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REVIEW

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OF-

"?*'*-

D. J. MACDON NELL'S

S E! I^ Oi/C O 3Sr

ENTITLED

DEATH ABOLISHED:

PBEiOHED IN ST. ANDREW'S GHURGI, TORONTO,

ON SUNDAY. 3rd MARCH, 1889,

^V',

|pj|ii ppmjection with the death of George Paxton Young, LL.D.,
,■ Professor of I^gic, Metaphysics and Ethics in University
'^ -r: College, Toronto.

■^ —I

^ ROBERT S. WEIR.

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•DEATH ABOLISHED."

A sermon preached in St. Andrew's Church, Toronto, on Sunday, March 3rd, 1889, .
by Rev. D. J. MACDON.,iLL, B.D., in connection with the death of
George Paxton Young, LL.D., Professor of Logic, Metaphysics
and Ethics, in University College, Toronto.

By ROBERT S. WEIR.

SOME may consider an apology necessary on the part of a lay-
man who dares to call in question the utterances of an
"ordained" minister, and especially one of such scholarly celebrity
as Mr. Macdonnell. We. would remind all such, that perfect
accord does not exist among "ordained" ministers, on scripture
exegesis— a fact that deprives them of any logical claim to author-
ity. There is not a factor in their doctrinal standards which has
not been toughly controverted by one or other of the various sects,
whose name is legion — nay, even by the individual ministers of
each or all of the sects, as is abundantly proved by the wrangling
which often occurs at Meetings of Presbytery, Conferences, &c.
The degrees conferred by Universities may be very useful for some
purposes, but are not a sine quo non to the understanding or ex-
planation of scripture. There were no Doctors or Batchelors of
' Divinity in Apostolic days, and the truth needs no doctoring
now. It is often hidden from "the wise and prudent" of this world
and "revealed unto babes." In the circumstances therefore, we
deem apology unnecessary.

When vital portions of Scripture are taken as texts for funeral
sermons and manipulated in such a way as to pervert the meaning

of the sacred writers, it ill becomes those who understand the truth
of the matter to remain silent. That such has been done in the
present instance we fully believe and shall try to make manifest.

The text selected for the sermon is 2nd Tim. i : 10. — "Our Saviour
Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and incorrup
tion to light through the gospel." It is one of the most important
of Paul's utterances on the great question of life and death. The
teaching of the Presbyterian body thereon is that "the souls of be
lievers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immedi
ately pass into glory, and their bodies being still united to Christ
do rest in their graves till the resurrection."*

This in effect means that believers at death immediately pass into
glory, and with it Mr. Macdonnell is in harmony. He says, "The man
is reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Being set right
with God all things are new to him. Not only is life full of new
meaning, but death comes now to summon into the presence, not
of an angry Judge, but of a loving and righteous Father."

He further says, "The Christian, keen as n^ay be the pang when
he is called to leave this home-like world, with all in it that has
made life bright and good, will be sustained by the hope of a more
blessed and glorious abode, — a better country, that is a heavenly^
and will be ready to pass through the swellings of Jordan, assured
that the 'Father's house ' is on the other side, and that the Elder
Brother is waiting to receive him."

Again — "The physical death must come in the order of nature ;
but it is a beginning rather than an ending, a process of life rather
than of death #♦♦*■** it is the shuffling off of the mortal coil
of flesh that the life within may have room to expand and may re-
ceive from God a * spiritual body^ which may be a fit organ for
the renewed spirit."
This teaching seems to corroborate that of the poet who says: —

. " There is no death.

What seems so is transition.

These lives of mortal breath

Are but the suburbs of the life Elysian >^

Whose portals we call death."

If this be not a false estimate of the event which closes our

present career, what could have prompted the writers of the Bible

to use the term death; or why should our contemporary make

such frequent use of it in his brief sermon ?

* Shorter Catechism.

An uncharitable person might suggest in reference to the latter
that the "Faculty" sometimes employ bamboozling words which
are calculated to mystify rather than edify, but surely no. such
imputation can be brought against the sacred writers.

Death is "the wages of sin" Rom. 6: 23 — and is not a friend but
an enemy. This Mr. M. states— "The life of the most devoted
saint is no more secure against the attacks of this great enemy
than that of the vilest reprobate." ''

We are puzzled with his utterance here. If death be the usher
from a world of sin, sickness and privation "into the presence of
a righteous and loving Father" as he has set forth, on what prin-
ciple can it be regarded as a ^^gteat enemy" ? Similar reasoning
ought to characterise as ''^great enemies^" our ocean steamships,
which in reality are the angels of mercy of modern times, carry-
ing their burthen of suffering humanity from the congested labor
centres of the old world to this land of freedom and plenty.

But, Mr. M. will no doubt agree that the Bible is the only real
authority in matters of this kind, and ive recognise no other. " To
the law and to the testimony, if the/ :^peak not according to this
word, surely there is no morning for tiiewi." Isa. 8: 20. R.V.

Hezekiah — one of Judah's best kings, and a true servant of God,
seems not to have regarded death as "the portal to the life Elysian." *
Note his attitude: — Isa. 38: i.

"In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the
prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said : Thus saith the
Lord, set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live.
Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the
Lord and said. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee, how I
have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and
have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept
SORE. Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah saying. Go
and say to Hezekiah. Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy
father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold I
will add unto thy days fifteen years."

After recovering from his sickness Hezekiah spake as follows: —
17th v. "Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of
corruption; ...... For the grave cannot praise thee, death

cannot celebrate thee, they that go down into the pit cannot hope
for thy truth; the living, the living, he shall praise thee as I do
this day."

Hezekiah evidently believed death to be a state of unconscious-
ness in which man has no ability to praise Jehovah, where " the
wicked cease from troubling and the weaiy be at rest.''

Besides, he seems to have had a very different conception of his
soul's destiny from that entertained by religious teachers nowadays
— he says, "God in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of
corruption." Nor is he alone in this, the Psalmist was equally
unenlightened if we may so speak. In Psal. xlix. 15, he says —
"God will redeem my sou/ from the power of the graved

Were these eminent servants of God living in 1889 they would
be called "Soul- sleepers" and "Heretics."

Modern souls are now held to be "immortal," "never-dying," and
not related to the grave When did the change occur? At Pente-
cost, Acts 2: 34. David "the man after God's own heart" had not
"ascended into Heaven," and he was not isolated in this respect,
for Jesus affirmed " No man hath ascended into heaven." Where
then had all these saints gone who had died during the past 4000
years ? If David — " the man after God's own heart" did not go
there, what scriptural warrant has Mr. M. for saying that the
righteous go now at deatR? Had he carefully thought out the i ith
/of Hebrews before preaching this funeral sermon he would
not have voiced such sentiments. It is there stated in unmistak-
able language that 'Uhese all died in faith,'' NOT HAVING
RECEIVED THE PROMISES, but having seen them afar off."
Eternal life is a very large factor in these promises — "This is
the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life.'' i John
2: 25. Again, "In hope di eternal life which God that cannot lie
promised before the world began," Tit. 1:2. It follows therefore,
that as these saints all died in faith not having received the
promises, they received not eternal life, and therefore cannot
be living in Heaven or Paradise now; also that death is extinction
of being.

Seeing, however, that Mr. M. has grouped "the speculations of
Plato" and the books of the Old Testament together, in contrast
with the ^^clearer light of the New Testamenty' we pass on and
cite Paul as a witness: — Phil. ii. 25. — "But I counted it necessary
to send to you Epaphroditus. my brother and fellow- worker and
fellow-soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, since
he longed after you all and was sore troubled, because ye had
beard that he was sick; for indeed he was sick nigh unto death;

but God had MERCY on him; and not on him only but on me
also, that I might not have SORROW UPON SORROW."
Those who hold that at death "the souls of believers (in effect
believers themselves) immediately pass into glory" must surely
view this as a queer ACT OF mercy to Epaphroditus— a man sur-
rounded by troubles such as accompanied Paul and his colleagues,
is by a special act of MERCY, prevented from passing through
the door leading from this state of sin, corruption and suffering,
into endless glory ! !

The death and resurrection of Lazarus which has been made to
do duty by Mr. M. in a very strange way, furnishes we think, ex-
ceedingly strong proof against his teaching. He says: — "Once
and again Christ gave proof that he held the 'keys of death,' by
unlocking its portals and summoning back to human fellowship
those who had passed beyond the reach of the voices of kindred.

When to the man that had been dead four, days.

He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth, and he that was
dead came forth, Jesus demonstrated that 'these other living whom
we call dead,' have not really ceased to live."

How does this "demonstrate that they have not really ceased
to live" ? Note the circumstances: —

Martha, Mary and Lazarus their brother, lived at Bethany and
were loved by Jesus. Lazarus became sick. The sisters sent
word to Jesus saying, "he whom thou lovest is sick." Jesus did
not go immediately but allowed Lazarus to die. He then said to
His disciples, " Our friend Lazaius sleepeth, but I go that I may
awake him out of sleep." The disciples responded — " Lord, if he
sleep he shall recover." " Then Jesus said unto them plainly
Lazarus is dead." " Martha as soon as she heard that Jesus
was coming went and met Him," and said, " Lord if thou hadst
been here my brother had not died." " Jesus saith unto her thy
brother shall rise again." " Martha saith unto Him I know that
he shall rise again in the resurrection AT THE LAST DAY.
Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection and the life, he that
believeth in Me though he die, yet shall he live, and whosoever
liveth and believeth in Me shall not die for ever." (Englishman's
Greek Concordance.) When they came to the grave Martha
said, " Lord by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four
days." Then they took away the stone, and Jesus after address-
ing His Father, " Cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth,

and he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave

clothes." '

Instead of this being a demonstration "that these other living
whom we call dead, have not really ceased to live" to us it seems
strong proof of a resurrection from the dead; of the unconscious
condition of man when dead, and his consequent need of a
resurrection, for the following among other reasons : —

1. Lazarus being a friend of Jesus, must have gone to heaven
according to Mr. Macdonnell's teaching.

2. Martha did not appear to know that^ but said, "/ know that
he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

3. Christ's answer is "I am the resurrection and the life ; he
that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live : and whoso-
ever liveth and believeth on me shall never die ;" thereby teaching
Martha that there would not only be a resurrection from the dead
"a/ the last day\ but that "the keys of death and the grave" hal
been given to him ; that the power to raise the dead and bestow
eternal life had been vested in Him, and he could use it even then,
but there was a time coming viz : — "the last day" of Martha's
belief, when those who had died would live again, and those
righteous believers who were then living' would never die, but
would be changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" from
mortal to immortal, from corruptible to incorruptible, and "then
would be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is
swallowed up in victory," ist Cor. 15: 52.

4. As a disciple of Christ and therefore a believer of the Gospel,
Martha's statement concerning resurrection "a/ the last day* is
significant, because it indicates what her instruction had been, and
is in harmony with the teaching of Paul, to the effect that eternal
life through a resurrection from the dead is the hope of the
GOSPEL— the ONLY TRUE CHRISTIAN HOPE.

5. If Lazarus was in heaven "these four days" enjoying the
delights thereof, what could have been his feelings when recalled
to reinhabit a corruptible body, or how can such recall be con-
sidered an act of kindness ? • '

6. The silence of Lazarus in reference to his experience when
dead, argues strongly against the assumption that he was alive, also
Mr. M's statement that "little is told us of the dead" is not true,
for the scriptures speak freely of the mental condition of man in
death— to wit ; —

" In death there is no remembrance of thee." — David, Psalm
6: 5. "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down
into silence," (the modern theological idea is that they are prais-
ing God continually).— Psalm 115: 17. "Put not your trust in
princes nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help; his
breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his
thoughts perish". Psalm 146: 3. "The living know that they

shall die, but the dead know not anything Neither

have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgot
ten, as well their love, as their hatred and their envy is now

perished There is no work, nor device, nor

knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither THOU GOEST" —
Solomon. Eccles. 6: 10.

Some may be disposed to wonder how an " immortal " or
" never-dying " soul can become subject to " corruption " or " the
grave." A never-dying or immortal soul cannot die — immortality
is deathlessness^ and its attainment by man is made to depend up-
on a belief and obedience of the gospel. Immortality — deathless
ness,— eternal life, in the case of man, is the result of his seeking
^^ incorruption" and becoming ^^incorruptible." Proof:- God will
render to every man according to his works, to them that by
patience in well doing seek for glory and honour and incorruption^

eternal life." . . , "In the day when God

shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my
Gospel." — Paul to the Romans, chap. 2:7. Again — "Behold I
tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trump; for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed." " For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying, death is swallowed up in victory." i Cor. 15: 51-54.
Again, " Our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look
for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall fashion anew the
body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of
His glory." Phil. 3: 20. It would seem to follow from these
quotations that Paul, (though a celebrated servant of God;, did
not in his \\i^-\Sm& possess immortality or eternal life, because he
was not then incorruptible^ but HOPED to get it "at the last

trump," by having his corruptible body changed to incorruption^
or fashioned anewy in conformity with " Christ's glorious body. "
Proof: — " Paul a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ,

IN HOPE oi .eternal life which God

who cannot lie, promised before the world began." Titus i : 2.
Again, that we might be made heirs according to the hope of
ETERNAL LIFE." V. J. This he expected to receive through a
resurrection, — " if by any means I may attain to a resuirection
from the dead." Phil. 3: 2.

It may now be in order to define what we understand death to
be. Death is the opposite of life. Walker and Webster give as
its primary meaning — " extinction of life," and they add, "it ap-
plies to every form of existence^^ i.e. if life be predicated of a
horse', a whale, an eagle, an insect, a plant, an institution, death
is the appropriate .term by which to describe the termination
thereof, it is the opposite of the life in question. Seeing that
Mr. M. has defined death to be " Negation," he doubtless will
agree with the foregoing application, but if he admits of death
being so applied to the items enumerated, (and it would be inter-
esting to know how he can refuse, without claiming immortality
for them also), why not admit of its being so applied in the case
of man ? By doing this he would join company with
the wisest of men, who said " that which befalleth the sons of
men, befalletji beasts; even one thing befalleth them: AS the
one dieth SO dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath. All
go unto one place : all are of the dust and all turn to dust again."
Ecc. 3: 19. The origin also of man would thus become intelli-
gible to him, and he would be able in a measure to realise what
Moses meant by saying, that *'the Lord Qq^ formed MAN of the
dust of the ground," Gen. 2:7. He would also derive a valuable
lesson on consistency ^ by observing the harmony which exists be-
tween this description of man's creation and its reversal^ i.e. his
death — " in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou
return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken: for dust
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. 3: 19.

By adopting this scriptural and simple description of the nature
of man and his destiny, Mr. M. would see a logical and vital need
for a resurrection^ and would be able to show how Christ by ^^His
resurrection^^ " abolished death and brought life and incorruption
to light." , .

Referring to Christ's resurrection, on page 7, Mr. M. says:
" This fact is, after all, the corner stone of our Christian faith and
hope." '* If Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching
vain; your faith also is vain." " But now hath Christ been raised
from the dead, the first-fruits of them that are asleep." " That
is to say, Christ was the first that rose from the dead to die no
more."

We cordially assent to the prominence here given to Christ's
resurrection, but entirely dissent from Mr. M's application of it.
He says "Christ's resurrection demonstrates the continuity of life?
in the unseen world." What does he mean ?

He immediately quotes — "I am .... the Living One; and I was
dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore." "Christ being raised
from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over
Him."

This quotation will prove admirably that Christ ^''having been
raised from the dead the first-fruits of THEM THAT SLEEP,'
"continues to live." But this is not what Mr. M. wishes to be
confined to. He means that life is unbroken; as is clearly shown
by what has been already adduced as well as by what follows.
He says "He (Christ) comforts Mjirtha with words that lighten
the gloom of the sepulchre, by the assurance that the dead
CONTINUE TO LIVE." Note his proof of this, "I am the resur-
rection and the life, he that believeth in Me, though he die, yet
shall he live." It will be observed that the Saviour does not say,
"yet shall heV^«//««^ to live " His teaching anent resurrection
forbids such an exposition, but intimates that they shall \\\%yet
i.e. after they are raised. .

That this is the Redeemer's meaning is evident from His
teaching, Jno. vi. 39 — "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 again at the last day. And this is the will of
him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth
on him may have everlasting life : and I will raise him up at the
last day."

We submit that the obvious inference from this teaching is,
that, in the absence of a " resurrection at the last day," they
would be "/<?j/y" and as everlasting life, (" the gift of God") is
to be bestowed at that time, it follows that they cannot be now
possessed of it, and therefore it is a fallacy to say that they " con*

tinue to live." How can eternal life be given to those who are
already immortal ?

Another consideration which materially strengthens this con-
clusion is, that when Jesus affirmed "I am alive for evermore," he
also affirmed "I was dead."

What did he mean ? Did not Jesus ^^continue to live ?" He
was a human being — the man Christ Jesus —and as, according to
our contemporary, all human beings '•'•continue to live," so must he.
His divine side simply strengthens this argument. What then is
meant by his being dead ? It cannot mean 'Mead in trespasses
and sins" for he was "holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from
sinners;" nor can that other use of the term death — eternal tor-
ments—be applied to him, for from that there is no escape after
being consigned to it. The condition indicated is the antithesis
of the one he then occupied — a suspension of all his energies and
consequent need of a resurrection to renewed vitality and vigour,
—"I was DEAD" now "I am ALIVE."

Mr. M. having given "Separation" as one of the meanings of
the term death, perhaps he may incline to use it in this instance,
and insist that by means of crucifixion, Christ's body and his soul
or himself were separated and shortly afterwards reunited.
In this case a literal statemsht of what occurred would read as
follows: — "I was separated from my body, and behold I am re-
united to it for evermore" — the bare statement of this idea con-
stitutes its refutal.

In this connection his utterances on page 5 will be of interest.
He says "What did Christ bring to light.? Life and incorruption.
Not bare immortality. Not mere endless existence which might
be a curse rather than a blessing, and might be described as end-
less death rather than eternal life. What was the hope the heathen
jphilosophers held out ? 'That the human spirit being of a different
nature from the body, being uncompounded and therefore not
capable of being separated into parts like the material body, might
continue to live for ever as pure spirit.' Was there anything cheer-
ing in this hope ? A spirit without a body, an inhabitant without
a home, a being without organs through which he might come
into contact with God's universe: can any of us tell whether that
would be a blessed life or not ? Might it not be a dreary and un-
blessed existence dragged on through endless ages? Do not
Paul's words express the natural feeling of human hearts ? Not

for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon, that what is
mortal may be swallowed up of life ?" "Not bare immortality
then has Christ brought to light but ''Hife and incorruptionP Life
of the highest sort, intellectual and spiritual: a life analogous to
that which we now live, but with a renewed spirit in place of a
sinful one, and ^. glorious^ incorruptible^ spiritual ^0\yi '\Vi%\!t2A
of the body of flesh and blood."

From this it is clear that Mr. M. has no affection for mere
ghostology, but believes that man in or after death, will have a
" glorious, incorruptible, spiritual body," with " organs through
which he may come in contact with God's universe." He is deeply
in sympathy with the sentiment of the 51st paraphrase, which is
generally used by Presbyterians : —

" Soon shall this earthly frame dissolved,

In death and ruins lie ;
But better mansions wait the just,
Prepared above the sky,
A house eternal built by God,

Shall lodge the holy mind;
When once these prison walls have fallen,

With which 'tis now confined.

Hence burdened with this weight of clay:

We groan beneath the load;
Waiting the hour that sets us free,

And brings us home to God.
We know that when the soul unclothed, '

Shall from this body fly;
'Twill animate a purer frame,
* With life that cannot die."

It strikes us forcibly, that the belief, that the "unclothed soul,"
goes at death to "animate a purer frame with life that cannot die" is
not logically tenable,except at the expense of the doctrine of a resur-
rection from the dead; for by what process can a body "animated
with life that cannot die'^ be got rid of, to make room for the resurrec-
tion body ? Or what need can there be for the latter? Has it been
anywhere revealed or is it conceivable, that the saint is destined to
spend eternity, in the world to come, with a couple of bodies to
live and move in ?

We would suggest that had our respected contemporary taken
the 15th chapter of ist Cor. as it reads, instead of quoting from it

in the disjointed way he has, it would have been difficult if not im-
possible for him to make it appear, that "the dead continue to live,
without previously showing that Paul was suflfering from mental
aberration. At the outset he would have to account for the strange
phraseology used by Paul in the third verse and onward. Christ is
there said to have died^ to have been buried^Xo have risen again^SiC,^
&c. Now,on the understanding that "M^ dead continue to live" with
or without "a glorious, incorruptible, spiritual body," this is utterly
unintelligible. The statement that Christ "died" may be got over by
defining death to mean a "separation" of the soul — "the real mari^
— from the body, but granting that; what about the BURYING ?
Christ's body was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea,
but if Christ's death was simply a " separation " of Christ from His
body, as this theory puts it, then it is obvious that Christ was not
there, and if not there, he could not be raised therefrom. Any
definition of death, however, which like this one, renders burial of
the person impossible, is manifestly unscriptural and therefore
false. If man goes not into the tomb at death, how at the coming
of Christ, can " all that are in the tombs hear His voice and come
forthy they that have done good to a resurrection of life, and they
that have done evil to a resurrection of judgment ? " John 5 :
28. (R. V.) Assuming Mr. M's. theory to be correct, we conclude
that the sacred writers were exceedingly unfortunate in their
choice of language, if their object was to enlighten. Plain men
and women, having only an ordinary English education, would
never gather from this quotation, that the dead, instead of being
in the tombs, were, " at home in heaven — their Father's House."
They would require the assistance of a "Batchelor of Divinity," or
some other " THEOLOGIAN " to explain why, in such circum-
stances, they should be expected to emanate from the tomb at the
sound of a "trumpet," i Cor. 15: 52, or why Paul should in his
words of comfort to the Thessalonian believers, who were
mourning the loss of relatives, exhort them to " sorrow not, con-
cerning them that fall asleep^ even as the rest who have no hope" —

"For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a

shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first." They would naturally wonder
why Paul makes the Lord to DESCEND HIMSELF, or alone, and
the saints RISE to meet Him. Why should not the saints descend
with Him if they are with Him in Heaven or Paradise now?

Were those plain folks to read the 12th chap, of Daniel where
he says "at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that
shall be found written in the book, and many of them that sleep
in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and
some to shame and everlasting contempt," they would be struck
with the marvellous unanimity existing between the teachings of
the Old and New Testaments on this subject, and would wonder
what warrant modern theologians have, for speaking of "the/atni
hopes of Old Testament saints."

If "faith is the assurance of things hoped for" as stated by Paul
in Heb. i ith chap., R.V., it follows that the /at f A of Old Testament
saints must have been faint if their hopes were faint; but how can
that be harmonised with the contents of said chapter, wherein a
whole army of Old Testament saints are brought forward as
illustrations of faith ? Besides it is worthy of note, that there
are but two instances recorded, of men escaping death, by being
translated, because their faith "pleased God" and they were "Old
Testament saints," Enoch and Elijah. Abraham, the "father
of all them that believe," was an "Old Testament saint" and Paul
affirms that we must have "that faith of our father Abraham
which he had in uncircumcision" Rom. 4:12, R.V. This no doubt
accounts for the fact, that Paul, when preaching the gospel, said
"nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come,"
how that the Christ must suffer and how that he firsty by the res-
urrection OF the dead, should proclaim light both to the people
and to the gentiles." It must not be supposed therefore, that
when Paul said, "Our Saviour Christ Jesus hath abolished death
and brought life and incorruption to light by the gospel," he meant
any sljght to the "hopes or faith of Old Testament saints," but
simply that the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ had be-
come facts, and he had appeared to his disciples, in possession
of his incorruptible body^ an ^''ocular demonstration" of HOW im-
mortality or deathlessness comes into our possession.

When quoting from ist Cor. 15th chap. Mr. M. fails to repro-
duce Paul's conclusion, "that if there be no resurrection of the
dead, all who have fallen asleep in Christ are perisheld!^ This need
not excite surprise. Paul's conclusion is exceedingly damaging to
Mr. M's. "separation" theory, and the bare statement of it might
have set some of his admirers a thinking. They might have felt
at a loss as to how the righteous, from Abel downwards, who arc

■i!

believed to have gone to Paradise can be said to have I'KRiSHEt),
"if there be no resurrection." A large number of professing
Christians at the present time scorn the idea of the resurrection
of the body; they can see no use for it in the light of their theology;
they regard their mortal body as a clog, riddance from which is
something to be thankful for. One of their writers states their
belief as follows: "Resurrection is not a change that has to be
waited for during thousands of years of sleep or dispersion; but
resurrection immediately follows death. The scriptures instruct us
that man rises to his eternal home in a spiritual body fitted to that
home; and inasmuch as the earthly body is fitted for this world and
not fitted to a spiritual and eternal world, it is left behind and will
never be wanted again." "Great Truths on Great Suhject^^ pp. 1 12.

The people who reason thus are consistent but they "do err not
knowing the scriptures." They start from false premises and
therefore, they arrive at false conclusions.

The death of which Paul wrote in this remarkable chapter is a
death involving unconsciousness and a "return to the dust"; a death
necessitating burial^ and, if the subject thereof is ever again to
"live and move and have a being," — a resurrection, "at the last day,"
hence the en^phasis which he places on the resurrection of Christ.
The logical summing up of alUthis is, that the resurrection, burial
and death of Christ are interdependent and stand or fall together,
and as the vital doctrine of the Atonement is based on the death
of Christ, if Christ died not, no Atonement has been effected, and
of course, we "are yet in our sins and all who have fallen asleep
in Christ are perished."

Paul further elaborates this in the 32nd v. he says "If after the
manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus what doth it profit
me ? If the dead are not raised let us eat and drink for to-morrow
we die."

A conclusion "stranger than fiction" if the dead continue to live
and are at "home in their Father* s house"

One of the principal passages adduced to prove that the dead
continue to live in heaven is, John 14: 2. "In my Father's house
are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I
go to prepare a place for you.'' Concerning this, Mr. M. says,
"The Christian will be ready to pass through the swellings ot
Jordan, assured that the ' Father's house ' is on the other side,
and that the Elder Brother is waiting to receive him."

We cannot do better than quote an exposition hereof given by
Rev. S. H. Kellogg, D.D., pastor of St. James' Square Presby-
terian Church, Toronto, in a lecture entitled " Our Inheritance,'
delivered at the " Believers' Meeting for Bible Study," held at
Niagara, July 19th to 28th, 1887. He says, " I do not know how
many funeral sermons I have heard in which we are assured that
the dear departed brother has gone to receive his inheritance.
This is not true. There is no one living or dead who has received
his inheritance. The apostle goes out of his way in the nth
chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews to say, that all those old
worthies of the old covenant were waiting for us, to get their in-
heritance. Instead of thinking of death as introducing us to the
inheritance, we ought to think of it in exactly the opposite way,
as keeping us out of the inheritance. So whenever you hear any-
one talking in that way, you must think he has not studied his
Bible sufficiently on that point. There is not a word in it about
inheritance at death, but a great deal about inheritance when

the resurrection comes One or two verses have

been thought opposed to this view. There are the familiar
words * In my Father's house are many mansions.' I have
been asked is not the Father's house heaven, and is not
then, the inheritance heaven ? I simply reply, it does not say so.
I will ask in the first place what is the Father's house ? I read
* heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him ' ; I am
told that ' He fills immensity with His presence,' and so on,—
all scripture represents the Father's house as being simply this
great universe, the divine abode of His glory, power, and pres-
ence, which fill it to repletion everywhere. In this — the Father*
house, this great and glorious starry universe, in which this earth
is only a tiny star, in this house are many ''abiding places.^ ' If
I go away I will receive you to myself, that where I am there ye
may be also.' This refers to the second coming, when Christ
will place us in our mansion.

"Again in i Pet. i and 4, we read that the inheritance is reserv-
ed for us in heaven, but that does not say that heaven is the in-
heritance. If I say you are not of age yet, but you need not worry,
about the inheritance, it is reserved in the court house, you would
not understand me that the farm had been put into the court house
but, that the documents were there in the archives. Speaking in
that slightly metaphorical sense, one may easily understand how

he says our inheritance is laid up in heaven for us, or perhaps we
may better take the word 'reserved,' in its common sense,
* guarded,' * watched,' in which case the passage means that the
eye of God in heaven is on this earth, which He intends for our
inheritance, that He may guard it for us to the day of redemption."
He further says: "There is only one way in which dead hhrahsun
can become heir of the world, and that is BY BEING RAISED
FROM THE DEAD, and put back here in possession ....
What good could a dead man get of the new earth ? The dead are
out of it, and they, therefore, must needs be put back. RESURREC-
TION FROM THE DEAD, is involved in the very nature of this
inheritance."

A flatter contradiction when logically applied to Mr. Macdon-
nell's teaching could not be devised than this. Whatever Dr.
Kellogg may have wished his auditors to glean from his words,
concerning man in death, we are forced to conclude that if
Abraham cannot become "A«V of the world^^ without being
"RAISED FROM THE DEAD" he must at the present time be out of
existence, having "returned to the dust," for if he be in "Paradise"
it ought not to be necessary to bring him from the grave—other-
wise Paradise and the grave must be identical.

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.

The very frequent allusions to Judgment which occur in Scrip-
lure, seem to have been overlooked by the preacher on this occa-
sion, — "God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the
world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained,
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath
raised him from the dead." Paul to the Athenians, Acts 17: 31.

The object ot this appointment is that the "just and unjust" may
appear before Christ to be judged and rewarded or punished as
their case may appear. Proof— Rom. 2 : 7, 8 1 6, — "God will render
to every man according to his works : to them that by patience in
well-doing seek for glory and honour and incorruption, eternal life; ,
but unto them that are factious and obey not the truth, but obey
unrighteousness, wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish
in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, ac-
cording to my Gospel,by Jesus Christ." Again, "We must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the
things in body, accordin|^ to thfit he ha^h ^one whether good or
bad." 2 Cor. 5:10,

The proof is quite as pointed in reference to the time when this
judging shall occur—" I charge thee before God, and the Lord
Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead AT HIS
APPEARING AND KINGDOM,"-Paul to Timothy, 2nd
Epistle 4: I. Again, "For the Son of Man shall come in the glory
of his Father with his angels ; and THEN shall he reward every
man according to his works." — Jesus. Matt. 16: 16. Also chap.
25: 31-46, " But when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and
all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his
glory : and before him shall be gathered all the nations : and he
shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth
the sheep from the goats : and he shall set the sheep on his right
hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand,-Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world : for
I was an hungered and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty and ye
gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in ; naked and
ye clothed me ; I was sick and ye visited me ; I was in prison and

ye came unto me Then shall he also say unto them

on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire
which is prepared for the' devil and his angels .... and
these shall go away into eternal punishment : but the righteous
into eternal life."

Now these passages (and there are many others) demon-
strate, that God hath appointed a day, yet future, whereon
Christ shall appear to judge the living and the dead, just and un-
just, and to bestow rewards and punishments on the respective
classes. But does not this collide with the theory that the dead
" continue to live and are at home in their Father's house ? "

Is not this another way of saying that " they have gone to their
reward at death " ? If so, what can Paul have meant when he
wrote to Timothy, " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall
give unto me AT THAT DAY and not to me only but to all those
that love his appearing"} 2 Tim. 4: 8. Or the Revelator chap.
11: 15, 18, "And the seventh angel sounded and there were great
voices in heaven s ying, the kingdoms of this world are be-
come the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall
reign for ever and ever, , . , , and the nations were angry,

and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should
be judged, and that thou shouldest give rewards unto thy servants
the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name small
and great ; and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth ? "

If it be a fact that man goes at death to his reward, Jesus and
his Apostles must have known it ; how then is there not only an
utter absence of teaching to that effect in their record, but a
deluge of what seems the very opposite ? Simply because they
were taught of God, and believed as did the " Old Testament
Saints" that "the dead know not anything."

In the sermon under review Mr. M. confines himself to the
sunny side of this question. Unfortunately for his theory it has
two sides, one of unutterable gloom. If it be contended that
because the soul is immortal, the righteous dead ^'continue
to live, and are at home in their Father's house," it must
be admitted that the unrighteous dead "continue to live."
Where ? The creed of his church says : — " All mankind by
their fall, lost communion with God, are under his wrath
and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life,
to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.^^ If, then, all
mankind are under God's wrath and curse, and liable to the
pains of hell for ever, such will be their lot unless something is
done to save. Something has been done— a Saviour has been
provided, who has died to redeem those who believe and obey
him. The news of this has been proclaimed, and is called "the
good news," or "the gospel," and all who "believe and obey" are
to be saved — "by grace are ye saved through faiths — Paul. "Go
ye into all the world and preach the gospel, he that believeth and
is baptised shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned."
— Jesus to his disciples. From this it would appear that only
those can be saved who believe the gospel, and only those can be-
lieve who hear, and inasmuch as the vast majority of the human
family have not heard, they cannot be believers, and therefore
cannot be saved. " Whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom
they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of
whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a
preacher?. . . . So then /a/M cometh by ^^af/w^, and hear-
ing by the Word of God." Rom. lo: 13, 14, 17.

The dividing line having been thus scripturally drawn, at

^^delt'e/sind odedience" it will not be necessary, for the purposes of
this review, to go minutely into particulars. Proceeding on
broad lines let us look at the religious statistics of the world at
the present time.

A diagram has been published by "The Church Missionary
Society," of London, exhibiting the actual and relative numbers
of mankind, classified according to their religion, as follows : —
Protestants, 1 16 Millions ; Greek Church, 84 Millions; Roman
Catholics, 190 Millions; Jews, 8 Millions; Mohammedans, 170
Millions ; Heathen, 856 Millions— Total, 1424 Millions. The
nominal converts to Christianity from among those heathen are
3 Millions, while the church members are only ^ of a Million.
Besides, the Heathen and Mohammedan population has increas-
ed in the last 100 years, 200 Millions, while the converts and their
families number only 3 Millions.

Now here are 1424 millions of "immortal souls" or human beings,
passing away every generation ; all by the fall "liable to the pains
of hell for ever ;" the greater part born in circumstances afford-
ing no means of escape therefrom, and therefore, at death consign-
ed to torment without even the privilege of being judged, the "day
of judgment" not having yet arrived.

It must be borne in mind that Paul says, "where no law is there
is no transgression," therefore those poor unfortunate heathen,
having lived where God's Word had not been preached, could not
have transgressed it, and consequently were only tainted with what
Presbyterians call "original sin." On account of this original sin,
in which personally they had no part, they are said to be "under
God's wrath and curse and liable to the pains of hell for ever!^
No wonder that Mr. Macdonnell's generous nature revolts, or at
one time did, against this appalling doctrine of his church.
It is not enough, that these wretched beings, myriads of whom
were slaves or worse, should have been by the accident of birth
destined to lead a joyless existence on earth, but horror of horrors,
must needs languish in eternal torments in hell ! ! ! Can anything
more diabolical be invented by man, with which to misrepresent
and insult a "GOD OF LOVE" ? especially when, according to
their confession of faith, God hath "for His own glory foreor.
dained whatsoever comes to pass" f

It will not do to swoon away at this point, with the solace,
that "this IS a great mystery" but "the Judge of all the earth will do

ftO

right." It is not a question as to whether the judge of all the earth
will do right, in that we have implicit faith, but what has God re-
vealed concerning man and his destiny f Do the scriptures teach
that man has, or is, an "immortal never-dying soul ?" that "all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God ?" that they can
be saved only ^^ through faitK^ or a "belief of the gospel ;" that they
cannot believe the gospel without hearing it? If they do,
does it not follow that, at leasts ai.l who have not heard are to
be unsaved or lost, whatever that implies ?

From a Presbyterian standpoint, logically treated, does it not
imply, that they go to endless suffering ? 'Tis useless to wince at
this sequence of logic, and to indulge in special pleading based
on the misunderstanding of an obscure passage of Scripture, —
Rom. 2: 14, as some do. If Paul meant when he wrote this
14th verse, that some "Gentiles who have not the law, do by
NATURE the things contained in the law" and thus MERIT
SALVATION, it would be interesting to know what he means in the
following chapter, 9th verse, by saying, " we have proved both
Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin ; as it is written,
there is none that doeth good, no, not one," .... v. 20. "By the
deeds of the law^ there shall no flesh be justified in his sight : for
by the law is the knowledge of sin." "But now apart from the law
a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by
the law and the prophets ; even the righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no
distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God."— R.V.

The extensive efforts put forth to convert the heathen, seem to
suggest that they cannot be saved apart from a belief of the gos-
pel. If they can, the life and treasure expended on them by
Missionary Societies, might be better applied to the ^^ heathen
at home."

It is comforting to know, that, though still popular, the belief in
the "immortality of the soul" is rapidly being supplanted by the
scriptural doctrine of "conditional immortality" or "Life in
Christ only." A very large number of ministers and others by
tongue and pen are proclaiming its unscripturalness. Men of ripe
scholarship, occupying pulpits all over the British dominions, fear-
lessly and unsparingly denounce it as a " Pagan fiction." The
following extract from a sermon preached by Rev. H. .N. Wollaston,

in Trinity Church, East Melbourne, will constitute a valuable off-
set to Mr. MacdonneH's favorite expression that "those other
living whom we call the dead, have not really ceased to live."

" The text was Rom. vi. 23; " The wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord." Mr.
Wollaston said : —

" The doctrine of the eternal life of pain and suffering for the
lost of the human family, as the punishment for their sin, is based
entirely upon the belief that the human soul is created immortal,
incapable of death and destruction, which is the common belief,
and is accepted without question or inquiry as a doctrine of God,
taught in Holy Scripture ; and the inevitable consequence is that
only two alternatives are left to us, as to the future destiny of the
body and soul of a sinner, after death and judgment, since, accord-
ing to this theory, man must live on forever— and Scripture declares
that there are only two places for all men hereafter, heaven and
hell, and only two states, happiness and misery— it follows, that
one of two things must happen to him. If he die in his sin un-
saved, either he must be forgiven, and restored to God's love and
favor, after paying the penalty of his sin, by a just and
adequate punishment in hell, which is the doctrine of Origen, the
Christian Platonist, and of the modern Universalist ; or he must
live on an eternal life of pain and suffering, and consequently,
never die, which is the doctrine of Tertullian and Augustine, and
of a large majority of Protestant Christians. No other alternative
can possibly be conceived of by the believer in the natural inherent
immortality of the human soul ; and, as a matter of fact, we find,
that while most men believe or profess to believe, in Augustine's
endless life of pain in hell, many whose whole souls revolt against
its terrible and appalling character in their natural revulsion of
feeling, fall back upon Origen's purgatory and his theory of ulti-
mate restoration to God. Both support their belief by a forced
interpretation of some two or three texts of Scripture, which they
suppose favor their views, and both are compelled by their theory
of the soul's inalienable immortality to reject a third view of this
subject, which is in reality, ihe only doctrine concerning the des-
tiny of the lost sinner taught in God's word; and which teaches it
plainly, persistently and dogmatically, in a hundred passages of
the sacred volume. Now it may startle some of you, when I affirm
without any fear of contradiction, that this popular and common

belief in the natural immortality of the human soul, is not support-
ed by a single text, or a single line or word, in the whole Bible,
from the first of Genesis to the last of Revelations; and moreover,
that it is essentially a Pagan doctrine, introduced in the early days
of Christianity into the theology of the Church by learned Christian
writers and preachers, who borrowed it from the great heathen
philosopher, Plato, whose disciples they were; and is therefore,
the doctrine ot men, and not of God. But I will go farther than
this, and say advisedly that we have overwhelming evidence in the
pages of Holy Writ, that the human soul is not by creation and
nature immortal, that it is not the condition of his being, that man
should live for ever either in heaven or hell.

" In the first place we are distinctly told, what our reason suf-
ficiently attests, that God, the self-existent Creator, the eternal,
immortal and invisible Jehovah, is the only possessor, as He is
the only source and dispenser, of eternal life, or immortality.
And here I may remark, that many persons seem to entertain the
strange notion that eternal life and immortality are not convertible
terms, that they do not mean the same thing; but I ask why ?
Immortal means deathless, and immortal life is deathless life; and
a deathless life is a life that will never die, which lasts forever, and,
therefore, it is an 'eternal' life, an everlasting life. Hence to at-
tempt to attribute a meaning to one of these terms which the other
will not bear, is only playing upon words, a distinction without a
difference, a mere quibble of speech, * immortality ' and * eternal

life' ARE IDENTICALLY THE SAME THING.

" The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life,
. through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is not any one doctrine
in the New Testament more clearly revealed, or more frequently
or more authoritatively taught by Jesus Christ and His Apostles,
than this ; that man is not, by creation and nature, immortal and
incapable of death and destruction, but is mortal and perishable ;
and. therefore, the common and popular notion that the soul can-
not die as well as the body, but must of necessity, live forever in
heaven or hell, is totally opposed to the teaching of the Word of
God, and is unworthy a place in the Christian's creed. And I
may just add, as confii-ming this view of the question, that the
Church of Englandy whatever many of her divines may teach to
the contrary y does not hold the natural immortality of man as one
of her doctrines J for in the collect for the first Sunday in advent ,

le,
er,
lys
an
en
re,
lan
the
nd
lan

she teaches us iopray that when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come
a second time * to judge the quick and dead' we may rise to the
life immortal. Now if the writer of that collect (one of our Re-
formers probably) believed in the Pagan doctrine of immortality,
is it not strange that he should put such words in our mouths as
these ? For if we are by nature immortal, and can never die, we
surely require no prayer to God that we become immortal, if that
life is already ours. The writer clearly regarded this immortal
life as a great spiritual boon and blessing which we have not by
nature, and which God will only give, as an act of grace, for the
sake of His Son Jesus Christ, to those who believe on Him. And
now, brethren, we come to make an important and necessary en-
quiry. If the doctrine that the soul of man is by creation and
nature immortal, is not found in the Bible, and upon which alone,
as I have shown, the belief of an eternal life of pain and suffering
for the lost is based, where did it come from ? How came it to
be introduced into Christian theology ? I find no difficulty in
answering these questions. We easily trace its origin to Plato,
the great heathen sage, who lived 400 years before Christ, and
whose philosophy has colored and influenced the theology of the
Christian church in all ages, even from apostolic times, and who
had for his disciples, the most able and influential of the Christ-
ian Fathers, whose writings and preachings have to a great extent,
moulded the faith of Christendom. Plato, sometimes called the
* divine Plato,' although a Pagan, from the wonderful resemblance
of some of his views of God and man, to those revealed in the
Bible. Plato taught that the human soul could not die or be de-
stroyed, that it was, in its very nature, immortal, and must live on
forever ! He held also, that for the good in this world, there was,
hereafter, an eternal abode of happiness, or Elysium ; and for the
very wicked — the worst of mankind — a place of eternal pain and
suffering, with its streams of fire, called Tartarus, whence none
could ever, throughout eternity, come forth again. He also taught
that there was a medium place, a purgatory which he called the
Acherusian Lake, into which all those too bad for Elysium, but
not bad enough for Tartarus, were cast at death, and from which
they issued forth again into upper air, after a purgative and re-
fining process in the fire. And this you will observe in all its
features — its Elysium, its Tartarus, its Purgatory, is precisely a
doctrine of the present day. We see then in the philosophy of

i ;

Plato, who died four centuries before Christ was born, the origin
and almost counterpart of the popular belief of the inherent im-
mortality of the soul, and the two-fold dogma based upon it — that
everyone dying in sin must either go to purgatory to expiate his
guilt there, and then be restored to God's love and favor, or he
must live on for ever and ever in torment and anguish in hell.
The first Christian writer who advocated this latter doctrine was
Clement Athenagoras, a Greek by birth, who settled at Alexan-
dria, and died about A. d. 200 ; almost contemporary with whom
was Tatian, in Mesopotamia, and he was followed some thirty
years later by the famous TertuUian, the * fierce African theolo-
gian,' as he was called. These views were opposed some thirty
years after TertuUian, by the great Origen, who maintained the
ultimate restoration and salvation of all men, and not only of men
but of devils also. This theory of Origen's however, did not take
very deep root, and in some 150 years after his death, was well
nigh regarded as a heresy, when Augustine the celebrated Bishop
of Hippo, in Africa, rose up in all his mighty power and crushed
it out of the Christian Church altogether by his writings, preach-
ing and authority, for more than 1200 years, when it reappeared
in its present form of Universalism in these latter days. Augus-
tine, an ardent disciple of Plato, adopted like TertuUian, the com-
plex Platonic theory of the immortality of the soul, of everlasting
torment in Tartarus, or hell, as the punishment of the wicked ;
and of a middle place or purgatory ; and this we know, remained
an article of the Christian faith for very many centuries, until the
Reformation, when the Protestant churches discarded the pur-
gatory of Augustine and Plato ; but perpetuated Plato's and
Augustine's hell, which is to this hour, the teaching of many di-
vines, and a belief of the majority of the members of the Protes-
tant churches.

"Such is the origin and history of the populjir doctrines of the
immortality of the soul, and of an eternal life of pain and agony
for the impenitent and unconverted after death. But I must call
your attention to another important fact. Athenagoras, the first
Christian writer who advocated this dogma, as I said, died about
A.D. 200. There are still extant, books, or portions of books,
written by seven well known Christian fathers who lived before
Athenagoras, namely : Barnabas, (Paul's companion;, Clement
of Rome, (mentioned by Paul in Rom. 16), Hermas, Ignatius, Poly-

Carp (disciple of St. John), Justin Martyr, and Theophilus of
Antioch ; there were also two others, his contemporaries, Iren-
aeus and Clement of Alexandria. Barnabas, the eldest of these,
died about A.D. 90, or some fifty years only after the death of
Christ ; and it is very singular (if this doctrine were true), that
not one of these w ft tings should contain the Augustinian theory of
an eternal life of torment in hell for the lost sinner. It is scarcely
credible that these eminent confessors, half of whom were martyrs
to the faith, would not have referred to this dreadful truth, if it had
been, in their day, the doctrine of the Christian church ; and the
conclusion we should naturally draw from this remarkable omiss-
ion, would certainly be that no such tenet was known to them ;
that it was introduced into Christ-theology subsequent to their
times ; and as a matter of fact, we find no trace of this doctrine
until 200 years after Christ. I have already proved to you by
quotations from the book of Common Prayer, that the articles,
creeds and formularies of the Church of England are entirely in
favour of the view which I have taken of the condition of the lost,
so far as they refer to it at all, which, however, is only incidental.
In my last sermon, I showed you that this terrible Pagan doctrine
which TertuUian and Augustine succeeded in imposing on the
Christian Church, through the influence of their great names, vast
learning, and fiery zeal and eloquence, receives no support what-
ever from the Word of God ; and that there is not one text fairly
quoted and honestly interpreted which contains any such tenet as
this, from Genesis to Revelation. The Old Testament does not
once refer to it : Vve may, therefore, safely assume th-^t it was un-
known to the authors of these ancient books. In the New Testa-
ment there are twenty-one epistles written by five of Christ's
apostles, none of them speak of, or refer to, this frightful doctrine,
still less preach or teach it, for the obvious reason that they did
not believe in it : for if such had been the habit of the early Chris-
tian church, or had they been taught it by their master, it is in-
conceivable that it should have been excluded from the twenty-
one epistles which contain the doctrinal portions of the Gospel,
the dogmas of the Christian faith ; and as I pointed out to you
last Sunday, there are only two passages in the whole of the four
gospels which contain the teaching of Christ Himself and which
are always quoted as stock texts by advocates of the Augustinian
theory, which can by any possibility be tortured and twisted into

a crutch to support this view of eternal punishment — Mark 9: 43,
and Matthew 24: 46— both of which texts, I believe, and hope, I
then satisfactorily disposed of, by showing you, that fairly and
critically examined and interpreted, they were in perfect harmony
with the universal testimony of the Bible ; that the sinner's future
doom is not life, but death ; mortality and not immortality ; not an
endless life of pain, but the extinction of life ; not everlasting ex-
stence but everlasting destruction ; that * the wages of sin is
death :' that if you or I die in our sin impenitent, unsanctified, un-
saved, we shall be raised again from the dead on the last day, by
our Great Judge, and having received from him the reward of our
deeds, and endured a perfectly just and equitable amount of suffer-
ing for our sins here, — the ' many stripes,' or the * few stripes *
as God's Omniscience alone can know that we have righteously
deserved— we shall be consigned as mortal children of Adam, to
eternal death ; we shall in our Lord's own words, be literally
destroyed, both body and soul in ' sheol,' an ' everlasting death,'
which will be our * everlasting punishment ; ' which, in Apostolic
words, is ' everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord'
and our fellow men. Such is the uniform teaching of our Lord
Jesus Christ and His Apostles, as well as the Church of England
concerning the future destiny of the children of this world, of the
ungodly and unconverted ; whilst the children of God, the peni-
tent and believing, the sanctified and regenerated, having, by
faith in the Saviour of sinners, attained to immortality, as
a free gift of God's love and goodness, will enjoy an eter-
nal, never ending life of peace, rest, joy, and blessedness with
Christ and His saints and angels. This is God's own word, ' The
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.' The only portion of the Bible I have not
mentioned is the Apocalypse, or Revelation of John, and in that
book there is one passage which is always quoted in connection
with those two texts referred to in the gospels, to prove the eternal
duration of the sinner's suffering in hell — (Chap. 16: 10, 11.) * If
any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark
in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall be tormented with
fire and brimstone, and the smoke of their torment ascendeth for
ever and ever.' Now in the first place, it is not by any means
clear that this passage refers to the future punishment of sinners
at all. Elliott the prophetic writer,, a great authority, thinks it

t ;

27 •

does not ; but in the second place, whether it does or not, we can-
not put a literal interpretation and base so awfully important a
dogma as that of the consignment of a human soul to an eternal
life of agony in hell, upon a single prophetic utterance found in a
book which is confessedly the most obscure, figurative, mysterious
and difficult ever written ; a book so crowded with allegory and
flowing imagery, foreshadowing future events, that no one can
venture to dogmatise upon the meaning of its contents."

This man's teaching is pointed, but how can it be " squared '
with Mr. Macdonnell's ? It seems to us that nothing could form
a greater contrast. Besides, he cannot be ignored as " unedu-
cated;" ind his citations and statements, if incorrect ought to be
easily disproved by those who differ from him.

Mr. M. says, " We have only to read the speculations of Plato
or the books of the Old Testament, to understand the force of the
expression 'brought to light' as applied to Christ's declarations
concerning a future state, as contrasted with the guesses of the
wisest heathen, or the faint hopes of Old Testament saints."
Having already dealt with the case of the " Old Testament saints,"
we need only here remark that they deserved better treatment
from a " Minister " than to be classified with "heathen specu-
lators," or " guessers " ; but as Mr. Wollaston says, " The immor-
tality of the soul is a pure human fiction^ and we easily trace its
origin to Plato, who lived 400 years before Christ " ; and as this
"pure human fiction " or guess of the heathen speculator Plato,
constitutes the backbone of Mr. M's theology concerning the dead,
it is not surprising that he should furnish the world with such a
sorry commentary on the great work accomplished by Christ, as
this funeral sermon is ; nor that he should be found so utterly out
of joint with either the possibility or necessity of a resurrection
and judgment of the dead at the reappearing of Christ. So super-
fluous did those ancient "immortal soul" speculators consider
resurrection that when Paul referred to it in his address at Athens
they "mocked." Acts 17: 32.

William Tyndale declares that " in putting departed souls in
heaven, hell, and purgatory, you destroy the arguments where-
with Christ and Paul prove the resurrection. What God doth
with them, that we shall know when we come to them. The true
faith putteth the resurrection, which we be warned to look for
every hour. The heathen philosophers denying that, did put that

I I''

the souls did ever live. And the Pope joineth the spiritual doc-
trine of Christ, and the fleshly doctrine of philosophers together,
-^things 80 contrary that they cannot agree And be-
cause the fleshly-minded Pope consenteth unto heathen doc-
trine, therefore he corrupteth the Scriptures to establish it. . ,
If the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good case
as the angels be ? And then what cause is there of the resurreC'
tionf" This translator of the Scripture into English suffered
martyrdom in 1536.

Richard Watson remarks, " That the soul is naturally immortal,
is contradicted by Scripture^ which makes our immortality a gift,
dependent on the will of the G\vQx."—InstituteSy vol. ii. p., 250.

Herodotus, the oldest historian, writes, " The Egyptians were
the first who asserted the doctrine that the soul of man is immor'
tal." Herod^ p. 144.

Martin Luther ironically responded to the decree of the Council
of the Lateran held during the Pontificate of Pope Leo : — " I
permit the Pope to make articles of faith for himself and his faith-
ful, such as the soul is the substantial form of the human body, —
the soul is fmmortal, — with all those monstrous opinions to be
found in the Roman duns^hill of decretals; that such as his faith
is, such may be his gospel, such his disciples, and such his
Church, that the mouth may have meat suitable for it, and the
dish a cover worthy of it." — Luther's JVorks, vol. ii., folio 107.
Wittemberg, 1562.

Kitto renders Gen. 2: 7, "And Jehovah God, formed nan— {/feb.
Adam, dust from the ground, and blew into his nostrils the
breath of life, and the man became a living animal." He also
says, " We should be acting unfaithfully, if we were to affirm^ that
an immortal spirit is contained or implied in this passage. —
{Cyclopadia Bib. Lit.^ vol. i, p 659.) Kitto's translation is borne
out by Paul's quotation of this very verse in i Cor. 15. Having
affirmed that " there is a natural (or animal) body, and there is
a SPIRITUAL body," he says, by way of proof, "And so it is
written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul, the last
Adam was made a quickening spirit" — verse 45. Here Paul
quotes " living soul," as the equivalent of " natural body."

Kitto's rendering of this passage is very valuable, as it gives us
to understand that the dust formed man simply became a "living
animaP^ by the breathing of the breath of life into his nostrils.

As the phrase "living animal" is thus the equivalent of "living
soul," it becomes easy to understand why the lower animals are
also called "living souls." Gen. i : 30, R. V. margin. Popular be-
lief has it that God scintillated a part of himself into man, at his
creation, and as God is immortal therefore man must be immortal;
but as immortality is only one of the attributes of God, this would
involve too much. As God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omni-
present, All-wise, Holy, &c., by parity of reasoning so, must man.
This however is contrary to our experience.

Further, this breath of life, or lives, is common to man and
beast. Solomon says, "They have all one breath, as the one dieth
so dieth the other, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again."
Eccles. 3: 19 ; and Moses in describing the result of the flood
says : "All flesh died that moved upon the earth, both fowl and
cattle and beast, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth, and EVERY MAN, all in whose nostrils was the breath of
the spirit of life" Agassiz in his essay on "Classification" says,
"Most of the arguments of philosophy in favour oi the immortality
of man apply equally to the permanency of the immaterial prin-
ciple in other living beings. May I not add that a future life in
which man should be deprived of that great source of enjoyment
and intellectual and moral improvement which results from the
contemplation of the harmonies of an organic world, would in-
volve a lamentable loss ? And may we not look to a spiritual
concert of the combined worlds and all their inhabitants in pre-
sence of their Creator, as the hie^hest conception of Paradise ?"
Extract from Rev. Joseph Cook's Lecture "Does death end all,"
delivered at Chautauqua Assembly, 1877.

A somewhat grave consideration is introduced here, viz : — Was
the "vital spark" of immortality given to man at his creation once
for all, or is it supplied afresh to each merriber of the human family,
prior to birth ? To us it is inconceivable that the Deity should
subordinate ^^ a part of himself" to the law of human generation;
and on the other hand it is equally so, that he should by special act,
furnish the same in connection with every birth— especially when
we reflect that a very large number of those are illegitimate !

Again if this " vital spark" which is said to have come from
God in the way above described and which returns at death, is the
immortal, conscious part, ought it not to have been as well quali-
fied to think h^iQx^ it took possession of the man as after it leaves

him? If not, why ? but if so, how is it that we have no recollection
of anything that happened before we were born ? or how could
Job, when in his anguish he cursed the day of his birth say, —
"Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb ? Had
I given up the ghost and no eye had seen me, I should have been
as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the
womb to the grave." Job lo : i8. He here recognises a time at
which he did not exist, and afilirms that had he given up the ^host
or spirit after emanating from the womb such should have been his
condition again. If there ever was a time at which Job did not
exist, is it necessary to say, he could not have been at that time
conscious ? And were he to return to that state of non-existence,
would he not be again unconscious ? This, according to the testi-
mony last cited, is precisely what death effects. The value of
this evidence will be measured by your estimate of Job as a witness.
If he be a credible, spirit-qualified witness, this ought to decide
the matter. If not so qualified, what right have his utterances to
form a parf of what is termed God's Word ? So analogous, how-
ever, are Job's utterances on this subject to those of all the other
Bible authors that no reasonable doubt may exist as to his rela-
tionship — the same test which would disqualify him would go a
long way toward disqualifying all the others. Note the emphasis
and clearness with which he states his hope. "I know that my
Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand up at the last day upon
the earth, and after my skin hath been thus destroyed, yet from my
flesh shall I see God." Job 19 : 25. R. V. Evidently kindred to
Paul, who "had "hope cOward God that there would be a resur-
rection of the dead both just and unjust." Acts 24 : 15.

There are several passages in the New Testament which are
relied on to sustain the theory, that the dead "have not really
ceased to live." Prominent among these are Paul's "desire to de-
part and be with Christ." Phil, i : 23. "Absent from the body,
and to be present with the Lord." 2 Cor. 5: 8. "The rich man and
Lazarus," Luke 16: 19-31, and "The thief on the cross," Luke 23: 43.

The Scriptural formula of ist. Resurrection ; 2nd, Judgment ;
3rd, Reward, all three at the "Coming of Christ," which we have
demonstrated in the foregoing pages, cannot be adhered to if all
who have died are now "present with Christ." Whatever these pass-
ages may be supposed to teach, they cannot possibly teach that.
Space forbids a critical examination of them in this pamphlet, al-

though such would be by no means difficult. If, through reading
this review, any person should feel desirous of knowing what can be
said by way of elucidating the meaning of them or any other pass-
age seeming to favor the popular theory, he is respectfully invited
to communicate with the writer. With reference to the thief on the
cross, it is generally believed that he went to Paradise with Jesus
on the Crucifixion day, but according to Peter's teaching, Jesus
did not go there "M«/ day.^^

Acts 2: 31 — "He (David) spake of the resurrection of the Christ,
that neither was he (his soul) left in Hades, nor did his flesh see
corruption. TVxs Jesus did God raise up^ whereof we all are wit-
nesses." Concerning this, the late Rev. Wm. Eadie, D.D., United
Presbyterian, Glasgow, says: — "The two lines form what is usually
termed a parallelism, the last hemistitch shewing the sentiment
of the former. The words ' my soul ' mean merely 'myself.' It is,
then, obvious that the argument based upon the idea that Christ's
soul went to Sheol and his body to the grave, has no foundation;
Christ's soul is His entire person. Now what is meant by 'Sheol' ?
It is the place where corruption is seen— the region of the dead.
'Sheol' or 'Hades' do not mean that narrow bed in which one corpse
is laid, but that region of darkness and insensibility in which all
corpses repose. One corpse is laid in its Keber—2\\ corpses lie in
'Sheol.' " Just so. " Christ's soul" or "entire person" went into a
condition of ''^reposi^ in "that region of darkness and INSENSI-
BILITY" called "Sheol or Hades" in which "all corpses lie," and
was "raised up' therefrom, the "first fruits of them that sleep in
him." If Jesus was " raised up" from "Hades" or "Hell" surely
he Inust have gone there at death, and if so, it follows, either that
Hades, Hell and Paradise must be identical, or Jesus went not to
Paradise "that day," and as the thief when in Paradise is to be
with Jesus^ neither could he have gone there.

It may appear fitting to make a gentle reference before closing,
to the celebrated man whose death gave rise to the foregoing
strictures. We had not the pleasure of personal acquaintance
with him, but we frankly accept Mr. M's affirmation that "One out-
standing characteristic was his intellectual honesty; he was
incapable of any sharp practice with forms of speech, to brmg
them into apparent harmony with his thoughts; he would
have no credit for views which he did not hold; it was his
inability to give to the 'Westminster Confession,' the sort of assent

which was expected by the church, that led to his resignation of
his position in Knox College, and, subsequently, to his withdrawal
from the ministry of the Presbyterian Church; on the same
ground he declined to teach a Bible Class in the Church, or to act
as an Elder when elected by a very large vote; when urged
to teach,' his answer was, — 'I could not teach from the point of
view which you and the church would wish me to take.' '

This is just what might reasonably be expected from "a great
scholar — a great thinker — a great teacher — a man of in ieLlect-
UAL HONESTY." The pity is that men of his stamp are so rare. In
religious dofctrine this is a latitudinarian age. Indifference and
gilded ignorance are in many quarters denominated "liberal mind-
edness" and "Catholicity." In what is popularly termed "the
Christian Church," will be found every hue uf belief— "immortal
soulists," and "mortal soulists;" some who say ^^masse^^ for the
" repose" of the soul and others who believe the soul to be in-
describably active and sensitive; some who believe in the "eternal
torment of the damned," others who hold to universal salvation ;
some who, for baptism, "sprinkle" babies, others who immerse
adults only, and still others who think baptism quite unnecessary;
there are "Trinitarians" and "Unitarians" and what shall we say
more?

How salutary in view of all this chaos, is Paul's injunction to
Timothy and through him to all true disciples, — "Hold fast the

form of sound words which ye have heard of me" 'For

the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine;
but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after
their own lusts: and will turn away their ears from the truth^ and
turn aside unto fables."

The verdict of Scripture is that the "truth as it is in Jesus," and
not a substitute for it, is the only medium of salvation. "Sanctify
them through thy trutJi'' — Jesus. "Ye shall believe the truth and
the truth shall make you free" — Paul. "If we say that we have
fellowship with him, and walk in darkness we lie and do not the
truth, .... no lie is of the truth" — John. How appropriate, then,
is Paul's admonition to the Philippian church — "Finally brethren,

whatever things are T&UE if there be any virtue, and

if there be any praise think on these things."