The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1911-01-24
the Church class only. were applied to

For instance. In first Corinthians.
the fifteenth chapter. st. Puul dis
cusses the general fact of death reign
Ing through Adam and of the provi-
sion. through Christ, of a resurrection
of the dead. Then he proceeds to
speak specially of the Church class.
saying. "this is the resurrection of the
dead" The (emphutic) resurrection sig
nifies the special or First-resurrection
class. and the dead similarly marks tue
special class of dead ones-the sanity
dead. the Church of Christ. begotten
of the holy Spirit to new nature. the
heavenly mture.
Not noticing this, commentators and
people In general have applied these
words to humanity In general and un-
derstand them to teach that all that
are sown In corruption will be raised
In interruption; that all who die In
weakness. will be raised In power that
all who die animal bodies. will be
raised spiritual bodies But the Apos'
tie Is endeavorlng to impress a very
different lesson. namely. that the
Church is a special class and will have
tions which the world will never know
anything about. experimentally.
| The Bible shows this had we but
noticed It: The Apostle says, God
giveth to every seed its own body;
that Is to say, II we SOW wheat we
expect to reap wheat. If we sow oats
we expect to reap oats. The Apostles
| To hnt nnTft IN
be of the wheat class. the spirit class.
unless they are OF that class when
sown In death. In other words. he
would have them understand that
natural man. an animal man. In the
resurrection will be an animal man.
but those who accept the Divine offer
Of this Gospel Age to become new
creatures In Christ Jesus. begotten
again by the holy Spirit-these will
not come forth In the resurrection
human beings. but. being In full har-
mony with the bepetting of the spirit
which they have received. will In the
resurrection be born of the spirit.
The Hidden Mystery Revealed.
Up to the time OF Christ no promise
Of a change of nature from human TO
spirit had been received by any mem
Der of our race. The Lord Jesus him
self became the Captain and .Forerun-
ner of 1.-THE Church. which Is his
Body" nnd which, during this Gospel
Age, has been walking In his steps Of
self-sacriice The special privilege Of
this Gospel Age IL the sacrifice of the
earthly nature In order TO the attain
ment instead. of the heavenly nature.
This was an incomprehensible mat
ter to those to whom II was preached
Mt first No jew had ever thought OF
anything higher than the human plane
and Divine service on the human
plane. But the message of the Cos
pei was n call or invitation to the
heavenly nature and heavenly service
as the Bride Of Christ and his Joint
Heirs In glory. OF this call ST. Paul
says that 1t Is a mystery that was
hidden from past ages and disppnsa-
tions. but that II Is now revealed unto
the saints" (Colossians |. 26,. 1t was not
proper that any but the saints should
fully appreciate and comprehend this.
of the Kingdom. but to outsiders
these things are spoken In parallels and
dark sayings that they might not un-
derstand."
This Mystery was, therefore, never
understood by many because the saints
were never many, and by and by,
when saintship was at II discount and
when nominal Christians became nu-
merous and influential and made the
creeds, 1t was but natural that the
Mystery should become more or less
befogged. But instead of going back
to preach human restitution to the
human plane In Il worldwide Eden,
the mlsinformed theologians hung their
own hopes and the hopes of the world
upon the heavenly assurances just
where they did not belong.
Thus 1t was that, despite our five
senses and every plain statement OF
the Bible. it has become the prevalent
; belief that humanity Is of spirit ma
ture and not earthly. human; that dy
Ing Is but getting him either tc
Heaven. Purgatory or He'll With this
confusion the danger all along theo
logical tines has become great, so that
practically every doctrine of the
, Church Is more or less confused there
by. This Is the secret. this Is the
, reason why the Bible Is misunderstood
. and being cast aside with the creed'
of the Dark Ages as no longer worthy
. of consideration, while the bulk o.
Churchianity rushes madly TOWARD
the ditch of "fIigher Criticism, Evou
ton, Agnosticsm" little faith IL
, u personal God and no definite hope.
"seelS Ye the Old Paths"
! 1t is time. my dear hearers, that W,
seek the old paths, the Bible paths
, and that we seek them intelligently
and reverently and honestly, There ha
been much searching of the Ribl
to find proofs of what we believe anC
TO entrench ourselves In errors handed
to us from the past by well-meanini
but deceived forefathers. 1t Is tim,
for us to be honest and to search tina
! we may know Gods message to III
| thrnu,yI, bic tny,NfraA nrnnhata onA ht