The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1914-12-01

developed, Christian is able to give
thanks under circumstances Of severe
trials and testings Only those who |
have great faith, built upon clear
knowledge of the Divine promises, can |
realize thoroughly that all things are
working together for their good.
Similarly. in respect to the great Eu
ropean war now in progress, its casual
ties, desolations and wounds. only the
well-instructed of Gods people may
understand the Divine plans and ar
engagements 50 thoroughly as to be able |
to give thanks in respect to the war
and able to exercise confident faith |
that the outcome of it will mean bless !
ings of instruction and preparation for |
future blessings.
Ii the Scriptures did not foretell this |
time of world wide distress of ma |
TONS. we might not know that God /
had foreseen II and had made pro- |
vision for its results before permitting |
e. But the same Bible that foretells !
the war tells of its results. saying, |
When the judgments of the Lord are |
abroad in the earth, the inhabitants
Of the world will learn righteousness"
isaiah 26:9) If. then, the war is
teaching the world lessons along the !
lines of righteousness and justice, 1t |
will be doing permanent good. More |
over. the same Bible tells that the war |
is merely the outgrowth of human self
ishness. ignorance, superstition and
false doctrine, and assures us that al |
though it will lead on to revolution
anarchy and the utter wreck of the
present order of things-the present
ivilization-neverthele God is pre-
pared for the emergency. Mans ex-
tremity will be Gods opportunity"
Great Cause For Rejoicing.
The hour having come for Messiah to
take the reins of government, He will
stand forth in Power and Majesty at
the proper moment, and exclaim to the
raging elements of the restless human
sea, "Peacel Be still!'' And there
/ VIII UG d great lit iCCSOA lCdA IL
ed In the Trouble will be a LASTING
one; and the blessed opportunities of
Messiah's Kingdom, which will be
| built upon the ashes of present insti-
! tutions, will bring everlasting life and
everlasting joy to all the willing and
| obedient.
Those who see the war from this
viewpoint may indeed In everything
| give thanks rejoicing that the reign
| Of Sin and Death will soon be ended!
! rejoicing that Gods Kingdom will soon
| come, and His win be done on earth,
even as in Heavenl rejoicing that soon
| the knowledge of the true character of
God will be universal! rejoicing that
| then, In the light of that knowledge,
| every knee shall bow and every
tongue confess. to the glory of God"i
rejoicing still further that any who
| under all those favorable conditions
will refuse to make full surrender to
the Lord, will be mercifully cut off
| from life In the Second Death!
| The Hope of the Resurrection.
The explanation of the sorrows Of
| the world is given in the Bible, which
| tells us that sin lies at the door, and
| that the mental, moral and physical
| blemishes which cause humanity such
distress are incidental to the penalty
pronounced against sin; namely, death.
1.-The soul that sinneth, it shall die"
| When Father Adam was ON trial rep
resentatively for his race, he sinned
and came under the penalty for sin
dying, thou shalt die" Therefore all
his children share by heredity his i'm
| projections and are likewise imperfect
sinners, as st. Paul explains. (Ro-
mans 5:12.) Thus, during sixty cen
turtles. approximately twenty thousand
millions of Adams children have been
born In sin and shapen In iniquity,"
and have entered the world condemned
and dying. mentally, morally and phys
ically
| Divine sympathy exercised toward
this race of sinners provided Savior
who for the joy set before Him" sac
! rificed His life for the world John
3:16; Hebrews 1929 Jesus Christ by
the grace of God tasted death for ey-
cry man." Hebrews 2:9) Then, in
stead of setting up the promised King
dom to bless the world, instead of saw
| ing the world, the Savior did some
| thing else; and that which He has been
doing from the time of His resurrec
| ton until now is, as the Apostle ex-
plains, a Mystery. Ephesians 1913;
Colossians 1:26 27) 1.-The Mystery of
| Cod, the world does not understand;
for He prefers to keep the matter from
them. But the secret of the Lord is
with them that fear Him. and He will
show them His Covenant"
| This Mystery is that God has pur
posed that the blessing of the world
should be accomplished by our Savior
in association with a select class gath
cred out of the world and especially
| prepared in the School of Christ dur
ing the Gospel Age. During the cen
turtles required for the finding of this
sanity class for whom the Lord has
been searching with the magnet of
Truth, various false theories have
sprung up and found acceptance in the
world One of these is that God does
not love the world and has never pur
| posed its salvation; but that, on the
contrary, He has predestinated all ex-
cept the saints to suffer eternal tor
! ture, because He wished to have 1t so.
Another of these false theories is
| that whilst God wished to save the
world, He is unable to do so, because
handicapped by human self-will and
| by Satan's aggressiveness. This the
/ DRY declares that God loves the worl6
including the heather millions; thai
He longs to have the Gospel taken to
them. but cannot do so except through
human agency; and that He is baflled
and disappointed because those who
profess to be His people fail to raise
sufficient funds
| To rational minds these theories are
no longer satisfactory; hence many are
turned to infidelity. But leaving these
errors of the Dark Ages and going
back to the Scriptures, we find their
teachings consistent; namely, that as
soon as the Mystery of God, the
Church. is finished. the Divine blessing
will proceed through The Christ-Jesus
the Head, and the Church the Body
to the world. As it is written, "In
| thy Seed shall all the families of the
earth be blessed The Mystery of
God is that the spiritual Seed of Abra-
ham is not the Lord Jesus only, but
also His membership Church.-G2la-