The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1909-10-16
Sermon by
CHARLES T.
RUSSELL.
Pastor BROOKLYN
Tabernacle.

btuohiAh tabernacle. preached tuda.
from the text, The blessing Of tn
Lord, 1t maketh rich, and He addict
no sorrow herewith" He said:
We continue today our topic of las
Sunday. Our hope is that not onl,
those of you who hear my voice. bu
also the seven millions of readers I,
whom this sermon will go in print il
the columns of more than four hun
dred newspapers may have well il
mind what we had TO say on this tex.
a week ago. Briefly we showed tina
the world has not vet received the
blessing of the Lord which maketl
rich-that. on the contrary. ever since
the diSohedience Of our first parents
u race has labored under the Divine
sentence or curse" of death. and that
vi dying conditions mental. moral
and PHYSICAL are upon us as ~cOnvicts.
We pointed out that the Lord has de-
clared that he will yet grant his bless
ing to u race, releasing all from the
curse and supplying the blessing Of
the Lord that maketh rich. We point.
ed out the foreShadowings of this. es-
pecially in the promise or covenant
made to Abraham, and confirmed to
the nation of Israel through Isaac and
~Jacob-"In thee and in thy seed shall
all the families of the earth he bless
ed"
We showed the failure of the Law
Covenant to give these blessings and
that Jesus, the Son of God. holy. BARN
less and undefled. 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 Adnm-not heavenly but earthly
blessings-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.
theirs consent and arrangement. sacri-
feed, laid down in death. and that his
reward for so doing was a resurrection
to a spirit or heavenly plane of being.
far above that Of angels. We saw a
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, that MS
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 be blessed"
Admitting that the Lord Jesus was the
spiritual seed of Abraham we would.
have expected that upon his glorifca-
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 disfayor 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 Israel Called and Chosen.
What God has been doing since
Christ died for the worlds sins the
Scriptures term the mystery Of Cod
1t has been a mystery to the Jews and
a mystery to the world in general, and
the Lord so intended 1t to be. No one
can understand the matter nor appre-
ciate II, except he be in the right con
dition of heart and begotten of the
holy Spirit. To such the Lord says.
ITO you it is given to know the mys-
terry Of the Kingdom Of heaven, but to
all outsiders these things are spoken
In parallels and in dark sayings
Some who cannot perceive in the full
appreciatiye sense what we shall show.
may nevertheless be able to appreciate
the matter to a limited degree.
The mystery is this; God intends to
have a larger Messiah than the Jews
had understood. Not only so, but he
will be on a higher plane than they had
supposed and accomplish a far greater
blessing than they had supposed.
Gods purpose is TO have a multitude
nous Messiah and to select the men,
bers thereof from many nations. AS
compared with the world these win be
a little flock As the Master said.
Fear not, little flock, It is your Fa-
Tiers good pleasure to give you the
Kingdom" Each member Of this little
flock company must develop the same
characteristics which were e~xemplifed
In their Redeemer. Jesus. They must
have his spirit or disposition. Like
him fhpv m,1cf Law dou-n tb,tr 1tro- T..