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Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Stre film^s 6 des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 6 partir de Tangle sup^rieur gauche, de gauche 6 droite. et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. rata D telure, I 6 3 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 Conference hill Stddies. REPORT OF THE BELIEVERS^ MEETING FOR BIBLE STUDY, HELD AT 2Sri- ^ CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES^ u o o w a a U ( REPORT OF THE Believers' Meeting for Bible Study, HELD AT o >v o m "c 3 3iTI-a-a-A-I?,-a_ — 01 ; ; ," "generation of vipers," (Matt. 23). Paul, speaking by the Spirit of GcJ, calls them " false apostles, de- ceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ," (2 Cor. II : 13), and Peter, speaking by the Spirit of God, says, "There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways ; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." (2 Pet. 2 : 1, 2). The last warning against false teachers is directly connected with the divine announcement that "the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Man's will had nothing whatever to do with the revelation of God's will, and holy men of God did not think but spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It is the denial of verbal inspiration, therefore, that causes the false teachers to appear, for the moment the verbal accuracy of the sacred Scriptures is abandoned, the flood-gates are opened for the intro- 4 12 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. duction of all kinds of error, and as much infidelity may stalk through the Church as may choose to enter. Any doctrine, duty, narrative precept, prediction or statement of the Bible that may not suit the fancy of the reader is at once dismissed with contempt on the ground that it is not inspired, and cast aside amid the views of exploded superstitions, C" tossed into the sea of oblivion. "The Believers' Meeting for Bible Study" could not be ignorant of the rapidly increasing evils and perils to which the modern and popular theories of inspiration are logically and inevitably leading the professing Church. It was determint^d, therefore, to publish a brief statement of the truths held by the Conference, not only to guard against any possible mis- understanding of the doctrines taught by its leaders, but as a solemn pro- test against the false doctrines now, unhappily, so often heard even from pulpits belonging to evangelical bodies. Accordingly a paper was printed, containing the " Articles of Belief" held by the Conference, and it was sent out as their Confession of Faith and as a bond of union among its scattered members. The Confession is printed in this report. The teachers in the Believers' meeting desire to know how many in Canada and the United States are in sympathy with the views now submitted for candid examination. All those, therefore, to whom this may come, are respectfully requested to read carefully the paper which follows, and if it expresses their convictions of the truth, they will confer an important favor by sending to Alf. Sandham, Ed. Faith^'d Witness, Toronto, for copies to be circulated among any who are like-... ided, and secure as many signatures as possible to the following statement: — " The Articles of Belief adopted by the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study are hereby approved by the undersigned." When signed, the statement should be sertt without delay to him. It is not the purpose to print these names, but to discover to some extent those in the various Churches who hold fast the truth. Job t'i ARTICLES OF BELIEF. 13 ARTICLES OF BELIEF. ■ At the meeting held at Clifton Springs, New York, in the last week of June, 1878, invitations were received from different parts of the United States and from Canada for similar meetings, accompanied by the request that they should be under the control and management of those who have in charge the " Believers' Meeting for Bible Study." After mature and prayerful consideration it was judged to be according to the mind of the Lord to comply with the request ; but while thus be- coming identified with other meetings, honesty and true wisdom demand that we should set forth distinctly the ground upon which we assemble, and upon which alone we are willing to be associated with any who desire to come together for Christian fellowship and for the examination of the Sacred Scriptures. So many in these latter times have departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; so many have turned away their ears from the truth, and turned unto fables; so many are busily engaged in scattering broadcast the seeds of fatal error, directly affecting the honor of our Lord and the destiny of the soul, we are constrained by fidelity to Him to make the following declaration of our doctrinal belief, and to present it as the bond of union with those who wish to be connected with the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study : — I. We believe " that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," by which we understand the whole of the book called the Bible : nor do we take the statement in the sense in which it is sometimes foolishly said that works of human genius are inspired, but in the sense that the Holy Ghost gave the very words of the sacred writings to holy men of old ; and that His divine inspiration is not in different degrees, but extends equally and fully to all parts of these writings, historical, poe.;ical, doctrinal and pro- phetical, and to the smallest word, and inflection of a word, provided such word is found in the original manuscripts. 2 Tim. 3: 16, 17; 2 Pet. i: 21; I Cor. 2: 13; Mark 12: 26, 36; 13: 11; Acts i: 16; 2: 4. IL We believe that the Godhead eternally exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ; and that these three are one God. having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience. Mark 12: 29; John i: 1-4; Matt. 28: 19, 20; Acts 5: 3,4; 2 Cor. 13: 14; Heb. i: i-3- Rev. i: 4-6. 14 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. III. We believe that man, originally created in the image and after the likeness of God, fell from his high and holy estate by eating the forbidden fruit, and as the consequence of his disobedience the threatened penalty of death was then and there inflicted, so that his moral nature was not only greviously injured by the fall, but he totally lost all spiritual life, be- coming dead in trespasses and sins, and subject to the power of the devil. Gen. i: 26; 2; 17; John 5: 40; 6: 53; Eph. 2: 1-3; i Tim. 5: 6;, 1 John 3: 8. IV. We believe that this spiritual death, or total corruption of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire race of man, the man Jesus Christ alone excepted; and hence that every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature which not only possesses no spark of divine life, but is essentially and unchangeably bad, being enmity against God, and incapable by any educational process whatever of subjection to His law. Gen. 6: 5; Ps- 14: 1-3; 51: 5; Jer. 17: 93 John 3: 6; Rom. 5: 12-19; 8: 6, 7. V. We believe that, owing to this universal depravity and death in sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again ; and that no de- gree of reformation however great, no attainment in morality however high, no culture however attractive, no humanitarian and philanthropic schemes and societies however useful, no baptism or other ordinance however administered, can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven ; but a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Ghost through the Word, is absolutely essential to salvation. Isa. 64 : 6; John 3:5, 18 ; Gal. 6 : 15 ; Phil. 3 : 4-9 ; Titus 3:5; Jas. 1 : 18 ; i Pet. i : 23. VI. We believe that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin, and made a curse for us, dying in our room and stead ; and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, or of all the churches that have existed since the days of the Apostles, can add in the very least to the value of that precious blood, or to the merit of that finished work, wrought for us by Him who united in His person true and proper divinity with perfect and sinless humanity. Lev. 17:11; Matt. 26 : 28 ; Rom. 5 : 6-9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7;! Pet. i : 18, 19. VII. We believe that Christ, in the fulness of the blessings He has secured by His obedience unto death, is received by faith alone, and that the moment we trust in Him as our Saviour we pass out of death into- after the orbidden I penalty- was not life, be- r of the- im. 5: 6;, 1" human in Jesus »orn into dne life, rod, and His law. 9;8:6, 7, h in sin, at no de- however inthropic irdinance p toward anted by salvation, us 3 : 5 ; solely by i made a ance, no lission to ;hat have ist to the , wrought nity with n. 5 : 6-9; 5 He has and that eath inta '^ftaT'JVfi!- .»,.t,JH ." :>«--,' ;^:.'v>Ir,^, ARTICLES OF BELIEF. If everlasting life, justified from all things, accepted before the Father accord- ing to the measure of His acceptance, loved as He is loved and having His place and portion, as linked to Him, and one with Him forever. John 5: 24; 17: 23; Acts 13: 39; Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2: 4-6, 13 j I John 4: 17; 5 : u, 12. Vni. We believe chat it is the privilege, not only of some, but of all who are born again by the Spirit through faith in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, to be assured of their salvation from the very day they take Him to be their Saviour ; and that this assurance is not founded upon any fancied discovery of their own worthiness but wholly upon the testi- mony of God in His written word, exciting within His children filial love, gratitude, and obedience. Luke lo: 20; 12: 32; John Cy. 47; Rom. 8: 33- 39; 2 Cor. 5: I, 6-8; 2 Tim. i: 12; i John 5: 13. IX. We believe that all the Scriptures from first to last centre about our Lord Jesus Christ, in His person and work, in His first and second com- ing ; and hence that no chapter even of the Old Testament is properly read or understood until it leads to Him ; and moreover that all the Scrip- tures from first to last, including every chapter even of the Old Testa- ment, were designed for our practical instruction, Luke 24: 27, 44; John 5: 39; Acts 17: 2, 3; i8: 28; 26: 22, 23; 28: 23; Rom. 15: 4; i Cor. 10: II. X. We believe that the Church is composed of all who are united by the Holy Spirit to the risen and ascended Son of God, that by the same Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, and thus being members one of another, we are responsible to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, rising above all sectarian prejud- ices and "ienominational bigotry, and loving one another with a pure heart fervently. Matt. i6: 16-18; Acts 2: 32-47; Rom. 12: 5 ; i Cor. 12 : 21- 27; Eph, i: 20-23; 4: 3-10; Col. 3: 14, 15. XL We believe that the Holy Spirit, not as an influence, but as a divine person, the source and power of all acceptable worship and service, is our abiding Comforter and Helper, that He never takes His departure from the Church, nor from the feeblest of the saints, but is ever present to testify of Christ, seeking to occupy us with Him, and not with ourselves nor with our experiences. John 7 : 38, 39 ; 14 : 16, 17 ; 15 : 26 ; 16 : 13, 14; Acts 1:8; Rom 8:9; Phil. 3:3. XH. We believe that we are called with a holy calling to walk, not after the flesh but after the Spirit, and so to live in the Spirit that we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh ; but the flesh being still in us to the end of n i i6 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. I i our earthly pilgrimage needs to be kept constantly in subjection to Christ, or it will surely manifest its presence to the dishonor of His name. Rom. 8 : 12, 13 ; 13 : 14 ; Gal. 5 : 16-25 '> Eph. 4 : 22-24 ; Col. 3 : i-io ; 1 Pet. I : 14-16 ; I John 3 : 5-9. XIII. We believe that the souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do at death immediately pass into His presence, and there remain in conscious biiss until the resurrection of the body at His coming, v, hen soul and body re-united shall be associated with Him forever in glory ; but the souls of unbelievers remain after death in con- scious misery until the final judgment of the great white throne at the close of the millennium, when soul and body re-united shall be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. Luke 16 : 19-26 ; 23 : 43 ; '2 Cor. 5:8; Phil, i: 23; 2 Thess. i: 7-9 ; Jude 6, 7 ; Rev. 20 : 11-15. XIV. We believe that the world will not be converted during the pre- sent dispensation, but is last ripening for judgment, while there will be a fearful apostacy in the professing Christian body ; and hence that the Lord Jesus will come in person to introduce the Millennial age, when Israel shall be restored to their own land, and the earth shall be full of the know- ledge of the Lord ; and that this personal and premillennial advent is the blessed hope set before us in the Gospel for which we should be con- stantly looking. Luke 12: 35-40; 17: 26-30; 18: 8; Acts 15: 14-17; 2 Thess. i: 2-8; 2 Tim. 3: 1-5; Tit. 2: 11-15 I ! BELIEVERS' MEETING FOR BIBLE STUDY. TWELFTH ANNUAL GATHERING AT NIAGARA-ON-THE- LAKE, ONTARIO. r' ON Wednesday morning, July i8th, 1888. the twelfth annual "Be- lievers' Meeting for Bible Study" opened in the Pavilion, Queen's Royal Hotel, at Niagara, when there was a large attendance, A devotional service was held from 9.30 to 10.30, conducted by the Rev. W. J. Erdman, of Asheville, N.C. Mr. R. W. Swayne, of Lockport, N.Y., led the singing, and Miss Joseph, of Toronto, presided at the organ. Bro. Erdman explained that the object of the meetings was the study of the Word. They studied the Bible for four objects, viz : — for knowledge, for life, for service, and for worship, and all had to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. If they studied the Bible for knowledge it could all be summed up in the words "all of Christ"; if for life it was "all in Christ"; if for service it was "all for Christ"; if for worship it was "all through Christ." It was essential above all things that they have the Holy Spirit to en- lighten them. The one motto of the conference was "Jesus only." And they never stopped to raise the question of their denominational peculiari- ties. He referred to the presence of Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission, as refuting the statement that was sometimes made against them that they were ignorant of missions. He also referred in terms of regret to the absence of such brethren as Rev. Dr. Brookes, Parsons, Bishop, and A. T. Pierson, who had expected to be with them, and then spoke in ■detail of the four-fold purpose in studying the Word as alluded to above. In sacred song and earnest prayer the hour passed away in blessing. . 'it FIRST DAY.— Morning. The devotional service was introductory to the Conference proper which opened at 10.45. ^^' J- F* Kendall, of Indiana presided, and offered prayer. After the singing of "Come thou fount," &c. Pastor Thos. O. Lowe gave an address on THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE PENTATEUCH. HE reminded them, in opening, that they ought not to speak of the Holy Spirit as "it," as He was a distinct personality, as truly a Person as the Father and Son. There were three distinct references to tho Spirit in the book of Genesis, showing Him first, in creation ; second, in conflict with the flesh ; and third, in personal character — in the character of a man. In Genesis i: 2, we read "And the earth was without form and void ; and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The Revision reads "brooded upon the face of the waters." He brooded over chaos — waste and desolation — a proper place for the Spirit to be, for He alone could bring order out of chaos and confusion, and life out of death. Scholars said the expression "brooded" &c. came from a Hebrew word signifying "to be tremulous" as with love. And that beautiful picture they had in Deuteronomy 32: 9-12, of the eagle caring for her young and cherishing them, was to be found in the original Hebrew word. And while the account of creation was exceedingly profitable and blessed, and furnished, in his judgment, an occasion for the most delightful assurance concerning the Divine origin of the Bible; while the first chapter of Genesis in the light of modern discovery contained a demonstration of the fact that it came from God, ye! probably the most useful view they could take of that account was to- THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE PENTATEUCH. 19 per which d offered ;ak of the IS truly a ces to the second, in laracter of form and rit of God >ded upon olation — a der out of expression remulous" )nomy 32: was to be f creation judgment, ^ine origin >f modern from God« unt was to> find in it analogies in the work of creation in the soul. Those analogies were very beautiful and could be distinctly traced through the first three days of creation. As to the man they knew there had to be a new crea- tion, for "if any man be in Christ he is a new creature," And so He comes to the human heart in its utter darkness and death and helplessness to brood over it and to bring to it light. It was noticeable in connection with this thought that in Gen. 1, there was a constant repetition of the expression "and God said" so that they had the Word and the Spirit work- ing together to produce that new creation. And of course without both the Word and the Spirit working together in the human heart the new creation could not exist or flourish. There can neither be life nor growth in the human soul without the Word and the Spirit. In Gen. 6 : 3, they had presented thus early in the history of mankind the fact that human nature existed then substantially as now. It was the carnal mind of 6th and 7th Romans, presented in 6th Genesis. Man antag- onizing God, and God striving with man in order that with wooing tender- ness He might bring him into subjection to Himself. In Gen. 41 : 38, they had the Holy Spirit in personal character, "And Pharoah said unto his servants can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is." The expression in Job " the breath of the Almighty " is the same as this expression " the Spirit of God " The early history of Joseph is exceedingly suggestive of the work of the Holy Spirit. He did not arrive at the position where a heathen king could dis- cover the Holy Spirit in him all at once. His life was a long continued series of trials. The poor fellow by simply giving testimony concerning the revelations of God to him increases the intense hostility of his brethren. Then he is sent on a mission, disagreeable to him no doubt, to look for his brethren first in Shechem, then in Dothan. But he obeys his father, and as a result he finds himself in the clutches of his blood- thirsty brethren, and cast into the pit, and in imminent peril of his life, and then sold as a slave to Egypt. Was there not some work there for the Holy Spirit to do in that dear brother ? He was obeying God, and yet getting himself into the most dreadful trouble, being the object of the intense enmity of those who should have been the nearest and dearest to him on earth. While in slavery he held his integrity under the most dreadful temptation in the house of Potiphar, and yet getting into trouble by his integrity because he could not do great sin against his God. , The great trouble with most of us is, that under such trials we are apt to say God does not love us. We are doing our best to serve him and II •o CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. it if instead of allowing us to have a good time in this world, we are having anything but a good time, and He is not caring for us, and so we will have to take care of ourselves. And thus we lose all sense of His pre- sence, and backslide into the most dreadful sin. Now let us think how Joseph withstood all such suggestions of the enemy. The temptation to him was the same as to mother Eve in Eden. God is not good, and begrudges the fruit ; it is purely arbitrary on His part, He won't let us have that which He himself cultivates. And so they went on, and undertook to work in their own ways, only to find they had gone into utter wretchedness, and that it was an evil thmg to forsake the God of their youth. He did not know when the last break in Joseph's will took place, but probably it was during those two long years of waiting for the butler. The months rolled by. and, nothing came of his request. Judging Joseph by their own hearts no doubt it was then that he said, " Well, my expecta- tion is from God, and Him alone. I cannot turn away from Him. He has been too near and dear to me" It was significant that all through that period of his life they found it recorded of him, " the Lcrd was with him." He rested implicitly on his God, and it was but a step to the throne. And so he became one of the loveliest types in all the Old Testa- ment history of the risen Christ. That is what we may become — types of the risen Christ. In Exodus the reference is to the work of Christ and his people, Ex. 28: 3, and 31: 1-6. They found that God inspired those wise-hearted people in matters of mechanism and construction that they might have still more wisdom. A man in his honest calling might very properly ex- pect wisdom and help from Almighty God. In Isaiah 28: 26, it is stated, "His God doth instruct him aright." He had no doubt that the Almighty God had been in the marvellous mechanical inventions of the nineteenth century, — inventions that had almost revolutionized the earth. It was God, doubtless, who put the idea of the power of steam into the mind of James Watt, as he saw the lid of the tea kettle rising and falling under the influence of steam, and there suggested machinery. Professor Morse recognized the idea when he said in the first message ever sent between Baltimore and the City of Washington, over the electric telegraph, ^'what hath God wrought." There was nothing incredible that God should be exercising such an influence and superintendence on the minds of men as that they should from time to time be "thinking His thoughts after Him," as the great astronomer said. Inspiration was common. Milton said -' 11 THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE PENTATEUCH. fl having we will His pre- s of the n Eden, on His And so find they ) forsake lace, but ZT. The oseph by expecta- im. He through was with :> to the d Testa- -types of pie, Ex. e-hearted ht have oerly ex- 26, it is that the IS of the he earth, into the d falling Professor ver sent elegraph, lat God le minds 'hts after ilton said it came as the result of devout prayer, and that Eternal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and Who sends out His seraphim with the hallowed fire of His altar to touch and purify the lips of whom He pleases, can help the mechanic, author, lawyer and teacher. Doubtless they have been helped even in many instances, when they had no realiza- tion of the fact. The steady eye and the nerve in particular crises, bodily strength, adaptation and wisdom, and kindly happenings without number doubtless came to men in the pursuit of their ordinary callings through the Spirit of God. The inspiration of the Holy Scriptures was an altogether different thing. A verse in Numbers 24: 2, would throw light upon that. Balaam pro- phesied good to Jacob, and the coming of the Lord Jesus, not because he wanted to, for he did not wish to, but because the Spirit of God came upon him. They had the authority of Deut. 23 for the statement, he did not desire to speak as he did. There was what they might call compulsory, verbal inspiration. (Illustrations were gi\cn of the importance of the very words written in Holy Scripture.) In Numbers the references to the Spirit were always to Him as the source of wisdom and power in service. Num. 11: 17,26 showed that the Spirit rested not only on Moses and the seventy, but on Eldad and Medad also. It showed that God was sovereign and did not propose to be limited to any particular order even when He had devised it. Joshua was filled with the Spirit, and he supposed they might properly say in view of Isaiah 63: ii-i 4, that the pillar of cloud and fire was typical of the Holy Spirit. In the Revised Version it was made plain. 1 lie cloudy pillar guided them, gave them rest, assured them, revealed God, flamed against sin, separated the people, was a token of God's presence. In Deut. 34: 9, the reference was to the Spirit and it was the only one in that book. Joshua filled with the Spirit of wisdom was set apart and qualified as the successor of Moses. They had observed doubtless there are no references to the work of the Spirit in Leviticus. The silences of Scripture are quite as remark- able as its utterances in many instances. The name of God was not in the book of Esther, but in no book in the Bible was the hand of God and the power and work of God more manifest. It was typical of what was going on amongst the Israelites now. The name of God, in the true sense, was hardly named amongst them now, and yet there never was a time in which they were more distinctly the object of God's separating und pre- serving care than to-day. 28 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. iH The leading idea in Leviticus is access to God, the sinner's sacrifice, and forgiveness, consecration, the anointing of God's priests, and the ac- companying manifestations of the glory, the precious blood in atonement, the holiness of God's people, their feasts and their joys. These were the ends of Christ's redemption, and it was the special office of the Spirit of God to show them to men. The Spirit of God speaks not of Himself, when a soul is to be saved, or is seeking entire consecration, the very thing that soul did not need to be thinking of was the blessing. It wanted the living Christ with the marks of Calvary on His hands. The Spirit seemed to say beholding Him they should be changed into the same image. They were to be occupied with the things of Christ, and the Holy Spirit would attend to the production of the fruit. Their joy and blessing came from beholding Christ, and realizing His precious work as having been done for them, and appropriating it by faith. The Spirit of God kept in the back ground in Leviticus, just as He did when any precious work was to be done in the human soul. And so when a soul was seeking Christ they said to it don't be concerned about the blessing, but occupy yourself with the blesser. The Holy Spirit kept Him- self in the back ground. A dear brother once said the Holy Spirit was a modest and retiring Spirit, and those in whom He dwells will be modest and retiring too. Bishop Jesse T. Peck, of the Methodist Church, was a great man in more respects than one, an immense man, and he said that when at college he went to the room of a young student, a friend of his, who was delirious with typhoid. He had a delusion that the Lord Jesus Christ whom he loved stood at the foot of his bed, and without knowing it, Mr. Peck placed himself at the foot of the bed. The young man turn- ed restlessly about, and presently burst out with the expression " great big Jesse T. Peck hides the Lord Jesus from me." The good bishop said it was a lesson he never forgot, and his prayer from that hour was " God forbid that my miserable personality should ever get in between any poor soul and the Lord Jesus Christ." That was one of the lessons sug- gested by the book of Leviticus. Another evidence of the love of the Spirit was that He should have in- spired the Holy Scriptures for them, every word, every jot, and title, every portion of that blessed book. Surely He could not have been at pains to do that except from love to them, and to every successive generation of Christians. How blessed it was when they felt in the very depths of their consciousness that it was the Holy Spirit that took the word and spoke to their souls. sacrifice, the ac- onement, were the Spirit of self, when :hing that the living jed to say hey were lid attend lizing His t by faith, s He did d so when ibout the :ept Him- irit was a )e modest rch, was a said that id of his, ord Jesus knowing man turn- m " great id bishop hour was iween any ssons sug- 1 have in- itle, every t pains to oration of ks of their 1 spoke to THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE PENTATEUCH. 23 A Christian brother seated in the magnificent Centennial Exhibition at Cincinnatti, was left alone for a while in a quiet nook, with a good deal to trouble and annoy and worry him as men say. And as he sat there look- ing over a magazine, not thinking perhaps of himself or work, a sudden marvellous sense of sweetness and peace came over him, and into the midst of it, as by a flash of heaven's own lightning came the words " Cast- ing all your care upon Him for He careth for you." That brother had to •cover his face with his hands, and wipe away the tears, lest passing crowds should stop and wonder at his emotion. The blessed Holy Spirit kept doing such things for them as they needed. If their hearts were perfect toward Him and they were walking in the ways of His appointment, they would realise His blessed helping power in ways that would thrill their «ouls, and give them strength to walk in His ways for many a day to come. Was it not a marvellous exhibition of His love that He should be willing to dwell in such a place as the human heart. They naturally praised the dear brethren who went to Africa to tell the people "the Jesus way" as the Japanese called it, because of the love that must reign in their hearts prompting them thus to serve the Master, but what was that to the amaz- ing love that prompted the perfectly pure and blessed Spirit to come and live in such a heart as beats here. The saved sinner often had occasion to say he did not know the Spirit was leading and blessing him at the time, but he realized it afterwards. The Spirit led into fellowship with the Father, showed the things of Christ, and hid Himself A man holding up a beautiful picture might so hold it that even the tips of his fingers should not be seen, and say just look at that picture, so the Holy Spirit acted with reference to the things of Christ. All through the book of Revelation they had reference to God and the Lamb, but the Spirit did not claim His place there, but hid Himself Ought not their faces to be filled with con- fusion because they practically ignored the workings of the precious Holy Spirit, and thought so little of His marvellous love. H CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES 'i \Wm liuii !J1 I'i f i FIRST DAY.— Afternoon. INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. BY DR L. W. MUNHALL. DR, MUNHALL addressed the conference on "Proofs of the Inspira- tion of the Scriptures." He first called attention to the following Scriptures : 2 Peter 1:21; 2 Tim. 3: i6, 17; i Thess. 2: 13; i Cor. 2: 13;. 2 Sam. 23: 2; Mark 12: 36; Matt. 5: 17, 18; Mark 13: 11; John 6: 63; Acts 2: 4; I Cor. 7: 10-12; 2 Peter 3: 15, 16. He then said he understood some- what the difficulties in the way of believing in the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, but he found far greater difficulty in the way of any other view of the Word of God. Therefore with Bishop Ryle he would say "Give me the plenary verbal theory with its difficulties, rather than any other theory with its doubt." He accepted the difficulties and humbly awaited their solution, but while waiting he stood on the Rock. The above passages of scripture having been read the Dr. expressed his belief in "jot and tittle" inspiration, and said the expressions "God said," "and the Lord spake," &c., occurred in the Book over 2000 times, — direct testimony to the verbal inspiration of the Word of God. Dr. Adam Clarke once said the best evidence that the Bible was the Word of God was that a good man could not have written it, and a bad man would not have written it. Those two statements contained three self evident propositions. A good man could not have written the Bible because the Bible said it was written of God, and therefore if a man did it he was a liar and consequently not a good man. A bad man would not have written it because it tells him what he is, and therefore he would not have written it because he did not like to be talked about. That was why people did not go to church now a-days and did not like the Bible. In any case it was not possible for men to write against themselves. Man could not have written the book if he would. They might take the works of Schiller, Goethe, Shakespeare, Macauley, Edmund Burke^ Lord Bacon, Irving, and the brightest minds that had ever written for their benefit, and by application they could touch the bottom of their thoughts, but who by searching could find out the mind of God in the Scriptures ? No man had ever yet been able to fathom their depths. He called attention to several things regarding the book by way of contrast, First he looked at the book as a literary work. There were INSPIRATION or THE SCRIPTURES. 25 he Inspira- e following Cor. 2: 13; 6: 63; Acts ilood some- ition of the other view y "Give me ither theory ivaited their ve passages )t and tittle" )rd spake," ony to the ice said the I good man written it. . A good was written lently not a it tells him he did not church now possible for might take und Burke^ ten for their ir thoughts^ Scriptures ? by way of There were > some cheap philosophers, — four by six he called them, for that was their dimension — who were disposed to cast it aside, and say it was not worth credence. But he could bring the brightest minds that literature had ever known, to bear unequivocal testimony to the superior character of that book as a mere literary production. Sir Walter Scott said there was but one book — the Bible. Goethe said the Scriptures of God had served him as a guide in his literary life and work. Daniel Webster said if there was anything in his public utterances or writings that had commended themselves to his fellow citizens he attributed it to the fact that in his early childhood his dear mother instilled into his mind a love for the Word of God, and it had been his daily study and contemplation since. Rosseau once said the majesty of the Scriptures struck him with astonish- ment. The Bible said "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." If man had written about that he would have had about six octavo volumes on Cosmos, as they were fond of writing on that subject. He would also have had about four octavo volumes on light, for he was fond of writing on something he did not understand. The book had also some poetry in it, and if they would compare the poems of that book with the poems the brightest minds had produced amongst the sons of men, they would soon see it was of a higher origin than the books of poetry in the libraries of earth. Milton, who was com- petent to judge as to the real merit of poetry, said there were no songs like the songs of Zion, the song of Miriam, and of Mary. Take also passages in Ezekiel and the Apocalypse, and the Psalms, and even in Job. In the libraries of earth there was no poem equal to David's lament over Saul and Jonathan. The more they looked into these things the *"'^re they would be convinced that the poems of the Bible were from a higher than human source. He would also call attention to the history of the book by way of contrast. The best ancient history man had ever produced, had been found by subsequent research and investigation to contain no fewer than 2000 mistakes. But where had any mistake been found in the historic statements of the Bible ? The testimony of the bricks in Nineveh and Babylon and Troas, the hieroglyphics of Karnak — all discoveries had only confirmed it in the minutest detail. Take the book also as a book of philosophy. Sir Isaac Newton said he esteemed the Scriptures of God to be the sublimest philosophy, -nd he certainly was competent to speak. There were no such pb oso, hies a6 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. I ! i as in that book. There was not to be found in earth's libraries any such philosophy as tound in the book of Job, pure and simple. It was said of brusk old Carlyle that he was so passsionately fond of the philosophies of Job that whenever he met a certain class of literary friends with whom he occasionally met, they would ask him to read a few verses from the first chapter of Job. And directly after he began he would be so oblivious to everything else that he would read on until the last word of the whole book was read, and his friends would be laughing and talking in another direction. Take the book also as a book on physical sciences. It was not a text book for the schools on that subject, but it contained a great deal bear- ing on physical science. Science was man's knowledge of God's works systematized. Theology was man's knowledge of God's words systematized, or supposed to be. Man's knowledge, in the nature of the case was im- perfect, and there would therefore be a clashing between man's science and theology. When the scientific investigator reached an absolute plane of scientific truth, and his neighbour the theologian does the same, only then would science and theology be in agreement. The testimony of some of the brightest and most scientific men the world had produced, confirmed many of the scientific statements of the book. Professor Dana once said — the grand old book of God still stands, and even the more the leaves of old earth were turned over and pondered, the more they confirmed the sacred record. Sir John Herschel said — all human discoveries confirmed more and more the truths contained in the Scriptures. Lieut. Morris said — the word of God was the only safe standpoint on which he could rest his ladder in his investigations of truth, and by means of which he could ascend. Some two years ago or more, in Earl Shaftesbury's home, one of the Professors of Cambridge called attention to the fact that science had revealed or confirmed the statement in Genesis referring to the order of creation, and that the first fifteen orders of genera were exactly right. Professor Loomis, of Boston Uni- versity, told him a fact confirming the authenticity of the Scriptures — Job < speaks of God stretching out His hands through space, and scientific men scanned the northern heavens and could not find anything there agreeing with the statement, but recently by means of the great telescope in th^ Naval Observatory in Washington astronomers had discovered in the northern heavens a great space or vacuum corresponding exactly with Job's statement. How could Job find that out ? There were no tele- scopes in his day. . W New [of ja\ coulc mortj had r whale wink, discoi firmir Tal they f to the up in drunk the ro( after ( sinner God, t .; book c it was Aga :ernin minutt Dr. N )ropht lame sll w life. Tak oDr. eadini le thoi ome, tuden our p olom( eat tt tuart INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. «7 any such s said of lophies of whom he 1 the first ilivious to the whole n another not a text deal bear- )d's works tematized, 36 was im- n's science With reference to Jonah and the whale, there was now at Fulton Street, New York, a whale 68 feet long, 22 feet in diameter, with 12 feet spread of jaw. It seemed to him that a being who could create a monster like that, could certainly adjust his thorax so that he could take in an ordinary sized mortal and furnish him accommodations without much trouble. There had recently been discovered on the coast of Norway, the remains of a whale with throat so big it could swallow a man on horseback and never wink. And so they found what Sir John Herschel said, that all human discoveries seemed to be made for the purpose more and more of con- firming the record of the sacred scriptures. Take the book as a book of biographies. When men wrote biographies they put in everything possible that was good about a man, and nothing to the contrary, until thay began to wonder how those people ever grew up in this country or any other. But the Bible spoke of Noah and his drunkenness, Abraham and his lying, Moses and his failure before te plane of | the rock, Jacob and his rascally doings, David and his sin, and yet "a man , only then of some of confirmed , once said le leaves of firmed the confirmed Lieut. idpoint on of truth, or more. after God's own heart," because he was a repentant and broken-hearted sinner. It was put there for the encouragement of sinners before God, that they too might have hope and rejoice. There was no other book on the face of the earth that would do that, and therefore he knew it was from God. Again, Look at the book in the line of prophecy, especially those con- :erning the Lord given in the very dawn of history, and see how minutely they were fulfilled. From the prophecies concerning Babylon Dr. Newman said he would take any competent engineer and by those rophecies reproduce those cities as they stood. Cyrus was spoken of by ame 150 years before he was born. Among the sons of men who could dge called Mall who was to be born 150 years from now and give the character of his statement life. first fifteen ;oston Uni- )tures — Job Take the book with reference to its maxims. A young student once went Dr. Wayland, President at Brown University, and told him he had been eading carefully the proverbs of Solomon, and did not think much of them, entific men ^ jg thought he could write better himself. Very well said the Dr. write re agreemg , ^^^^ ^^^ j^^l^ ^ dozen, and report in a fortnight. Time passed and the :ope in th'' tudent did not report. One day the Dr. called him and said, what about ered in the our proverbs ? The student then confessed that though the Proverbs of xactly wit , iolomon seemed to be so common-place, simple and plain, he could not ire no tele- mg^t them, and so he did not report. Ralph Waldo Emerson and John tuart Mill had written some proverbs, but where among the libraries of a8 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. earth could they find maxims for living that would compare with those in this book ? Take the ethics of the book. They were acknowledged by any honest man who knew ought whereof he spoke, to be of the highest and purest character and type. There was a man who tramped the States at $500 a night hoodwinking people who loved to sin, by blotting hell out of exist- ence so that they could sleep at nights, who was in the habit of taking the book and opening at a certain part, read a few verses and then closing it, throw it down, and say, I beg your pardon, I dare not insult this intelligent audience by reading further. And then every man and woman present who loved to sin would applaud to the echo. He could go into a { physician's library and find books there, the contents of which he would not presume to read before that audience of men and women. But were those books therefore to be burnt? By no means. They treated upon the path- m^^\ ology and therapeutics of diseases, and therefore contained things that ought ; not to be read in public. This book treated of the pathology and thera- III peutics of moral diseases, and it was no wonder it contained state- ments that could not be read to a mixed congregation. But they knew that wherever this book had gone there was pureness ol life and nobility of character. Civilization was never even separated from the Bible. When one from heathen lands enquired of Her Gracious Majesty the secret of England's power and greatness, she simply pointed to this book. It had been a beacon light along the stormy coast, the avanf courier of every- thing that was noble and true . No man could have this book and walk in its precepts without being noble and pure in his life, and dignified in manhood and character, and no man could hate it and be holy and; true. esl Eve Dn 1 DOG irch isyl he JibI nd ind iav( old ali iw nd lOtl Dr. Munhall next called attention to the fact that the book was compos- ed of sixty-six parts, written by about forty persons, and that about sixteen centuries of time elapsed between the writing of the first and last part. The marvellous unanimity and logical sequence of its varied parts wasSggg pointed out as evidence of its superhuman origin. It could not be ini'»cti proved upon as was the case with human inventions, as, for instance, thew^f^ telegraphic instrument, the Howe sewing machine, the locomotive, th« yy, reaping and mowing machine. Voltaire, as he roamed in SwitzerlandMg said this book would be done for in one hundred years, but the printing-A^j. press he used is now in Geneva, printing Bibles for the glory of Godm jj^. Nearly two hundred millions of copies alone had come from the printingm] presses of their Bible Societies, and were being scattered like autumcr !i'" ■ ^ INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 29 with those in y any honest ist and purest Ltes at $500 a 1 out of exist- ; of taking the en closing it, :his intelligent 'Oman present 3uld go into a j he would not But were those jpon the path- ;ngs that ought 3gy and thera- ntained state- leaves over the nations of earth. Infidelity talked about destroying it, but it did not destroy it very fast. It reminded him of an Irishman who built a wall four feet high, and some one asked him if he was not afraid it would fall down. He replied no, for if it fell down it would be higher still for he had made it five feet wide. And so this book would not fall down at the bidding of those who hated God and the truth. There were over two hundred millions of this book in existence to-day — one full copy of the Bible for every ten women and children on the face of the earth. There was a copy of certain portions of the Bible for every man, woman, nd child on the face of the earth, and before the Bible could be destroy- d they must gather all these books together. The man who hated the jbook would never do that, for some parts of it had gone where those fnfidels would never trust their precious carcases. If possible gather it all ogether in one pile, set fire to it and consume it, then it would not be estroyed, for they would have to go through the libraries of earth. very book ever written by man that was worth the paper it was printed )n had some reference to the word of God in it. The burning of the )ook would not destroy it, neither the wrecking of earth's libraries. The 9urier of every- book and walk nd dignified in be holy and , u-i't«^'^chitecture of earth would have to be destroyed too, for churches, orphan , Tj-wig ■ isylums &c., spoke of its truths. They would also have to go through M • tv the ^^ ^^^ galleries and destroy the masterpieces that spoke of the truth of the A , , Bible. They would have to go through all music, destroy every Christian, nd kill every infidel too, for they had borrowed enough of the Bible to ind fault with it. Had they destroyed the Bible then ? No, they would lave to go through every graveyard and break down every monument that old of the resurrection. They might as well talk of destroying the Eter- lal as talk of destroying the Bible. Blessed book! it spoke to him of w and judgment and God's wrath. The pains of hell gat hold of him. )k was compos- It about sixteen j and last part, ied parts was| d not be imi jr instance, the! Dcomotive, thei n Switzerland,! It the printing'! e glory of God| im the printing d like autumr] [nd he said, "woe is me for I am undone." And then sweeter than lother's lullaby came to him words from Calvary of one who was "made be sin for him who knew no sin, that he might be made the righteous- [ess of God in him." He arose by the energy of the Holy Ghost in resur- action life. Blessed book! it taught him how he might walk amidst the ^tfalls of his adversaries, set for his feet, straight to the hills of God, for was a light to his feet and a lamp to his path. "I love thee," continued le Dr., "because thou dost tell me of the blessed hope and glorious ap- 2aring of my blessed Lord, when the former things shall pass away and all lings be brought into consonance with the will and purpose of the eter- il God. I love thee because my godly father loved thee, and in his ^o CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. closing moments on earth held thee to his heart, and we laid thee under his pillow as we laid him away to sleep the sleep of the just. I love thee for my godly old mother loved thee for sixty-eight years, and trusted in thy Saviour revealed, and to-day as she sits there by the shores of Lake Erie watching and waiting, thou art the joy and the solace of her heart. I love thee because thou dost give hope to the hopeless and despairing, cheer for the despondent, comfort for the sorrowing. Thou art the eternal panacea for all the ills sin has fastened on human kind. I love thee, and henceforth shall love thee more and make thee the man of my counsels, that I may indeed with authority proclaim thy teachings to suffering and dying men, that I may help them to make their way to the city that hath foundations. Take it to your heart and love it more and more. Prove all things, hold fast that which is good, for it is the law and the testimony, and if we speak not according to this word, it is because we have no light in us. CO saj int ha bri I wa; SW( sha che to J con not tog( con timi THE PERSONAL AND PRE-MILLENNIAL COMING OF OUR LORD AS FOUND IN THE PENTATEUCH. BY REV. W. J. ERDMAN. REV. W. J. ERDMAN addressed the Conference on the Personal and Pre-millennial coming of our Lord as found in the Pentateuch. Having explained the belief of the conference on this great question, he observed that the intention of this study of the books of Moses was to : show that the different Scripture s could not be fulfilled unless the Lord comes before the Millennium, and not after. These different Scriptures : might seem dim and uncertain as to their teachings, but as the Bible was an organic growth, and its great foundation the five books of Moses, they must expect to find in those books the germs and beginnings of^ all future developments. Having spoken of the way in which the Jews divided their Scriptures, \ he called attention to Gen. 3: 15 as containing the germ of the gospel ofj their salvation, Those words had not yet been fulfilled, for the woman's J hater had not yet received his fatal bruise. When the head and the heel I met, the heel — He who became the lowest of the race that He might be- come the heel of the race, — received the first bruise on the cross. Theyj THE PERSONAL AND PRE-MILLENNIAL COMING OF OUR LORD, ETC. 3 I could not bruise Satan by the preaching of the Gospel, for Paul in Romans said that God would shortly bruise Satan undtT their feet. That was an intimation that there was a time coming when the Church of Christ would have Satan put under her feet. He believed it was to be a physical bruising for they read that Satan was to be chained. Turning to Gen. 4: i, he said it was evident that Eve thought in some way she had given birth to the restorer of the lost paradise. The flaming, sword of Gen. 3: 24 was nothing else ttian the glory of the Lord in the shape of an immense vibrating sword, revolving on itself between the cherubim, and preserving the way of the tree of life, intimating thereby — to apply their principle of the personal coming of Christ — that there must come a time when at last this tree of life should be restored. This could not be done by the preaching of the Gospel which was in order to gather together that body which should be glorified with the Son of God at His coming. After that great crisis, then will begin the dispensation of the times of refreshing. In Gen, 5: 24, " Enoch walked with God," &c., they had on the very threshold of the Bible, the highest form of redemption. If they took that as a specimen of great luture events, he asked how the like could be possible except by the coming of the Lord, as they knew from other Scriptures. Enoch lived in what was the beginning of a crisis in the history of the world before the flood, and it was significant that our Lord said, " as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the Son Man." He did not say, "as in the days of Enoch," for Enoch prepared them for an Enoch like rapture of the Church, while Noah's deliverance was on a parallel with the deliverance of Israel. Enoch's deliverance wa» vertical — heavenward ; Noah's horizontal — earthward. The Church whose calling is heavenly, is to meet her Lord in the air, while Israel whose call- ing is earthly is to meet her Lord when His feet stand in that day on the Mount of Olives. Was translation possible without dying ? Who could read Gen. 17: 22, without believing that Abraham understood there was a world of light and glory above him where God lived ; and that as Dr. Bonar said of Enoch, Enoch walked with God, and one day took such a long walk he never came back again. So it was equally possible, if it had [been the will of God, that when God talked with Abraham He might ave taken him as He took Enoch. Even the so-called rascally Jacob had le grace of God shown to him in Gen. 35: 13, when *' God went up from im in the place where He talked with him." That future translation wa& hat they were waiting for. 32 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. let He then turned to Gen. 9: 26, 27, — Noah's prophecy concerning Shem and Japheth— and said that like all the early prophecies they were shadowy words, yet they contained beyond them a great breadth and length and height of meaning. He called those brief words star points. Behind them was the better world. There was that in them which might be summed up in two words, the blessing spoken to Shem was under the word "culfus,'' and the blessing spoken to Japheth under the word "culture." The Shemitic families had been the source of the mono- theistic religions of the race, and '^cultus " was the outward expression of the religious sentiment in priest and sacrifice. The world was indebted to the tents of Shem for the true religion, for in the veins of Jesus Christ flowed the blood of Shem. In the verses alluded to, there was given in indistinct form the promise of the blessing upon the Shemitic family, i.e., they were to be the depositories of the knowledge of the one true and living God. Then again the blessings of the Japhetic families were summed up under the word culture or human civilization, " God shall enlarge Jap- heth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem." The weight of authorities was in favor of the interpretation that "he" referred to God and not Jap- heth as dwelling in the tents of Shem. The words intimated, though in a shadowy way, that the European Japhetic races would be indebted to the Shemitic races for the knowledge of salvation that had not yet been ful- filled. It would require the premillennial personal return of our Lord to fulfil those wonderful words. The nations of the world were more or less godless, and civilization more or less godless, and he did not know of any agencies at work to-day which were able to change the currents of civiliza- tion, consequently there would have to come a crisis in human affairs to have the shadowy prophecy of Noah fulfilled. Gen. 10: 25-31 was next taken up. The speaker believed Eber must have been a prophetic character. What was more wonderful than at some time in the history of the past, one man arose and God used that one man to assign the different nations of the world to different geographical sec- tions. There must have been a supernatural power exerted in that time of the world through the prophetic character of Eber. This was confirmed by Deut. 32: 8, God's purpose being that one of the blood of Eber should be the father of the central nation of earth. It was a preparatory act to the selection and election of Abraham and his seed and race to become the heart, the core, the head of humanity. That race was dismembered, and was waiting for its head to consolidate it again. He did not believe this would be accomplished by the preaching of the Gospel. ing Shem they were eadth and ;ar points, lich might under the the word the mono- pression of s indebted esus Christ as given in family, i.e., le true and ummed up nlarge Jap- : authorities id not Jap- though in a bted to the t been ful- (ur Lord to Bore or less know of any ts of civiliza- n affairs to Eber must than at some hat one man aphical sec- i that time of confirmed Eber should itory act to to become ismembered, not believe s THE PERSONAL AND PRE-MILLENNIAL COMING OF OUR LORD, ETC. At their leisure they could examine the 12th Genesis, and find it was a seven fold promise to Abraham which could not be fulfilled until the Lord returns. In John i: 9, they found, '• He came unto His own possessions, and His own people received him not. His possession was the land, the sovereignty of the world, for in Romans 4: 13 it said, Abraham through faith became the heir of the world. It would require the Lord Jesus Christ to come again and fulfil that promise to Abraham, that he should be in some way the heir of the world. Turning next to Gen. 14: i8, he observed that the whole difficulty about Melchizedeck was removed by the remembrance of the simple fact that when it said he was without father and mother etc,, it meant genea- logically. He had no father or mother who were priests before him, and no priestly descendants. He did not begin his office at the age of thirty as the Aaronic priests. He did not leave it at the age of fifty as the Aaronic priesthood did. He did not belong to a priestly tribe. Hebrews 7, clearly explains it. Now Christ was not now exercising the Melchizedeck priesthood but the anti-typical Aaronic priesthood. The former was yet in the future, and was to be exercised when heaven and earth were in amity, and the king of peace should have come. To exercise the Mel- chizedeck puesthood the Lord Jesus must come back upon this solid earth, for he is said to be the Priest of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. Do the nations of the world acknowledge Him to be their priest and prince ? Not at all. But they who believed in Him acknowl- edged Him as such, and when He comes forth from the throne of mercy and descends into the air, then at His voice and trumpet call the dead in Christ should arise first, and then those who were alive at His coming would be changed in a moment and together with them be caught up ta meet the Lord in the air. Then His anti-typical Aaronic priesthood would cease, and after a crisis in history His Melchizedeck priesthood would begin. In Genesis 50: 25, 26, Joseph charged the children of Israel to bring his bones into the promised land. Why ? Because Joseph believed in the first resurrection, the resurrection of the just. If he had only believed in a general resurrection what was the use of carrying his bones inta Palestine. No, that land was consecrated land, the eye of God was con- tinually upon it, and it was reserved for the seed of Abraham, for the Lord Jesus Christ, for them. a $ 34 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. 'Hi I II' I ! 1 i SECOND DAY.— Thursday Morning. THE SPIRITUAL MAN. BY REV. GEO. C. NEEDHAM. REV. GEO C. NEEDHAM read a paper on "the Spiritual Man," based on I Cor. 2: 14-16; 3: 1-4. Redrew attention to the strong contrast between the spiritual man and the natural man, pointed out the character- istics of the latter and showed that his enmity to God was not on the sur- face, but a radical deep-seated disease which was often buried out of sight, and was like the latent cancer sleeping in the blood unknown for years even to the patient himself — he had neither the disposition nor ability to please God — he had never been regenerated. He then pointed out the marks of the spiritual man, as compared with what he once was, showed his identity was not lost, as it was the same grub which had be- come a moth, and then raised the question as to what this great change was. He clearly showed it could not be explained by evolution for they could not evolve a spiritual man out of a natural man. From the testi- mony of nature he showed that every herb, animal, fish brought forth after their kind, The scriptures assured them that creation stood at the head of all material things, the Creator himself being the fountain of life, so it taught them that creation was at the head of all things spiritual. 2 Cor. 5: 17; £ph. 2: 10. The spiritual man was a new creation. He next discussed the question by what process this spiritual life came into existence? The Bible answered regeneration. James 1:18; i Peter i: 23. By generation the natural man came into the natural kingdom, and he who came into the spiritual kingdom had a re-generation. In this Divine process the identity was still preserved, and by this creation a new life had come into existence. 2 Peter i : 4. The new nature was the product of the Spirit. The re-generation gave them the spiritual man in embryo, with all the possibilities of spiritual manhood. Only by regeneration could the sinner become a son of God. By analogies in nature he refuted the objection of those who decline to beli'^ve in the new birth until all its mysteries were explained, and then considered the perception and penetrating powers of the spiritual man. With the Holy Spirit as his teacher the Christian would have his faculties CHINA INLAND MISSION. 35 ," based contrast haracter- the sur- of sight, for years »r ability nted out nee was, had be- lt change for they the testi- ght forth ad of all fe, so it 2 Cor. ife came Peter i: om, and lis Divine w life had uct of the embryo, jeneration decline and then ;ual man. s faculties and powers trained and developed, and the ability to acquire knowledge given him. After illustrating this in various ways he affirmed that he who gave himself to the pursuit of a high and holy spiritual life would often be thrilled with heavenly illuminations, and his visions would not be those of a diseased fancy. A Christian's experience was a riddle to the unspir'^ual mind, nevertheless it was a true saying, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear neard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared i them that love Him, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. The question was next considered how shall the spiritual man receive and retain a spiritual mind ? Spiritual mindedness was not a common experience, it was easy to fall from that grace, and lose even a relish for it. His first answer was Col. 3: 2, "Set your affections," etc. Think on heavenly things, love heavenly things, study heavenly things, and they would become heavenly minded. Phil. 4: 8, 9; i Tim. 4: 15. A typical and scriptural spiritual life was not dependent on environment. Rather let them seek to be in harmony with God's will. This was illustrated by re- ferences to the life of Billy Bray, who had many trials, but who, when re- ferring to his afflictions, said he had been taking vinegar and honey, but praised the Lord while he had the vinegar with a spoon he had the honey with a ladle. He also showed that a sainted life did not depend on physi- cal greatness, and urged them, for the sake of halting brethren, always to endeavor to be right with God. Tiie spiritually minded would receive their compensation. Those who earnestly contended for the faith, who held fast the form of sound words, and who sought the things that were above, would overcome all things. "Stand fast in the Lord, quit you like men, be strong." "Serve the Lord with gladness, and rejoice before Him with singing." CHINA INLAND MISSION. BY REV. J. HUD.SON TAYLOR. REV. J. HUDSON TAYLOR, of the China Inland Mission, next addressed the Conference. He commenced by saying there was an expression that was sometimes used of their work in China, which he never heard without a feeling of discomfort, and sometimes pain, and that was when it was referred to as his work. It was God's work all through. His father was very tall while he himself was very little, and he had often wondered why 36 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. ..:i1 . ' l\. 1 i ii f\ it was and could not make it out. But he thought he could tell now, the Lord wanted a man little enough to do His work, and found him. The work was God's work from the beginning to the end. It had been such a blessing to him to realize that the work of God did not mean man's work for God, for that would be the work of man. The work of God meant God's work. He made no mistakes, He knew no failures. There was no difficulty in discriminating between man's work and God's work, as they all knew. He illustrated this by referring to the appearance of a fine cam- bric needle viewed by the naked eye, and afterwards under a microscope^ and how the latter brought out its defects. He then referred to the term " perfect Christian," which so frightened some people, and showed that the term was a relative one, and advised those who were dissatisfied with their environment to remember that the perfect Father had chosen for them out of thousands of different surroundings those that were best adapted for them to develope their own growth in grace. Their circumstances were perfect, because the Lord said He would perfect that which concerned them. He next turned the attention of the Conference to the map of China (hanging at the back of the platform), and reminded them that China was divided into provinces, and the provinces were sub-divided into prefec- tures, and again into counties. Each province had about one hundred countiea on the average, but some of the Western provinces had as many as one hundred and fifty counties. When he left China about a year and a half ago there were 1,070 counties without a witness for Christ. These counties had their capital cities, and some of them had trading marts, many in number, and of considerable population. Each county had from 500 to 800, and some more than that of market towns besides, innumerable villages, and more than a thousand of these counties were without a witness for Christ. What then were they doing ? Were they obeying the command to preach the Gospel to every creature ? They were not going into half the world. Three quarters of heathenism knew no more of Jesus Christ than if He had never come into the world. He believed they were too easily satisfied. The Chinese had an expression which was often on their lips — " near enough " — and was v/orking ruin in their country. They were sometimes prone to take the commands of the Lord, and say they had obeyed them near enough. But what about the command to " be filled with the Spirit," or " preach the Gospel to every creature." They were not attempting to do it. If every church should determine to obey CHINA INLAND MISSION. 37 now, the im. The ;en such a lan's work od meant ;re was no k, as they I fine cam- icroscope^ 3 the term id that the with their ir them out dapted for mces were concerned ) of China China was nto prefec- e hundred id as many a year and ist. These iing marts, ;ounty had IS besides, inties were mmand to nto half the ;sus Christ y were too en on their itry. They nd say they md to "be ire." They line to obey the command, five years need not elapse before the whole world would have heard the Gospel. China was a grand country, but the Chinaman was not appreciated in America, but if he should find American Christians equal in devotion and fidelity to the Lord Jesus Christ, he would think it was a grand country. He could give them the names of a good many in China who had risked their lives for Christ, who had suffered all things for Him, filled with the Holy Ghost, and who had just preached the Gospel as they were led out of the hall of torture in such a way that men were converted there and then. When men were filled with the Holy Ghost the water would flow. Be filled with the Spirit and then the Word would be true that, " out of him would flow rivers of living water." Their Royal Father wanted every one of His children to be the child of a king, and that meant a royal endowment, to go through life, having all things and abounding. What a glorious Father they bad. China was not only a vast country, very populous, and the oldest in the world, but there was a great future before it. Was it by mere accident that in geological ages there had been stored up in it sufficient coal and mineral wealth to supply *^he whole world for over a thousand years. Was it an accident only that they had a people there full of vigor and youth, who were now accepting the culture and science of the West, and who would become one of the most mighty nations of the world ? The China- man was overflowing, and would overflow. The time had come for it and no power could keep him in. And it depended very much on their fidelity to their Master what would be the issue and the result of that overflow. It was a critical time apart from the important question of the nearness of the coming of the Lord Himself. It was a most critical time in the history of China. It had been asleep for centuries. It was now awakening. What to? Godless civilization ? or, the power of the truth? He did wish to impress their minds with the importance of that great country, and of the little share God had given them in the China Inland Mission, already to have in the evangelization of that country. That Conference he was addressing believed in witnessing for Jesus here. It was just what the Lord wanted, more witnesses, especially the witness ■of bright faces and bright lives. All ought to shine for Jesus. Every Christian should have a winsome way. There was an expression he had heard used in his younger days that when people were thinking of religion they were described as '' becoming serious," but he would like them to get 38 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. M )i. ;^! n I'l the idea that it meant they were to become joyous. If people only had that idea more would be anxious to serve the Lord. He then spoke of the fact that the Lord revealed it to him at an early age, that He wished him to serve Him in China, and the opportunity given him of preparing for that service for a number of years at home, by leading him to rely on God's faithfulness instead of his own faith, by leading him to trust in the Lord for support, while using his substance for the Lord's work at home, and by showing him the necessity of living just according as God's word required. He bore cheering testimony to God's marvellous and unfailing faithfulness, and how that when the Lord brought home to his mind the truth of His premillennial return, it gave him a new Bible, and wrought a great change in his life. That truth had led him to preach the Gospel to the heathen with fuller inspiration than ever before. He felt that the Christians who had been taken out of heathenism had not been taught that Word, and that they had been robbed of great joy. He was so thankful that most of the workers in connection with the China Inland Mission held that precious truth, and preached it prominently. He spoke of his having gone to China first through the Chinese Evan- gelization Society, with whom he labored for three years, his mental difficulties on account of his salary, as although he was paid, the society was continually in debt, and his final resolution to throw himself entirely on the Lord for support, and consequent resignation from that society. The Lord did not desert him, but raised up friends, ar. ^ led him into a good many experiences in which His faithfulness was very abundantly manifested. He mentioned several instances in which the Lord had supplied his physical needs and those with him, when every earthly ex- pectation was cut off. He related how he undertook to carry on hospital work without any means at his disposal, the desertion of the hospital employees because he could not guarantee them a definite salary, his obtaining of volunteers from the Christian church, the successful prose- cution of the work, and God's supply of their needs, when there were from sixty to seventy mouths to feed every day. One day when their last bag of rice was getting pretty low and nothing had come in, he re- ceived a letter from England, from a gentleman whom he had only seen once before, to the effect that he had come into the possession of in- creased wealth through the death of his father, and enclosing a cheque for j^So, and asking him if he could find any use for it. It was a very kind letter, and very apropos. Of course he had no difficulty in using the CHINA INLAND MISSION. 39 only had an early iportunity at home, faith, by substance of living imony to the Lord n, it gave truth had tion than en out of lad been workers in ruth, and jse Evan- is mental e society f entirely t society. Im into a jundantly Lord had arthly ex- 1 hospital I hospital lalary, his ful prose- lere were len their in, he re- jnly seen on of in- leque for very kind ising the money. After a little praise and thanksgiving with his dear wife, he called the native Christians together, and read the letter to them just as literally as possible in Chinese, and had a thanksgiving meeting. There wae no Salvation Army out there in those days, but if the friends had been in that little chapel they might have thought they had a branch of that rather excitable body of men there. They were not at all phlegmatic about it, but very much excited. For nine months God sustained the hospital, and it lead to a great revival, and forty- eight people accepted Christ as their Saviour during that time, as well as being benefited phy- sically. He spoke of his being invalided home for four years, his duty in Eng- land during that time in connection with the British and Foreign Bible Society, revising the New Testament in one of the dialects of China, his desires to reiurn to China, the difficulty of getting any existing society to take up the Chinese work, and ultimate formation of the China Inland Mission, and his entrance into partnership with the Lord in the matter, the Lord taking care of the financial part and committing the evangelistic work to him. The Lord sub-dividing this latter work again, telling him to preach the Gospel, and giving the Holy Spirit to convince the people of sin. About 3,000 had been baptized on confession of faith. They were scattered over the inland provinces in very remote parts, and in the South, and in the eleven destitute provinces he had previously mentioned they had also done a great deal of evangelistic work, and had resident missionaries and Christian churches in nine of them. He detailed the plans they adopted in receiving persons who offered themselves for work in connection with the Mission, spoke of its voluntary principle of support, their need of more workers and definite prayer during 1887, that the Lord would send them within that same year one hundred more workers, and how they had selected 102 workers out of more than 600 who offered themselves. One Christian sister had put their daily prayer in 1887 for more workers into the form of a verse, which was as follows ; — Oh send a hundred workers, Lord, Those of Thine own heart, and mind, and choice, To tell Thy love both far and wide, So will we praise Thee and rejoice ; And above the rest this note shall swell, Our Jesus hath done all things well. He concluded by referring to the large additional expense involved in p^ 40 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. the sending out of this extra staff of workers, their definite prayer to the Lord to send them at least $150,000, and how graciously and wonderfully the Lord had answered their prayers, and a happier band of Christian workers they would not find than those of the China Inland Mission. '\f\ SECOND DAY. — Thursday Afternoon, July 19. "THE PERSON AND SACRIFICIAL WORK OF CHRIST IN THE PENTATEUCH." BY PROFESSOR REV. W. G. MOOREHEAD, OF XENIA, OHIO. PROFESSOR REV. W. G. MOORHEAD, of Xenia, Ohio, addressed the conference on "The Person and Sacrificial vVork of Christ in the Pentateuch." After an introductory reminder that the supreme object of all Scripture was Christ, he alluded to the fact that the Lord in John's Gospel introduced four witnesses who bore testimony to him — John the Baptist — the works given the Saviour by the Father to do — the Father himself — and the Scripture^. They were now to be occupied with the testimony of a part of the Old Testament Scriptures, viz., the Pentateuch, to the person and sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a very large topic and he could only touch on some of the most prominent points. Beginning with the first promise, the proto-evangel of the book, Gen. 3: 15, he remarked it was the Lord who put the antagonism between the two seeds, the seed of the aerpent and the seed of the woman. Then, the deliverer who was announced was to be a descendant of Eve, the promise finding its fulfilment in the Lord Jtsus Christ the son of the virgin Mary according to the flesh. From that point a series of limitations was intro- duced whereby the promise of the deliverer became more specific and definite. Gen. 12: 3, 7; 17: 7; and 22. In Gal, 3: 16, the Apostle took up that promise to Abraham's seed, and grounded everything touching the gospel to the Gentile world on the difference between the singular and the plural, on that little word "seed." Next, the coming Deliverer was to be of the line of Abraham, Gen. 49: 10. Shiloh could not mean the little place in Palestine of that name, for it would be historically inaccurate. The word simply meant, a peace THE PERSON AND SACRIFICIAL WORK OF CHRIST, ETC, 41 yer to the onderfully Christian [ission. THE )HIO. addressed hrist in the ; object of in John's -John the he Father with the entateuch, was a very prominent k, Gen. 3: en the two Then, the e promise rgin Mary was intro- )ecific and Dstle took aching the ir and the Gen. 49: name, for :, a peace bringer, a pacificator, Jacob's announcement therefore was that when the peace bringer should come, unto Him should be the obedience of the peoples. In Numbers 24: 17 they had another prediction concerning the Deliverer. He was spoken of as the Star, &c., a certain degree of royalty and authority, the sway of universal dominion was ascribed to Him. And in Deut. 18: 15, Moses announced that He was to be a Prophet. Thus far they saw that the promised Deliverer was human, royal, and a revealer. Another line of thought. Scholars gave the word "Theophanies'' to the appearances of the great personage who was called the Angel of God, the Angel of Jehovah, the Angel of the Presence, Angel of the Covenant, the Messenger of the Covenant, &c. Who was the personage thus described, who was constantly breaking through the veil hiding the seen from the unseen, shaping the course of human events, and bringing about His own purposes, touching His chosen people? The answer was to be found in Gen. 16: 13. It was the Lord Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate state. Gen. 18: i-ia was referred to and attention called to Abraham's faith in singling out the Angel and addressing him personally as the Lord. St. Augustine regarded the faith there displayed by Abraham as the most wonderful in all his life. Exodus 3 : i, 2 compared with the address of Stephen in Acts 7, was referred to as again showing it was the Lord an His pre-incarnate state. In Gen. 48 : 16, Jacob joined the Angel with the great God Himself in pronouncing a blessing on the two sons of Joseph. Exodus 23 : 20, 21 also confirmed the fact that it was the Lord, as was also seen by referring to Col. 2 : 9, and John 1:18. He was announced again and again as the Angel Leader. He who was in the cloud, who spoke out of the cloud, was the pillar of fire, led the people from one victory to another, took knowledge of their evil doings, and punished them, was none other than the Lord, God's great Redeemer for them that were lost, Turning to Christ's sacrificial work as displayed in the Pentateuch he referred to the typical character of those books, and called attention to I three essential qualities in type. First, it must be a true adumbration of that which it represents, there must be some sort of relationship between the type and that which it typified. Second, a type was always of Divine appointment, men never make them. Third, in every type there must be an element of prediction. The types of the Pentateuch may be classified in a three-fold way, as personal, historical and ritual. Melchizedek and Aaron were personal types, the two-fold representations of the Priesthood 42 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES, "f I ! ^•m i < ■ ^ 1 " ■'» LJi it] lUlil 111 of our Lord Jesus Christ. Gen, 14 : 18, for Melchizedek ; for Aaron Ex. 29, and Leviticus 8: 12. For Melchizedek take also Psalm no: 4; Hebrews 7 : 1-7. There was a three-fold character ascribed to that mysterious personage Melchizedek, first, he is the priest of the Most High God, second, he is the King of Righteousness, third, he is the King of Salem, or King of Peace. Note how those three characters unite, He was first of all the Priest of the Most High, and in 'the exercise of his priestly functions He lays the foundation for His reign in righteousness, and His reign as the Prince of peace. So the Apostle explains in Hebrews 7» As priest He introduces reconciliation between the world and God, as a priest effecting reconciliation through exercising the authority of a righte- ous prince, and a Prince of Peace. Christ, they were told, was of the order of Melchizedec. He could not be out of the order of Aaron, because he did not spring out of that tribe, and they never could understand the value of the doctrine of the Priest- hood of Christ in His sacrifice, death, resurrection, intercession, glory for His people, without combining those two types, Melchizedec and Aaron. In Exodus 29 Aaron was washed and anointed with oil before any blood was shed for himself or household. Oil was always the type of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost was poured out on Christ without measure at His baptism, and when that was done the sacrifice was prepared, and Christ went on the cross to die. After that the blessing was poured out on his household as in the case of Aaron's household, universal in the sense that every gift of the Spirit was enjoyed by them through the Aaron that had gone on high. Another type personal somewhat of the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus Christ was found in the kinsman Redeemer in Leviticus 25 : 25. A redeemer must first of all have this qualification, he must be near of kin to the man on whose behalf he intervenes. It was again and again insisted on that Christ had partaken of flesh and blood, hence He claimed kinship even with them. Then this kinsman Redeemer had a three-fold function to perform, first he had to redeem the person of him who had been sold into slavery ; second his property ; third, if he had suffered wrong he must avenge him of the wrong. The New Testament doctrine of the redemption of Christ was in germ form in that action of the redeemer. See Eph. 1:7;! Cor. 6:19, 20. And then He had secured for them the inheritance. The whole doctrine of their inheritance in the New Testament was bound up with the action of this kinsman-redeemer in Lev. 25. Peter said in the opening of his first letter that we had been THE BLESSED HOPE, 43 Aaron Ex. m no : 4 ; ;d to that Most High e King of unite, He cise of his usness, and Hebrews 7. God, as a of a righte- e could not •f that tribe, ■ the Priest- Dn, glory for and Aaron, e any blood of the Holy measure at epared, and poured out ersal in the hrough the of the Lord cus 25 : 25. be near of in and again He claimed a three-fold lim who had ffered wrong )ctrine of the he redeemer, red for them in the New i-redeemer in we had been I quickened together with Christ from the dead unto an inheritance. Poor Eve lost not only herself, but the great estate to which she was an heir with her husband, and the two were expelled from Paradise. The saddest history he thought, in some features of it, of the entire race, began at that point, and ran on to this day. They were an expelled family, they were outside their proper inheritance, and the miserable business of patching up a lost character, and striving to restore unto themselves their lost inheritance, began in that day of shame, and had gone on down to the present time. They were engaged in the herculean impossible task of making themselves presentable unto the Lord God, whereas He had given them the Goel Redeemer, the descendant of Eve, of the stock of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, the great King, the Angel, Jehovah Himself, who not only redeemed them and clothed them, but restored to them their inheritance, and by and by will be the avenger of all their wrongs, 2 Thess i: 7. Their bodies were not yet redeemed, their bodies were breaking down, and unless the Lord should come, every one of them there they knew perfectly would be sleeping under the sod by and by. But the great Avenger was coming and at His appearing, at His shout from above, all them that sleep in Him would be awakened, and they who were alive and remained would be changed, and together with them caught up to meet the Lord in the air. He had not touched the sacrifices, nor a solitary utterance about the tabernacle, or the vail. At some future time he hoped to be able to pre- sent that side of the question. All he had to say was, think of the de- liverer, the descendant of Eve, but the mighty Lord, Himself a man and God, two natures in one person, intervening for their redemption and the restoration of their inheritance. THE BLESSED HOPE. BY DR. ALBERT ERDMAN. ■pVR. ALBERT ERDMAN next addressed the Conference on "The •^-^ Blessed Hope." The address was intended to meet a class of students not so familiar with the blessed hope of the Lord's return as some others. There were five great facts of Gospel preaching and testimony that it would be well to bear in mind, viz.. The incarnation of the Son of 44 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. I|: !^ \im\ 'God in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ ; the sufferings and death of that incarnate Son of God ; the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ ; the ascension into glory to the right hand of the Majesty on high of Jesus •Christ ; and then His coming again. Three of those facts are past, one was still in progress, the last still awaits fulfilment, but just as much a fact as the others. The first four facts were the objects and substance of faith, the last was the object and substance of hope, the assured expectation of something that was promised by One who could not fail. They had abundant testimony in the New Testament concerning this last great fact. Let tham remember Christ's teaching concerning the fact of His coming again, and the doctrines associated with it. Some of the most important parables like the wheat and the tares, the importunate widow, the ten talents, the hidden treasure, the marriage of the King's son, the wicked husbandmen, the ten virgins, the husbandman going into a far country — all had to do with this great fact of gospel teaching, the blessed hope of the Lord's return. Christ's eschatological discourse in Matt 24- 25 all had to do with this great fact. The most illustrious scene in the New Testament, next to Calvary, the transfiguration, had directly to do ■with it. The Saviour's farewell words included in John's Gospel 14-17 chs, were occupied with it, and so of His last recorded promise in Acts i : 11. His parables and utterances were like beautiful pearls on a golden string, that string being the Hope of His coming again, and that necklace was kept by the lover to be presented to His bride when He should come for her. He would give a three-fold division as to the blessed hope. First, What is the hope ? Second, Whose is it ? Third, When is it ? First, It was the coming again of the Lord, and it would be personal, visible and glorious. It was Christ Jesus Himself who was to come person- ally. Now He was personally at the right hand of the majesty on high. He was there as our high priest and representative, Eph. i : 20-22 ; Heb. 9 : 24 ; I Pet 3 : 22. This was the same Jesus who was seen by Stephen as they read in Acts 7:55; and the same as seen by Paul and John. He was to return from thence literally and personally, Acts i : 11 ; 3 : 19-21 , Philip. 3 : 20; I Thes. i : 10 ; Jude 14, 15. There were two erroneous interpretations of this coming of Christ, One was to speak of His coming as the gift of the spirit, or a spiritual coming, but he showed from a consideration of such passages as Matt. 28 : 20 ; Acts 7 : 56 ; Acts 9 : 10, 11 ; John 14 : 16, that a clear distinction must be drawn between the personal Christ and the Holy Spirit. THE BLESSED HOPE. md death of sus Christ ; igh of Jesus re past, one much a fact nee of faith, pectation of cerning this ling the fact e of the most nate widow, g's son, the into a far , the blessed in Matt 24- cene in the ectly to do )el 14-17 chs, I Acts I : II. alden string, lace was kept )me for her. 45 hope, it? First, be personal, come person- 5ty on high, Heb. 20-22 n by Stephen d John. He [ ; 3 : 19-21 Christ, One itual coming, 'att. 28: 20; tinction must The other error was that the coming of Christ meant the death of be- lievers. He called attention to the fact that nowhere was it taught in Scripture that Jesus came to the dying saint except in one place, speci- fically when He comes to put an end to the death of His saints, i Thess. 4 : 16, 17. When the bridegroom came for the bride, he did not send a friend however trusted, but came himself. But death was not the coming of Chiist for His bride. Wherever Christ came in His lifetime it was an end of death, as illustrated in the case of the son of the widow of Nain. Christ's coming again was to be a visible coming. Not everybody would see Christ when He comes for His saints. They haa abundant illustrations in the Old and New Testaments concerning that. It was a privilege given only to believers. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem the announcement was made to the shepherds, and a great light filled all the heavens, but they did not read that Bethlehem saw that light. Saul of Tarsus saw a great light, but not those with him. In Daniel's vision the men with him heard something, but did not understand. Then again it was to be a glorious coming, 2 Thess. i: 7; Matt. 25: 31. It was a coming in glory. This was the great key thought of all Scripture, and especially of the prophetic Scriptures, Phil. 2: 9-n ; Eph. i: 10. It was the purpose of God to gather together all things in Christ in the dispensation of the fulness of time. In reply to the question whose is this hope, he gave a four- fold reply. First, The Church's hope. Second, Israel's hope. Third, The gentile's or nation's hope. Fourth, Creation's hope. That was the New Testament order, but in the Old Testament it was exactly the other way. THE church's hope. It was our gathering together unto Him, i Pet. i : 13 ; i John 3 : 2. The Church was called the bride, the body of Christ, and Christ wished for it resurrection glory, John 17: 24; and resurrection glory included not only the raising of the dead, but the translation of the living. The Church's hope was the distinct idea of meeting the Lord and being transformed into His body of glory, the bride brought home to be with Him in His glory and kingdom. With reference to Israel's hope he showed there were two peoples in Scripture, the one heavenly and the other earthly. Luke i : 32, 33; Acts i: 6; 26: 6, 7. They ought to pray for the coming of the Lord quickly for Israel's sake. Blindness in part had happened unto them. Some were being converted here and there, but the Israelites as a nation would V 46 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. not be restored to God's favor until their Messiah was come and they ac- knowledged Him as their Lord and King. As to the Nation's hope, Haggai 2: 6, 7; Num. 14: 21; Malachi i: 11; Acts 17: 31. The key to the Eastern question was the Jew, and the question was now being debated whether it would not be best to give Palestine to the Jew and erect over him a sort of protectorate. There would be no settlement of the Eastern question until the Lord comes and His people have their own again. Isaiah 60: 1-12; 2: 4; 11: 10. Christ's Coming was also the hope of Creation, Rom. 8; 19-23. ff/ien would this hope be ? To the church of believers suddenly, in a moment, perhaps while gathering together on that hill of privilegeand blessing, the Lord might come, There was only one thing that might possibly put it off for a day, and that was, the nations were to be evangelized. If they wanted the Lord to come, the bride to be taken home, and all the rest of the glory to follow that was the thing the Lord had laid upon them to do, to go and preach the gospel throughout the whole creation. The Lord is coming, the Word testified it, the Holy Spirit had spoken it, holy men had written it, the Church had been looking for it, saints to-day are waiting for it, the redeemed in glory waited for it, the devil in hell and all the evil spirits knew it to be a fact in truth that Jesus is coming again. Only the church did not seem to know it, but the Lord was waiting for them to awaken. An English poetess had a poem representing a lover gone to the wars of the crusades to the Holy Land, and his betrothed maiden was left behind on her island home in the Mediterranean, but he is coming back for her. That was the promise and so day and night she watched for his barque to come across the waters. When night came she lit the watch fires in order that in the night and the darkness, his boat should be turned toward the island home, and he see the light and be drawn towards it, and there the maiden watches and waits. The maiden had been represented as the Church, the true believer and Jesus as the bridegroom. God grant unto them the waiting and the watchful spirit. * CHINA INLAND MISSION. 47 id they ac- achi i: ii; and the St to give te. There comes and 10. 23. When moment, lessing, the bly put it If they the rest of hem to do, he Lord is )ly men had waiting for all the evil . Only the 1 to awaken. ;he wars of left behind ack for her. is barque to res in order toward the d there the ted as the i grant unto THIRD DAV. — Friday Morning, July 20, CHINA INLAND MISSION. BY REV. J. HUDSON TAYLOR. REV. J. HUDSON TAYLOR next addressed the Conference. He said it was such a joy to know that althougli he might not look upon iheir faces again down here, yet he should meet them all again by- and-bye, and then they would not be short of time. They would have eternity for the enjoyment of Christian friendship. He spoke of God's desire to have all his children happy, and referred to Enoch walking with God for 3C0 years and therefore during all that time he must have been in the light. Let them j,.) in fcr walking with God in the light, for the next 300 years. The grace that kept Enoch could keep them. Let them yield themselves up to be kept by God. Before speaking of China he said he wanted to refer to the certainty of spiritual things. There were some people who talked of a life of faith as if it was a enture that might turn out all right. But it was not a matter of speculation. Spiritual things could be counted on definitely. Those of them who were engaged in faith work knew before hand just what the result would be, as certainly as the chemist did- when he combined his acids and alkalis. He referred to their prayer for 100 missionaries, and how he felt that God would answer it, and of the fact of his having thanked the Lord for having given them the 100 at the beginning of the year of prayer, and rejoicing in that fact during the whole of the year, and the Lord gave them the 100 before the year closed. He spoke of that to a friend of his in China who told him it was all right to ask great things of God, but he must not expect to get a literal hundred. He replied he had them and had thanked the Lord for them, and intended to rejoice in it all the year. And he had no doubt his friend would rejoice at the end of the year when he found he had them, but he would have a year's start of his in gladness. He also wanted to refer to the sixth and seventh chapters of Numbers. The 7th was the longest chapter in the Bible. At one time it was a most wearisome chapter to him. He was travelling in Inland China a number of years ago, and had spent the night in a very wicked place indeed, and his spirit was grieved, and his soul felt hungry and thirsty, and when he opened his Bible which he was reading in course, and felt much need of 48 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. spiritual help he looked almost with dismay on that seventh chapter of Numbers, there was so much repetition and so long. At first he felt in- clined to stop it, but said no, the Lord has put it where it is, and he asked the Lord to make the chapter a help to him in some way, and since then it had been a most delightful chapter. It was the longest chai)ter because it had to reveal the biggest thing in the Bible — the love of God. He called attention to the way in which God spread out the gifts of the people in that chapter, and compared it to the love gifts at a wedding spread out in one room set apart for the purpose. Speaking of the tithes he said the Lord led his people to give tithes to him because he wanted excuses to bless his people. The Lord could do without the gift, but the person who gave could not do without the giving. They were not im- poverished by what they gave away, but by what they retained. Let them notice the connection between the sixth and seventh chapters. In the sixth chapter they had the story of Nazarite consecration. When the Nazarite had finished his period of consecration his hair was not to be used for himself, but to be shaved off, and all burnt and thus given back to the Lord. Was it not a comfort to know that "even the very hairs of our head are all numbered." The Nazarite was not at liberty to do what he liked, but he had the privilege of doing what the Lord liked. Notice what followed the consecration, it was the Father's blessing, the Son's blessing, the Holy Spirit's blessing, the blessing of the Triune God. Consecration always came first, and blessing after it. Numbers 6: 24-26. What is blessing ? They spoke of God blessing his people with peace and plenty. Was blessing peace and plenty ? Surely not. They spoke of blessing God. Did they mean they gave Him peace and plenty ? Surely not. Blessing was something deeper than gift and praise, it was the yearning movement of the heart towards the obect of blessing. Mr. Taylor illustrated this by a mother coming home and finding two little arms stretched out to her, and the mother's arms stretched out to the child, and presently both were clasped in each other's bosom, and so the mother was blessing the child and the child blessing the mother. Bless- ing was the going out of the heart toward our Heavenly Father. To return to verse 24. Did it not make their hearts glad to know their Father's heart was glad. Their faces looked very bright, but he re- joiced to know their Father's face was brighter still. Verse 25, The Lord, Jehovah the Son, make His face upon Thee. They were like mir- rors, mirroring the glory of the Lord. Jehovah, the Son makes His. CHiNA INLAND MISSION, 49 chapter of he felt in- is, and he , and since ist chapter ^e of God. ;ifts of the a wedding ■ the tithes he wanted ;ift, but the re not im- th chapters, on. When IS not to be given back ery hairs of to do what ;d. Notice , the Son's 'riune God. rs 6: 24-26. with peace They spoke nd plenty? raise, it was ssing. Mr. g two little out to the and so the her. Bless- !r. id to know t, but he te- rse 25, The ere like mir- makes His glory shine upon us, and the dull mirror began to shine at once. Shall we not ep the mirror with the right face always toward Him, re- flecting His be.TMty more and more. Verse 26 — Jehovah the Spirit lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace. And when He made peace who was going to make trouble. The peace of God was well spoken of as passing all understanding. He referred to Job and suggested that Satan's familiarity with him when God challenged him as to whether he had considered his servant Job arose from the possibility that some of the lesser evil spirits had been try- ing to seduce him from his integrity and failed. And so he went to the great adversary and told him he must go himself, and see what he could do with that man, for they could not seduce him. Turning next to China, he spoke of the lives of the native Christians, and showed how they were on the right line with God. He referred to the famine in China some years ago in North Shan-si, when fi-om nine to thirteen millions of people perished with hunger. His wife went through that section afterwards, and there did not seem to be any children left. About a year and a half ago he himself travelled through the same district and found places that had been populous towns, deserted, the houses still standing, but empty. Districts that had been fertile were now growing thorns and thistles, in the absence of any cultivators. The Lord raised up warm-hearted people who sent money to relieve the distress, and their missionaries who were previously in that province had the privilege of distributing the relief, and alleviating the distresses of some of those poor people. When the relief was over some who went out to assist in the famine relief remained behind to work One, who left before he did was used in the conversion of a Chinese gentleman, a man of considerable in- fluence, whose name was Hsi.* Mr. Hsi gave an account of his conversion at a Conference the speaker had with the Cambridge men in South Shan-si, and it was published in a little book called "Days of Blessing in China." Mr. Hsi went to work for Christ in his own district, and his farm laborers were converted. This raised the opposition of the leaders of the village, who determined to boycott them. They could do nothing with Mr. Hsi as he had too much influence, but thought they would try what they could do with these laborers, and so prohibited the shopkeepers from selling food or clothing to any Christian, their plea being that they would raise the anger of their gods and be punished with another famine. The Christian men did not know what to do, and consulted with Mr. Hsi, who looked * Pronounced Shee. 4 so CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. ■ , i. >■ ' 5 i-H up to heaven in his quiet way.and said, "My friends, if I am not mistaken God has a purpose in all this. You cannot read God's word, and God has given you a holiday, and I think He wants you to read the Bible. Come to me every day until noon and I will teach you how to read, and in the afternoon you shall help me on my farm, and in the evening take home to your families what they need. These men soon began to read, and in the evening went as evangelists in the villages round about, and before long there were little bodies of Christians in the villages round about who were serving God and had thrown away their idols. The elders came together again, and said, " Instead of stamping out this religion we have rais- ed up a band of preachers," and so the persecution was stopped. Was not that a great deal better than some foreign missionary writing to the British Consul and asking him to stop the interference with these men ? In one Province there was a man who ruled so unrighteously that it came to be a question with their council whether they should not represent him to the government and ask their interference, but they concluded to take it to the Lord in prayer. They met together and rolled the difificuUy into the hands of the Lord in prayer, asking Him to remove the difficulty, and undei- take the defence of the brethren. He arose from his knees with a very solemn feeling that they had had serious business with the Lord, and asked his friends to make a note of the occasion, as he felt they would have to refer to it again. A few days afterwards he took up the morning papers, and in them there was an account that this charges de affairs^ had been shot by one of his own soldiers. He had been often reproved, but he hardened his neck, and was cut off suddenly, and that without remedy. It was no light matter to refer to our Heavenly Father on matters of grave difficulty. Other difficulties had been carried to the Lord, and God had given great blessing to the Shan-si mission. He had prayed for Shansi regularly for twenty years, but never saw it until last year, and what a joy it was to meet over 400 native Christians from a large number of those towns and villages, and take part in the ordination of three native pastors, two ad- ditional elders, and sixteen deacons. He spoke of their testimonies for Christ, of the devotion of men — graduates from universities — who had lost their degrees and been degraded for Christ's sake, b'lt whose faces were very bright. He instanced a case where one of these persecuted graduates preached Christ to his fellow countrymen, while bearing on his face and clothing marks of persecution, resulting in the conversion of oJhers. Thus the Lord triumphed. He spoke of God's gracious work in Hou-chau, and gave an account of the \; f CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES IN RELATION TO THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 51 nistaken md God le Bible, ead, and ling take I to read, )Out, and nd about ers came have rais- Was not le British at it came ;nt him to take it to y into the ndundei- ith a very and asked ve to refer ;rs, and in :n shot by hardened It was no difficulty. had given regularly \f it was to towns and rs, two ad- i of men — 1 degraded iced a case his fellow ersecution, !d. :ountofthe very reverential way in which family prayer was conducted in Shan-si in the native Christian homes. After giving several instances showing the fidelity and self-sacrificing devotion of the converts, he asked if they wondered that the gospel was spreading amongst a people of that kind ? Were they worth saving? If he could come as near to the Master as some of those sufferers for Christ's sake he should be satisfied when his. little day of service was over. THIR^) DAY.— Friday Afternoon. CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES IN RELATION TO THE LIFE OF CHRIST. BV RE\'. S. II. KELLOGG, D.D., OF TORONTO. I \R. KELLOGG, of Toronto, addressed the conference on Christian •*-' Doctrines in relation to the life of Christ. Having spoken of the delight it gave him while studying the subject, he said the Church of Jesus Christ continues through the ages, and was not a mere agiomeration of individuals. The Church of Christ according to Holy Scripture was "the body of Christ," Eph. i. It was not a figure of speech, but a literal reality. They were to think of her, not as a chrono- logical succession of individuals, but as a corporate body continuous through all the centuries, to which Christ continued on a larger and more extensive scale the manifestations of His truth. He called their attention to what he believed to be a fact, that the historical life of the Church was that of the corporate body of the risen Son of God, and that it simply reproduces on a scale of centuries the earthly life of our Lord. So that it turned out that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was not merely a prophet, but also a prophecy, and if they wanted to know what was going to be for the Church let them see what happened to the Lord. He wanted to show that in general with regard to two points, first as regards the doctrine, the teaching of our blessed Lord, and secondly as regards his personal experiences which came upon him as a result of that teaching. To-day he would simply confine himself to the first point. Let them observe the general facts with regard to the Lord's teaching. From Mark 4 : 33 they found the Lord observed an order in His teachings and spake the word unto His disciples by degrees as they were able to 52 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. U Hi I i hear it. He hoped to show them the order and proportion in w^ich in successive periods of our Lord's ministry He held forth certain truths, and then turning to the history of the church find the same order reproduced in her teachings, right on down to the present century. Our Lord's ministry fell into four divisions ; not sharply separated from one another, the endings and beginnings overlapped. But they might consider His teachings as falling into four periods into each of which, in succession, a new phrase of doctrinal truth was brought into promin- ence concerning Himself, His person, and His work. 'x ne first period of the Lord's ministry was distinguished by the special emphasis laid upon the explication and enforcement of the moral law. This gave the character to the first half of the ministry and was ex- emplified in His cleansing of the temple ; in his discourse to Nicodemus, in which He sought to lift His conceptions up to the requirements of the law. It was seen again in His conversation with the woman of Samaria, to whom He talked in such a way that she arose and ran into the village and said she had found a man who had told her all she had done. He so brought the law to bear on her conscience as to convince her of sin, and she began to think that five husbands were too many. Then again in the miracle of the impotent man, the point was not merely to make him whole, but beyond that to let in daylight on the question of the law of the Sabbath. In His Galilren ministry they had the same thought, the ex- plication of law ; Matt. 4 : 1 7, in agreement with all the other evangelists, sums up the characteristics of that ministry in a single verse, "Then came Jesus saying, repent," &c. Law again. Mark gave the same story in the first chapter of his gospel, and Luke also. He went to Nazareth and reminded those self-satisfied people that God was not in the habit of confining His mercies to men simply because they were of Israel, telling them of the many lepers in Israel but only unto Naaman, the Syrian, was the prophet sent. They got so mad at Him they wanted to throw Him over the precipice. He convinced them of sin. The speaker referred to the miracles of the ears of corn, and the withered hand, and said both were wrought in order to bring their self-righteous rabbinism to judgment on the question of the Sabbath law. Without multiplying illustrations further, he said, this idea found fullest explication at the termination of that first period of Christ's ministry. The Sermon on the Mount marked the fullest and most searching exposition of moral law that had ever fallen from lips on earth, and that marked the culmination of the first part of our Lord's ministry. They would find very few passages in that part of His ministry 'with regard to His atoning death. CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES IN RELATION TO THE LIFE OF CHRIST. S3 v^ich in ths, and roduced ted from ey might which, in promin- e special oral law. was ex- codemus, nts of the Samaria, he village ' )ne. He tier of sin, n again in make him law of the lit, the ex- vangelists, rhen came tory in the arcth and le habit of lel, telling Jyrian, was irow Him referred to both were dgment on )ns further, )fthat first the fullest n from lips our Lord's is ministry This experience of the law was repeated in His Church. Baptized with the Holy Ghost how did she begin ? Exactly in the same way, not a solitary creed worthy of the name had come down to them from the Church of the first three centuries. They had the Apostles' creed, as it was called, but that had nothing to do with the Apostles, but belonged to a much later period. In the writings of Tertullian, Polycarp, Ireneus, Clement of Rome, and other saints of the time, they would find their great dealing was with the enunciation of the Gospel, as opposed to the paganism of the time, but there was no creed. The Church kept herself on the lines of the Lord's ministry. The next point was the Lord's teachings concerning His own person as the incarnate Son of God, and that began before the first poiiit had reach- ed its culmination. As the first reached its culmination in the sermon, on a mountain, so this also on a mountain, the Mount of Transfiguration. At the beginning of His ministry He hinted at His Divine Sonship, and as the people then had not lived in Boston and learned that '* Son of God " did not mean anything, they understood it meant equality with God. This point found illustration in the conversation with Nicodemus ; with the woman of Samaria ; and later on He justified Himself for work- ing on the Sabbath Day by saying, " My Father worketh hitherto and I work." The Jews understood it meant equality with God, and were ready to stone Him for it. His ministry from that point of time onward — whether by parable, miracle, or anything else — was devoted mainly to the demonstration of His Divine personality as the Son of God. In Matthew 9 : 1-6, the point was His authority to forgive sins, behind which lay the claim to Godhead. The same was true of z'. 15. In Matt, 12 : 22-32, He claimed to be doing His miracles by the power of the Holy Ghost dwell- ing in Him, If they turned to His miracles they found He worked two miracles of resurrection, and two of creation — both proper to Godhead. Luke 11:17; Matt. 9: 18-26. Matt. 14 and 15 chs. the feeding of the four and five thousand out of few handfuls of bread, showing creative power. When He sent forth the twelve He claimed the Kingship and Lordship over them, and made them promises by the score, competent to none but God to make. In John 6 they had a series of most mag- nificent claims on His part, and His testimony became so extremely plain and offensive to the unbelief of the time that '' from that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him." This period reached its culmination in Matt. 16:6, where they had Peter's confession, " Thou an the Son of God." 54 CONFEREHCE HILL STUDIES. !|! If this was so, the next point ir. f hurch history would be the bringing •out of the Lord's Divinity. This was illustrated by the Nicene Creed. From 325 to 681-2 the whole theological work of the Church was with this question. During that period of about 350 years there were six Ecuemenical Councils of the Church, and every one had that same Petrine question up for discussion, which found fuller expression in the grand language of the Athanasian Creed. What came next? Matthew in his i6th chapter told them that immedi- ately after He began to show unto His disciples how He must go to Jerusalem and suffer and be crucified. First, the person of the Medi- ator, then His work. His life was nothing if He did not die ; and if He were not Divine His death was not an atonement. They had now reach- ed the end of about two and a-half years from the beginning of His ministry. The first statement they had was merely the fact that He was to suffer. The next in Matt. 17 : 21, gave additional particulars. He was to be betrayed. Again in ch. 20: 17-19, the manner of His sufTerings was added. In ch. 20: 28, He added yet something more, viz., the purpose of it, "the Son of man came to give His life a ransom." The same facts came out in John's Gospel, it was hinted at in the instruction to Nicodemus, fuller yet in the parable of the Good Shepherd, and in like manner when He compared Himself to the bread of life and said He was to give His flesh for the life of the world. And in John 12 : 32, as they approached the close of His earthly ministry He told them the result of all this, " I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me." As His teaching concerning the Godhead of His person, received direct visible expression on the Mount of Transfiguration, so His teaching concerning His atonement and death received its supreme expression on Calvary. Did the Church follow the same pattern ? After the close of the six Ecuemenical Councils, the Church began to deal with the question of the sufferings of the Son of God, and set them forth with more fulness than ever before. This was illustrated by references to Scotus, Erigena and Abelard, but the fullest expression was in Anselm of Canterbury in the 13th century, entitled "Why did God become man," the whole point of which was to expound Matt. 20 : 28. But in all these discourses our Lord was constantly emphasizing the necessity of faith in Himself in order to get the benefit of His death. Just so in the Church. After Anselm, the great reformation begun to show itself, and from WyclifT, Huss and Savonarola they heard the full truth concerning salvation by faith in the saving death of our Lord, and CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES IN RELATION TO THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 55 )nnging : Creed, ras with vere six Petrine e grand immedi- 5t go to e Medi- d if He w reach- of His He was , He was ings was irpose of cts came :odemus, ler when give His proached this, « I, As His ct visible )ncerning Ivary. if the six on of the ness than gena and iry in the ; point of ; our Lord der to get begun to i the full Lord, and it was brought fully before the world by Martin Luther, in the i6th century of the Christian era. Thus there was agreement between the third period of our Lord's life and teachings, and the Church's history. Next, our Lord turned emphatically to " last things." The parables, miracles, and discourses of the last four or five months of our Lord's ministry, almost all pointed in some way or other to judgment to come. His elaborate discourse concerning the rejection of Israel, and the calling of the Gentiles, was in this period, also the parable of the fig tree, and the great supper, and the rich man and Lazarus, and the unjust judge. To the same period belonged 20th Matt. — the parable of the laborers and the vineyard ; the 19th Luke — the parable of the pounds. The last week was in every sense of the word, a week which had to do with ** last things," It was the last things in our Saviour's experiences, last things in His saving work, and last things were the subject of His teach- ing, Matt. 21 : 28-30 ; Matt. 22 : 1-14. Matt. 23 next in order, and con- taining the woes on the Jewish nation, reached in its effect right down the centuries to the present time, and according to Matt. 24, would not ^nd until the Lord comes in His glory. In Matt. 24 they had our Lord's great discourse concerning the destruction of the Temple. What was true of Christ's parables and teachings, was equally true of his miracles. There were only two in this last period, both of them eschata- logical miracles, the resurrection of Lazarus, and the withering of the fig tree, a parable that was a miracle, and a miracle that was a parable. When did this period culminate ? As the other on Calvary, so this on Mount Olivet. The supreme expiession of the truth concerning last things was brought before them in a magnificent sense, in the ascension of the risen Saviour from the slopes of Olivet. Let them connect these four stages of our Lord's teachings with the four mountains. The first culminates in the sermon on the Mount, the second on the Mount of Transfiguration, the third on Mount Calvary, the fourth on Mount Olivet. Did the Church wc-k along those lines ? Yes. He then showed that what the Church was alking most about now, was " last things." He then asked the question. What was the conclusion ? What next ? He was brought up sharp by the thought there is no next, herewith, the Lord finished His ministry. If the Church conformed to the pattern of her Lord, they knew He ascended into the glory of the Father. Did they not see where this brought them ? It gave them no idea of dates, -* li! ^'^1 i 56 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. times, or seasons, but excepting the ty^e which had held good for 1800 years was going to fall short in the last particular of all, when it had never fallen short before, they might say, whenever the Church in the council of God shall have brought out fully and clearly for the faith or rejection of men, the truth concerning the last things, then the Church must be con- formed to the pattern of her Lord by ascending to the Father in the resurrection of the just. What a magnificent thought that was I What an interest it gave to all the discussions in our days about "I t things." The very discussion itself is prophetic of what comes next. It was very striking to observe how our Lord's testimony closed with a visible representation of the truth taught. His teaching concerning His person concluded with the visible representation of glory on the Mount of Transfiguration ; his teaching con- cerning his atoning death concluded with the visible manifestation on Calvary. His teaching concerning "last things" ended with the visible manifestation of His glorious ascension to the P'ather. Could they doubt for a moment that it would be the same with the Church, when her pre- destined testimony to the nations shall be completed, she would illustrate her doctrine concerning "last things" by ascending to the Father in the glory of the first resurrection. In John 16 : 8-10 was the reason for this order. First the Church is the body of the Lord, and the life of the Lord is the life of the Church. He showed that our Lord in His teachings exactly observed the order of the Spirit's work as indicated in those verses, and the church baptised with the Holy Ghost stepped right along the lines behind her Master. FOURTH DAY.— Saturday Morning. LIFE IN CHRIST. BY REV. E. p. GARDNER, OF APPLETON, WISCON.SIN. REV. E. p. GARDNER, of Appleton, Wisconsin, addressed the Con- ference on "Life in Christ." In Phil, i : 21, "To me to live is Christ," they had an utterence from the very heart of the Apostle. To touch the Apostle anywhere was to touch Christ. In his epistle to the Philippians which contained ic6 verses, 54 of them had either the name LIFE IN CHRIST. Sf or 1 800 d never mncil of jction of be con- r in the ve to all ion itself rve how he truth ! visible ling con- ation on visible ey doubt her pre- illustrate ler in the Jhurch is Church. : order of baptised ster. i the Con- ; to live is )stle. To stle to the the name of Christ or some personal pronoun referring to Christ. As a ray of light has seven colors in it, so the text he had quoted had seven separate elements in it, and all of them in the epistle, i. The body bought by the blood of Christ. 2. Preaching the Gospel of Christ. 3. Imitating the example of Christ. 4. Strengthened by the indwelling Christ. 5. Studying the wonders of Christ. 6. Rejoicing in the fellowship of Christ. 7. Going into the presence of Christ. I. In Phil. I : i, Paul called himself the servant of Christ. It did not mean hired servant, but slave, bought with the blood of Christ. He showed how the apostle loved to sneak of that relationship, illustrating it by the Old Testament custom of the boring of the ear of the servant who did not wish to leave his master. He pointed out how every element of their being belonged to Christ, and that this relationship was of a life- long character. In Phil. I : 18, they had Paul preaching the Gospel of Christ. Paul thought more of that than anything else, and their great thought should be how to preach Christ in whatever befel them. Each day's experience was a new opportunity given them of the Lord for preaching Him. Light was only the highest form of heat, and if they had but little of the love of Christ, there would be but little light, but if baptized in the fire of His love there would be the brighter light. 3. In Phil. 2:5, the thought was imitating the example of Christ. Paul constantly held that up before his thought as the rule of life in all respects. In the relations between husband, wives, parents, children, masters, slaves, Christ was always the illustration. The legend was toldof St,Francis,of As- sissi, that he so used to gaze on the crucifix where Jesus was hanging, that when they went into his cell and found him lying there unconscious, they found on his body the very marks of the cross. He did not know any- thing as to the truth of the legend, but spiritually, it was true that if they would set the Lord before them they would be changed into His image. Their lives were to be illustrated sermons of Christ. 4. In Phil. 4 : 13, they found Paul did not think much of his own strength, but sought to be filled with the power of Christ. The speaker illustrated from the launching of a vessel and its resting on the waters, the way in which they should rest on the bosom of His infinite love and support. 5. In Phil. 3 : 8, Paul was studying the wonders of Christ. He was once looking over the Bible of a dear friend, who had just passed away I 58 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES, from earth, and on the fly leaf he saw these words, "Never be too busy about your Lord's work, but you can find time every day to sit at His feet." They needed to combine both those things, and they would find it help them in their work. By referring to the river Rhone emptying itself in all its tumultuousness and mud, into the clear blue lake of Geneva, and coming out at the other end of the lake purified, but yet the same stream, he showed how they might pause in their work and rest in the Lord Jesus, and have their earthiness taken away. The more they studied Christ the more amazing He would seem. 6. Phil. 4 : 4. Rejoicing in the fellowship of Christ. He pointed out the many earthly sources of pleasure of which Paul had been robbed, and yet he believed there was a joy in the Apostle's heart that words could not describe. He referred to the revelations given to the Apostle, and expressed the belief that they more than compensated for the losses he otherwise sustained. 7. Phil, x: 23, Going to dwell in the presence of Christ. Everything in the Bible centered around the fact of meeting the Lord Jesus Christ, and not about heaven. When John was describing the glories of heaven he said, " But the Lamb is the light thereof." The expectant attitude of the believer was illustrated by a German girl left by her lover in the father- land, and after awhile he sent word to her that he was all ready for her and promised to meet her at New York, and as the vessel drew near to the wharf how all her thoughts would be taken up with her lover himself and not the sights in the harbour. THE HOLY SPIRIT AS SEEN IN THE BOOKS FROM JOSHUA TO EZRA. BY PASTOR THOS. O. LOWE, OF CINCINNATI. PASTOR THOS. O. LOWE, of Cincinnatti, next addressed the Con- ference on the Holy Spirit as seen in the books from Joshua to Ezra. The only books, he said, in this section, in which the Holy Spirit is named are Judges, ist and 2nd Samuel, and ist and 2nd Chron. In the Penta- teuch they found the Holy Spirit was a person, that He strives, broods, moulds character, helps men in their useful employments, sanctifies, inspires, is the source of prophecy and testimony, and that He loves. In these books named he also appeared in numerous views. In con- T I Sa belie THE HOLY SPIRIT AS SEEN IN THE BOOKS FROM JOSHUA TO EZRA. 59 sidering the Holy Spirit they should bear in mind that His Gospel was different in one respect from that of the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. We have our blessings from \hQ finished work of Christ, the foundation of everything. The Spirit's work is an unfinished work, that of conforming the saved ones to the image of the Son of God. Phil. 3: 12, expressed the true idea of Christian experience which consisted in I taking possession of that which is already ours. This point was illustrated I by reference to 2 Sam. 8 : 3, where David went to take possession of his border — being the first of the kings to do so. They too were kings, but were they ready to go forward and take possession of that which was already their's in Christ Jesus. Ther2 were two points of difference between the Holy Spirit's work now and in anti-Pentecostal days, viz., first — all Christians may now be filled with the Spirit. John 7 : 39, spoke of the Spirit not yet being given, but I it would have been more in accordance with the other teachings of the Word to have said "poured out." The second point of difference was that we are now by the Holy Spirit linked to a Risen Man in heaven. Jesus said, *' I will send the comforter," and so when the Spirit came on the day of Pentecost He lifted them up and linked them by a chain [never to be broken, to their risen Lord. In the section of scripture under consideration, the following persons [were named in connection with the Spirit's work : — Othniel, Gideon, Jephtha, Samson, Saul, David, Saul's servants, Amaziah, Azariah, Jahaziel, land Zecharias. Several important topics were found in connection with the Spirit's re- jlation to those individuals. 2 Sam, 23 : 2, brought before them again the [matter of inspiration. It was not merely spiritual fervor, but the words Iwere of God. He could not conceive of any intelligible idea of inspiration Iwhich did not include the absolute inerrancy of the words. It would not Ido to say the ideas were inspired, but the words erroneous. To say that JHe had given them a revelation of His will and yet had not done it Iperfectly, was inconsistent with His character as revealed in nature and in iHis word. If they put the biing of a wasp under the most powerful Imicroscope they would not discover the slightest inperfection in it. God |did His work perfectly. The spirit produces Assurance. Take the case of Saul, i Samuel, 10:6,7; |i Sam, 11:6. He alluded to Saul's diffidence, and his difficulty in jelieving he had been chosen, but after the Spirit of God came upon him mightily, then that diffident man was seen going forward in war when the 6o CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. I! !t Ammonites came up against the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead; a man with- out a doubt, of tremendous power as a soldier and leader. The case of David was also given, i Sam, i6: 13, especial attention being called to David's confidence that the God of Israel was alive, a characteristic also of Elijah's experience. They thought of that as an absolute fact, and yet he had no doubt there would be a wonderful accession to its power if to- night they were to see the words " the living God " blazing in the sky. They would soon hear what a remarkable phenomenon had appeared, and christian people would find themselves uplifted with joy, and christian ministers would be talking to them even more solemnly than before about Him " who was dead, but is alive for evermore." The Spirit made them sure " Whose I am and whom I serve " said Paul. That was the secret of the power of David and Saul and the grand men of the olden time. The Spirit gives Qualifications for service. Judges, 3:10. These qualifications were indispensable. They might have a good many other qualifications that came from natural gifts, position, education, intellect, but without the power of the Spirit upon them they did not amount to anything. '* Tarry ye in Jerusalem, etc." The Spirit guides in service, i Chron., 28 : 12. He pointed out how the Spirit had given instruction concerning the house and the manner in which it was to be constructed. So, " as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." He alluded to aged Simeon going into the Temple at the particular time Christ was there, "by the Spirit," as | illustrating this point. The Spirit of God also had a gathering power, Judges 6: 34. In the I margin of the Revision, the Hebrew was, "clothed himself with," instead of " came upon," as if the Spirit wished to have men and women present their bodies in order that He might have that which would be a visible rep- resentation and mouthpiece for Him, The Holy Ghost found such a man in Gideon in the oldert times,and also in King Asa's time, and King Saul's. The Spirit of the Lord also shows — Power in the assembly, i Sam. 19:] ao ; I Cor. 14 : 24-26. The Spirit sends forth to service, Judges 11 : 29. It was aggressivel warfare. The Spirit would prompt to that, if a man knows that God lives, he understood that his ability was to be exercised in God's service. He| would not wait for that service to come to him, he would seek it. The Spirit warns, stimulates, and encourages the people. 2 Chron. 15 1-3, showed that God loves, approves, condemns, and would reward. 21 THE HOLY SPIRIT AS SEEN IN THE BOOKS FROM JOSHUA TO EZRA. 6l I man wilh- rhe case of \g called to teristic also ict, and yet power if to- in the sky. peared, and id christian efore about made them s the secret ;n time. lo. These many other n, intellect, t amount to ted out how e manner in by the Spirit meon going le Spirit," as 34. In the ith," instead )men present a visible rep- 1 such a man King Saul's. ', I Sam. 19: as aggressive ;at God lives, service. He k it. 2 Chron. 15 : Id reward. 2 Chron. 20: 14-16, was also referred to, showing the victory was the Lord's. Again the Spirit produces Devotedness, i Chron. 12: 18. Those heartfelt words expressive of devotedness were so beautiful, fitting and pertinent that they could use them with reference to their David and their relationship to Him. The Spirit, doubtless, came upon Amasai, bec-jse there were serious reasons why he should not indentify himself with David, but the Spirit showed them that David was God's man, and to be with David was to be with the God of Israel, and to be away from him was to be on the wrong side, and so contrary to inclination Amasa sided with David, But it took the power of the Spirit to lead a man to act thus. The Spirit of God produces fearlessness, even unto Martyrdom. 2 Chron. 24: 20. Though he was stoned, yet he was a noble son of a noble sire, the son of Jehoiada, the high priest, He tried to stem the tide that was carrying king and nation in the wrong direction, and it cost him his life. Martyrs in all ages had felt constrained to do the same thing, and it was not impossible, if the Lord tarry, that some of them might be called upon to take just the same stand. The Spirit longed to show the same energy and grace to-day that He exhibited at Pentecost, for He was unchangeable the same, but He did not do it simply because He could not occupy hearts unless they were opened to Him. They could not serve God and Mammon. " Purify your hearts ye double minded," and they would find that hearts thus purified are ac- cepted by the Holy Ghost, who quickly, and swiftly and rejoicingly came as at Pentecost, to fill and endue us with power. Take the case of Sam- son. There was not a word in the Scriptures to intimate that he was of extraordinary physical proportions, or physically strong in himself, in fact the whole record was inconsistent with the idea of his being a Goliath of Oath. If he had been there would have been no secret about his strength. That secret lay in his Nazarite consecration,and in the Spirit of God: and so they read when he did mighty works, the Spirit of God came upon him mightily. Judges 13; 25 ; 14 : 6 ; 14:19; 15 : 14. They had therefore in Samson's case, the blessed lesson for them ** It is not by might, nor 6y power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." They could also understand what Paul meant when he said, " I can do all things through Christ, who strcngtheneth me." He urged them to surrender their wills and they would find the power to do what God wanted them to do. His last thought ¥•"= — The Patience of the Holy Spirit. "He will not ■always strive with m " Not always with the unsaved because their con. I I 63 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. dition becomes permanent after a while. He will not always strive with His people because their opposition will disappear, and they would sub- mit. He had been grieved many many times, but He was patient. He had never yet been grieved away. He still stood beseeching them. Let them open wide the door of their hearts and the blessed Spirit would come in. FOURTH DAY. — Saturday Afternoon. " ANTI-CHftlST." BY DR. KENDALL, OF INDIANA. D R. KENDALL, of Indiana, addressed the conference on "Anti Christ." The Terriule One, At various places in the Scriptures, there are predictions concerning a Terrible One to come, who appears under a variety of names, as will pre- sently be manifest. Thus in Isaiah 11 : 4— a chapter which is evidently Messianic — we read that among other things which the Messiah shall do, " He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked." The English reader will almost in- evitably fail to note one important fact, viz. : that " the wicked " is in the singular number, and hence cannot refer to wicked persons in general, and tn masse, but to some one person who is wicked, /a^ excellence. The expression is strikingly like that of Paul in which he says, " Then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming " (2 Thess. 2: 8); and each forcibly reminds us of the words of the Revela- tor, part of whose description of the same Divine One is, " And out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword " (Rev. i: 16). Let it be noted that the prophecy of Isaiah was written 700 years before the First Advent, while Paul and John wrote after Christ had ascenc''»d to the right hand of the Father, and with certain reference to the St. jnd Advent. Again, in the 14th chapter of Isaiah there is prediction of a time, when a certain (at that time) future king of Babylon, who had been a wonderful oppressor of the Lord's people Israel, who had ruled mightily, haughtily and wickedly, shaking kingdoms, destroying cities, exalting his throne to make himself " like the Most High," is smitten, routed, slain, then denied ANTI-CHRIST, 6S strive with ould sub- ient. He hem. Let lirit would on 64 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. (jflfi'ljit as in some sense succeeding them," {italics his), and to the further fact that the expression " after them " is in the highest degree, indefinite — it may be five years or ten thousand. The end of the career of this king who is symbolised by the " little horn " is his utter destruction. " The ancient of days did sit * * • His throne was like the fiery flame and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. * * * I beheld them, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake ; I beheld even till the beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame" {vs. g-w.) Let it be noted, here is again destruction by fire, " the breath of his lips" (Isa. 11:4), "the spirit of his mouth" (2 Thess. 3:8) That this personage, thus described and thus destroyed, has not yet appeared, it will be part of the effort of this study to show. Again the 8th chapter of Daniel introduces to us a wonderful personage symbolised as before, by " a little horn." (f. 9.) That this little horn represents some august personage appears from the fact that it is said, "A^ magnified himself "(?'. 11), and Gabriel in his explanation of the vision to Daniel, speaks of this same littie horn as " a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences • * * and his power shall be mighty, * * * and he shall destroy wonderfully, * * * he shall also stand up against the prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand** {vs. 23-25). It is worthy of note here that at the beginning, Gabriel says to Daniel • '• Understand O Son of man, for the vision be- longeth to the time of the end" (R. V., v. 17), and at the end he adds, as if in repetition : ** shut thou up the vision, for it shall be for many days" {v. 26). Turning now to the New Testament we find similar predictions concern- ing a Terrible One who is yet to come. Thus Paul says, '* That man of I sin shall be revealed the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped. * * * Then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with 1 the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His com- ing" (2nd Thess. 2 : 3,4,8). Again, John in his first Epistle (2 : 18), declares the presence already of "many anti-christs," and a coming Anti- christ, affirming that the essential "spirit of anti-christ" consists in the I denial of the proper humanity of our Lord (i John 4 ; 3, 2 John 7). Later, in the Apocalypse John sees the culmination and personification of wickedness, in the person of a "beast" rising "up out of the sea" having great power and authority, receivmg worship as Divine, "speaking great! ANTI-CHRIST. «» things and blasphemies", not afraid to "blaspheme against God, His name and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven" making "war with tlie saints" and overcoming them (Rev. 13 : i, 4-6). This "beast," through the instrumentality of "spirits of devils working miracles'' (Rev. 16 : 14), deceiving, "if it were possible," "the very elect" (Matt. 34 : 24), gathers unto himself "the kings of the earth * * * to the battle of the great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16 : 14). Finally, when "the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies (are) gathered together to make war (Rev. 19: 19), the "King of kings and Lord of lords" sitting upon "a white horse" "clothed wfth a vesture dipped in blood,'' followed by the "armies which were in heaven" (Rev. 19 : 11, 13, 14), goes forth to meet "the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies" (v. 19), the beast is taken and "cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone" (v. 20) — another destruction by fire "with the brightness ot his coming" (2nd Thess. 2 : 8). THIS TERRIBLE ONE has appeared under various names. In Isaiah (14 : 4, 12), he appears as "King of Babylon'' and "Lucifer". In Daniel (7: 8; S: 9), as the "little horn"; (8 : 23), "a kmg of fierce countenance" ; (9 : 26), "the prince that shall come" ; (11:21), "a vile person" ; (11 : 36), "the king that shall do ac- coiding to his will" ; in 2 Thess. (2 : 3-8), "man of sin,'' "son of per- dition," " that wicked " ; in i John (2 : 8), " Anti-christ " ; and finally (Rev. 13 : i), the "beast". Throughout, the peculiarities of this Ter rible One, are pride, craft, vaulting ambition, unrestrained blasphemy, regal power, supernatural wisdom, savage ferocity, unmitigated wicked- ness, which finally gather to themselves the holy wrath, and measureless vengeance of Him who " sitteth in the heavens," (Ps. 2 : 4.) There now arises certain questions which will stand as the frame-work of our future discussion, such as these : — 1. What is t)u Scripture significance of the term ^* Anti-christ " ? 2. Do all the above descriptions apply to a single, or to more than a single Terrible One ? J. Or was there an Antichrist of the Old Testament, and another of the New 1 4. Is the Terrible One, the Anti-christ of the New Testament a Person or a System ? 5. If a System, 7e>hat System ? 6. If a Person^ has he yet appeared^ or is he yet to appear 1 66 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. «!^ I 7. Ifoes the Scripture give any clear intimation, as to whence he is to arise 1 These and such inquiries will reveal to us what the Scriptures teach <:oncerning this mysterious personage — whether he be one or many. T. We turn our attention first, to the SCRIPTURE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TERM ANTI-CHRIST. Opinions have varied between a pretended Christ, and an opposer of Christ. The diflference is not slight. To profess to be or claim to be the Christ, is one thing ; to oppose Him is a very different thing. Now Christ ex- pressly teaches that there shall be pseudo-Christs — ** false Christs" — (Matt. 24 : 24.) These claim each for himself, to be the Christy they are one and all, /r^/^«^^/-y, claiming to be what they a^^ «tf/. li^i^ necessary attitude of such an one, cannot be that of open opposition to the true Christ. He claims to be the true Christ, he asks for the honors, he aims and claims to do the works of the true Christ, he opposes the true Christ, only by saying " he was « i9> 23,) "when the Lord had performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem," (Isaiah 10: 12.) Neither w.^s there anything in his career which corresponded to His standing " up against the Prince of 70 CONKERENCE HILL STUDIES. princes," nor in his end, as has been shown, to his being ** broken without hand," (Daniel 8 : 25), or by special, direct, Divine interposition. These considerations emphasize still farther as must be admitted, the fact already maintained, that the Terrible One of the Old Testament and the Anti-christ of the New, are one and the same. Some further study just at this point, of the character of this Terrible One, will throw light on questions which are yet to arise in our discussion. Care- ful observation will show us that as time advances, his character undergoes marvellous change. He comes from small and low beginnings. The extent of His power at the first, is shown by the fact that he is called a '■^little horn," his low origin, in the fact that he is designated a " vile person \x> whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom," (Daniel 11 : 21.) His first contact with the Jews shall be when his power extends west- wardly into " the pleasant land," (Daniel 8 : 9,) the land of Palestine. Not at first as the haughty conqueror, does He appear, ** but He shall come in peaceably and shall obtain the kingdom by flatteries," (Daniel 11 : 21,) and "he shall confirm a covenant with many, for one week," (Daniel 9 : 27.) After this covenant, ** he shall work deceitfully," " he shall enter peaceably upon the fattest places of the province," and " shall become strong with a small people," (Daniel 11: 23,24.) Now he throws off the mask. "His heart shall be against the holy covenant," " he shall have indignation against the holy covenant," (Vs. 28, 30.) And now his true character swiftly appears, as he violates the covenant he has made with the people. The leopard king springs to the throat of his enemies with the grip of a bear, the savage ferocity of a lion, the blasphemy of a dragon ; he pollutes- the sanctuary, takes away the daily sacrifice which the recovered people have re-established, and places the " abomination 01 desolation * * * in the holy place," (Matt. 24 : 15.) The dominion which the Son of Man re- fused at the hand of Satan, one has now arisen to accept. ' His power shall be mighty but not by His own power," (Daniel 8 : 24.) Times and laws shall be changed, by this universal Despot, with regard to nothing save Hi supreme will. One further flight of blasphemy alone remains. It is but a step from self-glorification to self-deification. The besotted people advance but a step from " abject adulation of the tyrant, to adoration of the God." " All power and signs and lying wonders * * * all deceivableness of unrighteousness," (2Thess. 2 : 9, 10,) have attended His marvellous career, He now exalts His " throne above the stars of God," (Isaiah 14 : 14,) and "all the world wondered after the beast," (Rev. 13 : 3.) His career ends in wasting and blasphemy in "days of vengeance," (Luke 21 : 22,) amid ANTI-CHRIST. 7' "distress of nations," (v. 25,) "the time of Jacob's trouble," (Jeremiah 30 : 7,) "for there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall be," (Matt. 24 : 21.) We pass on to other questions : 4. Is the Anti-christ a Person or a System ? 5. //"a System, what System ? We will look at the latter question first. It has been long held and urged by many, that the Anti-christ has his embodiment in the Papacy. Rev. Albert Barnes in his commentary on Daniel 7, argues at great length for this view, and concludes : "These illustrations will leave no doubt it seems to me, that all that is here said will find an ample fulfilment in the Papacy and that it is to be regarded, as having a reference to that powej". In proof, he cites the persecutions of the Waldenses, the atrocities of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, the persecution in England under bloody Queen Mary, the Inquisition, the attempts to put down the Refor- mation in Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and Bohemia — all veritable acts of the Papacy, as no one wishes to deny ; and these Mr. Barnes cites as "wearing out the saints of the most High" (Daniel 7: 25). A surface view would seem to indicate that this was the true opinion. But there is mani- estly a failure to apprehend what the REAL WORK of the Anti-christ is to be according to the Divine thought. That is, to perform "His whole work upon Mount Zion, and on Jerusalem" (Isaiah 10: 1 2). "Hath God cast away His people ; * * * God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew" (Romans 11: i, 2). Through all these gloomy years of Gentile domination, God's eyes are fixed on Israel, "His whole work" on them is not yet performed. That work attains its culmina- tion in the last dire efforts of Anti-christ. These are directed not agamst the Church but against Israel. "He shall destroy wonderfully ♦ ♦ * and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people" (Daniel 8: 24). And when at length, all is done, then by no slow process, but in swift resistless stroke^ He "the root out of the stem of Jesse" (Isaiah 11: i), "shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he flay the wicked" {z>. 4). Now the Papacy, as a Civil Power has sometimes been inimical to the Jews, and hence they were expelled from Spain. For it will be remembered that the Papacy, during long periods has exercised both Civil and Ectlef Mistical authority. 7a CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES, 'S y f But what has the Papacy as an Ecclesiastical power ever done to Israeli What decree of the Lord against his people, has the Papacy in its Ecclesiastical capacity ever executed ? Not one. We may confidently affirm that the Papacy has never done what the Lord declares that the Anti-christ will do against His people. The persecuting activity of the Papacy has never been directed against the "holy people", but always in all lands, against those Gentiles who have been converted to God. It is abundantly clear that up to the present, the Lord has never undertaken any "work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem", through the instrumentality of the Popes : from which we can only infer that the Papacy is not the Anti-christ. In proof of these statements, if proof be necessary, note the following •citations. "It was a ruling principle with the popes after the example of their predecessor Gregory the Great, to protect the Jews in their rights which had been conceded to them," (Neander, History of Christian Church, Tor- rey's Translation. Vol. 4, p. 75. See also Vol. i. p. 89. Vol. 3. p. 13. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Art. Israel.) Dr. Schaff, in a par- agraph covering more than half a page, in his History of the Apostolic Church (beginning on p. 75,) inveighs strongly against the idea that the Papacy either before or since the Reformation, is Anti-christ : citing in proof "the consistency and tenacity with which the Catholic Church has at all times held fast all the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, the Trinity, the true divinity and humanity of Christ, the inspiration and divine authority of the Bible (all which Anti-christianity denies)." Equally strong and similar testimony is borne by Milman in his History of the Jews. The Romish Clergy, he admits, often opposed the Jews, because of what they deemed their "heresy and unbelief." "But it is re- markable" he says "that not or.ly were there splendid and redeeming in- stances of superiority to this unchristian spirit, but it was only in the dark and remote parts of the Christian world, that this total gloom prevailed. Light still shone in the centre. Of all European Sovereigns, the Popes with some exceptions, have pursued the most generous policy towards the Jews." (Vol. 3. p. 175). "In Italy and even in Rome, the Jews have been rnore rarely molested than in other Countries." (Idem. p. 176). Pope Gregory the Great "assumed the saintly office of protector of the oppressed (Jews). From several of the letters of Gregory the First, it appears that the Jews had laid their grievances before him in person, and obtained redress. He severely rebuked those whose intemperate zeal had led them to insult the Synagogues, by placing the images of the Virgin, and ANTI-CHRIST. 7« yaell in its : affirm i-christ s never against y clear it upon Popes : lUowing of their lich had h, Tor- Vol. 3- a par- postoHc hat the : citing Church stianity, ion and History le Jews, it is re- ning in- le dark revailed. pes with le Jews." n more • of the First, it ;on, and zeal had rgin, and the crucified Redeemer, within their walls, yet he was by no means remiss in his attempts to convert these unbelievers, but they were to i)o won by tenderness, by gentleness, not by threats, terrors, and unjust usage. The Pope stands in amiable contrast to other potentates of his time." (Idem- Vol. 3. ps. 65-66.) Pope Martin V. issued a bull which commenced thus : "Since the Jews arc made in the image of God, since a remnant of them shall be saved, since further their trading is profitable to Christians, since they solicit our coun- tenance and our compassion thus will we, in the same sense as Cali.xtus, Eugenius, Alexander, Clement, Coelestine, Innocent, Honorius, Gregory, Urban, Nicolas, and other former Popes of blessed memory." The Rev. Dr. Wise, a learned Jewish Rabbi, of Cincinnati, is quoted in a private letter which has been placed in the writer's hands, as saying : "There is no doubt that the Popes were, on the whole, opposed to per- secution of the Jews, but that to give a full account of the matter would in- volve writing a book". Then again, those who argue that the papacy is Anti-christ, have infinite trouble to determine when this " little horn," ycleped the Papacy, sprang up. For according to their view, it has already a long time ago appeared. And if it has appeared then they cannot shirk the duty of telling us at what date it took its rise, and this they have boldly done. Some place it in A. D., 533, when Justinian put himself and the Empire under the dominion of the Bishop of Rome. Some place it in A. D., 606, when the Emperor Phocas I confirmed what Justinian had done, at which time the Pope received the title of " universal Bishop." Others place it in A. D., 752, and others in A. D., 1073. Having fixed the terminal point of the rise of the Papacy* these interpreters are plunged into a sea of difficulties. Their scheme com- pels them to adopt the year-for-a-day theory, and they agree that at whatever epoch, the papal domination commenced, it is to continue 1 260 years. Now if that period commenced in A. D., 606, it ended in 1866. And it was precisely this kind of calculation, which led many so-called second ladventists, to anticipate that the affairs of this lower world would be wound up at that date. And that makes it proper to say that if the Papacy is the Anti-chrfst, every one who holds that view must give himself up to the fixing jof dates, for the return of the Lord from heaven. For the Papacy is here. [Those who aver that this is Anti-christ, cannot refuse to answer the enquiry; Iwhen did the Papacy come here ? And when they answer that, they can jonly add 1260 years and declare that then the Lord must come. Now it is charged that this is what Pre-millennialists are doing — a statement farthest 74 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. l< . ' ,1 possible from the truth. But it is what Post-millennialists must do, if they faithfully carry out their own interpretations. And this is precisely what so honored and trusted an orthodox interpreter of scripture, as Mr. Barnes proceeds to do. "It should be added" he says, (notes on Daniel p. 333,) "that whichever of the three first periods referred to, be regarded as the time of the rise of the papacy, if we add to them the prophetic period of 1260 years, we are noiv (Italics his,) in the midst of scenes on which the prophetic eye rested, and we cannot, as fair interpreters of prophecy, but regard this mighty domination as hastening to its fall. It would seem probable then, that according to the most obvious explanation of the subject, we are at present not far from the termination and fall of that great power, and that events may be expected to occur, at about this period of the world, which will be connected with its fall." But we cannot fail to remember, that according to his own showing, two of these periods have already past, the last one in 1866 — 22 years ago. And according to those scriptures which he attemps to interpret, the end of the Anti-christ is to be sudden and ap- palling. A stone cut out of the mountain without hands, is to smite the great image ; " that wicked"is to be overwhelmed and destroyed " with the brightness of the Lord's coming," consumed "with the spirit of his mouth," (2 Thess. 2 : 8.) Why should he speak of "the three first periods," — except that he did write, some ten years before the year 1866. But now two of these epochs are past, too far past to have place in his calculation. The progress of events has shown that if the papacy be Anti-christ, it was not founded either in 533 or 606. These dates then, must be rejected, and he, as an honest interpreter must proceed to fix a new date for the rise of the Papacy, and he must then fix the time of the end of the world. With the highest possible respect, for one of the Lord's most honored and departed servants, it must be said the extract just quoted, does not bear the marks of scholarly interpretation, but rather there are clear indications of one seek- ing to extricate himself from insurmountable difficulties, by a resort to "glittering generalities " of language, which will not bear critical scrutiny. Let us now return to our question : — • What has the Papacy ever done to Israel ? We have seen that the earliest date which any fix, for the rise of the J^apacy as a dominant power, is A.D. 533. But long before that, Jerusu- lem and Zion were trodden under foot of the Gentiles. The holy and beauti- ful city had never lifted up its head to attract any persecuting activity, since its destruction by Titus, A. D. 70. The people were scattered, the nation had lost its identity ; and we may say without possibility of contradiction, ANTI-CHRIST. 75 lo, if they y what so r. Barnes 33.) "that me of the years, we )hetic eye ;gard this able then, we are at ■, and that rid, which mber, that ' past, the ires which n and ap- smite the " with the is mouth," ," — except 3w two of ion. The it was not d, and he, rise of the With the i departed the marks f one seek- resort to scrutiny. ise of the at, Jerusu- and beauti' tivity, since the nation ntradiction, that in all its persecuting agency, the Papacy has never molested or assailed the Lord's peculiar people the Jews, but all its persecuting activity has been directed against the Church. The multitudes of martyrs which have been made by persecution and inquisition, have come from the ranks of Protest- ants, not from the Jews. It is therefore clear that the work which the Pa- pacy has been doing, is not the work which the Anti-christ is to perform. The Papacy has been a great foe to the church, but it has never concerned itself about "Mount Zion and Jerusalem." And it is easy to show that in other respects the Papacy cannot be the Anti-christ. The Anti-christ is to "exalt himself und magnify /limsel/ a.ho\e every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods" (Daniel 1 1: 36), so that "he as (jod, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2: 4). But this is something which the worst Pope has never done. It may be that idolatrous reverence is paid him by the cringing sycophants who ever hover around greatness and authority, but the Anti-christ is to "exalt himself * * * above all that is called God", and to show ^^himselflh^i he is God". But this no Pope has ever claimed. He is, by his own profession, only and ever, God's viceger- ent, he is the humble vassal of the Lord. In every word that he speaks as "infallible", he claims to speak only as the servant of his Divine Lord and Master. Again it is said, "every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God, and this is that spirit of Anti-christ" (i John 4: 3) ; but the Papacy has always believed in Jesus Christ, for it has always used the Apostles', the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. Papists have unduly ex- alted the Virgin, but they have never degraded Christ below the proper level of Divinity. These considerations indicate that we may not consider the Papacy as being the Anti-christ of the Scripture. And if the Papacy is not, then we hazard nothing in saying that no earthly system can be. And if not a System, then a Person. We proceed therefore now, to show the clear marks oi personality in the Anti-christ of the Scripture. It is suitable to remark here, that the scriptures which describe the Anti-christ become wholly inapplicable, when we attempt to fit them to any system as popery, that is, to a succession of individuals. The Anti-christ is described in his individuality, even as much as His great opposer and destroyer, the Christ. Note these contrasts and observe that, if they fairly j6 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. imply and teach that Christ is an individual person, equally do they imply and teach that Anti-christ is an individual person. Thus Christ is described as " he that comcth from above * * * from heaven," (John 3 : 31,) Anti- christ as the " beast that ascendeth out of the'bottomless pit," (Rev. 1 1 : 7-) Christ " comes in His Father's name," Anti-christ in " His own name," (John 5 : 43.) Christ " humbled Himself and became obedient even unto death," (IMiil. 2 : 8), Anti-christ " exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped," (i Thess. 2: 4.) Of Christ, we read "God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name, which is above every name," (Phil. 2 : 9), of the Anti-christ, we read that he says, " I will ascend above the heights of the clouds," but (lod decrees against him, " thou shalt be brought down to hell," (Isaiah 14: 14, 15.) The reception of Christ among men has this descrijuion, "• He is despised and rejected of men * * * and we esteemed him not," (Isaiah 55 : 3,) of the Anti-christ this, "all the world wondered after the beast, ♦ * * they worshipped the beast saying, who is like unto the beast ?" (Rev. 13 : 3, 4.) Christ declares of himself, " I came down from heaven not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent ne," (John 6 : 38,) the Anti-christ " shall do according to /it's will," (Dan. 11 : 36.) Christ aftirms, " I have glorified thee on the earth," (John 17 : 4,) Anti-christ opens "his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme His name," (Rev. 13: 6.) Christ is the "good Shepherd,' laying "down His life for the sheep," (John 10: 14, 15,) Anti-christ bears the title " idol shepherd," who himself " shall eat the flesh of the fat," (Zech. 11: 16, 17). Christ is "heir of all things" (Heb. i: 2), Anti-christ, that "man of sin" is the "Son of perdition" (2 Thess. 2; 3). Christ shall be seen "coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24: 30), the entrance of Anti-christ into the pit shall be marked with the curious looks of the dead kings already there, and the sarcastic inquiry, "is Mw the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms"? (Isaiah 14: 16). "Christ shall reign forever" (Rom. 11: 15), Anti-christ's dominion shall be taken away "to consume and to destroy it unto the end" (Daniel 7: 26), These contrasts need not be continued farther. Here are marks of per- sonality which cannot be applied to any System, especially when we consid- er that the beast, the culmination of Anti-christian rule is to be "cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Rev. 19: 20). May we not therefore pronounce the argument resistless, that the Anti-christ is a Person and not a System ? We are now prepared to take up our following question : — 6, Has this Terrible One, the great head of wicked Gentile dominion yet appeared, or is he yet to appear t ANTI-CHRIST. 77 ley imply dcscril)ed 51,) Anti- kr. 11: 7.) n name," .'ven unto is called (lod also ry name," nd above shalt be of Christ Tien * * * " all the St saying, f himself, II of Him ng to his he earth," it God to lepherd,' irist bears the fat," hrist, that ill be seen :. 24: 30), t curious is this the saiah 14: lion shall iel 7: 26). s of per- ^e consid- cast alive ! we not a Person inion yet Has Anti-christ already run his frightful career, or do we still look for liim? Does it seem that these questions have already had answer in what has been previously said? Yet must we consider them further. In our an- swers, we shall encounter many notions which can only be the result of pre- judice, many which are very arbitrary, many which result from gross ignor- ance and the most unpardonable misinterpretation, if we ought not rather to say, total neglect of the Scripture. Oftentimes, pcjlitical or ecclessiatical prejudices have come to the front in Scripture interpretation. Thus Roman Catholics called Luther, the Anti-christ; and Luther flung back the impeach- ment and denounced the I'ope, as that foul personage — an opinion, in which the Waldenses, Wycliffe and Huss had preceded I -uther. Some Catholic writers have charged Mohammedanism with being the Anti-christ. Some have maintained that the Antichrist will be Satan incarnate, even as Christ came in the flesh. Many have thought that Antiochus Hj)iphanes fulfilled the predictions of Scripture concerning the Terrible On(; of the Old Testament. We have already seen that that opinion cannot be maintained. Some early writers believed that Nero was the' Terrible One, and that he would again make his appearance on the earth. It was believed that Paul, when speaking of the " Man of Sin," re- ferred to Nero, without directly naming him. Commodianus affirms that Anti-christ will be " Nero raised up from hell." The first Napoleon and the third Napoleon have played the role of Anti-christ, in the wild concep- tions of others. And some have even found, in the great Prussian statesman Bismarck, the Anti-christ of the Scripture, and some have seen the Anti-christ in Ingersollism. This very multiplicity of claim, may throw a serious suspicion over the attempt to e.xalt any one of them, to this vile notoriety. Yet some very learned men have held some of these views, men, from whom one should not assume to differ, except for imperative reason. Still it does not seem difficult to show the fiilsity of all these positions. To be- gin with, the end of the woes of the reign of the Anti-christ is to be brought about by the personal manifestation and interposition of the Messiah. Swift and awful destruction is to fall upon the head of Anti-christ, who is to be seized and hurled "alive into the lake of fire," (Rev. 19: 20.) But this is not to take place, unti' the terrible conflict wherein the beast shall array his hosts against the hosts of the Lord's people, in whose behalf the Messiah coming forth from heaven, shall interfere to destroy the enemy and to exalt His people. JS/either 0/ these things has yet taken place. There has been no marked 78 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. gathering ot the Lord's people in their land, no great and cruel enemy has arisen against them and certainly no one has ever been slain by the per- sonal and glorious appearing of our Lord. Nor has any one of those named, or who has lived at any time ever filled up the character ascribed to the Terrible One — making himself a God, de manding Divine worship, standing against the Prince of princes, speaking great swelling words of Ijlasphemy. It may i)e that many have seemed to show some one or more of these characteristics, but the Terrible One of the Scripures is to combine then all in his sole person. The following reasons, concisely stated, seem clearly to indicate that the Terrible One, the Anti-christ has not yet appeared : (i.) He is to be the last groat World-Ruler: whose empire shall be shivered by an unseen power — "the str ne cut out of the mountain without hands" (Daniel 2: 45). This has not yet been. . (2.) He is to appear after the Orbis Terrarum of the Romans, "the whole world" of Luke (2: 1), the Prophetic Earth of Daniel and the Apocalypse, * has been divided between ten Kings, according to Daniel 7 and 8 This has not yet been. (3.) This Prophetic Earth must include the territory as far east as Baby- ion, as it is clear from Dan. 8: 9, the "little horn" will arise from the dominions of Alexander, and will extend his sway first toward, "the pleasant land," — the land of Palestine. This has not yet been. (4 ) Jewish ritual and temple worship will be, to some extent restored before Anti-christ comes, as he is to takeaway "the daily sacrifice" (Dan. 8: II,) and to set the "abomination of desolation ... in the holy place," (Matt. 24: 15.) This has not yet been. (5.) The Anti-christ will not appear until some -restraining force which keeps him in check, has been t ' ^n out of the way, "and then shall that wicked be revealed" (2 Thess. 2 . 6.) T;;is has not yet been. (6.) And finally, as has been already shown, no foul monster, no Terri- ble One has ever yet Deen destroyed "with the brightness of Jesus' coming" (2 Thess. 2:8.) In the Anti-christ, all these things must be combined: on the contrary, not one of them has yet appeared in any single personage. Whence the conclusion is irresistible, that the Anti-chri.st ha^ aot yet appf^ared. Ht is therefore still, a personage of the future. Another question, the last, awaits our consideration. ANTI-CHRIST. 79 7. Does the Scripture give any dear intimation concerning whence he is to artse ? Attention to this inquiry alone, would have saved many from the idle, the prejudiced and ignorant surmises or guesses, or assertions which have found place in our so-called Scripture exegesis. We should be careful not to dogmatize, but with all seriousness to in- quire, ** what saith the Scripture " ? Turning now to the 7th chapter of Daniel, we find that the Prophet saw in vision, four great world-empires, the same, viz., which had ap- peared to Nebuchadnezzar in his dream recorded in the second chapter, Babylon, Medo- Persia, Greece and Rome. The latter is described as a "beast, dreadful ard terrible," and "it had ten horns'' (Dan. 7: 7.) *' Among " these ten horns, there sprang up ' another little horn" {v. 8), which we have already recognized as the Anti-christ. That is to sry, in some part of the Old Roman Empire, the Anti-christ is to appear. Thus far, all seems clear. In the next chapter, however, under the figure of a ram, we have a representation of Mcdo-Pcrsia ; and undei the figure of "an he-goat' with "a notable horn between his eyes" (Uan. 8 : 5), we have a representation of Greece in the days of Alexander the Great. His dominion waxes very great, and then "the great horn was broken and for //, came up four notable ones toward he four winds of heaven * {v. 8 ') " And out oi one of them came forth a little horn which waxed ex- ceeding great" (?'. 9 ) We have already identified this "little horn," with he "-little horn" of the preceding chapter ; and now we find the one arising in the Roman Empire, and the other in one portion of the divided empire of Alexander. And the question is, is there discrepancy here, or what is the explanation ? Our answer is found, when wo take note that the orbis terrarum ol the Romans stretched as remotely to the East as to the West : Spain and the pillars of Hercules to the West, and the Euphrates to the I^,ast, The division of the empiie, as represented by the ten horns, is manifestly to embrace the whole of the vast domain, contained in the iron empire. Now, if we note carefully, we ;ihall see that four of these ten kingdoms, in the final division, are to be these four, into which the empire of Alexander was divided, and which afterwards became a part of Rome. Between the 8th and 9th verses of this 8th chapter of Daniel, there exists a mighty hiatus which is not yet past. Alexander's empire was divided into four smaller dominions. " And out of one of them, came forth a little horn" (Dan. 8:9), the Anti-chri- *. But not Me«. For the angel Gabriel expressly says to Daniel (?'. 17), Ho CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. ' the vision belongeth to the time of the end." " I will make thee know, what shall be in the last end of the indignation, for, at the time appointed, the end" {v. 19.) "In the latter time of their kingdom ... a king of fierce countenance . . . shall stand up . . . against the Prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand. . . . Wherefore shut thou up the vision, for it shall be for many days" {vs. 23, 25, 26.) It certainly can occasion no surprise, that the original seats of empire in the far East should not be ignored, in a prophecy written while the seat of the Wes- tern Empire was yet a terra incognita. Especially, when we remember that Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, saw the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, smite "the image" in its entireness, when " the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold (are) broken to pieces together'^ (Daniel 2 : 35.) A clear intimation, that before the final collision and catastrophe, the eastern portions of the old Roman Empire are to be re- stored and rehabilitated, and are finally to share in the amazing over- throw when smitten by " the stone cut out of the mountain," and con- sumed " by the breath of his mouth." In this location of the appearance of the Anti-christ in the eastern portion of the old Roman Empire, we find also, our explanation of some things in the prophecies, which had seemed confusing ; for we have there identified the Terrible Cne, as the King . Assyria or the Chaldeans. If the foregoing exegesis has been correct, we readily see that one and the same person may be a Chaldean King, and at the same time, may arise in one of the four divisions of the empire of Alexander the Great, and may also have his origin in one of the final ten divisions, of the resusci- tated old Roman Empire. THE END. The scene must be one of awful grandeur and sublimity. Remember that Nebuchadnezzar's glorious image stands in all its magnificent propor- tions, at the lime of the end. The last great World-Ruler, the Anti- christ will combine in his august person, the faded glories of Babylon, of Medo-Persia, of Greece and of Rome. No power so great, shall ever have ruled on the earth before. At length, in his audacious pride, he dares to resist the Prince of princes, the Lord himself, even the "God of gods." He speaks blasphemous words. "I will ascend into heaven," is his impious boast. " t will exalt my throne above the stars of God. ... I will be like the Most High" (Isa. 14 : 13, 14.) Impiety and ambition can dare no more. "It is time for Thee, Lord to work, for they have made void Thy law" (Psa. 119: 126.) The time of patient, Divine waiting, has come to THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE BOOKS FROM ISAIAH TO MALACHI. 8i an end. The armies of heaven assemble at the summons of the "Faith- ful and True, who in righteousness doth judge and make war" (Rev. ig: 1 1.) The King o( kings goes forth, followed by His loyal hosts. The angel standing in the sun, proclaims to all fowls, to come and eat the flesh of the assembled kings of wickedness, the captains, the mighty men who have basely given their power unto the beast, to make war with the people of God. How vain their endeavor ! How mighty the Lord of lords ! Beasts, kings and armies, all are gathered together to make war against the King of kings. One blast of his red-hot vengeance is enough. One blow from "the rod of His mouth" one burning "breath of His lips," one stretching forth of the arm of Almighty power, and the TERRIBLE ONE is taken, * the stone cut out of the mountain without hands" (Dan 2: 45), smites the feet of the great image ; the final culmination of the world- power, in the person of one who would show "himself that he is God," being now reached, "that wicked," being now fully revealed, he is con- sumed "with the spirit of the mouth" of the rider of the white horse, he is destroyed 'with the brightness of his coming" (2 Thess. 2 : 8), ''cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone' (Rev. 19: 20.) *'And all the people shall say, Amen," "for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (Rev. 19: 6.) N FIFTH DAY.— Sunday. O regular conference gatherings took place to-day, "*bul several reli- gious meetings were held, and the communion observed. SIXTH DAY.— Monday Morning. THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE BOOKS FROM ISAIAH TO MALACHI. BY REV. W. J. ERDMAN. THERE was a certain action of the Holy Spirit in the days of the pro- phets, and from their writings is obtained a knowledge of the truth on that point. Consider first the doctrine in relation to the personality of the Holy Spirit. In Isaiah 63: 9-14 the prophet was speakirg of Israel's experience 6 ft CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. , in past days. The vexing of the Spirit implied personality, as also the use of the personal pronouns. In Isaiah 48: 16 there was the association of the Holy Spirit in equal- ity with God. In Isaiah 6: 8 personality and plurality was implied. Other passages of Sciipture showed that the whole Trinity was engaged in the manifestation of Jesus before He became man. In Isaiah 40: 13; 61: I, there was that peculiar name of the Godhead as given in capitals GOD in the words Lord GOD. When they found Lord in small letters, it was the Hebrew name Adonai, When GOD was in capi als, as also LORD, It stood for the Hebrew word Tehovah. These Scriptures were also asso- ciated with that peculiar name which in these places must stand for the second person of the Godhead. So they might say, the Spirit of the sec- ond person came upon the Messiah, the man Christ Jesus, when He was anointed for His mission. A very remarkable fact. Isaiah 31: 3, compared with John 4: 24, contrasted flesh and spirit, as indicating the essential nature of the Spirit. The doctrine of the Spirit in reference to Providence was next con- sidered. In Isaiah 40: 12, 13 the Spirit of God in the days of the pro- phets was declared to be active and imminent, in relation to creation and providence. Isaiah 34: 16, 17, taken in connection with the context, showed that the Spirit of the Lord created flocks of birds, gathered them together and winged them whithersoever He will. The Spirit of the Lord created vultures and brought them to the carcasses, — a word which was spoken in regard to the judgment of cities. It was the Spirit of the Lord as the universal power and agent in nature, in creation, and in Providence. The third relationship was the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in relation to his work as to men. He revealed the will and inspired the words of God Isaiah 48: 16. From Isaiah 30: i, 10, 11, they found how the false prophets counterfeited the true. The Spirit by name is not mentioned in the books of Jeremiah, Amos, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, or Malachi. Yet there are so many similar and parallel passages to those in the other prophets in which He is mentioned, that of course they understood He was engaged in in- spiring those utterances, though He is not expressly mentioned. The proof text would be Jeremiah i; 9, where the Lord spoke of putting words into the mouth of His prophet. That was only another way of declaring that the Spirit was inspiring the utterances of that prophet, and it is one of the most conclusive proofs in favor of verbal inspiration. THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE BOOKS FROM ISAIAH TO MALACHI. 85 the use equal- mplied. aged in 13; 61: iGOl) 1, it was LORD, so asso- for the the sec- He was pirit, as ext con- the pro- Lion and context, W them ;he Lord lich was le Lord (vidence. ion to his of God the false Amos, are so in which in in- d. The ng words declaring is one of There are other actions of the Holy Spirit on which he would not dwell, but would simply give the references, m. Ezekiel 3: 24, 27; 11: 24, 25; 11:5. The Spirit commissioned and sent forth the prophets of olden time, Isaiah 48: 16; Micah 3: 8; Isaiah 57: 15; Haggai 2: 4, 5; Micah 2: 7; Isaiah 30: i, 11, 12. The Spirit also convicts, Micah 3: 8, which recalls alike passage in Joha i6, where the Spirit convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Spirit comforts, Isaiah 57: 15; Haggai 2: 4, 5. Under the word comfort were embraced a great many words of kindred nature, — to com- fort, to console, to strengthen, and to bring help in various ways. Of course they were reminded at once of the name of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. Between the days of Malachi and Christ there was wrought out in the thought and experience of the pious men and women of that interval, out of the Scriptures ot the Old Testament, the great thought that when the Messiah came He would be the comforter of Israel. Simeon,, when he thanked the Lord for having been permitted to see the conso- lation of Israel, was but uttering the great thought of that interval of 400 years. The Lord also took it up when He said " I will pray the Father and He will give you another Comforter." They might call upon the Holy Spirit to do for them now what they would ask Jesus to do if He were personally on earth. There were two great truths in connection with the Holy Spirit in the days of the Messiah, which, of course, were to the prophets future days. I St, The Spirit was to enduo ^he Messiah for His prophetic and redemp- tive work, for His first coming and His second coming. The Spirit of God was given to the Messiah at His baptism for His work of the first coming, but the same Spirit was given to Him for the not yet touched work of the Second Coming. His forerunner would prepare the way with convict- ing power, Isaiah 40: 6-18. (2.) The Messiah was to be endued with the Holy Spirit for His prophetic work, as distinct from His redemptive work, and from His judicial work. From the New Testament standpoint, prophetic work meant all teaching work, all truth concerning the purposes' )f God. Redemptive work is that which the Lord wrought out for us from His sufferings, and trials, and death on the cross. Judicial work is that which He is yet to perform. There was a redemption through blood, which has already taken place, there was a redemption through power which is yet to take place. Personal salvation is now going on, but national salvation takes place but once in the future, and that once of Israel alone. No Gentile nation had the promise of national salvation. 94 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. Concerning His final and redemptive judicial work, see Isaiah ii: 1-5; 47: 13-16. In the latter passage there was a change in i>. 13 indicating His second coming, "the Lord shall come forth as a mighty man," etc. There were two comings there, Icaiah 54: 9; 61: i. The gift of the Spirit as the great boon of the Messiah's day, was some- thing distinctively peculiar to these prophets. That is to say, the Spirit was promised in the olden time to be given in the days of the Messiah, and there was no gift at all that was to equal that gift of the Spirit. Conse- quently, when John the Baptist came and announced the kingdom of l^eaven was at hand he anno xed the most blessed glorious tidings that ever greeted the ear of Israel, for in it was wrapped up all the most pre- cious things promised of olden time. Among all those things the gift of the Spirit was pre-eminent, accordingly John the Baptist always added that One should come who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit, Ezekiel 36: 22, 28; 37: 13, 14; 39: 29; Zechariah 12: 10; Isaiah 44: i, 5; 43: 25; 32: 1, 2; 32: 13, 18; 59: 21. This consolation, the Holy Spirit and comfort of Israel, was to be given after a great deliverance. Let that be remembered as a very distinctive point. But when the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, was it given after a great deliverance of Israel, and a national deliverance at that? When they got the truth on that point they would see that it inevitably followed that there must be a future gift of the Spirit upon a future nation- al Israel, Joel 2: 28; Er.ekiel 36: 22-28, especial attention called to v. 22, Ezekiel 37: 13, 14. God was not only going to take a sinful, corrupt, de- praved nation, but a dead nation, as he took a dead sinner, and bestow salvation upon him, Isaiah 39: 29. Face, name, revelation, glory, all had the same signification, Joel 2: 28. At Pentecost Peter did not say "this is fulfilled," but simply in the latter days. There was a great spiritual deliverance from the crucifixion and atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit was poured out, but it was not the fulfilment of Joel, or Peter would have said so, but it was a specimen of what is to be done on a grander scale in the day yet to come, after a great national deliverance. This gift of the Holy Spirit was to be bestowed after great mourning and repentance, Zech. 12: 10. Then again the Spirit was to be bestowed after the forgiveness of sins, Isaiah 44: i, 5; 43: 25. That would show what might be called analogies ot truth in the Old Testament and the New. Forgiveness of sins, then the gift of the Spirit. THE PERSON AND SACniFICIAL WORK OF CHRIST. 85 Again this gift is accompanied by great spiritual, civil, and physical regeneration, Isaiah 32: i, 2 and v. 13-15. Until the Spirit be poured out from on high, the land of Palestine shall virtually be a barren and un- fruitful land, but when the Spirit is poured out on the nation, the land shall partake of the blessing and be more fertile than ever, and be like the Garden of Eden before the Lord. All this wonderful Messianic gift is in accordance with an everlasting covenant of the ever living God, Jehovah, Isaiah 59: 21. A time was com- ing when the Spirit of God possessing Hebrew brains and Hebrew hearts would go forth and speak as never before through men, and then would be fulfilled those wonderful promises which lay in the heart of those Old Testament Scriptures. THE PERSON AND SACRIFICIAL WORK OF CHRIST IN THE PROPHETS FROM ISAIAH TO MALACHI. UV REV. I'ROF. W. G. MOORHEAD, XENIA, OHIO. THE Professor, in opening, said he would attempt to give to the Con- ference an outline of what he conceived to be the teaching of the Prophets on this great theme. There was : — 1. The line of Messiah's descent in the prophets, (a) He is to be of the family of David, Isaiah 11: i. {l>) He is to be born of a virgin, Isaiah 7: 14; Matt, i: 23. (c) He is to appear at Bethlehem, Micah 5: 2, (d) The time of His coming, Daniel 9: 25. In the 69th week of the mystic 70 weeks of that wondrous chapter. In his previous reading at this conference they saw that the Deliverer was to be a descendant of Eve, of the stock of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah. Now they had this additional truth respecting him, He was to be of the family of David, born of a virgin, to appear at Bethlehem, and in the 69th week of Daniel's 70. The prophecies respecting his line of descent marked him out so distinct- ly, and so sharply from all others that God's people never could be mis- taken, nor accept an impostor in the stead of the promised deliverer. 2. The titles or names given to the Messiah in the prophets. There was a profusion of them, more than 60 in all, and when taken together these names and titles formed a most stupendous portrait of Him, His person, His work, and the consequences of His work, reaching down intO' SA CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. Eternity itself. He would only give them four titles selected out of the 64 or 65 found in the prophets. (a) He bears the Divine Name, Isaiah 9: 6; 40: 3; Zechariah 13: 7; Malachi 3: i. In the first passage the cluster of Divine names applied unquestionably to the Messiah. He inclined strongly to the belief that the word "wonderful" in Isaiah 9: 6, was a qualifying term belonging to the following term, viz.: "the wonderful Counsellor." Isaiah 40: 3, was an amazing description of the Messiah. It contained the two great names of Genesis 2 and 3, "The Lord God." They were applied to the promised Messiah whose forerunner prepares the way for him. In Zech. 13: 7 the point was that in no sense was any creature ever described in the Scriptures as Jehovah's "fellow" as this Shepherd is. In Malachi 3: I, notice there was a difference in the letters of the two titles, "the Lord" and "the Lord of Hosts," the first had a capital L, and the small letters, which was the Adonai, the kurios of the New Testament. Face to face with such amazing titles bestowed upon the promised Deliverer, was it possible for any one reverencing the Word of God, to fail to recognise the proper dignity and honor of the promised deliverer ? Not for one instant. Believing this Bible as he did he could not enter- tain the notion of a Unitarian, or anyone who would strip our Lord of His proper deity and proper dignity. Above everything else let them magnify and sustain as they might be able, the crown rights and the Divine rights of Jesus Christ. {b) He is described in the prophets as the Son of Man. Isaiah 7: 14; 9: 6; 32: 2; Daniel 7: 13. (c) He is the King Messiah likewise. A title bestowed on Him by the prophets Isaiah 32: i; Jeremiah 23: 5; 30: 9; Zechariah 14: 9; Daniel 9: 25. {d) He is called the servant of Jehovah. Isaiah 42; i; Zechariah 3: 8; Malachi 3: i. They had then four titles, viz.: the Messiah King ; the Servant ; the Son of Man ; Jehovah himself. The four Gospels had their basis in their characterization of the Lord Jesus Christ in the prophets of the Old Tes- tament. Matthew was the Gospel of the King, and so he began his gos- pel by tracing Christ back to David, and Abraham. Mark's Gospel was undoubtedly the gospel of the Servant of God. Luke's Gospel was the gospel of the humanity of Christ, the gospel that carried his genealogy up to Adam, and linked him with the entire race, while John presented them with the Son of God, the Eternal Logos. THE PERSON AND SACRIFICIAL WORK OF CHRIST. 8y On the one side was the portrait of the Messiah by the prophets, on the other side the four evangelists took up the life of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and the one matches the other exactly. The portrait of the Messiah is filled out and filled full by the Jesus of the Gospels. 3. The Sacrificial work of the Messiah as opened in the prophets. The basis of it was found in i Peter 1: 10. What they were now to deal with was the sufferings of the Messiah, and the glory that was to follow. The prophets were full from beginning to end of that great theme. Al- most of nothing else did they speak. Isaiah, chaps. 40 to 66 — Messianic chapters throughout. This much at least was in them, the proclamation of His Advent, His qualifications for His work, His rejection, death, resurrection, His coming in glory, and the renewal of the entire earth. A new heaven and a new earth was nearly the last words Isaiah spoke. Jeremiah showed how, on the ground of His perfect work, Messiah would restore Israel, and the new covenant be established ; and Ezekiel how the nation will be raised up in spiritual life, and the glory of the latter day be inaugurated. David summed up all in chap. 9: 24, that was the whole of Messiah's work, sufferings and glory included. Hosea showed Israel's apostasy and final restoration ; Joel, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the exaltation of the Messiah, both at the beginning of the Christian dispensation, and at the opening of the millennial age as well. Amos announced the re-building of David's tabernacle and the wondrous fertility of the earth which is to succeed ; and Jonah the power of death over Christ for three days and three nights, and then the proclamation of life in resurrection power. Zechariah told of the Shepherd, "Jehovah's Fellow," smitten for others, wounded in the house of His friends, return- ing at length and completing His entire work. That was a very brief review of some of the prophets. Note — (a) He suffers from men. He was speaking of the source of His suffer- ings, the purpose He would show presently, Isaiah 49: 7; 50: 6; Micah 5: I. The whole book of Lamentations, for the sorrows of Jeremiah were i:he sorrows of the Messiah. Down beneath the wail of the weeping prophet there ran the deeper undertone of the sorrow and grief of the Messiah at His rejection by His own people. In that connection take Psalms 22 and 69: they would show them how the Messiah suffered at the hands of men. (b) He suffered from God. Isaiah 53; Zech. 13; Psalms 22 and 69. (U£]aJ[S>KLMVr **v -50 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. our Lord and of His Christ. In Genesis Satan seemed to be victorious, but in Revelation they found his doom. In Genesis they had the pro- gress of the great city, the world power, and in the Revelation the over- throw of the Great Babylon, the representative of all earthly power and wickedness. The author of the book, and therefore its authority. The author is God. He wished to say a word on verbal inspiration. By inspiration was meant they they had in the Hebrew and the Greek the revelation of God in exactly the words that God the Spirit intended. The tnodtis operandi was a mystery, but the words of scripture were the exact expres- sion God intended them to have. It was well to distinguish between in- spiration, revelation, and illumination. All three were the offices of the Spirit, for He revealed that which would not otherwise be known. He illumined the mind of the student in order to understand the Word. In- spiration however, applied only to the men who wrote the Scriptures, which was the Word of God. There was also another fact, that in the Old Testament where the Scriptures represented God as saymg thus and so, the Saviour and His Apostles, in quoting from the Old Testament, often said "the Scripture saith," illustrated in Rom. 9: 17 compared with Exodus 9: 16; Galatians 3: 8 compared with Gen. 12: 3. The words of Scripture were put for the words of God interchangeably. Then, again, our Saviour in Matt. lo: 19, 20, told His disciples that when they were brought before kings, &c., they were not to take thought what they should say for " the Spirit of your Father speaketh in you." That promise of Jesus thus secured the verbal inspiration of the book of the Acts; for example, it covered Peter's sermon in chaps. 2, 4, 5, 11, 14 ; it covered Stephen's speech in chap. 7; Philip's sermon in chap. 8; Paul's discourse in chaps. 13, 17, 22, 23, 24, 26 The Spirit recognized the peculiarities of each writer, and yet according to the words of Christ they did not premeditate. Then, secondly, get the key thought of the whole Bible as you study it. Eph. i; 10, Phil. 2: 9, 11. Everything in Scripture, whether it was Tiistory, events, personages, ceremonies, types, prophecies, or promises, was connected with the Lord Jesus Christ, and the key might be expressed in the two passages alluded to. The key was God's glory in the exaltation of His Son Jesus Christ, in visible glory over a redeemed creation. It was all contained in the three names of Jesus, — "Jesus,"the earthly name of the Son of Man. " Christ" the official name, — the anointed, and *' Lord" — the ruler and sovereign over all. HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 91 ictonous, the pro- he over- )wer and mthor is ispiration elation of le modus ;t expres- tween in- es of the »wn. He ord. In- icriptures, hat in the thus and estament, )ared with words of :iples that e thought in you." e book of , II, 14; chap. 8 ; ecognized of Christ you study her it was promises, expressed exaltation lation. It he earthly linted, and Thirdly, let them try to find in each book, as well as the whole Book, the key thought. Find out from the Book itself to whom, and why, and when the Book was written. That would be very helpful in the under- standing of it. For example, note the difference between the books ot the Kings and the books of the Chronicles. They related the same events, even sometimes using exactly the same language, and yet there was a difference. The kings dwelt especially upon the kings of Israel, while the books of Cnronicles had to do with the temple and Jerusalem, and the kings of Judah and Jerusalem. There was a great difference in those two books, and yet it was all history. In studying the prophecies let them try to find out which of the pro- phets prophesied for the Northern kingdom, like Amos who spoke of the restoration of the twelve tribes. Isaiah said he saw a vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem, and the kings are mentioned in whose reigns he prophesied. Let them also make a distinction between the prophets who were before, and after the exile in Babylon. Great mistakes had been made on this point. The other day a good point was made by Prof. Terry on Nehemiah 8: 17. In the Hebrew the little word so was emphatic, and Nehemiah's meaning was, not that the people had not kept the feast of tabernacles, but that they had not kept it SO, — in that particular manner. God, the Holy Spirit took care, even of the emphasis. In order to study the Bible intelligently, let them distinguish the dis- pensations, do not let them mix up law and grace, Jew and Gentile, Israel and the nations. Up to the day of Pentecost the world, no matter what the nationalities, was divided into two classes only, Jew and Gentile. But in I Cor. 10: 32, Paul said, " Give none offence, neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God." That was a threefold and new division. They no longer belonged to the Gentiles, but to the Church of God. It was important to make the distinction, for the Church was an elect body called out of the world. Again, compare and study book with book, passage with passage, Scripture with Scripture. For instance, they could not understand Leviti- cus unless they took the Epistle to the Hebrews, and they would not be able to understand the Hebrews well unless they also studied Leviticus. The analogue to Joshua was Galatians and Ephesians, the spiritual con- flicts of the Christian were in objective forms in the conflicts Joshua 92 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. passed through in getting possession of the land. The land was all theirs, but they were going to enjoy just so much as they won by their own right arm. In Ephesians therefore they read of the " whole armour of God, ' and " the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God," which meant that while God had given to them in Christ Jesus the assurance of the possession of all spiritual blessings, they would not get a particle of blessing more than they desired^ and that they must cut themselves off from the Philistines around them, and gain as an actual possession what belonged to them by title. As illustrating Titus 2: 11-13, he mentioned that the Gospels brought salvation, the Epistles taught them to " deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly in this world," while the Revelation held up before them the blessed hope of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. When they studied their New Testaments let them study what the Gospels taught, what the Acts brought forward and what the Epistles meant. The Epistles were written to believers, a thought that would help them to in- terpret multitudes of passages which would otherwise be dark. He asked them to take Amos 9: 11-15 and compare with Acts 15: 13-17, and they would get God's order of events from the time of Israel on to the end. Then again, Luke 4: 18-21 compared with Isaiah 61: i, showed how God had put, so to speak, in a single comma, eighteen centuries, for Jesus in reading from Isaiah stopped in the middle of the sentence, closed the book and sat down, and all eyes were fastened on Him, Jesus said "this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears," after reading as far as the words " to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." He did not read of the day of vengeance, for that had not come. It would not begin until the Lord comes again. His next point was avoid half truths in the study of the Bible. This he illustrated by refering to sermons he had read, for instance on the passage " it doth not yet appear what we shall be," &c., in which was taught the doctrine of our ignorance of the future and the glory which awaits the believer. Whereas John added " But we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him." Nothing was plainer than what they were going to be when the Lord comes. How many a Christian would be kept out of difificulty, and doubt, and despondency, if he would only avoid half truths in the study of Scripture. The very words of Scripture were important. The passage in the Westminster Confession of Faith, in which said, "it is appointed unto all men once to die" &c , was quoted as showing that the Bible, if it so stated would contradict itself, whereas the Apostle said "it is appointed unto men once to die," and "we shall not THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE APOCALYPSE. 93 all sleep." Other illustrations were given, after which the speaker recom- mended as helps to the study of the Bible, a good reference Bible, a Bible dictionary, and a concordance. The advantages of each were pointed out. Last, but not least, let them pray for and expect the help and guidance and illumination of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit inspired men from God to speak and write, and therefore knew exactly what it all meant. And yet so modest was He that He would not speak of Himself, but takes the things of Christ and reveals them unto us. It was Christ that the Word magnified from Genesis to Revelation, and the Holy Ghost would glorify Himself in the exalting of Jesus Christ our Lord. SEVENTH DAY.— Tuesday Morning. THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE APOCALYPSE. BY REV. R. NORTON, LOCKPORT, N. Y, THE Apocalypse announces itself as " The Revelation of (or from) Jesus Christ." Between us and our Incarnate Lord, is first, John the writer ; next to him stands r, created angel, and lastly, the Holy Spirit. With this Sovereign Spirit, subordinated in His official work to Christ, in this book of Revelation, we now concern ourselves in devout study. The first guise in which he is presented is — I. As the sevenfold Spirit. We will take the following passages : — Rev. 1:4; 3: i; 4:5; 5:6; Zech. 4:10; read 1:4; 3:1;'' hath." Seven is the number indicating perfection. The Divine One is threefold in official work. The Divine Spirit is sevenfold, exhibiting manifold perfec- tions unlimited by a numeral in unity, and executive energy in manifold spheres. Rev. 4 : 5, Seven lamps of fire burning before the throne. The person- ality of the Spirit is not «^ revealed. He is the revealer of God. Through the Spirit, the blaze of the Divine glory, shines out of His works of Creation and of Grace. Unlike that of the Spirit, the personality of the Son of God is some- times self-revealed. The first manifestation is the Angel Son of God ; the second is the Incarnate Son of God. This manifestation has now located itself in Heaven. 94 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES This side of that location, the Spirit becomes His representative, Jno. 24: 26. The Comforter * * * the Holy Ghost whom Father * ** in my name. This is the third method of manifestation. " He shall take of mine and show it unto you," said Christ The deputy — the plenipotentiary of Christ is better for us here than the presence of His incarn5«te self. Rev. 5 : 6, Lamb — Seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. The Spirit, in manifold activity, is the seven eyes of Christ. These eyes follow us everywhere. They are the ever present Christ, fulfilling His promise, "Lo! I am with you alway." Zech, 4 : 10, This is said expressly of the Spirit. He is the everywhere Christ ; the Paraclete helper, till the Coming One, again comes. Incar- nate, the Spirit is the tepresentative Christ. We believers, are dealing with the seven eyes sent forth into all the earth. The 7000 disks in the eye of the common house fly, give that insect 7000 perceptions at a time. There are other insects that have 7 times 7000 eyes. If it be thus in lowly forms of created life, what infinity of perception follows each glance of Christ. But there is life in that look. There is power in it. To use a colloquial phrase, " Christ looks after His Church, and every believing member of it. God speaks and it is done. Christ looks and it is done. For, in the sevenfold Spirit of God, the very eyes of Christ are concen- trated the executive forces of the Godhead. Oversight and energy, infinitely m.anifold, flash about us on all sides, and everywhere. It is thus that a regenerated life is begotten in a believ- ing soul. It is thus it is sustained, and its energy nourished. Zech. 4, describes the unfailing fountain of oil, and the seven lamps, and adds, " These seven are the eyes of the Lord that run to and fro through the whole earth." Well might he add lor the weak and fluttering, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord." II. In the second place we are led by the Apocalypse to note the New Testament relation of believers to the Spirit, denoted by the phrase " In the Spirit." Read i: 10; 4: 2; 17: 3; and 21: 10; Rom. 8: 9. This evidently means — enveloped by, identified with, and energized by Christ's Spirit. The New Testament has the phrase " In Christ," or its equivale.it. about 100 times. This suggests identification in a near and endearing way. But the Spirit is the representative presence of an Incarnate Lord ; abiding in and with us. This admits of the nearest possible relation to the Divine One. , Jno. 34: 7iy name. [nine and of Christ God sent ;ven eyes r present jerywhert . Incar- : dealing cs in the It a time. thus in :h glance To use beheving is done. ; concen- all sides, a believ- n lamps, and fro uttering, the New In This Christ's uivale.it^ But the g in and [le One» ase THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE APOCALYPSE. 9S It means more than presence, or communion, or enlightenment. It is, to be pervaded by the Spirit, filled with all the fulness of God. To float within a sea of life ; to breathe a living atmosphere ; it is to know and see^ through the conjoint perception of the Spirit. It is to be uplifted, borne away, and energized by the Spirit. The measure of this help and revelation is by no means uniform ia different believers, nor are they endued with similar graces. But it is a distinct New Testament experience. The saints of olden time were never said to be " in the Spirit." Question — Does Scripture represent O. T. saints as "in the Spirit." The Spirit was "upon them ;" handled, carried and strenghtened them ; but the Paraclete, the second selfoi God's- Incarnate Son, had not yet assumed the full official work, in which we now rejoice. III. To the Words and work of that Spirit, ^Q. now (as a third point)- give attention. The Apocalypse is the voice of the Spirit to the churches. Sometimes the preci''^ words of the Son of God are uttered, and some- times He speaks under the guise of a representative. (i). To the seven churches He speaks words of reproof, rebuke and pro- mise. Five times is repealed the injunction, " Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." But the words of rebuke are coupled with — (2.) Words of hope and promise. Let us take Rev. 2: 11; 3: 5; 3: 21;: 14: 13. What more substantial promises could be made — what more assured blessedness? 3. But the Apocalypse t.xv!ao^\&% prophecy^ The panorama of the future is unrolled before us, vivid pictorial scenes rush on in quick succession. From these we may learn as much as God meant us to know of the future of this world and of His kingdom. Happy are they who have the Spirit as an interpreter of His own gorgeous symbolism. A particular examina- tion of this field does not fall within the scope of this exercise. We may revel in the grandeur of this book, till we lose ourselves in its depths of mystery. 4, The work of the Spirit in Resurrection is a prominent topic. Resur- rection is to the body, what regeneration is to the soul. Both are the work of the Spirit. We need not controvert the point that, resurrection ii Chrisfs special work, Christ is the Life-giver and Life-restorer. But it is " the Spirit that quickeneth." Will any one say that Christ acts here apart from the Holy Spirit ? In this work, the subordination of the Spirit to the Son is emphatic. ^6 CONFERENCE HILL STUPIES. We do not invade the divinity of the Son, where we view Him as sub- ordinate — subseri'ieni to the Father ir lificial work. Neither do we invade the divinity or personality of the Spirit, when we are constrained to regard Him, as similarly subordinate to the Son. I used to think it was a pity that '■'■ Pnetima" — Spirit, was so vague, variable and broad a word, and quite unsuitable to convey a definite idea of the Holy Ghost. But it does not seem so now. The official acts of the Spirit are so vague, varied, and broad, that they need just such a word as Pneuina to indicate them. So I am thankful for the phrase, "The Fneuma of God." I abhor vagueness, but God has taught me like Moses, that I cannot see ail of God at once. Out of the cloud of mystery that enshrouds the Divine One, there flash now and then distinctly defined lineaments. They are some one of the Divine Three, in ofificial acts and relations. These lineaments are enough for me ; and one at a time is enough for my study. In the little cleft of a rock I would meekly hide me, when the glory of the great God passes by. One lineament of my Lord at a time, is enough for me to see. 'Tis God the Spirit, acting in resurrection, I ask Him to show me now. Take Rev. ii: ii; Rom. 8: ii; Rev. 20: 6. Heaven and its Kingdom will not be complete to oer expectant Christ till He has us with Him, glorified in body according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself 5. There is a second Creation, promised in this Book. The Spirit is re- vealed to us as the Executive Agent in the work of creation. Take Rom. 8: 2t; Rev. 21: i and 5; 2 Peter 3: 13. The Fruit of the second Creation appears to be the Spirit's immediate work. It is not for us to assume that the infinite resources of the Godhead were all exhausted upon the first Creation, or upon the present constitution of physical Nature. He who made the laws of Nature, can unmake them, or reconstruct them. It is not lor us to forge, in our fancies, the fetters of necessity, that limit the power of the Almighty Spirit. When we are newly created, and stand upon New Creation ground, then shall we know the utmost .that Creation skill can do for us ; for us, Avho are to reign as princes under the King of the New Creation. 6. The New Jerusalem, mentioned in Rev. 21: 2 comes down from God, out of {eU) heaven, is the undoubted construction of the Creative Spirit, I see no necessity oi regarding this as a local transfer of Heaven to •earth. Let us rather regard the new earth as an outlying province of the THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE APOCALYPSE. 97 as sub- 2 invade 3 regard vague, lite idea hat they thankful God has ere flash le of the I enough he glory time, is 1, I ask . 20: 6. t Christ working irit is re- e Rom. reation iodhead stitution 'ce them, fetters [ground, for us, \n from >eative fcaven to of the Kingdom of God. Let us regard the New Jerusalem as Heaven's regal gift to the new created earth and His nation Israel, 'sent down, literally, **from God out of Heaven," — prepared, and adorned by that Spirit which at the first garnished the heavens. Let us next notice — 7. The River of the water of life, spoken of in Rev. 22: i. What is it ? What does it represent ? Water is a prominent emblem of the Spirit. In John 7: 37-39 Christ emphasizes this meaning, He means the flow of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. From the enthroned Lamb, ='7/;^ Life,^^ and the giver of life, flows ^ut this broad r.^'ix. The Spirit is not only the prime minister, but the prime ministry of the Kingdom. The new creation, physical, intellectual, and spiritual, shall draw all its life, beauty, and setviceabkness from the broad river of the Spirit. In the Apocalypse the Spirit does not appear to act, in His ministry, apart from Christ. He is here, as the Paraclete, in advance, preparing the way for the Second Mission of the Incarnate Son of God. The Kingdom is coming with the King, Some foretastes are vouchsafed for u'' in this period of expectancy and preparation, and there are garden spots, — oases in the world's desert, the rills of the Spirit produced them. We have no Damascus that is not begotten from the river of the Spirit. That Mighty Spirit in true personality, as He tenderly upholds the bride, joins His voice with hers ; and, as they jointly look heavenward, the Spirit and the bride say, come ! These words are addressed to Him who sent that spirit on His commission hither. The years of waiting grow dreary in the long delay. Creation groans after a reconstructed life. The sorrowing members of the Bride droop, and they are, one by one, snatched away to their Incarnate Head in Heaven. The eagerness of hope deferred, gives emphasis to the mighty call, as the Spirit and the Bride say, come ! But there is no tone of desperation or despair in this our call. We have even now the dews^ if not the showers of blessing. We have the rills of the Spirit, if we have not the broad rivers. Meantime, and while we wait for our Lord, we have work to do, work for lost souls. The Bride is not yet complete, and ready for her Bridegroom. While waiting for the river, the rushing Niagara of the New Creation, we stand rejoicingly by the rills, — and we say invitingly, to every passer iby, — "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life, freely." 7 98 . CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. "THE PARALLEL BETWEEN CHRIST'S EXPERIENCES AND HIS CHURCH." BY REV. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D., OF TORONTO. THE speaker began by referring the friends to several passages, which in the light of Church h'story, might fairly be taken as suggesting the subject of their study. Matt. 10: 24; Luke 6 : 40; John 15: 20, 21; Matt. 20: 23; Rom. 8: 29. In the first three passages they had the words of the Saviour under several different circumstances, to the effect that the disciple was not above His Master, but that when he is perfected he shall be as His Master. After briefly re-calling the prominent points of his address at the Conference during the preceding week, on Christ's teaching, he said, he now wished to show that what was true of our Lord's teaching, was equally true of His experiences in connection with that teaching. The words of our Lord to which He had referred them were wonder- fully fulfilled, and what was said of conformity had to do not only with the individual believer, but with the Church as a corporate body. The words spoken by our Lord : " Many are called but few chosen," were ex- pressly referred to the entire dispensation in which we live. He would not, however, dwell upon that, but call their attention to other points of striking correspondence. Turning to the first experiences of our Lord as the incarnate Saviour, he said He was no sooner born into the world than the Pagan Roman power, in the person of Herod, sought under circumstances of the most bloody cruelty to put Him to death. The attempt failed. They next saw Him in conflict with Satan, himself, in the wilderness, in a series of temptations, which culminated with the offer of the world's dominion without trial or suffering, on condition that He would acknowledge the Devil's supremacy. Next, began a list of continued oppositions to the Master from a differ- ent source. From that time onward our Lord began to experience tre- mendous and ever-increasing opposition from the people in the nominal Church of the time. In this opposition they would observe an order. In the first part of our Lord's preaching the opposition seems to have come wholly from the Pharisees. Not until the Transfiguration were the Saddu- cees named, and even then not to any great extent. They were not specially prominent until the days immediately preceding His death, and when at THE PARALLEL BETWEEN CHRIST'S EXPERIKNCKS, ETC. 99 lURCH." s, which ggesting 15: 20, IT under was not as His dress at he said, ling, was wonder- )nly with y. The were ex- [e would 3oints of Saviour, Roman 16 most :y next ;eries ot lominion ;dge the la differ- Ince tre- lominal ler. In |e come Saddu- )ecially irhen at last the Saviour was brought up on trial for His life He was brought be- fore two Sadducee Judges, in the person of Annas jftid Caiaphas. The Pharisees were what he might call the High Church party, they weie ritualists and sacramentalists of an extreme type, and believed in eccle- siastical millinery, and were firmly persuaded they were in an exclusive sense, the people of God. Such were the persons who, when the Roman pagan power vainly sought to destroy the Messiah, began to attempt the putting away of our Lord, and finally succeeded. They would excuse him quoting passages, for that would be to quote the Gospels. They op- posed Him when He preached the law, because He said righeousness better than their's was necessary before men could get into the kingdom. They opposed Him because He did not insist on fasting and such like ob- servances, and because He taught salvation by faith in Himself, which set aside all their elaborate system of works and ritual as of not the slightest account. They hated and opposed Him because He openly rebuked them for setting such traditions of the fathers above the Word of God. So time went on, and the clearer became the preaching of Jesus the more they detested and opposed Him, and forced Him to flee to safer quarters. Such was the nature of the opposition our Lord received in His minis- try, and such the baptism of sufiFering with which He was baptized, until a new party appeared on the scene who hated the Pharisees about as much as they both hated the Saviour. This new party was the Sadducees, who contested the teaching of our Lord with regard to the Second Advent and the resurrection. The Pharisee who hated the Sadducee, and the Roman power hating both, all united to deliver the Son of God to be crucified. This was the order of experiences of our Lord as regarded His opposition from the world, first from the Roman power; then from the devil ; then from the Pharisees, the nominal people of God; and then from the Saddu- cees, the rationalists, as we should now call them. Referring' to the passage : "Baptized with the baptism that lam bap- tized with" he asked, was it possible they might have special reference to the Church in her corporate capacity? He then showed that as the Church conformed to Christ in her teachings, so was it in regard to the experience she had received. According to the united testimony of his- tory and prophecy, in this respect the Church was to be conformed to Jesus Christ. As the pagan Roman power at the first sought to destroy the Saviour when He was born, so when the Church which is the body of Christ was born into the world this same pagan power of Rome engaged in an attempt lOO CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. for 300 years to blot it out of existence. The same experience, from the same source, with the same object. But after 300 years they had no better success in extinguishing the Church than they had with her Head Now consider the opposition from the devil without stopping to analyse the story of the temptation in Matt. 4. It was plain that the general pur- pose was to i)ersuade the Christ of God to seek the attainment of the worldly dominion promised Him, not according to the mind of God, but to forego suffering and adopt methods that were carnal, worldly, and Satanic. Was It not precisely so with the Church in her experience. After Satan had sought to destroy the Church of Christ by means of the Pagan Roman empire in the great persecutions of the first three Christian centuries he next took her up into the high mountain of political power, and from the lofty throne of Roman empire in Constantine and his successors showed her all the kingdonis of the world. And then came to the Church as to her Head, the great temptation of the Christian ages, — the attempt to gain the promised dominion without suffering, by a practical recognition of the principles of this world in the adoption of measures forbidden to the Church by virtue of her heavenly calling. It was a very fine saying of Luthardt that the Church of Rome presented to them the spectacle of a body endeavoring to live in the present age by robbery of the future. No one could read Church history in the days which immediately fol- lowed the so-called conversion of Constantine, and not perceive the devil presenting again to the Church the very temptation he had presented to our Lord at the beginning of His ministry. To the Church of those days he showed the kingdoms and said, all this will I give you if you will only worship me. Could anything more accurately describe the condition of the Church of Christ in the Constantinian period. Do not forget, how- ever, that while the visible Church listened to that temptation and the/eby lost her conformity to her Head, yet the true body of believers was vital- ly united to Christ, for all through those centuries when on every hand apostacy was progressing, there remained a faithful few in whom the Messianic experience was reproduced in the victory over the temptation, as was illustrated in the monks of lona, in the Waldenses, the Albigenses, and the Vaudois. The devil did not leave the Lord on that occasion, but departed from Him for a season and the next time he let the Lord hear the temptation it was from one of His dearest friends, Peter, who said " this be far from from the r had no er Head analyse leral pur- -it of the God, but Idly, and ter Satan n Roman ituries he from the s showed irch as to t tempt to cognition bidden to saying of tacle of a ture. itely fol- the devil ented to ose days will only dition of ;et, how- ithe/eby fas vital- •ry hand om the ptation, igenses, ;d from iptation I far from THE PARALLEL BETWEEN CHRISt's EXPERIENCES, FTC. lOT Thee, Lord," but the Lord replied •* Get thee behind me, Satan." It was curious that the very Church that claimed to be the descendant of Peter, was saying the same to-day. In the mystical body of Christ, the Saviour's experience had been pro- duced in still greater detail. As in our Lord's case, the fuller the teaching the stronger and more bitter the opposition that followed, so with the individ ual preacher, the individual Christian, and the corporate Church. There was a striking illustration of this, in strict conformity to our Lord's history, at the time of the Nicene creed. When Peter confessed " we believe and are sure that Thou art the Christ of God " they weie told in our Saviour's experiences " from that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Flim." It was precisely so on the corresponding occasion in the life of the Church. When the Churdi in its Nicene Creed reiter- ated Peter's confession, it was the occasion of the greatest apostacy that, up to that time, she had known, the apostacy of Arius denying the God- head of our Lord, in which he was followed by a great majority of the bishops of the Eastern and Western Churches, and a pope among them. That was a very remarkable co-incident again. The Church repeated the same experiences as her Lord. But the Pharisees did not let go of Christ until they had Him out of the way. He called attention to the opposition Christ experienced when Simultaneously with the giving forth on the part of the Church, of special testimony on the various facts of eschatology, within the past one hundred or two hundred years a new party had arisen, since the days of Spinoza, to oppose this truth. In the early Church it was the reproduction of the ancient Pharisee, now it was a reproduction of the ancient Sadducee. Sometimes they were savage and fierce, at other times cultured and polite as best might serve their purposes, but always the same. There were some people who were liberal to everything but the truth, and so the Church was still following on in the experiences of her Lord. Up to the present time the experience of the Church is simply the experience of her Lord reproduced and expanded and stretched out to a scale of centuries. The correspondence was so close that anyone who could remember the order of the teaching and experiences in the life of Jesus Christ, had already gotten in advance the skeleton of Church history. Now in its experience the Church had already reached that point, as they could all see, where they found Him in full contest not only with the Pharisee, but with the Sadducees. The prominence given by our Lord in 102 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. His teaching concerning last things was just the thing that brought out the Sadducees most sharply, just so similar teaching by the Church is awakening the Sadducees all around, like a nest of hornets; to cavil and sting with sharp speeches the people of God. They were cavilling about the resurrection, and the judgment to come, and future probation, and he did not know how many other things. Down to this point in the ministry of Christ, the Church in the corporate unity of her experience had followed the Lord in every step, and it raised a very solemn question, is this going on after this fashion to the end ? Must the Church, which is the body of Christ, which has to this day, simply lived over the personal life of her Head, and reproduced His earthly experience, go on to the end, and reproduce His experience to the end ? The analogy would lead them to expect it. They could not help it. That this was its predestined path was clear as light when they en- quired of prophecy. They now came to passion week, and found it was preceded by the mission of the Seventy. He called attention to the wonderful suggestive- ness of the two ministries, the one of the twelve in Matt. lo: 1-27, the other of the seventy in Luke 10. They could easily see in the mission of the twelve a reference to the Jews, the twelve apostles representing the twelve tribes of Israel, But perhaps the idea might not be as familiar to many that the number seventy was just as significant as twelve. According to the old Rabbis, as twelve represented Israel, seventy represented the Gen- tiles, They so count the nations in the loth ch. Genesis, that they make out seventy Gentile nations; and hence seventy is the symbolical number for Gentiles. The mission of the seventy therefore was typical of work among the Gentiles. How did the Church's work begin ? Christ charged His disciples to go first to the Jews, but now the work is with the Gentiles chiefly. The con- formity is perfect to the mission of the seventy. Let them observe that the mission of the seventy appeared to have immediately preceded the last journey of our Lord to Jerusalem to be sacrificed, though they would not think so from Luke's gospel. They had gone into every village where He was to go, on mission work as we should say, and this had no doubt pre- pared the way for that tremendous public demonstration in His favor at Jerusalem. It looked as if He was going to triumph over all His enemies and be accepted as the Messiah. But there was a lesson for them all, viz. it was very much easier to shout Hosanna, than to obey. It was prophesied expressly that the Gospel should be preached to all THE PARALLEL BETWEEN CHRIST'S EXPERIENCES, ETC. I03 the Gentiles before the end comes. It must have sounded strange when first uttered to Jews. It also expressly said there was to be a two-fold result. As in the mission of the seventy many true disciples were gath- ered out, but many made a nominal profession, shouting Hosanna, having the form, but not the power of godliness, so the Church, according to prophecy, was to send forth her seventy and preach to the Gentiles, and a great number should call themselves Christians, for Paul said that in the last days people generally should profess a form of godliness but deny its power. He then called attention to the end of Christ's ministry, and His sufferings, and reminded his hearers that those who so tumultuously fol- lowed Jesus shouting Hosanna, in three days shouted crucify Him. That was all their conversion amounted to. So when this gospel was preached for a witness among all nations, the €nd would come according to the prophetic scriptures in exactly the same way to the Church as to her Master, viz. through betrayal by false disciples, through arraignment before Pharasaic unbelief denying Father and Son, the mark of the Anti-christ in the last days, the very point for which Christ was arraigned before the Sanhediim, and also denying that there is any resurrection from the dead. Then followed rejection and martyrdom be- cause of their confession of Jesus as the Son of God, and, according to the Apocalypse, ascension through death and the first resurrection to the throne of the world. He then referred to the Anti-christ, and his character as found in i John 2:18, and Rev. 17, and expressed his conviction that on the affirm- ation or denial of the deity of Christ would the Church have to bear her cross to Golgotha after the Master. He drew a parallel between the ex- periences of Christ in His last days, and showed that the great tribulation of the last days was according to Scripture to be brought about in a simi- lar way, viz. by the union of an apostate Church with the God-denying world power in unrelenting war against the Lamb and all His people. He contended that the Church of the elect in her last days was to be <:onformed to her Lord in death and resurrection, Rom. 6: 5. As the Lord rose from the dead on the third day as the first fruits of them that sleep, so also would those that should be beheaded by the anti-christ rise from the dead. Rev. 20. And then as the risen Christ was exalted to sit on His Father's throne, so also they had the Saviour's express word that the Church would in like manner be exalted to sit on His throne. He contendec' that this analogy was too complete to be merely accidental, and showed that the cry was going up as never before from every land, wm I'C4 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. "blessed is He that conieth in the name of the Lord," and compared Japan to the Hosanna crowd of old, stating that the most thoughtful mis- sionaries were considerably agitated by this wonderful precipitancy on the part of Japan to receive the Gospel. He showed how the passion week of the Gospels was repeating itself in the history of the Church, and pointed out how the irritated forces of evil were combining, like Herod and Pilate, in their hatred to the spiritual Church of Christ. They would take Christ's ethics, but did not want His person or atonement through His blood. Throughout Christendom the religion of ritual and asceticism was hastening forward to suppress the gospel. One of the most remark- able things in the papacy to day was its compromise with the liberal ten dencies of the times. After her passion week the Church would go on immediately to com plete her conformity to Christ, by resurrection and glory, for it was written, "When Christ who is our life shall appear, then we (the corporate Church of Christ) shall appear with Him in glory." He reminded them of the Lord's 40 days resurrection life, on the earth but not of the earth, which he spent in more fully opening up to His disciples the mysteries of His kingdom, and said the analogy led them to anticipate a similar period for the Church, in which she would be in close relation with the earth but not of earth, ministering to the discipled nations of the mysteries of the kingdom of God, and becoming a source of light unto the nations. If it was objected as incredible that there should be any such intercourse be- tween men in resurrection and men in the flesh, there was the simple answer that what had been could be again. How this helped them to see the significance and the vital consequences of some of the most important movements of our times, and thus to walk in the midst of them as children of the light, to know the way they were going, and where the path leads. Did it not also mightily strengthen for them all the hope of glory, for if the analogy pointed forward to days of swiftly coming trial for the Church, it pointed with equal distinctness to^ days of resurrection glory. THE SEVEN PARABLES IN MATTHEW XIII. 105 SEVENTH DAY— Tuesday Afternoon. THE SEVEN PARABLES IN MATTHEW Xlll/ BY REV. E. P. MARVIN, LOCKPORT, N.Y. \ KNOWLEDGE of the distinctive characteristics of the dispensations -^^ is essential to true interpretations of the Word, and to effective service. Without this we must be confounded with absurdities in study, and baffled with obstacles in service for lack of understanding of the signs of the times. A hopeful and conceited young man takes his appointment and goes out " with a commission in his pocket to take the town for Ch " '^ " In one or two years he becomes a pitiable object of discouragement and sorrow. He has misread his commission, Mark 16: 15, 16, and neglected to study Acts 15: 14-17. In God's dispensations, mark the distinctions between Jew, Gentile and the Church. How absurd in Jewish prophecies, to claim all the blessings and pass all the curses over to the poor Jew, or to suppose that when Isaiah presents a vision of " Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, &c.," he is speaking of the United States and Washington in the 1 9th century. The old prophets did not pr^ .'ct " the enlargement of the Church," for they knew nothing about the L ' t i mystery of the out-called Bride, Eph. 3: 1-63 Gal. i: 26, 27, The Churcn is not the kingdom erected and mani- fested, but an assembly called out of the world by the Holy Ghost, into brotherhood, sonship, and heirship. This out-calling is clearly seen in Acts 15: 14; 2 Cor. 6: 14-17; Rom. 8: 17. Her members are supernatural beings, born twice, especially dear to Christ, and raised above the world to fellowship with Him in the heavenlies, 2 Cor. 5: 17; i Pet. 1:4; Eph. No person understanding dispensational truth will quote the costliness of the Jewish Temple, or its musical and ceremonial services, to justify similar things in the Christian Church. Had some of our Sunday-School men known that neither Israel, Num. 23: 9, nor the Church, 2 Cor. 6: 14-17, is reckoned among the Gentil§ nations, they might have given the true inter- pretation to the judgment scene in Matt. 25. A true understanding of the earthly calling ol the Jew to greatness, riches and honors, dri conditions of i l66 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. obedience, Gen. 12: 1-3; Deut. 26; 18, 19, and the heavenly calling of the Christian to the Cross, Matt. 18: 1-3; Luke 22: 24-26, would correct many common blunders in doctrine and life. Dispensational truth is increasingly important as we are rushing on to the conclusion of the age, Luke, 21; 28. God gives national history, writ- ten in the Chaldaic language for the nations, in Dan. 2. He i;ives Church history till the Lord comes, in the 2nd and 3rd chapters 01 Revelation. In Matt. 13, he gives the Church and World History of Christendom until the dispensation ends with the Coming of the Lord. Both John and Christ began by saying, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," Matt, 3; 2; 4: 17. In Matt. 12: 31, 3J, Christ and His kingdom are rejected. The kingdom is then postponed and passes into mystery. Its principles are being taught and its subjects gathered, but it is not erected and manifested. The kingdom conies with the King, 2 Tim. 4:1. And it will come like thunder and lightning, Dan. 2: 34, 35; Matt. 24: 27. The throne of David will remain vacant until David's greater Son shall take it, Luke 1:32, 33. The kingdom is now in mystery, chaos and elemental strife. ^'' 2 kings pertaining to the kingdom" are set forth in Matt. 13. The Seven Parables present the divine number of perfection. This was the beginning of parables. Four were spoken to all, and three to the disciples apart. The parable of the Sower, 7^^, 1-9, is a general introduction, presenting the work and results of preaching through the gospel age. Even with faultless seed o"d faultless sowing, three parts are lost. Thank God, it is not all losi. "he result depended on the soil. In our imperfect services it depends in part upon the sower and the seed. Christ interprets it. Through the age same believe and some believe not. The following six go m couplets : I. The Tares and Drag Net. 2. The Mustard Tree and Leaven. 3. The Treasure and Pearl. I. The Tares and Drag Net, vs. 1-8. After the good seed is sown, Satan and his emissaries sow tares, imitation wheat. Satan is God's ape. Jannes and Jambres imitated Moses, 2 Tim. 3 : 8. God builds a city, and Satan builds one. God sends a Christ, and Satan sends an Anti-christ. « These tares and wheat grow and remain together in the world, until the separating harvest. The tares are not converted into wheat. THE SEVEN PARALLES IN MATTHEW XIII. XO7 " The angels shall gather, bye and bye, bye and bye, The tares for the burning, the wheat for the sky," " Is not the world then to be converted by gospel preaching ? " Certainly not in this age, for Christ Himself interprets the parable. Where in all the New Testament can a text be found, teaching this ? Indeed any intelligent infidel can show that if this theory of conquest is true, /'/ abso- lutely refutes the New Testament ' "But has not this hope done much in stimulating missions ? " Not so much as the truth would have done, nor so much as it is now doing, in stimulating missions to-day beyond any- thing seen since ** the blessed hope " of the Lord's coming was obscured, soon after apostolic times. The doctrine of post-millennialism, " My Lord delayeth His coming," (Matt 24: 48-51), like all error, is pernicious in many results. It relaxes watchfulness, and leads to compromises and defection. The mountain will not come to Mohammed, and Mohammed comes to the mountain. The " sacramental host " marches out with blare of trumpets and proud heraldic banners, inscribed "The world for Christ," and soon there is a lull. The sound of revelry and the powers of pleasure are heard. There is a truce and a peace. A truthful despatch would report, " rve have met the enemy and we are theirs." Behold how one single form of post-millenial worldliness is swamping the professing Church — the amusement heresy and cooking sto-ve apostacy I I dare say you cannot find a pre-millenial church in America, thus involved in this alliance with the club-room and play-house. Our blessed hope magnifies the royal ordinance of preaching, separates us from the world and sends us forth to herald the gospel, fulfill the great com- mission, and hasten "His appearing," (2 Pet. 3: 11, 12). The Church made no great conquest of any nation after she lost sight of this pole star of hope. Coupled with the mixed condition of the world, we have a mixed con- dition in the Church, set forth by the Parable of the Drag Net, ot, 47-49. This is simple. The Gospel Drag Net is drawn through the sea of earth's population, and all kinds are gathered in, to remain until the separation at the " end of the age," Matt 4:19. We cannot even convert all the professing Church. It is an increasingly fearful and prophetic sign of the times that the professing Church is filling up with unconverted persons — baptized worldlings — lovers of pleasure — formalists, 2 Tim. 3 : 1-5. One of our churches swept more than a thou- sand from its roll not long ago. A glorious revival should have followed. 168 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. If we were commissioned and commanded to convert all the world, or any one city, or even the professing Church, how discouraged and conscience- stricken we should be ! But we can preach, gather out an election of grace and let the Lord take the world for Himself in due time, Matt. 24 : 14. II. Next we couple the Mustard Tree and Leaven, one showing the external and the other the internal state of the Church. The must;ivd seed grows from a natural herb into a great abnormal tree aud birds lodge m it. The professing church roots in the- earth and grows in numbers, wealth and worldly glory like the tree in Dan. 4: 10. The seed does not produce " after its kind " an humble herb, but a vain — glorious tree. ' When Con- stantine called the Church from the Catacombs and stamped her with a crown, her spiritual power and glory departed. Who are the fowls? See v. 19, for Christ's answer. Satan and his emissaries after catching away good seed, and sowing tares in the world, joins the Church, 2 Cor. ir: 14. We have about 12,000,000 Church members in the United States. How many are evidently in the Church for some worldly advantage, and " befouling" it by their presence. Whenever " it pays" to join the Church, the Church will inevitably be corrupted. Persecution is the great purifier, v. 33. Leaven is used about 90 times in Scripture. In 89 cases all admit that it symbolizes an evil principle, against which we are repeatedly warned. Matt. 16: 6-12 ; Luke 12: I ; T Cor. 5: 6-8, &c. Now would the Holy Ghost thus use it 89 times and then once of the opposite ? How then can we interpret the word with any certainty ? Leaven is a symbol of evil. The woman is the Church. False doctrines and practices are introduced covertly. Meal signifies sound doctrine and there is the divine signature. The whole is affected. Thus the leaven of Baptismal Regeneration, Prayers for the Dead, Wor- ship of the Virgin, Penance, Pagan Holiness, &c., has been introduced. The bread maker arrests the progress of leaven by putting it in the oven ; so Judgment fires will arrest this moral leaven, 2 Thess. i: 7-1 1; 2 Pet. 2: 4-10. III. The Treasure and the Pearl, vs, 44-46. Here we have the whole house of Israel as God's peculiar treasure, lost for a time and restored, Ex» 19: 5, 6; Deut. 7: 6-8; Zech. 13: 7-9; Hos. 3; 4, 5. The field, man's lost inheritance, is bought back by the kinsman Redeemer, and a New Creation is brought in. m RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH. 109 In considering the Parable of the Pearl, vs. 45, 46, let us lay aside traditions. I do not buy Christ or salvation, John 3: 16; Rom. 6: 23. Christ buys me, i Cor. 6: 20 Christ Himself is the heavenly merchant- man, Luke 19: 10, who finds one pearl of great price, the Church in her purity, unity and beauty, Eph. 5: 25-27; Cant. 4: 7; in the sea of earth's populace, and sold out all to purchase it, 2 Cor. 8: 9. The pearl is of no intrinsic value, and is the product of a wound. So ruined and worthless humanity is redeemed by suffering, Isa. 53: 5. We may conclude very briefly and practically : 1. Since the whole world is a moral ruin, we can be saved only by coming out of it, and into Christ. 2. Our safety and usefulness require us to m xke our separation from the world as wide, and our union with Christ and His true Church as close as possible. 3. Our mission is to make the Church as far as possible what it ought to be, and make the world hear the Gospel for their salvation. 4. Our true object of hope is the coming of the Lord in power and glory, to bring in the New Creation. " We are living, we are dwelling. In a grand and awful time, In an age on ages telling. To be living is sublime. Will you play, then, will ye dally, With your music and your wine ? Up ! it is Jehovah's rally ! God's own arm hath need of thine." RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH. REV. C. I. SCOFIELD, DALLAS, TEXAS. IN the second chapter of the second Epistle to Timothy the Holy Ghost gives us seven characters of the believer. He is called a son, v. 1 a soldier, z;. 3 ; an athlete, ?'. 5; a husbandman, v. 6; a. workman, v. 15 ; a vessel, V. 21', and a servant, v, 24; and you will notice that with each of these seven characters goes a suited exhortation. The son is exhorted to be strong in grace. Grace and sonship go together, as we learn more no CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. explicitly from the fourth of Galatians, The Soldier is to endure hard- jiess, and to avoid entanglement with the affairs of this life. The Vessel to be cleansed, separated ; the Servant to be gentle, patient, meek, and so of each of these seven aspects of our life as believers. In- deed, we might most profitably use the hour in meditation upon these things. My piirpose, however, is to speak to you of that which befits the Christian in the fifth of these characters, that of — THE WORKMAN. "Study" — literally "use diligence" — "to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word OF truth," v. 15. You see what it is that characterizes the good workman. Just as the good son is gracious, and the good soldier endures hardness cheerfully, and the good vessel is clean, and the good servant is gentle and patient, so the good workman — the workman approved unto God that needeth not to be ashamed — is a right divider of the word of truth. "Straight cutter," the Greek has it. Now it seems to me that we have here a very solemn and important matter ; especially to those of us who labor in the Word — Pastors, teachers, evangelists, for we are told (i Cor. 3: 13,) that "Every man's work shall be made manifest." Not every man's sinSy as some say : they d^xo. forgiven, (Col. 2 : 13), blotted out, (Isa. 44 : 22), and forgotten, (Heb. 8 : 12), but every man's work, and further, the fire, (dis- criminating judgment) shall try every man's work, of what sort it is." Surely a solemn thing, especially for those who really believe that the Judge standeth at the door. Now, having this earnest desire in our hearts to so handle the word of truth as to be constantly approved unto God and free from shame when we stand before the beenia of Christ, (2 Cor. 5 : 10,) we are to inquire this afternoon: — What are the right divisions of Scripture? I do not intend to use one minute of my precious sixty in speaking of those arbitrary, artificial, and frequently most infelicitous divisions which men have made, such, for example, as the divisions of the Prophets into major and minor, when, as Bro. Albert Erdman has just pointed out, the right division is threefold, viz., pre-exile, exile, and post-exile. I have no time to clear away such rubbish. I want to help beginners in Bible study to see that Scripture is not (as it seems to the natural mind), a confusion of jarring and discordant ideas but a divinely ordered thing, beautiful, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH. xxr exceedingly, in its majestic completeness, bearing everywhere the evidence of unity, but the unity of perfectly co-ordinated diversities. If I had sixty hours at my disposal instead of sixty minutes I could not point out all these things, so with utmost brevity I call your attention to the TEN CHIEF DIVISIONS of the Word of God. And I shall try to do no more than to give you their titles, with the more important points of variance^ so that you may, for yourselves, classify the Scriptures. I. THE JEW, THE GENTILE, AND THE CHURCH OF GOD. (l Cor. lO: 32.) This is the inspired division of the human family, and you will find that each has a distinct place in the counsels and purposes of God. Therefore, to apply to the Church the promises, prophecies and responsi- bilities of the Jew ; or to teach that, the Jew having been cut off for un faithfulness, the Church takes his place ^ is to hopelessly confuse the inter- pretation of the Word. The truth is, that here all is contrast, not similarity. Compare the Jew, Deut. 28: 1-14; Rom. 9: 4, 5; 11: 23-26 The Gentile, Eph. 2: 11, 12; 4: 17, 18. The Church, Eph. i: 22, 23; 5: 30-32; i: 3. These distinctions run through all Scripture. The Jew is the man of the earth : all his promises are connected with earthly greatness, wealth and power. The Christian is a heavenly man. He is promised on the earth (if faithful) persecution, poverty, and hatred, but is told that his citizenship is in heaven, and that there his inheritance awaits him. The poor Gentile has no promise. I know of nothing, from the Scrip- ture point of view, more amazing than Gentile conceit. The contrast between Israel and the Church further appears in the conduct appropriate to each. Compare Deut. 7: 1, 2, with Matt. 5: 44. In the appointments for worship we still find contrast. The Jew could worship in one place only, was kept at a distance from God— only approach- ing Him through a priest. The Church worships wherever two or three are gathered ; has boldness to enter into the holiest ; and is composed of priests. But it is in predictions concerning the future of Israel and the Church that the most marked contrast appears. The Church will be taken away from the earth entirely, while restored Israel is yet to have her greatest earthly splendor and power. W u 112 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. 2. THE SEVEN DISPENSATIONS. There is a doctrine of the ages, or dispensations in Scripture. Time — by which is meant the entire period between {he creation of Adam and the "New heaven and a new earth" of Rev. 21: i, is divided into seven unequal periods. These periods are marked off in Scripture by some change in God's manner of dealing with man in respect of sin and re- sponsibility. Each dispensation may be regarded as a new test of man, and each ends in judgment — marking his utter failure. I can but indicate these divisions. (I.) Man Innocent, Extends from the creation of man to the expul- sion from Eden. (II.) Man under Conscience. By the fall, Adam and Eve acquired (and they transmitted to their descendants) the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3: 22), hence they' were responsible to do good and eschew evil. This dispensation ended in the utter corruption of man and awful judgment of the flood. (III.) Man in Authority over the Earth. Eight persons were saved through the flood, and to them and their descendants God gave the purified earth with ample authority to govern it. This, Noah and his descendants were responsible to do. The dispensation ended upon the plain of Shinar, in the impious attempt to become independent of God, and closed in judgment — the confusion of tongues. (IV.) Man under Covenant. Out of the dispersed descendants of the builders of Babel, God calls one man — Abram. To him and his race He gave promises, partly conditional, partly unconditional. The con- " ditions were all violated, and this dispensation closes with every legitimate descendant of Abraham a slave in Egypt. The book of Genesis, which opens with the sublime words : •' In the beginning God created," ends with the words " in a coffin in Egypt," (V.) Man under Law. Leaving the Gentiles (where they still remain) under the failure of the Noachic covenant, God, fulfilling His uncon- ditional promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, delivered their descend- ants out of Egypt and put them into their promised earthly inheritance under Law. This dispensation ended in the captivity and dispersion of Israel and Judah. Out of Judah a remnant returned of whom Christ was born and by whom He was crucified. (VI.) Man under Grace. The sacrificial death of Jesus Chrest intro- duced the dispensation of grace, under which we live, and for which we ■}> RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH. "3 intro- :h we should praise Him every day. The predicted result of the testing of man under grace is, judgment upon an unbelieving world and an apostate church — true believers having been previously caught up to meet the Lord in the air. (VII.) Man under THE Personal Reign of Chrtst. After the puri- fying judgments which will attend the glorious appearing of the Lord upon the earth, He will reign over restored Israel, and over the earth for one thousand years. Alter this Satan is loosed for a " little season," and finding the natural heart as prone to evil as ever, easily gathered the nations to battle against the Lord and His saints, and this dispensation closes, like all the others, in human failure and in judgment. Note, next, the important distinction between 3. LAW AND GRACE. Thecuiuasion of these diverse principles (Rom. ti: 6) in the common teaching of the Church is, beyond question, the cause of the prevalent lack among Christians, of joy, liberty, and power. The key to the distinction is that under Law, God requires a righteous- ness from man. Under grace God freely gives His own righteousness to man. Law says, Do and live, Grace says, Believe and live. Law con' -demns the best man ; Grace justifies the worst. 4, the believer's two natures. The Scriptures teach that every believer has two wholly distinct and, in fact, bitterly hostile natures. One, received by natural generation, or human nature, is utterly and mcurably bad ; the other, received by super- natural generation, or the Divine nature is perfectly holy. Ephesians 4: 22, 24, may be taken as an example of the passages which speak of these two natures. Regeneration does not change the " old man which is cor. rupt according to the deceitful lusts " into *' the new man, which, after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." The " new man " is not a transformation, but a creation." No Christian can rightly understand his own experience who does not rightly divide the word of truth between the old man and the new. Another division, equally important for his peace is that between 5. the believer's STANDING AND STATE. Before God the weakest, most ignorant, most infirm and fallible man on earth, if he be but a sincere believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, is clothed with Christ, (Gal. 3: 27), accepted in the Beloved, (Eph. i : 6) a child of 8 114 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. God and heir of glory (Rom. 8 : i6, 17), but, just as your child may be disobedient, or sell-willed, without ceasing to be your child, so a Christian may, in his walk fall far below his standing. You get an illustration ol this in I Corinthians. The Apostle addresses that Church (i : 2) as "The Church of (lod which is at Corinth, to them that ark sanctified (Heb. 10: 14) in Christ Jesus, called Saints," and he says that the testimony of Jesus Christ was confirmed in them, that they came behind in no gift, and assures them that they would be "blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" {vs. 6-9). But when in the course of the Epistle, he comes to speak of their j/«/^ he finds much to condemn. They "are carnal and walk as "len," (3 : 3). They are " puffed up" (5 : 2), they " go to law before the unjust" (6 : i) and there is "utterly a fault among" them (6 : 7). Never- theless he adds, " But ye are sanctified, but ye are justified." (6 : 11). Their standing was the result of the work of Jesus Christ, received by faith, and was perfect ; their state was the fault of allowing the old carnal nature to work, and called down the severe rebuke of God. But I pass on in haste, as I needs must, to remind you to rightly divide the Word of Truth between 6. SALVATION AND REWARDS. If you will compare Eph. 2 : 8, 9, with Phil. 3 : 13, 14, you will have before you passages which illustrate this division. The distinction here made is the touch-stone by which you may infallibly classify all passages of Scripture where these two things — the doctrine of salvation, and the doctrine of rewards — are mentioned, viz.. Salvation is a gift: Rewards are earned. In the passage cited from Philippians, the Apostle speaks of press- ing toward a mark for ^ prize — comparing himself to a runner in the Greek games — and in 2 Tim. 4, we see him at the end of the race with his prize — a crown of righteousness — laid up for him. It is won, and the righteous Judge will give it to him at that day. But in the same Epistle he speaks of salvation in quite different terms : — " Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works." (i : 9). The \i€^\tvQx \^ saved hy grace : he is rewarded according to his wotks. An other distinction is that salvation is a present possession — Rewards are a future attainment. Let us heed the warning, Rev. 3 : 11. Distinguish, also, between 7. BELIEVERS AND PROFESSORS. Many dear children of God are in distress all their days through apply- ing to themselves warnings meant for the hypocritical or self-deceived. T! RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH. "5 That suppositious " taster " in Hel), 6 : 4-8, has sorely troubled many a Saint between whom and himself there was no shadow of identity. Mark as criteria— Believers are saved, Professors are lost. Believers are en- couraged and exhorted ; Professors are warned. Never use an "if" pass- age to contradict a " verily " passage — Heb. 6 : 6 against John 5 ; 24. Again, it is of utmost importance to divide the Word of Truth between 8. THK KIVK JUDG.MKNTS. The expression *' general judgment " is not found in Scripture. I can only indicate these things. The judgments differ in four particulars — subjects, place, time, result. (a) The sins of Believers have been judged. Time, A.D. 30; place, the cross; subject, Jesus Christ; Result, death to Him, life to the believer. (d) Self in the Believer is judged, i Cor. 11: 31, 32; anytime, any where ; subject, " ourselves ;" Result, confession and forgiveness if we judge ourselves ; chastisement if we are judged of the Lord. (c) The WORKS of Believers are to be judged. Time, between the com_ ing and appearing of Christ ; Place, " In the air ;" Result, " loss to some, reward to others." (d) The Nations of the Earth are to be judged, (Matt. 25: 31-46); Time, when the Son of Man shall come in glory ; Place, Valley ot Jehosha- phat ; Result, some saved, some lost. (e) The Wicked Dead are to be judged. Rev, 20; 11-15. Time, after the millennium ; Place, " The (keat White Throne ;" Subject, their works Result, all cast into the lake of fire. Then you are to divide the Word of Truth so as to bring out its teachings concerning 9. the two resurrections. It creates great confusion to think of but one resurrection, Christ dis- tinguishes them as "the resurrection of life" and "the resurrection of damnation," (John 5: 29,) and elsewhere speaks of the former as "the resurrection of the just," ox justified, (Luke 14: 14,) The Holy Ghost tells us when this will occur, "They that are Christ's at His coming" i Cor. 15: 23, Afterward, in Rev, 20: 5, He tells us that a period of 1000 years shall intervene between the first and second resurrection. Lastly, but, for many reasons, most important of all, divide the word o truth between, ' , •" ii6 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. lO. THE TWO ADVENTS OF CHRIST. You cannot fail to have noticed in your reading of the Prophets a two- fold line of prediction concerning Messiah. One body of prediction speaks of Him as coming in weakness and unspeakable humiliation. He is to give His back to the smiters, and His face to them that pluck off the hair ; He is not to hide His face from shame and spitting ; He is to be a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is to be marred, His hands and feet pierced, and He is to be forsaken of God and man. Another line of prophecy side by side with this foretells a splendid and resistless sovereign, regathering dispersed Israel, restoring the throne of David in more than Solomon's splendor, and introducing a reign of pro- found peace and perfect righteousness. Brethren has any of this been fulfilled ? Haf not our adorable Lord •endured His sufferings, fulfilling with perfect literaltiess that body of pro- phecy ? Shall we say that the other is untrue, or that it does not mean what it says? " O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have ■spoken" was the reproach to the Emmaus men. " Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory. Shall we continue — any of us — to answer. Yes, He ought to have suffered these things, but npt to enter into His glory ? No, beloved, just as surely as Christ literally fulfilled the prophetic word of suffering, just so literally will He fulfil the prophetic word of glory. Just as surely as His hand w?s pierced, it shall hold the sceptre ; just as surely as His dear head wore the awful symbolic crown of thorns, so surely shall it wear the diadem of David. EIGHTH DAY.— Wednesday Morning. THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE GOSPELS AND EPISTLES. REV. W. J. ERDMAN. EEV. W. J. ERDMAN addressed the conference on " The Holy Spirit in the Gospels and Epistles." The following were the points ^welt upon. The link to the Old Testament was Luke i : 15, 41, 67. I. In all the four Gospels the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the great ft • ' THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE GOSPELS AND EPISTLES. 117 gilt of the Messiah, and of the Messianic day, as foretold in the Old Testament. Matt. 3 : 11 ; 7 : 11 ; Luke 3 : 16 ; 11 : 13 ; Mark i : 8 John I : 33 ; 7: 39- 2. Of the Holy Spirit the Messiah was begotten. Matt i: 20; Luke i: 35. 3. On the Messiah Himself the Spirit descends like a dove, and attests his Divine Sonship. Matt. 3 : 16, 17; Mark i : 10, 11 ; Luke 3 : 2a j John I : 32-34. 4. To meet the temptation in the wilderness each Gospel uses its peculiar word of the Messiah. Matt. 4:1, " Led up." Mark i : 12, " driveth forth," Luke 4 : i, " led in." 4. Endued with the Spirit the Messiah performs His ministry. Matt 12 : 28; Luke 4: i8. 6. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is t/ie great sin. Matt. 12 : 31, 32; Mark 3 : 27 ; Luke 12 : 10. 7. The same Holy Spirit was to be in and with the disciples for filial sonship, and filial service, and filial suffering after the Lord Jesus had ascended on high. Matt. 10: 20; Mark 13: 11; John 14: 16, 17, 21, 23, 26 ; John 15 ; 26 ; 16 : 7-15 ; 20 : 22. And the final word on the Spirit peculiar to each Gospel is — Matt. 28 : 18-20, *' into the name of the Holy Spirit." " I am with you unto the end &c." The Messianic kingdom and preaching of the gospel to all nations through Jewish apostles. Mark 16 : 19, 20, " working with them." The Messianic body serving everywhere. Luke 24 : 44. The promise — power from on high. The Messianic Gospel preached to all Gentiles in power. John 21 : i. Messianic personal revelations and in varied per- sonal relations, the Church serving, suffering, waiting, before the unseen Lord. The Acts of the Apostles. The link of the Gospels was in ch. i : 1-2 ; I : 5 ; 1:8; 10 : 38 ; 19 : 1-6. The promise of the Spirit fulfilled. Ch. 2 : 4, 17, 33, 38. The proof of the risen and glorified Messiah. The repeated manifestations of the Spirit, ch. 4: 8, 31. The presence of the Spirit in the Church and its several members for its (i) Preservation, ch, 5: 3, 9; 9: 17; 11: 28. (2) Growth, ch. 9: 31; 10: 19,44-47; 13: 2-4; 20: 28; 6: 3; 81 15-17; 8: 29, 39; 11: 12, 25; 15: 24. Specific acts of the Spirit were mentioned in ch. 7: 51, 55; 13: 9; 15: 8, 28; 20: 23; 21: 4, 11; 28: 25. Il8 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. Tiie Holy Spirit in Romans is inseparable from sonship in and with Jesus Christ. The first mention was in ch. 5: 5, and after justification in ch. 5: I. In 8: 2, they had the power of the Spirit in the manifestation of the life in and with Christ as risen and glorified. In 8: 48, the realm of the new walk. In 8: 9, the Spirit's proof of union with Christ. In 8: 10, the body was dead in God's sight, (see also 6: 7,) In 8: 11, the body was to be quickened as was that of the Lord Jesus; also 8: 23. In 8: 12, they had the Spirit as the power of such living and dying. In 8: 14- 17, the Spirit is of sons and heirs. In 8: 26, the Spirit is our Intercessor until the glory comes with reference to holy service. In ch. 14: 17, 18, they had the Spirit as the producer of righteousness, peace and joy. In 15: 13. 14, ot hope and in v. 30 of love. In 15: 10, of acceptable service, in vs. 18, 19 of mighty service, and invs. 30-32 of mutual refreshment, thus agreeing with ch. i: ri-12. In ist Corinthians the Holy Spirit was mentioned in relation to the one body of Christ, ch. 12: 12, 13. Ch. i: 2, the baptism of the Spirit and in- corporation into Christ with accompanying gifts. In ch. 2: 9-12, and 12: 3, the Spirit was represented as enlightening ; in 2: 13, as inspiring ; in 2: 4, empowering; in 3: 16; 6: 11, 19 as sanctifying, and in 12: 4-1 1 as edifying. In 2nd Cor. the special point was the comfort of the Spirit, specially in sufifering, 2nd Cor. 12: 9; i: 3, 7. They also had establishment through the Spirit, also the anointing, sealing and earnest of the Spirit, i 21, 22. The Spirit as making free ch. 3: 17; as making like the Lord 3 18; as the earnest of the final redemption 5 : 5, compared with Rom. 8 11, 23; as sanctifying 6: 16; 17: i, compared with Isaiah 3: 16; 6: 19, and the benediction here only given in full in ch. 13: 14. In Galatians they had the great Messianic gift ch. 3: 2, 5, 14; and as the sign and proof of our sonship in Christ, 3: 26-28; 4: 6; and heirship with Christ, 3: 29; 4: 7; also the producer and the power of the new life and its fruit, 5: 16-18, 22-25; 5- 5'> ^^^ 6: 8. In Ephesians they had the seal and earnest i: 13, 14; 4: 30, and great gift 4: 7-11; and therefore in Ephesians specifically the conveyor of the fulness of Christ to His body the Church ; one Son, of Jew and Gentile 2: 18; as enlightening i: 15-23, in reference to all the fulness ; as reveal- ing 3' 4-6 in reference to the receivers ; as strengthening 3: 14-21 in refer- ence to comprehending ; as filling with modes and organs of growth 4: 7- 16; as sanctifying 4: 30; 5: 9, and empowering 6: 17-19. I THE HOLV SPIRIT IN THE GOSPELS AND EPISTLES. 119 In Philippians the Holy Spirit was represented as the power of experi- mental salvation in union with the risen Christ and the producer of like- ness to Christ 1:6; 2: 12, 13; i: 9-11; i: 19-21, specifically working in ^' ^-3) 3' 7-12; 4:13. In 3: 3 the Spirit was mentioned in the power and vealm of worship. In Colossians the word Spirit was found but once, and then it was significantly associated with " love," and here in this epistle concerning the Head, in whom is all the fulness of the Body which is to be knit together in love 2: 2; and edified in love 4: 16. This love may be the love begotten of the Spirit or the kind of love as in the risen Christ 3: 3, 14, and so of the one body and new man. In the ist Thess. the Spirit was represented as empowering 1:5; 5: 19;- as producing joy i: 6; and as sanctifying 4: 8; 5: 23. By comparison of passages kindred with those of other and later epistles, the Holy Spirit is implied as present in relations set forth in this first of all the epistles of Paul. In 2nd Thess. the word Spirit is found only in 2: 13, and as regener- ating and sanctifying. In both of these epistles the greeting is to the Church, as " in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ." In 1st and 2nd Timothy the Lord Jesus was said to be justified in spirit, 3: 16. The Spirit foretells the apostacy in 4: i ; and is the power of service in 6: 20, as is seen by comparison with the passages in the second epistle 1:6, 7; 6: 14. All scripture is given by inspiration of God 4: 16-17 and the concluding benediction prayer is the peculiar one found only here and in Philemon, "The Lord Jesus be with thy spirit." In Titus all the instructions imply foregoing proofs of the presence of the Spirit, though He is alluded to but once in His renewing agency but in the exact language describing His out pouring at Pentecost, 3: 5, 6. In Hebrews, the Spirit in most marked manner, is represented as the Revealer of the mind of God in prophets and in His Sou, 1:1,2. It is God who speaks, the Spirit who "saith" in all of olden time and in these last days i: 5, 8; 3: 7; 8: 8; 10: 5; 10: 15, and who is the distributor of all gifts, 2: 4; 6: 4, and the bringer of all grace, 10: 29. In James the Holy Spirit is mentioned but once, 4: 5, "that Spirit which He made to dwell in us yearneth for us even unto jealous envy" — (revised margin), but all holy life is implied in this. Besides, the Holy Spirit is inseparable from the wisdom enjoined in this letter. 3: 15-18. See for fjroofs in Prov. i: 20-23. In I Peter the Spirit is prophetic i: 11; 3: 19, purifying in i: 22, com- 120 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. forting in 4: 14, and especially associated with times of suffering and in view of the glory to be revealed. In 2nd Peter He is the divine power of the new and holy life i: 3, and the inspirer of the prophetic word i: 20-21. In I John the Holy Spirit is the gift of Christ to enlighten 2: 20, 27; 3: 24; 4: 13. He always testifies to Jesus Christ as the Life Eternal who came in the flesh 4: 2, 3, 6; 5: 6, and so in 2nd John 7-9. In Jude the great distinguishing mark of the last days, between the real and the seeming, the true and the false in all professedly religious, is the possession or non-possession of the Spirit. Without the Spirit the faith once for all delivered to the saints is perverted or lost, and all is either a departure in the self-willed worship and way of Cain, or an unholy traffic and Balaam-like barter m divine truths, and a final open rebellion against Christ and all Divine ordinances and when, once again as in Korah's day, men shall go down alive into the pit, and deeper into the lake of fire. 11-13, 18-21; Numbers 18: ^2; Rev. 19: 20. , To sum up — without the Spirit of God there will be no life, no light, na love, no growth, no fruit, no up-building, no knowledge, no power, no patience, no likeness of Christ, no revelation of the deep things of God, no comfort and consolation, no first resurrection, no coming of the Lord for saints, no inheritance of eternal glory. PERSONAL AND PRE-MILLENNIAL COMING OF THE LORD JESUS CHRISL BY REV. ALBERT ERDMAN, D.D. n ^HE Rev. Albert Erdman, D.D. next addressed the Conference. He -*- said the topic assigned him was the Personal and Pre-millennial com- ing of our Lord Jesus Christ as made known in the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi. The Old Testament scriptures, and especially the prophecies, spoke of a glorious period of blessedness and universal peace under the dominion of Messiah the King, and if that was not the personal and pre- millennial coming of the Lord Jesus Christ then words failed to express the idea, Israel's expectation of that blessed period began in the reign of Solomon, when the kingdom of Israel was at its highest earthly glory. It was then that the prophets began to speak of a more glorious time to come, and of one greater than Solomon, himself a son of David, who PERSONAL AND PRE-MILLENNIAL COMING OF OUR LORD, ETC. 121 should sit upon the throne of David for ever and ever, wonder of the Old Testament. That was the Then, when they came to the New Testament, and found they were standing in the light of much of the glory prophesied for Jesus as coming to redeem sinners from the power of sin and Satan, yet the New Testa- ment told them of something more glorious yet to come, even Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords in His eternal glory This unbroken and uninterrupted expectation of a millennial period of blessedness and glory continued unbroken until that dreadful hour on Mount Calvary 1858 years ago, when the sun went out from the heavens and thick darkness came over the face of the earth, and the disciples — Jews — thought all had ended in utter darkness. But, lo, the light broke out of the darkness, and on the third day at the empty sepulchre came the Lord. He referred to Christ's walk to Emmaus with the two disciples, and how " He began at Moses and all the prophets and expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself" They then saw the fulfilment of the very things to which their eyes had been blinded, even the sufferings and the glory, i Peter i: 11 stated the same thing, the Revised Version speaking of " glories" instead of glory. But what was comprehended in this millennial period, the " times of restitution " which holy men of God spake of from the foundation of the world ? It comprehended the appearing and the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ to accomplish the restoration of all things, the resurrection by Him of His departed saints, and the rapture of His living saints to take part in His dominion over the living nations ; the over- throw and expulsion of all forms of evil from the earth ; the binding of him who was the source of evil ; the repentance and restoration of Israel in honor and holiness to their own land ; the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh that should be spared from God's judgments sent upon the earth ; the renewal of the earth to more than its original beauty as the blessed home of the race ; and finally at the close of this millennial period, the resurrection, judgment and condemnation of the wicked dead, the casting of Satan into his own place of punishment, the abolition last of all of death, and then the eternal years of God over all, blessed forever. That was comprehended in the phrase, the times of restitution, the millennial period, the coming of Messias. Such was the unifoim testimony of the prophets who testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories to follow. 122 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. There were sixteen holy men from God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, concerning these thing, from Isaiah to Malachi. They sometimes appeared together, at other times at intervals, during a period of nearly 500 years. Of these sixteen prophets he would give them a three-fold classification. First the prophets down to the seventy years ex- ile, viz : Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah. Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah. 2nd. those who prophesied during the Babylonish captivity, viz : Jeremiah, who continued his ministry a few years into the captivity, Ezekiel and Daniel, 3rd, the prophets after the "restoration, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Some of these prophets be- longed to the Northern Kingdom, some to the Southern, some spoke of both. He called attention to the turning point in the history of Judah and Israel when the prophets of Jehovah were rejected and ignored, and the prophets and priests of Baal were honored instead, and that it was then that a change occurred from spoken to written prophecy. As soon as the days began to degenerate, then began the writing down of the utter- ances of Jehovah, through the mouth and pen of those writers inspired of God, indicating, as had been pointed out by another, two things, first, the withdrawal of Jehovah's presence from his people, second, a delay longer or shorter, in the fulfilment of the Divine purposes concerning Messiah and His kingdom. Turning next to the prophets, he Said, Joel and Jonah were acknow- ledged to be the oldest of the written prophecies, Jonah probably the oldest as to his public ministry, but his written prophecy was not given until later in his life, Joel probably came first then. In the book of Jonah, if it was the earliest of the prophetic books, they had this significant fact in it, that the Lord makes known the underlying truth in all revelation and the whole purposes of God, viz : that God is not the God of Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, and that grace and mercy were to be proclaimed to the Gentile nations as well, and in the name of Him, of -whom Jonah himself was but a type. Then Joel came and struck the key note for all who followed him. His prophetic vision embraced the future down to the establishment of the millennial kingdom when Jehovah shall have returned to Israel again in Mount Zion. Joel 3: 9-21". There they had the substance of all Old Testament prophecy, and it re-appeared again in the eschatalogical dis- courses of Jesus and in the Apocalypse of John. In Joel they met for the first time with the phrase "to bring again the captivity &c." PERSONAL AND PRE-MILLENNIAL COMING OF THE LORD, ETC. 1 23 Turning to Isaiah ^he evangelical prophet, his prophecy was a vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem. The main subjects of his prophecy were these : Israel's future in the millennial glory, with Jerusalem as the metropolitan city of the redeemed earth, the judgment of the nations and their blessings afterwards in subordination to Judah and Jerusalem, and all in connection with the coming and kingdom of Messiah the Christ, and His apostles quoted this prophet more frequently than any other. The first twelve chapters had to do with the destruction of the Assyrian, the great northern power and political enemy of Israel, followed by the deliverance of the earth from the curse, with the full redemption of Israel, and Christ the Messiah standing as an ensign to the people, to whom as the centre of rest and of glory, all should gather. Isr'ah 11: 10. In this section occurred that magnificent promise of the coming King and kingdom, *'Unto us a Son is born &c." There was no possibility of denying the literalness of part of this prophecy and it would follow that there could be no reason for denying the literalness of the other part, Isaiah 24: 21-23; 25: 7-9- In Isaiah 53, they had connected with the sufferings of Christ, the glory that was to follow. The three last verses of ch. 53 belonged to 53. The sufferings were literal, the person literal, so the glories were literal, and the person in whom they would find their fulfillment, a real literal person. Isaiah 61 was referred to as quoted by our Lord on this point. Three things certainly were proven by these two prophets, viz., first, that Jehovah Jesus will come again in glory as He once came in weakness and suffering, personally and visibly. Second. There is no hope for Israel, and no fullest blessing for the nations until this Jehovah Jesus shall come. Third. There will be no millennium before Christ comes in per- son to bring it in. Meanwhile they, the Church, like the forerunner of the Messiah, of whom Isaiah spoke so definitely, were to proclaim the glad tidings, and make ready the way for the coming of the Lord. That gave them the distinction again between Israel and the Church, between the past dispen- sation, the present, and the coming dispensation. The Church was the antitype of John the Baptist, proclaiming the glad tidings of the coming One in glory, making ready the way of the Lord, and when He comes He would take up the line of prophecy, and fulfil that which was written. Jeremiah, like John the Baptist, was ordained a prophet unto the Lord befo*":' His birth. Two of His prophecies, 23 : 5, 6, and 33: 14-17, were 124 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES, exceedingly definite and distinct concerning the personal coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hosea, whose name meant salvation, or deliverance, prophesied in the long and brilliant reign of Jeroboam the second, in the northern kingdom. It was true he bewailed the apostacy, and in most tender and affectionate terms rebuked the people for their sins, but all through his prophecy of lament and rebuke there runs the blessed promise of hope and glory to come, of spiritual and of national recovery, of the time when Jehovah should return to his own again. Take especially ch. 3: 4, 5. Amos, contemporary with Isaiah and Hosea, spoke of Judah and Jeru- salem, and of the Gentile nations about him. His great Messianic pro- phecy had this significant fact connected with it; it is the one which James at the first council in Jerusalem quoted as giving the Divine order of events. Amos 9: 8-15, compared with Acts 15: 14-17. If they had no other comment in the New Testament, on prophecy, than that it would be sufficient. Amos told them of the dispersion of Israel, sifted among the nations as corn is sifted, and yet not a grain was to be lost, and then of a glorious time of recovery, a planting of them again in their own land. Amos knew only of the dispersion of Israel, and then of the re gathering again, but when they turned over to the New Testament then came in this present dispensation, as James told them. He said, first it was God's purpose to gather out a people for His name from all the nations, Jew and Gentile, and after this — after the gathering of the Church out from among the nations — after this He would return (quoting from Amos) and build again the tabernacle of David. The other prophets filled out and confirmed these things. He had not touched the great prophets, Ezekiel and Daniel, and those after the restoration, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. They were more familiar with some of them, than with some of the smaller ones perhaps, but con- stantly and increasingly, and with more definiteness came out this line of revelation, of suffering and glory. There was a constant unfolding until the silence fell in Malachi's day. For 400 years the heavens were brass over the earth, no voice broke the stillness, no words came to comfort the hearts of men. Then suddenly the stillness was broken, the brazen heavens parted and filled with light, and there came the words, "peace on earth, good will to men," and the revelation of a Saviour, Jesus the Son of David, according to the promise made to the virgin mother, " He shall be great, and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall rule over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His LAST THINGS. 125 kingdom there shall be no end." And John the Baptist said, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus began His ministry saying, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." But the Jews in their lolly again rejected the offer as they had done the words of the prophets, and crucified the Lord of glory. But was God's purpose to be hindered ? No. Then came the Holy Spirit down, equipping witnesses and sending them forth to the blessed work of proclaiming salvation amongst the nations of the earth, but always in the name and under the inspiration of the coming Lord and King, for Jesus shall have His own again. In conclusion, they found in these prophets, Who is to come, when He is to come, why He is to come, and how He is to come. They found these characteristics of the kingdom, it was to be universal overall nations, in righteousness ; in it Israel was to have the first place among the nations ; it was to be administered by one of the seed of Abraham, and of the family of David ; and it was Messias the Christ, the ideal Prophet, Priest and King. Their hearts must therefore certainly yield to the blessed influence and teaching of the prophetic Word if they believed that God is a God who had a purpose to accomplish, and who would assuredly accomplish that which He had spoken. All lines run forward and gather together, and are consummated in glory in the person and the coming and the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. EIGHTH DAY.— Wednesday Afternoon. " LAST THINGS." BY PROF. W. G. MOORHEAD. PROF. W. G. MOORHEAD, of Xenia, Ohio, addressed the Con- ference. He reminded the friends that this was the closing hour of the Conference, and therefore in the briefest possible way he might be per- mitted to bring to their attention some Scriptures relating to the " last things." Turning to i Thess. 4: 13-18, he said the occasion which called forth that precious revelation was this. From the 1 7 th Acts they learned that Paul had spent three weeks at Thessalonica preaching the Word. The Iit6 JONFERENCK HILL STUDIES. result of his ministry in that place was that a great multitude of devout Greeks believed, and of the chief women not a few. The converts were instructed by him particularly with reference to our Lord Jesus Christ's return and our gathering together imto Him, as these two letters, the first which he wrote, abundantly testified. They had been turned from idols to serve the living Ood, and to wait for His Son from heaven. They expected His appearing, it would appear, at any time. Meanwhile some of the saints had fallen aslecj) and the survivors seemed to have thought that those who had fallen asleep should suffer loss, that somehow they would not enjoy all that which would belong to the living believers when the Lord Jesus Christ should come again. To correct that misapprehension this letter, in this part of it especially, was written. The apostle told them they were not to think that the saints who had fallen asleep would not have as great privileges and blessin^^s at the Lord's coming as the survivors. He wanted them to know by the Word of the Lord that they would share every blessing that could come to His people at His return. As certain as that Christ is risen from the dead, so certainly shall all saints in Him be raised up. In v. 14 they had the pledge and certainty of the resurrection of the saints. That was the great central idea \n I Cor. 15, The apostle even grounded our entire Christian hope on the fact of Christ's resurrection. If He be not risen, we rise not, our faith is vain. Of all the men on the entire planet, we believers were the most miserable, if He rose not. The resurrection of the saints was predicted on the ground of Christ's resurrection. More than that, Christ's resurrection was the sample of it, and on that he wanted to speak. Here, he thought, was something of the blessedness- of their hope. His resurrection was the sample of that of His people. In Phil. 3: 20 they would find this language, '• For our conversation (our citizenship, our enrolment) is in heaven ; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His gtory." The pledge in Christ's resurrection secured the bodies of the saints raised up shall be fashioned after the image of His own glorious body in resur- rection. There was the same truth in i John 3: 2, •' for it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him." He cordially united with his brother, Dr. Albert Erdman,. in the declaration he made the other day that a saint actually does know what he is to be. There was also the other co-relat've truth in it, it is not yet manifested what we are going to be. He wanted to say to those LAST THINGS. 127 pilgrims in the wilderness journey here, who clasped hands that day, and unclasp them and go their various ways, possibly never to meet again, they were travelling in disguise. " It doth not yet appear." They all knew it was no unusual thing even for royalty, sometimes to travel incognito. If he was not mistaken, some years ago there passed through this country the Crown Prince of all the Russias, the heir to the throne of the Rus- sias, in an ordinary railway train, without anything to distinguish him from the common passanger. He went through Canada and the United States, but was he less a prince because travelling in disguise? No. IJut there came a day when the coronation took place in the old Kremlin at Moscow, and the story runs that when the crowning had occurred, and he came forth wearing the great Russian robe of state, thick with flashing gems, and stood at the door of the Kremlin, the sun's rays poured down upon him, and the magnificent jewels of the robe of state flashed back the light with added glory, all the Russians clapped their hands together and shouted, " Oh, our Czar, ou"- white Czar, none is comparable to our Czar." " It doth not yet appear what we shall be," they were travelling incognito, but by and bye the coronation day would come. Another illustration. Some years ago there came into a railway train in Central Ohio, an old man, poorly clad, a farmer evidently, guileless as old mer often were, telling everyone who would listen to him, about himself, his home, family and troubles, and finally complained of being sick. When the young men who gathered around him and laughed at him, and culled out from him all the stories of his home life, had withdrawn from him, one came up and laid his hand on his back and said " you say you are ill, and you are an old man, and your end is nearly come, doubtless I would like to ask what is the hope, if any, you possess as to the future?" That old weather-beaten face instantly lighted up and throwing back his head he said " I'm a pilgrim for the heavenly city," And at once there came to the mind the idea of travelling in disguise. '* It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when He shall appear we shall be like Him." He reminded those who were white haired, and those who were using glasses as he himself had to do, and those whose hearing was not good, and who had aches and pains, what it would be with them on that day when they would be like Him, the body of their humiliation fashioned according to the pattern of His body of glory. Commenting next on v. 15 (i Thess. 4: 15) he said the saints who were living on the earth when our Lord comes again would have no advantage at all over the sleeping saints. Not one solitary change in a saint would 128 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES. take place until first of all the sleeping saints were raised up. In all hon- esty he must say that he thought the meaning is this in the expression '• shall rise first," the sleeping saints would first be raised up before the living saints were changed. The living saints at His coming would have no advantage whatever over the sleeping saints, for their resurrection pre- ceded the change that was to take place in the living saints. He now came to a part concerning which he wanted to speak, There was a truth there that would be helpful to some who were not altogether clear as to the distinction between the resurrection of the saints and the resurrection of the wicked. Let them not forget that this entire passage was addressed exclusively to believers. There was not one word there respecting the resurrection of the wicked. That truth was taught elsewhere in the Word, but was not even alluded to in this passage. After reading ?'. i6 he said the word "j/k?///" was a peculiar word in the original, a restrictive word, and one that did not gather into itself the en- tire race by any manner of means. It was a naval or military word, as every Greek scholar would see by looking at it. The word was keleusma, and belonged to a single class, only one class and to no others. Those who had been on shipboard had noticed again and again an officer walking backwards and forwards on the bridge, who sometimes called out to his seamen. Putting his hand to his mouth he would scream out "haul in that rope," or something of that sort. There might be 50 or 150 passengers about the deck, but the word of the officer was not to them, it was exclusively to his seamen. Some of them had listened to the com- mand of a captain to a regiment of soldiers, and knew perfectly that al- though there might be ten thousand spectators the order of the commander was to his soldiers and to nobody else. That was the kind of word the Holy Ghost used in this verse. The Lord will Himself descend with a shout and call to His own people. The world might possibly hear, but he did not know. If they did he supposed it would be after the fashion recorded in John 12: 28, 29. Some who heard said it thundered, others said an angel spake to Him. They heard a noise, but they could not dis- tinguish the nature of that voice, but the Son heard and understood. So this word shout was a word addressed to the sleeping saints, and to no others The world might hear it, but would not understand it. It would start into life all the saints that are in their graves. That was the force of that word shout. Let them notice another thing. The science of our Lord's day could not have told that the earth was a sphere, a globe, and that an event LAST THINGS. 139 that transpired simultaneously around its entire surface would find some of the population in the day time, and some in the night. Hut He who made this world did not need to be told. Did they ever notice how beautifully it all came out in Mark 13: 35. In Matthew and lAike it was put in this way, two men shall be in one bed, one shall be taken and the other left — that was night; two women grinding at the mill, one taken, the other left — that was the earliest work in an oriental house- hold; two men in the field — that was high noon, or in the afternoon for aught they knew. That was to say, that when that shout rang down from the opening ky it would arouse some saints where night was, and some saints Wiiere early morning was, and some saints in the midst of the day. It helped him a good deal some years ago when he saw that in the writings, of that dear servant of the Lord, who had gone to be with Him — J.imes Inglis, of New York. If they wanted the clear- est and most irresistible proof of verbal and plenary inspiration, let them go to the Bible itself, and they would discover it. Now he must stop, and was sorry he could not give them anything on 2 Thess. 2. In response to several requests however, Prof. Moore- head commented on the first two verses of that chapter. He said there was a difference between the coming of the Lord, and the day of the Lord. They all knew that the coming of the Lord for His people was described in i Thess. 4: 3, and onwards, and had no event preceding it whatsoever. There were events that preceded the day of the Lord, and the opening revelation of the second chapter of 2 Thess. detailed at some length some of the events that were connected with the day of the Lord. From the second verse it would seem that some enemy had been at work among the Thessalonian believers, and either by a forged letter in the name of the apostle Paul, or pretended revelation from some spirit or other- wise, they had been induced to believe that the day of the Lord was already come. There had been an exegetical fight amongst post millen- narian scholars especially of the committee of revision of the New Testa- ment, on this point, but they were absolutely compelled to recognize the truthfulness of the interpretation of pre-millennialists in the verb, and translate it " now present." The day of the Lord was already present, and here was no resurrection of the aints, no change of the living saints, no establishment of the kingdom, and they were all in difficulty and doubt and darkness about it. Now came the apostle with this revelation respectmg the events connected with the ushering 9 130 CONFERENCE HILL STUDIES in of the day of the Lord — not the day of Christ, l)ut " the day of the Lord" was the true reading unquestionably. But what about this day of the Lord? How would it come to pass? What were the events connected with it? Just a word or two. He had here for himself a doctrine founded on this Scripture which he believed unanswerable by post millennarians. There was only one way that it was possible for them to wriggle out of it, which he would mention presently. The Apostle began his statement about this period of the Lord's day with the declaration that already in his own day and lifetime the mystery of iniquity was already at work, but there was a certain check or hindrance holding back this working mystery of lawlessness that it should not cul- minate in the man of sin and son of perdition, until certain other things had taken place, viz, the purposes of God in grace. The mystery of iniquity was already working, it would go on into apostacy, and the apos- tacy would culminate in the revelation of the man of sin and son of per- dition. That is the order. Where is there a place for the millennium ? This man of sin is to be destroyed by the power of Christ's coming. They had the beginning of the period in Paul's day, the end of the period the destruction of Anti-christ by the personal revelation of Jesus Christ Him- self from heaven. How could they get a millennium in between those two points? The little horn of Daniel and the beast of Daniel were the same as this man of sin. What "coming" was meant in v. i. Dr. David Cumming Brown says, " The Lord's second personal and visible coming unquestionably." Reading on to the 8th verse he found the man of sin was to be destroyed by the appearing of our Lord's coming. Here were the two words every- where else in the New Testament applied to the literal coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, coupled together to make them certain that He meant no other than His personal presence. Winer, the New Testament gram- marian, said that where an inspired writer used two terms that were almost synonymous they were intended to emphasize and enforce, and make all the stronger the truth he was insisting upon. Winer cited this passage and one other in the book of Revelation and said these two words *' the epiphany of his parousia," coupled together was not a pleonasm, but the intention was that they might know the certainty of the destruction of the man of sin by the coming of Christ as absolutely affirmed in this place. There was then absolutely no place for a millennium there. Amid all the trials and troubles and losses that came to all of them, death invading one home after another since last they met there, at least LASr THINGS. i3t the lass? Ihad sved was itly. of lince cul- ings of )0S- per- m? hey the im- ose the lys, ly." ^ed Ty- )ur mt m- )st all ge ds ut of since the present speaker was there two years ago, — one of his own circle buried — let him say to them that their hope and comfort for themselves and their sleeping loved ones was in His coming again. For by and by that shout would ring round the earth, and among the first for aught they knew that they would see, if they were still alive when He cornes again, would be those known to Him who were dear to them. He stood and with his own hands, one year and four months ago, took his little boy and held him as best he could, and said simply, '* Lord Jesus, take my Freddie,'' and he went away instantaneously. The comfort, the help, the joy, even of that bitter moment, was this ; it may be before I even die that shout would roll out. and he \vould see him again in his changed body. The Lord help them to be faithful until that day. The final hymn sang by the Conference was "God be with you till we meet again", after which Prof. W. G. Moorehead closed the proceedings with prayer. Thus terminated the Believerb' Meeting for Bible Study in 1888. The gatherings from the stirt were marked by large attendances, hallowed joy, sweetest Christian fellowship amongst brethren and sisters of all evangel- ical denominations from various sections of Canada and the United States, and unmistakably by Ihe loving presence of the Holy Spirit. The pavilion where the mec«:ing? were held was felt by all in attendance 1:0 be indeed a " place of privilege," and the times of refreshing there enjoyed will not soon be forgotten. ^^^!^m r j\(^u/ Book of Bibl(? I^