parts of the earth for a possession. And all the Father hath given him
shall come unto him, and he will raise them up the last day. He is
mighty to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him; and no
one will deny that the righteous come unto him. How then can their
eternal salvation be denominated _scarce_? Impossible. How then are
the scriptures to be reconciled with our text, when they declare
eternal life to be the gift of God--that we are saved by grace--that
help is laid upon one mighty to save--that his arm is not shortened
that it cannot save; and that the power of God is to be exerted at the
resurrection in making them equal unto the angels? The answer is
easily given--our text has no reference whatever to the immortal
world, to a judgment at the end of time, nor to the final condition of
the human family; but simply refers to the narrow escape of the
christians from the destruction of Jerusalem, when they fled with
their lives in their hands to the mountains of Judea for safety.

In the 24th chapter of Matthew Jesus clearly describes the dreadful
scene. He says--"Then let them which be in Judea flee into the
mountains. Let him which is on the house top not come down to take any
thing out of his house. And woe unto them that are with children and
to them that give suck in those days!" [Why? Because they could not
remain in the mountains during the period that the city was besieged
by the Romans.] "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter
neither on the Sabbath day." [Why? Because in the winter you would
perish with cold--and if your flight from the city be on the Sabbath
day, the Jews will stone you to death for traveling more than three
miles.] "For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since
the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And
except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved;"
[Saved from what? Ans. From death.] "but for the elect's sake those
days shall be shortened." That is, for the sake of the christians who
fled to the mountains, God shortened the days of the siege. Let us
hear Dr. Adam Clarke, a Methodist Commentator, on this--"Josephus
computes the number of those who perished in the siege at eleven
hundred thousand, besides those who were slain in other places; and if
the Romans had gone on destroying in this manner, the whole nation of
the Jews would in a short time have been entirely extirpated [destroy
completely, as