Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1911-11-25
Pastor RusselPs Sermon

Alasl poor world, you should have the
, sympathy Of every Christian and not
his imprecatons and threats Of fur
ther and eternal torture in the future.
The world is surely losing the great
prize Of the high calling" which the
Church will obtain. 1t deserves sym
pathy in respect to this loss: and as
our eyes open to see the true Plan OF
God, we may give to the world the
message of Gods Word-"Good tidings
of great Joy. which shall be unto all
people. Luke ii. 10.
All Heart. Breaking Lessons.
The lessons taught by the present
reign Of Sin and Death, sorrow and
pain, are heart-breaking God repre-.
sents man as originally created in His
own likeness and of tender sympathy
tender-hearted Sin, depravity, selfish
ness, have gradually hardened mems
hearts. some more and some less. The
coming Age Of Messiah's Kingdom is
declared to be time for the taking
away Of the stony hearts from man.
kind and giving back instead hearts
of flesh.-Jeremiah XXI, 80
Meantime the trials and difficulties
of life are heart-breaking to all who
are still tender-hearted The message
of the Gospel is for this class. the
weary, the heart-broken. the discour.
aged, those not satisfied with the re-
wards Of sin and selfshness, but hun
gering and thirsting after righteous
ness-satisfied only with the glorious
hopes of the future set forth In Gods
Word, which they grasp with the arms
of faith.
The Lord, through the Prophet, tells
us that the Gospel message is to this
tender-hearted, broken-hearted class,
at the present time; and each, as his
own heart is healed with the Divine
blessing, becomes the authorized and
qualified agent for the seeking out Of
other heart-broken ones and the bind
ing up of their hearts with the prom
ises Of God. Thus we read of the Di.
vine commission to Christ the Head,
and the Church, His Body: THE spirit
of the Lord God is upon Me, for He
hath sent Ne to preach the Good Tidings
to the meek and to bind up the bro
ken hearted Isaiah Xxi. |.
The Church's Present Mission.
Our present mission then. is not that
of heart breaking! The Stony-hearted
are doing that work continually. Our
mission is to lay down life itself in
assisting all the broken-hearted to
true knowledge of God and true APP
probation Of His Plan for the Church,
and His subsequent Plan for the
world. We, then, as ambassadors for
God, beseech men to be recOnciled to
God and to come into harmony with
him. But even though our words be
scattered broadcast we know that only
the tender-hearted and broken-hearle
are likely to hear and to respond The
message once confined to the Jews. as
Gods ''chosen people" is no longer con
fined to them. 1t was to the jew first,
now equally to the Gentiles He that
hath an ear to hear, let him hear"
Those who have not the ear cannot
hear this message, even though the
sound thereof has gone out into all
the earth, and the words of the mes
sage to the ends of the earth In due
time, during Messiah's Kingdom. all
the blind eyes will be opened and all
the deaf ears will be unstopped. and
the knowledge of God shall be world
wide and ocean-deep. But not yet
So long as Satan rules in this world
he will blind the minds of those who
believe not, in order to hinder the true
light from shining into their souls
God has permitted him success in re.
spect to the world; because the Dl-
vine message at the present time is
Intended only for the special class who
hunger and thirst after righteousness
These are called with the message
Gather My saints unto Me. saith the
Lord, those who have made covenant
with Me by sacrifice"
The churoh's Future Mission.
We have seen that the Church's pres,
ent mission is merely to gather from
the world the broken-hearted class,
which hears and responds to the Di.
vine message. Thus the present work
of the Church is merely to complete
her own numbers-to gather in Il SulIi.
cient number to complete the eject
Church. So the Scriptures declare that
in the end Of this age shall come the
union of the Church with her Lord.
by the power of the First Rpsurrer-
ton: "The marriage of the Lamb has
come, for His Wife hath made herself
ready" The work Of the Church is
not only to find a sufficient number of
humanity willing and glad to walk in
Jesus footsteps, but also to instruct
these, building them up in the most
holy faith and preparing them for the
glorious conSummation and for their
future work.
The future state Of the Church will
be devoid of waves OF trouble. trials.
sorrows and tears Her triumph will
come; she shall enter into the Joys Of
her Lord and hear the Rridcgroom's
voice saying, well done, good and
faithful! But the Joys Of the lord
upon which she will enter will be
career of usefulness for Il thousand
years, She will be with her Lord. and
colabor with Him In the worlds on