Jasper County Democrat, Volume 16, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1914 — BROOKLYN TABERNACLE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BROOKLYN TABERNACLE

good confession vs. bad confession. Luke 12:1-12 Feb. 22. “ WAo«oer«r shall confess Me before men, him •hall the Sos of Man also confess before the angels of God.—V. 8. H LARGE crowd surrounded the Savior, anxious to hear Him. Jesus addressed His disciples, saying, “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” Here, as elsewhere in His teachings. Jesus used leaven as a symbol of an evil influence. We know not one instance in which leaven is used to represent Anything good or pure. Jesus declared that the hypocrisies practised by the Pharisees were leaven, sin, contaminating. His disciples should be honest, sincere, pure, free from cant and deception. He declared that ultimately all hypocrisies and sins will be uncovered. Undoubtedly He meant that during His Kingdom the secrets of mankind will be exposed. No doubt this will constitute the basis of the shame which will be the punishment of many, as foretold.

Fear Not Persecution. Jesus intimated that honesty of life would bring His followers persecution from hypocrites; but that they should not fear, even though it resulted iu their death. The

life worth considering is the everlasting one which eventually may be attained through the merit of Jesus’ sacrifice. They should have no fear of man. but fear lest they be separated from God. "Fear Him who after He hath killed hath power to cast into Hell.” The word Hell here

is Gehenna in'the Greek. Primarily, this is the name of the valley outside Jerusalem into which offal was cast for utter destruction, and into which the vilest criminals were cast after ex ecution—not to torment them, but to imply that there was no future for the wicked. Jesus used Gehenna as a type of the Second Death, the portion of all who intelligently, deliberately, sin against knowledge. As God’s people become intimately acquainted with Him and realize that He is the Friend of all who love right eousness, their love for Him increases. As God forgets not the sparrows. so He will not forget them. Even a hair of their heads could not be injured without His knowledge and permission. Everything He permits to come to His children will work out for them some blessing. ‘‘Confess Me Before Men.” Jesus' words were addressed to His disciples, not to the masses. None could deny Him who had never acknowledged Him. Whoever professes to be His disciple, and then ignores the Master’s teachings, misrepresents Him. denies Him, and will not share in the glorious presentation of the Bride, in the end of this Age. The masses, of course, were in doubt Some even derided Jesus, saying that He had a devil and was mad. The Master declared that such misunderstandings and slander were quite forgivable if done ignorantly. But when some went beyond this, and declared that His good works were accomplish ed through Satanic power, they were committing inexcusable sins, which could not be passed over. The Master’s teachings were purity Itself. His conduct. His sayings and His miracles were all good works Only wilful perversity could attribute these to Satan. The fact that they would never be forgiven does not sig nify. however, that the vilifiers were lost. They would suffer punishment proportionate to their wilfulness. If the punishments bring reformation, well and good; if not their course will eventuate in utter destruction—the Sec ond Death. Few subjects are less understood than the sin against the Holy Spirit The word spirit here stands for tntiu ence. power. The spirit of Satan is the power. Influence, adverse to God and righteousness. The spirit of Truth, the Spirit of God. the Holy Spirit, rep resents Divine influence, power. Each individual's responsibility is propor

tlonate to his en lighten men t The mentally and mor ally blind have comparatively little responsibility, be cause they do not appreciate clearly the distinctions between the spirit of Truth and the spirit of Error, the

Spirit of God and the spirit of Satan. Sin has wrought death, not merely to man’s body, but to his mind, his conscience. Ability to discern between right and wrong therefore varies. Additiobally. some have opportunities for Instruction more than others. The world in general knows not God. and hence could not sin against the Holy Spirit to a degree punishable with the Second Death. The Lord’s faithful followers werj to expect that amongst their tribulations would be false accusations which would bring them before magistrates. The disciples, usually unlearned, would feel great trepidation in the presence of educated officials. They were tc know, however, that the Lord's bless ing would be upon them, and were tc commit all to Him. Nothing in this Implies that Christian ministers should pot study their subject—2 Tim. 2:15.

The Democrat will furnish the invitation cards and envelopes for your party and print them for less than you can afford to spend the time in writing them out. Let us know how many you want and we will quote you a price that will astonish you. But we will sell you the blank cards and envelopes, if you prefer to write the invitations at a very low price. Phone 315 for prices.