Arizona sentinel and Yuma weekly examiner., 1913-06-19

eleIuIlI DeGslCSe luSl OiO uOl UellCfS on Jesus when they had not so much as heard of Him. They said that their gods were not so unjust; for they for Dade men. to torture even dumb brutes They preferred to hold on to the req sonable gods of their fathers rather than to believe in the unjust one preached by the missionaries.
 Can we blame them? asked the Pas tor On the contrary. he admitted that in the past himself and other Chris tians had seriously misinterpreted the Bible. He urged his hearers to study the Bible itself and to ignore the un- reasonable teachings which are driving men away from the Bible and the God which it 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 ous. awkard. vicious-looking images. Then the thought came to him. that these poor heathen 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 the 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 il brute-had it not been for Gods com passionate mercy. 1.-The great Love with which He loved us" while we were yet sinners. Ephesians 2:4. 5.
 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? Tie 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 His soul an offering for sin.'-1 Corinthians 1858; Hebrews 2:9; Isaiah :53:10. 12.
 Let us note carefully that as periShing does not mean eternal torture. so the Redemption price which Jesus gave is not eternal torture nor purgatorial sui fering. but-dedth Christ died for the ungOdly." Other Scriptures tell us that the death of Jesus was 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 Perishng.
 The simple proposition of the Bible is that as Adam and all of his race legally perished. so they have all been legally redeemed from that perished 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 perished condition.
 Hence the Bible lays great stress upon the resurrection of the dead. and. further. 1t assures us that the resurrec- tion 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 lsed 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 1t tell about their being in Heavenly glory or purgatOrial suffering or in hell of torment Neglect of the Word of God has confused our poor, imperfect judg ments. We lost our 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 1S:4, 20.
 Now we remember that Jesus plain | " said. No man hath ascended up to | Heaven" Now we remember that nei- | ther Lazarus nor any awakened from | death had any tales to tell respecting | the things seen or heard when dead |