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absolutely essential doctrine of the Christian faith, and people who begin by going astray here, usually go on and go astray at other points, being led almost necessarily to the rejection of the divine origin and absolute reliabil ity of the Scriptures; and when a man gets there, he is open for any error that the Devil may wish to insinuate. M Mi NEXT !! ? What promises to be an historical event was a meeting held recently in London where Buddhist rubbed shoul ders with Christian, Hindu smiled in the face of the Moslem, the Sufi exchanged greetings with the Zoroastrian, and within the fold of the Nazarenes, Anglican and Dissenter spoke lovingly of things they had in common. The ob ject of the gathering was the formation of a League of Religions, that would help to support the League of Nations in its aim of promoting international righteousness and universal peace. For, as the Bishop of Kensington (who pre sided) pointed out, the League of Na tions only provided the form and the machinery, but the spirit that is to ani mate it and the motive power that is to set it going must come from the peoples to be benefited. We are told that elo quent Speeches were made by Mr. de Silva (Buddhist), Mr. Apparao (Hindu), Mayat Khan (Sufi), and the Head of the Islam Church in England. The Rev. Morris Josef (Liberal Jew) removed any misunderstanding that might be held as to the proposed League being an attempt to reduce religious convic tions to a common residuum. Every body should retain their own religious faith, but come together to work for a common purpose, he said. The KING’S BUSINESS when ordered by Sunday Schools . at a Special Price
eye, at the last trump: For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory ? O death, where is thy sting ? The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law: But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ/* And 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. “ For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch angel and with the trump of God and THE DEAD IN CHRIST SHALL RISE FIRST: Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: And so shall we ever be with the Lord.** (See also Phil. 1:23 and 2 Cor. 5:1-8.) The second part of this doctrine, the part which concerns the doom of those who refuse to put their faith in Jesus Christ, is found in 2 Thess. 1:7-9. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus: Who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might.** What destruction means as used in the Bible, that it does not mean cessa tion of existence, but conscious suffering and agony, is evident from a compari son ,of Rev. 17:8-11 with Rev. 19:20 and Rev. 20:10. That Paul did not conceive, of this suffering of those whc rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as anni hilation but conscious existence is evi dent also from Rom. 2:8-9, “But unto them that are factious and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall he wrath and indignation, TRIBULATION and ANGUISH, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek.** That this was Paul’s thought is fur ther emphasized by the verse that fol lows, where in opposition to the anguish and tribulation are placed ‘‘ GLORY, HONOR AND PEACE TO EVERY MAN THAT WORKETH GOOD.” There is no doctrine taught in the Bible at which the natural heart so rebels, and from which the hearts even of believers also recoil, until they have attained to an adequate conception of the awfulness of sin; and the infinity of God’s holiness, and the infinite glory of Jesus Christ, and the consequent awfulness of the guilt of those who persistently reject Him, as the doctrine of the conscious, endless, suffering of those who persis tently reject Jesus Christ. But this is the doctrine of the Bible, and it is an
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