The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-08-23

the Church as the first fruits and sup
pose that there would be no after
fruits-no general harvest for the
world?-James /, 10.
Our text forcefully calls attention to
this double action of Divine grace
first upon the Church and secondly
upon the woodland points us to the
fact that the salvation of the willing of
| the Church of this Age, and the saliva
ton of the willing Of the world in the
next Age-two distinct situations
both proceed or result from the one. re-
demptive sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ finished at Calvary. Notice the
statement, HE is the Precipitation (sat-
isfaction) for our sins fhe Church's
SINS. and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the ,oh0le ioorld."
Will Truth injure7
Many ministers all over the world.
following the suggestions of the l. b.
8. A. Convention, have informed their
congregations and the world in gen.
eral through the newspapers that they
do not believe in hell of eternal tor
ture, and that they do not believe that
the Bible. rightly interpreted. teaches
this. But there are others who. by
some influence, take an opposite course.
They denounce the Bible Students.
and myself in particular, for telling
the people the Truth. These ministers.
generally without much influence even
in their own congregations, have. am
told, threatened the newspapers all
over the world that are publishing my
sermons that they will boycott them
and influence their congregations.
But the editors are finding out that
narrow minded people never have
much influence, good or bad. Hence
the sermons still appear in nearly ff-
teen hundred newspapers in the Eng
nsh language and are spreading. am
told, into the German and Swedish.
These brethren claim that the world
is likely to be injured and to be turned
away from God and the Bible by It's
proper Interpretation. We answer. Not
so After the preaching Of eternal tor
ment for sixteen centuries the net re-
sult-i that everybody is losing faith
in the Bible, which has been mtsin-
terpreted. and many are even losing
faith in personal Creator. Is 1t not
time, even for pOlicy's sake, to discon-
tnue the Misrepresentation Of God and
His character to see If the Truth will
not accomplish more than the error
has done? And aside from the policy
question, If we have been slandering
our Creator and misrepresenting the
Bible for centuries, is it not all the
more incumbent upon us now to set the
matter right?
Who will deny the fact that life and
property are less secure in so called
Christian lands, where the eternal tor
ment has been preached for centuries.
1 than in any other part Of the world?
We assure the dear brethren who are
fearful that we have many evidences
to prove the very contrary of their
| fears-to prove that better knowledge
of God and His love, as expressed in
the Divine Plan Of the Ages, is help
ing many, not only out of ignorance
and darkness, but also out of indif-
ference and wickedness, into fellow
ship with God. But anyway. how dare
we, as Christian ministers, either d.
rectly or Indirectly, SANDER the charac-
ter of our God in way and to degree
that we would resent If charged against
our worst enemy? -. .. -.
| We fear that some of these misguid-
| I'D hrof hron mora soItottOuS for
their own supposed welfare and the
supposed interest of their own church
es than for the glory of God or the
welfare of the people. They are afraid
to have the people see the light OF
Present Truth and gain a clear COM
prehension Of the Bible, possibly be-
cause they fear that this would reflect
structed the people. They seem to
know that If the people will read they
will be convinced-and If convinced.
| they will no longer be sectarian. nor
pay good money to help to misrepre-
sent Gods character and keep the peO-
I pie In ignorance of the true meaning
of His Word. This accounts for the
wild and fanatical and untrutkful mis-
representations Of my teachings! They
give the people horrible misrepresenta-
lions of my teachings to hinder them
from coming to a knowledge of the
Truth. In three different cities minis
tiers in this enlightened Twentieth CEN
fury have under one pretext or another
collected my books and burned them
after the style of the autodafe of cen
turtles ago. In every case. however,
good has resulted. Saner or more hon.
est minds have been led to investigate
just as when, centuries ago, the Bish-
op, of London bought up and burned
publicly the Bibles which .Tyndale had
L kux,x, 10 I'D nd