Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1911-03-25

II
azS ToS Il Sp56ELL to be spoken by
our Lord and was
confirmed unto us by those who heard
Him." The speaker said:-
In the past many Of us misunder-
stood these words-"so great salvation"
-and have thought them to apply
merely to an "elect' few Of the sanity
followers Of our great Redeemer. Sure
ly 1t should not be thought strange If
closer examination of Gods Word
would demonstrate to us that as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so
are His ways and plans higher than
ours Qsaiah ". o.. II should not
surprise us to find that our forefathers
were generally In considerable dark
ness In respect to "the length and
breadth and height and depth Of the
love of God, which passeth all under
standing (Ephesians iii, 1S, 10l. 1t
should not surprise us to find that our
Savior will yet see the fruitage Of the
travail Of His soul and be satisfied
isaiah Iii. ~, and that this salts
faction will result from the salvation
Of more than the little flock" who
walk in His steps and who. like Him,
''present their bodies living sacrifices,
holy and acceptable to Cod" in the
service of Truth and Righteousness.
There are several ways of treating
this thought. that more than an "elect"
few are eventually to reach eternal life
through the Redeemer Of mankind.
One way. which many adopt. is to
claim that our Lord and the Apostles
did not really mean to establish so
high a standard Of saintship as their
words imply, and then to conclude that
the insanity will gain eternal life as
we'll as the saintly-all except the de-
generately wicked. This view of mat
ters, which Is the common one, is un-
doubtedly prompted by sympathy for
friends, relatives. nelghbors and the
heather; but 1t is wholly contrary to
Gods Word.
Another view still held by some is
that everybody but the sanity will
suffer torture eternaly and hopelessly.
The third theory which | desire to
present here is the one believe to be
In accord with every text of Scripture.
and In accord with Justice, Wisdom,
Love and Power Divine. and in accord
with sanctifed common sense. have
time for only an outline of this Plan,
which is most comprehensive, as fol-
lows:
Tho SANITY New Creation.
Salvation in no sense began before
the Redeemer's birth. forty-one hun
dred and twenty-eight years after the
fall of our first parents In all that
long period nobody was saved. The
Apostle declares in our text that sal
vation began to be preached by Jesus.
Again we read that Jesus brought life
and immortality to light through His
Gospel I'll Timothy /. l0l. So, then,
life and Immortality and the Gospel
Message began to be preached by our
Lord and was not preached before His
day. Indeed we can see that II there
is "none other Name given under heav-
en- or amongst men whereby we must
be saved than the name of Jesus,
then II could not have been preached;
nothing could be preached previously
except the Divine declaration that God
purposed In due time to redeem man
kind from sin and death through a
Savior and Great 0ne-0ne able to
save unto the uttermost all that would
come unto the Father through Him.
This reasoning is surely true to the
facts Search all through the Old Tes-
lament and there Is found no promise
OF eternal life set forth except by the
Law given to the one little nation of
Israel. That Law declared that he
that doeth these things shall live by
his obedience thereto (Romans x, 81,
aud the Apostle assures us that Jews
died because none OF them kept the
Law-because no imperfect human be-
ing could possibly meet the require
ments of Gods perfect Law, by the
deeds Of the Law shall no flesh be
justified in His sight" Romans Ill, 20).
The Apostle, further explaining the
matter, says, Wherefore, then, serveth
the Law2" He replies to his question.
ut was added because of transgres-
sion until the promised Seed should
come" Galatians Iii, 10l.
The Promised Seed.
The Apostles words direct our
thoughts back to Eden, when God de.
clared that the Seed Of the woman
would at some future time bruise the
Serpents head, But that Seed did not
exist for over four thousand years
after. and has not yet crushed the Ser
pent's head-destroyed sin and the
works Of Satan,
The Apostles words again remind us
Of Gods promise to Abraham, "In thy
Seed shall all the families of the
earth be blessed" Genesis xviii LAY.
Abraham was not thus blessed, nor
were any others thus blessed, however
faithful they We're All the blessing
was to come through Abrahams Seed
and could not be dispensed before His
coming, Hence the Apostle. referring
TO Abraham. Isaac and Jacob and all