Scripture Paradoxes: their true explanation. TO BE COMPLETED IN TWELVE MONTHLY PARTS, PRICE 2D. EACH. Three Numbers post free 6d., or the whole sent free on day of publication 3s., paid in advance. LIST OF SUBJECTS: No. 1. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish.-Psalm cii. 25, 26. COMPARED WITH Who laid the foundations of the earth that it should not be removed for ever.— Psalm civ. 5. No. 2.-What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly.-Micah vi. 8. COMPARED WITH And the Lord commended the unjust Steward.—Luke xvi. 8. No. 3.-God is angry with the wicked every day.-Psalm vii. 11. COMPARED WITH Fury is not in me.-Isaiah xxvii. 4. No. 4.-God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent.-Numbers xxiii. 19. COMPARED WITH And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.-Genesis vi⚫ 6. No. 5.-I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the father upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.Exodus xx. 5. COMPARED WITH The soul that sinneth it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of * the son.-Ezekiel xviii. 20. No. 6.-Honour thy father and thy mother.-Exodus xx. 12. COMPARED WITH If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.-Luke xiv. 26. No. 7.-Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.Romans viii. 30. COMPARED WITH Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.-Matthew xviii. 14. No. 8. For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh.-Matthew xix. 5, 6. COMPARED WITH So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better.-1 Corinthians vii. 38. No. 9.-Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord He s God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.-Deuteronomy iv. 30. COMPARED WITH Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.-Matthew xxviii. 19. No. 10.-I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.-Isaiah xliii. 25. COMPARED WITH For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.-John iii. 16. No. 11. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God.-Job xix. 26. COMPARED WITH Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.-1 Corinthians, xv. 50. No. 12.-Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law.-Romans iii. 28. COMPARED WITH Ye see then how by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.-James ii. 24. London: C. P. ALVEY, 36, Bloomsbury Street, W.C. AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. JANUARY 1st, 1868. SCRIPTURE PARADOXES: THEIR TRUE EXPLANATION. LECTURES BY THE REV. DR. BAYLEY, Minister of Argyle Square Church, King's Cross, London. TEXTS: "Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."-Matt. xviii., 14. COMPARED WITH "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his dear Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."-Rom. viii., 29, 30. : LONDON: C. P. ALVEY, 36, BLOOMSBURY STREET, W.C. LECTURE VII. "Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one o these little ones should perish.”—Matt. xviii., 14. COMPARED WITH "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."-Rom. viii., 29, 30. THE two declarations before us appear to be contradictory. The appearance has been supposed to exist by a great number of persons who seem to have mistaken the character of the Divine Being. They think that the teaching of the apostle Paul in the words, "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate," was that a peculiar few, as compared with the whole number of the human race, were destined in the sight of God to hear the gospel, become angels, and be everlastingly happy. "Them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." The idea that there had been set aside a peculiar few, a certain number, who were thus supposed to have been pre-arranged for by the Divine Being, while all the rest were passed over, and that they would certainly go to heaven, is certainly not in harmony with the fundamental teaching of Scripture. Our Divine Lord, and He was 66 God manifest in the flesh," assures us in the first text that every child created by our Heavenly Father is created for eternal happiness. "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." Allow me to direct your attention, first, to the important points that are unveiled to us in the first declaration. We H will then endeavour to understand what the Apostle means, and see if, when it is rightly considered, it does not accord with the teaching of our Lord. If we had to consider the form of a tree, especially if it happened to be one of the great Banyan trees of Asia, and instead of going right to the central trunk, and then from that central trunk surveying the branches, and thus getting a command of the whole, we went peeping in here and peeping in there, but never going right to the main stem and taking our stand there, so as to command the central view, we should never understand the tree; we should never know its real form. Now, it is exactly so with sound views on all great subjects. If we seize the strong, grand central truths, and then from these look at all the rest, we shall find all will take their proper places, and we shall comprehend a beautiful whole. In the matter before us, the great central principle is the eternal purpose and will of God, and it is placed before us here and elsewhere in the most striking and emphatic manner: "It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." It was a strange and terrible phase of human infatuation that set in with Augustine, and was largely spread by Calvin, in which, by strange, cold, hard metaphysics, men concluded that Christian theology seemed especially to point to the necessity of never letting little children, especially if unbaptized, go to heaven. Synod after synod, council after council, almost all the great meetings of the Church in those times endorsed these views about little children. Now, as we read Church history we wonder what they were about. We look upon little children-those beautiful creatures of the Eternal, the sweet glorious images of Himself, the very embodiment of His love and wisdom, -and are delighted as we gaze on such miracles of wondrous perfection and beauty. Each little child is itself a universe in miniature! The Divine Being has prepared its heart and mind for the reception of His love and wisdom in the most astonishing manner. There is nothing so beautiful on earth as a little child. Take even its very framework; it consists of more than four hundred bones, so beautifully fashioned, so exactly constructed that you cannot put one in the place of another throughout the whole framework. No architect, no |