The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-11
BIBLE STUDIES OF BROOKLYN
 TABERNACLE
Nv PASTOR RUSSELL

l
 and are heavy laden. and I will give
 you rest."-yerse 2S.
 l Today's study links well with the Iclosing of our lesson of week ago We there heard Jesus say that it would
 be more tolerable for Sodom and Go
 morrah, in the great judgment day Of
 a thousand years, in which He will
 reign and give the world a full knowl-
 edge of God and a full opportunity of
 returning to Him-more tolerable for
 the Sodomites than for some who have
 enjoyed greater privileges and rejected
 them.
 Today's study tells of how our Lord
 upbraided the city where most Of Ills
 mighty works had been done, because
 they repented not, because they did not
 note the power of God in their midst
 and gladly receive the message. Such | Jesus declared, will be less prepared
 to appreciate the kingdom in the future 1 than will some who have never known
 Him. Tyre and Sidon heather cities,
 would have repented with far less
 preaching It is but in harmony with
 divine justice, therefore, that when the
 great day of Gods favor and of the
 Messanic kingdom shall dawn, the peo-
 pie of Tyre and Sidon shall have things
 still more favorable than the people ef
 Chorazin and Bethsaida.
 | Capernaum. above all the other cities | of Palestine, was favored, because there
 ohr Lord did most of His miracles. and
 uttered more of His wonderful words | of life than anywhere else. In this
 sense of the word Jesus declared that
 Capernaum had been exalted up to
 heaven-highly lifted up in point of
 privilege and divine favor and bless ing This being true 1t meant that In
 justice Capernaums fall would be pro-
 portionate She would fall from the heights of heavenly privilege and fla vor down to hell-to the grave.
 | And so today we find it difficult to
 locate that once great and beautiful city. so thoroughly has 1t been oblit-
 erated, brought down to the dust Hearken further to the reason for this announcement: If the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day, but l say unto you. 1t shall be more tolerable for the land | of Sodom in the day of Judgment than ] for thee'
 | Let us not mistake the lesson: While only those who fully accept Christ and consecrate their lives to His service
 will receive the spirit -begetting, or any shares in the Heavenly kingdom, all | the remainder of mankind who come | to any knowledge of the Lord and His ! mercy and blessing. and who refrain l from rendering homage and from striv- | ing to walk In Gods way, will pro- portionately disadvantage themselves | in respect to the future life and the
 great blessings and privileges and op- portunities to be brought to all man. kind through Messiah's kingdom and | it's reign of thousand years.
 q Thank Thee, 0 Father
 l It was in Jesus day as it has ever
 since been that not many of the great For rich or wise or learned had ears to
 hear the gospel message. The diff cuty with this class is that the things of the present life so fill and satify that ! they have no hungering for the better things. They have their consolation | now they have their pleasures now; | they say, Soul, take thine ease now, | look out for number one. and do not | feel too much interest in or concern , for other people and their troubles; there are millions of poor. groaning | fellow creatures, and if you stop to sympathze with them you will mar your own pleasure.
 Thus it has been that the majority of the followers of Jesus in every age have been chiefly the poor of this world, rich in faith. There are two ways of viewing this matter. On the one hand we can rejoice with the poor and less influential who have received the gospel message, that doubtless their poverty, etc. were favorable factors to their advantage And. similarly, we
 can sympathize with the great and rich and learned, that their earthly bless ings are binding them to the still greater opportunities of this age, so that not many of them will be of the Kingdom class-not many of them mem-
 bers of the bride company, joint heirs with Jesus in His Messianic kingdom. But hearken again to the words of Jesus-how peculiarly they read: Il thank Thee, O Father. Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes; even so Father. for so it seemed good in Thy sight" How strangely those words once sounded to us, when we supposed that all who failed to receive the mes sage of Jesus, all who failed to make their "caling and election sure" to membership in the bride class, would suffer some kind of eternal torturel How strange 1t seemed that Jesus should thank the Father that these things were hidden from some of the grandest and noblest and most bril-
  derstand. But now, how clear, how | plain. Jesus was preaching the king | dom. and all who rejected His preach ling rejected the kingdom, and will lose |! it. This does not mean that they may not receive ultimately a blessing un- der that kingdom, when 1t shall rule
 the world. and when all that are in
 their graves shall come forth to re- ceive those very blessings which Jesus
 died to procure for them-the blessings
 of a trial, or judgment of a thousand
 years, to determine whether they will be accounted worthy of everlasting
 life, or of everlasting death, destruc. ton.
 Few Know the Father or the Son | Now we see what Jesus intimated
 namely, that there is wisdom in Gods
 course in this matter which is not ap.
 parent on the surface. Had those rici
 and great seen fully, distinctly. clear fly the true situation. it would have