LECTURE.

Western Star, Issue 930, 14 March 1885, Page 2

LECTURE.

[Communicated.]

" Christ’s coming and kingdom is the only hope of life and immortality for both the dead and the dying." This the inbjeSV'of the lecture delivered in the Old Presbyterian Chruroh on Sunday evening last by Mr W, G. Mackay of East Invercargill, After reading third chapter of Acts, Mr J. Beer, who occupied the chair, introduced Mr Maokay. The lecturer entered upon the subject by Buying that Christ occupied a much larger, and certainly a much more interesting place in Bible revelation it is given to most people to think of. ’ The frequency with which Christ is contemplated in Old Testament utterances and institutions can only stand revealed to the mind in all ite enlightening fulness as the reenlt of understanding “ the things concerning the kingdom of God and tke name of Jesus Christ”(Acte VIII., 12) and a daily and painstaking application of tke New Testament “key of knowledge" to all departments of divine truth. That Christ should figure so largely in all the divine communications is attributable to the fact that he is the form of God's purposed goodness upon earth, both in its development and in its ultimate mult, answering in some way to every requirement of the gradually unfolding scheme until finally as the result of his finished work he shall deliver the Kingdom of this world to the Father, “ that God may be all and in all "upon earth as he is in heaven (1 Cor. •XV.—24,28). But there are many slowly revolving parts in so glorious and comprs* hensive a programme. For the sake of perspecuity they may be generally summarised

m . wa J r '~ First > th « Bible present* ns with Christ as the subject of continual' pro* photic intimation for a period of nearly 4,000 years; second, as an actual sojourner upon earth for over 33 years; third. aa absent from the scene of his Bufferings at the Father’s right hand for a long but limited period (Acts III.—30,21), answering to the past 1800 years ; fourth, as returned to earth again in the plenitude of his power, entrusted with a mission requiring a whole 1000 years for its accomplishment. We find that Christ’s two advents are chronologi* cally attached to the ending of two distinct dispensations—his first appearing preceding the overthrow of the Jewish commonwealth only by a few years (Heb. 1X.—28), and his second coming also intro* duces us to the end of the Gentile age, or the present dispensation. Or, putting it in another light, Christ’s comings are -eoa* surrent with the beginning and ending ef Jerusalem’s downloading (Luke XXI, *4). hence Christ’s future entry aeain Into the world is the signal fop Jewish uprise and ascendancy once wore in the land of their nativity and the complete “ restoration ef the Kingdom of Israel” (Acts I, 6) aa the nucleus of that universal and unconquenbla dominion which will at last basfcin peace and undisturbed prosperity, when “ ths Kingdoms of this world shall become the ef Jehovah and His Annointed.” Then the reliability or Christ’s second coming is amply certified in many other scriptures, tor example: the testimony of angels, “ This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven” (Acts I, 11). Nothing could possibly be more explicit than this angelic deliverance, establishing as it doe* not only the certainty of a future manifestation from Heaven, but also making bis return to his disciples to resemble the manner of his departure from their midst, which of cours# ia that case was real and pere mal enough as will bs readily admitted. But it wM be seen upon a moment’s reflection that a consistent interpretation of the Word of Truth require* lha same frank and open confession in both eases. The leuluser then took a rapid tour through all the books of the Bible, beginning with Genesis, shoeing that the one universal theme o! Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets, consisted in lifting up the glorious prospect from age to age with reverberating strain, c>ying, “Christ is coming again.” That Christ’s coming is the oniy hope for mankind, whether as nations or individuals, and whether as dead or alive, which is only another way of snying that he it the only name given under Heaven whereby we may he saved. But nations need saving as well as persons, and Christ is therefore set forth as the Saviour of nations. The return of Christ is connected with the bestowal of immortality upon his faithful follow* rs. Christ is ths only source of their eternal life, which in the Bibl* as* of these terms signifies a renewed bodily existence dependant upon the resurrection (Ist Cor., 15lh ch.) for its realisation. T# the Gospel-believer death is an unconscious interval, as the Scriptures say, “the dead know not anything.” This is very important to rea ise, because for that reason Abraham, say, who has been dead for thousands of years, ia so far as his consciousness ia concerned, introduced to Christ at his' coming as an event of the next moment. Lapse of time make no difference to the dead, and, therefore to- them there' ia no differing degrees of distance separating them from Christ—a thousand years and onn day of equal length to those who are in ths grave; so that on this principle Christ’* coming ia an equal distance from every age in respect of all who have fallen asleep in him. Resurrection is the only door of en* trance to a future life: we inherit no life from Adam beyond what is guaranteed and sustained by this vanishing breath (James 4, 14.) The common notion that we are im* mortal in our very nature cuts at the root of Christ’s kingdom and coming, and eats it out like a canker, as it does also the glorious doctrine of the resurrection—nay, it even goes deeper than that, for it destroys the first principles of God’s moral government and utterly slaughters the entire system of revealed truth. If immortality commence at death then no resurrection is needed, for it must be seen to be entirely superseded. God requires the confession of mortality (in* herited as the consequence of sin) on the ' part of all his people as the passport to ac» o.ptance. All the bloody sacrifices under the Mosaic law and from the time of Able is expressive of this idea.—The attendance at the lecture was very good, and marked inti* rest was manifested by the audience through--out.—The Chairman intimated at the close of the lecture that Mr Mackay would return (D.V.) on some near future occasion, and deliver another lecture on the prophetic dates, showing the probable nearness of th* second coming of Christ and the end of tha present constitution of things.