ANSWER TO "EUCALYPTUS" OR "GUM TREE."

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3760, 15 January 1881, Page 3

ANSWER TO " EUCALYPTUS" OR "GUM TREE."

. • No. 2. (To the Editor of the Evening Stab.) Slß,—To continue : Your correspondent calls me narrow-minded ; that is because he does not know my mind. • The man ■who believes in the Alpha and Omega of Christ's great and glorious work cannot be narrowminded. Sir, I believe wilh John the Apoctle and revealer; I see in his revelation what he bbw in vision. Here it iB : Key. 5—"I; beheld, and heard, the voice of many Angels, &0., Baying with a loud voice, worthy is tJie Lmnh that was slain." The death wob the Alpha of Christ's great work—" to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor, and glory and blessing." Now for the Omega of that work: " And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth"—that is the dead raised to life again—"and such aa are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying, •Blessing and honor and glory and power be •unto Him—the Deity—that sitteih upon the throne and unto the Lamb for the ages of ages.'" In the above passage the redemption of all'mdnkind is predicated ; the passage is most emphatic; Death must be, as vfo are told elsewhere it shall be, entirely abolished. John, therefore, is made to see in vision the whole race alive again, blessing and praising the Deity and His Son, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. There is no need to multiply passage? in support of this grand and glorious teaching of the Bible. All through the volume the same teaching is manifest to all who have arrived at perfection in spiritual verities. The ultimate universal redemption and reinstatement of Adam's race is an undeniable fact of holy inspirations volume; it cannot and does not contradict itself anywhere. However, let the reader refer to Philippians 2,5 to 11, and ho will find again that the Alpha and Omega of the work of Chriet is nothing lees than ultimate universal reconciliation of not only all men, but the demons also to the Deity and His Christ. The 10th verse, read in literal Greek, iB in this passage most emphatic—thus: 'At the name of Jeeus every knee should bow of the heavenlies, of the ■ earthlies, and of the iitfernals." It will be ages yet before the great fact is fully apparent. But I submit again the rebellions of both men and Angels must yield to the Supreme, not a3 unto a tyrant, but from conviction that God and. his Christ are love- itself, and wisdom and justice and righteousness and truth. The breath of the Deity has declared the fact. "Who dares gainsay it ? When this glorious ultimatum is arrived at, then, and not till the", will Christ have s<-en of the travail of his soul and will-be satisfied, and evil will be no more known in God's creation. But whether or hot the above doctrine of Israel's prophets, Christ, and His Apostles, should now be universally, preached, I am not so certain about. God has a set time, aud has also specific occasions, for all his wise arrangements; while it is undoubtedly a failing in even some of the best of men that they anticipate His arrangements. For example, very many tell us the Kingdom of God is now ; that it- was "set up at Fenticost. But the Lords-prayer is not yet abrogated; the Kingdom has not yet come. Paul, in writing to Timothy, declares the fact of Christ having given himself a ransom for all, but also tells us it is to be a testimony in duo time (see margin—for fciiafc Gtod "wiHi HAVE all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth"). The due time for the universa'iftfromulgation of the above glorious fact is, I'believe, the next or millennial age. Therefore, while I and a few others of the Church of GroA believe the fact, at the same time we believe it would be only casting pearls before the swinish multitude of these days to declare it universally. It is rather a dectrine for fully taught believers to rejoice in than otherwise, and, in anticipation that it will be part of our mission'in coming ages to proclaim it as resurrection beings. The prejudice of the masses to everything godly, and the tendency of men in general to depend upon their own works for salvation instead of on the work of .Christ, in these days is so great that no fair field offers for the general promulgation of this glorious doctrine of the Deity and His Christ. This prejudice seems inherent in humanity, ana ever has been so in both Jew and G-entile. We have a remarkable instance of this in the narrative of Peter and Cornelius—Acts x. Poor Peter had to be taught of God by a vision that what God had cleansed in Christ he was not to cbneider unclean. The vision of the sheet and its contents entirely removed Peter's Jewish prejudice, and is one of the finest arguments for universal redemption the Ifew Testament contains. The prodigal eon—the G-entiles—however unclean they may now appear to those who Jcnoto that the blood of Jeauß has washed away their sins, will one day come to themselves, arise and go to their Father, and that Father will receive them all with open arms. .But, as in JNoahs day

destruction or the ark was the testimony of the patriarch, so now destruction or the Kingdom of God'musfc be the testimony For these days, for " this Gospel of t7ie Jcingdom mu3t be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." So, " knowing the terror of the Lord"—the Judge—we persuade men to accept the Kingdom of God—now so near at hand—and salvation out of the coming tribu- : lation, " such as never was since there was a | nation." Now, " Eucalyptus," am I narrow-minded ? j Wiemam Wood. ;