Signs of the Times, Vol. 3, No. 34. (8/30/1877)

Signs of the Times

Aug 30, 1877

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Aug 30, 1877

UNITY AND PERSONALITY OF GOD.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELDER D. M. CANRIGHT.

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED—CONCLUDED.

When Jesus Christ the Son of God came into this world, was he not a real being, a person, having a body and form? Was he not a material being? We all know he was. He ate, drank, walked, died upon the cross and was buried. Yet the Bible says he was a spirit, and that too while upon earth.

“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [Christ] was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.” 1 Cor. 15:45–47. Here it is declared that Christ, the second Adam, was made a quickening spirit. It will be noticed that this was said of the man who took our nature, took Adam’s nature. Paul says, “The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last man Adam was made a quickening spirit;” “the second man is the Lord from heaven.” Then the man Christ Jesus was a spirit, for it so directly says. And by the way, this passage explains what is meant when a person is called a spirit. It means

that he is a spiritual being, for thus it says, “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural [i. e., Adam], and afterward that which is spiritual” [i. e., Christ]. So when it says that Christ is a spirit it is explained to mean that he was a spiritual being. So Paul says again, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” Verse 44.

This verse settles the question that there is a spiritual body, and that it is a person, and not an immaterial intangible essence merely. “There is a spiritual body,” says Paul. Very well, then, a thing can be spiritual and be a body too. So God is a spirit and has a body, is a spiritual being and yet of bodily form and shape. Christ is called a spirit again in 2 Cor. 3:17.

Of Christ Paul here says: “Now the Lord is that spirit.” If Christ, then, was a spirit, and yet had a body, and form, so his Father can be a spirit and have a body and form. This argument is unanswerable. Furthermore, man himself is said to be a spirit, not simply that he has an immaterial, intangible spirit within him, but he himself, the man, body and all, is the spirit. Let us see if this is not so. “What! know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” 1 Cor. 6:16, 17.

He declares that a man who is joined to a harlot is one body, for says he, God says they two shall be one flesh; i. e., the man who joins himself to a harlot becomes like her, a corrupt licentious person. But on the other hand he says, “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit;” i. e., he becomes like the Lord, pure, holy, spiritual. That this is what he means by being a spirit is shown by what he previously says in the same letter. “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.” 1 Cor. 3:1.

Here you have the explanation. He says he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. Why? Because they were not converted. Some of them had committed adultery, others were envious &c., showing the works of the flesh. They were carnal. But those who are joined to the Lord were spiritual, or as he more directly says, he is a spirit. Chapter 6:17. But does that annihilate his personality, or prove that he has not a body and shape? No, indeed. Neither then does the declaration that God is a spirit prove that he is not a person having body, and form. One of Greenfield’s definitions of spirit is as follows: “By metonymy, a person who acts or professes to act under a divine influence or by inspiration.” In proof of this he quotes the following:—

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1. It will be seen that persons claiming to be prophets are called spirits.

A spirit, then, is a person in a bodily shape. A spirit or spiritual person means a being of a higher nature than man in his natural condition, a heavenly being, or one inspired by the spirit of heaven.

But does not Jesus say that a spirit hath not flesh and bones? Luke 24:39. In this case the reference is to an apparition, or ghost. The disciples were terrified and so at first thought that Jesus was a ghost, a mere specter, a thing only of the frightened imagination. They themselves did not believe such an apparition to be real. Hence Christ appeals to them that he is not such a spirit for he has flesh and bones.

3. God cannot be a material being.

As the foregoing positions necessarily show that God is a real, personal being, possessing body, parts, local habitation, etc., it is next objected that God cannot be a material being. It is urged that matter cannot think, move and act of itself; that it must first be organized and animated with life. Hence our opponents ask, If God is a material being, who organized him, who made him? But we hand this question right back to our opponents. Are

not angels spirits? are not devils spirits? are not men spirits? At any rate, all will admit that each man has a spirit. Are not angels and devils and spirits of men created? The Bible says that God “formeth the spirit of man within him.” Zech. 12:1.

Spirits, then, all must admit, have to be created and formed as well as material beings. Where is the proof that spirit is eternal any more than matter, granting the distinction between matter and spirit that our spiritualizing friends claim? Furthermore, who will affirm that God is simply a spirit in the abstract, in the general sense, simply unorganized spirit? None of our opponents will affirm that. Now spirits are organized beings as well as material beings are. To deny this would be to deny their individuality, their personality. Angels and devils themselves are spiritual beings, but are just as distinct one from another as men are from each other. Neither are they eternal more than men. They were created, formed, organized by God; so the Bible says.

Now granting their ideas of God as a pure immaterial spirit, we ask them, Who organized this spirit? And our question is just as fair as theirs, when they ask us, Who organized God if he is a material being? Neither party can answer this question, simply because we know nothing about it. The atheist triumphantly asks the Christian, Who made God? and he never can tell from the simple fact that such questions are too high for mortal men. Job truly says: “Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.” Job 11:7–9.

But we utterly deny the distinction between matter and spirit which is claimed. We believe that everything is material, and that these diversities are only different forms of matter. No living man can successfully deny this. The wisest and most scientific men freely admit that they know but little about matter. The more they study, the deeper they search into it, the more they are convinced that its different attributes and capabilities have been but partially understood. Because a certain fact is true of matter in one condition is it argued that it must be true of matter always and everywhere? but this is illogical and false, for matter is capable of the greatest diversity. Matter in one form may even seem to be directly opposite of the same matter in another form. For instance, I have before me a piece of ice. I put my hand upon it; it is exceedingly cold. It is a square chunk; I can cut it with a knife, saw it with a saw into blocks. It is solid. But I put this ice in a vessel and warm it. It soon becomes water,—a liquid. It now looks very different from that piece of ice which I held in my hands a few minutes before. I closely confine this water in a tight vessel and heat it very hot. It now becomes steam, a vapor and is invisible. It is so hot it would scald your hand in a moment. It can neither be cut, nor poured from vessel to vessel. It now seems to be precisely opposite from that chunk of ice, and yet everybody knows that it is the very same material exactly, only in another condition. If no man had seen ice thus converted into steam, we would all pronounce such a change impossible. Let him look at that chunk of ice, put his hands upon it, examine it; and then let him examine steam in its most heated condition; let him try it with his hand, then tell him that they are both the same material, and he would pronounce it the greatest absurdity imaginable. Yet we all know by actual observation that ice, and water, and steam are only different conditions of the same material.

There is as great a difference between steam and ice as is claimed by our opponents, between spirit and matter. We claim, therefore, that they cannot show that a spirit is not one form of matter. The Bible nowhere says it is not. On the other hand, as we have proved before, it plainly shows that it is.

Consider further the wonderful diversity of matter. Before me lies a piece of paper very white. By its side lies a book very black, both opposite, but both material. Here is a cake of ice, there is a coal of fire, one cold the other hot, both material. Here is a ball of lead, there is a feather of down, one very heavy, the other flits in the air,—both material. Here is a plank of wood, there is a pane of glass; one is entirely opaque, the other transparent,—both material. Here is a piece of pure, shining gold, a foot square and worth many thousands of dollars, there is a bushel of mud worth nothing, both material. Heat is material, the rays of light are material, the air is material, electricity is material. No one will dispute these facts. But who can explain what light is? who can tell what heat is? who can fathom the mystery of electricity?

Take this simple fact, now of every day occurrence. A man stands in New York. He touches the end of a wire and a man clear across the ocean in London immediately perceives the fact. He cannot explain how this is done. We say it is done by electricity. Ah, but what is electricity? Is it an immaterial, intangible conscious spirit from the other world? Three centuries ago it probably would have been explained as such, but now we know it is simply an action upon matter, wonderful as it is.

Every year scientific investigation is revealing new wonders of matter. A man only exposes his ignorance when he says that matter cannot do this and cannot do that. He is simply asserting that of which he knows nothing. It is our humble opinion, well founded we think too, both in revelation and science, that angels and the celestial beings are as material as men, only that they are more highly organized, more refined,—matter on a higher plane. Who that has carefully observed the wonderful and infinite diversity of matter, even as seen in this earth, will deny the reasonableness of this position? It cannot be disproved, to say the least. When we have found out God to perfection, when we have explored earth, heaven, and hell, and have fathomed all the infinite diversities and capabilities of matter, then, and not till then, will it do for us to say what God must be and what matter cannot be. Therefore this objection against the materiality of God is not a valid one.

But we have overwhelming evidence that God is a material being. That holy God made this solid earth, this material planet, with all the material things upon it. He made a material man, a material atmosphere, material food for man to live upon, a material sun to light and warm this earth with material rays. He made all the millions of stars on high, every one of them just as material, in fact, of the same material as our own earth. The latest developments of astronomy clearly show that all the planets in the heavens are revolving around one great material center, the habitation of the Almighty. If matter is so repulsive, so opposed to the nature of God, why has he made so vast a creation out of it?

Consider the further fact that the Saviour of men is a material being. He was born of a material woman, walked upon this material earth, breathed its air, ate of its food, died upon a material wooden cross, spilled his material blood, was buried in the earth, his material body was resurrected, and is exalted at the right hand of God, and now sits upon the throne of the universe. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Rev. 3:21. This is directly asserted by the most orthodox creeds. Thus the Art. in the creed of the Episcopalian church says: “Christ did truly rise again from death and took again his body, with flesh, bones and all things appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven and there sitteth.” So says the Methodist Discipline also. Then we have indeed a material Saviour, sitting upon the throne of the Father. No one will deny this. Why, then, should they be so horrified at the idea of a material God? We advise them to examine this point again.

God-Love.

By J. G. Holland

In all the crowded universe There is but one stupendous word; And huge and rough, or trimmed and terse, Its fragments build and undergird The songs and stories we rehearse.

All forms that human language tries, All phrases of the books and schools, And all the words of great and wise Are weak attempts or clumsy tools, To speak the word that speech defies.

That word ineffable to man, Though spoken through a thousand years, Or thundered in the fiery van Of all the myriad wheeling spheres, Unvoiced remains where they began.

There is no tree that rears its crest; No fern or flower that cleaves the sod, No bird that sings above its nest But tries to speak the name of God, And dies when it has done its best.

Like marble in the mountain mine, White at its heart as at its face, We chip its crystals, nor divine The forms of majesty and grace That wait within the central shrine!

And the great word, all words above, Including, yet defying all— Soft as the cooing of a dove, And strong as the Archangel's call— Means only this—means only love!

One word presents creation's whole,— All space, all worlds, all living things; And love endows them with a soul,— The bright Shechinah, throned in wings Behind the temple's sacred scroll!

The love of home and native land, The love that springs in son and sire, And that which welds the heart and hand Of man and maiden in its fire, Are signs, by which we understand

The love whose passion shook the cross; And all those loves that, deep and broad, Make princely gain of piteous loss, Reveal the love that lives in God As in a blood-illumined glass.

J. G. Holland.

THE BIBLICAL INSTITUTE.

By Uriah Smith

HELD IN OAKLAND, CAL., APRIL 1–17, 1877.

[In this form we give a synopsis of the lectures presented at this Institute, the aim being to give principal facts, dates and references, with as few words as will serve to connect them. The lessons are not intended to measure the recitations. A lesson embraces an entire subject; but some of these occupied a number of recitations in the class.]

LESSON FIFTEEN.

DESTINY OF THE WICKED.

We have now examined briefly the testimony of the Bible in regard to the nature of man and his condition in death. The only remaining branch of the subject, namely, his destiny beyond the resurrection, next claims attention. From the evidence already presented, it is clear that the final doom of the wicked cannot be endless suffering, because we have seen that man has no immortal element in his nature. It only remains therefore that we take up those passages which are supposed to teach eternal suffering and see if they can be harmonized with the scriptures already examined.

It may be remarked first, that the immortality of the soul leads to some very grave conclusions. For instance, the punishment of the sinner is set forth as being eternal; and if the soul cannot cease to be conscious, the doctrine of eternal misery inevitably follows. On the other hand we read of a time when every intelligence in the universe will be ascribing honor, blessing and praise to God. And if the soul is immortal, we are just as clearly taught by this, the universal restoration of all the race. Christ says, speaking of both the righteous and the wicked, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment,” but he adds immediately concerning the righteous, “but the righteous into life eternal.” Here the same word is used in reference to the punishment of the wicked that is used to measure the life of the righteous. The punishment of the wicked therefore is eternal; and this overthrows universalism and the restoration view of Origen. How then can this scripture be harmonized with the declaration just quoted, that all living intelligences shall finally bless and praise the God of Heaven? The harmony is found in the nature of the punishment. This the Scriptures show to be death; and this view overthrows alike the restoration view of Origen and the eternal hell of Augustine.

We will now examine those passages of scripture which are put forth as evidence that the punishment threatened to the wicked is eternal misery.

1. Dan. 12: 2. “But many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” The objector couples the shame with the contempt and makes both to be everlasting; but the Scripture does not so express it. It is the contempt and that only that is said to be everlasting. The contempt is an emotion exercised not by the wicked, but by the righteous. The Syriac reads, “some to shame and the eternal contempt of their companions.” The shame they will feel for themselves, which shows that they are raised to consciousness; but the contempt is exercised by the righteous so long as they hold them in remembrance at all. This text therefore furnishes no proof of the eternal suffering of the wicked.

2. Matt. 25: 41. “Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Wicked men are not said in this text to be everlasting; and this destroys all the force of the passage for the popular view. Not even the devil is said to be everlasting; but only the fire. And in what respect is this everlasting? Not in its process of burning, but in its effects. Just as we read in Heb. 5: 9 of eternal salvation; in Heb. 6: 2 of eternal Judgment; in Heb. 9: 12 of eternal redemption. Not a salvation, Judgment and redemption that are forever going forward, but never accomplished, but such as are eternal in their effects.

3. Matt. 25: 46. “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.” As we have said, the punishment and the life mentioned in this text are of equal duration. But what is this punishment? The Greek word here used for punishment is kolases, which is defined a curtailing, or pruning. The idea of “cutting off” is the prominent idea. The righteous go into everlasting life, but the wicked go into an everlasting “cutting off” from something. What is that? Happiness? No, but life or existence such as is given to the righteous.

But how, it will be asked, can death be an everlasting punishment. It is well understood that death is considered the highest punishment that can be inflicted in this world. And why? Because it deprives the individual of all the blessings of life which he might have enjoyed had he lived. So in the case of the wicked at the final Judgment. They are cut off from the eternal blessings of life in the kingdom of God which the righteous enjoy; and hence it is to them an everlasting punishment.

4. Mark 9: 43, 44. “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dieth not and their fire is not quenched.” Twice in verses 46 and 48 our Lord repeats this solemn sentence against the wicked. The word here used for hell is gehenna, a word used to designate the valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem. The use of this word throws much light upon the passage before us; for in this valley fires were kept constantly burning to consume the bodies of malefactors and the filth of the city, which were cast into it, and what the fire failed to consume, the worms preyed upon and destroyed. The figure then to which Christ called the minds of his hearers was that of complete and utter destruction.

With such language and such figures the Jews were familiar. Isaiah and Jeremiah frequently use them. The Lord, in Jeremiah 17: 27, said that he would kindle a fire in the gates of Jerusalem which should not be quenched. 2 Chron. 36: 19, 21 records the fulfillment of this. It was simply a fire which burned until it had entirely consumed the gates of Jerusalem. Psalm 37: 20 says that the wicked shall consume into smoke. Malachi 4: 3 says that they shall be ashes under the feet of the righteous. Ezekiel in chap. 20: 47, 48 speaks of unquenchable fire in a similar manner.

But Isaiah in chap. 66: 24 undoubtedly uses the very language which our Lord borrowed in the passage under consideration. But here in Isaiah those that are subject to the unquenchable fire and the undying worm are not living persons but dead bodies. So the Jews would understand Christ by these terms to threaten complete and utter destruction against the wicked. Eusebius even uses the same terms, unquenchable fire, in reference to the martyrdom of Christians.

5. Jude 7. “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” What is said to be eternal in this text? Not the people, not the suffering, but only the fire. And why is this called eternal? Simply because it is eternal in its effects. Sodom and Gomorrha will never recover themselves from that destruction. 2 Peter 2: 6 says, “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.” This text therefore proves, not that the wicked will be punished with eternal conscious suffering, but with an utter consumption, even as Sodom was consumed.

6. But two or more texts remain which are urged in favor of the doctrine of the eternal torment of the wicked. These both are found in the book of Revelation. The first is in Rev. 14: 11, being a part of the third angel’s message which is now under consideration: “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”

We first inquire of whom this is spoken? It is only of a particular class, those “who worship the beast and his image.” This, therefore, is not decisive relative to the punishment of the wicked in general; but we inquire further, Does it mean eternal torment for those of whom it is spoken? As was said of the language quoted from Mark 10, so it may be of this. It is not original with the New Testament, but is borrowed from the Old. In Isa. 34: 9, 10, the prophet, speaking of Idumea, says, “And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.”

There are but two ways in which this language can be understood, and in one of these ways it must be understood. It refers either to the literal land of Edom, east and south of Judea, or it is a figure to represent the whole world in the day of final conflagration. But in either case, the meaning of the language is evident. If the literal land of Idumea is meant, and the language has reference to the desolations which have fallen upon it, then certainly no eternity of duration is implied in the declaration that “the smoke thereof shall go up forever,” for the judgments that fell upon that land have long since ceased. But if it refers to the fires of the last day, when the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works therein shall be burned up, even then, the terms must be understood as denoting only limited duration; for from the ashes of the old earth, after a suitable lapse of time, through the working of Him who maketh all things new, there shall come forth a new heavens and a new earth according to the declaration of Peter, which shall be the eternal abode of the righteous.

As we thus see that the terms as used in the Bible denote limited duration, we inquire if the lexicons define them in the same manner? The terms used are aion and aionios. Aion is defined by Greenfield, Schrevelius, Liddell and Scott, Parkhurst, Robinson, Schleusner, Wahl and Cruden, as meaning finite duration as well as infinite. The term seems to imply primarily, simply duration or the flow of time; but the extent of that must be defined by other terms. When it is applied to objects which we are told will endure absolutely without end, as God, Christ, angels, the saints’ inheritance, and immortal beings, it means unlimited duration; but when it is applied to objects which we know will come to an end, it then covers only the length of time during which those things exist. Dr. Clarke in his closing remarks on 2 Kings, 5th chapter, gives us this rule for the interpretation of the words forever and ever. He says they “take in the whole extent or duration of the things to which they are applied.” If, therefore, we find other declarations stating positively that the wicked will come to an end, and we do find multitudes of such, then this term forever, or forever and ever, applied to them, must signify only the length of time during which they exist.

The second word, aionios, is subject in all respects to the same definition and rule which is noticed above in reference to aion.

The second passage, Rev. 20: 10, being exactly parallel to the one found in Revelation 14, is explained in the same manner. Rev. 14: 11 doubtless applies at the beginning of the thousand years, when the beast and the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire burning with brimstone, as stated in Rev. 19: 20; while the passage in Rev. 20: 10 refers to a similar scene of destruction visited upon Satan and all his hosts at the end of the thousand years.

7. Having now examined all the texts supposed to teach eternal misery, and having found that all are easily harmonized with the view of the destruction of the wicked, and that some are even the strongest testimony for that doctrine, we now look at a few of the passages of the Bible which speak positively of the doom of the lost:—

Eze. 18: 26: “When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die.” Here two deaths are brought to view: the first, a death in sin, and the other a consequence following that, a death for sin. We have seen that the first death leaves a man unconscious in the grave; and the second must leave him in the same condition, with no promise of a resurrection.

Paul says in Rom. 6: 23, “The wages of sin is death;” and James (1: 15) corroborates this testimony in saying, “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Death cannot, by any proper definition, be made to mean continuance in life. “The death that never dies” is a contradiction of terms.

Here are some of the declarations of the Bible respecting the wicked: They shall be destroyed, Psa. 145: 20; they shall perish, John 3: 16; they shall go to perdition, Heb. 10: 39; they shall come to an end, and be as though they had not been, Psa. 37: 10, Obad. 16; they are compared to the most inflammable and perishable substances, as a potter’s vessel, Psa. 2: 9; beasts that perish, Psa. 49: 20; a whirlwind that passeth away, Psa. 68: 2; a waterless garden, Isa. 1: 30; garments consumed by the moth, Isa. 51: 8; thistle down scattered by the whirlwind, Isa. 17: 13; the fat of lambs consumed in the fire, Psa. 37: 20; ashes, Mal. 4: 3; wax, Psa. 68: 2; tow, Isa. 1: 31; thorns, Isa. 34: 12; exhausted waters, Psa. 58: 7.

In the New Testament they are likened to chaff which is to be burned entirely up, Matt. 3: 12; tares to be consumed, Matt. 13: 40; withered branches to be burned, John 15: 6; bad fish cast away to corruption, Matt. 13: 47, 48; a house thrown down, Luke 6: 49; the old world destroyed by water, Luke 17: 29; the Sodomites destroyed by fire, 2 Pet. 2: 5, 6; natural brute beasts that perish in their own corruption, 2 Pet. 2: 12.

Finally, the teaching of the Bible on this subject may be summed up in this proposition: The wicked shall be consumed and devoured by fire, Isa. 5: 20–24, Psa. 37: 20, Rev. 20: 9. The word, in this last reference rendered devoured, says Prof. Stuart, “is intensive, so that it denotes utter excision.”

In the light of these testimonies from the Scriptures we can readily understand how it is that the wicked are to be recompensed in the earth. Prov. 11: 31. Coming up in the second resurrection at the end of the thousand years, they surround the beloved city, New Jerusalem, then descended from Heaven, and their fearful retribution then overtakes them. This is the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men, described by Peter. 2 Pet. 3: 10, 12; and this is the fire that melts the earth and the elements with fervent heat.

We can also understand how the righteous are recompensed in the earth according to the same passage in Proverbs; for after the destruction of

the wicked, they go forth and take possession of the earth made new as their eternal inheritance.

We can also understand how and when Rev. 5: 13 is to be fulfilled; for now we have a universe, clean, and pure. Satan and all his followers are destroyed, the last taint of the curse and the least stain of sin are all wiped away, and all creatures raise their voices in the glad anthem of universal jubilee, ascribing “blessing and honor and glory and power unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb forever.”

There is something most dishonorable to God in the idea that sin, introduced contrary to his will, must continue to all eternity. Its origin and its temporary continuance we can explain on Scriptural and rational principles; but its eternity, never.

With this view of eternal misery there is the most fearful discrepancy between the sins of this finite life and the eternal suffering visited upon them; hence divines are driven to say that the sins will continue in hell. Benson says that they, (sinners) “must be perpetually swelling their enormous sums of guilt and still running deeper, immensely deeper in debt to divine and infinite justice.” This represents the sinner as being able to accumulate his load of guilt faster than God can devise terrors and judgments adequate to their punishment. But the Bible says that we are to give an account for the deeds done in the body, or in this life only, and be rewarded according to our works here. God has made no provision for the eternity of sin, but has devised the most effectual means to prevent it.

The philosophical objections, resting on the ground of immateriality, and that matter cannot think, the capacities of the soul, and the analogies of nature are disproved by an examination of the powers and capacities of the brute creation. It is said that immortality is assumed in the Bible; or as Bishop Tillotson says, “taken for granted.” But it cannot be taken for granted any more than the immortality of Jehovah; and that is expressly revealed.

It is said again, that annihilation is impossible. We answer, True, in reference to matter, as matter, (that is, we have no evidence that God will annihilate matter, though he could do so if he chose), but not in reference to intelligent and conscious beings. And we claim that the wicked are to cease to be, only in this respect.

It is said that this doctrine has an evil tendency. If so, let the objector show us the infidels, criminals, profane, wicked and corrupt persons in the ranks of the friends of this doctrine. The truth is just the opposite of this. Multitudes in the light of this teaching are able for the first time to exclaim that they can harmonize the ways of God with reason and revelation; and therefore can believe the Bible to be his word.

U. S.

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