JANUARY, 1885.
THE PRESENT TRUTH.
141
persons who ought to be the first to set an example of
obedience. At Manchester a confectioner is pounced
upon for selling “lucky balls’ containing coins, and in
London a man is prosecutid for holding a lottery in the
streets ; but if they had done the same thing at a
religious bazaar they would have gone scot free. It is
high time ministers and church officers washed their
hands of this business, and frowned it out of existence.
Dean Oakley, we are glad to see, has been lifting up
his voice against gambling, in the pulpit of Manches-
ter Cathedral. From every pulpit in the land the
same testimony ought to be borne. The Dean perti-
nently asks why poor boys should be stopped from
playing chuck-farthing in the streets while betting
clubs are allowed to flourish, why there should be one
law for the rich and another for the poor? And
we want to know why lotteries should be put down by
the arm of the law in every place but the church.”
THE THEOLOGICAL TREND.
WE are glad to see the old crror of everlasting
torment giving way. It is unscriptural, unseien-
tific, illogical, unjust. Hut we are not prepared
to admit universalisniy, or restorationism, in its
place. The tollowing from: a leader in the Chris.
tian World of Nov. 27, entitled * the Unseen
World,” well shows the theological trend upon
this question: —
“Divines of all schools and parties are now
disposed to admit that theologians brought up an
evil report of the promised land, and that salva-
tion is offered to mankind with a Godlike gener-
osity, It seems almost incredible that, in the
memory of the present generation, Frederick Den-
nison Maurice should have been expelled from
King’s College for publishing these words : ¢ What
dream of ours can reach to the assertion of St.
John that death and hell shall be cast into the lake
of fire? I cannot fathom the meaning of such
expressions, Dut they are written : I accept them,
and give thanks for them. I feel there isan abyss
of death into which T may sink and be lost.
Christ’s gospel reveals an nbyss of love below that ;
I am content to be lost in that.’ The diffienlty
now would be to find any divine of authority and
repute who would hesitate for a moment to adopt
the words as his own. Dean Plumptre can cite a
clond of witnesses to the larger hope. Roman
(Catholics like Cardinal Newman, Cardinal Man-
ning, and Mr. Oxenham, Anglican divines like
Tusey, Farrar, Birks, Bickersteth., and a host of
others, Non-conformists like Mr. White, Mr. Cox,
Mr. Baldwin Brown, if they do not suspend their
differences, or agree on any one view as to cternal
life, yet all look towards a brighter future than
former generations dared to hope for. Dean
Plumptre himself is bold enough to suggest, if but
in a whisper, the transporting vision of universal
restoration. To this, he says, ‘it cannot be denied
that the teaching of the New Testament tends.’
But, in the conclusion of his thoughtful and able
book, he warns his readers against effacing all
sense of the majesty and the terror of Divine law.
I have no wish,’—such arc his words—* in giving
utterance to these thoughts as to the possibilities
of the intermediate state, to rest in an unreal op-
timism. The vision, seen through the uplifted
corner of the veil, is not without its terrors. The
flames of Hades in which the rich man was tor-
mented are the symbols of a dread reality,’ True;
where sin is, there will be misery; but, while Gop
lives, there will be hope.”
While there are many who, in breaking away
from the horrors of Augustine's hell, get hold of
the truth, conditional immortality, the great mass
are drifting to the other extreme: and those who
still hold tenaciously to the dectrine of eternal
misery, hold it in a modified form. Dut restora-
tionism is not much better. Tt ignores the justice
of God, upon which the very integrity of the Divine
government rests. It leads the sinner to reject
the message, “ Behold, now is the accepted time,
now is the day of salvation.” It is contrary to
God's word and the great plan of the atonenrent.
It retains the Roman purgatory, if it does not use
the name. And all this is pleasing to the carnal
heart, which is soothed to sleep in the hope of a
hereafter in which the Lord will vight the wronus
of this life. All this is in harmony with modern
Spiritualism, which is waiting with open maw to
devour all who will not receive the love of the
truth, lulling them to ease meanwhile by siren
songs of a happy future. Loman Catholics escape
the horrors of their hell, however wicked they may
be, if they die in the pale of the chureh, by the
purgatorial fires of Limbo; Protestantism is build-
ing up a sinlar “half-way house” for its faith-
ful (?); while modern Spiritualism sweeps in
the whole mass. May God help the reader that
when the eternal fiat may go forth, “Ie that
is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he
that is holy, let him be holy still” (Rev. 22: 11),
he may be found among that class whose hopes are
not based on the false and dreamy speculations of
a future probation.
Tre Hrss1oNARY.
“ Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many
days.”’—Eecl. 11: 1.
WAITING.
T ann waiting for the dawning
Of the bright and blessed day,
When the darksome night of sorrow
Shall have vanished far away;
When forever with the Saviour,
Far beyond the gloom of tears,
I shall swell the songs of worship
Through the everlasting years.
I am looking at the brightness—
See, it shineth from afar-—
Of the clear and joyous beaming
Of the * bright and morning star,”
Through the dark gray mists of morning
Do 1 see its glorious light:
Soon shall flee the darkest shadow
Of this sad and weary night.
I am waiting for the coming
Of the Lord who died for me;
Oh! His words have filled my spirit,
“1 will come again for thee,”
I can almost hear his footfall
On the threshold of the door,
And my heart, my heart is longing
To be his for evermore. —Selecled..
->- re
THE REFORMATION IN GREAT BRITAIN.
ENGLAND SEVERED FROM THE PAPACY.
Some cighteen years after his marriage with
Catherine, the doubts which Henry VIII. at first
entertained in regard to the validity of his marriage
revived, and he sought to dissolve the connection.
These doubts appear to have been strengthened
by his desire for a younger and more beautiful
queen, Catherine being many years his senior.
Wolsey was very ready to encourage the king, be-
cause he knew that the dissolution of the marriage
would create an irreparable breach between Henry
VIII and Charles V., Catherine's nephew, whom he
could not forgive for his disappointment in being
deprived of the papal chair. He therefore under-
took to procure a divorce from the Pope, who being
a prisoner in the hands of Charles V. feared to
displease him by casting dishonor upon a member
of his family. When Wolsey learned, however,
that King Henry, on obtaining a divorce, designed
to marry Anne Boleyn, one who favored the reform-
ers, he permitted the business of the divorce to
languish. By this course he incurred the wrath of
the king, was commanded to resign the great seal,
and at length died under arrest in November, 1530.
The death of Wolsey scems to have severed the
last tic that bound Henry VIII. to Rome, and pre-
pared the way for steps to be taken that would
free Pngland from the papal power. In 1532,
Inw was passed which prohibited the payment of
firstfrnits to the lope, wnd decreed that any cen-
anre which might emanate from thie court of Rome,
on account of such prohibition, should be disre-
In like manner appeals to Rome in eauses-
garded.
of matrimony, divorces, wills and other suits
cognizable in ceclesinsticul courts were forbidden,
while the oath of canonical obedience to the
supreme Pontiff, which the bishops had been in the
habit of taking, was declared incompatible with the
duty which they owed as subjects to the crown of
England.” “Allegiance to the see of Rome was
renounced both by the king and the people, and
both king and people were threatened with the
painsof excommunication.” In 1533 the king was:
married to Anne Boleyn, and a court was opened
to consider the validity of his previous marriage,
which was pronounced by Cranmer, Wolsey’s
successor, to be “ contrary to the will of God,” and
hence “null and void.”
In January, 1534, ¢ Parlinment gave a death
blow to the supremacy of the Pope. They enacted
that, the authority of the Bishop of Rome being
opposed to Holy Scripture and the laws of the
realm, the words and acts that were contrary to
the decisions of the Pontiff could not be regarded
as heresies. Thomas Philips, who had been in
prison three years under a charge of heresy, was
set at liberty. The Commons restored to England
the right of which Rome had despoiled her in
reference to appeals and the election of bishops.
Parliament forbade everybody, even the king him.
self, to apply to * Rome for any dispensation or
delegation whatsoever, and formally ratified the
marriage between Henry and Anne.”"—Hist, Great
Deformation.
In the month of March following, the Pope
summoned the consistory who decreed that the
marriage between Henry VIIL and Catherine was
“valid and canonical,” and thus the king of Eng-
land was condemned by the court of Rome. In
the meantime, Henry had dispatched envoys to
Iiome bearing an act in which the king “declared
himself prepared to enter into an arrangement
with the Pope.” Fortunately for the cause of
Protestantism, these envoys did not reach Rome
till two days after the king had been condemned
by the consistory. On learning of this, a mes-
senger was sent to the king to receive further
orders.
The historian says: ‘When the king of Eng.
land received his ambassadors’ message, he could
hardly restrain his anger. National pride arrayed
the people on the king's side. Henry no longer
hesitated ; his offended honor demanded reparation ;
a complete rupture alone could satisfy it. He
wrote a treatise entitled, *On the power of Chris-
tian kings over their churches, against the tyranny
and horrible impiety of the Pope.’ Parliament, the
privy council, the people, and even the clergy, de-
clared against Rome. By a vote of thirty-three to
four, the lower house of Convocation, on the 81st of
March, decided that the Roman Pontiff had in
Fngland, according to the Seriptures, no higher
jurisdiction than any other foreign bishop. The
friends of the gospel were filled with joy." —Huist.
Great Reformation.
Some three months later, the king announced
himself “supreme head of the church of England,”
and gave orders that the Word of the Lord should be
preached, and that the name of the Bishop of Rome
should no more be remembered. This decree did not
arise from any leaning towards Protestantism on
the part of the king, but from his ambition and de-
sire to be revenged on the Pope. He was still a
bigot to the doctrines of Ilome, and the reading
of the Scriptures was for a while prohibited. He
“proceeded with indiscriminating fury against both
Lutherans and papists. The former he condemned
to the flames as heretics, because they presumed to
deny the truth of doctrines which he professed;
the latter died upon the scaffold as traitors, be-
cause they refused to admit his supremacy.” Sir
Thomas More and Bishop Fisher are examples of
devoted papists who suffered martyrdom at his
hand. “In less than two years, six hundred and
forty-five monastic establishments were over-
thrown of which twenty-eight had been governed,
by abbots possessing seats in the upper house of
Parliament. Nor were colleres, chantries, free
chapels, or even hospitals spared. One common
ruin overtook the whole, out of which an annual
revenue, estimated at one-twentieth part of the
nationu! income was rendered available for the
service of the State.” The spoils of these were