Footnote

c Because most of our readers do not have the early issues of Zion’s Watch Tower we publish here the excerpt from the issue of July and August, 1885, page 11 (¶¶ 2, 3), on “The ‘Little Flock’ and the ‘Great Company’”, as follows:

“All these start on the same narrow way, and being fully consecrated to God are begotten of the Spirit through the word of truth. Hence all are ‘new creatures’—spiritual—their old nature (the human) being doomed to certain destruction by their own free will and covenant. . . . Only a minority of all who in good faith make the consecration, run with patience to the end—in all only a ‘little flock’. With many, courage begins to fall, and they need to be spurred onward by the chastening rod of him who has become our surety (Heb. 7:22) to guarantee that we fulfill our covenant, though our own efforts should fail; otherwise, the end of such must be death. In love, therefore, special afflictions are sent upon the consecrated, when needed, to wean the affections from earthly things, and to draw the heart again into closer sympathy and communion with God in fulfillment of its covenant of sacrifice. A few only run patiently in the way of sacrifice, rejoicing at the privilege of winning so great a prize at such small comparative cost.”