Herbert W Armstrong

   Now this is the Feast of Trumpets. Many of you have had sermons prior to this time on the significance of the festival. We've had published in the magazine the article on the meaning of the Feast of Trumpets. And for that reason, I do not think that it is necessary today to explain to you the meaning of the festival or, for that matter, why we do not blow trumpets on this day, which, if you understand, was the responsibility of the Levites as such, specifically limited to them and not to the children of Israel. Or I don't think it's necessary either today, since many of you have heard it, to understand something of the nature of the meaning of those trumpets — the Day of the Lord, the climaxing in the return of Christ to set up God's rule on earth.

   I think, though, there is one thing that we've never really discussed thoroughly here. I have taken it up individually with maybe one or two. But the Feast of Trumpets is that particular day which is the basis for the calendar that God has given His people. So I would like to acquaint you with that material which I think, from a sermon, you should be able to understand. Some sermons in particular, you know, deal with topics that perhaps wouldn't be good on paper. To read them would be rather dull and uninteresting, but if given the life of preaching might be of value. Then there are some topics which to explain in a sermon would kill any audience and are better done on paper.

   And for that reason, I have brought a graph copy which perhaps half a dozen of you have here of facts relating to the calendar, and most of those facts I'm not going to explain here because it would be unsuitable for a sermon, for sermon material. You'd need a blackboard. It's something you'd have to work out, but you should have them anyway. And I'm going to ask if Mr. Neff will pass the group out on this side. And I'll let you do it on this one if you would. See if I have a copy, yeah. This is a mimeograph copy of what Mr. Elliot prepared, who's one of our faculty members, for the class in mathematics, this just being a portion of the class, and I have used it in some of mine to explain certain of the topics.

   I think there are enough that everyone can have it. I know one or two of you who are here already have your own copies. Perhaps I've shown it to some of you. If they're not enough to go around, well, I'll have those of you who already have looked at it to pass them away. Otherwise, these are for you to keep. The material here covers many things that, if you've had no mathematics, it might be somewhat difficult, but I think as Christians that we need to develop all facets of our life and of our thinking, and this is one of the most important portions of proof that we need to have for the simple reason that the very nature of the sign belonging to this church is based on the calendar.

   Now, is there someone who has no copy? Alright, wherever there are two in the family, would you pass them to Mr. Dry? And then we'll work it out later. For instance, I think Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have already a copy before, but I want them to have one while they're here, and then they can distribute it to others later. I'll have to keep my copy with me, and I'll let one of you have it. Now does everyone over here have a copy? Now who does not have one copy that I might check? Do all single individuals and every — does every family have one? We understand that — I don't even think my wife does it, do you? Oh, all right. Well, I think that takes care of it, that if you have an extra one here. No, I have one. Thank you, Mr. Gehringer.

   The material I have here I felt is something that you should have as a whole, so that you can be sure of what the doctrines of the church are. I would like to mention one thing in particular — the reason this work developed. And that Mr. Armstrong and the group in Oregon was actually put out of the church. The reason the group at Oregon was put out of the church, those who were faithful actually in it, was the fact that the main body of Christians, so-called at that time who thought they were a part of the Church of God, were not observing the Sabbath — I mean the annual Sabbaths at all. They were only observing the Passover, and then that very often on the wrong day, even though they had the perhaps the correct number, but they determined the calendar themselves.

   And they would have some groups, for instance — I think you should understand this. It represents the Stanberry Church of God and other churches of God that you may be acquainted with, which represented really the last fragments of God's people before this era of the work. And some of them observed the Passover one month later than others in the same congregation. Some would meet the night of the 14th of a particular month, others would meet the night of the 15th and celebrate the Passover. It was nothing but confusion.

   And they forbade Mr. Armstrong to mention anything about the festivals of God other than the Passover, except for those whom he personally had converted. And finally, that was the question that came up to the board that Mr. Armstrong may have mentioned. And they decided — they voted on this matter, you see, whether or not it should be a doctrine of the church to observe God's festivals. In other words, they voted on this, on the matter whether we should obey God or not on this particular point.

   And the question that came before the board — and there were supposed to be twelve, that is, they had appointed a board of twelve patterned after the apostles, which, if you understand the Bible, is no pattern at all as far as the number. That number was for a special purpose then, just as there are going to be exactly twelve, not thirteen or fourteen or eleven thousand of the tribes of Israel later. But God has set no numbers since as far as the number of apostles whom He uses.

   But they decided in this meeting on this, and the proposition was worded in the following fashion: "Resolved that we observe the annual festivals as revealed through Moses with all the sacrifices." And of course, those who believed in observing the festivals couldn't say yes. And there were three then who couldn't say yes, but they didn't say no either, and those who didn't want to obey God said no naturally. And so out of the twelve, there were only six present. And only three actually said no, and since no one said yes, then they said it is unanimous that the church says that we are not to observe these festivals. And that's politics for you.

   For those who came in, Mr. Gehringer, I'm going to have you — just so they have a copy, thank you. I think that'll be sufficient. But that is what actually, let's say, put the churches that were faithful in Oregon outside of the previous fold as administered by men, and the government of God was no longer extant in that church. Now it was God's church because most of those people had a knowledge of the truth. God had opened their minds to see the truth. But they had actually separated themselves from God's will, and they were doing fundamentally as they pleased.

   And I've talked with many of them since. Fact is, not long ago I spoke to three of their ministers who came to the college, and I had a lengthy conversation one afternoon, and I know their minds are open to see the truth because they can understand what you say. That's why God says that they are His church. He recognized them as His. They aren't blinded. They aren't ignorant. They know what you say when you explain it. But they're not willing to accept it. And those who are willing to come out and become a part of this church, the God is using, which is alive — it's like a dead branch of a tree. That's what they represent, and they're falling away and splitting and dividing.

   And I explained the calendar to them, but they said, "Well, we don't want to have any authority established in the church. We want the people to decide for themselves." That's what it amounts to. Now when you find — that's why I'm presenting this — when you find that we, let's say that Mr. Armstrong or any of us have decided to saddle a particular day on you and that you think it's another day, maybe we ought to have the proof. Now I know none of you have doubted any of these things, and you have understood that these are the days that God has set aside. Of course, you wouldn't know if God hadn't revealed it, you see, because there's no way that you can tell apart from God's revelation which days He has told us not to work on and to come before Him for a purpose. There is no other way of knowing.

   And of course, then it is necessary that there be a calendar. Now has God put authority in that church, and from whom does it stem? From Mr. Armstrong, from me, or from someone else, or does it stem from Jesus Christ? And if it stems from Jesus Christ, and so we would know exactly what Jesus Christ said, He's given us the Bible, hasn't He? So that we know what He wants us to do. The question is, since He also commands the festivals, and that has been proved, how are we going to know on which days to observe them? Therefore, He must also have given a calendar. That is presupposed, isn't it? Or you couldn't observe the rest.

   Now the question is, which calendar is it? We've already discarded — any of you who have seen what Mr. Hermann has prepared. I thought I had a copy with me here, yes. This isn't the latest one. It's an older one, '55-'56 of the just the calendar we published, the correlation of the calendar as God. It gave it with the names of the month first through the twelfth or thirteenth, and then the Jewish names of the month, the days of the week in the Roman calendar and the Roman months, and the Roman year. You have it all combined here so that people who are used to the one can understand the other.

   If any of you, by the way, don't have the latest one, if you've written in, we were out of — this was out of print for '56 and '57 for several months, and if you don't have one, it's been reprinted. We have copies again in case you've asked and you didn't receive one. We thought that there were so few who would be requesting it, it wouldn't be worth setting up the press for a hundred copies, but we found there were hundreds who were wishing it. So I hope we've taken care of all the names that had requested it. If any of you don't have, you mention it to Mr. Neff for me afterwards, and we can provide you with one.

   But how do you know this is right, for instance? Now you can check any other booklet, can't you? You can check any other booklet by the Bible and see whether or not we have quoted the verses correctly and we've given you the meaning that God through Christ intended. But when you have this, of course, sometimes you wonder. That is, if you're doing any thinking — I trust you are. You might wonder, "Well, how did they arrive at that calendar?" Granted the Jews may have the same one, but how do we know the Jews have preserved this as truth? And how do we know they haven't added their own errors? After all, they don't observe the same days we do. They observe the Passover on a different day. They observe Pentecost on another day. They add extra days to Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles.

   Do you have an extra copy? I didn't realize that happened to be all I brought down with me because all I had at home this morning. Now it does present a question, and most of the analysis is given here so that I don't think there's any need to bringing you special material that's already in print, except to call your attention to certain pertinent facts that you should have in mind.

   Now, what Mr. Hermann prepared in the center of this calendar, I want to show you where it is so that I don't have to repeat it. He shows very plainly that the Roman calendar with which we are familiar with the twelve months commencing with January, ending with December — by the way, it's a new invention to have it that way, really. It's, even in the beginning of this nation, in the days of George Washington, they began the first of the year with March, you know, not with January.

   In here, however, Mr. Hermann analyzes all of the statements in Scripture proving that the Roman calendar did come just from Rome, as it says. It didn't come from God. It was not preserved by the Jews. And that alone, since to the Jews, not to the Romans, was committed the oracles of God, but we know that that couldn't be the calendar God has set up. If you want to know some other things too as to where the headquarters church is — is it in Rome or is it at Pasadena — you might just remember through whom God was working. And did He ever commit it to those who were Gentiles and Romans and doing the ways of the Gentiles? No, He didn't. He committed it to His church, which has existed through this day.

   And to God's purpose, since most in God's church would have no knowledge of the calendar — and I think before this or before you may have seen the other mimeograph copy that I brought down today, most of you would have no idea as to how the calendar is regulated, would you? You just wouldn't have any idea. So you see, even if you saw that God's festivals were to be observed, how could you observe them without someone showing you how to be developed? And what calendar we already use?

   Now that's one reason that God has the Jews scattered everywhere. Did you ever think of that? One of the fundamental reasons that the Jews are scattered everywhere is to make the calendar available to all people wherever God should choose to call them. Because the Jews have, as I will show you, preserved inviolate the calendar just as they have preserved in perfect accuracy since the days of Christ, the Old Testament. Now the Gentiles have not preserved the Old Testament accurately at all. The Jews have, and to them were committed the oracles of God. And there are early manuscripts early enough that as far as the New Testament is concerned, were it not for those manuscripts, we wouldn't have perfect copies of the New Testament either.

   That it was to the Jews that the oracles of God were committed, and we read that — some of you may know the scriptures so plainly, but I just want to mention it so you don't forget it. Romans 3. "What advantage has a Jew?" Well, Paul says particularly because he knew more of God's truth, because to him we entrusted the oracles of God. Romans 3:1-2-3. And even if some of the Jews disbelieved or were disobedient, Paul says that does not make void the faith or the truth, the body of beliefs that God revealed through Moses to be carried on by the Jews.

   That's what he says right here. In other words, God foresaw this matter that the Jews probably wouldn't be obeying it. But it says here, "For what if some Jews disbelieve now?" Now let's suppose the Jews disbelieved. They didn't believe in observing Passover on the 14th, but they said let's observe it on the 15th. Does that make void that faith or body of beliefs of which the calendar is a part that He committed to the Jews? Why no? You see, the Jews have preserved the calendar, but they just shifted the day of the Passover one day. That's all.

   And you will find the same thing is true with the law of Moses and all the Old Testament, every prophecy relating to Christ. They preserved the prophecy but said, "No, that's not what it means, this is what it means," and they have nullified the law of God that they might observe their own traditions. So that we have a statement there, at least in the Scripture, to point to the sacredness of the calendar, and that's why we prefer to use that term rather than the Jewish calendar, even though to the world it might be the Jewish calendar.

   Now, lay this aside. This question came up long ago in the church when Mr. Armstrong was first coming to understand the truth. And much of that original material that Mr. Armstrong discussed and as much as was understood at that time, Mr. Hermann incorporated into an article that appeared in the March 1953 issue of the Good News. March 1953 is the Good News, which is no longer in print, but should you have a back copy, you will find it in this issue, or should someone else and you would like to read it. We have not republished this article since March 1953.

   How many, by the way, do not remember this article "God's Sacred Calendar"? Do not have, never read it. And most of you have, have you not? Well, that does illustrate one point. This happens to be generally a little older church by comparison, and most of you have been for some time in the truth. It is a fact that as we go along, we find that some of these articles have to be reprinted, and I hope you understand that sometimes an issue of The Plain Truth comes out with two older articles that you may have read five to ten years ago, but there is good reason.

   In general, you see, probably eighty percent of the people find that every article is new who read The Plain Truth. And they would never get these articles if we, if we would just mention them in a booklet because it wouldn't be writing in for them. And the only way to get this material to the people, it is to publish it in a magazine and let interest be stimulated by it.

   But in this article, we have most of the knowledge that was revealed and that Mr. Armstrong was able to understand, let's say, twenty-five years ago. Now it isn't all correct. I want to just mention a few things, and the only things that are incorrect, of course, have nothing to do with the nature of the calendar, except the only thing that is wrong in what is given here is the manner of its origin and preservation.

   In other words, I just want to read you one thing so you'll understand. The statement was made in this article that — I can just find the particulars. I didn't mark this one — at first, observation was the chief method for the determination of the beginning of a new month of a year. Gradually, after years went by, a definite pattern began to emerge in the insertion of the extra days and extra months, after which there were definite mathematical principles of the calendar.

   Now that's all we knew because we had no other way of knowing how it must have been preserved, and that was the Jewish story. Well, I found the sense in reading the Jewish Encyclopedia and some other material that the Jews — I have come to regard that as not the real basis at all, and they have come to admit, as I think reason will show you, that observation of the calendar would never lead you to a mathematical — observation of the movement of the heavenly bodies would never lead you to the mathematical or astronomical establishment of it. It could not possibly do so. It might do so, but it can never be accurate. And yet the calendar that we use today is based exactly on mathematical measurements.

   So the fact remains that what the Jews should have been telling us and what we have only come to realize since is that having been given the mathematical basis for it, they observed the movement of the heavenly bodies to see that there was no change from the mathematical basis. Now that's the only error that I've found, and I want to mention it here in case any of you read it, because that's — everything that is given in this material here that I have mimeographed is a contradictory to that.

   Now that's what I had to teach the class the first year when I was first explaining the calendar to the students so they'd be qualified, we can see. In other words, how we grow in knowledge. The fact is that's what I taught Mr. Hermann from what Mr. Armstrong had taught me, and that's all we knew, and I spent years. In other words, I've spent nine years struggling with the calendar, and it's taken all these years before I've got some of the kinks out.

   And now Mr. Armstrong did understand that of necessity, there must have been a calendar that God gave which has remained through the years. And it is not left, for instance, to Mr. Jackson or Mr. Fram or Mr. Neff or Mr. Gehringer or me to decide, "Well, now we want to observe it this month," and well, you say, "Well, we want to observe the festivals another month," because how are we going to determine which month begins the year? You see? So Mr. Armstrong recognized that since God is a God of order and not confusion, there must be a calendar.

   Now, did He commit the calendar to anyone else but the Jew? Why, of course not, because to the Jew was given the oracles of God, the living revelation. That's what an oracle is, you know. And so the only conclusion he could come to is — and that's what the Church of God had always believed actually — that the Jews had preserved the calendar. But by this time most of the churches that were drying away from the faith had decided that even though the Jews may have preserved the calendar, that the Jews didn't preserve it correctly, and what we should do is decide for ourselves.

   And so they said, "Well, we should use" — and you know, of course, the new moon determines the month and the month approximately at the time of the spring equinox determines the year and so on. Well, they said, "Well, we'll just decide for ourselves which month begins the year, and we'll look up at the heavens where we are here, and when we see that new moon, we'll say that's the new, that's the month beginning again. And we'll decide whichever is nearer the spring equinox."

   Now you know what the spring equinox — the sun rises due east and sets due west, you know that, I hope. At the equinox, the sun rises due east, sets due west. It takes place today, approximately the 20th or 21st of March, depending on which year, leap years. It varies one day from the 21st. That being the case, that church and their people today, for instance, along the California coast here might be observing it the same month, but one day later than those on the east coast because the new moon may look differently within an hour before sunset, you see, and by the way, what time of day are you going to look in the heavens to find it? Well, maybe about sunset. That's the earliest you could, you see. And so you would find it at different times along the Pacific coast and then in New York.

   And others said of course that what we need to do is follow the Jews and observe it as they decide which is the new month. And so the church was in total confusion, and Mr. Armstrong said that even though you don't want to obey the rest of God's law, even if you want to observe the Passover, you'd have to admit that there must be a calendar that God revealed, and to avoid — confusion, that is the calendar that we are to go by or else God has left us in confusion. He hasn't done that. Reason will tell us that when we understand the nature of God.

   Most of the church as a whole, I think, have been swayed by it, and I believe that most, though not all, does follow the calendar as the Jews have given it today, though by no means do all do that. Now, that was the first problem. Of course, all we could do was just accept the calendar as the Jews gave us, and it took me approximately eight years before I understood how the Jews arrived at the calendar. It took me that long. I hope you can digest it within a week's time. Maybe you'll appreciate it.

   I struggled with this after Mr. Armstrong mentioned it, and certainly reason would tell us, I think you'll all understand, that that must be the calendar. You've read enough, I think, to understand God's mind that He'd have to have had the calendar preserved with the Bible, and the only calendar the Jews have ever preserved is this one, and they were preserving it for the observation of their festivals.

   Well, we did have these problems, and it has been an enigma. I wrote to the U.S. Naval Observatory. I've read a letter or more from them either here or in Gladewater, Texas. I wrote to the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio to find all the information I could, and they wrote me back a personal letter giving all the information that they had, and they admit here that there is strong indication that the conclusions I mentioned to them would be true, but they say we have no tradition about it. And yet I find in the Jewish Encyclopedia there is the fact given right there if they could see it. I won't explain what that is just now. I'll explain it a little bit later.

   But I finally stumbled on a statement in the Jewish Encyclopedia that uncovered everything. I have here with me a photographed section of all the pages relating to the calendar and the history of it and then the calendar itself. Now the Jewish Encyclopedia, not the new one, but the old Jewish Encyclopedia — there are two editions. This one is the larger heavy volumes published around 1900.

   I would like to know, by the way, do any of you know if it's in the San Diego library? You did not find it. Would you look again? I am able to obtain it from Jewish bookstores at the cost of fifty dollars. And it has — it's only two dollars a volume. It has about — no, it's about three dollars a volume. But I think there's no need of your having it here, but what I will try to do and what I have planned is to have this material mimeographed for all of our people who would like to have all the information because you personally can't buy it, and perhaps later on, for instance, as our church bodies grow and as we have available a place where we have a library for everyone that you can study and have many different Bibles that you wouldn't purchase for yourself. And as you grow and have children to instruct and you have other people who ask you these questions, you're going to find you have need of them, and you don't always reach Pasadena for this information.

   Now, we can have this done. This, I just have this reproduced would be rather negligible. It just cost it — if a few pennies apiece a page, that's all. But what fooled me for so long was a statement here. I tried to solve the calendar by a statement given here, and I was always stumped by the fact that I never got the answer they did. And it finally occurred to me as I was fooling with it, as I might say, that something didn't look right here. And I got an answer seven, and they had seventeen halfway through, and that's why I always stopped because I never got the answer they did.

   And it occurred to me that this was a typographical error. Now it took me years to decide there was a typographical error here, and I decided that maybe my answer was right, and I went through and sure enough that was the typographical error. The number seven instead of seventeen happened to slip in here. They had an extra ten. Now with when I corrected that, the rest of it was based on seven, but the printers had allowed seventeen to get through, and I stopped there for years with my reasoning, figuring that I was too ignorant to solve it. I didn't go any further. I just gave up. You never want to give up, you see.

   Well, I was so determined to find out the answer that I went through, and I found that the typographical error. You can decide it yourself. Very simple. You add it up and you find that it should be seven instead of seventeen, but that's just an insignificant point, but it's here, and I have it marked in all the copies so that anyone who texts can know.

   Well, right here are the keys in the encyclopedia for the determination of the calendar. I marked the word "key" on the side, on the printed page, or whoever photographs it will understand. It's in the fine print, but you usually skip over to. But in there, and I want to show you where it is. Now I don't expect you to go through all the proof. They give the proof here, and it is so cumbersome because they have juggled the method of calculation to take care of Jewish tradition. But if you extricate the Jewish traditions from it, the calculation becomes very simple. In other words, they have gone at it the long way before they got the answer, and in this mimeograph copy we've gone at it the short way. It may look long to you, but it is the short way.

   For instance, it's on the third, fourth page. I'll just show you. The question was, determine a particular — this was for 1964. We just chose that year for a certain reason in calculations. Now on this page, this is all the calculation that's necessary. It's there. I'm not going to explain it here. You read it over and you can understand it. If you take your time, don't rush it and don't go beyond what you're able to understand.

   I hope — now he knows that what we have here is true and that there is a way of knowing, and he can be a graph form but a photograph form so you can pass it around here locally if you would like, and you can read the whole thing at your leisure. But in here you will have all the laws regulating the calendar. You can find them here, and we've summarized them here. We summarize them here.

   There are many other things given here, and some of the laws given here merely represent Jewish tradition. Now there is one school of Jewish thought that separates from the main body, and we don't follow their calendar determinations, and I believe you'll find it is incorrect. By the way, it is that school of thought which Mrs. E.G. White used in deter — or Mr. Miller used in determining the Day of Trumpets in 1844, and he was a month late. But that's not the main body of the Jews, and it puts everything far too late. If you — I don't think we even have to consider that because that's not the traditional calendar anyway. It was a reform movement by some Jews who thought they were trying to get back to the faith once delivered and really was not.

   Now I'm going to skip most of the material which explains the nature of the calendar. Mr. Hermann has explained in the little material here that we published in the center, how many days there are in each month and how many months in a year and how many years conclude a cycle. And we have incorporated that into this other material, and you can find it all here, so there's no question.

   There are some things here that are not elsewhere. If you would turn to page two, for instance, you have a page with two long, with the two charts, giving the number of days for the various months depending on what years there are. Now, in our Roman calendar, you will find that we have two types of years: leap years and common years. In the sacred calendar, you will find that there are no such types, that there are actually three types of common years and three types of leap years. A leap year is actually a year with an extra month. And a leap year may have three different lengths to the number of days, and a common year has three different lengths. It's all given here. I think it's all explained. I don't think you'll have any trouble with that.

   I just want to bring your attention to a few points. And then turning over to the next to the last page, the next to the last page, you will find that — pardon me — that even though there are three types of leap years and three types of common years as to the length, that there are actually seven types of leap years and seven types of common years and no more as to the days on which they occur. Now that's seven is interesting, that number. In other words, you are able to know from this little chart — you can't understand the center part here unless you go through the rest, but the material here will show you that if the Feast of Trumpets with this, which is today, falls on a Monday, then the Feast of Trumpets next year will fall on a Saturday inevitably. Or it may fall on a Monday depending on when the new moon occurs.

   While all of that is taken care of and fully explained here, I don't think you'll have any trouble if you go slow with it. Don't rush anything. In other words, don't read it over in a hurry to think and think you will understand it. You have to understand each particular thing as you go. Now I don't want to go into any more detail than that because that is not good for a sermon unless you were all acquainted. In other words, if you had studied it thoroughly, then I might be able to expound some things here, but it is not good for those who have no knowledge of the calendar in advance.

   Now I would like to present one other thing in this connection so that you will understand why this day is especially important because really it's the — as far as the determination of the calendar, this is the first day of the year, not in the spring. But the sacred year as far as the festivals are concerned, begins in the spring, but this is the day that actually determines the cycle of months. You see, this is the day it started in the autumn in creation itself, although I think I can demonstrate that creation did not start — that is, the first day of the week of recreation in the days just before Adam, you know, was given in Genesis 1, did not start on the Feast of Trumpets. It couldn't have started on the Feast of Trumpets because the Feast of Trumpets could never occur on a Sunday. I'll explain that a little later.

   So we know the Feast of Trumpets does not really commemorate the beginning of the recreation. I think we'll find it was a Day of Atonement, which in that year was on a Wednesday. And we have the heavenly bodies, you know, set in the present order on a Wednesday. And Wednesday's the middle of the week, and you measured from that creation week, you'd measure accurately and as God would look at it then from the very center point of it. And all of the years, for instance, the sabbatical and jubilee year, were always reckoned from the Day of Atonement and not from the Feast of Trumpets.

   Now I want to explain this in this connection. The one thing that you may have difficulty in understanding is the following: that a year and a month as God has given it is not fully measured by a whole number of days. I would like to have you understand just two things here in this connection, otherwise I'm afraid that the whole thing will, you will not grasp. The calendar is based on the fact that a month mathematically does not have a whole number of days. A month then as we observe it, you see, has twenty-nine or thirty days. You remember that, don't you? As we observe it, a month has twenty-nine and thirty days. Never any half days because we observe a whole day, you see, from sunset to sunset, and every month is to have a whole number of days.

   But since approximately 29 1/2 days exist from one new moon to another, therefore, some months would have to have twenty-nine and some thirty. Now how are we going to determine exactly how long it is from new moon to new moon? You know that the time between one new moon and another is a variable factor. Because the moon does not go around the earth in an exact circle, you see. It forms an ellipse. An ellipse, you know, if you haven't, you read it in a dictionary and you'll see it's not an exact circle this way. It has what we call two foci.

   Let's say that if you had a string about so long and you put — you pegged it a little closer and then you had a pencil pulling it down so the string was pegged here and here and you had a pencil here and you moved the pencil around, that would describe an ellipse. And so it is that at some times a new moon takes longer to occur than at other times. That's why I say that observation could never determine the calendar as we have it. Because from one new moon to another, there is a variation. And that variation has nothing to do with the season of the year. That variation has only to do with the placement between earth and the moon, and it may — and the variations occur during spring, summer, autumn or winter.

   So God must have given a special length of time. Then He gave a special length of time. That constitutes what we call a month. And that length of time is found here on the second page. The second paragraph, if you understand this — I must explain this or I'm afraid some of you who have never thought about this wouldn't grasp why, because you've only heard that months have twenty-nine or thirty days. A month that determines the calendar has twenty-nine days and twelve hours and 793 parts.

   Now how many parts are there in an hour altogether? Turn to page one, the very last paragraph. It says that there are 10,080 parts in an hour. Now we have sixty minutes in an hour, don't we? In the Roman reckoning, Babylonian — it came from Babylon, and we have sixty seconds in a minute. So we today divide a Roman hour into 3,600 parts, don't we, or seconds. But God determines that a day is to be divided in 10,080 parts.

   I will not explain why God gave us 10,080, but if you want to find out the utility or the usefulness of that number, you will find that 10,080 can be divided by more numbers than any other number up to that point. 10,080 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10. And 12, 15, and it goes on up, and there is no number under 10,080 which is so easily divisible. It's a simple one to work with.

   Now this is what God has revealed through what the Jews have preserved. There's no way we can know other than that this is what they have preserved, and I'm going to show you a little later before I'm finished that we know this is right because we can trace the calendar back and prove that in the Exodus this calendar determines exactly of the Exodus as the Bible says it was on a Wednesday. We can trace it back and we can prove without any doubt that the Passover in the year that Christ died was a Wednesday. And since this calendar can prove those two things, not only in 31 A.D. but in 1493 B.C., then we have no question but that this is the calendar that God gave.

   Now we know — I want you to understand that a month has twenty-nine days, twelve hours, and a little over half, 793 parts. You see, if there are 10,080, half of it would be 540, so it's a little over. Now, how do you use this as given later? Now, since there are twelve months in a year, therefore, a year is exactly twelve times this in length if it is a common year or thirteen times this in length if it is a leap year. Isn't that logical? Because there are twelve months in a common year and thirteen months in a leap year, you see.

   In other words, the calendar as we have it here opens up with — and they're only twelve months. So this had just twelve. And it ends up here with twelve. Therefore, it is twelve times the length of the month. But now since we have some with twelve and some with thirteen, then we are confronted with the fact that the actual length of the year then must be an average between them, you see.

   And God has revealed through the traditions that the Jews are preserved — and it is traditional, the same as the Bible is in a sense, but it is a revelation from God that the Jews have preserved. It isn't a matter of men's traditions. It was communicated down orally and written. But in a nineteen-year cycle — and we'll find that as we've explained before, God calculates the calendar by nineteen-year cycles. And these nineteen-year cycles have seven times when you add an extra month.

   And so when it's all evened out and you have thirteen years with twelve months and seven years with thirteen months, you will find, as it says here, an average year astronomically contains 365 days. But not six hours, which is a quarter of a day, but five hours and 997 and 12/19ths parts. You will not have to worry about using this figure, but this will tell you what it is. So that's given there, I think, so that you will understand. I'm not going to explain any more of that material there. I don't think it's necessary. All of it you can find, and you can check, and it's a matter of a revelation that God must have given from the start.

   Now, in order to determine — now since we have proved that there is a necessity for a calendar, and since the Jews have preserved a calendar, since this is the one which we know Christ was using in His time because it's the one the Jews also were using and the one the Bible refers to, we want to know then last of all, have the Jews made some mistakes in determining the calendar?

   Now I'm going to give you the answer before I prove it. The answer is in the methods that Jews used, they have confused the matters. But as to the proper use of the numbers and the length of time, they have preserved them perfect and accurate. For instance, the Jews say that the year of creation was 3,761 — the year of creation was 3,761 B.C. We know that's way off. Bible chronology disproves that. But the Jews said that's when it begins.

   Now the fact, I think, can be very simply proved that that is purely a traditional date which is convenient to work from, that's all. It's just convenient to work from. It came out of the Talmud; it didn't come out of the Bible. Therefore, that's not the real starting point at all. Now you can use any starting point so long as you know what the starting point is.

   The Jews tell us that in 3761 B.C. that the new moon occurred on Sunday. And it occurred at 11 p.m. and 204 parts after 11 p.m. at night on a Sunday. And this was the seventh month. Of course, it would — in other words, it would be just before the seventh month begins because the seventh month would then begin on a Monday.

   Now, I wrote to the Jewish Institute in Cincinnati. And I asked him the question as to when do we know that this date — how do we know this date is correct, the starting point. Now here was his answer: "According to latest information, the statement about the conjunction of the new moon" — that is the new moon which starts everything — "in year one, which was 3761 B.C., it rests on no authority earlier than the twelfth century A.D." I had A.D., he just does twelfth century. "It is called a tradition there, and there is no statement that any revision took place in the second century as I asked him about. Possibly further studies on the subject might show whether such a revision actually took place."

   Well, I've gone into that and I can show it has, and the Jewish Encyclopedia admits it. But here's the point. We know the length of a month. We know the length of the year. In other words, the year is just average number of months. But you know the length of the month doesn't do you any good unless you know a starting point, you see.

   In other words, I can say, "Well, I'm going to make — I'm going to make, let’s say a section here of the room available for a table, and I want a twelve-foot wide." But now I have to know how I'm going to determine it. I know the width I wanted it, but I have to determine now to put it in the center. I have to find the center points, you see, and then I have six on either side. So to know the length of the month doesn't do any good until you know the starting point, the exact hour, the exact moment from which you start.

   And the Jews here admitted, and this stopped me for a little bit, that the starting point is a tradition and not earlier than 1,200 years after the time of Christ. But now, is this a tradition of man or is this a tradition of God? Well, I found the following: that by using this calculation, we can determine that the Passover was on a Wednesday in the days of the year that Christ died. Now that's one indication that it is logical and that there was no loss of time, that it is not a tradition of men, but that men have preserved a revelation from God.

   But the next thing is that I went back to the year of the Exodus. And by the way, in that chronology that I gave, it is one year off at the Exodus. It should be 1493, not 1494. The mistake was this: that I had the Exodus — well, in the 430th year after Abraham entered, and it should have been 430 years after. And I had the temple being built 480 years after the Exodus, and it was in the 480th year. Maybe some of you caught that. I hope you did. But the first and last of the chronology doesn't change; it's just the date of the Exodus.

   And I work back this calendar and you can do the same thing. And you will find that in 1493, the Passover was on a Wednesday. Now we know that that's correct because the Bible says in the second month on the fifteenth day of the month, it came in the wilderness of Sin. And then that day was the Sabbath. And we can determine — for instance, if the fourteenth in the first month is a Wednesday, then the seventeenth would be a Sabbath, wouldn't it? Fifteenth is a Thursday, sixteenth is Friday, Sabbath is the seventeenth. Another Sabbath would be the twenty-fourth. And since there are thirty days for the first month, then the first day of the next month would be a Sabbath, wouldn't it? And then the eighth day and the fifteenth is a Sabbath.

   And what do we find when they got to the wilderness of Sin? Moses began to talk to them and said, "Don't complain, for tomorrow God will send you food." And they went out on the morrow, and remember they arrived on the fifteenth and they went out on the morrow after Moses addressed them that whole day, and they apparently arrived the evening of the fifteenth and Moses addressed them during the daylight part, and then on that morrow they gathered, you remember, and they gathered for six days in a row and then came the Sabbath again.

   So there is an indication, you see, that the fifteenth was the Sabbath, and that's what it would be exactly. After all, if this is a pattern, then God must have had the Passover at first a Wednesday because that's the day His Son would die later on, isn't it? On a Wednesday. So there is no doubt about that. That has given me sufficient proof that I have no doubt but what the calendar starting point is correct.

   But now when the Jews said the starting point is in 3761 B.C., that's just an assumption. In other words, they have a right point. That's the correct point in that year, but you can work backward to 4008 B.C. and you have another starting point, and I don't think that that's the one — I did not use here. I didn't bring it in because it's not necessary. You can use any point you want to. You can use any point you want to, provided you know how to go on from there. Because once you start, you know how many months follow thereafter. That's all. It's a simple matter. You just, at whatever point you choose — I chose the one that traditionally is the Jewish one because if I gave you any other one, you wouldn't be able to verify it, you see. This way you can verify it because the Jewish Encyclopedia says the same thing, and we'll show you then that our what we know of the calendar accords exactly with what the Jews have preserved.

   Now the starting point in the year of creation then — that is not the original creation, but when God decided to make the world as we now see it — would have been in the autumn of 4008. And there the starting point for the new moon was actually a Monday. And at midnight, so it was on the second day of the week, and it was the sixth hour of God's day as He reckons it. It's midnight, but you see the day start at sunset, and it was twenty-nine parts after the hour, so it was twenty-nine parts after midnight, which was only a few seconds after. That's the starting point.

   Now, you know, that's an easy one to remember. The second day of the week, the sixth hour and twenty-nine parts after the hour. All those are fundamental numbers with regard to the calendar, and I really think you'll find that God set that in motion that way for a special reason. I have figured all kinds of combinations, how it's easy to remember. In a regular year there are six months of twenty-nine days. And the twenty-ninth — the month for twenty-nine days starts with the second one, and it's even ones there on thereafter. Are there are any number of other relationships you can have. It's a number, a starting point that is very simple, but I didn't give you that. I gave the one the Jews have preserved.

   Now I think the rest of the material in here I don't need to cover. There are just a few points in the Bible I want to mention before we finish. Most of you could then work this out. If you take time, it may take some of you weeks, maybe days, some months. Maybe some of you have not sufficient background, you could never solve it. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the church headquarters to decide mathematically, you see. You were given the liberty, and I'm giving this to you so that you can know that our mathematics and that our use of the Jewish calendar is not incorrect. But that if you should be — if you should calculate, your mathematics is incorrect, you see, that doesn't give you any authority to decide that day is different, does it?

   So that God has set a headquarters just as He said it at Jerusalem whereby this knowledge would be preserved. And the calculations could definitely be made, but so that you would know that nobody is hoodwinking you. You know that's what the Romans did. They hoodwink the world. You have this information at hand, and if you want to verify it, it's for you. You have your Bible now, you understand, for all the other things we say and preach. But you should have this so that you know that as we observe the festivals, there is no doubt.

   I'm just going to summarize a few chapters here so that you will have them in mind. If you want the nature of the calendar, turn to Genesis 1. You're familiar with that. I just want to put these scriptures in mind. Somebody's going to ask you, and you never want to present them with some of the information I've even given you this morning. That is, don't give them all the mathematical lengths — why, they wouldn't even — that's just tradition anyway to them. They won't understand that. They won't believe it until they understand certain other basic things, and that's God has set the sun, the moon, the stars for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. The months thereby would be determined by the moons, the year by the vernal equinox, and the moon, the days by sunset. So the calendar that God has given and has those factors.

   Now remember that in summary that that's the chapter you turn to to find the attributes of the calendar. Of all calendars in the world, only the Jewish calendar has those features. The Roman calendar has only the year. The Mohammedan calendar has only the month, correct. And the year is not right either, and the month is not right either, but the basis is generally right. In other words, the Roman calendar is determined by the year, you see, but the month in it have no relationship to the moon. The year is determined by the sun. But it's wholly a solar calendar, and so actually it should shift more than it does, and we always start on January 1st irrespective of the new moon, but that's not correct.

   Now the Mohammedans have only twelve months, so they have summer coming around any number at any season. The first of the Mohammedan year can begin in January or February, March, April, May back through December. The first of the year can begin in summer or in winter, but God doesn't work it out that way, you see. It's only lunar. It pertains to the moon only. Therefore, it's not the calendar God gave, because God set the sun, the moon and the stars. He set all three to determine the calendar, and we find that the calendar that we call the sacred one, it is regulated as far as the month by the moon and the year by the sun, and it's a combination of both. And it is the only one of the features that God implies from the very first of Genesis.

   Now in Exodus we find that of course the world lost it, so God had to reveal it. And in Exodus 12:2, we have a simple statement that the month begins as far as the observation of the festivals in the spring. The first month is in the spring. Now Moses didn't tell us here how we had determined that, but since God told him, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months," there could be absolutely no doubt about it. Absolutely no doubt, but that God must reveal how to find which month was it. He said, "Now this is the beginning of your year," but how did Moses know when to begin the year? You see, God must have revealed it then at that time. And it has been preserved by the Jews ever since.

   The festivals were observed of Christ, since Christ spoke this to Moses. And since Christ did not object to the days in which the festivals were observed, and He always observed it on the — the Passover on the right day. And since we know that the Jews observed the Passover one day later, and we know they observed it on the fifteenth. And Jesus observed that one day earlier and we know the Bible says it's on the fourteenth, we know the Jews were using the same calendar. There's no doubt about it, you see, and Jesus therefore gave His sanction to it. And the early church did. And we are but a continuation of that church. And this is a church that still observes a calendar, uses this calendar which God has given. Those which have dried away from the truth of God have begun to separate from it, sad to say.

   Now to call the Feast of Trumpets New Year's, I think is not quite correct. If we turn to Leviticus 25:9 — Leviticus 25:9 — we'll find there that the new year as a whole is reckoned from the Day of Atonement: "And you shall number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years, and there shall be unto you the day — unto you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, forty-nine, and you're to make a proclamation on the tenth day of the seventh month and the forty-ninth year in the Day of Atonement, you're to make that, and that is the how of the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty." This is the jubilee.

   So that on the Day of Atonement, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the annual — the annual of the sabbatical years for the rest of the land and for the freeing of servants and also the jubilee was proclaimed. There is no indication in any other place but what the Day of Atonement is actually the day from which, let's say, the whole calendar years are measured.

   Now this has nothing to do with the determination of the calendar itself. In other words, the calendar begins with the Day of Trumpets. But reckoning from creation, that is the year of creation, to reckon from the middle of creation week, which was a Wednesday, on the Day of Atonement — in other words, it isn't absolutely proved. I want you to understand that. That creation week could have been any week in any month for that matter, but it implies it was the autumn month. But now which week in the autumn month was it, you see? And apparently Creation Week did not start with the Day of Trumpets, which can only be on a Monday.

   This proves that the Day of Trumpets can only occur on a Monday or later, never on a Sunday — Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Sabbath. No festival can occur any more than four days in a week. Passover can occur in four days in a week. The holy Days of Unleavened Bread and four days of the week. Pentecost can occur in only one day. That's Monday [*Sunday]. And all the other festivals can occur each on four days of the week, not always the same one. But no festival can fall any more than four different days of the week.

   Now there is a reason for that. You couldn't possibly have to — the plan of God forbids any festival falling on a Sunday after Pentecost. Because Pentecost pictures the first fruits. And Pentecost itself falls on a Monday [*Sunday], and you will find that the only days that can fall on a Sunday are those in the spring. But you see, Pentecost really climaxes the close of one and opens the second. That's the return of Christ, and no festival can fall on a Sunday in the autumn from Pentecost forward.

   Also, since the Day of Atonement is an absolute fast day and since you are to prepare for a Sabbath in advance, you could not have the Day of Atonement on a Friday. Otherwise you'd be preparing on the Day of Atonement for food you eat Sabbath, and that just wouldn't make sense, you know. So the Day of Atonement never falls on a Friday. The Day of Atonement never falls on a Friday. And those two calculations solved it all. That's not described here. You won't find that in this. I'm sorry to say because that has nothing to do with mathematics. That's doctrinal, you see. But that is in the material from the Jewish Encyclopedia. It explains that.

   Now, there is an indication, by the way, in the book of Ezekiel 40:1: "In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, which was also the fourteenth year after the city was smitten, God gave the prophet a revelation." Now this is in the beginning of the year and it's on the tenth day of the month, and the original term for "in the beginning" here is Rosh Hashanah, which means the beginning of the year which is incorrectly applied by the Jews to the Day of Trumpets.

   Now it does not tell you which month. But if this scripture has any weight, if this scripture has any weight, and if a particular month was meant, and if the beginning of the year means the actual beginning of the year, then it is very likely that the month was the seventh day — the seventh month of the year. And that the tenth day of the month, of course, was the Day of Atonement. We have no other revelation as to when the beginnings of the years are, but this is an indication when coupled with Leviticus 25. That's all, but it has nothing to do with the calendar itself except to tell you that the sacred year begins in the spring and the legal year begins on the Day of Atonement.

   In other words, when I calculate my second tithe and my first tithe — I don't mean my first tithe, but I mean my third, and for that matter the first — I calculated from the Day of Atonement forward, that is. I make all reservations and everything is taken care of by that day. And then I have the money set aside from that day to take care of the festival. In other words, I've worked out all my books, you see. And then whenever I decide that this is the year to save the third tithe for the poor, I begin after that. Well, of course it takes place after the Feast of Tabernacles because I probably haven't worked in between anyway. I'm traveling back and forth.

   Now you may naturally for the sake of the federal government, you have to keep books from January to January or July to July or whatever form you wish. But as God set things in motion, that is the time from which all dates are reckoned. That might help you explain why the Jews have regarded the autumn as the beginning of the year.

   I think that's all that I need to mention here for the sermon this morning. Because most of the rest of the material is better for you to have otherwise. Now, this has been a short sermon by comparison, but I think it's long enough for a topic such as this. Much of it will demand your study at home.

   I'm going to say the following. There is a book published in Brooklyn, perhaps, or New York — I forget the city. It's called the Hebrew Calendar. It's published by the Jews. It has the Roman days and the days according to the sacred calendar side by side so that you can look at the years extending from 1900 to 2000. So this whole century. And what I — I didn't bring it today. It was at the college and we were having to come down here early to — rather early. I didn't want to — I didn't know how the traffic would be and I didn't want to stop.

   But when I come down the next time, I'm going to plan to have this book with me just to show you. And we wanted it for every minister. In other words, it is this whole century calculated in advance. We've had to go year by year with this. But what I would like to do is to make it possible for all our local congregations to have this one book accessible to all of you so that you could determine it and check it yourself and you have all the information there. Much information is given there, by the way, and I believe in that book, in the preface and in the conclusion you have everything that is in here that's of value. Everything that's of value, I think, is also in that book so that together with that and what we have given you, there would be no doubt as to the determination of the calendar.

   Now we're told to prove everything, and I think that we must not let this be undone. This is perhaps out of the field of some of you. But it is your responsibility. Your children are going to ask you someday. Now, maybe a few of you don't have children anymore who can ask you — that might be another matter. But your children are going to ask you someday, "Well, how do we know this is the day?" You know, they ask and they always ask the question, "Well, how do we know Saturday is the Sabbath?" Well, we have to publish something on that, don't we? We know the time hasn't been lost. We have those seven proofs there.

   So we want to know now how do we know that this is the first day of the seventh month. And I think that you've seen now that we have the following proofs. One, the proof of the observation of Jesus. When coupled with Jewish customs that He was using the same calendar. The evidence of the Roman Catholic Church. That those who observed the Passover before the time of Constantine used this calendar too. You remember they were called Quartodecimans because they observed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. They were using the same calendar. The evidence concerning the crucifixion of Christ that had occurred on the day this calendar says it should have happened, the evidence from the Exodus that it occurred on the exact day of the week that it should have happened. And then the fact that God is not the author of confusion but of order. And this is the only calendar that has all the evidences of scripture from Genesis 1. And therefore it must be the one, since it is also the one the Jews have preserved and to them we have committed the oracles of God.

   When you have all those indications, I don't think you have any — you need to have any question, but the last question is how do we reckon once we have it? Now this is a festival and we're told that during the time we come before God's presence in the three seasons of the year that we are to take up a collection. Most of you understand that.

   Now if some of you aren't in God's church, we — that's up to you. We don't think that just because you happen to be here today and you didn't plan to bring any money that we expected of you, that's — it's between you and God now, you understand that, but we find in the scripture that every time we come in God's presence during these three seasons that we're to observe, that we take up a collection. We're not to come empty, but to give as God has blessed us.

   And we're told that — let me just turn to it here a moment. For instance, on the day of Tabernacles, "You shall not appear before the Lord empty." Deuteronomy 16:16, you're familiar with that. "Everyone shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord his God." And we're told also that we're to keep the day of Pentecost with a freewill offering beginning with verse 9 of the same 16th chapter.

   Now, we have never really explained this. Maybe we will in an article sometime for our members. There we were to observe the festivals three times in a year before God's presence, and those times represented the seasons, so that actually they observed the Passover plus the days of Unleavened Bread. Then they observed Pentecost, and in the autumn, you remember they observed Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles all together at Jerusalem. But as a whole, most men could come up for all those occasions, but the women and the servants and the children often were not able to come up until the latter portion of the month, that is until the Feast of Tabernacles. That being the case, of course, those three festivals are mentioned in that way.

   Now there's nothing that tells us in particular on what days during that time we're supposed to take up the collection. I'm explaining this because there are quite a number of new people here and so you understand, we never do this on a weekly Sabbath unless let's say the Day of Atonement is — or falls on the Sabbath. But we're to tell the people that there is to be a convocation. God told Moses, "You tell the children of Israel and the Levites that you tell the Levites to tell the children of Israel that there's to be a convocation," which is a commanded assembly.

   Now, whenever we have a commanded assembly, that's when we appear before the Lord. Now we don't take a collection up in the middle of the days of Unleavened Bread or in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles because there it isn't quite the same command and assembly as the Bible describes here, although we do command an assembly there, but it is not on a rest day. And not everybody is always able to be on every assembly we hold during the festivals. But on these annual Sabbaths you are requested by God, in fact required under penalty of sin unless there is a special reason that God naturally would absolve you for, to appear in His presence, and we're told not to appear before the Lord empty.

   Therefore, putting that with the fact that there are the three main seasons of the year, and when we appear before Him, and this is one of the days on the seasonal occasions that were not to appear before Him empty, and so we have had the custom, and I call it a custom — you know, Paul said, "I hope you keep the traditions which we have delivered, whether by letter or whether by word of mouth" — to take a collection up on this day.

   Now I would recommend, let's say that you have perhaps a certain amount you feel you can give in this autumn season. That you recognize we have Trumpets, Atonement, and the first and last days of the Feast of Tabernacles and therefore, you would divide your offering up, in other words, the portion it out into four relative divisions. I would recommend that because maybe by the time the Feast of Tabernacles is over, you've given too much and you're gonna have to borrow something, see, so that I would never give everything until that last day. Then when you've spent everything that you need to spend for the festivals in the autumn and you paid all your bills and you have all the money that you need to go back and then whatever you have left over, you want to give us an offering you may, but don't give beyond your means. In other words, divided and apportion it so that it should be that probably we would find the same offering on the Day of Atonement as we would have here. And I would suggest that because I think that's the way you should do. You might think about it.

   Now these offerings are for a purpose. That purpose is as far as you're concerned to remind you of the blessings that God has given. Now He says you give an offering that's commensurate with what God has blessed you. If He hasn't given you very much and you were poor all year, well, let this be a reminder to Him that you don't have very much. He hasn't given you much. That's right. You know, it's a reminder to Him too, because when He sees that He knows what you're doing, doesn't He? And maybe it also will be a reminder to Him to see how much He ought to bless you next year depending on how much you give this year out of your liberality. In other words, if you're a tight-fisted individual and have plenty and give little, He might decide, "Well, now it's time I act the same way to you."

   So it is a kind of memorial, a reminder of some of these things. It's a token of your appreciation. Now God gives us so many things, and you know He could take almost everything away. So if He just takes, let's say a little offering away, that's very small compared to having your house burned down and your car totally wrecked and a loss of your job for weeks on end. You know, He could take far more away than just a little offering that you might give voluntarily, and in the end, you know, He's going to give this to your credit. These are things that you do voluntarily, you see. These are things that you lay up for your responsibilities later. And it is also a blessing, let's say that you receive in this life here and now.

   So that I'm going to ask that before we have the final song we do take up a collection, as we have come before here, and remember if any of you had not bought anything and not thought about it or they are not really a part of the church, I specifically exempt you as far as any requirement that — and don't feel embarrassed or any such thing. God knows the circumstances, and I always felt that if I came into a meeting and I finally found the hat passed around, I was quite perturbed, so I want you all to understand that. It's your relationship to God now, not to me or to the one seated next to you. And if you need a receipt just attach a little note to it, in case you need it for income tax. Some of you may have that problem.

   Do we have any gentleman's hat or? Oh, oh, that's very nice of her. This afternoon, before we all leave, I want to make sure that we all have transportation to the park. There'll be some private discussions and there will also be some a definite Bible study for some of you. We'll work it out this afternoon as it is convenient. I think that having such lovely weather here in San Diego that this is an important way and many of you have materials or questions that you would like to present that you may not have be able to have answers from the pulpit. I'm going to ask Mr. Gehringer and Mr. Fram, since they're right there, they would take charge of having it go around.

   I want to thank you all for your part in keeping the work going as it has gone. I think it's been very important. I would like to say that the month of August traditionally has been the lowest month in the year. It happened to be the next highest we've ever had. This last time only last December was higher and July was the third highest. And if you all keep praying by this month you'd be at least as high as any previous month except last December, and I hope even higher than that.

   Remember your prayers are very important. Plenty of money is around in the country. If you don't have it, somebody else does, and money is what it takes to pay the people who would otherwise keep the truth of God away from the people. And all we can do sometimes is to ask God to open these doors.

   Now God in general has not chosen any rich man to support the work. The fact is the property we're getting for the college that was originally Mr. Merritt's. He said that when he lived we'd never get that property. But of course he isn't alive today. That's why we were having it, and his heirs decided they didn't want it. They'd rather have us have it. Now he's getting no reward for that. Any reward is going to his heirs for being willing to let us have it, but he got nothing out of it. God didn't use him. God didn't force him to give his money, and we never begged him for anything. Never would.

   But God doesn't call those people. He calls people who barely have enough to get by with as it is. But He expects you to pray, and there are always enough people then who do recognize the truth. And who do obey God. And who do pay their tithes, and you should know that. One third of the cost of this work today is being borne by those who were converted and baptized and who are members of the church. I think that's very important.

   When the baskets are filled with you, would you leave them back there and I'll take care of them or I'll have Mr. Neff. Thank you all very much, on Christ's behalf for whatever you've been able to spare. If you've been poor or given as a result of any liberality.

   Now if there is any transportation some of you need to the park for this afternoon, before the rest of you leave, I'd like to have that taken care of so that there's no problem here. Some of you came by perhaps a bus here and that material — that problem, I should say, needs to be solved because I think there are cars available for everyone. Now we'll have our closing song, Mr...