The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-04-26


lutte proof that He was not the Mes
siah. was His apparent weakness, His
! apparent ina bility TO accomplish the
! things foretold by the Prophets. They
/ said, Ii is foolish to think of a man
without an army and without wealth
claiming TO be Il king. 1t is still more
/ foolish for Him to claim that He is the
| Messianic King who is to be above all
! kings. and before whom every knee
! shall how and every tongue confess.
/ They said. therefore. that Jesus must
! either be beside Himself. crazy, or else
/ DE was seeking to deceive the people
and temporarily create little cOmmo-
ton Of popularity.
! TO them it seemed that when He was
! crucihed Il demonstration had been
| given that He was not the Messiah.
! Was not the Messiah to live forever.
and WAS He not TO reign successfully
as King OF kings and Lord of lords
Was it not, therefore, proven that any
man whom the Jews or the Romans
could cruelty, could put to death, must
have been an impoSter? They consid-
cred the matter proven to demonstfa-
ton. The persecution of the followers
of Jesus was merely with a view to
stamping out a new religion, which, it
was feared, would do harm to Israel in
that it would call in question the hopes
Of Israel respecting a coming King and
His Kingdom. Thus Saul Of Tarsus
had felt himself fully justified in per-
scouting all of that way Of thinking
for 1.-THE good of the cause" as so many
prosecutors have said.
A flew View of Matters.
him to be just as honest after he got
his eyes of understanding open as he
had previously been with them closed
1t took him a little while to get the
proper focus, then he saw and could
explain to others the necessity for the
death of Jesus and how it was typified
in the sacrifices of the Law and how
the Divinely arranged Plan had made
this great sacrifice in order thereby to
more fully show forth the Divine Jus.
tice, Wisdom, Love and Power.
Now he saw. not only the need for
Jesus to come in the flesh and to give
Himself a ransom price for all, but
he saw equally the necessity for His
resurrection, not in the flesh. but in the
spirit, that He might be a fully quail
fed Ruler and Savior-not only to save
His. people from the Romans, the AS
syfians. and from all other human enc
mics. but also to save them from Sa-
tan. from sin, from sickness, from sor-
row, from death. All, now he saw how
great Messiah must be in order to meet
the necessities of the case! ...
The matter. changed immediately in
his mind: instead of human Savior
and Messiah and an earthly King, God
had prepared Heavenly One, partak-
er of the divine nature. glorious, "far
shove angels. principalitieS and powers
and every name that is named" Now
he saw that the sufferings of Jesus had
Il twO-fold value. First. they were nee.
essary for mans release from the
death sentence and, secondly, they
were necessary as Il demonstration OF
the loyalty of Jesus. Now he saw that
God. in preparing to bring many sons
10 glory. determined first to prove the
loyalty Of Him whom He had invited
to become the Captain of our Saliva!
ton. and that this was done by the ar
raugement which necesSitated Jesus
death. ".,
The climax of the argument was
reached when he found that God not
only had raised up Jesus from the
dead, but that additionally He had be-
slowed upon Him the glory, honor and
Immortality Of the divine nature, OF
which Saul had demonstration or
proof in the binding flash of light
which felled him to the earth, and in
the voice which said to him alone, Il
am Jesus, whom thou persecutest."
Crown Him Lord of All.
l like to think that. as l was once
blinded to many of the precious truths
of Gods Word, so it is with many 9TH
ers whose eyes Of understanding have
not yet opened. like to think of Saint
Pau's experiences, his sincerity, even
to hatred and persecution, and then
his loyalty, even to stripes and i'm
prisonment and death. like to think
of him as exemplifying possibly a
large class of the Opposers of the
Truth.
Like to hope that all they will need
to bring them into line with Gods ar
Engagements and to make them loyal
servants OF righteousness will be the
great light which will shine forth re-
splendently very soon, when the due
time shall come for Messiah to take to
Himself His great power and reign
when His elect Bride shall have been
completed and gloriiied with Him. l.,
like to remember the words Of the
Lord through the Prophet respecting
that glorious Epoch: Then shall the
eyes Of the blind be opened and the
ears of the deaf be unstopped: then
shall the lame man leap as an hart
and the tongue of the dumb sing"--in
that day.
Where would Saul of Tarsus have
ended his career if the great Redeemer
had not interpOsed for his help? And
how poorly you and / would have
Jared and how little of the Light Di-
vine would we have seen if Divine
providence had not helped us in vari-
Gus ways? And SO with the world. 1t