River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-05-12

COMBINES on battle field it
- would appear as though each
man were fighting for himself. All
battle lines seem lost in the con-
fusion; yet in the end the victory
| will show the same clear-cut distinc
lions as prevailed in the beginning
of the battle. According to the
| Great Teacher the entire human
| family is either on one side or on
the other side of a great battle be-
tween right and wronG. truth and
error, God and Satan. There is no
doubt whatever as to how the bat
tie will end-God will have the vic
tory. Indeed the Bible assures us
that at any time he could quickly
put an end to the conflict, deliver
his saints, overthrow Satan and his
empire, etc. The Divine promise is
that this will be done in Gods due
time"-when the Church will be
completed and changed by the pow
er of the First Resurrection, and the
time shall come for the establish
ment of Messiah's Millennial King
dom for the blessing of all the ma
tons of the earth.
Is it asked why the long delay of
now six thousand years that sin has
| triumphed, two thousand Of this
since Messiah died for the redemp-
ton of sinners and their release
from the death sentence? The an
swer is that during these nineteen
| centuries those whom he has favor
ed with some knowledge of his will
testing their loyalty to him, to his
Law, to his representatives-he is
testing because he seeks to find,
amongst those protesting loyalty,
such as have the principles of right
eousness at heart. Our present
Study shows how some at the First
Advent were thus tested and we
know that throughout these nine
teen centuries the experience of the
footstep followers of the Nazarene
have been similar to his own. FIRE.
quently they have been hated with
out cause = maligned, misunder-
stood, slandered-soretimes by fell
low-religionists of honorable stand
ing. In every such instance we are
to remember that tn re are but two
sides to the conhicr-the side of
God, truth, righteousness, and the
side of error, falsehood, Satan.
AS we see how blindly scribes and
PhariSeeS and Doctors of the Law
hated Jesus and said all manner of
evil against him, we perceive that
really they were on Satan's side.
AS we see Saul of Tarsus stoning
Stephen to death and others perse-
cutting followers of Jesus, we see
clearly that they were in Satan's
service, deluded by him and, IN
some instances, we are assured that
these servants of Satan and un-
righteousness verify thought that
they did God service. Let us there
fore be on guard along these lines,
remembering the words of the Great
Teacher, Eye cannot serve God and
mammon." He thai is not for me
is against me-" He that gathereth
not with me seattle eth abroad. :
Alas, how many noble people have
unwittingly been on tle wrong side
of the great controversy-fghting
against God and the Truth, igno-
rantly deluded by the Adversary.
BY permitting this conflict and the
measure of darkness, God is the
more effectively trying, testing,
those whom he has called to be his
people. Not only are we tried d1-
rectly as to the side we will take,
bur, in a secondary sense, we are
tried as respects our humility.
| Those who are honest Of heart and
who make the mistake of fighting
against God, when I heir eyes are
opened, have great est of humil-
ity in the matter of confession OF