WITH eyes aflame, with panting breath, they come, –
The runners, – every nerve and muscle tense, –
Urged forward by a thousand deafening cries,
On, on, they rush, when one, close to the goal,
For but one moment glances back in pride
To note how far he hath outrun the rest.
Alas! tripped by a pebble on the course,
He stumbles, falls, arises, but too late, –
Another sweeps ahead with blood-flecked lips
And bursting heart! One final, awful strain,
With superhuman effort, grand, supreme,
He leaps into the air, – and falls in death
Across the line, – a victor, but at what
A fearful cost! – he gave his life, his all!
I ponder o'er this tragedy of days
When Greece was mistress of the world, and say,
"Hast not thou also entered on a race,
My soul, in contest for a 'Crown of Life,'
A prize thou canst not win except thine all
Thou givest! Then, be wise, and watch and pray,
Turn not thine eyes one instant from 'the mark,'
For fear thou dash thy foot against some small,
Well-rounded truth, which in thy pride thou hast
O'erlooked, and thus thou stumble, fall, and though
Thou shouldst arise, 'twould be too late to win!"
"Ah, then, consider thy 'forerunner,' Christ,
Yea, call to mind the 'cloud of witnesses'
Around, – those noble, faithful ones of old, –
And strip thyself, my soul, of every weight;
Gird up thy loins, make straight paths for thy feet;
Breathe deeply of the Spirit's conquering power,
And run with patient, meek, enduring zeal!
Almost thou hast attained, my soul, my soul!
Shall angels, principalities, or powers,
Or height, or depth, or other creature, draw
Thee from the goal so near? Ah! yes, so near,
The glory-light streams through the parting veil;
Have faith, press on, one effort, grand, supreme, –
And thou hast won in death Love's blood-bought crown!"
AT 3 P.M. the largest auditorium in the Academy of Music was comfortably filled when this first meeting of the series of Mass Meetings on Church Federation opened.
Just before the service opened Brother William P. Mockridge sang as a solo the hymn entitled "A Thousand Years."
Pilgrim Bro. J. F. Rutherford acted as chairman and opened the service by saying, "The entire Christian world at this time is discussing with great interest the question of church federation. We are quite sure that all Christians desire to know how they can get an answer from the Lord's Word on this important question.
"This is the beginning of a series of four meetings in this hall at which Pastor Russell of the Brooklyn Tabernacle will discuss this great question, which has been subdivided under four heads. We are quite sure there is no one in the world today who is better qualified to discuss this question from the Scriptural standpoint and we bespeak for him an attentive hearing.
"For this particular occasion the question is, What Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Methodists must surrender.
"There is no one in the world today who has devoted so much time and strength to the intelligent study of God's Word on this and other Bible lines as Pastor Russell. His writings have been placed in a great number of homes throughout the world. The sale thereof has reached far into the millions and we presume, therefore, that many of the homes in the city of Brooklyn contain his books, wherein all who are interested may find more information along the line of the question which will be discussed this afternoon."
(Reprint from New York World, Jan. 18, 1910.)
Brooklyn Academy of Music, Sundays, Jan. 23, 30; Feb. 6; 3 P.M. Doctrinal Points Surrendered by Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Methodists, Considered at the First Meeting.
A very large audience attended the first of the four Christian mass-meetings being held under the auspices of the People's Pulpit Association during four successive Sunday afternoons in Brooklyn's largest auditorium, the Academy of Music, for the consideration of the questions involved in Church Federation.
These meetings are unique in that admission is free, no collections taken, no appeals made for financial support in any way, and no business transacted. It is announced that through these meetings every truth-seeking sceptic as well as every sincere Christian may learn the Scriptural basis upon which the conflicting creeds may federate, no matter how great the cost to their own denomination.
Pastor C. T. Russell, of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, has been selected to deliver the addresses at the four big meetings.
The topic for the first meeting was: "What Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Methodists Must Surrender in the Interests of Church Federation."
Topic for Sunday, January 23, 3 P.M., will be: "Cost of Church Federation to Baptists, Adventists, Disciples."
The Honorable J. F. Rutherford, attorney-at-law, introduced Pastor Russell, who said: –
I take for my text the Word of the Lord through the Prophet, "Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid" (Isaiah 8:12).
The desirableness of oneness in the Church of Christ is beyond dispute. The impropriety of sectarianism or division is now generally conceded, although twenty years ago many defended the divided condition of the Church as being helpful. They pointed to our Lord's words, I am the vine and ye are the branches; every branch in me that beareth not fruit my Father, the husbandman, taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit he pruneth, that it may bring forth more fruit (John 15:1-5). They claimed that the denominations were the branches. The evident teaching of the Master here is that his people are related to him in an individual sense and not as parties, sects or denominations, and that they are dealt with from the individual standpoint as one Church and not many.
St. Paul enunciated the same great truth (1 Corinthians 12:13), declaring that the Lord Jesus is the Head of the Church, which is his body, and that as the human body has many members under the full control of the head, except when diseased, so the Church, as members in particular of the Body of Christ, are all to be subject to the Lord as their Head. They are all to be so connected with their Head, and thus with each other, that when one suffers, all suffer with it; and when one rejoices, all rejoice with it, because they all have fellowship in the one spirit of the Head. Hence the eye cannot say to the hand, nor the hand to the foot, I have no need of you, for every member is necessary to the prosperity of the Body as a whole. And as the joint supports and strengthens the limb and is joined thereto by sinews, etc., so individually God's people are united to each other in the bonds of grace and truth and love.
It must be conceded that Church Federation or Confederacy is in many respects quite a different thing from the Church's oneness illustrated by our Lord's parable of the vine, and the Apostle's illustration of the human body. Nevertheless since a Federation is proposed as the nearest possible approach to the spiritual enjoined Union, it is proper that we and all Christians everywhere should inquire carefully the cost and the gain implied in the Federation movement. As the program shows, this series of meetings will consider impartially the cost of Federation to the creeds of the most prominent denominations. First in the list today we consider the sacrifices of Congregationalism, Presbyterianism and Methodism.
(1) As to church government very slight concessions will be required of any of the federating denominations. Denominational liberties as respects forms of worship and methods of government and discipline are to be permitted very loose rein. The Federation proposes chiefly the regulation of home and foreign mission work and a general watch-care over the interests of the federated systems along the lines of political influence. The expectation is that the political power of the Federation will have considerable to do with molding of legislation favorable to the Federation, and later on, unfavorable to the smaller denominations not associated in the Federation.
(2) It is along doctrinal lines that the sacrificing in the interest of federation will be chiefly demanded.
Doctrinally Congregationalists and Presbyterians are one; hence we may consider their sacrifices of doctrine in the interests of federation as the same. They both accept the Westminster Confession of Faith with its Calvinistic foundation – that God, before the foundation of the world, foreordained whatsoever comes to pass; that he predestined an elect, saintly few to heavenly glory, and equally foreordained that the remainder of thousands of millions of non-elect should be maintained in eternal life to all eternity, in order that they might suffer excruciating pains, both mental and physical, never-ending, as a part of the supposed penalty of the "Original Sin" committed by our first parents in Eden.
Evidently there will be few people in these highly intelligent Christian bodies ready to insist, as our forefathers did, that this element of faith is essential to salvation. Few of us would agree with Brother John Calvin, the great architect of this creed, that fellow-Christians rejecting this doctrine should be burned at the stake, as Brother Calvin decided in respect to Brother Servetus. No, thank God! We have outgrown some of the narrowness which so terribly fettered some of our brethren during the dark ages. [CR69]
Few any longer believe that there are "infants in hell not a span long," because non-elect. Even where the doctrine of election is still blindly held few have the temerity to state their belief that any innocent infant was predestined to everlasting torture. But Brother Calvin's contention expressed in the Westminster Confession is that there are no innocent infants – that the condemnation of Original Sin was to eternal torture and that Adam's children, "born in sin and shapen in iniquity," were therefore not innocent, but guilty – born under the sentence of eternal torment and salvable from it only through membership in the Church of Christ. Indeed we may say that this theory was still older than Calvin, for did not St. Augustine first declare the danger of infants to eternal torture and the necessity of their being brought into the Church of Christ by baptism in order to escape eternal torture? And is not the force of this teaching still manifest amongst both Protestants and Catholics, as evidenced by their fear to have an infant die unbaptized – so that some, in extreme cases, even practice "baptism in utero"?
Doctrinally Methodism is indirectly opposed to Calvinism in every sense of the word. Possibly Methodists will have less to concede than Calvinists, because, although in Wesley's days the doctrine of Free Grace was combated on every hand, it is now the tacit faith of the vast majority of Christendom. The doctrine that God had premeditated and irrevocably foreordained the eternal torture of our race except a handful of the Elect was too horrible a one to stand. So the Methodist doctrine of Divine Love for all and Free Grace as respects salvation has appealed more and more to the growing intelligence of mankind. Nevertheless we cannot do otherwise than concede that it will matter little to the thousands of millions which all "orthodox" creeds consign to eternal torture whether they shall suffer eternal agonies as a result of Divine lovelessness in foreordaining their sufferings or to Divine inability to outwork for their benefit the supposed advantages of Free Grace arranged for them by Divine Love.
Our suggestion is that now, in the lapping time of this Gospel Age with the oncoming Millennial Age, as the arc electric light casts the candle of the past into the shadow, so the clearer light now shining from the pages of God's Word casts into the shadow all the doctrines of the "dark ages," relieving us of the horrible nightmare which once beclouded our hearts and lives and made us fearful of our Creator as an all-powerful but merciless sovereign. In this blessed light now shining from God's Book have we not a basis for Christian union? Let us see! If we can find in God's Word that the doctrine of Election and the doctrine of Free Grace are both true, both Biblical, but that one belongs to the Church in this Gospel Age and the other to mankind in general in the coming Millennial Age, will not this solve our problem and give us doctrinal union instead of a mere federation based upon the ignoring of doctrine? We can all assent to this, therefore let us examine the facts.
The Bible assuredly declares a Divine election according to a Divine purpose foreordained – but not such an election as Brother Calvin outlined. God foreordained the selection of a Church, predestinating the number who would constitute its membership and the character of each one who would be acceptable as a member. He foreordained tests of the worthiness of these members and the glorious reward that should be theirs and a great work which they shall be privileged to do for mankind – limitedly now, fully during the Millennium. Accustomed to the election of fellow-citizens to the presidency, to congress, etc., where they will have the opportunity for blessing the non-elect, we should have carried this same thought to the Divine election of the Church. We should have discerned that the elect Church, the "Seed of Abraham" (Galatians 3:29), is specially intended to be the channel of Divine blessing to "all the families of the earth" (Genesis 28:14).
How strange that we overlooked this and the assurance that with the completion of the Church Messiah would exalt her in the "First Resurrection" to be his Bride and joint-heir in his Millennial Kingdom, to be established for the blessing of all mankind! How strange that we did not notice that every text of Scripture used by our Methodist brethren to substantiate their doctrine of Free Grace belongs to the Millennial Kingdom. As, for instance, the Bible, after telling us of the completion of the Church now espoused to the Lord and after her marriage or union with him at his Second Coming, as "the Bride, the Lamb's Wife," tells that then "the Spirit and the Bride shall say, Come and whosoever will may come and take of the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17).
Ah, yes, we failed disastrously to keep the Apostle's command, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of Truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). We failed to thus divide the Truth and to note the portion applicable now and the other portion applicable during the Millennium. Thank God, we are not yet too old to learn. We surely have been thoroughly sickened by our mistaken interpretations of the past, which made nonsense of both the doctrines – Election and Free Grace – and worse than this, defamed and vilified our Heavenly Father, "the God of all Grace."
In the light now shining we may see that the terms of the Divine election of the Church are in every sense of the word without partiality, except as regards character and faithfulness. Those now called with the heavenly calling to be of "the elect" are indeed invited to eternal life on the spirit plane, to be like unto the angels, but more exalted, while the opportunities to be granted to the world in general during the Millennium will be inferior, earthly, restitutionary – yet grand (Acts 3:19-21). But this difference of reward is counterbalanced by the severer trials and testings of those now called to be of the elect. They must walk by faith and not by sight. They must take up their cross and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. They must count their lives not dear unto them, but willingly sacrifice their earthly interests that they may be participators with their Redeemer in glory, honor and immortality, and in his great work of the Millennium – the blessing of the world of mankind with a mental, moral, social and physical uplift.
Cannot we all, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Methodists, and all others of God's people unite as one body upon this Scriptural hypothesis? Are we not satisfied with the terms of this election – that they are sufficiently stringent to exclude all except the saintly? Hearken to the Apostle's declaration, which we once so grievously misunderstood: He says of God's election, "Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son." In other words, when our Heavenly Father foreknew and predetermined to gather an elect Church as the Bride of Christ, he also predetermined that none could be members of it unless they attained through faith and obedience in the School of Christ character-likeness of Jesus – heart likeness to him – hence, as nearly as possible, an obedience of the flesh to his Law.
Surely no one will claim that any but a little flock has ever attained to this honored condition; hence our former ideas respecting the non-elect would consign the majority of our families, neighbors, friends and all the heathen to endless woe. But now how differently we see in God's Word that the elect class is selected in advance, that in God's due time, with the Redeemer, it may bless every creature with fullest opportunity to return to human perfection in a Paradise regained – restored during the Millennium. This proposition of the Scriptures includes those who have gone down to the prison-house of death – into Sheol, into Hades, both the evil and the good. All shall then know, from the least to the greatest, that "Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man." They shall know that the redeeming blood was not shed in vain, but will secure to each member of Adam's race, not eternal life, but an opportunity to attain eternal life – either on the heavenly plane during this age or on the earthly plane during the Millennium.
I address you, dear friends, not from a sectarian standpoint, but from a Federation standpoint; yea, more than this, from the standpoint of those who desire to be doctrinally, as well as outwardly, in agreement with the Lord and with each other. Have we not, in this beautiful election of the Bible, the basis for the grandest of all hopes, the highest of all ambitions – to be "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord"? Can we want more than this for ourselves? And does it not enhance the glory of this prize to have the prospect of conquering the world for Jesus and for the Father during the Millennium, in the only way in which it ever can be conquered – God's way?
Is it not for this Kingdom that our Redeemer taught us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven"? Is it not for this Kingdom that he taught us to wait, saying, "Fear not, little flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom" (Luke 12:32)? Is it not for this Kingdom that the world [CR70] waits? "Unto him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess." "The knowledge of the Lord shall fill the whole earth." "All shall know him from the least to the greatest." "And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from amongst the people" (Acts 3:23). Shall we, then, stop merely with an outward federation or confederacy? Shall we not rather unite our hearts and heads and hands along the lines of the Divine promise given to us – "In thee and in thy seed shall the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 28:14)?
We conclude that the Foreordination-Predestination theory of our fathers, which consigns all but the elect to eternal woe, and even sent a Christian (Servitus) to the stake, is no longer acceptable or satisfying. Neither are we satisfied that mankind enjoys Free Grace, while only one in a thousand has any intelligent conception of the terms of salvation. Assuredly we could not allow the surrender of these theories to longer bar fellowship in Federation. And yet Federation renounces neither of these errors, but endorses both. Can we conscientiously do this? Shall we not rather reject the extremes of both? Shall we not have union of heart and head, without prevarication, along Bible lines? When we see that the Church is being elected, without the damnation of the non-elect world, but for their uplifting, their blessing during the Millennium, all opposition to such election vanishes. Let us then, by cultivating our hearts in Christlikeness, "make our calling and election sure" (2 Pet. 1:10) to membership in the Bride of Christ, through whom Free Grace will be extended to all in God's due time. – Rev. 22:17.
I thank you, dear friends, for your attention, and now ask you to join with me in singing praises to our great Redeemer. Let us join in singing the first verse of "All Hail the Power of Jesus's Name."
The meeting was then dismissed with prayer.
THIS meeting was to have been a question meeting, but Brother Russell first gave a little talk to the friends on the work in general. He said:
I want to congratulate the dear friends of the congregation in general with respect to the volunteering that has been done during the past week. It seems a very remarkable record indeed, that 390,000 copies of the Peoples Pulpit were circulated. If you count the sermons that were thus put right into the hands of the people, you can see that quite a considerable work was accomplished in that way, even if nothing else came from it. Suppose nothing came from the meeting at the Academy of Music, the volunteer work itself, the distribution of so many sermons among the people, was well worth the effort.
I understand from several quarters that considerable reading has been done and considerable interest has been manifested from what the people have read from those Peoples Pulpits. The principal article in that issue, "Gathering the Lord's Jewels," is new to a great many.
It is proposed, dear friends, since only about one-third or one-quarter of the cities of New York and Brooklyn have had such a distribution, that now is a good time for this kind of volunteer work, and particularly in connection with the meetings held at the Academy. I think it is a grand opportunity and without any reflection upon those who are not able, I think all who can ought to continue that work. Let each decide for himself, what he or she would like to, and can do.
God is a great paymaster and has already paid us more than we could ask or think and he proposes to do so in the future. It is said of one great preacher in New York, Dr. Hall, who is said to be the greatest man in the country for raising money, that he was asked to preach a sermon in connection with a great collection that was to be taken up. He was noted for preaching longer than some preferred and the people who were interested in the collection said, Dr. Hall, will you please make the discourse very short, pithy, and right to the point, because as you know it will be a great congregation and we want to reach the people, and if you preach longer than half an hour the people will not stay. Dr. Hall said that he would agree not to preach too long.
I will tell you Dr. Hall's sermon, text and all. The text: "He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord and he will repay him." Now the sermon: "If you like the security, down with the dust."
Our work is a question of distributing and giving our divine truth. We speak of this work as scattering the hail, or whatever you please, so if you like the security, scatter the truth. "He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord and he will repay him." He will attend to it; we know that from experience; he has more than paid me for anything I have ever done. If the whole matter was called off now, we would find that we were debtors and could not pay up the blessings that we have enjoyed.
So as many as can continue in the volunteering next week are requested to do so and to meet at the Tabernacle at 8:30 tomorrow morning, and receive instructions from Brothers Brenneisen and Munsell, who have been selected to look after this work, not because they are the only ones but that we need a head in each department. Some time it may be your turn and then we will want them to cooperate with you – it is one Lord and one great work. I think, dear friends, we should be greatly encouraged and stimulated to go on. Here we are in this city of several millions of population, people gathered from every city of the globe. They are the most intelligent people in several ways, not discounting the city of London. There are not three millions of more intelligent people on the face of the earth than are centered here in New York, in my judgment, and I believe that is the general consensus of opinion. All those people need to have some kind of witness to the truth and the Lord has given us an opportunity to do it. Already you have circulated 390,000 within six days. Such matters are contagious, dear friends; your actions and zeal are contagious; even to those to whom you serve the truth. If you go forth with zeal for the truth, you will be showing forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light – there is nothing like it. We can hardly properly estimate the darkness we were in several years ago respecting God's character, etc.
The more you understand your own experience, the more you will find it is not merely a theoretical experience, but something that is helpful in every avenue of life. I think of one brother to whom I made such a remark – that the truth, a real knowledge and proper interpretation of God's Word will be helpful not only in drawing you nearer to the Lord, but it will brighten your whole mind, you will be a better workman. I notice that, Brother Russell, he replied, you will be surprised to know that it has made me a better carpenter during the three years that I have been in the truth. No one can be successful in any department of life unless he has some ambition before him. The great mass of mankind has no ambition. Some, however, have an ambition for fame, wealth, social position, etc., but these are all inferior and cannot call out the better sentiments. But when we get the ambition from the Word of God, we get the highest possible incentive that can come to a human life. The thought is that we may be ambassadors for the Lord, but if we receive persecution from those who are ignorant and do not understand, then let us rejoice, as did Paul, knowing that these work out a better condition in the future. A further thought is the great matter respecting the eternal future to be enjoyed and which these experiences will help us to attain to, and this is the principal ambition that God has set before us. The more we see this, the more we realize the wisdom of God in putting it in just the form which he has put it; it is the very highest.
Do you mean to say that those people who have received the truth, an understanding of God's Word, are naturally the brightest people in the world? No, the Scriptures state that, "Not many wise, great or rich are called, but chiefly the poor of this world, rich in faith." Not many noble; the Apostle said, God hath chosen the mean things of this world to confound the mighty; all those who are specially his are amongst those who are not the greatest [CR73] and grandest of the human family. The truth takes hold upon some who are not so grand and noble, and builds up their characters so that they become grand. Each one looking back on his own life and wisdom before he got the truth is truly thankful, and appreciates the fact that we are what we are by the grace of God, for we see what progress we have made and what the truth has done for us and it stimulates us to go on. It took us from the miry clay and put our feet upon the rock and put a new song in our hearts. That is the song that animates the heart and mind, if we have that thankfulness in heart and mind. We are not through, have not reached the goal yet. Perhaps more glorious opportunities await us tomorrow, next week, next year. We are in the Lord's kind hands and are going on from grace to grace, from knowledge to knowledge, and from obedience to obedience.
We look then for as many as can find it convenient and possible to engage in this work, to meet in this room tomorrow.
The Tabernacle Building...(Picture only on page) [CR72] Bethel and People's... and Pastor Russell's Study (Two pictures)
LORD, speak to me, that I may speak
In living echoes of Thy tone;
As Thou hast sought, so let me seek
Thine erring children, lost and lone.
O, lead me, Lord, that I may lead
The wandering and the wavering feet;
O, feed me, Lord, that I may feed
Thy hungering ones with manna sweet.
O, strengthen me, that while I stand
Firm on the Rock, and strong in Thee,
I may stretch out a helping hand
To wrestlers in the troubled sea.
O, teach me, Lord, that I may teach
The precious things Thou dost impart;
And wing my words, that they may reach
The hidden depths of many a heart.
O, give Thine own sweet rest to me,
That I may speak with soothing power
A word in season, as from Thee,
To weary ones in needful hour.
O, fill me with Thy fulness, Lord,
Until my very heart o'erflow
In kindling thought and glowing word,
Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show.
JUST before the meeting opened, a quartet of ladies – Mrs. Frank Detwiller, Mrs. E. W. Brenneisen, Miss Virginia Noble and Miss Blanche Raymond, sang the hymn:
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
"Come unto me and rest:
Thy load of care thou mayest lay down
And be no more distressed."
I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary, and worn, and sad;
I found in him a resting place,
And he hath made me glad.
Brother H. C. Rockwell then led in prayer and this was followed by the singing of hymn "In the Cross of Christ I Glory."
The chairman, Brother J. F. Rutherford, then addressed the meeting as follows:
Dear Friends: Those of you who had the pleasure of hearing Pastor Russell last Sunday afternoon, we are quite sure were greatly pleased and blessed. We are glad you give evidence of continued interest in this subject by your presence on this occasion.
In the discussion of these subjects no ordinary mind can quickly take in and retain it all. We desire to call your attention to some aids which will be of great benefit to all who have them in their homes, or who can procure them. In order that the truth might be known freely throughout the earth to those who desire it, the Lord has permitted Pastor Russell to publish and have distributed in many languages a series of "STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES." These studies have reached a circulation that is exceeded by no other publication save the Bible alone. In view of the fact that so many have been distributed throughout the earth, and particularly in this country, we are quite sure that in the great City of Churches, like Brooklyn, there are many copies of these Studies in your homes, and we commend them to your careful and prayerful study of the Bible. [CR74]
Pastor Russell is also editor of the "WATCH TOWER." This is a journal published twice a month, in which are discussed Bible topics of interest to all who are interested in the study of God's Word. We are quite sure that there is nothing more beneficial than the reverent study of God's Word.
Pastor Russell's sermons are also published in a large number of the leading newspapers throughout the country, in order that the people in general may get the truth as found in the Bible.
We are glad that you are here this afternoon, that you may have the opportunity of hearing discussed, at this time, the subject announced for this occasion, concerning what the Baptists, Adventists and Disciples must surrender in Church Federation.
Next Sunday afternoon, in this same hall and at this same hour, Pastor Russell will deliver another discourse, the subject then being, what Catholics, Lutherans and Episcopalians must surrender in order to federate with the other churches.
We have now much pleasure in introducing to you Pastor Russell, of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, who will address you.
(Reprint from New York World, Jan. 24, 1910.)
Two More Meetings – Sunday, June 30; Feb. 6, 3 P.M.
A capacity house listened to the lucid explanation on Baptism and other main doctrines as held by Baptists, Adventists and Disciples, given by Pastor Russell yesterday afternoon at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The topic for next Sunday, Jan. 30, will be "The Cost of Church Federation to Catholics, Lutherans and Episcopalians."
The Hon. J. F. Rutherford introduced Pastor Russell, who said:
NUMERICALLY Baptists, Adventists and Disciples represent more than one-third of the Protestants of the United States. What they must yield for Church Federation is therefore an important question. All three of these systems are built upon the Congregational platform, which recognizes as scriptural the independence of each congregation as to its own creed in all matters of faith and Church order. These bodies of Christians, therefore, could not join the Federation as denominations. The only method by which they could give adherence would be either by abandoning their principles of independence for which they have so long contended, or else by remaining quiescent while their ministers through Councils and Conferences essay to act for them. And here it should be noted that the membership of these large Christian bodies have more and more during the past thirty-five years shown their willingness to have their ministers regulate their affairs, even though contrary to their avowed principles of Church Government.
But it is from the standpoint of doctrines rather than Church government that we shall examine our subject. As we progress we shall find that some of the doctrines once considered all-important can in the light of our day be laid aside as obsolete – as hindrances in every sense of the word. Caution, however, would suggest that for everything discarded as unscriptural the truthful substitute should be found – otherwise our progress would be toward the destruction, not only of the bad of our creeds of the past, but also of their good features.
Baptists will find little to dispute with their co-religionists of the Federation along general doctrinal lines; their chief difficulty will be in the matter of what constitutes Christian baptism – the necessity of water immersion to admission to Church membership. For years this doctrine has been even more tenaciously held than is generally realized. Our Baptist brethren hold to justification by faith as a first or preliminary step which the sinner must take. But they equally hold that this is not the final step – that the step of sacrifice, the step of regeneration must follow in order to obtain salvation. And a baptism in water they recognize as an indispensable outward indication of this regeneration. Hence it is standard Baptist doctrine, both North and South, in all Baptist Churches with rare exceptions, that no unimmersed person should be esteemed a member of Christ's Church.
In a word, faith and reformation are steps of justification, but water immersion is the door into Christ. Only those who pass through this door are members of the Church of Christ from this viewpoint; hence, consistently, none others are invited to partake of the Eucharist – the Lord's Supper. The argument is that this Supper, symbolizing death with Christ, was offered only to the consecrated and accepted members of Christ's Church. Hence to invite others than those immersed in water would be a violation of the letter and the spirit of the Divine Word and a countenancing of false doctrine. The argument is that all of "the elect" will be guided of the Lord, so that their hearts and heads will become amenable to these teachings. Obedience thereto will be shown by submission to water immersion – the door into the Church of Christ.
Like the rest of us, our Baptist friends have been in the past rather illogical in all matters religious and doctrinal; so much so that many of them have never realized the full meaning of their doctrine. The meaning was grasped in the long ago, but has generally been lost sight of within the last fifty years. It is this: Since water immersion is the evidence of obedience to Divine instruction and since all of "the elect" are not only instructed of God but obedient to him, therefore those not baptized in water are not of God's elect – are not members in his Church. And this in turn, according to Baptist doctrine, implies that all not immersed in water are outside of the Church – outside of the number of "the elect" – outside of God's favor – outside of the salvation provided in Christ – and therefore inside the damnation and eternal torment which Baptist doctrines imply have been foreordained for the eternal torture of all the non-elect.
Do our Baptist friends who meet unimmersed Christians of other denominations in the walks of life from day to day really believe that the latter are on their way to an eternity of torture? Most assuredly they do not! But this is merely because they are illogical, like the rest of us. They are as illogical as their brethren of other denominations. They have outgrown at least this feature of the teachings of the "dark ages" handed down to them by well-meaning but less enlightened forefathers.
One glance at the matter will suffice to show our Baptist brethren that the very strongest features of their teaching need some revision. However fundamental may be the doctrine of baptism, some of their conclusions respecting it will be greatly advantaged by a liberal pruning. But caution should be used. The Bible should be consulted. We offer the suggestion that too hasty a rejection of water immersion would be a mistake – that the proper course for our Baptist friends is to study the Scriptures afresh on this subject. What wonderful advantages are now at command of all Bible students! They have marginal references by which one passage throws light upon another. They have also concordances, glossaries, indexes and all manner of helps for Bible study. Our forefathers before the Reformation were generally illiterate. And even had they possessed education the pen-written Bibles were expensive and obtainable only in the Latin language. Indeed it is within only the last few years that Bibles have become cheap and plentiful and the masses able to read them.
The doctrine of the Second Advent of Christ is common to all denominations. And the Adventist belief that at that time the earth will be burned up is also a feature of all the various creeds. Many Adventists have abandoned the thought that the Saviour's second appearing is at hand. And many more are abandoning the thought that when he appears Adventists alone will be saved and all the remainder of mankind will participate in the destruction and burning which shall then engulf the earth. It should not be difficult for them to realize that there is no great necessity for controversy along the lines of the time of Christ's coming, since they acknowledge themselves completely in the dark on that subject. Neither can we suppose that after thoughtful consideration they should feel justified in assuming that they alone are "the elect." Let us hope that with broadening sentiment they are more and more realizing that there are saints and sinners in their own number as well as in all denominations and as well as in the world; and that "the Lord knoweth them that are His" and will care for them, regardless of denominational lines. But for that portion of Adventists which considers the keeping of the [CR75] Seventh Day of the week the all-important part of Christianity we see no ground for Federation, unless, indeed, they may choose to get about the difficulty by counting the calendar the other way around the world. Thus they might bring their Seventh Day into harmony with what others term the First Day. Or, by counting the calendar in the opposite direction they may still keep their Seventh Day and realize that others are keeping the same day, though calling it the First Day.
Undoubtedly Alexander Campbell was a good man with a great head. And undoubtedly many of a similar class following his lead are today known as Disciples or Christians. Undoubtedly these are following closely to apostolic customs in the matter of Church organization which in many respects is beautiful in its simplicity. Doctrinally they claim most faithfully to stand by the Word of God alone. And one of their familiar declarations is, "When the Word of God speaketh we speak; when the Word of God is silent we are silent." But this beautiful simplicity of theory our Disciple friends have found difficult to work out in practice. Hence we find them as strongly intrenched behind unwritten creeds as are others behind elaborated creeds. These are inculcated through the writings of their standard authorities – including the editors of their leading journals. "Disciples" hold most tenaciously as the Bible teaching that baptism in water is indispensable to the remission of sins. This doctrine is supported by several Bible texts which declare, "Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins." "Baptism unto repentance and remission of sins," etc.
Before pointing out their misapplications of these texts let us note the fact that according to their theory all others of mankind, Christians, Jews and heathens, who have not been immersed have not had their sins washed away. Consequently such are yet in their sins. Consequently such are lost. And lost according to the general understanding of Disciples and other Christians signifies shut out of heaven – shut into hell and its eternal torment.
Do our Disciple friends act as though they believed this teaching? Do they spend all of their time and energy and money in seeking to bring fellow-Christians into water baptism for the remission of sins and escape from eternal torture? Assuredly they do not. Hence we are justified in supposing that like our Baptist friends they have not taken seriously and logically their own doctrines. Rather they have assented to them thoughtlessly. It would appear to us, therefore, that doctrinally our Disciple friends might easily be prevailed upon to abandon this peculiar tenet to the extent that it would not hinder them from losing their identity as advocates of "baptism for the remission of sins" and merging themselves or federating with others.
To assist them out of their difficulty we remind them that all the Scripture they cite in support of immersion for the remission of sins belonged to the Jews, and none of it to Gentiles. The Jews were exhorted by John the Baptist and others to renounce sin, to return to harmony with Moses's law, and to show this change of character by water immersion. But those Ephesians who believed in Christ and whom Apollos baptized for the remission of sins did not receive the Holy Spirit. St. Paul explained to them that their baptism was an improper one – that they as Gentiles required an immersion into Christ (Acts 19:1-7; Romans 6:3).
As a week ago we suggested to Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Methodists a union of heart and head as better than federation, so now we suggest to the denominations whose doctrines we are considering today. What we shall suggest respecting baptism will apply to all Christians.
All Christians agree that Jesus and his apostles taught baptism and that there are but "one Lord, one faith and one baptism" (Ephesians 4:5). We cannot here elaborate, but merely suggest that nowhere in the Scriptures is infant baptism commanded or urged. The expression, "Believe and be baptized," implies a mental development capable of belief beyond that which infants possess. The original pretext for introducing infant baptism was set forth by St. Augustine, who urged that as all mankind were going to eternal torture except the Church, it was necessary to get infants into the Church; and baptism was set forth as the door-way. All parents, of course, were anxious that their children should be immersed into the Church and saved from eternal torture. And those good wishes were certainly commendable, even if unnecessary.
Subsequently immersion was declared to be unnecessary and sprinkling became the substitute with all. The thought of preservation from eternal torment thereafter attached to the sprinkling. Although our minds have broadened, so that comparatively few believe St. Augustine's presentation, nevertheless the custom of infant sprinkling continues with more or less of fear to abandon it for the child's sake.
Who will dispute that St. Paul's words of Romans 6:3-5 are the clearest presentation of the import of baptism furnished us in the Bible? The passage is cited in proof of every theory of baptism, yet it supports only one – the true one. Notice that it does not say, as many suppose, So many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into water. It does say, "So many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death." Is there any difference? That difference is the explanation of all of our difficulty on this subject. The clearing of it away furnishes the foundation for harmony between all; and not merely for harmony, but for union among all classes of consecrated Christians.
Consider the passage critically. First, immersion into Christ signifies to the justified believer his immersion into, his burial into, the Body of Christ as a member of "the Church which is his Body" (Ephesians 1:22,23). The Apostle sets forth clearly a distinction between the Church and the world and between the salvation of the Church and the salvation of the world. The Church are "the elect" of the Lord, called and chosen; and if faithful, they will be members of the glorious Church beyond the vail. It, as the Bride of Christ, will be his companion and Queen during the Millennial reign of glory for the blessing of the world – for the blessing of the non-elect, considered last Sunday.
St. Paul not only tells us of our need to be thus immersed into membership in the Body of Christ, but he proceeds to tell us how that membership can be brought about. The words "Baptism into his death" explain the matter. How strange that we ever thought these words signified water immersion! Our eyes are now opened! Plainly, now, we see that "into his death" signifies our participation with our Lord Jesus in suffering, for righteousness in self-denials, self-sacrificings, of the same character as those endured by the Master. It is true indeed that the whole world suffers pain, sorrow, disappointment, etc.; yet our Lord suffered differently from all others, and our dying must correspond to his. He suffered, the Just for the unjust. The holy, harmless, undefiled One laid down his life sacrificially, voluntarily, joyfully. And we, to share in his death, to be "baptized into his death," must do the same.
True, Jesus was spotless, while we are members of the fallen race. But we are justified through faith in his blood. And thence we have in the Divine sight through him a standing of human perfection or justification. This standing is granted to us or imputed to us for the very purpose of permitting us to sacrifice our human rights and earthly interests as he sacrificed his. The "elect" are to be dead with him that in the resurrection they may live with him and be like him and share his glory, honor and immortality. By consecration we present our bodies living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God, as the Apostle declares (Romans 12:1). Thus we are "immersed into his death" and thus we become members of his Body.
Whoever fails to be thus immersed into Christ's death will fail of the membership in his Body – will fail to be of his elect Church, his Bride. The difference between being dead with Adam and being dead with Christ is very great. By nature we are all dead with Adam. He was a sinner, condemned. We as his offspring are the same. It was necessary therefore that we should by faith be lifted out of this condition of death with Adam, in order that by consecration of all earthly interests we might become dead with Christ. Thus we share with him his sacrificial death and, by participation in "his resurrection," also become sharers of his Kingdom glory.
Ridding ourselves, then, of the unscriptural theory of an eternal torment awaiting the non-elect, may not all Christians perceive the reasonableness of the Divine proposition to bless them through the elect? As Jesus by his sacrifice was made Head of the Church, so all who will be his members must share his spirit of self-sacrifice – death to the world and earthly interest. Only such may share with him in his Millennial Kingdom work of blessing, uplifting, instructing, assisting all of the non-elect. Many of non-elect [CR76] under the fuller light and better opportunities of the Millennium will turn from sin to righteousness, from death to life eternal. This "baptism into death" with its blessed reward excludes no denominational lines. It includes in the Church of the elect those of every denomination and of no denomination who comply with its conditions of faith and obedience and consecration unto death.
Was not this our Lord's baptism as he described it? Just before his crucifixion he said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am straitened (troubled) until it be accomplished!" His baptism dated from his consecration at Jordan, but it was not fully "accomplished" until on the cross he cried, "It is finished" – his baptism into death was finished. Was not this baptism into death what he referred to when speaking to his disciples? James and John requested that they might sit on his right hand and left hand in the Kingdom. In reply Jesus said, "Are ye able to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" Surely he did not refer to a water immersion! Surely he did refer to his baptism into death, and meant his apostles to understand that only by sharing in his baptism into death could they hope to sit with him in his Throne (Mark 10:37).
With this reasonable, logical, Scriptural view of baptism before our minds which of us would be inclined to dispute over the form of the symbol or in respect to the class of persons who should properly use the symbol? Surely none would claim that infants could thus believe and thus consecrate to death! Surely all would agree that a symbolical immersion into water such as was practiced by the early Church, according to all the records, would be the most reasonable, most beautiful, most appropriate method of symbolizing the real baptism into Christ – into his death. Let us then, dear friends, not be content merely to federate! Let us unite our hearts and heads and hands as members of the Body of Christ; let us be baptized with his baptism, into his death!
We conclude, therefore: Baptists and Disciples need no longer contend with other denominations even over Baptism. Both may candidly admit that they have laid too great stress upon water immersion. Disciples may wisely admit that consecrated believers not immersed have forgiveness of sins and are not to be eternally tormented. Baptists may admit that water immersion is not the door into the Church and that unimmersed fellow-Christians are not separated thereby from membership in Christ's Body and doomed to eternal torment. Those teachings belong to the past and could not hinder Federation.
Yet we ask, is Federation best? Would not Union be better? We have suggested the Scriptural basis of Union so far as Baptism is concerned – Baptism into Christ by baptism into his death – to walk in his steps in the Narrow Way of self-sacrifice. Surely on this basis all Christians could unite. All can agree that such saintly ones with Christ would be a grand Missionary Band for the blessing and uplifting of the non-elect, non-baptized world.
An evening session was held at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and many questions were asked and answered. During the following week the Volunteers were again active, distributing about 150,000 copies of the Peoples Pulpit.
AFTER the singing of a number of hymns, prayer was offered by Brother F. H. Robison.
The chairman, Brother Rutherford, then introduced Brother Russell, prefacing his introduction with the following remarks:
We are glad indeed, dear friends, to note the increasing interest in the questions of Church Federation now under discussion. These questions are of vital importance to all denominations, and every sincere Christian should take a keen interest in the proper discussion thereof; and we are quite sure you are here for that purpose and for that purpose only, that you might learn more and more, as these discussions progress, what is necessary in order to bring about the proper union of all the churches. The interest is increasing, and we are glad to note that not only those who are here at these services can know about these discussions, but also that the public can have the privilege of reading these sermons, because they are being published in several hundred papers throughout the land.
The metropolitan papers of New York – the World – has published the last two, and in all probability will publish the one to be delivered this afternoon, and also next Sunday. We mention this so that if you desire to secure a copy you can leave your order with your dealer. Also the American of New York, besides metropolitan papers of other large cities throughout the country.
Next Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock will be the fourth of the series of discussions on Church Federation, and the subject will be, "The Church Militant's Surrender to the Church Triumphant." Permit us to say, that this will be the climax of these great discourses, and we suggest that it will be a great treat and hope you will be present and bring your friends, so long as the capacity of this hall will permit you to get in.
After next Sunday Pastor Russell will be absent throughout the South, addressing Bible students' conventions. Following these conventions, he will return to the city of New York and in this hall, on March 6, at 3 P.M., he will address the public upon the topic, "Inferno." All are cordially invited to attend that meeting.
Now for the third time you have assembled here to hear discussed Bible topics that are of keenest interest, by one who has not a peer in the world upon Bible questions. It is not necessary for me to point out his ability to present these questions to you who have had the opportunity of hearing him the past two Sundays. Nevertheless, I would call attention to his world-wide ability as a Bible scholar, author and editor. His sermons are read by more people than any man who has lived on earth. We therefore are glad to note the keen and increasing interest in the study of the Scriptures; glad that you have manifested such an interest; glad that you are here this afternoon to hear discussed at this time what Episcopalians, Catholics and Lutherans must surrender in order to join the Church Federation.
Now I have the pleasure of presenting to you Pastor Russell, who will discuss this topic.
The Doctrinal Points Separating Episcopalians, Lutherans and Catholics Considered at This Session.
The Topic for February 6, 3 P.M., the Last Meeting of This Series, Will Be "The Surrender of the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant."
THE third meeting for the consideration of Church Federation was held yesterday in the spacious Brooklyn Academy of Music. This was the third of the series of four meetings called by the Peoples Pulpit Association of New York. Pastor Russell of the Brooklyn Tabernacle addressed the large audience. The text was the same as on the two previous occasions, "Say ye not, A Federation, to all them to whom this people shall say, A Federation; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid" (Isaiah 8:12). The speaker said:
We meet today to consider what sacrifices would need to be made in the interests of Federation by the three oldest denominations of Christendom. Of these Lutherans have least to surrender. Their tenacity for the Word of God they may still maintain, even though others of the federated bodies might more and more abandon the Holy Scriptures, under leadership of the Universities, Colleges and Seminaries teaching Higher-Criticism-Infidelity and the Evolution theory. Almighty God, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, [CR77] firmly believed in by Lutherans, would all be acknowledged with more or less of mental reservation by all the denominations associated in the Federation. Even Luther's plea of consubstantiation in the Eucharist may be held without objection. We conclude then that Lutherans would not be required to sacrifice anything.
Episcopalians and Catholics each claim to represent the original apostolic Church. They each claim (through their bishops in the laying on of hands) apostolic authority. Their common claim is that all other denominations of Christians whatsoever are false churches without Divine authority. Accordingly no minister of another denomination would be permitted to preach either in a Catholic or an Episcopalian pulpit. From the standpoint of these denominations all others are heretics; but, they say, not willingly so, but ignorantly so.
Here note the fact that a cleavage is in process amongst Episcopalians. A minority, termed high churchmen, are gradually separating Romeward, while the majority are sharing the sentiments of other Protestants, to the effect that the matter of "apostolic succession" is probably less important than their forefathers supposed.
The Scriptures plainly foretell the perfecting of Church Federation, indicating that it will include Episcopalians, but will not include Catholics, excepting for the cooperation along various lines – especially in the manipulation of social and political influences.
The breadth of the Episcopal creed will not call for particular sacrifices in Federation, if only their pride on the subject of apostolic succession can be satisfied. They are all prepared to admit that no particular wisdom or holiness has been communicated from generation to generation, from bishop to bishop and from bishop to lower clergy through the laying on of hands. They are willing to admit that there have been men as wise and others as foolish outside as inside their Communion. They are willing to admit that no greater light upon the Word of God and its meaning has come down to humanity through its channels than through outside channels. They are willing to admit that their clergy have no more of Divine Grace and Truth, Wisdom and Power than have others of God's people, both clergy and laity, outside their boundaries. Hence they are willing, nay, anxious, for Federation, and ask only that their "face be saved," by some acknowledgment of the long idolized thought that ability to expound the Scriptures and the Grace of God in expounding them could be had only through their channel.
Up to the present time Episcopalians decline to be parties to the Federation unless their special claim be in some sense or degree recognized. Pride says it would never do to retract now all that the denomination has stood for in separation for centuries. They would urge Christians of the other denominations, especially the clergy, to consider the advantage which would accrue to the Federation by having all Protestant ministers accept their ordination. They do not claim that it would make them wiser or better men, nor more efficient teachers, either of truth or error. But they do claim that it would give them an authority in the eyes of the people and give color and reasonableness to the Federation of many churches with discordant creeds posing as one church in the Federation arrangement.
The argument is, "The common people, the laity," are disposed more than ever to think for themselves on religious subjects and to study the Bible for themselves. If, therefore, as ministers, you desire to hold the people in check so that they shall not think for themselves you would do well to concede the claim of apostolic succession – that no one is permitted to interpret or teach the Bible except those who have received apostolic benediction. It was disregard of this claim of apostolic benediction which led to freedom of thought on religious subjects and ultimately led to the formation of the various sects. You should now seek to restrict further investigation of the Bible and further interpretation of it by accepting our theory, by permitting us to grant you recognition in some simple form of the rights of apostolic authority through our bishops.
The Scriptures intimate that Protestant denominations, vitalized and in cooperation with Catholicism, for a short while will dominate Christendom socially and politically, crushing out individual thought and negativing and black-listing all religious teachers outside the Federation and its Catholic ally.
For Catholics to join the Federation would signify the surrender of a great deal, and yet, in the light of the Twentieth Century, surely much could be surrendered without any sacrifice of manhood – merely with the sacrifice of a little pride. For the Church of Rome to federate with the Protestant churches would mean that they ceased to protest and that she relinquished her peculiar claims.
(1) That she alone is the Church of Christ and has authority to instruct.
(2) That she is more than a Church or prospective Kingdom – that to her has been committed by God the rulership of the world in respect to all matters temporal and spiritual, hence that she is the reigning Kingdom of God.
(3) That her Pope is the authorized representative of Christ, anointed and commissioned of God to fulfil all the prophecies of the Scriptures respecting the reign of Christ, his Millennial Kingdom, etc. This claim of Papacy that the Pope's reign is de facto the reign of Christ is expressed in the declaration that he is the vicegerent of Christ – the one reigning instead of Christ.
(4) The doctrine of transubstantiation – that by the blessing of a priest the ordinary bread and wine are transmuted into the actual soul of Christ – (his flesh and his blood) for sacrifice afresh in each celebration of the Mass.
Whatever may have been true in the remote past, assuredly our Catholic friends can no longer claim that all the purity, all the faithfulness to God, all the sanctity of life amongst believers in Christ are to be found in her communion. St. Paul declares, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his." Surely all Christians admit this standard and the correctness of the Apostle's teaching. Hence the ignoring and setting aside of all creeds and barriers which have heretofore hindered the Unity of the Church of Christ might be possible. Thus the first Catholic objection might easily be removed in favor of Federation, or, still better, in favor of Union. As our Episcopalian friends fail to prove that the apostolic succession to ordination gave either greater wisdom or more grace to their clergy than to other ministers of the Gospel, might not our Catholic friends reasonably admit the same?
The second claim that Papacy is God's Kingdom, that the Popes reign successively as Christ's Vicegerent, should not be difficult for Catholics of our day to lay aside. However strongly it was held in the dark past it is surely little appreciated by Catholics today. No longer do the Popes dominate the civil rulers of Christendom. And no longer do the people consider it wise that they should do so. More and more the people are disposed to consider popes, czars, emperors and kings as merely figureheads, without any real title or authority from heaven to rule or to coerce the people. More and more the masses demand Congresses, Parliaments, Reichstags and Doumas. And more and more do they demand that these shall reflect the sentiments of the people in civil and religious matters. The day of darkness and ignorance in which the people believed that popes and kings were Divinely appointed to rule them with Divine authority has gone by. General intelligence has taught mankind that it is a mistake to suppose that one God-appointed king and kingdom were Divinely appointed to wipe another Divinely appointed king and kingdom off the face of the earth. Hence popes and kings now admit that they reign by a popular sufferance, and their appeals for money, for armies and navies, is no longer on the score that they were Divinely instructed to obliterate each other, but on the score of self-defense.
This claim, however, wholly destroys the argument that we are now or ever in the past have been under Christ's Kingdom, either direct or through the popes. Neither now nor at any other time in the world's history has there been a reign of righteousness such as the Scriptures declare Christ's Kingdom shall be. May we not, then, with good grace – Catholics and Protestants – admit that neither our Catholic popes, emperors and kings, nor our Protestant kings, emperors and heads of Churches, are reigning with any Divine authority manifest to human judgment? Let us humbly admit the nonsense of the legends on our coins, Catholic and Protestant, to the effect that kings and popes reign by the grace of God – by Divine appointment. Let us rather say that they came into power through the exercise of brute force and in a time of common public ignorance. Nor by this do we mean any disrespect to the governments of today – rather we have shown that today the people are ruling through their Congresses, Parliaments, Reichstags, [CR78] etc., and that the kings and emperors are mere figureheads of power, more or less useful and dependent upon the good will of their people.
If it be asked how we shall account for the period of the dark ages and autocratic and devilish misrule, our reply would be to point to the Apostle's words. He declares that Satan is the god or ruler of this world, who now operates through the disobedient – through those not in harmony with God, who constitute the vast majority in Christendom and elsewhere. And we remind you that our Lord Jesus also spoke of Satan as being the Prince of this world or age (John 12:31), and of himself as the Prince or Ruler of the coming age, the Millennial Age (John 18:36).
Ah, yes! the sooner both Catholics and Protestants admit what they and all the world now see, the better – namely, that for a long time our great Adversary held us in a bondage of ignorance and superstition, in getting free from which many bright minds have reacted toward infidelity, because they did not see that many of the teachings of the past, both Catholic and Protestant, were not only irrational, but most positively unscriptural teachings of men, and, as St. Paul declared, "doctrines of demons" (1 Timothy 4:1).
In view of the foregoing – in view of the fact that the Divine titles of all kings and emperors are now abrogated, papacy need feel no special disgrace to her cause in similarly abrogating the claim that the popes reign as representatives of Christ or have authority so to do. Indeed such a claim is more safely denied than held, for in the light of our day papacy's best friends cannot look into the past and point with pride to any achievements as properly representing the reign of the Prince of Peace – Immanuel. In the light of the present all of God's people, Catholics and Protestants of every shade, should rejoice to join in the Lord's Prayer – "Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." Surely this is what all saints of all denominations should desire and pray for and labor for.
Not that we can hope to bring it to pass of ourselves, however. Nearly nineteen centuries of efforts show to the contrary. Even our last century of great missionary endeavor, Catholic and Protestant, proves this. United States statistics show that in the year 1800 there were six hundred millions of heathens, and that in the year 1900 their numbers had doubled – there were twelve hundred millions of heathens. While continuing our exertions on behalf of the heathens abroad and at home, let us tie our faith to the Apostle's words and wait for "God's Son from heaven" (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
At the second coming of Christ and the glorification of his Church, "his elect," "his saints," gathered from all denominations, Catholic and Protestant (and some from outside of all of them) – only then will the glorious reign of Christ and the Church begin. Only then will the spiritual Seed of Abraham be complete and the work of blessing the unregenerate world begin – the Millennial Kingdom work – the overthrow of Satan and his empire – the scattering of darkness, ignorance and superstition which he fostered – the flooding of the earth with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God – the restoration of natural Israel to Divine favor – the bringing in of everlasting righteousness through a mental, physical and moral uplift. Whoever then shall refuse all those blessings and privileges will be destroyed from amongst the people. Thus eventually in the close of the Millennium God's will shall be "done on earth even as it is done in heaven" – as fully, as completely. This is the "Kingdom of God's dear Son" for which we wait and pray. And however good or bad other kingdoms, temporal or spiritual, have been, we need no longer consider them substitutes for this one which shall be the desire of all nations" (Haggai 2:7).
We are free to admit that the Catholic doctrines of transubstantiation, masses and purgatory would be difficult for our Catholic friends to abandon for the sake of Federation or for any other reason. Nevertheless we believe that in the light of our day there is more to be learned upon these important doctrines. Without agreeing with these doctrines – without claiming Catholic affiliation, let me here say that the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, which lies at the foundation of these three, is in many respects more rational than our Protestant doctrine of eternal torture. It would surely be more Godlike to provide some way of escape for the millions of humanity than to leave thousands of millions uselessly in untellable anguish to all eternity. However, the Lord willing, it is my intention to discuss this subject in a general mass meeting to Christian people of all denominations on Sunday, March 6. So many of you as desire to attend will be welcomed on that occasion. We will then seek for the Scriptural explanation of these doctrines – purgatory and hell.
Summing up, then, we find that Lutherans would have nothing to lose by Federation – nothing to surrender, except a little pride. Episcopalians likewise will find Federation to cost them little. They can well afford to join the Federation, especially on terms upon which they insist – the recognition of the apostolic succession. And this they can afford to concede in its very mildest form, realizing that it has never specially advantaged them anyway and is impossible of demonstration, in view of the fact that the Scriptures declare that there are but twelve apostles of the Lamb and symbolically show only a twelve-star crown to the Church during this age and only twelve foundations to the New Jerusalem – the Church in glory. How then could Bishops either possess or give apostolic blessings? (Revelation 12:1; 21:14.)
Omitting the Catholic Church, being assured from the Scriptures that she will not be a member of the Federation, we conclude by advising the Protestant Christian Communions discussed today not to be content with Federation, but to go the entire length of union – dropping all their pet ideas and acknowledging as fellow-Christians and fellow-members of the Body of Christ, the Church, all who acknowledge Jesus as their Savior, their Redeemer, and who turn from the ways of sin and to the best of their ability walk in the path of righteousness, and who make full consecration of themselves to the Lord. These are and ever should be ONE in the most absolute sense possible, both now and beyond the veil.
During the week following, large quantities of the Peoples Pulpit were distributed by the faithful corps of Volunteers.
ABOUT twenty minutes of three, the quartet of sisters, consisting of Sisters Detwiler, Brenneisen, Noble and Raymond, sang the beautiful hymn entitled "Hallelujah," No. 155 in Hymns of Dawn. Following this, Brother William P. Mockridge sang a solo, entitled "I've Found a Friend." During this time the congregation was continually coming in and at 3 o'clock the hall was fairly well filled. Then the quartet again favored the audience by singing No. 157, "Hail the King." About twenty-four brethren occupied the platform. The service was then opened by the singing of No. 273, "His Sun and His Shield," and this was followed with prayer by Brother Burgess. After singing another hymn, Brother Rutherford made the following announcement:
Dear friends, this is the last of the series of four discourses on Church Federation. This is not the last of the meetings, however, to be held in this auditorium. We desire to impress upon all this afternoon, who are interested in such subjects, that on March 6 in this same auditorium, at 3 o'clock, Pastor Russell will give a discourse upon the subject of "INFERNO." We regret, dear friends, that we are unable to secure a larger auditorium, as we anticipate that this will be too small to accommodate the people who will come to hear this discourse. The subject in itself is [CR79] attractive, dealing as it will with Hell, Purgatory, etc., the questions that have given so much concern to all people, especially during the Gospel age; and now that all Christians have had much thought upon this subject, we anticipate a large attendance, more than this auditorium will accommodate. Therefore we suggest that those who desire to come do so early, in order to secure good seats, which will be free. The service here on the 6th of March is not the last one to which you are invited, however, dear friends; we call your attention to the fact that on February 13, 20 and 27 there will be interesting Bible chart talks given at the BROOKLYN TABERNACLE auditorium, the hours being 3 and 8 o'clock. These will be delivered by Mr. Brenneisen – a large chart being used. This chart will be used by the speaker to illustrate the various Bible topics to be treated at that time. We all know that an object lesson is one of the best ways to teach, the eye greatly aiding the understanding of the question, and the chart will be used to help understand more clearly the topics to be discussed. The assembly-room of the Brooklyn Tabernacle is not nearly so large as this, but all Bible students interested in this are invited to attend and we assure that if you are desirous of any more information upon the questions discussed you will be much benefited and blessed. Keep in mind, dear friends, the discourse on March 6 on "Inferno" and the six chart talks on the three Sundays following this meeting.
The congregation then joined in singing No. 249, "Repeat the Story." PILGRIM BROTHER GEORGE B. RAYMOND then addressed the audience and introduced Brother Russell to the audience in the following words:
Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a pleasure which has fallen upon me this afternoon to present to you the speaker, and I want to call your attention to the fact that the Society under whose auspices this meeting is being held has put into the hands of the public over four million volumes of Scripture Studies, the author of which is our speaker. I expect that many of you who are here this afternoon have copies of this work in your libraries, upon your shelves, and that you are not aware of the fact that you are in possession of these books. These Scripture Studies will be of inestimable benefit and profit to you, as they have been to many of us; but they must be read with your Bible in hand, studied as you would study other works to get the information you desired. I call your attention to the statement of the Apostle, "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
These Bible helps are the only works – I say this without fear of successful contradiction – which make of the Scriptures perfect harmony. They open up the truths of God in the Bible, which is said to be an old fiddle upon which you can play any tune, and they show that the Bible is the Word of God, his plan and purpose. These Scripture Studies, we say to you, are a clear, concise and harmonious treatment, and explanation of God's plan as revealed in his Word.
I should like also to call your attention to the further fact that each week in the daily papers over six million people will have called to their attention the weekly sermon of Pastor Russell – six million each week. Now, dear friends, without anything further, I want to introduce to you the speaker of the afternoon, who will address you upon the subject, "The Church Militant's Surrender to the Church Triumphant," Pastor Russell.
(Reprint from Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 7, 1910.)
"The Church Militant's Surrender to the Church Triumphant."
A full house greeted Pastor Russell yesterday at Brooklyn Academy of Music as he delivered his final discourse of a series of four on the subject of "Church Federation." The large audience sat as if spell-bound, as they listened to the eloquent words which fell from his lips, all of which appealed to their reason, for he backed every proposition with Scripture. The question as to whether Catholics would bow to the Protestants or the Protestants to the Catholics was treated and the answer was conclusive.
Announcement was made by the chairman that for the next three Sundays, at both 3 and 7:30 P.M., illustrated chart talks on the "Divine Plan of the Ages" would be delivered at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, 17 Hicks street. One of the unique features of those meetings will be that seats will be free and no collection taken or appeal in any way for money, but that all will be welcome.
The chairman also announced that on March 6 Pastor Russell will again speak in the Academy of Music. A burning question will be discussed at that time, namely: "Inferno."
THE fourth and final meeting for the consideration of doctrinal surrenders necessary to Church Federation was held yesterday, Brooklyn's largest auditorium, the Academy of Music, being crowded. Pastor Russell of the Brooklyn Tabernacle delivered the address, as follows:
Having viewed during the past three Sundays what the leading denominations would need to sacrifice in the interest of Federation, we come today to the final discussion of this series – The Church Militant and Triumphant and her interest in the Federation movement. Let us endeavor to take so broad a view of this subject that there will be no room for disagreement on the part of true Christians of any denomination.
Text: "Say ye not, A Federation, to all them to whom this people shall say, A Federation; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid." – Isaiah 8:12.
Unnecessary as it may be to explain to this large and intelligent audience the significance of our topic, "The Church Militant and the Church Triumphant," I must think beyond the thousands present of the millions who tomorrow will receive reports of this discourse from that great channel of the world's progress, the secular press. Hence I explain that the term Church Militant signifies the Church in warfare, struggling with the powers of evil, while the Church Triumphant signifies the Church victorious, glorious, joined with her Lord, the heavenly Bridegroom, as his Bride and Queen in the great Millennial Kingdom soon to bless and uplift the world of mankind. I should further add that while in this discussion we have considered the various denominations of Christendom and their creeds, we must today ignore all human systems and creeds. We must take the broad, general ground of the Scriptures and recognize only one Church.
Nor may we make the mistake of saying that the one Church is one sect. No sect, no denomination, however great and influential and numerous and rich, either in sordid or historic wealth, can be conceded the right to appropriate the name which our Lord gave to all truly his disciples. Surely none of us is sectarian enough to dispute this premise. We must learn to recognize the Church of Christ from the same viewpoint as does the Head of the Church. We must learn the force of St. Peter's words to Cornelius, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him." (Acts 10:34,35.)
Taking, therefore, the Scriptural view of the Church, we recognize it as the "Body of Christ" of many members, over which he is the head. It is composed of consecrated followers of Christ, irrespective of all denominational lines – those who, turning from sin, accept Jesus as their Redeemer, through whom they have forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to the Father – those who have become disciples of Christ, taking up their cross to follow him, and who have received the begetting of the holy Spirit. Who could dispute that these are the Church of Christ? Who shall say that they must belong to this communion or that, or lose their relationship to the Head, Christ Jesus? The apostles never referred to Baptist Christians, Methodist Christians, Catholic Christians, Presbyterian Christians, etc., but merely to those whom we have described and whom they styled saints – "the Church of the living God, whose names are written in heaven." (Hebrews 12:23; 1 Timothy 3:15.) Let us keep strictly within the lines of God's Word, and avoid the errors of the past. Let us today consider this Church as the Church Militant and prospectively the Church Triumphant.
If we all agree that we have before our minds the real Church, the Church of the New Testament, let us notice that there is a nominal Church also and that we are not competent to fully determine which are the real and which are the nominal Christians except by the test which our Lord has given – "by their fruits ye shall know them." While the real Church of fully consecrated believers, faithful to [CR80] the Lord and his Word and the principles of righteousness, is represented by a very small number, there is a nominal Church, related thereto as is a shell to the kernel of a nut. The nominal Church includes those whose manner or whose attendance on worship implies a relationship to Christ without having gone the length of a full faith-acceptance of him in sacrifice, perhaps without having fully turned from sin even in their hearts, and without having made a full consecration to serve the Lord. This nominal class may be subdivided into believers who are favorably disposed toward Christ and righteousness; others who regard the Church as merely a moral club designed for social and moral benefit or influence upon the world, by counteracting sinful influences; still others, bitter at heart, sinful and selfish, having no faith whatever in Jesus and no care whatever for morality and using the name of Christ hypocritically, merely as a garment to deceive, that they may the better gain their ends. Thus we find the nominal Church to consist of: –
(1) Hypocrites; (2) Moralists; (3) Indifferents; (4) Seekers after godliness; (5) The true Church, "the sanctified in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 1:2) – "members of the Body of Christ" – prospective members of the Church Triumphant.
Every member of "the Church of the first-born" was called "to suffer with Christ" that he may be also later glorified with him in the Millennial Kingdom. Only those who will stand the test of faithfulness under sufferings, trials, crosses, self-sacrifices have the promise of sharing with Christ the glories of the Church Triumphant. "If we be dead with him, we shall also live with him; if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us." (2 Timothy 2:11,12.)
But why should the Church fight? Is she not commended to live peaceably with all? Are not Christians exhorted to war not with carnal weapons and to be smitten on both cheeks, rather than to return evil for evil? Where, then, comes in the fight? Who are the foes? Surely, none would assail a non-resistant.
We reply that the facts do not bear out that suggestion. Our Lord and his apostles were peaceable and non-resistant, obedient to kings and laws, and yet they suffered violent deaths, as well as stripes and imprisonment. They had their names cast out as evil. And those who persecuted and maligned them verily thought that they did God service. All who follow in the Lord's footsteps must expect similar treatment because, as Jesus said, "The servant is not greater than his Lord." "Marvel not if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore, the world hateth you" (John 17:18-19). The Master said, "The darkness hateth the light," which explains why the chief religionists of his time, being of wrong condition of heart, instigated his crucifixion. They were of the darkness, living outwardly holy, while in heart they were far from consecrated to God. The very holding up of the torch of Truth was painful to them, reproved them and excited their animosity. Human nature is the same today. Notwithstanding the fact that heretic-roasting has become unpopular and intolerable to the world, there are methods of privately and symbolically roasting, slashing, wounding and killing practiced by those estranged from God, though sometimes highly esteemed of men and wearing vestments only slightly less glorious than those worn by Caiaphas and Pilate.
The Scriptures explain that there is a two-fold reason why Jesus and all of his followers are required to suffer for righteousness' sake.
(1) It is requisite to their own character-development that they should not only profess absolute loyalty to God and to Truth, but that this loyalty should be put to the test. Thus we read of our Lord that, though "holy, harmless, undefiled," he was proved perfect in his loyalty by the things which he endureth – by his obedience even unto death, even the ignominious death of the cross. The same principle, the Scriptures assure us, operates in connection with all whom God is now calling to be Emmanuel's associates in the Millennial Kingdom. They must suffer with him if they would reign with him. They must walk in his steps (Galatians 5:11; 6:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:5; 2 Timothy 1:12; 2:9,12; 3:12.)
(2) These experiences are designed of God to qualify us to be judges of the world during the Millennial Age – that the Christ, Head and Body, may be merciful and faithful toward the people of earth. Likewise it is proper that the world should know that its judges have thus been tempted and tried and are able to sympathize with them in their weakness and in their endeavors for righteousness – and more willing to help them up, up, up to human perfection than to consign them to the second death.
Although this conflict has lasted for more than eighteen centuries, it has not been long for any single individual. With the Master himself the trial period was only three and a half years. On the whole, as compared with eternity, the entire Gospel Age of Sacrifice, as the Master said, is but "a little while." And as for the afflictions and testings themselves, St. Paul gives the proper thought, saying, that at most they are "light afflictions but for a moment and not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us," the overcomers. (Romans 8:18.)
The Church in glory and in power will contain no hypocrites and no merely nominal Christians – only the true, the saintly, "the sanctified in Christ Jesus." Nevertheless, it will be composed of two classes, as illustrated by the Priests and the Levites in the type. (1) Jesus glorified, the anti-typical High Priest, and his faithful footstep followers, the anti-typical under-priesthood – otherwise, his "Bride." Together these are styled a Royal Priesthood or a Kingdom of Priests. St. Paul tells us that Melchizedek, who was a priest upon his throne, merely typified the Church Triumphant – Head and Body – the Christ, "A priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" – a priest upon his throne. During the Millennial Age that glorious Priest, Head and Members, will bless and uplift, rule and judge the world of mankind, with a view to recovering as many as possible, as many as will obey him, from the ruin of sin and death. During the thousand years of the Melchizedek reign all the families of the earth will be blessed with opportunities of return to human perfection and to earthly paradise. The unwilling and disobedient will be destroyed in the second death. At the close of the Millennium Christ's Mediatorial Kingdom will terminate.
As the Levites were much more numerous than their brethren, the Priests, so there is another class in the Church corresponding – styled "a great company, whose numbers no man knoweth," in that they were not specially predestinated. These less earnest, less zealous than the faithful "little flock," will reach a plane of glory through tribulation also, but with less joy. These, we are told, will be to the Bride as her companions. As Levites they will serve God in his temple, but not be members of the temple class, the Priesthood. These will have palm branches and be before the Throne, while the Royal Priesthood will have crowns and be in the throne as members of the Body of Christ.
All the soldiers of the cross, experiencing fightings with out and within against the powers of sin and darkness and their own weaknesses, surely long for the time of their "change" in the "First Resurrection." They long for the time when this mortal shall put on immortality; when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption; when we shall be like our Redeemer and see him as he is and share his glory. Gladly, therefore, do all of God's consecrated people wait for the blessed change promised at our Lord's Second Coming, when that which is sown in weakness shall be raised in power; when that which is sown in dishonor shall be raised in glory; when that which is sown an animal body shall be raised a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44,53,54.) Surely such, having prayed, "Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as in heaven," are waiting for the King and God's time for establishing his kingdom for the blessing of the world. No wonder the Apostle wrote of these, "Ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our Body" – the Body of Christ, the Church, through the power of the "First Resurrection" change. This will be our glad surrender to the Church Triumphant, when we shall hear the Master's voice saying, "Well done, good and faithful servants; enter ye into the joys of your Lord. You have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things" – [CR81] participants in the Millennial Kingdom glory and its dominion of earth for the uplifting of mankind. (1 Corinthians 6:2; Revelation 2:26.)
I ask you, my hearers, and indirectly I ask the millions of my larger congregation whom I address weekly through the public prints – What advantage will accrue to the Church Militant through the oncoming Federation? I reply that great advantage will come to the saintly few, not in the manner expected, but along the lines of the divine promise that "All things shall work together for good to them that love God – to the called according to his purpose." The Church Federation, which the Scriptures distinctly show us will be effected, will include the various classes already indicated: – (1) Hypocrites; (2) Moralists; (3) Followers afar off; (4) Saints.
But in the Federation the Moralists and Higher Critics will be dominant forces. The saintly will less than ever be in evidence and appreciated. The outward and apparent success of the Federation will seem wonderful for a moment, but the results will be disastrous.
The saintly few, guided by God's Word and holy Spirit, will awaken to the true situation and become separated from the nominal mass. Their misguided hopes as respects the bringing about of a spiritual Kingdom on earth will be thoroughly shattered, and, more than ever, they will look to the Lord as the source of help and wait for his Kingdom to come through the Redeemer's advent and the Resurrection "change."
In a word, God's saintly people need no outward Federation, even as they need no credal fences. So far as these are concerned, the sooner all barriers between them are leaped and they come together as members of one body, joined to the one heavenly Head and Lord, the better. Let Churchianity produce its Federation and see its folly and failure, as outlined in our text. But let the saints of God draw near to him and to each other in a spiritual union and realize to the full the meaning of the Apostle's words: "One faith; one Lord; one baptism" – one "Church of the Living God whose names are written in heaven." This condition cannot be attained through outward bonds, but can be attained only through drinking into the one Spirit, obtainable through the proper understanding of the Word of God.
Having previously seen that the Federation would require no serious sacrificing by the leading Christian bodies except Catholics, we today have viewed the one true Church composed of faithful Christians of all denominations – her past and present, her future, according to the Bible. In the light of these studies we inquires, Is Federation desirable?
We answer, No! The Church of Christ wants Union! Federation is unscriptural, as our text declares! Indeed, Federation would be a dishonorable compromising between errors still held. Theoretically the "Baptists" would still contend that only the water-immersed constitute the Church, the saved, yet would by Federation say, We do not take ourselves seriously. Theoretically the "Disciples" would still say, Only the water-immersed are free from their sins, saved, all others are lost, but we belie our faith for the sake of Federation. Believers in the contrary doctrines of Election and Free Grace would by Federation virtually say, We don't know what to believe. All believers in the Bible, in justification by faith, in sanctification and in the begetting of the holy Spirit would by Federation virtually say, We accept as saints all the unbelievers called "higher critics," who know not God and respect not the Gospel.
Are God's true people prepared to make such concessions for the sake of a federated form of godliness and numerical strength? Assuredly they are not. The Federation will drive them out of all sectarianism and make of them Bible students free in the liberty wherewith Christ makes free. To such there will quickly come true Union on Biblical lines, as we have shown is easily attainable in the light now shining upon God's Word.
Nevertheless Bible prophecy clearly shows that Protestant denominations will Federate. For a short time Federation will bring great political influence which will breed ecclesiastical arrogance and persecution – culminating in ruin. Let God's faithful ones obey his voice. (Isa. 8:12; Rev. 18:4.)
Arise! O ye Army of Gideon
Let him that is fearful return,
Jehovah wants only the zealous,
Whose hearts with the love of truth burn.
Ten thousand remain! Still too many;
Once more He their loyalty proves,
To see who most faithfully serve Him,
To see who most fervently loves.
O ye who have sworn him allegiance,
Mark well! He is now testing you,
With the water of truth He will prove you,
To see who is loyal and true.
Look well to your drinking then, brother,
See thou no impurities trace,
Take your lamp, your pitcher and trumpet
And stand every man in his place.
Your sword is the sword of the spirit,
Your lamp is the light from His word,
Your pitcher this poor earthen vessel,
You break at the word of the Lord.
Is your lamp burning bright in your pitcher?
Does your trumpet give forth "certain sound?"
Soon the sword of the Lord and of Gideon
The enemy's host will confound.
For sure is the victory promised
And great is the peace he awards,
Then "stand" in your place all ye faithful,
The battle's not yours, but the Lord's.
I have much pleasure in introducing to you tonight Pastor Russell of Brooklyn Tabernacle, New York. He is a well-known preacher of the Gospel of Christ all his life. He is a writer on subjects connected with the Bible. He is author of that great work known as "Studies in the Scriptures." It is a work which has been translated into seventeen different languages and read by thousands in different parts of the Empire with gratitude. So great interest has been awakened by these studies, that the International Bible Students Association has been formed, of which Pastor Russell is president, and these Studies are primarily for the benefit of believers, Christian believers of whatever denomination, to furnish them with a knowledge such as will enable them to give an answer for the faith within them. These Studies are of great value to the honest sceptic, because he will find therein proofs of God's, Jehovah's, relationship to man. In pure, plain, and simple language, Pastor Russell magnifies and illuminates that majestic Plan of God as a whole, whereby anyone who feels so inclined may for himself, and without further assistance, obtain a correct knowledge of the mind and purpose of God in the creation, the downfall, and the various steps for the redemption, the uplift, the restoration, the final perfection and salvation of the human race.
It is well to let this be thoroughly understood, in view of any possible criticism, that the only way of obtaining this salvation is through the name and merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and him crucified, the Son of God, our Savior. I mention this specifically, because it is the keynote of Pastor Russell's teachings and writings. Pastor Russell will now address you on the subject already announced, "The Great Hereafter."
BROTHER RUSSELL: (As the King of England had died the day previous the subject seemed remarkably appropriate. Brother Russell introduced the discourse with a few remarks referring to the King.) It was in Germany that I heard of the death of your esteemed monarch, Edward VII. I realized that not only your nation, but all Christendom had lost an unobtrusive but wise Counsellor, a power for peace and good-will amongst men. I take this opportunity to express to this great audience my sympathy, which, I assure you, is shared by the vast majority of my American countrymen. My first thought was that, out of respect for the illustrious dead, his family, and the nation, this service should be postponed. But my second thought was to the contrary. Surely at no more fitting hour could we consider "The Great Hereafter." There is, thank God, a "hereafter" for kings as well as for peasants, and royal mourners and a mourning nation need the message from God's Word particularly now. And, since no more representative audience will probably assemble in this capital of the empire, I have a suggestion to offer which I trust will meet with your approval. It is, that before offering prayer we show our sympathy for the royal family in their bereavement by standing.
After a brief prayer, in which the royal family were remembered, the congregation joined in singing the hymn reputed to be the deceased king's favorite, "Nearer, My God, to Thee." For a few moments before he led in prayer the congregation, with bowed heads, prayed silently. The occasion was a very impressive one.
He dealt with the subject of the "hereafter," showing the generally accepted views of Catholics and Protestants; and then, in contrast with these, the Bible presentation, which he affirmed to be not only the true one, but the only logical one. He pointed out the hereafter of the Church in glory and the steps of patient perseverance leading thereto; also that while the Bible shows, and all the creeds confess, that only a "little flock" will be joint-heirs in the Kingdom with Christ, nevertheless there is another salvation which is for the world, an earthly salvation in contrast with the heavenly one, a restitution to mental, moral and physical perfection, to be attained during the thousand years of Messiah's reign in glory, for which we pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." He showed the divine provision for an earthly paradise for such restored sons of Adam as will accept the divine arrangement on their behalf, and that all others will be destroyed in the Second Death. This was a very different outlook than the one ordinarily presented in the creeds of Christendom. While taking no more to heaven than the saintly and elect, as the Bible indicates, all the creeds consign the remainder of mankind either to centuries of torture in Purgatory, or to an eternity of torture in hell. He made very clear the unscripturalness and unreasonableness of this proposition, and showed in scriptural language that God's provision is a resurrection of the dead as the hope of both the Church and the world – the Church in the first resurrection to glory, honor and immortality. He pointed out that the glorification of the elect on the spirit plane, as the spiritual seed of Abraham, is scripturally declared for the very purpose of blessing all the families of earth – the non-elect – giving them fullest opportunity to come to the knowledge of the Lord, and of righteousness, and to avail themselves of a share of God's mercy and forgiveness for all the willing and obedient to life everlasting. There was a good hearing for nearly two hours. The sermon was a most impressive one, the death of the King the day previous having prepared the hearts and minds of the people for the gospel message so impressively [CR83] set forth. Through an accident (providence) it so happened that an incident occurred that completely overawed the congregation. The closing hymn had been sung, the benediction pronounced, and the audience had started for the doors, when, suddenly the great organ began to peal forth "The Dead March in Saul." The hearts and minds of the people were in such a state that as soon as they comprehended the music they stopped where they were standing, as if rooted to their places. The music continued to peal forth, while the people stood with bowed heads, until suddenly through some misunderstanding, the air to the organ was shut off, and the music became fainter and fainter. The effect was almost beyond description. The audience thus stood in silent reverence as the music grew fainter and fainter and finally died away in the distance, leaving the audience in a silence so profound that it was necessary to pronounce the benediction afresh in order to disperse them. Custodians of the hall remarked that for an audience to sit so long was practically unprecedented in their experience. Brother Russell and all the friends who had been working so hard in the preliminary arrangements and who had looked forward to this first meeting as a sort of index of those to follow, were much pleased, and it is hoped that some good was accomplished, some brought nearer to the Lord, some made to appreciate more fully God's love, justice, wisdom and power.
LORD, for tomorrow and its needs I do not pray;
Keep me from any stain of sin just for today.
Let me both diligently work and duly pray;
Let me be kind in word and deed just for today.
Let me be slow to do my will, prompt to obey;
Help me to sacrifice myself just for today.
Let me no wrong nor idle word unthinking say;
Set Thou Thy seal upon my lips just for today.
So for tomorrow and its needs I do not pray,
But keep me, guide me, hold me, Lord, just for today.
BROTHER RUSSELL: I am pleased to be with you today, dear friends. I have noted with pleasure the words of our brother, assuring us of your love: and I give you my love in return. It is quite true that where there is one body there is one spirit, for we are all baptized into one body by the one spirit, and whoever has not the one spirit is not in the body, which is the church. We do indeed recognize all nominal churches, and in speaking of them as such we are not to be understood as saying anything unkind, but rather as trying to differentiate between those who have a special relationship to the Lord and those who have a less direct and less close relationship. We love all who are the Lord's. So I feel an enlargement of mind and heart toward all Christian people, as I see by the Lord's grace to be able to appreciate the fact, though there are many who have never yet understood the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of God's plan, and of his love as we have been able to see it. Many of them maybe are true brothers and sisters in the Lord, which have not yet had this enlightenment. We may be sure that all who are led of the Lord may see from this same standpoint. So surely as we are taught of the Lord we shall be instructed in his ways and know his doctrine. If some know more and some less respecting doctrines, let us hope that we will all drink more and more of the spirit of the Lord and know of the doctrine of the Lord; for, as the Apostle says, if we have all knowledge and have not love it shall profit us nothing. We would come short of the glory of God, short of the wonderful things which God has for us.
So then, dear friends, my hope has grown larger and my sympathy broader, for all Christians of all denominations, and I realize that God has many people for whom the truth is meat in due season, and we have many lessons to learn. If we learn sooner than others, we are not to glorify ourselves, but be thankful that when the truth came to us we received the truth and it has been a great blessing to us, and we are to give it to others, and thus we find selfishness has no place in our hearts. Error produces a wrong spirit. It is a deep assurance that we have the truth, the spirit of the truth, when we rejoice to bring peace and good will to others. We have the very best will toward those who differ from us. We remember from the Scriptures that the Lord forewarned us, and said that if we would patiently endure such things, that they would be for our blessing. We remember that this is largely a matter of due time. If we ever forget that feature of "due time" we will lose a part of this combination key which unlocks the safe that gives forth the treasures. The due time is very important, for had we lived a century ago we would have known no more than they did; but living in this day, therefore, we are to be thankful for his favors, not because we are better than our forefathers, but because we are living in the due time. The deep things of God are hidden from the world and are to be revealed to the saints, so it comes to us as an assurance of our faith, if we have come to a knowledge of the truth. What should our attitude be – that God has favored us more than others? Nay, verily. That was what stumbled the Jews – God had done so much for the Jews, and they therefore thought he would do much more for them. In humility accepting as being of the grace of God, all the glories and blessings of knowledge that he is graciously giving us. Thus we shall abide in God's love and favor. We remember, as we have received Christ, so we should walk in him. Did we receive him in a boastful condition of mind? No, in a humble condition of mind.
Our subject for this afternoon, dear friends, is found in the text, "Gather together, my saints, unto me, those who [CR84] have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." Now, then, dear friends, the great proposition of the Gospel is involved, and wrapped up in those words which were uttered by the Lord's prophet centuries before Jesus came, before the forerunner had gone over the pathway, and before anyone knew of the arrangements for this Gospel Church. It was before any could have known, because the holy Spirit was not given, but here it is all summed up in these few words. What an assurance that every part of the word of God is from our Father, and is meat for the household of faith!
One of the thoughts that comes to us in connection with this text is the word "gathering"; in gathering together, drawing together, selecting. This is the thought. During this age, and not in the Millennial Age. In that age the Lord will draw all mankind, instruct all his people, give them one law. It will be a general calling or drawing, then. How distinct and separate God's call is in this age from that of the Millennial Age. This is a convincing evidence of the truth of God's plan, and shows us that the Old Testament was inspired of God, for the prophets could not have written of things they never saw, from the views they had obtained. The proper thought then was, that God had selected all Israel to be his people, and it would not have been appropriate for him to think of other nations, as we read in Amos 3:2. From the Jewish standpoint, God's own words were unexplainable; but from our standpoint, the little flock, the holy nation, the royal priesthood, we can now see it. The eyes of our understanding having been opened, enables us to see the lengths and breadths, etc., of God's plan, which can only be understood by the spirit, which the Apostle tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:9 and 10, searches everything, the deep things, etc., and reveals these things to those who have the spirit of God, in proportion as we have received the spirit. There is a difference in respect to the Holy Spirit; our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, had the Holy Spirit without measure, because he was perfect. How about others? We are not perfect, and so we do not receive it in just the same manner. We receive it by measure. O, we wish we had more of that spirit, and we are trying to obtain more long-suffering, purity, kindness, etc., etc. – summed up in the one word, love. Well, this gathering began long ago, when he began to gather out Israel, when he chose Israel, to prepare them for the message. The little company he secured was only a nucleus. Whom is he gathering? Why make a picking here and there? O, there is a reason. It is not right, says one, to pick one and not choose another. O, but it is fair, because he is picking only a certain kind. We are glad that he is not passing by others and letting them go to eternal torment, but they do not meet the requirements like in the parable of the fish in the net, where some were not of the kind desired. After selecting the good, they cast the others back into the sea, and they were doubtless as happy as before. Many are now in the Gospel net, and they should be in the world, for they have made a mistake in saying they are of the church. They do not know they have made a mistake, they are trying to keep out of eternal torment by getting into the church, and are doing themselves and the church an injury because we know they are not trying to walk after the spirit, for they know they are walking after the flesh every day, therefore they are injured rather than helped by being in the church except now. The condition of the church has become such that it supposes it is composed entirely of this class, and they consider that anyone who tries to walk in the footsteps of Jesus is crazy. They think these are hypocrites. They are unintentionally blinded, not understanding themselves, or us, or the Plan of God. Under that misunderstanding, do you wonder that the majority of Christian people do not know anything about the matter? Thank God for the grace and blessing which have come to you and to me, which enabled us to get our eyes open and see so much of God's Plan.
This gathering we see is the gathering of saints. Has anybody a right to object, if they do not claim to be saints, and if the Lord does not gather them? He is not passing by certain saints, to take other saints, but he is taking all saints and thus we are within the limitations. He never told them to gather the world, the flesh and the devil, and a few saints to put on top of the basket. We have no right to find fault. It is just the right thing. What does God want of the worldly? No reason under the sun. Why gather the saints? O, the Bible makes that plain. Our Lord Jesus is the great Saint, the holy One, for the word "saint" signifies "holy," "sanctified," wholly given up to the Lord. This refers to their minds and not their bodies, for the prophet says, "There is none righteous, no, not one, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." The glory of God is shown when he made man in his likeness, absolutely perfect, mentally, morally and physically, a grand being. Sin has brought us to the present condition. When we think of the glory of God, we know that we cannot show forth the perfect image of God, but we trust we have all some of it. Gradually, I trust, we are getting more of the image of God in our words, our actions, and the very thoughts of our minds, becoming more and more such as God would have us to be. What he is looking for are those who are sanctified in spirit, in mind, in purpose, in will. This is the sanctified class, they are his saints, whose wills are entirely given up to him. Do you think God will find what he wants? Notice his words in Isaiah 55:11, "My word that goeth forth from my mouth shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it." It shall accomplish what? A little? O, no. It shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it. O, my, does not that give us strong consolation that God's Plan will be all fulfilled? Perhaps at one time, you said, God's Plan seems to be a failure, we would have thought God would have had the world converted or saved long ago. What is the end? It shall be accomplished. What you please? What I please? No. What you thought? What anybody else thinks? No, it shall be accomplished, the things which "I" please, and prosper in the thing whereunto "I" sent it. Therefore we must know in what respect he intended it should prosper. It will gather his saints, those sanctified in their hearts. It will not gather in the world. Are there many saints? Not many. Not many great, or wise, or rich, or noble, but chiefly what? – this is pretty hard – chiefly the mean things – pretty hard – tell the truth. There are people in the world just as noble, with just as good shaped heads, if not better than ours, but the word of grace has done more in our hearts than all the knowledge of Oxford can give. Many who have the Oxford knowledge are without the word of God and lacking in all this matter. I heard only today how that when a certain evangelist was speaking in Oxford, some time ago, quite a number of students walked out of the public hall and stamped their feet, making considerable noise. The evangelist had previously said that he had a sister who had died and had gone to hell, and as these students were going out of the hall the evangelist called after them and said they were going there also. They replied, Have you any message to send to your sister?
It is such teachings that have turned so much discredit upon the Bible, so that reasoning minds, who want to know the mind of Christ, are turned away; so they go to work to manufacture a God and a religion of their own, much better than the hell-fire doctrine of the evangelist. If such people as this evangelist had known that God's "wages of sin is death," he would not have made such a statement as that. The Lord is gathering together his saints. What to? One says, it must be to the Roman Catholic church, another to the Methodist, another to the Presbyterian church. The Psalmist did not say that. No, he did not know about such churches, and the Lord never recognized these churches. Where will he gather them? O, that is it, and you and I need to know, for we want to be with them. We hope we are of those saints, and that he is gathering us, and don't you want to know? Well, God has told us through the prophet, Gather my saints together unto "me." It is not merely in a sense of coming to him and seeing he is glorious, and that he spake as never man spake. O, much more than that. Why, even the Roman soldiers sat down and watched him, and we might look back in our minds and see him crucified, and yet have no part in the matter. They watched him die while they played dice for his clothes, and the devil watched him die also. The world knows that the Savior died, but they have not come to know in a Scriptural sense what is meant by being gathered to him. We are to be gathered, but in the Scripture sense, and be drawn to him. Primarily, this drawing is not to the Savior, but to the Father. No man cometh to me except the Father which sent me draw him. It is the Father who is drawing now, and he is doing the calling now in the present time. He is calling all who are suitable for his purpose. In olden times, as illustrated by Abraham taking the wife for his son, it was not Isaac who sent for the bride, but Abraham, and this gives us an illustration of how God gave the holy Spirit to draw the bride-class, to be joint heirs with his son. It is primarily of the Father, but it is not with a view of having them as his bride, but for the bride of his son, to be [CR85] joint heirs with his son, Jesus Christ. Being thus drawn of the heavenly Father, he has pointed us unto Jesus, who died, the just for the unjust, to bring us into relationship with him, and thus into relationship with the Father. Note, then, the proposition before us. You have heard the call, and I trust you have received it, and as a consequence we are on the way – to what? O, we believe just as Rebecca did; she believed in Abraham, as Eliezer said, My master is very rich, VERY RICH, and all that he hath he hath given unto Isaac. He has sent me to get his bride. All of these earthly things the heavenly Father has arranged to give unto the Son. We do not suppose he has given him all heavenly things, for we read, "My glory have I not given to anyone." But all these earthly things are what is mentioned. Everything he has given to Christ, and he invites us to come in and be sharers with Christ in the great work of the Millennial Age, of being God's messengers in carrying the blessings to Israel and to all the families of the earth. What a wonderful privilege, dear friends! Any of us who have the missionary spirit must appreciate what God is going to do when God gets the missionaries ready. What few opportunities you have had for working and studying. All of these are such whom he is training, just as they train a young doctor. That is not a life-work, but those students are merely learning so that they may become effective doctors and surgeons. We may have certain sins to be cut off, and certain ailments to be healed, pouring in oil and putting on bandages, etc. We will all have such a glorious opportunity then, and we are being fitted and prepared for that work. God is interested in the heathen and in the people in your city who are not interested in him, those whom you cannot interest at all. If you have been in the missionary work you have not accomplished much except to fill their stomachs, because you could not do much with their hearts. We all realize how impotent we are. We are unable to do for them the things they need to have done, that would make them meet for God's favor. We must leave them after doing our best. We see that we must leave this one and that one in God's hands. We cannot move their wills. They are free to use them; we used to think that if they did not join some church they would go to hell. How hard a thought it was. We thought, Oh, we must hope that God will do something for our John and for our Mary – which was a proper spirit, and I am sure that God appreciated that spirit, so much more than if we had said, cold-hearted, Let the devil take them. Our hearts rejoice that God is not only as good as we are, but better. He loves them better than we do, and he will not only help them to get their eyes open, but he has the power, and in his due time he will help them to come to a knowledge of the truth. Thank God! What burdens rolled from our hearts. Happy day.
So, "Gather together my saints unto ME." Don't gather them into the churches, into Babylon; don't tie them up and bind them with the creeds. If you have gotten rid of the shackles, don't put them on someone else. We should not speak unkindly of our Christian friends whose eyes are holden, but we should have sympathy, for if we do not have sympathy the Lord will not be pleased. We remember the parable of the man who had much forgiven him, and yet he was unwilling to forgive others. His Lord was wroth with him, etc., because he was not willing to forgive the man who owed him a very little. It is little enough that we can do to have sympathy with our Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Methodist brethren, etc., and we are glad they are not burning us just now at any rate. We see some stumbling and going to the extreme, but we are glad to fellowship any who give evidences of loyalty of heart, for they may be in the same attitude of mind that you and I were. God has not sent the message to them in the fullest sense. God has made us ambassadors to them to represent himself. With what? Converting the world? O, no. What then? To show forth his spirit to all those who have hearing ears. Shall we not put an ear upon them? O, no. He that hath an ear to hear let him hear. So if you come to a man you thought had an ear, and you find he has not, do not offend him, but leave him. Maybe he will have an ear developed, and by and by you may have an opportunity of speaking to that ear. Don't say, here is a man who has two hands, two feet, two ears, and he MUST hear. No, if he has a hearing ear he will hear. If I knew you were all deaf I would not stand here talking to you in this manner. So the Lord is sending his message only to those who have an ear. If we are ambassadors, we are to look for those to whom he has sent his message. Why? "My word that has gone forth out of my mouth, it will not return unto me void." It is the still, small voice for those who have an ear to hear, and he sends the message for you and for me. Our life should be in harmony with that. Sympathy for all, especially for the household of faith.
In being gathered to the Heavenly Father, there is just one way. Is that so? I have heard people say there are many ways, that we are all going by different ways to one place. But the Bible says, only one way. O, Brother Russell, you are too narrow. I am not making the way, for our Lord told us 1,800 years ago that it was a narrow way. How could I make it? Did you say it was a broad way? No – a narrow way. If they wish to find fault with us they can – did they not find fault with Jesus and the Father? Yes. So it is nothing for people to criticize you and me. Very few that he could please; only the few, and so, "Marvel not if the world hate you, for you know it hated me," and we cannot be respected more than our Master. They called our Lord Beelzebub, that is, the devil, but it was not because the Lord did anything wrong, but because they were out of harmony with him. We ought to have a great deal of sympathy. After telling how much contradiction he endured against himself, we ought to be prepared to endure whatever it may be. Don't be discouraged; it is a good sign and you could not be one of the saints unless you become one of the overcomers. If you have no opposition, you ought to be serious, for things are not right somewhere if you have no opposition. Brother Russell then illustrated this matter by telling of a sister in New York city, who once came to him and said she did not have much contradiction, and not many trials, and she wondered what was the matter. He replied that possibly the Lord was preparing her so that she might gain strength and be strong when the trials did come. Later he saw her again and asked her if she was having many trials, and she replied, O, Brother Russell, I have plenty now. Neither should we go to the extreme of some of our friends, to invite trials so that they could suffer for righteousness. If we do our best, the Lord will take cognizance of our efforts. we should seek the wisdom from above. Note the Scriptures say this wisdom that cometh from above is first pure, THEN peaceful. The Lord does not want us to be fighting all the time. Our Lord Jesus did indeed endure a great fight, and all of the Church must endure a great fight, but it must not be a fight you have brought upon yourself, but it must be because of your faithfulness and sympathy, kindness, etc., in holding up the truth, which represents the Lord himself. Then whatever comes under those conditions, you can rejoice. As the Apostle says, Let no one suffer as an evil doer. Let us not suffer as a busybody either, but let us do the things God would approve. I trust that as the days and weeks go by we are getting more loving, kinder, gentler in the truth, and as we are getting more in line with his will, and therefore can be more used as his ambassadors. Gather these unto me, unto God, those who are in harmony with God's mind. How? In what sense together? O, as members of the Body of Christ, just as one joint is joined to another, compacted by that which every joint supplieth. He is gathering the members of the Body of Christ, and he is joining them together, using the human body as an illustration. It is all under the headship of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and as members in particular of the Body of Christ, which is the Church, and the hand cannot say to the foot, I have no need of you. You and I cannot say to one another, we have no need of you either. The Lord will not have finished his work until the last member has been gathered, and then God's gathering will be finished.
The Lord God tells us. They shall be all taught of God. When you gave your heart to the Lord, the illumination took place, illuminating the heart, bringing in joy and peace, and giving you an understanding of the Word of God, and that is the reason we know what the prophet meant when he tells us what these are. What are they? Saints. What saints? O, those who have made a covenant with me. How? How did they make it? By sacrifice. Must they sacrifice in order to get into this body? There is no other way. Well, are any of these, whom God calls, worthy to sacrifice and to come into the Body of Christ? Do we not know that our Lord Jesus would not have been worthy, except as he was perfect? We are all imperfect. Then how could God invite us to be part of the sacrifice? O, that is part of the "mystery," but he opened the way and said, "I am the way and the truth and the life." That is the only way any could come to him. If they do not come this way, all [CR86] their sacrifices will avail them nothing. Coming this way, God will accept your sacrifice and mine, if we come through faith in Christ. That is his arrangement, for Christ has made a satisfaction for our sins. Not for the world's sins, but for ours – the church's. He separates the church and the world. Well, Brother Russell, we were a part of the world? Yes, but how did we get out? We escaped that which they are still under. Well, I thought Jesus paid the penalty for all? He has laid down his life, but the application of the merit is to the other part. The first application of his merit is to the Church, the class which the Father is calling, the saints that he is calling. Well, does it include any except the little flock? Yes, and some more. You remember when Rebecca was coming to Isaac she had a maid companions. Well, as Rebecca was a type, so was the maid servants and both were brought in under the same call, and so it is now. Again we read in Psalm 45, where the Lord speaks there of the Bride, when presented to the Lord, when the Church is completed, all glorious within, and clothed in garments of fine linen, she is brought in unto the king, grand and glorious, when she shall be made like him. That will be the glorious consummation of the Church when she is presented to the Father. Will any others be brought at that time? Yes, the virgins, the pure ones, her companions, not those to be gathered in another age to follow, but who were her companions, who came along with her; they are the ones who are under the present arrangement which the Lord had made. That merit, however, is to be for the whole world. It is even now in the hands of divine justice. It is not applied to the world of unbelievers. Will it reach the world by and by? Yes, but in a different way. The merit is now imputed to us, because the merit that Christ has to give is earthly life and earthly rights. You remember he left the glory he had with the Father, and then became flesh, which he laid down in a sacrificial way, and having laid it down in a sacrificial way in harmony with the Father's will, the Father gave him the reward of a perfect new nature, having glory, honor and immortality. He still has those rights to an earthly nature. They were his to dispose of. After his resurrection he had the divine nature for himself, and hence he had this earthly nature to give away. If we had it, it would mean merely that which belonged to Father Adam. That is what he proposes to give to the world of mankind. It will take the world a thousand years to get back what they were losing for six thousand years. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, not a heavenly, but an earthly nature. He came to recover it and to give it back to mankind – to as many as will. Every eye shall see him, and every ear shall hear him. It will then be whether they will accept the Lord on his terms, which are absolute obedience and faithfulness to him. It will take the thousand years to educate them so they will be able to see the beauty of righteousness, and have character formed that will fit them for the everlasting favor, to all who are pleased to have it on his terms. But that is not what you and I are expecting. God is providing some better thing for us. What is this better thing? O, better than the resurrection to full glory of human perfection. Better than that? O, yes, better, I am sure. It is a high calling, a participation in the divine nature, taking part of – you cannot get it all, only a part. We are to be made partakers of it. Who will get the other part? We come in, in this way: If he had given his merit to the Church he could not have given it to other men. Before giving it to the world, he leaves it in the hands of the Father, and merely appropriated some of it to you, and some to me, some to all those who desire to come to the Father. Those who desire to avail themselves of the special provisions, those whom the Father has called and is drawing – gather together my saints unto me, draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you. We must first learn that we are sinners, otherwise God could not accept us. You have no sacrifice if your sacrifice is imperfect. The world says, I am asking no favors. God has only the one thing to offer now, the high calling. We must come on God's terms or not at all. As we draw near to God, the first lesson we can learn is that we are unworthy. You see God accepted Jesus and you want him to accept you in the same way. You say, I wish he would, but I find Jesus was perfect and God could accept his sacrifice. He died, and God raised him to a higher nature. I would like to have it also. Well, how can I? O, there is only one way – getting Jesus to be your Advocate. O, will he? Yes, that is part of the good tidings. How will merely an advocate for me do any good. An advocate is one who stands alongside – an attorney, a lawyer. In the German language, a lawyer is called an Advokat, and if an attorney takes your case he will not do so until you have taken the proper steps. Our Advocate with the Father is Jesus Christ, the righteous; he is not the world's advocate, he is our advocate. You remember on the last night when with his disciples, he said to the Father, "I pray for those whom thou hast given me" (the disciples), "for they are thine." ..."Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." He is not the world's advocate. What can he do? He cannot say we are perfect, when we are not. He can impute, or appropriate to your sacrifice, and make up all of our insufficiency. Our sins were imputed to him and his righteousness was imputed to us. The moment he imputed this, the Father accepted us and the Father shows his acceptance by imparting his holy Spirit and permits us to come into membership into the Body of Christ, and gradually gives us a share in the "common-union," in the sufferings of Christ. He will bring you off more than conquerors, to share with him in the glory that shall follow.
Brother Russell then exhorted the friends to faithfulness, to loving zeal, patient endurance, and the development of the fruits of the spirit, that they might be accounted worthy of associating with the Redeemer in his kingdom work as antitypical priests and kings unto God, as members of the antitypical Mediator between God and men.
BE strong to bear, O heart of mine,
Faint not when sorrows come.
The sum of all these ills of earth
Prepares thee for thy home.
So many burdened ones there are
Close toiling by thy side,
Assist, encourage, comfort them,
Thine own deep anguish hide.
What though thy trials may seem great?
Thy strength is known to God,
And pathways steep and rugged lead
To pastures green and broad.
Be strong to love, O heart of mine,
Live not for self alone;
But find, in blessing other lives,
Completeness for thine own.
Seek every hungry heart to feed,
Each saddened heart to cheer;
And when stern justice stands aloof,
In mercy draw thou near.
True, loving words and helping hands
Have won more souls for Heaven
Than all the mixed and various creeds
By priests and sages given.
For every grief a joy will come,
For every toil a rest;
So hope, so love, so patient bear –
God doeth all things best.
Be strong to hope, O heart of mine,
Look not on life's dark side;
For just beyond these gloomy hours
Rich, radiant days abide.
Let hope, like summer's rainbow bright,
Scatter thy falling tears,
And let God's precious promises
Dispel thine anxious fears.
LAY down your rails, ye nations, near and far,
Yoke your full trains to steam's triumphal car;
Link town to town, unite in iron bands
The long-estranged and oft-embattled lands.
Peace, mild-eyed seraph; knowledge, light Divine,
Shall send their messengers by every line.
Men joined in amity shall wonder long
That hate had power to lead their fathers wrong
Or that false glory lured their hearts astray,
And made it virtuous and sublime to slay.
How grandly now these wonders of our day
Make preparation for Christ's royal way,
And with what joyous hope our souls
Do watch the ball of progress as it rolls,
Knowing that all, completed or begun,
Is but the dawning that precedes the sun!
LEAVING Bristol about 9 o'clock, four others accompanied Brother Russell to Manchester. It was a ride of a few hours, and was greatly enjoyed both in fellowship and in looking at the scenes along the way. On arrival at the station at Manchester, we were met by a committee of seven of the elders and deacons and two of the sisters. They had arranged to take the party for a noonday lunch. After luncheon we gathered in Onward Hall, and a meeting was opened at 3:30 by Brother Ward of the Manchester class. There were about 250 present.
Brother Ward said: I know just how you all feel, you would like to shake hands with Brother Russell. As we waved Brother Russell off, so we will wave him here. (The Chautauqua salute was given.)
Brother Russell: – I will wave mine in return.
Then after singing one or two more hymns the Chairman introduced Brother Russell, who spoke in part as follows:
I am very pleased, dear friends, to be with you this afternoon. My mind is running along the line of the words of the Apostle, which we will read: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen."
We are coming, I trust, more and more every day, every week, every year, to appreciate these words of the Apostle, to appreciate our heavenly Father, to appreciate something about how great our heavenly Father is. We did not know him in the past, though we knew something about him, as the great Creator; knew he must be very wonderful and powerful, but did not know him in the sense of an intimate acquaintance. There is only one way in which we can become acquainted with one another, or with Almighty God, and that is coming to know the disposition, and spirit, and mind. We might live next door to one another for years, and might not know one another. We might know about one another, we might know their approximate age, and a few other things, but we would be unacquainted with each other. To know each other means more than to see each other from time to time. I would want to get to talk with you, to know your mind on various subjects, what you are doing, your business, what you approve, or disapprove, and you would want to know the same about me. Thus we interchange and get to know each other. When we got very intimate we would reveal our secrets to each other, and we would say, O, I know him; we are very close friends, indeed. This is a very happy condition. It is very much the same as this when we speak of our heavenly Father. It is not sufficient that we know his home is in heaven, that he is there, and we here. How may we know God? We cannot go to heaven to see him, cannot commune with him or pry into his affairs. He intimates his willingness to become known to some, not to all, but to some, as our Redeemer said, "The Father and I will come and reveal ourselves, we will sup with you." That is the way to be if you want to get happy. We ask one another for tea and get quite well acquainted, and you become intimate; [CR88] it is the Scriptural proposition of God and our Lord Jesus that those who would have the right spirit of fellowship with God, he will take them into his banquet house and supply their needs and bring forth that which will strengthen and refresh them, and make them well known. I venture to say that if the king that has gone had sent word to any of you, saying, Here is the price of your fare to London, come to the palace, I want to have a little personal acquaintance, that we may get acquainted with one another, so that when you speak of me in your home you may know how to properly represent me; I venture to say you would be glad to show that invitation to your friends and neighbors, and as soon as possible you would make your journey to London and call upon the King and consider it one of the greatest honors that ever came to you. That is just the kind of an invitation our heavenly Father has sent out to some, not to all, not by any means – everybody is not called. Many more are called than accept the call – few are chosen, because few will comply with the terms. All those who have no ear to hear are not called. If there is a deaf man here who cannot hear a sound, I am not talking to him; I may be looking at him, but he cannot hear. One must be able to hear and the other to speak. God tells us that the world is deaf and that he is not speaking to them. So some of us have had this message come to us, not only from one who is as great as the king of Great Britain, but from the King of the Universe. We should make haste to get acquainted with him. I should think that all would appreciate the honor of getting acquainted with him; you and I should greatly appreciate that privilege, the honor of being friends of God and of being invited to the palace, and have relationship with him, and having the privilege of getting acquainted with his royal family. I trust we much more appreciate the honor of the call of God to become his special friends. For not only has he promised that we may become his special friends, but he has said that if we show a proper appreciation and go to the throne frequently enough and draw nigh often in the right spirit, showing a real desire to be in harmony, he will do still more for us. What, more? Yes. How much more? He will adopt us into his family, and make us princes over certain parts of his dominion; he will make us kings, and make us joint heirs with the Chief Heir of the throne, our Lord Jesus Christ. I should think, dear friends, that each one of us, of those who have come to any knowledge of the grace of God, all such would be very desirous of drawing nigh. How do we draw nigh? In two ways; first, in prayer, in communion by going into his fellowship. Second, in his Word and noting what he has to say. There are two sides to the matter, not only telling the Lord what we think and know, but our prayers should frequently be that we do not know this or that, and saying, Lord, we would like to have your instructions and your guidance. That is our part. The other part is God's part, and was foreknown before the foundation of the world, what he was going to do, to invite us to become his friends, and he prepared his message and sent it in advance, and so if you want to hear his Word, you will search, you will go to his Word, and here we have it printed. (Brother Russell holding up a copy of the Bible.) So we studied his Word, and those who love the Lord will search and find out what he says. Those who like to have his fellowship may, and they will go to the Word to hear what he has to say – what words of comfort and consolation upon our difficulties and perplexities; words of admonition whenever we need them, words of counsel as to where we should go and what we should do to be more pleasing and more acceptable to him, more free to understand his plan, and to know what terms on which he will take us into this condition of bosom companionship, to know more of the lengths and breadths and depths and heighths of his love. Thus we are inquiring of our heavenly Father, the King of kings and Lord of lords; we would be interested and he will be interested in telling us of his plan. He says, Now I have such a plan respecting the world. Well, we say, doubtless you have some plans respecting mankind; would you mind telling us? Of course they are good plans. He could not have any bad plans, a good God would not have anything but good plans. A good man out of the treasure of his heart would send forth good things. So we know in advance that our God is good and gracious, and we know that we may expect something good, and if we find it out it will be a good plan. so we say, God, the great Lord of heaven and earth, might we know something of your plans, why we are here, what purpose you had in creating us, and what you intend for us, and are there lessons to learn while here? What shall we prepare for, and how prepare? So he has provided the answer for all these questions, and the proper answer to all these questions is that if we will do his will, he will show us. If any man will do the will of my Father, he shall know the doctrine. Well, can we do his will, the will of our Father? No, you cannot do the will of your Father, but in proportion as you will to do it, in that proportion your will is right. He is pleased to see the right will, for he knows you have not the right kind of a body, or a properly shaped head. He knows that, but he is not going to deal with you according to your imperfections, but according to your will. You can be perfect in will and thought. That is my desire, and if you have that purity of will, intentions, and heart desire he will say, I am pleased to have fellowship with you and I have made arrangements for you. Thus through the merit of Jesus, which is already provided and available for you, if you wish it, and you may thus come and be reckoned perfect in Jesus, his merit will be imputed to cover the imperfections of the flesh, when your heart is in the same attitude as that of Jesus, when he said, "Lo, I have come, in the volume of the book it is written, I have come to do thy will, O God." So when you and I reach that place – when our hearts have come to the point of absolute submission – we are right there where the Father wants us to be. He says, I cannot accept you on account of the imperfections of your flesh, and I have provided that Jesus shall act as your Advocate. What is that? One who stands alongside, and intercedes for you, in every way representing you. Just as if you had a case in court, you would provide an attorney by paying a certain fee. You pay for his time and service. It is his duty now to serve you and he goes into the court as your spokesman – the one who advocates your cause; he speaks for you as your representative. That is what Jesus promised to be. As the Apostle says, if WE sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Who are we?
They "were children of wrath even as others," but they got out of that condition by turning their hearts to God and away from sin; and by accepting his appointed way in Christ. But although there are many steps by which God may be approached quickly or slowly, nevertheless there is the one standard which must be attained before any can be accepted of the Father as members of the Body of Christ. That step is full consecration even unto death. Then the Redeemer imputes such a portion of his merit to such as will make good the sinner's deficiency, and thus enable the Father to accept him as a sacrifice. This is in accord with the Apostle's words in Romans 12:1. Our sacrifices themselves are not only holy and acceptable to God, but only because of our relationship to the great Advocate. Our Advocate imputes sufficient of his merit to make good our deficiency. If one is deficient 50 per cent., the Lord imputes to him that 50 per cent. If another is deficient 25 per cent., that amount is imputed to him. If another be deficient 75 per cent., that amount is imputed to him – to each according to his needs from the abundant sufficiency of him who loved us and bought us with his own blood.
Just as soon as our Redeemer makes this imputation of his merit on our behalf we are in the Father's sight justified fully and completely from all things – as much so as though we had never committed sin. It is in view of this justification that the Father accepts our sacrifice as holy and acceptable, and begets us of his holy Spirit. He exhorted the friends to remember that thus it was that they entered into covenant relationship with God, and that they could maintain that relationship only by continuing their sacrifice on the altar – laying down their lives for the brethren, and in the service of God generally, "doing good unto all men as they have opportunity, especially the household of faith." He reminded us that this covenant relationship into which the Church has come is not by the Covenant of the Law of Moses, nor by the New (Law) Covenant, which will take the place of the old Law Covenant with Israel, under the better Mediator, and which will operate during the Millennial Age, and bring them into harmony with God, and into full covenant relationship only at the close of the Millennium.
Our covenant relationship, which we enter into at once through the assistance of our great Advocate, brings us immediately into fellowship, into sonship; and immediately makes us joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord to the [CR89] heavenly inheritance. Wherefore we are no longer aliens but sons. Not only does no Mediator stand between us and God, but no Mediator brought us to God. The Father himself called us and drew us, as the Scriptures declare, and himself pointed us to Jesus our Advocate. We called attention to the fact that an Advocate stands alongside of as a spokesman, and does not come between, as does the Mediator. He also drew attention to the fact that Jesus was not spoken of as our Mediator, but we are told that he is our "Advocate with the Father."
The evening session for the public was in Hulme Town Hall.
The dear friends at Manchester had made a great distribution of Volunteer matter – about a thousand copies of the PEOPLES PULPIT, besides other methods of advertising through the newspapers, etc., etc. A fine audience of very intelligent people listened with rapt attention to the presentation of the subject of "The Great Hereafter." The next day, Thursday, the 12th, we bade adieu once more and went to Otley.
I slept, and in my dreams I saw, the great White Heavenly Throne
And, round about, a noble host of those who'd fought and won
The Crown of Life, but none there filled the places next the Son.
And as I watched, still others came to swell the hosts of Heaven,
Methought that by their earthly deeds their depth of love was proven
And thus to each at God's command the appointed place was given.
Of some 'twas told how they had spread the Message far and near,
Of others how they'd labored for the friends they held most dear,
Still others had with pitying love the lonely helped to cheer.
And each received, when all was told, the Father's sweet "Well done,"
And all were satisfied with that; but still I saw to none
Was given an invitation to a place beside the Son.
At length methought I saw appear two saints with arms entwined,
The one was strong and on his strength the weaker one reclined,
And straightway to the strong one was a favored place assigned.
For he, although the others each a noble work had wrought,
Unknown to anyone, with self, a deadly fight had fought,
And on the "Narrow Way" to Life an enemy had brought.
The meaning of my dream to me no sage or seer declared,
But oft I've thought this saint indeed the Master's cup had shared
And to the Saviour's love such love might nearest be compared. – Selected.
OTLEY is a small town of about 8,000 population, and from a worldly standpoint it is specially noted, because at this place are manufactured the famous Wharfdale Printing Presses, upon which most of our Oxford Bibles have been printed. Some of the friends living at Otley work in the shop connected with this wonderful printing press.
When Brother Russell is in Europe he very seldom includes in his schedule towns as small as Otley, but in view of the peculiar manner in which truth had a start in this place, and because of the zeal and steadfastness of the friends to the truth since the start, he decided to make them a short visit.
It seems that five years ago there was in and about Otley six local ministers of the Primitive Methodist church. One day one of these found a volume of Millennial Dawn in one of the book-shops; he bought it, read it, became greatly interested, and passed it on to his fellow local preachers. As a result the six of them came into the truth. This you may imagine, in a place the size of Otley, caused quite a stir and a great deal of excitement. Then much persecution followed. The dear brethren were severely denounced from the pulpits and in the newspapers. One day, as they say, one of these brethren was passing along the street, a merchant came out of his store on the other side of the street, crossed over and began to talk to this brother, denouncing the truth, and calling it "a sugar-coated pill," "a Yankee patent medicine," etc. While saying this the merchant dropped dead at the feet of the brother. This of course added fuel to the flame that was already burning and the persecutions became hotter. Nevertheless, they bore a faithful witness to the truth. Three of the six have since cooled off in their ardor for the truth, but they have not, however, gone back to the nominal systems.
The three who have held to the truth have manifested their zeal and devotion to the Lord to such an extent that there is now a class there of probably forty. About thirty-four came out for the afternoon service, which was for the interested, and was held in Friendly Societies Hall, the regular meeting place of the class.
In Brother Russell's talk to the friends he called attention to many points mentioned at Bristol and Manchester, but emphasizing especially the thought of "THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD."
At 3 p.m. Brother Waterhouse (one of the three former local preachers), acting as chairman, opened the meeting with remarks as follows: I should just like to say in the name of the Otley Church and the Churches that are gathered here, that we love Brother Russell, and we feel greatly delighted that we have the joy and privilege of having him amongst us today. We know many of us have been greatly blessed through his ministrations, through the printed page, and we know how we have been greatly helped to a better understanding of God's precious word, and so from that standpoint alone we love him, and so we give him a royal welcome and we are glad to see him. It is now my pleasure and joy to call upon him to speak to us this afternoon from God's Word. I will not take any more time, but will call upon Brother Russell to speak to us.
Brother Russell: – I assure you, dear friends, I am very pleased to be with you today. I have had information respecting the friends at Otley and frequently had communications from you, and now it is a great pleasure to meet you in your own town, and those from surrounding places. I thought perhaps we might be profited in considering from the Lord's Word, the words of the Apostle, "The church of the first born."
"The secret of the Lord is with those that reverence him, and he will show them his covenant."
The Lord has a secret; it would be strange if he did not have. We see that that is the method which he has used from the beginning. We see it would not have been wise for him to have revealed all the secrets of his plan, because the Adversary and his fallen associates would have done all in their power to upset his plans. Therefore we remember how Jesus expressed the matter in Matthew 11:25, saying, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes." That used to be a difficult text with us, dear friends, at a time when we supposed that those who could not see anything of God's plan, signified that they were not elected, and that they were going to eternal torment, and thus to thank the Father that he had hidden it from them that they might go down into eternal torment, seemed rather unkind and not like what we should expect. But now we see very well what he meant and he had no unkind sentiment, but that the Father's way is the better way, which you and I are coming to see. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts," says the prophet. So, then, we can see that in the case of our Lord Jesus, had the Adversary known just what the Plan was, he probably would not have so co-operated in the crucifixion, but it was written, and so it must be fulfilled. You remember that he entered into Judas and led the way, step by step, right up to the crucifixion, guided in the surrender to the Jews, chief priests, scribes, and Sanhedrin, and then on to Calvary. We are glad then, dear friends, that our privilege is to be amongst those to whom these things are not secret. The secret is to be revealed to those who are his. We are glad to be his. We think it not strange, that as a good earthly father who had an obedient child who loved him and was anxious to serve him, that he would be pleased to make known his purposes and plans, and even some of the secrets respecting those plans. So our great heavenly Father has some plans, and he is pleased to make known those plans to such an one. As Jesus said, "To you is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." You could not have known them any more than others. You are not more brilliant than others. In fact, the Lord's people are less brilliant, especially at the time they come to the Lord, that is what the Lord said through the Apostle, "Not many great, not many wise, not many noble, not many rich, but chiefly the poor of this world, rich in faith." Again he says, God hath chosen the mean things of this world that he might confound the things that are great, wise, and mighty. So then this is his own message, and it does not put a very high premium upon our standing. It will help us to appreciate that only those who are small in their own eyes will receive the message. Others are too wise, they will have too much at stake to enable them to receive the message in the way God sends it. Nevertheless, on this point, I would suggest, that my observation is that those who receive the truth, no matter how imperfect they are by nature, through sanctification, their hearts and lives give them the spirit of a sound mind, so that as a result those who have been but a little while in the truth are above the average, because the secret of the Lord is with them, and they have some of the wisdom that comes from above; first pure, than peaceful, easy of entreatment, full of mercy and good fruits. That is what we should expect, dear friends. In other words, the Lord is not picking out the great. We will not say there are no kings in this little flock; we do not know. We will not say there are no lords; we do not know. We will not say there are no members of Parliament, or of Congress; we do not know. We will say, as the Lord did, there are not many in that attitude of mind. They have too much at stake, they are too wise, it will cost them too much. They would feel it so, and they [CR91] would not pay the price. What price? All that we have, and then we must take up our cross and follow him. Therefore it is a good thing that we are not very rich, in either fame, name or riches, or in any other way, because not many of those are called and will not make their calling and election sure. Nevertheless, the secret of the Lord is with those who reverence him. This is a great secret society. In the world there are many secret societies, they have their passwords, grips, and they are very careful to keep their secrets that nobody may know their secrets, but only themselves. But when you and I look around we find God was the first one to establish a secret society, that he has established the church, as a secret society, and in the most wonderful way. He has organized that society, giving them his secrets, that nobody else can know, yet the members of this society are told that they may tell the secret to anybody and give away all the passwords and grips, but the key is the holy Spirit, which the natural man cannot understand, they are not begotten of the holy Spirit, without which they cannot understand the secrets of the Lord. If you tell them they do not understand them. They might hear, but as for knowing and appreciating these secrets, they would not be able to do so. But the Lord has given us these secrets by his Spirit, for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things, the mystery of God's great plan. These secrets are for those who reverence him, and I trust I am addressing those who reverence the Lord. How privileged we are that we should know some of the Lord's great plans. Well, says one, Brother Russell, I do not care for any of those things, there is enough in the 5th chapter of Matthew to save any man. All right, brother, if you do not care for them, there are others that do care for them. We are not going to torment you if you do not see our way, or damn you to hell. Enjoy what you can, and we rejoice in what we see, and enjoy and appreciate it.
This thing about wanting to know about the Father's plan, is the very spirit of sonship. Suppose any of you were adopted into the family of one of the great kings of our day. You and he got quite well acquainted and he said, I am going to make you one of the princes and identify you with the kingdom, make you a member of the household. If you had no interest in his affairs, or in the kingdom, or household, it would seem as though you were very unappreciative. He would probably say that as you did not appreciate his goodness, he would pass it on to another. Our heavenly Father is King of kings, and he has adopted us into his family and we are children of the King in the highest possible sense of the word, and we are heirs of the great blessings by and by. At the present time our relationship is a secret which he knows about, and we know, but the world knows it not, even as it knew him not. So if the world does not want to know about it we should not think it strange; we are not expecting them to understand. But we feel deeply interested in the plan; so he says, I am pleased that you are interested in it. Just go through it and enjoy it as much as you like. Can we understand it? Yes, if you study it with a certain key you can understand it. My holy Spirit will guide you, and you will be led into all truth, and he will show you things to come. What kind of adopted children would we be if we did not take hold and become conversant with his mind? So the secret of the Lord is with those who reverence him. The reverence of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and I hope it is growing upon us. As some become acquainted with the Lord they become less reverent. I am pleased to say that I think there is more reverence among my British friends than in America. I am free to say it of you, for it is very appropriate, and it ought to be so with us. Not only in worship, in prayer, but that reverence for the Lord that would in all of our ways and plans, and all of our studies, and all of life's affairs, seek to glorify him, seeking to have all of our affairs under his supervision.
I trust we are all his. You understand that we have no sect, we are not here as a sect, but as a little company of Bible Students. I think that the name, International Bible Students Association, expresses the thought very clearly. We are not trying to start another church – there are too many now. We have no right, no more than they had, to start a church. John Wesley and Calvin had no right to start a church, because there is only one church, which Jesus started long before they were born. But in this church which Jesus started, dear friends, as soon as we are associated with it, we want to have a right appreciation of what are the privileges. We have some dear friends in all the different denominations and associations in all parts of the world, whom we love and esteem and believe they belong to the Lord, yet some of them are more or less tied up with a kind of bondage, some tied with the doctrines of the Catholic church, some with the doctrines of the Episcopal church, some with the Methodist, the Presbyterian, the Congregational, etc.; they are held fast from a full, free investigation of the Word of God and we wish them to be entirely free. Whatever shackles we have had in the past, we want them dropped, so we can know the things which the Father has given us in his Word, and understand the Scriptures better, and we find shackles in every denomination, which prevent them from coming to a clear, full understanding of God's Word. Our thought is, that in every denomination there are many true children of God who belong to the true Church, the Church of Jesus Christ, which he founded, the Church of the first born, whose names are written in heaven, and we want to reach these in a kindly way, guiding them to what we find in his Word. Certain things we thought were in the Word we find are not there. We know that the Lord knows all who are his in every place, and we know that we are living in the time of the end of this age, when every true child of God will awake to a true appreciation of the Word as God's revelation of His Plan, and come into harmony with that Plan. Through his spirit he is showing us things to come. That is the way you and I are finding it. Now is the due time to have a clear understanding of the Bible.
Brother Russell then told of the glorious invitation granted to the "Church of the living God" and the call which has come to her, – to be the Bride of His Son, and joint heir in his Kingdom, and setting before the minds of the class the glorious privileges thus afforded, and the riches of the grace provided in the blessing. He exhorted all to faithfulness, even unto death, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus; and assured all such, in the Master's name, of the "crown of glory that fadeth not away."
The friends at Otley are very zealous, and for a town of the size of Otley they did a great deal of advertising for the public meeting, distributing many copies of the People's Pulpit, putting out handbills, cards, and had pasted up fifty large posters and some long banners. In addition to this, they used a very unique method, namely: the town crier is still in existence there, and so at evening time he went to the various street corners, would stop, ring a bell, which when the people heard they would come to their doors and he would then cry out about the evening meeting.
About 300 came to the meeting, which was held in Mechanics' Hall.
Brother Smith (another of the three formerly local preachers) acted as chairman and after a few words introduced the speaker.
Brother Russell held their attention for two hours while he spoke on the subject, "The Thief in Paradise, the Rich Man in Hell, and Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom." We remained over night with our Otley friends and will long remember their hospitality, and their interest in the Lord, his brethren and the Truth.
OUR train arrived at Nottingham on time, but through some mistake there were none of the friends at the station to meet us. However, as we had some time to spare, we took a ride on the "tram" (street car) around town, before the meeting. At 3 o'clock the friends to the number of about seventy-five assembled in Bible Students' Hall, Exchange Walk. This is their usual meeting place.
The service was opened by the singing of Hymn 76, and the meeting was opened by Brother Smedley, who acted as chairman. After a few remarks the chairman introduced Brother Russell, who then spoke in substance as follows:
BROTHER RUSSELL: I am very pleased to be with the dear friends at Nottingham today, to make your acquaintance at your homes. I have met some of you at various places in the past, but others are from places round about.
Thinking over what topic might be the most interesting and profitable to us, the words of the Lord come to my mind as expressed by the prophet, "The secret of the Lord is with them that reverence him, and he will show them his Covenant."
We know how surely this matter is a secret, because of the very few who understand the Divine Plan; also the fact that very few can see into the deep things of God, for the Scriptures give us abundant testimony that the natural man receiveth not the things of God. Then the Apostle proceeds to say, that we have received the spirit of Christ, and as such we have the privilege of knowing the spiritual things; yea, the deep things. We have all doubtless had experiences along this line, when we knew very little about the Lord, and then when we knew something more, and realized our privilege to grow in grace and knowledge, how our heart rejoiced!
We find that this secret of the Lord is with us in the sense of revealing his secret purposes and plans. We can see God's reason why he does not reveal this secret to the world, as, for instance, if it were open and plain we may suppose that the Jews at the first advent would not have crucified "the Lord of glory." So if Satan had known God's great plan, no doubt he would have tried to circumvent it in various ways. Thus it becomes all the more of an assurance to us that it is of God, because he has kept it hidden, and he is now gradually revealing it, and to the very class he declared he would reveal it to – those that reverence him – not meaning those who bow the head, but whose hearts are reverent toward God, and who delight to think of the Lord in all the affairs of life, and to realize themselves under his divine care. Because you know it is one thing to be spiritual children of God, and another thing to be actually children of God. First, to appreciate being children of God, and to give ourselves fully into his hands and to look for the divine leading in all of our earthly duties and in our heavenly aspirations, and in our study of the Scriptures, to know and expect that he who led us first will lead us to the last, and he who has received us in Christ Jesus will be our shepherd to the end of the way, as we read in Psalm 23. He will receive us into the glorious condition at the end of the journey, if faithful as sheep, and we will "dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
It seems to me that one of the strongest evidences we have in this respect is the fact that it has been misunderstood for so long. Ourselves and our friends, who handled God's Word, did not see the real teachings that it contained, but now it opens up, a plan of God that is so wonderful, so high, and deep, and long; and that very fact gives us further confidence. Who could have written this book and made this plan of God?
So we are assured in the 11th chapter of Romans, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor?" Who could have suggested to God the making of such a plan, such a great and wonderful plan of the ages? We are confident no one could. As we look back into the past we see that there have been many godly people and many mighty minds amongst God's people, and we see they have written great things; as, for instance, the work of John Calvin. He was a very deep reasoner, and loyal to God, yet he came far short of seeing the lengths and breadths of God's plan.
Then we see in Brother Wesley a grand man, and who in his teachings is loving and lovable, and he had much truth, but yet he did not have the whole plan. So, as we look all the way in the past, after reading the inspired words of the Lord, of the apostles and prophets, nothing is clear in what others wrote. However, they had some truth, and also an accumulation of error. Another one had something else, and some other error. So each had a little of the truth and a good deal of error, and thus we have all the various sects and parties of today. To me it becomes an evidence of faith and the truth of God's word today, that the due time has come, not because of any extreme wisdom on our part, but because the Lord's due time has come for the secret to be made known; it is the due time to open up things new as well as old. It is the due time to show something respecting the new age, as well as to make known more clearly the work of the past ages, just as it was in the end of the Jewish age. They had the Scriptures read every Sabbath day for 1,600 years, and they had been expecting God's blessings, but when the Lord came they were unprepared for him, and when it went to the Gentiles they were unprepared for it. So that provision respecting the Gentiles, that they might come in and be fellow-heirs, that truth was secret until the due time, which was the end of the Jewish age, and the inauguration of the Gospel age. Now truth respecting the Millennial Kingdom and the character of the work there to be carried on has been kept secret until now, the time when the new age is due and the truths respecting God's people are due. Furthermore, in the Lord's plan our forefathers no doubt had a sufficiency of light to help them along, but there was not the same light shining upon other subjects, and they did not have all the great colleges and schools of our day working against the truth. Everything was in favor of the worship of God, reverence for the Bible, etc. But now we are living in a time when everything is sweeping to the other direction. I heard only last night respecting a minister of the Methodist church; he was asked to come to the meeting tonight. "Oh, no, I won't go to that at all," he said. The brother who invited him had himself been an elder in the Primitive Methodist church. The other man said, "I am an agnostic now, and if I were to study the Bible any more I would become an atheist." The Brother then quoted some proof-text. "Don't do that," he said, "I have thrown away the Bible."
The majority of ministers are not thus outspoken, but this one was speaking his mind more freely. It was merely an indication of what the general trend is of our day, among all the students of the civilized world; they are getting away from the Bible. In throwing away the creeds they throw away the Bible, because they think the creeds are founded upon the Bible. Now is the time when you and I absolutely need meat in due season, else we would faint in the way, and now God is providing it. We can see something of the great plan of the ages, with its grandeur and beauty.
There are some of its enemies who declare it is all error, and that Mr. Russell made the "Divine Plan of the Ages." They do me too much honor to say that I could make up the Plan of the Ages. I claim that no man could make up the Plan of the Ages; it is so much superior to anything else which was ever produced by any man, or set of men, or women in all the centuries of the past, from the days of the Apostles down, that it would be entirely too much credit to say that I made it up. It comes to us as evidence that God himself is behind this plan. By the way, that is one argument I used with an agnostic at one time:
Do I understand you do not believe in the Bible?
Where do you think the Bible came from?
O, priests and knaves wrote it.
Which set of priests and knaves wrote it – the Presbyterians?
He did not know what reply to make.
Then I helped him out. No, the Bible existed before there were any Presbyterian priests and knaves.
Perhaps you think it was the Catholic priests and knaves?
Well, then, my brother, if they did, they were fools also.
Because if any man, priest or knave, wanted to establish a theory, he would make something that would suit his purpose; because if the Catholics made the Bible they did not make it to suit their purpose.
Because it says those things they do not want it to say, and vice versa. Give our Presbyterians the right to make [CR93] the Bible, and they would leave out all about free grace; and the Methodists would leave out election and the resurrection, etc. So if we gave them opportunity to make the Bible it would be different from the Bible. Just to illustrate with the Catholics: If they wanted to make a Bible they would say something about the virgin Mary, born immaculate, without sin. Why did they not write that in the Bible? That is one of their fundamental teachings. As also about Mary being the mother of God. Why not put that in? Then they would have put in a lot about purgatory, candles, masses, etc. Why not put those things in? Put in a whole lot about the immortality of the soul, the trinity, etc. You see, dear friends, the more we look at it, we see that none of these denominations made this book, but they each took a portion of it that suited them. It all suits us. We do not want anything more, and do not want to take out anything. We are the only people in the world that it does suit.
In regard to the doctrine of the resurrection. They are all troubled about it. They know it is in the Bible, and they read it sometimes, but they have no use for it. If when a man dies he immediately goes to heaven, and if Adam has been in heaven for five thousand years, what would they want of a resurrection? If Paul has been in heaven for 1900 years and only lived on earth for fifty years, why would he want to get back into an earthly body? So you see there is no one in the world who wants the Bible just as it is but ourselves, and we are thoroughly satisfied.
Now, dear friends, what further proof do we need that God is behind the Bible, and that the Bible contains the most wonderful plan that could possibly be made. Neither you nor I, dear friends, could make up any kind of a plan that would be one thousandth as good, or that would fit as this does. Here the Bible, written centuries ago, by different writers during long periods, is evidence that the one spirit of our Lord God inspired those writers, or they never could have written alike. Take it today, with those in the truth; ask any fifty of them, for each one to write out something and to write it along the same line – after we have been studying the books, and have been greatly blessed. You certainly could not get fifty to agree in all the particulars, but here we have a book written by people living at different times, every part of which is in full agreement with every other part. It is very evident that God directed them and they wrote for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the age have come. These blessings of knowledge and truth came upon the first of the Gospel Age, and the last of the Gospel Age, where the Gospel Age joins with the Jewish Age and where it joins with the Millennial Age. What wonderful blessings it brings!
Now our text is, that this secret is with those who reverence God, and he shall show them his covenant. Well, you and I ought to understand something about the covenant if we have come into covenant relationship with the Lord, for he mentions that that would be one of the things that would be revealed, and the Apostle mentions also that this matter of the covenant is the secret, a mystery of God, hidden from the past and now made known unto the saints.
As this subject of the covenant is a live one, in the sense that most of our minds have not been directed to the subject in the past, I have written all that I will have to say, and will probably not say anything new; yet it is the old things that we are trying to be established in. We are not wishing to say anything new, but merely, in presenting the matter orally, that we may say something more helpful to some than in the reading of the same. We suggest, then, that to be in covenant relationship with God is to be in harmony with God, as, for instance, the angels were all in covenant relationship with God. Was man in such a relationship originally? Yes. Did not God guarantee him such as long as he would be obedient? He broke the holy commandment, the covenant. He violated the agreement and, instead of blessing came the curse, the sentence of death. This breaking of the covenant did not merely affect Adam, but all of us. We are told that we are born in sin and shapen in iniquity. God, however, in due time told Abraham something about his covenant. He said, Abraham, I have certain purposes or plans to make known to you, if you will leave your father's house and manifest your obedience and faith in me. Very well. Abraham was glad, and as soon as the time came he left his father's house, came into the land of Canaan and thus, by obeying God, he became heir of the promise. That is to say, he came into covenant relationship with God, and God appeared and said: I will bless you, you are in relationship with me, you have obeyed my voice, you have taken the steps I told you would be necessary; I will tell you something more, The time will come when I will bless all mankind, all the families of the earth. After testing Abraham further, God gave him an oath, that he might feel doubly confident as to all that God had said. This same covenant relationship was maintained by Isaac, then Jacob, all in covenant relationship with God. But it was not the full measure of covenant relationship. They were justified in the sense of being treated as though they were all right, but God did not admit that they were all right, because there were certain hindrances to their coming into full fellowship; and so the Apostle says, "God having reserved some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." But what is it that hinders him from coming fully into a justified condition of life? Abraham was justified to fellowship with God, as a friend of God, but not to the place of being called a son of God. The sonship was lost in Adam and there was no other son of God until Jesus. Next after Jesus was the gospel church. So in John 1:11 we read, that Jesus came to his own, but his own received him not; but to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become sons of God, even those who believed on his name. They were the first to become sons. Abraham was justified to fellowship with God. Why not sonship, as well as we? Although he had the right attitude of heart, of faith, just as Paul says, "With my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I cannot perform it." He was speaking for all of that class coming under the law. Before any could become son of God, it was necessary that Christ should come and that Christ should make an appropriation of his merit on his behalf, so God could only accept Abraham to a degree of fellowship, and treated him from the standpoint of what he was going to do. He told him that at a certain day he would do great things for him, but I cannot do it for you now. First, I must do something else. That was, that God must provide the Savior, etc. Well in line with this promise made to Abraham, by and by God called the nation of Israel, the whole nation, to be his peculiar people, and you remember how he gave them Moses.
Thus St. Peter declared, "For Moses verily said unto the fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from amongst your brethren like unto me (I am his likeness or type, foreshadowing that great prophet in the small way); him shall ye hear in all things; and it shall come to pass that the soul that will not obey that Prophet shall be destroyed from amongst the people." (Acts 3:22,23.) All who will not come into line then with the great antitypical Mediator will perish in the Second Death, but first they must come to a knowledge of him. All the blind eyes must be opened, and all the deaf ears unstopped. The entire Gospel Age has been set apart in the Divine order for the raising up of this great Prophet like unto Moses – the great Mediator of the New Covenant. Jesus was raised up first, "Head over all things to the Church which is his Body." Subsequently the Apostles were raised up as members of his Body and since then selections have been made from people from every nation and clime. The great antitypical Mediator will soon be complete.
In proportion as the antitype came in the type ended, but only that proportion and no more. Thus the typical bullock of the atonement found its antitype in the "Man Jesus Christ, who gave himself a ransom for all," and the typical high-priest found an antitype in Jesus Christ, "the high-priest of our profession" or order, and the sacrifice of the bullock found its antitype in the consecration and death of Jesus. Thus also the under-priesthood finds its antitype in the consecrated Church, as St. Peter declares. Thus also the Lord's goat on the day of atonement finds its antitype in the flesh of those who are now consecrated to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. As that goat went to the bullock outside the camp to be burned, so the Apostle exhorts us, "Let us go to him outside the camp bearing his reproach" – outside of human favor and esteem and fellowship, for "If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him." This last mentioned feature of the type has not yet been fully completed, hence the other features of the type incidental to the Law Covenant and its day of atonement have not yet found a fulfillment, but "not one jot or tittle shall fail." All shall [CR94] be fulfilled in due time. The great Prophet, the antitype of Moses, will shortly be completed and be raised up from amongst his brethren, and then the second application of his blood will be made, "On behalf of all the people." Then, in view of that redemptive work – that payment of the ransom-price for all – the whole world will be turned over to the great Mediator, Priest and King. He will take unto himself his great mediatorial power and begin his reign for the overthrow of Sin and Death and for the uplifting of the willing and obedient of Adam's race.
The service then closed with the singing of Hymn 238.
THE EVENING SERVICE was for the public and was held in Mechanics' Institute. There was a fair-sized audience, who gave close attention. We remained over night with the Nottingham friends, and left the next morning for London.
SATURDAY, MAY 14. – Leaving Nottingham by fast express, we arrived in London about noon, and the day was spent with Brother Russell in looking further respecting the Lord's providence for a future housing of the work in London, as the present arrangement is not entirely satisfactory.
I HAVE learned a beautiful secret,
I know not how nor where –
But I know it is sweet and precious,
And true, and glad, and fair;
And that God in heaven reveals it
To all that have ears to hear.
And I know that ere I learned it,
My way was weary and hard;
And somewhere in life's music
There was always that which jarred –
A hidden and dreary discord,
That all its sweetness marred.
But my harp of life was lifted
By One who knew the range
Of its many strings – for He made it,
And He struck a keynote strange;
And beneath the touch of the Master
I heard the music change.
No longer it failed and faltered;
No longer sobbed and strove;
But it seemed to soar and mingle
With the song of heaven above;
For the pierced hand of the Master
Had struck the keynote – Love.
ARRIVING at Dundee, went direct to "Lamb's Hotel," where we were to remain for the night, and where arrangements had been made for the afternoon service in one of the large coffee, or lunch rooms; here nearly two hundred of the friends gathered.
The afternoon service was opened at 3 o'clock by Brother Malcomb, who acted as Chairman. After the singing of a few hymns, followed by prayer, the Chairman stated that the friends requested an opportunity of asking some questions. Therefore Brother Russell decided to turn it into a Question Meeting, and questions were invited. However, the questions seemed to be mostly along the line of the "Ransom," the "Mediator and Advocate," the "Covenants," etc., and so it seemed the Lord's will that Brother Russell should go over the various points mentioned at previous appointments. But amongst the various questions, the subject of the "Ransom" seemed uppermost, so he pointed out the difference between our Lord giving himself to be the ransom price for all, and his subsequent work, soon to be accomplished, of applying that ransom-price "on behalf of all the people." Notwithstanding the largeness of the work of salvation, he pointed out how every part of it fits in with every other part. First he showed how our Lord left the heavenly glory – how he was made flesh, for our sakes became poor – how he took upon himself the human nature, in order that he might be man's Redeemer. Second, that he was not the Redeemer when he was born, except in a prophetic sense, the same sense in which he was the Saviour, the Advocate, the Mediator, the King, the Priest, the Judge, the Prophet. Third, he was not any of these as the lad of twelve years when he discussed the Law and the Prophets [CR95] with the teachers of his day in the Temple. Fourth, he was not any of these when he reached perfect manhood at the age of thirty years – except in a prophetic sense. His actual sacrifice took place when he was thirty years of age – when at Jordan he was baptized and symbolically represented the full surrender of his all to the Father's will, as the same had been written aforetime in the Book, the Bible – in the Law and Prophets. There it was that the prophecy was fulfilled of him, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, as it is written in the Book." All the things that you have caused to be written in the Law and in the Prophets respecting the Saviour of mankind, I am here, fully consecrated, to accomplish.
At that moment our Lord sacrificed himself – laid down his earthly life in the Father's hands, saying: "The cup which my Father hath poured for me, shall I not drink it?" At that moment of sacrifice he represented "the bullock of the sin-offering" and its slaying by the High-Priest. He became the antitypical High-Priest in the moment of his self-surrender as the sacrifice. Immediately, as the High-Priest, he passed into the Holy a "New Creature." There he offered for three and a half years the incense of his earthly life devotion, a sacrifice well pleasing to the Father. At the same time, according to the world's estimation, his self-surrender was a stench, as was represented in the burning of the bullock's hide, etc., "outside the camp." From that moment the disciples beheld in his spirit of devotion the antitype of the burning of the fat on the brazen altar in the court.
From that same moment he was the Lamb of God slain – his life given up to the doing of the Father's will. We looked at the picture of this given in the book of Revelation. There we saw Jehovah upon his throne with a scroll in his hand, written in the inside and on the outside, and sealed with seven seals. No one had yet been found worthy to execute or even to be made acquainted with the Divine Purposes. In answer to the proclamation, "Who is worthy to take the scroll?" no one "in heaven or on earth was found worthy." Even our dear Redeemer in his previous condition was not entrusted with the scroll. But when he had made his consecration as the "Lamb of God," giving up and devoting his life without reserve to do the Father's will – then as a lamb freshly slain he was proclaimed worthy, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive glory, honor, dominion, might and power." Then the scroll was delivered to the Lamb.
A close connection was pointed out in the giving of the scroll to the Lamb, in the fact that as soon as Jesus had indicated his full self-surrender to the Father's will, the holy Spirit came upon him begetting him as the great High-Priest to his great work. Then we read that as he went up out of the water, "the heavens were opened unto him" – the higher things were manifest to him, made clearer. As the Logos he had not been permitted to read the scroll; as the boy Jesus, and as the young man Jesus, he had not understood the deep meaning of the Scriptures. Even the angels, we are told, did not understand; the law was so written in types, in pictures, and the prophecies were so given in symbolical language and illustrations, that the Divine Plan thus presented could not be understood by angels or men until the "due time" when God would grant the influence of his holy "Spirit which searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God." It was at this moment of our Lord's consecration, the moment of his death as the Lamb, the moment of his begetting and anointing as the High-Priest, the moment of the heavens or higher things being opened to him – at that moment that the scroll was handed to him by the Great Eternal One. Then proclamation was made, "Worthy is the Lamb!" "The lion of the Tribe of Judah hath prevailed." Although his prevailing would not be completed until Calvary, the surrender of his will was complete, and it was accepted as the sacrifice of his all, since everything else that he had was included in the surrender of his will.
We can well imagine how the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, gave heed as the boy to the reading of the Law and Prophets every Sabbath in the synagogue. We can readily see how he knew the Scriptures thoroughly, and that his perfect mind enabled him to memorize the whole Bible from Genesis to Malachi speedily. How many times he must have wondered respecting the types of the Law, the bullock of the sin-offering, the incense, the sprinkling of the blood, the killing of the Lord's goat and the sprinkling of its blood, the burning of the bodies of those beasts outside the camp, the entering of the Holy of holies on the atonement day, and the reconciliation of "all the people" to the Almighty.
How often he may have thought of the Passover night, the slain lamb, the sprinkled blood, the unleavened bread, the passing over of the first-borns, the exchange of the first-borns for the tribe of Levi, representing the Church of the First-borns, and the selection from these of the priests who sacrificed as the antitype of the Aaronic Priesthood! How often he must have thought of and tried to associate properly together the declaration of the Messiah's glory, and the blessing of the world through Israel, and every knee bowing and every tongue confessing and in contrast, the statement about one who would be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers be dumb – one whom it would please the Father to bruise, and to put to shame; not one bone of whom should be broken – one who should make his grave with the rich, and be with the wicked in his death!
These hitherto complicated and apparently contradictory presentations of the Father's Plan all became luminous to our Lord when the scroll was handed to the freshly slain lamb – to the newly consecrated Jesus. The illumination by the holy Spirit opened before his mental vision the heavenly things. Type and antitype, promise and fulfillment, began to come together and our Lord hastened away from the multitude at Jordan into a solitary place in the wilderness, that there he might deliberate upon the Divine purposes as they were disclosed to him by his illumination.
For forty days he was rapt in study so intently that he forgot to eat, forgot to be hungry. He had meat to eat of another kind. He was absorbed in his study of the Lord's will respecting himself. At the conclusion of the forty days of Bible study in the wilderness he has reached the solution of all the problems proper for him to understand respecting the Divine Word. Figuratively he had read and comprehended all that was written on the outside of the scroll – all that was necessary for him to know prior to the time when he would complete his sacrifice at Calvary.
That he had not yet broken the seals, and that he had not yet comprehended all the things written on the inside of the scroll, is evident from his words to the disciples on one occasion when he said, "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no nor the angels of heaven, neither the Son of man, but the Father only." We thus see that there were certain features of the Divine Plan still kept secret or sealed from our Master up to the time that he had finished his course. But, after his resurrection, we remember his words, "All power in heaven and earth is given unto me."
It was after the forty days that the Tempter came unto him, and his first salutation was that of a friend intent upon rendering assistance. He greeted our Lord as a friend, because they had known each other before on the plane of glory. Now Satan sympathized with Jesus in that he was hungry, and in effect said to him, You perhaps are not aware of the great power that came upon you at the time of your baptism. You now have a divine power which makes it unnecessary for you to go hungry. You should use at once the power that you possess, which will enable you in a word to "command these stones to become food."
Brother Russell then told how, when he recently stood at the fords of Jordan, where Jesus was baptized, he looked from there to the wilderness of Judea into which he went on that occasion, "Led of the Spirit," or rather according to the Greek, "Driven of the Spirit (his own spirit) into the wilderness." He was driven by his earnest desire to know fully and completely the will of the Father that he might do it. As we beheld the wilderness of Judea full of stones, with practically nothing else in view, we could understand why the Adversary suggested the turning of stones into bread, for there was nothing else to make bread of. We noticed that Satan took the most opportune time to make his attack upon the Saviour – when the Master was weak and faint in body and mind through his long fast and study. Under the illumination of the holy Spirit Jesus had for the first time been able to put together all the testimonies of the Scripture, and had seen what great sacrifices were implied before he should enter into his glory, and be able to give to the world the blessings of eternal life. It was at this moment that the Adversary appeared and presented his first temptations. But our Lord was proof against them. Satan left in disgust, convinced that further effort with the Master would be a waste of time. Thus we read, "Then Satan left him." We have no record that he ever returned to tempt him. On the contrary, angels of God then ministered to him. We found in all this valuable lessons to those [CR96] who are walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Their illumination of the holy Spirit could not, of course, be as great as that of Jesus, but their consecration, their baptism into death, and, as the Apostle declares, "a measure of the spirit is granted to every man (in the Church) to profit withal." The measure will be according to the degree possible through his infirmity of the flesh. But to the Master who had no infirmity, the Father gave his Spirit without measure, without limitation, fully.
The Adversary makes an attack upon all of the Lord's consecrated, seeking their weak points at their weakest moments. We noted the mistake of some in parleying with the Adversary, saying: How do you do it, etc., etc.; and we noted that the Master's course was the reverse; that he parleyed not; that he was prompt in his refusal. He left no room for the world, the flesh or the Adversary to gain an advantage over him. We noted that our success as his followers will be greatest along the same line of promptness and decision of character and that every time we stand firm for righteousness under temptation we are demonstrating our loyalty to God in accordance with our covenant of sacrifice. We saw that the Lord proceeded along the same line of loyalty, fulfilling his consecration even unto death, the death of the cross.
Question, What did Jesus accomplish by the offering of himself, begun at Jordan and finished at Calvary? Did he purchase the world? No. Did he redeem the Church? No. What did he do? He secured the price, the ransom-price, sufficient whenever applied, to effect the cancellation of the sins of the whole world, but he had not yet applied it. Neither the world nor the Church was as yet released from Divine condemnation, or brought into full fellowship with God. Although there were five hundred brethren who had accepted Christ and become his followers, the Father had not yet accepted these. They had offered themselves in consecration to walk in the footsteps of Jesus; they had taken up their cross to follow him; they had been justified to fellowship with God, even as Abraham, but they had not been justified to sonship and life. Hence, they could not have earthly or restitution life. Neither could they present their bodies living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, because they were still sinners from the Divine standpoint – no appropriation of Jesus' merit had yet been made in their case. When Jesus ascended up on high, forty days after his resurrection, he commanded representatives of these, about 120, to tarry at Jerusalem in the upper-room until they should be endued with power from on high – until the Father should recognize them – until the Father should accept the sacrifice which they had already made. But first Jesus, as their Advocate, should appear in the presence of God for them, and make such imputation of his merit to them as to cover their blemishes, and permit Divine Justice to accept them as "living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God."
It was on the fiftieth day that the holy Spirit came upon the waiting ones. That was the first intimation to them that the Redeemer had been acceptable to the Father, and that he had imputed to them his merit, and that the sacrifice which they had already made was acceptable to the Father in the Beloved One, and that they were no longer merely justified to friendship, but had come into the position of sons, into covenant relationship with the Father. Thus it is written of the Jews, "He came unto his own, but his own received him not; but to as many as received him, to them he gave power (privilege) to become sons of God, even to them that believed on his name"; which were begotten not of man nor of the will of the flesh, but of God – begotten of the holy Spirit. Thus they became sons of God, members of the anointed Body of the great Messiah, Prophet, Priest, Mediator, King, Judge, appointed for men, on their behalf, to effect reconciliation between God and men during his Millennial reign. Meantime the same work has been progressing throughout all these eighteen centuries. Others have been called, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles, to be the followers of Jesus, his under-priests – the Church of the first-borns whose names are written in heaven. As soon as this work shall have been accomplished, the great Mediator, the antitype of Moses (Acts 3:22,23), raised up from amongst his brethren, will be completed. Then the Mediatorial Kingdom will begin the blessing, uplifting and reconciling of the world. Meantime we thank God for the fact that "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Jesus as the perfect man, the fleshly seed of Abraham, might have accomplished considerable in the way of helping mankind. As one who committed no sin, whose life would have been secure to him, even though it required twelve legions of angels to protect him, he might have been a glorious earthly prince.
But even as a great ruler amongst men, he would not have been able to accomplish the Divine Purpose of blessing mankind with full uplifting out of sin and death conditions to life eternal. As the man Jesus he could not have accomplished restitution for the race because he would have needed his own human life and rights for himself. The man Jesus, therefore, could not have been "the seed of Abraham" mentioned in the Abrahamic Covenant, that in the seed of Abraham all of the families of the earth shall be blessed. To become this Seed he must first attain to spirit being, just as the record shows he did. By virtue of his sacrifice of his earthly nature, and by virtue of God's having raised him from the dead to the heavenly plane as a reward for his obedience, he has his earthly rights to give to justice as the ransom-price for what Adam lost. The Redeemer is the "Seed of Abraham" on the spirit plane, and during this Gospel Age he is finding his Bride and bringing her to the same spirit plane with himself as his associate and joint-heir in all the great work of the Millennium – the blessing of all the families of the earth. Thus it is written, "If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed (spiritual) and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3:29.
Do we see clearly what Jesus sacrificed, what he laid down? He gave himself, he submitted himself to whatever might be the Father's will, but he did not forfeit his earthly life by committing sin so that it should be taken from him. Neither did he barter or exchange it for the heavenly nature. He merely submitted or laid down his earthly rights, in harmony with his own words, "I have power to lay down my life and to receive it again"; authority to say this, I have obtained from my Father. No man took it from him in the sense that no man had that power, since God had promised that "he that keepeth the law shall live by it." Therefore, our Lord's life would have been protected had he not voluntarily submitted and laid it down. He laid it down that he might receive it again; he laid it down in the Father's hands, saying: "Into thy hands I commit my spirit." Then Jesus' rights to earthly life, earthly perfection, earthly honor and glory, earthly dominion and power, all belonged to him as a New Creature when he arose from the dead. He had lost and forfeited none of his earthly rights. Those earthly rights are the basis of all the blessings of God through him to Adam and all of his race. Jesus has nothing else to give away. He needs nothing else; because, in the merit of this sacrifice there is a corresponding price for the first Adam, and a sufficiency for all.
However, Jesus does not give the Church his earthly nature, and earthly rights, but keeps these to give to the world during the Millennium. Indeed, our calling is a heavenly one, and we should feel somewhat disappointed if instead of the heavenly we should receive the earthly or restitution blessing. But since Jesus does not give us these restitution blessings, and since he has no other merit to give to us or to anybody, what does he do for the Church? What is our hope in Christ? What is the philosophy of it?
The answer is, that this merit which shortly is to be appropriated as the ransom-price for the sins of the whole world, was already in the hands of Divine Justice, unappropriated, when our Lord ascended up on high, there to appear in the presence of God for us, the household of faith – to present our cause to the Father. As our Advocate he declares to the Father that we are anxious to become members of the elect Church, his Bride, his Body. In harmony with the Divine arrangement he appropriates a share of his merit to us, so that our sacrifice might be acceptable to God.
Thus, instead of giving us the restitution blessings, which are for the world, our Redeemer, our Advocate, imputes to us of his righteousness, and on the strength of it the Father reckons us holy and acceptable, and immediately accepts our sacrifices. Thenceforth we are dead as human beings and our only standing in God's sight is as "new creatures." But, we have this treasure in imperfect earthen vessels, in which the new creature cannot do all that it would. It is the new creature, however, that God is testing and proving – the new creature is on trial, not the flesh. The new creature has no Original Sin, nor is it responsible for the Original Sin of the old creature, which was justified and accepted of God in sacrifice and therefore gone. The responsibility of the new creature is that it shall keep its heart in the love of God, in loyalty to him. Correspondingly, of course, it will strive to keep the body, the flesh, in harmony with the divine regulations. Its zeal and energy in controlling the [CR97] flesh and bringing every thought and word and act into accord, as nearly as possible, with the Divine will, shows the degree of its love and zeal.
He then differentiated between past sins and "daily trespasses," saying the new creature needs not to apologize, nor ever to remember the weaknesses and imperfections of the flesh appertaining to the period preceding the sacrifice. By faith the new creature should remember that old things have passed away, and all things have become new, for thus the Apostle declares, "There is now, therefore, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit." Our Advocate did a thorough work as respects the sins of our flesh: they are past and gone through the forebearance of God (Rom. 3:25). The Father did a perfect work in reckoning us dead indeed to everything of the past, and in begetting us by the Spirit as new creatures – sons of God. It is for our faith to grasp the situation and to enjoy it.
However, as new creatures we are imperfect in that we have only the old body with its blemishes through which to serve the Lord. Because of this antagonism of the legally dead flesh, "We cannot do the things which we would." What shall we do as respects our failure to come up to all the requirements of the Lord, because of our fleshly imperfections? Shall we say to ourselves and to each other, God knows that these imperfect things of daily life are not willingly ours as new creatures, and therefore we need not confess them.
We answer that this would not be the proper course. The imputation of Christ's merit to our consecrated sacrifice merely covered the blemishes against us at that time, but did not cover the blemishes future. Hence, daily we should remember before the throne of heavenly grace the imperfections and blemishes of each day and hour, and should ask Divine forgiveness for these through our great Redeemer. Thus he taught us, "Pray ye, Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." This would not relate to Original Sin, which could not thus be forgiven. It relates to our subsequent shortcomings, after we have become children of God through the begetting of the holy Spirit. Thus the Apostle writes, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
Our Advocate not only imputed his merit for our past sins, but he is still with the Father and has an abundance of merit. Our Advocate has merit sufficient to cover the sins of the whole world, and therefore to cover all our blemishes. Hence, when we go to the Father through him, we may realize that provision has already been made for the covering of these trespasses, but that we can obtain forgiveness only through prayer. God doubtless intended a great blessing in making this arrangement. He intended that each time we come to the throne of grace, we should earnestly repent of our imperfections, and earnestly promise him that we will strive against them in the future. He would thus encourage us to earnestly seek to fortify our characters along the line of these weaknesses, that we might become stronger and stronger in the power of the Lord and in his might, and be strengthened unto every good work.
When thus we come to the Lord to obtain mercy and to find grace to help in every time of need, and promise continued and increased zeal in fighting the good fight, it puts us on our honor, as it were, and makes us more careful respecting our future course. If perchance we fail again along the same lines, we are properly abashed. Then comes an important testing to us. The suggestion comes that we should refrain from going to the Lord in prayer; that we should feel too much humiliated to go to him. If these suggestions be followed, the result will be alienation, coldness. The earth-born cloud will hide us from the heavenly Father's face. Even if we do not go off into greater outward sins, such a course would mean a loss of fellowship which is very important to our growth in grace and knowledge.
Every error, every slip, every mistake is a spot upon our wedding garment and should be repented of, and expunged. With great humility we should go to the Master that we might have such spots promptly cleaned away; as it is written, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us (new creatures) from all sin." Thus we are able to abide in his love. Those who neglect this matter may find themselves increasingly careless respecting the spotlessness of their robes, until perhaps, if they do not fall completely into the Second Death, they find their garments bedraggled and unfit for the wedding. The Bride must be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, and the arrangement on her behalf by her Bridegroom is ample to this end. Those, therefore, who for any reason allow the spots to accumulate, and do not have them cleansed, will have a further test and be obliged to decide to return like the sow to her wallowing in the mire of sin, and thus come under the condemnation of the Second Death; or else, as members of the Great Company, they must wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb, in the great tribulation with which this age will end.
At the evening session at Gilfillan Hall, the topic was, "The Overthrow of Satan's Empire," and, notwithstanding the rainy weather, nearly 700 were present. Let us hope that some good was accomplished, some ears unstopped and some eyes opened to look further and to listen more attentively for the Voice of the Great Shepherd, in respect to the Divine Plan of the Ages, concerning which he is now instructing his people. From here we went to Edinburgh.
As Brother Russell was coming out of the building, a number who had been at the public service stopped him and began to ask questions and to argue in favor of that blessed (?) doctrine of "eternal torment." They kept it up for about half an hour, and as Brother Russell would answer one question after another, it seemed to anger them and at times the excitement was considerable.
SERVANT of Christ, stand fast amid the scorn
Of men who little know or love thy Lord;
Turn not aside from toil: cease not to warn,
Comfort and teach, trust Him for thy reward;
A few more moments' suffering, and then
Cometh sweet rest from all thy heart's deep pain.
For grace pray much, for much thou needest grace.
If men thy work deride – what can they more?
Christ's weary foot thy path on earth doth trace;
If thorns wound thee, they pierced Him before;
Press on, look up, tho' clouds may gather round,
Thy place of service He makes hallowed ground.
[CR98]
All His are thine to serve: Christ's brethren here
Are needing aid, in them thou servest Him.
The least of all is still to Him most dear,
The weakest cost His life-blood to redeem.
Yield to no "party" what He rightly claims,
Who on His heart bears all His people's names.
The time is short, seek little here below:
Earth's goods would cumber thee and drag thee
down.
Let daily food suffice; care not to know
Thought for tomorrow: it may never come.
Thou canst not perish, for thy Lord is nigh,
And His own care will all thy need supply.
ABOUT one hundred and forty were present. Brother Russell pointed out the Church and her covenant relationship with God, not through the work of a mediator, but by sacrifice. The world through the Millennium will have the great Mediator appointed of the Father, and promised through the Scriptures, and mediation will be based upon the New Covenant with Israel. The antitypical Mediator is the Christ, Head and Body, and of this great One, Moses was the type. As Moses mediated the typical Law Covenant, so the antitypical Moses, the Christ, will put into operation the New Covenant with Israel. The Mediator will stand between God and the world, and will for a thousand years shield the people from the requirements of absolute justice; that through him Divine mercy may extend through Israel to all, for their blessing and uplifting to perfection. This same blessing will extend to all people, nations, tongues and kindreds, in that they will be permitted to come into and become members of Israel, and thus become members of the earthly seed of Abraham, and sharers of all the blessings of Israel's New Covenant. Thus, in the end of the Millennial Age, all the perfect race will be "the seed of Abraham." When Satan will be loosed out of his prison-house, to test all of them, it will be Abraham's seed of all nations that will be tested as to worthiness or unworthiness of eternal life, and the whole number of these is to be "as the sands of the seashore for multitude." Thus it was written of Abraham, "Thy seed shall be as the sands of the seashore for multitude." Thus, eventually, all the families of the earth shall be blessed through Abraham; as it is written, "I have constituted thee the Father of many nations." – Romans 4:17.
The spiritual seed of Abraham, likened unto the stars of heaven. Jesus was the first, the Captain, the forerunner of these. He became the spiritual seed of Abraham by the sacrifice of himself as the man Jesus. We can hear the Apostle urging all of us desiring to be his joint-heirs in the Kingdom, saying, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God." Only by sacrifice can any come into this spirit-begotten relationship with God as "new creatures in Christ Jesus." The church attains this relationship with God not through the work of a mediator, but by sacrifice." The Scriptures foretold the gathering of the elect Church in these words, "Gather together my saints unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." "They shall be mine, saith the Lord, when I make up my jewels," those being gathered now. Next the harmony between the Apostle's exhortation, that we present our bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, was contrasted with the statement of the Prophet that all of these enter into covenant relationship with God through sacrifice. None except sacrificers can come into this covenant relationship with God now. "Now is the acceptable time" when such sacrifices will be received by the Lord through, and under, and by the imputation of the grace of our great Advocate. The world is not accepted in this manner, but reversely; instead of being invited to sacrifice their earthly natures, they will be given the privilege of restitution to perfection. (Acts 3:19-21.) The privilege of sacrifice, therefore, is unique to this age. The Church of the First-borns present their bodies living sacrifices, accepting the services of the great Advocate, whom God has appointed for this very service, and who gladly accepts the sacrificers as members of his Body, his Bride, his Church, the "First-borns, whose names are written in heaven."
This acceptance of the sacrifice of the Church is the basis of our acceptance as new creatures, spiritual, and these with the Lord constitute spiritual Israel, the spiritual or heavenly seed of Abraham. This Spiritual Seed in no sense took the place of the natural seed of Abraham. Indeed, neither Abraham, nor any for four thousand years, knew anything about the Divine plan in respect to a Spiritual Seed. All the promises made to them were earthly. Hence, as the Apostle says, the Gospel invitation to become the Spiritual Seed by faith was entirely a new proposition, "the Mystery hidden from past ages and dispensations, but now revealed unto the saints." The entire matter of the Gospel Age and its call might be viewed as an interruption in the Divine Plan and purpose for Israel and the world. This Gospel Age therefore is to be seen as a parenthesis. As soon as it shall be finished, God's dealings with natural Israel will again be resumed, only on a higher and loftier plane, through the antitypical Mediator, the Christ, as taking the place of the typical Mediator, Moses. Thus it is written by the Apostle in Romans 11:25-32.
Israel noted its failure to attain eternal life under the Law Covenant. God acknowledged the failure, and encouraged them to look forward to the time when Messiah would take the place of Moses and institute for them an antitypical New Covenant. This New Covenant was foretold (Jeremiah 31:31), saying: "After those days, saith the Lord, I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel [CR99] and with the house of Judah." Moses prophetically foretold the great Mediator and the better work he would accomplish for the people, renewing or making new their covenant. St. Peter calls attention to his words, saying: "Moses verily said unto the fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from amongst your brethren like unto me." I am the type on a small scale; I am the mediator of this Law Covenant, but ineffective. When the antitype shall come, the covenant shall be put upon a higher footing by means of his better sacrifice, and that will make of it really the New Law Covenant.
Hence the Israelites began to look forward to the Messiah who would thus transmute their Law Covenant, which they found to be unto death, into a New Law Covenant, which would mean to them eternal life and all the blessings they had been led to hope for. Eagerly, therefore, they watched for the Messiah, but they knew not that when he would come he would be a Spiritual Seed of Abraham, composed of many members. This was the Mystery not permitted to be known to them, or to others; and even yet, made known only to the saints. They knew not that the development of this antitypical Moses would require nearly nineteen centuries for its accomplishment. How could they? The mystery was not revealed. Nevertheless this was the Lord's message to them through the last of their prophets, "Behold I send my messenger,...the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in." (You have been hoping for him this long time. He it is, who as the Servant of the Law Covenant will make it really effective to you in a manner that Moses could not do.) But who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appears? For he is like fuller's soap, and like a refiner's fire. He shall sit as a refiner to purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an acceptable sacrifice." (Malachi 3:3.)
Our Lord came in accordance with this prophecy, he was present with the Jews as the Reaper and with the winnowing-fan he separated the chaff from the wheat. As the Refiner he has throughout this entire Gospel Age been seeing to it that those who came unto the Father, through him, should pass through fiery trials and experiences, which would fully test their loyalty and their fitness to be associated with him in the great Kingdom of Glory as members of his Body, as members of his Bride, as members of the great antitypical Prophet, Priest, Mediator, King.
The matter was traced in St. Paul's words in Romans 11:27, where he assures us that as soon as the Church, the Body of Christ, is completed, God's covenant with Israel, the New Covenant, will be instituted. Then their sins will be forgiven, their iniquities pardoned, and they as God's people will be received back into Divine fellowship, through the great Mediator. Also the Apostle's words, "They shall obtain mercy through your mercy"; that it is God's mercy; that it comes primarily through the Lord Jesus. Yet it is "your mercy" – the Church's mercy – the mercy of God and Christ through you to natural Israel, and through natural Israel for the blessing of whosoever wills of all the families of the earth. Oh, the lengths and breadths, and the heights and depths of the love of God; how unsearchable are his riches, and his secrets past finding out! And yet his secrets, his plans are all glorious, generous, loving and just. Well may we rejoice, not only in the share which the Church will have in the glorious plan of God, but also rejoice in the share which Israel restored to Divine favor will have, and in the blessings which then will flow to all the families of the earth.
BROTHER RUSSELL: Our text is found in the second chapter of Paul's epistle to the Colossians, 6th verse: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him."
We have seen in the Lord's word how important it is to receive his message in our minds, and that it is one thing to receive it in our minds, and another thing to appreciate his love and what he has done for us. Yet we might do all that, hear and appreciate his love for us and yet not be in Christ Jesus at all. It is an important matter that we realize that those who come to the Lord Jesus must make a full and definite consecration to him. I believe it is a matter that is only partially appreciated by Christian people in general. I remember a dear Christian sister who had been worshiping with us for some time, and she said one day, Brother Russell, I feel deeply interested in all these matters, and now I want to be one with you as the people of God in every sense of the word, but what shall I do and how shall I do it? I said, Sister, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes. You have accepted the terms of believing in the atoning blood and that it is a free offering now to all who have the hearing ear, and have accepted God's grace? Yes. But, she said, there is something else that is not quite satisfactory, there is something that I need to do. Yes, we said, there is. Now, dear friends, this is an important thought. Many seem to fail to get the thought that after they believe, that there is then something more they must do in order to become of the people of God. Positive action must be taken on our part and it requires a great deal of faith. So I said to that sister, Have you entered into covenant relationship with the Lord? She said, That is what is the matter, I fear that I have not. I said, This is an important point. Let me illustrate it along the line of financial matters: You might know of property for sale, with a certain price upon it, and you might take knowledge of the fact that the price was very low, and you might have some money to invest, and your judgement might be that it was a good investment, that it was cheap, etc. You might do that day after day, month after month, and year after year, and that house would not be yours at all. So, in your relationship with the Lord, you might say, He is very gracious and he has opened a door during this Gospel Age for any who wish to come in, I hear the call, I intend to be one of his disciples, and I intend to make my calling and election sure. You might think this way for weeks, months and years, and yet never make a covenant with the Lord to be an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. That is the point exactly, she said, that troubles me. What shall I do? Well Sister, in the case of that property, you would go to the agent and say, I will take that property, and make a payment on it, secure certain papers binding the contract, and the house would be yours. So in this matter of covenant relationship with the Lord. The proper course is to go to the Lord and tell him that you accept his terms and conditions, and that you give yourself fully to the Lord, telling him so in so many words, binding our sacrifice and thus obligating ourselves to the Lord that we would pay down our consecration to him, and that we will patiently endeavor by his grace to carry out that consecration in all the affairs of our life. Until you do that you have not come into Christ, and he is not your Head. He is Head only to those who are members of his Body, and there is only one way of getting into the Body of Christ which is the Church. It is not by getting up before a certain people and subscribing to certain conditions. There is only one way of coming into fellowship with Christ, and that is the Scriptural way which the Apostle is describing in this text. It is this: [CR100]
For some hours, days, weeks or months you may have been drawing nigh to God, and he drawing nigh to you. Perhaps some of us were born in this condition of relationship with God, not aliens, strangers; not battling against him, but possibly by reason of having been born of Christian parents with a mind in sympathy with righteousness. Some Christian people are greatly troubled over this matter. They say, I have not had the Christian experience some people have had; they tell how they have had a wonderful change, a revolution in their lives, but I have nothing of this kind.
A dear Methodist brother said this to me at one time: He said, What is it to be born again, to be a member of the Body of Christ? I have been a Methodist for a number of years, but I have never understood the matter. I talk very little of my experiences of the past, but I am continually reminded as others speak that I have never had such thrilling experiences and wonderful change of sentiments as they enjoy. How is it?
Brother, if you had been walking away from God and then turned around it would mean quite a change, an absolute turning upside down. But if born of Christian parents and taught to reverence God and as a child, like myself, had been taught the way of the Lord, then when you gave your life to the Lord it would not mean a revolution, but it would mean that you had definitely and positively fastened or clinched that which you had previously had in mind and lived up to some degree in your daily life.
Well now, he said, that makes things different, for I see that I have been saved all my life.
Nevertheless, dear friends, even though that be our experience of having been born of Christian parents, let us not forget the necessity of a contract with the Lord. It is only then that he will draw near to you, as you draw near to him. He is sympathetic with every desire for righteousness with all mankind, just as you and I and all of God's people ought to be sympathetic with everything in harmony with righteousness and truth at all times and in all places. It is not every person that has been adopted as a son. To be on friendly terms with God is not to be considered an adoption. If he adopts us we must make a very definite contract or covenant with him, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 50:5.
Brother Russell exhorted all the friends to faithfulness. He reminded them that, having made this covenant by sacrifice, they must be tested as was our Lord Jesus as to loyalty to the Father – to the Father's will – to the Father's way – to the Father's time – to all of the Father's arrangements. He reminded us that Jesus showed his own loyalty in that he ignored his own preference that in everything he might know and do the will of the Father who sent him. He pointed out that we needed to be rooted and grounded and built up in our Lord and Master in all these respects. He showed that the various tests permitted to come upon the Church of God from time to time, from first to last, will be tests of these various qualities of heart and mind – tests of heart loyalty. Obedience to the Lord in thought as well as in word and deed means overcoming selfish propensities, which are ours in common with the whole world of mankind in its fallen condition. He pointed out that this involves a battle, a strife, and that the battle is not against the Father, nor against the Brethren, nor against the Truth, nor against the Lord, nor against the World, nor against the Devil. The fight is against the old nature with its perverted tastes, appetites and will. As New Creatures we are to fight the good fight of faith against our natural tendencies, and to keep ourselves in the Love of God, fully submissive to his will.
ON account of the king's funeral taking place on the Friday previous to this meeting, the people of London were greatly excited and had not yet settled down to the new order of things. Therefore there were not as many (about 5,000) out to hear this last discourse, yet those who did attend were certainly present because they wanted to hear something, and they gave close attention while Brother Russell talked for about an hour and a half on "The Overthrow of Satan's Empire."
Brother Hemery of the London Branch presided as chairman of the meeting. Among other announcements, he stated that there would be special services for several Sundays in the Whitfield Tabernacle and that all Bible students would be very welcome, especially emphasizing the fact that no collections would be lifted. The thought of not taking up collections, free admission, etc., seemed to be a great surprise all over Great Britain. In this connection, the following clipping from The Morning Leader, London, Tuesday, May 24, 1910:
"Pastor Russell prefaced his remarks by saying that, with no doubt the best of intentions, the London Press had erred in declaring him wealthy, deluged with money. This they inferred, no doubt, from the fact that no collections were asked, and no admission fees charged at his services. He declared that the majority of 'God's' people were not well-to-do financially, and that his friends frequently stinted themselves to sustain his message of God's love. The Bible declares, 'My God shall supply all your needs,' and his experience confirmed this. Without resorting to bazaars, collections, etc., sufficient money is pressed upon him to sustain a large work amongst Bible students all over the world. He would in no case go into debt, but would content himself in using what God's grace supplies. Anyway, he should follow the simple method of the apostolic days, and not sell the truth for money.
"His teachings regarding hell had also evidently been misunderstood by some. He believes in the hell of the Bible – the grave – but does not believe in the torture hell of the dark ages. He believes that every wilful sin merits and will have a just punishment as the Bible declares, but not an unjust punishment of centuries or eternities of torture. According to the Bible all who shall wilfully reject God's grace will die the Second Death, from which there will be no redemption or resurrection."
This discourse was published in hundreds of papers, so we will not reproduce it here.
AT about 3 P.M. the friends assembled at Whitfield Tabernacle for a farewell reception, which was at the invitation of Brother Russell. There was no service that afternoon, but the friends visited and fellowshipped together, then about tea time Brother Russell offered prayer for all of the Lord's blessings, and for a continuance of his blessing for the future. He then announced that he wished all present to take tea with him, that arrangements had been made at nearby restaurants for all. Soon the procession of several hundred started down Tabernacle street, and an hour of special fellowship ensued.
Returning to the Tabernacle, Brother Russell addressed the friends for about an hour, and he said in part:
Dear Friends: – I thought before leaving your shores, or rather your city – as we leave tomorrow morning for Liverpool, Belfast and Dublin – I thought I would like to take this opportunity of saying good-bye, especially to the London friends, and of course those who live in the vicinity and also the visiting friends.
I want to tell you of my love for you, of my interest in your welfare, and it rejoices my heart to see your prosperity in the Lord. As I think I have told you before, for years I have had the impression that in this land, which first of all had its baptism of blood in times of persecution; in this land in which the reverence of the Lord has been so persistently set forth before the people, there ought to be a great many of God's dear people, and there ought to be some way to reach them. For a number of years we have had some disappointment along this line. We have tried considerably along the colporteur lines, and have sent some colporteurs over here from America, but they were not as successful as we had hoped. Nevertheless the Lord has blessed the work; we see it progressing along all lines. Here in this great city of seven millions of people we are glad to see so many interested in Present Truth. Of course we are a small number compared with the seven millions, and have no reason to feel boastful and self-exalted in respect to the work accomplished. You and I have learned to know something of the value of the Truth in our hearts. I sometimes say to some of the friends who are inclined to be discouraged, If I were the only one on the face of the earth who received and appreciated these things of Present Truth, I am sure I would be happy anyway. So we can afford to be happy for we know that any who come into the truth get the greatest blessing of their lives. [CR101]
I want to tell you how it rejoices my heart to learn of the large amount of volunteer work that has been done; think of it, 700,000!
Brother Hemery: – Seven hundred and fifty thousand.
Brother Russell: – I saw some left over.
When I heard that I said to myself, I could not have done that. I do not do as much as I once did, because the people who know me might think it was wrong for me to be giving out that which I have written, but I still love to give it to them. I thought, what a great blessing that was for this convention. No matter whether a single soul was brought into touch with the Lord, I am sure that you received a great blessing in your heart, because of your endeavor to do good unto all men, especially the household of faith. Think of it, 700,000 copies of the People's Pulpit, each containing three sermons, over two million sermons given out before I got here at all. That did not leave me many to preach to, because a large proportion of the five million left are children.
It seems to me, dear friends, that on the whole we have had a great blessing from the Lord in connection with these meetings.
Brother Russell then called attention to the hundreds of letters that were coming into the London office, asking for copies of the various sermons, "The Thief in Paradise," "The Rich Man in Hell," "Where Are the Dead?" etc., all of which were supplied free, including the postage. We understand that the postage alone one day was about L.25, something like $120.
Brother Russell continued to urge us to pray the Lord to send out the light, and to ask that we might be permitted to be one of the messengers to send it out. He urged all not to spurn the small opportunities, saying that there were not many large opportunities anyway and that the Lord counts faithfulness to small duties as an evidence that we would be faithful to larger ones.
Well, now, dear brothers and sisters, he said, I feel as if I would like to have a personal conversation with every one of you, but that is hardly possible in the few moments at our disposal, therefore we trust you will consider this as a confidential talk, rather than a discourse. I want to tell you how much we appreciate your work unto the Lord, not unto me. [Much hand-clapping.] It is in Christ Jesus that we have this fellowship and love.
At the close of the talk, of which the above is but a synopsis, one of the Elders of the congregation remarked that while all of them recognized Brother Russell as a Pastor, and indeed voted for him every year, when they subscribed to THE WATCH TOWER, nevertheless he thought it would be both wise and proper to nominate him in a formal manner as Pastor of the London Assembly. The matter was seconded, and when the vote was put by Brother Hemery, it was unanimously carried. Brother Russell thanked the congregation for this evidence of love and confidence, and he assured them that he always did have their interests close to his heart, and doubted if he could do more for them as Pastor than he had already previously done, but that in any event they might be sure that they would continue to have his love and prayers and best endeavors. He said he would like to meet with them at least twice a year, but would of course leave that to the Lord. The London friends would be glad to have him move Bethel and the Tabernacle right over to London. They think we have had enough of him and that now they should have him for a while. Brother Hemery was then elected Assistant Pastor.
In view of this election having taken place, Brother Russell, as Pastor of the London Class, called a meeting of the Elders and Deacons and the evening was spent at the Bible Depot in conference regarding the work.
Thus the London Convention closed, and all went away feeling spiritually refreshed, and having a deeper and keener appreciation of the work and needs of the friends in that section of the world. We from America are very thankful for the opportunity of becoming acquainted with as many as we did, for to know them is to love them.
BOARDING the morning train, and leaving many of the London friends waving their good-byes and "God bless you," we started on our journey to Liverpool, which we reached about noon. Here we were met at the station by a number of the Liverpool friends. The class there is now in much better condition than it had been for some time. Various elements causing disturbances and divisions contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures have withdrawn, and the class is now progressing nicely, which numbers about 60. At the afternoon session about 125 were present, and for about two hours Brother Russell discussed
BROTHER RUSSELL explained that the Church of the First Borns includes not only the Little Flock, but also the Great Company, who will be their companions on the spirit plane in the Kingdom. He showed that these were typified in Israel's First-borns who were passed over, or spared "in that night," when the first-borns of the Egyptians were slain. He showed that the night preceding the day of their deliverance from Egypt typified this Gospel Age, which precedes the Millennial Day of deliverance. All people of God will be fully delivered from the power of Sin and Death, and from the power of Satan, and from all of his malevolent hosts in the coming Millennial Day. But now, in advance, the first-borns are passed over and spared. The antitype of these first-borns of Israel, or the Church of the First-borns, have all been begotten of the holy Spirit to spirit nature and sonship during the Gospel Age.
As God caused the first-borns of Israel to be exchanged for the one tribe of Levi, so thereafter all Levites represented the "household of faith" – the spirit begotten ones of this age. He showed that these in the antitype divided into two classes – a "Little Flock" of priests, the "Royal Priesthood" under Jesus, and a "Great Company," who will eventually come up out of great tribulation, washing their robes and making them white in the blood of the Lamb. The latter will be the associates of the Church in the Heavenly Kingdom, though without the crown and seat of honor in the throne. They will be "before the throne" and have palm branches of victory. We saw these also in Psalm 45, where the Bride of Christ is pictured as being brought in before the King in raiment of fine needle-work and gold, and then following her into his presence "the virgins her companions." He saw the same class pictured in Revelation 19. At the fall of Babylon they will be fully set free from the timidity which has restrained them, and be glad to acclaim the Bride, and to say, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to God, because the marriage of the Lamb has come and his Bride hath made herself ready." More than this, they will hear eventually an invitation that they may participate in the glorious celebration or Nuptial Feast or "Marriage Supper." Again we saw these represented in Rebecca and her damsels, or maids, who accompanied her, when she went to become the bride of Isaac.
He noted that those received of God during this Gospel Age are "all called in the one hope of their calling," all drawn in one manner; the terms for each and all are the same, namely, "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." Let him present his body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Thus all now called and received of the Lord enter into covenant relationship with the Father by sacrifice, to follow the example of the dear Redeemer. To each and every one of these covenanters by sacrifice Jesus as their Advocate first of all appropriated a sufficiency of his merit to cover their blemishes.
The difference between those who will constitute the great mass of the household of faith and the "Little Flock" of the "Royal Priesthood" will be that the latter will manifest more zeal, more of the spirit of the Head in their faithfulness to lay down their lives in the service of the Lord, the Truth and the brethren. All must prove loyal in the end, else they will not be in either class, but die the Second Death. We are not to esteem the "Great Company" ignoble and traitorous toward the Lord and his cause, for none such will be acceptable for eternal life on any plane. They have the same love for truth and righteousness and for the brethren as the "Little Flock," the "Royal Priesthood" have, but in less degree; they show less zeal. Hence "through fear of death they are all their [CR102] lifetime subject to bondage"; for fear of the cost, they hold back their sacrifice until too late. Finally the test will come to determine whether or not they will repudiate the Lord, the Truth, and the Brethren. Such as will be unwilling to repudiate their earthly rights will be unworthy of further covenant sonship under any condition. But such as will, when put to the test, prove loyal, will be counted as companions, servants of the Bride, and be her associates in the work of the Kingdom.
He urged the friends, however, to remember that many of us were justified and in fellowship with God, and had presented our bodies living sacrifices, had received an imputation of Christ's merit, and our sacrifices had been accepted of the Father and the holy Spirit of adoption had been imparted, before we understood much of anything concerning the philosophy of the Atonement or the significance of the Ransom, or anything about its application. Not only was this true of us, but it has been true of all Christians during this Gospel Age for centuries. He exhorted, therefore, that none consider the mere knowledge of the Ransom and the philosophy of the Atonement as the all-important matter. Rather we should recognize that our trust in Christ, and our consecration to do the Father's will and our faithfulness in so doing, even unto death, constitute the terms of our acceptableness and the basis of our hope of joint-heirship with our Lord in his Kingdom.
We are now granted special light from the Word of God on the Philosophy of the Atonement, as an offset to the vain philosophies of human tradition, which are springing up around us – Theosophy, Christian Science, Evolution, etc. Were it not for this God-given Light in the harvest time, many of us might have fallen away from the Lord and his gracious arrangements entirely. Our knowledge of the Ransom is to be esteemed a special and very great blessing of the Lord to his people during this harvest time. But, while we are to esteem the knowledge of the Ransom a special mark of Divine favor and guidance and blessing in connection with the Truth, we should not think of making that knowledge a test of brotherhood or fellowship. For aught we know, some of the Lord's people today may be as fully in God's fellowship, as fully in covenant relationship with him, without an appreciation of this philosophy, as were some of our forefathers.
Likewise, let us beware of how the Adversary might seek to ensnare us and to mislead us in the study in respect to the Great Company. If he could get us sufficiently interested in this, or in any similar question, so as to make of it a point of dispute in the Church and to cause a division amongst the brethren and the stumbling of some, we may be sure that it would be pleasing to our Adversary in proportion as it would be injurious to God's people. If, therefore, some say to us that they cannot see the "Great Company" as we do – that it is a spirit class, spirit-begotten, etc. – we answer, "Very well, you cannot be blamed for what you do not see! If later the Lord shall grant you a still further opening of your eyes of understanding that will be a cause for still further rejoicing, but now rejoice in what you can see."
In any case, let us remember that no one was "called" to be of the "Great Company" Class. Let us remember that we were called in the one hope of our calling, namely, to the Bride class. Let us seek to make our calling and election sure. Let us know assuredly that we shall never advance our interests as new creatures by contentions and divisions amongst the Body-members of Christ, the "little flock," the self-sacrificing priests. Doubtless there are many points similar to this which the Adversary has endeavored to make stones of stumbling and rocks of offense for the separating of the Lord's people. "We are not ignorant of his devices," and to be forewarned is to be forearmed against them. It is ours to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace.
Let us be thankful for whatever things God in his providence has revealed to us; and "let us all mind the same things," as the Apostle urges, and be knit together in love and make increase of the Body. Those whom the Adversary is turning aside from the harvest work to dispute over who found the jewels of truth and who showed them most to others are not wise, neither can they be happy. The harvest work is great, the laborers are few, the Master has consented that we may serve! What a privilege is ours! How we should rejoice in the opportunity afforded us for manifesting to our Lord and to our Redeemer our love and our zeal for Him, for the Truth, for the Brethren who are in the light of the Truth, and for still others who are yet in Babylon and darkness!
He called attention to the fact that the harvest work for a time was confined almost exclusively to the Brethren, but that latterly the Lord is opening up other channels. For instance, he is using the newspapers in all parts of the world as his agencies for carrying the message of glad tiding to all who are still in darkness, but who are really at heart, and through consecration, his people. To us this indicates that the supply of consecrated harvesters is not sufficiently large, or that the Lord's people, blessed with a knowledge of "Present Truth," are not as zealous as they should be. For one of these reasons, doubtless, God is using unconsecrated talents and channels, rather than allow the harvest time to go by – rather than allow any of the brethren to be without the necessary light and assistance. We urged more love, more zeal, more of the spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to the Lord, and to our precious privileges as co-laborers with him.
After the evening meeting, which was for the public, and held in Sun Hall, Kensington, where Brother Russell spoke on "Man's Past, Present and Future," we boarded the boat for a night trip across the Irish Sea. About sixty of the friends came down to the pier to say good-bye to us, and they sang hymns while the boat was making ready to loose her moorings, and then as we passed quite near the shore for several hundred yards, they followed, still singing, until finally we had to leave the land and get farther out in the deep. They still waved as long as they could be seen. It was a farewell that will not be soon forgotten.
BEING perplexed, I say,
Lord, make it right!
Night is as day to Thee,
Darkness is light.
I am afraid to touch
Things that involve so much.
My trembling hand may shake,
Mine unskilled hand may break;
Thine can make no mistake.
Being in doubt, I say,
Lord, make it plain!
Which is the true, safe way,
Which would be vain?
I am not wise to know,
Nor sure of foot to go;
My poor eyes cannot see
What is so clear to Thee –
Lord, make it clear to me.