The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1911-12-01

~ leads thereto? st. Paul draws out
attention to the fact that much of the
degradation of the heather should be
directly traced to unthankfulness. He
declares that the Headship of the Al
mighty over all creation, and His un-
limited power are clearly manifested
in the things Of nature.
He declares that the heather ARE
without excuse, because they, when
they knew God, glorified Him not as
God, neither were thankful, but be-
came vain in their imaginations. and
their foolish heart was darkened. Pro-
Tossing themselves to be wise they be-
came foolish and idolaters. Where
fore God also gave them up to unclean-
ness. through the lusts of their own
hearts. to dishonor their own bodies
between themselves" Romans i, 2L)
Unthankfulness to God was not pun
ished directly nor threatened with q
future punishment. Acting autOmat-
ically it separated the unthankful ones
from their Creator, and their course
became downward, degenerate.
The spirit; of unthankfulness as d
malady threatens our present civiliza-
ton with death. Year by year the
sentiment is growing, and discomfort.
when fully hatched out, will be the
viper Of anarchy. for whose virus
there is no human remedy.
We thank God that although this
awful anarchy foretold is near at
hand, and is beyond human ability to
cope with, yet Divine Love has prom
ised to intervene to. save the unthank-
full world by the esta blishment of the
Messianic Kingdom in power and
great glory, for the blessing OF, all the
families of the earth; for the making
straight Of all the crooked paths; for
the opening Of the eyes of understand
ing, that all may see the Truth.
The Thanksgiving of Christians.
st. Paul, addressing Christians, says:
What manner Of persons ought a0e to
be-" Similarly, we might say. How
earnest should be the thanksgiving of
Christians! But alas! Thanksgiving
Day with us has lost much of the re-
ligious import known to our forefa-
theirs. Notwithstanding false doc
trines inculcated by man-made creeds,
our forefathers believed the Bible rec
ord of mans original perfection, his
fall into sin and condemnation, the re-
demption accomplished through Jesus.
and a restoration to Divine favor thus
made possible. These truths consti-
tuted the foundation for q living faith
in God and led them to give thanks
for the harvest Of the year, accounting
that if every good and perfect gift
comes directly or indirectly from the
hand of God it should be received ac-
cordingly and acknowledged.
Today, however, we have the form
of goodness without the power, be,
cause the precious faith has been well
nigh destroyed by the Higher Critics
and Evolutionists, who for the past
fifty years have been labOring con.
stantly to this end, and with wonder
full success. Well does God ask, Who
believes the Divine Record or Mes,
sage, and who sees the Arm of Jeho-
yah connected with the worlds al
fairs? -
Anyone having lost faiths in the
Bible and it's God has therefore lit
tie left except the form Of goodness,
without it's power. Nevertheless, here
and there in all nations and all sects
of ChristendOm are to be found loyal
souls, bewildered by the present trend
of affairs, and crying out to God for
further light, and approaching and CIV
ing thanks for every blessing, even
| though they do not understand the
philosophy of their own experience.
The Morning Star Dawn.
st. Peter declares that the sun-burst
of the New Dispensation Of Messiah's
Kingdom will be preceded by the
morning star, which will shine into the
hearts of Gods faithful people in the
early dawn, to herald its approach.
The Sun Of Righteousness has not yet
arisen, but many of Gods people are
noting the clear light now shining upon
the Divine Word, and are realizing
| that it comes from Him, and that He
is preparing them, through a better
understanding of the Bible, to appre-
ciate the glorious sunlight of Divine
mercy which will soon overspread the
world and scatter the darkness OF
earth's superstition, sin and death.
And so, as we get the matter rightly
divided before our minds, we get the
true understanding, the special en-
lightenment needed in our day, and We
are enabled to rightly divide the Word
better than did our fathers, so that to-
day we can see, as our fathers did not
see, the teaching Of Gods Word re-
specting the ''high calling and "resti'
tution"-the spiritual portion of bless
ing for the Church, and the human
portion of blessing for the world, We
also see something about the times and
! seasons-,ohicb apply to the Church
and schich to the blessing Of the world.
We are not to forget that the Lord
promised that He would guide His peo-
pie in the way of the Truth and show
them things to come. We are to
"study" to show ourselves approved
study the doctrine and endeavor to
/ have our course of conduct harmonic
with it-study to perform faithfully the
duties Of loyal soldier of the cross OF
Christ .,-..