Gospel Herald, 1860-02-18

              De^'otea to Chi-iBtianity, Moi-ality, th.e Interests of Sabliath ScIlooIs, Social Imrvrovement, Tempef.-H,ntie, Ediicatloii, and Gerrer'al Ne-ws.
ON EARTH PEACE. GOOD WILL TOWAED MEN.'
"BEHOLD, I BEING TOtJ GOOD TIDINGS OF GEEAT JOT
VOL. 16.
-DAYlON, 0., SATURDAY, FEBRUARY IS, I860.
NO. 40.
SELEC^T^P^TFIY.
A Call to Sinners.
JJ   KACIIAKL SmUK.
While angels strike tlieir tuneful strings. And veil their faces with   their wings. Bach saint on earth to Jesua sings, .\nd joins to praise the Kin^ of kings, Who saves lost souls from ruin.
But siniier.s, fond of earthl.-  toys. Mock aud deride while saints rejoice; They  shut tlieir ears  at Jesus' voice, .4nd make the world and sin their choice, And force their way to ruin.
Thepreacliers warn them Highland day. For them the christians weep and pray; But sinners laugh and turn away, And join the -wicked, lewd and gay, Who throng the road to nti.d.
Oft times in visions of the night, God doth their guilty souls afright; They tremble at the awful sight, But still again, -with morning light, Pursue their road to ruin.
When every way is tried in vain, Nomorcthe spirit strives with man; But full of guilt,  and fear, and pain, Death strikes   tiie  blow, the  sinner's   slain, And  sinks to endless mil;,
O, sinner turn now while you may; Break off yonr  sins  without delay; Repent, believe, lor mercy pray, And seek salvation in the way, And fly from endless ruin.
ORIGINAL£nES.
Written for line Goapel HeraUl.
The Resurrection,
BY W.M. L. JOHN.SON.
I trieii to &how in my laat communi, cation on this subject, that Jesus Christ, the Savior ofthtj worlii, was literally resuirected, soul and body from the tomb.
And now very naturally, the fol#-W'- ing que.stions arise in the mind, viz;,
1st;. To what intent, or for what pur¬ pose was Christ's  body  raised?  and
2d. W-hat became of it after it was- raised?
Whatever else he might have been he was at least a perfect man. Islow to bo a perfect man a being must pos¬ sess a soul, and a body, a human, phys¬ ical body.
It is not presumed that we can com¬ prehend G-od, nor even his dealings with the children of men, except to a limited e.xtent; but taking the Bible as our guide, wo must I think, come to the eoncliisioQ tltat whatever may have been the design, it was not for the pur¬ pose of taking it to Heaven with Him, for Si. Paul em])hatically stiys, lst Cor. XV; 50. "Now this I say brtithren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the king¬ dom of God; ncitlier doth corruption inherit iueorrnptiou." A little farther on he says,'' but we shall be cliauged;" and ''this corruptible must put on in¬ corruption, and this mortal, immortal¬ ity;" &c. Seo also from the thirty-fifth to tho forty-hfth verses of tho same chapter.
i^'rom the above quotations and ref¬ erences, it seems to me very plain that he did not take his body'to heaven; but that ho appeared to them in that lorin, that he might the more thorough¬ ly convince his disciples and those who saw mm, that it was the very same ¦' Jesus ol" Niizareth."    Thoy knew him
as snch only ; and had he come to them in a transfigured state, in his spiritual body, the effect ot his resurrection on their mind.9 would not h.ive been the same by ttny means.
This brings us to our second query, viz: What became of tlie body of Christ, if it was raised from the tomb, which we have proved, but yet did not ascend into heaven? How shall this be explained, and at the samo time not deny any jiart of the Divine .Rev¬ elation? I claim that it ia not esaen- titil, in order to be a good orthodox, to believe that tho literal physical body of Christ, or of any one else, ever did, j or over will, ascend up into Hoaven; ; but rather tends to weaken the force I of many arguments that might be brought in support of tho claims of I religion.
But to the explanation: We obtain knowledge, in this life, by means of some one, or all of the five senses.— Thii3 is, perhaps, the only way of ta¬ king cognizance of what is termed matter. With all our boasted knowl¬ edge, we know but very littlo of the nature of matter. We cttn taste, feel, and see it, but cannot tell what it is (other than giving it the term "mat¬ ter") nor how it exiats. We know that matter is auacoptible of "being," in two conditions; or yields to the in¬ fluence of two principles, vis; "Ag¬ gregation" and "Segregation."
Aggregation is that principle in ua- 'ture which causes minute particles of matter to cohere, and forms magni¬ tude, making it visible; segregation is opposite, and has a tendency to repel the homogeneous particles of a body, and make matter invisible. Take a quantity of -water, for example, and it is visiblo matter, but put it over the fire, and subject it to rapid boil¬ ing, and it soon becomes invisible.— Agrogation obtttined in the first con¬ dition, and segregation in the second. V^ater is composed of two elements, oxygen and hydrogen, both of which are invisible in the eleijjental sttite. About three-fourths ofthe whole body is made up of water or the elements of water.
Take another example, wood ia ag¬ gregated matter, but when subjected to combu.stion it is segregated, tind passes into its elcnients, leaving only a little refuse in tlie shape of ashes, and these mtty bo easily segregated.
Every thing that possesses life is de¬ rived from the earth, directly or indi¬ rectly, The human race live, either upon the vegetable products, or upon animals which derive their subsistence from the earth.
The ultimate elements of the min¬ eral kingdom, which combine and form proximate elements in the vege- ttible, must be very minute, and in¬ visible, before the little rootlets ofthe yilant can tako them up; so wo aee that the earthly mtitter which the plant uses, is first aggregated and invisible in the earth, then invisible as it passes into and is appropriated by the vege¬ table, then again visible.
Matter exists, at present, iu the three following forms, viz: 1st. Aeriform (in the form of air or in an invifsible state); 2d, as a licj[uid; 3d, in the solid state. It haa existed so ever since time had a beginning; and in as much aa visible matter is  now   made from
the aeriform, it is allowable to sup¬ pose that all matter (or its elements) originally possessed that form.
Now, the human body being mado up of elements, by the law of aggre¬ gation, all of which are invisible, may, by the opposite principle of segrega¬ tion, be resolved into its ultimates, and consequently invisible state. This will be easy of accomplishment, for three- fourths of the whole body ia water, or its elements.
We know that the bmnan body can be, and has often been dissolved, or consumed, as it ia comi-nonly termed, by fire ; it has also been done by fer¬ mentation ; and every cliemist knows that not only the human body, bnt every form of matter that exists, will yieU to the  influence of his crucible.
If, then, the body may bo dissolved by huintin means, how much more by Divine influence. "Flesh and blood shall not inherit thekingdom of God." Christ's body was flesh and blood; therefore it did not go to Heaven.— Yet it was tiot to be—tUthough in na¬ ture like other natural bodies—sub¬ ject to decay liko them, for it was not "to see corruption."
CONCLUSION.
From what has been said the fol¬ lowing conclusions may be deduced, •viz;
1st. Jesus Chriat had a Natvirtil Body, just as all other men have,
2d. That, after his crucifixion and burial, his body wtis taken from the tomb, and "was seen of many,"
3d. That His body did not ascend into Heaven.
4th. Yet, that it did not sec cor¬ ruption,
, What then was done with the body of Christ, if it neither went into Hea¬ ven nor saw "corruption?" Just thus: Christ desired to teach a great truth, viz: That death is not an eternal sleep; and, also, that the soul does not rest in the grave till the judgement. When that was accomplished, he was done with his body; and, as he passed up toward the heavens, he was received into a cloud, put - of sight; and as ho went up his body was segregated, and doubtless served to make a part of the cloud into which he was seen to enter.
Itis my belief that wo shall have uo moro uae for our natui-al body whon we lay it off once, but that "God will give us a body," auch aa wo need, itis also my opinion, that the aoul not only does not rema.in in the grave to be res¬ urrected with the botly, but that no soul ever did or ever will enter the grave. This is plainly implied, ifnot emphatically stated, where it is said, "Jeaus, when he had cried again, with a loud voice, yielded np the ghost."
Tippecctnoe, 0., Jan. 19, 'tiO.
Written for the Crospel HeniM.
Positive Theology.
BY A, W. SANIi'OKD.
In compliance with repeated invita¬ tions to occupy a portion ofthe Herald with the unworthy jirodnctions of my pen, I now attempt to "Jot down" a few thoughta for the consideration of our brethren,  who may eon its pages.
I would not wish to he, or even ap¬ pear to be  a  fault-finder; but  still, it
has seemed to me for yeara that one ofthe more serious defects in tho prac¬ tical workings of our denomina¬ tional system, is due to, and results from a lack of "positiveness" in our theological views, in connection witb too much loosnesa aud lack of system, in their presentation and enforcement. There aro many who regard us as having no positive sentiments or doc¬ trines in our theological system — who really believe that the firat article of owr creed, is unbelief of all that is received as matter of faith by  others.
They predicate this conclusion upon the very general practice of many of our preachers and writers, who are so frequently inveighing against the " Trinity," and so earnestly and log¬ ically demonstrating that Christ is not "very and eternal God," that the doc¬ trine of "vicarious iitonement" is er¬ roneous and thtit man is not "totally depraved" &c. &c., that one might almost suppose that we regard the rejection of these opinions-tis equivalent to faith in the truths whicli God has revealed. Nor is this the greater evil resulting frotn theae negative asaurap- tions in theology.
The church catches the infection, and its membera mtiy be heard per¬ haps, thiinking God, not that his grace hiis made them humble followers of Oliriat. but that they have been pre¬ served or dolivereii from Tinitarian- iatn. Instead of humbly, but positiv- ly believing, joyfullj' experiencing, and carefully and quietly praeticin'g the truth aa it is iii Jesus, they are captiously and dogmatically question¬ ing and refuting the supposed errors of oth ers.
I trust that the evil of which I com¬ plain is being t^ i some extent corrected, but th (ire yet is room for still further amendments.
We have the very boat aud most ]-)orfcct system of positive theology with which tho world has been made acquainted.
"Ono God the Father of whom are all things and we in him" — our Creator Father and Friend — "The Lofty One who inhttbiteth Eternity" — "The eternal God is our refuge" — "God is our God" and "God is love." Though his "judgments aro true and righteous"—though "justice and judg¬ ment are tho habitation of his throne," yet "mercy and truth g(j before his face,"
We have "one Lord Jestis Christ by whom are all things and we by him," He is our Redeemer, Instruc¬ tor and iSavior. He ia "tho image of the invisible God, the brightness of the Father's glory, the express imtige of his person, and the only begotten Son of God." —"A Savior and a great one," whom God haa promiaed — "through whose name, wliosouver be¬ lieveth on him shall I'ecoive tho remission of sina." Tlicse are only samples of tho great tt'iitha in chris- t'an theology revealed in Liu: Scriptures of truth, upon two pi'ominci.t points of chriatian faitli — every otiior is sus¬ ceptible of a liivo clear, and compre¬ hensible statement in JJible language.
How ])rcfbrable- then, to adhere to the hinguiige in which God has re¬ vealed those truths, to understand our rehttion to them, to receive thom "in ihe  love  of  the   truth"—experience