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There can be no neutrality in this business; if we are not for Christ we are against him. If we do not take a stand for the truth, and hold up light as we receive it, we virtually say by our silence, that we approve of the present state of things. And will God hold us guiltless? Nay, he will require at our hands the blood of souls in the day of eternity, and we shall be reproached by those who perish through our neglect, for not sounding the alarm and warning them of their danger. Let ministers therefore lead the van by renouncing every unscriptural practice and doctrine, and bear a faithful testimony against the beast and his army. Let them shew by their works that they care more for the truth of God than the praise or favour of men; and by their boldness, diligence and perseverance in this war, with the dragon and his angels, set an encouraging example for private Christians to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Let private Christians also be up and doing. It is not reasonable that they should expect ministers to do all which is to be done in bringing down old Babylon, and demolishing the devil's kingdom in the world-this is too frequently the case, but it is an egregious mistake-every Christisn has something to do in the cause of God-they should be lively stones in his building-they are said to be members of Christ's body, of his flesh, and of his bones; and if so, will they not feel for one another, and for bleeding, suffering Zion. They should never rest until her righteousness goes forth as the morning, and her salvation as the lamp that burneth. O Christians, can you find nothing to do when Zion lays waste, her ways mourn, and so few come to her solemn feasts-look at the discarded state of the world -see your fellow men in numbers innumerable, on the very brink of eternal ruin-the storm gathering over their heads, and soon, very soon will they be swept away with the besom of destruction, and buried in undistinguished ruin, except they repent! Besides this will you not hold up the hands of God's faithful

ministers who are labouring to build the walls of Jerusalem amid many discouragements-opposed by the openly ungodly and formal hypocritical professors. The Apostle Paul, when engaged in the great and arduous work of the ministry, entreated the prayers of his brethren that utterance might be given him to make known the riches of the gospel; and every true minister sets much by the prayers of the children of God-they feel their entire dependance on the grace of God, to enable them to maintain to the glory of their Master the warfare in which they have engaged, and that without Christ strengthening them they can do nothing. Many obstacles appear before them, which at times look almost insurmountable; their foes potent and numerous, and they rejoice when they are assured that they have brethren who feel interested for them, and frequently bear them in the arms of their faith, before the throne of grace. But how cold and indifferent to this duty are a great majority of professing Christians; their stupidity is really painful, and by their indifference and inattention to the great duty of prayer, they clearly discover that they care but little what becomes of the cause of Christ, or those whom God hath called to preach the gospel among them. In pursuance to the great promises of God to his church, that he will destroy anti-christ and fill the whole earth with his glory, every Christian should be earnest in prayer: indeed they should pray without ceasing to the Almighty sovereign of the world, to hasten on the auspicious day, when all nations shall call him blessed, and unto this end to strengthen the hands and encourage the hearts of all his faithful servants, and bless every means and endeavour (which are lawful) calculated to accomplish this end. This one thing Christians may do,if they can do nothing else. In every condition and situation in life, they can call upon their God, and it is very desirable that they should improve this privilege. Besides this, many private Christians may do much in hastening on the glorious Millennium

state of the church, and they should be willing to spend and be spent in the work. The Lord will accomplish his work, and if we will not voluntarily engage in his service, he will raise up others who shall zealously maintain his cause in the world, and contend for the glory of his name, while we shall be left to perish in our lukewarmness, and in eternity be forever ashamed, confounded and tormented for our folly and inactivity. "Blessed is he that watcheth, and keeps his garments." Christians, the heart searching eyes of the great God are upon you! He will remember your works and ways; if you patiently continue in well doing, you shall have glory, honour, immortality, eternal life; verily, you shall not lose your reward-every sigh for the abominations of the wicked, every tear shed for suffering Zion, and every groan uttered in her behalf, shall be remembered; and if you faithfully maintain your integrity at this trying time, and among this degenerate and perverse generation, you shall rejoice with the holy apostles and prophets, at the complete destruction and fall of Babylon, with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

5th. In the light of the foregoing subject, we discover that numerous passages of scripture, on which the universal restoration plan has been founded, have, by the advocates of that system, been grossly perverted and wrested. Mr. Winchester laid his prin-. cipal stress on those passages in the old testament, which undoubtedly refer to the latter day glory of the church, or Millennial state of the world, to try to make it appear that the wicked would at some period of time be delivered from the prison of hell.

When God declares that in the seed of Abraham all nations of the earth shall be blessed, we are not to understand it to mean that all mankind that have ever lived or shall ever live on the earth shall be saved by him, but rather that some of all nations, and partieularly all the world in the days of the Millennium.So also when he says, ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost

parts of the earth for thy possession; and again "that all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: And all the kindred of the nations shall worship before him;" we are by no means to suppose that those who have already, or may in future die in their sins, shall turn unto the Lord and worship before him-such a construction of such passages is incongruous with reason and common sense. We are to understand them as relating to and prophetical of the Millennium, at which time all the "ends of the world shall turn to the Lord, for his knowledge shall cover the earth as the waters do the deep. So also the plain meaning of Paul, in the eleventh chapter of Romans, when he speaks of all Israel's being saved, and of the casting of them away being the reconciling of the world: so shall the receiving of them be life from the dead, is, that in the days of the Millennium, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come, then Israel who are now cast away as a nation and people, from the privileges of the Gospel, shall be again received and enjoy gospel blessings, and all Israel who are then on the earth shall be saved. This appears plain and intelligible-take for instance into view any particular church, which may have been constituted two hundred years; we yet speak of it as the very same church which existed two hundred years ago-and if at the expiration of that time it is true that all the members then living, belonging to that church, are Christians, we would not hesitate to say that all that church shall be saved-or that all that church enjoy religion. The church has existed as an individual has been spoken of as an individual in the singular number, and when we declare it is the very same church which was established, constituted or planted two hundred years ago; we do not understand that the church is now composed of the same individual members which it was thenyet how many in reading of the future prosperity and salvation of Israel, run into this gross delusive error. The American nation is the same that it was when

Independence was declared, yet, comparatively speaking, but few of the individuals compose the nation which did then-our fathers, where are they? Gone-but is the nation gone?-and is it not strange that any sincere enquirer after truth, should so pervert scripture and reason, as some have done, in endeavouring to build the fabric of Universalism on those passages of scripture, which foretell the future holiness and happiness of all Jews and Gentiles in the world, which may be as clearly understood, and are as intelligible as the foregoing subjects? But the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; and it is because mankind wish to have this doctrine true, so that they may be saved, let them live as they list, that they try to bring themselves to believe it. A man may make himself believe almost anything which he wishes to-for instance, take an anecdote: Two neighbours, in time of the revolutionary war, heard that Gen. Burgoyne was taken with his army and forces--they both had the same news, heard the same story, and had the same evidence to rely on, with a regard to the authenticity of the report; but one firmly believed the report, and the other as positively disbelieved it, and so confident were each of these men that they were correct in their opinion, that they were ready, each one to lay a wager of fifty dollars on the issue. Now what made the difference between these two men-the fact was, one was a whig and the other a tory-one wanted the news to prove true, and the other did not-for they both had sufficient evidence of the truth of the report, to remove all doubts from any candid mind-so it is with many in regard to their religious opinions-they adopt some plan which is agreeable to their selfish feelings, and then they go zealously at work, in order to bring the scriptures to agree with their notions but will they not wrest the scriptures to their eternal destruction? Surely the Lord is of one mind, and none shall turn him; and the lip of truth has declared that without holiness, no man shall see the

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