Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors Part 50

22 "Doctrinal Att.i.tude of Old School Presbyterians." By Lyman B.

At.w.a.ter, Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Princeton College. Bibliotheca Sacra, January, 1864.

23 "The Old School in New England Theology." By Professor Lawrence, of East Windsor. Bibliotheca Sacra, April, 1863.

24 "Doctrines of the New School Presbyterians." By Rev. George Duffield, D. D., of Detroit. Bibliotheca Sacra, July, 1863.

25 "Hopkinsianism." By Rev. Enoch Pond, D. D., Professor in Bangor Theological Seminary. Bibliotheca Sacra, July, 1862.

26 "Doctrines of Methodism." By Rev. Dr. Whedon. Bibliotheca Sacra, April, 1862.

27 "Theologische Zeitscrift." Herausgegeben von Dr. Friedr.

Schleiermacher, Dr. W. M. L. DeWette, und Dr. Friedr. Lucke. Erstes Heft, Berlin, 1819. _Ueber die Lehre von der Erwahlung._

28 Rom. 11:29. "The gifts and callings of G.o.d are without repentance."

By this we understand the apostle to mean the same thing as is implied in Ecclesiastes (3:14): "I know that what G.o.d doeth, it is forever." G.o.d, having chosen the Jews for a work, will continue to them the gifts, and will see that somehow or other, some time or other, the work is done.

29 A person who never had an intellectual doubt concerning a future life may be so poorly provided with an inward sense of immortality that he may never feel quite willing to die, or confident in view of death. Such a man was Dr. Johnson, who had not the least scepticism; who was a dogmatic believer, and hated a heretic; who, yet, never attained to any sort of comfort in view of death, and was always afraid to die. So there may be another person who may have no intellectual belief in a future life, but who will have the instinct of immortality so strong as to be quite easy and happy in looking forward to death. Such a person is Miss Martineau, who, in consequence of a poor philosophy of _materialism_ which she was taught in her childhood, and has always held, has been brought very logically at last to disbelieve immortality, and even the existence of G.o.d, and yet is very contented about it, and quite happy.

30 "Nescio, quomodo, dum lego, a.s.sentior; c.u.m posui librum, et mec.u.m ipse de immortalitate animorum cpi cogitare, a.s.sensio omnis illa illabitur."

31 Thus it is said, "In Christ shall all be made alive." The meaning is, that when we live in reference to G.o.d, to immortal truth, to the infinite law of right,-when we really love anything out of ourselves,-we lose all fear of death. "Perfect love casts out fear;"

that is, pure love. The love of a mother for a child casts out fear.

She is not afraid of death; she will run the risk of death twenty times over to save her child. The immortal element is aroused in her. The soldier is roused by the general's fiery speech to a thrill of patriotism, and thinks it sweet and beautiful to die for his country. Love of his country has cast out his fear. This is something more than any mere insensibility. Men can harden themselves against danger and death; they can think of something else. But that insensibility is merely a thick sh.e.l.l put round it-a sevenfold s.h.i.+eld perhaps; but the mortal fear lies hidden all the same within. True life is very different.

32 The word here rendered ABOLISHED is elsewhere translated "destroyed," "made void," "made of none effect," "brought to nothing," "vanished away," "done away," "put down." The meaning is, that all its force, importance, value, is taken out of it.

33 "The State of the Impenitent Dead. By Alvah Hovey, D. D." Boston, 1859.

34 For ??a before a defining clause, see John 6:29; 4:34; 1 John 3:11, 23; 4:21; 2 John 6.

35 Die Bestimmung des Menschen. Berlin, 1800.

36 In addition to the extracts from Professor Hovey, Meyer, Lucke, and De Wette, the following pa.s.sages from F. D. Maurice ("Theological Essays") are interesting, as showing a concurrence of testimony from yet another quarter to the thesis of this section:-

"When any one ventures to say to an English audience, that eternity is not a mere negation of time, that it denotes something real, substantial, before all time, he is told at once that he is departing from the simple, intelligible meaning of words; that he is introducing novelties; that he is talking abstractions. This language is perfectly honest in the mouths of those who use it. But they do not know where they learned it. They did not get it from peasants, or women, or children. They did not get it from the Bible.

They got it from Locke. And if I find that I cannot interpret the language and thoughts of peasants, and women, and children, and that I cannot interpret the plainest pa.s.sages of the Bible, or the whole context of it, while I look through the Locke spectacles, I must cast them aside....

"Suppose, instead of taking this method of a.s.serting the truth of all G.o.d's words, the most blessed and the most tremendous, we reject the wisdom of our forefathers, and enact an article declaring that all are heretics, and deniers of the truth, who do not hold that eternal means endless, and that there cannot be a deliverance from eternal punishment. What is the consequence? Simply this, I believe: the whole gospel of G.o.d is set aside. The state of eternal life and eternal death is not one we can refer only to the future, or that we can in any wise identify with the future. Every man who knows what it is to have been in a state of sin, knows what it is to have been in a state of death. He cannot connect that death with time; he must say that Christ has brought him out of the bonds of _eternal_ death.

Throw that idea into the future and you deprive it of all its reality, of all its power. I know what it means all too well while you let me connect it with my present and personal being, with the pangs of conscience which I suffer now. It becomes a mere vague dream and shadow to me when you project it into a distant world. And if you take from me the belief that G.o.d is always righteous, always maintaining a fight with evil, always seeking to bring his creatures out of it, you take everything from me-all hope now, all hope in the world to come. Atonement, redemption, satisfaction, regeneration, become mere words, to which there is no counterpart in reality."

37 In the German Bible we have the true word-"Auferstehung."

38 So De Wette, Kurzgefa.s.stes exegetisches Handbuch zum N. T., ad loc.u.m.

39 So Schleusner, Lexicon in LXX.

40 So Usteri (Paulinischen Lehrbegriff) says that s??p??? appears to denote partly the startling power of the truth, and partly its power of calling men together from all the regions of the earth.

41 Christ only comes when he comes to reign. His first coming was as Jesus, not as Christ. The human life is "the life of Jesus."

Christian history is "the life of Christ." In his earthly life he was Prophet; in his death he was Priest; in his resurrection, or risen state, he was King.

42 The book of the Revelation of John is the account of Christ's coming; and the true interpretation of that book depends on the proper understanding of his coming. If Christ's coming began at the destruction of Jerusalem, and has continued in all the developments of human history, then the key to "the Revelation" is to be found in the progress of Christian principles and ideas in the world.

Bertholdt (Christologia Judaeorum Jesu Apostolorumque aetate), note to -- 11, quotes from the Sepher Ikkarim this pa.s.sage-"The future age will come _gradually_ to men after the day of the great judgment, which will take place after the resurrection." Resurrection and judgment both come with Jesus, and his were "the last days."

43 1 Thess. 4:17. "We, who are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them, in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air."

Usteri (Paul. Lehrbeg.) says that "this e?? ???a has no a.n.a.logy in any other pa.s.sage of the Epistles, or indeed of the New Testament."

But Paul outgrew this literalism, and in his later Epistles speaks of sitting already with Christ in "heavenly places."

44 Olshausen, an Orthodox commentator, speaks thus in regard to Christ's predictions concerning his coming, in Matt. ch. 24, 25:-

"One of the most striking examples of the binding of the present and future in one narrative, and one which presents many difficulties, is to be found in these pa.s.sages. Plain descriptions of the impending destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish state blend with no less apparent descriptions of the coming of Christ in his kingdom. It cannot be denied that the Orthodox interpreters are far less natural and unforced than the others, in their treatment of this pa.s.sage. Their dogmatic views lead them to put apart from each other elements which are blended together by Matthew and by the other evangelists. For example, Schott says, that the description of Christ's coming begins (Matt. 24:29) immediately after 'the tribulation,' &c., and that all before that belongs to the destruction of Jerusalem. But apart from the impossibility of regarding the 29th verse as the beginning of something entirely new, there are also in the pa.s.sages which follow distinct references to the present generation (verse 34), and in the first part as distinct references to 'the last time.' We do not, therefore scruple (says Olshausen) to accept the simple explanation which alone suits the text, that Christ speaks of his coming as coincident with the destruction of Jerusalem, and with the downfall of the Jewish state."

The most interesting question, perhaps, is as to the opinions of Jesus _himself_ about his coming. That he forsaw the overthrow of Jerusalem and the Temple is certain. Everything indicates that he possessed a marvellous power of reading the future in the present, and saw in the condition of the Jewish mind the inevitable overthrow of their state. He also saw that through his death all men should be brought to him, and that he should become King in the way in which he described to Pilate his royalty, i.e., King of the truth. All who love the truth shall, sooner or later, obey his voice. In what way, then, did he expect to come? In the way he himself indicates the coming of his kingdom-like leaven, working secretly in the dough; like seed, sprouting mysteriously in the ground; like lightning, seen everywhere at once. By these images alone could he convey to his disciples his ideas. He longed to tell them many things more, but they were not able; to bear them.

45 The difficulties (of which Olshausen and other candid Orthodox interpreters speak) in harmonizing the different parts of Matthew's two chapters (24 and 25) about Christ's coming and judgment, may perhaps be relieved in some such way as this. (1.) The end of the Mosaic age and the beginning of the Messianic age are fixed at the destruction of Jerusalem. (2.) Christ's coming begins there, and continues through Christian history, till all mankind are Christians. His coming, therefore, verifies what Schiller says of truth, that it "_nimmer ist, immer wird_." (3.) Whenever he comes, he judges men according to the state of mind in which they are. (4.) The three parables (virgins, talents, king on his throne) represent the judgment of three different cla.s.ses. The first cla.s.s (of wise and foolish virgins) are those who _are not yet converted_, and have not become disciples of Christ. When he comes, those of them who have oil in their lamps-or who receive truth into an honest heart (Luke 8:15)-are ready to receive him, and to become Christians; those who have no oil reject him. The second cla.s.s (in the talents) are Christians, who receive more or less of power and of good, according to past fidelity. The third cla.s.s (the "nations ") are the heathen, and others, who have never known of Christ at all, but are Christians outside of Christianity.

46 The latest ill.u.s.tration of Orthodox ideas on this subject we have met with is contained in a little tract which has fallen in our way, containing "extracts from a sermon addressed to the students in the United Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Xenia, Ohio, by Rev.

William Davidson." It begins in this somewhat enigmatical way:-

"It is an unspeakably terrible thing for any one-for even a youth or a heathen-to be _lost_."

Why this limiting particle "even" is introduced is not explained. It seems to be implied either that a youth and a heathen have not as much to lose as others, or else that we are not bound to feel so much for their loss as for that of others. After a little poetry (which we omit, as it is altogether too stern a matter for any sentimental ornament), Mr. Davidson proceeds:-

"Nor is this all to those who suffer _least_. It is not only the loss of all, and a horrible lake of ever-burning fire, but there are _horrible objects_, filling every sense and every faculty; and there are _horrible engines and instruments of torture_. There are the 'chains of darkness,' thick, heavy, hard, and smothering as the gloom of blank and black despair-chains strong as the cords of omnipotence, hot as the crisping flames of vengeance, indestructible and eternal as justice. With chains like these, every iron link burning into the throbbing heart, is bound each doomed, d.a.m.ned soul, on a bed of burning marl, under an iron roof, riven with tempests, and dripping with torrents of unquenchable fire."

The object of the preacher being to make as terrific a picture as possible, he acc.u.mulates these material images of bodily torment in order to excite the imagination to the utmost. We can conceive of his writing these sentences carefully in his comfortable study, in an easy chair, by the side of a cheerful fire, with a smile of self-complacency, as he selects each striking expression. Then he proceeds:-

"Nor is this all. Unmortified appet.i.tes, hungry as death, insatiable as the grave, torture it. Every pa.s.sion burning, an unsealed volcano in the heart. Every base l.u.s.t a tiger unchained-a worm undying, let loose to prey on soul and body. Pride, vanity, envy, shame, treachery, deceit, falsehood, fell revenge, and black despair, malice, and every unholy emotion, are so many springs of excruciating and ever-increasing agonies, are so many hot and stifling winds, tossing the swooning, sweltering soul on waves of fire. And there will be deadly hunger, but no food; parching thirst, but no water; eternal fatigue, but no rest; eternal l.u.s.t of sensuous and intellectual pleasures, but no gratification. And there will be _terrible companions_, or rather _foes_, there. Eternal longings after society, but no companion, no love, and no sympathy there.

Every one utterly selfish, hateful, and hating. Every one cunning, false, malignant, fierce, fell, and devilish. All commingle in the confusion and the carnage of one wide-spread, pitiless, truceless, desperate strife. And there will be terrible sights and sounds there. Fathers and sons, pastors and people, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, with swollen veins and bloodshot eyes, straining towards each other's throats and hearts, reprobate men, and devils in form and features, hideous to as great a degree as are the beauties of the blest in heaven beautiful. And there are groans and curses, and everlasting wailings, as harsh and horrible as heaven's songs, shouts, and anthems are sweet, joyous, and enrapturing. And there will be terrible displays of the divine power and skill, and infinitely awful displays of merciless and omnipotent justice, in the punishment of that rebel crew, that generation of moral vipers full grown, that congregation of moral monsters."

All this, however, is not enough. It is necessary to go further, and represent G.o.d in the character of the devil, in order to complete the picture.

"Upon such an a.s.sembly, G.o.d, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, cannot look but with utter detestation. His wrath shall come up in his face. His face shall be red in his anger. He will whet his glittering sword, and his hand shall take hold on vengeance; and he shall recompense. He shall launch forth his lightnings, and shoot abroad his arrows. He shall unseal all his fountains, and pour out his tumbling cataracts of vengeance. He shall build his batteries aloft, and thunder upon them from the heavens. His eye shall not pity them, nor shall his soul spare for their crying. The day of vengeance is in his heart, and it is what he has his heart set on. He will delight in it. He will show his wrath, and _make his power known_. That infinite power has never been fully made known yet; but it will be then. It is but a little that we see of it in creation and providence; but we shall see it, fully revealed, in the destruction of that rebel crew. He will tread them in his anger, and trample them in his fury, and will stain his raiment with their blood. The cup of the wine of his fierce wrath shall contain no mixture of mercy at all. And they will not be able to resist that wrath, nor will they be able to endure it; but they shall, in soul and body, sink wholly down into the _second death_.

The iron heel of omnipotent and triumphing justice, pitiless and rejoicing, shall tread them down, and crush them lower still, and lower ever, in that burning pit which knows no bottom. All this, and more and worse, do the Scriptures declare; and that preacher who hesitates to proclaim it has forsworn his soul, and is a traitor to his trust."

Now, it is simple truth to say that the blasphemer and profane swearer who spends fifty years in cursing G.o.d and Christ is not so blasphemous as the man who writes such sentences as these about the Almighty, and utters them to young men as a preparation for their work in the ministry. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah shall rise up in the day of judgment against those who speak thus of G.o.d, and shall condemn them. The Pagans, who represent their G.o.ds as horrid idols, pleased with blood and slaughter, have an excuse, which Mr.

Davidson has not, for they do not have the gospel of the Lord Jesus in their hands. Thus he continues:-

"And _all this shall be forever_. It shall never, never end. (Matt.

ch. 25.) The wicked go away into everlasting torments. This is a bitter ingredient in their cup of wormwood, a more terrible thing in their terrible doom. If after enduring it all for twice ten thousand times ten thousand years, they might have a deliverance, or at least some abatement, it were less terrible. But this may never, never be.

Their estate is remediless. There is a great gulf fixed, and they cannot pa.s.s from thence. Or, if after suffering all this as many years as there are aqueous particles in air and ocean, they might then be delivered, or if, after repeating that amazing period as many times as there are sand-grains in the globe, they might then be delivered, there would be _some_ hope. Or, if you multiply this latter sum-too infinite to be expressed by figures, and too limitless to be comprehended by angels-by the number of atoms that compose the universe, and there might be deliverance when they had pa.s.sed those amazing, abysmal gulfs of duration, then there would be _some_ hope. But no! when all is suffered and all is past, still all beyond is eternity."

47 To show how some _Roman Catholics_ write in the middle of the nineteenth century, we quote the following from a Roman Catholic book, published in England, by Rev. J. Furniss, being especially "a book for children." Wis.h.i.+ng to spare our readers such horrors, we put it here, advising no one of weak nerves to read its atrocious descriptions.

"The fourth dungeon is 'the boiling kettle.' Listen: there is a sound like that of a kettle boiling. Is it really a kettle which is boiling? No. Then what is it? Hear what it is. The blood is boiling in the scalded veins of that boy; the brain is boiling and bubbling in his head; the marrow is boiling in his bones. The fifth dungeon is the 'red-hot oven,' in which is a _little child_. Hear how it screams to come out; see how it turns and twists itself about in the fire; it beats its head against the roof of the oven. It stamps its little feet on the floor of the oven. To this child G.o.d was very good. Very likely G.o.d saw that this child would get worse and worse, and would never repent, and so it would have to be punished _much more_ in h.e.l.l. _So G.o.d in his mercy called it out of the world in its early childhood._"

48 We take the following from the "Monthly Religious Magazine:"-