TABLET TO GUNGA DHOR. TO THE EDITOR Dear Sir,-Inquiry having been made with reference to the probable cost of a Tablet (see Observer for April, p. 128) in memory of our late esteemed native brethren Gunga Dhor and Rama Chundra, I beg to inform your readers that the cost will be about £15. It will be seen from the above that a very small contribution from each church will be sufficient for the accomplishment of the object. I am happy to state that several contributions have been already received, and will be duly acknowledged; and if ministerial brethren will have the kindness to mention the matter from their respective pulpits, at the same time naming a per- Barton Fabis, Atherstone, NOTICES. W. HILL. Foreign Letters Received. CUTTACK-T. Bailey, Feb. 26; J. Buckley, Feb. 26; W. Miller, Feb. 25. Contributions RECEIVED ON ACCOUNT OF THE GENERAL BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY, FROM MARCH 20th, тO APRIL 20th, 1868. Collections and Subs.... 11 10 0 Sac. Col. for W. & O. 1 7 0 Collections and Subs.... 16 9 0 ... Subscriptions and Donations in aid of the General Baptist Missionary Society will be thankfully received by T. HILL, Esq., Baker Street, Nottingham, Treasurer; and by the Rev. J. C. PIKE and the Rev. H. WILKINSON, Secretaries, Leicester, from whom also Missionary Boxes, Collecting Books, and Cards may be obtained. THE GENERAL BAPTIST MAGAZINE. JUNE, 1868. THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST, ITS NATURE AND CLAIMS.* BY REV. G. HESTER, SHEFFIELD. THE uppermost questions in the public mind at the present time are ecclesiastical questions. These ecclesiastical questions are not confined to any one town or country. They are occupying the attention of statesmen and ecclesiastics in Italy, Ireland, and England. A wrong beginning seldom has a right ending. Expediency is the parent of confusion. When the church and the world marry and have a family, it requires more than the wisdom of man to manage their children-and it will rack the brains of our greatest men to solve the difficult problems now presenting themselves for solution in Italy, Ireland, and our own country. We cannot remain unconcerned spectators of what is going on around us. It is of the utmost importance that we should have distinct and definite ideas on those matters which are likely to occupy so large a share of the public attention. Underneath all ecclesiastical questions there lies a subject of paramount importance; a subject that concerns us individually as well as in our collective capacity. The subject is, "The Kingdom of Christ in the World." What is that kingdom? What is its nature? What are its claims? On this subject I would offer a few plain thoughts on the present occasion. A great deal of confusion of thought exists on the nature and claims of the kingdom of Christ. What is the teaching of the New Testament on this subject? It is on the doctrine of the New Testament that we must take our stand in discussing all church questions. Doctors and fathers must stand aside and make way for Christ and His Apostles. The New Testament is the full development and completion of the old. The Old is the bud, the New is the flower of revelation. The New Testament is the Statute Book, and the only Statute Book, of the Church of God. All that is necessary to guide us through life to immortality and eternal blessedness is to be found there. The corner stone on which our Non Society. * This paper was read before a conference of young men, held in connection with the Liberation VOL. LXX.-NEW SERIES, No. 18. conformity rests is to be found in the sixth Article of the Church of England-"Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation." Taking, then, the New Testament as the full development of the Old, what does it teach in relation to the kingdom of Christ. The kingdom of Jesus Christ, as revealed to us through his own words and the words of His apostles, is a spiritual kingdom. In its origin, its laws, its administrations, its rewards and punishments, it is spiritual. It is not of this world, it comes from above. The kingdom of Christ is the kingdom of heaven. It involves the entrance of Christ, and the reign of Christ in the conscience and heart of man. "The kingdom of God is within you," and if it is not there it is nowhere. Religion implies that Christ is in us the hope of glory. Let us settle it in our hearts that the kingdom of Christ is essentially spiritual in its actuating principles and regulating motives. This kingdom makes its impress on the mind. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Its dawn over the soul, and its spiritual operation in the soul, are often of a silent, steady, permeating, and progressive character. It stands opposed to all outward pomp, all ostentatious display, and all the pageantry of a gorgeous ceremonial. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Its simplicity is its beauty. It is in fact an inward life-the life of God quickening the conscience, penetrating the reason, animating the affections, and bringing all the faculties and energies of the soul beneath the sway of the sceptre of Christ. "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. We are made the subjects of this kingdom not by ceremonial incantations, but by the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit of God. To be regenerated is to be born again. The teaching of the scripture is plain and definite on this subject. We cannot attach too much importance to the possession of clear scriptural views on this vital point. When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, betraying his mental and spiritual darkness, Jesus answered and said unto him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Taking the words of Christ, therefore, as our guide, we see how indispensably necessary it is that we should all be identified with this kingdom of God. Our well-being, our peace and joy in time, and our future happiness in eternity, are dependent on our interest in the kingdom of the Redeemer. Under what circumstances are we, then, introduced in this kingdom? What road must we travel? What state of mind must be created and fostered? Many answers have been given to these questions. Some of these answers have been totally opposed to the plan teaching of God's word. What is the teaching of that word on this fundamental point? Listen, and you shall hear it. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." The Kingdom of Christ, its Nature and Claims. It is said of Christ, that " He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." "And this is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." These words disclose to us the primary and elementary principles of religion. These principles lie at the basis of all scriptural church life-The spirituality of Christ's kingdom; the absolute necessity of regeneration in order to fit us to be subjects of that kingdom; the experience of regeneration as the result of the exercise of a personal faith, on a personal Saviour. These propositions have an immutable basis in the Word of God. In other words-All who exercise a personal faith, or trust in Christ, are born again or regenerated. All who are regenerated are identified with, and personally interested in the kingdom of Christ; and all who share the blessings, and live under the rule of the kingdom of Christ, constitute the Holy Catholic Church throughout the world. The unity of the church lies in its spiritual elements, and not in its external characteristics. As dissenters and nonconformists we can appropriate and adopt Article XIX. of the Church of England. "The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." The claims of the kingdom of 163 Christ are pressing, and imperative Our first duty, then, is to receive the truth; our next duty is to defend it. Believers in Christ, and the followers of Christ, are His representatives in the world. They are pledged to support His cause, honour his name, and fight his battles. The man who does not fight for the truth has forfeited his title to manhood. With John Bunyan there was a Holy War as well as a Pilgrim's Progress. Fight the good fight of faith is an apostolical injunction. Religion is not gingerbread and rose water. Primitive Christianity witnessed an awful and tremendous struggle between the pure principles of divine truth and the selfish forces and sinful prejudices of the world and what was called the church. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into cap tivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." As in the days of the apostles s0 now the spiritual church of Christ is called upon to assert the simplicity of the gospel, and the spiritual purity of the kingdom of God. We are here assembled as Protestants of Protestantism. We hold that a State Church is an unlawful encroachment on the kingly prerogative of Christ. State Churchism is diluted Popery. It is made up of a number of little popes, instead of one big one. The State Church arrogates to itself the authority, and takes upon itself the responsibility of interpreting the Word of God. It frames a creed which is to be made binding on the people. All state churches invade the rights of conscience, and generally darken counsel with words without knowledge. When the church stoops to ally herself to the world she becomes a harlot, and as such will be rejected by God. The Parliamentary Establishment set up in the time of Henry VIII., and which styles itself the Church of England, is in direct opposition, in much of its teaching, both to the letter and spirit of the New Testament. So The Prayer Book and the New Testament no more agree together than do Christ and Belial. They are as much unlike each other as was Jacob and Esau in patriarchal times. The religion of the New Testament is spiritual in its nature, and comes from God. The religion of the Prayer Book is ritualistic in its form, and comes from man. long as the Prayer Book and the Bible lie side by side, as of co-ordinate authority in the church, there must be, and there ought to be, war in Israel. It is the jumble which has been made by mingling things essentially different together that is causing the agitation which is felt through the length and breadth of the land. The most pitiable spectacle of modern times is the position occupied by the Evangelical clergymen of this country. The Ritualist, with his Roman nose and his Roman candles, is to a very great degree covered with the mantle of moral consistency, because many of his orders are of Romish origin. But the Evangelicals in their panic and excitement have torn this robe to tatters, and are as naked as was Adam the first in Eden. In their haste to put down their brethren they have the audacity and effrontery to tell the world that there is not a particle of ritualistic teaching in the Prayer Book. Baptismal Regeneration is in the Prayer Book, and that is ritualism. Confirmation is there, and that is ritualism. Priestly absolution is there, and that is ritualism. Episcopal consecration is there, and that is ritualism. There is not an Evangelical clergyman in this country but is obliged to teach this doctrine, namely,That when a child is brought to him at the font it is unregenerate, a child of wrath, and that after he has sprinkled a little water on its little brow, it is taken away a "member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." I say this is ritualism, and ritualism of the rankest and most fatal kind. Baptismal regeneration has been called the "Doctrine of Devils," and baptismal regeneration is the corner stone of the Church of England. The Evangelical clergy persecute the Ritualists, and practise ritualism. They strain out the gnat and swallow the camel. Their faith is shrewd and discriminating. They have, for example, unlimited faith in the Prayer Book; unbounded faith in their unhallowed alliance with the State; they have faith in musty old Acts of Parliament, in legislation, in lawful authority, in sharp lawyers |