Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1911-12-30
Pastor RusselPs Sermon

- 4 VI lQdt Ilnlvnroa
- usu oeen a blot upon the otbsrvIs,
wonderful and gracious mansoamaa, " :,
VI Ine Great Creator. Elsewhere S CT.
mll was perfectly done. AmoDo.,
men there had been FOR foTtv IS, =
turies reign Of sin and death, satar @
sAe,ciseu &c. usurped influence over man,
zlnd' preying upon human weaEno..
ignorance and superstition. A, -.
Apostle declares, he had become ath.
god OF this world" who now w0,L.as ..s
N the children Of disobedIencss N1,I ~
Cor. w. 4; Eph. Ii, D. In the lappu.s. y.
OF Of Jesus he was the Prince, or ruIsr' ~
.ns world in that the great mass Of
mankind, some willingly, more Igno,
rantiy, were his servants.
we can only imagine how matter.
must have appeared to the boly an.
gels, who for long centuries previonsIr
nad witnessed no disloyalty to Cod
ana no unhappiness amongst His creo.
lures on any plane Of being; for them
now to see Satan in rebellion and 9th.
er angels following his course and ba
coming demons, and to see man. made
In Gods image, demonized and hi.
neart Of tenderness turned to a heart
OF stone and selhsnAess, so that
Mans inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn
All this must have been bewilderinp
to the loyal angels, who doubtless won.
dered whether or not the Universe
could thus pass from the control of the
Almighty Creator. Undoubtedly they
were aware Of the Divine intimation
OF a better day, as expressed in the
promise that the Seed Of the woman
should ultimately bruise the Serpenrs
head; but ah. things had gone from bad
to worse sNce that glorious promise
was made. and Divine Power seemed
less able than ever to grapple with the
powers Of darkness. How they must
have wondered at this!
Gods Oath bound Promise.
Undoubtedly the angels had heard Of
the Divine promise made to Abraham,
and buttressed with the Divine oath,
that by these two immutable assur-
ances-God's Word and His oath-the
blessings promised might be confident
ly expected. And that promise was
twOfOld: Ql That all the families Of the
earth should eventually be blessed. and
(2l that this blessing should come to
them through Abraham's posterity or
seed. We can well imagine how this
joyful news would spread amongst the
heavenly hosts: "A better day is com
ing; the reign Of sin and death in the
world is to be stopped! The blessing
of the Lord is to reach the fallen race
and put an end to ignorance, supersti-
tion, blindness, sin, dying, crying and
pain" "Ah!" they must have said, Ell
nally God is about to take action and
to demonstrate His great Power We
felt sure all along that He possessed
this Power; and yet 1t seems strange
to us that He did not exercise 1t sooner
But these rejoicing angels must have
wearied as they perceived the appar-
ent failure of their expectations. Aft
er long years Of waiting, Ishmael was
born, but seemed a very unsuitable
heir-scarcely a fulfilment of the prom
ise. Long years later came Isaac
whose supernatural birth seemed to
point to the ful6lment of the promise.
But he accomplished nothing wonder
full and died, transmitting the glorious
promise and hope to Jacob. More long
years passed and Jacob did not fulnl
the promise, but left 1t to his family
as a whole-a rather unpromising fam
ily as respected the blessing Of man
kind. Then the nation Of Israel, so
FAR from blessing other nations, went
into bondage to the Egyptians; and all
of Gods promises seemed to have fall
ed.
The Testing Sf the Angels Continued
All what a testing BE gave the
loyal angels! How their faith in Wis
dom and Power Divine must have
been tried! Finally, under Moses the
Diyinely appointed leader. the nation
of Israel suddenly emerged from slav.
.rv and under Divine favor, reached
MI Sinai and there entered into Cove.
with God, as the seed
Of Abraham, heirs Of the Original
promise of blessing the world. now
matters began to look toward a iul-
filmept of the gracious promise tha1
n Abraham and his seed all the familleS
Of the earth would be blesSed-no''
withstanding the fact that AorSHS" 'OO'
dead. ~,
The trying experiences OF the wilaer
ooss must have been disappointing,
oot only TO the Israelltes. but also 10
+bo interested angels beyond the Vell'
Tho 81. Peter tells us. earnestly de,
,,rod 70 look into these things ana
,onSbt 90 for the fulflment Of the prom
Isa II Peter /. 10. Ill Finally Ca
no.r the land of promise. was reaeh,
| ad but the progress of Israel toward
worId.dOmination and blessing was
,'Ow One after another of their enc
mics mics brought them under tribute, a
% rhon came their prosperity for a tune
,nder n King David, who set up nS sns
-hrOno Of the kingdom of the LORD anu
hen under King Solomon. the glOtleo - 4so
. , whose kingdom typihed that OF tne
- 'orr,ng Messiah. Of which they knew
,Otb,ne Then came further failures ,,s
captivities-all WaS'lnS u
'oul ,1aantime the discouraged IsraeIltes
HAeuA 4hov themselves were MOI