The Newtown bee., 1908-05-29

ings revealed his expectation of this
 event. The Thessalonians were told to
 keep quiet in the matter but the day of
 the Lord was at hand and those who
 had fallen on sleep would come out of
 their graves to welcome Christ's second
 coming and those alive would be caught
 up in the air to meet and greet him.
 The book of Revelation is vision of
 imperialistie imagination and is about
 a city completely constructed coming
 down out of the skies to settle securely
 on the earth and it is to arrive along
 with the second coming of Christ and
 the book ends with the cry to the Lord
 Jesus ito come quickly"
 Now and here is the point. Almost
 all we have come to consider as the
 character of heaven and hell and judg-
 ment and the nature of the things to
 come is taken from this imperialistic
 idea of the Jews. It was a pure de-
 fusion on their part. It has been mis-
 leading to us and furnished most of
 the foolish fancies of the future state,
 reinforced by Milton and Dante. Christ
 is never coming in the clouds. The
 throne of David is never to be set up
 on earth. New Jerusalem never will
 be. The millennium is only a myth.
 Resurrection is never going to be a sudden simultaneous affair of all. There is never to be an arbitrary, all at once, division of souls into sheep and goat focks. Heaven is never going to be city with pearly gates and golden streets. Hell, the successor of Gehen- na, the garbage crematory of ancient Jerusalem, is never to be restored and repeated God has no place of torture prepared. Every penalty in the uni verse is reformative. Character is heaven and so is hell and Judgment. We shall never be punished for our sins but by our sins. Salvation is free dom from sin, not sparing penalty. God Almighty will not, nay, cannot, and be Himself, prevent the result, that whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap. The parable of Dives and Lazarus is the Jewish con- ception of the intermediate state be- tween death and the coming of the Messiah to set up his reign and rule. Physical death does not produce spiritual crisis. We shall never get in- to heaven where holiness is automatic. We never shall be held in any hell if we are sincerely sorry for our sins. Is 1t safe to die in our sins? Sin tends towards fixity of character and the fearful thing is that some souls become past feeling and hearts have no hunger and thirst after righteousness. What IS their end? Is it annihilation by the self suicide of sin? That is too awful for me to imagine but the freedom of the will is an awful responsibility. Will all wandering prodigal souls come to themselves at last and return to the loving Father? l cannot help hoping so, but oh, the cruel cost and pathetic pity for soul to be a swine herder and starving on husks.
 While we cannot conceive of any sort | of justice that would permit a person to be punished through all eternity for any sort of sin even 80 years in extent, the universe ever echoes the injunction of the Hebrew prophet, Say to the righteous. 1t shall be well with him woe to the wicked, it shall be i'll with | him." Any man who would pc saved only through hell is not worth saving. That would be sheer selfshness and there is no salvation save from selfish ness, Whichis the supreme sin. Eter- nal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom ne hath sent. He that hath eternal life comeuh not into iudg- ment but hath passed out of death in. to life. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. Immortality is the oual- ity of existence of the soul not it's quantity of existence. It is living not lasting. Resurrection commences now as truly as it will ever commence and is continuous process. We are only to be anxious about knowing the power of Christ's resurrection and being risen with him hereto walk in the newness of life seeking those things which are above. The future life will be fitted to our needs for our Father is not cruel or careless. The longing of our soul will be satisfied for our Father loves us infinitely. What the other life will be in description or detail doth not yet ap- pear. We shall know each other there if we know ourselves there.
 T dimly guess from blessings known
 Of greater out of sight, ' And with the chastened Psalmist, own
 His judgments too are right. long for household voices gone
 For vanished smiles I long, | But God hath led my dear ones on
 And he can do no wrong.
 know not what the future hath
 Of marvel or surprise,
 Assured alone that life and death
 His mercy underlies.. tt know not where his islands lift
 Their fronded palms in air;
 only know cannot drift
 Revond His love and care "