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the Father is the divine Principle, the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Being, who became God manifest in the flesh in the man Jesus the "Spirit of Truth"; the angels - that is, the messengers are the divine impartations, the holy whisperings of Love and Truth into human consciousness, the "Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." And it was on this wise that the Christ came the second time, even while Jesus yet appeared in the flesh, to some of them that heard him speak; for they in no wise tasted death the death of trespasses and sin "till they had seen the Son of man coming in his kingdom."

Their spiritual perception was opened to the reception of Divine Truth, and the Christ entered in. So will He enter into the consciousness of all who will receive Him to-day; and this is His literal, as well as His figurative, second coming. Literal construction as applied to the last verse quoted, would render it meaningless; and the two verses construed together mean nothing if they are construed only with reference to personal instead of Spiritual coming. Will not literal construction also destroy the meaning of the 64th verse of the 26th chapter of Matthew? "Nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." Is not this language plainly figurative? What is the sitting on the right hand of power, but a symbol of the strength of divine Love? What is the coming in the clouds of heaven, but a symbol of the appearance of divine Truth that Eternal Truth which is the Father.

We might mention other references to his second coming, but time forbids. Ah, my dear second Adventist and Methodist friends, you have made the common mistake of literal construction; and that is why you are yet on the quicksands of human speculation, instead of being firmly planted on the eternal rock of Truth. Until you turn away from the letter and diligently seek the Spirit, you will continue your profitless and unhappy controversies, for verily: "Circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter." (Rom. ii. 29.) "But now we are delivered from the law, that

being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in the newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." (Rom. vii. 6.) "For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." In all Christian kindness, let us ask you, one and all, to cease controversial and doctrinal bickerings, and come into the Life of the Spirit. The letter without the Spirit is dead, dead, dead!

And may we not ask you, our Methodist friends, if it is not better for you even at this late day to adhere to the first definition of God, namely, that He is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; rather than to have him both a bodiless one, and an embodied three; and then again an embodied one? The one definition is so inconsistent with the other. Let us respectfully present for your earnest consideration our conception of the Triunity. We conceive the Triune Principle to be Life, Truth, Love. A grand Trinity in Unity is it not? Can you conceive of a better God than He who is Life; of a more glorious, than He who is Truth; of a more adorable, than He who is Love? Think of the sweeping majesty, the infinite grandeur, the profound and mighty import of these three terms of expression; and tell if this indeed be not the true Trinity-the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost the "one living God who is without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness."

Ah dear friends, turn from poor, limited, powerless personality, to almighty, limitless, divine Principle; turn from the coldness and lifelessness of the letter, to the warmth of throbbing and pulsating Spirit, and you will soon cease floundering, and bickering, and calling each other lunatic.

And now, while we are on the subject of Lunacy, let us consider somewhat with reference to ourselves. We too are charged by some of our religious brethren, to say nothing of the unregenerate world, with being lunatics; because we believe it yet possible for God and His Christ to heal the sick and destroy death. We have been thus arraigned before the bar of mortal mind, alias human doubt and skepticism, time and again. Is it not time we were pleading to the charge?

What shall our plea be, guilty or not guilty? Let us appear in response to the writ, before the court and jury, and hear the charges:

FIRST: We are charged with being lunatics, in that we believe in Life instead of death. Let us plead guilty to this charge; and, lest the court and jury should consider us “too far gone" to be capable of understanding the nature of our plea, let us proceed to consider it briefly, and cite some authority from our Law Book in support of it.

We say then we do believe in Life instead of death; and if this is lunacy we are lunatics. Why do we so believe?

Because the Bible

our Law Book - tells us that God is Life, and that He is All-that there is none beside Him: hence we feel bound to conclude that where all is Life there can be no death. In support of this phase of our lunacy, we cite the following authority: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John iii. 16.) "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (John xvii. 3.)

"He is not the God of the dead but of the living." (Mark xii. 27.) "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die." (John xi. 25, 26.) We believe that Jesus' resurrection from the dead taught that death was but an illusion of the mortal senses, and we accept these sayings and doings of Jesus as absolutely true: we accept them wholly and practically, not partially and theoretically. "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold it was very good." (Gen. i. 31.) All that He made being good, we respectfully submit that He was not the author of sin, because sin is evil; and death is sin, and sin has no other reality than the beliefs and delusions of the material senses. That sin is evil see Heb. ii. 14: "Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death he might bring to naught him that had the

power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." We might cite many more authorities, but we think these are sufficient, and are willing to rest our case, as to the first charge, upon them.

SECOND: We are charged with being lunatics, in that we believe in Love instead of hate. We plead guilty to this charge, because we prefer Love to hate; because we believe, in fact we know, we can be happier by living in Love than by living in hate. This would seem to require no citation of authorities; but, that the court and jury may be fully advised, we refer to the following: "God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." John iv. 16.) "Beloved let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God, He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." (1 John iv. 7, 8.) Inasmuch as our textbook is based wholly on love and justice, and it would seem a self-evident proposition that, God being all and God being Love, there is no room for hate, we might safely rest our case as to this part of the charge, on these citations. But inasmuch as hate is a human belief, we will cite some authority as to it. "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." (Ps. xcvii. 10.) "Hate the evil and love the good." (Amos. v. 15.) "Do good to them that hate you." (Luke vi. 27.) "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake." (Luke vi. 22.) All through the Scriptures hate and haters are condemned; so we are willing to stand condemned of the lunacy of Love, rather than of the lunacy of hate.

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THIRD We are further charged with lunacy, in that we believe in Truth instead of error. We plead guilty to this charge; and cite the following in support of our plea: “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." (Ps. xci. 4.) "Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor." (Zach. viii. 16.) "Know the truth and the truth shall make you free." free." (John viii. 32.) "Brethren if any of you do err from the truth, and

one convert him; let him know, that he which con verteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." (James v. 19, 20.) We prefer the lunacy of Truth to the lunacy of error, and hence our plea of guilty to this charge, also.

FOURTH: We are charged with lunacy, in that we believe in health instead of sickness. We plead guilty to this charge, because we prefer to be healthy lunatics, rather than unhealthy ones; because we consider the lunacy of health and happiness a better form of lunacy than the lunacy of sickness, disease and unhappiness. Please find us guilty of this charge, therefore, without citing any authority.

FIFTH: We are charged with lunacy, in that we love the Light rather than darkness. We prefer the light to the darkness because it is much more agreeable to us; and, inasmuch as we have been taught by all of our teachers of the natural sciences that light is something, and darkness nothing—that is, only the absence of light, a negation — we prefer to love something rather than nothing. While this may seem an extraordinary form of lunacy, yet we feel warranted in pleading guilty to this charge as well upon grounds of our own convenience, as upon the authority of our Law Book. It tells us: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." (Isa. v. 20.) "God is Light." (1 John i. 5.)

For every

one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." (John iii. 20.) In view of these authorities we prefer the lunacy of light to the lunacy of darkness, and ask to have our plea of guilty entered.

SIXTH: We are charged with the lunacy of believing that God is All-powerful, All-wise, and All-present, instead of the lunacy of believing that He is only partly-powerful, partly-wise and partly-present. Included in this phase of lunacy is that of believing that this All-power extends alike to the destroying of sin, sickness and death. This we understand, is regarded by those who are accusing us, as the most dangerous form of lunacy we have yet developed. But

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