Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1914 — MORNING COMEST! AWAKE! ARISE! [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MORNING COMEST! AWAKE! ARISE!

Majority of Humans Piss Through Life as If Asleep. Some Asleep In Death—Others Asleep In Ignorance and Superstition—Still Others Asleep In Worldlinasa —Soma Christians Half-aaleep—The Awakening of the Soul—Mental Eyes Opening to Soo Things In a New Light.

May 24.—Pastor Russell, whose Photo - Drama of Creation is awakening new zeal in Bible study everywhere it is presented, preached today from the text “Awake, thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee fight”—Eph. 5:14.

The Pastor holds that the majority of humanity pass through life in a dreamy state, thinking about trivialities—what to eat, what to wear, where to go, etc.—rather than about things pertaining to God and the future life. This state of mental inactivity, he declared, has been brought about by Adam's disobedience to the Divine command. Our first parents sinned; and their posterity shared with them the penalty, “Dying, thbu shalt die.” Bht God foreknew the fall of man, and purposed to redeem the human family from death, the speaker declared. In the Divine Program Jesus was the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. Therefore when communicating with those who believe His Word, God always speaks of death as a sleep. The Awakening of the Soul. The Pastor discussed his theme in three divisions: the awakening of the world now, the awakening of the Christian, and the future awakening of humanity during the Messianic Kingdom. There is a time, he claimed, when men begin to think of God and the world to come. Before that time some had been steeped in sin; Others had lived merely for the things of the present. But somehow or other they began to realize that they were sinners under Divine sentence. Perhaps they got the right view—that the sentence was one of death; but usually they got the wrong one—that it was a sentence of eternal torment

The majority of children, the Pastor declared, reach this crisis between the ages of twelve and fifteen years. At that period there is a great change in human nature, and therefore it is a most advantageous time for spiritual growth. The speaker dwelt upon the duties of parents and teachers. While from the very beginning of its existence the child should be trained in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, yet both parent and teacher should be especially alert with children at this most favorable time for opening their mental eyes to look beyond the trivialities of the present life to the higher things pertaining to the life to come.

. “Arise From the Dead.” The Pastor pointed out the fallacy of the belief that the young must “sow wild oats,” and regretted that even Christian parents seemed imbued with this erroneous idea. According to the Scriptures, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” The child mind should ever be kept near the Divine standard. Those awake to a sense of responsibility to their Creator should arise from the dead condition as far as possible, the Pastor holds. As when one awakens In the morning there is a mental freshness which is invariably lost if one falls asleep again, so the moment of this soul’s awakening is a favorable time of which to take advantage. If the soul receives no encouragement at that moment, it may drop asleep again. “Christ Shall Give Theo Light." Those who have awakened are approaching righteousness, the Pastor declared. The Scriptures represent the dead as being down. Those who arise from the dead become upright in character, in desire. But merely to awake to a realisation of One’s condition is not to become a Christian. While Christ gave the light which enabled one to see that the wages of sin is death, and that the gift of God is life through the Redeemer, yet the newly awakened must accept Christ as their Ransom-sacrifice and lay hold upon Him before they may be considered Christians. The Pastor explained that we do not become Christians,. members of the Body of Christ, when first we awake or when first we arise from the dead. We are merely awakening to see that harmony with God anjl escape from condemnation for sin are possible. An 8t Paul intimates, from the moment we get into Christ we pass from under the Adamic condemnation. No one can have an individual trial until he is freed from that condemnation. A mere realization of one’s condition does not constitute a trial for life. Only the Church are now on trial. For nearly nineteen. hundred yean the judgment of the Church has progressed. The first to be tried was the Head of the Church—our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ He was found worthy and was glorified. All through y»e Gospel Age the Individual memben have been tried. Soon the trial of the Church will have been finished.

PASTOR RUSSELL