The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1909-11-24
PEOPLES
Sermon by
CHARLES T.
RUSSELL
Pastor Brooklyn
T abernacle.

Throughout the length and breadth
OF this land OF liberty, young and old
understand full well the significance Of
election. Couhcimen. aldermen, may
ors of cities, county officials, State Off
cials, United States Congressman, Sen
ators, the President and VicePrcsident
are chosen or elected from amongst
the people to their various official sta
tions. They are chosen with view to
the blessing that will accrue 10 the
electors by the exercise of their official
positions How strange, then that we
who are SO familiar with these things
should read into our text so very diff
fcrent n view Of election,
The thought should naturally suggest
itself to us that If God is electing or
selecting Church in the present time,
1t must be with n view to the Use of
that Church subsequently 20 serve In
some manner the interests of the re
mainder of the world, from amongst
whom they were elected. And this is
Just what the Scriptures teach. name
~, that Christ Jesus himself is the
Head. the Captain. the Chief Ruler,
and that this elect" company are. fig
uratively speaking. his members his
associates. his under-prfeSthood. The
Scriptures tell us that this selection is
according to Divine forcknowledge and
foreordination They tell us that God
foreknew our Lord Jesus rs the one
who would occupy the glorious posi-
ton OF Prophet. Priest. Mediator and
King of the world during the Millen.
mum They tell us also that the same
God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ foreknew us also and 'predes-
tinatcd" that there should be Il Church
class selected from amongst the world.
To be their Rcdeemcr's associate. his
undcr.pricsthood. his subordinate kings
during the Millennium
The Elect Now and Hereafter.
The Church Is spoken of as Gods
elect now. before the election has
been finished; before the testing is
completed; before the called have been
proven faithful and worthy. These
are elect" in the sense of having been
nominated moved and seconded"
God moved that they should be elect
ed. and called them with II heaven
~ calling" II remained for the called
ones themselves To second the mo-
tlon" by presenting themselves i'll full
conservation of heart to the Lord But
this was mol sufficient. for the invited
ones were recognized as imperfect and
unable to come up to the requirements
of the call. Hence ii was necessary
that the Lord Jesus christ should be-
come their surety and agree out OF
his own fulness of merit to supply MI
of their lack, their imperfection And
this he gladly does by applying for
such the merit OF his sin-atonement
sacrifice finished nj Calvary
Making the Election Sure.
Keeping before our minds that the
heavenly Fathcr made the motion or
he call, tina; we seconded IL by ac-
ceptinG the call upon its terms OF
faith and conservation unto death
and that our Lord Jesus Is our surety
who will make good our unintentional
bemshcs. what shall we say OF the
prospects OF our being elected and AT
whose door shall we lay the response
hility IL we are not elected? Surely
the Interchangeable God who nominated
us has made every provision for our
election aud Will cooperate Surely
our Rcdeemer. our Surety, our Advo.
cate, Will give us every assistance in
the way and, according 10 his prom
Use, cause all things 10 work together
for our good. Just MS surely. there
fore, the entire responsibility for fail
IRE would lie al our door. And this Is
what St Peter III cur text declares
Make Your calling and election sure,
From this standpoint we have Il spc-
eial interest in our own election. such
As we never had before when we mis-
understood the entire matter. once in
our ignorance we thought that st. Pc
ter had written foolishly about our
making the election sure, for accord
my To the erroneous theory which we
had "swalloWed'' without proper mas
ication. God was doing all the elect
ng himself. and had unalterably fixed
our destiny rs eternal glory or eternal
suffering, long centuries before we
Mere born
tIltHthuS lew hlluutu our
mental sight from all the various In
centives which now are SO precious
and SO helpful What had God elected
us to be and to do? To sit upon n
cloud and 10 play upon a harp and to
sing TO all eternity, cheerfully looking
over the battlementS Of heaven to see
our dear friends writing in torment. r
and striving hard 10 praise God for il
all and 10 think OF his course In our
election and their damnation as the cx.
emplifcation of Justice and of Love?
We read indeed in the Scriptures re-
speeding n Kingdom. for which our
Lord taught us to pray. Thy King
dom come: thy will be done in earth
as ii is done in heaven" yet the thral-
dom of error upon us was SO tense that
we recognized not the Inconsistency
between these promises and our false
hopes Now thank God. 1.-The mys.
terry" is revealed To us In Gods Wufl
and by his Spirit and we perceive that
the Millennia Kingdom Is to be n real
ity and that its blessing TO mankind In
general, ito all the families of the
EARTH" is to be most thorough. most
systematic. most complete. and In the
end entirely satisfactory
Kings to Be Elected.
What an interest we properly take In
this matter of our election, after learn
ing that the Office for which we are
running is combination of priesthood
and kingship, The elect are to be
priestly kings. or. otherwise styled. "A
Royal Priesthood" Their glorious
service is to be for period Of one
thousand years, during which they Will
be kings and priests unto God and will
reign over the earth (Revelation Xxx. 4;
Peter II, 81.
They will not reign on the earth" in
the sense of being earthly beings. hav-
ing earthly courts and thrones; their
resurrection change" will constitute
them heavenly or spirit beings; they
will be invisible TO mankind, as now
tho "princa IF This worldn IL invisible