Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-10-03


may not be strict
tlFASlCR- RUSSEllJj Iy true to say
that everyone in
the large audience went home fully
satisfied that he had located the one
true Church to which the Bible con-
assert, however, that the vast major
ity of those who heard were both
pleased and convinced. No really
great man Is without his enemies, but
1t may surely be said that Pastor Rus
sell Is gaining many friends through
out the Christian world every week
through the widespread reports of his
sermons. The text for the occasion
was, "The Church of the First-Borns,
whose names are written in heaven"
Hebrews xii, %.
Church of Christ One-Not Many
He adverted to the Scriptural rec
ords which refer to the Church of
Christ as one, not as many. Pastor
Russell declared that in this matter
the Church Of Rome and the Church
Of England hold aloot from many
Protestant denominations. They claim
that to recognize them as churches
would be unscriptural, since there is
but one Church of the Living God.
The various Protestant denominations
started out with similar views, similar
theories, though today they have aban-
doned them. The Church of England
formed an organization separate from
that of Rome, believing that the for
mer had been the one true Church but
had departed from the faith, and that
it was the duty Of the faithful to rec
ognize her as Babylon, confusion.
The claim to be the true Church they
applied to themselves. Similarly, Pres
byterians, Methodists, Congregational
lists, A1ventists, Disciples, ETC., have
withdrawn, and many of these origf-
nally claimed to be the one true, loyal,
faithful Church of Christ. Today,
however, the pendulum has swung to
the other side. Moreover, the narrow
ness of the past is rapidly giving way.
All are learning that to be Christian
means more than merely to be i'm
mersed; more than merely to be sprin-
kled; more than merely to believe in
the doctrine of Election; more than
merely to believe in the doctrine Of
Free Grace; more than to believe in
the doctrine of Transubstantiation or
Consubstantiation. With this enlarge
ment of mind Christians are indeed in
danger of losing sight of the fact that
the True Church is the custodian of
1.-The faith once delivered to the saints"
which acknowledges zone Lord, one
Faith, one Baptism one God and Fa-
Their of all, and one -5nrch Of the liv-
ing God"
One Church In Many Churches
The key to the situation is found in
our Lords words: mot all that say
unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the Kingdom of heaven" not all who
call themselves Christians, with one
denominational tag or another, are
members of the one Church, the Church
of the First-borns, mentioned in our
text. AS good, rich milk is sometimes
called cream, so all the members OF
Christian denominations are sometimes
called Christians-in q complimentary
sense, because not unsympathetic with
true Christian principles. Neverthe-
less, only those in all denominations
who have conformed to the conditions
required of Christian discipleship, the
sanity ones, constitute the True
Church-"The Church of the First
born, whose lanes are written In
heaven"
If we had box of sawdust and scat
tered through it paper of tacks I'M
| til the latter were quite hidden from
| view, surrounded and covered in the
sawdust, we know that we could take
q magnet and. by passing 1t to and
| FRO amongst the sawdust, the magnet
would attract to itself every tack.
The tacks of this Illustration repre-
sent a small class of humanity. jealous
| at heart for Cod and righteousness.
| The magnet represents the Gospel in
yitation which is now passed up and
down, hither and thither throughout
the civilized world, and to some ex.
tent, into the heather world.
| When we convince our hearers that
the non-elect of this Age are not doom
ed to eternal torment, but win have q
blessing of inferior degree to that OF
''the elect" the effect should be to
| right our minds and to cause US &c
think carefully and critically of the
stringent terms of diseipleship which