The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1911-10-31

through a recognition Of their own i'm
perfection, and of Jesus and His sac
rifice as the satisfaction for their sins,
q covering for their blemishes, by
which alone their sacrifices were rem
dered "holy and acceptable to Cod
Romans xii, l.
Sowing Follows Reaping.
The reaping work Of the Jewish Age
merged into the sowing work of the
Gospel Age as the invitation to be-
come joint-sacrificers with Jesus was
extended to those having hearing ears
amongst nations aside from the Jews.
For eighteen centuries this sowing
work. with narrowing" experiences and
various cvltivations. has been in prog
ress. Now In turn we have arrived at
the harvest of this Gospel Age-the
reapiDg time. the time of gathering
Into the garner-beyond the vell-by
the power of the First Resurrection.
"None Of the wicked shall under
stand. but the wise shall understand"
Daniel xii. 10,. is the Lords declara-
don. Our text declares that "Ye,
brethren, are not In darkness" respect
ing this time. This implies, either that
the brethren are very few. or that a
considerable number of them have not
yet become sufficiently awake to a dis
cernment of the times and seasons in
which we are living. Many of the
brethren and many Of the world and
many Of the wicked" do realize that
we are living in strange times and un-
der peculiar conditions. These try to per-
suade themselves, however, that what
we see today is merely recurrence Of
what has repeated itself time and
again during the past centuries. Thus
these lull themselves, saying, "Peace
and safetyp'
This attitude is what the Scriptures
foretold. when hev shall say peace
and safety, then sudden destruction
cometh upon them" 1t Is only I'VE,
brethren" who are privileged to have
the clearer light respecting present
and future conditions. We know that
we are In the Harvest time of this Age
the reckoning time-the testing time
the time when the wheat" Is to be
gathered into the heavenly garner
the time when the field Is to be cleared
Of all "tares" in a fiery trouble-the
time when the plowshare of trouble
will be run through the world of man
kind to prepare the whole world for
the New Dispensation just about to be-
gin.
Tho PIowman Overtakes the Reaper.
Illustrating the Divine methods and
the rapid following Of events in the
Divine Program, the Lord through the
Prophet tells us that 1.-The plowman
will Overtake the reaper" (AmOs tx,
49, So accurately timed is every fea-
ture Of the Divine Plan that part fits
to part and work to work closely. The
Harvest of the present time is the
gathering of the frultage of this Cos
pei Age-the gathering Of the Church
of the First-born. whose names are
written In heaven"-those who have
made Covenant with Jehovah by sac
rifice.
The Head of the sanity Messiah. de
veloped and glorifed eighteen centur
les ago. is Jesus. The members Of thG
Body Of this Messiah have been gath
cred from every nation. first from the
Jews and then from all nations. Gods
call and selection OF sanity sacrificerf
In this Gospel Age Ignores all sec
tartan. all denominational, all national
lines-"The Lord knoweth them that
are His" The winds of violence. "the
powers of the air" which will shortly
be loosed. and which will produce the
terrific storm" are being held back
until the sealing Of Gods servants In
their foreheads shall have been accom-
pllshed
This sealing In the forehead implies
an intellectual appreciation of heaven
iy things, and Is intimately associated
with the harvest work-the sealed are
the ripe wheat being gathered for tn,
heavenly garner. As soon rs the seal
ing work shall have been accomplish
ed the winds of strife and trouble will
be let loose according to the Masters
declaration, and the result will be Q
time of trouble such as never was
since there was II natlon"-no. mol
ever shall be the like again. The NV
fnl lessons which will then be learned
by humanity will he sufficient for al
time. The strife. the hatred. the mn
lignlty, the anarchy of that day o.
trouble nre depicted In various places
In the Word of God.
The trouble time impending IN indeed
declared 10 be II time of Divine wrath
and we must not lose sight OF that fea
| ture OF II. Divine Justice has lndigna
tion against in'cQulty and selilshnes
In general. for sellishness Ia but un
other name for sin. All sin In selfish
and all sellshness Is sin, The cap
tains OF industry. the captains of edu
cation, and captains of wealth hav'
today greater opportunities and there
fore greater responsibilities than tn
kings OF the earth for their dealing
with their fell0wmen.
Similarly. there are leaders of tn
people, presidents and secretaries o
unions, etc. who are also captains
aud who also have great responsibility