Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1909-11-06
Sermon by
CHARLES T..
RUSSELL.
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

.
| Cs-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s
Sunday. October 31.-Pastor Russell
| Of Brooklyn Tabernacle preached to-
day from the above text and said in
| part
Tomorrow will be observed by our
friends Of the Catholic. Lutheran and
| Episcopal churches as "All Saints
Day" At an early date after the death
of the apostles, probably in the third
century, the custom crept into the
| Church of invoking the blessing of the
saints. Some held in remembrance a
patron saint. whose influence and
| memory were Of merely local char
! acter, and a certain day in the year
was set apart as memorial and for
invoking his influence in the heavenly
courts. When subsequently papacy
was organized, gradually the majority
of the Christian congregations acceded
to papacy's claims that its bishop is
the special vicar of Christ. reigning in
his stead and exercising his authority.
Many submitted themselves to this
rule and thus were absorbed into that
great system which still holds sway
in the world. 1t was papacy tnat es-
tablished .All Saints lay" as holy
day for the invocation of all saints not
otherwise particularly provided for by
separate days of invocation.
Although saints admittedly are rare
few in comparison to profeSsed
Christians-neverthele it seems there
were enough so considered in the time
of Gregory w. to appropriate nearly
all the days of the year. In other
words. there were about 365 recognized
in Gregory's time-after Christianity
had been in operation for 500 years.
Hence tomorrow will be the day for
invoking the blessing of all the saints
of the past one thousand years. But
just how many or how few they are.
according to the records of the cele-
brating churches, we do not surely
know. Ii the records of the first eight
centuries were correct. in the same
proportion we should not expect that
the total number of saints recognized
would be above one thousand. One
sad thought connected with the cele
bration tomorrow must present itself
to all thinking minds amongst the cele-
brants; that is, that only the sanity
! do they acknowledge as of holy char
acter, dit for heaven. because the un-
sanity, the unholy. would certainly be
unfit. The teaching of papacy is that
since only the sanity can be ushered
into heaven at the time of their death,
all the insanity. the undeyeloped.
they bold. must first experience awful
tortures in Purgatory-to purify them.
to make them ready for heaven.
Protestants on the contrary have dis
carded Purgatory. claiming that il is
an uDscriptural doctrine. They do not.
however, claim that any but the saint
ly are prepared for heaven at death.
nor that God has promised heaven to
the untaught or undeveIoped in Chris
tian character. Hence in some respects
the Protestant theory is still more
grievous. more terrible. more awful.
for the bereaved than the Catholic
view. in that it offers no hope for all
eternity to any INSTANTLY. Prayers 10
the saints. we believe to be unserip-
tural and unreasonable. Nowhere in
the Bible are we authorized to pray TO
the dead-either saints or sinners. On
the contrary the Scriptures set forth
our Heavenly Father as the supreme
object of worship. though they do in
innate the propriety of praying to our
Lord Jesus also. AS we read. "All men
should honor the Son ever as they hon
or the Father" John V. 23l. But pray
ers to the dead are unreasonable, ac
cording to the Bible. which teaches
that "the dead know not anything"
(Ecclesiastes ix. 81: that their sons
| come to honor and they know il not to
dishonor and they perceive it not OF
them Job xiv. 21,; and that there Is
no work. nor device. nor knowledge.
nor wisdom. in the grave, whittier
thou goest" (Ecclesiastes tx. l0,.
The Scriptures do recognize the diff
| ference between the saints. the Lords
holy ones. and the remainder of man
kind. And it is assuredly true that he
| great masses of humanity are totally
unfit for the glories and projections of
the heavenly state. 1t is true that The
| Church is called upon to develop be
fruits and graces of the holy Spirit,
| and is assured. as ST. Peter declares.
.'If ye do these things. We shall never
| fall; for so an entrance shall be min
| istered unto you abundantly into the
everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ" 0I Peter i. II.
But we hold that it is not only un
| scriptural. but irrational. TO believe
| that all mankind except the SANITY de-
serve centuries of torment in i'urga
tory or an eternity of torture il,
worse and hopeless place. Let us take
the Scripturai proposition. the only
| consistent cne, the one which agrees
with our FIVE senses and with the BIZ
ble-that the dead are dead. and that
resurrection from death is what they
need and what our Lords death will
secure for every member OF our race.
Let us accept this statement of the hi
Bile, BLESSED and holy is be that hath
part in the First Resurrection. Oh sucE
the Second Death hath no power. but
they shall be priests Of God and Of
Christ. and shall reign with him a
thousand years" (Revelation xx. 81. Let
us accept the Scriptural explanation OF
that thousand years, that MilleDniai