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

| winch IL presents.
Pastor Russell found that the heath
en- do not really worship the idols, but
through the idols seek to worship an
unseen deity. AT first he wondered
that they could bow before such hide
Gus, awkard, vicious-looking images.
Then the thought came to him, that
these poor heather had formulated
their gods OF clay, stone, bronze, etc,
but that we Christians had formulated
ours differently-instead of using ma
terial substances we merely construct
ed ideals and described them, and that
from this viewpoint, the creedal pic
lures of thes God OF Love are farther
astray than the images Of stone, wood,
etc.
import of the Text.
Look critically at our text. Exercise
the gray matter Of your brains. What
does it really say? It corroborates the
account in Genesis 2, as explained by
st. Paul In Romans 5:12-1S. BY one
mans disobedience sin entered into
the world and death as the result Of
sin, and death passed upon all men,
because all men are sinners-by herdi-
ty. This death penalty has been car
rying down our race to the tomb for
six thousand years. The present death
rate is about ninety thousand per day.
The declaration Of the Bible is that
these all would have perished-would
have had no more future existence than
a brute-had it not been for Gods com
passionate mercy, 1.-THE great Love
with which He loved u.s. while we
were yet sinners.-Ephesians ga, s..
Our text comes in here, and assures
US that this salvation of mankind from
perishing comes only through Gods
Love and Mercy, operating through our
Lord Jesus Christ. We ask, What did
our Lord Jesus do for the race? The
Bible promptly answers, Christ died
for our sins according to the Scrip
tures"; "Jesus Christ by the grace Of
God tasted death for every man.; "He
poured out His soul unto DEATH; He
made ellis soul an offering for sin."-1
Corinthians 1873; Hebrews 20; Isaiah
1910, IL.
Let us note carefully that as perfshin0
does not mean eternal torture, so. the
Redemption price which Jesus gave is
not eternal torture nor pu%rgatorial suf-
fertng, but-deGth. Christ died for the
u~ngodly." Other Scriptures tell us that
the death Of Jesus was a Ransom
price, or price corresponding to the
penalty that was upon Father Adam
and inherited by his race. The Bible
thus explains that God, by providing
an equivalent price for the sin-penalty
against Adam can be just in releasing
us from the death penalty.
All Saved From Perishina.
The simple proposition Of the Bible
is that as Adam and all Of his race
legally persisted, so they have all been
legally redeemed from that persisted
condition-the death Of Jesus being the
Satisfaction price. It is because of
this redemption that the Bible assures
us that there is to be "a resurrection
Of the dead, both of the just and the
unjust" because all were redeemed
redeemed from the persisted condition.
Hence the Bible lays great stress
upon the resurrection Of the dead, and,
further, it assures us that the resurrec-
ton Of mankind must wait until the
completion of the Church. Then the
Second Coming of Christ will be in
order, that He may exalt His Church
with Himself as the reigning Power,
the Spiritual Seed of Abraham, which
God for four thousand years has prom
Used shall be exalted to glory for the
very purpose of blessing all the fam
lilies of the earth-the non-elect
"Them That sleep In Jesus"
Surely no Bible student worthy Of
the name has overlooked the fact that
the Bible everywhere speaks Of the
dead as asleep-nowhere does it tell
about their being In Heavenly glory
or purgatorial suffering, or in a hell Of
torment. Neglect Of the Word Of God
has confused u poor, imperfect judg-
ments. We lost u way in the fogs
Of the Dark Ages, conjured up by Sa-
tan in support of his lie, "Ye shall not
surely die," and in contradiction of the
Lords Word, '"The soul that sinneth it
shall die."-Ezekiel 1874, 20.
Now we remember that Jesus plain
ly said, "No man hath assembled up to
Heaven" Now we remember that nei-
Their Lazarus nor any awakened from
death had any tales to tell respecting
the things seen or heard when dead.
Now we remember the particular dec
laration of Gods Word. .HThe dead
know not anything" Now we remem-
Der that the Scriptures teach that the
dead are asleep-our own unconscious
ness every night being an illustration
to us, If we had only needed the Word
Of God instead Of the word OF men.
Now we see that the death state is call
ed a sleep, because of Gods intention
to have a great awakening, or resurrecr
ton of the dead. 1t will come in the
morning Of the New Dispensation.
The One who died for mans sin is to
be the great Restorer who will awaken
all the sleeping ones Did He not IL
lustrate this at His First Advent and
thus show forth the glories of His COM
ing Kingdom? Did He not declare
that Jairus' daughter was asleep, and
awaken her? And did He not saw.
Lazarus sleepeth." and awaken him3
He did not resurrect any or these,
They were merely aWakened-and De
fore the time for the general awaken
ing. Hence they fell asleep again. A.
great awakening Day. however. is near