The Problem of Immortality (Part 6 of 6)

Christian thinkers. If, then, among your readers there should be some future theological graduate in search of a subject for his thesis, 2 I would indicate to him that which is raised by the observations of my respected opponent : a psychological study of moral corruption and its ontologically deleterious effects upon the individual who yields to its domination. Such an analysis would add an important chapter to Professor Ernest Naville's admirable book on the Problem of Evil, unless indeed in a new edition the author should himself complete his work, which would be far preferable .

not take away from these punishments their penal character, which " satisfies the idea of justice. " No one would think of abolishing them on the pretext that they sometimes answer to strange aspirations.

1 In April, 1884, and January, 1885, the Critique religieuse published two articles the substance of which has been incorporated in chapters vii. to xii. of this work. A complete reply to M. Roget would not have been admitted in a hostile periodical, hence the necessity for additional notes and references here.

2 On the Continent each candidate for the ministry is required to write and publish an essay or " thesis " in order to be received as a Bachelor of Divinity.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

In any case I have no fear of the result of the inquiry in respect of Conditional Immortality. M. Roget has already mentioned the baneful (funestes) consequences of sin ; this adjective evokes along with the notion of the funeral that of the extinction of the sinner's life.

Happy to have had the opportunity of making your personal acquaintance, I beg you, Mr. Editor, to accept my respectful salutations .

M. Roget subjoined the following remarks :

The term baneful ( funestes) which I used to characterize the consequences of evil has not at all in my mind the scope attributed to it by your correspondent, it means nothing more than grave.

As to the inquiry that M. Petavel proposes to pursue on the ground of psychology, we can only encourage him in its pursuit ; but we very much doubt his success in proving by means of psychological considerations that evil involves as its only possible consequence the destruction of the sinner's personality.

One word as to the former of the two foregoing paragraphs. According to Littré's dictionary a grave evil is a " dangerous " evil, a dangerous evil " compromises the existence of a person or of a thing." We are perforce brought back to the deleterious, literally destructive, effects of sin.

In his last paragraph M. Roget beat a retreat : he admitted implicitly that the destruction of the personality is one of the possible consequences of sin, an enormous concession. We were on the point of an agreement.

With respect to the psychological inquiry of which M. Roget was good enough to think us capable, we will renew our appeal to others more competent, as, for example, Messrs. Ernest Naville, Renouvier, Charles Secrétan, Pastor Choisy, or Professor Bouvier- Monod. If we are not greatly mistaken, it is probable that a closely pressed discussion would prove that man is a being morally diseased, that the disease may be so aggravated as to become mortal, that in a finite being extreme moral corruption must result in the end of the moral personality, and that in a being in whom all the master-faculties are closely connected, moral corruption must at last carry the disorder even to the mental faculties. Every organ that is not exercised becomes atrophied, and has a tendency to disappear ; the conscience itself is an organ, it may be cauterized.1 Enslavement to the passions may result in the suppression of the freedom of choice which is the chief distinction between man and the animals. Man animalized would be but a headless monster. Monsters have short lives. As Amiel has said : " Nature kills whatever is ill-born. " 2 The being that is too defective is unfit to live. The living being that degenerates may one day become unfit to live. Universalists reckon upon a possible progress beyond the tomb. They imagine that by virtue of the law of progress all sinners will necessarily attain to conversion and salvation. They forget that the glorious law of progress has for its converse a gradual decline, which can bring down the man to the condition of the brute, the conscient individual to the inconscient state, the free being to the mere machine which left to itself becomes dislocated and broken. In every domain disorder tends to disorganize, and the disorganization which goes on increasing causes in the end the arrest of all functions. The wretch who, sinking in the slough, rejects the hand held out to save him, can only sink deeper and perish in the slime.

His loss will be irremediable.

We seek in vain the warrant for an immunity of human souls, or even of angels, which would put their existence beyond the reach of all real peril.

Constant repetition of an act tends to produce a habit, which becomes a feature of the character. Character, perpetuating itself, tends to become indelible.

When moral depravity has reached the stage of indelibility, the sinner is incorrigible ; and if the depravity is complete, there is no longer any reason for the sinner's existence.

The righteous and the regenerated sinner alone have the right and the capacity to become immortal. Beings that are atrophied, degenerate, disfigured, neither deserve nor desire immortality ; no one will desire or demand it for them. A wise and good God will not impose it upon them ; they will not be the objects of an abnormal miracle, but the memory of their terrible end will remain for the survivors as a barrier across the way to the abyss. For this reason their fleeting apparition upon the stage of the universe will not be absolutely useless.

Since the foregoing lines were written, we have had the satisfaction of meeting with the following paragraph from the pen of Professor Auguste Sabatier, which seems to us to contain an admirable answer to the question stated above :

God has given to man the moral consciousness as the keystone of the arch of the human edifice. If that falls, the edifice will collapse. Or,

1 1 Tim. iv. 2.

2 Fragments d'un journal intime, Paris, 1883, vol. i. , p. 55.

3 See E. Naville, Le libre arbitre, article xxii.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

to adopt another comparison, conscience is the invisible queen who reigns over and keeps in order all the other faculties. When its supreme authority is lacking, the several other faculties fall into a condition of exasperating anarchy. For this reason, respect for the conscience is not merely a duty, it is the guarantee against a state of folly. This cannot be too often insisted upon, especially in the case of young people when the moral and physical crisis of their twentieth year sets in. The cry of the loyal Spaniards in all their political crises was, " No meddling with the queen !" They considered that everything might be restored so long as the queen was there and was still sovereign. So it is with the conscience : while that is still alive, there is no occasion for despair ; that once dead, the very light of reason ceases to shine steadily, and very soon gives place to darkness.¹

Again, still more recently, the same keen writer has returned to the subject. In pungent terms he describes the ultimate results of religious indifference :

In the present day it is not only faith that has disappeared ; that which is disappearing, melting away, in our literary life and elsewhere, is the power of reason itself. Practical reason and theoretical reason alike are being carried away by the force of the current, and the man makes shipwreck, sinking into the lower sphere of sentiment and sensation ; these imperceptibly lead and govern him by unreasoned and unreasonable impulses. We seem to be losing the faculty of reasoning as to our acts, of perceiving the consequence that results from a principle, of formulating the truth that may be supposed to underlie any particular sentiment.

Sentiment alone does not suffice, still less does sensation, to guide and raise a people ; reason, too, is needed. Now it is reason which is disappearing. That is why we are beginning to think everything possible, everything credible, everything of equal value ; while we fail to perceive that night is falling, in which the forms of real objects become dim and phantoms appear.2

§ 3. M. GUSTAVE STEINHEIL.

M. G. Steinheil, a former representative of the Vosges in the French National Assembly, and the head of several manufactures at Rothau, in

Lorraine, is a philanthropist well known for his great services to working people. He also belongs to the too restricted group of lay theologians,

1 Journal de Genève, 29th Sept., 1889.

2 Idem, 17th May, 1891.

being author of several interesting religious publications. With his permission we publish portions of the letters that have passed between us on the subject of Conditional Universalism .

CORRESPONDENCE .

ROTHAU , 5th Sept. , 1882.

DEAR SIR AND BROTHER, -

I have read with the deepest interest your study of Conditional Immortality, and am anxious not to be behindhand in thanking you for it. At the same time, I have been pained to find therein a judgement thus formulated : " As for Universalism, it appears to us as a doctrine that is esoteric, relatively novel, antiphilosophical, antibiblical, dangerous.

We say it with grief, thinking of the fine souls that have gone astray into this system, which to us seems like a morbid relaxation of theology."

If there are universalist systems that deserve such blame, it is important to avoid confounding them with biblical Universalism ; for by not distinguishing a doctrine of divine origin from its counterfeit an injustice is committed at the same time that an error is propagated. I must be careful to avoid this mistake in speaking of the doctrine of which you are among us the learned and indefatigable advocate. Others may reproach you with playing into the hands of materialism by rejecting, as it does, a native and inalienable immortality ; but I am not disposed to look upon you as an ally of that enemy.

Man, created in the image of God to the end that he might be united to him by faith and glorify him by holy and free obedience, lives in that communion ; and, on the contrary, by giving himself up to sin and persisting in impenitence, he becomes subject to the wrath of God, to condemnation and death. It is not I who will blame you for having said and said again that our immortality is conditional, and that those who refuse to fulfil the indispensable condition of a free return to God will at last be destroyed.

I thank you for your powerful and persevering affirmation of the end of evil. The hideous leprosy of sin has had a beginning, and it will have an end. The deplorable discord of rebellion and condemnation will not to all eternity interrupt the harmony of God's creation. After the destruction of death, God will be all in all. I shall have to come back to this word all, to ascertain whether it includes all men who are involved in Adam's fall, or may be restricted to the survivors only.

I repeat what I have elsewhere said, that Conditionalism is a very great progress as compared with the traditional doctrine of the eternity

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

of sufferings, according to which a life smitten by an incurable disease would yet last for ever. No issue, no deliverance, torments without end ! By asserting the final cessation of these accursed lives you preach a more humane doctrine, and one more likely to be true than the traditional doctrine which sets forth a God eternally displaying his power by the maintenance in life of beings that are irremediably corrupt and under a condemnation from which there is no appeal.

In place of this doctrine, which implies the negation of the eternity of the divine mercy, you affirm a survival in torments ending in final extinction, that extinction being at the same time a terrible chastisement inflicted upon obstinate sinners, and a deliverance accorded by a compassionate God to the most miserable creatures.

In order to sum up my thoughts, allow me to reproduce a passage from the article that I devoted to Mr. White's book :

" Willingly do I say with Mr. White : Happily there is an end of evil, and sin and damnation have not an infinite duration !

But if, instead of the end of evil by means of the destruction of the sinner, we should dare to look forward to the end of evil through his restoration at last, tell me, I pray you, if that end would not be much happier. For the patient and for those who love him it would be deliverance by healing instead of deliverance by death, and the creating and redeeming God would have the glory of bringing back to the fold at last all the wandering sheep, and the joy of the free return of all the prodigal sons, instead of feeling the grief of their utter abandonment.

" I grant willingly to Mr. White that his notion of future punishment is in every respect superior to that of the traditional doctrine.

It constitutes such a progress that I, who am a Universalist, seize the hand of so valiant an ally, and here express my hope that his admirable book may find numerous and attentive readers .

But I take the liberty of inviting him to a more attentive study of Christian Universalism, and I specially desire that he should be happier in the prospect of a final destruction of sin and death than in that of the annihilation of the sinner's person."

And my wish is the same for you, my dear brother and ally. See with what sympathetic attention I have tried to understand your view, in order to bring out at the same time its superiority over the old doctrine and its many points of contact with biblical Universalism. I beg you to act in the same way towards me and the doctrine that I advocate. You can do so, for Christian Universalism is Conditional Universalism, and the condition to be fulfilled is this : Repent ye ! Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Christian Universalism affirms most strongly that the holy God can never make truce with sin ; but it rejects with equal energy every notion of God that would imply the imperfection of his love as regards either its eternal duration or its universal extent.

In fact, the words of blessing, of pardon, and of restoration form a long chain reaching from Genesis to Revelation, and this testimony proclaims that God loves us with an eternal love, and that his mercy endureth for ever. And, on the other hand, a long series of curses, of words of wrath and vengeance, are mercilessly fulminated against injustice and rebellion. It is upon these words that you rest your affirmation of the destruction of the wicked, thus ascribing great importance to God's law which is holy, just, and good.

But do you ascribe equal importance to the grace of our Lord Jesus

Christ, which superabounds where sin has abounded ? Do you give place enough to this central truth, solemnly attested by God's oath, that he willeth not the death of the sinner, but rather that he should return and live ?

Have you fully understood that Christ seeks his lost sheep until he find it ?

You grant to me the merciful thoughts of God towards all men, but it seems to me that you are too easily convinced of the powerlessness of those intentions and of the final failure of that search so far as relates to the impenitent. Yet we read in St. Paul's epistles :

" For as through the one man's disobedience all (Eng. R.V., the many) were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall all (Eng. R.V., the many) be made righteous " (Rom. v. 19) .

" In him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth. It was the good pleasure of the Father through him to reconcile all things unto himself whether things upon the earth or things in the heavens " (Col. i. 16 , 19, 20).

St. Paul thus views effective redemption as running parallel not only with the extent of the fall, but also with the vast extent of the creation . He admires this " mystery of God's will." this scheme of love that God has formed, the realization of which is one day hereafter " to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth " (Eph. i. 9, 10 ).

He sees that " God highly exalted Jesus and gave unto him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father " ( Phil. ii. 9-11) .

Beyond the veil of the yet future ages the apostle's eye, enlightened by the holy Spirit, sees Christ abolishing " all rule and all authority

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

and power. For he must reign till the Father hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death. And when all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all " ( 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25, 26, 28) .

This is God's pantheism. This is the prospect of the end, at the sight of which Paul's heart, which had been filled with the deepest sadness by the hardness of heart of unbelieving Israel, dilates, expands, and bursts forth in thanksgiving. This is the great hope of the man who unflinchingly fulfils his apostleship for Christ from the day of his conversion to the hour of his martyrdom.

These passages, along with many others, constitute, as I think, the solid basis of the universalist hope. You have read them as well as I. Why do you not draw from them the same conclusions ? From age to age these declarations have been read, meditated upon, and expounded by faithful Christians, who nevertheless did not abandon the doctrine of the absolute eternity of sufferings .

A theologian whose impartial understanding and sincere piety are incontestable, M. Ménégoz, has lately published a study of Sin and redemption according to Saint Paul, and he makes out that Paul's real view was not Universalism but Conditional Immortality. How can that be so ? Does not St. Paul speak very clearly of all men who, being made sinners by the disobedience of one, will be made righteous by the obedience of one ; of all those who, dead in Adam, will live again in Christ; of God summing up all things in Christ ; of God becoming in the end all in all ? By what right is the all, so often repeated, transformed into some ?

The fact is that those who do this cannot forget the very numerous declarations that proclaim the condemnation and the death of the wicked, and not to abstract anything from the wrath that strikes impiety, they have restricted to the small number of the elect this glorious and consoling prospect of the final restoration of all.

In this formidable question more than in any other the apparent contradictions of the biblical testimonies abound .

What should be done in order to find agreement in the midst of these appearances of discord ? We should subordinate the accessory to the essential. That is just what we both do, but with this difference, that what I take to be essential you treat as accessory, and what seems to me temporary is in your view definitive and irrevocable.

In full agreement with you I affirm that the holy God is for ever the irreconcilable foe of sin. Our agreement ceases when I, resting upon innumerable promises of grace and love, affirm that God remains for ever the faithful friend of his creature.

Divine love victorious all along the line, life everywhere triumphing over death, sin annihilated by its separation from the sinner, death destroyed by the very fact of the destruction of sin, God at last recovering all the wanderers and becoming all in all that is the prospect opened up before me by the faithful promises of God. And because that is so, I can only attribute a temporary character to sin with all its hideous aberrations and with its baneful consequences called outer darkness, Gehenna, the second death, the lake of fire. Hell is not a mere bugbear, but a fearful reality. Yet I am assured that the judgement which destroys the sin is at the same time a chastisement having for its object the conversion of the sinner.

Can a soul, hardening itself in sin, become absolutely incorrigible, so thoroughly rooted in evil that all the resources of God's holy discipline would be powerless to bring it back to that which is good ? In this question is summed up our disagreement. I point out to you the answer as I understand it, the reasons for which I have given in my pamphlet entitled, Are eternal punishments endless torments ? I recognize the force of your objections, but it seems to that there is greater force in that which favours my hope than in that which contradicts it. I touch upon this difficult question with reserve, being very conscious that my knowledge is imperfect, because the darkness produced by sin so easily interferes with the light that is the gift of God.

That which I do know is that our heavenly Father is for ever our unfailing friend, and that our Lord Jesus saves us completely from our sins. United with you in a like faith, I hold out to you a fraternal hand. If our thoughts differ on some points, God will enlighten us. Still, at the point to which we have attained let us walk according to the same rule and have the same sentiments ; now we see dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now we know in part, but then we shall know even as we are known, and that which we shall see and know will infinitely exceed our expectation and our hope.

Believe me, my dear brother, yours with cordial affection,

G. STEINHEIL .

CHÊNE- BOUGERIES, Geneva, 6th Sept. , 1882.

DEAR AND HONOURED BROTHER,

I respond without delay to your lines of yesterday, which have deeply touched me. They seem to me to be the very model of courteous and kindly controversy .

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

Allow me, however, to fall back upon the very judicious principle that you have yourself laid down, which consists in making preliminary reference to writings already published on the subject treated. We shall thus avoid beginning always ab ovo, tramping without advancing .

I have read attentively, pencil in hand, your sympathetic pamphlet. I also recently called the attention of Mr. White to it ; but he is unfortunately almost overdone by his pastorate and by a correspondence extending over the whole Anglo-Saxon world.

Perhaps on your side you will be so good as to take cognizance of the pamphlet that I now send you.¹ In it you will see that our two principal expositors, Messrs. Reuss and Godet, declare formally that Paul did not teach Universalism. Certainly their verdict is not absolutely decisive, but it is worth noting that they represent rival schools, and that neither of them is a supporter of Conditionalism, so that their agreement on the question of exegesis has all the greater weight. Messrs. Auguste Sabatier, Babut, and Ménégoz are of the same opinion. You will see, too, various concessions that I make in favour of your point of view . Along with other passages, I quote most of those brought forward by you, but then I endeavour to show the true meaning that is often borne by the word all in Scripture. It sometimes means a plurality or a majority, sometimes a collectivity ; when salvation is in question, the final result depends upon the reception by individuals of the appeal that is extended to each one of them. In these cases, all corresponds to our generic expressions the human race, the human family, humanity, expressions which did not form part of the apostle's vocabulary. He predicts the salvation of the human family when he speaks of the final salvation of all. But in a family the stillborn do not count. In the day of eternity the wicked will be as though they had never been. So, too, when in autumn all the produce of an orchard is spoken of, no account is taken of the multitude of green or shrivelled fruits that have fallen before coming to maturity.

Grace superabounds because it produces effects which abide, while evil ends in nonentity. There is a large net advantage on the side of grace. " Doth not nature teach us ?" says the apostle. In every business there is the account of profit and loss, and the balance-sheet of assets and liabilities. Grace triumphs and superabounds. The

! Universal Salvation, the substance of which has been incorporated in our tenth chapter.

2 More correctly the generality, the many,

οἱ πολλοί. of the See me. ate expression in the original designates the plurality "The licale racehe opposed to a single member." "Bersier, La Solidarité, p. 24. C. malt. xxiv. 12 ;

1 Cor. x. 23.

triumphs of evil are transitory, those of grace have a substantial reality which lasts for ever.1

Believe me, it is with deep regret that I have concluded as I have done against Universalism ; believe also that I have long and carefully studied the important books of Messrs. Jukes, Brown, Cox, Farrar, etc. , who have advocated the theory in England.

My articles will prove to you that at least I have endeavoured to take account of all the arguments that have come to my knowledge.

I should have been glad not to be obliged to maintain all my conclusions against certain notions of so sympathetic an ally as you are, but ich kann nicht anders ; happily we love each other and shall always love each other nevertheless .

Tuus in Nostro.

ROTHAU , 16th Sept. , 1882.

Salvation through conversion, salvation through return to

God, heaven under the condition of sanctification without which none will see the Lord, salvation for all on condition that, finally saved from sin, they attain the purity of heart to which the vision of God is promised ; that is Conditional Universalism, biblical and Christian Universalism.

It is that of Bengel, Etinger, Lavater, Oberlin, Kapff, and many others....

At the very centre of the conviction that I have expounded is found the idea of God, for every theology that has not God for its centre does not deserve to be called theology. And how have I summed up the character of God?

I see in him at the same time the faithful friend of his creature and the irreconcilable enemy of sin.

Why do we reach such divergent conclusions ? Can you have discovered in my writings a page or a line or a single word indicating that in the end God will compound with or tolerate sin ? Have I taught a native and indestructible immortality ? Have I refused to admit that in case of a complete incorrigibility there would be annihilation ? Is it not one of my strongest arguments against unending suffering, to show the monstrous character of the notion of a God whose mercy is extinct but whose power keeps in perpetual existence lives that are burning in the fire and gnawed by the worm ?

1 For the bitond meaning of the word all it is important to examine passages such as those in Mard 1. 37 ; xi. 32 ; John iii. 26 ; Acts x. 38 ; xvii. 303 2 Cor. iii. 2 ; Titus ii. II ; I Kings xviii. 19 ; I Chron. xv. 28 ; Dan. v. 19. I have taken these promiscuously from the Concordance ; many more might be found.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

One cause of my disagreement with you is that your God lets go the man more easily than mine. No doubt, yours is a good God, who has given his only Son, and who publishes this Gospel : " Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." But your God accepts much more readily than mine the alternative of the suppression of the person of the wicked. " The fruits that reach maturity alone count ; the term ' all ' belongs only to the ' fittest who survive. "

Well ! this God who lets go is not the God of the Bible :

Was Er liebt, das liebt Er ewig, Was Er hat, das haelt Er fest.¹

On this point of capital importance you have against you not only the Christian Universalists but also that great theology of Augustine and Calvin towards which I consider that you, Mr. White, and M. G. Godet are alike deeply unjust. In that theology there is undoubtedly a terrible and disheartening element, and you tell me that “ Calvin himself was obliged to admit that God's decree in relation to the wicked appeared to him horrible. "

But this theology admits, rightly as I think, that those whom God wills to save must in the end be saved ; and for this reason, by an extraordinary exegetical feat it restricted to the elect only the apostolic declaration that God wills that all men should be saved. This theology rejects the idea of a changeable God.

It does not admit that those whom God loves will be finally lost, nor that those whose ransom has been paid by Christ on the cross will go into hell. You have made a sincere effort to bring to light the elements of truth that you have found in Universalism ; make a further effort to discover those which are included in Calvinism, that is to say in the Augustinian theology, which more than any other has sought to give to God alone the glory of the work of salvation.

Here is another very serious cause of our divergence. You say : "Evil left to itself tends to increase, to aggravate and perpetuate itself. This is a weak point of Universalism. The experience of this world goes against the idea of an amelioration and final salvation of all men."

I reply : Evil left to itself does certainly tend to increase and to perpetuate itself. Happily, God does not leave evil to itself. God, who is ever a consuming fire in relation to evil, contends against it while at the same time he smites his child with the rod in order to save him .

Evil is not left to itself, and when through obstinate impenitence it

1 What he loves, he loves for ever,

What he has, he holds it fast.

increases and takes deep root, repression is intensified in the same measure, so much so that the terrestrial repression is but a feeble beginning of the chastisement to come.

I maintain : 1st, The judgement which finally destroys sin and death is at the same time a chastisement having for its purpose the restoration of the sinner. 2nd, God respects man's liberty even in his most persistent aberrations, while at the same time he maintains his own will and his own holy liberty to save in Christ not the first only but also the last. 3rd, Election is the portion of the first-born sons, but there is also a prospect, even though distant, of salvation for the last so that God may in the end be all in all.

You are witness that so far as I am concerned Universalism is not an esoteric doctrine that is ashamed of itself. But a nurse who should give meat instead of milk to newborn babes would kill rather than nourish them. You, a Conditionalist, do well to ask that my Universalism should be conditional, and I have granted you that to a large extent beforehand.

Why should you not grant to me, a universalist, a Conditionalism possibly universal ?

That might be the meeting-point of our fraternal alliance. Very heartily yours,

CHÊNE- BOUGERIES, GENEVA, 14th Oct. , 1882 . HONOURED AND DEAR BROTHER,-

From an exegetical point of view, Universalism whether absolute or conditional occupies an untenable position. You have yourself admitted that the most esteemed commentators, such as Reuss, Godet, Sabatier, Ménégoz, to mention only those in the French language, reject it formally and explicitly. Tholuck acknowledged this exegetical weakness of the system ; M. Bouvier at Geneva has also recognized it. No doubt he still has the resource of setting the Christian sentiment above the text of Scripture, but are you disposed to fall back upon that resource ? Surely not. In fact, to do so seems to me to be forsaking confessional Protestantism, and quitting a safe port to wander in search of adventures on the boundless sea of purely human opinions. Within historic Protestantism doctrines which appeal to the Scriptures will always have the advantage over those which leave the records aside.

Notwithstanding the almost unanimous verdict of the most competent judges, you hold to your view, clinging to half-a-dozen passages which, as you say, speak of the salvation of all.

It is thus that our common opponents the traditionalists cling to the hyperbole that speaks of un

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

quenchable fire. As regards biblical theology, universalists and traditionalists are in the eddies of the stream ; conditionalists follow the main current.

You admit that the passages upon which you lay stress seem to be in contradiction with the numerous declarations which proclaim the final death of the obstinate wicked. By your own avowal, there is a majority of the biblical declarations against your view. As a general rule a sound interpretation is that which harmonizes the texts by restricting the meaning of the few by that of the many. But besides that, in the special case before us it happens that the word all often and undoubtedly bears a restricted meaning in Scripture. I have pointed out to you several examples of this limited meaning, among others John iii. 26 : Jesus baptizeth " and all men come to him ; " it was very far from being all the Jews who came to Jesus. The word all may then have a limited meaning when it relates to salvation (see note on p. 518) .

Moreover, Paul declares that certain individuals " shall suffer eternal destruction. " We read that " a consuming fire shall devour the adversaries ;" not their sins only, be it observed, but their persons. There is to be a " second death," but a third life is never mentioned. For Judas " it would have been better if he had not been born," etc. The usage of the New Testament language does not authorize the restriction of the scope of these passages, while it does authorize the restriction of the meaning of the word all.

The time is approaching when it will be clearly seen that Universalism has really no domicile in Scripture. I recognize that among the partizans of that doctrine there have been men of excellent disposition and eminent in many respects ; but very few, or none, distinguished in respect of exegesis in the precise sense of the term, nor any logicians faithful to the governing principle of the historico-grammatical interpretation, that

Ariadne's clue of our controversies .

As a loyal disciple of the holy Scriptures, I feel bound to forego the profession of a hope such as you cherish ; it would seem to me prevarication to take at less than their full meaning the sentences pronounced against certain categories of sinners.

I will not imitate the benevolent but presumptuous apostle who exclaimed, “ Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall never be unto thee ;" and to whom the Lord replied, “ Thou mindest the things of men. ”

Even supposing that the final salvation of all were in God's plan, it would be forcing the texts to endeavour to draw from them that which they deny. If, by an impossibility, the future beyond the tomb has in reserve for us a surprise in this matter, I am debarred from counting upon it or discounting it. I have said by an impossibility, because to me this hope appears as much opposed to reason as to the Bible.

You, too, are sensible of it ; you dare not deny the complete incorrigibility of certain sinners. Then admit as well that you are not a universalist. To say Conditional Universalism is much like saying a perhaps partial whole. You and I agree in recognizing that there is a doubt as to the salvation of some. This doubt is an indisputable fact ; it therefore does away with the certainty of the universality, and it gives the name of Conditionalism to the doctrine which unites us. You would have me add to that name the adjective universalist. Excuse me, it is impossible. The adjective would be either superfluous or erroneous. If it refers to a salvation possible for all, it is superfluous ; I do not deny that a conditional salvation is offered to all. But if this adjective is to signify that the final salvation of all is certain, the adjective annuls the substantive, and the phrase becomes contradictory.

If the salvation of all is inevitable, the conversion of all will be forced, and the notion of freedom is an illusion. If, on the contrary, the salvation of some remains doubtful, Universalism itself becomes doubtful ; in other words, it no longer has the right to assert itself by giving its name to a system .

You tell me that you deny native immortality ; but you unconsciously imply it when you say that God remains eternally faithful to his creature, even though rebellious. Denying inherent immortality, you ought surely rather to say, as I do, that God pities his rebellious creature, and remains faithful to him during the whole period of that creature's existence, so long as the decay which begins with sin has not come to an end in final death, called in Scripture the second death. You seem to forget that the sinner's destruction is progressive, and may be completed while he persists in rejecting salvation.

It is true that the apostle says, " God abideth faithful "; but he has just previously said, " If we shall deny him, he also will deny us. "1 He will even cut off the vine or olive-branch that has been grafted into the good stock, if that branch fails to bring forth good fruit (Rom. xi. 22). This will show you that I reject the predestination which would imply the final and infallible perseverance of specified individuals. There is no respect of persons with God. He predestines to salvation the individuals, names in blank, so to speak, whoever they may be, who will fulfil the conditions of salvation, who will lay hold on the life eternal. Jesus died contingently for all men, but believers only will actually share in the benefits of his death. Not that there is any merit in accepting

1 2 Tim. ii. 12 ; cf. I Chron. xxviii. 9. 2 Rom. v. 19. The apostle does not say that every individual will be justified,

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

the gift of the divine bounty, but the result of the act is salvation. Those who will have persevered unto the end will find themselves to be the elect. In the meantime we have, as the earnest and evidence of our election, the testimony and the fruits of the Spirit within us (Rom. viii. 15, 16 ; 1 John iii. 14). These are powerful encouragements, not guarantees against voluntary deviation, which is always possible (Heb. vi. 4-6). Besides this contingent or conditional predestination to eternal life, there is a positive predestination to the accessory gifts, God disposing freely of that which is his own ( Matt. xx. 15. Cf. Jer. xviii. 1-10 ;

Jonah iii . 4, 10) .

Predestination to final salvation being conditional, God maintains his respect for his creature's freedom while multiplying the appeals of his grace ; the creature therefore has power finally and definitively to choose perdition. The creature is the brand that burns, and will soon be burnt up if he keeps away from the only power capable of extinguishing the fire that is consuming him. He is not the fiery bush that burned without being consumed, which was a symbol of God himself; he is consumed (John xv. 6).

By the denial of a native and indefeasible immortality you have cut the ground from under the feet of Universalism, for you do not admit that by a continual and shocking miracle God would maintain the existence of a perishable and thoroughly corrupt being. Universal analogy serves to show that any given individual may become thoroughly and finally corrupt ; why should the human being form the single exception ? Some human beings, then, must, or at least may, cease to exist.

Jesus was conditionalist when he said to the apostles, " Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones." The promise was evidently conditional, since Judas, one of the twelve, by his own fault made it void so far as it related to him.

The loving work of Jesus himself failed in the case of

Judas.

There is a tragic sense in which man, endowed with a freedom that is truly serious, may be stronger than God, stronger than his Saviour. " How often," exclaims Jesus, weeping, " would I have gathered you , even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! " A lamentable and ephemeral victory, to bury himself in the night of nothingness ; while the elect, as trophies of divine love, subsist for ever.

but he declares that by virtue of the one sentence that has been pronounced all may be justified on the condition of faith. " The totality must here be restricted to those of whom in verse 17 Paul has spoken as receiving the grace. " F. Godet, Comment. sur l'Epître aux Rom. I. , p. 491 ; cf. p. 480.

Universalism, while it is antibiblical, has no solid metaphysical basis ; it is not psychological, and to me it appears practically dangerous. Such, too, was the feeling of Origen himself and of his disciples. You, too, recognize that it provides a kind of nourishment that would be harmful to neophytes. You would therefore not preach it to them ; but if it should come to their knowledge, and they should perceive that you have kept back certain important truths, what a shock it would be to them ! Do what you will, your secret doctrine will come out. Coming out, its effect will be the postponement of conversion and the paralyzing of missionary zeal ; for according to that doctrine there is no mortal peril to be dreaded, and God will do later on that which we fail to do on this side of the tomb. Our natural sloth will send us to sleep on that pillow.

You ask me how I can reconcile such an estimate with my " profound respect " for your point of view. My first answer is that there may be respect without acceptance. You write to me yourself, " I understand and respect your point of view "; yet you do not subscribe to it, or at least not entirely. I respect your view as I do that of every estimable man ; I respect it highly because I have a high esteem for you personally, and also because it has been a noble and sometimes courageous reaction against the traditional dogma ; but I respectfully oppose it as an illusion and as a danger for individuals and for Churches .

It is known that in Unitarian Churches there is little missionary spirit . Universalism seems to be a blind alley into which many a noble soul has wandered, like Petitpierre of Neuchâtel, who sacrificed himself to that cause without founding anything durable. All that zeal and talent and piety spent in the propagation of a doctrine so sterile ! Sterile ? No ; the Universalism of such as Thomas Newton, Etinger, Bengel,

Lavater, Oberlin , Petitpierre, has not been altogether sterile : it has solaced these noble souls ; it has held the tiger of tradition in check ; it has prepared the way for the biblical dogma that is at last restored to the light. Having no longer any reason for its existence, Universalism will disappear, but not without transmitting a precious inheritance to its legitimate successor .

Your reserves make you fundamentally a conditionalist. Hoist, then, the flag of our little phalanx, and bring over to us your arms ; widen our views.

Show to us that salvation is not limited to a few ; that many men will be evangelized after this life ; that the elect are only an advanced guard, the first fruits of an abundant harvest beyond the tomb. I send you my article on the Preaching of Jesus Christ to the Dead. It

1 Chrétien évangélique, March, 1881 .

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

will show you that we can assimilate many elements of the doctrine that you have hitherto defended.

To suppose Conditionalism to be without tenderness would be to deal very unfairly with us, and to attribute to us sentiments that we do not cherish. Where can you have read that we " readily accept " the perdition of the wicked, that we easily accommodate ourselves to it ? Our God is not one who " lets go," as you seem to imagine. On the contrary, we groan over the peril of our brothers, and this groaning is the motive that urges us to do all we can to save them, a motive all the more powerful because, in our view, when once perdition is reached it is definitive. Our God does not " let go " ; he goes to seek the erring son, but he does not impose his love upon him. He allows the prodigal son to depart ; he will even allow him to die in a strange land if, in spite of all appeals, that son persists in his rebellion. He abandons even the elder son when that pitiless paragon refuses to enter the paternal home.

It is thus that man, when he abuses his liberty, finds our God to be " a consuming fire," a God who " is not to be mocked," as the God of Universalism might be. There is no lack of profane spirits among men. The Epistle to the Hebrews supposes the existence of some who will tread under foot the blood of the new covenant.

" A fierceness of fire shall devour the adversaries," says the sacred writer, themselves, I repeat, not their sin only. Indeed, how are men to be saved who deliberately tread the Gospel under foot ?

Yes ; come over and help us. Our struggle is not now mainly against the old traditional dogma ; its present defenders have blunted its teeth and claws to such an extent that it is now almost a tame tiger. Our foe is not so much a doctrine as the absence of a doctrine, or the unstable doctrine of those who say, " In order to reconcile black with white, we will choose gray." In fact, the element of a salutary fear is banished, and preaching, evangelization, and missions languish .

I remain, honoured and dear sir, your devoted servant and brother,

ROTHAU, 23rd Oct. , 1882.

DEAR AND HONOURED Brother,

The powerful reasons that can be opposed to the traditional dogma have no force, or very little, against Conditionalism. Firmly convinced so long as I am attacking the doctrine that still prevails as orthodox, I am very reserved in my attitude towards your teaching. My

Universalism has ceased to be an absolute ffirmation, and has become transformed into a universalist hope.

I have frankly avowed this hesitation.

I do not forbid you to consider me as the partizan of a Conditionalism which I hope to see result in the final restoration of all.

I very willingly recognize that the term all often bears a restricted sense. Evidently not " all " the Israelites went out to Jesus. The familiar expression " all the world " usually has a limited meaning, and it is not in the absolute sense of the words that it is said " all Paris "

was present at a theatrical representation or at a horse-race. Yet there are many passages in which all cannot be translated by the elect or the survivors, but clearly signifies all men . Yes, God " willeth that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." " As through one sin condemnation has come upon all men, even so through one act of righteousness all men shall receive justification of life. " It seems clear that the " all men " who are justified by one act of righteousness are identically the same as the " all men " who are condemned through one sin.

Do not be too ready to attribute to Universalism consequences unfavourable to Church life.

When the floods of the rationalistic inundation covered Germany and submerged even Wittenberg and Halle, there were two lofty peaks that stood out above the deluge : the Moravian Church and Wurtemberg pietism. And since the beginning of this century the Moravian Church and Wurtemberg pietism (largely

Universalist) have furnished the greatest number of missionaries from the Continent of Europe.

CHÊNE - BOUGERIES, 28th Oct., 1882.

DEAR AND HIGHLY-HONOURED BROTHER,

The week shall not close without an acknowledgement from me of the receipt of your kind letter of last Monday and the accompanying pamphlets.

I have already read with interest and profit your reflections in the little volume entitled Theology of the heart, and, thanks to the concessions of your last letter, I feel that we are together arriving at a consolatory synthesis.1

Since you tell me that your Universalism " has ceased to be an absolute affirmation, " that the incorrigibility of the wicked " might become complete and irremediable," in a word, that you are a Conditionalist with universalist hopes merely, I will not only cease to oppose

1 We have since read with very deep interest the same author's Gott Alles in Allen.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

you, but will go to your school in order to extend my views in the light that God gives to you.

Already in my latest writings I have struck the note of hope which is by no means absent from the admirable book of Mr. White, and I have been delighted to perceive that he, that valiant and amiable apostle of the truth, has not disavowed nor contradicted me.

There is room for you too in the ranks of our little band of Conditionalists, and your voice will enrich the concert of praise to the God of holiness and love that we would fain cause to resound here below.

Allow me to close with some little corrections.

You translate

Rom . v. 18, " All shall receive justification," but " shall receive " is not in the text ; it is an offer that is spoken of. God may wish that " all men should be saved," but any particular individual may prevent the fulfilment of that wish, so far as he himself is concerned.¹

Then you oppose to me the universalist and missionary pietists of Wurtemberg. I spoke of universalist Churches, not individuals. Do you know any universalist Churches that have a missionary spirit ?2

SECOND CORRESPONDENCE WITH M. STEINHEIL.

The controversy seemed thus to have produced a definite result.

Our venerable opponent had allowed us to count him in the number of

Conditionalists. He repudiated Conditional Universalism, for according to that doctrine evil may last for ever ; while M. Steinheil believes in the end of evil, and says : " Sin is not eternal, for it is not a plant that our heavenly Father has planted, but a poisonous plant that shall be rooted up. " Nevertheless, M. Steinheil still held to some universalist hopes. He issued another pamphlet on the subject, after which he addressed to us five more letters. Touched by so much zeal, but not at all convinced, we again replied in three letters entitled, Some difficulties of Christian Universalism.5

1 Luke vii. 30. See also ante, p. 517, note 2, and p. 522, note 2. 2 M. Steinheil seems to imply that the Moravian Church (called also the United Brethren) is universalist, but for good reasons he avoids asserting it. We believe the surmise has no real foundation .

3 Du caractère de Dieu. Paris, Fischbacher, 1884. Reprinted from the Revue chrétienne of October, 1884.

4 These letters were published in the Revue théologique for July, 1885. 5 These three letters appeared in the Revue théologique, October, 1885 .

CHÊNE - BOUGERIES, GENEVA, 24th March, 1885 .

DEAR AND VENERATED BROTHER,

Your lines of the 20th inst. have come to hand, together with your five letters....

I have been deeply touched by your brotherly and courteous tone in this controversy, but I am not convinced by your arguments.

For example, you accuse Conditionalism of not having sufficient terror in its threatenings, but is it possible that your Christian Universalism would be more efficacious ? It predicts prolonged suffering to the rebellious soul ; but what is there to prevent Conditionalism from employing that weapon of which you appear to claim a monopoly ?

Is it not quite allowable to suppose that an agony as long and as painful as the punishment that you speak of precedes final extinction ? You seek to alarm the sinner by threatening him with suffering in the future.

But we use this threatening as well as you ; and if it should be ineffectual, we have, in addition, a resource in reserve that you have not.

We announce a greater danger when we raise the truly fearful spectre of that second death, after which there remains not a single gleam of hope.

You say a, we say a plus b.

So much for the motive of fear.

With regard to love, it ought not to impose its benefits. In the case of the suicide, God respects the liberty of the dying who persist in the wish to die, while you would force beings who reject life to live on indefinitely. Yet you had admitted in principle that sinners are diseased beings, who must succumb in death within a limited time if they persist in rejecting the offered remedy. For you, as for me, the second death is surely the final end of the activity of all the human faculties. You do not desire either magic or violence on the part of the physician ; it would then be possible for the dying sinner to use his last powers in rejecting the medicine presented to him. That being so, it seems to me that the affirmation of Christian Universalism rests upon no solid basis.

Accept, etc.

6th April, 1885.

By returning to the charge you make it my duty to resume the pen. You admit- 1st, that the human soul is not by nature imperishable ; 2nd, that it is affected by the disease of sin ; 3rd, that this disease, if left to itself, would become mortal ; 4th, that the death of the soul would be the final end of its individual existence ; 5th, that God will

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

always respect man's native liberty; 6th, that therefore the human soul will always be free to reject the salvation offered to it. From these premisses it logically follows that the unyielding sinner will at last become the prey of a death that will be the end of his individual existence. The natural course of things will sooner or later bring about the disappearance of the diseased being who, as you have said, does not enjoy an indestructible immortality.

The precise moment of that disappearance might be determined by two factors, which are : first, the degree of natural vitality assigned at its creation to the particular soul, and second, the more or less violent passion of that soul in the accomplishment of its culpable suicide.

You suppose that " God's respect for the liberty of man does not go so far as to sacrifice to the criminal abuse of that liberty his own good and holy will," which desires the sinner's salvation. But the fact is that every day, under our very eyes, the sinner does acts which are evidently in opposition to the divine will. God allows these foolish and fatal acts, and his permission extends to the most unheard-of and unbridled abuses. To his love, which desires to make of man a seriously free being, God sacrifices his desire for immediate obedience.

The liberty of doing evil being thus unlimited, the chastisement will be proportionate. If the case should require it, the punishment will extend even to the total destruction of a perishable soul that voluntarily and unreservedly gives itself over to the corrosive action of sin. I fail to see where you could set bounds to these deleterious consequences. By your premisses you are a Conditionalist. If you still cherish a universalist hope it can only be a feeble one, for it is contrary to all calculation of psychological probabilities, and the Scripture constantly speaks of a category of obstinate sinners who will be definitively lost.

You tell me that " by a continual miracle of his patient love God maintains in life existences that have gone astray," awaiting the hour of their return. For lack of argument you fall back upon the supposition of a miracle in extremis. A soul is in the death agony, at the last extremity ; God infuses into it, in some way unknown, a fresh dose of vitality, then makes a fresh appeal. Remaining free, the dying soul may once more refuse to listen.

Would you perpetuate the miracle to eternity ? The resistance might be equally perpetuated, and you would be exposed to the blame that you have yourself expressed in your letter of 5 Sept. , 1882, in which you reproach the traditional doctrine with perpetuating the wicked to all eternity. Besides, this future miracle, of which the Bible tells us absolutely nothing, is what may be called a

1 Revue théologique, 1885, p. 624.

deus ex machinâ, an imaginary and unlikely issue from a tragical situation.

As you observe, it is doubtless written that God " taketh no pleasure in the death of the wicked " ; yet it is added that he will none the less cause to perish not only the wicked, but also the righteous if he turns away from his righteousness (Ezek. xxxiii. 11, 13). A judge may condemn with grief and regret ; yet he condemns the guilty, and more especially the guilty who is impenitent. God attests by his oath that he punishes with reluctance, that is true; but, oath for oath, he elsewhere says : " I have sworn in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest. "

This Old Testament declaration is ratified by the New Testament, where it is made to relate to eternity (Heb. iv. 3, 5, 10). More than that, it is written that God " will rejoice over, to cause to perish and to destroy, " the rebels who should despise his threatenings (Deut. xxviii.

The eternal wisdom goes so far as to rejoice when " the resistance of the stupid shall slay them " (Prov. i. 26, 32) : a terrible but sublime hyperbole, the despairing cry of outraged love.

Vainly do you invoke St. Paul ; he is against you.

Must I remind you that expositors belonging to the most diverse schools agree in recognizing that Paul was not a universalist ? Messrs. Reuss, Godet, Auguste Sabatier, Ménégoz, Babut, etc., have declared the fact. The declaration of these experts has all the more force because it is not dictated by their dogmatic convictions, which are more or less divergent.

Can you legitimately hope that a less scientifically founded interpretation will prevail against theirs ?

Before a verdict which you set aside I bow, not without having made a careful and particular personal examination. The prospect of the final loss of a great number of men afflicts me, I regret not to be able to share your hopes. I regret too that you should hold to an opinion which, as it seems, was not that of the apostle Paul ; but I console myself with the thought that truth is your friend as much as my own, that one day it will surely persuade you, and by pruning the branch of your faith it will cause it to bring forth more fruit, which is saying a great deal.

Accept, etc.

10th Dec. , 1885.

The publication of your five letters in the last number of the Revue théologique is a new challenge to me ; it proves that in your opinion I

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

have not fully established a point of view which is different from your own ; I must therefore make a fresh attempt, inspired by the example that you give me of steadfast perseverance in the service of that which is believed to be the truth .

The more I read over your letters, the more do objections multiply in my mind, the more do I regret that on the point in question the agreement ceases which unites us on so many others, the social question, for example, or that of baptism.

Still your first letter warrants the hope of a complete agreement even on the ground of eschatology. You say : " The creature becomes immortal only by uniting himself to his Creator in the free obedience of faith and love.

Annihilation would be the final end of an existence separated from God. " You admit " neither an immortality that cannot be lost, nor the notion of a God who would maintain in life existences that have gone irremediably astray. " You say that " the central point of our disagreement is the manner in which each of us represents to himself the eternal mercy of God, and the greater or less persistence of his love."

Might we not put an end to this divergence of opinion by supposing an eternal mercy of which the creature is the object as long as he exists, as long as a voluntary death does not entirely remove him from the manifestations of that faithful love ?

The sinner's destruction is a gradual process and may be completed while he persists in rejecting salvation.¹

If he breaks, one after another, all the bonds which have united him to his heavenly Father, that Father, who has made him really free, could not prevent him from falling back into nonentity. Many millions of irresponsible creatures, objects to some extent of God's love, have for ever disappeared ; a sinful creature might share their fate with even greater reason.

In your second letter you affirm " a final victory of redeeming love in all souls," but I seek in vain for proofs in support of such an affirmation. You add that God for ever destroys the rebellion of the wicked ; but as the rebellion is incarnate in the rebels, I do not understand how they will be able to survive that destruction.2

1 The dying and irreconcilable sinner perishes " in the way. " Psa. ii. 12.

2 M. Steinheil slips into the fallacious reasoning of Rev. J. Baldwin Brown, who has argued " that the threatening of destruction in the Bible always stands for the idea of ' annihilation,' only he affirms that it is the sinner's sin which is to be destroyed in hell, not himself.

There is a divine and blessed way of destroying sinners by destroying sin.' There is no need for encumbering our pages with an argument in reply to this notion, borrowed from Origen and the Universalists. " It is sufficient to observe that with this interpretation tion all the Scripture threatenings against sinners would be transformed into promises.

Our Lord's awful warning to his generation as thus interpreted would read, " Except ye repent, your sins shall all like

I pass on to your third letter wherein you ask me whether the prospect of a universal salvation would not make me very happy ; I answer of course in the affirmative, on condition that the prospect should not be chimerical. If it were assured, my happiness would still be imperfect in presence of so many atrocities committed in the past and in the present, both near and far off, by the disciples of Mahomet in the heart of Africa, by Englishmen in London, and by Frenchmen in Paris, in a word, in presence of the evil that breaks out within and around us . You groan over it as much as anyone, if not more : there are then limits to your optimism ; it remains to be seen whether they are the right limits. It seems to me that in the parable of the sower Jesus teaches us how far our hopes may go. The harvest shall be abundant, although so many grains and ears perish ; it will fill the heavenly garners, and no one will be able to call it a " half success."

Still less will it be possible to call the suicide of the wicked a " victory " obtained over the Creator. The sick man who dies does not triumph over the physician whose aid he has rejected. So far from that his death shows that the physician was right who had charitably warned him, and who, on the other hand, heals all the sick who obey his prescriptions .

Perhaps you are still unconsciously under the influence of the traditional opinion that every human soul has an infinite value, while in truth it is God alone who has an infinite value. Jesus said : " Ye are of more value than many sparrows. " One day in a trial sermon a theological student declared that we are worth more than the whole race of sparrows ; he was reminded that his quotation was not textual. Under the influence of pagan philosophy man has been overrated. No man is indispensable, we exist only by the good pleasure of God, who can produce from the stones of the desert beings of greater value than ourselves . While, with the apostle Paul, I hope for a glorious epoch when death will make no more victims, and when God will be all, in all those who will have survived the deleterious action of sin, I cannot help noticing that the same apostle predicts more than a score of times the irremediable destruction of the rebels (2 Thess. i. 9, etc.) .

Your fourth letter expresses the fear that this prospect is not of a nature to restrain the sinner in descending the slope of vice. I acknowledge at once that I do not know any absolutely irresistible moral restraint ; still the fear of nonentity will have all the force of the strongest instinct of human nature, namely the instinct of self-preservation. You wise perish " (Luke xiii. 3). And one of St. Paul's most striking declarations would be changed into this absurdity : " The wages of sin is the death of sin " (Rom. vi. 23) . See E. White, Life in Christ, 3rd edition, p. 367, note.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

attribute greater efficacy to the terror inspired by imprisonment and prolonged sufferings. Once more I repeat that Conditionalism employs the same means but without admitting, as you do, the infallible success of this process of conversion. Human will can triumph over the greatest torments.

It often happens that the more an impious man suffers the more he blasphemes. You cannot admit a torture beyond the natural power of resistance, for that would crush the liberty which you wish at all cost to maintain. Will you prolong the time given for repentance ? We will do so too, but you could not prolong it indefinitely without making hell eternal. Universalism has, then, no advantage over the doctrine that you oppose, and your objection will be seen to return against yourself.

It is indeed to be feared that Universalism is demoralizing to numerous sinners who yet cling to existence. You promise them final salvation ; they will be satisfied to accept your word, and there are some among them who will say to themselves : " Let us yield to the attractions of pleasure ; there is time enough, and if not, there is eternity, which will suffice for attending to things less agreeable. Meanwhile our security is complete, since the divine mercy reserves for us at last a complete and general amnesty." 1

It is now my turn to beg you to consider the dangers into which your doctrine may lead many souls that might be alarmed unto salvation by

Conditionalism. As for the sinners who are so thoroughly corrupt that eternal death has no terror for them, what will you say to them that we cannot say as well ? Absolutely nothing . Conditionalism is, then, more strongly armed for the struggle against sin than even the most religious Universalism. I do not speak of the traditional dogma, which we agree in setting aside and which seems altogether out of date.

You reproach us with opening up the prospect of nonentity, but if that prospect really exists is it not our sacred duty to direct our attention and that of our brothers both to the danger and to the only bridge suspended across the abyss ? According to you, it would seem as though Conditionalism were of a nature to seduce the sinner by the promise of a final deliverance. Deliverance ! the second death scarcely deserves such a name : the dead cannot be delivered. You might as well accuse the penal code of encouraging crime because the execution of the criminal is followed for him by the dismal peace of the cemetery.

As a proof that none are threatened with nonentity you quote Psalm cvii. , the second verse of which should have arrested you. This Psalm is the song of the " redeemed of the Lord; " but by the side of

1 See ante, pp. 218 and 308 .

these faithful penitents there has been the " adversary," those wicked men whom the Psalmist supposes to be crushed and destroyed. This Psalm is, then, far from proclaiming universal salvation.

The parable of the prodigal son does not prevent us from supposing a rebellious child who will not come to himself. The same shepherd who seeks the lost sheep will at last separate the sheep from the goats. God will not save the sinner in spite of himself. As you very well say, there exists " no means of irresistible coercion or magical transformation, which would be a violation of moral liberty " ; consequently the sinner can resist even to the end and never be saved.

The wrath of God, of which you speak in your fifth letter, is impending over him ; it may burst forth at last and consume its victim.

It is nowhere said that the prison of the insolvent debtor is for him a guarantee of immortality ; he will die there sooner or later, if he will not take advantage of the ransom paid on his behalf. You suppose the future intervention of some unknown miracle of love, as though the sacrifice of the Son of God were not the climax of the manifestations of supreme love. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews foresees the possibility of treading under foot the blood of the new covenant, and he holds out no hope of salvation to those who so profane it.¹ Jesus and his apostles speak of a sin that is unpardonable, while for you there is in reality no unpardonable sin.

For my humble part, it is in vain that I wish to pass over to

Universalism ; exegesis stops the way.

Psychological analysis also restrains me.

Along with Lotze, Kant, Messrs. Renouvier, Pillon, and Charles Secrétan, you yourself admit that the soul may come to an end by way of gradual enfeeblement. Natural analogies also threaten with extinction such individuals and even species as forsake the conditions of their existence. This correlation of the laws of the visible with those of the invisible world has been set forth with scientific freshness in a book by Professor Drummond, of Glasgow, and in a remarkable lecture by M. Babut.2

You entrench yourself in the argument drawn from sentiment ; but sentiment, when isolated, is in danger of degenerating into a mystic sentimentality.

Can we be astonished at the doubts with which Universalists are troubled ? The pious Bengel did not wish that which he believed to

Heb. x. 29 ; cf. vi. 4-8. 2 De l'application des lois de la nature au monde spirituel, Nîmes, Lavagne- Peyrot, 1885. M. Babut says : " Thus it is not for the natural man as produced by his carnal birth that we claim immortality, it is for the new man, the regenerated man, the

Christ formed in us, as we just now defined him " (p. 114) .

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

be publicly preached. You admit that Universalism would be poison for neophytes.¹ This character of esoterism is an unfavourable symptom . It is not found in the doctrine of the apostles, who published upon the housetops that which had been told them in the ear. Paul declared the whole counsel of God without hiding anything. He made the Procurator of Judea tremble on his curule chair by speaking to him, not of inevitable salvation, but of the fire which should consume the rebels. How, indeed, is it possible to keep back or to veil from the multitudes the secret of a doctrine of which the formula is so clear :

" Inevitable salvation ; none can help being saved " ?

The moment has arrived for me to conclude by answering your questions.

1. Universalism is antibiblical. Perhaps that is the reason why Pastor Ducros, who shares your view, has not yet published the clever report that he read last spring at the pastoral conferences in Paris. Moreover, so far as I am aware, neither M. Ducros nor anyone else has dared to controvert, in the name of exegesis, the arguments set forth by M. Byse at the same conferences.2

2. A docile disciple of the letter and the spirit of the Scripture will refuse to be led away by the fallacious hope of universal salvation, a hope so likely to cool his missionary ardour.

3. This same hope will be yet more dangerous for the impenitent sinner. Being sure of attaining at last to the eternal and blessed life, he will take no more trouble to flee from the wrath to come .

4. Universalism is derogatory to the character of God, by making the

Creator, so to speak, the sport of his creature.

It pictures to us an imaginary God who is not the God of the Bible, nor the God of nature, nor the God of the religious consciousness, but an indulgent God who has resolved never to execute his most solemn threatenings. In Conditionalism, on the contrary, the sinner, even though pardoned, is punished for his faults in a certain and proportionate measure ; and as for the impenitent, if he definitively rejects the offered grace, nothing less than his whole person will serve as an adequate satisfaction of the demands of eternal justice.

Third CORRESPONDENCE WITH M. Steinheil.

After the publication of these three letters, M. Steinheil seemed at last to recognize that we have established a right to our opinion. He wrote :

1 See ante, p. 520. 2 Notre durée. Que dit la Bible sur l'immortalité conditionnelle ? Paris, Fischbacher, 1885.

You will be able to respect the very serious motives that determine my choice, as on my side I hold the conviction that it is with all sincerity you have decided in an opposite sense.

These lines were dated 5 January, 1887, and we responded on the

26th of the same month :

As is always the case, I have been touched and edified by the spirit of piety that animates your pages, but, like M. Babut, I cannot but think that logic is against you.

So, too, notwithstanding the sympathy of many of the French pastors with your views, there is not one of them who is able or who dares to give you categorical support.

You will have observed that M. Babut opposes you with the same arguments that I have submitted to you, yet there has been absolutely no understanding between him and myself.

M. Babut has not replied to your last lines, fearing, perhaps, that you might continue to turn in a vicious circle.

Accept the expression of my respectful attachment.

M. Steinheil replied almost immediately :

ROTHAU, 29thJan. , 1887.

DEAR AND HIGHLY- HONOured Brother,

The day before yesterday I received your affectionate letter.

M. Babut has not yet replied, and knowing how fully he is occupied, I am not at all surprised at his silence.

Here followed a copy of a letter from M. Ernest Naville, which we do not feel at liberty to reproduce. But our readers are already acquainted with the views of the Geneva philosopher.1 M. Steinheil concluded by saying :

You and I have settled with logic, in this sense, that our deductions are correct. Our divergence does not lie in the way in which we each understand human liberty. Our divergence is altogether in the way in which you on one hand and I on the other understand the character ofGod.

The time will come when we shall see God as he is ; meanwhile let us love and bear with each other as brothers.

1 See pp. 53, 198, 247 .

SUPPLEMENT No. XVI.

Did not the interests of truth take precedence of other considerations, it would be a real pleasure to us thus to leave the last word to our courteous opponent ; but we do not feel ourselves free to admit that he has " settled with logic."

M. Steinheil having admitted that man is a contingent being of perishable nature, logic seems to us to require the further admission that the sinner must perish, within a certain limit of time, if he remains voluntarily separated from the source of life. Divine charity would never impose eternal existence in impossible conditions upon beings that abuse their liberty by rejecting the normal conditions of existence. As these beings are entirely mortal, the struggle being prolonged in the absence of anything that could give them immortality, it logically follows that an hour must come, known to God only, when these rebels will be no more .

Very forcible as against the traditional dogma, which may be said to rend asunder the divine attributes, M. Steinheil's reasoning does not touch Conditionalism.

Sooner or later this ardent lover of truth will bow before an impersonal exegesis, the decisions of which command ever-increasing respect. Jesus Christ and his apostles were Conditionalists. In presence of this fact, which is day by day becoming more incontestable, the most recalcitrant expositor must eventually give in or give up.¹

On the other hand, Professor Charles Secrétan's prefatory letter and

M. Ch . Renouvier's declarations prove that the Christian consciousness can come to conditionalist conclusions even while maintaining complete independence in respect of the Scripture records. Thus do exegesis and philosophy meet upon common ground ; and by the free concurrence of these two factors the doctrine that we are defending is found to be confirmed by a sort of counter-proof.

1 See for example Le Christianisme du Christ, by D. H. Meyer, Paris, Fischbacher,

1883, p. 307 ; the thesis of M. P. Poincenot, entitled Essai sur l'immortalité, presented at Paris the 20th July, 1884 ; and the avowal of M. Causse in the Revue théologique , 1883, p. 624.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII .

CLASSIFIED LIST AND REFUTATION OF OBJECTIONS RAISED BY

(See page 314.)

THESE Objections have for the most part been taken from French publications ; but, in order to make the list more complete, we have also taken account of writings against Conditionalism publishedin other languages .

Our present purpose is to complete the examination of traditionalist and agnostic objections. This subsidiary study is necessitated by the fact that in Chapter XI. we could only touch upon the objections raised by Professor F. Godet. With regard to Universalism, we have already reviewed the objections that have been put forth by several recognized representatives of that tendency.2

As far as possible, in the presentation of the following objections, we have adopted the form in which they have been stated by our opponents. When the quotations are textual, they are placed between inverted commas .

SECTION I.

TRADITIONALIST OBJECTIONS.3

§1 . OBJECTIONS BASED UPON TRADITIONAL PHILOSOPHY.

Objection I.-Conditionalism is a doctrine opposed to spiritualism. Reply. Because an American Conditionalist had opposed spiritualism in the sense of necromancy, one of our respected opponents imagined that we were opposed to spiritualism in the philosophic sense, as though we did not distinguish God from the world, and spirit from matter. This accusation was so well refuted by M. Chaponnière that we cannot do better than insert his reply :4

GENEVA, 5th Feb. , 1883 .

MR. EDITOR AND DEAR COLLEAGUE,

Allow me to point out a slight error that has slipped into the last article of your contributor, M. Luigi, on the question of the future

1 For replies to objections the Table of Contents may also be consulted.

2 See Chap. X. and Supplement No. XVI.

3 It may be observed that almost all these objections are, in fact, chargeable with a petitio principii. If only the πρῶτον ψεῦδος, the false and dualist à priori of a native and indefeasible immortality, be suppressed, they will be seen at once to be baseless.

4 This letter appeared in the Eglise libre of 9th February, 1883.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

life. The English word spiritualism in the case referred to does not at all correspond to the same word in French, but to our noun spiritism, so that the work entitled Spiritualism Unveiled attributes to the influence of " demons " not at all the doctrine of the immateriality of the soul, but only the practice of seeking to the dead, which you will admit is quite another thing.

Since I am writing, may I be allowed to add that M. Luigi's articles, and some of those which have accompanied or preceded them in your journal, have seemed to me very severe upon those poor Conditionalists, who, after all, are not quite so narrow and so dangerous as they may appear to those who have not had opportunity to devote much time and thought to this special portion of Christian dogmatics ?

That the thesis of Conditional Immortality has been sometimes defended, in English-speaking countries or under English influences, by Judaizing arguments which have a more or less sectarian tinge, or by the help of Darwinian propositions which savour of materialism, I would be among the first to acknowledge and to regret. But it should not be forgotten that the same theory has been expounded in another form in Germany by very eminent men, among whom it will suffice to mention the illustrious Rothe, the greatest speculative theologian of the second half of our century; and after him Dr. Gess, now General Superintendent of the province of Posen ; Dr. Hermann Schultz, now professor in the University of Göttingen. These names, I admit, are not arguments, but they represent arguments ; and I do not consider it to be fitting to put aside by a reference to the previous question, as a strange and eccentric heresy, an opinion that has been adopted after prolonged examination by theologians of such weight.

For my own part, as I have no pretension to pass for an authority on theological questions, and was very much surprised to see my name quoted as such lately by Rev. Edward White in the columns of the Christian World, I could not take my place among those " decided and inveterate Conditionalists " of whom M. Luigi speaks ; on the contrary, I wish still to be classed among the " inquiring minds. " Like your contributor, I see " that our ignorance is unbounded, that eternity has more than one secret in reserve for us , and that even revelation opens up to us only the verge of the divine ways." Yet, while awaiting our transportation to that world of light in which " we shall know even as we are known," it is incumbent upon us to live, to think, to teach here below, and therefore to make for ourselves, by painful effort, some kind of dogmatics ; being at the same time prompt to perceive and confess that our formulas remain incomplete and purely approximative. Thus, notwithstanding all the objections of those who hold to the doctrine of eternal torments or that of universal restoration, I continue to believe that, of the three great hypotheses that we can formulate as to the eventual fate of impenitent rebels, the hypothesis of their annihilation is the one that best reconciles the diverse and apparently contradictory data furnished by the New Testament with respect to the subject.

This personal opinion, which I have not at present the leisure to develope further, here or elsewhere, is no doubt of very little importance to the readers of your excellent journal. But at a time when such a thoroughly biblical theologian as Pastor Byse, of Brussels, can be accused of mortal heresy for having publicly professed the conditionalist theory, I consider it to be the duty of all evangelical theologians who incline, even though with reserve, towards analogous solutions, to raise their voices and say so. Otherwise they might justly be accused of taking for their motto this saying of a personage in the comedy : " Now is the time to show ourselves .

Let us go and hide ! "

Accept, etc. ,

FRANCIS CHAPONNIÈRE.

II. Conditionalism is pure materialism, for it teaches that at death all is over.

This is a pure calumny. We believe in a survival, a resurrection, and a final judgement of all men. We also believe that God is a spirit, and that he has given us a measure of his spirit. On the contrary, materialism is " the system of those who think that everything is matter. "1 III. The universal consent of mankind attests the immortality of the soul.

It attests the probability of a survival, not an absolute and inalienable immortality. See Chap. II., Sect. iv. , § 1 .

The metaphysical proof.

See Chap. II . , Sect. iv., § 2, No. 1.

V.--The ontological proof.

See Chap. II ., Sect. iv. , § 2, No. 2 .

The teleological proof.

See Chap. II . , Sect. iv., § 2, No. 3 .

VII. The moral proof. See Chap. II . , Sect. v.

The human soul is immortal because it is formed of an imperishable substance .

See Chap. II ., Sect. iv., § 2, No. 1 .

1. Dictionaries of the Academy and Littré.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

IX. -The human soul being simple in its nature, cannot be the prey of dissolution.

See Chap. II . , Sect. iv., § 2, No. 1 and p. 363 .

X.-Moral beings cannot be destroyed .

What is the foundation of this assertion ?

Let us not be satisfied with mere words. What is a moral being ? According to etymology, it is a being governed by habits which are controlled by a free will. This control gives to the habits of the being such superiority and excellence that it becomes specially worthy of the epithet moral. Thus we often use the word manners to signify good manners. An army becomes demoralized when it loses the habits of discipline that are necessary for its preservation ; man cannot exist without some degree of morality.

We believe that this exhausts the notion of a moral being ; it does not imply imperishability.

XI.-Conditionalism has made the mistake of signing an offensive and defensive alliance with Darwinist evolutionism .

This is an unfounded accusation. We accept evolutionism only with important amendments, and as covering only a part of the ground. See pp. 48, 49, 63 , 391 .

XII .- Death is only a transformation of the mode of existence, a mysterious phase of life.

Not so. Death is the cessation of certain vital functions ; death complete, or the second death, will be the cessation of all vital functions. To " mortify lust " is to suppress it, not to cause it to live again in a different form.

When death is predicated of inanimate things, it means their destruction. Aristophanes (Frogs, 986) calls a broken platter a dead platter ; it exists as such no longer. In French, too, the fundamental meaning of the verb to die is to cease to exist ; witness the saying, Quand on est mort, on est bien mort. Etymology in Hebrew, Greek, and French is favourable to this primitive notion.

Plato said, “ Life is born of death."

That is one of the subtleties with which Mr. White reproaches Plato. Our opponents make use of it to support their definition of death as a mysterious phase of life. It is a vain support. Always life is born from life, although frequently in the midst of death. In our days the materialists have asserted the contrary ; M. Pasteur's experiments have silenced them. Plato believed in a sort of metempsychosis ; yet even in that system life is born from life by way of generation that is not spontaneous. See in the index the word death.

§ 2. OBJECTIONS BASED UPON TRADITIONAL BIBLICAL THEOLOGY.

Conditionalism is founded upon the Old Testament only ; it is therefore not an evangelical doctrine.

See Chap. IV. and Supplements Nos. VI . and IX.

The Conditionalists make the mistake of attributing equal authority to all the books of the Bible.

Without placing the Old Testament upon the same level as the New, and while admitting a progressive revelation, we call attention to the remarkable fact of the unity of biblical teaching in relation to immortality.

XV. The native and inalienable immortality of the human soul is implicitly taught in the Scriptures.

See Chap. XI ., sect . i.

XVI . If the Scriptures had spoken of immortal souls, the Conditionalists would very likely have questioned the genuineness of the passages in which the phrase might be found .

This uncourteous objection betrays annoyance at not finding in the Bible the expression in question. It is as though a debtor were to say to his creditor : “ I do not let you have any money because I know that you would make a bad use of it. " Besides, the sacred writers might easily have obviated the suggested danger by frequent mention of immortal souls. See Chap. XI., sect. i.

XVII. “ The New Testament never uses the word soul (ψυχὴ) in speaking of animals."

A mistake . See Rev. viii. 9 ; xvi. 3 .

XVIII. The Bible never says that immortality, in the ontological sense of unending duration, is the portion of the believer only.

See page 135 .

XIX. The words life and death in the Scripture have not the same meaning as in classical Greek writings.

The New Testament has not falsified the natural meaning of those words. It has not deprived them of their fundamental notion ; it has only enriched that notion.

In the New Testament, love, ἀγάπη, bears an enhanced meaning, and the idea of abasement in ταπεινὸς can become transformed into humility.

These are not contradictory senses, while in the case in question there would be a contradiction in speaking of death as a life.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

XX.-The notions of life and existence are clearly separated in many passages of holy Scripture.

We ask for the quotation of a single passage in which life does not involve the ontological notion of existence.

XXI. When the portion reserved for the elect is in question, the word " life " designates not only existence, but also, and especially, holiness and happiness. The wicked will be deprived of this superior life, but not of conscious existence .

The statement that the word life designates not only existence is an admission that it designates that also. If, therefore, at the last judgement irreconcilable sinners are to be definitively deprived of life, they will at the same time be deprived of existence.

The ancients and the Greeks themselves had not a clear conception of annihilation ; consequently the Bible could not teach the final extermination of the wicked.

Plato and the ancient philosophers had a very clear notion of a cessation of the existence of the soul.

See p. 317, note 2.

To say that the soul is dissolved like the body is to suppose it to be material .

We do not say, nor does the Bible, that the soul is dissolved. The Bible teaches that certain souls will perish. In what way ? Revelation does not tell us, any more than it tells how souls are born and are formed.

In the Bible the word perish never signifies to cease to exist, nor does destroy mean to cause the cessation of existence.

In reply to this assertion it will suffice to quote 1 Cor. xv. 26, " The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Mr. Darby's translation, like the English R.V., has " abolished " ; that is to say, Death shall be no more ( Rev. xxi. 4). " The earthly house of our tabernacle is to be destroyed " (dissolved), it will cease to exist ( 2 Cor. v. 1). So, too, when " the grace of the fashion " of the flower " perisheth, " it ceases to exist (James i. 11 ) ; the food that perisheth ceases to be food (John vi. 27) ; when a reward is lost (Matt. x. 42) it is suppressed and has no existence whatever.

According to the Bible, the soul can perish that is to say, endure endless misery-but it never dies.

It is, however, said that there is a sin unto death," that " the soul that sinneth it shall die." Jesus calls Satan a " man-killer " ; does he mean nothing more than the death of the body ? See Objections xxvi. xlvii . and the declaration of Delitzsch, p. 317.

XXVI . - In Scripture the death of the soul is an expression that indicates its state of sin.

More correctly, the state of sin leads to death. " Sin reigned in death, " that is, by producing death. The apostle says again : " Ye were dead through your trespasses and sins." " Sin, when full grown, bringeth forth death. "

See Chap. VII. , sect. vi.

For a soul, to perish is not to be destroyed ; it is to live in moral separation from God.

See p . 363 .

XXVIII .-Sometimes in the Bible the word perish has only a relative sense. It may indicate a desolation and a ruin which leave still subsisting the object or person of which it is predicated. This is the sense to be adopted when the perdition of a soul is in question.

In the Bible to perish properly signifies to be suppressed, annihilated. (See Supplement No. VI. and the English-Greek dictionaries at the words destroy and perish.) The absolute sense ought to prevail everywhere if not limited either explicitly or implicitly. Now it is not limited in respect of the human soul, the Bible never speaking of an unconditional immortality.

XXIX.--- Perdition in the Bible designates a ruin of the faculties.

The individual lives still, but he no longer possesses anything that can render life desirable.

A ruin is worth preserving when it has an historic interest or even a picturesque character. The ruins thus described have neither use nor beauty. Lamentable wrecks, hideous relics, they have no claim to the perpetuity ascribed to them.

Spiritual death .

See Chap . VII ., sect. vi., § 1, and Chap. XI ., sect. iv., § 2 .

XXXI .- " In the texts Rom. v. 12 ; Philip. iii. 19 ; James i. 15 ; v. 20, etc. , put forward by the Conditionalists, it is not the annihilation of the wicked that is spoken of, but physical death, wages of sin, or spiritual death resulting from voluntary severance from God."

If the perdition of the profligates spoken of by the apostle means physical death, that is the common lot of all men here below ; and there would be no difference in respect of their final destiny between the righteous and the unrighteous, between the believers and the unbelievers, which is inadmissible. If, on the other hand, this destruction designates a spiritual death, or, in other words, a state of sin, the offence and its chastisement would become identical . That also is inadmissible .

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

What would be thought of a judge telling a thief that to go on stealing more and more should be his only punishment ?

Physical death does not destroy the body, which may be preserved by being embalmed ; à fortiori the death of the soul will not destroy the soul.

Physical death breaks all the bonds of the organism, decomposes the blood, and, in spite of embalmment, prepares the final dissolution of the body ; but it is enough to say that physical death puts an end to the vital functions. It may, then, be foreseen by analogy that the death of the soul will, sooner or later, put an end to all the functions of the soul.

Jesus repeatedly threatens sinners with a terrible chastisement.

That terrible chastisement consists in total destruction preceded by a long and painful death agony.

A venerable octogenarian, who has spent his life in the study of the Scripture, when this view of the case was put before him declared that it was more than any other of a nature to inspire a salutary terror. He added that, say what you will, the traditional opinion will always leave some vague hope of a reduction of the penalty in the end.1

However guilty he may be, the sinner will always cherish the intimate assurance that the sovereign Judge cannot punish the faults of a short life by endless sufferings ; but, as according to the traditional teaching eternal sufferings form the only punishment, the sinner concludes that in the end divine justice will be constrained to pronounce a pure and simple acquittal. When the preachers of the Gospel, putting aside frightful and incredible superstitions, will vigorously set forth the true biblical teaching, that day will see the awakening of a multitude of souls ; then the enlightened conscience will no longer sanction the sinner's subterfuges. See Chap. XI., Sect. ii.

XXXIV. The Lord's parables all teach endless suffering.

We ask for an instance. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus says nothing as to the duration of the fire of Hades.

XXXV. Jesus when speaking of the soul uses the vague term destroy instead of kill which he employs in speaking of the body.

This is a mistaken distinction, for, according to Dr. Cremer, whose authority will hardly be questioned, destroy is a strong synonym of

1 This lightening of the penalty has formed part of theological instruction, at Neuchâtel for example. According to the manuscript course of lectures long used there, some of the reprobate will in the end have a tolerable condition " (Mat. xi. 22 ; Luke xii. 48),

kill, intensifying the notion expressed by that verb. See Chap. XI. ,

Sect. ii . , § 1 .

XXXVI. If the apostle Paul does not speak of eternal sufferings it is because the first disciples did not need that teaching.

Those who raise this objection forget certain members of the Church at Philippi " whose God was their belly." Did not they belong precisely to the class of sensualists for whom, according to one of our opponents, the fear of eternal torments is " the last handle by which they can be laid hold of " ? Yet the apostle does not lay hold of that handle ; he confines himself to asserting with tears that the end of these libertines will be destruction .

That was the conditionalist method. The Church had not at that time discovered other modes of procedure.

XXXVII. The prophecies that speak of eternal sufferings have a limited scope in the Old Testament ; but when quoted in the New Testament they predict suffering absolutely without end.

This assertion rests only upon the preconceived idea of the soul's imperishability.

XXXVIII.-- " Is there not something humiliating in the thought that our soul is perishable ?"

Humiliation is good when it puts us in our proper place. God said to Adam : " Dust thou art. " Jesus declares : " That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; " he compares the disciple who falls away to salt without savour, that is " trodden under foot of men ; " all this is humiliating. On the other hand, is there not a powerful stimulus in the thought that a being by nature perishable may become imperishable ?

§ 3. OBJECTIONS BASED UPON ISOLATED PASSAGES.

1st, Texts of the Old Testament.

Gen. i . 26, 27 ; ii. 7.

Man created in the image and by the breath of God must be immortal like God.

The image is not the reality. See the word Man in the index and

P. 577 , note 5 .

Although created in the image of God, man is not omnipresent, he possesses neither omniscience nor omnipotence ; it is, therefore, not necessary to admit that he must always exist. Man has been overrated. God's image in Adam consists especially in the fact that he is the king of animals.

(Cf. Gen. i., 26 ; Psa. viii. 5-8.) There is no immortalization without a new birth .

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII,

XL.-Gen, ii . 17. Man survived his disobedience ; therefore death does not designate the cessation of life.

See Chap. VII. , sect. vi., § 2, particularly p. 213 sq. Everywhere and always death is the cessation of a life ; the supreme death will be the cessation of every vital function.

Gen. v. 24.

" Enoch was not, for God took him. "

The same expression : " He was not " is used in speaking of the wicked.

(Psa. xxxvii. 36.)

That must prove that the wicked is not really destroyed.

That proves that he will be destroyed ; for our opponent cannot surely accept the idea that the Bible assigns an identical fate to the righteous and to the unrighteous . In order to establish a distinction , it must, then, be supposed that the wicked will finally be totally destroyed; while the disappearance of the righteous Enoch requires the admission

- that an eternal life was reserved for him.

XLII. Isaiah xxxiii. 14 : " Who among us shall dwell with eternal burnings ?"

See pages 192 sq., 324, 327 note 1 .

Isaiah lxvi. 24.

See Chap. XI., sect. ii., § 2 .

XLIV. Dan. xii., 2 sq. Contempt cannot reach those who no longer exist.

See pages 323 note 2, and 353 note 4.

" With Schürer (Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes, p. 457, note 65) we believe that in Daniel it can only be a question of life eternal, for the prophet means to speak of life in the Messianic kingdom, and he knows no other than that." 1

2nd, Texts of the New Testament.

Matt. iii. 12.

Unquenchable fire. "

Cf. Matt. xviii. 8 :

" eternal fire."

See Chap. XI ., sect. ii., § 2 ; and in the index at the words fire and eternal.

XLVI.- Matt. viii. 29, cf. Mark i. 24 ; Luke iv. 34, viii. 31. The demons ask Jesus not to destroy them ( ἀπολέσαι), and also not to send them into the abyss ; therefore, so far as they are concerned, there is no question of annihilation.

If the demons ask that they may not be destroyed, it is precisely because they fear to be destroyed ; and the abyss that they dread must

1 G. Chastand. Le quatrième Evangile et le judaisme.-Revue de théologie et de philosophie, 1887, p. 598, note.

be the sojourn in which they will finally be destroyed. The torment that is also spoken of precedes the destruction .

XLVII.- Matt. x. 28 : " Him which is able to destroy both soul and body." To destroy a soul is not to kill it, and even the body that is killed is not annihilated.

See Chap. XI. , sect. ii., § 1 ; also pages 27, 127, 129, 133, 202 , 319, 363, and Supplements Nos. VI. and IX. ; also Objections xxiv.-xxvi., xxxii ., and xxxv.

Death truly does not annihilate the atoms of which the body is composed. " Nothing is annihilated," nothing except the combination of the atoms, which in reality is everything. So it is with a bank-note that is burnt : the ashes and the smoke are all and are nothing ; that which is truly all is the due arrangement of the molecules of the note before the combustion .

XLVIII.-Matt. xii. 32 : The sin that " shall not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the age to come," does it not imply eternal suffering ?

The definitive chastisement of the unpardonable sin is the gradual extermination of the sinner, which is consummated beyond the tomb.

XLIX.-- Matt. xiii. 42, 50 : " The furnace of fire, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. "

The " weeping and gnashing of teeth " precede the cremation.

See p. 330.

L.-Matt. xviii. 34. Cf., Matt. v. 26. The prison from which there is no release is the symbol of eternal suffering.

See p. 138, note 1 .

LI.-Matt. viii. 12 ; xxii. 13, etc. Darkness does not prevent perception ; there is often much suffering in darkness.

The " outer darkness " is a symbol of the privation of sensation ; as also, in the expression " bound hand and foot," the cords and chains are symbols of interrupted activity.

These emblems, all brought together, indicate the suppression of the man's very existence. Sight is in all languages a symbol of sensation and perception generally. Hence the metaphorical expressions : the eyes of the understanding, the look of faith, etc. A blind man will speak of his pleasure at seeing his friends. In Greek, to see is also to know ( εἴδω, οἴδα). In biblical style, “ to see good days " is more than merely to see them ; it is to enjoy them.¹ See

Objection xlix.

1 See Glassius , Philologia sacra, lib. v. , cap. 12.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

LII .-Matt. xxv. 46 : “ These shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Equal duration of chastisement and recompense .

In order to explain this verse, let us pass from the known to the unknown. The known term is life ; that calls, by way of contrast, for a notion of death in the former member of the phrase. The punishment must therefore consist especially in a privation of life. That privation will be eternal, like the life of the righteous, and that chastisement will be equal in duration to the felicity of the blessed. The apostle Paul calls it an " eternal destruction." If the privation of life is a penalty, which is incontestable, the eternal privation of life will necessarily be an " eternal punishment " or penalty. It is the pæna damni, which may endure even after the culprit has ceased to suffer. The Greek word κόλασις used by Jesus does not necessarily always imply the idea of suffering . Thus in the Wisdom of Solomon (xiv. 10) it is said of a wooden idol that it shall be punished (κολασθήσεται) ; the notion of sensibility is absent. So, too, that notion may be absent when the word is used of a being that has ceased to live. See pp. 194-197 ; 324, note 1 ; 354, note 1 ; and Objection cxiii.

LIII .-Mark iii. 29 : " Is guilty of an eternal sin " (R.V.). That is, a hardening which is ever perpetuated.

The word ἁμάρτημα, the reading accepted by the masters of criticism, designates an act, not a state, of sin. See Cremer's Lexicon. It is, then, the effects of the act that are eternal ; the reference is to the unpardonable sin. See also the preceding Objection.

LIV. Mark ix. 48 : “ Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

See Chap. XI., sect. ii. , § 2 .

LV.-Luke xv. 24, 32 : " He was dead and is alive again ; he was lost and is found." This death does not kill, and this loss is only a wandering.

See Chap. VII., sect. vi. , § 3 : Putative death.

LVI. -Luke xvi. 19-31 .

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus .

This parable says nothing about the duration of Hades ; but Revelation xx. 14 tells us that it is to be suppressed.

LVII. John iii. 36 : " He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. "

" That is," says Calvin, " death hangs thus over the head of all unbelievers, so that they will never be able to escape." The chastisement that threatens them is a sword of Damocles, the thread of which may break at any moment. This impending wrath may also be compared to the thunder that accompanies the lightning-flash. The text does not say that the wrath abides eternally ; it is written, on the contrary, that

God " keepeth not his anger for ever. "

LVIII. John v. 24. If here below it is possible to pass out of death into life, that proves that death is not always a cessation of vital functions.

See page 213.

LIX.-John xvii. 3.

Life consists in knowing, not in existing.

There is here metonymy ; knowledge is indicated as the means of obtaining a blessed eternity. See p. 120, note.

So little does knowledge suffice to give life, that Jesus elsewhere says that the flesh and blood of the Son of man are indispensable for that purpose (John vi. 53).

LX. Rom. ii. 8, sq. : " In Paul's view, the chastisement of the rebels will consist, not in annihilation, but in privation of the glory of God, that is, of eternal happiness."

Ignominy and suffering accompany the second death, as we understand it, and do not exclude it. Death is a king who has outrunners and followers, but these terrible satellites do not take his place. A guilty officer who is shot is previously degraded ; the degradation does not exclude the death. The accessory ought not to cause the principal to be forgotten. Jesus suffered for us " tribulation and anguish "; but besides that he passed through physical death, which presents to the mind an additional idea.

So, too, eternal death evokes the dismal vision of the scaffold ; but the attributes which fit in so well with it do not prevent it from being essentially an absolute suppression of every vital function .

Rom. viii. 6 : " The mind of the flesh is death. "

Then death does not kill ; it is a state of soul .

Stapfer translates, " leads to death." The meaning indicated by that paraphrase seems to us obligatory. Ostervald has, " causes death ." There is evidently a prolepsis. See pp. 206, 210, note 2 .

Eph. ii. 1 .

See Chap. VII. , sect. vi., §§ 1, 2 ; and Chap. XI., sect. iv. § 2 .

LXIII .-- 2 Thess. i. 9.

See Chap. XI., sect. iv., §3 ; and Supplement No. XIX.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

Heb. xii. 29 : " Our God is a consuming fire." We should fear to diminish the force of such a declaration .

This passage is in favour of our thesis. That which God consumes he does not allow to subsist ; the miracle of the " burning bush " consisted precisely in this fact, that it burned without being consumed; while of the wicked it is written, " Thy wrath it consumeth them as stubble ."

LXV.-Jude 7. Sodom and Gomorrah " set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire."

Sodom and Gomorrah no longer exist, but the sacred history gives them as an example ; and the fire is called eternal on account of the perpetuity of its effects. On this use of the word eternal, see the important admission of M. Arnaud quoted on page 194, note 13.

Rev. xiv . 11 .

See Chap . XI . , sect. viii .

Rev. xx. 10 .

See Supplement No. XX .

We believe that we have now enumerated almost all the texts brought forward against us by the advocates of the traditional dogma. They are only just over thirty, counting even the least specious. On the other hand, we shall not attempt to count the passages that tell in favour of Conditionalism ; they are too numerous. See among others Supplements Nos. VI. and IX. This question of numbers is not without its importance ; for, in fact, the frequent repetition of a notion in a book usually attests the value set upon that notion by the author.

§ 4. OBJECTIONS BASED UPON TRADITIONAL DOGMATICS.

· LXVIII .

Conditionalism is one of the fruits of rationalism .

See Chap. XII., sect. iii , § 3, p. 380.

Against this imputation we protested in a letter which appeared in the Disciple de la Parole of 1st April, 1888, as follows :

CHÊNE- BOUGERIES, 8th March, 1888.

In the number of the Disciple de la Parole for the current month I am taken to task in respect of a course of lectures recently delivered at the Academy of Neuchâtel. It is there stated that I expressed myself thus : " Our reason refuses to believe that an all-powerful and allgood God can have created men free with the certainty that they would disobey, and that the result of their rebellion would be an existence eternally miserable," etc.

The word reason, italicized in the article, is precisely the word that I am not conscious of having pronounced.

I have not found it in the manuscript text of my twelve lectures, and if I should find it there I should replace it by an expression more nearly in conformity with my real thought. I should say that our conscience, enlightened by the teaching of the holy Scriptures, agrees with those Scriptures in rejecting the traditional dogma of the Churches. I believe myself to be also a humble disciple of the Word.

Moreover, the writer of the article in question seems to have had an impression that the words attributed to me were not textual, since he took the precaution of introducing them with the verb in the conditional form.

I will not take advantage of this occasion in order to refute in your journal the argumentation of the article in question. If, however, you desire it, I shall consider it a duty to give account of my " hope " ( 1 Peter iii . 15).1

Meanwhile it will suffice if, out of respect for the truth of a personal fact, you will be so good as to insert the present rectification.

Accept, etc.,

Professeur agrégé de l'Académie de Neuchâtel .

LXIX.-" Conditionalism modifies the whole of theology."

That is true ; but it need not be greatly regretted, since, as Professor

Charles Secrétan has said, the traditional theology " pictures to us a hateful God." By going back to the apostolic age Conditionalism renews theology without letting go any of its vital elements.

LXX.- The Conditionalists attach too much importance to a particular doctrine .

To begin with, that is not the question.

know whether the doctrine be true or false.

The important thing is to

No doubt the Bible does not mention Conditional Immortality ; on the other hand, it speaks a great deal about life eternal. The Platonic philosophy having falsified the biblical vocabulary, the Conditionalists have found themselves obliged provisionally to have recourse to synonymous terms in order the better to render the meaning of the Bible : immortality, preserva

1 As might be expected, no notice was taken of this offer. There are some sects which do not discuss, even outside the Church of Rome, which at least has the frankness to declare herself infallible. How many Protestants there are who think they know everything, who learn nothing and forget nothing !

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

tion, destruction, instead of life, salvation, death. In presence of this explanation, will the importance of the doctrine that we are defending be denied ?

Shall we not be able to maintain that the attainment of a blessed immortality is the very aim of the Christian life ? The final suppression of irreconcilable sinners is only a corollary of this doctrine, the most vital of all .

LXXI. These views will not lead anyone back to the faith . The assertion is contradicted by the facts. It is incontestable that the traditional doctrine is a stumbling-block to many persons .

LXXII . The progress made by this doctrine does not prove its truth .

Admitted. Yet that progress may well urge us to examine the evidence invoked in its favour.

LXXIII .-" Conditionalism might be defined as man setting himself up as judge of divine justice ; as though God could be unjust when he punishes."

It is permissible to inquire whether God will punish in the way that has been supposed, and whether the mistaken Church has not misrepresented the primitive teaching as to future punishment. " The Judge of all the earth " will " do right," but that judge will not be a barbarous God reminding us of the Etruscan divinities .

" Who were the originators of that doctrine of eternal sufferings which we do not share ? Men like ourselves, sinners and fallible like us, and worse than that, theologians like us. Under the influence of Platonic ideas, they thought that they could find it in the Gospel ; they proclaimed it as being a Christian doctrine. Their assertion found acceptance in the Church and has become the traditional doctrine .

In our age other men, both enlightened and pious, have been convinced by an attentive study of holy Scripture that the traditional doctrine is neither biblical nor evangelical. These men, being respectful lovers of evangelical truth, holding firmly their conviction, proclaim it frankly, persuaded that they thereby serve the cause of the Gospel. to them the right to do so, which for them is a duty ?

Why refuse

Itis not for the truth to bow down before us, but for us to bow down before the truth, even when it runs counter to our received opinions ." 1

LXXIV.-Man would never have invented the eternity of sufferings ; such a doctrine must have come by way of revelation.

Even so, it is important to know whence the revelation has come. Adam and Eve would not have discovered that they were imperishable

1 Professor L. Emery, Semeur vaudois, 1891, p. 56.

if one more subtile than they had not said to them, " Ye shall not surely die." In fact, long before the Christians or the Jews, the Greeks had invented the endless sufferings of Tartarus; the doctrine of the eternity of sufferings does not then come from the biblical Revelation.

God has created beings " in order that they might be. "

We cannot understand a God who creates beings that he may afterwards destroy them .

The same reasoning would apply to Adam's body, which also was created to endure. God specially wills that his human creature should be free ; he will not destroy his liberty in order to maintain his existence .

The purpose for which the universe exists would seem to be, not merely its existence, but rather the glorious manifestation of divine love, offering immortality and, in an ever-increasing measure, all the communicable attributes of the Creator to those created spirits who ask for the gift. If some spirits, abusing their native freedom, reject the generous offer made to them, the glory of the divine love will not thereby be dimmed. On the contrary, it will be increased by the fact that in redemption God goes beyond all that it was possible to imagine in order to touch and to bring back to himself his rebellious children.

The destruction of the wicked would make it appear that in creating them God had made a mistake.

All the visible objects in creation perish in succession. The divine wisdom has created them for the time of their duration ; why should it not be so with the wicked ? The invisibility of the soul is no guarantee of its imperishability. That which would appear to be irreconcilable with the wisdom of the Creator would be the eternal duration of evil and of evil doers.

LXXVII . To have been in contact with God is a guarantee of immortality.

This assertion should be supported by proof. What being is there in the world who has not some relation with God ?

LXXVIII. An offence committed against an infinite God deserves an infinite punishment.

In order to endure an infinite punishment, a finite being would need to be imperishable ; but man is not naturally immortal, and it cannot be supposed that a fault committed by a man should confer immortality upon him. Nevertheless the punishment of the incorrigible sinner becomes infinite in this sense, that it for ever deprives him of immortality.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

LXXIX.-- Man has no power to kill his soul ; he only who created the soul has power to destroy it.

Our opponents assert that God has communicated to man his own immortality. Why should they not equally admit that God could communicate to his creature power to destroy himself ?

LXXX.-" Just as it is not in man's power to annihilate himself in the present economy (that is evident for everyone who believes in the survival of the soul), so it is no more in his power to annihilate himself in a future economy."

In the same way as it is in man's power to hasten the destruction of his body, so too is it in his power to hasten the destruction of his soul.

LXXXI .— “ God might truly destroy the wicked in order to put an end to their torments, but then the words liberty, responsibility, and judgement would lose their meaning."

On the contrary, liberty implies that he who wishes to abandon life should be able to do so. Our view, more than any other, places the emphasis upon responsibility, since existence itself is involved, and as for the notion ofjudgement, human systems of legislation are unanimous in treating capital punishment as the gravest of all.

LXXXII . Conditionalism introduces into hell an element of pity which ought to be banished therefrom, seeing that God himself is absent from hell .

We have always believed that God is everywhere present. The objectors would surely admit that he is in hell by his omniscience ; but

God is not to be divided.

He would not be God if he were not simultaneously everywhere with all his perfections.

See pp. 225 , 362 ,

LXXXIII .--- " If the thought of human suffering is incompatible with the idea of a good God, it is as much so for one day as for eternity. "

This objection ignores the fact that the day may be followed by eternal compensations, while in the case of interminable suffering there cannot be any subsequent compensation. See p. 224.

Conditionalism presents to us a cruel God, a father who kills his rebellious children.

Here the representatives of the traditional dogma seek to pull out the mote from another's eye without noticing the beam in their own. Every one will admit that death, the cessation of life, is infinitely preferable to eternal tortures ; but we must add that by this representation of God as a father who kills his rebellious children the objector misrepresents Conditionalism, or rather the Gospel. So far from killing his children,

God does not cease to offer to them an imperishable life.

He cannot without blasphemy be compared to the executioner giving the finishing stroke to his victim. The sinner destroys himself (Luke ix. 25). See pp . 221 , 223 sq., 292 sq.

If God destroys man, he takes away from him the possibility of repentance .

If man " destroys himself," he alone is responsible. See the pre-

This one also turns against the traditional dogma.

ceding Objection.

By affirming the irreparability of evil, Conditionalism is in contradiction with the doctrine of grace .

In various passages the Bible tells us of an " unpardonable sin," which is therefore irreparable. Will that also be said to be in contradiction with the doctrine of grace ; and is it consistent for the traditional dogma to condemn the notion of the irreparability of evil ?

LXXXVII . redemption.

Conditionalism diminishes the value of the fruits of

For an innumerable multitude of human beings the fruits of redemption are : the preservation of a forfeited existence, the magnificent gift of immortality, and eternal blessedness. Is it possible to imagine any more precious ?

The doctrine of eternal torments is not a cause of unbelief, but only a pretext put forward by unbelievers. The real offence is none other than the offence of the cross .

The offence of the cross is an offence taken, to which is added the offence given by the erroneous teaching of the corrupt Church, and woe to him through whom the offence cometh ! See pp. 262 sq., 361, 365 .

LXXXIX.- “ The bodies of the wicked will become incorruptible by the resurrection ."

Wherever can this enormity have been found by the Disciple of the Word ? In the New Testament incorruptibility is called ἀφθαρσία ; it is the exclusive prerogative of the righteous (Rom. ii. 7) ; the flesh, on the contrary, will inherit corruption, φθορά. Gal. vi. 8 ; 1 Cor. xv. 50 ; 2 Peter ii. 12 , 19. See p. 345.

XC.-As man's sin may be perpetuated eternally, so his suffering, the chastisement of sin, must also be equally perpetuated.

This argument supposes an inalienable immortality, which is the very question in dispute. We believe that the obstinate sinner will finally succumb under the deleterious consequences of his sin.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

XCI. A proper understanding of the traditional dogma puts aside the idea that the suffering will be incessant and beyond all imagination. What, then, becomes of the lake of fire and brimstone into which we are told that all impenitent sinners will be cast ? You say it is hyperbole. But when, in the same context, a chastisement is spoken of which continues " to ages of ages," you declare that there is no hyperbole on that point The intensity of the suffering would be diminished ; its duration would not. Why this inconsistency ? Would you have two weights and measures ? See Supplement No. XX.

The perdition of Satan and of the reprobate will consist in a reduction to powerlessness to do harm.

One of two things : either this powerlessness will be partial, or it will be total. If only partial, there will still be power ; if absolute, it will be equivalent to nonentity. See in the Index the word paralysis.

XCIII . The wicked will retain all their intelligence, and all their will to do evil ; but they will no longer be able to use their faculties to the detriment of the kingdom of God.

Here, again, one of two things : the wicked spoken of curse God or do not curse him. If they do not curse him, they are destroyed or converted ; if they still curse him, God is not all in all, and the universe is not truly pacified.

XCIV . The first death does not annihilate anything ; it is only the momentary rupture of the bond that unites the soul to the body, and that bond will be restored at the resurrection.

The second death will then not be an annihilation.

Admitting the first death to be only that just described, the second death will be the rupture of a bond uniting the constituent parts of the human being ; and since no resurrection is to follow the second death, the human being will remain eternally decomposed . To decompose a living being is surely to suppress and to annihilate him as a living being.

XCV. Suffering that has no result but nonentity is not to be understood.

In order to find suffering that infallibly leads to a gratifying result,

Universalism must be adopted, and that is rejected by the authors of this objection. In our view, conscious suffering has a salutary purpose so long as it endures ; it ceases when it can no longer be useful. It is a grace that God withdraws when not used to profit ; he alone can decide the moment in which it becomes definitively sterile.

XCVI.-If annihilation is the final destiny of the wicked, why should they not be annihilated at the moment of their death ?

There is no reason for their resurrection.

See pp. 224, 363, and Objection cxvi.

If man is not immortal, and if there is no life but in

Christ, how is it that unbelievers live here below, and are destined to survive beyond the tomb ?

The life of the unbeliever is provisional and probationary. Paul and John tell us that all things have been created by the Word and subsist by him : all life, even physical, flows from God through the Word ; but man's existence is conditional. Moral beings who refuse to rise by a new birth to a reciprocal, voluntary, and spiritual communion with this Word by whom they are sustained, are condemned to perish. The survival of unbelievers beyond the tomb can only be temporary, except through conversion, which will become ever more difficult.

§ 5. OBJECTIONS BASED UPON TRADITIONAL MORALS.

The question in debate is purely speculative, and is devoid of practical interest.

The notion of God, that of man, that of salvation, that of future retribution, all depend upon the question in debate. It might as well be said that the whole of religion has no practical importance. See

Chap. XII .

There is no relation between the notion of moral goodness and that of existence ; nor, therefore, between the notion of moral evil and the suppression of existence.

See Chap. XI ., sect. v.

There are sins which do not kill.

See Chap. XI . , sect. v.

CI. It is not seen that the destruction of the proud or the ambitious begins here below.

See the same .

CII.-" The vigour of a people does not depend at all upon moral integrity."

This is, indeed, an example of the paradoxes to which the adversaries of Conditionalism are driven. We will not occupy our time by refuting this proposition, the error and danger of which are evident.1

1 See the recent discourse entitled, La source de la vraie grandeur d'une nation, on this text, " Righteousness exalteth a nation " (Prov. xiv. 34), by N. Recolin,

Revue chrétienne, Ist November, 1891 .

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

CIII . The long duration of Satan's power proves that sin does not interfere with the sinner's existence, nor even with any of his intellectual faculties.

See p. 357 sq. , and pp. 509-511 . CIV.- Pride and the thirst for riches and glory have produced men of genius.

Say, rather, that they have brought into bondage and led astray men of genius who would have found a no less powerful stimulus in the establishment of the kingdom of God. Besides, how many men of genius, in the folly of pride and the intoxication of ambition, have perished victims of their passions ! It should not be forgotten that our thesis is : All sin kills .

CV.-Personal ambition can attain astonishing success.

We would ask whether success is an assurance of immortality. " The triumphing of the wicked is short," as it is said in the book of Job. Victor Hugo has been mentioned, who in his old age produced works which would never have seen the light if the poet had not been ambitious of an apotheosis. We believe that the same ardour and genius might have been devoted to the service of a less personal ambition, and in that case a certain bombast would not have disfigured magnificent productions. Victor Hugo's egotism, far from increasing, has diminished his glory.

CVI.-Eternal torments are more terrible than final annihilation ; they will inspire a more salutary terror.

A threat terrifies in the measure of the certainty of its execution.

Very few sinners really believe that God will inflict upon them endless torments.

CVII. " Eternal torments have for a corollary the absolute necessity of conversion."

What may this mean ? That this doctrine compels the conversion of everyone ? Yet the unconverted are numerous even in the few churches where eternal torments are still preached. No doctrine is an all-powerful specific ; but Conditionalism has the advantage of presenting a threat which has the conscience of the culprit on its side. Although more terrible, the so-called orthodox sanction is less terrifying because of the doubt in the mind of the culprit ; that threat, passing beyond the mark, misses it .

CVIII. The suppression of the creature is at the same time the suppression of liberty.

On the contrary, the climax of liberty for a creature consists in the power to decide whether or not he will continue to exist.

An enforced immortality can only restrict liberty. Is not the suicide of the body a symbol of the suicide of the soul ?

The man who commits suicide inflicts his own punishment ; the odium of his chastisement falls entirely upon himself ; but in one sense it is still God who chastises, since it is he who has pre- established the correlation between sin and death .

CIX.-Annihilation affects the conscience only to destroy it.

Let us rather say that, the conscience being previously seared and destroyed, there is no more reason for the human being to subsist. See

CX.-Annihilation is a deliverance in the prospect of which there is nothing fearful for the wicked. An impenitent sinner will be tempted to give himself over the more fully to evil if he has the hope of ending in nonentity.

Similar objection has been made against the doctrine of justification by faith, which has been accused of immorality. We believe it to be a duty to present to the sinner chiefly grace, heaven, the good things of which he for ever deprives himself, and the possible return to the heavenly Father, whose arms are open to receive him. The preacher's principal aim will be to set forth the certainty and the value of the offered gifts. But if it be needful at the same time to terrify, is not a prolonged agony preceding the final destruction of his being a terrible prospect, and is there no terror in that extermination with which the soul is threatened ? Without noticing it, traditional opinion still drags itself along in the ruts of barbarous legislation, it demands endless sufferings ; according to it, annihilation does not constitute a chastisement.

It might as well be said that capital punishment is no punishment.

Nevertheless, law and common-sense consider that to be the most terrible chastisement that ought to be inflicted. It shortens the bodily life by some years, or perhaps only some days ; and yet it seems so fearful that many philanthropists declare it to be excessive. How will it be, then, with the extermination which puts an end to the existence of incorrigible souls ? The doctrine of the destruction of the impenitent loses none of the legitimate motives of action employed by the traditional doctrine, but it gets rid of one source of weakness and gains an additional strength. Its God is severe without being inhuman, and it appeals to the instinct of self-preservation, one of the most imperious and tenacious in human nature. See Chap. VII. , sect. vii.

CXI.-Conditionalism is a doctrine dangerous for morality, while the doctrine of eternal sufferings is well calculated to keep the wicked in check by the fear that it inspires.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

" To begin with, let us observe that the preaching of eternal sufferings has hitherto converted very few ; those whom it leads to the Gospel are rare indeed. Secondly, it should be noted that for the fear of eternal torments to prevent the performance of a bad action, they must be believed in, and that involves belief in God as he is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. But the man who has that belief needs no eternal torments to make him turn away from a bad action ; the grateful love that he feels towards his God and Saviour suffices to keep him from it. And when that love is not strong enough in a Christian to enable him to overcome temptation, I very much doubt whether the fear of eternal torments would give him the needed power.

"And then one thing that is almost always forgotten in speaking of Conditionalism is that it does not in any way hinder the course of God's justice, nor does it deny a future life for the wicked, with the expiation of his sins in that future life.

Conditionalism does not assert that physical death is for the non-Christian the suppression of all existence. On the contrary, it declares that every man is required to expiate his sins, here below or elsewhere ; no doubt sin is in this view a malady which in the end will kill the sinner if he will not be healed ; but this malady makes him suffer, morally and physically. To preach Conditionalism is not at all to preach the absence of expiation for the wicked ; it is to say to him : ' Thy chastisement, the natural and inevitable result of thy disobedience of the divine law, begins here below, but does not come to an end in death. Thou wilt be subjected to trialsin what fashion we know not until thou change thy conduct ; and if thou persist in resisting God, in living in sin, thou wilt in the end lose thy personality, thy life, in an agony certainly not eternal but in no wise enviable. Repent, then, while there is yet time, before thou shalt be too far gone in the way of perdition ; a day will come in which sin will master thee to such an extent that thou wilt no longer be able to escape from its tenacious and mortal grasp.' " ו

CXII.-" Conditionalism is an encouragement to all disorders."

Indeed ? During thirty years we have been in close relations with conditionalists, and have not noticed anything of the sort ; rather the contrary. Without speaking of theologians, the representatives of Conditionalism bear such names as Lotze, Ch. Renouvier, F. Pillon, Ch. Secrétan. We cannot but wonder at the free-and-easy fashion in which some can at once condemn the moral philosophy of men who are rightly considered masters in that domain.

1 Professor L. Emery, art. cit.

CXIII. The suppression of life is not a chastisement. To annihilate a culprit is to snatch him away from justice.

St. Augustine held a different opinion . He said : " The severity of the death-penalty is not to be measured by the pain that accompanies the brief moment of its execution, but by the eternal duration of the separation caused by death between the victim and the land of the living. "¹ Cicero had previously spoken of death as " an eternal evil."2

The minister Jurieu, who has been called the Goliath of Protestants, called capital punishment " an eternal chastisement."3 Hermann Witzius, Dr. R. W. Hamilton, and other writers of high repute have expressed like sentiments

CXIV.-" If annihilation depended upon the free will of an indi.

vidual, it would be a mistake to call it chastisement."

When a criminal kills himself it is said that he has executed justice upon himself. Will it be denied that the suicides of Saul, Ahithophel, and Judas did not form part of their chastisement ?

CXV. The notion of chastisement implies suffering always perceived and conscient.

See pp. 198-200, and Objection lii.

If there is a final annihilation, what is the good of the previous sufferings of the reprobate ?

The previous suffering is an accessory of the chastisement ; it is partly vindicatory, but has also a salutary purpose. By its essentially premonitory character, it leaves place for repentance and for salvation. See pp. 225, 226, 437.

punishment.

Conditionalism does not allow of the gradation of future

It assigns to all sinners, great and small, one and the same chastisement, which is annihilation.

This reproach is valid against the traditional dogma, which casts all sinners, great and small, into the one eternal lake of fire and brimstone. Conditionalism, on the contrary, provides for the exact and even mathematical proportion between the chastisement and the offence. See

Chap. XII . , sect. iii ., § 5 .

If the souls that perish are not exposed to eternal torments, it is no longer worth while to endeavour to save them.

Conditionalist doctrine is therefore of a nature to cool missionary zeal.

On the contrary, it excites that zeal ; the more so as it manifests with greater clearness and certainty the terrible chastisement that awaits the

1 De civ. Dei, xxi. 11 .

2 Tusc. Quæst., I. , 49.

3 L'Unité de l'Église, p. 380. " The sentence on one condemned to death, is it not eternal ?"

4 Economie des Alliances, I. , 5, § 41.

5 Rewards and Punishments, p. 444.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII.

impenitent.

When it addresses the sinner and awakes him with the cry of " Fire !" it invokes logic and universal laws.

See p. 386.

Let our opponents reassure themselves by a study of the facts. If they will read over the names of pastors, professors, evangelists, missionaries who are conditionalists, they will not fail to let go some of their theological prejudices against the doctrine.

Those who are well acquainted with Anglo-Saxon countries know that the Churches which favour Conditionalism are distinguished for their missionary ardour. See Chap. I. , sect. v., and p. 397.

§ 6. OBJECTIONS BASED UPON THE HISTORY OF DOGMAS.

CXIX. The great majority of the Rabbis have held the doctrine of native and inalienable immortality.

It should be said, an insignificant minority. See Chap. III ., sects. xiii . , xv.

CXX .- The Church as a whole could not have erred on such an important point.

The Church as a whole erred as to the equally important point of gratuitous salvation until the time when the Reformers arose to protest against her teaching.

CXXI . - The Church has always admitted the eternity of sufferings .

The eternity of punishment is not the same as the eternity of sufferings. We appeal to the normal authority of the first century of the Church. See Chap. IX.

CXXII. - Conditionalism did not appear in the Church before the elder Arnobius.

This objection ignores the facts. All the apostolic Fathers were conditionalist, as were the apostles themselves. The same may be said of the ancient document entitled The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, so recently recovered. This primitive literature will be searched in vain for the stereotyped phrases of the Platonic dogma, immortal soul, eternal sufferings, etc. Athenagoras, towards the end of the second century, is the first ecclesiastical writer who speaks of native immortality. Justin Martyr, Tatian, and Theophilus of Antioch, contemporary with Athenagoras, were still conditionalists. Olshausen states that these have all three maintained the proposition, " of ill repute in our days," that the soul is naturally mortal. So it was with Irenæus. The elder Arnobius wrote a whole century later. See Chap. VIII. and p. 496.

CXXIII .-Conditionalism is a creation of modern theology ; no

Council has ever admitted that doctrine.

That is to be regretted for the sake of the Councils ; but in the matter of doctrine the writings of the apostolic age alone have for us a normal authority, and we think we have proved that the authority of those writings is favourable to Conditionalism.

All the Churches of the Reformation admitted eternal torments .

All the Churches of the Reformation admitted equally that during more than a thousand years the Church as a whole had erred on more than one point. Shall we ascribe infallibility on other points to the

Protestant Churches ?

See Chap. IX.

CXXV.- None of the Reformers of the sixteenth century were Conditionalists.

None of those Reformers were in favour of liberty of conscience. They all approved Calvin allowing the burning of Servetus, who was a zealous Christian. As to the Reformers, see Chap. IX., sect. vi.

In our French-speaking countries Conditionalism is only an Anglo-Saxon importation .

See Chap. I. , sect. vi.

CXXVII. —The most powerful preachers have preached eternal sufferings.

In the same way as St. Augustine, who anathematized belief in the antipodes. Did not Calvin teach that fire and sword should be employed for the destruction of heretics ? Moreover, in the traditional doctrine that we are opposing all is not false : the survival of the soul, future retributions, a final sanction, these are in the evangelico-platonist teaching elements of truth which unhappily have served to promote the triumph of error.

SECTION II .

AGNOSTIC

OBJECTIONS.

CXXVIII . —A mystery hangs over future punishment ; Conditionalism does not respect this mystery.

Do the traditional dogma and Universalism respect it any more ? So far as we are concerned, we declare that it is respect for the biblical

1 With respect to this word, see p, 43, Chap. IX. Sect. xii. sq., and our observations on philosophical agnosticism in Chap. XII., Sect. iv. § 3. A number of evangelical theologians hold to eschatological agnosticism ; renouncing the attempt at a synthesis, they say that they receive simultaneously without understanding them certain biblical declarations that appear to be contradictory .

SUPPLEMENT No. XVII .

teaching that dictates our testimony. We believe in a revelation the light of which is intended to pierce various mysteries, and why not also this one of future punishment ?

" Certainly the exhortation to meditate upon such grave truths only with seriousness and respect is very legitimate ; but has anyone the right to go a step farther, and may anyone, in order to strengthen our humility, demand of us to shut our eyes to the light, not to see that which God in his Gospel reveals to us of his designs ?" 1

CXXIX.-" We cannot know anything of the future life, seeing that we cannot know it by experience."

" The logical scope of this argument is that we ought never to speak of the future life, neither to affirm nor to deny it, seeing that we do not know by experience that there is one.

We believe in the future life for certain reasons of the moral, religious, and intellectual orders, but not by virtue of an experimental cognition. Now the reasons for our belief in the life eternal are the same that cause our belief in the Conditionalist conception of the life eternal. ”2

CXXX.- The Bible seems to have purposely cast a veil over the end of the wicked. By lifting that veil, we might be committing an indiscretion.

We cannot admit that on the point with which we are dealing the

Bible contains a tissue of contradictions ; we leave to others the responsibility that they assume when they accuse the holy Scriptures of incoherence.

It is asserted that Revelation casts a veil over the fate of the wicked ; but this very name of Revelation tells us that the purpose of the Bible is not to cast veils, but to put aside those veils at least which hide from our view the justice and the mercy of God. See

Deut. xxix. 29, and Chap. XI. , sect. vi.

We ought to believe in eternal sufferings, but at the same time confiding implicitly in the divine mercy. Christian sentiment will find a fully satisfactory solution when the complete revelation of God's plan shall come.

While awaiting that complete revelation, the disciples of the Bible will do well to reject a dogma that contradicts the partial revelation that has been granted to us.

СХХХІІ .-“ I persist in my belief that on this point (the final lot of the reprobate) the Scripture leaves the door open to all fears as to all hopes, that it is opposed only to an exclusive choice between the contrary possibilities. I persist also in thinking that the serious ad-

1 A. Matter, Trois essais de théologie, p. 150.

2 Professor L. Emery, art. cit.

mission of liberty postulates this ignorance as to the final term of human history, whether individual or collective, and that in preaching powerful use may be made of the possibility of these various terminations, of which the reality depends upon the resolutions of each one."

Does not this amount to saying that all doctrines are good if only a good use be made of them ? In the three views taken into account in this objection we see three different notions of God and three different schemes of morality, and we believe that we ought to choose the doctrine that is nearest the truth, which is also the most salutary. See Chap. XII . , sect. vi. We may add that the author of this objection seems to us to have no right to raise it, considering his previous declarations : " What necessity is there that we should be immortal ?" said he. If there be nothing to prove his immortality, man falls under the operation of the common law which, in accordance with a universal analogy, threatens him with a death without a morrow ; and the more so as, being by nature contingent, man is also culpable and consequently unworthy to live for ever. Now we believe that we have demonstrated that the conditionalist solution follows logically from these premisses. See p. 537 .

SUPPLEMENT No. XVIII .

PSALMS .

参 (See page 328).

ESCHATOLOGY occupies a considerable space in the Psalter. Thus in the first book only, which includes forty-one psalms, we can count twenty-one that speak of the ruin or final suppression of the wicked, and twenty-three that make reference to the preservation of the faithful or of their posterity. The notion of absolute immortality is no doubt absent, but none the less does the whole Psalter point in the direction of Conditionalism. The New Testament has only to prolong the lines beyond the tomb.

A number of the psalms in the second and third books of the collection throw light upon a verse of Isaiah that is often quoted by the supporters of eternal torments :

" And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me ; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. " We have seen that in this verse there is an allusion to the tragic fate

1 Isaiah lxvi . 24.

SUPPLEMENT No. XVIII.

of Sennacherib's army.

Its reference is therefore to absolutely insensible carcases, and the alleged eternal torments are not here to be found.

Various psalms celebrate a deliverance which brought to mind the fate of Pharaoh's army, but the notion of prolonged sufferings is entirely absent from these hymns of triumph.

In support of our assertion we will indicate some of the references with which we have been specially struck. For example, in Psalım xlvi., which inspired Luther's famous hymn, " The safest fortress is our

God." At verse 3 the words, " Though the waters [of the sea] roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof," seem to picture the multitudes of the Assyrian army beating against the walls of Zion. At verse 5, " God shall help her [the city] at the dawn of morning " (R.V. margin( ר ק ב ת ו נ פ ל seems to be a reference to the ר ק ב ב ו מ י כ ש י ו "when they arose early in the morning, " in

Isa. xxxvii. 36, and 2 Kings xix. 35.1 This reference does not at all exclude that to Exod. xiv. 24, 27. At verse 8, " Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth," we seem to hear the joyful appeal of the sentinel when at daybreak he perceives that the enemy's camp is nothing but a vast cemetery. The following verse tells, as Ezekiel does, of the arms and chariots that are about to serve as fuel to consume the carcases. 3

Then the Psalmist exclaims in the name of Jehovah : " Be still, and know that I am God " ; take your rest, tired soldiers of Jerusalem, the Lord has fought for you ! Psalm xlviii. pictures the astonished kings who contemplate the disaster and take to flight. This reminds us of 2 Chron. xxxii. 21 :

" So he [king Sennacherib] returned with shame of face to his own land."4 The same may be said of Psalm lxviii., which was the warsong of the Huguenots :

Let God arise himself to show, And in a moment every foe

For aye will quit the place ;

His enemies, though widely spread, Will melt away in fear and dread,

Will flee before his face, etc.5 1 Cf. Ps. cxxx. 6, the sentinels who impatiently watch for the morning, and Ps. cxxvii. 2, the uselessness of rising early if the Lord withhold his blessing. See also I Sam. xxix. 10, David rising up early in the morning, before the day. 2 Ez. xxxix. 9-20.

3 Ps. xlvii. 9 [ 10] mentions only the shields.

* The plural of the Psalm ( " the kings ") may be explained by the fact that the

Assyrian monarch was accompanied by various allies or subjects, the seranim or vassal emirs. See E. Archinard, Israel et ses voisins asiatiques, p. 336. Geneva, 1890.

5 The French words are :

Que Dieu se montre seulement, Et l'on verra, dans un moment, Abandonner la place !

The narrative of Isaiah may explain verse 14 of this psalm, of which Reuss says : " We despair of finding the sense, and have given a translation merely tentative : ' The Almighty has dispersed the kings. And the brightness of snow replaces the darkness.' "1 Segond's version has :

" The earth became white like the snow of Tsalmon ;"2 the

English R.V.: " It was as when it snoweth in Zalmon."

Does not this relate to the whiteness of the bones scattered by thousands over the ground?

At the end of the psalm, after the great catastrophe that has destroyed the Lord's enemies, Egypt and Ethiopia bring presents. This may be a reference to 2 Chron. xxxii. 22, 23 : " Thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and guided them on every side. And many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah, king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from thenceforth."

We shall find the same allusion in Psalm lxxvi., but let us first call attention to verses 4 and 5 of Psalm lxxv. : " I said unto the arrogant, Deal not arrogantly ; and to the wicked Speak not insolently " ( R.V. margin). The reproaches and blasphemies of the rabshakeh are still ringing in the psalmist's ears.³

Psalm lxxvi. ought to be quoted entire ; it is a veritable cantata in celebration of the event. Our translation will bring into view the points of contact between the poem and the history :

In Judah is God known, His name is great in Israel.

In Salem also is his tabernacle, And in Zion the place of his retreat :

There he brake the arrows of the bow,

The shield and the sword and the battle. [2 Kings xix. 32.]

Thou art resplendent in majesty on the mountains where thou rendest thine enemies !

The stout-hearted are spoiled, [2 Chron. xxxii . 21.]

They sleep their sleep,

And none of the men of might have found their hands. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, Both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep. [2 Kings xix. 23.]

Le camp des ennemis épars, Epouvanté de toutes parts, Fuira devant sa face, etc. 1 Poésie lyrique, p. 235.

2 Cf. Ps. lxxxiii. 11 , and Judges viii. 12-21 . 3 Isa. xxxvi . The rabshakeh was the chief cupbearer, the lieutenant-general or marshal of the army. See Archinard, op. cit. , p. 348.

SUPPLEMENT No. XIX,

Thou, even thou, art terrible,

And who may stand before thee when once thou art angry ? Thou didst cause sentence to be heard from heaven,

The earth feared and was still

When God arose to judgement To save all the oppressed in the earth. [2 Chron. xxxii. 22.]

Surely the wrath of men shall turn to thy glory,

Their extremest fury shall turn to thy triumph. [2 K. xix. 27-28. ]

Make and fulfil your vows, all ye who surround the Lord your

God,

Let presents be brought to this terrible God ! [2 Chron. xxxii. 23.] He cutteth off the spirit of princes, He is terrible to the kings of the earth ! [ 2 Chron. xxxii. 21.]1

SUPPLEMENT No. XIX .

EXEGETICAL NOTE ON 2 THESS . I. 9 .

(See page 352. )

They shall suffer their punishment, an eternal destruction, by means of the presence of the Lord and by the glory of his power.

SEVERAL French translations have rendered the ἀπὸ προσώπου in this passage by loin de la face, " away from the face." We believe that it is only with verbs expressing fear, departure, flight, or hiding that י נ מ and ἀπὸ προσώπου signify away from. Usually away from is rather rendered in Hebrew by ק ח ר מ ק ו ח ר or ד ג נ מ and in the LXX. by

The attempt has sometimes been made to treat as parallel to

2 Thes. i. 9 the text of Isaiah ii. 10, 19, 21 : " Hide thee in the dust in the holes of the earth in the caverns of the rocks from before the terror of the Lord and from the glory of his majesty." But the expression is not exactly the same ; instead of the simple י נ פ מ is there ד ח פ י נ פ מ literally : away from the presence of the terror. With verbs that express an idea of destruction י נ פ מ must, on the contrary, signify by means of. See among others the Lexicon of Wilke and

1 This quotation and all those relating to this Psalm appear the more striking if attentively studied in the Hebrew text, where the verbal coincidences are seen more distinctly. It is a strange and characteristic fact that Prof. Reuss has not recognized the allusions with which this Psalm abounds. Not to be further tedious, we would refer our readers to the commentary of Bishop Perowne, that of Delitzsch, and the

Annales prophétiques of H. Gallot, p. 150.

Grimm, which confirms our interpretation by quoting as parallel passages Jer. iv. 26 and Acts iii. 19. According to this lexicon, ἀπὸ in such cases indicates the efficient cause : perniciem a facie Domini oriundam. So, too, Winer, in his Grammar of the New Testament, sect. xlvii.: With abstract nouns, ἀπὸ indicates the efficient cause, it then signifies by, Acts xx. 9 ; Rev. ix. 18 ; because of, Matt. xviii. 7 ; Acts xxii. 11 ; Luke xix. 3 ; John xxi. 6 ; Acts xxviii. 3 ; Judith ii. 20 ; Gen. xxxvi. 7, xlvii. 13, etc.¹

In Psalm ix. 3 no one has translated " my enemies shall perish far away from thy face."2 Delitzsch says that the ן מ designates the cause.

It is here clearly the divine look which is turned with indignation towards the psalmist's enemies and consumes them (Cf. xxi. 9 [10]).

In support of the meaning " away from the face," attributed to ἀπὸ προσώπου, Professor F. Godet refers to Rom. ix. 3 : " I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ (ἀπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ) for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites. "

This suggestion indicates a misapprehension of two facts : first, there is not here the expression ἀπὸ τοῦ προσώπου, but ἀπὸ only ; second, the anathema implied destruction, the victim of the anathema did not live far away from, it was to be put to death (Lev. xxvii. 28, 29). The preposition ἀπὸ used by Paul is borrowed from the LXX. in the translation of this same passage in Leviticus ; it corresponds to the

Hebrew

Vows of devotion

• involved the destruction of that which had been thus devoted," as stated in a note on that passage in Segond's version. In Rom. ix. 3 Paul repeats the self-devotion of Moses (Ex. xxxii. 32) ; like Moses, he would have renounced life and even existence if by the sacrifice he could have saved his people ; but he did not dream of livingfor ever separated from Christ.

" It is now generally admitted that ם ר ח ) ἀνάθεμα) signifies devoted to destruction men who are are to be put to death, but things are eventually given to the priests." 3 ᾿Απὸ in Rom. ix. 3 no doubt indicates a separation ; by the fact of his death, the man devoted to anathema is separated from the community. Paul was willing to perish apart from Jesus Christ and from the community of the faithful ; but his thought was utterly foreign to the notion of an eternal hell, an abode into which the wicked would be cast, not there to be destroyed, but there to suffer without intermission and without end the torments

1 ᾿Από properly designates the starting-point ; hence, the origin, the cause. 2 The versions of Lausanne, Bruston, and Segond have : devant ta face, "before thy face " ; that of Perret-Gentil has : disparaissent à ta vue, " disappear at the sight ofthee."

3 H. Cremer, Biblico-theological Lexicon ofNew Testament Greek.

SUPPLEMENT No. ΧΙΧ.

of unquenchable fire, in the company of the devil and his angels, with rage in the heart and blasphemy on the lips.

᾿Απὸ προσώπου, then, indicates an efficient and present cause. Itis a Hebraism which often signifies " by means of " or " because of " ; as, for example, in Psa. xxxviii. 5 ]6[ י ת ל ו א י נ פ מ " because of my foolishness, " literally " away from the face of my foolishness," and in the

LXX. , ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς αφροσύνης μου. In the same Psalm, verse 3 [4], we find two instances of the use of the same phrase in the same sense :

" There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine indignation," literally " away from the face of thine indignation ;" " neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin," literally also, " away from the face of my sin." See, too, Gen. vi. 13 ; Lev. ix. 24 ; x. 2 ; Deut. xxviii. 20 ; Josh. v. 1 ; Neh. v. 15 ; Psa. lxviii. 2 [3] , as wax melteth before the fire, " not " awayfrom the fire ;" it might rather be translated near to the fire " ; lx. 4 [6], on this verse Delitzsch remarks that י נ פ מ indicates the reason and motive ; lxxx. 16 [17] ; Isa. x. 27 ; Jer. iv. 26, " the cities were broken down at the presence of the Lord and before his fierce anger " ; away from his fierce anger would be a contradiction. Cf. Hos. x. 15.

So, too, in the New Testament : Acts iii. 19, the times of refreshing are to come from the Lord by his presence ; awayfrom his face would be absurd. In the verse under discussion the notion of power is introduced in view of a work of destruction; it would hardly have been needed if separation only had been contemplated, especially seeing that separation is already caused by the fact of the sinner's revolt.

To sum up, 2 Thess. i. 7-9 might be interpreted thus : The rebels shall suffer their punishment ; that is to say, absolute and final destruction, caused by the presence of the Lord and by his glorious power when, descending from heaven, he shall appear in the midst of devouring flames.

In further support of this meaning we would refer to the Lexicon of

Gesenius, particularly at the word ן מ , and to the following passages in the Hebrew text : Ex. viii. 20 [Eng. 24] ; Judges. vi. 6 ; Isa. lxiii. 19 ; lxiv. 1 , 2 [ Eng., lxiv. 1, 2, 3] ; Jer. ix. 6 [Eng., 7] ; xv. 17 ; Ezek.

xiv. 15 ; cf. Mal. iii. 19 [Eng., iv. 1]. It will thus be seen that in the Old Testament the wicked are often threatened with being consumed by the " fire of the face " of the Lord. In the New Testament, too, our God is a consuming fire " ; there is " a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries." In the traditional orthodoxy it is not so : God does not consume that which he consumes, and his adversaries are incombustible.

The conclusion to which we seem to be forced by this examination is that in the passage before us the meaning of ἀπὸ προσώπου must be "by means of. "1

SUPPLEMENT No. XX .

ANOTHER TEXT OF

APOCALYPSE .

(See page 365.) They shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Rev. xx. 10).

THIS passage, which Professor F. Godet has not cared to invoke, is the stock argument of many persons upon whose imagination it has made a deep impression. It is unsparingly used and made to bear nearly the whole weight of the controversy.

One American opponent reproduces it twenty times in an essay of a hundred pages, reminding us involuntarily of those military commanders who, in order to impress the enemy with the extent of their resources, keep the same troops continually marching around the ramparts of a besieged town .

As it seems to us, this ultimate proof of endless torments invoked in extremis loses all force if the following considerations are taken into account :

1. A theologian will not seek the principal support of a dogma in a poetical and allegorical book like the Song of Songs or the Apocalypse.2 2. The passage in question relates not to human beings, but to Satan, the Beast, and the false Prophet. The immediately preceding verse states that the men who were rebels had already undergone their punishment : the fire from heaven had " devoured them."

3. The lake of fire and brimstone that receives the reprobate is a symbol of utter destruction. Death and Hades, or the abode of the evil is dead, are cast therein. That symbolizes " their destruction brought to an end in the abyss, " as M. L. Bonnet says ; the venerable

1 " We say that there are texts in which the meaning of annihilation attributed to the terms death and perdition is justified, or perhaps even required. In the first of these categories we should place 2 Thes. i. 9, in which we can hardly agree with Prof. F. Godet in understanding the words, ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ Κυρίου, which are dependent upon ὄλεθρον αἰώνιον, to relate to ' permanent removal from the Lord's face,' and we can only see in them a Hebraism that signifies ' coming from the

Lord. "

A. Gretillat, op. cit., vol. iv. , p. 614.

2 See p. 365, note. The Methodists, whose attachment to the traditional dogma amounts sometimes even to fanaticism, have nevertheless recognized the principle here stated. In one of their catechisms they have suppressed several quotations from the Apocalypse. Christian World, 23 Feb., 1882.

Op. cit. See too Güder in Herzog's Encyclop. at the word Hades, and Reuss, l'Apocalypse, p. 142 : " Another very happy thought is that of the annihilation of

SUPPLEMENT No. XX.

Nitzsch says much the same.

It is not easy to conceive a different explanation. From the standpoint of Conditional Immortality, the meaning is quite clear : After the last judgement, when all obstinate sinners will have perished, death will be abolished ; the survivors will live for ever. Thenceforth none will die, and the " abode of the dead " will have no more reason for its existence.1

4. Complete destruction will also be the fate of the two monsters who are implicitly spoken of in this verse : the Beast with ten horns and the one with two horns. This is apparent from the parallel passages in

Daniel : " The beast (with ten horns) was slain, and his body destroyed, and he was given to the burning of fire."" Will it be said that the Bible teaches the immortality of the soul of these beasts ? Neither in Daniel nor in the Apoca ypse are they human beings, nor fallen angels, nor even animals. They are usually understood, like the great harlot who sits upon one of them, to symbolize empires, systems of government, or else false religions ; in any case they are nothing but creations of the imagination. Eternal torments predicated of these symbolic beasts could therefore hardly mean anything else than the convulsions, divisions, dismemberments of institutions, the decline of which is prolonged through the ages until their complete disappearance. As for Satan who shares their fate, the Scripture teaches expressly that in the end he too shall be " crushed " and " brought to nought. "3

5. We have already said something about the " smoke that goeth up-

Death and Sheol , which have no longer any reason for their existence. "

To the fire are added sulphurous vapours, if possible yet more deadly. Fire, smoke, and brimstone kill the third part of the inhabitants of the earth (Rev. ix. 18).

1 See at page 368 the evasion imagined by some traditionalists. One of them when closely pressed even suggested that those two personages, Death and Hades, were two angels, who would be capable of suffering. But the Bible never speaks of these pretended angels, and is it possible to understand an angel of Hades who before thus suffering would serve as a receptacle ? a living receptacle filled with the dead !

(Rev. xx. 13) . We return to this context because in it we see a thread which might help the traditionalists to get out of their dismal labyrinth ; a ray of light which illuminates the darkness of the " second death. " If carefully considered, it undeniably proves that the " lake of fire and brimstone " is a symbol of final annihilation.

2 Dan. vii. 11 , 26, R.V.

Oehler, who is usually very correct, here takes a false step. He makes out that the carcase of this beast is to be " tormented," ut cruciaretur. Vet. Testam. sententia, p. 53. In the first place, the text does not say so ; in the next, it is impossible to make a carcase suffer while being burnt ; and the purpose of the burning is only that it may be got rid of as quickly as possible. 3 Gen. iii. 15 ; Rom. xvi . 20 (συντρίψει, cf. Rev. ii. 27 ; Ps. ii. 9, " dash in pieces " ) ; Heb. ii. 14 (καταργήσῃ, cf. 1 Cor. xv. 26 ; 2 Tim . i. 10, " abolish "), afin qu'il anéantît ... le diable, Segond. According to the Scriptures, Satan not being of an imperishable nature, the eternity of his torments can only be relative.

This solution is the more acceptable because Satan's companions in the lake of fire and brimstone are, as we have just seen, devoted to destruction. To suppose Satan eternal would moreover be Manichæism.

See pp. 347, sq. 358.

for ever and ever." The image is borrowed from the book of Isaiah, where we find described the smoke of the land of Edom, which is also perpetual.1 Fire being a symbol of destruction, the smoke after the burning is like the dismal remembrance of that which is no more and the memorial of a complete ruin. Sometimes a cloud of smoke may be seen resting over the scene of a great conflagration ; the persistence of such a cloud of smoke must symbolize the unfading remembrance of an irremediable ruin. Isaiah was himself inspired by the narrative in Genesis relating to Sodom and Gomorrah.2

In the Apocalypse, Babylon, the city of which it is said that " her smoke goeth up for ever and ever," is also said to exist no more : she is to be " found no more at all, " a biblical mode of saying that she has ceased to exist.

The eternal smoke does not then confer an indefeasible immortality upon the enemies of God. The memory of their chastisement alone will survive, an immortal witness of the rights of celestial justice. It is also said that the wicked shall be forgotten by God, another mode of saying that they will no longer exist ; but, as the

Neuchâtel Annotated Bible remarks, " there will remain of them something that will never be forgotten, that is, their shame. "4

In the last chapters of the Apocalypse Death and Hades are burnt and destroyed, " all ills disappear one by one, leaving nothing to subsist in the end except the blessed life. How different is this view of the future from that formed by the false wisdom of men ! What treasures of hope and of consolation there are in the prospect opened before us by the word of God !"5

6. This interpretation alone harmonizes with the apocalyptic symbolism of which we have already spoken : second or definitive death, tree of life, book of life, water of life ; all these images oblige us to set aside the notion of an unconditional immortality which would destroy the unity of the book.

1 Isa. xxxiv. 10 : " The smoke thereof shall go up for ever. " The expression in the Apocalypse emphasizes the notion of duration ; but it is important to remember that in the Bible the adjective eternal and the locutions relating to eternity always indicate an indeterminate duration of which the maximum is fixed by the intrinsic nature of the persons or things. This definition is, we believe, the only one that is applicable to every case. " In the Scriptures, seventy times out of ninety, the word ' eternal ' qualifies objects of a temporary and limited nature. " Herding,

Essai sur l'immortalité par Christ, p. 87.

2 Isa. xxxiv. 10; ix. 17, 18 ; Ps. xxxvii . 20 ; Gen. xix. 28.

The expression " vanish in smoke " has become proverbial to indicate a complete suppression. So too in the Hindoo poem, the Ramayana, the evil genius of the universe, Ravana, " he who causes weeping, " being at last delivered over to the flames, " vanishes in smoke " ; that is a symbol of the end of evil.

3 Rev. xix. 3. Cf. xii. 8 ; xviii. 8-10, 21 ; xx. II ; xxi. 1 ; Ezek. xxvi. 21 ;

Isa. xli. 12 ; Jer. 1. 20 ; Dan. ii. 35.

4 Note on Jer . xxiii. 40. Cf. Ps. x. 15 ; Isa. xiv. 20.

5 L. Bonnet , op. cit. , 1852, II . , p . 890.

SUPPLEMENT No. XX.

7. The expression " day and night " adds nothing to the duration of the ages. On the contrary, it indicates that the punishment contemplated is in truth temporary, since in an absolute eternity there will no longer be the diurnal succession of light and darkness. The righteous will always be in the light and the wicked always in the darkness of nonentity (Heb. i. 11 ; 2 Peter ii. 4 ; iii. 10 ; Jude 6, 13 ; Rev. xx. 11 ; xxii. 5).

8. Eternal torments, in the absolute sense of the words, would not be in harmony with the consistent teaching of the Scriptures, and whether the authenticity of the Apocalypse be admitted or not, they would be in contradiction with the doctrine of John in his Gospel and in his Epistles. In the absence of a special miracle, the sufferings of a naturally mortal being could not be interminable. So far from predicting the intervention of such a miracle, the Scriptures with one accord teach that the wicked will be finally destroyed. The suffering of rebellious creatures could not then last longer than is compatible with their perishable nature. Vainly is it sought to oppose the New to the Old Testament by appealing to the " additional contents " of the Gospel. As we have seen, this additional matter is very far from reaching to the extent of making the wicked eternal.1

9. In conclusion , the expression " for ever and ever in our text. cannot designate an absolute eternity ; it is hyperbolic. Is there anyone who would argue that in the Bible generally, and particularly in the Apocalypse, there are no hyperboles ? If in the Apocalypse there were no hyperboles, it would be necessary to admit that unbelievers will be all together and without cessation the victims of a torment equal to that which here on earth would be caused during a few seconds only by a bath of fire and brimstone ! Does there exist a theologian who is prepared to affirm that ? If so, let him make himself known ! If not, our right to see hyperboles in the Apocalypse remains incontestable. It may fairly be asked what now remains of the argumentation based upon the few passages which have been treated as the palladium of the traditional dogma. These pretended proofs do not bear examination ; they break down completely. He who would depend upon them will see falling to pieces along with them the whole Manichæan edifice of eternal

1 That explains why we are told of a holy life that is " endless " and of an inheritance that is " incorruptible," but not of " interminable " torments nor of an " indestructible " hell .

2 See, for example, in the original as well as in the common versions : Gen. xi. 4, " a tower whose top may reach unto heaven " ; I Kings x. 27, " silver as stones for abundance " ; John xxi. 25, " the world itself would not contain the books " ;

Titus i. 2, " eternal life promised before times eternal " ; Rev. xxi, 16, a wall the " height " of which is twelve thousand furlongs.

sufferings and the crumbling fortress of religious despotism . He might as well try to make a mountain rest upon the point of a needle, after the manner of the Roman Catholics who based the frightful theory of the Inquisition upon the hyperbole of a parable : " Compel them to come in !"

SUPPLEMENT No. XXI .

THE SPECIFIC DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE CONDITION -

ALIST POINT OF VIEW.1

(See page 381.)

THERE are two ways in which the divinity of Jesus Christ may be denied. There is first the old way, which consisted in a simple negation, and in the Church has been called Arianism or Socinianism .

There is in the present day, however, a negation which is hidden under an affirmation ; it is said that to Jesus truly belongs divinity, but it is a divinity that belongs in principle equally and by the same right to all of us. There would then be no specific difference between him and ourselves ; Jesus would have been only an initiator ; he would remain for us a model and a guide, but his superiority would be exclusively moral. It is said that to distinguish between the divine and the human nature is to create a dualism without reasonable foundation ; thus by a roundabout process an implied denial of the specific divinity of Jesus Christ is reached.

For my own part, my honoured brethren, I must acknowledge that this Christology gives rise in my mind to various scruples which I feel bound to lay before you ; it seems to me not to be justified either

1st, from the biblical standpoint, or, 2nd, from the philosophical standpoint, or, 3rd, from that of the moral consciousness.

1st, From the biblical standpoint. One of the most impartial scholars, whose competence is recognized by all theological parties,

Professor Reuss, has expressed himself thus : " Incorruptibility, the quality of exemption from all decline, from all chance of death, belongs properly to God alone. None, therefore, but Christ, the image of God, could communicate to the world such a boon." According to the Gospel of John, God has permitted Christ, and Christ alone, to have " life in himself "; Jesus is the " bread " that God gives to men. Itis

1 A communication presented to the Theological Society of the Canton de Vaud,

22nd June, 1891 . 2 See page 123.

SUPPLEMENT No. XXI, not the Father but the Son who is the bread of life. Jesus is the vinestock rooted directly in God ; we are the branches depending upon the stock.

Say, if you please, that the stock and the branches are of the same wood, that their substance is in fact identical, you are justified in making that statement ; but you must admit that their attributes and prerogatives differ considerably.¹

The Israelites, and no doubt the non-Israelites also, who do not eat " the flesh of the Son of man " and who do not drink " his blood," have not in themselves a durable life. An empty stomach can produce only hunger. That hunger, which is consuming him, is the only thing that man, left to himself, possesses as his own. It is not, then, moral or spiritual life only that is lacking in us, but also ontological life, which is first and foremost perpetuity of existence. Olshausen, Sartorius, Reuss, Oltramare, Professors Ménégoz, Aug. Sabatier, Fred. Godet, all agree on this point.2

Professor Aug. Sabatier says : " According to St. Paul, man is not naturally immortal ; he becomes so by faith. It is a grace," and this grace is to be obtained only by a mystic union with Jesus Christ.

Paul's expression in his discourse on the Areopagus, Acts xvii. 28, " We are also his offspring " is invoked, but sometimes it is unduly pressed. It is quoted from a poem of Aratus entitled Phaænomena ; it is also to be found in an ode of Cleanthes of Troas .

In both these contexts it relates to Jupiter ; but, from the point of view of the Greco-

Roman mythology, men did not belong to the posterity of Jupiter ; the legend traced them to Deucalion's stones. According to the narrative in Genesis, between the Creator and man there is only a shadow of resemblance ; in Hebrew, tzelem, from the root talam, obscure ; shadow is not at all identity.5 to be dark,

1 If it be said, as in the school of Kant, that there are no substances but only forces and phenomena, that may be correct ; but yet it will be necessary to admit that, from the Gospel standpoint, Jesus is the only source of a divine force of which we are but the holders during his good pleasure. 2 See Chap. IV. , Sect. iii.

See pp. 125, 126.

* See F. Godet, Revue chrétienne, 1884, p. 755 sq.

5 The term living soul, ה י ח ש פ נ is applied in Genesis to fish and all kinds of animals as well as to man (Gen. i. 20, 21 , 24, 30). So it is in the New Testament with the word usually translated soul (Rev. xvi. 3). As for the farnous nishmath to chayim, ם י י ח ת מ ש נ of Gen. ii. 7, it is the panting breath of respiration, from puff, to sniff; the animals possess this breath . Cf. Gen. vii. 22 and Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4. According to The Hebrew National, 19 July, 1867 : " The Midrash (Bereshith

Rabba, Chap. XII . ) does certainly enumerate five appellations of the human spirit met with in Scripture ; but these alike designate the principle of life in man and in beast. For that spiritual essence which exclusively is the portion of man, the Hebrew language affords no term. " According to the Talmud, the soul of the wicked perishes by gradual decay. The light breath in man's nostrils is in Scripture a symbol of weakness and mortality (Gen. vii. 22 ; Isa. ii. 22). The breath or spirit of God creates the multitudes of solar systems and animates all living beings

Like the old prophets, Paul speaks of God as the potter and of man as the vessel, which the potter destroys or preserves at his pleasure. When Paul says that God " himselfgiveth to all life," that expression applies to plants and animals as well as to man; the life spoken of is evidently not imperishable.¹ In the Bible there is nothing that guarantees the native imperishability of the human ego. To Jesus alone it has been given " to have life in himself. " It has been well said by Professor F.

Godet:

" Jesus alone has direct access to the supreme source. The life that he draws from that source, in human fashion elaborated and reproduced in his person, becomes in him accessible to men. Thus is he for all the bread of life ; only if it is to give life that bread must be eaten.... The true God, the living Father, gives himself to one alone, but in him to all those who will eat of that one.

The life that he imparts to the believer is then not of a purely moral nature ; it is his complete life, bodily as well as spiritual, his whole personality. " 2

Even in heaven the existence of the elect is dependent upon the tree of life, which again is Jesus Christ. No one can be on an absolute equality with him by whom his existence is maintained.

2nd. From the philosophical standpoint it seems impossible to prove that we by nature possess immortality, which, in our view, is only to be obtained through Jesus. Professor Charles Bois, the author of a confession of faith that bears his name, who has lately died, and who has been called the chief of the evangelical and synodal party, acknowledged that the philosophical arguments for unconditional immortality were insufficient. *

Several of the greatest metaphysicians of our time, Rothe, Lotze, Renouvier, Charles Secrétan, have come to the same conclusion. Kant

)Psa. xxx. 6 ; civ. 29, 30). The word ש פ נ soul, is used a dozen times as synonymous with corpse ; and in 1 Cor. xv. 45 the apostle contrasts the living but mortal soul of the first man with the life-giving spirit of the second Adam. For the meaning of ה מ ש נ see too G. F. Oehler, Theology ofthe Old Testament, T. and T. Clark, 1874 , vol. i. , p. 216 sq. " That which in Hebrew psychology is called breath is not a personal being, not the soul of modern philosophy, but merely a force that has come from God and gives to matter a personal and particular though temporary existence. " Reuss, Poésie lyrique, p. 320. Prof. Reuss also says that Eccl. xii. 7 " does not in any way contemplate a spirit or soul existing by itself and continuing to live in the presence of

God after the death of the body."

Philosophie relig. et mor. , p. 328.

1 1 Tim. vi. 13. Ζωογονοῦντος τὰ πάντα. The root of the verb here used is the γένος of Acts xvii. 28. It is evident that in both passages Paul refers neither to emanation nor to procreation, but to creation, in the biblical sense of that word.

Under the Old Covenant no man calls God his Father.

The apostle says : “ Ye are sons of God, through faith in Jesus Christ " ( Gal. iii. 26). 2 F. Godet, Commentaire sur l'évangile de Jean, 1865, Vol. II. , pp. 131-134.

3 Rev. xxii. 2, 14, 19.

Cf. Chap. XI. Sect. III. and Chap. X. Sect. VI., p. 295 .

+ See his explicit declaration, pp. 59, 60.

SUPPLEMENT No. XXI.

had previously said that the soul could perish by extinction. In this connection, again, it seems difficult to controvert a conviction that has in its favour such weighty authorities and, as scarcely needs to be said, very solid reasons behind those authorities. It seems, then, to be ascertained that we are all only contingent beings, not at all necessary, consequently perishable. According to Adolphe Franck's Dictionnaire des sciences philosophiques : " There are only two modes of existence, two modes of being : one necessary, the other contingent. " If the human ego belongs to the category of contingent beings, if Jesus imparts to us an immortality that we do not naturally possess, this fact assigns to him a superiority that is not merely moral but is also ontological.

An absolute identification of the two notions of morality and existence would imply a confusion of categories.

The brightness of the flame ought not to make us forget the gaseous fluid that nourishes the flame. By the side of the unique divinity conferred upon Jesus Christ, I see upon earth only frogs wishing to make themselves-enormous.

3rd. Lastly, our conscience cries out against any pretension that.we might make to assimilate completely our nature to the nature of Jesus Christ. If we look closely into our consciences, far from finding there an equality with God, we at once perceive disquietude, self-reproach, the sense of our unworthiness, and, more than that, of our nothingness ; like the publican, we smite upon our breast as being unworthy to live.

By the use of his liberty, man has cut off from its source his own being which he derived from God, and he exhausts it in a slow deathprocess. " 1

Conscience shows that, being sick unto death, undermined by sin, we are going on towards nonentity ; it demands a Saviour who is able to infuse in us a new life.

But to infuse new life is the work of the

Creator ; conscience therefore demands a Saviour who shares the creative nature of the Creator, a nature which evidently is not ours, since we are about to perish. In other terms, the specific divinity of Jesus Christ is legitimated before the tribunal of conscience ; and, according to Schleiermacher, that is an undeniable proof of the truth of a doctrine.

1 Charles Secrétan. See the fuller quotation, p. 292.

SUPPLEMENT No. XXII .

COMPARISON

OF THE

PRIMITIVE

GOSPEL WITH

(See page 396.)

THE principal impressions left in the mind by a study of the religions of the ancient world are two. On the one hand, there is surprise at the beauties that sparkle in these old-world systems, which are all too little known.

On the other hand, our gratitude towards the God of the

Gospel is increased as we recognize the abyss that separates the revealed religion from all human systems of religion. In primitive Christianity we can admire the miraculous synthesis of so many scattered truths. It is thus that in a sunbeam are united and eclipsed all the prismatic colours ; that the most brilliant stars fade and disappear at the rising of the sun. This superiority of the Christian teaching is especially apparent in the domain of eschatology, as soon as that is considered from the conditionalist point of view.

The Egyptian awaited the return of the soul into the mummy ; the Gospel promises to us a new and spiritual body.

The invisible majesty of Jehovah rises far superior to the imposing idols of Assyria. The magnificent idea of creation belongs only to the

God of the Jews ; the heathen deities are only procreators .

The God of the Bible alone is free ; all rival gods are the slaves of destiny. Alone among all divinities, the God of Israel forbids any representation of his person .

The sun and moon, those great divinities of Babylon, Phœnicia, and

Egypt, are for the author of the book of Genesis only great lights to illuminate the earthly scene ; the chapter that tells of the creation does not even give a name to these luminaries.

At Babylon and elsewhere sorcery was held in honour ; in Israel it was proscribed under pain of death.

In the Jewish commonwealth there was no executioner, nor was there any cruel refinement of torture in punishment .

The Gospel sets forth an ideal purity without imposing the crushing yoke of the Zend-Avesta.

The cross of Jesus Christ satisfies our sense of the need for expiation,

1 Extract from an article by the author in the Chrétien évangélique of March, 1887 , being a review of the Religions de l'ancien monde, a translation by M. Clément de Faye of the work by Prof. G. Rawlinson, M.A. Geneva, 1887.

SUPPLEMENT No. XXII.

without wounding our sentiments of humanity. The Phœnician divinities are continually drunken with human blood, and thirsting for more.

In Buddhism is found a tender compassion for fallen and suffering beings ; the true Christian cherishes this compassion without the strange exaggeration of the Hindoo, who in walking fears to crush an insect unperceived.

The Gospel preaches a salutary fear ; it teaches the notion of irreparability ; it threatens the impenitent with an inevitable chastisement ; it reminds him of the terrible fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, but it never reproduces the ignoble pictures of the mythological hells.

Then, too, the boasted serenity of the Olympian gods is a coarse eudemonism which serves as a dark background to bring out clearly the harmonious picture of the celestial Jerusalem, of the ineffable peace, the holy activity, and the blessed communion of the saints in light.

As it has been well said, the contrast between human religions and Christianity may be summed up thus : Those religions are like the imprints of the wandering steps of man seeking God and groping in the dark ; the Gospel, on the contrary, describing the life of Jesus, enables us to follow the shining traces of a God who comes near to man.

Rationalism had built high hopes upon the history of religions ; desiring to make use of it in order to prove that revelation contained nothing supernatural. We believe that the Gospel, when once disburdened of the accretions of Platonism, will speedily triumph over this test to which it has been subjected.

In vain do the Philistines take possession of the ark of God in order to put it into the temple of their false gods ; Dagon falls and is broken to pieces before the sacred ark . " Unless we are utterly mistaken as to the religious and philosophical developement of the ancient world, it seems certain that if that world had a glimpse of the moral idea which is at the same time human and divine, that is all that can be said ; the thick clouds by which it was veiled before the eyes of that world were not dissipated.

There is not one of the religions of ancient paganism which has not fallen back into the old pantheistic nature-worship, whatever the heights to which it may have attained at times in the light of a prophetic intuition. There is not one of its philosophies, not even that of Socrates and Plato, as admitted by the most trusty and impartial historians, that has freed itself from that dualism which is logically the negation of theism. Nor has faith in the future life ever attained to full and joyful certitude. Philosophy has never gone beyond theperhaps of the Phado, and popular beliefs have always been mingled with fears and miserable superstitions."1

L'Ancien monde et le christianisme, by Edmond de Pressensé, p. 654.

SUPPLEMENT No. XXIII .

TESTIMONY OF

MISSIONARIES .

(See page 397.)

§ 1. REV. W. A. HOBBS,

DURING a number of years Mr. Hobbs was a missionary in Bengal, at Sewry and afterwards at Calcutta. Writing to Rev. Edward White, he expressed himself thus :

I have not been forgetful of my standing obligation to diffuse as widely as possible a knowledge of the special truth so tersely expressed by Paul : " The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. " I regard this doctrine as being the backbone of Christianity..

From September 15th to March 31st not less than ten thousand persons have heard from my lips, and from the lips of the native brethren associated with me, what we believe to be the truth as it is in Jesus.

And here I desire to note a fact which I think worth recording.

Years ago, and before God had brought me to receive Scripture teaching as I now receive it, I was often sorely pressed in argument by these men of brains around me (especially those known as Brahmists¹) in relation to the Christian doctrine of unending suffering ; in vindication of which dogma I was necessitated to resort to a species of argument which I felt to be as sophistical to my own mind as it was evidently unsatisfactory to my questioners. I have now; however, to bear testimony to quite a new and different kind of experience. Cavilling Hindoos still ask me the same sort of questions concerning the nature and extent of God's vengeance ; the triumph-twinkle in their eyes indicating that they have anticipated my answer, and are only politely waiting to hear my words confirm their anticipation before launching out into a strain of cutting satire or assumed virtuous indignation at Christians attributing such a character to God. Their pent-up eloquence, however, rarely finds its desired vent. A minute or two spent in repudiating the doctrine as it is usually presented, and five minutes more in laying bare to view the essence of Christianity as set forth by the Lord Jesus himself (see John iii. 16, 36), gives to the whole matter such a reasonable and un-

1 Meaning probably the members of the Brahmo Somaj, disciples of the late Keshub

Chunder Sen. See the recently published work entitled Au Bengale, by Charles

Byse, Lausanne, 1892.

SUPPLEMENT No. XXIII.

objectionable aspect, that in the vast majority of cases it leaves neither room nor desire for protracted discussion.¹

Writing of some of the better educated natives, Mr. Hobbs says :

To a man, so far as my observation has extended, they refuse to It is almost amusing believe in the dogma of unending suffering. to note how vacant they look, how they flounder about in argument, when I tell them that I and many more do not believe in eternal torment .

I then lay before them half a dozen texts from the Bible, and ask them to tell me what they think the words mean. In nineteen cases out of twenty they declare that though my view is a new view to them, nevertheless it is that which they themselves would naturally Itis adopt if they were for the first time reading the words. astonishing how this view of divine truth commends itself to the almost instant apprehension and appreciation of the unprejudiced native

Christian mind.2

§ 2. REV. L. SKREFSRUD.

Mr. Skrefsrud's missionary work has been carried on among the hill tribes of northern India. He has been called the apostle of the

Santhals ; for years he dwelt among them in their poor huts sharing their frugal fare. An accomplished linguist, he speaks twenty-nine languages, and has been employed by the English Government to prepare a Dravidic grammar, which is to include no fewer than seventeen dialects. His testimony is, then, that of a scholar who has been able, better than many other missionaries, to make himself acquainted with the ideas and the spiritual needs of the natives .

Mr. Skrefsrud has declared that the zeal of the Churches founded by him has increased since he has himself been led to adopt the primitive doctrine respecting life in Christ. He has testified that :

1st . The thought that their ancestors would be burning for ever in hell was for these poor Santhals a terrible incubus ; they have a lively appreciation of the more evangelical teaching which has rid them of that burden .

2nd. They understand better than they did before that for their salvation there is need of a communion of soul with Jesus Christ as the only source of eternal life .

3rd. They understand also much better the supreme danger that threatens the unbelievers, and they have redoubled their efforts to bring over their compatriots to the Christian faith .

1 E. White, op. cit. , p. 521. 2 Extracts from a subsequent letter.

§ 3. REV. EVAN BRYANT.

After fifteen years ofmissionary life in China Mr. Bryant said : I have preached the Gospel in China on the lines of conditional immortality for ten years, and I never saw any signs whatever of the soothing and soporific effect that has been spoken of, but I did see many a time the declaration of the destruction of the wicked producing an unmistakable sense of terror among my Chinese hearers ; and I know that not a few Chinese have felt satisfaction and joy at the assurance given them that in Christ is sure to them an endless life, perpetual incorruption, an abiding for ever, and divine duration. This teaching gave to me definiteness and freedom in my work, and great was my joy in being thus able to preach the Gospel of everlasting life to all sorts and I believe that the to untold numbers of China's sinful people. doctrine of life eternal in the ever-abiding Christ (to him that believeth in that Christ), with its correlated ideas, is profoundly fitted to meet and sweep away the falsehood of Buddhism, Tauism, and Confucianism, and to fulfil whatever is true connected with them.¹

To sum up, we may say that the characteristic feature of the religions of Eastern Asia is despair. Crushed under the weight of life's troubles, knowing nothing of the marvellous deliverance brought about by Jesus Christ, Brahminists and Buddhists are longing for the suppression of conscient life.

They curse the present state of existence ; they will detest yet more the notion of an endless hell. They refuse to believe that a personal God can have created an imperfect world ; they will all the more reasonably reject the traditional God who, as some missionaries say, created the universe without foreseeing the lamentable result of his work, and who, as other missionaries claiming to be yet more orthodox say, has predestinated hundreds of millions of human beings to unending torments .

But tell them that Jesus frees us from sin and sorrow, that he confers upon us new vitality, and that eternal torments are utterly foreign to the divine plan, and their aversion will speedily give place to admiration, and they, too, will be willing to take advantage of the blessed immortality promised in the Gospel.

Christian World, 13 July, 1882, and extract from a private letter.

INDEX .

ABARBANEL, 109

against, 216, 223, 306, 375, 560 ; Plato's use of term, 317, 445 ; consequence of Abbot, Ezra, 18 the fall, 428 Abbott, Dr. Lyman, 18, 501

Anselm, 272 Ablution, 177 Ackermann, Mad. , 263

Anthropology, prehistoric, 43 ; Hebrew, Adam, 135, 213, 285, 346, 415, 432,435,

436, 443, 459, 554 ; second, 135, 346, Antichrist, 353

Antinomism , 161 , 434

Antiochus Epiphanes , 99, 104

Adams, Prof. J. C. , 20, 500 Adler, Dr. , 105, 107 Æschylus, 480

Apocalypse, value of quotations, 365, 368,

Affection, sentiment of, 306

572; symbolism of, 135, 368, 444, 572 ;

Agnosticism, 43 ; eschatological, 271-273 ,

393,397,564 Ahithophel, 562 Aitken, Rev. W. H. H. , 18, 397, 500 Akibah, Rabbi, 114, 383 Albo, Jos. , 108 Alexander the Great, 358 Alexander, Dr. , 489 Alexandre, 28, 137, 196, 277 Alford, Dean, 32, 125, 194, 211 Alger, 110

Aorist in Greek, 342 sq.

another text of, 572 Apocatastasis, 277, 291 Apocrypha, 103, 329, 453 Apollinaris, 243 Apostles' Creed, 164, 243, 256, 405 Appeal to sinner, 227, 228 Aquinas, see Thomas

Aratus, 577

Archæology of Baptism, 178-184

Archinard, E., 328, 567, 568

Areopagus, 342, 345,577

All, limited meaning of, 299, 346, 517 sq., Arianism, 242, 576 521, 526

Aristippus, 381

Allegory, 81 , 84, 295 Allier, Raoul, 399 Ambrose, 183, 496 Amiel , 67, 304, 428, 510

Aristophanes, 490 sq. , 541

Aristotle, 51, 247, 254, 279, 433

Ark, Noah's, 181

Armorial bearings of the Church, 168, 188 ; of the Petavels, 38 Analogy, teaching of, 31, 146, 284, 289,

307, 354, 364, 373, 383, 406 sq., 437, Arnaud, E. , 27, 195, 210, 324, 551 Arnobius, 235, 237, 239 sq. , 243, 496, 438, 534, 545 Anarchy, doctrinal, 6 ; interior, 145 , 155

Arrogance, human, 240, 317 Anathema, 354, 448, 458, 570

Anderson, Prof. C., 48 André, Aug. , 6 Angels, 243 ; of Death and Hades, 573

Astié, Prof. , 21, 41 , 48, 62, 146, 247, 427,

Atger, E. , 25 , 306

Anglican Articles, 244, 257 ; Liturgy, 177, Athanasius, 241, 495, 496

Athenagoras, 249, 496, 563 Animals, nature of, 44 sq. , 144 ; fate of, 86 Atonement, see Expiation Annihilation, 132, 142, 204 ; sense in which Auberlen, 214 term is used, 32 sq. , 202, 319, 364, 548 ; Augusti, 183 of sinner, 33, 531 ; apparent, 43 ; belief Augustine, 9, 183, 242, 250, 257, 265, 279, 282, 357, 420, 430, 433 sq , 435,496, ofhalf mankind, 50 ; Egyptian belief,

51 ; taught by Rabbis, 107 ; charges

519, 562, 564 ; the monk, 182

Averroës, 254

Axis of sphere of retributions, 382

Azam, 203

Boccalini, 254 Boehme, Jacob, 434 Boettcher, 105

Bois, Charles, 59, 216, 501, 578

Baader, 291 , 500

Bois, Henri, 102, 453

Babut, Ch., 25, 26, 314, 338, 346 sq., Bonifas, Prof. F. , 4, 254, 267, 398, 400

351 sq. , 517, 530, 534, 536 Bacon , L. W. , 18, 501 Baker, Rev. L. C., 18, 363, 370

Bonnefon , D. , 422

Bonnet, Chas. , 484, 487 sq.

Bonnet, Louis, 123, 127, 166, 212, 296, 348,

Baptist Churches, 177

368, 572, 574 Bonney, Prof. , 19, 500 Book of life, 136, 141 , 461, 574

Barnabas, epistle of, 230, 496

Bost, Ami, 24, 217, 220, 258, 501

Barnes , Albert, 279

Bost, J. Aug. , 105, 252, 479 Bourget, Le Disciple, 12 Boutteville, De, 296

Baptism , 148, 153 ; Ch. VI. , sect. i. -viii.;

Barni, J. , 52

Bartholmess, 254

Bartlett, S. C. , 117

Bartolocci, 107

Bouvier- Monod, Aug., 262, 290, 304, 520 Bovet, Jean, 98

Basil, 183, 496

Brahminism, 50, 394, 434

Basilides, 433 Bastie, 6 Basutos, 131

Brahminists, 584

Bayle, 434

Bread of life, 141 , 186, 231, 334, 335,

Beauterne, 152

Brecher, Dr. G., 107 Bretschneider, 105, 121 Briggs , Dr. C. A. , 21

Beck, J. T. , 201 sq., 349 ; Karl , 243

Beecher, H. W. , 18 Beet, Prof. J. A. , 204, 348 , 494

Brahmo Somaj , 582

Brandes , Dr. F. , 17

Belgian Christian Missionary Church, 271

Brocher, H., 55

Bembo, Card. , 254

Brooks, Philipps, 21

Bengel, 211 , 282, 288, 344, 518, 524, 534

Brown, Rev. J. Baldwin, 263, 498, 518 ,

Benisch , Dr. , 107 Béranger, 294 Berger, S., 80 sq.

Bruder, 233

Berguer-Brett, H. , 217, 498 sq.

Bruston, Prof. , 25, 84, 86, 89, 100, 328,

Bersier, 4, 399, 517

Bryant, Rev. Evan, 584

Bertheau , 151 Berthoud, Ch. , 282 Bès, J. , 275 Besançon , Major de, 200

Bryennios, 232

Biassed construction of texts , 316

Bunyan, 231

Buddhism, 50, 225, 394, 581, 584 Bull of Pope Leo X. , 255, 478

Bunsen , 60, 230, 231 , 500

Bible : authority of text, 27 ; French ver- Burial, 322 sions, 27 ; proper use of, 44 ; considered Burnet, Dr. T., 288 as document of proposed religion,77 sq.; Burnier, Frank, advocate, 222 rule of interpretation, 80 sq., 118, 136, Burning bush, 135, 250, 551 207, 281, 301, 373, 375, 521 ; im- Bushnell, Horace, 19, 501 mortality of soul not in it, 89, 139, 315; Butterfly, 43, 58, 64, 65, 165 sq., 488 nor pre-existence, 453 ; heavenly mes- Buxtorf, 107 senger, 138 ; means for arriving at truth, Byse, Charles, 17, 24, 25, 31, 35, 129, 146,

258; doctrine of restitution, 284 ; makes immortality depend on tree of life, 295 ; texts quoted in support of universalism,

297-302 ; against universalism, 311 ; use Calvin, 81, 180, 187, 216, 251, 256, 265, ofword all, 299, 517, 521 sq.; letter and

279, 365, 519, 549, 564 spirit, 301 ; teaches all needful truth, Calvinism , 6, 7, 21 , 258 sq., 273,359,377, 396, 519 315 ; enjoins study, 360 ; terms denoting destruction, 445 ; classified declarations Candidate for immortality, see Man as to immortality, 457 Bismarck, 361 Blanc, Louis, 66

Blasphemy against Holy Spirit, see Sin

Blood, vehicle of life, 46 Bloomfield, Dr. , 344

Carcases, symbolism of, 195, 321-332 Caro, E. M. , 220 Carpocrates, 434 Carrau, L. , 57 Castell, 107 Catacombs, 181

Catechism, Methodist, 22 ; Westminster,

Caterpillar, 43, 58 , 64, 165 sq. , 392, 488 can Church, 244 ; unfairly treated, 275, 375 ; honours Creator's wisdom, 364 ; exalts glory of Christ, 380 ; urges to

Causse, 338, 537 evangelize, 386 sq.; beneficent, 389, 401 ;

Cazenove, Dr. , 283 an American pastor's view, 473 ; its re-

Celsus, 280 lation to rationalism , 551 sq. Chalandon, Archbp. , 270

Conditional Universalism, 497-537

Conditions of existence, 160, 189, 221 , Chaponnière, F. , 26, 538 Chapuis, Paul, 5, 268

354 sq. , 406, 438, 537 Chasles, Philarète, 105

Confessions of faith of Westminster, 21 , Chastand, G. , 547

259 ; of Maimonides, 109 ; of La Chastel , E. , 179 sq.

Rochelle, 257 ; of French Reformed Chastisement, proportionate, 75, 160, 382, Churches, 259 ; of C. Bois, 578

468 sq. , 529, 535, 562 ; eternal, 194, Confucianism, 584 230, 238, 364 ; meaning, 195 sq. , 222 ; Conjectural emendation of text of Theoessentially loss or privation, 196, 382 ; philus, 237 traditional notion, 197 sq.; not always Conscience, 147 , 155, 304, 307, 350 sq. , 384,433,507, 509 sq. , 579 suffering, 198, 200 ; excessive, 216 ; efficacy of, 219 ; mercy in, 225 sq.; Consent, argument from, 50 corresponds with fault, 455 ; objective Constable, Rev. Н. , 19, 262, 495, 500 value of, 482

Chinese, 50, 432, 584 ; literature, 57

Choisy, L. , 287, 430, 501

Constantine Pogonatus, 243 Constantine the Great, 246, 388 Consubstantiation, 187, 366

Christianity, claims of, 77 ; decline of its Continuity, law of, 149, 153, 201 ; moral , influence, 217 Chrysostom , 183, 307, 496

Coppée, F. , 9, 13

Cicero, 51, 59, 330, 457, 562 ; the Christian Corpse, see Carcases

Cicero, 242

Clark, Sir Andrew, 48

Clarke, Adam , 344 Clarke, Dr. Th. , 19, 147

Classified list of objections, 538

Clavering, Dr. , 110 Cleanthes of Troas, 577

Councils of Ravenna, 182 ; Nicæa, 241 ; Constantinople, 243 ; Lateran (5th ), 255 ; of the Church, 564 Cox, Dr. S. , 107, 226, 518

Craftiness of serpent, 248, 250 Creation, 43, 44, 48, 114, 414 ; purpose of,

Clement of Alexandria, 225, 239, 249, 287, Creeds, 243, 256, 405

Clement of Rome, 231 , 496 Clementines, false, 242, 249 Cobbe, Miss, 300 Cobbin, 211 Cochin , D. , 48 Cocorda, O. , 26, 501 Cohen, J. , 106, 383

Cremer, Dr. H. , 137 , 178, 211 , 214, 277 , 320, 348, 350 sq., 480, 545 , 570 Criticism (neo-), 51 , 68 Critics should expound own views, 36

Cruden, 344

Cyprian, 242, 496

Dale, Dr. R. W. , 18, 20, 22, 217, 375, 397,

Combe, Prof. E. , 234

Dandiran, Prof. , 6 Comparison of religions, 580 Compensation impossible for eternal suffer- Dante, 231, 369

Darby, J. N. , 27, 111 , 194, 343,543 ing, 225, 555 Conditionalism defined and characterized, Darwin, 47, 392

15, 399, 400, 473 ; its operation, 16, 222, 368, 395 , 561 ; progress of theory, 16 sq. , 372; author's experience, 27 sq. , 561 ; philosophic character of, 29, 389; de duced from nature, 31 ; reasonable, 34,

Daub, 434 Dauriac, L., 69 Day of atonement, 479, 483 Dead Sea, 143, 195 Death, die : meaning, 14, 40, 46, 81 sq., 87,

362, 402 ; opposition to, 35, 36, 38, 396 ;

118, 122 sq. , 139, 158, 207, 215, 234, 293,340, 349, 351 , 374, 416, 474, 499, 507,541,547 ; general law, 46 ; enigma best minds divided, 37 ; not an innovation, 37 ; will not keep silence, 38 ; in harmony with evolution, 49, 391 sq.; embodied in stories, 73 ; in Paul's writings, see Paul ; consolatory, 201 ,

389; superior resources of, 226, 271 ,

362, 388, 401, 528, 533, 545, 559 ; of early Fathers, Ch. VIII. , 563 ; in Angliof, 78 ; penalty of sin, 87, 139, 158,

190 sq., 199, 237, 241, 290, 461 , 464 ; second, 114, 118, 139, 141, 191 , 201 , 204, 208, 240, 265, 296, 298, 301 , 305, 330, 347, 349, 363 sq., 368, 372, 416, 417, 454, 460, 465. 521 sq., 528, 533, 54 , 557,

573 ; three kinds supposed , 259, 265 ; to | Duruy, Geo ., Ni Dieu ni maître, 12 be abolished, 135, 347, 369, 444, 572 ; Duruy, Victor, 59 spiritual, 137, 201 , 206 sq., 351 ; prolep- Duty of propagating belief, 403 tic, 208, 349 sq., 468, 550 ; putative, 208,

214, 549; personified, 208, 368, 550, Earnest money, 305 572; ethical , 208 ; terrible, 220; end of Ebrard, 475 sufferings, 226 ; in the Apocrypha, 453 Ecklin, Fr. , 291

Decoppet, 501

Dedication of infants, 184

Edersheim, 110 Ego, see Personality

Delitzsch, Prof. Franz, 89, 204, 235, 296, Egoism, 132, 392, 394 sq., 440, 559 302, 316 , 450, 452, 460, 543, 569, 570, Egyptians, 51, 57, 90, 322 sq. , 582

Delitzsch, Fred. , 328 Delon, Ed. , 25 Delsaux, Father, 48 Democratic claims, 304-5

Eisenmenger, 107, 112, 450 Elect, the, their mission, 287, 393

Election, 49, 377, 461, 519, 523

Eleusinian mysteries, 131 Embryology , 475

Demons , 539

Emery, Prof. L. , 501 , 561 , 565

Denis, 59 Denniston, J. M. , 19 Denys, J. , 404 Derangement, mental, 221 Descartes, 46, 53, 62, 193, 424

Enoch, 96, 547 Enthusiasm of true believer, 404

Ephrem, 183

Epictetus, 279

Epicureans, 249, 315, 340 sq. Destiny in relation with belief, 3, 4 ; with Epicurus, 279, 381 morality, 439

Epistle to Diognetus, 236

Destruction, 317 ; gradual and total of Equality, demand for, 304, 436 ; not impenitent, 193, 202, 284, 470 sq., 531 ; possible, 378 biblical terms and metaphors, 88, 193, Erbkam, 472 446-452 , 489 ; from the presence of the Erigenus, see Scotus

Lord, 352, 569 ; of Satan, 348, 359, 444, Erskine, T. , 8 472; meaning of ἀπόλλυμι in classical Eschatology, its importance, 6, 34, 359 sq. , literature, 489 ; of sin, 531 Determinism, 12, 391

Deucalion's stones, 577

Deutsch, E. , 106 sq.

Dewes , Rev. A., 107

Didache, The, 232, 496, 563 Didymus of Alexandria, 496

Diodorus of Tarsus, 281, 496

Diognetus, epistle to, 236 Disease, consequence of sin, 303 Dissimulation of preachers, 275 , 288

399, 402 ; orthodox, 13 ; rival systems, 14 ; confusion of, 22, 218 ; of Bible, 101 , 329, 381 ; Jewish, 109, 233 ; in the Didache, 233 ; agnosticism as to, 271- 275, 359 sq.. 564 ; subject of revelation, 273 ; Vinet's, 420 ; in the Apocrypha, 453; essence of, 502 ; of the Psalms,

Escutcheon, see Armorial bearings

Esoterism, 16, 199, 287, 456, 524,535 Essays dealing with immortality, 25

Divinity of Jesus Christ, see Jesus Christ

Essenes , 102, 105, 405, 453

Dods, Dr. Marcus, 21 Dodwell , Rev. H., 18 Doederlein, 277 , 478

Eternal, meaning and use of word, 80, 106,

Dogmatics treated with disdain, 2, 4, 5, Eternal hope, 283 258, 283 ; not separable from morals, Ethnology, 43

216 ; must take in Conditionalism, 374, Eudemonism , 381

Dorner, Prof., 24, 291, 430, 477

Euripides, 433, 480, 491 sq. Eusebius, 179, 281 , 324, 496

Doumergue, Prof. E. , 48, 59, 239

Evangelical Alliance, 275

Dreyer, 8

Evangelization of the dead, 273, 285

Drummond, Prof. H. , 21, 30 sq. , 62, 130, Evil, problem of, 35, 430 ; duration of, 72,

Dualism, 54, 114, 235, 249, 252, 267, 288,

359, 368, 432, 433 sq. Ducros, G. , 275, 535 Dumas, A. , fils, 444 Dunn, H., 19, 62, 268, 270, 287

Duns Scotus, 254

Dupont-White, 60, 77, 375, 501 Durand, L., Prof. at Geneva, 36

359, 397, 502 ; result of, 83, 289 ; destroyed, 199, 253, 283 sq., 373, 472 ; indicated by pain, 200, 382 ; principle of, 262 ; etymology of, 355, 440

Evolution, 5, 47 sq. , 289, 391, 444, 541 ; Christian , 30, 63, 391 Ewald, 105, 110

Exegesis, conclusions of, 27, 390, 537 ; traditional , 82, 117, 121 , 137

Exegetical note on 2 Thess. i. 9, 569

Gaussen, Prof. L. , 60, 501 Expiation, 148 sq. , 161 sq., 476 sq. , 507 Gautier, Prof. L. , 114 Extinction of evil, 24

Gehenna, 108 sq. , 127, 143, 193, 298, 300,

Face of the Lord, 352 sq., 569 Faguet, E. , II Fairbairn , Prof. , 48

Geikie, Prof. , 20 Geiler of Kaisersberg, 80 Gemara, 105 sq.

Faith, 2, 13, 441 : principle of life or Geology, 43, 48, 442 death, 3 ; need of, 12, 154 ; and works, Germs, 41, 43, 46, 48, 63, 147, 165, 285,

209 ; fundamental condition of con- 290, 392, 475,488

Gerold, Th. , 33, 501, 506 tinuance, 297

Fall of man, 84, 91, 145, 213, 415 sq., 428, Gesenius, 445, 571 433, 438

Gess, Prof. , 17, 291, 477, 482, 500, 539 Farrar, Dr. , 105, 107, 108, 283, 294, 369, Gfroerer, 110

Fascination , 337 Fathers, the Church, 38 ; Ch. VIII . , 434, 453; not Protestant, 247-248 ; earliest were Conditionalist, 287 , 374, 563 ; in

Gieseler, 179, 273 Glass, 107, 548

Glaubrecht, C. , 48, 291 Gnosticism , 112, 252, 434 Goblet d'Alviella, 359 consistent, 229, 357 ; synchronical table God, 3 ; calumniated , 37, 80, 226, 250, of, 495, 496 Fausset, A. R. , 212 Fear as a motive, 309, 420, 528, 532 sq., 560 Felice, Prof. G. A. de, 299, 310 Felice, Paul de, 7 Felix, Father, S.J. , 39

Fénelon, 247

Ferraz, 38 Festus, 478 Fetishism, 168, 187 Feuillet , Octave, 396 Ficinus, 52

261 , 263 , 267 ; only absolute and immortal , 253 n. , 295, 297, 335, 420 ; all in all, 253, 284, 285, 350, 359, 444, 515, 516, 520, 532 ; his patience, 299 , 529 ; a consuming fire, 301, 386, 525, 551,

571 ; love shown even in chastisement, 225, 376, 468 sq.; fatherhood, 302, 436 ; faithful to threats and promises , 304, 535 ; pitiful to sinners, 308,

336, 468 sq. , 522, 531 ; moral force in notion of, 376 ; indivisible, 377,555 ; takes no pleasure in punishing, 468 sq. , Figurative expressions, 119, 281 , 319, 446, 530; said to expiate, 479 573 sq.

Godet, Prof. F. , 33, 60, 85, 86, 123, 127, Fire, 14, 108 sq. , 143, 191-195, 250, 266,

155, 205, 211 , 212 sq. , 301 , Chap. XI. ,

295, 320-332, 446, 547, 572 sq.; of purgatory, 253

Flammarion, C., 64

Flint, Prof. , 48, 391 Fo-hi, 432 Foster, John, 269

Godet, Geo. , 53, 55, 112, 119, 201, 210,

Foxley, Rev. J. , 265

275 , 305, 321, 332, 423 sq. , 519 Goeschel , 52, 414 Goethe, 287

France, Anatole, 13

Gomorrah, see Sodom

France rejects traditional God, 13 ; attitude Gonzaga, 254 towards Conditionalism , 36 ; passion for Gospel, alienation from, 8 ; key to enigma, glory, 39 ; present crisis, 398 Franck, Ad. , 82, 112, 579 Frederick the Great, 282

Freedom , see Liberty ; of inquiry, 258, 260

Freer, F. A. , 26, 413 Freuler, H. , 218 Freund und Theil, 478 Fritsche, 107 Fuerst, 445

Fulliquet, 156

Funcke, 291

78, 372 ; salvation of humanity, 71, 148, temple, 115 ; superiority of, 226 ; savour of life or death, 227 ; true principle of science and civilization, 247 ; prohibits vengeance, 250 ; hindered by traditional dogma, 253, 262 ; contains no inopportune truths, 270, 287 ; requires personal faith, 297 ; all-embracing , 298 ; seal of,

474; answer to man's cry, 77 ; crown of

339; equality under, 305 ; compared with non- biblical religions, 580

Funk, Prof. , 232

Gounod, 244 Grace, 161

Galileo, 47 Gallot, H. , 569 Garucci, 183 Gasparin, Count A. de, 246

Grape, soundness in, 306, 363 Gratry, Father, 38, 190, 205, 292, 408 Greek mythology, 5, 432, 577, 581 ; philosophy, 115, 247,453,500

Gregory of Nazianzen, 182 , 183 ; of Nyssa, Hudson, C. F. , 19, 282, 320, 501

183, 281 , 496 ; Thaumaturgus, 281, 496 Hugo, Victor, 15, 64 sq., 218, 264, 455, Gretillat, Prof. A. , 3, 154, 163 , 275, 307,

324, 332, 340, 352, 359, 360, 383, 501 , Huguenots' war-song, 567

Griffith , Rev. W. , 19

Humanists of fifteenth century, 254 Humanity in Epistle to Romans, 298

Grimm, 137, 194, 196, 211 , 277 , 348, 459 Humboldt, W. von, 15, 500

Gröbler, 110

Güder, 572

Guieysse, 51 Guizot , 28, 404

Hume, 484 Huntington, W. R. , 19 Hyacinthe, Father, 264, 396

Hyperbole, 119, 147, 299, 301 , 367,490 sq . ,

Hades, 101 , 138, 347, 368, 444, 545,

572 sq. Haeckel, 47 sq.

Iceland, 442

Hagenbach , 243, 244, 500 Hahn, Michel, 282

Ideas , influence of, 5 ; association of, 45,

Hamburger, Dr. , 105, 107, 113, 367

Identity, see Personality Ignatius, 231 , 496

Hamilton, Dr. R. W. , 562 Hamonah , 327 Hannibal, 311 , 442

Ideal of Israelites, 101 ; pagan, 225

Ignominy, symbols of, 323 sq.

Image ofGod, see Man ; Jesus, 227

Happiness, synonyms of, 118

Immaculate conception, 255 Harmonies of biblical doctrine, 226, Immersion , see Baptism . Ch . XII .

" Immortal soul, " first mention, 236 ; not

Hartley, David, 166, 485, 487

Hartmann , 220, 435 Hase, 179

Hastings, H. L. , 19, 349, 352 Hatch , Dr. E. , 248

Hausrath , IIO

Heard, Rev. J. Β. , 19, 500

Hebrew words denoting destruction, 88,

440, 445-452 ; belief as to immortality, 104-115, 373 ; New Testament, 129,

Hegel, 53, 434 Hell , traditional, 14, 218, 225, 251, 257, 261 , 264, 266, 369, 384, 392 ; not a Hebrew idea, 113 sq.; universalist, 281 , 310 ; in Christian dogmatics, 400 ; presence of God in, 225, 362, 376 sq. , 555

Hengstenberg, 151 Herding, E. , 25, 574 Heredity, 42

Hermas, 183 , 231, 496

Herodians, 405 Herodotus, 493

Heroes , pagan and scriptural, 101

Herzog, Encyclop., 17, 59, 291, 328, 572 Hilgenfeld, 105

Hindcos, 50, 432, 582 ; literature of, 57,

Hippolytus, 496

Hobbes, 18

Hobbs, Rev. W. A. , 582 Hobson , W. T., 19, 500

Hoff, G. A. , 220

Hofmann, 346

Homer, 324 , 492, 494 Horace, 39

Hottinger, J. J. , 466 Hüber, Marie, 282 inBible, 315

Immortality, urgency of the question, 1 , 2; conditional , 15, 58, 63, 64, 85, 91 , 156, 190, 307, 318, 406, 462, 505 ; inevitable, 16, 44, 295 ; connected with baptism, 18, 183, 239 ; essays on, 25 ; debates on , 25; that of the individual, 33, 53, 62, 74; attainable, 33, 61, 73, 221 , 359, 375,473 ; importance of, 41 ; attributed to animals and plants, 46 sq.; traditional proofs-metaphysical 52, ontological 55, teleological 55, moral 56 ; man has the notion of, 55 ; credible only as a revelation, 61 ; connected with resurrection,

62, 102, III , 236 sq. , 338-348 ; of soul not in Scripture, 88 sq. , 116, 123, 139, 315, 345, 462, 542; belief of Hebrews, 89, 114 sq. , 367, 453 sq.; according to the Bible, 139, 295 sq., 373,413,457 ; attribute of God alone, 139, 297, 315 , 318, 342, 373, 457 ; work of the holy Spirit, 156 ; not imposed, 221, 250, 292, 337, 537 ; reward of obedience, 237, 243 ; connected with the incarnation, 242 ; decreed by the Pope, 255, 478 ; not self- evident, 315, 462 ; by successive stages, 334 ; conditional in heaven, 335 ; relation to moral goodness, 354 sq. , 558 ; not to be attained by evil beings, 359 ; opportunity for work, 395 ; fruits of true doctrine, 409; foundations of Christian doctrine, 413-418 ; a privilege, 459 Immortalization, 15, 117, 156, 242 ; by successive stages, 334; same as deification, 236 the, see Wicked Impenitent,

Incarnation, treatise by Athanasius, 242 ;

Sophronius on, 243

Indifference, 146 ; of traditionalists, 269 | Kurtz, 268

Indulgences , 253 Infallibility of Pope, 255

Infants' salvation, 251, 265, 279 , 286

Ingersoll , Colonel, 263

Lacheret , 11

Lactantius, 237, 242, 496 La Fontaine, I , 209, 219 Lamartine, 98, 294

Inquisition, the, 244, 262, 264, 366 Instinct of animals, 44 sq.; of self-preser- Lambert, Charles, 15, 63, 373, 501 vation, 219

Irenæus, 183, 234, 237, 496, 563

Lange, 151 , 431 , 478 La Rochefoucauld, 221

Islam, 5

Larousse , 15

Larroque, Pat. , 157

Lasserre, 176 , 457

Lavater, 282, 518, 524

Leconte de Lisle, 66

Leenhardt, 30, 48

Leibnitz, 52, 247, 428, 431 , 435, 487

Lemaître, J. , II , 12 Jerusalem, ruin of, 224, 303 Jesuit theology, 283

Lenglet-Mortier, 207 Jesus Christ, condition of eternal life, 115, Lenormant, 51 117, 119, 123, 242, 297, 372 sq. , 380, Leo X. , 255, 478 418, 461 ; uses hyperbole, 119 ; our life, Leopardi, 435

Janet, Paul, 63 Jarchi, 110 Jehudah bar Elaï, 110 Jenner, 298 Jerome, 242, 495, 496

Le Savoureux, 442

Levitical sacrifices, 87

Libanius, 195

Liberty, condition of glory, 249 ; denied in Universalism, 289, 304, 310, 522 ; 162, 480 ; forerunner, captain, 161 ; his

120, 140, 346 ; source of all life, 123 sq.; his teaching, 126, 272 ; his favourite maxim, 127-134 ; expiation by, 151 sq. , 298, 479 sq.; sponsor for humanity, 153, baptism, 172 ; his threatenings, 217, 222,

272, 310, 319-332, 420, 531 , 545 ; image of God, 227 ; physician, 290 ; love allembracing, 298 ; his resurrection, 338-

348, 389; compared to Edipus, 372 ; his divinity, 380, 576 ; conditionalist,

John, 132, 575

Jonker, Dr. , 26, 501

Josephus, 102, 105, 191, 325, 449

Jost, 105, 110 Judas, 300, 521 , 523, 562 Judgement to come, 345, 383 , 386, 555 Jukes, A. , 282, 287, 518 Jundt, 241 Jupiter, 302, 577 Jurieu, 562 Justification, 156 Justin Martyr, III , 234 sq. , 495, 496,

Kabbalah, III Sq. , 373, 453,455-457 Kaeuffer, 105 sovereignty of, 291 sq.; a serious reality, 298, 310, 523, 529 ; not infringed, 318, 505, 528 ; evil gives scope for, 359 ; of God in gifts, 377 sq.; of man, 378, 379, 391, 529,555 ; aim of the universe, 394,

428 ; involves choice, 435, 559 sq. Lichtenberger's Encyclopædia, 179, 328,

360, 430 Liddell and Scott, 196 Life, meaning of, 32, 81 sq. , 117, 121 sq. , 234, 337,349,374,542 ; changeable and destructible, 31 ; dependence on organism, 41 ; change a condition of, 49; enigma of, 78, 371 ; eternal also happy, 120 ; ontological, 120, 188, 213, 238, 459 ; symbolized in Lord's supper, 186 sq.; not a synonym of happiness,

207 ; gift of God, 238, 292, 376 sq. , 380, 473 ; as a recompense, 305 ; substance of Gospel , 373, 375 ; beginnings of, 475 sq.; springs from life, 541 Life in Christ, see White, Ed. Lightfoot, 107, 232

Kant, 52, 55, 68, 145, 267, 278, 294, 340, Linnæus, 322 List ofbiblical terms to denote destruction,

434, 435, 486, 500, 534,577,578 Kapff, von, 282, 518

445 ; objections, 538

Karsten, 291 Keil and Delitzsch, 159 Keshub Chunder Sen. , 582 Kimchi , 110 Kingsley, C. , 7 Kitto, 105, 325, 330 Kleinert, 110 Koestlin, 291 Koran , the, IoI Kuinoël, 121

Liturgy, Anglican, 177, 244 ; of Neuchâtel, 177

Locke, 15, 18, 87, 487

Loewe, 107

Lord's supper, 168, 186 sq. , 231 , 233, 335,

373, 381 Lotze, 29, 54, 70, 119, 373, 500, 501 , 534,

561, 578 Lucian, 239 Lücke, 121

Lucretius, 302 Luigi, 538 sq. Luke, 129, 131 Luthardt, 124

Methodism , 402, 572 Metonymy, 121, 550 Metzger, G. A. , 282 Meyer, D. H. , 26, 133, 296 , 354,537

Luther, 11 , 81 , 172, 180, 255, 315, 365 , Meyer, H. A. W. , 211, 351, 468

Maccabees, 103 McCosh, 48, 391 McLeod, Dr. N. , 268, 287 Maimonides, 109, 367 Maistre, J. de, 407

Michelet, K. L. , 434 Mill, J. S. , 7, 58, 263, 443 Millioud, M. , 67

Mind in relation to matter, 42

Minton-Senhouse, Rev. S., 19, 226, 500 Minucius Felix, 242, 496 Mishna , 105 sq.

Malan, C. , jun., 26, 147, 156, 430, 475, Missal, Roman, 244

Malebranche, 247

Missionaries' testimony, 582

Missions , 309, 397, 527

Man: desire for immortality, 1 ; affected Mittendorff, Eug., 166, 252 by his beliefs, 4 ; traditional idea of, 14; Moabite stone, 353 his relation to immortality, 15, 85, 222 , Molière, 493

237, 243, 292, 372, 379, 413 sq. , 457; Moloch, 302 his evolution, 30, 47 sq. , 131, 165 ; king Monica, 252 of creation, 40, 189 ; place in creation, Monism, 252 40, 48 sq., 379 ; has been overrated, 41, Monod, Adolphe, 4, 406 297, 318, 532, 546 ; compared with Monod, Jean, 360 animals, 41-47, 240 ; his personality, 54, Monsabré, Monseigneur, 39 57; Schelling's view, 54, 297 ; may de- Montet, Ed., 104, 105 base himself, 64 ; his fall, see Fall ; Moody, D. L. , 21 , 309 old or natural, 85, 144 sq. , 175, 177, Morality : in relation with belief, 5, 392 sq.; its relation with existence, 354-359, 180; new or spiritual, 147, 156 ; transitory, 110 ; image of God, 139, 202, 439; standard lowered, 385 ; needs a 299, 318, 459, 512, 546 ; opinion of sanction, 394 ; meaning of, 541

Thiers, 145, 308 ; two categories, 148 ; Moravian Church, 526, 527 stands upright, 243 ; brotherhood of, Mortimer, Dr. , 19, 501

Mosheim, 107 105, 179 302; destined for progress, 436 ; his Mossé , power to resist God, 523 Manasseh ben Israel, 110 Manichæism, 252 sq. , 573 Manning, Card. , 20 Marcion , 113, 433 Marcus Aurelius, 236 Mark, 131 Marks, Rabbi, 105, 107 Marriage, 468 Martensen, 216, 272, 282, 441

Martigny, Abbé, 183

Martin, David, 27 Martin, Th . H. , 90, 295

Massebieau , 232

Massillon, 195

Master-thought, 372

Materialism, 539, 540

Moth , the, 323 Moulinié, 441 Müller, Julius, 53, 214, 435, 500 Müller, Max, 478 Munk, S. , 112

Myers, F. W. H. , 203 Mystery, plea for, 216, 219, 224, 272, 359 sq. , 564 ; of lawlessness, 248 ; of connubium,476

Mystic interpretation, 281

Names of Conditionalists, 18 sq. , 29 Napoleon I. , 152, 358

Narcotics, 294 Natural Law in the Spiritual World, see

Drummond

Matter, A. , 17, 51, 500, 501, 565

Nature of man, 41

Matthew, 129, 131

Naville, Edouard, 52 Naville, Ernest, 35, 48, 53, 56, 198, 223,

Maurice, F. D. , 282 Maxim, favourite, of Jesus, 127-134

May, H. de, 30 sq. , 373, 501 Meat- fly, larva of, 322, 330 Medicine of immortality, 231 Mendelssohn, Moses, 52

Neander, 179, 185, 244, 282 Nebuchadnezzar, 358

Nemesius, 237, 243, 496

Ménégoz, Prof. E., 8, 125, 134, 296, 302, Nero, 267, 368

Meric, Abbé, 39 Metempsychosis, 104, 113, 541

Nessus, shirt of, 140 Nestorius, 243 Newman, Selig, 445

Newton, Sir Isaac, 47, 378 Newton, Thomas, 282, 524 Nicholas of Methone, 244 Nicolas, Auguste, 357

Nicolas, Professor, 89, 100, 102, 296

Nirvana, 57, 225

Nitzsch, 203 sq., 206, 216, 235,573

Parker, Theodore, 263

Parseeism, 433 Pascal, 41 , 378, 427

Passow, 196 Pasteur, L. , 541 Pastor of Hermas, 231

Nordau, Max, 393 Nork, 107 Numbers of mankind, 265

Pastoral prudence, 270, 271 Paul's teaching, 114, 124 sq. , 134, 139, 155, 163 sq. , 175, 199, 212, 248, 249, 269, 273, 287, 295, 298, 299, 302, 338-

Oberlin, 282, 518, 524

354, 369, 387 , 461 , 514 sq . , 521 , 530 Paul and Thecla, 234

Objections refuted, Ch. XI., 314, 538-566

Pédézert, Prof. , 4

Obscurantism , 35 Edipus, 371

Ehler, 84, 85, 86, 99, 100, 349,573,578

Pelagianism, 251, 433 sq. Pelletan, Eug. , 439 Perdition correlative of salvation, 274

Etinger, 282, 518, 524 Oliphant, Ch. H. , 19, 24, 143, 473, 501

Perpetua, St. , 239

Olivetan, 194

Perret-Gentil, 457, 467, 570

Perowne, Bp. , 19, 59, 397, 500, 569

Olshausen, 89, 121, 206, 235, 291, 296, Persian dualism, 252

Oltramare, 27, 125, 321 , 457,577

Personality, the real man, 33, 202, 350, 484; loss of, 86, 132, 202, 235, 369 sq.; may be twofold, 203

Olympian gods, 433, 581 Optimism, 310, 435 ; fashionable but false, Peshito, 277

34; danger of, 39, 386; Dr. Farrar's, Pessimism, 386, 393 sq., 435

283 ; opposed to experience, 289 sq.; Petavel , A. F. , 112, 258, 455 of New Testament, 359 ; perfidious, 386 Petavel, Wm., 167 Oriental beliefs, 20, 41 , 50, 57, 220, 225, Petavius, 251

Petersen, 282

Origen, 111 , 250, 253, 280 sq., 287, 295, Petitpierre, F. O., 282, 524

320, 330, 495, 496, 524, 531 Origenism, 277 , 283

Osiris, 51

Ostervald, 27, 185, 258, 457,550

Ott, 74, 370, 501 Ovid, 195, 324, 433

Ovules, see Germs

Pettingell, J. H. , 19, 501 Pfleiderer, Prof. , 48, 391 Phædo, 52, 59, 104, 295, 317 , 346, 353, 445, 449, 494, 500, 581 Pharisees, 102, 104, 169, 172, 298, 405,

Pherecydes, 330

Phillipson , Rabbi , 107

Pain, see Suffering Palæontology, 43, 48, 442 Palingenesis, 131, 166, 484 sq. Pamphilus, 281 , 496

Pantenus, 239

Philo, 102

Philosophy, 248 , 252, 256, 275, 278, 288, 374,453, 537, 581 Physiology, 42 Picard, Eug. , 179, 183

Pantheism, 53, 247,394, 432, 434 ; of the Pierius, 281, 496

Kabbalah, 112, 373

Papal infallibility, 255

Parables : rich man and Lazarus, 138, 545,

Pilgrim's Progress, 231

Pillon, F. , 29, 69, 286, 373, 390, 399, 430,

549 ; penny, 160 ; talents, 160, 378, Plan of God made void , 298 381 ; prodigal son, 214, 303, 525, 534 ; Planche, 196 lost sheep, 214, 534; lost silver, 214; Plants, immortality of, 47 ; biennial, 330 unmerciful servant, 299 ; labourers and Plato, 52 , 59, 67, 102, 112, 142, 248, 279, 295, 317, 356, 424, 433, 444,445,453, earnest-money, 305 ; barren fig-tree, 333, 348; Sphinx, 371 ; sower, 392, 532 ; 493 sq. , 541 , 581 marriage supper, 394, 576 ; importunate Platonism, 80, 102, 111, 134, 187, 234, widow, 403 ; tares, 471 ; insolvent debtor, 138, 534 Paralysis, 235, 267, 268, 439 Paraphrase, 176 n.

240, 242, 244, 247, 249, 251 , 278, 289, 293, 296, 316, 329, 339-349,357,374, 434, 552, 581 Plitt, Dr. H. , 291

Pardon, theory of, 156 sq.; not impunity, Plotinus, 433

162, 401, 417, 466 sq. , 535 Parker, Archbp. , 257 Parker, Dr. Joseph, 22

Plutarch, 495 Pocock , Dr. , 105 Poincenot, P. , 25, 537

Polycarp, 232, 237, 496 Pomponatius, 254 sq. Population of British India, 265 Porret, Ch. , 275 Porret, J. Alf., 184 Potwin, Rev. T. S. , 19 Pradez, Ch . , 309

Renouvier, Ch. , 29, 66, 68 sq. , 145, 166 ,

263, 373, 375, 431, 444, 484 sq. , 501 , 534, 537, 561 , 578 Repentance, 148, 157 sq. , 172, 294, 388 Rephaim, 110 sq. Responsibility, measured by prerogative, 382; of churches, 405 ; law of, 505,

Prado, 219

506 ; emphasized, 555 Prayer : of Jewish scholar, 233 ; in Roman Restitutionism, 277, 289 Resurrection, 60, 65, 67, 100, 102, 163,

Missal, 244 ; in Jewish liturgy, 378

Predestination, 251, 376, 377, 522 sq. Presence of the Lord, a means of destruction, 352 sq. Pressensé, E. de, 5, 29, 36, 51, 150, 190,

Prévost- Paradol, 63 Priestley, 485 Profession of faith , 138 Progress, law of, 267 , 303, 435 sq., 510

Prolepsis, 208 sq. , 350, 468, 550

Propitiation, 152 sq., 161, 479 sq.

237, 256, 338-348, 362, 389, 488 ; of body, 60, 62, 100, 115 n., 322 ; condition of future life, 68 ; first mention of, 97 ; of righteous, 107 ; of heathen, 107 ; of wicked, 135, 296, 337 ; of Jesus, 141 ,

163, 389 ; symbolized by baptism, 175 ; in catacombs, 181

Retribution, 6, 34, 440, 474 ; morally reasonable, 224 ; proportional, 381 sq. , 388, 401, 468 sq. Retrogression, 289

Protestantism , 13, 37, 118, 258, 374, 390, Reuss, 27, 32, 34, 95, 111, 122, 128, 178, 191, 296, 298, 301, 321, 329 sq. , 345, 346, 520; in France, 7, 258, 396, 398, 401 ; half Roman Catholic, 246 Proteus, 16, 275

Psalms, eschatology in, 93, 329, 566 ; allu- Réveillaud, E. , 11 , 21 sions to Sennacherib's overthrow, 328, Richman and Lazarus, parable, 138, 545, 549 Rilliet, 27, 80, 343, 457

Ritschl, 17, 205, 291, 500 Psychology, 44, 144, 291, 508 sq.

Robertson, Rev. J. L., 263 Psychopannychia, 256

Robertson , Rev. F. W. , 294 Punishment, see Chastisement

Robespierre, 478 Purgatory, 16, 253, 258, 270, 281 , 308 Pusey, Dr. , 109

Rochat, A. L. P. , 217, 227 sq. , 271 Pythagoras, 112, 453,494

Rochefoucauld, see La Rochefoucauld

Rodrigues , H. , 157 Quatrefages, 144

Rogers, Henry, 279

Quinet, Edgar, 15, 63, 289, 501

Rabbis, the, 105-114 Rabshakeh, 568 Racine, 92, 209

Ramayana, 574

Rambert , E. , 427 Ranke, 407 Ranyard, Mrs. , 28 Rawlinson, G. , 51 , 580 Recolin, N. , 4, 398, 400, 558 Record to be left open in theology, 314

Roget, Amédée, 503 sq.

Roller, T. , 181 Roman Catholic avowal, 205 ; missal, 244; distinction of punishments, 244 Roman Catholicism, 6, 7, 13, 14, 37, 246,

258, 291, 366, 390, 396, 405 Roots of N.T. in O.T. , 299 ; Hebrew denoting destruction, 88, 440, 445-452

Rossi, de, 183

Rothe, Prof. R. , 16 sq., 166, 205, 216,

Rougé, Viscount E. de, 52

Rougemont , F. de, 123, 205 Redemption, fruits of, 556 Red skins, 131

Rousseau , J. J. , 15, 505 Reformation, the, 8, 187, 257 ; not com- Row, Rev. C. A., 19, 265 plete, 246, 281, 396 ; provoked, 253 sq. Ruchet, L. , 140 Regeneration, 156, 158, 475, 546 ; bap- Rudloff, von, 291 tismal, 18, 388

Reichardt, 129

Ruin, 204, 324, 544

Runze, Dr. , 17

Russian writers, II Religions, biblical and non-biblical, 580 Religious Tract Society, translation of Athanasius, 242

Saadias, 108 Remorse, 199, 270, 330

Sabatier, Armand, 30, 48, 501 Rémusat, Ch. de, 270

Sabatier, Auguste, 26, 48, 105, 113, 141, Renaissance , the, 254

125, 296, 321 , 338, 393, 399, 510 sq , 517, Renan, E., 58, 67, 110, 250, 295, 352, 353 520, 530, 577

Sabatier, Paul, 232 Sacrament, 168

Segond, 27, 80, 97, 327, 329, 348, 448 ,

457, 458, 467, 568, 570, 573 Sacrifice, human, 150 ; Christian , 130, Seneca, 59 Sennacherib, 326, 328, 567

134 ; expiatory, 148, 151

Sadducees, 102, 105, 169, 172, 315, 405

Sainte-Beuve, 427 Salkinson, 129 Salvador, J , III

Salvation, after death, 142, 362 sq., 385,

Separation from God, 386 Septuagint, 116, 171 , 445, 453

Sepulture, see Burial

Serpent, the, 84, 141 , 248, 358, 437,457 ; worship of, 434, 437 ; brazen, 463

469, 524 ; outside Christianity, 257, 285, Servetus, 564 422; of infants, 265 ; as correlative of Seyffarth , 121 perdition, 274, 508 ; etymology of, 277 , Shaftesbury, Earl of, 263 381, 460, 478 ; accomplished with diffi- Sheol, 89, 91 sq., 103, 111, 326, 339, 344 culty, 299 ; a contradiction in Univer- Sibylline Oracles, 327 salisım, 309 ; by sacraments, 388 ; need Silence of Scripture, 317 for clear idea of, 399 ; by blood of expiation, 476 sq . Salvation Army, 396 Samuel, apparition of, 92 Sanctification, 156 ; a postulate of science,

Simon ben Lakisch, 106, 110 Simon, Jules, 53 Simpson, Dr. , 469 Sin, 72 sq. , 146, 308, 387, 430 sq . , 527 ; its deleterious results, 158 sq. , 253, 286,

Sanction of law, 150, 199

509, 529 ; is not death, but leads to it,

210, 227, 290, 355, 465, 474, 544, 561 ; Sardis, 212 against Holy Ghost, 286, 300, 469, 534, Sartorius, 216, 577 Satan, 250, 281, 348, 358, 434, 438, 440, Sinaitic MS. , 230, 231 444, 453,457,472,543,557, 559, 572, Siren, 311

Sismondi, 200, 263 Saturninus, 433

Skrefsrud, L. , 583 Saul, 562

Slater, Rev. T. Ε., 397 Sau Saurin, 217

Sleep, a daily menace, 289 ; of souls, 256 , Saussure, H. B. de, 223

339, 363 Savoureux, Le, 442

Smith, Prof. Goldwin, 48 sq. Scapegoat, 149

Smoke, symbolic meaning of, 293, 324,

Santhals, the, 583

Schaeffer, Ad. , 26, 43, 73, 501

Schaff, P. , 178 sq.

Schelling, 54, 297, 434

Scherer, Edmond, 427, 434 Schindler, 107 Schleiermacher, 434, 579 Schleusner, J. F. , 121, 137, 277, 463 Schloesing, A. , 247 Schoeberlein, 291 Schoettgen, 107 Scholten, Prof., 33

Schopenhauer, 220, 435 Schroeder, Alf. , 477, 482 Schultz, Hermann, 17, 52, 84, 105, 110, 291, 413-418, 500, 539

365 sq. , 573 sq.

Socinianism, 15, 576 Socrates, 57, 59, 152, 342, 433, 493 sq. , 581

Sodom and Gomorrah, 143, 195, 293, 306.

324, 366, 446, 467, 551, 574, 581 Sophronius, 243 Soul, death of, 14, 15, 139 ; immortality of, 14, 16 sq. , 20, 35, 420, first mention, 236, decreed by the Pope, 255, 478 ; destruction of, 27, 34, 86, 197, 244, 318, 363, 458, 534 ; mortal, 31, 53, 82, 113, 204, 234, 236, 255, 317, 363 , 486 ; a capacity for God , 32 ; in animals, 44 sq.,

144, 577 ; can perish, 579 ; nature of man's, 44, 70, 237, 243 ; pre-existence,

Schürer, 105, 547

Science, 41 , 406, 408 Scotland, opinion in, 21 immortal, 54, 119, 234, 237, 240, 417 ;

Scott, Th. , 469 Scotus, Duns, 254

Scotus Erigenus, 434

Scripture, see Bible Second death, see Death Secrétan, Prof. Ch. , 7, 29, 48, 53, 55, 70 sq. , 292, 373, 389, 393 sq. , 427, 428, 430, 435,477, 482, 501 , 505,534,537, need not be transmigration of, 104, 113, 541 ; Hebrew doctrine, 113 sq. , 367 ; or life ? 128 ; = self, 129 ; applied to God, 129 ; after death, 192 ; intermediate quality of, 237, 240, 243 ; sleep of, 256, 339, 363 ; occurrences of word in Scripture,

315; like biennial plant, 330 ; separation from spirit, 349 ; disembodied state,

417 ; connection with body, 487 ; value 561,578,579 ; answer to two questions not infinite, 532

Spartan mother, 303, 436 in his prefatory letter, 39.3 sq.

Species, number of, 42 ; extinct, 43, 391

Spencer, Herbert, 284, 444 Sphinx, 2, 10, 371 Spiess, 110 Spinoza, 15, 434

Testimony of missionaries, 582 That Unknown Country, 20, 34, 361 Thecla, 234 Theodicy, 262, 374-379, 400 Theodore of Mopsuestia, 281, 496

Spirit, traditional notion of, 44, 205 ; pure, Theognostus, 281 , 496 incomprehensible, 64 ; organ for percep- Theologians, their duty, 3 tion of divine, 144 ; distinguished from Theology, neglect of, 2 ; importance of, soul, 144, 202, 235, 415 ; lasts only so long as deserves, 197 ; cessation of

3 sq.; its effect on character, 252 ;

Jesuit, 283 ; record should be left open, functions, 208 ; flesh and, 248 ; occur- 314; has its mysteries, 359 ; Pauline, see Paul's teaching ; practical, 395 ; rences of word in Scripture, 315 modified by Conditionalism, 552 Splittgerber, 442

Theophilus of Antioch, 237, 292, 379, 496, Spurgeon, C. H. , 22, 266

Staël, Mad. de, 15

Stanley, Dean, 179 sq. , 184

Theophylact, 243 Stapfer, Ed. , 79, 100, 102, 105, 143, 213, Thiers, 145, 308

343, 348, 457, 550 ; Paul, 64, 221 Steffens, 434

Tholuck, 282, 301, 520

Steinheil, G. , 184, 511-537 Stewart, Balfour, 392

Thomas Aquinas, 53, 182, 249, 430 Thomson, Archbishop, 283 Thoughts in reserve, 427

Stoicism, 15, 51, 249

Tinling, Rev. J. F. B. , 19

Stokes, Prof. Sir G. G., 19, 20, 363, 397,500 Tischendorf, 230 Struggle for Eternal Life, 24, 218, 320, Titus of Bostra, 496

Tophel , P. , 285, 286 Suffering, gradations of, 382 sq.; not Tophet, 193, 325 essence of punishment, 198, 200 ; a Torquemada, 262

Tortures not in Scripture, 88, 101 benefit, 199, 223, 226, 382, 557 Suicer, 179

Traditional dogma, 14, 16, 225 ; Ch. IX . , Suicide, 216, 219 sq. , 532 ; motive for,

336, 369, 525 ; alleviations, 16, 265 sq. ,

273, 545 ; a calumny, 37, 80, 226, 250, 148 ; liberty of, 221, 293, 318, 528, 555 ;

261 , 263, 267, 361 , 365 ; widely conof the soul, 529, 555 ; as chastisement, tested, 50 ; reticence of preachers, 69,

274, 309, 419 ; origin of, 72, 553 ; a Survival, of individual, 43, 54, 57, 60, 315, usurper, 121 , 361 ; barbarous, 217, 364 ; 373 ; not necessarily immortality, 57, 136, effect upon sinners, 218, 269 ; hinders 330; of fittest, 131 , 156, 391 sq. , 400 progress of Gospel, 253, 365, 401 ; Swainson , Canon, 243 summary of, 259 ; its disastrous effects, Swammerdam , 166 ymbolism, biblical, 88, 332 sq. , 443, 260 sq.; causes offence, 262 sq. , 365,

446, 548 ; of baptism, 171-176 ; in fasting, 174 ; in catacombs, 181 ; of Lord's Supper, 186 sq.; of fire, worm and carcases, 321-331 ; of serpent, etc., 437 ; ofApocalypse, 135, 368, 444, 572 sq.

Symposium on immortality, 20, 283

556; near to Universalism, 276, 279, 385; leads to odious conclusions, 297 ; lacks tenderness, 302 ; contradictory,

331 ; ineffectual as a restraint, 384, 559,

560, 561 ; defective, 385, 501 Traill, 105

Synchronical table of Church Fathers, 495, Transformism, 33, 43, 47 sq. , 131, 289

Translations of Bible passages, principle of,

Taine, 407

Transmigration, see Soul Tait, Archbishop, 282 ; Prof. , 20, 392, 500 Transubstantiation, 366

Tallichet, Jules, 422

Talmud, 105 sq. , III sq. , 322, 450, 453,

577 ; prayer in, 233

Tree of life, 135, 139, 142, 285, 295, 301, 332-337, 415, 446, 458, 574, 578 ; of knowledge, 135, 333, 436

Tatian, 111 , 236, 495, 496, 563

Trench, Archbishop, 123

Taüism, 584 Taylor, Isaac, 279, 402

Trichotomy, 144

Truth will prevail, 36, 403 Teaching ofthe Twelve Apostles, 232, 496, Trypho the Jew, 234

Tulloch, Principal, 290 Temple, the, 304

Twesten, Prof. , 17, 204, 291 , 500 Tennyson, 264

Two ways, doctrine of, 232

Tertullian, 179 sq., 183, 234, 242, 250, Tyndale, W. , 256

Tyndall, Prof. , 263

Ugolino, 107 Ullmann, 235 Ulrici, 59, 500

Water of life, 136, 334, 574; lustral, 177 Watts, Isaac, 18, 242 Weber, Dr. Ferd., 109, 110, 113, 367

Universal consent, argument from, 50, 540 Universalism , 16, 37, 268, 273 ; Ch. X. , 362, 374 ; defined, 14 ; esoterism of, 16, 287 sq. , 524, 535 ; made Vinet uneasy, 62, 421 ; not taught by apostolic Fathers, 230; conditional, 278, 369, 497-537 ;

Webster, W. , 344 Weeping in heaven, 307 Weill, Alex. , 106, 157 ; Michel , 104, 107 Weisse, Prof. , 17, 291 , 302, 373, 500 Weizel , 110 Wertheimer, Ch . Rabbi, 110, 367 sterile, 282, 524 ; elements of truth in, Wesley, 344 283-287 ; characterized, 288 ; texts Wesleyan opinion, 270 quoted in support, 297-302 ; immoral Westminster Confession and Catechism, 21 , and dangerous, 307-312, 421, 524,533 ; paralyzes preachers, 401, 524; deroga- Westphal, A., 25, 146, 248 Wette, De, 197, 457, 467 tory to God's character, 535

Universe, see Creation

Weymouth , Dr. R. F. , 19, 214, 489 sq. ,

Unseen Universe, the, 20, 392 Usher, 105

Whately, Archbishop, 18, 59, 331, 500

White, Rev. Edward, 17, 22 sq. , 28, 38, 40 sq. , 43, 62, 220, 229, 242, 269, 291, 311, 320, 363 , 375, 376, 385, 397, 402,

Valentinian, 113 Valentinus, 433 Vallotton, Pastor P. , 6, 299, 501

Vigouroux, 328

527, 532, 539, 541, 583 Vinet, 108, 216, 227, 307, 501 ; his hope Wicked, end of the, 225, 273, 293, 295, 300, 319, 336, 337, 344, 352-354, 446, in Christianity, 8 ; conditionalist in principle, 61, 423 sq.; believed in salvation 454, 462, 464, 470 sq., 502, 517, 529 outside Christianity, 285 sq.; his escha- Wilke and Grimm, 466, 569 tology, 420-428 ; on destinyand morality, Wilkinson, Rev. W. F. , 344

Winer, 209, 343,570 Witzius, 562 Wogue, Prof. L. , 110, 468 Word of God, 238, 558 ; incarnation of,

Virchow, 47 Virgil, 322 Vogüé, de, 11 , 12, 183 Volcanoes, 250, 262

Voltaire, 444; of second century, 239

Vouga, Dr. P. , 443 Vows ofdevotion, see Anathema Vuilleumier, Prof. , 89, 296 Vulgate, 329

Worm thatdieth not, 86, 143, 191-195, 320- 332, 446 Wrath to come, 217 Wünsche, 11O

Xenophon, 494

Wahl, 121 , 137, 196, 277

Walker, Thos. , 264

Zend-Avesta, 580

Warburton, 105

Zietlow, 124

Warleigh, Rev. H. S. , 19, 244

Zohar, 112 sq. , 456

Waste of germs, 392

Zwingli, 62, 257, 285, 366

END .

Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London.

LE PROBLÈME

L'IMMORTALITÉ .

PAR

E. PETAVEL- OLLIFF,

ANCIEN PASTEUR, DOCTEUR EN THÉOLOGIE.

ÉTUDE PRÉCÉDÉE D'UNE LETTRE DE

PROFESSEUR DE PHILOSOPHIE À L'UNIVERSITÉ DE

LAUSANNE,

CORRESPONDANT DE L'INSTITUT DE FRANCE.

Deux volumes grand in-80., 12 francs.

Les deux volumes se vendent séparément à 6francs.

PARIS :

LIBRAIRIE FISCHBACHER, 33 , RUE DE SEINE.

LONDRES :

DULAU & Co., 37, SOHO SQUARE, W. HACHETTE & CO., 18, KING WILLIAM ST. , STRAND, W. D. NUTT, 270, STRAND, W.C. WILLIAMS & NORGATE, 14, HENRIETTA ST. , W.C.

RECENT

THEOLOGICAL

WORKS.

YO A

Cheap (third) edition. Carefully revised and enlarged, post 8vo. Price4s.

LIFE

CHRIST .

A study of the Scripture doctrine of the Nature of Man, the object of the Divine Incarnation, and the conditions of Human Immortality. With observations on recent criticisms. By EDWARD WHITE, Author of " The Mystery of Growth.' "The best representation of the doctrine (of Conditional Immortality) is in a remarkable book called Life in Christ.' "-Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. viii., article " Eschatology."

Second edition, cloth, price 6s., post free.

GOSPEL

DIVINE

HUMANITY .

AReconsideration of Christian Doctrine in the Light of a Central Principle. Contents ; Preface-The Divine Humanity-The Wordof God-Creation-The Fall-Liberty and Necessity- Faith--Prayer-Miracles-

The Trinity-The Atonement- Sacraments-The Second Advent-The Last Judgment---Christian Ethics.

" One of the weightiest and most remarkable books lately published on the teaching of Christianity so far as these appeal to reason and conscience, and not to mere external authority. "- The Academy.

In handsome Svo., cloth, price 6s., post free.

GOD IN HIS WORLD :

AN INTERPRETATION .

Contents : From the Beginning--The Incarnation-The Divine Fellowship.

"A remarkable book, full of suggestiveness and originality. "--Glasgow Herald.

"The author is evidently a profound, classical scholar. The articles on ' The Incarnation' and ' The Divine Fellowship ' are powerfully written. "-Christian Globe.

FOURTH EDITION, NOW READY. In large post 8vo., tasteful cloth, price 48. 6d.

MYSTERY OF GOD .

A Consideration of some Intellectual Hindrances to Faith.

By T. VINCENT TYMMS .

"A vigorous, manly, and, we need not scruple to say, a noble attempt to deal with the profoundest and most difficult themes which can engage the human mind. The book will take high rank, both from a philosophical and literary standpoint."-Baptist Magazine.

"A thoroughly good specimen of defensive apology ; the arguments are clearly and forcibly presented."-

Contemporary Review.

" We know of no book which we should place with greater confidence in the hands of young people of culture who may be feeling their way out of the darkness of doubt into the light of faith."-Literary World. Now ready, tastefully printed in old-face type, crown 8vo. , and bound in cloth, gilt lettered, price 3s. 6d.

DISCIPLES'

PRAYER .

Being Eleven Sermons on the Lord's Prayer. By Rev. J. M. GIBBON.

" There lie on every page pearls of truth clothed in language chaste and forcible."-Western Morning News. " The thought is fresh and strong ; the style is clear and vigorous ; the illustrations are appropriate and new.

Weconfidently recommend the book."---The Christian.

Tastefully printed and bound in cloth, price 7s. 6d., post free.

THE CHURCHMAN'S THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY .

By ROBERT EDEN, M.A. , Honorary Canon of Norwich. New edition, revised, with an Introductory Notice, by the Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, M.A. , Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge.

"Each of the articles is a monograph on the subject involved, and on each we find the impress of peculiar care,judgment, and true thoughtfulness. To read this volume through will be for many a competent course in practical theology. It is an eminently useful book, and ought to be on every family's bookshelf. "- Public

Opinion.

DEDICATED TO H.M. THE QUEEN.

In crown 8vo., cloth, price 5s., post free.

A LETTER FROM HEAVEN, and Other Sermons .

By the Rev. DAVID ROBERTS, D.D., Wrexham. Being a Translation into English of Selected Sermons previously published in the Welsh language by the Author, and dedicated by special permission to Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen.

In crown 8vo., cloth, price 3s. 6d., post free.

Considered as the Final Crisis of the Age. With a Review of the Prophetic Writings of Dr. and Mrs. Guinness . By Rev. THOMAS RYAN, author of " The Structure of the Acts of the Apostles," " Future of Europe," etc. "Above the average of writings on the Book of Revelation. Written in a nice spirit, and with a pious intention which should gain a respectful hearing." --Clergyman's Magazine.

In crown 8vo., cloth, price 4s. 6d. , post free.

PROPHETIC

NOTES :

Being an Exposition of the Chief Parts of Sacred Prophecy. By Rev. HENRY STURT, author of " Sermons fortheTimes."

" Simple, clear, and scriptural."-Word and Work.

"Eminently helpful to the Bible Student, whatever method of interpreting prophecy he may specially favour."

The Christian.

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

In handsome demy 8vo., cloth, price78. 6d. TW303A

A CYCLOPÆDIA OF NATURE TEACHINGS .

BEING A SELECTION OF FACTS, OBSERVATIONS, SUGGESTIONS, ILLUSTRATIONS, EXAMPLES, AND ILLUSTRATIVE HINTS TAKEN FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS OF INANIMATE

NATURE.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

HUGH MACMILLAN, LL.D., F.R.S.E., Author of " Bible Teachings in Nature."

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS .

" This Cyclopædia is one of the most valuable, from a religious point of view, ever published. It consists of a collection of wisely and carefully selected passages from the writings and utterances of the foremost thinkers, preachers, and orators, each embodying some suggestive and curious fact of nature, serving to illustrate areligious or moral truth. Acopious index of subjects and a Biblical textual index are included."

-Christian Age.

"Great judgment has been exercised in the compilation, and the general arrangement is admirable. As abook of reference it will be found invaluable to teachers and preachers, and the general public will find it of special interest."--Leicester Chronicle.

We " There are many gems of thought which will, we doubt not, now do duty in many a sermon. admire this book immensely ; it is a book which is delightful to pick up and read."--Church Bells. "An every way delightful and useful volume. Preachers will find the volume-invaluable in its suggestion and inspiration as to the illustrative use of Nature's boundless stores of teaching."-Literary World. "A most valuable addition to the collections of illustrations already published. The extracts are taken from a wide range of literature, and illustrate very many passages of Scripture. This is the kind of thing which helps to make a sermon or lesson bright and attractive, easy to remember and difficult to forget."-Preacher's

Mugazine.

" The extracts seem well chosen and apt ; and the book is one which will be read with interest by many, while to a clergyman especially it will supply many of those useful illustrations from common things which so much help to drive home great truths to people's hearts. The introduction by Dr. Hugh Macmillan is especially interesting."-Ecelesiastical Gazette.

" This is a new departure in homiletic literature, and it appears eminently to deserve popularity and success ."-British Weekly.

" Upwards of two hundred and fifty authors are laid under contribution, including scientists, theologians, novelists, poets, historians, divines, essayists, and other literary workers. The volume is a storehouse of most interesting and valuable reading ."-Publisher's Circular.

" Intended primarily for the use of teachers of religion, but the secular reader will find much to ponder over in its pages."-Dundee Advertiser.

" One recommendation is that the book is a compilation from the works of men like Ruskin, McCosh, Froude, Macmillan, Agassiz, Jefferies, and many another whose names are sufficient guarantee of accuracy."-

Word and Work .

"The book will be found of considerable value to all who, whether from the pulpit or otherwise, have to teach an object-lesson to their hearers."-Bookseller. "The selections have been made with admirable judgment and good taste from the best authors and speakers, and commend themselves not more by their readableness than by their sterling educational value. The subjects are methodically arranged and indexed, so as to be of easy reference. For pulpit, platform, orclassroom purposes, the volume will be found of highest value."-Aberdeen Journal. " Dr. Macmillan's introduction is reverent, beautiful and suggestive. The work is presented in a popular style, and is in itself a compendium of highly valuable information, and contains a copious Index of subjects and of Bible texts which are illustrated."-Methodist Sunday School Record.

" Ablending of nature-teaching and moral appeal verycharming and very healthy. The idea is so good and so simple thatit is somewhat surprising we should have had to wait so long for such apublication."-Newcastle Daily Chronicle. " The plan of this book has much to commend it, and it is well carried out. It is an exceedingly catholic collection of " Lessons from Nature," culled from the work of naturalists and preachers. The book is a treasury of gems."- Glasgow Herald.

"It ranges over a wide area of subjects, and is clearly and systematically arranged. Its wise use will light up many an otherwise uninteresting sermon, and render ordinary preaching more attractive and helpful."-Baptist Magazine. " The lessons drawn from the different features in Nature alluded to are well put, and not overdone, The book is a decided acquisition to the library, and deserves careful perusal. "-Literary Opinion.

LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.