The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1910-04-15
Sermon by
CHARLES +.
RUSSELL
Pastor Brooklyn
abernacle.


entitled, The Overthrow of Satan's
Empire" The other, which we report.
was on the necessity for the Millen.
mum from ;he text above quoted,
Pastor Russell said
Respecting two matters there can
be no question:
a. That the early Church thorough
ly believed in Millennial Kingdom,
hoped for it, prayed for it-"Thy
Kingdom come; thy will be done on
earth as IT is done in heaven"
(2) 1t Is equally certain that today
the doctrine of the Millennium is ia
booed as "out of date"-out of har-
mony with the views of the Higher
Critics and Evolutionists, who are
filing practically all the chairs in our
colleges and the majority of the pull
pits Of Christendom.
What has led to this radical change
on the part of the religious wise men
of all denominations? Have they TAX
Ell a step in advance or are they de
parting from the path-frOm the teach
ingS of the inspired Word of God?
That they have left the Word of God,
that they make light of it, that they
profess far more wisdom and ability
than the writer's of the Bible and a
higher intellectual inspiration than
they, is indiSputable. The question
for us is, viii Christians in consider
able numbers follow these leaders
away from God, away from all Divine
revelation? Will we put our trust in
literary princes who claim the right
to instruct the world, not by Divine
appointment or authority, but by vir-
tue of their large amount of self
esteem?
The present day concept of the
Church of Christ is that God planted
it amongst men as leaven in a batch
of dough with the intent that it should
propagate itself until the entire mass
would be leavened. But the Bible
apostolic concept of the Churchs mes
sage is the very reverse of this-that
it is planted in the world, not with
view to converting the world, but on
the contrary to keep itself separate
from the world and to draw to itself
LAS many as the Lord your God shall
CALI of the pure in heart-to sacrifice
earthly interests for Divine interests,
unto death. and later, by the First
Resurrection. to enter into the heaven
ly glory of the Redeemer as his
Bride" his Wife" his 'Joint-Heh"
in the Kingdom glory and the Kingdom
WOrk. And the work Of that Kingdom
is set forth to be the blessing of all
the families of the earth"
The two views are so radically oppo-
site that none should confuse them in
their minds. If one is right, the other
is wrong. If one is Scriptural, the
other is unscriptural. In the above
item DR. Brown admits that the Scrip
tural view entertained by the early
Church contemplated the Church in
suffering and in a temporary or taber-
nacle condition in the present life and
promised share with Christ in his
reign in power and great glory, as
Gods Kingdom during the Millennium.
The safe. the proper the right course
is to go back and take up afresh the
doctrine of the Mllennium-the doc
trine that the faithful of the Church
now being tried and tested will consti-
tute the glorious Kingdom Of Gods
dear Son after their change from
earthly to spirit conditions in the
First Resurrection" q Corinthians
XIV. 42-44).
The Laymen's Movement.
God bless the Christian Endeavor
and Epworth League and Students
Missionary League and the Laymen's
Movement, all intent on "Storming the
world for Jesus" We bear them wit
ness that they have zeal for God
which we greatly admire and would
encourage. But their zeal is mot ac-
cording to knowledge" and is there
fore considerably misdirected To any
one of logical mind, who will reason
from statistics, the thought Of convert
ing the world by singing a few rous-
ing hymns or holding few enthusi.
astic meetings for the collection OF
money! money!! money!! would be
childish. We do not despise childish
ness. We have all had our share. But
we all should say with the Apostle,
when | was child. spake as
child and understood as child; but
when / became man / put away
childish things" q Corinthians xiii, III.
christian people have been fooling
themselves long enoughw Yes, it is
as absolutely irrational to think Of
converting the world, as 1t is unscrip-
tural to believe that God ever gave US
that impossible commission. The Unit
ed States census reports show that
there are twice as many heather to-
day as there were century ago. The
word heather carries to many very
wrong impression. Many noble heart
ed Christians have gone as mission
aries to the heather wholly unpre.
pared for what they met-intelligent
reasoning ability, etc. They found that
the heather were full of questions,
logical questions too, which they as
Christians had never thought Of and