The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-04-21


States.
My sermons are handled by a SyndS1
cate, and ! am advised that now they
appear In nearly five hundred news
papers, aggregating circulation OF
six million copies, or. according to-
newspaper count, thirty million read
ers. All Of these dear people of every
denomination who do any thinking az
all, | am sure have had similar diff
culties to those which | experienced
difficulties in approaching how our
Heavenly Father could be good Fa-
Their, a good God. loving Creator
and yet provide for his human cres-
lures such terrible destinies as all tho
creeds Of the dark ages" set forth.
There is not a thinking Christian i'm
the world who does not need the cor
rect understanding of the Bible in
order to be able to stand in the evil
day that is upon us. All need to give
heed to st. Paul's words, Take unto
you the whole armour of God. that
We may be able to withstand in the
evil day, and, having done all, to
stand" (Ephesians vi, 49,. Our day
is blessed one in respect to it's won
derful opportunities and privileges,
but it is an evil one in the sense OF
being a time of great trial and testing
Of faith to Christendom.
Thinking minds are rejecting tho
doctrine of eternal torment and gener-
ally at the same time rejecting the
Bible and denying that it is the in
spired Word of God. These dear
friends are stumbling into infidelity
and think that Higher Criticism ana
Darwin's Evolution theory are new
light What they need is to see that
the true light is in the Bible and that,
wearing our grandfathers' spectacles,
we inherited the Word Of God and
wrested it to our own injury and to
the loss of our peace of mind and fei-
lowship with the Father and with the
Son and with the holy Spirit.
The Key to the Scriptures.
Whoever gets the proper understand
ing of our text has in his possession
the Key to the Bible. If he will use
it, passage after passage will open fox
him and the whole Word OF God be-
comes a new and glorious revelation
Of Justice, Wisdom, Love and Power
Divine. Jonah was in the fishs belly
he was buried alive. 1t is this that
is referred to in our text. The words
hell-belly signify graue-belly or belly
grave. The context shows all this,
telling us additionally that sea-weeds
were whipped about the Prophets
head and that God heard his prayer
and delivered him from the hell-belly,
or belly-grdCe, on the third day by
causing the fish to vomit him up If
you have a reference Bible note that
in the margin there is reference to
the words of our text, saying. He
brew, the grave" All! says one. The
translators merely made a mistake
and translated it hell when they should
have translated it Craze. Yes, i an
swer, and they made the same mis-
take in every case in which they used
the same word SheOl throughout the
Old Testament AS it is sheet is trans
lated Craze more times than it is trans
lated hell in our Common Version: but
it should be translated grave every time
There we have the Key TO the Bible
The hell of the Bible, the penalty for
sin. is death. the grave, the tomb. 1t
is not an everlasting hell, for special
Scriptures declare that SheOl (hell) shall
be destroyed II will ransom them
from the power of the grave tSheOD; /
! will redeem them from death; Q death,
l will be thy plaques; o grave tsheOl-
hell will be thy destruction" Hosea
xiii, AZ. st. Paul quotes this prophecy
in conjunction with his great discourse
on the resurrection. 20 death. where
is thy sting? o grave hddes) where is
thy victory" q Corinthians XIV, 80.
We see. dear friends. what our dear
Redeemer suffered on our behalf TO re-
lease us from the penalty for sin. He
did not go to eternal torment for our
sins. He did go into she0l. into hddcs.
into the Craze. Christ died for our
sins. according to the Scriptures" ID
Corinthians XIV. -. Thus God has pro
vided for the resurrection Of the dead
all mankind. both of the Just and OF
the unjust" The Just are the Church,
the saints The unjust include all 9th
ers. The blood of Jesus. will avail for
the release of every member of the
race from the great. penalty of death.
Now it operates under a special GALS
to the sanity few who are invited to
become joint-heirs with the Redeemef
in his great Kingdom which shortly is
to bless all the families OF the EARTH
not only those then living, but also all
who have gone down to the tomb The
general resurrection will not be an in
| Simultaneous one, as IN the case of the
saints. 1t will be gradual one III
two senses.
a All will not come forth at once,
but. as the Apostle declares, Every
man in his own order" company or
band q Corinthians XIV, 23,.
(2l 1t will be gradual in the sense
that the awakening from the tomb will
be but the beginning of the rpsurrec-
ton of the world. During the thou
sand years of Christ's reign all who
will give heed TO his instructions aud
assistance may rise gradually-up. up,
| np-and by the close of the Millennium
they will reach the full perfection and
image of God lost by Father Adam
through disobedience. The unwilling.
those rebellious after the light has full