THE GREAT RETURN.

"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Eccl. 12: 7.

The bodies of each individual of the human race shall return to the earth-for of the earth was the body made, and to the earth must it return again. The word return as applied to the body, and also as applied to the spirit indicates a change or conversion as where it says, "and sinners shall be converted unto thee," the best scholars render, " and sinners shall turn or return unto thee." Where it reads, "repent ye therefore and be converted," the best scholars translate, "repent and turn or return," hence, the word, return and conversion, have the same meaning in Scripture. Our bodies will return or be converted back to earth, and the spirit will return or be converted to God.

Some believe that this body slumbers in the grave, and that by and by, when ages have passed away, and time here shall end, then the spirit will come forth from some place where it has been kept, the body shall be raised from the grave and

reunited, body and soul will pass up or down to their final abiding place. But as all physical matter is constantly transmigrating, dissolving and reforming from one body to another, it does not remain long in the grave or in any one place. Open a grave where a human body was deposited three thousand years ago. Will you find that human body there? No, O no, that body is not there, it rotted, was converted back to earth, and passed on by transmigration, into other forms, other bodies. Through r/hat changes it has already passed, who can tell? The blood that rushed through the hearts of the ancient prophets may bound in your veins today; we inherit not only the wisdom of the ancients, but their bodies also, as others shall inherit ours ages after the spirit shall have returned, or been converted to God who gave it, and then called it Home to himself. The body is not spiritual, "Flesh and blood shall not, cannot inherit the kingdom of God." "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body-terrestrial bodies, and bodies celestial," and it is plainly the doctrine of the Scriptures that God gives

to every spirit or soul, after the old body of flesh has been cast aside, a Lew and spiritual body, glorious, incorruptible, and which can never experience pain, sickness or death. Our bodies do not sleep in the tomb, they dissolve, reorganize, pass on, and we might as well suppose that a butterfly would take on again its cat rpillar form, or that a bird could be c.owded back into the egg from which it hatched as to suppose that the advanced and glorified spirited would ever return to be united by a new marriage bond to this outworn and cast aside body of flesh.

All

"And the spirit shall return to God who gave it." The word return means change, and here implies the doctrine of repentance, conversion, forgiveness and acceptance. spirits or souls shall return to God; it is only through r formation, conversion; only by becoming holy that any person or spirit can go to God. Sin separates, repels from God, holiness, and this only brings us to God, no other state or condition will admit to the divine presence; and as the text assures us that each spirit or soul, of the whole race, shall return to God, it gives us the assurance that all will ultimately become holy and hippy. Thus by implication, the text plainly teaches that there will be opportunity for repentance, conversion, forgiveness and the acqui ement of a holy character after the body has returned to dust. Man is a free agent, and can repent at any time he det rmines and be converted and live the Christian life, the sooner le better; and if he can do this when ile lusts of the flesh, the law of the members are tempting the spirit is ray, how much easier will the way to holiness be attainable when all the clogs of earth shall have been abandoned, and the white light of heaven's

truth shall be presented to the naked soul?

There is no reason for supposing that the same laws will not govern the spirit hereafter as here, and always as now. If we say that God's laws compel souls that die in sin to remain sinners always we doom the whole race, and charge God with doing by his children what only a wicked monster could do. Reason and common sense declare that no moral being could exist without the ability to repent. A soul could not sin, it would be impossible for it to be a sinner if it were deprived of free agency, or the ab.lity of choice. There as here, souls must be able to improve or they are not accountable. The Scriptu es teach the unchangeableness of God. He is the same yesterday, to-day and forever, his governm nt the same, man's soul the same, its opportunities the same, repent and be comverted, that your sins may be blotted out," will sund on till every sinner has heard, obeyed and is saved.

The Siptures teach that there is nothing in this life or the life to come, that shall binder the return of any one; nothing in the divine nature or the divine government to prevent the acceptance of any child of Adam, excepting his own sins; and that, whenever these are repented of ani forsaken, no earthly father ever received a returning prodigal more graciously than the Heavenly Father will receive and bless the penitent sinner.

The Scripture teaches that men are saved only so far as they accept and embrace and obey the truth which Jesus taught, and acquire the spirit and imitate the life he lived.

The destiny of the soul is declared in the text, "the spirit shall return (be converted) to God who gave it."

That can mean neither annihilation nor banishment into never ceasing darkness and weeping-but it brings the soul into the presence of God where are fullness of joys forevermore. Christ his painted a bright, distinct picture of the eventual condition of the soul of man. Dr. W. E. Manley's transla'ion. "The children of this world marry and are given in marriage; but having been accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection of the dead, there (in the future state) they neither marry nor are they given in marriage, neither can they die anymore, for they are equal unto the angels of God in Heaven, and are the children of God, being children of the resurrection." Paul said to the Corinthians, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." The resurrection overleaps none, but encircles all ia its exalting magic. "Behold I show

you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed

the dead shall be raised

incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this (soul, now clothed upon with the) corruptible, must put ou incorruption, an 1 this (soul, now clothed upon with the) mortal, must put on immortality-then shall be brought to pass the saying

death is swallowed up in victory.

See, now, how perfectly the words of John in the 5th chapter of his revelation, corresponds to those of Curist and Paul just repeated. "And every creature in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them (can you think of any others?), heard I saying, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sittieth upon the throne, and unto the lamb forever and forever."

This is the grand, all thrilling choral, the enthusiastic, universal Oratoria which shall greet the con

summation of the divine purpose in the creation of man. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.

When our friends die, then, let us not mourn as those who have no h pe; but let us still feel that we may hold them dear, and hold them as our own in the great faith of God and immʊrtality. And when our own time is come, let us calmly wrap the mantle of our Christian faith about us, and say, in the words of our divine Master and forerunner: "Father, the hour is come, and we come to thee." thee, O, thou infinitude of life and love, we come; and in peace, in prayer, and in faith, yield ourselves to thy will.

B. HUNT.

Το

NECESSITY AND VALUE OF THE

UNIVERSALIST FAITH.

Nothing can possibly produce so deep and lasting an opinion of the pressing need, and priceless worth, of the Universalist faith in the final destiny of men, as instances in the experience of a devoted minister of the Gospel, where the opposite faith has been applied, and its real nature felt.

Rev. Salvanus Cobb, D. D., gave the following instances during his

life.

The first he says occurred during a conversation that took place in Malden, Mass., at the house of Rev. Alexander W. McClure, then pastor of the Trinitarian Congregationalist, and Rev. Edward N. Harris, of the Baptist Society, in that town. Mr. Harris had, just before, sought several interviews with us on religious subjects, in which he put earnest inquiries to us which betrayed uneasi ness of mind under the weight of the doctrine of endless torments. We committed to him this task,-viz., that he should find, and bring to us, the passage of Scripture which he would undertake to show, from the nature of the subject at the place as