The Newtown bee., 1907-07-26

mako any mistake, but remembes the name Ds Ki1mer's Swa1np-R0o< e ehn AdosuA lt111nAkaaA1ntou N 3~ say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise" You will notice that the thief did not ask Jesus to take him to heaven when he died, but | requested him to remember him when | he came into his kingdom.
 First, let me say that Jesus has not come into his Kingdom yet, neither has paradise been restored. Second. the punctuation of this verse demands at tention. The translators have put the comma after "thee." Punctuation " as introduced by "Manutius," who lived in the 18th and 18th centuries. The scriptures were written originally
 without any pauses, hence any one has a right to punctuate the Bible as the sense may demand.
 If wesput the comma after "to day, all is plain, and makes Jesus give the assurance that day, that according to his request, when he comes in his kingdom, the thief will be with him in paradise.
 Again. we must remember, that after Jesus rose from the dead, he met Mary in the garden, and she advanced toward him, and Jesus said to her, s.Touch me not for have not yet ascended to my Father" But theology teaches that he went to paradise the day he died and took the thief with him. Some will say, how can the account as given in Luke 16 be harmonized
 with the idea that the dead are un- conscious between death and the res I urrection
 Luke l6 is the parable of the "rich man and Lazarus," and for want of space cannot give thorough expla- nation, but will say that Jesus spake this parable against the Jews, the poor man, the Gentiles. The rich man died and was buried, we understand, to represent moral and political condi- tion of the Jewish people. The law is also dead. They have been in torment for l9 hundred hears. The prophecy Of Deut. 28:15-69 has come to them.
 Please read it.
 | Notice that Lazarus was not buried
 but was carried to Abraham's bosom, that is, they were restored to the favor of God. Abraham is 8 representative of God. He had one son which he as good as sacrificed. God had one Son
 which he gave as sacrifice for the life of the world. It reads in the 31st verse that they will not be persuaded though one rise from the dead. Jesus
 did rise from the dead, and still they
 remain in unbelief. The Bible says,
 "This is the record that God has given
 unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the son, hath life, and he that hath not the Son of
 God, hath not life." l John 5:l1, 12.
 This text teaches that eternal life is a
 gift of God through Jesus Christ. So
 we haven't it by nature.
 Suppose you were born to an estate
 that had been mortgaged to it's fullest
 value and beyond, or to one that had
 been squandered by your own folly,
 and were your own house and home
 about to be sold over your head, and some kind friend at his own expense should pay all your indebtedness and I redeem 1t for you; besides this, were he to rebuild and refurnish the old homestead in greater beauty than be
 fore and give 1t back to you, it would
 be but poor acknowledgment of your obligation to thank him only for the l Improvements he had made on the property, but as to the homestead it. self to insist that 1t rightfuily belonged to you by natusal inheritance and had never been forfeited. Yet this is all the need of honor you would ascribe 1 to that infinite Friend, who by the | sacrifice of Himself has redeemed your life from destruction and now offers you in it's stead a new, better, purer, more blessed life, deathless life like His own 8 gift of free grace. You cheerfuliy, gratefully acknowledge your obligations for the Improvements He has made in your life and it's sur roundings, but as to the life itself 1t had never been forfeited, it was your own by the undefeasible right of in heritance.
 This is the position that all are dri ven to that believe in the natural immortality of the soul.