Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1915 — HEAVENS SHAKING AND EARTH QUAKING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HEAVENS SHAKING AND EARTH QUAKING

"The Day of the Lord Is Great and Vary TerriWa” Thus Beginthe Experiences of "the Day of Jehovah" —Preparing For the Now Heavens and the New Earth. Knowledge Gives Strength end Protection — Ignorance of God's Truth Disastrous —Millennial Morn Dawns.

Jan. 10.—Pastor Russell spoke today on the disturbed social condition of the world. His text was, “The heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of His people.”—Joel3:l6. It was pointed out that the shak-

ing heavens are not the Divine abodes but a symbolic representation of present day ecclesiasticlsm. For some time the stars, or bright ones, have been falling. There Is a great shaking or confusion now operating in ecclesiastical circles. It will progress until, as St. Peter figuratively declares, “the heavens shall take fire”—be consumed, cease to be, leaving the way clear for the “new Heavens," the ecclesiastical system of the Millennium, which will be the glorified Church, invisible to men. but elothed with Divine Power for the blessing of mankind, for their release from ignorance and superstition and their uplift for a thousand years, for return to the image and likeness of God. lost In Eden, redeemed at Calvary. The shaking of earth referred to by our Lord and the Apostles signifies revolutions that are expected to follow immediately the present European war. If the Pastor understands the Bible teaching correctly on this matter, this great symbolic earthquake, which will eventuate In anarchy, will reach its culmination first in Italy. However, this will not be merely a sectional shaking. The whole earth, the entire social fabric, will be shaken; and everything In it that Is not of a permanent character —not in harmony with Divine Justice, Mercy and Truth —will be shaken loose. In the symbolic language of St Peter, the earth, society, also shall take fire and pass away, in the fire of anarchy. "Blood, Fire and Pillars of Smoko.” Joel’s prophecy, referring to this time, points specifically to the “blood, fire and pillars of smoke” which we see already beginning in Europe. More than a million men of the flower of Europe, in the bloom of life, have shed their blood. The explosion of tons of powder and the burning of cities and villages is surely a fire in the earth, the like of which never occurred before in the same space of time. Everywhere pillars of smoke are rising—from the battlefield, from burning vil lages, and from funeral pyres whereon the dead, too numerous to bury, are burned. How much more blood, smoke and pillars of fire there will be we can only surmise The Pastor had courage to speak of these terrible things only because of his full confidence that behind this dark cloud is the glad sunrise of the New Day—the Day of Messiah. With such a glorious hope beyond it —the hope of the Church’s glorification In the First Resurrection and of the world’s Millennial blessing—God’s true people everywhere can lift up their heads and rejoice, evun as their Great Teacher, eighteen centuries ago, prophesied that they would do. Perishing For Lack of Knowledge. Many of God’s true people have been in ignorance of His real Character and Plan because stupefied by the false doctrines of the Dark Ages. They have not studied their Bibles aright. On the contrary, many of them have been “overcharged with the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of. riches,” and have been unfruitful in respect to their character-development and their knowledge of God. The deceitfulness of riches does not signify that merely the rich are thus deceived. The great mass of humanity are under the lure of riches, spending earthly attainments, time, strength of mind and body, searching for earthly wealth, but getting little. In the distressing time impending, some of these will see their mistake and wish that they had been more alert in laying up Heavenly riches— knowledge of the Bible, of God, and character-development in His likeness. To sjjch the old familiar hymn will have new meaning—

"When all around my soul gives way. Ha then is all my Hope and Stay.” Our Adventist friends are not the only ones who have paade the mistake of thinking tlfait the are and the shaking of earth and heaven are merely literal. Practically all the creeds of Orthodoxy give this misinterpretation. It is now time that our eyes of under£idlng should open. New that the fang and the are have begun, it is high time that we should see that “the earth abideth forever."’ There is no reason why it should be destroyed, nor why humanity should be destroyed off the earth. God’s purposes have not yet been accomplished. Yea, the Divine Plan is only in its infancy. Hominity has learned only its arst lesson—“the exceeding sinfulifess of sin.” The second lesson, the matchless brilliancy of virtue, will be given during (he Messianic Rdgn. _