WHEN THE NATIONS WILL SEEK GOD “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.”—Acts 17:27. New Testament evidences on this subject of seeking the Lord give the thought that not very many are in the condition of heart to seek him at the present time. “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the glorious light of the Gospel of Christ” and the faith of Jesus should shine into their hearts. (2 Cor. 4:4) Nevertheless, as the- Apostle puts it, God is “not far from every one of us,” and every one who will seek or feel after him, he will be pleased to bless by a manifestation of himself. In fact, this is the very object of this present Gospel age—to find, to enlighten, to bless and to gather into a special class thoxe who “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Those who thus seek after the Lord he guides, draws, influences. He leads them to the Lord Jesus Christ, pointing to him as the necessary way by which they may approach himself and assuring them that there is no other name given whereby they can be saved (Acts 4:12), and that all who will come unto him through Christ will be accepted. Such as do come in this way, we have proven from our own experiences and the experiences of others, as well as from the Word, are met half way by the Lord. “Draw nigh unto me, and I will draw nigh unto you.” (Jas. 4:8) And as they draw nigh and continue to approach closer by God’s grace, they are brought by and by to a full realization that God is willing to aecept them as sacrificers, as “members of the body of Christ.” If they fall into line with the divine provision and present their bodies a living sacrifice, they will be looked upon as holy. acceptable to God (Rom, 12:1); they will recognize the “high calling” to “glory and honor and immortality” with Christ. But if they fail to go on, they will thus receive the grace of God in vain.—2 Cor. 6:1. The Apostle intimates, not only in the text under consideration. hut also in his Epistle to Timothy (1 Tim, 2:4), that God wills that all men shall be saved; wills it in the sense that he will awaken them all from Adamic death and “bring them to a knowledge of the truth”; that they may be recovered entirely from all imperfections that belong to Adam’s condemnation, and thus brought fully into harmony with him, Because this is his will. he has made ample provisions—not only in the arrangement by which our Lord died on behalf of all mankind, that he might be the Ransomer of all, but also in the provision that all shall have the opportunity of Vou. XXXI BROOKLYN, N. Y., JUNE 15, 1910 BROTHER RUSSELL’S EUROPEAN TOUR — coming to this knowledge and of benefiting thereby.—Heh. 2:9. In this sermon on Mars Hill, the Apostle Paul pointed out to the men at Athens that this “unknown God,” this God who was unknown to them, is the great God who hag divided unto men their habitation and determined their bounds; that he is the supervisor of the nations; that he determines how long and under what conditions the nations may prosper and what liberties and opportunities they may have. Then he proceeds to point out that while God has for a long time lett men in ignorance and winked at many of their impertections and flagrant wrong-doings, as though he did not notice them all, nevertheless another step has now been taken in his great plan: “Now he commands all men everywhere to repent.” The Apostle further declares, J, Paul, have something to tell you about this great God and about his message—that all men everywhere should repent. Do you ask me why they should repent? I answer, for the reason that God is prepared to forgive them their sins, on this condition: He was not prepared to do this a short time ago; he was not prepared to do this until Christ died; but sinve Christ has died and ascended up on high and “appeared in the presence of God for us’—for believers—God is now willing to accept any who come unto him through Jesus. It is proper, therefore, that I should tell you that there is to be an opportunity of future life through him. And, furthermore, it is proper that I should tell you also that “God has appointed a Day [the great Millennial period ] in which he will judge [try] the world in righteousness.” The whole world will then have a trial, a righteous trial, a fair, impartial trial, a full opportunity “to come unto the knowledge of the truth’; to come to a knowledge of right and wrong, a full opportunity to come to perfection of human life and to attain all that was lost in the fall of man. (Luke 19:10) This message should, as far as possible, be made known to all men everywhere. because every act of their lives will have a bearing upon the future; it will either uplift them to some extent out of the depths of degradation into which the world has been plunged through ignorance and superstition and bring a development cf character, or it will condemn them and bring a measure of retribution, and thus make the conditions of the future more difficult than they would be if righteousness were sought. No. 12 [SEC. II.—ROME AND HOMEWARD BOUND] Sunday, May Ist, was spent in Rome. We had a public service which indicated the deep interest of the comparatively few present. Possibly as many grains of wheat were found as though the meeting had been larger. “The Lord knoweth them that are his.” On the whole, however, the meeting was quite a disappointment and came far from fulfilling the prophesy made respecting the large attendance—based upon what were supposed to he very liberal arrangements for a large central auditorium and very liberal advertising. The dear brother who had the matter in charge no doubt used his best judgment, but his experience in such matters was limited. We spelled our disappointment with an “HH,” and trusted that the Lord could and would overrule the matter according to his own wisdom. We hope to hear of further interest on the part of some present on that oceasion. Our text was from Romans 1:16. We had no appointment at Venice or Vienna, and went on to Warsaw, Russia. There we had a very enjovable time with the class of about twenty. Brothers Rutherford and Koetitz accompanied us, and the latter served as interpreter. The very closest attention was given while we endeavored to show forth various features of present truth—especially did we emphasize the doctrine of the ransom. We especially endeavored to make clear how that Jesus gave himself sacrificially to the Father and what he laid down of earthly right was the ransom price, which, in due time. at the end of this age he will make over to justice on behalf of “the sins of all the people.” We showed that this has not vet been done. that the world still “lieth in the Wicked One,” and are children of wrath, and that only the church has escaped. We pointed out that the restitution blessings which are to go to the world verv shortly. are not the blessings which we seek who hope to be of the bride-class. and to attain the spirit nature, and joint-heirship with our Lord. We pointed out that the ransom-price, not vet paid over, is in the hands of justice, to our Redeemer’s credit, and that during this Gospel age [4629] he imputes the merit of his sacrifice to all who become his footstep followers. To these he imputes a sufficiency of merit to cover their blemishes that thus their sacrifices may he acceptable. On the basis of this imputation the sacrifices are acceptable with the Father, as saith the Apostle (Romans 12:1), “We beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ve present vour bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” We spoke to the dear friends for about four hours, had luncheon with them, and took the night train for Berlin. At Berlin we had a similarly interesting season of fellowship with the friends of the truth. We had a social dinner together—about two hundred. Suhsequently we addressed them for nearly two hours, the topic being the same as at Warsaw. Then came a social tea generally participated in, and later our evening meeting, which was well attended. Many of the friends accompanied us to the railway station, bidding us good bye as we departed for the German Branch office at Barmen. We had an enjovable season at Barmen for nearly two days. speaking to the dear friends for nearly seven hours in all. One service was for the public and was attended by nearly 800, many of whom manifested deep interest. The meetings of the chureh varied in number, as not all were able to attend all the mectings. on account of business and other obligations. Here again we emphasized the Atonement for sin, and showed the work of the Mediator between God and men during the Millennial age to be wholly based upon the meritorious sacrifice of our Redeemer, begun at Jordan and finished at Calvary We pointed out the gracious arrangement whereby the merit of that sacrifice is imputed to us who accept the divine invitation to become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ to the heavenly inheritance, and in the work of blessing all the families of the earth, as the Seed of Abraham. We endeavored to make very plain that the merit of the (190-195)
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