The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-09-16

| fact. Then. with blank CONSERVATION.
they determined that they nlus. crowd
! the entire mass into licl! Of etcrnai
torture and shut the gates anon them
forever and write upon the gates.
"Who enters here abandons hone"
Brother Calvin to the Rescue.
Taking from practically all human.
ity all future hope made the Refu-niers
for the time heartsick. Il wu,id be
awful to do that for one person. but
to thus do all humanity seemed ter
rible. And then to be obliged IL label
that gospel Good Tidings" must Ger
tainly have been trying experience
for the Reformers.
But Brother John Calvin helped
them amazingly and took from them
their burden. He told them that they
should not worry. because 1t was ali
Gods fault and not theirs. God hnd
predestinated them to that awful fG-
ture long before he created man. Now
they should merely try TO think of
themselves rs the elect and Try 20
forget everybody else. OF course. (
seemed horrible TO charge all these
things against the God of all Justice.
Wisdom, Love and Power. But it was
the only solution which occurred to
them John Calvin's theories were
afterwards embodied in the West
minister Confession Of Faith" And
that confession Of faith became the
foundation OF nearly all Protestant
creeds. Brother John Wesley after
ward objected. but admitted that only
the sanity went to heaven and every
body else went to eternal torment
His protest was that, instead of this
being by Divine generalization and in
tention. it was. on the contrary. be-
cause Of Divine unwisdom and incom-
potency.
"Good Tidings Of Great JOY"
Surely no sane person can any longer
defend any of the above Gospels" as
the true one. of which st. Paul was
not ashamed! Surely st. Paul never
preached any Of those Gospels. nor did
any of the Apostles-nor does the Bible
support such theories. except by the
turning and twisting of language. mis-
transactions Of the original and misin-
corporations of some parallels. The
plain statements Of the Scriptures are
all directly to the opposite.
The Bible teaches that 1.-THE wages
OF sin is DEATH" not Purgatory noi
eternal torment. The soul that sin
meth, it shall die" Adam, the perfect.
was placed on trial for life eternal Oh
death eternal He sinned and the sch
tence against him was. Cursed is tue
earth for thy sake; thOrns and THISTLE
shall it bring forth unto thee In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
until thou return unto the ground from
whence thou vast taken" Genesis iii.
1910. st. Paul declares the same:
by one mans disobedience sin enter
ed into the world; and thus death
passed upon all men. because all are
sinners" (Romans V. 12).
Looking about us we find this true.
Everybody who is not dead is dying.
AS the Bible says. we are living I'M
der Il reign Of Sin and Death. Nothing
that man can do can either eradicate
sin or lift us out Of our dead and dy
ing condition. God alone can help us,
He proposes to help us and the mes
sage respecting that help is. in the
Scriptures. called the Gospel Its an
nouncement by the angels on the night
of Jesus birth is full, complete. sat
isfactory. viz: Behold. we bring you
good tidings Of great joy which shall
be unto all people; for unto you is
born this day in the City Of David Il
Savior Qife-giver) which is Christ the
Lord duke ii, 10).
All. now we have the Truth: The
penalty Of sin is death. And the good
tidings" is that God has provided for
our recovery from sin and death. The
Savior gave his life for the cancella
ton Of our sin. for the satisfaction of
Justice. that in due time Adam and all
his condemned and imperfect race
might be released from the condemna
ton and be lifted out of the sin and
death conditions which now prevail.
That uplifting is Scripturally called
the resurrection of the dead. Hence
the preaching Of the early Church was,
Jesus and the Resurrection"-th Re
deemer and his work.
Still More Good Tidinas.
The good tidings for the race in gen.
eral is that the Redeemer in Gods due
time apill become King of kings and
Lord of lords-the Messiah of glory.
Gods glorious Representative For
thousand years the regenerating
work for Adams race will progress
N1atthew xix. %; Acts iii, 1929.
Gods Chosen People, Israel. will be
the earthly agents of the heavenly and
invisible King of glory. BY the close
Of his reign the whole earth will have
been transformed into the Paradise Of
God He will make the place of his
feet glorious" And mankind viii all
be perfect again. in Gods image
There will be no more sin, no more
sickness. no more dying, because all
the things of sin and death will have
passed away and he who sits upon
the Throne will have renewed all
things Revelation xxi. 81. Ali who
after coming to a full knowledge of
the Truth of Gods love and gracious
provision. still love sin and hate right
eousness. will be destroyed in the Sec
ond Death. from which there will be
no redemption. no resurrection. no re-
covery: as St Peter says. They shall,