It will be noticed that the tribes of Dan and Ephraim are omitted from the foregoing list. Dan evidently represents the class that goes into the Second Death. The name signifies “God hath judged me.” (Gen. 30:6.) We know that all God’s judgments are just and look for the reason for Dan’s rejection. Jacob prophesied that it would be Dan “that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.” (Gen. 49:17.) Horses are symbols of doctrines. Dan evidently represents a class tampering with doctrines, resulting in the overthrow of the New Creature. A study of the history of the tribe of Dan confirms this. Originally Dan was given one of the choicest parts of Palestine, one of the most fertile and the most secure. It was completely embraced by its two brother tribes Ephraim and Benjamin, while on the south‐east and south it joined Judah, and was thus surrounded by the three most powerful states of the whole confederacy. The Danites however failed to conquer the land originally assigned to them (representing the failure of the New Creature to gain the victory over the mind of the flesh) and chose another inheritance to the far north (Judges 18:1‐31). This selection of the farthest north resembles Satan’s similar choice (Isa. 14:13) and suggests that the Danite New Creatures were led away from their original inheritance by ambition. The context shows an unreasonably high valuation of their own judgment and a wilful interference with the priestly office, and this we may judge has been a frequent offense of those who commit the great sin that lies just beyond the sin of presumption. (Psa. 19:13; 2 Sam. 6:6, 7.) _THE TEST IS ON_; take heed! take heed! The half tribe of Ephraim represents the Great Company, mainly to be found in the Nominal Church. They are more or less intoxicated with error (Isa. 28:1, 7), they fear to let go of their idols of creeds and catechisms (Hos. 4:17), they are, in a way, half‐baked Christians, not wholly devoted to the Lord—“Ephraim is a cake not turned.” (Hos. 7:8.) From first to last the prophecy of Hosea is eloquent with Jehovah’s pleadings to the Great Company class not to miss the great prize of Immortality. 7:9. After this, I beheld, and lo, a great multitude.—When the Apostle tells us in 2 John 8, “Look to yourselves that ye lose not those things which we have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward,” he is teaching that a Heavenly reward may be gained that is not as full as if a course more pleasing to the Heavenly Father is pursued.