Review and Herald, Vol. 23, No. 8.
Israel, and Israel's HopePage 1
Israel, and Israel's Hope.
"Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." Isaiah xxvii, 6. We are now prepared to consider— II. The promise comprised in the text. We remark first, negatively, that the promise contained in the text does not imply a restoration of the nation of the Jews, or the granting of them any peculiar national blessings, or distinctions above other nations, either political or ecclesiastical, in this world or in an age to come. But we do declare, affirmatively, that it implies the final triumph and glory of the whole redeemed church of God, constituted of Jew and Gentile, in their resurrection beauty and blessedness, when "God shall send his Son, Jesus Christ, in the times of restitution." It implies the fulfillment of the promises God has made to the fathers as commented upon by Saint Paul. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not to seeds as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, That the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect; for if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise." The inheritance and the promised covenant mercies in Christ, therefore, were not fulfilled and enjoyed under the dispensation of the law, when the children of Israel entered into the land of Canaan, and possessed it but a little while. That was not that "rest that remaineth for the people of God," nor is it to be in this present world. It is a promise in reversion to be fulfilled in the future world of glory, to all the heirs of promise, Jews and Gentiles, who constitute the true Israel of God. To "Abraham and his seed, which is Christ"—and all those who are "Christ's"—of whom the apostle affirms "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. iii, 16–29. The inheritance of the true and saved Israel of God, is to be the renewed earth; "for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham, or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." And when we consider that this earth, on its regenesis, is to become the future abode of God's people, how appropriate and beautiful the text, "Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit!" And there is a propriety in the language of the apostle, before unobserved, concerning Abraham and his true seed of faith among his own lineal descendants who have died. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off; and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." "The covenant" which God "made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac, and confirmed unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance," has reference to the future and glorified world. This is evident from the vision Jacob had of it, and the promise made and confirmed to him. Having quitted his father's tent to avoid the murderous anger of Esau, his brother, he pursued his solitary way from Beersheba to Padan-aram to his mother's father; his only possession was his staff in hand; and he was now an exile from the land he had desired to obtain. His first day's journey of about forty miles had come to a close, and the setting sun found him solitary and alone far from home and kindred, city or tent. He collected a few stones upon which to recline his head while he rested his weary body upon the lap of earth to sleep. In his night visions "He dreamed and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, 'I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land wherein thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.'" This vision, with this promise of the land, and God's declaration that he was the Lord God of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, has a significance and a meaning it is well to study. As "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," these patriarchs must rise again from the dead. The shekinah, the symbol of the manifested God, the future Messiah, revealed and standing above, from whom proceeds the voice, renewing to Jacob the great promise made to Abraham and to Isaac, shows forth the day of the Messiah's revelation in glory when he will come to raise the dead, call forth the sleepers from the dust of the earth where they lie, as he did Jacob reposing in sleep, and give them the land in which their bones rest in hope of "a better resurrection." The angelic beings descending, and scaling the mysterious ladder reaching from earth to heaven, shadow the period when "the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." The promise made by the Lord God of the patriarchs to Jacob in the glory of that vision, "the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed," is but the renewal of that covenant promise first made to Abraham, and in oath confirmed to Isaac, that "the world" should be their "everlasting inheritance." As Jacob, who was first called Israel under the old covenant, had such a vision of glory to be realized in the future and glorified earth, Nathanael, the first called by the same angel of the covenant, now the Messiah revealed, has the assurance that he should be one day witness to the glories pictured to his father, Jacob. "Thou shalt see greater things than these." "Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." John i, 51. The promise of the inheritance of "the land"—"the world"—to Abraham and his seed as an "everlasting inheritance," involves their resurrection to immortality. Therefore it is written, "I have made thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." This explains the otherwise inexplicable mystery how it was that "by faith" the patriarchs "sejourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country," inheriting "not so much as to set their foot on" during their long lifetime; and yet God "gave it to them for an everlasting possession." The hope of Israel must be in the resurrection from the dead to inherit the earth, or the promise of God utterly fails of an accomplishment. And accordingly so the Scriptures express. In Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones (which some expositors of the Christian Church have marvelously misinterpreted by some law of exegesis unknown to themselves or to the Church) Israel is represented as saying, "Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts." But Jehovah gives the promise, "Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and will put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and shall place you in your own land." Ezekiel xxxvii.58Here is the vision explained and interpreted, by God himself, as to what constitutes the hope of Israel, and when and how it is to be consummated. The only hope of Israel, yet future, is in a redemption from their graves; and the only restoration to their land of promise is by a resurrection from the dead when quickened by the Spirit. And that this is the hope of Israel, is most emphatically affirmed by the apostle Paul on every occasion he preached the gospel to his own race, or explained it to the Gentiles. In the presence of King Agrippa he declares, "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which promise our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" Acts xxvi, 6–8. Before his brethren in Rome, where he had appealed to Cæsar for the integrity of his life and conversation, he affirms, "For the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain." And what that hope was, there is no mistaking when he says, "Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question." In the context, the prophet sings the hope of Israel, "Thy dead shall live; my dead body shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust, for the dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Isa. xxvi, 19. "The Lord of hosts will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall be taken away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it." In that day, as— *Reviving plants and flowers,
Anew deck the plain.* *The woods hear the voice of Spring,
And flourish green again,* so will earth revive in a new genesis, and the dead and now inanimate dust of the sleeping myriads of saints awake, and be quickened into a new life, by the voice of Him who is "made a quickening spirit." Oh, may the Lord of life and glory give you and me a part in the resurrection of the just! *Shall I be left abandoned in the dust,
When fate, relenting, lets the flower revive?
Shall Nature's voice, to man alone unjust,
Deny him, doomed to perish, hope to live?
Is it for this fair Virtue oft must strive
With disappointment, penury and pain?
No! Heaven's immortal spring shall yet arrive,
And man's majestic beauty bloom again,
Bright through the eternal year of love's triumphant reign.*
Beattie. That the restoration from the dead constituted the hope of the patriarchs as given in the promises of God to them, is set forth most beautifully and distinctly by Mr. Bonar, when writing near the cave of Machpelah where these holy men rest; and his language aptly explains that remarkable scripture uttered by Christ to the Sadducees—the deniers of this hope. "The great point on which Abraham's testimony bore, was the resurrection. Heb. xi, 8–16. And the terminating point of the divine testimony to the relationship existing between the patriarchs and the God who had entered into covenant with them, was the same. 'As touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?' God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.' And it was the same testimony that was embodied in the anxiety shown by these patriarchs, 'concerning their bones.'" "One feels that it is round the tomb of Abraham, the place where his dust lies waiting for the resurrection, that a special, a not unreasonable interest gathers. Could we get access to the cave itself, we might find the bodies of these patriarchs still there, or at least that of Jacob; for we read, 'The physicians embalmed Israel,' so that his mummy may be entire. We have mummies in the British Museum at least as old as Abraham. And if Jacob's grave has not been rifled, his body will be found as it was when laid there by his sons. Yet it matters not in what form the bodies of those holy men may be found; the glory in reversion for them at the resurrection of the just does not depend on the contents of their tomb. They were careful about their bones only that they might leave a testimony to their hope. They saw Him 'afar off, who is the resurrection and the life.' Gladly would they have seen him in their own day; but they were willing to wait for his; content to take life through death, resurrection through the grave, the incorruptible through corruption." This is a beautiful and sublime description as well as faithful interpretation of the Scriptural hope of these patriarchs. Pollok's description of the resurrection, at the last day, will hardly, however, be realized by families on the morning when light and life shall break upon the sepulchres of the sleeping dead in Christ; for all have not died in Christ— *The family tomb, to whose devouring mouth
Descended sire and son, age after age,
In long unbroken, hereditary line,
Poured forth, at once, the ancient father rude,
And all his offspring of a thousand years.* Oh, how happy the greetings of death-divided friends and kindred, who have for a season been severed by the cruel and relentless hand of Death! But how sad to awake, and find some missing member of our household who has no part in "the first resurrection," or "the resurrection of the just," in that day. But the whole family of the faithful and redeemed will be remembered without a single missing one. Even "the least in the kingdom of heaven," and without a missing lamb of the fold, all will be gathered to meet on the blissful fields of the new-robed earth, in its more than pristine Eden dress; and there to part no more. *Soon and forever!
Such promise our trust,
Though ashes to ashes,
And dust unto dust.
Soon and forever,
Our union shall be
Made perfect, our glorious
Redeemer, in thee.
When the sins and the sorrows
Of time shall be o'er,
Its pangs and its partings
Remembered no more,
When life cannot fail,
And when death cannot sever,
Israel with Christ shall be,
Soon and forever.*
Monsel. The majestic and wide-spread "olive tree," with its natural branches and noble cion, will be transplanted into the new and beautiful world to come, and fill that world with its immortal fruit. Jehovah will there be "as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon; his branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. The blossoms thereof as Lebanon." Such is the descriptive figure and symbol of Israel saved by the Lord and transplanted over into the promised land, "the mountains of Israel." "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? Prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them." The most important consideration in relation to this subject individually, is, to know whether we personally are the children of God by faith, and are "fellow-heirs to all these bright hopes of a future immortality in the kingdom of God." Are you and I Israelites, indeed, in whom there is no guile? Are we "princes of God," having prevailed in "fervent effectual prayer" with God? Have we "received the spirit of adoption," and become "the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty?" Are we believing Gentiles, ingrafted into the "good olive tree," and become "partakers of its root and fatness?" If so, how blessed and all-glorious our future prospects! We may ascend the mount of prayer, as did Moses Nebo and Pisgah's summit heights, and by faith view the promised land, which is our everlasting home. Oh, hail, happy land! *The land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign.* When shall we pass over Jordan's swelling floods, into full possession of the heavenly country, where all Israel shall dwell safely in everlasting peace? The land seen by the fathers "afar off" is now near and "ready to be revealed in this the last time." The city of our God, "the heavenly Jerusalem," is soon to "come down from God out of heaven," and adorn the new-made world with its garnished and resplendent foundations of all manner of precious stones, its noble walls of jasper, its massive gates of pearl, its mirror-like streets of gold, its glorious and divinely-illuminated palaces and mansions for the blest—"a city whose builder and maker is God;" for which the patriarchs and Israel looked, and which God has prepared for them that love him. Another view of this subject presents a sad consideration, and many serious and unhappy reflections. When it is thus "well with the righteous," oh, "where shall the sinner and ungodly appear?" They have no part in the "resurrection of the just," in the inheritance of the saints. They must be thrust out of the kingdom, shut out of the paradise of God, chased out of the world, and be destroyed forever from the face of the earth. Says Jesus, "In the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Then it will be that "Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." *Where a blasted world shall brighten
Underneath a purer sphere,
And a softer, gentler sunshine
Shed its healing splendors here;
Where earth's barren vales shall blossom,
Putting on their robe of green,
And a purer, fairer Eden
Be where only wastes have been;
Where a King in kingly glory,
Such as earth has never known,
Shall assume the righteous sceptre,
Claim and wear the holy crown;—
Brothers, we shall meet and rest
'Mid the holy and blest.'* The Christian's Home.
By S. H. Kinsey
Going home, going home,
To a better land;
Where free from sin and toil and pain,
We'll join the immortal band.
Released from every snare and fear
Which here our path surround,
We there shall live a life of joy,
On Salem's happy ground. CHORUS—Going home, going home
To a better land,
Where free from sin and toil and pain,
We'll join the immortal band. Going home, going home,
Where we'll die no more;
O let it fill our hearts with joy,
To think were almost home.
Then let our steps be guarded well
Until we reach that shore,
Where we can with our loved one dwell,
In union evermore. Troubles here, troubles here,
Wait on every side;
And trials too which seem severe
As foes at us deride.
Here we drop the parting tear,
As wanderers we roam,
Until our blessed Lord shall come
To take his children home. Almost home, almost home,
Oh that blessed thought!
It lifts the saint from earth and gloom,
And cheers his drooping heart.
Then on we'll go, though clouds arise,
And tempests gather o'er,
We have a home in Paradise,
Where troubles are no more. CHORUS—Going home, &c.
S. H. KINSEY.
Pilot Grove, Iowa. Too Much Backbiting.
By P. Strong
I lately met with this objection by one who receives the Review, though not in full sentiment with us. He said we manifested a backbiting spirit through the Review, representing ourselves as perfect, and all the rest as imperfect. I told him that I had not perceived such a spirit manifested. His answer was, The last paper proves it. Ques. In what respect? I do not see a backbiting spirit manifested in the last paper. Ans. If I want to drink tea or coffee, it is my privilege. Q. But do you call reproving a people for their sins, backbiting? A. It is not sin; neither does the Bible condemn it. Q. But do you find anything about tea or coffee in the paper you refer to. A. Well, no; but I do about tobacco, and I have a right to use that, if I want to. Q. Oh, they have disturbed your god, have they? A. But I don't make a god of it; it does me good, and keeps my nerves straight. Q. Dare you trust God for salvation? Q. Then why do you lust after that which defiles the temple of God? Christ will not save you in your sins, neither will he bless you while you are setting a bad example. A. I don't feel condemned, still it hurts me to use it, and I wish that I was rid of it, for it is a filthy habit. Q. Do you not pretend to teach God's word? Q. Does not Paul tell you to be an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in purity? 1 Tim. iv, 12. Q. Is using tobacco, in any form, setting a pure example before the church, or world? Oh that the professed church of Christ would arise,59and be truly a light to the world. But when we see its members contaminating themselves with every hurtful lust, and thus living in open violation of law, what can we expect? They are not willing to go as far in a reformation of habits, as those who lived in an age of darkness compared with us. In 1590 a Persian king prohibited the use of tobacco; but many of his devout subjects, like the Christians during the dark ages, fled to the mountains to do up their devotions, and escape his persecution. In 1661, in Berne, Switzerland, in the police regulations, there was made a code of prohibitions, after the form of the ten commandments, in which the one against smoking tobacco stood next to that which said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." In 1610, a Turk, at Constantinople, being found smoking, was led through the streets with his nose transfixed with a pipe, as a punishment. In 1630, smokers were condemned to the punishment of having the nose slit. We may even look to the "mother of harlots," and see her trying to cleanse herself from this noxious weed, not by burning it as incense, but by banishment. In 1690 Pope Innocent XII renewed a bull, issued at some former period by Pope Urban, which excluded all tobacco-snuffers and smokers from the church. But the Pope's bull did not last long. In 1724, Benedict XIV revoked it, having become a snuff-taker himself. We pass from the Pope to the present time, and find that we are still in a world of sin, and unless God by his good Spirit helps us all to overcome, we shall fall. How thankful we all should feel, that we have heard the last message of mercy that is to go forth to prepare a people for translation. And now, brethren, while God is preparing his servants for the work that is before them, shall we sit still? By no means. Let us cleanse ourselves from all iniquity, that we may stand before the Son of man. THERE are individuals who protract their devotion by preaching upon their knees. Especially is this true of some persons who in their anxiety to have others believe as they do, act injuriously. Those who are interested to learn our views, soon lose their interest if we act the bigot by continually and dogmatically forcing our opinions upon them. As long as a person manifests an interest to hear, it is safe to take the truth to them, but when they become unwilling to listen, it only creates prejudice. It is right to pray that others may receive the truth, but if we in our prayers try to explain and elucidate points of doctrine, it is going too far. Perhaps we cannot better obtain a true idea of the objects of prayer than by closely examining the Lord's prayer. Matt. vi, 9-13. This prayer is very comprehensive and probably contains all the objects of prayer. Here is a model, notice its brevity. Our Father which art in heaven. Faith in a Supreme Being who has a parental care for us is here clearly implied. Who would say "Our Father in heaven," if they did not believe in a God? If they only partially believed, or hoped there was a God they would commence as did the atheist at sea amid a storm, "O God if there be a God." Hallowed be thy name. Reverence and adoration for God in the perfection of his attributes is here expressed. How holy and pure is the great God! Approach him with your hand upon your mouth. Job xl, 4. Thy kingdom come. The scope of this sentence is exceeding broad. Taken in its ultimate sense it is a desire for the establishment of Christ's everlasting kingdom in the earth made new. Taken it all its bearings, it contains the sum of our duties for the salvation of our fellow men. Whatever we may do or say that has for its object and end the prosperity of Christ's cause, is living out this petition. Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven. This inculcates submission to the will of God, one fruit of which is meekness; alludes to the perfect order and submission of Heaven's inhabitants, and glances at the time when God's will shall be perfectly fulfilled by earth's inhabitants; for God does not teach us to pray for anything that cannot or will not be done. Give us this day our daily bread. This is a petition not only for a daily supply of food for the body, but also for the bread which came down from heaven. It also implies our entire dependence upon God, "Give us." Is there any need of our asking for a thing we can get ourselves without help? And forgive us our debts. We are sinners, we have broken thy law, remove the load, cancel the debt for thy name's sake. As we forgive our debtors. This clause is the least thought of, of any portion of this prayer, so universally admired. The Lord anticipated this and immediately repeated and enlarged upon it, verses 14, 15. See also chap. v. 23, 24; xviii, 21-35; Mark xi. 25, 26; Col. iii, 3. We seldom pray without asking for forgiveness of sins, but how often do we think of this condition of pardon? Ponder well upon this point for nothing less than salvation depends upon it. And lead us not into temptation. Abandon us not to temptation, suffer us not to be led out of the path but lead us in the right way. But deliver us from evil. Deliver us from all the snares of Satan, and from all the ills of soul and body. 1 Thess. v, 23. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. This is an ejaculation of praise. It acknowledges God as the creator, owner and preserver of the universe, and implies his eternity. The scope of our petitions is summed up in this model prayer. We should not pray too long, or use repetitions, yet ask for all we want. A simple, submissive, confiding prayer of moderate length and correct petitions, will have a good effect on the listener. Let us watch while we pray, and try to pray with the "Spirit and with the understanding also." What Seventy Boys Became.
By E. Lawton
MANY people begin the education of their children with an exhibition of toys, marvelous tales, silly romances, and wind up with the circus and theater. The degrading influence and sorrowful consequences of this mode of education will be best illustrated by stating a few facts that have passed under my own observation. So far as my memory goes, about thirty boys educated in this way, that is, in contempt of all useful knowledge and occupation, spent their days in reading novels, the lives and confessions of pirates, murderers, &c., and their nights in the streets, dram-shops, gambling-saloons, circus, and theater; at the age of forty-five, one had been hung for murder, one for robbing the mail, and three as pirates; five died in the penitentiary, and seven lived and died as useless vagabonds about the streets; three were useful mechanics, and the fate of the remainder is unknown. Of about forty educated with me by a really moral and scientific teacher, under the old fogy, Puritanic system of restraint, as it is now called by Young America, at the age of fifty-five, one was a member of Congress, one judge of the Supreme Court, two judges of the Circuit Court, three physicians, five lawyers, fourteen were dead, and the remainder farmers and mechanics, and, so far as known, not one of them ever was called before the bar of his country on a criminal charge, and they all had comfortable homes, except two or three, and every one was passably respectable. Dr. E. Lawton. LIBERATIS informs us "that there are many kings in the world, but there is only one pope over the whole world;" which words imply a clear confession of the supremacy of the Roman see A. D. 538.—Roman Catholic History, published in Dublin, Ireland, p. 224. The fact is, the Protestants never denied that the foundations of their faith were to be found in the Romish church.—Milner's History, Vol. v, p. 558. Lorenzo Dow says : "Most people who join the society, but have never read the Discipline, love the Methodist doctrine, and the preachers; hence love leads them in, without knowing the stuff derived from the Roman Pontiff incorporated into the theme which originally was derived from, and bottomed on, the Pagan Roman Imperial code."—Life of Dow, p. 126. SLAVERY. Slavery in the South and the religious establishments in the North, are national evils, that call for national reform and repentance: or a national scourge in this world. It may be antidoted before the storm gather and burst.—Dow's Life, p. 112. Prophecy of the coming of Luther. Andrew Proles prophesied that God would raise up a hero who by his age, strength, talents, learning, genius and eloquence should hold the foremost place. He will begin the Reformation. He will oppose error, and God will give him boldness to resist the mighty ones of the earth.—History of the Reformation, Vol. i, Chap. 6. Martin Luther says : Let the Christian reader's first object always be, to find out the literal meaning of the word of God; for this, and this alone, is the whole foundation of faith, and of Christian theology. It is the very substance of Christianity; the only thing which stands its ground in distress and temptation. It is what overcomes the gates of hell, together with sin and death, and triumphs, to the praise and glory of God.—Milner's History, Vol. v, p. 460. Right vs. Wrong.
By A. G. Riddle
A GREAT truth is weakened by what men call elucidation. Illustration obscures it; logic and argument compromise it; and demonstration brings it to doubt. He who permits himself to be put on its defensive, is a weak man and a coward. A great truth is never so strong as when left to stand on its simple assertion. The thing right forever remains right under all possible circumstances and conditions, in all times, places, and seasons. Nor can it be changed at all. Not all power, nor the combination of all power, no matter how employed or applied, can change it in the least. It matters not at all how men call it—though the unanimous world conspire to call it ill, and tag it out with all vile epithets—though all obscene mouths make it common, and lewd tongues toss it into sewers, and delicate and refined ears may not hear it—it is nowise changed. No matter what ill happens to it; though cast out, exiled, banished and outlawed, marked and forever banned, made leprous with contumely and reproach; though prisoned, tried, condemned and executed, and its body, like carrion, cast to vultures, it still lives, is still right; holds its old place and old scepter. Nor can any man, by any power, under any circumstances, for anything, be absolved from the allegiance he owes it. So, too, its great opposite, wrong, must forever be wrong, and not right. No matter, though taken from its native hell and enthroned a crowned king; though a universe bow to it, and cry "all hail!" though constitutions be written to sustain it; though laws be enacted in its name, and ermined judges wrench the maxims of "wisdom's gray fathers" for its support; though jurors be sworn by it, and all magistrates bound to enforce its decrees; though its name be writ-in all holy places, and graved on all shrines, and its maxims mingled in the rights of holy ministration, and its sanctified hands only can bless and curse, join and put asunder; though it reign till hoary prescription grows up and surrounds it with a wall of custom and habit and use, that existed "time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary;"—still it is wrong and not right. Its reign is a usurpation, its laws an outrage, against which rebellion is righteous; and the immunities and privileges which it confers are the fruits of robbery, murder, and ravishment. A thousand years of growth cannot change wrong into right.—Hon. A. G. Riddle of Ohio. One of the late Dr. Spencer's parishioners in Brooklyn, New York, met him hurriedly urging his way down the street one day; his lips were set, there was something strange in that gray eye. "How are you to-day, Doctor ?" he said pleasantly. He waked as from a dream, and replied soberly, "I am mad!" It was a new word for a mild, true-hearted Christian; but he waited, and with an earnest voice went on, "I found a widow standing by her goods thrown in the street; she could not pay the month's rent; the landlord turned her out; and one of her children is going to die; and that man is a member of my church! I told her to take her things back again. I am on my way to see him!" Are the Dead Conscious? No. 3.
By R. F. Cottrell
In chap. x, 19, Job speaks again of what would have been his condition, had he died in infancy, He says, "I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death a land of darkness as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness." This testimony agrees with other inspired declarations, that man in death returns to the earth as he was, and is as though he had not been. In case he had died, Job did not think he should have been in heaven, nor in a burning hell, nor yet in a comfortable conscious state in hades, but in a land of darkness as darkness itself. He was a good man, as is evident, not only from the book that bears his name, but from the allusion to him in Ezekiel; consequently, if any one would go to heaven at death, he would. If popular theology be true, he would go to heaven at death. Upon this supposition, his remonstrance, his earnest pleading that his "miserable comforters" would desist from wearying him, would amount to this: My days on earth are few, I shall soon die. Do let me alone, do let me take a little comfort, before I go—to heaven! But in his address to the Almighty, recorded in chap. vii, 20, 21, he says, "For now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be." Had this been spoken to men, it might be replied, that they would seek in vain for Job, after his death, because he would have left the earth and gone to heaven. But he speaks to God: "Thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be." Had Job lived in these days, he could not have escaped the brand of "Infidelity." But as it would not look well to charge so ancient a servant of God with infidelity, some, in these days, have excused him by saying, "This was all owing to Job's profound ignorance." In chap. xiv, 7, he draws a contrast between the cutting down of a tree and the death of a man, as follows: "For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof shall not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it shall bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" To this grave question of inspiration, which seems to challenge the wisdom of man for an answer, the writer of a popular tract which I once read, very pertly replied, "If he is a good man, he is in heaven, if a bad man, he is in hell." He would have shown greater reverence for the sacred scriptures, had he read the inspired answer which immediately follows the question. "As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." The argument is this: The tree that is cut down, may not lose its vitality, but may sprout again. But man in death wasteth away. He is like the water that disappears by evaporation in the heat of the sun. Its particles yet exist, but the water has disappeared and cannot be found. So man is dissolved in death, and mingles with the dust out of which he was taken. As a man he is not to be found. But the vapor which ascends from the drying up of water, may be condensed and the water reproduced; and the power of God can bring man again from the dust. Job was no Sadducee, though he thus spake. His next words are, "O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me secret, till thy wrath be past, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee; thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands." Job's prayer was heard. He is hidden in the grave, where he will remain till God's wrath is past. The time is set when he will be remembered. He will wait in the grave till the appointed time for his change to immortality to come, at the resurrection of the just. Then the trump of God shall call, and Job will answer—he will come forth a glorious and immortal being. In another place, chap. xvii, 13, he says, "If I wait, the grave is mine house; I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust." "Oh! how gloomy, how gloomy!" says one. Yes death is gloomy; it is an enemy. It comes in consequence of sin, and there is nothing cheering or lovely about it. But the monster shall be slain. The hope of the good old patriarch is not lost, though all men should fail to "see it." Soon his triumphant faith breaks forth in the following strain. "*O, that my words were now written! O, that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen61and lead in the rock forever. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms devour this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God.*" His hope was not that he should go down into the earth, but that he should come up out of it, when the Redeemer of men should make his glorious advent. This has ever been the true hope of the church, a hope now soon to be realized. R. F. COTTRELL.