The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-12-20
Pastor RuSSelPs Sermon

dom. but the Master repeatedly drew
their attention away from the earthly.
He declared. "My Kingdom IL not of
this Age and told the disciples that
He would come again in power and
great glory. and all the holy augeis
with Him: aud that then He would sit
upon the Throne of, His Giory--upon
which they would sit with Len. il
faithful even unto sacri6cial death.
The Heavenly Msnsions.
The Lord endearored to draw the
minds of His followers away from the
earthly hopes Of an earthly kingdom,
which they held in common with all
Jews. The disciples knew of various
orders Of. beings on the angelic plane
cherubim, seraphim and ordinary an
gels. Jesus made no suggestion of
changing His disciples into any of these
angelic orders. Rather. He gave them
to understand that, they would consti-
tute new order of creatures. The
questions then naturally arose, Is there
a possibility Of having still different
order of beings on the Heavenly plane?
Did not the creation Of man little
lower than angels imply sufficient va
riety Of creations on the angelic plane
and higher? .....s 81. 49, - -
These questions would seem proper
enough; and to these our Lords words
make answer: "In My Fathers House
are many mansion" many apart
ments, many divisions. Yet all are
holy. all are in full accord with Him
and with each other. II go to prepare
place for you" My followers
Heavenly mansion.
st. Peter, discussing the subject, tells
us that in Gods providence the Church
Is not only a New Creation, but a crea-
ton on a higher plGne th"n any other
Of Gods creation. 81 l';;,;l 2Sa-s. that
our Lord Jesus. hav:n. finished the
work which the Father gave Him to do,
.'ascended on High to the right hand
Of the Divine Majesty, to the place OF
chief favor. He declares that this pc
sition is far above angels. principali-
ttes and powers and every name that is
named. Ephesians |. 81. ~.
ST., John, speaking of the Church. de-
clares that we may not yet fully appre-
ciate what we shall be. but we may
know that, when He shall appear
Tour RedeemerI, we shall be like Him
for we shall see Him as He is q John
lii, q st. Feter. however. tells us the
real height to which the Church, the
Bride of Christ, Is to be exalted. He
says. God hath given unto us exceed
ing great 5nd precious promises. that
By these working In US His win we
might become psrtakers OF the Dtvine
.ature."--II Peter j. 4. = vs. ....
- The Heavenly Three. II.
! Following the testimony of the Word
of God, we recognize Jehovah Cod
Himself. from, everlasting to eyerlast:
ing God. the Head. the King. he Fa,
Their. of whom are all things. Next to
the Father we recognize our Heavenly
Lord. whose name at first was the Lo
Cos, the Word of God. His Messenger.
who. subsequently was made flesh,
dwelt among us and redeemed us; and
who, as q reward, has been exalted to
the Divine nature and is set at the
right hand of Jehovah God, to begin
His, work Of blessing mankind. He
waits also until the Church, His Bride,
shall have been completed and shall
have passed beyond the veil, to be for
ever with Him on the Divine plane.
His Joint-heir. 49,. H. ..,a,, =.
These are the Heavenly Three-ali
Of the Divine Nature, far above all
other natures. all other planes Of ex-
istence. Yet always we are to re-
is Christ, and the Head of Christ is
God. as st. Paul declares: for although
all Of Gods blessings are by the Son,
vet those blessings are all from the
Father.-I Corinthians viii, G.
In passing. we should note how
these Scriptures and all the Scriptures
continually show that the Heavenly
Father was not His own Son and that
the Heavenly Son was not His own
Father. In our text the Master de-
clares, sin My Fathers House are
many mansions" Jesus. the chief Son,
mas SPcSidl pllfhCSCS dhu SpCSldi pOW-
err: and it is by the Fathers arrange
ment that the Bride. the Lambs Wife.
is to be brought into the highest of
Heavenly mansions, the Divine ma
ture, to be Joint-heir with her Lord in
His Messianic reign and in His ever.
lasting glory thereafter.
I 49,, ." Go to Prepare a Place"
But why did Jesus need to go to pre-
pare a place? His disciples did not
wish Him 10 go and leave them. When.
ever He spoke along this line they
were grieved and perplexed: aud on
one occasion St. Peter brought upon
himself special rebuke by saying.
BE it far from Thee, Lord: these
things shall not happen unto Thee"
The disciples were Ike children. They
had absolute confidence that they were
to share with Messiah the giories of
His Messisnic Kingdom. They won.
dered why Jesus did not stay with
them and attend to the establishment
Of the Kingdom at that time: or If It
we're necessary to wait for season.
why He might not tarry with them
instead of going to the Father, as He
had often told them that He would do
Our Lord did not wish to give then,
any intimation respecting the length of
the Gospel Age. lest the knowledge
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