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SAL ISBURY CONFERENCE REPORT .

N o. 1. Vol. VI. DOUBLE NUMBER, TWOPENCE.CTOBER, 1882.

EDITEDand PUBLISHEDby CYRUSE. BROOKS,

Malvern Link, Worcestershire-on behalf of the

Conditional Im1no1·talUy Association.

This Number consists of 24 pages, and is sold

at Twopence. Early orders are necessary, as

only a small reserve will be printed.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE REPORT,

SALISBURY, 1882.

THE Salisbury Conference marks, we trust, a

new era for the Association. Hitherto our

work has been the lowly but useful and necessary

one of foundation-laying, now we trust to be

enabled to divert our means and energies to the

erection of the superstructure. Or to lay figure

aside, as an organization we have been struggling

with iunumerable difficulties, arising from a

variety of causes, but which by Divine grace we

have been able to overcome,-for which to God

be the whole praise and glory-and now we hope

to be enabled to devote our growing means and

energies to earnest, active, and efficient testimony

for Divine truth.In tendering an invitation to the Association

to hold its Fifth Annual Conference in the City

of Salisbury, our local friends had the courage

of their convictions; and though they were

somewhat anxious as to their ability to dojustice to their guests, and to secure a successful

Conference, yet events have amply justified the

course taken, and the Association has added

Salisbury to its Conference towns as a place of

pleasant memory and useful service.

As regards the hospitality extended, and the

warmth of the welcome given, the Association

has never been better entertained,-a result

largely due to the earnest and untiring efforts of

the local Secretary, Mr. W. R. Moore, and his

valuable eo-helper, Mrs. L. Bartlett.

In God's providence wewere severely chastened

by the heavy hand of affliction being. laid on

three of our expected and esteemed officers or

helpers (H. J. Ward, Esq., Gen. H. Goodwyn,

and Mr. Albert Smith) ; this, however, we trust

was and will be sanctified to us and to them, as

reminding us that our help is in God and not

man, and in preparing and sanctifying them for

future service.

The Conference was well and generously re-

ported hy the Salisbury Press; the Times de-

voting six columns thereto, whilst the Journal

gave above two columns, and the Express aboutthe same. The Western Gazette (published in

Yeovil), gave a fair notice. In addition to its

report the Salisbury Times gave a very liberal

and discriminative editorial article, from which

we cull a few sentences :-" One thing the visit

of the Conditional Immortality Association to

Salisbury has done-it has torn away the veil of

mystery that surrounded it3 opinions. Another

thing it has done-it has presented the Mem-

bers in the light of earnest, thonghtful men, men

who seek enquiry and who do not seek to evade

investigation or discussion. They are men who

do not believe in eternal torment-they divest

the future of its horror. . . These gentlemen

have stepped boldly forth-have thrown off the

natural fear surrounding the shaking-off the

'dry-bones of the past;' and assert that the

past itself is wrong. . No one, however,

could have attended these meetings without

having been benefited-benefited apart from the

ability of the speakers, in the light they threw

upon theology."

The only exception to the courteous treatment

received by the Association, was that of the

well.meaning but somewhat impulsive Rector of

Fisberton, who, in the pages of his Parish

Magazine, noticed the fact that a Conference on

Conditional Immortality was about to be held in

the city, branded its upholders and witnesses as

men guilty of "unholy cavilling," and advised

his parishioners to wholly abstain from attend-

ance thereat. We can but regret this breach of

Christian courtesy, this un-Berean spirit shown

to. disciples of the same Lord and revere;t

students of the same Holy Word; the more es-

pecially as Mr. Thwaites is supposed to be at one

with the Association on the question of the pre-millennial Advent, though decidedly differing on

that of the Life. Surely it had been better to

welcome onr advocacy in the former, and to have

heard patiently our testimony for the latter, and

-if wrong-to have refuted it. Notwithstand-

ing this, however, the meetings were fairly (and

representatively) attended, and the testimonyreceived with an earnest attention that bids fair

for a future harvest for Divine truth.

One feature which has prominently marked

this Conference is the generous way in which

members of orthodox Churches have received

and entertained the members of the Conference.

An example of pleasing catholicity, which we

hope will mark all future gatherings. Doubtless

we owe much of this to the wise choice of the

lady appointed to canvass for homes, but the

pleasing responses given to her requests mark a

better feeling on the part of the Churches

toward reverent (though heterodox) thinkers on

the great themes of human nature and destiny,

and are an augury of future good.

On Tuesday, Augnst 29, at 6.30 p.m., the

Executive Committee met. The Treasurer (R.

J. Hammond, Esq.) presided.

On the same evening, at 8, a Meeting for

Prayer was held in Harcourt Baptist Chnrch,conducted by Mr. W. R. Moore (local Secretary).

About 45 members and friends attended, and a

pleasing spiritual influence was realized.

This was followed by an informal meeting for

social intercourse, when new acquaintances were

made and old renewed.

On Wednesday, August 30, at 10 a.m., a

meeting of the Committee and Delegates was

held, at which the Treasnrer again presided.

On Wednesday afternoon, at 3, a Service was

held in Harcourt Baptist Church, attended by

near one hundred persons. The devotional ser-

vices were conducted by the Rev. Thos. Vasey,



THE BIBLE S T A N D A R D . 3

pressed. Then, very briefly, the' Secretary moved

the thanks of the meeting to the Chairman and

Speakers of the Day's Meetings; to the Officers

and Members of the Harcourt Baptist Church;

to the Residents of Salisbury who had enter-

tained the Visitors; and to the Harcourt Ohoir,

fa!' services freely rendered. He stated that,

had time permitted, he would gladly have given

vent to the warm feelings of gratitude and praise

with which he regarded the subjects of the re-

solution. It was carried unanimously, and was

followed by a few minutes devoted to questions,

which were replied to by the Rev. B. B. Wale.

Thus ended a truly happy Oonference. Our

chief regret being that we had not arranged (as

at previous Oonferences) for a third evening

meeting, which, judging from the growingIn-

terest and attendance, would have pretty nearly

filled the building.

'I'he dining, &c., arrangements at the

" Nelson," Fisherton-street, gave general satis-

faction; and the large and handsomely-furnished

room there proved very useful as a gathering

place for social intercourse.

To the Choir of Harcourt Church the Con-

ference is much indebted, as their Service of

Song proved a most helpful feature of its meet-

ings. And we wish also to present our thanks

• to the friends who so kindly cared for the Book-

stall-under the oversight of Mr. Lewis Bartlett.

There were full 35 Visiting Members or Dele-gates present, from the following places, ex-

clusive of Local Members: -Blackburn. Bacup,

Blandford, Bristol, Bath. Barnstaple, Bradford

(Yorks), Oheltenham, Glasgow, London, Liver-

pool, Lincoln, Malvern, Prestwich, Reading,

Swansea, Torquay, and Yeovil.

The friends left with a warm greeting, and a

whispered-" Oome again." For many mercies

of another Oonference we are led to " Thank

God and take courage."

Two Sermons were given at Harcourt Baptist

Ohurch, on the Sunday following the Conference,

by the Secretary (Mr. 0, E. Brooks).

•

altar and slain, and the blood was poured out is the Giver of life, and Ohrist is the Word of

that is the life, the significance was this-that God, the expression of that life.

life was forfeited. by sin, and that the judicial Let us see what we understand by God being

desert of sin, from the hand of God, was the Giver of life. Wrath is the aspect of the

death. There was another significance attaching Divine government toward sin; love is the

to this sacrifice, for when the worshipper brought aspect of the Divine heart towards the sinner.

the victim he was supposed in that very act to Let me use an illustration, to render my mean-

confess that he had committed the sin, the ing clear. Let us suppose a case of the Prince

desert of which was death, but on the basis of of Wales committing a crime, rendering him

that confession-over that sacrifice-his sin was amenable to capital punishment by British law.

forgiven, and he himself accepted and his life The aspect of the law to him is death, What

preserved. would be the aspect of the Queen's heart? Love.

In the first chapter of the Book of Leviticus The aspect of the law to sin is death; the aspect

you will see this put clearly-I won't quote it. of the Divine heart to the sinner is love; and

You will find there-God Himself being the thus life is the gift of God's love. So we are

Speaker-man was to bring the offering. he was said to be redeemed from under the law; we

to lean hard upon it, identifying himself with were under it, the lightnings of the law were

it; it was to be slain, and after that action it playing around us, we were exposed to all it

was to be accepted for him. Such was the dis- could inflict. Christ's redemption was from

tinct significance of this sacrifice-c-that the under the law. Take an illustration of our

desert of sin was death. And thus the sinner, meaning. A child is playing in some Alpine

who confessed that fact, and through the sacri- solitude; the father standing at the chalet door

fice and confession of it was forgiven, should I sees an impending avalanche-detached by the

have his life preserved and sustained. But all breeze, or loosened by the impulse of a passing

these werebut shadows and types of the fullness eagle's wing-begin its terrible descent; he

which was to be found alone in Ohrist. So He rushes to where his child is in danger; takes it

says: "Sacrifices and offerings Thou wouldst to his bosom, and bears it to a place of safety.

not; in the volume of Thy book it is written of The avalanchj' falls, crushing and destroying all

Me-I come to do Thy will." When Ohrist beneath it inf:ts descent. The child is redeemed

came He represented (as the sacrifices of old from under the law, which, had it remained

represented) a physical life without spot or where it was, would have crushed it. That wasblemish-what was a perfect moral life-and our position. The lightnings of the law had

so Ohrist came without spot or blemish repre- been playing-around and about us. Ohrist came

senting humanity and what humanity should and bore uJl away to a place of safety. But the

render to God-perfect obedience, sinless obedi- avalanehe Ll law falls, and all that is beneath it

ence, in thought, word, and deed. But inasmuch will be crushed, destroyed. "The wages of sin is

as He also represented sinful man, He had to be death," and" the gift of God is eternal life."-

made a sacrifice by offering up His life for the This gIft of the Father, through our union with

ransom of the many. the Lord Jesus Ohrist, which union is effected

The Apostle Paul, in drawing an analogy be- by the Holy Spirit, and realized by faith. And

tween the sacrifices of the latter economy and thus we dismiss, as we said, briefly, the last pro-

that of the Lord Jesus Ohrist, says: "It was position of the text.

not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to We turn now to the first statement-" The

put away sin." Why not? For four reasons, wages of sin is death." What is death? Death

briefly stated. First of all, their death was not is the disintegration of a compound being; its

voluntary; irrespective of their will they were resolution into its original elements. And when

slain. Second, their nature did not occupy the God pronounced upon Adam the penalty of

same plane with the nature that had fallen, but death, as a result of transgression,' it must have

was far inferior to it. Third, their actions carried some meaning to Adam's mind. We

could not be inspired by moral motives, nor cannot suppose that God pronounced a penalty

carry with them any moral value. ,And, finally, which was unintelligible. We all know that

their dea..thwas not followed by resurrection, nor death-at least in the animal kingdom-existed

could it be-having died they remained dead; anterior to the creation of man. And when

they-had no power to confer life on others, or God said to Adam-" In the day that thou

resume li:fe themselves. All that was lacking eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," Adam

in this sacrifice was fulfilled in the life and death must have known what it meant, it must have

of Christ. His death was voluntary; the Orass conveyed to him a clear and definite idea. But

did not kill Ohrist ; redemption was accomplished Jest man in his perversity should attempt to

in that moment when He poured out His soul unto show that death referred only to the death of the

death, in that secret transaction between Him body and not of the entire man-not the death

and Jehovah, when He cried with a loud voice of the soul-the Holy Spirit says, "The souland poured out 'His life. It was a voluntary that sinneth shall die." In another text we

action'; His nature in relation to humanity oc- read, "He that converteth a sinner from the

eupied the same plane: "He was made in all error of his ways shall save a soul from death."

respects like unto His brethren, yet without sin; Does then" death" mean something different

because the children were partakers of flesh and in the Bible to what it means elsewhere? If we

blood He also took part of the same." His were to receive the general teaching of the day,

motives were all of the most elevated kind; His we should say "Yes." But we hold no au-

character and actions were of the highest moral thority, and recognise no authority, outside the

value. Finally, having died, He had power to covers of the Book. I ask the question again-lay down His life, and had power to take it up does death in the Bible mean something different

again. And having thus, as Man, in His sinless from what it means in other works ?-to what

life represented what was due from man to God; we usually understand by it ? The only way to

and yet as representing the sinner poured out answer the question is by a careful analysis

His life: having resnmed His life in resurrection of the different scriptures in which the word

He had power to confer eternal life upon all that occurs. We shall therefore attempt to show

the Father should give Him. Thus then eternal how the Holy Spirit in the subsequent texts

life is the gift of God through union with Jesus of the Bible amplifies and explains the prima

Christ. Let us not do as many, set up a moral penalty pronounced against sin. 1

antagonism in the God-head. Ohrist is the life. For instance, the word perish is used as re-

We are not redeemed/Tom God, but redeemed to presenting death. In the 49th Psalm it is,

God. Just as the Jews of old were redeemed "Man being in honour abideth not: he is like

from Egypt up to the peaceful reign 'of Solomon, the beasts that perish;" It is written, "God so

so the Church is redeemed through.the love of loved the world that He gave His only-begotten

God right up to the beatitudes of. heaven. God Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not

F IR S T D A Y , A U G U S T 30th ,SERMON at 3 p.m. as follows :-

LIFE ONLY IN CHRIST; ORWAGES AND GIFT.

By REV. B. B. WALE, OF MALVERN.

THE words which will form the basis of our

meditation will be found in the sixth chapter

of the Epistle ~o the Romans, and the last verse:

" The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God

is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

'I'he text contains two distinct statements.

First, that the revealed penalty of sin is death,

and the other, that the gift of God is eternal life

through Jesus Ohrist our Laid.

In dealing with the text we shall just reverse

the apostolic order, and take the last proposition

first, dealing with it somewhat briefly; not be-

cause it is inferior in importance to the other,

but because the latter proposition-that the gift

of God is eternal life-is generally assented to

by the Universal Ohristian Church, whilst thefirst statement of the text. although nominally

received, is as almost universally denied; and

because the maintenance of that proposition,

pure and simple, is the distinctive feature of the

Association we are here this day to represent.

Let us then turn to the second proposition-

that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus

Christ our Lord.

All the sacrifices of the Jewish economy, and

the sacrifices that preceded that economy-from

the sacrifice of Abel, offered at the gates of the

lost Paradise, right downward to Oalvary, were

hieroglyphics carrying with them a distinct but

symbolical significance. That significance was

twofold. When the victim was brought to the



4 THE S T A N D A R D .IBLE

. .

perish, but have everlasting life." The anti-

thesis of life, is perish. And what is to be under-

stood from this word we can gather from its use

in relation to other objects.

In the first chapter of the Epistle to theHebrews, it is written, " They shall perish, but

Thou remainest." Perish is the antithesis tn

remaining. The words "cut off" are used to

represent what is meant by death. "Shall be

cut off" as a branch from a tree. Separate a

branch from a tree it loses its vital force, it

withers, it dies, and thus it perishes. Theyshall be ground to powder. "Whosoever shall

fall upon this stone shall be broken, but on

whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to

powder," to the smallest particles of dust. They

shall be destroued; "The wicked shall be

banished from the presence of the Lord with

everlasting destruction." The revised version

has it, "They shall suffer pnnishment, even

eternal destruction from the face of the Lord."

They are compared in the 13th of Matthew, by

the Saviour Himself, to tares gathered np-burnt

up. They are spoken of as ch at! separated

from the wheat. "He shall gather the wheat

into His garner, and burn up the chaff with un-

quenchable fire." "They shall consume away

as the fat of lambs, into smoke shall they con-

sume away." They are compared to stubble." The day cometh which shall burn as an oven,

and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly,

shall be as stubble, and the day that comethshall burn them up, that it shall leave them

neither root nor branch." We could go on

multiplying these quotations, but refrain. And

refrain also from comment. We quote the plain

statements of the Holy Spirit and the inspired

Apostles. Such are the revealed peualties of sin.

And we put the question-Had it been the wish of

the Holy Spirit and the Apostles to have con-

veyed to our minds that the ultimate penalty of

sin was extinction, could they have used stronger,

more decisive terms than they have used, and

than we have quoted? You know they could

not. You know yourselves you can find no

terms to express more clearly the ultimate

extinction of the wicked, and nothing more

powerful to show that finally the wicked shall

not be.

Such, then, from Genesis to Revelations is the

statement of the Holy Spirit as to the revealed

penalty of sin. IT IS DEATH. Is it compared tothe broad road which leads to destruction? It is

death 1 Is it the pre-announeed penalty before

man fell? It is death? Is it the amplification

of the penalty when sin has become an accom-

plished fact? It is death! " In tbe sweat of thy

brow thon shalt eat bread, till thou return to the

dust from whence thou wert taken-dust thou

art, and unto dust thou shalt return." Is it a

law in the members? "It bringeth forth fruit

unto death." Is it a "way that seemeth right

unto a man? The end thereof is death!" Is it

11 servitude, a bondage? Its wage is death! Is

it conception and birth? "When it is finished it

bringeth forth death." Is it a regal and a reign-

ing power? It reigns unto death! Is it called

up for execution? The final penalty is the

••second death."

We need hardly say that the popular theory of

the desert of sin flatly contradicts the statement

of the Apostle, and affirms that the wage of sinis eternal life in conscious torture in fire and

brimstone. And here we shall read. to you one

or two extracts that you may see we in no way

misrepresent, either the teachings of the past

ages, or the teachings of the present in relation

to this particular truth or doctrine. We quote,

first of all, from Bishop Jeremy Taylor, author of

the well-known work, "Holy living and dying."

He says, "We are amazed to think of the

brutality of Ph alaris who roasted .meu alive in

his brazen bull. That was a joy in respect of the

fiery hell. What comparison will there be

between burning for a hundred years and to be

burning without interruption as long as God is soothe the consoience. One good gentleman-

God." It does seem marvellous that the good Professor Birks, who cannot give up the idea

Bishop could not see the force of his own man's immortality, yet shudders at this. H

example, and that what he says of the brutality palliates it by supposing that in the course

of Phalaris reflects with immeasurable intensity many ages the wicked get used to the flames an

on the character of God. have such a soothing sense of the Divine justic

Tertullian says, "How I shall admire, how that it will only be to them a kind of inferio

laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so Paradise. But the general feeling abroad is th

many proud monarchs and fancied gods groaning -at least among the orthodox party. The

in the lowest abyss of darkness; so many magis- believe that all children who die under seven a

trates, who persecuted the name of the Lord, exempt from this terrible torture; they say th

liquifying in fiercer fires than they ever kindled the age of responsibility begins at seven.against the Christians; so many sage philoso- would be interesting to know and to inquire

phers blushing in the red hot flames with their what Scripture they base the thought. W

deluded followers." know of none. Of course, their conscience wou

Bishop Hopkins, all Englishman who lived not allow them to endorse-indeed they cou

about 1700, and presided over the See of Haphoe not - the sentiment of Augustine. " Th

-says, " Should eternal punishment cease, aud infants departing from the body without baptism

the fire be extinguished, it would in a great are certainly in damnation." But let us su

measure obscure the light of heaven, and put an pose a case according to their standpoint-let

end to a great part of the happiness and glory take a " single captive"-a single child. Let

of the blessed." suppose a household where there are tw

But one other quotation, and this shall be children-a sister and a brother. The brother

from the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, whom we honor the first born; and he has reached to within tw

and regard as a most useful and serviceable months of seven years. Then some diseas

man; but we call no man master. Listen to incident to childhood, or it may be a feve

what he says: "Only conceive that poor wretch strikes him down; and he dies on the verge

in the flames who is saying, ' Oh for one drop 0.- seven. Oh, happy child! He has passed

water to cool my parched tongue!' See how his once into all the joys of heaven, had he lived tw

tongue hangs from between his blistered lips! months longer, the result would have been ver

How it excoriates and burns the roof of his different, he would have been writhing an

mouth as if it were a firebrand! Behold him suffering in the flames of hell. That fever wcrying for one drop of water! I will not pie- his saviour, and conducted him straight

ture the scene." (I should say he had done so.) heaven. But by-and-bye the little sister, who

" Suffice it for me to close up by saying that the merry laugh, and smiling face, was the sunshin

hell of hells will be to thee, poor sinner, t J ' . a of home, "he reaches the age of seven. Tw

thought that it is to be for ever. Thou wilt leok months have scarce elapsed, when she is struc

up there on the throne of God, and on it shall down by disease-or fever, and in a few days

be written' for ever.' When the damned jingle weeks she is no more. Oh, terrible two months!

the burning irons of their torments they shall Those brief 6() days have been fraught with

say, 'For ever!' When they howl, echo cries, terrible eternity of anguish.

, For ever! ' Let us suppose that thousands of ages hav

'For ever 1 iswritten on their racks, rolled away, and earth and its history are thingFor ever 1on their chains; of the long gone past. This eternally-tormented

For ever! burneth in the fire, child is cast up to the surface of the burning lakFor ever 1 ever reigns I'" Listen! it speaks. "Oh God, have mercy,

One other extract, and that from a clergyman was only seven years on earth, and for each yea

of the Romish Church, from whom, however, we of earth-life I have had ten thousand years

should not expect much better. The gentleman burning. Oh, God! is it not enough? Fo

is the Rev. J. Furniss, and it is contained in a three years I was but a baby, and for those thre

book pnblished for the "use of children and years of baby-life I have had thirty thousan

young persons." "See on the middle of the years of burning. 0, God! have mercy! Mredhot floor stands a girl; she looks about last memory of earth was my mother's partin

sixteen years old. Her feet are bare. Listen; kiss, her fond caress, her bitter tears, then th

she speaks. 'I have been standing on this red- devils fetched me away and plunged me into th

hot floor for years. Look at my burnt and burning lake. Oh, God! have mercy." Bu

bleeding feet. Let me get off this burning floor again the surging billows dash over the shriek

for one moment? '-The fifth dungeon is the red' ing and the shrinking form. And again th

hot one. The little child is in the redhot oven. mocking anthem rises from the neighbouring

Hear how it screams to come out; see how it heaven, "His mercy endureth for ever." Ca

burns and twists itself about in the fire. It you believe it? God, if for one moment in o

beats its head against the roof of the oven. It lives we had ever held such a thought

stamps its little feet on the flOOL God was very Thee, Oh, forgive us. Such, according to th

good to this little child. Very likely God saw it popular theory is the desert of sin-embracing

would get worse and worse, and would never children from seven years old and upwards.

repent, and so it wonld have to be punished But of course this theory would not have bee

more severely in hell I So God in His mercy propounded and maintained by earnest, zealou

called it out of the world in early childhood!" I Christian men, and Christian teachers-some

will read no more. You will see I am not ex- the most excellent of the earth-had they n

aggerating when I affirm that modern teaching is believed that the theory had a foundation in th

not that the "wages of sin is death," but that Word of God. This do we readily admit; and

the wages of sin is eternal life in conscious behoves us now at once to turn to some of thotorture. passages, the strongest we can find, on whic

Eternal torment! How easily we pronounce the superstructure of eternal torment is su

the words-how glibly they roll from the tongue. posed to rest. And in doing this I shall take th

Did you ever try to realise what they mean? strongest arguments that can be used against o

To be burning-to be alive in excruciating position, and in favour of the views of orthodoxy

torments-for thousands and tens of thousands First, then, the 33rd of Isaiah, which has bee

of ages, and still no further from release. But quoted more than once to me. "'Who amon

let us not lose ourselves in a crowd. When us shall dwell with the devouring fire i [devuuSterne would bring out the horrors of slavery he ing fire! I ] Who among us shall dwell wi

individualised it-" let us," he said, "take a everlasting burningsv " But by an independen

single captive." Let us do the same. We know witness-Bishop Lowth, himself a believer

that those who hold-this terrible theory, adopt the popular theory, we are told that this chapte

certain palliatives, use certain apologies just to, does not refer to a future state, or to the sufferin

r



THE BIBLE S T A N D A R D . 5

of the lost in the world to come. He shows that

the passage has to do with the invasion of J udea

by Senacherib.-" Woe to thou that spoilest,

and thou wast not spoiled. And dealest

treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously

with thee. When thou shalt cease to spoil,

thou shalt be spoiled." The Assyrians were

advancing on Jerusalem. Hezekiah sent out a

bribe of 30 talents of gold aud 300 talents ofsilver to Senacherib to buy him off. Senacherib

received the bribe, but in spite of that he sur-

rounded Jerusalem. He" Broke his covenant."

"Behold their valiant ones shall cry without.

The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly."

Having destroyed the cities of Libnah, Lachish,

and others, he advanced to Jernsalem, and encom-

passed it with 200,000 men. "Now these

hypocrites in Zion are afraid! Here was this

dreadful invader. What shall we do-we have

no power to defend ourselves? Then was asked

Who among us shall dwell with the devouring

fire, who among us shall dwell with everlasting

(perpetual) burnings." This was no reference at

all to the eternal torture of the world to come.

But, leaving the Bishop, it is well to note

the wicked are not the persons gene-

rally supposed to be referred to here, but

the righteous! Having put the question into

the mouth of the hypocrites, "who among usshall dwell iu these devouring fires" - the

Prophet answers the question in the next verse.

Who? "He that walketh uprightly, he that

despiseth the gain of oppression, that shaketh his

hands from the holding of bribes, that stoppeth

his ears from the hearing of blood. He shall

dwell on high, his place of defence shall be the

munitions of rocks, bread shall be given him, his

water shall be sure." Isaiah and Hezekiah were

two, at least, who could, and did, dwell serenely

and uumoved, amidst these devouring fires 1

Passing to the next passage, to be found in

the closing verses of the 66th chapter of the

same prophecies. It tells of the return of the

Jews to their own land-an event not yet passed

into the region of historic fact; and when they

return i l) to the land, certain things are to take

place. "They shall go forth and look upon the

carcases of the men that have transgressed

against Me, for their worm shall not die, neither

shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be

an abhorring unto all flesh." Yet this passage

is supposed to support the doctrine of eternal

torment. First of all, the scene of this punish-

ment, be it what it may, is laid near unto Jeru-

salem; it is not in hell. " But it shall come to

pass that from one new moon to another, and

from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come

to worship before Me, saith the Lord." The

punishment, then, be it what it may, takes place

near Jerusalem. But Isaiah speaks of the car-

rases. I never heard the most orthodox of

preachers' maintain that a dead carcase meant

an immortal soul. Then again the allusion is

to the valley of Hinnom, the Greek form

of which is Gehenna in the New Testament,

lying to the south-east of Jerusalem, where

criminals and malefactors were cast. Of course

they were likely to breed putrefaction, and the

worm did not die whilst there was anything for

it to feed upon; the fire was not quenched be-

cause it was necessary to the purification of the

city and the neighbourhood. But now, a gentle

purling stream flows through the valley of Ge-

henna. Note, in the next place, when this punish-

ment takes place. "It shall come to pass from one

new moon to another." But would this be

feasible ? We all know how the phases of the

moon are produced, by the moon lagging behind

the earth in its passage round the sun. So that

it was at a time measured by months. Now, in

the next place, it shall be from one Sabbath to

another; but we have fifty- two Sabbaths in the

year, and the year is determined by the revolu-

tion of the earth around the sun. Can we

expect anything of this kind to take place in

hell? There will be no new moons, nor Sab- prove to you that trees in ancient times were in

baths there. It is an event connected with the habit of speaking,-that they were endowed

Jerusalem, and refers to invaders or idolators. with reasoning faculties and powers, and that

It contains its own refutation-when the earth they' convoked a parliament. And I should be

is burnt up then this eternal torment comes to thus making the Bible ridiculous. Supposing we

an end; just at the moment when, according turn to the New Testament, to the parable of

to the orthodox teaching, it is to commence in the pJ<9digal son. This parable represents a son

its fiercest form! The Saviour quotes this pas- being in a far country, and being brought by

sage (Alark ix.44). But we all recognise this, divine grace to his Father. But there is anotherthat no author can be quoted in support of an element-there is an older brother, and he says

opinion which there is no evidence he ever he never committed sin. If I am allowed to

held. Certainly, the Saviour would not have build a doctrine on a parable, I should prove

quoted this passage as teaching the immortality and expect to find men in the world who never

of the soul in torment, while the Holy Spirit says committed sin. That would contradict the plain

by the prophet that it means the material teaching of the rest of the Bible. Do you, on

destruction of carcases that are consumed by fire. the other hand, deny, as some have denied, that

But coming to the New Testament, we find in it is a parable, aq§J'contend that it is a record of

Matt. xxv. 46, " These shall go away into ever- an actual fact?- 1meet you with one sentence

lasting punishment: but the righteous into life of the evangelist, " Without a parable spake He

eternal." Of course we believe both statements; not unto them."

we must believe them because they are in the Let us now turn to the Book of the Revelation,Holy Word. We seek to explain away no por- where we get some of the strongest terms, and

tion of Divine Trnth. We believe in the ever- what are snpposed to afford some of the strongest

lasting life of the righteous; we believe in eternal proofs of the popular theory. In chap. xiv.,

punishment; but we do not believe in eternal verse 11, we read, "And the smoke of their

torment. The distinction is this; First, I lay torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and

down this as an emphatic principle :-A thing they have no If st day or night, who worship the

may be and is eternal in its result, without being beast and his image." That is true, I suppose.

eternal in its action. Now, to the proof. I Whose torment, is the first question? Doesturn to the sixth chapter of Hebrews, first and this describe the whole human race? It describes

second verses. The Apostle Paul speaks among all those who worship the beast and his image,

other things of " eternal. judgment." Do you be- and that is generally admitted to be a crime not

lieve that Christ will spend eternity in judging yet committed. It has reference to the persona I

the world? That He will be always judging the future Anti-Christ. It is a future crime not yet

world? Certainly not! When the judgment committed, against which a special penalty has

takes place, the result will be eternal. When been pronounced. Therefore, it does not sup-

once the sentence has passed the lips of the port the general theory of the eternal torture of

Judge it is irrevocable; it is, therefore, eternal the vast majority of the human race. In chap.

in its result, not in its action. In Heb. ix. 12, xix., ver. 3, there is the same language applied

the Apostle, speaking of the Lord Jesus, says, to the destruction of Babylon-whether mean-

"Having obtained eternal redemption. for us." ing Babylon mystically, or Babylon literally, I

Is He always redeeming us? Redemption was do not say. "And her smoke rose up forever

accomplished in a few moments on Oalvary ; but and ever." If it be the Babylon of Rome, then

its results stretch out into the boundless ages of the smoke must be still ascending. Have you

eternity,-in result eternal, in its action almost noticed the language-and they have no rest day

the work of a moment. It is eternal redemp- or night? Again, there is allusion here to time,

tion; it is eternal judgment. There is a.passage and to the present economy. What does this

in IIla1'k, where the Saviour speaks of the un- mean? It is a scene to take place on the earth.

pardonable sin which shall not be forgiven men, It is a special punishment for a special sin,

either in this world or the world to come-given which sin is not yet committed. In chap. xix, it is

in the Revised Version, that the man who applied to Babylon; and in chap. xx., ver. 10,

blasphemes the Holy Spirit shall be guilty of we meet with it again, " And the devil that de-

" eternal s·in." Does any man suppose that the ceived them 'was cast into the lake of fire and

blasphemer will be always blaspheming the brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet

Holy Spirit ? Of course not. The man who are, and shall be tormented day and night for-

blasphemes the Holy Spirit is guilty of a sin ever and ever." It is the beast and the false

called eternal sin, because eternal in its results, prophet to whom it is here applied. Here,

never to be pardoned. You comprehend that in then, it is symbolical, representing Gentile

relation to Christ's redemptive work, in relation governments, polities, and policies of the earth.

to the world's judgment, and in relation to the It does not represent the vast majority of the

blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, a thing may be human race, but the devil, the beast, and the

momentary in its action, but eternal in its result. false prophet. Nor must I leave this part of my

So we say it is in this passage, "These shall go subject without recalling to your mind what our

away into everlasting punishment," into an ir- good and excellent evangelical friend, the Rector

revocable punishment, that is to say, that the. of Fisherton, has said. He has reminded you

sentence once passed, it is eternal in its result. that the word is in the Revised Version, to the

It is because men have not sufficiently regarded "Age of the Ages," "Forever and forever." It is

the Scriptura Iusage that they do not see this. true, but it is only the usual Greek formula to

We go on now to what is supposed to be a represent the English forever. The fact is, the

" tower of strength "-1 refer to the parable of human mind can form no conception of an

the rich man and Lazarus. I am not going to eternal period-only piling age on age. It goes

analyse; but I am going to lay down a principle of for nothing. And the good rector was anxious

Bielical exegesis: No doctrine can be based upon to guard you against the heresies he imagined

a parable that is not cLearly reoealeti in un- we should preach. The same sentence occurs in

parabolic language elseuihere, I repeat it: No the 34th chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah, in

doctrine mayor can be based upon a parable the Greek rendering of the Hebrew Scriptures

that is not clearly revealed in unparabolic made 280 years before Christ, called the Septua-

language elsewhere. Do you dispute this? gint. The Hebrew word Gliol-iihsn, is rendered

Very well. Turn to Judges ix. 7-14. Suppose by the same word, and is translated" forever,"

upon this parable is based a doctrine. Here we "etel'llal," and "everlasting." "It shall not

are told, in the parable of.Jot ham , that the trees' be quenched night nor day, the smoke shall go

had a parliament, and that the fig and the vine up for ever-from generation to generation it

were besought to reign over them; and that shall lie waste." Now, here the language ill

they having declined, the bramble accepted. But applied to the cities of Edom, which ceased to

if this establishes a doctrine, I shall be able to burn 2,000 years ago. Though never to be



6 THE BIBLE· STANDARD.

quenched, it burnt out of itself before the Chris-

tian era, and the smoke that was to ascend for

ever and ever, ceased to ascend about the same

time.

And this brings me to a principle I wish you

especially to note, and it will cut away the

ground from these passages which are supposed

to offer an insuperable objection to our view.

The remark is this: Wo~ds themselves determine

nothing; their mean-ing, scope, and limitationmust always be determined by the theme of which

they treat. Let me proceed to prove it. Thereare two Hebrew words which are rendered

" eternal," "everlasting," "forever." They are

"Gad" and" Ghol-iihm;" They are used inter-

changeably. They do not necessarily carry the

idea of endlessness, but of indefiniteness, hence

their meaning is limited by the theme of which

they treat. For instance, in the 90th Psalm,2nd verse, " From everlasting to everlasting Thou

art God." The same words here carrying the

idea of unending duration. But in Ecc, xii. 5, itis applied to the grave, "Man goeth to his long

(Ghiil-iihm) home." Now, if in this passage we

are to take the word to carry with it the idea of

unendingness, then we have here the distinct

denial of the resurrection. The translators of

the Authorised Version saw this, and so rendered

the Hebrew Gholam by the English word" long."

The French atheists proclaimed death to be an

eternal sleep; but if the word Ghot-iihn» always

means" eternal," then the Scriptures teach thesame, for in Jer. li. 57. we read of some who shall

sleep a "perpetual (Ghol-iih1n an eternal) sleep,

and shall not awake." In Hab, iii. 6, the

mountains are called "everlasting." Now, is it

not clear that words themselves determine no-

thing, but that the theme of which they treat

determines the limitation of the word? The

everlasting mountains had a beginning, and will

come to an end. The same word applied to

Jehovah carries the widest extent of meaning;

applied to the mountains it is governed by the

theme.

Again, the everlasting priesthood of Aaron

(the 40th chapter of Exodus), came to an end 2,000

years ago, lasting 15 centuries, and hardly that.

In the 21st chapter of Exodus we are told the

Hebrew servant shall serve his master "for

ever,"-a term necessarily limited by the duration

of the man's life. Words, we repeat again, and

we repeat it to emphasize its importance, deter-mine nothing, they are governed by the theme.

Do you admit this principle? Then at once the

dispute is over; you have admitted the unsound.

ness of your position, and the soundness of ours.

Do you dispute it and deny it? We lay the onus

on you. You must prove that these Greek and

Hebrew words carry with. them, whenever used,

the idea of eternity. You will have to prove that

the Hebrew servant is still serving his master;

that the Aaronie priesthood is still a living fact,

and a living power, and has not been supplanted

by the priesthood of Jesus Christ. You will

have to contend, witl!. Lucretius, that matter is

eternal,-that really God did not create the

earth. You have to deny the statement of Peter

that the world shall be burnt up, because the

mountains are eternal. You will have to prove

that the cities of Edom are still burning, and

that the satyr and the owl still live there, being

rendered by Almighty power eternally fireproof.This is really a reductio ad absurdum: W"rds,

we repeat, are limited by the theme of which

they treat.

We have thus gone over the passages urged for

and against our belief. "The wages of sin is

death." Some may be inclined to ask" What

is the destiny of the unsaved? do you believe

the wicked will die like the beast and never be

raised again?" We believe in a resurrection of

the just and of the unjust. We believe it

because the Holy Spirit affirms it. We believe

that in the day when the general resurrection

takes place and the dead are raised for judg-

ment, they will stand before the great white

throne, and receive the awards of eternity. We

believe in the teaching of the Apocalypse, that

all whose names are not written in the Lamb's

Book of Life shall be cast into the lake of fire,

which is the second death. Don't you think that

will be sufficient punishment? Resuscitated and

reconstituted humanity, freed from all the infirmi-

ties and weaknesses of earth, raised in all the force

and energy of resurrection-life, endowed with a

capacity of living for ever, equipped with all the

force and energy of incorruptible being, capableof exploring the amplitudes of immensity with

an unfaltering step and an unflagging wing, ever

reaping down fresh harvests of knowledge, ever

advancing in the glowing extasy of fadeless,

deathless being. Within it, all these vast pos-

sibilities: before it the limitless landscape of the

universe, lit up by sun and star, systems and

constellations, the glorious galaxy of God: and

then to perish; then to sink to utter night;

then to hear its funeral knell toll forth from

the outer darkness, which is to be its

eternal tomb. Standing on the verge of

that awful gulf, what will be the force

and energy of that despair with which the soul

will wrestle with the last enemy who is com-

missioned to extinguish it for ever? What will

be the bitter cry of anguish that will rise from

the perishing host as it sinks to utter night?

We can almost imagine, that for an instant, it

will drown the music of the spheres, and send athrill of horror through the ranks of the glorified.Is not this enough?

We hasten to a close, aud thus dismiss this

part of our subject with one other remark, that

while the modern pulpit fills its quiver, and

barbs its arrows with the sorrows ot those that

perish, and seems to linger with a morbid delight

over their excoriated lips, blistered tongues and

writhing forms, the apostles-rather shall we not

say the Holy Spirit-makes but few and scanty

references to that eternal future which awaits

the lost! Enough indeed is revealed to appal

the stoutest heart and -make the boldest sinner

tremble. Like the vision seen by Eliphaz when a

spirit passed before his face, and the hair of his

head stood up ; so, with form and face half veiled

and half revealed, stands that second death,

waving back the sinner from a career of iniquity,

and crying- though with voiceless lips-flee from

the wrath to come! The Holy Spirit says butlittle of, and dilates but seldom upon, the future

that awaits the lost. He exhausts every form of

imagery, and lays under tribute every domain of

nature to illustrate the felicity of the saints in

light. But judgment is Jehovah's strange work.

He rises to it reluctantly, ~nd speedily dismisses

it. As the judge upon the bench, while in the in-

terests of justice,-he is compelled to pass sen-

tence of death on the criminal, frequently does

it with a quivering lip and a tearful eye; so the

Almighty, though, while in the interests

of His moral government, He must pass

the sentence of the second death upon

the sinner, will inflict upon him no un-

necessary pang. Nay, "the Father Himself

judgeth no man, but committeth all judgment

to the Son "-because He is the Son of Man, one

who has fathomed all life's depths of woe and

knows by experience the force of its temptations.

The wage of sin is death, not eternal torment,and the gift of God is eternal life through JesusChrist our Lord.

Sin has introduced a discord into the music of

the spheres ; it shall be hushed for ever,-

and not till Christ has accomplished the purpose

for which He became incarnate, and destroyed

sin and suffering and death; cast out all rule,

all authority and power,-the last sigh breathed,

the last sin committed, and the last tear shed,

will He hand back the kingdom to God the Father

without the least taint of moral evil, radiant in

purity, and resonant with song. And then

Creation's harp retuned, and, struck afresh

by its Maker's hand, shall give forth .the melo

that pleases Him; awakening in angelic min

long slumbering memories of Creation's bir

day-when God pronounced it good! And th

from the vast dominions of Jehovah, from

frontier lines of illimitable space, shall gat

and roll and swell, without one jarring note,

deep diapason of universal praise I

FIRST DAY, AUGUST 30PAPER and DISCUSSION at 6-30 p.m.

Chairman-RoBT. J. IiAMMOND, Es

THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL I

FLUENCE OF A BELIEF IN

ETERNAL SUFFERING.

By A. WATSON, ESQ ., OF SALISBURY

PROBABLY the first reflection ofany thoug

ful mind will be that this is a matter of

less importance than the question, "Is

belief true?" The earnest student, in wh

ever departmeut he may be labouring, kn

well that the one object he should ever set bef

him, is to discover what is t?'ue, leaving the c

sequences that may flow from that discovery

take care of themselves. If, therefore, all tr

were capable of mathematical demonstratio

such a discussion as the present would be ilevant and unnecessary, and the only quest

we need to ask concerning the doctrine un

consideration would be, "Is it true 1- "

moral and spiritual tmths-the most import

to which our attention can be directed-canno

be so demonstrated. Every theory or c

must be commended to us by the evide

adduced in its favour, and we have c

fully to sift that evidence, giving due weigh

all that tells either for or against. In fin

accepting any such theory or creed as " trutwe must be influenced and assisted by vari

considerations, and amongst them not the l

important is the test given us by the G

Teacher, " By their fruits ye shall know the

a test as applicable to a belief as to an

dividual. Those who teach the doctrine

eternal torment always seem eager to appea

this test, and we who believe that doctrine t

untrue, and, therefore, mischievous, are equready to accept it, and we are here this even

to take up the gauntlet thus thrown down to

Our opponents never weary of arguing tha

you take away the restraining influence a b

in this doctrine exerts, you will give the rein

every kind of sinful indulgence, and there

be nothing to keep men from saying

practising "Let us eat, and drink, and sin,

to-morrow we die." If this were so, it w

indeed be a very serious thing to shake y

faith in eternal torment, but ••Is it so? " D

the experience of the past, or what is occur

around us now, confirm this? Has an alm

universal acceptance of this belief deterred

from even the grossest forms of vice in the p

or is it doing so now? We unhesitating

answer "No." On the contrary, we believ

influence has been a great hindrance to

progress of Christ's cause in the world, and

ask your aid in our endeavour to removehindrance out of the way. We reverently

our stand on God's word as revealed thro

His servants and by His Son, and we pro

against a nou- natural interpretation of word

plain and clear iu their meaning as "life"

" death," against the importing into the" g

tidings of great joy" brought by Christ t

sinful world, of a dogma which-if true-wou

make those tidings the saddest and m

terrible the mind can conceive. It is no

of my duty to deal with the few texts that

supposed to countenance this doctrine; on

fitting occasion th-y can-e-I think-s-be sho



THE BIBLE

~

S T A N D A R D. 7

not in any way to clash with those countless

passages-the spirit of which is so beautifully

expressed by the text "The wages of sin is

death; but the gift of God is eternal life,

through Jesus Christ our Lord." My task this

evening is to show that the popular belief (which

we hold to bo false) cannot have a flood but-

-has had and stil! exerts-an evil influence,

I would here point out that this belief is

tainted in its origin. We heal' nothing of it iuthe earliest aud purest age of the Church, when

the teachings of Christ and His apostles were

yet fresh in men's minds. The primitive

Christians knew it not-they believed that

Cbrist bad brought life and immortality to light

by His Gospel; that into that immortality they

would be ushered by the resurrection of the

dead-of which Christ's .own resurrection had

been the type and first-fruits-and that the

wicked would be punished with everlasting

destruction. from the presence of God. It was

not until the unholy alliance between the

Christian Church and pagan power had been

effected, that this doctrine became rife. Then

priestcraft reared its head and began to enslave

the consciences of men. To render this enslave-

ment complete it soon found that the most

efficient means would be to invest the unknown

future with an awful terror, and to keep in its

own hands the power to remit or modify apunishment of suffering otherwise without limit.

How that power was exercised Church History

records. It tells us that men who had lived the

most sinful lives, breaking every law of God

and violating every duty they owed to man,

were, when death approached, torrified by the

threat of endless torments into giving their ill-

gotten wealth to a Church which claimed to be

alone able to deliver them therefrorn. By en-

forcing this doctrine with all the authority of

the Church, the religion of Jesus Christ-so

adapted to impart hope and gladness to life-

'was made the very embodiment of gloom and

despair. 'I'he light and progress of the world

was quenched in the overpowering dread of what

a future life would bring, and the" dark ages"

supervened.

It would be an in teresting, and not unprofitable,

study, to trace out how much of the darkness,

ferocity, and absence of material progress which

characterised that period, sprang directly from

the acceptance of this dogma, taking away, as it

did, the charm of life and sacrificing the pre-

sent to an ever-impending future, full of horror,

Time would fail me to dwell on all the evils

wrought by this unscriptural creed. I will only

indicate some of them, and leave you in the

quiet of your own hearts to ponder the matter

more fully. And

1. I would say that to a belief in Eternal

Snffering we owe the cruelties and martyr-

doms inflicted by the Church, and which form

so black a stain on its escutcheon. To those

who held sincerely that any who rejected the

Church's teachings had so terrible a future as

was threatened awaiting them, it was both

logical and kind to imprison, torture, and even

slay the body, rather than allow the soul to be

thus lost. And there was a grim consistency inthose who acted on the belief that by inflicting

suffering or death on a few, they might save the

many from embracing errors that would drag

them down to a fate so horrible. To take a

notable instance :-'fhe Inq uisition, from whence

proceeded most of the fearful persecutions of

Protestants by Catholics, was called into exist-

ence by Isabella of Spain-a woman as kind and

gentle in disposition as any of that age-solely

under the mistaken belief that by its agency

heretics might be saved from eternal torments;

and so our Lord's beautiful and solemn admoni-

tion to sacrifice eye, hand, foot, or even life

itself, rather than lose the Life Eternal, was per-

verted into a justification of the dungeon,

torture, and stake. And in so far as those who

perpetrated those horrors really believerl what

they taught, they might well argue and think

they were doing service both to God and man.

U. This belief was the origin of the doctrine

of purgatory. Even in its deepest darkness and

ignorance the human soul instiueti vely rejected

a creed so unjust and hopeless as was here pro-

pounded, and partly to mitigate its horrors, aud

partly to give increased power and sanctity to

the priestly office, purgatory was invented, anda hope was held out that-tor a sufficient con-

sidern.tion-the eternal state of those who had

passe I away unsaved might be modified, and

even that-finally-they might be permitted to

join the ranks of the redeemed. We, Protest-

ants, reject this as an unscriptural dogma

directly contradicting that word which says,

" As the tree falls so it lies," and," There is

none other name under heaven given amongst

men whereby we can be saved but the name of

Jesus;" but, strangely enough, we retain the

belief that alone renders purgatory a possibility,

and even commends it to the conscience.

IIL A belief in Eternal Suffering has been

the prolific cause of infanticide, Only when the

r-cords of time shall be unfolded and secret

things revealed will it be known how mauy

mothers,-believing that their darlings would

assuredly be wafted to heaven if death

claimed them as infants, whilst if they livedto sin, they would in all probability suffer

for ever--inflicted that death with their own

hands, as the deepest expression of their

intense love. And do not start, dear friends,

if I avow my belief that this is sometimes

the case even now, with weak, ill-regulated

minds. Perhaps an elder son 01' daughter has

died in open sin, and the tender paren t has

known no momeu t of peace since that child was

torn from her to enter ou an existence she

shudders even to think of. What wonder then

as she looks at the yet innocent babe in her lap.

and her whole soul goes out in yearning love for

it, if she resolves that this precious one at least,

shall not be exposed to so fearful a peril? In

the agony of her dread, she violates-from

pure though mistaken affection-every natural

prompting of her heart, and a little grave soon

holds that which should have lived to serve God

and its fellowman. Aud who shall judge and

condemn such a mother? Assuredly not those

who by their erroneous teaching have driven

her to the conclusion that only thus can she save

her darling from endless misery.

LV. This belief has caused, and is causing

much of the insanity that throws such a gloom

over human life. It is passing strange-yet

not more strange than true-that the very men

and women, who most strenuously maintain

this theory, also proclaim their belief in the

doctrine of election, as propounded by Calvin ;

with the same breath portraying an eternity of

suffering, and telling the sinner he can do

nothing whatever to save himself from it, for

that his fate has been fixed by his Creator long

before he drew breath; and when, under the

terror and despair, these combined teach-

ings produce in the unsophisticated mind,

the braiu reels, and reason is dethroned, onecannot but feel the wonder to be-not that

this is so often the result, but tbat any escape.

Every lunatic asylum furnishes instances of

victims to "religiolls melancholy," and in

almost every case enquiry shows it is the

horror a realisation of this dogma has produced,

that has had this sad effect. And

V. It has not deterred men from sin in the

past, and does not now. In the age when it was

received with the most unquestioning faith, men

lived in vice, and indulged to the full their

lust, passions, and appetites, unrestrained by

the dread of that which they professed to accept

as truth. And if you were to put the question

to every worldliug, drunkard, and libertine in

this land to-day, you would find an overwhelm-

ing preponderance of them admit their

belief in eternal torment, and yet not be in the

slightest degree influenced thereby. Perhaps

you have not thought of these things, and their

presentation in this form shocks you. It is

precisely this want of thought, this readiness to

accept just what Is taught, without question or

personal examination, that has given an error

like this so long a life, and enabled an interested

ciass to wield a power over the mind andsoul, warranted neither by reason or Scripture.

And if these l:ave been some of the effects of a

belief in eternal torments in the past, I waut

for a few moments to point out to you some of

the mischief it is doing now. And

I. It dishonours Goel, portraying Him, who

has revealed Himself as "Love," as a vengeful

tyrant, conferring and perpetuating life, to be a

curse to its possessors. Jehovah is jealous of

His honour and glory, and surely the most

certain way to tarnish that honour and dim that

glory is to teach such a doctrine as this. Let

anyone ofus here to-night ask his own conscience,

would I inflict a punishment unending? force

an eternity of existence, into which not one ray

of joy or hope should ever cc-me,even on my

bitterest enemy? The instant response, I am

sure, would be "No." Or, again, is not an

everlasting punishment of torment, an undue

retribution for even the most sinful life? Soshort, and so moulded by circumstances as that

life is? I know you will reply" Yes." And

yet we ascribe this to Him who is infinite in

power and in mercy, and charge Him. virtually,

with doing that from which the most vindictive

of men would shrink Is not this dishonouring

Him of whom we read, that He so loved the

world as to give His only begotten Son to suffer

and die for its redemption?

H. This doctrine is producing more scepticism

and alienating more thoughtful minds from

Christianity than any other influence of the age.

Every creed and institution in the present day is

on its trial, and must submit to the most search-

ing tests as to its truth and utility; and the

religion of Jesus Christ does not shrink from

the strictest examination, it rather courts it,

presenting its credentials, pointing to its origin

and history, and asking every man to "be fully

persuaded in his own mind." A seeker, after

truth--with a mind hitherto unbiassed-sits

calmly down to examine the claims of the

Christian religion on his acceptance. And what

does he find? Why, that one of the most pro-

minent articles of its creed is a doctrine against

which every faculty of his moral nature revolts,

and, startled at this he refuses to examine

fnrther, but rejects the whole, casting away the

precious grain of God's truth with the imported

chaff of human error. 'I'his has happened again

and again, and, I believe, if the heart of every

sceptic could to-night be laid open to our gaze,

from the avowed atheist to him who has only

" begun to doubt," we should find this theory of

eternal torment to be the cause-or one of the

principal causes of his unbelief. If this be so,

surely it becomes a solemn duty to those who

are praying for the extension of Christ's king-

dom, and labouring to win souls for Him, toenquire whether or not this is indeed "The

truth of God."

IIL The holding of this doctrine as one of the

Canons of the Church is paralysing the power of

the Christian l\linistry; because the inevitable

tendency is to make every minister, who pro-

fesses to believe it, either insincere or incon-

sistent. He will be insincere if he teaches or

countenances what he does not really believe,

and my own experience convinces me that many

who nominally accept this doctrine are not con-

vinced of its truth, and do not realize its

terrible import. They find it amongst the ac-

cepted formularies of their sect. It is one of

the articles of the creed in which they have been

educated ; and if asked cursorily if they have



8 THE BIBLE S T A N D A R D .

adopted it as their own, they would reply

" Yes ;" but go with such an one from the pulpit

01' the class to his quiet home, or for a walk

under the canopy of heaven, and say to him

" Brother, do you really and intelligently believe

tbat ninety-nine hundreths of the human race, of

tbe men and women who have lived and toiled,

sinned and suffered during their life's short day,

are now, and will be for ever-for ever, mind you

-in pain and hopeless despair?" And he will

hesitate, probably begin to talk of God's un-

covenanted mercies, of the exceeding sinfulness

of sin, of the danger of our sitting in judgment

on the Almighty, and other things he knows to

be only special pleading; and, if the question is

pressed home, will almost certainly confess" I

never looked at it in this light," and qniet his

conscience by quoting the text, "Sball not the

Judge of all the earth do right." The fact is, he

does not believe it; and yet he knows that it is

used from Sabbath to Sabbath by thousands of his

fellow-Christians-as the most powerful appeal

to men to" flee from the wrath to come," and

seek a refuge in Jesus. FOl·himself he scarcely

ever teaches 01' preaches it. From January to

December you do not heal' it from his lips. He

prefers setting forth the glorious work of Christ,

as exemplified in His life and teachings, and he

avoids the other as a subject disagreeable, and

slightly vulgar. I know this insincerity is un-

conscious on the part of many, but I know that in

other cases the consciousness of it is a source ofdeep trouble, undermining self-respect, and de-

pri ving Christian work of just that whole-hearted-

ness that wouldmake it successful. But if there are

many thus insincere, there are many more who

are inconsistent, who believe-as much as tLey

believe anything-that those who die out of

Christ go into a world of endless misery and

despair; and such an one goes into his pulpit and

preacbes it to men and women he respects,

and to some of whom he maybe tenderly attached.

And what then? He knows that many of them

have not given themselves to Christ, and are con-

sequently in this fearfnl peril, and yet he goes

home with them to share their hospitality, talks

with them on general, social, or political matters

with absorbing interest, and parts with them as

pleasantly and as easy in his mind, apparently,

as though all he had been preaching were un-

true, or at all events only applicable to some far

off people, in whom he Lad no interest. It mayeven be he lays his head on the pillow with a

wife he loves better than his own life, with

children in adjoining rooms, also dearer to him

than life, and he sleeps as souudly as though he

did not believe that they-(not having been born

again)-were in danger of being at any moment

launched into never-ending woe. Or, it may be,

Le COlliesLis insiocere brother, and "lets tbe

question alone ;" believing it, he is vi1·tually

silent about it; knowing that a doom so awful

awaits many of those whose souls are entrusted

to his care, and for whom he will have to render

an account, he yet refrains from warniug them,

and preaches on ltny subject rather than this-the most awfully-important of all. You will say,

perhaps, I am drawing too highly coloured a

picture, but, surely, if this doctrine 'is true, it is

the most terrible fact pertaining to men, and it

is the solemn duty of everyone, who believes it,

to "sound the alarm," and night and day-in

season and out of season-even with tears to tell

men of their danger, and beseech and entreat

them not a moment longer to remain in such

fearful peril. And if he does not do this, his

inconsistency suggests the doubt in the

minds of his hearers, not only that

thi« may not be true, but that the

other doctrines he preaches may be untrue

likewise. Our fathers were more consistent;

they believed it and preached it with a fervour

find earnestness tbat was a proof of their

sincerity; and many" Puritans life was over-

shadowed with a great cloud, and his death-bed

invested with overwhelming grief, because

of his dread for the future of some he

knew and loved. It is not so now. We still

profess to believe as they did, and yet the con-

trast of the preaching of the present day with

theirs, or even with that of fifty years ago, is so

striking as practically to give the lie to our pro-

fession. Am I not then j ustifled in saying that

amongst a people quick to detect signs of in-

sincerity and inconsistency, this conduct is

paralizing the power of the Christian ministry?

IV. This belief eng enders a selfishness in theChristian that is fatal to the bighest spiritual

life. The essential principle of Christ's life and

teaching was" Love," self- sacrifice, a deep sym-

pathy with the suffering, and compassion for the

lost; and His command to His followers is to

love as He loved, and if called upon, to be ready

to suffer for others as He did. And how does the

belief we are considering influence Christians in

this respect? If it does not make life intolerable,

and its dearest ties a source of agony, then it en-

genders a feeling of utter egotism. To look for-

ward witb rapture to oneself enjoying the bliss of

heaven, while many of our best loved ones are

in unending misery! To praise God for ou?·OWn

safety, while conscious that so many to whom

we are sincerely attached will never know joy 01·

even hope, is nothing more 01' less than heartlessselfishmess, none the less so because we tbrow off

all responsibility, or try to avoid the painful

subject; and to believe that bye and bye, in thebetter land, we shall sing the song of the re-

deemed, and enjoy un alloyed bliss whilst knowing

that those whom on earth were dear as life itself

to us, are suffering torments that shall have no

end, is to believe that our moral nature will be

degraded instead of enabled, when "this cor-

ruptible shall have put on incorruption, and tbis

mortal shall have put on immortality."

Fathers! mothers! you cannot bear now the

sight of your child in pain or in danger, and the

knowledge that some secret disease or sorrow is

sappi "the dear ones health and life fills you

with ,lie most anxious solicitude, and yet yon are

asked to believe tbat in heaven you will be

supremely happy, and know nothing of grief or

pain, whilst conscious that your children are

suffering where deliverance will never come.

You know that your whole nature must be

changed for tbe worse ere this can be the case.

If the millions of Christian parents in the world

would only honestly look at the question in this

aspect, this doctrine would soon be banished

from our beliefs: for tbere would rise up the deep

conviction, it cannot be of God. The love and

service we render Him in our regenerate state

ennobles and purifies oor nature, whilst a belief

such as this only tends to make us careless and

indifferent to anything besides our ownhappiness.

Many devoted Christians have felt tbis difficulty,

and have tried to solve the painful problem in

various ways.

I have spoken of the doctrine of Purgatory

in the Catholic Church; and amongst Pro-

testants many, like Canons Farrar and Kingsley,

have been constrained to cherish a hope for

which Scripture, gives no warrant-that all.

will be finally saved, and after varying periods of

retributive discipline, that everyone who has

died un saved shall be permitted to join the

redeemed. We honour the kindness of heart

that prompts this hope, but we cannot but seeit perverts the whole teaching of God's word,

and takes away the necessity of exercising that

saving faith in Christ's atoning work now, whichScripture expressly says is essential to salvation.

My time has expired, or I could point out many

other evils wrought by the belief in eternal

torment. I will only say in conclusion-It is

human pride that gives vitality to the error.

Scripture says, " Man is mortal :" human pride

says, he is immortal, In God's word, Eternal

Life is set forth as the gift of God to them who

believe on His Son, human pride declares man

has Eternal Life inherent in himself. Christ

expressly enjoins us to " fear Him who can des-

troy both soul and body,"-Theology teaches

that God cannot destroy the human soul-Or-

thodoxy, contradicting the word which says

"that which is born of the flesh is flesh," vir-

tually teaches that human parents bring forth

immortal children; or, it lands us in the only

other possible conclusion that every time a cbild

is born into the world (though it may be the

consequence of the foulest erime.) the Divine

Being is compelled to invest that infant withone of His own infinite attributes-Immortality.

I am afraid I may have spoken too strongly

for some present, and that my words may offend

and perbaps trouble you, if so I cannot help it

and I offer no apology. It is high time that;

Ohristians who do not in their hearts believe this

theory should boldly and honestly avow it, aud

not countenance even by silence such an ex-

crescence on their sacred religion. The love of

Christ as displayed in Bethlehem, Getbsemane,

and Calvary, is potent enough to melt the heart

and draw men to Him, and we need not resort

to means never used by Himself or His apostles,

to terrify them. Let us reverently paraphrase

His words, "If they believe not in the willing-

ness of One who died for them to save tbem,

neither will they be persuaded by any amount

of threatening."

Another word and I have done. You will

naturally ask, are not the wicked then to bepunished, and retribution awarded for the sins

committed in this life? To this I reply, "Yes."

My Bible tells me there shall be a resurrection,

both of the just and unjust, who shall come

from their graves (and not from heaven and

hell) to appear before the judgment seat. He

who is righteous, as well as merciful, shall

reward every man according to his works, and

we believe, " The Judge all of the earth will do

l·ight."· That Bible tells moreover of a seconddeath, from which there shall be no resurrection;

and that every being in God's universe, iu re-

bellion against Him, whether man or devil,

instead of continuing in existence, to be a blot

on His Creation, shall die that death; and God

surrounded by those only who are pure and holy

like Himself, shall once more be all in all.

The Chairman then stated the rules of dis-

cussion, and invited the free interchange of

opinion.THE discussion was opened b y the Rev. B. B. WALEwho remarked that he did 110t know that they could c a d\v:hat followed, as far as he was personally concerned, adiSCUSSIOn, as he assented to everything the reader of thepaper had said. The remark with which he commencedhis paper was one passing through his OWIl mind-thatthe first thing was not so much the doctrine as its truth.But in coming to the question of the doctrine, he, like Mr.Watson, departed at ~nce from orthodoxy. He had yet tolearn on what authonty death meant life and destructionmeant preservation, in fire. In reading any other work heshould not be expected to take words ill such an unnaturalsense, and he saw no reason why-but many reasonsagainst it-he was bound to accept tbe Scriptures in anunnatural sense. If he was told a man was to die whyshould he believe he was to live for ever? If he wa~ toldGod alone is immortal, why was he to put it aside as amistake, and say that every member of the human racewas endowed with immortality? Why should he believethat when the Almighty exclaimed-with His tones full ofgrave ~ignity an~ power-c-" I live forever," He was simplyasserting for Himself the same power that every re-probate, felon, and drunkard possessed.-He was simplyportraying an example which without pretentiousness couldbe followed by every man. Immortality was ascribed to

God and to God alone, who is the only Immortal. Thememb~rs of that Association accepted the plain teachingsof Scripture, and .s~ught not to infuse their own thoughtsand their own opnuona. Why were not the beliefs of or-thodoxy found in the Bible? Why did not the Holy Spiritsay what they taught? The Inspired Apostle had quitean equal command of language with those gentlemen; yetthey said nought of this. Their essayist had pointed outvery clearly how that modern teaching was a libel on thecha~-acterof God. And he confessed that he felt intenselyanxious that the rebuke the Almighty brought against oneof Job's friends might not be brought against him-c." Yehave not spoken the thing which is true of Me," And hemaintained that the man who said God would takechildren from seven years old and cast them into everlast-ing f ire, m~ligned the character of the Deity. Yes, theyowed to Him who offered eternal life, to seek to vindicate



THE STANDARD. 9IBLE

His character, and maintain it from misrepresentation, The Rev. B. B. WALE said that he was gratified to findand they left the result of their efforts with Him. that only one le exceedingly unsatisfactory answer," had

Mr. F. FINCH(Wesleyan) strongly objected to several of been found In his sermon. The passage referred to spoke

the statements and insinuations contained in the paper, of the smoke oftheir torment gomg up for ever and eyer-and, first of a ll, he strongly reprobated the principle that from ages to,ages. The good Re,ctor of Eishertou raisedthe doctrine of eternal punishment was advocated by r the same difficulty. It. was simply the ~sual Greekmodern p.reachers because they had something to gain by , formula to represent our Idea of. eternity. 1,he fact ~"asteaching It, That was a libel on the Christian Ministry. the human mind could not coucerve of unendl!lg durat iou.and a statement which ought not to have come from a The very word eternal from the Latin etemusChristian gentleman. They had been told by Mr. Watson meant simply piling one age upon another, and so on.that it was unjust to punish a man eternally for the sins But supposing it was from ages to ages? In the firstof this life: But to that he would reply, that man's sins place, in th~ rath chap. of Rev., it ran: "And thewere continued as l ong as he had the power. He did not smoke of their torments asccndeth up for ever and ever."

stopsrmung because he lost the desire, but he stopped Whose torments? If they referred to the cha]?ter theysl11n~ngbecause his life ceased. The essayist said it was would find the persons spoken of were the worsh~ppers ofunfair thus to punish men for the sins of a lifetime. Vias the Beast, and who should recerve the mark of his name?!t unfa~r on God's part to punish Pharaoh's army? Was W~ll,. were they among them? Pray, was th~ vastIt unfair to sweep the world with a deluge? Those of majority of the human race among the number? ThIS wasthem who held this doctrine believed it was in accordance understood to refer to Anti-Christ-to a sin not yet corn-with Scriptural teaching; not because it was the dogma mitted. That could not affect the yas~ majority of .theof the Church, but because of their reading it in the Word human race! That afternoon he laid It down as an lITI-of God. Was Mr. Watson going to assert that the teach- port~nt canon of in,terpret~tion :-11 Wor9s, determined

1I1gof.the present day ~vasinsincere, and that all the great nothing, and ~hat their meaning, scope, or bmltaho~ m~stand pIOUSmen, now alive, and who brought to their study always bed,eclded by the theme of whIch,they treated. ~1eof the Scriptures an erudite mind and much wisdom had word applied to God had a vastly different meaning tobeen teaching something they did not believe? That what it had w~en applied to the Hebrew servant, ?r the

at~ernoon the pre~cher, in ridiculing the idea that the everlasting priesthood. In the case ?f t,he s~rvant It wasBIble taugh~ eternity of punishment, caustically remarked govern,ed by the duration of the man s Iife ; III !h~ case otOil the allusion to days and nights and months. The only the priesthood ,It terminated before the Christian era.suggestion he could offer was this-that Christ and the Further than this-unless orthodoxy could prove man wasHoly Spirit had to adopt language which would convey to immortal-he could not suffer. The position was this-theythe human mind what they wished to convey. They under simply relied upon God's word, vindicating it from, thestood time 111accordance with days and nights and weeks crt,tel thought th~t It taught He would plunge httleandmonths , as .humau beings they could not comprehend c~ddren ot seven .1~tO fire, whence they were never toth~ Idea ,of eter-nity, without it. The essayist said that the rise. In that posmon they stood or fell.Bible did not corroborate modern opinion. There were rvt:r. FINCH assured the ,rev, gen~leman that he re-eminent .men-m~n versed in the classic tongues, men who pudiated as strongly as he did the belief that the child ethad studied the BIble from the earlier manuscripts-who seven years of age was to be condemned to eternal

asserted an opposite opinion, was Mr. Watson going to punishment. ,.say they were hypocrites ? Washe going to say that they The CHAIRMANhen closed the discusslon, which hadtaught what they did not believe? As one who had oc- already encroached upon the after meeting.

casionally the honour to occupy a pulpit, he emphaticallyobjected to this proposition, and he would ask Mr. Watscn,In propounding this doctrine, to show his Christianity byemploying Christian language.

Mr. PRITCHARD (Baptist) regretted that there was nottime to meet the arguments of Mr. Watson, but he be-

lieved he could read a paper which would completely re-fute his assertions.

"! - stranger in the room asked if, as had been suggested,this paved the. way for the return of infidels to the faith,were they actmg wisely in paring their beliefs to meettheir.vain shibboleth of infidelity?

Mr. BRADLEY(Episcopalian) wished to call attention toa marginal note in Rev. that the words "for ever andever" meant It from ages to ages." The reverend gentle-man (Mr. Wale) in replying to that point in the after-noon, answered 'it in an exceedingly unsatisfactorymanner. There could be nothing more expressive than"from ag~s to ages." As to Mr. Watson's argument, asto this bemg a fruitful source of suicide and infanticide, hewould ask what had they to do with the weaknesses of t hehuman mind in this? This simply exhibited the frailtyof human nature, not the weakness of a belief.

,Mr. WATSON, in reply, said that in his paper therem~ght be, errors in wisdom, diction, and taste; manythUl~s painful to hear. He could only answer that it wasthe smcere expression of a sincere belief-a belief not theresult of a .passing thought, but a belief he had carefully'held ever SInce he had inquired into Christianity, As tothe language he employed, that he must leave with hishearers, He had endeavoured to treat it in a solemn wayand he ~id not believe it contained one single irreverentexpressl?n. With regard to what Mr. Finch said, It That~ man did not sin longer than life lasted, and it was to beinferred that if his life were prolonged he would continueto Sill." To that he would reply, man's life was in God's

hand, and that the God who cut that life short had thepower to cut the punishment short. Next, Mr. Finchsaid that It He .laid upon the Church the sin of hypocrisy."

He would remind him that he laid the sin of this on theChurch in its most corrupt age; he laid it on the leadersot the Church in its darkness, and he regretted thatthough we had thrown off many of the swaddling clotheshanded down to us, we had not had the courage to throwoff these, As to Mr. Pri tcha rd, he would say that heshould be ready at any time-if called on by duty-toenter Into a discussion to maintain the views put forwardthat evening. The gentleman in the background hadsaid that 11 If they were to pare down their doctrines to

please and suit infidels, they would have no doctrineswonb holding long." He would not pare down

doctrines, in any way whatever, but he onlythought it his duty to remove what was in realitybut a false obstacle to their entering the fold, It wasa fact that, gradually . .,.the old idea of the future wasbeing abandoned. Fifty years ago- from the first Sundayto the last in the year-they heard it preached with anearnestness that was an evidence of belief. Now, howoften did they hear it preached? In this connection,indeed, he might ask how much ofthe current views of theBible was derived from Dante and Milton? Not a little!No one could have a doubt but that this doctrine wasbeing abandoned-though gradually, it was losing itsforce. And he believed that the future generation-moreeducated, more intelligent, and more enlightened-wouldcome to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit of God, in

threatening death to those who sinned, and permanent lifeto those who believed in Jesus Christ, meant preciselywhat he said,

and but for His power would desolate the very

place of His throne as well as the earth.

But who shall solve for us the problem ? how

shall doubt give place to faith, and mere theory

to fixed eternal truth? God Himself has given

us the means of doing this, in His own revealed

Scriptures of truth, here and here alone we make

our appeal. GOD Is-and He hath spoken, let

Him be true though all human inferences and

theories be found false. We claim for Jshovah

that which He affirms of Himself-God is thefirst great cause and creator of all beings and

things. He is the King of eternity-" From

everlasting to everlasting He is God." "He is

the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity."

He declared His name to Moses to answer the

proud sceptics of Egypt, "I am that I am,"

hath sent me unto you; and again He affirms

by Moses, "See now that I, even I, am He,

and there is no God with me, I kill, and I make

alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there

any that can deliver out of My hand. For I lift

up My hand to heaven and say, I live for ever."

(Deut. xxxii. 39,40.) The same grand truth

is affirmed by the Prophet Isaiah xlii. 5, 8.

"Thus saith God the Lord, He that created

the heavens, and stretched them out; He that

spread forth the earth, and that which cometh

out of it; He that giveth breath uuto the people

upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein."

"I am the Lord: that is My name: and My

glory will I not give to another, neither My

praise to graven images."

FIRST DAY, AUGUST 30th, The inspired Paul writing to Timothy, says

M. f A (1 Tim. vi. 13-16) •.

eetmg 01' DDRESSES at 7-45 p.m. "I give thee charge in the sight of God, who

The Chairman-Rev. W. LEAsK, D.D.-after quickenetli all things and before Christ Jesus,

devotional exercises, at once called on the first who before Pontius ~ witnessed a good con-

speaker: fession; That thou keep this commandment

ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST ONLY' without spot, unreb~able, unt~l t~e a~pe~ring. I of our Lord Jesus Christ : Which m H1S times

ITS IMPORTANCE AND PRACTICAL He shall show. who is the blessed and only

IPotentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

INFLUENCE. Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the

light which no man can approach unto; whom

no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be

THE supreme importance of my subject is. first honour and power everlasting. Amen."

of all, the question of its t1'ltth-is it a fact Accepting these solemn affirmations of

eternal life can only be had by man through Jehovah; we are bound to believe that God is

union with Christ? If this is not true, we, as the creator and proprietor of the entire universe,an Association ought to be indicted in the High that only" In Him we live, move, and have our

Court of Heaven for libel against humanity, and being." To borrow the eloquent language of (I

are deserving of being execrated by heaven, think) Dr. Pye Smith, "We can go back in

earth, and hell, for conspiring together to rob thought to the time when God alone existed,

mankind of the brightest jewel of their being- infinite space had never owned a world-no

deathlessness-the grand inalienable prerogative seraph bowed before the eternal throne: what

of immortality. But on the other hand if our forms of creation were to exist existed only in

thesis is simply the echo of the revealed truth the eternal and infinite mind of Jehovah"-the

of God, then the libel is on the other side, and Logos, the Word was there, the Eternal Spirit was

Christendom, yea, orthodoxy is guilty (however there too, in Israel's and our One Jehovah.undesignedly) of " teaching lies in the name of What ages passed after the creation of angels,

the Lord," and deceiving the race with the old before that of man, we know not; but our con-

falsehood of the serpent," Ye shall not surely tent ion is that God is the sole fountain of Being

die, but be as gods, knowing good and evil." -that only from Him does life in all its forms

If sin 'is eternal, and sinners angelic, proceed, from the loftiest intelligence to the

and the human, immortal, then farewell to tiniest insect, and the continuance or cessation

our cherished hopes of universal holiness, of that life depends solely on the will of God, But

blessedness, and peace, For over must the our theme is lI1an, a wondrous creature exhibiting

strife wage between light and darkness, good the wisdom and goodness of his Divine Creator

and evil; and the wrong, the carnage, the :who made him out of dust, breathed into himblasphemy, the curse of the past 6,000 years be the breath of life, and he became a living soltl orregarded but as the opening scene of an creature.

eternity of rebellion and effective opposition to We know the sad story of Eden, the tempta-

the will of God. Nay, we shudder at the tion, the fall; the sentence was death, "dust

thought; but if sinners are immortal, and in thou art, and to dust shalt thou return." But

spite of the Almighty can canyon rebellion for God's mercy, in the scheme of redemption by

eve?', will not the Divine Supremacy come to be Christ as the seed of the woman, came into

doubted? Jehovah's empire come to be ' I operation from tbe very moment when the

divided? and the universe become an arena of sentence was passed; from that moment only

eternal strife and discord? Perish. the thought I through Christ could God's gift of eternal life

-and the theory-that demands such an I be received by any of the race, now brought

alternative; that at. its best requires the under the power of death. I say God's Gift, for

huge prison of hell to hold in chains and I in no other way but free gift could it come to

darkness those immortal rebels who with im- him. He was a sinner, for the righteous penalty

punity can dare the Eternal to destroy them, ' of sin is death-this was the awful threatening,

By THE REV. T. VASEY OF BACUP.



10 THE BIBLE STANDARD.

not eternal torment! Man had rejected the

tree of life, and dared to rebel against his Maker,

risking His displeasure, hence the sentence, dust

thou art and to dust shalt thou return. Such

being the facts of the case, as stated in Scripture,

it is here the importance of our topic is seen.

I. We observe that the rectitude and the

veracity of the Divine character proves the

importance of our topic. Man was CAPABLE

of death if he sinned, or God would not

have warned him with such a penalty. But

if he was naturally deathless he could notdie, and the devil was right when he said" Yeshall not surely die." What then becomes of

the Divine rectitude, to threaten a penalty that

could not be executed? or of the Divine

veracity, to pass a sentence that could never be

carried into effect?

Modern theology teaches that man's body dies,

but His soul-his true self, the real man-is

immortal, and from its nature must live [or ever.

If this wondrous being rejects the salvation pro-

vided iu Christ, he misses heaven, he must snffer

eternal torment; but can never die. We

solsm nly affirm that nowhere in the Scriptures

has God taught this dogma, and challenge con-

tradiction. He declares the soul or persou that

sinneth shall die-" not live," be "cut off,"

"utterly perish." It was Adarn on whom the

sentence was passed, " dost thou art and to dust

shalt thou return." It is the corporate being,the individual that God deals with. Life and.

death, not happiness and misery-are the two

extremes or poles referred to in the book of God.

Now look further, friends, on this matter :-

Either eternal life is God's gift to us in Christ,

or what is said about it in the Bible jars with

the rectitude and veracity of the Divine cha-

racter. 1st, As to its being God', gift as the

fruit of redemption by Christ; now we speak

reverently, if I am inherently an immortal

being, God cannot give immortality to me

in Christ. I have it already. A deathless

principle that must live as long as God

Himself. There are things that a man has

that can be increased: he may have wealth,

fame, knowledge, virtue, grace, and he can have

more of all these. But if I have already the pewer

to live for ever, God cannot GIVEme this, for it

is ALREADYINALIENABLYMINE. Then what

becomes of that glorious text, " God so loved theworld (or race), that He gave His only begotten

Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should

not perish, but have everlasting life." To

perish is to wither like a flower, to die, to

cease to be; but if I am naturally immortal, is

it not an idle threat to say, I shall perish if I

reject Christ? Take that other glorious text

where John, speaking to his fellow-men, says, if

We receive the witness (or testimouy) of men

"the witness of God is greater." God is the

God of truth: He cannot lie: and He declares

" H" that believeth on the Son of God hath the

witness in himself: he that believeth not God

hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not

the record that God gave of His Son. And this

is the record that God hath given to us eternal

life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath

th- SOilhath life: and he that hath not the Son

of God hath not life." (1 John v, 10.12.) There

is no mistaking the meaning of this clear, plain

statement. God's record is that eternalltfe is

HIS GIF1', not throuqli Adam, but in Christ: to

deny this is to insult the character of God, and

make Him-s-in the strong language of John->-a liar, Let me beseech you, Christian friends,

to reflect upon what tradition has made you

believe, that man is immortal apart from

Christ, and if so. then God professes to bestow

upon me a gift 1 have already; and i 1 gift which

He only could bestow through the suffering and

death of His only begotten Son. 0, friends, God

will not mock us, nor can we with impunity

insult Him by the baseless profession of having

an immortal soul; but accept the fact that man

is lost, ruined, under sentence of perishing in

death; then we see the love, mercy, and grace

of God in Christ, iu conferriug this unspeakable

gift. All then is intelligible and clear, and His

rectitude and »eracitu is the rock on which our

faith can rest secure.

n. The importance ofeternal life in GMist onlyis seen further when we contemplate God's

glorious plan of Redemptiou by His Son, Jesus

Christ.

The righteousness and holiness of God were

seen in the sentence of death on the sinners ofEden. The flaming sword of the cherubim de-

clares the impossibility of immortal.izinq trans-

gressors. Rebellion must he put down. But

the character of oar God is Light and Love. He

has discovered a way by which His love could

flow to the guilty. And this has been aecom-

plished by the gift of His Son, "Who is the

brightness of His glory and the express image of

His person," the logos who in the beginning

was with God and truly was God. To Redeem is

to buy back, to ransom from that which holds

it under its power. This was our condition.

We were under the power of sin, had become

mortal and exposed to perish in death. But

Jesus took oar nature, was made sin for us that

we might be made the righteousness of God in

Him. " He died for us that through death He

might destroy him that had the power of

death, that is the devil." Then He rose "in thepower of an endless life." A new power was

thus developed.--ReS1!lTecNon, Eternal Life

through death. This really is as the Apostle

puts it-" the display of the might of His power

in raising Christ from the dead," (Eph. i. 20.)

Look at it a moment longer. Sin finished in

the death of God's fair creature, man. 'I'he

climax of Satan's malignity reached when man

was brought under the dominion of death. But

God's redemption was that His spotless Son

should bear our sins in His own body on the

tree, and in actual death pay sin's penalty, for

Jesus" laid down His life, poured out His soul

unto death," died for our sins according to

the Scriptures. The essence of God's re-

demption is this fact of Christ's death. 'I'rue,

some of our brethren are timid on this point,

and would contend there is some spark of the

old life-fire survives death, from which God can

rekindle the old flame. But if Jesus did notreally die, He could not rise from the dead: His

life was not laid down; His sacrifice was not

completed: sin is not put away: His word to

the Churches is not correct, " I am He that wasdead," and behold I am alive for evermore."

Now, if Christ was not truly dead, He could not

be made alive again. But the fact rests on the

sure word. Christ said" It is finished," and

gave up the ghost-or spirit of life. God" rent

tb.e veil of the temple from the top to the

bottom." The proofs of Christ's death were

complete to the satisfaction of heaven, earth,

and hell. Death took captive the Eternal Life,

and held Him in that rocky prison till the third

day, There He lay, cold, lifeless, dead. Paul

challenged in God's name, saying, "'Vho shall

lay anything to the charge of God's elect?"

Why ? "It is CHRIST 'l'HATDIED, yea, rather,

risen again." But Christ could not rise from

the dead if He had not truly died: and as all

admit, the whole scheme of redemption rests

upon the resurrection of Christ, so we contend

the whole glory and truth of resurrection rests

on the fact that Christ was dead. And here

comes the majesty of Omnipotence-The Father

raised Him from the dead! That which is irn-

possible to angels 01' men is possible with God.

We ask in the language of Paul, "Why should

it be thought n thing incredible with you that

God should mise the dead?" (Acts xxvi. 8.)

Just look at that vision God showed Ezekiel.

Dry bones! all life and moisture entirely gone.

They were many and very dry. The prophet

was to look upon them, and then he is asked

can these dry bones live! He then was t

prophecy to them, Hear the Word of the Lord

God would give them life. We know this shal

be literally fulfilled to Israel. But does it no

set forth the grand truth of God's power ove

death? "He can create and He destroy." Bu

to overthrow the power of death, to bring bac

from the charnel-house the One who died, is the

grand crown of redemption, (he glm'y oAlmightiness. It was Christ's restorative to the

desponding Baptist-gloomy and doubting i

Herod's prison. He sent to know the Divine

credentials of Jesus, "Art 'I'hot He that should

come? "&c. Mark the answer, "Go and tel

John what things ye see and bear; the blind

see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers ar

cleansed, the DEADARERAISEDUP." This i

God's grand testimony to His Son. And th

poor who don't know the classics and philosophy

have the glad tidings preached to them. The

world still lies in the arms of the wicked one

but God has appointed a day in which Chris

shall come, cast down and judge the usurper.

What is the proof, the assurance that such

time will come. The Eternal turns back t

this crowning proof of His power and truth,

"He hath given assurance to all men in tha

He hath raised Him (Christ) from the dead."

The Father delights to honour His Son, who i

the Resurrection and the Life; and as th

Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given tthe Son to have life in Himself, and to be th

Life-qioer to all who believe on His name. Th

importance of this great redemption goes beyond

forgiveness-vast as is this blessing-and it link

me with the Heir of all things, redeems m

from death and the grave, puts me in possession

of eternal life through resurrection, lilts me to

higher sphere of being, by making me, in thi

union with Christ, a partaker of the Divine

nature! I, who by my Adam nature was sinful

mortal, am by grace a child of God, an heir o

God, and joint-heir with Christ of a boundless

inheritance, in which to spend the Father's

priceless boon of eternal life. The importance

of this it seems impossible to exaggerate;

brings honour and glory to the Father and His

deal' Son, and exalts the riches of His grace t

me, the doomed rebel.

And, now, just a word on the Eternal Spirit-

the promised Comforter. He is the Holy Spiritthe Spirit of truth, He has come specially t

glorify Christ, for, saith Jesus, He shall receive

of mine and shew it unto you. He knows th

mind of God, reveals it in our Bible as the word

of God, which rests on tbe testimony of the

Holy Spirit, for "He searcheth all things, yea

the deep things of God." Now this testimony

that eternal life is only the gift of God in and

through Christ. He it is that seals the saints

of God until the day of redemption. Let u

not grieve Him by rejecting His Divine record

Is it not important that God's truth should b

told out to men, rather than the dogmas o

tradition? Man is a sinner under sentence o

death. Bnt God has given the precious gift o

Eternal Life to all who will accept it through

faith in Christ. While those who reject an

despise Him shall be cut off, shall not see life

but be extinguished in the second death.

The practical power of this truth is Immense,

for it is the truth of God. No theory this, bu

the revealed will of God. It sets forth th

riches of His grace and glery, It also frees th

character of our Father in heaven from the fou

aspersion. that traditional theology has cast upon

it. Our God will not torment devils or men i

hell for evC?·. This is not their doom. Th

finally impenitent must perish; be blotted ouThe last curse of the relict shall perish w-ith hi

breath: and purity, love, peace, praise, and

gratitude, shall be the pure offering that shal

rise before God from a cleansed universe, i

which all orders of being shall unite. Redeemed

humanity shall lead the strain, the powers an



THE BIBLE STANDARD. 11

If you believe in immortal sinners, you must

believe in the eternity of sin; the most God-

dishonouring conclusion to which a man, by any

dogma, can be driven. Remember, that sin

would for ever be growing blaeker, and more

daring. It is its nature. When men had.

slighted the messages of God sent through the

Patriarchs, they were prepared to persecute the

Prophets, and after that they were ready to kill

the Prince of Life Himself. And what immortal

rebels would, in distant ages do, God only knows.

We believe then that only those who qualifyfor immortality, learning now how to use a

never-ending life for the glory of God, shall re-

ceive the gift. We believe this, further,-

HI. BECAUSEo~' 'rHE OLD TESTAMEN1'STATE.

IIIENTSASTO SIN, SACRU'lCE,\""IDSALVATION.

As to Sin: Its uniform assertion is, " The soul

that sinneth it shall die." From the beginning

It shows that the cousequence of sin is loss of

lifc,-death. This is seen Vel'y distinctly in the

cases of Adam, the men of the Flood, the

Sodomites, the Egyptians, and Korah and his

company. The sinful are therefore not immortal.

.As to Sacrifice ; The lambs and bulls were

substitutes for the transgressors. 'l'hs penalty

due to the latter was paid to the former. That

penalty was death. Not the death, Ol' destruc-

tion, of their well-being: which some tell us

shall be the ultimate doom of the ungodly.

Nor the death of their ill-being; which others

say shall be the punishment of such. But it wasthe death of their whole-being. The animals

were utterly destroyed; cut off; burnt up. The

fate of the finally impenitent was hereby vividlyportrayed.

As to Salinuion : The light on this was not so

clear as we now have it; and it appears all the

loss clear to us because of the great light we

enjoy to-day. A dim light seems as darkness to

those who are in full hght, Yet various passages

in the Old Testament indicate that thc early

saints had knowledge of a life to come, and a

hope of never-ending days for those who were

either obedient-like Enoch, Abraham, and

those who kept the law of Moses; or penitent,-

like David and others, who, when they fell into

sin, came before Goel with confession and the

appointed sacrifice. Salvation from the destroyer

is never promised thcre to others.

IV. BECAUREOFTHE NEW TES'l'AMEN'rSTATE-

MEN'l'SAS TO SIN, SACRIFICE ANn SALVATION.

'I'hese agree exactly with those of the Old.

As to "in: While the Old Testament declares

"The soul that sinneth it shall die," the New

asserts that" The wages of siu is death." It has

been objected that tile Old Testament death was

death of the body, and that that of the New is

death of the soul. But the language is so

exactly the same, that we cannot think the

inspired writers had such a distinction in their

minds. Indeed, the Apostles frequently quotedfrom. the Old Testament when speaking of the

doom of sin. For instance, in Acts iii., 22-23,

Peter speaking of Christ as the Prophet like unto'

God bless those men, and bring them back in Moses, takes the words from the mouth of

safety to their wives and bairns. They prize Moses :-" It shall come to pass, that every soul

"glory," and know that they must fight for it; which will not hear that Prophet, SHALLBE

" 0 listen man 1 and we, lmowing immortality to be a prize, DESTROYEDrom among the people." If theseA voico wilhin us speaks the startling words, lmow also that it can only be obtained upon COII- words meant, in Old Testament usage, that the

Man-thou shalt neVC1' die! Celestial voices ditions. Eternal life is for "them who by transgressors would be literally put to death,Hymn it round our souls: according harps ... 11 d . kBy ungelIlngera louched when the mild stars patient continuance 111 we - oing, see for glory, why should they not mean the same, when used

Ofmorning sang together, sound forth still and honour, and immortality." iu the New? Or, compare Levit. xxii, 3 withThe song of our !lreat imurorbal'ity." If. BECAUSE'!'Hg POWERSo~' AN IIIIMORTAJ,2 1'hes. i. 9. In the one case it is said" That

And we have listened; but have never heard a AREINCALCULABLE.All things are created for a soul shall Lecut off from My presence," and in

voice within, nor voices around, conveying such I purpose, "i\lan's chief end is to glorify God, the other, Be" shall be punished with everlasting

It message. But stay! We have! One voice and to enjoy Him for ever." Now, if a tree, (or destruction from the presence of the Lord."

has whispered such words in our ears! A.' a nation represented by a tree,) Jails to fulfil the The language is almost identical. Then why

voice, alas, we long believed; a voice once heard object of its being, the command is given, "Cut should it be understood, in the Old Testament,

in Eden, but ALIAR'Svoice! "The serpru; said it down! why cumberetb it the ground ?" But as a sentence of literal destruction, and in the

unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die." if a man be immortal, he can never be cut down. New as one of eternal life in torment?

Celestial voices utter words the opposite. To all eternity he can defy his Maker. The As to Sacrifice : Jesus, " The Lamb of God,"

Hear the experience of Isaiah: "The voice said, purpose of hIS b~ing is unfulfilled; his immortal like the sacrifices of old, took the penalty due

Cry. And he said, What shall J : cry?" The I powers are prostlt!lted; and yet of these powers unto the sinful. What was that? Spiritual

answer was not, " Cry, all men are immortal;" he cannot be depnved. I death? No! To die spiritually is to commit

principalities in the heavenlies shall join in it-

"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive

power, aud riches, and wisdom, and strength,

and glory." And again the strains shall be

taken up by all creatures, " Blessing, and

honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that

sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for

ever." Amen.

After a hymn, the following Address was

given:

REASONS FOR BELIEF INIlVIMORTALITY UPON CONDITIONS.

By REV. GEO. P. MACKAY, OF LINCOLN.

A FTER what was said at the close of the

11 meeting preceding this, I should like to

state that I somewhat endorse the sentiments of

Mr. Fiuch. (Not admitting that Mr. Councillor

Watson brought a railing accusation against the

ministers of religion; but wishing it to' be clearly

understood that we as an Association do not

charge these with insincerity.) I have no right

to question the sincerity of a man simply because

he differs with me in opinion: and, taking the

ministers of England as a whole, I would chal-

lenge anyone to find a class of men who are

more sincere than they. We should always

speak of them with kindness aud respect. If

any do not believe as we do, let us not for a

moment think that it is from a selfish motivethey remain in unbelief. They simply do notsee that which appears to us so clear; and it is

ours. with meekness and fear, to give them

reasons for the hope we hold, and there to leave

the matter. This is the object, at any rate, of

the meeting of this evening.

The prevailing belief is that man is naturally

imrnortal,-once born he can never die. It is

said," This is the flat of Heaven's decree,

Thou art, and thou shalt for ever be."

But this doctrine, though orthodox, we take the

liberty to challenge.

Some of those who hold it say they find it in

the Scripture; but when asked for the words of

the" Fiat" declaring man to be immortal, they

fail to bring them forth. Others say that the

immortality of man is to be inferred from certain

passages ; but when these are examined it is

found that the doctrine is brought to the pas-

sages before it can be taken out. Others, again,

try to argue for it from certain data of meta-

physics; for example, they say, "Because man

can think, and .reason, therefore he is an im-

mortal being." But the same argument would

hold good for the immortality of dogs. They

have certain thinking and reasoning faculties;

and if the power of man to think proves his im-

mortality, the thinking powers of brutes prove

theirs.

The fact is there is not so much enquiry into

the truth of this dogma as we might expect or

desire. It is too generally taken for granted,

or believed on credit.

Sometimes we are appealed to in -this

fashion:-

but, " All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness

thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass

witbereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit

of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people

is grass." The Holy Spirit warned men, sa~g,

" Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" The Son

said, " If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall

die in your sins." The Prophets said, "0

wicked man, thou shalt surely die." And the

Apostles declared, " If ye live after the flesh, ye

shall die." How then can we believe that men

shall never die?We are not Atheists, as some suppose. We

do not deny a life beyond the grave. " Be-

lieving all things which are written iu the law,

and in the prophets, we have hope toward God,

which they themselves also allow that there

shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the

just and unjust." But we do deny that the un-

just who rise to judgment shall be kept alive for

over. "The wages of sin is death." Speaking

of the time of resurrection, Jesus said, " He that

liveth and belieuetli hI Me shall never die."

And if these words stood alone they would be

sufficient to uphold the doctrine of Immortality

upon conditions,

But' let us now proceed to give some reasons

for this belief. Why do we hold it?

I. BECAUSEIM:lfORTALI'rYS PRIZED. It is a

boon to be desired. 'I'he wish for it is preseut

in the minds of millions. Almost where'er you

turn it may be found. The history of mankindproves this.

The dread of extinction is not positively

uni versal, The Chinese, for example, are an

exception to the rule that man longs to live for

ever. Mr. Griffith John, the eminent missionary

to that nation, writing lately to the Christi.inWorld, said, " Here in China the doctrine of the

annihilation of the wicked would be good news. to many. Buddhism has been holding the

Nirvana before the imagination of its votaries

as the reward of the highest and most perfect

virtue." Still most men do dread death, and

fear oblivion.

It has been affirmed that this proves man's

immortality. But if immortal, whv should man

so thirst to become immortal? A craving for

anything does not amount to evidence of pos-

session; it rather reveals the non-possession of

the thing desired.

What this longing, so nearly universal, does

prove, is, that immortality is a thing of value ;

something worth having; in short, a Prize,

And can a prize be gained except upon con-

ditions? Can you win, unless you rnn? If

you prize health, must you not obey its laws?

If you would have wealth, must you not labour?

If knowledge, must you not study? J f fame, mustyou not do some special deed? Alas, at this

moment we have some soldiers, and sailors with

soldiers' hearts,

" Seeking the bubble reputationEven in the cannon's mouth."



12 THE STANDARD.IBLE

sin; and" Jle did no sin, neither was guile foundin His mouth." Like the lambs, He was withoutblemish. Was it to rment? No! He did sufferit is true; but the cup was not drunk untU Hedied. 'I'here was the penalty! Actual death!The Lamb was slain. His life was taken. "Hepoured out His soul unto death." And had it

not been for the Resurrection, lIe would havebeen dead to-day. Then death-the literal ces-

s Ition of life-is the award of evil.As to Salvation: The New 'I'estament light on

this is clear. "Om Saviou r, Jesus Christ, Lathabolished death, and hath brought life andimmortality to light." How? By showing thatmen are immortal naturally? Nay; hut "Bythe gospel." What is that? It is the good news

"That whosoever helieveth in Him should notperish, hut have everlasting life." Here the

conditions attached to immortality are revealed."He tbat heareth My word, and believeth onHim that seni. Me (he) hath everlasting life." Iam the living bread which came down fromheaven: if any man eat of this bread HE shall

live for ever." Could" life in Christ" be ex-pressed more forcibly than in such passages?

But, to proceed, we believe in it,-V. BECAUSEIT VINDICATESTHE CHARACTEROF

GOD. Tbat doctrine which exalts Him in theestimation of man is likely to be correct. Andthe doctrine of immortality upon conditions does

that. It justifies Him even while He blots the

wicked out of being. If men are immortal thereare two opposing doctrines supported by theBible: viz. The eternal torment theory, and the

theory of Restoration. Now your sense ofjustice (a sense God has implanted), rebelsagainst the idea of eternal misery. You cannotrecognize the love of God, nor His wisdom in it.And your sense of truth battles with the other

theory, when you remember such passages asM att; xii. 32. "Whosoever speaketh against the

Holy Spirit, it shall not be [orqiuen. him, neitherin this world nor in that which is to come," and2 Thes, i. 9, These" shall be punished with ever-lasting destruction from the presence of theLord." But both justice and love, wisdom andtruth are manifest in the doct rine of conditionalimmortality. God's character is vindicated,

while the sinner is condemned. The way of life,and that of death were set before the doomed.The chance of a choice was given: and their

"destruction cometh as a whirlwind;" "forthat they hated knowledge, and did not choose

the fear of the Lord." We believe in this,-VI. BECAUSE IT ADDS NEW LUSTRE TO THE

NAMEo~' JESUS. "All men should honour theSon, even as they honour the Father;" and weascribe more honour to Him now than formerlywe could. Formerly we honoured Him forhaving added joy and felicity to an immortality

that we supposed we had already: but now wepraise Him for the immortality as well. Wc

recognise that all our future being is due to Him.He saves us, not from suffering only, but fromdeath itself.

VII. BECAUSE1'1' REACHESrrrs HEARTS OFMEN

FOR GOOD. It has been stated that "Life inChrist," when fully preached, or broached at all,would do harm; leading men to live more care-less and ungodly lives. An embryo ciergyman-s-a student about to be ordained-said to me a

little time ago :-" If I did believe, as you do, atany rate I would not dare to preach thatdoctrine." , Why, you little whipper-snapper!'

I thought, 'What l'ight have you to take theresponsibility of God's Word upon your poorpuny shoulders?' And I said, " I presume youwould not believe it unless you thought it wasthe truth of God. In that case you havenothing whatever to do with the re.sult ofpreaching it. He will take care that His truth

does no harm."But does this teaching bring forth, mischief?

No. A thousand times, no. It may be abused;

as any truth, or any man may be. They abused

OF CHELTENHAM.

Speaking to a resolntion, which will be foundon another page, he said-

HE felt sure that the friends who had spoken atthe previous meeting would quite agree with thisresolution. It was evident from the tone ofthat meeting that men were beginning to inquire

upon this important subject. This was theground the Association took: if they were right,

it was their duty to advocate this; if they were

the Christ of God Himself when here. But from

ten years' acquaintance with the doctrine; fromfive years occasional preaching of it; and from

three years regular preaching, I can testify thati t works incalculable good.

It awakens the ungodly. They can perceiveits reasonableness. I should like to see anyoneattempt, in the messroom of a Lincoln foundry,

to preach the doctrine of eternal misery. Thatis, with no palliation: no cooling mixture: butas plainly and straight as it should be preached

if it be true. The men would simply say theywould not hear such talk, and would ask the goodman to go and tell it to his grandmother. Butin the messrooms there, I have found thedoctrine of immortality upon conditions listenedto with all respect; and know that it has beenthe means of bringing some of these dear smoke-begrimed men to the Saviour. It has not free

course in England; because still branded asheresy by the majority. But this we can say,

"It is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth."

It establishes and stimulates the godly. Thesefind it a rock beneath their feet: a firm founda-

tion for any fabric they may form: "The faithonce for all delivered unto the saints." And itcannot fail to spur them on to " love and to goodworks," when they" Know that He who con-verteth the sinner from the error of his way shall

save a soul from death, and shall hide a multi-

tude of sins."Here then is our position :-Firstly,- We

cannot find a single declaration in the Word ofGod, that immortality is natural to man. Thisis most significant when you remember howoften the affirmation falls from the lips of the

preachers of to-day. Evidently these preachersare on a different line from that of the prophetsand apostles.

Secondly,-Not one only, but scores of pas-sages are found, declaring that the boon can only

be obtained through Christ. "The gift of Godis eternal life through Jesns Christ our Lord."

As to the past: "In Him was life." As to thepresent: "Yotu' life is hid with Christ." As to

the future: "When He who is our life shallappear , then shall ye also appear with Him inglory."

In this doctrine Scripture, science, and sense;history, prophecy, and experience fnlly agree, so

what can one do but believe? And further,-what can an honest believer do but preach? Weshare in the sentiments of Luther, and wouldtake a humble place beside such men as he.You remember that, at the Diet of Worms, hewas requested to recant, but boldly replied, " Ineither can nor will retract anything, for it is

unsafe for the Christian to say aught against hisconscience. Here I stand. I can do no other-wise. God help me. Amen."

We feel, with Luther, that we can do no other-wise than believe and teach that which we see isGod's own truth. Others may base their hope ofnever ending life in some supposed inalienableright; but we base ours on Christ alone.

UMyhope is built on nothing lessTha.n Jcsus' blood and righteousness:I dare Dot trust th e se '1 'lJe nt 's lieRe(Ja7'ding i1n11l01'tality.

On QIll'ist, the solid Rock, I stand:All other ground is sinking sand.'

ADDRESS BY THE REV.J. C. CARLILE,

wrong, it was the duty of the Christian world,and especially of the Christian ministry, to showin what way they were wrong, and to endeavour to

reclaim them from the error of their way. Itbecame essential in these days of thought thatthey should inquire. How were they to know.unless they inquired? But there were somegood friends anxious to stop inquiry. That wasbut following the example that had been setright through the ages. When the Church of

Rome held dominion, it did its best to stop

inquiry. When Galileo taught the fundamentaltruths of astronomy-truths that were nowtaught in their every-day schools-the Churchtried to arrest their advance. And why?

Because it had some idea that astronomy wouldoverturn its system, and go to prove somethingthat was quite in opposition to its shibboleth.

Now tbere were other truths-new t~ -beinggradually disrobed of the ignorance and supersti-tion of bygone ages. And what saith theChurch? Stop inquiry-e-have no inquiry. Theyhad the good Rector of Fisherton pressing themnot to attend these meetings; and why? Stopinquiry-' let them go to hell if wrong; if theyare right, we will go on in the old jog-trot way.'

That was the logical deduction. If they werewrong, they asked to be put right, and theonly way to do this was by fair and reverent

discussion.They were not afraid of discussion; the

friends at Salisbury were not afraid of discus-sion; they had invited it; the reader of thepaper that night had invited it. The resulteither way would not be a victory for man; itwould not be the victory simply of intellect; itwould be a victory for God and Truth. If theywere wrong, their friendly opponents would be

the medium, not simply of defeating them, butof establishing more firmly the truth. If their

opponents lost, they would simply have morelight than before, and thus they would receive agreat blessing. The interest of Christianity wasin such discussion and 'inquiry, and he felt suretherefore, that the auclience would acknowledgetheir indebtedness to the Association for givingthem an opportunity of investigation.

Every man ancl woman would, he waspersuaded, go away with the conviction that,

whether right or wrong, their only hope was inGod and God's service, and that they had done

what they had because they had a conviction itwas their duty.

Remember tbat even if the Rector of Eisherton tried to stop inquiry, God called upon Hispeople to reason with Him; God gave His peoplethe power to inquire into human interpretations;God said "Prove all things." And upon that

ground alone he felt certain they would thankthe Association for giving tbem an opportunity

of proving this matter. It was by inquiry thatmen obtained light.

ADDRESS BY MR. J. J. ROBBS,

Ol!' BLANDFORD.

Mr. Hobbs seconded the foregoiug resolution,remarking-e-

THAT he supposed he had been asked to performthat dnty because he had had something to do with

starting that Conference. At all events, he wascertain they would forgive him if he took alittle pride in that meeting, not simply becansethey had a large audience, but because of theinquiring spirit it directly and indirectly, through

themedium of the newspapers, would origin-ate. About four or five years ago it occurred to

him to suggest that there should be an attemptat a Conference like this, in order that there

might be an opportunity of free and fair dis-cussion. This was brought forward in thecolumns of the RainbolO, and the result hadbeen four or five important Conferences. More

than that, indeed,-the general result had been




settle the conflict. He will give the victory to

conscience, and drive policy beaten from the

OF TORQUAY. field. He in whom conscience dominates does

Mr. Cliff seconded the previous resolution, not calculate consequences, or weigh probabili-saying- ties, but promptly obeys the voice within, how-

ever adverse the immediate results may be to

HE seconded this motion with pleasure, as his position, or temporary interests.

affording him an opportunity of stating his joy Never in the history of our world had any

in the faith. Brought up in Methodism, having public official a grander opportunity of asserting

preached and having been taught as a Methodist, the nobility of manhood, under the sceptre of

he had been accustomed to listen to the much- conscience, than had Pontius Pilate, the resident

reiterated doctrine, "the soul cannot die," from Roman governor 01 Judea, at the time when

his infancy; from childhood having been taught he uttered these never·to-be-Iorgotten words,

that as soon as life left the body it would inherit "Behold the man!" He might have gained Ior

eternal life, and be in the enjoyment of the himself imperishable renown had he obeyed.,the

beauties of heaven, or writhe everlastingly in mandate of conscience, which told him not to

the horrible tortures of a terrible hell. Troubled slay the Innocent, and resisted with lofty in-

exceedingly, he at last grasped the truth, aud dignation the whispers of policy, that it would

based his hope upon a loving faith, a loyal life, be greatly to his interests to gratify the Jewish

a glorious resurrection at the second coming of Sanhedrim in the crucifixion of Jesus, whom he

Jesus Christ. Upon the truths of the Bible, and knew and declared to be innocent. To bring

ADDRESS BY MR. W. R. MOORE, not upon this mortal theory of the immortal Him forth before His enemies with the blood

OF SALISBURY. soul, he had learned to rest. But his freedom of streaming from the wounds caused by the crown

Mr. Moore moved a resolution of thanks to thought cost him-to his own unutterable pain, of thorns, in the hope of moving their pity-

the chairmen and speakers of the day's meetings. for he had loved Methodism as he loved even if that was Pilate's motive-was an expedientIn doing this- life, but not as he loved Christian truth-his showing but slight acquaintance with the work-

HI~asked to be allowed to refer to the recom- place in Methodism: at least, he was, in reality, ings of human passion, for the sight of one so

mendation of the Rector of Fisherton, claiming banished to the ranks. His forced resignation deeply injured would only exasperate the hatred

the indulgence of the meeting as a parishioner of occurred at the same time as the forced resign a- of those who had injured Him; and this was

the rev. gentleman. Yet, he desired to do this tion of a minister who was thus excommunicated precisely its effect; for when the chief priests

in no spirit of vindictiveness, for Mr. Thwaites -not for believing in Conditional Immortality, and officers saw Him, the wild cry of "Crucifyhad exhibited a broad Christian spirit towards but-because of a belief in spiritualism. He at Him! crucify Him!" rang over the city, thethe striving Church at Harcourt. the time expostulated against the inconsistency ominous herald blast of the doom in store for it.

In speaking of the Temperance Mission to be of calling upon that minister to resign; because Pilate understood not the logic of John respecting

held in the city shortly, the rev. gentleman said, the rev. gentleman had only carried the belief of the first murderer and his victim: "Wherefore

on the covers of his Parish Magazine, it would soul-immortality one step further, and had slew he him? Because his own works were evil,

be well to attend, so that they could judge for professed to have had communion with such and his brother's righteous! " And accordingly

themselves. But in relation to this Conference immortal souls, after death. "they cried out all at once, saying, Away with

on "what is called' Conditional Immortality,'" Had man immortality? If he had, he was this Man, and release unto us Barubbas : who

he hoped the parishioners would show their upon the same plane as Divinity in that respect. for a certain sedition made in the city, and for

entire disapproval "with such unholy cavilling If man's life, in its conscious activities, still murder, was cast into prison. But Pilate, will-

by keeping away from the Conference." He existed beyond the grave, was it so ridiculous ing to release Jesus, spake again to them. But

hardly felt that he need say a word after he had that spiritualism should seek to have communion they continued crying, Crucify Him, crucify

compared the two advices. The latter advice with the dead? Him. And he said unto them the third time,would scarcely stand in comparison with the Theirs was an important question; it was a Why, what evil hath He done? I have found no

Scriptural example. Eighteen centuries ago, question far above the ism of Methodist, or any cause of death in Him: I will therefore chastise

Paul and Barnabas were commissioned to preach other Church, What was the truth? And they Him, and let Him go. And they were urgent

the truth of eternal life in Christ, and in the must feel thankful to the speakers for the light with loud voices, requiring that He might be

course of their journey they found great opposi- they had thrown upon the subject. crucified. And the voices of them and of the

tion. At last they found themselves at Antioch. What had the orthodox belief done? chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence

They remembered Paul's rebuke: "It was One thing, certainly-it had strengthened that it should be as they required. And henecessary that the word of God should first have infidelity. Men had been unable to conceive the released unto them him that for sedition and

been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from Deity of orthodoxy - the Deity of eternal suffer- murder was cast into prison, whow they desired;

you, and judge yourselves unworthy of ever- iog. One man, an educated gentleman, who but he delivered up Jesus to their will."

lasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." We had, to his own knowledge, been a professed, Alas! Pilate, you have allowed the splendid

need not draw the analogy. The successor of and even earnest infidel, had said that Christian- opportunity of acquiring immortal fame to pass

Paul said, "Don't listen." Paul himself told ity, as understood by the Conditional Immortal- by for ever. Your," No! I will never yield to

them to search the WO?'d for the truth of what ity Association, he could accept. Orthodox your insensate cry, borne of jealousy, for the

he said. Personally, he was sincerely grieved at belief hindered the acceptance of Christ, and death of this good Man," would have crowned

the use of the words "unholy cavilling." He therefore he asked them, as a Christiau people, you to all generations as one of the noblest of

sincerely protested that it was no "unholy to value the truths of the Bible as above any men and purest of judges. But the golden

cavilling" on his or their part. Their friends Church creed. The truth was above denomina- moment has gone unseized, the bench is dis-

who preached eternal misery, doubtless believed tions. honoured, the ermine is stained, and it is not in

what they professed; but they were no less The Secretary announced, with sincere regret, the power even of imperial Rome to redeem the

sincere in preaching eternal life only through that Mr. Smith would not, perhaps, be able to dishonour or remove the stain.Christ. Mr. Thwaites, and those with him, said, be present on the following day. Since his bold But leaving the representative of 'I'iberius as

"the soul shall live for ever." Ezekiel said, avowal of the truth his Bible had taught him, he unworthy of further criticism, let us take the

" The sinful soul shall die." Did Ezekiel cavil? bad suffered much; the persecution which he three words he used oq this most solemn

Difference of opinion there was between him and had tbus endured, had now culminated in almost occasion, and find ill them a depth of meaning,

them, but that did not justify Mr. 'I'hwaites in constant physical pain and weakness. an official call to the study of. J1 marvellous

using that language. 'I'he rev. gentleman called person, of which the official himself was entirelyattent.ion to Matt. xxv. 46,-eternal punishment unconscious. For the occasional utterance of

for the sinner, eternal life for the righteous. S E C O N D D A Y , A U G U S T 31st, profound truths by men in office, whilst ignorant

But what did they understand by punishment? of the full meaning of their words We haveWhat Paul understood? But how often was the A SEltMONwas delivered at 3 p.m, apostolic authority: "Then many of the Jews

same word (punishment) used in other senses? THE DE SIGN OF THE which came to Mary, and had seen the thiugs

They were told that those who did not obey the INCARNATION. which Jesus did, believed on Him. But somegospel of the Lord should be punished-even of them went their ways to the Pharisees, aud

unto" eternal destruction." That was its true By THE REV. W. LEASK, D.D., told them what things Jesus had done. 'l'hen

meaning. It had been asked by others than (Of London.) gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a

Mr. Thwaites, 'Why did they not use the word "B h Id th M " J I . 5 couucil, and said, What do we? for this man" annihilation"? Because" annihilation" was e 0 e an- - 0 In XIX. . doeth many miracles. If we let Him thus alone

not in the Book, a:nd " destruction "~as. Upon WHEN conscienc~ and poli.cy are oppose?, l all men will believe on Him; and the Roman~

the Book they relied. Was such reliance to be the opportunity of testing character 1S shall come and take away both our place and

characterised as " unholy cavilling"? I given. A man, worthy of the name, will speedily nation. And one of them, named Caiaphas,

far more than the most sanguine advocate could

have expected. In these discussions they took

their stand solely on the Book; and their great

aim was to bring what they believed to be truths

before the public mind, and that they, as Chris-

tians, might have an opportunity of reverently

considering them.He had been rejoiced by the meetings of that

day - Dot so much because of the eloquence of

the speakers as of the principles maintained.

They rejoiced to know that God was not thebeing He was commonly represented to be.

From his earliest times, God was a most in-

comprehensible being to him. In his earlier

days it seemed as though modern ideas associated

Him with purposes of horror. How little they

knew Him I Now, he rejoiced to know that

eternal life was to be had in Christ Jesus; that

the eternal torment of orthodoxy was no part

of Divine truth.

CLIFF,DDRESS BY MR. H.




Christ," is the motto and practical impulse ofthe Christian. He is bought, redeemed, ran-somed ; and, therefore, belongs to the Ransomer.He is his Lord's free man for willing service,and the very soul of that service is imitation ofHim who delighted to do the will of His Father."Ihave meat to eat that ye know not of. . . .My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me,and to finish His work. . . . Icame down fromheaven, not to do Mine own will, but the willof Him that sent Me. . . . 1,delight to do

Thy will,0

My God; yea, Thy law is within Myheart." We read these, and statements ofsimilar import, with much thankfulness, ascharacteristic of Him whose name we bear; butwe must not forget that God has declared Hispurpose that the justified are to be "conformedto the image of His Son."

The standard is thus placed before us, not forour admiration only, but also for our imitation.He was obedient in all things; we are to be"obedient children." Translation from dark-ness to light is a supreme privilege, but

, transformation of character must be its sequeland its proof. Sons of light must walk in thelight, and must hold forth the light as theDivinely constituted light-bearers in a world overwhich the prince of darkness has thrown hisblinding shadow. Living branches of the TrueVine must bear fruit to the glory of the greatHusbandman. " Practical Christianity "-a

phrase which never would have been inventedbut for the usurpation by dead creeds of thethrone of the living Christ-practical Christianityis Christ living in His people, and honouringGod through them. We must show our faith byour works, our citizenship by our lives, our loveby our loyalty, our consecration to Christ by un-flagging zeal in His holy service.

If we thus "Behold the Man" as the modelMan of the new creation, the higher Adam of ahigher race than that which comes from the manof Eden, we are sure to appreciate the preceptsof the apostolic Epistles, which are all, of course,addressed to Christians, or men of Christ. Thosowho are asked to walk in newness of life, areonly those who have passed from death unto life.The slaves of Satan are never asked to do thework of God. If they wish a better service, theymust change masters. If they wish to be amongthe citizens, they must cease to be aliens. And

if they desire to be counted with the flock, theymust come to the good Shepherd, who gave Hislife for the sheep, and who has given His wordthat they shall never perish, but shall haveeternal life.

Eternal life ! What is that? Let us pause andask ourselves if we understand it. What ideashapes itself on our minds, as we meet these twowords in conjunction, as adjective and noun?That they had a meaning certain, definite, andclear, in the mind of our Lord, must be acceptedas beyond doubt. He used no words withoutmeaning, and gave no promise which He is unableto redeem. He held out no boon in the distauce,drawn upon imaginary rosources, which mightnever be within His reach, for the purpose ofcaptivating His hearers and enlisting them in Hiscause. Imposters, for selfish ends, often by goodwords and fair speeches, decei ve the heads of thesimple; but our Master is faithful and true, andwhat He has promised He will perform. AndPaul's malignant foes, IV ho were utterly incapableof taking the m-asure of that splendid man, saidthat, being crafty, he caught the money of theCorinthiaus with guile; a libel which he re-pu.diates with noble indignation. Deception,disguise, religious falsehood, pious frauds, thehideous doctrine that the end sanctifies themeans, came in a later age; when the Churchhad fallen fearfu.lly, the age which witnessed theorganised system of hypocrisy which blasphemedthe name of our Lord by incorporating it in theword" Jesuitism."

With the words "eternal life" we are all

being the high priest that same year, said untothem, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider thatit is expedient for us that one man should diefor the people, and that the whole nation perishnot. And this spake he not of himself; hutbeing high priest that year, he prophesied thatJesus should die for that nation; and not forthat nation only, but that also He should gathertogether in one the children of God that werescattered abroad. Then from that day forththey took counsel together for to put Him to

death." John xi. 45 -53 0Pilate's invitation to the Jews to 1 0 0 1 < at thebumble, patient, uncomplaining prisoner beforethem, has been a key W01'd to Christendomthrough all its generations. "Behold the Man,"is the heart and soul and substance of theChristian faith; the Divine text of every Gospelsermon that ever was preached in the world : thedirection of the Jewish lawgiver to the Tribesrespecting One who was to be raised up aft er

him; and the command of God Himself out ofthe cloud of glory on the holy mount-" This isMy beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;heal' ye Him."

What light have we on any subject thatconcerns our well-being, what solution of any ofthe problems that come before us with perplexingpersistence, and what right to imagine ourselvesmembers of the Divine community called theBody of Christ, if we do not constantly, as a

matter of holy habit, behold the Man? Withoutthis the Gospel has no meaning, Christiandoctrine no coherence, the Church no foundation,the law no fulfiller, the invisible God norepresentative, and man no hope. It is vain totell me that certain abstract doctrines constitute,in their unity, a system, the belief of which willgive me peace of conscience and mental rest. Itis altogether a mistake. Imay be a systematictheologian without a ray of the Shekinah en-lightcning my mind, an eloquent advocate of Itsymmetrical creed without the incense ofadoration ascending from my heart, and a loyalmember of my ecclesiastical tribe, without aplace ill the wonderful edifice which is "builtupon tho foundation of the apostles and prophets,Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framedtogether, groweth unto an holy temple ill theLord."

No. Your abstract doctrines must have alivin~ person at the heart to give them concretevitality, a living, loving centre of union, breath-ing tho warm glow of its own spirit throughthem, to give them vitalising force upon thehuman heart and mind. The hemof the garmentwlll be as utterly useless to the sin-poisonedsufferer as the rotten rags of Rome, if virtue gonot forth from the Lord Himself to heal thedisease. Let us, therefore, as we belong to aworld and a race that have fallen among thieves,'earnestly and eagerly behold the Man, if it betrue that He has a heart to pity, and a hand tohelp us.

But how comes this "Man" to stand for lifeor death at the bar of a Roman procurator? Itis a marvellous story altogether; and, if thero benot an all-wise God regulating, disposing, con-trolling the numberless events, social, political,national and international that make up thehistory of the world, with a settled and un-changing purpose ultimately to realise His owndesign, whatever that design may be, in spite ofall the forces that may oppose it, thon we maygive up all reasoning, all logic, all faith, all hope,and full down before the blind, dumb, deaf,brainless idol, "Agnosticism," which some so-called "thinkers" prefer to the Word of theliving God.

Let me now enjoy the privilege, brethrenbeloved, of leading your thoughts along the linesuggested by our text.1. Let us behold the Man that we may get

~ome distinct idea of God's estimate of sin: Who

is" the Man" to whom this Roman functionarypoints, and what has He done to lead to thishour of peril? One of His followers has soldHim, for the price of the meanest slave, to theheads of His Father's temple; and they havehanded Him over, with words of abhorrence andexecration, to the local executive of the hated'foreign Power then dominating their country;with the request that He may be slain in themanner appointed for the worst Gentile criminals.But He has not sinued either against God, or

Cresar. He is not a blasphemer, not a rebel, notthe slightest injury has auy human being everreceived at His hands. On the contrary, His life,brief as it was, has been one of unparalleledblessing to multitudes. The world's history canshow no such glorious page of beneficence asthose tbree and a half years of the public careerof Jesus of Nazareth. Every possible grace andvirtue met in Him. He was the only perfectman that ever walked the earth, No eulogiumequals His merits. Neither poet nor artist everdrew His likeness. The loftiest flights of sancti-fied eloquence cannot reach the sublime heightof His character. Prophets were filled with thelight of a holy enthusiasm when they saw Himin the far distance coming to OUI' earth, andcalled Him the Wonderful ; apostles call Himt.he Word of God, the Light of the world, theUnspeakable, and the Mystery of godliness; andonce and again the Father break, the silence of

the heavens, by saying, "This is My belovedSon! "

And will God in very deed permit wickedhands to seize, torture, and slay this peerlessOne? Yes! Look; there in that pale, blood-stained, silent sufferer, forsaken by His poordisciples, hated by priest and Pharisee, andhanded over to a horrible death by the personwhom the emperor has sent to the province toadminister justice-there, [ say, in that silentsufferer, you behold the protest of the eternalGod against the sin which has cursed and ruinedHis world. 0, it throbs and pains His heartdistressingly; but sin must be put away, andeverlasting righteousuess must be brought in,and His own beloved Son, in whom He delightsexceedingly, will do both; otherwise the god ofthis world, the prince of the power of the air,will gain the victory, and evil will prove a thingof eternal duration, as a defective theology eveu

to this day affirms, notwithstanding the graciousissues of the death of Christ during the ages thatare past, and its glorious issues in the ages tocome. The prohibitious of law, the threateningsof penalty, even the dread penalty of eternaldeath for sin-the capital pnnishment awardedby the righteous throne-do not, cannot, give usso impressive au idea of God's estimate of moralevil as we see in the sufferings and death ofChrist. Cautions, warnings, appeals, terriblepictures of judgment, have usually but httle

effect; but let a man's eyes gaze inteiligently outhe marvellous story 11 nder notice, and he willget such an idea of God's infinite abhorrence ofsin, that he, too, will abhor it, and flee from itto the adorable Redeemer, who so loved us as tobecome a curse for us! God sent His own Son inthe likeness of sinful flesh, and condemned sinin the flesh; there is therefore now no con-demnation to them that are iu Christ Jesus.

This is the essence of the Divine purpose in theincarnation of the Son of God. Deeds have aneloquent force which words have not; and whenwe see God giving up the Son of His heart, thatHe might press us to His heart as His dear chil-dren, we are melted, conquered, won, saved! Itmust be so ; it is so !2. Behold the Man as the Example,' of the

Redeemed. We are to follow, imitate, copy Him.He hath set us an example that we should followHis steps.' The design of the incarnation em-braced this among other points of supreme im-portance, that the Deliverer from death shouldbe the model-for life. "Alive'unto God in Jesus



THE 15IBLE STANDARD.

familiar; and, perhaps, this is the reason why

their astonishing meaning is not seen, for

astonishing it is, if you will but think. What

are we but dream-like phantoms, passing our few

years of toil and care upon the surface of the

earth with the stamp of mortality upon us,

whilst a few feet under its surface is our goal!

This needs no proof, because the proof is simply

the story of man. "Your fathers, where are they?

and the prophets, do they live for ever?"

Weary and foot~Ol'e, a:ll the generations ha,v.eclosed their pilgrimage ID the dust. Eternal life

most assuredly belongs not to man, as such.

The guess of Plato-for it was nothing more-

that man has somewhere within him an im-

material entity upon which the dissolviug

chemistry of death cannot take effect, a life that

cannot die, may have been adopted in the dark

ages by theologians who wished to g~in their

pagan neighbours; and the phrase, "Immortal

soul" may have come down through the ages,

and 'been embodied in song and sermon, book

and homily, catechism and creed; but the thing

is only fiction; it has no foundation iu fact, in

reason, or in Scripture. Alas! however, It

belonzs not to the list of harmless fictions. On

the c~ntrary, it has produced disastrous effects

in relation at once to the nature of man, the

meaning of redemption, and the character of God.

But is the idea of immortality, therefore,

altczether a mistake? We praise God; far, farfro~ it.

3. Behold the Man as the Eternal Life.

This is no inference or induction from the

collation of many Scriptures. It is the very

words of an inspired apostle.

In the opening of his first epistle, the mind of

the Apostle John is burdened with a great

thought which human language is unable fnlly

to express. Yet, as he knows its immense value

to the whole body of Divine truth, as the sun to

the world he enlightens, essential to its very

existence, he is anxious so to present it that no

one may mistake his meaning. The human

mind may not comprehend its breadth, and

length, and depth, and height,. ye~ it may be

correctly realised as far as the miud ISable. We

may see that it means somethi~g of transcendent

importance, though all that It means we may

not grasp now, nor perhaps i~ the ages to cam?

Accordingly, he arrests attention by an emphaticassurance, as an honest and truthful Witness,

that he had heard, seen, steadily looked upon,

and touched the Word of Life, the same blessed

One whose eternity and Deity he declares in the

opening of his gospel; and then, .before he pro-

ceeds with his letter, penned this grand par-

enthesis: "For the Life was manifested, and

we have seen it, and bear witness, and show

unto you that Eternal Life which was with the

Father and was manifested unto us."

Is there anything in the Bible more striking

and important than this? There is apparent

repetition in John's introductory words, but it

is language trembling under the. weight of its

burden; it is the loving heart lmgenng on a

theme of surpassing interest; it is the facets of

a great brilliant throwing light in every direction ;

and the strength of the revelation is condensed

in the parenthesis. The apostle sees around him

a world of mortals : the failure of the first man

was of course, the failure of all men to rise

above the state of mortality; the possible prize

of Eden has been lost; and corruption, sin, and

death are co-extensive with the human race.

Yet there is no tone of disappointment in his

words as if a man's highest conception, that of

immo;tality, were altogether a delusion. No;

so far from that, his heart is bounding at the very

thought, and he says, "I write this .u~t.o you

that your joy may be full." The POSSibility of

immortality is not a mistake, only you are to

look for it far ahove and beyond the human race;

not in Eden, but in Heaven; not in man, but in

Christ; for "the Eternal Life was with the

Father," away back, far, far back, long bel.ore logic than this should be expected from men who

months and years begau to be, or the measunng generally take refuge from .supposed di~culties

line of time was put into the hands of mortals. in the lizht of their own intellect, whilst they

But the period determined by perf~ct wisd?m admit theO

supernatural in relation to the Atone-

has come the fulness of time for the incarnation ment and spiritual influence. Are there greater

of the L~gos; and the Eternal.Life which was difficulties connected with some departments of

with the Father has been manifested unto us. the supernatural than with others? Are not a!1

The Word. the Life, the Eternal Life, has come God's ways higher than our ways, and HIS

from the Father to give sonship and life ever- thoughts than our thoughts? Men who believe

lasting. to as many as receive Him; and we in salvation through Christ, and yet re~use to

declare this unto you that ye also may have f~l- believe that the dead in Him will be raised atlowship, communion, participation, with us m His coming, are iuconsistent; at least if we may

this Divine and permanent life; and truly our accept Paul's logic on the subject. He says:

fellowship is with the Father and with His Son " But I would not have you to be ignorant,

Jesus Christ. brethren concerning them which are asleep,

But in reality this truth, of eternal life the that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no

gift of God in Christ to the believer, sparkles hope. For if we believe that Jesus died ~nd rose

like a constellation of stars of the first mag- azain even so them also which sleep m Jesus

nitude, 01' rather, like a cloudless meridian sun will God brinz with Him. For this we say unto

upon the pages of the Bible; ~hich is em- you by the w~l'Clof the Lord, that we which are

phatically, therefore, the Book of Life to all who alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord

receive" the record." Just a few passages, out shall not prevent them which are asleep. ~or

of multitudes, in proof: the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven With

h a shout with the voice of the archangel, and"Fight the good fight of faith, lay old on with th~ trump of God; and the dead m Christ

eternal life, whereunto thou ad also called, and shall rise first. Theu we which are alive aud

hast professed a good profession before many remain shall be caucht up together with them in

witnesses "-1 'I'im, vi. 12. the clouds, to meet the Lord iu the ail'; and so" In hope of eternal life which God that can- shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore

not lie promised before the world began"- comfort one another with these words."'I'itus i. 2.

"That being justified by His grace, we should Let us be consistent in our faith. "If we

be made heirs according to the hope of eternal believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so

life "-'l'itus iii. 7. them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring

-, "This is the promise that H hath promised with Him." Let us have the Gospel as full as

us even eternal life "-1 John i;.-25. God has made it, the complete triumph over

:, And this is the record, that God hath given death in the resurrection of the members ot that

to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He wonderful body of which the risen Christ is the

that hath the Son hath the life. and he that hath Head. It was "by the word of the Lord " that

not the Son of God hath not the life. These Paul wrote thus to the tried Thessalonians.

thinzs have I written unto you that believe in Well might he add, "Wherefore comfort one

the ~ame of the Son of God, that ye may know another with these words." 'I'hey are words of

that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe great comfort, of exceeding joy! Adoringly we

on the name of the Son of God. We know that gaze upon our Lord as the Re5u:rectlOn as well

the Son of God is come, and hath given us an as the Life and the Resurrection just because

understandinc that we may kuow Him that is He is the Life. The oue is the glorious resnlt

true and we ~re in Him that is true, even iu His of the other. His resurrection is the first-fruit

Son' Jesus Christ. 'I'his is the true God and of the Divine harvest of immortals in whom God

eternal life "-1 John v. 11-13, 20. is to find His eternal satisfaction, to see the

" Your life is hid with Christ in God.. issue of His infinite grace and wisdom, and the

Christ our life "-Uol. iii. 3, 4. proof that-His great purpose realised-the dark"Because [ live, ye shall live also "-John wave of moral evil that rolled over the fall' young

xiv. 19. world has not left so much as a stain behind.4 Behold the man as " the Resurrection;" For the risiuz of Christ from the dead Wl1S the

It is mournful to think for any length of time crowninc mitacle of a long series, proving that

over what men have lost in Ohristiau truth by this wasOthe Son of Abraham, the Sou of David,

settinz aside the resurrection as not needed. the Son of God, the appointed Heir of all things,

Any s~heme of doctrine that dispenses with this, the King of kings and Lord of lords, and above

must be defective. 'I'he ghost-worlds of pagauism all the Head of His Body, the Church. The

and pagauised theology are miserable substitutes gates of hades cannot be allowed to remain for

for the resurrection. 'I'he Lord's grand purpose ever shut upon the members of the Body of the

is to raise His people from among the dead. at risen Christ. The stone will be rolled away in

His coming, and to clothe them with incorrup- their case, as it was in the case of their ilustrious

tibility. 'I'he majestic words of "the Prince of Head, .the Conqueror of death, and the Giver of

Life" at the grave. of Lazarus, " 1 am the Resur- life and immortality. He was delivered for 0111'

rection and the Life," have not only been shorn offences aud raised. for our justification. The

of their Divine splendour by the doctrine that death without the resurrection would avail us

"the souls of believers, perfected at death, nothing. ., If Christ be not raised your faith is

immediately pass into glory," but they have vain ; ye are yet in your sins. . Thon they also

really been sent to the region of forgetfulness, which are fallen asleep 10 Christ are perisued."

as if they formed no part of reve~ation. 'I'ne Nay, so essential is the resurrection of Christ asChurch is being plundered of her jewels by the the Head and Life of the redeemed, tiJat the

robber Rationalism; and, alas! many of those anostle uses words of profound meaning, when

whom she has appointed as watchman are eith~r ' I h~ says, "Eor if when we were enemies we were

asleep, 01' in sympathy With the robber. It IS reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much

exceedingly painful to me to speak thus, not more being reconciled, we suall be saved by HIS

only because ofthe deplorable .fact its.elf, bnt also life;" or, as the real meaning of the expression

because I know men otherwise estlma.ble, who is, by sharing in His life. It follows, then, that

are, unconsciously let me hope, eoncealiug from to share in the life of a risen Redeemer is the

view one of the most glorious of God's revealed Divine salvation which the God of all grace

purposes nnder the fogs of a bewildering bestows upon the believer; and that, con-

metaphorical tbeology. sequently, the resurrection of those .who have

Dispense with the fifteenth chapter of the first died in Christ is an integral part of the DIV1?

Epistle to the Corinthians, because you do not arrangement; and, therefore, essential to It"

understand how the dead are raised? Better complete realisation.




5. Behold the Man as God's Anointed Kin.'}.As a matter of fact, there is nothing more

clearly declared in Scripture than this; and,

also as a matter of f"CI;, there is nothing in

Scripture so much disliked by the world, and by

the world's twin sister, the nominal church. It

is ensv to trace this dislike to its source. There

is no mystery about it. As long as the Christ,

the Anointed of God, as the Ruler of all nations,

is invisible, that is, remains away from His

dominions, the world is quite content to give

Him as many royal titles as you please. Hut thebelief of His manifestation to every eye, and His

assumption of the sovereignty of the world, is

too much I This would upset e:verything! The

world's masks would be torn off, its miserable

social hypocrisies exposed in the glare of an in-

sufferable light, its grasping selfishness brought

to the test of Divine beneficence, and its practical

dishonesty branded with the rebuke of the King.

We are perfectly willing that Christ should have

all the crowns that His friends claim for Him,

provided He remain in heaven; but to come and

reign over the earth as its supreme Sovereign,

bringing the family, society, commerce, art,

science, Iiteratnre, politics, religion, and every-

thing else, under His control, is too terrible to

think of! Yes, it is; poor old blind, bewitched,

deluded world, lying in the wicked one, you are

right. It is too much both for you and your

master. Nevertheless the decree is declared,

and the King is coming; and all who know the

mind of God on this matter, and whose eyes are

open to the awful state of things over the face

of the earth, rejoice with exceeding joy. The

solution of the mystery of evil comes with the

coming of the Son of Man in great power and

glory; and, though that will no doubt overthrow

the tables of the money-changers in the temple,

and serionsly interfere with the conclusions of

popular theology, we give it hearty welcome, as

the Divine way of meeting the perplexities, and

moral and social disorders of mankind.

death concerning the sublime inspired teaching

on the return of the Lord, are full of unscriptural

utterances on the conversion of the world. Pro-

vided you give us men and money enough-a

proviso upon which the changes are rung from

year to year with astonishing perseverance-we

will convert the world. But the conversion of

the world, which you have substituted for the

coming of Christ, is nowhere made a Christian

duty; whilst everywhere it is made a Christian

duty to look for the coming of the Lord. Whilst,

therefore, a converted world is the unauthorisedgoal of your labours, you distinctly disobey the

Master's command, ""Watch! for ye know not

what hour your Lord doth come."

Let us behold the Man in the sublime majesty

of meekness as He silently listens to His mal-

ignaut foas, for this is indeed the Anointed of

Jehovah. the destined Ruler of all peoples, kin-

dreds and nations under the whole heaveu. Not

without meaning is the strange foreshadowing of

what is to be. Blind actors have mimicked a

Divine reality; for Jesus has been crowned,

sceptered, royally clothed and proclaimed already.

All this actually took place. The crown was of

thorns, the sceptre was a reed, the clothing was

the royal purple, the proclamation was over His

head on the cross. But the august and imposing

solemnity of the coronation will come, and will

be witnessed by men and angels, whilst the

hosannas of earth and the hallelujahs of heavenmingle in triumphant song, as if in exulting

answer to the wild cry, "Crucify Him! crucify

Him! "

" Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be

glad; let the sea roar and the fulness thereof.

Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein;

then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before

the Lord. For He cometh to judge the earth;

He shall judge the world with righteousness,

and the people with His truth."

And when we turn to the Church on the "I saw in the night visions and, behold, one

question of Messianic royalty, we are not like the Son of Man came with the clouds of

surprised at the world's hostility to the truth. heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and

If the teacher is in error, you cannot expect the they brought Him near before Him. And there

taught to see clearly. The doctrine of the advent was given Him dominion, and glory, and a king-

in glory of the Son of Man, to take the reins of dom, that all people, nations, and languages

government out of the hands of the world's should serve Him. His dominion is an everlast-

provisional rulers, islheld by a few persons here ing dominion, which shall not pass away, andami there, but it is totally ignored by all our H~~ king~om that ~hich shall not be destroyed."

great ecclesiastical bodies, as such, and deemed a R~bbI, ,Thou a;,t the Son of God; Thou art

fit subject for ridicule by many who have been the King or Israel.

;olernnly set ap~rt to preach tbe truth, t~e whole \ "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a

ruth, ~nd nothm~ l:mt the truth, to ,theIr fellow white horse; and He that sat upon him was

men. The few ~rnn~ster~who teach l.t are barel,Y , called Faithful and True, and in righteousness

~olerated. ~helr piety .Is not questioned, their He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as

lIJtelh~ence IS even admitted, with the qualifying a flame of fire and on HIS head were many

exception, the ever useful "but "-when you crowns' and H~ had a name written that no

wan t to "~et ~,mau do~n-" but they are rabid man k~ew, but He Himself. And' He was

rnlllen,allans. " That IS e~ou~h. Leave them clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His

lIJ their obscurity. Ecclesiastical honours and name is called the Word of God. And the armies

large ~tlpends are not f?r them. They .are n~t which were in heaven followed Him upon white

quulified ; they must live apart; and indeed It horses clothed in fine linen white and clean

WHe better that they did not live at all, f01'.the.y . And o~t of His mouth goetb ~ sharp sword, that

~re only troublers of Israel. Y~s, the doctrine IS with it He should smite the nations: and He

ignored ; and so, as far as P?ssIble, are the ~en shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He

who teach It.. Where at Episcopal Convoca~IOn, treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and

at Presbyterian A.ssembly, at <:ongregatI?nal wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on HisUnion, at Methodist C,onference, IS the.glonous vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING

appearmg of our SaVIOur Jesus Christ ever OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."relerred to as the blessed hope of the Church?

I have read the annual reports of all these gather- 6. Behold the Man chosen of God to removeings for many years, in the hope of discovering all sin and SOrl'OW from. the universe.an avowal of sympathy with the apostolic hope

respecting the return of the Master to His own

possessions, of which He is the Divinely-anointed

King; but to this day, alas! my search has been

in vain. I find, moreover, that when any re-

vealed truth is set aside to make room for a

doctrine of the creed, written or tacit, held by

any church, that doctrine is sure to be un scrip-

tural. Hence these reports, which are silent as

Is this an utterly gratuitous position? Is this

exaggeration.imagination, the child of enthusiasm

or unreasoning faucy? Is the wish father to the

thought without a single human argument or"

Divine oracle upon which to rest? I have said

already in another connection, "let us have the

Gospel as full as God has made it." Surely we

ought not to take from His Word by narrowing

the circumference of revelation. We should

look gratefully at the things freely given to us

of God and not diminish the value of our in-

heritance by feebleness of vision. We leave

this to the advocate of a narrow system of the-

ology, who is afraid to swim out boldly and gladly

on the sunlit ocean of Divine love, lest some

watching brother should cry, ••Heresy! He

has gone beyond the creed; that is against the

standards!" But whilst we look on this CI'yas

simply foolish, as it is impossible to put all

God's thoughts in any creed of human composi-tiou; yet, uponfhe other hand, we must not

add to the book by believing, or wishing to

believe, more than it actually contains. The

work that Christ has done for God and men is

confessedly very great, even if we accept the

estimate of it given by the narrowest sect in

Christendom. If we limit the issues of that

work as some people take pleasure in doing, im-

possible as it is for me to understand, far less to

appreciate their motives, still those issues, it is ad.

mitted, require eternity for their development,

however few the actual recipients of the Divine

life. Well, then, seeing that at the narrowest esti-

mate the work of the Saviour is so wonderfully

great and gracious, may I venture to go beyond

the limits of the most generous orthodoxy, and

say that the work of Christ will not be doue

while there remains a sin, a sigh, a tear, a pain

or a groan in creation? I take the risk of this

position without fear. Whether it be orthodox

or heterodox is a question which I do not ask.

These words have no meaning to me. I do not

wish to assign to the Son of God and Son

of Man more work than He has undertaken;

but neither can I confine that work within a

narrower circle than revelation describes as the

area of its manifestation, and thus deprive OUt'

Lord of a portion of the glory due to His name.

Let us get the key to our inquiry by a brief

glan~~ back. Let us walk with the wonderful

Man by the banks of the Jordan, the lake of

Galilee, the vineyards of Judea, the slopes of

Olivet, the hillside, the wilderness, and other

spots for ever sacred to us, notwithstanding all

the abominations that have desecrated Emman-

uel's land for weary centuries. What do we

find in this Man? What is our impression con-

cerning Him? That He is strangely compas-

sionate, gentle, tender, loving; that the myste-rious power that is in Him, is put forth, without

fee or reward, to heal disease, to remove sorrow,

to dry tears, to cast out demons, to raise the

dead; that He is grieved when men refuse the

blessings He wishes to bestow; that His moral

indignation bursts like a tempest of thunder

and lightning upon the official hypocrites whose

conduct dishonoured Moses, disgraced His

Father's temple, and fearfully misrepresented

His Father's character; and that all this time

His pity streamed out, a very river of life and

gladness, to the victims of sin, upon whom

priest and Pharisee looked with contempt, whilst

from His lips there fell the gracious words,

"Your sins are" forgiven; go and sin no more."

In a word, our verdict respecting this Man must

be, "He is perfect! " But if perfect He is the

same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; for per-

fection has no degrees and knows no change.

His exaltation therefore to the Father's righthand, for a time, has not weakened the flow of

His pity for the sad and suffering of the race

whose nature He took with Him to the ineffable

light, nor cooled His zeal for the Father's glory,

which glowed in His heart when He lived on

earth. The revelation of the Father's charac-

ter, so terribJy misunderstood and misrepresented

was the very heart of the Saviour's ministry.

That object is before Him still. He has been

carrying it on all these centuries in the hearts

and minds of millions of our race. He has been

revealing the Father to believers ever since His

ascension-I have declared unto them Thy

name and will declare it-a.nd when these



THE STANDARD.IBLE

heavens open on the grand day of His return,

He comes to put down all authority and powerby which the will of the Godhead is opposed.

" For He must reign till He hath put all enemiesunder His feet." That one Scripture is so mar-vellously comprehensive, that we might rest the

case here, and claim for our Lord the glory ofsubduing all things to God, of stilling the storms

of time and bringing in the great calm of the

new age. But this is only one of the prooftexts to which hope turns so gladly, as thebelated traveller to the pole-star when his land-marks are wrapped in darkness, or, to use aScripture similitude, when the believer longs forhis Lord to come and heal the nations he looks

for the beautiful day star, the herald of theglorious sun.

On a mountain in Galilee our risen Lord metthe eleven by appointment, and during theinterview made use of these words: "All power

is given unto Me in heaven and in ear th." Nothoughtful man can read that brief sentence

without feeling that he must pause and reflect.If you can think at all this great saying mustarrest your thoughts. All power in heaven and

earth to one who three days before was put todeath as a blasphemer of God and a rebel

against Oassar? His perfect character-un-

changeable because perfect-is our guaranteethat He will use tbis supreme power for the bestinterests of the universe. He will do right only

and always, whether He deals with friend or foe.If because of His regal position the princes ofthis world are coming to nought, He will do

them no injustice. If He appoint princes ofHis own election in their place, it will not be anact of party favouritism but a recognition oftheir fitness for office, and a reward of their

faithfulness during the time of His absence.If the powers of heaven are to be shaken, it isbecause spiritual wickedness in high places,under the prince of the power of the air,exercisesa malignant influence, and the Lord is about topurify the heavens which are now not clean inHis sight. To still the groanings of creation

and to prepare for the new heavens and the newearth, in which righteousness is to dwell, willinvolve great cos mica Ias well as moral and

spiritual changes-in fact a universal revolutionunder the direction of the perfect wisdom and

power of the Man of God's right hand, the Sonof Man, whom He has made strong for Himself.It is a very wonderful thing this alliance ofDeity with glorified humanity in removing evilfrom creation. It fills the mind with wonderwhen the thought is fairly grasped that a manis the chosen executive of the Godhead for theaccomplishment of its original purposes in thecreation of tbe heavens and the earth and ofangels and men. What a triumph over theenemy through the very nature he seduced from

allegiance to the throne l The bruised heelshall crush the head of him that bruised it.'I'be Man of sorrows shall fill heaven and earthwith song; and through the despised and re:jected One the time comes when God shall beall in all. "And I saw a new heaven and a newearth: for the first heaven and the first earth

were passed away; and there was no more sea.And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,coming down from God out of heaven, prepared

as a bride adorned for bel' husband. And Iheard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold,the tabernacle of Got! is with men, and He willdwell with them, and they shall be His people,and God Himself shall be with them, and betheir God. And God shall wipe away all tearsfrom their eyes; and there shall be no' moredeath, neither eorrow nor crying, neither shallthere be any more pain: for the former things

are passed away."

May the Lord graciously hasten this gloriousconsummation I Amen 1

the same natural way !IS He spoke of His de-parture. " I go . . . I will come again . . . I

will receive you to 1 1I yse!f." It is a gratuitousand an unscriptural assertion to say the Saviourcomes at death. An enemy, not a friend, comes

then. When the Saviour comes, as a Saviourit is to ransom His people" from the power of

the grave;" to "redeem them fro", death"(Hos. xiii. 14). A merely traditional theology

may teach that He comes at death to sav.. theirimmortal souls, or ghosts, from the hands of

supposed superhuman devils, and from going tolive in eternal flames; but in the name of theScriptures of Truth I declare it is tra-litional, all

traditional. When the Saviour comes, it will be"the second time, without sin, unto salvation"(Heb. ix. 28). 'I'herefore, He does not come atthe death of every saint ; otherwise He wouldhave to come mauy times. BLItwe never read ofHis coming even a third time.

A~ain, what is the primary object of Hiscoming ? Orthodoxy, so-called, says it is to bum

up our planet; we affirm it is to reign on it as itssole and rightful King! If the latter, it cannotbe the former; and if the former it cannot bethe latter. What saith the Scriptures? Theysay He comes to reign sitting on the restoredthrone of David. His title, the Messiah, theChrist, 01' the Anointed, indicates this. 1'0 this

gree the words of the prophets; as it is written" After this I will return , and will build a"ai~the tab.ernacl.e (~r kingdom, see u«. xxxiii.o21l)of David, which 18 fallen down; and I will build'again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up"

(Acts xv, 15). The same prophets teach thatwhen Zion's King cometh, as such, "His do-minion shall be from sea even to sea, and from

the 'river even to the ends of the earth" (Zech.ix. 10). That He "shall be a priest upon Histhrone" (Zech. vi. 13). 'I'hat "He is to beRuler in Israel" (lIIich. v. 2). That" He shalljudge the people righteously and govern thenations upon earth" (Psa. lxvii. 4). That" TheLord shall be King over all the earth" (Zech.xiv. 9). That" The Lord God shall give untoHim the throne of His father David; " and that"He shall reign over the house (or kingdom) ofJacob for ever;" and that "of His kingdomthere shall be no encl." And, to be brief that

"The kingdoms of this world are (to) bdcomethe kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ :and He shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev. xi:15). It is, therefore, abundantly testified, and

very clear to an unprejudiced mind, that wemust reply to our first leading question with anundoubted affirmative, and say, that whetherorthodox or not, it certainly is Scriptural toteach that the Saviour intends coming, person-ally, a second time, to reign on the earth as il sBole and God-appointed King; for though the

kiugs of the earth will oppose, as those nowallied with them generally oppose this doctrine,Jehovah says," Yet have I set My King uponMy holy hill of Zion."

2. We have now to enquire, secondly, Whetherthis be a practical doctrine? Does it produce asuitable and practical effect in the lives of those

who receive it? Of course it produces no effectwhere it is not received. It seems to produce

but very little effect upon those who acknowledge it in connection with the orthodox hope

of going to Christ at death. But in the case ofthose whose only hope is the coming of Cb ris]His coming, as their Saviour from sin disease'

and death. it lIW8t operate as it pra~tical alldpowerful incentive to good works. The Apostle

Paul puts it iu this light in his letter to 'I'itus(ii. 11-13), "The grace of God that brinzathsalvation hath appeared to all men, Teachin~ usthat, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts

0

we

sh?uld live, s~berly, righteously, and godly, inthis present evil world; Looking for that blessedhope, aud the gl07'ious appea1'iny of the great

God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." The ex-pectation of a Master's return operates on the

SECOND DAY, AUGUST 31st,PAPER and DISCUSSION.

Chairman-Mr. J. J. HOBBS,

who very briefly opened the meeting, regretting that Mr.Smith was not able to read the paper he had prepared.The paper was read byMr. W. R. MODRE;-

THE SECOND PERSONAL COMING

AND REIGN OF THE SAVIOUR:

IS IT SCRIPTURAL, PRACTICAL,

AND IMMINENT?

By MR. ALBER'l' SMI'l'H, OF BLACKBURN.

[In Mr. Smitii:» enforced and much-reqretted.absence f?'071Lllness, this paper was read for tiim.

It is but just to the Association to say that the»ieuie expressed therein, on the" limited" natU?'eof the resurrection-s-and which wel'e not st?'ictlygermane to the subject of the paper-form nopart of the testimony of the Association; and,though an open question therein; would be re-

pudiated. by the "bulk" of its membel's.-ED.

B.S.}

rf\HERE are three leading qnestions in the

1. heading of this paper, namely, (1 ) Is thdoctrine of a second personal coming and reign

of the Saviour a Scriptural doctriue? (2) Hasthis doctrine a Practical effect on the life? And(3) Is the Coming itself now Imminent?

Taking them in the order given us, we havefirst to enquire, Is the doctrine of a secondpersonal Coming and Reign of the Saviour aScriptural doctrine? This is surely a propel'question for all those to ask who profess to take

the Scriptures for their guide. 'I'hey ought toask a similar question in connection with everydogma they promulgate. To do so honestlywould, I believe, open the eyes of many to theun scriptural character of the traditions theyhold. I speak from experience. My own under-standing of Scriptural tru th has been gained inthis way. I tried to support all my pulpit utter-ances with an "It is written." The plan is asimple one: try it. The Scriptures themselves

require you to prove all things, and only to holdfast that which is good. Let us act now on thisinjnnction.

Do the Scriptures teach that saints go in-div'idually to the Saviour at death, 01' that Hewill come again to them, collectively, at somefuture time? I affirm the latter. Just beforeleaving His apostles, to go to the Father, Jesussaid, "Little children, yet a little while I amwith you. Ye shall seek Me; and, as I said

unto the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot come; sonow I say to you" (John xiii. 33,) And again,

" In My Father's house (01' kingdom) are manymansions (or abiding places-ma?·. Rev. ver.);if it were not so I would have told you: I go toprepare a place (or position-To1Tos, see Luke

xiv. 9) for you. And if I go and prepare a place'for you, I will come aqain, and receive you untoMyself; that where I am there ye may be also."According to J esus, therefore, His disciples

conld no more go to Him than the unbelievingJews; but He promises to come again to them,and at that time to receive them to Himself.They cannot, therefore, be now gone to theFather, where Jesus has gone. Two reasonsforbid this: first, because they are yet sleepingin the dust of the earth; and, secondly, becaus~the Father dwells in the light to which no mancan approach, and whom no man hath seen, norcan see (1 Tim, vi. 16). Therefore, before theycan be received unto Jesus Himself, He must

come again , and raise them from the dead.But, some one asks, will He come personally?

I ask, and I ask with reverence, Can He" Him-self" come any other way? He went away per-sonally; and He spoke of His coming again in

1 7



18 THE STANDARD.IBLE

servants of his household in a beneficial manner: have made mistakes as to the time of Christ's

it keeps them at the post of duty, and s~il?ulat~s eor-ing ; and this has probably led others to

their energies with the hope of recervmg hIS renounce the doctrine altogether. Thus ono

good word, his approving smile, and his mistake sometimes, not only leads to another, but

generous rewards. So Jesus Himself teaches, as begets its opposite. However, accepting the

recorded by the historian in Mor]: xiii. 34. Scriptures as the word of truth, we are sure of

'I'he doctrine has, too, a practical effect in the this, Christ will come; and as it is only a ques-

conversion of sinners, when proclaimed in con- tion of time, we may be sure that His coming is

nection with the saving purposes of His advent. nearer now than ever it was before. But is it

What are these purposes? I. The resurrection imminent? What is meant by imminent? Ap-

of all pursons given to Christ by the Father for pearing to hang over our heads as if ready at any

this purpose. As Jesus said, "This is the moment to fall npon us. In this sense I amFather's will which hath sent Me, that of all not prepared to say it is imminent. It may be;

which He hath given Me, I should lose nothing; but I cannot say I tbink so; bnt I do think it is

but should raise it up again at the last day. " I near, and that it may at any time become

(John vi. 39.) IL The Judgment of all. persons I imminent: .

responsible to judgment; as Paul reminds the I Bu~ while .1 cannot .say ~h~t I see the advent IS

saints, saying, " lVe must all appear before the now impending, I believe It IS certainly near. I

judgment seat of Christ." (2 Cor, v. 10). Ill. admit that. And since the Scriptures teach that

The immortalisation afterwards oE all found Christ's coming Will precede His manifestation,worthy. "That everyone may receive the I own that He may come at any time, any day,.

things in body, according to that He hath done, or any hour of the day or night. At present,

whether it be good or ball," and again, " He that however, I prefer to say I think the Advent is

soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap cor- near, perhaps very near, rather than to say it is

ruption ; but he that soweth to the spirit, shall actually impending. Why do I think it is near?

of the spirit reap life everlasting." (Gal. vi. 8). For several reasons. There are to my mind

And IV, The association of all those thus born certain foretold signs of its approach. Christ

of the spuitjwit h Christ in the kingdom of God, has given His servants these signs whereby they

to reign with Him upon the earth. "And he may judge of the approach of that day. 1. He

that overcometh and keepeth J\Jyworks unto the intimated it would be it day distant from His

end, to him will I give power over the nations." first appearing, f01'He represented Himself as" a

(Rev. iii. 26). Thus, it. will be seen, I limit the m~u taking a f,u'journey." (D!ark xiii. ~4.) As

judgment to the responsible only; for Ican find gomg to a far country to receive for HImself a

no more support iu the Scriptures for what is kingdom. Sufficient time has already elapsed to

called a General Judgment, or for universal allow the fulfilment of these parabolical pro-

resurrection, than J can for the more charitable, phosies. 2. The great apostacy from the faith,

but mistaken dogma of universal salvation. predicted by Paul, has been effected. (2 Thess.There may be odd texts which, apart from their ii. 3). (3.) 'I'be Gospel has been preached in

contexts, seem superficially to support these all nations, if not in all places, as predicted

'general' doctrines: but to my mind they ill before the return. (Ma,." xiii. 10.) (4), The

accord with tho doctrines of "Conditional Im- scoff-re of the last days. foretold by the Apostle

mortality," or the general tenor of the Scriptures, Peter, are now appearing. (2 Peter iii, 3 ,) And

which show that "The wages of sin is death." the Apocalypse, which I believe gives a symbolic

One death, not two deaths for the same sin. snmmary of the world's dealings with the

" He that believeth not," the Saviour said, " Is Church, between the two Advents, furnishes

condemned already"; already under condemna- other signs. 5, One notable and near sign is

tion without being brought to a judgment of mentioned in Rev. xvi, 12. This can now be

which, perhaps, he has never heard. Paul seen clearly shining in t?e political heavens.

gives this as the rule of procedure. "As We read here that" The SIxth angel poured out

uiany as have sinned without law shall perish his vial upon the great river Euphrates ; and the

without law; and as many as have sinned in the water thereof was dried up, that the w'ty of the

law, shall be judged by the law." (Rom. ii. 12.) King of the East might be prepared." And

Show perishing mortals that apart from under- shortly after this a voice suddenly declares (v 15),standing the Scriptures, they are. as the Psalmist = Behold I come as a thief." ha. viii. 7 shows

affirms, " li ke the beast" that perish," and some that the River was symbolical of the Assyrian

will be led to cultivate that understanding, that' power located therein. The Turkish power occu-

they may attain to the Divine nature; show pies this position in our days. The river

them that apart from One who is coming as the is represented as having undergone rapid evapor-

Hesnrrection and the Life, they can obtain aticu ; as being dried up. This is a suitable

neither, and some will come to Him that they prophetic representation of a fact with whiohwe

may have life; show them that Christ is co~ing are all familia':; namely, the gradually decrea.s-

to reign on the earth, and that He has promised ing power and iufluence of the Moslem rule III

to associate His faithful followers with Him in the East. England's present bellicose position

His millennial glory, and Christian minded men in Egypt, much against the Sultan's wishes, is

will seek to be made kings and priests unto God, even now further expediting the process of

and to reign with Christ on the earth. So I find it. evaporation. As soon as the ri vel' is dried up,

. The Apostle Peter seems to have considered the way of those kings who are from the suns

that the doctrine had this practical effect when rising will be prepared. When it is prepared

he said to the Jews, "Repent ye, therefore. and then we may expect the appearing of .those kings

he converted, that your sins may be blotted out, and priests of the Deity, and the Rising of the

when the times of refreshing shall come from the Son of Righteousness with healing in His wingsPresence (or Face, Luke i. 16) of the Lord, and sufficient to heal them of their mortal wounds.

He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was (Mal. iv. 2.) But this river is not yet dried up.

preached unto you, whom the heaven must re- 'It is, thank God, rapidly drying. The bed of the

ceive until the times of rcstiuuion. (or restoration) stream begins to appear. It promises soon to be

of all things, which God hath spoken by the quite dry. Even politicians have now become so

mouth of all His holy prophets since the world far convinced of this inevitable result, that they

began." (Acts iii. 19-21). no longer concern themselves about upholding

'I'ime, however, forbids me further to dwell the integrity of the 'l'urkish empire. They used to

upon this interesting topic; so I must pass on to concern themselves so: bnt now ~t is felt that

the third question, and ask, the outbreak of war may, at any time, complete

Is the coming of Christ Imminent? That is, the drying-up process; and thus remove the

Is the second advent of the Messiah now im- last barrier of the promised restoration of Israel's

pending? In considering this question we shall kingdom. A partial restoration to the Jews has

have need of great caution. Many in the past already begun. Momentous events may soon

follow. Doubtless the redemption of the body

draweth nigh.

When the Christ comes, He will come secretly

as a thief, not in sight of the world. And since

we know not the day, nor hour, let UR obey His

injunction and" Watch." His coming may be

imminent; but it must be near. If we are His

disciples. that coming can only be distant, in

our life's experience, at the most a few short

years; and it may, for aught we know, be only

a few fleeting days; for the sleep of death, to

the saints, annihilates all further interval. Butlet us not deceive ourselves in this matter; let

us examine ourselves by the Divine Standard, to

see whether we be in the faith. Do we Scriptur.

ally know the One, the only, true God, and Jesus

the Christ, His Son, whom He sent, and whom

He is about to send again? Do we obey as well

as believe the glad tidinzs of the kingdom of

God? If not, and should Christ be revealed in

our day, what with all our profession can be our

hope? To such, Paul says, "He will be re-

vealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them

that know not God, and that obey not the

Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be

punished with everlasting destruction from the

presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His

power." Not punished with everlasting preser-

vation in that flaming fire; but with everlasting

destruction! A destruction so complete that it

blots its victims out of existence for ever, even

from the sight of the Lord, and from the further

operation of His mighty power.

Let us, therefore, humbly ask ourselves: Have

we scripturally put on Christ; are we, indeed,

become Abraharu's seed and heirs according to

the promise? lf not, then with all our preten-

tions we are still" without hope," and without

Gael in the world : and if we die thus out' friends

will have to sorrow over usas those that have

"no hope." But if we have, then let us aRk,

are we living Christ, are we faithfully waiting

for His return? Let us do so. Remember that

_the friendship of the world is enmity against

God; that things highly esteemed amongst men

are an abomination in the sight of God. Other-

wise we shall be in danger of being found

amongst that class of saints which shall be

" ashamed before Him at His appearing." But

whether we die, or live; whether the Advent be

immediate or remote, let us each, like Paul,"strive if by any means we may attain to the

Resurrection from among the dead; " and seek

the same assurance, and the same grounds for

the assurance, to say. " Henceforth there is laid

up for me a crown of righteousness, which the

Lord, the righteous Ju.dge, shall give me at that

day; and not to me only. but unto all them also

that love His appearing" (2 Tim, iv, 8).

The CHAIRMAN. after stating the rules of the disoussioo I

called on the Rev. G. P. MACKAY to open the same. Hesaid-

That he felt it right to have it thoroughly understoodthat they did not, as an Association, bind themselves tothe opinion of any private member of it. There were

some things in that paper, to which, as a member of that

Association, he could not subscribe at all; he would not,however, enter in la details, as Mr. Smith was not there toanswer for himself. He would s imply say a word or twoon the three questions. The first was answered in theOlel Testament in various ways. They found Christspoken of as coming in humiliation, and coming in glory.

The Jews made a mistake; they looked for Him as comingin glory, and when He came in humiliation they did notrecognise Him. They seemed somehow to have hidden orneglected the passages which spoke of His humiliation.Therefore when the King came-the King incog.-theydid not recognise Him in the man Christ] esus. But therein the Old Testament the promise lies-Christ shall comein glory, {I For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son isgiven, and the government shall be upon His shoulders,and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, theMighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."So long as that text told of His coming in great glory, Hissecond coming rema lued a Scriptural truth. In the NewTestament it is spoken of again and again. I-le consoledHis disciples with the thought" Though I go I shall comeagain." That was the only thing that would prevent Hiscoming again-His remaining with them. And they weretold 11 He shall come in like manner." His coming wasmentioned no fewer than once for every thirteen verses in




the New Testament. His coming was introduced inevery book in the New Testament. They had taken it asa S~rip~ure. doctrine. And thus he was sorry that Mr.Smith, In hIS paper, had not given them more quotationsfrom the Word. And since Scriptural, it must be prac-tical" All ~c~ipture given by inspiration is practical.

God 5 word 15 intended to bepractised. This coming wasa power to humanity, i-t led the ungodly to the thoughtthat ,there was a day for which they must prepare, and itinspired the godly to the hope of t he reward of Hisgracious mercy. Mr. Smith said little as to the practicalpower of the hope. The essayist seemed rather toneglect the practical import of the doctrine. Questionsas to the responsibilities of man were introduced ratherhan ~hepractical import of the doctrine upon man. Thed~ctl'lne was a practical influence, and wherever preachedfaIthful,Iy and listened to respectfully, it had a good andbeneficial effect. But was it imminent? He quite agreedwith Mr. Smith that it was well that they should not statet.Imes,.It was well that they should be careful. Some hadfixed It for 1862, o thers for 1866, and others for otherdates j and afterwards found they had made mistakes. Herepeated, let them be careful. They might put it forwardto ta,ke place in a few years j and then find they had madea mistake. But they had nothing to do with the date'that was with God. Christ was nearer to us every day:if he did not cor;te for a thousand years He was near to us;for when we died, we should know nothing until He re-ceived u,s into life., It was t?e duty of each to prepare forthe cormng ; the ~lme of HIS coming, he knew it not; heprofessed nothing IIIregard to i t.

Mr. JOHNSON could not but say it was a matter for greatregret they should be compelled to proceed in the absenceof Mr. Smith. From the second part of the paper hegathered that the resurrection would be confined to re-sponsible persons only-that there would be no universalresurrection; and that a universal resurrection did notaccord with the doctrines of the Conditional Immortality

ASSOCIatIon. He could not but think that it was of thefirst importance that it should be stated-that that wassimply the opinion of the writer. (Hear.) It was not hisopmion ; and he should question whether it was theopinion of the majority in that room. He had been onlyable to gat~er of two classes being recognized- the justand the unjust ; and he thought the most distinctive pas-sages of Scripture could be quoted to show that therewould be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.How their good brother was able to arrive at the conclu--sion of no universal resurrection-only a resurrection ofresponsible beings, he could not make out, Anotherpoint, 11 The wages of sin is death." And from that the,":riter seemed to infer one death, and not two deaths. Ifsimply one d~ath, then it must be this present death.Under those crrcumstances, the theory of no universal re-surrection would be consistent-in that those who meritedthe wages would not be raised from the dead. In con-sidering the third point, the writer wisely refrained from-a good deal, ~ut he Just ~s unwisely said some thingsabout floods, rrvers, and Afnca. He should not like to saya word he .did not understand. t Hea r, hear.) As to thesecret coming ofChrist, he was rather ,sorry that Christwas represented 10 the figure of a If thief." If it were tobe a secret coming, how did they know it had not takenplace? Was this belief in consonance with the state-

men! that '!-lewould cO?lein great glory? As to the dateof HIS coming, all the mistakes of the Christian Church hadbeen in this direction:-it had estima~e~ it to come a greatdeal sooner than evidently the DIVine hand intendedit to be.

The Rev. B. B. WALEobserved that with much the lastspeaker said he entirely agreed. But he would refer tohis assertions as to Christ coming in secret. And here hewould say that the words if coming from him would notbe, perhaps, worthy their thought; but this was not amatter of human inference, but of Divine revelation. Hewas struck by some of the statements which the lastspeaker seemed to think a. direct contradiction to theplainest statements ofthe Word of God. They knew thatthere w~s to be a ~esurrection ofthe just and unjust; thatwas Scr-iptural. They found, UMarvel not at this for thehour is .comi.ng in which all that are in their gra~es shallhear His voice and come forth, those that have done goodunto the resurrection of life, and they that have doneevil unto the resurrection of damnation." That was asclear as sunlight. So much for the resurrection. As tosecret, coming, th~ir brother was right, and yet as wasusual III human life, he was wrong. He was right andw~ong. It w~s, indeed, that the] udge should come as athief. A th~ef would not come having announced his

commg; having grven the month and the day on whichhe would steal their goods. A thief would come unan-nounced, silently, secretly. He will come as a thief-notto, the Church of God, without being anticipated, but as athief to the smner. He did not know that he endorsed theidea of secret rapture; but be did not know that he didnot. He was in a terra incognita. Between the twostools he hoped he should not fall. (Laughter.) We weretold by the Apostle that when the Lord should come, weshall be caught up to meet Him-the word meet beingused in the sense of returning, So we should return.Then we were told, 11 His feet shall stand in that day onthe Mount of Olives." 11The Lord will come, and all Hissaints with Him." He will be there -we shall be withHim. What did this show? That the saints would goup and meet the Lord in the air; that the world's judg-ment would follow; and that He would inaugurate Hismillennial ~~igll on earth. (Hear, hear.

(To beconcluded nex t month.)

SECOND DAY, AUGUST 31st,

M EET IN G F OR AD DR ESSES, 7-45 P.lIi.

THE Chairman of the previous meeting presided,

and after the devotional exercises called on the

Secretary to make an announcement, who

stated that it was the first time in the

history of the Association-and this was their

Fifth Annual Conference-they had to make

an apology to the audience for the absence

of any important speaker. He deeply regretted

that it should be so now; but it was by the

hand of Providence. That hand had been laid

upon three of their valued helpers; one of whom

was their esteemed President, another their old

and valued friend General Goodwyn, and the

third, Mr. A. Smith. He could only trust that the

blessing of God would richly rest upon them,

He then read portious of letters reeceived from

the two former.-The President wrote: "I

regret to say that it is quite impossible for me

to travel to Salisbury, my cold has taken such a

firm hold of me, so you see for some wise

reason or other I am not to take a part in this

Conference. I trust, however, that all your de-

liberations may be presided over by the Master,

and that He will direct all your counsels. I have

no doubt the present Conference will be an ex-

pensive one, so I enclose you another five pound

donation." General Goodwyn wrote: "It is

with great and unfeigned regret that I am com-pelled to renounce my attendance at the Con-

ference. I have been very unwell for some time,

and am told that I may not use my voice for fear

of losing it altogether. I cannot express my

sorrow, but I can only say, The will of the Lord

be done."

The Chairman then called upon Mr. N. STARKEY.

THE COMING K INGDOMS AND

THE COMING K INGS.

By Mr. NATHAN IE L S TARKEY, O F L ON DON .

Ithe light of prophetic truth, two kingdoms,

two kings, and two alone have yet to be re-

vealed, eac? !n its own time, and in its own way.Therefore It IS, that upon tbe present occasion

we have chosen to speak of the coming king-

do~s and the coming kings, both kingdoms to

be 10 some sense universal, beiug the greatest

on earth fOl:the. time, controlling and includiug

all other kingdoms, one the worst in character

and the briefest in duration; the other the bestin character and the longest in duration.

Now upon the principle contained in the words

"That is not first: which is spiritual, but thttt

w~l~h IS natural, and afterward that which is

spiritual," we shall speak first of that which is

natural, tbe kingdom of man, for these two are

opposing kingdoms, the kingdom of man being

the antithesis of the kingdom of God. Ever

SInceman was formed and placed by his Maker

in Paradise, the arch enemy of God and man

has been engaged upon man's ruin, not so

much out of enmity to man as to God, con-

cer~ed most of all to tarnish His glory byspoiling the work of His hands. Indeed when-

ever Satan has succeeded in setting a man

against his Maker, and in making the man his

ally 111 the conflict against God, Satan has be-

friended the man, given him gold and silver,

glory and honour, a name and a place among

men; for, ,as we take it, ~hat wasno empty lying

hoast of hia when to our Saviour he said "All

this power and the glory tbereof is delivered

unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it. If

Thou therefore wilt worship me all shall beThine." . '

Now universal dominion has not heen the

ambitious dream of man alone, but also the am-

bitious device of Satan, God's enemy, and how

nearly that device and design of Satan has been

accomplished in the Alexanders, Crssars and

Napoleons of the past, let history tell. But

thwarted, defeated, denied Satan and his friends

have been hitherto, because One still ruleth in

the heavens and among the inhabitants of the

earth, and His hour has not yet come to give

Satan the full length of his chain. But that

hour will come, and with the hour the man in

whom Satan shall become incarnate, and re-ceive power to exercise his full measure of

infernal malice against God.]] a! limit never

hitherto attained. Has God found His man, a

man after His own heart, who shall fulfil all

His will? Satan shall also find his man, a man

after his own heart, who shall fulfil all

his will. And if Jehovah will make His man

King of kings and Lord of lords for ever, Satan

will also make his man king of kings and lord

of lords for so long as God will let him. This

power has been long ago shewn in vision to

the prophets and seers of old, and if it be true,

as some of us devoutly believe, that the time of

its revelation is at hand, it behoves all devout

minds to give heed thereto, that they be not

taken at unawares when that Wicked shall be

revealed; for this is he whose mark in the hand

or in the forehead shall be fatal to all who

receive it. This power hasj.been variously

shown, seen, and expressed in the several por-

tions of holy writ as recorded by the seers and

prophets of old, and without attempting to

solve the problem contained in the mystic

number of six hundred three score and six, upon

which the imagination of so many has exhausted

so much ingenuity, only to display its own ignor-

ance and folly, this we notice as worthy of

remark, that six thrice repeated is said to be "thenumbm' oj a man" and that the ruler of this

kingdom of man, whoever he may be, is desig-

nated by six names in the Scriptures, two by the

prophet Daniel, three by the apostle Paul and

one by the Seer in Patmos. In Daniel ix. 6. we

read of "The prince that shall come," and in

chap. xi. 21. we read "A vile person shall stand

up." In 2 Thess, ii. 3. he is called ~",That man

of sin," and "the son of perdition," and in

v. 8 of same chap., "that Wicked," in the new

version rendered, ••The lawless one," and in

the Revelation, in various places, he is gener-

ally called ••the Beast." And there should be

no difficulty in identifying the beast of Daniel

with the beast of Revelation, the one described

as •• dreadful, terrible and exceedingly strong,

~avi,?g great iron teeth, devouring and breaking

111 pieces, and stamping the residue with his

feet;" the other, after carrying the Mother o

Harlots tamely and submissively, at length casts

her off, turns round upon her in hatred, makes

her desolate and naked, eats her flesh, and

burns her with fire. And when at length shall

come the time to judge this harlot, in whom is

found the blood of saints, a voice shall be heard

in righteous judgment saying ••Render unto her

even as she rendered. and double unto her the

double according to her works, in the cup which

she mingled mingle to her double, because

strong is the Lord God who judgeth her."

Then this rampant beast, so often applied bythe Protestant commentators to the Papacy, but

w1'ongly, seeing that it is not a religious but an

infidel power, sitting in the temple of God,

showing himself that he is God-shall abolish

all ?ree~s and churches, expel all bishops from

their dioceses, all church dignitaries from their

state-secured benefices, and appropriate their

revenues, which will be but eating up her flesh

an,d burning her with,fire. And already we see

this Lawless One rrsmg among the nations o

Europe under the various names of Fenianism

Co~munism, Socialism and Nihilism, a spirit

o~ insubordinatiou prevailing everywhere, and

disordering everything, in social, commercial

political, and religious life. And let the Lib~



20 TILE BIBLE S T A N D A R D .

erals in politics take the warning we would here ceases to worship, or worships only self and

give, that advanced Liberalism means Democ- Satan? Howbeit that is not first which is

racy, and Democracy sooner or later crowns spiritual, for tbat is permanent, but that which is

King Mob.-But both these, the beast of Daniel natural .because that is temporarq, and afterward

and the beast of the Apocalypse, being one are that which is spiritual that it may be permanent.described as coming to one end. Daniel says I For when the combined force of Satan and his

beheld till the beast was slain and his body des- anointed shalt have done their worst 'for the

troyed and given to the burning flame; and world, their kingdom shall be shaken and re-

John sees the beast taken and cast alive into a moved away; that the kingdom of Jehovah and

lake of fire burning with brimstone; and the His Anointed as the best for the world, as a thing

apostle Paul tells us exactly when and how this that cannot be shaken, may remain; which

Lawless One comes to his end, "when the Lord kingdom, its extent and duration, we have nowJesus shall be revealed from heaven with His to consider.

mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance In the beginning-whenever that was-

on them that know not God, and that obey not Jehovah's purpose became revealed to form a

the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall world for a race as yet uncreated, a world in

be punished with everlasting destruction from which His Son, the Word, should have the pre-

the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of eminence. And willing to create that race in

His power," and then "shaH that Lawless One the image and after the likeness of that Son, the

be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with purpose of Jehovah became further revealed to

the spirit of His mouth, and destroy with the elect out of that race a Bride for His Son, a

brightness of His coming:' Bride composed of the choicest of the sons and

And here I must declare my adherence to the daughters of men, to share the throne and

principle for which this Association mainly con- dominion of the newly created ,world with His

tends, that the terms here employed by the Son. But the race must have its week of

inspired penmen to set forth the utter end and schooling, and so for six millenniums the race

extinction of-not the power only, butthe persons shall know by contact with evil what conflict and

who have comprised that power-are to be taken conquest means, and alas, what defeat means

in all their literalness and fulness of meaning. too. And hard have been the tasks, and stern

If the terms everlasting destruction, consume has been the schoolmaster, and long has been

and destl'oy mean not extinction of being, they the term of schooling too, to some. And all the

are surely such misleading terms as we should harder have been the tasks, and all the sterner

not expect to find employed in God's book of the schoolmaster, through the intrusion of a

truth, our rule of faith and life. But I for one dog astray, which the Master of the school house

rejoice to find it written in that book, that a has suffered to continue "wandering about

time will come when "the wicked shall be no seeking whom he may devour." Chained indeed

more" and those who know not God "shall be and limited iu his power, but with so much of

as though they had not been." For the terms license as to compel the scholars oft to cry in

so employed see Ps. civ., Obad. 16. agony, "Deliver my soul from the sword, my

So much then fer this . < Prince that shall darling from the power of the dog. Save me

come;" so soon has the Lawless One to come from the lion's mouth." For this Bride for

to his end. But now a word or two as to His Jehovah's Son shall not consist of babes, suchkingdom, its extent, and duration. Daniel re- as our first parents were, when fresh they came

cords it thus, ••the fourth beast shall devour the from their Maker's hand. Good indeed, good as

whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break Omnipotence could 'make them, and by Him

it in pieces. And he shall think to change pronounced very good, men in stature, but babes

times and laws, and they shall be given into his without experience. Rather shall they be a

hand until a time, and times, and the dividing race of men, matured men, overcomers, con-

of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they querors, kings, who by contact and contest with

shall take away his kingdom to consume and to evil shall have conquered and overcome evil

destroy it unto the end." John says, "all the with good, and so have obtained the inestimable

world wondered after the beast saying, Who is gain of experience. For they must exercise

like unto the beast? Who is able to make war authority over self, sin, and Satan here, ere they

with him? And there was a mouth given unto can have authority over two, five or ten cities

him speaking great things and blasphemies, and hereafter, whatever that may mean. They must

power was given unto him to continue forty and learn to be true worshippers here, before as kingly

two months." Thus Daniel and John are agreed priests they can teach others to worship truly

as to the extent and duration of this kingdom hereafter. And so Joseph must be first schooled

of the beast, as 'being umimersal, and of three in Potiphar's house, then in prison, and then

yearb and a half continuance. Thus when sin -on Pharaoh's throne; Moses must be first

has so abounded as to become universal under schooled in the court of Egypt, then in the desert

the dominion of the Man of Sin, grace will much of Midian, then as leader and commander of she

more abound in cutting it short, and so render- people; and David must be first schooled by

ing the worst reign on earth one of the briefest. Saul, hunted like a partridge on the mountains,

As to the universality of this king-dom, we do and then on Israel's throne for the space of

not understand it to include the entire globe. forty years.

TM visions of Daniel and the Apocalypse we But the long week of sore travail and salutary

take to have been confined to the area covered discipline will have an end. It has been long

by the ten horns (or kingdoms) of the Roman written, "the night is far spent, the day is at

earth as then known. How the two continents hand," and with the day shall come that king-

of America and Australia in the extremes of east dom which shall be an age lasting kingdom, andand west, together with the British Colonies the presence of the King shall make it day.everywhere, will stand affected by this state of And when six thousand 'years of sin, sadness

things existing in Europe, Asia Minor, and North and sorrow shall have been filled full to the

Africa, is not revealed. How the members of brim, the Master of the feast Himself shall

any body-politic stand affected when the head come, and turn our water into wine, and send

or heart, the centres of life, become paralysed forth the proclamation->" Gather My saints

we too well know, for what the Roman earth together unto Me, those that have made a cove-

was to the civilized world in the days of the nant with Me by sacrifice," for, "The marriage

Csssars, it remains to the present day, the seat of the Lamb is come and His wife hath

of life and pulsation, healthy 01' unhealthy. made herself ready," and ••Bles~ed are they

Europe beats time for the world. which are called to the marriage supper

So much for the kingdom of Man which we . of the Lamb." Then shall the righteous dead

have seen to be the kingdom of the Beast, for, I awake and come forth from the dust of the

what is a man better than a beast when he ages past; Abel and Noah shall awake from

their long sleep of death, aud together with the

watching and waiting ones then alive and

remaining over, shall be changed in a moment

and caught away to meet the Lord in the air,

and so to be ever with the Lord. This event we

have, some of us, learned to look for daily,

believing that it will take place before the period

already spoken of, assigned for the development

and destruction of the man of sin, because the

Manohild is caught up unto God and to His

throne prior to the time, times, and half a time

wherein the remnant of the woman's seed arenourished in the wilderness from the face of

the serpent. Then at the close of this period,

and after the Bride has been with the Bride-

groom some three years and a half, during which

time that Scripture shall be fulfilled, "and I

will overturn, overturn, overturn, until He shall

come whose right it is, and I will give it Him,"

then at the close of this period, He shall appear

on the clouds of heaven in power and great g-lory

for the destruction of enemies, and the es-

tablishment of His own kingdom upon the ruin

of Satan's empire, for the dethronement of the

usurper, and the enthronement of earth's right-

ful King and Lord. Then at the close of this

period, shall "the Lord God give unto Him the

throne of His father David, and He shall reign

over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His

kingdom there shall be no end," for so runs the

Father's decree, ••Yet have I set My King upon

My holy hill of Zion;" and to the Son He

saith, •• Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the

heathen for Thine inheritance, and the utter-

most parts of the earth for Thy possession."

The heathen here asked for inheritance, and the

uttermost parts of the earth for possession,

surely declares, clearly as words can, the univer-

sality of that kingdom which has yet to come,

when the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the

earth as the waters cover the sea, that kingdom

for which men have been so long praying, with

more or less intelligence of the prayer, " Thy

kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it

is done in heaven," for, ••He shall have do-

minion from sea to sea, and from the river unto

the ends of the earth. Yea, all kings shall fall

down before Him, all nations shall call Him

blessed." For then, shortly after the complete

overthrow and destruction of His foes, it shall

be said, " Come, behold the works of the Lord,

what desolations He hath made in the earth.

He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the

earth, He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the

spear in sunder, He burneth the chariot in the

fire. Be still and know that I am God; I will

be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted

in the earth."

But first the Earth's Redeemer must be known

as Israel's Redeemer, for the Redeemer must

first come to Zion and turn away ungodliness

from Jacob, for then shall they look on Him

whom they pierced, and be in bitterness as one

in bitterness for his firstborn; for so it is

written, ••If they abide not still in unbelief,

they shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft

them in again." And that He will, is evident

from the words of Isaiah, "All thy children

shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be

the peace of thy children. Thy people also shall

be all righteous ; they shall inherit the land forever." And Paul to the Romans adds, " So allIsrael shall be saved." For then must Israel

be the regal nation upon earth, Palestine its

land of Beulah, and Hepbzibah its capital, for

"My delight is in her, saith the Lord," and,

" She shall he called, Sought out, a city not for-

saken." For the sons of the stranger shall

build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister

unto thee. They shall build the old wastes,

and they shall raise up the former desolations.

Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and

the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen

and your vine-dressers; but ye sball be named

the priests of the Lord, men shall call you the




ministers of our God. For so shall a law pro-

ceed from Him, and He shall cause His judg-

ment to rest for a light of His people, and

throngh these He shall become a light to lighten

the Gentiles, when once more He has become

the glory of His people Israel. Not yet has the

ancient promise made to their father Abraham

been fulfilled, as it remains yet to be fulfilled,

" I will give unto thee all the land of Oanasn

for an everlasting possession, and in thee shall

all the families of the earth he blessed."

Yet not to Zion only shall He come as Zion'sDeliverer, but as the Earth's Deliverer, too, be-

cause the creation also itself shall be delivered

from the bondage of corruption into the liberty

of the glory of the children of God, for then

shall the groaning creation cease to groan. Its

weary week of work shall then be past, its

Sabbath then shall come, for One then sitting

on its throne shall say," Behold, I create all

things new." The seventh chiliad of the world's

history we anticipate as being the' world's

Sabbath, its day of rest and worship, when all

things animate or inanimate, with breath or

without it, shall praise the Lord. "Men shall

be blessed in Him, all nations shall call Him

blessed." Beasts of prey shall have their very

nature changed, for" The wolf shall dwell with

the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the

kid, the cow and the bear shall feed, their young

ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall

eat straw like the ox. The wilderness and the

solitary place shall be glad, the desert shall

rejoice and blossom like the rose, it shall

blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and

singing; the parched ground shall become a

pool, and the thirsty land springs of water."

For when He that sitteth on the throne shall

create all things new, the heavens and the earth

that are now shall exist under new conditions;

conditions of atmosphere and temperature

favourable to health and longevity, and most

probably freed from the extremes of cold and

heat which now render such vast regions un-

inhabitable and nncultivated. But when He

shall say, " Be ye glad and rejoice in that which

I create," all nations shall call Him blessed,

and all regions chant His praise.

So much, then, for MilIennial blessedness

when Earth shall celebrate its jubilee. One

Lord and His name One. The knowledge ofthe Lord covering the earth as the waters cover

the sea. Satan bound and 'saints free. Truth

springing out of the earth, and righteousness

looking down from heaven. Swords beaten into

ploughshares, and spears into pruning-hooks,

the very art of war forgotten in the arts of

peace abounding. The days of men like the

days of a tree, and long enjoying the work of

their hands. And, best of all, the tabernacle of

God shall be with men, and He will dwell with

them, they shall be His people, and God Himself

shall be with them, and be their God. And

this for a thousand yea7"8. Thus shall the

kingdom of man be as it were for a moment of

time, while the kingdom of God shall be as it

were for ever and ever.

11 0 scenes surpassing fable and yet true,Scenes of accomplished bliss: which who can seeThough but in distant period, and not feel

His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy.Rivers of gladness water all the earthAnd clothe all climes with beauty, the reproachOfbarrenness is past. The fruitful fieldLaugbs with abundance, and the land once leanOr fertile only in its own disgraoeExults to see its thistly curse repealed.-All creatures worship man, and all mankindOne Lord and Father. In the heartNo passion touches a discordant stringBut all is harmony and love.One song employs a.llnations, and all oryIWorthy the Lamb, for He was slain for us.'The dwellers in the vales and on the rooksShout to each other, and the mountain topsFrom distant mountains catch the flying joy,Till nation after nation taught the strain,Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round."

Cou r pe r'« " W in te r W alkLat Noon."

After a hymn, Mr. WALEwas called upon.

THE RECENT RELIGIOUS CENSUS

AND ITS LESSONS.

BY THE REV. B. B. WALE, OF MALVERN.

Imight strike them that the subject on which

he was announced to speak-" The Recent

Religious Census and its Lessons"-had little or

no connection with the subjects which had

occupied the speakers both that and the previous

evening. Therefore it became his first duty to

show the connection between this and the pre-

vious subjects.

The distinctive features of the Association

they were there to-day to represent were two-

fold. The first was that there was life only in

Christ, that apart from Christ there was no

eternal life, and that had been the theme of their

remarks from the beginning of the meetings;

and the second was the second coming of the

Lord Jesus Christ, and associated with that was

the belief that the millennium would not precede

His coming, but would be introduced and bronght

about by His coming. Now, in reference to the

second doctrine-and which they were especially

considering that day-all Christians were agreed

that Christ would come; and it was just at thispoint that they joined issue. Most of the pro-

fessing Christian churches asserted and believed

that the millennium was to be brought about

prior to His coming, and were looking for the

conversion of the world by existing instru-

mentalities: and the millennium was relezated

to an indeterminate, far-off future. If the ;orld

was to be converted prior to the coming of Christ,

at the rate at which this conversion had been

going on during the last 100 years, it would take

144,000 years to accomplish it. They were in

expectation of the Saviour's coming only when

that had been accomplished; and consequently

the exhortation to "watch and pray," for that

blessed day-a day so far in the future-did

seem to be slightly out of place. To tell a man

to go immediately to the railway station, and

watch for a train which it was known would not

arrive till after next Midsummer, would be an anal-

ogous case, and from their standpoint they couldnot comprehend the wisdom of the exhortation

if an indefinite period were to elapse, and to be

required for the conversion of the world previous

to the coming of the Lord, It was at this point,

as he had said, that they joined issue. This was

a fleeting dream, the idea of the conversion of

the world, though it had been cherished long and

fondly. A well-known divine had said that if

the Christian Church had done its duty, the

world would have been ere this converted to

Christ. At missionary meetings speakers de-

claimed with fervid oratory that, if such and

such a thing had been done all would have been

converted. All this was pretty to hear and to

read; but unfortunately it did not fall within

the region-not of practical politics-but of

practicability at all. Never yet had there been a

solitary city, a town, a village, or a hamlet

wholly converted to Christ. Modern faith was

very strong when it still cherished the hope ofconverting the world.

There were pregnant lessons fairly deducible

from this. And he was prepared to show, and,

he believed, convincingly, to those who were not

bound hand and foot in the grave-cloths of

modern orthodoxy, or strapped down in the

straight waistcoat of sectarianism, or shut up in

the prison of priestcraft, that the world was

running from Christianity-not towards, but

absolutely from it. He would use this census as

an instrument. It was taken by perfectly

independent persons, by persons with whom they

could have no possible connivance, byeditors and

proprietors of secular newspapers, taken from

Sunday to Sunday, by reliable agents; neithe

influenced by Episcopalian nor Dissentingagencies.

What did they find? First of all, briefly com

paring the results of the census taken twelv

months ago, with the results of the census take

by Horace Mann, 30 years ago, there had been

departure of two-thi1'ds-and that was putting

moderately-s-of the population from religion, o

at least, from attendance on religious worship

The census made by Mann in 1851 gave, asresult, that about 66 per cent. of the population

attended places of worship, and that, of course

the remainder did not. The census made twelv

months ago gave, as a result, that 23 per cen

only, attended places of worship. Did tha

denote the conversion of the world? They mus

not knock their heads against the hard logic o

facts. And these facts-produced by indepen

dent witnesses-showed that sofar from the worl

being converted by the religions of the day, th

world was drifting away from Christianity

altogether, and side by side with this fact cam

these subsidiary facts.-Going back forty tears

they.found there had started into existence e

"grand Catholic revival," inc1uding, not onl

the 'l'ractarian efforts of Oxford, but inspiring

the Church of England itself into a new life o

religious activity. This had been called the er

of evangelical missions. From the beginning

of the present century up to the present it ha

heen thought the Church-by its various re

ligious agencies-was to realise the millennium.

Denomination had followed denomination i

.stronger efforts. The Church had girded hersel

to the task. Yet with all this there had been

constan~ mourning, for years past, over th

strong tide of scepticism and infidelity sweepin

over the land-so strong that many professed

teachers of the gospel spoke with bated breath a

to the result of their attacks, and it would b

well the Christian world should recognise it-

that modern agencies had entirely failed to con

vert the world. What strange influences wer

at work and leading the Churches to resort t

stra.njSe means in hope of maintaining thei

pOSItIOn. In some churches and chapels various

and questionable methods were being tried t

attract t~e people and to fill the pews. They

were ha vmg solos, getting ladies to sing them-making their services semi-musical entertain-

ments in order that they might influence th

masses. When the efforts of the Church coul

not get the world up to its level, the Church mus

needs go down to the level of the world. Sad

philosophy! Just fancy Paul and Peter taking

Lydia and Dorcas with them and getting them

to stand up and sing solos for the amusement

and attraction of an audience! What woul

that have been but a confession that the gospe

they preached had no power in itself? Would

!t not have fastened a blot upon the gospel i

Its descent to future ages? Nay, would it hav

come down to them at all? The power with

which the Apostles spoke was the power of th

Holy Spirit. And the faith of the believer was thi

-that the gospel of Christ wanted no such as

sistance; its power was of God.

But had they no reason to accept and believ

in the conversion of the world by existingagencies? No, emphatically no. Now to thproof.

Of course, it would be uuderstood that he drew

no inference outside the covers of the Book. I

was written, the Son of Man would come

and when the Son of Man cometh s • shall H

find faith on the earth?" It was a common

question-did they understand it? It was, more

over, a strong question, but one to which an

equally strong and definite negative could b

returned,-that He would not find faith on th

~arth-or very little. What did the Scripture

Itself prefigure? Take this passage -" As it wa

in the days of Noah, so shall it be"when the So



22 THE S T A N D A R D.IBLE

"Then lived and reigned at dawn of lightThe dead who died in faith;

Long slept they through the lonely night,But the trump that Bounds in Jesu's mightHas burst the bands of death.

Now rule they with their Saviour GodThe lands in weary Buffering trod iFor time's short years of toil and weepingTheir blood-bought crown of gladness reaping;All peacefully the ransomed earthSmiles in the joy of her second birth,Whi le from her utmost confines ringHosannas to her Saviour King;Bole Victor: o'er the powers of hell,As God announced when Adam fell."

of Man eometh." Was the world subject to God what he said was not in'fhe text. He laboured ultimate result. Christianity had been in its day

then? "As it was in the day when Lot went to show "the influence of woman in the dis- subjected to many attacks; but why should they

forth from Sodom, so shall it be when the Son semination of divine truth." Very pretty; but tremble in fancied danger? Should Christianity,

of Man cometh." 'I'hese were the original state- unfortunately for his deductions, leaven was full of the life of immortal years, he vanquished

ments of the Saviour. And were they antagon- always a type of evil, in the Word of God,- by the mere egotistic dreamings of mankind?

istic to the results of modern investigation-re. never of good. So was it here. Leaven was in No; it would come, pure and spotless from the

sults which, taken by independent agencies, were truth sour dough. The woman-taking up the test. No; Christ would come as a Ring

such that he felt could not be shaken? parable-insinuated the leaven of evil, of cor- and assert His dominion and rule. Had not

Was there, apart from that, anything in the ruption, into the pure meal of the Gospel, and Christianity had to encounter enemies as great

Apostle's words that taught them the world by which the whole was leavened. What did as now? Had not every dispensation felt the

should be converted to Christ? Every Apostle that mean? It meant the errors of the Church, same? Where was now the prejudice of the

recognized that there would be apostaey. Paul, -the infusion of earthy errors into Divine truth. Jew? the scornful philosophy of the Greek, and

in nearly all his epistles, repeats the note of They need not hide the truth. Truth should the power of Pagan Rome? Jerusalem dis-

warning given in 2 These. ii., of the apostacy that not grope in darkness. graced; the philosophy of Greece had succumbed

was to be developed and .continue till Christ The Rev. J. RODERTSere interrupted-" But before the power of the Cross. Where were

came. Peter said that" There shall come up in the what does the mustard seed teach?" The now the worshippers of Jupiter, Saturn, Bacehus,

lastdaysscoffers." Whereinthiswastheprospect lecturerrepJied- Cybele? Gone! perished from the way, and

of this conversion? Did they find it in the ex- The mustard seed taught the same thing. He Christianity remained a thing of life and

ampies of the earlier Churches? Did they find would prove it. But it would first render neoes- beauty still. False systems-the systems of

it in the messages to the Churches? Nay; for in sary a previous remark-the chain must be corn- a depraved humanity-had risen, seeking to sup-

the message to the Church at Laodicea, Christ pleted, or it would appear to he unsound forwant plant her kingdoms and obscure her glory; they

denounced and renounced the entire Church of a link. What was meant by the phrase had lasted but a moment and then had passed

bearing His name. He was no longer in it. "kingdom of heaven" in that chapter? Be- away; illuminating the firmament with a mete-

He stood at the door-outside the whole system cause every parable, except the first, began with oric brilliancy, and then dipt in endless night,

that Hears His name. This was the teaching of this. In the first place, the word was plural in the while she remained a substance, not a mockery

the messages to the Churches. The seven Greel<-" the kingdom of the heavens." Now, it of light.

Churches of Asia Minor, viz., of Smyrna, did not mean the kingdom in heaven; there were They had no fear of these attacks. They

Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, and the others, no tares there I It did not mean the kingdom of expected to see not Christianity advanced but

pointed the same lesson. The modern assump- God in the heart of the Christian, for the tares infidelity advanced. What I-again might

tion was incorrect, that the world would be were the children of the wicked one. Then if exclaim orthodoxy-did they not expect to see

converted by the Church,-the world would it did not mean the heavens above, nor the the world converted to Christ? Unques-

never be converted by existing agencies. The kingdom of Christ in the heart, it meant the tionably they did. They believed that at the

experience of the present, and the history of the present dispensation. "Christendom "-did it name of Jesus every knee shall bow. They

past, pointed to the same result. Every dis- not call itself? The dominion of Christ, and believed that the earth waited for His coming;

pensation that preceded the Christian had ended what a dominion it was I crowded with infidels, the hope of the Church, and their hopes as

in apostacy and failure, rendering necessary the sceptics, and scoffers, But all were nominal Christian men, were in the coming of the Lord.

Divine interposition to arrest the perpetual Christians whowere inhabitants of Christendom. How would He come? Let them see what

downcourse of poor sinful, depraved humanity. Then this kingdom meant the present dispensa- the Scriptures prefigured? How did He ascend?

Was it not so? Let them read and study I tion. As to the text, s : The kingdom of heaven Spiritually Orphysically? Physically-He would

Where were the ancient Churches now? Silent is like to a mustard seed "-the smallest of return physically. How did He ascend? As the

monumental ruins on the world's highway. The seeds, and which afterwards grew into a tree. I monarch of Nature's laws earth permitted Him

two tribes crowned their mournful history by Its meaning was this: A tree was a type of to rise; heaven stooped to welcome Him to His

the crucifixion of the Lord of life and glory. Gentile power (Dan. iv. 22), and the birds of throne. So would He return? How did He as-

So the early Apostolic Church became rapidly the air were also types of the world's inhabitants cend? With outstretched hands and blessings

absorbed in the teachings and errors of the (Dan. iv. 21)-always impure, What now could on His lips? So would He return-to carry out

Romish Church, degrading the truth of God, they gather? That around the ecclesiastical the interrupted blessing of Bethany. And those

hiding this precious gem beneath a pile of super- mustard seed all the priests of the world that sleep in the dust, and those that are

stitions. Ignoring the only true light-the light gathered, fastened on its fruit, and had their watching, will begin at the same moment the

of life-it sought its illumination and kindled its shelter in its branches. The kingdom of heaven glorious activities of everlasting life. Let them

lamp at the sepulchres of the "fathers;" for- i was like unto it. He repeated-and he hoped look to the Bible-Resurrection, resurrection,

getting that that was the phosphorescent light. the rev. gentleman would distinctly understand resurrection was the central hope. This whichspringing from corruption and decay. Raised 1 it-he did not wish them to accept anything exalted them to the future life and happiness of

up by God, Martin Luther for a time arrested the that was not distinctly proved by the Word of redeemed man, was relegated to the coming of

downward descent: he snapped the chain which God. If they had anything on their minds, let Jesus Christ. And it was nigh at hand.

bound the nations to the Vatican, and bade an them appeal to the Book-the Divine instrument And whether the believer has been the tenant

emancipated world go free. Now, Protestantism of arbitration. What did these parables teach? of the sepulchre a thousand years, or the clods

was corrupting and losing the vitality of the The dissemination of evil-or the conversion of of the valley have been but an hour before piled

truths Luther loved and taught. Where now the world? What did they see around and about upon his grave-each, and all will begin at the

would they find the man who would die for the them? Infidelity raising its head in shameful same moment the glorious activities of ever-

truth of Christ? or hold that there was any dig- egotism; the great scientific leaders of the age lasting life. At the sound of the archangel's

tinctive truths worth dying for? almost to a man agnostics, or virtually atheists. trumpet the paralytic bands of death will be

They were not called upon to convert the And these spreading among the masses beliefs loosened, tomb and tablet give way, and the

world; there was no such commission; and to of an infidel tendency. But let them not be dis- sleeper be clothed in a moment with the incor-

no one had the Lord commanded it. History heartened because of this. Let them have faith ruptible life of heaven. One moment the worms

showed that no town or city had ever been wholly in His promise. Every fresh attack infidelity will cover him, the next, the vesture of immor-

converted to Christ. On the site of those early made upon Christianity, every repeated and in- tality: one moment around him .the darkness of

Churches, where the disciples ate their bread in effectual assault it made upon the truths. of the the tomb, the next-the splendour of the skies;

singleness and gladness of heart, the disciples of Gospel, only indicated the near approach of the -one moment the silence of the sepulchre, the

Mahomet rule and reign. Lord at the head of the relieving army. Every next, the song of seraphim, and the anthems of

But, apart from that, let them take the teach- advance it made only rang still louder the knell rejoicing worlds. And this the work of an in-

ings of Christ in Matt. xiii. Every parable of its own doom-only prepared them for stant I in the twinkling of an eye,-swift as thetaught the same thought-i-declenaion. Take the heralding the time when God would be all in all. light, instant as thought, absent-present-like

first parable of the sower. What was the result? At the end of every previous dispensation it music flitting from the strings.

The sower went forth to sow. Out of four had been necessary for the Divine interposition

classes of hearers, one alone was truly receptive, in order to restore spiritual life. So it would be

and brought forth fruit. Take the parable of at the end. of this. The world would grow worse

the tares. As the wheat grew up, tares also ap- and worse, not better and better. They might

peared-the true and the false in the same field, ask the question, do you not believe in the eonver-

unto the end of the age. Take the teaching of sion of the world? Yes, we do. But we do not

the parable of the leaven. And one word he believe the world will be converted by existing

might interpose here 'by way of anecdote. A agencies. Could they in the whole Bible find a

good minister, preaching in Devonshire, took for passage in which a commission was given to the

his text the words, " The kingdom of heaven is church to convert the world?

like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid," This spread of infidelity and scepticism wail

&c. He preached a very beautiful sermon, only not surprising, They had no fear as to the



.THE BIBLE STANDARD.

OFFICE NOTES.

THE REV. W. LEASK, D.D.,

Of London, moved a resolution similar to that

of the previous evening, excepting the change of

subject. He said-

IN doing this, he should state that man had no

hope but in the coming of the Lord,-it was the

hope to which the heart clung with the tenderest

of emotions; the truths of the Bible rested on

it ; as, also, the glory of the Lord.

ADDRESS BY R. J. HAMMOND, ESQ.,

Of London, who seconded the previous resolu-

tion.

HE said he did not feel called upon to interfere

with the teachings and the efforts of scientific

men. Let them allow him to read his Bible;

gathering out of it a full meed of the Divine

blessing, and the assurance of the Divine grace.

Let them, if they liked, explore to the full the

mysteries of what they termed science. Let the

scientist endeavour to prove what he had asserted,

as soon as he could, and when he had proved it,

let him ask them to believe it; and, as far as he

understood 'the principles of conditional immor-

tality, those who held it would have no objection

to offer to the deductions of science, when proved.

That was simply what they required of ortho-

doxy. Its discip1es said that man was immortal;

they, as disciples of Conditional Immortality,

simply required proof of it. This was a matter

having an infinite iofluence on Christianity,-influencing it in its acceptability by men. They

(the Association) said man had not got immor-

tality; and they maintained it strongly and

firmly,-not only from the great central fact of

the Atonement, but from numberless passages of

the Bible.

As to the future, he would ask them not to

indulge in speculations. There was an editor in

the United States who said that the Lord Jesus

was to come again last October; unfortunately

for human speculation Christ did not come. But

the editor persisted in the truth of his statement,

and he maintained that He had come. They

(the Association) believed in the second coming;

they believed that the New Testament prefigured

it in the strongest and most decided language.

The Church, in all ages, had been waiting for

this coming. But modern orthodoxy stultified

itself by its apparent forgetfulness of the fact.

Christendom had been right in one respect,-butooly indirectly,-and on this they agreed there,

with. When a person died, the Lord came for

them and took them up it was said. Practically

the Lord did come. A blank followed death ,-

the last sight of humanity was that of its dearest

friends surrounding the death-bed i-the next was

the glorious radiance of the Lord. The interim

was as nought.

A brief discussion followed.

Mr. JOHNSONsaid that among other things

Mr. Wale had said-or that were to be inferred

from what he had said,-was that the Gospel

itself had not lost its power. But what was the

gospel? Did he mean the gospel of the tambour-

ine and bagpipe? He was constantly told by

his orthodox friends that the gospel usually

preached by their evangelical friends received a

great deal of power by the element of torture

being incorporated in it. When he asked if the

doctrine of eternal torment were true, he wastold it acted as a powerful incentive in the con-

version of men. What he wanted to know was,

whether the gospel Mr. Wale spoke of-and that

the Association recognised-was such a gospel

as that ? Was it-for he believed it was not the

same gospel-as powerful an iofluence as the

gospel of their evangelical friends? Perhaps, in

this connection, he might refer to a communica-

tion by an intimate friend recently returned from

Alexandria. He went out believing in the doc-

trine of eternal torment. The first thing an

ancient Mshommedan said to him was: "Are

you bringing au Allah [God] who can condemn

to torment in hell-fire? Is that your God? be-

cause if it is, we will have none of Him." In

a letter from another friend, who spoke with

much bitterness, and classed the Conditional

Immortality Association with agencies that pro-

moted infidelity, he was asked, "If it did not

encourage ungodly people to live in ungodliness,

believing that they would receive no punishment

in the world to come, but would be annihilated."

Was the second witness true? or was the first

witness true? Was the man who delivered a

theoretical opinion-an opinion based upon noright conception of their creed-true; or was

the other witness-the witness of experience, the

man who saw the effect of the orth idox doctrine

in repelling men-correct?

Mr. WALEsaid, This was his conception of

the Gospel: "God so loved the world that He

gave His onlv begotten Son, that whosoever

believeth in Him should not perish, but have

everlasting life." As to the theory of eternal

torment, he believed if they understood the

meaning of the Gospel itself, they would have no

belief in that. The Gospel was the tidings of

great joy to mankind. Did this possibility form

a tidings of great joy to mankind? Could it

have any practical effect? Could it have the

effect of a Gospel of loving-kindness? Let him

give them an illustration of his meaning:

He had a son whom he loved; he might ask,

"Do you love me, my boy?" "No, I don't,"

they might imagine as the reply. Then supposehe thrashed him most unmercifully-" Yes,"

came the sullen reply. That was the gospel of

the world. Fear was the influence used; not

the loving graciousness of a Divine Father.

He would give his friends of the orthodox

camp a story, from whence they could draw an

excellent moral, illustrating why he and his

friends of the Association saw differently from

them. Some time ago a boy was trying to sell

some kittens in a country village, and he called

on the vicar with his "wares." In order to

induce the rev, gentleman to purchase, he called

them" Episcopalian kittens." "Go away," said

the vicar, "I don't want your kittens." About

a week or ten days after, the vicar saw this same

boy at a Dissenting Minister's door, and heard

him offer what he termed "Nonconformist

kittens" for sale. Said the vicar: "They are

the same as you brought me last week." "Yes,"

said the boy. "But how is it they are dissentingkittens now" urged the vicar. "Oh, please

Sir," said the boy, "then they hadn't got their

eyes open."

The meeting closed with a hymn and prayer.

MONTHLY STATEMENT.

July 31st to August 31st, 1882.

New lYIembel's received. :-Life -, Annual 19,

Branch-; 1'0 tal 19.

~ DUE SUBSCRIPTIONS.-Those Mem-

bel's, Assoeiates, and Subscribers who receive

the present number 'in a COLORED wrapper,

will kindly reqard. it as an intimation that

their Annual Subscriptions are now due;

they will greatly obliqe by foruiardinq, asea1'ly as convenient, to the SECRETARY.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE FUND.

Previously acknowledged, £21 lOs. Since

received.-J. L., Toronto, (per W. L., London)

£2 10s.; C. A., London, £1; A. M. P., Newark,

5s.; H. J. W., Liverpool, £10; John Bedell,

Esq., Liverpool, (per H. J. W.) £1 Ls.> T. F. H.,

Liverpool, (per H. J. W.) £1; J. S., (Mrs.)

London, 4s.; R. D., Bath, 5s.; B. B., London,

£1; D. B. S., Glasgow, 2s. 6d.; T. W. V.,

Bristol, 10s. ; 1. S. A., Yeovil, 10s.; Friends at

Maberly Chapel, London, (per W. L.) £5; M.

N., Paxton, 3s.; W. T., Cumnock, Is. 2d. ; S.

C. and Friends, Crewe, 78. 6d.; N. S., London,

£lls.; G. S., Nottingham, £1: G. W., Skipton,

10s.; Friends at Newcastle-on-Tyne, (per M. S.)

10s.; W. R. G., Loudon, £2 2s.; R. G., Bacup,

(per T. V.) 5s.; W. F. D., Liverpool, £1; J. J.

H., Blandford, £1; Conference Collections, £1

18s. 7~d.; W. H. M., Liverpool, 10s.; R. K. S.,

Glasgow, 5s.; J. M., Kirkcaldy, 3s.; M. M.,

Peckham, 5s.; total £55 18s. 9~d. We thank-

fully congratulate the donors on this satisfactory

result of our annual appeal; and also havepleasure in stating that there remains a credit

balance of £5 lOs., which has been carried to

the" Special Lecturing Fund." Particulars of

this latter Fund will be given in our next Issue.

Subscriptions, Donations, and Collections:

. ; £ R. d. £ s. d.Devon 0 10 Q H. J.W., Liverpool 10 0 0::it . John's Rooms, Lifl- John Bedell, Esq.,

SOil Grove, London, per B.J. W., Liver-N.W 3 17 2 pool. ....•........ 1 1 0

Torquay Circuit ...• 0 10 0 J. J. G., Liverpool,W. J. M., Cheltenham 0 :; 0 per H. J. W.. . _... 0 :; 0

Liverpool Assoc iation 1 11 0 T. F. H., LiverpoolJ. H., Louth, per C. H. 0 2 6 per IT. J.W....•.• I 00S. W., Lincoln 0 2 6 W. L., London 1 00A. S., 0 2 6 J.S.,&Mrs., London 0 12 0A. G., 0 2 6 R. D., Bath 0 :; 0G. G., 0 2 6 B. B., London 1 0 0F. C., 0 2 G D. B. S., Glasgow .. e 2 6W. F., 0 2 6 J. A., Bridguorth .. 0 :; 0E. H., 0 26 B.B. W., Malvern .. 0 :; (J

M. C.,.. 0 2 G A. G., Ware 0 5 0J.W. B., " 0 2 6 'I'. W. V., Bristol . _ 0 10 0

J.W. T., •• 0 2 6 I. S. A., Yeovi1 0 10 0

C . S. ," "U 2 6 J. W . M . M ., BridR-W. M., Lincoln 0 10 0 north IOUW. B., •..... 0 10 0 Maberly Friends, per. G. P. M.,,, 1 10 0 W. L...........•.. 5 0 0Mr. R., 0 s 0 M. N., Paxton 0 3 0Mr. W., .....• 0 5 0 W. T., Cumnock 0 I 2Mr. B., ...•.. 0 :; 0 S.C.& Frieuds, Crewe 0 7 6Mrs. G.,,, 0 2 6 N. S., London 1 1 0Mr. M. .. 0 2 G G. S., Nottingham .. 1 0 0E. E. B.,,, 0 2 6 G.W., Skipton 0 10 0Mr. B., () 2 6 Newcastle - on - TyneC. H., t1 •••••• 0 2 6 Friends, per M. S., 0 10 0Mint Lane Chapel, W. R. G .. London .. :/ 2 0Lincoln _. 3 3 0 J D. J., Rochdale,

F. B O o London, per per T. V......•.... 0 5 0

W.B 0 lOOS. B., Bochdule, perA.W. M., London .•.. 0 :; 0 T. V 0 26'1'. M., Bacup 0 10 0 R. A., Becup, Do 0 3 6O. B., & Mrs., London 0 10 0 H. S., Do. Do..• 0 10 0J. W., London .... _. 1 0 0 R. G.. Do. Do 0 10 0H. C., Crewe .......• 0 :; 0 T. V., Do. .. _ 0 10 0E. M. L., Edinburgh 0 5 0 C. D., Louth, per\i.K. S., Glasgow .. 0 10 (J C.H......•...... 0 2 6

A. P., Buruatuple .... 1 0 0 P. H., Lincoln, Do. U 2 6H. G., Reading .•.... 3 0 0 W. F. D., Liverpool.. 1 0 0

J. M., France, per G. J.J. H., Blandford .. 1 o 0P. M., Lincoln .... 4 0 0 J. J., London .....• 0 5 0

J. L., Toronto, per W. Conterence Collee-L., London .•.....• 2 10 0 tions .....•.•. '" 1 18 7;

C. A., London 1 0 0

A. M. P. , Newark ...• 0 :; 0 'I'otel .. £6:; 18 5~

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

A.1'. (South Australia).-Received note, one

pound. Applied as directed. Kindest greetings.

C.C., sen. (South India).-Received M.O.,

thirty shillings. Seven vols posted, as required.

Also post-card. Debit balance 5s. 4d. Can be

sent with next order. B.S. as iustructions.

J.C. (South Australia).-M.O., thirty shillings

duly received. Credit balance 6s. 3d. Pleased

that parcel gave satisfaction. Thanks for kind-

ness in forwarding addresses of Adelaide Book-

Firms. Owing to heavy expense and loss in-

volved therein, we do not now supply goods "on

sale or return," so cannot avail ourselves of yourkiud suggestion. Will send a tin-lined case as

suggested, per Glasgow, if available.

A.B.M. (Virginia, U.S.A.)-Received M.S.

The Committee beg to thank you for the motive

which prompted your request. The subject,

however, is not open to debate in the Association.

SURPRISE PARCELS.

We are glad to note that the Treasurer has

despatched the 260th lot of his surprise parcels

at 5s., the last going to France. There are still

Twentv Parcels on hand, which our Treasurer is

anxious to clear out. One further effort, and he

23



24 THE BIBL~ STANDARD.

will have the s••tisfaction of seeing his specialwork-in that direction-successfully completed.Such parcels are carriage-Iree-c-within the UnitedKingdom-on receipt of Postal Order for FiveShillings. Kindly address-R. J. Hammond,Esq., 62, Maida Vale, London, W.; or 80,

Edgware Rd.

SPECIAL TRACT OFFER.

Post-free on receipt of Postal Order for Two

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SYMPOSIUM: ON THE INTERMEDIATE STATE.

In accordance with the decision of the Com-mittee we invite short, pithy, and strictly ger-mane articles on the above, for insertion inNovember and December issues. Wf5 do notb ind ourselves to accept all articles sent -nor toinsert, as a whole, those accepted. Oct. andNov. 7th, is the latest date for each followingissue.

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Ready after October 10, 1882.

C O N F E R E N C E R E P R I N T SNo. 1.

"Life Only in Christ; or Wagesand Gift."

By the Rev. BURLINGTON B. WALE, ofMalvern.

No. 2.

" The Moral and Spiritual Influenceof a Belief in Eternal Suffering."

By ALFRED WATSON, Esq., of Salisbury.

No.3.

"The Recent Religious Census;and its Lessons."

By the Rev. BURLINGTON B. WALE, ofMalvern.

No. 4.

" Reasons for Belief in Immortalityupon Conditions."

By the Rev. GEORGE P. MACKAY, of Lincoln.

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THE

T W E N T I E T H C E N T U R Y ;OR

A Sketch of C oming Even ts .Published at the Office of this Paper Malvern

Link, Worcestershire.

11 This is an ingenious and clever lecture, and we arestrongly of opinion that [it J has anticipated the telegrams.frommany parts ofthe world to the daily papers of thefulfillment of apocalyptic prophecies,"-Bainbow.

11 It treats of things well known to most of our readers.

but presents them in a way not usual. We have read thepamphlet with much interest and instruction; it containsmuch wholesome truth.-lI-IessengC1"

•EDUCATION

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Just Published, Crown 8vo., Cloth, Gilt-

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T H E K I N G D O M A N D T H E

R E S T O R A T I O N ;Or, A Scriptural View of the Second

Coming of Christ, with the Wonder-

ful Signs that will precede it, and

the still more Wonderful Things that

will follow it.

BY A STUDENT OF PROPHECY.

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J!'OUNDED 1878.

•CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP.

The acceptance of the Sacred Scriptures as the

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the bible standard october 1882

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