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REDEMPTION. Dear I'rotv'l' 1 fold: — This is th- n. • temorteiit then that <•' ■!- ’ is. • -v r can- en~ • the attention nf men or angels. ■lt is in xhaus. : ■ > > i its fmness. •uns-?ar'c!’ub!e in the c.teJi of its mysteries, an ! un -n ling in its re sults. Unto the tilings pt . mining to it angels desire to look. And men —redeemed men, are favored to catch gdmpses of i!s glory.— Prophets and tin- a mstUs made It the theme of their disc v. -js and their songs. Au r n«'»ra : T- com pany, in aa., s. imve thought, spektm. v ; m f kjandthe same theme shall be the everlast- ' ing song of those who dwell at ■ God's right hand. And we can not do better than to spend a few moments, I in writing and you in reading about it. Redemption is the mott joyful sound that can fall upon the ear of a trembling sinner who knows his just con demnation before God. Lot us devote a little time to its con templation, and may God give us ' light and comfort in so doing! And Ist. Its author. Here we i are not left in doubt. The senp ture plainly declares that God ‘ himself is its author. Jesus is made unto us.—redemption—Ist Cor. Ist chapter 30., verse.—Hav ing obtained eternal redemption for us. Heb. 9th., chapter 12 verse I He became the Author of eternal Heb. sth chapter 9th ▼Verso. This is plain and direct A>ible testimony; and we need not Wo outside of it to engage in argu- or reasoning about it. Man J does not cannot redeem himself. | He has no price to pay that will I avail either for himself or for hie | everywhere I in sin Eph. «ipter Ist he is in * debt With ho h ich can meet his chapter 22nd— We God all oaajjjferie and ev ve God has not .wa /mH ha- /hind once, we can never make it I up, live as fodhfully as we may. v Therefore <- %fl,nnot redeem I himself. He is But Z the “gospel” “thaHBB news” is I that God himself hour i 1 or ‘ « , is seen in t verse, Eph. 3rd chapter, 11th verse ' 'Rom. Bth chapter, 28th verse, 4 ‘ Rom. 9th chapter-! 11th verse, 1 ’ and many other places.— ' We cannot comprehend the eter inal being and attributes of Deity and therefore he speaks to us in language which condescends to our finite minds. And so he tells us of his eternal purpose.—That is, he decrees that things shall come to pass or have existence in the which did not then exist. yV'e are safe in speaking of pur pose, because thus holy writ has spoken. Once God dwelt alone in his own eternity. No man no angel had been found. In oneness incomprehensible the“Three’exist ed, and there was no earth, and no being beside. The earth was not created( Hebrew brought into existence) man was not formed of dust of the ground, and ’of course . he had not yet sinned, and fallen under the curse of the law.— Eter nity is an attribute of Deity, Prove that any being has had an eternal existence, and at once I must worship that being as God. The Father, the Son and the Spir it, are eternal in duration and therefore we know that they con stitute the one only living and true God. If man in any sense of word or any part of him has had an eternal existence, then he also is Divine —is God and should be worshiped. But man is only a creature who has had beginning and would have an end if he were not held in existence by divine power. Now God purposed to ( create the world and to make man. Gen. Ist chapter 26 verse. And seeing the enl from the beginning (Isaiah 46th chapter 19th verse) that man wou’ 1 sin, and so fall from the high estate in which ho had been placed, he purposed to redeem his elect whom he had pur- I posed to save out the mass of man kind. And in this eternal purpose was embraced all the work of the Son for us, and of the Spirit with in us, and all the deep and intri cate providences which surrounded his elect in this world. The word “purpose” expresses the same thought as the word predestinate (to destinate beforehand) or the word “before ordained” (to ordain before hand) Upon the eternal purpose of God all our hope of sal vation rests. —Out of this spring? our union to and communion with Christ here and forevermore. He chose us, not because we were his, but to be his, not because we were in union with Christ, but to be in union with Christ, not because we bad eternal life, but that we might have eternal life; not be cause we were holy, but that we might be holy. Here was the purpose of God and the blessed assurance is that it shall be accom plished. Redemption is not as the Arminians say of the purpose of God, it is not because of any di vine eternal existence, but because God before hand purposed to re deemjsome of the fallen race of Adam. 3rd. *The first step in the ful fillment of this purposed redemp tion is “election.” See the follow ing scriptures: Rom. 9th chap ter, in the wh?le, Eph. Ist chapter 3-4 verses. 2nd Pet. 12 verses and others, This was a choice of men. It implies a re jection or passing by of other men. Election always involves or implies rejection. When Christ is spoken of as “the elect” it mean that all other beings are rejected from the place which he fills as the elect. When men are elected or chosen, men also are rejected or not chosen. In the eternal purpose of God men and women were cho sen also. As Jesus was “the elect” to bear their sins and be their Sa vior, so theyalso were the elect "rArorai to WKft r itffrAwL -USy, as all spiritual blessings were in Christ, election was also in him for men while as yet nothing had been made. —Election was accord ing to the foreknowledge and pur pose of God, and not the creature’s act, and was it based up on any good, of any kind, seen in the elect ;and neither did it depend upon any thing in heaven or earth but God’s will and decree or pur pose. 4th. The next step in this won derful work is the incarnation of the Son of God, so that he became the Son of man. He was God-r --his elect people were men, He was holy—his chosen ones were all unclean. He was in heaven—they were upon earth. To maxe them sons of God he became the son of man. To make them holy he was made sin. To bring them to heaven, he came to earth. He wan divine, they were fallen—That they might be partakers of the divine nature, he partook of flesh. How iftfipite the condescension. How wonderful the love! We had sinned, we were ene mies to God. Our hearts were evil, God was not in all our thoughts, we knew not nor cared to know the way of peace. In soul, body and spirit, in thought, word and deed we were wholy under the dominion of sin and Satan. We were cursed with a curse. Death was our due —the proper wages of sin—Not only were we justly con demned we went on adding sin to sin. And no eye pittied, no arm was stretched to eave. No arm could save. Then Jesus’ eye pitied and his arm brought salvation near. “He paid the debt All the debt we owe,” ' More than this, we were in love with our bondage. The iron fetters of sin we thought to be bracelets beautiful and most desirable, We wore them as though they were our glory and honor instead of our shame. Here in continueing this work of redeption the power of the Holy Spirit is soon making us alive from the dead, ami giving us to see our real condition. Then the fetters which we had hugged to our hearts became galling in deed, and the iron entered the soul. Thon we cried to the Lord and he heard us, and delivered u? from our trouble, and filled our hearts with rejoicing, and our mouths with singing. The com forter took of the things of Jesus and showed them to us. The Ho ly Spirit testified of Jesus to us and in him we could restand have hope. Our condition was one of sep aration from God. Redemption means a bringing us to God. Re deemed unto God, Rev. sth chap ter, 9th verse. Were I dwelling specially upon the atonement I might refer at length to the type under the old dispensation. : The atonement is one great and won derful part of redemption. But, “Redemption” includes more than the atonement. It includes the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. ’And I can only give some general thoughts in the limits of one article like this. What does separation from God mean? What on the other hand, does redemp tion unto God mean ? In point of space we are not separated from God, for He is present every where. And in this respect the wick ed are with God as much as the righteous. And the lost are with him as well as the saved. If I make my bed in hell thou art there.” Psalms 149th chapter, Bth verse. Separation from God means a state of unholines while God is holy. It is a spiritual sep aration and not physical. In a natural physical sense the wick ed live, move, and have their being in nim as well as the righteous!, I might illustrate this separation of the sinner from God in this way. Two men are shut up in the same room together. They eat, drink and sleep together. Yet they are asifar apart as the East is from the West, for one is vile in every thought and word, while the They have nothTngincommom So we are in the presence of God and yet are separated from him. In like manner Jesus lived and and moved among men and yet he was alone. “Os the people there was none with him” even when they pressed and thronged him. So the Christian is a solitary man in the world, though he meets thousands in the crowded marts. He is alone in his thoughts, pur poses, feelings, views and spirit, thus we are separated from God by nature. He is not ih all our thoughts. We have cast him out of onr lives. We are enemies to God by wicked works. This is separation from God. Now what is the redemption to God? It does not mean going to a place of happiness called heaven, but it is a state of heart and feel ing.—lt is to be reconciled to God, it is to have no will but his will. It is to be holy—to have dvil affec tions ftpd desires subdued and cast out. The atonement is com plete. Jesus said “it is fiinished.” John 19th chapter 30th verse. But the work of redemption is not finished. Man is to be redeemed from his sins. Man was once up right, without sin, but through the fall he has become a sinner free from righteousness. But this is his hope to be free from sin and the servant of righteousness. And this will be full redemp tion.—This coming near to God. Being made righteous, we are par takers of the divine nature and so commune with God. This is to be a son of God. To be sons of God does not mean that we are to be come omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent, but simply that we are to be sinless and holy as he is. To be holy, means‘happiness, glo ry, heaven. This is redemption unto God. For this the Christian longs and sighs, and looks for ward to the day that shall give him the desired deliverance. 6th. In this redemption God’s children grow up into a holy tern- pie wllioh the Lord has dedicated, for hif*own habitation through the Spirit. Jesus dwells in them by his’spirit, and they have vital union with him. Let us consider this union for a little. 7 And first of all, it is a vital or life union. The union, or unity, is in the life which the various members all have. , Life is indivisible. There are maTiy members but only one life. And this life isjeternal life. The members were once dead but the life has »ntered, and they live and move and feel and act. Just as in my body there are many members but all’actuated by one life, so it is in the body of Christ, tSe church. The church is made by redeemed winners, who did not always exist, but were made of dust of the ground and who fell. But the life which is given to these dead sin ners is one life, eternal, nover hav ing beginning nor ending. In this lim there is eternal unity. I same natural life that I had when I was born, but science establishes the fact that every sev en yeats more or less, every par ticle of bone, muscle, flesh and blood mat I possess passes away: so th a tat the end of that time I have n&tthe same bone, muscle, 1 flesh, and blood which I had at the beginning,—But my life has not 1 changed or passed away, I have more flesh and blood than I had when a child, but I have no mere life. My body has grown in stat ure but the same life actuates all ' the new bone, muscle and flesh which has been added to me, so that ms body is still one organ ized whole. Just so it is with the churchf the mystical body of Christ. It is growing and increas iug all the time as God adds to it his elect through the dwelling with in them of the Holy Ghost, Yet they remain one body growing con tinually unto a holy temple in the ! Lord, and still having unity in the 5 one life which they possess. The • church is not an eternal existance. > Some good brethren not weighing I their fords carefully, have an- « no’uncek it as a fact, that the 1 say that the litp of the tree and that which makes it the kind ot a tree it is was in the seed. But as a mat ter of simple fact the tree was not in the seed. The seed itself must die it should abide alone. But by its death the life that is in it, an invisible power bursts its fet ters and goes forth conquering and to conquer. It seizes upon dead, inert matter and builds it up into its n©Y habitation the plant and vitalizes it, and finis continues till the whole tree i? built up. The fresh wood which constitutes the new branch of this year’s growth, last year was dead, inert matter lying in the ground. It is not correct to say, this branch is as old as the rest of the tree; but the life that is in it is the old life of the tree. It is not correct to say that all the tree was in the seed. In point of fact qo part of the tree was there but the lite. And just as wi|h the tree, so with the body of Christ. We were dead matter, separated from God and Christ until the life of “that corn of wheat” which fell into the ground and died else it had abided alone, came to us and took hold upon us, and made us one with Christ to live in vital union with him forev er and ever. And so Paul speaks of Andronicus and Junia, of whom he says, that they were in Christ before himself. Rom, 16th chap ter 7th Verse. And so Paul speaks of the church growing and mak ing increase. Eph. 2nd chapter, 21st verse; Col. 2nd chapter 19th verse. Take also the figure of our first father Adam. The church was in Christ spiritually, just as all mankind were in Adam naturally. And here it is at once manifest that our unioai to Adam was only in the life and nature of Adam.— My body was not in him, but my life was, my body is made up of the food which I eat every day, and which is gathered from the earth around me, and which must be dead before it is incorporated in my body. And so Adam and I have the same life, but not the same soul, life and body. There is but one natual life, but there are many souls, minds and bodies. So our spiritual life was in Christ, but when we were dead in sins we were not there. Our union to Ad am does not hinder our separate individuality. I have my father’s life but still my father and laareI a are twojjmen. Our*spiritual litejwas in Christ, but it is not ours, actu ally until Jesus is formed in our hearts the hope of glory. I would not then say there was eternal vi tal r.nion between Christ and his people. But I can see a vital uni ty or oneness of life, and when this life comes upto your heart and mine, then we are united to Christ, never to be sundered from him again.—And to be united to Christ is reiemption itself. The life is not the church, but the church has the life. Lastly. Redemption will be completed in the resurrection of the body at the last day, and with out this, it would not be complete. As the body was- involved in the curse, so it must be in the. salva tion. And then shall death itself be swallowed up in victory. Then shall we be satisfied for we sh ill awake in the likenes of God. To see the father will suflice us. And we s iall be. like him as he is. Brother Gold, I am much pleas ed with the article of Bro. Harris in the Landmark for Nov. Ist. I desire to commend it to the care ful perusal and reperusal of all. In Christian fellowship I re main your brother, F. A. Chick. —Zions Landmark. Reistertown, Md., Nov. let, ’B3. PREACHING TOUR. Dear Bro. Simms:— My last article wound up with the eud of my tour in Mississippi, where I found so much peace, ac tivity, life and prosperity among the churches, and since leavi' ig there have news of more ingath erings among them. My next ap pointments were in Louisiana and churches generally in peace, but little ingathering, and much cold ness and indifference manifested among the churches with a few exceptions. In Louisiana I heard some strange views advanced and claimed to be pure, scriptural and primitive doctrine. Namely: That Chriet died only for original sin. That there was no scriptural, proof of a covenant between the Father and Son in eternity, and that tho unbelievers mentioned in the Bible were all Christians in disobedience. I found also a few non-resurrcc tionists. Surely the time bus come when many among us cannot endure sound doctrine, but are heaping to themselves teachers having itching ears.” I find also some fatalism. Such as I have named give all the cold shoulder who are not in harmony with them. They are the cause of confusion, strife and division among the Lord’s people, but Ahab like they charge the result of their own do ings and teachings upon those who are earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints. They also in secret poison the minds of all they can against ev ery one that dares lift his voice against their strange doctrines and privately advise the brethren not to allow;thempn their pulpits gall ing them “would-be’ regulators” and “striving to bring about a di vision of God’s people.” But tho “Lord God omnipotent reigneth.’ All the heresy among His people will not stop Him from sending forth His servants where He pleas es, nor stop Him from telling them to “cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people the ; r transgression, -and the house of Jacob their sins. The favorite preacher among unsound disorderly Baptists is described by Micah 2-11, “If a man walking m the spirit and falsehood do lie saying,! will prophesy unto thee of wine and strong drink ; he shall even be the prophet of this people?’ The tongue of the faithful old ox is too rough for them. They itch for rhe tongue that will call evil good. <kc. But God says,- “Woe ’ untc them that call evil good. ■ Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to 'mingle strong . drinks -’‘Therefore as the .fire deveureth the etubble, and the flame ccn— ’ sumoth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blosiiom shall go up as dust; be caus i they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Is. raeF’ Isa. 5: 20 to 25. Yet in the iiidst of all this God has not left himself without a witness, a’nd will not. I meet with precious true, tried and faithful brethren, in the ministry and out of it, who are smnd in faith and practice, all all a eng wherever I go. To me this is great encouragement. I woul 1 love to speak of them all by name, but it would make this ar ticle too lengthy. A great many peop e rush to Texas for homes, to find bad water and disappointment generally, while if they would stop in Louisiana they would find plent yof good water, healthy lo cations, and good land from one to th *ee dollars per acre, and room for thousands of homes. There are thousands of acres of good im prov* d lands for sale, and thou sand? of acres of good land that was cleared before the war and cultivated by slave labor that was abandoned about the close of the war for the want of labor to culti vate dhem, on which now there is a thick growth of old field pines large enough for house logs and rail timber. There are many such placei also m Arkansas cheap, healtiy, and good water to be had in abmdance by digging or boring wells from twenty-five to’forty feet deep. In Bowie county Texas there is en abundance of good lev el land of a sandy nature, with fairly go<?d water, and healthy lo cations, that can be bought at from one to three dollars per acre, so I was informed. In’all the re gions that I have mentioned and that I have traveled over they have rftin for., crops, while much of Texas is so drouthy that there to no certain ty of making a good crop, to say nothing of bad weather and many other inconveniences. In all the country traveled over I find the corn crop good and plentiful, but the cc tton crop is short, much of it ha? been stripped by the worms, and about all is open. I think it will all be gathered by the middle of November. If the farmers now will be prudent and not all rush their lotton on the market at once they surely will obtain good prices I understand it is bringing in the local markets here now eight cents. On account of long spell of wet weather,late in the spring extend ing ii to the summer months, fol lowed by hot dry weather, here is an abundance of sickness, so the farmers are slow in gathering their crops. The Lord willing, I expect to be in Texas for some time. Those who desire to correspond with me (and I invite correspon dence) will please write me at For nev, Kaufman County Toxas till Oct. 10th. Greenville, Hunt Co, till Oct. 17th Unite, Delta “ 24 th Blosjjm, Lamar “ 30th Henry Grove, Fannie Co, Nov. 4th Gober “ “ loth Bonham 4 “ “ 15th Savoy, « « 19th Dallas, Dallas “ 21st Kauf nan, Kaufman “ 24th ‘Payne Springs, “ “ Dec. Ist, J. H. PUREFOY Omaha Tex, Sent-25th, Dear Brother Simms:—ls there any church of our order near Heal.ng Springs Alabama? I ex pect spend the winter there, for my health, and would like to be where I could attend our meetings. Please insert this in your paper, and if any brother can give me the i iformation wanted, I should be glad to have them address me at Farmington, 111. v ; Your brother in hope. E. D, Varnes.