CORRESPONDENCE.

Colonist, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8102, 21 November 1894, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

While desirous to give publicity to the discussion of matters of public interest, ive are not necessarily to be identified xoith the opinions of our correspondents. Correspondents must write on one side of the paper only. Rejected manuscript will not be returned.

To the Editor of the Colonist.

Bib, — Your correspondent " Churchman " seemed hurt at my silence, but when I tell him I have never suffered from the di-ease be is laboring under, that of cacoethes scribevdi, he will at once see my reason for not replying.

Canon Howell I know, and heard on two occasions with much pleasure, but who your correspondent may be I know not, at least from his title. Here are no dissenters, aU are churchmen, but unfortunately they do not all row in the same boat, and that being so, I decline to enter into controversy with " Churchman.' 1 The Prophet Isaiah says :— " To the law and to tbe testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is bsoause there is no light in them." I, therefore, care not who they are, if their tenets are not to be found in the Word of God; I believe them not,

Show me but one text in the Bible (not the Douay version) from the first chapter in Genesis to the last ia Bevelation, inclusive, advocating or teaching that it is right or good to pray for the dead, and I shall accept the dootrine, and consider the founders of our glorious Church of England, as having been oarried away by their zeal for reform, in exoludi- g this, according to " Churchman," very pious and Christian dogma.

The Church of England Prayer Book is most explicit on the question, see, for instance, the prayer for all estates and conditions of men, where it says : — "We also blesa Thy holy name for all Tby servants departed this life in Thy faith and fear ; beseeching Tbee to give us grace so to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of Thy heavenly kiDgdom, etc." The words that "we with all those who are departed this life, etc." do not involve prayer for the dead, but for the living that we may share the perfect bliss of the Church of Christ in the resurrection day. The very title cf the prayer excludes prayer for the dead : " A prayer for the whole estate of Christ'a church militant here on earth."

See, also, the prayer used in the burial service. In the Church of England Prayer Book and Homilie3 one or two things are especially to be observed:— l. The existence of a third place is denied. 2. The soul goes straightway either to Heaven or to Hell. 3. Prayer for the dead is unnecessary.

Let us rejoice that our Church is so clear in her views, and so distinct in her enunci ation of the truth. There are some who hold that the soul of the believer awaits in a place which is neither Heaven nor Hell, but a third place, the day oi judgment. They regard it not as a Purgatory, bat as a place of rest. This opinion is in direct opposition to the teaching of the Church. It is also repugnant to Scripture, in which the doctrine | cannot be found. " This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise," (Luke xxiii, 43). But Paradise is Heaven. The Apostle fays that he was " caught up to the third Heaven," and in the next verse be says that he was " caught up into Paradise," (2 Cor., xii, 2, 3, 4). Christ gives the promise, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which ia in the midst of the Paradise of God" (Rev. ii, 7). But the tree of life is represented as being in the plaoe where is the the throne of God, the perfect state. What is true of the penitent thief is true of every believer. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I in coDolusioo, I fail to see whom I have insulted, or for what I need an apology, and remain, as heretofore, an Antipuseyite.

To the Editor of the Colonist.

Siß,—la reply to " Abijah," I am not aware of any verse in the Bible containing the command, " Thou shalt pray for the dead." Perhaps 2nd Timothy, i, 18, oomes nearest. Nor am I aware of any verse in which such words as 'In the place where the tree falleth there it shall be," are applied to the state of the departed ; nor again of any verse which enoourages men to sin and presume upon the possibility of repentence after death. We are sxpressly cautioned against sinning in order that grace may abound. Perhaps this meets " Abijah's " objection. Yet further, we are nowhere tod that the graoe of God is confined to this side of the grave. On the contrary we read in let Peter, 3, 19, of one occasion in which departed spirits received instruction. It " Abijah " can show tbat a soul is perfeoted at the moment of death, or is immediately plunged into hopeless despair, then prayers for the dead are useless. The Bible does not teaoh this, but the whole spirit of its teaobing is a direction which does not prevent us from praying for those whom we loved on earth and .those who have gone before v?. It is a privilege not to be lightly thrown aside.

Sinoa writing my last letter I have learnt that the public Press in England has lately bean exercised over this very question. It appears that the Wesleyan Conference has included in its proceedings a memorial ser« vice for departed ministers, and muoh discussion has resulted. The opinion of John Wesley was stated in my last, and it is interesting to observe that the Wesleyans shortly after Wesley's death published a new edit on of his workr. with a view to suppress some of his teachings and directions, and Wesley's prayer for the faithful departed was struck on. But now we find the Wesleyan Conference of England, over one hundred years after Wesley's death, admitting by their act 3 that Wesley was right, and his editors were wrong in the mat er of prayers for the dead.— Yours, etc.,

Chubchman.