The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1909-10-19
PEOPLES
Sermon by
CHARLES T.
RUSSELL.
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.


Brooklyn Tabernacle, preached today
from the text, THE blessing of the
Lord, 1t maketh rich. and He addeth
no sorrow Herewith" He said:
We continue today our topic of last
Sunday. Our hope is that not only
those of you who hear my voice, but
also the seven millions of readers to
whom this sermon will go in print in
the columns of more than four hun
bred newspapers may have well In
mind what we had to say on this text
a week ago. Briefly we showed that
the world has not yet received the
blessing of the Lord which maketh
rich-that, on the contrary. ever since
the disobedience of our first parents
our race has labored under the Divine
sentence or curse Of death, and that
our dying conditions mental, moral
and physicalD are upon US as convicts
We pointed out that the Lord has de-
clared that he will yet grant his bless
ing to our race. releasing all from the
curse and supplying the blessing of
the Lord that maketh rich. We point
ed out the foreshadowings Of this. es-
pecially in the promise or covenant
made to Abraham, and confirmed to
the nation of Israel through Isaac and
Jacob-"In thee and in thy seed shall
all the families of the earth be bless
ed"
We showed the failure Of the Law
Covenant to give these blessings and
that Jesus. the Son Of God. holy. harm
less and undefiled. separate from SIN
ners. and he alone. was able to keep
the Law and prove himself worthy of
eternal life and all the blessings lost
by Adam-not heavenly but earthly
blessings-the same that Adam lost
We saw next that those earthly rights
and blessings won by our Lord by the
keeping of the Law. he, with the Fa-
theirs consent and arrangement, sacri-
feed, laid down in death. and that his
reward for so doing was resurrection
to a spirit or heavenly plane of being.
far above that of angels. We saw
glorious King who had those earthly
rights in his possession as an asset or
thing of value to give to others.
We want now to continue this in
vestigation and to see in the light of
Gods Word what is to be done with
those earthly rights which Jesus gain
ed by virtue of his obedience to the
Law. and which he sacrificed. How
will they be applied? We might rea-
sonably have supposed (since Gods
promise to Israel was that the world
should be blessed through it) that as
soon as our Lord Jesus had ascend
ed I'D on high he would give to the
nation of Israel all those earthly
rights and honors which he had Sc
cured by obedience and death we
might have expected accordingly that
forthwith, the nation Of Israel would
have begun to realize the forgiveness
of their sins and would have been thus
turned to the Lord; and that. under
his blessing, their work with all the
nations since would have progressed.
AS it is written, In thy seed shall all
the families of the earth be blessed
Admitting that the Lord Jesus was the
spiritual seed of Abraham we would
have expected that upon his gloritlca-
ton the earthly kingdom would have
begun to be blessed and to be used
for the blessing of others. But moth
ing of this kind occurred. Disaster
came upon the Jewish nation, and
blindness. Their nation was destroyed
and for nearly nineteen centuries they
have been not only blind but outcast
under the disfavor of the Almighty.
Did God forget his promise made to
Israel, or did he change his purpose,
or what is the explanation OF the
course be did pursue?
Spiritual Israel Called and Chosen.
What God has been doing since
Christ died for the worlds sins the
Scriptures term the mystery of God.
1t has been a mystery to the Jews and
a mystery to the world in general, and
the Lord so intended it to be. No one
can understand the matter nor appre-
ciate it, except be be in the right con-
dition of heart and begotten OF the
holy Spirit To such the Lord says.
ITO you it is given to know the mys-
terry of the Kingdom of heaven. but to
all outsiders these things are spoken
in parallels and in dark sayings"
Some who cannot perceive in the full
appreciative sense what we shall show,
may nevertheless be able to appreciate
the matter to a limited degree
The mystery is this: God intends to
have a larger Messiah than the Jews
had understood. Not only so, but he
will be on a higher plane than they had
supposed and accomplish far greater
blessing than they had supposed.
Gods purpose is to have multitude
nous Messiah and to select the men,
bers thereof from many nations. As
compared with the world these will be
a "little flock" AS the Master said.
Fear not, little flock, it is your Fa-
theirs good pleasure to give you the
Kingdom" Each member OF this little
flock company must develop the same
characteristics which were exemplified
In their Redeemer. Jesus. They must
have his spirit or disposition. Like
him they must lay down their lives in
the service of righteousness. Truth and
The brethren. They will become joint
sacrifcers with him.
The Sufferings of Messiah.
Here the question arises. If no Jew
but Jesus Sauld Keep the Divine Law
perIecuIy. ana II be could keep it only
because he was not a member of
Adams race directly, and if only by
keeping the Divine Law perfectly Je-
sus could be accounted worthy to be
I.
ly glory. how could any of the fallen
race be acceptable? We read that "he
was holy. harmless and indebted, sep
arate from sinners" OF him again we
read that. in order to be thus holy, he
required specially miraculous birth.
These things being true how would it
be possible for even a little flock" to
be found who would be acceptable to
God as joint sacrificers with Jesus?
How could even a little flock be found
who would be of the same spirit as
Jesus. a copy of him in character?
The Scriptural answer is that some
could indeed be found possessed of the
character likeness of Jesus in the sense
that they would desire to do perfectly.
but none could be found able to do per-
fectly, because all are sharers In in
herited sin. This is a part of the
mystery" which gradually unfolds to
those who have the hearing ear and
the understanding heart and the eye
of faith. The Lords explanation OF
the matter is this: when Jesus had
sacrificed his earthly rights and had
been received to spirit nature, and had
the earthly rights at his command to
give away, '.he assembled up on high