The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1911-09-19

itAl an bHtT WIS lliiiht w lut ihAlOu
of Israel. and to no other nation. The
offer of Israel's Law Covenant was.
"He that doeth these things shall
live" God of course. knew that Is
rael could not keep perfectly the con
dition of that great and wonderful
Law. The offer served as n lesson to
that nation respecting the impossible
ity of any mans keeping the perfect
Law; and the same lesson comes TO us
of this Gospel Dispensntion. We see
that what the Jew could not do we
cannot do: where he failed we would
fail
Thus through the Law Covenant God
taught n great lesson to Israel and TO
the Church: and He will ultimately
teach the same lesson TO the world and
to angcls-proving that by the deeds of
the Law no fallen flesh could be rccov-
cred and re-instated in Divine favor
Four thousand years passed from
mans creation, and death reigncd
from Moses to Christ as thoroughly as
it had previously reigned from Adam
to Moses. The Law Covenant did not
stop the reign of sin and death. Some
thing more than Law is necessary.
The Divine Program demands recov-
cry from sin and death. and the Divine
Program purposes this recovery.
Nearly nineteen centuries have passed
since the first advent of our Lord, and
still the reign of sin and death is in
progress more than ever. The increase
of knowledge has brought increase of
sin; increase of population has brought
increase of death; until today the
world Is In terrible condition of
mental, moral and physical dllapida
tion, and ninety thousand go into the
tomb every twentyfour hours.
But a Remedy is In sight. 1t was
foretold through the Prophets, but it
began to operate in Jesus. His mirac-
ulous birth, His faithfulness and con
secration unto DEATH His reward OF
resurrection and exaltation to the
right hand of the Majesty on High,
are all essential to mans recovery
essential to the overthrow Of this reign
OF sin and death over our race.
We see still further developments
and preparations. The Scriptures in
form us that 1t Is the Divine purpose
to have multitudinous Messiah, OF
which the glorious Jesus is the Head
and the Church the Body.
We perceive that God for nearly
nineteen centuries has been calling
and drawing a special class of man.
kind TO constitute His Elect, the Bride
Class, to be jOint-heirs with His Son
In the Kingdom of Glory which will
| finally vanquish sin and Satan and de-
liver the willing and obedient of man
kind into the full liberty of the chill
dren of freedom from sin and
death, and into the enjoyment OF life
everlasting and Divine favor
The Dark and Narrow Path
This special class Is required to
walk by faith and not by sight--to
walk In the narrow way" of self
denial and opposition to the world
the flesh and the Adversary, in the
footsteps of Jesus. Ignorance, selfish
ness, sin, denth, all go to make up the
deplorable conditions in the world and
to constitute the way Il narrow one
in which this Elect class is required
to walk, in order 10 demonstrate their
full loyalty and obedience to the will
of God even unto death. Evidently,
no such narrow way could have eX-
listed had God not permitted evil-sin
Evidently, therefore, this Elect class
could not be developed and tested ex-
cept by the Divine permission of sin
The very essence of their character
development is associated with the
Divine promise that "all things shall
work together for good to those who
love God, to the called ones according
to His purpose"
II seemed wise to our Heavenly Fn-
ther that our Lord Jesus should learn
obedience through sufferings and he
tested in respect to His willingness to
endure suffering for righteousness
sake, How appropriate it is that the
same Father should make similar ar.
rangements for all of the Church,
whom lie Will receive from amongst
the race of Adam to be members Of
the Royal Priesthood under Jesus, the
High Priest of our order.
we see necessity for this, not only
IA respects our own testings and IL
thorough proof of our own heart-loyal-
ty to the Lord, but additionally we
see wisdom on Gods part in thus
preparing n priesthood of the future.
A priest, as recognized amongst the
Jews, was not merely one who offered
sacrifices although every priest was
OF necessity sacrificer. The special
mission of the priestly tribe amongst
the other tribes was that OF instruct
ing, helping, healing, teaching, And
so God is preparing Royal Priest
hood for the Messianic Age to bless.
to heal, to teach, to uplift all the
willing and obedlent
The royalty OF the priesthood signi-
fies that 1t will no longer he a sacri-
ficlng class, for all sacrificing will be
at an end. 1t will be n glorious class,
royal, of the divine nature, and repre-
sentatives with our Lord Jesus OF the
Divine power. As priests who will
have to do with judging and chasten-
ing, healing and helping humanity,