WORDS OF RECONCILIATION.

VOL. VI.]

AUGUST, 1890.

[No. 8.

The eschatology long held in the Church has waxed old and is ready to vanish away. This magazine has been established to aid in the formation of the new. It points out the new and definite principle around which it must be built up, namely, the redemptive value of resurrection. Specimen copies are frequently sent to those who are likely to be interested in the subjects of which it treats. As these are sent at our own option, no one is thereby put under any obligation to subscribe. Some of its readers, however, will perceive that this magazine has an important mission. We beg leave to remind such that it is not conducted as a business, but as a missionary enterprise, and that it must be supported as such. If we have been called of God to undertake this work, those who discern its importance are also called to consider whether they ought not to help sustain it, at least to the extent of a subscription.

LIGHT FROM ALL QUARTERS.

The new eschatology, which is to take the place of the old, can command and be worthy of permanent assent, only as it adjusts itself to whatever truth concerning the origin

It

and destiny of man may reach it from any quarter. has been the great mistake of theology in the past to assume a hostile attitude toward truth that did not arise in its own province and that seemed to conflict with its prearranged conclusions. Even the brave Luther denounced Copernicus as a fool, seeking to upset by his new conceit the whole science of Astronomy, whereas, said he, "the holy Scriptures tell us, Joshua bade the sun stand still and not the earth."

Just now the whole doctrine of man, as set forth in Scripture, is receiving illumination from Geology, from Biology, and specially from Psychology. The nature of the soul, the mode of its transmission, its relation to its material environment, its continuity through changes of environment, in what consists its personality and identity, the relation of the individual to the race, and the destiny of both as pointed out by what the past has evolved and what the future promises, are all questions which modern science is bringing to the front. And, while holding fast to all that God has revealed in His Word, we are to be equally open to receive whatever may be verified through the reverent study of His works. Nor must we neglect the comparative study of religions. God, who has not left Himself without a witness, may have been developing certain aspects of truth even in pagan systems, teaching men even by their mistakes, and so gathering material everywhere for that final temple of Truth in which all nations are to worship Him. We desire that the mission of this magazine shall be to welcome whatever bears the marks of truth, from whatever quarter it may come, and to show how it can be reconciled with that supreme reve

lation of the Truth made in the person and work of the Son of Man, whom we devoutly confess to be the Son of God, and in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.

In that beautiful passage, Isaiah xxv, 6-10, it is assumed that the true knowledge of God has been long concealed from the world, and that a day is coming when this covering cast over all peoples" and this "veil spread over all nations" will be destroyed, "and it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him and He will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." And as the result of this happy disclosure we read, "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of His people shall He take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it."

Whether this revelation of the true knowledge of God is to break upon the earth suddenly out of heaven, at that crisis of the future which the Scriptures define as the coming of the Lord, or whether this rising of the sun will be like the breaking of dawn into day, we will not discuss. That storms must precede this breaking of the morning without clouds, like the clear shining of the sun after rain, we are quite sure. But the effects of this revelation, whatever the manner of it, are certain and blessed. There shall be nothing more to hurt nor destroy when the earth

shall be filled with the knowledge of this glory as the waters cover the sea.

That this day of the Lord is near there are many signs. We believe that one chief cause of the gross darkness that has covered the people in respect to any right view of God has been the traditional doctrine of eternal torment. This has been associated with false ideas of His kingdom, of His judgment, of His attitude of love toward men, and of His provision for their salvation. These things can be explained only in the light of the gospel of the resurrection. An infinite wealth of the knowledge of God has been concealed by the denial of this gospel. This gracious provision to redeem man from death, this sublime and final step in the creation of man in His own image, has been perverted into an inconceivable disaster to the race, except to an elect portion of it. It is made the introduction of all the rest to an eternity of endless despair. We rejoice that the light of a true "hope toward God" for the race is beginning to break through this darkness, and that the triumph of humanity in Christ Jesus over death is being recognized and affirmed as of the very essence of the gospel, and that, in the light of it, we are beginning to understand the meaning of St. John's inspired definition of God as Love.

And, as contributing to this true knowledge of God, we welcome the discoveries of all true science. We are getting new and amazing glimpses of the way in which God has been working through all the ages toward the revelation of Himself in man; and we are beginning to discern what depth of wisdom in the past, and what prospects of glory in the future, there is in the new views that Science

is giving us of man as the microcosm of Creation and the heir of the coming ages. All Nature, all history, all heights and depths in human experience are being lighted up with the knowledge of God as never before. It seems to us that the veil which conceals our Father from us is all the time growing thinner, and that we shall soon see Him face to face, and know Him heart to heart.

THE CREATION OF MAN.

The scientific study of man and of nature, without setting aside in the least the agency of God, makes it probable that the creation of man has been by a natural process of evolution. In the light of this conviction the first chapters of Genesis may be re-read somewhat in this way. The first chapter gives us an ideal picture of the creation of man in the image of God. The process of that creation is not yet complete, inasmuch as the risen and glorified Man is the only perfect image of God, having dominion over all things. But in the very beginning of the Bible the Spirit of God, to whom all things past and future are equally present, and who "calleth those things that are not as though they were," gives us a view of Creation as it lies in the mind of God, all very good, beginning with "every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew," and coming to its climax in man as the true image of God with dominion over the creature.

The second chapter of Genesis begins the story of the way by which God is realizing this perfect image of Himself