THE REV. GIBSON SMITH AND HIS VISION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14281, 1 August 1908, Page 7

THE REV. GIBSON SMITH AND HIS VISION.

Silt, Mr Gibson Smith's sermon, as reported in your issue of Tuesday last, sug- . gests some thoughts which I should liko to place before your read era. First of all, I should like to say that Mr Smith has expressed the reason which led him to write the book with refreshing frankness and simplicity. For. this there is much to bo inasmuch as it will help to enable his readers to estimate his work at its true value. Ho has seen a vision, and this vision forms tho groundwork of the whoio book This vision lias reoalled to 'my mind several visions mentioned in the Bible. In Hab. 2-3 we read: "lor the vision is for the appointed time, and it hasteiieth towards tho end, and shall not lie, though it tarry in wait for it." It would seem, that Mr Smith's vision resembles tlio above in this j respect—that ho waited for a long time for it,,but I am afraid it onnnot be said that it hath not lied. I am reminded of another vision described in II Chron. xviii, 19-20, to which the rtjader may turn at his leisure. One is somewhat surprised that, though Mr Smith waited long for the vision, he kept his light hidden undor a biishel for 21 years before giving to his co-religionists and the world at largo the revelation vouchsafed to him, notwithstanding the astounding statement th&fc lie had' to dcclare in his book the view of the Atonement then revealed to him or lose his own soul. It appears from this that ho has gone on preaching for '21 years with his precious soul in jeopardy all tho while. It would be interesting to know what view of tho Atonement Mr Smith, preaohed during aJI those yca-rs in-'which he was hiding this inner light. . Moreover, it seems strange ajid inexplicable that, although things dark and perplexing bofore had all boon made so plain and dear, it took 21 years for Mr Smith to find language to express what was so clear and so dear to his own soul. Instead of Mr Smith claiming that his book is an expression of the truth to which ho had so far, been able to attain, he might! havo said the opinions he had formed, for I venture to say that no true and enlightened Christian will admit that in his view of the Atonement one grain of truth has been expressed. ,He admits that his personal experience does not give him authority to over-ride the Scriptures, but he claims that it has given him a standard by which to tho traditional interpretation which had been put upon the Scriptures. Now, inasmuch as the traditional view of the Atonement as being an expiation for 6in is strict!}' in accordance with Scripture, Mr Smith, in' an indirect and somewhat clever and subtle way, docs claim to over-ride the Scriptures. It is as though an offender wero to challenge the decision of a judge— a, decision strictly in acoordance with the law, and all the wholo profess to know the law, but claim to differ from the jud-go's translation of it. Mr Smith thus attempts to cloud tho iesue, hut utterly fails. Ho says he was assured that God loved him for the Christ within him. If the Christ Wft.i in him at -tho time tho vision took place—Ch-nst the Light of tho World, the true light that lighieth every man, Christ the hope of glory—why was Mr Smith in suoh dense darkness and distress up to, tot fame? Nowhere does Scripture teach that Christ within us called forth God's love; but on the contrary, that God's' love ra.ve Christ to us, and to as Jiviny as received Him, to them gave Ho power to become tho sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. The strong man armed kept his goods till a stronger than ho canio and took pcscssion. " We were," says Paul, "by nature tho children of wrath, cvcii as tho rest. Mr Smith says that when ho saw that lovo could' only love that which was truly lovable, all difficulties were solved. How doos this doctrine square with Komans v, 8?—" But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." In 1" irst Corinthians vi, Paul, after giving a list of sinners of the deepest dye, says: "And such were somo of you; kit you are washed," etc. Col. i, 21, teaches tli-e same truth: "They were enemies- in their minds 'by evil works, but ware reconciled through Christ's daith." Mr Smith further says, "I camo to see that that awful picture of God' tho Father shooting forth the lightnings of His wrath agaiinst His innocent Son, which used to fill my youthful soul with a horror of great darkness, was not a picture which could claim -for ilself tho sanotipn of Scripture." Of , oourso Mr Smith arrived at this conclusion from what he saw in his vision, not from anything ho found in Scripture. Strange that that picture which has brought rest and unspeakable joy to tho hoarts of God's saints in all a.ges of the Churches history sliould have filled his soul with such holy horror. But to represent God as laying hold of His inoeent Son and forcing Him to bear the burden of our sins on tho Cross is grossly to misrepresent what the Scriptures tench on tho subject. That Christ's death was the result of a covenant between Father and Son before time began is clearly taught in God's Word. Pa,ul speaks of eternal life which God promised before the world began. To whom was it promised if not to Christ on behalf of His members? In First Peter we read that he was foreclaimed of God to take away our sius. In Hebrews xiii, 20, the blood of the everlasting covenant is mentioned, through which God brought up aeain tho Lord Jesus Christ from tho dead. Compare Zeo. xi. 11: "Christ oould say: 'No man takefeh My life from -Me I have power to lay it down and take it again.' For the joy that was set before him He endured the Cross, despising tin; shame." Mr Smith would rob tho sinner of his Saviour and Christ of His glory. How, I ask, does he explain such passages as the following:—''Thy wrath 1-ieth hard upon me, and Thou liast afflicted, mo with all Thy waves?" (Psalms lxxxviii. 7): " He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, tho chastisement of our peacc was upon Him, and bv His stripes we aio healed. When thou shalt make His soul an otfciring for sin," etc. Isa. liii); '' Whom God liath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood that God might be just anil tho justifier of him that lielievet.il in Jesus " (Romans iii, 25-26). Does not this clearly sliow that God could not be just and at the same time justify tho sinnor without the propiatjon? This ■ doctrine runs through the Old and New Testament alike. All the sacrifices pointed forward to this on© offering. Itl is as plain as the figures on a dial or the sun in the hea-vens. Outside of Scripture men mav theorise and speculate, but an apjwal to tho "Law and the Testimony" settles tho whole question. It was this doctrine which filled Paul with holy rapture and wonder and praise, and has filled thousands since, Paul's day till now:. The difficulty arising from the fact that the blackest crime in history was concomitant with tho manifestation of God's righteous indignation against sin seems to me only imaginary. Three great forces or currents mot at the cross—viz., God's wrath against sin, God's love to the sinner, and man's deep and implacable enmity to God; and the. cross thus furnishes to the wojld an 1 ptjcct -lesson .{oE-aJI time .of-all-three Does

,Ml*"*TT't"*""" M I TTTT Mr Smith seriously beliove that tlie Church is likely to remodel the theology of nearly 19 centuries on the authority derived from his vision ol 20 years ago? Are the hymns of Milton, Cowpor, Wesley, Watt, and Bonav, and of hundreds more, with tons of tho best religious literature, to be thrown aside as false and worthless? Had Mr Smith carefully studied the epistle to tho Hebrews he might have learned that Chirst Himself could have had 1 no standing as mail's representative- in the presence ot God apart from His own blood shedding. Had he studied Gal. i, 8-9, in which Taul twice ' ijjronounc.es an anathema against those whoSnreaph another Gospel, I venture to say that'll would havo waited another 20 , years before, ■publishing' his hook and thus perpetrating such an outrage on the doctrine of the Croifs, and cm the feelings of those who love and honour Clirist'6 blessed name.—l am, P.W., Littleboume, July 31.' ,W. ANDBnsox.