Pastor Russell arrived, the guest of the State Board. His address at the Fair Grounds Auditorium drew an immense audience. His topic was "Beyond the Grave." We report his evening address from the text, "At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God." 'Philip. 2:10-11.
The speaker referred to the Six Great Days of a thousand years each, during which the world is experiencing a reign of sin and death, sighing and crying. Physicians, physical and moral, have been unable to effect a cure. God Himself alone is able to roll away the curse which He imposed and to give mankind instead His blessing.
In the past we have been so intent on following our own sectarian schemes and theories that we have neglected the proper study of the Bible. Indeed, not until our day has such a study been possible for the masses. Only now do they have the Word of God in their possession in convenient form in every family, and only now is education so general as to permit all to read, all to study, all to know the good things of the Divine promises.
The creeds of the "Dark Ages" did, indeed, din into our ears the message of the curse. Yes, they distorted it and made it a message of eternal torture, whereas the Scriptures declare that "the wages of sin is death" not eternal torment. In our darkness we mistranslated and misinterpreted God's Word to our own confusion, swallowing also some interpolations without proper scrutiny. No wonder we were nauseated by those creeds! No wonder the intelligent portion of humanity were in danger of all being driven into infidelity away from God and from His Book, which we misunderstood and misinterpreted!
Bible students are arousing from their sleep and finding that they have long suffered from nocturnal hallucinations. The true message of God's Word is spreading, and with it goes increase of faith, together with joy, peace and godliness.
We have all noted the fact that ours is the most wonderful day of earth's history. At this great state fair our eyes open widely as we note the contrast between the blessings which surround us and those enjoyed by our fathers. Although we are viewing here the exhibits of but one state out of many, we are surely all amazed at what we see of progress, invention and labor-saving machinery, of educational arrangements, of improvement in the breeding of cattle, sheep, swine, horses, poultry, etc.
We are equally astonished at the progress made in the culture of fruit and vegetables. We say to ourselves, Surely the fruits and flowers and animal life of paradise could not have very greatly surpassed the prize winners of this exhibition! We cogitate further that with the progress of invention the necessity of arduous labor and sweat of face for the daily bread will soon be at an end and the necessary leisure and conveniences and comforts which will permit every man to be a nobleman will soon be available to all. What do these things mean? Why have they come suddenly upon us in on generation? year and give no indication of slacking, but rather of progressing to still greater wonders! What is the explanation of this?
The Bible alone gives the reply to this query. It explains to us the meaning of the reign of sin and death which we and our forefathers have shared. It tells us that our sorrows, aches and pains, weaknesses mental, moral and physical, are all the results of sin the sin of Father Adam entailed upon us by the laws of heredity for the Six Great Days of a thousand years each, already past.
Then to our astonishment the Bible opens the door of the future and bids us look abroad and see the better day which God promises. It explains that He has been giving us lessons respecting the exceeding sinfulness of sin, but that all the while He has sympathized with and loved His creatures. It tells us that as a beginning of the Divine intention to roll away the curse and to give instead Divine blessings, Jesus came into the world and died for Adam and his race, "the Just for the unjust," to cancel their judicial obligations the death penalty upon them and thus to give them an opportunity in God's due time to return to their former estate, all that Adam lost to the perfection which was his when he was in the image of God, to all that was his in his glorious estate Paradise.
Chronologically we are already in the Great Seventy Day or Thousand-Year-Sabbath we are already 38 years into the great Seventh Day. This explains the blessings which are ours and which are coming to us increasingly. This progress will continue throughout the great Thousand-Year Sabbath of Messiah's Kingdom. The Bible promises that it shall bring blessings to every creature not only the living, but the dead, "for all that are in their graves must hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth." (John 5:28-29.) All must be given a full opportunity to come into harmony with the Creator and to come to perfection and everlasting life. Only by personal, wilful, intelligent sin can anyone's blessings be turned into the second curse of God, the Second Death, from which there will be no redemption.
Incidentally let us note that the coming of those blessings is, in one sense, premature, in that they have come to us before the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom. Consequently, instead of the world's being happier because of these favors, it is more unhappy, more discontented than ever. Consequently, instead of the world's being happier because of these favors, it is more unhappy, more discontented than ever. The Scriptures show that the discontent will culminate in a short, sharp period of terrible anarchy, from which the world will be rescued by the establishment of Messiah's Kingdom.
The permission of the light and blessings of our day, in advance of Messiah's rule, the Creator intends shall teach humanity a great lesson respecting their own fallen condition and respecting their need of the very help which God is providing in Christ. None shall have the opportunity of erroneously supposing that God's blessings, coming to the unregenerate hearts, will make them thankful and happy. The new heart is necessary to real happiness. [HGL565] We also incidentally see that if God had sent or permitted the light of our day with its blessings a thousand years sooner, then the discontent of humanity would have culminated in anarchy a thousand years sooner and before the time Divinity arranged for the establishment of Messiah and His Bride, the Church, in heavenly glory for the ruling, blessing and uplifting of humanity.
As we gradually come to realize that we are living in the dawning of the time for the long-promised blessing, this Sabbath Day of earth, when the Curse shall roll away, it gives us a fresh interest in all the affairs of the present life, as well as those features of the Divine plan which are yet future. The knowledge makes life worth living. Millions of people live a treadmill existence, unworthy of themselves and joyless, because they have not come into the family of God and not been taught to understand the deep things of His gracious purposes.
The first step is an acknowledgement of the Creator and a consecration of life to Him, and then an application of our hearts to know His will, that we may do it. One day of such living is worth more than a year of the aimless meandering common to the masses. All who have entered into this blessing should rejoice therein. They who have not should seek the Door, Christ, and be glad to walk the narrow way, following his footsteps into grace and peace divine.
We may, indeed, rejoice in the lessening of the sweat of face coming to mankind in the dawning of this New Day. We may, indeed, rejoice in the more comfortable housing, feeding and clothing of our race. We may, indeed, praise the day which is ushering in these blessings and which, through irrigation canals and artesian wells, scientific study and teachers., books and newspapers, is making the wilderness to blossom as the rose and many blades of grass to grow where one alone grew previously, bringing increased fruitfulness. But still much is to be desired much that we cannot accomplish for ourselves. We need an outside influence, and outside power the very one which God's Word declares is about to take control Messiah's Kingdom.
Our blessings thus far are not drawing the masses nearer to God not making them more thankful, more holy, more reverential, more loving. On the contrary, we are becoming more strifeful, more self-willed, than any previous generation less inclined to believe that there is such a Being at all. At the present rate of growth of irreverence it would seem as though the time might soon come when no knee would bow an no tongue confess to God's glory.
But here we look to God to see what provision He has made for present conditions. And as we look, our hearts are cheered. We have the Divinely solemn declaration that the full end of the reign of sin and death is to come. And we have outlined in God's Word proofs that we are now living in the time when that new reign of righteousness shall be inaugurated. We have prayed for it with more or less of faith all our lives: "Thy Kingdom Come; Thy will be done on earth, even as it is done in heaven."
Permit not faith to let go her hold; the Word of God cannot fail. As He is bringing to us the temporal blessings promised in His Word and appropriate to this time the New Dispensation let us trust Him for every other feature of His promised blessing. He who has begun the good work is able to complete it. If He has promised, and sworn to this promise, that all the families of the earth shall be blessing in Abraham's seed, surely we may rely upon it. If we see at present only the spiritual seed of Abraham in full harmony with God through Christ, and they not glorifies, let us wait patiently for the Lord, knowing that He will fulfill His promises in due time.
The church, the elect, are indeed the spiritual seed of Abraham. This class, as the bride of Christ, must be completed and must be united to their Redeemer by the first resurrection change before they will be qualified to share with Him the great work of blessing Abraham's natural seed. Gal. 3:29.
The completion and glorification of the church will mark the time for the establishment of the kingdom. Then will begin the pouring out of the Divine blessing and the removal of the curse. Satan will be bound for a thousand years. The knowledge of God will gradually fill the whole earth. The natural seed of Abraham will be the first to receive the restitution blessings to return to the likeness of God in the flesh and to have returned to them Paradise conditions and Divine favor. The ancient saintly ones of the Jewish race, we are assured, shall be made princes in all the earth for the correction of their brethren, natural Israel, and for the instruction and assistance, also, of the people of every nation, kindred and tongue the living and the dead.
Rapidly the knowledge of the glory of God will fill the whole earth. Corrections in righteousness will be meted out to all not doing their very best to come into harmony with the Divine law, Blessed rewards of increasing perfection of mind and body will gradually come to the willing and obedient in that day. The willful evildoers shall be cut off in the Second Death. Then as a result, before the thousand years of Messiah's Kingdom shall expire, every knee will bow to the glory of God.
Meantime also the blessings of Paradise will be coming to the earth as a whole. "God will make the place of His feet glorious." (Isa. 9:13; 66:1.) Jesus will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. (Isa. 53:10, 11.) All those who have suffered for righteousness' sake during the present time of the reign of sin and death will be more than compensated therefore in the blessings and joys of the New Dispensation. The knowledge of the glory of God shall fill the whole earth. The glorious Divine character will be made manifest, not only to angels, but to men. The infinitude of God's love, justice, wisdom and power may then be seen by all; whereas to-day, under the reign of sin and death, with minds beclouded by the error instilled by the Prince of Darkness, the opposite condition darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the heathen.
What a glorious consummation is before us! What lengths and breadths of human possibility in perfection we see with the eye of faith! Man was made in the image of his Creator, and the earth was provided to be his everlasting home. The curse that has rested upon the earth and its King has [HGL566] brought both to angels and to men valuable lessons, which perhaps could not have been learned under any other process of instruction.
The result will be glorious, as described by the Master Himself. There shall be no more sighing, no more curse there, nor sorrow, nor pain, nor any more dying; for all the things of sin and death will have passed away. He who sits upon the throne "will make all things new" (Rev. 21:4, 5).
The prophet Isaiah declares that Jehovah will do these things, and that every knee shall bow to Him and every tongue confess (Isa. 14:23). St. Paul applies this scripture and declares that it will be fulfilled through Jesus, and incidentally it will be fulfilled by the Church through Jesus. All things are of the Father and by the Son. The thought, then, is that the world in acknowledging Christ and the Church, and bowing to them, will be bowing to Jehovah, for the Logos, Jesus, the Redeemer, forever will be the Representative of the Father and His power; hence, all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father also not honor Him as the Father, but as the Son, the Father's direct Representative heir of all things (John 5:23; Heb. 1:2).
The elect Church of the present time already bows to Jesus as the Representative of the Heavenly Father, and already enjoys a great blessing through this special relationship into which she has entered and which is to be completed in her resurrection change. Jesus as the great King of Glory, and His Bride class as the great Queen of Glory will be distinctly separate from the world share of an altogether different salvation. These, begotten of the Holy Spirit, are promised a participation in the Divine nature, which is far above that of angels, the Apostle assures us.
For the same reason that the Heavenly Father is invisible to men Christ and the Church will be invisible, though all-powerful. The blessings of human restitution that they will bring mankind will be conveyed through earthly channels, of whom Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets and faithful ones of the past will be the leaders, or Princes, as God has declared (Psa. 14:1-6)