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THE LIBRARIES

Bequest of

Frederic Bancroft

1860-1945

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AURA CLAIRE SHOWERS.

IRev, Hura Claire ©bowers,

A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
BY HIS WIFE,

r

TOGETHER WITH

RIBUTES BY MINISTERIAL BRETHREN.

TO WHICH IS ADDED A TREATISE ON
THE DOCTRINE OF

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT

AND OTHER UNPUBLISHED
MANUSCRIPTS.

■

0 i i -

i pyiiLigrtBD jy . ■
ri. D. VV. Showers, Oil Citv, Pa.,

13$. C

PUBLISHING HOUSE OF

THE EARNEST CHRISTIAN ,

NORTH CHILI, N. Y.

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flntro&uction.

In deference to the wishes of many friends to
have some lasting memorial of Mr. Showers,
this volume is issued from the press.

The sketch of his life, briefly written, in the
eloquent language of affection, tells in substance
the story of a marked career, too brief according
to human thoughts.

It has fallen to the writer to revise the unpub-
lished MSS. for the press. Had the author been
spared to do this work, it would have been better
done, for the active brain of the writer best
knows his own thought, and such work done by
another is at best a makeshift.

The MSS. of the Treatise on Eternal Punish-
ment was practically complete. However, the
analysis and divisions into parts was made in this
office. Possibly the writer would have expanded
the concluding chapters before publication.

The sermon outlines were made solely for the
writer's own use, and the reader must expect the
divisions would be suggestive of more to the
speaker and author than to the reader. They
reveal the workings of his mind to a remarkable
extent.

We bespeak for this Memorial Volume the in-

INTRODUCTION.

diligence that sucli a work must command, as it
is purely the outcome of affection. Especially do
we bespeak a kindly reception for the manuscript
posthumously published, not knowing what
changes would have been suggested to the
writer's mind in the work of revision for publi-
cation.

Benson Howard Roberts.

Office of

The Earnest Christian,

North Chili, N. Y.

Contents.

i.

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF AURA CLAIRE

SHOWERS, ----- 1-32

II.

FRATERNAL TRIBUTES :

Rev. D. B. Tobey, - - 32-38

Rev. J. S. McGeary, - 39-42

Rev. J. Barnhart, - - 42-47

B. H. Roberts, - - 47-50

Rev. W. A. Sellew, - - 50-52
III.

TREATISE ON ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.

PART I.
DOCTRINE of future punishment in

RELATION TO GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER I.

RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE NECESSARY TO GOVERN-
MENT. - - 58-6]
CHAPTER II.

ILLUSTRATED IN THE FAMILY. - - 62T66

CHAPTER III.

APPLIED IN CIVIL GOVERNMENT. - - 67-77

CHAPTER IV.

MANIFESTED IN THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 77-88

PART II.
TESTIMONY OF HEATHEN, JEWISH AND
CHRISTIAN WRITERS.

CONTEXTS.

CHAPTER I.

NON-CHRISTIAN BELIEFS. - - - 88-104

CHAPTER II.

JEWISH BELIEFS. ----- 104-115

CHAPTER III.

PHASES OF UNORTHODOX BELIEFS. - 116-119

CHAPTER IV.

EARLY BELIEF OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 120-128

CHAPTER V.

TESTIMONY OF LATER PATRISTIC AXD SCHO-
LASTIC WRITERS. - - - 129-133
CHAPTER VI.

INDIVIDUAL CREEDS AXD OPINIONS OF

SYXODS. - - 134-141

CHAPTER VII.
CONCLUSION. ----- 142-144

IV

MISCELLANEOUS.

LIXES BY REV. M. L. SCHOOLEY. - 145

I.
SERMON AT OPEXIXG OF HOPE MISSION. 146-148

II.
EMOTIONAL RELIGION VS. EMOTION IN RE-
LIGION. ----- 159-164
III.

SERMON OUTLINES. - 165-172

IV.

HYMNS. - - 173-176

I.

AURA CLAIRE SHOWERS.

SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
BY HIS WIFE.

Hura Claire ©bowers.

A SKETCH BY HIS WIFE.

N the 21st of June, 18G8, just as the sun in
all his evening glory was sinking behind
the western horizon, Aura Claire Showers was
born in the pleasant little town of Orangeville,
Ohio.

No child could have found a warmer welcome
or been more carefully cherished ; but it seemed
as week after week the little one was carried
about on a pillow, that he had only come to
earth for a very brief stay.

A film began to grow over his eyes when but
a few days old and gradually covered them so
that he was almost completely blind. No pains
or money were spared to save his life and restore
his sight. A specialist from Warren, Ohio, was
finally secured and the parents wrere gratified to
see the film gradually disappear from the child's
eyes and the little body daily growing stronger.
God's providence had designed him to be the

2

instrument through which many souls should be
turned to Himself.

We need not dwell on his child life. It was
soon seen that God had endowed him with a
bright intellect and an amiable and cheerful
disposition. As a young man he was fond of
society, of which his attractive person, gay dis-
position and ready wit made him a welcome
member. It was characteristic of him to put his
whole soul into whatever he undertook, and in
this manner he sought to find satisfaction in the
world. He matured rapidly so that at an early
age he had tasted its pleasures and discovered
their inability to give real or lasting joy.

His Christian parents had ever striven to lead
him into the ways of righteousness ; but the al-
lurements of the world led him captive until in
the year 1886 at the age of seventeen years, the
Holy Spirit so strove with him and convicted him
of his sins that he eagerly repented of them,
turned to God and found pardon. It was at a
revival meeting at Sharps ville, Pa., his home at
that time, in the old Methodist Episcopal Church,
that he was converted to God. He had gone to
the meeting with one of his young friends out of
mere curiosity. He sat in the back part of the
church during the service, careless and indif-
ferent. But while the evangelist was inviting sin-
ners to come to Christ, he became so convicted of

;;

his sinfulness that he hurried to the altar and
urged his friend to go with him; but; in vain. On
his way he saw another friend and stopped and
also urged him to go. The young man went and
they were both gloriously converted. In speak-
ing of his conversion afterwards Mr. Showers
would relate, how after truly repenting of his'
sins and giving himself unreservedly -to God,
without waiting for feeling, he arose and pub-
licly took Christ for his Saviour. The Holy
Spirit immediately so filled his body that he could
feel His wonderful presence all through him, and
he shouted and praised God with a loud voice.
Those who witnessed his conversion say, that as
he arose to testify for Christ, he was so wonder-
fully baptized of the Spirit that many hardened
sinners as well as the saints of God, were moved
to tears by the words he uttered. At the close of
these meetings he united with the Methodist
Episcopal Church of , Sharpsville, Pa., in Janu-
ary, L886. From this time we may date. his real
career. God's hand was upon him. His Heavenly
Father did not intend that his pilgrimage should
be long upon the earth, so He led him on. rapidly
in the divine life.

In June. L886, he graduated with honor from the
high school of Sharpsville, after which he was en-
gaged in his father's store of general merchandise-
There was a small elass of Free Methodists in

the town. When the Showers family heard of
them, they frequently attended their meetings,
attracted thither by the presence of God among
them. They had not attended the meetings many
times before Mr. Showers felt led to unite with
the little company though but few and lightly es-
teemed. He was somewhat surprised to be refused
when h ^requested admittance. Among other arti-
cles sold in his father's store was tobacco. As a
clerk it was frequently necessary for him to sell it ;
although his father, already convicted of the evil
of its use. was merely endeavoring to close out
the stock on hand. The minister kindly but
firmly stated that a person could not be received
into the church while engaging in the sale of this
article. This, Mr. Showers felt, was a right stand
for the church to take, so he told his father that
he could not remain longer in the store unless
the tobacco was gotten rid of at once. Where-
upon his father immediately disposed of it.
Shortly after not only he but also his parents and
sister were received by letter, into the Free Meth-
odist Church in May, 1886.

The same devotion that characterized the life
of Mr. Showers in his pursuit of worldly pleasures
was just as apparent in his service to Christ from
the very beginning. He allowed nothing to con-
flict with the will of God. His own desires and
ambitions were made subservient to the Divine

will. Herein, doubtless, lies the secret of his
rapid spiritual growth. Like Paul, he conferred
not with flesh and blood; hut every call of the
divine voice was readily and cheerfully obeyed
at the sacrifice of every earthly interest. This
was clearly manifested in the readiness with which
he obeyed his call to the ministry. During these
first few months of his Christian experience, God
had been preparing him for a wider sphere of
usefulness. From the time of his conversion he
had an intense desire to win souls for Christ.
The vastness of the work now began to dawn
upon him more and more clearly and the oppor-
tunities afforded by a commercial life seemed too
limited to his zealous mind. Accordingly, he
determined to study medicine, a profession that
would not only afford him greater opportunities
of usefulness, but also one to which he naturally
inclined. He made arrangements with Dr.
Williams, a prominent physician of the place in
which he lived, to study with him. The neces-
sary books were ordered and he was only awaiting-
their arrival to begin work : when one day, just
after leaving the doctor's office, he (dearly and
unmistakably received the Spirit's call to preach
the Gospel. Without questioning the will of
God, lie immediately returned to the doctor's
office, told him of his clear call to preach, and
requested him to countermand his order for

books,' and release him from his engagement.
He clearly entered into the experience of entire
sanctification August IT. 1887.

Feeling the need of the spiritual as well as
the intellectual benefit of one of our Christian
schools; in the fall of 1887, God's providence
opened the way for him to attend the A. M.
Chesbrough Seminary. The commission to the
disciples "As ye go, preach/' seemed to be his
commission also. Although he applied himself
faithfully to his studies, he never allowed them
to cause him to neglect his duties to Christ,
or forget his calling. However difficult his class
work might be one could always see him at the
student's evening prayer service and every other
meeting unless unavoidably detained. Although
so young in experience, it was wonderful what
progress he had made in the divine life and how
clearly he understood the word of God.

The following summer vacation he spent in at-
tending camp-meetings and other active work
for the Master— preaching and working as one
who felt' the precious worth of time and of souls.
The following year, 1888, he attended Spring
Arbor Seminaiy, from which school he was
graduated in June of 1889.

After graduation he returned to his home and
entered with all his powers into the work of the
Lord. Throughout the summer he labored un-

tiringly in camp-meetings and grove-meetings
where he doubtless won many to Jesus.

In the fall of 1889, at the age of twenty-one
years, he joined the Pittsburg Conference. He
had so developed in knowledge of God and
strength of Christian character that the Confer-
ence scut him to the Oil City charge. It was
just about this time that Rev. R. W. Hawkins,
now deceased, said of him, "We will not have
Brother Showers with us long." When asked
for his reason for speaking thus he replied, " He
is maturing too fast, he will soon be ripe for
Heaven."

Rev. D. B. Tobey, District Elder of the Oil
City district, says of him at this time, ' ' I was at
once powerfully impressed with his brilliancy
and solidity. His religious experience and gen-
eral demeanor denoted a deeper knowledge of
divine things and a clearer understanding of
man's relation and accountability to God than is
often seen in men of twice or thrice his age," and
the ministers of the Conference in general were
astonished at his depth of thought, clear and
prompt delivery and spiritual discernment.

His work in Oil City was marked by the help
of God. He soon had the hearts of his people.
During the winter he held a series of revival
meetings that stirred the whole city. Rev. V.
A. Dake assisted in these meetings for five

8

weeks. As a result of their united efforts
probably more than a hundred souls were con-
verted, many believers were sanctified, and a
large number were added to the church.

So frequently were large crowds turned away
from the church because of lack of room that
before the year closed an addition was built to it
and paid for, to accommodate tiie congregations.
During this year he also held a series of meetings
at Titusville, eighteen miles from Oil City.
Although he was not the first to introduce the
work in that place, yet it was due to his efforts
that a Free Methodist class was formed there.
He rented an old store room, the only place then
available, in which to hold the meetings. It was
so dirty that it kept the young minister busy all
day cleaning it and preparing it for the evening
service. In spite of bitter opposition from the
rough class and the family who occupied the
rooms above, aided only by a few, he held one of
the most successful of revivals that place ever
witnessed. Some who became pillars of the Titus-
ville church were gathered in at that time.

He was returned to Oil City the following year,
1890. After holding another successful revival
in Oil City, he began meetings in Salem, a small
village, three miles distant. Many consecrated
people, young and old alike, went in large
wagon loads and on foot to help him in the meet-

ings. A good sized hall, formerly owned by the
Good Templars, was secured. For weeks the
country was stirred for miles around. There had
never been such a revival before in the history of
the "place. Deep conviction rested upon the people.
Through the day Brother Showers had some of
the Oil City workers assist him in visiting among
the people and at night he preached to very large
and eager congregations. Great crowds were
usually turned away. The altar, as a rule was
filled with penitent souls and seekers for Holiness
of heart.

Many were saved and sanctified during these
meetings and a good sized class organized.
Among the converts was a man who is now one
of Salem's most respected citizens. Before his
conversion he was a confirmed drunkard, a ter-
ror to his wife and neighbors. But God's Spirit
drew him to hear the truth and at the age of
sixty-three years, he sought and found pardon.
The Lord took away his appetite for tobacco and
Avhiskey and made a new man of him. He now
has one of the pleasantest of homes and two
happier and more devoted Christians than he
and his wife would be difficult to find.

On September Kith, 1891, he was married to
Harriet D. W. Slater of Brooklyn, N. Y. He
was ordained deacon at Conference several weeks
later and sent to the Franklin charge. The work

10

in that place was then in a critical condition
owing to various causes and required much wis-
dom and patience to hold the class together. The
new pastor keenly felt the need of God's help to
discharge his duties aright and the needed help
was granted to him. God gave him a year of
blessing and victory. During the winter he held
a long series of revival meetings. Rev. J. G.
Terrill and Mrs. E. Sellew Roberts assisted in
these meetings at different times. Quite a large
number were converted and joined the church
who are still standing true. Many were sanctified
and the church in general was strengthened.
During that year Rev. J. P. Brodhead, now a very
acceptable minister in the Pittsburg Conference,
and his wife, also Sister Sanf ord and Brother and
Sister Tourtelotte, all respected members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, joined the Free
Methodist Church. During that winter he also
held revival meetings at Cochranton, a town
about twenty miles from Franklin. The meet-
ings lasted for a number of weeks and at the
close Brother Showers organized a small class
of about ten members, to whom he preached
once a week throughout the remainder of the
year.

The following year, 1892, Conference returned
him to Oil City. He was in poor health through-
out the year. Besides, his wife suffered for six

11

weeks with typhoid fever and his darling baby
lay for two months with a wasting disease: at
the end of which time God took her. Yel
through it all God helped his servant to keep a
victorious spirit and drive the battle on. During
the winteT he held a very successful revival meet-
in-, assisted by Rev. John (VRegan. The church
was crowded every night. Many stood during
the services in the aisles and back part of the
church, while crowds were turned away from
the door. The penitent form was usually filled
with contrite seekers for pardon or purity.
These meetings resulted in much good, and the
influence of them is still felt. He also held an-
other meeting at Salem, which resulted in
strengthening and encouraging the little class at
that place.

He was ordained elder at the New Brighton
Conference in the fall of 1803. At bis request
he was made Conference evangelist. He thought
that he might in this way get a short rest and
regain his health to some extent before the re-
vival season should commence. But the requests
from the New Brighton class, for him to take the
pastorate, which had been left to be supplied,
were so strong, that he finally consented to do so,
after being urged by the district elder. Rev. D.
B. Tobey, also.

Brother Tobey writes thus concerning it :

12

" Brother Showers consented to fill the appoint-
ment at New Brighton for a few weeks nntil a
supply could be secured. After his second trip
he called at my home and said, * Brother Tobey,
if you still insist upon it, and think that I am the
right man to go to New Brighton, I will go, for
I have come to the conclusion that there is no
rest for me in this life. I feel better when I am
at work than I do when I try to rest. I will take
my place and die at my post/ Accordingly he
moved his family to New Brighton where he
spent one of the most profitable and fruitful
years of his life. The work was comparatively
new in that place. The church was centrally
located and vast congregations assembled to hear
the Gospel. It would be impossible to place an
estimate upon the good that was done by his
preaching that year. He stood like a brave
soldier and without fear or favor declared the
whole counsel of God.

" It will be safe to say that his influence on
that charge that year is already so wide spread
that you can scarcely visit a town or hamlet
within a radius of twenty miles of New Brighton,
but you will find some souls that have been
brought out into the light through his teachings.
I was recently introduced to a gentleman from
Ellwood City. He smiled and said, ' I have seen
you before. I was a member of a popular church

13

but used to go privately to New Brighton to hear
your minister (Brother Showers). I always took
a back seat. I was there when the power of God
was so wonderfully displayed on that last night
of the Holiness Convention. That finished me.
I now have that power within my soul and am a
Free Methodist on my way to Heaven.' Many
incidents of a like nature might be noticed."

His year at that place was one of almost con-
stant revival. Throughout almost the entire
winter there were meetings in the church every
night. Rev. Oliver Gornell, who assisted in the
meetings for some weeks, estimates that there
were not less than five hundred at the penitent
form during the meetings. A great many were
clearly converted and almost as many more
wholly sanctified. A highly respected lady and
her sixteen year old daughter were clearly saved.
The father bitterly opposed them and treated
them very harshly, even beating his daughter
and threatening to kill her if she persisted in
going to the Free Methodist Church. He was
also greatly enraged against the minister because
it was under his preaching that the lady and her
daughter had become Christians. This man's
wrath caused Brother Showers to fully realize
what it meant to be reviled and persecuted and
to have all manner of evil said against him
falsely, for Christ's sake. Desiring, if possible,

14

to he a help to him and to win him to Christ,
he took advantage of patronizing him in his
"business in order to obtain an interview with
him. As soon as the man learned his name he
flew into a rage and vehemently abused and
threatened him. He listened calmly until the
man finished and then kindly but firmly told
him he was wrong and urged him to come to
church and see for himself. He told him he
ought to allow his family to save their souls
at any rate and assured him that he would stand
by them in spite of threats or anything he could
do. The man was chagrined and beaten but still
continued to oppose his family until his daughter
was driven from home, disowned by her father,
who, it is said, recorded her death in the family
record. But, thank God, she is not dead, she is
now in the A. M. Chesbrough Seminary prepar-
ing herself to work for Christ. Both mother
and daughter are saved and loyal members of
the Free Methodist Church, and through tribula-
tion are washing their robes and making them
white, ready to meet the Bridegroom and join
the Heavenly company " where the wicked cease
from troubling and the weary are at rest."

After the special meetings were closed in the
church, cottage prayer meetings were begun;
and during the spring and summer there was
usually an evening prayer meeting in the home

15

of some of the members, every evening when
there was not a meeting at the church. Often
unsaved people, burdened by their sins, would
request that the prayer meeting be held at then-
homes. It was the rule rather than the exception,
in these meetings, that people were saved to God
and sanctified. Brother Showers always made it
a practice to attend these cottage meetings when-
ever it was possible for him to do so.

In Ma^ of that year an eight day Holiness con-
vention was held in the Free Methodist Church
of New Brighton. There was a very large at-
tendance throughout the entire convention.
Almost all the ministers and workers of the dis-
trict, the district elders of the Conference, and
Rev. B. H. Roberts, Rev. J. S. McGeary, and
others from a distance, were present. It was a
season of remarkable enlightenment and en-
couragement to all. Many entered into the
blessed state of holiness of heart. The last night
especially, will ever be memorable to all who
were present, After the sermon, seekers began
to rush to the altar before the invitation was
given and soon the whole front of the church was
filled. Not only were God's children burdened
for pure hearts, but sinners were so powerfully
convicted of their sins thai when there was no
longer room in front, people knelt in the aisles
and in their seats praying to God for mercy and

.16

for clean hearts. A camp-meeting was also held
in that place that year. It was an unusually
large meeting. Over four hundred persons were
in the tents on the ground. Much good was done
and seed sown that is still springing into sight.

At the close of the year Mr. Showers' health
was so poor that he decided to move with his
family to California, thinking that a change of
climate would benefit him. His parents and
friends, however, whom he visited on his way to
Conference opposed his going and dissuaded him
from it. He then decided to request Conference
to leave him without appointment for one year.
He had already commenced a book on "Hell."
He thought that a year without work would
enable him to finish it and at the same time afford
him an opportunity to regain his health. Con-
ference, however, did not grant his request but
made him District Elder of the New Castle dis-
trict. He did not seek this position. On the
contrary he would have resigned it at once had
not his friends, who knew of his intentions, per-
suaded him to let the Conference decide for him.
He ever had a fear of getting out of the order of
the Lord, and although he felt the weakness of
his body, he obeyed the voice of the Conference,
gave up his expectation of a year's rest from
active work, and entered upon the work of his
district with all his powers. God honored his

17

faithfulness and revived his strength. Through-
out the entire year he grew more and more
Christlike. His gentleness and teachableness
were remarkable. He had implicit confidence in
the ministers of his district and had the welfare
of every one of them greatly at heart. He humbly
and prayerfully sought to be a real benefit in
upbuilding every circuit on his district. He loved
God's Zion as his own soul and zealously watched
over and prayed for it. As he went about from
circuit to circuit he earnestly studied the needs
of the people and endeavored to give them just
the Spiritual food that would build them up in
the most holy faith. He seemed to take especial
pains with the small classes. Whenever he
noticed signs of discord or spiritual decline, he
became greatly burdened and would hold on to
God in faith and prayer, until Christ's Spirit pre-
vailed.

Of his work on the district, Brother Tobey
writes thus : "In subjection to his Conference,
lie threw all the faculties of his three-fold being
into the work of the New Castle district. There
were some things connected with the work that
made it very difficult to preside over, and would
call into action every power and faculty of the
most able mind. But he was so perfectly master
of the most perilous situation that, under God,
he was able to meet and dispose of the most in-

18

tricate cases and he settled matters so that they
would stay settled. After passing through one-
of the most trying ordeals at one of his district
quarterly meetings, although he had been labor-
ing hard until about midnight Saturday night
and the society had been shaken to its very
centre, on Sabbath morning, after the love-feast,
he quietly arose, announced his text from Romans
12:22, and proceeded to deliver one of his charac-
teristic sermons showing clearly the principle of
righteousness that demands nonconformity to
the world. Although the subject was foreign to
the trouble that existed there at that time, yet
the power of God was so wonderfully manifest
and the preaching so supernatual that it eclipsed
all the trouble, dispersed every cloud, melted the
audience to tears, and the powers of darkness gave-
way. Justice, righteousness and holiness tri-
umphed, every saint took his place, and the work
moved on." An elder remarked at the close of
that service, "If that boy keeps his health, he
will soon occupy the highest position of the
church. No bishop could handle that subject,
better than it was handled •this morning." As
district elder he succeeded in giving character to
the work and since his decease the work has gone
steadily forward."

Brother Tobey also writes, "During the last
seven, and especially during the last two, years of

19

his short but eventful life, he was present at
nearly every camp-meeting, holiness convention
and meeting of importance in the Conference
always leaving his impress on the minds of the
majority of tin* pepple who heard him speak.
He was present at the Leechburg Holiness Con-
vention last summer. The people by whom he
was entertained although non-professors and
previously unacquainted with him, were so won
to him, that had they heard of his death in time^
they would have attended his funeral : which.
would have caused them to travel a distance of
one hundred and ten miles and return. I also>
attribute to the words, work, and general in-
fluence of Brother Showers more than to any
other instrument used of God, the winning of
more than a score of the choicest of the Pentecost
workers, who were sent into the bounds of our
Conference together with a large number who
were converted under their labors. Brother-
Showers had the confidence of these dear people..
He seemed to explain matters to them so clearly
that in every case where he was thrown into their
society they were drawn towards us. He attended
both the camp-meetings held by the Pentecost
Brethren within the Pittsburg district during
the years LS93, '94, and .'95. During these meet-
ings it was not an uncommon thing to see him
in the interval of public services, seated beneath

20

some shade tree, surrounded by a group of from
four to twelve of these earnest students, eager to
catch every word that fell from his lips. After
the meetings had closed and he had gone, such
remarks as the following might be heard, " Isn't
Brother Showers grand ? He makes every thing
so plain ! Hasn't he a blessed spirit ? How I do
love to hear him talk and preach. I believe I
could listen to him all day and not get tired,"
and so on. But eternity alone will know all the
work of his hands that under God he wrought. "

The last summer of his life was doubtless the
busiest one he had ever spent in Christ's service.
Beside holding his quarterly meetings he attended
four camp-meetings, several grove meetings and
holiness convention. At each of these meetings
he preached at least twice, usually three or four
times. Some times he would feel so weary and
worn in body at the close of one meeting that he
would scarcely see how he would get to the next
•one. Then the Lord would so touch his body
that he would some times say he never felt better
in his life.

The last camp-meeting he held was the one on
his own district held in Greenville, Pa. Although
very much worn in body he labored untiringly
throughout this meeting. He felt that as district
elder, it rested ujjon him particular}^ to make the
•meeting a success through God's help. Regard-

21

less of his feelings lie attended all the early
morning meetings and was present for a portion,
at least, of every ring meeting and street meet-
ing, besides almost all the preaching services.
One night long after evening services had closed,
the tenters who had almost all retired and fallen
asleep, were suddenly aroused by loud shouts,
singing, etc. There had been a person on the
grounds at different times, who had endeavored
to scatter "wildfire." Brother Showers did not
know but that this person was the cause of the-
noise. He immediately arose, dressed himself,
and went to look into the matter. He found that
an earnest and persistent seeker after holiness of
heart, had received the blessing and together
with his tent company was rejoicing over it.
He rejoiced with them and returned to his bed
to get the rest he so much needed. He seemed
so gentle and unselfish. During this meeting one
of his ministers asked him how he was feeling in
body. He replied that he was feeling very poorly
but added " don't let the pilgrims know it. " He
feared that it might in some way detract from
the interest of the meetings. God's blessing
rested upon him in an especial manner.

On the last Sabbath of the meeting he gave
opportunity for any who might desire to do
so to unite with the church. A successful
revivalist and his wife and six or seven others

22

joined. The work is still going on in that
vicinity and it is believed that it will not be
long before a church will be organized in
Greenville. After this camp-meeting closed he
went to Brookfield. Ohio, to hold a Quarterly
meeting. The work was new in this place
and he endeavored to make the meeting one
that would* upbuild the little church. This
was the last active work that God had marked
out for him to do. Although the fatal disease
was even then revealing its presence in his weak-
ened body, he summoned all his powers and facul-
ties to the work that was to be done, and in God's
strength went through as though he were strong
and well. On the Sabbath he preached twice
and immersed seven persons in a small body
of water about two miles from the chuich.
Those who heard him preach the last Sabbath
say that God's Spirit was wonderfully manifest
in his words. Especially the last sermon held
the people spell hound. Deep conviction rested
upon them and God's message will not soon be
forgotten -by the large congregation who listened
that night. After the night's service he returned
to his brother-in-law's home and. although the
hour was late, and all were tired in body. God's
Spirit seemed to be on His servant 'so manifestly
that none of them cared to retire. His sister and
her husband little knew that they were listening

23

to the parting words of their brother to them, as
they eagerly communed with him on the things
•of God. He was the youngest of the three, but
they willingly took the place of learners before
him. His favorite theme of holiness absorbed
them that night and after talking over the won-
derfulness of the state and the greatness of the
profession of it, he humbly but firmly and sol-
emnly testified that he had the blessing.

He felt concerned about a certain work on his
district and the next morning he left for that
work. He regulated matters as far as possible
and remained among the people until the follow-
ing day. When I met him at the station that
afternoon I was immediately struck with the fact
that my precious husband was unusually filled
with the Spirit. He had ever been thoughtful,
gentle, and noble, but that day he excelled all the
past. His character never seemed so grand and
Christ-like. His words were freighted with the
love of Christ. It was sometime before he made
it known that he was feeling unusually bad in
body. A severe pain in his head rapidly grew
worse and other serious symptoms speedily de-
veloped. The following day he consulted the
doctor, who at once expressed fears that he was
threatened with typhoid fever. Hoping that
the doctor's fears were groundless he endeavored
to so care for himself that he would be aide to go

24

to his next Quarterly meeting over the Sabbath.
His heart was in the work. He did not like to
think of losing any time; but he soon saw that,
he would be obliged to remain at home. He at
once arranged for one of his brethren to hold the
meeting. Not only did he attend to securing
some one to hold this meeting, but dictated
various letters concerning the work. His head
was racked with pain and he could scarcely think,
still he persevered until he had even the smallest
matters attended to. On Thursday, the loth of
August, he summoned all his fast failing
strength and drove to town to pay several small
bills of very short standing. He told one store
keeper that the doctor feared he was threatened
with fever and he desired to attend to all of his
affairs while he was able to do so. On Friday
morning he walked to his parents' home — a short
distance. He went into the parlor and, seating
himself at the piano, played and sang the song
entitled "When the roll is called up yonder
I'll be there." Shortly after he returned home
and endeavored to help entertain some friends
who came just about that time, but his strength
failed him and he was obliged to excuse him-
self and lie down. He began to suffer so in-
tensely that we sent for the physician. Through
the remainder of the day and night his symp-
toms became more alarming. The following-

25

morning (Saturday) he was not able to leave*
his bed. When the doctor called he positively
pronounced his sickness typhoid fever. As
soon as this was announced for a certainty
he requested that he be taken to the hospital.
We endeavored to dissuade him from this de-
cision, but he still insisted on it, and the
doctor approved of his decision. Accordingly
a carriage was secured in the evening and he
was slowly and carefully driven to the hos-
pital, a distance of about two miles. On the
way he spoke of how wonderfully God had
been blessing him of late and remarked that
he was glad that it was under such circum-
stances that he was taken sick, also that we loved
one another so truly and that there was nothing
but harmony and love between us. Notwith-
standing he was suffering intensely in every
part of his body, and the ride was long and
tedious he did not murmur once or become rest-
less. When we finally reached the hospital they
carried him to a large, pleasant room, he said as
they placed him on the bed, "01 am glad I am
here! This was the right thing to do."

We may never fully know until eternity, why
his last days were spent in the Oil City Hospital,
but this is a certainty, that Christ was upheld
and glorified, yes even preached, by the words,
life and influence of his servant's last days.

26

Providentially I was enabled to be with him the
greater part of the time. He remained rational
until about Tuesday, the 20th. During these
days he communed with God. His mind was on
heavenly things. The physician ordered that he
be kept as quiet as possible, so we denied our-
selves the privilege of talking to him very
much that he might have a better chance cf
recovery. He, however, would frequently speak
of the Lord and praise Him. Sometimes he
would ask, " Are the pilgrims praying for me ?"
and when assured that they were, he would seem
so satisfied. After he became delirious, he was
almost constantly praising God or praying or
preaching. He often insisted that the nurse
should say, "Praise the Lord/' "Amen7' or
'' Hallelujah." He frequently seemed to think
that he was in some church service. On one
occasion, especially, he made one of the most
wonderful prayers for seekers, whom he thought
were seeking pardon for their sins. In -this
prayer he expressed the most sublime thoughts
and connected them so perfectly, that the nurse,
a Catholic lady, who was just about to leave the
room to get his medicine, stood still and listened
until he "finished. It was indeed a very touching-
sight.

It was not until Friday evening (the 23rd) that
any dangerous symptoms manifested themselves.

27

Op to this time liis fever had been gradually de-
creasing, and his heart's action had been improv-
ing, seemingly. The delirium, though violent.
was not the most alarming form. But Friday
evening his pulse began gradually to fail and
continued to do so1 in spite of all that could be
done. During that night he praised God almost
continuously. By morning he became so weak
that he could speak only in whispers and by the
movement of his lips. He became rational how-
ever, and knew his relatives as they all stood
around his bedside.

He seemed to be in perfect peace, not suffering.
bu1 gradually becoming weaker and weaker.
He would often move his lips to say "pray" and
as we prayed and sang, the angels were hasten-
ing to carry the precious soul away. He knew
that he was dying and when asked if all was
well to press the hand, he strongly pressed his
mother's hand several times. Twice he motioned
to his* wife to kiss him and when his little baby
boy was brought to him he recognized him and
took his little hand in his while the baby lov-
ingly laid his head on his father's noble forehead.
At about four o'clock in the afternoon, he passed
away.

Like a faithful servant, willing and glad to
work on for the beloved Master, yet ready to lay
down the cross and take np the crown when God

28

•in His wisdom, says "It is enough,, come up-
higher." this faithful servant — purified and
tried, passed over the bounds of time into the-
realm of eternity. Not a shadow of doubt arises-
to mar the blessedness of the thought that he is
now among the redeemed and blood-washed.
His death is only another illustration of the fact
that " God's ways are not our ways. " The finite
mind could scarcely comprehend how he could
be spared — so young, so talented, and so useful.
He was truly a man of God. Ever valiant for
the truth, he was one of those who did not count
his life dear to him, that he might advance-
Christ's cause. He was ever 'bold, uncomprom-
ising, and fearless wherever the right was con-
cerned, but an eager advocate for peace whenever
it could be had on righteous lines.

As a preacher, he shunned not to declare the
whole counsel of God. During the last few
months of his life one of his most common
themes was future punishment. Perhaps be-
cause so few, comparatively, dared to preach of
its awful truths, God used this willing servant to
proclaim them.

Another theme which he loved was holiness of
heart. It was a very noticeable feature of his-
ministry that he always endeavored to lead God's,
children into the blessing of holiness, as soon as.
possible after their conversion. Whenever he

20

•conducted an altar service, seekers for holiness
would be found as well as seekers for pardon.

He always took especial pains to interest him-
self in those who were poor and despised, and he
made them feel that he was their friend. The
humblest and poorest loved .him. But in no
place did the richness and strength, the loveli-
ness and purity of his character, manifest itself
"better than in his home. He had a very
high ideal of home life and with God's grace
lie always endeavored to realize it. Nothing de-
lighted him more than to have his home a
place where God's children, the poor and the
needy, as well as those more favored, could feel
free to come.

A"s a parent he was remarkably tender and
affectionate and yet equally firm. By the time
his children reached the age of three months he
had almost perfect control of them and without
any seeming difficulty in gaining it.

As a husband he was gentle, affectionate and
true. A spiritual guide and a trusted friend.
Four years of married life only served to deepen
.and strengthen the already deep respect and ten-
love of

f)t6 affectionate OEtfe.

"If you have a friend worth loving-
Love him : yes ! and let him know

Yon love him,
E'er life's evening tinge his brow

With sunset glow.
Why should good words ne'er be saicft
Of a friend till he is dead."

II.
fraternal ^Tributes.

Son, good and faithful, well done,

Lay the cross and armor down:
Swift thy race of life hast run,

Quickly thou hast earned thy crown:
Enter thou the realm of bliss,

Calm and peaceful be thy rest,
While friends on earth thy spirit miss,

Thou canst recline on Jesus' breast.

Thou shalt have a robe of white,

A victor's palm thy hand shalt bear:
And in that world with spirits bright,

A crown of righteousness shalt wear,
Until thy brethren, martyrs here,

Have kept the faith, and fought the fight,
Then Christ shall brush away our tears,

Ourspirits kindred will unite.

II.

FRATERNAL TRIBUTES.

REV. D. B. TOBEY.

'OR the past six years it has been my privi-
lege to be most intimately associated with
Aura Claire Showers, and I am ready to say
now. as I did many times while he was yel
living, he was intellectually the most brilliant
young man I ever met, and one of the greatest
preachers I ever heard speak.

Some may think this too strong, but I do not
say it because he is dead, but because, to my
mind, it is the truth. So far as my appreciation
•of and love for him was concerned, he knew what
I thought of him for I often told him and he
never doubted my sincerity.

There were those among us who would criticize
his sermons, because, as they claimed, the)7 were
more intellectual than spiritual, and also because
the words he used were above the comprehension
of the common people.

To these objections. 1 answer thai many of
these critics were nol spiritual enough themselves
to discern the fact thai the Holy Spirit had pos-

34

session of his brain, mind, soul, and vocal organs,
and his preaching was supernatural, and yet it
is a fact that the most simple minded sat at his
feet to learn of him, and he nearly always made
himself understood by all classes of persons.
While most of us have only the power to reach
the few, he could reach the high and the low,
the learned and the unlearned. No man could
reach down lower to help a poor ignorant soul
up out of his ignorance, and filth, and no man
could write his name higher on the pinnacle of
fame, as orator, and minister of the pure Gospel
of Jesus Christ. I was often moved to remark
concerning him, ''He stands for the defense of
the Gospel."

He was able too, and did, walk into the arena
and measure arms with, and defeat on their own
ground, skeptics, infidels, Adventists, No-sects,
Spiritualists, and Christian Scientists. In fact
I never knew of him meeting defeat in any thing-
he undertook.

He lived a life of absolute abandonment to the
Holy Spirit of God, and he would undertake
nothing without the endorsement of God, and
thus he went forth conquering and to conquer.
He seemed to step boldly out on the very ragged
edge of finite existence; look into the great be-
yond, and bring the judgment, hell and heaven
into view in such a way that his audience would

35

be forced to confess the truth whether they
yielded and obeyed or not.

His favorite theme was the eternal punishment
of the wicked, and its relation to the mercy and
jusl Lee of Almighty God.

He has left a book partly written, on the sub-
ject of Hell, that I think his bereaved wife ex-
pects to give to the world, in connection with a
few of his sermons. Let us pray God to give her
health and strength and inspiration to finish, as;
l>est she can. the work of his hands. 1 know of
no one so capable of doing it as herself. Let all
who have the power in any way hold up her
hands.

Brothei- Showers and myself were together in
four camp-meet ings and two holiness conventions
this summer, and as I look back on those meet-
ings and his work, it seems to me I can see writ-
ten in brigh.1 Letters, "It is finished. " He left
no duty unperformed, no work partly done. In
his own district camp-meetings, from beginning
to end, he seemed to move in divine order, and
everything was done so perfectly ami so promptly
that it attracted the attention of marly all
present. And ( ). what an influence has gone-
abroad from that meeting! Eternity alone will
disclose it. I have already come in touch with
so much good that was done there. He preached,
exhorted, sung, prayed, and was wonderfully

30

blest, and inspired of God. I especially noticed
his untiring labor around the altar. The last
night, about 12 o'clock, after we had marched
around the ground, and had shaken hands, and
dismissed the congregation, many lingered, and
the saints gathered in the stand and sang a num-
ber of hymns. Tlie last hymn sung on that
memorable night was " When the Roll is called
up yonder I'll be there. " After singing it. and
singing the chorus over many times, while the
saints were weeping, laughing and shouting, he
stepped out to the front and asked for the atten-
tion of all. Instantly every voice was hushed.
as by divine touch, and in clear, ringing accents
he said. "In a little while I'll be there (pointing
up), and when you get there you will hear me
sing that chorus, and I will then sing soprano,
alto, bass, and tenor all at onetime." " Now,"
said he. " while you sing it again, try to imagine
how it will sound when we all get there, and
each sing all the parts at one time. " And while
we raised our voices and sang it again, God gave
us our parting benediction. The cloud of fire
seemed to envelop us for a time, as it did the dis-
ciples on the mount of transfiguration, and then
we found ourselves again in the realities of this
sin-bnrdened world.

I look at his district. I see his dear brethren
and sisters in the ministry and work of God. as

with aching heart, and throbbing brow, they set'
their teeth, and choke back the coming tear, and
press on in the battle, doing their utmost to fill
the gap and finish their work, and die at their
post, as he did.

I look at his yonng wife who, in the hottest
fire and at the heaviest blows, still whispers, " As
God will, and in the hottest fire holds still." 1
look at his orphan boy (over whom he had the
most perfect control), left in this wicked world.
I look at his bereaved parents, to whom, in their
old age. he was such a comfort. I look at the
relatives, and those that depended upon him for
counsel and advice My soul cries out, O, God,
why is this? How the work of God needed him,
how his district needed him, how his wife, boy
and parents needed him, and last, but not least,
how 1 needed him. He was my bosom friend. I
withheld nothing'from him. I can see but one rea-
son, and even from my finite point of view, I can
see why. and I believe I express the sentiment of
the Church, his wife, parents and all, when I say
that, through my blinding tears, and while my
heart-strings break, Lord, Thou hast done it, and
our sonls say amen, and we would not wish it
different.

He has slain more in his death, than in his life.
The months of his highest critics are closed.
Smiie who would discourage in his life are loud-

38

est in his praise, and to those who loved and ap-
preciated him, and sat at his feet, earth has less
attraction, and heaven is dearer. All who knew
him feel that a pure spirit who blessed the world
with his presence has gone to that bright clime
where holy characters blend, and sorrow is not
known, in a word, the Christ-life in him has been
lifted up, and all who knew him are drawn.

Brethren, let us be better brothers, sisters,
fathers, mothers, and neighbors, and let us be
abandoned to the divine will, that we may follow
him as he followed Christ, and be forever with
his Lord, and our Lord.

The last time I shook hands with him was on
the Greenville camp-ground the morning after
the meeting closed (August 8th), he walked
rapidly across the ground and as he extended his
hand he said, " My heart is just bounding with
love for you, as I shake hands and say good
bye. "

It was the last good bye, the last handshake,
the last look into those keen, pure eyes here, but
not the last handclasp, for we shall meet and clasp
hands and see as we are seen and know as we
are known.

I wait, dear Lord, for further explanation until
then.

Good bye till then, Aura.

39

REV. J. S. McGEARY.

My acquaintance with A. C. Showers began at a
■cainp-meeting held at Titusville, Pa., in August,
L887. He had then been converted but a short
time. The impression of Lis countenance and
individuality then made upon me has never
been effaced. The following summer, while I
was in charge of the New Castle district, he
came before me for examination for local
preacher's license. The clearness with which
he answered all questions put to him at that
time and the breadth of mind shown impressed
me that his was no ordinary mind. It was
a source of sincere regret to me when, with
his father's family, he removed to another
part of the conference and we were no longer
closely associated in the work. Yet by frequent
association I learned to appreciate the many
excellent qualities of which he was possessed.
Upon his remarking to me at the Apollo, Pa.,
camp-meeting in 1889, which he attended by my
invitation, that he did not know who was his
spiritual father. I replied. "I will adopt you,"
he frequently afterwards addressed myself and
wife as " father" and " mother. " As a brother
and friend he held a very high place in my
heart.

40

Among the things in his character and individ-
uality which impressed me were the following:
He was a marked example of the power of
grace. Young, talented, educated, with abun-
dant opportunity to taste the sweets of worldly
pleasure, and with all the capacity for the keen
enjoyment of the world which such an endow-
ment gave him, he was from the first thoroughly
saved from it all. In this he gloried. His testi-
mony at the Sharon, Pa., camp-meeting, in 1889,
as he stood upon the altar and cried, " Look at
me ! Look at me ! I am a young man and
saved! " was not indicative of self, but of glory-
ing that grace had redeemed him out from
among the mass of young men who were run-
ning madly after the world and sin.

His disposition was bright, sunny and cheerful.
Although far removed from lightness and fool-
ishness, he was just as far removed from austerity
on the other hand. He lived in the sunlight of
heaven, and scattered sunshine wherever he went.

He was absolutely devoted to God and I is
work, pushing forward, especially during the
last year of his life, with praise to God in his
heart and on his lips when his frail body was
trembling with fatigue, and going forward with
his public ministrations when he felt that he was
only able to preach as he was directly strength-
ened from above, in body as well as in spirit.

41

Gladly be went until the body, always too frail
for the spirit within, succumbed to weakness
and the spirit enraptured escaped to the God he
loved and served.

His intellect was brilliant, and he was a clear,
forcible speaker and writer. He was an uncom-
promising and fearless preacher and defender of
tlic whole truth. His scathing denunciations
of sin and worldliness were sufficient to encour-
age lovers of truth to believe that the spirit of
the old prophets was not extinct, and to make
sinners, hyprocrites and half-hearted professors,
of religion tremble. As a preacher he was al-
ways instructive and spiritual, and often eloquent.
He dealt faithfully with souls. No one under
his labors was ever daubed with untempered
mortal- or healed slightly. By the aid of the
Spirit he laid bare the sin of the heart and in-
sisted on genuine repentance and seeking the
Lord.

His sudden and. to us, untimely death was one
of those providences which we shall only under-
stand " when the mists have rolled away." It
seemed we could not spare him, but Father
knoweth best and He took him. Fen* us there
still remain the thorns and ruggedness of the way
for him the glory of the Paradise of God; for us
yet a little longer of cross bearing, self-denial
and reproach In cause of the cross of Christ, for

42

liim the rest among the " spirits of just men made
perfect: " for ns a few more days, or years per-
haps, of warfare, for him the eternal victory and
the Master's " Well done. " Farewell, brother,
friend, beloved !

'* In that bright and cloudless morning,

When the dead in Christ shall rise,

And the glory of His resurrection share,"

we expect again to meet thee and greet the where
" sickness, sorrow, pain and death are felt and
feared no more. " and with thee share His glory
and sing His praise who hath "loved ns and
washed ns from our sins in His own blood. "
** Let us, " who are left

"Labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun,

Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care,

Then when all of life is over, and our work on earth is

done,
And the roll is called up yonder I'll be there."

Till then, brother, " Good Night. "

REV. J. BARNHART.
Rev. A. C. Showers was a man of God such as
we seldom meet. His presence would impress
you with a seriousness without sadness, a light-
ness which was not levity. You could never
meet him and converse with him without feeling
that you had been benefited and that you went
•out from his presence a better man than when

4:;

you met him. He had a well developed physical
form yet his body was weak and always had a
delicate appearance, but he had a giant's brain
and was always ready to enter the battle for God
without shrinking, and would inspire any man
to do so.

He would impress you with the thought that
he expected to pass through this world but once;
and any good thing that In1 could do, or any kind-
ness that lif could show to a human being, or a
word that he could speak for Jesus, he seemed
to say, let me do it now; let me not neglect nor
defer it. for I shall not pass this way again. He
was more than an ordinary preacher. He was
surely raised up by God himself for the defense
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He had a perfect
flow of language and never lacked for the choicest
words; his arguments were strong and convinc-
ing and his conclusions were logical and unan-
swerable, he depended upon God to carry his
words to his hearers. As a man he knew his
place and kept it. He never sought for position
and all that was given to him by the church of
his choice, came unsought for by himself. But
his gifts and talents were recognized by his breth-
ren who freely gave him the place he tilled in
their ranks. As we met him from time to time
we could see how the Lord was using him. We
•could not help but say. " () for a body to go with

u

his soul." But lie seemed to live where he could
claim the promise. "As thy day is so shall thy
strength be," and would impress you with the
following words written by Francis R. HavergaL

In thee I trust, on thee I rest,
O Saviour dear, Redeemer blest !
No earthly friend, no brother knows
My weariness, my wants, my woes.
On thee I call, who knowest all.
O Saviour dear, Redeemer blest,
In thee I trust, on thee I rest.
We hoped with his simple trust in Jesus that he-
would stay with us longer, but over the wire at
lightning's speed the message came to us, " pulse
120, temperature 104." With the advantages of
this 19th century we hurried to the spot where
sin had laid him; not outward sin for that was
all blotted out, not inborn sin for that had been
cleansed, but the consequences of sin, and we
were not permitted to see his blessed face. Duty
called us away and again the news over the wire
at lightning's speed and before we could see him
or be in his presence where we so much loved
to be, —

He plumed his glad wings and soared upward,

The angels attending his flight,
He wTas met at the gates by his loved ones,
And the Saviour who is the true light.

We cannot understand with our finite minds
why he left us, but perhaps

The angek were lonely without him,
So they wooed him and won him away,

The gates of the city were open
The city of unending day.

He in life met all his opposers with strength
and character, with a spirit of kindness and of
•Christ, but no doubt often. —

While here in the Valley of Shadows,

He often was longing for rest,
For the companionship of the Holy,

And the joys only known to the blest.

But we can all rest in this thought and say, —

"We know that an entrance was welcome,
That a mansion for him was prepared.

That a robe and a palm had been granted,
And a crown which the glorified wear.

"And though our hearts were sad at the parting,
As we're passing through sorrow's dark night,

Yet we all again hope to meet him,
In the bright resurrection light."

He was a man of tenderness and compassion
.and naturally he would never have written the
hook on Eternal Punishment but that his untiring
zeal and his intense yearning over the lost of
• •arih brought before his spiritual eyes the awful
fate of lost souls, and Jesus seemed to take him
on 1 he Isle of Patmos and draw aside the curtains
of Eternity and inspired his soul to preach and to

46

write and warn the lost of earth as he did. He
was my own true friend and brother.

He was not an extremist, nor was he a hobbyist.
as some might suppose in reading his book. Any
subject be took np he treated with the same
strong arguments and logical conclusions as the
subject before us. He would preach about
heaven and portray its glories and grandeur, un-
til you would almost imagine yourself among the
angelic host and with the redeemed who have
washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb. He would take the negative
side of a question or subject and produce one of
the strongest and most convincing arguments.
For illustration, he would take the text. "We
know that this man is a sinner " and preach the
strongest and most powerful holiness sermons.

We had the privilege of attending his camp-
meeting, held at Greenville, Pa., the first and
last camp-meeting of which he ever had the en-
tire management. There under much physical
suffering and many discouraging things to meet,
he proved himself to be a general, a leader, a
commander, who could stand in the van and in
every meeting lead a band of pilgrims to God and
victory.

The meeting was pronounced a grand success
by the oldest and most experienced who were in
attendance.

4;

I was with him in the Butler holiness conven-
tion. During one of the meetings of this conven-
tion where the two extremes of holiness teaching
were represented, the *' Popular " or mere theory,
destitute of the Spirit and power of the Holy
Ghost, and the ■'death route" to carnality by
physical suffering, our brother came to me with
the following outline, showing his (dear percep-
tion of the subject. "A candidate for holiness
must.

1st. Be (dearly converted.

2nd. Have no condemnation.

3rd. Have a definite idea of carnality.

4th. A consecration of his redeemed powers to
God.

5th. Faith or a reception of sanctifying grace

6th. Cleanness and power."

His heart and soul and life were in God's work.
He faithfully advocated the issues of our church,
and was a living witness of them. The work of
God was fulfilled in him. "He maketh his min-
isters a flame of fire." May God let his mantle
fall on some one who will take his place and fill
up the ranks.

PRINCIPAL B. H. ROBERTS.

In my experience of twenty years in the school
room it lias been my good fortune to have many
young people of deep piety under my charge.

48

IB ut in all the number there was none who for
brightness of intellect, integrity to principle, de-
motion to the work of God, excelled our Brother
Aura Showers. He came to Chili in the bloom
of youth, at the age when the world is most at-
tractive, when the natural gaiety of youth im-
pels many to frivolity. He was of a highly
-social disposition, but so thoroughly was he given
to God that he was saved alike from folly and
frivolity and from moroseness. He was pleas-
ant, cheerful, companionable, yet in all he was
devout.

He set his mark high. It was his purpose to
he a minister. The discussion, if he ever had
one, on that point was ended. Thenceforth for
him was no retreat. He then set himself to be-
come a good preacher. To that end he studied
and studied hard. Greek he mastered
thoroughly for that would help in his ministerial
work. He set himself to do a man's work and
■counted that he should one day undertake great
responsibilities for God. But he did not as so
many do, leave the day of his usefulness for God,
to dawn in the future, but in school he worked
and lived for God. So while intent on his
studies, he was at every meeting prepared to
help. Do you wonder that he had an influence
for good? He proved that it was not necessary
to let yonng associates and the pressure of school

49

life draw one from God by drawing others to
•God. Instead of letting Satan work hurt to him,
lie wrought great hurt to the satanic kingdom.

At Chili he was faithful, at Spring Arbor he
was faithful. Says one who knew him well, of
this period of his life:

" While in the above institution, his life was a
blessing to it. Being not only a faithful and in-
dustrious student, but also an active worker in
the cause of Christ, he won the respect and love
not only of his fellow students but also of the
faculty. He frequently preached in Spring Ar-
bor, and during the latter part of the year he
took an appointment at Battle Creek, Mich. He
preached faithfully in this place every Sabbath
during the remainder of the year besides doing
extra work in his studies — taking two years work
in the study of Greek in one year. Battle Creek
being the centre of the people known as Adven-
tists, he frequently came in contact with them
and their fallacious doctrine. As he learned how
wide spread it was becoming, he felt led to write
his little book entitled 'Sabbatarianism,' in
which he strongly and successfully refutes their
doctrine. Concerning this book Rev. R. W.
Hawkins wrote under date of Feb. 36, L891."

■" The author has succeeded in producing a very
valuable, and interesting book: Valuable because
of t] i .e amount of im portant information condensed

50

within so small a compass: Interesting because
of the vigorous manner in which the subject is
treated. Many persons not directly interested in
the discussion will read it because of its entertain-
ing style.

" 'As a literary work the book is a surprising
effort for so young an author. It will take its
place among the best, and gives great promise
for future productions. It will be highly prized
as a treasury of facts for ready reference, and will
doubtless accomplish great good by supplying
sincere seekers of truth with a satisfactory de-
fense of the Christian Sabbath/ "

Others have written of his ministry, but I can-
not pass without paying tribute to his marvelous
clearness as a preacher. The sermon preached at
North Chili the anniversary week of 1895 was
masterful in argument, diction and the power of
the Spirit.

What a shock it was to read, two months later
in a strange land, the words, "Brother Showers
has gone." The tie strengthens that binds us to
the other shore.

REV. WALTER A. SELLEW.

Aura Claire Showers would attract attention
in any gathering. Surface indications as to
character are usually very unreliable except to

51

the practiced observer, but Brother Showers al-
most carried his character in his face. His
mind and soul seemed to illuminate his very
features. An educated Christian lady residing
ing in Oil City, Pa., remarked at the funeral.
thai the first time she met Brother Showers on
the street she found herself so impressed with
his face that she actually turned to get a second
look at him after passing. She said that his face
impressed her as almost a revelation, remarkably
expressing a character seemingly composed of
about equal parts of intellectuality and spiritu-
ality.

Such indeed was the rare combination in his
character. He was intensely intellectual. Every-
thing was made to pass through his mind. At
times, this phase of his character seemed even to*
his friends to he almost a fault. He accepted
nothing before it had passed intellectual inspec-
tion. Things seemingly so insignificant, or so
well established by long continued acceptance
that they passed most people without exciting;
thought, were halted by the challenge of his
mind for the countersign. They must pass his
thoughtful inspection. With considerate regard
for older men, admittedly his superiors in intel-
ligence, he insisted upon doing his own thinking-
ami reasoning.

This intense intellectuality was modified by,

52

and ever blended with, a strong spirituality. In-
tellectual strength of itself is admirable, but
never lovable. It inclines to egotism, and criti-
cism. Brother Showers' spirituality surpassed
all other qualities of his nature, and was the final
arbiter in all matters. While many others with
his intellectual abilities would have been ad-
mired and feared, he was respected for his ability
and loved for his spirituality.

AURA CLAIRE SHOWERS.

III.

THE DOCTRINE

OF

future punishment,

FROM THE UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT
OF

REV. AURA CLAIRE SHOWERS.

PART I.

DOCTRINE OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT IN
RELATION TO GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER I.

RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE NECESSARY TO GOVERN-
MENT.

Jf|T HE fact of hell cannot consistently be de-
^■f nied with any concise ideas of government.

Government implies the governor and the gov-
erned. These complements could not hold their
relative positions, except by the authority of law.
Law is effective when its disregard involves,
punishment. It must be efficient enough to be
able to administer its retributions, when in its
judgment, law has been violated. Without this
inherent power, it is no protection nor encour-
agement to the lawful.

It cannot be truthfully asserted that punish-
ment is usually for reformation; for punishment,
in many cases, is simply the desert of broken law.
The penalty is inflicted for the sake of the law,
rather than for the sake of the lawless. Twesten
(Dogmatik Th. 11.) says to this point : — "Pun-
ishment is not a proper means of reformation,
for true reformation can issue only from free
self-determination. It is voluntary in its nature.
But a self-determination that is brought about

58

"by the fear of pain would not be moral and of the
nature of virtue. Furthermore, if true reforma-
tion could be produced by punishment, why
should not the legal and punitive method of the
Old Testament have been the only one ? The
•old economy was full of threatenings and penal-
ties, and fearful examples of their actual execu-
tion. Why did God send his Son, and make a
new covenant and economy of mercy? Of what
rise is redemption, or the remission of punish-
ment, if punishment is, in itself, healing and
remedial ? The Scriptures never represent pun-
ishment as reformatory. The proper punish-
ment of sin is death. (Rom. 6:23). As temporal
death, which is the extreme penalty in human
legislation, is not intended to reform the crimi-
nal, and reinstate him in human society, but for-
ever cuts him off from it, so eternal death, in the
Biblical representation, is not intended to be a
means of educating the sinner, and fitting him
for the kingdom of heaven, but forever banishes
•and excludes him from it."

This thought is too obvious to demand elabor-
ation. To allow heterogeneous peoples to under-
stand that "justice is tempered with mercy" is
to throw open the flood-gates of crime.

It is the knowledge that law is inexorable that
makes it effective. The government that prac-
tices leniency in the administration of its laws,

51)

•so as to become in repute for it, also becomes
dangerous and presages its utter subversion and
ruin. And just in proportion as individuals or
nations disbelieve in future retribution, in the
.same proportion do crime and lawlessness prevail.
Dr. Shedd (Endless Punishment) says :— "The
French people, at the close of the last century,
were a very demoralized and vicious generation,
and there was a very general disbelief and denial
of the doctrines of the Divine existence, the im-
mortality of the soul, the freedom of the will,
and future retribution. And upon a small scale,
the same fact is continually repeating itself. And
every little circle of businessmen, who are known
to deny future rewards and punishments, are
•shunned by those who desire safe investments.
The recent uncommon energy of opposition to
endless punishment, which started about ten
years ago in this country, (1875) synchronized
with great defalcations and breaches of trust, un-
common corruption in mercantile and political
life, and great distrust between man and man.
No theological tenet is more important than
eternal retribution to those modern nations
which, like England, Germany and the United
States, are growing rapidly in riches, luxury, and
earthly power."

The human family constitutes one vast govern-
ment, This government has its laws. These

60

laws are imperative. No one, as yet, has ever ob-
jected to the law of gravity, yet it as surely works
death as life.

We see, all around us, the most pitiable and
indubitable proof that law is, to our feelings,
merciless.

Many a man, by a momentary disregard of
some law known or unknown, has set in motion
a chain of circumstances which has utterly ruined
him ! In fact the force of law, in many in-
stances, only becomes apparent at the expense of
the happiness or life of some unfortunate. How
expensive are some of the lessons we have learned
concerning the law of steam or electricity !

Look at the maniac, the cripple, the idiot, the
libertine ! Look at the asylum, the hospital, the
poor house, the prison ! Do these teach us the
mercy and suavity, or the rigor of law?

This view of affairs may produce pessimists,
but optimism, which is born of error or ignorance
is fatal.

However unhandsome the thought may seem,
it is, nevertheless, true that law is more discer-
nible and government more authoritative through
the medium of their retributions than by their
benefits.

There comes associated with the very principle
of government the law of retribution. Its sever-
ity, nature and duration are not pertinent here

Ill

or now. It remains for relations and circum-
stances to give character to the answers that may
he necessary.

But to be more particular, and yet quite as
consistent, let us glance at several departments
of government in the affairs of life, and dis-
cern their teachings.

CHAPTER II.

ILLUSTRATED IN THE FAMILY.

ND first: consider domestic government or
<f£f^ the f miction of law in the home circle.
Where a moral question is not involved, the au-
thority of a father or mother is considered abso-
lute. This authority is and must be maintained
by the most effective and rigorous discipline.
The power and function to coerce an obdurate
child are the prerogatives of the parents. ' "Train
up a child in the way he should go: and when he
is old, he will not depart from it/' (Prov. 22:0) is
a wholesome admonition, though lamentably dis-
regarded.

"He that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he
that loveth him chasteneth him betimes,
(Prov. 13:24) seems corroborative of necessity for
stern methods in the correction of children.
''Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh
which corrected us. and we gave them reverence,"
is well calculated to banish the conception of ig-
nobility and harshness from paternal reproof,
and is also a stinging blow against the sentimen-

63

talism that will refuse to exercise this office of
fatherhood in wisdom.

We observe that the power that resides in the-
parents is principally for the safety and salvation
of the offspring. This, however, cannot invali-
date its force as pointing to a fundamental prin-
ciple, viz: that certain relations, even in this life,
insist that punishment is the just desert of dis-
obedience.

That parents, in the greater number of cases,
do not cut off their children from all hope of
reconciliation is not expressive of any governing-
principle in the relations of parent and child,
except simple limitation in theline of the parent's
I towers.

The relations of the earthly parent to the child
are too nearly like those relations of man to man,.
t<> admit of a final and endless breach in every
irremediable case. Were the one divine because
he is father, and the other human because he is
son, then we might expect and demand a.
more rigorous and absolute power on the part of
the parent.

One thing, however, is worthy our attention,
viz: parents exercise to the full extent their
native and delegated power, and frequently this
power leads to the entire divorcement of the child
from ilc parent.

Furthermore, it m iy ba noted, that the •future:

64

of a child is entirely in the decision of the parents.
One might think this arbitrary ; it is however an
.arbitrary fact. The immeasurable distances be-
tween the destinies of two children, even of the
.same parentage, is remarkable. And there
seems to be nothing but an arbitrary reason for the
fact that one man's children are successful and
respectable in the world and another man's child-
ren are far from it.

The thought that is frequently advanced that
an earthly father would not do thus and so, and
-especially, would not consign his children to end-
less torment, is not pertinent nor relevant, for it
is not an earthly parent's prerogative.

Nor does he understand the relative or intrin-
sic heinousness of sin or disobedience. It is also
a fact that the analogy of an earthly parent is not
traceable in every point up to the heavenly
father. As long as there is an analogy in the re-
lations of the earthly and heavenly parent, it is
safe to reason from one to the other. But in try-
ing to make what an earthly parent does in some
oases, the rule by which the heavenly father is
to act in air instances is extremely illogical and
absurd. The fact that a father weakens in a
given crisis, and is unable to extend his punish-
ments may be both wise and salutary. But to
call his weakness goodness is a misnomer.

James Freeman Clark, in using the "fatherhood

65

of God" argument says:— "If God is a father, he
is at least as good as the best earthly father."

To which we reply : that the essential errors in
this argument are the assumption that because a
man does some things under certain circumstan-
stances,theref< >re God will do likewise ; and also the
assumption that God's ''fatherhood" includes no
higher functions than man's. If one will but
oast his eyes about him, he will not be long in
discovering that God. as our father, does many
things from which our earthly parent shrinks in
weakness and horror.

Sufficient for the present line of argument is the
indubitable fact that domestic government im-
plies the authority of the parent and the obedi-
ence of the child. Where there is no authority
in the parent, it is because he is unfitted for this
august relation, and where authority reigns, dis-
obedience is followed by punishment, and this
punishment is commended by the good sense of
both parent and child, and the enlightened of
the community.

Calvin Townsend says: — "This was the first
and the oldest human government. It is family
government, or that form exercised by the father
over his family. From the necessary relations
of a father to his household, this kind of
government is founded in nature. It existed
from the earliest before ages, long states and

66

nations were known, and while there were but
few inhabitants on the earth. It was the only
form until several centuries after the flood.
Strictly speaking, it lies at the foundation of all
good government. When every father becomes
a true patriarch at home, the national security
will rest on the moral sense and intelligence of
the people." (Civ. Gov. pp. 3—4.)

CHAPTER III.

APPLIED IN CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

HE second department of the discussion per-
tains t<> the power of the state or nation; and
is properly known as Civil Government.

"The sovereign of a nation governs the people
of whom it is constituted. No nation could ex-
ist, as such, for a single month without orga-
nized government in some form or other.

t; No citizen could enforce his rights to security*
of property and personal safety against the at-
tacks of the vicious and depraved. He would
not be safe under his own roof, but would be in-
constant danger while sleeping in his own bed,,
and reposing on his own pillow.

This would be a condition of fearful anarchy..
Under such a state of things, no person could
feel the least interest in the accumulation of pro-
perty; for it would be sure to be wrested from him
by the hands of thieves and robbers. He could
feel no incentive to the cultivation of fields and
gardens; for they would be despoiled by ruthless
vandals and reckless marauders. Without the
power of government in some organized form,.

68

the sufferers from such outrages could obtain no
redress, except through those retaliatory meas-
ures that must lead to anarchy and bloodshed
among the parties concerned. There would be
no tribunal by which to try, condemn, and by
whose authority to punish such offenders. The
weak must surrender to the strong, and right
must give way to might. Mere physical force
and brutality would triumph over justice and
reason. The strong man, like the strong beast
•of the forest, would be king among his kindred.
But under the authority of good government,
the bad man however gigantic in form and
strength, may be restrained in his vices, and
punished for his crimes.'' Townsend. (Civil
(Government.)

The fact and authority of civil government are
before us. Its necessity and wholesomeness are
presumptively proved by its presence. Nothing
is more evident than that, without effective laws,
no government can exist successfully. And ef-
fective laws are those, in the violation of which,
there is the forfeiture of the opportunity, for a
greater or less time, for committing the same
transgression again. As the power to exercise
law becomes more comprehensive, so also does
th£ penalty become more absolute and final.

Just as the administration of God's judgments
are surer than those of civil penalty, so civil pun-

69

ishment is more absolute than chastening, result-
ing from disobedience to parents. But, however,
given a clear case, and allowing justice to take
its course, the results of violated law are usually
administered. The lessons to be learned from
civil government are forceful as far as the penal-
ties are founded upon righteousness, and compre-
hend the motive from which action springs, as
well as the object toward which violence is directed.
The sphere of civil government is limited. It
pretends to deal, not so much with motives, as
with fact.

"Earthly courts and judges look at the trans-
gression of law, with reference to man's temporal
relations, not his eternal. Thev punish an of-
fence as a crime against the state, not as a sin
against God. Neither do they look into the
human heart, and estimate crime in its absolute
and intrinsic nature, as does the Searcher of
Hearts and the Omniscient Judge.

A human tribunal punishes maiming, we will
say, with six months imprisonment, because it
does not take into consideratien either the mali-
cious and wicked anger that prompts the maim-
ing, or the dishonor done to the Supreme being
by the transgression of his commandment.'' Dr.
Sliced. (Endless Punishment.)

Says Paley (Moral Philosophy) ''Human laws
omit many duties, such as piety to God, bounty

70

to the poor, forgiveness of injuries, education of
children, gratitude to benefactors. And they
permit, or, which is the same thing, suffer to go
unpunished, many crimes, such as luxury, prodi-
gality, caprice in the disposition of property by
will, disrespect to parents, and a multitude of
similar examples."

Where civil crime is allowed to go unpunished
it is obviously because of some circumstance
that is never regarded as giving a precedent nor
rule by which a similar case should be decided.
Where there is satisfactory evidence of crime,
and justice is allowed its course, the penalty of
broken lawT must be experienced by the violator.

This is so true and evident that it hardly needs
proof. Yet the evidence is so common-place,
and the truth so easily and forcibly attested that
reference to the facts may go far to confirm a
criminal are not sufficient motives to lead to his
release or pardon. There must be more than a
feeling of commiseration for an unfortunate law-
breaker. One needs a lively sense of the fact
that the government, and its laws must be pre-
served. Also the dutiful and law-abiding have
rights that are disregarded in the liberation of
him who is a criminal.

Our penitentaries forcibly proclaim the whole-
sorneness of retribution. Our county jails are a
menace to the lawless. Our houses for correc-

71

tion and "work-houses" are unequivocal in their
testimony as to the necessity, hence legitimacy,
of rendering due punishment to the guilty and
offending. No palliating circumstances can mit-
igate against this use of law. He may have
been intoxicated, he may have inherited a dis-
position to steal, he may have been thrown
into society, that, but too surely developed his
latent iniquity and lawlessness, yet the law holds
the offender guilty as a criminal. And this
disposition to bring the criminal to account can
never be criticised as unfeeling or unnatural. No
one can reasonably suppose that the penalty ex-
presses a disposition to hate the offender. Love
for rectitude, and the protection of the law-abid-
ing, may be the greatest necessity in the case.
Rev. John W. Haley, M. A., says " Tiie jailor,
as he locks the door of the dungeon, feels com-
passion for the prisoner, but may not interfere
with the course of justice, or endanger the wel-
fare of society, by suffering the culprit to escape.
We can easily see that leniency to the criminal
might prove the greatest cruelty to the innocent.
The judge, as he puts on the "black-cap," to
pronounce sentence of death upon a human be-
ing, is not infrequently moved to tears; still his
duty toward the public will not permit him to
let the murderer go free. There are other, and
far weightier, considerations than the mere emo-

72

tion of pity. The needful sanctions of the law,
the welfare of society, the interests of the inno-
cent and unprotected, the prevention of crime, —
all these motives constrain the judge to pro-
nounce the dread sentence. And, be it remem-
bered, the penalty is not inflicted as revenge.
It is simply "the necessary exponent of the
law. Without it, the law would be a dead letter.
On the same principle we shut up evil-doers in
penitentaries, and infected persons in pest-houses,
for the public good. "

Nor are all the punishments of the civil law
for the reformation of the lawless. Some pun-
ishments do not recognize the possibility nor
probability of reform. If the man, who is incar-
cerated for the term of life, expects to reform,
the penalty for his crime is, however, of such
duration as not to allow his reformation to be-
come socially nor legally possible. And the in-
dividual who " hangs by the neck till he is dead5'
is wholly cut off from the hope of any sort of re -
formation.

These last instances indicate that the people
see no inconsistency, nor injustice, in rendering-
such extreme punishment as to cut off all hope
for reformation.

It is also the recorded testimony of centuries
that all punishment is not for the sake of the
punished. And, since the infliction of death is

73

the crisis attained in the punishment of lawless-
ness, it must include the greatest number of in-
centives to good, and the most successful manner
of dealing with the crime of which the death
penalty is the result, It plainly declares that
some kinds of sin are so heinous as to launch
their perpetrators beyond the hope or advisability
of repentance.

The penalty for murder in the first degree in
each of the states and territories, in the United
States, with the exception of about three, is death
by hanging. In New York it is death by elec-
trocution, and in Michigan (1890) imprisonment
for life. Hon. R. F. Glenn says:—" In all states.
and territories the penalty (for murder in the
first degree) is the permanent retiring of the
criminal from society" (1894).

The preservation of the law, and the welfare'
of society, demand the payment of the penalty at
the hands of the criminal. And who will assert
that the death penalty is undeserved or unreason-
able. The possibility of reformation and effect-
ive repentance has been eliminated, and the only
consolation the criminal has is the fact that his.
government punishes crime and rewards virtue.
That there is an analogy between physical death,
as a penalty for crime, and eternal death, as the-
wanes of sin, is fearfully true. The technical
make-shift that there is a difference between

74

being eternally punished, and being in a state or
•condition where one suffers conscious punish-
ment eternally is most unworthy and absurd.
Neither physical death, as a penalty, nor eternal
death as the wages of sin, introduce their victims
into a state of unconscious punishment. Did the
murderer believe the extinction of physical life
terminated the sufferings due his crime, he
would seek rather than avoid it. The thought
that the last stroke of earthly vengeance and law
launches him into a condition and place where he
will just begin to realize the lashings of con-
science and feel the repugnance of defamed vir-
tue, goes far to make death a penalty more near-
ly suited to his crime, and also the analogy to
the " wages of sin."

Carlyle says: — "On the whole we are not here
altogether to tolerate. We do not tolerate False-
hoods, Thieveries, Iniquities, — we say to them,
'Thou art not tolerable ! We are here to extin-
guish falsehoods, and put an end to them in
some wise way. Tolerance has to be just in its
very wrath, when it can tolerate no longer."

It is only a morbid sentimentality, entirely at
variance with what we see interwoven with the
whole web of existence, which prompts one to ig-
nore this essential condition of things. A vacil-
lating prince in a time of impending revolt, or
.an irresolute judge in the face of defiant crimin-

als, is not a friend, but the worst enemy society
can have. To compromise, then, is no exhibi-
tion of the genuine quality of mercy. It is con-
fession of weakness, and worse — it is deliberately
<l unchaining the tiger." And herein lies the ne-
cessity of the irrevocableness of future judg-
ment. There can, then, be no weakening in the
un bending decisiveness of Him who sitteth on
the throne, which will not send a shudder of dis-
location through the moral bonds of immensity.
Do not our State governments immure criminals
for life? May not punishment continue as long
as sinning? Why, then, may it not be true that
the Supreme Governor of the Universe may im-
mure in the State Prison of the Universe, such as
cannot be permitted to go at large without jeop-
ardizing the order, harmony, peace, and happi-
ness of the Universe?" (Doom Eternal).

CHAPTER IV.

MANIFESTED IN THE GOVERNMENT OF GOJX

V||.j HE Government of God will next occupy
^P our attention. It is with reverence that Ave
would speak of the ' ' ways of God. " He is a Gov-
ernor as certainly as He is a Father. He has
His laws with appropriate penalties attached to
their disregard. What He does is right. We
cannot reason to Him. We must content our-
selves to reason from Him. Our surest knowl-
edge of His judgments must come through His
revelation. There we discern that "justice and
judgment are the habitations of his throne."

He is described by inany expressions which
prove Him to be a Law-Giver. The history of
God's ways with the children of men is also a
history of law. The human family, and particu-
larly that nation which was the chosen medium
of His truth, know God as a law-abiding and
law-exacting being.

The first stroke of the inspired pen gives us an
account of man legally related to God. If mercy
is the enemy of justice, there can be no explana-
tion to the death penalty pronounced upon

Adam. Eliminate the principle of law and we
say, \vitlmut hesitancy, that God could moreeasily
have avoided the death penalty than by a
vicarious atonement.

We assume to believe, that, if some one of
those who are "wise above what is written,"
had been consulted in the adjustment of the
catastrophe that involved the death sentence they
would either have had to reconstruct legal usage,
or change their present ideas of God.

We speak of the inevitable. We usually re-
late this to impotence of a human sort, but we
can easily see in the fall of Adam a divine in-
evit ible that argues no intelligent impotence,
but expresses free-will and justice. We are not
warranted in assuming that Adam and Eve were
cognizant of the extent nor import of the penalty
they incurred till its weight fell upon them.

God's requirement in this case was positive.
ii The nature of the prohibition made to Adam
has been considered by some as a ground of seri-
ous complaint against the divine administration.
In reference to this prohibition, it may be ob-
served, that the objection is not that man was
placed under a law — the propriety of this, all
who acknowledge that he was constitute 1 a moral
agent, must admit, but the ground of com-
plaint is against the peculiar character of the
law. ''What harm could there be in eating an

78

apple, " it is asked, " that our first parents should
be placed under so strict and unreasonable a
restraint ?"

To this we reply that we can see no just reason
for complaint, because the prohibition was what
has been termed, not a moral, but a positive pre-
cept. In reference to moral precepts, it must be
admitted that the reasonableness of the duty is
not, in every case, equally obvious. May we not
therefore infer that, in positive precepts, a suffi-
cient reason for them may exist, in the mind of
God, which, in consequence of the weakness of
our understanding, we cannot perceive? That
our minds do not perceive the reason upon which
a command is founded, cannot possibly be an
evidence that no such reason exists, with any
who admit the finiteness of the human under-
standing. Therefore, to object to the prohibi-
tion as unreasonable, because we do not perceive
the reason upon which it is founded, is seen to
be fallacious." T. N. Ralston, D. D.

Adam disobeyed, and the penalty was inflicted.
Six thousand years have witnessed the withering,,
baneful effects of one sin.

If God has not been moved by the hopeless
condition, and pitiless cries of His children — He
is no God of love! And yet He has never re-
voked His pristine decision to manifest that love.

He that offendeth in one point is guilty of

70

the whole, is a New Testament interpretation
of the same principle that led God to pronounce
the curse on Adam and Eve, and, through them
on their posterity. At present we do not assume
to decide upon the nature of the penalty inflicted
upon Adam. We simply call attention to the
fact that Adam, without the complete knowledge
we now have of divine jurisprudence, severed
himself and his posterity from God by his first
offence— and the friends of the Gospel have
never regarded this act of justice as questionable.

Kant says: " The notion of ill-desert and pun-
ishableness, is necessarily implied in the idea of
voluntary transgression; and the idea of punish-
ment excludes that of happiness in all its forms.
In every instance of punishment, properly so
called, justice is the very first thing, and consti-
tutes the essence of it. All that he (the criminal)
deserves is punishment, and that is all that he-
can expect from the law which he has trans-
gressed."

The principal modern advocates who claim
that punishment is based upon expediency and
utility are Beccaria and Bentham. Dr. Shedd
tells us that from these writers this theory has-
passed considerably into jurisprudence, and Aus-
tin, a popular writer on law, follows Bentham.
He further states that the theory which founds
punishment upon justice, which evidently is the

80

Scriptural theory, is quite historical, and has for
its devotees the following galaxy of worthy
names: Plato (Laws X. 904. 005), Cicero (De
Legibus 1.14 sg\). Grotius and the great English
jurists, Coke Bacon. Selden and Blackstone: also
Kant, Herbert, Stahl, Hortenstein, Rothe and
Woolsey define punishment as the satisfaction of
law and justice. To found the law of punish-
ment on any other than the principle of justice
is to practically concede its entire uselessness.
The theory that punishment is necessary simply
as an example, and for the moral improvement
of others, is not intelligent. " Suppose that
there were but one person in the universe. If he
•should transgress the law of God, then, upon the
principle of expediency as the ground of penalty
this solitary subject of moral government could
not be punished — that is, visited with a suffering
that is purely retributive, and not exemplary or
corrective. His act has not injured the public,
for there is no public. There is no need
of his suffering as an example to deter
others. But upon the principle of justice
in distinction from expediency, this solitary
subject of moral government could be punished."
That this case of Adam is not thus severe,
simply as a precedent, warning men to fear God
in the future is very evident from the fact that
'God has repeated Himself in numerous subse-

81

quent acts and regulations, harmonious with this
first disposition.

Notice again, as corroborative of our position,
the case of the Sabbath breaker which, if possible,
is still more personally severe than Adam's pun-
ishment. "And while the children of Israel
were in the wilderness, they found a man that
gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. And they
that found him gathering sticks brought him
unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congre-
gation. And they put him in ward, because it
was not declared what should be done to him.
And the Lord said unto Moses, the man shall
be surely put to death: all the congregation shall
stone him with stones without the camp. And
all the congregation brought him without the
camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died:
as the Lord commanded Moses." — Num. 15:32-36.
The following considerations appear from the
foregoing case:

First, it is noticeable that the crime i-s hu-
manly disproportionate to the penalty.

Second, God decides upon the relative heinous-
ness of the offence.

Third, the penalty precludes the possible chance
for practical repentance.

Fourth, the congregation acquiesces in the de-
cision, and inflicts the penalty.

We will not now discuss the merits or demerit

82

of this incident. It stands as an exponent of the-
divine economy, as it appertains to offences-
against God's government.

The following excerpt is taken from the book
of Leviticus, as showing the divine attitude to-
wards a transgressing nation as surely as towards
an individual. "But if ye will not hearken unto
me. and will not do all these commandments; and
if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your souL
abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all
my commandments, but that ye break my cove-
nant: I also will do this unto you: I will even ap-
point over you terror, consumption, and burning
ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause
sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed ia
vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I wilL
set my face against you and ye shall be slain
before your enemies: they that hate you shall
reign over you. and ye shall flee when none pur-
sueth you. And if ye will not yet for all this
hearken unto me; then I will punish you seven
times more for your sins. And I will break the
pride of your power; and I will make your heaven
as iron, and your earth as brass: and your
strength shall be spent in vain: for your land
shall not yield her increase, neither shall the
trees of the land yield their fruits. And if ye
walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto-
me, I will also send wild beasts among you, which

83

shall rob you of your children, and destroy your
cattle, and make you few in number; and your
highways shall be desolate. And if ye will not
be reformed by these things but will walk con-
trary unto me, then will I also walk contrary
unto you, and will punish you yet seven times-
for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon
you, that shall a vrenge the quarrel of my cove-
nant: and when ye are gathered together within
your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; .
and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the
enemy. And when I have broken the staff of"
your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in
one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread
again by weight: and ye shall eat and not be sat-
isfied. And if ye will not for all this hearken
unto me, but walk contrary unto me; then I will
walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I,
even I, will chastise you seven times for your
sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons,
and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
And I will destroy your high places, and cut
down your images, and cast your carcasses upon
the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall
abhor you. And I will make your eities waste,
and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and
I will not smell the savor of your sweet odours.
And I will bring the land into desolation: and
your enemies which dwell therein shall be aston-

84

islied at it. And I will scatter you among the
heathen, and I will draw out a sword after you:
and your land shall be desolate, and your cities
waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths,
as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your
enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and
enjoy her Sabbaths. As long as it did not rest
in your Sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it. And
upon them that are left alive of you I will send
faintness into their hearts in the lands of their
enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall
-chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a
a- sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
And they shall fall one upon another, as it were
"before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall
have no power to stand before your enemies.
And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the
land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they
that are left of you shall pine away in their ini-
quity in your enemies' lands; and also in the ini-
quities of their fathers shall they pine away with
them."

The foregoing description of the manner in
which God treats offenders against His law
challenges the most fanciful imagination. There
is the utter absence of apology or explanation.
That God has acted in the manner just described
by his own words should, at least, fill his
creatures with fear, that under similar circum-

85

stances He mighl do the same, and still not for-
feit His fatherhood nor love.

The familar story of Sodom and Gomorrah is
well at hand: demonstrative of the authority ex-
ercised by the Divine One against the impudent
and impenitent. Sodom and Gomorrah have
beennsedas figures and synonyms to represent
the most reprehensible characteristics and sins.
The denunciation of the prophet Isaiah against an
apostate church is fitly represented in the follow-
ing words: " Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers
of Sodom: give ear unto the law of our God, ye
people of Gomorrah," and then denouncing in
forcible language their mock worship, he closes
with this significent passage: "And when ye
spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes
from you; yea, when ye make many prayers. I
will not hear: your hands are full of blood.'-*
Nor is the case in need of any private interpreta-
tion, or special pleading. No phase of New Tes-
tament truth stands against it. The Holy Spirit
with unbiased wisdom used the case of Sodom and
Gomorrah in its appropriate sense. The apostle
known as " Jude the servant of Jesus Christ"
bases a fundamental argument upon the very
case under consideration. Writing to those who
■'are sanctified by God the Father" he says:
" For there are certain men crept in unawares,
who were before of old ordained to this condem-

86

nation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our
God into lasciviousness, and denying the only
Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will
therefore put you in remembrance, though ye
once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved
the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward
destroyed them that believed not. And the
angels which kept not their first estate, but left
their own habitation, he hath reserved in ever-
lasting chains under darkness unto the judgment
of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah,
and the cities about them in like manner, giving
themselves over to fornication, and going after
strange flesh, are set forth for an example,
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." (Jude
4-7).

Whatever may be the truth behind the scenes,
Jude, evidently, holds to the orthodox opinion
concerning God's right to punish eternally those,
who in His judgment deserve and merit it.

So far we have been dealing with the Old Tes-
tament. We now turn to the New Testament for
further evidence. The opinion may be obtaining,
in some quarters, that the adherents to the doc-
trine of endless punishment are forced to the Old
Testament for most of their proof. We wish to
disabuse the minds of our readers of this opinion.
One of the most prominent and authoritative
passages, establishing the law of punishment and

87

principle of retribution in God. is found in Acts,
chapter 5, verses 1-11. "But a certain man
named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a
possession, and kept hack part of the price, his
wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain
part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter,
said, Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part
of the price of the land? While it remained,
was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was
it not in thine own power? why hast thou con-
ceived this thing in thine heart ? thou hast not
lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias
hearing these words fell down, and gave up the
.ghost: and great fear came on all them that
heard these things. And the young men arose,
wound him up, and carried him out, and buried
him. And it was about the space of three hours
after, when his wife, not knowing what was
•done came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell
me whether ye sold the land for so much? And
she said, Yea, for so much: Then Peter said
nnto her, How is it that ye have agreed together
to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the
feet of them which have buried thy husband are
at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell
she down straight-way at his feet, and yielded
Tip the ghost: and the young men came in, and
found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried

88

lier by her husband. And great fear came upon
all the church, and upon as many as heard these
things."

That God will inflict retributive punishment,
is evident from the following Scriptures, Rom.
12:10 "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith
the Lord. " 11 Thess. 1:7, 8, "The Lord Jesus,
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on
them that know not God, and that obey not the;
Gospel." Rom. 2:0, 8, 9, " Who will render to
every man according to his deeds: unto them that,
are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but
obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,,
tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man
that doeth evil."

PART II.

TESTIMONY OF HEATHEN, JEWISH ANI>
CHRISTIAN WRITERS.

CHAPTER I.

NON-CHRISTIAN BELIEFS.

jfl HE consideration of a theme so great as eter-
^T nal doom must, of necessity, liave in it an
interest second to no other question pertaining
to human destiny. If there be the fact of hell,
it cannot be incidental and secondary. It must
be fundamentally important. Neither can it
reasonably be a fact hidden beneath the surface,
only obtainable by abstruse metaphysics and
syllogistic reasonings.

We might, therefore, expect to find the con-
ception of it woven into the woof and fibre of
the universe, and also a possession of the native
mind, safely intrenched in the fastnesses of axio-
matic truths. To know that a belief in some
sort of future retribution has been the rule of the
world, is significant. It seems to say that
human intelligences are so constructed as to de-
mand it, and, also that such a general tendency
to this belief is presumptive proof of its neces-
sity, truthfulness and legitimacy.

A thought so repulsiye to the sinner, as eternal
misery, would meet with immediate denial, if

92

simple sentimentalism were to decide the ques-
tion.

It lias been urged that the single fact that
mankind, in all ages, have believed in future1
punishment is no argument in its favor, and does;
not prove it to be a tenable position. It is saidl
that mankind have also regarded, with favor,,
other beliefs and tenets quite contrary to logic
and revelation.

We grant the force of this argument on gen-
eral grounds, but are quite unwilling to admit
its potency when applied to the question of
future retribution.

The heart of man is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. We cannot grant the
hypothesis that mankind would have fallen into-
the error of believing in a place of future tor-
ment; for the very feelings of the depraved-
heart would be interested in its overthrow.

Look around you, and see who those are who
reject the doctrine of future punishment. Are
they persons who have a concise and profound
regard for God's law, and maintain a holy walk
with God ? We fear the answer to this question
would be embarassing.

A general belief in heaven might easily have
taken possession of mankind; for their selfishness
might have impelled them toward its reception.
But it would be an anomaly of unparalleled sur-

93

5>rise to find men transmitting, from age to age,
the knowledge of a truth, the outcome of which
would be their ruin in a world of outer darkness
—when such knowledge is falsely based, and
supported by a fanciful imagination! If we are
to interpret the facts of mankind, we must do so
in keeping with the laws governing men's
thoughts, beliefs, and actions. And until we
know thai men have a selfish interest and pur-
pose in the propaganda of the doctrineof endless
doom, we must believe that such propaganda is
the result, not of selfish choice and human error,
but is the resultant of an inevitable that controls
them, and causes even "the wrath of man" to
praise God.

Rev. J. B. Reimensnyder aptly says:—" Assur-
edly, them there can be nothing repugnant in
this doctrine to the moral intuition of mankind,
if, without any other light than that which
shone forth from the temple within, the race yet
felt constrained to acknowledge and adopt it!
But rather does this affirmation of the eternity
of future punishment by the non-Christian reli-
gions of antiquity, prove that it is one of those
generic truths going down to the foundations of
human thought— one of those necessary ideas
irresistibly demanded by the rational constitution
•of man— one of those great luminaries of natural
religion, whose rays, even amid all the benight-

94

ing effects of the fall, have still not altogether
vanished from the sky. And this significant
fact should imbue with becoming modesty those
who are wont so confidently to obtrude what they
unwarrantedly assume to be the innate voice of
reason upon this problem, but which really is
their perverted view of it. For this admitted
intuition of the heathen world demonstrates
clearly that the verdict of the universal con-
sciousness sustains the view propounded by reve-
lation. "

We will adduce some facts concerning the
belief of the non-Christian religions, in support
of the foregoing statement. These statements
cover the belief of the Hindoos, Egyptians,
Romans and Greeks, etc.

' ' Among the ancient Egyptians this doctrine
(eternal punishment) found impersonation in the
deity, Osiris, who is represented in their works of
sacred art as sitting upon a judgment seat in the
realms below, allotting their respective destiny
to departed spirits. Having weighed each heart
in his inexorable scales, he thereupon sent the
wicked to regions of perpetual darkness, but the
virtuous, having first been permitted to drink of
the water of immortal youth, which distilled like
dew from the tree of life eternal, were admitted
to the realm of light and the gods" (Religions
before Christ).

The faith of the Greeks and the Romans is.

05

Clear and well defined, and if their writings are
consulted, they bear unmistakable testimony as
to the fact of future rewards and punishment.

•' Tartarus, their fabled place of punishment
in the future world, the prison in which the
wicked suffered for their misdeeds, was, accord-
ing to their system, characterized by 'eternal
gloom and darkness.'" (Keightley's Classical
Mythology).

" The very names of the rivers, whose mourn-
ful tides washed this dark abode, as Acheron,
river of 'eternal woe.' Pyriphlegethon, stream
of 'fire,' Cocytos, river of 'weeping and wail-
ing,' indicated this inexorableness in a manner
quite as strong as that of any express terms"
(Manual of Mythology, art. Hades, p. 59).

Prof. Tayler Lewis thus describes the rigor and
certainty of the Grecian and Roman justice..
** The moral aspect (of classical mythology) may
be seen in many of the epithets of Zeus employed
by Homer and the Grecian tragic poets. It is
strongly manifested in that whole department of
mythology which has reference to the infernal
deities. It appears in the striking personifica-
tions of Nemesis, of Adrasta, or the Inescapable,
and of the ancient Themis, who is ever repre-
sented with the sword and scales, and sitting at.
the right hand of eternal justice in the heavens..
It shows itself in the mythology of the Destinies }

OG

-and in that Grecian doctrine of Fate, which had
far more the aspect of a stern moral degree, than
of a physical necessity.

" Moipa, as well as the Latin Fatum, was the posi-
tive divine degree, the inexorable law of a^, in-
flicting wretchedness, and coming down with
immutable and unrelenting severity."

Justin Martyr says: "When we assert de-
parted souls to be in a state sensibility, and the
wicked to be in torments, but the good free from
pain in a blissful condition, we assert no more
than do your poets and philosophers. "

The doctrine of eternal woe is expressly stated
by the Greek and Latin writers.

Cicero used the expression "sempiternum
malum,'' and Lucretius used the expression
"mors immortal is," and a distinguished Grecian
historian thus speaks : ' ' Great offenders are
doomed to a kind of suffering most in accordance
with the character of the infernal realms, to the
torment of unavailing toil, and unsatisfied long-
ings. A more tremendous prison, removed as
far below hades as earth is from heaven, was
reserved for the audacious enemies of Jupiter,
the abyss of Tartarus, fast secured with iron
gates and a brazen floor/' (Thirl wall).

The foregoing excerpts are transcribed from
Keimensnyder.

Mohammed says: — "Those who believe not

97

have garments of fire fitted to them; boiling
water shall be poured on their heads; their
bowels shall be dissolved thereby, and also their
skin; and they shall be beaten with maces of iron.
So often as they shall endeavor to get out of hell
because of the anguish of their torments, they
shall be dragged back into the same, and their
tormentors shall say, " Taste ye the pains of
burning. " Koran, ch. XXII. Also, " It shall
be said unto them. Go ye into punishment which
ye denied as a falsehood: go ye into the smoke of
hell, which shall arise in three volumes, and
shall not shade you from the heat, neither shall
it be of service against the flame: but it shall
cast forth sparks as big as towers, resembling
yellow camels in color.'' Koran, ch. XXVII.
(Quoted from Evidences of Christianity by Hop-
kins p. 83.)

: We also add to the testimony already given
.some estimable and worthy corroborative infor-
mation, which ought,, to the candid reader, to put
this feature of the question in such a relation to
the great facts that go to make a proof, as will
forever settle the attitude of the non-Christian
religions.

" I remark, moreover, that the heathen had no
apprehension of deliverance from Tartarus.
Tantalus, Sisyphus, Ixion, and all others sent

98

there, were doomed to endless punishment, in the
view of the Greeks and the Romans." (Exegeti-
cal Essays). — Prof. Stuart.

" These things then being so, as soon as the
dead arrive at that region whither his daemon
carries each ****** those who appear to be
incurable on account of their enormous offences,
who have committed either many and flagrant
sacrileges, or many murders in contempt of jus-
tice and the law, or any other similar crimes —
those a suitable destiny precipitates into Tartarus-
whence they never at any time come forth." —
Phaedo, p. 110.

"And this is like the opinion of the Greeks,
that good souls have their habitations beyond
the ocean, in a region that is neither oppressed
with storms of rain, or snow, or with intense
heat, but that this place is such as is refreshed
by the gentle breathing of a west wind, that is
perpetually blowing from the ocean; while they
allot to bad souls a dark and tempestuous den,
full of never ceasing punishments. And indeed
the Greeks seem to me to have followed the same
notion, when they allot the islands of the blessed
to their brave men, whom they call heroes and
demi gods; and to the souls of the wicked, the
region of the ungodly, in Hades, where their
fables relate that certain persons, such as Sisy-
X>hus, and Tantalus, and Ixion, and Tityus, are

99

punished; * * * and thence are those exhorta-
tions to virtue, and dehortations from wicked-
ness collected; whereby good men are bettered
in the conduct of their life, by the hope they
have of reward after their death, and whereby
the vehement inclinations of bad men to vice are
restrained, by the fear and expectation they are*
in, that although they should lie concealed in
this life, they should suffer immortal punishment
after their death." — Josephus, (Wars Bk. II. ch.

VIII).

Even E. Plumptre, D. D., whose book en-
titled ''Spirits in Prison," written in the
interest of the " wider hope." bears testimony to
the Egyptian belief in future retribution. £[e
says; (p.- 35,36): — ktThe fact that the judgments
of that unseen future were conspicuously promi-
nent in the religious system of the people
(Egyptians) in whose wisdom the Hebrew law-
giver had been trained, introduces a new element
into the problem, and may, perhaps, give the*
key to its solution. k The Ritual of the Dead/ the
sculptures and paintings which it interprets for
us. show what was the belief of every Egyptian.
When he died his soul was carried over the wat-
ers of the dark river to Arnenti, the land of the
dead. It appeared before Osiris as its judge, and
wTas compelled to confess its sins. Its good and

100

evil deeds were weighed in the balance and its
fate determined according to its deserts."

William Barrows. D.D.. in Purgatory, says: —
'"The ancient Egyptians were fully persuaded
of a life beyond the present, and a life, too,
affected by discriminating rewards and punish-
ments." Concerning the Hindoo belief Ward
says: — "The Hindoos in general manifest great
fear of future punishment. Sometimes, after
•committing a dreadful sin, these fears are
expressed to a friend in some such words as
these: ' I have committed a shocking crime, and
I must endure great and long-continued torments,
but what can I do? There is no remedy now/
^Sometimes these fears are so great that they
•drive a man to p>erform many works of merit,
particularly works of atonement.'*' (Quoted in
Purgatory).

We get a very fair idea of the expectation of
the Hindoo sinner from an excerpt in Allen's
India p. 410.-111. The passage is as follows: —
"They have to travel six hundred and eighty-
eight thousand miles to the court of Yama (the
judge of the dead). In some places the road
consists of stones, mud and sand, burning hot
showers of sharp instruments, burning cinders,
and scalding water fall upon them. They fall
into concealed wells, grope their way through
darkness, and meet tigers and other dreaded

101

animals. At length they arrive at the court of
Varna whose appearance is terrible; his height is
two hundred and forty miles, the hairs of his
body are as long as a palm-tree, his voice is as
lond as thunder, his eyes send out flames of fire,
and the noise of his breathing is like a roaring
tempest. His conduct towards them corresponds
to his terrible appearance." (Purgatory p. L50).
The Zoroaster system reveals the following
belief. Rawlinson says: "Immediately after
death, the souls of men, both good and bad, pro-
ceed together along an appointed path to 'the
bridge of the gathering." Chinvat. This was a
narrow road conducting to heaven, or paradise.
over which the souls of the pious alone could
pass, while the wicked fell from it into the gulf
below, where they found themselves in the place
of punishment." (Quoted in Purgatory).

" Of all religions in the world." says S. Lane-
Poole," Islam is the most uncompromising in its
conception of hell.*'

The peculiar ideas of the Muslim are expressed
quite graphically in the "torture of the grave."'
called the Azab el Kobr.

The following questions are propounded to an
infidel. " Who is thy Lord?" he answers. "Alas,
alas! I know not." "What is thy religion?"
"Alas, alas! I know not:" "What of the
apostle who was sent to thee?" "Alas, alas!

102

I know not." Then a voice from heaven cries
out, and says, "He lieth: therefore spread him
a bed of fire, and open the door toward Hell."
Then a devil with a hideous face looks in at him,
and says, " I am thy foul actions," and the
doomed man exclaims, "O Lord, delay the res-
urrection !" (Mishkat 1, 40, H67).

When the judgment is ready, and the trumpet
is sounded and all mankind are gathered "like
scattered moths," then Gabriel stands before the
Bridge with his scales to weigh good and evil
actions. The following poetical strain from the
Koran, ch. 101, expresses the result:

"Then as tor him whose scales are heavy,

His shall be a life well-pleasing;

And as for him whose scales are light,

His abode shall be in the Bottomless Pit.

And what shall teach thee what that is?

" A raging Fire! "

The judgment having ended, and the infidel's
doom having been sealed, the following com-
mand is given: "Take him and chain him,
then into Hell thrust him to be burned." (Kor.
63, 35).

Lane-Poole further remarks that " the keepers
chain him with a chain of seventy cubits. They
thrust him, they drag him on the face, they
seize him by the forelock and feet, and force him
upon the fatal Bridge, over which the righteous
are running so lightly and easily: and down he

103

falls into the Fire, while they pour scalding
water over his skull. One after another the
wicked tumble into Hell, till the angels cry out
to it, " Art thou full ?" and Hell answers, " Are

there more ?"

Then begin the torments that never cease; the
burning that ever brands but consumes not; the
everlasting eating of the thorny bitter fruit of
the Zakkum,the tree of Hell, whose apples are like
devils skulls; the drinking of gore and horrible
corruption, like "dregs of oil surging up within."
The following places in the Koran can be con-
sulted as giving information, according to Lane-
Poole, on this question: — Koran, 38:57; 73:12;
104:5; 01:40; 43:74; 74:27: 78:21; 88:3.

To close this reference to the Muslim belief it
is necessary to add that the Ijma, or recorded
consensus of belief, is explicit as to the endless-
ness of the punishments the faith teaches.

For proof of this see Sell's " Faith of Islam,"
p. 1G0, where El Barkami is quoted as saying:
''It is necessary to acknowledge that the tor-
ments of the tomb are real and certain, and that
Munkar and Nekir will come and examine the
dead; that all living things will die * * * that the
unbelievers and devils will remain for ever in Hell
in torment by serpents, and scorpions, and fire,
and scalding water; their bodies will burn into
coal, and God will revive them so that they may
suffer fresh torments. This will last forever."

CHAPTER II.

JEWISH BELIEFS.

E come now to consider the attitude the
^ LL Jewish nation, distinctively, sustains to
the doctrine of Hell, and the fact of future
eternal punishment.

If the decision of nations has been in favor of
a belief in Hell, and that decision the attainment.
of intuition and philosophy, we are not unrea-
sonable in expecting the one nation which God
chose as a special people, and a medium for the
transmission of truth, to throw a clearer light, if
possible, upon this subject, and more perfectly
relieve the question of errors' and ignobilities
which cluster around the crude ideas of those
who groped in the comparative darkness of
natural religion.

The Jews as a nation were specially guarded
against theological errors. God. through their
representatives and leaders, spoke openly and
definitely to them. At any times of digression,,
the prophet sounded the tocsin of alarm, and by
fierce denunciations and scathing reproofs, would
he proclaim the judgments of God against those

105

who would remove "the ancient landmarks ""
which the fathers had set. One of the mosi char-
acteristic features of the Hebrew religion was the
purity of its doctrines. And the reason for such
purity, was the special care which God exercised
to keep the Israelites uncontaminated from the
dual fault of false doctrine and false practice.

Bishop S. M. Merrill, D.D., in his '"New Testa-
ment Idea of Hell " says:

'* The best way to learn the opinions of a peo-
ple at a given time in their history, is to study
their literature at the period in question. * * * *
The Targums are perhaps the most authoritative
expositions of Jewish faith, as it was when Christ
was on earth, now within our reach. These
afford unmistakable evidence that eternal pun-
ishment was taught and believed by the Jewish
people. * * * * They contain the thought of
the leaders of the people as taught in the syna-
gogues, and unquestionably reveal the prevalent
opinions of the Jews at the time of Christ and
prior to his day."

Dr. Wit 1 »y says: ' * It seems reasonable to inter-
pret them (words rendered Hell) according to the
received opinions of the Jews, since otherwise
our Lord using them so frequently in speaking
to them, without saying anything to show that
He did not understand the expression as they did,
must have strengthened them in their error.

106

^NTow it is certain that Gehenna (Hell) was still
looked on as a place in which the wicked were to
be tormented by fire. So the Jerusalem Targum
•on Gen. 15:17, represents it as sparkling and
flaming with fire, into which the wicked fall.
And the Targum upon Eccl. 9:15, speaks of the
fire of Hell; and chapter 8:10, of the wicked who
.shall go to be burned in Hell. "

Dr. Adam Clark tells us in his comment on
Isa. 33:14, "The Targum on this verse is worthy
of notice: ' The sinners in Zion are broken
down; fear hath seized the ungodly, who are suf-
fering from their ways. They say, Who among
us shall dwell in Zion, where the splendor of the
Divine Majesty is like a consuming fire? Who
of us shall dwell in Jerusalem, where the ungodly
.are judged and delivered into hell for an eternal
burning?'"

Reimensnyder says: " It is still perfectly clear
that The Talmud enjoins eternal punishment.
There are a number of passages which affirm it
.so definitely that even many of its opponents are
•constrained to admit that they cannot be ex-
plained away, (p. 155.)

We will give a few extracts from The Talmud
w-hich can be taken in no other sense but as sup-
porting the doctrine of endless torment. Thus it
will be seen to be a tenet known and taught by
the Jews.

107

Rosh Hasshanah, (ch. 1, p. 17.) says: "Chris-
tians and apostates descend into Gehenna, and
are judged therein for generations after genera-
tions."

"All who go down into Gehenna rise up again,
with the exception of those who go down and
do not rise, the adulterer. " Babia Mezia, page 58.

" Let Reuben live in life eternal, and not die the
•second death. " Targumof Onkelos on Deut, 33:0.

" Let Reuben not die a second death, which
the wicked die in the world to come." Jerusa-
lem Targum on Isa. 30 :G.

" I will not give them an end in this life, but
will recompense them with vengeance for their
;sins, and deliver their bodies to the second
death." Jerusalem Targum on Isa. 55:6:

"Who among us shall dwell in Jerusalem,
where the ungodly will be judged, and will be
delivered into Gehenna, into everlasting fire."
Chaldee Targum (Jonathan Ben Uzziel) on Isa.
33:14.

" The wicked, who deny the existence of God,
the divinity of the law of Moses, and the resur-
rection, have no portion in the world to come."
Gemara Sanhedrim c. 11.

" Man should always endeavor to do good, but
should an inducement be afforded him by the
commital of sin, let him counterbalance the
transient pleasure which iniquity may afford by

108

reflecting on the unremitting punishment which
it is sure to entail on him hereafter." Gemara.
Erubin.

"Those that die are to rise again; those that
rise again are to be judged. Know also that
everything is to be accounted for; let not, then,
thine evil lusts persuade thee that the grave is a
place of refuge for thee." — Aboth 4:22.

" From this verse," (Isa. 00:2-1) says Ibn Ezra
(Com. pg. 806.) "All the learned gather that
there will be a day of judgment. Neither shall
their lire be quenched. Many discover herein
allusion to the fact, that the soul, when it leaves
the body, remains within the sphere of fire, if it
does not deserve to join the angels of the Lord.
The ancients said that this would take place after
the resurrection, and supported this opinion by a
reference to Dan 12:2, who asserts that all the
wicked, when called to life again, will be to an
EVERLASTING ABHORRING. All this is
quite true."

In keeping with the above is the testimony of
the writings of Chief Rabbi Weill. Rabbis
Saadja, Bar Nachman, Alio, et al.

Also Rabbi Mendez says : "The Gemara Emek
Hammelech. cited by Farrar as teaching future
restoration, teaches nothing of the kind, but only
means that they (wicked) will be brought to-
the throne of God by Messiah for the final

L09

judgment, when the irrevocable verdict shall be
pronounced against them by God."
Josephus informs us thai the Pharisees were,

-as an entire religious order, believers in future
punishment. "They say that all souls are im-
mortal : but that the souls of good men are only
removed into other bodies. — but that the souls of
bad men are subject to eternal punishment."

" They also believe that souls have an immortal
vigor in them, and that under the earth there
will be rewards or punishments, according as
they have lived virtuously or viciously in this
life ; and the latter are to be detained in an ever-
lasting prison." (Wars II. ch. 8, 14).

In Josephus' discourse to the Greeks concern-
ing Hades, he gives an account of the Jewish
belief concerning future punishment. He uses
such expressions as "a lake of unquenchable
fire" and "everlasting punishment." He states
that Minos and Rhadamanthus will not be the
Judges at the last day. but that the One whom
God hath appointed "hath prepared a just sen-
tence for every one, according to his works : at
whose judgment seat where all men, and angels,
•and daemons shall stand, they will send forth
one voice and say. Just is thy judgment; the
rejoinder to which will bring a just sentence upon
both parties, by giving justly to those that have
done well an everlasting fruition, but allotting

110

to the lovers of wicked works eternal punish-
ment."

He adds also that "to these belong the un-
quenchable fire, and that without end, and a
certain fiery worm never dying."

The opinions entertained by the Pharisees at
the time of Christ, and earlier, indicate a strong*
tendency toward the belief of endless doom.

Nor are the opposers of this tenet able to ef-
fectually evade, or obscure this fact.

Writers of every shade of moral and mental
acumen are forced to this concession.

If it were tiTie that the Jews believed in end-
less punishment, then is not only the theology of
the " wider hope" imperiled, but the candor and
sincerity of the Incarnate Theos is impugned.

One under the influence of the Master Mind
exclaimed in fitting encomium " Master, we know
that thou art a teacher sent from God."

That Christ reproved and corrected the errors
of the Jews is a fact. He drew the fine line of
distinctions that aroused the Pharisaical ire, and
brought against himself their scorn and antipa-
thy. And more particularly would He have
forfeited His claim to the truth had He allowed
His hearers to glean from His statements, or
silence, impressions that but too certainly con-
firmed them in their heresies.

We assert, therefore, the burden of negation

Ill

resting upon the opposition, that when Jesus;
used terms and words with which His Jewish
audience was familiar, as implying eternal
punishment, He not only informed them of His.
doctrine, but confirmed a doctrine already
believed and taught.

And that the Jewish mind had received thi&
doctrine, its enemies shall witness.

E. H. Plumptre, D. D., in his eschatological
work entitled ** Spirits in Prison" in a quotation
from Dr. Farrar, (who is also devoted to the
" wider hope")? makes the Rosh Hasshanah
say: "But heretics (probably, i.e., Christians)
and informers and Epicureans, who have denied
the law, or the resurrection of the dead, or who
have separated from the customs of the congre-
gation, or who have caused their fear in the land
of the living, who have sinned, or caused many
to sin, as Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, all such go
down to hell and are judged forever." (Also
McCaul, Old Paths, p. 410).

Also, the third deduction from Talmudic pas-
sages Dr. Plumptre quotes, is'*' that the incurably
evil were punished for a period which was
described by a phrase that was popularly, if not
strictly, synonymous with " everlasting."

To prove that the eternity of future punish-
ment was the opinion of the learned religious
classes, I can do no better than to quote Johanan

112

"ben Zaccai. In answer to the question from his
friends — " Whence these tears ?" He says: " If
I were going to appear before a king of flesh and
b)lood, he is one who to-day is and to-morrow is
in the grave; if he were wroth with me, his
wrath is not eternal; if he were to cast me into
'chains, those chains are not forever; if he slay
me, that death is not eternal. I might soothe
liim with words or appease him with a gift. But
they are about to bring me before the King of
kings, the Lord, the Holy and Blessed One, who
liveth and abideth forever.

i 'And if He is wroth with me. His wrath is
eternal; and if He bind. His bonds are eternal;
if He slay, it is eternal death; and Him I cannot
soothe with words or appease with gifts. And
beside all this there are before me two paths, one
to Paradise and the other to Gehenna, and I
know not in which they are about to lead me.
"'How can I do aught else but weep ?" Bera-
coth, fol. 82. Dr. Plumptre's comment is signifi-
cant, and coming from him is a concession of
some importance. He says: " Whatever ques-
tions may be raised as to the precise force of the
Hebrew words here translated ' eternal,' the
whole tone of the passage seems to me to confirm
Dr. Edersheim's conclusions, that the dying man
w^ho thus spoke was contemplating, as possible, a
punishment to which he saw no end.

113

He v. N. D. George (" Univ. not of the Bible"
p. 384) has the following question and answer:
" Was the belief of endless punishment common
~both among Jews and Gentiles in our Saviour's
time r

Universalists shall speak for themselves, as
their testimony will not be doubted upon this
point.

" The Pharisees, it is well known, believed in
the endless punishment of human souls." Lec-
tures by W. H. Fernald, p. 79.

" It is generally admitted that the Jews, in our
Saviours day, maintained the Pagan notion of
immortal happiness for the righteous, and
undying pain for the sinner.'' Letter in the
"Trumpet" of Feb. 3, 1838, by W. C. Hanscom,
a Universalist minister.

" That the Pharisees believed in a punishment
after death, we do not deny." Wittemore's
Notes on the Parables, p. 62.

" Jews and heathens believed in endless pun-
ishment." Balfour's Essays, p. 326.

Mr. Balfour, in his " Inquiry," p. 200. Where
he attempts to show that the Jews obtained their
views of endless punishment from the heathen,
says: 'The introduction of this and other
lieathen opinions among the Jews was gradual,
but in the days of our Lord had become general,
with perhaps the exception of the sect of the

114

Sadducees/ This sect composed but a small part
of the Jewish nation."

If we were to allow future punishment to be
settled by reference to the Jewish opinion, and
eternized by their prevailing testimony, we
should feel but little hesitancy in pronouncing
the verdict, at this premature stage of the discus-
sion, we know of nothing that seriously lies
against the proof thus deduced.

We do not conceive that the Jewish belief is
so arbitrarily or necessarily connected with this
question as to force us to depend upon it, or sur-
render our position. While the doctrine of the
Lord Jesus is found to be consonant with Jewish
predilection, yet He so forcibly put His position
that one opposed to the theory of endless doom
could hardly refuse to admit that His teachings;
do not reconcile themselves readily with modern
liberalists. The plain bearing of Christ's state-
ments are in favor of eternal retribution. To
dispose of these statements demands too large an
amount of circumlocution and special pleading to
satisfy one who is given to scepticism.

Hence we assume that the Lord Jesus Christ
(if He be the founder of the " wider hope") must
have despaired correcting the Jewish opinions,
on this question, with words and terms that
would too surely confirm and strengthen a pre-
vious bias.

115

We should not even feel called upon to prove
that Christ taught any sort of retribution. Suf-
ficient for an argumenl would be the fact that it
is universally acknowledged that He did not
unteach it.

This, with the facts of Jewish belief arrayed
before the reader, we claim is an argument well
nigh invulnerable.

The amount of testimony, as to the Jewish
belief, could be greatly augmented by reference
to the Hebrew Scriptures. We purposely avoid
recourse to this line of evidence, since its intro-
duction under this statement of Jewish belief
from extrinsic sources, might be regarded as a
•• j)' fit i<> principi."

Assuredly, if the belief of the Jews can be
reconciled with any theory antagonistic to the
orthodox, then their Scriptures of necessity,.
must reconcile themselves with that opinion.
We reserve a reference to their Scriptures for an
argument, to be drawn in a following chapter,
from the Bible.

CHAPTER III.

PHASES OF UNORTHODOX BELIEFS.

SjT HE most satisfactory source of information,
^■/ as to the belief of Christendom, on the ques-
tion of future punishment, is found in records of the
councils, synods, testimonies, and individual
opinions of representative men. These sources
-of information cover the most of the time from
the first century to the present. This mass of in-
formation is divided between two general classes:
-those for and those against the orthodox opinion.
That is, those who believe in future eternal
^conscious suffering and those who do not.

Among those who do not hold to the orthodox
faith are those who are devoted to the apocatas-
tasis, but are not to be mentioned as having any
.considerable bearing on this question, on account
•of the extreme 'minority of their adherents.
>Clement and Origen may be mentioned as de-
voted to the doctrine of restitution in the first
patristic period (A. D. 200-300), but they were
regarded by the other fathers as heretical in their
opinions. And yet even Origen was not con-

n;

stantly devoted to a. final restitution. He is re-
sponsible for saying:

"Every soul going out of this world shall
either enjoy the inheritance of lit'*' and bliss, if
his deeds have rendered him lit for bliss; or, be
delivered up to eternal fire and punishment-
(ignt ceti mo ac suppliclis—GT. ";';"w). if his sins
have deserved that state."

Dr. Schaff says " that he can by no means be
called orthodox either in the Catholic or Protes-
tant sense.'"

F. D. Maurice. Canon Farrar. and Dr. E. H.
Plumptre are also modern advocates of the the-
ory of restitution. " In the conservative church
of England, in the year 1853, Prof. Maurice hav-
ing publicly renounced his belief in this doctrine
(future punishment), was expelled from the
chair of Divinity in King's College, London/"
These modern advocates of final restitution are
not regarded as giving any material coloring to
the shade of orthodoxy ; but are looked upon as
novel and heretical by the universal church.

Universalists might be mentioned. in this con-
nection, although they differ among themselves:
some holding Restitution and others Annihila-
tion.

There are also those who flatly contradict the
orthodox opinion as did Theodore Parker when
he said that he ••believed that Jesus Christ meant

118

to teach eternal punishment, but lie would not
accept it upon his authority."

All statements of this character disclose the
" cloven foot," and are not used to any extent as
argument.

Those who do accept the doctrine of future
punishment, and accept, as expressing the proper
opinion on the subject, Matthew 25:46, "And
these shall go away into everlasting (alimag— aionios)
punishment: but the righteous into life eternal
(aiwwof— aionios)," are also divided, not as to fact,
but as to the mode and ultimate of the fact.

Those who receive the dogma of eternal pun-
ishment, and yet depart from the established
orthodox position, hold that eternal punishment
is extinction of being, and is variously expressed
by such scriptural terms as " cut off," " the end
of the wicked," "destroy," " perish," etc. They
claim to have discovered, practically, a difference
between eternal punishment as the wages of sin,
and conscious eternal misery. In other words
they are Annihilationists. That such an opinion
finds support from writers of liberal ability
could hardly be conjectured. The very idea of
punishment involves the necessity of conscious-
ness. Unconscious punishment is unthinkable
and unscriptural.

Lastly, there are those who hold to the or-
thodox doctrine combated by Annihilationists,

119

Apocatastasists, Rationalists and Unbelievers,
andare devoted to the doctrine of future, eter-
nal, conscious misery, — as the doom of the finally
impenitent.

That this doctrine is safely intrenched in the
minds of men, will be evident by direct quota-
tions from the cyclopean mass of literature upon
this question: representing a wide scope of mental
and moral attainment.

We purposely quote from those who are well
defined upon the orthodox theory. Their names
will give character to their opinions.

CHAPTER IV.

EARLY BELIEF OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

->.

I AKEN together with all the cumulative
force of other evidence, we regard the con-
sonant voice of the Christian Church as argu-
mentative in sustaining the orthodox opinion.

The end for which we take recourse to this
line of evidence is to establish the fact that the
Christian world, as such, believed and taught a
retribution of an endless conscious nature.

The argument under the surface of the facts,
to be produced is authoritative. The following
criterion is applicable to the doctrine under
scrutiny, viz: that it " has been received and be-
lieved semper, ubique, et ab omnibus (always,,
everywhere, and by all. )" Not many heresies can
run the gauntlet of such a test. ''And that no
one may say what is said by those who are
deemed philosophers, that our assertions that the
wicked are punished in eternal fire are big words
and bugbears, and that we wish men to live vir-
tuously through fear, and not because such a life
is good and pleasant."

"And Plato in like manner used to say that

121

Rhadamanthus and Minos would punish the-
wicked who came before them: and we say that
the same will be done, but at the hand of Christ,
and upon the wicked in the same bodies united
agaiu to their spirits, which are now to undergo
everlasting punishment: and not only, as Plato
said, for a period of a thousand years." Apolo-
gia, 1:8 and 2:0.

Justin Trypho says: "Thus some which have
appeared worthy of God never die; but others are
punished so long as God wTills them to exist and
to be punished."

Justin says: " But since God in the beginning
made the race of angels and men with free-wall,
they will justly suffer in eternal fire the punish-
ment of whatever sins they have committed."
Apol. 2:7.

Trypho: " But we will not receive it of all
your nation (Gentiles) since wTe know from
Isaiah (06:24) that the numbers of those who
have transgressed shall be consumed by the
worm and unquenchable fire, remaining immor-
tal; so that they become a spectacle to all flesh."
ch. 130.

Justin: ,; And that he (Satan) would be sent
into the fire with his host, and the men wTho fol-
low him, and would be punished for an endless
duration, Christ foretold." Apol. 1:28.

That Irenaeus favored the doctrine of annihila-

122

tion is taught by some; but the following extract
completely overthrows such an opinion:

" Inasmuch then as in both Testaments there
is the same righteousness of God (displayed)
when God takes vengeance, in the one case in-
deed typically, temporarily, and more moder-
ately; but in the other really, enduringly, and
more rigidly: for the fire is eternal and the wrath
of God which shall be revealed from heaven
from the face of our Lord entails a heavier pun-
ishment on those who incur it. ****** And
to as many as continue their love towards God,
does he grant communion with him. *****
But on as many as according to their own choice
depart from God, he inflicts that separation from
himself which they have chosen of their own ac-
cord. ******* Those, therefore, who cast
away by apostasy these forementioned things,
being in fact destitute of all good, do experience
every kind of punishment. God however does
not punish them immediately of himself, but
that punishment falls upon them because they
are destitute of all that is good. Now good
things are eternal and without end with God,
and therefore the loss of these is also eternal and
never ending. ***** And the same thing
does the Lord also say in the gospel to those who
are found upon the left hand : ' ' Depart from me,
ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which my father

123

has prepared for the devil and his angels,"
(Matt. 25:41) indicating that eternal fire was not
originally prepared for man. but for him who
beguiled man and caused him to offend.*'
Adv-Hser,, 4. 28, 1.— 5. 27. 2.—:]. 23. 3.

( )n the nature of penal fires Minucius Felix
A. D. 300, gives the following: " There (in hell)
the intelligent fire burns the limbs and restores
them, feeds on them and nourishes them: * * *
* * so that penal fire is not fed by the waste of
those who burn, but is nourished by the unex-
hausted eating away of their bodies. But that
t hey who know not God are deservedly tormented
as impious, as unrighteous persons, no one,
except a profane man, hesitates to believe, since
it is no less wicked to be ignorant of than to
•offend the Parent of all. and the Lord of all."
Octavius, 35.

Tertullian (A. D. 1 50-21 G) gives expression to
a crude and morbid delight which he fancied
would characterize the saved, when he said: " At
that greatest of all spectacles, the last and eternal
judgment, how shall I admire, how laugh, how
rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud
uionarchs groaning in the lowest abyss of dark-
ness; so many magistrates liquefying in fiercer
flames than they ever kindled against the Chris-
tians; so many sage philosophers blushing in
red-hot fires with their deluded pupils; so many

124

tragedians more tuneful in the expression of
their own sufferings; so many dancers tripping
more nimbly from anguish than ever before from
applause." De Spectaculis, 30.

" Souls with their bodies will be reserved in.
infinite tortures for suffering. Thus tiie men
will forever be seen by us who here gazed upon
us for a season; and the short joy of those cruel
eyes in the persecutions that they made for us
will be compensated by a perpetual spectacle,
according to the truth of Holy Scripture which
says, " Their worm shall not die, and their fire
shall not be quenched and they shall be for a
vision to all flesh. v " The pain of punishment
will then be without the fruit of penitence: weep-
ing will be useless, and prayer ineffectual. Too
late they will believe in eternal punishment/7"
Cyprian, A. D. '200-258; Lactantius (A. D. 312)
says with precision and exactness what can be
reconciled with nothing else than the orthodox
theory. Hear him speak: ''If the soul, which
has its origin from God, gains the mastery, it is
immortal, and lives in perpetual light: if, on the
other hand, the body shall overpower the soul
and subject it to its dominion, it is in everlastings
darkness and death. And the force of this is
not that it altogether annihilates the souls of the
unrighteous, but subjects them to everlasting
punishment. We term that punishment the^

125

second death, which is itself also perpetual, as
.also is immortality. ****** We thus de-
fine the second death; Death is the suffering of
eternal pain: or thus: Death is the condemnation
of souls for their deserts to eternal punishments."
Instit. 2:13.

(The foregoing extracts are from Theodore D.
Bacon, under the supervision of Prof. T. P.
Fisher, of Yale University).

Barnabas, the companion and fellow laborer of
St. Paul, and frequently mentioned in the Acts,
in «»ne of his Epistles says: " But the way of
darkness is also the way of everlasting death
{QnvciTov ahtviv) with punishment, in which way are
things that destroy the soul." (Ch. 20).

Clement of Rome, who was of note among the
•Christian writers of the first century and a friend
of St. Paul and the Apostle Peter, says : " But
.after that we have departed from the world, we
shall no longer be able there to confess or to ex-
ercise repentance (ovketi iSvvnuada hicei ^ouo'/oyijacKrdai ?]■

ueravoeiv)," (ch. 8). Also he says : " For if we do
the will of Christ, we shall find rest, otherwise
nothing shall deliver us from eternal punishment

•(aiuviov KoXdaeag) (ell. 6).

Ignatius, Bishop of A ntioch, and committed to
the lions in the amphitheatre at Rome, by order
•of Trajan, A. D., 107, says in one of his Epistles:
f If any one corrupt the faith of God by impure

126

doctrine, such an one shall go into inextinguish-
able fire (ek to Trvpaa fieorov)."

The Pastor of Hernias was a book of great
repute about 100 or 150 A. D., and was thought
by Irenaeus and Origen to be quite equal with
the Scriptures. The Pastor, bk. III. Similitude
IV. reads : " That future era shall be summer
to the just, but desolation to the transgressor.
And they shall be burned therefore, because they
have sinned, and did not choose repentance of
their sins (comburentur, quia * * * peccatarum
suorum non egerunt poenitentiam).,,

Similitude YI. ch. 11, says : "Those which you
see have torn themselves away from God forever
(in perpetuum). Among them there is no return
through repentance." Similitude VIII. ch. 7,
says : " And as many as do not repent at all,
but abide in their deed, will utterly perish."

The Ante-Xicene Fathers, from 100 A. D. to
the time of the Council of Xice, A. D 325, or,
embracing with the Apostolic Fathers the whole
of the first Patristic period, make mention of
eternal punishment in most decisive terms.

Polycarp, one of the greatest of early bishops,,
and the one whom St. John addresses in the
Apocalypse as the "Angel of the church at
Smyrna:" who was contemporary with St. John,
and suffered martyrdom in 166 A. D., is well
worthy a place and hearing on this question.

127

When answering the proconsul of Asia in his
threat, says: "I fear not the fire you threaten
me with, which burns for a little while, and then
goes out; you are yourself ignorant of the judg-
ment to come, and the fire of everlasting punish-
ment (alavtov KoTidaeug ) ff

Tatian, an acquaintance of Justin Martyr, who
died about 170 A. D., said: " If, indeed, it (the
soul) knows not the truth, it dies and is dissolved
with the body, but rises again at last, at the end
of the world with the body, receiving death by
punishment in immortality. " ch. 13. In ch.
14., he says: " So the demons who abuse the
present life to purposes of wrong doing, dying
continually even while they live, will have here-
after the same immortality."

Chap. 17., has the following, "But as he
who gave the name to the city, a friend of Her-
cules, it is said, was devoured by the horse of
Diomedes, so he wTho boasted as the Magian
Ostanes, wTill be delivered up in the day of con-
summation as fuel for the eternal fire."

Theophilus, who died in about A. D., 180 or
188. is reported as saying to Antolycus: "So
now do thou believe, my friend, so that thou
mayest not at last be compelled to believe amid
everlasting torments (h dloviog Tropicus)."

Twentieth Book to Antolycus: "Yet read
thou the prophets themselves, they can teach

128

thee how thou canst avoid the everlasting pain."
Tertullian, (A. D. 166-240) says in De judic.
Dom., (concerning the judgment of the Lord),
-ch. 9: "God appoints the wicked to go down
to everlasting punishment (ceternce poence) under
the fierceness of a raging hell-fire without end.
***** The damned burn eternally without
^consuming, as the volcanoes burn forever with-
out wasting."

Hippolytus, Bishop of Port of Rome, A. D.
235, says: " The fire which is unquenchable and
without end awaits these latter, and a certain
fiery worm which dieth not." (Dis. against
Greeks).

Cyril, 315—386 A. D., Patriarch of Jerusalem,
says: " If he be a sinner, he will receive an
eternal (externum) body, whereby he may be able
to suffer the punishment of sins, that he may
perpetually (perpetua) burn in fire, so that it
.never will be dissolved." Catech. c. 18.

CHAPTER V.

TESTIMONY OF LATER PATRISTIC AND SCHOLAS-
TIC WRITERS.

f/ff HE Second Patristic Period. (A. D. 300-609)
'^r has many witnesses to the doctrine of future
endless punishment.

Gregory of Nazianzen writes: "For those
who have departed from this life there will no
more be in hell confession or amendment of ways
(non est in inferno hie morum correct io").

He says also that he knew " of a purifying fire
which Christ has come to kindle on earth; this
fire has the power to eradicate matter and all evil
propensities, * * * * * I know also of a fire
which does not purify but punishes, *****
which is connected with the worm that never
dies, and which cannot be extinguished, but per-
petuates itself for evil doers." Orat., 40., 30.

Lactantius also says: ''The same divine fire
therefore, with one and the same force and
power, will both burn the wicked and form them
again, and will replace as much as it will con-

130

suine of their bodies, and will supply itself, with
eternal nourishment, which the poets transferred
to the vulture of Tityus. This without any wast-
ing of bodies, which regain their substance ; it.
will only burn and effect them with a sense of
pain." Instit. 7:21 (Clark's Ante-Nicene Li-
brary.)

Augustine, (A. D. 353-430,) is so well known
as favoring eternal punishment that it would be
unnecessary to transcribe any amount of his
numerous arguments. He not only believed in
retribution, but logically and conclusively com-
bated restorationism and annihilationism. His.
argument is quite fully given in the " Unknown
Country" pp. 42 to 45. The quotations given-
there are supplied by the translations published
by T. & T. Clark.

Augustine is supposed by the opposition to-
have imbibed his ideas from the heathen. But
we are not informed as to where the heathen se-
cured their ideas. The effort to impeach the
Augustinian testimony as to future punishment
seems to be reducible to an argumentum ad ab-
surdum. In whatever points he may have de-
parted from orthodoxy, yet on this point his voice
is consonant with the church universal. Criti-
cism is a deadly weapon in some quarters. It
cannot produce death in the field of polemics..
The argument of Augustine is conclusive, and

131

represents not only his ideas, and those of the
cause for which he did so much, but is thoroughly
scriptural in its main points, as to the fact of a
future place of eternal doom. He never is quoted
by the friends of the "wider hope."

Pelagius, (A. D. 360-435,) strenuously favors
eternal punishment, and Ambrose even goes so
far as to declare unbaptized infants are lost.

Jerome says that "sceptics" and "impious
ones and devils shall be in eternal torment"
Comm. in Jtrem. (50, ad. tin. Chrysostom, one
of the most reputable church fathers of the
Second Patristic period, cannot be misunderstood.
He not only believed in and taught eternal pun-
ishment (Ad Theod. Laps., 1:10), but advises
meditation upon the subject as a means to one's,
safety, from the pains of hell. (Horn. 31, ad.
Rom.).

The Second Patristic period yields more abun-
dant evidence than we have given. Space does
not admit of more devotion to it than has been
given. For a fuller view of the position of these
writers, the reader is referred to chapter I., of the
"Unknown Country" and chapters 3, 4, of
"Doom Eternal." **********

II.

The scholastic period (800-1500 A. D.) yields
the same general information as the former
periods do.

The " Elueedarium," a work of great authority
in its time, gives a conversation between a Disci-
pnlus and his Magister. It yields all the infor-
mation orthodoxy might desire on the question
under discussion.

Peter Lombard also speaks to the point in
question with no uncertainty.

Thomas Aquinas, known to all religious read-
fers, though laboring under some of the crudities
of his Roman Catholic bias, is nevertheless posi-
tive in his statement of the orthodox view, and is
unequivocal in his testimony as to a place of
punishment for the incorrigible and impenitent.

Master Eckhart, the most eminent of the mys-
tics of this period, was so familiar with the
subject of eternal doom as to give himself up to
reasonings on the " philosophy'' of hell-torment !

Suso, (A. D. 1300-1365) giving an illustration
of the eternity of future suffering says: " Give
us a millstone, say the damned, as broad as the
whole earth, and so large as to touch the sky all

L33

around, and let a little bird conic once in a hun-
dred thousand years, and pick offa small particle
of the stone not Larger than the tenth part of a-
-rain of millet, and after another hundred thou-
sand years, let him conic again, so that in ten
hundred thousand years he would pick off as
much as a grain of millet; we wretched sinners
would ask nothing but that when this stone has
an end. our pains might also cease; yet even this
cannot be."

Haute Alighieri, whose theology was framed
according to Thomas Aquinas is responsible for
the following inscription, placed over the portal
of Hell: " Lasciate ogni speranza, roich 'entrate**
(Abandon every hope, who enter here) !

We thus see that scholasticism gives a hearty
support to the orthodox theory, and rebukes
those who are wise above what is written, and
conflict with the best minds and the most tenable
positions.

CHAPTER VI.

INDIVIDUAL CREEDS AND OPINIONS OF SYNODS.

|'E WILL lastly refer to the creeds of Chris-

pr tendom. These are divided into Indivi-
dual, (Ecumenical and Particular.

"A Creed, or Rule of Faith, is a confession of
faith for public use, or a form of words setting
forth with authority certain articles of belief,
which are regarded by the framers as necessary
for salvation. *********** They are
summaries of the doctrines of the Bible, aids to
its sound understanding, bonds of union among
their professors, public standards, and guards
against false doctrine and practice." SchafFs
Hist, of the Creeds of Christendom. (Vol. 1, pp. 3
and 8.)

Among the Individual Creeds might be men-
tioned :

1. The Creed of Irenaeus. Contra Haereses,
(lib. 1, cap. 10, par. 1.) Here the "angels who
apostatized " and " impious " and " unjust " and
" lawless " and " blasphemers " are consigned to
eternal fire («c to aluviovro Trip) while the ''righteous"

135

•and " holy" inherit eternal glory (M$av aiuviov).

2. The Creed of Justin Martyr (An apologetic
.statement of Christian doctrine presented to the
Emperor Marcus Aurelius) says that the wicked
'" go to everlasting (**u«o*) punishment," and it
uses also the term " everlasting punishment of
fire" to designate the idea of hell-torment.

3. The Creed of Tertullian (Ex. lib. de Pres-
cript adv. Haeretic, ch. 13) speaks of the per-
petual fire (igni perpetuo) for the godless.

4. The Creed of Origen (Ex Proaem. Op. ™pi
<ipXuv) gives transgessors " over to everlasting
(n'lui'tov) fire and misery."

5. The Creed of Basil the Great, (Ex Ascet.
de Fide, pav. 4) says that "sinners shall be con-
demned to everlasting punishment (k6?mciv aioviov)^
where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not
quenched."

5. The author of "Doom Eternal" says:
"" Even the arch heretics, Arius and Pelagius did
not venture to question the prevailing faith on
this point."

5. The creed of Arius declares the finality of
the judgment, and

6. Pelagius actually says that the wicked and
perverse will suffer in eternal fires (aetermis
i <j nib us esse exurendos)."

Thus we see the consensus of opinion in the in-
dividual creeds proclaims to the world the in-

136

vulnerable position this doctrine sustained at the*
time these creeds were drawn up.

The (Ecumenical creeds are three in number.
They are, first, the Apostles, second, the Nicene,.
and third, the Athanasian.

The Athanasian creed seems to be the one-
against which the opponents of orthodoxy hurl
their heaviest missiles. Luther claimed that
the Athanasian Creed was " the most important
and glorious composition since the days of the-
Apostles." And of the same opinion were Dean
Stanley and Hodge.

It represents the belief and teaching of its time-
(A. D. 434), and is the clearest statement of the
present orthodox faith.

Its opening article declares that "Whosoever
will be saved: before all things it is necessary
that he hold the Catholic (Christians) faith':-
Which faith, except every one do keep whole and
undented, without doubt he shall perish everlast-
ingly (absque dubio in ceternum pesibit)," and at
its close it again declares, that " they that have'
done good shall go into life everlasting; and they
that have done evil, into everlasting fire (in
ignem ceternum). This is the Catholic (true-
Christian) faith."

The above quotation is taken from a creed
which expresses the belief of the Universal
Christian Church.

137

A passing notice at the Particular Creeds will
now occupy our attention. These creeds came
into existence at or subsequent to the Reforma-
tion.

1. Krautli ('Conservative Reformation p. 212)
says: " First in place, and first in importance
among those great documentary testimonies of
the Church which came forth in the Reforma-
tion, is the Augsburg Confession." Its date is
A. D. 1530.

Article 17 reads as follows: ''Also they (the
el in relies) teach that in the consummation of the
world Christ shall appear to judge, and shall
raise up all the dead, and shall give unto the
godly and elect, eternal life, and everlasting
joys: but ungodly men and the devils shall be
condemned unto endless torments (id sine fine
crucientur). They condemn the Anabaptists,
who think that to condemn men and the devils,
shall be an end of torments (Jin em pcznarum
futuTum esse)" Krauth, p. 23.

2. Thirty nine Articles of the Church of
England (A. D. 1562).

Article 8. '• The three creeds, Nicene Creed,
Athanasius Creed, * * * * and Ajjostles' Creed,
ought thoroughly to be received and believed;
for they may be proved by most certain warrant
of Holy Scripture."

This adoption of the Athanasian Creed is a

138

most solemn declaration of a belief in its double
statement in favor of Eternal Punishment, as
already quoted.

3. Heidelberg Catechism, (A. D. 1563). Ques-
tion 10: "Will God suffer such disobedience
•and apostasy to go unpunished ? Answer. By
no means : But he is terribly displeased with
our inborn as well as our actual sins, and will
punish them in just judgment in time and in
•eternity." (Schaffs' Creeds of Christendom).

4. Symbola Roma (A. D. 1563). On the most
lioly Sacrament of Penance. Canon V: "The
loss of eternal blessedness (amissionem ceternce
beatitudinis) and the eternal damnation (ceternce
damnationis) which he has incurred." (Schaff's
Creeds) .

5. Symbola Gra?ca et Russica, A D. 1643.
Quaestio CXXI. " All souls shall return to their
own bodies and receive in them the perfect and
eternal reward {aluviov fiic&dv) of their deeds and
-actions, but the bodies of the wicked also will be
imperishable because they are to be tormented
with eternal punishment (ceternis discrucianda
supplicus)" (Schaff's Creeds).

6. Westminister Confession of Faith (1646)
*" For then shall the righteous go into everlasting
life, ****** but the wicked who know not
'God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ,
shall be cast into eternal torments, and be pun-

139

ished with everlasting destruction (in ceternos
crudatus detrudentur, oeternaque perditione pun-

ientur) etc." (Text from Hodge on Confessions
p. 389).

7. Baptist Declaration: "That the wicked
shall be adjudged to endless punishment, and
the righteous to endless joy; and that this judg-
ment will fix forever the final state of men in
heaven or hell."

8. Methodist P. E. Church: "We are all
born with a sinful, devlish nature; by reason
wrhereof we are children of wrath, liable to death
eternal. " (Buck's Theo. Diet. p. 305).

One of the "Articles of Agreement of the
Evangelical Alliance" says: " The Immortality
of the Soul, the Resurrection of the Body; the
judgment of the world by the Lord Jesus Christ,
with eternal blessedness of the righteous, and the
eternal punishment of the wicked."

We will now consult our most eminent church
historians and students of Christian belief and
teaching. Their opinions represent a wide field of
investigation and will of necessity be impartial.

" The pious fathers describe the eternity of the
punishments of the lost in emphatic words."
Gerhard, Loci Theologici.

"All these (representative) church fathers are
unanimous that after death there is no more
reconciliation for sin, and therefore the godless

140

will never be freed from their pains." Gieseler,.
Hist. Doc. p. 248.

"The doctrine of Eternal Punishment con-
tinned, as ill the preceding period, to be domi-
nant in the creed of the church/' Neander,
(Hist. Christian Church, Vol. II. p. 676).

"The saved were then to be transported bodily
to the eternal bliss of heaven; the damned, in
like manner, were to be banished forever to a
fiery hell, there to endure uncomprehended
agonies, without any respite, without any end.
Such was undeniably the prevailing view, the
orthodox doctrine, of the Patristic church."
Alger, (Crit. Hist, Doc. Fut, Life. p. 402).

Of St Luke, 12:5, it is said, " It is a matter of
history, out of the question, that the Apostolic
church, and the church of later times, took it
word for word in the whole of its apparent value. "
Taylor, Ancient Christianity.

Without quoting extracts verbatim, we will
simply refer to others of repute whose state-
ments are consonant with what has been already
deduced.

Herzog's Real Encyclopaedic (German), Vol.
VI. p. 18:3.

McClintock and Strong, article "Future Pun-
ishment." Vol. VIII. p. 790.

Edwards, .Encyclopedia of Religious Knowl-
edge, article " Future Retribution."

HI

Chambers' Encyclopedia, article on "Hell."

Johnson's New Universal Cyclopedia, article
-"Hell"

Hagenb^ch, Hist, of Doc. Vol. I. p. 379.

Shedd, Hist. Ch. Doc. Vol. II. p. 414.

Schaff, Hist. Christian Church, etc. p. 298.

Kahnis, Hist. Gei\ Protestantism, ch 2, p. 108.

Lecky, Hist. Rationalism, Vol. I. p. 316.

Stuart, Am. Bible Rep., July 1840, article
"" Future Punishment."

Reisder, (German) Summary of the Most
Ancient Christian Doctrine, Vol. IV. par. 34. p.
430.

Hodge, Sys. Theo., Vol. III. part IV. Eschat-
•ology. ]). 869.

Davidson, Exegetical Essays: Philological
Library, Vol. XXXVII, p. 7.

Townsend, Lost Forever, p. 424.

Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Em-
pire, Vol. I. ch 15, p. 536, says: " The primitive
church, whose faith was of a much firmer consis-
tence, delivered over, without hesitation, to eter-
nal torture, the far greater part of the human
species. ***** And yet what ever may be
the language of individuals it is still the public
doctrine of all the Christian churches."

CHAPTER VII.

CONCLUSION.

-i.

/*1 FTER thus arraying the facts as taught by
^T^ the Fathers of the First and Second Patris-
tic Periods, the Scholastics, the Creeds, and
Opinions of Snyods, we find a remarkable unani-
mity in the belief of the Christian church.

The Trinity, the personality of the Holy Spirit,
and numerous other beliefs fundamentally re-
lated to Theology have stood the assault of the
combined enmity of God's opposers. The church,,
substantially, have stood shoulder to shoulder in
this polemic battle. None the less sanguine is
the effort to wrest from the visible church a
truth, the absence of which would transform
God's earth into Pandemonium, and strengthen
the hands of rebels, who are but too willing to
march against the citadel of God and obliterate
not only Hell but Heaven itself.

"What none can prove a forgery may be true;
What none but bad men .wish exploded must."

No tenet nor doctrine, affecting the basal prin-
ciples of the Gospel has ever been universally
held but for a short time, if at all.

143

The importance that attaches itself to the fact
that human beings, have been and are devoted
to the doctrine of future punishment, as a recog-
nized principle and law of the moral universe,,
has varied with different writers upon eschat-
ology as they have had different ends to conserve.
We have thus presented a few points in the
rational historical and scriptural argument.
They prove that the doctrine of retribution is^
founded in the very constitution of nature itself,
in Scripture, in the Jewish and in the Christian
Church.

We have not pretended to be exhaustive nor
critical, but simply bring the subject before our
readers in the manner of the mild discussion of
the previous pages.

We can close these remarks with no more
appropriate words than those from the pen of
Rev. Junius B. Reimensnyder. He says: :< It
(Future Eternal Retribution) must have a foot-
hold in the human reason, or it could not have
maintained itself against all the recoil and oppo-
sition which it elicits from the human heart.
Founded in ethics, in law, and in judicial reason,
as well as unquestionably taught by the author of
Christianity, it is no wonder that the doctrine of
Eternal Retribution, in spite of selfish prejudices,
and appeals to human sentiment, has always-
been a belief of Christendom. From theology

144

and philosophy it has passed into human litera-
ture, and is wrought into its finest structures.
It makes the solemn substance of the Iliad and
the Greek Drama. It pours a sombre light into
the brightness and grace of the Aeneid. It is the
theme of the Inferno, and is presupposed by both
of the other parts of the Divine Comedy. The
epic of Milton derives from it its awful grandeur.
And the greatest of the Shakespearean tragedies
sound and stir the depths of the human soul, by
their delineation of guilt intrinsic and eternal."

IV.

fllMsccllancoue.

i.

SERMON

PREACHED AT THE OPENING OF

HOPE MISSION.

II.
EMOTIONAL RELIGION,

VS.
EMOTION IN RELIGION.

Ill,

.SERMON OUTLINES.

IV.

HYMNS.

WHY ?

REV. M. L. SCHOOLEY.

The Master came to his garden,
Among- his earthly flowers,

Searching out those the best fitted
To plant in Heaven's bowers.

Some had bloomed in spring-time

Ere snow had passed away,
Others had blossomed in April,
• And some were bright in May.

These were now done with their labor

Expecting soon to die,
And so they wonld never answer

To transplant up on high.

But here there is one just budding
Small and tender and sweet,

And there is one lovely blossom,
Strong, vigorous, complete.

So the Master takes his trowel,
Loosens the roots with care,

Removes the brightest to Heaven,
And plants them over there.

How we miss them from the garden
We wonder "why" 'tis so:

That the fair and bright are taken
And we are left below.

But the}' only are transplanted

That Paradise may be
Brighter than gardens of earth-life

For Angel eyes to see.

We weep because we shall miss them,
Their absence makes us sad,

But that which pleaseth the Master,
Shall ever make us glad.

SERMON PREACHED AT OPENING OF HOPE MISSION.

'♦111' HEREFORE he is able to save them to
%-V the uttermost that come unto God by
him.** — Heb. 7:25.

The word, save, has a concise and definite mean-
ing. It scnns to be eminently befitting that it
should be used in this connection. Whatever
imaginary failures the enemies of the Gospel of
Christ may attribute to the system of Christian-
ity, it remains for some one yet to prove that
Jesus Christ cannot save a man: and when we
use thf word save, we mean save in its broadest
and most absolute sense. Whenever the term
salvation is applied to any physical, mental, or
financial calamity, we understand that word in its
relation to those ideas. If a man is saved from
physical calamity, we mean that he is rescued
from the danger or environment that menaces
his life. If a man is saved from a mental calam-
ity, we mean that he is delivered from those
thoughts and those conditions of the mind that
are about to launch him into insanity, or some
other abnormal condition of the mind. When
a man is saved from financial rnin. we mean that
that man is delivered from the embarrassments of

148

the commercial world. I see no reason why the
term, saved, should not be applied scripturally to
the subjects to which the Scriptures refer, the
same as when it relates to man physically, men-
tally, or financially.

The calamity that menaces the human family,
and the environments, state and condition that
the Lord regards as undesirable, that surround
every man and every woman, is sin. Jesus
Christ may be an intelligencer: Jesus Christ may
be a reformer. Where His religion is received
and the theories He taught are practiced, it evi-
dently will produce a higher moral and social
condition. But the main feature of the religion
that Jesus Christ taught is that that religion
claims to be able to save its subjects from their
;sins. Sin is a calamity. I fear the world looks
upon sin with too much complacency; yet it is a
fearful calamity. The whole world lies under
sin. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is de-
signed to save the human family from that
■calamity. We are not dealing with th« proba-
bility that God can do this through Jesus Christ.
We come to the Word of God, and we accept it
.as a fact that it can be done. And when we have
made this concession, we open the way for you
to bring in any sin that you may select, and allow
you to demonstrate the truthfulness, or the
fallacy of the words, "His name shall be called

149
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their

sins.

The first thin- that I want you to notice is that
deliverance from sin rests upon Jesus Christ —
upon no other than the man, Jesus Christ; for
the results that, in the Word of God, are attri-
buted to tin' reception of the Gospel of Christ
were not predicated of any church instruction.
If we, as a community, should undertake the
rescue of a soul from any particular grade or de-
gree of sin, then we would allow you to ridicule
such effort, for merely human power never
could compass this deliverance. The Lord Jesus
Christ can rescue the soul from sin. Glory to
His name! When I look at Him and then I look
at you, though I may not know what the sin may-
be, if it is an action of immoral quality, and has
included in it the assent of your will, whether it
may be one of the sins of society, whether it may
be a sin that has the bane of society upon it, or
whatever may be its character, if you first
demonstrate to me that it is sin, I believe the
Word of God authorizes me to state that Jesus
Christ can save from it. It is the belief of this
truth that gives us impetus, when we are well-
nigh overcome with discouragement. It is this
that we believe will reach the abandoned, the
lost, and the degraded of this city.
We are not here in the interest of a church or

150

a congregation, we are not here in the interest of
a clan; we are here in the interest of the lost and
fallen. We come not in our own strength, hut
in the power of God. We come and say our God
•can do this work.

I wish to call your attention to the analogy of
the Old Testament Jewish worshipper. When
the Jew brought his turtle dove, his lamb his
bullock, and his goat and placed them upon the
altar of sacrifice, what did he expect? The Jew
expected that that sacrifice would cleanse and
ssive him so far as his sins were concerned. You
ask if*he had any foundation for such an expec-
tation. Whether he had or not, the fact re-
mained that that Jew believed that that sacrifice
would save him. Let us refer to the New Testa-
ment, in the seventh chapter of Hebrews: — '4For
if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes
■of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to
the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge
your conscience from dead works to serve the liv-
ing God?" There is an analogy drawn between
the Jewish ceremonials and Jesus Christ. There
is a comparison between the time of shadows and
forms, and the time of reality and power of the
Gospel. Now if the blood of lambs, bullocks,
and goats would cleanse that Jewish worshipper,

151

who would say that the blood of Jesus Christ
does not or cannot, purge one's conscience accord-
ing to the Word of God.

Christianity compasses reformation. The man
who becomes a christian in the New Testament
sense of the term is not only reformed, but he is
transformed and he is conformed.

Notice the main word of this text, "He is able
also to save them to the uttermost." That word
uttermost is very peculiar. Looking at the ety-
mology of the word we find that it is made up of
the union of two Greek words, an adjective and
a noun; the adjective is ™c, the noun, is reXoc,
The full meaniug of the word is perfection. ^ The
word means that whatever this salvation is, it
succeeds in saving its subjects in every part of
their lives. And when Jesus uses language, and
when he uses that term, he means it. So I say
to you,precious soul to-night, come,place yourself,
whatever is the leading sin of your life in His
liands, for there is efficacy in the atonement of
Jesus Christ to break the power and spell of that
sin, and set you at perfect liberty. Glory to
God! Uttermost Salvation! This is the salva-
tion that raises the fallen. This is the salvation
that reaches into the gutter and takes the liber-
tine and raises him to a life of holiness. This is
the salvation that goes to the uttermost parts of
the world and finds men under the spell of false

152

religions, and breaks their chains, the heaviest
chains, and sets them at liberty. But it is not
without honor in its own country, thank God.
The more closely you watch the subject of its
power, the more you are constrained to say what
a wonderful work God has wrought. The more
you look into the lives of those who come under
the power of its influence, the more your mind,
my mind, the mind of the world, conceives it to-
be the ultimatum of its kind. Uttermost salva-
tion! Now, if I were alone in this extreme posi-
tion, I should feel somewhat timid, but I have
behind me Alford, Litchfield, and other worthy
and reputable Bible students.

This word is encouragement for the soul that
fears to trust in God. This word has in it the
very power of the Gospel. This word, if you
please, represents to the finite mind the possibili-
ties of the Christian religion. We are not of
those who believe that the Christian religion has
become obsolete, that the religion of the Lord
Jesus Christ must necessarily be laid aside. It
is in such force to-day, thank God, that the
power of sin is being broken to-day, and that the
very dominions of midnight darkness are being*
invaded. This uttermost salvation is shaking
every continent known to God, it is invading
every nation, and is coming to the recognition of
almost every heart.

153

The Christian religion is different from all
others in that it does not raise an ideal of holi-
ness, ami then tail in securing the results which
we expect. It does not teach the false morality
of the Greek philosophers. This religion is not-
only absolute, but it is intolerant. It does not
effect a compromise with any seeming good form
of religion. It does not have anything to do
with other religions. It is the beginning and
ending of itself. It takes one through the inter-
mediate condition into the perfectly saved con-
dition of experience. Saved to the uttermost !

Now, there are three; and three only, principal
thoughts that I have to advocate. The first is
that this religion saves souls froni their attitude
towards their sins. We read in the Word of
God, " Be ye not conformed to this world, but be
ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."
Have you a section in this City that to-night is
under the power of sin too black almost to men-
tion ? If so, how are we to recover that section r
There must be introduced into the minds of those
engaged in this sin, an antipathy for it. By
nothing else than the religion of the Lord Jesus-
Christ can this be done. I think the Lord knows
how to approach the sonls he wishes to save: that
the thing that Jesns Christ first does is to get the
minds of those he intends to save, and then to
turn those minds against the sins they have been

154

•committing. When shall the day come when
there shall be sounded forth from every pulpit
the religion known as the religion of Jesus
Christ, that demands the eternal hatred of the
.sins from which they expect to be delivered ?

After this, comes naturally, and as we have
reason to expect, a change of heart with reference
to these sins. The Word of God does not erect
a high standard of holiness, and call upon us to
make an effort to attain to it, but never attain it.
When a man breaks away and displays a desire
toward sin, he is the same God who can change
the attitude of that man's affections or heart
towards sin, and make him feel the loosening of
the roots of sin, constraining him, often, in the
choice and desire, to leave the paths of sin. Dear
friends, the Lord Jesus Christ has a system
which saves a man's affections. I care not what
may be the temptation, I care not what may be
the attractions that surround this man, or
woman, who for the first time breaks away from
sin. I care not what may be the inducements
that may be laid before this man, or woman, if
he or she secures to himself the power of this
religion, that person will stand. Almost over-
come, almost worn out, yet, thank God, a victor,
this one always stands. We do not say that
there will be no struggle, that there will be no
temptation to go back to the haunts of vice. To

155

make a statement of that kind would be to sug-
gesl the fact that a man is saved out of moral
choice; but lie is saved so thai his mind and heart
rise up against the sins of his former life, and he
is enabled to sustain his position. It will lake
this religion to rescue a fallen woman, to invade
these dens of iniquity, and offer to these inmates
that which will save them, and save them to the
uttermost.

The third thought is that it changes the actual
habits and practices of those who believe in it.
It not only instructs the mind and changes the
heart, but it changes the actions. Christ will be
able to instruct the mind and comfort the heart,
and then give a rule of life by which the subject
of salvation can keep the commandments of
God. Uttermost salvation ! Glory to God !
Now, it is this that we believe must, of necessity,
be the inspiration of this work. It is this upon
which we must insist; it is this which we must
carry to those whom we expect to rescue and to
;save. If we go with ideas of sentimentalism, or
even with all our human sympathies, although
inspired by a good desire that may cover the
situation for a time, we shall fail: but what
these individuals need is a power which is not in
human sympathy, but from God. Otherwise,
there will no use in enlisting their attention.
There must be brought into their lives a power

156

which is not recognized in the laws of society,.
power which does not come from law, but a
power that comes from the Almighty God, and
when men and women come into touch with this
power, they find this change. The things they
once loved, they now hate: tiie thing that was
once upon their time and attention largely, now
has no place. The living God has taken the
throne of their affections, and they live unto God.
I should despair, if I expected them to be rescued
by human sympathy. But thank God, Jesus
has died. Jesus Christ has descended down to
the very gates of hell. We are willing to con-
cede that the powers of hell are striving and
must strive against the church of God. But we
are not ready to say the victory is lost, though
we are little, for Jesus is the captain of our sal-
vation, and when we have rescued one soul, we
see more coming. We shall go out and compel
them to come, for if they come once, we are sure
they will come again. Glory to God ! " Where-
fore he is able to save all them that come unto
God by him." This, we believe to be the remedy
for this evil. There may be a surface work,,
there may be a superficial instruction of the
mind which shall reach but a short distance into
the innermost part of the mind. But what we
need most of all is the salvation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Mary Magdalene was more than a

15?

reformed creature. She was conformed, and
transformed. She not only broke away from the
previous practices of her life, but she was devoted
to the Lord, tenderly so. in such a manner that
the Lord himself gave recognition to her devotion.
Those that are redeemed from the lost conditions
of vice and sin, shall be raised to a level as much
higher than Adam and Eve enjoyed before trans-
gression, as you and I can conceive of. There is
one song they sing in Heaven that angels and
seraphim do not sing. There shall come from
those lips, " Unto him that has washed us, in his
own blood." unto Him be glory, power, and
majesty, and wisdom. Forever and ever. The
angels and seraphim understand not this mys-
tery. What a wonderful thing it is to be saved !
But, dear friends, a little child, born in Bethle-
hem, has had his hand upon the world. The
stream has been enlarging and enlarging, and up
to the present time, there are more than fourteen
billion people who belong to the religion of Jesus
Christ. It is marching on and forward, and the
time is coining when the knowledge and the
glory of God shall cover the world, and men and
women shall acknowledge that Christ is Lord
over all. This religion appeals to men, and
when it comes to the uttermost, it saves them to
the uttermost, and to the end.
We present to this city a mission work, an

158

inspiration work to all that are lust. We believe
that they can be saved. We rely solely upon
God. We believe, so we will give to those who
need it. the simple story of Jesus and the cross.
We will carry to them a gospel, burning, living,
coming directly from the heart of Jesus Christ,
the result of the intercession of Jesus with the
Father for the lost, and we believe it will and
must succeed. It would be Avell for those who
believe this work will not succeed, to remember
what Gamaliel told the men of Jerusalem before
the Sanhedrim. " If this thing is not of God, it
will come to naught, but if it is of God, ye can-
not overthrow it."

II.

EMOTIONAL RELIGION.

vs.

EMOTION IN RELIGION.

S there such a tiling as emotion in Christianity ?
™ The answer to this question is unequivocal.
Christianity is a life. If analogy is traceable
and thinkable, and emotion is predicable of
nature, religion can also lay claim to it. We are
too true to facts to deny that human life is emo-
tional. The emotional faculty is large and well
developed in life. The facts that stir the human
emotions operate quite the same as the facts in
religious life. Nor only this, but the same set of
faculties that receive and recognize facts which
produce pain or pleasure in the simple human
condition also receive and recognize facts result-
ing similarly in the moral sphere.

That it is almost universally believed that
faith is the negation of emotion — feeling, no one
can question. The Scripture, however, does not
warrant any antithesis. Emotion, necessarily
and consequently, is commensurate with faith.

It has come to pass, latterly, that he who gives
expression or cognizance to religious emotions is-

160

relegated to obscurity by charging him with
■enthusiasm and effervescence. But neither of
these terms is foreign or repugnant to Chris-
tianity, where properly used.

We do not expect unquestioning acquiescence,
when we assert that the religion of the day is too
•conservative, as to its results. Abstruse concep-
tions and metaphysical argument may do for a
foundation, but the superstructure must be vital-
ized, hence emotional.

We readily concede that emotional religion is
in the land, we do not, however, seek to be
critical nor technical when we differentiate
between emotion as a concept in religion and
emotional religion.

Humanly speaking, "emotion has its end in
itself." Religiously, it never can have, and
maintain the purity of the religion of which it is
a part.

Here lies the discriminating principle. Ever
has it been true that religion of emotion, and the
•emotional religion have been divorced, not so
much by the fact of emotion, as by the end or
use of it.

There cannot be too much importance attached
to this proposition. It may truthfully be con-
ceded that the false religionist has an equal
.amount of emotion with the true, but the inspirer
And ultimatum are alwavs different.

101

In no critical nor legitimate sense is the subject
•charged with emotional religion, who weeps,
Langhs, and shouts under divine inspiration, and
•consequently ''gives his body to be burned and
his goods to feed the poor." If he refuses so to
•do he may be an enthusiast. The body may be
sacrificed and the goods given when the inspira-
tion and result are foreign to holiness. But this
thought cannot be ridden both ways. There
must be emotion to an effective end, there can be
no effective end without it. Joseph Cook says:
" It would be a sad whim in the art of metallurgy
if men should take up with the notion that a
white heat is not useful in annealing metals; and
.so it is a sad whim in religious life when we
think that the white heat we call a religious
excitement is not useful in annealing character
-and society."

Every branch of theosophy may not kindle
■emotion, but one thing is true, Christianity
always gives birth to it. Its truths are not
usual nor commonplace. Does a man really
believe he shall live forever in Heaven or hell,
and that this finality is dependent upon sin or
holiness ? Do these thoughts have no effect upon
the emotions ? Does a man keep sensibly before
him the fact that the way is "narrow" and
" few" there be that find it, and yet sluggishly
give himself to the " perseverance of the saints ?"

162

Are we to believe that the kingdom of God is;
" righteousness, and peace, and joy" and separate
one of the elements of this trinitarian unity in
extreme importance and conclude that we possess-
the kingdom ?

The following propositions are expressive of the
truth.

1. Emotional religion seeks the aesthetic and
fastidious as an end.

It uses mediums as final.

It desires an educated priesthood at the sacri-
fice of holiness. It employs musical talent as a
feature of attraction and entertainment.

It substitutes form and liturgy for integrity
and character.

It stops with a condition and state of emotiou
which ought to be an incentive to a holy end.

It plays upon the imaginations, and causes the
sensations to tingle under its imagery and figures,
of rhetoric, but leaves the unfortunate subjects,
unconvicted and unholy. •

It describes the glories of Heaven, but touches
lightly on the conditions of its attainment.

It arouses the emotions, but not to action, and
the result is a relapse into greater inactivity.

It destroys the relish for simple truth, and
characterizes that as dry and disinteresting which
does not effect a phase of sensations agreeable to
its fancy.

L63

Splendid form, church aggrandizement, and
ecclesiastical pageantry are its motives and aspi-
rations.

'!. The religion of emotion docs many things
thai the emotional religion performs, but goes
further. It believes hell is waiting to receive
the finally impenitent, and strives by tears, en-
treaties, and accredited means to bring the sub-
ject to repentance.

It believes sin to be the curse of the world, and
secures and proclaims victory over and freedom
from its thraldom. It believes the sound of the
"church-going bell" quite insufficient to reclaim
the disinterested and abandoned classes and goes
into the "byways and hedges" and compels them
to come in.

It believes the church has courted the world
till she has become weak and compromising,
and raising up a "standard against satan" pro-
tests.

It believes that Christ and his religion are all-
absorbing obligations and gladly gives up the
world and "seeks first the kingdom of God."

It believes that deliverance from sin and death
are thoughts worthy its adoration and "rejoices
with joy unspeakable and full of glory."

It does all it does to "God's glory" that redemp-
tion shall appear unto all men, even though it re-
fill ires denial, suffering, and death.

1(34

In short, it disregards policy and employs truth
as its weapon of warfare, though it suffers loss,

sacrifices friends, and signals the onslaught of
multitudinous foes and troubles.

If this disposition produces criticism then with
the worthy apostle it triumphantly professes
that "after the way men call heresy so worship I
the God of my fathers."

But finally the world needs more virtue and
using the emotions as a channel for transmission,
makes them only a step to the sublime end of
morals and heroism.

III.

SERMON OUTLINES.

Text — "Then again called they the man that was
blind, and said unto him, Give Cod the praise; we
know that this man is a sinner." — vSt. John, 9:24.

Intro: — Arguments: (1) Affirmation of friends;

(2) incident in affirmation of friends; (3)
affirmation of enemies; (4) incident in
affirmal ion of enemies.

Basis: — Sinlessness — the demand of the Chris-
tianized mind. Sinlessness: — (a) positive
rebellion; (b) willful neglect.

I. St. John 9:16. "How can a man that is a

sinner do snch miracles."
(a) Miracle conceded; (b) not accorded to
Christ because lie was a sinner.

II. St. John !)::>f. '* Now we know that God

heareth not sinners."
(a) Christ did not work the miracle for God
heareth not sinners; d>) therefore sin a
barrier to power with God.

III. St. John 9:24. " We know that this man is

a sinner."
(a) Not a compliment ; (1>) a reflection— Argu-
ment:— (1) Christ considered human. St.
John He.:;:; : (2) sin, the objection to Him;

(3) therefore- holiness demanded of hu-
manity.

I. When may we attain holiness?

(a) Cod heareth a man who. (1) worships Him.
(2) does His will; (b) God heareth not
sinners, therefore a worshipper and will-
dosr is sinless, therefore if God hears
some, some are sinless.

166

II. Methods for attainment.

(a) Growth: (1) by faith; (2) by apprehen-
sion, (a1 moment we do not, (b) moment
we do; (3) by moral death

(b) At death: (1) Sin inheres not in the flesh ;
(2) death an enemy ; (3) it cannot be by
faith. (The time idea too prominent)

III. Post Mortem.

(1) Some attain here, God a respecter: (2)

not by blood, (a) blood here, (b) no blood

there; (3) God puts a premium on, (a)

ignorance, (b) rebellion.

(Anniversary sermon at Chesbrcugh Seminary, June

1895).

Text. — "Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect,
be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and
the God of love and peace shall be with you." — 11 Cor.
13:11.

I. Farewell.

(a) Go; lb" prosperously; (1) advancement in
personal holiness ; (2) an increase in num-
bers ; (3) A clearer, more radical type, as
a church.

II. Be perfect.

1. (negatives* (^ not Adamic ; (b) not Angelic;
(cj not absolute ; 2. < positives) (a) Chris-
tianlike ; ib) in love, or motive ; (cj strive
for outward perfection.

III. Good comfort.

(a) That you know the truth ; (b) that you
obey the truth ; (c) that others are seeking
truth ; (d) that truth prevails.

IV. Be of one mind.

(a) Determine to know all of God's will ; (b)
as God's will is revealed, accept it ; (c) do
not vacillate.

167

"V. Live in peace.

(a) Do not clamor for your own way ; (1)) keep
a humble opinion of yourself; (c) accepl
criticism, if true ; ignore, if false.
VI. God of love and peace.

(a) He will dwell in yon ; (b) love and peace
will win ; (c) these attributes of God arc
inexhaustible, eternal.

Text — " Therefore let no man glory in men, for all
things are yours." — i Cor. 3:21.
Intro:— Salvation with its hopes and destiny is

so grave that it is only safe to act upon

authority.

I. The greatest victory any one can attain

is freedom from the bondage of people,
(a) " Glory in men'" is the great barrier to
religious advancement; (b) '"glory in
men" stultifies impressions of truth ; (c)
"glory in men" produces a weak compro-
mising spirit.

II. The modes and methods of glorying in men

are as follows,
(a) The assumption that the type of piety
around you is the Bible type ; (b) the
modification of the Holy Spirit's ideals of.
conduct to the usual and ordinary prac-
tice around you ; (c) when one's desire for
and estimate of the associations and attain-
ments of others is not based on holiness ; <d)
the use of policy rather than piety.

Text — "And when the King came in to see the
■guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wed-
ding garment; and he said to him, Friend, how earnest
thou in hither, not having a wedding garment ? And
he was speechless." — St". Matthew 22:1 1-12.

L68

Intro: — The parable describes the offer of salva-
tion to Jews who rejected it. Then the
Gospel is sent to the Gentiles.

I. Punishment for sin is the result of rejection

of salvation.

II. Punishment for sin is the result of neg-

lected opportunities.

III. Punishment for sin is the result of the neg-

lect of what has already been provided.

IV. Damnation will be so reasonable as to quiet

forever all objections.
Y. The King decides the fate.
VI. Nature of the destiny.

Text — "Then Peter and the other apostles an-
swered and said, we ought to obey God rather than
men." — Acts 5:29.

Intro: — Obedience to intelligence vs. God.

I. Obedience to man is destructive as follows:
(a) Man's knowledge limited : (b) man

naturally opposes God ; (1) in advice. 2)
in devotion, (3) in integrity to principle ;
(c) all man's ways subject to ignorance and
delusion.

II. Obedience to God safe.

(a) God sees end from beginning ; (b) Go:1 is
not only wise but good: (c) God compels
success to attend his advice, if obeyed.

Text:— "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanetifieation, and redemption. — 1 Cor. 1:30.

Intro: — God the author of all excellence.
I. Wisdom.

(a) Discovery of truth: (I)) })reparation for
truth: (c) reception of truth.

169

II. Righteousness, (awowitw?), properly justifica-

tion,
(a) Forgiveness; (b) renewal of soul; (<•) kept
from sin

III. Sanctification.

(a) Consciousness of impurity ; (b) cleansing;
(c) filling.

IV. Redemption.

(a) Satisfaction of desires; (b) glorification <>f
body; (c) establishment in intelligence and
(•< niirmation in holiness.

Text: — "But let every man prove his own work,
and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and
not in another. For every man shall bear his own
burden." — Gal. 6:4-5.

Intro: — The scope and evidenct of the Gospel do
not exceed man's intelligence, and man's
finality depends upon his decision

I. Three methods of proof.

(a) The Bible; (b) the Spirit; (c) the conscience.

II. Rejoicing in self.

(a; Personal righteousness; (b) harmony with
God; (c) readiness for judgment.

III. Every man bears his own burden.

(;i) Circumstance not considered; (b) influences
disregarded; (c) responsibility for all we
knew, rejected, or might have known.

Text. — "And she ."hall bring forth a son, and thou
shalt call his name JESl\S; for he shall save his people
from their sins." — St, -Matt. 1:21.

Intro: — The habit of naming persons in keep-
ing wit h t raits of character.

I. Christ succeeds!

II. He professes to save from sin.

170

III. This is implied in His mission.

IV. This is expected in all those who seek Him.

V. This is stated of those who belong to Him.

VI. What sins He saves from.

(a) Business sins : (b) social sins ; (c) secret
sins : (d) sins of omission : (e) natural
sins.

Text: — "And ye shall know the truth and the
truth shall make you free." — St. John, 8:32.

"If the son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall
be free indeed. " — v. 36.

Intro: — Only the knowledge of and conformity
to the truth brings Freedom.

I. Three methods of knowing truth.

(a) By Revelation: (b) by the Spirit: (c) by
experience.

II. Freedom impliess deliverance from:

(a) Sin: (b) false hope: (c) personal doubt: (d)
actions, opinions, influence of others.

III. The Son.

(a) Xot a church-, (b) not an influence; (c) not

a theory.
Text: — "Abstain from all appearance of evil."
— 1 Thess. 5:22.

'•ArrfjtWt arro -cnroc f'icovc -orr/por."

Intro : — Laws vs. Gospel; form vs. Spirit: act vs.
motive: bondage vs. liberty.

I. All of Grace is inward. (God looketh upon

the heart. )

II. The manifestations of Grace should be culti-

vated. ( "Study to shew. " etc. . * 'and let not
your good be evil." etc.)

III. Abstain from all appearance of evil.

(a) From the way sinners manifest evil: (b)
from actions that lead to evil.

171

(1) Business relations: (2) social relations:
(.'{) personal relations.

Text. — "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will
give thee a crown of life. " — Rev. 2:10.

Intro: — No virtue without effort. Polycarp,
burnt liii;. Smyrna. Faithful in every-
thing up to death.

I. Faithful

(a) In reproving sin: (1>) in supporting holiness;
(c) in our devotion to our religious intelli-
gence: (dj in defending the doctrines of
Scripture: (e) faithful in the spiritual
progress for life unto death.

II. Crown of life.

(a) No sia; (b) nosorrow; (c) no care: (d) no
disappointments; [e) no end. — Anne of Aus-
tria to Richelieu.

Text. — "My kingdom is not of this world." — St.
John 18:36.

Intro: — Jesus Christ the only religious teacher
disclaiming worldly power.

I. The conditions for citizenship are calculated

to divorce one from the world.

II. The principles and laws of the kingdom are

unworldly.

III. The successes are unsatisfactory to the world.

IV. The ruler is Jesus.

V. The result and terminus are a real, enduring.

eternal kingdom.

Text. — "As it is appointed unto men once to die.
hut after this the judgment. " — Heb. 9:27.

Intro: — Life and death are mysterious.
I. Death is an appointment of God.

L72

(a) It is universal: (b) it is a blast to earthly
plans; (c) it is relentless, sudden, and inex-
orable.
II. The judgment will come.

(a) Thorough; (b) righteous; (c) final; (d) eter-
nal.

TExt: — "Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand."— St. Matt. 3:2; 4:17.

Intro: — Sin is an exponent of volition; conscious
act of sin produces condemnation; condem-
nation necessitates sorrow or repentance.

I. Repentance implies

(a) Sorrow for sin; (b) hatred for sin; (c) re-
nunciation of sin.

II. Repentance produces

(a) Confession; (b) contrition; (c^ faith.

III. Repentance prepares the soul for the recep-

tion of Character.

Text. — -"For when they shall say, Peace and safety;
then sudden destruction cometh upon them * * * and
they shall not escape." — 1 Thess. 5:3.

Intro: — Peace and safety are objects worthy of
pursuit.

I. ■ Safety depends upon peace, but there may

be a peace with no safety.

II. Physical and tangible safety.

(a) Surroundings: (b) money; (c) society.

III. Religious safety.

(a) Ignorance (willful); (b) false hope; (c) de-
lusion.

IV. Sudden destruction.

(a) Blasted hopes; (b) enlightened understand-
ing; (cj no hope for a recovery.

IV.

HYMNS.

I'D RATHER STAY HERE.

'The harvest of souls is now whitening,
The winter of death draweth near;

And many who now live in time-life

Are saved and their Lord keeps them near.

CHORUS.

I long to stay here, I long to stay here;

I'd toil, gladly toil for Him,
I 'd toil for the Master so dear !

I'd gladly toil on in the harvest for souls;
Oh, I long, how I long to stay here !

Now since I am sav'd by God's power,

I ask not to go nor to stay;
For living in Christ as my bower

E'en here is continual day.

And thus I toil on at His bidding,
Encouraged, upheld in the strife;

I care not for blessings or chidings,
For I live in eternal life.

So when I am sav'd with the perfect,

In glory, forever and aye,
I'll sing with the saints of all ages,

'Tis blessed to go or to stay.

174
LORD, I'M THINE.

Lord, I'm Thine, yes, Thine, forever;

Bod}-, spirit, soul and time,
Sinful chains control me never;

I'm united to the vine.
Hark ! I hear the sirens' music.

Once it thrilled my soul with joy;
Butnowthesongof Christ's redemption,

All my energies employ.

Farewell, sin, your power is broken,
Jesus rules as King and Priest,

And in each moment of earth 's conflict.
He will give sufficient grace.

Friends may call me from this rapture,

Loved ones say, ' 'you owe us much, ' '
Claiming thus my heart's devotions;

They would kill with love's kind
touch.
Thus are all 1113- heart-strings broken,

And my tears flow freely down,
But self-denial is a token,

Of my never fading crown.

Do the saints await us yonder ?

And their faces shall we see ?
Dare we earth 's attractions ponder ?

Only Christ is victory.
Sinner, pray, no longer tarry;

On the dang'rous ground of sin.
Oh! haste thee ! up, no time to linger,.

For the night is setting in.

175

my decision!

[esus, Master, stop and listen,

While I my decision make;
I've from me my idols riven,

Henceforth I of Thee partake.
Friends, Companions, reputation,

Life, emoluments I spurn;
Help me in my dedication,

As I from the worldling turn.

CHORUS.

I turn, I turn, now I turn,

I turn from sin and woe,
I gladly turn !
I'll take the pathway of the Lamb,

Wherever He doth go !

Jesus, Master, stop and listen,

While I my decision make;
There's no good on earth I covet,

Tho' it does my heart-strings break.
Ease, affluence, aggrandizement,

Earth's attractions cannot win,
While in this decisive moment

I choose Christ the Nazarene.

Jesus, Master, stop and listen,

While I my decision make;
Tho' I see the wicked prosper,

From my soul the spell I'll shake,
I dare trust Thee, Thou despised,

When earth's offers do entice,
For I want the " gold of fire, "

And am ready with the price.

176

Jesus, Master, stop and listen,

While I my decision make;
I will follow to Golgotha,

Tho' my friends with fear do quake.
Fiery furnace, den of lions,

Self-denial, yea, and scorn:
All of these my soul doth long for,

Shore lines, hopes, and loves are torn.

Jesus, Master, stop and listen,

While I my decision make;
In my heart shall dwell no seed-sin,

At the Fount my thirst I'll slake.
Death ma}' come, and dissolution,

Satan ply his fiendish art;
Come, thou Lion, Prince of Judah,

Cleanse, and keep my willing heart.

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Rev. Aura Claire Showers, a sketch

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