134
ZioH
•! .
g'lncc for the ];cet says of the people
(h' (tod :
n i](OV)i to olil :ige, all iny people prove ;
Mv 'OV(‘iei»n eternal untluingeable love:
Aid! '.vlien hoary liairs hl'.all their temples
aihii’n,
Like lamhs. thev shall still on my bosom be
borne.”
I')o \ve rcpo.se on Jesus tvliich no
one does nor which any one vdll do,
{■,\-('Cj)t ho is born of God ? Or, do we
rc'r,o.s(; on some man-invented society
d;!’ lieaven or temporal salvation ?
l)o wo sin that o-race mav abound ?|
(ttal Ibrbid ! Has tiie jiarched ground
become a pool ?—if tve arc on tins
Idghwav it Iia.s. Is the thir.stv land
become streams of water? Do we
water the withered plant.s, the poor
and needy?
ddds was a ijleasing prophecy to
captive Israelites even in a temporal
point, but what to the distre.ssed .sou!,
wondicrfully sulilime !
How is it with us, wlio live in the
time referred to by this |.)repheey?
d’here is not an unregenerate man
in Idghwav—“Xo lion shall be
.The fool, witlutnt common
worldly Itnowledge, sliall not err
therein. jS'o tailing from grace, no
di'unkeniu'.ss and other bad jiractiees
tJiere. But the glory of Lc-banon
shall be giv(-n to li.
With these reflections I will close,
ho])ing if there is anything- herein
expressed, not according to scripture,
it will be pointed out by some broth
er or sister. The style of scripture,
in many plaee.s, is no more peculiar
than tnis. I think tlicre is but one
idgli-way craphasined by tlie phrase,
tnid'a 'len-ij. S. CdlAUivES.
f ^
id 1). GOlvD, Editor.
.'ru.scjui’i’iox f2 00 Per-Axnum
dc.sires my view of this scripture.
The day alluded to liere is the ^
great and terrible dav of the Lord. '
The last verse of the book of Mai. ;
refer to this, “Behold, I wdll send ,
von Elijah the prophet before tlie:
coming- of the great and dretidful day :
of the Lord.” (Elijah is Jolin the |
Bapti.st). “And he shall turn the'
hearts of the fathers to the children,” .
Ac., “Johids preaching wa.s to make
, ready a peo|)le prepared for the Lord. !
1 He jrreached that which fulfilled the |
j law and the prophets, preaching that
i which the fatkeis foresaw and longed
to see,and which their children needed,
and hence it united them in the new
covenant of redemption,and saved the
earth from a curse (i)Oth the literal
earth and the earthly bodies of these
souis.)
But it -^vas a dreadful day and who
■sliould abide the coming of the Mes-
siaii ? “But wdio may abide the day
of his coming, and who sliali stand
when he appeareth, for he is like a
refiner’s fire and like tuller’s soap.
And lie shall set as a refiner and puri
fier of silver,” etc. Mah 3 ; 2, 3.
day, its end is not yet. In the end
of the world,at the grfat day judg
ment, when this same Je.sus shall
come the second time without sin
unto .salvation tj take his jewels to
himself, in that more glorious and
triumphant manner, when the whole
harvest shall be gathered in, then
shall l>e the great day of deci.sion or
of the manifestation of God’s rigbt-
eou.s jndgraents. “Then shall ye re-
[ turn and descend Ijct-ween the right-
! ecus and the wicked, between him
! that serveth God and him than serv-
him not. Mai. 8: 18. All shall
turn fi’om their graves and it rfiall
then be .seen who serves God and who
does not serve him, both in the glor
ious likeness of the nghteons to Je
sus who i.s in the brightness of Gk»d’s
glory
and in the shame and everlast
ing contempt
of the wicked, as well
^Vil^on, Alonli Carolina, July 15th, 1871.
NOTICE!
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Malach.1 4:
“For beh.old, the day cometh that
shall burn as an oven ; and all the
jn-oud, yea, and all that do wickedly,
.-ball be stubble, -and th-e- day that
cometh shall burn them up, saith the
fmrd of hosts, that it shall leave them
neither root nor branch.”
B.'jotlicr A. P. CowaA of Georgia,,
Jesus, tlie great reliner, shall purge
the chosen people as silver is purged,
for he does not purge dross or chaff
but it is the precious which he purg
es, separating it from the vile. None
but the preeiou.s metal in this great
house can endure this fiery purging,
or endure this dreadful day of the
Ijord ; yet to those it will be a glori
ous day, for their offerings .shall be
pleasant anil their ser-^'ice goodly.v^
The worship of the Ijord* .shall then
he tt'lorious and the fruitVood.
Christ did come nigh unto the peo
ple to judgment and was a swift wit-
ne.ss against sorcerers, adultercr.s, |
false swearers, &c. Thtm it was
that the axe was laid at the root of
the tree, and every tree that brought
uot fortli good fruit was hewn down
and cast into the fire, and all trees
thus cast in the fire are burnt. Then
the cliaff began to be burnt. Then
the day began to burn ai> an
oven and tlie wicked were the stubble
that were burned up forever. The
day was hot as au oven. How »earch-
ino- was the teaching of Christ fullv
expOvsing the corruptions of the wick
ed, and freely justifying the poor
penitent soul; How effectually did
the teaching of Christ uproot and ex
pose wickedness! Judgment w-as
brought to the line and righteousness
to the plummet, and hence the day
was as au oven. JTe dross was burn
ed off from the righta)us and the
wicked were* burned up root and
branch. Then wickedness was con
demned and in many instance.s the
wicked punished,even the Jewi.sh na
tion was forever taken away, and tiie
final sentence of everlasting destruc
tion of the ungodly from the pre
sence of the Lord was clearly fore
told. A perpetual end is come to the
wicked Jewish nation. No more
shall they re-establish themselves as
once that wicked people did, and yet
the Jews still exist.
This is;vthe beginning of the gpspel
as in the great fact that the-righteous
shall enter into the joy of their I.vord
to be ever with the Tjord, while the
wicked shall be punished with ever
lasting destruction froui the presence
of the Lord.
But if this great day, when the ele
ments shall melt with fervent heat
and the world be dcAitroyed by fire,
shall be as an oven and the wicked
shall be stubbie, and shall be burned
up that it shall leave them neither
root nor branch, does it not teach the
annihilation of the wicked ? Does
it not teach their utter and entire
extermination, so that they shall td-
together cease to be ?
Two reasons forbid this eonstrno-
tiou. One is the reiading of this pas
sage, the other i.s the .general reading-
of the Bible or the analogy of feith.
If the fuel of a fire is consumed can
the fire continue ? Will not the fire
itself die when that which feed.s it
perishes ? The wicked are the stub
ble, and if the fire can annihilate
tliem then the fire will die,but as long
as they endure the firestill buras. It
shall leave them neither root norbranch
in the sense that all of the wicked,
root, top, body, .soul and all the man
and his deeds,shall bum np together,
no part shall be left out, hence neith
er root nor branch shall be left to him
or total destruction of the vricked in
tl'.e sense that eternal puni.shmcnt
is inflicted. It shall continue forever
in the sense that the wicked shall
never escape therefrom and sprout
out or gro\v again. It shall be an
effectual judgment and all of the
works of the wicked shall be brought
into judgment .so effectually that nel
ther root nor branch shall ever flour
ish avain. On earth, if tiie ^vicked
are punished, where the rod is taken
olf he will return to his old wa\=?,
but there he shall never fltxirish
again, but the lieated oven of tlie
Lord’s righteous wrath shall enclose
liirn forever,and there shall be no re
spite of the punishment due to sin,
hence it shall be burnt up root and
branch.
But will not tire wicked bo con-
flunied or annihilated ? Dp the -oth
er scriptures teacli anuthllation ?.>The
general teaching of scriptures- seems
to forbid this view. Lor the joy.s oi
the rightecus and tie puui.sliment oi
the wicked seem to have the same
duration. The words ami cenu.s us
ed to express the lenghth of the jor.s
of the righteous are also u-iel to ex-
pre.ss the duration of the punishment
of the wicked; so that if the punish
ment of the wicked i.s uot eternal nei
ther are the joys ol the righteous
eternal, for one is .set over against tiie
other. For instam 0 ; “And many
of them that sleep in the earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life, and
; some to shame and contempt.”—
i Dan. 12 : 2. Here is an evident
1 reference to the resurrection of the
j bodies of men, and the life of the on.e
; is no longer than the shame of the
I other class. “Ana these shall go
I away into everlasting punishment,
I but the righteous into life etevna*.'’
Matt. 25 : 46, and elsewhere eternal
life is called everla.sting life. A life
that is everlasting or eternal has no
end, unless it is compared with an
other object which will end and to
which it i.s limited, that is, must en
dure as long as that which it is com
pared in that sense it miglit be said
to he everlasting. Lor in.stance tlie
hills and mountains might be said to
be everla.sting when it is evident
that it is meant that they shall last a.s
long as the world .stands. But here
arc term.s u.sed to denote g:-:istencG or
duration not tiirough or in time at
all, bnt in eternity which hath no
end, and hence these, terms, e*s'crl£gt
ino- life and eternal life, are here un-
limited. What is meant is that it
.shall be an everlasting punishment
and destruction. “Who shall be
puni.shed witli everlasting *le.structiou
from the presence of the IjohI aud
from the glory of his power.” 2
Thess. 1: 9. There is to be no more
end of the punishment. It is ever-
la,sting punishment, but if the wicked
are annihilated or altogether cease to
be, how could their punishment Iw
everlasting ? When a man suffers
on earth until he dies we do not sny
that his sufferings were eternal. If
the punishmenc of the wicked ends,
either speedily or after a long jieriod
why should the Savior say, “where
the w'orni dietli not and the fire is not
! quenched.” Alan in nature has not
i immortality in the sense of having
’ eternal life, still he is iraniortal in
, the sense tliat lie shall always exist
j in some form,even if in forever dying
' or m death. If his destruction is an
I everlasting de.structIon, or his pori.sh-
! ing an everlasting perishing, or lii.s
j puni.shmeiit an everfeMing one, it
: means that U is everlasting or itn-
I ending. Whatever its character
j may lie I know not, but recog
nize the solemn truth that it mast
be equivalent to the descriptions of it.
But it would not be so dreadfal if it
blottM out or annihilated life putting
one beyond all consciousness of pun-
i,sliment. This is what the wicked
desire. This is what many convict
ed souls desire, but let not the wick
ed flattter themselves with the delu-
Uisioii nor with.thaf of tlie univee-