A NEGLECTED PHASE OF TRUTH.
The curious controversy that is going on in Chicago respecting Dr. Goodwin’s recent sermons on the second coming of Christ affords a striking illustration of the conception, happily rapidly growing antiquated, held in certain quarters respecting the function of the ministry. Dr. Goodwin preached four evidently thoughtful sermons on the Second Advent. At the close of these sermons one of the members of his church, a Mr. Hammond, rose and read a protest against them on the double ground that they were erroneous in their interpretation of the Scriptures and false to the traditional creed of the Congregational Church. The church evidently thought that for a member to break in on the ordinary service of the sanctuary with an unsolicited contribution of his own was not in accordance with the traditional ritual of the Congregational Church, for at a subsequent meeting they voted unanimously their disapprobation of the innovation. A resolution requesting the pastor not to press his points further was promptly tabled; and the controversy has now been removed from the arena of the church to that of the press. The Bible gives two contrasted features of the Messiah. He is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and he is also King of kings and Lord of lords; there is no beauty in him that we should desire him, and he is chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely; he is despised and rejected of men, and he is the ensign to which all the nations of the earth assemble; he is a root out of dry ground, and he is like the cedars of Lebanon for strength and beauty. In the Old Testament the kingly aspect is the prominent aspect. So true is this that when Christ came the whole Jewish nation rejected him. This son of a carpenter, this Nazarene, this fellow without a place whereon to lay his head, said they, is no King of kings, no Prince of peace, no Everlasting Father, no Master and Lord and Deliverer. The disciples themselves, they that loved him most, were as much perplexed as any by the contrast between the promise of prophecy and the alleged fulfillment. All through his life they regarded him as a king incognito, they looked constantly for an uncovering of his glory, and when he died without a sign of it they also gave up their hope and went back to their fishing. Not till by the resurrection, the repeated appearances, the ascension, and the prophetic teachings of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, did they pluck up heart and hope again. And this they did because they looked for a second coming, a new manifestation. We have seen the Man of sorrows, they said; we are yet to see the King in his beauty. We have seen the seed dropped in the ground and dying there unnoticed; we are yet to see the flower divine in its fragrance and its beauty. He was subject unto death: he will be exalted above every name. He endured the cross despising the shame, because he lived having ever in view the joy set before him. He is the Lamb slain; but it is the Lamb slain that is to be the King in his glory, before whom all the redeemed shall bow. Thus the New Testament looks both ways; backward to a Saviour crucified and suffering; forward to a King crowned and glorious and masterful, having universal dominion, known, honored, obeyed of all men. The church has looked back long enough; it is high time to look forward. The prophecies of humiliation the Jews disregarded; the prophecies of exaltation we disregard. It is quite time that the church turned its face upward and forward, “looking,” as Paul bids Titus do, “for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”—Christian Union, Aug. 14.