The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1910-07-19
"BE YE
RECONCILED
TO GOD"
Text. you that were sometime
aienated. and enemies in your mind by
wicked works, yet now hath he rec
onciled" (CoIossians i. I'D.

Co..
Calvin. Knox and others of the re-
formers. we may then see. were quite
right in their insistence that none at
the present time are in a reconciled
condition toward God except the COM
paratively few of our race-the saints.
These turn from sin to righteousness,
| turn from disobedience to faith and
| conservation. and in and through the
merit of the Redeemer are acceptable
as probationary members Of the elect
Church. If faithful they will shortly,
IN the first resurrection" constitute
the Church Of glory. the Bride. the
Lambs Wife and Heir.
Brothers Wesley. Whitfield and 9th
ers were also right in their proposition
that God was not content with electing
merely sanity handful, but surely
loved the whole world and would sure
~ give to every member of the race a
full opportunity to come to knowl-
edge Of Christ and to seek share in
the merit of his sacrifice for sins and
al opportunity III l1AC CbGIldSlluK.
Those dear brethren contended ear
nestly with each other over their differ
ences. the one upholding the doctrine
OF Election. the other contending for
the doctrine of Free Grace. Now we
see that both were right Now we see
that the election belongs to this Gospel
Age and to the High Calling TO the di-
|. vine nature and that in an age follow
ing this Free Grace toward all Of the
race of Adam will prevail 1.-THE
knowledge of the Lord shall fill the
whole EARTH" every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess" Then those
who. under the rule and assistance and
uplifting influences of the 'elect" will
come into harmony with the Divine
Law. will be blessed with full recon-
Citation to God and eternal life on the
human plane-in Paradise restored
while the intelligently perverse. in
stead of being everlastingly tortured
as we had supposed. will, as the Apos-
tie says, be punished with everlasting
destruction Ql Thessalonians |. 81.
From this viewpoint the glory of our
Redeemer and the glory of our heaven
ly Father are multiplied a million
times. Our Redeemer not only is to be
the Savior of the little flock" his
Church. his Bride. on the spirit plane
of glory, but additionally. through the
agency of his Millennial Kingdom, he
is to be the Savior of the world. He
tasted death for every man." as the
Scriptures declare. and, as they ex-
press it. HE shall see Of the travail Of
his soul and be satisfied" isaiah lii,
III. Who could suppose that the Savior
would be satisfied with the result of
his labor if only about one in a million.
as members of his Church, reach the
heavenly glory-land?
Who in our day could for a moment
believe the suggestion of Brother Jona-
than Edwards. the great New England
preacher. who declared that the Lord
and his saints would. together, look
over the battlements of heaven at their
neighbors and friends and children suf-
fering an eternity of UNRELIABLE torture
at the hands of demons. and turn
around and praise God the louder on
this behalf? Poor Brother Edwards
had. we believe. but a small concep-
ton Of Divine Justice and Divine Love
And his difficulty was that he did not
see what is now so distinct and clear
to Bible students, namely, that the BIZ
BILE He'll to which all humanity goes Is
not place of torture nor of conscious
ness at all, but the grave, sheol, hades
the tomb.
Instead of Christ and the saints
praising God because of the tortures
Of the poor groaning creation. the d.
vine program shines resplendently,
showing US that the Redeemer and his
Church will for thousand years be
sublimest and most gigantic character
"a work not. only for a living remnant
of the race. but one which will in
clude in its blessing all the thousands
Of millions of humanity under the Dr.
vine sentence. 1.-THE wages of sin Is
death" Truly the Scriptures declare,
AS the heavens are higher than the
earth. so are Gods ways higher than
mans ways and Gods plans loftier
than mans conceptions.
Notice next the context. ST. Paul,
after mentioning Christ as the Head
of the Body. the Church, who is the
first-begotten. the flrst-born from the
dead, that in all things he might have
the pre-eminence. adds, For it pleased
the Father that In him should all full
ness DWELL and that (afterJ having
made peace through the blood of his
cross by him to reconcile all things
unto himself-both the things In earth
and things in heaven (Colossians |,
1920. The Apostle indicates the great
scope of Christ's work as 1t shall be
eventually when finished He is ap-
pointed of the Father to establish peace
and righteousness throughout the Uni
verse. But he has not yet accom-
plished all of this. He has only begun.
He has died for the sins Of the world.
as well as for the sins Of the Church.
But he has not yet offered to Justice
the satisfaction for the worlds sins:
He first appears before God as the
great Advocate for the elect Church,
'called" of God in advance to be the
Bride, the Lambs Wife" Note how
the Apostle expresses this thought In
our text, verse q.
The Church First Reconciled.
"And you, that were sometime
alienated, and enemies in your mind
by wicked works. yet now hath he
reconciled in the body of his flesh
through death. to present you holy and
unblamable and unreprovable in his
(he Father's) sight. If We continue in
the faith" etc.
Who are these and why are they
reconciled in advance of the remainder
of the world-brought in advance into
fellowship with the Father by the Re-
deemer as his Bride? These were by
nature children of wrath even as
Others" By nature they were alien
ated and enemies in their mind by
wicked works. They were unlike the
Redeemer. who was holy, harmless
and indebted and separate from sin
ners." Why then did Gods grace
specially come to this classic US who
are of the Church of Christ. accepted
In the Beloved" one? What did we do
or could we do to contribute to this