Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-04-02

given every opportunity of gradually
rising to full perfection.
Tho First (chief) Resurrection.
Further along in his discourse the
Pastor demonstrated that the Church
Of this Gospel Age is everywhere sepa.
rate and distinct from all others Of
mankind: they are neither Gentiles nor
Jews. He made clear, however, that he
did not refer to the 400,000000 pro-
fessed Christians or to any partlcu-
lar sect, or denomination, as the Church
Of Christ. He gave Scriptures in proof
Of his contention that the Church Of
Christ is composed Of all sanity be-
ievers in Jesus, seeking to walk In
His footsteps-not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit. He called attention to
the fact that no denomination could
claim monopoly Of this sanity class,
and that none could claim to be free
from tares.
In the Pastors opinion, apparently,
the vast majority Of the 40O,0OO0O0
Of processing Christians are merely
tares or worse. He cited numerous
Scriptures to the effect that the heirs
Of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ,
are a little 1ock," "Royal Priest.
hood" "holy nation" a peculiar
people," who "show forth the praises
Of Him who hath called them out Of
darkness into His marvellous light"
The Pastor then declared that the
True Church is to be found in all the
different denominations, and some Of
them outside all denomlnatlonal fences.
He showed that the denominational
fences are contrary to the Bible. After
making clear who constitute "the
Church Of the First-borns whose
names are written In Heaven" the
Pastor declared that these are to have
share with Jesus In His Resurrection.
He quoted st. Pauls words, "That |
might know Him and the power of His
resurrection, being made conformable
unto His death. philippians $40.
The Pastor seemed to give the
thought that in the Divine Purpose a
foreordalned number Of the Church
class must suffer with Christ before
the Millennium could begin. Their suf-
ferlngs would not be vicarious, as were
Jesus sufferings, nor necessary to the
, redemption Of the world, as were His;
but the sufrerlngs would be necessary
in order to demonstrate their loyalty to
God and to rlghteousness-t prove
them worthy Of the high honor Of
| Joint-heirship with Jesus, and sharers
| with Him In His Kingdom.
The Church's suffering with Jesus,
the Pastor said, is their dying to earth
ly conditions and ambitions, as He did
All who thus die with Jesus, Willingly
sacrificing earthly hopes, aims, ambl-
tions, are counted as sharing in "Hls
ldeath." Such are assured In the Scrip
lures that they will also in Gods due
time share In "IIls Resurrection"
"Iis Resurrection" was not only the
First Resurrection, but also the chief,
the best, resurrectlon-to the very
highest plane of spirit perfection-the
Divine nature. Hence the promise to
the Church TO share in His Resurrec-
ton means that His faithful followers
will experience similarly glorious
resurrection to a higher nature, the Di.
Vine-with Its glory, honor and immor-
tality. This Jesus also AYERS, saying,
blessed and holy is he that hath part
in the First Resurrection. . = = They
shall be priests Of God and Of Christ
and shall reign with Him thousand
years" Revelation 20G.
Easter and the Passover.
The Pastor says that the word EAST
Err occurs once In our Common Yer
sion Bible and Is n mlstranslatlon-it
should be Passover. Easter was a fes-
tival honorlng the heather goddess Of
Spring. The name was transferred to
the Passover celebration Of the early
| Church in honor Of the Lords resur.
rectlon. Doubtless the attempt was to
divert the heather toward Christianity,
keeping the festival, but altering It's
significance. Whatever the word meant
then, II stands now to the Christian as
the synonym for the glorious resurrec'
| 81 hn
death and the human nature to glory
honor, Immortality, the Divine nature
SO, said the Pastor, the resurrection
Of Jesus Is the guarantee Of the resur
rectlon of "the Church. which is Hi
Body" II also assures us Of the
worlds esurrectlon-that an opportu
nifty through MessIahs Kingdom is Il
come to all mankind, to be recovered
from the tomb and from all their I'm
perfections-me moral and phys
lcal. Only the willingly, intelllgentll
dlsobedlent will ultimately die the Sec
Ond Death, which st. Peter describes
as pershlng like natural brute beasts
Resurrection Of tho Soul.
Many Bible students have failed t,
note that the Bible nowhere speaks o
the resurrection Of the body Their er
ror has given color to the arguments o
agnOstlcs and others who point out tn
unreasonaboness Of such Il PROPOSE
tlon, Thus the Resurrection doctrIn
is made to appear absurd whereas tn
Bible presentation Is most logical.
According to Science, our bodies ar
continually sloughlng or materials an'
through food replacing these; so that
complete change Is effected every sew
en- years. and thus a person nfty year
old hna Ind nrnnIlnnllY anYnn dlffnrpn