66 immortality, and that "eternal life is the gift of God in Christ," can plead for the Protestant purgatory, this "evangelisation in Hades," is to me altogether inexplicable. What does it, what can it mean? There is no mystery about a never dying" or "immortal soul" existing after "the death of the body;" in other words, if this imaginary entity be deathless, it can and must exist, although we are altogether ignorant of the mode or conditions of its existence; but the survival of a mortal soul after the death of the body" is a thought for which we have no mental lodging, It may be possible, it may be true, but to us it is neither. So far as we are concerned, it is simply an intellectual blank. We affirm fearlessly, and logically, that if " disembodied souls" can live any where for even the short period that we, dwellers on the world's surface, call a day, they can live for ever. Men who teach that all souls are by nature immortal, and that therefore God, who is Love, will redeem them all through the fires of purgatory or of hell, are consistent with themselves, though in error on both sides of their doctrine; and men who teach that all souls are by nature mortal, and that salvation in the intermediate state will reach those of them who were not saved whilst in the body, are inconsistent with themselves as well as in error regarding "the intermediate state." But what a cloud of thick darkness all this time hangs over the work of our blessed Redeemer! LIFE ETERNAL ONLY IN HIM! Understand these words, and the fog vanishes from the theological region as it does from hill and dale when the sun ascends the heavens. But it is here that our grand difficulty confronts us, the very citadel of orthodoxy with its troops and cannon. In Luther's day the nations were sick at heart from the immorality and tyranny of holy church, and myriads who durst not whisper their convictions prayed in their hearts for victory to the reformer. The Church was so shamefully and notoriously corrupt that the world was ashamed of it. All this silent influence helped the reformation. 'But we are Protestant and reformed. We are clean escaped from the errors and corruptions of the days of Tetzel. You cannot bring any charge against us of concealing truth or teaching unscriptural doctrine. The Bible, open to every man, is our text-book and standard, and our honesty and morality are unimpeachable, the world being witness.' Just so. It is the old cry, "The temple of the Lord are these," that makes it so extremely difficult to awaken the Church at large to the fact, that she may be wrong on one or two matters of extreme importance, casting suspicion upon the rectitude of the Divine Ruler, both in relation to justice and mercy, and obscuring the good news with a cloud which makes the multitude shrink from it as any thing but a message of unmixed mercy. It is this assumed doctrinal perfection of the orthodox churches that makes so painfully difficult the task of convincing them that natural immortality and endless suffering are twin falsehoods grievously dishonouring to God, and a stumbling block to men. But, the Lord graciously upholding, we do not mean to shrink from duty notwithstanding the obloquy and ostracism which it involves, for this work has been assigned to us by the beloved Master, in whom alone is eternal life, whose approbation is splendid wages, and, in the words of our correspondent, it is indeed "A GLORIOUS WORK. ED. THE RAINBOW AND 1879. We welcome with gladness the new coming year, Precious truths as of yore will its pages adorn, No false figment of Plato will find entrance there, One new feature will heighten its value still more, Not a nation alone, but a multitude thou* Shalt hereafter become, as a choice "fruitful bough," Which will "blossom and bud, fill the world with its fruit," † As a host of rich talent the work will engage L. L. WADEson. CORRESPONdence. A WORD ON TWO POINTS. DEAR SIR,-Two articles in the present month's issue of the RAINBOW appear to invite comment. First, I would like to suggest to our esteemed contributor of "The Scripture Doctrine of Regeneration" that there are three worlds; the world of nature, the world of grace, and the world of glory; that entrance into each is a new birth in * Gen. xl. viii. 19. some sense or sort; and that our Lord's words "Ye must be born again" were spoken of new birth into the world of grace, if Paul to the saints at Ephesus said rightly, "You hath He quickened who were dead;" and Peter wrote truly "to the strangers scattered" as "being born again.' Here they spoke of something past and present, but not prospective. Regeneration as а Scripture doctrine must not be con † Isa. xxvii. 6. My Next, I would like to say to Mr. Carter, at whatever period or periods Zechariah and Jude were translated into Greek, his thought about an erratic copyist confusing Moses with Joshua is more than doubtful. The ninth verse of Jude is the one link in the chain of revealed truth needful to account for Moses being found upon the Mount of Transfiguration, in a body like Elijah. Had not Michael been sent for it, 'tis certain he never would have gone upon such an errand, and that it was something unprecedented is evident by Satan standing upon his right to detain it and disputing Michael's mission to fetch it. reverent thought is, and I only suggest it for devout consideration, that our indulgent God, who never withholds what his people ask without giving them something better, was so moved by Moses' plea, “I pray Thee let me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan," that, having bound himself by His word, "Thou shalt not go over thither," God could not deny himself, but as soon as Moses died and was buried-and ere his flesh saw corruption, as ours will not who are alive and remain at the coming -God sent Michael for the body, that Moses, forbidden the earthly Canaan, might see the heavenly. This, God-with whom all things are possible-could do without affecting the decree that the Son should be the first begotten from the dead, since the quickening of Moses' body would be the necessary result of coming into a presence from which death would flee.-I am yours faithfully, N. STARKEY. THE PENALTY OF SIN. : DEAR SIR, - In "Notes and Comments" of December number of the RAINBOW, Mr. William Maude has criticised a paper of mine which appeared in your October issue, page 475, in which he thinks he detects a difficulty that he would like to see explained; a second reference to this paper will, I think, correct this impression. The sentence reads thus: "Well, we are assured by divines that the penalty incurred by Adam through his disobedience was death temporal, death spiritual, death eternal, and by death eternal we are told we must understand eternal torment." My argument is this assuming the truth of the general theory that the penalty is eternal death and eternal death an equivalent for eternal torment, then it follows that there is no provision made to meet the penalty in the atonement of Christ, inasmuch as our blessed Lord did not endure that penalty, and consequently this general assumption must be false. Of course the converse of the proposition is what I maintain, viz., that the penalty is simply death, and death accompanied with the Divine displeasure, and that this penalty was literally and fully endured by Christ, and that from this penalty the believer in Christ obtains complete deliverance, inasmuch as he is raised from the dead" Christ has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light." Eternal death, or (to use Scriptural language) the destruction of soul and body in Gehenna, is the punishment of rejecting the Gospel, and for this penalty no atonement is provided. "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more (no other) sacrifice for sins, but a certain fear ful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Perseverance in unbelief is the unpardonable sin, and unpardonable because atonement of Christ does not meet the it and was not intended to meet it. I trust these supplemental remarks may make my reasoning plain. Yours very truly CHAS. UNDERhill. Woodbridge Lodge, Oxford. LITERATURE. Eternal Life By Death: A Testimony on Ritualism, Vicarious Substitution, and Immortalism. By W. Griffith, Author of "The Atoning Lamb," "The Entire Evidence of Evangelists and Apostles on Future Punishment," "Man's State in Nature," etc. London: John Snow and Co. MR. GRIFFITH, in this valuable work, "puts some of the Scripture facts and truths into unwonted prominence, and adjusts them in natural relations which lend new support and certainty to the whole of revelation." This is his own account of the book, modestly expressed, as becomes a man of genius and a Christian philosopher. The fact is, the work is one of extraordinary value in relation to the great question which this Magazine had the supreme honour of bringing prominently before the Church, Pressure of matter compels us to devote only a few lines to an essay that deserves a long review. The book consists of three leading parts, with their subordinate sections, namely, "The Great Memorial," "Meaning of the Death," "Final "Meaning of the Death," "Final Destruction." Under the first we have the Man, the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion. Under the second, Substitution, Atonement, Vicarious Death, Life Feeds on Life, Is Life Worth Having? Reconciliation. Under the third, Annihilation, Immortalism, Destruction. These headings are, of course, sufficient to attract the attention of thoughtful men who wish to see what can be said for the great theological reformation for which we labour. Mr. Griffith is a Protestant, and assuredly he tells you why! Any thing more conclusive on this old controversy it is impossible to conceive. The second division of the book is profoundly interesting. The holy reason of Christ's death is treated with holy reverence; and the bearing of the whole on the gift of immortality to believers through His death and resurrection is clearly and eloquently described. The Biblical Museum. By James Comper Gray. Old Testament, Vol. IV. Containing the Books of Kings and Chronicles. London Elliot Stock. MR. GRAY continues his indefati gable research, like a hungry bookworm, among all sorts of volumes for illustrations of the text of the great Book. These "Notes Explanatory, Homiletic, and Illustrative" teachers, as they are full of valuable must be very useful to students and information; and even for private reading they furnish a rich repast. Plain Sermons on a Topic of Present Interest. By William R. Huntington, D.D., Rector of All Saints, Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Reprinted in England by Elliot Stock. THE preliminary motto is a preg Starting from this nebulous point, Mr. Huntington has reached a stage where he is able to declare that "Charles Frederick Hudson's 'Debt and Grace' and Edward White's 'Life in Christ' are likely long to remain, what they are at present, the classical authorities on the subject of Conditional Immortality." Still, as regards his own mental attitude, he prefers to rest "satisfied with likelihood where they seem to find certitude," and "hopes that his sermons, slight and sketchy as they are, may serve to win a hearing for voices better worth listening to." From this unambitious platform Mr. Huntington, we are happy to see, is none the less energetic in exposing the heresy and false doctrine so long triumphant; and though he traverses ground too familiar to our readers to require rehearsal, the book is not without touches of originality. How indeed can any man of thought and feeling when embarked on such a voyage, fail to make it a voyage of discovery? There is a note, for instance, touching "the bearing of the Apostle Paul's polemical training as a Pharisee upon his use of the expression zoe aionios and kindred phrases," which could well afford amplification. Paul had expanded into a Pharisee of the Pharisees, but on grounds which the Pharisees scorned. Formerly he had maintained the doctrine of the Resurrection on abstract grounds of theological reasoning. Now he linked it closely to the person of Christ the first begotten of the dead, and preached not simply the Resurrection, but Jesus and the Resurrection. He now preached through Christ a life which cannot perish; apart from Christ no everlasting life at all. And then Mr. Huntington goes on to argue that "Paul would scarcely have expressed himself in the way he did about the future, had he meant to be understood as teaching the everlasting survival in conscious wretchedness of them that perish." Our own minds have long reposed in the fact that there exists neither necessity, warrant, nor excuse, why "certitude" as to Paul's meaning should any longer stand cap in hand, waiting on "likelihood." We have all been waiting on one another too long. We have lastly to say about Mr. Huntington's book that he has an essay showing the happy accordance of the Book of Common Prayer with the doctrine of Life in Christ, which would be highly acceptable to Mr. Warleigh, and to many others likewise. Shams and Realities in Dress, Man ners, and Religion. By Thomas Cheshire. London: Elliot Stock. QUAINT, sarcastic, amusing, healthy. Infirmity. London: Publishing |