Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 13, 1858
SELECTIONS.
By Thomas Vincent
Eternity without Repentance.
[We present the following article from the pen of Thomas Vincent, as an illustration of the absurdity into which people are driven by the unscriptural yet popular doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the unending conscious torment of the finally impenitent. Let it show also the horrid light in which this doctrine places the character and justice of the Great Jehovah. We ask the reader to put into one scale of the balance, the unlimited years of fiery torment which he will find enumerated below, and into the other the transactions of a fleeting life, of perhaps three-score years and ten, and see if he can behold therein any of that justice and judgment which are the habitation of God's throne—any of the attributes of a Being who styles himself a God of mercy and love; and who, though Justice demands and will alone be satisfied with, the death of the sinner, declares nevertheless, that he has no pleasure therein—Ed.]
THE punishment of the wicked will be eternal. Hell fire will be unquenchable. Mark ix, 34. Ev202erlasting. Matt. xxv, 41. The smoke of their torment will ascend up for ever and ever. Rev. xiv, 11. This eternity of punishment, will be a fearful aggravation of it; if you saw a malefactor torn to pieces, with wild horses, or thrown down in a fiery furnace and there burnt to ashes, you would say that either of these were dreadful punishments, though the pain possibly might not endure a quarter of an hour, for death concludes all bodily pains here. What then will it be to endure the torments of hell fire for ever? A small pain if it should last long would be very irksome; much more such racking pains by the stone, stranguary, gout, cholic and the like; if they should continue for a year or a month together, how miserable would they make life to be? Yes, if a man should hold but one of his fingers in the fire but for a day, it would afflict him more than all outward comforts could delight him. The torments of hell will not be in one part only, but in every part, not in a weaker degree, but in the greatest extremity; not for a day, or a month, or a year, but for ever; the wicked will be always dying, never dead; the pangs of death will be ever upon them, and yet they shall never give up the ghost; if they could die they would think themselves happy; they will always be roaring and never breathe out their last; always sinking and never come to the bottom; always burning in those flames, and never consumed; the eternity of hell will be the hell of hell. When our Saviour endured equivalent punishment to this of hell for his people, it had not this circumstance of eternity in it, there being not that need, because of the excellency of his person; in that though the pains of hell got hold on him, yet they could not keep him in hold; but he brake through them, and triumphed over them, and could say in the conclusion, It is finished; but the damned will not be able to break through their punishment; they will be compassed with it, and hedged in and shut down, and never be able to lift up the head; never shall they say of this punishment, it is finished, for their pains will always be as it were beginning. When they have spent the time of as many years in hell as there are stars in the firmament, sands on the sea shore, and motes in the sun, their torment will be as it were beginning, and no nearer a conclusion than the first day they were cast into that place. Who can express this eternity? When we launch forth our thoughts in the consideration thereof, we lose them quickly, it being such a deep which cannot be fathomed; such a vast ocean which cannot be measured; yet a little to extend your thoughts in the consideration of the eternity of the wicked's punishment, I shall by one or two suppositions illustrate something of the vastness thereof.
Suppose this globe of the earth on which we tread was hollow, that it were filled up with great folio books as full as it could hold; and moreover there were books heaped upon it to fill up the whole circumference of the air round about it; yea, that the whole space to the place of the utmost verge of the ethereal heavens were filled with books, and all this vast number of books were filled with figures in the highest degree of multiplication. O what a number of books would there be in the whole space! What a number of figures in these books! And what a vast number would there be deciphered by these figures? A bit of paper half as broad as a half-penny will hold the figures of the number of as many years as has been since the creation of the world. What then would a whole leaf of a great folio book hold? What then would a room full of folios hold? What would the world full of folios hold? Now if at the end of time, when the wicked go to hell, God should fill the whole space of the world full of folios, full of figures, of numbers, and tell the wicked that every thousand years one of these numbers should be subtracted, and promise them when all the numbers were subtracted out of all these books, they should have a release out of their torments; they would have a small spark of hope, that after the subtraction of so many millions, millions millions of innumerable numbers, in the revolution of so many millions, millions millions of innumerable years, yet at last there would be an end, there would be a time then set, and a wearing towards an end. Yea, if we could cast our thoughts so far on a supposition, that all this number of years, wherein all this number of years were subtracted, by one in a thousand years, were past and gone, yea, wherein they were all subtracted, as many thousand times as the numbers of the figures in all these books would amount to; yet even then the punishment of the damned would be as far from ending as at the very first beginning of them.
Yet if there were as many worlds, as the number of the books before supposed would arise unto, and these worlds continue as many years, as by this account there would be worlds; and all these worlds were filled with angels and men, and all these angels and men should be employed in nothing else from the beginning of these worlds unto the end of them, but in conceiving numbers of years from the uttermost conception which they could have of numbers; to us what an inconceivable number of years would there be conceived by so many angels and men, in so many years, in so many worlds? Yet if all the vast number of years were joined to the end of the time, wherein all the number of the figures of so many before mentioned books, were subtracted by one in a thousand years, and these multiplied as many thousand times as numbers were conceived; such a vast number of years would reach a great way, but they would not be so much as a hair's breadth in the measure of eternity; and if you would suppose the space of all these years too, to be spent by the damned in torments, even then their torments would be as far from a conclusion as they were upon their first entrance into hell! Oh eternity! eternity! How infinite and immeasurable! How horrid will the thoughts of eternity be unto the damned, to be punished so extremely, and that without any intermission or hopes of conclusion, to fall into such a horrible pit and fiery lake, and there burn for ever without any possibility of ever getting forth! Oh dreadful! Oh blind world! Oh sottish sinners! that take no more care now to avoid, and get deliverance from such a punishment as this which they are exposed unto, and will be the certain consequent of sin, without repentance.—T. Vincent.
"Thank You."
How easy to say it. How much better one feels after one has accepted, or had the offer of a favor, to say, Thank you. Then the donor is satisfied that his or her kind intentions are appreciated, and good feeling prevails because that gratitude on the one part and benevolence on the other, give an equal balance, and mutual good-will prevails. But if favors are received with apathy and indifference, as though they were only due, and no gratitude manifested, then the order of nature is reversed, and the music of harmonious law is jarred in its softest strains, and only a mighty effort of faith on the part of the giver, can prompt to perseverance in his acts of benevolence.
O then let us cherish gratitude and all the kindly feelings it engenders, and in this exercise of true good manners for the slightest favors, we shall win the good will of benefactors, and the approval of God. Mankind are in a degree dependent upon each other for happiness, and it is the acknowledging of the law of nature which gives harmony. The claims of God and man exact it of us.
Gratitude is opposed to selfishness in every form, and properly followed out would prompt to every virtuous action, and to obedience to every revealed and natural law. Mankind would never have eaten of the forbidden fruit; never have trampled the word of God in the dust, had they cultivated gratitude to God; for this would have influenced them to honor him and his law from emotions of gratitude alone; and by cherishing gratitude towards earthly friends for slight favors, we may be led to thank our Creator for the inestimable gifts of his hand: for life and its blessings, and above all for the offers of eternal life by Christ's sufferings and atonement.
His favors come down to us in an unfailing stream, the good and the evil, the just and the unjust, are the hourly recipients of his liberality, and as to our hope of eternal life this is truly a miracle. After our forfeiture of Eden by disobedience, that the Lord of life should devise a plan of redemption, this is an astonishing act of benevolence.
This is the evidence which we possess of the boundless, inexhaustible, incomprehensible benevolence and love of Jehovah; that he should stoop to the act of raising ungrateful, rebellious, groveling beings, such as the offspring of Adam, to be his friends, to take them into his society, and raise fallen men from the horrible pit and miry clay, to stand before his presence with exceeding joy.
This does now, and will through eternity, claim our most ardent acknowledgement of praise, and glory, and honor to God and the Lamb. "In every thing give thanks."
J. C.
Eternal Fire.
By J. B. Frisbie
IT is said of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, that they "are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 7.
2 Pet. ii, 6. "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly."
This example will be carried out in the burning of all the ungodly to ashes in the day of Judgment, as in chap. iii, 7. "But the heavens and earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men."
Gen. xix, 24. "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of those cities, and that which grew upon the ground."
Rev. xx, 9. "And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."
Josephus, the Jewish historian, referring to the cities of the plains, says, "It is related how, for the impiety of the inhabitants, it was burnt by LIGHTNINGS; in consequence of which there are still the remainders of that divine fire." Wars, Bk. IV, Ch. viii, Sec. 4. "God then cast a thunderbolt upon the city, and set it on fire, with its inhabitants; and laid waste the country with the like burning." Ant. Bk. I, Ch. xi, Sec. 4.
Job i, 16. "The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them."
Ps. xcvii, 3, 4. "A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world."
Isa. xxxiii, 14, 15. "Who among us shall dwell with devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly," &c. The righteous can dwell for ever in this everlasting element of nature that is to devour the wicked.
Mal. iii, 12. "But he will burn up the chaff [the wicked] with unquenchable fire."
Matt. xxv, 41. "Depart ye cursed, into everlasting fire."
Chap. xviii, 8. "To be cast into everlasting fire."
This fire is God's fire, and when kindled, it becomes a consuming fire to his enemies. It is "his lightnings." It is the eternal and unquenchable fire. It is the fire that burnt Sodom, and the same fire will burn up all the ungodly to ashes in the day of Judgment. It fills earth, air and sea, and when used in a simple state of nature it is the secret of animal heat to the blood. But when kindled up to a flame it becomes a devouring element, from which may the Lord save us in the burning day. J. B. FRISBIE.
NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN.
"And there shall be no night there." Rev. xxii, 5.
No night shall be in heaven—no gathering gloom
Shall o'er that glorious landscape ever come.
No tears shall fall in sadness o'er those flowers
That breathe their fragrance through celestial bowers.
No night shall be in heaven—no dreadful hour
Of mental darkness, or the Templer's power.
Across those skies no envious cloud shall roll,
To dim the sunlight of the enraptured soul.
No night shall be in heaven. Forbid to sleep,
These eyes no more their mournful vigils keep;
Their fountains dried—their tears all wiped away;
They gaze undazzled on eternal day.
No night shall be in heaven—no sorrow's reign—
No secret anguish—no corporeal pain—
No shivering limbs—no burning fever there—
No soul's eclipse—no winter of despair.
No night shall be in heaven—but endless noon;
No fast declining sun nor waning moon;
But there the Lamb shall yield perpetual light,
'Mid pastures green, and waters ever bright.
No night shall be in heaven—no darkened room,
No bed of death, nor silence of the tomb;
But breezes ever fresh, with love and truth,
Shall brace the frame of an immortal youth.
No night shall be in heaven! But night is here—
The night of sorrow—and the night of fear.
I mourn the ills that now my steps attend,
And shrink from others that may yet impend.
No night shall be in heaven! O had I faith
To rest in what the faithful Witness saith—
That faith should make these hideous phantoms flee,
And leave no night, henceforth, on earth to me.—Sel.
THAT is, receive the truth, but do not live by it; admit that the truths of revelation are binding, but live in violation of the same; to believe the coming of Christ is at hand, but deny it in practice; that the end of all things is at hand, but still lay up mammon for a rainy day; pray for friends, but still neglect to warn them; to believe the seventh day is the Sabbath, but still keep First-day; to censure a sister for wearing unbecoming apparel, or costly array, while 5 dollar broadcloth is flung over their own persons; to think of doing good to others, while living in sin and lukewarmness.
These are a few items in point. Lord grant us grace to overcome.
J. C.
Power of Simple Language.
There is a striking disposition evinced at the present day on the part of many young writers and public speakers, to indulge in the use of high sounding language, and difficult philosophical terms. The temptation to this is very strong. The taste of the age seems to call for it; and it is, besides, the impression of many that it is necessary to give force to ideas, as well as to indicate learning and scholarship. All such tastes and notions, however, are fundamentally erroneous. The more simple and lucid the language which is used to express a thought, the greater is the force of the thought itself. Yea, such language in itself often carries with it a power which is truly astonishing to one who has never especially turned his thoughts in this direction.
The truth of this statement is very strikingly illustrated by the S. S. Journal. To one whose attention has not been drawn especially to the subject, the Journal says, It will be surprising to call to mind how many of the most sublime and comprehensive passages in English consist wholly or chiefly of monosyllables. Of the sixty words composing the Lord's prayer, forty-eight are of one syllable. Of the seventeen words composing the Golden Rule, fifteen are of one syllable.
The most impressive idea of the creative power of Jehovah is expressed entirely in monosyllables:—"And God said, Let there be light, and there was light." One of the most encouraging promsies [sic] of Scripture is expressed in fifteen words, all but one of which are monosyllables: "I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me." Among human compositions, several remarkable instances of the same character occur. Few sentences in poetry or prose, whatever their length, contain so much doctrinal instruction, afford so much precious consolation, or inspire so much exulting hope, as the following, in which all the words but one are monosyllables:
"Jesus, my God, I know his name,
His name is all my trust:
Nor will he put my soul to shame,
Nor let my hope be lost."
To these we might add many other illustrations. All who have enjoyed the advantages of a religious education, can well remember the prayers and hymns which they were taught in their earliest years, and must ever bear testimony to their uncommon force, for which they are much indebted to the simple language in which they are expressed. This subject is well deserving the earnest attention of writers and public speakers. If properly inquired into, it might lead to results which may be of great service to ourselves as well as to others.
Small Moralities.
By Georgianna Herbert
BY GEORGIANNA HERBERT.
THERE'S many a man who would not all at once rob his fellow of all that he owns, yet would remorselessly do it by sixpences and shillings.
There's many a woman who would not cut her neighbor's flesh, who will yet stab her to the heart by a tongue thrust at her character.
There's many a man that would not, in words, cheat and deceive any woman, who will yet do so most cruelly, most fatally, by manner, look and act.
And there's many a woman who will do the same.
There's many a person who would not ill-treat strangers or visitors, who will neglect, and in ten thousand ways impose upon those that love him—the more sure he is of that love, the more bold are his impositions. Execrable!
There's many a person who does all larger things upon principle, but goes alone by impulse in the smaller (which are often the more important) matters of life.
There's many a person who would n't for anything neglect scripture reading, prayer, church going, or even alms-giving, who will whine, and fret, and growl, all day long, rendering everybody about them uncomfortable.
There are many persons who will talk with tears in their eyes of the love of God, who never deny themselves for pure, unreflecting love of their enemies, or hardly for their friends. Whatever they do do for one, is done with careful explanations of how kind it is.
There's many a person who would shudder at robbing a man, or at desecrating a grave-yard, who will rob God, or desecrate his Sabbath.
There's many a person who will watch lest his child play upon the Sabbath hours, who will yet go and aid a whole school of children to do what helps to fasten the doom of Sabbath labor upon the working man.
There's many a man as just as Aristides to all beyond his own family circle, but who is more unjust than the veriest tyrant to all within.
There's many a woman who if one of her fellow-creatures were to give favors to her child would never requite him ill, who will yet encourage that child to take God's favors to disobey and abuse him with.
There's many a person that reads, meditates, and sings most devoutly, by the hour together, who yet hugs the abject snake of selfishness and the cruel asp of hatred in constant embrace.
There's many a person who tries to be religious, but never tries to be noble-minded, tolerant, polite, agreeable, and always clean from head to foot.
There's many a person who aims to be ever true, but who forgets to be always kind.
Many a man whose honor in large affairs is worthy of praise, who in the small, unexpected matters of each day has no honor at all.
The trouble is people will cheat themselves into feeling that God cares only for important and noticeable acts. They have a very vivid conception of how that All-seeing eye would flame upon them were they in the act of some outrageous sin; but that it actually is just as attentively upon every look and word that passes between man and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, friend and friend—that it watches narrowly how we do every little act, and what motive prompted this deed, or what remark this—is the thing about which two-thirds of Christians even are infidels. But does not He, who numbers the very hairs of our head, observe each thought and motive of our hearts? Yes,203surely. Remember, then, to be always right and noble in the little things, and you will never go wrong in the greater. The man or woman who runs a line of principle through that part of life which is least in dignity and importance, will be in no danger of being unprincipled in the higher walks thereof. Do everything as if you saw who sees you. You'll soon see Him. Prepare.—N. Y. Ledger.
ADVANTAGES OF REVELATION.
DARBY in his "Hopes of the Church," says:
"We would express our conviction, that the idea of the immortality of the soul has no source in the gospel; that it comes, on the contrary, from the Platonists, and that it was just when the coming of Christ was denied in the church, or at least began to be lost sight of, that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul came in to replace that of the resurrection. This was about the time of Origen."
The following is from the Comprehensive Commentary, Note on Josh. viii, 29,
"The Talmudists say—The reason bodies were to be buried immediately was, lest the view of the carcass, should lead the common people into the idea that the soul was also dead; and thus weaken THE OPINION, WHICH NEEDED A REVELATION FROM GOD TO MAKE IT BELIEVED, THAT THE SOUL IS IMMORTAL."
MARTIN LUTHER says:
"But I permit the pope to make articles of faith for himself and his faithful, such as, the pope is emperor of the world, and the king of heaven, and God upon earth; THE SOUL IS IMMORTAL, with all those monstrous opinions to be found in the Roman dunghill of decretals, &c." Defense prop. 27.
ARCHDEACON BLACKBURN A. D. 1772 said:
"Afterwards indeed Luther espoused the doctrine of the SLEEP OF THE SOUL, upon a Scripture foundation, and then he made use of it as a confutation of purgatory and saint-worship, and continued in that belief to the last moment of his life." Historical View, p. 15.
TIMOTHY DWIGHT, D. D., LL. D., late President of Yale College, in his sermons, Vol. 1, p. 163, says:
"Among Christians I know of but one [S. Drew] who has regarded the immortality of the soul as susceptible of demonstration. Should we believe with this ingenious writer, that the soul, metaphysically considered, is so formed, as naturally to be immortal, we must still acknowledge, because it cannot be denied, that its existence may terminate at death, or any other supposable period. Whatever has been created, can certainly be annihilated by the power which created it."
BISHOP TILLOTSON, in his Sermons, printed in 1774, Vol. 2, said:
"The immortality of the soul is rather supposed, or taken for granted, than expressly revealed in the Bible."
MR. ISAAC TAYLOR said:
"As to the pretended demonstrations of immortality drawn from the assumed simplicity and INDE-STRUCTIBILITY OF THE SOUL as an immaterial substance, they appear altogether inconclusive, or if conclusive, then such as must be admitted to apply with scarcely diminished force to all sentient orders; and it must be granted that whatever has felt, and has acted spontaneously, must live again and forever. We have the best reasons for the confident expectation of another life; nor are in any need to fortify our convictions by arguments which if valid prove immensely more than we can desire to see established, or could persuade ourselves to think in any degree probable." Physical Theory p. 254.
The following concerning certain Italian reformers, is from Audlin's Life of Luther.
"These were new lights, who came to announce that they had discovered an irresistible argument against the Mass, Purgatory, and Prayer to the saints. This was simply to deny the immortality of the soul, &c. They left Wittemberg and went to Geneva, where we find them in 1561, sustaining in a crowded school and in printed theses, that all which has been said about the Immortality of the soul was invented by antichrist for the purpose of making the pope's pot boil."
BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR says:
"Whatsoever had a beginning can also have an ending, &c., . . . and therefore God had prepared a tree in Paradise to have supported Adam in his artificial immortality: IMMORTALITY WAS NOT IN HIS NATURE, but in the hands and arts in the favor and super-additions of God."
PROF. STUART says:
"The light of nature can never scatter the darkness in question. This light has never yet sufficed to make even the question clear, to any portion of our benighted race, Whether the soul of man is immortal? Cicero, incomparably the most able defender of the soul's immortality of which the heathen world can yet boast, very ingeniously confesses, that after all the arguments which he had adduced in order to confirm the doctrine in question, it so fell out, that his mind was satisfied of it only when directly employed in contemplating the arguments adduced in its favor. At all other times, he fell unconsciously into a state of doubt and darkness.
"It is notorious also that Socrates, the next most able advocate among the heathen for the same doctrine, has adduced arguments to establish the never-ceasing existence of the soul, which will not bear the test of examination."
DR. ADAM CLARKE says:
"What do we know of the spiritual world? How do souls exist separate from their respective bodies? Of what are they capable, and what is their employment? Who can answer these questions? Perhaps nothing can be said much better of the state, than is said Job, x, 21: 'A land of obscurity like darkness, and the shadow of death;' a place where death rules. over which he projects his shadow, intercepting every light of every kind of life." Christian Theology, p. 370.
DR. PRIESTLEY says:
"If we search the scriptures for passages expressive of the state of man at death, we find such declarations as expressly exclude any trace of sense, thought, or enjoyment. See Ps. vi, 5; Job xiv, 7," Reg. Ency., p. 784.
PROF. KNAPP says:
"This doctrine respecting the immortality of the soul, in the strict philosophical sense of the term, is of far less consequence to religion than is commonly supposed. The reason why so much importance has been supposed to attach to this doctrine, is that it was considered as essential to the metaphysical proof of the immortality of the soul. But since the immortality of the soul, in the strictest sense, can never be made fully and obviously certain, whatever philosophical arguments may be urged in its favor, the proof of immortality should never be built upon it." Knapp's Christian Theology.
The Advent Herald, published at Boston, Mass., by J. V. Himes, says:
"Living is a condition nowhere affirmed of souls disconnected from their bodies. For souls to live, is for them to be reunited to their bodies. As, when disconnected from the body, the SOUL IS UNDER THE DOMINION OF DEATH, AND HADES, it follows that for it to live, is to free it from that dominion."
H. H. DOBNEY, Baptist Minister of England, says:
"If in these days of multiplied infallibilities, it may be allowed us to prefer an apostolic and inspired exposition of the original record, we shall respectfully take leave to affirm that there is no expression on the opening page of a progressive revelation, which teaches the unutterably grand prerogative of an uncontingent immortality for all mankind." Future Punishment, p. 120.
The following concerning the origin of the doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul, is from Bible vs. Tradition, p. 302.
"Let it be registered as the genuine genealogy of a fundamental doctrine of modern British Christendom, that the Pagan Plato was its father, and the profligate Pope Leo its foster-father. Born and bred by the Pagan philosophy and the protege of Popery, this notion of the soul's immortality has become a pet dogma of popular Protestantism, which with a strange forgetfulness of its low lineage, openly declares it to be the honorable offspring of a true orthodoxy!"
Among the writers against the doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul, not quoted in the foregoing extracts, are the following: Dr. Whately, Archbishop of Dublin; Edward White, Congregational Minister in Hereford; W. Glen Moncrief, Congregational Minister in Edinburgh; J. Panton Ham, Congregational Minister of Bristol; and Sir James Stephen, Professor of Modern History at Cambridge.
Duties of Daily Life.
Life is not entirely made up of great evils or heavy trials; but the perpetual recurrence of petty evils and small trials, is the ordinary and appointed exercise of the Christian graces. To bear with the failings of those about us—with their influence, their bad judgment, their ill breeding, their perverse tempers—to endure neglect when we feel we deserved attention, and ingratitude when we expected thanks—to bear with the company of disagreeable people whom Providence has placed in our way, and whom he has provided or purposed for the trial of our virtue—these are the best exercises of patience and self-denial, and the better because not chosen by ourselves. To bear with vexation in business, with disappointment in our expectations, with interruptions of our retirement, with folly, intrusion, disturbance—in short, with whatever opposes our will, contradicts our humor—this habitual acquiescence appears to be more of the essence of self-denial than any little rigors or afflictions of our own imposing. These constant, inevitable, but inferior evils, properly improved, furnish a good moral discipline, and might, in the days of ignorance, have superseded pilgrimage and penance.
Creation Requires a Creator
By Jeremy Taylor
WHAT can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come together by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster? To see rare effects and no cause, and motion without a mover, a circle without a center, and time without eternity, a second without a first, are things so against philosophy and natural reason, that he must needs be a weakling in understanding who does not assent to them. The thing formed says that nothing formed it--that that which is made is, and that which made it is not. This folly is infinite.--Jeremy Taylor.
Prayer and Solitude
GOD is often lost in prayers and ordinances.—"Enter into thy chamber," said He. "and shut thy door about thee." "Shut thy door about thee," means, shut out not only frivolity, but business; not only the company abroad, but the company at home; it means—let the poor soul have a little rest and refreshment, and God have opportunity to speak to thee in a still small voice, or He will speak in thunder. I am persuaded the Lord would often speak more softly if we would shut the door.—Cecil.
Jonah's Gourd.
While Jonah was admiring the fragrant shade, and his repining heart grew light beneath it, an invisible worm was at the root. The color began to fade, the broad leaves to wilt, the graceful form to lose its beauty and strength, until it lay at length lifeless at his feet.
Thus while every man not wholly consecrated to Christ and his service has his favorite gourd of earthly good, God has a worm feeding upon its root. The question of decay is only one of time. It may be husband, wife, child lover, or friend; or the world in grosser forms. Decay is written upon them all, and God knows how and when to wither them.
Christian, take care how you lean to earth. He taught the prophet fellowship with himself in his compassion for sinful men, while he reproved his selfish attachments and joys.
We recollect a lady of great intelligence and worth, who, in the midst of worldly prosperity, would often defend with evident sincerity, a moderate enjoyment of worldly amusements. But an only daughter was smitten by death—her idolized gourd withered; and with tears she expressed her wonder, soon after, that she could have entertained the low views of christian life she once did. Alas, how many bearing the name of christian, when their idols are demolished, weep over their own wanderings, and for the perishing souls of unconverted ones
And let the worshiper of mammon, the sensualist, the votary of pleasure know that Jehovah has made a worm which is gnawing at the root of the transitory gourd; and that it will ere long become to each heart, unless the eternal God be its portion, the worm that never dies.
INCOMPREHENSIBLE.
By James White
It is always better to confess our inability to answer a question, than to give an answer involving unsafe or untenable conclusions. And if we hold ourselves under obligation to explain every question that may arise on all doctrines, we shall sometimes find ourselves involved in difficulties greater than those we are laboring to remove.
The question is often asked, Was Adam created mortal or immortal? And this reasoning has been adopted on the subject: If he was immortal he could not have died; so the sentence of death would have been a nullity. But if he was mortal he would have died necessarily; so the sentence would have involved no change of condition. Therefore it is concluded that he was neither, but on a probationary ground, just between mortality and immortality.
We can comprehend the fact that a mortal man may be on probation for eternal life, and death be the penalty for transgression; which, of course, would never be executed if he did not transgress. For when it is said, "If ye do, ye shall die," the converse is implied. "If ye do not, ye shall not die." Thus by the grace of God he would become immortal through obedience.
And we can comprehend the fact that an immortal being could have his nature or mode of existence so changed by the power of God as to become subject to death. To doubt the possibility of this is simply to doubt the power of God, or to assume that if God created a being, not by his nature subject to death, he could not change his nature and make him subject to death; thus placing his creatures beyond his power. But we cannot comprehend how a man can be neither mortal nor immortal, neither subject to death nor exempt from it, any more than we can comprehend how a man may be neither dead nor alive. If he was not subject to death he was exempt from it; or if he was not exempt from it he was subject to it. They are opposite states or conditions, between which there is no more an intermediate state than there is between good and evil or right and wrong, or justification and condemnation.
Then the question has been asked, Would God so reverse his work, or so change the nature of any being? We can easily determine whether God would do so by examining what he has done; and though the Scriptures do not afford evidence on this point in regard to "the first man Adam," they do in regard to the second Adam—Christ. That Christ existed before his incarnation, and "before the world was," the Scriptures clearly prove; and that he was then immortal all will freely admit. But he was made mortal—subject to death—to redeem man from mortality. How this could be done it is not our place to inquire; we rest it on the power of God which is beyond our comprehension. But if the Anointed One underwent this change from immortality to mortality for man's sake, it was doubtless quite as possible for man to pass through the same change. And if he did, the great "mystery of godliness" would be presented thus—the Son of God following man through this wonderful and mysterious change to redeem him from the stupendous consequences of his rebellion. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"
I think it quite possible that man might have been created either mortal or immortal; but I cannot conceive the possibility of his having been neither, but between the two. And we cannot really believe what we cannot comprehend unless it is directly revealed.
But if any require a definite answer in regard to my belief whether Adam was created mortal or immortal, my answer is this: the Bible is silent about it, therefore I do not know.