The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-09-12

slastical interests. and subsequently
| the social interests Of the world.
Thus the Bible stands; and the spirit
Of hope and liberty which 1t inculcates
is the Divine restraint, the bands
| The cords" of our context. The
kings of the earth set themselves; and
Jehovah and His Amounted. saying. Let
o. break their bands asunder. and east
away their cords from us.
The form which this opposition win
assume toward the Bible and its spirit
IF liberty. the spirit of the New Dis
pensation. is difficult TO detail In add
vance. We see. however. under the
guidance of the New Testament. that
this prophecy had ii very limited full
iiment at the First Advent: and the
fuIfilment there may give us Glue to
the larger fulfilment now nigh at hand.
Jesus the Head, the Church His Body.
The Lords Amounted is The Christ Of
glory-Jesus the Head. the overcom-
ing Church the Body. This prophecy
was fulfilled in respect to Jesus when
PLATE and Herod. as representing the
worldly powers, took counsel with the
chief priests. Scribes and Pharisees. as
representing the rulers of the people or
God. The religious rulers were lead
ers, prime movers. in the opposition.
What happened to the Master Him
self in the way of opposition from the
religious rulers and, under their insti-
cation, from the political rulers, is
what we should expect shortly as the
fulfilment Of this prophecy. The op-
position that will arise will be against
the Lord and against those who are
particularly His representatives and
mOuthpieces in the world. The feder-
ated religious interests, fearful of the
posed to it. will shortly denounce it as
Caiaphas denounced Jesus. His dec
laration was. 1t is expedient that one
man perish. rather than our whole ma
ton. Dohn 1l:50J AS Jesus was cru
CITED for the good of the cause" as
seen by the religious rulers, so we may
expect that the last sanity members
of the Body of Jesus will similarly
suffer for the supposed good of the
cause. as viewed by the Scribes and
Pharisees of our Day.
God In Heaven Shall Laugh.
When Jesus was crucified, His enc
mics supposed that His influence
would be gone. and that their projects
would flourish. But God laughed at
them. for they were really accomplish
ing His will. 1t was necessary in har-
mony with Gods arrangement that
Christ should suffer. Similarly, it Is
necessary that the last members of the
Church. the Body of Christ. should
suffer with Him and enter into His
glory. by the resurrection change"
Then. too, instead of succeeding, the
plans of the rulers all failed. Under Di
vine disfavorl they entered the time of
trouble. which eliminated in the COM
plete overthrow of their polity. Here
we are to expect the same. The Di-
vine purposes, instead of being thwart-
ed. will be helped onward by human
opposition to the Divine Plan.
The plans of these kings and rulers
will be measurably carried out because
lsee verse u the heather. the Gentiles,
the irreligiOus, will rage. will be In
tumult, striving for liberty and bless
ings in their own strength, not know
Ing of the Divine arrangement for the
of the new Kingdom.
which is to bless all the families Of the
S:14; Galatians 3:16, 30.
The declaration further is that 1.-The
people 1.-THE favored people of God,
nominal Christendom] will imagine
vain thing" They will be deceived, as
they are at present, into the expecta-
ton that they will be able to convert
the world and bring in the Messianic
Kingdom. or into believing, as some
do, that Messiah's Kingdom has al
ready come and has Intellectually been
attempting the control of the world I'M
til now. They are waiting now for
few millions to be poured into the
missionary treasury to effect the
worlds conversion and to insure Gods
will being done on earth as in Heaven.
The picture of Gods laughing at the
poor human pride which will thus
vaunt itself Is a forceful one. The
failure that will come both to the pro-
fessed people of God and to the world
will be a great lesson in humility.
mo 70 no ohc
of the position would make all laugh.
il they could strip themselves of their
pride and realize that, without Divine
interposition, Gods will could never
prevail on earth as in Heaven.
"A Naughty Spirit Before a Fall"
The Lords next step will be to pro-
duce the Time of Trouble. which will
teach mankind the great lesson they
have declined to learn otherwise.
Then shall He speak to them in His
wrath, and vex them in His sore dis
pleasure" That will be the Time of
Trouble SO prominently mentioned
throughout the Bible, "a time of trou-
BILE such as never was since there was
a nation" mo. nor ever shall be" aft
12:1: Matthew 24:21.
Human pride. human schemes, which
have ignored the Divine Program, will
all in that time of trouble show their
weakness. The result will be as describ-
ed by the Prophet. But when the judg-
ments of the Lord are abroad In the
earth. the inhabitants of the world will
learn righteousness" isaiah 26:9.l HUI