The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1915-06-08

lKA9ISlk k42sk4ll uCo1ln.niai.s o.AA'
23.) The Pastor
spoke In part as follows:
The Apostle Paul tells US that before
God created the world, In His infinite
Wisdom He purposed In Himself to
have Church class, and arranged the
terms and conditions upon which mem
bership In this New Creation was to
be offered specifically to certain Gre
ated beings. AS the Father wished
that in all things His Son, the mighty
Logos, should have prominence, the
first offer was made to Him. This
new nature was to beuthe highest of
all creation. To gain this prize the
LOgos must demonstrate His love and
loyalty to the Father by obedience to
the Fathers will. So He voluntarily
left the Heavenly glory and humbled
Himself to take a human form-nOt q
sinful form, but perfect human nature,
"a little lower than the angels"
Then the Logos humbled Himself
still further, even unto the ignomin-
ious death Of the Cross, on the charge
that He was blasphemer against God.
After His death came His resurrection,
after which He assembled into the pres
ence of the Father, where He did a
work for the Church, as the Apostle
points out Then the Father gave our
Lord the Holy Spirit to shed forth upon
the faithful little band Of disciples who
had been with Him during His earthly
ministry. This indicated that Christ
Is God's-that God had gloriaed Him
and had empowered and authorized
Him regarding this blessing of the Di-
vine nature; and that the begetting to
this Divine nature would be granted to
all who would follow In Jesus steps,
Philippians 2:7-11; Hebrews 9:24; 2
Corinthians 5:17
For eighteen centuries the Gospel
Message has gone forth, the object be-
ing to call out from amongst mankind
those who will follow In Jesus foot
steps and become members of the Body
Of sChrist-a new Creation. These are
to be His joint-heirs in the Heavenly
inheritance. q Peter IA, 81 We are
living in 1.-The last time" the end of
this Gospel Age, when this special sal
walton of the Church is to be revealed.
Following His Steps.
Those who desire to become members
of the New Creation must first turn
away from sin and toward God. This
must be heart turning-a change of
disposition They must really see that
sin Is a most injurious thing. The pen
atty which the Divine Court Of the
Universe has attached to sin is death,
bringing degradation. sickness, sorrow,
pain and dying; and those who turn to
God should fear sin, lest 1t should con-
taminate them and jeopardize their fu-
ture life. But they were born with the
disease of death, which they have In
herited as members Of the Adamic race.
By his sin Of disobedience Father
Adam brought upon himself the death
penalty and has entailed 1t upon all his
posterity.
But God has made an arrangement
by which they may get back into His
family. He has provided that His
Only Begotten Son. our Lord Jesus
Christ, should taste death for Adam;
and since mankind were condemned in
Adam, our Lords death redeemed not
only Father Adam, but all his posteri-
ty. q Corinthians 1921, a. God has
provided this way by which those de-
sirous OF turning away from sin may
have their sins forgiven; but each must
avail himself of the way.
All mankind are criminals before the
great Court of the Universe. The only
way by which that Court can recognize
n OH -
who Is not a sinner. That Advocate
Is Jesus Christ the Righteous q John
2:I, the only One qualified In the sight
Of that Court to represent convicts
Whoever desires His services must
comply with His terms: "If any man
VIII come after Me [be My disciple],
net him deny himself, take up his cross
and follow Me-" Matthew 1924 To
deny himself means to give up his own
win and accept instead the will of Je-
sus; In other words, he ceases to be his
own, and becomes the Lords. Those
who take these steps are then begotten
of the Holy Spirit, and counted mem
bers Of the Body Of Christ
Wheat and Tars Christians.
There are very many who seem not
clearly to see what It is to be Chris
tan This is the reason why we can
look out over Europe and see several
hundred million so-called Christians
killing each other They neither know
what Christianity Is nor manifest It's
spirit. But God knows who are tares
and who are wheat. When the wheat
class are changed In the First Resur-
rect1on, the tares will be burned-de-
stroyed as tares, not as human beings.
In the parable our Lord explains that
the field Is the world-neither the
wheat nor the tares are the world The
earth represents the world, out of
which grow the wheat and the tares.
The seed of Truth entering the world
has brought forth the children of the
Kingdom The seed Of Error dropped
into the earth has brought forth chill
dren of error, children of the Devil, the
great source of error. They should
neither think themselves Christians
nor be imitation Christians. All should
know that there are but two classes.
real Christians and the world.
Honesty the Fundamental Quality.
According to the Bible God desires
only IA 900 members I'm the Body of
Christ. He sends forth His Message,
and it reaches only those for whom it
is designed. All others will have their
opportunity during the Messianic King
dom, when for a thousand years The
Christ will restore and uplift all the
willing and obedient of Adams race
to the original perfection lost In Eden
and redeemed at Calvary.
There are different things which hin
der people from understanding and ap-
preciating the Message. The one quail
ity which God Is seeking seems to be
that of honesty. Wherever the Truth
goes, it touches those honest-hearted
the Adversary. Gradually these real
lie that our great God has generously
purposed a New Creation, of which
Jesus is to be the Head, and the
Church the Body. When we begin to
see this, our minds gradually open;
for God begets US with His Holy Spir
it and, as the Apostle explains, we re-
ceive spiritual enlightenment en-
abling us to understand the deep
things of God, which we could not I'M
derstand before we became members
of Gods family.
1t Is one thing to enter into cove
nant, however, and another thing to
keen It Some have very fallen flesh,