The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-08-12
PEOPLES
Sermon by
CHARLES T.
RUSSELL,
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

today addressed 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
q duty; others as q sort of charm that
would placate Divine Justice and
bring us Divine favor Now we are
learning to read the Bible in COM
nonsense way. and to use our reason
ing faculties in connection with its
statements and prophecies. AS 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
err 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 no accommodated (Nol-
vary. We are coming 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 frst-fruits unto God of
his creatures" Games i. 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 CON-
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 its 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 nat
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-
biings and confine ourselves to Bible
nected Herewith. For 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 I'M
natural thing! Do we think Of angels
as dying, and Of heaven as filed with
cemeteries? Have they doctors and
undertakers 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
~ 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 man. AS the
Scriptures declare of Adam. Thou
madest him a little lower than the an
gels; and crownest him with glory and
honor. and didst set him over the works
of thy hands: lover the beasts of
the field, the fish of the sea and the
fowl of the air" (Hebrews ii. Z; Psalm
viii, 5. g.
1t is. therefore. absurd for us to
continue longer to speak Of Adam dy
ing spiritual death. while admit
ting that he was not spirit being
1t was simply the man Adam that
died His death. however. did include
the gradual processes of decay. and
affected not otlly his bones and mus
c,es. but also his brains-his every
mental and moral quality The SEN
tence. Dying. thou shalt die took
hold of him as an entirety hence
we find. as The Scriptures declare
thar 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
From the moment of disObedience and
Divine. condemnation Adam and his
race have been judicially dead and
gradually going down, down. down, in