The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-10-01
Sermon by
CHARLES T.
RUSSELL.
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

imperfection, of sin, is general. We
were born in sin. shapen in iniquity;
In sin did my mother conceive me-"
A general realization of this fact
prevails amongst intelligent people.
Whether the how and the why, the
philosophy Of the matter be discerned
or not, the fact is recognized. How
ever we may theorize that the same
Creator who made the angels pure.
happy. holy, sinless, also made us,
we nevertheless are aware of the fact
that we are not pure, holy, sinless,
undefiled. Righteousness should not,
however, be considered the phenome-
non, but the original, proper condition
of things. Sin is the phenomenon,
the popularity. the disorder-the dis
arrangement of the proper order
which previously prevailed and by
right should everywhere prevail.
Nowhere in the world do we find
my explanation of present conditions
that is satisfactory to us, except in
the Bible. which teaches that Gods
Work is perfect; that he made man in
his own image and likeness; that sim
full ambition brought in rebellion
against the Divine regulations and
that present disorders are the result
of that rebellion-human degradation,
mental, moral. physical-dying-death.
1t is true that human philosophy has
sought to solve the question Of mans
condition of sin and imperfection
aside from the Bible. Its claim is
that the Bible record is untrue; that
man was never perfect; that man
never fell from perfection into sin
and death; that man. consequently,
needs no Savior from sin and death
and no restitution to original perfec-
tion-to original Edenic perfection.
Its claim il that if there is personal
God, he is not exercising any special
powers. but merely allowing so-called
Laws of Nature to operate.
1t claims that in the surging of the
salt waters of the ocean phOtoplasmic
life was generated. and that the micro
scopic germ polly-wogged and evolut-
ed into a thousand different forms
worms and snakes. fish and whale,
finally one division of the pollywog
family attained to monkeyhOod. and
gradually getting used to stand on his
hind legs. became man. 1t ignores,
if it does not deny, sin and its down.
ward tendencies. which we all know
affiict the human family and must be
struggled and fought against. 1t de-
MES the need of Savior. an Advo-
cate. Mediator; and it holds that
each generation of humanity dying,
helps onward the succeeding genera
ton to gran,ler development and that
eventually human perfection will be
attained by the evolutionary process,
by mans own exertion. regardless of
whether there is a Creator or not.
We can only assume that this Evo.
luton theory found friends and advo-
Gates because the Bible teaching has
been so grossly misunderstood. 1t has
been misrepresented as teaching that
practically all of the human family
were born under a Divine sentence Of
eternal torture and that only the few
reached in the present life by the Cos
pei can by faith in the Savior and by
thorough-going conversion to saint
ship escape eternal torment and gain
eternal blessing. Thinking people, not
surmising that the Bible is misrepre-
scented by it's own friends. by the
creeds in general. have looked about
for a substitute Evolution. although
quite unsatisfactory to them, furnish
ed the only substitute they could think
of, while it ignored the Bible
What the Bible Teaches.
Now as the electric lights supplant
the tallow dip, concordances and other
Bible study helps assist us to a proper
understanding of Gods Revelation. One
Scripture throws light upon another;
and thus gradually the errors of gross
darkness and superstition which pre-
vailed so generally in 1.-The dark ages
flee away. and the Lamp of Divine
Truth gives forth brilliant ray which
fully satisfies our heads and hearts,
and glorifies our Creator.
In the light Of this newly-trimmed
Arc-light of Truth, Gods Word, we
may now see that the real penalty for
sin is not coming eternal torment at
the hands OF fre-proof demons. but in
stead the reign of sin and death. Now
we may see how disobedience on the
part Of Father Adam brought upon
him a death sentence. a dying condi-
ton, and that these, transmitted from
parent to child. have increased the
calamity. century by century. until to-
day, amongst the most civilized, one
out of every one hundred and fifty
adults is in an insane aSylum,-men-
tally dead to the extent that he is I'M
able to care for himself. Millions more
of our race are in prisons and peni-
tentiaries because Of moral blemishes,
because born in sin and shapen in
iniquity," they have inherited vices
which have been accumulated by asso-
citation with each other. All over the
world. too, we have hospitals ana in
firmaries and cemeteries. The reason
is exactly what the Word CT God
teaches, namely, "The wages Of sin is
death" "The soul that sinneth it shall
die" The great disease Of sin. started
by our first parents in Eden, has
spread as plague amongst all their
children. hlemishinq some sneciallv In
one particular and some in another, bur