Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 184, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1913 — THIRTY THOUSAND INFANTS SAVED [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THIRTY THOUSAND INFANTS SAVED

Lit the 6pod Work Continue! Says Pastor RusselL ■ ' : ■ 7”- - ' Presbyterians Lead In Theological Progress—Will Not Other Denominations Co-operate?—What Can Be Done For the Non-elect and Non- , regenerate Infants of the Past? Pastor Russell Not Able to Agree, Although Sympathetic—Hie View of the Matter as Outlined In the Bible.

London, August 3.—A Bible Students Convention has been in progress here for several days in the London Tabernacle, Lancaster Gate, W. Pastor Russell delivered two" addresses today. We report one of them, from the text, “Else were your chit-

dreu' unholy, but now are they holy.”— 1 Corinthians 7:14. The Pastor declared his text was probably the basis of much of the prevailing confusion on the subject of infant salvation and infant damnation. Before discussing his text, he wished to call attention to a very advanced theological step recently taken by the Presbyterian General Assembly in the United States. According to telegraphic dispatches, it had altered the Confession of Faith so as to save non-elect Infants as well as elect ones.

The thought that God had arranged a plan whereby some infants would go to Heaven at death, and other infants to eternal torture, for centuries troubled the minds of all Christians—Catholic and Protestant Some said that elect infants would be saved, and non-elect infants tortured. Others held that baptised infants would be saved, and other infants not baptised, or sprinkled, would go to eternal* torture. Others held that none could be saved without regeneration; and these, being perplexed as to how infants could be regenerated, could hardly have any hope-of lnfant_salvation. For centuries good people have suffered terribly because of these confused ideas. The Pastor, then showed how foolish all these theories seem when contrasted with the simple and beautiful teaching of Scripture that the salvation of all —young and old, of heathen lands as well as Christian —is through the resurrection power of Messiah’s Kingdom. He then said, Why should we trouble longer with the errors of the Dark Ages, when God’s Word is now shining so brightly? Unable to Agree. Pastor Russell declared that he felt great sympathV for the move of the Presbyterian brethren: but nevertheless, he could not agree with their conclusions, believing that the Bible teaches otherwise. He realized that the Presbyterian view of Election made it difficult for them to deal with the non-eiect, both adults and infants. He found Scriptures declaring that God is selecting the Church from amongst the world! He conceded that those not elect would properly be called non-elect. But he found nothing in the Bible to indicate that non-elec-tion to Joint-heirship In Messiah’s Kingdom means predestination to an eternity of torture

Many have been consigning adults and infants to the number of 90,000 every day (30,000 infants daily), or 82,000,000 every year, to eternal torture because non-elect, nnregenerate or unbaptlsed. Surely all intelligent people are out of accord with such a proposition. Surely some great mistake has been made during the Dark Ages, and God has been slandered. The Pastor then demonstrated that God is the very personification of Wisdom, Justice, Love and Power; whereas a God who would foreordain 32,000,000 beings per year to pass to an eternity of torture would be, not a God, but the most terrible devil Imaginable. Bible students are realizing that the Bible teaches nothing of the kind we once supposed. As their eyes of understanding open, they appreciate the Divine character as never before. All Condemned Need Redemption. After reminding his hearers that according to Scripture we are saved by faith, not by being infants, the Pastor showed conclusively from the Bible that although Infants share In Adam’s death sentence and have provision In Jesus’ redemptive work, nevertheless they can be saved only by coming to a knowledge God and Jesus, and then exercising faith and obedience to the extent of ability. His position seems ondebatable. Tlie speaker then reviewed the Bible teaching that all mankind sinned in Adam, and came under the Divine curse, or sentence of death—not eternal torment “In due time Christ died for the ungodly”—those who lived before His crucifixion and those born fdnee. Because of this general redemption, co-cxtenslve with the curse, there is to be a resurrection out of sin and death conditions back to perfection of life. Only those who intelligently reject this grace of God will die the Secend Death. Meantime, all—lnfants and adults—at death go to Sheol. Hades, the there to await the resurrection Morning—Messiah’s Kingdom. Then toe dead shall come forth from the tomb—“every man in bis own order,"