The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1909-10-22
PEOPLES
Sermon by
CHARLES r.
RUSSELL
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

Lord. II maketh rich. and He addeth
no sorrow Herewith" lie said:
We continue today our topic of last
Sunday. Our hope Is that not only
those of you who hear my voice. but
also the seven millions of readers to
whom this sermon will go In print In
the columns Of more than four hun
drcd newspapers may have well In
mind what we had to say on this text
week ago. Briefly we showed that
the world has not yet received the
blessing of the Lord which mHkcth
rich-that. on the contrary. ever since
the disobcdicncc Of our first parents
our race has laborcd under the Divine
sentence or course" of death. and that
our dying conditions mental, moral
and physiCab are upon us as cOnvicts.
We pointed out that the Lord has dc.
ciarcd that he will yet grant his bless
ing to our race. releasing all from the
curse and supplying the blessing of
the Lord that makcth rich. We point
cd out the foreshadowings of this. cS-
pecially in the promise or covenant
made to Abraham. and confirmed to
the nation of Israel through Isaac and
JacOb-"In thee and i'm thy seed shall
all the families of the earth be bless.
ed"
We showed the failure Of the Law
Covenant to give these blessings and
that Jesus, the Son of God. holy, harm
less and unde6led, separate from sin
ners and he alone. was able to keep
the Law and prove himself worthy Of
eternal life and all the blessings lost
by Adam-not heavenly but earthly
blesslngs-the same that Adam lost.
We saw next that those earthly rights
and blessings won by our Lord by the
keeping of the Law. he. with the Fa.
TIERS consent and arrangement. sacri-
feed, laid down in death. and that his
reward for so doing was resurrection
to spirit or heavenly plane OF being,
far above that OF angels. We saw n
glorious King who had those earthly
rights In his possession as an asset or
thing OF value to give to others.
We want now to continue this in
vestigatiOn and to see In the light Of
Gods Word what is to be done with
those earthly rights which Jesus gain
ed by virtue Of his obedience to the
Law, and which he sacrificed. How
will they be applied? We might rea-
sonably have supposed (since Gods
promise to Israel was that the world
should he blessed through it, tnat as
soon as our Lord Jesus had ascend
ed up on high he would give to the
nation of Israel all those earthly
rights and honors which he had Sc
cured by obedience and death. We
might have expected accordingly that
forthwith the nation of Israel would
have begun to realize the forgiveness
of their sins and would have been thus
turned to the Lord; and that, under
his blessing. their work with all the
nations since would have progressed.
As it Is written, in thy seed shall all
the families of the earth he blessed"
Admitting that the Lord Jesus was the
spiritual seed of Abraham we would
have expected that upon his gloritica-
ton the earthly kingdom would have
begun to be blessed and to be used
for the blessing of others. But moth
ing of this kind occurred. Disaster
came upon the Jewish nation, and
blindness. Their nation was destroyed
and for nearly nineteen centuries they
have been not only blind but outcast
under the disfavor of the Almighty
Did God forget his promise made to
Israel, or did he change his purpose
or what is the explanation of the
course he did pursue?
Spiritual Israe! Called and Chosen.
What God has been doing since
Christ died for the worlds sins the
Scriptures term the mystery of God
1t has been mystery to the Jews and
mystery to the world In general, and
can understand the matter nor appre
ciate 1t, except he he in the right con
dition of heart and begotten of the
holy Spirit. TO such the Lord says
"1o you it is given to know the mys
terry of the Kingdom Of heaven, but tC
all outsiders these things are spoken
In parallels and in dark sayings
Some who cannot perceive in the full
appreCiative sense what we shall show
uDuA IcNcIlutltSS ue uDlt 10 uppTPClul(
the matter to a limited degree
The mystery is this: God intends tC
have larger Messiah than the Jews
had understood. Not only SO, but he
will he on higher plane than they hat
supposed and accomplish a far greater
blessing than they had supposed
Gods purpose is to have n multitude
nous Messiah and to select the mem
bers thereof from many nations. As
compared with the world these will b,
a little flock" AS the Master said
Fear not, little flock. 1t is your Fa
theirs good pleasure to give you the
Kingdom" Each member of this little
flock company must develop the same
Characteristics which were eXemplified
In their Redeemer. Jesus. They mus
have his spirit or disposition. Like
him they must lay down their lives il
the service Of Righteousness. Truth and
the brethren. They will become joint
sncrifcCrs with him,
The sufierings of Messiah.
Here thu question arises. II no jew
but Jesus could keep the Di,ine Law