Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1909-10-09

it was stipulated tnat in order to in
herit eternal life and all the blessing
which Adam possessed and lost, and
in order to inherit the promise made
to Abraham Of the privilege Of bless
ing all the families of the earth, the
Divine Law must be kept inviolate.
God must be loved with all the heart,
mind, soul, strength, and the neighbor
must be loved as ones self. Moses as
mediator of that Covenant might rem
der every assistance he was capable Of
to that nation; but, alas, himself a
fallen man, imperfect, he was unable
to lift Israel out of sin and degrada-
tion-unable to bring them to that
state Of human perfection which would
enable them to keep that Law Cove
nant and inherit its blessingsl AS God
foreknew, they failed to keep their
part of the Covenant. "By deeds of
Law shall no flesh be justified" A
number of discouraged Israelites con-
tinued to hope for blessing through the
Abrahamic Covenant and, later on, the
Lord revealed to them that in due
time he would make a New [LawI
Covenant with them and th.S Messiah
would be it's Mediator Jeremiah XXI,
81.
The promise of New Covenant i'm
piled, as st. Paul points out, that God
knew that the Law Covenant would
not bring to Israel the hoped-for bless
ings. Thenceforth their hopes GEN.
which the Lord promised that he would
entirely blot out their sins and take
away their stony heart and give them
a heart of flesh and that they should
be his people. Confrmatory to this
thought was the message sent to them
through Malachi the prophet, assuring
them that the messenger of the Cove
nant fhe. servant of the Covenant, the
Mediator of the Covenant), whom they
delighted in, the one they were hoping
for, would ere long, come to his peo-
pie. But the prophet intimated- that
few Of them would be ready to receive
him. He said, "Who shall stand when
he appeareth?"
The Lord crucified.
Expecting Messiah to appear in. a
very different way, Israel was unpre-
pared for the "man of sorrow and ac-
quainted with grief" "the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sin Of the
world" They expected great gen.
eral, a mighty leader. who would ap-
peal to the learned, the wealthy, the
noble. But our Lord appealed only
to those who were pure in heart. is
raelites indeed" Such alone had the
necessary faith to recognize him and
receive him. The others crucified him.
but did it ignorantly. st. Peter de-
clares, Il wot that through ignorance
We did it, as did also your rulers. Ye
killed the Prince of life'' (Acts iii,
15-1D. And st. Paul says. Had they
known it. they would not have cruci-
fed the Lord of glory" q Corinthians
ii, s..
However our Lords crucifxion was
merely a fulfllment of another feature
of the Divine Plan to make the bless
ing of all mankind the deeper and
broader
By virtue of keeping the Law, Jesus
would have had the right to earthly
perfection for himself, eternal life and
happiness. He also would have been
heir of all the things that Adam pos
sessed and lost. He might. therefore,
have established an earthly empire
and, by wise laws and regulations, he
might have done much for human up
lift-the very thing which people today
are wanting to bring about. But his
subjects would still have been under
the Divine condemnation of death. He
would merely have been the ruler, in
structor, of fallen, dying men. God s
promise of blessing meant more than
this. And in harmony with it our Lord
Jesus did rot keep his earthly rights,
but surrerAered them, sacrificed them.
laid them down on our behalf. The
laying down of these earthly rights
was finished at Calvary. Since this
sacrificing vas done in harmony with
the Divine purpose, the Heavenly Fa-
ther rewarded the sacriicer with new
life on higher plane, far above an
gels and principalities and powers"
Thus when Jesus was raised from
the dead on the third day he was no
longer a man, but spirit being, par
taker of the Divine nature, far above
angels. More than this, he had his
earthly rights which he had sacrificed,
and these now constituted an asset or
thing Of value which he possessed and
which he might bestow upon others.
He laid down his earthly rights that
he might receive life again on a high
plane and have right to gioe the sac
fifced earthly perfection, honors ana
priCiEeges to Others. 1t was in this
manner that the Lord provided for the
blessing of the world-"the blessing OF
the Lord that maketh rich and to
which he addeth no sorrow" Though
the blessings have not yet come to the
world. as we have seen, the founda-
ton has already been laid in the re-
demptiye work accomplished at Cal
vary.
We cannot in this discourse trace the
blessing to its conclusion. But know
ing that our discourses weekly reach
about seven million readers we shall
hope to address the majority Of you
through the public prints a week
hence. We hope then to show how
the Lord has promised that his bless
ing under the Abrahamic Covenant
and through the nation Of Israel and
through the mediatorial work Of Christ
is yet to bring blessings to every men,
Der of Adams race AN opportunity for
obtaining life eternal. Meantime let
us all assure our hearts of the truth
fulness of the promise. that the bless
ing Of the Lord maketh rich and that
he addeth no sorrow Herewith. Any
sorrows that come to us are earthborn
and not of the Lord and may be over
come. So that eventually we NAV be