The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-02-02
enroute for An eternity Of merry torture
most horrible SUFFERING

| most horrible Suner1ng.
Another theory held by equally good
Christian people denies that there is
any election" in respect to the mat.
| ter. and denies that any particular
amount of water is necessary. although
| 1t does recommend u little. THIS creed
| or theory declares Gods love for the
heather. but says that He made faith
in Jesus saerifcial death condition
Of salvation and that the responsible.
ity for the heathen's not knowing. apd
consequently their going to eternal tor,
| ment. rests with Christians them
selves. They say that God did His
part in providing the Savior and that
the carrying Of this knowledge is who'll
Iy dependent upon Christians. One
would think that with this view few
Christians would be able to sleep a
single night after once asserting to
such responsibility and realizing how
| little they have done or have been able
| to do to meet4the responsibility.
Some dear people holding the views
| last mentioned have started Men
and Religion Forward Movement
| They propose TO use about two mil
lion dollars in starting the movement
and thereby to collect fund OF thirty
million dollars (six million pounds).
Dear people! How I love them for
their zeal, even though it be as the
Apostle said, mot according to knowl-
edger-Romans X, 9.
If they could stand IN Singapore s
streets and journey with us little the
eyes of their understanding would be
opened. They would begin to figure
out that'th sum they expect to spend
In converting the world would be lit
tie over half penny per soul! They
must indeed think the heathens cheap
when they reflect that the estimates on
the work Of the Rev. Billy Sunday a
year after his meetings show a cost
Of about six hundred dollars per soul,
with doubts entertained respecting
rhe saintship Of even these. The Unit
ed States Government statistics and
the British Government statistics show
that century ago the numbers Of
heather were six hundred millions
and that today the number is double
that. namely, twelve hundred millions.
A Better Hope Found. >
Whichever Of the foregoing views
might seem to us less objectionable
than the others, surely none of them
could satisfy our heads or. our; hearts.
Surely the good men of the past who
wrote these creeds In the light Of the
tallow candle, If writing them today
in the light of the arc lamp would
amend them considerably, or else leave
them unwrltten and merely say, We
know not the fate Of the heathen.
Some, repudiating the creeds Of the
past as no longer tenable, fault the
Bible with being the basis for those
creeds and throw it away with the
creeds. These are becoming Agnos-
tics, Higher Critics, Evolutionists.
Spiritists. etc. And because Of their
worldly wisdom and social standing
these Higher Critics are rapidly under
mining all faith in the Bible as an in
spired Message from God to His peo-
pie. They are adrift, some sailing In
one direction and some In, another
they have lost their Chart of the Ages
and the great Compass Of Divine Truth
in the depths Of the sea of human wis
dom, which. from the Divine stand
point. is declared to be fOolishness.
Let us not take their course.
Let us, on the contrary, declare that
the difficulty with the creeds of the
past has been that they divided up the
Word OF God amongst them, and that
each creed has a certain amount of
gold as well as large accumulation OF
! dross. 1t would be too serious an un.
dertaking for fnites to put all the
| creeds into Crucible and separate the
gold from the dross. Besides, all the
sectarian prejudices of our natures
would contend against us in such n
| procedure. Let us take the easier, the
| simpler method. to which all Christian
| people should be willing to accede
namely: to wholly cast aside. our
creeds and go back to the Word Of
God-to the Bible-to the utterances
/ Of Jesus and His Apostles and Proph.
cts. Thus doing many will find to
their surprise that, while the creeds
have gathered precious jewels Oh
Truth from the Bible, they have given
| these faIse settings by which they mis-
represent the Truth which they profess
! to illuminate.
st. Paul's declaration is that the
Word of God is sufficient that the man
Of God may be fully furnished. I'll
Timothy iii, 10 His further sugges.
ton is that we rightly divide the
Word of Truth. and that sit is able to
make us. wise unto salvation" Let us
follow this course and allow Gods
Word to be it's own interpreter low
one passag e to throw light upon an
other; and thus let us reject none Of
the Divine testimony, but, bringing the
whole together, end therein the Wis.
dom of God, the Justice of God, the
Love Of God, the Power Of God unto
salvation, to every one that belieyeth--
to Jew and Gentle.
. All Mankind TO Be Blessed.
st. Peter, by birth a Jew, understood
that the promise made to Abraham :
that bis posterity should bless the
world-meant that the Jewish nation
should have this honor. He did, in.
deed, know that in all the centuries
from Moses to Christ the Jew was not
n. - IA