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NOT FAR!Not for. not far from the Kingdom, Yet in the shadow of sin;How many are coming and going, How few are entering in!Not far from the golden gateway.Where roicea whisper and wait; Fearing to enter in boldly,So lingering still at the gate;Catching the strain of the music Floating so sweetly along, Knowing the song they are ringing, Yet joining not in the song.Seeing the warmth and the beauty, The infinite lore and the light; Yet weary, and lonely, and waiting Out in the desolate night!Out in the dark and the danger. Out in the night and the cold. Though He is longing to lead them Tenderly into the fold.Not far, not far from the Kingdom, ”T» only a little space;But it may be at last, and for ever, Owe of the redt-p!*ce.A ship came sailing and sailing Over a murmuring era.And, just in right ol the haven. Down in the wares went she:And the spars and the broken tiTbers Were cast on a storm-beat strand;And a cry went up in the darkness—“Not far, not far from the land!Cungregationalist.Foe the Centeal Peesbyteeu*.REMINISCENCES OF PRESBYTERIAN MINISTERS.BY AN OCTOGENARIAN.No. 42.REV. GIDEON BLACKBURN.The writer left Greenville and came to Dandridge, the capital of Jefferson county. Gray perhaps, would have called this Dan-dridge a helter-skelter town, but this wa9 not my estimate of the place. I was pleased with its appearance.Lighting at the inn, we took a horizontal position on the porch; disposed to such a position by the jostling of the stage over a road not remarkably smooth. We were not inclined to talk, but a venerable looking man was seated on a chair in the porch, who eyed the traveler with a fixed attention. We disceraed in his countenance a propensity to something humorous. He asked a variety of questions which were briefly answered.— We took him for a Yankee. ‘‘From what point of the compass do you come, and wbac is your destination ?*' “ From Georgetown, near Washington,” I replied. “Ah! are you acquainted with the Presbyterian minis-tvof that town?” WI ought to be,” wasFor the Central Presbyterian*.THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.I fully adopt the following sentiments of David Brown, a decided Post-millennialist, found in his book on the second advent. “It is frequently urged, for example that be-derful success which everywhere followed his ministerial labors. The communication was replete with piety, but touched off by a glowing enthusiasm. From his description we supposed the days of Whitfield and the Ten-nents had been revived. Times of refreshing had evidently come from the presence of the Lord. Sinners were bowed down in deep repentance, and Christians were rejoicing in a kind of Pentecostal setson. My correspondent had followed Dr. Blackburn to W il-mington, Delaware, where many were added to the Church. One sound conversion is worth a duodecillion of counterfeits, but it would be a breach of charity to suppose that lasting effects did not attend the preaching of Dr. Blackburn, a man endowed with great spirituality of mind as well as by persuasive eloquence.The Dootor was true to his appointment, and no time was lost in making his acquaintance. His garb was plain and not so clerical as we could have wished. But he was a man of the West, who saw no great difference between homespun and the purple and fine linen of Dives. His countenance indicated amiability—his manners modest and his colloquial powers were good, though perhaps not pree ninent. He bore tho marks of age, but perhaps the rough life of the wilderness and the coarse fare of Indian wigwams may have given him an appearance prematurely old. Oa Sabbath the dilapidated church was crowded. The services were interesting, and the dispensation of the sacrament truly solemn. The discourse was delivered with great propriety, and his elocution was more deliberate than we had anticipated. He made no attempt to overwhelm the audience by the avalanche of his utterance. On the contrary he sought to give evangelical pleasure to the congregation by a calm, gentle and melodious voice. Still he was not destitute of force in his words, or of vigor in his manner. He aimed at flights of oratory, but the flights were not original.— They were of that stereotyped class which are used in every pulpit, and by almost every minister. The beat eulogium on the sermon is, that it was not prepared to awaken admiration, but to awaken sinners Wo took the impression that Dr. Blackburn was better suited to a general than a special object.— He took more pleasure in the work of an evangelist than in the office of a pastor.tfathtew'in the first resurrection, and who are spoken of as “the rest of the dead,” will be brought under the power of the second death. Bat suppose that this vision means simply that the people of God living during a Millennium before the coming of Christ will have the martyr spirit, what then will become of the millions of God’B people who will have lived 11 and died before the Millennium, and hence, have no part in this first resurrection ? If tbey too are “ blessed and holy/’ and if on “such” also the second death will have no power, why are these advantages spoken of C as the peculiar privileges of those who have c part in tho first remrrection ? Again, when wit is said “ Blessed and holy ifl he that hath S part in the first resurrection,” it would seem E as if “he” was a person and not a principle E that was to be resurrected. But who are S “the rest of the dead ?” All the redeemed P! being parties to the first resurrection, the le “ rest of the dead” are the wicked dead. But m if the first rosurrection is the resurrection of ol dead principles, thon the rest of the dead 18 must be certain dead principles, -JJy what |.*j laws for tho interpretation of language, or symbols, can this first resurrection be made a spiritual one, and the second, literal ? To make the dead raised at the first resurrection, the martyr spirit, and tho rest of the dead persons, is a perfectly arbitrary interpretation. Both resurrections must be either spiritual or literal. Bishop Newton says, I ^ “ we should be cautiouB and tender of making su the first rerurrection an allegory, lest others th should reduce the second resurrection into nc an allegory also.” I d°But Brown and others do find in this pas fch sage a second spiritual resurrection. Brown, H in his “Second Advent,” in ono piace, calls wr “the rest of the dead,” “the opposing party I now alive, dead during the Millennium, and living in their successors during the “little season” after the Millennium. In another place he calls them a “ dead cause. And so there are two spiritual resurrections—an interval occurring between them of a thousand years-—and then a third the literal re-1 caisurrection, described in the last verse of the of chapter. By this reasoning, the two parties Cl or causes must be simultaneously in the state °f of the dead, the first party or cause rising at Oe the beginning of the Millennium, and the 18 rest of the dead9 or the second party or cause, a * at its end : or else no just meaning can be coattached to that term-—*4 the rest of the dead.” hifAnother insuperable objection to the Post- Th millennial interpretation of this passage is gr that by that interpretation, the vision of thlt; John, instead of being a symbol of what is a yet actually to take place, is a symbol of a sh» symbol of what is yet actually to take place, noincaDiceicnmecri
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Central Presbyterian
Richmond, Virginia, US
Wed, May 01, 1878
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