0 ULgyc,'? arEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 1911. PXGE THREE f . rW - if 1 MORE DEAD FLIES if THE PRECIOUS OINTMENT Pastor Russell Points Out More Decep tive Additions to the Word of God Contained In Our Common Version Bibles, But Shown to Bo False Bo cause Not Found in the Oldest Greek MSS. One of These "Flies" Has Moulded Accepted Theology Dead Flies Causo the Apothecary's Oint ment to Stink (Ecclesiastes x, 1). Not long ago I pointed out t li u t thi' lust twelve verses of St. Murk's fSospol lit our Com mon Version arc spurious so recog nized by all schol ars, beeauso these verses are not to be found In any of t h e oldest Greek MSS. and were evidently added to the Word of God In the seventh century or later. Moreover, wo gave proofs of the untruthfulness of this addition. Is it true that whoever believes theGospel of Christ may handle serpents with Im punity and may drink deadly poison without harm? Surely not. It Is noth ing short of a sin for those who know better to acknowledge these verses und to use them to bolster up theories of Divine Healing. It Is ns much a crime to udd to the Word of God as to take away from It. Today I Invito attention to some oth er dead tiles, some other additions to God's Word, which have had much to do with twisting the theology once delivered to the saints. Take, for In stance, the closing words of the Lord's Prayer: "Thine Is the Kingdom and Power and Glory." These words, If uttered by our Lord, should be found In the old Greek MSS. But they are not found therein. Thoy are, therefore, to be rejected as addi tions made by people centuries after Matthew's Gospel was -written. These words were Introduced when the faith of the Church rcspectlnR the Kingdom of Messiah was changed or changing from what It was originally. All through the New Testament the Sec ond Coming of Christ In power and glory to establish Ills Kingdom and to glorify the Church, His Hrlde, Is set for the end of this Gospel Age. But as tho tlmo grew long a change of sentiment came Into tho Church. It became popular and rich. Its bishops were respected. Finally the theory prevailed that God did not intend to delay the establishment of the Klug dom until the Second Coming of Christ, but did Intend to establish It lu the hands of the Church during this Age and to uso the Church for the con quering of the world and the fulfilling of all the promises of the past. In line with this the most promlneut bishop of the time was recognized as Divinely appointed to represent Christ in the world and to reign over the na tions lu Ills stead and to bring about the Mllleunlum, etc. This was the Bishop of Home, who subsequently was styled the l'opo and who claimed and was accorded the honorable title, "Vkc-ticrcnt of the Son of God." It Is said that the equivalent of this title to this day Is worn by the I'ope on his tiara or three-crowned hat Vlcarius Del Mil. Thus the change came In the general sentiment of the "Christian world." Messiah's Klugdom was no longer to bo looked for as coming, but was to he recognized as here. The Tope, as Mes siah's reigning representative, was to bo acknowledged. All Kingdoms that were to honor and obey Messiah were commanded to honor and obey the I'ope. The various prophecies which tell of Messiah's Kingdom glory were applied to the Tope, and are still so applied. As Messiah was to ride forth con quering the world and "wouud the heads over many peoples," so the I'epe: in succession sought to do, to fultill these, prophecies. As the inaugura tion of Messiah's Kingdom Is prom ised to be in the midst of n time of front trouble, it was not thought Im proper that Papacy should cause great trouble In the world in its endeavor to establish Itself as the Kingdom of Messiah. As whosoever would not ro iislve Messiah was to be "destroyed from amongst the people," It was not considered wrong to destroy thoso who rejected and opposed the Papal Kingdom tiuil to give them to the burning flame "Thy Kingdom Come on Earth." The Lord's prayer was already In the Scriptures, and was known to many. It could not bo eliminated But some zealous person, fully beljov lug that God's Kingdom had come, felt Justified lu amending the prayer to correspond to what ho supposed were the facts. Hence the prayer which begins. "Thy Kingdom come," is made to end by saying, "Thy Kingdom has come In Its glory and power." If Papacy W tho Kingdom of Mes siah, It Is certainly not what the Jews expected. It Is certainly not what we expected. It is certainly not what the masses of mankind had auy reason to expect, although It is so accepted by the majority of Christendom. Although our protesting forefathers broko away from the Pope and do nouneed him as Anti-Christ and de clared that he falsely sat in the place of Christ without authority, thoy, nev ertheless, were imbued with tho same error. Thoy did not think to go back to tho message of the Soripturos and to look for tho Son of God to set up His Kingdom at nis Second Advent and then to bless Israel and the world through His glorified Churdi. Instead they held to the Papal theory that God's Kingdom was set up and was conquering the world, and that thus the Messlanie reign mentioned in the prophecy is being fulfilled. They hold that Christ himself Is tho invisible King Lut tint tho Pf'I'P N r,t author ised to rci'ji -ut him. IK-n- e thN spun ous addition to the orn o God Is an ac ceptable to Protestants as to Catholics; indeed more so, If we may judge by the fact that the Catholic Bible omits the spurious, words, while the Protes tant Bible quotes them. I Wo here remark that according to J Protestant theory Messiah's Kingdom Is represented in the civilized nations of the world, especially of Europe. These nil claim to reign "by the grace of God," In which case, of course, wars and battles between them are conflicts between the various parts of Messiah's Kingdom. And present military prep arations on land and sea portend a most sanguinary conflict between these "kingdoms of this world," which think themselves and are called by Christen dom "kingdoms of God." How glad we are to see the Truth on this subject; that the Kingdom of God's dear Son has not yet been set up, in any sense of the word that it Is still future. It ennnot be set up until this Gospel Age cuds and the "elect" saintly few of every nation Jew and Gentile shall be changed from earthly to heavenly nature by the Klrst Resur rection, which will qualify them to be "kings and priests unto God and unto Christ nnd to reign with Him a thou sand years" (Hevelatlon xx, 0). It is well thnt all Bible students should mark this "fly" nnd extract it from the Precious Ointment, and no tlco how much sweeter nnd fresher theLord's prayer is to them forever. "Oh, What a Whopperl" Thomas Paine was an enemy to tho Bible and to the Christian religion, but largely so, we believe, on account of his poor understanding of It. And his misunderstanding of the Bible was largely due to the false doctrines handed down from the "Dark Ages" purporting to be biblical. Who can not sympathize with the great lnfldel, Thomns Paine, who, when reading the last verse of St. John's -Gospel, ex claimed, "0, what a whopperl" It reads, "And there are also many oth er things which Jesus did, the which, If they should be written every one, 1 suppose that even the world Itself could not contain the books that should bo written" (John xxi, 2o). Surely any one of reasoning mind should see the absurdity of such n statement. Surely all Christian min isters should have Informed the Lord's sheep under their euro respecting whnt Is nnd what is not the Word of God, the Bible, as It was recognized by the Apostolic Church and written down In the original Greek manuscripts. Why any Christian minister should nssall mo because I endeavor to do for the people what he has neglected to do 1 cannot understand. I must leave It to the Lord to Judge between us. I am Informed that hundreds of ministers went to the Editors of the papers which publish my sermons weekly and endeavored to have them discontinue their publication. But the Editors perceive that their readers are no longer under the bond age of tho "Dark Ages," but have be gun to think for themselves, nnd that many of them are hungering nnd thirsting for tho Truth respecting tho Bible tho Christian's spiritual food and drink. To the claim that many read my sermons lnstend of going to Church the answer Is, that Pastor Bus sell is preaching to tho non-church-going ten millions who are in tho ma jority and that It behooves tho minis ters to provide for their people the spiritual food for which they are fam ishing, if they would not lose them all. Another Big Fly. To the credit of such men as Luther, Calvin, Knox, Zwingll, Wesley and others living prior to our day wo must explain that they had no opportunity for knowing of the spurious passages of the Scriptures. They, therefore, huve no responsibility such ns de volves upon ministers of our day who do, or should, know all about these matters. We cannot on this occasion mako further Investigation, take out more of these dead flies; but, the Lord willing, at some future time I John v, 7, 8 will have our attention. It is worthy of it. It has caused the Olnt ment to stluk and has confused the minds of many of God's dear saints by the way in which the error In this case has been Interwoven with the Truth. My hearers should bear distinctly In mind thut what I am here presenting Is not at all in line with the presenta tions of the Higher Critics. Their method is to read through the Scrip tures and judge of them by their own keen Intellectual powers, and thus to discriminate between which were written by tho Prophets credited, and which were additions, Their Higher Criticism claims n keener scent or mental discernment than ordinary mortals enjoy, by which they know these things whether others can see it so or not. I resent Higher Criticism nnd accept the Word of God in full. I reject noth ing because of ray own or other men's surmises, but merely go by the facte If tho oldest Greek MSS. do not con tain certain passages of Scripture, how could they get Into later MSS. except as spurious additions? Nor should I bo considered ns fault finding with our Common Version of the Bible. While It Is not without its faults, it has so many excellent quali ties and beautiful translations that 1 prefer it to any other and generally uso it. But I must not, I cannot, ap prove those portions of it which all orthodox scholars admit to bo spuri ous. We must not handle tho Word of God deceitfully. If wo do we must ex pect darkness Instead of light, con fusion lnstend of harmony. Our Bible's Ter-Centenary. ist three centuries ngo our English mon Version Bible was published This year Its Ter-Centenary Is cele brated. It Is a grand book. It hai done a grand work. Tho fact that It Is not porfect must not condemn a I work possessed of so many glorious I qualities. It was tho result of seven ' years' labor tn the part of forty-seven pontons learned In tho languagesaud up x In'ed by King Jumes of England for j '4 nreuaratlou. They labored to some j disndvnnlngo by reason of tho com': mnnd given them to follow an earlier translation styled, The Bishop's Bible, and to alter it as little as the original would allow. They were also Instruct ed that if the Tyndale, Coverdale, Mat thew, Cranmer or Whitchurch transla tions and the Geneva Editors agreed better with the text, theirs should be accepted as Instead of the Bishop's. The translation was, perhaps, the best that could be made at the time. Published by kingly authority, It Is now venerated by English and Amer ican Protestants as though It had como direct from the finger of God. This Is a mistake. We arc to worship God and to reverence Ills Word and to search as carefully as possible to have the precious Ointment provided by tho spirit of the Truth free from all dead tiles free from all human additions and mistranslations nnd superstitious of the "Dark Ages." The basis for our Common 'Version was the Latin Vulgate, which was dili gently revised and compared with the Greek MSS. of tho time. But there were few Greek MSS. known nt that time, whereas at the present time there are over 700. Threo of these uro quite undent. (1) Tho Slnnltlc MS., found in a Con vent on Mt. Sinai so recently as 1800. This Is acknowledged to bo tho oldest Greek MS. known In the world. Its dnto is estimated to be about the year 331 A. D. This MS. Is now in the pos session of the Kusslau government at St. Petersburg. (2) Tho Vatican MS., 1209, is credited with being next in age. It was found amongst old MSS. lu the Vatican Li brary and Is still there and catalogued. The date of Its writing Is estimated to be about the year 350 A. D. (3) The third of these oldest known Greek MSS. of the Xew Testament Is styled tho Alexandrine, because it was found in Alexandria in Egypt. It Is now in the British Museum, where any visitor can behold it In a glass case. It Is supposed to have been writ ten ubout A. D. 450. The readings of nil three of these Greek MSS. can be secured and the variations betweeu their readings and our Common Ver sion are so simply arranged ns to leave no excuse for ignorance on tho port of Bible students. Our Common Ver sion with uotatlons of these MSS. can be obtained through any bookseller. A Responsible and Sacred Trust. Prof. Tischcndorf, writing respecting theso nnclcnt Greek MSS., suys: "To treat such ancient authorities with neglect would bo either unwar rantable arrogance or culpable negli gence. Indeed, it would be a misun derstanding of Providence If, after all theso documents had been preserved through all tho dangers of fourteen or fifteen centuries and delivered safe into our hands, wo were not ready to receive them with thankfulness us most vnluablo Instruments for tho elucidation of Truth." The Truth In the Love of It. The Lord speaks of some who re celvo not the Truth lu the love of it, and tells thut they ultimately will bo ensnnred by the Adversary. Evident ly heart-honesty Is ono of tho most precious elements In the Divine sight. It is not sulllcleut that wo should bu Christians In name merely and with form nnd ceremony. It would not be sulllcleut in the Lord's sight thut we should worship sect or party or even the Bible. It Is the Divine Truth thut we must reverence next to the Divine person. It is not HUlllclent to huve Bibles on our center tnbles merely, nor suf ficient to curry them under our arms. Wo must "eat" tho Word of God-Uiat Is to say, we must, as spiritual chil dren of God, feed upon His message. And this truly implies careful dis crimination to discern between God's inspired Bevelation and all human ad ditions und admixtures. There is, therefore, a difference between rever encing and loving the Word of God nnd reverencing and loving a particu lar translation, errors and all. "Thy Word Is Truth." Our Master's prayer for all of nis truo disciples, or footstep followers, was and still is, "Sanctify them through Thy Truth; Thy Word Is Truth." Whoever would huvo the sanctifying influence of the Divine Word should so fur as possible rid himself of every unsunctifylug udmlx ture of human tradition und Interpola tion. Tho truo suuctlllcntlon or set ting apart of the heart to know and to do tho Lord's will could not be con tent to accept with the sanctifying Truth defiling errors, chaff and nonsense. If thousands are turning away from the Bible there Is a reason. It Is not the pure Truth that drives thou away, but tho foreign admixture and he slanderous misinterpretation! handed down to us by our well-meau lug but deluded ancestors of several enttirles ago. It Is high time foi all to manifest to God their love o' the Truth by spending Home of theli time in studying It-In learning Itt precious lessons and lu telling fortl Its "good tidings of great Joy to al' peonle." " "TIs one tlilnt: now to read the nibt through. Another thlnir to rt-ail. to loiirn ami do "Tin ono tlilrifx now to read It with delight And qulto nr.other thliur to read It rlht Soirio rend to prove a pre-nduptcd creed Thus undeistand but little what thry rend ; And every pausneo In the Hook they bend To make It nult that nil-Important end. Some people read, as I have otter. thought. To tench tho Book, Instead of to tx tauKht." Police Battle With Thugs. KEARNEY, N. J., April 1. In u pitched battle at Hackonsack Mead ows oarly today between pollco and a gang of wire thieves, threo patrol men woro wounded, ono probably fatally, Tho hattlo today was the climax of a serins of raids which had netted the thieves thousands of poundH of copper and telephono und 'flrgraph wires. As tho pollco approached tho scent of tho recent robberies, thoy met n wngon containing four men. When called upon to stop, the four 'robbers drew revolvers and opened fire. Ser geant McQee nnd Patrolmen Smith nnd Doland were wounded. It was belloved the wire thieves escaped un Charges "Too Much Preacher." HKNO. Nov., April I. -"Too much preacher," in his home wtts the ground 0n which Albert Wells of San Jose, Calif., asked Judge Mornu for ti divorce from his wife, Surah M. whom he married in 188H. When Wells explained that his wife be- t'iitne so fond of u Smj Joso minister I hut slio spent most of her lime in his company, Judge Morun signed tho decree. No womnn is educated in values unless she is n persistent render of the nds. She wouldn't know the news of tho day unless she read (ho paper every day and tho aunio ne cessity applies to knowing buying op portunities. She must read the nds regularly. Miss Oertrudo Triechlcr visited friends in Grants Pnsn InBt week. We Sell for Less FURNITURE Rugs Ranges Draperies Buy at Home and Help Med ford Everything for the Home Jm r w m B m JrT f fe m Jm. S" 'i M The house that made it possible to buy Furniture in Medford at reasonable prices Visit Medford Heights To-day, see this close-in addition on the east side Climb "Nob Hiir and note the beautiful view You can have a home on tin's pretty hill side away from the dust and noise. The lots art; all large and con venient the prices are low and the payments easy. See the $750 and $800 lots on the western slope of "Nob Hill" just below the terace drive There are eight sixty feet front lots left facing on east main street, high and sightly at $050 each. The terms are one-third cash. FOR SALE BY Earl Tumy A. F. Barnett Whiteside, Meyers & Holmes D. H. Jackson & Co. Or The Van Dyke Realty Co.