darkness; but it was not till 1936 that that fearful darkness suddenly overwhelmed me in a train on my way to a Convention, and never lifted till 1943, when equally suddenly I saw the small light which had been promised in the prophecies, and again spoke in tongues and magnified God, and slowly emerged into full light again. The time lapse had caused me to forget and misunderstand.

(D) Finally, at times blessings promised through a prophet do not come to pass, because sin or unbelief have come in, as in the case of Israel's passage into Canaan, which was put off until the unbelievers had perished in the wilderness, or the tragic defeat at Ai in spite of God's promise that none should withstand them, a defeat which mightily upset Joshua, and caused him to reproach God! At that time The Lord made it plain that where there was sin He would not perform His word. One sinful family is enough to bring a whole nation or an entire Assembly to disaster!

Some have drawn a distinction between the prophets mentioned in Eph. 4, and those of 1 Cor. 12‑14, as if the former were a special class of greater dignity. But there is nothing in the original language to uphold this distinction. On the contrary it is the so-called lesser prophets of 1 Cor. who are placed directly after Apostles, as in 1 Cor. 12:28 and Eph. 4:11. There are of course differences between prophets both in Old and New Testaments, but that is not a difference of essence but of degree. Some prophets have the faith to utter words from God from which the others would shrink. A few years ago a sister from U.S.A. was the speaker at a Kingsway morning Convention Service. The Meeting was very hard and dry; but