The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-02-04
THE UNIVBRsALIsT QUARTERLY,
JANUARY, 1888.

uary quarterly, was read before the
Minister'S Institute in this city last
April, and those who heard it on that
occasion will be glad to have the care
fully prepared paper in permanent
form. We can give no abstract of it
that would be at all satisfactory to our
readers, or that would do justice to the
carefully taken and well guarded posi-
lions of the writer. DR.. Cone examines
the various passages heretofore re-
garded as Old Testament prophecies Of
Christ, and declares them, in the light
of historical Interpretation, as having
no relation to the personal Christ of the
New Testament. They were local and
particularistic utterances of seers and
prophets who bore the burden of the
Jewish nationality on their hearts, and
whose teachings we're, in their primary
sense, restricted to the coming of the
Servant of Jehovah for the political and
material benefits of their own nation.
" Prophecy" he says, presents two
distinct and even opposed phases
political, material and particularistic,
and spiritual, religious and universal
istic phase on the one hand a Jewish
kingdom, on the ether the Kingdom of
God" 1t is only when the wider scope
of prophecy is considered and the uni
versal principles of the Kingdom of God
become it's burden that we are author
lied to associate the Christ of the New
Testament with these ancient oracles.
But, as we understand DR.. Cone, even
in this general sense there is no pre-
diction of the personal Christ in the
Old Testament. 1t is only as Christ is
seen to fulfill in Himself the ideal of
the ancient prophets-only as He is the
best representative of the ancient hope
and consolation of Israel when moving
on the highest prophetic plane-that
we are authorized to believe in Him as
the fulfllment of the ancient prophecies.
DR.. Cones closing paragraph may
furnish further clue to the general
trend of his paper-one, we may add,
which is sure not to pass unchallenged
in our own church; nor will it escape
the attention of critical scholars in
other denominations:
We have seen how the servant of Jah-
veh in the great prophet of the exile was
the embodiment of the religious hope of
Israel, and it was by way of very nat
ural application that Christ said to his
apostles, 81 say unto you that this that is
written must yet be accomplished in me,
'and he was reckoned among the trans
gressors,' for with me also it is coming to
an end" This indicates a similarity of
fortunes, but the quotation is not made
as if it were regarded as prediction. Paul
declared that Christ was " the end of the
law" the such he was so far as all that
was merely ceremonial, particularistic
and national in it was concerned. But
in relation to the universal, the religious
and the divine in it, he may oe said to be
its beginning, since in him the law and
the prophets in this sense first found
their true interpreter and were in the
only valid and essential sense first and
forever fulfilled.
Article II this issue of the Quarterly
is "Christ the Precipitation of Sin," by
Rev. j. S. Lee, ID. D. 1t is mainly
directed against the idea that the death
of Christ was to the end that God
might be rendered more propitious or
kindly disposed toward the sinner
against all forms of Calvanistic thought
on this subject. These are substantially
Pagan. God loves now and has always
loved mankind. The contrary view,
which is embodied in the creeds and
which is at the base of the common
view of Precipitation, Indicates tickle
ness and changeability in God which
are totally at variance with his charac-
ter" The sufferings and death of
Christ are discussed, and it is shown
how, without resorting to the Calvan-
istic view for the significance of these
sufferings, Jesus suffered for US. His
Precipitation is MAYNARD; not with ref
erence to God.
In Article III Rev. Jacob Mortified
presents a paper on Theology as a
read before the Minis
ters' Institute. The writer argues
in favor of a natural as opposed to a
supernatural theology, apparently OBJ
livious to the fact that the trend of the
theology as it apprOximates scientific
basis, is in the direction of a broaden
ing out of the natural" so as to in
volYe and include what we now term
the supernatural" 1t is not the SUI
pernatural that will give way in the ad-
vance of theology, for this will remain
the constant element in religion so long
as God exists to give force and valid
ity to all his laws.
Article ~ by Rev. E. l.. Briggs,
1.-The Existence and Nature of Spirit"
is a thoughtful and valuable article,
but embodies conclusions which will
not be generally accepted, especially as
to the Identification of the principle Of
with the animating life of
plants and animals outside of man.
In Article V Rev. r. o. Williams