KINGDOM AND AGE TO COME.
“Earnestly contend for the Faith, which was once delivered to the Saints.”—Jude
Volume 1—Number 5 (May 1851)
From Elpis Israel.
THE “THREE UNCLEAN SPIRITS LIKE FROGS.”
(Continued from page 108.)
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In the last week of Feb. 1848 the Parisian democracy, ever foremost in revolution, plucked the Bourbon Lily from its throne, and thrust it deep into its native mud. This dynasty of a thousand years was abolished, and the nation resumed its original Westphalian right of choosing a ruler better suited to its taste. The Fleur de Lis being thrown aside, the Frogs by a vote of six millions set over themselves the nephew of their democratic emperor, who had done such good service in executing judgment upon their enemies. The president of the French Republic is therefore the incarnation of the Frog power, as the Bourbons were of the beast while ruling the tenth of the kingdoms. From February the outbreaks of the democracy in other countries became frequent and formidable; and the National Assembly and its Provisional Government constituted in fact the Parliament and executive of the democracy throughout Europe. Under the shadow of their favor Germany and Italy became insurgent, and Hungary followed in the wake of insurrection. The earth shook on every side. Urged on by its democracy, Sardinia attacked the Beast; and, provoked by the treachery of the false prophet, the people of Rome rose, and scared him into exile. After this, the plucking up of the Lombard Kingdom by the roots, and the defeat of the Sardinian horn at Novara, by which the Little Horn became triumphant in Italy, caused the Frogs to seize on Rome that their interests in the Peninsular might be preserved from annihilation. By this move the Frog- nation placed itself in antagonism to the two-horned Beast and the false prophet. The Frogs invited the prophet to return to Rome; in other words, to put himself in their power, for which, with the experience of French hospitality towards his predecessors before his eyes, and the treatment he has already received in Rome, he has not the smallest inclination, notwithstanding all his professions to the contrary. If he were to return, he could not remain there twenty-four hours in the absence of a strong military force; and the Frogs will consent to no other than their own; for they occupied Rome, not out of love to the pope, but as a check upon Austria in Italy. The truth is, Austria and the pope are natural allies; and are as intimately related as the eyes and mouth of a man are to the man himself. Their fortunes are inseparable. The fate of one is the fate of both, even perdition by the burning flame of war. The army of the Frog-power has seized upon Rome, and the false prophet refuses to return, because he regards the Frogs as his real foes. If the Austrians had possession of the city he would go back in triumph; but this not being the case, he is obliged to temporize until the times be more propitious. After this manner, then, the Frogs have become an obstacle in the way of Austria and the pope, who are both desirous of their expulsion from Rome. They have become the occasion of unclean spirits proceeding from the emperor and the Roman prophet, which will yet embroil them all, and in the end accomplish the destruction of the Austro-papal dominion. In regard to the Sultan, the Frogs are seen exerting their influence upon him. They have assured him of their support in case of his being attacked by Russia. This promise is sure, sooner or later, to bring on a war between the Porte and the Autocrat. If the Sultan had been left to himself, being weak, he would have yielded and so have avoided the chance of war; but being energized by France and England, two strong military and naval powers the Sultan feels himself a match for Russia, and prepared to assume a bold and warlike attitude. But these assurances will only lure him on to ruin. No powers, however strong, can save dominions foredoomed of God. Their friendship for the Sultan will be as fatal to him, as the friendship of England for Austria and the Pope were to them in the days of Napoleon. The autocrat, being God's sword upon Turkey, will be too strong for them both; for in the tumult and confusion created by the measures of the Sultan, the emperor, and the Roman bishop, their several dominions will be abolished, and the autocrat remain lord of the ascendant. If the reader take a survey of Europe as exhibited in the events of the last two years, he will see the view I have presented still further illustrated. The Pope and the emperor have been the principals who have brought about the wars on the continent. The unclean spirit of the Little Horn went forth to Russia and brought down its hosts upon Hungary; it is also going forth to Prussia in opposition to the democratic constitution it is developing at Erfurt; and, in concert with Russia, it has gone forth to the Sultan, with whom it has interrupted its former amicable relations. Before the Pope consented to be restored by France, an unclean spirit went forth from him likewise, and brought the Austrians, Neapolitans, and Spaniards, into his states, when he found the Frogs could not be excluded. I pointed these things out to thousands of people in my lectures, and told them, that in regard to Hungary they were deceiving themselves if they imagined the Magyars would succeed in their war of independence. That Hungary was a brittle toe-kingdom, and one of the three horns which were to be "plucked up by the roots" by the Little Horn. Meetings of sympathy for the Hungarians were being held throughout England; and news arriving every week of Austrian defeats, and Magyar victories. Still, I said, if I have fallen upon the true principles of interpretation, it is impossible for the Hungarians to triumph. So certainly incorrect did some regard this view of the matter, that they said, when I returned to London I should have to expunge what I had advanced about Hungary from the manuscript before I published this book. A preacher who had listened to me at one place, was so convinced of my error, that in his next discourse he predicted the certain triumph of the "brave Hungarians" over all their enemies. But, alas for him. Men should never prophecy of the future from present appearances. Though these were against my exposition, I was persuaded it would turn out in the end as I had said; and I added furthermore, that "an unclean spirit " was to go forth out of the mouth of the dragon, as well as from the mouths of the beast and of the false prophet; but that while we could discern "the spirits" issuing forth from these, we, did not yet perceive one issuing from the Sultan: nevertheless, though then calm and tranquil, we should soon see a warlike disposition manifest itself in his policy growing out of the Hungarian war. The unclean spirit of the Little Horn had brought the Russians into Hungary, which would only whet their appetites for Turkey, whom they would prepare to devour next. In two or three weeks after making these statements, which as I have said before, were not whispered in a corner, but spoken before thousands, all Europe was astounded by the news of Gorgey's surrender, and the ruin of the Magyar cause. The details are known to every one. And as I had said, so it came to pass, Turkish sympathy with the Hungarians, and hospitality to the refugees, was made a casus belli by the autocrat; and on the refusal of the Sultan to violate it, diplomatic relations were broken off between Russia, Austria, and Turkey; and the "unclean spirit" energized by the Frogs, exhibits even the Sultan as a belligerent. The mission, then, of these three demons for the brief period which remains of their political existence, is to stir up the nations to war, which will redound to their own destruction. The press is prophesying smooth things, and persuading the world of the moderation of the Autocrat, and of the good intentions of Austria and the Pope! It has told us several times that the extradition affair was composed and that peace between Russia and Turkey will not be interrupted; and as often it unsays what it had before affirmed. But, the reader need place no reliance upon newspaper speculations. Their scribes know not what God has revealed, consequently their reasonings are vain, and sure to take a wrong direction. As records of facts, the journals are invaluable; but if a person permit his opinions to be formed by the views presented, in leading articles, and the, letters of "our own correspondents," he will be continually misled, and compelled to eat his words for evermore. The Bible is the enlightener. If men would not be carried about by every wind that blows, let them study this. It will unfold to them the future, and make them wiser than the world. The coming years will not be years of peace. The policy of the Autocrat will be to throw his adversaries off their guard, and take the Sultan by surprise. He is to "come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he will enter into the countries, and overflow and pass over. And many countries shall be overthrown" (Dan. 11:40, 41). This is the career marked out for him; which neither France, nor England, nor the world combined can obstruct, or circumvent. In dismissing this part of the subject, it is necessary to call the attention of the reader to a very important intimation in connection with the prophecy of the "unclean spirits like frogs." This part of the prediction is contained in four verses, that is, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth inclusive. Now, if the reader will examine the passage, he will find that there is a break in the prophecy. That is to say, the subject of the spirits of demons gathering the kings of the whole habitable to war, is suddenly and entirely dropped; and an altogether different subject introduced. This new topic is nothing less than the appearance of him who sent and signified the contents of the apocalypse to his servant John (Rev. 1:1).“Behold,” says he, "I COME AS A THIEF. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." Then, in the next verse, the former subject is revived, and it is revealed, that the angel of the sixth vial gathers the kings and their armies into the battle field of Armageddon; where, as we learn from other testimony, they encounter the Lamb upon whom they make war, without knowing, probably, that he is the commander of the forces with which they are contending (Rev. 17:14; 19:19,21). Now, does it not strike the reader as remarkable that the coming of the Lord should be introduced in a prophecy like that concerning the frogs? But singular as it may seem it is by no means accidental, but the best possible place for it, because it is intimately connected with their operations. It is mercifully introduced as a warning of what is about to happen at the crisis, that the believer may not be taken at unawares. It speaks to us in effect, saying, "When you perceive the policy of the frog-power acting upon the demon of Turkey, the demon of Austria, and the demon of Romanism, so as to cause them to assume an attitude tending to embroil the nations, you may then know that I, the Lord, am about to revisit the world stealthily." Christ says, "Behold, I come as a thief." That is, he comes as a thief comes when he is bent on stealing. A thief not only comes unexpectedly, but he gets into the house with secrecy. John, indeed, says "He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, even those (KAI HOITINES) who pierced him; and all the tribes of the land shall mourn in his presence (EP AUTON.") (Rev. 1:7). This, however, is affirmed of his appearance in Israel, when he shall make himself known to his brethren after the type of Joseph (Zech. 13:10-14); which will be subsequently to the great battle in the valley of Megiddo. The 185,000 Assyrians in the reign of Hezekiah felt the vengeance of the destroyer, but they saw him not; so I believe it will be at the battle of Armageddon, the kings and their armies will be overcome with dreadful slaughter, but they will not see the Avenger's person. The work of the succeeding forty years requires that so signal a revelation be withheld from them. Israel and the saints of the holy city will see the Lord; but not the nations at large. The divine majesty is not prodigal of its manifestations. Men in the flesh, therefore, will, I apprehend, believe in the presence of the Lord on earth as its imperial and pontifical ruler, as nations now believe in the existence and sovereignty of the Autocrat, the Sultan, the Emperor, or the Pope, of whom they have heard by the report of others, but whom they have not seen, and perhaps may never behold. Men profess now to believe that the Lord Jesus is at the right hand of God; but hereafter they will believe that he is "reigning in Jerusalem before his Ancients gloriously" (Isaiah 24:23); and their faith if made perfect by works, will, doubtless, as now, be counted to them for righteousness. But, let the reader, observe, that in connection with the warning given, a blessing is pronounced on those who are heedful of the signs of the times. "Blessed," says Jesus, "is he that watcheth." Now no one can watch without light. If the heavens be dark, the watchman must be provided with a light, or he cannot watch. By gazing at the natural luminaries as some professors are accustomed to do, no light can be derived, nor signs observed premonitory of the coming of the Lord. This is "the way of the heathen," and "a custom which is vain" (Jer. 10:2,3). The natural heavens are impenetrably dark in relation to his appearing. The believer, or spiritual watchman, must take "the sure word of prophecy," which is the only "light" capable of enlightening him in the surrounding gloom. This world is "a dark place" and its cosmopolites who understand not the prophetic word mere embodiments of fog. If we understand "the word of the kingdom" we shall "shine as lights in the world," and be enabled to rejoice in the approach of "the day of Christ." By the "shining light of prophecy" we shall be able to interpret the signs which God has revealed as appearing in the political heavens and earth. Events among the nations of the Roman habitable, and not atmospheric phenomena, are the signs of the coming of the Lord as a thief; whose nature, whether signs or not, can only be determined by "the testimony of God." From the whole, then, there can be no doubt in the mind of a true believer. He discerns the sign given under the sixth vial as manifestly, and believes as assuredly that the Lord is at hand, as they who observed the sun setting in Syrian splendor knew that the coming day would be glorious. Be not deceived, then, by the syren-voices of the peace-prophets. Ere long the last and most terrible of wars will break out. The beast and the false prophet will be destroyed, and the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Let this conviction work out its intended results. The blessing is not simply to him that watcheth; but to him that “watcheth and keepeth his garments." Simply to believe that the Lord is near, and to be able to discern the signs of the times, will not entitle a man to the blessing. He must "buy gold tried in the fire; and white raiment, that he may be clothed, and that the shame of his nakedness do not appear: and anoint his eyes with eye-salve, that he may see" (Rev. 3:18). In other words, he must believe "the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ;" follow the example of the Samaritans and be baptized into the name of the Holy Ones; and thenceforth perfect his faith by his works, as Abraham did. He will then be a lamp, well oiled and trimmed, and fit to shine forth as a glorious light at the marriage of the Lamb. A community of such persons in a city, constitutes the Lamb's wife there, prepared for the coming of the Lord. He is arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen represents the righteousness of the saints (Rev. 19:7,8); who have "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Therefore they will be "before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple (or kingdom:) and he that sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Rev. 7:14-I7). The representative number of their aggregate is 144,000 (Rev. 14:1-3); and their representative measure 144 cubits (Rev. 21:17). "These are they who (in the days of their flesh) were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God, and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God." At present, they are the "holy city trodden under foot of the Gentiles;" but when changed and raised from the dead, and exalted to meet the Lord in the air, and are seen descending thence towards Zion, they are "the great city, the new and holy Jerusalem, having the glory of God" (Rev. 11:2; 21:2,9,10,11). This, then, is the great desideratum of the age, namely, the preparation of a people for the Lord; a people whose character shall answer to the testimonies adduced. "The churches" do not contain such a people, neither can their pulpit ministrations produce them. In fact, "the churches" are precisely what college divinity is alone competent to create. "The truth as it is in Jesus" is not taught in the schools. They are mere nurseries of pride, professional religion, and conceit; and "the droppings of the sanctuary" which their nurselings are appointed to distil, wear away the intelligence of the people, and leave them irresponsive to "the testimony of God." Nothing short of this, unmixed with the traditions of men, can make people what they must be if they would inherit his kingdom. Other gospels will make other kinds of christians than those who believe the gospel the apostles preached. We must forsake the pulpits, and devote the time usually spent in dozing over their mar-text expositions, to the Berean scrutiny of the scriptures for ourselves. These alone are able to make us wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Hearing "sermons" is not "hearing the word." It is this we must hear if we would have faith; for "faith comes by hearing the word of God." If the gospel of the kingdom were preached in "the churches," and believed, there would be no more complaints of want of spirituality and life. There would be so much of these, that they would be too hot to hold the worldlings who overshadow them with the wings of death. They would go out from them, because they were not of them. Let the well disposed in "the churches" try the experiment, and they will soon discover the truth of what is here stated. The time is come in which there must be no faint heartedness, and when a courageous testimony must be borne for the word of the kingdom. Ministerial favor and popularity must be utterly disregarded; and the question be, not "what saith the minister?" or "what will people think?" It matters not what they say, or think, in the case; the simple question is, "How is it written?" "What saith the word?" Let this course be pursued in candor, and I doubt not, but in a short time a people will spring up in this island prepared for the Lord, whom he will acknowledge at his return. * * * From the New York Tribune. THE AGGRANDIZEMENT OF RUSSIA. The press of Western Europe and America is accustomed to watch and denounce the progress of Russia toward universal dominion as manifested in Europe. The skill, patience, firmness and success of Russian diplomacy in that quarter of the world, and the fact that the Czar alone, of all the powers, great or little, has really profited by the last revolution, and that he now virtually rules in Italy and Germany, on the Rhine as well as on the Danube, is repeated and commented on till it is almost wearisome. The universe of Editors, even in California, Oregon and the Sandwich Islands, finds in it a standing subject of discussion. But the growth of Russian power in Asia is a topic which has not yet occupied public attention to any considerable extent, for the reason that the facts have been little known, except to the Government of St. Petersburg itself. Of course that Government, always jealous of publicity, and careful to conceal its movements as far and as long as possible from the world, has taken care to envelop its march in Central Asia in a double obscurity, a design which circumstances have favored. Inhabited as that vast region is, by nomadic tribes, that have no fixed government, no well-defined territory, and no intercourse with civilised nations, it has not been difficult for Muscovite craft gradually to extend the imperial boundaries into the deserts ranged by these savages, and without waking their jealousy or provoking them into hostilities, to make sure the preparations for still further aggrandizement. Whether the cabinet of the Autocrat judges the work sufficiently advanced to cast off the mask, or whether the secret is revealed by accident, we do not know, but we have now before us some documents which cast a clear light on the process of annexation and extension, political and commercial, which has been going on for years, in the country known in our geographies as Independent Tartary. These documents consist of letters from a Polish geologist, whom we judge to be an officer in the Imperial Engineers, employed in seeking for coal beds on the shores of the Sea of Aral, and in the vicinity of the Caspian, and of an account furnished to a Russian periodical by a Russian merchant, of his journey, on business, from Petropavlosk, in the Siberian Department of Omsk, to Tashkend, an important city about midway between the former and southern boundary of Siberia and the northern limit of Afghanistan, and between the Sea of Aral and the Chinese dominions. Take any recent and reliable atlas, and turning to the map of Asia, you will find the river Ural laid down as the dividing line between Russia and Tartary, the towns on that river being Guriew at its mouth, and Uralsk, and Orenburg farther up, where the stream issues from the Ural Mountains, with Orskaia also lying on the river, but still further to the east among the mountains. All these are frontier towns. From Orskaia the line—on maps sufficiently definite—runs north nearly to 55 degrees, and then to the north-west along the Tobol river till that river forks and the frontier of Siberia begins. Thence it goes south-east to the point (which is disputed,) where it meets the north-western province of Chinese Tartary. Now draw a line from the mouth of the Ural across to the head of the Sea of Aral, then down to the mouth of the Sir-Deria or Sir-Sihoun (the ancient Iaxartes) the western affluent of that sea, then from its mouth to the point where its line bends toward the south, and thence west to the Chinese frontier, and you have the boundary of the Russian Empire in Asia, as we know that it actually was a year ago. The addition includes the entire territory of the Kirghis or Kirguis, a tribe of warlike Tartars some 1,200,000 strong, who have long been partly in Russian pay, and who doubtless saw no reason to object to the building of the line of forts which now extends through their deserts—and about half of Kokand, a district occupied by some three millions of Usbecks, Tadshiks, and Kirguis together. The whole territory annexed is about a thousand miles long by four hundred broad, and is little known to Europeans. It contains a large proportion of sandy wastes, but a great deal of it must be valuable for grazing. The wealth of the Kirguis consists in herds of camels, horses, sheep and goats, for which they find pasturage by moving from place to place. Streams and lakes not yet known to geographers, are frequent, and game of new species is found in abundance. It is a matter of course, that among such a population as these Tartars, when living without restraint, tends and robberies should constantly be going on. But since the building of the Russian forts, these have disappeared, and the country is now more safe and peaceful than it has been for three centuries. The forts are garrisoned by Cossacks, and the trading caravans which go regularly through the region pass in perfect security. The Kirguis find their account in this, for they get their chief income by hiring out their camels to the merchant caravans, which are now larger and more frequent than before. Thus is civilisation, or rather the beginning of it, penetrating among the ancient seats of these races, which have more than once poured forth their hordes to affright and subdue the world. The expedition which accompanied the officer from whose letters we draw the most important of these facts, set out from Orenburg about the middle of May last. It consisted of 7,000 camels, with 3,500 Kirguis as drivers; 3,500 wagons driven by Bashkir serfs; a corps of some thousand Cossack horsemen, and a body of artillery and infantry, the whole under the command of a General officer. The forces were intended to relieve the garrisons on the route, as well as to escort the expedition. In case coal were discovered, it was intended to put steamers on the Sea of Aral. No coal was found, however, what had been taken for beds of coal on the shore of the sea proving to be a layer of decaying vegetable matter mixed with black earth and partially hardened. The search was not prosecuted at any distance from the shore on the western and northern sides, for fear of some predatory bands reported to be out in that quarter, the expedition having crossed the sea in a small craft without any escort. The explorers arrived at Orenburg on their return in the beginning of November, and expected to undertake the same search on the Ural River and about the Caspian Sea, where the Imperial Government also desires to establish steam navigation. The journey from Orenburg across the steppes is described as exceedingly monotonous and wearisome. The weather is changeable beyond parallel; at noon the heat sometimes rises to 150 degrees while at night the cold is so piercing as to be almost insupportable. No shade but his tent prospects the traveller and the only fuel is the dry dung of camels and horses which is found in abundance. On the 5th of June while the plain was yet burning under the beams of the noonday sun, the expedition was visited by a storm of rain, hail and snow which lasted three hours and covered the earth with a wintry mantle. Of course no fire could be made nor food cooked till the surface was dry again. Often for great distances water is entirely wanting; elsewhere when found it is apt to be slimy, brackish and unwholesome. The garrisons in the forts, as well as travellers, who are not well provided with necessaries, suffer from scurvy and other diseases incident to the privations of the country. The trading caravans for Tashkend set out from Siberia and take a less painful though rather longer route. Tashkend does not seem yet to be in Russian possession, but as the line of forts is on the river below it, and comes within some seventy miles or so, it cannot fail of being soon annexed; indeed, as a centre of commerce it is doubtless a chief object of Russian ambition. It contains about four thousand houses, built in Asiatic fashion, with the close clay walls of their courtyards on the streets, which thus wear a most dreary appearance. The houses are in the rear, and generally have gardens attached to them. There being no pavement, in the spring the mud is as deep as on a Michigan causeway, and is impassable by vehicles, mounted horses even sinking to the knee. The streets are also very crooked and so narrow that two wagons cannot pass each other. The people live in a manner which is savage rather than barbarous. Glazed windows, tables and chairs are unknown luxuries, and for beds they use coarse carpets spread on the floor. The government is absolutely despotic, and its head, whose title is the Bek, can seize the property of his subjects without giving any other reason than that it is his pleasure. This peculiarity will render the Russian rule welcome to the inhabitants because it will give a greater degree of security to property. From Tashkend caravans start every week for Cashgar, Buchara, Chiva, and other places, taking cloths, plush, cottons, and iron articles of Russian manufacture and distributing them to the most remote regions. In fact the commerce of Central Asia is already in the hands of Russia. Into Chinese Tartary her traders have opened new routes, now traversed by their caravans to China. Afghanistan already buys Russian wares instead of English. Persia, as is well known, has long been merely a Russian province; and unless England wakes from her sleep and bestirs herself more effectually than ever, it cannot be long before the Muscovite, peerless alike for cunning and persistence, obtains complete possession of the Oxus, has Chiva and Bucharia perfectly under his control, and may establish his frontier posts in the fastnesses of the Hindoo-Coosh and Paropamesan Mountains. The length of time through which Russia has pursued the objects she has now so nearly gained, and is so sure of gaining completely, justifies our admiration for her tenacity. It is near fifteen years since she first put the Shah of Persia up to the futile attempt to seize Heart in north-western Afghanistan with a view to render it a centre of Russian influence. Then an attempt was made by a Russian expedition under Gen. Perowski to open a passage and take possession of the country between the Caspian Sea and the Aral, but this failed. And now finally the end is gained by taking the rout east of the Aral and following the path of the old Mongol and Tartar conquerors. On that path went forth Ghengis-Kan, Tamerlane and Babur; under them and their descendants, the Tartars seeking for universal dominion, conquered China, India and the Byzantine Empire, and threatened to overwhelm Europe with their hordes. Christendom alone they were unable to conquer. Russia too, aims at universal dominion. Her armies are larger, her courage as desperate and fanatical, her resources greater, her faith in her destiny more deeply rooted, her wisdom a thousand times shrewder than that of her predecessors in this career; and her commerce a means they did not possess. Will she succeed where they did, and succeed, too, where they failed? That question the future will answer. For our part we have no anxiety as to the result. * * * PALESTINE. “Thou shalt no more be termed, Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed, Desolate.”—Isaiah. * * * The following from a London paper indicates that the Land of Promise is looking up. Its relations with England are becoming commercial as well as religious; and nothing, not even protestant-religionism, can make a country’s destiny a vital question in Britain other than the commercial interest of her people in its well-being. Palestine, the desolate, a grain-growing and grain-exporting country is certainly a sign that her redemption is at hand. The London paper says: “There are lying just now, in Falmouth harbour, forty vessels laden with wheat from Palestine, a sample of the ordinary produce of that country, to be followed by further arrivals of the same character, many more vessels similarly freighted being actually on their way to England at this moment. The wheat, though small, is of excellent quality, weighing 63 lbs. To the bushel. It had to be conveyed to the coast on the backs of camels; but notwithstanding this difficulty it was put on board at Alexandria, free of all expense, at 17s. per 8 bushels. It is offered in the English market at 25s.” Twenty-five shillings sterling is $6.05; so that the wheat is offered to the corn factor in Mark Lane, London, at 75 cents and five eights per bushel. This remarkable cheapness must operate ruinously upon the English tenant-farmers and landowners. The average price of wheat for six weeks ending December 14th, 1850, was 40 shillings and one penny per quarter of 8 bushels, or $1.21 and a fraction per bushel. This is forty-six cents per bushel dearer than the Palestine wheat. Now it is evident that the consumer will buy the cheapest good wheat he can get; hence, English grown wheat would find no purchaser so long as there was sufficient cheaper foreign wheat to be got in the market. The English tenant-farmer’s grain therefore remains upon his hands. This being the case, one of two things must come to pass—either his rent must be reduced, or he must become a ruined man. The people in this country have no idea of the enormous money-rents paid for farms in England. They range from about $500 to $12,500, more or less, per annum. These sums must be paid from the produce of the farms, the principal of which is grain. So long as the Corn-Laws existed the farmers had the monopoly of the grain market; so that getting his own price for his wheat he was just able to bear the extortions of the clerical tithe-exactors, of the tax gatherer, and of the law-making landlord, which was really paid by the consumer at last. But the corn-laws being repealed by the commercial and manufacturing majority of the legislature, the consumer refuses to eat dear bread for the sake of lords and parsons; so that for the present the farmer is in a suffering condition. His monopoly is gone, yet the same rent is extorted. The habits of the land-owners are expensive, that is luxurious and extravagant; and they must have large sums to spend upon their lusts. These they derive from their farm-rents, which being often-times heavily mortgaged, cannot be reduced without great economy and self-sacrifice. This the “fatlings of Bashan” have no inclination for, so that the rents must be kept up to the ruin of the tenant; for it is a question of self-preservation between master and man. At present the evil chiefly afflicts the latter; but from accounts received it appears that the day of sorrow is dawning upon the land-owners also; who, finding that their tenants cannot pay, rather than their farms should become tenantless, and themselves absolutely destitute of a rent-roll, some of them have returned from 10 to 20 percent of their dues. Will the land-owners permit their rents to be reduced to a pinching point, and the state-parsons to continue to plunder the farmer of one tenth of all he makes without receiving the least equivalent? The tithe-exactor offers the dissenting farmer a seat in the parish church, and to read old worn out prayers from a book for his soul’s health, and to bury him and the carcases of his family in consecrated ground, as value received for his tithe: but the farmer hates him, and despises his wares. Will such embarrassed landlords and tenants consent to endure their afflictions when the tithe surrendered to the farmer, and turned into cash, would enable him to pay his rent? We shall see. For ourselves we pray that the English market may be inundated with wheat from Palestine, that the wealth of the Gentiles may be turned to it as a flowing stream, even until the ecclesiastical monopoly of England’s parsonocracy shall be superseded by justice, righteousness, and truth. But Palestine, the adopted country of the gentile-believer of the gospel, is not only becoming important in an agricultural and commercial, but also in an ecclesiastical, and therefore political point of view. The following, which we extract from the Derby Mercury, copied from the Algemeine Zeitung, is full of interest and significancy to the heirs of the kingdom of God: “The Austrian Ultramontane party is preparing considerable difficulties for Prince Schwarzenburg, by its zeal for an object which the Christian world of Western Europe has for centuries abandoned—the recovery of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the Mahometans. The purpose of the crusades is to be revived; but it is to be pursued by the way of diplomacy, not by war. It is stated that the “Catholic” Powers, with the connivance of Austria, intend to obtain possession of all the sacred spots of the Holy Land, which will be then made over to the “Catholic” Church. The Order of the Holy Sepulchre will be raised to the importance once possessed by the Knights Templars. The Pope is to be the Grand Master, and one Prince of every Catholic State of Europe is to be created Grand Prior. “The movement, as far as it can be called one, is probably caused by the increasing influence of the Greek Church in the east, under the support of Russia. The church, too, has made the possession of the Holy Sepulchre a special object of its ambition, as well as other localities in Syria, sacred by their associations. During the two past years, while the political power of the Papal government was prostrated, the efforts of the missionaries and agents of the Greek church are said to have made great progress, and are gradually sapping the influence of the Latin Church. The feuds between the two churches have long been of the most bitter kind, and in Jerusalem it is well known, have grown to a scandalous excess; a guard of Turkish soldiers alone keeps peace between them on certain festivals in the Church of the Sepulchre. “The German state that the Greek Christians have really obtained the preponderating influence in Jerusalem, and that any efforts of the Austrian Ultra Catholics to recover the lost ground will be met by the decided opposition of the Emperor of Russia, practically the Pope of the Greek Church. Prince Schwarzenburg is not over zealous in the cause of the Austrian Pietists, and will probably oppose the whole plan as soon as it becomes politically inconvenient.” The Ultramontanes are the High Church party of the Papacy, or ignorance, superstition, and despotism incarnate. “The Devil and Satan” belong to this party, and it is well known that mischief is in all their works. Prince Schwarzenburg is the prime minister of Austria, and, therefore, the instrument through whom their policy must find expression. The difficulties he will have to encounter are indeed formidable. To carry out the Ultramontane conception is in effect to take possession of the country, if not by an army of soldiers, at least by an army of monks, who may become combatants at any moment their Grand Master and his political advisers, the “Catholic Powers,” may deem fit. Austria, whose emperor claims to be King of Jerusalem, is to continue at this “aggression!” But will Lord Palmerston and his “faithful ally,” the Turk, connive at it? Will Prussia connive at it? If papal influence, backed by “the Powers,” were permitted to plant itself in Palestine according to the plan proposed, both Mohammedanism and Protestantism would be banished from the land; and the Mosque of Omer, and the Cathedral erected on Mount Zion, under the patronage of England and Prussia, be converted into temples of the Virgin and the Saints. Would England and her allies stand tamely by and witness this triumph of Jesuitism in Palestine? Suppose they did permit Palestine to become a papal province, the conquest of Austria by Russia would transfer the country to the Autocrat, who would respect neither papist nor protestant further than they could work upon his fears. But we have no apprehension of the success of the Ultramontanes. The unclean spirit by which they are animated will create an agitation which cannot fail of being beneficial to Palestine. England and her allies will find that the time is come to bestir themselves in its behalf, beshadowing it with their protection for the benefit of the Jews. Better colonize it with Israelites than to allow it to become a Russo-Austrian province, which it would be in effect if Ultramontanism converted it into a fief of the Catholic church. We are glad to see the move, for out of evil, good is sure to come to Judah at this crisis of their history. Austria nor the Pope will ever possess the land, though Russia will for a short time. The former are bringing destruction upon themselves as fast as a blundering policy can effect it; so that self-preservation, and not crusading, will become the desideratum of their brief and wretched existence. The intrigues of the Greek and Latin Catholic powers will have the effect of cementing the alliance of Turkey with the Protestant; for the religious and political interests of Mohammedanism and Protestantism are essentially hostile to the popery of Russia and the West. February 1851. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Editor. * * * THE LIGHT OF NATURE IN RESPECT TO IMMORTALITY. “The light of nature,” says Professor Stuart, “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 heathens for the same doctrine, has adduced arguments to establish the never ceasing existence of the soul, which will not bear the test of examination. Such is the argument by which he endeavours to prove that we shall always continue to exist because we always have existed; and this last proposition he labors to establish, on the ground that all our present acquisitions of knowledge are only so many reminiscences of what we formerly knew in a state of existence antecedent to our present one. Unhappy lot of philosophy to be doomed to prop itself up with supports so weak and fragile as this! How can the soul be filled with consolation in prospect of death, without some better and more cheering light than can spring from such a course? How can it quench its thirst for immortality by drinking in such impure and turbid streams as these? Poor wandering heathen! How true it is—and what a glorious blessed truth it is—that “life and incorruptibility are brought to light in the gospel!” It is equally true that they are brought to light only there. “If there be any satisfactory light, then, on the momentous question of the future state, it must be sought from the word of God. After all the toil and pains of casuists and philosophers, it remains true, that the gospel, and the gospel only, has “brought life and incorruptibility to light” in a satisfactory manner.” But in what better case is Professor Stuart than Cicero, and Socrates? They were ignorant of the gospel, and so is he; if therefore the light of life shine in the gospel, it shines as little into his mind as into theirs, being veiled with the darkness of the traditions of Geneva, which like the leaven of ancient times, makes the word of the kingdom of no effect. * * * IMMORTALITY. The testimony of Scripture concerning it. “God only hath immortality.”—1 Timothy 6: 16. “When this mortal shall have put on immortality.”—1 Corinthians 15: 54. “Immortality,” athanasia, is a word signifying deathlessness; hence we are taught that the only deathless being in the universe is “the Incorruptible God,” ho aphthartos theos, —Romans 1: 23, “dwelling in the light, whom no man hath seen, nor can see.” The Invisible God was never deathful nor subject to death; but all other intelligences of the universe have, or will be subjected to death, or to something equivalent to it. Their immortality is bestowed at some time subsequent to death; but His, who is the Life of the Universe, is underived; for He is from everlasting to everlasting deathless. The testimony that “God only hath deathlessness,” teaches that the immortality or deathlessness of men and angels dates from the death state. At this crisis their “mortal body”—Romans 8: 11, puts on deathlessness, so that thenceforth “they die no more.”—Luke 20: 36. To constitute them deathless their bodies must become “incorruptible”—aphtharsia; for a corruptible body cannot be deathless or immortal. Aphtharsia is the substratum of Athanasia; that is, Incorruptibility is the underlay of Immortality. Incorruptibility is not immortality; but without incorruptibility, immortality cannot be. Hence Immortality is something more than incorruptibility. It is “Life and Incorruptibility”—zoe kai aphtharsia—combined. Incorruptibility has regard to physical quality of body, which may be living or inanimate. A diamond may represent an incorruptible body; but because incorruptible, it is not therefore living or deathless. An immortal body, however, is necessarily an incorruptible body; because immortality cannot be without incorruptibility. God though “a spirit” is also a body; for he is styled “the incorruptible God,” and incorruptibility is scripturally affirmed of body. Immortality is life manifested through an incorruptible body; and is the opposite to mortality, which is life manifested through a corruptible body. Such is the immortality brought to light by Jesus in the gospel of the kingdom—“mortality swallowed up of life.”—2 Corinthians 5: 4. The supposition of deathliness and deathlessness co-existing in the same body, or of an “immortal soul” in mortal flesh, is pagan foolishness; and implies ignorance of “ the truth as it is in Jesus.” It is the Spirit of God that makes alive; the flesh profiteth nothing. —John 6: 63. Hereditary immortality is a fiction of the carnal mind, at once revolting to reason and the word of God. Immortality is a part of the righteous man’s reward, which he seeks after by a patient continuance in well doing. —Romans 2: 7. To talk of the wicked being immortal in any sense is to contradict the scripture. “The soul that sinneth it shall die”—Ezekiel 18: 20, saith God. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord”—Romans 6: 22-23; therefore “hope to the end for the gift that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”—1 Peter 1: 13. The following extract from a canon decreed by the Council of Lateran, in the reign of Leo X., will show the kind of authority by which immortal-soulism became an article of the popular creed. —“Some have dared to assert concerning the nature of the reasonable soul that it is mortal; WE, with the approbation of the Sacred Council do condemn and reprobate all such, seeing, according to the canon of POPE CLEMENT THE FIFTH, the soul is immortal; and we strictly inhibit all from dogmatising otherwise; and we decree that all who adhere to the like erroneous assertions shall be shunned and punished as heretics.”—Caranza, p. 412, 1681. In his “Defence” in 1530, Martin Luther says, “I perceive that the Pope makes articles of faith for himself and his faithful ones, as Emperor of the World, King of Heaven, and God upon earth, such as that the soul is immortal, with all those monstrous opinions to be found in the Roman dunghill of decretals.”
Bishop Tillotson remarks that “The immortality of the soul is rather supposed, or taken for granted, than expressly revealed in the Bible.”—Sermons, vol. 2. 1774. Dr. Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, in his “Revelation of a Future State,” observes, “To the christian indeed all this doubt would be instantly removed if he found that the immortality of the soul were revealed in the word of God. In fact no such doctrine is revealed to us. The christian’s hope, as founded on the promises contained in the Gospel, is the resurrection of the body.” Dr. Lowth speaking of the prophets says, “that which struck their senses they delineated in their descriptions; we there find no exact account, no explicit mention of immortal spirits.” “Life,” says Irenaeus, a contemporary of the apostle John, “is not from ourselves, nor from our nature, but it is given or bestowed according to the grace of God; and therefore, he who preserves this gift of life, and returns thanks to Him that bestows it, he shall receive ‘length of days for ever and ever.’ But he who rejects it and proves unthankful to his Maker for creating him, and will not know him who bestows it, deprives himself of the gift of duration through all eternity.” “That the soul is naturally immortal,” says Richard Watson, “is contradicted by Scripture, which makes our immortality a gift dependant upon the giver.”—Institutes vol. 2. p. 250. The existence of an immortal soul in sinful flesh being set aside, and the testimony that “the dead know not any thing”—Ecclesiastes 9: 5, received, the Mother of Harlots is stripped of the Virgin and Saints, whose deified “souls” she worships, and makes her as idolatrous as her pagan predecessor in “the Eternal City!” The physical regeneration of infant souls, purgatory, glorification in heaven at death, apostles on their thrones, kingdoms gained by saints beyond the skies at their decease, &c., are all exploded as the merest fictions of distempered minds. —EDITOR. * * * “The Athanasian creed professes to set forth “the Catholic Faith,” but is in reality chiefly occupied with a sort of philosophy, falsely so called, of the divine essence, unintelligible and contradictory, of which it daringly affirms, “Which faith, except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly!” Fifteen thousand clergymen of the Church of England, now living, have solemnly sworn their assent and consent to that monstrous assertion.” * * *
OUR VISIT TO BRITAIN. (Continued from page 117.)
Some little while previous to Mr. Campbell’s visit to Britain, Mr. Wallis had induced a young man of his church to buy a press and types by promising to give him the Harbinger to print. It was being printed by this brother when Mr. Campbell was in England. Mr. Wallis was the proprietor of the periodical, and Mr. Hudston, of the office, in which he had the right, of course, to publish any other things he pleased without Mr. Wallis’s permission. He gave Mr. Campbell an order for all his works; paid for them, and had his consent to republish from them anything he pleased. He accordingly republished several articles from Mr. Campbell’s pen in the form of tracts. But this was a sacrifice of an ill savour in the nostrils of Mr. Wallis, who seemed to think that no one had a right to publish Campbellism but himself. Mr. Hudston objected to the monopoly, and contended that he had as much pecuniary interest in the ism as Mr. Wallis.” “The question of the right to publish Campbellism in tract form for the British became the ground of difficulty between them. Mr. Hudston had clearly as much right to publish as Mr. Wallis, and vice versa; but Mr. Wallis deemed it inexpedient, incompatible with his policy, that Campbellism should get at the public through any other printed medium than the Harbinger. Mr. Hudston, however, continued to exercise his right to issue tracts, which so incensed Mr. Wallis that he was determined to punish him by giving the Harbinger to some other printer in the town to publish. By all this Mr. Hudston considered himself much aggrieved. He had been induced by his “dear brother” to buy an office and to venture into business under the promise that he should print the Harbinger, and now because of a difference about publishing Campbellism in tracts, Mr. Wallis wounds him in the pocket, which is the tenderest part of most men’s consciences, and gives his monthly to an alien to publish. This was intolerable. A feud was originated that time has as yet been unable to heal. It grew into a church question, and was submitted to arbitration. This was unfavourable to Mr. Wallis, and caused him to “kick against the goads.” Mr. Hudston and he could not fraternize in the same church; the former, therefore, withdrew to Bullwell about four miles from Nottingham. The Bullwell church having examined the case received Mr. Hudston into their fellowship, which they withheld, and do still we believe, from Mr. Wallis until he should amend his ways towards Mr. Hudston. The prohibition of tractifying Campbellism, and the taking of the Harbinger out of Mr. Hudston’s hands, reacted upon Mr. Wallis’ heavenly-mindedness very unsavourily. It originated the Gospel Banner, which created in Mr. Wallis a very evil eye towards his ‘young brother.’ It became an eye-sore, a prick in his eye, and a thorn in his flesh. The Banner was conducted prudently. There was nothing Mr. Wallis could lay hold of as a handle against it. Its Campbellism was perfectly orthodox, and it made no attack upon him. the fire of discord smouldered under the surface having found no vent Mr. Wallis, as appeared from private conferences, was in no very heavenly or amiable state of mind; but what could he, what dared he do, so long as the Banner behaved itself with propriety and kept itself aloof from heretics? The Bible Advocate was “a cut” upon his monopoly and supremacy; the Banner was an unkind cut; our reception by the Bible Advocate church was an unkinder cut; but when the Gospel Banner became the impartial medium of both sides of all questions, ecclesiastical and theological; and presumed to allow us—the proscribed of Campbell, of Wallis, and others of like spirit—to speak for ourself in its pages—Oh! This was “the unkindest cut of all.” The smouldering embers of the tract-difficulty began to find vent in the Harbinger, not so much in the editor’s own words, as in the letters of correspondents from America, which he must have elicited from willing tools by his intrigues and misrepresentations.
Here then was Mr. Wallis between two adverse influences, the Advocate and the Banner; the latter of which was an unpardonable offender against his will. We and the Banner were to be destroyed if possible. It became necessary, therefore, to bring to bear against us even the smallest antagonism available, upon the principle that “every little makes a muckle,” as they say among the Scots. The editor of the Advocate, it is true, was a small man, and could not do the Harbinger much harm if any; yet he had a certain influence in the Ellstree Brotherhood which might be turned to useful account against Dr. Thomas, and the Banner. It was expedient, therefore, to propitiate him. If Dr. Thomas could be disgraced, the Banner also would suffer for affording him facilities; and if the publishing of Campbellite tracts could be diverted into another channel, it would tend to cripple Mr. Hudston and to bring him to a stand as rival in the kingdom set up on Pentecost! But how was this to be accomplished? We shall see.
When a naturalist finds a bone it becomes a datum from which, by a process of reasoning, he can rebuild in his own mind the form of the animal to which it once belonged; so when a man is observant of certain facts he can by reasoning discern the premises from which they spring. Now the following facts came under our notice while in Britain. First, after the Banner had published our correspondence with Mr. Wallis, the tomahawk was buried and the calumet was smoked by Messrs. W. and King—they became friends. Secondly, some one in America sent Mr. Wallis our “Confession and Abjuration,” which he reprinted and circulated privately. Thirdly, Messrs. King and Wallis met in Glasgow at and before the Campbellite convention there. Fourthly, after the meeting King assumed a hostile position towards us, as will be seen hereafter in our sketch of this protracted and distracted meeting. Fifthly, the publication of tracts was recommended to the meeting; and by Mr. Wallis’ management Messrs. Black and King’s press was to be the office of publication. Hence in one of his Harbingers he says, “bro. King, who has recently published an essay in the tract form on the Breaking the Loaf, by A. Campbell, is now engaged in bringing out a tract on Spiritual Life. Will our friends encourage him in this work of attempting to do his part to enlighten the human mind?” Any funds, therefore, “the brethren” might appropriate to the purpose, would find their way to Camden Town, instead of to Mr. Hudston; and the prestige of the Sanhedrin would be against him. And sixthly, after Mr. King returned to London, he opened a fire against us in the name of the Ellstree church, charging us with falsehood in saying, that we did not “refuse” to break bread at the same table with those in the United States who had not been immersed on the same premises as ourselves. Such are the six facts of which we became cognizant, and from which we draw the following conclusion. Mr. Wallis determined to detach the Ellstree brotherhood from us, and to weaken the Banner as much as he could. To accomplish this he found it expedient to make friends with Messrs. Black and King, the pastor and “evangelist” of Ellstree. He succeeded in doing this by sending them our “Confession and Abjuration,” and promising them all the Campbellite printing his influence could turn from Hudston to them. They swallowed the bait; and without any further struggles against his ascendancy, which he preserved by the sacrifice of his monopoly, became the willing instruments of his crooked policy against us. To work then they went to prove us a liar for the gratification of Mr. Wallis and his abettors in the United States; though from what is already before the reader, their work will be pronounced by all candid and intelligent persons, both evil and contemptible.
Their object was to hold us up to public reprobation if they could; and to cut us short in the career we were traversing so much to their mortification and vexation. The following correspondence will illustrate their manner of proceeding for the accomplishment of their end. While we were on our first tour the subjoined epistle was sent to the care of our sister in London.
71 High street, Camden Town, Nov. 8, 1848. Dear Bro. Thomas:
No. 4, Vol. III. Of the “Herald of the Future Age,” containing your “Confession and Abjuration,” was presented to a meeting of the London church last Monday evening. The meeting were entirely of opinion that the paper contains the very abjuration of the brethren in the United States which you most positively denied ever having made. It appears to them to be a duty to order this note to be sent immediately to you, expressing their surprise and sorrow at finding such matter in print, and to give you an opportunity to explain should you desire. In the absence of any explanation, they will feel it their duty to announce that your fellowship with them was obtained by misrepresentation. Wishing you every present and future good, in the deepest sorrow on account of the above, I remain yours in the hope of immortality, D. KING.
This piece of hypocrisy did not come to hand for several days. It was deemed expedient therefore to favor us with a repetition of the indictment, dressed up, however, with less of “cant” than the former. The “deepest sorrow,” the “dear-brotherism,” and “the hope of immortality,” will be found to have evaporated altogether from its phraseology; so difficult is it for religious actors to maintain a part which is foreign to their true character. The following is the second letter. 71 High street, Camden Town, Nov. 25, 1848. Dear Sir: At the beginning of this month, by order of the church in London, I sent a note for you to Hoxton square. That note was to inform you that the brethren here having seen your “Herald of the Future Age,” which contains an article by you, headed “Confession and Abjuration,” conclude it to be the very abjuration of the churches in the United States, which you to us denied having made. The note in question stated, that before making their mind on this matter public they would wait your explanation. Some days since a note from your sister in reply came to hand, saying, that when she sends to you she will enclose the same. We send this in order to give you every opportunity for explanation. Your silence will indicate that you admit the conclusion of the church here to be correct. Wishing you every present and future blessing, I am your’s, &c., D. KING. To J. THOMAS, M. D. This was the real man—“I am your’s &c.”—stripped of his outer garment: “in the deepest sorrow on account of the charge against you, your’s in the hope of immortality,” was mere wool to hide his claws. We saw through these epistles at a glance. Mr. Wallis was using this man King to trump up a charge of falsehood against us in the name of the Ellstree brotherhood. The only evidence we had that the church had anything to do with the affair is before the reader in D. King’s two notes. Mr. Black was the pastor and ought to have communicated with us; King was only their emissary, whom they called “evangelist.” We therefore paid no regard to him in the matter; but wrote to the church through Mr. Black. It appears from a third letter received from D. King, that we wrote to Ellstree on Nov. 22, 1848, three days before his second note arrived. We regret to find that the copy of this letter is missing: but from what appears in the following epistle it would seem that we stated substantially what is already before the reader on pages 89-90, number 3, of the current volume. To ours of the 22nd, we received the following reply:
London, Dec. 6th, 1848. Dr. J. THOMAS: Dear Sir—Yours of Nov. 22, 1848, was presented to the church on the 28th of the same month, and I am requested to say to you as follows:
1st. That in the examination of your abjuration the church here did not (as you suppose) confound persons with opinions. They fully understood your words in the lines pointed to in your letter as referring to errors and mistakes, and not to persons.
2ndly. They consider you to have abjured the brethren in the United States, and here also, by pointing to their position as being one which would forbid any christian to fellowship them. For instance, many of our churches in this country unanimously hold the “existence of an immortal soul in corruptible man,” nearly every church has a large number of its members of the same opinion. You say, “no man can hold this dogma, and acceptably believe the gospel;” you also abjure it as a “damnable heresy:” ergo, most, if not all of the churches with which we stand connected, do not believe the gospel acceptably, and if not acceptably are unbelievers, and holding “ a damnable heresy” are damnable heretics. Now as no christian may fellowship heretics and unbelievers, the brethren in this country, and those of similar character wherever existing are abjured by you. Again: “men are saved by the hope, he (Dr. Thomas) was not saved by it, and while he writes this must be in his sins.” You teach that as you were with respect to “the hope” our churches now are—they receive not what you call “the hope.” You call the system into which you were baptised an “erroneous one;” they were baptised into, and remain in the same system, therefore, are yet in their sins. You claim to be a christian, and as christians cannot fellowship men while in their sins, you thus abjure the churches connected with us.
Seen and approved by a meeting held Nov. 28, 1848, and signed for them. D. KING.
In reply to this we transmitted the following letter to the care of Mr. Black.
Newark, Nottinghamshire, Dec. 9, 1848 Dear Friends:
Yours dated Dec. 6, 1848, has come to hand today. By it I am able now to comprehend, that you have construed what you think I ought to do with my views on the truth, or the ground which you consider the principles stated place persons holding the traditions quoted, into a non-fellowshipping of those you call your brethren (by eminence) in the United States. This, then, is your indictment, that I have constructively rejected the brethren of the Reformation in America, which you consider equivalent to an actual excision of myself from the churches there, or them from my fellowship, and consequently of myself from similar churches in England.
But I object to your constructions; first because you have no right to put constructions upon any one’s principles save your own; and secondly, because your constructions are not in harmony with facts.
1. You have no right to construe for me, neither have you the ability till you are made intelligent upon the subject of my views of fellowship. I claim the sole right of construing my own sentiments, and when I shall have construed and published them to the world in their application, it will be high time for you to express your approval or rejection of them and their author. You have your views of fellowship; they may or may not be mine: I discuss them not. My duty is to state and advocate what I believe to be God’s truth according to the manner which appears to me (not to you) most scriptural. It is for me to state, illustrate, and prove principles, and to interpret the word; and to leave men’s consciences to make the application—it is not for me to adjudge them to ecclesiastical pains and penalties. (“Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God.”—1 Corinthians 4: 5). I have stated in my writings, that “the immortality of the soul” as taught in dogmatic theology is the Hymenean and Philetan heresy; and I have shown from Paul’s words, that it is in his estimation a “damnable heresy.”—Haireseis apoleias, opinions of destruction, or destructive opinions. The argument you have not seen; yet you judge. Is this wisdom! I have received the conclusion to which Paul leads me. Did he tell the orthodox Corinthians to cast their heterodox friends out of their synagogue, or to non-fellowship them? No; and further than this, he still fraternized with the church, although they gave him so much annoyance on this very subject. His object was to enlighten and reclaim, not to cut off, and treat as enemies those whom this cancer-eating sentiment led to the denial of the resurrection of the dead, and by implication, the resurrection of Jesus himself, and the subversion of the doctrine of the kingdom of God.
Your logic does not appear to me to keep pace with your zeal. A man may hold a “damnable heresy,” and not therefore be “a damnable heretic.” Simon Magus held the “damnable heresy” that the gift or power of bestowing the spirit could be purchased for money; but he was not finally condemned, inasmuch as scope was afforded him for repentance and forgiveness This was not the case with others. If you hold “a damnable heresy,” I pray God that the light of knowledge may find an entrance into your understandings, that you may recover before you make shipwreck of faith.
You say that your churches do not receive what I call “the Hope.” Very well. Now, suppose it should turn out that what I demonstrate is indeed “the hope of the calling” (which Platonism, new or old, is not)—and you admit that “we are saved by the hope”—what becomes of you and your churches? But you are unacquainted with what I call the hope; for I call not one item of itself “the hope”—why then jump to conclusions and constructions at present? You may regret it some day, (as others here have already,) when your logic peradventure may be directed by a more scriptural and experienced zeal.
But there are a great many in “your churches” (if I guess them rightly) who reject the immortality of the soul as mere heathenism. Why do you not construe conclusions for them? Are not Newark, Lincoln, Nottingham, Edinburg, Glasgow, &c., some of your churches? There are many of this class among them; why do you not undertake for them? Why so solicitous to construe conclusions, and officiously to apply them for me? I really do not feel at all indebted to you for intermeddling! If you do not wish any thing to do with me, say so and have done with it. I believe I am your debtor for nothing, but a little past civility. On two occasions, at some inconvenience and a trifling expense, I did the best I could to enlighten you. Much satisfaction was expressed by some. To this labor of love I bid you welcome. But a change hat come o’er the spirit of your dream since Mr. Wallis’ visit to London, or that of your delegate to Glasgow. If you think your ecclesiastical reputation hath been defiled by the little politeness of the past, then make your repentance known as far and wide as you please, and upon any ground you choose, actual or constructive. I shall regret your shutting yourselves out from what many of your brethren freely and candidly admit is the irrefutable truth of God. But you must do as you please. The loss will be yours, not mine.
Without comparing you to Judas, I would enquire, was not he in his sins when Jesus broke the loaf with him as well as the rest of the Twelve? This will be a sufficient quid for your quo, that I necessarily abjure churches, because there are those among them who on my principles are in their sins.
2. I object to your constructions because they are not according to fact. There are many in American Reform-churches in which I am well received, who believe in the Platonic dogma of the “immortality of the soul.” We have learned, however, the important lesson of bearing and forbearing with one another, in hope that all will come to see the real truth on which side soever it may be before it become too late. But your dogma is, that I ought to reject them, and they me; we, however, do not think so. We regard such a spirit as the one actuating you as both intolerant and proscriptive, and well calculated to place the person who responds to it in the situation neither to advance the truth, nor to benefit his contemporaries. It is the dark spirit of popery, and characteristic of all sects, whose fear of God is taught by the precepts and commands of men.
Trusting that whatever you may do may be to the glory of God, and the furtherance of the truth, and not to the gratification of personal pique; and leaving you henceforth to work out your own conclusions as you may deem most expedient, but declining any further correspondence in the case, I subscribe myself, dear friends, Yours respectfully, JOHN THOMAS (Continued in our next.) PRACTICAL LOVE OF TRUTH. —It is one thing to wish to have Truth on our side, and another thing to wish sincerely to be on the side of Truth. There is no genuine love of truth in the former. Truth is a powerful auxiliary, such as every one wishes to have on his side; every one is rejoiced to find, and therefore seldom fails to find, that the principles he is disposed to adopt—the notions he is inclined to defend, may be maintained as true. A determination to “obey the Truth,” and to follow wherever she may lead, is not so common. In this consists the genuine love of truth; and this can be realised in practice, only by postponing all other questions to that which ought ever to come foremost, “What is the Truth?”—Abp. Whately.
* * *
HERALD
OF THE
KINGDOM AND AGE TO COME.
RICHMOND, VA., MAY, 1851.
THE EDITOR AT FREE UNION.
According to appointment we visited Albemarle again during the past month. We arrived in Charlottesville on Wednesday the 16th, and on the next day were joined by Mr. Albert Anderson from Caroline. On Thursday evening arrived a conveyance from the mountain region sent by our friends there to carry us up to Free Union, about twelve miles from Charlottesville, where we were to meet the people on the four succeeding days, and lay before them the things concerning the Kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ. We departed from Charlottesville on Friday morning between seven and eight. The scenery is bold and interesting, but without attraction to him whose fate it happens to be to drive a dull horse amid rocks, and roads hub-deep in stiff, tenacious clay. Quite a soul-tranquillising preparation for a discourse on the Mysteries of the Kingdom, the fording of rivers whose waters flow into your carriage, and the toiling along the torrent-washed gullies called roads in the Old Dominion! Four hours and a half of this kind of pastime brought us to Free Union, a meeting house standing on the same rocky knoll as when we visited it three years, or so, before, where we found two persons awaiting our arrival. Could anything be more encouraging! We had come ninety-two miles from Richmond to enlighten the mountaineers of Virginia in the Gospel of the Kingdom, and after a previous notice of several weeks two individuals, a brother and his wife, had come four miles with open ears to listen to the truth. These made a totality of five persons in a cold brick house large enough to seat three hundred or more. Could any thing, we say, be more animating! What an audience to develop a flow of soul! Not even as many as listened to Noah when the flood came and swept the world away. We concluded, however, not to despair; but to wait a little longer and see if our number would be increased. It was wonderful! Nine persons besides ourselves from Charlottesville managed to get together at last. Energetic men, what would have been our “big meeting” on its first day, if you must have needs gone to see your piece of new ground, or to prove your yokes of oxen, or had yoked yourselves to wives upon that day! Are ye sure that your lands will yield their increase, and that your oxen will draw for the rest of their days, seeing that ye neglected to view and prove them for the two mortal hours ye were listening to our interpretation of the word? We trust that no such calamity may overtake you, and that you may not fall behind your more earth-moving neighbours in all necessary things, but that you may plough and sow in hope of that increase which comes from God, and yields a hundred fold with life eternal. —Matthew 19: 27-30.
Fatigued and dispirited we proceeded to the reading of the scriptures, uncertain whether we should do more than dismiss our company in hope of a more energizing state of things upon the morrow. Not to be able to speak, from whatever cause, is equivalent to having nothing to say. This was our feeling—a what’s-the-use sort of feeling. We hoped that bro. Anderson did not share with us in this depression; therefore, we thought we would just read, and making a few comments on the reading, invite him to take the stand. It is liking climbing Ben Lomond to speak to the people of this generation even under the most favorable circumstances of the times; for their heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing; how much more laborious and unpromising is the work to reason out of the scriptures in presence of empty benches, with only here and there a living creature soporifically sitting before your words. We find it difficult to begin, and sometimes, as in the instance before us, as difficult to leave off. We thought it might not be so with Mr. A., we therefore went forward mechanically, being consoled with the idea that if we could not overcome our inability, we could fall back upon him, and he would meet the emergency. But, though this feeling will invade the mind, it must be resisted and subdued. We do not know whether the number of saved is completed—whether the 144,000 is made up. If the kingdom and empire of our Lord demand this symbolical number of righteous men for the administration of its affairs, they must be angled for. It may be that two only are wanted to complete the number; and how can we tell if the two are to be found in an audience of six thousand, or of nine persons? We ought therefore to go to work with as good a heart in reasoning with the few as with the many; for after all, the many are only called; it is the few who are chosen. Many years ago we heard a lecture in a room of the Royal Exchange, to a congregation of two persons, on Natural Philosophy. This was at noon in the heart of the city of London, the commercial metropolis of the world; and we were one of the two. Yet the reverend gentleman went through the performance with indefatigable perseverance; and would doubtless have read to the bare walls had we not stepped in to hear him. We have never had so small an audience as this yet. But if we had, why should we not speak to two as well as he? The reward for turning men to righteousness is greater than the income to the reader of Gresham Lectures at the Royal Exchange. He read as a matter of form to make sure of Sir Thomas Gresham’s benefaction; but “they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.”—Daniel 12: 3; Matthew 13: 43. If we keep this before us the spirit will be willing, though the flesh be weak.
In reading the third chapter of the Acts the things of the Kingdom began to come in upon our mind with a stimulating effect. The name of Jesus as a strong tower into which the righteous run, and are safe; the restitution of all things spoken of by all the prophets; and the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, threw the empty benches and the few hearers into the shade. We talked of some of the things suggested by these important topics, and, for two hours, conversationally beguiled the time to the edification of our friends, as we were glad to hear. Thus the end was better than the beginning, and became the earnest of better things to come. After the discouragement of the day before, Saturday was quite propitious. Mr. Magruder joined us from Charlottesville, and several persons of standing and intelligence came out to hear. They listened with all attention to a discourse setting forth the restoration of the kingdom again to Israel—Acts 1: 6, in which restoration all nations shall be blessed, as the subject-matter of the gospel preached by Jesus, and by the apostles after his resurrection in his name. The meeting on Lord’s Day was numerously attended. Indeed too much so; for there appeared to be several who came merely for the fashion of the thing, supposing, it is probable, that we were holding a meeting on clerical principles. This, however, is a mistake. We hold none such. We call the people together to lay “the testimony of God” before them, and to reason with them concerning it. It is reasonable beings whom we invite to meet us. Men and women capable of thinking about something else than millinery and dry goods, crops and cattle, or fashions and the daughters of men, though they may be fair. These are the persons we wish to see. Sectarian gatherings will do for persons of a different stamp. Should they, however, mingle with their superiors they should study to be quiet, and to respect the customs of good society, which demand that the youth of both classes should not use their liberty to the annoyance of others; but be silent and not whisperers, and trampers to the disturbance of those who wish to hear. We wish mankind would devote themselves more than they do to the decorum and decency of civilized life. But too generally they are a swinish race, and incapable of a just estimation of the holy pearls of gospel truth.
On Monday we had a better congregation, though not so numerous. It was composed of people who evidently came to listen to what they heard with a view to understand it. We spoke on the Gospel of the Kingdom being the power of God to the salvation of those who believed it. Mr. Anderson dispensed the loaf in the morning, and addressed them on Sunday afternoon about an hour, so that in the four days we occupied ourselves for nine or ten hours in endeavouring to enlighten the public in the long forgotten gospel which God promised in the holy scriptures of the prophets; but with what success we may never know until the Lord appears in his kingdom. We are but sowers of the seed; we can neither make it grow, nor see it grow. It is God that gives the increase. A crop “was made” by some preachers a few years ago, and harvested at Free Union. The people round about call them “Campbellites,” but like all crops made and harvested by men, it suffered waste. They looked for much, and lo, it came to little; and when they brought it home God did blow upon it, and it died. Of thirty or more, some have left “the kingdom” and taken refuge among the Baptists; others have made a shipwreck of faith entirely; and the few that remain are they only who profess to believe the things we teach. Let these remember that the crown of life is a crown of righteousness, and promised to those only who perfect their belief of the truth by the works which follow. —James 2: 20-22.
An appointment was out for a discourse at Charlottesville also on Monday night. Mr. Magruder is indefatigable in cutting out work for his brethren. We wish all our friends were as energetic and devoted as he. He is not only unwearied in heaping work upon others, but he is ready also to lend a hand himself; so that he is a most agreeable fellow-laborer. He does not sit himself down at ease under his own vine and figtree evading the burden and heat of the day, and bestowing only good wishes on the truth. He has assured himself that what we are advocating is the truth, and holds himself responsible to it, and the Lord of the truth for his conduct respecting it. He dare not wrap it up in a napkin and make no effort for its extension. He does what he can himself, and helps others to do more according to his ability. If darkness cover the land, and gross darkness the people in Charlottesville, it will be no fault of his. Would to God that all who profess to believe elsewhere would do likewise; there would then be cooperation indeed, and some present encouragement in the defence and propagation of the truth.
In regard to Monday night, however, we thought we had worked enough for that day to entitle us to rest from our labors till the morrow. We had ridden sixteen miles on horseback over mountain roads, and spoken two hours and a half at Free Union, so that we felt no scruples of conscience in relieving ourselves at the expense of bro. Anderson. Ever ready to help in time of need, he did not decline the by no means agreeable task of filling the appointment of another. We adjourned at the time fixed to the Lyceum Hall, where an extraordinary, if not a discerning, few, had congregated to hear the editor. Happily Mr. Anderson was unacquainted with their individualities, so that he was enabled not only to begin, but to persevere to the end of an hour’s discourse without dismay. He hewed his way through with as much courage and earnestness as though the room had been full of the town’s elite. He did his part well; and we congratulated ourselves that we had found so efficient a substitute. But we were not always so favored. On Tuesday evening we had a respectable company; but on Thursday night a few drops of rain fell from the clouds, which as effectually kept the people at home as if it had rained snares, fire, and brimstone. We went to the Hall, but the aspect of things sunk our spirits to zero, and congealed our souls within us for the night. We regretted the unpropitiousness of the weather, hoped it would fair off by the morrow, and dismissed the assembled few until Friday night. Friday came, and the night also, and with it an improved condition of affairs. But O the times, the times in which we live! In the towns and cities of this land the people seem to have no ear for “the testimony of God.” Some will come together and hear with great attention; express themselves in terms of satisfaction and even of delight. But the word has no abiding place in their hearts. It is like a tale that is told—it is heard with pleasure, but speedily forgot. The following notice appeared in the Jeffersonian on Thursday, but though commendatory it was insufficient to neutralize the apprehension of rain.
“Dr. Thomas, from Richmond, has been delivering a series of Lectures in the Lyceum Hall in this place during the last week, and will continue them at the same place tonight and tomorrow night. Dr. T. is an intelligent gentleman, and the subjects of his lectures are novel and interesting. The Dr., we believe, undertakes to prove from the Divine Record, that a Republican Government can never exist in Europe. We hope time will show that he is mistaken, but we shall not enter the lists of controversy with so distinguished a champion as Dr. T., who has devoted a large portion of his life in studying the Scriptures with reference to this and other similar subjects.”
Yes, we feel strong in testimony and argument upon this topic. Republican Government in Europe and America is an exceptional state of things in the universe of God. It is particularly so in modern Europe. France at the present time is only in a transition state. Even now she is no longer the republic of the revolution. That was Democratic and social, and the sister republic of the Roman. But both these have passed away, eclipsed and extinguished by the republican imperiality of Napoleon. His chair is but a meteor in the heavens, whose constitution is monarchical by divine appointment. Great events are at hand to change the face of the world. The days of the independence of the European kingdoms are numbered; for their vassalage to the Autocrat is fast approaching. Imperial despotism, and not republican liberty, equality, and fraternity, awaits them all: and serfs to Russia will their kings remain (Britain of all the Roman World excepted) until Christ the Woman’s Seed, shall bruise its Autocrat under his feet, and subjugate the fragments of his dominion to his own will. A divine monarchy, not a democratic republic, will be the order of things in Europe. A Jewish kingdom, styled the Kingdom of God, will rule over all the heavens, then become the kingdoms of Jehovah and of his Christ. Surely our courteous and patriotic friend of the Jeffersonian would prefer this to the establishment there even of a facsimile of our Model Republic itself. A monarchy under a king from heaven is the best government for the world. And such mankind is destined to receive.
THE EDITOR AT PALMYRA.
On Saturday morning, the 26th, Mr. Magruder drove us over to Palmyra, in Fluvanna county, about 20 miles from Charlottesville. The day was fine, and the scenery for three or four miles beautiful. The view from the mountain road leading to Monticello, the former residence of Mr. Jefferson, President of the United States, cannot be surpassed. There are sublimer, grander landscapes, but none more beautiful than that which comprehends Mr. Rive’s Elizabethan villa, the University, Charlottesville, the fertile vales of red earth adjacent, and the blue mountains in the distance. But this enchanting scene, diversified with knolls of verdant woods of oak and white-flowering dogwood, was soon exchanged for miles of poor forest road deeply cut up by wagons, and in a wet season almost impassable. Along the dreary route, fit emblem of life’s monotony, we threaded our way to Fluvanna Courthouse with scarcely more than an opening or two to show that we were still in the confines of the habitable. At last Palmyra, a great name for a little place, without a single date-bearing palm to enlighten the antiquarian respecting the fitness of its name, but to us Palmyra the desired, with its Areopagus overlooking the surrounding hills, and the deep-delled channel of the Rivanna, opened upon our view at noonday, the time of our appointment. A few minutes more and we were standing in the vestibule of the caravansera of the Fluvanna city of palm-trees, viewing the cheering prospect of exhausted fields, an open court house, but none to enter in! This was riding twenty miles for something! The fact was, that owing to the ill-regulated and dilatory mail system, our appointment had been eight days in reaching the distance we had accomplished in four hours and a half. It had arrived only the day before us, so that our coming was scarcely known. A bad beginning, it is said, makes a good ending. This was our hope. It was certain that the end could not be more discouraging; so in this there was consolation. We adjourned to the Courthouse and tolled the bell, as much as to say, “Ye citizens of Palmyra, who are disposed to leave your merchandize and handicrafts, come ye to your Areopagus, and we will speak to you concerning the kingdom of God!” But the bell sounded in vain for that time, save that one or two came, with whom we consulted, and concluded to open our case that night at eight o’clock.
After supper we visited the Courthouse again. This time we had the pleasure of addressing quite a respectable audience. We showed them that religion was a matter of testimony and reason; and exactly adapted to the necessities of mankind. A faith that would not stand the test of reason was the credulity of superstition. The Bible religion was rational, and propagated by reason; for the apostles reasoned with their contemporaries out of Moses and the prophets. If men speak according to these they speak according to truth, and in harmony with the New Testament. What they say ought to be tried by these writings; for if they speak not according to the Law and the Testimony it is because there is no light in them. It was by the Bible we wished our doctrine to be tested; for it was the rule by which we tested all others, and rejected them because they were found not to be in harmony with the word.
Mankind’s necessities were intellectual, moral, and physical; for they were ignorant, defiled, and corruptible. Religion was God’s remedy for these lesions of humanity. It enlightened the intellect, purified the heart, and in the application of the divine power to the body conferred upon it incorruptibility and life. There was a time when religion was not, and time will be when the Lamb of God shall have taken away the sin of the world, that religion will be no more. But mankind’s necessities are not individual only, they are social and national also. Society in its widest sense is sick, heart-sick, “from the sole of the foot even unto the head is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.” Religion proposes to heal these—to regenerate the world, and to bless all nations in the Seed of Abraham. The gospel, which is good news to nations, glad tidings of great joy to all people, to society as well as to individuals, proclaims the medium of this blessedness to mankind; and in proclaiming this, announces the purpose of Jehovah in terrestrial creation, and providential supervision. It proclaims to us “the secret of his will which he hath purposed in himself: that in the economy of the fullness of the times he would reduce under one head (anakephalaiosasthai) all things unto Christ, both the things in the heavens, and the things in the earth under him. —Ephesians 1: 10. Who then need be in ignorance of the reason of things as they exist? The Lord Almighty did not form the nations, and set the bounds of their habitations for the behoof of the thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, which now possess the rule over them. They are the mere accidents of providence—provisional governments for the time being—until He shall appear in power and great glory on account of whom (dia auton) and for whom (eis auton) they were created. —Colossians 1: 16. His purpose, then, is, to aggregate all kingdoms, empires, and republics; and all nations, languages, and people, into one vast dominion under the Lord Jesus as the IMPERIAL PONTIFF of the world. To do this he must bruise the Head of the Serpent-power—machatz rosh al-eretz ravbah, he shall bruise the head over a great land—Psalm 110: 6—and subdue the nations under his feet. —Psalm 47: 2-3. “O let the nations be glad, and sing for joy; for he shall judge the people (Israel) righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.”—Psalm 67: 4. The power of the oppressor will then be broken; and his enemies will lick the dust. In his days will the righteous flourish; and in him will the needy find a friend. All kings shall fall before him; all nations shall serve him, and call him blessed. Happy will the generation be that shall rejoice in these events. A just code and a righteous government, the administration of Jesus and the Saints, will heal the nations and cause peace and good will to become the rule of society on earth. A divine socialism will then obtain, characterized by a liberty and fraternity in wisdom, knowledge, and the truth. The refuges of lies which now abuse the world will all be swept away; and “the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.” What men cannot accomplish, even their own social regeneration, the Lord will have gloriously performed; and in perfecting his work will have wrought out for himself a great name through out all the earth.
But of what individual interest to us is this prospective blessedness of the Age to Come? Before it shall supervene, death may have laid us low, and corruption have carried us down to the shades of the pit. What interest, then, shall we have in all that obtains among the living? This question brings home the great salvation of the Age to Come to every one of us; for the future goodness of God invites us to repentance, on the ground that he hath appointed a day of one thousand years, a season and a time, in the which he will rule the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, whereof he hath given assurance to all men in raising him from the dead. —Daniel 7: 12; Acts 17: 30-31; Romans 2: 4. He calls you also to this kingdom and glory—1 Thessalonians 2: 12, and invites you to share with Jesus in his joy. —Matthew 25: 23. He invites you on condition of believing what he promises concerning the Kingdom and the Age to Come, and concerning the name of Jesus; and of becoming the subjects of repentance and righteousness through him. He offers to make you heirs of all things terrestrial; joint-heirs with the future monarch of the world. He proposes to exalt you to an equality with the angels—Luke 20: 36; to make you rulers over the nations—Revelation 2: 26-27; 5: 10, and to give you glory, and honor, and life eternal. —Romans 2: 7. But you must become righteous men and women, heirs of the righteousness which is by faith—Hebrews 11: 7, perfecting your faith by your works, after the example of Abraham, “the Friend of God.” This is indispensable; for the Kingdom to which you are now called is a righteous government, and needs to be administered by righteous and incorruptible men. It is to make you familiar with these things that we now present ourselves before you. We do not seek to proselyte you to a theory on a sect; but to show you the way of the Lord, that you may become obedient to the faith, and heirs of the Kingdom of God. “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth into life, and few there be that find it;” you need not therefore expect a multitude to cheer you on. Faith, hope, self-denial, patience, and perseverance, are the lines that fall to those who walk not by sight, but by faith in the promises of God. The road is tedious and uninviting; but in the kingdom to which it leads, there are honor and glory, riches and life forever more. These are what we come to set before you; therefore while we remain here “lend us your ears” that ye may understand, believe, and do.
The morrow was the Lord’s Day. In the morning and at night, we “expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the Law of Moses and the Prophets”—Acts 28: 23, for about four hours and a half altogether. In the afternoon we went to hear the Rev. Mr. Gregory, Methodist Circuit-rider, who resides at the caravansara of the village, and preaches at the meeting-house behind the Areopagus periodically. It is a comfortable brick “church,” and better adapted for the convenient accommodation of the public than the Courthouse. We were informed that it was built by public subscription with the express understanding that it was to be free for all sorts of preachers, whether “orthodox,” or otherwise; but that after it was erected the Methodists some how or other got the control of it, and shut the doors against the public, and would not permit them to enter it although they built it, unless they came to listen to preachers of their own sect. This is the rule; an exception to it, however, occurred recently in the case of Mr. Magruder. But when his doctrine was found not to square with Mr. Gregory’s, he was excluded, and had to take his stand in the Courthouse. Thus the exception established the rule. Such policy as this, however, is short-sighted, and defeats itself. Shutting the doors in the face of the public only proves that the door-keepers are possessed of a bad spirit, a spirit which is both doubtful and timid, and seeks to sustain itself by the argument of force instead of the force of argument. We would advise the public to subscribe for no meeting houses unless their freedom is legally secured. Let sects build as many houses as they can pay for with their own funds; but when the public build let them do it for their own accommodation to hear all that come to them; and not for the advantage of a few self-styled “orthodox divines,” who—
“Grind divinity of other days Down into modern use; transform old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheat the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.” Cowper.
We also heard, that a certain citizen subscribed to the building, but when he found that its freedom was sacrificed to sectarianism he refused to pay. The covenant had not been fulfilled with him as one of the subscribing public, therefore he argued that he was bound neither by law nor honor, to pay. We understand that he died without paying, but that his executor was actually sued for the amount by the exclusionists! This is a pretty sort of christianity. It is high time, we think, that some other doctrine and morality should be submitted to the favor of Palmyra and the region round about. The exclusion of Mr. Magruder has stirred up a spirit of inquiry, which we hope will not be laid. It has been the cause of our visit to this place, which has only fanned the flame. We left it burning with increasing warmth, to the no little restlessness of some, who, if they escape not, will be roasted in their own fires before the time.
Although he disclaimed it, Mr. Gregory evidently preached a sermon for Mr. Magruder’s especial edification, or correction; with whom on more than one previous occasion he had played at single-stick. His knuckles had manifestly not recovered the raps they had received, but still aching he chafed and sought relief in continuing the pastime at a man of straw. His text was “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” This with him was proof of the immortality of the soul, although the text expressly affirms that it is destructible in Gehenna. The man of straw he created for the exhibition of his prowess in demolishing him with some whistling and vivid strokes upon his hands, was the assumption that the heretics attach but one meaning to the word “soul” wherever it occurs! This he said was “life”—“fear not them who are not able to kill the life.” It did not sound so unenglish there; therefore he sprung back to the creation and gathered up the words of Moses, which he travestied in saying, “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living life.” Here he thought he had the man of straw by the throat. He shook him, thrust him, thwacked him, until his straw became fine dust, and so blinded him that he could not see no more. The windmill was in ruins before his redoubted lance, and the miller gone. What more remained to be done than to preach the funeral of the slain! The rich man and Lazarus, the Devil and his angels, fire and brimstone, became the fertile themes for declamation on so solemn an occasion |