The kings of Tarshish and the isles shall bring presents, Yea, all kings shall fall down before him, For he will deliver the needy who calleth, And he will save the souls of the needy; From oppression and from violence he will redeem their souls, And precious shall their blood be in his sight. And he shall live, And to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: Prayer also shall be offered round about him continually, All the day shall he be adored. There shall be abundance of corn in the land, At the top of the mountains; Its fruit shall wave like Lebanon: And they of the city shall flourish as grass of the earth. His name shall be eternal; His name shall flourish as long as the sun. And they shall be blessed in him; All nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be YAHVEH God, the God of Israel, Who alone does wonders: And let the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen! and Amen!" (Ps. lxxii.) The sixth fact inculcated by the pure Evangel is the completion of Christ's work of subjugation, by the resurrection of the rest of the dead who have fallen asleep in Christ from the foundation of the world. Thus will death be finally destroyed, and immortality become the unchallenged portion of all the redeemed. Then will be accomplished the Father's purpose, "the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are in earth." (Eph. i. 9.) Then will be perfectly consummated that which in the beginning was declared to be the end (Isa. xlvi. 10): "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." The last and crowning fact in the pure Evangel is the loyal offering made by the Son to the Father, when he presents the earth, filled with myriads brought to glory, honor, immortality, all and every one a willing and perfect subject of the Divine law. "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created." (Rev. iv. 11.) AND GOD WILL 66 BE ALL IN ALL." HALLELUJAH! THE FOOLISH NATION. "How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed!" How has the pure Evangel been contaminated! How does the simple statement of primitive teaching put to shame the sects of modern Christendom! How far removed are all the creeds of our day from true evangelical simplicity! How imperfectly do the professed followers of Jesus apprehend his gospel! But let us not take to ourselves an undue measure of condemnation; for this sad apostasy did not originate in our time. It was our inheritance from our fathers; and to them it was handed down from ancient days. To identify the authors of the corruption, we must go to the "foolish nation." For YAHVEH said concerning Israel:- "They have moved me to jealousy with No-God! (Deut. xxxii.) This foolish nation was the diversely-peopled Roman Empire. The polished Greeks and Romans were "foolish,” because, notwithstanding all their intellectual culture and sonorous philosophy, they were ignorant of the only God. In them was exhibited the best result of the efforts made by uninspired human intelligence after the true wisdom; but between their furthest reach and the goal there was an infinite space. In them was especially manifested the incapability of the animal man to acquire that knowledge which belongs only to the spiritual and divine. The revelation of God in Jesus the Anointed was such a vivid contrast to Greek wisdom, the "light of the world" made the darkness of human intellect so palpable, that Paul could not refrain from crying out, "Where is the wise? where the scribe? where the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." (1 Cor. i.) And this nation was the selected instrument by which Israel was to be "provoked to anger, moved to jealousy." The chosen people of YAHVEH had forsaken him for No-God, which "moved him to jealousy." And now he in return would forsake them for No-people, to "move them to jealousy." No-God had provoked him; No-people should provoke them. This accounts for the early corruption of the pure Evangel. The preaching of the gospel to the foolish nation was 66 to save them that believe," but not to convert the nation. Rather, the foolish nation was to convert the gospel to its folly, carry the corrupted gospel to Israel, provoke Israel to jealousy, and thus fulfil the word of YAHVEH by Hosea : "I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early." (Hos. v. 15.) Paul advised Timothy of the coming apostasy. "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own desires shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." (2 Tim. iv.) Such plain language enables us to solve the question of a modern historian, who, in his remarks on the condition of the church in the second century, after speaking of "the learned and ingenious labors of those philosophers and literati who were converted to Christianity in this century," adds, "I am sensible that the advantages hence arising to the cause of true religion will be disputed by many; and, indeed, when the question is thus proposed, whether, upon the whole, the interests of Christianity have gained or lost by the writings of the learned, and the speculations of philosophers who have been employed in its defence, I confess myself incapable of solving it in a satisfactory manner; for nothing is more manifest than this truth, that the noble simplicity and dignity of religion were sadly corrupted in many places, when the philosophers blended their opinions with its pure doctrines, and were so audacious as to submit that divine system of faith and piety to be scrutinized and modified by the fallible rules of imperfect reason.” (Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History.) The historian, however, was much mistaken when he supposed that the theologians of the second century "modified the divine system of faith." That system had already been modified into a base adulteration with Greek philosophy before they touched it. Paul declared (2 Thess. ii. 9) that "the mystery of iniquity" was at work in his lifetime (A.D. 54). False teachers abounded in defiance of all the efforts made by the true believers to preserve the gospel of Jesus in its purity. So alarming was the progress of error that Paul in his later years was led, in his anxiety for "Timothy, his own son in the faith," to the most serious exhortations. In closing his first epistle to Timothy, he exclaims, “() Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the faith." 6. The nature of these babblings and oppositions is set forth in his second letter, in which he repeats his charge. "Shun profane and vain babblings; for they will increase unto more ungodliness: and their word will eat as doth a canker; of whom is Hymenæus and Philetus; who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already." Another indication of the apostasy is given in his first letter to the church of Corinth. "How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" Thus we perceive how the pure Evangel was first corrupted. The doctrine of the resurrection provoked the "oppositions of science falsely so called." The position of these errorists is revealed bytheir objections as stated by the apostle. "But some one will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" (1 Cor. xv. 35.) Death to them was an impassable barrier to future life. They had not faith in the promise of Jesus that his sheep should never perish, but that he would raise them up in the last day. They could not say, with the Psalmist, "Into thy hands I commit my spirit," and trust in God for redemption from the power of the grave. They would not have appreciated that sweet stanza of a modern poet: "I would not live alway; no, welcome the tomb! To hail him in triumph descending the skies.” In what, then, did they trust? Where did they get a foundation other than that given by the gospel of Christ? Whither could they go but to the "philosophy and vain deceit” of “human tradition"? (Col. ii. 8.) "Platonic philosophy" taught man that the human soul was an emanation from the Divine nature, and would survive the dissolution of the body, being essentially immortal. Jesus said, "Have faith in God." Plato said, "Have faith in yourself." Jesus said, "This is the Father's will who hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up in the last day." Plato said, “You cannot in any event be lost; for, whatever may be the apparent effect of the extinction of the animal life, the essential man is immortal." How, then, could the adherents of this "false science" accept the resurrection as set forth in the pure Evangel? Instead of that they had substituted something else, and the doctrine of the resurrection was therefore modified to suit their cherished "philosophy." Thus the serpent's lie was remodelled and introduced into the Christian church before the apostles left the scene of their labors, and this corrupted gospel has been handed down from century to century, and from generation to generation, as the primitive faith of the Christian Church. (In our day, the official voice of a sect which in some respects ranks first in the Protestant world, boldly asserts that "among the great cardinal doctrines committed to the Church is that of the immortality of the soul;" and adds, "This, indeed, lies at the basis of all religion, and cannot be denied except by those who virtually deny all true religious faith and hope." (Christian Advocate and Journal, Dec. 8, 1859.) This suggests two questions: 1. Who "committed" that doctrine "to the Church"? Not Jesus, the great Head of the Church; for we have his teachings explicitly set forth in the record of "the beloved disciple" to the contrary. Not the apostles; for in addition to the great plan of " |