Vol. III.

NEW YORK CITY

Np. 13.

PASTOR RUSSELL HEARD FROM

I have little to add to the interview you published last October. I then explained matters quite fully. I have many Christian friends who know me personally and through my books on Bible study, and through my sermons which reach ten millions of readers weekly.

I remind you briefly of the facts: A most excellent and noble wife became mentally poisoned by “Women’s rights.” When I refused to allow such ideas a place in my journal, The Watch Tower, she became my bitterest enemy. First she tried to coerce me. This failing she since seeks to destroy my influence. Yet never was a wife more kindly treated. Our property by mutual consent was all devoted to the Lord’s cause whilst we were in fullest accord. Provision was made merely for the necessities of life for both of us. When she changed her mind she demanded the money we had devoted to God’s cause. I paid her forty dollars per month. She appealed to the courts for more money. However, that is all settled, for in 1909 during my absence in Europe preaching, five of my friends, all men, made up a purse of $10,000, settled with Mrs. Russell and took her receipts for five-years’ allowances ordered by the court, which they knew I had not means to pay.

What about Rose Ball going to Australia?

Why, of course, she did not stay a child in short dresses all the time. She married and went to Australia with her husband! Remember, this is quite ancient history which the Eagle considers news. Twenty years ago Rose kissed my wife and me every night when she retired. And she did this at my wife’s suggestion. It was at that time that she came crying to me and sat on my knee to tell her troubles—as to a father.

THE END OF THE WORLD A FALSE THEORY

Text'.—"Ana theAngei swore.. . that ike time should be no longer [delayed}.''—Rev. io:^ 7.

OUR TEXT, with other Scriptural statements respecting the end of the world (for instance, St. Peter’s statement, “The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved”), have led Christians in general to accept the theory that God has decreed that shortly, or at some time, our earth is to be burned. The early Church expected and prayed for the second coming of Messiah, to establish the Kingdom of righteousness, to overthrow sin and to release mankind from its bondage and weakness and from the power of death, and thus to bless the whole earth, restoring all things to the glorious condition represented in miniature in Eden: man in perfection, with a Paradise home.—Acts 3: 19-21.

But as centuries passed without the manifestation of Messiah’s Kingdom, those expectations yielded to another suggestion, namely, that Jesus had not meant what had been understood, but meant that the Church should convert the world, under His supervision, during a period of a thousand years, and that then He would come and give their work His stamp of approval and wind things up by taking all the saintly to heaven, setting fire to the earth to entirely consume it.

Catholics and Protestants Much Confused.

Both Catholics and Protestants have been operating in harmony with this erroneous thought. Catholics claim that the Kingdom of Messiah was set up long ago and that the popes and cardinals are representatives of Jesus and the Church. They claim that the Pope is Christ’s Vice-gerent—that is to say, He reigns instead of Christ, as His representative. They claim that “the thousand years” is already in the past, since 1799, and that we are now in the “little season” mentioned in Rev. 20: 3, in which Satan was to be

Tfje IJtble fkttlients jUontljlp

PUBLISHED AT 82 BEEKMAN ST., NEW YORK CITY C. W. HEK, Editor.

Monthly, 12c. a Year. Single Copies, 1c.

PASTOR RUSSELL HEARD FROM

(Continued from page 1.)

Did you ever purpose or your wife’s incarceration as a

Never! On one occasion I to a mutual friend that so change—from being a most

threaten lunatic? did say great a devoted

An Independent, Unsectarian Religious Newspaper, Specially Devoted to the Forwarding of the Laymens Home Missionary Movement for the Glory of God and Good of Humanity.

MAN AND THE WORLD,

A Very Small Graveyard Would Hold the Whole Human Family.

“How little mankind figures in the scheme of nature is shown by a rather morose calculation of the Italian Professor Zuccarini, who has figured out, among other things, that estimating the world’s population as 1,500,000,000 the whole human race at present living could stand comfortably shoulder to shoulder in an area of 500 square miles.

“Taking the number of generations in the past 6,000 years as 200, the room taken up by them all on the above plan would be only half the size of Germany, or for the sake of comparison, less than the area of the state of Colorado. To bury all the people on earth would need a graveyard little larger than that area.

“If the dust left by each body be estimated at one-tenth cubic yard,

wife to be so bitter an enemy—seemed so inexplicable that I wondered if it could be the effect of “change of life” —which for a time quite upset <5ne of her relatives, as it does many women. I am still perplexed!

United States Investment Co., Limited.

Asked what he knew about this concern Pastor Russell said: I know all about it. It is a little “Holding Company” of $1000 capital. All business people will understand. It is perfectly legal every way. I was one of the incorporators in the interest of the Bible and Tract Society. I have

not one dollar invested in it; nor have tieen even nominally connected with

I it

for many years.

Philanthropic Cemetery Scheme.

The Eagle mentions a Cemetery

scheme in which you made money, and it implies fraud. Will you throw a little light on that, please, Pastor Russell?

Surely! To denounce that as a fraud is like the charging of Jesus with being Beelzebub! That Cemetery has been a Godsend to many. It is now selling family burying plots for $15.00,

such

as the other cemeteries ask

which cover depth tainly

is a liberal estimate, it would only forty square miles to a of about three feet. This cer-seems insignificant compared

with the great coral reefs and other

immense deposits built up by shells of tiny infusoria.”—N. Y.

the Sun.

WHERE CENTENARIANS COME FROM.

$150 for.

Is there anything fraudulent about that? Is it not philanthropic? Would not the people of Brooklyn be delighted to have such a beautiful Cemetery near them and to be able to purchase lots for $15 each? I so believe! How glad we would be if such a philanthropy were inaugurated in every large city! The original thought included the furnishing of caskets, embalming, funeral car (for casket and pall-bearers) and cemetery plot, all for about

Germany, with a population 55,000,000, has 80 centenarians, one

of in

700,000 of its population; England, with a population of 28,000,000, has 146, one in- 200,000; France, with a population of 40,000,000, has 213, one in 200,000; Spain, with a population of 18,000,000, has 410, one in 45,000; the United States, with a population of 90,000,000, has 3,600, one in 25,000; while Bulgaria, with a population of less than 4,000,000, has 3,883 cente-

narians, or,one

The race is proportion as Bulgaria is a fortunately the

to the thousand.

losing its stamina in it becomes civilized, civilized nation, but

people of that country

have clung tenaciously to the habits of their ancestors, and still subsist on

I have not now and never did have any money invested in the enterprise. I merely gave advice. I advised that several ministers be made Directors to hold office for life, and that these represent various denominations not possessing denominational burying grounds. Rev. Witherspoon, Rev. Young, Bishop Whitehead and myself were chosen. If I gave the cemetery more attention and counsel than some others it was probably because it appealed to me more than to them, as helpful to many in their time of distress. If there is anything dishonorable in the matter I fail to see it. Even though I removed from Pittsburgh I did not resign my Directorship, but still keep in touch

the same simple natives of their years ago.

Yoghour t Is

fare as did the hardy mountains a thousand

still their national

with the Cemetery. I would to be associated with a local the same kind, to the extent other duties would permit.

be glad work of that my

dish. This preparation, according to the researches of Tissier, Grigoroff, Metchnikoff and others, contains the friendly bacteria which are capable of driving out of the intestines the disease-producing germs which, by producing putrefaction and other changes in the food, generate poisons which harden the arteries and thus

produce Health.

premature old age.—Good

LUNACY

ON THE INCREASE IN THE GERMAN ARMY.

Dr. Krausse of Berlin, a military surgeon, has provoked widespread astonishment by his statement, bristling with statistics, that cases of lunacy in the German army and navy have doubled in the last twenty years.

“Dr. Krausse the increase is

says that in the army due to the enormously

greater demand on soldiers’ brains and

simultaneously durance. In th.

on their physical en-j navy it is due to the

rapid changes in the climate during long voyages, to excessive heat and the mental work required in modern naval warfare.

“Five in a hundred of the German troops fighting the natives in southeast Africa suffer from mental collapse, the highest percentage ever known.”—N. Y. World.

Pastor Emeritus at Pittsburgh.

The Eagle says that your work at Pittsburgh never amounted to much and implies that you have no friends or influence there now. How about that?

If that were true it would merely corroborate Jesus’ words, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own city.” But I fear that I cannot thus claim to be a great teacher, for I have both friends and honor there. The Bible House Congregation, of which I was Pastor for several years, still holds me as its Pastor Emeritus. And I have a standing invitation to come whenever possible. Any Sunday if word were sent I would have a congregation of 600 to 800. And very few Protestant preachers there have so many any time. And few, after being gone for years, would be much more than “remembered.”

But the Eagle is so prejudiced that it sees crowds only when they go to hear its ministerial favorites and then it sees double or treble or quadruple. For instance, when it got hold of an “English Preacher” willing to help it down Pastor Russell, the Eagle showed its great “influence” and “advertising

value.” It “boomed”

gave lengthy reports and the “Reverend” and his

‘gospel of spite” and reported “large

audiences,”

when there were but 225

MINO BLANK FORTY YEARS.

The Victim of Explosion Is Dazzled by Modern Inventions.

“Waking as if from a long dream, John William Exline, whose mind was made blank by an explosion forty years ago, is now trying to reconcile present day conditions with the world as he remembers it.

“Forty years ago Exline was a sawyer in a mill at Findlay, O. An

and they dwindled to 20. On the other hand, when I have spoken at the Brooklyn Academy of Music to a packed house of 2300 and many turned away, the Eagle report implied that it was insignificant. No great newspaper could afford to be so careless of the truth; its managers would know that

the public would sooner or later the facts.

Not prejudices, but facts, are the public expect of newspapers, then do they specially care for

learn

what

Nor facts

of 20 years ago to be misrepresented. President Lincoln truly said, “You can

explosion wrecked the mill and injured all of the employes. Exline was hurled                   ------ ------- -------

many feet, picked up unconscious, and,' fool all the people some of the time, ”               and some of the people all the time,

after hovering many

days between

life and death, recovered from bodily ailments, but was mentally deranged.

“Now his mind has cleared and he Is dazzled and amazed by telephones, automobiles and aeroplanes. To him all three are almost beyond belief. His astonishment is childlike.”—N. Y. NVorld.

but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” We commend that to the Eagle as sound advice, good to be taken in large doses if it hopes ever to recover from its present bilious spell.

The. Eagle publishes letters showing that it is not your only enemy. I

presume you knew you have more?

Oh, yes! “Whosoever will live godly will suffer persecution.” Yet I have the consolation of knowing that “they hated me without a cause.” No human being can truthfully say that I ever did him injury by act or word. One casts a stone claiming that I say I have discovered new truths in the Bible while they say I have not. Another casts a stone saying that I claim to be teaching the old truths of the Bible, while they say I am preaching a new gospel of my own making. Others are

interests of the harvest work, and particularly the share which I myself am privileged to enjoy in that work, and the dear co-laborers at the Brooklyn Tabernacle and Bethel, and everywhere.

3. I Vow to still more carefully, if possible, scrutinize my thoughts and

words and doings, to the intent may be the better enabled to Thee and Thy dear flock.

4. I Vow to Thee that I will

that I serve

be on

angry because I get crowded while they get but few; and can get along without lifting tions or making solicitations

they are pinched for using every means of

money-

Crucifixion and burning are sanctioned by law; therefore and mud-throwing instead.

The position of the Eagle

getting

houses that I collec-while while

no longer the stone

people is

hard to understand. They are championing ministers whose “Creeds” consign every Eagle man to a hell of torture eternal—except he be a saint,

which none to be. It is of Brooklyn Creeds of a the Bible on

of its force would claim fighting the one preacher who is showing that the darker day misinterpreted this point. In other words

they are fighting their well-wisher. Or do they hold that eternal torture

the alert to resist everything akin to Spiritism and Occultism, and that, remembering that there are but the two masters, I shall resist these snares in all reasonable ways, as being of the Adversary.

5. I further Vow that, with the exceptions below, I -will at all .times, and in all places, conduct myself toward those of the opposite sex in private exactly as I would do with them in public—in the presence of a congregation of the Lord’s people.

• 6. . sible, room alone, stand

• 7. J

And, so far as reasonably pos-I will avoid being in the same with any of the opposite sex , .unless the door to the room wide open.

Exceptions in the case of Brethren

—wife, children, mother, and natural sisters. In the case of Sisters— husband, children, father, and natural brothers.

Needless to say our large Home is one of the holiest and happiest on earth. We cannot imagine a happier

home amongst people not yet perfect-

is only for their enemies and not for ^]           -

themselves and their friends and their by the First Resurrection.

ministers and their congregations.

Well, Pastor Russell, vengeance upon these clerical and lay?

Oh, none! They by envy, some by creeds and some by ing and praying for

are

The aim

what is your your enemies,

blinded, some

malice, some by greed. I am wait-Messiah’s glorious

Kingdom to scatter present darkness— to open all the blind eyes, as God has promised.

What then?

is to provide just a sufficiency of money for the reasonable comfort of each. And as the Eagle truly says the amount is small. But it is sufficient, and helps to insure that none will ever join the family and profess consecration “for filthy lucre’s sake.” Our food and home arrangements are simple and satisfactory though quite inexpensive in comparison with what the same would cost if each family

lived apart even more plainly.

Oh, then they’ll be ashamed! Do you family illustrates the declaration the Bible: “Behold, how good

remember how it reads, “Your brethren

that hated you, said, The Lord 1 cast you out for cause); but He joy and they

, that cast you out, be glorified (i. e. we the good of the Lord’s shall appear to your shall be ashamed.”

(Isaiah 66:5.) My revenge will come in then—in helping them up out of

their meanness and hardness of to the blessings then to be free the willing and obedient.

His Co-workers and Work.

Will you give our readers a

heart to all

brief

statement of the work you are carry-

ing on

With charted motion printed

and of your co-laborers in it? pleasure! Our Association is as philanthropic, for the proof Christian knowledge by

page and orally. It is Biblical,

but unsectarian. Everything found in God’s Book is its creed. Thirty-four ministers are members of the Association at present. Some of these are traveling constantly, addressing Classes of Bible Students, teaching them how to study the Bible most helpfully. Others go out for Sunday meetings in the cities adjacent to New York to instruct similarly. And these latter during the week labor at -the Brooklyn Tabernacle, where we conduct a Religious Correspondence School. Letters pour in upon us from all parts of the world, in various languages, asking help in the proper understanding of the Holy Scriptures. We have

more than twenty stant use.

We also have Britain, Australia,

typewriters in con-

branches in Great Germany, Denmark,

Norway, Sweden, South Africa, India, Greece and Switzerland where other laborers are similarly engaged. We have free literature in 18 languages explanatory of the Bible. We also handle Bibles and Bible Study helps in various languages, which we supply at wholesale rates.

These ministers, their wives and children and office helpers live together as one large family of about 100 persons in a comfortable Home. In it each family has its own quarters, but all meet in a large Dining Room for morning worship and at meal times. Frequently visitors drop in for a meal (the Dining Hall is large enough to accommodate 200), and they are made very welcome.

At meal times a leader conducts impromptu Bible Studies on whatever Bible subjects may be submitted. Thus we have a continual Bible School with lessons three times daily. All except children are required before admission to the family to profess a full consecration to the will of God as found in the Bible; and additionally to have taken the following:—

Vow Unto the Lord.

• 1. Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. May Thy rule come into my heart more and more, and Thy will be done in my mortal body. Relying on the assistance of Thy promised grace to help in every time of need, through Jesus Christ our Lord, I register this Vow.

• 2. Daily will I remember at the Throne of Heavenly Grace the general

Our

. of and

pleasant it is for brethren to live to

gether

With and so

in unity.”—Psalm 133:1.

Why Do Some Oppose?

everything so philanthropic pure, so sensible and so Scrip-

tural, why do ministers and the Eagle and others hate you and persecute you? And does this extend to all of the family?

Yes, it extends to all, but to me more particularly. I suppose because I am the most conspicuous figure at the front. The reason is the same that led to the persecution of the Apostles and the early church and even put to death the Redeemer. Jesus explains that it is the natural hatred or opposition of Darkness to Light. The purer the Gospel ray the fiercer the opposition! Ignorance, Superstition and Selfishness are behind the persecution.

Still it is hard to understand the lack of ryhme or reason in it all. No minister of any prominent denom- ■ ination would profess to believe his own Church Creed or to defend it. All fiercely denounce sectarianism and call for Christian union. Yet because I show up the errors which they no longer believe they are angry with me. Knowing their doctrinal weakness they dare not contradict me fairly, but content themselves with saying, Pastor Russell is a heretic; he is emptying our churches, and causing a falling off of our revenues. Then they use the cowardly weapons of slander, misrepresentation, etc.

“They Are Quite Mistaken.”

They are quite mistaken regarding the source of their troubles. The falling off of church attendance and their financial stringency has been progressing for thirty years. Their own preaching has done it. Their colleges and seminaries have been teaching Evolution and their Higher Criticism has been undermining all faith in the Bible, until now these things are in the Sunday School Lessons as well as in the Public School Books.

Thus many of the Preachers and their people have lost all confidence in the Bible as God’s Message. The people find no spiritual nourishment in the story that Adam and Eve had monkey parents—that they never were in God’s image, never fell from it, and never needed to be redeemed. The people, more honest than the preachers, are too honest to pretend a religion which they do not feel and therefore carry their nickles and dimes to the Moving Picture Theatres and feel that they are spending them more honestly.

Alas! Our wealthy and learned men are destroying the very faith necessary to the preservation of Society; and Anarchy is threatening the whole civi-

“WHERE ARE THE DEAD?”

This article was published in this paper in Volume one, Number 3. The interest aroused, and the great demand for copies of it have been remarkable. A sample copy will be mailed to any one free. Address, Bible Society, 17 Hicks Street, Brooklyn.

THE END OF THE WORLD A FALSE THEORY

(Continued from page 1.)

World Burning Unscripturai.

The supposition that the earth will be destroyed by fire, either soon or ever, would be contrary to the statement that “the earth abideth forever,” and the declaration that God formed it not in vain, but formed it to be inhabited. (Isaiah 45: 18.) One of the very strong passages which seems to teach that the earth will be devoured by fire is found in Zeph. 3: 8, “Wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until that Day that I rise up to the prey, for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger; for the whole earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy”—anger.

That the fire of God’s anger which will come upon the world will not destroy the physical earth, with all its inhabitants, but will destroy the evil of present institutions, is shown by the succeeding sentence, which declares, “Then will I turn to the people a pure Message, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent.” If the fire of this text were literal, the earth and its people would be no more; but as symbolical fire it is perceived that it is a burning against unrighteousness, iniquity, sin, the overthrow of all institutions of evil, and the awakening of mankind and preparing them to hear the Voice of God, the language of the Truth, the Divine Message.

What we have seen prepares us for the somewhat more difficult statement of St. Peter: “The Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. * * * The heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for a New Heavens and a New Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (2 Peter 3: 10-13.) To harmonize these words of St. Peter with other Bible statements, we must consider the “fire” here mentioned to be symbolical. Not only the earth is to be consumed, but the heavens also. The “heavens” will take fire first and be dissolved.

What heavens shall we suppose are here referred to?—not the literal, starry heavens, nor even our atmospheric heavens, nor yet the heaven of Divine Presence and glory. The church systems, the ecclesiastical powers, are symbolically referred to as the “heavens,” at the present time, supervising and over-ruling the temporal and social arrangements which are represented by the “earth.” The “earth” represents organized society, as in contrast with the “sea,” which symbolically represents disorganized society, the uncivilized and all who are rebellious against governments. When the “heavens” [ecclesiastical powers] of the present time shall be “dissolved,” it will be with a grrfat noise, with great confusion, commotion. Ecclesiastical institutions of the present time are In a very troubled condition, though they are in no danger of immediate collapse. The principal outcry is that few attend church services, and that the collections are small.

St. Peter’s words indicate a crisis in ecclesiastical affairs still future. The Scriptures show us that a great Federation is seemingly bringing Ecclesi-asticism into greater power than it has exercised in years. Other intimations of Scripture lead us to expect

SANER VIEWS ON BAPTISM

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were bapized into His Death."—Rom. 6: 3,

of Jesus without having been “christened.”

Not only so, but these superstitions of a darker day are forcefully impressed upon the “common people” by some of the clergy. Let us tell you of twe cases:

• (1) A Lutheran couple in Pennsylvania had some unpleasantness with their pastor respecting Church dues. This caused them to absent themselves from Church service for several months. Meantime their babe became sick. The father humbled himself to go to his pastor to tell him of his distress and his fear that the child might die and of his desire to have it baptized. Imagine the anguish of the deluded parent when the pastor refused and told him that the child would go to hell and that this was his desert as a parent because of failure to keep in touch with his Church.

• (2) The other case was that of a Catholic couple in Wisconsin. Their two little girls died of diphtheria .with-, in a few hours of each other. When the parish priest was sent for he declined to come and refused permission to have the children buried in “holy ground.” The explanation given to the astonished parents was that they had neglected their duty toward the children, that they had not been baptized into the Church, and consequently were lost.

To a friend the bereaved father declared that he wanted to have nothing whatever to do with so unjust a God who would consign his little, innocent children to eternal torture merely because of his sin, his neglect, in not having a few drops of water sprinkled in their faces by the priest! The friend had been reading “Studies in the Scriptures” and explained to the bereaved father that Church creeds and theories’ are very different from the plain and simple teachings of the Bible. He showed him that his little ones were merely “asleep in Jesus” waiting f<?r the glorious resurrection blessings of restitution, to be brought to mankind at the second coming of Jesus, after the completion of the elect Church and their change to heavenly glory. Could you wonder that that Catholic, * saloon-keeper, received a new ray of

hope and that it had a transforming influence upon his life?

The Christian-Diseiples’ Error.

Let us examine the doctrine of immersion as set forth by the Christian or Disciple denomination. We have not an unkind word to say respecting the people of this denomination, but we wish to dissect their doctrines, laying bare what we consider to be their inconsistencies, falsities.

The texts used by this denomination as proofs that baptism is for the remission of sins were never applied to any except Jews. The Jews were in Covenant-relationship with God through the Mosaic Law. If they got into sin it was proper for them to repent, return to God and use water symbolically, indicating return from sin. All Jews in full harmony with the Law Covenant in Jesus’ day were transferred from Moses to Christ. Only those who had committed special sins were called upon to wash away those sins symbolically in water.

Others living consistent lives as “Israelites indeed” were never instructed to be baptized or to wash away their sins. There is no record ef any of the Apostles having been immersed in water for the remission of sins, except St. Paul, and he only because he had persecuted the Church of Christ. The baptism into Christ announced for Gentile converts is wholly different from the Jewish baptism for the remission of sins. An illustration of this is found in Acts 18: 24, 25, where Apollos had baptized certain Gentiles of Ephesus with John’s baptism for the remission of sins. St. Paul afterward declared this incorrect and directed them to be immersed again—not for the remission of sins, but for induction into the Body of Christ, which is the Church. (Acts 19: 1-6.)

But the chief point which we make against the Christian-Disciple theory, that Baptism is for the remission of sins, is that it naturally dis-fellowships all Christians who have not been immersed. The logic of this theory would find few supporters in the Christian-Disciple denomination. The logic of it is this: If immersion is necessary for an adult in order that his sins may be remitted or washed away, it would logically follow that all adults not immersed are yet in their sins— unforgiven. And this signifies, according to this theory, that, if they die thus they must suffer the penalty of their sins, which penalty, they say, is eternal torture.

Bible statement. It recognizes every consecrated child of God of every denomination, or outside of all denominations. It inducts the saintly Baptist, saintly Disciple, saintly Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Congregationalist, Methodist, etc., into membership in the “one Church of the Living God, whose names are written in heaven.”

What Baptism can this be? We reply that it is the one mentioned by St. Paul, in a text which we have all read and quoted time and again: “So many of you as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death.” (Rom. 6: 3.) The mistake we have all made in the past is in applying the Apostle’s words to water baptism. The Apostle said not a word about water baptism, but mentioned specifically the Baptism into Christ, into “the Body of Christ, which is the Church.”

The thought is that God has ordained the gathering of the elect Church during the Gospel Age. The Head of this Church was received up into glory eighteen centuries ago, and since Pentecost one and another of the true footstep followers of Jesus have been accepted of God through His merit and counted as “members of the Body of Christ, which is the Church.” First, Jewish believers were transferred from Moses into Christ.

Next the Message was extended to the Gentiles. But these could not pass from Moses into Christ because they were not in Moses, never having come under the Law Covenant arrangement. Hence, these could come into Christ only by direct baptism. All baptized into Jesus Christ occupy a specially, preferred relationship to God and, if faithful to the end, will be received to glory, honor and immortality on the spirit or heavenly plane. But there is not a word of Scripture to say that the world, which misses this glorious exaltation, will on this account suffer eternal torture. They will lose the great prize, however.

Water Baptism Not the Door Into the True Church.

Our Baptist friends will agree to the above statement. They will say. Yes, that is what we mean, only, in order to be in Christ, we Baptists claim water immersion is necessary.

We are glad to have their plain, candid statement and to meet the issue squarely. That is the Baptist mistake —-supposing that water baptism inducts anybody into membership in the true Church. They may indeed make water immersion the door into the Baptist Church, but this does not make it the door into “the Church of the Living God.” St. Paul defines the Baptism by which any Gentile may come into membership in the Body of Christ. Note his words again: “So many of you as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death.” Our Baptist friends think of this as though it read “were baptized in water.” This is their mistake, as before stated.

But the question arises, Just what is meant by these words, “Baptized into His death?” Was His death in any way different from the death of others? Most decidedly it was! Our race die as sinners, children of wrath, under Divine sentence of death. But Jesus was not a sinner and hence was not under Divine sentence of death. He was “holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners” and free from Adamic death. His death was a sacrificial one—a surrender of an unimpaired life. Those, therefore, who would become His footstep followers and be baptized into His death, must participate with Him in a sacrificial death. The Scriptures explain that this would be impossible except as those footstep followers should be cleansed and made acceptable sacrifices through the merit of Jesus, because “by nature we were all children of wrath, even as others.”

Death was the real meaning of our

is finished!” His baptism into death was finished.

The same thought the Master gave to His followers, saying to two who desired places on His right and His left in the Kingdom: “Ye know not what ye ask!” You do not know what it requires to secure exaltation to the Kingdom. Are you able, are you willing to drink of My cup of sorrow, self-denial, etc.? Are you willing “to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with”—the baptism into death? When the disciples replied that they were willing, the Master assured them that He would attend to the rest. The terms of discipleship have not changed.

Just a word further respecting water baptism. It has its place, not in keeping any out of eternal torment, nor in

REV. HUNTLEY’S BAPTIST VIEWS

REPLY BY PASTOR RUSSELL

A SKED if he had seen the Reverend Huntley’s Views on Baptism Pastor Russell replied as follows:—

Yes, I noticed the Reverend gentleman’s statement. His presentation of Baptism followed my lines quite well. I am glad of it. He merely corroborated my declaration that “remarkably few Baptists of today could or do stand by their theory if put to the test.” This I mentioned as complimentary to Baptists—as indicating that they, like the remainder of Christendom, are in advance of their creeds formulated in the darker period. But now to be frank, I must say something less complimentary and that is that the Baptists who hold the more advanced, enlightened views are quite in the minority and to be found chiefly in the large cities of the North. The majority of Baptists in the South style themselves “hard shells” and will not give an inch. I never attack Christian men and women, but respect the religious liberties of all. I do attack the God-dishonoring creeds of the Dark Ages which so confused our forefathers as to lead them to persecute one another, even to burning at the stake. Yet, even in attacking those creeds which have so long and so injuriously divided the one Church of the Living God into six hundred sects, I always adhere to the Truth and prefer to understate rather than to exaggerate.

I will cite you to Baptist authorities on the subject of Baptism and Church membership—not, however, with a view to proving what the more advanced Baptists of today believe, but to prove that they are advanced and that their creeds need revision so as to agree more nearly with the views of advanced Baptists.

The Reverend Huntley is quoted as declaring that the “Baptist Church is an entirely different thing from the Church of the Living God whose names are written in heaven.” This is exactly what I hold, namely, that the Baptist Church is not the Church, but merely one of the many sects, each of which used to claim to be the Church and used to roast each other as heretics. Baptists generally are not so frank. They generally claim that there is only one true Church of Christ, entered by the door of water immersion. Now compare this with the quotation from “The Star Book on Baptist Polity.” It declares, “A Church is the body of Christ in its relation to Him as the Head.” It is the “spiritual temple,” as being composed of spirit or regenerated members, thus distinguished from all worldly “organizations.” (Page 28.) “Persons may become members of the Church by Baptism.” (Page 36.) “No person can properly be received into membership in the Church unless having thus been baptised; and as baptism must precede actual Church membership, so it must

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