THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
IS THERE SALVATION
AFTER DEATH?
A TREATISE ON THE
GOSPEL IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE.
By E. D. morris, D. D., LL.D.,
Lane Theological Seminary.
SECOND EDITION.
A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON,
714 Broadway, New York.
Copyright 1887,
BY
Edward D. Morris,
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
TAGES.
f NTRODUCTORY : TlIE QUESTION STATED, . 1-42
CHAPTER II.
Testimony of Particular Scriptures, . 43-81
CHAPTER III.
Geis'eral Testimony of Scripture, . . 82-116
CHAPTER IV.
The Witness of Christian Symbolism, 117-154
CHAPTER V.
The Witness of Christian Theology, 155-200
CHAPTER VI.
The Witness of Christian Experience, 201-248
Index of Topics and References, . . 249-252
754941
IS THERE SALVATION AFTER DEATH?
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
The aim of this treatise is to discuss, mainly in its
more obvious and vital aspects, the important ques-
tion here proi^ounded, and to supply such answers as
the testimonies of Scripture, the witness of Christian
symbolism, the evidences drawn from Christian theol-
ogy, and the tests of religious experience may combine
to furnish. In other words, what is here proposed is
a solution, practical rather than speculative, of the se-
rious problem now presented for consideration in vari-
ous quarters, whether what_M-e term the Gospel has
any place or mission in the Intermediate State.
Such a discussion as is contemplated seems to require
brief introductory reference to certain related truths,
and also some preliminary allusion to
, "ex • '• rieliminriry
certain other theories or change in inquiry as to tiio
character and condition after death. immortality of
Man.
Of these related truths the first in
order is the underlying fact of Immortality. — The
conviction that there is a life beyond the grave, and
that this future life is unending in duration, has
"ained a firm place in the faith of thoughtful minds in
all ages, even aside from the teachings of the Chris-
tian Revelation. This conviction has rested in part on
(1)
2 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
the immateriality of the soul itself, as a simple or im-
compounded essence, pervaded by a living principle
which seems independent of all physical processes of
cliange or decay. It has rested partly on the con-
scious possession of endowments and capacities, which
appear in their own nature to be indestructible, — on
the witness of the reason, the esthetic feelings, and the
conscience to their inherent supremacy over the acci-
dents and mutations of time. Further evidence has
been found in that primal law of continuity mani-
fest in our mental and moral experience, by which the
full identity of the personality, with all its peculiar ca-
pabilities, is maintained throughout the vicissitudes of
this earthly life. Again, the obvious survival of these
spiritual capacities in undiminished vigor even while
the physical man is perishing, and the instinctive yearn-
ings of the soul, its conscious and unconquerable desire
to live after death, contribute still further to this well-
niffh universal conviction. And finallv, the solemn
sense of responsibility to some higher jwwer, the deep
monitions of conscience, and even the irrepressible an-
ticipations of a retribution to come, testify yet more con-
clusively to the fundamental truth that man as man is
immortal.
What is thus certified to the soul from within, is
also suggested to it by certain interesting analogies in
physical nature, — by what we see of life in other forms
preserving itself throughout multiplied changes, as if
in defiance of environing death. Illustrations drawn
from this field have often been spontaneously seized
upon by the mind, in support of its innate aspiration,
its inextinguishable desire. Yet, on the other hand, we
must confess that nature casts her deep shadows at
many points upon the hope which the soul intuitively
IMMORTALITY OF MAN. 3
cherishes, aud which such intimations at tiraes strongly
encourage. We still ask with trembling whether that
death which is so often triumphant over life in the
broad territory of nature, may not overcome the soul
also, and sweep it at last despite hopes and aspirations
into an irretrievable destruction. To such an inquiry,
anxiously urged, there can be no really conclusive an-
swer apart from Revelation. It is to the Word of
God, — to the comforting hints and assurances of the
older Scriptures, to the clearer intimations and promises
of the New Testament, and most of all to the witness
of Him who came to bring life and immortality to light,
that we turn for the supreme and the infallible testi-
mony. Xo particular array of these biblical evidences
is needful here : we study the divine Word, and there
in its description of man as he was originally made in
the image of God, in its assurances that even his death
in trespasses and sins does not imply his annihilation,
in its warnings to sinners and its promises to believers,
both drawn from an eternity on which saint and sinner
are said alike to enter, we read the unquestionable cer-
tification of God himself to our individual immortality.
Nor is this a conditional or contingent immortality,
depending for its realization on the conscious and sav-
ing experience of grace. — It is true, ^^ immortaiit
as our Lord has taught, (John 17:3) not conduionai;
that Lite Lternal — ira mortality in the
supreme and perfect sense — can be enjoyed only by
those who spiritually know God and the Redeemer
whom He has sent. Other passages are found in the
New Testament (Rom. 2:7. John 10:27-8) convey-
ing in part at least the same conception of a holy im-
mortality, which as a gift of grace is to be enjoyed by
4 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
saints only. Yet unending existence is in multiplied
passages (Rom. 2:8-9. Matt. 10:28. Eccl. 12:7) as-
serted of the sinner as truly as of those who are saved
eternally through faith. The sinner like the saint lives
on bcvond the liour of his earthly decease, having in
himself by divine bestowment an immortal subsistence,
and therefore maintaining a continuous being in distinct
consciousness, age on age, eternally. No theory of hu-
man nature as dichotomic in the case of sinners and
tripartite in the case of believers, can be sustained,
either from the Scriptures or from consciousness.' The
same body and soul, or body and soul and spirit, which
belong to the saint belong in measure as full and com-
plete to the unbeliever also. The story of the creation
of man as man in the divine image, the narrative of
his complete fall from that high condition, the faithful
record of his career as a sinner, all alike imply that in
a state of sin as in a state of grace, he is endowed with
enduring life. Moreover, the change which regenera-
tion induces, is not the introduction of another consum-
mating element into our human nature, but rather the
restoration of that nature as it is, with all its native
parts and powers, into holy harmony and into blessed
fellowship with God in Christ, through the Holy Ghost.
But the term, Annihilationism, in the stricter sense,
implies not a bare form of existence for the wicked in
contrast with a special and gracious mode of being for
the godly, but rather an actual extinction of all life for-
^IIeaki), Tripartite Nature of Man: Ch. xiii. While the tricho-
toinic theory cannot, in view of Heb. 4 : 12. 1 Thess. 5 : 23. 1 Cor.
15 : 44, and some other passages, be pronounced anti-scriptural (as
in TIoDOK, Theoh ii : 47), the use of the distinction between soul
and si)irit in the way here indicated, is wholly without biblical
warrant. The spiritual mind is not a superadded faculty, but a
native endowment graciously spiritualized.
IMMORTALITY NOT CONDITIONAL. 5
ever in the case of those who have sinned against God
and his grace. Such an extinction may occur, it is sug-
gested, either at death or after some terminable period
of retributive suifering, or at the day of final judgment.
It is asserted that the strong langnage of tlie Bible re-
specting the perishing, the destruction, the blotting out
of the ungodly {a-oAhjiu and its derivatives) can mean
nothing less than absolute cessation, not of consciousness
merely, but of being itself. It is held that the corre-
sponding term, eternity, [auou, and its derivatives) should
be taken as applied to the wicked, in the limited sense
of a fixed period — a period v.hich, however prolonged,
will finally end somewhere. It is also argued specu-
latively that sin, being a mere disorder and having no
permanent ground of existence, may be terminated for-
ever, carrying away with it the soul that indulges it, —
that the goodness of God toward the universe may load
him to withdrav/ his sustaining hand, and suffer the
incorrigibly wicked to drop altogether out of exist-
ence, — that the welfare and final triumph of divine gov-
ernment would be best secured by such retributive de-
struction of every rebel against God. And it is further
argued that such a result, if it should occur, would re-
lieve us forever from the dreadful alternative of cvcr=
lasting sin and everlasting condemnation, and would at
the same time ])roscnt immortality and fullness of life
to our minds as the legitimate and proper and also the
jrlorious reward of all the righteous for evermore.
The biblical answer to these reasonings is conclu-
sive. The strong expressions such as perishing, destruc-
tion, blotting out, found in both the Old Testament and
the New, can not always be interpreted as implying
absolute extinction. In multiplied instances (Matt. 10:
6,39. 1 Cor. 3:17. 2 Thess. 1:0) they refer to tem-
6 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
poral loss or failure, or also to spiritual failure or loss,
which may fall very far short' of the annihilation here
contemplated.^ We shall also have occasion to see that
the terms descriptive of eternity can not be so reduced
as to represent a fixed and terminable period however
prolonged, without destroying the foundations on which
our pious hope of the life everlasting is based. Further
examination of the Bible will satisfy the candid mind
that nothing short of absolute immortality for the wicked
as truly as for the righteous will adequately interpret its
solemn declarations, — especially those relating to the
state and place of departed spirits, and to the final res-
urrection of the just and of the unjust. Over against
these decisive declarations, corroborated by the almost
universal conviction of those who receive the Scriptures
as divine, the biblical argument for the annihilation of
the ungodly can not well sustain itself in our vespcct.
And if we turn from Scripture into the field of specu-
lative inquiry, we shall there find much to offset and
outweigh this illusive theory. All the arguments for
immortality, from whatever source, may be thrown into
the scale against it; science itself resists the conclasion
that the soul is thus j)erishable, as material organizations
are. Moreover, if the goodness of God would be ex-
alted on this hypothesis, this must be secnrc<i at the
expense of his wisdom, since the absolute destruction
of a race of beings whom He had once made for Ilim-
^ "Tliere is absolutely no ground for identifying the words de-
stroy, perish, and their cognates, as used by tlu^ N. T. writers,
with the cessation of conscious existence. As used by them they
speak (1) of a state of failui'c, ruin, frustration not necessarily
irremediable, and (2) of i)hysical death." Plumi'tre, Spirits in
Prison; App. on Conditional Immortality. For the annihilatioa-
ist view, see especially White, Life in Christ. Huntington, Con/>
ditional Immortality.
ANNIHILA TIONISM. 7
self, could be little else than an entire frustration of his
original plan in their creation. Kor could the equity
of his government be sustained before the moral uni-
verse, by a process which allowed the sinner to escape
from a measure of penalty justly due to human trans-
gression. Xor again, could our sense of the precious-
ness of immortality, or our enjoyment of the beatilic
vision of God, be magnified by any contrast with the
indescribable awfulness of such a consummation as that
here proposed. Neither is the awful conception much
improved by the admission of some intermediate pun-
ishment antecedent to a final catastrophe and destruc-
tion at the day of judgment, since such intermediate
punis'hment would present difficulties to the speculative
understanding hardly less serious than those which the
orthodox view is supposed to involve.
Accepting then as fundamental the doctrine of both
reason and Scripture, that immortality is the ]iroper
heritage of man as man, we are brought jjj General
at once to another preliminary inquiry Mode of Exist-
respecting the general mode or condi-
tion of the soul in what is termed the intermediate
state — the peiiod between death and the final resurrec-
tion. A brief answer to this inquiry seems essential to
a right appreciation of the special question hereafter to
be discussed :
A solution of all problems concerning this interme-
diate state is sug-o-ested in the theory that at death the
soul passes into a condition of unconscious being of
which sleep is the nearest natural analogue, and that it
remains in this condition under the preserving care of
God, much as the corporeal life is somehow preserved
in existence by Him, until the supreme moment when,
8 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
before the final judgment, these two vital elements or
factors in each person are called forth into distinct life
again, and are joined together in a combination Avhich
is perfect and perjjctual. It is urged that if this hy-
pothesis be accepted, every question respecting the state
of the dead prior to tlie resurrection, such as the prob-
lem of corporeity, of purgatory, of probation, of possi-
ble redemption after death, would be at once excluded.
The biblical argument for this unique hypothesis is
derived mainly from the frequent comparisons of death
to sleep, (Matt. 9: 24. John 11: 11-14. 1 Cor. 11: 30.
1 Thess. 4: 14) from some descriptions of the resur-
rection, which suggest an awaking of the spirit as well
as the body from the deep slumber of death, (Dan. 12:
2. 1 Cor. 15: 51-2. 1 Thess. 5: 10) and from certain
references to the final or general judgment, as the time
when the awards of eternity are first meted out to men.
From these three classes of texts, especially, it is in-
ferred that the intermediate state is not in any sense a
state of rew'ard and retribution, or even a condition of
further discijjline or purgation, but is simply a long
night of re^jose, during which the soul, wrapped in deep
unconsciousness, knows nothing of the passage of time,
and is even unaware of its own existence, but rests
somewhere in the merciful care of God until the eter-
nal morning shall break upon its vision. AVhately :
Future State: Lect. iv.
To these conclusions based on certain declarations or
intimations of Scripture, there is added a series of spec-
ulative considerations such as the following: The con-
scious and active being of the soul apart from the body
seems, it is said, an inexplicable mystery, — especially
when we call to mind tlio numberless ages during v>'hich
such an anomalous mode of existence may continue.
MODE OF EXISTENCE AFTER DEATH. 9
Further, the passage of the soul into a state of com-
plete quiescence is no greater marvel than the commit-
ment of the body to the solemn sleep of death ; and
the same power which can keep the body in its earthy-
bed and at length call it forth into renewed life, can
also both preserve the soul and awaken it again. More-
over, such a night of rest may have some such relations
to the revivifying and larger enduing of the soul for its
eternal career, as healthful sleep sustains to our in-
creased activity and usefulness from day to day on
earth. Such a slumber, it is added, can involve no real
loss to a soul which still has a whole eternity before it,
and which has no consciousness of the passage of time
during this intermediate period. And besides this, it
is further urged, the reward or the punishment of souls
apart from their bodies seems on the one hand imper-
fect and insufficient in itself, and on the other appears
to render a general judgment at the close of the world
both needless and inexplicable.
To the biblical proof abundant answer may be found
in the words of our Lord himself. His argument in
Matt. 22 : 23-32, corroborated as it is by the narrative
of the transfiguration, (Matt. 17: 1-9: also Mark and
Luke) is evidence conclusive that the patriarchs not
only existed, but existed in full consciousness, at least
during the period of His Messiahship. The parable of
Dives and Lazarus can be fitly interpreted only on the
supposition that He who uttered it believed in the con-
scious existence of men, not at and after the judgment,
but immediately at and after death. His promise to the
dying thief also, pledging to him an immediate paradi-
saic experience in such strange conti-ast with the mortal
pains which the criminal was then and there suffering,
can be explained on no other supposition. With these
10 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
teachings of Christ the language and testimony of Paul
(2 Cor. 5: 1-8. 2 Tim. 4: 6-8 and elsewhere) are in
complete harmony. And to these may be added the
representations of the Apocalypse (Rev. 5: 6-10. 7:
9-17) in regard to the state, employments, felicities
of the blessed dead, — representations which are wholly
inexplicable on the theory that all the souls of all the
dead are existing somewhere in unconscious slumber,
and that they are to remain in that condition, and with
them all the souls of men that shall die during the long
ages of the future, until the remote dawning of the res-
urrection day.
So far as the speculative considerations suggested are
concerned, we may find ready answer in such facts as
these : The existence of the spirit apart from the body,
however mysterious, is clearly not impossible, since
God and the holy angels so exist : corporeal existence
may not be in any measure so needful to active and
conscious life as we are prone to regard it. The same
divine power which now enables the soul to act within
and through a corporeal frame, may enable it to act as
readily without one : or, as some have urged, may })ro-
vido for it some spiritual body with which the soul
may be both clothed upon, and capacitated for active
existence,^ Neither can we well conceive of such an in-
numerable multitude of spirits endowed with immortality,
^ Taylor, Physical Theory of Another Life. This ^^ew is based
upon the striking passage, 2 Cor. 5 : 1-4, and a few other Inblical
snggestions. IIickok, Humanity Immartal, (p. 303,) suggests tlie
c«jnception of a spiritual body in man, distinct from his physical
or psychical body, which is indissoluble at death, and which the
author describes as "a body of living liglit, and a free citizen of
i\\2 etherial universe," from the moment of death onward. One
r;.'calls here the louching apostrophe of the dying Emperor Ha-
THIS EXISTENCE CONSCIOUS. H
thus kept through uncounted ages in entire unconscious-
ness, in reserve for a remote judgment, — the righteous
waitino; thus interminably for a reward, and the un-
godly for a condemnation -which are even at that day
to be determined according to the deeds done in the
body. Moreover, the notion that the soul needs after
its brief earthly life such a prolonged rest as this, seems
strangely incongruous ^v^th its immaterial nature and its
native powers, and out of harmony with the universal
anticipations of men. And finally, this opinion derives
its chief strength from wdiat must be pronounced an un-
scriptural conception of the final judgment, — since that
day of days is designed not so much to decide upon the
character of individual souls, as to justify the sovereign
ways of God with mankind, and to make His adminis-
tration and his scheme of grace glorious forever in the
eyes of tiie moral nniverse.
That this intermediate condition is one of compara-
tive incompleteness is indeed obvious. Death certainly
involves what has been called a dismemberment of the
manhood, with a consequent cessation of all activities
arising from tlje bodily organism, and a corresponding
retirement of the soul within the sphere of its ovoi ra-
tional and spiritual being. The conceptions of space
and time mainly give way : outward relationshijis are
doubtless in some degree retired from view: the soul
drian to his soul, — a strange interminding of sensuous earthliness
and cynical skepticism on one hand, and of solicitous anguish and
aspiration on the other :
Animiila v;igiila, blandula
IIos])es coincsque cor]ioris,
(Intv nunc abibis in loca,
Pallidal:!, rigida, nudula,
Nee, ut soles, dal)is jocos?
12 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
becomes largely quiescent and concentered within itstlf,
and the life of which it is conscious comes to be in larjre
degree an era of relative inaction, and in the case of
the believer, of holy and blessed calm. In the case of
the sinner, such a condition must at once be regarded
as unfavorable to radical changes in character during
this' period : the soul seems the rather thrown back on
itself, and held to the contemplation of its own sinful-
ness, and to the experience of such remorseful feeling
as such contemplation may awaken into throbbing ac-
tivity. As much as this appears to be intimated at
least in the biblical comparison of death with sleep,
and in the cognate description of the intermediate state
(John 9: 4) as in contrast with the present day of life,
a night when no man can w^ork.
Yet such conceptions of this state as passive and intro-
vertivc have their proper biblical counterpoise in those
frequent allusions, especially in the New Testament, to
the soul as active as well as conscious while in this con-
dition of dismemberment. AVhile, for example, we ac-
cept the Pauline description of death as a holy resting
forever with the Lord, freed from the disturbances of
this earthly state, are we not also permitted with him,
and with Peter and John, to contemplate this condition
as one of holy union and communion with the Hedeemer,
of cordial nnd ceaseless worship, of positive service and
ministry rendered to Him? It is not enough, in the
stronger light of the New Testament, to conceive of the
life of the holv dead as being such a beatific monotone
as the less distinct teaching of the Hebrew Scriptures
habitually describes it. The Apocalyptic delineations
introduce us rather to the visioii of a great multitude
of thoroughly vital spirits, not resting always or always
waiting merely for the redemption of their bodies, but
CHARACTER IX THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 13
continually full of movement and activity, of conscious
energy and augmented life.^
But whatever may be true as to the relative measure
of incompleteness and introvertiveness characteristic of
the intermediate state, we may rest in the general con-
clusion that this state is one of conscious and active
being on the part of every one who enters upon it, —
that while the body sleeps within the earth, the soul is
even more truly alive than when it inhabited its corpo-
real form, — and that its experiences are as real, as cogni-
zable, as effectual and important, as any through which
it may have passed on its way through the brief realm
of time to that more permanent abode. The Christian
has no occasion to fall back on the dim anticipation of
the expiring Hadrian : the soul to his view is far more
than a rigid, pallid, glassy essence flitting vaguely, nu-
bilonsly, through the empty spaces of eternity. Neither
can the natural man, who has once seriously contem-
plated his future condition in the revealing light of the
Bible, anticipate for himself any other than a vivid,
active, essentially spiritual existence in the intermediate
state, in real fellowship with all the dead, consciously
beneath the eternal eve of Deitv.
From this brief consideration of the preliminary prob-
lem of existence and of conscious existence after death,
we mav pass on to a more immediate „. „,
, " , . . . I^ • Character and
question, which still is by its nature con.iitiou in the
introductory to the special problem ^"tern.ediate state.
here to be considered, — the question of character and
condition in the intermediate state. — It must be con-
fessed that the eyes of most who contemplate the future
1 EvASs, LI. J., Prof. : Intermediate State : Presby t. Review, April,
1887. Alford, State of the Blessed Dead.
14 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
life, are fixed much more definitely on the clement of
condition than on the supreme and determinative ele-
ment of character. There is much in current opinion
and tcachino; which tends to cultivate such a tendencv.
Popular theology, for example, has emphasized greatly,
even unduly, the miseries of one class of the dead, and
the felicities of another, — the fierce agonies of hell, and
the beatific joys and glories of heaven. The evangelical
pulpit is accustomed to descant largely, even dispropor-
tionately, upon such peculiarities of place, condition, en-
vironment, as if these constituted the main characteris-
tics of life in eternity,^ So the terms, lost, saved, —
terms having indeed full warrant in the Scriptures, and
properly descriptive of a reality which no terms less
pregnant with moaning could sufficiently depict, — are
often used in such connections as if they referred, not
at all to a state of the soul itself, but rather to an estate
^Especially is it noticeable that in much of the current discus-
sion respecting probation after death, the fundamental problem
of character is in a large degree ignored by the advocates of that
dogma, and tlie matter of condition pushed into undue pi'omi-
nence as if the main question were to be settleil on the basis, not
of inner wortliiness, but of circumstantial happiness. Farrar, for
illustration, {Eternal Hope, Sermon iii.) summons all his rhetor-
ical skill into service to dei)ict, in ghastly and staiiling colors,
what he regards as the evangelical view of the torments of hell.
He quotes from Jonathan Edwards and other authors every ma-
terial or physical image that can make the picture of the condition
of the lost more horrid ; and then asks whether it be possible to
hold such a l)elief. On the other hand, he reduces the element
of sin to the lowest terms, ignores largely the underlying problem
of character, asserts every thing short of absolute innocence for
the mass of those thus condemned, waives aside the demands of
moral government, and the claims of -justice; and then repeats
Ins question — as if tlie issue were one of condition alone. Otlier
writers of this class, both European and American, furnish fre-
quent examples of this mischievous tendency.
CHARACTER AND CONDITION. 15
to which the soul by some divine decision is consigned.
They are interpreted as pointing to condition and envi-
ronment, to doom or reward, rather than, as our Lord
primarily employed them, to lost or saved character.
In the incomplete adjustments of this world, the fun-
damental proposition that under the divine constitution
of things condition must turn npon the primary problem
of character, is often overlooked or even denied. Our
earthly life is made np so largely of externalities, — our
surroundings, possessions, attainments are so extensively
determined by inheritance, by multiplex social connec-
tions, and even by wdiat we term accident, that it is often
difficult amid the tangled web of temporal affiiirs to
trace the action of this fundamental law. Yet the hu-
man reason, the human conscience, are constantly aflirm-
ing the law, and one of the primal tasks recognized in
all civilized forms of society is its practical enforcement.
But in eternity these earthly complications will drop off
as in a moment, and the soul will be compelled to see
more clearly than this life could ever reveal the fact,
that wdiat it is, as seen in the light of the divine adjudi-
cation, should and Avill fix its place, determine every
condition, and bring in happiness or misery at once and
forever. In that life character is every thing the soul
has, and there, if not here, character visibly determines
sphere, environment, destiny.
Employing the term, character, in this connection as
embodying the sum total of what each soul is in spirit-
ual quality, in belief and disposition, in feeling and ac-
tion, as tested by the divine standards of moral person-
ality, it thus becomes obvious that the one essential thing
which every soul carries with it into the conscious ex-
perience of the coming life is, must be, character. The
question as to the precise application of this statement
1 6 IN TROD UCTOR Y : THE Q UESTION STA TED.
to the very large proportion of the human race who die
before what w^e term character, has been developed in
consciousness, need not be discussed at this stage. Nor
is it needful to consider just here how far the term is
applicable to the myriads who live and die in a state of
spiritual infancy, amid the moral obscurations of heath-
enism. It is important merely to note the generic fact
that character, however inchoate, however undeveloped
or disabled, is and is to be the one essential heritage of
man as man in the intermediate state. The soul, in
other words, takes nothing into eternity but itself, and
that self will be, must be, the test of its condition forever
and ever. Even tlic infant bringing into that state
nothing but the germs of character, and the pagan who
has passed through life under the moral disabilities im-
posed by outward condition, must commence their im-
mortal existence under the same spiritual law. To one,
to all, the one supreme thing in eternity must be char-
acter.
Setting aside therefore as secondary the problem of
condition in the intermediate state, and fixing attention
sim])ly on the primary place and moment of character,
we are led at once to note the further truth that growth
in character is the primal and the main experience of
the soul in that state. Such development of character
from its earliest germs within the infiint breast to its
earthly maturity in the saint or the sinner, is indeed
the supreme phenomenon in our existence even in this
world, — a phenomenon often obscured by adventitious
events, by externalities in experience or condition, yet
none the less the one momentous thing in the bio-
graphic records of every soul. That this process is ar-
rested at death, — that the soul continues through the long
ranges of the intermediate life to be just what it Avas at
GEO WTH IN CHAR A C TER. 1 7
the instant of death, with no further development of its
powers, no advance or maturing in the substance of its
being, is altogether inconceivable. The fact of growth
here, and of such growth as universal and as continu-
ous in each person even down to the close of life, fur-
nishes abundant ground for the belief that this type of
growth will be exhibited, probably in forms far more
distinct and impressive, after this life is over. The
conception of the intermediate state as one of compara-
tive quiescence, can not be carried to the extent of in-
ferring that all development, all maturing, is arrested in
that state, — that the soul lives on and on, without
change, without advance, until the awakening trump of
judgment. But to a disembodied soul only one form
or direction of growth is possible — growth in character.
To this interior result, whatever is external in place or
condition must be altogether subordinate. The devel-
opment of itself according to the dominant beliefs, feel-
ings, dispositions, aspirations incorporated within it
here, and carried with it into that new mode of being,
is the only experience of which as a soul it is capable.
Its environment may indeed affect at many points such
growth in moral personality, yet that environment will
not as a cause determine the interior development.
Rather is it true that this spiritual unfolding proceeds
by laws and forces deeper far than any imposed by sur-
rounding conditions — by the forces and the laws inher-
ent in the soul itself.
These brief hints respecting the relative prominence
of character and condition in the disembodied state, and
respecting the primary fact of development in character
as constituting the main feature of human experience in
that state, are here brought in simply as introductory to
the more fundamental question, whether changes in char-
18 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
actcr are possible in this future life. The abstract query
whether this species of contingency belongs to the nat-
ure of all finite beings in whatever world, need not be
argued here. The possibility of change for the worse
even among angels can not be denied in view of the fact
that, so far as we know, sin originated in the angelic
world, and from that world came into ours — whether it
had existed there as an awful reality long ages before
the creation of man, or appeared in the moral universe
for the first time in immediate conjunction with the
temptation and the fall. Further, the perseverance of
saints is not supposed to rest on any intrinsic impos-
sibility of their falling away into sin, but rather ou
the purpose and promise of the Father, on the me-
diation of the Son, and on the attendant, preservative
ministrations of the Spirit, not only here but hereafter.
And if such as have once been sanctified have still
within themselves a law of mutability which, apart from
the pledged grace and power of God, might suffer them
to lapse into evil, it may be still more strongly affirmed
that such a law of mutability stretches its dark shadows
in eternity as here across the path of all those who have
never been savingly affected by the Holy Ghost.
But the possibility of passing from a state of sin, or-
even of moral weakness or inaptitude such as the infant
or the pagan may exhibit, into a state of holiness allied
to that of angels or of Deity, is certainly involved in far
greater difficulties than those which stand in the way of
a fall from holiness into sin. Anomalous as the devel-
opment of the princi[)le of evil in a soul created holy
must ever be, the anomaly of an antithetic change to
moral completeness in one already a sinner, whether by
choice or by native taint and bias, must be far greater.
For, in the first case, we see simply the upspringing of
RADICAL CHANGES IX CHARACTER. 19
the new, bad law of self, in antagonism to the divine
law of obedience; in the latter we must either conceive
of the soul, degenerate and weak through sin, restoring
itself to a frame and state of holiness, or of some
mighty power from above the soul working out within
the spiritual life a moral transformation which self
could never have produced. Kadical changes from sin
to holiness are for this reason far more difficult even in
this world than the opposite ; as a matter of fact we
know on the clear warrant of Scripture that they occur
only where such divine energies are seen descending
into the corrupted moral nature, and by their own su-
preme potency transforming it into the likeness of God.
Whether even these superhuman forces can and do pro-
duce such a result, under the special conditions of ex-
istence in the intermediate state, can not be affirmed on
any abstract or speculative ground. A sound and wise
philosophy must rather recognize at the outset the vast
spiritual difficulties which beset at many points the hope
of such a moral transformation.
Without discussing this abstract question, we may
here simply note the fact that there are four affirmative
theories which maintain on various grounds the possi-
bility of such changes from a state of" sinfulness into a
state of full perfection during the intermediate life.
They are as follows :
The spontaneous or evolutionary theory, affirming
that these salvatory changes will occur chiefly tlirough
the action of forces inherent in tlic soul itself;
The educational and disciplinary theory, which at-
tributes the result rather to combined processes of train-
ing and chastisement providentially brought to bear
upon the soul for its moral restoration ;
The papal or purgatorial theory, which relates to im-
20 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
perfect believers only, and refers their ultimate perfec-
tion to the influences of direct punishment divinely in-
flicted upon them in order to their complete purgation
and preparation for heaven ;
The probationary theory, asserting the salvation of a
large proportion of the inhabitants of the intermediate
state, not tlirough such discipline or purgation, but
through the presentation and application to them of
the Gospel, as it is in Christ.
Of tiiese theories the first three will be very briefly
described and set aside : a more minute and thoronoh
examination of the fourth will, as has already been in-
timated, be the aim of the present treatise.
The essence of the evolutionary theory is that such
changes in cliaracter from evil to good, with consequent
V. Tiie Evo- change in condition and environment,
Intioiiary Theory: j^y^^ ]^q CXpCCtcd tO OCCUr thrOUgh the
Salvatioji Ui Cliar- ". .
acter Wrought by action of forccs uativc to the soul it-
thesountseif. self— fbrccs Avhosc influence is alleged
to be felt producing great moral transformations even
in this world, and whose povver may become vastly in-
creased and be made a thousand-fold more fruitful, it
is supposed, in the intermediate state. — Any one who
believes that every soul of man, as a direct product of
divine power and wisdom and love, is created as holy
as our lirst parents were,— who holds that every such
creature has within himself all the abilities and re-
sources requisite to perfect action, — who regards sin as
a mere stumbling and ildling incident to the imperfect
training or narrov," experience of time, — who thus con-
fuses reformation with regeneration and virtue with re-
ligion in tliis life, may readily accept this rationalizing
theoiy as to moral transformations which men may pro-
THE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY. 21
ducc in themselves duriug tlie future life. It is not
surprising that disciples of Channing and especially of
Theodore Parker in America, and others of like doc-
trinal tendency in England and Germany, should be
inclined to some such cx[)lanation. What they hold
as to the spiritual capabilities of the soul, even when
shrouded in the gloom of paganism, leads to no other
conclusion : and their definition of the term, salvation,
as implying spiritual change for the better wrought out
mainly by the innate energies of the soul apart from the
Spirit of God, makes the conclusion more plausible.
Starting from such a theological basis, it is not strange
that they contemplate not merely the infant, the heathen
man, the uneducated thoughtless sinner in Gospel lands,
but even the most obdurate and wicked of men the world
over, as thus capable. of correcting for themselves in their
intermediate condition the mistakes of this earthlv life,
and by the restorative capabilities inherent in human
nature, of lifting themselves up progressively into the
higher atmosphere of truth, of duty, of unselfish and
holy love.
Nor is it an insignificant fact that some among the
high authorities quoted in supportof the dogma oi' post
mortem probation, are inclined to regard this natural-
istic view with some degree of favor. Thus Marten-
sen, while in form arguing against the notion of a per-
fectibility to be attained through the natural progress
of the soul from degree to degree of moral development,
without gracious interposition, still lays peculiar stress
on the influence of the intermediate state itself, as tend-
ing to lead the soul to virtue and holiness. He describes
the departed (Dogmatics, § 27G-7) as in a condition of
meditative rest, a state of thoughtful passivity ; and the
kingdom they inhabit, as not one of works or deeds,
22 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
since they no longer possess the conditions or capabilities
upon which works and deeds are possible. It is rather,
he adds, a kingdom of subjectivity, a kingdom of calm
thought and self-fathoming, a kingdom of remembrance,
in which the soul enters into its own inmost recesses,
and falls back upon that which is the very foundation of
soul life : a state in which, as he pictures it, the voices
of earth grow dumb, the voices of eternity are heard,
the spirit is aroused to see itself, the soul works out a
new consciousness, and so the realm of the dead be-
comes to it necessarily a realm of reflection, correction,
judgment. There is in souls as such, he adds, an in-
extinguishable capability of good, and therefore they
may continue to mould and govern themselves accord-
ing to the new manifestations of the divine will while
in this condition, even until the last, the final judgment.
And it is on this interior process quite as much as on
the descent of Christ into Hades and the proclamation
of the Gospel there, that Martensen seems to rely as
the basis for his doctrine of ultimate salvation.
Can we rest on any such process as this, as constitut-
ing a sufficient ground of hope respecting the ultimate
restoration of all men, or even of any large proportion
of those who die in sin, to a final condition of holiness
and acceptance with God? Will all infants, borne in
moral unconsciousness into that realm of the dead, there
begin to develop and expand by native capability, as a
plant by interior force bursts forth into its appointed
flower, and so become by innate energy all that God
desires his creatures to be? Will all the heathen there
shake off the spiritual disabilities which have come upon
them in this life, and by virtue of their own spiritual
powers develop themselves in that peculiar sphere into
complete, perfect manhood? Will those vyho have neg^
THE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY. 23
lecterl to use what they have known of Christ and His
salvation in this workl, and those who have been rep-
robate here as to all holy things, there of themselves
correct all such wrong tendencies, set up a new law and
a new spirit within their own breasts, and from some
point in that mysterious condition turn their eyes and
their hearts decisively toward God and holiness? In
a word, may we anticipate that salvation will come to
all mankind, or indeed to any soul of man hereafter,
in virtue of such interior processes of rectification and
improvement as are here contemplated?
Waiving altogether the obvious fact that the Word
of God lays no foundation for such a belief — that it
nowhere justifies the hope that either in this world or
in any other a bad character will change itself by any
energy innate in the soul into a good character, we are
bound to say on rational grounds alone that all such
anticipations are vain. This might be argued from what
we actually see of moral development in this world,
since under these earthly conditions we nowhere find
children growing spontaneously into spiritual perfec-
tion : we nowhere see pagan races becoming virtuous and
pure by any innate energy: we nowhere see the sinful
and the reprobate revolutionizing their own moral ex-
perience, cleansing themselves from each taint of evil,
and setting up of their own accord a loving affiliation
with angels and with God. Neither have we any war-
rant that the intermediate state will become a school of
training in character so much better than this life, that
wdiat does not take place here may be expected to oc-
cur in the case of all, or of many, there. If we affirm
nothing of infants or others who have not entered con-
sciously on moral experience in tliis world, we know
enough at least of the tendencies of the heathen mind.
24 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
enough of the power of evil in the case of adult trans-
gressors in Christian lands, to justify rather the antici-
pation that what is dominant in the soul here will re-
main in baleful supremacy hereafter. We know enough
to lead directly to the expectation that evil will still
abide as the ruling power in those in Avhom it is the
ruling power now, and even that it will develop in a
future state, as it does in this world, into greater force
and authoritativeness, age after age. If sin were merely
a physical product, the bad outgrowth of defective or
diseased bodily organism, we might possibly look for
such moral improvement when the dropping off of this
corrupting element should leave the soul free to work
out without hindrance its own supreme and better de-
sires. But sin is of the soul rather than of the body :
the first glimpses of it in the moral universe are those
which fallen angels furnish : and the highest and the
worst forms of it in man are such as originate, not in
the animal organism, but in the selfish and rebellious
spirit, — forms therefore which death has no power to
extirpate, and which may the rather live on in more
active and violent measure when the physical restraints
of time are finally removed.
But this natural tendency of sin to become perma-
nent hereafter as in this world is not the only argument
against this rationalistic hope. That hope loses sight of
another pregnant fact, that by an intrinsic and inevita-
ble law of being, judgment must begin at death. Isaac
Taylor^ has given us a remarkable and an awful picture
of the scenes and experiences that nuist, in the nature
of things, be immediately consequent upon the closing
^ Saturday Ecening, Essay xxiii, on the Dissolution of Human
Nature.
THE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY INVALID. ' 25
up of mortal life in the case of every adult. He graph-
ically describes the manner in which those varieties of
experience which originate directly in the union of soul
and body, such as the imagination with its special phases
of emotion, must fall away and disappear forever when
that union is dissolved. All forms of bodily excitement
cease : the decay of the animal life carries with it the
decline of all that is related to that life. The soul is
thrown back at once upon the play of its moral affec-
tions, whether these are pure or dej^raved : the moral
quality of its experience alone remains : the mixture
of good and evil, so marked in our earthly life, dis-
appears, and each person rests henceforth on his own
proper center. And the good and the wicked are thus
separated by an interior process antecedent to all formal
judgment : each soul becomes intuitively its own judge,
and from the nature of things there begins, not another
stage of development or another form of probation, but
rather a state of retribution inward, instant, inevitable.
To die — as Taylor solemnly says — is to come denuded
of all but conscience, into the open jiresence of the
Holy One: and in that presence, so unlike the state of
quiescent absorption in self w^iich Marten sen describes,
there is no opportunity for development from evil-doing
to holiness through some native action of the disembod-
ied soul, — there is room for nothing but retribution in-
ward, instant, inevitable. Thus not only the natural
tendency of sin to ripen into fixed maturity, but also
the nature of the transition which death introduces and
the experiences known to be directly consequent upon
death, render valueless this naturalistic hope. If men
do not transplant themselves from a state of sin to a
state of holiness in this life, vain, doubly vain, is it to
dream that they will of themselves effect a change so
26 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
vital after this season of opportunity and of grace is
over.
Closely related to this theory of moral restoration
through the inherent energies of the soul itself, is the
theory that such restoration may be
VI. TlieDisciplina- iY> < i ,i i • i r
ry Theory: Salvation eltected through Special processes of
through Training; training and discipline divinely in-
Restorationism. , , . , . , . ^
troduced in tne intermediate state, and
prolonged sufficiently to secure in every case the salva-
tion desired. — This view introduces, in addition, a sup-
posititious series of instrumentalities, some of them
educational simply, others stimulating or encouraging,
still others punitive in quality, — all designed to conspire
together with the native aspirations of the soul, in the
production of holiness in those who never were holy
in this life. A new environment is said to be thrown
around them ; another set of motives, unknown to sense
and time, will come into operation ; the methods of teach-
ing and of moral influence will be, perhaps unspeakably,
enhanced. Chastisement, and even penalty, may be di-
vinely utilized to the same end. Pain and suffering are
in their nature educational in this world, and they will
retain the same quality hereafter; as they seek always
to induce reformation here, they will be utilized for this
purpose and for this purpose only in the intermediate
life. And as a result, myriads of souls, if not every
human soul, will at last be saved — saved not through
the Gospel, but through these educational and disciplin-
ary processes introduced and made effectual after death.
Traces of this theory appear at various points in the
history of religious thought. Pusey^ gives us a consid-
^ TT7io( in of Faith as to Everlasting Punishment, pp. 112-5 ; also,
Appendix.
THE DISCIPLINARY THEORY. 27
erable list of the Christian Fathers who applied the
doctrine of Paul (1 Cor. 3:12-15) not merely to imper-
fect believers, but to other sinful persons who through
such disciplinary processes might be brought at length
into a state of purity and of spiritual perfection. In
Origen we find the dogma developing into the broad
affirmation of the ultimate restitution of all things (Acts
3:21), including not merely discipline or punishment,
but also spiritual training and a final restoration of all
mankind to holiness. In Germany the school of Schlier-
macher and others have advocated the dogma of uni-
versal restitution partly, though not exclusively, on this
ground. Some American representatives of current uni-
versalism have advanced a similar belief, — resting their
expectation of the ultimate salvation of all men, not
so much on the proclamation of the Gospel to the dead,
as on the effect of these educational and disciplinary
instrumentalities — new conditions, new motives, new
relationships, new revelations, possibly, — bringing about
a spiritual result which the Gospel had never been able
in time to accomplisli.
The objections justly urged against this conception of
spiritual restoration need not be specifically presented
here. It is enough to note the decisive fact that we
have in the Word of God no hint of such a process as
is here presupposed ; the Bible nowhere suggesting the
thought that training or discipline, however adminis-
tered, can bring about in the soul of man a spiritual
change which divine love revealed on the cross, and
divine grace exhibited in the operations of the Holy
Ghost, have been powerless to accomplish. AVe may
well note also that, so far as such disciplinary methods
are brought Into use In this world, even in conj unction
with the scheme of grace, they are often found to be
28 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
ineifectunl, and sometimes to liarden rather than subdue
the heart; and Me therefore see no good reason for an-
ticipating that such methods, working by themselves,
would in the intermediate state secure any better re-
sults. It may be noted further, that a salvation so
secured would be something very different from the sal-
vation offered to men in Christ, and that the practical
result of such a process in addition to that introduced
by the Gospel, would be two great classes of saved per-
sons, at many points widely unlike in experience and
character, and consequently in destiny. And beyond
all this, it must be regarded as conclusive against this
view that it involves so many serious misconceptions as
to the constitution of the human spirit and the proper
mode of influencing it to good, to the nature and claims
of law and righteousness, to the necessary attitude of
God toward transgression, and also to salvation itself
viewed as a restoration to holiness through love and in
love.
The papal dogma of Purgatory, though widely sepa-
rated from the two preceding theories, may s-till be.
placed in this list of opinions since
VIT. ThePurgato- -. . i . ,
Tiai Theory; saiva- ^^ contempIatcs oxtcusive chaugos in
ti.,i. tiuongii run. character from good to better, in dc-
gree indeed rather than in kind, to
be ])roduced within the intermediate state by processes
Avhich are purgatorial or purificatory rather than evo-
lutionary or educational. — This dogma provides for no
change whatever in the condition of the pagan nations,
or indeed of any adults who die outside of the church,
and without her sanctifying baptism. For all baptized
infants the Chuich of Kome affirms complete deliver-
ance from original sin even during this life, and conse-
THE PURGATORIAL THEORY. 29
quently if any die in infancy, an immediate admission
into heaven. For infants dying without the purifying
influence of baptism, her theologians (Bellarmine, De
Furgatorio), have asserted the existence of a separate
abode, the Limbus Infantum, where such children abide
in a state of privation rather than of punishment — the
levissima davinatio, from which they may at some future
period be transplanted to the heavenly life. For those
who lived before the advent, the saints and patriarchs
of the pre-Christian dispensation, the Limbus Patrum
was provided, wherein they were kept in a state of ex-
pectancy until they w^ere released at the advent of
Christ. The remainder of mankind, not believers,
whether within the domain of Christendom or dwelling
in the darkness of heathenism, the Catholic Church con-
signed directly to hell, though maintaining various de-
grees of punishment in proportion to the earthly light
enjoyed, and also allowing wide variations in opinion
as to the nature of the torments inflicted in this retrib-
utive abode. But for all adults baptized, and living
within the domain of the Church, and who at death are
not complete in holiness, the Church affirmed the exist-
ence of Purgatory — a state of discipline and purification
wherein the dross of remaining imperfections is burned
away, and the soul is prepared spiritually for the beatific
vision of God. It contemplated, in other words, what is
not a spiritual renovation, but rather a development of
the good already attained, and a correspondent repression
and diminution of the evil in the soul, such as will
qualify it at length for an entrance on its permanent
heavenly condition.
Concerning this theory of spiritual changes wrought
in the coming life through divine purgation, little needs
to be said in this connection. The dogma rests on the
30 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
scantiest foundation in the Scriptures; from those rec-
ognized as canonical by Protestantism only a few allu-
sions to the purgatorial as well as punitive qualities
of fire (1 Cor. :]:13; also Mai. 3:2-3. Matt. 3:11.
1 Peter 1 : 7) can be gathered in its support. Other pas-
sages (Matt. 12:32), containing a possible implication of
forgiveness in the future state, or (Matt. 5 : 26) suggest-
ing the possibility of paying the uttermost farthing here-
after if not in this world, are also supposed to corrob-
orate it. But its origin is traceable mainly to the false
conception of heaven current in the ancient Church, and
to the speculative difficulties involved in the instantane-
ous transplantation of the imperfect believer, still tainted
\\\[\\ impurity and witii sin, into the presence of God
and the fellowship of angels and the holy martyrs. Some
of the earliest Fathers, as Clement of Alexandria and
Gregory of Nyssa, inclined to the opinion that future
punishments are in their nature reformatory, and tend
to lead all souls that sutler them to repentance. The
universalisni of Origcn rested largely on this basis.
But it was from Gregory the Great, that the Church
received the dogma in its larger form, though even he
limited the class of sins for whose removal such purga-
tion was available, to such as the Church pronounces
venial rather than mortal. Among the Scholastics the
dogma received various degrees of support. It is to
the Council of Trent, however, that we refer for its full
and authoritative formulation ; Sess. xxv : Decretum de
Pargatorio. Protestantism has universally repudiated
it as an error unwarranted by the Word of God, and in
its practical application in connection with prayers and
masses for the dead a dangerous delusion. The Smal-
cald Articles describe it as a mera diaboli larva; and
the Thirty-Nine Articles, as a fond thing vainlv invented
THE PROBATIONARY THEORY. 31
and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but rather
repugnant to the Word of God.^
Setting aside these three types of opinion, we are
brought at once to the only affirmative theory remain-
ing, — that of a change in character from \i\\. The Pro-
evil to good, with consequent change i>ationary Theo-
. ry: Salvation
in condition, to be wrought through tlie tiirousii a Gospel
proclamation of the Gospel and the con- «fter ueatu.
version of souls in virtue of the grace of God in Christ
Jesus. — It is implied in this theory that salvation through
sufficient knowledge of Christ and through faith and ac-
ceptance of Him as a Savior, is possible to certain classes
of persons, or perhaps to all souls during the intermediate
state, substantially as such salvation is offered on the same
terms to all men in the present life. It is held that
what is thus made possible actually occurs, — that Christ
is really made known to these classes in that state as a
Savior through whom they may yet be delivered from
the power and doom of sin : and that every such hu-
man spirit is actually brought to this alternative, and
sooner or later does in fact reject Christ or accept
Him, substantially as men reject or accept Him in this
world. It is also held that no one is condemned to
hell until this probation or moral testing has been car-
ried on to its proper point of completion, and that only
those are consigned to everlasting retribution who have
resisted such offers of grace, and have thus committed
^It is a significant fact tliat so many of the leading English
advocates of the dogma of Probation after Death have put them-
selves on record in defense of the notion that the state of the
dead can be improved or changed by the prayers of the living:
Plumptre, Spirits in Prison ; essays on Prayers for the Dead and
Purgatory. Farkar, Eternal Hope ; essay on Hist, of Eschatology.
Maurice, Theological Essays.
32 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
the sin unto death — the sin which places the soul be-
yond the range of spiritual recovery. Furthej-, it is
maintained that the limiting of such probation to the
present life, as is taugiit in the current theology, and
the doctrine that the estate of men is settled decisively
at death, arc unwarranted by Scripture or by reason and
moral feeling: and that, though there be no ground for
hope of spiritual restoration in man himself, or in any
mere processes of training or discipline or purgation, we
have sufficient reason to expect such restoration in in-
numerable multitudes of cases in this higher and better
way.
In respect to the classes of persons who arc thus to
be saved in the intermediate state, considerable variety
of opinion exists among those who in general are con-
current advocates of this theory. It is agreed bv all
among them, that this gracious opportunity will be given
to all children Avho die before reaching adult years. In-
fants unbaptized, or the offspring of unbelieving parents,
or born amid squalor and ignorance such as exist in the
great cities of Christendom, or coming into life for a
brief moment under the awful shadows of paganism, are
all alike to be made thus acquainted with Christ here-
after, and afler having come into full consciousness are
to receive Kim or reject Him, under a distinct sense
ol' personal accountability, and with full knowledge of
the doom which must ultimately follow all willful un-
belief. And this proposition ijicludes, not merely all
such infants dying from day to day in the present age,
but all who have thus died in infiincy from the begin-
ning of time, and all who Avill yet so die till the end of
the world, — a number not only exceeding incalculably
the hundreds of millions of persons now on the earth,
but including at least one half of all that have ever
THE PROBATIONARY THEORY DE FIXED. 33
lived, or shall live on -the earth down to the clofic of
time.
The theory is also generally regarded as including
all the adult heathen who have never had the ojipor-
tunity of knowing Christ in this life as their Savior,
and who have passed into eternity in their estate of
ooni})arative spiritual infancy, with no conscious cb.ance
of salvation through the grace of God. This is not the
position of Zwingli as to the possible acceptance of emi-
nent philosophers and sages such as Socrates or Sen-
eca ; nor that of some later teachers to the effect that
the light of the Gospel may be shining abroad in the
earth, and the regenerative influences of the Spirit be
conferred on men far beyond the geographic range of
Christendom, even to such an extent that many among
the heathen may in this way be saved without distinctly
knowing the historic Christ. It is an incomparably
Avider proposition. It embraces, not merely a few con-
spicuous minds, but the vast multitudes of the pagan
world, — not merely tiie masses of the pagan worhl since
the light of Christianity began to be spread abroad in
the earth, but those of all the heathen tribes and races
from the earliest dawn of time, — not these alone, but
also all the countless hosts that shall yet live and die
in heathenism, before this world shall be filled with the
savins: knowledge of Christ. To everv such heathen
mind, wherever and whenever born, Christ is yet to
reveal himself, and to every such mind as truly as to
those now hearing the sound of the Gospel, is the alter-
native of accepting or n-jecting Him to be offered. Of
the innumerable host thus in the intermediate state,
considering now the great problem of the soul, and so
deciding or about to decide by this process their eternal
condition forever after the judgment, it is impossible
34 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
to speak. When counted up, tf)getlier with that even
greater host who die in infancy, the aggregate must far
exceed many times over not only all the believers now
dwelling on the earth, but all who have ever lived in
it since the day of the incarnation. Even if we add
to this multitude of the faithf(d all the patriarchs and
saints who were saved through faith before the incar-
nation, the disparity between those who are redeemed
on earth, and those who on this theory are now pass-
ing til rough their probation while in a disembodied
state, is enormous past all calculation.
The theory is also regarded by most of its advocates
as including all those in Gospel lands 'who by reason of
ignoranf^e and other like causes have never properly con-
sidered in this world the claims of Christ; not only
the ignorant and blinded and misled of any one land or
of the present age, but all those of this class in every
Christian country, and through all the centuries since
the first proclamation of grace through a Redeemer.
And when we recall the condition of nominal Christen-
dom during the slow and toilsome development of an-
cient Christianity, the religious stupor resting upon
millions on millions during the dark ages, the moral
state of the populations of Europe and Western Asia
before the Reformation, the dreadful ignorance of the
crowded masses of our great cities in Europe and Amer-
ica, — the vice, the filth, the crimes which have blinded,
are blinding, the sight of innumerable millions in Chris-
tendom so that they can not or will not sec Christ and
be saved by Him, — when we call all this to mind, we
may in some measure begin to appreciate the host of
those of this general class also, for whom on this theory
provision for salvation after death is supposed to be
made.
THE PROBATIONARY THEORY DEFINED. 35
How far this latter line of inclusion may be carried,
the advocates of the dogma in question are not agreed
among themselves. The English school, Maurice and
Farrar, and even Plumptre, are^disposed to include all
but those who in this world by willful resistance to the
Holy Ghost have committed the sin unto death. The
German school, represented in Dorner and Kitszch and
JMiiller, are inclined rather so to narrow the circle as to
include none but those who, though living in Christian
lands, might substantially be regarded as pagan. The
American school are obviously intermediate, yet their
general representations clearly imply a very broad range
of possibility ; some at least appear to present what may
be described as the widest form of the claim. It may
justly be added that, while all schools seem to lay large
s^tress on the case of infants and of the heathen and
the unevangelized masses in Christendom, their general
presentation of the dogma compels the query whether
they are not really more concerned with the prol)]em of
probation as related to those who have actually heard
of Christ more or less fully, and have more or less dis-
tinctly rejected him in the present life. Evidences jus-
tifying this query are not difficult to find.
Still greater indeterminatencss appears in respect to
the important question of method. While the scheme of
salvation in the future state is declared to be identical
with that scheme as proclaimed on the earth, — while it is
maintained that men can be saved in eternity as here
only through Christ, and his mediation, the manner in
which this result is to be secured is but indistinctly de-
fined. It is indeed held that our Lord introduced this
gospel dispensation in the under world during the few
hours between his death and his resurrection. But how
is this work continuously carried on? Does the incar-
36 INTR OD UC TOR Y: THE Q UES TION S TA TED.
nate Christ dwell in that world of spirits, manifesting
Himself there again and again, as He did to his disciples
after his resurrection, and so drawing the innumerable
multitudes of the dead unto himself? Who are engaged
in makimr the uncounted millions that have died since
that resurrection, acquainted with these gracious pro-
visions? Are the ministry, the sacraments, the living
church, there brought into play as missionary forces,
designed to diffuse more widely the knowledge of this
broad salvation? Does the Holy Ghost, whose reveal-
ing and regenerative function is indispensable to the
actual salvation of even one soul in this life, operate
there as here, — taking of the things of Christ, and
showing them to the myriads of disembodied spirits
there congregated? Or, will all these helpful agencies
be needless, and these myriads be brought in un-
counted numbers to Christ by some mysterious modes
of disclosure, wholly beyond our present range of appre-
liension ? In the absence of any revelation on these
points, shall we conclude that no such phenomenon as
an incarnation of Christ, or a continuous outpouring of
the Holy Ghost, or any active service on the part of the
Church, with her sacraments and ministries, is needful
to the conversion of sinners in that world ; and conse-
quently that redemption is a very different, and possibly
much easier process there than here, where all these
instrumentalities are found to be necessary to the con-
version of even a single sinner? Or, shall we believe
that the Savior of sinners has inaugurated in that world
a system of means and instrumentalities as much more
effective than those employed by Him in this life, as
the multitudes to be reached are greater, and the task
of redemption is more difficult? It certainly can not
be viewed as improper to ])ress such inquiries as to
PROBATIONARY THEORY FURTHER DEFINED. 37
method, in the contemplation of a scheme so vast in its
scope and so immeasurable in its consequences.
A kindred inquiry forces itself upon us with respect
to the practical outcome of this" immense remedial ])r()-
cess. Here again wide variety is apparent. The
English school are inclined to affirm the largest hope
at this point; maintaining, ^vith Tennyson, that (iod
will make the pile complete at last, and that not one
soul shall be cast as rubbish into the great void of
retribution. As some of the Fathers held that Satan
himself would be brought back ultimately to allegiance
and duty, so they seem to anticipate little less than the
dawning of a perfect day when there shall be neither
sin nor hell in the universe. The German school have
rather held that there will be a hell forever, at least for
those w'ho have committed the sin unto death. Miiller
{Christ. Bod. of Sir), Vol. ii ;) rejects what he styles the
exceptionless universality of the ultimate restitution:
and affirms that those who obstinately give themselves
up to moral evil, must finally lose all ability or capac-
ity to be restored to a state of grace, and must conse-
quently become an eternal petrifaction in sin. The
American school vary wid(>ly in their anticipations as
to the outcome of the proffers of grace, — some suggest-
ing, guardedly, that the Gospel is offered to all, and ib
rejection is made the ground of condemnation, be those
who reject few or many, — others apparently falling in
with the advanced teaching of Farrar, and with him
cherishing a hope as large almost as the entire popula-
tion of the universe of the dead. By some writers of
each school the process of grace in that life li viewed
as simple and easy ; by others it i^ supposed to be ac-
companied wdth greater difficulties than attend the sal-
vation of the soul in time. The first class consequently
s
38 INTR OD UCTOR Y: THE Q UESTION ST A TED.
contemplate the final restoration as well nigh universal ;
the second regard it as but partial and elective, and pos-
sibly quite limited in result.
It is to an examination of this theory of Salvation in
the Intermediate State, wrought out through the instru-
mentality of the Gospel of Christ made
IX. The Ques- ^ .' f , ,
tioii to be consid- Kuowu HI somc Way throughout the vast
ere.i: its Nature rgalms of the dead, that this treatise is
and Iinportance. , '
devoted. — It is proposed to submit this
theory first and chiefly to the tests of Scripture, since
no light but that which shines upon it from the Word
of God can adequately reveal either its truth or its
falsity. This Word alone can assure us beyond per-
adventure that there is a life beyond the grave, or that
this life is endless, or that its quality and experiences
are dependent on the character and course of men in
the present life. So this Word alone can tell us what
the Gospel is as a remedial scheme, or what are the
conditions and influences requisite to its saving appli-
cation, or what effects may follow its application, either
in this world or in the world to come. What this Word
teaches, therefore, and that alone, can be the proper
material and ground of faith : no light derived from
intuitive or speculative processes, from general reason-
ings of any sort, outside of or beyond what the Bible
aff^irms, can on such a theme furnish adequate basis for
either the hopes or the fears of men.
If it be said that the response of Scripture to our
anxious inquiries is often vague and insufficient, it still
remains true that we have no other. Neither nature
nor reason furnishes any reply, that is clearer or more
convincing. All the revealing radiance we have, comes
finally from the Word: — not from the silences of Script-
THE QUESTION TO BE CONSIDERED. 39
ure, suggestive though these often are, nor from casual
glimpses or partial studies or crude generalizations on
the supposed contents of Scripture, but simply and
strictly from what the Bible itself directly affirms or
by clear implication makes manifest. Kor is it diffi-
cult to find reasons why the declarations of this Book
regarding the future life should be relatively brief and
sparse. For the prime design of the Bible is to bring
the truth and the authority of God to bear immediately
upon the life that now is, — to proclaim a present Gos-
pel worthy to be believed at once by all who hear it,
and to be scattered abroad among the present tribes
and races of men, in all the world. Its references to
the past are therefore mainly such as should the more
vigorously enforce the obligations of the living present,
and its references to the future have the same design.
On such a theme this holv AYord has no message to
human curiosity merely, no response to critical or in-
tellectual speculation, no revelations of coming events
but those M'hich are calculated to arouse and encourage
the soul of man to a career of faith and obedience in
the life that now is.
It will be in harmony with this primary law of alle-
giance to the AVord of God, if we turn further for cor-
roborating light to the historic faith of the Christian
Church. What are the teachings of Christian symbol-
ism on this grave question ? What has the Church
during the ages past believed, and what has it refused
to believe, on the point here involved ? What is the
joint testimony of the ancient symbols and the mod-
ern confessions, — what do we find the concurrent voice
and language of Holy Faith to be, as we thoughtfully
study its sublime historic declarations? The inquiry
is the more important since so much has been claimed,
40 INTR OD UC TOR Y: THE Q UES TION ST A TED.
both from what the creeds of Christendom have con-
tained, and from what they have not contained, respect-
ing a salvation after deatli. And if it should be found,
on careful examination, that this claim is unwarranted —
if it should be found rather that Christian Symbolism
by direct teaching, by both implication and exclusion,
by the assertion of doctrine radically at variance with
this dogma, has eifectually condemned it, that discovery
may well confirm us in the conclusion that the dogma
is false.
In like manner, the teachino-s of Christian TheoloG^v
and also the lessons of Spiritual Experience may prop-
erly be summoned into service in this discussion. — If,
for example, this dogma shall be found to be the germ
of a new theology — if it contains principles of interpre-
tation, philosophic hypotheses, rationalistic incentives
and tendencies, which at numerous points are subver-
sive of the received theology of evangelical Christen-
dom, this fact may well be noted : since it is at least a.
fair presumption that a new opinion which,, if admitted,
would largely revolutionize the best teaching of the
best thought in the Church hitherto, or would require
an extensive reconstruction of Christian doctrine in its
interest, is not the very truth of God. — The testimony
of Christianized Experience is specially important here,
since such ardent and profuse appeals are made to such
experience in support of the dogma. Is it not alleged
tliat the voice of Christian feeling in its favor is dis-
tinct, strong, irresistible : — that religious trust in the
justice of God and the mercy of God demands this dog-
ma as its only satisfying hypothesis? Is it not alleged
that the ordinary doctrine is revolting to Christian sen-
sibility — that the perplexity and darkness in which it
envelops the soul, are destructive to healthful spiritual
IMPORTANCE OF THE QUESTION. 41
life — that joy and peace in Christ are even impossible,
and our blessed religion is made on this basis a fiction
or an awful catastrophe? On the other hand may not
more careful analysis show that these are comparatively
shallow and casual varieties of Christian feeling: and
that a more profound apprehension of the biblical truth
may lead the soul rather to rest humbly yet confidently
in the belief that God is just and good, though there
be a hell in which He punishes sinners, and punishes
them forever? Nay more: is it not possible that pro-
founder insight into the divine purposes and adminis-
tration, deeper and purer sympathy with Christ and
His redemptive scheme, and larger increments of grace,
may change the entire aspect of the problem, and may
teach the sanctified soul to sing on earth the song of
the redeemed in glory : Even so, Lord God Almighty,
true and righteous are thy judgments?
That such an inquiry as is here proposed, is impor-
tant, will hardly be doubted by any one who has noted
the wide interest recently exhibited in all eschatological
questions, and especially in those which relate to our
own eternal future ; or who has observed how prevalent
error on these questions is becoming, and how many
are already drawn astray by false or defective beliefs.
There is indeed for obvious reasons no department of
Christian doctrine, in which the mind is more likely to
fall into error, or in which erroneous opinion is more
seductive or more injurious. In view of such facts,
does it not seem idle or illusive to speak of the dogma
of Probation after Death as a mere speculation, a schol-
arly fancy, something permissible in the school, but of
little moment in practice? To every such suggestion,
do not the strong affirmations, the peculiar zeal, the
passionate ardor exhibited in its advocacy, furnish de-
42 INTRODUCTORY: THE QUESTION STATED.
cisive reply? As a mere theory, an exegetical or the-
ological hypothesis or inference entertained by a few
minds here or there, the dogma might perchance be
allowed, not indeed a titled position among the neces-
sary articles of faith, but some quiet ])lace within the
wide circle of theoretic beliefs permissible among evan-
gelical minds. But the questions involved are by no
means speculative only, neither is the interest excited
by them likely to be either local or transient. What-
ever may be true in Germany, there can be no ques-
tion that the influence of this dogma in both England
and America is already extensive and deleterious, —
not merely within the realm of religious thought and
experience, but also in the broader spheres of practical
activity in the interest of the Gospel. A new theology
seems already to be growing into form on the founda-
tion which it furnishes : the reconstruction of the cur-
rent theology at many fundamental points is already
predicted as certain to follow its acceptance. Its in-
fluence upon the great work of the Church in beluilf
of souls, and especially upon the work of missions in
])agan lands, is even now matter of serious and ])ainfal
concern in many quarters. Nor is he a mere alarmist
who, in view of such indications and such possibilities,
earnestly solicits the attention of Christian minds ev-
erywhere to the question whether this dogma is in fact
entitled to any place among the credenda of our Holy
Faith, or shall rather be cast aside as an unscriptural
and a mischievous error.
CHAPTER II.
TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
Accepting as fundamental the proposition that the
question thus brought under discussion must be answered
primarily, not by rational speculations or the impulses
of feeling, or even by theologic affirmations or ecclesi-
astical verdicts, but from the testimonies of the Word
of God, we may turn at once to that Word for instruc-
tion. Amid whatever perplexities the solemn problem
respecting the state and experiences of the dead prior to
the general judgment may involve, the only clear or
comforting light must be that which shines upon us
from this divine source. Taking up the biblical refer-
ences called into service by those who advocate the
dogma of future probation, we observe that they may
be grouped roughly into two classes — those which are
supposed to present or suggest this dogma in some par-
ticular aspect, and those which are supposed to justify
it on more generic grounds as a truth which, though it
may not be distinctly sustained by specific quotations,
may still be accepted as in harmony with the general
substance and spirit of Christianity. Following this
classification, we may here study the problem in the
light of particular Scriptures — expecting in a succeed-
ing chapter to pursue the biblical inquiry still further
along such more sweeping or generic lines.
The particular Scriptures thus claiming primary at-
tention may be grouped with sufficient accuracy under
the seven following titles:
(43)
44 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
Passages setting forth the fallness and freeness of the
Gospel salvation, — suggesting, as is supposed, the infer-
ence that this full and free salvation may be extended
in its range beyond the present world ;
Passages exhibiting in comprehensive form the readi-
ness of God to f )rgive sin, — suggesting in like manner
the inference that such forgiveness may be granted to
men in the intermediate state, as m'cII as in time ;
Passages intimating the gracious limitation and the
possible termination of punishment for sin, if not in the
present life, then in the life to come;
Passages indicating that judgment upon personal char-
acter will not take place until the end of the world, —
with the consequent implication that at any time here-
after, prior to such judgment, men may be saved through
faith in Christ;
Passages implying or directly revealing the fact of
such probation after death, consequent upon a general
proclamation of the Gospel to the dead ;
Passages further justifying by biblical example and
illustration the doctrine of a second probation, to be
granted to mankind during the intermediate state;
Passages setting forth unbelief, or the rejection of
Christ, as the only ground of human condemnation, —
with the implication that no one can be condemned un-
til either here or hereafter he has thus personally rejected
Christ as his Redeemer.^
It will be noticed that the first three or four of these
groups of texts can furnish none but inferential testi-
mony or suggestion, and that the direct witness in the
case must be found, mainly if not wholly, under the
'For an unclassilicil list of surli texts, see Farrak, Eternal
Hope, pp. 219-225. Also, Newman ^MYTir, Orthodox Theology; Ap-
pendix, 179-1S5.
THE FULLNESS OF SALVATION. 45
remaining varieties of particular biblical evidence ad-
duced. Following the natural order, we may profitably
examine first these indirect and inferential proofs, and
afterward those which are urged as more directly evi-
dential.
The first special group of texts thus brought into
requisition is that which sets forth the fullness and free-
ness of the salvation offered to man-
kind in the Gospel. — The Son of scribing the fuu.
man came to seek and to save that "*'** '""* Freeness
of Salvation.
which is lost. He is the one Medi-
ator between God and men, giving Himself a ransom
for all. He is the divine pro})itiation both for our sins,
and for the sins of the whole race. It is the will of
God that through Christ all men should come into sav-
ing knowledge of the truth. God so loved the world
that He gave his Son, in order that the world through
Him might be saved. The promise of salvation in Him
is given not merely to us or to our children, but equally
to all them that are afar off — and even unto the ends
of the earth. In the spirit of this promise the Church is
commanded to go into all the earth and preach these
glad tidings to every creature ; the poor and maimed,
the halt and blind, and those who are farthest away
from light and grace, are to be invited to the divine
feast of mercy.' Such are some of the free and large
declarations made to men in connection with the Gos-
pel ; their truthfulness and tenderness, their inestimable
preciousness, it is given to no mortal mind to compre-
hend. Rightly apprehended and used, they shed a cer-
tain divine glow over the entire scheme of grace, and
iLuke 19 : 10. 1 Tim. 2:4-0. 1 John 2 : 2. John 3: 16-7. Acts 2 :
39. Matt. 1G:15. Luke 14:21.
46 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
make that scheme forever attractive to the eye and
the heart of man. But like every other divine assur-
ance they may be misapprehended and injuriously di-
verted from their inspired purpose ; men may even make
them a savor of death unto death.
Can it be justly inferred from these divine declara-
tions, that this abundant salvation is not limited in its
scope to the present life, but may reach and bless be-
yond the grave those who have never adequately heard
the tidings of redemption through Christ while on
the earth? The value of such an inference depends
entirely on the question whether this gracious oifer is
not distinctly limited by Him who makes it to the pres-
ent life. On this question there can be but one judg-
ment among careful readers of the Scriptures. Nowhere
in these passages of Holy Writ is it intimated or im-
plied that this plan of salvation is to be in force eter-
nally; no\Yhcre do those who read the invitation, gather
the impression that the provisions of the plan of grace
extend beyond the boundaries of earth and time. Our
spontaneous conviction rather is that these provisions
are to be accepted in this life; the thought of the
intermediate state as one in which, if not here, the
sinner may accept Christ and be saved by Him, is in no
instance suggested to the mind in connection with th^e
offers. It is the world of mankind, and that world as
it was in the age of the incarnation, and still is, that
God so loved, and still loves, as to give His Son for its
redemption. It was the world, and the world of men
as we know it, that the Church was and is commissioned
in the name of Christ to seek and to save. The lost
whom He himself sought and redeemed were not lost
sjiirits, but lost men.
It is certainly a very remarkable affirmation of Dor-
SALVATION OFFERED IN TIME ONLY. 47
ner {TheoL, § 153: iii) to the effect that Christian grace
is designed for human beings, not for inhabitants of
earth simply. For such an affirmation there seems no
biblical warrant whatever. The message of the Gospel
is a message for the inhabitants of earth, and none
other : w^ere it not for the possible implication of one
or two references, no one reading or hearing that mes-
sage could ever gather any other intimation. To quote
as Dorner does, such texts as Luke 19: 10, 1 John 2:
2, or even 1 Tim. 2: 4-6, to prove the broader view,
seems like trifling with the divine testimony : in the
latter text, they clearly are men, and men as now liv-
ing on earth, and not souls in some disembodied con-
dition, whom God desires to see, coming to the saving
knowledge of the truth.
That the plan of salvation is thus limited to earth
and time, is apparent not merely from the form of the
offer itself, but also from the solemn injunctions accom-
panying it, and from the warnings everywhere associ-
ated with its rejection. The Savior stands at the door
of the human heart, and knocks for instant admission.
As on the last great day of the Hebrew feast, He still
cries with earnest imperativeness. If any man thirst, let
him come unto me and drink. To all who are laboring
aitl heavy laden under the present weight of sin, He
olfers not a possible salvation in some disembodied state
of being, but an immediate rest — rest while they are
still within the confines of time. All men are warned
against the perils of delay, against the sin of trifling
with this divine offer, against all apologies, excuses, re-
jection, as if the great question of the soul was ever an
imminent question, and the future even in this world
could not properly be counted on as a day of hope. In
a word, the accepted time recognized in this gracious
48 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
scheme is the present life : the day of salvation is now :
and all postponement of the opportunity thus offered is
unwarranted by any line or letter of the divine Word/
And from such language, there can be no other legiti-
mate inference than that this plan of salvation was in-
tended to apply to men, and to men during their earthly
state of being.
The same conclusion is reached by a contemplation
of the conditions on which this salvation is conferred.
These conditions are repentance, faith, submission, — in
a word, sincere, cordial, instant acceptation. But when
are men to comply with these conditions? In all the
long series of biblical injunctions to repentance, can
one be named which even suggests by remote impli-
cation that such repentance as God demands now, will
still be acceptable to Him, if exercised beyond the lim-
its of the present life ? The spiritual attitude of Dives
in the ])arable of Lazarus, as our Lord depicts it, is not
the attitude of evangelical repentance : it is rather the
attitude of a soul which has consciously entered on the
awful experience of retribution. Nor in the numerous
injunctions and exhortations to faith, in the form either
of belief or of trust, can we find auv indications that
such faith is or can be savingly exercised beyond the
grave. They who have crossed that boundary may be-
lieve and tremble as devils are described as doing, but
no intimation is given that they will thereafter receive
Christ, submit to Him, and be saved through Him. In
a word, the Bible nowhere intimates that the faithful
saying, proclaimed by Paul as worthy of all accej^tation,
is a saying that can be heard, believed in, accepted any-
where save in this life.
1 Rev. 3 : 20. John 7 : 37. Matt. 11 : 28. Luke 19 : 41-2. John
5 : 40. Prov. 1 : 20-23. 2 Cor. G : 2.
FORGIVENESS AFTER DEATH. 49
Surely then we are not at liberty on any reasonable
ground to infer from the fullness and freeness of the Gos-
pel propositions, that they are as unlimited in duration
and range, as this hypothesis presumes. By its own nature,
such a remedial scheme as is presented to men in Christ,
must have some limitations : the offer could not run on
boundlessly. And Avhen one simply reads the offer as
he finds it in the Scriptures, apart from all theory or
bias, he at once recognizes the limitations as distinctly
as the offer : he sees the boundaries divinely imposed,
and without hesitation he describes them as the bound-
aries of earth and time.
A second group of inferential passages is that which
sets forth the readiness with which God is said in Script-
ure to forgive sin,— passages which are h. Passages ex.
supposed to justify the deduction that huiituig the di-
^ f • ,11' vine Forgiveness.
sin may be forgiven not only during
this life, but after death. — Declarations touching the di-
vine willingness to forgive abound in the Bible : they
glorify the Book on almost every page. In the Old
Testament God is revealed, even in the Pentateuch, as
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth : keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin. The psalmist in like manner describes Him as
merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in
mercy : not dealing with us after our sins, or rewarding
lis according to our iniquities. Isaiah declares that the
Lord will have mercy upon the wicked man who for-
sakes his way, and will abundantly pardon the penitent
soul. And throughout the New Testament the doctrine
of divine compassion and readiness to forgive is even
more fully declared, alike by evangelist and apostle,
50 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
and most of all in parable, in direct declaration, in
imagery and act, by our Lord Himself.^ God is love,
and His love is infinite : and hence it is inferred that
this love may extend beyond the present life, and may
provide avenues and methods of exhibiting forgiveness
to myriads, if not after the judgment, still within the
intermediate state.
These passages are introduced in this connection chiefly
to emphasize the particular text (Matt. 12: 31-2) which
declares that all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven unto men, except the culminating sin of blas-
phemy against the Holy Ghost. Whosoever speaketh a
word against the Son of INIan, it shall be forgiven him:
but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall
not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in
the world to come. The peculiar and intense form of
negation in these closing words is regarded as a clear
implication that all other sins may be forgiven in the
other life.- In studying this passage, it is imperative to
consider at the outset the general teaching of the Bible
on the theme of divine forgiveness ; and carefully to
inquire respecting the consensus of meaning elsewhere,
in order to the proper attainment of the meaning here.
The general fact clearly is that the divine mercy is
just as truly conditioned as it is free in its manifesta-
tions ; that while the Bible with so much affluence of
1 Ex. 34 : 6-7. Ps. 103 : 8-10. Isa. 55 : 7. Luke 6 : 35-6. Rom. 5 : 8.
Also Luke 7: 41-50. Matt. 18: 21-35. John 3: 16. 1 John 4: 9.
2 DoRNER, Theol, Vol. iv, § 153. Van Oostekzee, TheoL, ii, Sec.
149. Farrar, Eternal Hope, Serm. iv. Farrar afllrms that every
sin except one can be forgiven in another life as truly as here, and
that no human being has ever been able to decide what that sin
is. He also holds that even the word, never, (Mark. 3 : 29) does not
necessarily imply endlessness: and that there may be in some re-
mote peon forgiveness even for this sin.
FORGIVENESS AFTER DEATH IMPOSSIBLE. 51
language and imagery sets forth the love and grace of
God in pardoning sinners, it invariably represents this
love and grace as meted out to men in exact harmony
with the dictates of vrisdom and justice, and on terms
and conditions with which God requires from those who
receive forgiveness at His hands, the strictest compli-
ance. The notion of a love which flows out from the
divine nature spontaneously, and wliich lavishes itself
upon men indiscriminately and without close regard to
character or desert, is one which the Scripture nowhere
justifies. God is as wise and just in the distribution of
pardon as in the assignment of penalty ; and unless we
hold the conception of forgiveness in this moral and
guarded aspect, we altogether fail to comprehend either
the divine sentiment itself or its manifestations in the
Gospel. — Bearing this general truth in mind, we are able
at once, not only to see on what terms pardon is granted
to men in this life, but also to discover that no single
promise in either the Old or the New Testament, unless
it be the one in question, can be reasonably interpreted
as extending beyond the present life. The divine for-
giveness is indeed free, but it is to be accepted by us
when offered; and if we refuse the gracious offer, and
repeat that refusal until death, the Bible leaves us to
the solemn implication that the offer will be then and
there withdrawn forever. The teaching of the Scripture
in every other instance is, that forgiveness is an ex-
perience of earth and time, and that it is conditioned
upon the manifestation by men on earth and in time
of those states of heart, of that type of character,
whicli alone can render pardon either justifiable or
useful.
The suggestion that the antithesis presented by our
Lord is an antithesis, not between worlds, but between
52 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
dispensations — the Gospel age on one side and some
future age on the other (Faerar, Eternal Hope, p. 112)
seems to be sufficiently ruled out by the term, never, in
the corresponding passage in Mark, and by the structure
of the entire passage as found in the three evangelists.
Clearly the antithesis relates to the present life on one
side, and to life beyond the grave on the other. Are
we then warranted, on the basis of the mere form of the
sentence as uttered by our Lord, and without any sug-
gestion from any other portion of tlie Scriptures, in as-
suming the possibility of forgiveness hereafter for every
other sin committed bv men — for all among the numer-
ous, awful, damning varieties of transgression exhibited
by all the multitudes of mankind? If as has been claimed,
the world to come, here mentioned, is not the. intermediate
state, but the period of diviJie consummation following
the resurrection and the judgment, can we even then
infer that at any and all times between death and that
judgment forgiveness is possible, and is in fact conferred
on uncounted millions who have died without receiving
pardon through Christ in the present life? Can this
single test be reasonably supposed to contain so compre-
hensive a doctrine of forgiveness, and one nowhere else
suggested in the divine Word ? Tlie inference is stu-
pendous: the conclusion in effect controverts all that the
Bible teaches elsewhere on the subject. In such circum-
stances the careful student of the Word can not fail,
after full examination, to accept rather the conclusion of
Alford, (Comm. in loc.) that in the entire silence of
Scripture elsewhere on any such doctrme as that of for-
givenes:^ after death, every principle of sound interpre-
tation requires that Ave should resist the introduction of
it on the strength of a single text like this.
LIMITATION OF PVNISmiENT. 53
The third class of inferential paspagcs quoted in sup-
port of this dogma, is that which appears to suggest
a possible limitation of punishment
in the future life. — Apart from those gegthis thc^umita-
in which the word auov and its de- «..u of Pmusinuent
■, r, liei'eafter.
rivatives are used, the number ot
these texts is small. Some of them are those Old Tes-
tament passages which express in strong and often pa-
thetic terms the unwillingness of God that any should
perish, His reluctance to afflict the sons of men, His
fatherly pain when chastisement and condemnation are
found to be indispensable. But special stress is laid
on the occasional teachings of tlie New Testament, and
particularly of Christ himself, in this direction. Our
Lord, for example, w^arns men who fail to agree with
the adversary while in the way with him, that they
shall be cast into prison, and shall by no means come
out thence until they have paid the uttermost farthing;
and this is taken as an implication that in the gracious
economy of the future life, such payment of the utter-
most farthing, with consequent release from further pen-
alty, may or can occur. Our Lord also teaches that,
while some arc beaten with many, others are beaten
with few stripes; hence it is inferred that in the mercy of
God the latter may therefore be released from continuous
or final retribution. He declares that the inhabitants
of Sodom and Gomorrah would have repented in sack-
cloth and ashes, had they had the spiritual opportunity
gi'anted to Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum ;
hence it is supposed that, in view of their smaller guilt
and their possibb repentance, these may be forgiven
hereafter. The inference of Dorner {TheoJ. § 153) that
the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon would, if death were
54 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
the close of probation, be (lamned because, through no
fault of their own, they had not seen and accepted
Christ, involves a singular misapprehension of the di-
vine teaching. The lesson of our Lord clearly is the
simple and familiar one, that retribution hereafter would
l)c iu just proportion to spiritual privilege enjoyed in
this life. The obvious implication is that for them, and
f )r all men, whether within or without the range of the
Gospel, the decisions of the judgment will turn, not
upon what they may have done in the intermediate state,
but on their experiences, purposes, characters in the
present life. He also announces that He came to seek
and save the lost; and we may justly infer, it is said,
that He will not end his sacred search until He find
them and deliver them from their doom of sin, though
He should find them after death has closed their earthly
probation. On the basis of such declarations, it is held
that we have sufficient ground for the hope that to in-
numerable multitudes in the state of the dead as to the
prodigal son on earth, mercy will be extended, and pun-
ishment be limited or remitted altogether,^
But these texts are quoted chiefly for the corrobora-
tion they are sup])Oscd to furnish to the interpretation
given bv the advocates of the dogma under considera-
tion, to the Greek term oJcou and its derivatives. That
interpretation maintains that this term is always either
a timeless word — a term of quality, or a word indicating
not everlastingness or eternity in the ordinary sense,
but ratlier a period or age or era, which will somewhere
come to an end, as the present age or period will be
somewhere terminated. It may be admitted that in
iPs. 103:8-13. Lam. 3:31-3. Ezekiel IS: jKissim. Matt. 5:25-6.
Luke 12:47-8. Matt. 18: 11-14. Rom. 9: 15-23. Heb. 12: 10. Luke
15:11-32; and numerous other passages of like import.
Ac(ov AND ITS DERIVATIVES. 65
John 17: 3, and possibly in two or three other passages
the word eternal is primarily descriptive of quality rather
than of duration. Life eternal, as realized in the spirit-
ual knowledge of God and of the Messiah, is indeed, as
has been claimed, life in the largest, highest, noblest
sense — life unbounded, expansive, free, sublime above
all present exi)erience or imagination. But how imprac-
ticable it is to attempt to carry such a meaning through
the entire New Testament, any one who makes the ex-
periment will soon discover. In nearly all cases, it is
impossible to exclude from the word the element of
time, — time not bounded by definite eras or ages, but
time running on forever and forever. If in some in-
stances the term describes a definite a^on (possibly in
Rom. 16: 25. Eph. 3:9-11) still in most, all limitation
is obviously dropped off, and the v.'ord simply indicates
interminable duration.^
Nor can any distinction be established between the
word as applied on the one side to the blessedness of
the righteous, and on the other side to the misery of
the -wicked. This is proved incidentally by the synony-
mous negatives, contained in such Avords as not and
^PusEY {]]liat is of Fa i7/i, etc.), controverting the claim of Far-
ear, quotes from Riddell, characterized as "the best Greek Ox-
ford scholar of his day," to the effect that the word aluvioq i-ignitles
strictly, even absolutely, eternal existence, such as shall be when
time shall be no more. In the New Testaoient it occurs seventy-one
times; of eternal life, foi-ty-four times; of Almighty God, His
Spirit and His glory, three times ; of the kingdom of Christ, his
redemption, the blood of his covenant, tiie Gospel, salvation, our
habitation in heaven, each once or more ; of the glory laid up for
us, thrice ; of our inheritance, etc., several times ; of eternal tire,
thrice; of i:)unishment, judgment, destruction, four times; pp.
88-39. — See also INIoses Stitakt, Future Punishment ; especially his
clear and exhaustive exposition of these terms, as employed in
the N. T. ; and of the nearlv svnonvmous words used in the O. T.
56 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
never, whon used to dcscribo cither that blessedness or
that misery. For, if such corroborative forms of speech
are stronger on one side than on the other, it is plain
that the greater stress is laid, especially by our Lord
himself, on the endlessness of the misery visited upon
the uno;odlv. And from all this it is an inevitable con-
elusion that no attempt can be made to put limitations
on the term, eternal, with its correlatives, when applied
to the just retributions of God which will not imperil
the foundations of hope and assurance in the case of
those who believe. If eternal punishment is limited
and may somewhere end, it must be admitted that eter-
nal life is limited also, and may somewhere come to an
awful close. Well does Augustine {Kingdom of God,
Book XXI: 23) declare it a fond fancy to suppose that
eternal punishment means long continued punishment
merely, while eternal life means life without end, since
Christ in the very same passage spoke of both in sim-
ilar terms in one and the same sentence If both des-
tinies are eternal, he adds, then we must either under-
stand both as long continued but at last terminating,
or both as endless. To say in one and the same sense,
that life eternal shall be endless, while punishment eter-
nal shall come to an end, is the height of absurdity.
The attempt to show that the punishment of sin is
limited, and may in numberless instances be brought to
an end, theref)re fails whether it be derived as a pos-
sible implication from some sporadic texts, or asserted
on the ground of an established limitation of the term,
aulyj, and its derivatives. To oifset still further any
such interpretation, we might properly introduce not
only such passages as contain this decisive term, but
also the general teaching of Scripture, first, as to the
eternity of sin, and secondly as to the consequent per-
PUNISHMENT NOT LIMITED. 67
petuity of punislimeut.^ Nor is It sufficient to say that
the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is the only sin
■which is to survive through all the ages of an eternal
future ; since this sin can from the nature of the case
exist only in conjunction with a vast multitude of at-
tendant and correlated sins, to which a like perpetuity
must be assigned, in the case of every such blasphemer.
In fact, Scripture nowhere sets this forth as the one im-
perishable olfence, but simply as the crowning form
assumed by human wickedness, and one for which there
is, in many instances, no pardon even on this side of
the grave.^ Neither can it be said that the sins of
those who. die without a distinct knowledge of Christ
and a distinct rejection of his salvation, are such as re-
quire only temporary retribution, since no one can
judge how heinous the least sin is in the sight of God,
or can say that that sin will not be persisted in hereafter
as well as here, and be punished therefore so long as it
survives within the soul. In a word, we are nowhere
tauffht that all sins but one die out in the intermediate
state, or that God during that period will overlook or
pardon every sin but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.
A fourth class of passages, allied to the preceding, is
that relating to the doctrine of the judgment, with spe-
cial reference to its nature and design, and to the time
iJMark 3: 29. Rev. Vers. ; luith never forgiveness, but is guilty
of an eternal sin. Note the case of the devil and his angels, Matt.
2.5 : 41. Rev. 20: 10. Banishment from the presence of the Lord ;
Rev. 14:11. Also, 2 Thess. 1 : 8-9. Mark 9 : 43, etc.
2The venerable Tholuek who was at one time inclined to accept
tlie dogma of the restitution of all things, is said (II. B. Smith,
Theol., p. 615) to have been brought back to the Scriptural faith
Ity wrestling with this passage in regard to the sin against the
Holy Ghost.
58 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
of its occurrence, — It is alleged that we have no evi-
dence that a judgment of every soul takes place at
death, or that the eternal estate of
relating to Jua:;- tllOSC "\vho haVC UOt kuOWn Or em-
inent. General hj-aced the Gospel in this life, is final-
and Particular. ■ i i .
ly decided at the moment of their en-
trance on the life beyond the grave. The fact of a
general judgment at the end of the world, and of a
final decision then reached in regard to all men, is
generally, though not always, atlmitted by the advo-
cates of a probation after death. They grant, for the
most part, that he who then is righteous will be right-
eous still, and he who then is unjust or filthy will be
unjust or filthy still — unjust and filthy, and therefore
under divine condemnation, even forever.
But this doctrine is held to imply that prior to that
decisive hour the moral estate of men is indeterminate,
with the possible exception of those who have been
guilty on earth of the sin which John describes (1 John
5: J 6) as the sin unto death. It is urged that our Lord,
in depicting the awful scenes of the judgment, (Matt.
25: and elsewhere) teaches by clear implication that up
to that dav of doom, the wicked arc not sent awav to
everlasting punishment, and are therefore in a state
where f)rgiveness and moral recovery are at least pos-
sible. Some indeed regard these passages as describing
a restricted rather than an universal judgment — a iudg-
ment of those who have professed to be di.sciplcs (Matt.
7: 21-28, Luke 13: 25-29,) rather than of all the tribes
and races of men : and on this ground conclude that for
these tribes and races, knowing not the Gospel, there
may be no such strict and solemn adjudication at the
hands of Christ. As to this opinion, the words of our
Lord himself, in which He describes the entire multi-
JUDGMENT UNIVERSAL. 59
tilde of mankind as bronght before His bar, (Matt. 25:
32) are conclusive : — especially when corroborated by
such declarations as that of John in the Apocalypse,
(Rev. 20: 12-13) which certainly must include the en-
tire race. In view of such declarations, the universal-
ity of this general judgment can hardly be questioned.^
As to the former opinion, the true answer is to be
found in a right conception of the general judgment it-
self. That solemn transaction is not so much concerned
with the estate of the individual soul : it involves rather
a judicial survey of the divine dealings with the world
of mankind, in the sphere of nature and in the sphere
of grace. So far as individuals are concerned, it will be
simply an official confirmation of what has already
transpired in respect to their character and deserts, — the
divine estimate of each, being published and justified
before all. To claim that this is needless, if the condi-
tion and fate of each soul has been fixed at death, is to
misapprehend the main purpose of such an announce-
ment. For, although the cpiestion of individual char-
acter and desert be thus settled, there may be many
reasons in the relations of soul to soul, in the bearings
of one life on the character and destinies of another,
and in the connections of each and all with the divine
government and administration, which in the eye of
God are quite sufficient to require such a comprehen-
sive and final adjudication. That great event is con-
cerned with the race rather than Avith the individual
^ See also O. T. intimations or foreshadowings: Ps. 9: 8. 50: 3-
6. Isa. 34:4. Dan. 12: 2. Joel3:l, &c. N. T. declarations and
suggestions are abundant: Matt. 11: 22-4. 24: 36-7. Luke 10: 14.
Acts 17: 31. Roin. 2: 5. 2 Cor. 5: 10, &c. It is impossible to limit
the scope and sweep of all these and many kindred jiassages, how-
ever strongly this may be demanded by the interests of a favorite
speculation.
60 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
man. It involves the comprehensive exposition of the
dealings of God with mankind, both in providence and
moral administration, and in the special economy of
grace. All mankind will then see beyond a peradvent-
urc both what the divine purposes were, and through
what methods and agencies these holy purposes were
carried into execution. Even the untutored pagan, the
infantile mind, the ignorant and the perverse and the
unbelieving, will then know what the design of God
was concerning them, and how tenderly and faithfully
that design was wrought out, even to the last. Espe-
cially will the full unfolding of the divine plan of
things from the creation and the fall onward to the
Messiahship of Jesus Christ, and downward through
the ages to the complete consummation of His earthly
Church and Kingdom, constitute the central feature of
that solemn assize. While all mankind are included
in it, we may well assume that this final exhibition of
Deity to the world will be thus concentrated around
the Gospel : all history being read in its relations to
the history of redemption, and all the connections of
that Gospel with the character and career of humanity,
however obscure or remote now, being then brought
clearly into light.
Are we then to infer that until that decisive day,
through all the ages of their intermediate condition, all
men excepting those who have blasphemed the Holy
Ghost, or have openly rejected Christ in this life, are
to be kept in an indeterminate estate, — neither finally
accepted nor finally rejected of God? This can not be
true respecting the righteous man, since his rewards
and prowns are said to be conferred on him at death.
Neither can we regard all the rest of mankind as living
hereafter as really as here in a state of probation, with
PARTICULAR JUDGMENT AFTER DEATH. 61
character and condition undetermined : and in a state cf
probation which will not be brief, as at the longctt it
is brief in this world, but will continue through meas-
ureless ages until the judgment day. Yv-^hat intima-
tions can be found in the Scriptures in support of such
a vicAV, — what intimations Avhich will compare in dis-
tinctness or weight with those which affirm that there
is also a particular judgment of each soul of man, oc-
currino; at the hour of death — the moment of its transi-
tion from time to eternity? The clear teaching of the
Bible rather is, that the last judgment is simply the
grand completion of a process begun in the case of
each man the instant he passes into the eternal state.
As to the righteous, we can not doubt that our Lord
intended to teach, that the place of Lazarus in the bosom
of Abraham (Luke 16: 22) was an assigned and a se-
cure place : that when Stephen looked up into heaven,
(Acts 7 : 55) he saw there a Savior present in the mo-
ment of his last extremity, and ready to receive liim
on the instant into glory : that Paul, in his desire to
depart and be with Christ, (2 Cor. 5 : 6-8) contem-
])latcd, not a prolonged period of uncertain existence
for himself and other believers, to be followed at last,
after long ages, by an exaltation to glory, but rather an
exaltation instant, sublime, eternal.^ And as to those
who are not believers, on what other ground can we
safely stand than that death ends moral probation,
whatever the nature or scope of that probation may
be? This is the ground assumed by our Lord in the
1 Dorner admits that the closely related text, 2 Cor. 5:10: Wo
must all appear before the judgment Bcat of Christ : refers ^o this
particular adjudication at death : Theol, ? 153. Other advocates of
future probation are inclined to claim that the reference here is to
the final judgment.
G2 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
parables of the talents and the pounds, even in the
case of those to whom but one pound or one talent
has been intrusted in the present life. In those in-
stances where He describes His own coming to men
at the end of their earthly stewardship, He invariably
annouuccs the award, not as remote or general, but as per-
sonal and immediate. There are also many presump-
tions in favor of a truth, which is not only inculcated by
the Rt'deemer, but accepted and enforced, often in most
impressive connections, by His apostles.' The antici-
pations of the soul consciously guilty and deserving of
retribution, the nature even of that probation which
comes to every man however besotted or savage, tlie
need of an end of all probation somewhere, and within a
relatively short period in the moral life, all contribute
to the conclusion that it is appointed unto men to die,
and after death to be individually judged. Against such
l^resumptious, the doctrine of a probation prolonged un-
til the final judgment, or extended through some measure-
less period in eternity, can hardly gain credence among
Christian men.
It will be observed that the four classes of Scripture
proof thus far considered, are serviceable in this dis-
V T>-,>...^..^« ,,„ cussion simply for the inference which
voaiin- ProoaJion thcy arc supposcd to justifv, — the in-
.•xTter l>eath ; spe- „ \i /. i
ciaiiy I. Peter 0: lercnce that on each or ail of these
^ ^'""' grounds we may properly anticipate
tliat, i:i the case of the vast majority of mankind, pro-
bation will be graciously extended far beyond the pres-
ent life, if not beyond the final judgment itself. —
^ AYithout recurring to references or intimations in the Old Tes-
tament, wo note as conclusive the following direct declarations in
the New: IMatt. 7: 2G-7. Mark 8: 3G-7. Heb. 9: 27. 10: 2G-7.
IS FUTURE PROBATION REVEALED? 63
Advancing now from the study of these classes of pas-
sages, we may turn to those which are supposed more
directly to affirm the establishing of such a kingdom of
grace in the intermediate state ; especially the crucial
text, 1 Peter 3 : 18-20. AVhat is affirmed by those who
hold to such a future probation is, not that men will
there regenerate and save themselves, or will become
holy through the natural influences of such an environ-
ment, or that sonic disciplinary or purgatorial process
conducted by God will there make them holy; but
rather that the Gospel, — the offer of Christ as a Savior
and the acceptance by each soul of that offer, — has been
introduced into that world of disembodied spirits, and
is now actually in force in that strange sphere, per-
suading, convicting, converting innumerable multitudes
who either have not known of this Gospel here, or
have known it so imperfectly that they deserve another
opportunity to be saved or to save themselves through
it. If this affirmation be true, the strong presumption
is that abundant evidences of a fact so vast, so immeas-
urable in its results, would be found in the Word of
God — a "Word whose mission is to make this blessed
Gospel known to men, and through it to bring the
world back to holiness and to Him. If such evidences
can not be found, the presumption against such a dogma
on biblical grounds is overwhelming.
To quote the apostolic declaration that Christ is Lord
of the dead as well as the living, or to point to His
Messianic kingdom as by its own nature universal, and
therefore "extended into the realms of the dead, or to
press into service any other merely general utterance ot
like import culled from the Scriptures, is really to prove
nothino; as to the manner or form in which His Mes-
siahship or His holy kingdom is to be administered in
64 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
other worlds than this. Just as his own declarations
respecting his love for men and his gracious purpose to
seek and to save the lost, or his free invitations to all
the sick and wearied in spirit to seek his face and help,
or the wide evangel of grace proclaimed by his follow-
ers in his name, and recorded in his inspired messages
to mankind, steadfastly refuse J;o be employed to sustain
such a dogma, so these more generic declarations spon-
taneously refuse to it their support, even by inference.
For it requires but slight study of all these gracious
teachings, in whatever variety, to see that they belong
in form and in spirit to time, — tliat they are addressed
to men, and that they leave no room whatever for the
implication that the love and the grace, the Messiah-
ship and the redemption here set forth, are extended in
any way whatever into the realm of the dead.
But these texts are usually quoted for the counte-
nance which they are supposed to furnish to the only
passage of Scripture that can be said to contain any di-
rect suggestion of a Gospel to be preached to the dead :
1 Peter 3: 18-20. That this text is difficult and even
obscure or perhaps unfathomable, is abundantly evident
from the wide variety of interpretations given to it. A
full list of these interpretations need not be furnished
here. Did our Lord preach in person, or through Noah,
or by his Holy Spirit through some other instrument?
Who were the spirits in prison to whom He preached, —
those who perished in the flood only, or the ancient pa-
triarchs and saints only, or all of every land and nation
who died before his own death on Calvary; or was
this — as some have urged — a divine ministry addressed,
not to men, but to Satan and other rebellious and
damned spirits? What was this preaching, — a procla-
mation of His own resurrection and triumph over death,
PROBLEMS IN I. PETER 3: 18-20. 65
or an announcement of His royal authority as Mediator
over all the dead as well as the living, or the official
bcginniug of an era of judgment and retribution to be
iiiflicted from that time henceforth, or the formal an-
nouncing to the dead of the beginning of a new epoch
of grace now established on earth through his death, or
the publishing of a glad evangel of grace j^rovided in
eternity for all or for certain classes of the dead? And
what were the consequences of His ministration — an
instant conviction penetrating the unrighteous dead that
they were forever lost, in the hands of an angry God ;
or a blessed hope entrancing multitudes, if not all
hearts, witii the ex2)ectation of forgiveness, acceptance,
adoption, and life everlasting, made possible through
His advent into the world of the departed? And,
back of all these questionings, lies the fundamental in-
quiry, where did the spirit of our Lord go and abide
during the thirty or forty hours, in which His soul and
His body were sundered, and dwelt apart? Did He go
directly to Paradise, there to receive and welcome into
glory the spirit of the dying thief on the Ci'oss; or, as
Calvin has suggested, into the depths of hell itself, there
to taste for himself, and as part of his humiliation and
sacrifice, the very torments of the damned ; or, sim])ly
into some other world, beyond this realm of sight and
sense, there in holy calmness to await the a2)pointed
hour of his resurrection ?
In the presence of such perplexing questions, as yet
unsolved by the most careful exegesis, and perhaps in-
soluble with such light as is now obtainable, is it not
an astounding evolution which derives from this obscure
text, and its jwssible corollary in 1 Peter 4 : 6, the no-
tion that our Lord, during the few hours between Plis
death and His resurrection, went into the world of the
66 TESTIMONY OF PAIITICULAR SCRIPTURES.
(lead, and there set up an economy of grace which was
a duplicate, substantially, of that instituted by Him
during His incarnate life on the earth— an economy
which has continued down to the present time, with
essentially the same truths, incentives, warnings, tiiat
characterize the Gospel among men; and which will
continue for long periods until every soul among the
dead has heard of Christ and had full opportunity to
receive Him, and possibly until all the dead have act-
ually received Him, and have been converted and saved
through Him? The astounding quality of this hypoth-
esis grows upon us, as we strive to contemplate all that
is involved in such a stupendous process, — the procla-
mation and exposition of the Gospel in such ways as, to
some extent at least, to convince even those Avho have
rejected it here, — the ministrations of Providence and
of the Holy Spirit in such measure as shall overcome
the willful hindrances which have resisted them in this
life, — the presence of a Church, of sacraments and or-
dinances, of a living and continuous ministry, or of
other administrative agencies analogous to those which
in this world are brought, and often vainly brought, to
bear upon the ignorance, the willfulness, the wickedness
of men. To assume all this, and much more, on the
basis of a single text, with but one or two possibly
corroborating passages, and in the presence of the studied
silence of the remaining Scriptures respecting a fact of
such immense moment, and in the presence also of in-
numerable passages teaching us that now is the accepted
time, and our brief earthly day the appointed day of
salvation, is certainly a process without parallel in the
history of human theologizing/
^The story of the diversified attempts to explain and utilize this
vexed passage is one of the most striking in the liistory of biblical
A POSSIBLE HISTORIC INTERPRETATION. C7
AYithoiit attempting any exposition of this passage,
the author may venture to suggest affirmatively that
the apostle is apparently running an illustrative parallel
between the Gospel proclaimed by Noah under the di-
rection of the pre-incarnate Messiah to the disobedient
world of that earlier age, and the same Gospel as pro-
claimed by the incarnate Redeemer himself and those
called to be his disciples. His aim in introducing this
historic parallel, as seen in the context, appears to have
been the encouragement of believers in carrying for-
ward, through whatever of difficulty or trial, this contin-
uous and sublime work. The selection of the particular
age and class used in illustration is explained by the
peculiar relations of the first judgment by water to that
second and conclusive judgment by fire, on which the
apostle so strongly endeavors in both of his epistles to
fix the thought of the church in his day. The ministry
of Christ by Noah and the ministry of Christ in His
own person were, he assures the saints of his time, to
be the type of theirs, and the sufferings of Noah and
of Christ were to be emblematic of the fiery trials that
should come upon them also, in their prosecution of the
same ministry. In like manner, the repentance and
faith which Noah had demanded from the men of his
exegesis. Commentators, ancient and modern, from Origen and
Augustine down to Farrar and Plum.ptre, with various bias and
l>urpose, have tried their hands upon it. The names and the ex-
positions and the disputes would constitute a considerable library.
(See Excursus, in he ; Lange, Comm.) Dorner, IMartensen, Nitzsch
among the Germans, Maurice and his successors among the An-
glican clergy, Smyth and Plunger and the Andover school of New
Theology, have affirmed with vigor its proper application to their
theory of future probation ;— indeed, without such application, that
theory totters to the ground, as a fancy wholly unendorsed by
Revelation. The best presentation of this probationary interpre-
tation, is that of Plumptre, Spirits in Prison.
68 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
day, and which Our Lord had also required, as John
the Baptist in the spirit of Noah and of the prophets
liad done before him, were likewise to be set forth by
them also as the essential conditions of grace; and this
was to be done although but few, as in the days of Noah,
should heed the saving message. The sin of disobedi-
ence, persisted in notwithstanding the call of grace, was
essentially one and the same sin, whether before the ad-
vent or after it ; and those who had rejected the earlier
invitations of divine grace, and died in disobedience,
the apostle describes as now in Hades as in a prison,
just as in the second epistle he describes the fallen
angels as in chains, reserved unto the final judgment.
Brief, abrupt, incomplete as the parallel seems, both its
historical quality and its spiritual and practical aim are
sufficiently discernible, amid the perplexities which the
phraseology at several points seems to involve. At
least is it not clear that the familiar and appropriate
l)arallelism thus brought to light, is a thousand fold
more likely to be the true interpretation of the text,
than the alternative explanation demanded by the dogma
under consideration, — an explanation for which we find
distinct corroboration nowhere else within the revealed
and revealing AYord?
The contiguous language of Peter respecting the Gos-
pel preaclied to the dead, (I, 4 : 6) readily accepts the
same explanation. The preaching is still the historic
proclamation in the days of Noah, and the class ad-
dressed are still the disobedient generation who despised
tiiat ])roclamation, and with whom the Spirit of God
refused (Gen. 6 : 3) longer to strive. The preaching oc-
curred (Bengel,, in loo) while they w^ere still alive,
though now they were dead — a form of description not
without occasional warrant in biblical usage. Others
GOSPEL PREACHED TO THE DEAD. 69
have suggested that the dead here mentioned included
not only the generation to whom Noah, the preacher of
righteousness, ministered in the name of the coming
Messiah, but also the patriarchs, and all the pious He-
brews, who had passed away from life in faith prior to
the advent. In that case the Gospel preached would
have included all those preliminary manifestations of
grace, such as the Messianic promises and the Mosaic
economy, which exhibited to these earlier ages the sal-
vatioil that was afterwards to come through a crucified
Redeemer. Another alternative interpretation refers
the phrase to those who, after the advent, had heard the
Gospel, and had embraced it before their death; or
more specifically to those who had already suffered per-
secution and martyrdom for their allegiance, and whom
the apostle describes as judged indeed by men, and con-
demned so far as the flesh was concerned, but yet kept
alive in spirit by the preserving power of God, and
Mailing in patience for the day of His more righteous
judgment.
But were it admitted that this phrase included not
only the generation of Noah, or the other classes named,
but all the dead of all lands and generations, — and were
it also admitted that our Lord, during the brief interval
between His death and His resurrection, went into the
world of the dead and proclaimed salvation to all the
innu'mcral)le hosts there gathered together, still the utter
silence of the Bible as to the outcome of this proclama-
tion is well-nigh conclusive against the enormous infer-
ence derived from it. Van Oosterzee frankly admits,
(Theol. of the New Testament) that the apostle makes no
attempt to answer the question whether this divine act
was confined to some one generation or class of the
dead, or what form this gracious proclamation assumed,
70 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
or what result, if any, followed it. Other advocates
of the dogma of probation after death on the basis of
these two passages, make similar admissions. Is not this
silence conclusive? Is it possible that Peter would in
such a connection have presented the doctrine asserted
by these advocates, without any reference whatever to
the results of such a proclamation of salvation to the
dead? And is it credible that both he and the other
inspired writers, and our Lord himself who knew all the
issues of His redemptive work, should have left the
Church in absolute ignorance on a point of such im-
measurable content and moment?
In this connection a sixth group of passages is sum-
moned into requisition, somewhat loosely, for its sup-
posed support of the dogma of a Gospel
uinstrating iut- prcachcd uuto the dead. — The parable
lire Probation: ^f Divcs and Lazarus, for example, is
explained as showing, on the one hand,
the divine mercy toward the condemned — a mercy seen
in the attitude and counsels of Abraham, and, on the
other side, the penitential temper of the unhappy rich
man, and his gracious longing for the salvation of his
brethren still in the flesh.^ Is it not clear, however,
that such inferences are wholly foreign to the purpose
of our Lord in tlio utterance of this most suggestive
parable? Are Ave at liberty to utilize the simple ac-
cessories of such an allegory, as if they were so many
dogmatic affirmations, designed to teach explicit doc-
trine on points quite outside of the main aim of the
allegory itself? But further, does not this interpreta-
tion fail altogether to catch the purport of the language
of Abraham, the true significance of his attitude and
1 Cox, Salvator Mtindij pp. 210-11.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF FUTURE PROBATION. 71
relation, toward the unhappy soul with whom he is for
the moment conversing? Is not the patriarch, in fact,
justifying to the conscience of Dives the divine dea-f-
ings wath hira in his present estate of retribution, —
showing him that God is right, in view of his selfish
and sensuous living while on earth, in consigning hira
to his present condition of anguish ? And is not the
attitude of the rich man one of remorse, of conscious
guilt and conscious suffering, Avith no mood of confes-
sion, and no sign of a willingness to accept a Gospel
for himself, if one were offered ? His eyes may indeed
be opened, so that he now sees things more as they are :
he discovers that his estimate of life was false through-
out : he thinks of his brethren who are living as he
was, and who soon will be with him in his present state
of torment : he moiirns over their impending fate : but
what evidence, however slight, does the parable afford,
even on the broadest possible interpretation of it, either
that redemption from sin and guilt was offered to him,
or that he would penitently and trustfully have accepted
it, if offered? And can there be any reasonable ground
for the conclusion that our Lord intended in this touch-
ing allegory to teach a doctrine as to the coming life, of
which He has given us no hint in any of his direct
teaching, and with which such teaching seems often to
be in irreconcilable contrast?
The restoration of the son of the widow of Nain (Luke
7: 11-15) is also quoted as an actual instance in which
probation was prolonged after death, — in which a sec-
ond opportunity for salvation was granted to one w^hose
first or natural probation had been already closed. The
restoration of the daughter of Jairus, and of the brother
of Mary and Martha, can not be employed in like man-
ner, partly because the restored maiden may have been
72 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
too young to be morally accountable for the rejection
of Christ, and partly because Lazarus may have already
been a disciple. Obviously, the miraculous element in
these three instances of restoration to life removes them
beyond the range of any and all inference, such as is
proposed in the case of the young man of Nain. But
further, if there is in fact a probation after death, why
did our Lord call him back to a second earthly proba-
tion, — unless indeed this earthly probation is more fa-
vorable than that into which he would otherwise have
entered? Have we, moreover, any reason for suppos-
ing that this resident of a Galilean village, not far away
from Capernaum, had never seen or heard of the Savior
before, and had never had an oi)portunity to receive or
reject Him as the Messiah? And if he had enjoyed
such opportunity, are we not led on to the broad in-
fereiice that a second probation will be granted by a
merciful Savior to others, or even to all, who may have
heard of Him and despised Him in the present life?
We turn from such conjectures and possibilities with
a deep conviction that it is little less than a travesty
upon the loving act of our Lord — an act whose true
design is ai)parent to every reader — to make it the ba-
sis of an inference so remote, and so absolutely out of
harmony with its proper relations and meaning.
The friendly allusions of Paul, in his official letter to
Timothy, (IL Tim. 1 : 16-18. 4: 19) to Oncsiphorus and
his household, have been referred to as showing the
propriety of offering prayer, not merely for the surviv-
ing family, but for the dead friend and associate of the
Apostle in Christian service. It is supposed first, with-
out any clear warrant, that Oncsiphorus had died, and
then it is urged that the devout hope of Paul, that the
dead saint would receive mercy from the I^ord at the
HYPOTUETICAL INSTANCES NOTED. 73
last great day of judgment, indicates the possibility of
like mercy in the case of others. If the latter inter-
pretation were granted, nothing would be proved by it
unless it be that prayer for the pious dead is admissi-
ble, and this is simply the pernicious doctrine of the
Church of Rome — not that prayers are authorized, as
even she does not maintain, for all the dead. Yet it is
noticeable that Maurice, Farrar, Plumptre, Newman
Smyth and others do in substance accept this sweeping
doctrine, and from this passage and other passages, and
on their general theory, justify the propriety of praying
for all the dead,^ This is certainly consistent: for if there
be such a gracious process of salvation going on in the
intermediate state, not only should earnest prayer be
otTered habitually by the whole church on earth, but
whatever else, in the form of a contribution of inter-
est or merit, or even of pecuniary sacrifice, is possible,
ought to be sedulously, universally, hopefully brought
into service. There is indeed no other outcome to this
theory, unless tlie position be taken that the Christ who
hears our prayers for the unconverted in this life, re-
fuses to hear us when we pray for the salvation of those
in another state of being, whose salvation He is said to
desire and labor for there, as earnestly as He has desired
and labored for ours in this life.
The hypothetical statement of our Lord respecting
the possible repentance of Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt.
10: 15. 11: 24) in case these doomed cities had heard
the Gospel from His lips, has sometimes been adduced
in this connection as proof that the message of grace
^ jMaurice, Theological Essays: Note on the Athanasian Creed.
Pi.uMPTRE, Spirits in Prison: Essays ix ami x. Newman Smyth,
Orthodox TheoL, p. 128, and Note. The hxtter author advocates
prayers for the dead as a feature in our public worship.
74 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
which they had never been privileged to hear in this
life, would be proclaimed to them in another. The
inference misses entirely the lesson inculcated by our
Lord, which is simply the lesson of relative responsi-
bility consequent upon relative opportunity. His lan-
guage could not possibly have been apprehended by
those who heard Him, as implying a further probation
to be enjoyed by the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomor-
rah after the first judgment of God had swept them
into eternity. The hypothetical character of his state-
ment, the aim of his discourse, his other references to
these cities and their doom (Luke 17: 29), absolutely
forbid such an interpretation. Had He intended to
teach the doctrine claimed, when giving the twelve
their great commission. He would beyond all question
have presented the truth in some other form than this.
These are the more conspicuous instances of the class
of texts to which we here refer, — texts which are sup-
posed to corroborate in some way the fancied teaching
of Peter as to the possibility and the fact of a j^ost mor-
tem probation. How unsatisfactory such quotations are,
and how dangerous is the principle which permits such
use of the Scriptures and justifies itself in it, it is not
difficult to see. What known error or heresy is there
which, availing itself of a principle so latitudinarian,
could not gather up some semblance of scripturalness,
as a vail to hide its real character, as a departure from
the true doctrine of the Eternal Word?
Still another series of passages is called into service
at this point, — those which are supposed to indicate that
unbelief or the rejection of Christ, is the only ade-
quate ground of human condemnation. — These are found
larsrelv in the teachinj? of our Lord Himself. He di-
UNBELIEF THE GEO UND OF CONDEMN A TION. 7 5
reetly sets forth the refusal to believe on Him as the
great sin of humanity. He counts those who have
heard His words and rejected His of-
„ 1 1 • /> £» • 1 VII. Passages pre-
lers, as tlie cniet ot sinners — as cle- seuting uubeUef as
serving the sorest condemnation. He ^^^^ ^^^y Ground of
, , , IT 1 Condemnation.
amrms that lie who l)elieveth not,
shall be lost, and be lost because of his unbelief. And
his apostles lay like stress on the necessity for faith, on
the guilt of refusing to exercise faith, on the peril of
delay, on the doom of the unbeliever.^ Every thing
indeed seems, in the New Testament, to turn on the spe-
cific issue of belief or disbelief. How then, it is asked,
can they be condemned v.ho have never had the opportu-
nity to know of Christ and His redemption in this life,
and who therefore have never rejected Him !
It is by no means to be denied that unbelief in Christ
and His Gospel is the supreme issue and test in life,
so far as those are concerned who have ever heard of
Him. It is not to be questioned that the refusal so to
believe, even if it be the casual refusal of a child or of
one Avho has never enjoyed special religious privileges,
is a special sin ; and that a continuous refusal, persisted
in in defiance of all the gracious persuasions of the
Holy Spirit, is the culminating sin — the sin unto death.
As to all Avho live within the geographic range of the
Gospel — who do in fact hear its glad sound and feel in
their souls its tender influence, and are in any measure
drawn toward it, we can say nothing other than the
Master said in announcing His great and final commis-
sion: He that believeth not, shall be condemned.
But the true interpretation of this solemn declaration
is fully seen only when the connection of this sin \Yii\\
1 John 3: 18,36. 16: 9. Mark 16: 14-16. Rom. 10: 9-12. Eph. 4:
18. 2 Peter 3 : 3-4. 1 John 4 : 3.
76 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURE.
all other sins of men, actual and possible, is properly
discerned. The principle of evil, the principle of revolt
from God, the principle of selfish induigence in open or
in blind antagonism to the principle of submission and
obedience, is no less apparent in every sin that man ever
commits. And while the sinfulness of men may and
does culminate in the awful crime of rejecting Christ,
yet the spirit which leads on to such rejection — this
principle of evil, which is the root of all actual trans-
gression — may and does exist as truly in the breast of
a savage far away from the sound of the call of grace.
Hence it follows — as we shall see more fully hereafter —
that wherever this spirit is found, wherever man is liv-
ing under the bad laAV of self, indifferent to the sum-
mons of conscience to a higher life, guilt is incurred,
and condemnation more or less distinct and awful must
follow.
This is clearly the teaching of our Lord. There are
those indeed who are beaten with few stripes, and these
stripes are in proportion to actual guilt in each case;
but the fact that the guilt is small, furnishes no war-
rant for the implication that such persons have incurred
no condemnation whatever. The strictness with wliich
Christ always associates penalty even with the smallest
departure from tlie path of duty, is obvious to every
student of his teachings; and herein He folloAVS what
we all recognize to be the standard of perfect equity —
of the com])letest righteousness. Paul in like manner
(Rom. 2 : 11-16) lays as much stress on the real, though
it be smaller, guilt of those who have sinned without
law, as of those who have sinned under the law. Tlie
entire aim of his mi<:htv aro-umeiit is to show that all
mankind are truly sinful, and as sinful, are under con-
demnation, and are therefore in need of just such a sal-
SALVATION OFFERED IN TIME ONLY. 77
vation as ho was commisftioned to announce. If God had
not conckided or included all under unbelief, in tliis
broad sense of that term, Ke would not have -provided,
as Paul declares that He has provided, a scheme of
mercv for all, — a scheme which, makin<r itself first
known to the Jew, was ultimately to be made known
and be made the ground of acceptance or condemnation
to the Gentile also — to all mankind.
Postponing for the present the broader discussion of
this great problem of human guilt, we may here con-
clude from this introductory view, that Ave are in no
sense at liberty to say that, because unbelief in Him is
said by Christ to be the supreme ground of condemna-
tion, none but those who have directly and historically
known Him, ought to be condemned. A deeper, broader
principle comes in here; the principle that the refusal
to believe in Christ is simply the culminating form of
that comprehensive sinfulness which lies in human nat-
ure, and which in ten thousand minor forms is ever
arraying the race against both the equitable claims of
God and the incentives of His holy love.
The seven groups of texts now passed in review will
be found to include all, or nearly all, the particular
Scriptures adduced, especially from
i^^ ' , ^ -^ VIII. The Gos-
the jSew Testament, in support of pei Temporal and
the dogma under consideration.— It Eanwy m scope,
must be obvious that their testimony is in large degree
inferential, and their direct support of the dogma drawn
from them altogether inadequate and inconclusive.
However skillfully arranged, however broadly or ar-
dently interpreted, they furnish in fact no solid founda-
tion for reasonable belief in a Gospel introduced, pub-
lished, efficient and triumphant within the intermediate
78 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
state. Especially will this conclusion be made apparent
"when we set over against these sporadic quotations the
direct and continuous testimony of our Lord Himself,
and the corroborating witness of His apostles and of
his Church, respecting this Gospel as belonging ex-
clusively to earth and time. Two or three familiar
references to this patent fact may fitly conclude the
present survey :
Recurring first to the transcendent mission of the
Messiah, as it was intimated in type and shadow, fore-
told in psalm and prophecy, manifested at the incarna-
tion and in the various stages of His mediatorial career,
and described by the evangelists and apostles, the
overwhelming fact is that we find nothing like a hint
anywhere of any relation which this redemptive scheme
was to sustain to other beings than men, and men
living on the earth. Our Lord Himself in describing
His mission (John 9: 4, and elsewhere) directly limits
hi; Messianic activity to the brief day of his enrthlv
lif:^, and foretells his OAvn passage at death, as -well as
ours, into that night in which no man can work, — that
niglit of sacred repose from which afterwards He a[)-
poared, as Paul declares, as the first-fruits of them that
sleep. Of the notion of a redemptive work, to be car-
ried on after his earthly decease, within the world of
' the dead, no word from Him seems to furnish any dis-
tinct or conclusive suggestion. ISIillions on millions had
died before his advent; but while He sometimes refers
to them, as in the case of the smitten cities of the
plain. He in no way intimates that his redemjjtion was
ill any sense for them, or for others in like condition.
He alludes to the i)atriarchs and saints of the Old Tes-
I taraent as saved substantially through faith in Him ;
' but never does He intimate that it is any part of his
WITNESS OF THE LORD HIMSELF. 79
mission to preach to spirits in prison, or to carry his
redemptive plan into operation within the reahns of
the dead. Is not this utter silence of the Savior in re-
spect to such an extension of his mediatorial work — a
silence invariably maintained in all his references to
that work, and in circumstances where we might have
expected at least some hint or suggestion respecting a
matter of sucli immense moment — entirely conclusive
against the dogma we are considering?
Again, when He is commissioning His apostles and
the seventy to proclaim His Gospel to mankind, He
gives them no hint of any work which they w^ere to do
in any other worlds than this : He promises them only
rest and reward, and exaltation on twelve thrones of
judgment, as the outcome after death of their earthly
service. Nor does He intimate that this earthly serv-
ice was to be a partial work, to be carried to its full
consummation in Hades. He speaks much indeed of
that other life, floods its vast spaces with holv lio;ht,
draws comfort and strength from it for His followers
among men ; yet from the beginning to the end of
His fellowship and teaching, He leaves them under no
other impression than that the great work to which He
was calling them, was a work whose beginning, contin-
uance and consummation Avere to be realized on earth.
In like manner, when at his ascension he gave His
Church her last command, and sent her forth to preach
tlie Gospel to every creature, and assured her of his
own continuous presence and ]iower as a pledge that
what she thus undertook would be accomplished, even
the uttermost jiarts of the earth becoming his posses-
sion through her ministry, He maintained the same
absolute silence as to the carrying of this Gospel into
the regions of the dead. Even after, according to the
80 TESTIMONY OF PARTICULAR SCRIPTURES.
interpretation given to the vexed passage in I. Peter,
He had come back from his brief sojourn among the
dead, though He saw and conversed with his discinles
again and again, and spoke of His mission and his tri-
nmph, He said not a word to them about tluit mission
to the worhl of spirits which this interj^retation affirms.
In view of these facts, does not the interpretation be-
come wholly incredible?
Again, if we study the mission of the Church to the
world, as illustrated in the Acts of the Apostles, as set
forth by Paul and the other leaders of organized Chris-
tianity, and as further illuminated by the strong light
of providence and history, we still find no trace of this
dogma, in either precept or practice. Under the divine
command, the Church went forth joyfully, not to intro-
duce a work which was to be carried on much farther in
another world than this, but to prosecute a task which
was to reach its completion here, and whose completion
was to be at once the glory of earth and the unending
song of heaven. The Gospel which the Church received
was, in its structure, its principles and methods, and in
the experiences which it induced, obviously a thing of
earth and time. Its adaptations were thoroughly hu-
man throughout: it applied itself to life as it was, and
fitted itself exactly to the current conditions of man as
man. Its offers were all present offers : nowhere could
one be found which looked to an acceptance of it in a
future estate. Its injunctions and warnings were also
present and immediate: and it forbade even a postpone-
ment of its claims to some future day or year in this
life. At every point, it seemed to be a Gospel for
this world : and as such the Church received and pro-
claimed it everywhere, with apparently no thought or
dream of any relation which this saving scheme did or
WITNESS OF THE CHURCH. 81
could sustain outside of the present life. The suggestive
silence of Christ has its counterpart here in the silence
of His apostles and His church. And we may wvU
ask, how is such silence to be interpreted, if we are
not led by it to say that a j^^st mortem probation is
something which the church in the first century never
recognized, as a fact or a motive in her great ecumen-
ical work for humanity ?
CHAPTER III.
GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
Much is said by the advocates of the dogma under
exaniiuation respecting what is termed. the higher plane
of Christianity. The phrase is intended by them to in-
dicate certain elevated and generic aspects of the Chris-
tian system, which are supposed to furnish a loftier and
clearer ground than any survey of particular texts could
give, from which to estimate the claims and worth of
their favorite opinion. Vigorous protest is made among
them against what are regarded as narrow, technical,
specializing ways of attaining and describing divine
truth ; and what is described as a more natural and sym-
pathetic mode of interpreting Scripture is urged as a
substitute. According to this new mode, the Bible is
to be studied, it is said, not as a magical book, but as a
living book, — not to get the plain meaning of the words
simply, l)ut to ascertain the very truth itself in some
enlarged and comprehensive guise. We arc not to pick
out texts here and there, and to put them together in
order to form a doctrine; thus creating a theology
which is described as both intolerable to h'lman nature,
and contrary to the real intent and spirit of Christian-
ity. We are exhorted to escape irom a theology so cre-
ate;!, and to find the truth for ourselves by some broader'
and sweeter method, — l)y sweeping airily as on eagle
wings across the broad continents of Scripture, and
catcliing as we fly such rangy and cosmic perceptions
of inspired truth as shall enable us the better to know
(82)
CHRIST THE HEAD OF THE RACE. 83
just what the Bible in its most comprehensive aspects
and relationships reveals.^ And, it is claimed that,
studied in this way, the Word of God affords a sure
support to the dogma in question, even though the
effort to sustain it through particular texts should seem
to fail. In view of this claim it becomes important to
examine the problem before us in the new method thus
advocated.
The first of these general disclosures of Scripture,
bearing on the question here discussed, is seen in the
asserted relation of Christ to human-
, ,.,.,. !• Relation of
ity, — a relation which is said to con- cuHst to the hu-
stitute Him the head of the race, and '""" ^""" ''^^ "*'"''•
to make the relation of each soul to Him the supreme
test of character and of desert. It is claimed {Progres-
sive Orthodoxy, in loc) that Christ is revealed in the
Bible as the universal man, the head of humanity, — that
the incarnation was desigued to exhibit him in this ca-
pacity, as constitutionally related to the entire human
race, — that the atonement also shows hiin to have suf-
fered with the race, and for the race, — that His medi-
atorial scheme was not only sufficient in itself for the re-
demption of all men, but was designed to secure what in
some true sense may be called an universal redemption.
Man as man, we are told, is perfected in the Son of
^Progressive Orthodoxy, Introduction ; also, p. 102. Newjian
Smyth, Orthodox Theology of To-Day ; preface. T. T. INIuxger,
Freedom of Faith; Prefatory Essay on the New Theology. Tlie
latter writer tells us, (p. 22) that the P.ible has somehow, under
the new method of study and apprehension, developed what he
describes as a certain sense of freedom and humanity which ren-
ders impossible a belief in divine sovereignty, and human deprav-
ity, and legal atonement, and future retribution, as these doctrir.cs
A'ere first formulated, and are still retained in the Old Theology.
84 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
Man ; his incarnation and mission are the adequate goal
toward which all the vast evolution and development
of human life have from the outset been tending; our
huraanily in Him becomes receptive of the divine full-
ness, and in Him is to be made complete. Not only is
His advent a part of the purpose of creation; the incar-
nation is a necessary feature of the divine process of
revealment; the creative design reaches its height of
achievement in Him, and in Him alone, as the predes-
tined Lord of the race.
The Scriptural basis for these broad propositions is
found, it is alleged, in a few familiar passages, and still
more clearly in the general trend and aim of Scripture.
Paul, for illustration, declares that it pleased God the
Father that in Jesus Christ all fullness should dwell,
and that in Him all things both on earth and in heaven
should ultimatelv be reconciled unto Himself. He
further athrms that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times, all things should be gathered into oneness
through Christ, and that to Him, as the appointed
Lord of all, every knee should finally bow. He further
teaches that, as in Adam all mankind have died, so in
Christ shall all mankind be made alive, — the first death,
and even the second death, being at last through Him
swallowed up in victory. So the writer to the Hebrews
represents Christ as the effulgence of the divine glory,
and the very image of the divine substance; and as
seated in virtue of his nature and his mediatorship
at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And in the
Apocalypse every creature in heaven, and on the earth,
and under the earth, is represented as ascribing such
honor to Christ as the head of the human race — the
crown of our humanity, and the Redeemer of all. It is
on the basis of such declarations as these, some specific,
THIS HEADSHIP NOT CONSTITUTIONAL. 85
others generic, that the dogma of the organic headship
of Christ over the human race, viewed in its solidarity,
is affirmed.^ In and through Him, the worhl, it is said,
is as truly a saved, as it is a lost world. Christ is no
less to it than Adam ; the divine humanity is no smaller
than the Adamic humanity; the Sj)irit is as powerful
and as universal as sin; the links that bind the race to
evil are correlated by links equally strong binding it to
righteousness; Mungee, Freedom of Faith.
Are we then to infer from these biblical declarations,
that Christ is the head of humanity in the intermedi-
ate state as He is in this life, — that all the myriads con-
gregated in that universe of the dead know him as a
Mediator, substantially as we are graciously permitted
to know Him here, — that He is offering Himself to them
as a Savior, and will continue so to offer Himself until
the judgment, — that there, as here. His Spirit is to be
as pervasive and powerful as sin, and that through Him
our humanity is ultimately to be brought back tri-
umphantly to righteousness and true holiness ? Do these
biblical revelations carry our minds legitimately onward
and upward to the heights of such a generalization as
this, and can we claim a distinct warrant from the di-
vine Word for a conclusion of such vastness in itself,
and fraught with such immeasurable issues?
One of the ablest of American theologians^ has left
us a complete corrective to this erratic generalization.
His position, which is that of Protestant theology well-
iCol. 1 : 19-20. Epb. 1 : 10. Phil. 2 : 10-1. Rom. 14:9. 1 Cor. 15 :
22-8. Heb. 1 : 3. Rev. 5 : 13. For a larger collection of these texts,
see Eternal Hope, Appendix.
2 Henry Boynton Smith, Theol., pp. 343-384, on the Nature
and Objects of the Incarnation. See especially, p. 365 : and the
context.
86 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
nigli universally, is embodied in tlie proposition that
Christ came not for man, but for sin, and that He is
the head, not of the race in the generic sense here al-
leged, but of humanity as redeemed. Coming into the
Morld, not to set up a constitutional connection between
our human nature in general and God, but rather for
the sake of sinful human nature, and in order to restore
it. He became not the head of humanity as such, but
of restored humanity alone. The distinction thus stated
is vital to right conceptions, not merely of the incarna-
tion, but of the entire aim, process and outcome of re-
demption. We have no clear ground in Scripture for
the affirmation that an incarnation would have occurred,
had our race remained holy: the revealed fact rather
is, that human sin was the reason and occasion for the
assumption of our nature by the Son of God. The Re-
deemer to whom Paul so grandly refers in the passages
here quoted, and throughout his inspired letters,' was
a Redeemer appearing on account of sin, and for the
rescue of men as sinners. We have no reason what-
ever for believing that God could not have adequately
manifested His love and law to a holy race, as He did
to Adam and doubtless does to angels, without sending
the Logos to be a Son of man. The intent of that great
commission is seen, not in tlie fact that the race is
human, but in the special fact that this human race is
sinful, and as such blinded and helpless, and in a true
sense lost, until an incarnate Savior appears.
That the opposite view involves serious error, and in
fact disparages or ignores that special headship of Christ
over all believers which Paul so constantly describes
and magnifies, will be at once apparent. A vague gen-
' John 3: 16. Rom. 8: 3. Gal. -1: 4-5. Eph. 1 : 22-3. See also,
Heb. 2: 14-10. 1 John 3: S, and numerous other passages.
HEADSHIP OF CHRIST SPIRITUAL. 87
eralization, based on a wrong notion of the incarnation
itself, is half unconsciously substituted for the warm
and strong doctrine concerning that headship, so con-
spicuous in the Pauline Epistles. While it is true that
Christ is the incarnate consummation of our humanity,
and that his mediatorial work contemplates the cer-
tainty of the restoration of this humanity to moral per-
fection, so far as men exercise repentance and faith in
Him, it is very far from being true that every human
being will exercise such faith and repentance. Myri-
ads have died, and myriads more arc dying, and other
myriads will die hereafter, without attaining such ex-
perience ; — myriads even of those who have had the
opportunity of salvation tlirough Him in the present
life. In what sense can He be said to be the head of
this latter section of the human race? In view of the
fate of all who reject Him, as admitted by the advo-
cates of this conception, how can He be described as
the universal man — the head of humanity ? And, in a
word, to what issue do such declarations lead but that
sweeping and unscriptural universalism which these ad-
vocates earnestly protest against as something wholly
alien from their teaching and belief? The simple fact
api)ears to be that one who holds that our Lord is the
natural or constitutional head of the human race, can
well find no logical termination to his belief, short of
that uuiversalistic heresy, Mhich Farrar, for example,
almost passionately repudiates, but into which his own
beliefs are constantly sweeping him.^
^ Eternal Hope, Sermon iii. While vehemently declaring that
he is not an Universalist, Farrar asserts that the omission of Art.
XLir. in the Articles of Edward VI. leaves Universalism an open
question within the Anglican Church. ^Maurice, with like dis-
claimer, advocates the same opinion. In trend and sympathy
88 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
It is impossible then to infer from the ideal proposi-
tion that Christ is the head of humanity as such, that
He will reveal himself sooner or later to every member
of our race — if not in this world, then certainly here-
after. The proposition compels its own limitation, and
that limitation is fatal to the s'.veeping inference derived
from it. True though it be that every knee shall ulti-
mately bow to Him, whether of creatures in heaven or
on earth or under the earth, it is very far from being
true that such allegiance will always be offered to Him
in loving loyalty rather than in awful dread, or that
this allegiance in whatever form will be distinctly pre-
ceded by a conscious acceptance or rejection of Him
as the one and sole Mediator between God and man.
Surely, there is no plane of Christianity, however ele-
vated in the estimation of those who have climbed up-
ward to such perilous heights, where such a proposition
can be brought clearly within the horizon of evangel-
ical thought.
In connection with this conception of Christ, a second
general class of declarations is introduced, pointing, it
is supposed, to the same conclusion, —
II. Christianity i • , • i- r>
the nbsouite and thosc whicli tcach the uuiversality of
universal Keng- Christianity as a religion, and therefore
ion. »^ _ .
the universality of redemption through
Christianity. — The erroneous process of interpretation
apparent in the preceding ease, also makes its appear-
ance here. If Christ be a Savior for the race, in the
l>oth are universalistic. — See the final note of Farrar (p. 225) ad-
niittijig that, on a literal interpretation of Scripture, the universal-
ist and annihilist views have the decided advantage, yet protesting
against these views on the loose and shifting ground that Scripture
is not to he interpreted literally. He seems to seek refuge from
Universalism in a species of exegetical agnosticism.
CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION. 89
sense there affirmed, then the religion He taught must
be the one and sole religion for the race. It is said
therefore (Progeessiye Orthodoxy, Essay ix) that
the biblical representations of the Gospel, and the in-
trinsic character of the Gospel, show it to be universal,
and universal to the same extent that Christ Himself is
the universal man and divine head of humanity: — that
it is by its own nature the one absolute religion, with-
out specific knowledge of which mankind can not be
saved: that any and all limitation jiut upon onr con-
ception of the scope and mission of Christianity docs
violence to the true character of the Christian scheme,
and that all narrower views carry Avith them a notion
of salvation by magic rather than through Christ. It
is further declared that the maintenance of this position
is not only essential to proper ideas of the Gospel in
itself, but furnishes the onlv defence aGjainst the criti-
cism of skeptics of the school of Strauss — a criticism
directly based on the alleged lack of such universality.
And the inference necessarily follows, it is said, that
since all men do not actually know of this universal re-
ligion in this life, the opportunity will and must be
given to them to know of and accept it in the interme-
diate state.
The Scriptures quoted in support of this inference
will readily recur to memory. Our Lord himself taught
that no man could come unto the Father save through
Him; that He aloue was the light of the world; that
whosoever thirsteth must come to Him, and through
Him drink of the water of life freely. Peter declared,
at the Pentecost, that there is no other name given under
heaven among men, whereby salvation can be secured ;
and Paul taught that the natural knowledge of God and
natural piety are not sufficient unto such salvation, —
90 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
that God was in Christ and in Christ only, reconciling
the world nnto Himself, — and that in Him the grace
of God has appeared to all men, bringing salvation unto
all. It is also urged that the Book of Revelation in-
variably represents Christianity, as well as Christ Him-
self, in this absolute and universal aspect, as the one
and sole religion for man, both in this world and dur-
ing the long period ending with the judgment. Such
is said to be the general view which this divine Word,
if not in specific texts, still in its broad intent and im-
pression clearly inculcates.^
Here again it is necessary to run a careful line of
distinction between a great Christian truth, and an il-
lusive conception of that truth. On the one side it is a
glorious truth that, as Christ Avas in His person and
mission fitted to redeem the entire race of man — so en-
dowed and constituted in his mediatorial character as to
meet all the moral necessities of any sinful soul through
all the earth and for all time, so His holy religion pos-
sesses in some sense the same qualities ; it is a religion,
not for man as man simply, but for man as a sinner,
and as such is perfectly adapted to meet the spiritual
needs of all sinners, the world over, always. Nothing
more would be required in either the Savior or the
Gospel, so fiir as inherent quality and efficaciousness
are concerned, to secure the actual salvation of every
son and daughter of Adam. In a word, Christianity in
this aspect is the only divine, and therefore the only
absolute religion; its adaptations are universal, and its
claim is unlimited; and so far as the Avorld believes it,
the world may be saved through it. We may go farther,
and on biblical grounds express the ardent hope that,
iJohn 14: 6. 1:9. 8: 12. 7: 37. Acts' 4: 12. Kom. 2 : 12. 2 Cor.
5: 19. Titus 2: 11-12.
IN ]VHAT SENSE UNIVERSAL. 91
as the world comes to know Christianity as it is, and
its holy energies come to be developed more fully in
the experience of the race, the time will come when
this blessed faith will actually become the saving belief
of mankind — the spiritual regeneration of humanity.
But on the other side, this religion, absolute and uni-
versal in its nature and capability, is not absolute and
universal in fact; and any argument from the abstract
conception of its nature which contravenes historic fact,
must be defective at some vital point. What is the
historic fact? We know that the inspired evolution of
this divine faith extended through three or four thou-
sand years of time, and that the process of development
during that long period was one which called into
requisition all the resources of Deity. We know that
such a gradual process was indispensable to the proper
implanting of such a religion in such a world as ours,
and that while this development was in progress, mill-
ions on millions of men died without learning the gra-
cious purpose of God toward mankind. AVe know
further, that since the advent, the historic evolution of
this faith in the heart and life of the world has been
going on for eighteen centuries, is still going on, and is
likely to continue, perchance for ages, before the whole
world shall become Christian. We also know the sad
fact that, while the Gospel has thus been unfolding it-
self in time, not only have vast multitudes sat in dark-
ness and in the shadow of death here, but also that
millions, under one or another bad incentive, have
turned away from this light and rejected the salvation
so provided ; and at least for those who have thus re-
jected Christianity, we are assured that there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins, no further visitation of grace,
no visible ground of pardon or of spiritual restoration.
92 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
And we know also that the innumerable myriads that
have lived and died without the knowledge of this law,
shall be judged without law; and that God, judging the
race in righteousness, does pronounce even these, not
innocent, but in some deep and true sense guilty in
His sight.
These are historic and biblical facts; and they are of
such nature as to compel some important modifications
of the ideal proposition that Christianity is the absolute
and universal religion. The simple truth is that, just
as Christ is in fact the head of humanity not by nature
but in grace, — the head of humanity so far as human-
ity is redeemed and no further, so his religion is in fact
the religion of humanity only so far as humanity has
received it, and been enlightened and saved through it.
Like Him who proclaims it, while sufficient for all, it
becomes efficient only in those who believe. Beyond
this, what can we know or with proper warrant assert?
On what ground is it possible for us to affirm any other
or broader form of universality for the Gospel than that
which historically appears? Set forth as a religion of
earth and time, how we can know any thing of its in-
fluence or effect beyond the boundaries of earth and
time? If the Bible which declares it, had revealed in
any distinct form the further fact that all who had not
heard of this Savior and this salvation in this world,
would hear of them in another, we might believe and
welcome the message. But in the silence of Scripture,
or on the basis of but tw^o or three vague intimations,
not only unsupported by the rest of Scripture but point-
edly at variance with it, it surely becomes doubtful and
dangerous to infer from any ideal view of the universal-
ity of Christianity, that such will be the case, — espe-
cially when we know that, so far at least as the multi-
DIVINE LOVE AND SAL VA TION. 93
tude of disbelievers in Gospel lands are concerned,
Christianity is not thus universal — is in fact of none
eifect except as a savor of death unto death. To say in
such a connection that this is as much a saved as it is
a lost world, or that Christ is no less to humanity than
Adam, or that His religion is as comprehensive as the
race, is either to use words without meaning, or to af-
firm that through Christ and His Gospel the entire
race is in fact redeemed and saved.
Another doubtful generalization, based on certain
sweeping conceptions of Scripture, is that which affirms
that Divine Love requires that the ,^, ^. .
•■■ III. Divine L,ove
knowledge of Christ should be made ami salvation after
known to all men, if not in this life,
then in another. — In support of this position similar
texts are quoted, — texts which set forth the love of God
in its most comprehensive and universalistic aspects.
We are reminded that such love shines out again and
again in the Old Testatment, as premonitory to the
larger revelations of grace in the New, — psalmist and
prophet testifying together continuously of the tender-
ness, the compassion, the restorative affection of the"
Deity. We are reminded that the Gospel originated in
such affection; God so loving the world that He gave
his Son to redeem it, and desiring in His compassion
to gather together all things, all men, in Christ the
anointed Savior. We are reminded that the grace of
God, and the wondrous gift of a Savior by grace, have
already abounded unto many, and that in the loving-
purpose of the Father grace now reigns through right-
eousness in the redemption of unnumbered multitudes —
God even concluding all men in unbelief, in order that
94 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
He might have mercy on all.^ And from such revela-
tions of the love of God, it is argued that this love
will and must make provision for the redemption in
other worlds, at least of all those who have had no op-
portunity to learn of that love in this life, and possibly
even of many if not all, who have more or less dis-
tinctly rejected that love in time: Cox, Sakator Mundi;
essay on Universal Redemption. When the proposition
is not presented in this sweeping form, the obvious
trend of thouo-ht is in this direction. The revealed love
of God is set forth as furnishing at least probable foun-
dation for the largest hope. Can that love, it is asked,
suffer the infant, the pagan, or even the unenlightened
and the debased in Gospel lands, to perish throughout
eternity without the knowledge and the experience of
saving grace?
Here again the necessity for fliithful discrimination,
and for faithful recognition of the facts in the case,
forces itself upou the conscientious mind. Erroneous
and mischievous infereuces from the generic proposition
that God is love, are unfortunately no novelty in the
history of Christian theology. How often has this
proposition beeu made the basis of deductions which are
destructive to right views of other divine attributes —
eminently the wisdom, the righteousness, and the just
sovereignty of God ! How frequently, from Pelagius
down to Arminius, have men argued on this ground,
more or less sweopingly, against the biblical doctrine
respecting the moral corruption, the true guiltiness, and
therefore the righteous condemnation of man ! How
often have Socinian and other kindred heresies respect-
ing the need of the atonement, its nature and range and
iPsalm 103. Isa. 55. Hosea 6. John' 3 : 10-7. Eph. 1 : 10. Rom. 5
and 11.
DIVINE LOVE A HOLY AFFECTION. 95
issues, been maintained by a similar process! And how
constantly do the current varieties of universalism, res-
torationism, and even annihilationism, appeal for their
support to the truth of truths that God is love — it be-
ing, it is alleged, an act of tenderness even to blot out
of existence those whom He can not restore to a state
of love and holiness!
Against a process so fraught with perils, as the his-
tory of religious opinion bears solemn witness, it be-
comes us carefully to guard. Eejoicing in the doctrine
that God is love, and believing that our only hope of
salvation lies in His revealed and pledged grace, we are
still bound to emphasize the obvious truth that this
love is not a spontaneous, unregulated impulse, but a
holy affection, dwelling within the breast of Deity in
perfect harmony with wisdom and righteousness no less
infinite and no less controlling. Perfect love is by its
own nature a self-regulative and self-limiting virtue. It
embraces the race as well as the individual soul, and can
do nothing to favor the individual at the sacrifice of the
super-eminent interests of the race. It contemplates
eternity in every manifestation, and can in no case ex-
pend itself on temporal advantage at the sacrifice of
eternal issues. The love of God is always a wise love,
taking on no f )rm and showing itself in no degree ex-
cepting such as unerring intelligence prescribes. The
love of God is a just love, never revealing itself other-
wise than absolute righteousness permits. And the de-
mands of this wisdom and this equity run out quite
beyond our range of vision — beyond our power of appre-
hension, so that we are in no degree capable of deter-
mining w'hat wisdom and equity may in any case permit
a loving Deity to do. We may know the fact that God
loves, and may see that this love so far as manifested
96 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
is wise and righteous; but how can Ave know to w^hat
extent or in what manner God ought to love ! Surely
we are not competent to say Avhat love should compel
Him to do, — still less to arraign any of His acts on the
ground tliat they seem to us to be inadequate manifes-
tations of his love, — least of all, to prophesy as to the
revelations of that love in other worlds, to disembodied
spirits who have neglected to feel as they ought- in
view of his providences and his grace manifested to
them while in the flesh.
It is freely admitted that trying and mysterious facts
confront us at this point. If God so loved the world
as to give His only Son for its salvation, and so loved
the world through all the ages before as truly as after
the advent of the Son, why was that advent so long
delayed; and wdiy were such uncounted millions suifered
to die in sin during the long interim? If the grace of
God is so comprehensive, so tender, so free, why has the
progressive movement of Christianity in the earth been
so slow — long centuries passing, and myriads passing
into eternity with the ages, while the Gospel is labori-
ously making its way from land to land, from continent
to continent? If God is so loving in his nature and
purpose, and if he knows that salvation turns for every
soul of man on the direct and conscious acceptation of
Christ, why docs He not this instant, even by miracle
on miracle if need be, make the Gospel known through-
out the earth ? And, looking for a moment in the di-
rection of providence rather than grace, how are we to
explain the numberless pains, the Mails of childhooc
the agonies of life, the trials and wrongs and miseries
of men, and all the shadows that sweep so heavily and
pitilessly across our earthly sky, if God indeed be lov-
ing, merciful, infinite in compassion and in grace?
DIVINE JUSTICE AND SALVATION. 97
These questions are suggested in this connection
simply for the light they shed on the doubtful and dan-
gerous quality of much of the current reasoning as to
the dealings of God with the impenitent dead, based on
the generic doctrine that He is love. When the thought-
ful mind begins to discern the insuperable difficulties
that confront it in undertaking to explain in this con-
ned:ion either the providential or the gracious dealings
of God with men in this world, surely it will not be
blind to the unwisdom of making sweeping inferences
from this truth in connection with another state of
being. All the more cautious will such a mind become
when it discovers that it has little or no basis for such
specific inferences in the revealed Word. And will it
not rather be inclined to learn a salutary lesson from
the divine silence, and to be dumb in the presence of
unrevealed mysteries, than to assert with dogmatic pos-
itiveness what the love of God will and must constrain
Him to do in a condition of things of which it has and
can have so little actual knowledge?
Like answer must be given to the kindred inclination
of the advocates of salvation after death, to emphasize
inordinately the obligations of justice, ^^ ^.^^ ^^^^^^
and to say that God ought to give and Future Salva-
every human l)eing a chance some-
where to know Christ and be saved directly through
Him. — Before all the declarations quoted from both
the Old Testament and the New, in proof that God
13 just — -just inherently and just in all His dealings
with men, we reverently bow in humble and cordial
faith. We believe and know that the Judge of all the
earth will do right, — that His scepter is a scepter of
righteousness, and His dominion one of perfect equity
98 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
toward every creature, — that in His dispensations of
grace He is equitable in the highest possible measure,
and that the Gospel itself is a revelation that justifies
Him while it saves those Avho accept His grace.' As
has just been urged, this princijjle of justice, having its
ground in the very nature of Deity, not only rules su-
premely in all that God does, but controls His tender-
est affections, subordinates to itself every impulse of
love, renders all the divine acts righteous even before
they reveal themselves to men as gracious. Such is the
order of the divine attributes that, as M'isdom precedes
righteousness and conditions righteousness, so righteous-
ness must ever precede and condition love. The divine
attributes are never independent; they exist in a sacred
and eternal relationship. As love never absorbs justice
or sets wisdom aside, so justice never quenches love, or
refuses to heed the dictates of -wisdom. The only acts
possible to such a being as God is, are such acts as a
love eternally wise, eternally righteous, may demand.
On this general ground that God is and must ever be
just, it is argued that He must and will give what is
described as an opportunity to be saved, to all men in-
asmuch as He has giv^en that opportunity to some; and
furtlior that, since He has not given such opportunity
to all in this life, He is bound in equity to do this and
therefore will do it in the intermediate state. But is it
not obvious that these propositions can be sustained
only on the general hypothesis, more or less consciously
held by such advocates, that the plan of salvation is not
merely a plan devised and executed in love, but also a
plan demanded in some sense by justice itself? Is it not
implied, if not stated, that the leaving of myriads of
iJob 8:3. 3-1 : 12. Psalm 45 : 6-7. Jer. 9 : 24. Eom. 3 : 26. I.John
1 : 9. Kev. 15 : 3-4.
NO JUDGMENT WITHOUT CHRISTIANITY. 99
mankind in that sinful and corrupt estate into which
through the sin of our first parents they have fallen, is
something which God can not righteously do? Is it not
implied, if not stated, either that He is bound in equity
to provide redemption for the i-ace in its totality, or at
least to do for each and all what He graciously consents
to do for some? That such implications lie couchant
in the theory of a probation after death, is only too ap-
parent.
Martensen, for example, (Christ. Dogm., § 285) urges
that the divine character, as righteous no less than mer-
ciful, justifies the conclusion that God will sooner or
later, as a matter of equity, provide universal restora-
tion througli the Gospel. Nitszch and Van Oosterzee
prefer to rest the dogma on the attribute of love alone ;
at least they make no formal attempt to argue it on the
ground of the divine justice. But Dorner {Ckrist. Doct.,
§ 130) maintains not merely that no one is condemned
on account of his natural sin or guilt, but further that,
if God should withhold from any one whatever is indis-
pensable to his salvation, the condemnation of such a
person would be on equitable grounds impossible. He
also afiirms (§ 153: iii) that the absoluteness of Chris-
tianity demands that no one shall be judged of God be-
fore Christianity has somewhere been made accessible —
brought home to him personally. Maurice and Farrar,
while arguing for a post mortem salvation mainly on
the ground that the love of God must impel Him to
provide such salvation, frequently appeal infcrnially to
our sense of what is due to righteousness, — suggesting,
if not assuming, that God is too just to condemn men
in the coming life who have never heard of Christ on
earth. Among American advocates the position of Dor-
ner is more positively affirmed, — especially on the ground
100 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
of the absoluteDess and universality of Christianity.
Since this religion is by its own nature absolute and
universal, it is declared (Progressive Orthodoxy ; Essay
ix) that it ought to be given after death to those who are
deprived of its blessings in this life. And, in like man-
ner, since it is right for God to judge the world by
Jesus Christ, it is asserted that it must be wrong in
Him to judge at death those who have never had the
opportunity to embrace Christ here, or to judge any
hereafter until they have had such opportunity.'
But, if it be difficult to determine just what love, in
the broadest sense, may impel or may permit God to
do toward the salvation of our race, it is a far more
difficult task to decide upon what equity demands of
Him in such a high and sovereign sphere of action.
Within this sphere are we not often confronted by facts
whose magnitude and awfulness might well constrain us
to humility in any such undertaking! It is true, in a
limited sense, that as has been claimed, the revelation of
God in Christ enables us to understand in certain re-
spects what is right for God to do or not to do. But
that revelation does not tell us, for example, why God
makes the immense distinctions as to spiritual privilege
Avhich we actually see existing among men on the
earth, — why his great salvation is presented to our view
amid such inexplicable complexities in experience, under
such varied conditions, through such long and slow and
painful processes, — why such myriads are suffered to
live and to die, century after century, without hearing
of this wonderfully gracious and Avonderfully efficacious
salvation. And in the presence of the awful problems
which rise up before every thoughtful Christian mind as
'8ee also Cox, Safvaktr Mundi, Essay vii. Jukes, Restitulion of
Ail Things, ]). 106. Mungjek, Freedom of Faith, Introduction.
MYSTERIES OF DIVINE JUSTICE. 101
it contemplates this Gospel of Christ as exhibited in time,
where the Scriptures shed at least some light upon
what righteousness as well as love may impel God to
do, how can such a mind venture to say what He ought
to do, and therefore will do, with this Gospel in an in-
termediate state into whose darkness, so far as this
problem is concerned, the divine Revelation sends
hardly a single ray of light ?
Reasonings of this sort may well be challenged.
"With any light now shed on the problem, it is impos-
sible for any one to say that God ought to give all
men the same chance to be saved which He is seen to
be giving some; impossible to charge Him with injust-
ice even though we see myriads of souls passing into
eternity without being saved; impossible to arraign His
equity, though no ground of hope should anywhere ap-
pear as to these millions, after they have passed beyond
the confines of time. If we were able to affirm that
God was bound in equity to provide a scheme of sal-
vation for a race who had fallen into sin and misery
without their own choice, under a constitution of things
which He had established, and for whose defective or
mischievous working Ho, rather than they, was respon-
sible, then with good reason we might infer that such
a God was bound to provide such a salvation for all,
and to make such arrangements that even in this world,
and if not in this world, then certainly somewhere in
eternity, all should have the opportunity to be saved.
But in that case it must with inexpressible pain be re-
membered that, were this dark supposition correct, we
could have no warrant whatever that such a God as
this su])position imagines to exist, would be led by any
sense of justice to correct the awful M'rong which He
had done to mankind. On this hypothesis v;e could
102 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
only confess ourselves in the grasp of a Being whose
power over us was limitless and resistless as fate, but
of whose justice we could have neither in nature or in
moral administration any comforting assurances what-
ever.
Turning from this sphere of inquiry to the Scriptures,
wc are at once confronted with the fundamental prop-
osition that God was in no sense bound by equity to
provide salvation for any among the sons of men, and
that the salvation He offers has its origin and inspira-
tion, not in an imperative of justice, but in the impulse
of fatherly love. God so loved the world, is the uni-
versal declaration ; herein is love, not that we first
loved Him, but that He first loved us, and gave His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The entire ar-
gument of Paul in the great epistle to the Roman
Church (Ch. xi) is based on this proposition. But if
t'T' Gospel is a plan devised by grace alone, then it is
n;) more a plan to be contrived and executed on the
ba-is of equity; otherwise, grace is no more grace. If
it bo a plan originating in equity and required by
equity, then grace has no true place in it, and the ascrip-
tion of it to the divine love as its source is an error
throughout. In other words, if mercy is something-
which is due to man from God, mercv is no longer
mercy; and the gracious element which is everywhere
in the New Testament presented as the central thins-
in our salvation, the sole ground of argument and ap-
peal, and of conviction and condemnation also, disap-
pears at once and forever. That such a conclusion is
consciously admitted by the writers here quoted, ought
not to be claimed; that the doctrine which they have
enunciated, tends inevitably toward this conclusion can
not well be questioned. And as little can it be ques-
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SALVATION. 103
tioned that such a conclusion, though it be asserted on
the basis of the general doctrine of Scripture respect-
ing God as a just and righteous as well as a loving
Being, is in form and essence contrary to the teaching
of Scripture respecting grace, and especially to the entire
biblical presentation of the plan of salvation through
Jesus Christ.
In connection with these generalizations respecting
the universal relations of Christ and Christianitv, and
respecting the mercy and the justice
r ^ J ^ J V. WoiU of tlie
of God as concerned with an univer- spirif, Temi»orai
sal scheme of redemption, may be " •*'
named another, — that which is based on the alleged
universality of the Spirit in His salvatory work. — The
assertion of such universality is indeed a necessary ele-
ment in the doctJne of universal probation, unless the
Pelagian position be accepted, that the work of the
Spirit though desirable is not indispensable to human
salvation. Hence all those passages of Holy Writ
which describe the Spirit in the greatest breadth and
sweep of his influence, are in this connection summoned
into court to testify to the universality of the method
and operation of grace. The promise of Joel that the
Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh, with other
like intimations in the pro{)hetic books — -the declaration
of our Lord that the Spirit is free and broad and potent
as the winds in His saving ministries, and that He has
come to convince not some men, but the world, of sin
and righteousness and judgment — the cosmic event of
Pentecost and the subsequent verifications of ancient
prophecy in the career of the apostolic Church, and the
large assurances of the Pauline epistles,^ are all intro-
1 Joel 2 : 28-32. Isa. 44 : 3-5. John 3 : 6-8. 16 : 7-13. Acts 2 : Rom.
15 : 1!). 1 Cor. 2.
104 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
duced here to prove that, as Christianity is an universal
religion, the work of the Spirit must be an universal
work. It is said, in general, that the agency and the
motive must be no less wide than the plan of redemp-
tion itself; that the Spirit must therefore be working
under Christianity broadly in human nature and in hu-
man society; and that this generic work has its appro-
priate and essential condition in the mutual relations
existing between God and man as man. And another
writer affirms that the Spirit broods over the world of
humanity, as at first over the world of chaos; that hu-
manity as such is thus charged with redemptive forces
wrought into the soul of man, and into all the insti-
tutions and relations of men in life: and that every
human being will receive from the Spirit of God all
the influence impelling to salvation that his nature can
endure and yet retain its moral integrity.^
According to this sweeping conception of the range
and character of the work wrought by the Spirit in
connection with the Gospel, it must follow that wher-
ever the Gospel goes, the Spirit must and will go also,
with convicting if not regenerating power, — the entire
success of the divine scheme of mercy depending wholly
on this superadded agency. Must it not follow also
that, as the Gospel is not offered to all men in this
life, and must therefore on grounds of both love and
equity be offered hereafter to all who have not heard
the salutnry offer here, the Spirit must be at work in
tiie intermediate state as truly and powerfully as He
ever works in this world ; so that there may and shall
be Pentecosts and revivals, convictions and conversions
and outpourings of grace, in Hades as truly as on
Tkogressive Orthodoxy, Essay v-vi. Hunger, Freedom of
Faith; The New Theology.
THE SPIRIT IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 105
earth? Further: if it be admitted, {Prog. Orth., p. 7G)
that in the nature of the case, this present life is the
most acceptable time, the most favorable opportunity
for moral renewal in Christ, then must ii; not follow
still further, either that the operations of the Spirit
will be correspondingly more powerful in the interme-
diate state than they are here, or that, as they so often
fail in this life, they must still more often, more dis-
astrously, fail in that less favorable condition ?
It might be argued that, if the Spirit is thus at work
among the myriads of disembodied souls in the eternal
world, all the other remedial agencies associated with
the Spirit in saving men in this life, must also be car-
ried over, without impairing their efficiency, into that
state of being, — either this, or that these must be sup-
planted there by other agencies as powerful or perchance
far more powerful in their contribution to the same
result. As the Sj)irit works here mainly, if not ex-
clusively, in and through saving truth, by and with the
ministry of the Word, in conjunction with sabbaths and
sacraments, and through solemn and tender providences
designed to impress the soul with a deeper sense of its
condition and its need, so we might reasonably infer that
He will v.'ork there through either these or other like
instrumentalities, as well as by regenerative energy
within the soul itself. To say that all questions of
mode or instrument are out of tlTe range of rational
inquiry is hardly admissible in such a case as this ;
those who affirm so confidently the presence of a saving
Christ, of the Gospel of mercy, of a renewing Spirit
visible and powerful unto salvation within that inter-
mediate state, can not well set such questions aside.
But waiving these queries, and contemplating the
Holy Spirit alone, we are confronted by this decisive
106 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
fact, that noAvhere in the Bible is there a verse, a line,
a phrase, which teaches that the Spirit has any mission
or office or agency which reaches beyond the bounda-
ries of time. If Christ descended into tlie under world,
and there in a few hours set up as He had done here,
the wonderful economy of redemption, we find not even
so obscure an intimation as that of 1 Peter 3: 18, to
suggest that the Holy Ghost followed him there and
wrought with Him in the restoration of the spirits in
prison. On the other hand, every thing that the Spirit
has condescended to tell us respecting Himself and his
mission, points to that mission as exclusively a thing
of earth and time. The second birth is an experience
which He produce.-, not in human nature, but in indi-
vidual souls ; conversion as He describes it is a visible
experience realized amid human scenes and conditions;
prayer as inspired and guided by Him is an earthly ut-
terance; the Christian graces and virtues bloom at his
touch on this earthly soil. His Avork is said to com-
plete itself in the article of death, as in the case of
believers made perfect in holiness and ])assing into glory,
or of infants transformed into the divine image by his
energy in the dying hour. He Himself tells us abso-
lutely nothing of any work which He is to do in any
other world than this; and the more carefully we stndy
His declarations as embodied in the inspired ^Yor(l, the
less can we by any possibility admit the grotesque op-
posite conception.
It should indeed be more widely and ardently em-
phasized, that the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of love as v/ell
as of power, and that as such we have the broadest
basis for hope that He will work^ his mighty works
wherever the Gospel goes, even to the ends of the earth.
We have no right to prescribe geographic limits to his
EXTENSIVE MINISTRIES OF THE SPIRIT. 107
mission, as if that mission were to be wrought out only
within the territorial domain of Christendom. We may
rather believe that wherever the missionary of the Cross
goes, this divine agency in far outspreading mercy goes
before Him; — we may believe that it is one of His
functions to prepare the whole world for the Gospel,
and so to affect the hearts of men even on pagan shores,
that thev shall be ready to hear and welcome the glad
tidings of redemption. What we read of his gracious
workings far and wide in the apostolic age, in Cesarca,
in Antioch, in Damascus, in Corinth, in Athens and
Rome, justifies the broadest hope as to the extent and
SM^eep of his influence in later times, not merely where
the Gospel has been formally proclaimed, but far be-
yond such limits. But we are everywhere confronted by
the mysterious fact that, on the other hand, He is sover-
eign as well as gracious; that His work is not wrought by
human command, or in response to human choice; that,
like the wind. He goeth where He listeth, and no man
can determine His coming or His departure. The same
sovereignty which is exhibited by the Father and by
the Son in the provision and application of redemption,
appears in Him also. Sweeping generalizations there-
fore as to what He ought to do, or will do, based on
no distinct word of Scripture and contradicting the
plain facts and lessons of Christian experience, are
wholly inadmissible here. They can lead only to il-
lusive conceptions of His work even in this life; and
if projected beyond the visible boundaries of time, they
can only become all the more illusive — all the more
dangerous to the faith and the hopes of men.
Another instance of like error may be seen in the
general view held by the advocates of the dogma under
108 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
consideration, respecting sin on one hand, and final
condemnation on the other. — Reference has already been
made to the opinion, more or less fully
ce7tions''ot*'shi avowed, that the only sin which justifies
aiid condemna- divinc judgment is the sin of unbelief,
with the consequent implication that this
is the onlv charoe which will be introduced into that
solemn court, and the only ground of final condemna-
tion. Some further examination of these affirmations,
in their more generic form, is needful here, in view of
tlicir close connection with the erroneous generalizations
already considered. If Christ be the head of human-
ity, and Christianity the universal religion in the un-
limited sense here advocated, and if the divine love
and the divine justice alike require that every human
soul should know of Christ and should choose Him or
reject Him either here or hereafter, then it certainly
follows as is alleged, that all other sins of men afford
no sufficient ground of condemnation, and that the only
proper judgment upon mankind is that which is de-
scribed as a Christian judgment. In other words, that
final adjudication will and must in every case turn ab-
solutely on the specific question whether each soul has
distinctly and sufficiently heard of Christ, and has vol-
untarily accepted or rejected Him as the offered Savior.
Men will never be condemned, it is implied, until they
are condemned on this ground.
But what in fact is the biblical doctrine as to the sin-
fulness and guilt of the race, even where such knowledge
of Christ has never been received? Apart from all
theological technics in phrase or teaching, can there be
any doubt among evangelical minds that sin, introduced
through our first parents, has actually reached and in-
fected the race as a race, — that its corruption has seized
SIN UNIVERSAL AS HUMANITY. 109
upon every soul of man, and is manifest in all, even
from the first moment of moral action, — that, back of
all such action, there is that in Iniman nature univer-
sally which is unholy rather than holy, and which in
some true and deep sense of the term makes that nature,
as well as the acts that spring from it, sinful in the sight
and estimate of a holy God? We hardly need to resort
to the Bible for proofs of this universal fact, though
every page of Scripture contains some suggestion or il-
lustration of the dreadful reality ; all history, all expe-
rience, all consciousness trained and untrained, verifies
the statement in ten thousand ways. Nor need we ask
whether our humanity will or can cleanse itself, by any
spontaneous processes, from this universal corruption of
the moral nature, or set itself back into an estate of
holiness* the confession of the race turns that hope into
ashes. Whether some better language than that of cur-
rent theology can or can not be found to describe this
moral depravation, this sinful helplessness of the race,
the solemn fact remains, as unquestionable as Script-
ure — as fixed and certain a -thing as life itself
Neither can it be questioned that God views the race
as universally and immediately guilty, if not in virtue
of this corrupted nature alone, still in viev/ of its in-
variable disposition and movement toward sin, from the
first hour of moral consciousness. It is true that some
of the class of writers here referred to openly or by
implication deny this proposition; not only Augustin-
iauism, but the general doctrine of moral guiltiness in-
corporated in all evangelical creeds, is regarded by
them as a dogma unwarranted by Scripture, and deroga-
tory to human nature. By others the point of guilt is
the rather ignored or treated as secondary, while the
fact of sinfulness or depravity is admitted and empha-
110 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
sized. It is alleged, for example {Prog. Orth., p. 291),
that the consideration of sin is much more important
than that of guilt, — that God alone knows how guilty
any man may be, and that our knowledge is not suffi-
cient to show us what judgment, if any, should be passed
uj)on man as man, apart from his direct and voluntary
treatment of the scheme of salvation. But such inti-
mations even in this milder form can only mislead us;
directly or indirectly they tend to loosen our conviction,
based on multiplied declarations of Scripture, that God
counts all men guilty even from birth, and therefore
holds all, even the ignorant and the savage, already
under just and awful condemnation.^ The solemn fact
everywhere forces itself upon us, not only in the Bible,
but hardly less in human conscience and experience, that
the race is not only sinful but condemned — condemned
for the moral nature and dispositions as well as for the
wrong acts of this life. Further, that God is wise and
just in such condemnation of the race as sinful, must
be admitted, however awful the fact may seem, by every
one who is loyal to the divine AVord. The Bible again
and again affirms that it is not simply because mankind
are sinful, that Christ has come to save them; but also
because they are guilty and condemned already, and as
Gucli arc in need of pardon and justification as well as
rpiritual cleansing and healing.
There is some truth in the statement that Protestant-
Zim, especially Calvinism, has concerned itself too much
relatively with the relations and efficiency of the atone-
ment in the matter of our justification merely. But there
is great error in the opposite allegation, that the atone-
ment is a scheme designed for the purpose of moral im-
^Rom. 5 : 12-19 ; the crut;ial and decisive text.
HUMANITY UNIVERSALLY GUILTY. HI
pression and influence only — a divine medication for a
sick soul, rather than a redemption provided for a soul
in captivity under the lav:. That Christ died for our
sins, according to the Scriptures, and for our sins viewed
not merely as accidents or misfortunes or diseases, but
still more -as oifences against law, and as offences re-
quiring some species of satisfaction or expiation to the
lav/ and the government of a righteous God, is a funda-
mental truth in the Christian scheme. That salvation
as exhibited in Him includes deliverance from guilt as
well as restoration in character, freedom from the curse
and condemnation of the law as well as freedom from
the bondage imposed by an unholy nature and a sinful
disposition, is a truth no less fundamental. Indeed, the
entire mediatorial work of our Lord, — His prophetic and
kingly hardly less than His priestly function and min-
istry — proceeds on this basis. Nor is there any real ne-
cessity for the questioning of propositions so fundamental
in order to emphasize either the interior weakness, dis-
order, moral obscuration and infirmity of human nature,
or the amazing power of the Cross, when contemplated
as a revelation of love — a revelation designed to awaken
and quicken and inspire, as no other disclosure of God
could do, the dcpravated soul of man. The fact that
an atonement was needful to placate law, to sustain
government, to satisfy divine justice, as well as to re-
veal love, must stand as long as Christianity stands.
If these biblical representations of the moral state
of man as man be correct, — if the race are in any true
sense by nature universally sinful, and therefore sinful
in action, and on account of such sinfulness are already
under condemnation, what becomes of the opinion that
no hum.an soul will be, or even can be, equitably con-
demned until it has first passed through the process of
112 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
seeing Christ and deciding on His claim as a Savior,
and has thus been prepared for what is characterized as
a Christian judgment? Some opponents of this opin-
ion have gone so far as to reject altogether the idea of
a personal probation provided for man as a sinner, —
maintaining that the first and only probation granted
to the race was that experienced in Adam, and that in
the divine plan of things there is no such subsequent
experience or testing for each and every man as the
term, probation, implies. The fact rather is that, though
under differing conditions and with prospect far less
hopeful, every human soul, on attaining moral con-
sciousness, passes again for itself through the tempta-
tion of Eden, — is subjected as our first parents were,
to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life ; and, like them, surrenders itself volunta-
rily to the seductions of sin, and falls away like them
into voluntary transgression of the primal law of duty.
The temptation of our Lord is as truly typical of an
experience common to man, as was the original temp-
tation of Adam and Eve in Paradise : the second event
was intended as truly as the first to indicate that sol-
emn law of moral testing, of choice between God and
Satan, between duty and selfishness, under which every
moral being exists, and from the nature of the case must
ever exist, in such a world as this.^
But, granting the fact that life is to every conscious
soul a state of probation, we are by no means driven
to the Pelagian position that every such soul enters on
this moral experience without sinful bias, without an-
tecedent corruption of the nature disabling it morally
from the successful prosecution of such experience to
1 Gen. 3: Matt. 4. Also, I. John 2: 16. James 1: 13-15. I. Cor.
10 : 13. IMatt. 6 : 13 : and others.
THE RACE UNDER CONDEMNATION. 113
its ideal consummation in a state of matured spiritual
perfection. Neither are we driven to the position that
the only form which such probation can assume is the
Christian form, and the only outcome therefore must
be what is called a Christian judgment and condem-
nation. As we shall have occasion to see hereafter in
another connection, probation is a much broader ex-
perience than this proposition assumes it to be, and
for like reason the terms, judgment and condemnation,
are correspondingly much more comprehensive in their
sweep. There is, in a word, a true probation for the
heathen as really as for those who live under the light
of Christianity ; and there is therefore for the heathen
a righteous judgment and a proper condemnation for
every wrong deed done in this probationary condition, —
though these differ in some vital features, as we shall
yet see, from the judgment and the condemnation vis-
ited upon such as consciously reject Christ and His
salvation.
Such are the principal generalizations, summoned
from what is styled the higher plane of Scripture or
of Christianitv, and brought into court
as evidences ot the dogma here contro- ing view of the
verted.— Critical examination of these «"ii'tui-e Testi-
luony.
evidences will readily bring into view
some at least of the illicit processes of reasoning which
they involve, and which render them wholly inadequate
as proofs on such an issue. One of these is an unlaw-
ful expansion of divine truth — a process through which
what at first is seen as a revealed doctrine of the Script-
ure, properly embraced within the Christian scheme of
belief, is carried by degrees out far beyond the point
where the Bible places it, and is gradually broadened
114 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIP T URE.
and etherealized until it becomes at last an abstract phil-
osophical proposition, containing not only much more
than the Bible actually reveals, but more even than can
possibly be substantiated by any methods available to
the human mind. Another may be described as an un-
lawful contraction or limitation of divine truth, — that
Avliich is given in the Bible in comprehensive form,
multiplex in its relations and many-sided as the dia-
mond in its flashing radiance, being seized and held by
the mind in some single aspect or relation only, with-
out considerate regard to its other connections and ad-
justments. Still another is the attempt to determine
hypothetieally from the inadequate data given in Script-
ure or in human experience, what God ought to do, and
what therefore He will and must do, in circumstances
and conditions concerning which we have and can have
little if any specific knowledge. And another, more del-
eterious still in its effect upon both thought and belief,
is the exaltation of certain speculative tests or stand-
ards, drawn sometimes from the sphere of philosophv,
and sometimes from the sphere of sentiment merely, by
which it is assumed that the verities of our holy faith
may legitimately be measured, and their validity or in-
validity be established.
Christian Doctrine resolutely refuses to be dealt with
by such methods, or to submit to conclusions thus ob-
tained. What is termed the higher plane of Christi-
anity, so far as it implies any such contemplation of
divine things without careful regard to the limitations
which the Word of God and tlie nature of the Christian
religion as a thing of earth and time, primarily impose
upon us, is not an improvement in method, but is
rather an illusive and dangerous process throughout.
The fundamental fact in the case is that the sacred
SCRIP TUBE TESTIMONY: CONCLUDING VIEW. Uo
verities of our faith are to be received and held by us
exactly as the Bible reveals them, — in their Hmitations
as well as in their sweep, — in their adjustments to each
other and to the entire system, no less than in their
separate form as independent revelations, — as found in
particular texts, plain propositions, direct and specific
affirmations of the Holy Ghost, rather than in specu-
lative deductions or inferential generalizations having
only some incidental warrant in the Scripture. Any
and every departure from this fundamental law is fraught
with peril, alike to belief and to experience. And most
sedulously are we to guard ourselves as Christian men
against all illicit transmutation of the holy doctrines of
grace, by whatever process, into merely speculative or
rationalistic dogmas from which the divine authority has
been largely exhaled, and which have therefore little
power either to educate or to nourish biblical faith.
The error of attempting to establish by special inter-
pretation of a few obscure passages, a sweeping proposi-
tion which is clearly unwarranted by the general and
consentaneous teaching of the Bible as a whole, has al-
ready been sufficiently noted. But is it not an error
still more dangerous to attempt, from such merely gen-
eric glimpses of Scripture as we have been contemplat-
ing, such rangy and cosmic glances at the Divine Word
or at the Christian system in its totality, to establish a
conclusion which in effect carries us out far beyond the
boundaries of Scripj;ure, and finds its final justification
rather in what the comprehending reason seems to de-
mand? It is no railing accusation to say that this is
in substance what is attempted, consciously or uncon-
sciously, in the propositions here controverted respect-
ing the headship of Christ as the universal man, and
the consequent universality of His religion — respecting
116 GENERAL TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.
the love aud the justice of God in their relations to the
Gospel of grace, aud the ministrations of the Spirit in
connection with that Gospel — and respecting the proper
sinfulness aud guilt and consequent condemnation of
the race, whether enlightened or unenlightened by the
Inspired Word. lu each case what is a fundamental
and solemn truth of Scripture is, by a familiar rational-
izing process, quietly transmuted into a speculative ab-
straction, a theoretic generalization, quite void cither of
biblical authoritativeness or of spiritual worth.
What is our duty with respect to dogmas and issues
such as these? Are we not bound as Christian men,
whatever may be our theory of inspiration, to hold that
the Holy Spirit was always a factor and always the su-
preme factor in Holy Writ, aud that as such He is our
sole and supreme Teacher touching these solemn prob-
lems of the future,— a- Teacher whose words are to be ac-
cepted just as He utters them, and by W'hose lessons our
thinking on such problems is to be fluthfully regulated,
shaped, determined once and forever? And approach-
ing the question here at issue in this spirit of unques-
tioning loyalty to the Word, and to the entire AVord,
and to that Word just as it stands, to what other con-
clusion can we come than that the dogma of Salvation
after Death, in whatever form, is something which the
Bible in no clear way directly suggests, and with which
its general as well as particular teaching, its plain and
harmonious and unift)rm testimony, studied by the eye
of simple faith, is in irreconcilable conflict?
CHAPTER IV.
THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
A BRIEF consideration of the dogma under discussion,
in the light of Christian Symbolism, may fitly follow
the preceding inquiry into the teachings of Scripture.
Such an examination will not fail to furnish practical
evidence that this dogma, as it is without adequate war-
rant in the Word of God, is also without indorsement
in the historic creeds and confessions of Christendom.
In view of the claim that the dogma in question is not
only orthodox — in harmony with the main movements
and forms of existing Christian belief — but also is an
advance along these lines, and a progressive improve-
ment upon such established forms of fliith, this line of
inquiry assumes a special importance.
The nature of the evidence here to be introduced
should be carefully defined. — All creeds are to be re-
garded simply as human declarations, j_ Nature of
framed to describe what the Church symi>oUc Tcsti-
has come to regard and believe as the
substance of the common Gospel. Such creeds may have
been wrought into sliape during the primitive ages, un-
der the limitations imposed by imperfect knowledge or
undeveloped experience, or amid the din of rivalries in
sect or party, or perchance in times of conflict around
specific doctrines of grace, — when unfavorable condi-
tions of many sorts were affecting disastrously alike
the truth involved and the form and color of its con-
(117)
118 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
fessional exposition. They may also vary widely in
degree of fullness, in calmness and equipoise of state-
ment, in scripturalncss and in spiritual tone, and there-
fore in authority. And he who summons such author-
ity to his aid is therefore bound to consider well every
element involved, — the circumstances and historic rela-
tions of each symbol, the exact meaning of each term
and phrase, the aim and purpose of the entire structure,
and the proper significance of the whole when viewed
in relation to the developing thoughts and beliefs of
other lands and other times.
But while all church confessions are thus human and
limited in their range of application, it must also be
conceded that a large divine element enters into the
composition of every Christian creed. Protestantism
indeed rejects on just grounds the presumptuous Pla-
cnit Spintui Sancto et Kohls with which the Church of
Rome indorses its official declarations, — holding rather
to the judgment of the divines of AVestminster that,
since apostolic times, many synods and councils have
erred, and all may err, and none therefore may be made
our final rule of faith or practice. Protestantism also
rejects the dogma underlying this Roman Catholic as-
sumption, to the effect that the Holy Spirit so dwells
within the Church, directing the currents of its pro-
gressing experience, and controlling the consequent de-
velopment of its views and beliefs concerning divine
things, as to give to such views and beliefs, tradition-
ally preserved, a supernatural quality and an authorita-
tiveness coequal with that of the AVritten Word itself.
Yet in setting aside these unwarranted presumptions,
an intellisrent Protestantism is not blind to the blessed
fact that the Spirit of God is. with His people in all
NATURE OF SYMBOLIC TESTIMONY. 119
ages for their education and spiritual nurture ; and that
consequently the established convictions of the Church,
though they be neither inspired nor infallible, are en-
titled to a very high place in the esteem of every be-
liever. Whatever doctrine or opinion is found to be
in harmony with these churchly convictions, certainly
has strong presumption in its favor : Avhatever is un-
supported by church symbols, or is clearly contrary to
them, is presumably a heresy or an error.
It is important also, in this connection, to draw a
broad line of distinction between such evidences for or
against any given ojiinion, and any confirmation de-
rived from patristic teaching merely. Farrar, in his
historic sketch of cschatological opinion {Eternal Hope:
Appendix), endeavors, though with but scant success, to
sustain his universalistic position by testimonies quoted
from the writings of the Christian Fathers. But the
manner in which he presents this evidence, suggests his
own underlvinsr sense of its insufficiencv. lie refers,
for exam])le, to certain passages in Justin Martyr and
Irenaeus, which seem to him to imply either the ulti-
mate redemption or the total destruction of sinners ;
and regards it by no means clear that these passages
may not teach what he supports as the truth. Admit-
ting that Clemens of Alexandria does not express him-
self with perfect distinctness, he yet asserts that, judging
by the drift of his language, Clemens could not have
held any other doctrine than that of an ultimate resto-
ration of humanity. He discovers what he describes as
slight traces of this doctrine in Diodorus of Tarsus, in
Didymus of Alexandria, and in Gregory Nazianzen :
and from certain phrases used by the latter, infers that
he leaves the whole matter an open question. Gregory
120 TUB WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
of Nyssa is described as saying what may be interpreted
as showing the permissibility of this opinion in his age
and region ; and Athanasius is said to allude with only
an oblique and kindly disapproval to the teaching of
Origen respecting the restitution of all things. He
points also to the silence of the Ecumenical Councils
as sufficient evidence that the universalism of Origen
was not condemned by the Church. In fact, his only
important witness drafted from the whole circle of
i:)atristic authorities is Origen himself He frankly ad-
raits that Jerome, though advocating a future purgation
for imperfect believers, was vehemently opposed to the
Origenic universalism, and that Augustine, chief theolo-
gian of the ancient Church, was no less decisive, though
somewhat less fierce, in his opposition.
But what error has ever appeared, — what heresy has
ever arisen in the later ages of Christianity, which can
not be more or less sustained, by some such process as
this, from the teachings of the Fathers of the first four
or five centuries? It might justly be claimed in reply,
that the utterances of a single teacher, or of a small
group, are not to be taken as the concurrent voice of
the ancient Church, — that the argument from implica-
tion, from possible interpretation, from mere silence, is
at best a frail support, — that the indifference or the
friendly reference or mild opposition of other teachers,
who are on record as rejecting the dogma, can not
properly be construed into proof that the dogma itself
was extensively current, or was regarded with indul-
gence by the Church. It might further be claimed on
good grounds, that the large majority of the Fathers
were positively opposed to the universalism of Origen,
and to all associated phases of error ; and that in fact
the argument from tradition, strongly pressed, would be
WITNESS OF THE ANCIENT CREEDS. 121
found to weigh heavily in the opposite scale.^ But we
may rather, in a word, question the intrinsic value of
the patristic argument throughout, and ask for some
stronger form of confirmatory evidence, if such evi-
dence can be adduced.
Accepting as of far greater value the organized and
permanent testimonies of the Church itself, we may now
inquire briefly respecting the teachin2;s
^ J i O ='11. Testimony
of the ancient creeds of Christendom of the ancient
on the dogma under discussion. — Far- '^'■®*'''*-
rar affirms broadly that restorationism, at least in the
form advanced by Origen and other Fathers, has never
been condemned by any decree of the universal Church,
and claims that the Church has been wisely silent while
mutually irreconcilable opinions have been held by
her teachers without rebuke. Plumptre^ more cautiously
^The narrow basis of the claim urged bj- Canon Farrar is made
manifest with ahnost painful thoroughness, by Prof. Pusey in his
volume already referred to, in reply to the Eternal Hope, entitled,
IMiat is of FaitJi as to Everlastinr/ Punishment. In an appendix,
he shows tliat Origen, the one conspicuous representative of resti-
tution, varied widely in his own opinions and doctrine— that he
was opposed as heretical on this point by nearly every prominent
teacher of his time, — that he was condenmed, though informally,
by the fifth General Council, held at Constantinople, A. D. 553.
In another appendix, the author gives a list of 8-1 among the
Fathers, from the age of Polycarp and Ignatius down to John of
Damascus, who are witnesses, not merely to their own personal
belief, but to the accepted doctrine of the Cliurch, during the first
seven Christian centuries. In this list are found the names of
Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Cyprian ; Athanasius, Eusebius
and Hilary; Basil and Gregory Nazianzen and Ambrose; Jerome,
Chrysostom and Augustine. In the presence of such an array, the
large claim of Farrar dwindles into very small dimensions.
^Spirits in Prison; App. iv, on the Eschatology of the Early
Church.
122 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
limits the denial to the fourth and fifth centuries, and
holds that no council of this period definitely condemned
the Origenic theory of restitution. Still he admits that
the Fifth General Council classes Origen with Arius,
Nestorius, Apollinaris and Eutyches, as an errorist
worthy of reprobation, though w^ithout specifying the
error which called forth its anathema. He also admits
that the Trullan Council, held at Constantinople, A. D.
691, formally condemned Origen among others as be-
lonofino: to that class of teachers who invent changes
for our souls and bodies, and impiously utter drunken
ravings as to the future life of the dead.
Recurring to the first of the three ecumenical creeds,
we are justified in asking if the articles of belief briefly
stated in its closing sentence do not, in their meaning
and order and relations to one another, shed some sug-
gestive light on the question whether the Church of
the second and third centuries believed in a Gospel
after death. The gift of the Holy Ghost, the organ-
ization of the Holy Catholic Church, and the Commun-
ion of Saints, as there affirmed, are events occurring in
time and on earth. Is it not clear that the Forgiveness
of Sins was in like manner contemplated as an experi-
ence occurring on earth and in time ? Would it not be
a wholly unwarrantable assumption that the primitive
Church regarded such forgiveness, so often expressed in
the sacrament of baptism, as a divine process stretching
on through the intermediate state, until the period of
the resurrection of the dead, and the commencement of
that life everlasting in which soul and body are to be
joined together fi)rever? Interpreting the phrase, the
forgiveness of sins, as embodying the essence of Chris-
tian experience and life, surely we can reach no other
conclusion than that such experience was as simply and
THE NICENE CREED. 123
truly held by the early believers to be an earthly and
temporal event, as the descent of the Spirit or the in-
carnation and intercession of our Lord/
The creed of Nicsea, as amended at Constantinoj)le,
A. D. 381, directly associates this divine forgiveness as
the representativ'C experience of religion, M'ith the sacra-
ment of baptism, and Vv^ith the Church as the household
of faith : I believe one Holy Catholic and Apostolic
Church : I acknov.dedge one Baptism for the remission
of sins. Here, as in several other creeds of the period,
the intermediate article on the Communion of Saints is
omitted, and the forgiveness is connected directly M'ith
the Church and her sacraments. In the creed of Cyril,
of Jerusalem, A. D. 350, the order of the articles is re-
versed ; and the sacrament, which is described as the bap-
tism of repentance for the remission of sins, is placed
before the article on the holy Catholic Church. In the
creed of Cyprian, a century earlier, the article on the
Church is abbreviated, and the Remissioncm Peccatorum
is carried back still more directly to its divine source
per sanctam eeclesiam in the Holy Ghost, the author
and giver of all spiritual life. These references strongly
confirm tlie conclusion derived from the fontal creed
already considered ; they make the forgivpness as truly
an event of earth and of time as the baptism which
seals it, or the holy Church which is the earthly home
of repentant souls. Any other interpretation would
constrain us to regard the Holy Ghost, the Catholic
^Pearson on the Creed, Art. x; Forgiveness of Sins; also Art.
XII ; The Life Everlasting. "The favor of God is not to be obtained
\Yhcre there is no means left to olitain it. * * * As the ti-ee
lalloth, so it lieth ; there is no cliange to be wrought in man
within those flames, no purgation of his sins, no sanctification of
his nature, no justification of his person, and therefore no salva-
tion of him."
124 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
Church, the Communion of Saints, and Baptism and its
correlate sacrament as also extending into the inter-
mediate state, no less truly than the forgiveness with
which they are thus vitally associated. That the Church
of the fourth century, as represented at Nicsea and Con-
stantinople, held any such belief, will not be claimed,
by one who justly estimates these successive proposi-
tions in their organic relationship. And this view is
strongly confirmed by the antecedent declaration of the
Nicene Creed, that for us men and for our salvation,
Christ came down from heaven, — a mediatorial transac-
tion not only to be begun on earth, but also by clear
implication to be wrought out and completed in time
and among men.
The specific aim of the Athanasian Creed, {Symholum
Qmeimqne) sufficiently explains the fact that this symbol
contains no reference to the Church and her communion
and sacraments, or to the forgiveness of sins as the rep-
resentative experience of believers. Had the question
respecting the restitution of all things been as promi-
nent as tlic question of the Trinity or of the person of
the Messiah, or had any considerable portion of the
Church accepted the mischievous teaching of Origen
and his schopl, we might perchance have looked for
some such reference. The Athanasian Creed however,
like the symbol of Chalcedon, A. D. 451, simply re-
peats the suggestive ])hrasc of the preceding creed : for
us and for our salvation. It goes on at once, after
setting forth the resurrection and ascension of Christ,
to affirm the general doctrine of the resurrection and
the judgment; and then adds the conclusive declaration :
Tiiey that have done good shall go into life everlasting,
and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. That
the vitam atcrnam and the ignem ceternum in this clause
THE ATHANASIAN CREED. 125
signify the same kind of duration, and this an endless
duration, can not be questioned; that there is no resti-
tution or salvation after the judgment, is unequivocally
affirmed. And certainly the connection of the clause
with what has preceded it, leaves little ground for the
opinion that either the author of this symbol, or those
who received it, believed in the theory of a moral resto-
ration between death and the judgment — of a Gospel
to be preached, accepted, glorified in the intermediate
state.
In view of all these testimonies, derived from the
symbolism of the first six centuries, the broad claim of
Farrar, or even the more cautious and limited claim of
Plumptre, must be taken with large abatement. Though
neither of these eminent advocates claims any positive
confessional support of the views which they respect-
ively represent, both lay great stress on the argument
e sikntio, and assume that their views were not only
considerably current in the earlier ages, but were re-
garded by the Church at large either with indiiference,
or at the worst with mild disapproval. Yet the sig-
nificant fact is, that no form of the dogma of salvation
after death, whether during the intermediate state or
subsequent to the judgment, whether universal or par-
tial, ever found the slightest indorsement in any symbol
of ancient Christianity. The significant fact is, as these
brief glances show, that directly and indirectly, by affir-
mation or by implication, this dogma was the rather
distinctly excluded from that Catholic Faith which,
except a man believe fidelifer firmitcrque, he can not,
according to these creeds, be saved.
Passing over the long creedless period between the
sixth and the sixteenth century, and studying the con-
126 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
III. Testimo. fessioiis of the Reformation, Roman and
nies of Roman
CathoUc and oii- Greok and Protestant, we shall bo led
eutai Symbolism. ^^^ ^,^.^y similar conclusions.— And here
"\vo may first consider the symbolic teaching of the Church
of Rome and of Greek Christianity :
The dogma of Purgatory, as defined by the Roman
Catholic communion (Cone. Trid. : Sess. 6, Can. 30: Sess.
22, Cap. 2 : Sess. 25 :) makes provision simj)ly for bap-
tized church members who die in a state of relative
imperfection, and upon whom further disciplinary proc-.
esses are supposed to be requisite in order to their spir-
itual preparation for the holiness and the felicities of
heaven. Associated with this, as already stated, is its
conception of a Umhus infantum for unbaptized chil-
dren—a place not of punishment, but of spiritual ren-
ovation, where the original corruption of their natures
may be cleansed away, and where they may be made
ready for the heavenly state, — the leiissima damnaiio
of Augustine. And to this is allied the Umhus pnfrnm,
(Cat. Rom. i : 6) where the patriarchs and saints who
lived before the advent, are gathered togotlior as in
waiting for the full manifestation of the Lord, and for
their complete salvation through Him. But beyond
these provisions for the three classes named, the Church
of Rome has never gone : the dogma of an offer of
Christ to all the dead — all who have never had such
offer in this life, finds in her symbolism no Avarrant
whatsoever. It is indeed to her theologians rather than
her creeds (especially Bellarmine, De Purgat.) that we
look for the justification of these two supplementarv be-
liefs respecting the estate of unbaptized children, and of
the pious dead antecedent to the Gospel. Beyond these
reservations Anathema cunetis hereticls, and by conse-
quence condemnation in a form more- or less positive to
ROMAN CATHOLIC TEACHING. 127
the entire pagan world, is the decree of her Councils,
from the days of Trent until now.^
Nor does the Church of Rome furnish anv warrant
whatever for the belief in an ultimate restitution of hu-
manitVj such as Origen and Gregory of Nyssa affirmed.
Its dogma of })urgatory, originating distinctively in the
seventh century, sprang from the necessity for some in-
terpretation of the intermediate state, and from the im-
pression that many of its membership, dying amid re-
maining imperfections, must be largely unprepared at
death for that perfect heaven whither apostles and mar-
tyrs and eminent saints had directly ascended. But for
the multitudes wdio died in sin and out of the commun-
ion of the Church, nothing remained but hell — immedi-
ate, awful, everlasting. A^ariations in grade and degree
of punishment are recognized, as in the phrase of Aqui-
nas : Uno modo per se, alio modo per accidens, Quest.
98 : Art. 2. Various explanations, more or less sensu-
ous, of the nature of this future punishment, are also
recognized by Catholic authorities: Hagenbach, Hist.
Doct., § 209. But the teaching of Scotus Erigena,
quoted by Farrar, in favor of the ultimate universality
of redemption — mirabilis atque ineifabilis reversio — has
never gained currency or even recognition within the
Church. The awful line of Dante {Div. Comm., Canto
III: V. 9) expresses not merely the thcologic position
of the fourteenth century, but also the invariable testi-
mony of Rome in all later times:
Leave Hope Behind, All Ye Who Euter Here!
The dogmatic testimony of the Greek communion is
^ MoEHLER, Sj/mbolism, p. 22. '' Ftillcn man as such is able, in
no otherwise save by the teaching of divine revelation, to attain
to the true and pure knowledge of his fallen condition," <kc.
128 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
even less favorable to such teaching. In the Ortho-
dox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern
Ciiurch, A. D. 1643, the ancient Creeds are {Quest. 2)
solemnly reaffirmed, with all their implications against
this dogma: and in the same symbol {Quest. 6G) even
the Roman doctrine of Purgatory is directly rejected.
It is trne that in the Florentine terms of reunion pro-
posed between the Eastern Church and the Western,
A. D. 1439, this doctrine was recognized, in the single
feature of prayers and masses for the dead, as an allow-
able article of belief. In the Longer Catechism of the
Russian Church, A. J). 1839, a like doctrine is also taught
{Quest. 376) in the declaration that such souls as have
departed in faith, but without having had time to bring
forth fruits worthy of repentance, may be aided towards
the attainment of a blessed resurrection by prayers of-
fered in their behalf, especially such as are oifered in
union with the oblation of the bloodless sacrifice of the
Body and Blood of Christ. But the Greek communion
makes no dogmatic provision even for unbaptized in-
fants: it even formally declares that there is no possi-
bility of salvation outside of the Church. It pronounces
all men sinful by nature as wx^li as act, declares all im-
penitent sinners by the invisible judgment of God cut
off from His Church, and consigns them immediately
{Quest. 383) to everlasting death — that is, to everlasting
fire, to everlasting torment, with the devils. No trace
of restitution, whether before the judgment or after,
whether relating to the whole or to any part of mnn-
kind beyond the pale of the Church, any\vhere appears.
What thus finds no recognition in the creeds of Rome
or Constantinople, gains no incidental indorsement from
any representative theologian of either com nninion, from
the age of Scotus Erigena down to our own time. With
DOCTRINE OF THE GREEK CHURCH. 129
all the latitiule of opinion which the Roman Church
especially allows on points not absolutely concluded
by her formal decisions, no conspicuous teacher within
her fold has ever been an open advocate of restoration-
ism in whatever form ; no council or pope has ever
found it necessary to issue an official dictum against it
as a current speculation. The quotations adduced by
Farrar and Phimptre are derived wholly from the first
five centuries ; the former indeed claims that we owe to
the Middle Ages, and to the Scholastic Theology, the
existino; cloffma as to the endlessness of doom, and its
irreversibility after death. But in this particular the
'medieval and the modern Church has done nothing
more than carry out into positive form what was in fact
the belief of the ancient Church also. The opinion
that the dogma of Purgatory was invented to meet a
demand of the religious nature which could not other-
wise be satisfied, is one to which the history of Christian
doctrine furnishes hardly a trace of proof.
But evidence more decisive confronts us, as we turn
from JRoman and Oriental teaching into the broader
field of Protestant belief, to examine
specifically the standard confessions of j,^ ^1,^ eaiUest
the Reformation. — Here again we may Piotostant sjm-
^ -. l)olisin.
carry with us all the force of the an-
cient creeds already considered, since Protestantism for-
mally, again and again, declared its full adherence to
these earlier symbols, with all their implications. Rut
in addition to such inferences, we shall find in these
confessions abundant evidence — as Plumptre admits,
while attributing the fact to what he calls the dark
shadow of Augustine — that no trace of Origenism in
any form found any degree of favor with the Protestant
130 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
party, whether in Germany or Holland or France, or in
the British Isles.
The grand Confession of Augsburg, in which the sym-
bolism of the Reformation takes its rise, recognizes
throughout, in various connections and phrases, the
general Augnstinian doctrine as to the inherited prav-
ity of the race, the guilty and lost condition of man, the
impossibility of salvation (Art. ii) excepting through
the Gospel. It also recognizes (Art. ili) the mediation
of Christ in its true nature as a scheme of reconcilia-
tion and a full atonement not only for original guilt,
but also for all actual sins of men. It further defines
justification through the merits of Christ (Art. iv) as
an event occurring on earth and in time ; and (Art. vii)
associates such justification, and its consequent experi-
ences in the new life, with the historic Church — the
Versammlung aller GUliihigen, to which belong the Word
and the Sacraments. With these statements its defini-
tion (Art. xii) of repentance, as an event occurring in
time, and in view of the Gospel, is in entire harmony.
And finally, in its solemn exposition of the Judgment,
(Art. xvii) it declares that Christ shall raise up all
the dead, and shall give unto the godly and elect eter-
nal life and everlasting joys, but ungodly men and the
devils He shall condemn unto endless torments — id sine
fine crucientur. To this declaration is added the signifi-
cant clause condemning as heretical the Anabaptist:,
who think that to condemned men and the devils there
shall be an end of torments. It is to be observed here,
that the fact that this fixed and unending condition is
described as something subsequent to the judgment, by
no means implies that the condition of condemned men
and devils was changeable before the judgment; the
EARLY PROTESTANT SYMBOLISM. 131
description of the historic error here declared to be un-
tenable, directly precludes this supposition.
jSTothing appears in the Formula of Concord, or the
Catechisms of Luther, or in other minor Lutheran svm-
bols such as the Articles of Smalcald or the Saxon Vis-
itation Articles, A. D. 1592, which is at variance Avith
the creed of Augsburg on this point. The historic po-
sition of Lutheranism in opposition to the notion of
purgatorial purification in the case of imperfect believ-
ers, and to prayers and masses offered for the purpose
of improving the condition of the dead, is from first to
last utterly irreconcilable with the dogma of a GosjdcI
to be proclaimed to mankind in the intermediate state.
Had such a notion found any measure of currency in
that period, it would certainly have been noticed in the
striking commentary in the Formula of Concord, (Art.
ix) on the Descensus ad Inferos. This Article first ad-
verts to the various questions which had arisen with
respect to this phrase; where and how our Lord Jesus
Christ descended into hell; whether this came to pass
before or after his death; whether He descended in soul
only or divinity only, or indeed in soul and body;
whether this came to pass spiritually or corporeally ;
and whether this article is to be referred to the j)assion,
or to the glorious victory and triumph of Christ. Hav-
ing thus stated the current theories and queries, the
Article proceeds to counsel that, inasmuch as the truth
in the case can be comprehended neither by our senses
nor by our reason, but is to be received by faith alone,
it should be believed and taught as simply as possible.^
^" It ought to be enough for us to know that Christ descended
into hell, that He destroyed hell for all believers, and that we
through Him have been snatched from the power of doatli and
Satan, from eternal damnation, and even from the jaws ot hell.
132 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
Had the writers of the Formula had any glimpse of the
modern theory of a salvation after death to be obtained
through the Descensus, they would certainly have made
the fact manifest in this formal statement of conflicting
opinions.
Turning to the Reformed symbolism of the j^eriod,
we are led to the same result. The Zwinglian Articles,
A. D. 1523, while setting forth the Augustinian doctrine
respecting the guilty estate of man and the need of sal-
vation through Christ alone, and the necessity for re-
pentance and faith in this life, directly declare the
Roman dogma of Purgatory — pwgatorium post hanc
vitain — to be without any warrant in the Word of God.
Zwingli indeed refuses to condemn one who, in his so-
licitude for the dead, should oifer supplications to God
on their behalf. He also recognizes the possibility of
the salvation of dying infants, even among the hea-
then, — anticipating thus the modern doctrine that all
infants dying in infancy are saved by Christ through
the sanctifying power of the Spirit. In like manner
he admits that there may be elect persons among the
heathen, who are saved without specific knowledge of
Christ, and ventures the polemic affirmation that the
fate of Socrates and Seneca is better than that of some
among the popes. Yet his own essential doctrine, as
indicated in the Articles, is that Christ is the only way
to salvation for all who were, who are, or who shail
be, — that He is the Head of all believers, and of His
But in wliat way these things have been brought to pass, Ictus
not curiously inquire, but let us reserve the knowledge of this
thing to another world, where not only this mystery, but many
other things which in this life have lieen simply believed by us,
shall be revealed — things whicli exceed the reach of our blind
reason." Form. Cone ; Art. ix. See on this Art. Schaff, Creeds
of Christendom, 1 : 296-8.
TEACHING OF THE REFORMED CREEDS. 133
Church, the true communion of saints on the earth, — •
and that whosoever believes in Him in this life shall
be saved, and whosoever in this life beiieveth not shall
be condemned, since all saving truth is made manifest
to mankind in His Gospel/
The Theses of Berne, A. D. 1526, in like manner
declare that the Scripture knows nothing of a purga-
tory after death, and that all masses and other offices
for the dead are useless. The French or Gallic Con-
fession, A. D. 1559, and the Belgic Confession, A. D.
1561, contain no specific allusions to universalistic res-
titution in whatever form. But their general doctrine
respecting the guilt and doom of humanity without the
Gospel, respecting the Gospel as a divine oifer to men
in this life, and respecting prayers for the dead, are in
entire harmony with the Protestant position as already
described. The Second Helvetic Confession, A.D. 15G6,
declares in general the full allegiance of its adherents to
the orthodox and catholic faith, on these points as on
others, as set forth in the ancient creeds. It also affirms
specifically (Ch. xxv) that the faithful after death go di-
rectly to Christ, and need not the prayers of the living, —
that unbelievers are at death cast into hell, from which
there is no escape, — that the doctrine of purgatory is
opposed to the Scriptures, and to the plenary expiation
and cleansing through Christ. It further (Ch. xii) con-
demns as heretics those who teach the ultimate salva-
tion of all the godless; and in various phrases and con-
nections limits salvation distinctly to earth and time.
The Heidelberg Catechism, A. D. 1563, which has
commanded such general respect as a calm, catholic,
^ For the exceptional position of Zwingli respecting the heathen,
see Schaff: Creeds, &c., 1 : 382-4. Also, Doknek, Hlsi. Prot. TluoL,
Sect. II : Ch. i.
134 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
spiritual formulary of belief, falls into line at these
points with the antecedent Reformed confessions. While
it has no occasion to repeat what they had so often de-
clared respecting purgatory and prayers for the dead,
its doctrinal teachings clearly preclude not only this, but
every other form of universalism in the application of
grace. It affirms (Ans. 7) that our nature became so cor-
rupt through our first parents that we are all conceived
and born in sin, and (9) that God is terribly displeased
with our inborn as well as actual sins, and will punish
them in just judgment in time and in eternity; and also
(10) that His justice requires that all sin, being commit-
ted against His most high majesty, shall be punished
with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of
both body and soul. It presents (21) the Gospel as a
present remedy for sin, and one to be at once embraced ;
and (29-30) sets forth Christ as the only Savior, in
whom men have all that is necessary to their salvation.
It teaches (103) that believers are by the working of
the Spirit to grow into all practical holiness on the
earth, and are thus to begin in this life the everlasting
Sabbath ; and that at last (52) Christ is to cast all His
and their enemies into everlasting condemnation, and
to take all His chosen ones to Himself, into heavenly
joy and glory. The process of grace, as here sketched,
is described throughout as a process begun and carried
forward in time: no hint o^ a. post mortem salvation ap-
pears at any point.
^yithout recurring to other continental symbols of
this period, we may close this portion of our survey
with a brief reference to the Canons of the Synod of
Dort, A. D. 1619, in which what has been already stated
receives emphatic indorsement. In this final symbol
(Cap. ii), the rich and immediate promise of the Gospel
EARLY BRITISH SYMBOLISM. 135
is said to be offerer!, together with the command to re-
pent and believe, to all nations and to all men without
distinction, wherever the Word of God is proclaimed.
But the command and the offer are represented as made
to men in this life, so that the elect in due time may
be gathered together into the one Church of Christ on
earth. The fact that this memorable Synod was con-
vened, not so much to set forth the evangelical faith in
general as to define the five specific tenets in contro-
versy between the Calvinistic and the Arminian parties
within the common Protestantism, adds special empha-
sis to its incidental references to the true nature of the
Gospel as a scheme of grace provided for mankind, not
in the intermediate state, but on the earth. We find in
it no trace or recognition of the universalism of Origen,
or any other type of restorationist opinion, as either per-
missible in thought or current in fact. — In a word, all
of the long series of early continental creeds, both Lu-
theran and Reformed, from the Confession of Augsburg
down to the Canons of Dort, bear but one and the same
testimony: from first to last, they decisively exclude the
doctrine of Dorner and Nitzsch and Van Oosterzee, and
their English and American allies, from the circle of
evangelical faith.
The same conclusion will be reached upon a careful
survey of British symbolism from the first Scotch Con-
fession, A. D. 1560, down to the era of the ,, ^ ^.
' ' V. Testimony
symbols of Westminster. — The Scotch of earUer British
Confession declares (Art. in) that deith sj-^boiism.
everlasting hcs had, and sail have power an dominioun
over all that have not been, ar not, or sal not be re-
generate from above; quhilk regeneratioun is wrochtbe
the power of the holie Gost, working in the hartei of
13G THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
the elect of God anc assured faith in the promise of
God, reveiled to us in his word, be quhilk faith we ap-
prehend Christ Jesus, with the graces and benefites
promised in him. After having set forth on this foun-
dation the essential doctrines of religion, including es-
pecially the person, offices and passion of our Lord, and
the ministries and fruits of the Spirit as seen in the
good works of believers, the Confession goes on (Art,
xvii) to declare that, having lived out the Christian life
on earth, the Elect departed are in peace and rest fra
their labours : Not that they sleep, and come to a cer-
taine oblivion, as some Phautastickes do affirme: bot
that they are delivered fra all feare and torment, and
all temptatioun : As contrariwise the reprobate and un-
faithfull departed have anguish, torment and jjaine that
can not be expressed : Sa that nouther are the ane nor
the uther in sik sleep that they feele not joy or tor-
ment. In Art. XXV. on the gifts and issues of grace, we
have like declarations as to the relation of religion in
this life to the state of the soul after death, and espe-
cially at and after the final judgment. The Second
Scotch Confession, A. D. 1580, in its terrific denunci-
ation of all kynde of Papistrie in general and particu-
lar headis, enumerates as special subjects of reprobation
not only His cruell judgement againis infants departing
without the sacrament, but also His divilish messe, His
prophane sacrifice for the sinnis of the deade and the
quicke, His purgatory, prayers for the deade, and other
kindred errors. Both symbols are alike incapable of
any interpretation which would involve a recognition
of any form of salvation durins: the intermediate state.
The question respecting the teaching of Anglican sym-
bolism is one of special interest in view of the claim
broadly asserted by Farrar and Maurice, that one who
EARLY SCOTCH AND ENGLISH CREEDS 137
avows himself an adherent of the Church of England,
may still hold and teach the dogma of post mortem pro-
bation, or even of the final salvation of all men, in the
full sense and scope maintained by Origen, The nnswer
to this claim must be found in a careful examination
of the Thirty-Nine Articles, especially in their relation
to the formulary of Edward YI, A. D. 1553. This pre-
liminary symbol contained forty-two Articled of Relig-
ion, and of these the last three were omitted in what
became under Elizabeth and still remains the authori-
tative confession of Episcopacy, British and American.
The first and second of these omitted Articles^ related
to the error of Psychopannychism, and of the Mil-
lennarians, and have no special significance in this con-
nection. The reason for their omission may possibly
be found in the decline of the heresies which they
were designed to controvert, or perhaps in the current
conviction that their insertion in such a general or
national confession of belief was needless. The final
Article declares that those also are worthy of condem-
nation who endeavor at this time to restore the dan-
gerous opinion that all men, be they never so ungodly,
shall at length be saved, when they have suffered pains
for their sins a certain time appointed by divine jus-
tice.
^Art. XL. They which say that the souls of such as depart hence,
do sleep, being without all sense, feeling or perceiving, until the
day of judgment; or aflTirm that the souls die with the bodies,
and at the last day shall l)e raised up with the same, do utterly
dissent from the right belief, declared to us in holy Scripture.
Art. xLi. They that go al)out to renew the fable of heretics
called Millenarii, be repugnant to holy Scrijjture, and cast them-
selves headlong into a Jewish dotage.
For the complete text of the Forty-Two Articles, see Liturgies of
Edward VI; Darker Soc. Pub.
138 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
Can the omission of this Article, during the reign
of Elizabeth, nine years later, be construed as a silent
admission into the circle of allowable beliefs, of what
had been characterized in the Article itself as a dan-
gerous opinion? Condemning the dogma of universal
salvation as applied merely to those who are called the
ungodly, can its scope be so broadened as to include
the salvation of all the heathen, and can its omission
justify the conclusion that purgatorial sufferings are to
be utilized by God for the universal restoration of hu-
manity? Opposing as it does the notion of a possible
improvement of the ungodly after a time, through penal
sufferings, can such omission be interpreted as a recog-
nition of the hope that all mankind are finally to be
saved, not through purgation, but through the Gospel?
It is true that in the Third Article of this creed it is
said respecting Christ, that his ghost departing from
Him was with the ghosts that are in prison or in Hell,
and did preach to the same — illisque predicavit; but the
object of this preaching is not at all described, Avhile
in other Articles the mediatorial work of Christ is rep-
resented as occurring specifically on the earth. Prayers
and masses for the dead are forbidden, on the only
ground possible, — that the estate of the dead is fixed
and changeless: and the papal dogma of purgatory is
directly denounced as a fond thing vainly feigned and
grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but rather re-
])ugnant to the word of God. In view of such evi-
dences, the inference that the omission of this Article
involves a recognition of Origenism in any form, can
not be justified.
Turning directly to the Thirty-Nine Articles, we shall
find it by no means difficult to see that they afford no
real shelter for such Origenism. The condemnation of
THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 139
purgatory, the prohibition of prayers for the dead,
(Art. xxii) remain in them, as in the formulary of
Edward VI; masses in the which the priest Mas said
to offer Christ for the quick and the dead, (Art. xxxi)
are declared to be blasphemous fables and dangerous
deceits. The clause in the older creed respecting the
preaching of Christ to the spirits in prison, (Art. iii)
is significantly omitted.^ The guilt and condemnation
of men, although they be diligent to frame their lives
by the law, or the light of nature, are (Art. xviii)
solemnly affirmed. The name of Jesus Christ is said to
be the only name whereby man can be saved, and the
acceptance of salvation through Him is set forth as the
first, the immediate duty of all mankind. The judg-
ment of all by Christ at the last day (Art. iv) is di-
rectly declared, and on that judgment eternal issues are
said to impend. In no particular, wdiether by dcc-
"laration or by silence, can it justly be held that these
Articles leave room for the dogma of a Gospel beyond
the "grave. In spirit if not in form, the teaching of
the forty-second Art. of Edward still abides as the ac-
cepted doctrine of the Anglican communion : Those are
worthy of condemnation who endeavor at this time to
restore or to introduce the dangerous opinion, that men
are to be saved after death, Avhcther through pain and
suffering inflicted by divine justice; or through the proc-
lamation of a salvation to be realized somewhere in
eternity.
With these teachings, the Anglican Catechism, A. D.
^If the omission of the xlii. Art. of Edward YI. is to be con-
strued as a tacit admission of the universalism which that Art.
condemned, why is not the omission of tlie reference to the
preaching of Christ to tlie spirits in prison, a proof tliat the later
thought of the Church had set aside that interpretation ?
140 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
1549, and the Lambeth Articles, A. D. 1595, are in full
harmony. The Catechism associates repentance and faith
and the new life which the believer is required to lead
on earth, directly with the sacraments and ordinances
of the earthly Church ; so that no one can well believe
that repentance and faith and their consequents can oc-
cur hereafter, without believing also that the Church as
an institution, with its sacraments and instrumentalities,
exists substantially in the intermediate state as truly as
in the present life. We are also earnestly instructed to
pray, not only that God would keep us from all sin and
wickedness in the present life, but that He would pre-
serve lis from our ghostly enemy, and from everlasting
deatli. The Lambeth Articles though devoted specially
to the propounding of the dogma of predestination, dis-
tinctly represent the divine act of predestination as un-
folding itself within the present life and nowhere else,
— the number of the predestinated, the condemnation of
the reprobate, the exercise of saving faith, justification,
and perseverance, all being experiences realized historic-
ally on the earth and among men. And in the same tem-
per the sure and necessary damnation of men at death,
in view of their earthly impenitence and unbelief, is de-
cisively affirmed, even to the extreme of reprobation.
The L'ish Articles of Religion, dated A. D. 1615, and
bearing the imprima'tur of the learned and venerable
Archbishop Ussher, are in still wider contrast with the
(conception of a Gospel to be preached after death. Not
merely at the point of the divine decrees, but as to the
full and the guilty estate of man before justification, and
to the nature of justification, and its proper application
in the present life, these Articles distinctly and impera-
tively rule out this false hope. Their doctrine of faith,
of sanctification, of the fear and service of God, contem-
TEE IRISH ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 141
plates all these, not as experiences possible in a future
state, but as experiences to be attained and verified on
earth. The New Testament (83) is a message full of
grace and truth, bringing joyful tidings unto mankind;
and on the manner in which mankind receive that mes-
sage in this world, (31) their eternal condition is repre-
sented as depending. It is said (101) that after this life
is ended, the souls of believers be presently received
into heaven, there to enjoy unspeakable comforts, while
the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, there to en-
dure endless torments. And it is decisively added (102)
that the doctrine of the Church of Rome concerning
Limbus Patrum, Limbus Puerorum, Purgatory, Prayer
for the Dead, ... is vainly invented, without
all warrant of Holy Scripture : yea, and is contrary
unto the same. This strong and clear symbol is thus
in entire concord with the Thirty-Nine Articles, and in-
deed with the body and substance of the best Anglican
Theoloffv from the era of the Reformation down to our
own time.^
^ See Spirits in Prison : app. on the Wider Hope in English The-
ology. Professor Plumptre here gathers up diligently the some-
what scant evidences of universalistic opinion, to be found in the
Cambridge Platonists, in Jeremy Taylor, in Tillotson and Burnet,
and eminently in Bishop Butler, whom lie seems especially desir-
ous to claim. In each case, and conspicuously in that of Butler,
the proof is palpably insufficient. The argument is largely one
from silence, or from possible inference, rather than direct quota-
tion. The attempt to identify Butler with restorationism will seem
strange indeed to those who are familiar with his profound rea-
fionings respecting punishment, and even future and eternal pun-
ishment, as a necessary doctrine of Natural Theology. Careful
examination of the Analogij will make clear to any one the convic-
tion that, while the nature of his discussion rendered it needless
for that great author to say nmch on the topic here in question,
tlie principles laid down by him imperatively rule out the dogma
142 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
The position of the Confession and Catechisms of
Westminster as a final consummation of the long series
VI. Testimony ^^ crccds Originating in the Reforma-
of the Symbols of tlon, ov flowcring forth from it, justifies
Westminster. ^ i i • /> • ^ j , i
the laying ot special stress upon the
teaching of these Presbyterian symbols in the matter
under discussion. — It may be added that, while they
were the substantial embodiment of the Reformed Con-
fessions and Articles which had preceded them in time,
they were also in themselves more comprehensive and
elaborate, and on many matters of this class more defi-
nite and authoritative. Their wide acceptation also,
not only in the British Isles, but in many other lands,
and their present prominence as representing the belief
of a very wide section of Protestantism, may be re-
garded as adding special significance and value to their
declarations.
Respecting the fallen estate of man, and his need of
such a remedy as the Gospel during the present life,
these symbols are both distinct and emphatic. Like the
Irish Articles, from which indeed they largely sprang,
they teach that God regards the race as sinful and in a
deep sense guilty even before actual transgression, and
in a still deeper sense sinful and guilty after actual
transgression commences. They declare, not merely
that the rejection of Christ and His grace is the crown-
ing sin of humanity, but also (Ch. xv: 4) that there is
no sin of man so small but it deserves damnation. In
the Chapter on the Law of God (xix) we are taught
that the Law can only convict and condemn even the
most virtuous of mankind : and elsewhere (x: 4. L. C.
of a Gospel after deatli. It is hardly credible tliat such a belief
had any place in his thought. — See Farrah, Eternal Hope: Excur-
sus I.
THE WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS. 143
93-96) that those Avho be ever so diligent to frame their
lives according to the light of nature — at least where
such persons have the opportunity of knowing the his-
toric Christ — can not be saved. It is said further, (ix:
3) that man by his fall has lost all ability of will to any
spiritual good accompanying, or involving or bringing
with it, salvation ; and that, even where the knowledge
of the historic Christ has been received, (x: 1-2) men
will never embrace Him without the gracious ministra-
tion and aid of the Holy Spirit. All mankind are said
(L. C. 27-29) to be even by nature children of wrath,
slaves to Satan, under the divine displeasure, and liable
to punishment.
On this ground, the Gospel is to be everywhere set
forth, under the Christian dispensation, as the only and
the effectual remedy for the sins of the world, (vii: 6)
and as a remedy applicable on earth, and worthy to be
proclaimed in its fullness, evidence, and spiritual effi-
cacy, to all the nations of men. Christ is also described,
(viii: 1, 6) as a Mediator for our humanity, and his me-
diation as an event occurring in time, (L. C. 59) and
manifesting its efficacy in time. So in the Chapters
following, (x-xv) effi?ctual calling, justification, adop-
tion, sanctification, saving faith, repentance unto life,
are described as experiences to be obtained, not here-
after, but here — in this present state of grace and pro-
bation. The notion that mankind are innocent until
they have manifested their moral disposition by the
conscious rejection of Christ and his Gospel, and the
consequent notion that this Gospel must be made the
instrument of a gracious probation hereafter to all those
■svho die in ignorance of it, are thus alike decisively ex-
cluded : they can not possibly be harmonized with the
Westminster teaching.
144 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
In like manner death is represented in these symbols
as a final and decisive experience, terminating once for
all the opportunity of grace. They exclude the notion
of conditional immortality, an immortality not belong-
ing to the natural man but received through grace, by
the assertion (vi : 2) that man is made in the image of
God, with a reasonable and immortal soul; and by the
declaration in connection with death (xxxii: 1) that
the soul after death, having an immortal subsistence,
immediately returns to God who gave it. They also,
in the same chapter, exclude the notion of an uncon-
scious slumber of the soul during the intermediate state,
by tlic direct affirmation tliat the soul at death neither
dies nor sleeps, — is not unconscious, but active in in-
telligence and feeling, and fitted every way to its new
sphere and state of unending being. What that state
and sphere are, we are taught in the further declara-
tion, that the souls of the righteous are received at
once into the highest heavens, where they behold the
face of God in light and glory, and where they wait for
the full redemption of their bodies ; also, that the souls
of the wicked are at death cast into hell, where they
remain in torments and utter darkness — reserved to the
judgment of the great day ; L. C. 85-6 : S. C. 37.
These expressions certainly imply absolute changeless-
ness in the two conditions thus graphically described;
and tlie biblical texts quoted in confirmation are capa-
ble of no other interpretation. But the Confession still
further puts the question at rest by the direct state-
ment, primarily intended to exclude the Romish error
as to purgatory, but in fact shutting out hardly less
conclusively the opinion here discussed ; that besides
these two places for souls separated from their bodies,
the Scripture acknowledgeth none.
THEIR PARTICULAR TEACHINGS. 145
The langu.ago of these symbols (xxxiii: 1-2) in re-
gard to the commitment of all judgment unto Christ,
to His second visible coming to the earth at the end
of the world (viii : 4) in order to execute judgment,
and to the nature and issues of that judgment through-
out an unending eternity, is in full harmony Avith these
strong declarations. That there is to be no Gospel for-
evermore, among the unrighteous dead on whom the
verdict of the judgment has been j) renounced, is very
clear. Over against the vitam ceternam indicated in the
creed of Nicsea, stands the ignem ceternnm described with
such solemnity in that ancient symbol ; and unchancje-
ableness and absolute endlessness are to be affirmed of
the fire that punishes, exactly as they are affirmed of
the life of the just — full, glorious, everlasting. It is
also said, not that men are judged according to decis-
ions respecting Christ which they may have reached
during their intermediate condition, but (xxxiii : 1)
in the very phrase of Paul, according to what they have
done in the body, — their acts and dispositions in this
life beino; the final and the decisive test. We are in-
deed taught that this judgment is to be just and dis-
criminating, and even tender, — each soul giving account
of itself, and being estimated equitably according to its
own deeds, light, opportunity while in this state of pro-
bation. The popular fancy of an indiscriminate assign-
ment of all classes and conditions of men, the ignorant
and young, infants and heathen, equally with the most
enliij-htened and obstinate transgressors, to one and the
same form and degree of suffering and penalty, is care-
fully ruled out by these symbols, as it is also repugnant
to our moral feeling and contrary to Scripture. But
the absolute changelessness of the estate to which that
judgment assigns each soul, whatever its relative grade
146 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
of guilt or desert, is as fully affirmed here as it is in
the Word of God. We see through the solemn light
of that sublime scene nothing resembling a change in
the character or condition of humanity forever and for-
ever. We are therefore taught (L. C. 90) that after
this event the mediation of grace ceases finally, and
Christ, in the terse phrase of the Irish Articles (104)
shall deliver up the kingdom to his Father, and God
shall be all in all, — not in the sense of having actually
saved all mankind either through the Gospel or without
it, but in the ultimate sense of having His equitable
sway established eternally, alike -over the holy and the
lost.
In respect to children dying in infancy, and all other
persons described as being incapable of being outwardly
called by the preaching of the Word, the Westminster
Confession (x : 3) declares that they are regenerated and
saved by Christ through the Spirit who worketh when
and where and how he pleaseth. This declaration is
indeed limited to elect infants, or the children of true
believers, but this limitation is not to be construed into
an affirmation that the children of others than believers
are eternally lost. The compilers of this well poised
creed were probably not prepared to make any declara-
tion on this broader point; they were wisely silent on
a problem where the light of Scripture seemed to be dim,
and where they perhaps could not have agreed among
themselves. They were in fact answering, as the Synod
of Dort had answered before them, an accusation
broadly urged against the Calvinistic party, as we learn
from the Conclusion appended to the Canons of Dort, to
the effect that they held that many children of the faith-
ful arc torn, guiltless, from the breasts of their mothers,
and tyrannically plunged into hell, notwithstanding their
THE SALVATION OF ELECT INFANTS. 147
baptism and the prayers of the Church iu their behalf.
It was in reply to this monstrous charge, that the Synod
(Cap. i: Art. 17) testified that the children of believers
are holv, not bv nature, but in virtue of the covenant
of grace, in which they together with their parents are
comprehended ; and that godly parents have no reason
to d(Hibt of the election and salvation of their children
whom it plcaseth God to call out of this life in their
infancy. Thirty years afterward, the Assembly of West-
minster, in the same spirit, and in view doubtless of
like allegations current in Britain as on the continent,
made their cognate declaration as to elect infants, — ap-
pending to it the delicate allusion to other persons —
not pagans, but imbeciles and insane — who are incapable
of being outwardly called.
It should be freely admitted that this language, thus
historically interpreted, does not solve the broader prob-
lem. It is also to be admitted that many Calvinistic
divines of that period, and of the century following,
went, so far as to affirm positively the damnation of in-
fants not born within the covenant of grace. But it is
obvious that, whether the Assembly limited this phrase
absolutely to the offspring of elect parents, or included
in it, as some of them doubtless did, others chosen and
set apart by the gracious wisdom of God unto salva-
tion, they agreed in teaching that, through the medi-
atorial work of Christ made available iu their behalf,
such children were — not merely given a chance to hear
of Him and possibly believe on Him in a future state, —
but the rather graciously led forth into the immortal
life as sanctified soids from the outset, to be divinely
trained by methods unknown to us into perfection of
character like that of Christ himself The declaration
that the Holy Spirit worketh when and where and how
148 TEE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
He pleaseth, "was doubtless intended to indicate that
mysterious process by which such little ones are cleansed
in the very article of death from all pollution of their
nature, tenderly biased toward holiness as our first
parents were, and thus fitted at once, not for a proba-
tion in eternity, but for a holy and blessed residence
with the Lord forevermore.
Such is the current belief of nearly all Avho now ad-
here to these careful, balanced, profound, spiritual
symbols. Protestantism of this type does not accept
the bare notion that what is done fi)r infants dying in
infancy, is simply to let them grow into conscious re-
sponsibility in the intermediate state, so that at some
time in that future condition they may consider and
decide the question of character for themselves. Exist-
ing Calvinism rather holds a far higher view, — that by
processes deeper than conscious volition, and antecedent
to all moral choices, such children are saved at death,
even before responsible action commences, and so enter
upon a life not of option and testing, but of holiness
instant and above all change.^ And it is not an un-
warrantable stretch of such current belief, to express
the hope that all infants dying in pagan as well as in
Christian lands — a vast multitude, constituting a large
majority of the human race, are thus saved through the
Spirit from the sting of spiritual death, and are set
^On the proper interpretation of this clause see Mitchell, TFesi,
Assembly, p. 397. Also, jis to the historic position of Presbyterian-
ism, HomjE, Theol. ; Vol. iii ; ()05. Also, Krauth, Canservalive
!!(/., p. 434, for the narrower interpretation. Poem of Rev. IMichael
AVijr^lesworth, Ihii/ of Doom, published A. D. l(iG2, in whicli the
ilaiiniation of infants not elect is defended. See also Presbyterian
Review, April, 1887, on the AVestminster doctrine as to the Salva-
tion of Infants— an interestiu<^ historical exposition, yet incon-
clusive on the main ix)int.
STATE OF THE PAGAN WORLD. 149
forth in the immortal life from the outset under in-
fluences and conditions which permit the development
of their sanctified nature into immediate perfection,
without any thing resembling what we call probation.
Respecting the state and prospects of the pagan world,
these symbols justify indeed but slight affirmation. We
are faithfully taught that the condition of man by nat-
ure is one of condemnation, and that there is for man
in any part of the world no salvation except in Christ.
But for the dead, we are forbidden (L. C. 185) to oifer
prayer; supplication for those who have committed the
sin against the Holy Ghost, even while such persons are
alive, is also forbidden. But prayer is enjoined in the
same sentence, in the broadest form, for all other sorts
of men living, or that shall live hereafter; — for the
overthrow of the kingdom of sin and Satan, (L. C. 191)
and the propagation of the Gospel throughout the
whole world. The kingdom of grace, in contrast with
the kingdom of Satan, is (S. C. 102) to become univer-
sal ; and Christ is yet to reign (L. C 53) over all the
heathen races, subduing our humanity unto Himself.
The breadth and sweep of the Westminster teachings
in regard to the historic growth, ecumenical relations,
and ultimate universality of the Gospel, have too often
in the interest of partisan interpretations been sadly
ignored. Over against the limiting doctrine of election,
the Confession and Catechisms carefully place in clear
antithesis, the consummating doctrine of a Gospel for
man as man, the world over. Yet we are nowhere
taught that the mediatorial work of Christ extends be-
yond the boundaries of the present life. The inter-
pretation of the phrase, He descended into hell (L. C.
50) as signifying simply that He continued in the state
of the dead, and under the power of death, is conclusive
150 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
against the opinion that He went into Hades, there to
institute another Gospel or anotlicr dispensation, for
those who had not heard of Him in the present life.
Beyond these suggestions tlic symbols leave the prob-
lem of the pagan world, with all its perplexities, sub-
stantially where the New Testament leaves it, — mean-
while enjoining upon all believers the duty of laboring
and praying steadfastly for that great, sad world as if it
really were lost.
A brief glanc? at somo of the more recent creeds and
confessions of evaugclical Christendom may serve still
further to confirm the conclusion al-
of more Modern roady iu vicw. — Tlic Savoy Confession,
Symboiis.«. ,^_ jy jp^-g^ ^^,^g j^gj.^^ ^^ l^^^^ll iniportant
elements of doctrine, identical with the Symbols of West-
minster, and must be interpreted as a further affirma-
tion of the same position on this point as on others.
Th3 Waldcnsian Confession, A. D. 1655, presents the
same view of humanity as corrupted and condemned
through the fall, and of the plan of salvation as a reme-
dial scheme applicable on earth and iu time. The im-
pressive Litany of the Moravian Communion, A. D.
1749, representing the best belief as well as experience,
of continental Protestantism in the next century, suggests
no other teaching, even by remote implication. The
Methodist Articles of Religion, A. D. 1784, which at
many points follow so closely the Anglican Articles,
agree with these in denouncing purgatory, with its asso-
ciated errors, as a fond tiling vainly invented, and
grounded on no warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to
the Word of God. They also declare the sacrifice of
masses for the dead to be a blasphemous fable and dan-
gerous deceit. In their descriptions of the Gospel, they
MORE MODERN SYMBOLISM. 151
adhere closely to the conceptions and also to the language
current in Protestantism from the era of the Augsburg
Confession ; justification, good works, repentance, salva-
tion by grace, are all described in them as events of
earth and time.
What the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries thus
agree in holding, the evangelical symbols of our own
time. Continental, British, American, without an ex-
ception corroborate. Critical study of these formula-
ries of existing faith will make it manifest to every
mind, that the dogma of salvation after death has no
more actual warrant in them, though it be less directly
eliminated or condemned, than the Roman dogma of
purgatory. The hope that the Gospel is preached or is
to be preached in the other world, is, thougli less for-
mally yet as truly precluded in them, as are prayers
or the saying of masses for the dead. The claim that
this hope is not contra-confessional is therefore one
which it seems, in view of these testimonies, impossi-
ble for the candid mind to admit : the plea that it is
extra-confessional is hardly less invalid, when consid-
ered in the convergent light shed on the great problems
of the future by recent as well as by the older canons of
belief. Origenism, in a word, has no more place in the
symbolism of modern or current than of ancient Chris-
tianity. Whether it be in itself true or false, there can
be little doubt that the consensus of the creeds of all
the ages is decisively against it.
Nor can the argument derived from these symbolic
testimonies be impaired by describing this dogma as a
historic opinion, an allowable affirmation, so far cur-
rent and accepted within the Church, as to render con-
fessional condemnation impracticable; or as so slight and
incidental a speculation as to call for no formal recog-
152 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
nition from the Church. The first defense can not be
justified from the records of Christian history in either
earlier or later times. For while individual minds iiere
or there, from Origen down to Dorner, have held this
dogma, the decisive fact is that no branch of the Church
of God lias ever held or countenanced it as an integral
factor in its organic belief. And the reason for this fact
is surely not to be found in the theory that the Church
has been afraid, in view of the currency gained by the
dogma, to express the condemnation which it has been
constrained at heart to cherish. The second defense is
equally untenable. For, if the dogma were true and
were sufficiently verified, it could never have been re-
garded by the Church as slight or insignificant. I^ong
ere this, its tremendous implications would have been
found spreading their cancerous roots through the en-
tire organism of Christian belief: its sweeping demands
would have carried with them sooner or later a recon-
struction of Christian theology at a hundred points.
If the Church has refused to give this dogma confes-
sional recognition, it must therefore be for some other
reason than that it is nothing more than a slight, the-
oretic, uninfluential speculation.
If it be said that this opinion is altogether modern,
and is not recognized in Christian Symbolism because
it is a })roduct of the present age, a new discovery and
evolution of divine truth, then the plea of its chief
English advocates must be altogether abandoned, and
the opinion be frankly confessed to be a novelty un-
known hitherto to historic Christendom. But in this
view another strong presumj)tion is at once raised
against it on the general ground, that what has not
been discovered by Christian theology for eighteen
centuries is not likely to be true, and on the specific
CONCLUDIXG VIEW. 150
ground that Christian Synibolism, if it has not con-
demned the error itself, has on one side openly con-
demned other errors clearly cognate with it, and on
the other has positively affirmed a series of beliefs
which are in visible and irreconcilable antagonism
with it. Were the dogma scripturally and philosoph-
ically sound, it is hardly conceivable that it should
not have gained symbolic recognition ere this : the
resolute refusal of the creeds of Christendom to own
relationship wdth it, or stretch their protecting wings
over it, is surely a distinct and swift witness against
its legitimacy and its worth.
Terminating at this point our cursory survey in this
broad field, the I'esults may be summed up in the fol-
lowing conclnsions :
That the dogma of a salvation after death, to be
secured through the oflPering of Christ and the procla-
mation of the Gospel in His name to infants and im-
becile persons, to the heathen nations, to all who have
not adequately heard of the Redeemer in this life, is
one which has gained recognition in no creed of Chris-
tendom, from the earliest ages dovv^n to our own time :
That the failure to obtain such recognition can not
be explained, either on the theory that this dogma is a
mere speculation of insufficient importance to be noted
in any creed, or on the theory that it has always been
an allowable opinion, so harmless or so nearly accurate
and sound, as to call for no confessional condemnation :
That in fact, by strong protest against kindred forms
of error, by direct implication, by the assertion of posi-
tive truths and doctrines entirely incongruous witli this
dogma or hostile to it, and in other kindred ways, the
symbolism of the Church, ancient and modern, Greek
154 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
and Roman and Protestant, has arrayed itself distinctly
and invariably against this opinion :
That a distinct growth of doctrine may be recognized
in this snrvoy of the Christian canons of belief, not to-
ward this opiui.m, but obviously and strongly against
it; and that it is from Protestantism, and Protestant-
ism in its most elevated and spiritual forms, that the
doirnia receives its most decisive condemnation :
And finally, that the attempt to introduce this dogma
into the accepted creeds of Christendom would require
not only a reconstruction of these creeds at many vital
points, but in fact an abandonment or extensive mod-
ification of some of their most essential doctrines, — a
new theology thus growing into confessional form, not
by the development and expansion of preceding con-
fessions, but on their ruins, or through such revolution-
ary transmutations as would leave but little else tlian
the fragments of the Old Faith.
CHAPTER V.
THE WITNESS OE CHRISTIAN THEOIOGY.
Two other tests of the dogma of Salvation after Death
remain to be considered, — that which is drawn from a
careful study of this dogma in the light thrown upon
it from Christian Theology ; and that Avhich may be
derived from the broad field of Christian experience.
AVhile the tests of Scripture, specific and general, and
of historic Symbolism, as already presented, are indeed
quite sufficient to justify the rejection of this dogma as
an article of Christian belief, that rejection may be
made yet more prompt and more imperative, if we sub-
ject it to these further forms of testing. In the pres-
ent chapter, only the first of these will be introduced —
the witness of Christian Theology.
Two very diverse positions are assumed at this point
by the advocates of the dogma in question. The first
describes it as a mere sentiment, a simple speculation,
a problem in exegesis, an allowable form of opinion,
but sometliing of small theologic moment, unimportant
in its influence on religious thought as well as action,
and quite admissible as a simple theory into the large
circle of incidental and unconfessional beliefs. The sec-
ond describes it rather as the foremost premonition or
manifestation of a new theology, — having in itself vast
revolutionary power, and destined to exert a strong
formative influence on the opinions and teachings of
the Church of God henceforth. The characteristic feat-
ures of the new theology which is to be reared on this
(155)
156 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
basis are definitely given : the necessity for it is strongly
affirmed, and its growth and success in the near future
are said to be assured. It is to be a theolofjv of reason
rather than dogma, and eminently of intuition rather
than logic, — a theology in which an original mode of
interpreting Scripture is to figure largely, and the Bible
is to be studied and expounded as a literature, rather
than in the technical methods now current, — a theology
in which less is to be made of the individual soul, and
more of the race, and in which the natural sciences and
the wider study of man, and what is vaguely described
as the religion of humanity, are somehow to be utilized
in working out a large and beneficent reconstruction of
all existing dogmas, — a theology in which eminently a
new and fresh and rational eschatology, including espe-
cially this dogma of post mortem probation and salvation,
is to be a central and even crowning characteristic.
Of these two descriptions there is reason for believing
that the second expresses much more nearly the essen-
tial fact. It requires indeed but slight observation to
perceive that, from the nature of the case, this opinion
can never hide itself permanently in the cloister or the
school, as a mere speculation, — that, at least in such a
country as this, it must cither live an evanescent life as
one among the thousand fanciful notions current among
us, or assume practical form, and claim the right both
to regulate thought, and to influence the practical ac-
tivities of the Church. Nor can any one easily doubt
that a full acceptance of this dogma as a practical opin-
ion, must and will carry with it very wide, even revolu-
tionary, changes in the current dogmatic belief and teach-
ing. Once admitted as a Christian doctrine, securely
established on scriptural and philosophic grounds, that
dogma wouM at length compel, as we have indeed al-
FUTURE PROBATION AND ORTHODOXY. 157
ready discovered in our survey of existing Symbolism,
a thorough reconstruction of the great fabric of Chris-
tian Theology at almost every cardinal point— the char-
acter and plan and methods of God, moral government
and sin and guilt, the mission of Christ and the scheme
of grace, the idea as well as the range of salvation,
all demanding together such definition and readjust-
ment as shall bring them into harmonious conjunction
around this new constructive and determining principle.
In approaching this branch of the subject under dis-
cussion, the more general relations of this ojjinion to
what mav be termed Christian Ortho-
-, „ ■ , , . , . I. General Re-
doxy, nrst demand our consideration. — lations of tins
Here we are at once confronted by the Dogma to ciuis-
•^ tian Orthodoxy.
positive and earnest claim to orthodoxy
of those who represent this dogma. The Continental
school, whose chief representatives are found in Mar-
tcnsen and Dorner, may indeed be said to have had
this claim in some fashion admitted, — at least so far as
this, that its teaching, v.'hilc failing to secure any ex-
tensive acceptance, has never yet called forth any form
of ecclesiastical or popular condemnation. In Germany
the doirma has indeed retained the character of a the-
ologic hypothesis or an exegetical riddle, to an extent
Avhich would be impossible in any other country, and
for this reason has had little occasion to face the ques-
tion whether it can by any possibility be harmonized
with those clear and strong symbols which have come
down to the German Church as its choicest heritage
from the Reformation. The English school has in-
sisted tenaciously on a decided harmony between its
teaching and the Thirty-Nine Articles, — claiming espe-
cially that, by the omission of the forty-second Article
158 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
from the Creed of Edward YI., room was distinctly
made for the opinion which it advocates. Notwith-
standing the opposite opinion of leading minds in the
Established Chnrch, and the adverse decisions of En-
glish ecclesiastical courts, this claim is still, even pas-
sionately, urged. Unofficial indorsement by prominent
divines, from Cudworth and Jeremy Taylor down to
men still living, is also claimed with a degree of confi-
dence hardly justified by the somewhat scant evidences
adduced.^
The Am.erican school has sought like immunity in
the presence of kindred difficulties. The phrase. Pro-
gressive Orthodoxy, has been specially selected by some
of its leading representatives, as an accurate description
of their special tenet, when studied in its relationship
to existing orthodox thought. The new dogma, with
its cognate opinions and suggestions, is alleged to be in
no sense a retrocession backward or downward, or even
a departure at any angle however slight from the his-
toric, evangelical fiith. They affirm it rather to be
simply a forward and upward movement along the lines
of what has already been received and accepted as the
Christian belief — a movement which does not subvert
at any point the foundations of the faith, but which
the rather carries the acknowledged principia of Chris-
tian belief on toward new, legitimately inferential and
spiritually important results. Another representative
writer first defines orthodoxy as the continuous histor-
ical development of the doctrine of Jesus and his disci-
ples; and then claims to be in the direct line of such
development, even while putting himself in distinct oppo-
1 ]\Iaurice, Theol Essays, Concluskin. Fakhar, Eternal Hope,
Preface. Plumptke, Spirits in Frison: App. The Wider Hope in
English Theology.
IS THE DOGMA ORTHODOX? 159
sition to this doctrine as now cherished by tlie Church,
on points as vital as the character and government
of God, the atonement, the work of the Spirit, the judg-
ment and retribution. And still another insists on
defining the new theology as a direct outgrowth of the
old, and a large improvement upon it, while asserting
that doctrines now regarded as substantial parts of or-
thodoxy are mere reflections of the social conditions in
which they were formulated — more specifically, that such
doctrines as divine sovereignty, total depravity and the
atonement, are shot through and tlirough with colors
drawn from the corruptions of Roman society. He tells
us that while the Bible may have furnished casual texts
which justify our holding these theologic conceptions,
it did not furnish the conceptions themselves; and that,
if the Bible had been used rather to supply concep-
tions of doctrine in some more generic and spiritual
way, we would not have what now goes for orthodoxy.^
In view of such claims, it is incumbent upon us to
iPficxiRESsivE Orthodoxy, Introduction, pp. 5-9. Smyth, Or-
thodoxy of To-Day, Introduction. Muxger, Freedom of Faith, The
New Theology.
The objection urged somewliat vehemently against building up
a theology from occasional texts, though deserving of some atten-
tion, may easily be carried too far. Those who oftenest urge it, as
if the orthodox methods of attaining truth from the Scriptures
Avere thoroughly vicious, or at least wholly inadequate, should
themselves be well guarded against inconsistency at this point.
For example, writers who can gravely quote the i)ractical address
of Zachariah (9 : 11-12) to the people of Israel as prisoners of hope,
waiting for deliverance through a coming Messiah, as if it were
somehow connected with the spirits in prison referred to by Peter,
or with the inhabitants of the intermediate state generally, ought
to be slow in criticising a theology which has been structurally de-
veloping, century after century, tlirough the careful and faithful
study and utilizing of every suggestion or hint, every line or letter,
found within the Divine Word.
160 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
inquire how far these new teachings are truly orthodox —
how far they are in harmony with what is included gen-
erically under the phrase, Christian Theology. That
phrase describes or indicates to us the vast body of truth
concerning God and man, sin and salvation, which has
during the ages originated and matured into form, not
from a few texts here or there, but irom the very body
and substance of the Scriptures, and which has progres-
sively expressed itself, not merely or even mainly in
Christian symbolism, but much more extensively in the
writings of learned men, in the utterances of ten thou-
sand pulpits, and in the practical convictions of the
great multitude of the faithful. This is not some par-
ticular type of theology, such as the Augustinian, the
liUthcran, the Arminian ; it is rather that great evan-
gelical System of Doctrine, in whose grand, deep, celes-
tial verities converted men of all schools and sects are
more or less consciously agreed. Nor is this the the-
ology of some past age, handed down to the present as
if it were a dric^l and brittle crust of do^ma — as one
of these writers describes it — kept over, and without
either life or jiower of growth ; it is rather a living
system at this hour, intelligently believed in and ten-
derly cherished by the Church of God, as embodying
whatever is essential to biblical and saving Faith.
Such is Christian theology — Christian orthodoxy. On
the other hand, we see a specific dogma, pronounced by
some of its advocates to be a mere opinion or convic-
tion, of slight import in itself, and involving no conse-
quences of importance to theology in general, but de-
clared by others to be the foremost representative of a
great forward movement in Christian thought which is
destined to revolutionize current conceptions of doctrine
at a hundred points, and whose ultimate issue is to be
PROBA TION A^D MORA L GO VERNMENT. 161
a New Theology, radically unlike the Old, not merely
in method and spirit, but also in the substantial truth
which it shall incorporate and represent. What is the
real relation of the dogma to the system ? Is it the re-
lation of the consummate blossom, ruddv and fraarrant,
to the rose whose matured ]ife it has somehow cauuht
and so wondrously embodied? Is it the relation of the
subtle exhalation, dank and malarious, to the luxuriant
soil which emits it as a poison in the night?
The careful tracing out of the particular influences
and issues of the doctrine of a Salvation after Death,
as here considered, would recjuire much larger space
and range of inquiry than are contemplated in the pres-
ent discussion. What has been already said, will go
far toward rendering less urgent such particular exam-
ination. For the rest, some further elucidation of points
already in sight, together with some additional sug-
gestions respecting certain theological connections and
bearings of the dogma in question, will probably be all
that is demanded by a discussion, mIiosc aim is prac-
tical rather than speculative. Of necessity, even so
cursory an inquiry will also involve some further ex-
position of the Christian doctrine itself as to those
great realities for whose solution the hypothesis of a
j)ost modem probation has been devised.
What is the relation between this hypothesis, and the
Christian Theology concerning God? — Without revert-
ing to what has been said respectins: the
''. 1 O Ij_ Probation
divine character and ways, and the par- ami nioiai oov.
ticular attributes of God such as love ^••"'"•^^"*-
and justice, we may here contemplate Him simply in
His two gi'and primordial relations to the ra<^e, — as the
Moral Governor, and as the Father of mankind. Of
162 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
these, the moral govcrument or administration of God,
viewed as the fundamental fact and arrangement under
which probation occurs, is naturally first:
It is as easily demonstrated that there is a moral or-
der in the world, as that there is a physical order, ruling
in material nature, l^oi only is there, in the vague and
illusive phrase of Matthew Arnold, a power in the
world, not ourselves, making for righteousness; we see
further that this is a personal power, and a power
working toward spiritual holiness as well as toward
what Arnold terms righteousness. In other words,
there is a moral as truly as a physical government in
existence, — a government administered according to
right and beneficent law, and ever tending in its ad-
ministration toward the moral development and per-
fection of its subjects. And back of this government
stands a Being, infinite in endowment and glorious in
attribute, who by the necessities of his own holy nature
is the Moral Iluler over mankind, not merely where
the Gospel has been preached, but wherever moral per-
sonality in human form is found. These grand primal
facts must be admitted by every one who has thought-
fully considered either the teachings of Scripture, or
the suggestions of human experience. In a word, the
fundamental and the sublime veritv, underlvins- our
entire earthlv life as moral creatures, and iriving' siffnifi-
cance to our acts and experiences here, is this Moral
Government of God.^
'" As the manifold apix'aranccs of design and of final causes, in
the constitution of the world, prove it to be the work of an intel-
ligent Mind, so the particular final causes of pleasure and pain
distributed among his creatures, prove that they are under his
government— what may be called his natural government of
creatures endued with sense and reason." Butler, Analogy, Part
GENERIC CONCEPTION OF PROBATION. 103
The simplest and also the most generic conception
of Probation is that which recognizps it as a transaction
taking place nnder this comprehensive moral govern-
ment, — the application of such a law^ and administration
as have just been described, to the life of man, viewed
as a moral being. For this government presupposes
laMi, and the right and power to enforce law : it pre-
supposes also the capacity for obedience, and for an
obedience which is voluntary and cordial and spiritual ;
it presupposes in like manner full responsibility for
the exercise of such freedom, and an account to be
sooner or later rendered for every act, whether right or
wrong, loyal or disobedient, under this divine adminis-
tration. Hence probation is simply the divine testing
of each and every soul as to its disposition toward
moral law-, and its conduct as measured by that law.
On the side of man, it is the necessary, the inevitable
I ; Ch. 3. See also McCosir, Divine Government, Physical and
Moral, Book in.
It is not strange that the dogma here under discussion should
have currency in Germany, or even in England, where inadequate
views of the Moral Government of God are so common. One of
the radical vices in the theology of Dorner, for example, lies in
his low and scant perception of this great ordinating doctrine.
The declension from the high position of Butler and his compeers
on this doctrine, has been a most serious calamity to more recent
English theology also. The corresponding decline in America
from the lofty conceptions of Jonathan Edwards, as developed by
his associates and immediate ifuccessors in New England, is likely
to prove a calamity still more serious. See Hopkins, West, Bellamy,
Emmons; Dwigiit, Theology, Sermons 25-2G. Eminently Taylor,
N. W., The Moral Government of Gocf,— a treatise deserving the ear-
nest study of all who desire to comprehend the great problem of
Probation. Taylor defines moral government, with sutRcient ac-
curacy, as the influence of the authority of a moral governor over
moral beings, designed so to control their action as to secure the
great end of action on their part, through the medium of law.
164 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
outgrowth of his position as a creature possessing moral
qualities, and a true freedom, in a constitution of things
where law exists, and where God is so directing affairs
that sin shall be arrested and punished, and that vir-
tue shall receive approval and reward; Butlee, Part i:
Ch. iv-v.
In the nature of the case, therefore, such probation
is universal as humanity: it belongs to man as man,
and escape from it is impossible excepting through the
forfeiture of those moral qualities on whose exercise it
is based. Such probation may and does vary with the
native endowments, with the external conditions, with
the degree of light and knowledge, in each instance : it
may be that, thougli the law and the authority remain
the same, no two human beings from the beginning of
time until now, have ever passed through precisely the
same mode, cast, degree of probation. And beyond all
these visible occasions of variation, we are bound also
to recognize the fact, revealed alike in Scripture and in
experience, that the sovereign election of God manifests
itself here as elsewhere. There are variations among men
as to the form, methods, instrumentalities, extent, persist-
ence of this moral discipline and testing, which are wholly
inexplicable to us, and which we must consent to leave
entirely in the hands of Him by whom this solemn proc-
cis is in every case conducted. There is no ground what-
ever for the claim so often suggested, that God is obli-
gated to give to each and every human soul precisely
the same form and amount of probation — any more than
we may properly claim, that He is obligated to give to
each and all precisely the same amount and form of
temporal good. There is indeed no reason for suppos-
in"- that any such exact equality would be as favorable
to the adequate probation of tlie race, or of individual
PROBATION IN THE NATURE OF THINGS. 165
souls, as the present divinely arranged inequality is.
At this point we are bound simply to exercise the same
general measure of confidence and trust which we cher-
ish in the wisdom and equity and benevolence of God,
in the presence of temporal inequalities. Rationalistic
speculations about what God ought to do as to human
probation, in order to be just and good according to
our conceptions of justice and goodness, are of small
moment in view of what we see Him actually doing in
both His moral and His natural spheres of administra-
tion.
What has been said respecting the guilt and condem-
nation of the race prior to moral action, by no means
controverts this doctrine of the universal probation of
humanity. The terms, guilt and condemnation, as ap-
plied even to infants who have not yet entered upon
moral activitv, in virtue of their connection with a
depravated race, must acquire a meaning far more j)os-
itive and intense when applied to those who have be-
come conscious of their estate under law — their duty and
their freedom ; and who have voluntarily transgressed
law, and subjected themselves to personal accountability.
This generic depravation may make the probationary
process less favorable — may bring in new disqualifica-
tions, and cast its own deep shadows on the result :
but it does not take away the necessity for such a proc-
ess, neither does it arrest or prevent the process, in fact.
The race though sinful, and each member of the race
however depraved, is still in the broad sense here de-
fined, under probation — the great issue of character, un-
der the divine constitution of things, gradually taking
on in each and all its fixed and irreversible shape.
We are thus justified in maintaining that probation is
actually occurring, and occurring to all men and in
166 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
an infinite variety of conditions and forms, under a sys-
tem of moral administration divinely ordained. The
universal fact is that in some way or other, and to some
extent or other, God is actually trying and testing ev-
ery liuman being who has reached moral consciousness,
as to the great alternatives of right or wrong, duty or
pleasure, obedience or disloyalty to Him. To this con-
clusion the Bible as well as our own observation is con-
stantly leading us. We need indeed no other biblical
testimony than that presented in the opening chapters
of the Epistle to the Roman Church. In this conclu-
sive passage, those who had not the revealed law, are
said to be a law unto themselves in virtue of their pos-
session of reason and conscience and the revelations of
nature, and were tlierefore to be tested and disci2:>lined
and judged according to that law. They are truthfully
represented as capable of estimating their own actions
as right or wrong, and are said to accuse or excuse one
another, though they were living and acting under the
dim twiliMit of nature. And the awful catalogue of
sins which the apostle enumerates as properly charge-
able against these pagan races, and which he sets forth
as conclusive evidences of their guilt and the proper
ground of their condemnation,^ is of itself sufficient
proof of an actual probation — a probation to which not
only the heathen of that age, })ut all the heathen of all
lands and ages, and all men in all conditions in life,
and under every variety of training and opportunity,
are subjected under the moral administration of God.
1 Rom. 1: 18. 2: 12. Acts 17: r^O. 10: 35. Our Lord Himself
in one of His epideictic conversations with the Pharisees, (Luke
12: .")4-7) points to this natural (Hscernment of the right, with its
necessary consequent in responsibility, and makes it the basis of
an earnest summons to dtitv.
PROBATION WITHOUT KNOWING CHRIST. 167
To affirm, then, that the only legitimate or final form
of probation for man is that which has its center in a
conscious acceptance or rejection of Christ, is to broach,
under cover of a great truth, what is in fact a serious
error. It is true that this is the highest conceivable
form of spiritual testing, but by no means true that it
is the only form, or that all other forms must be pro-
longed until they somehow, somewhere, culminate in
this. No speculative reasonings on the universality of
Christ or of His religion can carry us to the point of
affirming, that the final w^ord of destiny can not justly
be pronounced concerning any soul of man, until it has
known the Savior and Him crucified. God may justly
pronounce that final word in numberless cases where He
sees precisely the same moral disposition developing it-
self along the lines of natural action — the same temper
of selfishness, carthliucss, transgression, which in the
presence of the historic Christ would have broken out
in unbelief or malignant opposition. And the probation
may be as real and adequate in the one class of cases
as in the other, though it would seem to us far less
extensive : in the sight of God the great problem of
character may be as thoroughly solved, as though the
soul, condemned for its developed sinfulness in gen-
eral, had been condemned before Him for an open re-
jection of His salvation.
Hence the inference that moral probation, as an ex-
perience of the race, in order to its proper completion
or consummation, must be carried over into the inter-
mediate state and prolonged indefinitely there, if the
soul has not sufficiently learned of Christ and His sal-
vation in the present life, is based on a large series of
unwarranted assumptions. Nothing that we can learn
from Scripture or from reason will justify the conclu-
168 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
sion, that God can not :uid docs not know at the hour
of death, just what are the moral disposition and ten-
dencies of every adult soul that passes into eternity,
whether from Christian or from pagan lands. And no
evidence appears from any quarter to show that a de-
cision reached bv Him at that solemn hour, would be
unjust or incomplete — unkind to the sou] itself or any
way unworthy of Him, irrespective of the question
whether the departing goul had ever heard of Christ.
This view of the case may be made more clear, and
more satisfying alike to thought and to feeling, if we
,,, „ , ,. turn for a moment to contemplate God
III. Probation 1
ami the i>ivine in His Other primordial relation to man-
kind — the relation of Fatherhood. — It is
to be recognized as among the deepest and most precious
truths of Scripture that God is our Father — the Father
not only of believers, made such through grace, but of
all mankind, and in virtue of their original creation in
the divine imao:e. No star that shines in the firmament
of Revelation is more clear or glorious than this; no
truth that ever dropped down upon our earth from the
heaven where God dwells, is more full of preciousncss.
This fatherhood gives a meaning and a tenderness to
this life of ours, which it would be midnight, be death,
for us to losi?. Beneath the shelter of that fatherhood
even the pagan nations are abiding: our degenerate
and ]irodigal race lives still, lives ever, under the eye,
Avithin the encircling arm of a Father.^
^ Candlisii, and also Crawford, on the Fatherhood of God —
spei-iuUy on the question whether this fatherhood is gracious only,
or natural also. See the Sermon on the Mount, for the full doc-
t.'ne of natural fatluThood. The sains in <,dory bear the name
of the Father written on their foreheads: Rev. 14: 1.
THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 169
Nor is it needful to suppose that this relation, which
embraces in its tenderness even the unthankful and the
evil — which reveals itself in countless forms of compas-
sion, long-suffering, patience, toward even those who
have trifled long with Christ and His redem])tion, is
limited in its manifestation to tiie present life. We
can not doubt that the disembodied spirits of the just,
dwelling in their intermediate condition, are as dis-
tinctly conscious as we can be, that God is their Father
still, as He was while they tabernacled in the flesh.
Their filial feeling survives through all the mutations
which death may bring to them, and their hearts are
filled as aforetime with loving gratitude to Him who
there as truly as here makes manifest to them His pa-
ternal interest and care. Nor is it necessary to suppose
that God ceases to be a Father to the myriads who die
before they have known anything of Him on the earth,
or even to those whom He is constrained for their per-
sonal sin to condemn and punish in the intermediate
state. As on earth He doth not inflict willingly, but
counts and weighs His chastisements and His disci-
pline — never in passion striking one blow too many
or striking too heavily, however guilty the sinner may
be, so we may believe that in the intermediate life
every stroke of retribution is carefully counted, every
blow measured, each privation or punishment inflicted,
by the same parental love. We have no warrant in
Scripture or in reason for affirming that God ceases to
be a Father to the lost, or that the sweet constraints
of affection sustain no relation whatever to tiie retri-
butions which He is constrained in equity to inflict.
Rather is it not true, that the dark consciousness of
having treated such parental tenderness and grace un-
worthily in this life, and the darker consciousness of
170 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
being still in willful rebellion against them, must ever
constitute one of the sorest pangs in the spiritual tor-
ments of hell ?
But the probation which we are here contemplating,
occurs as truly under this universal fatherhood as under
the comprehensive moral administration just considered.
This personal discipline and testing to which the race
is subject, are not instituted in sovereignty merely, —
least of all are they the arbitrary decree and scheme
of some cold, high, glittering, resistless power, more
awful than that which whirls the planets through the
skies. They are rather the tender appointments of One
wdio, in the majesty of His administration, never for-
gets that He is our Father, and who has reasons, wise
and good, for their institution. These reasons we are
able, at least in part, to apprehend, — especially in so far
as they are seen to be related to the development of
right and holy character. So far as we can discover,
this ty})e of character can be produced in man only
tlirough such training and such testing as this. The
great alternatives of right and wrong, of duty and pleas-
ure, of obedience and transgression, of loyalty or dis-
loyalty to God and His law, must somewhere be brought
before each soul, so that \t shall learn to exercise itself
as a moral being possessing intelligence and conscience
and the power of choice, in the presence of these august
alternatives. From the first moment of moral con-
sciousness, it must learn to concern itself with this
clear, solemn, responsible election between living unto
self or living unto God, under the consciousness that
on that election its character and its destinies must
turn. And it is the Divine Father as truly as the just
Sovereign who sets his child in this position, and sub-
jects it to this moral strain, with full knowledge of all
THE FATHER INSTITUTES PROBATION. 171
the possible contingencies and issues in eacli case. The
decision which makes the present life to every soul of
man a state of probation, is the decision of a Father,
and of a Father who is seeking the moral developmeut,
the spiritual perfection, of His children through the only
conceivable process, so far as our range of observation
reaches, by which that result can be secured. Such a gen-
eric probation, in other words, is the inevitable correl-
ative of the underlying fact and doctrine of the divine
Fatherhood ; so long as God is the Father of all men,
and all men are his children, and as such under His
moral nurture, it lies in the verv nature of thino;s that
they should exist in this life, each and all, under the
princij)le and the conditions of a true, a personal, an
adequate probation.
Contemplating the whole matter in this light, our
minds are measurably released from the perplexities
which ordinarily seem to surround the theme. Setting
ourselves in the calm frame of Butler, we are led to
see with him that probation is a ])rocess, and the only
available process, for the developmeut of human char-
acter; and that the instituting of such a process, not-
withstanding all the perils involved in it, is the act of
a wise, holy, beneficent Deity whose aim is ever the
moral cultivation and maturing of a race of creatures,
fitted by nature to love and serve Him here and forever.
Viewed in this aspect, the law in the case becomes the
enactment of a good as well as equitable Being; the
authority, and all the motives employed, are in harmony
\\\i\\ His perfections; the administration is always pa-
ternal as well as imperial; and the obedience required
is such as the human reason and conscience sponta-
neously confess to be right, and such as the highest
welfare of the soul for time and for eternity demands.
172 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
Apparent severities change, as we contemplate tliera,
into needful forms of discipline ; inequalities in power,
sphere, opj)ortunity are justified, and retribution for all
departure from the straight pathway of obedience stands
out in clear, though lurid view as tiie necessary, even
the eternal, accompaniment of such a probationary proc-
ess. An element of what may be called grace is seen
to mingle with tliis probation, not merely in the form
of patience, or of delay in retribution, but even in the
form of enlightenment and positive aid. Indeed, we know
not how far God may go, in instructing and strengthening
those who, in whatever land, or under whatever obscu-
rations of sin, are seeking to do what is right in His
sigi»t. At every point in this process, the divine father-
hood sheds its own peculiar glow over the divine ad-
ministration : love is everywhere, and everywhere love
breathes in each recognized command, enforces each
obligation on the conscience, and continually wins to
the loyalty which the welfare of the soul and of the
moral universe demands. As a mystery challenging
the intelh ct, the jiroblem of probation may still re-
main insoluble; but as an experience of the soul, pro-
bation in this light becomes a new sign and proof, and
indeed the highest sign and proof attainable apart from
the Gospel, of the presence and the care of a Father,
always tender and beneficent toAvard all mankind.
Post])oning for the moment the consideration of the
practical outcome of this ])robationary process, thus di-
vinely carried on in the heart and life of humanity, we
may simply note the irreconcilable antithesis between
this doctrine and the dogma here controverted. It is
impossible for the advocates of that dogma to return
to the old theologic position that the race stood its pro-
bation once for all in Adam, and, having fallen in him,
PROBATION UNDER THE GOSPEL. 173
has no ability of any sort to consider ao;ain the claims
of law or duty, or to obey God, — since such an admis-
sion would be fatal to its snppositicn that condemnation
can come upon man only as the issue of his personal
rejection of Christ. In opposition to that dictum of
the older Calvinism, they are constrained no less than
others to recognize the essential facts just considered
respecting the truly probationary nature of the present
life, and to maintain \yith later Christian orthodoxy
that man though sinful, though depraved, is still under
law and amenable to law, — is still acting in freedom
and under a responsibility to God as real as that of
Adam, for the manner in ^yhich he answers the vital
question of obedience or transgression. But that ad-
mission is fatal to their favorite dogma, unless indeed
it be alleged that this natural process of discipline and
testing, though universal, is insufiicient to form an
adequate basis for the divine estimate of character and
desert. And this is a conclusion for which it is im-
possible to find substantial warrant.
Without pausing here to make this view of the sub-
ject more manifest, we may profitably turn to consider
further the relation between this cos- j^^ Probation
mic probation experienced by the race, under the Gos-
and the specific probation introduced
through the Gospel. — It is certainly a low and false
view of Christianity which regards it as one of the
great natural religions merely, either evolved from an-
tecedent and cruder types, or springing rudi mentally
from the stock of human nature.^ Our holy faith, even
in its patriarchal and Judaic forms, differs radically
^ Clarke, Ten Great Religions. Maueice, Religions of the World;
and other M'orks of this class.
174 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
from all these in being an essentially supernatural re-
ligion, introduced by direct volition of God into the
"experience of humanity, and there sustained, developed,
propagated by methods that are more divine than hu-
man throughout. Yet at many points this supernatural
faith reveals its living affiliations with all the varie-
ties of spiritual belief and experience common to mau
as mau, from the loftiest down to the lowest and gross-
est relitjion of nature. Christianity is not somethins;
entirely novel in the spiritual history of our world — a
wholly new creation of Deity, joined on at no point to
the earlier phases of that history, and in complete an-
tagonism with all that man had hitherto known or felt
respecting God and duty and immortality. Kather is
it a grand consummating process, superinduced not
through a mere evolution, but by an immediate move-
ment of the Godhead, upon all that had preceded it, —
just as the animal creation Avas directly superinduced
by Him upon the vegetable, or as mau was divinely
brouglit in at last, to be the head and crown of all
material nature.
Especially does this relationship become apparent,
when we consider the connections of this divine relig-
ion with those broad cosmic processes of education and
moral training, which have just been sketched in out-
line. Here we discern, on the one side, what may be
styled a natural probation, beginning with our first
parents, and realized in the life of every descendant
from the Adamic stock, — a probation disturbed, ar-
rested, frustrated at numberless points by the fall, and
by the sinfulness of heart and nature which flowed out
mi ismatically from the fall ; yet a probation still car-
ried on, with its laws and authorities and motives, with
its choices and testings, its benedictions and its guilt
NATURAL AND GRACIOUS PROBATION. 175
raid shamo. But on the other side, we see a gracious
probation, instituted even from the hour of the fall,
developed through all the ages of Hebraism, and finally
made complete under the Gospel — a probation in which
no new issue is made, no radically different test applied,
but rather in which all the preceding issues are concen-
trated around the person and mediation of Christ, and
in which all antecedent tests are aggregated into the one
specific, supreme test of acceptance or rejection of the
salvation offered to men in Plim. In essence and sub-
stance, the question which Christianity submits to that
portion of the race which has heard of this salvation,
io precisely the same question which is submitted to the
race universally. The form of the question differs, the
accessories are vastly increased in number and im])r('ss-
iveness, the personal Christ now stands in the center,
the grace of God mingles perceptibly with the command,
spiritual powers are promised to the submitting soul,
and fresh realities, gathered from the eternal life, enq)ha-
size and solemnize the whole traufraction. But the issue
is the old issue, wide as the world and enduring as time
— the issue of self or duty, sinfulness or obedience, Satan
or God.
Two things especially characterize probation under
the Gospel, — the personal Christ as the complete embodi-
ment of the Deity, and the pledged grace and aid of
the Holy Ghost. We believe that in the Incarnate Son
we behold the full effulgence of the glorious God, — we
see, in the phrase of Scripture, the very image of His"
substance, and receive His highest possible revelation
to us respecting His character, His relations and claims
upon us, and eminently His love and grace. AVe also
believe that in the enlightening and quickening minis-
tries of the Holy Spirit we behold the last and highest
176 THE WITNESS OF CITRISTTAN THEOLOGY.
exhibition of divine power, when energized by love, —
we see the Deity in action along the lines which grace
selects, and working ont resnlts greater far in kind
than any miracle of nature, or even than creation itself.
Hence it follows inevitably that he who has trodden
inider foot the Son of God, counted the blood of the
covenant of redemption an unholy thing, and done dc-
.'jpitc unto the Spirit of grace (Heb, 10: 29) has failed
at the very summit of probation, and in that failure
has rendered it impossible, as the inspired writer to the
Hebrews affirms, that he should ever be saved. For
him there remain no more sacrifices for sins, no more
winning views of mercy, no fresh energy from the skies
moving him on to holiness; bnt only, even in this life,
and certainly beyond it, in the intermediate life, a ret-
ribution that is utter, and for aught that we can see,
is eternal.
How far this gracious probation may extend, — what
persons and classes may be included within its opera-
tion, we are not competent absolutely to determine. To
say that it is in no case final, but may be repeated
hereafter in the instance even of the most obdurate and
perverse, — or to say that the condemnation incurred un-
der it applies only to a small class of men, heretics and
unbelievers, the openly profligate and the thoroughly
hardened, is to affirm what the New Testament nowhere
warrants. Our Lord indeed, in answer to the tremu-
lous question whether there be few that are saved,
justifies the hope that with God much is possible that
seems impossible to man. Yet it is from His own
lips that we learn the awful lesson as to the full re-
sponsibility of all those who see or hear of Him, and
it is His own voice that warns every sinner in Chris-
tendom to strive to enter into the strait gate of duty
ISSUES OF GRACIOUS PROBATION. 177
and of peace. That the vast multitude of those \\ ho
have lived in Christian lauds, heard of Christ and His
mediation, been invited to the Gospel feast, but who
have gone their several ways, to farm and mercliandise,
in the temper of worldly indifference to the claims of
God and the welfare of the soul, are included in this
probation, and are fatally tested and condemned by it,
can not well be doubted by any one who suitably weighs
the words of the Lord Himself, or thoughtfully consid-
ers what the later inspired writers have combined to
teach. ^
Happily we are not called upon to pass judgment on
any soul within the large domain of Christendom ; it
would indeed be impossible for us to say what, in the
vision of God, constitutes for any such soul an adequate
probation under this scheme of grace. The myriads
who die early in their moral life, the myriads who live
in squalor and moral ignorance, the myriads who are
misled by bad influences or seduced by subtle error, —
these vast multitudes who labor under such sad disa-
bilities, who inhabit the dusky border land between
Christianity and paganism, are so great, and their sit-
uation is so pitiful and perilous, that our hearts would be
appalled at the problem of determining their relative
accountability and guilt before God. AVe know simply
that He Avho is subjecting them to this decisive spirit-
ual test, is Himself a God of mercy, not willing that
any should perish, but rather that all whom Christ and
the Spirit can reach, shall be restored to holiness and
to life everlasting. It may not indeed be practicable
for us to adopt in full the ardent declaration of Faber :
As to those who are lost, I confidently believe that our
'Luke 13: 23-30. Matt. 7: 13-14. 19: 23-26. Also, Matt. 7: 24-
29. John 5 : 40. 3 : 19. II Cor. G : 2, and many others.
178 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
Heavenly Father threw His arms round each created
spirit, and looked it full in the face with bright eyes
of love, in the darkness of its mortal life, and that, of
its own deliberate will it would not have Him to be its
God.^ But we may go as far as our loving Lord leads
us in such larger hope, so long as we do not sacrifice
the great underlying truth that for every soul of all
these multitudes, the present life is, must be, a state
and the only state of gracious as well as natural proba-
tion, and therefore a state where the soul is decisively
to be either saved or lost.
How far the dogma in question carries us, Avhether
away from or beyond these biblical teachings, it is not
diilicult to see. The affirmation of Farrar, for illustra-
tion, that all sin but the sin against the Holy Ghost
may be forgiven hereafter, and that no one knows what
that sin is, or whether any one is committing it, is utterly
at variance witli tins doctrine of a gracious probation
conterminous with the Gospel. And all tendency to
minify the reality or the immediateness of this proba-
tion, by reducing the number of those living under it,
bv emphasizing the difficulties in the way of its appli-
cation, by urging perplexing queries or objections, or
by subtracting in any manner from the plain facts just as
they stand in the Bible and in the experience of the
■world, so far as the world has been brought under the
light of the Gospel, are amenable to the same charge
substantially. The perils involved in such processes
^Faber, The Creator and the Creature. It is another striking re-
mark of this author, quoted by Pusey, tliat hell has sent into
lieaven more than half as many souls as it contains itself. Hell
is certainly a great and needful deterrent ; and there is vast force,
notwithstanding the famous taunt of John Stuart Mill, in the old
aphorism, that the fear of hell peoples heaven.
DANGERS OF ERROR HERE. 179
are very great, especially -when they are carried for-
ward in the presence of multitudes who are only too
willing to welcome any subterfuge, however frail, that
may relieve them from the responsibility of an imme-
diate acceptance or rejection of Christ. At this point,
the hypothesis of a post mortem probation becomes a
delusion and a snare throughout. Its extensive enun-
ciation and acceptance could only weaken the present
appeals and claims of the Gospel, and beguile men by
myriads into a postponement of these claims and ap-
peals to some anticipated day of grace that will never
dawn.
Turning at this point from the contemplation of the
divine relations to man, natural and gracious, into the
department of Anthropology, we are at
once confronted by other marked an- ^^^^^ Gum • Vi""
tagonisnxs between Christian orthodoxy i)atioii and jmig-
and the dogma in question. — That a
seriously defective if not false theory of hum'an nat-
ure, especially as depravated and sinful, underlies this
dogma, will not be questioned by those Avho have noted
the spontaneous vigor with which its supporters assail
every feature of that Pauline doctrine of man, which un-
der various names, in defiance of ten thousand protests,
still maintains its place within the Christian Church, and
particularly within the domain of evangelic Protest-
antism.^ Without entering upon an)^ general discussion
^It is sufficient to quote the deelaratiou of riumptre, adopted
with admiration hy Farrar, tliat the frlooni whicli settled upon
the Western Church from the dark sliadow of Augustine, and
which— as Farrar aheges— ^vas changed into the Ithickness of mid-
night hy tlie (h)ginas of Calvin, must all ho swept away l)efore th.e
morning of the New Theology can fairly break upon our vision. A
180 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
of this theory of human nature, we may simply note
again, in a final glance, its specific bearing on the ques-
tion before us, at two practical points — guilt and judg-
ment :
It is a misfortune to Christian theology that the term,
guilt — culpa as distinct from v'ltlum — should be cm-
ployed in so many varying connections, and with such
shiftings and shadings of significance. In its primary
and main sense, the term always implies, to quote the
definition of Blackstone, the concurrence of the personal
will, where it has the choice either to do or not to do
the act or deed in question, — this concurrence being the
oidy thing which renders the act or deed blameworthy.
It is at this ])oint that personal criminality, amena-
bility to law, culpability, are most distinctly seen — as
exhibited immediately in action. But if now w^e turn
from the specific act, to consider the moral nature or
disposition from which the act springs — that state of
will in which the particular choice or concurrence has
its origin, we are in some true sense justified in again
affirming guiltiness as a characteristic of this disposition
or nature also. There is, we at once perceive, a sinful-
ness which is deeper than the sinning — an enduring
condition of the soul to which, so far at least as that
condition is seen to be the result of antecedent choices
and acts, constituting together what we may call its
moral nature and history, we are justified in applying
the term, guilt.
distinguished American advocate, with docile imitation, tells us
that every trace of the Augustinian solution of the prol)lem of
sin must be swept out of the ])elief of the Church, before the
doctrine of salvation after death can gain just acceptance. And
another bluntly declares that belief in human depravit}', as that
do(;trine is now formulated in current theology, is simply impos-
sible — impossible of course to him.
PR OB A TION AND G UIL T. l^\
But besides these primary meanings, there are also
certain secondary senses attaching in ordinary usage to
this term. As the result of Avhat Edwards has de-
scribed as the divine constitution of things, there is
established such an organic connection of soul with soul,
sueh solidarity and unity of the race, that the retrib-
utive results of wrong action in one jjerson are con-
tinually flowing over upon others, and this in ever
widening ranges and circles of experience, to such an
extent that, even from the beginning of human activity
in Eden down to the present hour, a certain guiltiness,
a certain penal or retributive clement, has, as all Chris-
tendom confesses, penetrated and pervaded the history
of mankind. Under this constitution of things each
soul has come to be participant, not merely of the nat-
ure and disposition thus developed in the race, but
also of what may be termed the criminality or amena-
bility to violated law, under which the race has rested
from the period of the Adamic transgression and fall.
In other words, the principle of retribution, wrought
into life universally, in consequence of the first criminal
act — the first failure in natural probation, has in fact
reached all mankind, and in a secondary sense of that
term has brought all mankind under guilt in the sight
of God. Whatever may be our theory or explanation,
our criticism or our opposition to the fact, the obvious
reality is that He docs thus regard and treat the race
in its unity as if it were a sinful and a guilty race —
contemplates it and deals with it as not only amenal)le
to law, but culpable in the eye of law, and therefore
properly subject to the retributive issues consequent
upon such a state and relation. How in fact, in virtue
of his position as ISIoral Governor or as their Father,
could He regard and treat mankind otherwise — co long
182 TUB WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
as mankind arc thus constituted, knit together, unified
as a race?
Still it is obvious that the guiltiness which in these
various senses, but chiefly in those which have been de-
scribed as primary, attaches to humanity, and specific-
ally to each soul that has reached the stage of account-
ability, must vary very widely in form, degree, intensity.
In the sight of God, the guilt of the infant, born into
this retributive system, and entering on life under the
dark experiences of what in some sense is penalty, is
very different from the guilt that descends as an instant
and awful shadow on the head of the voluntary offender
against divine law. So the guilt of the pagan, whose
probation has been natural only, differs quite as much
from that of one who has passed through a gracious
probation under the Gospel, and has died reviling and
rejecting Christ. Grouping mankind in classes, even
our dim vision discovers at once the necessity for most
careful discrimination in our imputation of guilt; and,
though we may be wholly unable to exercise it, the
same necessity exists equally in the case of each indi-
vidual soul — each and every sinner, young or old, weak
or strong, enlightened or ignorant, civilized or savage.
To speak of guilt, therefore, in an undiscriminating way,
as if all souls were alike guilty, or guilty in the same
sense, and as such were dealt with in their experience of
the penal issues of sin, in precisely the same way, with-
out any regard for these broad diversities, is both tech-
nically and practically a very grave mistake. We have
indi'cd no better common terra than guilt, but no theo-
logical term is more often misleading, and none requires
greater discernment in its use, especially in its relations
to what we have just been contemplating under the name
of probation.
PROBATION AND JUDGMENT. 183
It follows from those suggestions respecting guilt,
that there must be a divine judgment consequent upon
this moral experience, and that this judgment must also
correspond in both nature and range with the guiltiness
which is its occasion and ground. A probation which
has no terminus whatever, is no probation : tlie concep-
tion is indeed a contradiction in terms. So, a proba-
tion which should go on indefinitely until all who are
brought under it, are translated from sin to obedience
and holiness, would rather be an educational process
simply, — it would be radically defective in those tests
of temper, disposition, moral purpose, which the term
probation necessarily implies. But if, from the nature
of the case, probation must terminate somewhere, is it
not obvious further, that He who has instituted this
probationary process both natural and gracious, is the
onlv Being in the universe who is competent to deter-
mine just how far this process should in any case be
carried, what forms it should assume, or at what hour
it should end, and the retribution contemplated in the
event of foiluro should begin? The final judgment, as
well as ail the process leading to it, is in His hands
alone, and by Him in His own time and way the ulti-
mate adjudication must be made. His wi-U began. His
will closes, the great transaction.
Is it not a serious, though very frequent mistake to
contemplate this judgment of God, in connection with
our probation, as wholly an event of the future? The
fact rather is, that a certain shadow of guilt and of
condemnation rests continually upon the race, and upon
endi member of the race, in virtue of flic Adamic fault,
taken together with the moral deterioration consequent
upon that fatal source of all our woes. But more spe-
cifically, every instant of moral testing in the case of
184 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
each adult, whctlior in patxan or in Cliristian lands —
every wrong choice or act originatini;- in the temper of
selfishness, every call of the Word or the Spirit — is also
an instant of judgnient, immediate, searching, moment-
ous. There is, in fact, no moment in our moral life
when we are not under, not merely the scrutinizing
eye, but also the faithful adjudication of our God, He
not only shapes each test for us, and notes our action
in view of it : He also pronounces His verdict on each
act, and on the moral disposition beneath it. What Me
more often contemplate as His judgment, at the end of
each life, or at the final day of account, is but the sum-
ming up of an adjudication which began to frame itself
at the first instant Avhen the consciousness of our moral
nature and destiny broke upon us as a revelation from
the skies.
These brief hints respecting the nature of guilt and
of judgment, taken in conjunction with what has been
previously suggested, may suffice to make clear the er-
roneous quality, at this point as at others, of the dogma
of a probation after death. Waiving for the moment
the case of the heathen and of infants, we may at a
glance see in various lights the error lying in that dog-
ma, so far as geographic Christendom and its vast mul-
titudes are concerned. Is there for these multitudes no
guilt meriting the divine disapproval, except the guilt
involved in a conscious, positive, persistent rejection of
Christ? Is there no culpability in them short of this,^
1 Dorner, as we have already seen, stands squarely on the her-
esy that the sins which men commit in an estate of ignorance re-
specting Christ, are not sutficient to prove them guilty before God,
and protests (Theol., 1 130: A) against the iniquity of their condem-
nation on any such ground. Julius Miillcr, with a far deeper sense
than Dorner, of the magnitude of the problem, admits {Doctrine of
Sin: Conclusion,) that the possibility of damnation is grounded in
PROBATION AND THE HEATHEN WORLD. 185
which demands the condemnation of a holy God? Has
the law proclaimed at Sinai no claims that lie back of
the Gospel, and no verdict to pronounce on those who
violate its requirements? Is damnable sin always spe-
cific — always centered about Christ and His salvation ?
And is not God, in fact, judging every soul day by
day, and judging each in righteousness according to
the deeds done in the body, and with a steadfast refcn--
ence to some consummating adjudication? And finally,
has He not entirely in His own hands the question when
His testing and scrutiny of each soul shall cease, and
when the day of harvest, the summer of grace, shall be
judicially declared to be ended? And if He affirms
that the probation experienced by these multitudes in
this life is sufficient for their proper testing in His
sight, and faithfully and tenderly warns them against
all neglect and all postponement on this ground, is it not
a dreadful departure from the truth to encourage even
a single soul among them to hope for another oppor-
tunity, in another state of being than this?
Accepting on these grounds the doctrine held by
Christian orthodoxy respecting the single and final
probation in this life of all who live ^.j p,.o,,ation
Avithin the domain of Christendom, and ai><i t»>c neatiu-u
, , . , "World.
who have in any projicr sense known
of Christ and His salvation, we may now turn to con-
the personal freedom of the creature, and confesses the solemn fact
that men as sinners are lost alreadj% a]>art from tlieir relations to the
historic Christ. In the sight of Paul, the world was not sini])!}- in
danger of lapsing, through the rejection of the oflTerof grace, into a
Btate of guilt: he rather contemi)lated it as already in the eye of
God a guilty world. Even the tender John descrihes that world
as lying in wickedness — lying now in the embrace of the Wicked
One. Luke 1',): 10. Kom. 3: 19. I. .John 5: 19.
186 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
sidcr somewhat further the spiritual estate of the other
two great classes specially held up before us by the advo-
cates of another probation to be granted after death.
Of these two classes, the first is the unevangelized or
pagan world :
Here we are confronted by a series of facts which
no one can justly challenge, but which no thoughtful
mind can contemplate without most serious concern.
Receiving the Bible record as true, we are assured that,
at least during the period just preceding the deluge, if
not for antecedent centuries, the majority of mankind
were in a state both of spiritual ignorance and of prac-
tical disobedience against God. As societv forms a^aia
after the deluge, we discern the same awful fact reveal-
ing itself in human history; the multitude is seen to
be still ignorant and disobedient, while here and there
a pious soul, a holy family, appears in high contrast
Avith tiic j^revalent ungodliness. Down to the advent,
the Bible is little else than a dark biograpliy of sin —
sin in ten thousand varieties, and in growing and more
and more appalling forms. The New Testament opens
with a new, and even more intense and solemn, dechira-
tion of the universal sinfulness; all the world, Gentile as
truly as Hebrew, being, as both psalmist and apostle
declare, verily guilty before God. Nor is there any-
thing in Greek or Latin, iri Asiatic or African history,
M'hich in the least disproves the terrific charge brought
against humanity in the opening chapters of the Pau-
line letter to the Roman Church. So, through all the
subsequent centuries, the majority of the race thus far
have lived and have died in ignorance and in disobedi-
ence, more or less conscious, more or less positive and
damnatory. And looking abroad over the world at this
hour, after these eighteen Christian centuries have passed,
THE RACE VIEWED AS SINFUL. 187
the melancholy fact still confronts us, that the majority of
mankind are not merely ignorant of the Gospel, but are
indifferent to the law written in their own consciences,
and disobedient to the light and the teaching they have-
wandering on through time without God, and without
hope in the world. ^
Again, further study alike of Scripture and of human
nature brings out into awful distinctness a correlated
series of facts as to the divine relations to such a race.
AVe dare not say that God feels no interest in the moral
estate of humanity, or that He rather than man is at
fault here, or that man is more unfortunate than guilty,
or that such guiltiness is unimportant in the divine esti-
mation, or that no retribution will follow upon such a
condition of things. Xot only docs the Bible pronounce
such explanations false : the human reason spontaneously
recognizes the guiltiness and peril of such an estate, and
conscientiously condemns the very race which the hu-
man heart instinctively ])ities and tries to shield. Not
only does the sinfulness exist, and exist through hu-
man choice, and in defiance of all divine dissuasives •
from evil and incentives to duty. Xatural theology
has also established the position, that retribution is an
inevitable consequence of this moral condition, and that -
such retribution does not terminate with time, but rather
runs on and on — for aught that reason knows, end-
lessly — in the future state." In fact, such retribution
has already begun, and is now divinely carried forward,
and carried forward on the only possible basis — the
basis of recognized sinfulness and guilt. We are not
^Shedd, Sermons to the Natural Man; especially the iliscourse on
the theme, All Mankind Guilty.
2 J-ACKSON, The Doctrine of Retribution, viewed as a truth of Nat-
ural Theology; Butlek, Awdoijij, passim.
188 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
contemplating a race in danger of condemnation merely,
but rather a race already condemned and already under-
going not merely misery, but punishment. And what
the witness of human reason and experience is thus con-
stantly affirming, the voice of Scripture, uttered with
ever increasing emphasis as the sacred roll of llevela-
tion is progressively unfolded, fully carroborates. That
the pagan world is not only guilty, but condemned, and
in some deep sense under the wrath of God, is its un-
varying declaration ; and if anything could add empha-
sis to that declaration, it is the fact that we receive this
solemn doctrine most directly, most impressively, from
Him who, more than any other, knew what w^as in man,
and who came, as He himself says, not to rescue an
unfortunate race from some future exposure to guilt and
wrath, but to save a race already lost.
At this point let us call once more to mind the two
interpreting facts already noted, — that the sin against
the Holy Ghost is not some special kind of sin, carrv-
ing with it a peculiar species of guiltiness, but is rather
the culminating variety of a sinfulness which may exist
ill \\\d breast of a child or of a savage, — and also that
human probation is not limited to the single and dis-
tinct issue of accepting the historic Christ, but rather
may be, and doubtless is, carried on in adequate degree
in the case of myriads who have never heard of Jesus
of Nazareth, but who are facing precisely the same
spiritual issue in forms less distinct and incisive. AVith
these interpreting facts before us, to what other con-
clusion ran we conic than the one just stated, that sin-
fulness and guiltiness are as properly affirmed, just as
the Word of God solemnly affirms them, of the heathen
world, as they are properly affirmed, though in differing
degree, of the partly Christianized races? In view of
GUILTINESS OF THE PAGAN WORLD. 189
the facts, what can we say, except that condemnation
rests ah'eady upon the pagan as truly as on him who
has rejected the historic salvation, and that God is even
now dealing retributively with the one, as with the
other? And in this light, how can it be claimed that
there is need of another probation somewhere beyond
the present life, in which the moral quality of the
pagan races shall be still further tested, and on whose
basis they shall then, on their distinct rejection of the
historic Christ, be for the first time convicted and con-
demned ■?
While maintaining this general position, as we are
bound to do so long as Scripture stands, and so long
as these confirmations of Scripture are found in the con-
science and the moral experiences of mankind, we are
by no means required to ignore the immense moral dif-
ference which in fact exists between those who have
rejected God as offered to them in nature, and certified
in their reason and natural convictions, and those Avho
have also committed the higher sin of spurning the
Gospel and the love of God in Christ. The biblical
fact is that, while all are included properly in the
common term, sinners, the extent, the breadth, the hein-
ousness of the sin in the two classes must in the sight
of a just God vary widely — more widely than we can
well conceive. The parable of our Lord touching the
servant who \vas beaten with many, and the servant who
w'as beaten with few stripes, suggests the underlying
truth that there were correspondent degrees in guiltiness
and desert by which this variation in punishment was
divinely measured. Xor is there any reason why this
truth, with whatever of consolation it may bring, should
not be applied by us as broadly as the great correlative
truth (jf universal sinfulness. The variation is as es-
190 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
sential to a properly balanced biblical conception, as
the unity which underlies and sustains it.
The question whether any among the heathen are
saved — saved through their cordial recognition of the
claims of God, and their humble commitment of them-
selves to His mercy, so far as His existence, relation-
ship, mercy have been manifested to them, is one in
which Christian hope may find large and legitimate field
for practical exercise. We may not safely affirm Avith
Zwingli in his address to the French king, that there
has been no good man — vir bonus — who is not also a
sanctified mind — mens sancia ; neither any faithful soul —
jiddis anima — which shall not see God. Yet, so long
as we do not deviate from the cardinal doctrine of sin-
fulness, and the need of heavenly grace in order to a
true regeneration and salvation, we are in little danger
of hoping more widely, more ardently, than the living
AVord permits. The multitudes whom the great Swiss
reformer anticipated seeing in the celestial life, may by
the large grace of God bringing them to repentance
and obedience during their earthly pilgrimage, possibly
attain with us to that beatific home. At least, that
God will not condemn our loving hope in their behalf.
Nor is it inconsistent with loyalty to the Word of
God, if we recognize more fully than is common in
evangelical circles, the broad distinctions which doubt-
less appear in the retributions of eternity. What our
Lord himself teaches respecting these retributions, jus-
tifies not merely the belief that every stroke is carefully
measured, and is administered as much with parental
considerateness as with unflinching equity. It justifies
the further belief that there are variations and grades
in retribution, which correspond exactly with the earthly
gradations in sinfulness, nnd Avith the particular meas-
PUNISHMENT OF THE HEATHEN. 191
ure of guilt incurred by each separate soul. Hence
the awful phrases of Scripture, the wrath of God, the
outer darkness, the lake of fire, hell, damnation, though
unvarying in their essential quality, should be inter-
preted always in full view of such variations. We are
to guard against such use even of the generic term,
Lost, as would imply that it always contains precisely
the same degree of significance. The lost cities of the
plain, for example, were not lost in the estimate of
Christ, as were the lost of the generation which had
seen Him and heard His messages of mercy ; neither
were these lost in the same sense and measure in which
He doubtless regards those as lost, w^ho in these latter
days have received the complete Gospel, and in willful-
ness and unbelief have rejected it, once and forever.
We may therefore believe that the punishment of the
heathen races whose future fate we are contemplating,
will not be out of just proportion with their measure of
lio-ht. of capacitv, of moral maturitv- We may be sure
that it will never be in excess of what a God, both
just and tender, judges to be comparatively due them.
Nor is it impossible that this punishment may be as
much privative as positive, — having its closest analogue
in that Umbus infantum where, according to the Church
of Rome, unbaptized infants are placed, not indeed in
the beneficent presence of God, yet not suifering those
direct inflictions of His holy w^rath to which adult
trangrcssors are exposed. May not these condemned
])agan races dwell apart from the glory of God, as in
other stars, with wider and slower revolutions and chil-
lier airs, less blessed with the sunshine and dear vital-
ities of the Deity, and so living on from age to age a
lower life, fiir away from the peculiar benignities of
heaven— lost, in the sense that they are forever unsaved,
192 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
and are forever in some true sense under condemna-
tion? While indeed, in view of the scant references
of the Scripture, we can not speculate largely respect-
ing such a problem, it certainly involves no sacrifice
of anv essential element of the doctrine of retribution
as taught in Scripture, if we lay large stress on these
differences in guiltiness, and anticipate like differences
in the retributive experience of the myriads who inhabit
whatever orb in that dark universe — the universe of
the Lost.
The other class whose spiritual need is introduced in
special justification of the dogma of post mortem jsroba-
, ^ , ■ . tion, is the infant world, — that large
VII. Salvation ' ^ ' *=
of i>ecease<i In- proportiou, probably a distinct majority
*""*** of the human race, who in the provi-
dence of God are borne into the intermediate state be-
fore reaching the age of conscious accountability. That
the problem respecting their condition and fate is one
of vast theologic as well as practical moment, will not
be questioned. That the solution proposed through
the dogma in question, is without warrant in Scripture
and altogether inadequate theologically, can be made
apparent.
Here we may at the outset profitably recall the state
of the doctrine respecting deceased infants, as it is now
presented to Christian thought. As we have seen, the
necessity for serious consideration of the grave j)roblem
involved, and for some Christian solution, first mani-
fested itself in the Roman Catholic dogma of a lim-
bus infantum, — a place for all unbaptized infants not
of positive jKuiishment, but rather of privation, — a place
in which existence is passed not unhappily, though
without that sanctification and that bliss which salva-
SAL VA TION OF DECEASED IXFA NTS. 193
tion through Christ brings to all baptized children.
The same necessity compelled the Synod of Dort, and
afterward the AVestminster Assembly, to advance to the
more positive position that all elect infants, whether
baptized or unbaptized, were not placed as Catholicism
had aifirmed, in such an inferior condition — neither
saved nor lost except in a negative sense, — but rather
were actually saved through Christ by the Spirit, and
admitted into the full felicities of the heavenly state.
This was probably as high and large a view as the
Protestantism of the seventeenth, or even of the eight-
eenth century, was able to take ; and while we may
regard it as seriously defective in its limitations, we
ought to acknoAvledge that it was still a vast advance
upon all that had preceded it in Christian thought.
The nineteenth century has witnessed a much larger
advance to the general doctrine, now almost universally
held by Protestants, that through Christ, by the opera-
tion of the Holy Spirit, all infants dying in infancy are
to be counted among the elect, are saved directly from
sin and its curse, and are immediately admitted into
heaven. And this proposition is now regarded, at least
by many minds, as including not merely children born
in Christian lands, but also those who are born in pa-
ganism, — in the aggregate, as statistics show, a major-
ity of all who die, the world over.
The scriptural foundations of this extensive hope
are readily stated: they are concentrated chiefly in the
Avords and the acts of the Messiah. When our Lord
took little children in his arms and blessed them — when
He recognized the peculiar worth of the childlike tem-
per, and commended it to his disciples as of the essence
of religion — when He declai-ed directly that of such is
the kingdom of heaven, and that their angels are
194 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
always permitted, as if they were specially Avelcome
visitors, to behold the face of His Father, He cer-
tainly furnished distinct foundation for a large hope
as to the salvation of all such dying in infancy. Some
apostolic references to the estate of children under the
economy of the Gospel, and the apostolic injunctions
and encouragement in the training of such little ones for
Christ, point strongly in the same direction.^ And if
we add to these the divine teaching already noted Avith
regard to the extent and efficacy of the plan of mercy,
and to the mighty and pervasive potencies of the Holy
Ghost, and the unwillingness of the Father that any
should perish, together with the prevalent doctrine of
the older Scriptures as to the moral condition and pos-
sibilities of childhood, we surely are justified in claim-
ing a large degree of biblical warrant for the comfort-
ing hope just described.
Nor is the fact that Christian thought has but recent-
ly reached this conclusion, a decisive argument against
the doctrine as now maintained. For we have here
an instance of the same legitimate process of develop-
ment from the biblical germ, as that through which the
evangelical doctrine of justification by fiiith, for exam-
ple, came forth into full view at the Reformation, and
established itself by sure deduction from the Scriptures
as a fixed and central article of the Christian Svstem.
Another iliustratjon appears in the current belief of all
evangelical bodies as to tho, nature, the extent, the im-
perativeness of tlie work of missions, both at home and
in pagan lands. What we here see is, in fact, another
instance of that true, as distinguished from all false
evolution of Christian doctrine, which, without depart-
i:Matt. 19: 13-15. 18 : l-Q, 10. Mark 10: 15. Eph. 6: 1-4. 1 Cor.
7:14; also numerous O. T. declarations.
GROUNDS OF THIS HOPE. 195
ing from or going beyond the clear teaching of the
Word itself, has enriched Christian belief at many
other points.^ Such a conviction as this, thus growing
up in the mind of the Church through careful study of
the Bible, should be regarded as something more than
a pious hope. We claim for it, not merely that it is a
permissible opinion, having its foundations in general
reason or feeling apart from Scripture, and not contra-
dictory to the Bible, but rather that it is a truth emi-
nently consonant with Scripture, and strongly justified
by the biblical teaching and spirit. The reason for
the comparative silence of the Word of God respecting
childhood doubtless lies in the fact that the Bible deals
chiefly with adult minds, personally capable of receiv-
ing its teachings, and personally responsible for the use
they make of what it reveals. But amid this relative
silence we hear at least one Divine Voice, full of grace
and comfort, proclaiming a gracious message, whicli the
heart of humanity, so far as sanctified, is ever ready to
hear: Suffer the little children to come unto Me, for
of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.
It is objected to this belief that it ignores the fact
that salvation comes througli faith, intelligent and vol-
untary — such faith being the only possil)le germ of
sanctified character: and consequently that infants who
pass through no such experience in this life, must pass
til rough it in the intermediate state before they can be
saved. Is this objection legitimate? Docs it not in-
volve far too narrow a conception of what the term,
Kalvation by Christ, may contain? Does it not involve
also an unwarrantable limitation of the loving poten-
tialities of tlie Spirit, who, in the phrase of the West-
^ Rainy, Deliver i/ and Development of Christian Doctrine.
196 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
minster Confession, worketh when and where and how
He plcaseth? Who can tell what may be wrought at
the instant of death, in the case of all infants, by the
combined energies of the Father, the 8on, and the
Holy Ghost? May we not, in view of what we actually
know as to the potencies of grace, justly hold rather,
that these redeemed and sanctified souls, entering into
their first conscious moral existence imdcr such condi-
tions and in such a sphere as heaven, have no need
either of such further discipline as the term, probation,
implies, or of such culture in faith as the objection
presumes? The great verity to which the Christian
Church of our time is clinging shuts out both of these
suppositions: it is summed up in the comjjrehensive
proposition tluit, by a process deeper than conscious
volition, and antecedent to all moral choices, the state
of all infants dying in infancy is from the moment of
death divinely determined, so that they are truly saved
before responsible action commences, and their new life
is from the first, not one of testing with a possible fall
or failure, but one of holiness instant and above all
change.
The sujwriority of this belief to the view advocated
by the New Theology has already been noted. Instead
of providing for dying infants an opportunity merely
for salvatio!!, under conditions unknown to us, and
after a jx>riod of development sufficiently prolonged to
bring their minds into a condition where they can de-
liberately judge for themselves in eternity as to Christ
and His claims, is it not better to believe with evan-
gelical Christendom generally, that their young eyes open
at once toward Hini, and their hearts respond in holy
afTection with the first dawning of their sanctified con-
sciousness? Is it not a grander and worthier concep-
CONCLUDING THEOLOGICAL VIEW. 197
tion that, whether born of Christian or of unbelieving
or even pagan parentage, such infants are graciously
delivered at death from all corruption of heart or nat-
ure, are biased toward holiness as our first parents orig-
inally were, and iVoni the outset are led forth into the
immortal life as sanctified souls, to be divinely trained
by processes uidvuown to us into perfection of charac-
ter like that of Christ Himself? Certainly such a be-
lief has a much larger basis of Scripture to rest upon
than the dogma standing over against it, is far more in
harmony with the nature of the Gospel, sheds a higher
glory on the scheme of salvation, and commends itself
much more fully to Christian feeling and desire. Xor
is it a small testimonial in favor of this belief, that the
training and development of the young in this life,
within the nurture of the family, exhibit so many illus-
trations of a similar process, — a process in which mind
and opinion are formed, principles are fixed, dispositions
and character are largely determined, long before the
period of personal, deliberate choice begins. And may
there not be ground for the judgment, that one essential
reason in the Divine ISIind for the translation of half
the human race into another life before sin has become
an active power within the soul, may be that there the
salutary processes of grace may be hastened, and holy
character be produced at once, under conditions a thou-
sandfold more favorable than even the earthly home
of the most faithful Christian parent can affoi'd?
These glances at the theological relations of the dog-
ma in question, although specific and ^.jjj concina-
cursory merely, will be sufficient to ins Theological
show that, in respect to the character
and relations of God, to the true nature and guilt and
198 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
condemnation of man iii)art from the Gospel, and to
the reach and ap])lication of the salvation provided for
hnmanity in Christ, this dogma deviates widely from
the straight and broad ])ath of Christian orthodoxy. —
The claim that it is simply a legitimate and a necessary
evolution from the fundamental principles of such or-
thodoxy — a progressive development from the old his-
toric stock/ can not possibly be sustained. To set it
forth, for example, as a legitimate deduction from the
evangelical proposition, that in some true and deep
sense Christ died for all men, not the elect only, is
an obvious error, since His death for the world by no
means proves that the entire race will be saved through
Him either here or hereafter. Nor is there any other
specific doctrine, current under the name of orthodoxy,
of which this theory can be shown to be a direct infer-
ence — a justifiable expansion. As we have seen, it is
rather a clear divergence, and that at many fundamental
])oints, from that generic Christian Theology in which
the whole Church of God is practically agreed as con-
taining the substance of the doctrine taught in the Holy
Scrijitures. We find it to be in essence a return, along
certain speculative lines, to an old heresy of the third
and fourth centuries — a heresy never recognized in any
church symbol, and never extensively received in either
earlier or later times, and whose chief representative was
distinctly classed by a conspicuous General Council with
Arius and Nestorius, ApoUinaris and Eutyches, as a
teacher worthy not of credence, but of reprobation.
■^S.MVTir, Newmax, Old Faiths in New LifjJds ; Preface to revised
edition. — One can never cease from wondering liow men who are
oi)enly at variance with the Old Faith on points as vital as divine
sovereignty, human depravity, the atonement, judgment and ret-
rihution, should still claim to be the legitimate, and indeed the
on]y legitimate, heirs of all the Christian ages.
DOCTRINAL TEST PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 199
More specifically, the advocates of this dogma can by
no possibility hold intelligently, and Avith full insight
into the logical inferences and issues of their position,
the current faith of evangelical Christendom as to the
attributes and character of God, and His relations to
mankind as moral Governor and Father — as to the fact
and nature of moral sovereignty aud government, and
the universality and adequacy of probation — as to the
mission of Christ, His relationship to the human race,
His vicarious atonement for man, and the nature and
scope of the religion which He came to establish, — as
to the real depravity of man, his consequent guiltiness
and need, and the necessity for his salvation in this
life, — as to the true nature and range of salvation, and
to its application amid the unknown experiences and
conditions of the intermediate state. The divergence of
the dogma from existing orthodoxy at all these points,
and at others, is already distinct and positive ; and the
more faithfully the dogma is developed theologically, —
the more thoroughly it is studied aud ap})lied in its
various implications and tendencies, the more distinct
aud positive, and the more destructive also, Aviil this
divergence appear.
It not infrequently happens that Christian men,
falling on a sujierficial survey into an inadvertent ac-
ceptance of some given proposition or theory, as sub-
stantially orthodox, find on closer and more compre-
hensive inspection, that the theory or proposition once
admitted, carries them on involuntarily to results which
they clearly see to be at variance with the accepted
faith, and against which their maturer judgment there-
fore revolts. The broader testing of the proposed
opinion reveals its incora])leteness, its inadequacy, its
injurious quality, as no narrower contemplation could
200 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
ever do; and in the presence of Christian Theology
comprehensively regarded, the dogma — as in this in-
stance — vanishes from sight.
Bnt if any one should find himself insufficiently versed
in the technics of theology to discern this doctrinal an-
tagonism, another form of the same test is open to him —
a form which better than any other proves the real value
of any and all doctrine, dogma, theory, opinion, touch-
ing divine things, — the test of experiment. What would
be the effect of this theory, if it Avere universally re-
ceived by the Church of Christ ? What would be the
influence of its ecumenical proclamation from the pulpit,
and through the press? What sort of impression would
it make uj)on that great task of home evangelization, in
which Christian people of all denominations are now so
earnestlv en<;a";in2c ? AVhat result Avould flow from its
practical adoption by all missionaries from Gospel lands,
now employed in carrying the message of a present
salvation around the globe? What would this dogma
do, if it were fully matured in form, were inwrought
into the Christian symbols, were substituted cver}'where
for the existing belief, were made the grand regulative
principle and guide of the Church in her endeavor to
execute the final command of the Master to disciple all
nations, and so to bring in among men, the wide world
over, the promised Kingdom of Heaven ?
CHAPTER VI.
THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
One other test of the dogma in question remains to
be considered, — that which is supplied in various forms
by what in general may be defined as Christian Experi-
ence. One prominent variety of this mode of testing
the validity of this dogma, comes into view in the ar-
dent appeal made in its behalf to the testimony of the
regenerate or Christian consciousness, contemplated as a
standard of belief. Another may be seen in the kindred
appeal based on the alleged support of the dogma by
the religious feelings — by certain varieties of Christian
sentiment, which are supposed to require its acceptance
as an article of faith. Still another appears in the
comprehensive appeal to the moral disposition or spir-
itual inclinations of men — to the voluntary attitude or
state of the sanctified soul with reference to these sol-
emn problems touching the future life. In some cases,
these are concentrated more or less distinctly into what
is described as an appeal to human nature or human
life, as if the true standard or measure of religious be-
lief were somehow to be found in man or in humanity,
rather than in theologies or church symbols, or even in
what the Bible, regarded as an objective revelation, may
seem to teach.
In view of such affirmations, it becomes important
to consider at least in outline the character and the
value of the argument thus derived from the field of
Christian Experience in whatever variety ; first, to in-
CJOi)
202 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
quire briefly into the nature and authoritativeness of the
regenerate consciousness, as a witness to truth and a
standard of religious belief, — then to examine and weigh
these appeals to our religious feelings, with a viev/ to
some discriminating judgment respecting the proper
office and value of such feelings as guides in the ascer-
tainment of saving doctrine, — and finally to scrutinize
somewhat carefully the assumed place and function of
the moral disposition, of the composite personality in
nuin or in mankind, in determining what ougl.t or
ought not to be believed on such a question as that
under discussion. Obviously no small part of the ar-
gument for a jpost mortem salvation has been gathered
u]) within this wide and somewhat vague field. Its
advocates are continually declaring, for example, that
whatever the creeds or the theologians may teach, the
illuminated consciousness of the Church is certifying to
the essential accuracv of their favorite doo;ma. The
best spiritual ft'cling of the age, they openly claim, is
already arraying itself on their side, and is certain ul-
timately to settle the question at issue by a process
more decisive than logic — more authoritative even than
biblical exegesis. The world, they assure us, is out-
growing the old belief, and is demanding witii an im-
perativeness that can not be resisted, their better and
higher doctrine : the moral nature in man, humanity
and life, all even now are compelling the Church to a
decisive change in her belief and her teaching in the
direction of universal or nearly universal salvation.
Such is the continuous and confident affirmation. What
value really attaches to such claims, and what response
does this form of argument require?
At this point, it is indispensable, first of all, to draw
a broad and sharp line between reasonings derived from
EXPERIENCE NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL. 203
the consciousness or feelings or disposition of the nat-
ural man, and reasonings derived from the distinct and
specific field of Christian experience. For certainly,
no thoughtful mind can commit such a question as
that under consideration to the adjudication of the nat-
ural man — to the decision of the unsanctificd intellect
or of the unrenewed heart. That the Gospel revealed
in Christ is, in its doctrines as truly as in its require-
ments, at variance at almost every essential point with
the corrupted moral nature of humanity, is an axiom
which needs no proof here. More specifically, the
question whether there shall be any probation, or what
shall be the nature or the issues of probation, or when
and how God shall punish sin and unbelief, is one
which Christianity can not for a moment surrender to
the arbitration of the sinner himself. No inference
whatever can be drawn from his opinion or feelings or
disposition toward any doctrine on this subject, unless
it be the double inference that whatever opinion the
natural heart is inclined to hold, is therefore to be
viewed as doubtful, and that the teaching against which
that heart is in a chronic state of revolt, is probably the
very truth of God.
Carefully ruling out therefore all reasonings or judg-
ments respecting a Gospel after death which spring in
whatever subtle form from the unregenerate nature in
man, we also note still further that the type of argu-
ment here to be considered, though wholly spiritual in
quality, rests entirely on subjective rather than object-
ive foundations, and is consquently invested at the best
with none but sccondarv authoritativeness. In other
words, asking ourselves simply what the sanctified mind
and heart are inclined to believe on this question, we
must remember that we are still dealing with a form
204 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
of testimony which is but inward and ideal at the best,
and which therefore can liave no value whatever when-
ever found to be in antagonism with what the revealed
Word affirms to be the truth. Even when set over
against what Christian orthodoxy or the Christian sym-
bols teach, this internal verification of saving truth can
properly claim only a limited and inconchisive species
of autliority. But if such inward witness be found to
be at variance with the objective Revelation, made to
man once for all by inspiration, and embodied in the
authenticated Scriptures, then surely we need no other
evidence that it is unworthy of our acceptance; since
it is ten thousand fold more likely that the religious
consciousness or religious feeling or disposition of any
man or of any age is wrong in its affirmations, than
that the Bible inculcates error on any matter pertaining
to salvation.
With these preliminary considerations in mind, we
may now turn to consider in brief what
I. Christian • i • i i , i
Consciousness, ^^ descnbcd as the regenerate conscious-
its Nature and ncss, — Contemplating first its general
Authority. i , i • • -in
nature and authoritativeness, and after-
wards its specific testimony on the particular doctrine
in issue.
AVhat is the regenerate or Christianized, in distinc-
tion from the natural consciousness? The latter ob-
viously exists in two main forms, the spontaneous and
the philosophic. The first, is that instant and immedi-
ate capacity of knowing, which w^e recognize as a pri-
mary endowment of the mind, the light of all our
seeing and the basis of all intelligence, — possessed alike
by all men and constituting in each and all the funda-
mental ground and evidence of whatever is known.
CONSCIO rSNESS NA TUBAL AND REGENERATE. 205
The second is that higher form of the Fame capacity,
consequent upon the training and development of the
mental powers, through which the mind is enabled to
see truth in broader ranges, and in more abstract and
commanding forms — the power to behold and to know
things more distinctly in their principles and their fun-
damental relationships. In the phrase of Coleridge,
this philosophic consciousness, thus developed only in
an elect class, stands behind the spontaneous conscious-
ness, found in all classes, and is its trained guide, its
more intelligent interpreter. But both are alike nat-
ural, and as such are limited to such knowledge and
such truth as the natural man unvitalized by grace is
capable of discerning; obviously, there is a higher
sphere and mode of knowledge to which, by the nature
of the case, neither can ever rise.
That regeneration by the Spirit of God brings with
it, not a new faculty or sense, but an increased ability
to know, and especially to know spiritual and saving
truth, will not be questioned by any one who is finiil-
iar with the profound exposition of this fact contained
in the letter of Paul to the Corinthian Church. AVe
are assured on his authority that, in connection with
the experience of saving grace, there comes an enlarged
capacity to apprehend, a new form of spiritual discern-
ment, a measure of intellectual insight and experience,
which may properly be called a Christian, as distin-
guished from even the philosophic variety of the merely
natural consciousness. For, grace not only renews the
will in man, changes the order and range of his {)ur-
poses, quickens his higher while it represses his lower
sensibilities, and revolutionizes the entire domain of
feeling as well as action : it also induces a correspond-
ing transformation through all the mental life, expands
20G THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
the rational powers while it supplies new fields for
thought, and reveals larger objects of knowledge, and
so enables the soul to behold and to know what, apart
from grace, it would never have discerned. True faith
is more than a process of feeling or of choice, — it is
also a new vision, and a new disclosnre. This regen-
erated consciousness does not indeed concern itself pri-
marily with those objects of knowledge which are per-
ceived by the natural understanding, or even with the
abstract truth discovered by the reason : it is occupied
rather with spiritual verities, and with these in their
essential substance and being, and as related to the su-
preme issue of salvation. It specially beholds God, and
makes Him in His various personalities and relationships
manifest to the soul, — not indeed in such forms or modes
as render needless objective proofs or other ontologic
evidences, but still with a substantiating clearness and
force such as the highest naturalistic philosophy can
not attain.^
But while we recognize the existence of such a re-
vealing endowment, possessed in greater or less degree
by every regenerate soul, we are bound to protect our-
selves by wise discrimination from those serious errors
into which some advocates of this doctrine have fallen.
Such gracious consciousness, for example, is in no pri-
mary sense of the term a revelation — an immediate dis-
closure of spiritual truth to the soul, by a direct act of
God. Neither can it be regarded as an equivalent of
inspiration, or as a species of supernatural communica-
tion of knowledge closely analogous to that which those
insi)ired souls enjoyed by whom the Scriptures were
prepared for mankind. Neither should it be described
^Harris, SeJj'-Revdation of God, Chapter n: God in Conscious-
ness.
LIMIT A TIONS OF REGENERA TE CONSCIO USNESS. 207
as a preternatural interpreter of the Word, such as ena-
bles its possessor to read between the lines of that Word,
and to see more in its pages than the ^vords themselves,
as once selected by the Holy Ghost, distinctly teach.
Nor is this consciousness a teacher so loftv or so true,
that its testimonies do not need the substantiation of
divine things which the understanding gathers, and the
verifying reason contributes to faith. These are nat-
ural and frequent, but dangerous perversions of the
doctrine, as tauglit in the Pauline epistles ; and those
who most readily accept that doctrine in its blessed
fullness, probably have greatest occasion to guard their
minds against all such illicit implications.
For example, however widely the terms, revelation
and inspiration, may be employed as descriptive of the
complex historic process by which God has made Him-
self known to men in His infallible Word, they should
never be so reduced or minimized in their sacred im-
port, as to be taken as illustrative analogies of even
the highest, purest insight ever granted to believing
souls within the Church. At the best, our regenerate
consciousness will behold the truth of God not as
prophets and apostles beheld it, but only through a
glass darkly, and in forms which are narrowed and
partial, when contrasted with the fullness of Revela-
tion. The possession of such consciousness is conse-
quently no infill ible safeguard against error, however
sincerely its instructions are accepted. Moreover, the
regenerate consciousness even of the Church has not
been, is not, uniform in its teaching; but, as the history
of Christian belief too plainly shows, has often been
and still often is at variance with itself, — defective, in-
harmonious, distracting in its testimonies. It is never
safe, therefore, to interpret the Bible by the tests of
208 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
consciousness alone, however clear or impressive their
substantiation may seem to our minds : the living and
eternal Word stands ever above our highest apprehen-
sions of its teaching, and however far the witness within
may carry us, we shall ever find a wider circumference
of Scripture, stretching out beyond the widest ranges
of our experience, and furnishing for all saving truth a
broader, more enduring verification. With that supreme
objective authority, the authentications of consciousness,
however clear or lofty, can never become coordinate.^
Nor does the witness of consciousness render needless
those forms of proof and evidence with which the un-
derstanding and the reason of the Christian are directly
concerned, — those discursive and logical reasonings by
which the divine Revelation, with all its sacred con-
tents, is ever commended to the mind of man. There
is a serious error, as well as a sublime truth, in the
often quoted aphorism of Coleridge, respecting the self-
verifying power of revealed truth.- While every ma-
^An instructive lecture on this subject by Prof. E. C. Smyth,
entitled, From Lessing to Schleiermacher, or From Rntionalism to
Faith, may be found in the Boston Lectures, 1870, on Christian-
ity and Skepticism. The lecture is an ardent plea for the re-
ligious consciousness as the decisive standard of Christian doc-
trine ; its fundamental position is that the final and conclusive
test of the Christ of history is the Christ within us. But how
obvious it is that he who begins his theologizing on such a basis,
must logically end sooner or later in a theology, not of Scripture
as the supreme objective measure of belief, nor even of the in-
tellect and reason as the final test of truth, but of mere feeling —
a theology as variable and as uncertain as the sandy foundation
on which it is reared ?
2 " In the Bible there is more that finds me than I have ex-
perienced in all other books put together ; the words of the Bible
find me at greater depths of my being ; and whatever thus finds
me, brings with it an irresistible evidence that it proceeded from
the Holy Spirit." Coleridge, Letters on Inspiration, ii.
REVELATION ABOVE CONSCIOUSNESS. 209
tured Christian mind will come to possess such an in-
ternal standard— the resultant of all its antecedent
meditations, feelings, convictions, purposes within the
sphere of religion, and while it spontaneously judges
by this interior standard wdiatever further doctrine
arises within the range of its spiritualized vision, there
is always danger that what such a mind has come to
know and receive, may become a hindrance rather than
a help to further attainment, and that by ignoring the
objective signs and proofs of Christian doctrine, it may
lose its distinctive sense and estimate of that doctrine
as thus inwardly manifested. They are not always the
strongest disciples, who are readiest to ignore these
outward verifications, or to accept as sufficient what
Coleridge calls the irresistible evidence of the Spirit.
The understanding and the reason, investigation and
analysis, logic and demonstration, have their ordained
place and value in the commendation of the truth of
God to human faith, as truly as has the gracious con-
sciousness, whether of the individual believer or of the
Church. The ultimate standard of all doctrines, dog-
mas, opinions, hopes of men lies in the Divine Word
itself, as carefully studied, analyzed, verified by the hu-
man mind — working according to its own legitimate
and necessary laws.
In a word, the divine Revelation tries and tests, not
only all that lies in our consciousness, but that con-
sciousness itself; the living Scripture is both our su-
preme teacher and the final judge of our belief. And
the instant any believer begins to discriminate among
the biblical teachings, according to the suggestions of
his personal consciousness, accepting whatever conforms
to this standard, and ignoring or setting aside whatever
in the phrase of Coleridge does not find him, or com-
210 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
mend itself to him in the depths of his spiritual being,
he has entered npon a course -svhich at the best will ul-
timately render him blind to much that the divine
Word teaches, and which mav transmute his faith into
an empty speculation, and make his spiritual life a
rationalistic fantasy, or perchance a delusive form, rather
than a gracious reality and power. He may perhaps
re{)udiate past or present creeds or theologians — he may
turn a deaf ear to the holy voices of the Church, and
still be safe, so long as he remains loyal to the Word
of God, as _sufificient and final ; but when he submits
that Word to the final interpretation or arbitration of
consciousness, he plunges into a sea of perils whose
billows may whelm him even forever/
^It is almost inevitable that the problem of Inspiration should
become prominent, as it has already become, in connection with
the dogma of post mortem probation. In this treatise, no particu-
lar theory of inspiration is affirmed; it is held simply that the
books of the Old and New Testament, so far as they are canonic-
ally verified, are in a true sense the Word of God, and as such are,
when iutelligently interpreted, our infallible and sufficient guide
in all matters pertaining to salvation,— God rather than man being
their Author, and investing them, as the authentic record of His
revelation of Himself to man in grace, with an authoritativeness
which is divine and absolute throughout From this general
truth, it is a just inference that to substitute any hypothesis or
dogma not distinctly made known in this infallible Word, in the
place of a doctrine which is there openly revealed, or to propose
any modification of such doctrine in the interest of some suppos-
ititious dogma or hypothesis for wliich full biblical warrant is not
claimed, and to do this on the authority of consciousness, is a
process fatally at variance with sound views of Inspiration itself.
Nor is it stnuisxe that tlie geiuaine and thorough and holy loyalty
to Scripture of men who yeem to be engaged in such a process,
should be anxiously doubted in many quarters; though they may
be unconscious of their error, they are still within the dangerous
circle of its contracting folds, and are certain to experience its fatal
pressure at the end.
PARTICULAR TESTIMONY OF CONSCIO USNESS. 21 1
These cursory suggestions respecting the regenerate
consciousness in general, are to be regarded merely as
a helpful introduction to the main qucs-
, . . 1 ■ , 1 • r" i 1 II' Christian
tion here in issue, whether m tact sucii consciousness,
consciousness is arraying itself in favor '*« particular
- , . -> T ^ Testimony.
of the dogma of a salvation alter death.
As has been intimated, we are directly confronted at
this point by the claim strenuously urged by some ad-
herents of this dogma, that whatever may be the teach-
ing of the historic symbols, or however indistinct the
biblical basis and material for the dogma may seem, the
crystalizing consciousness of the church is even now
demanding it as a working hypothesis, and is evidently
moving rapidly toward its full and decisive acceptance
as an article of Christian belief and a law of Christian
action. How far is this claim justified by facts, and
what degree of significance is properly to be attached
to the tendency thus described ?
It may frankly be admitted here that this dogma,
like restorationism and other popular varieties of uni-
versalism, has gained some degree of currency in our
time, especially among certain classes of educated and
sensitive minds. It has found favor, as we have seen,
with some exegetical scholars, who have been led into
it by their interpretation of the few crucial passages
already considered; and also, on speculative grounds
chiefly, with some eminent theologians, especially in
Germany. It has been adopted with ardor by a par-
ticular school of English thought, — a school conspicu-
ous for the genius and culture, the rhetorical skill and
finish, the personal and official prominence of its lead-
ers, and conspicuous also for its general tendency to-
ward latitudinarjunism in doctrinal opinion, and for its
lack of definite and forceful theologic quality. It has
212 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
found currency in many departments of literature also :
the III Memoriam of Tennyson, for example, is saturated
with it, and is weakened and corrupted by it at nu-
merous points. Nor in poetry merely, but in multiplied
other literary forms, which need no enumeration here,
do we find traces of the universalistic hope that at last,
far off, at last, human sin will wholly disappear and
every earthly winter change to an eternal spring, so
that ultimately in the divine ordering,
"Not one life sliall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
Wlien God hath made the pile complete."
So far as this is a natural movement merely, whether
originating in idealistic conceptions of human nature
and human life, or springing from the spontaneous re-
volt of the heart against the stern and solemn teachings
of Scripture, it may safely be left, as so many similar
movements have been left in the past, to the searching
scrutiny and adjudication of time. But so far as it may
j)ropcrly assert for itself a spiritual rather than natural
origin, it certainly demands our thoughtful and dis-
passionate consideration, — especially since it is assum-
ing to be the present representative and forerunner of
a movement, more comprehensive and revolutionary,
which is yet not only to create a new theology for the
Church, but also to inspire and control the practical
life and activities of Christendom. Is this claim any-
thin"- more than another ilkistration of that common
tendency of minds which are both strong and sensi-
tive, — minds animated by earnest convictions, but in-
sufficiently submissive to the restraints of calm and
thoughtful investigation — to fancy that the thought of
the Church must be perceiving and believing what they
so ardently affirm and hold as true ? Have we not here,
SUCH TESTIMONY UNCERTAIN. 213
in other Avords, an example of that fallacious form of
argument which consists chiefly in claiming universal-
ity for what, in fact, is particular and local only — in
inferring from a few conspicuous instances the exist-
ence of a great stream of tendency, which is destined
erelong to overspread the continents? And further,
were the existence of such a general tendency estab-
lished by sufficient evidence, Avould it not still be legit-
imate to inquire whether this were indeed an instance
of hcalthfid advance and development along lines which
the Holy Ghost has chosen and revealed for the guid-
ance of the Church, or were rather the dark premoni-
tion of some temporary falling away from revealed
truth, of some grievous relapse into destructive error,
such as have already more than once made their ap-
pearance in Christendom ? Still further, might we
not fairly raise at this point the rudimental question
whether, if such generic consciousness actually existed,
its dictates could properly have any conclusive force
with us, unless they were distinctly commended and
confirmed by the objective and eternal Word? And,
beyond this, M^e might well ask whether, in vievv^ of the
marked antagonism between this asserted consciousness
and the generic consciousness of past ages as evidenced
in all Christian symbolism, we would not be justified
at this point iu setting consciousness over against con-
sciousness, court against court, and finally in refusing, to
accept cither as an authoritative expression and stand-
ard of the true faith?
But it is enough to note the simple fact that no such
generic witness of the regenerate consciousness exists,
or seems to be rising like a new sun on the l)i-(»ad
horizon of Christian belief. Not only is it far from
being true that the Church is accepting or is tending
214 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
toward the acceptance of this assuming dogma : the
truth rather is that the Church is still intelligently
standing steadfastly by her ancient and certified faith,
and this not on traditional grounds merely or mainly,
as is so often alleged, but rather because her present
study of the inspired Word leads her directly and only
to the old conclusion. The fact rather is, that so far
as the attention of the Church has been directed to this
new opinion, it has distinctly rejected instead of accepting
it, and this rejection is apparently strengthening rather
than weakening, as the real nature and implications of
the dogma are made more apparent to the multitude of
the faithful. At the strongest, we can discover nothing
more at this point than the religious consciousness of
a class, and a relatively small class of believers, setting
itself up against the ecumenical consciousness of the
Church, — a consciousness regulated, as the Church rev-
erently believes, by what the Bible positively teaches,
and which is determined to be loyal at whatever cost
to every thing, on this subject as ou all others, which
the Bible directly declares to be true.
And this must remain the final response to the pre-
sumptuous claim here considered, — at least until such
time as evangelical Christendom shall be visibly seen
to be forsaking its old creed, and accepting a more
universalistic view of Christ, of the Gospel and salva-
tion, and of the future of the human race in the life
to come.* Vague prognostications that such a change
^It is a noticeable fact that in the advocacy and especially in
the defence of the dogma under discussion, it has been continu-
ally assumed that this change has already taken place, or is now
in fact transpiring. "With singular boldness it has been affirnu d,
without any adequate historic evidence, that the old formularies
of belii'f are all outgrown at this point, and are substantially laid
AN UNWARRANTED CLAIM. 215
Avill happen, born largely of the wish that it may hap-
pen, are of small import here. Sweeping affirmations
as to what the world outside of the Church is believ-
ing, are even less significant, since the opinion, the
sentiment, the wish of the world have never been ac-
knowledged by Christianity as authoritative in matters
of belief. Neither are casual and local agitations with-
in the Church, — the Impulses or movements of a class,
the outbreaks of personal enthusiasm or party zeal, the
humanitarian pronunciamentos of some school or sec-
tion — to be mistaken for distinct indices of some great
theologic revolution. Nay more ; were the church itself
to yield for a time to such influences, and consent to
the ignoring or modifying of what she has long been
teaching as salutary doctrine, even this would not prove
this illusive hypothesis true, since the church of any
age is a thousand fold more likely to be erroneous in
its interpretations, than the Bible is to be false. But
apart from all this, after comprehensive survey of the
entire field, we may unhesitatingly conclude for the
aside already. A more nnwarranted assertion was never made.
It is indeed true, for example, that large improvements have been
made recently, as in the days of Jonathan Edwards, within the
Calvinistic system. But these improvements liave been made for
the strengthening, not the subversion or impairing of that system ;
and their admission has in fact immensely enhanced its claiin to
an honorable place among the accepted systems of evangelical be-
lief. The allegation that modern Calvinism is dying out, is wholly
unsupported by facts ; on the contrary, the system bearing that
maligned but noble name, was never so strong in the esteem of
Christendom as at this moment. Nor are the other kindred sys-
tems of faith dying out, or losing in any appreciable degree their
hold on the judgment and heart of the Church of God. In fact,
evangelical orthodoxy Avas never more alive, never more instinct
with conscious power, never more productive or boneficcnt than
in our time.
216 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
present at least, that whatever may be true of some
conspicuous minds or classes, the consciousness of the
cliurch is, as yet, practically uncorrupted by this error,
and shows no strong indications of being seriously af-
fected by it in the near future.
Passing over into another department of Christian
experience, often confused with the preceding yet in
fact distinct from it, we are called to
III. The Ap- . , , , , -1 1 •
peal to FeeUng— cousider what may be described in
Geuerai Sugges- p;eneral as tlic appeal to religious feel-
tions. f . P , 1 . r.
mg, in su])port ot the doctrine ot a
future salvation. — Here again it is of vital moment to
emphasize the distinction already suggested between the
religious feelings, and all forms of^natural sensibility,
however close the resemblance or relation between
them. There is no doubt, for example, that the desire
to avoid the pains of hell or to gain the awards of
heaven, may have in them no religious quality what-
ever — may be as intrinsically selfish at the root as the
desire to gain any other form of good for the sake of
self. Much of the current appeal to our sympathetic
interest in sinful men, or to our pity for the lost,
springs from a kindred source in the fallen nature, and
is equally void of religious v/orth or authority. Neither
can it fairly be questioned that a considerable part of
the argument urged against the orthodox doctrine of
guilt and ])unishment, against the wisdom and right-
eousness of God in His vast scheme of moral adminis-
tration, against eternal condemnation, is of the same
type. When thoroughly analyzed, such argument too
often betravs its origin in natural sentiment, in a bad
selfhood, rather than in holy and submissive faith.
Indeed, is there not some just ground for the query,
RELIGIOUS FEELING ALONE ADMISSIBLE. 217
harsh as it may seem, ^.vhethcr the strongest popular
support of current universallsm and its adjunctive er-
rors, is not born of such merely naturalistic sensibil-
ity — is Dot an illicit protest of what at the bottom is
human selfishness, against the plaus and ways of God
as set forth in Revelation?
It is indeed true that the Bible itself sometimes ap-
peals to our natural feeling, and that our holy religion
justifies itself at certain points by its considerate recog-
nition of the better sensibilities of human nature. Our
Lord occasionally seems to rest His teachius; on founda-
tions thus laid in the natural man : some of His para-
bles of mercy, of equity, of stewardship, of warning,
for illustration, find their primary force largely in the
fact that they are spontaneously indorsed and ratified
by the natural reason and conscience. Paul also, in
more than one instance, sustains his great doctrines
and precepts in a similar way. Yet the manifest fact is
that neither the Bible nor Cliristianity consents to be
subjected to the tests which natural feeling supplies,
however urgent such feeling may appear: they rather
present themselves for human credence on far higher
ground — on the ground that they come to men directly
from God, and that they possess an intrinsic right to
demand that all human impulses, sensibilities, desires,
shall always be held in loyal subordination to their su-
preme authority. Were mankind sinless, and all their
sympathetic feelings in full harmony Avith the reality
of things as God sees it, still Christian faith must stand,
not on such human supports, but on the truth itself
as He reveals it. But the havoc which sin has wroug-ht
in human nature is at no point more apparent or more
dreadful than within the circle of human sensibility.
Kot merely has it given wild and destructive play to
218 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
all the more sensuous and selfish tendencies in human
nature; it has likewise repressed, dwarfed, blunted all
higher feeling; its worst effects manifest themselves in
the loftier sphere of ethical sensibility. How far man
has been carried, during the long centuries of his sin,
down in the scale of right and pure feeling, it is im-
possible for us to tell : we only begin to know in some
measure how dreadful the depth is, when we begin to
aspire upward toward that angelic range of spiritual
sensibility whose heights, even in our blindness, we
dimly discern and faintly long to reach. That we can
not trust these dwarfed and enfeebled sensibilities as
our guides in studying the celestial verities of religion,
is only too obvious. He who determines to believe
only what they teach him, or sets them up as tests and
standards of tlie truth unfolded in the divine Word,
can reasonably expect nothing better than delusion or
unbelief as the outcome of his false premise.
The broad fact is that none but purely religious feel-
ing — such sensibility as is born of grace, and is peculiar
to the regenerate man — can properly be admitted here
as entitled to any weight ; the same rule which excludes
the authority of the natural as distinct from gracious
consciousness, must no less decisively shut out the voice
of natural as distinct from gracious feeling also. But
how far may we rely on the witness of the religious
sensibilities as proof of the truth or falsity of any doc-
trinal proposition contained in Scripture? Every reader
of Lockdeij Hall will recall the indignant protest which
that remarkable poem contains, against regarding the
feelings as dangerous guides in life, and against preach-
ing down the heart with petty maxims gathered from
the field of prudential experience. Like protest is
often made against the orthodox theology, as tending to
THEOLOGY OF FEELING INCONCLUSIVE. 219
the undue repression of gracious sensibility, — as exalting
the cold processes and decisions of the Christian intel-
lect into supreme authoritativeness, to the exclusion of
those valuable modifications or meliorations of belief
which have their origin rather in holy emotion. In
the one case as in the other, such protest contains an
ap})reciable element of truth. That orthodoxy Avould
sometimes be not only mollified but improved in both
form and potency, by a more distinct admixture of the
emotional element, may readily be admitted. Within
certain limits it is as true that there is a theology of
feeling, as that there is a theology of the intellect; and
in the highest sense, that may be regarded as the best
type of theology in which both intellect and feeling,
thought and sensibility, are most judiciously and hap-
pily blended as regulative forces.
Yet, how obvious it is that a theology inspired and
shaped substantially by the gracious emotions, can have
little authoritativeness or worth, when compared with
a theology which is visibly rooted and grounded in the
objective Word of God, faithfully studied, wisely un-
derstood ! That Word existed before humanity, is the
outgrowth of a process higher than man, waits not for
anv indorsement which human feeling may bring, as-
serts each doctrine and each duty with a supramundane
majesty which is primary, instant, perpetual in its ap-
peal to the soul.^ So far as the religious sensibilities
^Fcr an illustration of the opposite view, see Hunger, Appeal
to Life; Preface. "The Word came by iiis[)iration through human-
itij, and the processes of human life, and the actual life of its
Head ! . . Tlie interpretation of the Word searches and reads
life as it goes on in the world in history. . . Tlie trulh it jinds
here, it finds to be the recealed Word of God. . . Truth is not actu-
ally trutli until it gets past the respect properly entertained
for dogma, and beyond reverence for an external revelation." Here
220 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
have boon educated by it, and conform themselves to
its peculiar guidance, they may indeed be helpful both
in assisting the mind to right apprehensions of sacred
doctrine, and in confirming its faith in the gracious
verities which God, not the sanctified reason or heart,
has taught. But on the other hand, whenever either
the reason or the sensibilities of even the most mature
Christian are exalted above that external revelation,
and made the primary instructor of the soul as to the
truths on which its salvation depends,, not only is the
divine order of things subverted, and Scripture reduced
to a secondary place among the educational forces in
the spiritual life: the door is opened at once for the ad-
mission of a thousand serious errors, and that life itself
is directly exposed to enormous if not certainly destruc-
tive perils. And where is there any adequate protec=
tion against such liabilities, unless it be found in the
objective Word itself — in that Word carefully and often
studied by the mind until its saving truths are not only
apprehended in their full cogency, but are accepted by
the intelligent soul as being the very doctrine which
God has given man, to be believed and obeyed in order
to his everlasting life?
Granting to the religious feelings under this just con-
dition, some secondary or tributary ministry to Chris-
tian faith, we are bound still further to utter a word of
warning against certain specific errors to which believers
are exposed in the application of fhis generic provision.
It is a frequent though palpable mistake, for example,
V.0 find not only a radic-al'y defective theory of inspiration,
but also by natural consc^qucnce a radically false conception of
Revelation itself. Doc>s the dotrma advocated by this author re-
quire such revolutionary modifications of belief on points so vital
as these?
APPEAL TO THE HUMANE FEELING. 221
to allow one variety or class of spiritual emotions to con-
trol in the. determination of some doctrinal question, to
the exclusion of other varieties or classes of holy feel-
ing equally entitled to a voice in such adjudication. It
is a mistake equally obvious and hardly less frequent,
to subvert the natural order or gradation of the relig-
ious sensibilities, by elevating those to the highest place
which in the nature of the case arc subordinate, and are
therefore entitled to minor consideration only. No less
serious is the radical mistake of ignoring that sacred
and beautiful harmony born of the Spirit, Avhich in the
complete Christian life must ever subsist between all
the varieties, grades, classes of holy emotion — a har-
mony which has its perfect type in the sublime concord
and serenity which exist eternally above all apparent
discords, among the attributes and the affections of God
Himself. That these are real exposures will be apparent
to every one who has studied the history of opinion in
this department of theology: illustrations of each Avill
come into view in a more specific survey of the field.^
Among the varieties of religious sensibility to which
appeal is made in support of the dogma of i^ost mortem
probation, the most conspicuous is what ^^^ particular
may be styled the humane feeling, — Appeal to the
1 [, • 'i !/>• 1 ii Humane Feeling.
love tor man, expressing itseit in broth-
erly interest in his welfare, in pity for his sinful and
^On the illicitness of the attempt to interpret Scripture through
the feehngs, or to suhvert hibUcal doctrine tlirough appeals to the
rehgious sentiments, see Hovey, State of the Impenitent Dead, Lect.
vn. WRKiiiT, G. F., Probation after Death. On tlie other hand,
Beeciier, E., Doctrine of Retribution, maintains that tlio tenet of
an endless condemnation can not l)e true because human fcehng
is against it. Similar error appears in Wiiiton, Is "Eternal " Pun-
222 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
lost condition, and in ardent desire for his del'iverance
from sin, and especially from the condemnation, present
and future, due to his sin. Here of course we legit-
imately exclude all merely natural sensibility, and con-
template only that holy form of love for man, that
broader, purer humanity, which has its justifying ground
in the second great commandment, as both enunciated
and exemplified by our divine Lord.
That this type of spiritual emotion figures largely,
sometimes controllingly, in the advocacy of the dogma
in question, is very obvious. Vivid pictures of the
weaknesses and moral disabilities of men, of the evil
forces working against their better natures and like
strong tides sweeping them away from their proper
moorings, of these better natures full of good desires
and capable of right action though often overcome by
evil, of the incompleteness and narrowness of life in
many cases and the suddenness with which it is often
terminated before it has been well begun, of the awfulness
of being lost and lost forever under the retributive
wrath of God, of the unutterable miseries of hell and
the torment of the worm that dieth not and the fire
that is not quenched, — vivid pictures of this sort are
so drawn out before the mind as to arouse every hu-
mane feeling, and to hurry it on by an influence stronger
than logic to the conclusion that there must be some
other, less jiainful solution of the gi'cat problem of the
future life. The potency of this appeal to the arbitra-
tion of feeling is only too apparent; and the results,
though varying in degree, are uniform in kind. ^Vhile
ishment Endless ? But when or where has Christianity consented
that its doctrines should be tested by a standard so fragile, so vari-
able, so often contradictory as this must bo ?
SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS APPEAL. 223
some arc led by puoIi awakened sympatliy merely to
some meliorating view, some gentler possibility,, such as
the one here considered, others are carried over by the
same process sometimes into restorationism or annihi-
lationism or some kindred hypothesis — sometimes into
the more radical error of absolute universali.->m.
Contemplating here this n)eliorati:ig view only, we
sec at once that its real value must after all be measured
largely by the degree of ouccess actually following the
experiment of a probation after death. The question
whether there be few or many that are saved in this
■way, still confronts us. Have we any information which
clearly assures us that any will actually be bronght to
Christ by this 'post mortem presentation of the Gospel?
Will the number of souls thus redeemed be large, or
only a small fragment of those who in eternity may hear
and decide upon the oifer of salvation ? Will not the
present problem of sin and condemnation, in an innumer-
able host of cases, still remain to perplex our faith? AVill
there not be a hell after all, whose horrors must be real,
and M'hose duration must be everlasting? Shall it be
said in reply, as Maurice and Farrar affirm, and as Ten-
nyson confidently sings, that all the dead, or at least all
but an insignificant fragment, will in fact be saved
by grace in the intermediate state? This is only
another, more polished variety of iwiiversaiism, without
warrant in either nature or Scrijiture. Shall it be said,
as the American school of advocates are more cautiously
saying, that we can assert nothing beyond the fact of
probation, and can furnish no clear guarantee that the
grace which so often fails to save in this life will be
more successful in another? This answer, leaving us
with the old perplexity in our hearts, wholly fails to
satisfy the humane feeling whose support it seeks. The
224 rilE WITXESS OF CJIFJSTIAN EXPEIilEXCE.
hypothesis of a probation which may actually save
no one, or which may save only a few out of the va.-^t
multitude of the dead, only introduces a new element
of darkness and painfuluess into a problem already
overwhelming- in its appeal to our pious sympathies.
The fact is, that any hypothesis Avhich does not solve
more positively than this the fundamental question re-
specting the destiny of the dead, is beset, so far as our
spiritual sensibilities are concerned, with all the eflibar-
rassment that surrounds the orthodox view. Thouah
it appeals to feeling, and rests so much upon feeling,
it gives no satisfying answer to its own appeal.
Another difficulty of much greater magnitude appears
in the singular ignoring of unquestioned and unchange-
able fact, which is so apparent in this hypothesis.
AVhat is the essential fact here? Can we doubt that
probation both natural and gracious, sin and guilt, con-
demnation and punishment for wrong doing, the pangs
and retributions of conscience, forebodings of soul in
view of eternity, death and judgment, and the resistless
wrath of God flaming out against evil men forever, are
all realities — realities not merely fundamental in Scrip-
ture, but verified in many unquestionable forms by the
testimonies of nature and of the soul iu man? And
must not these realities be taken fully into account, —
considerately weighed in all their solemnity, and pro-
perly adjusted and provided for in any scheme of sal-
vation for man, whether in this life or in another?
And of what avail is it in such a case so to stir up the
feelings, so to arouse the sympathies, whether natural
or religious, as to render the mind insensible to such
verities, and to pervert its vision and apprehension of
the fictual truth? The foct that the reality of things
pains us does not change the reality of things; the blind
ILLICIT FLA Y UPON THE HUMANE FEELING. 225
protests of our feeling ^vill net alter the divine pir.n;
tears cannot wash away the eternal verity. And is it
not both foolish and wicked to work th.us n])on the
spiritual sensibilities through ungrounded hypotheses or
illusive guesses, until the soul grows indifferent to the
essential fact, and comes to rest at last in a dognia
which the divine Word nowhere commends to human
acceptance ?
AVhat men need to know in this world is not what
will give them present gratification or calm their present
solicitude, but that which is for their best interest,
their endurino; welfare. Vain is it to soothe bv anodynes
or to comfort through temporary stimulation the suf-
ferer from disease, whose only hojie of future health
lies in an hour of severe torture, and the sharj) knife of
the skillful surgeon. The true friend is he who solaces
by no illusive promises, who conceals the reality with
no flattering words, who blunts the feeling with no
momentary sedatives, while the consuming disease goes
on and on toward its fatal consummation. The true
friend rather is he who sees the case as it is, and
honestly seeks for it not alleviation, but restoration, —
Avho yields to no inconsiderate grief, no morbid sym-
pathy, but stands bravely by the bedside of the suf-
ferer, and sustains him with brotherly consolation while
the physician performs his painful but indispensable
task. The illustration is approj)riate here. Th.^ truest
impulses of Christian sensibility are not those whicli
incite the soul to anticipations, ])leasant enough in the
contemplation, but having the fatal defect of possessing
no sure foundation in the inspired "Word, — not those
which be<i:uile men into indifference to the solemnities
of a present probation, by promising them a probation
under possibly more favorable auspices, in the life to
226 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
come — not those which, by unwarrantable interjireta-
tions of the mission of Christ and the scope of His
religion and the nature of the biblical salvation, lay
broad foundations, not merely for a probation for in-
fants and the heathen, but f)r a salvation which
includes the race substantially, and which will sooner
or later restore all men, or nearly all, to the image of
God and to eternal blessedness. Those are the truest
and best impulses of Christian sensibility which, vmder
every stress and pain, cling closest to the facts as given
in Scripture, and which lead their possessor to tell
sinful men the truth and the whole truth, exactly as
God has declared it, and on His authority alone.
So far as this appeal is based on what we know re-
specting the sentiment of benevolence in God, its defec-
tive quality, as we have already seen, becomes easily
apparent. For that sentiment takes into account, not the
momentary comfort or the partial advantage, but rather
the complete well-being of the soul, and this not for
the brief hour of time alone, but for a long eternity.
It contemjdates not merely the interests of a class, and
that the class which is farthest away from Him in feel-
ing and in character, but rather the welfare of the
entire universe with all its classes and gradations ot
moral being. It studies the good of the righteous as
well as the good of the sinful, regards the interests of
the law as well as the feelings of the transgressor, acts
accf)rding to the behests of an affection whose scope is
broad as the universe of spiritual being and whose
depths are unfathomable to mortal or even seraphic
intel'igcnco. What a benevolence so lofty and perfect
may induce such a person as God to do with sinful
men — men who have misused their opportunity while
undergoing an earthly probation, natural or gracious,
APPEAL TO THE SENSE OF JUSTICE. 227
it surely is not ours to determine, or even to sur-
mise. We are bound to pause where the Scripture
pauses in its disclosures — to accept simply what Chri>t
and the Spirit have taught us; hoping for nothing and
promising nothing as to either time or eternity beyond
what this God has in these ways distinctly revealed.
To go a step farther is perilous — is death.
Kindred appeal is sometimes made, especially in the
more recent advocacy of the dogma of future salvata-
tion, to the sentiment of equity, the sense of justice, as
combining with the humane feeling iust ,. . , .,
° _ J^ '> \ . Appeal to the
considered, in the demand for this hy- curistian sense
pothesis.— It is alleged that we imper- «f J"«"ce.
atively need such an explanation as is afforded in this
dogma to satisfy the feeling of right as well as the im-
pulse of benevolence, and that in the fact that such
satisfaction is gained through this hypothesis, we have
convincing evidence that the hypothesis itself is true.
We have already had occasion to weigh this argument
from justice in other relations; some brief reference to
it seems desirable in this final connection also.
The underlying presumption at this point is, that
whatever God is doing is right, and that His intentions
as to the future of man and of the moral universe are
right also. In the estimate of every Christian mind
this presumption is supreme and decisive. That per-
plexities inscrutable to us will be apjwrent in an
administration so vast and comprehensive, — that faith
must often be exercised and absolute trust be required,
especially at points where this administration manifests
itself in darker forms such as chastisement or retribu-
tion, is an axiom with every true believer. But such
a measure of confidence in the divine administration is
228 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
demanded by the nature of the case, and is spontaneous
in every devout soul. Nothing that anywhere appears,
whether of present sin and evil or of future possibility,
can really disturb the faith of the pious heart in the
perfection of the divine character or dealing; it will,
it must hold beyond all question the underlying postu-
late that God is right always and everywhere.
But wc are dealing here with fact as well as pre-
sumption. The tremendous fact is that this righteous
God has actually instituted among men a system of
probation, is placing each soul upon trial, subjects men
to temptation, chastizes wrong doers, is punishing sin
in this life, warns of future retribution, and has revealed
the existence of a hell created by His hand as a prison-
house for transgressors.^ In other words, this righteous
God is doing and will do exactly what the Bible de-
clares Him to be doing and intending to do: nor have
we the slio-htest ground for inferring that He will ever
iln wide contrast witli the revolt against Hell, which is so con-
spicuous among the advocates of future probation, stand those
imi>ressive hues which the genius of Daxtc {Canto III.: 1-8)
imagined as engraved above the entrance of the Inferno,— Wnes
which describe not merely the belief and teaching of the Church
in that century, but also the profoundest conviction of the Church
in all ages, as to the eternity of Hell, and to the wisdom and
justice, and even the benevolence of God in laying the deep
foundations of that necessary prison in His moral universe :
" TJirough me men pass to th' city of great woe ;
Through me men pass to endless misery ;
Through me men pass where all the lost ones go.
JuMice it was that mored nuj Malrr high,
The Power of God it icas that fashioned me,
Wisdom snprrme, and primal Cliariiy.
Before me nothing was of things that be,
Save things eternal, and eternal I endure."
— Plmnptrc's Translation.
INADEQUACY OF SUCH APPEAL. 229
swerve in tlie least degree from the line of aetion which
he has thus announced to mankind, and on which lie
has in fact entered. Hih sense of equity will never
change; His grace, however large or free, will never
undertake anything that is contrary to what His equita-
ble purpose has- already determined. In such a case,
are we in any possible sense at liberty to set up our
sentiment of justice — our feeling as to what God ought
to do, either now or in the future, over against whjit
He is doing in fact, or has declared his jjurpose to do
hereafter? There can be but one Christian answer lo
such a question. To revolt against anything that He is
doing, or promising to do, on the ground that such a
course on His part is contrary to our sense of moral
feeling, is a crime — is treason. It is not given to us to
say that He ouglit to do, and consequently to infer that
He will do, what our sense of equity seems to require
that He should do, even though his Word should reveal
the opposite. To do this is simply to set that sense of
equity on the throne above Him, and to aflfinu our right
not merely to be judges of His action, but even to
direct such action according to our ethical preference.
Surely no argument is needful to show that treason such
as this is a crime hardly lower in His piu'c sight than
the consummating sin against the Holy Ghost.
How shallow aijd partial, how wholly inadequate to
solve such administrative problems, this human Muti-
ment of justice is, even in its most spiritualized Ibiins,
may be easily perceived. Contemplating these problems
in the light of eternity, do we not see at once how
incompetent the mind of man or of angel, imen'ight-
ened by revelation, must be to say what (jlod ought to
do hereafter with those who sin against Him in this
life? Considering the interests of an entire moral uni-
230 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
verse, in contrast with the narrower interests of a class,
however largo, are we not utterly confounded in the
effort to judge of what equity toward the universe may
require God to do with that class or with the individ-
ual souls that compose it? Have the holy no rights as
well as the sinful and unholy — no right to protection
against the influence and domination of unrestrained
wrong, no right to a peacefid existence under the benign
sway of a government which will faithfully and surely
punish sin and rebellion, no right to the compensa-
tions which in the divine constitution of things arc
])romised to virtue, or to the eternal exemption from
sin and unholiness which constitutes one of the special
privileges of heaven ? Contemplating God Himself,
and what in his own siglit must be forever due to Him
as a perfect Being and the eternal Head of the moral
universe, how prostrate we seem to be, how utterly
incapable, in the endeavor to decide, from the impulses
of our moral feeling, what is best and right for Him to
do with those who may die; in ignorance, in sin, in
unbelief! Viewed in any aspect, is it not impossible for
a considerate mind, at all instructed and rectified by
grace, even to attempt, apart from the plain teaching of
the Scriptures, the solution of any of these great ad-
ministrative problems? More specifically, how would
such a miiul dare, on the warrant of its innate sense of
justice, to say whether God shall institute a scheme of
probation, who shall be included in that scheme, what
form3 it shall assume, how long it sliall last, or what
shall bo' its outcome ?
Is it not to be feared that these appeals to the
sentiment of justice in behalf of the dogma proposed,
spring too often trom shallow rather than large or deep
views of what God is as a perfect Being, and of what
LOYALTY TO GOD SUPREME. 231
His moral administration is, regarded as the outgrowth
and expression of His perfect nature ? Are they not
seriously lacking in holy fear of God, in profound
reverence for His person and His manifested works and
ways, in that solemn awe which ever filled the breast
of prophet and apostle, in submissive acquiescence in
His holy sovereignty and in His perfect law, in that
sacred loyalty to Him which receives unquestioningly
whatever He sends, and does without c^uestion what-
ever He commands? But these are qualities which
must enter as vitally as our sense of equity into all
worthy contemplation of such a problem as that here
considered. He In whose religious life they do not
flourish as the essential counterpoise to the humane
feeling — as the sacred correlative to the conviction that
God is love, is largely if not fatally incapacitated from
right apprehensions of such an issue. So long as his
spiritual being Is not suffused and solemnized throughout
by their subduing power, the truth on this point, as on
many others, will remain to him a mystery — a mystery
which nothing but larger culture of that fear of the
Lord which is the beginning of wisdom, can ever
dissolve.
Let it be observed especially that these profounder
sentiments, and particularly the sentiment of loyalty,
find their supreme point of interest and of concentra-
tion In the Gospel of life in Christ Jesus. As angels
desire to look into the sacred mysteries of this plan of
grace, hovering ever around it in holy reverence and
adoration, so around tliat gracious scheme all the holy
instincts, all the deepest sensibilities of the sanctified
soul spontaneously gather. Fear as well as joy, rev-
erence and awe as well as love, cordial submission
and sense of loyalty to this Gospel, spring up irresistibly
232 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
in the breasts of those who b.avc worthily received it.
The true Cliristian receives Christ exactly as H3 is
revealed, accepts His mediation in the jirecise form in
Avhich it is exhibited to the eye of faith, submits to
every condition which the Mediator imposes, welcomes
the oflPor just as it is made, and believes in the nature
and extent of the consequent salvation precisely as they
are made known to him in the Scriptures. He has no
wish to change a single feature, to alter any term or
condition, to enlarge or to abridge the applications of
this Gospel in any direction — to rationalize the plan of
mercy at any point, or to criticise a single aspect or ele-
ment in it, as these are revealed to him in the inspired
Word. Idealizing speculations respecting what cither
love or equity may require God to do with His own
scheme of redemption in spheres and relations unre-
vealed, are wholly foreign to the instincts of such a
mind. It rather receives the messa<2:e of mercv ex-
actly as it is given, and reposes on it exactly as it
stands, — never doubting that he who provided such a
Gospel will accomplish through it just what Pie has
declared His purpose to accomplish, and will at last,
alike in salvation and in condemnation, fully justify-
before the universe His righteous works and wavs.^
One other variety of the appeal to religious feeling
may be briefly considered here,— the appeal to the senti-
ment of hope.— Hope has been well defined in general
lit would be well for certain American expounders of the
dogma of future probation, on the basis of these appeals to feeling,
Avere they to ponder the weighty words of ]\rosES Stuart, in the
.conclusion to his convincing treatise on Eternal Punishment :
" The question is not what this or that person wishes, or desires
to have true, but what do the Sacred Writings teach."
APPEAL TO CHRISTIAN HOPE. 233
as a complex emotion, compounded of desire and ex-
pectation. Christian hope is in like ^.j ^ ^^^ ^^
manner made np of holy desires on ti>e sentiment of
one side, ever looking toward and long- "*"''
ing for some spiritual good, and on the other side of
trustful anticipation and assurance, based on the divine
promises as to the ultimate realization of that which is
desired.
What now is it legitimate for the Christian to wish
for, so far as a future salvation is concerned, and what
may he be warranted in thus anticipating?
As to Christian desire, the general answer obviously
is, that we may properly wish for just what and only
what God has in His Word set before us as spiritual
good. It is His to judge, for example, what is really
best for us in our individual life as believers, and His
both to direct and to limit our desires concerning our-
selves to what is best in His sight. As on one hand,
it is not lawful for us to narrow the range of our holv
wishes — to long or pray for less than God tliinks it
best for us to have or to aspire after, so on the other
hand it is unlawful in us to indulge inordinate aspira-
tions, or allow ourselves to long for anything which God
has not by His Word and Spirit taught us to desire.
In a word, to hope for what is not promised in Scrip-
ture, or warranted by the divine dealings with men in
grace, is illegitimate — is sinful. On the broadest scale,
all unwarranted desires, whether relating to ourselves
or to others, or to the moral universe, are in their
essence wronir — are born of self and nature rather than
of God.
What is true of desires, is true also of expectations.
God teaches His children to expect large things, but
not to expect everything which to their narrow vision
234 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
may seem possible or desirable. "We have the right to
anticipate for ourselves, even in this life, and still more
during a long eternity, rewards and consummations to
faith, sueh as it hath not entered into the thought or
heart of man to comprehend. AVe have the right to
look forward to a glorious age for humanity even on
earth, and to expect a supreme fruition of all that God
has promised for our redeemed race throughout the sub-
lime ages of an unending future. Not expectation mere-
ly, but full assurance also, is justified here. But we have
no right to expect anything for ourselves or for man-
kind, either now or hereafter, on any other terms or
conditions than those which God has Himself laid
down, or to anticipate, either now or hereafter, any-
thing more or other than He has promised. We are to
expect for ourselves, and for the race, simply what He
has taught us to expect — nothing less and nothing more.
Christian hope, like every other holy sentiment, needs
the guiding and restraining as well as inspiring influ-
ence of the Holy Spirit, in order to preserve it from
error at these points, and to fix it on right and worthy
objects only. And we are ever to remember that in the
sight of God it is as truly an offense to indulge inordi-
nate expectations, to anticipate what He has not revealed,
as it is to refuse to trust Him in what He has made clear
and plain to childlike faith.
What warrant then has the Christian to desire that
the salvation provided in the Gospel should be in its
nature, conditions or applications, anything other or
broader than God has revealed it to be ? What war-
rant has he to anticipate that the practical outcome of
this Gospel will be something larger than the Bible
represents it, — that it will be extended into other
LIMITATIONS OF SUCH HOPE. 235
spheres and reach other classes and accomplish other
ends than those which the Word of God has made
known? More specifically, is it lawful for the believer
to desire or expect the salvation of any others than
those whom God has revealed His gracious intention to
save, — to desire or expect the annihilation of those who
have wickedly rebelled against God, as being their only
method of rescue from the death that never dies, — to
desire or expect the restoration of every human soul to
holiness, when God lias declared that there is a sin
which cannot be forgiven either in this life or in the
life to come, — to desire or expect the final salvation of
those who have sinned against the Holy Ghost, or of
the fallen angels, or of Satan himself, the founder and
head of the principalities and powers of evil ? These
are legitimate, as they are serious questions; and the
Christian answer to them will help much in determin-
ing how far religious hope may lawfully go in its
dreams concerning the future state of men, and in
showing just Avhere and how such hope may become an
illusion and a snare to the soul.
But while we recognize these necessary limitations to
the sentiment of hope, we are by no means constrained
to regard the legitimate sphere of such hope as narrow
or insufficient. God has not inspired within the breast of
His children a feeling so holy, so animating, without
furnishing for it adequate material and the largest
healthful scope. In respect, for example, to the number
of the saved and of the lost, it is by no means just to
allege with Farrar that, according to the position of
orthodoxy, the latter class must include the vast major-
ity of mankind. AVe might raise here the legitimate
query whether those who advocate a future probation
236 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
merely, have any real assurance that such probation
would result in the actual salvation of a majority of
mankind. It might also be urged in reply that the
problem involved is not one of numbers or majorities
merely, — that the aggregated gain in character and in
consequent uscfidncs.s and bliss attained by the saved
minority, ^vith all its glorious possibilities throughout
eteniitv, might in the estimate of God far outweioh
the loss and damnation incurred by the unsaved major-
ity. But the more practical answer to this current
allegation is that which is so well stated in part by
Pusey in his forceful exposition of the freencss and
fullness of salvation, of the exceeding tenderness of
God toward repenting sinners, and of the possibilities of
saving grace even in the emergencv of a dvinir hour.
If the prayers and alms of Cornelius were had in di-
vine remembrance, — if in every nation he that feareth
God and worketh righteouness is accepted of Him, — if
our Lord heard the outcry of the dying thief and
carried him as a trophy at once into the Paradise
whither He Himself was just going in triumph, may
we not, without either indulging in the universalistic
delusion or contradicting our own doctrine, still cherish
with Pusey a large and comforting hope respecting
many, perhaps multitudes, who live and die, alas, out-
side of the blessed circle of the Household of Faith?
But beyond this, if the doctrine of the general sal-
vation of infants be admitted, the question of numbers
is settled at once in favor of the orthodox position.
The security and the comfort which that doctrine fur-
nishes, as we have already seen, are immeasureably
greater than that afforded by the dogma of a future
probation fu- infants, — a i)robati()n which may after all
result only in the increased sinfulness and deeper dam-
NUMBER OF THE SAVED. 237
nation of myriads included in that immense class
}
itself a probable majority of mankind. If all infants
dying in infancy are saved, then the larger portion of the
human race is saved, even now. But in tliis compu-
tation we are permitted still further to summon into
view the entire future of humanity on earth — a future
extending through we know not how many centuries,
during whose progress the Gospel is to be universally
proclaimed, and the race as a race is to be brought into
obedient subjection to Christ. We may take into the
ac(5ount all the ages antecedent to the millennial period,
in which Antichrist shall be overthrown, and the Jew
and the Gentile converted, and the world subdued unto
Immanuel. We may also count the glorious millen-
nium of grace promised iu the Apocalypse — that pro-
longed yet definite period including, it may be, many
thousands of years, during which our Lord shall reign
spiritually in the earth, and His religion shall prevail,
Avith saving power, in myriads on myriads of human
hearts.^ And in the light of that sublime future, far
transcending all present manifestations of grace, does
not the question of numbers entirely change its aspect?
Including that future in the computation, in vivid con-
trast with the few thousand years of sin, may we not
believe that the number of the lost will be relatively
small indeed — insignificant in comparison with that
starlike host whom no man can number, seen of John
'To one who holds the current millennarian notion of the future
of the world and of humanity, the problem here considered is
beset with special, if not with overwhelming jierplexities. Ac-
cording to his view, a catastrophic ending of earthly things may
occur at any hour amid flaming judgments, with all the myriads
of the heathen unsaved, and wdth a judicial Christ incarnate,
waving the awful sceptre of His power over the vast universe of
tlie lost, both on earth aud iu hell.
238 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
t
in apocalyptic vision, singinp; in glory tho, praises of
God and of tlie Lamb?^
Contemplating more specifically the lost minority, is
it not legitimate — as has been already intimated— to
recognize gradations in condemnation corresponding to
the known gradations in guilt, and to admit into our
general estimate the hvissima damnatio of Augustine, as
Avell as the fiery hell of Christ? Under the common
term, Lost, must we not include the servant who knew
less fully the will of his master, and who was there-
fore beaten with few stripes, no less than the incorrigible
offender, or him who has distinctly blasphemed against
the Holy Ghost, and is worthy of the lowest damna-
tion, — recognizing in each an amenability to retribution
which is exactly proportionate to the gravity of his sin,
the measure of his guilt? Have we not Christ Him-
self with us in the comforting assurance that not one
immoderate stripe will be inflicted, or one needless pang
shot through the frame of any culprit in that sad
universe of woe ? We must indeed grant that the
theology of the past has often failed to make such dis-
criminations, biblical though they are, and that Christian
preachers have too frequently drawn lurid pictures of
one common hell, into whose sulphurous depths all but
the redeemed, ignorant and pagan and infant as well
as the open rejector of Christ, are hurled together, to
be alike tormented forever and forever, — pictures Avhose
^So strict a Calvinist as the venerated Charles Hodjre taiijiht
positively that tlie number of the saved will very largely exceed
the number of the lost— that the latter class will be inconsidenil)le
in comparison with the former. Our blessed Lord, he says, wlun
surrounded by the innumerable company of the redeemed, \vi!l
be hailed as the Salvator Ilominum— the Savior of men. — Tlicul.,
Vol. 1 : 26. Ill : 879.
STATE OF THE LOST. 2o9
awfulness have tended to crush all hope, and to rob the
auxions soul of every surviving comfort touching the
dead. Does not the Christian theology of the present owe
it to the truth of God, as well as to the sacred sentiment
of hope, (o correct sucli error by the recognition of
every alleviating feature in the doctrine of damnation,
■which the Bible, and especially Christ Himself, any-
■\vhere suggests? We cannot al)andon the doctrine of
hell, an eternal hell, without being recreant to the
Word, and to Him who has revealed it : but may we
not so far exalt its spiritual above its physical pangs —
so far regard it as a state more than a place of torment
— so far emphasize the scriptural distinction between
positive and privative retribution^ — so far contemplate
that world of the lost as a widely varied universe, with
vast undulations of experience, with milder as well as
severer conditions, with ])Ossiblc meliorations of sorrow
and ill — so far recognize a merciful as well as equitable
superintendence of Deity within as well as above it, as
to make the doctrine even more truly biblical and
rational, while at the same time it is incomparably less
trying to faith — less repressive to pious hope?
There is another direction in which the sentiment of
hope may find a legitimate sphere of exercise — that
which appears in the contemplation of tlie final con-
summation of things under the perfect administration
of a holy God. No thoughtful mind can forget that
the obscurations which seem to it to surround that ad-
^Our Lord Hiinsolf oinploys tliis distinction, as in tlie declara-
tion that the wicked shall not see God — shall not enter into the
kingdom of God — shall he sent away into onter darkness, and
the like. The Roman Catholic Church, and many Protestant au-
thorities also, count the forfeiture of the Beatific Vision as one
among the direct punishments of the lost.
240 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
ministration, the perplexities that sorely try its confi-
dence and often baffle expectation, are on one hand
attributable mainly to the narrowness of its present
range of vision, and on the other, are essential to its
carthlv discipline and development. Neither can any
such mind forget for a moment that these obscurations
arc largely temporary, and that the hour is rapidly
approaching when God Himself will remove such per-
plexity, and fully justify the assurance of His children.
It is natural to the Christian thus to look upward
and forward continually to the coming fruitions, and to
the final consummation of our holy religion. His hope
sees the grand future and rests triumphantly in it. Kot
merely does it anticipate the day when around the
righteous and concerning the good there shall be light
at even-tide: it expects at last a holy and blessed solu-
tion of every dark question respecting the number, the
state, the abode of the lost also. Even the awful
spectacle of a hell, flashing and flaming forever like a
burning star in the calm sky of the divine purpose, no
longer overwhelms it with dread. It knows that a God,
who is both righteous and good, sustains that star in its
place in His heavens, and sends it whirling through its
appointed orbit in His moral universe, — there to be a
lurid protest against sin, an example and a warning to
His creatures, forever and forever.'
At this ])()int it may be noted that the several appeals
to the spiritualized consciousness and the religious
^Those who are so imuli distressed over the doctrine of h(>ll,
and w ho after the manner of an Ingersoll fancy that the homes
and hearts of Christians who in ]Hn-c loyalty to the Divine Word
accept that doctrine as an essential element of saving truth, are
filled with a i)erpetual gloom, might learn a salutary lesson from
APPEAL TO NATURE AND LIFE. 241
feelings, which have been passed In review, are some-
times combined more or less compactly ^^^^ The a eai
into what is described as an appeal to to Human xaturo
1 , ,1 Ti* Ti. • and Human Life.
human nature or to human hie. — it is
alleged in general, that the moral nature of man and
the history and practical life of the race demand the
acceptance of the dogma of a j^ost mortem probation,
and of the type of theology of which that dogma is the
elect forerunner, as something indispensable to the
harmonizing of Christianity with the current disposi-
tion and experience of the world. Some examination of
this final form of argument for the dogma in question
may properly close the present discussion.
This appeal differs from that to consciousness, or to
feeling, in the fact that it introduces more or less dis-
tinctly the voluntary element, and proposes the actual
life of man or of the race, as a decisive measure and
test of divine truth. Its essential basis lies in the
volitions rather than in the intellect or the sensibilities.
It inquires how mankind are in fact disposed toAvard
the doctrine held by the Christian Church, asks what
changes are needful in that doctrine in order to incline
the wall of men toward it, and then proposes its own
universalistic hypothesis as a conciliatory modification
of the orthodox belief AVhat it seeks is such a state-
one of the recorded and tyx)ical experiences of Jonathan Ed-
wards :
" As I was walking there, and looking upon the sky and clouds,
there carae into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty
and grace of God, that I knew not how to express. I seemed to
see them both in a sweet conjunction ; majesty and meekness
joined together ; it was a sweet, and gentle, and holy majesty ;
and also a majestic sweetness ; an awful sweetness, a high, and
great, and holy gentleness."
242 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
ment or presentation of the truth as shall somehow
verify itself at the bar of human life, and shall Min the
suffrages, not of Christians only, but of the world. In
one aspect, it is an appeal to history, and to the recorded
drift and tendencies of humanity, made on the broad
ground that what the aggregated disposition of the race
does not accept, what does not conform itself to the
fixed inclinations of mankind, and justify and commend
itself through such conformity, cannot be regarded as a
revelation from God. He is said to be immanent in
the world, and to be exhibiting Himself in the facts of
history, and consequently sending us into these fields
for not only the illustration, but also the explanation
and vindication of His written revelation. Hence we
are exhorted to abandon the doo-matic and the exesretic
way of determining what God has revealed, and to sub-
stitute for it what is termed the vital way — contemplat-
ing the truth as set in the light of daily life, in the
processes of human society, and in the universal laws
of humanity, on the general principle that the real
revelation of God to us is not so much in the Script-
ures as an objective disclosure, but in the Scriptures as
thus interpreted by and through life — the actual life of
man.^
A sublime truth and a destructive error here lie
closely together. That the life of mankind furnishes a
thousand interesting confirmations of Holy Writ — that
^Hunger, Appeal to Life: Preface. Coleridge somewhere says
that Christianity is not a theory or a speculation, but a life,— not a
l-)hilosoi)hy of life, iMit a living process. But Coleridge nowhere
represents Revelation itself as a process in general life and histoi-y,
merely or mainly. For an interesting exposition of this general-
ized conception of revelation and inspiration, see Bkuce, Cliief
End of Rcvdalion.
LIFE AN ILL US TRA TION OF D CTRINE. 243
human history, as it unfolds from century to century,
is more and more bringing tiic truth of God to light
and making it convincing to the consciousness, the
feeling, and even the will of man, is a grand fact, and
one which may be largely utilized in the growing
apologetic argument for Christianity. And to a certain
extent the Christian scheme of doctrine is to be inter-
preted through such practical exhibitions of it in human
history and experience : the vast and complex experi-
ment in living, which the human race is making, is
throughout a grand verification of our religion, as Jesus
Christ taught it. Even the perversities of the human
will, the bad inclinations and disposition, the deranged
laws of humanity, only too visible in its disorderly
career, all confirm the claim of our holy faith to have
descended among us from the skies. And it may well
enough be admitted that it would be an improvement
in Christian theology if its representative minds were
to be less technical, metaphysical, formulative in their
expositions of it — were rather to present its holy verities
in forms and methods more closely related to human
experience, and more likely therefore to win and hold
the practical interest of men.
All this is true, but it by no means follows from this
truth that the doctrines of Christianity are best appre-
hended by subjecting them to the crucible and the fire
of human experience, or are to be received by us only
so far as they gain indoi'sement from the will, the
moral disposition, the actual history of mankind. The
appeal to life, when carried to any such extent, becomes
virtually an appeal from God to man — from the divine
will and nature to the human w'ill and nature — from the
Bible viewed as an inspired book, to the sinful heart of
man, and the disturbed laws and moral perversities of
244 THE WITS ESS OF CHRISTLiN EXPETUEXCE.
liumanity. Human life is corrupted by sin at every
point, and is therefore always a partial, defective, more
or less blind, teacher concerning divine things. Human-
ity is a poor lens through which to read the heavenly
Word. He who carries his Bible into the world of
human existence, and gathers his impressions of its
doctrines or precepts from what that world says or
thinks about them, or from what the world is doing
about religion, will find that he has put himself into a
situation where the word and will of God must remain
to him a perpetual mystery. The commentaries of
history and life wall be quite as likely to mislead him
as those of the schoolmen, and the more he trusts him-
self to the teachings of human nature, in its present
fallen estate, the greater will be his ultimate error and
downfall.
Moreover, is it not treason to inspired Scripture to
subject it to any such tests? The Bible does not ask
for the indorsement of human nature, or stand in the
smallest degree on such indorsement. This divine
book brings with it its ow^n confirmation, and asserts
for itself a supreme authority, back of man and far
above man. Inspiration does not become inspiration,
Avhen the world recognizes it as such, — it is the voice of
God from the first, uttering itself in human speech and
commanding the Avorld at once to receive and obey it.
Kevelation does not become revelation when it has
been confirmed by history, or has been show^n to be
such by its inductively established conformity with
what are called the universal laws of humanity, — Eeve-
lation was, when holy men of old spake as they Avere
moved by the Holy Ghost. And surely he has not be-
gun to apprehend the significance of that fact, as primal
in grace as creation is in nature, who proposes to appeal
SCRIPTURE STILL SUPREME. 245
to human life rather than to Scripture itself for proof
that any particular dogma or opinion has come into the
world from God. No religious doctrine ever was, ever
can be, substantiated by such a process.
In the case before us, what evidence have we that
nature and life, in any intelligible sense of these words,
approve the theory of a jiost mortem probation, rather
than either the current orthodox view, or any of the
more sweeping opinions belonging to the same species
with itself? Do not nature and life also seem to
approve annihilation — do they not apparently approve
as well the fiction of universal restoration '? Is there
any vagary in this direction, however wild or delusive,
for which some sort of confirmation may not be found
by so unphilosophic a process as this? Moreover, to
the deeper and calmer vision of Bishop Butler, are not
nature and life seen rather to be in holy concurrence
Avith the faith of the Christian Church respecting sin
and law and retribution ? And does not the unfcio^ned
tremor of Felix when Paul reasoned before him of
righteousness and temperance and a judgment to come,
do not the outbursting confessions of Pilate and Agrippa
touching Christ and His religion, does not the pitiful
remorse of Judas crowding him on to the abyss of sui-
cide, do not the admonitory words of our Lord to the
Pharisees whom He described as able even of them-
selves to judge what is right, and who trembled and
tottered as they felt the sudden tempest of conscience,
and saw the approach of a day of doom, — do not all
these show us, far more than any raw guesses about
history, or crude interpretations of the laws of human-
ity or the dicta of our higher nature, what the truth of
God is respecting our earthly probation, and respecting
the retributive consequences which in the hour and
246 THE WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
article of death shall gather with pitiless beatings
around the head of every transgressor?^
Gathering together at this point all that has been pre-
sented, are we not justified in the final conclusion that
tliere is nothing in the testimony either of the regener-
ate consciousness or the religious feelings, or of what-
ever is properly included in the two terms, nature and
life, which indicates that the dogma of future probation
ought to be recognized by the Christian Church as an
integral part of the evangelical doctrine, or admitted to
to any place among the credenda of our holy Eaith ?
And in the fact that this conclusion harmonizes exactly
with that to which we have been led heretofore, upon
both particular and general study of Scripture, upon a
careful survey of Christian symbolism, and upon a
review of the main principles of orthodox theology, do
we not find convincing evidence, not merely that this
dogma is no organic part of evangelic Christianity, but
also that in many features and aspects it is decisively at
variance Avith the clearest belief and the profoundest
convictions and tendencies of Christendom? And,
summing up all in one practical declaration, what can
we say respecting this dogma but that it is an opinion
^Shedd, Doctrine of Endless Punishment, Chapter in. While ad-
mitting that this is the most severe and unwelcome among the
tenets of the Christian religion, this author liolds that the doctrine
maintains itself against the recoil and opposition of the human
heart, because it has such sure foothold both in the reason and in
the Scriptures. He declares not only that the truth has always
retained a place in the fundamental belief of Christendom, but
also that it has done this in spite of the constant appeal to human
sentiment, because it has rested thus on an imuiutable basis in
both the natural and the Christianized conscience as well as in the
AVord of God.
ONCLUSION. 247
to which no countenance should be given, for whose
propagation no provision should be made, in whose ad-
vocacy no Christian man should be engaged — an opin-
ion not merely erroneous and illusive in itself, but also
deleterious whenever carried into practice, and certain
sooner or later to bring discord into the councils, and
weakness and inefficiency into the practical activities of
the Church of God ?
The Book of Revelation is not more remarkable for
weird imagery, for sublime description, for sweeping
prophetic visions, than for the number and character of
the hymns wdiich impart such peculiar luster to its
mystic pages. The alternation is exceedingly impressive.
After each circling exhibition of the divine power and
purpose concerning the earth and the human race, one
and another glorious anthem of faith and praise ever
breaks in upon us with entrancing power and sweetness,
in startling contrast with the awful turmoil that precedes
it. It is also noticeable, that the celestial melody rises
higher and higher, with each new cycle of revelation,
until at last it culminates (Chap, xv.) in that transcend-
ent picture of the multitude of the redeemed — an in-
numerable host — standing as on a sea of glass and fire
before the throne, having the harps of God and, as in
response to the preceding chorus from the seraphic host,
singing together, age on age, the song of Moses and of
the Lamb, highest and rarest melody of heaven. And
the more thoughtfully we study this series of celestial
hymns, thus culminating at length in the ever sweet
psalm of redemption, the loftiest aspiration of our hearts
must be, that by all earthly experience and meditation
and holy nurture we may, under the training of the
Word, be fully qualified in faith and life to bear at
length some humble part in that eternal chorus. Well
248 THE WITNESS OF ClIRLSTlAX EXPERIENCE.
will it be for each, for all, if our views and beliefs on
earth are such — if we as Christian men are such in feel-
ing, desire, hope, while on the earth, that we shall be
even here attuned into close and loving harmony with
that everlasting song; and if we shall thus be made
ready on the instant of our entrance on that life of per-
fected glory, to shout with all the redeemed, and with
angels and seraphs innumerable, before the dazzling
throne of the Triune Deity :
(§xt'^i auir marbclous arc Slig borhs,
6 lorb #ob, the gihnigbtji:
lligbtcous anb true arc Slbj) ioajis,
Sljoa Jvhtg of the nations!
mU shall not fear i\m, (D forb,
§lnb magnif}) ®ljn |lanu?
Jor Sbou onln art boln;
J^or all tlje nations sball tome anb fnorsbiji btforc S^ct;
d^or Sbj) rigbtcous acts babe been mabe manifest.
GENERAL INDEX.
REFERENCES TO AUTHORS AND BOOKS INCLUDED.
Administration, divine, 161 ; confi-
dence in, 1G5, 231, 240.
AImv and derivatives, 5, 52.
Alford, Utate of the Blessed Dead, 13;
Comm. y. T.. 52.
Annihilationism, 4.
Apocalyptic vision, 247.
A'7rdAAu;ui and derivatives, 5.
Apostles' Creed, 122.
Appeal to nature, 240; to life and liis-
tory, 241; Bible above nature and
life, 244.
Athanasian Creed, 124.
Atonement, in view of sin, 110 : in-
volves justification before law, 111.
Augsburg Confession, 1;!0.
Augustine, Kingdom of God, 5G ; levis-
sima damnatio, 29, 126, 238.
Augustinianism, 179.
Beatiiic vi.sion, 239.
Beeciier, K., Doctrine of Retribution,
221.
Bellarmine, De rurgatorio, 29, 126.
Benevolence in God, 226.
Blackstone on guilt, 180.
Boston Lectures, 1870, 208.
Bruce, Chief End of Revelation, 242.
BUTLElt, Analog;/, 111, 162, 164, 171.
Calvinism, 110, 179 ; improvements in,
215; not dying, 215.
Candlish, Fatherhood of Ood, 168.
Cliaracter and Condition in Interme-
diate State, 13; character primal, 15;
growtli in, 16 ; possibility of cliange,
18; changes from sin to holiness, 19;
theories of such change, 20.
Chastisement and retribution, 26, 190,
238.
Christ the head of humanity, 83 ; head
of regenerate humanity, S5; the
judge of all, 145.
Christ, his mission in time, 78; his
commission, temporal, 79; apostolic
view of, 80.
CiiiiisTiAN Experience, Witness of.
Chap. VI.
Christian Symbolism, AVitness of.
Chap. IV.
Christian Theology, Witness of,
Chap. V.
Christianity absolute and universal in
its nature, 88; its historic limitations,
91 ; compared with natural religions,
173.
<Jhurch, her universal mission, 80.
Ci.AiiKE, Ten Great Religions, 173.
Coleridge, Tetters on Inspiration, 208;
on consciou-sness, 205.
Condemnation of the race, 110 ; knowl-
edge of Christ not requisite, 112.
Conditional immortality, 3, 144.
Consciousness, Christian, 201; its nat-
ure, 205; testimony of, 211; author-
ity insufficient, 209 ; not a revelation,
206 ; or inspiration, 207 ; Coleridge on,
205-8.
Cox, Salvator Mundi, 70, 94, 100.
Crawford, Fatherhood of God, 168.
Creeds, confessions, defined, 117; their
limitations, 118.; ancient creeds, 121.
Dante, Divina Commedia, 127, 228.
Death, decisiveness of, 25 ; consequence
of sin, 114 ; humanity involved, 181.
Depravity defined, 165, 181 ; universal,
182.
Descensus ad Inferos, 65, 78, 131, 138,
139, 149.
Desires, right and wrong, 2.34.
Dichotomy and Trichotomy, 4.
Dives and Lazarus, 9, 48, 61, 70.
Disciplinary theory of salvation, 26.
Dcrt, Canons of, i;J4, 146, 193.
(219)
250
GENERAL INDEX.
DORNER, Chri!:tian Doctrine, 47, 50, 53,
0)1, yy, 184; nut. Pwt. Theology, 133.
D WIGHT, Theology, 1G3.
Edwards, Jonathan, 1G3, ISl ; religions
experience of, 211.
Edward VI, Articles of, S", 137, 15S.
English Theology not uuiversalistic,
87, 138, 141, 157.
Eternal, the word defined, 50.
EvAN.s, LI. J., Intermediate State, 13.
Evolutionary theory of salvation, 20.
Existence after death, mode of, 7 ; such
existence conscious, 9; an incom-
plete state, 11.
Faber, Creator and Creature, 173.
Faitii, a grace in time, 48.
Facts always supreme, 224.
Farrar, Eternal Hope, 14, 44, 50, 52, 87 ;
Eschatology, sketch of, 31, 119, 121, 142.
Fatherhood of (iod, 168; revealed in
eternity, 169 ; to the lost, 239.
Feelings, religious, appeal to, 216; nat-
ural feelings not authoritative, 203,
217 ; efiects of sin on, 217 ; theology
of the, 219.
Forgiveness, divine, 49 ; conditioned,
51 ; impossible hereafter, 52, 123.
Formula of Concord, 131.
God, love of, 93; limitations of love,
95; justice of, 97, 22S; limitations,
100; divine equity unquestionable,
102, 229 ; God, as Moral Governor, 161 ;
as Father, 168.
Gospel for the present life only, 80, 92 ;
universal, 90; originates in grace, 102;
loyalty to, 231 ; Gospel to the dead,
68.
Greek Church ; Orthodox Confession,
128; Florentine Articles, 128; Rus-
sian Catechism, 128.
Guilt and guiltiness, 109, 165, 180 ; gra-
dations in, 182.
II.\r)RiAN, apostrophe to the soul, 11.
Harris, Self- Revelation of God, 206.
Hagf.nbach, Ilistorji of Doctrine, 127.
Heard, Tripartite Nature of Man, 4.
Heathen World, its sin and guilt, 149,
185; condemned, 187; in what sense,
189; salvation of, 132, 100; punishment
of, 191.
Heidelberg Catechism, 1.33.
Hell a reality; founded in justice, 228;
founded in love, 228; a strong deter-
rent, 178; degrees in sufTering, 29,
190 ; nature of torments, 29, 239.
HiCKOK, Humanity Immortal, 10.
Hodge, Ch., Theology, 4, 148; number
of the saved, 238.
Holy Spirit, his work temporal, 103;
general, 85, 106, 176 ; not after death,
36, 105; sin against, 50, 57, 167, 178;
the supreme teacher, 116.
Hope, Christian, defined, 233; sphere
and limitations, 2:',5 ; as to the num-
ber saved, 236 ; as to infants, 237 ; to
the heathen, 237.
HoYEY, State of the Impenitent Dead,
221.
Human judgment respecting the lost,
178.
Humane Feeling, 221 ; its limitations
and dangers, 225.
Huntington, Cond. Immortality, 6.
Immortality, general argument for, 2;
testimony of Revelation, 3 ; not con-
ditional, 4, 144.
Incarnation, nature and object, 86, 175.
Infants dying in infancy, 29, 146, 192;
elect, 147; teachings of Christ, 193;
grounds of hope, 194 ; personal faith
not requisite, 195; salvation imme-
diate and univer.sal, 195.
Inspiration, fact of, 210; abOYC con-
sciousness, 206.
Intermediate State, 7; character and
condition in, 13.
I. Peter 3: 18-20; 64-70; Lange, Comm.
excursus, 67.
Irish .-\rtJcles, 140.
.lACKSoN, Doctrine of Retribution, 187.
Judgment, 58 ; general, 59, 145 ; partic-
ular, 60, 184 ; temporal and contin-
uous, 1S3; decisive at death, 24, 61;
discriminating, 145.
Jukes, Restitution of All Things, 100.
Justice, sense of, 227; God just, 228;
His administration equitable, 229.
Krauth, Conservative Reformation, 148.
Limbus infantum, 29, 126 ; patrum, 29,
126.
Lost and saved, 14; the word. Lost,
191, 238.
Lutheran Confessions : Smalcald Arti-
cles, 30, 131; Sa.xon Articles, Cat-
echisms of Luther, 131.
JIartensen, Christian Dogmatics, 21, 99.
GENERAL IXDEX.
251
Maurice, Throl. Eamys, 31, 73,158; Re-
ligiuns of the World, 173.
McCosH, Divine Governmait, 163.
Methodist Articles, 150.
Millennium, 119, i237; luillennarianism,
137, 237.
MncHici.i,, Westminster Assembly, 148.
MoEHi.ER, Symbolism, 127.
Moral Government of God, 1C2.
Moraviiin Litany, 150.
Mv LLEK,Chrislian Ductrine o/Sm, .37, 184.
Munget;, Freedom of Faith, 83, 100, 104,
159 : Appeal to Life, 219, 242.
Xain, sou of widow of, 71.
New Theology, 40, 15G, 19G, 212.
Nicene Creed, 123.
NiTszcn, Dogmatics, 99.
Onesiphorus, 73.
Origen, his teaching, 27, 120; con-
demned, 122, 151.
Orthodoxy, Christian, defined, 100 ; im-
provements in, 173: not dying out, 215.
Parker Soc. PuhUcations, 137.
Patristic testimony inadequate, 119.
Pearson, On the Creed, 123.
Pm'MPTKE, Spirits in Prison, 6, 31, 07,
73, 121, 141, 158, 179.
Prayers for the dead, 31, 73, 13S.
Probation, its nature, 163, 172 ; proba-
tion and moral government, 161 ;
universal, 113, 165; various forms;
natural, 164; gracious, 167; God sover-
eign in, 164; in'obation and father-
hood, 163; under the Gcspel, 173; its
extent, 176.
Probation and guilt, 179; probation
and judgment, 183; terminable, 183.
Probationary tlieory defined, 31 ; classes
contemplated in it; infants, 32; the
heathen, 33; the ignorant, 34; meth-
od, 35; results, 37.
Progressive Orthodoxy, 83, 89, 100, 104,
110, 159.
Psyehopannychism, 7, 1.37.
Punishment and guilt, 191; not limited
to time, 53; degrees in, 29, 190, 2.38.
P\irgatoiT. 28, 120.
PusEY, What is of Faith, etc., 26, 55,
121,236.
Rainy, Development of Christ. Doct., 195.
Reformed Confessions: P,erne, Theses
of; Gallic Conf.; Belgic Couf.; Hel-
vetic Conf., 133.
Regeneration, nature of, 4, 19.3.
Repentance an earthly experience, 48.
Restorationism, 26.
Retribution at death, 25; varieties in,
190 ; positive and privative, 190.
Revelation objective, 220; above con-
sciousness, 209.
Roman Catholic dogma of purgatory,
29-30, 123 : Roman Catechism, 126.
Salvation after death, wrought by the
soul itself, 20; through discipline,
26; through puni.shment,2S; through
the Gospel, 31.
Salvation, fullness and frccness of, 45;
limited to earth and time, 46 : con-
ditioned, 48 ; salvation of the heath-
en, 190 ; of infants, 192.
Savoy Confession, 150.
ScHAFF, Creeds of Christendom, 132,
133.
Scotch Confessions, First, 135 ; Second,
130.
Scripture the final test, 38, 116, 209, 220,
245 ; interpretation of, 82; illicit gen-
eralizations from, 113; unlawful con-
traction of, 114.
Scripture, General Te.sti.mony of,
Chap. III.
Scriptures, Particular Testimony of,
Chap. II.
Self-restoration impracticable, 23.
SiiEDD, Sermons to the Natural Man, 187;
Doct. of Eternal Punishment, 246.
Sin, tendency to become permanent,
21, 57; universal, 77, 108: involves
guiltiness, 76, 109, 181 ; transmission
of, 181 ; sin unto death, 75, 167.
Smith, II. B., Theology, .57, 8,5.
Smyth, E. C, From Rationalismto Faith,
208.
Smyth, Newman, Orthodox Theology of
Today, 44, 73, 83, 159; Old Faiths in
New Lights, 198.
Sodom and Gomorrah, 53, 73.
Soul, sleep of, after death, 7, 144.
Spirits in Prison, 64-7, 78; theories re-
specting, 05.
Stuart, JIoses, Future Punishment, 55,
232.
Symbolic testimony, 118; its decisive-
ness, 153.
Taylor, Isaac, Physical Theory, etc.,
10 ; Saturday Evening, 24.
252
GENERAL INDEX.
Taylor, N. AV., Moral Government of
God, Ifio.
Temptution universal, 112; of Adam,
112; of Christ, 112.
Tennyson, In Memoriam, 212.
Tlieology of the feelings, 219.
Thirty-Nine Articles, 30, 139; Anglican
Catechism, Lambeth Articles, 140.
Trent, Council of, 30, 12G.
Tyre and Sidon, 53.
Unbelief, ground of condemnation, 7,t ;
defined, 76; principle of, 77, 175.
Universalism and Anglican Theol., 87,
137, 141.
Van Oosterzee, Chrht. Dogmatics, 50,
99 ; Theologij of X. T., 69.
Waldcnsian Confession, 150.
Westminster Symbols, 142, 193; general
doctrine, 143-6 ; elect infants, 147 ;
heathen, 149; final triumph of grace,
149.
WiiATELEY, Future Slate, 8.
White, Life in Christ, 6.
Whiton, Js Eternal Punishment Endless?
221.
WiGGLESWORTH, Day of Doom, 148.
Weight, Probation after Death, 221.
Zwingli, 33, 132; Zwinglian Articles,
132.
ECCLESIOLOGY.
A Treatise on the Church and Kingdom of God on Earth.
BY EDWARD D. MORRIS, D. D., LL D.,
Professor of Systematic Theologij in Lane Theological Seminary,
1 Volume, 8vo, Cloth, $1.75.
CONTENTS.
Introduction : Ecclesiology Defined.
Chapter I. — The Church in the Divine Plan. — Definition and Analj--
sis of the Tprm. Historic unfolding of the Cliiinh Patriarchal,
the Church Hebraic, the Church as Constituted by Christ. Points
of Identity and of Contrast witli Patriarchal and Hebraic Churclics.
General Argument for the Church as an Institution.
Chapter II. — The Impersonal Constituents of the Church. — Doctrines
Defined. Cliurch Creeds: Uses, Objections, Limitations. Sacra-
ments: Baptism, The Lord's Supper. Ordinances: The Sabbath,
Sanctuarj', Means of Grace, The Ministry.
Ch.4pter IIL — The Personal Constituents of the CHTnirn. — Personal
Element Sujireme. Church Membership: In the Primitive Church,
Greek and Papal View, Protestant View, Membership in tlie Par-
ticular Church. Membership of the Children of Believers. The
Church an Organization: Temporary and Permanent Offices.
Chapter IV. — The Church as a Divine Kingdom. — Church Govern-
ment. Varieties: The Papal Polity, The Prelatic, Iiulci>endency,
The Representative or Presbyterian Polity. Cardinal Princiiiles
in Administration : Practical Rules : Discipline as a Church Func-
tion.
Chaiter V. — The Church in Human Society. — Church Divisions. Or-
ganic Oneness: Papal View. Spiritual Unity: Protestant View.
The Christian Church a Growtli: Illicit Processes of Church Growth.
The Church and Human Sin, Human Institutions, The State, Edu-
cation, Morality, Reform, Civilization.
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 743-754. Broadway, N. Y.
n^OTIGES.
"The Professor has presented to his students and the Church a most admir-
able munuiil. . . It is written witli elegiUicf and clearness of style.
It is comprehensive, intelligent, learned and thoroughly sound."— Uk. A. A.
lioDGE, in Presbyterian Review.
" A comprehensive and philosophical exposition of the idea, constitution,
administration and v.ork of Christ's Church. The author treats liis topics
Cducisely, but with great precision and clearness oi thought. His exposition
of diiTerent theories of the Church, its organization and government, is candid
and fair. llis conception of the work of the Church in its relations to the
family and the state, to educatian and culture, to moraUty and reform, to
civilization and luimau progress, is just and 'timely. . . . The whule drift
of the thought is in the interest of a comprehensive unity."— Pees. Dwight,
in Sew Enylander.
" The comprehensive plan is carried out with great skill and ability. While
omif.iug all extended discussions of controverted points, the author states
briefly, but in the clearest manner, the couclusions he has reached, together
with their grounds and reasons. He also gives constant references to such
authorities as are readily accessible. . . . The work is a most valuable
addition to the literatureof Eeclesiology. Its pages bear throughout the marks
of patient study, of earnest original tiiought. and of Christian wisdom. It is
wholly free from sectarian animus."— A'. Y. Evangelist.
"This treatise, in addition to its general and special merits, represents some
points of great interest. . . . It is at once thorough, positive, and catholic,
and possesses the qualities reciuired in a text-book to be used in tbe curricu-
lum of a theological school. . . . The exposition of the ditt'erent theories
of .church organization, from the Roman theory down, and the criticism on
them, is done with candor and ability ." —Independent.
"To the valuable treatises on important branches of Christian Doctrine,
prepared by eminent professors of theology, we have another added by Prof.
Edward D. Morris, D. D., of Lane Seminary. It contains a summary of the
author's instructions on the doctrine of Scripture respecting the cliurch as
established by Christ, founded on His Word, sustained by His Spirit, (juickened
through grace, and divinely commissioned for its special work in the restora-
tion of our lost humanity "to liolincss and to God. It is an able discussion of
the great themes of revelation as connected with the chuich, and will pro-
foundly interest all who have undertaken the work of the ministry, or who
are seeking to build up the kiugdora of God on earth. We cordially welcome
such additions to our theological literature by living and competent teachers.
— A'. Y. Observer.
"It is with a feeling of .satisfaction rarely experienced th.it we have risen
from an examination of this book. It is a treatise on the church and kingdom
ot God on earth by the well-known professor of theology in Lane Seminary,
and is a con<iensed summary of a series of lectures delivered during the past
seventeen years to the students of that institution. Some work of this sort
has been greatly needed. A book which shall give a stu?cinct but comprehen-
sive view of the church and kingdom of God tipon earth, which, avoiding
technical terms and fierce polemics, shall give in plain language conclusions
with the grotinds and reasons on which they are based, will i)e of real service,
not only to ministers and theoh-nrical students, Init to all intellisrent Christians.
Such a book Dr. Morris has written. . . . The style is elevated and digni-
fied, the positions are strong and ably defended, and the conclusions are sound
and convincing. Altogether it is a helpful book and a valuable c(Hitribution
to theology." — Interior.
" It is a work rather of conclusions than of extended argument. b\it of con-
clusions so stated that they carry with thcni the reasons for their a^loption, and
commend themselves as sound and siTiptnral. . . . The style of the book
is admirable,— it is luminous as the daylight."— Pre.s6.i//erta«. "
"Its salient characteristic is a certain historical breadth of treatment which
is helpful to large, comprehensive and ircnic views of th<> church as an insti-
tution belonging to all times and embracing nil peoples and religious systems
who are loyal to its K.ing."—iipringjield Republican.
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