The Blackfoot optimist. [volume], January 05, 1911, Image 8

About The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918

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PEOPLE'S PULPIT...
Most Comforting
Words,
Words of Life
Sermon by
CHARLES T.
RUSSELL
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.
........... ..... .......■ ■ooo
''Comfort one another with these
work'd Thessakmians iv, I8)<
.... ......... . ......... .........
Utica. N. Y.. Aug. 21.—Pastor Rus
sell of Brooklyn Tabernacle preached
hère twice today to large audiences.
T^e report one of his discourses from
the above text. He said in part:—
One of the wonderful things About
the Bible and the Christianity founded
upon the Bible's teachings is the fact
that it contains so much sympathy—
cpmfort for the bereaved, the sorrow
ing. the troubled. This is not true of
any othei* book or any other religion
in the world. And who is there that
does not at some time in life need sym
pathy. need encouragement, need a
powerful and loving friend such as our
Bible assurés us Our God is to all who
will accept bis fnvor?
But our great ■* Adversary. Satan,
seeks to make the light appear dark
and the darkness appear light. He
seeks to negative the testimonies of
God's Word. and. to a very great de
gree. bis déceptions have been success
ful. as is witnessed by the creeds of
Christendom. Practically all of our
creeds, even though they assert that
God is gracious, merciful, kind and
loving, contradict this description of
him and his Plan for humanity in
monstrous terms, fiendish in the ex
treme. The majority of creeds tell ns.
of his foreordination and pre-arrange
ment of whatsoever comes to pass and
that this signifies that a saintly hand
ful will gain eternal life in joy in
heaven, and that the unsaintly thou
sands of millions of heathendom and
Christendom are equally foreordained
to spend an' eternity of torture fore
known. foreintended and provided for
before their creation. Is there com
fort in this? Is such a plan God-like
or Satanic? Could any intelligent and
good being rejoice in such a plan of
damnation or sincerely worship an Al
mighty God who would so misuse his
unlimited power to distress his crea
tures, "born in sin. shapen in iniquity;
in sin did their mother^ conceive them?"
The minority of Christian creeds de
clare the some results, but that they
were not designed of God. not fore
known by him. not predestinated. They
tell us in other words that we have an
Incompetent God. well-meaning, but
deficient in wisdom and in power, is
there auy comfort in this? Would it
assuage the grief and pain of those
suffering In eternal torment if they
could be nssured that their lot was
such, not because of Divine premedita
tion and design, but because of Divine
incompetence? Surely there is no com
fort to be had from such a view!
After all. we Protestants did not
make much of an Improvement upon
the theory held by our forefathers
against which we protested in the six
teenth century. Surely purgatorial
tortures of a few centuries are no
worse, no less comforting, than our
Protestant conceptions of an eternity
of torture for ail the non-elect. Our
Catholic forefathers manufactured Pur
gatory without a shred of Scripture
upon which to base the theory. They
built it in their imaginations; they in
vented its fires and tortures. Our
Protestant forefathers, using their im
aginations. gave us an eternal torment
hell—not more tangible, not more Scrip
tural than Purgatory. They did in
deed use a Scriptural term—sheol.
hades, hell—but, overlooking the fact
that these words all signify the state
of death, the condition of the dead,
they wrested the language and warped
it in an unscriptural manner to signify
torture. The penalty or "wage of sin
is death." They made of it torture
everlasting, without the slightest au
thority of Scripture except a misunder
stood and misapplied parable, which,
rightly understood, teaches a totally
different lesson. The false Gospel,
has surely lost its power. People are
becoming too intelligent to endure it.
As a consequence attendance at
Churches is decreasing and reverence
for God is diminishing. Infidelity, call
ed Higher Criticism, etc., is increasing.
The need of the hour is the Gospel
of comfort. St. Paul declares what
we all know, namely, that "the whole
creation groaneth and travnileth in
pain together until now waiting for
the manifestation of the sons of
God." Here we see the necessity for
this Gospel of comfort. We see nlso
that God has provided it nnd that it is
coming to the world in the end of this
Age. in the dawning of the new Age.
It will come to the world in general
as soon as the elect Church shall have
been selected and. by the "First Res
urrection" power, glorified with iter
Lord ns his Kingdom class, ns the
glorified sons of God. whose mission
It will be to bless all the families of
the earth.
"Father of Mercies—God of All Com
fort."
When St. Paul says. "Knowing the
terrors of- the Lord." he evidently re
fers to the fact that our Creator has
declared that "the wage of sin is
death" mot eternal torment): that "the
soul that sinneth. it shall die" (not live
in torment I ; that "all the wicked will
God destroy" mot preserve in firei:
and that only such as come into vital
relationship with the Redeemer can
biive'everlasting life. Knowing these
things respecting the Divine govern
ment we persuade men everywhere.
"Be ye reconciled to God''—and thus
attain the only eternal life which he
promised.
But. on the other band, note the
kindly description of our God which
the Apostle furnishes, "Blessed be
God. even the Father of our Lard
Jesu» Christ, the Father of mercies,
the God of all comfort; who com
fortetb us in all of our tribulation,
that We may be able to comifort them
that are In nny tribulation^ by the
comfort with which we ourselves are
comforted of God. For as the suffer
ings of Christ abound in us. so our
comfort also abounded] by. Christ.
And whether we lie afflicted. It Is for
your comfort and salvation * * * or
whether we be comforted, it is for
your comfort and salvation. * * * know
ing , that as ye are partakers of the
sufferings, so shall ye be also of the
comfort" (II Corinthians i. 3-7).
What a wonderful statement respect
ing the Divine intentions for the com
fort of the world and the comfort of
the Church, all proceeding from "the
God of ail comfort/ Nothing written
In any sacred books of any people at
any time reveals such a God as the
God of the Bible—a God infinite in
Justice, Wisdom. Power and Love. It
is he that is "working all -things ac
cording to the counsel of his own good
will," for the ultimate comfort and
salvation of ns many of his creatures
as will accept his favors, after being
brought to a knowledge of the Truth
respecting them. The Church is now
comforted during this Gospel Age
(saved to the highest plane of the
heavenly nature» and during the com
ing Age the world is to be comforted
and saved to the human nature—us
many as will. For the world this
means the glorious opportunity of the
mediatorial reign of Christ which will
constitute their time of restitution, up
lifting. resurrection to all that wus lost
in Adam and redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ (Acts iii. 19-21).
"Comfort—With Theso Words."
In order to appreciate the meaning
of our text we must consider the
words of the Apostle preceding it, be
ginning with the 13th verse. He de
clares. "1 would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them
which are asleep, that ye sorrow not.
even as others which have no hope."
All Christian people agree that the
word sleep here refers to those who
died. They are not usleep In heuven.
of course, for there all is wakefulness
and intelligence and Joy. They are
not asleep in Purgatory, of course, for.
according to our Catholic friends, sleep
there would be an impossibility. They
are not asleep in an orthodox hell. for.
according to the description given by
Protestants, none could sleep there.
Where, then, are those who are
"asleep"? St. Paul says that we should
not be ignorant concerning them.
Have we not been ignorant in the past
—foolishly ignorant? We have Ignored
the Apostle's words entirely. We hnve
refused to believe that any are asleep
and claim that all are awn'-", alive—a
few in heaven, the many in Purgatory
or eternal torture.
But St. Paul was right: The entire
Bihle teaches that all who die fall
asleep. Thus we learn of St. Stephen,
the first Christian martyr, that he "fell
asleep" (stoued to death). We read of
the good .lud bad. kings nnd peasants,
falling asleep in death. We read that
King David slept with his fathers—
some of them good, some of them bad.
We read that Abraham slept with his
fathers—some of them heatheu. The
Bible tells ns where they sleep and that
they will all he a wakened from the sleep
of death In due time—in the resurrec
tion. during Messiah's reign of a thou
sand years. The Prophet declares that
"Many that sleep in the dust of the
earth shall awake, some to life ever
lasting and Some to shame and lasting
contempt*' (Daniel xil. 2).
Those who will he awakened from
the sleep of death unto resurrection of
life will lie (he blessed and holy, the
saintly, who will lie associated with
Messiah.in the Kingdom work for the
blessing and uplifting of the non-elect.
Those who will be awakened from the
sleep of death to shame and age-last
ing contempt will ho the non-elect
world. Their shame will lie in propor
tion as they have enjoyed light, knowl
edge and opportunity and hnve failed
rightly to appreciate aud use these.
They will have contempt from their
fellows, in proportiou as their short
comings of the present time will be
showu up. Many highly esteemed
amongst men will be awakened to that
shame and age-lastiug contempt. But
their case will not lie a hopeless one.
Much of their weakness and derelic
tion were the result of Adam's trans
gression and the sinful conditions
which have resulted, including unfa
vorable environment. God has pro
vided in Christ redemption for all from
the sins and weaknesses resulting
from Adam's disobedience and thus
the eutire race of Adam is guaranteed
an individual trial under favorable
conditions—for life everlasting or
(lea Hi everlasting.
All who will render obedience to the
hwi and regulations of Messiah's
Kingdom will begin to rise np. up. up.
oat of their fallen, degraded condition
of sin. and be brought back to all that
was lost in Adam and redeemed at
Calvary, in proportion as they will
retrace their steps and come back into
Divine fellowship their .shame will de
crease nnd their contempt also. Final
ly in the consummation of that age all
who will may have attained full res
toration and regeneration and free
dom from shame and contempt. The
unwlliing and disobedient and rebel
lious will be destroyed in the Second
Death—"twice dead, plucked up by the
roots''—without hope of uny further
resurrection or restitution.
"Comfort With Theso Words."
St Paul urges that Christians should
not be ignorant concerning those who
are asleep—that they "sorrow not even
as others who have no hope." It is
bad enough to think of millions of the
heathen as being totally extinct, hope
lessly dead, without any prospects of
a resurrection. Tho same would be
true respecting our neighbors and
friends, parents and children, brothers
and sisters, who are not saintly, who
are not in "Christ Jesus." who are not
walking after the Spirit, who are not
heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus
Christ our Lord. And if it would be
a sore trial tb think of them as utter
ly destroyed In death and without hope
of resuscitation, resurrection, how
much worse would it have been when,
in our misunderstanding of God's plans,
we thought of them as being in either
Purgatory or eternal torture. Such a
false conception of the Divine plans is
even worse than to believe them with
out hope and extinct.
The Apostle proceeds to point out the
basis of this hope in these words. "If
we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring (from the dead)
with (by) hlm" (I Thessalonians iv, 14).
So, then, the Apostle declares, the
resurrection hope is the Christian hope,
and the basis of the hope of this resur
rection is that Jesus died Chat he might
be man's ransomer—that he arose from
the dead that he might be the great
Deliverer of mankind, the Prophet.
Priest and King of God, and that he
might gather to himself the elect
Church, the Bride, the Lamb's Wife,
as his joint-heir.
Christians, of course, in thinking of
the resurrection of the dead, would pri
marily, chiefly, consider their dear
ones of the household of faith: hence
the Apostle continues his argument,
saying, that those of the Church liviug
at the time of the Second Advent will
not precede or hinder those members
of the Church who have died during
the past centuries, for the dead in
Christ shall arise first—shall be awak
ened first from the sleep of death.
"Them That Sleep In Jesus."
1Ye cannot think thnt the Apostle re
fers merely to the Church in this case,
for uniformly. In speaking of the resur
rection of the dead, he refers both to
the Church and to the world, the
"resurrection of the just and of the
unjust." So in this case he evidently
refers both to the Church and to the
world as "asleep in Jesus." The ex
pression will be noted ns different from
another one of his respecting those
who "sleep in Christ." The latter ex
pression evidently refers to the Church
as the glorified members of The Christ.
But in speaking of those asleep in
Jesus he evidently has reference to the
whole world of maukind. The whole
world died In Adam without having a
voice in the matter of their birth or
trial or condemnation. "Condemnation
came upon all because of one man's
disobedience." Likewise justification
is to pass upon all of our race through
the precious merit of Christ's sacrifice.
The fact that he "died, the just for the
unjust." constitutes his death a satis
faction price for the sins of the whole
world.
From this standpoint, therefore, the
whole world not only died in Adam,
but now sleeps or waits unconsciously
for a resurrectiou of the dead through
the merit of our Redeemer's sacrifice.
If we believe that Christ died for our
sins and laid the foundation thus for
his great work of blessing the world of
mankiud. Including the Church, the
first-fruits, let us believe also that
God who began his good work will not
stop until be shall have brought forth
judgment unto victory—until all the re
deemed world shall be brought to a
knowledge of the Redeemer and of the
Heavenly Father aud to an opportunity
for life everlasting through obedience.
The world died in Adam—"In Adam nil
die." Jesus is the Redeemer of the
world "Even so all in Christ shall be
onde alive."
The message has reached the Church
only, as yet. In due time it will reach
every member of the race. The Church
is ulreaay reckonedly quickened from
the dead by the holy Spirit and will
shortly be born from the dead fu the
"First Resurrection." The world,
therefore, from the Divine standpoint
is not dead in Adam now. but merely
asleep iu Jesus, waiting for the glori
ous time wheu. his Kingdom establish
ed, lie shall call all mankiud from the
prison-house of death, from the tomb,
that each may learn to the full of the
grace of God in Christ, and have op
portunity for attaining life everlasting.
These are the words in which we are
to comfort oue another—words of hope
respecting the resurrection of the dead,
botli tlie just and the unjust—words of
sympathy, words of assurance, words
that show that (bid is better than all
our fears: that yet in a little while
he that shall come will establish his
Kingdom—first tlie Church in glory
nnd secondly Israel and all the fam
ilies of the earth through them. Every
thing connected with the Divine mes
»age is full of hope, full of eucourage
' inent. full, of blessing, to these Iu the
ronditlon to receive It.
LI
FARROWING OR PASTURE PEN
Illustration Shows Such a Structure
That Answers Requirements
In Ideal Mannar.
Mr. Walter S. Prickett, manager
and owner of the Roycroft farm at
Sidnaw, Mich., has a farrowing pen
which answers the requirements of
such a structure in an ideal manner.
He calls it the "Berkshire bungalow."
7
Farrowing or Pasture Pen.
It would certainly be hard to surpass
the Roycroft plan for attractiveness
and general usefulness. The accom
panying drawing indicates the general
plan of the cot. The dimensions of
all cots are so near standard that it
will hardly necessitate the repetition
of these figures here. The main
points of difference in the "bunga
low" as compared with other pens
are; The center board on each side
are hinged so that they can be swung
open in hot weather; the ridge cap
is so mounted that it can be raised
and lowered at will, thus further as
sisting in the ventilation of th« pen
and the roof boards are made into
panels which may be raised or lower
ed over a window fram which is in
place just below them. This last ar
rangement permits of making the pen
into a hothouse whenever desired.
The pen certainly has about as many
adjustments on it as one could wish
for. It is, moreover, one of the most
attractive pens built. Its main ob
jection is perhaps that the cost of
construction is somewhat higher than
is the case with more simple and
less convenient types.
CURING HORSE OF KICKING
Harness Devised by Two Missouri
Men Teaches Animal Futility of
Trying for Own Way.
Sooner or later domesticated ani
mals learn that they cannot have
their own way, but must bow to the
. To Cure Kicking Horse.
law of humans. Every once in
awhile, however, there is born a
horse who thinks he is entitled to
his own opinion, and his favorite
way of asserting himself is in kick
ing the dashboard to bits. Two Mis
souri men have devised a harness
which is warranted to cure this habit.
Straps cross the horses back and
breast and at their junctions are fas
tened the ends of ropes which engage
the fetlocks of the animal's hind legs
In running loops. The other end of
the ropes are fastened to staples in
the horse's stall or to some other sta
tionary object in front of which he is
tied. The result is tjiat when a horse
is trussed up in this manner, if he
tries to kick he find he cannot get his
hind feet beyond a pertain point, and
after making a number of in effectual
efforts he becomes discouraged. If
he is a particularly bad kicker he
can be goaded Into making these at
tempts until his spirit is broken in
that respect
Care of Horses.
As the busy season closes and the
horses are idle more of the time, give
them less grain feed and only twice
each day, while they are not working.
Give all of the horses the run of some
field or pasture when they are Idle.
The exercise and fresh air alone will
do them good. The horse, above all
other domestic animals, needs abun
dance of exercise to harden the mus
cles.
Barley for Hogs.
Canadian experimenters have found
that barley is the best grain for finish
ing the prime bacon hog. As long as
bacon hogs are not selling as high aB
fat hogs in this country, however, our
feeders will stick to corn. It's good
enough for the market hog. and it
makes him good enough for the mar
iket.
THE IDAHO BAKERY
' The new management of this place wishes
to announce that they are remodeling i
= everything and preparing to do =
[J Baking of the Highest Quality y
f ™al order Otto Meyerding, Prop. (
aaiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiniiiiiiiico
Winter Goods Now In.
We handle two of the best brands
of rubber goods .
"HOODS" and
"SHAW MUT"
Most complete line of Men's and
Boy's Winter Caps
-vr ■ '■ ■■ ■ ...... .........
Shelley Mercantile Co.
The Celebrated
Eclipse
Pumps
Engines
Windmills
Wagons
Buggies
Implem'nts
Estimates Furnished on all Kinds of Pumping Plants
C. F. HENDRIE
At Bond Bros. Office
- Blackfoot, Idaho
*9
V
Posts the Farmer on Market Conditions
No useless trips to town for the progressive farmer. His
Bell Telephone saves him all that.
The latest market conditions are his, and he waits till market
conditions are right before shipping produce.
THE BELL TELEPHONE
is as necessary to the up-to-the minute farmer as are modern
agricultural implements. He must have both.
Consult our local management and join the
ever increasing host of farmers who are BELL
TELEPHONE subscribers.
Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone
COMPANY
But
fepHtmi*:
Money to Loan on
Improved Farms
IDAHO IRRIGATED LANDS CO.
Pure Vegetable Parchment ,
Butter Wrappers At This Office
Accept No Others