Cylinder, iowa

Tues eve

Dearest Dorothy,

Sorry I neglected writing. It seems I can always find something to do. I enjoyed your letter so much, although it did make me feel a little ashamed of myself. It seems you are growing faster up there by yourself than I am with the brethren.

You have one advantage, you don’t have other brethren near you to watch and criticize. You just have yourself to criticize and judge and most of us would be better off if we judged ourselves more.

Did you get an opportunity to go to your folks? I hope so. Write to me about it as soon as you can.

I was just meditating today on the goodness of God on ever leading us to repentance to see where we were on the wrong road. So many are still going the downward road blinded by the God of this world. Paul says, Know ye not that it was the goodness of God which led you to repentance?

You asked who reigned with Christ during the thousand years? The first thing is the rapture of the church. This is when the saved are caught up to meet Him in the air. I Thessalonians 4:16,17.

Following this is the Great Tribulation. Those that have heard the gospel but would not believe will be deceived and will receive the mark of the beast. II Thessalonians 2:9,10. The beast and the false prophet (both are men) will have power to perform all kinds of miracles and will deceive most of the people who will worship them instead of God.

However, there will be a few, mostly Jews, who will be saved by refusing the mark of the beast. Most of these will be martyred. They are the ones spoken of when it says, They that endure to the end shall be saved.

These martyrs and the saints come with Christ to rule the thousand years. This is the Kingdom of Heaven which John the Baptist spoke of when he said, Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

You see, if the Jews had accepted Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven would have taken place then. But they refused Him and because they refused Him, salvation was brought to the Gentiles. How thankful we can be for that.

After the Kingdom of Heaven or the thousand years, the earth is destroyed by fire and we have a new heaven and a new earth. I don’t know who dwells on each but I guess we’ll find out when we get there.

I don’t know if I have explained this so you understand it or not. I’m not much of a prophet. But don’t worry about those things. They will gradually unfold as we grow in grace.

We have our assembly in town now. Mark and Olive Frederick own a house in town and they have turned it into a Gospel Hall. We surely have some good meetings. Mr. (Oliver) Smith hasn’t been up for a long time. We are looking for him again soon. He is busy preaching elsewhere.

My school is coming fine so far. The only thing I don’t like is that I don’t get to read my Bible as much as I’d like but I guess we are all bothered that way.

I am glad you are getting Faithful Words. I wrote to them about it. I hope Ralph gets help from it.

Nelva and Merle’s babies are both growing up fast. I wish you could see them.

Go on for the Lord, Dorothy. We cannot conceive of the happiness that lies in store for us if we walk in His light. He chasteneth whom He loveth or as a tree is purged to bear more fruit so we are purged when our branches get too far away from Him to make us more fruitful.

Love in His Name,

Fern