Gospel Herald, 1861-02-18

              ^^¦i',^!"*:'^*^*"-^^^,":''*^''-'^^^^^ Sabbath. Soliools, Sooial Impr-oveinent, TeinpeTanoe, Kdn<.;-itioii, antl Cieiier'al Newe
"BEHOLD,   I   BRING   YOU   GOOD   TIDINGS   OF   GREAT   JOY  .   i   ,   .   ON   EAKTH   PEAGB,   GOOD   WILL   TOWARD   MEN.'
VOL. li).
DAYT()>^, 0., SATURDAY, FEBRUARY IS. 1860.
NO-40.
SELECT^POEJRY.
k Call to Sinners.
ar hAoHjVBL Suihk..
While angels strike their tuneful strings, And veil their faces witli  their wings, Each saint on earth to Jesus sings. And joins to praise the tviug of kings, Who saves lost souls from r'uin.
-But siimors, fond of eartlii' toya, Mock and deride while saints rejoice; 'The/  shut tjieir cars   at Jesus'voice, And make the world and ..lin their choice, And force their way to ruin.
The preachei's warn them night and day, For them tho ohristiana weep and prily; But sinners laugh aud turn away, And join the wiciicJ, lewd and gay, Who throng the road to ruin.
Oft times in visions of tho night, God doth their guilty souls afright; Thoy tremble at tlie awful sight. But still again, with morning light, Pursue their road lo ruin.
When every way is tried in vain. No more the spirit strives with man; But full of guilt, and fear, and pain, Death strikes   the  blow, the sinner's  slain, Aud  sinks to endless ruin,
0, sinner turn now while you may; Break otf your sins  without delay; Repent, believe, for mercy pray, And seek salvation in the way, Aud fly from endless ruin.
ORIGINAUTIES.
WriUen for the Gospel Hei
The Resurrection.
BY  WM. L. JOHNSON.
[CONOl.TTDBD.J
, i trieil to sho'viT' in my last communi, cation on this subject, that Jesus Christ, the' Savior ofthe world, was litoi'ally resUrxcctotf., soul and body from the torab.
And now very naturally, the follow¬ ing qiiostioiis arise in tbo mind, viz.,
1st. To what intent, or for what pur¬ pose was  Christ's  body   rai.sed?  and
2d. What became of it after it was raised?
Whatever else he might have been 5)6 was at least a perfect man. Now to, be a perfect man a being must pos¬ sess a soui, and a body, a human, phys)- ical body.
It is not presumed that we can com¬ prehend God, nor even his dealings with tho chiltlren of men, except to a limited extent; but taking the Bible as, our guide, we must I think, come to the conclusion that whatever may have been the design, it was not for the pur¬ pose of taking it tp Heaven with Him, for St. Paul emphatically says, Ist Cor. XV: 50. " Now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the king¬ dom of G-od; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." A little farther on he says, " but wo shall be changed;" and " this corruptible must put on in¬ corruption, and this mortal, immortal¬ ity;" &c. See also from tho thirty-fifth to .the forty-fifth verses of the same chapter.
,,From the above quotations and ref¬ erences, it seems to me very plain that be did not take his body to hoaven; but that he appeared to them in that form, that he might the more thorough¬ ly convince his disciples and those who saw i.im, thut it was the very same -' Jesiis of Nazareth."    Thoy knew him
as such only; and had he como to them in a transfigured state, in his spiritual body, the effect of his resurrection on their minds would not have been the same by any means. , This brings us to our second query, viz; What became of tho body of Ohrist, if it was raised from tho tomb, which we have proved, but yet dicl not ascend into heaven? How shall this be explained, and at the same time not deny any part of the Divine Eev- elation? I claim that it is not essenr tial, i a ordor to be a good orthodox, b) believe that the literal physical body of Christ, or of any one else', ever did, or over will, ascend up into Heaven; but rather tends to weaken the force of many arguments that might be j brought in support of the claims of j religion.
i But tothe explanation: We obtain j knowledge, in this life, by means of somo one, or all of the five senses.— i This is, perhaps, the only way of ta- king cognizance of what is termed matter. With all our boasted^tnowl- edge, wo know but very littlo of the nature of matter. We can taste, feel, and see it, but cannot tell what it is (other than giving it the term "mat¬ ter") nor how it mste. We know that matter is susceptible of "being," in two conditions; or yields to the in- fiuonco of two principles, vis: "Ag¬ gregation" and "Segregation."
Aggregatiion is that principle in na¬ 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 tho homogeneous particles of a body, and make matter invisible. Take a quantity of water, for example, and it is visible matter, but put it over tho firo, and subject it to rapid boil¬ ing, and it soon becomes invisible.— Agregation obtained in the first con¬ dition, and segroj?ation in tho second. Water is composed of two elements, oxygen and, hydrogen, both of which aro "invisible in the elemental state. About three-fourths of the whole body is made up of water or the elements of water.
Take another example, wood is .ag¬ gregated matter, but when subjected to combustion it is segregated, and passes into its elements, leaving only a little refuse iu the , shape of ashes, and these may be easily segregated.
Every diing that possesses life is de¬ rived from the earth,, directly or indi¬ rectly. The human race live, either upon the vegetable products, or npon animals which derive their subsistence from tho eartli.
The ultimate elements of the min¬ eral kingdom, which combine and form proximate elements in the vege¬ table, must be vory minute, and in¬ visible, before the little rootlets ofthe plant can take them up; so we see that the earthly matter which the plant uses, is first aggregated and invisible in the earth, then invisible as it passes into and is appropriated by tbe vege- tiible, then again visible.
Matter exists., at present, in the Uiree following forms, viz: 1st. Aeriform (in the form of air or in an invisible state); 2d, as,a liquid; 3d, in the solid state. It has existed so ever since time had a beginning; and in as much as visible matter is  now   made from
the aeriform, it is allowtible to sup¬ pose that all fnatter (or its elements) originally possesaed that form.
Now, the human body being made 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 ultimatos, and consequently invisible state. This will be easy of accomplishment, for three- fourths of the whole body is water, or its elements.
We know that the human body can be, and has often been dissolved, or consumed, as it is commonly termed, by fire; it has also been done by fer¬ mentation ; and every chemist knows that not only the human body, but every form of matter that exists, will yield to the  influence of his crucible.
If, then, the body may be dissolved by human means, how much more by Divino influence. "Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Christ's body was flesh and blood; therefore it did not go to Heaven..— Y"et it was not to bo—although in na¬ ture liko other natural bodies—sub¬ ject to decay like them, for it was not '¦to see corruption."
CONCLUSION.
From what has been said tho fbl- lowing conclusions may bo deduced, viz:
1st. JesuB Christ had a Natural -Body, just as all other men havo.
2d. That, aftor his crucifixion and burial, his body was taken from the tomb, and "was seen of many."
3d. That Eis body did not ascend into Heaven.
4th. Yet, that it did not see cor¬ ruption.
What then was done-with the body of Christ, if it neither wont into Hea¬ ven nor saw "corruption?" ,Tust thus: Christ desired to teach a great truth, viz: That death is not an eternal slee^); and, also, that tho soul does not rest in the grave till the jud,gement. When that W'as accomplishetl, he was done with his body; and, as he passed up toward the heavens, he was received into a cloud, out of sight; and as ho went up his body was segregated, and doubtless served to make a part of the eloud into which he was seen to enter.
Itis my belief that we shall have no more U3e for ournatural body when we lay it ofl' once, but that "God will give US a body," such as we need. Itis also my opinion, that the soul not only does not remain in the grave to be res¬ urrected with the body, but that no soul ever did or over will enter the grave. This is plainly implied, if not emphatically stated, where it i.s said, "Jesns, when he had cried again, with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost."
Tippecanoe, 0., Jan. 1&, '60.
Wrillenforlhe Gm-pfl lleraUl.
Positive Theology.
BY A. W. SANFORD.
In compliance with repeated invita¬ tions to occupy a portion of the Herald with the unworthy productions of my pen, I now attempt to "Jot down" a few thoughts for the consideration of onr brethren,   who may con its pages.
I would not wish to be, or even ap¬ pear to be  a, fault-finder; but still, it
has seemed to me for years that one ofthe more serious defects in the prac¬ tical workings of our denomina¬ tional system, is duo to, and results from a lack of "positiveness'' in our theological views, in connection with too much loosness and lack of system in their presentation and enforcement. There are many who regard us as having uo positive sentiments or doc¬ trines in our theological system — who I'eally believe that the first article of oitr 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 ao frequently inveighing against tho " Trinity," and so earnestly and log¬ ically demonstrating that Chriat is not "very and eternal God," that the doc¬ trine of "vicarious atonement" is er¬ roneous and that man is not "totally depraved" &.c. &c., that one might almost suppose that we regard the rejection of tliese opinions as equivalent to faith in tho truths which God has revealed. Nor is this the greater evil resulting from these negative assump¬ tions in theology.
The church catches the infection, and its members may be hoard per¬ haps, thanking God, not that his grace b.as made them humble followers of Christ, but that tbey have been pve- serveil or delivered from Tinitarian- i.srn. [iistoad of humbly, but positiv- ly believing, joyfully experiencing, and carefully and quiet,ly practicing the truth as it is in Jesus, they are caiitiously and dogmatically tiuestion- ing and refutii'g the supposed errors of others.
I trust that the evil of which I com¬ plain is being to some extent corrected, but there yet is room for still further amendments.
We have the very best and most perfect systetn of positive theology with which the world lias been made acquainted.
"One God the Father of whom are all things and we in him" — our Creator Father and .Priend—^"Tho Lofty One who -inbabiteth Eternity" —"The eternal God is onr refuge" — "Grod is our God" and "God is love." Though his "judgments are true and righteous" — though "justice and Judg¬ ment are the habitation of his throne," yet "mercy and truth go before his face."
. Wo httve "one Lord Jesus Christ by whom, are all things and we by him." He is onr Eedecmer, Instruc¬ tor and Savior. He is "tho image of the invisible God, the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of his person, and the only begotten Son of God."—"A Savior and a great one," whom God ha^ promised-— "through whose name, vvhosoever be¬ lieveth on him shall receive the remission of sins." These are only samples ofthe great truths in ehris- t'an theology revealed in the Scriptures of truth, upon two prominent points of christiau faith—every other is sus¬ ceptible of a like clear, and compre¬ hensible statement in Bible language.
How preferable then, to adhere to the languago in which God has re¬ vealed those truths, to understand, our relation to them, to receive them "in the  love  of the   truth"—¦experience