Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-04-27
Pastor RusseII's Sermon

Jesus, and what they considered aDso-
lutte proof that He was not the Mes
siah, was His apparent weakness, His
apparent inability to accomplish the
things foretold By the Prophets They
said. II is foolish to think Of man
without an army and without wealth
claiming to be n king. 1t Is still moro
foolish for Him to claim that He is the
Messianlc King, who Is to be above all
kings. and before whom every knee
shall bow and every tongue confess
They said, therefore, that Jesus must
either be beside Himself, crazy, or else
lie was seeking to deceive the people
and temporarily create a little commo-
ton Of popularity.
TO them It seemed that when He was
cruclhed demonstration had been
given that He was not the Messiah.
Was not the Messiah to live forever,
and was lie 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 lmposter? They consid-
cred the matter proven to demonstra'
tion. The persecution Of the followers
OF Jesus was merely with view to
stamping out new religion, which, It
was feared, would do harm to Israel In
that 1t would call in question the hopes
Of Israel respecting n coming King and
His Kingdom. Thus Saul Of Tarsus
had felt himself fully justified in per
scouting all Of that way OF thinking
for "thc good Of the cause" as so many
prosecutors have said.
A Now View Of Matters.
The honesty Of Saul Of Tarsus led
him to be Just as honest after he got
his eyes of understanding open as he
had previously been with them closed.
IL took him little while to get the
proper focus, then he saw and could
explain to others the necessity for the
death Of Jesus and how 1t was typihed
in the sacrifices Of the Law and how
the Dlvlnely 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 Savlor-not only to save
His people from the Romans, the AS
syrlans, 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 on earthly King, God
had prepared Il Heavenly One, partak'
er of the divine nature, glorious, "faT
above angels, principallties and powers
and every name that is named" Now
he saw that the sulferlngs OF Jesus had
a two-fold value. First, they were nee
essary for mans release from the
death sentence and, secondly, they
were necessary as demonstration OF
the loyalty OF Jesus, Now he saw that
God in preparing TO bring many sons
to glory, determined FIRST to prove the
loyalty Of Him whom He had Invited
to become the Captain Of our Saliva
tlon and that this was done by the ar
rangement which necessltated 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 dlvlae nature, OF
which Saul had demonstration OF
proof in the binding flash Of light
which felled him to the earth, and IN
the voice which said to him alone, 81
am Jesus, whom thou persecutest"
Crown Him Lord Of ALL
| like to think that, as | 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 Satn
Pau's experiences, his sincerity, ever
to hatred and persecution, and theI
his loyalty, even to stripes and i'm
prisonmeut aud death, l like to thlnl
Of him as exempllfying possibly {
large class Of the opposers OF thu
Truth.
like to hope that all they will nee,
to bring them into line with Gods ar
rangements and to make them loya
servants Of righteousness will be th
great light which will shine forth re
spendently very soon, when the du
time shall come for Messiah to take T.
Himself His great power and reign
when IIls elect Bride shall have beel
completed and gloraed with Him,
like 20 remember the words OF tn
Lord through the Prophet respecting
that glorious Epoch; "Then shall tn
eyes Of the blind be opened and tn
ears Of the deaf be unstopped the
shall the lame man leap as an har
and the tongue Of the dumb singh
that day.
Where would Saul Of TOrsus hav
ended his career IL the great Redeeme
had not interposed for his help? An,
how poorly you and would hav
Jared and how little OF the Light ID
vine would we have seen II Dlvln
providence had not helped us In var
Gus ways3 Aud so with the world |
A. beyond our power TO give the hear