The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-10-15
Sermon by
CHARLES T.
RUSSELL,
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.


Lord. 1t maketh rich. and He addeth
no sorrow Herewith" He 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
dred newspapers may have well in
mind what we had to say on this text
a week ago. Briefly we showed that
the world has not yet received the
blessing of the Lord which maketh
rich -that. on the contrary. ever since
the disobedience of our first parents
our race has labored under the Divine
sentence or Course" of death. and that
our dying conditions (mental, moral
and physicaD are upon us as convicts.
We pointed out that the Lord has de-
clared that he will yet grant his bless
ing to our 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
Aade 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 be bless
ed"
We showed the failure of the Law
Covenant to give these blessings and
that Jesus. the Son of God. holy. harm
MI 70 civ,
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
blessingS-the same that Adam lost.
We saw next that those earthly rights
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 resurrection
to spirit or heavenly plane of being.
far above that of angels. We saw a
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 be blessed through it, that 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
turned to the Lord; and that. under
his blessing. their work with all the
nations since would have progressed.
AS it is written, I'm 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 glorifica-
ton the earthly kingCom would have
begun to be blessed and to lie used
for the blessing of others. But moth
ing of this kind occurred. disaster
came Ujon the Jewish nation, and
blindness. Their nation was destroyed
anu for nearly nineteen centuries they
have been not only blind but outca st,
under the disfavor of the Almight >.
Did God forget his promise made 4,
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 God"
1t has been mystery to the Jews and
a mystery to the world in general. and
the Lord so intended it to be. No one
can understand the matter nor appre-
ciate it, 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 i'm dark sayings"
Some who cannot perceive in the full
appreciative sense what we shall show,
may nevertheless be able to appreciate
the matter to 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 higher plane than they had
supposed and accomplish far greater
blessing than they had supposed.
Gods purpose is to have multitude
nous Messiah and to select the men,
bers thereof from many nations. AS
compared with the world these will be
little flock" AS the Master said.
Fear not. little aock, it 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 must
have his spirit or disposition. Like
him they must lay down their lives in
the service of Righteousness. Truth and
the brethren. They will become joint
sacrifcerTs with him.
Tire Sufferings of Messiah.
Here the question arises. If no Jew
but Jesus could keep the Divine Law
perfectly. anu il he could keep it only
because he was not a member Of