MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS ON HELL.
By Edwin C. Stiles
[IN last week's Review, we gave an article from the Independent, in which the writer said, that we needed to hear again the voice of an Edwards, Bellamy, Taylor, &c., on this subject. The reader will find below specimens from some of them.—ED.] In Sermons, Vol. iv, p. 287, and onward, Pres. Edwards says: “The woes of sinners in hell will not be a cause of grief to the saints in heaven, but of rejoicing. This rejoicing will be the fruit of an amiable disposition, and a perfect holiness and conformity to Christ. At the Judgment you may be ready to fly to some godly friend, but you will see them unconcerned for you, with joy ascending to meet their Lord, and not the less joyful for the horror in which they see you. When they hear you groan and gnash your teeth, these things will not move them to pity you. After your godly parents shall have seen you lie in hell millions of ages, in torment day and night, they will not begin to pity you then; they will praise God that his justice appears in the eternity of your misery.” Pages 260–1. “But to help your conception, imagine yourselves to be cast into a fiery oven, all of a glowing heat, or into the midst of a glowing brick-kiln, or a great furnace; imagine also that your body were to be there for a quarter of an162hour, full of fire, as full within and without as a bright coal of fire, all the while full of quick sense, how long would that quarter of an hour seem to you? If it were measured by a glass, how long would the glass seem to be running? But what would be the effect on your soul, if you must endure the torment twenty-four hours? O then how would your heart sink if you knew you must endure it forever and ever! That after millions of ages your torment would be no nearer an end than when it began. But your torment in hell will be immensely greater than this illustration represents!!” The above is a specimen of five sermons from him on this subject. “Professor Finny,” says Blain, “slanders God far worse by saying that the torment will eternally increase!” Newton's Works, V. vi, London edition, 1787. “Imagine such a state of misery you may, but you can never seriously believe it, nor reconcile it to God and goodness.” Blain says, “Catholics may keep ignorant enough still to believe in their purgatory. But a great reason of this continued belief is, that their hell is almost infinitely better than the Protestant hell; as their popes and priests can pray all out of it; while from the Protestant hell, divines say the Almighty himself can deliver none!” Dr. J. Watts was a more reasonable man, and says in his work on the “World to Come,” p. 161, “Nor do I think we ought usually, when we speak concerning creatures, to affirm positively that their existence shall be equal to the blessed God, especially with regard to the duration of their punishment. If the blessed God should at any time, in consistence with his perfections, release these wretched creatures from their acute pains in hell, either with a design of the utter destruction of their being, by annihilation; or to put them into some world upon a new foot of trial, I think I ought joyfully to accept this appointment of God, and add my joys and praises to all the songs of the heavenly world, in the day of such a glorious release of those prisoners.” On p. 191 he says, “Dr. Thomas Burnet published a treatise in Latin, against the eternity of punishment; and in it advised ministers, whatsoever they concluded, whether the nature of punishment was eternal or not, that they ought to use the ‘common doctrine’ in their preaching; especially as those sinners of a lower rank would ‘run headlong into vice,’ and could only be restrained by ‘fear of punishment.’” And Dr. B. further adds to the clergy, that “If any should translate these sentiments into English, I shall think he does it with an evil design, and to a bad purpose.” Would that men would write all their wicked doctrines in Latin, and preach the truth to those whom they style sinners of a lower rank. How true it is, as Mr. Blain remarks, “The heathen reason better. In Siam a priest came to our missionary and asked how long his God tormented men in a future state; and when he replied, ‘Forever,’ he answered, ‘Our god torments the worst of men only one thousand years, so we will not have your American God here in Siam!’ Death not life, p. 116. A few more horrors of this doctrine may be found in Dr. Beecher's “Conflict of Ages,” pp. 190, 191. “Who can describe the gloom of him who looks on such a prospect? How dark to him appears the history of man! He looks with pity on the children that pass him in the streets. The more violent manifestations of this depravity seem to be the unfoldings of a corrupt nature, given to them by God, before any knowledge, choice or consent of their own. Mercy now seems to be no mercy, and he who once delighted to speak of the love of Christ, is obliged to close his lips in silence, for the original wrong of giving man such a nature, seems so great that no subsequent acts can atone for the deed. In this state of mind he who once delighted to pray, kneels and rises again, because he cannot sincerely worship the only God he sees. His distress is not on his own account. He feels that God has redeemed and regenerated him; but this gives him no relief. He feels as if he could not be bribed by the offer of all the honors of the universe, to pretend to worship or praise a God whose character he cannot defend. Never before has he felt so deeply a longing after a God of a spotless character. Never has he so deeply felt that the whole light and joy of the universe are in him, and that when his character is darkened, all worlds are filled with gloom. In contrast with this it would be appropriate to place the experience of one who retains all the radical facts as to human depravity, and the system that grows out of it, but passes from the deep gloom of the last experience, into the sunshine of divine glory, by discovering a mode in which these facts can be so adjusted as to harmonize with the principles of honor and right in God.” If Dr. Beecher has discovered a mode of adjustment to harmonize such a doctrine with principles of honor and right in God, others have been less fortunate; one at least, in the person of Rev. A. Barnes. See Practical Sermons, pp. 123-125. “That the immortal mind should be allowed to jeopard its infinite welfare, and that trifles should be allowed to draw it away from its God, and virtue, and heaven; that any should suffer forever, lingering on in hopeless despair, and rolling amidst infinite torments without the possibility of alleviation, and without end; that since God can save men, and will save a part, he has not purposed to save all; that, in a word, God, who claims to be worthy of the confidence of the universe, and to be a Being of infinite benevolence, should make such a world as this—full of sinners and sufferers—and that when the atonement had been made, he did not save all the race, and put an end to sin and woe forever; I have read to some extent what wise and good men have written. I have looked at their theories and explanations. I have endeavored to weigh their arguments; for my whole soul pants for light and relief on these questions. But I get neither; and in the distress and anguish of my own spirit, I confess that I see no light whatever. I see not one ray to disclose to me the reason why sin came into the world; why the earth is strewed with the dead and the dying; and why men must suffer to all eternity. I have never seen a particle of light thrown on these subjects that has given a moment's ease to my tortured mind, nor have I an explanation to offer, a thought to suggest, which would be a relief to you. I trust others, as they profess to do, understand this better than I, and that they have not the anguish of spirit which I have. But I confess, when I look upon a world of woe, filled with hosts to suffer forever—when I look upon friends, and upon a whole race, all involved in this sin and danger, and when I see the great mass of them wholly unconcerned, and when I feel that God alone can save them, and yet he does not do it—I am struck dumb—it is all dark, dark, dark to my soul, and I cannot disguise it.” J. Blain says: “A pious minister lately told me this fact in his experience. ‘The first I ever heard of a God, was by my mother’s telling me, when two years old, that there was a God, and if I was bad he would burn me forever in such a fire as I saw on the hearth. My reply was, If God does so he is a bad man.’ He added, ‘I grew up an infidel, till I heard the doctrine of immortality through Christ alone.’” The sad fact is, that under this doctrine of “immortal-soul-ism,” children grow up with a horror of their Maker, and think as little of him and the future as possible! Prof. Finney says, “It agitates our hearts as storms do the mighty ocean; and if any are strangers to such difficulties, they are to be pitied for ignorance, or a want of sympathy, which seems to be among the first elements of our social nature.” It also led Prof. Stuart to remark the soul-chilling sentence, “Perhaps God may, in mercy, extinguish our social susceptibilities in heaven!” Edwards, it seems, did not think so. Such doctrine as this dishonors God. Satan, though he delights in sorrow, does not torment “creatures of his own creating and preserving”—Truly unto the froward, God shows himself froward, and to the pure he is pure. But it must not be forgotten that the men who trafic in such merchandise as the above, are the D. D’s, Presidents of Theology, “the great men of the earth, the merchants of Babylon, that great harlot, who has corrupted the whole earth with her fornication; and while we cannot help lamenting the miseries and agonies which this heresy has caused its own preachers and leaders, who, like Mr. Barnes, have written commentaries in its defense; how must the heart feel for thousands upon thousands of illiterate and simple creatures, who still look up to such men as their oracles, and seem to think of them: ‘These be the gods, O Israel, which led thee out of the land of Egypt.’ These are the blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. And the mass of the people and professors of religion love to have it so, and breathe out nothing but contempt and wrath upon the messengers of the Lord, who would present the truth in its purity and loveliness. Shall not the land mourn for this? Behold the day is at hand that shall bring a “howling among the shepherds, and a wailing shall be heard among the principal of the flock, for the Lord will spoil their pasture, and the shepherds shall find no way of escape!” EDWIN. C. STILES.
Portland, Me. ABOVE—below—where'er I gaze,
Thy guiding finger, Lord, I view,
Traced in the midnight planets' blaze,
Or glistening in the morning dew ;
Whate'er is beautiful or fair,
Is but thine own reflection there. I hear thee in the stormy wind,
That turns the ocean-wave to foam ;
Nor less thy wondrous power I find,
When summer airs around me roam ;
The tempest and the calm declare
Thyself,—for thou art every where. I find thee in the noon f night,
And read thy name in every star,
That drinks its splendor froin the light,
That flows from mercy's beaming car :
Thy footstool, Lord, each starry gem
Composes—not thy diadem. And when the radiant orb of light
Hath tipped the mountain-tops with gold,
Smote with the blaze my weary sight
Shrinks from the wonders I behold :
That ray of glory bright and fair,
Is but thy living shadow there. Thine is the silent noon of night,
The twilight eve—the dewy morn ;
Whate'er is beautiful and bright,
Thine hands have fashioned to adorn :
Thy glory walks in every sphere,
And all things whisper, "God is here!"
Anon. We cut from one of our secular exchanges the following: THE DEVIL AN IMAGINARY BEING.—Rev. Dr. Bushnell, a distinguished orthodox preacher in Hartford, Ct., repudiates the old idea of the personality of the Devil. In Dr. Bushnell’s book, entitled, “Nature and the Supernatural,” he says:
“Satan, or the Devil, taken in the singular, is not the name of any particular person, it is a personation merely of temptation, or impersonal evil, the name is one taken up by imagination to designate or embody, in a conception the mind can most easily wield, the all, or total, of bad minds and powers.” How are we to know from Scripture whether God and angels are real persons or not? How are we to be assured that the Almighty is not simply the first great Cause, a blind Influence or Power instead of a person? How but, from the fact that the Bible always speaks of God and angels as persons, and imputes to them the acts of living agents? It is true that the adversary of souls is not brought forward so prominently as are other persons in Scripture narrative, for he was not the subject upon which the inspired writers employed their pens. But whenever he is introduced it is as a spirit, a being—speaking, acting, working. In the Old Testament we find laws against witchcraft and sorcery, and the intercourse with familiar spirits; in the New, narratives of possessions of devils, which, on account of attendant circumstances, can by no possibility be regarded as diseases. In the Epistles are allusions to fallen angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation and were cast down to hell. The Bible is chiefly a record of events here on earth. The history of events in heaven, from the creation of the first angel to the creation of the first man, has never been written. Had we such a record, doubtless there would be a full account of the manner and cause of the fall of celestial spirits. As it is, there are here and there allusions to these mighty events, introduced only when needful to throw light upon some doctrine or event in the scheme of man’s redemption. But these allusions, whatever obscurity surrounds them, are clear in this particular; namely, that there is an adversary of souls who is a person. And as in the case of a company of men wandering in the wilderness, none are in so great danger of beasts of prey as they who believe there are no such seeking to devour them; so we may be sure none are in such hazard of that adversary of souls as they who deny his existence. But we curtail our remarks here for the purpose of introducing to our readers an extract from a sermon by Charles Kingsley, author of Alton Locke. The subject is the miracle of our Lord in casting out the legion of devils.—Chris. Mess. There is a notion got abroad that it is only a figure of speech to talk of evil spirits, that all the Bible means by them are certain bad habits, or bad qualities or diseases. There are many who will say when they read this story, “This poor man was only a madman. It was the fashion of the old Jews when a man was mad to say that he was possessed by evil spirits. All they meant was that the man’s own spirit was in an evil diseased state, or that his brain and mind were out of order.” When I hear such language—and it is very common—I cannot help thinking how pleased the Devil will be to hear people talk in that way. How can people help him better than by saying that there is no Devil? A thief would be very glad to hear you say, “There are no such things as thieves; it is an old superstition, so I may leave my house open at night without danger;” and I believe, my friends, from the very bottom of my heart, that this new-fangled disbelief in evil spirits is put into men’s hearts by the evil spirits themselves. As it was once said, “The Devil has tried every plan to catch men’s souls, and now, as the last and most cunning trick of all, he is shamming dead.” These may seem homely words, but the homeliest words are very often the deepest. I advise you all to think seriously on them. But it is impossible surely to read this story without seeing that the Bible considers evil spirits as distinct persons; just as much as each one of us is a person, and that the Lord spoke to them and treated them as persons. “What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” And again, “If thou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine!” What can show more plainly that there were some persons in that poor man besides himself, his own spirit, his own person? and that he knew it, and Jesus knew it too? and that he spoke to these spirits, these persons, who possessed that man, and not to the man himself? No doubt there was a terrible confusion in the poor madman’s mind about these evil spirits, who were tormenting him, making him miserable, foul and savage, in mind and body—a terrible confusion! We find when Jesus asked him his name, he answered, “Legion,” that is an army, a multitude, “for we are many,” he says. Again, one gospel tells us that he says, “What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?” While in another gospel we are told that he said, “What have we to do with thee?” He seems not to have been able to distinguish between his own spirit and these spirits who possessed him. They put the furious and despairing thoughts into his heart; they spoke through his mouth; they made a slave and a puppet of him. But though he could not distinguish between his own soul and the devils who were in it, Christ could and Christ did. The man says to him, or rather the devils make the man say to him, “If thou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine, and drive us not out into the deep.” What did Christ answer him? Christ did not answer him as our so-called wise men in these days would: “My good man, this is all delusion, and a fancy of your own, about your having evil spirits in you—more persons than one in you—for you are wrong in saying we of yourself. You ought to say, ‘I,’ as every one else does; and as for spirits going out of you, or going into a herd of swine, or anything else, that is all a superstition and a fancy. There is nothing to come out of you, there is nothing in you except yourself. All the evil in you is your own, the disease of your own brain, and the violent passions of your own heart. Your brain must be cured by medicine, and your violent passions tamed down by care and kindness, and then you will get rid of this foolish notion that you have evil spirits in you, and calling yourself a multitude, as if you had other persons in you besides yourself.” Any one who spoke in this manner now-a-days, would be thought very reasonable and very kind. Why did not our Lord speak so to this man, for there was no outward difference between this man’s conduct and that of many violent mad people who we see continually in our land? We read that this man possessed with devils would wear no clothes; that he had extraordinary strength; that he would not keep company with other men, but abode day and night in the tombs, exceedingly fierce, crying and cutting himself with stones, trying in blind rage, which he could not explain to himself, to hurt himself and all who came near him. And above all he had this notion that evil spirits had got possession of him. Now every one of these habits and fancies you may see in many raging maniacs at this day. But did the Lord treat this man as we treat such maniacs in these days? He took the man at his word, and more; the man could not distinguish clearly between himself and the evil spirits, but our Lord did. When the devils besought him, saying, “If thou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine,” our Lord answers, “Go;” and “when they were cast out they went into the herd of swine; and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.” It was as if our Lord had meant to say to the bystanders—ay, and to us, and to all people in all163times and in all countries—“This poor possessed maniac’s notion was a true one. There were other persons in him besides himself, tormenting him, body and soul; and behold I can drive these out of him, and send them into something else, and leave the man uninjured, himself, and only himself, again in an instant, without any need of long educating to cure him of his bad habits.” It will be but reasonable, then, for us to take this story of the man possessed by devils as written for our example, as an instance of what might, and perhaps what would, happen to any one of us, were it not for God’s mercy. St. Peter tells us to be “sober and watchful, because the Devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour;” and when we look at the world around, we may surely see that that stands as true now as it did in St. Peter’s time. Why, again, did St. James tell us to resist the Devil if the Devil be not near us to resist? Why did St. Paul take for granted, as he did, that Christian men were of course not ignorant of Satan’s devices, if it be quite a proof of enlightenment and superior knowledge to be ignorant of his devices—if any dread, any thought, even, about evil spirits, be beneath the attention of reasonable men? My friends, I say fairly, once for all, that that common notion, that there are no men now possessed by evil spirits, and that all those stories of the Devil’s power over men, are only worn out superstitions, has come from this, that men do not like to retain God in their knowledge, and therefore as a necessary consequence, do not like to retain the Devil in their knowledge, because they would be very glad to believe in nothing but what they can see, and taste, and handle; and therefore the thought of unseen evil spirits, or good spirits either, is a painful thing to them. First, they do not really believe in angels, ministering spirits, sent out to minister to the heirs of salvation; then they begin not to believe in evil spirits. The Bible plainly describes their vast numbers; but these people are wiser than the Bible, and only talk of one—of the Devil, as if there were not, as the text tells us, legions and armies of devils. Then they get rid of that one devil in their real desire to believe in as few spirits as possible. I am afraid many of them have gone on to the next step, and got rid of the one God out of their thoughts and their belief. I said I am afraid; I should have said, I know that they have done so, and that thousands in this day, who began by saying evil spirits only mean certain diseases and bad habits in men, have ended by saying, “God only means certain good habits in man. God is no more a person than the evil spirits are persons.” I warn you of all this, my friends, because if you go to live in large towns, as many of you will, you will hear talk enough of this sort before your hairs are gray, put cleverly and eloquently enough; for a wise man said, “The Devil does not send fools on his errands.” I pray God that if you ever do hear doctrines of that kind, some of my words may rise in your mind, and help to show you the evil path down which they may lead. From the Congregational Herald. Weak Grace and Strong Fears
Weak grace is often associated with strong fears. SOME REMARKABLE FACTS.
By J. B. Frisbie
It is a remarkable fact that at the time of the rise of the "two-horned beast," in the Revolutionary war with Great Britain, the sun and moon were supernaturally darkened, the first great sign for the last days. The U.S. declared themselves free and independent July 4th, 1776. The sun and moon were darkened May 19th, 1780. Wm. Miller was born Feb. 15th, 1782. The treaty of peace took place 1783. Wm. Miller commenced his public lectures in the autumn of 1831. And soon after this the second great sign took place in the heavens, "The falling of the stars," Nov. 13th, 1833. And the powers of the earth were shaken 1848. The Lord has been preparing the way for scenes connected with his people at the going down of the political sun in the western horizon. The time cannot be long at the most, when he that is to come will come and will not tarry. Have faith in God. Faith will be staggered even by loose stones in the way, if we look manward; if we look Godward, faith will not be staggered by inaccessible mountains stretching across and obstructing apparently our onward progress. "Go forward," is the voice from heaven; and faith obeying, finds the mountains before us as flat as plains. "God with us," is the watchword of our warfare, the secret of our strength, and the security of our triumph. "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." How strong faith is when we are just fresh from the fountain of redeeming love! A good conscience, and then faith will do all things, for it is in its very nature such as to let God work all; we may say that it is most active when it is most passive and that it wearies least when it does most work. From the Congregational Herald. WE sometimes meet, in a secular paper, with some theological or Biblical comment, so clear, free, terse, and racy as to be better worth transferring to our pages than long arguments on the same point, from professedly religious publications. Thus a correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune recently reviews a speech of Gov. Brown, now U. S. Senator from Mississippi, made at Jackson, in that State, after the following pithy and conclusive fashion. "The divine origin of slavery, continues the learned Senator, "is proven by the Bible. In no line of that blessed book is Slavery reprobated; in many places it is directly sanctioned. The angel of the Lord, we are told, captured Hagar, and took her home to her mistress." This attempt to convert the angel of the Lord into a slave-catcher will excite in some readers a smile, and in others a shudder. I shall only say of it that so far as the slave catchers of our day have come under my observation they have not by any means resembled angels of the Lord. But I regret the learned senator did not see fit to pursue a little further the history of Hagar, the Egyptian concubine of Abraham. He would have found in succeeding chapters of the same book of Genesis from which he quotes that Hagar and her son were set free; that they were succored by the angel of the Lord, who did not send him back to bondage; that "unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward unto the east country"—unlike some of our modern patriarchs, who continue such offspring in bondage. He would find also that Ishmael and his descendants—the descendants of the Egyptian bondmaid Hagar—continued free from that time to this, while within a few succeeding generations all the other posterity of the patriarch was reduced to Slavery in Egypt, out of which they escaped with divine aid and encouragement, while their masters, so far from receiving assistance from the angel of the Lord in recapturing their runaway property, had in each household the first born son slain by the angel of the Lord as a punishment for trying to prevent that property from getting away, and finally, while pursuing the fugitives for the purpose of recapturing them, were overwhelmed by the Lord and drowned in the Red Sea. The Scriptural advocates for Slavery, somehow, strangely overlook the history of the Israelites in Egypt. They maintain a rigid silence about Moses, who (led) "away three million pieces of property" (?) including six hundred thousand field hands, the whole worth, if prices at that day bore any comparison to prices now, not less than a thousand millions of our money. They do not stand up, as they should do, for the Egyptians thus outrageously despoiled of their property and deprived of the blessings of the divinely ordained institution. It is to be hoped that governor Brown, when next he airs his ideas on slavery, will favor the world with that rectification of their place in history which is due to Pharaoh and the Egyptians from the enlightened pro-slavery theology of our day." The narrow limit of the longest life is every day becoming narrower still. The story is told of an Italian state prisoner, who after some weeks' confinement became suddenly aware that his apartment was becoming smaller. He watched, and saw with horror, that a moveable iron wall was gradually encroaching on the space, and that as the movement came on, it must soon crush him to death, and he could calculate it to a day. But you have not that advantage. John Foster yet more appropriately resembles our time to a sealed reservoir, from which issues daily a certain small quantity of water, and when the reservoir is exhausted, we must perish of thirst; but we have no means of sounding it to ascertain how much it originally contained, nor whether there be enough remaining even for to-morrow. The Christian’s Courageous Advance
THE Christian is not called to calculate his resources, and count the means of success. His one concern is to know that his cause is the cause of God—and that he himself has no aim but his Master's glory. Doubtless, he has an inquiry to make, but it has reference only to his motives; the Christian looks upon his heart—not upon his arm: he regards right—not strength. And the question once settled his path is clear. It is for him to go boldly forward, though the world and all its armies should withstand his progress; in the firm persuasion that God himself will fight against the opposers.—Life of Luther. Reaching the Masses
By Editor
THE PULPIT AND THE MASSES.—The New York Christian Intelligencer asks if the pulpit of this day reaches the masses of the people, and fears it does not. We quote: Upon luxurious couches, surrounded by gilding and carvery, on a pleasant Sunday, when not too hot or cold, too wet or dry, a gaily-dressed multitude listen sleepily, first to the soft music behind them, and then to the musical voice before them; and when the hour-and-a-half is spent, the rustling silks move out to the sound of the organ, and the pulpit remains a cold, unmeaning piece of mummery. Outside, the multitude rush by unheeding and unheeded. There is no pulpit for them. Vice and misery, in ten thousand forms, are rioting, and stifling, and destroying; cruelty and oppression are rampant amid our churches, and the groans of the victims mingled with the church-bells. Does the pulpit reach the masses? That is something for us to answer as Christians. For if it does not the masses will reach and overturn the pulpit. The Sabbath is from God.
By Thomas Alexander
SOME men speak as if the Sabbath were merely a human institution—as if man gave it to man. What man gave it? by what authority? and when? Who were the good men who gave a boon so great to their fellows; and why has history lost their names. If it could be proved that man made himself, then would there be some likelihood of his having also made the Sabbath, and much else besides; for there is abundant corroborative evidence that he who made man made also man's world, and man's Sabbath. When we are told that in the beginning God rested on the seventh day, and blessed it, and set it apart, and when we find traces of it in the oldest historical records of the world, down to the giving of the law on Sinai; when we can trace it from that day to this; when we find voices from the works answering to voices from the word of God, and all corresponding to the facts of our every day experience; and when, in the face of all this evidence, we are met by nothing but vague assertions and rambling statements, we cannot resist the conclusion that the Sabbath is from God. The Sabbath was made for man, as a Sabbath; not as a day of labor, but as a day of rest. So soon as it ceases to be, Sabbath ceases to be. Turned to any other purpose than that for which He that made it designed it, it is no longer made by Him for man; it is no longer fit for man nor good for man. The Law written on the two tables of stone is also written on our nature. In the keeping it, as individuals, and as families and as a nation, there is a great reward. God not only blessed the day, but he blesses them that hallow it. Let each of us, therefore, as he would see God in peace, keep holy the Sabbath day, according to the commandment. This we cannot do in any assembly other than "the great congregation." It is not by going in crowds to hear sounds, or see sights, that we can hallow the Sabbath day. It is not thus we can worship "the God of nature" and bring him glory. And when God gets no glory, man gets no good. Our true good and God's highest glory are one.—Chelsea Tracts, "The Sabbath," by Thomas Alexander. He who lives in daily fellowship with God, has little to fear or long for. "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." 1 Cor. v, 7. What was the dignity of the sacrifice that was offered for our race? Was it human or divine? Says the Scripture, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Jno. iii, 16. Again: "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son," &c. Gal. iv, 4. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." Heb. ix, 28. We need not quote more testimony to show that it was no less a being than the Son of God who gave himself to reconcile man to his Father, and bring back a revolted province into allegiance to its Maker. Did Christ exist before his mission to this earth? He did. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Jno. i, 1. "And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." Id. viii, 58. And he speaks of the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. Id. xvii, 5. But in what sense was the Word, God? In the same sense that he and his Father are one. Jno. x, 30. We have still to enquire in what sense this is? Does it mean that they are one in person? We answer, No; for Christ uses the same expression and in the same sense when he prays for his disciples that they may be one. "That they may all be one," says he, "as thou Father art in me, and I in thee. That they all may be one, as we are one." Jno. xvii, 21, 22. Christ could not certainly mean that all believers in him should be consolidated into one huge and massive person! The oneness then does not refer to identity of body, but only to that unity of Spirit which the apostles every-where exhort the brethren to maintain. "Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," "Be perfectly joined together in the same mind," "Fulfill ye my joy that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind," are exhortations of the apostle, in perfect keeping with the prayer of Christ that his disciples might all be one. Just so with Jesus and his Father: they are one in Spirit, one in purpose, and one in action; but not identical in body and person. This view, and this only, is consistent with the scripture which represents Christ as a created being, ["the beginning of the creation of God," Rev. iii, 14], and that large class of texts which speak of Christ as distinct from the Father, in as plain terms as language can employ, and declare him to be subordinate to him, sent forth by him, dying to reconcile the world to him, &c., declarations utterly at variance with the popular idea of a triune God. And this Word, this divine Son of God, was made flesh. "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth," Jno. i, 14. "But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death;" i. e., for the purpose of suffering death in carrying out the great plan of salvation. A question may here arise concerning the immortality of Christ previous to his incarnation. How could he have been immortal, it may be asked, and yet die? And from the fact that he did die, some have been led to the conclusion that he was not previously immortal. But we cannot believe that he was lacking in any divine attribute previous to his mission to this world. Immortality is exemption from death. That Christ was in such a condition when enjoying that glory which he had before the world was, we have no doubt. But we must remember that the maker of law can suspend law; and though the possessor of inherent life, he could, if he chose lay down that life; though the possessor of immortality, strictly speaking, he could, if so disposed, lay aside that attribute for the suffering of death; he could take on him our nature; and this, the Bible assures us he did. "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed [i. e., the nature of the seed] of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high Priest, in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Heb. ii, 16, 17. In Jesus, the Saviour of men, we behold, then, a perfect humanity. It was necessary that he should take upon him this nature, that man in his present state might imitate and assimilate himself to a perfect pattern adapted to his condition. And we behold him following man down into the dark prison house of the grave, but bursting the bonds of death and opening a way whereby all who would believe in him might be brought back again with an everlasting salvation. And yet, while here on earth in the condition, and with the nature, of the seed of Abraham, while passing his life of toil and privation, while expiring upon the cross, he was no less the Son of God, no less the divine personage, than he was when enjoying that glory which he had with the Father antecedent to the world's creation; no less than he is now while pleading his blood before the Father, in the repentant sinner's behalf; no less than he will be, when in a little from this, he shall be seen coming in the clouds of heaven with the glory of the Father, and with all his holy angels. It is simply this: The Son of God is still the Son of God in whatever condition he may be. He was made flesh and came down to earth and died for men. The term God is sometimes applied to him, as in Isa. ix, 6; Tit. ii, 13. God was in him reconciling the world unto himself. 2 Cor. v, 17. And to all else we have only to say in the language of the apostle: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." 1 Tim. iii, 16.