( Chairman , J. F. RUTHERFORD, Attorney, Boonville, Mo.)

The Scriptures clearly teach that all hope of salvation, today, is dependent upon accepting the Gospel of Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, and that such acceptance is confined to this present life.

L. S. White, affirmative.

C. T. Russell, negative.

L. S. WHITE'S FIRST SPEECH.

C. T. RUSSELL'S FIRST REPLY.

I am reminded, dear friends, of the remark in my letter of acceptance, that, in so far as this first proposition is concerned, I accepted it as you prefer to have it, but only with the understanding that it is not two propositions, but one; for I am not prepared to deny the first part of the same. In other words, dear friends, we do not deny that, so far as the present life is concerned, there is not a trial of or a test upon those who now come to a knowledge of the truth, that they have responsibility that is a life and death question with them; and that includes you and me, if we are of those who are the Lord's people. The essence of our argument is this: That God has a plan which is wider and deeper and broader than we had once supposed.

I agree with very much that our friend has said, and with all of the Scriptures quoted, but I wish to call your attention to the fact that nearly all of those Scriptures relate to the present age and do not relate to the world at all, but relate to the church; and some one may inquire: "Do you make a distinction between the world and the church?"

I answer, Yes. Our dear brother has been discussing the conditions that are upon those whom the Lord is calling now, those whom the Scriptures term the elect, of whom the Scriptures say that there is but a "little flock."

"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom."

Our dear brother says the Kingdom came some time ago, but the Lord says that it is God's good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. I hold, dear friends, that you never got the Kingdom. I am sure I never got the Kingdom. I remember very well that our Lord said to the disciples: "I will give to you to sit with me in my throne."

I remember very well that the same dear Master told us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." I assure you, dear friends, that the Kingdom has never come in Allegheny, and I do not believe that you will contend that the Kingdom of God has come in Cincinnati. And so I believe we are safe in saying that God's Kingdom has not yet come, his will is not yet done on earth as in heaven. Now, dear friends, I would have you to notice Some Scriptures which make a distinction between the church and the world, as, for instance, "God has spoken unto us by his Son;" that is one of the texts that our dear friend quotes. Very good. He has spoken unto us by his Son; but to whom has he spoken? Has he Spoken to the heathen? I tell you nay. Has he spoken to you? Blessed are your ears, for they hear. Blessed are your ears, for they hear. But every one has not heard, my dear friends. The apostle Paul is our authority for saying that the god of this world has blinded their minds and stopped their ears, and so the whole world is deaf to this mystery. Only certain ones can hear now; they are the blessed ones, they are the peculiar, people that God is now selecting. He is selecting a people for a purpose.

Take another text along the same line: "Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." Mark you, the sin of the world. It is one thing to deal with the church and the sin of the church; it is one thing to refer to the church, and another thing to refer to the world, and our Lord is declared to have come to take away the sin of the world, not merely the sin of the church. But you say they are both the same. I answer no. The Scriptures clearly distinguish between the sin of the world and the sin of the church. Let me give you one illustration: " He is the propitiation"'the word "propitiation" means satisfaction; He is the satisfaction for our sins, the church's sins; not for ours only, but also the sins of the whole world.

Now you see, dear friends, that according to the Scriptures there is a class, that is, the church, and they [HG178] have the satisfaction given for their sins; and there is a class called the world that have also a propitiation for their sins; but the two classes are separate and distinct, and whoever has not learned this matter has not learned what the apostle Paul calls "rightly dividing the word of truth." Another Scripture along the same line: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It is not merely that God so loved the church; and yet, dear friends, it will be admitted on all hands that the church is a very small minority. Take the city of Cincinnati, with some three hundred and fifty thousand people; how many do you suppose are of the Church of Christ from the Scriptural standpoint of this church? How many are disciples indeed? How many are of that class that are mentioned by our Lord, when he says, "If any man will be my disciple, let him take up his cross and follow me, and where I am there will my disciples be"? And of the class of which he says, "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Few there be that find it.

Now, my dear friends, admitting the fact that there is a narrow way and that few are going to find it, and that this church class is the only class that God is now saving, and that that is the teaching of the Word all the way through, we must become dead with. him if we would live with him. We must suffer with him if we would reign with him; but this is of the church class, not the world. The world is never invited to suffer with Christ. Men are called to repentance, but it is not all the world that is called to be the bride of Christ. It is those that have repented; it is those who have turned from sin, who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; these are the ones who are invited to be the little flock and to be joined here with Christ and to lay down their lives for his cause. If then we can get this matter differentiated in our minds, let us remember the words of the apostle on this subject of the mystery of Christ. He distinctly tells us that there is a mystery class.

Did you ever hear of a mystery class? The Scriptures tell us that the church is a mystery. Let me quote you what the apostle says: "The mystery hidden from ages and generations, and now made manifest." When made manifest? In the days of the apostles, from Pentecost day on, this mystery class began. In other words, "The church is a mystery the world knoweth not of, even as it knew Him not," is the Scriptural way of putting it. Why does the world know it not? Because it is this little flock that the Lord is selecting out from the world'a very peculiar people. Not many great, not many wise, not many learned, hath God chosen, but this select class whom he is now selecting from the world, a peculiar people, every one of them to be copies of his Son. How many will that leave out? Dear friends, that will leave out nearly all the people in Cincinnati and nearly all the people of Allegheny, and Pittsburgh, too. Do you know many that are copies of God's dear Son, in Cincinnati? I hold that you do not. I hold that there are not many in Cincinnati who will claim to be copies of God's dear Son. Yet the Scriptures tell us that that is the kind that God has predestined; these are the ones who are to constitute the very elect, that peculiar people who are to make their calling and election sure. Election to what, you say? The Scriptures answer, election to share with Christ in the heavenly kingdom, to worship with him in his heavenly kingdom. What kingdom? The kingdom for which we pray when we say, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." When will that kingdom come? At the end of this age, dear friends. Why at the end of this age? Because this gospel age has been appointed for this very purpose of selecting this kingdom class. The Lord is now taking this class out of the world. What does he call them? In one illustration he calls them the bride, the Lamb's wife; and in another illustration he calls them jewels, and in another he calls them members in particular of the body of Christ. All of these are very select terms, you see, and they represent a very careful selection on the Lord's part'an elect class'the very elect.

I need not call your attention to the many Scriptures which speak of the elect of God, the very elect, but shall point out that the church is a very peculiar people and that they are all saints.

Mark the illustration that is given to us in the Word respecting the resurrection "Blessed and holy are all they that have part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power; they shall be kings and priests unto God and shall reign on the earth." They will be kings and priests unto God and shall reign on the earth at that time; that is what it means'reigning kings and priests; they are both. The two offices will be combined.

Let me read you a few more of these texts about the mystery. The apostle says, in Col 1:27, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Again he says, Eph. 3:9, "The fellowship of the mystery, which is Christ in you." So in Revelation, you remember, it is finally brought down'Rev. 10:7, we are pointed out the time when the mystery of God shall be finished. The mystery class began with Pentecost. There was no mystery class before that. The church is this mystery class. The world knoweth not what God is doing'and I am sorry to say that I did not know for a while what God was doing, and perhaps you did not know what God was doing; that he was taking out of the world a people for his name; that he was not at any time trying [HG179] to take in the world, but he was trying to take out of the world a people for his name; as the apostle Peter expresses the matter, "Taking them out for a purpose;" as we have already had it called to our attention in Ephesians, the apostle states that in the ages to come'h, there are ages to come. This is not the last age; there is work for this age, and also for the ages to come, and in the ages to come, says the apostle, "He shall show forth the exceeding riches of his grace and his loving kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

Who are the "us"? The church, the "little flock," the bride class. The class that shall sit with him in his throne – when he has a throne'for he is delaying the sitting on his throne until he has the bride class completed.

Now, my dear friends, if we can get before our minds that there is on God's part a great plan of salvation that is partly outlined in the statement in many Scriptures, to the effect that God so loved the world that he gave his Son for the world and not merely for the church, and that Jesus was the propitiation for our sins, and not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world; if we get that be/ ore our minds, we see that in the present time he is taking the church, finding the little flock, and then by and by the little flock associated with him in his Kingdom will be the power of God associated with Jesus for the blessing of all the families of earth.

I might call your attention to some of the various pictures by which this is represented in the Scriptures. We are told, for instance, that the whole world is not called, but that he that hath an ear to hear let him hear. The implication is that all have not an ear to hear. The apostle Paul says, "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of all them that believe not." How many of them are there? We will all agree that the heathen are blinded and they know not God. How many of them are there today? Twelve hundred million of heathen that are blinded today, that know not God because the eyes of their understanding are shut'fast shut.

Then they come here to civilized America, the most highly civilized country in the world; yet how many here know God? to how many here has God spoken? He has spoken in these last days unto as by his Son. But I ask you, how many have heard?

Suppose, now, that the audience here were all deaf and dumb people, and suppose I addressed this message to them; how many would hear? The deaf and dumb certainly would not. Who would hear? Those who had ears to hear would hear.

And so the Scriptures tell us, "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear;" and that is the message that you and I have today. Wherever we go with the Gospel of Christ, whoever hath an ear to hear, let him hear, and we are glad to let him hear.

We have not any second chance at all; there is no second chance for anybody that hath an ear to hear. His responsibility begins where his hearing begins, and in proportion to his hearing. What we are claiming is that God has not passed by the twelve hundred millions who have no ear to hear, that God is not passing by the people of Cincinnati and the people of Pittsburgh who have no ear to hear, but God has a glorious provision of which he tells us in the prophecy, that by and by all of the blind eyes shall be opened and all the deaf ears shall be unstopped. That will be done by the Lord in the name of the everlasting Son. That will be a good time.

I am glad that God is going to open their ears by and by.

The Lord tells us that the god of this world hath blinded their eyes. Who is the god of this world? It is not Christ Jesus, but Satan. How has he blinded their eyes?

By error, and superstition, and gross darkness that is about the people; darkness covers the earth. The first Scriptures tell us of that great darkness. Who caused that darkness? Satan. Who permits it? Our heavenly Father permits it; our heavenly Father permits this gross darkness that the people are in. If he did not, would they be in darkness? How could there he otherwise than what he would permit? So then, dear friends, if God is now permitting them to be in gross darkness, is now permitting Satan to be the prince , of this world, and is now permitting him to blind the hearts of them that believe not, let us also rejoice when he tells us that the time is coming when Satan, the old serpent, the old devil, shall be bound for a thousand years, to deceive the nations no more till the thousand years are finished. When Satan is bound and his deceptions are ended, all the blind eyes shall be opened and all the deaf ears shall be unstopped.

So the Scriptures represent the present time as a time of darkness; darkness covers the earth, the gross darkness of the people. The heathen are in gross darkness; civilization is in darkness also, although not as gross as heathendom; but the Lord tells us that there are some of his people who are following the lamp: "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a lantern to my footsteps." Those are the ones who have the hearing ear, who take heed to the Word. Let us be glad that our ears have heard something of the grace of God. Let us be glad that we have come from darkness into his marvelous light.

Our dear brother wanted to tell you about my side. I thank him for the endeavor, but I prefer to tell my own side, dear friends, and it will be a little different. I want to tell you that we do not have any second chance [HG180] to preach to anybody, except in the general sense that I will show you; for instance, that you are enjoying now a second chance, I am enjoying a second chance now. For instance, according to the Scriptures, by one man's disobedience sin entered into the world. That was Father Adam's sin. On account of his sin and sentence to death, death came upon him and that hath come down to all his family. So you and I, as members of Adam's family, are all dying, we are all suffering under his death penalty.

Now, then, God has had mercy upon us and hath sent his Son to redeem us, and He has paid the price for it. Christ died for our sins, tasted death for every man, gave himself a ransom for all. Blessed good tidings that! Mark you, not merely that He gave himself a ransom for the church, but for all; and the next stanza says, "To be testified in due time." Now, it has been testified to you and to me that Christ died for our sins, and because we have had the ear to hear, we have been rejoiced by the mystery. To whatever extent we have received it, we have had a blessing from it, and whoever have not heard it have not had that blessing. It is to be testified to all in due time. God has a due time for you to hear and for me to hear; he has a due time for all to hear. This is the apostle's statement, you remember, in 1 Tim. 2:5-6. After the Scriptures, dear friends, have brought our attention to the fact that we are in the narrow way now, they tell us why this narrow way is made narrow. Why is it? That God would make a special test of you and of me and of all he is now selecting. He is selecting some who are to be kings and priests, who are to occupy very high positions in the divine class. This is the invitation. Now we shall be joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord. Is not that a high station to be invited to? I believe you will all agree with me that this is a wonderfully high calling, as the apostle speaks of it, a high calling of God in Christ Jesus. How high is that calling? To be heirs of God, to be joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord. Joint-heirs of what? Joint-heirs of his throne. Joint-heirs of his Kingdom, to sit with him in his throne, to be associated with him in his great work. What is his great work? I answer, his great work is the blessing of all the families of the earth. God's plan, dear friends, was never intended to merely gather up a mere handful and take that mere handful to glory, and then, as Jonathan Edwards has declared, that they should look over the battlements of heaven and see the balance of mankind writhing in agony and in fire because they were not elected. God has selected a little flock, and instead of having their portion as Jonathan Edwards has described, God's arrangement is that they shall be joint-heirs with Christ in the work of disseminating the blessings and lifting up mankind out of the dunghill, when in the ages to come he shall show the exceeding riches of his grace. As our brother quoted the text awhile ago, he will by and by gather together in one'under one head, the Greek word means'he will by and by gather under one head all things in Christ Jesus, and not merely the church. He is already the Head of the church, which is his body, and this is a little flock; but after the church is glorified, then the work of the church will be with her Lord to scatter the blessings of divine forgiveness and divine grace.

Now you can readily see, dear friends, the propriety on the part of the apostles for their addressing most of their remarks to the church. The object of the gospel age is not to discuss the millennial age, but the special object of the gospel age is to prepare a people for His name. The object of the gospel age is to instruct the church as to how they can make their calling and election sure; therefore, the majority of the New Testament Scriptures is written for the church. So you will find all of the Epistles are addressed not to the world, but to the saints; for instance, at Corinth, to the holy ones at Corinth, and the holy ones also here in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, the message of God comes; and, no matter whom he may address, the holy ones are the only ones that will hear it and heed it anyway.

And the object of God, in dealing with these holy or consecrated ones, is that they may make their calling and election sure; that they may not only have the robe of Christ's righteousness covering their blemishes, but that it will be an embroidered robe; as represented in the Psalms, the bride is to be presented to the bridegroom in raiment of fine needle-work, which represents the righteousness of the saints and the inwrought character that God would have you develop in your heart, that you may be made meet for the inheritance of the saints. There shall none enter into that glorious condition until they are fully developed. No wonder, then, dear friends, if the Lord lays down very strict lines for the church he is getting a peculiar people.

Our brother tells us that he thinks we believe it is going to be very much easier for the world. Well, the Scriptures say that a highway shall be there. Where? In the millennial age. A highway shall be there. There is no highway here. The word "highway" in the Hebrew signifies a broad, traveled way. What is there now? A strait gate, a narrow way, and few there be that find it; but about that highway of the future, the Scriptures say a highway shall be there, and the way shall be called the way of holiness, and all the redeemed of the Lord may go up thereon. Who are the redeemed of the Lord? All for whom Christ died. The whole host will have the privilege of going up on that highway. But now is the special privilege, the special [HG181] opportunity of the present time, to walk the narrow way; you and I are invited, and it is a special thing, and only those who have the hearing ear can know about this and can understand this mystery. It is a mystery to others, the apostle says.

What is the mystery? The mystery is this, dear friends: God hath said, away back in the time of Abraham'you remember he then declared the Gospel to Abraham.

The word "gospel," I will remind you, means good tidings. He first preached the Gospel to Abraham, saying: " In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Who is this seed? Messiah is the seed. The Israelites were looking for a Messiah for over sixteen hundred years, and when He came He was indeed the one that was promised to bless the families of the earth. But did Christ bless all the families of the earth? I tell you no. What did he do? He began seeking the bride first. He was first, according to the divine plan, to take out the church, which is His body; for the apostle says, we are members in particular of the body of Christ, for God gave Jesus to be Head over the church, which is His body. So here is a picture, dear friends, of this mystery that the apostle speaks of. God proposes to have a great Messiah, the Jesus, the Head and Lord, and the little flock, the church, to be the bride of Christ; for she is the chief cornerstone of the temple, or, according to another picture, the very living stone in that temple; and according to another picture, this glorious temple is the one from which will go forth blessing to all the families of the earth in God's due time. It is not due time yet. Oh, you will say, Brother Russell, it is a long time yet! I answer no, my dear brother, the Scriptures say in due time God sent forth His Son. How long ago was that? That was over four thousand years from the time when sin entered into the world, and yet it was due time for Christ to come. Now it is eighteen hundred years or more since He came to intercede for our sins, and it is not due time yet for this mystery to be testified to every man. Why not? Because the election of the church is not yet complete; all the members of the body of Christ must first be selected, and then through this glorified hidden body of Christ shall go forth the blessings of the Lord, because this is the assurance of the Gospel. The Gospel to Abraham, you remember, was this: "In thy seed shall all the families of earth be blessed." Who was the seed? Jesus was the seed.

Dear friends, you are a part of the seed if you are a member of the Lord's consecrated ones. If you are one of His faithful ones you will be a part of that seed of Abraham. How do you know that you are? I answer, thus it is written, Gal. 3:29, "If ye he Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." What promise are you an heir of? An heir of the promise made to Abraham'heirs to the promise that in the seed of Abraham all the families of the earth should be blessed. You are a member of that seed if you are a follower of Christ, and if so, the time is coming when you shall be associated with the glorious Head, and as part of the seed of Abraham you will be permitted in God's due time to grant blessings and refreshment and restitution to the whole world and all mankind.

Our brother has quoted from Revelation: "The Spirit and the bride say, Come, and whosoever will, may come and drink of the water of life freely." But mark you, dear friends, there is no bride yet. The bride is not now saying come; there is no bride now. When will the bride say come? At the end of this age. When? When the marriage takes place. We are now the virgins. Our brother has called attention to the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. The wise virgins are going in to the marriage; that comes after the end of this age, when the wise virgins become the bride; when the. marriage supper of the Lamb has taken place. Then you will be the bride. The picture in Revelation is, that from the new Jerusalem (which is another picture of the glorified church) will flow the river of the water of life, clear as crystal; not any of the streams that are running out of Babylon today, which, dear friends, are muddy with human tradition; but from that glorious city will proceed the river of the water of life, clear as crystal; and then what? All nations shall have the opportunity of drinking. The Spirit will also say come, and the bride will say come, and whosoever will may come and partake of the water of life freely. But it is not whosoever will, now. How is it now? It is as many as the Lord your God shall call now. The Lord is not calling everybody. The Lord says again, "No man can come unto me except the Father hath sent me to draw him." The Father is drawing the church now. By and by it will be different; during the millennial age the Father will not be drawing; but the Scriptures say that in the millennial age Christ will be drawing. The Father draws a limited number now to be the bride of Christ, but during the millennial age, we are told our Lord says, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me."

Where will the heathen be then, my dear friends? Are they being drawn to Christ now? Is He drawing them now? I tell you nay; he is not drawing them at the present time, dear friends. God is now drawing the church. That is the work of the present time. With the end of this age, then comes the work of the next age. The work of the next age is for the world of mankind, as the work of this age is for the church, the little flock, the bride of Christ. [HG182]

C. T. RUSSELL'S SECOND REPLY.

My opponent, dear friends, would seem to imply by his last argument that he is urging that God is going to save the whole world and that I am trying to make out that God is not going to try to save any except the elect. Now, the very reverse is true'the very reverse is true. Our brother's contention is that only those who are saved now are saved at all, and that the only ones who are saved now are the elect, and that others who are not the elect and who are not saved now will never be saved. That is his argument. But now, the very reverse is true, dear friends.

How easy it is to put the matter wrong. Let us take this text that he quoted us last: "He will have all men to be saved." God will have all men to be saved, to come to a knowledge of the truth. Have those heathen come to a knowledge of the truth'those twelve hundred million, today'have they come to a knowledge of the truth? Our brother quotes from our Brother Paul that "God will have all men to come to a knowledge of the truth." They can not be saved without a knowledge of the truth. Those twelve hundred million are lost unless they come to a knowledge of the truth in this Gospel age. If this Gospel is hidden to them that are lost, the heathen are lost; it is hidden to them, they do not see the Gospel, they cannot see the Gospel as he quoted it awhile ago. Again, the god of this world has blinded the minds of those that believe not.

I trust that it was unintentional that he misrepresented me as saying that our God had blinded their minds. I never said that, dear friends. I said that our God must have permitted it or it would not have been; but the Scriptures say and I hold that it is the devil who has blinded their minds, the god of this world, your adversary, the devil, the one who is by and [HG186] by to be bound that he may deceive the nations no more. The word "nations" in the Greek is the same as the word "heathen." He should be bound that he may deceive the heathen no more. He is deceiving the heathen now, and even a great many that are not so heathenish; a good many of us have been under his influence to some extent, as the apostle Paul says, speaking of those who are of the church of Christ: "I pray God for you, that the eyes of your understanding may be opened that you may be able to comprehend with all saints the length and breadth, the heighth and depth, that ye may know the love of God that passeth all understanding," the love of God that loves the whole world, the love of God that has made a plan of salvation that is world-wide, the love of God that takes in every member of Adam's race, the love of God that has provided a second chance for every man. I am not giving that as Scripture that God has provided a second chance for every man, but I will prove to you that it is Scripture, that the Lord shows the whole race was lost when Father Adam was condemned, and you were condemned, and I was condemned, the whole race was condemned. That was the first chance that was lost. Did not you have a chance in Eden when Father Adam was on trial as your representative; and did not I have a chance there, too? And were not all of our chances lost'every man's chance lost?

Now, then, dear friends, it is because God proposes that there should be another chance that He has sent his Son to redeem the world, and his Son has paid the price for Adam and has paid the price for every man that we shall be saved. It shall be testified in due time that every man shall have an opportunity to come to a knowledge of the truth, that he may be saved.

The heathen are not saved on account of their ignorance. Nobody is saved except by faith in the Son of God by the terms that are laid down in the Scriptures, which I repeat at the present time are the terms that our Lord mentioned: "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

That is the class, and the only class, that find it; and those that find that narrow path are but a little flock and have always been a little flock. You know it and everybody knows it.

We will take up some of these other arguments. Our brother has suggested that the kingdom of Christ has already been established; but the apostle Paul did not think so. The apostle Paul said, "I would to God that ye did reign." He says, "You appear to reign as kings without us. I would to God you did reign; if you reigned, then we would also reign with you." I am quoting Paul to the Corinthians.

Our brother cites as a proof of this that Christ's kingdom has come. He says there be some standing here which shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come; but the very next verse reads, "And three days after this he taketh Peter and James and John up into a mountain, and was transfigured before them, and his face shone and his garments glistened." He there gave them a picture of the kingdom, an illustration of the kingdom, an illustration that the apostle Peter recognized, for afterwards, writing in one of his epistles, he says, "We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we declared unto you the power and coming of our Lord's kingdom, for we were eye-witnesses of his coming when we were with him in the holy mountain;" but he says, "We have a more sure word of prophecy," to which we do well that we take heed'much more sure than that vision which Peter says he saw in the holy mountain. They did see a vision of the kingdom; it was an illustration of the kingdom; but the apostles all held that the kingdom was to come, and they desired that they might have a share in the kingdom. And, dear friends, it is yet to come, for we have not the kingdom of Christ We have, perhaps, the best government under the sun today, but if this is the kingdom of Christ then I am greatly disappointed. If all these kingdoms of Europe that are raising their large armies and making their great guns and battleships to blow one another out of existence, if these are Christ's kingdom that we have been waiting and praying for, then it is too bad and we are all greatly perplexed and lost in our calculations.

But let us take the right view of the matter. The Lord is selecting a kingdom class; He is selecting a church to constitute his kingdom in his due time. This selection is now going on, because those who are now called are to be heirs of the kingdom – mark the term, "heirs of the kingdom." An heirship is something that you have not got, it is something that is coming, that you are heir to. It implies that we have not yet got it. We are heirs of the kingdom, called out with that very object before our minds, invited to reign in this way; mark His words, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I overcame and am set down with my Father on his throne." Have you overcome yet and have you sat clown with Him on his throne? No. When you do sit down He says He will grant us power over the nations. It will be part of the work of the glorified church to judge the world. "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?" The unworthy have not had their judgment yet. Judgment belongs to the future. The millennial day is the judgment day of the world. Now is the judgment day of the church. You are on trial now and I am. Your ears have heard the blessed message that Christ shall reconcile the world unto himself in due time; but [HG187] now your ears, which hear in advance of the world, bring responsibilities to you, and they bring a privilege to you and to me, the privilege of this high calling, this heavenly calling. The apostle says the kingdom of Christ is to bring in the time a restitution. The word "restitution" is connected with the fall. The fall was the time of the loss of those glorious things that God gave Father Adam. He was created in the image of God, and by sin he fell under the sentence of death, and it involved mental and moral decrepitude and decay. The whole world is thus involved. They are all sinners. The Scriptures say that you and I are born in sin and shaped in iniquity. So the whole world is in tiffs condition of sin; but the ultimate work of Christ will be to bring so many of them as will back by restitution to the glorious condition from which they fell representatively in Adam.

Mark you the apostle Peter's words on this subject in Acts 3:19, where he says, "Times of refreshing shall come [the millennial age], and he shall send Jesus Christ [a second coming of Christ], which before was preached unto you; whom the heavens must receive," and must retain until when? "Until the times of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." God has been telling about this restitution time all the way down through the prophets. When you once learn to read it in your Bible you will see the restitution message all through it, that God has promised a glorious restoration of mankind back to the original pristine glory of the image of God, when the earth, instead of being as it is today, shall come back to its Edenic condition. That is the promise of God for the salvation of the world. But before the world can reach that condition it must have it through judgment, through discipline; and as the Lord is now judging and disciplining the church in this gospel age, so in the millennial age, which shall be the trial and discipline of the world, it shall be blessed, when their eyes are opened, when they shall have the privilege of coming back to God. Those in the world who shall be faithful in the disciplining when their eyes are opened, when they see the privilege granted them of coming back to harmony with God through the blessed Son, and of going up the highway of holiness, if then they prove faithful, if then they obey, to them then shall be the blessing of restitution; they shall go back upon the highway of holiness, as the prophet says. He says no lions shall be there, no ravenous beasts.

But, today, we have the narrow way which Bunyan so well pictured when he said concerning Christian's faith that in some places he came to such a narrow path that he could hardly pass, and again he saw the lions coming out to devour him, and he could merely pass through faith between them. He was well illustrating the narrow way that few find and still fewer are willing to walk in after they find it'the narrow way that leads to glory and immortality, that leads to the heavenly kingdom and joint heirship with Christ. That is the way it is pictured in the prophecy, "Highways shall be there and a way, and it shall be called a way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it." The redeemed of the Lord will go up therein. No lions shall be there, nor any ravenous beasts. No beasts of strong drink and passion will be there to hinder. All those passions and vile things of the present time that constitute the devouring beasts that surround us, these will all be put under restraint, and Satan, our great adversary, shall be restrained at that time.

You say it will be a more favorable time for them than it is for us. I answer that so far as that part is concerned perhaps they will have an advantage over us; but would you not like to see the world having a good, reasonable time in getting eternal life? Would you not like to have their eves opened? Must they have their eyes closed as long as you had yours closed? Must they have had all the trials that you have had? Why should they? I answer that these trials of the church in this present time are especially to prune and select the little flock.

Our dear brother has represented that I am teaching that the message of God is only to the little flock. I said nothing of that kind, my dear friends; I said that the message of God is a world-wide message, that all will ultimately hear it, but that now only a few could hear it. Why? Because the god of this world hath blinded their minds and stopped their ears, so the Scriptures say, but when that time comes all the blinded eyes shall be opened and all the deaf ears shall be unstopped. My dear friends, it is some of this doctrine that our dear brother has been preaching that has been doing some of this blinding. I am sorry to say that although Christianity has done a great deal of good, that it is picturing our God as the very greatest monster that was ever known in the world Take, if you please, what the heathen think about God. Some of them fancy that the future resurrection is punishment, they think of God as being a great devil. All the heathen think of God as being a great devil. None of them ever knew about a God of love. They have various theories amongst them respecting this great devil who has so much power over them, but it remains for the Bible, the Word of God, to declare a God of love. Strange to say, our great adversary, the devil, has blinded our eyes to such an extent that we can not see, and have not been able to see clearly in the past the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men, teaching all men that denying [HG188] ungodly lusts we should live soberly. But whom doth it teach? Where is it taught?

Has it taught all men? No. Why not? They have not heard it. How can they hear without a preacher? How can they be on trial without hearing the message? The Bible's argument, you see is right to the point. They can not hear. They have no responsibility when they have not heard. They can not be condemned to the second death without first having heard. It is different with us, for as the apostle points out, if we have tasted of the good word of God and had been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, if we should fall away there remaineth no more sacrifice for our sins.

We are not all yet heathen by any manner of means; we rejoice who have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit; but has everybody in Cincinnati been made partakers of the Holy Spirit? No, not even everybody in this house perhaps have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit; it is those only who have once been enlightened. But how many have been enlightened? I tell you, dear friends, that the whole world lieth in darkness'and Christendom, too'respecting the true character of God.

I must take up as many as possible of the different points that our brother has made. "All power is given unto you; go ye therefore and teach all nations." Did He say all nations would believe? No. Who will believe? He that hath an ear to hear and a heart to obey. How many will there be? Only a few. How many today, dear friends, do you know who are disciples of Christ? You do not know very many. Did Jesus ever say He was to convert the world? By no means. What then?

What does the apostle Peter say? He said, "God at first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them the people for his name." What did Peter say that God did? He said He did not visit the Gentiles to take in all the Gentiles, He did not visit the Gentiles to make them a little flock or to take them to glory, but He visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name, to gather out of them that little flock. The message goes to the whole world, but only a few of the world at the present time are people to hear, by reason of the gross darkness and the defiling influence of the great adversary. Only – i:. few now can hear; the great masses are blind and deaf, some of them in the gross darkness of heathenism; and many of them in great darkness even in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and every other part of the civilized world'in gross darkness as respects God. They will study politics and finance and everything else except to know God. They are not much interested in intelligently knowing God. It is only a few that have an interest in looking unto God and his word, and studying what they teach.

Our brother speaks of God giving law unto the world. The Scriptures say nothing about God giving the law unto the world. God gave law to Israel sixteen hundred years before Christ came. He gave a law to Israel out of the mouth of Moses, but He did not give that law to the other nations. The other nations were without hope in the world, as the Bible says. And when it came to the gospel time, our Lord, as the apostle says, broke down the middle wall of the partition so that the Jews should no longer have a preference or distinction above the Gentiles. Then the gospel message went to every creature. That did not mean that every creature would hear, but it meant that there was no longer a distinction to be made; He was to no longer single out the Jew and say that the message of God is only for the Jew; it was henceforth to be given to everybody who hath an ear to hear. And that is what you and I do; but we do not confine our message to the Jews, we do not confine it to some particular nationality. The Lord said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." But does everybody hear? No. Is everybody able to hear? No. Why not? The god of this world hath blinded them.

Will he always blind them? No, the time will come when Satan shall be bound and will deceive and blind the nations no more until the thousand years of Christ's reign are finished, then he shall be loosed for a little season, we are told.

Meantime that will be the period of Christ's reign, for He must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet.

Our brother would have us understand that Christ has been reigning for the last eighteen hundred years. How many enemies has He under His feet now, do you think? He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet, and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. I tell you, dear friends, He is not reigning; there are not any of them put under His feet. Those that are under Christ are those that have come under voluntarily, as you did, and as I did, because of hearing the message of the Gospel. We have gladly presented our bodies a living sacrifice. By and by He shall reign; He shall put down all opposition, everything contrary to God, and He will reign for a thousand years, the Scriptures say. In that time He will subdue everything, and unto Him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.

Look for a moment to see how much prospect there is of our dear brother converting the heathen. He seemed to give us the impression that he is going to convert the heathen. I wish he would. I would give him all that I have now and everything that I ever expect to have on earth if he would convert the heathen; but, my dear friends, what do we know about the heathen? We know that a century ago there were six hundred million heathen; today there are twice as many' [HG189] twelve hundred million. Our brother is not getting along very fast converting the heathen, is he? Why don't he convert the heathen? He is not to blame, and nobody else is to blame except the god of this world who has stopped their ears and blinded their minds. Why does he have the power? He could not have the power unless God permitted it. Will God always permit it? God answers, no. He answers that when he shall have accomplished his purpose of taking out the elect, known as the little flock, then the reign of sin shall have ended, then Satan shall no longer be the prince of this world; then Jesus shall be the Prince of this world'the prince of light, the prince of glory'and the kingdom of God's dear Son will come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That is what we are waiting on, dear friends.

Our brother says that the world was lost without God's law. I answer yes, the whole world was lost, the whole world is still lost; they are not found yet. Are they not still lost? Of course they are lost. They are still under the sentence of death just as they were at first. They are under the same sentence of death that they were when Adam first transgressed. All the children of Adam came under that sentence, "Dying, thou shalt die;" you have no right to eternal life. That penalty of death has come to the whole world, and the only ones who are saved are those who have accepted Christ, as illustrated by Noah and his family getting into the ark, which the apostle Peter says is a like figure whereunto baptism doth even now save us. But shall the world ever have an opportunity? Shall their ears ever hear? Not certainly in the present life. Of the two hundred thousand millions that have gone down in the tomb, or approximately that, the great mass of them never even heard of Jesus. They were not saved; they were all lost; but, my dear friends, Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man, for every one of them, yes, just as much as for you and for me. He tasted death for every member of Adam's race. "As by man came death, by man also comes the resurrection of the dead, for as all in Adam die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." The time is coming when all those who have gone down without a knowledge of the Lord shall be brought to a knowledge of the truth. That is what the Scriptures teach. Quoting again from the Scriptures our brother referred to, it says, "There is one God and one mediator between God and man"'not a mediator between God and the church. You do not need a mediator to come in between you and God. The Father himself loveth you. You and I do not need a mediator. We need an advocate; the church needs an advocate. So the Scriptures say we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who hath appeared in the presence of God for us and in our behalf as our advocate or attorney. We do not need a mediator. Mediators are necessary when there are two in opposition. God is only in opposition because the world is in a condition of sin, and God says He can not receive the world while they are in alienation and loving unrighteousness; and the world says, we do not love God. They think of God from the standpoint that our brother has been misrepresenting Him, as a revengeful God, as being a very devil who planned their eternal torment before He created them; one who is keeping them in ignorance and laying pitfalls to blind them and take them to eternal torment.

That is the kind of doctrine that has made infidels, and that is what is keeping the heathen from approaching more nearly to Christ. We have a missionary in China who writes me that he has been telling them something of the truth over there. He says those who have been hearing Presbyterianism and Methodism are coming to him and saying, "Tell us some more about the love of God." They call it the Jesus Doctrine, as distinguished from Presbyterianism, Methodism, and so forth. They wan: to hear some more of the Jesus Doctrine.

Dear friends, if the world could hear the Jesus Doctrine it would be a blessed thing for them. Many hearts are moved by the love of God that will never be moved by thinking of God as the great devil who has made a place in hell for them where there are a thousand fire-proof devils ready to receive nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand that are not of the elect, that are not of the little flock. Now, that is the doctrine that has kept people away from God. That is the doctrine of devils the apostle speaks of. Nothing has done more than that doctrine to harden the hearts of men and make them abhor the word of God, and turn them from Himself. So if you try to talk religion to a man he immediately thinks of devils, and he does not want anything to do with you. He thinks it is bad enough to die, and if he is a Catholic to go through purgatory, or a Protestant to eternal torment, which is worse. He thinks he is in a bad condition any way. He has no hope of being one of the saints. He knows the Bible promises reward to no one at this time but the little flock who walk in the footsteps of Jesus, who lay aside every weight and run with patience the race set before them, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Now, there is the difference between the one Gospel and the other. Our Gospel is the one which is for the world and all mankind. It holds strictly with the Scriptures, first of all, that Jesus is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He is the true light. Every man must yet see this great light. [HG190] The world is going down, nevertheless, without seeing that light. Thousands of millions have gone into the great prison-house of death without seeing God or knowing Jesus at all. He gave himself a ransom for all, which must be testified in due time to every man. If it has been testified to every man now, then this is your due time to make your calling and election sure. Seek to enter in at the strait gate.

"Strait is the gate and narrow is the way." If this is not your due time and if you do not hear now, or whoever does not hear now, in the sense not merely of hearing with his outer ear, but with the ear of his heart, so as to understand the message of God's grace, whoever does not get that hearing ear in the present time is not in the same responsibility that you and I are who have had that hearing ear.

Blessed are those that hear.

Our brother has quoted that God is able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto the Father by Him. Yes, He is able to save, not only able to save us at the present time, but He is able to save those that have gone down into the prison-house of death without a knowledge of His dear Son. He is able to bring the light of the knowledge of God to every creature. He tells us that the knowledge of that time is to come when under the whole heavens the knowledge of God shall fill the whole earth, and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. Then shall there be no need for any one to say to his neighbor, "Know the Lord now," because all will know the Lord from the least of them to the greatest, saith the Lord.

Our brother calls our attention to the Jews. He says that they had one chance and lost it. He knows something about chances that I do not know anything about. I find, according to the Scriptures, there was one chance in Eden, and that was lost, and that Christ Jesus tasted death for every man, and that Christ dies no more for every man, and therefore by the death of Christ there is one chance secured for every creature; you have your chance and I have my chance, and every heathen man must have his chance, because that is what Christ died for. He died to give every man a chance, and they will get it, not as one that is bound. You will admit that the heathen have not got it now; they are lost, they will be lost until they hear that message, and they can not hear that message till the prince of this world is bound, until their ears are opened and until the message of the Lord's grace goes forth and the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the whole earth'the knowledge of the glory of God. That is the way it reads in one place: "If our Gospel is hid it is hid to them that are lost"'yes, indeed, and that is to the whole world. The whole world is lost. Our Gospel is hid to them nearly all. It is only to a few that it is not hid. It is hid to a good many even in civilized lands'the true Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Gospel of which we are not ashamed.

I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, which is the power of God of salvation to every one that believeth. I would be ashamed of the Gospel of damnation. The word "gospel" means "good tidings," as the angel preaches it: "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people." All the people are going to hear these good tidings. The heathen will get them in good time; that is, the millennial time. You and I have got the good tidings now at the present time.

We will have a severe test in the narrow way. 'Tis difficult to walk in the footprints of Jesus, but we have offered to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we may become partakers of the divine nature, which will be restitution back to human perfection. But the salvation that God is now offering to the little flock whom He is now selecting as the joint heirs of Jesus Christ, is glory, honor and immortality, to sit with Him in His throne, to be associated with Him in blessing all mankind.

Dear brethren and sisters, this is the Gospel of which we are not ashamed. I have yet to find a man that is not ashamed of the ordinary misnamed Gospel of damnation, which makes out that God is the one responsible for nearly the whole world going to eternal torment. That is a misfit name'no Gospel about that.

That is damnation in every sense of the word. God has a glorious Gospel of His dear Son, a Gospel of love, a Gospel of redemption, a Gospel of the high calling of the church, a Gospel of the restitution of the world and all mankind. Let us rejoice therein.

"Be strong and of a good courage: be not afraid neither be thou dismayed: for the lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest." Josh. 1:9

"To battle with the world, the flesh and the devil requires more strength than we possess; we need the courage coming to us from this Divine assurance given to Joshua." (Above.) R3080 c2, middle.