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About The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Nebraska) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 1912)
MAN'S FALL FROM DIVINE FAVOR His Condemnation by God as Told by flie Bible. PASTOR RUSSELL IN PARIS. fee.,? yi-n: fijl I 'V. ;j I CrAMQVusstii.) The Bible Teaches That Man Did Not Fall From a Heavenly Condition to an Earthly Condition, but From Per fection to Imperfection The Penalty of Sin Jeiut' Death on Calvary the Ransom-Price For Father Adam. Paris, Aajr. 11. Pastor Ilusst'll ad dressed large ami attentive audi ences twice Lere, once from the text, "What is man?" (PBalm vill, 4). which we report In part. He Bald: Although I have vlslled your great city several times, tills is my first op portunlty for ad dressing you publicly, on the Invitation of your local class of the International Bible Students Association. Indeed, if I am rightly informed, Wide student have not been very numerous In your vgay capital. Splendors and pleasures you have undoubtedly had or sought to have, but the great pleasure, the great Joy and Inspiration which come from an intimate knowledge of the Di vine Word, the masses of your peoplo evidently have never fully experienced. The present Pope, I understand, is not ho highly appreciated amongst you as were somi of his predecessors, but let me speak ono good word for him, namely, that more than any of his pred ecessors he has sought to uphold the Uible, and In America at least he has urged upon the people Itiblo study. I ain sure that he Is right in this ami that the greater knowledge we have of the true teachings of the Itiblo the greater will be our blessing and Joy, both individually and nationally. I have chosen for my topic on this occasion what I believe is an impor tant, yea, a vital question of deep in terest to all humanity: "What is Man?" This great question the Itiblo alone an swers distinctly and satisfactorily, as 1 hope I shall bo ablo to demonstrate. The answer of Hclenco to our query U at least in one respect right and in full accord with the. Uible. Science tells us that man Is an animal of tho highest order genus homo. The Itlble agrees with this and declares man distinctly different from (he lower animals, and also distinctly separato from angels and spirit beings. Ho Is terrestrial, "of the earth earthy"- he is not spiritual, not eelestlsl or heavenly. The earth, not heaven, was tnado for his home. Tho Bible does tell of man's fall from Divine favor and of his Divine condem nation, but his fall was not from a heavenly condition to an earthly con dition, but from an earthly condition of perfection to a dying condition of imperfection. The lllblo teaches that if man had not si lined his life would havo been everlasting, In earthly per fection, and that his homo would have been an earthly Paradise In which ho would hiiTe enjoyed the blessing and fellowship of his Maker. The death sentence did not alter or change his nature, but merely forfeited his life and all of his blessings and rights which were dependent upon his life. The penally was not, "To eternal torment shall thoil go, to suffer eternal ly at the hands of demons," but, "Dy ing, thou shalt die;" "Thorns and this tles Khali the earlh bring forth unto thee;" "lu the sweat of thy faeo shalt thou ent bread until thou return unto tho ground; for out of It wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." And of tho faith ful execution of this Dlvlno penalty against tho sinner we are all witnesses. And Yet How Grand Is Manl As I stood by the ruins of, ancient Memphis, where Joseph rose from be ing n slavo to being the (.lovernor, next to King Pharaoh, 1 was Impressed with some of tho mighty monuments which persist despite tho ravaging hand of time. I said to myself, What la man? What a king of earth ho is, and has been, notwithstanding his deteriora tion through slu and tho fall! As I noted tho sculpt tires of thirty-live hun dred years ago I said, Truly tho itlble Is right when it declares that God made man In His own image that to man, the highest earthly creature, the great Creator, Himself a Spirit, lm purted an impress of His own charac ter and a inensuro of His own power, so that man really was created, a god of earth toward tho lower creatures which wero put under his care, as his Creator is tho God of tho Universe. My admiration for our raco and its skill was greatly enhanced as I thus cogitated, Tho pyramids, and espe cially the Great Pyramid of Gtzeh, near Cairo, Impressed mo similarly. When 1 considered tho wonderful ac complishments of that long-ago period and reflected tlisj; wo could scarcoly do more today with our most improved machinery, my appreciation of our an cestors was enhanced; and I said, It would bo very dllllcult for many to oc cept tho modern scientific theory that our forefathers hut a short tlmo ago were cousins to tho npo. Some of tho temples of India and China similarly Impressed me. Athens, too, with its museums of ancient struc ture, similarly said to me. Truly man in his oryiual perfection must have been created in the lu;age of his Crea tor. My visits to Home impressed upon me tho fact that although t lie work of death has progressed lu our race, nevertheless, in a measure the decay of the masses has by Divine provi dence found compensation; for al though we hate no Michael Angelas today we have legions who are Inspir ed by his example, and who have copied Lim with wonderful success, so that today our treasures of art are not only multitudinous but grand be yond those of any previous day. Tho great St. Peter's at Home is It self a treasury of art such as never be fore was known In the world, beside which all the great capitals of Kurope alniind with art galleries which Illus trate the power of the human mind and the of the human baud In the appreciation" etui execution of the beau tiful. Aii.l lu this connection I must not forget the similar treasures of my home land, America. Utilities of Our Day. Hut. my dear friends, you nnd I are living in a specially utilitarian Age. and I for one am glad of it The skill of humanity hns during the last cen tury been turned Into a new channel, which is making for us a new world. Instead of tho narrow streets and lanes of a century ago, we havo broad as phalt avenues and boulevards; Instead of ordinary houses of a century ago, our cities are replete with handsome and commodious residences that in comparison are palaces. Beautiful, graceful bridges span our great rivers and servo to consolidate our interests. Wonderful tunnels plerco our moun tains nnd facilitate the movement of luxurious railway coaches. Palatial steamers with regularity connect port to port. Often of late I have found myself ad miring some of our grand hotels and palatial capltols and engineering feats of bridge work and tunnels, saying to myself the while, What is man? And then 1 reflect, If man lu his fallen con dition has learned gradually to accom plish so much, what may we reason ably expe-t would have been the ulti mate capacity of perfect man ha'd sin not entered Into the world, and had the experience of centuries been accumu lating in many brains! I?y now how wonderful a being Father Adam might havo been! Times of Restitution. Then my mind reverted to the great Creator and the Message Ho has given us in Ills wonderful Hook, the Itiblo. I remembered tho Inspired Message of consolation, that God looked down in pity on us as a race In our fallen con ditlon and that Ho planned even before our fall for our recovery as a race from tho curse, from sin. from death. I hearkened to St. Peter's words of en couragement respectlug the glorious blessings to be ushered in by the great Redeemer when nt Ilia aeoond advent He shall take unto Himself Ills great power and begin Ills Messianic reign for the blessing, recovery aud uplift of our race. I will remind you of Ilia words, although you are familiar with them. Ho said, "Times of refreshing shall como from the presence of the Lord, and Ho shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you. whom tho heavens must retain until the Times of Restitution of all things which God hath promised by tho mouth of nil His holy Prophets since the world began."-Acts III, 10-21. Ah, God Is better than all our fears! During tho Dark Ages a terrible night mare became associated with the glo rious Gospel of God's love nnd mercy revealed by Jesus and tho Apostles. Under that nightmare we lost sight of all tho glorious promises of the Hlblo and lost our confidence In God because of the terrible propositions declared to us to be Ills Intentions toward our race. True, nil acknowledged the hope that a saintly few would nttalu an eternal weight of glory on the heavenly plane, but all the remainder except the saintly ones, the Jilecf, wero consigned either to a terrible purgatorial fire or to au eternal holocaust of torture. What blasphemies' against our God, the God of Grace, we thus unwittingly, undo slriugly entertained! The effect of these teachings In nil parts of the world, In every religion, has been to convert man's natural quality of reverence for his Creator Into a terrible fear, and this foar has autre and more separated us from God ind the Bible. Mankind and the Church. We are uow coming to understand tnoro fully the Bible doctrine of elec tion and wo see It to be not unjust and cruel as it onco appeared, but beautiful nnd blessed, for both elect and non-elect Tho Divine Plan was, and still Is, a universal Plan-a Plan granting universal opportunity to Adam and to all his raco for n recov ery from tho penalty of sin-fur a re covery from sin and death to all that Father Adam had in the beginning nnd which ho lost through dlsoliedl ence, nnd which Jesus redeemed for him and his race at Calvary, nnd which all tho willing nnd obedient may have back again at tho hands of the Redeemer, if they will, during the period of His Messianic reign. This Is tho Restitution which St Peter tells us God spoke "through the mouth of nil tho holy Prophets since tho world began." And tho blessing will not be merely restltutlonory, but Indeed all the experiences of tho pres ent tlmo with sin nnd sorrow, pnltt and death will bo blessed, helpful les sons for tho future-guards against any repetition of tho scenes of dlso bedleuce against tho Divine regula tions mado for man's comfort, happi ness and everlasting Joy. Tho work accomplished by our Re deemer nt Calvary was merely n pre paratory one. His death provided the Ransom price for Father Adam, and hence for all Adam's race who share his condemnation. The work of Di vine grace which has progressed since Jesus' dwath and resurrection is also' a preparatory work. During this pe riod of more than eighteen centuries God has been gathering out of the world a special class, willing to pass through specially severe trials and test ings of faith and obedlem e, under the inspiration of certain "oxri-cd'"g great and precious promises" (11 1'cier i, 4) of a share with Jesus in the divine na ture and glory, honor and Immortality. This selecting work began with nat ural Israel, and has extended now gradually the world u round, gathering from every nation samples and repre sentatives, but all saintly; nil in heart, at least, copies of God's dear Son, ths Redeemer. With the dawning of the Seventh Great. Day the Day of Christ this work of electing or selecting n special class v suinis to constitute His Bride and Joint heirs in the King dom will be complete. Then will be gin the salvation of the world the reclamation or Restitution of the world from sin und death conditions, mado possible; by the great redemptive work of Calvary. "Glory In the Highest." From what we have seen of the Dl vlno provision for man's recovery we grasp the force of the prophetic dec laration following the question of our text "What is man, that Thou art mindful of hlm-the son of man, that Thou vlsltest him?" When wo think of the greatness of our God, and the littleness of ourselves, even In our best estate, and especially when we think that we nro all sinners, we are amazed that our great Creator was mindful of us mindful of preparing a great Plan of Salvation willing to pro vide for our redemption, and making preparation for the Kingdom which is to bless the race! Can we doubt that He who has so loved tho world while they wero yet sinners will bring His Plan to n glorious consummation? Can we doubt that lie will do all that He has promised, exceedingly abun dantly more than we could have asked or thought?-Ephesiuns III, 20., Do not understand me to say that the Bible teaches a universal salva tion of our race to life cternak No, that would bo unreasonable. Thnt would Imply Divine coercion of the human will, and such a coercion would bo contrary to the teachings of the Scriptures that mnn Is created In God's image and likeness. An essen tial feature of tho Divine likeness in man is the freedom of his will; his body may bo coerced or enslaved or what not, but the human will Is In domitable, liko that of his Creator. It is evidently not tho Dlvlno Inten tion to destroy tho human will, but to educate It to allow It to develop as n will, along tho lines of experience, so that It may bo voluntarily submitted to the Dlvlno will -because of apprecia tion of tho wisdom of all tho Dlvlno arrangements, regulations, laws, etc. Tho Dlvlno proposition, therefore. Is that as all mankind shared by heredi ty the seutence of death which came upon tho first man Adam, so the re demption accomplished by tho Second Adam shall be co-extenslvo . with the fall, so that nil Adam's raco who will do so may return to God and be abun dantly pardoned and Dually restored to nil that was lost in Adam and re deemed nt Calvary. And what, you nsk, will bo the fate of those who wilfully, delllierately, persistently, Intelligently resist the Divine will and refuse the glorious op portunity of Restitution? Tho Bible answers that all will be on trial for life eternal or for death eternal, and that those who refuso tho conditions of heart loyalty and oliedience will bring upon themselves afresh tho sen tence of death. But this second sen tence will differ from tho first, not In the kind of punishment, but In tho duration thereof. The first or Adamlc death God from tho first foreordained should bo sot aside, and from the very beginning He had made preparations for tho Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world, nnd to consequently make pos sible for our raco a resurrection from the dead nud n further opportunity or trial for everlasting life. Wilful sin ners under Iho light nnd opportunity of thnt day, when condemned to death, will die no moro thoroughly than Imj fore, but their death will be a hope less one; no Redeemer has leen ap portioned for them and none will bo npiHtrtloned; no redemption for them will be effected nnd no resurrection will bo granted. As St. Peter declares, they shall perish "llko natural brute beasts mado to be taken nnd destroy-ed."-II Peter 11, 12. Some nt least in this audience, I trust, have been mentally touched with the thought of tho great grace of God operating during this Ago for tho se lection of Joint-heirs with Christ In the Kingdom. I trust thnt this high nnd heavenly Calling to a chango of nature from human to tho divine, offered to tho "elect," meets with a response in some hearts hero present. I would en courage you, thnt although the night is far spent and tho glorious Day of the Kingdom Is nigh nt hand, it is still worth while to "lay nsldo every weight" nnd every besetting sin, nnd mnko a full consecration of life nnd energy, wealth, reputation, little or much, to the Dlvlno service, that thus you may walk in the footsteps of Jesus, bo begotten of tho no!y Spirit and at tain to tho Heavenly Kingdom. This, my dear friends, is my own am bltlon nnd dally endeavor. I may not urge you to do more thnn the Master nimself urged, who snld for us to "sit down first nnd count tho cost." If yon decide that yon wnnt the 'TVarl of Great Trice" now offered to humnnlty, It will cost you nil that you have to ob tain It, nnd then It will be tho most wonderful Trlze and the most wonder ful bargain ever secured! QMJLaefefcjMLe4rif'.MitfeiM0hedll A 3 f m unit nm 1 yyUGn) ONTINU We are going to continue our stock reduction sale for the next thirty days only. The prices quoted below are only for stock on hand, and in NO case will goods be ordered at these prices. Every article listed is a real bargain, and represents only a few of the many that we are offering you at this time. V.,.-,. i .. 10 per cent Discount on all SHOTGUNS and RIFLES! Two One Lawn Mowers! Drummer lawn mowers, 16-inch, were S3.00, now $2.00 Liberty " 4.75, " 3'25 16- inch Blue Star, ball bearing lawn mower, was $8.00, now 5.50 " GoldStar, 9.50, 7.00 18-inch " 10.00, " 7.50 12.50, " 8.75 17- inch Royal - 13.50, . . t . , . 9.50 18- inch Grand 13.59, 9.50 1 ."U 1 JJ I p ; y r r' . - . . ...... J' Gasoline Stoves! Four 3-burner Quick Meal gasoline stoves, were $10.50, now $7.50 Two 2- 8.50, " 6.75 Four 3- " Junior 4.25, " 3.25 SAD IRONS! 12 Marvel Gasoline Sad Irons, were $5.00, now $3.60 LITTER CARRIERS! Two Star Litter Carriers, steel cable, were $25.00, now $19.50 One Lowden " 23.00, " 17.50 GASOLINE ENGINES! One 4-horse Fairbanks gasoline engine, was $185.00, now 7 K-horse Chopie gasoline engine -4-horse W aterloo Boy gasoline engine, friction clutch, mounted $135.00 150.00 110.00 BASE BURNERS! One No. 60 Radiant Home base burner, were $52.50, now 16 48.00, " $45.00 41.50 r SPADES!- From 50c Up Other steel goods in proportion. 3 RANGES!: One P. B. Copper Clnd range, formerly sold for $71.50, now $60.00 " No 8135 Majestic range, was $62.50, now 56 00 " " 643 t' " " 57.50, 51.00 " 18-inch Radiant Home range, was $30.00, now 40.00 " Blue Enamel Quick Meal range, was $81.50, now ; 69.00 Two 18-inch " " ' high closet, reservoir, and formerly sold for $32.50, now 44.00 Two 18-inch Foster ranges, with reservoir and high closet, were $45.00, now 35.00 One 18-inch Majestic range, slightly used, was $57.50, now 40.00 LANTENS! No. 2, Cold Blast, that sold for $1.00, now 75c " 1, " " " " " .65, 40c " 2, Copper Lanterns, that sold for $1.50, now $1.15 Three Dozen Hand. Sickles, that sell for 25c, now 15c Washing Machines! One Maytag power washer, was $25.00, now $20.00 " A. M. C. A. power washer, was $22.50, now 18.00 Guaranteed ALFALFA SEED atO VgH (-AJ $9.50 PER BUSHEL M'-"'M:;:..rx I IWHEELBARROWS! I Common Wheelbarrows, that have always sold for $2.00, now $1.40 Garden " " " were $3.75, now 2.75 Extra large Garden Wheelbarrows, that were $4.75, now 3.75 Everything in the Hardware Line Will Be Discounted Nothing Held Back! 3 Plattsmouth, Nebraska c i