The Millennial Harbinger Volume 7 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THB MILLENNIAL HARBINGER: SERIES III. Vol. VII.] BETHANY, Va., JANUARY, 1850. [No. I. TRUE RELIGION. Theke is but one true religion. All else are counterfeit. There it- but one religion that can take a man to heaven. All others are useless. And the religion that can take a man to henven, is a religion that renders him fit for heaven. For heaven itself would be a place of punishment to those who were unfit for its society, and averse to its enjoyments; and a religion would be justly discredited, that promised admission to a state of perfect holiness and happiness, and yet had no obvious tendency to prepare man for that condition. Man is made fit for heaven by being restored to the divine image, favor and fellowship. A religion that does not do this is but an empty profession. All true religion leads to fellowship with God. Satan destroys man only by separating him from God. All pain and sorrow are in this, and the judicature of heaven knows no higher punishment than an everlasting destruction from tlie presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. It is much to be feared, that this great object of true religion is overlooked by many of those who make a profession of Christianity. It seems to be regarded merely as a system of redemption or salvation. It is looked upon in a selfish point of view, as something which a man may add to his other possessions; as something which may be acquired like property, for private and personal advantage. It is conceived to be something which is offered to men as a commodity, which they may obtain upon certain terms, of which the ministers of the gospel are supposed to be the negotiators. But Christianity is very far from being a mere system of redemption from sin, or salvation from punishment, or selfish rewards for o...