The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-07-05
MANkATO free PRESS
the Father-and we as His gloritied Bride
next to Him. at HIS right hand.
The louos-"First and Last"

| The Loqos-"First and Last"
The Scriptures very explicitly declare to
us that the Heavenly Father is from ever
J lasting to everla sting-God But not SO
His creatures. From time to time He has
exercised His Omnipotent Power and
Wisdom in variety of creations Neces-
| sarily, however. these had beginning
one was first. and the Bible most clearly
and repeatedly and distinctly tells US that
that first one. THE Beginning of the Gre
alton Of God" was the Looos.
| And the Bible explains that Jehovah's
First Born Son was highly honored. in
that the Father used Him as the Channel
and Agency through whom all subsequent
creations were effected, He 1t was who
was given the honorable commission and
privilege of being mans Redeemer and
! of thereby proving His loyalty, to Jehovah.
and of being exalted to the divine nature
far above angels. principalities and pow
ers." From the very beginning He was
above all other creations effected through
Him: but by this last exaltation He at
tanned, in His resurrection from the dead,
a place far and away above all others
next to the Father-at Gods right hand
where He shall ever remain without a
peer.
And, wonderful thought. The Call of
this Gospel Age Is to become heirs of
God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ
our Redeemer. by manifestation of His
spirit of obedience to the Father, and
drinking the cup which the Father hath
poured. and thus attesting our loyalty to
Jehovah and to His perfect will in all
things. even unto death.
"The Losos Was a God"
In the opening of St. Johns Gospel we
have a record of the greatness of the
Logos. And 1t is much more clear and dis
tinct in the Greek than In our English.
The word logos, | remind you. signifies
the ''uord.'' the message and hence is a
proper term for a special messenger. In
olden times kings addressed their people.
not directly. but through such messen-
ger. or logos. who stood before the king,
the latter being screened behind a lattice
work. AS the Iogos or messenger received
the message from the king. he uttered or
proclaimed it to the people: hence he was
styled the iogos. the Word. -
This is one Of the grandest titles given
to our Redeemer. He was the Fathers
logos, or Messenger. or Mouthpiece. He
was the Channel of the Highest in all
His dealings with the angels. and in His
creative work; and later He became to
men the Voice Of Him who speaketh
from on high, for God hath spoken to
mankind peace. through the blood of the
cross of Christ.
Let us read together the inspired rec
beginning was the Logos and the Logos was
with the God. and the Logos was q god.
The same was In the beginning with tho
God. By Him were all things made
that were made. and without Him was
not one thing made. = . And the Logos
was made flesh and dwelt amongst us,
and we beheld His glory, as the glory of
the Only Begotten of the Father. full of
grace and truth He was in the world,
and the world was made by Him. and
the world knew Him not. He came to
His own [people-the Jews1 and His own
received Him not; but to as many as re-
ceived Him. to them gave He liberty
(privilegel to become sons Of Cod tpar-
takers of the divine nature-II Peter 1,
Al. even to those who believe on His
Name, who were begotten not Of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh nor of the,
will Of man, but Of God-at Pentecost and
subsequently. ~ ~. --.
How beautiful, simple and straightfor-
ward and on-mysterious is the Divine
record respecting the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit. and their absolute one-
ness or harmony! How different from the
nonsense which for SO long we endeavored
to believe, because we thought 1t support
ed by the Bible! Good Brother Wesley
was one of those honest souls who was
seriously troubled on the subject. He re-
marked that only the one text, John 6:
Z, could be used as foundation for this
doctrine. He knew not that the difficulty
lay in an interpolation-an addition to the
Apostles words. II Is, only in compare
lively recent years that the three original
Greek manuscripts have been brought to
light, namely. the Sinaitic. Vatican No.
1903 and the Alexandrian. - "~- '.~'.
The Beginning Of Gods Creation.
Let us hearken to the Apostle Paul.s
| tot 1nor Do6a
and His glorious station. He uttered not
a word favoring the absurd theory that
our Redeemer was His own Father and
His own Someone In person. He declared
In harmony with st. Johns statement
that our Lord Jesus was 1.-The Begin
ming of the creation OF God" Revela-
ton Iii, 40. st. Paul declared that Je-
sus was 1.-THE First-Boru of every crea-
ture, that in all things He might have
the pre-eminence" (Colossians !. Is, 49,.
And when in one of his statements he
spoke of our Lord Jesus ss though He
were the Father. the Apostle pr omptly
followed the statement with another say
ing. 1T Is manifest that the Father
is excepted Il Corinthians Nv. 20. in all
comparisons. for. as Jesus declared. the
Father is above all. P.
Our Lord Jesus own testimony is that
He is the First and the Last. 1.-The Alpha
and the Omega, the Beginning and the
End of the Divine ation. In other
words, when the Father created the Son
He never afterwards directly created any
other person or thing. The Logos was the
First and the Last and by Him were all
things made that were made
Let us then honor the Son as the Son
and as the glorious Agent and Represent
alive Of the Father in all things-by whom
Through whom) are all things of the Dr.
vine Plan: and let us honor also the Fa-
Their. as 1.-The Father Of lights" and Father
Of mercies and grace and truth. "of whom
are all things" The testimony of the BIZ
BILE is beautiful. honoring to the Father.
to the Son and to the Spirit of holiness.
AS the Scriptures declare. 1.-THE words OF
the Lord are pure. ma king wise the SIM