We pers, to prepare us for final happiness. . . shall all meet again, in another and a better world." JAMES MONTGOMERY, has written a jubilate which we cannot interpret in harmony with the doctrine that Christ shall be defeated. Can the reader? "Hark! the song of jubilee, Loud as mighty thunders roar, Or the fulness of the sea, When it breaks upon the shore: Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent shall reign!' Hallelujah! let the word Echo round the earth and main. "Halleujah!-hark! the sound Heard thro' earth and through the skies, Wakes above, beneath, around, All creation's harmonies : See Jehovah's banner furled, Sheathed his sword; he speaks-'tis done! And the kingdoms of this world Are the kingdoms of his Son. 'He shall reign from pole to pole He shall reign when, like a scroll, Hallelujah! Christ in God, God in Christ, is ALL IN ALL!" address to the righteous and merciful Judge of all; if at the same time he is truly humble and penitent for his past sins, and is grieved at his heart for having offended his Maker, and melts into sincere repentance; I cannot think that a God of perfect equity and rich mercy will continue such a creature under his vengeance, but rather that the perfections of God will contrive a way for escape, though God has not given us here any revelation or discovery of such special grace as this. I grant that the eternity of God himself before this world began, or after its consummation, has something in it so immense and so incomprehensible, that in my most mature thoughts, I do not choose to enter into those infinite abysses; nor do I think we ought, usually, when we speak concerning creatures, to affirm positively, that their existence shall be equal to that of the blessed God, especially with regard to the duration of their punishment." DR. JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. This distinguished scholar and genius, the day before he died, desired his son to reach him a pamphlet,-John Simpson's work against eternal punishment. He then remarked, "It will be a source of great satisfaction to you to read this pamphlet. It contains my sentiments, and a belief in them will be a support to you in the most trying circumstances, as it has been to me. We shall all meet finally: we only require different degrees of discipline, suited to our different tem pers, to prepare us for final happiness. We shall all meet again, in another and a better world." JAMES MONTGOMERY, has written a jubilate which we cannot interpret in harmony with the doctrine that Christ shall be defeated. Can the reader? "Hark! the song of jubilee, Loud as mighty thunders roar, Or the fulness of the sea, When it breaks upon the shore:- God omnipotent shall reign!' Hallelujah! let the word Echo round the earth and main. "Halleujah!-hark! the sound Heard thro' earth and through the skies, Wakes above, beneath, around, All creation's harmonies : See Jehovah's banner furled, Sheathed his sword; he speaks-'tis done! And the kingdoms of this world Are the kingdoms of his Son. 'He shall reign from pole to pole He shall reign when, like a scroll, Hallelujah! Christ in God, God in Christ, is ALL IN ALL!" Again: "O'er every foe victorious, BARON HUMBOLDT. This remarkable man assures us, that, "The conviction-arising from a firm confidence in Almighty goodness and justice-that death is only the termination of an imperfect state of being, whose purpose cannot be fully carried out here, and that it is the passage to a better and a higher condition, should be so constantly present to us, that nothing should be able to obscure it, even for a moment: it is the groundwork of inward peace, and of the loftiest endeavors, and is an inexhaustible spring of comfort in affliction." ACTON WARBURTON. Acton Warburton, the eloquent author of the "Footsteps of the Normans," says: "He (the Norman) looks forward to the time when he shall complete that acquaintance, where they have preceded, and await him in 'The land of souls, beyond the sable shore,' and knowing that the Sun of Mercy shines be yond the clouds of ancestral error, he would fain hope that one day would unite them all: 'No wanderer lost, LAVATER, the great Swiss, uttered the following evangelical aspiration: "My prayers were comprehensive. My family, my friends, my fellow-citizens, my enemies, all Christians, all men were included in them. I flew to the most distant seas; I penetrated into the deepest mines and dungeons. I embraced in my heart all that is called man, present and future times and nations; the dead, the damned, yea, Satan himself; I presented them all to God, with the warmest wishes that he would have mercy upon all." JAMES THOMPSON, the Poet of the Seasons, has spoken "words fitly chosen," and they are indeed as "apples of gold in baskets of silver." He says: "Yet Providence, that ever waking eye, THROUGH ALL THIS DREARY LABYRINTH OF FATE. |