J. G. WOOD by J. G. Wood

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 19, 1860

J. G. WOOD

By J. G. Wood

From Bro. Wood.

BRO. SMITH: As I have just returned from attending a funeral of a child about 15 months old, where I heard a sermon preached by a M. E. elder, I thought perhaps it might benefit some candid seeker for truth to place some of his assertions by the side of the Bible and see how they will harmonize together. His text was in 2 Sam. xii, 23. After laboring some time to drive from the minds of the people the chilling thought of the unconscious state of the dead, annihilation of the wicked, &c., the Eld. said, "The child is not dead, but gone to heaven;" but the text says the child is dead. Ell. M. says, "The child has not ceased to think, and act, and move;" but David says, [Ps. cxlvi, 4], "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish." Eccl. ix, 6. "Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy are now perished." Eld. M. says, "It may be sent on errands of mercy to other planets, or even back to this earth;" but the text says, "He shall not return;" and the wise man says [Eccl. ix, 6], "Neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun."

Eld. M. says, "The fact that men are here alive today is evidence to me that they have been redeemed," "that death is not now the penalty for sin;" but Paul says, "The wages of sin is death." Rom. vi, 23.

Again he says, "The child has gone to heaven." We ask, "Did the child brought to view in the text go immediately to heaven? If it did, we will yield that point; but what says the text?" "I [David] shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." Now if we can find where David went we may know where the child went. "So David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David" [1 Kings ii, 10]; and more than 1000 years after his burial, Paul declares that he (David) has not yet ascended into the heavens, but is both dead and buried." Acts ii, 29-34.

Now, dear friends, which will you receive? the assertions of men (for these assertions are common among modern divines through the length and breadth of the land), or the testimony of holy men of God, as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. 2 Pet. i, 21. And remember if they speak not according to the law

and to the testimony, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. viii, 20. Unless there is a resurrection they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 1 Cor. xv, 18. But there shall be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and the unjust. Acts xxiv, 15. Says Jesus, "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live." John xi, 25. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory [Col. iii, 4], on the condition that you seek for glory, honor, immortality, eternal life, by patient continuance in well doing. Rom. ii, 7.

J. G. WOOD

Brodhead, Green Co., Wis.