THE CASE OF MR. MCQUEARY.-The leading papers in the Episcopal Church have been much disturbed over the appointment of the Rev. Howard McQueary, a clergyman in the diocese of Ohio, to be one of the speakers at the approaching Church Congress. This body is not an ecclesiastical one, but a sort of Open Court at which the living questions of the day which Christianity has to meet are freely discussed. Some time ago Mr. McQueary published a book entitled The Evolution of Man and Christianity in which herepudiates, among other articles of the Christian faith, the doctrine of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. He affirms that "the body doubtless crumbled into dust somewhere."

We have not seen the book referred to, and do not know how the author reconciles such a statement with the creed he professes every Lord's day—" The third day He rose again from the dead.” We recognize, also, that the doctrine of evolution, which, in some form of it, is now generally accepted even by Christian scholars, will very likely modify the terms in which we have been accustomed to state the articles of the Christian faith. But we are very sure it will not touch the essence of these great verities. And we are also sure that the fact that "God hath raised up His Son, Jesus, from the dead" will always remain the foundation-fact in Christianity. And any man who denies it, even though he may hold the place of office in the Church, cannot be counted a Christian.

A GLOOMY FORECAST.-The Irish Catholic states that the Pope, in replying to the congratulations of visitors at the Vatican, expressed himself as strongly of the belief that great punishment was impending on society for its disregard of and indifference to the Church.

"The Lord," he said, "will come no longer with a sweet and peaceful face, but with an angry one to strike and purify his Church. I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I feel in my heart sorrowful presentiments. A sea of evil is about to beat against the rock on which the Church is founded, and will leave nothing to be seen on the horizon but the threat of the anger of God. Prayer will not suffice to appease the Almighty."

That society and the Church are both passing through a period of revolution is most true. Not the Roman Catholic Church alone, the Protestant world also, is disturbed by impending changes that threaten existing systems in both Church and State. The progress of knowledge has lifted the average human mind on to a higher altitude in its judgment of great questions that have heretofore been decided for it by authority, and its whole horizon has been enlarged. The doctrine of evolution alone, when generally accepted, as it is likely to be, will require a new adjustment of opinions in the region of both theology and of social ethics. These coming changes will, of course, create commotions and perhaps bring catastrophes.

But the Pope forgets that this is always the law of progress in the kingdom of God. The change from the old anthropological conceptions of God that underlie his Church system, and that have molded its theology, to the truer view of a God immanent in nature and in man, and whose righteousness is not an attribute at war with His mercy, must especially disturb the foundations of that ancient structure under which the Pope doubtless believes the nations can alone find shelter and safety. But the Lord who rules the world is a wiser, a larger, a more loving Deity than the one whom his church worships. He cares more for the world than does His assumed vicegerent, and will far better look out for its future. When the law of gravitation was first announced it was denounced by many pious men as subversive of the faith. It did promote skepticism in the last century and Voltaire doubtless made use of it to promote infidelity in France. And yet the truth and the Church survive. So it will be with many new views of nature, of man, and of God that are being opened up to the world. They are unsettling, they threaten to sap the foundations of the old order, and much harm to individuals and to society seems to be wrought. But God reigns. And no one who truly knows Him and the secret of His covenant, and who has proper discernment of His great plan, can believe that the horizon of this world can ever be so dark as to leave "nothing to be seen thereon but the threat of His anger," which no prayer can appease.

WORDS OF RECONCILIATION.

VOL. VI.]

SEPTEMBER, 1890.

[No. 9.

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.

IMMORTAL MANHOOD.

Science and Scripture unite in teaching that the ultimate goal of being in this system of creation is a manhood superior to death. The primary question of eschatology in our day is, Is every human being born into the world

endowed ab initio with immortality, or must he press forward to this high goal? If the creation of man has been by a process of evolution, then it would seem that this law must prevail until the final goal is reached, and the present condition of man must be viewed as a stage in the process. The goal can be reached at first by only an elect class, and by such as are fit for it. And when we turn to Scripture, we find that it accords precisely with this view. There is not a line in either Testament which teaches that each personal man is born into the world an indestructible and immortal being. The fact that the soul of man survives the death of the body does not prove that it will live on forever. The first immortal man presented to us in Scripture is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the first who, in dying, triumphed over death and raised the man-nature in body and soul above the power of death. For it must be remembered man is essentially an embodied being. He holds a special relation to this created system of which He is the appointed head. This implies an embodiment which shall put Him into relation to this system, and be the centre and the vehicle of His mastery over it. It was as a risen Man, with a "body of glory," that the Lord Jesus entered into the possession of “all power in heaven and on earth" and upon the headship over all created things. And as the conquering Head of the race, He had power also to deliver from the grasp of death and of sheol the souls of those who by faith had waited for this salvation. But such saints attained to this dignity of immortal manhood through Him, and not by their own inherent power of life. Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

But the Christ, in His triumph, became the Head of a body-a conquering seed of men. This body is constantly spoken of in the New Testament as "the saints," the "Church of the first-born," the "first-fruits of God's creatures." As such they are the "first-born from the dead." They are "quickened and raised together with Christ." They are the only class who have either attained or are yet pressing forward to this goal of immortal manhood, when their bodies shall be changed and fashioned into the likeness of His glorious body. And each one of these becomes, like Christ, a reservoir of His quickening and regenerating power to the race. As such they are, as was He, baptized for the dead. They fill up "that which is behind of His afflictions for His body's sake, which is the Church" (Col. i, 24). And when this bride hath made herself ready, and that perfect union between her and the Head shall be consummated, which is spoken of as "the marriage of the Lamb," then she shall become, indeed, a second Eve for the re-generation of the race.

What is important for us to observe is, that God's method of immortalizing man is, not by an original creation, as theology has long assumed, but by a process of new-creation, and in accordance with that universal law of development by which He has been working along the ages. In due course of time the human race flowered out into immortal manhood in the person of the one perfect Man-perfect, because divine-in whom the thought of God in the creation of man in His own image found at last complete expression, and who passed through death on to that throne of life and of power from which He can reach and recover from sin and death His brother-men,