The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-11-19

PEOPLES PULPIT.
Sermon by
CHARLES T..
RUSSELL.
Pastor Brooklyn
I abenacle.


from the above text to a large and at
tentive audience rs usual. He said
Throughout the length and breadth
of this land of liberty, young and old
understand full we'll the significance of
election. Councilman, aldermen. may
ors of cities, county officials. State Off
Gals, United States Congressman. Sen
are chosen or elected from amongst
the people to their various official sta
lions. They are chosen with view to
the blessing that will accrue to the
electors by the exercise of their official
positions. How strange. then. that we
who are so familiar with these things
should read into our text so very diff
ferent view of election,
The thought should naturally suggest
itself to us that if God is electing or
selecting Church in the present time.
it must be with a view to the use OF
that Church subsequently to serve in
some manner the interests of the re-
mainder of the world, from amongst
whom they were elected. And this is
just Nldl Tie lSdSh,
ly. that Christ Jesus himself is the
Head. the Captain, the Chief Ruler,
and that this ..elect" company are. fig
uratively speaking. his members" his
associates, his under-priesthood. The
Scriptures tell us that this selection is
according to Divine foreknowledge and
REORGANIZATION. They tell us that God
I nr1
who would occupy the glorious posi-
ton of Prophet, Priest. Mediator and
King of the world during the Millen-
MUM. They tell us also that the same
God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ foreknew us also and ''predeS
tinated" that there should be Church
class selected from amongst the world.
to be their Redeemer's associate. his
under-priesthocd. his subordinate kings
during the Millennium.
The Elect Now and Hereafter.
The Church is spoken of as Gods
select now, before the election has
been finished; before the testing is
completed; before the called have been
proven faithful and worthy. These
are elect in the sense of having been
nominated-"m moved and seconded"
God moved that they should be elect
ed. and called them with a heaven
" calling" 1t remained for the called
ones themselves to second the mo-
ton by presenting themselves in full
conservation of heart to the Lord. But
this was not sufficient; for the invited
ones were recognized as imperfect and
unable to come up TO the requirements
of the call. Hence it was necessary
that the Lord Jesus Christ should be-
come their surety and agree out of
his own fitness of merit to supply all
of their lack. their imperfection. And
this he gladly does by applying for
such the merit of his sin-atonement
sacrifice finished at Calvary.
Making the Election Sure.
Keeping before our minds that the
heavenly Father made the motion or
the call, that we seconded it by &C
cepting the call upon its terms of
faith and conservation unto death,
and that our Lord Jesus is our surety
who will make good our unintentional
bleL uShes, what shall we say of the
prospects of our being elected and at
whose door shall we lay the response
bility if we are not elected? Surely
the Interchangeable God who nominated
us has made every provision for our
election and will cooperate. Surely
our Redeemer, our Surety. our Advo-
cate, will give US every assistance in
the way and. according to his prom
Use. cause all things to work together
for our good. Just as surely. there
fore. the entire responsibility for fail
ure would lie at our door, And this is
what st. Peter in our text declares,
Make your calling and election sure"
From this standpoint we have a spe-
cial interest in our own election. such
as we never had before when we mis-
understood the entire matter Once in
our ignorance we thought that st. Pc
ter had written foolishly about our
making the election sure; for accord
ing to the erroneous theory which we
had ''Swallowed' without proper mas
tication, God was doing all the elect
ing himself. and had unalterably fixed
our destiny as eternal glory or eternal
suffering, long centuries before we
were born.
This erroneous view blinded our
mental sight from all the various in
centives which now are so precious
and so helpful. What had God elected
US to be and to do? To sit upon a
cloud and to play upon harp and to
sing to all eternity. cheerfully looking
over the battlements of heaven to see
our dear friends writing in torment
and striving hard to praise God for it
all and to think of his course in our
election and their damnation as the ex-
emplification of Justice and of Love?
We read indeed in the Scriptures re-
specting a Kingdom, for which our
Lord taught us to pray. Thy King
dom come; thy will be done in earth
as it is done in heaven" yet the thral-
dom Of error upon us was so tense that
we recognized not the Inconsistency
between these promises and our false
hopes. Now. thank God. "the mys-
terry is revealed to us I'm Gods Word
and by his Spirit. and we perceive that
the Millennial Kingdom is to be real
ity and that its blessing TO mankind in
general. ITO all the families of the
earth" is to be most thorough, most