Oct. 1, 1865. 66 connected with sonship. We are told effect. Therefore it is by faith, that it to count the cost lest we should not might be by grace, to the end the proendure to the end, but turn back in the mise might be sure to all the seed." day of trial. We are called on for the (Rom. iv. 13-16.) exercise of self-denial, and to take up "And because ye are sons, God hath the cross-for the crucifixion of our sent forth the Spirit of His Son into affections and renunciation of earthly your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. goods, or friends, if they stand in the Wherefore thou art no more a servant, way of following Christ-or we cannot but a son; and if a son, then an heir of be His disciples. Therefore the latter God through Christ." This shows that part of Rom. viii. 17 does not deduct a servant's is a distinct standing from from the unanswerable force and clear- that of sons, as here he passes from the ness of the first part which we quoted, state of a servant into that of a son. All but was added to show us that if we had sons are servants of God, and are somenot suffered we could not be sons, and times called servants in Scripture. But had not "entered in by 'the door,' but servants are not sons, as we have proof had climbed up some other way." (Rev. in the above, though they may become iii. 19; Matt. x. 34-39. so; or they may, as the one in Luke The young ruler had a cross laid be- xii., "begin to beat the men servants, fore him, but he refused to take it up. and maidens, &c., &c., be cut in sunder Balaam refused to bear the cross imposed (or off) and their portion be appointed on him. The thief on the cross, though with unbelievers." Mr. G. adds, "though he only laid hold of Christ a few hours a believer," but gives no proof, though before his death, may have been under he demands it from others. It is an much discipline, and may have suffered astounding assertion, and we have Scrip. crucifixion of the flesh before he suffered ture proof, that he could not represent a crucifixion of the body. At any rate he believer, but a mere nominal servant. had a promise of being with Christ in Whosoever committeth sin is the serParadise. Now he had no time for good vant of sin." "He that committeth sin works, and had done bad ones. As for is of the devil. Whosoever is born of God his being separated from Christ after- doth not commit sin, for His seed rewards, let any one give a clear text for maineth in him, and he cannot sin such. Rom. viii. 32 to 39 is decidedly because he is born of God. In this the against it, and also "Him that cometh children of God are manifest, and the to me (which the thief did) I will in no children of the devil." "By their fruits wise cast out." ye shall know them. A good tree cannot But there are two more texts on suffer- bring forth evil fruit. Every tree that ing which are very decisive and quite bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn settle the point. "Whom the Lord down and cast into the fire." In the loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth above we have full proof that the servant every son whom He receiveth." He re- in the parable cannot represent a beceived the thief, so he must have had his liever or child of God, but a child of the portion. "If ye be without chastisement devil, and so not even saved. What is whereof all (God's children who are the portion of unbelievers? "The fearknown to Him from eternity) are par- ful and unbelieving (in Christ, not his takers, then are ye bastards and not second coming, which that servant sons." The above proves that sufferings showed himself by his conduct) shall are sure to all the sons, either before or have their part (with murderers, &c.) in after their adoption. "And if sons, then the lake which burneth with fire and joint heirs with Christ. If ye be Christ's brimstone." "Strait is the gate and narrow then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs is the way which leadeth unto life, and according to the promise. The promise few there be that find it." Mr. Govett that he should be the heir of the world reverses that and gives life to manifest was not made to Abraham or his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs faith is made void and the promise made of none servants of sin, but narrows the way to heaven, as though not both to be gained the same way-"by faith purifying the heart." We hope it will be seen by the above Yours truly, A READER OF THE RAINBOW." ANSWER TO C. L. DEAR SIR,-It seems to me that the answer to "C. L."'s question should be as follows:- Oct. 1, 1865. THE RAINBOw to come to a conclusion upon it. I feel as if it would be better now if we could all join in praying God to give us by His Holy Spirit more light and understanding. If I was among those who deny the doctrine of "rewards to the saints," I would feel great difficulty in arguing with you; but having admitted that doctrine-nay, asserted it and proved it from Scripture, I turn the edge of nearly all your Scripture quotations by referring them to varied places in the kingdom, 1. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are to instead of exclusion from it. I think inherit the earthly land. "All the land also that every such question as that which thou seest to thee will I give it." before us is to be settled by the affirma(Gen. xiii. 15). "I am the Lord that tion of the foundation principle-the brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, doctrine of God's free grace-which to give thee this land to inherit it." brings salvation and all connected with Then came the covenant, and the specifi- it. We must not set up any doctrine, cation of the land as included between or seck to set aside any by adducing the Nile and the Euphrates. (Gen. xv. 7, 18-21. So says the New Testament also-"By faith Abraham called to go out into the place which he was about to receive as an inheritance obeyed. Isaac and Jacob were heirs of the same promise." (Heb. xi. 8, 9.) "But none have as yet enjoyed it." (Acts vii. 6.) 2. But Abraham's desires and his promises did not end there. He looked for the city of God; and that is to be placed only in a heavenly country. (Heb. xi. 10.) He was a stranger and pilgrim on the earth, moving onwards towards the heaven. (13-16.) Both lands then belong to the patriarchs. that texts of doubtful or disputed application. We bring forward plain and distinct Scriptures proving a certain truth, and then, taking that truth as settled and fixed, we go to difficult or doubtful scriptures-e., scriptures of doubtful application-with the assurance whatever they may mean, they cannot mean anything contrary to the already fixed truth. This, I think, will take out of your hand all the scripture quotations which you have not already lost by my previous suggestion-viz., their application to a settling of places in the kingdom rather than to any exclusion from it. There is no point of truth more clearly Abraham has two seeds and two cities. affirmed by the word of God, than that He has an earthly seed, like the sand of on which I take my stand--salvation the sea shore; and its city is the earthly entirely of grace and not of works. The Jerusalem. He has a seed too, the risen saved one is the "man in Christ,” he is a from the dead, as the stars of the sky,"new creation;" having believed in and their centre is the heavenly Jerusalem, He enjoys the first blessing during the millennium only; the other after that is Yours truly, past. MATHEETEES. DR. BELL TO MR. GOVETT. DEAR BROTHER IN CHRIST,-Though earnest for truth, I am not anxious for victory, and do not, therefore, desire to say much in reply to your letter. Much has been already written on the subject --perhaps enough to enable each reader of Christ, he has received "the forgiveness of sins," has been "justified from all things," has received "everlasting life." Do not think me, my dear sir, wanting in respect towards you, if I decline to go through your letter more in detail. I desire to love you in the Lord, and I honour your faithfulness to your own convictions, whilst I cannot help but acknowledge your marked and wellknown ability; but I must hold by this simple and explicit view of God's truth, and ask you how it can be that a forgiven man-a justified man-one who has received everlasting life in union with the risen Christ, who is head of the whole body-how that man is to be sent into penal servitude for a thousand years? It would be a strange inconsistency indeed for the man to be for a thousand years separated from his Lord, after he had read so often that "when He who is Tynemouth. T. GEORGE BELL. Wednesday Evenings at Literature. Cavendish The Lamb of God. A Sacred Poem in Chapel. Homiletic Hints. By JOSEPH | Twelve Books. By SAMUEL HIRST. PARKER, D.D. London: Frederick London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. Pitman, 21, Paternoster row. MR. HIRST is a stern logician and a IF this be a specimen of Dr. Parker's vigorous writer, very orthodox, and too "Hints," taken by short-hand writers, dogmatic. He is a man of masculine his finished discourses, written by his thought and real power, and has here own hand, must be something worth discoursed of some of the great things of hearing. The book is eminently one of theology in blank verse. The method of thought, and thought too, which is ex- the poem is: "To furnish a general outquisitely clear. There is no fog or mist line of the scope of the sacred Scriptures, about our author's meaning; he sees his an epitome, as it were, of Revelation; own ideas sharply and fully, and sets and, at the same time, to offer a general them before you in a blaze of light. If exposure of the abuses, errors, contrarieyou don't see them too, be assured he is ties of opinion and doctrine, and pracnot to blame. There is no eloquence tical inconsistencies which the various like sacred eloquence, and here it flashes sections of the outward and nominal and leaps upon us from time to time Church of Christ so flagrantly evince; with all the case and gracefulness of free and, finally, to employ such arguments speech from a rich mental fountain and as may, under Divine grace, lead mana warm Christian heart. There is no kind, in unity of spirit, and in the bond visible connection between these dis- of peace, to combine together for the courses except that which the book- promotion of their common interests binder has effected, the author passing against all the powers of darkness, who by from the Fifty-first Psalm to the third an invisible, mighty, and indefatigable Epistle of John, and from that to the agency, are perpetually labouring for First Book of Samuel, and then to the their everlasting destruction and perdiRomans. The fifth has neither text nor tion." title, though it is a piece of golden| speech; the sixth deals with words from Luke, the seventh is away among the records of the Exodus, the eighth picks THE assayer, the potter, and the tin and a gem from the 119th Psalm. and so of iron works, are the subjects upon which the remaining three. The "Indepen- the writer of this pamphlet makes his dent" walks at liberty; but everywhere remarks. These remarks are very excelhe speaks both to the head and the heart of his hearers. Thanks, Dr. Parker, for a specimen of Wednesday Evenings at Cavendish Chapel! Turn your attention, we pray you, to the coming King and kingdom, and enlighten and gladden your hearers with the approaching glory! Light on Scripture in Daily Walks. lent, such as experienced Christians, the subjects of Divine grace, will appreciate and enjoy. There is nothing here of the rapid sentimentalism of the day, which goes with many for Christian teaching; but solid utterances which have the right ring about them, and tend to strengthen and purify the soul. The essential doctrines of the school of theology, to which the writer belongs, are dear to our hearts; but, to our view, all who hold the election of grace should also hold the pre-millennial advent. These doctrines are inseparable companions in Scripture. We commend the refreshing little book. By Spiritualism and Other Signs. Oct. 1, 1865. The Perils of the Young Man. A Lecture delivered before the Oswestry Literary Institute. With Alterations and Additions. By the Rev. George CUTHBERT, B.A., Curate of Oswestry. Price Fourpence. Oswestry: Lewis and Owen, the Library. pertinent and profitable remarks. Looking close at society, he sees "social confusion;" things get worse instead of better; and everything points to the speedy advent of Jesus. Mr. Cuthbert's admirable lecture concludes thus :— WE hail a faithful watchman in Mr. Cuthbert. He has spoken the thing that is right, in the right spirit. The perils against which he so earnestly warns his audience are the open infidelity, the concealed infidelity, the secularism, the SPIRITUALISM, Romanism, and infidelity indifferentism, the indecision, the reare doing their destructive work among ligiousness, the restlessness, the licenus, and those who, like the earnest tiousness, the pleasure-loving, and the author of this volume, see in them signs business-loving character of the day. of the approaching close of our dispensa- Under each of these heads there are tion, are just the persons to deal with them effectually, and to expose their pernicious character in the light of inspired prophecy. "When particular evils," says the preface, "press hard upon the mind of a Christian, filling the heart with pity and sorrow regarding the results of such evils, it may be taken as "This dispensation truly is elective, and the an evidence that he is to be used to raise stream of life runs narrow compared with the ocean of life, and light, and love which shall a voice of warning against what is pro- overflow the world; but even the election is a curing wholesale delusion, defilement, multitude no man can number; and every and destruction." We like this senti- soul that is gathered in, only adds to that ment much; it gave birth to the book living body, and hastens thus that glorious before us, and in the chequered history day, when every member being complete in HIM, and the happy number all accomplished, of the Church it has called forth many HE, the living HEAD of the living body, in who have been valiant for the truth. answer to the Spirit's cry, 'Come' "E. S." quotes largely from a great come-to frown away for ever all the evil of number of sources, and the accumulated this evil day, and to smile into regenerated testimony is a demonstration that this being a lost and ruined world! If, therefore, we would wish to see Creation's groan hushed, wicked delusion is playing havoc, espe- and the church's tears dried, and all the hincially among the worldly well-to-do. drance to the spread of gospel truth removed, Spiritualism, or necromancy, is forcibly and the mouth of all iniquity stopped, and the said by our author to be Satan's counter-name of JESUS for ever honoured and adored, feit for Christianity, "as affording all and GOD's blessed will done on earth as it is in heaven, let us each and all occupy as HE enthat satisfaction of soul which can really ables-pressing on ourselves to meet HIM in and only be found in Christ." Among in the air, and bringing with us all that we other witnesses, our friends, Messrs can reach to meet HIM too! For what is Maude and Rees, have been sum- a Christian but a man saved to save!-saved moned, and their testimony, extracted and separated and dedicated in the name of from THE RAINBOW, looks as well the LORD JESUS, and by the Spirit of our Gon, to save and separate, and dedicate others in in our eyes as any other part of the same name, and by the same Spirit! Oh, the volume. Indeed, Mr. Maude's for what was all the humiliation of Bethlehem, cogent arguments that spiritualism is demonology cannot be refuted. We thank "E. S." for the zeal and diligence by which these writers for the truth have been brought together; and we hope the book will do something to check this fearful evil. shall the scorn of Nazareth, the agony of Gethsemane, the blood of Calvary, the life of Olivet-if it were not that we might live for HIM who died for us, and rose for us, and lives for us, and comes for us! "Come then, and added to thy many crowns, Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, Thou who alone art worthy." THE RAINBOW: A Magazine of Christian Literature, with Special Reference to the Rebealed Future of the Church and the World. NOVEMBER 1, 1865. THE PRECEDENCE OF EVENTS. [T is always desirable to have a clear view of the order of prophetic remark applies especially to the removal or rapture of the Church. Some writers have placed a number of events between the present moment and the removal of the Church. Some have asserted that the Church is not to be removed until a certain length of time after the league, which is to be made between the Jews and the future Antichrist. These opinions seem to be quite contrary to the mind of God as it is revealed in Scripture, though we are sure that such a contradiction was not intentional on the part of those writers. It is the will of God that we should be always looking for "His Son from heaven;" and this would be impossible if other events were to occur before the translation of the Church. I speak, of course, of prophetic events only, not of the ordinary events of history. The 12th chapter of Revelation gives us the order or precedence of events in what appears to be the most decisive manner. There is no chapter in the Bible clearer than that chapter, and none more interesting and wonderful. It has long ago been decided by the best authorities that the 12th chapter does not follow the 11th in point of time. The 12th is a SYNCHRONISM; it synchronises with the beginning of the prophecy in the 4th chapter. In other words, it gives us a history of events parallel to those recorded from chapter four to chapter eleven inclusive. Indeed, it is self-evident that the visions which begin at chapter twelve cannot follow chapter eleven in point of time, for chapter eleven runs on to the end and leaves no room for chapter twelve. The 12th chapter begins with exhibiting to us a woman in heaven, CROWNED. Let us observe that she is both in HEAVEN and CROWNED. But the Jews are God's people F F |