“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” -Matthew 24:40-42.

“I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.” -Luke 17:34-37.

The Lord, through the Prophet, informs us that though the Millennial morning draws near, a night also approaches.-Isaiah 21:12. It will be a night of trouble in the forepart of which the saints will be gathered out of Babylon. The “bed” here, in harmony with Isaiah’s use of that word-Isaiah 28:20, may be interpreted to symbolize human creeds which are long enough for “babes” in Christ, but too short for a developed “man” to stretch himself in it. This is true of the various “doctrines of men,” substituted for but very different from the doctrines of God’s Word whose lengths and breadths surpass human knowledge. For instance, the doctrine of Election, as taught by our Calvinist friends is a quite sufficient “bed” to rest many who are only “babes” in Christ, whose senses have never been much exercised; but as in the light of present day knowledge the babes get awake and grow in grace and knowledge, they will all surely find the creed-bed too short for comfort, and as each attempts to wrap himself in the promises of God narrowed by an erroneous theology, he cannot satisfactorily cover himself: doubts creep in to chill him with fear that after all he is not certain that he and all his friends are of the “elect,” and by and by such developed Christians find it a relief to get out of such a predicament; and to such God generally sends the light of present truth to guide them to a “large place” of true rest supplied with abundant coverings for all who seek to know and to do the Father’s will. Others, however, the vast majority, remain quite satisfied and comfortable in their various little cribs, because they are “babes” and not “men” in Christian knowledge and experience. “One shall be taken and the other left.”

“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left.”

“The field is the world,” our Lord explained; and in this discourse it represents a condition outside the nominal “house,” -outside Babylon. Thus we are taught that not all “come-outers” will be “gathered,” but that the “jewels” will be sought wherever they may be-“the Lord knoweth them that are his,” and in this harvest gathering he is making up his jewels, – gathering his “elect,” to be joint-heirs in his Kingdom.

“Two shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken and the other left.”

A mill is a place where food is prepared: the ministers and theological schools do the grinding of the spiritual food for “Babylon,” and turn out very poor grist-not “clean provender.” The complaint is a growing one that the food supplied is largely husks and chaff, which will not sustain spiritual life and strength: and each grinder is obliged to prepare what is given him by his own denomination, and he cannot hold his position and yet provide the “meat in due season,” “clean provender,” for the household of faith. Hence “present truth” gathers some of the grinders and leaves others-one is taken and another left. Those who are loyal to God and to his flock will be taken; all others will be left. While the world and the nominal church declare this to be a time of union and “confederacy,” God declares it to be a time of separating. -Isaiah 8:12.

“And they (the disciples) answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? (Where will these be taken?) And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body (the carcass, the food) is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.”-Luke 17:37; Matthew 24:28.

The lesson is that in that day, when the Lord is gathering his “elect” from the four winds of heaven-from every quarter of the Church-he will attract them as eagles are attracted, by food, for which they have a keenness of vision and appetite; that in due time the Lord would provide the proper food, and his true people would recognize it and be gathered to it;–the ready and worthy taken and the others left.

The food of “present truth” now provided by our Lord, and the gathering of his saints by and to it, fits the description of this prophecy exactly. The present call is not out of one “mill” into another “mill,” nor out of one “bed” into another of about the same size. It is not the gathering by one man or many men, to him or to them, into a new denomination; but a gathering together unto Christ himself, the true and only Master and Teacher. Where and when before was there ever such a public recognition of all who trust in the precious blood of Christ and who are consecrated to him, as the one household of faith-all brethren-and the one and only Lawgiver Christ, regardless of human creeds and dogmas upon other subjects? Never and nowhere since the days of the apostles, so far as we may judge.

Moreover, it is worthy of note that great human ability, oratory, etc., have been notably connected with other movements, but not with this present gathering to the Lord. Here the truth, the spiritual food which the Lord is supplying, is the whole attraction: human flourish and oratory find little room for exercise here; they are lacking but are not missed. The gathered and gathering ones come together because they “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” They are finding the satisfying portion which the Lord himself has provided; and each for himself is eating thereof. D 608-611 (1897)