The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-05-21
PEOPLES PULPIT.
generalization, Pre-
destination and
Election.
Pastor Russells Discourse
at Glasgow, Scotland.

consciousness or pain or pleasure until
the Second Coming of the Redeemer
in the morning of the Resurrection.
Thank Gcd, then, for the rolling
away of the mists of darkness and
error which permits us to see in the
Bible that the common salvation"
Gods provision for the world, will be
a Restitution. restoration to human
perfection in the rejuvenated earth. a
worldwide Paradise! Thank God for
the promises to the effect that then
1.-The knowledge of the glory Of God
shall fill the whole earth as the waters
cover the great deep and that "the
Sun Of Righteousness shall arise with
healing i'm his beams;" that nothing
shall hurt or destroy or injure in all
Gods holy Kingdom;" that "the way
faring man, though. simple, need not
err therein" and that broad high
way shall be there as a way of saliva
tion--a much travelled way-and that
all the redeemed Of the I,ord shall
be privileged to go up thereon out
of sin and death conditions to con-
ditions of life everlasting. We thank
God, too, that those who shall re-
fuse to make proper progress and
shall fail of that common salvation"
because of willful sin will not be
permitted to live endlessly in sin, nor
in torment, but will be utterly de-
stroyed in the Second Death; because
God is able to destroy both soul and
body in Gehenna, the Second Death.
We thank God also that the elect
Church, under Christ, the Captain of
their salvation, are promised share
in that glorious work of the Redeemer,
in blessing all the families of the earth
in bringing to them that common (gen.
eraD salvation.
Your High Calling.
If once we dreaded to think Of Gods
grace toward us in accepting us as
members Of his elect Church, because
Of the opposing thought of the damna-
ton of the nOnelect, we may now cor
respondingly rejoice the more in our
privilege of election, seeing that it
means our privilege Of sharing in the
worlds uplift under the direction of
Emmanuel, our Lord, during his Mil
lennial reign. The Apostle speaks Of
the prospect of the elect as ''our High
Calling" and again, "our heavenly
calling" The thought is that we are
called to a very high honor and won
derful distinction and that on a heav-
emily plane. The Gospel Church is in
vited to experience a change Of nature
from human to divine, from the high
est of the earthly natures to the high
est of the heavenly natures-far above
angels and principalities and powers
and every name that is named-"joint
heirs with Christ" "partakers of the
Divine nature" members of "the
Bride, the Lambs wife, @
Truly do the Scriptures tell that not
many would be able to hear, to appre-
ciate, to understand, to accept this
high calling. The Divine arrangement
of the call is elective, selective. 1t
appeals to some and does not appeal to
others. 1t has an attraction for some
and not for others.
If we had here box of sawdust and
scattered through it paper of tacks
until the latter were quite hidden from
view. surrounded and covered in the
sawdust, we know that we could take
a magnet and, by passing it to and
fro amongst the sawdust, the magnet
would attract to itself every tack. 1t
might indeed exercise still further
Of hn 1dr1c
but.,the hold would be so slight that
we could blow it off, while the tacks
would be firmly held by reason of their
responsiveness to the magnetic inf1u-
ence. The box of sawdust represents
the world of mankind. The tacks of
of humanity, Jealous at heart for God
and for righteousness. The magnet
the Gospel invitation which
is now passed up and down, hither and
thither throughout the civilized world,
and to some extent, into the heather
world
1t is not the design of the Lord to
elect, select, choose, gather all man.
kind the sawdust) by the magnet;
merely he would now gather the true
hearted, represented by the specks Of
steel, the tacks. The illustration might
be enlarged by supposing some other
tacks Of other metallic composition not
SO subject to the magnetic influence rs
the steel. The illustration . these
would represent mixed characters, such
as we see about us in the world every
where. The illustration might be ex
tended to include good lacks covered
with dirt or other foreign substance
which. would hinder them from re-
spending to the influence of the mag.
net and this would represent true char.
acters encrusted with the cares of this
life. the deceitfulness Of riches. etc.
"Elect according to the foreknowl-
edge Of God through sanctifcation OF
the spirit and the belief of the Truth,
writes the Apostle. God designed the
election of this Age. He desired to
separate to himself peculiar people,
to be the associates Of Jesus, their
Redeemer. in his subsequent work of
uplifting the willing and Obedfent OF
the world Of mankind. But God has
not predestinated nor desired the cleo
ton of any except a sanctifed class,
a class not sanctified through stripes,
not through force or compulsion, but
through a knowledge of the
Truth. Such are drawn to God in de-
vOtion through knowledge of his