MUDTORD JtATTi TRIBUNfl, MEDffORP, ORISOON, SUNDAY. .TDTiY 17. 1!)I0,
6
THIS SERMON IS A REGULAR WEEKLY FEATURE
PEOPLES PULPIT...
JOOjj
OH
O OO '
Scnnon by
CHARLES T.
RUSSELL,
Pwtor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.
. i . . .
Ooo
Sunday, July 10. Pastor Russell of
Brooklyn Tabernacle. New York,
preached today from the above text.
He said In part:
In order to use a telescope to ad
Yantage wo need first to obtain a
proper focus on the object to bo ex
snilned. And so It Is with the Divine
Plan and Purpose, Looking ntit with
tho eye of faith through the Telescope
of God's Word, adjustment of tho fo
cus Is necessary. This focusing of the
"Word, Christian people In the past
have very generally overlooked. As a
result tho Divine Plan has a blurred
and Indistinct appearance to our sight
Tho various word-pictures, symbols,
types, allegories and plain statements
ef tho Scriptures without this focusing
together, make a very unsatisfactory
and nondescript matter of tho Gospel
ef Christ, ono that Is unsatisfactory to
everybody, one that tho learned of our
iay have repudiated entirely an am
biguous collation that is a source of
vexation to millions of God's conse
crated people. The difficulty Is that
tho Telescope was tampered with dur
ing the dark ages and tho proper fo
cus was lost. Since then Christian
people have feared to readjust it. They
have gloried in the fact that they never
changed the focus. However, they
have overlooked the fact that some one
lsc did "change it for them long ago
and that the unsatisfactory view we
have gotten is the result of this and
Is entirely out of accord with the clear
and beautiful vision of God's Grace
and Truth and Mercy and Love and
Wisdom and Power as seen by tho
'Apostles In tho early Church.
International Bible StudonU Associa
tion. Some of us. dear friends. Instead of
throwing away the Telescope of the
?Word of God, are taking pleasure In
cleaning the lenses of the dust of
the dark ages and adjusting the focus
by a careful endeavor to speak where
tho Word of God speaks and to be
allent where it Is silent, and to bring,
as tho Apostle suggests, our every
thought into captivity to the will of
God in Christ as outlined in tho Bible.
The result, we all can testify. Is not
only comforting, but bapplfying; not
nly enlightening, but refreshing.
Truly, as the Apostle suggests, we
have come to "Times of Refreshing
from tho presence of tho Lord." And
all this, we perceive, is exactly what
the Scriptures foretold, namely, that a
falling away and darkening of the un
derstanding would follow the death of
the Apostles, but that in the end of
the age the darkness would begin to
scatter before the oncoming light of
the Sun of righteousness, in the morn
ing of the New Dispensation of Mes
siah's reign.
In accord with all this, noto tho fact
that for centuries we have been over
looking certain Scriptures while ac
cepting others. We accepted the Apos
tle's statement In our text respecting
the reconciliation of the Church, but
we overlooked entirely other Scriptures
which speak of a still different recon
ciliation "God through Christ, recon
ciling tho world unto himself" (II Co
rinthians v, 19). We should have noted
the difference between the Church and
the world in this and many other pas
sages of Scripture. We should have
remembered tho Lord's words, "Ye are
sot-of the world, even as I am not of
tho world." Wo should have seen that
the salvation and reconciling of the
Church Is ouo thing and the salvation
and reconciling of tho world is quite
another thing; that these are two dif
ferent salvations the first to heaven
ly, spiritual conditions and jolnt-beir-ship
with Christ in his Kingdom; the
other to nn earthly inheritance, to
earthly perfection and life everlasting
and nn Eden that is to be world-wide
Paradise restored, God's footstool
made glorious.
God's Purpotei to Be Accomplished.
Nevertheless nothing has been lost
No feature of the Dlvino Plan has
been thwarted, for theso two salva
tions do not progress at the samo time.
During this Gospel Age none arc
saved, nor desirous to be saved, except
thoso "drawn of tho Father," "called
ef God." Theso huvo been privileged
to upproach God through tho Son,
whose nnmo is "the only name given
under heaven or amongst men whereby
wo must bo saved" (Acts iv, 12). Only
those who take up their cross and fol
low tho Lamb through evil report and
fcood report, faithful unto death, can
bow bo spirit-begotten; In tho resur
rection, these will bo spirit-born, mem
bers of tho Rrldo of Christ, tho Lamb's
WJfo and Jolnt-helr with him In his
Klugdom. It does not matter to the
remainder of mankind that they have
been allowed to remain In Ignorance
of tho great fact that God Is about to
pour out upon humanity a great bless
lug! about to pour out his holy Spirit
upon all classes; about to establish the
Kingdom of his denr Son for which we
pray. "Thy Kingdom come;" nbout to
chubs the knowledge of the Lord, to All
.the whole earth; about to givo to overy
son and daughter of Aduni oue full,
Sb; righteous opportunity to come to
"BE YE
RECONCILED
TO GOD"
Text, "You that were sometime
alienated, and enemies in your mind by
wicked works, yet now hath he rec
onciled" (Colossians i, 21).
OOO ......I.. 'Q
a knowledge of tho Truth that they
may bo saved.
If tho knowledge of God's grnco has
proven to bo n grand, glorious, insplr
ing message to tho sanctified in Christ
Jesus, tho Church of this Gospel Age.
called to tho heavenly calling, will not
tho messngo of reconciliation to the
world, In due time, likewise bring to
the world comfort Joy. blesslug us
they shall be Invited to the earthly
portion to full restitution to uunuui
IMjrfectlon to all that was lost by
Adam and that Is to bo recovered by
tho sacrifice of Jesus. No wonder the
Scriptures assure us that the night of
weeping Is nearly over and the morn
ing of Joy already dawning! No won
der tho Apostlo declares that "the
whole creation groaneth and travnlleth
in pain together," and that they are
"waiting for the manifestation of the
sons of God" (Rom. Till, 22, 10).
The work of this Gospel Age has
been tho colling, the testing, the prov
ing, the fitting, tho polishing of these
sons of God for the glorious heavenly
stato to which they have been called.
Tho Apostlo urges that however hum
ble tho position of God's saints In the
present life, "We know that when he
shall appear wo shall bo Uko him, for
wo shall see him as ho Is." When he
shall appear in his glory we also shall
appear with him. When be shall reign
as the King of kings and Lord of
lords, when to him every knee shall
bow and every tongue confess, the
elect Church, his Rrlde. will be with
him in his Throne, sharers of his glory
and participants In his work the work
of blessing and uplifting tho world
reconciling the world to God.
Calvin and Knox Weiley and Whit
tled. Calvin. Knox and others of the re
formers, we may then see. were quite
right in their insistence' that none nt
the present time are In a reconciled
condition toward God except the com
paratively few of our race the saints.
These turn from sin to righteousness,
turn from disobedience to faith and
consecration, and In and through the
merit of the Redeemer are acceptable
as probationary members of the elect
Church. If faithful they,, will shortly,
in the "first resurrection," constitute
the Church of glory, the Dride. the
Lamb's Wife and Joint-Heir.
Brothers Wesley. Whitfield and oth-
era were also right in their proposition
that God was not content with electing
merely n saintly bnndful, but surely
loved tho whole world and would sure
ly give to every member of the race a
full opportunity to come to a knowl
edge of Christ and to seek a share in
the merit of bis sacrifice for sins and
an opportunity for life everlasting.
Those dear brethren contended ear
nestly with each other over their differ
ences, the one upholding the doctrine
of Election, the other contending for
tho doctrine of Free Grace. Now we
see that both were right; Now we see
that the election belongs to this Gospel
Ago and to the nigh Calling to tho di
vine nature and that In an age follow
ing this Free Grace toward all of the
race of Adam will prevail. "The
knowledge of the Lord shall fill the
whole earth;" "every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess." Then those
who, under the rule and assistance and
uplifting Influences of the "elect" will
come Into harmony with tho Divine
Law, will bo blessed with full recon
ciliation to God and eternal lifo on the
human plane In Paradise restored
while the Intelligently perverse, In
stead of being everlastingly tortured,
as wo had supposed, will, as tho Apos
tle says, be punished with everlasting
destruction (II Thessalonlans i, 0).
"Hallelujah. What a 8aviorl"
From this viewpoint tho glory of our
Redeemer and the glory of our heaven
ly Father are multiplied a million
times. Our Redeemer not only is to be
tho Savior of tho "Httlo flock," his
Church, his Drldc. on the spirit plane
of glory, but additionally, through the
agency of his Millennial Kingdom, he
is to bo the Savior of tho world. He
"tasted death for every man," as the
Scriptures declare, and, as they ex
press it, "IIo shall see of tho travail of
his soul and ho satisfied" (Isaiah 1111.
11). Who could suppose that the Savior
would bo satisfied with tho result of
his labor If only about ono in a million,
as members of his Church, reach the
heavenly glory-lund?
Who In our day could for a moment
believe the suggestion of Brother Jona
than Edwards, the great New Englund
preacher, who declared that tho Lord
and his saints would, together, look
over the battlements of heaven at their
neighbors and friends and children suf
fering au eternity of uutellublo torture
at tho hands of demons, und turn
around and praise God tho louder on
this behalf? Poor Brother Edwards
hud, wo believe, but a small concep
tion of Divine Justlco and Divine Love.
And his difficulty was that he did not
see what is now so distinct and clear
to Bible students, namely, that the Bi
ble Hell to which all humanity goes Is
not n placo of torturo nor of conscious
ness at all, but tho grave, ohcol, hades,
tho tomb.
Instead of Christ and the saints
praising God becauso of the tortures
of tho poor groaning creation, tho Dl
vino program shlnt" resplendently,
showing us that the Redeemer and his
Church will for n thousand years bo
engaged In a missionary work of the
tubllmcst and most gigantic character
a work not only for a living remnant
of tho race, but oue which will In
clude In Us blessing nil the thousands
of millions of humanity under tho Di
vine scutence. "The wages of sin la
death." Truly the Scriptures declare.
As the heavens are higher than tho
earth, so are God's ways higher than
mnn's wa.w and CioiVs plans loftier
than mnn's conceptions.
Notlco next the context. St, Paul,
after mentioning Christ ns tho Head
of tho Body, tho Church, who Is tho
first-begotten, the first-born from the
dead, that In nil thlngsho might hnvo
the pre-eminence, adds, "For it pleased
the Father that In him should all ful
ness dwell," and that (after) having
made peace through tho blood of his
cross by htm to rcconcllo all things
unto himself both tho thlugs In earth
and things In heaven" (Colosslnns 1,
18-20). The Apostle Indicates tho great
scopo of Christ's work ns it shall bo
eventually when finished. IIo Is ap
pointed of the Father to establish peace
and rlghteousuess throughout tho Uni
verse. But ho has not yet accom
plished all of this. Ho has only begun.
He has died for the Bins of tho world,
as well as for tho sins of tho Church.
But he has not yet offered to Justlco
tho satisfaction for tho world's sins:
He first appears before God as the
great Advocate for the elect Church,
"called" of God In advanco to bo "tho
Bride, tho Lamb's Wife." Noto how
tho Apostle expresses this thought in
our text, verse 21.
The Church First Reconciled.
"And you, that were sometime
alienated, and enemies In your mind
by wicked works, yet now bath ho
reconciled in tho body of bis flesh
through death, to present you holy and
unblamable and unrcprovable In his
(tho Father's) sight, if ye continue In
tho faith." etc.
Who arc theso and why are they
reconciled In advance of tho remnlnder
of the world brought in advance into
fellowship with tho Father by the Re
deemer as his Bride? Theso were by
nature "children of wrath even as
others." By nature they wcro alien
ated and enemies In their mind by
wicked works. They were unllko tho
Redeemer, who was "holy, harmless
and nndeflled and separate from sin
ners." Why then did God's graco
specially come to this class to us who
arc of the Church of Christ "accepted
In the Beloved" one? What did we do
or could wo do to contribute to this
favor of God bestowed upon us? The
Apostle assures us further along tho
same line, that tho elect Church by
nature was not superior to the world
from which It was selected. Ho de
clares that It contains not many great,
not many learned, not many rich, but
chiefly the poor of this world, rich In
faith, many of them ignoblo as re
spects birth and natural advantages of
beredilty. The difference between
these and others was, first, that they
bad "an ear to hear" tho Divine me
sage. Sometimes this hearing en.
came to them through Borrow and trib
ulation. In their weariness and heavi
ness they heard the Master's voice.
"Como unto me. nil yo that labor and
nro heavy-laden and I will givo you
rest" (Matthew xl. 2S). They heard
this voice, while come of their neigh
bors more favorably situated heard it
not But a' still further blessing camo
to them as they responded and drew
near to the Lord by faith and prayer.
Desiring to como nearer and nearer
they strove to put nway all fllthlncss
of tho flesh sin In its every form tho
while realizing that they could not
cleanso themselves. Then it was that
the Master informed them of the terms
upon which they might Join his Church
"Tho Body of Christ which Is tho
Church." They must make full con
secration of themselves to God and to
righteousness, even unto death. They
must do this with a full understanding
that It would take them out of touch
with tho world nnd tho spirit of tho
world, while bringing them Into closer
relationship with tho Father and with
tho Son. They were assured that if
they thus presented their little all to
God in the Redeemer's namo nnd
merit, this great Redeemer would
servo them as their Advocate with tho
Father and Impute to them n suffi
ciency of tho merit of his sacrifice to
make good the deficiencies of their
flesh. Thus only could tho Father ac
cept their sacriflco of tho earthly nn
turo and all of its rights and beget
them with his holy Spirit to Joint
heirship with their Redeemer In nil tho
glories and honors and blessed services
for tho world In his Kingdom of Glory
which Is to ho set up as soon as this
Gospel Ago shall havo finished Its work
of gathering out of tho world the elect.
Let it not bo forgotten In this con
nection that when tho world shall bo
reconciled to God In tho future, tho
blessings of that reconciliation will
como to them while still In their fallen
state, to assist them to tho recovery of
all that was lost in Adam. Hcnco our
Influence oven with tho worldly should
fco to encourage them towards as high
standards of righteousness as possi
ble, knowing that whatever they may
attain in tho present lifo will bo that
much of an advantage to thorn in tho
future life, and that In proportion to
their degradation will ho their difficul
ties in connection with their restitu
tion to perfection. So then godliness
Is profitable, not only for tho life that
now is, but also for that which Is to
como; not only for tho saints who hope
to bo of tho "llttlo flock" nnd associ
ated with Christ In his Kingdom, but
oIbo for tho world of mankind, whoso
hopo Is to he blessed under that reign
of righteousness and its uplifting Influences.
8
- -W --
tf" s. . - ,
Ihe Quality Store
k. .V . Al.
J0$$k
vwwttv
EXCLUSIVELY FOR WOMEN
SI M M ! ! ,! I m. I I.I M amaMMNMNaMBMMmHMmMWBW
Not that wo never sell to tho inon, for wo do, hut wo carry only women's furnish
ings nnd rcady-to-wcars. Our ejiiof aim in quality, and everything that is offorod
for salo in this storo will prove the claim wo make, it! you want quality at a rea
sonable price, wo can please you overy time.
Silk Gloves, Fancy Hosiery
NEW FANCY GOODS
You will bo pleased with the beautiful collection of rich, handsome fancy goods
in bolts, buckles, jewelry novolties, ctc.,etc. Call and get first choice of tho clovor
est ideas ever yot shown in this city.
Silk Petticoats $3.50 to $10.00
Hair Dressing
Remember, we conduct first-class, newly equipped
md recently remodeled hair dressing parlors. Mani-
t curing, shampooing, bleaching, weaving, etc.
New Arrivals
Many new silk and lingerie dresses are arriving
and wo will bo pleased to havo you call and examine
tho now models.
22f
The Em por ium
- ----- - ----- - ---- ----- - -
HAMMERSTEIN WILL
INVADE GREAT BRITAIN
NEW YORK, July 10. Although
discournRed over his failuro to rench
St. Petersburg and sccuro contracts
with operatic stars that will quit op
era in tho United States, Oscar
Ilnmmcrstciu, tho imprcssnrio, is
planning to enter tho field in Lon
don. His friends say that ho is se
rious in his announced intention of
building nn opera houso in tho Brit
ish capital nnd staging grand opera
there. Before sailing for London,
Ilnmmorstcin will givo pcrsonnl at
tention to the progress of tho Man
hattan as a comio opern theater.
Wanted
10 girls, general housework.
Mnn nnd wife.
Woman cook.
Log drivers, $3.50 day.
G carpenters, 3.G0 eight hours.
23 cordwood men, $150 to $1.75.
Itnnch hands.
FOR SALE.
Lots on nnd near West Main, $350 to
$1000.
Loth $10 down, easy puyments, West
moreland addition.
Lots, West Second, smnll payments.
0 ncrcs in bearing, closo to city lim
its, $8000.
Fine ranch, 120 ncres in nlfnlfn, un-
ilor ditch.
Alfalfa tracts, under ditch, $100 per
ncre.
8,000,000 feet timber, $1 por 1000.
40 ncrcs timbor and wood, 7 miles
Medford, very chenp.
-10 acres and improvements, fine
fruit land, $800.
2 lots, closo West Main, $550 oach.
300 acres, EurIo Point, subdivide
finely, $125 por acre.
Close-in fruit land, undor ditch, $200
per ncre.
17 Acres, 14 acres heavy bearing,
2i2 miles out; snap nt $7000.
80 Acres, 12 acres fruit, teams and
fnrmim,' tools, $0,500.
1 Aero near South Onkdnlo on now
street, $2,000.
For Trade.
$1700 equity in 2 houses for ncronRO
or tenms.
20 Acres, 12 in fruit, closo in, for
city lots,
100 ncrcs with bearinpr orchard,
$3000.
TO LOAN.
$1500 for 00 days.
RELINQUISHMENTS.
100 acres, 00 acres good fruit land,
$200.
20 acres, creek bottom,- 12 norcf
planted, 4-rootn Iiouho, $800,
40 acres fine red foothill soil, $350.
100 ncros, vcrv fino, l's m'JoH rail
road, can commute.
7-room Iiouho, modern.
Sleeping rooms.
E. F. A. BITTNER
Room 207 Tavlor & Phlpps Bldg.
Phone 4141 Main.
Satisfaction Guaranteed
"Whether you have n common suit or a fine silk chiffon or crepo do chino gown
to be cleaned, we call for your work and return it in tho most perfect condition.
mWKi;?
m0g0
PHONE MAIN mil
JHJIt WACJON IS AT YOUIt HHItVICU
5 Flit ST. SOUTH
ii'jxj.iu-jiai.
U I L . JUi AJU. J J
iaiij.i..ii.wii- iu iij -i. a-iu-m u
Sportsmans Supplies
Wo aro headquarters in Medford for all kinds of supplies for sportsmon.
Buy your tackle, guns, ammunition, etc., hero and you'll never havo a regret.
Here is a Dandy
Winchester Rifle
H
Takes short, long and long rifle cartridges without any adjustment of earrior
block. Como in and see it and wo will toll you more about it. Wo also havo
Remington, Savage and Stevens 22s. Wo carry a lino of campors' outfits,
tents, camp stoves, Dutch ovens, ammunition and fishing tackle.
Humphry's
112 West Main
Gun Store
Phone 4351
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