The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-09-05

lRASI0R RUssELg) Heaven did the
Lord behold the
earth, to hear the groaning Of the pris-
Oners, to loose them that are appoint
ed to death" psalm 102:1S-20) He
spoke in part as follows
The Bible declares the only God of
love. Of sympathy, of compassion. The
heather gods are all yengeful, tyranni-
cal, merciless, captiOus. And the pic
ture of God in our creeds, formulated
in the Dark Ages, misrepresents Him
even more than do the heather idols.
All the false gods are repulsive. Only
of the God of the Bible can it be truly
said. My heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God" To rid ourselves
Of the misconceptions of the Almighty
furnished by our creeds and to appre-
ciate the God Of the Bible should be
the endeavor of all intelligent people.
Mark the sympathy of God for His
fallen creatures, as expressed in our
text Note how it contradicts our theo-
ries respecting the Divine predestina-
ton of more than nine-tenths of our
race to eternal torture. The Lord was
mindful of His Creatures. He did not
ence in Eden. He looked down from
the heights of His holy Sanctuary.
From Heaven He beheld the earth and
its teeming millions plunged into sin
by the Adversary and suffering the pen
atty for sin-"Dying. thou shalt die"
Human Wretohedness In Gods Sight
To behold the earth from the Heav-
emily viewpoint must be terrible sight
enough to make angels weep-sigh-
ing, crying, dying, everywhere. Some
are demented to the extent of prefer
ring darkness to light, wallowing in the
mire of sin and feeding upon the APP
Piles of Sodom: some Of them so de-
PRAYED that they love the wrong and
hate the right; others so weak that
they cannot do the things that they
would: many Of them in jails. peniten-
sands in hospitals: and still other hun
dreds Of thousands in insane asylums;
and thousands of millions gone down
to the tomb, with few in compare
tive health, rushing headlong seeking
for happiness, or fighting and cheating
to amass fortune, which. dying, they
must leave. Verify, as God looks
down, the Earth must appear to Him
like a vast hospital, a cemetery. a
mad-houSe.
Not with curiosity did the Almighty
look upon US, but with sympathy =
with loving intention. Indeed, from
the very beginning He foreknew mans
hayward course and its penalty of sin
and death. and from that beginning
He planned the great rescue which
now He is to begin. The rescue is not
from a fiery hell of everlasting torture.
but from the terrible condition of sin
and death in which we find ourselves.
Freeing Death Appointed Prisoners.
The entire race of Adam. shackled
with sin and under sentence of death.
have for six thousand years been
marching to the great prison-house Of
the tomb. An eyer-increasing number;
they are now entering the prison-house
at the rate of ninety thousand every
twenty-four hours. Notwithstanding
the efforts they make to be happy, the
Apostle was undoubtedly correct in
his. declaration-''t whole creation
groans and travails in pain together"
God has heard the grooming of these
prisoners. has sympathized With them
and has provided redemption, AS
one mans sin brought the curse upon
himself and, by laws Of heredity, upon
all of his children, so Divine Wisdom
has arranged that Savior, and a
Great One. should give Himself q Ran
som for Adam and his race This al
ready has been accomplished. In that
Christ died. 1.-THE just for the unjust
to bring back to harmony with God
the condemned Adam and his race
But this is not sufficient. 1t is only
the beginning The thousands OF mill
lions brought into being as children Of
Adam need to he rescued from the
prison-house of death. 1t is not suffi-
cient that they should be legally loosed,
They need to be actually set free. And
since life has been lost life itself must
be restored to them ere they can profit
by the Redeemer's sacrifice,
The New Creation.
Gods benevolent design for the re-