Bible Standard October 1878

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THEihlt ~tandard.ISSUED MONTHLY BY

"The Christian Association for the Dissemination of the Truth of Immortality through Christ aloEDITED BY

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

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

Price Ido. 13." The Wages of Sin is Death; but the gift of 'God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

OCTOBER, 1878.A STATEMENT AND AN APPEAL.

IT is with heart-felt gratitude to God for His grea~oodnessto us through the past year, that we have been enabled tocomplete the first volume of the Bible Standard, and that weare permitted to enter upon another volume of this littlemessenger of glad tidings, even under more favourable cir-cumstances than when we commenced the first volume.

Twelve months ago we felt the desirability of starting acheap penny monthly, to disseminate the great truths ofGod's love to man, relating to the Gift of Immortalitythrough Christ alone; we made our desire known to a fewbrethren who heartily fell in with our proposition; we thenformed ourselves into an association, and thus were enabledto carry on the work, and, under the blessing of God, wehave reason to believe that it has been a blessing to manywho have since come to the light and are now rejoicing inthe truth.

We also purposed having a gathering of the brethren fromdifferent parts of the country at the end of the first year ofthe publication of the Bible Standard, which purpose, we thankGod, has been carried out, and now, instead of our work andassociation being local, we are in co-operation with brethrenin all parts of the country, who, with us, are determined, bythe help of the Lord, to spread the glorious truth of Con-ditional Imm ality through the length and breadth of thisland. We are in earnest in this matter, for we feel that thetime is fully eo: ae to scatter the seed broadcast; we do notintend to leave a stone unturned; we do not intend to letdifficulties impede our efforts, for we are conscious that the

. Christian Church is now sailing amidst the rocks and sand-banks of an uncertain and wavering conviction relative tothe great question long ago asked by Pilate-" What isTruth?" Men are turning their backs upon the old dogmasof Eternal Torment, &c., but they have no settled convictionas to what is taught by the great Law-giver on the subject

of ftiture punishment,-thusthey are open to drift Godknows where. They still adhere to the old Platonic .ththat all men are" Immortal," therefore they cannot posunderstand the' nature of God's punishment for sin,uutil they are made to see, through the power of evidthat all men are Mortal, subjects of Immortality througliving connection with a risen and glorified Redeemerfaith in Him, they will never be able to understand thatmeans to cleanse the universe from sin by utterly destrothe sinner in the second death, and crushing the head oserpent, and for ever wiping out the stain and blight ofreign for the last six thousand years.

It was well for man, yea for the universe, that God amthe wreck of Paradise guarded the tree of life, that ma~,guilty sinner could not eat and live for ever. This ~wisdom, nay, more, of kindness, on the part of God, enHim to deal with man on a basis where He could propohim a plan whereby he could be raised from a statmortality and death, to a state of Honour, Glory, and Imtality through the promised seed which was to crush, intime, the serpent's head, by conquering death in Hisperson, and thus becoming the Federal Head of an immrace.

In due time, Christ, the promised Seed appeared.-Hdied, and rose again from the dead, and thus He bethe first-fruits of them that sleep, afterwards theyare His at His coming. Immortality then becomesmain .feature of the Gospel message, through resurrectand Christ is set forth in the Gospel as the only Sourcewhich man can obtain an undying nature, to be bestoupon Him at the resurrection of the just. A failure on mpart to comply with God's proposal involves the despisGod's gift in utter ruin, he cannot rise any higher thanown nau, e, therefore he must inevitably reap corruption,death. As the wages of sin, his end will be destruction.man in Christ will reap at the resurrection incorruptibili


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98 THE BIBLE STANDARD.the man out of Christ will reap corruption. His end will bethe second death from which there will be no resurrection,through all the ages of God's vast eternity.

Brethren, these great truths have long been buried in thegrave of tradition, but, thank God, men are being raised upto bring them from their traditional graves.

We are convinced that the time is fully come to bringbefore the world these hitherto hidden and unpopular truthsrelating to man's true nature and true destiny. The agerequires men who will do this work at any sacrifice. Menwith true hearts-men who dare to speak out-men who arebrave, men who will not shun to declare the whole counsel ofGod. We seek the co-operation of such men, and it is forthis purpose we have seen fit to organise ourselves into anassociation.

Shall we then have the sympathy of all who have seen thelight? Shall we have your help ?-your co-operation?'Shall we, with one loud united voice, cry through the landthat all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as theflower of grass? Sh~ we force our way to the front, andhold up the Divine Son of God to men as the only Sourcefrom which they can obtain Honour, Glory, and Immortality.

Shall we all say Yes, with God's help, we will? Then letus do it at once; there is no time to be lost. The Judge iscoming,-the day of rewards is coming,-the day of wrath iscoming. We are on the threshold of the new age,-an agein which the sinner will lose his existence, his life, and forever be banished into the long, dark, eternal night of thesecoild death.

Heavy responsibilities are upon us who see the light, maywe then do all we can, do it willingly, and may our unitedprayer be, God speed the Truth. Amen.

REPORT OF ADDRESSESDELIVERED AT THE

CONFERENCE OF BELIEVERS IN'" CONDITIONAL.IMMORTALITY,"

HELD IN LINCOLN DURING THE LAST WEEK OF SEPTEMBER.ON Monday evening the Rev. Silas Henn, of Dudley, de-livered a very telling address, at the Mint Lane BaptistChapel, on the subject of " The Lord's Second Coming, andHis work in relation to the consummation of all thingsspoken of by all the Holy Prophets since the world began."

On Tuesday evening, at the Masonic Hall, addresses weredelivered by the Rev. H. S. Warleigh, Ashchurch Rectory,and the Rev. W. S. Hobson, St. Barnabas Rectory, Isle ofMan, on the subject of "Man's'Mortality," showing thatour immortality depends upon a 11ving union with Christ.Both speakers made a deep impression upon the minds ofthe audience, which was large.

\The Rev. H. S. Warleigh spoke very kindly of our opponents, but showed by the most conclusive arguments that thepopular doctrine of the soul's immortality was an utterfallacy. He proved from the Scripture that Immortality icontingent upon our connection with a living and resurrectedChrist. We are sorry that we have no report of this veryable address, it having been delivered extempore, so thaour readers must be satisfied to know that it was not onlan able but a most convincing testimony to the truth.

The following is the full report of the Rev. W. S. Hobson'svery able address. He commenced by saying :-

Having been favoured with a notice as to the particular department of our great subject to be treated by Mr. Warleigh,and that he was to precede me in addressing you, I have, inpreparing what I might put before this important gathering,taken for granted that he would make it very plain and cleato you all-s-what is most surely believed amongst us-thatimmortality is the gift of God to man, and that it is giventhrough Christ alone, and only to those in Him-that thepromise, of it is one, and the chief one, of those exceedinggreat and precious promises, which are yea and Amen to uin Christ, and that the gift of it-for I believe that in thegerm and earnest of it is given here as well as promised in-its fulness hereafter-is one of the things which are freelygiven us of God in Christ.

You will agree with me that, in taking that for granted,did not indulge in any unreasonable expectation, and thaMr. Warleigh has indeed fully and admirably dealt with thaglorious theme, At the same time, I felt pretty sure tha

. his thoughts would overflow largely into the very contiguoussubject of the penalty of sin. Indeed, I feel sure that mostif not all of the speakers at this Conference, will have muchto say about these two kindred subjects which I have under-taken to bring before you more particularly in their relationone to another. So that in case you should-as is nrylikely-.:-find me repeating in substance much of what MrWarleigh has said with much better effect, or some subsequent speaker repeating in much better style much owhat I shall have said, I, can only say that it is just whayou may reasonably expect, and that after all it is bettereven if less exciting, than if we were all differing in outestimony, and our .sentiments jarring and clashing one withanother. It is possible, nay, quite probable, that in somminor details of eschatology, and of psychology, the occupantof this platform may differ among themselves, but as to thegreat broad subjects of Immortality, and of Future, andEternal Punishment, and of their relation one to anotherI am glad to think we all stand together with one heart and

_with one mind on the one broad sure platform of the writtenWord of God.

And, indeed, those who differ from us most widely othese great subjects seem quite agreed with us as to thei


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TIlE BIBLE STANDARD. 99

relation one to another. Those who maintain that all menhave immortality by nature, and that the wicked will, as thepenalty of sin, live for ever in torment, very generally, ifnot universally, admit that these two dogmas must stand orfall together, especially that the latter cannot stand withoutleaning most of its weight on the former. They have thegrace to think about our righteous and merciful God that itmust be in some sort a necessity with Him that the wickedshould live for ever in torment, or else He surely would notinflict such a doom. They put it that man must live for everonce he has been created, and so they make the death, towhich he is doomed as a sinner, mean his eternal life inmisery-his perishing, mean his preservation in pain, sothat he shall never perish-his everlasting destruction, meanhis undergoing a never-ending process of destruction, which,after all, is never accomplished. Or, they take up the ex-pressions " everlasting punishment" and" eternal fire," and,putting on them the meaning forced upon them by thedoctrine of" the natural and unconditional immortality of allmankind, they say-they have, as I have said, the grace tosay;-this could not possibly be true unless man wereessentially immortal, unless it were somehow an impossi-bility with God to destroy a human soul. As a very fairinstance of what I mean, Canon Garbett speaks of "thetraditional belief in the immortality of the soul, and ineternal punishment" -he means eternal torment-" as thenecessary result of it to the wicked."

On the other hand, the unconditional immortality of man-the notion that he has an undying soul which must livefor ever-seems to be nowadays put forward and defendedby such men, not on its own account, but in the interests ofthe dogma of eternal torment, which is looked on as aCatholic doctrine which must not be doubted or denied.I say, nowadays, because I believe it used to be maintainedin the honest belief that it was revealed in such passages ofScripture as, " Let us make man in Our own image," and," God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and manbecame a living soul," and I think those days of darknessare pretty well past and gone. While any immortality thatis desirable in itself, and admittedly any immortality that isspoken of in Scripture, is so firmly secured to man in therisen and ever-living Christ, and so fully assured by God'spromises in the Gospel, that it is only the immortality ofthe wicked, only immortality in torment, only an immor-tality that the Bible never speaks of, and that Christ did notbring to light by the Gospel, that needs to be maintained,or that is called in question by anyone calling himself aChristian.

I well remember some years ago, when . light on thissubject was beginning to break' in on my mind, I waspreaching in the pulpit, and in the presence, of a veryeminent minister of our Church, one whom I would never

speak of without deep respect for his work's sake. My textwas that about "Christ who hath abolished death, andbrought life and immortality to light by the Gospel." Ispoke, as you will say very naturally, of that immortalitywhich Christ the Abolisher of death has brought to life bythe Gospel as the only true immortality for man revealed inthe Bible, and I went so far as to say, what at the time Ifully believed, that the ordinary notion of man, or the soulof man, being immortal by nature, was an untruth derivedby tradition from heathen philosophy. When I met myfriend afterwards in the vestry-room, he shook his head andsaid, " I am not sure about that: that would cut at the rootof the doctrine of eternal punishment." In my simplicity Ireplied that" I had thought that doctrine rested on the state-ments of Scripture, and especially on certain words of Christ."I had said nothing about destruction, still less had I men-tioned annihilation, but his acute and comprehensive mind hadevidently taken a wider and deeper view of the consequencesof what I had said, and so he went on to say that "it wouldnot be consistent with God's character to destroy any beingHe had created." "Indeed," I replied, "then do all God'screatures live for ever? and is it more consistent with God'scharacter to keep .men alive in torment for ever than todestroy them?" I could not help remembering at the sametime certain Scriptures which declare that God is able todestroy both soul and body in hell, and that He will destroythe wicked.

I mention this to show how true it is that in the minds ofthe most and the best of men the doctrine of eternal life intorment does rest far more on the notion of man's uncon-ditional immortality than on any words of Scripture-that,as my venerated friend saw at It glance, the denial of thattenet of heathen philosophy cuts at the root of his notion ofeternal punishment, and I for one am ready to grant that ifthat heathen notion be also a truth of Divine revelation, thenwe are all in the wrong in denying eternity of torment andeternity of evil. We should go back into the old mist ofconfusion and get used once more to identifying death withliving for ever-destruction with preservation in being,perishing like the beasts that perish, with an existence asimperishable as that of the elect angels or of God Himself.

What is the penalty God has pronounced on human sin?In one word, it is "death." All through the Bible it is"death." It is death in the beginning of Genesis. It isdeath in the law of Moses. It is death in the prophets. Itis death in the New Testament as well as the Old. Deathin the Gospels-death in the Epistles-death in the Book ofthe Revelation. Death in the lips of our Lord and of Hisapostles and prophets. It was death as He suffered itvicariously Himself.

Death, of course, ushered in by more or less precedingsorrow and suffering. Sorrow and suffering culminating


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100 THE BIBLE STANDARD.

and ending in death. Such has been the law of sinand death from the beginning-that has been hangingover the human race and taking dire effect upon it eversince the fall of man, and that will do so till sin c~ases, anddeath, as well as death's last victim, is destroyed" in the lakeof fire, which is the second death." The sinless Son of GodHimself bowed to this law of sin and death, when, beingmade sin for us, He suffered and died for our sin.

It must be added to this, which is I believe questioned byfew of our opponents, that-as it would seem in foreview ofthe fall and of death, and of the dispensation of grace andredemption, .and of a fresh probation to be brought in-manwas so created as to be capable of a first death of the bodywhich does not necessarily kill the soul, of an existence forthe soul in a disembodied state, of a reclothing for that soulwith a resurrection body, and of a second death in which, bythe power and the first judgment of God, those who reject

, His mercy and resist His grace, and fail under His righteousprobation of them, may be destroyed both body and soul.So that the death sentence on Adam, instead of beingexecuted summarily and finally, was suspended for theentrance of redemption, and for the procreation of thehuman race as a field in which redeeming grace might work,and sin develop itself, before all created intelligences;and was capable of modification in gracious mercy, or injust wrath, according as men under probation turned to Godin repentance and faith, or went further from God in moredetermined alienation of heart.

Still, be it observed, the penalty of sin is neither changed,nor reversed, nor withdrawn. It is still death to thesinner, even though his death be deferred for decades orcenturies, or though it be limited to the first death for thesaved or enlarged so as to include the second death as wellas the first death for the lost.

But, in the opinion of some, the penalty of sin is notsuffering and death, but suffering and death here, and aboveall eternal life in suffering hereafter. The first death isreally death so far as it goes, but the second death is theentrance on an eternal life of torment. It is true they re-concile this to their own minds with the Word of God bymaking out that the word death, when used in the Bible ofthe extreme penalty of sin, is used in a poetical figurative" usus loquendi sense," and that it really means living forever in misery. If you ask them why they suppose such aviolent change is necessary in the meaning of that word,they will answer, if they speak out all their mind-Firstly,and chiefly, because man is immortal-has a ~on-dying soul-is imperishable-which is all untrue; and, Secondly,because of certain expressions in the Bible which thisnotion of the immortality of man, and his never-dying soulhas forced them to interpret as meaning an eternal procesof punishing, of burning, of corruption, or of manifold

destruction, instead of interpreting them as they do othsimilar expressions as meaning an eternally-fixed and firesult of a temporary process.

For instance, Bishop Rorbery, whose work has lately bereferred to by Canon Ryle as ap impregnable tower of refuand inexhaustible armoury of weapons for those who desirebelieve in eternal torment, notwithstanding all that mayurged to the contrary by us and by others-Bishop Horberwriting on Revelation xix. 3, says, " The smoke of a ccannot be supposed to rise up for ever and ever" (though this just what is stated in the text the Bishop had befohim, ' And her smoke rose up for ever and ever,') "but this not the thing intended: the thing intended is that Ghad now judged the gr l'C tt Whore, or the mystical Babyloand destroyed her so totally and finally that she shounever be restored; her destruction should be, not merelyages of ages, but for ever and ever." (The Universaliswill thank him for that distinction between "for agesages" and "for ever and ever" -we do not understand"The phrase, 'Her smoke rose up, &c.,' is a strong pphetical manner of representing an ererlastinq destructioof the city or kingdom it is applied to." (p. 124.)

That might have been written by Mr. White or by MMinton. It exactly expresses our sentiments about eternpunishment and everlasting destruction. And why? Bcause in the case of a city, the Bishop was not hamperby any doctrine of immortality. He did not believe inimmortality of perishing cities-s-only of perishing souls.

In like manner, Dr. Adam Clarke, writing about certaother cities, declared by St. Jude to be " set forth asexample suffering the vengeance of eternal fire," considethat the words "suffering the vengeance of eternal fir" are properly applied by some to the utter subversion of thecities; so that, by the action of that fire which descendfrom heaven, they are totally and ete1' l la U y destroyed"The word TO 71"lIp ULWVLOV signifies an eternally destrutive fire. It has no end in the destruction ofcities-they were totally burnt up and never were and necan be rebuilt. In this sense, the word, ULWVL, eternal,' has its grammatical and proper meaning."Dr. Leask or Mr. Warleigh were to have written that, peowould have said that it was only a part of their annihationism. But Dr. Adam Clarke, when he wrote thowords, held eternity of torment for the wicked.

I need only remind you of how universally the same seis put on ULWVLO, in such expressions as "'eternal judment," "eternal redemption," "eternal salvation," whno one, I suppose, understands to mean anything butjudging-a redeeming-a saving-the results, not the pcesses, of which are eternal.

The way in which the minds of our opponents workthis matter is, I think, fairly put before us by Mr. Rich


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THE BIBLE STANDARD. 101Watson. Alluding to the worm that dieth not, and the firethat is not quenched', of Isaiah, and of our Lord in St.Mark's Gospel, he' says, "As the worm itself dies not, btUdestroys that it feeds upon, and as a fire unquenehed con-sumes that upon which it kindles, so, when temporal-judgments are expressed by this phrase, the utter destruc-tion of persons, cities, and nations, appears to be intended;but when it refers to a future state, and the subject' ofpunishment is in itself, 01' by Divine appointment, immortal,the idea is heightened to its utmost terror," i.e. of course,it means not their utter destruction, but their eternaltorment. Now, this evidently means that if man were notimmortal in himself, or by Divine appointment, certainlanguage of Scripture would mean his utter destruction.That is just what we say, but we say also that he is notimmortal, and, therefore, such language does mean hisutter destruction. Mr. Watson himself taught elsewhere," That the soul is naturally immortal. is contradieted by Scripture." He must have held that the wickedare made immortal, " by Divine appointment," in order totheir eternal torment, which I need not say is' a notion thatwould require some very strong confirmation from Scripture,when there is not a word to warrant it.Now, it seems to me, that this opinion that the penalty-of

sin is not suffering' and death, but suffering and death here,and especially eternal life in suffering hereafter, puts theholders of it in an inextricable difficulty in mu.nyways.We ask them, when did "death" as the penalty of sin

begin to take on this grimly poetic meaning of eternalexistence in torment? Did Adam so understand- it? Andifthey are driven to say "Yes, he did ; it was so understoodfrom the first," it must surely be under terrible stress andpressure of their theory, and I think they will get few oftheir OWndisciples to believe them. Besides, they mustsuppose to themselves than this poetic interpretation of theword had been revealed to Adam, though most unfortunatelyit has not beenpreserved byor for his descendants. ButifAdamdid not so understand it,- passing by the enormous difficultyof his being left under such a serious mistake in such animportant matter as the meaning of the threat held out, tohim, and of the sentence pronounced on him,-we ask, whichof his descendants did get to the right poetical understandingof the death sentence they were born under? and at whattime of the history of the race? The answer would probablybe-I can think of no other-When they began to believe intheir own immortality. Naturally when they began tosay in their hearts, we must live for ever, our souls areimmortal, those who had any written or unwritten tradition"of the sentence "thou shalt surely die," and who believed,that they believed it, must have altered the meaning of itvery materially, whether poetically or not, to make it suittheir new light about their never-dying souls. But this, to

us who deny the immortality of man as man, or of the soulof man as such, is as much as to say that the one: errorcrept in on thetrail of the other.But we come later down the stream of time and of

revelation, and we are ready to try this matter on New'I'estament ground, and by the words' of the great' Apostle ofthe Gentiles. In his Epistle to tlie Romans, Sot.Paul treatsvery fully and very systematically of sin' and dea:1fh,of deathas' the penalty of sin. From, say, the 12tH verse of the 5thchapter, to, say, the 13th verse of the 8th chapter, inclusive,there is more or less continuous treatment of the two greatsubjects, sin and death in Adam, and righteousness andlife in Christ; more or less constant reference to death asthe- penalty of sin. In tH e course of that passage, we arereminded of how "by one man sin entered into the world,and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for thatall sinned;" we read that" sin hath reigned unto death;"we are told that "the wages of sin is death;" in the 8thchapter the- whole matter is summed up in these pregnantwords, " The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hathmade me free from the law of sin and death." According tothat law of sin and death, it is stated of the Christian, "thebody is dead because of sin." According to it, too, it isstated most generally, "If ye live after the flesh ye shalldie," i,e. "if ye are living in sin, ye are on your way todeath." Now, in all this passage how does St. Paul speak ofdeath as the penalty of sin-literally, or figuratively, orboth? Witl anyone say that when he says "the wages ofsin is death," he means by "death'" eternal existence intorment, but that when he says the believer's" body is deadbecause of sin," he means literal death? One thing iscertain, that St. Paul understood by the death sentencepronounced on Adam, and on fallen man in Adam, noteternal-life in misery, but such death as reigned from Adamto Moses, even over such as had not sinned, after thesimilitude of Adam's transgression. Such" death" as "byone man's offence" already "reigned by one," when nonehad as yet died the second death, 01' begun to die thepoetical death of eternal life in pain.Believe ~that death means death all through this passage,

death as the wages of sin, to be fully paid to impenitentsinners in the second death, and that life means life through-out, and this whole passage is luminous with light fromheaven on the great subjects it treats of. Believe that deathin one part of it means death, and in another eternal life,and all is earthborn mist and confusion and darkness as awhole. You may be able to take some separate verses of it,and ill-treat them separately as texts for sermons on eternaltorment, (though, much as it treats ofthe penalty of sin, theword" eternal" never occurs in it, nor the word" torment,"-"death" is quite enough,) but you can never in that waymake consistent sense of the passage as a whole.


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Let me say a word more about the death penalty of sin,as the truth about it struck my own mind very forcibly someyears ago, and contributed greatly, by God's grace, to bringme to the truth on this great subject:' "The soul thatsinneth it shall die." " Death passed upon all, for that allsinned." This is the Word of God. This fa "the law of sinand death." But is the Word true? Does the law holdgood without exception? It must be true, for it is God'sWord. It must hold good without exception, to be true atall with a truth worthy of God. And we are all sinners.It is true then, and holds good in the case of every sinnerhere or elsewhere-that is, in the case of every man, woman,and child, here and elsewhere. "Ye shall not surely die," isthe devil's falsehood which can be true of no sinning childof Adam.But now let me remind you of a passage of arms that took

place a short time ago between two very great guns, CanonRyle and Canon Farrar. Canon Ryle, alluding to the half-and-half universalism of Canon Farrar, rather than to theout-and-out universalism of Mr. Jukes and Mr. Cox, says,that" at the end of 6,000 years the great enemy of mankindis still using his old weapon (the daring falsehood, 'Yeshall not surely die ') to persuade men that they may liveand die in sin, and yet at some distant period finally besaved." Canon Farrar in the Contemporaru for June, assome of you will remember, makes a very happy retort upon. this, and says that Canon Ryle's abuse of those words ofSatan "would tell equally against any who preached theforgiveness of sins." "What would Canon Ryle say, were Ito charge him with repeating the devil's daring falsehood,when (as I suppose) he teaches that men ~y live in sin,and yet not die, but even on the bed of death be saved byrepentance? I should be every whit as much justified insaying this to him, as he is in saying it to me, for he holdsexactly what I hold-that men may be saved from deathupon repentance, by Christ's merits, even though they havesinned." I wonder what Canon Byle would reply to this?It seems to me unanswerable from Canon Ryle's point ofview. But, observe, it leaves the matter thus :-that in thecase of every saved soul, the devil's lie is true, and God'sword is false. The soul that sinned does not surely die, butlives for ever. Canon Farrar, after all, only flings backa "tu quoque" at Canon Ryle and his accusation of propo-gating the devil's lie. Would any of you be satisfied to leavethe matter so? I think not. And I am sure it need not beleft so in the case of any who are saved in God's wondrouslywise plan of salvation. For, observe, that is not by givinglife to the death-doomed instead oj death. It is by givinglife in Christ out oj death and after death-it is not byrepealing or reversing the death sentence, but by letting ittake its effect and work itself out on the sinful creature, andby the creation meanwhile of a new creature in Christ Jesus,

which does not and cannot sin, being born of God. It is bydeath and resurrection, by destruction of the old, and a newcreation brought in to supersede the old, and to outlast theold for ever . Was there anything in the bond to hinderGod doing this new thing? Did the death sentence forbid anew creation on God's part? Nay, did it not necessitate itas the only means of saving a death-doomed being, consis-tently with His own truth in speaking the doom of death?When you and I stand with Christ in the glory which is

to be revealed,-when we have put on immortality in all itsfulness of glory and honour-there will be nothing of usthen that came .into being, sin-diseased and death-doomed,as naturally descended from fallen, sinful, death-doomedAdam. There will be nothing of us then, in body, soul, or'spirit, that has not been ~ade new by undergoing theprocess of death and resurrection,-nothing that the accuserof the brethren, he that has by reason of sin the powerof death over mankind, could, taking his stand on God'sveracity, claim for the death eternal by the eternal law of sinand death: If he made any such claim, he would beanswered, "These men did die. All of them that was bornof the -flesh did die. There was a new birth of their spiritsin the regeneration, and a new creation of them in body, aswell as soul, in the resurrection. Nothing of the oldremains. They are new creatures in Christ Jesus, 'oldthings have passed away, all things have become new.'What was born of God in them sinneth not, what was' notborn of God in them died. The devil has no power over thenew creation. He cannot touch the regeneration,-the re-surrection life. It is the new and sinless that lives and willlive in glory for ever. The old and sinful has died.". I consider this a complete answer to Canon Farrar. Hemay not think such an answer needed. I do; and I thankGod it is forthcoming in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in theword of that eternal life which is in Him.It is as important to make God's mercy and truth meet

together in a sinner's salvation, as it is to make Hisrighteousness and peace kiss each other. His righteousnessand peace kiss each other on the blood-stained groundbeneath the cross of Christ. His mercy and truth meettogether beside this empty tomb, and beside what is likeunto it, the laver of regeneration here, with its promise ofresurrection to eternal life hereafter.But can Canon Ryle avail himself of this answer to Canon

Farrar, even if he thinks it worth anything as an answer,and can find no other, and is not satisfied with the "tuquoque" 'with which his own reproachful charge, has been socleverly aimed at him? I think not. Not at all consistently.For, observe, it is of the very essence of it, to make" death"mean the destruction- of the sinful being and the sinfulnature. The death sentence cannot mean that 'Yith thesaint, unless it means that with the impenitent sinner. And


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THE BIBLE STANDARD.Canon Ryle does not as yet-he will some day-believe that-that will ever happen to the impenitent sinner. He believes-and propagates, though of course he does not think it ormean it, the devil's lie even more than Canon Farrar. For,Jie holds that the sinful soul-will live for ever, through thefirst death in which the soul is not killed; that the soul thateinneth will never die; and that without any death unto-sin, any new birth unto righteousness, which I supposeCanon Farrar believes in for all the saved, even if all-mankind be saved eventually, as, in spite of his own words-to the contrary, he seems to think, as well as to hope, will be- th e case. Canon Ryle, and those who think with him, makethe devil's lie come true in the case of all mankind; in the.case of the saved, living for ever in a happy eternal life; in'the case of the lost, living for ever in a miserable eternal life.I maintain that only on the groud of life in Christ, and

of immortality conditional on a saving union with Him, onlyon the ground that the new creature in Christ Jesus willalone live for ever, and that all who are not born again mustdie eternally in the second death, can the Gospel of eternallife for sinful men be cleared from the charge of being inevery case of salvation, a repetition ofthe devil's lie, "Ye shallnot surely die." Only on that same ground, can the wordsof final doom from the judgment seat of Himself be clearedfrom the same blasphemous charge.And yet it is sometimes charged against us who believe

that the wicked will die utterly and finally in the seconddeath, that we also are repeating concerning them the samedevil's falsehood. I saw that said against us in print theother day, and I have seen and heard it more than once.It is as if, had God put an end to the existence of Adamand Eve the day they sinned in Eden, the devil would have'had it to say" they did not die. I was right when I saidto them, 'ye shall not surely die.''' I have heard and seenmany foolish things said against us, but this beats all-." The force of folly can no further go."If I have not quite exhausted your patience, I would refer

-to another and a very different view of the way in which the-sruth about the penalty of sin stands related to the truth.about immortality. I have been contending against the utter.change of the penalty which the belief in man's naturalimmortality has necessarily induced, and the change from.the sufficiently severe penalty of death, with whatever degree.or duration of preceding or concomitan suffering God may.see fit to add as the additional result o: aggravated sin-from that to the incredible, inconceivable, notion of an.eternal existence in such pain and agony of soul and body.as Christ has again and again described under the figure-if it be a figure and not a reality-of the burning of materialfire.I would now point out that the change so induced works

jn many minds at the present day especially, and no doubt

has worked in some minds III all past days, in . a veryopposite way. In the way of, I might almost say, nullify-ing God's threatenings of everlasting destruction and ofeternal fire. It is often charged against us that, as one hasput it, our doctrine of Conditional Immortality" is avowedlyan effort to get rid of the severe side of the divine justice."We utterly deny this soft impeachment, we avow no suchthing. The result of the scriptural doctrine of conditionalimmortality is to let the Divine justice as revealed in theWord of God stand forth in all its awful truth, as God hasrevealed it, stripped of the incredible and inconceivabl shorors which result from the change of eternal punishmentinto eternal torment, which again has been necessitated bythe human tradition of man's unconditional immortality .But we say more, we say that this change of doctrine hasdefeated its own apparent object and has utterly and signallyfailed to. accomplish what it most fairly promised to do,to deepen men's sense of the Divine Justice. I know thereare some who still believe in an eternal hell of fire or fire-like torment. Mr. Bedfield Harper does, Mr. Spurgeon does,Mr. Flavel Cooke does, the teaching body of the WesleyanSociety does, at least as many of them as are honest in theirannually professed adherence to their doctrinal standards.The same may be said of those who sincerely believe thedoctrines of the Westminster Confession and the ShorterCatechism. But there is no doubt that such are in a verysmall minority amongst those who believe that the wickedlive for ever in sin and, I was going to say, misery-Ihardly know what word to use instead, I will explain myselfas I g? along- at any rate who believe in unconditionalimmortality, and who are not Universal Restorationists.'I'he belief in a hell of material fire and the wicked beingburned in it for ever, which was in the dark ages and within acentury ago almost universal, is now almost extinct, at least inProtestant Christendom. And in letting that go men havelet go any honest belief in any fire-like torment to last for ever.They alleviate, and alleviate, and alleviate, until they havechanged hell into something very different indeed from the

i Gehenna of the Bible. For instance, a clerical friend ofmine referring the other day to a newspaper notice of Mr .Impey's noble refusal any longer to teach according to theWesleyan standards, that" the wicked will be punished inhell by having their bodies tormented by fire, arid theirsouls by a sense of the wrath of God," and that "thesetorments of hell will last for ever and ever,"-said to me,that the wonder was not that Mr. Impey had ceased to believeand to teach such things, but that he or anyone else could everhave so believed and taught. My friend is still a believerin eternal torment himself, so I asked him in some surprisewhat he held and taught himself on the subject. All I couldmake out was, th~t he did not believe in the torment ofmaterial fire. Now whether actual material fire will be the

103


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104 THE BIBLE STANDARD.means of the punishment of the wicked or not, it is certain thatone Lord and His Apostles spake, whether figuratively or not,'of material fire as the means. If figuratively, it was withIt view to conveying a true idea of the pain and agony of thesecond death and it was without exaggeration. The realitygenerally transcends rather than falls short of, the figures.used truthfully to expres~ it. But myfriend's idea of futurepunishment is so mild, that he cannot conceive how anysensible man could understand that the language used by ourLord and His Apostles literally, or without large allowancefor- their figurative language being-as it seems to me-tremendously untruthful in the way of exaggeration andhyperbole. 1- 'quite agree with Mr. Olver, in' his FernleyLecture, which I dipped into ,in the train this morning,:that " the words of Jesus. . cannot be falsified bythe supposition ofan exaggeration." I have such reverence for'Our Lord's teachings 'and such confidence in His truth; that Iwould rather speak with John Wesley of "the fire (eithermaterial or infinitely worse) that tormenteth the body " ofthe wicked man in hell, than believe as many do, that itwill not be material fire but something infinitely- better. Afigure, may well fall short of the reality~thatis quiteconsistent with truth. But to use repeatedly a figurewhich implies the mast terrible torture and agony con-ceivable, and not to mean by it anything of the kind,is not consistent with truth. Our Lord spake of either fireor fire-like a,gony of soul and body. The question is, didHe teach that the wicked were to live in it for-ever? Tra-ditionalists say He did. But then they immediately, for themost part, begin to quench the fire and make hell a prettycool and comfortable place, quite fit for spending an eternityill. Their alleviations are wonderful, but- the necessity forthem is fearful. Some make hell a place-where it is goodbut not honourable-e-cvcfiov but not KUAov-tO spend aneternity. Some make their eternal hell a penal-settlement,when all the convicts get sooner or later their tickets of leave,and some become flourishing as the wealthy and the great of,the new colony. Bishop Horbery takes a hint from theimmensity of the universe, and suggests that some otherworlds than ours should be used for the purpose. He says," it suits ill with the idea of God's infinite perfections tosuppose Him reduced to the necessity of totally destroyingsuch creatures whom He made naturally immortal" (thereis the' old underlying delusion peeping out). "Is not theuniverse large enough for God to dispose of them into statesand:' places suitable to their natures? And can not Hiswisdom dispose of them into such states and places as areproper for them; and proportionable to their deserts,without destroying and taking away their being." Hequotes with a sort of approval what Archbishop King hadsaid, that "in hell there l!lay be some whose condition ispreferable to not being; though for J udas and such sinners

it had been better that they had never been." And he givesas his own opinion that, "all that are condemmed. to hell"suffer, of course, the loss of heaven, and all that is included.in tne p'(lma damni, If they deserve to suffer no more', -theywill suffer no more. And every degree of positive punish-ment superadded will be no morethan that which is' just andnecessary. 8 - 0 that no one's existence will be worse thannon-existence wrongfully or without reason." Well, but-what' a difference between this hell and the' hell our Lord,

"-taught of-let us say figuratively, What a difference'between the figure and the reality! And would eternal:existence in a lake of fire, or a furnace of fire, or in anycondition that could' be truthfully compared to that, be better'than non-existence? I may mention too, that Bjshop-Horbery excludes the case of .the heathen from his con-sideration altogether. "I make it," he says, "a distinct,observation, in order to vindicate the ways of G0d, to man..with regard to this subject, that men were apprised andforewarned of this constitution and of the consequences ofa wicked life. The debate before us was, in the beginning;of it, confined to the Case of Christians. Not because others-also shall not be brought into judgment and punished astheir iniquities deserve; but because the' gospel, the-punishment denounced in which only we are now consider-ing, concerns itself only with Christians." Well, those whohave been not very bad Christians are to be punished somildly as he has' said-only it must be for ever. I wonderwhat he would allot, as the punishment their iniquities.deserve, to the heathen and the Mahomedans who ~are notworthy of eternal life and happiness, and with whom, as hesays most untruly, the Gospel does not concern itself in its.deriunciations of punishment. The Bible consigns at thegeneral and final judgment, all whose names are not written:in the Lamb's book of' life to the lake of fire. This inoludesssinners' from among the heathen as well as sinners of Christen--dom. The Bible says expressly of the heathen, that as manyas have sinned without law shall perish without law. St. Paulspeaks ofthe saved from among the heathen as delivered fromthe wrath to come. It is a thing we cannot allow for onemoment, that the hell of the Bible is only for bad Christians.We ffust 'force the question on our opponents cencerning allthe~nsaved. They are cast into the lake of fire-are theyto live in it for ever? They perish with law or without:law, what does perishing mean? Does it mean living forever, or being punished with everlasting destruction fromthe presence of the Lord?

I have quoted words of Bishop Horbery where he twicespeaks of God's destroying the wicked as a thing He is notat all likely to do. Will you excuse a little digression.while I show you how he deals, to Canon Ryle's admiration,with the plain words of ou:t:Lord which speak of their beingdestroyed soul and body in Gehenna. Commenting on


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THE BIBLE STANDARD. 105the words" able to destroy both ~oul and body in hell," hesay, " It is in the power of God to destroy them which noone denies. But then we are not to recur to the power ofGod in such questions as these, but rather to the nature ofthings, and the declarations of the will of God. And as, fromthe nature of the soul, we have no reason to think that itwill be utterly destroyed, &c." So that we are to philosophiseabout the nature of things, and especially to study the natureof the soul, instead of doing what Christ expressly bids us do," recur to the power of God," as being" able to destroy bothsoul and body in hell." Elsewhere he has (may I not say),the audacity as well as the inconsistency to say, that thosewords, no more mean utter destruction or deprivation ofbeing, than St. Luke's words or our Lord's words in St. Luke,"hath power to cast into hell." But the Bishop comesacross very similar words elsewhere in Janus iv. 12."There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and todestroy." Here he is evidently in a dilemma. If he saysabout" able to destroy," that God's being able is nothingsince we are not to recur to His power in such ma.tters-then what about" able to save"? If he says, that as Godis able to save so He will save-then what about "able todestroy"? However, he is evidently a practised athlete inthe polemical arena, and so he gets out of the difficulty thus,with the help ora" distinguo." "Able indeed, in the naturalsense, to save, or preserve in being, or to destroy that being;but meant here only in the moral." Does Canon Rylereally approve of such exegetics as these? .

But to return, I would allude to an alleviation which Ihave come across lately, more than once. It has an amus-ingly flimsy show of Scripture and reason in its favour.The future punishment of the wicked, as Christ repre-sented it, is their being cast into a furnace of fire. Somemake it to consist in their being banished. from God'spresence for ever, only that and nothing more. Only, Isuppose, they credit the wicked in hell with such changedfeelings toward God, as that their banishment from Hispresence will be like the torment of fire to their God-lovinghearts and their heavenly affections; and so they come roundto Scripture and imagine they believe it. Others again say,that as life eternal is the knowledge of God and of Christ,so death eternal is the ignorance of God and of Christ.The wicked are in that death now and will be in it for ever,and that will be hell to them. Certainly this would be nosmall" comfort to Sodom." Those who hate God will be pun-ished by never knowing Him. I wonder those who advancethis notion do not stop to think that, for that to be any-thing like the hell Christ taught about to a man, implies aconsiderable amount of what we are accustomed to think ofas sanctification and true religion in the man, very unspeak-able yearnings after God and goodness. Such a state ofthings would only be hell to a perfected saint or to a holy

angel, certainly it would be no punishment to those who" donot like to retain God in their knowledge," who" do not choosethe knowledge of God," and whose sin and. condemnation-not their punishment, is that" they know not God."

And why all these resorts and devices to escape fromthe plain language of our Divine Master and His inspiredservants? Why, just because that plain language in itsplain meaning with what they never taught, the immortalityof all men, and the consequent eternal life of the wicked insuch a state or place of punishment as they did teach, isincredible to enlightened and tender-hearted Christians.So that it comes to this, that sooner than give up thetraditional untruth of unconditional immortality, men willmitigate to any degree" the bitter pains of eternal death,"and will tamper to any extent with the awful death sentenceof God. They will perpetuate moral as well as physicalevil, sin as well as misery, to all eternity in God's universe.They will call life death and death life, they will makeimmortality which God holds out as a prize to win men toholiness and to encourage them in well doing-a thing ofhorror and. a name of dread to men. Where it is notasserted and claimed in a God-defying disregard of sin andits penalty as an indefeasible attribute of man, which Godmust in regard to His own character make an enjoyable aswell as an alienable heritage of man.

But truth will conquer, and will assert itself, at least, intruth-loving humble. hearts, that are content to sit at thefeet of Jesus, and learn of Him. The truth we hold is toohumbling to the pride of man, too terrible against sin, tooexalting to a Christ that is rejected of men, to allow us toexpect that it will be popular where the Gospel of Christ isnot popular. But among those who believe in Christ, andlove Him, and put His word above all teachings of men, thistruth will gain ground, is gaining ground day by day. Thewords of the grand old prophet of Stamford Rivers, whichare so familiar to many of us, are coming true. "This mightyquestion" has been "opened"; it has come-it is coming moreand more" into the hands of well-informed Biblical interpret-ers," and it has been" discovered that our predecessors," andsome of our brethren still, "have been so walking up and down,and running hither and thither, among dim notices and indica-tions of the future destinies of the human family, that theyhave failed to gather up or to regard much that has lainupon the pltges of the Bible, open and free to our use." Thetruth we hold, and that good Isaac Taylor found andrested in at last, is indeed" a belief that does move the humanmind with a deep convulsive dread," yet it has come to us,and will come to many more" as the splendour of day comesin the tropics,"-a "brightness that makes all things glad."It has taken the ghastly skeleton of eternal sin and miseryout of the Church's cupboard. - It has rid Christianity of thedead weight of horror that has so long crushed it in helpless


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impotence before the sneer of the infidel. It has put thereligion of Christ in its true light and its fair proportionsbefore the world, holding out the promise of eternal life,-the prize of glory, honour, and immortality,-with onehand, and pointing with the other to the sure penalty ofdeath, which the one Law-giver, who is able to destroy aswell as to save, will surely inflict on all who will not turnand fear God.If the living Church of the living God would go forth againinto the world, with the word of life in her mouth, and withthe sanction Christ gave her of eternal life and deatheternal in her hands, she would go forth as she has neverdone yet, since she began to sit at the feet of Plato,-" fair asthe moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army withbanners."OnWednesday evening, at the Masonic Hall, the followingaddress was delivered to a large and attentive audience,

on the" Meaning of Redemption," by Rev. W. Leask, D.D.,London. H. J. Ward, Esq., of Liverpool, took the chair.The lecturer said: No man who reflects upon cause andeffect can fail to be convinced that teachers of ConditionalImmortality are honest men, or they would not at so muchsacrifice proclaim the unpopular truth. Otherwise suchteachers must be set down as foolish. Personally, sincethe lecturer had taught the truth by tongue and pen, he hadexperienced perfect. peace, while men had raged against him.The meaning of Redemption was the evening's topic: Itwas a vast theme, involving the character of God and thedestiny of man. But it was the vindication of the Divinecharacter that principally moved him to give up thefrightful dogma of eternal torment. Last night it wasdeclared and proved that natural immortality is not in theScriptures. Hence around us is a world of mortals. Butin the Scriptures we find a glorious plan of redemption. Itis through Christ dying and rising again. Redethptioninvolves pardon and recovery to God, but chiefly resurrec-tion of men sentenced to death for sin. The prophet has it,"0 death, I will be thy plague; 0 grave, I will be thydestruction." The Gospels also are full of it. In resurrec-tion is the climax of the redemption. In the Acts also, andthe Epistles, we read that the theme of the Apostle was"Jesus and the resurrection." But the doctrine of theresurrection became obscured when that of natural immor-tality crept into the Church. The passage saying that thegates of Hades shall not prevail against Christ's Church,means that He would redeem them from death byresurrection. Resurrection is the theme of the Gospel;natural immortality is nowhere in that Gospel. Christ isour life; Union with Him secures immortality. Resurrec-tion is Christ's triumph over the penalty of sin. Jesus saidto Martha, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." And toJohn, "I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I amalive for evermore." God did not mean to have such amonster in His universe as an immortal trangressor!Christ came to do God's will, that is, to save us j or undothe disaster brought by man upon himself, even death.The Gospel comes to us as sinful beings, needing salvation,which God has provided. It is a testimony of what Godhas done for our redemption. " If we believe the witness ofmen the witness of God is greater." That witness isthat God hath given to lis eternal life in Christ. Andhe that hath the Son hath the life. The great,pure, divine, immortal life, is in Christ. There is noeternal life but in Him. God is the witness of this. Christalso and the Apostles are witnesses, The Spirit gave testi-mony to the same Gospel of Jesus and of life in Christ.The Gospel preaches pardon, and holds out promises. It is

divided into two parts, the Gospel of the grace of God, anthe Gos el of the glory of God-rendered" Glorious Gospel"in the English version. As God breathed the breath of liinto Adarn, and he became a living creature, so the riseRedeemer breathes the divine life into believers. And whethe resurrection morning bursts in golden glory over thearth, the graves open, and there is an immortal companyGod's royal family, Christ's ransomed ones. Then there wibe test no longer, and the Lord and His followers will havin possession all the riches of God. Also in the Name oJesus every knee shall bow. The Lord Jesus Christ, in Himediatorial capacity, is constituted judge of all. He is alsthe redeemer, literally understood, even Of the earth itselfwhich will not be destroyed, but changed. Satan shall nohave a foot of it. The earth is Christ's native land, Hibirth-place; His blood fell upon it and purchased it; Hmade it His sleeping-place j it shall be luminous with thglory of the Lord. That is part of the meaning of redemption, the earth shall yet be the paradise of God. Chrisoffered the expiatory sacrifice in the place of the transgres-sion, and shall remove all its curse. The next thing thacomes in the meaning of redemption is seen in the vision othe seer of Patmos-Christ makes all things new. Then-let those notice it who believe in eternal misery-there shalbe no more sin or suffering, or curse, for the former thingsare done away. Redemption is broad as the mind of Godhigh as heaven, deep as the grave. Who could not love theLord Jesus Christ, the redeemer? Realize it, and you wilgive yourself heartily to the service of that Lord, and you wilentirely reject the tradition of the elders. He would recommend them for a commentary on redemption the new Testament. The voice of the elders comes next, saying, " Thouhast taken to thyself thy great power, and hast reigned."Redemption blends the song of angels with that of savedmen. All things are headed up in Christ. Another line othought, why has Christ redeemed us? Because He loves usGod loved us, and sent Christ to express it. He has redeemedus to be witnesses of His truth. The world is now in thehands of the wicked one, and greatly deluded. Christ hasuse for us in this world j He is training and disciplining uby trials to make us of service in the future habitable worldfor to man, not to angels, is committed the government othat age. Trained and faithful disciples of Christ shall bthe future statesmen j the future kings and priests. If walways realised this, then should we be able to endure allife trials bravely. Yes, the redeemed, are the destinedfullness of Him who filleth all in all. Christ's men shall inthe future age be seen to be full of Christ. Redemptionmeans also the destruction of the enemy that led us captive.The devil is not immortal. God says he only can lift upHis hand to heaven and swear "I live for ever." The doom

I of the devil is in the hands of Christ the Redeemer. Christalso shall destroy death. Redempticn means moreover thedrying of all tears j also the cleansing of the air j foChrist shall cast to the earth and destroy the prince of thepower ofthe ail' and all his legions. Then, God in all. TheDivine features are reflected in countless millions of savedsinners. All who live are incorruptible and immortal. Divisions in Christ's body are all annihilated, and believersnre all at length visibly, as really, one in Christ. Man redeemed-the world redeemed-the devil destroyed, the heavenscleansed, all things renewed, God all in all: that is redemp-tion. The Gospel of redemption is not a medicine to saveone from dying, and going as a disembodied spirit to hellThe last thought he would bring before them was the dark-ness that the common doctrine brings upon the character oGod. God is love-God is light j but JIlany preach that Godis angry, and Christ came to pacify Him. But what saith


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THE BIBLE STANDARD. 101the Scripture, " God so loved the world that He gave Hisonl!, begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might notperish, but have everlasting life." Look forward to thefuture so full of blessedness, and see if God is not love. Allthe reproach of "Where is thy God?" will then be takenaway. It will be seen that our God is the Saviour. Christdid not come to redeem us from sinful immortality, and giveus. Heaven; nay, He came to give us immortality; necess-~nly ho~y and happy, for there is no immortality but whatIS God-like. The meaning of redemption is the vindication?f th~ character o~God before heaven and earth, and everyintelligence. Receive the truth of redemption, witness to it,depend upon Jesus for it, and do not rest till you have dif-fused this truth far and wide. .

On Thursday evening, at the Mint Lane Baptist Chapel,short addresses were delivered by Bros. Brooks (Cheltenham),Vasey (Bridgnorth), Henn (Dudley), Kellaway (London),Ke~nock (~radford), and Capt. H. J. Ward (Liverpool).United testimony was given by the above-named brethrento the truth of man's nature in the first Adam, showing it tobe ~holly mortal; but they heartily rejoiced in the Gospelwhich presented to us the unspeakable gift of Immortalitythrough our Lord Jesus Christ. Several of the above-me~tioned brethren gave some very interesting acconnts oftheir experience in connection with their coming to theknowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. They also madesome remarks, relating to the severe persecution which theyhad to undergo for the truth's sake.

The meetings have been a glorious success, and we feel nodoubt but that much good has been done, both to thespeakers and hearers.

MINUTES OF CONFERENCE OF BELIEVERS INCONDITION AL IMMORTALITY,Held in Mint Lane Baptist Chapel, Lincoln,

Commencing WEDNESDAYMORNING,SEPTEMBER25TH.MORNINGSESSION.

H.J. Ward, Esq., of Liverpool took the chair at 10.50.Prayer was offered by the Rev. W. Hobson, of Douglas.Secretary pro tem., Cyrus E. Brooks, Cheltenham.The Chairman addressed the meeting, showing the de-sirability of our uniting together for the spread of God'struth throughout the land.The Chairman then read letters of sympathy from un-represented Brethren and Churches; also from a Church atBingley, Yorkshire, asking for a pulpit supply.Reports of the work .were then taken from Bros. Brittain,Birmingham; Mackay and Kennock, of Bradford; Akester,of Hull; J. C. Bowser, of London; Bausor, of Linco n;Davies, of Liverpool; Dr. Leask, of Maberley Chapel,London, spoke of the importance of frankness and fidelityin our testimony for the truth of God. Rev. W. T. Hobson,Douglas, Isle of Man, said that a spirit of enquiry pervadedthe Churches in Douglas, and especially amongst theMethodists. He strongly deprecated the formation of a newsect as the result of this Conference. Bro. C. E. Brooks,of Cheltenham, a Church of 60 members,-a need of visibleunion with brethren in the faith. Bro. Kellaway, of EastLondon, the work prospering-a Church formed.

WEDNESDAYAFTERNOONSESSION, SEPTEMBER25TH.Opened with prayer at 3.20 by the Chairman.The q~~stion of Churc~es and Organisations for the spreadof Conditional Immortality, was then considered. Spokento by Bro. Kennock, Bradford; Bro. Akester, Hull; Bro.Mackay, Bradford; Bro, Hobson, Douglas; Bro. Brooks,Cheltenham; Bra. Vas f l Y , . Bridgenorth; Bro. Kellaway,London; Bro. Brown, Lmcoln; Bra. Bowser, London;Bro. ~enJ?' Dudley. Bro. Brooks then proposed, and Bro.H. Bnttam seconded the followina resolution which wascarried unanimously :-" That it isimportant that believersin Conditional Immortality should unite together in effortsto spread the truth, and to bear public witness thereto' butnot for the purpose of forming separate Churches, unless incases where other Churches refuse to extend to such be-lievers the benefits of fellowship on account of their faith."The question of Lecturers was then considered and thefollowing brethren spoke thereto :-Brown, Lincoln : Leask,L?ndon; Walton, Skipton; Vasey, Bridgnorth ; White,Lmcoln; Hobson, Douglas. Dr. Leask moved, and Mr.Walton seconded, the following resolution :-" That theSecretary of the General Association be a paid azent tosuperintend the work and to Lecture throuO'ho~t the

kingdom. Also that arrangements be made with suitablebrethren to devote a few weeks annually to the work oflecturing." Carried unanimously.It was then unanimously resolved, on the motion of Dr.Leask, seconded by Mr. H. K. White, "That the time hasarrived for the formation of a General Association for thespr~ad of .the Truth of Conditional Immortality in theUnited Kingdom ; and that such Association have aPresident, Secretary, and Committee. The Association tobe formed of Annual Subscribers." The Session was thenadjourned to Thursday morning at 10.30.THURSDAYMORNINGSESSION,SEPTEMBER26TH.

Opened at 10.45, with prayer by Bro. Brooks. The minuteswere then read and c?~firmed. The subjects of publicationsfor the spread of POSItive truth, and as to the organ of theAssociation, were then considered. Spoken to by theChairman, who suggested the adoption of the Bible Standardas the official organ, and that all possible help should beextended to the Rainbow and Bible Echo. Also that thebooks pu?li~hed by Bra. Kellaway should be taken over bythe AssoClatIOn: Bro .. W. Kellaway stated his willingnessto transfer all hIS published works at cost price, and to treatwith the Association for the transfer of the Bible Echo ifconsidered desirable. 'Bro. Geo. A. Brown stated th~ unsold literature (abovenamed) ~mounted to about 800 m value. He then paid awarm tribute to. Bro. Kellaway ; stated that an organ fort~e work in Britain was essential, .an organ giving positiveVIews of truth,. the masses needing dogmatic teaching.Addresses were given also by Bros. Akester, Hindley, Brooks,Kennock, and Bausor. It was then moved by Bro. Vasey,and seconded by Bro. Kennock, "That the Bible Standardbecome the organ of this Association, and that Bro: Geo. A.Brown continue to edit the same." Carried unanimously.It was then ~ove~ by Bro, Akester, seconded by Bro.Brown, "That, m VIew of the debt of gratitude we owe toour esteemed brethren, the Editors of the Rainbow and BibleEcho, we beg to heartily commend these publications to themembers of the Association; also that they be advertisedmonthly in our organ, fre s of cost." Carried unanimously.

Moved by Bro. Brooks, and seconded by Bra. Vasey," That this Conference would counsel the Committee of theAssociation to arrange with the publisher, Bro. Kellaway


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108 THE BIBLE STANDARD.for' the transfer of all the works now published by him, withthe exception of the Bible Echo." Carried unanimously.Moved by Bro. W. Kellaway, and seconded by Bro.Hindley, and carried, " That Bros. Geo. A. Brown, Bausor,. Ward, White, Akester, and Brooks be a Sub-Committee todraft a Board of Management for the Association, and toprepare a programme for the afternoon meeting."

AFTERNOON SESSIONMet at 3.15. The Chairman offered prayer. The reportof the Sub-Committee was then read, and considered seriatim.Moved by Bro, Ward, seconded by Bro. Renn, " That thetitle of the Association be, ' Association for the Dissemina-tion of the Truth of Conditional Immortality.''' Carried.The names of the Board were then read by the Chairman.They will appear in our next month's issue.Moved by Bro. White, and seconded by Bro, Kennock,"That H. J. Ward, of Liverpool, be President, and Geo. A.Brown, Vice-President of the Association. Bro, Brown alsoto act as Secretary,pro tem., with S. R. Grantham- as AssistantSecretary." Carried unanimously.It was also decided" That Lincoln be the present head-quarters of the Association."

Annual Subscriptions were then promised, which willappear in our next. CYRUS E. BROOKS, Secretary.H. J. WARD, Chairman.

CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY.FELLOW BELIEVERS,For long have we hoped and prayed, that in the Divineprovidence the way might be opened for united effort, andthat hope, and prayer, is now realized. At the late Conferencein Lincoln, an Association was formed for the spread of thetruth above-named. Surely, that which has brought light,love, and peace to us, should be by us extended unto others;we would not eat our morsel alone. We can but rejoice,therefore, that we have at length an organization which willserve as a basis on which to build a superstructure, thatshall be a praise in the earth; the purpose of the Associationis to organise an Annual Conference, that believers may bebrought together for mutual edification, a matter of no lightimportance. Our chief weakness in the past has been ourisolation; all honour to those who have for so long battledfor the truth, standing alone,-but it need exist no longer,and nothing but imperative necessity has justified itsexistence unto the present. " As iron sharpens iron, so doththe countenance of a man that of his friend." Thank Godfor the blessings and benefits of the past Conference, and thegenerous Lincolrrfriends who organised it. Thank God, also,that our hearts will be further cheered, and our handsstrengthened, by an annual gathering, until He for whom welook, gathers us to the eternal conference of fellowship andlove. Also, to publish a monthly paper as a visible bond ofunion, medium of intercourse, and channel of usefulness.For this purpose, The Bible Standard has been adopted, itsprevious owners conveying it free; it was formerly publishedby the Rev. G. A. Brown, and a committee of his Church atLincoln. Further, to engage the whole service of a paidAgent, as Organising Secretary and Lecturer, his services to bespread over the entire kingdom, acting in concert with theauxiliary branches of the Association. Occasional Lecturerswill also be secured; our brethren with platform gifts areurged to place two or three weeks yearly at the disposal ofthe Association.

Yet further; the books, hitherto published privately inthis country, will be-with the consent of their owners-transferred to the Association, and henceforth published byit. The arrangements already made in this direction willinvolve an expenditure of about 800 .Our friends and eo-workers will see from this brief sketch,that something real and practical has been attempted, andthat the Conference has .gone as far as was prudent andpracticable at the beginning. The Association, at present,is confined to persons;- churches, and their relation to us intheir organised capacity, must be dealt with in the future,and as God in His providence may direct. All who, lovingthe Lord Jesus Christ, are also believers in "ConditienalImmortality," -in the faith that believers will live for ever,in virtue of their union by faith with Christ; and the wickeddestroyed for ever, because not so united,-are therebyeligible for membership, whether male or female. Thatnone may be excluded by want of means, the AnnualSubscriptions of members has been fixed as low as two-shillings and six-pence (2/6), though it is earnestly hopedthat all who can will far exceed that sum, seeing that anincome of at least 500 per annum will be needed to carryout the work intended. Of this the bulk will of necessity bedrawn from subscriptions. . .And now, dear sister, dear brother, we look to you for yourprayers, gifts, and cordial co-operation. It is not for pettysectarian ends, for personal advantage, nay, not even formerely human interests,-important as they may be,-thatwe plead and work. It is to clear "Our Father in Heaven"from the dark stains cast upon His fair, and perfect character;to bring out His purposes of mercy, justice, truth, and love,from the dark shadows of human and hideous dogmas; toemancipate Christ's glorious truth from the chains andfetters of man's traditions; to ease tender hearts, and weep-ing eyes, and horrified minds, from the crushing burden ofan eternal hell of conscious suffering; and to teach proud man-that high exalted worm-that, out of Christ, he is butmortal, and must eventually perish in his own corruption-Whilst cheering the meek ones of the earth, with the assuredknowledge that in Christ there is eternal life and incorrup-tibility for everyone that believeth. Help us to lift thisStandard, and flaunt it to the world.Subscriptions, with the names and addresses of thesenders, should be forwarded to the Hon. Secretary, the Rev.G. A. Brown, Walnut House, Lincoln. We would suggestto our friends the advisability of appointing one of theirnumber, in their various neighbourhoods, to receive andforward subscriptions for the whole; also for the BibleStandard, sent post-free for 1/6 per annum, parcels atspecial terms.Brethren, pray for us, and for our work.I remain, on behalf of the Executive,Your faithful brother in Christ,CYRUS E. BROOKS.

NOT ,ICE .On account of the enlargement of the paper, we areobliged for the present to make some little alteration in ourPostal .rate, The following charges will be made for allpapers going through the Mail :-

1 COpy, 12 months Is. 6d'16 Copies, 12 months 7s. Od.2 Copies, " as. ad. 12" ,,14s. Od.4" " Ss. oe,Special rates for quantities over 12 Copies.Our friends will oblige us by making every possible effortto increase the circulation of the Bible Standard. Subscrip-tions to be sent to the Editor, Walnut House, Lincoln.~ C. Akrill, Printer, High-street and Silver-street, Lincoln.

Bible Standard October 1878

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Transcript of Bible Standard October 1878