The Mankato free press., 1911-09-08
him. a well Of water sprIngfng up unto
everlasting life" tJohn iv. III.

The Church in her glortied condition
after the change of the First Resur-
rection, after becoming the Bride, is
symboically represented as City, as
IL Government-the capital of Gods
Kingdom. the New Jerusalem, which
will then como to, or be established i'll.
the earth--not literal city. but. bet
ter. symbolical one, OF the Kingdom.
1t will be from under the Throne
Of that New Jerusalem, the MeSsianic
Kingdom. that the river of the water
Of life will flow. clear as crystal On
either bank of the symbOlical river will
be trees of life. whose leaves will be
for the healing Of the nations. Then
will be their due time" to come to
knowledge of the Truth that God
loved them and did not predestinate
them to eternal torture. nor to purga-
torial suffering. but sent His Son to die
for them-to pay their death penalty
and thus to make possible their restitu
ton to Divine favor (Acts iii, 1920
and to all the earthly blessings. privi
leges and rights originally given to
Father Adam-lOst by his disobedience
and redeemed at Calvary.
My dear friends, here we have the
grandest and broadcast Free Grace pos.
sibe to be lima gined, in connection with
our Heavenly Father and His great
salvation provided in Christ. AS every
creature shares in Father Adams i'm
perfection and dying couditions. so
each one is to share in the merit of
Christ's righteousness and sacriticial
death: it shall be testified to all i'm
due time" There will be stripes, les
sons. instructions, but they will all be
corrective-with view to the reforma
ton and the regeneration of Adam and
his race as human beings-not as spirit
beings, not as angels; Adam and his
race never were such. Only the Church
has been bcgotten Of the Holy Spirit
to spirit nature; only the Church will
share in the resurrection to spirit con-
ditions and be thus like unto the an
gels"
This Is Not UniversaIisn.
These two salvations, now Of the
elect, and during Messiah's reign of
the non-elect. do not imply a universal
salvation Of our race, but merely q
universal opportunity for everlasting
life. The Scriptures most clearly teach
Second Death, like the first death.
except that none will be redeemed
from the Second Death, and none will
be resurrected from it, 1t therefore
will be, as st. Paul declares. an ever
lasting destruction QI Thessalonians
1, 81 AS st. Peter declares, the wilful
sinners against light and knowledge
will perish. like natural brute beasts
The lessons from these great truths
Of the Bible are powerful. They make
plain to us that none can hope to be
Of the heavenly class. of the Bride of
Christ, except such as enter the strait
gate and narrow way-tbe saints. the
faithful unto death. They teach us
also, in harmony with other Scrip
lures, that those who now either see
not and hear not. or who see and hear
imperfectly, will miss this great prize
Of our high calling" Nevertheless for
these. heather and others. God has
provided more than they could have
thought or asked-an opportunity for
obtaining human perfection and n
worldwide Eden-Paradise restored.
1t teaches. also, that every misstep,
every failure to do our best, IS costly
both to the world aud TO ourselves.
To whatever extent the world demeans
and degrades itself, it will have, in
proportion, difficulty and stripes in
connection with the possibilities and
opportunities Of recovery during Mes
siah's Kingdom.
Let us herald wide the story OF the
grace Of God in Christ for every cTea-
ture: let us show the love of God to
all who have the eyes and ears OF ap-
precia ton. There is no greater infiu-
cnce for righteousness than this-The
love Of God and the love of Christ con-
straineth us UI Corinthians v. 1N. And
i'm proportion as mankind receive the
same their constraints toward right
eousness increase. Thus. with clearer
light upon our Fathers Word. il is
time for us all to cast aside the things
Of darkness and sectarianism which so
long have separated the people of God
from each other.
The Great Lesson Of This.
The lesson to the Church is gratitude,
loyalty, faithfulness to Him who called
her out of darkness TO the high calling
of ioint-heirship with the Redecmer.
''The Bride. the Lambs Wife," is to
make herself ready by putting on the
fruits and graces Of the Holy Spirit
and being renewed and transformed.
The lesson to the world yet is only
to those who. to some extent, hear it
that God is Love. that His mercy has
provided great opportunity for resti-
tuition that is nigh at hand; and fur
ther, the lesson is that every good and
every evil deed will make their impress
sion upon human character and have
to do with the stripes, corrections.
etc, of the future. Misimproved OPP
portunities in the present life. viola
tions Of conscience, etc, will bring
] their reasonable retribution in the life
to come and make the ascent more
tedious and the more difficult. On the
contrary. every good endeavor and at.
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