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The Guardian.

VOL. XY.--- FEBRUARY 1864.--- No. 2.

THE FATE OF CHRIST'S ENEMIES.

BY THE EDITOR.

Jesus Christ is frequently set forth in the Scriptures under the symbol of a stone. On account of His great excellency, He is called a precious stone; because He was chosen from eternity by the Father, He is called elect; and because the Church is built upon Him, He is called a corner-stone. "Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious."

It was customary when a stone was selected for the corner that it was closely tried and thoroughly examined by the builder, so that there might be no flaw in it that would peril the foundation. Hence, God says of Christ, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." Because He was ordained of God without man or the will of man, He is called a stone cut out of the mountain without hands. Because He is the source of life to His people, He is called a living stone. Because the free and simple offers of salvation are offensive to the worldly wise, and because the plan of salvation which He proposes does not harmonize with the pre-conceived notions of many, He is called "a stone of stumbling and rock of offense." He is also the stone which the Jewish builders disdainfully rejected; but God has made Him the head of the corner. He is the rock of ages, the foundation of the Church and of all the hopes of men. He that is built upon Him shall be a lively stone in His temple forever, and. shall never be ashamed. He that shall reject this and build on any other shall perish; for "whosoever shall fall on this stone shall: be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder!"

If we run against a corner-stone standing out from the building, or if we stumble on a stone lying on the ground and fall upon it, we will not injure the stone but bruise ourselves. So when we oppose Christ, run against Him in the way of opposition, or stumble at any of His doctrines and fall, we will not injure Him, but we ourselves will be broken.

Christ is the foundation stone of His Church, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. He is not to be injured by the petty wrath of man. Man that comes in contact with Him in the way of opposition, resembles the miller that comes in contact with the candle he is singed and drops, while the flame burns on as before. Christ is a rock in the troubled occan of life, at whose feet all opposing waves are broken. When He met His disciples on the stormy Tiberias, He walked on the angry waves; the highest billow was beneath His feet, and at His bidding the chafing waves crouched in silence at His feet like a tamed lion before his keeper. So He walks still upon the tumultuations of the world's history. No wave of revolution rolls so high that He does not tread upon it.

For more than 1800 years, the waves of civil and religious revolution have rolled over the earth in fast succession; but behind them high and serene stands the Cross unhurt. Jesus was lifted up in shame, it is true, but more in glory. Allowing, controlling and allaying, the world's overturnings, He stands over and above them, and is in them Himself unassailed, free from all change, the same yesterday to-day and forever! He was, and is, and is to be. The heathen may rage, and the people imagine a vain thing; the kings of the earth may set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision!

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No one can with impunity oppose Him or His Church, or His people. To oppose Christ is to oppose God; to oppose His Church is to attack His Bride; to oppose His people is to attack the apple of His eye; and it were better for him that offends one of these little ones who believe in Him, that a mill-stone were hanged around his neck and he cast into the depth of the sea!

Men may fall upon Christ and oppose Him in various ways. They may do it by open and malicious opposition to Him and His Church. Such there have been found in all ages. Although His claims have been of the most reasonable and well authenticated character, yet these claims have been openly and angrily resisted. In the days of His flesh, He was branded as an imposter, though His claims to the Messiahship were established by prophecy and miracles. Even when convinced of His divine mission, they disputed His claims out of pure malice and envy. When asked for an accusation against Him they answered by exclaiming, Crucify Him; Away with Him; Not this man but Barabbas. And during the 1800 years which have passed since His ascension, there have always been those, who were neither ashamed nor afraid to lift their hands public

ly against the Lord's Anointed. And even at the present day, and in our own country, in public assemblies, as well as in private circles, is the Son of God mocked and His religion ridiculed. Wicked men fall upon Him, as an angry man upon the neck of another.

But there are also those who unwittingly fall upon, pervert, and oppose His doctrines. There are such who, without inward sympa thy with the truth, attempt to interpret the doctrines of Christ. They attempt to see light, without themselves being in God's light. According to their own carnal conceptions, do they understand God's word, and endeavor to practice it themselves and enforce it on others. Thus by their own prejudices do they wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction. Thus they walk with the people of God, but are enemies of the cross of Christ. They hold the truth in unrighteousness, and destroy their souls. Such seducing spirits, professedly friends of Christ, are His greatest enemies. They change the truth of God into a lie, and present as saving doctrines the froth of their own imaginations, or the cloudy sediment of their carnal judgments. They reform the Church by adding to its standards new doctrines, and attempt to build up the Body of Christ in the unity of the spirit and bonds of peace, by adding to it another ulcer in the form of a sect, and exclaiming: One God, one Church, one Bible, and one Interpreter of the Bible, and that interpreter am I. The fathers are dead, and buried in their ignorance; the Church is corrupt, but lo! in me dwelleth wisdom and the spirit of a sound mind. And when the great reformer has gathered a multitude around him by a trumpet of his own blowing, he exclaims: There is no Holy Ghost-the sacraments are no more valid-the inward light is our guide. Taking another breath he continues: Christ is a creature-His atonement a mere exhibition-His salvation is by education and example-there is no hell; the wicked all go to heaven, or if not, they are annihilated. This is what I say the Word of God teaches, the opinions of all men in all ages to the contrary, and he that believeth not shall be damned; yea, by me is condemned already! Such is the language of anti-christ, "whereof ye have heard that he should come; and even now already is he in the world."

But still further, all those oppose Christ, who are not actively His friends. The world, and even the Church, is full of them. They do not positively act against Christ and His Church. They acknowledge His claims; they believe His doctrine, but do not join in with Him. They are neutral in religion, in their opinion. They are enemies of Christ, in His opinion. For he that is not with Christ is against him; and he that does not join to gather with Him, scattereth abroad. Christ would even rather have such to be open enemies to Him, than thus couched on the borders between Him and Belial, where they serve both hypocritically. He would rather have us cold enemies than lukewarm friends. Those who pretend to be better than others, because they do not openly fight against Christ, are more hateful to Him than all. They do not only fall upon Him, but they lie idly around Him. They are like dead clogs in the

way of His activities and progress, and will sooner or later be crushed by the wheels of His chariot.

What are we taught in regard to those, who oppose or neglect Christ, by the records of history? Who has ever lifted his hand against Christ and prospered? God once declared by the mouth of one of His prophets, "that the multitude of all the nations that should fight against Jerusalem, and that distress her, should be as the dream of a night vision." (Is. 29: 8.) Babylon fought against Jerusalem, and where is Babylon? While the king and his dissolute court were drinking and becoming drunken out of the golden vessels, which they had carried away from Jerusalem, the ominous TEKEL upon the walls of Belshazzar's palace proclaimed, that he and his kingdom were weighed in the balances and found wanting. Rome fought against Jerusalem, and where is Rome? And the same fate might be shown to have attended the other smaller nations to their graves. Thus gloriously is the promise of God verified to His Church: "In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee-whosoever shall gather together against thee, shall fall for thy sake. No weapon that is formed against thee, shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn." (Is. 54.)

The truth of this declaration is also established by a reference to the dealings of Christ with His opposers, when He walked among men on earth. Always He came out victorious. By His wisdom the stratagems of His enemies were foiled. In argument He was always their superior. Those who entered into controversy with Him were confounded by His knowledge. Even at twelve years of age He disputed with the doctors, asking them questions which they could not answer. He spake always with authority and demonstration, as never man spake. And His bitterest enemies said: "See ye how we prevail nothing, for the whole world is gone after bim."

Even in the last scenes of His life, when the powers of darkness, in the hour which was permitted them, for a time seemed to triumph, He was the master still. The powers of this world, and of hell fell upon Him, but only to be broken. Death by attacking Him was conquered. Hell was spoiled in the conflict on the cross, though His hands and His feet were fastened. When the grave received Him, it opened its gates forever to a conqueror. Thus, of the wrath of His enemies, He made the scaffolding by which He rose to a higher glory.

Hundreds of instances might be given of individuals who fell upon Christ, not to His injury, but to their ruin. Remember Judas, and the fearful end to which his wickedness brought him. Herod, who killed the infants with the hope of destroying the Saviour among them, is another striking illustration of this truth. After a life of the greatest unhappiness, came a death of the intensest misery. His last hours were not only embittered by the turbulence and disaffection of his subjects, by the remorse of the murders which he

had committed, but by a loathsome and excruciating malady of the body. "A slow fire seemed creeping through all his vital parts; he had a rabid appetite which he dared not satisfy on account of internal ulcers, and dreadful pains. Dropsical symptoms appeared in his feet, which were swollen, and exuded. Ulcers, which bred worms, preyed upon his body. His breathing was difficult; and violent spasms, which seemed to give him unnatural strength, convulsed his frame." He even at last made an attempt upon his own life, hoping thus to end his misery. Thus the candle of the wicked goeth out in darkness. Thus fall the enemies of Jesus, and thus is verified the declaration of God's word, "Whosoever shall fall upon this stone shall be broken!"

Behold also the end of the judge, who condemned Christ. Pontius Pilate, we are told, was ultimately removed from his office on account of his cruelty, and sent to Rome to answer for his crimes. It is also said that he was banished by Caligula to Vienna, in Gaul, where he at last committed suicide. Another example can easily be given nearer home-Thomas Paine. He died poor, miserable, and forsaken. After his death his bones were raised and shipped to England. It was expected that the arrival of his bones there would be honored with something of a jubilee, but they created no sensation. The persons to whom they were directed knew not of their arrival. For awhile they lay in the Custom House, and what then became of them no one knows. The box in which they were contained was cut up for kindling, and the miserable contents no doubt scattered. Thus the memory of the wicked shall rot!

Those who were professed friends of Christ, and have through ignorance assailed or perverted His doctrines, have shared a similar fate. This the history of the Church shows clearly. Where are the

thousand little heresies which arose in the Church? They blazed, and died. Some have been revived, but soon died again; some appeared in new forms, but soon vanished into oblivion. Some died in one land, and rose in another. Those which prevail now, will die, almost with their generation. Where is there a sect or party, which teaches doctrines out of the line of the main body of the orthodox Church, that has lived half a century? They are like twigs cut loose from the trunk which die soon. Their self-created spirit is soon exhausted, and they fade away, because they have not depth of earth.

The individual experience of many, who have seized upon some new doctrines, and run them out into practice, will illustrate this point. Who does not know of such who have seceded from the general faith of the gospel, and taken hold upon some strange peculiarity brought forth by some modern reformer? And who that knows such, has not seen that they go from one degree of strange innovation to another, until they discard all that is plain and precious in the Christian faith? Such become at last either weak visionaries or downright sceptics. Their faith is broken; they become a misery to themselves, a trouble and a sorrow to the • congregation, and a stumbling block to the world. Return to the

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