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TFrE

Issued monthly by "The Bible Standard Publication Society," 24, Mint Lane, Lincoln.EDITED BY

Geo. A. BROWN, Pastor of Mint Lane Baptist Church, Lincoln.THE BIBLE STANDARDs devoted to the exposition of Biblical Truth, especially the doctrine of Conditional Immortality, the literal Resurrection of

the Dead, the Final Destruction of the Wicked, the Signs of the 'I'imes, the Second Coming of Christ, and His Personal Reign on earth,

" The Wages of Sin is Death; bu: the gift of God is Eternal Life throuqh. Jesus Christ our Lord,"/

No. 5. FEBRUARY, 1878. Price Id.GOD'S PENALTY FOR SIN.

THE subject under consideration is one of the most per-plexing in the Theological world, made so to a great extentby wrong deductions from certain passages of Scripture, andalso by the assumption made by the Christian world, thatman is by nature an immortal being. This, we claim, istaken for granted without any evidence from Holy Writ.An assumption purely based upon Heathen and PaganPhilosophy, an assumption which forbids men from evercoming to the Scriptural teaching of the sinner's destiny.It compels those holding it to change the entire structure ofour language, and lands them in the most absurd andhorrible conclusions relative to that part of our race who donot come into covenant relationship with God, through JesusChrist.

Amongst those who have thought on the subject,we find some struggling with all their powers to evadethe conclusions arrived at by so many of our forefathers,conclusions which have cast a gloom over the message ofGod's love, and brought His character, which we have alwaysbeen taught to believe is love, into disrepute, and entirelydriven some away from the study of the book, which, theysuppose, teaches that horrible dogma-the eternal tormentof the wicked.

Others who have not been so radically effected, are en-deavouring to make the book teach that all men, irrespectiveof character, will finally be saved.

We must confess' that they have insurmountable diffi-culties to contend with, in the form of direct and positivestatements that the wicked will " perish," "be destroyed,"" not see life," &c.

If men would only settle from the Scriptures alone thequestion of man's nature, and receive its plain and forcibleteachings on this subject, we feel sure that the greatestdifficulties would then be overcome.

But so long as Theologians fail to recognize the truth,namely, that man, by or in the first Adam, is of" the earth,earthy," and hence" mortal," just so long will the presentperplexity ahd confusion exist in the Theological world. onthis subject.

If we take for our guide the penalty pronounced. upon thefirst offender by the Judge of all the earth, we cannot beled far astray; we feel sure that it is a key which will unlockthe obscurity and perplexity which exists in the minds ofmany honest and devoted Christians.

Let us fdr' a moment look at the construction put uponthe penalty, "Thou shalt surely die," by the Lord, whopassed sentence upon Adam according to the penalty of thebroken law in Paradise, We must admit that when a judgepronounces a penalty upon a prisoner, he uses no ambiguouslanguage, but in the plainest manner possible, tells theprisoner the' nature of the penalty he is about to suffer.He hides nothing from him. In the case of the man whocomes under the greatest penalty known to human law,when his sentence is passed, and 'after he has heard fromthe mouth of the judge that he must" be hanged by therreck until he be dead," it needs no further explanation.No work is created for lawyer or theologian to write acomment on the judge's sentence, the prisoner knows toowell the nature of his punishment, and endeavours to meetit with resignation.

Now, dear friends, we want to call your attention to the19th verse of the Brd chapter of Genesis. In it we find thefollowing language used by Adam's Judge. Let us read :-" In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thoureturn unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: fordust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." This isGod's definition of His own penalty, threatened if the Lawwas broken, namely, " In the day thou eatest thereof thoushalt surely die." (Please read Article, " In the day.")

This must be so, for it is not the duty of a judge to create

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34 THE BIBLE STANDARD.a penalty after the Law is broken, but to define and pass thatwhich was given when the Law was made.

This, we think, was done in Adam's case. You willplease notice that not a word is said to Adam about his" immortal - soul." If he had one, then we challenge theingenuity of man to find one single expression made by theJudge relating to this supposed" immortal" part in thesentence found in Genesis. Therefore, we must concludethat if Adam was possessed of an immortal soul, and thisimmortal soul was the real Adam, then the real Adam neverhad any sentence passed upon him at all.

God did not say to Adam, " Thy body shall return to thedust, and thine immortal soul shall go away into hell fire."Such should be the structure of the sentence if orthodoxy (?)is right.

We cannot, nay, we dare not charge God with keepingback any part of man's penalty for sin. The sentencepassed is in perfect harmony with God's account of Adam'screation, for we are told in Genesis ii. 7, " That God formedman of the dust of the ground.'" Mark well this passage!It was lI1AN which God formed, not his "house," hisle casket," but Man, and this Man is told by his Creatorafter that he has broken the law, that he must" returnunto the ground, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thoureturn," and death would have been to Adam, and to all hisposterity, an eternal sleep, had not God in His mercypromised One who should crush the serpent's head. Andwhen this promise was fully unfolded, and the seed came,we find Him to be indeed a Deliverer, From what? weask. We answer, from death, for as He stood at the graveof a Lazarus, and bid the dead come forth, He provedHimself to be the long-looked-for Emancipator, and theworld to-day rejoices in the fact that death is not an eternalsleep, for the day will come when He, who touched the bieron which the widow's son was laid, and bid him come tolife again, shall touch old Earth and bid her give up herdead; and they who have come into relationship with Godthrough Christ shall then, and not till then, sing that grandprophetic song, " Oh, death, where is thy sting? 0, grave,where is thy victory? "

Then, and not till then, will" this mortal put on im-mortality, and this corruptible put on incorruption." Thenno more death for the righteous, for" they will be madeequal unto the angels to die no more."

But this cannot be said of the wicked, for they will neverbe changed from their mortal state, they will never put onimmortality, they will never possess incorruptibility, but inthe words of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, " They whohave sown to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption.

The Judge, the Lord Jesus Christ, will then pass sentenceupon the prisoner according to the penalty written in theBOOK,which is " death," for Paul says that" The wages of

sin is death." And this death will be an eternal one. Nofurther promise is made of a Deliverer to come, but theywill be "punished with everlasting destruction from thepresence of God andjTom the glory of His power."

Let us say here that our reason can grasp, and we canrealize that such a doom is not only possible but reasonable,when we take into account -that Man in his present state ismortal, a probationer for Immortality through Christ. Thispenalty at once appeals to us as a just one, for if man refusesGod's offer and gin of eternal life, he then must pass off thestage of action and be as " though he had not been," for weare given fully to understand by the language used in theScriptures, that the judgment fires into which the wicked willbe cast, "will bum them up" (not preserve them), that itshall" leave them neither root nor branch."

If we take for our guide God's definition of His ownpenalty, in Adam's case, we think the subject becomes clear,and we are at once established, by Divine authority, in oneof the most intric'ate questions of the day.

Th~' Spirit of God sets forth this matter in thestrongest language possible, and illustrates it in many waysby likening the wicked to chaff, stubble, dry branches, andusing the words, "death," "perish," "destruction,""consume," "burnt up," &c " words which in themselvesconvey to the unbiased mind a total and final extinction ofall the wicked in that day when He shall send His Son tojudge and execute the judgments written against theungodly.

(To be continued.)

THE FIRST TEMPTATION." YE shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Such wasthe promise of the Great Tempter to our first parents.Such the original lie by which they were drawn away fromGod.

Our translation of this passage is defective. It is adeparture from the way the same word is elsewhererendered. The Hebrew word is Elohim, the uniform render-ing of which is ""God."

It is so translated in the beginning of this verse, " ForGod doth know," &c. There is no reason why it should notbe' so rendered here. The Devil's promise was to makeman as God.

This deceitful promise furnishes a key to all history. Itexplains the development of the individual man, and, of therace.

And, first, the mode of this temptation is to be carefullynoticed. Satan does not appear here in the form ofabsolute evil.

This was not his style of warfare then, nor is it now.From the outset, he appears as an arch deceiver, a

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THE BIBLE STANDARD. 35traitorous dissembler of the work and office of Christ. Thepromise was to the highest good. "Ye shall be as God."Was not God the sum of all excellence and blessedness?Was it wrong to desire to be like Him? Does not the Wordof God present this as the lofty goal to which we aredestined, who are called to be sons of God. Has not JesusChrist come in the flesh to give us this power, and to exaltus to this rank? "Beloved, now are we the sons of God,and it doth not yet appeal' what we shall be; but we knowthat, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." Theessence of Adam's sin was that he chose to seek this loftyprize, under the leadership of Satan, instead of calmlywaiting upon God to fulfil the desires of his heart.

The temptation of the second Adam was the same inkind. It was a promise to the highest human exaltation,the dominion of the world.

Adam fell into the snare, so artfully spread; and in hisfall he dragged his posterity into the same abyss of ruin.But it is most important to observe that, in this brieftransaction, we have an epitome of the whole historicaldevelopment of the human race. When Adam became thevictim of satanic craft, the Devil was suffered to assume asubordinate sovereignty over the human race. Our Lordstyles him" the Prince of this world." Paul writes of himas "The god of this age." Of 'course he is limited andoverruled in his dominion by God, and specially by our LordJesus Christ, unto Whom all power in heaven and earth isnow committed, and who, through His death and resurrec-tion, has vanquished and will ultimately" cast out" and"destroy him that hath the power of death, that is theDevil." But the hour of Satan's (loom has not yet arrived.The grand scheme of apostacy from God, begun in Paradise,has not reached its climax. Satan is still abroad in theworld, conducting the drama to its crisis. In the breast ofthe individual, and as the deceiver of the nations, he is stillpersuading men to believe the old original lie. And to thisend, in his subordinate sovereignty of the world, he hasdirected and inspired its: culture, organized its imposingsystems of trade and empire, reared its vast fabrics ofsuperstition, and woven its network of vain philosophies.

We may pause here, and observe how the history of everyman develops in the direction of this first temptation ..The false fire, then kindled by Satan, gleams out even in

childhood. The self-assertion and obstinacy of children is. but its latent working; and as the child grows up, itsimagination is filled with ambitious projects and castles inthe air. How it longs to be a greater somebody than it is!

And as the child becomes the man, the leaven of the oldlie works with accumulated power. What boundless aspira-tions, what lofty conceits, what daring projects fill his mind!We need not signalize eminent men of the past, or of thepresent. We are all the victims of these insatiable desires.

We all want to climb the heights of wealth or fame. Andat what pitch of self-exaltation will we be content to stop,save that to which the Devil P!omises to raise us ?

"Ye shall be as God." Infinite! boundless! are theseaspirations. The soul of man cannot stop short of thehighest goal. And these flights of ambition are alsosearches, on our part, after the knowledge of good and evil.The two things are inseparably. connected.

They are strugglings of the soul to itself of the limitationsand misfortunes that encompass it as with a net. "Who willshow us any good?" is the universal cry. "Give mewisdom, give me power, give me wealth; cause me to beadmired or feared; place me in that dream-land of thefuture, or in the cloudy summits which beckon me on toglory, and I shall have found the good my soul craves."Thus does Satan tempt us on from one height to another,by the vain hope that we shall run away from evil, and seizethe good, until he decoys us into that land of darkness,where we find that, in striving to be as gods we have becomedemons, and in the pursuit of good, we have landed inthe realm of all evil.

And, as with the individual. so with the race. It alsohas been, and is now, deceived by the hope of attaining theinfinite good. The leaven of the original sin has pervaded,and yet pervades, all its experiments at self-advancement.It is manifest in the great empires that have successivelyoccupied the theatre of the world. It taints all the socialtheories, by which it is propos.ed to rid the world of evil, andexalt and bless man with the knowledge of the good.

To this end the scattered families of the earth were firstdrawn together on the plains of Babel. "And they said, Goto, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reachunto heaven; and let us make ttS a name, lest we be scatteredabroad upon the face of the whole earth."

The Lord thwarted this first attempt by confoundingtheir language. Afterwards, however, these attempts wereallowed to succeed ; and we have a long succession ofworldly states, under which the power of the human racewas aggrandized and its civilization 'advanced. It seems tohave been the plan of God to give the earth into the handsof the children of this world, that they might have time andscope to carry out their great experiments, under the leadersship of this world's Prince; And these experiments havenot yet closed. Every sort of theory has been, and is stilltried, by which the exaltation of the race is to be securedand made permanent, by which the evils of its condition areto be detected and eliminated.

These are all endeavours on the part of man to realize,now in one form, now in another, the dream of his destiny,and establish a peaceful and prosperous empire, which shallgive him room for expansion, and protect him from evil inthe enjoyment of the good; and in all of them it is not hard

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own strength. When men do homage to the spirit of theage, they worship the Prince of this world.

And yet how many Christians are worshippers at thisaltar! Protestant Christians have been quick to discern itsworking in the bosom of the Church, in Rome's effort torealize the kingdom of God before the time. But are theyaware that the majority of their purer faith have fallen intoa delusion no less subtle and dangerous? Has ProtestantChristianity proved itself any more able to realize thekingdom? And yet the common doctrine of a Millennium,before the coming of Christ, involves such a belief; andworse than all, the hope of achieving this result restspartly upon the" spirit of the age."

This doctrine denies any necessity for the judgment ofthis world, and the casting out of its Prince (John xii. 31)before the kingdom of God can come upon the earth.Hence it looks for no such crisis and divine interventionas the Advent doctrine requires. Instead of regardingthe present progress of the world as a ripening forjudgment, it expects it to ripen into a Millennium. Verilythe false Christs of modern civilization have deceived many.Most of the visible Church is ready to welcome AntichristNot only all the world shall wander after him, but thoseChristians who, by their 'false theory, say, " My Lord de-layeth His coming," are not at all prepared to resist hisclaims.

The Lord grant that His people may be warned in time,for such shall be the strength and subtilty of this last formof Satan's working, that all worldly-minded Christians willbe deceived.Therefore, " Watch," that ye may be accounted worthy toescape all these things which are coming on the earth.-L.O.B.

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to detect the workings of the old lie. It would be wrong,indeed, to assert that these attempts have accomplishednothing in this direction. The promise has been seeminglyfulfilled, and there is no doubt that this present experiencein sin is his appointed preparatory discipline. But his trueultimate glory requires his present failure. Hence hissuccess is only partial and unreal; and, with apparentsuccess, his pride and self-sufficiency increase.

Grander schemes than ever now swell his mind. Greaterprizes beckon him on, and giant evils follow him into thenew fields of his conquest. But the dream of a golden age,to be wrought out by his own efforts, still lures him on.His triumphs over brute matter, his access to the gatheredstores of the wealth and wisdom of the past, his vastachievements lead him to believe that the goal is near.Hence the might, the glow, the marvellous strides of ourmodern civilization. Hence the agony and blood of themighty struggle. Above this roar of cities and din of work-shops, above the noise of those steaming shuttlecocks thatare weaving the world's inhabitants into one vast fabric,above the thunder of its battle-fields is heard the voice ofthe Tempter echoing the old lie, "Ye shall be as Gods," andurging men on to higher deeds and grander struggles.And this progress in effort and achievement, in conflict with

/evil and grasping after good, will go on, as we are assuredin Holy Writ, until it culminates in the revelation of theman of SIN, whose cominq is after the working-of Satan, whois to be an incarnation of the great falsehood upon whichthe world's culture is based, "Ye shall be as God," for itis said of him that" he opposeth and exalteth himself aboveall that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, asGod, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that heis God." Under him the drama of ages shall come to itsconsummation.

The promise of Satan, in its highest fulfilment, shall beproved,a lie. Man, raised as near to God as the Devil canraise him, shall fall like lightning from heaven; for it iswritten, "Him shall the Lord consume with the spirit ofHis mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming."

These two points, then, the first deceitful promise to makeman as God, and the revelation of Antichrist, who, underthe inspiration of Satan, shall persuade himself that he isGod, and palm himself off on the world as such, are thetermini of this age. Satan will not give up the experimentbegun with Adam until he has made his final effort. Anti-christ will be the embodiment and masterpiece of. histranscendent genius and patient working through these longyears. What men call the " spirit of the age" is that spiritof Antichrist, whereof we have heard that it should come.For the" spirit of the age" totally denies the world's needof the coming of the Lord from heaven, and vaunts itself asable to work out the great problem of human destiny in its

IN THE DAY.-Gen. ii. 17.OUR opponents frequently refer to this passage to substantiatetheir claim that the penalty pronounced upon Adam was amoral or spiritual death, and that he at once paid thepenalty by being severed from God, thus causing a loss ofholiness, &c.

It is somewhat difficult to understand what is meantexactly by the term spiritual death, for if physical death is atotal extinction of all life from the body, then spiritual deathwould, of course, result in a total extinction of all life fromthe spirit; hence, according to this reasoning, the spirit diedbefore the body, therefore the sinner must carry about withhim a dead spirit. But we are told that the spirit cannotdie. Then what are we to understand by the term thatAdam died a " spiritual death"? We are told in reply thatit means a separation from God, a separation from holinessand happiness. But. we should like to ask our friends where

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THE BIBLE STANDARD. 37they obtained this ingenious definition of Goers penalty uponAdam, for we have no record that God ever said anything ofthe kind, and if he did not, then from whence dothey derivetheir authority? They tell us it must mean this, forAdam did not die literally in the day that he eat of the forbidden fruit. We fail to see a " needs be" in this matter.On the other hand, adopting the popular view of the penalty,it involves us in difficulties out of which we can not see ourway.

Let us take for granted that Adam's penalty was a spiritualdeath, and this spiritual death consists in being a sinner, analien from God, one without holiness, &c.

Can we, then, reconcile this position with Christ's work ofatonement? for, if the penalty on Adam was a moral death,then, inasmuch as Christ suffered the same penalty toredeem man, He must die a moral death. In that case itwould be necessary for Him to become a sinner. But theScriptures affirm that He "did no sin, neither was guilefound in His mouth," (1 Peter ii. 22), therefore, moral orspiritual death was not the penalty for sin.

Again, if the penalty pronounced against sin was aspiritual death, which consists of being a sinner and an alienfrom God, then the words, "In the day thou eatest thoushalt surely die," are merely equal to saying, in the dayyou sin you will become a sinner, and are no longer apenalty, but a needless statement of an obvious fact-atruism. Once more, if the penalty was a spiritual death, nota literal one, it was only a figurative death, and really nodeath at all. The difficulty, we think, is all removed whenthe facts in the case are presented.

The statement, "Thou shalt surely die," occurs in twentyother passages besides Gen. ii 17, and in them all it refers toa literal death. Why say its first use (when language wasin its simplest form) is a figurative one? We think, if anysuch assumption were necessary, it would be more reason-able to assume that the day mentioned was figurative ratherthan the penalty.

When speaking on Gen. ii.7, Dr. Clarke says :-" Fromthat moment thou shalt become mortal, and shall continue ina dying state till thou die." This we find literally ac-complished.By anticipation Adam was a dead man when he .hadpartaken of the forbidden fruit. During the plagues uponthe Egyptians, they urged the children of Israel to depart,saying, " We be all dead men." Exodus xii. 33. In con-sequence of what Abimelech had done, the Lord came to him" in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art buta dead man." Gen. xx. 3. So, when a man takes poison,we say of him, " He is a dead man," by which we mean hewill certainly die in consequence of taking the poison.

Instead of "Thou shall surely die," the Greek of Sym-machus reads, "Thou shalt be mortal; likewise the Syriac,

which is approved by Jerome, Grotius, Chrysostom, TheodoretAmbrose, the Venerable Bede, Patrick, Mant, Henry, andDr. Payne. The Targum of Jonathan reads, "Thou shalt besubject to death."

In harmony with the foregoing, it should be stated that theHebrew preposition "be" rendered "in," is translatedthirteen ways in the Bible. But three of these thirteenrenderings would make sense in Gen. ii. 17, and these are" in," " after," and" against." "Against" would hardly beappropriate in the passage, and we drop it, leaving thechoice between "in" and "after." "In the day that thoueatest thereof," and" after the day," are expressions equallysensible and proper, and the choice between the two dependsentirely upon the meaning of the passage. In Num. xxviii26, the same preposition" be "is correctly translated bothin and after in the same verse as follows :-" Also in the dayof the first fruits, when ye bring a new meat-offering untothe Lord, after your weeks be out." Genesius says, theHebrew preposition" be" should be rendered after, " where

- the mind rests more upon the end of a period, and spokentherefore of time already past." This is the case with thesentence pronounced on Adam, in Gen. ii. 17.

Had it been rendered "after the day that thou eates.thereof thou shalt surely die," it would have been in harmonywith all the facts and statements connected with the historyof the first man. The Lord did not design that he shoulddie in that day, for He says to him.rin Gen iii. 19, " In thesweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return untothe ground." This passage shows that the Lord designedA dam should live " till" a certain period, and then he would" return unto the ground." H he had died in the day he ateof the tree, it would have exterminated the human race, foAdam had no children at that time.

Those who translated the received version of theScriptures, in King James' time, believed man to be immortal, consequently he could not die a literal death. .Itwould not have been in harmony with their views totranslate the preposition" be" by the word'" after." Lethe death penalty pronounced against Adam be literal deathand all is plain and harmonius, We think it is obvious thatthe penalty for Adam's sin was literal death.

THE WHOLE CREATION SIGHETH.A SIGH! You all know it well, this sigh of sadness, thissigh of expectation. We are ill at ease. All of us, whetherwe be happy or unhappy, have a burden to bear, the burdenof human woes. There is no escape from our deep consciousness.c=intensified perhaps by the breathless hurry oour age,-of the short duration of all earthly things.The best are soonest over, but all pass in exceeding haste

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38 THE BIBLE STANDARD.and we ourselves seem as though a mighty and resistlesswind were sweeping us away.

Formerly, tidings, whether good or bad, were slow of step;we hardly knew what was going on at the other side of theglobe till a year after the event. If blood had been spilled,the earth had had time to drink it up; if tears had flowed,the SUll had had time to dry them. The grief that spoke tous from afar, left the heart comparatively unmoved. Thingsare changed now. The tree of the knowledge of good andevil has bent its branches more within our reach, and eachmoment our greedy hands are raised to gather its fruit.And the result is not only an anxious restlessness, but afund of bitter melancholy.

Formerly, the general tone was one of gaiety. The notethat an attentive observer would have heard prevailing overall others, was a crystalline serene note, echoing from thecottage to the palace. The note that echoes over our earthat this present hour, in the village, town, or quiet country,is a wailing note, akin to tears,-an immense sigh.

As for me, from my heart there ever rises an unutterablegroan. The world, as it now is, does not satisfy me: stillless do I satisfy myself. Creation suffers and laments withme. St. Paul expresses this mighty woe in one strongword-" travaileth in pain."

What is it that we are looking' for-death? It is here,taking us all away at our appointed hour. Death is acurse; it sweeps the .earth bare, but cannot transform it.Is it the final judgment.The awful hour, that even the re-deemed of the Lord cannot contemplate unmoved?

The judgment crushes the guilty; but creation is notsaved. Is it the final destruction, the devouring fire pre-dicted in Scripture ? This will destroy the earth, but willnot restore its innocence or beauty. Is it the new heavenand the new earth? But it is this world that has suffered,and to it special promises have been made. The wholecreation plunged in misery, the oppression of the poor,nature fallen from its first estate-all ask for somethingbeside, claim some other promise, wait for something more!

What is it that creation hopes for? For its deliverance!For what does it sigh? For its restoration l What does itwait for? For Jesus the King! He will come again!This cry flchoes throughout the Scriptures. He will comeagain. He who publishes liberty to the captives, andcrushes death beneath His foot-He will come again. WithHim will come purity, love, the era of perfect blessednessforetold by the prophets.

The messengers. of the Lord in all times speak to us of asanctified world, singing praises to God; we only know asinful world, hurling complaints and blasphemies againstHim. Happiness overflows the earth of which they speak.Our earth is the seat of desolation. They tell us of " timesof refreshing." Our times are times of exhaustion. Peace,

love, exceeding great joy here on earth, both with God andour fellow-creatures, these are promised; and, behold, warsravage, tears inundate our worlc1; sorrow for death drawsher dark veil round it; the angels as they pass it in theirheavenward flight hear a murmur of plaintive cries, angryvoices, and mad laughter, sadder still than tears. From ageto age generations of believers have been laid in the grave,their faces turned to the east; and each, in dying, has leftbehind the sublime watchword, " Thy kingdom come! "

Yea, Lord, Thy kingdom come! Scoffers, indeed, maylaugh, "Where is the promise of His coming?" "Sincethe fathers fell asleep, all things have gone on as theywere." vYe have nothing to answer, 'and nothing to ask,but simply, " Thy kingdom come! "

Thy kingdom come! It is at once a prayer and a pledge.He who told us thus to pray is He who will surely come.If hearts big with love, hands clasped-if with strong cryingand tears, the whole earth were to raise this burningaspiration to the skies,-oh, I believe that the Lord would,hear, I believe, indeed, that the Lord would come. "Evenso, come; Lord Jesus! "-Selected.

IMMORTALITY.WHOhas it? "Every man," is the response which comesfrom many quarters. Pardon us if we differ from the massin this respect, for the Bible tells us very plainly that JesusChrist, the King immortal, invisible, only hath immortality.And we can only obtain it through Him, at the resurrectionof the just, when" this mortal shall put on immortality, andthis corruptible shall put on incorruptibility.Man's Immortality depends upon his being in covenantrelationship with God through our Lord -Jesus Christ, whowill bestow this precious gift upon His people at the, re-surrection.

It is written that" God gave His only-begotten Son, thatwhosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have ever-lasting life."

Again it is written, "The wages of sin is death, but thegift of God is etemallife through our Lord Jesus Christ."

The Master once said, " My sheep heal' My voice, and theyfollow Me, and I give untt:l them Eternal life."Again He said, "This is the will of Him that sent 11e,

that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him,may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the lastday."

Christ is called" the Door," "the Bread of Life," "theResurrection and the Life." He is called "the Prince ofLife," " the Life Giver." He it was who brought Life andimmortality to light through the Gospel, hence we wouldremind our readers that if they hope for a future life apartfrom Christ, they will be miserably mistaken, for in Himalone abides the attribute of Immortality-He is made theChannel through which it must flow to man, for "this isthe record, that God hath given to us Eternal. life, and thislife is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and hethat hath not the Son of God hath not life" (i.e. eternal).1 John v. 11, 12.

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THE BIBLE STANDARD. 39NOT KNO-WING.

* KNOW not what will befall me! God hangs a mist o'er my eyes,. J fi : And before each step of mv onward path, He makes new scenes to rise;And every joy he sends me, comes as a sweet and glad surprise,J see not a step before me, as I tread the days of the year,But the past is still in God's keeping, the future His mercy will clear;And what looks dark in thedistance may brighten as I draw near,For perhaps the dreaded future has less bitter than I think;The Lord may sweeten the wat-r before I stoop to drink;Or if Marah must be Marah, will stand beside its brink.It may be He keeps waiting for the coming of my feet,Some gift of such rare blessedness, some joy so strangely sweet,That my lips can only tremble with the thanks I cannot speak.0, restful, blissful iguorauce l "I'is blessed not to know,It keeps me quite in thosearms which will not let me go,And hushes my soul to rest, on the bosom which loves me so.So I go on, not knowing! I would not, if I might;I would rather walk with God in the dark than go alone in the light,I would rather walk with Him by faith than walk alone by sight.My heart shrinks back from trials which the future may disclose,Yet I never had a sorrow but what the dear Lord chose;So I send the coming tears back, with the whispered words, "He knows.' ,

SELEC1'ED.

LOOK OUT FOR A THAW!WHAT a mantle of charity winter casts over the short-comings and wrong-doings of men in the out-door world.Farms, gardens, fences, walls, weeds, stones, order anddisorder, neatness and confusion, all alike are smoothedover, and covered up by the fleecy whiteness of the fallingsnow. And on through all the winter, if a shovelful ofashes, 01' a handful of potato parings, or a pan of applecores or onion skins, or a pail of dish-water, or a tub ofsuds, or the dirt from a stove-pipe, or a dust-pan, have beenthrown out where they ought not to have been, a fewminutes' snow-fall, and all is covered, and looks as fail' ashypocrisy, and as clean as a whited sepulchre.

But, alas! covering up is not cleaning up, by a long way;and the day of revelation will surely come. A Januarythaw damages the fair illusion; a season of February slushmakes havoc with the smooth exterior. A light snowfallmay stay the dreaded exposure, but as the sun shines on,concealment be-comes impossible. If the thaw could dissolvefilth and shreds, scraps and rags, dust and ashes, bones andbuttons, it would be very pleasant; but it does no suchthing. One by one the frozen coverings vanish before theincreasing heat; one by one the signs of dirt, disorder, andcarelessness stand out, until the last veil is rent, and themisdeeds of a six-months lie in full relief stand before ourastonished gaze.

There are multitudes of men in this world, deluding them-selves with the idea that covering up their faults is as goodas clearing them up and repenting of them. They wrap themantle of their charity over their own misdoings, and thenoffer a fresh snow-squall of apologies, explanations, decep-

tions, and misrepresentations, which they think will makeall right. And then everything seems clean, and smooth,and pure, and fair, and comely, but-loole out for a thaw.

It will surely come. The veil will lift, the snow melt, thesepulchre will scent through all the whitewash, the thawcut through the subterfuges, and sweep away the refuges oflies; the man will find the sheep-skin torn from his wolfishback, and will stand forth as he is,-mean, vile, crooked,and contemptible, an offence, a loathing, and an abomination.

And if such revelations astound the world even here,what shall men say, when, standing in the blazing glory ofthe judgment hour, they shall see their mantle of hypocrisyrent in twain, the last concealing guise removed, and thelight of God revealing the sins and crimes of a life-time ofiniquity and shame. How long-forgotten sins shall start toview! How long-hidden crimes shall start up frommemory's dark retreat! And how men shall feel and 'CltOW,as they never knew before, the value of Christ's forgivinggrace and cleansing blood.

That day will surely come. We may smooth things overin time,-God will reveal them in eternity. At last theymust be settled. But how much better to have them settlednow; how much better to prove the virtue of the 'blood ofJesus Christ. How much better to have Jesus cleanse oursins, than to seek ourselves to cover them. How much

'better to hide now in the Rock of Ages, than to call forrocks and mountains to shelter us in that day.

Reader, if you have not attended to this matter, wisdombids you do so at once.-II. L. Hastiuqs,

THE SLEEP OF DEATH." Do you think the little girl was really dead?" asked theteacher of a class of neglected-looking boys, gathered infrom the lanes, who had been painfully toiling to readthrough the story of Jal'-i-us' daughter.

" Please, 'm, I think she was," answered a raggecl littlefellow at the end of the-form.

" Why, then, do you think; did the Lord Jesus say she,was sleeping?

" Please, 'm, it ,was only sleep to Him, He could wake herso easy.""Only sleep to Him." How sweet the thought, thatterrible as death is to us, with its icy chill, its gloomy paler,its dust and ashes, and corruption, it is " only sleep to Him"who has the keys of hell (or the grave) and of death, andcan wake the slumberer with His slightest word!

Let us then bury our dead in hope. Gloomy as deathseems to us, "it is only a sleep to Him," and the hour iscoming when all that are in their graves shall hear the voiceof the Son of God, and shall come forth, and those who sleepin Jesus shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, andso be forever with the Lord.-Selected.

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40 THE BIBLE STANDARD,CHRISTIAN, FAINT NOT. PUBLICATIONS

OH! but the way is so dark and rough, and I am so weak;my strength does not seem adequate for the pressing trialswhich overwhelm me on every side. My foes are many, andmy conflicts with self and the worlc1grow more severe. Ifeel that I must give up. I want to do right, but the moreI try the more I seem to be thwarted by the enemy, and Ihave about made up my mind that it is no use trying' anylonger.

This may be the language of some of our readers, and itmay be that all you say comes from the heart. But stop amoment. Have you ever thought why your experience andfeelings are thus? In the first place, let us say that thevery roughness of the road, and the very darkness of thenight, and the very conflicts which stir you up to the verydepths of your nature, are but tokens and evidences thatyou are on the right path. "For it is through muchtribulation that we must 'enter the kingdom of God." OurMaster never once told us that our path should be smoothor easy. He said, "If ye will be My disciples, you mustdeny yourself, take up your cross and follow NIe."

Was His path easy? Was His way always bright?What means that groan, that awful agonv, that cry, " MyGod, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Ah! brother, it waswhen in the fight He groaned, it was when in the hottest ofthe battle He cried," My God, why hast Thou forsakenMe."

And if He felt the deep anguish and struggle, and con-flict, is it strange that we, who have undertaken to followHim, should find ourselves treading in His very footprints,and occupying the very same ground, and meeting the verysame enemy He did? No! no! brother, it is all right.Your life may be one of deep, deep sorrow. Your way maybe strewn all over with difficulties and trials, but rememberthat He, who passed that way before you, knows how tosuccour, how to support, how to sustain, how to strengthen,and whatever your feelings may be on the subject, you mayrest assured that His thoughts towards you are intent on" keepinq that which you have committed unto Him, against.that day." Brother, sister, fear not! Your Saviour lives,and He will impart grace to help you in every time of need.Learn then to trust the same in the darkness and fury ofthe storm as in the tranquil calm, for you are equally safein both conditions. Our darlmes is no impediment to Him,for God can see our needs j ust as well in the dark as in thelight. So, Christian, cheer thee! fur He will keep thee tothe end, and neve1',no, nerer will He leave or forsake thee.

THAT the soul is naturally immortal is contradicted byScripture, which makes our immortality a gift dependenton the Giver.-Richard Watson,

By H. CON S TAB L E, M.A.,(Late Prebendary of Carlo, Irelaiuiv.

DURATION AND NATURE OF FUTURE PUNISH-MENT. 5th Edition, 340 pp. An elaborate argument touchingthe Punishment of the Unsaved. It is particularly fine in itsphilological chapters respecting the meaniuz of the Greek wordsnsed by the inspired writers to indicate the doom of the lost.Price 3s. 6d.

HADES: or, The Intermediate State of Man. CrownSvo. Price 3s. 6d. This work presents the Bible doctrine of thestate of man between death and the resurrection.

RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS-The all things spokenof by the months of the Holy Prophets who have been since theworld began. Price Sd.

By J. H. WHITMORE.THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY-Jewish and

Early Christian Beliefs; Arguments from Reason and Scripture;Adamic Penalty; 'I'raduction v. Creation ism ; Life and Death;Intermediate State; Christian Redemption. Price 3s. 6d.

By GEORGE A. BROWN.FORGOTTEN THEMES: or, Facts for Faith. A generalsvnoptical view of the subject of Life only in the Christ, and o

others pertaining. Price Is.By MILES GRANT.

NATURE OF MAN : Is he Mortal or Immortal? Notesand Queries. Thoughts on the Soul, &c. Every principal objectionanswered. Price Is. -

WHAT IS MAN? and the Meaning of Soul, Spirit,Death, and Hell. Price 3d.

SPIRIT IN MAN: What is it? Price 4d.THE SOUL: a Bible View of its Meaning. Price 4d.RICH MAN AND LAZARUS; THIEF ON THE

CROSS; SOULS UNDER THE ALTAR; with other interestingmatter. Price 3d.

To be had of "The Bible Standard" Publication Society,24, Mint-lane, L-incoln.Subscriptions for the Paper to be sent to the Office,No.24, Mint-lane. All communications relating to the Paperto be addressed to the Editor, No. 2, South Park Villas.

Mint Lane Chapel, Lincoln.Services and Meetings during the Month as follows:Sunday: Morning at 10-30, Evening at 6.Monday: Prayer Meeting at 7.Wednesday: Preaching at 7.Friday: Bible Class at 7-30. (All seekers after

Truth invited.)Sunday School: Sunday Morning at 9-30, Afternoonat 2. Parents are invited to send their Children.The Pastor, Geo. A. BROWN,

Will deliver special discourses on Sunday evenings,through the month of February, as follows:Feb. 3rd. { " Life and Immortality, through Christ alone.,,10th. Nmmortality for the wicked."

" 17th. Anniversary Services, Morning and Evening." 24th. "The Resurrection."

Printed by CHARLES AKRILL, Silver Street, Lincoln; and pub-lished by "THE BIBLE STANDARD PUBLICATiONSOCIETY," at their Office, No. 24, Mint Lane, Lincoln.