Joy to the World

"Joy to the World" was written by Isaac Watts in 1719. He "named" it "The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom." But the world changed the name to infer an advent in a manger.

Watts' song chronicles His second coming, i.e., the "Day of the Lord," the Day he cometh to "Judge the earth," but also the time of perfection and beauty, when "heaven and nature" literally sing "a new song — the joy of heaven and earth.

"Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. The mountains and the hills shall break forth... into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands" (cf. Isa 55:12). 

"Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains" (cf. Isa 49:13). 

"Sing, O... heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout... lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing... mountains, O forest, and every tree therein" (Isa 44:23). 

"Pastures...clothed with flocks; the valleys... covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing" (cf. Psa 65:13). 

"Praise him... heavens of heavens, and... waters that be above the heavens" (cf. Psa 148:4). 

"And they sung "a new song," saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation" (Rev 5:9). 

"The whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God... Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees ... said, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (cf. Luk 19:37-40).

Why did the world transgress the "joy" of "The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom" by replacing it with with the nondescript self edifying "Joy to the World"? 

 Because the "new song" depicts a time that will be "the best of times" for some, but the "the worst of times" for most"!

"Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Mat 7:14)!

  A New Song

Saved? 



By Thalpha (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

©2017 Christian. Textual content may be copied and distributed, but it may not be sold.

A New Song

Since Eden, the world has awaited the fulfillment of the "first" prophecy, and the consummation — when once again the morning stars will sing together, and all the sons of God will shout for joy? (cf. Job 38:4-7).

"I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall crush thy head, and thou shalt crush his heel" (Gen 3:15),

and of "that Day" when the “the Lord reigneth,” and when the final glory of His kingdom echoes in the refrain of "a new song"!

Isaac Watts in 1719 wrote "The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom" ( a paraphrase of that "new song").

The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom

Joy to the world! The Lord is come; ["for he cometh to judge the earth" Psa 96:13]

Let earth receive her King; ["he shall judge the world with righteousness" Psa 96:13]

Let every heart prepare Him room ["ye that go down to the sea, and all... the isles, and the inhabitants" Isa 42:10]

And heaven and nature sing ["Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein" Psa 96:12]

And heaven and nature sing, ["then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice" Psa 96:12]

And heaven and heaven and nature sing, ["the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing Isa 55:12]


Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns; ["O sing unto the LORD a new song; "Psa 98:10]

Let men their songs employ; ["Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth"]

While fields and floods [Let the floods clap their hands: [Psa 98:8]

rocks, hills and plains [let the hills be joyful together Psa 98:8]

Repeat the sounding joy ["Sing unto the LORD ... with the voice of a psalm" Psa 98:5]

Repeat the sounding joy,["Sing unto the LORD with the harp" Psa 98:5]

Repeat, Repeat, the sounding joy. ["and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands" Isa 55:12]


No more let sins and sorrows grow, ["in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life" Gen 3:17]

Nor thorns infest the ground; ["Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee" Gen 3:18]

He comes and make the blessings flow ["her seed shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" Gen 3:15]

Far as the curse is found, ["in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children Gen" 3:16]

Far as the curse is found, ["cursed is the ground for thy sake" Gen 3:17]

Far as, far as the curse is found.


He rules the world with truth and grace, ["he shall judge the world with righteousness, and truth" Psa 96]

And makes the nations prove ["Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth" Psa 98:9]

The glories of His righteousness ["he shall judge the world with righteousness" Psa 96]

And wonders of His love, ["for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood" Rev 5:9]

And wonders of His love, ["out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation" Rev 5:9]

And wonders, and wonders of His love.


"The whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God... Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees ... said, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (cf. Luk 19:37-40).

©2017 Christian. Textual content may be copied and distributed, but it may not be sold.

The Times of the Gentiles

“We will move the American Embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem” was Trump's contingent promise as a presidential candidate.

Many hoped that cold January inauguration day, might hold the fulfillment of that promise, but it came and went without so much as a word. Likewise, the first several months of his presidency. Then in June, he signed a waiver postponing the embassy's relocation. And, during his first trip to Israel as president in this regard, from Trump there was only silence. In October, Trump backpedaled once again, alleging the elusive Israel and Palestine peace process as his first priority.

However, on Dec. 6, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the "the eternal capital of the Jewish people."

Now evangelicals are pondering what it all means, considering the constraints under which Trump made the decision, i.e., being "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind" of anti-Semitism.

 Last year, just before the first day of Chanukah the U.N. Security Council voted — world 14, Israel 0. Yesterday's vote would have been essentially the same, but for "let's make a deal" Trump's vindictive "Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care" referring to U.N. funding as well as U.N. member nation funding cuts.

Trump's recognition of Jerusalem was courageous and commendable. However, Jerusalem will continue as before, to be trodden down of the Gentiles, and peace in that regard will remain an illusion. Says who?

Jesus prophesied what was to come in 70 AD — "they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (cf. Luke 21:24).

This very day, Jerusalem continues to be trodden down of the Gentiles, and will be until the "times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." But when will that be?
The Apostle Paul informs us "that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom 11:25). However, there will be a time when Israel's darkness as a nation will be light.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn" (Zec 12:9-10).

Ever want to know when the LORD'S second coming  will occur? Jesus told the Nation of Israel "exactly" when it will be!

"Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Mat 23:39).

¹By Michael Himbeault (https://www.flickr.com/photos/riebart/4653728769) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHourglass_.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Hourglass_.jpg

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Jerusalem

The United States, in the person of Donald John Trump, on Dec. 6, 2017, was the first nation to recognize Jerusalem as "the eternal capital of the Jewish people." The United Nations voted today in protest.

The United Nations is an institution of "man" not God. Before its New York "Tower of Babel" is a wall with a God usurping misappropriation of the words of Isaiah:

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

The "united nations" conveniently truncated the contextual preface of the complete verse, i.e., "He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people" (cf. Isaiah 2:4).

The Lord will bring this to completion, but not by a "union of nations", and only "after" this proclamation!

"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles [Nations]; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: ... Let the heathen [Nations] be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. [And]...
The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake" (cf. Joel 3:9-16).

¹By Capt. Phœbus (talk) 17:01, 31 October 2007 (UTC) (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AIsaiah_Wall.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Isaiah_Wall.jpg

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Ten Weeks

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Massacre of Mérindol

Massacre of Mérindol, 1545, by Gustave Dore.¹

The leaders in the 1545 massacres were Jean Maynier d'Oppède, ... and Antoine Escalin des Aimars... . 

These... took the villages of Mérindol and Cabrières and also devastated neighbouring Waldensian villages. Historians have estimated that the soldiers killed hundreds to thousands of people. ... In total, they destroyed between 22 and 28 villages. ...

In the aftermath, both Francis I and Pope Paul III approved of the actions taken; the Pope rewarded Maynier with Imperial honours. (Massacre of Mérindol, Wikipedia, last edited on 22 December 2016).






¹By Gustave Dore (1832-1886) (Le Point No1978) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMassacre_of_the_Vaudois_of_Merindol.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Massacre_of_the_Vaudois_of_Merindol.jpg

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The Fingers of God

Marie, 1928.

"A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth" (Ecc 7:1). 

Marie was born just before the winter of 1921, one of eight children in a little house with a table, four chairs, a stove, a single bed and cots that lined the walls. Never enough to eat and always work to do. She carried wood, brought in water, and sometimes even dug with her fingers for the last bits of coal embedded in the cold hard ground. That was her life, but her smile never betrayed it.

Her world was a green meadow all full of flowers bejeweled with the morning dew, the abode of butterflies as evening hastens. Close by a little stream with beautiful blue-green duck eggs in occasional clutches along the grassy banks. Sometimes she would sneak away with some "delicious" book and under a favorite tree spend a few minutes that she wished could stretch into uninterrupted hours. She loved rainy spring nights, as she lay close by her sister under the tin roofed porch they shared.

Marie shared many memories of herself as a small child on a church pew almost ready to topple over; of a mother who told her about Jesus; of Christmas with only a stocking, apple, and orange; of the classmate who, because of her ragged and stained clothes, would not take her hand; of dances and her oldest sister, uncomfortable with walking dark streets alone, compelling her to go, and as her sister danced the night away, little Marie, nowhere to be found, was fast asleep and warm among the coats. 

Of her father awakening her in the coolness of predawn summer mornings, and the two of them with buckets in hand walking down an old railroad track together in search of wild berries; of the cold she and her sister endured on that little porch with only screens and blankets between them and winter; of the secret weapon, the Lord provided late one night as she walked home alone from the corner drug store where she worked, a paper bag that left that someone, who lightly but intentionally brushed her dress in passing, stunned and covered in the chocolate malt intended for her mother.

And she described the bittersweet memory of her older sister Dolly, a little girl so full of joy the neighbors called her "Sunshine." She was always ready to help. When mother ask, she was always the one to go. One day she came home from school all wet and cold and talking strange. "I reached up and touched the fingers of God."

After she went to bed that night, things were never quite the same. Each day she grew more ill. Her desperate mother searched and bought the only doll that little house ever would know. And just before she went to sleep that one last time, my mother remembered her singing "Jingle Bells… Jingle Bells." A short time later all her things were burned, except for the little doll. Her mother put it in a drawer that was never "ever" to be opened! And my mother remembered her mother's scream as that little body was laid to rest along a footpath in a grave without a stone.

Marie grew up, married, and gave us life. I remembered her gathering us together, opening the Bible, and smiling as she read. She loved us, but she knew her love was not enough. We would have to make His love our own.

As the years progressed, time was not kind; her body was contorted with pain, but neither her smile or prayers were abated. She no longer had to remind us that "strength is made perfect in weakness." I moved away, but innumerable letters followed through the years. Each punctuated with purloined thoughts or words of His, and very spring she reminded me.

"The winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land" (Song 2:12).

She commit a little of Scripture to memory each day, to recite or read to shut-ins, those in nursing homes, her children, grandchildren, my father, and whoever else she had opportunity. She continually longed for everyone to share her joy. Her concern for others never faltered, even with labored breath just minutes before her death, she looked at my brother, smiled, and said "it’s time for you to go."

It has been many years since my mother reminisced about that little grave without a stone. That’s when I thought of the small door stop, white and round and exquisitely engraved with the likeness of a dove, a remembrance lost to time — some other sadness, a child, a distant grave. I looked at it, I looked at her, she smiled and within the hour she was leading my brother and I to the place that only she would know. As I knelt and dug and embedded that likeness of a dove on that little unmarked grave, I can still remember her bittersweet smile. Someday I will see them hand in hand running through green meadows all full of flowers, bejeweled with morning dew, the abode of butterflies as evening hastens.

Marie was always listening, and she is listening still for that familiar voice, and the long clear clarion call of the trumpet when all who love Him will stand at attention as the dead come forth to meet Him in the air.

"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1Thessalonians 4: 14-18).

"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1Corinthians 15:51-52).

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God Does Not Play Dice

Max Born¹

A Google Doodle, virtually always a facsimile of some dead person epitomizing the "spirit of this age," recently caught my attention.

Hovering, over the scribble revealed a field to which I once aspired, and a name — physicist "Max Born."
Born's bio reads like the "Who's Who" of the glory days of German theoretical physics. The better known of his affiliates include Werner Heisenberg, Max Planck, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein.



 Although best known for his contribution to the quantum mechanics, Heisenberg, Born's assistant once familiar with quantum phenomena, eclipsed his master by compiling and publishing a theory in 1925 for which he [Heisenberg] was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the creation of quantum mechanics."

In a letter to Born on 4 December 1926, Einstein expressed his reservations:

"Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the 'old one'. I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice."

Einstein, an early founder of quantum theory, did not accept Born's "philosophical" implementation of quantum mechanics that rejected the Newtonian fundamentals of "determinism" and "causality" that underlie essentially every credible scientific theory, with the "once singular" exception of quantum mechanics! Thus, Einstein appropriately reminded Born that God does not play dice!

In 1954, Born was belatedly recognized for "fundamental research" in quantum mechanics. In his Nobel acceptance he "transgressed" the scientific context by presenting a polemic on the ideas of "absolute certitude," "absolute exactness," "final truth," and "belief in a single truth."

"I believe that ideas such as absolute certitude, absolute exactness, final truth, etc. are figments of the imagination which should not be admissible in any field of science. ... This loosening of thinking (Lockerung des Denkens) seems to me to be the greatest blessing which modern science has given to us. For the belief in a single truth and in being the possessor thereof is the root cause of all evil in the world."

Both Einstein and Born knew there was a God, "because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse" (Rom 1:19-20).

Yet, Einstein's restless contemplation of the "subtle, intangible, and inexplicable" caused him to search for Him in all the wrong places, while Born, consistent with Google Doodle, in his Nobel "testimony" essentially declared God "the root cause of all evil in the world."



¹Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=137838

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The Prodigal

That’s my father on the right with a string on his finger taking a selfie. On the left his younger brother David on leave from the Navy. Together again with their sister on that all so familiar farm in Missouri late in November. The “Dust Bowl Days” were past and “Great Depression” over. It had been a wonderful time, that Thanksgiving of 1941. And it was after 2 AM as my father gently triggered the camera shutter. A few hours later, the “prodigal” was once again on his way.

The U.S.S. Oglala, bucking waves under full power, was urgently propelling toward its Pacific destination. It "had" to arrive before the 7th. However, fatigue eventually took its toll on the minelayer, a WW1 converted passenger steamer. Silently adrift, it summoned assistance. After a tow cable was attached and the feverish pace resumed, David commented to his superior: “If we go any faster that cable is ‘gona’ snap.” And “snap” it did!

The U.S.S. Oglala entered Pearl Harbor during the early morning hours of December 7, the last to arrive. It moored “side by side” with the U.S.S. Helena, completing the formation of "Battleship Row."

And as the sun rose on “December 7, 1941,” most of the Oglala crew, including her commanding officer, were still “out on the town.” However, the men in the boiler room, the cook, the second in command, and a few others including David were at their stations. When the sound of revving planes and whistling bombs punctuated the morning tranquility, General Quarters was sounded. The second in command screamed, “Man the Guns”! David screamed back: “What guns”! Someone found the keys, unlocked the magazine, and after some fumbling a 3"/50 cal. A.A. gun and three .30 cal. machine guns were manned and returning fire.

Then as several enemy planes strafed the deck, a buddy standing immediately behind David was struck in the face, then a Zero flying low and amidships, then a torpedo and its contrail as it converged on the Oglala. It would soon be over! The Oglala lifted out of the water, but he was still alive! The submerged munition had gone under the Oglala and struck the Helena on the other side.

They continued firing, reporting some “definite hits.” However, the Oglala’s hull had ruptured and was flooding rapidly. For an hour and a half the meager crew was uninterrupted in returning fire as the Oglala continued to list to her port side. 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°. Then as the commanding officer finally returned, the Oglala listed to its side, and those who could swam away.

Back on a farm in Missouri, a family had but one thought. “Is he alive.” The phone was never unattended. A speaker in the kitchen was connected remotely to the wireless in the library. And as hours turned to days, a mother listened and waited. And during the days before Christmas, sleep was haunted by the sound of “tapping” sailors trapped in the impenetrable hulls of sinking ships….

David remained afloat for the remainder of the war, but in the years that followed, David never forgot that day or his buddy, and the question, "Why him, not me?"

The “prodigal” returned to the soil, married, had children, and as aimless years went by, he was haunted by the question, "Why not me?" Then one night in a small church, down on his 70 year old knees, he found the answer:

“I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son.... And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him…. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found….” (Luke 15:18-24).

Not long ago, his pastor was at the hospital with his wife and son. "Dad, you are the best father a son could ever have." David, gasping for breath from the decadence of earlier years, with effort and in kind responded "you are the best son a father could ever have." And as final exchanges waned, his pastor ask: "David, do you want the service at the church or the funeral home?" Then David with joy and peace and a smile consistent with his latter years shot back: "SURPRISE ME"!

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).

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The Pit

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Center of the World

Martin Behaim's Erdapfel¹

Obama's first phone call to a foreign leader only hours after taking office was to PLO Chairman Abbas to communicate his commitment to the Arab-Israeli “peace” process. His second call was to Israeli PM Olmert. Obama's overriding priority has never vacillated, it has always been the “center of the world” i.e., that tiny little nation approximately the size of New Jersey that is always in news!

As shouts of “Death to Israel” still echoed in the streets of Iran three summers ago, nuclear talks in Vienna concluded with Iran receiving concessions beyond their wildest dreams as documented by photos of the normally reserved diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran) dancing for joy on his balcony.

Secretary John Kerry concluded with a eulogy to the President "who had the courage to launch this process, believe in it, support it, encourage it, when many thought the objective was impossible, and who led the way from the start to the finish." 

A “process” that gave Iran unlimited resources to facilitate Arab-Israeli “peace” by "annihilating" one or both parties in the process.

Today as the world waits with bated breath, one can only wonder who Trump called first today.

"For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.... Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.... No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. (cf. Isaiah 54:5-17).

1© Alexander Franke (Ossiostborn) (via Wikimedia-Commons), 31 March 2006/ Martin Behaims Erdapfel/ This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license.

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The Rats Will Run For Cover!

La Ligue des Rats,  Gustave Doré¹

It was all so familiar, some years ago,  hearing J. Vernon McGee reminisce about growing up on a small southern farm. Of rising early, lighting a lantern, and walking to the barn to tend the livestock. He described opening the door and how the light shown in the darkness. And how the birds in the rafters would begin to sing and how the rats over in the corner would run for cover.

This brings to remembrance a parable our Lord once told, a parable of wheat and tares, and how the “children of the kingdom” and the “children of the wicked one” were to “grow together until the harvest.”

For us this presents a problem, for wheat and tares are indistinguishable for a time. So how are we to know?

The answer is amazingly simple: show forth the light of His Word, and the birds will begin to sing and the rats will run for cover!



Gustave Doré [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALa_Ligue_des_Rats.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/La_Ligue_des_Rats.jpg

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