Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1910-08-09
Sermon by
CHARLES T.
RUSSELL,
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

!
jamestown, N. Y, August 7.-Pastor
Russell of the Brooklyn Tabernacle
today addressed a very large meeting
OF Bible Students In Celoron Audi
| forum. The occasion was a General
| Convention of Bible Students The
audience was estimated at nearly
| 5000. Taking for his text the above
words, the speaker said:
| The Bible, to be understood, must
be viewed from its own standpoint.
This. as Bible students, we are learn
Ing more and more particularly every
day. In the past we have read our
Bibles "up-side-down." Many read as
duty; others as a sort of charm that
would placate Divine Justice and
| bring us Divine favor. Now we are
learning to read the Bible in a COM
nonsense way. and to use our reason
ing faculties in connection with its
statements and prophecies. AS a con-
| sequence, while others are falling from
| the faith-some into infidelity styled
Higher Criticism and Evolution; 9TH
ers into fanciful wrestings of the
Word Of God-we are coming to appre-
ciate the Bible as the most safe and
sane Book in the world Correspond
ingly our faith in God increases-faith
| in his Wisdom, Justice Love and Pow
er to accomplish all the good purposes
| which he purposed in himself before
| the creation of our race. Correspond
ingly, too, we are coming to appreciate
more than ever the value of the great
Redeemer and of the great sacrifice
| for sin which he accomplished at Cal
vary. We are oming to see the truth
Of what we once considered poetic
| license when we sang,
There's Wilderness in Gods mercy
| Like the Wilderness of the sea-
| We are seeing more clearly as the
| days go by the meaning of the Scrip
| ture which declares that eventually
| the Redeemer shall see of the travail
of his soul and be satisfied" We per-
ceive now that the little handful Of
saints walking in the Masters foot
steps from Pentecost to his Second
| Advent and sharing in the First Res
| direction" is not the end Of Divine
| Love for our race. but merely its be-
| ginning-"A first-fruits unto God of
| his creatures" Games |, 49,. We are
now seeing that according to the Di-
| vine purpose, the calling and election
| Of the Church to the spirit nature,
| to the divine nature, must be com
| pleted before the second step in the
| great Divine Plan Of Salvation begins
the recovery Of the world from sin
! and death conditions, to human per-
lection and Paradise restored
| LET Dead Bury Their Dead"
| No Bible topic requires more careful
discrimination in it's study than does
| the subject of death. This is mainly
because of the general confusion of
mind which came upon Christendom
during the long centuries of the
Church's comparative darkness, when
| Bibles (the Lamp of God upon the
Christians path were scarce, and
when few could read the truths of
| priceless value, that were chained to
lecterns. In consequence Of this con-
| fusion we hear intelligent people talk
| ignorantly and stupidity respecting
| death. They make confusion worse
COMPOUNDED by telling us Of Adams
spiritual death and discussing mat
ural" death and 1.-The death that never
| dies" etc., etc.
| To get the Bible view of death we
need to brush away such foolish bab-
| blings and confine ourselves to Bible
language and the rational thought con-
nected herewith Fer instance, ac-
cording to the Bible, there is no mat
ural death"-it is not natural for man
to die. 1t is according to the Bible ar
| rangement and mans nature that he
should Twelve eternally, as do the
| angels, if obedient to the Divine COM
mands. Death, therefore, is the un-
natural thing! Do we think Of angels
as dying, and of heaven as filed with
cemeteries? Have they doctors and
undertakes there? Surely not! Yet it
would be just as proper to speak of
natural death amongst the angels as in
respect to men.
| The term spiritual death so frequent
| ly used respecting Adam and his fall
] is wholly unscriptural No such ex-
preston is found in the Bible; neither
| such a thought. Adam could not die
a spiritual death, because he was not
| a spirit being. He was an earthly be-
ing-not an angel, but a man. AS the
Scriptures declare of Adam, Thou
madest him little lower than the an
| gels; and crownest him with glory and
honor. and didst set him over the works
| Of thy hands; "oyer the beasts Of
| the field. the fish of the sea and the
/ fowl of the air. (Hebrews ii, Z; Psalm
viii, 5, O..
1t is, therefore, absurd for us to
continue longer to speak of Adam dy-
ing a spiritual death, while admit
| ting that he was not a spirit being.
1t was simply the man Adam that
died His death. however. did include
the gradual processes of decay. and
affected not only his bones and mus
eles, but also his brains-his every
mental and n,0T;.i quality. The SEN
tSrce, Dying, thou shalt die" took
hold of him as an entirety; hence
we find, as the Scriptures declare,
that there is none righteous; no,
not one"-none mentally, morally or
| physically right. All have sinned.
All come short Of the glory of
| God In which Adam was created.
| Nh 4 KfINH EK