“But the marvelous thing the Prophet here has to record is that a Man‐ child is to be born out of Zion before this travail comes. This is a striking reference to the fact, elsewhere clearly taught, that the ripe wheat of the Gospel Church is to be separated from the tares, that they are to be exalted and glorified before the burning, the consuming trouble, shall come upon the latter. This Man‐child is, therefore, the Little Flock—the true Zion in God’s estimation, the Body of Christ; as it is written. ‘There shall come out of Zion [the nominal Gospel Church] the Deliverer [The Christ, Head and Body], and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob [the Fleshly Israel, or Zion].’ (Rom. 11:26.) This is the Man‐ child that is to bless all the families of the earth. (Gen. 28:14; Gal. 3:16, 29.) The birth of the Man‐child is the First Resurrection. Blessed and holy are all they that have part in the First Resurrection. Such are now begotten of God by the Word of Truth, and quickened by the Holy Spirit (Jas. 1:18; Eph. 2:1; Rom. 8:11), and in due time—before the travail—they will be born in the glorious likeness of Christ. The birth of this Man‐ child began over eighteen hundred years ago with the resurrection of Christ Jesus. There the Head of this Body of Christ came forth; and as surely as the Head has been born, so surely shall the Body come forth. ‘Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb? saith thy God.’ (Isa. 66:9.) Ah, no! ‘the Man‐child, The Christ complete, the Great Deliverer, shall come forth.’ ”—Z. ’94‐135.
“But,” says one, “where is the fiery chariot that is to accomplish a cleavage between the Elijah and Elisha classes?” We offer the suggestion that the fiery horses are lurid prophecies; the horsemen are Ezekiel and John, and the chariot is the vehicle in which their Message is brought to the Elijah class. And do the Elijah class take to that vehicle? They _do_. And why? Because “the sheep follow Him; for they know His voice.” (John 10:4.) The separation between the Elijah and Elisha classes will be brought about in a perfectly natural way, by some using the chariot which the Lord provides, and others recognizing it, but not attempting to use it to mount to the skies. And what should we expect such a fiery chariot would do when caught up into the heavens? The answer is prophetic, “The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved;” “The heavens shall pass away with a great noise;” “And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig‐tree.” (2 Pet. 3:12, 10; Isa. 34:4.) Evidently the circulation of the penny will have something to do with the burning of the tares!—Matt. 13:40‐43; Isa. 21:9.