Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1909-10-09
Sermon by
CHARLES r.
RUSSELL.
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

Os-s-s-s-s-s-s-s~s-s-s-s- -s-s-s-s-s-s.s-s-s-.-s-sCo
Sunday. Oct. 3.-Pastor Russell, of
Brooklyn Tabernacle, preached today
on the above text. He said
Looking about us in the world we
find abundant corroboration for the
Scriptural declaration that instead of
the Divine blessing resting upon the
earth there is a course" or a blight
upon it. Accordingly st. Paul wrote.
"The whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together" In the
context he declares the relief from
this groaning condition-out of the
bondage of corruption into the liberty.
favor and blessing to follow. He in
dicates that this blessed change will
come through the manifestation of
the sons of God" and intimates also
that these sons of God are now being
'scalled" and will shortly be 'glori6ed'
and thus be empowered to do the work
of blessing for the groaning creation,
relieving them Of the burden Of sin and
DEATH
Still the question arises, Why should
humanity he so differently eircum-
stanced from the angels? Why should
not holiness and purity and freedom
from sorrows and pain and death pre-
vail on earth as well as in heaven
Why should the great Creator so diff
ferently condition one branch Of his
creation from the other? True, the
Lords prayer tells US that we may
expect ultimately that Divine power
will intervene and succor humanity.
The declaration, ''Thy Kingdom come;
thy will be done on earth as it is done
in heaven is more than a prayer;
because uttered by our Lord it is alse
a prophecy Of what will ultimately OBJ
tain. But the question is. Why should
it be necessary for us to pray and to
wait to subdue sin and to lift man
kind out CT evil conditions? Why
should not Gods will have been done
on earth all along. as it is, done in
heaven? Why have sin and death
been permitted to "reign," as the
Scriptures declare?
Thy Word Is Truth.
The Bible alone answers our query.
1T explains that originally our race
was created perfect in the image OF
God, sinless, holy. pure. happy. Mans
Eden home was Paradise. the Garden
of God. But all that bliss was lost
through disobedience to the Divine
command. When the death sentence
came upon father Adam he lost fel-
lowship with his Creator, his Eden
home, his perpetual life and, instead
of the Divine provision, was sentenced
to earn his bread by the sweat of his
face, battling with thorns. thistles and
insects. The Bible does not pretend
to say that the conditions as we have
them today are perfect nor that they
are satisfactory to God, nor that they
should be satisfactory to us. The ex
treme opposite of the home in Eden
the drouth. cyclone, tempest and food
belong to the unfit condition of the
earth and are intended by the Lord t.
serve as part of mans condemnation
Through sickness, disease, sorrow
pain, dying, the race will be brought
eventually to death-to destruction
Thank God he has overruled that fea
ture Of the sentence so that death tc
us need not mean destruction. Thus
it is written. Thou turnest man t
destruction; and sayest. Return. yt
children of men" psalm xc. 81.
The turning Of man to destruction
was six thousand years ago and, al
though the blessing of restitution was
declared from the very first by all The
holy prophets. nevertheless the return
was not made actually possible unit
the Redeemer came and laid down his
life as the ransom price for the sins
Of the whole world. A long while die
God wait before sending the Redeemer
More than four thousand years passed
and for a long period he has waited
since then before effecting a deliver
ance of humanity from sin and deatf
nearly nineteen centuries. This de
liberate slowness on the part of the
Almighty in looking after the human
family and its rescue from sin ant
death can be understood from only on'
standpoint-the Bible standpoint. The
Bible, contrary to our creeds formu
lated in the dark ages, teaches tha
the penalty for sin is not a future
torment, but present experience will
sin and death under the sentence
dying thou shalt die" In othel
words our present accursed or con
demned, unfavorable condition as {
race is Gods just penalty against III
as sinners.
We are a race of convicts. and the
conditions of nature are Divinely ar
ranged with a view to speeding us on
ward to the tomb-to the fulfillment Of
our curse or sentence-death. II
other words all the mental unbalanct
and distress. including insanity, i'm
becility and cross temper, are elements
of death-the results of death working
| in us as race; likewise our moral de
| fectfon. We were born in sin and
shapen in iniquity; in sin did our moth
ers conceive u.s." Phrenology. as wei
as physiology. shows clearly these facts
The misshapen heads indicate the un
balance in which we were born, an6