Bible Students Monthly, March 1914

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International Bible Students Association, Publishers. ।

Vol. VI.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

No. 3.

Religious and Scientific Gleanings.

BRYAN ON THE BIBLE.

“Judged by human standards man is far better prepared to write a Bible now than when our Bible was written. The characters whose words and deeds are recorded in the Bible were members of a single race; they lived among the hills of Palestine in a territory scarcely larger than one of our counties. They did not have printing presses and they lacked the learning of our schools; they had not great libraries to consult, no steamboats to carry them around the world and make them acquainted with the various centers of civilization; they had no telegraph wires to bring them news from the ends of the earth and no newspapers to spread before them each morning the doings of the day before. From what a scantily supplied storehouse of knowledge they had to draw, compared with the unlimited wealth of information at man’s command today! And yet, these Bible characters grapple with every problem that confronts mankind from the creation of the world to eternal life beyond the grave.

“None but divinely appointed men, with their limited opportunities and facilities and the lack of knowledge of other people, could have written a work that all the philosophers of the world today, with millions of books to cultivate their minds and telegraph wires that keep them in touch with the pulse of all mankind, could not approach in logic, reasoning, example and precept.”—William J. Bryan.

HEART AND STOMACH WORK IN GLASS JARS.

A iheart, stomach and kidneys, transferred from the casement of flesh to glass jars in his laboratory by Dr. Alexis Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute, are now performing their normal functions. This startling announcement was made by Dr. Carrel himself to a group of scientists who listened breathlessly to his account of his latest achievement.

Dr. Carrel has kept a heart, taken from its body, alive for 104 days. Uis success with this experiment strengthened his belief, he said, that the stomach and other vital organs of animals could be transferred from one body to another without cessation of their normal functions. He experimented with a heart, stomach and kidneys and told the scientists :

“The heart is beating, the stomach, is digesting and the kidneys performing their functions as well as ever, while, the body that contained them is long since dead.”—New York American.

BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON.

At an inter-denominational meeting in New York City recently, the Rev. Charles Jefferson gave expression to these fitting words:

“In every capital of Europe you see the gleam of the bayonet and hear the tramp of armed men getting, ready for the battle that is coming,” said Dr. Jefferson. Tn the air you see a fleet of ehips in which men are practising with bombs that they may send cities to destruction.

“We preachers have not done much, but we must do something. We can denounce the present system of maintaining great engines of war. We can insist that pur diplomats be men of peace. \>e can insist that our government work for peace. We ought to make the idea of war incredible. When we cease believing in war we will have peace.”

Scientists of Denver are making a study of the three-year-old son of an Italian washerwoman and a Spanish laborer. The boy is regarded as an infant prodigy. He not only knows his alphabet and can write it. but speaks English, Italian and Spanish. lie sings ■remarkably well, dances and plays on four stringed instruments. The physicians declare that the child is normal, but possesses the most wonderful intelligence they have ever encountered in one so young.

THE CHIEF CAUSE

OF^CRIMINALITY.

“I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”—Psalm

DIAGNOSIS is valuable in the attempted cure of any malady. This is as true of sin-sickness, depravity, as of any other ailment of humanity. The better we understand the origin of sin and the methods of its operation in ourselves and in others, the more successful we shall be in combating it. We must know what helps to feed the ailment and what tends to destroy it.

Our forefathers erred, evidently, in their declaration of total depravity. None of us ever met a human being entirely depraved—entirely devoid of sympathy for righteousness and truth— dead to all good influences. Experience, however, does corroborate the Bible statement that “there is none righteous, no, not one”—all are sinners. Moreover, the Bible goes to the root of the matter; and experience corroborates its statement in our text—that we and all humanity were born in a state of sin, with the predilection or inclination toward sin.

We are not, however, to conclude that God made us sinners; for the Bible contradicts this thought, and assures us that “all His work is perfect.” According to the Bible, we received our lives from our parents; and they theirs from their parents; and so on back to Father Adam. The Bible tells us that our first parents sinned, and came under the Divine sentence of death; and that this meant mental and moral, as well as physical, degeneracy. The Apostle declares, “By one man’s disobedience sin entered into the world, and death by sin.”—Romans 5:12.

This curse of death which came upon the race, and which affects us from the moment of birth, is a terrible blight. Even though it is much more reasonable than the curse declared by our mistaken creeds—the curse of eternal torment— nevertheless the curse of God is sufficiently terrible, and world-wide. The penalty, “Dying, thou shalt die,” is, however, much less horrible than if it had read, “Living, thou shalt live in eternal torment.”

When, therefore, we find in ourselves and others wayward, sinful tendencies, we reflect that these are evidences of the fall, the curse, and that all who are under such influences are to be pitied. True pity, however, must not be in sympathy with sin, but with the sinner, who is handicapped by the predisposition to sin. Sin calls for radical measures for its extermination for the release of the sinner; but our best efforts for them and for others will be attained through a knowledge of the facts, and through the exercise of proper sympathy. There are probably more people injured through lack of sympathetic help than are helped by the administration of cold-blooded justice without tenderness or sympathy. We have been slow to learn this lesson.

Parental Sympathy Needed.

Undoubtedly as human sympathy expands through a knowledge of the facts, both parents and children will be blessed by that increase of knowledge. Parents need to learn that their own mental moods and sympathies with right or wrong serve to stamp, to birth-mark their children, either favorably or unfavorably. The parents of a vicious child should reflect that they had much to do with that viciousness. Properly informed and right-willed, they might have produced the child with a much more favorable organism. It requires a great deal of training to work out of the child’s disposition that which was inbred at its birth. Indeed, the probability is that only a small portion of it will ever be eradicated in this life.

We are not forgetting the Scripture ■which says, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” We remember this, and merely suggest that the imperfect sinner-child, shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, may have more or less of sinful disposition. We are suggesting tnat a weighty responsibility

rests upon parents in respect to the prenatal influences exercised, as well as to their parental obligations after their children are born.

With what care, what loyalty to God and righteousness, what desire to maintain purity of heart and loveliness of character, the procreative powers should be exercised ! With what care the father should surround the mother with every good influence helpful to her mental serenity, joy, peace, justice, reverence, love, during tae period of gestation ’ What noble characters might thus be born into the world, even though still imperfect, sin-stained ! What a different world in many respects we might be living in to-day if parents had recognized these principles and felt their responsibilities and lived up to them I Thank God, death does not end all I and the lessors now being learned through disappointments and tears will, we believe, in many instances prove profitable in the great Hereafter.

“Brethren What Shall We Do?”

This was the question asked of the Apostle Peter by those who heard him preach and learned that we were sinners under condemnation. We should discern that the question is not, What shall we do to escape damnation, or condemnation? We were born in damnation, condemned to death as unworthy of life. The Divine decree is that no sinner may have everlasting life. It is a gift of God, designed, m t for sinners, but for those who are perfect, sinless. Adam was condemned to death as soon as he became a transgressor; and all of his children were born in the same condemned condition. Condemnation passed upon all men because all are sinners. All are imperfect, fallen. Our text tells us that they were born in this fallen, disapproved or condemned condition.

The question ■with us, then, is not, What shall we do to escape coming under condemnation? for the whole world is condemned already. (John 3:18.) The question is, How shall we, who are already condemned of God as unworthy of everlasting life, get free from that condition in which we were born and get back into that .condition of perfection which God will approve, in which we shall be accounted worthy of everlasting life?

The Bible answers our question. It tells us that God has had compassion upon our race and has provided the Savior. It explains that for God to be just and yet grant forgiveness to the sinner requires that One shall pay substi-tutionally the penalty originally pronounced against Father Adam. This being effected, the Redeemer will have the right to restore to perfection Adam and all his posterity desirous of returning to God.

The Message respecting this merciful arrangement is called the Gospel—the Good Tidings that there is a way of return from sin to holiness and from condemnation to death back to justification of life.

“Times of Restitution.”

As wTe have seen, the thing needful for all who desire to return to God’s favor is that they may be restored to that condition of physical perfection in w’hich Adam was before he sinned. When thus restored, they will have the same opportunity of demonstrating loyalty to God that Adam had at first. If they, when recovered, stand the tests of loyalty and obedience, they shall receive God’s gift of everlasting life. And they shall receive it through Jesus Oh ri st; for the way was opened up by His sacrificial death, “the Just for the unjust,” and their salvation accomplished by His work of Restitution.—1 Peter 3 :18.

_ Not until recently have Bible students discerned how far our forefathers have been confused in respect to the Divine Plan—through neglect of the Bible for 1,400 years. They now see that Jesus

and the Apostles and Prophets taught that God’s great time for dealing with the world is yet future—under Messiah’s Kingdom. The thousand years in which that Kingdom shall rule the world, restraining sin, chastising sinners and helping the willing and obedient back to perfection, is called by St. Peter “Times of Restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by all His holy Prophets.”—Aeta 3:21.

The restitutionary work of those thousand years will be accomplished by the power of Messiah’s Kingdom, and the Elect Church of this Gospel Age will be associated with the Redeemer in His Throne and in the great work of restoring the obedient of mankind to perfection. This thousand years is also called the time of the world’s resurrection or raising up—anastasis. Bible students now discern that the word resurrection in the Greek signifies more than merely the awakening from death. It signifies the lifting up of the individuals to human perfection—to that which was lost by Adam and redeemed by Jesus’ death.

During those Times of Restitution Satan is to be bound, that he may no longer deceive humanity as he has been doing with false doctrines, putting light for darkness and darkness for light. On the contrary, the time when he, the Prince of Darkness, is cast down from influence amongst men will be the time when Christ and His Bride, the Church, will become the Sun of Righteousness to the world and scatter all its ignorance ami superstition. (Matthew 13 :43.) Respecting that time the Bible assures us that all the sin-blinded eyes shall be opened, and all the sin-deaf ears shall be unstopped, and the true Message of God’s Love shall be made known, and “the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall fill the whole earth.”

God’s Dealing with the Church.

God has a special plan and a special salvation for the Church. He desires that the Church shall consist of a very special class. He has issued a special call therefor, and has prescribed special terms or conditions for members of this class.

All who will be accepted as members of the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife, must have the same spirit, mind or disposition that Jesus had. Did He delight to do the Father’s will? So must th.se. Was He willing to be obedient to the Father’s will to the extent of sacrificing earthly pleasures and advantages? and to the extent of death? So must His followers walk in His steps, as He has set them an example,. looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith. The invitation to those is that if they suffer with Christ they may also reign with Him, share His nature and glory and honor. They are advised from the first that the footsteps of Jesus are the way of the Cross.

These disciples of Jesus in the present Age are figuratively styled “soldiers of the Cross,” and Jesus is declared to be the Captain of their salvation, leading them through victories to glory. Their battle in some respects is the same as the world .will have in the next Age, only more intense, more concentrated. The world will have a thousand years in wiiich to fight and win. The battle of the Church as a whole is more than eighteen centuries long; but each individual share is much shorter. The coming Age. will be the world’s time for gaining a victory and escaping from the condemnation, the imperfection, that came upon ail the race through Adam’s sin.

Children of Wrath as Others.

We are not to think of those whom God accepts as the Church as being different by nature from the remainder of mankind. On the contrary, we are particularly informed that we were born “children of wrath, even as others.” But this special class get free from the condemnation, or damnation, that came upon the race through Adam in a different way from that of the world in the next Age. They first exercise faith in God’s promises and in Jesus as the Redeemer. They realize by faith that the merit of His death is the basis of deliverance from the damnation, or condemnatioh, passed upon all and of reconciliation with God

{Continued on page 2.)

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PUBLISHED AT 13-17 HICKS ST.. BROOKLYN, N. Y. c. VV. HEK, Editor.

Monthly—12 cts. a year. Single copies, lc.

An Independent, Unsectarian Heli Mions Newspaper, Specially Devoted to the Forwarding of the Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement for the Glory of God and Good of Humanity.

PREPARING TO RESTORE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON.

The Jews are preparing to restore the temple of Solomon. The whole world is being stirred by a startling movement of the Jews toward their homeland. Ten years ago there were only 1,000 Jews in. tne c.ty of Jerusalem; there are now 100,000. More than 200,000 Jews are found in the colonies recently established in Palestine. These are proving success-lul; good crops are being raised.

More than $20,000,000 is being invested in railroads. With.n the next few months Jerusalem will have become a city of electricity; rails are being laid for electric cars. The Jews have $5,000,000 in a Jerusalem bank. They have purchased a large amount of land.

Until forty years ago the land of Palestine was arid. There were few inhabitants. There is a prophecy which reads, “In the last days I will pour out upon you again the latter rains.” Ram has come in abundance in tiie last few years; Palestine again blossoms; 10,000 olive trees have been planted in Samaria.

It is believed that Jerusalem will become as of old the market-place of the Orient, and that Palestine will again “flow with milk and honey.”—Philadelphia Evening Times.

"SEA AND WAVES ROARING.”

“One of the greatest demonstrations in the history of organized labor was held recently in Hyde Park, London. Fifty thousuand sympathizers rallied in support of the nine labor leaders deported from Africa, while the merely curious swelled the crowd to more than 106,000.

“It was a scene of the utmost picturesqueness and impressiveness as, with splendid teamwork, the deported nine rose simultaneously on their respective platforms and a thousand brightly colored banners were raised aloft and shaken, as if in defiance of Botha and the South African Government, while the huge assemblage sang ‘The Red Flag’ and gave the exiles a tremendous welcome.

“Commenting upon the Hyde Park demonstration, The Daily Neivs says: ‘It is certain that none of the political parties has any idea of the magnitude of the storm brewing. This is not an ordinary labor agitation. What the man in the crowd feels, perhaps, rather than thinks or says, is that in their dealings with the deported nine Gen. Smuts and his colleagues struck a blow, not at trades unionism only, but .at the very heart of civilized democracy.

“ ‘The popular instinct is right, as it is apt to be on these matters of life and death. It remains to be seen whether it has the steadiness to make its irresistible weight felt or whether it will dissipate itself for lack of direction, in futile, inarticulate mutterings.’ ”—New

'York

An tains eggs, fill a

Times.

THIS IS MAN.

average man of 150 pounds c.on-the constituents found in 1,200 There is enough gas in him to gasometer of 3,649 cubic feet. He

contains enough iron to make four ten-penny nails. Elis fat would make 75 candles and a good-sized cake of soap. Elis phosphate contents would make 8,064 boxes of matches. There is enough hydrogen in him in combination to fill a balloon and carry him above the clouds. The remaining constituents of a man would yield, if utilized, six teaspoonfuls of salt, a bowl of sugar and ten gallons of water.

22% pounds of blood every minute.

24 hours the heart pumps 16 tons.

In It

A man has 500 muscles, 1,000,000,000 cells, 200 different bones, four gallons of •blood, several hundred feet of arteries and veins, more, than 25 feet of intestines and millions of pores. His heart weighs from 8 to 12 ounces, its capacity from 4 to 6 ounces in each ventricle, and its size is 5 by 3% by 2% inches. It is a hollow, muscular organ, and pumps beats about 72 times a minute. In one year an average man’s heart pumps 11,-680,000 pounds of blood. The heart is a willing slave, but it sometimes strikes-— and it always wins.—Practical Druggist.

& What Say the Scriptures About SHEOL—HADES—HELL?

A very interesting pamphlet, ex- Nx 4$ plaining every verse in the Bible in yl & which the word Hell is found, will X tQ be sent on postal-card request, free. zZ

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& Broeklyn, N. Y. Vatican 1209, and the Alexandrian. the body, while the soul continues to live,

People of God are to so hunger the Scriptures expressly state more than

Address, Bible & Tract Society,

(Continued from 1st page, 4th column.) and restitution to perfection and attainment of everlasting life.

The Kingdom of Messiah, through which these blessings are to be extended to mankind, having not yet been established, these believers cannot get these blessings. However, to them comes a special message or invitation to become

members of the Kingdom class—“heirs of God and joint-heirs ’ ith Jesus Ghrist” their Lord; “if so be that they will suffer with Him, that they may be also glorified together” and share the Kingdom.—Romans 8:17; 2 Timothy 2:12.

Charmed with the prospect, these are not daunted by the trials and difficulties of the way, especially when they hear the Redeemer’s Word encouraging them, saying, “Fear not, I have overcome the

world.” “Greater is He that is on your part than all they that be against you.” “x\Iy strength is made perfect in your weakness.” “All things shall work together for good to them that love God— to the called according to His purpose.”

Thus encouraged, these believers make a full consecration of themselves to God and His service, realizing and confessing their own imperfection and insufficiency, and pledging themselves to fight a good fight against sin in every form under the captaincy of Jesus. Jesus becomes the Advocate of all who come unto the Father through Him during this Age. He supplements their sacrifice in such a manner as to make it perfect—holy and acceptable to God. ( Romans 12 :1.) They give their wills, and resign all earthly interests and rights. He adds to their sacrifice all those Restitution qualities which would be theirs in due time under the Kingdom. Thus they stand complete in Him.

When the Father accepts these by the begetting of His Holy Spirit they become His children, His saints, “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Ghrist” to “the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, reserved in Heaven” for them.— 1 Peter 1:3, 5.

'In due time Christ died for

WHY JESUS DIED FOR SINNERS

WEILE the Bible everywhere declares the importance of the death of Jesus, Christian people in recent times seem to be perplexed upon the subject. Some dispute the Bible statement of the necessity for Jesus’ death, and claim that His life was no different from that of other men, and His death was no different from that of others. Some claim that Jesus came into the world, and passed through various trying experiences, not in order to redeem mankind from anything, but in order to show His followers how they should live and die for a good cause. Others in bewilderment declare that they see no relationship between Jesus’ death and what they have been taught is the penalty for sin; namely, eternal torment.

In general, there is confusion upon the subject, and only those who get the proper Scriptural focus on the question of why •Christ died can be mentally at rest, and able to enter sympathetically into the various features of the great Plan of God, of which the death of Jesus for human redemption is a part.

We protest against the too common, practise of accepting a portion of the Bible, and rejecting the remainder. Any1 man wise enough to criticise the inspired Word should be accepted as an inspired authority capable of writing a better istatement of the Divine Plan. For our part, we believe that the Holy Scriptures, as St. Paul declares, were written aforetime by holy men for the admonition of the Church. We believe that this was

done because God wished His people to understand His Divine purposes and arrangements, and sympathetically to enjoy ■them and co-operate in their fulfilment. We should hold fast “the faith once delivered to the saints,” and should not ■allow our own wisdom or the wisdom of ■other men to make the Word of God of pone effect. We remind our readers how Jesus reproved the Pharisees for neglect of God’s Word and for taking instead of it the traditions of men.—Mark 7 :6-8.

However, our English Bible does not profess to be the Word of God, but merely a translation of it. If, therefore, we find some passages of Scripture which h:ive been mistranslated, and thus misrepresent the original Scriptures, we should make haste to correct these, and to admit that the translations were not in

spired. Additionally, we remind that all old manuscripts show that during the long period of eighteen centuries errors crept in—additions to the words of Jesus and the Apostles. At the time of the preparation of our Common Version English Bible the number- of Greek manuscripts was only seven, whereas now there are several hundreds. Three of them in

THE CHIEF CAUSE OF CRIMINALITY.

Then the Fight Begins.

Every battle against sin is a good fight —whether it be tne battling of t-he world during the Times of Restitution or the battling of the Church during this Age. But because God designs to give the Church a higher nature, a greater salvation, therefore He requires of every member of it a special demonstration of love and loyalty. And who will say that this is not a reasonable requirement of these p sons ?

These spirit-begotten sons are all alike in the sense that they have one mind, one spirit, one disposition—the Spirit of Christ, the spirit of holiness, the spirit of loyalty to God. But these are all distinctly different as respects their flesh. All are imperfect, but some more and some less so. Some are more and some less educated; some more and some less wise ; some more and some less talented. But the tests are all under Divine supervision. The Lord sees to it that each shall be thoroughly tested. Each must have trials, difficulties, besetments, from the world, the Adversary and his own flesh. Each must personally demonstrate his loyalty to the principles for which Christ died—the principles of righteousness.

The chief lessons for all of 'these sons of God to learn are:

(1) Faith in God—full trust in Him and His providences.

(2) Loyalty to Him—to the principles of Elis Government, and to all those whom He has accepted as sons.

(3) They must all possess in large degree God’s own Spirit of love, kindness, gentleness and mercy, as well as of the Truth.

They will not, however, be judged holy according to the flesh. Rather, judgment, or decision, in their cases will be rendered according to the spirit, the intention, the will. They will be rewarded for what they have endeavored to do and have striven to do in harmony with the Divine will rather than according to the success they have attained.

the ungodly.”—Romans 5 : 6.

and thirst for their Heavenly Father’s words that they will spare no pains to know exactly what Ele said to them and what He did not say, and to base their faith upon the living Word, which surely will abide forever. So doing, the Bible (becomes more beautiful and more reverenced by Bible students every day.

There is no dispute among the various orthodox creeds that there was a penalty against mankind which needed to be met, before the Divine blessing could come to any of our race. These creeds all agree that Adam, the father of the race, was created perfect, in the image, in the moral likeness, of his Maker, but that he sinned, and came under a penalty, or ... Y?

curse, on account of sin. Hence all of F A^ge .g(peral work

•his race, inheriting life from him, shared ^t his weaknesses and his condemnation to death.

God, having sentenced man to death as unworthy of life, could not consistently have any dealings with him, while still condemned. Hence God’s provision that Jesus as the Son of God should recover Adam and his race from the sentence of death—in order that all might have an opportunity to return to harmony with •God, and thus to everlasting life.

This is clearly set forth in both the Old Testament and the New. If we would forget our creeds and rid our minds of the false theories which they inculcate, these Scriptures would now guide us without difficulty. Christendom is handicapped by the creeds of the Dark Ages, which confuse us. On this subject, for instance, of Christ’s redeeming work, we are met with the proposition of the creeds that the curse of God against our race is eternal torture in some far-off place, we know not where—possibly within the earth.

‘The misconceptions of our forefathers on the subject of punishment for sin were built upon mistranslations or statements meant to be understod symbolically. For instance, we read of our Lord, “He opened His mouth in parables and dark sayings.” When our Lord illustrated the •utter destruction of the finally incorrigible by the destruction of the offal of Jerusalem, cast into the Gehenna fire outside of the city wall, it was not torment that He taught, but annihilation. Nothing was tormented in the fire of the valley of Hinnom. In the Book of Revelation, wholly symbolical, the plain statement is made that the lake of fire represents the Second Death.

"The Wages of Sin Is Death.”

Most emphatically the Bible declares the wages of sin to be death—not tor-once that the death of the soul is meant. “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” “God is able to destroy both soul and body” in Gehenna, the Second Death. The penalty against Adam, “Dying, thou Shalt die,” signifies the death of his soul, ins entire being. Under that sentence, unless redeemed, Adam and his race would have no future life.

But God from the very beginning purposed to redeem man from this death sentence. In due time He sent forth His Son to pay man’s redemption price. Jesus’ redemptive work will restore man’s soul from the power of the tomb, by a resurrection of the dead. Therefore, even before Jesus had died for our sins, He said, to some of the people, “Fear not them which can kill the body,” and thus take from you all that remains of the present Adamic life. Fear God, with whom are the issues of the future life, for Ele is able to destroy not merely the temporary life of the present time, but also your prospective life, which He purposes to secure for you through the Redeemer's sacrifice, and by the resurrection from the dead.

We se(\ then, that God rested every feature of Elis Plan for mankind upon the great work which from the beginning He intended Jesus should accomplish for our race. St. Paul expresses this in a few words, saying, “As by a man came death [not eternal torment], by a man also comes the resurrection of the dead. •For as all in Adam die, even so all in Christ shall be made alive, every man in his own order.” The first order, or resurrection, is that of The Christ, Head and Body, to glory, honor, immortality, on the Divine plane of being. Search carefully' the Old Testament Scriptures— ■every word of God through Moses and the 'Prophets—and we find not a hint of any other penalty for sin than this death penalty.

What the Death Penalty Includes.

Many fail to grasp the full import of the death penalty. It includes not only the final act of dying, but all the steps leading thereto. Had there been no sin and no sin penalty, there would have been no dying process—no aches, no pain, no sighing nor crying, nor dying.

Man lived in Eden as happily as angels live in their Heavenly home on the spirit plane, for he is an earthly being, adapted only to earthly conditions. Besides, had it not been for sin, God would not have permitted the curse, nor brought thorns, thistles, storms, cyclones, drouth and deluges, which in death-dealing power have been permitted to come to man, because he is a convict. He is already under sentence of death.

The favors that God has promised to him through Christ will come in their due season. They will make earth a •Paradise Garden, with nothing to hurt or destroy. The Divine blessing will bring to all mankind the opportunity to return to the image and likeness of God, iand to everlasting life, under the New Covenant.

Another of Our Difficulties.

An additional difficulty under which we labored as 'Bible students in the past is that we confused the special work of

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•the death of Christ, for rolling away the curse of sin and death from mankind applies to the next Age, and not to the present Age. When His due time shall arrive, everything will be in readiness for the great work which He has promised shall be satisfactorily consummated. Divine Wisdom, backed by Divine Power, will establish Messiah’s Kingdom in power and great glory, bind Satan, break the shackles of ignorance, error and sin, and set humanity free from the slavery of sin and death, under which it has rested for six thousand years.

This great work is spoken of in two different ways: (1) It will be a time for overthrowing and breaking down the powers of sin, darkness and evil. (2) It will be a time for uplifting mankind to the original Divine image in which Adam was created.

As the entire reign of sin and death came, through A dam’s disobedience, upon the whole world, so the entire release from the curse will come to every member of the race, through Jesus. The broad basis for this work has already been laid in the death of Jesus. “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3.) Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man. “He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours qnly, but also for the sins of the whole world.”—1 John 2 : 2.

As all the race were involved in the death sentence, the one redemptive work was necessary for the releasing of all. In God’s arrangement He has divided the redeemed into two great classes, both •of which will attain everlasting life. _ But •one class will receive it on the spiritual, or Heavenly, plane, while the other will get it on the earthly plane. This does not signify universalism, for while these two classes are to be saved, the Bible distinctly tells of some who will receive the grace of God in vain, and die the Second Death.—'Revelation 21 :8.

From this viewpoint, note the force of the Apostle’s words: “The wages of sin

ig death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23.) The death sentence passed upon all through one man, Adam. The gift of God is to come to all humanity through the second Adam, the Lord.

The Riches of God’s Grace.

Our Great Creator is rich in grace, the Apostle tells us. Ue not only purposed to recover mankind from the disadvantages of the fall, but additionally took advantage of the circumstances connected with the permission of sin to give an especial opportunity to any of the sinners to manifest, if they would, special loyalty to Himself. God might have placed a different penalty against sin. He might have excluded our first parents from Eden for a year and then have returned them, or He might have simply banished the race from Eden, and have

GOOD SEED IN THE GOOD SOIL.

"Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.”—Matthew 13:18.

T'UE WORDS “hear ye” in our text * have the sense of “understand ye.” The disciples, along with the multitude, had already heard the Parable of the Sower who sowed good seed only, some of which fell by the wayside and was devoured by the fowl; some fell on stony ground and was thrifty for a time, but ■was soon scorched by the sun because of .insufficiency of depth of earth ; some fell on good, rich ground that was infested by thorns, which choked it, and some fell on good ground and brought forth variously, some thirty and some sixty and some a hundred fold.

The disciples wondered why the Lord spoke in parables, which neither they nor the multitude understood, and on this occasion they asked, specially, why this was so, and also to be given an explanation of the parble. Our Lord pointed out that in thus doing He was fulfilling prophecy, and for a purpose. The purpose was that those in the right condition of heart who would earnestly seek might receive the instruction, while others, indifferent, careless, would be left in ignorance.

This method would best serve the Divine Plan, which would be beneficial only to those in the right attitude of heart and might be misused of others, and thus the Divine purposes be interfered with. For instance, if the masses of the Jews had heard, understood, comprehended, our Lord’s teachings, “they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory,” as St. Peter declares ; and since it was a part of the Divine Purpose that our Lord should be crucified, it was expedient that the masses and their rulers should be left in ignorance and that only those whom the Lord is specially calling should be able to understand His teachings.

The same principle holds good today. As the Apostle explains : “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” But as our Lord was willing to explain His parables to Hi consecrated followers so that they might be informed and strengthened and guided by the Wisdom from on high, so the Apostle informs us it is today—that the Spirit-begotten ones of the Lord’s people may, can, must understand the deep things of God to be properly instructed and “thoroughly furnished unto every good word and work.” —2 Timothy 3:17.

Hence, as our Lord said to the disciples, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to all the outsiders these things are spoken in parables and dark sayings, that, seeing, they see not and, hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand.” Similarly the Apostle declares that the natural man, not begotten of the Spirit, cannot know of tlie deep things of God, yet the “little flock” of spirit-begotten ones may know, will know. He declares: “But God has revealed these things unto us by His Spirit, which searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”—1 Cor. 2 :10, 14.

The Word of the Kingdom.

Explaining the parable our Lord declares : “When anyone heareth the vVord of the Kingdom and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside.” Several items here demand attention. First of all, the kind of seed. Next, tlmt was expressly stated that it was “the Word of the Kingdom,” the Gospel of the Kingdom. Apparently very few Christian people have much knowledge of the Kingdom. They have not received the Word of the Kingdom properly. Instead, they receive through the traditions of men the word of eternal torment, the message that nearly all mankind are bound for eternal woe or for a purgatorial experience, which only a very few might hope to escape—the saintly. We should note well that nearly all of the Lord’s parables and leachings related to the Kingdom, for which He taught us to allowed all to live without sentence of death against us. Had He done so, Jesus would net have needed to die for man’s redemption. Because the sentence of death had been imposed, however, it must be canceled before the race could be restored to perfection and to God’s favor.

It is evident, then, that God wished to have the death penalty upon our race, so. as to make necessary the death of His Son. This, in turn, meant that the Father invited the Son to become man’s Redeemer, and that the Son accepted the offer, and came into this world for that very purpose. This implied that the Father would reward Him with a high exaltation, in recognition of His loyalty and obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. Thus Jesus suffered for our sins, and entered into His glory.

pray, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.”

When He sent forth His disciples into every city it was with the Message, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” When the Jews failed to receive Him, He informed them that they were rejecting the Kingdom of God, as had been foretold by the Prophets. And He told them that “the Kingdom should be taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” (Matthew 21:43.) We remember the particular day when the Kingdom was taken from them—just five days before our Lord’s crucifixion, when, riding upon the ass, He declared, “O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would 1 have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye w’ould not.” (Matthew 23:37.) This was the house of Moses, the house of servants. Our Lord gave them the first opportunity to become the sons of God and to be associates with Himself as the Great King, to sit with Him in His Throne and to exercise the foretold Millennial Kingdom-powers for the blessing of all the families of the earth.—Revelation 3 :21.

But they were not worthy as a whole, and hence were rejected as a nation and ceased to be God’s special people for a time. Nevertheless, among them were found a “little flock” of “Israelites indeed,” who were accepted as the nucleus of the Kingdom class. To this nucleus the Lord has been adJng, throughout this Gospel Age, “elect” ones out of all nations ■—chosen and accepted because of their faith, love and obedience. With the completion of this election the present Age will end and the Church of Christ, which has suffered with the Master throughout this Age, will be glorified with Him in the First Resurrection. Then the Kingdom class will be complete and be granted real power and authority for the ruling, blessing and uplifting of mankind out of present degradation, sin and death—by restitution bringing the willing and obedient back to the likeness or God, in which Father Adam was created, and utterly destroying the disobedient in 'the Second Death.—Acts 3 :23.

The word of the Kingdom, therefore, is the Message which has been going forth since our Lord’s First Advent—the information that God has appointed Christ to be the Great King to bless and restore the world and that He is now seeking a “little flock” to be His associates in that work, otherwise sometimes called the “Bride,” the “Lamb’s Wife”—at other times styled “the Royal Priesthood.” This Word or Message has not been generally proclaimed throughout the world until the nineteenth century. For a long time it was mainly confined to the few nations contiguous to Palestine, where the light of the Gospel first went forth. But the Lord purposed that it should be presented to all nations in order that all might be represented in this Kingdom class still being selected. Hence, during the past century He not only awakened a missionary spirit among His people to carry the Ales-sage everywhere, but He provided printing presses and Bible societies and railroads and steamships and mail services that now the Gospel message should be carried to all people. And thus it has peached every nation. It has not converted the nations; it was not so intended. The purpose was to gather out of them a “Little Flock” to be joint-heirs with Christ in the Kingdom.

The Wayside Hearer.

Alas I the wayside hearer represents the vast majority of our race who have no ear to hear the Glorious Alessage as it is now going forth. We blame them not. The Lord blames themmot. It was not their fault, perhaps, that their minds were so downtrodden with ignorance and superstition that the Message of the Kingdom could find no lodgment in their hearts and in their minds. Hearing with the outward ear, the Truth is incomprehensible to them. They were under the

Adversary’s power, too, and he soon caused them to forget what they had heard but not understood. This is his constant policy ; as the Apostle declares, “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.” (2 Corinthians 4:4.) Their minds are closed to the Message that is now going forth.

Thank God I They are not to be sent to eternal torment because they have been thus blinded of the Adversary and unable to receive the Message now promulgated. Praise be to God that after the present Alessage shall have served its purpose in gathering the “elect” for the Kingdom, Satan snail be bound to deceive the poor world no more and the Alessage of God’s grace in Christ will be known to every creature! The Divine assurance is that then all the olind eyes shall be opened and all the deaf ears unstopped.” And “.the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the great deep.” And “there will be no need to say to our neighbor, Know thou the Lord, For all shall know Him, from the least to the greatest.”

Stony Ground Hearers.

There are well-meaning people, “good people,” who are very shallow—well-intentioned, but they have not deep, strong characters. When God’s Truth reaches these they can appreciate it and they receive it with joy and start in the good way with zeal, but they are not the kind that the Lord wants in this special election. He will want them and all during the Millennial Age, but now He is seeking a special class for which these are not fit. Their unfitness is shown by the fact that they are not producing the fruits of the Spirit. Persecution withers them. They are not strong characters. They will be passed by as non-elect; but, thank God, they will not be tortured, but reserved for the Alessianic Reign, when the influences of the Kingdom will be quite sufficient to deal with their case and to give them strength of character and to take away the unfavorable, stony condition which now hinders fruitage!

Good Seed in Thorny Ground.

It requires good soil to produce thorns, but when the good seed was sown upon that soil and both sprang up together, the thorns choked the wheat. It sapped the nourishment of the soil to itself and the wheat was choked. Perhaps all of us have heard these thorns compared to the attractions of the theater, the gaming table, sports, novels, etc.—that these as thorns beset the Christian way and tend to choke the development of the fruits of the Spirit. But is this the proper interpretation? Is it true that the danger of the Christian lies along these lines? It seems to us that there are nominal Christians who might be beset by such matters, but that the higher thought is that the true Christian, begotten of the Holy Spirit, is out of sympathy with such things and that they have no place in his heart.

Thus the Apostle declares of such: “Old things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new,” and “The things that I once hated I now love, and the things that I once loved I now hate.”

A brother in the Lord, who but recently made a full consecration of himself, remarked to us recently: “It seems so strange, Brother Russell, the wonderful change that has come over my life. A year ago I was wildly excited over baseball. It occupied much of my thought, and I always attended the games when possible. This year it has no attraction for me whatever. Instead, God’s wonderful Plan of Salvation captivates my thought, and every spare hour that I can command I wish to be studying it or fellowsnipping with those of like precious faith. Truly with me old things have passed away; all things have become new 1”

Hearkening to our Lord’s explanation we notice that it is in agreement with this thought, that the thorns are not wicked practices, but “cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches.” Ah, yes! the true Christian whose heart has been renewed by the gracious promises of God’s AVord and the hopes of a share in the Kingdom with his Lord is in danger of being swamped by the ordinary duties of life, proper enough in themselves to a limited degree. The Tord’s Word commands him to be not slothful in business

and to make provision for those of his own household, but he is in constant danger of allowing these things to crowd his spiritual interests as a New Creature. Instead of curtailing earthly desires, ambitions, business and family responsibilities, minimizing these that he may have the more time or money, or both, to expend in the Divine service, he is apt to allow the matter to go the other way, to give too great heed to these things and to provide more than “things needful and decent.”

Pride, ambition for self and for family, love of money and tne pursuit of it, and the award which this pursuit brings and the hindrances to spiritual growth and to fruitage in the Lord’s service—these are the “thorns.” Alas, many of God’s true saints are thus injured! These will not be fit for the Kingdom. They will miss the great Prize. They will suffer a great loss, whatever may be the blessings and whatever they may attain to in God’s providence by coming up through great tribulation.

The thorny ground, of course, cannot cast out its own thorns, and herein the parable is defective. The Lord’s explanation shows this, and all Christians are exhorted of the Lord to keep themselves in the love of God, to cast out thorny influences and to bring forth much fruit. If, then, we find that our hearts are infested with the cares of this life and with the pursuit of earthly riches let us at once cast out these thorns that our hearts may bring forth the fruitage in harmony with the intimation of our Master to bring forth the good fruit.

Thirty, Sixty and a Hundred Fold.

Some good-ground hearers will be found. God foreknew this and hence prepared this Gospel Age and all of its sowing for the sake of these wno bring forth good results. Ours will be a blessed condition if we shall have but thirty fold; still more blessed if we bring forth sixty fold; and yet more blessed if the results shall be a hundred fold. While the soil cannot change itself, yet we as New Creatures have the determining of the condition of the soil of our own hearts. The more fully we are submitted to the Divine Will, the more fully we are dead to self and the world, the more abundant will be the crop, the fruitage, which we shall yield to the Alaster’s sowing.

It should be our ambition every day to attain to that condition of fullest harmony with our Lord which will yield the hundred fold results in us, in return for the exceeding great ana precious promises which constitute the Seed. Not alone will the Alaster be best pleased with the largest fruitage, but we ourselves will be most pleased with this result, both in the present time and in the future. The more fully, the more heartily we surrender ourselves to the influences of the good seed of toe Kingdom, the more we allow these Divine promises to work in us to will and to do the heavenly Father's good pleasure, the greater will be dur own satisfaction and joy, both now and by and by.

The Apostle speaks of differences in the future glory of the Church, saying, “As star differeth from star in glory, so also will be the Resurrection of the ■Church.” All of the faithful ones will receive a blessing and hear the Alaster’s “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord.” Nevertheless those who have been most earnest, most zealous, most devoted, and who yield a hundred fold, according to this parable, will shine the most brightly 'In the Kingdom, will be the nearest to the Alaster in His throne.

A similar thought is suggested by our Lord in the Parable of the Pounds; for while all who used their pounds faithfully were welcomed as good and faithful servants and entered into the joys of their Lord, nevertheless the one who had gained the ten pounds got the greatest blessing, as expressed in our Lord’s words, “Have dominion over ten cities.” So then, dear friends, let us realize that every word, every act, every thought, has to do with our present and our future nearness to the Lord. Let us cast out the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, and let us overcome the spirit of the world, the spirit of indifference, and let us be so enthused with the Gospel of the Kingdom that we shall bring forth much fruit. “Herein is your Father glorified.”

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DO FALSE CREEDS

FOSTER CRIME ?

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"If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light

of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is t ie image of God, should shine unto them.”—2 Corinthians 4:3, 4.

WE do not charge our forefathers with evil intent in the making of the creeds. We cheerfully admit that every creed contains an element of Divine Truth. Our contention is that Satan, the great Adversary of God, substituted the creeds for the Bible; and into the creeds, through human weakness, he injected a sufficiency of nonsense and “doctrines of devils” to render them unhealthful for the saints, and absolutely poisonous to others.

The truthfulness of our text is manifest on every hand. The word Gospel signifies the good Message, it was the Message of the angels at the birth of Jesus: "Behold, we bring you (the Gospel) good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people 1” This Gospel of joy and blessing, of Divine Love and Mercy toward our race, is completely hidden from the world. Even matured Christians discern but little of it, because the creeds of human tradition have so misrepresented God and His purposes as to make of them bad tidings—not good tidings.

Hath Blinded Their Minds.

St. Paul, as well as the other Apostles, foretold the falling away of the Church from “the faith once delivered to the saints” ; and he particularly pointed out that this would be me result of giving heed to “seducing spirits” and “doctrines of demons”—the fallen angels. (1 Timothy 4:1; Jude 6.) In a thousand ways, through mediums, planchettes, visions and dreams, etc., these fallen, seducing spirits have intruded their demon doctrines upon the Church of Christ. And the whole purport of tneir evil work seems to be to deceive mankind in respect to God’s real purposes toward them, and His real character.

How wonderfully successful Satan and his fallen ange's, the demons, have been I While persuading men that they were far off, stoking fires for humanity’s future torture, they have really been hobnobbing with ecclesiastics and assisting in misrepresentation of the Bible—especially its parables and symbolic statements. To such an extent is this true that the glory of God manifested in Jesus for human salvation is completely confused and unintelligible to the world.

Unbelievers can reason, and do reason. Those who reside in civilized lands, instructed along the lines of the creeds, inquire, Why did God make us sinners, with depraved appetites and sentence us to eternal torment, and then send Jesus to be the Savior of merely such as become saints, believers in certain doctrines which they themselves call mysterious? Intelligent heathens similarly ask, Why should God. make such a plan as the missionaries relate? Why should He condemn us all to eternal torment and then make provision for only the few who hear of Jesus, and believe the mysteries and monstrous inconsistencies of some of the creeds?

Do not the facts to-day, after eighteen centuries of creed-blinded Christianity, corroborate the Apostle’s statement that the “god of this world,” Satan, “hath blinded the minds of them that believe not?” Otherwise surely the glorious Gospel of Christ, now becoming more and more clear to Bible students, would long ago have shone into many hearts, carrying joy and peace through reconciliation with God.

The statement of our text, “If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,” does not mean that they are lost because they cannot see the Gospel. The Bible distinctly tells us that all of Adam’s race are lost through disobedience. The Apostle evidently means that the masses of the lost world cannot see the Gospel light. It is hidden from them.

1FREE LITERATURE! X

Send postal-card request to the X Editor for free copies of this paper. X Some of the interesting subjects X you may have for asking are: X

Calamities—Why Permitted?

X Creed Idols Smashed!

X Spiritism is Demonism!

X Cardinal Gibbons’ Sermon.

Prince Lucifer of Old Now Prince X X of Demons.

X The Hope of Immortality.

X Do you Believe in the Resurrec-

X tion?

X Most Precious Text.

X Our Lord’s Return.

X Which Is the True Gospel? X X What Is the Soul?

X The Rich Man in Hell.

X Thieves in Paradise.

X T’iie Handwriting on the Wall. X X Purgatory Fires! Not Now, but

X So-on.

Greatest Thing in the Universe.

A T he Sabbath Question.

X The Battle of Armageddon. Only the comparatively few see it, and they only as they are guided by the Holy Spirit and their eyes of understanding open.

We may well thank God that the time in which Satan will be thus privileged to put darkness for light to deceive the world is limited. The Bible prophesies that soon Christ will take His great power. His first work will be the binding of Satan that he may no longer deceive men. And then the Redeemer will begin His great work of blessing mankind, in the thousand years of His appointed reign.

What Prison Statistics Show.

In all modern prisons statistics are kept which show the religious instruction received by the prisoners earlier in life. In almost every instance the prisoners guilty of the most serious offenses were from infancy trained to think of the Almighty as the great Enemy of His creatures, who foreknew and fore-arranged for the eternal torture of all but a handful. Did these creeds better those who confessed them? Did they inspire in the parents of these criminals heart-devotion to God? Nay, in almost every case where the false, horrible creed-idol was worshiped fear prevailed instead of love, bedlam instead of holiness. Is not this the case even to-day in the majority of homes of so-called Christendom?

Foolish Fears, Vain Imaginations.

Little have we realized the toolishness of such reasoning. The influence of the creeds of the Dark Ages has been the very reverse of what has been expected of them. Jian naturally has a reverence for ood. This may be seen in the shape of his head by those who can read phren-ologically. It is seen also in the fact that in heathen lands worship is practised. The true knowledge of God would incline men io come to Him. The highest qualities of their being would find expression in worship, praise, adoration. With the enlightenment of the Bible man would indeed learn that all are sinners, that all come short of that glorious perfection which God originally created and which alone He can approve. Guided by Bible instruction, these would realize that “the wages of sin is death” not eternal torment.—Romans 3:10-12; 6:23.

The desire for life everlasting persists in every creature; and man’s attitude would have been to approach his Creator to ascertain if it would not be possible for nim to return to relationship with God and to regain the gift of life everlasting. Then would have come the answer that no fallen creature is able to recover himself, but that God hag provided through Jesus’ death a recovery.

A Savior Able to Save.

As the repentant one would strive to live up to the Divine standards and find it impossible because of inherited imperfections, he would be drawn to the merciful Father in Heaven, to learn how to attain to the condition which his heart coveted. Then he would hear the answer through the Scriptures that while God has provided for the world in general a. thousand years of Restitution, yet He is willing now to receive a few choice characters, on special terms. These must have their Master’s spirit, a love for righteousness and a hatred for iniquity, a loyalty to God, ready to lay aown life and every other thing in His service.

Such would be inducted by faith into the elect Church, would be begotten of the Holy Spirit, to be trained by trials, difficulties, testings and polishings, and eventually, if faithful, be accorded a Change of nature from earthly to Heavenly, participation with Christ in His great work of blessing and restoring humanity during His thousand-year Reign.

Errors Effect the Opposite

Our wily foe, Satan, well knew all this, and has worked in opposition to it. By hiding from men the true Gospel light, he has driven them in dread away from their best Friend—-Almighty God. From infancy they hoped to escape eternal torture, but as the weaknesses of their fallen nature yielded to the temptations on every hand, they prayed forgiveness. As sins multiplied, doubts and fears gained control, and in dread of God and in fear of the unjust and unmerciful arrangements of 'the future taught them from infancy, they plunged headlong into sin, striving to forget God. Some were led to one excess, some to another— gambling, drunkenness, frivolity, pleasure seeking.

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