Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1915 — WHY SEVEN WOMEN DESIRE ONE HUSBAND [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WHY SEVEN WOMEN DESIRE ONE HUSBAND

A Symbolical Bible Picture of Present-Day Religious Conditions ■ - -•- Woman a Symbol of the Ohurch—Jewish Marriage Typical of the Union of Christ and His Church—The True Church a Betrothed Virgin “The Marriage of the Lamb” —Who Are the Seven Women? —Who is the One Man? —Why He Turns From Them.

Rochester, N. Y., April 18. —Pastor Russell’s text today was, •'Seven women shall take hold of one Man in that Day, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by Thy name, totake away our reproach.”— Isaitfh 4:1.

The Pastor showed that throughout the Scriptures a woman is the symbol of the Church—a pure woman of a pure Church, a corrupt woman of a false Church. Our Lord compared the true Church in the end of the Gospel Age to a company of virgins—some wise and some foolish —and Himself to the bridegroom. St. Paul amplifies the figure, declaring, “I have espoused you [the consecrated Church] as a chaste virgin unto one husband, which is Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2.) Here, as in our Lord’s parable of the Ten Virgins, the Jewish marriage is set forth as typical of the union between Christ and the Church—a very different figure from our marriage custom. In olden time, when a betrothal took place, legal binding documents were signed by or for the contracting parties; but no actual marriage occurred for about a year. While waiting for the bridegroom to take her to his own house, the espoused virgin , was expected to be as faithful to her espousal as is now expected of any true wife. We see the harmony between this custom and our Lord’s dealings with His Church. No one Is espoused to our Lord who has not entered into a definite contract with Him. The Lord’s part of this contract is the assurance through the Scriptures that if faithful the Church shall be His joint-heir in His Millennial Kingdom. The Church’s part is a covenant of consecration, loyalty even unto death. The interim between our personal acceptance of our Lord’s gracious promises by a full consecration of our all to Him and His service until we actually die corresponds to the betrothal period of the Jewish maiden. But the more exllct fulfilment of the figure is found in the history of the Church as a whole. Our Lord’s virgin Church was espoused to Him at Pentecost, and has since been waiting for the Bridegroom’s coming and her resurrection change to glory, honor and Immortality—the union, the marriage, j “Seven Women In That Day.” Then the Pastor proceeded to explain the meaning of his text.- The number seven is well recognized throughout the Scriptures as a Symbol of completeness; and so it may here signify all the churches of this world—excluding the true Church, which is not of this world, and which does not follow its course. We have come to the time when all the various sects and denominations feel the reproach of their situation, brought about by the confusion of doctrines amongst the different branches of Churchianity. The heathen are inquiring how it comes that there are so many kinds of Christians and that they all get their various theories out of the same Book. This is a reproach that Is keenly felt by the leading minds of all denominations. The one Man of the text very properly represents our Lord, the Heavenly Bridegroom. The text signifies that all the nominal churches have come to the place where they desire to be called merely the churches of Christ, but wish nothing more to do with Him. They desire to hold their sectarian names, but they wish also to be called Christians—their chief asset For the doctrines of Christ they care nothing; and for any thought of redemption and covering of sins through the merit of His blood they care nothing. They desire merely His name. Not So With the True Church. The more these women desire to eat their own bread and to wear apparel of their own furnishment, the more will the true ones of the Lord’s people amongst them find that they have neither lot nor part there. The true Church does not wish to eat her own bread; she desires the Bread from Heaven. She does not prefer her own theories, her own plans of salvation, but that which God has providedthings new and old from the Storehouse of -Divine Truth. Neither does she desire to wear her own apparel; for she has come to understand that all her righteousness is as filthy rags. More and more is the true Church learning to appreciate the robe given her by the Heavenly Bridegroom—the wedding garment. More and more does she trust in the merit of her Redeemer, the covering of whose Justification was symbolized by the skiqs of the sacrifice given to Adam and Eve as the covering of their nakedness.