Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-10-06

DIS purpose
Morning Dawns, Arise, Arisel"
Thank God. the morning Of In
manuel's Day Is dawnlng! II ls bring
ing light upon every subject The
chains Of error and superstition, state
craft and priest-craft. are breaking.
True. some may thus be led to ex-
tremes and, mistaken, revolt against
all religions and all authority and all
laws of God and man. That is but a
natural mistake. The pendulum swings
naturally to an opposite extreme and
requires some little time to steady
itself upon a true center.
The proper thought for us all is the
one which the Bible gives, namely.
that our delusions and bondages. our
superstitions and errors, although by
men, were not Of men. Satan has been
our great Adversary. he it is against
whom we are to feel the special in
dignation. Like ourselves, others OF
humanity were blinded Illustrations
of this blindness were frequent during
the Dark Ages. Men and women, mis-
understanding the character and the
Plan Of God, were just as sincere as
ourselves when they sought to copy
what they supposed to be the Creators
methods by torturing each other, burn
ing one another at the stake, etc.
These mistakes were not made who'll
ly by one denomination. even as the
errors which led to these mistakes
were not held merely by one denomi-
nation. Presbyterians were persecut-
ed. and in turn prosecuted others; so
did Episcopalians. Methodists. Bap-
fists. Catholics, etc. Mistakes 80 COM
mon in the past are not to be blamed
either against denominations or against
individuals. In harmony with our
text. we should charge them up to the
"god of this world"-Satan.
Instead of feeling anger and hatred
and charging others with having kept
US in ignorance and superstition, let US
rather rejoice together and give thanks
to God that our chains at last are
breaking. Let US remember Saul Of
Tarsus as an illustration Of how
good man, misled Of the Adversary,
became a prosecutor Of the Church OF
Christ. AS be was freely forgiven OF
God, and showed himself loyal serv-
ant Of the King OF kings, so let us re-
gard others Of our day as equally loyal
, and let US trust that they will become
equally faithful as they come under
the influence OF the great light from
Heaven. now shining.
Put Away, Therefore, All These.
st. Paul urges US. as children Of the
light, to walk In the light Jesus bids
us to let our light 30 shine before 9th
ers that we may thus glorify the Fa-
ther in Heaven. St Peter says that
we shall show forth the praises Of
Him who has called US out Of darkness
into His marvellous light. The light
that is now shining upon the pathway
Of Gods faithful people is not a new
light 1t is the same light which Jesus
and the Apostles held forth and re1oic-
ed In. For the time being. 1t has been
lost, buried under the rubbish and su-
perstition and error of eighteen centu-
ries. Now, in Gods providence, these
distractions are being seen. We are
coming out from under their influence
into the sunlight, the true light, which
shall yet tighten every man, as Gods
Word has promised,
The question with each and all Of us
who now perceive the source Of the
darkness in which we have been and
the source Of the light into which we
have come is, What shall we render
unto the Lord for all His benefits
How shall we best show to our gra-
cious Lord our appreciation OF His gra-
cious character, Of His true Plan Of
salvation2 The Scriptures assure US
that we can best show our love and
loyalty by improving the opportunities
which the Lord affords us for witness
ing for Him and His Truth, which rep.
resents Him.
Our time, our talents. our privileges,
our opportunities, are limited. At very
most we can do but little. How earn
est we should be TO demonstrate to the
Lord our love and appreciation! How
faithful we should be to others in car
rylng them the light, even as we our
selves appreciate the channels which
God used in bringing the blessings to
usl How wise we should be, realizing
that our opponent is Satan himself, and
not being ignorant of his devicesl
We are not to show forth our own
praises, for we have nothing praise
worthy. What have we that we have
not recelved2 We did not make the
Divine Plan. We merely learned OF II
by the grace OF God In telling 1t to
others, therefore. this fact should be
remembered, that It is not ours, but
His AS we compare the Divine Plan
Of Salvation presented in the Bible
with all the different plans OF salvation
represented In the various creeds Of
Christendom. we see how wonderfully
different II is from them all.
In the light Of our day all are asham.
ed of the things set forth by the great
and the wise of centuries ago, We
might indeed have reason to be proud
II we had manufactured the Divine
Plan Of the Ages, II II were our con
ception But no, It is Of the Father
and by che Son, and we are merely
privileged to be ministers or servants