Gospel Herald, 1860-08-04

              GOSPEL HERALD.
De-s-oted to Christian.ity, Morality, the Interests of Sabbath Schools, Social Irrrprovement, Temperance, Edncation, arid, (ierteral Ne-ws.
"BEHOLD,   I   BEING   TOtT   GOOD   TIDINGS   OF   GREAT   JpT  ....   ON   EAETH   PEACE,   GOOD   -WILL   TOWAED   MEN.
VOL. 17.
DAYTON, 0., SATURDAY, AUGUST 4,1860.
NO. 14.
ORIGINAL POETRY.
Wriilon in a Liiiljf s Alhim.
Sniisliint; and Shade.
I ask not that pleasure may alwayssurround
thee.
Or riches and honors, thy pathway   n ttend;
I pray not that flowers, clear skies, or bright
sunshine.
Unmixed with dark sliadowa thy heart may
defend,
* The  atorm-cloiid that passeth,   revealeth   the ,  Rainbow —
The flowerets we crush perfumeth the air; Afflictions though painful refineth the  spirit. And leads it direct to the altar of prayer.
May "sunshine and  shade," may pleasure and sorrow Attend thee, while here on thy pilgrimage tour; Go labor to-day and hope that the morrow . Will bring its reward; thy spirit to cheer.
Go battle for truth—go plead for the widow- Go seek the distressed in hia dark prison cell; Undo hca-vy burdens, break the chains of the captive. And rescue the envying from the graapings of hell.
Theu sweet will thy rest be, that   for thee re¬ maineth. Thy rainbow of hope, span the gulf-stream of even, ^
Thy tried spiril enter  through much tribula¬ tion— The land of the blest—-the kingdom of heaven.
ORIGINALITIES.
Wrtatn for Ok Ootpel Herald.
'•' Positive Theology—No- 6-
BY A, W, SANFORD,
' , That the Bible teaches that God is the'Creator, and   that man ia created
. and dependant, is a proposition too clear to require proof.
With equal  clearness does it follow that if God, as the   Creator, is the in-
: finite embodiment of goodness, wisdom and power; possessing in perfection eviary intellectual and moral attribute, that can be exercised in framing, Mapting and administering his  go-v-
¦ ernment; then, his right to reign and .rule over all his intelligent creatures, .18 not merely an arbitj-ary incident of bis. infinite supremacy or omnipoteiit superiority, but that   right is abnnd-
¦ ^ntly.demonstrated in the moral na¬ ture and fitness of things.
Ihe perfection of any government, i' pvidently consisting in the accurate j adjustment and' adaptation of its re- iluiraments'to the native,.capacities j ^nd relations of the governed; ;aiid, it i being impossible that God, in vie-vv of j uis.'perfeotions, should lack either dis- j position or ability, to make his'Sys- , penaiof government perfectly promo- f tivesof the highest good of all who are ; ite subjects; it is therefore, clear that i this right to command, and mans obli¬ gation to obey, are as evident and cori- . flusive in morals as in law. : : That the tendency of God's req-Uire-. : "lents is tke production, expansion t and. perpetuity of man's happiness is . uemonstrated from his own language w> backsliding Israel. "Oh 'that thou I tjadst hearkened to my commandments 1 ™en had thy peace been as a river, and
thy righteousness as the waves of the 'sea," and again, "The willing and obedient Bh&W eat the good of the land." "Whoso looketh into the>perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he be¬ ing not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, that man shall be blessed in the deed.
This tendency being thus evident from the Word of God, lot us next as¬ certain whatiH the fundamental prin¬ ciple of the Divine government—the first and great commandment. We quote the language of Him "who spake as never man spake" "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart—and thy neighbor as thy¬ self." "On these two hang all the law and the prophets"—"There is none other commandment greater than these."
Love to God, and love to man, then, are the foundation of God's moral gov¬ ernment, as adapted to our nature, ca¬ pacity and relations, as moral and re¬ sponsible beings;—the pre-eminent principle of His law, out of which grows, or to which is referable, :every subordinate requisition. A moinent's reflection, will convince us of itsadap- t.ition to our nature and relations.
To love is as natural to man as to breathe. There is a wealth of affec¬ tion in tbe human heart, that instinc¬ tively seeks objects upon which to be lavished. Not only so, but the heart wants some one object for its supremo devotion—something around whicii it can concentrate, and to which it can render subservient, all inferior objects to which it has attached itself—The soul finds its chief happiness, in this supreme and complete devotion to this central object of its affections; and, just in proportion to the capacity of that object, to satisfy the yearnings of an immortal mind for intelligence, sus¬ tenance and reciprocal love, will be the bliss resulting from this devotion; in brief the man is to be measured for vice or -virtue, for weal or, woe, by the object he supremely loves.  ,   ,
This being true, the law of God, in¬ deed the law of his own being, presents the great and all-perfect Father, as the proper object of his supreme devotion. Let man regard God as his best friend —let every fountain of a,ff6Ction well up toward Him—let every desire and every thought be constantly directed toward Him—let man feel in his heart of hearts, that God, with all his infin¬ itude of wisdom, power and love is /m Father-that midst all the cares and ills of life—midst the pangs pf death, the solemnities of the final judgment, and through the, jsndless cycles of eter¬ nity, ^hat "the Eternal God is his re- fug^,","his Kock,and the-portion ofhis heart forever," and ha.ppihe8S, elevated, expansive and profound as the heart ean enjoy or conceive, is his, and his forever..
Such a man cannot be made misera¬ ble—earth cannot shake his repose, "and hell becomes a heaven, if God be withhim there."
Inhis relations to mankind, let love, fratern/ally, pure aud unselfish be the principle . inspiring all his motived, prompting all his actions—let the hap¬ piness of others be as much his eare as his own—the.labor of his life the dif¬ fusion of peace and joy, and bliss among all by whom he is surrounded,
and the happiness thus distributed to others, will be returned an hundred fold into his own bosom.
Let all men obey this precept ofthe Divine law—let envy, strife, maligni¬ ty and revenge, be, by this obedience, abolished, and all the unnumbered evils, the outgrowth of human selfish¬ ness would cease: —
"Springs would in the desert rise, And a new Eden bless our eyes. Earth by angel feet be trod, One great garden of our God."
Wrillenfer tlie (foepel Herald
The Gospel
Gospel is written Evangelion in Greek; in German, Evangelium; and from this original word are derived evangel, evangelist, evangcliza, evan¬ gelical, &c. Thus we find many re¬ spectable -writeft speaking of " evan¬ gelical religifMB and " evangelical churches;" i^piichphrases I suppose th&y mo&n^^^Ut^religion and Gospel churches, crf^nurches and religion which accord with the Gospel.
This sounds well enough, and seems to be correct, till the word evangelion, which in our common version ofthe Scriptures is rendered Gospel, is trans¬ lated.
The meaning ofthe word Gospel, or EvangoAn, \b Good News, Glad Ti¬ dings. We are not, because the books written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are called " the four gospels," to conclude, therefore that each of them, separately, is a gospel; not • that all four taken together make one gospel; nor yet,that everything in them forms a part of the Gospel.
The varieties of these books did not give them the title of Gospel, or any¬ thing else; excepting that Matthew seems to entitle a part of his' hi.story, " The book of the generation of JesuS Christ."
Writers in those days,—especially Christian writers-^did not go in ao much for glowing, flattering, decep¬ tive titles, as at the present.  ¦
Men who thought every book should have a name, gave to these books their present titles: just in tho same way that the five books of Moses are called Genesis, Exodus; Leviticus, Deuteron¬ omy, and Numbers; names designed to be expressive of the contents of the respective books.
What are called the four gospels, contain four corroborative histories of the announcement cf the Glad Tidings af salvation, and convey to those who read them the Good News,, that a Savior has come into the world and offered salvation to mankind on con¬ dition of faith in his Name.
The fou'r B-vahgelists, as they\re called,- are, in reference to the books they have written, no more nor less than corroborative, cotemporary, au¬ thentic historians divinely inspired to write; for the benefit of posterity, a concise and correct account ofa series of events; connected with the delivery of tbat Divine Message, or heavenly eomnattnication, the "Gospel of Christ.
Now, if the word Gospel means Good News or Glad Tidings, and "evangel" and "gospel" are synonymous, why not stibstitute the definition for the word, in the phrase "evangelical re¬ ligion;" and write, the "good neivs re¬ ligion," the "glad tidings religjon?"---
This would sound awkwardly, but is correct, ifwe consider'glad tidings' the only and all the import of Evange¬ lion or Gospel,
But modern theologians use it in a wider sense; and it appears in some - passages of the New Testament Wri¬ tings, to have a more extensive sig¬ nification. It appears, not only to include the facts in the history of the, life and death, of Christ, but also, the precepts and promises em¬ braced in the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles.
it was, indeed, "good news",to those who were willing to recieve the inr telligence as true that a saviour had
BEEN BORN,   IN    WHOM   HELPLESS,   LOST
AND RUINED MAN, MIGHT TRUST FOR SAL¬ VATION    AND   .REDEMPTION,     And thuS
the Gospel becomes the Power of God   UNTO salvation to evert one
WHO BELIEVES.
W, Pinkerton,
Writlenfor Ihe Goipel Herald.
Duty of Ministers and ChHrohes.
No. 5.
BV H, SIMONTON.
".Hold a momont," says a good broth¬ er; "The old fathers did not talk in this manner. They would work and preach, and preach and work, and did not ask us to pay them, when we felt like doing a little for them; thoy would receive it; and they wero good men, and we bad good timeb; and wish we could have such times again." We dp not doubt but what this is the wish of many—such love to have a cheap Gos¬ pel; but after all, they are not willing to do as the fathers in the chureh did in many things, Thore is one thing that many would be pleased'to havo just as they used to have it—^tliat is, a class of men to preach for them, fbr almost nothing, and board themselves. We think that'this class ot church- members had bettor appoint a commit¬ tee, and let them try and make a spe¬ cial arrangement with the Lord, to suit their peculiar state and condition of mind, for tho oZd-new-testamont plan, does not meet thoir case. There is too much money in it. They can never get into Heaven on the old arrange¬ ment—it costs too much.' A man inust pay over to the Lord in proportion;to his prosperity, and this they can never stand—there is too much money out. Perhaps they can get a special dispen¬ sation of selfish grace. ...
We feel interested for this large class of brethren, and we would .regret to have them lost, in the great day.— Many of them are good cWver fellows in many things, andif the Lord can ar¬ range the matter so they can get along without paying out any money, tbey will then be pretty good Christians.
We have been thinking thi.i tiling over for many years; aud in thinking over the past, -we find that thoy ovo us somethIn|r for preaching, yeafe since; hut, if the Lord will forgi-ye them, and mark tlip old accounts all paid, we will do'J list as the Lord says on the eubjfee'K; but the Lord says:" "owe no man :aiciything," and hero we are ¦agaiii.
The plan we recommend to them, is a simple one. It is this, petition the Lord to send thera a man full of the spi rit and power.   One who can preacli