River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1914-07-30

God hath made us sit together
in Heavenly places" We have not yet
gone into Heaven itself-beyond the
second Veii-but we are in q Heavenly
condition. "Old things have passed
away. and all things have become
new" We have left the Camp. and
have passed out of the Court condition
into the blessed condition of the light
| of the presence of the l. ;rd Each of
these different pictures helps us to see
how great things God has done for us.
"A Living Sacrifice"
The Pastor declared that membership
in the Body of Christ is the all-impor-
tant thing to the Christian This Body
Of Christ, which is the Church, is un-
der another figure called the Royal
Priesthood. 1t is the Divine purpose to
prepare in advance of the world com
pany that will be able to instruct man
kind and to help them in every way
with respect to morals. and education
In things relating to Co. This eSpe-
cially prepared class is the Church.
who as kings and priests will also have
authority, under their great High
Priest, to rule the world during the
| thousand years of the Messianic King
dom. Their work will be not only to
rule mankind for their good, but also
to uplift the race of Adam from Sin
degradation and death.
The opportunity to be a member of
this Royal Priesthood is certainly the
greatest privilege that has ever come to
any creature 1t is to fit and prepare
this class for joint-heirship with Jesus
in the Kingdom that God deals with
the Church as He does. He calls them
out of the darkness of the world into
the light of the knowledge of His own
glorious plans for the salvation of hui
manity.
Next the Pastor showed that this
matter of sacrifice may be viewed from
either Of two ndpoints-God's view
and mans. From the standpoint of
humanity, conservation seems to be
very hard. There is no slavery in the
world like that of being child of God
and an associate of Jesus, they think.
Everything must be given up. One can
not have anything of his own; he may
not eat, drink, sleep, think, or do any
thing as he would choose. On the con
trary, he must ask what the Lord
would have him do about everything.
He must have no will of his own. Any
other slave would be allowed to eat
what he chose and to think what he
chose, at least; but the Christian can
not do so. He must say. Not my
thoughts, not my way, not my will,
but the Lords. This is the worldly
view of conservation; it seems hard;
indeed, some will say, 1t is too much.
The view from the Divine standpoint
is altogether different. We who look
at the subject from this standpoint
say, What have we, at best? We are
dying creatures. We have very little
strength, very little wealth; it requires
nearly all of our time to provide for
the necessities of life. We have very
little 10 give to the Lord. Therefore
we do not see why the Lord should ac-
cept our sacrifice at all.
To corroborate this view, the Pastor
cited the case of st. Paul, who de-
clared that he counted all things but
loss and droSS for the eXcellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus his
Lord st. Paul had more than have
most of the consecrated. A Roman
citizen by birth, he was also mem
Der of a noble family, and had every
advantage of wealth and education.
He had good powers of speech and
reason, as his Epistles demonstrate
Whoever will read his EpiStle to the
Romans will see that the master mind
behind that writing could handle
case at law anywhere. Yet, after
summing up all his advantages, the
Apostle considered these things as
mere dross He willingly sacrificed
them all in order to win Christ; for
the things Of this present life are not
worthy to be compared with the glory
that shall be revealed. This, the
speaker declared, is the right view of
consecra tion-God's standpoint.
Look Not at the Things Seen.
The Pastor then discussed the expe-
riences of the Christian who is walk
ing in the narrow way of sacrifice. He
has pleasures of which the world
knows nothing. His trials seem, as
the Apostle says, light affections,
which are but for moment, and
which are working out for him far
more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory. while he looks at the things un-
seen. The Christian is looking at the
unseen things with the eye of faith
the eyes of his understanding.
The Pastor made a practical applica-
ton of his point by declaring that
whenever an experience begins to be
rather hard. the Christian is then look
inc at the things that are seen, and for
getting to lock at those that are invis-