(159-163) in his resurrection from the dead, a spirit being; in due time he ascended up on high to appear in the presence of God on our behalf—-to apply to each believer a share in the merit of his sacrifice. This work has progressed throughout this Gospel age, and every consecrated believer has been accepted in Christ; and, being accepted in him as a member of his body, these believers in turn have been privileged to present their bodies living sacrifices and thus to fill up the measure of Christ’s sufferings. Soon the entire Atonement Day sacrificing will be finished; soon it will be accomplished; soon the promise will be fulfilled, “If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him: if we be dead with him we shall also live with him.” From that time onward the redemptive work takes on a larger scope. As soon as the last members of the body of Christ shall have suffered with him he will apply the full payment to Justice on behalf of all the remainder of mankind not believers, and the penalty, the curse against the world, will thus be cancelled—not through faith, not merely for those who shall have exercised faith, but regardless of faith. THE RESULTS—THE GRACIOUS EFFECTS Then will begin the work of uplifting the world—thore who have not yet gone into the tomb, and gradually those who already have gone down into the prison-house of death. The prison doors shall be opened, all the prisoners shall show themselves: as the Prophet declared, they will all come forth to trial. (Isa. 61:1) Not to a new trial on account of the first offence by Adam, neither to a trial on account of things done while more or less affected by the penalty upon Adam, but to a new trial for life on their own responsibility. The responsibility of each shall be according tu the measure of character and strength which he possesses,—it will he a righteous judgment that will make full allowance for every inherited imperfection and weakness, and that will eapect from the world only that which mankind will be able to ren ler. The result will be an uplift of the world of mankind, an opportunity for each to come back gradually to all that was lost in Eden by Father Adam’s disobedience,—including Paradise restored. The obedient of heart shall then be accounted worthy of the blessing of the Lord. to continue with them eternally. Vou. XXV DENOMINATIONAL UNION IS THE CRY ‘the following from the Toronto (Canada) News well illustrates the trend of public opinion throughout Protestant Christendom. The spirit of union, or confederacy, is in the very air, as foretold by the prophet, who says: “Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy ; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.”—Isa. 8:12. Fear, a realization of weakness, is at the bottom of this desire for union at the expense of the truth. A union would give prestige to doctrines which cannot be sustained either by reason or Scripture. A union would give greater political power, and lead ultimately to the suppression of the truth as unsettling and antagonistic to the peace of error and errorists. But the truth has naught to fear, and the truth people see clearly that only the truth can produce that real heart-union which he Lord referred to in his prayer for his people—“that they all may be one.” Another part of our Lord’s petition was, “Sanctify them through thy truth.” Wherever the sanctifying of the truth goes, there true union goes, proportionately. Not worldly union, however; not denominational union, for the truth separates from the world and from denominationalism and unites all developed children of the truth to each other, by uniting each to the head—our Lord. Such are taught of God; such hear their head; such are thus made one in him and in his truth. We quote the popular and erroneous view of the question, as follows :— “One of the most encouraging features of the present religious condition of the world is the increasing prevalence of a desire for Christian union. The arguments in favor of union are numerous and weighty. But the most powerful of them all -——the consideration that should be kept in the forefront of the whole discussion—is that the object aimed at is very dear to the heart of Christ himself. “The union that most Christians desire is not a vague, unsubstantial thing, but a solid, practical reality—not a mere spiritual unity of aim and motive, but an external, visible union, which will remove the reproach of unseemly rivalry that Protestant Christianity has too long been compelled to bear. Such an organic union constitutes the only real answer to the great intercessory prayer of our blessed Lord—the solemnly suggestive petition offered up amid the deepening shadows of the last ZION’S WATCH TOWER ALLEGHENY, PA., JUNE 1, 1904 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER ALLEGHENY, Pa. They shall have everlasting life, all contrary minded being cut off in the second death. Thus seen the death of our Lord Jesus was necessary for man’s release from the death sentence. Christ died for our sins, as our Golden Text expresses it. He died in order that, by paying our penalty of death, God might be just and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus, and release him from the death sentence. Our Lord’s death was necessary for another reason also, as the Apost.e explains: it is expedient that he who shall judge the world during the Millennial age shall have full ability to sympathize with the world of mankind who will then be on trial—one able and willing to succor those beset by sin and weakness and to have compassion on them, having been tempted in all points like ay we are, yet without sin. Thus not only the Lord Jesus, the great Kinz and Judge of that time, but also the church—his joint-heirs in the judgeship and in the royal priesthood—will ke able to sympathize with those whom they will be judging and trying, sustaining, assisting and uplifting. We perceive, then, that the plan which God adopted 1s in the broadest sense of the word the wisest and best imaginable, and that under this plan nothing else than death was possible im order to mans redemption from the sentence of death, and that nothing else than severe trials were appropriate tor the one who would be intrusted with so high a dignity, honor, responsibility, as that which the Father had apportioned to the Christ. We see also that it behooved the Father, in bringing the church to glory and subsequently testing the world, to prove the Captain of the salvation perfect through suffering, that he who was chief of the universe neat to the Father, and whom he purposed to make so much greater still as to give him a particpation in the divine nature, glory and honor—he might reasonably be expected to demonstrate Lefore every creature his absolute loyalty to the Father; and this he did in the days of hiflesh when he suffered the just fur the unjust that he might bring us to God. As a consequence ‘him hath God highly esalted and given him a name above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess to the glory of the Father’—during the Millennial age. No. 11 night of his earthly ministry: ‘That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou has sent me.’ How much conviction of the divine mission of Christ is likely to be aroused in the heart of the world by the sight of the scores of rival sects into which the Church of Christ has been split up’ “Of course, the situation is improving. In our own country, nearly thirty years ago, Presbyterians led the way in the matter of closing up their denominational ranks, and consolidating their forces for the performance of their common work; and the example thus set was followed a few years later by the Methodists. The last quarter of a century has witnessed, to, a most gratifying advance in inter-denominational fellowship. Ancient asperities are being softened; denominational bigotry is slowly disappearing; in Christian utterances the irenic is being substituted for the polemic; mutual] misunderstandings and recriminations are giving place to mutual appreciations and commendations, and from almost every branch of the divided Church of Christ many a ‘God speed you’ is heard, addressed to Christian brethren of other communions. All this the world can sec, and the force of all this the world can hardly fail to feel. “But how immeasurably more impressive would be the spectacle of one magnificent united Church! How irresistible would be the appeal to the world’s conscience, if all the scattered companies of the Lord’s army were united in one grand battalion, ‘endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace! “In so far as the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches are concerned, this desirable consummation seems to be within measurable distance, the question of their corporate union having now come to be a question of practical church politics.” * + Co Sentiment in the United States is similar, as voiced by the New York Independent, as follows: “Federation is one of the crying needs of our Protestant Churches. Some of our denominations in their national meetings have pronounced in favor of it. It would maintain the separate entity of denominations that are not ready to consolidate. and yet would be an evidence to the world of their essential and [3372}
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