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of is not "after the flesh," but the risen Christ. And those who are to be conformed to His image are not 'spirit beings," but heavenly men, raised in the fashion of the heavenly manhood. This is the scriptural idea of human perfection and of complete salvation. Our author's whole idea of the age to come, with its chosen company of divine saints, who, in becoming sons of God, cease to be men, and of a vast company on the lower plane of human perfection, who can never reach this high goal of union with the divine, is throughout vitiated by this misconception. There is no salvation for men except through union with the divine. The plan of Creation and redemption culminates in the exaltation of a chosen seed to be joint heirs with Christ of our Father's vast estate. Man was made in the image of God to have this dominion. But he could worthily wear this crown only as he could win his way to it through victory over all the powers that rule or riot in it, and over death. Only God could carry the man-nature through this conflict, and on to this pinnacle of glory. This He did by coming into union with it in the person of Jesus. And in Him we are now being lifted up as the first fruits of His creatures. But first-fruits implies a later harvest. To deny, therefore, the manhood of the Christ, Head and members, is to misconceive the nature and design of the incarnation; and also the nature of that priestly work in the ages to come to which the church is called, which is to help their brother men on to the sure ground of fellowship in the eternal life of God, where they themselves stand. We may well admit that the degree and dignity of their sonship to God is peculiar. But they do

not drop out of human brotherhood. Otherwise they could not be priests. They are the princes, the first born of a family in which there are later born.

Mr. Russell, therefore, has need to revise his conception of the age to come in the light of this truth. He will then see that there is no room for his extra-scriptural view that resurrection will restore all men to the grade of human perfection in which they may be forever established, if obedient. What then is the meaning of the resurrection of judgment? And of the law of harvest, which requires that every one shall receive in body according to the things which he did? He will also see that there is but one life freed from all bondage to the creature—the eternal life—and that its crown can be won only on the arena of embodied manhood, and that resurrection restores the unjust only to another foothold on this arena, where, under circumstances doubtless favorable to success, they will have opportunity, which most of them never had in this life, to reach the high goal of human perfection through union in life with Him. who is the ideal Man, the perfect image of God, crowned Lord over all.

In making this criticism we do not wish to intimate that Mr. Russell does not hold with us to the essential Christian faith concerning the person, the work and the future glory of the Christ. His error seems often to be more in definition than in essence. Nor do we wish to

disparage his work. We only regret that, in his zeal to emphasize the distinction between the new manhood, which is of a divine nature, and the old natural manhood, he strips the former of its human element, forgetting that

it is by one new man, Head and members, that God is making peace and reconciling all things unto Himself.

We also regret to see that Mr. Russell holds to the unconscious state of all the dead before resurrection We have not space to give our reasons why we believe that this view does not take in the whole circle of Scripture teaching on this subject. Nor is it necessary, inasmuch as our views upon this point have been so often stated. There is so much, however, in the book that is far-sighted and excellent; so much that is above the range of current conceptions of the Scriptures as the Word of God, and of the great plan of grace they were written to reveal, that we heartily commend it as most profitable reading.

IS THE CHURCH BABYLON?

A correspondent writes to us:

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out of Babylon

The churches,
The unfaithful

My idea is that God is now calling His elect, the body or bride of Christ. as such, are not included in this call. servants who delay His coming by saying that they must convert the world before His coming must, like the scribes and Pharisees, endure the punishment due (Matt. xxiv. 48). Churches, as such, never reform. The elect only have "ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts to understand.' As there were false prophets among Israel, so there are false teachers among us. And as those "" 'prophets prophesied falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so," so it is in our day. They still shut up the kingdom of God against themselves. They will not enter, nor allow them that would enter to do so. Consequently, they must be con

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demned. We may pity their blind condition, but how can we gain them over ?"

"Babylon" is the Scripture name for that mixed condition of church and state, of things worldly and things spiritual, which has long prevailed in the world. The church of Rome is an eminent example. But not the only one. The Protestant churches have not been free from this evil. But they are not equally contaminated and enslaved by it. Many bodies of Protestant Christians have refused this bondage, and have struggled against it. It is wrong, therefore, to speak indiscriminately of the whole nominal church as Babylon. This name belongs rather to nominal Christendom, which includes all communities and states which have been brought under Christian influences. These embrace a large proportion of non-professors, as well as of worldly-minded professors. Christians in the midst of these states are banded into churches, which struggle with more or less success to lift themselves above the downward influences by which they are surrounded. Some noble efforts grace the annals of history. The Reformation period witnessed many such. In later times, we have instances like that. of the Free Church of Scotland, throwing off the shackles of the State, giving up its endowments, its buildings and livings, for the sake of Christ's crown and covenant. And there is a large element of such conscientous and self-sacrificing devotion to the truth and name of Christ in many existing churches. That Babylonish elements have found their way into all these systems we plainly see. Tares are growing with the wheat. But, it would be folly, on this account, to overlook the good in them,

or to condemn them as hopelessly corrupt. The things which can be shaken must be removed that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. And those who are enlightened to perceive the evils that are wrought into these systems have a mission in this direction. They are bound to testify against what they see to be wrong, and so to seek to make them more perfect witnesses for Christ. The first disciples were not called to leave the Jewish church until their countrymen had finally rejected Christ, and driven them out with the iron hand of persecution. God's chosen witnesses in ancient times never separated themselves from their unfaithful countrymen, although raised up to testify against them. And here we deem it right to call in question that in terpretation of "Babylon," adopted by our correspondent, which assumes that the descriptions and denunciations of that corrupt system, which are summed up in Rev. xviii, all relate to the future. It is the way of apocalyp tic prophecy to group together in one final picture events that may be far apart in time, which are yet closely related in character and issue. Babylon has had an existence almost contemporaneous with the Church. And in every age, false systems which Satan has artfully intruded into the Church, usurping her place and prerogatives, have had their day and been brought to nought. It is true they have been revived in other forms. We believe also that the final form of this usurpation, now developing in modern Christendom, will be the more deceptive and wide-spread than any that has preceded. There is a culminating "city of confusion," and a final, decisive crisis, at which

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