The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1909-09-11

Sermon By
CHARLES 7.
RUSSELL
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

Brooklyn, n. Y, Sept, 1.-The Bible
Students Convention which for sew.
eral days has been in session at sara
toga Springs, n. Y, decided to spend
its closing days in Brooklyn, that it
might be addressed there by Pastor
C. I. Russell. The Brooklyn Taber.
nacle proved insufficient in capacity
for this large body of Bible Students
hence the Brooklyn Academy Of Music
was secured for the services of the
day. Pastor Russell addressed the
Bible Students twice, We report one
Of his d~iScourses, from the above text.
He said:
The Great Teacher said Of the lilies
Of the plain, "They toll not neither do
they spin; and yet l say unto you, that
even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one Of these" (Matthew vi
2s, 29). Similarly we believe that in
heaven the angels are free from toll.
Divine power exercised In their inter
est makes toll unnecessary, He who
created the angels and made the lilies
is the same God by whose omnipotent
power we human beings came into ex-
istence. We are surrounded by condi-
lions which call for labor, toll and
sweat of face, as indicated in our text.
Why are these things so? Why is man
less favored by his Creator than the
angels and the lilies? The answer to
this query is found in Gods great
Book. the Bible. AS Bible Students
the majority of us know, of course,
the answer to this query. And yet 1t
may prove beneficial TO us to examine
the question afresh,
| remind you that the words of our
text are Gods comment upon the con
ditions which now obtain and which
were made necessary by mans disc.
bedience and the terms Of his sen.
tence. AS originally created the con
ditlcrs Of sweat of face and battling
with thorns and insects too numerous
to mention were not necessary and
were not imposed upon mankind. On
the contrary, Adam was placed In
Paradise, in the Garden Of Eden.
whose every prospect was beautiful
Its trees were fruitful, yielding a varl.
ETY. and an abundance of life-givin9
Fruit for the maintenance of the king OF
earth and his queen, mother Eve. The
responsibilities Of the situation were
merely to dress, or keep, the garden
to pluck its fruits and to prune the
waste foliage to Adams ~pleasement
Every necessity was provided as sure.
ly as in the case of the angels and the
lilies. The great change which thrust
our first parents from Paradise is the
result OF Original Sin"-disObedience
TO Gcd.
The basis Of the fall may be said to
have been the temptation Of the ser.
pent, but otherwise, too, we may say
that 1t was the loss of faith in God on
the part Of Mother Eve. Had she prop.
erly continued in faith and trust, the
Tempter's suggestions Of ~dlsobedience
would have been promptly rejected.
His suggestion that the great Creator
had been prompted by selfish motives
In forbidding the fruit Of one particu.
lar kind Of tree should have been
promptly recognized as SANDER. And
the further suggestion that the God OF
all Grace and Truth lied to them and
distorted the facts when be warned
that disobedience would result in
death-this misrepresentation should
have been Indignantly resented. But
alas! Mother Eve had not yet reached
that degree Of character development
she succumbed to the temptation
crude as 1t was. Her desire for knowl
elge ensnared her. A lesson to us In
this connection is that any knowledge
which may come to us as Bible Stu
dents, or come to others along any
lines out Of accord with the Divine ties
timony, would be costly knowledge in
deed.
"The Wage Of Sin Is Death"
The result Of the d~lsobedience might
have been the shifting Of our first par.
ents by a t~hunderbolt but, with era
cious purposes, God permitted them Il
have what they undoubtedly preferred
death By a dying process Of cen
turtles. This gave Adam and his pos
terity contact with sin and its pen
atty. The Divine object In 50 doing 1.
scripturally declared to be that al
mankind might learn Of the "exceedinJ
~sinfulness Of SIM" its undeslrability
and the sureness Of its penalty-death
Had IT not been for Gods intention b,
and by TO send the Redeemer and I,
pay mans death penalty, and thus L
make possible his reclamation from
death conditions by recreation proc
esses, our race might better have beer
instantly smltten to oblivion In GU
FIRST parents; and the Twenty Thou
sand Millions Of Adams children nigh
better have remained unborn. How
ever. the Bible clearly reveals that "a
by man adam came death, even 81
by a nan also Jesus comes the resur
rection Of the dead. For as ali Il
Adam die. even so all IN Christ shall
be made alive, every man in his owl
ordnru II Coriufhfona ~ o. oql