ful institution. It is so regarded by my brethren. But we do not think it is a condition of salvation, and all go to hell who are not immersed in water. My brethren are as earnest in the necessity of obeying the Gospel as any people can be, notwithstanding his false insinuation. He may deny here that immersion is a condition of salvation; but I have proved from his own productions that he believes there is no salvation without it. He has said several times that I misrepresented him and his brethren, and in my last reply I remarked:

"The gentleman said I garbled his printed sermon, Webster's dictionary, and the productions of his brethren I had read from. Now let him PROVE IT. I demand PROOF. Here are the books, magazines, and papers I read from. Now, sir, prove your charge or take it back. He has charged me several times with misrepresenting A. Campbell; but he has never attempted to prove it. I can prove he has MISREPRESENTED Campbell, and will do it if it is denied."

This is what I called on him to do, but he passed it all in silence. He KNEW I had not misrepresented him, his brethren, or the dictionary. He teaches, his brethren teach, that there is not a promise in the Bible for one that has not been immersed in water. In one of his speeches he said I had pretended to have had a discussion with Rev. Alexander Campbell, of Bethany, Va. There is not a word of truth in his statement.

The brother said, "I know not just what the punishment of the wicked will be;" and all through this discussion he has tried to make us think, that endless damnation will be about what most of mankind will want in hell, and he has charged me with misrepresenting his and his brethren's views of future punishment. It seems he has made similar statements about hell in anc ther

quarter, and one of his brethren calls him to an account for it. I find the following in the Christian Standard, the Disciple organ of Cincinnati, Ohio, from S. W. Leonard:

"Bro. Sweeney says: 'I know not what the future hell of the wicked will be, any more than I know what the heaven of the righteous will be.' But, do we all believe what the Bible says? Let us see. Christ says,

Matt. xxv. 41: 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting FIRE, prepared for the devil and his angels.' The Revelator says, Rev. xx, 10: 'The devil that deceived them was cast into a lake of FIRE and BRIMSTONE, ** and shall be TORMENTED day and night forever and ever' Also xxi. 8: 'But the fearful and unbelieving, ** shall have their part in the LAKE WHICH BURNETH with FIRE and BRIMSTONE.' This we believe; but Bro. S. don't even SUPPOSE IT TO BE TRUE, for he says: 'I have never supposed that God is going to follow up the poor wretched man who will not have heaven, and vindictively punish him to all eternity with some horrible instrument of torture in a lake literally burning with fire and brimstone. Nothing of the sort.' So we see that neither Christ nor John came any way near suiting Bro. S. in their description of hell. He cannot even suppose that it will be anything like their representation of it. Neither does he believe that Christ told the truth in Matt. xxv. 41: in saying that hell was 'prepared;' for Bro. S. says, 'Perhaps the sinner will, in a great measure, make his own hell, which may not be wholly unlike some scenes in this world.' Such teaching would suit the Spiritualists; but Dives (see Luke xvi.) tried in vain. to get a drop of water into his hell.”

This brother Leonard is sound in faith, and don't adopt his brother Sweeney's new fangled notions about hell. He even charges his brother with infidelity, and with pretending to be wiser than Christ. Now, this Mr. Leonard is right, and Mr. Sweeney is wrong, if

those passages quoted mean ENDLESS TORMENT. Spurgeon, Edwards, and all these other hell-fire preachers are right, if those passages mean what Mr. Sweeney says they do mean endless punishment. Either the Spurgeon view of those passages must be received, or the Universalist view. One or the other. There is no middle ground. Either the horrors of hell are past imagination, as Mr. Sweeney's hymn book sings, or sin and woe will have an end

The gentleman told us, that after reading the Bible carefully and prayerfully" he was satisfied it teaches "everlasting destruction." Wonderful! No one denies it teaches everlasting destruction, as clearly as it teaches that the priesthood of Aaron was an everlasting priesthood; " that the Jews should have "the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession," (Gen. xvii. 7, 8); that the "mountains are everlasting" though they shall be "scattered" (Hab. iii. 6); that "the servant shall serve his master forever," (Ex. xxi. 6); that "strangers shall be bondman forever," (Lev. xxv. 46); that "the earth abideth forever," (Ecclesiastes, i. 4); that "the earth with her bars was about Jonah forever," (Jonah ii. 6). If the brother has read the Bible "carefully and prayerfully" he must have seen that forever and everlasting do not mean endless duration, but, as Barnes says, “an age.” If there was less infidelity in his creed, and more wisdom, love, mercy, and justice, he would see the " fiendish spirit" of endless damnation, and be amazed at the unbelief that believes in such cruelty.

No; "I would not if I could "believe in eternal hell torments. While God is Wise, Merciful, Just, and Good; while Jesus is the loving Savior of the world; while the Gospel is good news to all, I would not believe in eter

nal wrath and vengeance. God, Jesus, the Law, the Gospel, must all be transformed into pure malignity before I can subscribe to such a fiendish creed. From the garden of Eden to the ends of the earth; from Adam down through all generations, there has been far more virtue than vice, truth that error, joy than sorrow, happiness than misery, hence the good man rejoices that God made this world. But if this world had been the hell of the gentleman's creed, angels would have wept tears of blood when Adam was made in the image of God.

He assumed

The gentleman reached his "recapitulation." see what he has done for his proposition. that a judgment that was future eighteen hundred years ago must therefore, be future now. Such a "must therefore" is not worth refuting. Because the French Revolution was future when Christ was on earth, there has not yet been a French Revolution, according to the gentleman's logic! He admitted that Christ when on earth, promised to come again in his kingdom shortly, and that that coming took place long since. That, then, was Christ's SECOND COMING. His coming in his kingdom. Then the spirit of truth was poured upon the disciples, and Christ was "glorified in his saints," and he has been "glorified in his saints" in all ages since that day. They were then, and have been ever since, exalted to the right hand, to heavenly places in Christ Jesus; they entered the Gospel kingdom "which is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit," and partook of its life—its everlasting life. That was a coming in "glory," and for a glorious purpose. But the kingdom was to be taken. from the Jews, and they cast into outer darkness. As the temporal judgment that came on Idumea is called "unquenchable fire," punishment forever, as the seventy

years captivity of the Jews is called "everlasting shame,” everlasting contempt," so the tribulation that came on the Jewish nation is called "everlasting punishment,' "everlasting destruction." And as the principles of the kingdom blessed, saved, and glorified in the first century, and has blessed, saved, and glorified the saints in all ages and climes, so the principles of that kingdom have condemned error and vice in high and low places among all nations, "the Jews first, and also the Gentiles."

When Christ came in his kingdom, his reign, his judgment, commenced; and that reign, that judgment, will continue till he shall resign the kingdom to God the Father (1 Cor. xv.) The judgment day is the day of Christ's reign. It commenced when Christ came in his kingdom, "to be glorified of his saints" and dreaded by his enemies. We have seen that Matt. xxiv. and xxv.; 2 Thes. i. 6-10; Acts xvii. 31; 2 Peter iii. 3-10, and Rev. xx., all refer to this coming of Christ in his kingdom to reign, to judge. This is evident from the passages themselves, and from Matt. x. 23, xvi. 27, 28, xxxiv. 34; James v. 7–9; Rev. xxii. 6, 7, 10, 12, 20. These passages inform us when the gentleman's proof-texts, just referred to, were fulfilled. And his texts are further illustrated by Dan. vii. 13, 14; Isa. ii. 3, 4, ix. 6, 7, xxxiii. 1, 16, xxxiv. 1-16, xlii, 1, 4; Jer. xxiii. 5, 39, 40; Zec. xiv, 1, 2, 3. I hope you will deliberately examine these scriptures I refer to when at your homes, and you will see that they illustrate and explain the gentleman's prooftexts, and show that he has misapplied them. For what is meant by fire, hell, punishment, I refer you to the quotations from the Bible in my last reply, to which the brother paid but little attention.

My friend told us, that aionios is the word by which