Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-09-11
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lM' ABIF-S STUDIES.
.ERLE- STUDIES.
"sRoUeHr DOWN TO HE'LL"

Come unto Me, all tnat laDof ana are
heavy laden, and | VIII give you rest =
Todayss study links well with the clos
ing of our lesson of week ago. We
there heard Jesus say that it would be
more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah,
i'm the Great Judgment Day of thous-
and Years, in which He will reign and
give the world full knowledge of God
and a full opportunity of returning to
IIin-lnore tolerable for the Sodomites
than for some who have enjoyed greater
privileges and rejected them.
Todays study tells of how our Lord
upbraided the city where most of His
mighty works had been done, because
they repented not, because they did not
note the power of God in theft midst
land gladly receive the Message. Such
Jesus declared, will be less prepared to
appreciate the Kingdom in the future
than will some who have never known
Him Tyre and Sidon. beathen cities.
would have repented with far less
preaching. 1t Is but in harmony with
Divine justice, therefore that when the
Great Day of Gods favor and of the
Messianic Kingdom shall dawn, the peo-
pie of Tyre and Sidon shall have things
still more favorable than the people of
chorazin and Bethsaida
Capernaum, above all the other cities
of Palestine, was favored, because there
our 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 Caper-
naum had been exalted up to heaven
highly lifted up in point of privilege and
Divine favor and blessing. This being
true, it meant that in justice Caper-
naums fall would be proportionate. She
would fall from the heights of heavenly
privilege and favor down to hell-to the
grave. -
1 And so today we find it difficult to To-
icate that once great and beautiful city,
/ so thoroughly has it been obliterated,
brought down to the dust. Hearken fur
ther to the reason for this denounce-
ment: "If the mighty works which have
been done in thee had been done IN
Sodom, Ii would have remained unto this
day; but say unto you. 1t shall be more
ltolerable for the land of Sodom in the
Day of Judgment than for thee"
i 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 share
in the Heavenly Kingdom, all the re-
mainder of mankind who come to any
knowledge of the Lord and His mercy
and blessing, and who refrain from rem
dering homage and from striving to walk
in Gods way, will proportionately disad-
vantage themselves in respect to the fu-
ture life and the great blessings and
privileges and opportunities to be brought
to all mankind through Messiah's King
dom and its reign of thousand years.
/ 81 Thank Thee. o Father"
1t was in Jesus day as it has ever
since been, that not many of the great
or rich or wise or learned had ears to
hear the Gospel Message. The difficulty
with this class is that the things of the
present life so fill and satisfy 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,
! grooming fellow-creatures, and If you
stop to sympathize 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 view
ing this matter. On the one hand We
can rejoice with the poor and less infiu-
entail who have received the Gospel Mes
! sage. that doubtless their poverty, etc.,
! were favorable factors to their advan-
. tage. And, similarly. we can sympathize
with the great and rich and learned
4 hat 81
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 members of the Bride company,
ioint-heirs with Jesus in His Messianic
Kingdom
But shearken again to the words of Je-
sas- how peculiarly they read q thank
Thee. o Father, Lord of heaven and
e&rth. hrcauSefThou hast hid. these things
from the wise and prudent and hast re-
vealed them unto babes; even so, Father.
for 50 it seemed good in Thy sight. =
Iiio~ strangely these words once sounded
10 us, when he supposed that all who
failed TO receive the Message of Jesus, all
who failed to make their calling and
election sure TO membership in the Bride
class, would suffer some kind of eternal
torture.
How strange it seemed that Jesus
should thank TIE Father that these
things were hidden from some of the
grandest and noblest and mos brilliant
Tof our raeei We could not understand.
But now, how elearl how plain. Jesus
was preaching the Kingdom and all
who rejected his preaching reject
ed the Kingdom. and will~lose it. This
does not mean that they may not
receive ultimately blessing under
that Kingdom, when it shall rule the
world. and when all that are in their
graves shall come forth to receive those
very blessings which Jesus died to pro-
cure for them-the blessings of a trial.
or Judgment of a thousand years, TO de-
termine whether they will DE accounted
worthy of everlasting life, or of ever
lasting death, destruction.
Few Know the Father or the Son.
Now we see what Jesus minated,
namely, that there is a wisdom in Gods
course in this matter which is not APP
parent on the surface. Had those rich
and great seen fully. distinctly. clearly