The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1909-12-07
Sermon by
CHARLES T.
RUSSELL.
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

Sunday, November 2S.-Pastor Rus
sell of Brooklyn Tabernacle" preach
ed today from the above text He said:
There is a beauty and consistency
In the Bible which many overlook. to
their own confusion. Failing to right
ly divide the Word of Truth" I'll Tim
othy ii, l5), failing to discriminate
between the consecrated believers and
nominal believers of the world, which
the Bible everywhere recognizes, has led
to this confusion. To the logically mind
ed thus confused, the Bible is an unrea-
sonable Book. inconsistent with facts.
These matters are well illustrated In
our text. which was addressed. not to
all mankind. nor to merely nominal
Christians-but to Christians. I'm God
the Father and In the Lord Jesus
Christ" as the introduction shows.
This word in means something more
than is generally appreciated. Note
the Savior's words. IF man love me
he will keep my words: and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto
him and make our abode with him.
81 am in my Father. and ye in me and
In you John xiv. 20, 23I. The whole
Testimony of the Scriptures is that
those who attain to this glorious one
ness with the Father and with the Son
are in all but a little flock" and
amongst them are mot many great,
not many wise. not many learned
II is to this class alone that the Scrip
lures are addressed-though to some
extent including a justified class sup
posedly approaching this sanctlned
condition. These may well be inform
ed by the Apostle that they should I'm
everything give thanks" when In full
harmony with the Divine will.
But note the confusion Of attempting
to apply these words to the world In
general. What has the world to be
thankful for-from its own standpoint?
It knows not what Gods future pur-
poses are, which. therefore, cannot en-
ter into its consideration. And with
out that knowledge of coming blessings
life is often so little appreciated that
self-destruction is preferred, UndouDt-
edly the number of suicides would be
far greater than 1t is, were 1t not FOL
a certain fear or dread that the future
might be more terrible than the present.
The average man, heather and CIV
iIized, knows that his coming into the
world was without his consent he
eats and drinks and sleeps and labors,
because these are necessities. He has
headaches and heartaches, and every
other kind. Altogether his experience
is ..of few years and full of trouble"
His chief pleasure Is In hoping for and
striving to attain pleasure. And when
the cup" of supposed happiness Is In
his hand. the gall of bitterness is found
mingled with it. and its dregs are
sorrows. Can such man be thank
full? especially If he has been taught
the doctrine Of the dark ages" re-
specting the future-that when he
shall die he will either be ushered
into a Purgatory Of centuries or tor
ture indescribable, or. worse still. that
his lot will be to suffer endlessly-un-
less he should be one of the saints,
which he we'll knows he is not, and
which we all know, as the Bible de-
clares. are but few" Surely to call
upon such people for thankfulness to
God would be an absurdity. And 1t Is
to the credit of the Scriptures that
they are not thus absurd, and that our
text is addressed. not to those who
hrTf n
tile fiock'-the saints.
Grooming Creations Hope.
Before proceeding to apply our text
to the class to which it Is addressed
1.-THE saints. we pause to consider the
hope of the world in general, as set
forth in the Scriptures. The knowl
edge of this hope is not granted to the
world. but to the saints-that they
might know. might appreciate, the gra-
cious purposes of God toward mankind
in general; and that they might under
stand also the Divine intention respect
ing their cooperation with God In the
blessings be purposes to bring eventu-
ally to all the families of the earth.
The explanation of the sorrows OF
the world is given in the Bible; which
tells us that sin lies at the door and
that the mental. moral and physical
blemishes which cause humanity such
distress are incidental to the penalty
pronounced against sin; namely, death.
1.-THE soul that sinneth, it shall die"
Because Father Adam when on trial
representatively for his race sinned
and came under sins penalty. Dying
thou shalt de-" therefore all his chill
dren sharing in his imperfections are
likewise imperfect-sinners, as ST. Paui
explains (Romans V. 12l. Thus. dur
ing sixty centuries. approximately
twenty thousand millions Of Adams
children have been born in sin and
shapen in iniquity." and have come
into the world condemned and dying.
mentally, morally and physically.
Divine sympathy exercised toward
this race of sinners provided a Savior,
"who for the joy that was set before
him" sacrificed his life-for the world
John Iii. 16). Jesus Christ by the
grace of God tasted death for every
man." Then instead of dealing with
zee world. instead of saving the world,
instead of setting up the promised
Kingdom to bless the world. the Saw
ior did something else. And this
which be has been doing from the
time of his death until now the Apos-
tle explains to us Is "a mystery" Il
Corinthians XIV. 81; Ephesians /. 8
Romans XII. 25). 1.-The mystery Of
Cod the world does not understand
because God prefers to keep the mat
ter mystery from them. But ''th'
secret of the Lord is with them tina
fear him and he will shew them hi.
Covenant" psalm XIV. IA.
1.-The mystery" is. that God purposeC
that the blessing of the world should
be accomplished by our Savior alone
but In association with a select elias,
of saints gathered out of the worlC
and specially taught and prepared il
the School of Christ during this age
Not only is this feature of the Divine
Plan Scripturally called the mystery
of God" which will be finished by thu
close of this age. but additionally thu
Church herself is Scripturally termed
the mystery of God"-the Mystic
Body of Christ. For God gave Chris
to be the Head over the Church. which
Is his Body" I'VE are members il
particular of the Body of Christ,
which is the Church (Ephesians /, %
%; | Corinthians xii, 90.
During these long centuries required
for the finding of this sanity class fol
whom the Lord has been searching
with the magnet of Truth. various
false theories have sprung up anc
found acceptance in the world. One o.
these is that God does not love the
world and has never purposed its sal