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No. 7. Vol. VI.

PROPRIETORS: The" Assooiation.' , Conditional Immortality Office,

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1883.

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BIBLE
By

LETTERS.
"DEVON."

The following fore-told general features correspond with the facts of this nineteenth century. These are-" they are corrupt-abominable works -none that doeth good, that understand and seek God-all gone aside-altogether become filthy-workers of iniquity-eat up the peoplecall not upon the Lord." That this is a true description of our days, witness Russian Nihilism, German Socialism, French Communism, and the Spanish "Black Hand." In Britain we have t h e same features of social life, but not at pres~nt bearing a distinctive. title. The family likeness between all these IS the denial of the supernatural, the hatred of all authority-Divine and human. To such the very Name of God is hateful. But these are not alone in their denial, for some men famous in science or letters have lent the~s~lv~s t~ereto. T? such all is material. ThIS Iife IS alike ~he J;legmmng and end of e~istence. Immortality IS a dream. Heaven IS a fable and Gehenna a bugbear. To such must be added many of the votaries of wealth and pleasure, to whom the Bible is a dreaded monitor, and thoughts of God and jud.gm~nt flies. in their pot of world-ointment, WhICh if permI~ted t.o stay would spoil its perfume and their enjoyment. Alas! too, the majority of those professing godliness, live as though their hearts were in the world; whilst too oft we fear, the w07ld is ~n their hearts, and Go~ has little save hp. service, spare moments of time-few and far between-and the crumbs which fall from their tables-filled, as those tables are, by the Divine bounty. Thus does the fool, (and the foolish ones, in this=-however wise in less important concerns say" in his heart,
'THERE IS NO GOD!' "

" The fool hath said in his heart, there is no Let it then be our mutual study in this" Bible God."-Psalm. xiv. 1. Letter," to see where such an affirmation would

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EAR FRIEND,-These words are painfully appropriate to these God-denying and mandeifying days-for such is, practically, their most prominent feature. This Psalm is a prophetic one, designed to be descriptive of these latterdays, its scene being manifestly laid just prior to the Salvation of Israel," "when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of His people," at which time" Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad."

lead us, what it is that is at stake amidst this growing infidelity and atheism, that we may be on our guar~ against our common danger, may learn and prize more fully our common Christian privileges, and be quickened to contend more earnestly" for the faith once delivered to the saints." Supposing the fool's affirmation were true these consequences would naturally follow: Thus, there would be

86
AN END TO PRAYER!

THE

BIBLE

STANDARD.

ARE THEY TRUE? men, who wrote of what had no existence, save in their diseased minds. Like a bubble all our Is there indeed no God? Has mankind for hopes are bursting. Can we pay the price de- 6,000 years been deluded with a lie? Have. the manded? Think of the grandeur of its opening good and the great of all climes and ages lived sentence-" In the beginning God created the and died trusting in a baseless desire, leaning on heaven and the earth." The sweetness of its a reed? Has the strongest motive-force the race assurance-c--" The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall has ever known-the power of heavenward love not want t " Behold, God is my salvation; I and purpose-been but the force of a false hope? will trust and not be afraid." The graciousness Has the "longing after immortality v=-which of its command-" Comfort ye, comfort ye, My has led to life-long suffering and loss, and people, saith your God." The gladness ofoftimes (yea, in myriad instances) to painful ~n.d " God so loved the world that He gave His only- untimely death-been always quenched, and IS It THlI SANCTUARY MUST BE CLOSED! begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him always to be quenched, in six feet of earth, in life." Sweet and hallowed a;e its associations. Here should not perish but have everlasting the darkness of the grave, no other realization -first religious impressions were received. Here The confidence of-" He was wounded for our than to afford a feast for corruption's worms? -worshipped those who bore the revered names transgressions, He was bruised for OU?' iniquities." If it be so, let us draw down the blinds, put of father, mother. Here-were we dedicated The certainty of-" If ye shall ask anything in out the lights, stifle the sound of laughter, "Ye shall never quench the whisperings of hope, and go doggedly in infant life. Here-were our youthful vows My Name, I will do it;" of consecrated service first uttered, and our per-ish;" " This corruptible shall put on incor- and silently to the grave. Or, otherwise, rushpublic attestation made in the baptismal waters. ruption, and this mortal shall put on immor- ing to the opposite extreme, since" the dead :is~ honowr,' immortality, eternal not, let us eat and drink: for to-morrow we die. Here-have we received consolation in sorrow, tality i " "Glory, But if no God we think of this in vain. H it be true, we must be honest, we must face strength in weakness, confidence in doubt, victory life." in sore temptation. True, this is sentiment, but Truly we are left poor and miserable, indeed ;the terrible fact, and go down to the grave as to We are marinerssentiment enters so deeply into our very being of all men most miserable. an eternal sleep. that we should be poor indeed if bereft of its without a Compass: Pilgrims- without a Guide: Men-without a God.-What more? ministry. But if no God, it is idle sentiment,WHO AFFIRMS ITS TRUTH? no God to worship, no house needed in which to For we must be satisfied that we lire under a NO HOLY SPIRIT! meet for worship. More-all these associations logical necessity to believe ij;j _and then, when- _ connected-therewith-are based-upon a myth, a We had. a Fri-end in seasons of need=-aGuide convinced, we will "play the man "-the brute, lie, and do but cheat us. in moments of perplexity-a Comforter in times rather-and away with air-bubbles. But ~I'St, of sorrow-a Strength-giver in hours of weakness to the -euidence ! Who makes the sffirmation-s THE SABBATH ~IOST CEASE! -a Light-bearer in intervals of darkness, and and what are the proofs? Is it For, if no God there is no validity in the words we called this Helper" the Holy Spirit." We we have so long heeded-" Remember the Sab- had, once, but we have not now, for we have SOME CHRISTIAN COUNCIL? bath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou been deceived. For, if no God, there is no such gathered from the four winds, which-having labour, and do all thy work; but the SeventhPerson in the Godhead as the Holy Spirit. met in solemn, prayerful conference, and exday is the Sabbath of the Lord." These words What further? We must haustively examined into the Biblical evidences, were never spoken-if no Divine Voice to speak, and compared them with the facts of nature and no Divine Person to command. There is no PART WITH THE SAVIOUR! history-has arrived, with broken heart and Day of Separation, of quiet rest, of sacred joy, of withered reason, at this terrible conclusion? For if there be no God there cannot be a " Son hallowed intercourse. Or, failing this, is it the careful and unof God." The story of Christ is merely a fable, But we must go further yet. We must or else the record of an impostor's life, who, if prejudiced conviction of the such, died with a lie upon his lips-" Father, DESTROY OUR HYMNOLOGY! WORLD'S GREAT THINKERS forgive them: " since no Father to forgive. Thus in Congress assembled ? The most renowned It is based upon the existence of a Supreme we are sinners-without a Saviour. Debtorsand thoughtful of the names famous in art, Being. It sings His praises-hymns our prayers. without a Ransom. Dying-without a Physician. science, and literature? Is it the result-of their Recalls His mercies-tells our needs. Speaks of No "Blood" to cleanse 'us. No" Life" to re- deep, intense, and protracted enquiry? after His love-woos us to heaven and warns from deem us. No" King" to reign over us. testing the question by every available means?hell. Yet in all this it is false if there is no But more, we have laying all nature under contribution in their God. Go it must, for we will not cheat our anxiety to know the truth ? We know that some NO FATHER IN HEAVEN! senses with a lie-however pleasant and musical. seientific men have said, or seemed to say, that "Rock of Ages, cleft for me "-you must go, since no God. The prayer, "Our Father in though a loved one may have hymned you in heaven," learned at a mother's knee, and never God was a shadow and eternity a dream,-but have all said so? has even the majority? and the hour of death. "Jesus, lover of my soul"forgotten down through all the changing scenes furnished to' the world the proo] on which they we must part, though to consign such sentiments of life, must be forgotten now-for we are founded their conviction-? to oblivion is like tearing up one's heart-strings orphans, fatherless. We may not even have the' Or, to go further, has an international jury of by the roots. "Praise God from Whom all satisfaction of memory-as the child whose blessings flow"-alas! that there should be no soldier-father had fallen in battle, and who, on wise, good, and God to praise, or bless. "Art thou weary?" COMMON-SENSE MEN, the day the sad news came, at her evening-aye, verily are we, at such sacrifices as these. prayer said, " Mamma, let me say, Thank God deputed by their fellows to this task, ever arrived "God moves in a mysterious way "-good-bye, jury, of course, of imthat I had a father once "-for if no God we at such a verdict ?-a truly He does if he has' permitted us and our never had a Father in heaven, but have all our partial and unprejudiced persons. What is the fathers to be juggled all these years by empty lives been juggled by a lie. answer? The text of our letter supplies itrhymes: but then there is no God to " move in But, alas! with this comes further loss; there "'I'HE FOOL HATH SAID"! a mysterious way:" worse and worse, since it is also May we have patience to bear with the" fool" leaves life itself a mystery, an aimless mockery, NO FUTURE LIFE! in his folly, lest we should answer him accordand men but puppets, moved they know not how. But something worse than this has to be Death is the end of life and being. Resurrec- ingly, and say, "Who cares for ',:hat the f.ool As a class, such lire objects of PIty, Immortality a delu- saith?" faced. We have-nay, had-a treasure, a thou- tion is a baseless dream. True, some few wise men-not sandfold more precious than our hymns-itself a sion. Life itself, a shadow, without force or not of honour, joined the "fool" in this meaning. "Thy Kingdom come" is realized wise in this-have hymn-we must only in the silence and corruption of the grave testimony of folly, and thus lent weight to his PART WITH THE BIBLE! it has been the exception, and -the kingdom of death. Man is but a dog, the assertion,-but As a Book it professes to be a record of God's difference being one of degree only, and not of not the rule. Yet, were it otherwise, we should dealings with, and a revelation of God's purposes destiny. OlU' nature itself, with its hopes and require more than their unsupported word. We towards man. But if " there is no God," there aspirations, is but a cheat-with no God to meet certainly should not give credence without proof is no" Word of God!" No Sacred Oracle! No its instinctive wants, no immortality to satisfy at least as strong as that of Holy Writ. Divine Lamp! No Unfailing Standard! It is a its intense desires, no home, no heaven, no hope. WHERE IS THE PROOF? myth-worse, a cheat, a lie. Its history-inIt is not names we want, but reasons, facts, We are left to say to corruption,-" Thou art my vention. Its Psalms-a merely human poem father." indisputable proof. Names prove nothing. If written by men themselves the subjects of a These words-" There is no God" -are veI'y they did, for every denier of God that the" fool" monSIl'OUSdelusion, 01', worse, who palmed it on easily spoken, and, alas! are often very thoughtbrought, we could produce two or three affirmers. human credulity for what they knew it was not. lessly and flippantly spoken,-but, if true, they In geology we might mention Hitcbcock or Miller. Prophecy-mere day-dreams. The GospelLIn poetry, Milton, , leave us bankrupt indeed, wrecks upon the In the drama, Shakespeare. false. The Epistles-vain letters of deceived shores of time. or Longfellow, or Tennyson. In statesmanship,

For how can prayer be offered if there is no Ear to hear, no Power to respond. Or praise, if no Being to be praised. Under such circumstances prayer ceases to be a hallowed and helpful occupation, and becomes an idle mockery. If there is no God to hear and answer, let the closet be forsaken, the family-altar razed, and all private and public intercession and giving of thanks cease. Then, too,

THE
Washiugton, or t Lincoln, or Gladstone. In philanthropy, Wilberforce or Howard. In popularity, Cobden, or Bright, or Morley .. In astronomy, Newton. In arms, Wellington or Havelock. But enough. We repeat, "Names prove nothing," we ask for the proof. He who is qualified to deny the existence of a Divine Being must be HIMSELF GOD! A For to substantiate his denial he must have explored all space, and found it tenantless, save by creatures. He must also have supplied satisfactory means of accounting for the existence and perpetuation of the natural phenomena we see above, around, beneath us; and, also those further worlds of wonder revealed by the telescope and microscope; together with the how or why of the existence of life, rational and brute, insect and vegetable. No! no ! sir "fool," we should be the most credulous of mortals to take your bare and unsupported word in a matter of such tremendous import. We rejoice to know that THEREIS A GOD! We believe in His Word, treasured in the Bible. It comes to us luminous with proof. Crowded with evidence both internal and external. What its miracle and prophecy, its wonderful harmony and beautiful morality, its higher flights of thought than unassisted reason could attain to, teach us from within its pages=-is supported and endorsed by its experimental results. It uplifts men and nations-and that in the exact degree in which He who inspired it is loved and obeyed by them. It has given birth to a world- wide philanthropy; and it is ever found upon the side of man's best and brightest hopes and instincts. It has saved the world from utter corruption and swift destruction; and it is the source of all that is good, true, and hopeful in its present history. On the other hand, what are the fruits of a denial of God? What the RESULTS OFATHEISM? Sad things follow when we take away the restraints which the fear of God imposes. Men riot in wickedness. One illustration will suffice. France, in the facts of history, supplies the answer to the question. In her mad and godless " Revolution" when the Sabbath was abolished, and the very idea of God smitten out of all public acts and teaching, then-A harlot was set up as the Goddess of Reason I-Whilst no man dared call his !'life his own.-The streets of Paris running with human blood! Such is atheism.
11

BIBLE

.STANDARD.

87
The distinction I have laid down is literally embodied in these words. Thou shalt BE with Me. Not thou shalt be alive and full of joy in the presence of God. (Psa. xvi. 11.) The Saviour Himself would not be in that glorified state till His" flesh had rested in hope" through the Sabbath, and had felt the touch of resurrection on " the first day of the week." "To.day," said tbe Saviour, "thou shalt be with Me." That met the case abundantly. It assured him of pardon, of divine acceptance, of eternal safety , of an identity of interest with Jesus. " Paradise" is a word' of indefinite import. As a popular term denoting a state of acceptance with God for the departed, it met the case precisely. But we cannot rely upon it for a single idea beyond the general sense of divine acceptance. Our busy, bustling thought will be inventing details and particulars for such a general term; our very feebleness of intellect disqualifying us to pause and rest in the simple language of Christ; nevertheless there stands the language itself, so grand in outline that every association of detail does but dwarf or becloud it. The Intermediate State for the Saviour illustrates the same distinction. "He died." No one can gainsay that testimony. "I became dead." He Himself averred to St. John; and drew a contrast, adding, " Behold, I am alive for evermore." He-died, went under the power of death, and continued in the thrall of death,-just as Isaiah, Daniel, and all the righteous men and martyrs' of old times died; and continued dead till the third day, when" God raised Him from the dead." ITo maintain that He was alive while His body was in the grave is to say that EIe never died; and it is also to say that God did not mise Him from the dead; also that resurrection is no restoration to Iile, But though Jesus was dead He never passed out of being. His "spirit," the essential part of His humanity, never ceased to be. Jesus (as to His humanity), and the accepted thief were together on the day of their crucifixion and death, in the safe keeping of God. "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.". When St. Paul says," Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished," he is writing hypothetically, on the supposition that there is to be no resurrection, So essential is the resurrection to the Christian system, that If it be not true, then no part of the whole scheme is true :-tbe resurrection of Christ is not true, the testimony of the Apostles is not true, the hope in which Stephen and all the others fell asleep in Jesus is a false hope. But, he arguesstarting anew from the fact which was the burden of apostolic testimony-" Christ is risen from the dead;" therefore our whole preaching is true; and those who sleep in Jesus have not "perished," even temporarily. Tbey ARE" in Him," asleep on this side of their being and in relation to earth; but enjoying the perfect and blessed vision of His" glory" (John xvii. 5, 26,) the glory He had with the Father before the world was. Sleep on, ye departed ones I Nothing shall break the contemplation of that inexhaustible glory, till, at the Archangel's trumpet, Christ shall bring you with Him, to behold still greater glory. There is a difference in the death state or intermediate state of believers, as com: pared with that of their Lord and Saviour. "He died:" they shall "not die," they " shall live forever." Christ died as the Old Testament saints died. Believers in Christ never die after that pattern. St. John's gospel explains this mystery. We learn from it that the believer is a God-begotten person-that throuah the regener.ation. o~ th~ Holy Ghost he obtains a spirit. life m distinction from the flesh- life, -that he comes into actual, present possession of eternal life by receiving Christ-that he shall never perish, and nothing, for a moment, shall

SYMPOSIUM ON TJ[E, INTERMEDIATE STATE.

[IN accordance with the WIll of the Committee we open our columns to the above. It must, however, be distinctly understood that neither the Association nor the Editor are to be held responsible for, or as endorsing in any way the views expressed herein. These are simply the personal convictions of the several writers, and appear in these colums merely that our readers may have the opportunity of studying the question as it appears to the different believers in the cardinal truth of" Conditional Immortality," and then forming their own opinion thereon.-Eo. B.S.]

NINTH

ARTICLE.

BY REV. W. GRIFFITH.

A monster of such hideous mien; That, to be hated, needs but to be seen 1"

What has resulted will again wherever men act on the assumption of atheism. "We (however) believe in GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY." We bless and praise Him that-we can enjoy the Privilege of Prayer-the Blessings of the Sanetuary-the Rest of the Sabbath-the Melody of Sacred Song-the Teachings of the Sacred Word -the Grace of the Holy Spirit-the Joy of Salvation in Christ-the Hallowed Pleasure of pos sessing a Father in Heaven-the Certainty of a Future Life ofImmortality. May the desire which has dictated this letter be, by God's good grace, abundantly realised, even this-that our interest in the blessing of our common faith, our enjoyment thereof and our fidelity thereto,' may be vitalised and manifested in fair and honest Christian Testimony with lip and life, against t~ swelling tide of doubt, iridifference, scepticism, and atheism. That this testimony may be full, clear, constant, pure and Scriptural. Thus:ELOHIM OURJEHOVAHis the earnest prayer of Yours" in Hope of Eternal Life," Devon."

EAR SIR,-My former paper on the Intermediate State dealt mainly in certain root distinctions of idea which seemed to me essential to a clear conception of the subject. The narrow limits imposed upon contributors allowed me no adequate space for applying the distinctions to the crucial texts of Scripture on which any sound view of the State itself must be based. I venture therefore to send a few more paragraphs continuing the line of argument then broken off. My position is that while death means the extinction of life, it does not mean the extinction of being. I allow that it leads to the extinction of existence, by the dissolution of the body: but when a man's existence is dissolved, his being is not thereby destroyed. Man consisting of " spirit, soul, and body" is a living existence. His life, or soul, fails, becomes non est ; and his body by corruption passes out of existence; but the elementary, things, material and spiritual, which in their combination made up the sum of his existence do not go into non- entity. The material parts demonstrably ARE somewhere,. though we cannot trace and identify them. And in like manner that part called spirit (in distinction both from soul and body, and all their functions) IS somewhere and somehow, when dissociated both from life and matter. Do the texts of Scripture which guide this inquiry allow these distinctions; and do such passages as seem non-harmonious among themselves lose their discord when examined by the test which the distinctions supply? Suppose we say the departed believer" sleeps in Jesus." Still he IS or he could not sleep: and if he sleeps in Jesus, he must BE WITHJesus. Even should the believer's sleep be an unconscious one, still unconscious sleep necessitates the idea of being. First a thing must BE before you can predicate anything of it whatever. A non-entity can no more sleep than it can breathe, think, or talk. So in death the Old Testament saints continued to BE. Granted they were not alive, that they had neither consciousness nor action; nevertheless their being held on, and rendered them capable of re-existence, and re- suscitation in their true personal identity. Had they gone out of BEING,their resurrection would have been physically and morally impossible. Other persons by the creative power of God might have been called into being, resembling them in a great many points. But a person newly called into being with the memory and consciousness of one who had lived before, hut who had gone to nothing, is unthinkable. The proposition is itself a logical contradictory. No one can entertain its full thought otherwise than as a contradictory. He who attempts to do so must practice a sleight-of-hand upon himself, for he must assume all along that the essential part of the annihilated man IS at the call of the Almighty. The moment that assumption is absolutely dropped, he has to believe that two persons, each with a distinct origin, are one and the same. Which is impossible. 'Lho Lord Jesus said to the penitent thief, " 'I'o-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise."

88
pluck him out of the Saviour's hand. The contrast drawn between those who die in the faith of Christ and those who died under the old economy is the sharpest that words can express, It is just the difference between yea and nay. " Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread that cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die." "I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." If the believer in Christ died, as the manna-eating fathers did, these words of Jesus would have in them no coherence. So far as flesh-life and earthly existence go, Christians pass away just as the Hebrews did. But Christians, having the monial life which natural death cannot touch, never go into the Hebrew Sheo1. This life qualifies them to be with Christ and to behold His glory, It is not a life which dispenses with the resurrection. In the chapter where Jesus so emphatically says, "Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, HATHeternal life;" He also says" ANDI will raise him up at the last day." "Beloved now are we the sons of God,"-not moribund non-eatities=-': and it doth not yet appear what we shall be." It is blessed to be a living, insepar. able branch in the living Vine; but that great privilege does not exhaust all the things God bath in store for us. With the hope of continued life and unbroken fellowship with Himself the Saviour comforted His disciples in His last discourse. He delivered their minds from the Old Testament idea of Sheol, and from the Rabbinical notions of Hades by several distinct assurances: -- First the assurance of "a place" for them He was about to "prepare"-which must needs be different from what had existed before. Secondly, He promised to come and" receive them unto Himseli"-and to fix the time contemplated in that assurance He put it in the present tense, " that where I AM,there ye may be also." The whole discourse assures them by all manner of utterance that death is not to break the communion oetween them. The great consolation culminates in the words, " Father, I will that they also whom Thou has given Me, be with Me where I AM"-not where I shall be after thousands of years. This definite promise took hold of the Apostolic mind and ruled their thoughts and expectations. Hence Stephen in his last moments said" Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ;" throwing himself literally upon the Saviour's word. Take this ,sense out of Stephen's dying request, and it becomes a drivelling remark. The same great hope animated Paul's language, "having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better." It may be asked what is very far better ?-the former half of this statement, or the latter half ?-or rather the whole of it taken together as it stands? No one will accuse Paul of thinking it very far better to go into a state of unconscious sleep than to live and labour, " for the joy" of his beloved Philippians. To be with Christ would be very far better; but he was willing to forego that, and abide in the flesh for their progress and joy of faith. We hazard nothing in saying Paul would very much rather have lived, laboured and suffered for a thousand years in such a cause, than gone into an unconscious sleep. "To depart" and" to be with Christ" are but two sides of one idea: hence the two expressions are, linked hard and fast together in ths one adjective KREISSON, the in singular number. Paul longed to be "at home with the Lord." Saith he (2 Cor. v.) "Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord; "-only so long. He knew of no gulf separating the two states by thousands of years! A mall \ does not "depart" to go nowhere. Unless he removes to another place, he simply stops. To become a non- entity is just to cease to BE and nothing beside. Shall we say that in spite of the words of

THE 'BIBLE

STANDARD.

Christ, and the triumphant hope which the If then we can ascertain what those who saw Apostles built on them, that He does not come a~d hea~d the miracles and messages of the Bihle and receive us unto Himself; but leaves us, understood thereby, we shall be far on the r~ad to form a correct estimate of the truths embodIed maugre the grant of eternal life and inseparable union with Him; the victims of death, disrobed, in those words and works. Let us then consider for a few minutes what dishonoured, severed from Him, dry rotten the impressions must have been that were p~o. branches dropped, away from the life sustaining Vine, and gone -to corruption, to nothing? I duced on the minds of those who saw the msubmit it is no mitigation of this awful break to cidents and who heard or received the teachings State." say that the' unconsciousness of one, two, or that throw light on the "Intermediate twenty thousand years will count for nothing in And, FIRST: In the numerous cases-both in the the believer's actual experience. We have to life was redeal with the hard fact itself. It does connt, and Old and New Testaments-where for very much in the grammar and logic and stored, the impression conveyed to the. beh?lders evident sense of God's communication to us. was simply that of bringing back alllmatlOn to How can Christ say "My sheep shall never the corporeal frame' there being no shadow of perish," if they lie in a "perished" state for proof that the idea of calling back a disembodied millenniums? How can Christ say" they shall spirit to re-enter the lifeless hody was. ever resuscitated not die, they shall live for ever," if they lie in a present to the mind. Elisha--thus state of death for millenniums? How can He the" Shunamite's son" by making him breathe Christ-the son of the "widow ?f say, "because I live they shall live also" if they again. Nain " by bidding him" that was dead" to " SIt lie under the power of death for millenniums? by falling on him It might as well have been written, "because I up." And Paul-Eutychus, and making the lifeless form once more t9 be live they shall die." In all these cases, a The unconscious sleep for the departed, in instinct with vitality. death, exposes the Conditional Immortality As person looking on oould have but one impr.es. sociation to some of the heaviest metal that can sion, vis., that the dead person was made to hve be thrown from the battery of revelation, and it again. When Samuel was brought up to pro is a needless exposure. Nothing is gained by it, nounce the doom of Saul, we are distinctly told but the suspicion and alienation of many a he came from his grave; and his own utterance sincere inquirer. So at least it strikes me, and I -" Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me should be glad if the Bible Standard could see up ?" would carry the conviction to an! units way to forego those notions altogether, or prejudiced mind that Samuel had been III the grave and not in heaven. The vision of the keep them very much in the back- ground. " dry bones" of Ezekiel will perhaps be said to West Croydon. be but a vision, but it shows that neither the prophet nor those to whom he wrote believed any immaterial spirit needed to be summoned TENTH ARTICLE. from 'another world to give life to these bones. BY ALFRED WATSON. And if we take the cases in whioh our Lord reHAVE read the articles that have already stored life-from Jairus' daughter to the eulminating miracle performed on Lazarus who had appeared in this Symposium with considerable word recorded gives pleasure, and think it an admirable method of " been dead four days"-no ths faintest idea that Christ called-or that evolving truth and enabling those who are interested in this subject to read the arguments on those who looked on imagined He called-the spirit of the departed dead to re- animate the both sides, and (if they so please), to themselves body. The sublime words, "Lazarus, come present any aspect of the question they think forth" were spoken to one who was in the tomb has been overlooked. May I, leaving somewhat the beaten track hitherto trod by the contri- -and from the tomb he who heard the Divine mandate issued forth. Matthew also, in rebutors, submit a few thoughts to your readers, very simple, and yet, I venture to think, cording the wonderful events attendant on the crucifixion, tells of the saints" who came out of thoroughly germane to the subject? In short Previous writers have naturally confined their their graves and appeared to many." every case, where one who had been dead was attention almost exclusively to the question, "What is the correct interpretation of the made to live again, witnesses to the fact that the various passages of Scripture, bearing on the modern idea of a disembodied spirit existing not then been state of the dead? and as Revelation is the separately from the body-had even conceived. only "Authority" we recognise in spiritual SECOND: Think for a moment-if those who matters-what "The Word" says MUST be thus returned to life had come from a conscious decisive; but where there is an irreconcilable state of happiness or woe, what a tale ihey difference of opinion as to what" the Word" really does say upon this subject, it will help us would have had to unfold, and how eager everyto form our opinions correctly if we take a com- one would have been to learn it ! I! And yet they remained silent. It was then-Bs before find mon sense view of thc matter and ask-What overpowering desire of our race to did those to whom Christ and His apostles spoke since-the or wrote-those who saw the miracles they per. learn the facts concerning the invisible world; formed and to whom the" living Voice" made and if Lazarus (for instance) had really spent its utterances-understand to be the meaning of four days in heaven, his friends would have those teachings and the import of those wond- clustered round him, anxious to hear the revelation he had to make to them of what he had seen rous works? It is a prevalent and misohievous error that it requires an expert to interpret the and experienced! 1 And yet he had not a word to one bit of information Bible, and we all give" professional" opinions on say on the subject-not theological subjects more deference than, I to impart as to the unseen world. And why? think, they merit. Some of our teachers would Simply because he had only been in the tombhave us believe that God's truth is so wrapped in the land of darkness where" the dead know not one of his friends proup in imagery, parable, and enigmatical expres- not anything"-and bably entertained even the thought that he sions, that only those who have gone through HE the curriculum' of "the Creeds" can unfold its could have anything to communieate.jgIf dark sayings. Whereas we know it to be a dis- then, and others on whom this miracle was tinguishing characteristic of Bible teachings that performed, went neither to heaven or hell, to or purgatory, does it not follow irithey were meant for common people, were con- paradise veyed to them in the ordinary language and evitably, that all who die remain like them in modes of thought with which they were familial', the grave, and do not go either to a place of joy and were continually enforced by appeals to the or woe? How shall we regard.vmoreover, the conscience and understanding of those addressed. calling of Lazarus from heaven or paradise to

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unite him again to a body in which he must suffer-as an act of kindness 1-a token of the Divine favour-as it was evidently regarded by all, even by Christ Himself 1 Would it not rather have been unkind? almost cruel to compel him to give up the white robe, the crown of life, and the golden harp that for four days had been his; and to come and taste again the miseries which even the most favoured life on earth experiences? And yet this is what "orthodoxy" would have us believe, but which on such insufficient authority we decline altogether to give credence to. THIRD: Had all who are thus recorded as having "lived again" come from a conscious state-either of joy or suffering-there wouldhave been, in some cases at least, a violation of the solemn statements of God's Word summed up in the text, " as the tree falls so it hes." If, as Protestants, there is a doctrine we find taught clearly and distinctly in that Word it is that the state is fixed at death; and we' reject as a priestly invention, the dogma of mass~s and prayers to alter the condition of those departed. And. yet-as the utmost stretch of charity would not Impel us to say that all thus restored to life were saved,-it is certain that any who had had, even an hour's experience of the pangs we are told the lost endure, would not continue a course of life that would ensure a return to such horrors and so, at their first death they would have gone to hell, and at the second to heaven, an idea which needs only to be broached to be rejected. In urging these common sense views, we are sometimes met with the reply-" But these cases were exceptional. The subj ects of these miracles were not actually dead. It was only 'suspended animation.''' Do those who say this reflect on the stigma they affix on the Saviour and those servants of God to whom miraculous power was given? That they bring a charge which Strausse, Renan, hardly Tom Pains himself, would dare to lay at the door of ~he Divine Man; That of lending Himself to an Imposture, and pretending to raise those to life who were not really dead. To such sorry shifts, however, are those driven who are not content with the simple testimony of Scripture as to the state of those who depart this life. It would be profitable to contrast the utterance of God the Holy Spirit in almost the only case where He speaks of the dead with the averments of hymnology. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, ~aith t~e Spirit," and why? not (as the hymns WIth WhIChwe are so familiar assure us) because they have" received their crowns" and are" for ever with the Lord," but" for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." What a rebuke is this to the highflown language in which the state of those who " sleep in Jesus" is commonly described! "They rest," but only for an instant, for the moment the breath fails, is to the unconscious dead the moment when the Archangel's trump shall be heard, and Noah, Abraham, David, and other Old Testament saints. shall enjoy no advantage, neither suffer any disadvantage as compared with those who may be "alive and remain" at the coming of the Lord; for they" have not yet received the promises," and" without us shall not be made perfect." And lastly: What says the same common sense to the theory that beings will be brought from a state where for ages tl; ey have known and experienced their doom-to be judged? Does not" orthodox" teaching reduce the" day of jndgment"-a day to be thought or spoken of only with reverence and -awe-to a farce? and its august proceedings to solemn trifling? If Daniel and Paul have already received their crowns, and tasted the "fulness of joy," why should they go through the form of a trial, the eternal issues of which have already been decided? And if Judas and Nero have really known and even partially suffered for 1800 years

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concerned; not an endless act of redeeming, but a process of short duration, not requiring repetition. We next observe the statement in Heb. xiii. 20, " Eternal Covenant." This cannot be explained to mean an everlasting covenanting, but a short period in which God made a covenant that can never be broken. Turn your thoughts for a moment to the time of Noah, and the wickedness then existent. We read God destroyed every living creature save those in the ark, and after made a covenant with the saved ones not to again destroy the world by a flood, and placed the bow in the clouds as a sign; and He says, I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant I have made. The act of covenanting was of few days' duration at most, but eternal because unchangeable, and to-day stands good, and will for ever remain. In Rev. xiv. 6, we read of an angel flying in mid-heaven having an "Eternal Gospel" to proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth, and unto every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people., Are we to understand from this that an angel at some future date will be endlessly proclaiming the glad tidings to impenitent sinners on this earth? If so, we are thrown into this " SIX ETERNALS. " dilemma: This world will always be a sinful one, and an angel the preacher of good news which WE extract the following from the Thames will not be accepted by all the then living sinners, Advertiser of Sept. 25th. a sufficient number rejecting to enable this angel LECTURE with the above title was given by to continually wing his flight over the world, and Edmund H. Taylor, last evening, in the endlessly preach from his aerial position, the Odd Fellowa' Hall. He said: In bringing before eternal gospel. Such, we think, no one would you the phraseology of Scripture relative to the advocate, but would draw the same conclusion temfuture, it has been our lot to call in question the from this as from the other passages-a general teaching "f the Christian churches con- porary act of proclaiming, with an endless result. This brings us to our last illustration of the use cerning the end of the finally impenitent, and in of eternal, to be found in Matt. xxv, 46, "Eternal so doing, our opposing brethren not unfrequently Punishment." So far as I am aware, no one accuse us of placing too limited an application to the words everlasting and eternal. To show would accept the idea that the foregoing instances imply an they are mistaken accusations, and that our use of the use of this word "eternal" of the words is the legitimate one, we call. your endless process; yet is so applied to the future punishment of the wicked, the victim being conattention to the word eternal in six passages. signed to endless pain, variously called "The The first is found in Heb, v. 9, " Eternal Salvation." Here we are told Christ is become death that never dies," "A living death," "'A. and: un>: the Author of eternal salvation to all that obey dying life," terms self-contradictory We then simply apply the word here, Him. This is a sublime truth, and one we scriptural. cannot be too earnest in proclaiming, for" How also, in its Scriptural form, as God's servants of shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? ., old did, meaning an endless result arising from a temporary act, and that result death. We are But would you not think it very peculiar will call us reasoning if I said this meant that Christ had well aware that our opponents annihilationists for so doing. We reject that begun an act in which He would be engaged for ever-an act that would have no definite effect? term, because unseriptural, but frankly admit of the You would immediately reply, the evident mean- that our teaching is the "extinction" wicked; and all who care to read a " Thus saith ing is that the act of salvation is temporary, the Lord" will discover in Isaiah xliii. L7, this almost instantaneous, but its result endless. Sal vation takes place here, but its effects will be expression," they are extinct, they are quenched as tow;" and if God, by His prophet, states that never ending, in the world to come. Temporary He causes an army of men to become extinct, act, endless result. "Eternal Judgment" is found in Heb. vi. 2. no preacher of whatever sect has a right to say Here, again, one cannot but recognise an all- it is not so; and when we read the wicked shall or "consumed," or "shall important truth, and we would reason with you, be "destroyed," perish," or "be cut off," it is not an endless act as one of old did, of a judgment to come. "For all must stand before the judgment seat of of pruning, or consuming, or perishing, but an act represented by the Psalmist as "swift" Ohrist." But .think for a moment of anyone saying that "Eternal .Judgment " should be destruction, its result being eternal death, called the "Second Death" Let us understood to imply that when the Judge once in Revelations commences judging He will continue so doing remember that this is to be the fate of all whose for ever, without cessation. Such would be an names are not written in the" Book of Life." absurdity and a contradiction of Scripture, for we read, " He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world;" the work of a brief period, the effect of which work will last to the age of the ages. Temporary process, endless result. WRITER in the Times says, speaking of the " Eternal Redemption:' is spoken of in Heb. societies of Free-thinkers-Liberi Pensatori ix. 12. Our High Priest is represented as having -" One of these processions appeared lately in obtained redemption by His own blood, and Rome, with a banner on which was inscribed entered into the holy place once for all. Do not 'Satau.' "-As though anxious to assert their confound salvation with redemption. Salvation devotion to the "god of this world," and to affects this life; redemption is a return from the " glory in their shame." Does not this remind grave, and is yet future. Paul says" we groan us of the Saviour's warning as to the features of within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to the latter days? wit, the redemption of our body." Still the same Speaking of a visit to Jerusalem, the Bishop teaching is seen I so far as the word eternal is of Ballarat says, "One thing that filled him with the punishment due to their crimes; what purpose could be answered by this arraignment at the" Judgment seat of Christ" No I We will put aside the imaginative descriptions of the state of departed saints and sinners, with which our hymns and popular writings abound, and content ourselves with the grand and solemn predictions of Scripture, all centring in "that day," "when all who are in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth;" when, and not till when, Paul expected to '.' see his Lord" and "receive his crown;" and when those who have died impenitent shall hear their doom pronounced. I fear I have exceeded the limits proper to this paper, but I thought, perchance, these simple aspects of the doctrine under consideration might be helpful to some humble readers of the Bible Standard, to whom the scholarly disquisitions of those who give us the precise renderings of the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures are not convincing, and I can only hope they may lead some seeker into "The Truth." Salisbury.

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the intensest disgust was the Turkish Government there. He would defy anybody to go into Palestine and see the way that the Turk manages tha,t country without sharing the intensest horror and condemnation of the wretchedness and weakness of that caricature of government. A missionary told him that there was a murder every week, of which not the slightest notice was taken by the Government. I feel sometimes that if there were some crusade to sweep the Turk off the face of the earth, I would for a time put off my robe, buckle a sword to my side, swing a gun -to my shoulder, and go and help it."-How long, 0 Lord, how long shall the land be desolate? "Until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." We may look for stirring changes shortly. A correspouden t of the Restitution, writing from Jerusalem on December 21, says,-" The Sultan has sent a firm an to allow-the walls (of the city) to be taken down; also he last week sent the information that all refugee Jews are to be allowed -to come and remain in this land or city as they please. This we think an extraordinary measure, as only three months ago he would not permit them to land at Jaffa, and they were obliged to leave. Many Jews are now arriving with a more hopefulfeeling."-Yes, verily, however slowly, the land and the people are being brought together.-" Then cometh the end." God be praised for the promises which speak it near.

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my recent lecturing tours in Notts, Durham, Northumberland and Lancashire, and the answers given, might prove not only interesting but instructive, to some of your readers. Doubtless many of the questions put to me, have arisen at times in the minds of many of the readers of the Bible Standard, and some of the answers given may remove such mental difficulties. I put the questions and answers down, not always in the order in which they occurred, but in the order in which while I write they come up to my own mind. QUESTION ]1IRST:-put by a Local Preacher. " The Lecturer said, quoting a passage from the third chapter of John, that when the Saviour said-' Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he could not enter the kingdom of heaven,' that by the word' water,' Jesus meant , death.' I should like to ask the Lecturer, what authority he has for making sucb a.statement? I contend that when Jesus . or His Apostles used the word 'water' they meant 'water,' and'nothing else, and Icchallengethe' Lecturer to prove the contrary." ANSWER :-The Questioner affirms that when Christ or His Apostles used the word" water," they always meant "water," and nothing else; is the gentleman prepared to stand by that decision ?-Questioner, "Yes, most certainly."Very well. We turn fo the fourth chapter of John, Jesus is the speaker-" If thou knewest the gift of God, and Who it'is that saith. to thee, give Me to drink; thou wouldst have a.sl~ed of Him, and He would have given thee livmg water." Does the gentleman believe- that the Saviour meant, that He would have given the Samaritan woman a jug of cold "water? "Questioner, "No! no! in that particular passage of course it means eternal life, but that is the only passage where the word 'water' means Life." The Lecturer,Very well, let us see. John vii. 37-38, " Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me. D:nd drink, and out of him shall flow rivers of living water." Does the Questioner believe that the Saviour meant literal water? (No answer.) Of course he does not, and dare not, in the face of the express statement of the Evangelist in the next verse, " Thus spoke ge of the Spirit which they who believe on Him should receive." ThIS then is the second' passage where" water" does not mean" water;" We turn to a third, last chapter of Revelations, "Let him that is aihirst come, and take of the water of life (i.e. living water) freely." Does the Apostle here mean literal water? To ask the question is to answer it. Among the Jews in the time of Christ, , water" with the word "living" prefixed, symbolised "life." Interruption by the Questioner.-" But the Lecturer said that water meant death, now he says it means Life." ANSWER: The gentleman is "shunting" on to a side-line, where I decline to follow him; he is throwing dust into the eyes of the audience, but for myself I decline to be blinded. The position laid down by the gentleman was this ;-that when the Saviour or His Apostles used the word I "water," they always meant "water" and nothing else, I have proved the unsoundness, and unscriptnral character of the position. Now, however, the gentleman shifts his ground, by attempting to show that while I affirmed in my Lecture, that "water" meant death, I have now proved in my answers, that it means" life." Now I admit that this move on the part of the gentleman, is what the Yankees would call "rather smart," and somewhat amusing, only the gentleman will remember that I never said that" living water" meant death. I leave that to our orthodox friends, to say that death means life, and destruction means preservation. In the passage under dispute, (the- third John) the' word" living" does not occur.' The words are: -" Except-a man be born out of (Elt) water;

This disappointed and surprised me. I don't know the reason of his silence, but can guess. T his only I know. At the following Conference there was a certain minister questioned on his orthodoxy, and MarshallRendall (author of 'For Ever') was on the committee."While reading on metaphysics lately, I have been much interested with tbe notions of the ancients on the immortality of the soul. I really think that their arguments are far more weighty and sensible than those given by- orthodox believers of to-day. They taught that the soul was as old as God. They said there never was a time when it did not exist: for; they argued' a thing that had a beginning might have an end-a thing created could be destroyed.'Very sensible, I think. Orthodoxy, however says,-' that the soul, though created, cannot be destroyed.' If asked why? The answer is'That it is a part of God' (monstrous); or-' an immaterial being created to live for ever, and put into the body;' and that' It can live either in or out of it, but can never be destroyed.' And yet these same persons are ever and anon singingH

He can create and He destroy."

May the Lord of Life and Light give them Light." The Christian. Commonwealth says-"The notorious work of Rev. E. White on ' Non-eternity of Punishment' is receiving a severe handling in an article of eight pages in the organ of the Free Churches of France, by one of its valued contributors."-We hail the publicity without fearing the severity of such "handling." Our principal difficulty always is to induce our op-. ponents to discuss or "handle" the matter. HE Rev. Henry Batehelor, of Newcastle-on The pagan notion of the transmigration of Tyne, on Sunday, February 25th, delivered souls still lingers-fed by orthodox teaching a Sermon in Defence of the Natural Immortality touching the nature of the soul. If Pythagoras of the Human Soul. This was, probably, in- hearing the plaintive cry of a beaten dog knew tended as a reply to our recent Course of its voice as that of a deceased friend, whose soul Lectures in that town. The Local Committee had passed into the dog's form; so one or more has met the revd. gentleman by inserting an ad. of the maid.servants in a Cornish vicarage, vertisement, which we copy from the Northern (St. Cleer,) anxiously preserve the spiders, Evening Express of February 28.because the soul of parson Jupp (the previous "THE BIBLE V. THE REV. HENRYBATCHELOR clergyman) has passed into one of the vicarage spiders-and they know not which. This is 100 REWARDfor ONE Text of Scripture believed in the 19th century! One thing is clear, proving Man's Natural Immortality. For that vicarage must be the very paradise of further information apply to," &c. spiders. A Dartmouth Correspondent writes-"Kindly In a clever and interesting suppositious diaallow me room for a few remarks in continulogue between the pulpits of Old Surrey and the ance of mine of January last,-but before proceeding, cannot help expressing my delight on Weigh House Chapels, London, the Christian World of February 22, gives the following sly reading that significant letter from a clergyman, hit at our special tenet. Speaking of Thomas in the Feb. issue, letters like this show the way Binney, "Old Surrey" says,-" I heard some the wind is blowing. I asked a Methodist minione of the new lights, a man from the black ster about a month since, 'If he did not think country, call him' an old Pagan' the other day; that many Methodist ministers had grave doubts but I was rather tickled, for the man to whom of the truth of what they now taught on the he said it replied, 'Well it is better to be even future of the wicked.' He said, that 'He besuch an old Pagan as he, than such a young lieved that hundreds of them did not believe in Atheist as you,' for the black countryman was the old creed; and moreover, that there would one of the conditional immortality heretics." be a wondeljull'evolution in the Churches in that As far as any sober condemnation of this tenet direction, in a few years:'may he concerned, we can say with the Apostle "Having seen, whilst reading the Bible StanPaul-whose teaching we follow-" This I dal'd, several remarks on the celebrated confess unto thee, that after the way which they American Lecturer, Joseph Cook, I have been call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, reminded of what took place when he was lecbelieving all things which are written in the turing in this country, among other subjects on law and in the prophets." To which we link, as that great question-' What is-life? ' This was descriptive of Paul's teaching, "For the wages very ably answered by the Rev. W. H. Dallinger, of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal now Governor of Wesley College, Leeds,-in a life through Jesus Chmst our Lord." We are lecture to the students, on Biology. I read it in certainly in good company, if to declare this is the Methodist with very great pleasure, and to be an "Atheist." thought that it entirely cut the ground from under Mr. Cook's feet. The closing words were. _' Unless we can get something better than we NOTES OF MY LECTURING have hitherto had to prove the immortality of the soul, we are without a foundation.' This EXPERIEN CE S. called forth a reply the following week, by a QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. writer calling himself a 'student.' I thought

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when I read it, that he might have called himself a ' babe,' for it was weak indeed. I noticed, however, that no reply came.from Mr. Dallinger,

To the Editor of the Bible Standard. Dear Sir,-IT has struck me that the 'Various and numerous questions put to me publicly in

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and of, or by the Holy Spirit (as the active agent) he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." What I affirmed was, that our New Birth, or being" born again," takes place at the resurrection, the" first resurrection;" begotten of incorruptible seed now,-but bo1'1~ then=-i.e. born out of death-and "water" without the prefix " living" means, and symbolises, (and meant among the Jews)-a state of death, hence a phrase common among the Hebrews of that day, to describe any calamity, was Mish-b1'eeMahveth--the "surging waves of death." QUESTIONSECOND: "The Lecturer has spoken of man as a unity; that man's body and soul and breath, or spirit, are all one. I should like to ask him how on his theory he can explain the language of the Apostle who speaks of man as possessing body, soul and spirit. He says 'I pray God sanctify you wholly, body, soul, and spirit" -Kai Soma, Kai Psuche, Kai Pneumatos J -I should like to know what the Lecturer has to say to that? " ANSWER: The Lecturer has to say in the first place, that the Gentleman makes the Apostle write very bad Greek. He" kais" too much, to Ray nothing of the fact, that the gentleman has reversed also the order of the words. The Greek of the Apostle is :-To pneuma, kai he peuche kai to soma. But let that pass. The Apostle is addressing himself to Christians - to persons who had already been begotten of incorruptible seed, and had therefore received a new element of spiritual being, and that consequently his description does not apply to the entire human race, or to man as man. And finally, I must decline to plead guilty to uttering such nonsense, as the gentleman puts in my mouth-that man's body and soul and spirit were all the same. I might as well affirm that a corpse is a living being, or that man breathes when he is dead. QUESTIONTHIRD: By a Congregational Minister-" Does not the Lecturer admit that there are degrees in iniquity, and that some men are much worse than others? "-The Lecturer signified his assent to this proposition.-" Then" -said the Questioner-" would it not be unjust of God to inflict the same punishment on all, those that were less and those that were more guilty? But according- to the theory of the Lecturer, God will make no difference, but inflict the same penalty-utter .death, on al1."Here the major part of the audience cheered vociferously, and the gentleman looked trium. pliant. ANSWER: Does the Gentleman believe in eternal torment ?-(The gentleman admitted that he did.)-Then, said the Lecturer, it certainly seems most marvellous to me that the gentleman does not see the suicidal nature of his own argument. For this is precisely what modern orthod<;>xy affirms God will do-cast into the same unending" torments, the child who dies at seven or eight years old, and a Nero, a Domitian, and an Alexander the Sixth. They are all equally tormented and that for ever. Here the audience were silent, and the gentleman sat down. But another gentleman rose instantly, and said-" Does not the Saviour say that some shall be beaten with many stripes, and some with few? That clearly to my mind proves eternal suffering." ANSWER: I thank the gentleman most cordially for quoting that text; he could not have rendered me a greater service. Will he kindly answer me one question, before I answer his? If the gentleman had to inflict a hundred stripes on one man, and a thousand stripes on another, would it not take him ten times longer to inflict the thousand stripes, than to inflict the hundred ?-The Questioner answered in the affirmative.-Then the "eternal suffering" of the man who received the few stripes, would come to an end ten times sooner, than that of the

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~an who receiyed the thousand stripes, whose eternal suffenng "would come to an end ten times later. But both would have a termination and therefore neither would be exposed t; eternal torment. Here for the present I conclude by subscribing myse.lf, Dear Mr. Editor, yours most cordially, Burltngton B. Wale.:

and the estimate of faith, old things have passed away. In verse 18 he goes on to say that" all things" in this new creation are of God; and then states in what the Gospel consists-That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself-and therefore could not be at the same time imputing their trespasses unto them; and that he had committed to the Apostles the word of reconciliation. Then on behalf of Christ. he besought these Corinthians to act the part of reconciled ones, and to put away their disorderly walking, and partisan spirit, and to act the part that became Christians; as we sometimes By Rev. BURLINGTON B. WALE, F.R.G.S. say to a man who is acting an unmanly part-" be 2 Cor. v. a man!" and everyone understands what we mean (for he has just stated that God had reN our last paper we closed our exegesis with verse 9. We resume it at verse 10, where conciled them to Himself), and then as a divinely accredited ambassador from God, he urges he assigns the reason why he laboured, whether present or absent, to do that which was well- them to walk worthy of their name and position. pleasing to the Lord :-" For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat-(Beema) of Christ." "We" i.e. those who are Christians, for the Apostle is not speaking of the outside world, EDITED BY GEN. H. GOODWYN. but of those who walk by faith, and not by sight; and he is careful to maintain. good works be- QUERY: A. B. M. writes on behalf of an' " intellicause he is to be made manifest before the judg- gent gentleman" who wants" more light " as to ment seat of Christ; careful to maintain right the terms and conditions on which eternal life is The writer deems it " of importance motives, in the actions of life-to be careful as attainable. to whether those actions were to be hurtful, or that this question be fully replied to, in order helpful to the cause of Christ. It is the judg- that many inqnirers may learn The. Way as well City, ment of the believer's works in and for the cause as The Truth. and The Life."-(::ltephens . of Christ-not of his person. It has regard to Va., U.S.A.) REPLY: But one question is comprehended Service, and not to Salvation; to the" crown of is eternal life righteousness," the super-added rewards of ser- herein, viz.:" By what "way" vice-and not the free gift of eternal life. The attainable, or' what has the Divine Author of believer, saved by Christ, will then have the original or terminable life declared to be the conditions on which life everlasting can be judgment of Christ upon his actions in Christ's For," in them that are saved," the service, and will either receive the badge of ap- bestowed? proval 01' suffer conscious loss. This will, in all Gospel is " a savour of life (temporal) unto life" The Apostle's principle must here probability, take place when we are caught up to (eternal). meet the Lord in the air, and before we are pre- necessarily be followed, and the matter expounded Though I will be brief as sented faultless to the Path er, without spot 01' from the beginning. blemish or wrinkle, or any such thing. It may be possible. The analogy of Scripture, as a whole unthe action of a moment. in which we shall have questionably shews that God had predeter~ined the "mind" of Christ on our service for him; it will be, not the "trial" of the Christian but t? create a family in His own moral and spiritual Iikeness ; and that the first creation, as well as Christ's estimate of his service for Him,-and were in order to its fulfilment. then the cup of cold water given in the name of redemption, a disciple shall not be without its reward, for Immortality, or endless life, is the main rootOhrist will be no man's debtor. feature of such resemblance, which will be Having this scene, this fear 01' reverence of the evident as we proceed. This life was not possessed by patriarchal Lord before his mind, he persuaded the Corinsaints, for, "God only having immortality," an, thians to have it constantly in remembrance. Then in verse 12 he defends himself from the essential intrinsicality of His being, Adam could imputation of egotism, and in verse 13 from the not have been created immortal, or God must Apart from charge of being beside himself, with which the have made a duplicate of Himself! Corinthians had charged him. The church at that, however, the prohibition of Gen. iii. 22 23, shuts him and his posterity out from the att'ain. Corinth had neither bishops, pastors nor deacons, ment of the contemplated LIFE, lest, in the posmany of its members were walking disorderly; a spirit of partisanship was diffused through its session, he become like God, knowing good and evil, and yet perpetuate the life of a sinner. ranks, and the Apostle in verse 14 contemplating this state of things, says that he was determined For mark! God's unchangeable principle is, to know none of them after the flesh, that the that the Divine life be possessed in inseparable' love of Christ alone bound him to them. combination with its outward characteristics and holiness, as we learn froU: Here the Apostle uses a word (Swiekei ) which righteoiisness represents the action of a cooper binding the Eph, iv. 24, and Col. i. 15. As it is also written " the body is dead by reason of sin, but lthe spirit staves of a cask together; for they were gnarled and crooked characters, with whom he would is life by reason of righteousness," its outward viii. 10. rather live two hours than two days. He judges evidence.-Rom. that they had (representatively) "died" with Furthermore, it may be asserted that the Christ, (not then were all dead-the Greek is " dominion" bestowed on man muat have apethasuni 3 pers. pl. aor. 2 ind. from apothmees- necessitated the exercise of such accessories of ko) i.e. that they were Christians, however rule, and yet, if righteousness was not found in the Ruler, we know that he could not have had crotchety. He then proceeds to say, that though they h d THE LIFE which is its source. Thus this ,Adamic known Christ after the flesh, henceforth knew failure becomes instructi ve, being a fore-intimathey Him no more after that manner. All pic- tion of another Adam, a "King who shall rule in righteousness" (Isa. xxxii. 1), and "a new tures of Christ, all the ritualistic representations of His birth, and death, and" crucifixion, e.~rth in ~hich dwe~leth righteousness" (2 Pet. are knowing Christ "after the flesh "-and for- ui. 13). I'he Adamio nature could not attain to gotting that He Who was once a "man of the Divine standard of holiness by any moral sorrows," is now the Supreme Monarch of all action, either under compulsion, or through fear worlds. If any man be in Christ, there is for ?f death; for, becoming c~nstitutionally corrupt, him a new creation, and in the purpose. of Godv It could not warrant the glft of eternal life apart

BIBLICAL EXEGESIS

NOT~ES & QUERIES.

92
from the promised agency of "the Seed of the woman." This leads to the consideration of the possibility of attainment of LIFE in the next or legal age. Scripture meets us at the outset with this' decisive statement, "If there had been a law given which could have given LIFE, verily righteousness," its true and special characteristic, "should have been by the law" (Gal. iii. 21), but it could not, for God hath said, "by deeds of law shall no man be justified;" and the record of Rom. iii. is conclusive, for it declares that up to the Advent of Christ" there was none that doeth good, no, not one. There was no fear of God before their eyes." In fact, the entire moral conduct of man, and the principles of his dominion" came short of" the righteous standard of" the glory of God." Thus" all the world was guilty before God" (Rom. iii. 11, 12, 19, 23). This statement must be received as generally applicable to human nature, not specific. On this ground alone could such glad tidings be proclaimed as those which state that "God so loved the world " even in its guilt, "that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here, then, is the opening of "THE WAY." THIS LIFE, we have seen, could not be attained by the Antediluvians; nor by man under the legal age. There remains but the present Dispensation: "Now is the day of salvation," wherein "the Seed of the woman," having accomplished the glorifying work of redemption, having been "delivel'ed for our offences, and raised again for our justification," salvation and the free gift of eternal LIFE are declared on the condition of FAITH. "By grace through faith are ye saved." An age wherein "the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ;" is freely offered to all, howbeit it is attainable as the earnest of eternal LIFE, by "them only who believe" (Rom. iii. 22). The law, therefore, whilst it could not impart life, was a schoolmaster until Christ came, that, the claims of law having been met by Him, men might receive "justification unto LIFE," on the condition of FAITH. Under law there was no access to the Presence of God (Heb. ix. 8), "But Christ being come as High Priest," has not only" obtained eternal redemption," but has, as Priestly Representative, introduced believers in Hirnself to the Divine presence (verses 11, 12,24). We have, therefore, " boldness [through faith, now,] to enter in by that new and living WAY, onsecrated for us by c the blood of Christ" (Heb. x. 19, 20). HE verily, therefore, is the object of faith, Who said, "I am the WAY, and the TRUTH, nd THE LIFE;" a Who "hath abolished" continuance in a state of death for the believer, " and brought LIFE and immortality to light through the Gospel": Who moreover said, "He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath euerlastinq LIFE,is passed from death unto LIFE;" and again, "He that believeth on ME, hath everlasting LIFE" (John v. 24, vi. 47). Lastly-One word more as to THEWAY. It is stated by Divine command in the Epistle to the Ephesians, that believers "have been quickened together with Christ, have been raised up together, and set\J;ed together in Heaven," in the presence of God, " IN Hnr "! Such a condition is of course now, whilst still in the body, to be received by FAITH,as being an accomplished fact in the Divine mind, to be realized in Resurrection. Hence the truth that" our LIFE," as to all that constitutes its future enjoyment, "is hid with Christ in God, and when Christ, WHOIS OUR LIFE, shall appear, we also shall be manifested with Rim in glory"! (Col. iii. 3, 4). How certain, then, that eternal. LIFE is attainable only by the unmerited favour, or grace of God, through the one condition of FAITH, and that THEWAY its experience and fruition is to

THE

BIBLE

STANDARD.
utility; and that with regard to its sin-stained inhabitants, even these under the transforming power and grace of God, when united by faith to the Second Adam, will become fitted to dwell in a. redeemed and glorified earth. Our reading of 1st Gen. instructs us, that such was the nature of the change which passed over this mundane system, when God was preparing the earth for the habitation of the first Adam, Geologists have sought to find in the six days work, traces of the various stratified rocks that lie buried in the earth's crust; but any unsophisticated mind, who has no favourite system to bolster up, must see that the days are six literal days, and the changes of a superficial character, and just such as would be necessary to transform the earth of the 2nd verse of Gen. i. into a fit habitation and dwelling-place for man -light-dry ground-grass and trees-sun, moon and stars, for signs and seasons-the water stocked with fish, and the air with fowlthen cattle were created-and lastly man;there is nothing here but what in God's hands could be accomplished easily in six days, and thus a world reduced by some great catastrophe to a shapeless mass of inanimate matter, was transformed and ennobled and made a glorious abode for man. It is not God's purpose to allow Satan to triumph over man's fall-sin has brought desolation and death upon all mundane things, but God out of a ruined world will excogitate a new one far more beautiful and glorious; and will employ not only the old materials, but will use even Satan and wicked men as instruments to bring about His glorious purposes, and to accomplish a state of things, that will in ten thousand ways enhance the glories of our ever Blessed God. The fiat has gone forth, "Behold I make all things new!" (Rev. xxi. 3, 4.) "Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." When this great purpose has been fully grasped we shall understand, though imperfectly, yet with much higher intelligence the necessity of the various steps that are now contributing to the accomplishment of this end; we shall see the necessity of each step in the Divine procedure; many things which before seemed difficult to understand will then become plain; and a new light will be thrown upon the great cardinal doctrines of our common faith :-for instance the new birth or regeneration, the doctrine of the atonement, the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; the resurrection of the just and the everlasting Kingdom and Reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, all these and many more will assume a clearness and brightness which before was impossible until we fully realized the fact that God was constructing a new creation with Christ at its head as the Second Adam, the Lord from heaven, Who is a life-giving Spirit, and that His present gracious operations are but so many separate steps towards the accomplishment of this glorious design. If the Lord will, I trust I may have the opportunity of taking up some of these subjects and reviewing them from the foregoing standpoint. Oxford.

Christ Himself: union with Him, possession of His moral likeness (1 John iii. 2), and joint occupation of His throne I (Rev. iii. 21.) NOTE.-As a corollary to the above, let the reader attentively consider 1 John v. 20. The Son of God has Himself come into this world of evil, to present an Object to our hearts. He has also giveu us, who believe, an understanding that in the midst of all that is false we may know HIM, that is The True One. We are thus brought into the true light, that we may judge according to truth, But this is not all. " We are IN HIM,"-this" True One,"-partakers of His nature, identified with, and abiding in Him, that we may enjoy the Source of Truth, even Jesus Christ, the Son of God I It is thus we are in connection with the perfections of God. "THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE" ! Nothing like this could have been revealed in the ages before Christ came. Reading.

THE By NEW
CHARLES

CREATION.
UNDERHILL,

GOD'SULTIMATE PURPOSE.

J.P.

HE object of this paper, and one or two others that may possibly follow, is to show that to understand the various parts of God's dealings with man, it is necessary if possible to have a correct and complete view of God's purpose, or end, towards which He is working. A large building in process of construction, with many hundreds of workmen engaged upon its innumerable walls and terraces, presents a scene of confusion and inextricable perplexity to a casual spectator, until he has seen the elevation of the proposed buildings, and grasped the main features of the architect's design; so until we place ourselves (assuming that to be possible) at God's standpoint, and view the glorious scheme of redemption in all its completeness and future development; it is impossible for us to have a clear conception of many of its separate parts, which in God's gracious and wondrous hands are working surely and steadily to the final accomplishment of the glorious design of the Almighty Architect. Should we attribute to the Divine Being a purpose in redemption which He Himself has not proposed, it will be no wonder if our minds are confused and perplexed. If God's purpose, for instance, be assumed to be simply the moral elevation of human nature, and the bettering of man's worldly condition ;-or if our theological system be built upon the Pagan doctrine of natural immortality; it will be no wonder if we become involved in endless enigmas and contradictions ;-but once obtain the divine clue to God's operations, and the whole fabric of truth begins to assume an intelligible form, producing harmony and conviction. Now it is not in the earlier portions of the inspired Word that we expect to find a full development of God's purpose in redemption; it is rather in the latter part, and indeed in the last book of all, that we have the authoritative announcement that God is constructing a new creation->" Behold, I make all things new,"-a new heavens, a new earth, new inhabitants, a new dominion, with Christ, the Second Adam , at its head. The 8th Psalm is to be fulfilled in the Person of Christ, though as the Apostle says, (Heb. ii. 8.) "we see not yet all tbings put under Him." Now when it is said that God has purposed to make all things new, we do not understand that the old materials will be utterly annihilated, and that the new will have no relation or connection whatever with the old ;-but what we understand is, that the old will be transformed,-that with regard to the physical globe the old materials will be worked up into new forms of beauty and

EASTBOURNE

NOTES.

CORRESPONDENT writes :-" It is reported that on Sunday evening, February 4, the Rev. - warned his congregation against the erroneous teaching of the 'Conditional Immortality Teachers,' which he said had been taught in this town from the pulpit, but did not name the place. He also said, ' there were good men amongst them, but they were in error,'

THE
which he proved from the passage (John iii. 36.) , He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not Bee life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.' He said it was' hath' not shall have. He also made the statement, that these' teachers' taught that 'the wicked die like the brute, and are annihilated.' " We are asked by onr correspondent-a Truth Seeker-to give the name of the work which contains these last statements. We, of 'course, cannot answer for what extreme men of any party may write, but of this we are sure, that of all the works circulated by friends of this Association in Eastbourne and elsewhere, works selected from our published list, not one has ever contained such a statement, for the sufficien t reason that our list contains none such. As to branding our teaching as " erroneous."Well, let the WOl'd decide. We teach Immortality or Eternal Life as the alone gift of Divine Grace to Christian Believers. The reverend gentleman affirms that all men possess it by .nature-but that some are happy and others miserable in its possession. Well, let us take a Concordance, and, under the heading "life," select a few appropriate passages.-Of course only those which speak of future as distinguished from physical life. Thus ;Gen. iii, 24, A flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of Ufe."-Here we have the sinner deprived of access to the tree of Iife.c-." lest he put forth his hand, and eat: and livejor eve1'." Mark X. 17, What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life 1" Does the Saviour say he possessed it? No, but prescribes the means to secure its possession. Take up the Cross and follow Me." John Hi. 36, (which, singularly enough, is quoted against us), He that believeth on the Son ha th everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son .haU not see life Cl he Saviour's words are absolute-shall not see life-neither happy nor miserable), but the wrath of God abideth on him." John v. 40, " And ye will not come to Me that ye might have life." The words are clear and decisive, and they are also the words of the Son of God,"-Life was only to be had by coming to Him; Whatever the meaning attached to life. its source is one and one only-Christ. What is this but "Conditional Immortality," or "Life only in Christ ?" John xx, 3I, That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life thTO-ughRiB Na11l,e." No mention of life opart. from Him. 2 COT. 4, That mortality might be swallowed up of life." Written exclusively of the righteous. James 1. 12, If Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; he shall receive the crown Of life, which the Lord hath promised to then" that love Him;"
U U H 11 U U V. 11

BIBLE

STANDARD.

93
The hymn says so, for I learnt it only a Sunday or two ago." FATHER.-" Yes, I know the hymn says so, and I remember learning it myself when I was a boy. But, sad to say, many of our hymns are very misleading, and on some points very unscriptural. Let me caution you, my deal' boy, not to be guided by the poet except so far as the poetry is found to agree with the teaching of the more sure word of prophecy." Boy.-" The other evening at our entertainment, Bessie Smith sung one of the Jubilee Songs about John Brown. The words were'John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, But his soul goes marching on.'

after Resurrection and Judgment; not, however, to retain them in Immortal Life, but to put an everlasting end to their being. Thus;Matt. vii. I3, " Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction." Rom. ix. Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." Phil. iii. 19, "Whose end is destruction." I Thess. v. 3, Then sudden destruction cometh upon them * * and they shall not escape." 2 Thes. 1. 9, "Who shall be punished with everZalting destruction from the presence of the Lord." 2 Peter ii. 1, Bring upon themselves swift dutruction."
22.11 11 U

We leave these passages with the congregation of the reverend gentleman (many of whom will receive a copy of this issue) for their personal meditation. And now just a word ere closing on the further remark-spoken surely in ignorance, for it would be too serious a charge against a Christian Minister to suppose it spoken otherwise-made against us, viz. ; that we teach that "the wicked die like the brute, and are annihilated." Sufficient here to state, and briefly prove, our real as against our supposed tenets on the end of the wicked. We teach the Everlasting Death or Destruction, of the sinner-but not until after the GeneralResurrection and Judgment. There is no difference between us and the reverend gentleman, as to the time or endlessness of sin's doom-It is at the Resurrection of the Judgment Day. But there is a great deal of difference as to the nature of that doom. What saith the Word?
Gen. ii. I7. Thou shalt surely die." What is it, in God's estimation to diM' See Gen. EL 19, "Till thou return unto the ground (die) * * dust thou art and unto dud shalt thou return."
11

I thought, how funny, that the soul should be able to march along, when John Brown was mouldering in the grave. It would seem from that there were two John Browns, one living and one dead." FATHER.-" In this case my boy we must allow the poet a little license and not attach too literal a meaning to his words. At the same time it must be owned that according to the popular theory, death does seem to convert one person into two, one goes to the grave, another elsewhere, and it is not to be wondered at that people get confused in their minds." Roy.-" But don't you believe dear father that people have immortal souls, such as we hear so much about ?" FATHER.-" Immortal nonsense, my son! It is that and nothing more, whatever people say." EDITED BY J. J. HOBBS. Boy.-" Then don't you believe that people O our beloved brother William Maude is gone know anything when they are dead? " FATHER.-" I only believe what the Word of to the generation of -his fathers! Some of S our younger friends may perhaps be asking the God teaches, and that plainly declares' the dead question, Who is WilIiam Maude? Well, the know not anything. Everything is made to depend writer of these lines knew less of him probably on the resurrection. Of course, He who formed us than some others of our circle, but at all events could if He thought fit make our consciousness, he will never forget an article that appeared in and capacity quite independent of body and the pages of the Rainbow, in 1869, entitled" Im- brain; but we know He has not done so yet, mortality," and written by Mr. Maude. About nor have we reason to think He ever will make this time I was much perplexed, and in doubt on the mind altogether independent of a body of the question of human destiny, when the reading some sort or other. But these are the kind of of this essay proved light and gladness to my subjects onr dear friend used to write about. In too, you will find much insoul; yes, and I may add, trial and trouble too. the Bible Standard Delighted was I some years after to meet my struction of a similar nature if you are able to it. Above all, my boy, take dear friend, when, placing my hand upon his understand shoulder, I heartily thanked him for it, and ex- God's own Word to be your guide, and trust pressed my deep sense of obligation. Our friend others only so far as they speak according to and brother has done yeoman's service since in this infallible touchstone." battling for the truth. Only three days before his "Lord, grant us all aright to learn The wisdom it imparts; death he ceased writing in the very midst of an And to its heavenly teaching tnrn, article on a favourite subject intended for Israel's With simple, child-like hearts." Watchman. Farewell, dear brother, 'till the Poole. glorious resurrection morning !-

Jnst a word further, on tbe reverend gentleman's" proof" of his orthodox position-John iii. 36. Mark.-" He that Believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." He says" hath not shall have." Granted. We are perfectly agreed. Hath it in certainty, security, to be manifested in Resurrection. But who hath it? Only" He that believeth"-not all men. As for the wicked" he shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him"-" Everlasting Destruction." . We regret that we have not been able to notice this earlier. If the Lord will, the Association will probably deliver a course of lectures in the town in the course of this year, and thus give the Rev. and other gentlemen, an opportunity of hearing and (if possible) refuting its teaching.

FAMILY CIRCLE.

Not return to hell, whose fires even yet have not received a victim, for he had never been there. There is no mention here of suffering, only of the grave. We therefore conclude that Hades, into which the wicked pass at death, is synonymous with the grave; and that after-life is dependent upon Resurrection. Thus" Hell" or " Gehenna" receives its human victims only

SIR,-I saw some weeks ago in a number of your paper an assertion that" natural im" But the falling asleep of a witness bearer is a mortality and eternal torture are points of call for others to come forward in the holy cause." popular belief." So says Dr. Leask in his notice of Mr. Maude's This reminds me of a conversation I had with death. May it be so, and may many others Mr. Aldridge, at Bradford. He, in an address, show a holy determination to seize the fallen said that natural immortality was almost unistandard, and carry it forward to victory. versally believed in. I told bim such was not Whilst penning these few lines, I see in vision the fact. Giving attention to what I said, he an intelligent young friend taking this paper to seemed to think I was right. The people, sir, his more intelligent father, saying, "How is this i.e., the mass, do not believe in natural imfather, that instead of saying Mr. Maude has mortality, or in eternal torture. They have gone to heaven, the writer speaks of him as little, if any, faith. They concern not thembeing asleep, and then bids him farewell till the selves about matters not evident to their senses. resurrection morning? I have always been taught Their minds are on money, eating, drinking, at Sunday School, and have read, that good smoking, dancing, horse-racing, Sunday festivity, people go to be with Jesus when they die." frolic, and impurity. And do those who attend FATHER.-" It grieves me much, my dear boy churches and chapels believe in either? A few that so many things are taught in schools, and of them may think they do; but as to real beby preachers as well as in books, so very be- lief, their daily life shows tI;tere is .but a faiut wildering and so untrue." amount of it. It would be interesting to mark Boy.-"But don't you believe then dear father the answers that the ministers of the Establishthat. ' , ment or of Dissenting and Wesleyan bodies 'Holy children when they die would give when asked in what they held to Go to that heaven above? ' consist the punishment of the wicked. In the

"Asleep in Jesns, soon to wake, Yes. AWAKE WITH JESUS! Blissful state Of holiness and love 1 In store for those who, sleeping, wait The summons from above."

WHAT IS THE POPULAR BELIEF?

94
great majority of cases, they would not know how or what to answer. And they would rather not be pressed with querying on the subject. In reality teachers know not what to warn the wicked against. The most definite reply to be obtained by inquiry would probably be, the wrath of God. And here let us mention that in Wesley's Hymns, while there are many under the heading" describing Heaven," there are only two under" describing Hell." (Whether these two are in the Revised Edition I know not.) So Wesley himself did not desire much singing about Hell. Furtbermore: how little is said about Hell in funeral sermons! They who profess to hold the view of endless life in misery will scarcely ever allow that however wickedly men and women have lived, such ones are" gone to hell." Of a rogue, a thief, an oppressor, a drunkard, a profane man, a gambler, a licentious liver, it is often said,' he was penitent on his death-bed, he died happily, and is gone to heaven I' Thus do those, who" warn sinners," hold that these sinners, living in sin, until their strength fails, go to heaven I Common sense men and women see the inconsistency of such talk, and no wonder if they say, 'we need not fear since such a fellow as Dick Blank has gone to glory!' Those (comparatively few) who attend churches and chapels are thus actually lulled in their carnal indulgence, rather than turned from their evil ways: and we feel justified in saying that were endless life in misery a truth, the great majority of teachers and taught will themselves be eternal sufferers.-H. HEYES,

'ERE

BIBLE

S'l'AN]jARD.
Or, when it falls among the hills, Enlarging all the purling rills, And forming torrents swift and strong, The snow is like the giddy throng That rush adown the broad highway, With riot, roar, and revelry. Bnt snow in any form is sure To pass away, and not endure. The snowflakes vanish as they fly, Or, with their fall to earth, they die; And if by this they're not undone, They melt before the Summer sun. Even the floods that bound and boom Soon go, for" drought and heat consume." Having no fount from which to feed, No secret spring to meet their need, They sink into the land, or rise In vapoury form toward the skies. And sin no more than snow shall be Allowed to last eternally: The grave shall surely those consume Who in their hearts for it find room: Men shall no more live on in crime, Than snow exist in summer time. If thou would'st then a life possess That knows no snow-like transientness, Oh, take my Saviour now as thine: He is the- source of life divine, And ready-waits to turn to thee The streams of immortality. G.P.M PASSION HYMN. (8:3.)

Sale, near Manchester.

MR. WALTER DENING'S DISMISSAL BY THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
TO THE
DEAl!

EDITOR

OF "WORD

AND WORK."

Sm,-My attention has been called to a leading article in your issue of the 1st inst., which seems to-me to demand Borne comment on the part of those to whom yon refer. I agree with you that the conduct of the Church Missionary Society cannot, without a. severe stra.in upon the proprieties of speech, be designated persecution j b~t it does not therefore follow tha.t "the Cambridge Oommittee " occupies any other platform tha.n tha.t of toleration. As a member of that Committee, I may say that the quesilOD, as it presents itself to onr minds is not, Have the Committee of the C.M.S. done right or wrong ? We are quite willing to admit that they have been actuated by consoientious motives, and if they acted upon these, and not upon a theory of expediency, we have no right to censure them. But the question that we have to face is this, Is this vie.w so clearly wrong, when tested by an appeal to BevelaIatton and to reason, and is the so-called orthodox view so manifestly and incontestably right that one ot the most zealous and gifted eva.ngelists in a grea.t heathen nation, is to be debarred from any further opportunity of carrying On his glorious and successful work because he holds it? To this, many of us w.ho.have .carefully studied the question for years, reading with patience much that has been written on both Sides, return a most empathic" No." All must admit that the subject of the doom of the Impenitent is a profoundly mysterioua one, and a subject in wbich tbe spirit of flippant dogmatism is peculiarly out of place. All that the Committee and those that act with them . affirm is, that on a. subject so full of mystery a spirit of charitl and moderation should be shown by Christians to each other; and by our aetion we protest, in the most practical and impressive way we can, against that spirit of intolerance which, I grieve to say, prevails among Christian people on tbis point. It is time that there should be an end of that pious horror which orthodox" Christians, within my own khowledge, are constantly exhibiting whenever it is rumoured that Such a person is unsound on the non-eternity question," We protest against being tabooed by our fallow-Ohrtatlana 8,S heretics, and treated 8,S if we were dangerous persons, if, after long and laborious study, and much prayer for Divine guidance. we are constrained by inexorable logic to conclude that the balance of evidence in this controversy incltuee. decidedly in favour ot u conditiona.l immortality." We maintain that this is precisely a case in which we ha.ve a right to claim, and expect, the fullest toleration for divergent opinions of good and earnest men who are at one in their reverence for, and in their determination to be guided by, the teachings of Holy Scripture, but who are not at one in the exegesis of particular passages. I think I am sta.ting what ,is beyond controversy, when I affi,rmthat this stupendous tenet ot ever-lasting torment rests npon the interpretation of fonr dispnted passages at - most-I mean passages the interpretation of which is disputed-two of which are in the book of-Revelatioll, the last book in the Bible wbioh we should be disposed to quote for the establishment of a doctrine not found elsewhere. Now when we add that this dogma is one that seems to stagger
U H 11 11 J

even the most docile reason, if it is not, as I distinctly believe it is, definitely opposed to reason, I think that we have made out t\ very strong case for toleration, even if we cannot as yet see our way to accept all the positions of Mr. Edward White and Mr. Minton. Calvinists and Arminians have learnt to tolerate each other, though each could quote a larger number of texts for his own point of view than can the believers in eternal torture by ten to one. Peedobeptlsta and Anabaptists tolerate each other, though their differences are both grave and of practical moment. Quakers and Episcopalians tolerate each .otber in spite of their most serious divergencies, and no man is looked upon as a heretic by Christians at large because he believes in a literal Millennium, or because he does not. Why should we find ourselves under the ban of heresy (so far as the judgment of dear and honoured Christian brethren is concerned) ..becsuse we do Dot see our way to accept the common view upon a subject on which so much less has been revealed? Our Committee is very' far from acting in any spirit of opposition to the loved and honoured Society, whose discarded agent we seek to support in doing a work among the heathen, which has specially prospered since he abandoned the doctrine of ev.erlasting torture. -We much regret that its Committee could nOL see their way to what we think would ha.ve been a wise toleration 00 such a point. We see our way to it very clearly indeed, and our conscience binds us (as we are ready to believe theirs may have bound them), Dot to launch forth on a oourse of propagandism, as you incorrectly represent us as doing, but to olaim from the Church of Christ for this devoted servant of B is that toleration which the Committee of the Society has found itself unable to accord. One word more, Mr. Editor, if I have not nItogether exhausted your patience, This is, as none knows better than you.one of the buruing questions of the day.end it is ootone that CRnbe either ignored or shelved. You must be aware -if you are not, I am-that this" orthodox theory is turniug our young men into.lnfidels by.the thousand every year, that it greatly blocks the way of missionary progress amongst the heathen everywhere, and nowhere more than in China, and in Japan. You surely must be aware that aversion to the horrors of the reoei ved view keeps a vast number of preachers from roferring to the subject of hell at all in their discourses, and thus the benefit of the argument" of terror, which God certainly intends us to employ, is entirely lost. You must surely have noticed how very generalscepticism upon this point is amongst men of the WOrld, and how large a number of real Christians are unsettled upon the subject. Now, since these things are so, I venture to make a practical suggestion, which I ask you in all seriousness and earnestness to consider.end, if possible, to adopt. Throw open your columus, not to a promiscuous torrent of more or less silly or intelligent letters on the subject, as the case may be, but to a calm, dispassionate discussion of this question, conducted with fairness and method. You might name six thoughtful and well-read men on the one side, and I would find six men of the same class on the other. You should be not arbiter-for we own no Pope, but moderator-a name dear to a Presbyterian's heart. And if any contributor to the discussion used any hot or unchristian language, you would be expected to draw yonr pen ruthlessly through it. Thus we might be able to keep the King's peace, and yet thoroughly ventilate and discuss a subject in which most Christian people are at this moment intensely interested, and your readers would be able to judge for themselves where the truth lies. I do not as yet regard myself as a partisan, but rather as nn inquirer into this matter, and I would hail with sincere pleasure such an opportunity of discussing in a loving and brotherly w.ay a subject on whlch we all must feel that we know but little, and long to know more. Jf the view you refer to as Scriptural is so, the truth will prevail; if. it be false, the sooner iUi exposed the better for the Church and. for the world, 00 both of which at present (unlike most true things) it exerts an influence the reverse of salutary. I am, deer Sir, yours faithfnlly, W. En' M. H. AITKEN. [The Editor 'Of " Word and work " writes several articles in reply in his issues of February 22nd and March tst, but declines to open his pages to the suggested Symposium," Ed.B.S.J
JI U

~ALVATION now there is for all ; J.N)\ Christ hath. died; And none are lost who on Him call, Christ hath died: All now may free salvation have; For Jesus came the world to save, And His own life a ransom gave, Ohrist hath died. He hath a full atonement made, Christ hath died; On Him were my transgressions laid; Christ hath died; His bands and feet were pierced for me ; From Satan's bonds to set me free, He shed His blood on Oalvary, Christ hath died. From death's dread power He did not shrink, Christ hath died; To rescue me from ruin's brink, Christ hath died: For me Messiah suffered death; And with His last expiring breath, " "I'is finished," my Redeemer saith,Christ hath died. o'er the tomb, Christ doth live! Upon His brow immortal bloom; Christ doth live! He lives, from death for ever freed, He lives, who once for me did bleed; He lives, for me to intercede,Christ doth live I But now triumphant

SACRED
EDITED BY THE REV.

SONG.
G. P.
MACKAY.

A. SERMONETTE FROM SNOW. " Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned." (Job. xxiv. 19.) snow, that lightly frisks around, ok Before it rests upon the ground, And seems so feathery and free, Is like the wic ked in their glee; Who act as if this life were ours To dance away its fleeting hours. And when it gathers at our feet, Forming a firm, well-woven sheet, Apparently to last for aye, The snow again is like the gay, Who, joining hand in hand, prepare The power of God Himself to dare. fflrHE

C.

DONNER.

OUR TESTIMONY.
MONTHLY CALENDAR. Meetings will be held (D.V.) as follow: ApriI2.-Manchester.-Lecture in the Town Hall, Hulme, by Burlington B. Wale, F.R.G.S., on "The Revealed Penalty of Sin: What is it?" Free. Evening at 7-45. Rev. T. Vaseywill preside. Do. 3.-Lecture as above on " Immortality: or, Who shall Live for Ever?" Andrew Fergnson, Esq., will preside.

...

BIBLE
Do: 4.-Lecture as above on "The PreMillennial Advent: Its Nature, Necessity, and Nearness." Henry J. Ward Esq. (President) will preside. ' HOME NEWS. ROCHDALE.-Two Lectures were given here in the 'Public Hall, on March 5, 6, by the Rev. B. B.Wale, to small bntrepresentative audiences ?f unusually-good calibre. Several local min~ Iste!'8' attend~d, and freely used the privilege of asklI~g questions and stating difficulties. The meetings were briefly noticed by the Observer and also by the Times. The chair was take~ each evening by the Rev .. T~omas Vasey, of Bacup, There was a considerable increase in the attendance at the second lecture. The local Secretary thus writes-" With referenc~ to our meetings, I may say they were decidedly encouraging, Although the attendance, ~as corriparati~ely small, still it was represe~t~-ti've of large numbers',' those present-being rninisters and prominent members of the various Churches in the town. Of Mr. Wale's ability as a Lect~rer I cannot speak too highly. His clear, !uCId, and conclusive style; his masterly analysis of the Scriptures bearing on the questions under consideration, came with immense force .a,nd telling effect on the minds of those who hstened to him. Numerous questions were asked, and answered in a very satisfactory manner. Altogether, the meetings were very successful." Our warmest thanks are hereby tendered to the local Committee, and to their able Secretary Mr. J. D. Jaekman, for service rendered. ' ASHTON-UNDE~-LYNE.-Two Lectures were delivered here In the Mechanics' Institution on Mar.ch 7, 8, by the Rev. B. B. Wale, to good audiences. Questions were freely asked and ably answered. The Evening Reporter gave a lengthy report of the first lecture. The local ~ecretary writes-" From enquiries made, I beheve the meetings will be conducive to the spread of sound Scriptural knowledge. I hope to-by the help of the Spirit-follow up thes.e lectures by every possible means for unfolding the truth, by devoting myself more fully to the spread of the Gospel of God's love. PI.ease than~ Mr. Wale on our behalf for his faithful testimony and service to us and his Master's cause." We t~ank, mos.t warmly, the local Committee and .thelr energetic Secretary, Mr. B. Gillott for service rendered. ' ~LA~GOw'-0.nr Scotch friends have been delivering a series of Sunday Evening Addresses on our special topics, in the Lesser Trades Halt 85, Glassford.street. The following have take~ part-Messrs. M. W. Strang, W. Laing (Edita,burgh), D. B. Strang, J. R. Norrie (Edinburgh)\. R. K. Strang, and W. Dickson. A correspondent says-" The discourses have attracted a good number of attentive listeners, who are attending regularly, and we feel assured that good must result to some extent." COLONIAL NEWS. NEW ZEALAND.-Auckland.-The annual New Year's Tea was held in the Temperance Hall on !an.2. About 140 partook. At the after-meet. mg the. Rev. G. A. Brown presided, and addresses were given by Messrs. Whitehead. Aldridge, M?Naught, E. H. TayJor, Rendell, Dixon, and Wilcock. The Committee of the" Evangelistic and Publication Association" have commenced summer operations with the caravan and tent at Papakura, where the meetings have extended over three weeks, and where they have been much blessed. <?ANADA.:-:-'!oronto.-TheAssociation here is q uietly utIhsll~g, as far as possible, the secular Press, to place Its truths before Canadian readers. We thank the Secretary, Mr. 'Hills, for keeping us posted thereof. . .

S1fANDARU.

95
Oxon. We are compelled to omit our usual list this month, through'pressure on space. Want of space compels us to hold over the following-though in type :-Review Column, Gone to the Front, Postal Pickings, Cosmorama, Old and New Orthodoxy, A Japanese Plea for Toleration, and Part of Business Matter. LOCAL AGENTS FOR" BIBLE STANDARD." Also for Rainbow, Messenger, and the Literature of the Association. Catalogues and terms on application to the undermentioned. ENGLAND.
Gillott, p3,Boodle St.,Turnel' La CARLISL"E.-A.Johnson, 23, Midland Cott., London-road. CHELTENHAM.-H. Bpurkes, 3, Queen St., Tewkesbury Rd. GRAVESEND.-T. Shndick, 48, Wakefield Street. HULL.-J. C. Akester, 79, HesBle Road. LINOOLN.-E. E. Boughton, 23, Park Street. " C. Harvey,19, Chaplin Street. LONDON,E.-E.Hobbs, 23, Monier-rd.j'Wick-Iane, Old Ford. LOUTH.-C. Dormer, 50, Newmarket. ROCHDALE-S. Edwo.rds & Son, Milnrow Rd.
ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE.-B.

OFFICE
MONTHLY

NOTES.
STATEMENT.

February

1st to 28th, 1883. -, Annual 4,

New Member received :-Life Branch-, Total 4. Subscriptions, Donations, .L~

and Collections : L~

A Friend,-Liverpool . 5 Collected by Newcaat'le-on-Tyne Com. 3 J. Bedell, Esq., Liverpool, per H.J.W .. 2 G.W., Skipton ..... 1 W.B.B., Nottiaghem, per Corn. _ 0 Free-will Offerings, Newcastle on-Tyne, per Corn 0 Mr. B., London, per Treasurer ....... 0 T.M., Baeup ..... 0 H.J.E., London, N.W. 0 Bangalore Ch. Sub., per J.R 0 C.E., London, N 0 W.S., Derby 0 E.M.B., .BriBtol. 0 T.B.,CrOlx,perG.P.M.O T.C., Rheims, ,. 0 E.M.L., Edinburgh 0

0 0 S.J.D., Malvern ... 0 5 0 W.H.R., Colwyn Bay 0 5 9 2 6 J.P., Oban ..... 0 5 0 G.E., Swansea ..... 0 5 0 0 0 G.R.Y., London, E .. 0 5 0 10 0 RH. M., Cheltenham 0 5 0 8., London, per 12 6 Treasurer ....... 0 3 6 W.L., Hull,perTrea. () 3 6 Lincoln Ch. Sub., 12 2 Masonic Hall, (extTB,)por W.M ..... 0 8 0 10 6 E. B., Nottingham, 10 0 per Corn 0 2 6 10 0 8.S., do. do 0 2 6 J.R., do. do.. 0 2 6 ]0 0 R., do. do.. 0 2 6 5 2 A.A., Harrow, per 5 0 Treasurer 0 2 () 50 Glasgow Ba), of Rem. 00 8t 50 -5 0 Total for Feb .. 19 0 6k 5 0
o

SCOTLAND.
GLASGOw.-T. J. Hitchcook, 145, Houston Street.

AUSTRALIA.
BUNDABERG, QUlmNSLAND.-J.

Wright, Builder, &c.

NEW ZEALAND.
AUCKLAND--Evan.

&:

Pub. A.BSO., Lindum House, Vincent St

With the Secretaru's most earnest thanks.

I

SUBSCRIBING CHURCHES.
G U ID E AND C HR 0 N I CL E.
The following Churches make an Annual Collection, Offertory, or Grant in aid of the Association. The same favour is requested from other Churches in sympathy with its teachings. LONDON, . :-Maberly N Chapel (Congregational), Ball's Pond Bd., Kingsland. Min.: Rev. W. Leask, D.D. S. Services 11 & 6-30. LINCOLN :-Mint Lane Chapel (Baptist). Min.: Rev. G. P. Mackay. S. Services 10-30 & 6. SKIPTON(Yorks) :-Mission Church, Temperance Hall. Supplies. S. Services 10-30 & 6. GLi.SGOW :-Christian Meeting, 13, Kirk St., Gorbals, Supplies. S. Services 11 & 3. BRADFORD(Yorks) :-Mission Church, Temperance Hall, Chapel St., Leeds Rd. Supplies. S. Services 11 & 6-30. TORQUAY :-Life and Advent Free Church, Banner Cross Room. Supplies. S. Services 11 & 6'30. LONDON,N.W. :-Christian Meeting, St. John's Rooms, Grove St., Lisson Grove. Min.: R. J. Hammond, Esq. S. Services 11 & 7. HULL :-Christian Meeting, Protestant Hall. Supplies. S. Services 11 & 6-30. CHELT~NHAM :-Regent ~t. Chapel. (Baptist). Mm.: Rev. J. C. Carhle. S. Services 11 and 6-30. CAllLISLE :-Christian Meeting. House to House Services. Enquiries at 30, Edward St. GllAVESEND :-Christian Meeting, Manor Rd. Room. Pres. Min.: Mr. G. Gosden. S. Services 11 & 6-30. Thurs. 8-30. SALISBURy:-Harcourt (Baptist) Church. Supplies. S. Services 10-30 & 6-30. Wed. 8. LINCOLN :-Newland (Baptist) Church Masonic Hall. Min.: Rev. W. White. S: Services 10-30 & 6-30. Thurs. 8. BAN GALORE, INDIA:-Christian S. Meeting, Arcot Narrainsawmy Mudliar's School-room. Supplies. S. Service 6 p.m. LINCOLN.-Mint-lane Chapel.-Anniversary services were held here on Sunday, February 18th, when two powerful sermons were preached by the Rev. Montague Mather, of Holbeach : the p~stor o.f Mint-lane Chapel exchanging p;lpits WIth him. In the afternoon a service for scholars, teachers, and friends was held at which interesting addresses were delivered by the Revs. M. Mather and C. H. Butcher. At the annual tea meeting on the Tuesday following, t~ere was, as usual, ~ large gathering. John Bichardson, Esq., presided most efficiently and made some encouraging remarks. The ~ecretary (Mr. W. Bausor) read a very cheering report of the-work since February, 1882 . Over 60 have

LECTURE

FUND. 28th, 1883.

I
I

August 'Lst, 1882, to February

Previously acknowledged, 39 19s. 9d. Since reCE;ived:-H.J. E.,~ondo~, N.W., 5s: T.B., Croix, per G.P.M., Lincoln, 5s.; T.C., Rheims, per G.P.M., 5s.; W.B.B., Nottingham, per Com., 10s.; c.n., Swansea, 2s. 6d.; A Friend, Liverpool, 5; John Bedell, Esq., Liverpool, per H.J.W . 2; A.A., Harrow, per 'I'reas., 2s.; Free-will Offerings at Lectures, Newcastle-onTyne, per Com., 12s. 2d.; collected by Committee at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 3 2s. 6d. Total, 52 3s. lld. Balance in hand, 20 Is. 5d. For announcement of Three Lectures at Manchester see below. The Lectures announced last month for Halifax are postponed for the present. Donations in aid of this Fund are earnestly invited. "PAULINE THEOLOGY" FUND.

[For the Free Circulation of that Pamphlet.] Previously acknowledged, 2 68. ed. Since received :-H. J. E" London NW 5s' G E Swansea, 28. 6d.; Bal. of R~m:, ciiasgdw, Total, 2 14s. 8~d. AGENTS MEMS.

8~d:

We announce with pleasure that Messrs. S. Edwards &; Son, Milnrow Road, have accepted an agency for Rochdale, Carlisle has advanced its sale of B ..S. to 78 copies. Will all our friends help, and enpecially those who kindly act as Agents? 91ar labour in preparing the Bible Standard Ht the same for its presen.t small circulation an it would be for a hundred:fold the m~mber; but it does not furnish us "rith the stimulus and reward that the latter would, We <call special a ttention to the Agents' Adwertise-ment on our rfront page, and trust that tate new '~rrangement- -commeneing tbis month=-c-f sendmg li!0nthly.1 Parcels carriage free, whil st still allowing a Iil -eral discount, will result in the rapid . multipl~ cation .of ag~ncies, and a. very large mcrease I n the circulation of this pap er and our kindred lit;( srature. WAN~ED VOLS.I. ANDIll. B.S. W!ll any friend s willing to spare the fimt and t~Ird volumes c f Bible Standard (1878, Jl880), ku:dly drop us a post card, stating addres: I and priee ? NEW BRANCH. . We have pleasi Ire in' announcing the f, rrmation of ~ Brand I Association at Deddin .gton, Oxon., WIth ~levaJ n ~embers. The Secret ary is Mr. Fred Bmith, Nalnrtt T~e-eCbWage, Bic ester,

96
been brought into the church during these twelve months, and the work seems to be in a very healthy condition. The Church has great cause for thankfulness for the blessing God has granted for a long time now. This theme was dwelt upon by the speakers who followed, namely, the Rev. J. Williamson, M.A. (Lincoln, Independent); W. Woods (Nottingham, Baptist) ; H. B. Murray (Gainsborough, Baptist) ; and G. P. Mackay, the Pastor. The choir rendered several anthems in a pleasing manner during the evening, and the proceedings were closed with the usual votes of thanks and the Doxology. Visit of the Rev. C. Spwrgeon to Lincoln.-On Wednesday, March 7th, this gentleman, son of the Pastor of the Tabernacle, preached in Mintlane Chapel in the afternoon. There was a good congregation, notwithstanding the heavy fall of snow and the cold winds, which came upon us so suddenly the day before. From John xv. 11, Mr. Spurgeon gave 'a most eloquent and helpful discourse. In the evening he delivered in the Corn-Exchange his lecture upon" Hoarding Information, or Lessons from Advertisements." This is well illustrated with a large number of dissolving views, and proved most entertaining and instructive. There was a large audience, but not so large by any means as it would have been with better weather. Mr. Alderman Maltby very kindly presided. It may be worthy of note that Mr. Spurgeon was informed before he came of the doctrinal position of the Mint-lane Church, and by his very visit shows that he has learned, with Paul, to say, "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."

THE

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STANDARD.

MONTHLY

These issues consist of suitable articles and extracts from the columns of the Bible Standard Sixteen columns, One Half-penny.

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SACRED SONGS OF THE PRIMITIVE GOSPEL.

(Containing 197 Hymns and 38 Anthems) In Four Parts. 1St, for Meetings for the Preaching of the Gospel. and, for the Communion of Saints. grd, for Sunday School use. qth, Anthems in Scripture words. To be had of the Compiler, W. RICHMOND, 5 George Street, Nottingham. Single Copy, 60. post-free; 48. per doz., postage extra_

TWENTIETH
OR Published
U

CENTURY;
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A Sketch of Coming Events.

at the Office of this Paper, Link, Worcestershire.
This is an ingenious and clever lecture, and we are strongly of opinion that [it] has anticipated the telegrams from many parts of the world to the daily papers of the fulfillment of apocalyptic prophecies."-Rainbow. " It treats of things well known to most of our readers, but presents them in a way Dot usual. We have read the pamphlet with much interest and instruction; it contains much wholesome truth.-Messen!ler.

EDUCATION:.
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THE RAINBOW.
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P ASTOR WANTED,
For a small BAPTIST CHURCH in Wiltshire. An earnest, thoughtful man-holding Conditional IrnrnortaUty and the Second Advent-will find this a happy and fruitful field of labour. Must be a good visitor, and willing to work up a congregation. Half the Church Income given instead of a stated stipend. This is at present small, but capable of considerable expansion. A good chapel, seated for above 250. Congregation about SO. A good choir and Sunday school. Address-in the first instanceTHE EDlTOR OF THIS PAPER.

HARCOURT BAPTIST CHURCH

SALISB UR Y.
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