The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-09-17
Sermon by
CHARLES T.
RUSSELL,
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

September 12-Intelligent people ap
pear to reason upon every other sub
ject except religion. Approach a man
- - upon any matter of industry or social
progress or political economy or finance
and we find him reasonably alert to
the general law of Cause and Effect.
but when it comes to religion the same
as man refuses to recognize or follow
such laws. To illustrate: If thou
sand religious men and women were
asked to give some general outline of
the Divine Plan under which humanity
is being dealt with by the Almighty,
En Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine of
.>~'' them would look at you in blank as
10 constituent as though it were absurd
to suppose that God would conduct his
oAlSl affairs along the lines of order. reason
and common sense-CauSe and Effect.
On the contrary the Scriptures every
4HA where hold that our Creator is system
atically ordering the affairs of earth
and working all things according to
..ss., the counsel of his own wilr' Ephe-
AE{i SLAMS i, IL.
st. Peter divides the worlds history
into three great epochs, which our
common version Bible designates as
''tcOrlds." The first of these. he says,
lasted from the creation of our first
parents TO the flood. The food was
the harvest time. the reaping time. Of
that epoch. 1t was the conclusion to
the course of sin which. he tells us.
there prevailed. And only eight per-
sons. Noah and his family. were car
ried over as Il nucleus for another great
-3ng epoch or world" which ST. Peter
calls 1.-THE world that now lie and
which st. Paul calls This present
stsss evil world" or epoch. and of which
Jesus states. My kingdom is not of
this world (epoch,," while again he in
a ., forms us that Satan is 1.-The Prince of
this world
s-'',.' Certain things have been in prog
reSs-certain great instructions and
blessings from the Almighty during
this long period of over Forty-three
Hundred years. This present evil
world" or epoch is to have harvest
time and its affairs are to be as thor
oughly wound up. completed. as were
the affairs of 1.-The world before the
ftt8ss flood Then new epoch or world
to come" will dawn the character Of
.sEss which is clearly delneated in the
Scriptures as being very contrary ev-
eryway to that of this present evil
world. 1t will be '"rhe world to
come whereof we speak," the new
epoch. iguratiyely said to have "a new
heavens and new EARTH in which
the Lord viii dominate human effairs.
His elect Church Of the present time
) v associated with him as his Bride, will
constitute the new heavens" or new
'C to spiritual domination under which hui
man regeneration will bring the new
earth ~ Hinder that diSnpDSatian
nro everything will be in accord with the
character of its King. the Prince of
Light and Righteousness. just as the
conditions of THE present evil world"
H. are in harmony with the characters-
tics of the Prince of this world. who
now worketh in the hearts of the chill
dren of dsobedience"-"the Prince of
Darkness"
"Thc World That Was"
The world" or epoch which ended
at the flood accomplished a great work.
o. 1t was during that period of Sixteen
"''1~- Hundred and Fifty-siX years that God
first tested Satan by permitting him to
have an opportunity to show the trail
torOuS attitude of his heart in connec
ton with our first parents. Desiring
to establish himself as an Emperor over
earth. separate and distinct from the
Empire of Jehovah. Lucifer became
Satan. Gods Adversary. and has since
continued in his opposition to the Di-
rs = vine will. Our first parents, through
Satans lie. were led into disobedience
to God, which resulted in the death
sentence Adam and his race Sub
55 - sequently for centuries the holy angels
were allowed to have intercourse with
s,,. fallen men, with view to helping
them back into harmony with God.
not that God expected any such re-
suits. for he already foreknew that
there could be no recovery of human
ity. except through the merit of the
Redeemer whose sacrifice would pur-
chase the world and whose reign as
the King of kings and Lord of lords
would ultimately restore the willing
and obedient of the race. But the an
y IL gels to all eternity might have sup
1910 posed that an easier way of saving
men was possible; that If permitted
they could educate, assist and uplift
mankind out of sin and death condi-
lala lions back to harmony with God God
not only desired to show that all such
results were III. possible. but also he
desired to use the opportunity to test,
to prove. the loyalty the faithfulness
q of the angelic hosts
Amongst the liberties granted to all
the angels at that time was the pow
er to materialize-to assume human
forms. We need not stop to discuss
the possibility of this. for we are adj
A@0a' dressing those who believe the Scrip
tura record. and to such it will be
,q,o4 quite sufficient for us to cite one of the
many Scrptural instances: the case
of the three men who appeared to
-AAH Abraham and were subsequently found
to be angels-spirt beings. They
o.iiti looked, talked ate and were clothed