River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1914-06-11

the people of God who Lave escaped
from the bondage of sin and death. and
have come into Christ as New Crea.
lures, have become overcharged with
worldly cares, and thus may fgura
lively be said to have fallen asleer
again. The sleepy ones will not be
of he Kingdom class. he declared. st.
Paul says that the true Church are not
OF those who are asleep. but are chill
dren OF the Day; and therefore they
are to remain awake and be sober
looking for the great salvation which
is to be brought unto them at the Sec
ond Coming of our Lord.
Those of the Church who 90 to sleen
now are those who are o~verchargad
with the cares of this world and with
the d~eceitfulness of riches-whether by
intermarrying and thus having the
world brought so close to them that
they are overcome by its influence: or
whether by business entanglements or
alliances or partnerships, or what not,
that may be unfavorable to their spir.
itual interests and their conservation
to God. After one has become thor
oughly awake, and has become a mem
Der of the Body of Christ, there is
great danger that such a one may be-
come o~vercharged with worldly cares
and the deceitfulness Of riches. One
may get the deceitfulness of riches
without having the riches; for the eff
fort to get the riches may develop the
deceit.
The Awakening of the World.
The Pastor then discussed his text
from the standpoint of the future. At
the beginning of the New Day of
Christ the world will be asleep-some
in death, others in ignorance and SUI
perstttion. But the tumult of the Time
Of Trouble, with which the Scriptures
everywhere declare the change of dis
%pensation will be accompanied, will
certainly awaken the majority Of those
who are not in their graves. Some are
awakening now; later, the whole world
will awake, and Christ will give them
light.
The thousand years Of the Messianic
Kingdom will be a time of rising from
the dead. Not merely those who are
in their graves will arise, but all who
are living at the time of the establish
ment Of the Kingdom will be awak-
ened, before the awakening Of those
in the tomb. When awake both classes
will begin to rise out of sin and death
conditions, trying to get a little higher
and moro awake in nrd0p fhof fh0u
may receive some Of the blessings of
that glorious time.
The Scriptures declare that at that
time the Sun of Righteousness-Christ
and the glortfed Church-will arise
with healing in its beams. Then the
poor world, that have been in sorrow,
pain, crying and dying, afflicted of the
Devil for six thousand years, will be
gin to look up to the great Redeemer
for deliverance from the power of Sa-
tan. For the thousand years of the
Messianic Kingdom the Devil will be
bound and have no power to deceive
the people. The true light will then
shine out, and the darkness Of SUI
perstition and ignorance will be scat
tered.
Worlds Trial Future.
The Pastor hen drew a soul-inspir-
Ing picture of future conditions as fig
urat1vely shown in the Scriptures. The
New Age will not bring in full light
all at once. The great Sun Of Right
eousness Christ and the glorifed
Church-will have a gradual rising,
like the natural sun. Gradually it's
rays will dispel the darkness and
clouds; gradually the light Of day will
increase. During the thousand years
the world will be rising gradually from
the dead. 1t will require the entire
period Of a thousand years to accom-
plish the resurrection of the world.
now dead in trespasses and sins.
The Pastor strengthened his argu-
ment with a description Of the per
sonal test which God will bring to
each member of the restored race at
the close of the Messianic Reign, when
Christ will have delivered up the King
dom unto the Father, and mankind
will have been left to themselves.
Those who have learned really to love
the right and to hate the wrong will
be ready for such a test; those who
have not developed such a character
will not be ready.
The nature Of this test we may not
yet know definitely, the Pastor said
In the Revelation it is represented as
the loosing of Satan, to go forth to de-
ceive the whole world of restored hui
mainly. Everybody who has any sym
pathy whatever with evil will be de-
ceived into taking the wrong course.
Doubtless those who have reached per
lection Of human nature would nOt
take that course If they realized that
it would bring death upon them;
therefore they would dodge the wrong
course merely for fear of the conse-
quences. But God is not pleased to
give life everlasting to those who
would merely dodge the penalty of
wrong doing. Only those who love