The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Nebraska) 1901-current, June 12, 1911, Image 7

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    PASTOR RUSSELL
GORRECTSERRORS
The Jewish Paradise Not the
Christian's Heaven.
THE BIBLE INTERPRETED.
Imprttsion That th Old Ttmnt
8ortpturet Ar ObtoleU U Errona
cut Will tht New Interpretation
Dieeelve Our Theological Clouds and
Refresh Us In a Clearer Light? A
Masterly Exposition.
fct. Louis, Mo.,
Juue 11. rastor
Russell preached
here twice today
to great audi
dences. Both ad
dresses were out
of the ordinary
and well calcu
lated to make the
bearers sit up and take notice. We
report one of these discourses from
a text we never before beard treated
end did not even know was In the Bi
ble (Acts II, 34): "For David is not
ascended into the heavens."
The Old Testament Scriptures we ac
cept as of equal authority with the
New Testament, said rastor Russell,
because Jesus and the Apostles so ac
cepted them, and Indeed bused all of
their teachings upon them. The false
Impression which has gone abroad
amongst Christian people, that the Old
Testament Scriptures are obsolete,
that their predictions have al! been
fulfilled, is very erroneous. This has
greatly hindered Bible study, and has
paved the way to grievous errors. It
should be remembered that the Old
Testament represents the only Divine
revelation made to man during the
4168 years from the creation to the
time when Jesus at His baptism was
proclaimed "the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world."
In all the Old Testament, from Gen
esis to Muluchi, not a single suggestion
Is offered of a change of nature from
humau' to spiritual, nor of any other
heaven than that which God had orig
Inally provided for man the Garden
of Eden. The hopes inspired in Israel
by the Divine promises pointed them
forward to the time when God's bless
lug would obliterate the curse of sin
and death and uplift mankind from
present degradation, back to the orig
inal perfection. The Seed of the wo
man, it was promised, should ulti
mately "crush the Serpent's head," de-
Ktrojing the evil that Is In the world,
and establishing a reign of righteous
ness Instead of the reign of sin and
death. Messiah, as Emmanuel, rrould
bring these great blessings to Israel;
and, through Israel, they would be
opreud amongst all nations by Divine
power. Puradlse, lost through disobe
dience, will be restored through Mes
siah. Instead of expecting a change of na
ture from human to spiritual, the
teachings of the Old Testament led
the Israelites to expect that God
would make no change from Ills orig
hud purpose. He made not the eurtli
to be destroyed by tire nor to be per
petually under the cloud of sin and
death iKcclesinstes i, 3). He formed
It to be Inhabited by a humau race, in
Ills own image and likeness, Adam In
his origlnul purity being a sample.
David's Soul In Hell.
As the Old Testament tells nothing
about a heavenly condition, likewise It
tells nothing nliout a hell of lire or
torment. Such devilish theories were
Invented by the heathen, from whom
.many Christian have since nhsorlted
more or less of the false doctrines.
The Law and the Prophets do refer to
hell some sixty-six times, but the hell
which they teach Is the grave, the
tomb, the state of death. From first
to last all mankind. lxth good and
bad, go to hell, sheol, the tomb. Abra
ham. Isaac and Jacob and all the
Trophets died without giving the
slightest Intimation of Purgatorial
Buffering for anybody, or a hell of
eternal torture.
The writers of the New Testament
were also Jews, ond It might here be
noted that nowhere did they describe
the Hell and Purgatory which we
Protestant and Catholics corfjured up
during the Dark Ages. The New Tes
tament, written In Greek, Is In full ac
cord with the Old Testament, written
In Hebrew the nheol of the latter Is
the hade of the former. Unfortunately
our translators have, In the English
Bible, mixed things up In a terrible
fashion, giving us hell and pit and
grave as synonymous Interpretations
of nhnil and had'-. "Orthodoxy" made
hell fiery and thus our eyes of under
standing have been darkened through
the machinations of our great Ad
verary, "the Prince of darkness."
(tut all this (leninnlaeal misrepresen
tation of the Divine character - and
Thin Is soon to bo scattered. The
morning Is at hand; tho Prince of Unlit,
the Savior. Messiah and Ills glorious
Church, will soon shine forth as the
Pun In the Kingdom of the Father,
while Satan will be bound for that
thousand years that he may deceive
the people no more. "Then all the
blind eyes shall be opened and all Hie
deaf ear shall be unstopped;" and "the
knowledge of the glory of the Lord
shall fill the whole enrth;" and "to
jesu eery knee snail bow and every
tongue confess, to the glory of God."
"Slept With His Fathers."
AH through the Scriptures natural
$kep is used as a figure for death, as
the present time of the relgu of Kin Is
represented as a night time, and the
coming reign of Messiah Is propheti
cally described as the morning of a
New Day, a New Epoch. "Weeping
may endure for a night, but Joy Com
eth in the morning," wrote David. The
sight has lasted for six thousand
years; the New Day Is the seveuth-
thousand, the Sabbath of the great
weekk It will be the awakeuing time.
as the six thousand years of the relgu
of sin and sorrow are the time in
which our race has been going down
Into death into the deep sleep from
which none will come forth except by
the call of Messiah.
The penalty of death upon our race
would have blotted us out of existence
like the brute beasts had not God's
mercy from the beginning made pro
vision for a Redeemer and for Ills
Church and joint-heir; and for the
Messianic Kingdom; and for the resur
rection, the awakening of all mankind,
through this Kingdom. It was lu view
of that hope of a resurrection of the
dead that believers spoke of their
deceased friends as falling asleep.
This expression is used frequently In
the New Testament. St. Stephen fell
asleep in death; St. Faul, having in
mind the great work of Christ on be
half of the world and the eventual
awakening of all, declared that be
lievers need not sorrow as others over
the death of their friends and neigh
bors, but might realize that all "sleep
in Jesus," and that eventually God,
through Him, will bring to pass tho
general awakeuing of the dead, all of
whom are yet to be brought to a
knowledge, of the truth that they may
be saved from sin and death and ob
tain Restitution (Acts ill, 19-23).
Tastor Russell quoted the Scripture,
"Abraham slept with his futhers,"
and declared that Abraham's fathers
were heathen men. He called atten
tion to the fact that good and bad,
kings and princes and others, are, in
the Scriptures, declared to have fallen
asleep. So It was with David. These
all slept in the Bible hell In the tomb.
They are all unconscious; as the Scrip
tures declare, "The dead know not
anything; their sons eomo to honor
and they know it not; they come to
dishonor and they perceive it not of
them"; "There Is neither wisdom nor
knowledge nor device In sheol hell,
the grave, whither thou goest"
whither all go (Job xlv, 21; Eccleslas
tes ix, 10).
"Thou Wilt Not Leave My Soul In
Sheol."
The Prophet David declared his faith
in a resurrection of ihe dead when he
wrote, "Thou wilt not leave My Soul
in hell ishtol, the grave), nor suffer
Thine . Holy One, , to see corruption"
(Psnlm xvl, 10). St. Teter (Acts ii,
25-31) calls our attention to the fact
thnt the Trophet David did see corrup
tion, and hence that this statement
was not in regard to himself but Jesus
thnt the soul of Jesus was not left
In shcol (Greek, hade; and, additional
ly, the flesh of Jesu was not allowed
to corrupt.
St Peter was pointing out the ful
filment of this prophecy of the resur
rection of Jesus from the dead on the
third day, when ho made use of our
text, "David Is not ascended Into the
heavens; his sepulchre Is with
us unto this day." St. Peter's argu
ment Is that David wim in his sep
ulchre and was still dead, but thnt
his words were a prophetic reference
to Jesus' resurrection.
Many Christian people repeat every
Sunday what Is styled the Apostles'
Creed, which declares the crucifixion
and death of Jesus and His descent
into hell-lnto hade and that "God
raised Hiin from the dead on the third
day." All Intelligent Christians under
stand that the hell to which Jesus went
was not Purgatory nor a place of eter
nal suffering, but the grave, sheol, the
tomb, the state .of death. This is
proved to be the Apostle's thought by
the words, "God raised Him from the
dead, for It was not possible that He
should lc noldcn" of death.
David Will Not Go to Heaven.
King David will not go to heaven,
said Pastor Russell, and ho will not
desire to go to heaven, for the same
reason that a fish has no desire to
perch upon the limb of a tree nor a
bird to make Its home under the water.
As these animals have natures distinct
and are adapted to the conditions which
God has provided, so the nature of
man, even wheu brought to human per
fection, will enjoy and appreciate more
the earthly blessings which God has
provided for him than he would eujoy
the heavenly blessings which God has
provided for the Elect "little flock"-
"the Church of the Flrst-Borna" (He
brews xli, 23).
The reason for this Ii plain when we
remember the Apostle's words. He
declares, "The natural man recelveth
not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can be know appreciate them,
for they are spiritually discerned" (I
Corinthians II, lit. Only those who
have been begotten of the Holy Spirit
are enabled to understand the deep
things, the spiritual things of the Di
vine promise, and to rejoice therein, as
the Apostle explains (I Corinthians II
0, 10).
And even when thus spirit begotten
and with their affections set on things
above, the Lord's consecrated "little
flock" experience dimVtilty lu keeping
their affections on the Heavenly things
and off of the earthly things, becauoe
the hitter appeal to them continually
through all of their earthly senses
lliey are theretore exhorted to "look
not at the things that are seen, but at
the tilings that are unseen," which "eye
bath not seen nor ear heard, neither
have entered Into the heart of man Un
great things which God has in reserva
tion for those that love Him" love
Him more than they love houses or
lauds, parents or children, or self.
We chu plainly see, then, that with
out this begetting of the Holy Spirit,
which lKlongs, of course, to the serv
ants and handmaidens of God during
this Gospel Age, none are able to ap
preciate the things unseen. And
hence the world of mankind In gen
eral, brought buck to perfection and
all the way back, appreciating human
perfection will be willing not to sac
rifice their earthly nature to obtain a
heavenly, but will enjoy the earthly,
under Krfect conditions, In a Para
dise restored (Isaiah xxxv, Ezeklel
xxxvll).
David Was a Prophet.
On a previous occasion we saw the
teaching of the Scriptures to be that
the first to be blessed by Messiah's
Kingdom will be the Ancient Worthies
Enoch, Abraham, Moses, David, and
the Prophets and that these will be
made Princes in the earth. As one of
these Princes, the Prophet David will
huve a very glorious statlou. Ills long
career, his "ups and downs," said the
Pastor, show us the lights and shad
ows of the Trophet's character more
particularly, perhaps, thon hi the case
of any other Bible character. And
they show us a noble character, de
spite David's human weaknesses and
the frailties of his flesh, augmented
in power by his kingly office and the
misconceptions of kingly prerogatives
which prevailed in his day.
The beautiful traits of the character
of David, on account of which he was
declared to be, not a "new creature,"
not a "sou of God," not au "heir of
God and joint-heir with Messiah," but
"a man after God's own heart" these
traits were his loyal obedience and his
repentance of everything which In any
degree was displeasing to God and in
terrupted the fellowship Divine.
God's Spirit-begotten children may
not, therefore, take the Trophet David
or any of the Ancients as their pat
tern. Only Splrlt-begotten ones can
serve as examples to tho Church.
Thy should walk lu the footsteps of
Jesus, and may even take the Apos-1
tlao niwt ntliur ftiHhftit firntlirnn t ir :
examples. The Apostle, however, sug
gests that the Church may look back
with profit upon the Worthies of the
past, to note their degree of faith In
God and their oledlence to that faith.
St. Panl, however, explicitly reminds
us that God has provided some better
thing for us the Church that the An
cient Worthies, without us members
of The Messiah, cannot be made per
fect (Hebrews xl, 3S-40).
Joint-Heirship With Christ the Better
Thing Reserved For Christians.
The "better thing" reserved "for us"
who are called of God during this Gos
pel Age Is the joint heirship with
Christ, Jehovah's only-begotten Son
and heir of all things, the partaking
with Him In all Ills subsequent work
for the blessing of God's Intelligent cre
ation. Therefore It Is, as the Apostle
states, that the reward of the Ancient
Worthies tarries until first the over
coming Gospel Church Is exalted to
the throne with Christ In the dawn of
the New Dispensation, now so close at
I band.
As soon as the spiritual phase of the
Kingdom is established In power the
setting tip of the human phase will Im
gln. In humble recognition, therefore,
of the Divine purpose and order In the
superior exaltation of the Gospel
Church, we repeat the Apostle's state
ment that "they (those noble, loyal,
righteous, faithful Ancient Worthies)
without us shall not be made perfect."
But as to whether ire shall be num
bered among the "u" depends upon
our successful running of the race set
before us. Surely, no less faithfulness
and nobility of character can be ex
pected of u than of those who ran for
the earthly prize. And since all the
blessings of God's Plan the exalta
tion of the Ancient Worthies, the lib
eration of the whole world from the
bondage of sin and death and the final
Judgment of angels await the mani
festation of the spiritual sons of God,
the Gospel Church, therefore the Apos
tle (chapter 12), In forceful metaphor,
points us buck to those Ancient
Worthies as a stimulus for faith and
real, saying:
"Therefore also we, being compassed
about with so great a cloud of martyrs
Greek marturon who so nobly wit
nessed for God and righteousness, let
us emulate them and lay aside every
weight and the sin which doth so easi
ly beset us, and let us run with pa
tience the higher, heavenly race that
Is set before u, looking unto Jesus, tho
Author and Finisher of our faith, who,
for the Joy that was set before IHm, en
dured the cross, despising the shame,
and Is set down at the right hand of
the throne of God."
Jesus, our Ransomer, Is also our
Forerunner and Tattern In this race,
lie ran successfully, and. In conse
quence, Is even now at the right hand
of the throne of God, whither we also
may go to Him.
Jesus' way to the crown was the way
of the shameful cross, and ne said,
If any man love me, let him take up
his cross dally and follow me; the
servant Is not above his Lord, etc.
Persecution and shame and grief Hnd
loss are our portion In this present
world, but exaltation and glory will
follow In due time, If we faint not.
Therefore we are urged to consider His
example and Icim-Ii'iik lest we be weary
and faint In our ml ids under the trials
of faith, patience ami cndnmni-p of this
evil day.
"A little wlillc; now M ha mmi;
Tlie lionr ill-awn nn apnee
Tim fol.'-KKcd Imiir, tlm Kloiimm tnnrn,
Vlnn wi Nlinll m Ills f.-tre.
How IIrIiI our trlnls then will trm
How Hli'n-t our lli;rlm wayl
Th ft. of oarth a fitful ilroam,
Dtix-1l' i,y ilawnlnK day."
THE LRlflU i
177
" "
nn
Si
R
WILL BE CELEBRATED IN GRAND STYLE AT
smoutto, Neb
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE
Patt
J
mproved irdeir off
Med Men
-A GRAIID OLD FASHIOHED PROGRAM IS BEIHG PREPARED!-
Good Speaking! Splendid Band Music! Many Sports! Grand Display of Fireworks!
Watch these columns for further announcements, and make it a point to
- elebraie in Platf smoutth! -
THE STALE EGG PRO
POSITIOHJGETTING FIERCE
While Counting Out Some "Fresh
Laid Eggs" the Other Day One
Bursted In Clerk's Hands.
What came nearly being a fatal
explosion occurred at a IMatts
moutli grocery store last Satur
day afternoon, when a farmer's
wife, innocently unloaded a cargo
of stale eggs, or, to say the least,
one. was very stale. An un
sophistoeated clerk was busily en
gaged in counting the ben fruit,
which wa9 alleged to be hand
picked fresh from the roost, when
one of tho eggs suddenly and
without warning, exploded with a
report like a double-barreled
shotgun. Like David Harum's
egg, "the dumed thing held a
pint," and the entire- contents
scattered over the clerk and owner
of the hen fruit.
The noise of the report and the
stench arising from the remains
frightened tho clerk almost to
I death. Here was where the fatality
came near happening. The clerk's
first thought when be heard tho
report was that lie was assassin
ated, and when his olfactory
nerve got to working he then made
up his mind that the gas pipe had
"Mowed up" and that ho was be
ing asphyxiated. Tho clerks came
running from other parts of tho
store and the excitement for a few
minutes was intense. When it
dawned on tho force what had
happened the next step was to
clean tip and dispel the odor.
Then for some minutes there wa9
burning of feathers, sugar and
cotton rags, until finally the room
was gotten in shape to pass tho
inspection of tho board of health.
The egg proposition for those
who have to buy country eggs is
something fierce. Just a day or
two ago a lady of the city opened
tip nn egg to make a cako and
there Inside the shell nestled a
dend chick. The farmer who
brings such produce to market
lays himself liable to a $50 fine,
and I he merchant who sells Is
also liable the same penally.
The pure fund inspector could
make some good money by visit
ing I'lallstnoiilh these summer
days and going through the egg
cases.
FOR SHERIFF.
I hereby announce by self as a
candidate for the nomination for the
office of sheriff of Cass county, Ne
braska, subject to the decision of the
voters nt the coming primary elec
tion. I nsk the voters to place me
in nomination on the democratic
ticket. G. P. Barton, Union, Neb.
Undergoes Operation.
Judge Newell, who was injured
at Cedar Creek seven weeks ago
by having a heavy car door fall
tin his foot, breaking the bones
of bis great toe, underwent an
operation yesterday morning,
having tho toe amputated. His
physicians had hoped to save I he
toe, but tho healing process was
so sfow that it was decided to
take the injured member off. Tho
judge passed a restless night last
night, but is now on tho road to
recovery.
Subscribe for tne Daily Journal.
Do you want an
AUCTIONEER?
If you do, get one who has
Experience, Ability, Judgement.
Telegraph or write
ROBERT WIKINSON,
Dunbar, Neb.
Dates made at this office or the
Murray State Bank. .
Good Scrvics in Reasobte Rales
Wedding Bells.
Last, Wednesday a very pretty
wedding occurred at the home of
Mr. and Mrs. Julius Kngoos, when
their daughter, Miss Olga, was
united in marriage to Mr. V H.
Hies. The ceremony was perform--ed
by Rev. Theodore Uni t man of
Ihe Herman Lutheran church in
the presence of Ihe immediate)
family. An elegant dinner was
served and the young couple left
on their honeymoon, which will
last about ten days and will bo
spent at Twin Lake, Iowa, at
which summer resort (he groom's
parents have a collage. The brido
is the handsome and accomplish
ed daughter of our highly respect
ed townsman, Julius llagoos. Tho
groom has charge of Ihe men's
furnishings department at Diers
.Brothers and is an excellent
young man of sterling worth.
They have a host of friends in
this vicinity, who join with tho
Courier in wishing them a long
and happy life together. Louis
ville Courier.
Announcement.
I hereby announce myself a.-j a
candidate for tlio nomination of the
ofllco of sheriff, subject to the de
cision of the voters at the coming
primary. I auk them to place me la
nomination on the democratic ticket.
D. C. Rhoden.
Mr. A. Rtoebr went to the hos
pital to visit, Mr. Henry Horn, who
is recovering from the effects of
an operation for appendicitis.
SPECIAL SALE
UN'S 8LAGK THREAD SILK HOSE!
Full regular made with like-silk cotton top and
pure. thread silk boot. The sole, heel and toe are
made of double cotton thread, which insures addi
tional service. We believe that this is the best silk
stocking ever shown at the price. Special value at,
a pair 50c.
j ZUCKWEILER&LUTZ