DISCUSSION AT BONAPARTE, IOWA.
By L. McCoy
In the midst of a course of lectures in this place, Rev. H. K. Hennigh, a retired Presbyterian minister of this place, was selected by the other ministers of the place to represent them, and I was challenged to discuss the questions of the immortality of the soul, the destruction of the wicked, and the authority of Sunday-keeping. We tried to evade a debate and offered any of them the free use of our tent half the time; but this would not suit them, so we accepted the challenge and agreed to meet them at the close of the lectures. Mr. H. is fifty-five years of age, and has been preaching thirty-six years. He is finely educated, and is master of the Hebrew, Greek, German, and other languages, and an old debater. The discussion was held in our tent, Aug. 26–31—two sessions each day. A full report is unnecessary. Mr. H. advanced some novel ideas and arguments which may be interesting to the readers of the Review. He said “the soul was an immaterial essence or substance,” and “planted himself” on Eccl. 12:7; 1 Kings 17:19, and Matt. 10:28, to prove the deathlessness and consciousness of the soul, while the body is dead. He said that soul and spirit are the same, and the soul can live out of the body and independent of it. He illustrated man by a telegraph operator and battery, wires, etc. The man was the soul, and the instruments and wires were the body. This looked beautiful until I had death cut the wires and silence his battery, when, lo, his agent was dumb, and unable to show signs of life. On the second proposition, “the destruction of the wicked,” he held that the Sodomites and all the wicked, together with Dives, are in a spiritual hell of torment, with their mortal bodies, and that at the resurrection they will be made immortal, entire, and then cast into a literal lake of fire. When hard pressed for the location of the present hell, he said it was the immense lake of fire in the center of this earth. Here we were able to show the inconsistency of the view that mortal bodies are now tormented in spiritual fire, and that after the resurrection the whole man, being made spiritual, immortal, and immaterial, will be cast into a literal lake of fire. All will be interested to know where the wicked are now being tormented; but he had to admit that this fire is literal fire. He was also sorely troubled to explain how the immortal bodies of the wicked can be reduced to ashes. Mal. 4:3. He quoted Matt. 18:34 to prove that the sinner can never pay the debt due for sin, therefore should be tormented eternally; a very illogical conclusion from the premises. Mr. H. was very pompous, abusive, and evasive. What he lacked in argument he tried to make up in personal thrusts and talk about the pernicious doctrines emanating from Battle Creek. But the volumes of shot and shell and red-hot grape and canister, in the shape of Scripture, which we were enabled to pour down on our opponent, did their work, and he was completely routed. The Sabbath proposition was, “Do the Scriptures authorize the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week?” His proofs were: the Sabbath was not enjoined till the giving of the law at Sinai; the fourth commandment was given as a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt, etc. The waving of the first-fruits on the first day of the feast prefigured the first-day Sabbath and was to be perpetual; and yet he quoted Hosea 2:11 to show that all sabbaths given to the Jews were to be annulled. This swept away the seventh-day Sabbath, but left the first-day Sabbath standing. Lev. 23:15. Before the discussion, I took the precaution to have him put in writing what he then admitted, that the ten commandments were unchangeable and perpetual; and that the seventh day was made the Sabbath before man fell, was the only weekly Sabbath for four thousand years, and was enjoined by the fourth commandment. This was of immense advantage to me in contending with an evasive foe, and I shall always insist on having these things definitely settled on the start. He began to count on his fingers to show that Sunday is the seventh day, and he claimed that all the almanacs are wrong in calling Sunday the first day of the week. All I had to do was to remind him of his first statement that Saturday was the seventh day for four thousand years. This was a stunner to the poor man. He quoted Acts 20:7, and argued that this was a Saturday-night meeting, and that they broke bread on Sunday, but he never discovered, till then, that Luke and his companions rowed their boat all day Sunday, and Paul walked nineteen miles the same day. He then thought that Paul was probably weary with an all-night meeting and concluded to rest till Monday morning, when he started on his journey. He acknowledged my argument that the Sabbath is the seal of God’s law. Thus was I able to press the mark of the beast upon him. He did not pretend to notice one-fifth of my arguments or scriptures. At the last session, speaking on the Sabbath in secular history, my opponent became almost unmanageable; he went beyond all bounds of courtesy or decency. We took shelter behind the chairman, who promptly called him to order, when, in a fit of rage, he took his seat, refusing to fill his time. We had thirty minutes to close with, and we tried to use it to good purpose. The truth has gained a complete and glorious victory, and all admit that the discussion has done valuable service for the cause of truth here. To God be all the praise.