86. “Anxious.” You will find an answer to your question in a tract entitled “Final Perseverance: What is it?” If you will enclose three postage stamps, with your address, to our publisher, Mr. Morrish, he will forward the tract to you.
87. “E. L.” requests that, while praying for all boarding schools, day schools, and Sunday schools throughout the world, we forget not the thousands of dear children who are obliged to spend from ten to twelve hours a day in the factory, or the workroom, and are thus unable to attend any day school, and many of them, alas! unwilling to attend a Sunday school. We feel, in some small degree, the power of this appeal, and would earnestly respond to it, and call upon our readers to do the same. Oh! may the good Lord have mercy upon the poor factory children!
88. “C. H. W.,” Windsor. We consider the four living creatures—the heads of creation—to be the inseparable adjuncts of God’s throne of government. The twenty-four elders represent the redeemed. As to the subject of eternal punishment, we have handled it in a separate paper, in one of our earlier volumes; and we have also touched upon it in our series of articles under the head of “Glad Tidings.”
89. “A Constant Reader,” Weston-super-Mare. We are not aware of any rule amongst those Christians to whom you refer, as to the use of the form of prayer in question. We have heard it used, and have no objection to its use if souls are only on the ground therein contemplated. It is a great thing to be honest, according to our light, and not to traffic in unfelt truth. We do not feel it to be our province, as the conductors of this serial, to enter any further upon the question.
90. “L.E.L,” Northampton. You certainly had no need to offer an apology for a letter so full of comfort and encouragement We beg to tender you our very warmest thanks. May your heart and mind be kept in perfect peace!
91. “A Blood-washed One,” Derry. “We have heard, through various sources, of the work of God in Derry. May it prosper abundantly, and the circle of its influence extend far and wide. May God keep His servants humble and dependent! We are increasingly convinced that the quiet, shady, retired path is the best and safest for the christian workman. There is always immense danger when a man or his work becomes remarkable. When the fame of Israel was being spread abroad amongst the Canaanites, the Lord commanded Joshua to “make sharp knives and circumcise the people.” (Josh. 5:22At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. (Joshua 5:2).) Nature must be put in the place of death and kept there. With regard to your question about baptism, we assuredly hold that all believers ought to be baptized. It is the great initiatory ordinance of Christianity.
92. “E. S. K,” North Brixton. We are greatly interested in your letter, in your work, and in your case altogether. We entirely agree with your method of teaching the dear children of your class. They should be taught, from their very earliest moments, to look to Jesus, and to trust in the living God. We should not exactly put a form of words into a child’s mouth; but we should, in every possible way, seek to unfold the sweet privileges of a life of faith, and the preciousness of drawing near to God in prayer. Do not let your heart be troubled about your not having any original thoughts. In point of fact there is but One Great Original. All comes from Him; and it does not matter whether He sends it directly or makes use of some pen or voice as His channel. Let your eyes be ever and only upon Him, and you may rest assured He will feed you with food convenient for your precious soul, in whatever way seems best to Him. May He bless you most abundantly, and give you many seals from amongst your dear young pupils! We cannot tell you how much we rejoice in the growing interest of many of our friends in that most blessed work of Sunday-school teaching. The Lord be praised!
93. “S. Ο. N.,” Norwich. We cannot, at all, adopt your friend’s interpretation of Matthew 5:25, 2625Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. 26Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. (Matthew 5:25‑26). The idea of “the after punishment of saints” savors more of purgatory than of Christianity. We believe the passage refers to the nation of Israel, and their attitude with respect to God, during the ministry of Christ. In point of fact, they have been cast into prison, and so far as that generation is concerned, there is no escape. There will, through grace, be a penitent remnant, in the latter day, which shall become the nucleus of the restored nation. We doubt not that, in a secondary sense, the passage contains moral teaching for us; but the bare idea of “the after punishment of saints” is, in our judgment, perfectly monstrous.
94. “A. B.,” Reading. The Lord alone can give you wisdom and grace to act in the painful circumstances you describe. If you really wait on Him, He will teach you when to speak and when to keep silence. There is danger of speaking in haste of temper rather than in a spirit of love, when replying to the godless remarks of the unconverted. This is to be guarded against. And further, we must remember that there is very often far more powerful testimony in solemn and dignified silence than in talking for talking’s sake. But, as we have said, the Lord will guide the lowly dependent heart. He will tell you when to speak and when to be silent; and then, you may rest assured, the speaking and the silence will each be fruitful in its season.
95. “A Young Christian,” Bath. Thanks for your kind note, and the accompanying lines. You can hardly form an idea of the amount of poetry sent in to us, from time to time. It would be impossible to insert it all, even if. we could adopt it, which we certainly could not. It is one thing to write true and pious sentiments, in a sort of meter, and it is quite another thing to write poetry, We should be sorry indeed to pen a single line which might cast a damp upon the very weakest of the Lord’s little ones; but then we have a duty to discharge in reference to our readers, as well as to our contributors; and we fondly trust that none will take offense at our not adopting articles, whether in poetry or prose, which we do not deem suitable. We have repeatedly had to reject most excellent papers, on the ground of their not exactly falling in with our special line of things.
96. “C. C,” London. We have had a similar application from another correspondent, and we must refer you, as we have referred him, to our publisher. We are deeply thankful for the interest manifested in the papers to which you both call our attention. If the Lord has need of them, in a separate form, He will guide as to their publication. To Him we desire to commit the matter.
97. “An Inquirer,” Stonehouse. We do not believe that “the man of sin” can appear upon the scene until after the Church has been taken up. No doubt, there are many antichrists, as the Apostle John tells us. But the man of sin, spoken of in 2 Thess. 2, is a distinct personage, who is to make his appearance after the Church has left the earth. It is upon this ground that we object to the application of the term “man of sin” to any individual now living. We cannot attempt to enter upon such a wide and weighty subject in our brief reply to a correspondent; but we must give expression to our clear and long-cherished conviction, that no one can properly interpret prophecy who does not see the distinctive place and portion of the Church of God. The fact is, that Church forms no part of the ways of God with this world; it is quite a parenthesis, as we say. Whereas, on the other hand, the grand theme of prophecy, from beginning to end, is God’s government of the world, in connection with the nation of Israel.
“A Subscriber from the first.” Your communication is too late for July.