcloth" message concerning Jehovah's judgment of Christendom and the world. 

The fact that they were symbolized by two witnesses confirms tous that their message  was accurate ad well founded.  (Compare  Deuteronomy 17:6; John 8:17, 18.)  John calls them "the two olive trees and the two lampstands," saying that they "are standing before the Lord of the earth."  This is evident reference to the prophecy of Zechariah, who saw the seven-branched lampstands and two olive trees were to said to picture "the two anointed ones," that is, Governor Zerubbabel and High Priesst Joshua, "standing alongside the Lord of the  whole earth." - ZECHARIAH 4:1-3, 14. 

Next time: Reviving the Two Witnesses - Continue with The Two Witnesses

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Reviving the Two Witnesses -The Trampling of the Courtyard

 Why was John forbidden to measure the courtyard?  He tell su in these words:  "But as for the courtyard that is outside the temple sanctuary, cast it clear out and do not measure it, because it has been given to then nations and they will trample the holy city underfoot for forty-two months." (Revelation 11:2) We have noted that the inner courtyard pictures the righteous standing on earth of spirit-begotten Christians.  As we shall see, the reference here is to be literal 42 month extending from December 1914  to June 1918, when all professing Christians were put to a severe test.  Would they uphold Jehovah's righteous standards during those war years?  Most did not. En bloc , the clergy of Christendom put nationalism ahead of obedience to divine law.  On both sides of the warm which was fought mainly  in Christendom,  the clergy preached the young men into trenches.  Millions were slaughtered. By the time that judgment started  with the house of God in 1918m the United States had already entered the bloodspilling, and the clergy of all Christendom has incurred bloodguilt that still cries out for  divine vengeance.  (1 Peter 4:17)  Their being cast  out has become permanent irreversible. - ISAIAH 59:1, 3, 7, 8; JEREMIAH 19:3, 4. 

What, though, of the small group of Bible Students?  Were they to be measured immediately in 1914 by their adherence  of divine standards? No.  Like the professed Christians of Christendom, they too must be tested.  They were 'cast out, given to the nations' to be severely tried and persecuted. Many of them realized that they should not go out and kill their fellowman, but as yet they did not fully appreciate Christian neutrality.  (Micah 4:3; John 17:14, 16; 1 John 3:15)  Under pressure from the nations, some compromised.

How was it, though, that the holy city was trampled underfoot by those nations?  Clearly, this does not refer  to the Jerusalem that was destroyed over 25 years  before Revelation was written.  Rather, the holy city is New Jerusalem, described later in Revelation, that is represented  now on earth by the remaining anointed Christians in the temple's inner courtyard. In time, these also become a part of the holy city. So trampling on them is tantamount to trampling on the city itself.  - REVELATION 21:2, 9:21. 

Next time: Reviving the Two Witnesses - The Two Witnesses

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Reviving the Two Witnesses -Measuring the Temple Sanctuary

 John is told to  "measure the temple sanctuary of God  and the altar and those worshiping in it."  What does this imply?  In the Hebrew prophecies, such measuring provided a guarantee that justice would be rendered on the basis of Jehovah' perfect standards.  In the days of wicked  King Manasseh, the prophetic measuring of Jerusalem testified   to an unalterable judgment o destruction on that city.  ( 2 Kings 21:13; Lamentations 2:8)  Later, however, when Jeremiah saw Jerusalem being measured, this confirmed  that the cituy would be rebuilt.  (Jeremiah 31:39; see also Zechariah 2:2-8.) Likewise, the extensive  and detailed  measuring of the visionary witnessed by Ezekiel was a guarantee to the Jewish exiles in Babylon that true worship would be restored in their homeland.  It was also  a reminder that, in view of their errors, Israel henceforth had to measure God's holy standards. - EZEKIEL  40:3 4; 43:10.

Therefore, when John is commanded to measure the temple sanctuary and those priests worshiping in it,is is a sign that nothing can prevent the fulfillment of  Jehovah's  purposes  regarding the temple arrangement and those associated with it, and those purposes are nearing their climax. Now  that all things  have been placed under the feet of Jehovah's strong angel, it is the time for "mountains of the  house of Jehovah" to become "firmly established  above the top of the mountains."  (Isaiah 2:2-4) Jehovah's pure worship must be exalted, after centuries of Christendom's apostasy. It is also time for those of Jesus'  faithful brothers who have died to be  resurrected  into "the  Holy of Holies."  (Daniel9:24; Thessalonians 4:4-16; Revelation 6:11; 4:4)  And the last sealed ones  on earth of "the slaves of our God" must be measured according to the divine standards in order to qualify for their permanent place in the temple arrangement as spirit-begotten sons of God.  The John class today is fully aware of those holy standards and is determined to measure up to them.  - REVELATION 7:1-3; MATTHEW 13:41, 42; EPHESIANS 1:13, 14; compare ROMANS 11:20.

Next time:  Reviving the Two Witnesses - The Trampling of the Couryard

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Reviving the Two Witnesses

 BEFORE the second woe is finally past, the strong angel calls upon John to take part in another prophetic presentation, this one having to do with the temple.   (Revelation 9:12; 10:1)  Here is what John reports:  "And a reed like a rod was given me as he said; 'Get up and measure the temple sanctuary of God and the altar and those worshipping in it." - REVELATION 11:1.

The Temple Sanctuary

The temple here mentioned cannot be any literal temple in Jerusalem, since the last of these was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E.  The apostle Paul, however, showed that even before that destruction, there had appeared another temple sanctuary that would endure right up to our day.  That was the great spiritual temple that fulfilled the prophetic types provided by the tabernacle and later by the temples  built in Jerusalem.  It is "the true tent, which Jehovah put up. and not man," and its High Priest is Jesus, whom Paul describes as having already "sat down at the right side of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." Its Most Holy is the loccation of Jehovah's presence in heaven itself. - HEBREWS 8:1, 2; 9:11, 24. 

The apostle Paul explains that the curtain of the tabernacle, separating the Most Holy from the holy compartment, pictures Jesus' flesh.  When Jesus sacrificed his life, this curtain   was rent in two, showing that Jesus' flesh was no longer a barrier to his entry into Jehvoah's  presence in heaven.  On the basis of Jesus' sacrifice, his anointed underpriests who died faithful would, in due course, also pass into the heavens.  (Matthew  27:50, 51; Hebrews 9:3; 10:19, 20)   Paul points out, too, that the continual sacrifics of the animals at the tabernacle pointed forward to Jesus' one sacrifice of his perfect human life.  The altar of the sacrifice in the courtyard represented Jehovah's provision, according to his will, for accepting Jesus' sacrifice in  behalf of the "many'-of the anointed and, later, of the other sheep-who would be "earnestly looking for him for their salvation." - HEBREWS 9:28; 10:9, 10; JOHN 10:16. 

From this divinely inspired information, we can conclude that the Holy Place in the tabernacle symbolizes a holy condition enjoyed first by Christ and then by the anointed members of the royal priesthood of the 144,000 while they are on  still on earth, before enterng through "the curtain." (Hebrews 76:19, 20; 1 Peter 2:9) It well  represents their having been adopted as spiritual sons of God, even as God acknowledge Jesus to be his Son following Jesus' baptism in the Jordan in 29 C.E.  (Luke 3:22; Romans 8:15) And what of the inner courtyard, the only part of the tabernacle visible to nonpriestly Israelites and the place where the sacrifices were made?  This picturs  the perfect standing of the man Jesus that qualifified him to offer his life for mankind. It also represents the righteous standing as holy ones, imputed on the basis of Jesus' sacrifice, that his anointed followers enjoy while on earth. - ROMANS 1:7; 5:1. 

Next time:  Reviving the Two Witnesses - Measuring the Temple Sanctuary

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A Sweet-and-Bitter Message - The Little Scroll Today

 What John sees foreshadows remarkably the experience of the John class at the beginning of the Lord's day.   Their understanding of Jehovah's purposes, including the implication of the seven thunders, was then incomplete.  Nevertheless, they had a deep  interest in Revelation, and Charles Taze Russell had  commented on many parts of it during his lifetime.  After his death in 1916, many of his writings were collected and publish in  a book entitled The Finished Mystery.   In time, though, this book  proved to be unsatisfactory as an explanation of Revelation.  The remnant of Christ's brothers  had to wait a while longer, until the visions started be fulfilled, for an accurate understanding of that inspired record. 

Like John, however, they were used by  Jehovah even before the voices of the seven thunders were fully published.  They had preached diligently for 40 years before 1914, and they had struggled to stay active during the first world war.  They had proved to be the ones who, when the master arrived, were found to be giving the domestics food at the proper time. (Matthew 24:45-47)  Thus, in 1919 they were the ones who were given the opened little scroll-that is, an open message to preach to mankind.  Like Ezekiel they had a message for an unfaithful organiztion-Christendom-that claimed  to be serving  God but, in fact, was not.  Like Johyn they to preach some more regarding  "peoples, nations, tongues and many kings."

John's eating up the scroll pictured that Jesus' brothers accepted this assignment.  It became a part of them to the extent  that they were now identified with this portion of God's inspired Word, drawing nourishment from it.  But what they had to preach contained expressions of Jehovah's judgments that  were unpalatable to many of mankind.  Indeed, it included the plagues foretold in Revelation chapter 8.  It was sweet, however, to these  sincere Christians to know those judgments  and to realize they were going again to be used by Jehovah in proclaiming them. -PSALM 19:9, 10.

In time, the message of this scroll became sweet to the "great crowd . . . out of all nations and tribes and tongues" who were found to be sighing on account of the detestable things  they saw done in Christendom.  (Revelation 7:9; Ezekiel 9:4 )  These, too, vigorously  proclaim the good news, using sweet, gracious words to describe Jehovah's marvelous provision for sheeplike Christians.  (Psalm 37:11, 29; Colossians 4:6)  But to  opponents, that was bad news.  Why?  It means that the system  in which they trust-and which may even have brought them a transitory satisfaction-must go.  For them, the good news spells dooom. - PHILIPPIANS 1:27, 28; compare DEUTERONOMY 28:15; 2 CORINTHIANS 2:15, 16.

Next time: Reviving the Two Witnesses

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A Sweet-and-Bitter Message - The Opened Scroll

 While John is waiting for the blowing of this seventh trumpet and the bringing to a finish of the sacred secred of God, he is given a further assignment. "And the voice that I heard out of heaven is speaking again with me, saying: "Go, and take  the opened scroll that is in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the earth.' And I went away to the angel and told him to give me the scroll. And he said to me:  'Take it and eat it up, and it will make you belly bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.'   And I took the little scroll  out of the hand of the angel and ate it up, and in my mouth  it was sweet as honey.'  But I had eaten it up, my belly was made bitter. And they say to me:  'You must prophesy again with regard to peoples  and nations and tongues and many kings.'" - REVELATION 10:8-11.

John's experience is rather similar to that of the prophet Ezekiel during his exile in the land of Babylonia. He too was commanded to eat a scroll that was sweet in his mouth. But when it filled his stomach, it made him responsible to foretell bitter things for the rebellious house of Israel.  (Ezekiel 2:8-3:15)  The opened scroll tha tthe glorified gave to John is likewise  a diving message.  John is to preach regarding "peoples and nations and tongues and many kings."  To feed upon this scroll is sweet for him because it is from a divine source.  ( Compare  Psalm 119:103;  Jeremiah 15:15, 16.)  But he finds it bitter to digestr because -as previously with Ezekiel-it foretells unsavory things for rebellious humans. - PSALM 145:20.

 The ones who tell John to prophest again are doubtless  Jehovah God and  Jesus Christ.  John although exiled on the Island of Patmos, has already prophesied regarding peoples, nations,  tongues, and kings  through the information recorded in the book of Revelation.  The word "again" means that he must write and publish the rest  of the information recorded in the book of Revelation.  But remember John is here actually participating  in the prophetic vision. What he records is, in fact, a prophect to be fulfilled after 1914, when the strong angel takes up  his position astride the earth and the sea.  What, then, does this dramatic portrayal mean to the John class today?

Next time; A Sweet-and-Bitter Message - The Little Scroll Today

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