The Rev. S. J. Neill on "The Plan of Salvation."

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3803, 7 March 1881, Page 2

The Rev. S. J. Neill on "The Plan of Salvation."

The Key. S. J. Neill lectured on " The Plaa of Salvation " in the Presbyterian church last evening. The Key. gentleman took for his text the portion of Genesis referring to the full of mankind and the 14th verso of the last chapter of Eevelations, saying that they presented the first and last remarks in the Bible bearing directly on man's sin and salvation. The passages were interesting and remarkable as being the Alpha and Omega of Scripture touching on Salvation, and the need for it, and likewise from the fact that the symbol of a tree "was to be found in both. He showed the great period of history between those two points—at the former, man stood before the untried tree ot knowledge of goc i and evil, while at the latter he stands with power over the tree of life itself, not an exile from Eden, but a free citizen of a city that had foundations, and whose builder and maker was God himself. After further explaining his subject by illustrating the analogy between the two texts, he showed, that it was a generally admitted fact that men were sinners, and that salvation was a necessity, but men calling themselves Christians had been constantly differing regarding the means of accomplishing the end desired. It was not his intention to place before them all the diverging roads men had made for themselves, but would divide his subject under the following heads:—l. What our church maintains regarding the plan of salvation. 2. What others say against us. 3. Ihe opinions of several eminent divines on our belief. He would not have time to do more than treat the first clause that evening. He then explained concisely and ably the belief of the Presbyterian church concerning the plan o£ salvation and concluded by describing the ritual of the Jewish church on the day of atonement. The lecture was most attentively listened to throughout.