The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1909-09-14
PEOPLES PULPIT.
Sermon by
CHARLES 7.
RUSSELL,
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

|
toga Springs, N. Y, decided to spend
its closing days In Brooklyn, that it
might be addressed there by Pastor
| C. T. Russell. The Brooklyn Taber-
nacle proved insufficient in capacity
| for this large body of Bible Students;
hence the Brooklyn Academy Of Music
was secured for the services of the
day. Pastor Russell addressed the
Bible Students twice. We report one
| of his discourses, from the above text
| He said:
The Great Teacher said of the lilies
of the plain, 'They toll not, neither do
| they spin; and yet l say unto you, that
even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed- like one of these" (Matthew vi.
% 29). Similarly we believe that In
heaven the angels are free from toll.
| Divine power exercised In their inter
est makes toll unnecessary. He VINO
created the angels and made the lilies
is the same God by whose omnipotent
mower we human beings came into ex-
| istence. We are surrounded by conul-
tions which call for labor, toll and
sweat of face. as indicated In our text.
| WHY are these things so? Why Is man
less favored by his Creator than the
| angels and the lilies? The answer 10
this query is found In GODS great
Book. the Bible AS Bible students
the majority of us know, OF course,
the answer to this query. And YET II
NAV prove beneficial to us to examine
| the question afresh.
| remind you that the words OF our
text are Gods comment upon the con-
| ditions which now obtain and which
were made necessary by mans DISC
| bedience and the terms OF his sen
tence. AS originally created the con-
ditions of sweat of face and battling
with thorns and insects too numerous
| to mention were not necessary ana
were not imposed upon mankind On
the contrary, Adam was placed In
Paradise, in the Garden of Eden,
whose every prospect was beautiful.
| It's trees were fruitful, yielding Vari-
ETY. and an abundance of life-giying
| fruit for the maintenance of the king OF
earth and his queen, mother Eve. The
responsibilities of the situation were
| merely to dress, or keep, the garden
to pluck its fruits and to prune the
waste foliage to Adams pleasement.
Every necessity was provided as sure
ly as In the case of the angels and the
lilies. The great change which thrust
our first parents from Paradise is the
result Of "Original Sin"-disobedience
| to God.
The basis of the fall may be said to
/ have been the temptation of the SER
pent, but otherwise, too we may say
that it was the loss of faith in God on
the part of Mother Eve. Had she prop
! erly continued in faith and trust, the
Tempter's suggestions of disobedience
would have been promptly rejected.
| His suggestion that the great Creator
had been prompted by selfish motives
| In forbidding the fruit of one particu-
lar kind of tree should have been
promptly recognized as SANDER. And
| the further suggestion that the God of
all Grace and Truth lied to them and
| distorted the facts when he warned
| that disobedience would result In
| death-this misrepresentation should
| have been Indignantly resented. But,
alas! Mother Eve had not yet reached
| that degree Of character development;
/ she succumbed to the temptation,
crude as it was. Her desire for knowl-
| elge ensnared her. A lesson to US in
this connection is that any knowledge
which may come to us as Bible Stu
dents, or come to others along any
lines out of accord with the Divine tes-
timony, would be costly knowledge in
| deed.
"The Wage of Sin Is Death"
The result of the disobedience might
| have been the shifting of our first par
ents by a thunderbolt. but. with gra-
cious purposes, God permitted them to
have what they undoubtedly preferred
death by a dying process of cen
turtles. This gave Adam and his pos
| terity contact with sin and its pen
atty. The Divine object in so doing is
| Scripturally declared to be that all
mankind might learn Of the exceeding
sinfulness of sin," its undesirability
and the sureness of its penalty-death
Had 1t not been for Gods intention by
and by to send the Redeemer and to
| pay mans death penalty, and thus to
make possible his reclamation from
death conditions by recreation proc
esses, our race might better have been
instantly smitten to oblivion in our
! first parents; and the Twenty Thou
sand Millions of Adams children might
better have remained unborn. How
ever, the Bible clearly reveals that ''as
by man (Adam) came death, even so
by man also Gesus) comes the resur-
rection of the dead. For as all in
Adam die, even so all in Christ shall
be made alive. every man in his own
/ order" Il Corinthians XIV, 21-23).
The purpose of the Lord, clearly ex-
pressed, is that mankind in general
shall have the blessed opportunity Of
sharing in the blessings of the Millen-
NAL Kingdom-the uplifting blessings.
| the restitution blessings the resurrec-
ton blessings. ST. Peter speaks of
those Millennial years of blessing as
"times of restitution of all things.
|
OF ali his holy prophets since the world
began" (Acts iii, 2D. Very clearly
| we discern Gods wise purpose to be
that as mankind through Adam are
being made acquainted with sin. ca
lamities, death, so in due time all shall
be made acquainted with righteous
ness, Truth and the boon of life eter-
nal in harmony with their Creator. In
that restitution time" by the contrast
of the rewards of righteousness with
the rewards of sin, the whole world
shall be brought to knowledge of the
Truth and shall discern. not only the
Justice of God. but also his Wisdom
Love and Power.
The Tree of knowledge.
Thus, sure enough. the forbidden
fruit was of the tree of knowledge.
The eating of that fruit did indeed
bring with it to Mother Eve and to all
her children knowledge. 1t has required
six Thousand years of experience I'M
| der the reign of Sin and Death to learn
one side, and it will require another One
Thousand Years, the Millennium of
| Christ's reign, to teach Mother Eve
and her family the other part Of the
great lesson, namely, the knowledge
of Good. BY the conclusion of the Mil
| lennium the entire race Of Adam will
know both Good and Evil experiment
ally and, we trust. the majority Of
them will have learned the lesson so
thoroughly that they will be fully out
of accord with sin in its every phase
But while acknowledging that the eat
ing of that fruit has become the chan
mel of these lessons in evil, as in good.
we can see that these same lessons