The New York herald., 1878-11-10
SUNDAY -QUADRUPLE SUPPLEMENT-


spiritual character so that His own disciples did not
know Him; and that really rodeemer in body Of
His own is not so near, so known loved re-
deemer dwelling by His spirit within each human
heart Yet more the result of this bodily presence is
that His presence will be absorbed by His elect: that
instead of being the salt Of the earth and the light
of the world they will be separated from the work
of saving men, result always seen to be grad
ually acted upon by those who come TO adopt
dation of this theory Is the very material
ism that shuts out spiritual God as the
Creator from the scientists view. which blinds the
wording to His moral rule and which is apt 10
betray .evangeliss into the of cxpedients and
novelties to draw crowds IN spasmodic efforts TO
make temporary impression on the worldly, when
they retire for personal spiritual growth leaving men
of different view to persstenty cultivate the plants
pushed to termination so rapid that they wilt III the
suns heat become unfruitful amid the harder
thorns and tares
Third-The very essence of the Gospel teaching OF
Christ is that His reign is spiritual. and that in this
respect it the fulflment of all promised and
cannot be succeeded therefore, by a third. which
shall be but repetition of the first material system
of the Jewish Church The effort or Jesus ana or HIS
apostles to correct all such material conceptions
ments of Jesus and Of His apostles-for the connec-
tons of words for spiritual truth. not the words
alone, show their meanng-must recognize TINS.
The words which address the senses, as .'see.
appear reveal &c.--among which are the
three Quoted Dy DR. Iyng appearanGS h nr
Gordon. and regeneration by DR. lmbrie-al these
words refer to spiritual conceptions when applied
by Christ to His spiritual work. The word ''regene-
ration in Matthew. XIX 2s is purely spiritual as in
Titus. ill., 5; for Christ says. "Ye which have followed
in the regeneration" referring to His work in
which He had been. and they to be- engaged. In
Matthew twenty-fourth and twenty fifth chapters the
questions are asked and the visible sign of each
the destruction of the Temple txxiv 81. Cbrists
ing and the end of the word-and the answer Is clear
Christ comes in Providence in clouds. &c III to
3l all of which to come to pass in that genera
ton (3D Christ comes by spiritual influence on
men txxv. AZ. to xxy. 30). and men shonld be fond
Of this spiritual influence and have their lamps and
the Of their talents devoted to His spiritual
vice. Christ comes at the final judgment !xxiv 81
live like Christ to "go about doing good
and to .seek and save that which was
Marx and L9ae rsPat tness oossr tsan
denial that He was to have material reign. as His
questioners supposed The point of His permanent
thought is. THE kingdom Of God is within you. an
idea which an American appreciates when foreigners
seeing no soldiery, ask:-"why. where is your gov
ernment 2? question which makes vivid to any spir
itual Christian the real reign Of Christ compared
with the unreal reign Of sovereign in ermine and in
q chariot.
But these do not close Christ's teaching Thirty
years after the apostles had written under Nero ff
teen years after John had written the apocalypse
Revelation, when materalistc interpretations of
Chrss necessarily gurative statements were leading
to and injury John was prompted TO add state
ments of Christ for which previous generation was
not prepared so gross was the spirit OF the age
Christ tells Nicodemus Dill. - that man must be
born again in order to ..see the kingdom or
material BIRTH Christ tells the woman OF
samaria that God is spirit" and the
not conceive that the Messiah appear in Jerusalem
on Mount Gerism and among all nations at the same
time Christ explained directly the nature of the first
resurrection spiritual and of the second bodily
before the Apocalypse written; though he left his
servant John to report his statement after that writ
ing in these words W., 10y Verify, verify say
unto you, the hour is coming and now Is when the
dead shall hear the voice OF the Son of God. and
they that hear shall live which is certainly his
spiritual resurrection referred to in all the gospels and
epistles before written by apostles. He adds Mar
vel not at this for the hour is coming in the which
all that in the graves shall near his voice and
shall FORTH. and this is the bodily appearing Of
His people when He shall in bodily form appear. In
the sixth. the eleventh. indeed in almost every chap
ter Of john the effort Of Christ is to correct ma
eralisc conceptions the crowning effort being made
in His last addrcsschapters xiv to xvi He Is going
prepare mansions and will come again, Of course
at the death of each disciple. He lis going often
He speaks Of it because t is better for them better
because the Comforter will take His place; better
because though having ''been so long time with
them." they had never 'known" Him. better because
the Comforter as He said will take the things Of
mine and shew them unto you for he shall bring all
things to your remembrance that have said. and
shall lead you into all truth" better because He
twill reprove''-i really convince "the world OF
sin. Of Righteousness and Of Judgment, better be-
Twill unto and abide with you better because
when He He twill abide with you forever"
though "the Son abideth not forever. Any Thought
| full reader must that John has in mind all the
objections to the theory of material reign of Christ
which we have considered and perhaps many Others
when John wrote had already existed for two genera
tons the best Of reigns and therefore perpetual
FourM-The history Of the pre-mlennial theory
throws doubt the fact whether II leads to 'un
derstandng" Of the Apocalypse. In the very age Of
John the Apostle materalism had entered the Church
| under the guise of ethereal Platonic idealism.
which by denying that Christ had come in the flesh
and implying thus that true Christians ethere
allied in body as to be above sensual Impressions had
! led to the most abominable sensuality This Is re-
ferred to by John in the Apocalypse e. A. 15); yet
later in his epstles II. John. T. 2: III. John, sect
led by Cernthus in the second century was betrayed
into it, early in the third century the idea Of literal
Thousand years. of Christs bodily reign grew up.
| and 1t was met by Caus. Roman presbyter. alluded
to by Dr. Hitchcock, Of the Presbyterian Church.
Gently who referred the pre-mennial theory to the
OF Cerinthus az its basis and showed its oppos
| tion to Johns teaching At later period the one
| thousand years was regarded a. referring TO tho
| His birth and supposed to end with
| A. d. 1000, and thousands of enthusiastic
believers hocked to Palestine where it was supposed
Christ would appear and where they all died of famine
or by Mohammedan brutality. Yet again, early after
| the English and German Reformation. stepping
stone to modern interpretations. Mode. Of England.
Revelation n6th to 18th chapters) refers to the
Roman Church. This latter suggestion Grotius, the
founder of the science Of international law fully
piled TO. showing that II was the civic power of Rome.
arrayed against Christ against His apostles and
then against Christians at large that John in his day
referred to- The first suggestion led to the calcula-
bodily appear in 1885, then, OF Deacon Miller of ver
mont, that He would appear in 1913: then. of Cum
mings. now in London, that He would appear either
in 1867 or in 1881. The present Interpretation is
rctcent to past failures. It be viewed in the
light above sated-rst, that spiritual truth must he
stated under material images; second that Christs
bodily presence cannot accomplish the end supposed;
third that Christ stndiously forbade such interprca
tons and fourth that Church history proves It unre
liable. G. W. SAMSON.
NEW YoRK Nov. g. 1878.
RELIGIOUS LUXURIES IN EUROPE.
To THE Eprron THE HERALD
was much surprised by reading in Sundays
hat t1,ara har1 To- orI,trr tn, Ers~r