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', ■;:■ ;■' (PROM MATTHEW, Ch. xxv, v. 46.) o ' DELIVERED AT THE <> NEW JERUSALEM TEMPLE, TORONTO, ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 7, 1876. - X > BY JyiM '.^t?l^t- REV. G. FIELD, PASTOR. {Pl'BLISHED BY KKQUEHT.) " Search the Scriptures j for in them ye think ye have eternal life." John, ch. V, V. 39. " In all controveniies of religion, the Church is finally to appeal unto them." Weat. Conf. Faith, ch, i, No. 8. Pkintbd by Hunter, Rose & Co., 25 Wellington Street West. 1876. y% Rev. John Robinson, a pastor of the Puritans, who had emigrated from England to Leyden, Holland, 260 years ago, delivered the following exhortation to those of his flock who left in the " Mayflower," for their new home in the Western world : " If God reveal anything to yoxi by any other instrument of His, be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any tinith by my ministry ; for I am verily persuaded, I am very confident, the Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of His Holy Word. For my i)art, I cannot sufiiciently bewail the condition of the Reformed Churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no farther than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw ; whatever part of His will our God has revealed to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it ; and the Cal- vinists, you see, stick fast where they were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not all things. This is a misery much to be lamented ; for, though they were bui*ning and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not the whole counsel of God ; but were they now living, would be as willing to embrace farther light as that which they firat received. I beseech yon remember it — 'tis an article of your Church covenant — that you be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made k.iown to you from the written Word of God, Remember that, and every other article of your sacred covenant. But I must herewithal exhort you to take heed what you receive as truth. Examine it, con- sider it, and compare it with other Scriptures of truth before you receive it ; for 'tis not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of anti-Christian darkness, and that perfection of knowledge should break forth at once." See Hinton's " Hintory of United States.," by S. L. Knapp, vol.1, 1832, page 41, note. SERMON. '* Thefie shall ijo awtty Into eoerUmtiiKj punishment : hut the rhjhteous intt) life e/eriuil." — Matt. xxv. 4G. , yet now These are the words which describe the result of the Judgment ; when the good, or the blessed (represented by the sheep), are placed on the right hand ; and the evil, or the cursed (by the goats), on the left. But what a vague and indefinite, or even perverted and falsified meaning may they present to the mind, unless we have a true idea of the laws or principles on which they are based. Our opinions and our conclusions will be almost inevitably formed fi'oni the nature of our education and surroundings : we shall view the IFmds ox God from the same natural stand-point that we do His Wmks ; and these, unless we are better instructed, will be from our sensmm perceptions, or from appearances of truth, rather than from its realities. The simple and untaught mind sees in the unclouded sun, and in the- smiling face of nature, an ideal picture of a pleased and benignant God ; but when the heavens are covered with clouds and darkness — when the storm and the whirlwind rage, the lightnings flash, and the thunder reverberates, it is at once thought that God is angry — that the lightnings are the flashes of His vengeful e^e, and the loud thunder the utterance of His angry voice. But a little research into the laws and phenomena of physical science dispels this illusion. We penetrate beyond the clouds which encompass us into the realms above them, and we find that there all is calm and undisturbed repose, and that the turbulence and violence we witnessed upon the earth was due to the state and condition of the earth itself ; it was, indeed, but the irruption of its own evils, or the ebullition of its own impurities. And so, in like manner, if we but ascended above those outer coverings, in which the love and wisdom of God are conveyed to man in His Word, we should in like manner see that although, on the mental earth, or from the plane of the earthy or natural mind, we might often see what appeared to be anger and wrath and fiery indignation, or the vindictive piiniHhnionts of a disploafwd and offended God ; yet, in their spirituai atniospliereR, or in those higher and elevated regions of the mind where those Divine truths are seen above (or within) the clouds of the letter, there are no such manifestations, no anger, no wrath, n.o vindictive emotions, nothing that savours of punishment or the infliction of torture ; but we should then see the Word of God in a clearer, purer, and truer light ; and the Lord would be revealed to us more nearly as He really is, i. e. as our Creator and re-creator. Saviour, restorer, healer, redeemer and benqfactor ; as our Father, our heavenly Father ; all merciful and ull-benignant, and seeking only to help us — do us good ind make us better : as having patience with us ; forbear- ing and loving ; and instead of inflicting punishment upon us for our mis- doings, or even our evil doings, as striving to reform us, and even save us as far as possible from the penalties which o\ir own evils were bringing upon us. Such would be the changed appearance in the aspect of our heavenly Father's face, as also of His revealed Word, when we behold it above the thick clouds in which its iraage has be^i enveloped in parsing through the earthy coverLigs oi *Iie human scribe to whom those revela- tions came. It is only whilst viewing the Lord through those misty veil- ings, those impure and perverted states of mind through which these re- velations passed, and in which they were enveloped, that they assumed those outward appearances ; and yet, it is from this tinctured and even tainted outward aspect that the Christian world has drawn all its ideas of the character, quality and disposition of the Creator towards His creatures ! knowing no more of His real and trite character than those untutored Indian tribes who " See God in clouds, and bear Him in the wind ;" only with this difference, that it cannot be said of them that " profess- ing themselves to be wise, they became fools." But although great advances have been made in the reading and understanding of the Book of Natvre, none have been made in reading and understanding the Word of God in Revelation. Thus, whilst the works of God are now viewed from the Newtonian stand-point. His WORDS are still read, as it were, from the Ptolemaic ; — the one are seen and read above the sensuous cloud ; the other, under it ; and, whilst the one presents real truths, the other presents only the appearance* of truth. How much this must be to the disadvantage of theologic lore ! Indeed there has been progress in everything but the understanding of the Scriptures. And, lost there should he progress there, nn iron wall has been built around thein, or rather round the interpretation which was put upon their meaning at a time of ignorance and semi-barbarism, which, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, is not allowed to be changed nor relaxed, however much it may be in antagonism to all the I'ecognised laws and principles of science and civilization, or of a true Scriptural exegesis. At the time when those iron walls were built within the Church, to define and limit the meaning of the language of Scripture, very low state of civilization prevailed, and they were constructed in accordance with it. The idea of government and law then was sanguinary, vin- dictive, and punitive ; the thought of reforming an offender had never occurred ; the only object contemplated was to punish him ; and that, too, but frequently, without mercy. Justine, or reason ! A loathsome dungeon, — the rack, the thumbscrews, or other mode of torture ; some- times even the cutting off a hand, or putting out an eye, — would be resorted to, to satisfy their idea of the demands of justice ! Or, if moved by some rude impulse to permit escape, how was it don j 1 Not by instruction or reformation ; — no : the law was absolute, — the penalty was stipulated ; — it was blood for blood — a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot, and life for life ! It mattered not U'hnse life, so that it was an equivalent, in their scales of judgment But the law (as they had made it) could only be satisfied by such a victim as should satisfy its demands. Hence it was not unfrequently the case that a guilty murdtrer \^ ould be set at large, by an innocent substitute suftering the punishment in his stead. Such a scene has been described in one of the leading periodicals of England, by a brutal ruffian being liberated on the occasion of an innocent person volunteering to suffer the penalty in his stead. When informed of it, we are told that " He held down his heati stupidly to receive the words, and he drew it back again, incredulous and astounded. Oh, what a secret he had learned for future government and conduct ! What a friend and abettor in his fight against mankind had he found in the law of his land ! He looked the thing he was — a tiger, caught and fastened in his den ! Could it do less than chill the blood, and make the heart grow sick and faint, to see the bolts drawn back, the noose loosed again, and turned unchained, untamed, fiercer than ever, into life Again," * to renew his depredations upon society % This was the rude * Blackwood' a Magazine for September, 1843. burbarism of the Pagan world, and it was as connnon to Jew as it was to Oentile. 8till, it was into these organic fon>i8, or vicious states of mind, that the Word of the Lord, in coming to man, necessarily de- scended, and in which it became clothed in external expression, — so that its outer crust, or literal covering, could only be formed of such words as were there to clothe it with ; hence that external or literal sense so often presents an aspect of vindictiveness, cruelty, and arbitrary and despotic power, utterly irreconcilable with those higher standards and nobler aui truer sentiments and principles which are revealed in other places, where the hereditary vessels were less corrupt, or less sternly moulded. Indeed it was uecessaiy that the Divine truth should be clothed in such coverings, to adapt it fo reception at hU ; as, had it been given in its naked integrity, no one would have received it, for it would not have been comprehended by any one ; for, if the people were incapable of understanding natural and scientific truths, how much less could they have understood spiritual and heavenly ones, which wera so far above their gross comprehensions ] Still the truths were there, however deeply hidden ; and they only awaited the time to come when the covering could be removed, that they might be revealed in their spirit and their life. But then, and for many centuries afterwards, they were adapted to the low and sensuous states of those to whom they were given ; and it was whilst this state of ignorance and feudal barbarism still continued, that those iron wall» were erected around these sensuous appearances, in the forms of Creeds, ConfessionSf and Dogmas of Faith, which have stereotyped those inter- pretations of Scripture in the standards of an age which we now regard as benighted, barbarous, sanguinary and vindictive. Had they been able, there is no doubt but that the Church would have bound the astro- nomical systf m of Ptolemy in the same iron chains as they had done the 'language of ficripture ; but that they could not do ; and the consequence is, that we are living at this day in an erUightened age of Science, and in a benighted age of Tlieology! And the one, in discovering and revealing the inconsistencies of the other, is rending and tearing it to pieces ! In this way the Church has retained a dogma utterly at variance with the advance and progress of all the civilized and enlightened nations of the earth ; for the violated law does not now require the punishments or tor- ments of those who have offended it, to satisfy its justice, any more than they do a substitute to suffer them instead of the guilty. But though they properly desire to protect society from further injury, they clearly set?- that thia is more effectually acoomplinhed by the reformalioti of the offender than by any amount of punishment or torture they might be able to inflict. Henc instead of these, those who are confined in prisons now, are not put into gloomy dungeons and manacled in chains, as a means of ex- piating their offence, or to pay for the injury they have inflicted, but they are guarded and protected and prevented from doing further injury, and so instructed and trained as, if possible, to make them better men ; they are taught a trade, and they learn to work at it, so that they ma^ not be again exposed to such temptations to ciime as they hod been before, from inability to earn a living. They have a chaplain, who- attends to their religious and moral improvement, and they have the use of a library of instructive books ; thus the end aimed at is their reclamation and reformation, and not their punishment or torment. And how different is this from the idea which the Churcli entertains^ that those who have offended against the Divine laws must, in o"der to satisfy the Divine justice, he cast by the Lord into hell, to suffer everlastinr; punishment ; or, as otherwise expressed, " he cast into eternal torments, and be punished tvith everlasting destruction." (Conf. of Faith, ch. 33.) Regarded in this light, simply as a means of satisfying, or appeasing, or atoning for an offence, by suffering so much pain as a means of liquidating it, it grates upon the sensitive nerves of every tender feeling, it is repugnant to every noble and elevated sentiment of humanity, and shockingly abhorrent to those purer and truer ideas of God (as our heavenly Father) which are so distinctly revealed in those Scriptures which are less veiled by the sanguinary law of " lex talionis," but in which He is made known to us as God the Consoler, God the Comforter, and God the All-merciful, entreating and pleading with man to cease to do evil and learn to do well ; to repent and put away his transgressions, so that iniquity might not be his ruin. Thus He says, " I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." There is nothing of vindictiveness in the Divine mind. God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, and the idea of a relentless justice that knows neither love nor mercy (as well as being exorbitant in its demands), is not only utterly inconsistent with i., but an impossibility in the Divine character. It is but a remnant of Paganism, which in the dark ages was attempted to be welded into Christianity, together with other super- 8 Htitions. Nor do the words of our text, even on their outward literal surface, convey the idea of the wicked being punished by Qod (much ]c88 tormented by Him) to satisfy or expiate their offences. We read indeed that thoy shall go away into punishment, but it is not said tfuit Ood would inflict the punishment upon them. In the Divine economy, punish- ments arc the consequences that grow out of the violation of the Divine laws, whether natural or spiritual, just as pain and suffering are punish- ments that result from disobedience to the laws of health, and mental pain and anguish of mmd are occasioned by acts of wrong-doing ; they are not imposed or injiicted as a punishment for having done wrong, but the tviongdoing itself produces them. In many cases this is clearly seen ; but when th'^ cause is not seen or known, then men have attributed it to an arbitrary act of Ood, as they have but too often witnessed it to be an arbitrary act on the part of man. But in the words of our text, punish- ment is only very remotely implied ; the Greek word translated "punish- ment," is ** Kolasin,*' which strictly and literally means cutting of, removing and separating from ; as a person would cut off and separate dead limbs or «xcrescences from his fruit trees. It means a separating and removing, as the tares are separated from the wheat, or the goats from the sheep. The righteous are represented as going to life, and the wicked to being cut off from life — thus to be dead in sin, and each to I'eceive the recom- pense it produces. Punishment in such case undoubtedly results, but it is the punishment tJie evil itself engenders. The idea of arbitrarily imposed or inflicted punishment, torment, or torture is entirely fictitious, and utterly repugnant to the Divine character. Nor is there, or can there be, any ground for sympathy or compassion for those so alienated, separated or removed ; or regret that it should be so ; for it is not only inevitable, but of mercy, that such a separation should be made. The welfare and the happiness of the good requires it, and the wicked themselves are but removed to the society and companionship of those who are like themselves ; and however dis- tressing and miserable their lot may be, it is nevertheless of their own choice, and they can have no cause of complaint. The wild beasts that live in the jungle neither complain nor awaken pity in the breasts of the peaceful and gentle who are separated from them. The slimy reptiles of the deep could not be supposed to awakt^ a feeling of regret, or disturb the complacency either of those cleanei* animals which cleave the waters above them, or of the warbling songwriters of the upp**r air. Nor WauHe tho warnlering Arab, thn foaming Indian, or the predatory invadeni of uur douieatic comfort, noek their congenial HMociates amid their own haunta, or in the filthy purlieuR of their own choice, harasaed as they may be by thoae of kindred natures who may prey upon them, need we be troubled with anxiety for their welfare, or difK^aieted by fears lest their punishment should be unduly protracted or severe. No ; not even though the safety and welfare of the peaceable and the good, should require that \ey be restrained, or confined, as is often found necessaiy to be done in civilized society, to protect thoae who might be exposed to their depredations. It is undoubtedly a benevolent wish to hope that they might not always be so malignant, vindictive, and dangerous ; and it would be just as amiable to hope that the tiger might, at Kome time in the future, be less sanguinary, fierce, and cruel, or the serpent less venomous ; but it might be as vain and impossible as for the Ethiopian to change his skin, or the leopard his spots. If those now living in the hells could at any time change their habits, character, or disposition — or rather, if they might ever desire to do so— it would have been done where so many and so much more favour- able opportunities were afforded them of doing it ; i. e., whilst they yet lived upon the earth, where every opportunity was given them for knowing what was right from what was wrong, and of shunning evil and doing good, if they had desired to do so. But they did not so detir9f but preferred to prey upon others, knowing it was wrong to do so; and, instead of cultivating those kindly feelings which minister to the happi- ness of others, they cherished no other sentiment than " Evil, be thou my good." And when, after death, they went to their like in the spiritual world, mingling with those of kindred propensities and dispositions, and surrounded as they must then be with those of the same deprared habits and passions, the only conclusion that could possibly be arrived at must be, that they would only be more and more confirmed in their evil life ! Then it must inevitably be true, that he that was unjust would be unjust still, and he that was filthy would be filthy still ; and they would desire that it should be so ! These, therefore, will be separated, cut off and removed to their like, for ever, into kolasin r Union, ^ he New o'clock, e also is