of the same truth. This course is not taken by those who, on the strength of the chapter discussed, would deny that the dead come forth to judgment with reference to their candidature for immortality. On the contrary, they put Paul here in conflict with Paul elsewhere. They erect his general and elliptical declarations on the subject of the resurrection, as barriers to his own particular statements in other places, and those of Christ and his apostles generally; for, assuredly, if the dead spring into instantaneous glory, power, and spirituality, and the living are transformed, in their several localities, without reference to the award of the judge, there can be no judging of the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom (2 Tim. iv. 1); no standing before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive in body according to deeds done, whether good or bad (2 Cor. v. 10); no giving account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead (1 Peter iv. 5); no bringing to light the hidden things of darkness (1 Cor. iv. 5); no scope for "boldness in the day of judgment" (1 John iv. 17); or place for shame before him at his coming (I John ii. 28). In opposition to this course, we have endeavoured to find, in 1 Cor. xv., a place for all these features; a place unseen by the unacquainted reader, but detectable by those having Paul's general teaching in view. Paul is in harmony with himself. The resurrection includes all that is divinely associated with it. The upshot is incorruption, glory, power, and spirituality of nature, but these are only reached through the tribunal which will "make manifest the counsels of the heart." Prior to this, the future is a sealed book, except in so far as it is. reflected in a man's conscience. The judgment will settle all, separating the chaff from the wheat, and determining who are the saints, in deed and in truth, and who the unprofitable servants, who have had but a name to live, and are dead. We commend to the serious consideration of every one interested, the sobering fact that there is a day appointed when God shall judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus, justifying the righteous and condemning the wicked. It is a fact that will encourage, strengthen, and sustain every person who, having been enlightened and joined to the brotherhood of Christ, is working with a single eye, as seeing him who is invisible: and it is a fact that, vividly realised, will correct and purify those who, in a similar position, may be suffering themselves to be diverted from the path of truth and duty by considerations of a temporal nature. The record exhibited at the judgment-seat is written now in the lives of those who will appear there. The one will be an exact reflex of the other. A faithful stewardship sustained now will be honoured then with praise, recognition, and promotion: while an opposite course will bring exposure, shame, condemnation, and death. "The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools." LECTURE VI. GOD, ANGELS, JESUS CHRIST, AND THE CRUCIFIXION. Wthe subjects' proposed for 7ITH reverence, we approach -consideration in the present lecture. That Christendom is astray in its conceptions of God, will, unhappily, be but too evident. That we must possess Scriptural knowledge of the subject will also be evident. The "knowledge of God" is an essential feature of Christian attainment, according to the apostolic standard. Those "who know not God" are among those whom vengeance is to overtake (2 Thess. i. 8). Knowledge of God is the basis of sonship to God. Without it, we cannot enter the divine family. How can we love and serve a being whom we do not know? Knowledge is the foundation of all. It is the rock upon which everlasting life itself is built. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, THE ONLY TRUE GOD, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John xvii. 3). Where shall we find this knowledge? We cannot find it where we please. It is to be found only where God has placed it. It is to be found in the Scriptures. We cannot get it anywhere else. Nature tells us something. The consummate wisdom of all her arrangements—the ineffable skill displayed in the construction of even the smallest animalcule, show us the presence, in the universe, of a supreme designing and perfect intelligence, but nature can do no more. It can tell us God is, because He must be, but it can tell us nothing of His being, His character, His purpose, His will with regard to man, or His object in forming the universe. Speculations on these points only lead to the monstrosities of ancient and modern heathenism. That a revelation of Himself has come from the Creator of all things will excite the highest admiration and gratitude in every mind that is enabled to realise what this stupendous privilege means. Peace now and life everlasting for the endless ages coming is easily spoken of: but who can measure the wealth of well-being involved in the words? This wealth comes with the knowledge God has given us and the knowledge he has given us comes to us through the Bible, and through no other mediumship in our day. But we are in a peculiar position with regard to this knowledge. It no longer shines before us in its pristine simplicity and glory. Along with almost every other item of divine truth, it has been covered up in the most dangerous way by the organised Apostacy from original truth, which obtained ascendancy in Christendom very early in the Christian era. The Apostacy does not professedly deny the God revealed in the Bible. On the contrary, it makes an ostentatious profession of belief in Him. It holds up the Bible in its hand and declares it to be the source of its. faith-that the God of Israel is its God. In this way, the impression is made universally that the God God of popular religion is the of the Bible, so that in reading the Bible, people do not read critically on but subject, the necessarily and as a matter of course, recognise the popular God in the phrases by which the Bible designates the God of Israel. If the case were otherwise-if popular theology in words denied the God of the Jews, and asserted its own conceptions in opposition to Hebrew revelation, there would be a greater likelihood that people would come to a knowledge of what God has truly revealed concerning Himself, because they would be prepared to sit down clear-headedly, discriminatingly, and independently to ascertain what the Deity of Hebrew revelation was. As it is, people are misled, and find the greatest difficulty in rousing themselves to an apprehension of the difference between the orthodox God and the Bible Deity, and the importance of discerning it. Popular theology says that God is three eternal elements, all equally increate and self-sustaining, and all equally powerful, each equally personal and distinct from the other, and yet all forming a complete single personal unity. There is, say they," God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost," each very God, each without a beginning, each omnipotent and separate from the other, and yet all ONE. If we ask why one of these elements should be called the Father, not having preceded or given existence to the others; and why another should be called the Son, not having been brought into existence by the Father, but coeternal with Him; and why the third should be called the Holy Ghost (or Spirit), since both "God the Father and "God the Son are holy and spiritual, we are not met with any explanation. Popular theology contents itself with saying that the truth is so-that there are three in one and one in three; that as to how such a thing can be, it cannot say, as it is a great mystery. Mystery indeed! There are mysteries enough in creation—things, that is, that are inscrutable to the human intellect, such as the ultimate nature of light and life; but Trinitarianism propounds-not a mystery, but a contradiction-a stultification-an one. impossibility. It professes to convey an idea, and no sooner expresses it than it withdraws it, and contradicts it. It says there is one God, yet not one but three, and that the three are not three but It is a mere juggle of words, a bewilderment and confusion to the mind, all the more dangerous, because the theory for which it is an apology, employs in some measure the language of the Bible, which talks to us of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. as well as We will look at the Bible representation of the "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." We shall find that representation in accord with a rational conception of things, enlightening the understanding as well as satisfying the heart-agreeing with experience, revealing something beyond actual observation. We shall find it to supply that consistent and intelligible information of the First Cause of all things which the intellect of the noblest creature He has formed in this sublunary creation craves, and information of a character such as would be expected to come from such a source. " To begin with "The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. iii. 14), as God is apostolically described, who was made known to Israel by the angels, revealed through the prophets, and manifested in Jesus. The first thing revealed about Him is His absolute unity. He is declared to be "ONE." This is one of the most conspicuous features of what is revealed on the subject. We submit a few illustrations of the testimony :-Moses to Israel (Deut. vi. 4)— "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is ONE Lord." Jesus to one of the Scribes (Mark xii. 29)— "Jesus said, The first of all the command. ments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is ONE Lord." Paul to the Corinthian Believers (1 Cor. viii. 6)— "To us there is but ONE GOD, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him." Paul to the Ephesians (Eph. iv. 6) "There is ONE GOD and Father of ALL, who is ABOVE ALL, and through all, and in you all." Paul to Timothy (1 Tim. ii. 5)— "There is ONE GOD, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." With these statements agree the Almighty's declarations of Himself, of which the following are examples "I am God, and THERE IS NONE ELSE and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done" (Is. xlvi. 9, 10). "I am the Lord, and there is none else: THERE IS NO GOD BESIDE ME" (Is. xlv. 5). "Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts: I am the first and I am the last, AND BESIDE ME THERE IS NO GOD. Is there a God beside Me? Yea, there is no The only statement in the New The to Spirit"-that is, God in every form according to Trinitarianism heaven, and thus upset the Scriptural and obvious fact that the Spirit is everywhere, and that God's presence, by it, fills the universe. A remark made upon it in a note quoted by the Diaglott from the Improved Version puts the matter in its true light :"This text is not contained in any Greek MS. which was written earlier than the fifth century. It is not cited by any of the Greek ecclesiastical writers, nor by any of the earlier Latin fathers, even when the subjects upon which they treat would naturally have led them to appeal to its authority. It is, therefore, evidently spurious, and was first cited, though not as it now reads, by Virgilius Tapsensis, a Latin writer of no credit, in the later end of the fifth century; but by whom forged is of no great moment, as its design must be obvious to all." The revelation of the Deity's unity, set forth in the testimonies quoted, agrees with the one great induction of modern science. Nature is seen to be under one law and one control throughout its immeasurable fields. There is no jar, no conflict; the power that constitutes, sustains, and regulates all is seen to be ONE. Cold freezes and heat dissolves in all countries alike. The light that discloses the face of the earth, irradiates the moon and illuminates the distant planets. The power that draws the moon in circular journey round the earth, impels the earth around the sun, and drags even that stupendous and glorious body, with all its attendant planets, in a vast cycle, with the rest of starry creation, around AN UNKNOWN CENTRE; that is, a centre distinctly indicated in the motion of the stellar universe, but whose locality cannot even approximately be determined on account of the vastness of the motion, and the impossibility of obtaining data for calculation in the compass of a human life time. The suggestion that this Unknown Centre is the source of all power is in significant harmony with what the Scriptures reveal concerning God. There is a source-there must be a source-and this Source must be a centre, because all power is manifested at centres. The earth draws every object on it to its centre, and pulls the moon round it as well. The earth in its turn is attracted towards the sun and drawn round it; and the sun itself with the whole framework of creation is drawn round A CENTRE. These are facts in the economy of things, and they are therefore divine facts, because the economy of things is the handiwork of God. the We The testimonies quoted say that all things are OUT OF the Father. But where is THE FATHER? Does His name not imply that He is THE SOURCE? And, being the Source, is He not the Centre of creation? Some shrink from the suggestion that Deity has a located existence. Why should they? The Scriptures expressly teach located existence of Deity. submit the evidence: Paul says in 1 Tim. vi. 16, "God dwells IN LIGHT which no man can approach unto.' Here is a localization of the person of the Creator. If God were on earth in the same sense in which He dwells in LIGHT UNAPPROACHABLE, what could Paul mean by saying that man cannot approach? If God dwells in UNAPPROACHABLE LIGHT, he must have an existence there, which is not manifested in this mundane sphere. This is borne out by Solomon's words: God is IN HEAVEN, thou upon earth" (Ecclesiastes v. 2); "therefore let thy words be few." Jesus inculcates the same view in the prayer which he taught his disciples: "Our Father who art IN HEAVEN. So does David, in Psalm cii. 19, 20: "He (the Lord) hath looked down from THE HEIGHT of His sanctuary; from HEAVEN did the Lord behold the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner," &c. And again, in Ps. cxv. 16: "The HEAVEN, even the HEAVENS are the Lord's; but the earth hath He given to the children of men.' Solomon, in the prayer by which he dedicated the temple to God (recorded in the 8th chapter of 1st Kings), made frequent use of this expression: "Hear ThouIN HEAVEN Thy dwelling place." It is impossible to mistake the tenor of these testimonies: they plainly mean that the Father of all is a person who exists in the central 66 HEAVEN OF HEAVENS as He exists nowhere else. By His Spirit in immensity-filling diffusion, He is everywhere present in the sense of holding and knowing, and being conscious of creation to its utmost bounds; but in His proper person, all-glorious, beyond human power to conceive, He dwells in heaven. Consider the ascension of our Lord, after His resurrection, and mark its tendency in this direction. Luke says (chap. xxiv. 51), "He was parted from them and carried up into HEAVEN," and Mark reiterates the statement: "He was received up INTO HEAVEN, and sat on the right hand of God" (Mark xvi. 19). These statements can only be understood on the principle that the Deity has a personal manifested existence in "THE HEAVENS." What part of the wide heavens this honoured spot may occupy, we cannot and need not know. Probably it is that great undiscovered astronomical centre to which allusion has already been made. There is great and invincible repugnance to this evidently Scriptural and reasonable, and beautiful view of the matter. It is the popular habit, where serious views of God are entertained at all, to conceive of Him as a principle or energy in universal diffusion-without corporeal nucleus, without local habitation, "without body or parts." There is no ground for this popular predilection, except such as philosophy may be supposed to furnish. Philosophy is a poor guide in the matter. Philosophy, after all, is only human thought. It can have little weight in a matter confessedly |