The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-06-23

ing Friday and
Saturday to San Diego and Los An
geIes. Pastor Russell addressed a thor
oughly representative audience. His
afternoon topic was, Beyond the
Grave" His evening topic we report.
His text was, God so loved the world
that He gave His Only Begotten Son,
that whatsoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting
l~ife."-John 3:16.
Forcefully the Pastor pointed out
that once Christian people, even Bible
students, misunderstood this text and
read into it a conflicting thought, dis
honoring to God-read it as though it
said that God so loved the world as to
keep them from perishing, in order
that the few, the sanity Elect, might
attain to glory and look over the bat
Elements Of Heaven and see all the re-
mainder-Jews, heather and the mass
es Of Christ ldom-writhing in tor
ment to all eternity-unable to perish
forced to live, in order that they might,
by their sufferings, entertain the more
fortunate, who were guaranteed bliss
to the full.
What right did we ever have, said
the Pastor, to thus put into the mouth
Of our Savior, as our creeds have done,
words which He never uttered-words
which are very u~ntrue-indeed, a bias
phemy against our Maker!
Light Shines Through the Fog.
We are not faulting our forefathers.
Had we been in their place, doubtless
we would have been as confused as
were they, and we. might have INDUCED
in hereto burning, etc. And had they
lived in our wonderful day Of great
light knowledge, privilege, opportuni.
ty, education. Bibles, ETC., doubtless
they would have had as noble ideas as
ourselves respecting the p~roprieties of
Christian conduct and Divine conduct
and Love and Justice. The Bible tells
US that Satan and his fallen angels are
responsible for those terrible "doc-
trines Of demons which have given
thinking people such horrible night
mares, and driven so many Of them
away from God and the Bible into IN
belief, agnosticism, and even atheism.
Let us rejoice in the light Of the bet
ter Day which has dawned. Let us be-
come Bible students in the highest
sense of the term. Never before has
there been such an opportunity for
knowing the real teaching Of Gods
Book-what it does contain and what
it does not contain. We have the BIZ
BILE, concordances and helps, and we
have the general education which per-
mits us to study them. Our forefa-
theirs labored against lack Of education,
time, lack of Bibles, and lack of good
artificial light.
What the Word Perish Means.
When we come to think of 1t, the
word perish contains not the remotest
suggestion Of fire or torture. In our
ignorance we read all that into the
text and into other texts Of similar
Import; for instance, the statement
that God is not willing that any should
perish, but would that all should come
unto Him and live; and the statement
of st. Peter that the Wilfully ignorant
shall perish like brute beasts, made to
be taken and destroyed; and the state
ment through the Psalmist, "All the
wicked will God destroy How lurid
these simple words became before our
lnfamed and perverted imaginations!
How some of us rang the changes on
these Bible terms in a rain attempt to
drive men toward God through fear,
when God declares that He does not
want such to come and has no pleasure
whatever in their worship Oh service!
Did not Jesus tell us that the Father
seeketh such to worship Him as wor-
ship Him in spirit and in truth? (John
4:23) And our p~eryersions Of the
Divine Word and Plan only helped
men away from God to such misun-
Outstanding Of Him that they could
not worship Him In spirit and in truth,
and, at most, could worship only in
form and ceremony.
The Pastor told of an experience he
had In India. Some of the higher
caste Hindoos. wholly unapproachable
by the missionaries, heard that he was
preaching a more reasonable message.
They came, entreating him for further
meetings, declaring their respect for
the intelligence OF Christians, but that
they could not believe the doctrines
usually preached. They could not be.
i1eye in q God 80 unjust, so unmercl
full. no wicked that He would tormenI
them and their forefathers through al
eternity because they did not belieyt
on Jesus, when they had not SO much
as heard OF Elm. They said that theii
gods were not 80 unjust; for they for
bade men to torture even dumb brutes
They preferred t hold on to the rea
sonable gods of their fathers rather
than to believe III the unjust on,
preached By the missionaries.
Can we blame them? asked the Pas
tor. On the contrary, he admitted tia
IN the past himself and other Chris
tians had seriously misinterpreted TIL
! Bible He urged hia hearers to stud: