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 Universalism 
 
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The Latest Word 
 
 OF 
 
 Universalism. 
 
 THIRTEEN ESSAYS BY THIRTEEN 
 CLERGYMEN 
 
 BOSTON: 
 UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE. 
 
 1878. 
 
Copyright, 
 
 By Universalist Publishing House, 
 
 1878. 
 
 Cambridge : 
 Press of John Wilson 6* Son. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 -♦- 
 
 Pack 
 
 Introduction .... ^/ v 
 
 I. M. Atwood. 
 
 The Divine Nature and/procedure i 
 
 A. G. Gaines, D.D. 
 
 Human Nature, its Capabilities 23 
 
 J. h/tuttle, D.D. 
 
 Sin and its Sequences > 45 
 
 G. H. Emerson, D.D. 
 
 Jesus and the Gospel . y' 69 
 
 J. Smith Dodge, Jr. 
 
 Repentance, Forgiveness, Salvation .... 92 
 E. C. Sweetser. 
 
 Punishment . . . . ^. 113 
 
 Asa Saxe, D.D. 
 
 The Rationale of Scripture Exegesis . . . 133 
 
 Geo. Yiill. 
 
 The Relation of this Life to the Next . . . 153 
 J. Coleman Adams. 
 
 Eternal Life 1 73 
 
 Prof. C. H. Leonard. 
 
 Lmmortal Life 194 
 
 A. J. Patterson, D.D. 
 
 Universalism (Scripture). 222 
 
 A. St. John Chambre, D.D. 
 
 Universalism (Philosophy) . ^ 249 
 
 President E. H. Capen. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 BY L M. ATWOOD. 
 
 OOME of the topics with which religious discussion is 
 concerned are of ephemeral interest only ; some oc- 
 cupy attention for a considerable period, but at length fail 
 to awaken sympathy ; and some retain their hold on the 
 regards of mankind permanently. The question with which 
 Universalism is historically and dogmatically related, the 
 question of human destiny, is one of perennial and absorb- 
 ing interest. Into this opinion, however, it may be sus- 
 pected we are beguiled by a natural partiality for the relig- 
 ious system whose fortunes we follow. For it has been 
 observed that even persons of candor sometimes betray a 
 habit of identifying their own fervors with the emotions of 
 the race. It may be advisable, therefore, to appeal the 
 case from our own tribunal to the more impartial decision 
 of facts. 
 
 The first discussion which Christianity provoked on this 
 general subject, related to the truth of its affirmation of an 
 after-death existence. Human immortality was doubted ; 
 
vi THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 in not a few instances derided. The apostles and early 
 preachers of our religion were confronted with the task of 
 estabhshing the fact of a life beyond. ^ In such a discussion 
 the question of its nature and conditions was so subor- 
 dinate as rarely to appear, and then only incidentally. In- 
 deed, it seems uniformly to have been taken for granted, 
 that if the resurrection of the dead were proved, that fact 
 must be recognized as an occasion of rejoicing on the 
 part of every human being.^ But it was inevitable that 
 when the edge of this controversy was somewhat dulled 
 by the more or less general acquiescence in the great 
 affirmation of the Gospel, the question, " How are the 
 dead raised up?" should be superseded by the inquiry: 
 Are all raised to one condition? If the answer had re- 
 ceived no bias from the opinions hitherto prevalent on 
 the subject, it would, without doubt, have been quite 
 different from what it was. But in any case it is hardly 
 supposable that it could have been an unqualified affirma- 
 tive. The vast differences in moral condition and desert 
 among men presented an insuperable obstacle to the be- 
 lief that these differences would be annihilated by their 
 resurrection. Of the several alternatives, to that conclu- 
 sion, we find that all which have been adopted in modern 
 
 ' This is very apparent in the arraignment of St. Paul before FeUx and 
 Agrippa. See Acts xxiv., xxv. 
 
 ^ No other intelligent construction can be put upon the sentiment of 
 I Cor. XV. 12-28, at least. 
 
INTRODUCTION. vii 
 
 times were taken by the various parties in the Church at a 
 comparatively early day. Justin Martyr held that some 
 of the wicked are annihilated, in which opinion it is prob- 
 able Irenaeus coincided. Tertullian taught that they suffer 
 everlasting pains. Origen and Gregory of Nyssa affirmed 
 that after long periods of discipHnary education all the 
 bad would become good ; while Theophilus balanced 
 himself nicely on the opinion, that as men are neither 
 mortal nor immortal, but only " capable of immortality," 
 they would raise themselves up to life or drag themselves 
 down to death, accordingly as they should obey Christ or 
 spurn him. 
 
 Speaking after the manner of men, we may say it was 
 an accident which determined that the view of Tertullian, 
 rather than that of his great contemporary, Origen, or of 
 his predecessor Justin, should at length be voted orthodox 
 and bear predominant sway for more than a thousand years. 
 Certainly the indications of that early period pointed to a 
 different result. The balance of character and learning 
 was on the liberal side. It was favored by the attitude of 
 those who, Hke the Nestorians, belonged to neither party, 
 but had sympathies with one and antagonisms with the 
 other. And if any thing should have been decisive against 
 a leader who offered himself as a guide of opinion, one 
 would say it ought to have been the mental peculiarities 
 which distinguished Tertullian. To great zeal he added 
 
Vlll THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 great intolerance. He was industrious and he was relent- 
 less. His tyranny and littleness appear in nearly every 
 one of his many writings, and offensively in that which 
 was addressed to his wife. His well-known maxim as a 
 theologian, " Credo quia impossible est,'"" — I believe, be- 
 cause it is impossible, — reveals both the temper of his mind 
 and the animus of his ministry. That such a man should 
 have been the father of the Church's most cherished dog- 
 ma — or, to state it differendy, that the most character- 
 istic intellectual progeny of such a mind should have been 
 adopted by the Church in preference to the benevolent 
 and noble conception of a mind like Origen's, offers one 
 of those moral puzzles which the understanding vainly 
 essays to solve. For whether we explain it by a refer- 
 ence to the crudity and cruelty of the age, or by falHng 
 back on the final resource of a Divine though inscrutable 
 purpose, the enigma still confronts and defies human 
 reason. 
 
 The vitality of the controversy as to human destiny is, 
 however, the point in illustration. The maladroit genius 
 of Tertullian did not setUe the question. The curious 
 blending of fiery vehemence and philosophic range in 
 Augustine's nature lent new elements of sublimity to the 
 solemn debate ; but they did not close it. The condem- 
 nation at length obediently voted against Origenism by 
 Justinian's council (a. d. 544) did not dismiss the con- 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 troversy. The repressing influence of mingled barbarism 
 and scholasticism, — the incongruous ferment in which 
 the brains of ecclesiastics were steeped for seven hundred 
 years, only availed to keep it smouldering ;. it could not 
 put it out. So far as explorations, conducted with this 
 point in view, have been made into the " deep profound " 
 of mediaeval literature, it has been discovered that the 
 minds of men were vigorously employed on the great 
 theme of human destiny.^ It is unnecessary to trace, by 
 even so faint a line as that we must necessarily draw in 
 an introduction, the emergence of the discussion with the 
 revival of inquiry at the Reformation, or to point out how 
 it has steadily held an enlarging place in the controversies 
 of the Church since. 
 
 Illustrations nearer at hand, however, may better serve 
 the purpose of effecting conviction. Fortunately, we have 
 two so near to our own time that the materials for their 
 verification are accessible to all. It is a curious phenom- 
 enon, and one which would be startling if events could be 
 so shifted as to put dates a century apart side by side, 
 that the dispute which a hundred years ago was wholly 
 between Universalists and " Evangelicals," is now trans- 
 ferred to the very bosom of the Orthodox churches. A 
 Calvinist's enemies are now those of his own religious 
 
 ^ For instructive testimony to this point, see articles in the Universahst 
 Quarterly for April, July, and October, 1878, from the able author of ** The 
 Secret of Christianity." 
 
X THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 household. The men who are engaged in pulling down 
 the temple of Orthodoxy are Orthodox men. The books 
 that deal the most remorseless blows at the dogma of 
 Everlasting Punishment are written by EvangeHcal divines. 
 The guardians of the faith in the older churches have 
 now such absorbing employment in looking after home 
 heretics that those on the outside are left in the enjoy- 
 ment of monotonous peace. Now, the true explanation 
 of this phenomenon is found in the inherent and irrepres- 
 sible interest of the question. The attempt to make it 
 subordinate has failed. Orthodoxy is rent as with an 
 earthquake by a controversy it has striven to evade and 
 belittle. 
 
 The other illustration is of a different kind, but to the 
 same purport. The Unitarian denomination in this coun- 
 try presents the only example in the history of the Church 
 of a sect that deliberately undertook to ignore the ques- 
 tion of human destiny. The question came up before the 
 body as early as the days of Dr. Channing and Andrews 
 Norton. These eminent men and their scarcely less emi- 
 nent confreres took the position that it is an unimportant 
 matter at the best, and that it is impossible to find out any 
 thing definite or satisfactory in relation to it, any way. 
 The Scriptures, they said, are " silent " as to the fate of 
 those who die unregenerate, and it is folly for men to vex 
 themselves with an inquiry which can never result in any 
 
INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 thing better than conjecture.^ Dr. Hedge long ago spake 
 of Universalism as " a brave hope," but warned his brethren 
 against exercising any of the courage requisite to avow it. 
 And the official declaration referred to in the preceding 
 note avers : " It is our firm conviction that the final resto- 
 ration of all men is not revealed in the Scriptures, but that 
 the ultimate fate of the impenitent wicked is left shrouded 
 in impenetrable mystery." If any policy could have 
 availed to keep the controversy out of their communion 
 and preserve them from any effects, good or bad, of the 
 agitation, it would seem that the cautious line marked out 
 by the Unitarian fathers must have secured it. But mark 
 the result. The Unitarian body, ministry and laity, has 
 been carried over, by stress of the compelling interest of 
 the theme, to the ground of universal restoration. The 
 neutrality formerly affected on the subject is now sup- 
 planted by a rather coy, but on the whole distinct, affirma- 
 tion of the "brave hope." It has been found practically 
 impossible either to evade the discussion of this pro- 
 foundly interesting question, or to prevent the denomina- 
 tion from drifting into avowed Universalism. The obvious 
 reason is, that the question of human destiny is the great 
 question of religion, and wiU continue so to be until the 
 faith of St. Paul becomes the conviction of mankind, that 
 
 ' Not to refer to individual' statements of opinion on tlie subject, it is 
 more satisfactory to cite the declaration put forth by the American Unitarian 
 Association in 1834, and revised and reaffirmed in 1854. 
 
Xll THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 '' the creation also itself shall be set free from the bondage 
 of corruption and brought into the freedom of the glory 
 of the children of God " — that is, that the "■ glory " en- 
 joyed by the " children of God," or those who already 
 were "led by the Spirit," shall at last be shared by the 
 whole human creation. 
 
 If our view of the intrinsic importance and lasting 
 interest of the subject with which Universalism is identi- 
 fied be as well supported as the facts just recited would 
 appear to show, we need not offer an apology for solicit- 
 ing fresh attention to it by the publication of a new 
 volume on the old theme. The topic itself excuses any 
 sincere effort to bring the high matters with which it is 
 concerned closer to the pubKc apprehension. But special 
 reasons create a demand for a book such as this is believed 
 to be. 
 
 Passing by the circumstance that the controversy has 
 broken out anew, both in Europe and in America, and 
 that such a season of general awakening is a favorable 
 moment for the right word to be spoken, we prefer to 
 recall here what is less likely to be remembered. The 
 Universalist branch of the Church was called into being 
 by Divine Providence to pioneer the way back to original 
 Gospel ground on the supreme questions of the character 
 of God, the mission of Jesus, and the destiny of man. It 
 has borne the burden and the heat of the day in the sharp 
 
INTR OD UCTION. xiii 
 
 conflict which its birth precipitated. It has labored, and 
 other churches have entered into its labors. This is the 
 fate of pioneers, and is no more than it had reason to 
 expect. But with the lack of grace proverbial in those 
 who reap from fields they never tilled, there is manifest a 
 disposition to appropriate the harvest without so much as 
 a word in recognition of those who scattered the seed. 
 Contemplated merely as an ethical phenomenon, it is 
 amazing, beyond any thing within the circle of our obser- 
 vation, how unconscious the authors and critics who are 
 overturning the old interpretations on the points in dis- 
 pute between EvangeUcals and Universalists, contrive to 
 be that anybody ever mentioned this before ! The won- 
 der increases when it is considered how exactly these 
 inquirers follow in the footsteps and repeat the expositions 
 of our own authors for half a century and more. It must 
 be difficult, one would say, for so many different men, so 
 widely separated in their work, to keep up the dumb 
 show. Ah ! how refreshing it would be, and what a new 
 sense of the orthodox capacity of justice it would give, to 
 hear some one of them speak out frankly and like a man, 
 and tell how much he and his coadjutors are indebted to 
 the patient and laborious, if not always accurate, research 
 of those pioneer explorers, who, a whole generation in 
 advance of Tayler Lewis, or Lyman Abbot, or Edward 
 Beecher, or Canon Farrar, developed the true interpreta- 
 
xiv THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 tion of the terms whose misreading has been the principal 
 buhvark of the dogma of everlasting punishment. Per- 
 haps, however, it is a trifling thing what we suffer from 
 the injustice or inappreciation of others. The more 
 serious matter to ourselves is, whether we suffer any 
 decline of power or reputation through causes for which 
 we are responsible. If God has called us to a certain 
 service, are we diligently occupied with our Master's 
 business ? The little work here offered to the public is a 
 small pledge that Universalists are not insensible to the 
 great honor conferred on them by divine Providence ; but 
 while they thankfully recognize the important aids to the 
 progress of Christian knowledge supplied by sincere and 
 capable inquirers in every branch of the Church, they are 
 as keenly alive as ever to the responsibility devolved on 
 them of bearing aloft and in the van the banner of 
 universal, victorious grace. 
 
 But if it could persuade itself to vacate its providential 
 office, and surrender its separate organization, in the belief 
 that its special work is now ready to be wrought in the 
 other churches, it would be denied that relief from ar- 
 duous and not always agreeable duty, by grave doubts 
 whether the champions of " the larger hope " in the older 
 churches are really quite well equipped to carry on the 
 campaign. No doubt it will savor of conceit in us to say 
 it, nevertheless say it we shall, that the views of those — 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 with here and there an exception — who are creating such 
 a stir in the church by their half-way advocacy of Univer- 
 sahsm, are exceedingly crude. There is very little coher- 
 ence to their speculations, and nothing approaching to 
 consistency in their methods of exegesis. Their general 
 propositions constantly neutralize their special demonstra- 
 tions. They accept the very postulates of Orthodoxy that 
 require the false interpretations ; and they are, of course, 
 at a tremendous disadvantage when they undertake to 
 make figs grow on thistles and grapes on thorns. What 
 they still need is a thoroughly reconstructed and harmon- 
 ized system of opinions. Judging from the rate of evolu- 
 tion among ourselves, under more favorable circumstances, 
 when our theology was in a similar early chaos, we should 
 say that such men as Andrew Jukes and the author of 
 " Is Eternal Punishment Endless? " are a full half century 
 away from a clear and consistent scheme of doctrines in 
 which universal restoration will sit at ease with the rest. 
 As we view the matter, the absence of a congruous theo- 
 logical system from the minds of these writers is a defect 
 of the gravest kind. It renders much of their labor fruit- 
 less, and it imperils the permanence of it all. If Uni- 
 versalism, in the persons of its trained apologists, ever had 
 a vocation, it seems to us it is just here : where fancy and 
 impassioned rhetoric are so little ballasted by thorough 
 knowledge and a complete view^ that the very energy with 
 
xvi THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 which the truth is pursued may be the means of obscur- 
 ing it. 
 
 But a clearer warrant for the further participation of 
 Universalists in the inquiry concerning human destiny 
 remains to be stated. Not only does the inquiry relate 
 to the truth of their fundamental dogma; not only are 
 the care and direction of the debate providentially 
 devolved on them : but as a progressive people they are 
 aware that the evidence put in on their behalf at previous 
 dates is not now a full and fair statement of their whole 
 case. They must be presumed more competent than any 
 one else to give testimony as to the present state of their 
 knowledge and belief. The title of this volume intimates 
 a comprehension of the true condition of facts. Univer- 
 salism has spoken again and again in the progress of the 
 great discussion, and many times by the mouth of men so 
 universally honored and confided in that their words were 
 a not unfair expression of the best thought and knowledge 
 among us. It is now, however, some years since any 
 work discussing the whole circle of Christian doctrine, as 
 understood by our church, has appeared. In the mean 
 time that circle has considerably enlarged, while it has 
 also undergone some modifications of its former structure. 
 We are in many respects a different people from what we 
 were twenty years ago. Our habits of thinking have 
 changed with the changing thought of the world. In- 
 
INTRODUCTION. xvii 
 
 sensibly many of our doctrines, as previously formulated, 
 have recast themselves in our vital theology. Research, 
 in all departments, has come to our aid ; and what is 
 better and more important than all other things, we feel 
 at the roots of our opinions the modifying influence of 
 the earnest endeavors we have put forth in these years to 
 advance out of mere denominationalism into genuine, 
 organic church life. It follows that the " latest " word of 
 Universalism should be in many respects a new and 
 refreshing word. Whatever better and truer things re- 
 main to be said in subsequent eras of our history, we 
 indulge the hope that the deliverances of this book will be 
 found, on the whole, to report more fully, if not more 
 accurately, the present convictions and the current im- 
 pulses of the Universalist Church, than any which has 
 preceded it. At the same time, it will be seen that the 
 writers have almost wholly avoided traversing the ground 
 which had been occupied by the special labors of those 
 authors whose works are still of standard authority. In 
 short, " The Latest Word of Universalism " is an im- 
 promptu effort by several clergymen, each of whom was 
 too busy to undertake such a work alone, to meet a 
 demand both of the times and of the Universalist public. 
 The plan of it was determined by obvious considerations 
 and need not be explained. The motive which impelled 
 its preparation was the single one of contributing, at the 
 
 b 
 
xviii THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 imperative moment, our church's share to a discussion 
 which, besides its momentous interest to every rational 
 creature, has for its final object the emancipation of the 
 minds of men from moral bondage and the ordering of 
 their lives in harmony with eternal goodness. 
 
THE 
 
 LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 THE DIVINE NATURE AND PROCEDURE. 
 
 BY A. G. GAINES, D.D. 
 
 " ^ I ^O US there is but one God, the Father," is the 
 answer of the Universalist when questioned as 
 to the ground and support of all religion — the Divine 
 Nature and Procedure. That this answer is true and trust- 
 worthy, and that it is supported and confirmed by what 
 is truest and deepest in Science and Philosophy, we shall 
 endeavor briefly to exemplify. 
 
 The problem of the universe, as it is now known to 
 exist, cannot be rationally solved unless there is a God 
 who is its creator and governor. If there is a God, per- 
 sonal, intelligent, moral, mighty, free, — capable of origi- 
 nal purposes and actions, — it is plain that his existence 
 easily and perfectly solves the problem of the Universe ; 
 and this, according to our faith, is the solution of this 
 problem. And that- this faith in God is everywhere taught 
 and commended in the Bible, no reader of the book 
 will ever think of denying. 
 
2 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 But will Science and Philosophy sustain this faith ; or 
 will they even allow us to continue in it ? These questions 
 are now pressing every intelligent and thoughtful Christian 
 in the world ; and many fear that we shall soon be forced 
 to answer them in the negative. It is useless to shut our 
 eyes to these questions, and futile to deny their impor- 
 tance. They involve the ground and support of all re- 
 ligion, — the ground and support of all our hopes of 
 immortality and heaven. If our readers will go along 
 with us a little way, with some care and patience, we will 
 point out several respects in which Science and Philos- 
 ophy warrant and support our faith in God. 
 
 I. The operations of matter and energy cannot solve 
 our problem, and dispense with God, — for they necessi- 
 tate an original condition of things which they cannot ac- 
 count for ; and which, hence, must be irrationally assumed. 
 By reason of radiation, conduction, friction, &c., taken in 
 connection with the doctrine of the correlation and con- 
 servation of energy, there is a constant diffusion and 
 practical dissipation of energy going on, — a constant 
 downward movement towards a uniform, and consequently 
 inert, diffusion of energy throughout matter. That this 
 inert diffusion is not now a fact, proves the necessity of 
 a God rationally to account for those intense energies, 
 actual and potential, now known in the universe. Here, 
 then, physical science not only allows our faith in God ; 
 
THE DIVINE NATURE. 
 
 but it also shows us a scientific necessity for that faith, if 
 its o^\^l problems are to be rationally solved. 
 
 II. The problem of lifdj and of individual characteristics 
 and character, cannot be solved by any mere evolution 
 of germ-cells, even were it possible (as it is not) to ex- 
 plain these germs without a God. These germ-cells are 
 too minute, and comparatively too simple, to furnish a 
 rational groundwork for the explanation of the infinitely 
 varied and complicated facts of life as it is actually 
 known. The minuteness and simplicity of the germs, 
 contrasted with the amazing variety and complexity of 
 living beings, necessitates and warrants our faith in God 
 as the rational explanation. If, to escape this conclusion, 
 it were (however absurdly) alleged that there is an 
 adequate infinite complexity in the minutest germ, our 
 answer would be, that such a germ would as much neces- 
 sitate a God to explain it as the vaster complexities of 
 the universe itself. That in this view we have the sup- 
 port of scientific men, take the following in confirmation 
 from Prof. Clerk Maxwell, a very high authority in physi- 
 cal science. He says : " Thus, molecular science sets us 
 face to face with physiological theories. It forbids the 
 physiologist from imagining that structural details of in- 
 finitely small dimensions can furnish an explanation of 
 the infinite variety which exists in the properties and 
 functions of the most minute organisms. A microscopic 
 
4 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 germ is, we know, capable of development into a highly 
 organized animal. Another germ, equally microscopic, 
 becomes, when developed, an animal of a totally different 
 kind. Do all the differences, infinite in nmnber, which 
 distinguish the one animal from the other, arise each from 
 some difference in the structure of the respective germs ? 
 ... To explain differences of function and development 
 of a germ without assuming differences of structure is, 
 therefore, to admit that the properties of a germ are not 
 those of a purely material system." ^ Thus, again. Science, 
 in its profoundest and subtlest truths, leads us to God, and 
 warrants and supports our faith in him. 
 
 By a similar procedure we might draw arguments for 
 our faith in God from the phu-ality of the elements of 
 matter, and from their various known properties and re- 
 lations ; but the limited space at our command allows us 
 to do no more than thus allude to them, and recognize 
 their existence, and the place they should occupy. 
 
 Philosophy is equally generous in affording confirma- 
 tion and support to our faith that God is. 
 
 I. Our attention has been often called to the difficulty 
 of conceiving an absolute beginning of the order of Na- 
 ture ; and this difficulty has been urged as a reason why 
 we should disbelieve such a beginning, — why we should 
 disbelieve in God as the creator, originator. But, if we 
 
 ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. Atom. 
 
THE DIVINE NATURE. 
 
 attend to it, it at once becomes plain, as Sir W. Hamilton 
 explains, that an endless regression of eifects and causes 
 is just as inconceivable ; and must, therefore, by this sort 
 of reasoning, be condemned as equally unbeHevable and 
 false. The one inconceivable thus cancels the other ; and 
 we are left free to consider and accept the proper evidence 
 that the order of Nature had a beginning, and that God 
 is, and that he is the original cause. 
 
 Now, a Httle attention to our own experience will show 
 us that origination is not so difficult to our thinking as it 
 is assumed to be in the objection, Men, as free agents, 
 are familiar with the originating of purposes and actions ; 
 are familiar with this, — that many results in life find their 
 explanation in men's original purposes and free actions. 
 This familiar experience enables us fully to beUeve in God 
 as the creator ; and, accordingly, men in all ages have so 
 beUeved. It also somewhat qualifies us to comprehend 
 how it may be, and thus makes it still easier to human 
 faith. And thus it is seen that Philosophy not only allows 
 our faith in God, but it also very plainly encourages it. 
 
 11. At the very beginnings of our knowledge, and afford- 
 ing the materials of all philosophy, we have matter and 
 mind given in immediate co-existence and contrast. We 
 stultify the grounds of all knowledge and of all philosophy, 
 when we make either matter or mind, as known to us, a 
 mere mode or sequence of the other. This is not saying 
 
6 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALIS^!. 
 
 that matter is eternal ; nor that God could not, or did not, 
 create matter, as he unquestionably created the order of 
 Nature. It is saying that matter, when created, is no 
 more a mode of mind than mind is a mode of matter. 
 Both as known in actual existence stand in co-existence 
 and contrast. Now, note that mind with its thoughts, 
 feehngs, and volitions is a conspicuous portion of the 
 problem of the universe ; and it must find a rational and 
 sufficient explanation. To assign matter, — or any of the 
 laws of matter, or any mere evolution of matter and its 
 laws, — as the cause and explanation of mind, is to behe 
 the grounds of all knowledge and of all philosophy. 
 Hence, the rational God is again warranted and supported 
 by Philosophy as the only conceivable cause and explana- 
 tion of mind as we know it to exist. If any are disposed 
 to question the validity of this argument, let them proceed 
 to show how, and upon what grounds, we can know any 
 thing, after it has been denied that we know immediately 
 matter and mind in co-existence and in contrast of sub- 
 stance. This will not be done ; and we therefore reas- 
 sert this highest philosophical warrant for our faith that 
 God is. 
 
 Having thus briefly indicated how well assured we may 
 be that the faith that God is, is well grounded so far as 
 Science and Philosophy are concerned, let us now go on 
 and inquire what we may know, and what we may believe, 
 
THE DIVINE NATURE. 
 
 of the Divine nature. And here, first of all, the Bibk 
 gives us a, persona/ God ; and the Universalist believes in 
 a personal God. This faith is also supported by such 
 other knowledge as we have attained to. We know abso- 
 lutely nothing of mind apart from personaHty. We know 
 mind in many conditions and relations ; but in every 
 condition and relation it is individual, it is personal. To 
 suppose that mind, individual and personal as we know 
 it to be at all times and every^vhere, could arise out of 
 what is neither personal nor individual, is to stultify rea- 
 son and causation at once. To state such assumptions 
 is not to explain any thing, but it is to insult intelligence 
 itself. Inasmuch, therefore, as mind is personal, the 
 Creator — the cause of mind — is personal ; and we may 
 know that God is personal in a sense as distinct and cer- 
 tain as minds are personal. 
 
 Strong confirmation of this is afforded by the oneness 
 of plan, and character, and procedure, observed every- 
 where in the universe ; and this oneness finds its ground 
 and explanation at once in the personal God, the Creator 
 and Governor of the universe. 
 
 By a similar hne of thought we confirm our faith in 
 God as intelligent, rational. We may everywhere observe 
 the adaptations of things to each other, and of means to 
 ends, attesting thought and design in the Creator. We 
 may also observe remoter ends pursued and promoted by 
 
8 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 subtile and complex adjustments, of means, some of which 
 at first sight even seem to us subversive of the ends they 
 actually promote ; and this impresses us with the fore- 
 thought and far-seeing intelligence of God. And to all 
 this may be added all the intelligence, skill, and wisdom 
 found in man, and exhibited by him ; for God is his 
 creator, and as the rational cause is always superior to the 
 effect, these effects in man attest the superior intelligence 
 and wisdom of God. By what we thus know ourselves 
 to be, we know that God is personal, intelligent, wise. 
 
 We may assert on equally good grounds that God is 
 moral, holy, righteous, just. These qualities are all found 
 in man, and by reason of them he is subject to a peculiar 
 law, — a law to which other creatures known to us are 
 not subject : we call it the moral law. This law is 
 everywhere potent in human affairs : man cannot divest 
 himself of its influence. It is a peculiar law, in that it 
 spurns necessity, and all pleas of necessary causation. 
 It stands in the presence of Nature and of Nature's laws ; 
 in the presence of what is, and boldly says that it ought 
 not to be. By all the laws of ordinary and natural causa- 
 tion, the what is, as the necessary and legitimate sequence 
 of its causal antecedents, has the best of reasons for 
 being, and for being what it is. But here is something 
 condemning it in a new language as wro7ig, as having 
 no right to be. Whence comes this peculiar law thus 
 
THE DIVINE NATURE. 
 
 wrought into the whole texture of human life ? One only 
 answer can be given, — it is of God ; and hence we 
 may know that God is moral, just, holy. 
 
 After what has now been shown of the intelligence, 
 holiness, and personality of God, it seems needless to do 
 more than state the obvious proposition that God is 
 powerful, mighty, — the Scriptures say Almighty. Proofs 
 and illustrations of this are to be seen everywhere, from 
 " the wind that bloweth where it listeth," to the rolling 
 worlds and suns that fill the immensity of space. 
 
 We have also said that God is free ; that he is an orig- 
 inal power and \vill, capable of original purposes and 
 actions. These may be said to be essential attributes 
 of Divine personality ; and any power or force that did 
 not possess them, whatever some men might fancy to call 
 it, would not, and could not, fulfil our notion of God. 
 These qualities, too, are so familiar in our experience ; 
 we know so well what it is to form original purposes, and 
 pursue them by voluntary means, — what it is to will, and 
 what it is to act, — that any conception of God which de- 
 nied him these attributes, would be at once rejected as 
 absurd. Here, then, we sum up and repeat our steadfast 
 faith in God, as the mighty God, — rational, personal, 
 moral, original, and free ; and we give both reason and 
 revelation as our instructors and guides in this faith. 
 
 We desire to go a little farther into this subject, and 
 
10 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 inquire whether we may not claim to kfww God in a true 
 and comprehensible sense. In this inquiry it must not 
 be forgotten that "spiritual things are spiritually dis- 
 cerned ; " and, we may add, that spiritual things can only 
 be spiritually discerned. This truth, in both its forms, is 
 very familiar in our daily experience ; and no man dis- 
 trusts to call it knowledge, or hesitates to act on it as 
 knowledge. For example : the living, thinking, willing 
 being we know ourselves to be, was never seen by the 
 fleshly eyes of our friends, nor can we be thus seen ; 
 and we, in turn, never with material eyes saw our friends 
 as minds, souls. But we do daily, hourly, discern each 
 other mentally, spiritually; and we know and test the 
 identity of our friends spiritually, with as great assurance 
 as we know and test the identity of their bodies. Nor 
 can this be said to be through the body, or, properly, to 
 depend on the body ; for the body may be disguised, and 
 every bodily feature mutilated, until identification of the 
 body is impossible, and still the mind will reveal itself un- 
 mistakably to the minds of our friends. Recall the story of 
 Blondel, the minstrel friend of King Richard I., going in 
 search of his lost and imprisoned lord. At last the min- 
 strel came to a castle in which he suspected his friend 
 was confined, but he could get no information to support 
 or confirm his suspicions. But one day he took a station 
 in front of that part of the castle supposed to be the 
 
TEE DIVINE NATURE. II 
 
 prison, and sang and played the first half of a little ballad 
 which he and King Richard had composed together years 
 before. He paused, and was immediately answered from 
 within the prison by the other half of the same ballad, 
 with the same musical accompaniment. Imagine the 
 joy of the minstrel, for he had found his friend and king ! 
 He hastened home to England, and reported where the 
 king was confined ; and this led to Richard's release and 
 restoration to his kingdom. Blondel knew it was his lord ; 
 but you see it was tlirough mind speaking to mind when 
 no bodily form could be seen. Facts and experiences 
 of this kind are so common and so famihar to us, that it 
 is needless to dwell upon them. 
 
 However, the application of these familiar truths to 
 our knowledge of God is important, and worthy of being 
 drawn out a httle. We may, I think, hold that we know 
 that God is, and that we may have some very trustworthy 
 and encouraging knowledge of him ; and in this statement 
 the word " knowledge " is used thoughtfully and advisedly. 
 It is written that " the pure in heart see God ; " and it is 
 true, and realized in actual spiritual discernment. The 
 pure in heart perceive and understand the language of 
 hoUness ; and it is as holy, that they more especially see 
 God. But the intelligent, thinking God speaks to our 
 minds in all the ways mind speaks to mind ; and we thus 
 know that God is, and that he is all that his expressed 
 
12 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 thought implies, in the same way that we know that our 
 fellow-men are, and that they are rational, willing, loving 
 souls, with such and such characters. 
 
 This expression of God's thought and character is ex- 
 emplified nearly everywhere. Take an example from the 
 human heart. Can any man look into the ventricles 
 of this organ, and observe the construction of the mitral 
 and tricuspid valves, with the tendinous chords attached 
 to them, and running across these cavities and attached 
 to the summits of papillary muscles on the opposite sides, 
 — can any one observe these things, and note the ends 
 served, and so admirably served, by these means, and not 
 discern the wise constructive thought that speaks through 
 them ? If he attends reverently to this language, he will 
 discern it as God's thought, and he will be thus brought 
 spiritually face to face with God. He will discern it as 
 God^s thought, for well he knows that it is not man's 
 thought, and never could be. He sees no material form, 
 and hears no sound in sense ; but he reads God's thought 
 as Blondel read King Richard's, and his assurance and 
 his joy are as great. Who, again, can look into the 
 wonderful mechanism of the human ear, and not clearly 
 discern the thought of the Divine architect ? From the 
 skilful adjustment of the bones joining the membranous 
 tympanum to the membrane that closes the oval window, 
 to the ramifications of the auditory nerve in the cochlea, 
 
THE DIVINE NATURE. 1 3 
 
 and membranous labyrinth, with the means therein for 
 acting on these terminal nerves, — this human ear speaks 
 the thought and purpose of the God who made it. And 
 what is true of the heart and the ear, is true in like man- 
 ner of m}Tiads of things that express God's thought and 
 purpose ; and we may assert here knowledge of God on 
 a footing exactly analogous to that on which we assert 
 knowledge of men. 
 
 Our friends, the archaeologists, who dig up the sites 
 of buried and forgotten cities ; who rake over old shell 
 mounds, and dredge the bottoms of lakes and bogs ; who 
 explore old caves, and dens of wild beasts, and turn up 
 the strata of the earth, in their search after human remains 
 and relics, — these men are right in saying their rude find- 
 ings — even their flint chips — speak knowledge to them 
 of the existence and the thoughts of men of those forgot- 
 ten times. Yes, they are right ; for mind speaks to mind 
 by the simple flint chips, and it is understood. But how 
 much more does God nearly everywhere speak to our 
 minds; and by a language so much fuller and clearer 
 than the flint chips and implements of the archaeologist ! 
 Who will say, then, that we do not so much the more 
 certainly know that God is, and that he is very near to 
 every one of us ? Yes, God is ; and the universe, and 
 all its parts, relations, and adaptations, express his will 
 and thought : and all these things that are made are what 
 
14 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 they are because God, the creator, is what he is. Thus 
 it is that the nature of God is the ground and explanation 
 of the universe in its essential constitution, relations, and 
 ends ; and were it conceivable that God might have been 
 essentially different from what he is, then the universe 
 would never have been what it is. Because God embodies 
 infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, these attributes are 
 nearly everywhere exemplified in the universe. We do 
 not say that we know that these attributes must be ex- 
 emplified in the world, because we first know them to be 
 attributes of God. To do this were to proceed by a 
 method of deduction that cannot be made trustworthy : 
 deduction from assumed premises in the infinite to what 
 we conclude must be the Divine procedure in the finite 
 affairs of this world. What we do maintain is, that be- 
 cause power, wisdom, and goodness are clearly revealed 
 in the things that are made, we may know that they are 
 attributes of him who made the worlds. And we say that 
 we thus know that God is wise and good, because these 
 attributes are clearly expressed to us in line upon line in 
 his works. That this is no doubtful assertion of knowledge 
 may be illustrated as follows : Were I to travel abroad 
 and arrive at some to me unknown and unheard of coun- 
 try, nearly the first inquiries to which I should address 
 myself would be, Is there any government in this country ? 
 If so, what is its character? Is it wise, just, humane? 
 
THE DIVINE NATURE. 1 5 
 
 Now it is easy to understand that I might prosecute these 
 inquiries by looking about me, and intelligently observing 
 what was done in connection with the several sorts of 
 conduct of men, and how it was done. Nor will any man 
 doubt in the least that, after I had prosecuted these in- 
 quiries for some years under ordinarily favorable condi- 
 tions for seeing and understanding what was to be seen, 
 I might well say, without undue assumption of wisdom, 
 that I know this government to be powerful, wise, and 
 just ; or that it possesses, or does not possess, these quali- 
 ties in such and such degrees. And note, too, that, in 
 arriving at this knowledge, it has not been assumed, nor 
 implied, that any part of it was obtained from oral com- 
 munications and \vritten documents ; and mark, also, that 
 we know not only that the government is, but we know 
 its character as well. 
 
 In a way precisely analogous to this, we say that we 
 know that God is, and that he is powerful, wise, and good. 
 In making this plain to such as may have doubted it, we 
 pass over that personal revelation of himself which God 
 makes to the individual soul ; for though this revelation 
 is most convincing to the individual himself, it is not 
 available for the convincing of others. 
 
 We ask, now, whether any man can live in this world, 
 and look intelligently about him for years, and not observe 
 expressions of God's power, wisdom, and goodness nearly 
 
1 6 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 everywhere ? Whoever observes with any active thought- 
 fulness sees the power of God revealed superabundantly : 
 through the embodiment and action of various agents, 
 indeed, but so manifestly not an original power with 
 these agents, that in all ages and everywhere man has 
 known and called it divine. In like manner do men 
 know God as wise, through the multiplied expressions of 
 his wisdom in his works. A few men have lived in the 
 world who could charge God with folly ; or, at least, with 
 want of wisdom in some part of his works. Even these 
 men understood many of the lessons of God's wisdom, 
 and stumbled only in a few instances ; and hence they do 
 not deny that God is generally known as wise, but that 
 he is universally so known. As to the charge itself, it 
 involves such assumptions of knowledge and wisdom, and 
 concerning the whole meaning and ends of things, on the 
 part of him who makes the charge, that it becomes a mark 
 rather of his weakness and rashness than of his superiority 
 to the generality of men. 
 
 And nearly the same things may be said of the good- 
 ness of God, expressed in so many relations, with means 
 to ends so well fitted to lead his creatures to perfection, 
 and secure good to them. As we thoughtfully dwell 
 upon these expressions of God's benevolence, and seek 
 to interpret them, we reach as great assurance of knowl- 
 edge that God is good, and delighteth in doing good, as 
 
THE DIVINE NATURE. 17 
 
 we previously had of the chai-acter of the government of 
 the unknown country we visited. The government or 
 procedure of God in this world as plainly reveals his char- 
 acter for wisdom, power, and goodness to the intelligent 
 student, as any government among men ; or as any indi- 
 vidual man reveals his character to such a student. And 
 inasmuch as we go upon assured practical knowledge in 
 these last cases, so may we with equal certainty in the 
 first. 
 
 Those who stumble concerning the Divine goodness in 
 particular instances, do so usually from looking too exclu- 
 sively at their individual happiness — and this as immedi- 
 ately affected — without considering the more general 
 welfare, or even their o\vn good in the wider view of char- 
 acter and immortality. This is to imitate the httle child 
 that assumes to condemn the treatment it receives from 
 its parents by its own fancies, tastes, and pleasures of the 
 hour. No thoughtful student of God's works, who duly 
 appreciates his o^vn imperfections of knowledge and char- 
 acter, will fail to exclaim ^\dth St. Paul, " Oh, the depth of 
 the riches both of tiie wisdom and knowledge of God ! 
 How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past 
 finding out ! " No such student will ever think of pro- 
 posing amendments to either the wisdom or goodness of 
 God's works ; nor \\ill he doubt that he knows God, or 
 that the God he knows is both wise and good. 
 
1 8 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 We have space that will permit us to draw only a few 
 inferences from the principles now laid down ; and first of 
 all take this : Inasmuch as we are able to say on good 
 and trustworthy grounds that God is mighty, we are war- 
 ranted both by the Scriptures and by Philosophy to go on 
 and infer that he is Almighty. We accept this inference, 
 and find confirmation of our faith in the facts of the 
 material universe ; and in the facts and experiences, also, 
 of the mental and spiritual realms. We have not said, 
 and we shall not say, that we k?iow God as Almighty, 
 for such knowledge transcends our powers ; but we do 
 know him as mighty, and we hdcve faith in him as Almighty. 
 In like manner we know that God is wise. We see and 
 understand in a thousand things and relations the wisdom 
 in y^hich he reveals himself, and we do not hesitate to 
 assert our knowledge. Now we go further, and infer his 
 omniscience. This inference, too, is well grounded, and 
 we assert undoubting/^///? in God's infinite wisdom. 
 
 ;It is by a procedure in all respects similar that we infer, 
 beyond our knowledge that God is good, that his good- 
 ness is perfect. By perfect goodness we understand that 
 which is good in every purpose and act of him who is 
 thus good. We kno7v that God is good in many of his 
 purposes and acts ; and now, by the authority of the Bible 
 and of all that we otherwise know of the universe, we 
 h3Nt faith that he is perfectly good, — good in every pur- 
 
THE DIVINE NATURE. 1 9 
 
 pose and act. While, therefore, we kfww that God is 
 powerful, wise, and good, by faith we worship him as 
 almighty, all-wise, and perfect in goodness : and this faith 
 has the warrant of the Scriptures, and of the soundest 
 Philosophy. 
 
 Another inference that may be drawn from all that we 
 know of God, is his constant activity in the affairs of the 
 universe ; and, more especially, in all that part of it which 
 includes man, and the things pertaining to man. Wisdom 
 implies care, thoughtfulness, deliberation in all purposes 
 and in the pursuit of them. And goodness has no mean- 
 ing, if it does not imply a care for and attention to what- 
 soever things affect the well-being of the objects of this 
 goodness. Hence, God, as wise and good, has an ever 
 active interest and care for the good of his creatures ; but 
 more especially for ??ian, whom he has peculiarly endowed, 
 and subjected to a peculiar law. This ever present ac- 
 tivity and thoughtfulness of the Divine wisdom and good- 
 ness assures us that all God's purposes and acts relative 
 to man are benevolent in design and effective in execu- 
 tion. We are not able to go beyond this, and deduce 
 how God will act in this or that particular case, or how 
 he will deal mth this or that particular man in such and 
 such particular circumstances. When we attempt deduc- 
 tions like these, we approach dangerously near to pre- 
 sumption, and are too apt to become fault-finders before 
 
20 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSAL IS 31. 
 
 God. But our faith is warranted and trustworthy, that, 
 whether or not we can see through the particular act or 
 providence to the intention and end of Divine goodness, 
 it is none the less certainly good. By faith we accept 
 this inference, and " Praise the Lord for his goodness, and 
 for his wonderful works to the children of men," even 
 when we fail to see through his methods to the Divine 
 consummation. 
 
 Again, we infer from what we know of God's holiness, 
 and of his moral government, and of the law written in 
 the consciences of men, that he hates sin, and can have 
 no concord with it, or with the works it prompts. This 
 knowledge of God's holiness has abundant support every- 
 where, and will not be called in question by any ; and, 
 granting the premises, our conclusion cannot be denied. 
 This is a most important inference of the Divine proced- 
 ure, and will bear a little amplification. Our inference, 
 then, makes it plain that God is in no sense the author 
 or abettor of sin. God never planned it, nor did he ever 
 purpose aught that required sin as a means for its accom- 
 plishment, or that depended on sin as a means to its end. 
 Sin is of God in no proper sense. His whole relation to 
 it, and action towards it, is and ever has been antagonism, 
 resistance. And this accords perfectly with what we know 
 of ourselves as the authors of our own sins. In con- 
 sciousness we know ourselves to be the sinners ; we are 
 
THE DIVINE NATURE. 21 
 
 tempted and we sin, and by just consequence experience 
 the guiit of sin. All this is personal knowledge to men 
 as sinners, and we know that our sins are not of God. 
 When God created man with a moral nature, which only 
 made it possible for man to sin, he subjected him to the 
 moral law and forbade him to sin. God also warned man 
 of the consequences of disobedience, — warned him that 
 he would resist and punish whomsoever should turn into 
 the ways of iniquity. God has kept his word, and been 
 true to holiness in all his dealings with sinners. He hates 
 sin, and he resists and punishes it ; and by an active and 
 benevolent providence he has wrought to save sinners, 
 to make an end of sinning, and to bring men to virtue 
 and peace with God. So much we may know of the 
 Divine procedure in relation to sin and sinners. God is 
 hostile to sin ; he has no purposes to serve by it ; never 
 gave his consent to it ; forbade it at the first, and has 
 steadfastly resisted it ever since ; and he has assured us 
 that he can never accept it, nor become reconciled to it. 
 All this means that there shall be an end of it in the 
 moral universe. God's power, wisdom, goodness, and 
 holiness are all assured pledges of this result ; for, as God 
 lives, sin must be ended, and universal righteousness 
 brought in : and this good work is going forward under 
 his ever active providence. 
 
 Here, then, our inferences from the goodness and holi- 
 
2 2 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 ness of God run up together into the assured prophecy 
 and promise that sin shall be destroyed through the con- 
 version and salvation of all sinners, and the ultimate bring- 
 ing of them to holiness and perfection. This shows us 
 God as the Father revealed in Jesus Christ. Thus our 
 inquiries lead us on from the knowledge of God as holy, 
 just, and good, to the recognition and worship of him as 
 the Father, of whom and to whom are all things. And 
 so we conclude where we began, by repeating that as 
 Universalists, " To us there is but one God, the Father." 
 
HUMAN NATURE. 23 
 
 HUMAN NATURE, ITS CAPABILITIES. 
 
 BY J. H. TUTTLE, D.D. 
 
 'T^HE oracle who, when asked by Chilo, " What is of 
 "^ all things the best?" answered, "Know thyself," 
 might have made the same reply if the question had been, 
 "What is of all things the most difficult?" And yet as 
 there is nothing with which we have lived longer, nor on 
 more intimate terms, than with ourself, what ought we to 
 know more thoroughly? But this neaxness to the prime 
 object of knowledge is perhaps one of the causes of our 
 ignorance, since we are apt to suppose the most interest- 
 ing things are farthest off. Curiosity is dulled by constant 
 contact with its object. " We take more notice of other 
 ships than of the one on which we are sailing." 
 
 Besides, the conditions under which the mind appre- 
 hends its o\vn states and powers render self-knowledge, 
 difficult ; for in this case the knower and the things to 
 be known are the same. To obtain self-knowledge it 
 seems to be necessary that the knowing faculty should be 
 capable of detaching itself partially, for the moment, from 
 other parts of the mind, and holding them off in favorable 
 
24 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 perspective ; and how is such a mental feat possible ? Were 
 they intellectually endowed, how could the ocean report 
 its own ebb ' and flow, and the clock describe its own 
 mechanism? However, "that the soul does know itself," 
 says President Porter, "and confides in the knowledge 
 thus attained, will be acknowledged by every one." How 
 this is accomplished is not for us, but for the metaphysician 
 and psychologist, to ascertain. The above author says 
 also, " No real knowledge of the soul is gained except by 
 turning the gaze inward." The qualities and powers of 
 human nature are such, of course, as we find to be com- 
 mon to mankind ; that is, such as we have discovered, 
 first in ourselves, and afterwards met with everywhere in 
 the world about us. Certain other persons who have the 
 rare gift of interpretation and of expression may describe 
 our thoughts and feelings better than we ; but we must 
 first know what they are, before we can be sure they are 
 described correctly. " Come," said the Samaritan woman, 
 " see a man which told me all things that I ever did : is 
 not this the Christ? " He held the mirror up before her ; 
 she saw the reflection and recognized herself. Shakspeare, 
 the most marvellous of all uninspired delineators in this 
 department of knowledge, sketches little for us that we 
 have not experienced ; and because we have experienced 
 it, we know it to be the truth. He addresses us intelli- 
 gently, because he writes out of himself. 
 
HUMAN NATURE. 25 
 
 Comprehensively, human nature is Man — Man in his 
 several parts, and in his sum total. Hence a mighty task 
 is assigned to him who is asked to make but the simplest 
 diagram of the subject before us. Only a few outlines 
 are possible, in any ordinary space : the sketch might 
 be suggestive, if properly drawTi ; the filling up must be 
 left to the intelhgent reader. 
 
 Foremost among the characteristics of human nature 
 is its Oneness. 
 
 The statement of Paul to the Athenians from the sum- 
 mit of the Areopagus, that God " hath made of one blood 
 all nations of men," is abundantly verified by facts col- 
 lected from the history of mankind. The reports from 
 all quarters of the globe, and from all ages of the world, 
 touching this matter, form a mass of concurrent testimony 
 favoring the doctrine of a common human brotherhood 
 too formidable to be resisted by any but the most scepti- 
 cal. It does not seem important, so far as this doctrine 
 is concerned, whether the human race originated in one 
 pair or in several pairs ; nor whether the evolution theory 
 be correct, — since the universal identity of blood might 
 have been preserved in either case. We have but one 
 Father, whatever may have been the process, or processes, 
 which brought us into being. The Divine energy from 
 which we sprang, however remote or however near in its 
 beginning, and however much it may have separated and 
 
2 6 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 meandered in those intervals preceding our conscious ex- 
 istence, could have had but one source. This is evident, 
 since human nature everywhere presents one organism, 
 one schedule of wants, tendencies, properties, and desires. 
 Whether we touch humanity in Asia, Africa, Europe, or 
 America, we touch the same thing. A thin alluvium of 
 individualism covers each one of us, but beneath is the 
 primitive rock on which we were all built. The external 
 differences, — such as complexion, language, habits, pur- 
 suits, and even the slight modifications of physical form 
 which occur through the influence of climate and manner 
 of living, — are not human nature, any more than the hat 
 and clothes a man wears are the man himself. We have 
 the authority of the author of Locksley Hall for saying, — 
 
 ** In the spring, a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast ; 
 In the spring, the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest," — 
 
 but this donning of brighter vernal costumes does not 
 interfere with the internal character of these birds. The 
 enlarged thyroid gland observed among certain Swiss 
 peasantry has not separated its unfortunate wearers from 
 the brotherhood of neighboring folk, who by a more favor- 
 able locality have escaped this physical infliction. Nor 
 are the mental, social, moral, and religious diversities ex- 
 hibited, proof against the oneness of human nature ; since 
 these also are produced by corresponding differences of 
 
HUMAN NATURE. 27 
 
 locality, education, opportunities for culture, &c. That 
 which stunted the body of the Labrador Indian induced 
 at the same time a dwarfing of his intellect. The cir- 
 cumstances which placed the Feejee on his South Sea 
 island, kept him from opportunities which might have 
 given him the culture and poUsh of a son of Harvard 
 College. Chronology and Geography together can ac- 
 count for much of the difference between the Fetichism 
 of certain African tribes and the Christianity of New 
 England. If certain low tribes of people have been dis- 
 covered (as is alleged) by Lubbock and others, in whom 
 traits of character generally considered essential to hu- 
 man nature appear to be wanting, — such, for instance, as 
 morality, rehgion, a perception of right and wrong, — we 
 suggest, in reply to this, that these are simply cases where 
 the attributes referred to are still latent. Some plants do 
 not blossom until the second or third year, — the Century 
 plant, as its name indicates, until after a great number of 
 years, — but the germ of the flower is present from the start. 
 Modern facilities for travel, for becoming acquainted 
 with foreign countries, have awakened an immense interest 
 in Ethnology and Ethnography, and opened a way also 
 for comparing one people with another, both as they 
 now appear, and have appeared, since the earliest records ; 
 and the result, we feel safe in saying, has been a complete 
 surprise to most persons, in the parallels, likenesses, and 
 
28 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 even samenesses it shows. The mass of relics gathered 
 from the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh, from Egyptian 
 tombs, from the ashes of Pompeii, from Ilium and Cyprus, 
 and from Indian mounds in America, prove, when com- 
 pared with things now in use, to have been constructed 
 and employed by peoples who lived and thought, enjoyed 
 and suffered, loved and hated, very much as the present 
 inhabitants of the earth do. The kitchens in Herculaneum 
 were hung with utensils our modern house-servants might 
 readily recognize. Diomede's children played with toys 
 our juveniles are familiar with. The courts of Sennach- 
 erib, the halls of Sardanapalus, suggest that these Assyrian 
 monarchs were cast in the same mould with the present 
 rulers of Turkey and Egypt. The personal ornaments of 
 which Helen and Andromache were proud, would seem 
 hardly out of place in the modern boudoir of a French 
 or Spanish queen. 
 
 The oneness of human nature is indicated also in the 
 common interest of mankind in the same literature, senti- 
 ments, appeals to passion, and the hke. The legends, 
 stories, proverbs, poetic conceptions, current among any 
 people now, seem to have originated in kindred sources, 
 to have descended from remote periods, and to have 
 drifted about always as universal property. 
 
 Investigations in Philology demonstrate a vast and inti- 
 mate fellowship of languages. Various nations come for- 
 
HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 29 
 
 ward to share in the originality of nearly every invention. 
 Every great thought has so many claimants that the wisest 
 chancery of critics is puzzled to decide to whom it be- 
 longs. We imagine we have at last hit upon a new idea, 
 but some erudite Cesnoli by and by drags it forth from the 
 dust of centuries, and offers it to a museum of intellectual 
 antiquities. So the world ever " hums the old well-known 
 air through innumerable variations." 
 
 "Speak your latest conviction," says Emerson, "and it 
 shall be the universal sense." Dante wrote this " universal 
 sense " in his poems ; Shakspeare in his plays ; Dickens in 
 his novels ; even Howard Payne in his " Sweet Home." 
 Raphael painted it in his Madonnas ; Angelo carved it 
 in stone. The author of Oliver Twist gathered his char- 
 acters from the streets of London, but they answer as well 
 for New York or Boston. The perfume of the pudding 
 at Bob Cratchit's Christmas dinner is not more like the 
 flavored effervescence which rises from our tables on this 
 festival day, than the human nature of Dickens's books is 
 like human nature all over the world. The passions which 
 appear on the stage of any really classical romance, act 
 the life of universal humanity; and universal humanity 
 applauds or condemns. 
 
 What hopes are to be based on the oneness of human 
 nature ? Why should we desire to beUeve this doctrine 
 rather than the opposite ? 
 
30 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 If assured of the oneness of human nature, we always 
 know exactly, no matter where we meet mankind, what 
 we have to deal with ; that is, we know we are dealing 
 always with the same thing, and that what is predicated 
 of one portion of the race may be of another. If human 
 nature be one, then one key unlocks all hearts. The 
 same ethics, the same religion, the same methods of educa- 
 tion, answer for all ; the same Saviour may save all. To 
 handle one mind is to have caught the secret of managing 
 the masses. To elevate one soul is to have begun a 
 process which, if wisely applied and perseveringly con- 
 tinued, must lift society finally to its proper place. As he 
 himself, the chief of sinners, had been saved, Paul saw 
 the way was clear for saving his fellow-race ; for, placed 
 in the same range with " all men," the influences which 
 were sweeping him toward heaven must carry them along 
 also. The oneness of human nature could hardly have 
 escaped his attention when he wrote : " There is one 
 body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope 
 of your calling : one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism ; one 
 God and Father of all." It is as much a mistake to sup- 
 pose Christianity was a new religion, as to suppose human 
 nature was changed at Christ's birth. Externally the 
 Mosaic and Christian dispensations differed; internally 
 they were identical : Love was the essence of both. Love 
 is an eternal principle in God, and appeals to an eternal 
 faculty in man : to a universal faculty also. 
 
HUMAN NATURE. 3 1 
 
 We reason from the oneness of human nature that 
 what the most advanced man, or most advanced nation, 
 has attained is attainable by all men and all nations. 
 Paul, Marcus Aurelius, Milton, Luther, Agassiz, and thou- 
 sands of other geniuses whose names shine in the galaxy 
 of history, were endowed with no faculties which God has 
 not given to every one of his children : they grew out 
 of the soil in which all men have been planted. We each 
 shared in the inexpressible pride and delight resulting 
 from an examination of the Exposition at Philadelphia, 
 because we felt that it was the fruit of forces common to 
 us all ; we turned away from the magnificent spectacle, 
 even the humblest of us, with new faith in man, and there- 
 fore with new faith in ourselves ; with new resolves to 
 apply ourselves more earnestly in a world of such universal 
 gifts. Emerson calls attention to the remark of some one 
 who said : " When I read Homer, all men seem like giants." 
 Might he not have added : " When I read Homer, I my- 
 self feel like a giant"? There is, indeed, an enormous 
 interval between the most ignorant and most learned man ; 
 but time and opportunity may cancel it. 
 
 If human nature be one in its origin, it is likely to be 
 one in its destiny. Beginning in unity, why should it not 
 continue so for ever ? It seems to have been planned to 
 remain eternally inseparable. Its parts interpenetrate each 
 other to such an extent, are so interwoven, interlocked. 
 
32 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 and even welded, that to dispart it is to ruin it. If a ship- 
 builder, while building his vessel, were to contemplate the 
 loss of a large portion of it during its voyage, he would 
 naturally constmct it in such a way that the part to be 
 submerged and lost might go down without taking the 
 rest with it ; and hence, having bound every part as 
 securely as possible to every other part, making the whole 
 a solid, compact unit of timber and iron and cordage, 
 we unavoidably conclude he designed it to remain so, 
 whatever storms it might encounter or whatever wrench- 
 ings it might receive, — that it should go into its destined 
 port intact. Thus, if it clearly appear that God made the 
 human race a solidarity, formed such a close fellowship 
 of souls, of families, and nations, that dismembering it is 
 destroying it, how can we doubt that he intended one 
 destiny for it ? We have all embarked on the same ship, 
 and if one end of our ship sinks in endless perdition the 
 other end must follow, since the Almighty has prepared 
 against any break in the middle. The larger portion of 
 the passengers may perhaps occupy the steerage, and be 
 reckoned as second class ; nevertheless, the wave that 
 sweeps them out to their death must wreck the cabin also, 
 even the officers' rooms. 
 
 The laws of our individual being, and of society, com- 
 pel us to seek the happiness of our fellow-men in order 
 to secure our own. Parents cannot, if they would, sepa- 
 
HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 2>Z 
 
 rate their own and their children's interests ; nor can 
 brothers and sisters be indifferent to each other's welfare 
 without inflicting harm on themselves. This heavenly 
 ordained co-partnership of the family holds, although in 
 a less palpable form perhaps, in the world at large. No 
 nation can rise \\ithout lifting, more or less, other nations 
 with it ; none can fall without pulling others down with it. 
 While we are writing, the French people are opening 
 in Paris, with all possible edat, the seventh World's Fair ; 
 and this is being done in apparent indifference to the 
 fact that neighboring nations, some of them, are engaged 
 in preparations of a bloody sort : but it requires only 
 a moment's reflection to discover that the splendid 
 scenes transpiring on the F/ace of the Champ de Mars 
 must lack their full measure of glory from the want of 
 that sympathy and co-operation they would have re- 
 ceived, but for the distractions caused by the threatening 
 attitudes of England and Russia toward each other. The 
 awful shadow of war spreading across Europe throws 
 into partial eclipse that royal pageant of industry and 
 art ; and its lesson, sad though it be in the main, will 
 have at least one encouraging feature, if it shall teach the 
 multitudes assembled at the Exposition to remember 
 henceforth that Europe, as well as every other family 
 of nations, must rise or fall together ; that war curses, 
 and peace blesses, the whole land, be it never so wide. 
 
 3 
 
34 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSAL ISM. 
 
 The agitating questions of national diplomacy continually 
 rising between governments, the important and difficult 
 tasks laid upon consuls and ministers plenipotentiary, 
 show that these governments are united by indissoluble 
 ties, and that £ Pluribiis Unum might rationally be 
 adopted as a universal motto. 
 
 The American people might have thought, at first, that 
 it had been offered a rare opportunity to indulge in 
 national selfishness, since it had found and settled upon 
 a comparatively isolated continent, with the prospect of 
 continuing undisturbed by other and less favored popu- 
 lations ; but no sooner was its success apparent, than 
 there were sent to it multitudes from every kingdom, 
 monarchy, and empire of the Old World, bringing with 
 them so much poverty, and such adverse politics and 
 religions, that they threatened to overburden and destroy 
 the new attempt to establish a republican government. 
 But it has done no good to complain. We cannot shake 
 off foreigners if we try ; and we ought not to wish to do 
 it. God has ordered that our chance shall be the 
 chance of all who please to come ; that our spare acres 
 shall make homes for them \ that our institutions shall 
 educate, foster, and protect them ; that we shall be one. 
 So it has happened that the nation which calls itself most 
 independent is least so ; that its ballot-box is besieged 
 by the ignorance and superstition of every country on 
 
HUMAN NATURE. 35 
 
 earth ; that its quiet Puritan Sabbath is broken in upon by 
 noisy crowds and brass-bands. Let it be so. God is teach- 
 ing us how to practise our doctrine of a common brother- 
 hood. He is showing us that we cannot enter the paradise 
 of freedom without taking the world along with us. 
 
 This universal solidarity providentially forced upon 
 mankind in the present world, must continue in the 
 world to come. If families, neighborhoods, nations, walk 
 arm in arm here, and cannot, even when they would, 
 break away entirely from one another, what shall separate 
 them there, where union and affection is of infinitely 
 more account? If it be said it is inconceivable how 
 the righteous can be happy in the future life, except 
 they be permitted to withdraw by themselves, to sepa- 
 rate themselves from any association, or sympathy or in- 
 terest with the opposite class, we reply that it is more 
 inconceivable how they can desire heaven on such 
 conditions, since it is the very essence of righteousness, 
 as well as of pure human nature, to labor and suffer 
 for the unrighteous. We never knew a person who, 
 in the exercise of his highest manhood, asked or ex- 
 pected or desired to be relieved from the sight and 
 thought of his suffering fellow-men. Howard voluntarily 
 spent his time in visiting and helping the \\Tetched 
 inmates of prisons ; and if there had been any Lethe in 
 which he could have dropped his weary body and for- 
 
36 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 gotten the misery he sought to alleviate, he would have 
 scorned the offer of its waters. And can we imagine this 
 noble philanthropist so changed as to be content in a 
 heaven which maintains its existence by selfishly ignoring 
 the woes of the lost ? " Remember them that are in 
 bonds as bound with them." "The exclusive in fash- 
 ionable life," says Emerson, " does not see that he 
 excludes himself from enjoyment in the attempt to 
 appropriate it. The exclusionist in religion does not see 
 that he shuts the door of heaven on himself in striving to 
 shut out others." There is but one privilege greater 
 than rejoicing with those who rejoice, — which is to weep 
 with those who weep. To suffer with the suffering, to 
 aid them, to hope for their prosperity, constitute a large 
 part of our o\\ti blessedness ; hence by the law of our 
 own being, and by the law of the Gospel, a perfect 
 heaven here or hereafter is impossible, except it include 
 all mankind. There will, we trust, be less need and less 
 material for a Chinese wall of selfishness in the next life 
 than in this. 
 
 " Is heaven so high 
 
 That pity cannot breathe its air ? 
 Its happy eyes for ever dry, 
 
 Its holy lips without a prayer! 
 My God ! My God ! if thither led 
 
 By thy free grace unmerited, 
 No crown nor palm be mine, but let me keep 
 A heart that still can feel, and eyes that still can weep," 
 
HUMAN NATURE. 37 
 
 Human nature is not absolute but relative ; therefore 
 its potentialities, whatever they may be, do not lie wholly 
 in itself. We cannot judge of its capabilities in any elab- 
 orate sense except in connection with its surroundings ; 
 and with the Divine nature in which it was born, and 
 by which it is sustained, taught, and controlled. Man 
 naturally loves, hence must have objects on which to 
 bestow his love; and these objects, according to their 
 nature and power, must benefit or injure, enlarge or dwarf 
 him. He has a conscience; he has religious faculties, 
 — and these suggest a Supreme Being to whom he is 
 accountable, and whose child he is. What he is, there- 
 fore, especially what he is to be, cannot be fully ascertained 
 by studying his own inherent powers, since these are 
 and must always continue to be subject to circumstances, 
 to hmitations imposed on them by their Creator. The 
 statue of Moses in the San Pietro in Vinculi, at Rome, 
 reveals both the excellent quality of the rock from which 
 it was carved and the consummate skill of the sculptor ; 
 without the other, neither could have been. A flaw in 
 the marble would have foiled the purpose of the artist, 
 while the most perfect block could never have been 
 transformed into such a grand symmetrical figure by a 
 less skilful chisel than Angelo's. Human nature is a 
 quarry ; God is the infinite artist through whose hands the 
 rough blocks are to pass : the question, then, as to the 
 
38 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 capabilities of man, as to his future, is held in abeyance 
 to the design of God in reference to them. 
 
 Our illustration, however, should not be understood 
 as implying that man is as passive in the hands of God 
 as the marble before the sculptor. Man is endowed with 
 wonderful faculties ; with power to will, to think, and to 
 act. He is impelled onward and upward by internal for- 
 ces, by his own thoughts, feelings, and desires ; but these, 
 to be effective, must be met, stimulated, enlightened, and 
 guided by divine influences. Paul set forth both sides of 
 this truth when he wrote : " Work out your own salvation 
 with fear and trembling ; for it is God that worketh in 
 you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." We 
 are not machines ; we are not inanimate stones ; and yet 
 we should be little better, did not God work in us and 
 with us. 
 
 Time also stands in responsible relation to the capa- 
 bilities of human nature. The geologist asks for time to 
 account for, and to explain, the history of the earth. We 
 require this same factor to solve the problem of man's 
 power and destiny. His nature is at first " without form, 
 and void," as the world was ; and not until the " spirit of 
 God " has moved over its deep possibilities, does it 
 emerge into visible being, and take its proper form and 
 beauty. Its days, like the days of the Creation, need to 
 be stretched into indefinite periods. Measureless ages 
 
HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 39 
 
 intervene between the beginning and the perfecting. The 
 first human pair, whoever, wherever, or whenever they 
 were, had in them the germs of all the race has since 
 become ; but it required uncounted generations for these 
 seeds to grow and yield the rich har\'ests of our present 
 civilization. Hence the argument, had there been any, 
 held over those incipient souls regarding their latent 
 powers, would have had but insignificant ground to stand 
 on, without taking into account the interminable future ; 
 and without following in imagination the stream of moral 
 and mental activities starting in these nascent faculties, 
 in their ever widening, ever deepening, channel down to 
 the remotest ages. And if the forces which produced 
 a Bacon or a Washington began in the least of the 
 infusoria, or in a still earlier infinitesimal particle of 
 protoplasm or bioplasm, as some scientists afiirm, the 
 necessity of an Infinite intelligence to superintend the 
 process leading to such far off and mighty results is 
 immensely enhanced ; while we have a still more striking 
 illustration of the part Time plays in the drama of human 
 progress. 
 
 We are permitted to have a tolerably adequate compre- 
 hension of what man has already accomplished. The 
 fruits of his past existence are before us ; we may count 
 up the successes of separate minds, and of the combined 
 race ; and if these fruits as a whole are not satisfactory, 
 
40 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 it is only because our ideal of what man is capable, and 
 should have done, is very exalted. Every one will at 
 least confess to considerable pride at the magnitude of 
 certain individual attainments. No one thinks of Moses, 
 Plato, Paul, Galileo, Columbus, Lincoln, without pleas- 
 urable wonder that they could have achieved so much ; 
 and could we hope that all men will finally ascend to such 
 heights of knowledge and usefulness, our joy and grati- 
 fication would be complete. And why should we lack 
 this assurance, while all the factors necessary to produce 
 it are present, — namely, God, Human Nature, and Time ? 
 God supplies the awakening power, the light, the oppor- 
 unity ; Human Nature the unlimited material to work 
 upon and with ; Time the necessary space in which to 
 effect these results. Hence there is ground for believ- 
 ing that the whole race will finally be brought up to the 
 highest mark yet reached by the greatest mind. There 
 is more probability now that all men will become Ba- 
 cons intellectually, and St. Johns morally and spiritually, 
 than there was once that one man would ever become 
 a Bacon or a St. John. What could have taxed human 
 credulity more severely than the promise of the printing- 
 press, the steam-engine, the telegraph, and last, and most 
 wonderful of all, the phonograph? Are we to halt in 
 our hope of human nature after what we have seen? 
 Are not man's capabilities absolutely unlimited? "The 
 
HUMAN NATURE. 4 1 
 
 height of the pinnacle is determined by the breadth of 
 the base." The knowledge we have that Jesus has 
 aheady saved miUions, makes the beUef easier to us (or 
 ought to) than it was to the disciples that he will " draw 
 all men " unto him. 
 
 Man shows in his constitution that he was formed for 
 truth ; and truth, in its fitness to man, shows that it was 
 formed for him. Together they are every thing ; apart 
 they are nothing. To bring them together is the mission 
 of all the teachers God sends into the world. " Plato," 
 says Hamilton, " defines man ' a hunter after truth.' " He 
 hunts after it because he hungers for it, as the body hun- 
 gers for food. He " scents it " through faculties given him 
 for that purpose ; and through the same and other faculties 
 he experiences pleasure in pursuing it ; and after finding it 
 and enjoying it, he doubles his delight by communicating 
 it to others. In this way, God enhances the certainty of 
 the universal diffusion of truth ; that is, by blessing both 
 teacher and pupil, searcher and bringer, hearer and 
 preacher. 
 
 " Does not the eye in the human embryo predict the 
 light?" So do our faculties as they exist here predict 
 immortality. This world does not, cannot, satisfy us. 
 Goethe's last words were, " More light ! " A distinguished 
 American statesman, far advanced in years, died while 
 reading (and understandingly) one of Bacon's essays, the 
 
42 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 ponderous volume he was holding, falling on his breast as 
 a solemn sign that life had fled. Now did this mind 
 thirsting for knowledge till the last, delighted till the last 
 in the masterly exercise of thought, pass out of existence 
 with the breath of the body? Michael Angelo grew in 
 intellectual strength as he grew in years ; he began and 
 finished the mightiest work of his life after he was eighty ; 
 and when, finally, as he was nearing his ninetieth birth- 
 day, the call came for him to depart, he had his chisel in 
 his hand still, and was planning for other achievements 
 like those which had already filled the world with his 
 fame. He had outlived all his companions in art ; he 
 had built for hirAself a greater monument than any papal 
 mausoleum ; had risen until he stood where he had no 
 peer in the admiration and affection of his countrymen : 
 and yet he was as unsatisfied as ever, as anxious to learn 
 and to do as ever. Were not such powers, retaining 
 their ambition and vigor up to the moment of death, 
 prophetic of larger opportunities and higher rewards 
 beyond ? 
 
 " Create in me a clean heart, O God ! and renew a 
 right spirit within me. Wash me thoroughly from mine 
 iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." Is not this 
 prayer of the Psalmist the prayer of human nature ? Does 
 not human nature love moral cleanness ? 
 
 We anticipate unfavorable answers from many quarters 
 
HUMAN NATURE. 43 
 
 to these questions. There is so much uncleanness in the 
 world, and so many persons seem content to live in it ; 
 inherited and acquired depravity abounds so universally ; 
 resistance to holiness is so frequent and so decided, — that 
 the impression is naturally prevalent that sin is man's 
 normal condition ; that he accepts it willingly, breathes it 
 as his native air, revels in it mth delight. Plausible as 
 this theory is ; fortified as it is by profound learning and 
 earnest piety, — we suggest that a mistake has been made 
 in regarding the immoral and vicious habits men have 
 fallen into as parts of human nature. But how have they 
 fallen into these habits, if not from an internal tendency 
 to sin ? They succumbed at first through weakness, but 
 not through total depravity. There were always moral 
 instincts which rebelled against the fall, but they were 
 overcome. " Now," says Paul, " if I do that I would not, 
 it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." 
 Sin dwells in human nature, and controls it often ; vitiates 
 its energies, even its will and its motives : but it is no part 
 of its organism. Hamilton quotes Bacon as saying, 
 "Man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds." This 
 seems to be true ; but the herbs are indigenous, the 
 weeds exotic. God sows the "good seed " in the laws 
 and functions of the soul ; " an enemy " comes after- 
 wards, and sows " tares." 
 
 There was never a human body so depraved in its 
 
44 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 habits as not to delight in the bath ; faces and hands can 
 hardly be found so soiled as not to say, "Wash me ! " 
 So there is always a moral feeling in the natural soul 
 which prays, " Cleanse me from my sins ! " And this 
 proves that sin is not constitutional ; that we were formed 
 with reference to a Hfe of purity ; that the original powers 
 of our nature look toward holiness. There is in us what 
 Matthew Arnold has called "instinctive perfection," and 
 which, he adds, " is the master power in humanity." This 
 power however, to be complete master, needs the assist- 
 ance of the Holy Spirit. Human nature is incapable of 
 saving itself; hence a Saviour has been provided for it. 
 "We shall all agree," says President Porter, "in this ; 
 that man is a moral being, and as such possesses all the 
 endowments which are requisite for responsible activity. 
 He is personal and free. He assents to the excellence 
 of duty upon himself, and he imposes duty on himself as 
 the supreme law of his inner and outward activity." We 
 have, then, only to premise that human nature will re- 
 main the same in the future world ; that it will continue 
 eternally "personal and free ; " that the mission of Christ, 
 and of the Holy Spirit, will also extend into the future 
 world, — to believe in the ultimate salvation of mankind. 
 
SIN AND ITS SEQUENCES. 45 
 
 SIN AND ITS SEQUENCES. 
 
 BY G. H. EMERSON, D.D. 
 
 TN the discussion of topics essentially ethical, the diffi- 
 cult task is not so much in elucidation as in definition. 
 Perhaps we should come nearer to a precise statement, 
 were we to say that the substantial part of the elucidation 
 is in a process of definition. A clear and firm apprehen- 
 sion of the peculiarities of the topic, — one that is in no 
 danger of confounding those peculiarities with other mat- 
 ters, — is often all that discussion need aim at. The 
 reader who has been put in possession of the real topic, 
 and who has been qualified to hold it without insensibly 
 changing any part of it for other things which though re- 
 sembling phases of the topic are yet not identical with 
 them, may in most cases be trusted to work his own way 
 towards the conclusions which are logically involved. 
 Definition therefore is, we are strongly persuaded, the 
 chief business of this chapter. 
 
 That evil thing whereof we are now to trace the se- 
 quences, many readers will presume must at this date be 
 
46 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 beyond the possibility of misapprehension. That thing is 
 personal with everybody. We all feel it and suffer from 
 it. Can there be a doubt as to its essential nature ? In 
 regard to that nature, can there be a real difference of 
 opinion — we may rather say of experience ? Surely, that 
 against which law-giver, prophet, evangelist, and preacher 
 have for centuries declaimed ; that which Christ came to 
 destroy, and in the destruction of which souls are saved 
 and glorified ; that which has been the theme of constant 
 explanation since the disobedience in Eden, — surely, 
 that cannot need a definition now : so it may be thought. 
 We are not to presume that the Gospel is revealed against 
 an ambiguity. 
 
 Assuredly, particular cases of sinfulness seldom need 
 much definition. With Paul and Felix, with Marcus 
 Aurelius and Nero, with Borgia and F^n^lon before us, 
 we can never have a doubt as to which are good and 
 which are evil. Personal examples of sin to be under- 
 stood need but to be seen. But when we are compelled 
 to consider the sin apart from the sinful person, the diffi- 
 culty in apprehension becomes most real, and the danger 
 of mistake constant. That which in the concrete is 
 plain to the way-faring and the simple, in the abstract tests 
 the acuteness of thinking and the accuracy of definition. 
 Wicked Felix confuses nobody. The wickedness of 
 Felix — or that which is its essential equivalent — has 
 
SIN AND ITS SEQUENCES. 47 
 
 been the subject of analysis and explication for centuries ; 
 and the octavos devoted to the definition would make a 
 library. 
 
 Does it occur to any reader to complain that we are 
 prolonging an introduction ? We earnestly submit that the 
 introduction is but in form ; in truth, we are at the heart 
 of our subject. And no insignificant part of the task we 
 have in hand is already accomplished, provided we are 
 successful in firmly impressing the point that sin considered 
 as an entity — as something apart from the person who sins 
 — zs an abstraction. The very word sin is a figure ; it does 
 not hterally but only metaphorically recognize a reality. 
 This reality is not a thing properly called sin, but rather 
 a person in the act of sinning. The poverty of language, 
 its very limited capability for making literal statements, 
 which necessitates the figurative method of abstracting the 
 sin from the sinner, and the treating of it as if it were an 
 entity (which in fact it cannot be), is radically misleading 
 where it accustoms the mind to regard it as a something 
 in itself. The " sin of the world " does not mean a mass 
 of wicked stuff, analogous to the mountains of ice which 
 surround the poles. The thing always meant is that of a 
 responsible person choosing and acting badly, when the 
 ability and the opportunity for choosing and acting virtu- 
 ously are given. And we repeat and would emphasize the 
 position, that the reader who has become guarded against 
 
48 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 the misapprehension we have described, so far from stand- 
 ing on the portals of our theme, has made no inconsider- 
 able advance within its gates. We should add that the 
 method of treating our subject, which compels us to ab- 
 stract the sin from the sinner and present it as if it had 
 a separate existence, is nothing peculiar to ethical disqui- 
 sition. It is the method of the physicist, who in discours- 
 ing upon color abstracts the red or the blue from the 
 thing that is red or blue ; who if sound is his topic does 
 in the very statement of the subject present the abstrac- 
 tion and not the thing. 
 
 The metaphysical substratum on which a definition of 
 sin rests, — which raises questions as to the seat of the 
 evil, whether in desire, in volition, in motive, or in combi- 
 nations of these ; and questions which bring somewhat 
 discordant answers, — need not here be considered. For- 
 tunately, it answers our present purpose to begin at a stage 
 much nearer easy apprehension, and where the wiser au- 
 thorities are in substantial agreement. Whatever diversi- 
 ties of belief there may be back of or prior to the follow- 
 ing position, we are confident that the position itself will 
 provoke no dissent : Sin appears when a person, having 
 the ability afid the opportunity to choose a?id act upon the 
 known good, freely chooses ajid acts up07i the knowJt evil. 
 To every person of moral and religious accountability, the 
 known good, the entirety of righteousness, includes as its 
 
SIN AND ITS SEQUENCES. 49 
 
 root and substance that which has been proclaimed with 
 authority, — the love of God and the love of man ; and to 
 every such person the known evil includes for root and 
 substance the converse, which is hate ; and it has the au- 
 thoritative elucidation, " He that hateth his brother is 
 a murderer." 
 
 In modem and philosophic phraseology, the vitality of 
 sin is in the attitude of disobedience towards God, — the 
 heart's refusal to yield to his known will. We say that 
 the vitality, the qualitative spirit, of sin is in this attitude 
 of the heart. Locate this disobedience where you may, 
 — in desire, volition, proclivity, motive, intent, — the dis- 
 obedience is the " original " sin. It is therefore true that 
 he who really loves his Maker and his fellow creatures is 
 morally good, even though because of lack of ability or 
 of opportunity, he fails to express that love in any overt 
 act or form. And so he that hates is sinful, even though 
 because of circumstance or inability his hate never gets 
 beyond the simple feeling, never manifests itself in a cor- 
 responding audible or tangible act. But it rarely hap- 
 pens that a person is wholly bereft of opportunity to act 
 as he feels ; and therefore it rarely happens that the wiU 
 can be taken for the deed. When possible, the good deed 
 must follow, or there is no good intent ; and the evil deed 
 will follow, or there is no evil intent. 
 
 If in the generahty of cases there were nothing in- 
 
 4 
 
50 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 volved save the feeling, — that of love or that of its con- 
 verse, — it would take but a paragraph to dispose of the 
 question of sequence. But here comes the momentous 
 consideration which at once complicates, extends, and 
 enriches our theme : Every moral person has 7?iariy a?id 
 diversified relations alike to God and his fellows. It is 
 along the lines of these relationships that duties and respon- 
 sibilities nm. In every way, in every regard, in which 
 the love of God and man has opportunity, at least occa- 
 sion, to put itself into overt act, the duty to do so is im- 
 perative ; and the ^\dlful refusal so to act, the wilful doing 
 of the things which are contrary thereto, is sin. Chris- 
 tianity is .not neglectful to connect the heart's feeling with 
 the possible corresponding act. It is not enough that we 
 profess love for the hungry and naked brother ; we must 
 also manifest that love in a discreet, yet real, ministering 
 to his needs. To say : Be ye warmed and be ye filled, 
 notwithstanding that we give not the things which are 
 needful thereto, profits nothing. The apostle in this gives 
 both the metaphysics and the physics of the substance of 
 sin. The love in the heart, the impulsion in the motive, 
 the intent in the will (by whatever form of words we 
 choose to express the one and same thing), includes the 
 possible and perceived outward act : it includes this as 
 essentially, organically, imperatively related, blending in 
 the unit of righteousness both the attitude of the heart 
 and the responsive action of the hand. 
 
SIN AND ITS SEQUENCES. 51 
 
 The details of the moral relationships of man to his 
 fellows and to his Maker — grand and almost numberless 
 in the specialties of duty and of prudential regulation — 
 belong to and make the subject-matter of Moral Science. 
 We are not called upon here to give in any degree the 
 enumeration or the explication. But we can in no partic- 
 ular advance our subject unless we emphasize and render 
 constantly distinct the position that such specialties and 
 regulations are real. The lungs are not more rigidly and 
 vitally related to the atmosphere which they inhale, than 
 is the soul of man — in its sympathies, affections, and 
 obligations — related to the weal of other members of the 
 race, and also to the ordinances of God. The body of 
 humanity, whereof each person is but a lively member, is 
 but a recognition in metaphor of the essential unity of all 
 of human kind. Obedience is an act bearing not more 
 upon self than upon others ; and often upon self mainly as 
 it affects the weal of others. The moral nature, whence 
 emanates love going forth into tangible expression, gives 
 the bond of society, — literally makes society : it furnishes 
 that which makes society peculiar, as distinct from and 
 superior to the gregarious companionship of the lower ani- 
 mals. Hence, social obligations are as real as self-obliga- 
 tions. And we directly touch the specialty of our topic, 
 up to which we have now worked our way, when we add : 
 As it is in the neglect or infringement, both in feeling and 
 
52 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 in deed, of the duties which inhere in our self, social, and 
 divine relationships that sin has its genesis and quaUty ; 
 so it is in the operations of those neglects and infringe- 
 ments, along the varying and ramifying lines of the 
 several relationships, that sift finds its sequences. 
 
 Still it is definition, yet we trust pertinent matter, and 
 we ask. What are we to understand by sequences ? Un- 
 questionably sequences are effects ; but they do not in- 
 clude every effect. We pursue our theme by attaching to 
 the term sequence that particular kind of effect which is 
 invariable, organic, constitutional, having its operation in 
 the nature of the case. Effects that are contingent on 
 accident, incident, or fortuitous circumstance, — which 
 may happen once and never be repeated; which have 
 their potentiality less in their cause than in the peculiari- 
 ties of condition, — are not sequents. This radical differ- 
 ence we must endeavor to make clear. 
 
 The story goes that a blacksmith was a moment be- 
 hind the time of his promise in shoeing a horse. It thence 
 followed that a messenger riding upon that horse was 
 a moment late in delivering a military order. It next 
 followed that the general in command fought under unfa- 
 voring conditions a battle which his superior had coun- 
 termanded. Next in the order of results the army was 
 destroyed. The issue of this calamity was the destruction 
 of the nation. The last effect named in the story was a 
 
SIN AND ITS SEQUENCES. 53 
 
 change in the course of subsequent history. The black- 
 smith's failure was the initial cause. In succession came 
 the six effects, — the messenger's delay, the fighting of the 
 battle, the defeat, the nation's ruin, the course of history 
 changed. These six results were indeed effects ; did they 
 were not sequences. 
 
 Another story has familiar constituents. A man cast a 
 kernel of com into good soil, where it took root and sprang 
 up, first, the blade ; second, the ear ; third, the full corn in 
 the ear. The germinating seed is the initial act and cause. 
 In successive order came the three effects, — the blade, 
 the ear, the full com. These were effects : they were 
 also sequences. 
 
 The characteristic of a fixed organic connection between 
 each stage of the development and that immediately pre- 
 ceding, as also that immediately succeeding, very sharply 
 separates the kind of effects given in the second story from 
 the kind given in the first. Between a blacksmith's fail- 
 ure to make good his promise and the delivery of a mili- 
 tary order, there is no organic connection. If to-morrow 
 a thousand blacksmiths should do the same thing, it is not 
 likely that in any case the delay of a message to the gen- 
 eral of an army would be a result ; and it is morally cer- 
 tain that no loss of an army or fall of empire would be a 
 further issue. All the issues given in the story were con- 
 tingent upon conditions purely arbitrary, and such as may 
 
54 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 never be repeated. But of the effects named in the sec- 
 ond example, we may literally apply the apostolic pledge : 
 " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The 
 good seed once rooted in congenial soil, the successive 
 stages have such certainty and such uniformity, that any 
 failure is at once attributed to a disturbance of the natural 
 conditions. 
 
 We have therefore the difference between the kind of 
 results which are mechanical and accidental, and the kind 
 which are organic and inevitable. The sequential effect 
 or result is never a thing of chance nor of arbitrary arrange- 
 ment : it is constitutional, absolutely inhering in its cause 
 and the established conditions. 
 
 The importance of the topic — the Sequences of Sin — 
 is in the consideration that these sequences are retributive. 
 And if this be true, no rhetoric can overstate the claims 
 which our subject has upon the serious and the anxious 
 thought of mankind. That retribution is in the natural and 
 inevitable effects of wicked intent and act is insisted on by 
 all intelligent moralists, and is disputed by but very few 
 theologians : and even when disputed, it is usually a dispute 
 as to terms. Those who believe and teach that God's gov- 
 ernment is analogous to human government, and that his 
 punishments for evil doing are statutory and come by fiat 
 from without, — the same as do the penalties provided 
 for by human enactments, — seem to be anxious to guard 
 
SIN AND ITS SEQUENCES. 55 
 
 that supposed form of retribution from that which, as 
 we have explained, is sequential. While therefore they 
 admit the fact of the sequences, and even make an appeal 
 to them as warning, and as sustaining the Divine require- 
 ments, they refuse to attach to them the generic name of 
 punishment. " But the current discussions of the general 
 topic of retribution in nearly every case, whether or not 
 they presume the existence and the danger of statutory 
 penalty, do not hesitate to give great prominence to the 
 retributive character of those palpable results of sin which 
 are sequential. We therefore assume the proposition, 
 and we specially mark the vast and solemn importance of 
 its truth : Retribution is in the sequences of sin. 
 
 But do the sequences include all the retributions 
 whereby God marks and proclaims his aversion to sin? 
 Certainly, all instances of punishment by miracle are 
 excluded from the category of sequences. If the deaths 
 which befel Ananias and Sapphira were specially ordered 
 in view of their falsehoods to the Lord, those deaths were 
 not sequential. If however, when they saw that they had 
 lied not unto men but unto the Lord, they were so startled 
 at the terrible nature of their guilt that death was the nat- 
 ural issue of the shock, — a supposition by no means im- 
 probable, and not negatived by any statement in the 
 records, — those deaths were sequential. But we are not 
 particular in regard to the merits of the case of these per- 
 
56 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 sons, or of any of the examples given in the Scriptures, for 
 we admit the reality of miracle as pervading the Biblical 
 history : were this the proper connection, we should here 
 dispute the position and the reasoning of those who deny 
 that constituent. But by universal consent we may 
 refuse to anticipate miracle where none is promised ; 
 where none is threatened. We therefore take the posi- 
 tion. Save in all cases of punishment by miraculous 
 agency, the sequences of sin include the entirety of its 
 retribution. 
 
 In avowing this position however, we must explain, and 
 warn the reader to consider, that we take no narrow or 
 restricted view of the real sequences of guilty doing. The 
 relationships of man, as we explained in the outset, are 
 vast, varied, and far-reaching ; and the sequential channels 
 are as numerous and extended. If it seems a perversion 
 of terms to speak of man as related to himself, it surely is 
 a literal fact that his feelings and conduct are related to 
 himself; powerfully reacting upon him, for evil or for 
 blessing, in his intellect, moral nature, and even ani- 
 mal powers. The relationships, therefore, have at least 
 three grand channels, in that they attach to self, to society, 
 and to God. With the moralist, therefore, we say that the 
 sinner gets retribution in the direct and organic connec- 
 tion which his guilty conduct has with himself and with 
 his fellows j and with the religionist or theologian we 
 
SIN AND ITS SEQUENCES. 57 
 
 add, — and also with Him to whom he must give account. 
 Any notion of sequences which Hmits them to remorse, or 
 to lower forms of unhappiness, though it recognizes a very 
 weighty particular, excludes far more than it includes. 
 Our purpose is to exclude all gratuitous miracles, and to 
 find God's government in the laws he has impressed on the 
 objects of his rule, — his retributions in the varied, vast, and 
 fearful evolutions of the intent and act of guilt. May we 
 here express our satisfaction in finding our position in this 
 important regard confirmed by thoughtful men in current 
 discussions on the question of sin and its award? The 
 recent, and in some particulars vehement transference of 
 the explications of sin and penalty firom the theological to 
 an ethical basis, — predicating of the operations of sin 
 in the sinner, rather than of inflictions by God iipon the 
 sinner, — is a real, even if not formal, recognition of the 
 proposition, The sequences of sin include the entirety of 
 retribution, cases of special or exceptional intervention 
 alone excepted. 
 
 But what are some of the sequences of sin ? Of course 
 it is not expected that we shall even approach a full enu- 
 meration. We can describe but a few, and note the gen- 
 eral characteristics. 
 
 I. Remorse, that most common and most painful 
 experience of guilty man, will promptly occur to every 
 one who makes any attempt to specify the retributive 
 
58 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 sequences of sin. Just in proportion to the sensitiveness 
 of the conscience, and to the success with which moral 
 training has impressed it, will the act of wrong be followed 
 by an inward censure, at times too painful for endurance. 
 This evidently was the "trouble and sorrow" which made 
 the hell of David. This is the troubled sea of guilt whose 
 waters " cast up mire and dirt." This is the worm that 
 in better natures will not die. This is the torment which 
 the first murderer found greater than he could bear. This 
 is the secret of " conscience money," of public confessions, 
 sometimes of despair. 
 
 Remorse is too obvious a sequence to call for much be- 
 yond a simple recognition. Yet it has three character- 
 istics which must be at least stated. 
 
 (<?) Its intensity reveals a moral nature which is not 
 strong enough to resist a temptation, but is nevertheless 
 vigorous and recuperative. It is a dead Hmb that does not 
 start at the touch of the surgeon's probe. The wound 
 that is followed by acute pain is the more likely to heal. 
 Where there is torture there is vitality ; and where there is 
 vitality easy recovery is probable. Remorse, therefore, is 
 a hopeful symptom ; for though a testimony to a guilty 
 life, it is a revelation of moral capability. 
 
 Q)) Though it seems to us indiscriminate, and in indi- 
 vidual cases not always palpably in accordance with 
 the facts, to say unqualifiedly that retribution is reform- 
 
SIN AND ITS SEQUENCES. 59 
 
 atory, it may, we are confident, be firmly said that re- 
 morse, as a particular phase of retribution, is clearly meant 
 for reco^^ery, and powerfully operates to that end. We do 
 indeed hold — basing the conviction on observed facts and 
 the course of human history, and also finding support for 
 it in theological premises — that retribution as a whole is 
 reformatory to the race as a whole. Yet we must confess 
 that, in reference to the entirety of retribution, the individ- 
 ual sinner must often lose the direct benefit for the good 
 of others. The degradation of the drunkard as a terrible 
 warning is salutary to the tempted world, though we fail to 
 see wherein it always operates to the good of the victim. 
 It is a humane sequence, for the many thereby are taught, 
 warned, and strengthened ; but to the sufferer it is, at 
 least apparently, weakness and loss. But that special 
 sequence which is accompanied by remorse is unmistak- 
 ably a power for recovery. Let it be strong enough and 
 enduring enough, and it will at last bring the sinner to the 
 humiliation that is followed by penitence and amend- 
 ment. While all retributive sequences vindicate God's 
 mercy to the world, remorse vindicates that mercy to 
 the individual sufferer. // at least is directly and con- 
 stantly for the sinner's good. 
 
 (<r) Further, and to the religionist a momentous truth, — 
 remorse recognizes a responsibility that cannot attach to 
 man : it is the proclamation of the will of a Higher Being, 
 
6o THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 and it seems the literalness of truth to say that it is the 
 expression of God's censure. When you wrong another, 
 and your conscience is tortured at the memory of that 
 wrong, the conscience tells you that it is not the party in- 
 jured who has made that act a wrong. Its moral quality is 
 instinctively attributed to a greater than man ; and though 
 an ijijury as respects the man, it is felt to be a si?i against 
 God. This particular sequence is, therefore, seen to 
 spread along the various lines of relationship which hnk 
 an evil act to the doer, to another, and to the Supreme. 
 
 2. To the limited and possibly delusive apprehension of 
 mortals, it would seem well if the pain of remorse were a 
 constant and ever increasing sequence of sin. In that 
 event, there would seem little serious risk in leaving man 
 to himself. If the avenging worm were literally undying, 
 if the fire of torturing reproof were literally unquenchable, 
 the soul would ever carry with it the needful, and in the 
 end effective, check ; and, in every regard in which pen- 
 alty can operate towards results essentially moral, also 
 the incentive to penitence and amendment. Literally, in 
 the matter of his redemption, or at least the antecedents 
 thereto, man would be sufficient unto himself, and the 
 Gospel as a saving power approaching from without might 
 not be needed. As the pain of the burn keeps every sane 
 person from wantonly putting his hand or holding his hand 
 in fire, so would the sting and cry of remorse, so would 
 
SLY AND ITS SEQUENCES. 6 1 
 
 a fixed and increasing pain, keep him from the intents 
 and acts of guilty conduct. 
 
 It is however a part of the mystery of sin, a part of 
 the at present inexplicable problem why sin is permitted 
 at all, that its most potent and reliable counteractive 
 often grows less in about the proportion in which the 
 guilt grows great. There are many exceptions to what yet 
 would seem to be the rule, that continuance in evil do- 
 ing gradually reduces the positive pain that follows. Here 
 then, as in the fact of sin itself, we are thro^vn back upon 
 faith, trusting where we cannot trace. Or shall we say 
 that the myster}'- of sin itself includes the weakening of its 
 counteractives ? If the check were effective, sin could not 
 be, at least could not continue ; and so the very problem 
 would disappear. But whatever our philosophy of the 
 fact, the fact itself is real : ^^^th frequent and at times 
 startling exceptions to the rule, the rule evidently is that 
 the restraint or counteractive of remorse grows less and 
 less as sin is repeated and extended. 
 
 We thus come upon the most serious and the most alarm- 
 ing of all the sequences of sin, — a phase of retribution no 
 doubt just and merciful, in that it is salutary and correc- 
 tive to others than the one who suffers it ; but to him very 
 generally a hindrance rather than a corrective, — to him 
 yet more enslaving rather than redemptive. We hardly 
 need Scripture authority for a fact so widely and so terribly 
 
62 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 attested ; but we can reason upon the theme in no other 
 terms so pertinent as those of the Bible. One word of 
 frequent occurrence in the Book precisely recognizes it, 
 — the hardening of the heart : the oft-recurring warning is, 
 " Harden not your hearts." The first acts of sin may ren- 
 der more acute, more sensitive, the conscience ; but the 
 reign of sin, its dominance and repetition, is unto death. 
 "The wages of sin is death." Of those who had become 
 saints in Ephesus, the record is that once they " were 
 dead in trespasses and sins." The philosophic phrase- 
 ology for this ulterior sequence of sin is moral insensi- 
 bility, spiritual torpor, the inability to feel remorse. But 
 we cannot improve upon the Scripture phrase, — the hard- 
 ness of the heart. The oft-cited example of the murderer 
 who testified that his first crime reacted upon his conscience 
 in a horror of remorse, great to the verge of despair, but 
 whose hundredth victim occasioned within him no com- 
 punctions, — is doubtless an exaggerated statement of an 
 individual example ; yet it recognizes what we have de- 
 scribed as a general (not uniform) ulterior sequence of sin. 
 3. The limits of this chapter forbid more than the bald- 
 est statement of what cannot be amplified in less than the 
 compass of a book, — the ramifications and far-reaching 
 sequences of sin, affecting the relations of the evil-doer to 
 society. In the general lowering of the moral tone self- 
 respect sinks, bringing with it the loss of public respect, 
 
SIX AXD ITS SEQUEXCES. 63 
 
 and often working destruction even in secular avocations. 
 A sound conscience is esseiitial to success in business ; 
 such is the rule, whatever may be said of exceptions. 
 Even the physical health, the ability to perform the hum- 
 blest of manual labor, the very getting of bread and rai- 
 ment, — all the bodily and the secular activities are im- 
 paired ; often thwarted by that which at its root is an 
 "attitude of the conscience." There is a unity in the 
 whole life and all the relationships of an individual, 
 whereby the moral virus starting from the will (or wher- 
 ever we may locate the genesis of sin) poisons the whole 
 stream, the thousand streams of life, reaching into and per- 
 meating every thread of being, personal and social, spiritual 
 and material. The Roman citizen had the option of sell- 
 ing himself into slavery ; but having elected to do this, he 
 forfeited the power whereby his liberty might be regained. 
 Even so he that sins and persists therein often becomes 
 " the servant of sin," held in bondage thereto by the loss of 
 self-respect, by the tyranny of evil inclination, by the giving 
 way of the moral restraints which society would impose, and 
 by the varied ramifications in which the habits of a debased 
 nature become entangled, and whereby the sinner, in the 
 New Testament use of a much perverted word, is " lost." 
 Our topic is not salvation from sin, but the sequences 
 thereof. It does not fall to this chapter, therefore, to con- 
 sider the question of escape from the meshes of evil which 
 
64 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALIS }f. 
 
 we have sought to elucidate. We may however give the 
 relief which inheres in a Gospel which is not of Despair, 
 but of Hope. Happily, there is another subject than the 
 one now under consideration. If indeed our topic was the 
 entirety of the moral problem ; if there were no " theologi- 
 cal " phase to supplement the " ethical ; " if destiny were 
 solely a question of man, and in no regard a matter enlist- 
 ing the action of God, — we should say that the future had 
 very little to inspire courage and justify hope. But as 
 surely as there is a reign unto death, there is another reign 
 which is unto life. If moral death is sin's wages, eternal 
 life is God's gift. And the-saints at Ephesus were persons 
 who had been " dead in trespasses and sins, " but who 
 under the quickening of the Spirit had "passed from 
 death unto life." Given a God who becomes strength to 
 the weak, a Saviour who seeks the lost, and the darkest 
 cloud of guilt has the silver lining of Divine promise. 
 There is a blood that can cleanse from all sin. 
 
 Our most hopeful view of the destiny of all souls, rest- 
 ing we trust on its own and sufficient foundations, imposes 
 upon us no necessity of making the sequences of sin less real, 
 less extended, less tenacious than the facts disclose. Our 
 impression is strong that the evolution of sin, were it 7iot 
 interfered with (in other words, were there no Gospel or 
 its equivalent), would issue in the extinction of moral 
 being, its death being literal not less than figurative ; its 
 
SIN AND ITS SEQUENCES. 65 
 
 resurrection a result not to be hoped for. Trusting an- 
 other and quite distinct Power to deal with the evil, we can 
 see no reason in creed or prejudice tempting us to explain 
 away or under-estimate the magnitude of the evil itself. 
 
 It seems to us, however, a fact embraced in the se- 
 quences of sin that of itself // Ms no essential permanence. 
 It is clearly the soul's distemper ; and disease, as every 
 just analogy teaches, must end either in cure or in disso- 
 lution : in any view it must end. Now it is not a specu- 
 lation, but a palpable fact, — affirmed by nearly every 
 creed, and illustrated by innumerable examples, — that 
 the tenacity of sin is not absolutely unyielding. The 
 notion of essential permanence, as affirmed of any phase 
 of character, is not only false to psychology, not only a 
 contradiction of the indestructible freedom of every moral 
 nature, but is also negatived by numerous and startling 
 examples constantly occurring. In truth, sin in becom- 
 ing essentially permanent ceases to be sin. 
 
 Our imperfect elucidation would indeed fail, and at a 
 vital pomt, did we not include certainly as possible, and 
 generally as probable, though not an unyielding yet a real 
 tenacity in sin and its sequences. Many of the antece- 
 dents of redemption are unquestionably sudden, possibly 
 instantaneous. There are quick convictions : not infre- 
 quently it is, in the literal use of words, that one " is struck 
 with conviction." There are also sudden revolutions of 
 
66 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 feeling ; and unlawful objects long desired are abruptly and 
 permanently discarded. Inebriates have filled their cups, 
 and before the poison was brought to their lips they have 
 dashed it to the ground, never again to yield to the temp- 
 tation. Repentance is in its nature a sudden resolve put 
 into the act on the instant. New knowledge, sudden 
 revelations, at times strike the soul to the very core ; and 
 the newness of feeling and of purpose comes in the 
 " twinkling of an eye." These are not surmises, they are 
 facts. But the mistake is fundamental that confounds 
 these experiences with that to which they often lead, — 
 an amended and sanctified character. For this, the 
 ulterior issue, we know of no fact, of no analogy, that 
 banctions the notion of suddenness, or even of great ra- 
 pidity. The characteristic marks cannot be erased : they 
 must be outgrown. In a comprehensive word, the sal- 
 vation is a growth and not a creation. To this conclu- 
 sion is the purport of the sequences of sin. 
 
 We have the consent of nearly all, that the causes 
 counteractive of sin and its issues must be moral : it is a 
 contradiction of the thought, not less than of the words, 
 to attribute so radical a transformation to mechanical or 
 physical agencies. We must hold that it is a duty of 
 those who would instruct the people on this great theme, 
 that, while they use words properly expressive of moral 
 agencies, they should be thoughtful and painstaking to 
 
SIN AND ITS SEQUENCES. 67 
 
 make the impression accord with the verbal meaning. 
 Any prejudice which is gratified by phraseology that will 
 bear the construction of mechanical rather than rational 
 causes, should be steadily and effectively rebuked. While 
 certain conditions of the efficacy of moral forces may be 
 physical, we wrong those who listen to us if we do not 
 make them see and feel the world-wide difference be- 
 tween spiritual causes and adventitious material conditions. 
 Not only should we iterate and reiterate that "we are 
 saved by grace " co-operating -with the willing heart and 
 mind, but we should strive to foreclose all possibility 
 of the perverting these words into other than their moral 
 or spiritual significance. So much is in the ethics of 
 our theme. 
 
 Finally, considerations of time and place can have but 
 an incidental bearing upon the operation of spiritual and 
 redemptive causes. If the formula be true, "We are 
 spirits but have bodies," the question whether we are in 
 bodies or out of bodies, though, it may be one of certain 
 temptations, can never be one of holy character. For 
 this the mind, heart, and will must strive, the Divine 
 Spirit always " aiding and abetting ; " and at whatever date 
 we begin, whether it be prior to death, at death, or subse- 
 quent to that physical change, the issue must be reached 
 by the process of growth. We know of no analogy that 
 suggests a different conclusion. The Sequences of Sin — 
 
68 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 if in any degree we have successfully traced them — im- 
 peratively forbid an opposite conclusion. 
 
 Our subject is the darkest in the realm of ethical and 
 theological considerations. We have literally attempted a 
 diagnosis of the foulest and most tenacious of all maladies. 
 We dismiss its treatment with the reiteration that the soul's 
 malady, however deep-seated, however rooted in its various 
 sequences, and however in manifold cases tenacious in the 
 presence of redeeming influences, is nevertheless curable^ 
 — considered to be such by respectable thinkers of every 
 creed, and proved to be such by innumerable examples. 
 The question of cure, its process and its results, we yield 
 to other hands. 
 
JESUS AND THE GOSPEL. 69 
 
 JESUS AND THE GOSPEL. 
 
 BY J. SMITH DODGE, Jr. 
 
 TT is the function of Jesus Christ to bring man into har- 
 mony with God. This is salvation. The announce- 
 ment that this is to be done is the " Good Tidings," — 
 the Gospel. 
 
 But we must be careful not to suppose this an after- 
 thought of God, or in any way supplementary to his 
 original design. No conception is worthy of the Infinite 
 Creator, which does not perceive him to have begun and 
 to be prosecuting his work upon a plan perfectly harmo- 
 nious and infallible. " Of him, and through him, and to 
 him are all things." This plan is nothing else than the pro- 
 duction of beings in his own image and, when the process 
 is complete, in perfect harmony with himself. But, since 
 harmony among intelHgent beings must be voluntary, such 
 a plan cannot be kept secret ; it must be made known to 
 the objects of it. Even if there were other intelligences 
 to observe this work, not themselves concerned in it, we 
 can hardly conceive that the great Artist could fail to dis- 
 play his purpose to their eyes at every stage. To us it is 
 
70 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 plainly shown. Not only does a survey from our pres- 
 ent point of view show God's plan of reconciHation every- 
 where, but since the earliest ages men have learned from 
 the suggestions of Nature, from the voice of conscience, 
 and from reasoning, that some great Power exists above 
 them whom it becomes them to reverence and obey. 
 "The invisible things of him from the creation of the 
 world are clearly seen, being understood by the things 
 which are made." No one who carefully appreciates 
 the development attained by man in personal worth and 
 social order, without the gospel, will think lightly of that 
 constant suggestion of God's great scheme which is woven 
 into the work of his hands. 
 
 But all expression is Hmited by the material which em- 
 bodies it ; and every revelation of God's purpose was nec- 
 essarily imperfect until it was set forth in a human life. 
 In no other way could the plan of reconciliation, the ideal 
 of complete harmony with God, be expressed to men 
 than by an example of that harmony reaching all the 
 depths of a soul, and maintained inviolate amid all out- 
 ward conditions. Such was the life of Jesus Christ ; and 
 in that life for the first time came fully within man's sight 
 the eternal, unvaried plan on which God built the worlds 
 and created the souls of his children. There has been no 
 repetition of the example ; and therefore it stands to-day 
 as it stood at first, the only perfect revelation, the only 
 
JESUS AND THE GOSFEL. 7 1 
 
 open door by which man may come to God and know 
 him. "There is none other name under heaven given 
 among men, whereby we must be saved." Therefore, 
 there remains for us and for all men a perennial interest 
 in Jesus Christ ; and instead of lapsing into the past, one 
 of the honored throng who have done their part and given 
 place to their successors, he stands in as intimate relation 
 to one age as to another, the unique man whom none 
 supplants and none can spare, — " Jesus Christ, the same 
 yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." 
 
 But as we approach this Captain of our salvation, our 
 personal hope and advantage are for a httle eclipsed by 
 the splendor of so great a presence. Who is this repre- 
 sentative of that which all creation suggests, and all the ages 
 have surmised and groped after ? Obviously, the one man 
 who has lived in perfect harmony with God, and who has 
 enjoyed this, not as the late-won result of many mistakes and 
 efforts, but through all his life as the unfolding of a perfect 
 flower from a perfect bud, must have stood from the first 
 in some relation of peculiar intimacy with God. He is 
 called his Son, first-bom, only-begotten, " the brightness 
 of his glory and the express image of his person ; " and 
 men have naturally speculated much, and strained the 
 meaning of every inspired word, to form some adequate 
 idea of Christ's relation to God. How fruitless the effort 1 
 It is the vain endeavor to sound an ocean, along whose 
 
72 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 shores the shallowest inlet is beyond our depth. What 
 progress has been made toward understanding the begin- 
 ning or the transmission even of physical life ? What do 
 we know of the mystery of parentage and the wonders 
 of heredity ? And when I cannot guess why one of my 
 children has his mother's eyes, and another his grand- 
 father's hair ; when my mind refuses to grasp the paradox 
 that my offspring, a new being, individual, authentic, is 
 yet a bundle of inherited qualities, — how shall I dare to 
 grope in the recesses of Divine being, and pretend to ex- 
 pound how the Son of God was begotten ? When one 
 has followed for a while the speculations which have dark- 
 ened this theme, he may well turn away, with old Irenaeus' 
 contempt, from those generation-mongers who prate, he 
 says, of the begetting of the Son of God, quasi ipsi obsfet- 
 ricarmt. When all is said, we know this, and can know 
 no more : In whatever way derived being may stand so 
 related to the Underived as most intimately to share his 
 nature and bear his spirit, in that way, to us unknown, is 
 Jesus Christ the Son of God. 
 
 It is of vastly greater importance for us to know that 
 the harmony between the Saviour and his Father is per- 
 fect, without reservation or exception, so that in present- 
 ing to us the full realization of God's great plan he also 
 represents God himself; and that, not vaguely and far 
 off, but with so complete a fulness that we have no other 
 
JESUS AND TEE GOSPEL. 73 
 
 means of attaining any knowledge of God which ap- 
 proaches the grandeur or the clearness of the revelation 
 in Jesus Christ. We know of God's character what we 
 see in his Son ; and beyond this nothing. " I and my 
 Father are one." " He that hath seen me hath seen the 
 Father." 
 
 Now this perfect likeness excludes all idea of variance 
 or opposition between Father and Son ; and therefore it 
 excludes all those conceptions of Christ's work which im- 
 ply such an opposition : that is to say, it excludes not 
 only those which represent the Son as appeasing his 
 Father's wrath, or as assuming a penalty for men which 
 God will not remit ; but equally those more subtile modem 
 presentations which display Christ as circumventing the 
 metaphysical necessities of Divine government. Inasmuch 
 as we cannot predicate of Christ any power which God 
 has not, every such scheme when simply stated implies 
 that Christ was more willing than God to remove certain 
 difficulties. Putting aside, therefore, all such views, we 
 rest simply in the assurance that the Son of God, both in 
 the purpose and in all the processes of his work, is abso- 
 lutely at one with the Father whom he represents. 
 
 But the complete harmony of God and man cannot be 
 represented by the image of God alone, but necessarily 
 by the image of God in a man. Now this is Christ. We 
 do not need the assurance of authority to prove this ; 
 
74 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 we see that the Son of God is also the Son of Man. 
 Never did there live a person who drew to him such uni- 
 versal human sympathy. Never was pain mourned as 
 his pains have been ; never a heart to which so many 
 hearts felt themselves akin. It is true, in him we see 
 humanity raised to its highest ; but it is only the more 
 truly human for that. The representative of any species 
 is not the average but the type. The heart of mankind 
 cries out at the spectacle, " Thus man should be ! " and the 
 eternal purpose of God replies, "Thus man shall be !" 
 Finding ourselves, then, in the presence of a man so 
 supremely exalted that he is perfectly in harmony with 
 God, and therefore perfectly represents him to us, we 
 attain the first result of this culminating revelation, and 
 perceive that our nature partakes of the divine. God is 
 no longer a mighty stranger but an august Kinsman — 
 our Father. We are not made to flutter a moment and 
 fade away. We are born to live for ever, and the endless 
 vista of eternity offers scope and opportunity enough for 
 the purpose of God to reach its full achievement. 
 
 But no mere spectacle of qualities, however admirable, 
 could make the perfect Christ, — as the most exact paint- 
 ing is not the face of Nature, or Pygmalion's statue is not 
 yet his bride until it lives. It is of the essence of the 
 Divine purpose that it is efficient, moving always towards 
 the achievement of its aim ; and therefore he who repre- 
 
JESUS AND THE GOSPEL. 75 
 
 sents it to us must also exert positive and persistent 
 efficiency, working always to bring that to pass which he 
 announces. This is eminently true of Christ. " My Father 
 worketh hitherto, and I work." This is implied when he 
 is called our Saviour, — a practical, efficient helper. And 
 since he not only was the Saviour of the first century but 
 is the Saviour of the nineteenth, he must be to-day a living 
 power, mighty to save. This vastly broadens our view of 
 Christ. Instead of a remote, historical revelation, he 
 becomes one of the constant powers of the world, an: in- 
 dispensable factor in the problem of man's destiny. So 
 long as we look upon the few years of Christ's earthly 
 life as the full period of his work, we must blunder into 
 constant misunderstanding ; but our conception alike of 
 his person and his power rises to worthy proportions, 
 when we believe that those years were but a specimen of 
 that which our Saviour has been doing ever since, and 
 will continue to do until God shall be all in all. It seems 
 impossible to doubt, after studying the New Testament, 
 that it teaches as a cardinal truth the persistent presence 
 of Christ among men. Alluding to his own death as the 
 means, he said, " I will draw all men unto me." His 
 last words were promises of continued help : " I will come 
 to you;" "Abide in me and I in you;" "Without me 
 ye can do nothing ; " " If a man love me . . . my Father 
 will love him, and we will come unto him and make our 
 
76 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 abode with him." These are not the words of approach- 
 ing exile, but the promise of continued presence. The 
 Apostles never doubted that this promise was fulfilled. 
 Peter said to Eneas, "Jesus Christ maketh thee whole." 
 Paul saw Jesus near Damascus, and was taught by him in 
 Arabia ; professed that he could do all things " through 
 Christ which strengtheneth me," and foretold that he must 
 reign till he had subdued every foe. The greatest con- 
 quests of the Church were wrought in the first age, before 
 theology was born, and when to be a Christian was simply 
 to trust in the present and eternal help of Christ, And 
 whenever in later times the gospel has conspicuously en- 
 nobled men and saved them, the measure of its success 
 has been the faith of men in the present Saviour. 
 
 But even this faith has been for the most part very nar- 
 rowly held. The Church has believed in Christ as present 
 .in the Church, the guide of the Church, the Saviour of 
 them that believe. The broader view of our time discerns 
 that such a limitation is impossible for the Saviour of the 
 world. Whatever is best in the Church is finding itself 
 more and. more akin to social forces and conditions ; and 
 if the destinies of the Church are given into the hands of 
 One, then the same hands must grasp and control what- 
 ever concerns the fortunes of men. In such a view Jesus 
 Christ is the perpetual leader of every power of good in the 
 world. PoUtics and legislation, commerce and agriculture. 
 
JESUS AND THE GOSPEL. 77 
 
 literature, science, and art flourish by his help or shrink at 
 his rebuke. He as much controls the Turkish war and 
 Chinese immigration as he does the American Bible 
 Society or the Universalist General Convention. "All 
 power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." He 
 who can climb this Pisgah, looks upon the world with 
 opened eyes. It is no longer the doubtful battle-field of 
 forces he does not understand ; he no longer sighs out 
 his weary lamentation, " How long, O Lord ! " but he 
 looks on the wondrous unrolling panorama of time with 
 the vision of eternity. All things are become new, for all 
 are under the controlling hand of Christ, and tend towards 
 the assured end of harmony between man and God. 
 
 But all this is the external, the objective view of the 
 Saviour's work. It is the double glory of Christ, that 
 while he bears such matchless sway as Master and Lord 
 he has intimate contact with each soul severally, and seeks 
 and wins each with a love as personal and tender as if 
 there were no soul besides. It follows from the broad 
 view that Christ disposes those influences and opportuni- 
 ties which mould from without the general life of each 
 man as a member of the race. Country, parentage, edu- 
 cation, society, must all enter into the scheme which 
 determines my life ; but all these I share with kindred, 
 neighbors, and mankind. Besides these I have secret 
 experiences within, — mine, yet not wholly of myself, — 
 
78 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 which I must attribute to the overshadowing influence of 
 this mighty Friend and Saviour. Let us, therefore, con- 
 sider what Jesus Christ does for individual souls in the 
 sphere of their spiritual development. 
 
 The most general operation of Christ within the souls 
 of men is the giving of strength ; and no theory of sal- 
 vation can possibly bear the test of long experience, 
 which relies on the unaided strength of even the best and 
 strongest men. Other ministrations of the Saviour are 
 appropriate to special epochs in our experience ; but at 
 all times we need the strength he gives. This is the 
 only assurance of the loftiest saint, and the meanest sin- 
 ner with this may quench all the fiery darts of the adver- 
 sary. Let it then be understood that at every stage the 
 invigorating help of Christ responds to our least desire 
 for righteousness. 
 
 But when we attempt to pass further, the work of Christ 
 within the soul appears more complex, because it seeks 
 the overthrow of our manifold enemy, sin. Many of his 
 experiences man shares with other works of God, from the 
 gravitation which allies him with the stone, to the social 
 instincts which link him with the bee. But sin is man's 
 specialty ; and it is so because man alone has self-deter- 
 mining power. Alone of all God's earthly works, man has 
 an initiative ; can imitate from afar the creative word, " Let 
 there be light ! " Nothing in Nature suggests that matter 
 
JESUS AND THE GOSPEL. 
 
 79 
 
 or brute intelligence offers the slightest resistance to the 
 law of its being. We do not think of the cataract as re- 
 luctant to fall, nor of the shore as complaining that it must 
 withstand the sea ; the beaver never grumbles at his toil, 
 nor the bird at his long migration. Man alone can 
 choose, and therefore he alone can resist. But when we 
 examine why man, having the power to choose, sets his will 
 against the will of God, (which is the essence of sin,) the 
 inquiry takes us into unsounded depths. For this dis- 
 cussion it is not necessary that those depths should be es- 
 sayed. It is enough to distinguish that the causes of man's 
 sin group themselves in two classes : he either sins because 
 he does not clearly understand the nature and the relations 
 of his choice, or, understanding these, the self-determining 
 will chooses to array itself against the Infinite. This is not 
 offered as a classification according to the sharp require- 
 ments of speculative reasoning, but only as useful and 
 sufficient for an understanding of the necessary remedies. 
 What it here concerns us to perceive is that there are two 
 phases of sin, for each of which the Gospel oifers an ample 
 cure, — sins of the twilight, and sins against light. And to 
 these corresponds a double operation of the Saviour upon 
 the souls of men, by which on the one hand he enlightens 
 th^ consciousness, and on the other converts the will. 
 To lose sight of either is fatally to mistake the process of 
 redemption. Their work is inseparably blended ; but we 
 
So THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 shall need to examine each in turn before we can appre- 
 ciate their united power and promise. 
 
 In the first place, then, let us clearly understand that 
 there is sin, and grievous sin, which is so largely due to 
 human ignorance that removal of the ignorance would have 
 prevented the sin. This is sufficiently proved by certain 
 New Testament passages which assert it of those who cru- 
 cified our Lord. Their act is presented as sin. Jesus 
 prays for their forgiveness ; Peter tells the Jews that they 
 '^ by wicked hands have crucified and slain " him ; Stephen 
 calls them Christ's " betrayers and murderers." And yet 
 Jesus asks their forgiveness on the ground that " they 
 know not what they do ; " Peter tells the same Jews, " I 
 wot, brethren, that through ignorance ye did it ; " and 
 Paul says that if the princes of this world had known the 
 hidden wisdom of God, " they would not have crucified 
 the Lord of glory." 
 
 It is not required that this essay examine minutely the 
 question how men can be responsible for the results of 
 their ignorance. It is enough to say that the term is not 
 used absolutely, but relatively. An idiot does not sin, 
 because he knows absolutely nothing. So no man can 
 be blamed for stumbling in perfect darkness. But if it 
 be only the darkness of twilight, in which greater caution 
 would have saved him, the careless man may be justly 
 blamed for falling. And the more carefully we consider, 
 
JESUS AND THE GOSPEL. 8 1 
 
 the more widely do we see that men walk in moral twi- 
 light. Hereditary bias of mind, education, prevalent 
 public opinion, the sophistry of others, the force of pas- 
 sion, the intricacy of worldly interests, — all tend pow- 
 erfully to obscure the moral sense. Add to these the 
 distracting force of sorrow and disappointment, and the 
 contagion of evil habit in others, and how vast a portion of 
 human wickedness is accounted for ! 
 
 Now the cure for all this part of man's sin is knowl- 
 edge, not certainly of the head alone, but of the heart as 
 well, a clear and spiritual perception of the great sanctions 
 of duty, — God's infinite goodness to us and our bound- 
 less obligation to him. All who deal practically with the 
 degraded learn this by their experience. Christ knew it 
 well, and hence he so often speaks of his light. Of course, 
 very much of his illuminating ministry is of the broad and 
 general character. His revelation of the Divine love is in 
 the world, once for all. We need no other Calvary. In the 
 same way he sustains the activity and constant testimony 
 of his Church, the diffusion of the Bible and its principles, 
 the progressive enlightenment of society, the stupendous 
 demonstrations of divine truth which history and science 
 from time to time afford. All this is general, like the 
 ^sunlight. But a more peculiar, inward operation is 
 needed. There is no sunlight for the blind. At every 
 moment the sun is rising somewhere, but it is still night 
 
 6 
 
82 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 for me until i?iy horizon brightens. And multitudes of 
 those who sin in ignorance are in this case. For their 
 neighbors the sun is shining clearly, but for them there 
 is the lack of perceptive power, a spiritual amaurosis, 
 which makes perpetual night. 
 
 Has Christ no more for these than simply to shine 
 upon them as he does on all? We shall find the answer 
 if we consider how new light penetrates our own minds. 
 Hitherto, living without some portion of truth, I have 
 thought my system complete ; when suddenly a sugges- 
 tive word, an unusual event, or the untraced action of 
 my mind brings to me a new perception, as authentic and 
 imperative as any. I see that this also is truth. And yet 
 if I try to explain this process I do not fully succeed. I 
 can only say that I now see what I never saw before, 
 though it was always true. It would seem, therefore, 
 that a certain grade of development is needed before the 
 mind can grasp a given truth ; so that only he who knows 
 what is in man can tell what length of time and what kind 
 of experience are the necessary conditions of seeing that 
 which is before our eyes. Hence the simplest explana- 
 tion is that those who seem blind on this side or that have 
 not yet grown to full capacity of vision ; and it must be an 
 inseparable part of his function who came to enlighten the 
 world, that he should direct and further in each soul 
 severally this process of attainment. Let us therefore con- 
 
JESUS AND TEE GOSPEL. S^ 
 
 ceive Christ as perpetually giving not only light, but sight ; 
 and this with all the breadth of administration and all 
 the minuteness of detail which have been already sug- 
 gested as marking his work. 
 
 It is important to consider how far he may carry this. 
 It is coming to be admitted that for the heathen, and for 
 those whom their surroundings imperatively restrain from 
 knowing the revelation of God in Christ, there must 
 remain a future opportunity to see and believe. In every 
 world the healing touch of Christ must reach forth to 
 those who were bom blind. But why to them alone? 
 It is the cardinal point of the Gospel that Jesus Christ 
 came to save sinners. And since one of the surest effects 
 of sin is to produce that spiritual blindness which stands 
 in the way of repentance, what office can better fit the 
 Saviour of sinners than to restore this palsied sense, and 
 give sight anew to those who have blinded themselves ? 
 And how can death intercept the saving work of him who 
 "hath abolished death"? 
 
 Here then is the answer to that portentous formula 
 which has been proclaimed as the impregnable fortress 
 of those despairing doctrines that limit the success of 
 Christ. " Repeated sin impairs the judgment, and the 
 impaired judgment sins again." It is sadly and tremen- 
 dously true. Entangled in this knot, the sinner grows less 
 and less able to free himself. But "This is a faithful 
 
84 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALTSM. 
 
 saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 
 came into the world to " cut this knot. Whenever a 
 sinner has been saved who had not been wilfully sinning 
 against light, this has been done for him ; and whenever 
 this shall be done for any such sinner, he will be saved. 
 Of course we can seldom trace the details of the process. 
 We cannot often tell why our own convictions were 
 formed at the time they were, and not before or after. 
 Some happy combination of experience which we did 
 not arrange, some stroke from a hidden hand, opens 
 our vision wider, and reveals at once the truth we newly 
 see and the grace which leads us. Upon the Saviour of 
 the world is laid the sublime duty of doing this in every 
 particular for every human soul. In the vast survey the 
 imaginary limit of death fades from view. Lord of all 
 worlds, no bounds can stay him. He labors and waits ; 
 now leading his beloved pupils through the travail of long 
 experience, now flashing the destined glory on their eyes 
 which see at last. It is a mean and captious spirit which 
 arrays itself with bristling questions of When and Where 
 and How. It is the highest nobility of Christian faith, 
 which believes that to every Bartimeus Jesus of Nazareth 
 will come at last with quickening touch. 
 
 But the saddest view of sin remains. However large 
 we may estimate the share of ignorance to be in this dark 
 picture, it still is true that sin is not simply a mistake, — 
 
JESUS AND TEE GOSPEL. 8$ 
 
 it includes the mil opposed to God. We cannot often, 
 perhaps we never can, wholly separate the two. Probably 
 the most wilful sinner sees through a glass darkly. But 
 he has had a happy experience who cannot recall hours 
 when, with remembrance of the past and with thought of 
 God, he yet sinned for no other perceptible reason than 
 that he did not heartily will to refrain. It is not easy to 
 analyze this process. He who has done it presently 
 wonders why. The simple fact is that the will, seeing 
 before it the way of duty and another way, chooses un- 
 constrained the other. Expected pleasure and force of 
 habit count for much, but the perversity of sin sometimes 
 opposes them both ; and perhaps, at the bottom of all, 
 the determining motive of wilful sin is the fascination of 
 self- asserting defiance. It is exhilarating to oppose and 
 silence a man ; and the greater his power the keener the 
 thrill. Suppose, then, I defy and silence the mightiest 
 power I know, — that voice within ! 
 
 Now if there are degrees in the Saviour's love,, and 
 if we may form any conception of its workings from the 
 analogy of human affection, it is towards these sturdy 
 sinners that he -will most unconquerably yearn. Saul is 
 
 the chosen vessel. But what can Christ do for them? 
 
 « 
 
 We do not know that force can bend the will. It can of 
 course produce compliance, but we have no reason to 
 suppose that even Infinite force can compel real assent. 
 
86 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 And yet the will can certainly be bent, and by what we 
 call the feeblest of agencies. Alexander conquers the 
 world, but Thais leads him at her whim ; the father rules 
 the family, but the baby rules the father. Or, on the 
 nobler side, we all know how great is the influence of 
 a respected and honored friend. The reasons which 
 seemed trifling in another mouth are invincible when he 
 presents them ; our stubbornest resolution melts away 
 when he entreats. This is not compulsion but persuasion ; 
 and it produces such true conversion of the will, that no 
 promises are so much to be trusted as those given by a 
 strong man to oblige a beloved friend. The precise 
 method of this process of persuasion we do not know, 
 and it is probably inscrutable. We can well trace its 
 antecedents, we can immediately grasp its consequences ; 
 but that supreme moment when the image of God within 
 us says " I will," witnesses a true creative act, an absolute 
 beginning, and is beyond our ken. Since then we cannot 
 comprehend the act, we can no more comprehend how 
 persuasion influences that act. But we do know that this 
 influence is so powerful as to surpass all compulsion, and 
 turn a will of iron. What will has ever been so stubborn, 
 that some one had not this power over it? A favorite 
 child, a wife or mother, some object of affection worthy 
 or unworthy finds the hidden talisman, and the rock opens 
 at a word. 
 
JESUS AND THE GOSPEL. 87 
 
 Now this is Christ's crowning work, to win men's hearts 
 and thereby persuade their wills into harmony with God. 
 This is the atonement ; for atonement is reconciliation, 
 nothing more and (God be praised ! ) nothing less. What- 
 ever other suggestions the word now bears are accretions 
 from the theological stream, and no part of its vital mean- 
 ing. It occurs but once in the English Testament, " Our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the 
 atonement," — Rom. v. 11. But the Greek behind this 
 much abused word is not uncommon in the Scriptures, 
 and is elsewhere rendered reconciliation, as in 2 Cor. v. 
 20, — " We pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled 
 [atoned] to God." It was for this then that Christ came, 
 the embodiment of the Divine love, the Divine solicitude. 
 He lived and died not to appease an impossible wrath, 
 not to circumvent an intangible difficulty, but to fill the 
 world with proclamation and example of the unspeakable 
 tenderness of God. The mocking, doubting world asked 
 in unbelief, " How much does God love his creatures?" 
 And the cross on Calvary bore for answer the immortal 
 splendor of these words : " God so loved the world." Or, 
 as Paul tersely puts the argument of the cross, " He that 
 spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, 
 how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? " 
 
 It is by the efficacy, then, of such love that Jesus per- 
 suades the stubborn will of men and reconciles them to 
 
88 THE LATEST WORD OF VNIVERSALISM. 
 
 God. Nor is this any hypothetical or uncertain process. 
 Let us recall each the moment of his life when God 
 seemed nearest and best to him, and say whether it was 
 attained by any calculation of results or process of reason- 
 ing, or whether it came by the sweet persuasion of Divine 
 love. It is " by the mercies of God " that the Gospel 
 always beseeches us. And so the Saviour besets all men 
 with these gracious solicitations. There are many of our 
 neighbors to whose hearts we can find no access, and 
 can exert no persuasion on their wills. But again and 
 again we have seen such men yield to an inward attrac- 
 tion, — the power of the Saviour's love insinuated into 
 the citadel of their stubbornness by ways known only to 
 Him who made them. What if the process is sometimes 
 long and doubtful in our eyes ? Does not almost every 
 convert testify that he had long heard and resisted an 
 entreating voice within, which he can resist no longer? 
 And we little think what secret experiences are agitating 
 the hearts of some who will not confess to us what they 
 cannot hide from themselves. 
 
 We are to conceive, then, of the work of Christ as 
 cohibining all these methods in one persistent and har- 
 monious process. He floods the world with light, " The 
 knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
 Christ ; " he directs singly and combined all the agencies 
 of human advancement and well-being ; he adjusts amid 
 
JESUS AND THE GOSPEL. 89 
 
 all this throng the vicissitudes of each man's life in accord- 
 ance with the spiritual needs of each ; he conducts the 
 slow unfolding in each of that visual power which alone 
 can enable him to see the light and what the Hght reveals ; 
 and when the wondrous prospect is spread full before the 
 opened eyes, so that the awakened soul comprehends the 
 Infinite goodness, this mighty Son of God casts about it 
 the persuasion of entreating love, and beseeches the re- 
 sisting \vill. Can that will, can any will, resist for ever? 
 Many converging lines of reasoning, and many bold utter- 
 ances of revelation combine to prove that it is not given 
 to any human mil always to withstand such entreaty ; but 
 above them all in clearness and authority stands the 
 promise of Christ himself, signifying what death he should 
 die : " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
 all men unto me." This is the work of the cross, and of 
 that surpassing love which the cross displays. 
 
 But salvation is not complete when the causes of sin 
 have been met by the Saviour's light and love ; for, as 
 he actually encounters us, there are already accumulated 
 results of past sin which encumber and defeat us. Sin 
 produces in cumulative degrees spiritual paralysis and 
 shameful memories. The converted will can hardly enjoy 
 for a moment its new delight, before it is seized with a 
 sense of its incapacity to maintain this better estate. And 
 perhaps the entire range of human experience does not 
 
90 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 present a disappointment more keen and bitter than that 
 with which a soul newly desirous of virtue finds itself 
 again in the snare of its old sin, and recognizes its palsy. 
 Or, in happier moments of somewhat assured and tranquil 
 virtue, how we shrink and cower in spirit as we look on 
 the ineffaceable memory of the past, and think "That 
 was I ! " So powerful is this inheritance from our past, 
 that if there is no deHverance from it, if the arm of Christ 
 can only beckon and his love only entreat, then salvation 
 is but a name, and the woe of sin eternal. But it is not 
 so. The first impulse of the converted soul, assailed by its 
 former tyrant, has ever been to flee to its Saviour, and it 
 has ever found him a sure defence. So, too, the ennobling 
 intercourse of the awakened soul with Christ, by some 
 blessed alchemy, transmutes the shameful remembrance 
 of past sins, when once they are truly past, into humble 
 and adoring faith. 
 
 It is not within the purpose of this essay to trace out 
 these processes of regeneration, nor is it permitted here 
 to dwell upon the Christian's joy and peace in believing, 
 the sweet satisfaction of purity regained, of fears replaced 
 by faith, the happy present and the nameless glory of the 
 future. It must suffice to have suggested the far-reaching 
 outline of the perfect work of Jesus. When, where, by 
 what details of method it will be achieved, concerns us 
 little. It is the priceless treasure of our faith that the 
 
JESUS AND THE GOSPEL. 91 
 
 Saviour cannot desist from this reconciling work until 
 every soul that God has made shall be, through all its 
 depths, in harmony with him. The task is vast and 
 difficult beyond conception, and its accomplishment 
 would be plainly impossible if it were committed to any 
 weaker hands than those of the Son of God. The ma- 
 lignity and tenacity of sin, the hardness of human hearts, 
 the unimaginable depths of human ignorance, the slowness 
 with which the weary ages drag their length along, devel- 
 oping constantly new forms of sin and new discourage- 
 ments, — lay upon us in our times of weakness the terrors 
 of a nightmare, and paralyze the voice of faith. But 
 presently a loving touch breaks the fearful spell, and the 
 voice which saved us of old now quickens us again, " Ye 
 beheve in God, beUeve also in me." 
 
92 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 REPENTANCE, FORGIVENESS, SALVATION. 
 
 BY E. C. SWEETSER. 
 
 A MONO the many subjects which engage human 
 ■^^ attention, none is more important than the one 
 now before us. Salvation — the word being used in its 
 most comprehensive and scriptural meaning — is the 
 noblest theme which our minds can dwell on, and the 
 worthiest object which our souls can pursue. Its accom- 
 plishment for all mankind is the purpose for which Jesus 
 Christ came into the world ; it is that for which he lived 
 and labored, suffered, died, and rose again ; it is that for 
 which, when he ascended up on high, he gave gifts unto 
 men, and estabhshed the Church, with its " differences 
 of administrations " and " diversities of operations ; " and 
 it is that for which the Church, in its various branches, 
 exists and works at the present day. Universalist Chris- 
 tians keep this purpose in view not less, at least, than 
 those of other denominations. Like every true follower 
 of him whom the Father sent " to be the Saviour of the 
 world," the Universalist labors with an eye that is single 
 to what he supposes to be the salvation for which his 
 
SAL VATION. 93 
 
 " Captain " lived and died. He differs, however, in 
 some respects with the majority of his fellow Christians 
 in regard to the nature of that salvation and the means 
 by which it must be accomplished, as also in regard to 
 the final extent of it. To set forth the Universalist idea 
 of this subject is the purpose of the present essay. 
 
 The theme naturally divides itself into three parts : the 
 Nature, the Methods, and the Extent of salvation. To 
 the first two we shall mainly confine ourselves. 
 
 I. What is the salvation which the gospel holds out to 
 us? Of what kind of salvation is Jesus the Captain? 
 Not salvation from the demands of justice surely; nor 
 salvation from the punishment which we deserve for our 
 sins ; nor from a future state of endless torment, or, in 
 popular language, from hell. The demands of justice 
 must be met to the uttermost, and if men deserved ever- 
 lasting punishment, they would have to endure it beyond 
 all contingency ; for God's law is without variableness or 
 shadow of turning, and He " by no means " clears the 
 guilty (Ex. xxiv. 7). When a sin is committed, its legiti- 
 mate consequences must follow inevitably. There is no 
 possible salvation from them. God cannot, without con- 
 tradicting himself, release a sinner from a jot or a tittle of 
 the punishment which he merits, nor has He any desire to 
 do so ; for the punishment is necessary, not only to vindi- 
 cate the integrity of the law, but also to subserve the 
 
94 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 transgressor's own profit. It is demanded by mercy no 
 less than by justice (Heb. xii. 7-10). To save a sinner 
 from the punishment which he really deserves would be to 
 save him from that which he is sorely in need of. Such 
 salvation would be an injury rather than a benefit to him. 
 The evil from which men have need to be saved is an 
 actual and present evil, an evil which holds them now in 
 its grasp, enslaving their souls, preventing their progress, 
 and shutting them out from those heavenly experiences 
 which, othenvise, they might enjoy. It is sin itself, the 
 arch-enemy of humanity, which has held mankind in its 
 dreadful bondage ever since the world began. Sin is, 
 demonstrably, the source of nearly all our woes ; and to 
 one who understands its nature, it is evident that, apart 
 from its terrible sequences, it is itself the worst of evils, 
 the thing from which we need salvation far more than 
 from any thing else that concerns us. The Bible teaches 
 that sinners are lost, — not simply that they will be lost, 
 or that they are in danger of being lost, but that they are 
 lost by the simple fact of being in sin, — lost to virtue, 
 lost to truth, lost to the higher joys of life, — yes, even 
 lost to life itself. It calls them "dead" (Eph. ii. 11), 
 and speaks of them as being in their "graves" (Ezek. 
 xxxvii. 12) and in a state of "corruption" (Rom.viii. 21). 
 Christ's mission was to save mankind from this lost con- 
 dition, this condition of slavery, this spiritual lifelessness 
 
SALVATION. 95 
 
 and moral decay. Before he was born it was said of him 
 by the Holy Ghost, " Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for 
 he shall save his people from their sins" (Matt. i. 21). 
 When he entered upon his public ministry, it was said of 
 him, " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the 
 sin of the world " (John i. 29) ; and in his first public 
 announcement, so far as we know, of the work which he 
 had come to do, he said, " The spirit of the Lord is upon 
 me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to 
 the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, 
 to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of 
 sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 
 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord " (Luke iv. 
 18-19). St. Peter said of him, "God, having raised up 
 His Son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every 
 one of you from his iniquities" (Acts iii. 26). St. John 
 says, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all 
 sin" (i John i. 7); and St. Paul says, "The grace 
 of God, which bringeth salvation unto all men, hath ap- 
 peared, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly 
 lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this 
 present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the 
 glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us 
 from all iniquity, and purify us unto himself, a peculiar 
 people zealous of good works " (Titus ii. 11-14); ^'^^ 
 
96 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 again, " Grace be to you, and peace, from God the Father, 
 and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, 
 that he might deHver us from this present evil world, 
 according to the will of God and our Father " (Gal. i. 
 3, 4). In each of these statements, the teaching is that 
 the mission of Jesus is to save us from a present evil, 
 from our worldly captivity, from our bondage to sin. 
 There is no intimation in these, or in any other words of 
 the Bible, that he came to save us from endless torment 
 or from the punishment which we deserve on account of 
 our sins. The salvation which the Bible holds up to our 
 view is not exemption from the consequences of our 
 sinful behavior, but redemption from the very disposition 
 to sin ; and no one can understand the deep significance 
 and transcendent importance of the Saviour's mission 
 unless he looks upon sin from a Biblical stand-point, 
 as being not merely an occasion of punishment, but 
 itself the most hideous and hateful of things. He who 
 thinks only of being saved from future torment, and 
 who, were it not for his fear of hell, would choose to 
 continue in his sins, has yet to learn the alphabet of 
 Christian salvation. 
 
 But sin is not the only thing which we need to be saved 
 from. Mere sinlessness is by no means the equivalent of 
 salvation. A saint in possession of his heavenly inheri- 
 tance is something more than a babe in its cradle. He 
 
SALVATION. 97 
 
 has something more than innocence to present before the 
 throne of God. He has wisdom ; he has virtue ; he has 
 love ; he has holiness ; he is " perfect and entire, wanting 
 nothing " (James i. 4) . By nature we are lacking in almost 
 every thing which is necessary to our inheritance of the 
 heavenly kingdom. Though we are children of God and 
 heirs of His glory, destined at last to reign with Him. in 
 righteousness and peace and joy, yet at present w-e are 
 unable to possess the inheritance, not only because of 
 our sinfulness, but also because of our ignorance, our 
 weakness, and our general state of imperfection. We 
 come into this world, not in a state of total depravity, 
 but in a state of total imperfection, having no knowledge, 
 no strength, no virtue, no graces, — mere living souls, 
 like the first man Adam. Our powers are all in embryo, 
 and though at first we are unconscious of the vast dis- 
 parity bet\veen what we are and what we are meant to be, 
 yet it soon becomes more or less apparent, and causes us 
 more or less trouble and misery. We find ourselves 
 hindered on every side by a sense of our inabihty, incom- 
 pleteness, and insufficiency. Our aspirations far exceed 
 our attainments, and, like caged birds, which, longing for 
 the open air, beat vainly against their prison bars, we fret 
 and strive against the restrictions which the imperfection 
 of our nature imposes upon us. We cannot be com- 
 pletely at peace until those restrictions are taken away. 
 
 7 
 
98 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 To be saved in the highest sense of the word, we must be 
 freed not only from our sins, but from every kind of 
 imperfection. And such is the salvation to which Jesus 
 calls us ; such is the salvation of which he is the Captain. 
 To lead us into such salvation, he came into the world as 
 a feeble babe, taking not upon himself the nature of 
 angels, but the nature of men, being born as we are born, 
 into a condition of imperfection like that of every other 
 babe, that he might grow up into perfectness, being 
 " tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin," 
 and gradually developing into that God-like completeness 
 of character which crowned him in the last years of his 
 life upon earth. Thus he became " the way, and the 
 truth, and the life " for our guidance. In his progress 
 from innocence to holiness, from imperfection to perfec- 
 tion, the true course of salvation is plainly marked out for 
 us. To be truly saved, we must follow him, and to be 
 fully saved, we must become perfect as he is. When he 
 gave gifts unto men, and established the Church with its 
 various offices, it was that we might " all come, in the 
 linity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of 
 God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature 
 of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. iv. 13). Notliing less 
 than that is a full salvation, and until that is attained, the 
 most faithful disciple falls short of his calling, and has 
 need to press onward towards the mark, that he may 
 
SALVATION. 99 
 
 apprehend that for which also he is apprehended of 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 If, instead of looking beyond the grave, and imagining 
 an awful judgment day when some will be cast away 
 to suffer everlasting torment, mankind would fix their 
 thoughts on Jesus and compare themselves with his per- 
 fection, they would see very clearly how great a salvation 
 they are really in need of. Tried even by his unaided 
 conscience, every person is self-condemned ; but tried 
 by the life of Jesus Christ, the best of men are found so 
 faulty that when they look into the depths of their souls, 
 they feel like smiting their breasts, as the publican did, 
 and praying, " God be merciful to me a sinner ! " For 
 as a drop of water which seems perfectly clear to the 
 unassisted eye is seen to be full of wriggling creatures 
 when tested by the microscope, so many of our thoughts 
 and ways, which seem to be quite right when tried by 
 common human standards, appear full of faultiness when 
 tested by the life of Jesus. None may abide the day of 
 his coming ; none may stand when he appeareth : for 
 there is none perfect, — no, not one. But, even as our 
 Father in heaven is perfect, so we must be perfect, before 
 we can say that we need no salvation. 
 
 II. Such being the true nature of the salvation which 
 we need, its attainment evidently does not depend upon 
 the place which we may occupy, or upon any external 
 
lOO THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 conditions whatever. It is a matter of character, not of 
 locality, — of inward being and spiritual experience, not 
 of outward circumstances. To transport an imperfect 
 and sinful man to a place called heaven would not be to 
 save him, though the place might be all that the poets 
 have pictured it, and though he might be permitted to 
 stay there for ever. He would still need salvation as 
 much as before. The realm of salvation is that of which 
 the Master said, " Neither shall they say, Lo here ! or 
 lo there ! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within 
 you" (Luke xvii. 21). 
 
 And as salvation cannot be obtained by any change of 
 locality, neither can it be obtained by any commercial 
 arrangement or system of transfer, such as the scheme 
 of vicarious atonement proposes. To be truly saved, a 
 person must possess not imputed righteousness, but per- 
 sonal righteousness ; he himself must be holy, and holi- 
 ness is a thing which cannot be transferred. As well 
 may a man be saved from sickness by having the health 
 of his physician imputed to him as from his imperfec- 
 tion and his sins by having the righteousness of Jesus 
 imputed to him. It is an impossibility. Such salvation 
 would be fictitious, a delusion or a pretence, having no 
 practical value. 
 
 In order to be truly saved, each person must work out 
 his own salvation within his own soul, putting off the old 
 
SALVATION. lOI 
 
 man with all his sins and imperfections, and putting on 
 a new man, created after God's likeness in righteousness 
 and true Pioliness. It cannot be accomplished in a 
 single hour, as, for example, on a dying bed ; it is a life- 
 long process, calling for constant consecration, daily strug- 
 gle, hourly prayer and sacrifice. It may be begun at 
 any time, but it cannot be finished on this side of the 
 grave. 
 
 A preliminary step in obtaining salvation is to get God's 
 forgiveness for sins that are past. Every sin which a 
 person commits is a barrier between his soul and God : 
 it makes him a subject of God's displeasure, and prevents 
 him from having that oneness with God, that freedom 
 of communion with Him, which is the primary joy of a 
 true state of salvation. To obtain that freedom of com- 
 munion and consequent joy in the Holy Ghost, he must 
 not only cease to sin, but he must secure the removal 
 of the barrier which already exists on account of the sins 
 which he has already committed ; and that is some- 
 thing which he alone cannot accomplish. A sin, once 
 committed, cannot be undone. The person who com- 
 mitted it can never revoke it, and it must stand as a 
 barrier between him and his God, alienating him from 
 the favor of God, till God Himself, against whom the sin 
 has been committed, sees fit to remit it, to put it a\vay, 
 or, in other words, to forgive it; for that is what for- 
 
I02 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 giveness means. ^ To forgive a sin is like forgiving a 
 debt ; and as a creditor, in his kindness towards an in- 
 solvent debtor, may blot out the account which he holds 
 against him, making it as though it had not been, so far 
 as their personal relations are concerned, so God, upon 
 our fulfilment of a certain condition, will forgive all the 
 sins which we have committed against Him, blotting 
 them, as it were, out of the book of His memory, put- 
 ting them away from between Him and us, suffering them 
 no longer to be a cause of condemnation to us, but tak- 
 ing us as fully into His favor as if we had not sinned 
 against Him. Of course. He cannot blot out the fact 
 that the sins have been committed, nor will He absolutely 
 blot them out of His memory ; but in so far as they are a 
 barrier between us and Him, He will make them as 
 though they had not been. He will remember them but 
 He ^vill not remember them " against us " (Ps. Ixxviii. 8) ; 
 they shall not be mentioned unto us (Ezek. xxxiii. i6) ; 
 He will cherish no displeasure towards us on account of 
 them (Rom. viii. i) ; they shall be to us as if they were 
 cast into the depths of the sea (Micah vii. 19). 
 
 1 The Greek word which is translated "forgiveness" in our English 
 version of the Bible is d(|)ecris (aphesis), which literally means a sending 
 away or a putting away; and the primary meaning of the word "for- 
 give " is \.o give away or to resign^ from which comes its secondary mean- 
 ing to give lip. When predicated of sin, it signifies the removal of the 
 barrier which the sin has constituted between him by whom it was com- 
 mitted and Him against whom it was committed. 
 
SALVATION. 103 
 
 The only thing which we have to do in order to obtain 
 such forgiveness of our sins is simply to repent of them. 
 Repentance, however, is indispensable. There is no for- 
 giveness for the sins which we continue to cherish. 
 Christ was not sent to declare forgiveness of the sins 
 which we persist in, but only " to declare His righteous- 
 ness for the remission of sins that are past " (Rom. iii. 
 25). To ask God to put away our sins from before His 
 face, to count them as nothing, and to be well pleased 
 with us while we wilfully continue in them, would be 
 to insult His purity, and do despite to His loving-kind- 
 ness. But whenever we sincerely repent of our sins, 
 God freely forgives them. He puts them away from 
 between Him and us. He does not suffer them to hin- 
 der our communion with Him. He is no longer dis- 
 pleased with us because of them, but takes us fully into 
 His favor. He might do otherwise, were He otherwise 
 disposed. If He were vengeful in His disposition, He 
 might treasure up anger against us on account of the sins 
 which we have committed against Him, and refuse to 
 take us into favor notwithstanding our repentance. He 
 might treat us as we are apt to treat each other, as the 
 unforgiving steward treated his debtor, taking him by 
 the throat, and casting him into prison, because he could 
 not pay the debt. This, indeed, is the way in which, 
 according to the theology of the churches which mo- 
 
I04 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 nopolize the title " Evangelical/' He surely would have 
 treated us, had not Jesus Christ interfered to protect us. 
 We are taught by the creeds of these churches that man- 
 kind, by their sins, had accumulated an infinite debt to 
 their Maker, a debt which they could never pay, and 
 that He, in His wrath, was determined to cast them into 
 hell, there to suffer endless torment, — a fate which would 
 surely have happened to all men, had not Jesus Christ, 
 by his death on the cross, paid off the debt for as many 
 of them as may unite themselves to him in the life that 
 now is, and a fate which will still be the portion of 
 those who do not thus take refuge from it.^ According 
 to this doctrine, God is both a Shylock and a Caiaphas 
 in His character, relentlessly demanding His pound of 
 flesh, and as willing to take it from the breast of the in- 
 nocent as from that of the guilty. The Bible, however, 
 
 1 As an illustration of this doctrine the following, from Mr. Spurgeon, 
 may here be quoted : " We read in the papers lately how a man was saved 
 from being shot. He had been condemned in a Spanish court, but, being 
 an American citizen and also of English birth, the consuls of the two 
 countries interposed, and declared that the Spanish authorities had no 
 power to put him to death ; and what did they do to secure his life ? 
 They wrapped him up in their flags ; they covered him with the Stars 
 and Stripes and the Union Jack, and defied the executioners. There 
 stood the man and before him the soldiery ; and, though a shot might have 
 ended his life, yet he was as invulnerable as though in a coat of triple 
 steel. Even so Jesus Christ has taken my poor guilty soul ever since 
 I believed in him, and has wrapped around me the blood-red flag of his 
 atoning sacrifice ; and before God can destroy me, or any other soul that 
 is wrapped in the atonement, He must insult His own son, and dishonor 
 his sacrifice, and that He will never do, blessed be His name." 
 
SALVATION. 
 
 105 
 
 gives no support to such a doctrine. Its teaching uni- 
 formly is that God, of His o^\^l free gi-ace and pleasure, 
 immediately forgives all sins upon the simple condition 
 of the sinner's repentance. He asks no further satisfac- 
 tion. This is the teaching of both Testaments. When 
 God made His covenant with Solomon at the dedica- 
 tion of the temple. He said, " If my people, which are 
 called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, 
 and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then 
 ^\■ill I hear from heaven, and wdll forgive their sin " (2 
 Chron. vii. 14). When John the Baptist came to pre- 
 pare the way for Jesus, he preached "the baptism of 
 repentance for the remission of sins " (Mark i. 4) ; and 
 when Jesus, after his resurrection, instructed his disci- 
 ples what to preach in his name, it was in the same short 
 and simple formula, to which, however, he had given 
 such new power and meaning, — the message of " repent- 
 ance and remission of sins " (Luke xxiv. 47). 
 
 As to repentance, let it be distinguished from that 
 which sometimes takes the name. True repentance is 
 not mere sorrow for the sins which we have committed : 
 it is not a mere wish that we had kept ourselves pure ; 
 nor is it remorse or despair. A person may be sorry 
 for his sins for selfish reasons, simply on account of the 
 pain which they cause him. He may be sorry for them 
 for conscientious reasons, and still lack the necessary 
 
Io6 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 will to break loose from them. Or, he may be sorry for 
 them with such a feeling of self-reproach and detestation 
 as to try to break loose from them by putting an end to 
 his own existence ; but such sorrow is not true repent- 
 ance. True repentance springs from a conscience which 
 is quickened by love, and proves itself by works of love. 
 Its motive is unselfish, and its result is a sincere en- 
 deavor to do the Heavenly Father's will. He who truly 
 repents of his sins views them not merely as acts of folly, 
 involving painful consequences ; nor merely as offences 
 against the law of right and duty, involving a sense of 
 personal guiltiness ; but chiefly as offences against God's 
 love, involving ingratitude towards Him and unfilial aliena- 
 tion from Him. His repentance is not directed towards 
 himself, nor towards an abstract law of justice, nor tow- 
 ards any unknowable " power not ourselves which makes 
 for righteousness : " it is directed towards a personal 
 Being, against whose love he has offended ; it is " repent- 
 ance towards God" (Acts xx. 21), and involves not 
 only a feeling of shame and of sorrow on account of the 
 sin, but also a desire to make reparation, so far as pos- 
 sible, by a future course of loving conduct. True re- 
 pentance leads the sinner to seek the face of God, saying, 
 " Father, I have sinned in Thy sight," and " Lord, what 
 wilt Thou have me to do." It is not such a state of 
 mind and soul as that which drove Judas to go forth and 
 
SALVATION. 107 
 
 hang himself, but such as that which led Peter, in answer 
 to Christ's look of love, to go out and weep bitterly, and 
 afterwards to devote his life to the upbuilding of his 
 Master's kingdom. 
 
 We cannot truly repent towards God unless we love 
 Him, and unless we do repent towards Him, He will 
 not and cannot forgive us our sins ; but when we do 
 repent towards Him, humbly confessing our ungrateful 
 transgressions, and returning, in a spirit of filial love, to 
 the path of duty and devotion, "He is faithful and just 
 to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
 righteousness" (i John i. 9). When we have repented 
 and received forgiveness, we are already saved to a cer- 
 tain extent, and have taken the first and principal step 
 towards a final and complete salvation. We are saved 
 from some sin and from alienation from God ; and, in 
 order to be saved from all sin and imperfection, we have 
 only to continue in the path of obedience to God's holy 
 laws, using the various means of progress which He, in 
 His infinite goodness, provides for us, and looking stead- 
 ily unto Jesus, as a runner looks steadily unto his goal. 
 
 These truths are set forth with incomparable force and 
 beauty in the immortal parable of the prodigal son. The 
 prodigal was a sinner, and a type of all sinners, lost in 
 the mazes of transgression and iniquity. He needed 
 salvation, not from the demands of justice in another 
 
Io8 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 world, not from a future state of endless torment, but 
 from the state which he was then in ; and how did 
 he get it? Simply by repentance and by works that 
 were meet for repentance. He came to himself, was 
 sincerely sorry for the sins which he had committed 
 against his father's loving-kindness, and, with a humble, 
 contrite, and affectionate spirit, returned to his father, 
 confessed his sins, and asked — or would have asked if 
 his father had not anticipated him — for the privilege 
 of a servant's place. In answer to his penitence, he 
 immediately received forgiveness. His father cherished 
 no spite against him, no bitterness, no wrath, no desire 
 for revenge, but took him at once to his arms of love, 
 and gave him an honored place in the household. He 
 was saved from his lost and dead condition, as every 
 sinner may be saved if he will likewise repent and seek 
 his Heavenly Father's face. Repentance will always 
 be followed by forgiveness, and repentance and forgive- 
 ness will be followed by salvation ; or, rather, the three 
 processes will be simultaneous. There is no interval 
 between them. In the very act of repentance, we obtain 
 forgiveness and salvation. 
 
 Let it be re-emphasized, however, that such salvation 
 is not complete. The prodigal son, when restored to 
 his father's house and favor, though saved from his prodi- 
 gality and from his state of sinful alienation, was sorely 
 
SALVATION. 109 
 
 in need of still further salvation. For the natural ef- 
 fects of his prodigality must have clung to him long after 
 his return to sobriety, and have hindered him from en- 
 joying the estate of perfection. Repentance and for- 
 giveness restored him to his father's house, but they 
 could not restore the money which he had wasted in 
 riotous Hving, nor restore at once his shattered health, 
 nor repair the injury which he had done to his spir- 
 itual nature by perverting its powers and stunting its 
 growth. He was not the same man that he would have 
 been had he not wasted his substance in the service 
 of sin. After living on husks till he was reduced to a 
 skeleton, he needed something more than repentance 
 and forgiveness to make him a sound and perfect man. 
 Nothing but a long course of patient obedience to the 
 laws of right living could complete his salvation. And 
 so it is with all of us. By repentance and forgiveness 
 we enter the Kingdom ; but, having entered, we must go 
 on and on in the living way, working out more and more 
 of our promised salvation till at last we are perfect as 
 our Captain is perfect. We may be partially saved in 
 the Hfe that now is, but only in the life which is to come 
 can we attain the full measure of the stature of Christ. 
 How long it will take, we do not know. It is enough 
 that we know the eternal conditions. 
 
 If it be objected that no mention has been made of 
 salvation by faith, the answer is, that the necessity of 
 
no THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 faith has been taken for granted in all that has been thus 
 far said, and so too with the agency of Christ in the 
 matter. When we say that each person must work out 
 his own salvation, and that forgiveness will be granted 
 to repentance alone, we by no means make void the 
 necessity of faith or of the mediatorial work of Jesus. 
 On the contrary, we establish that necessity ; for faith 
 in God as revealed in Christ is requisite to true repent- 
 ance. We cannot go to our Heavenly Father in a spirit 
 of true penitence unless we " believe that He is, and that 
 He is a re warder of them that diligently seek Him," 
 (Heb. xi. i6) ; and we cannot believe that He is our 
 Heavenly Father unless we believe in Christ His Son, 
 through whom alone His paternal character has been 
 clearly revealed to us (Matt. xi. 27). Faith is the back- 
 ground of repentance ; but as a background without a 
 picture is useless, so faith is useless unless it leads to 
 repentance and to works that are meet for repentance. 
 Faith has saving efficacy only when it "works by love" 
 (Gal. V. 6). In order to be fully saved, we must "add 
 to our faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to 
 knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and 
 to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly-kind- 
 ness, and to brotherly-kindness charity " (2 Peter i. 
 
 15-17)- 
 
 If again it be objected that nothing has been said 
 
 about salvation by grace, the answer is that it also has 
 
SALVATION. Ill 
 
 been implied. God's grace is the primal and universal 
 force which lies behind and within the whole process 
 of salvation, — behind our faith, our repentance, the for- 
 giveness of our sins, our growth in knowledge, our works 
 of love. Without it, we could do nothing, and would 
 be nothing. But this does not militate against the fact 
 that each person must work out his own salvation. On 
 the contrary, we are told to work out our own salvation 
 for the very reason that God works in us to accomplish 
 His pleasure (Phil. ii. 12, 13). He will save us in no 
 other way. He will simply help us to help ourselves, 
 which, with God as with man, is the best kind of charity. 
 He will no more save us without our own effort than He 
 will give us a har\^est ^vithout our tilling of the soil. 
 He is indeed the God of harvests, and without His in- 
 fluence none would grow ; but in order to obtain a har- 
 vest the husbandman must plant and cultivate. And so 
 in regard to the work of salvation : we are " God's hus- 
 bandry," and He is our Saviour, first and last. By His 
 grace we are saved ; but only as we utilize it, only as we 
 obey its unchanging conditions. We must work with 
 God, in order that God may work with us. As to His 
 part of the process, there is no room for uncertainty. 
 His grace is unfailing. Where sin abounds. His infi- 
 nite love much more abounds ; and whenever we choose 
 to avail ourselves of it, we shall find it sufficient for our 
 needs. He yearns over us ^vith an infinite longing 
 
112 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 for our salvation, and will not be satisfied till the whole 
 human family is perfected and glorified. He has made 
 us for salvation ; and, unless we all are saved at last, His 
 work will be a failure, and His heart will be for ever sad. 
 So, although His power to save us is contingent upon 
 our voluntary obedience to the conditions of salvation, 
 yet, in view of all of the facts in the case, we cannot 
 reasonably doubt that His purpose concerning us will 
 at last be fulfilled. Such are the resources of his 
 fatherly love that he will finally draw all men unto Him. 
 Jesus shall " see of the travail of his soul and be satis- 
 fied " (Isaiah liii. ii). He "shall save his people from 
 their sins ; " and his people are all men from the fact 
 that he was human-born. Through the influence of the 
 Holy Spirit, which will be shed abroad in their hearts, all 
 men will believe and repent and obey. Then will the 
 creation no longer groan and travail in pain together, 
 but the tabernacle of God will be with men, and He 
 will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and 
 God Himself shall be with them and be their God ; and 
 there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor cry- 
 ing, nor any more pain ; for the former things shall 
 have passed away (Rev. xxi. 3,4). All things will be 
 made new, and the whole creation will be delivered from 
 sin and death and every form of imperfection into the 
 glorious liberty of the children of God. 
 
PUNISHMENT. 
 
 113 
 
 PUNISHMENT. 
 
 BY ASA SAXE, D. D. 
 
 *" I ^O those who press their inquiries to any considerable 
 extent into the subject, it is evident that punish- 
 ment is a great fact in the moral administration of the 
 world. It seems to inhere in the very idea of a moral 
 system. Let it be granted that God is a moral being, and 
 that man, whom he has undertaken to govern, is a moral 
 being also, and it will follow that moral law must grow as 
 a necessity out of the relations of governor and governed. 
 Hence, penalty, whose sequence is punishment, must 
 form an essential part of any valid body of morals. 
 
 Penalty, the enforcement of which is punishment, is 
 necessary to give validity to any law. In fact, an enact- 
 ment without a penalty is not a law. It lacks one of the 
 cardinal elements of law. It sometimes occurs that 
 human legislators neglect to attach a penalty to an enact- 
 ment, when of course it transpires that, notwithstanding 
 the gravity of the subject to which it relates, practically 
 it is a nullity. Even in the realm of physics, a law without 
 a penalty would be void. That is to say, a law would be 
 
 8 
 
114 ^^^^^ LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 in fact no law at all, which, whether obeyed or disobeyed, 
 enforced or uninforced, leaves the result precisely the same. 
 A law, whether physical, organic, or moral, is a principle 
 or a demand which issues in certain definite results. 
 When the law is set at defiance, not only are the legiti- 
 mate results not realized, but damage and disaster accrue 
 in proportion to the importance and sanctity of the law 
 infracted. This principle is founded in the nature of 
 things, and is therefore a fundamental in morals. There 
 could be no such thing as morals, were there no such factor 
 as punishment, and did obedience and disobedience lead 
 to the same results, and ripen into the same fruit. 
 
 Punishment, then, must have a place in any complete 
 theological system. For a theological system is an attempt 
 to define the nature of God, and his relations to humanity, 
 thus encompassing the whole domain of morals ; and it 
 would be obviously deficient without that which is essen- 
 tial to give vitality to all law. It should therefore have a 
 very prominent place. 
 
 Punishment may be defined to be the infliction of 
 the penalty attached to disobedience. But we should 
 be careful to discriminate between it and hatred and 
 vengeance. To many, suffering inflicted, and hatred on 
 the part of him by whom it is inflicted, are synonymous. 
 Especially has it been conceived by those who have but 
 a limited grasp of the subject, that punishment inflicted 
 
P UNISHMENT. 1 1 5 
 
 upon a human soul by the Divine Being is indicative of his 
 hatred for that soul ; and the figurative language of the 
 Bible, wherein God is described as taking vengeance, has 
 been the favorite form by which to set it forth, in forget- 
 fulness of that fitter and completer Scriptural statement, 
 " Whom the Lord loz>efh he chasteneth." We fall into the 
 gravest of all possible errors when we confound severity 
 with unkindness. It is the purpose for which severity is 
 visited which must determine whether it is kind or unkind. 
 If it is for the purpose of benefiting the one on whom it is 
 inflicted, instead of its being an unkindness, the withhold- 
 ing of it would be a most conspicuous manifestation of 
 that temper. Hatred and vengeance, unquestionably, 
 have severe methods of expressing themselves ; and, when 
 backed by competent power, it is truly an awful thing to 
 fall under their visitations. In human history, these pas- 
 sions have played a prominent part ; and, when they have 
 come in conflict in great crises, the concussion has been 
 something tremendous, with the echoes reverberating 
 through distant generations. 
 
 But, terrible as are the inflictions of vengeance, they 
 pale often before the supreme severity of love. There is 
 nothing so relentless and terrific to the wilful doer of 
 evil as the methods it may adopt for the accomplishment 
 of its ends. Punishment in the divine economy, then, is 
 not the manifestation of hatred, but the sign and instru- 
 ment of love. 
 
Il6 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 When we approach the methods of divine punishment, 
 we open a vast theme, the full unfolding of which would 
 require volumes. We can only touch upon it here. In 
 general terms, it may be said that, by a law impressed 
 upon human nature, the consequences of sin are made its 
 punishment. Moral philosophers solve the problem by 
 an application of the inseparable relations of cause and 
 effect. God does not resort to factious means, he does not 
 depend upon the rod of outward chastisement, nor has he 
 any need to travel outside of the beaten path of established 
 law to bring the pressure of punishment upon a sinning 
 soul ; for he has prepared more awful scourges within the 
 individual consciousness : the wounds, the damage, the 
 shame which sin impresses, the natural and irreversible 
 consequences which flow from it, are sufficient. But it is 
 necessary that we make some discrimination in regard to 
 these consequences as they appear on the surface of 
 things, or we shall fall into error. It will not do to say 
 that all the consequences of sin are to be ranked as its 
 punishment, although in a remote sense they are such, 
 and will Be made the instruments of its infliction. It 
 would hardly be proper, for example, to call the physical 
 consequences of sin a part of its punishment. Certain 
 sins lead to very grave physical results, to bodily disease, 
 imbecility, insanity. But these are not necessarily con- 
 nected with sin at all. Intemperance and impurity may 
 
P UNISHMENT. 1 1 7 
 
 sap the foundations of health and drain the brain of its 
 juices, ending in dehrium and death ; and so may these 
 terrible conditions be superinduced while the soul is guilt- 
 less of any wrong or guile. The very diseases which these 
 sins bring may come upon one wholly innocent. Wicked 
 excesses may shatter the nerves and destroy the mind, and 
 so may an accidental injury to the spine. A murderous 
 blow may destroy the life of a man, and so may a stroke 
 of lightning, or any unforeseen and unavoidable casualty. 
 In the one case there is no sin, while in the other there is the 
 darkest form of it. The physical consequences, however, 
 are the same. It cannot be possible that a form of suffering 
 which is the result of accident, and is inflicted upon the 
 innocent, can be reckoned as forming an essential part of 
 the punishment of the guilty. Physical disease and pain 
 are the direct result of the violation of some physical or 
 organic law, and they are precisely the same whether 
 moral guilt or accident or any other cause has wrought 
 them. 
 
 A man in a moment of passion strikes a blow which 
 causes the death of his own son. It might be said the 
 loss of his son, which to any parent would be a supreme 
 bereavement, is in part his punishment. But, supposing the 
 son is killed by accident, he loses him all the same ; and, so 
 far as the loss is concerned, he suffers the same in one case 
 as the other. The mere fact that he has lost the com- 
 
Il8 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 panionship of his child cannot enter directly into the pun- 
 ishment for his sin. In short, punishment for sin must be 
 something entirely distinct from any thing which the inno- 
 cent experience. It cannot therefore consist of any form 
 of temporal calamity or bodily distress ; for these in count- 
 less variety and in every conceivable form come upon the 
 innocent as well as the guilty. Punishment for sin is an 
 experience wholly within the soul. It is something purely 
 moral and spiritual. It is not simply mental distress, for 
 this may come upon the innocent ; but it is a peculiar kind 
 of mental distress. It is not simply regret for the wrong 
 done because it has resulted in evil, but it is remorse for 
 the wrong because it is wrong. 
 
 Now sin may lead to other forms of suffering. And so 
 may innocence. But, let it be reiterated, innocence and 
 transgression are never visited with the same stripes. 
 There is a lash prepared for the guilty which never can 
 touch any but the guilty, — viz., the lash of remorse. 
 Nevertheless, the external consequences of wrong-doing 
 may be made the instruments of intensifying remorse. 
 When conscience unsheathes its flaming sword, its 
 terribleness will be magnified by a consciousness of the 
 harm to ourselves and others which our wrongs have 
 wrought. We learn to recognize sin by the harm it does. 
 That which neither directly nor remotely does any harm 
 cannot be sinful. When we awake to a consciousness of 
 
P UNISHMENT. 119 
 
 our sins, we must do so in connection with a realization 
 and survey of their baleful consequences ; and the sting of 
 remorse is embittered by them, no doubt. And thus they 
 are made the instruments of torture to the stricken spirit ; 
 nevertheless, the torture, the punishment, is remorse. 
 
 The object of punishment is twofold. Its intention is 
 to deter from sin and to recover from sin. To the end 
 that the first purpose may be served, the penalty for trans- 
 gression, from the beginning, has been clearly enunciated. 
 " In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," 
 was the divine announcement before the first sin had been 
 committed ; and it was the voice of warning and for the 
 purpose of restraint. The publication and unfolding of 
 penalty is always with reference to this, albeit its infliction 
 has reference chiefly to the recovery of the sinner. The 
 penalty is uncovered and made conspicuous, that the soul 
 may have timely warning of the danger, as destructive 
 reefs are buoyed and channels marked out for the safety 
 of navigators. It is true this is a direct appeal to fear, 
 which is recognized as one of the baser elements of human 
 nature, and therefore objected to by some, who hold that 
 it would be unworthy God to address any but the highest 
 motives to men. But, whether base or exalted, we do find 
 the motive of fear occupying a prominent place among 
 the incentives which are constantly determining human 
 conduct and by which human character is being shaped. 
 
I20 THE LATEST WORD OF UXIVERSALISM. 
 
 We are to presume that it is not there by accident, but 
 that God wisely put it there, and therefore its use is 
 entirely legitimate. Doubtless every string of this won- 
 derful nature of ours may be properly touched, and, if 
 properly touched, will contribute to the general harmony. 
 The faculties of the soul are the constituents of a vast 
 republic ; and every one is entitled to a voice and to its 
 legitimate influence. It will not do, therefore, to conclude 
 that, because a motive is not the highest, an appeal to it 
 is either improper or debasing. Prudence, caution, fear, 
 which are different names for a common impulse, as vigi- 
 lant sentinels to give warning of the approach of danger, 
 are neither to be ignored nor despised, even in the admin- 
 istration of religious influence. 
 
 It is proper that men should be deterred from sin by 
 an apprehension of its fearful consequences, — far better 
 that they should be thus restrained than that they should 
 plunge into its fiery vortex to receive and inflict damage. 
 It is better for the man thus restrained, and far better for 
 peaceable and upright people who are protected by his 
 restraint. It is better that a man of wicked and desperate 
 purpose should be chained, than that he be allowed to 
 depredate upon the property and lives of his fellow-beings, 
 although the restraint of principle would be far better than 
 a material fetter. But, where the higher motive is not avail- 
 able, the lower is legitimate and entirely salutary. It is there- 
 
PUNISHMENT. 121 
 
 fore of very great importance that the penalty for sin should 
 be made serious, even terrific, that it should be clearly un- 
 folded and rigidly inflicted purely for purposes of intimida- 
 tion and restraint upon people viciously inclined. This is 
 clearly a legitimate use to which to put this potent instru- 
 ment of punishment. With the present state of human 
 development, society could not hold together without the 
 conservative bands of this wholesome fear. 
 
 But a still higher office of punishment is its remedial 
 power. From a philanthropic stand-point, this so far 
 overtops the other in importance that many have recog- 
 nized it as the only intent of its ordainment. Undoubt- 
 edly, the two purposes to be served so far harmonize that 
 what is requisite to accomplish the one is fully adequate 
 for the other. The unrest, the shame, the sorrow, which 
 the disease of sin requires as a remedy, are ample in 
 severity and duration to serve the purposes of restraint in 
 the most extreme cases. Hence, while punishment is 
 designed to be a terror to evil doers, and men suffer for 
 sin as examples and warnings, it is nevertheless true that 
 no suffering comes to the transgressor as the penalty of his 
 wrong which is not needed as medicine to quench the virus 
 of a rebellious spirit. Not a throe of pain is experienced 
 not incident to the cure of a deep-rooted disease. Not a 
 stripe is laid wantonly or vindictively. The tenderness of 
 God would not permit a single pang which had not a 
 
122 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 kind purpose behind it, nor one not absolutely neces- 
 sitated by the exigencies of the case. Any suffering, how- 
 ever slight, not sanctified by such purpose and necessity, 
 would be incompatible with the character of God as 
 Christianity unfolds it. There has been much speculation 
 as to whether any such necessity really exists, and whether 
 God might not have ordained a different and easier process 
 for the recovery of lost souls. It is not an easy task to 
 determine what God might or might not have done, and a 
 proper modesty perhaps would forbid that we make the 
 attempt ; yet admitting the facts of human nature and 
 experience, admitting the moral responsibihty of the soul, 
 and that in the exercise of that responsibility it has lapsed 
 into sin, it is not easy to perceive how it can be brought 
 out of that condition, without practically destroying its 
 moral freedom and responsibility, by a process essen- 
 tially different from the one which has been chosen. It 
 certainly is not easy to see how the result can be wrought 
 without the suffering of punishment. A sinful soul, in order 
 to have the impulse of reformation quickened in it, must 
 be made in some way to feel that wickedness is not the 
 best and most desirable condition to be in ; on the contrary, 
 it must be made to feel that it is the worst and most un- 
 satisfactory condition possible. In order to produce this 
 feeling, disquietude and suffering must come. The dis- 
 quietude and suffering must be intimately associated in the 
 
PUNISHMENT. 
 
 123 
 
 sinner's mind with the practices and tendencies of his hfe. 
 He must be made to reahze that disquietude and dissatis- 
 faction are stinging him because he is on the wrong road 
 and headed in the wrong direction. Nor can the concep- 
 tion of virtue be had, or the impulse thereto, until there is 
 a clear reaHzation of the sinfulness of sin, and the regret, 
 the shame, the remorse which this realization engenders. 
 Punishment, then, becomes, if not the cause, most certainly 
 a necessary adjunct and promoter of human reformation. 
 In all its phases, its touch is healing and health-inspiring. 
 It is one of the agencies of redemption. It is an ordeal 
 through which debased and dead souls must pass ere they 
 can rise into spiritual life and be rounded into holiness. 
 
 But, after all, punishment, with all its efficacy as a re- 
 demptive agent, is not clothed with full regenerative power. 
 It has been very properly likened to medicine, which 
 is often bitter, but always administered for the purpose of 
 healing. Medicine alone, however, never can work a cure. 
 At most, it can only clear away obstructions and help the 
 vital and recuperative powers of nature to assert themselves 
 and do their work. So of punishment. Of itself, it can 
 only clear a field for the operation of other and mightier 
 forces. There should be a clear distinction made between 
 the wtpulse to a new life derived firom the bitter experience 
 of the fruit of sin and the power by which such change 
 is effected. The impulse to the achievement of a thing 
 
124 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALIS^. 
 It 
 
 does not imply the power to achieve it. Men have been 
 impelled to undertake many things which they have found 
 no means of accomplishing. They have been impelled, 
 by a hunger for knowledge, to learn whether the planets 
 are inhabited, and, if so, by what sort of beings, but the 
 impulse has not been able to produce a glass of sufficient 
 power to unfold the mystery. They have been impelled, 
 by a realization of the great uses to which it might be put, 
 to the discovery of the principle of perpetual motion, but 
 with no result whatever but disappointment. The impulse 
 has been upon theologians from time immemorial to solve 
 the problems of divine sovereignty and human agency ; 
 brains have sweat, and intellectual swords wielded by giants 
 have been crossed, without even an approximation to suc- 
 cess. A still stronger impulse was upon a dying world to 
 penetrate the secrets of the hereafter and discover immor- 
 tality ; but notwithstanding the inexorable necessity, and 
 the yearning, the intensity of which is set forth by the strik- 
 ing figure of travail, no man ever opened that mysterious 
 iron door until Jesus furnished the key. The impulse to 
 achieve is one thing, and the power to achieve is clearly 
 another thing. The punishment of sin when it culminates 
 in its sharpest crises superinduces supreme dissatisfaction 
 on the part of the sinner with his condition. It kindles 
 a longing for something better, — for moral health, refor- 
 mation, holiness. 
 
P UNISHMENT. 125 
 
 But, when it has done this, it has fulfilled its office and 
 exhausted its powers. The situation of the sinner would 
 not be bettered, on the contrary it would be made worse, 
 were he left with no further ministration. To make a man 
 dissatisfied and miserable will not help him per se. Suffer- 
 ing alone never gave a man strength to resist temptation, 
 nor spun a single fibre by which to lift him out of degra- 
 dation. For all the aid it could render, he might wrestle 
 for ever \vith the coils which are crushing him. It must 
 be supplemented by other and more potent instrumentali- 
 ties, for punishment alone does not and cannot save. It 
 simply prepares the way for other forces to operate, makes 
 the soul teachable and receptive, bringing it into an atti- 
 tude where the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit can 
 be apphed. As the initiative of the work of the soul's 
 salvation, its importance cannot be overestimated, but for 
 the consummation of that sublime undertaking reliance 
 must be had upon the conscious ministry of divine love. 
 Men can only be quickened into spiritual life and realize 
 their aspiration for holiness by the grace of God, by the 
 direct help he vouchsafes those who seek it. To a soul 
 surrounded by trouble and smelting in the fires of re- 
 morse, there comes the voice of encouragement. Upon 
 the dark waves of misery shimmers the sunlight of hope. 
 A father's countenance is beaming, and a father's strong 
 hand is stretched forth. He who clasps that hand in 
 
126 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 confiding trust, and he alone, can be led out of the 
 shadow. 
 
 But what will be the duration of punishment ? Will it 
 be limited or endless ? These are questions which to-day 
 are engaging the attention and pressing upon the feelings 
 of the world as they never have before. Among the 
 masses, they have become living questions, and are recog- 
 nized as involving imminent issues ; and it is noteworthy 
 that in their discussion they are taken outside the circle 
 of Scriptural exegesis into the wider field of moral prin- 
 ciple and the everlasting fitness of things. This subject is 
 being examined by the most earnest, reverent, and critical 
 minds, in regard to its relations to the character of God as 
 Christianity reveals it, and to the intuitive consciousness of 
 abstract right in men ; and there seems to be a general feel- 
 ing that the old doctrine of endless punishment must 
 stand or fall as it shall be found to be in harmony or con- 
 flict with these, — must stand if it is found to be in har- 
 mony, but if in conflict must fall hopelessly, in spite of 
 any buttress, whether Scriptural or otherwise, which can be 
 brought to its support. It is quite clear, however, that, 
 when brought to these tests, it breaks down utterly. 
 
 Punishment can comport with the beneficent character 
 of God only by virtue of its beneficent purpose. If its 
 purpose is not beneficent, then, even without any regard to 
 the degree of its severity, it either impeaches the goodness 
 
P UNISHMENT. 127 
 
 of the Great Being who ordained it, or it is an anomaly 
 in creation, existing without the permission of God and in 
 spite of his power. Regarded as an instrument for de- 
 terring men from sin and one of the agencies for the 
 recovery of the fallen, it readily falls into harmony with 
 our most exalted conceptions of divine goodness, wisdom, 
 and power. But endless punishment is not beneficent ; 
 for in no way can it be made to ser\^e a good end. For 
 purposes of reformation, from the very nature of the case 
 the infliction of it must be a failure ; and, according to the 
 old conception of the finale of human history, there will 
 come a time when for purposes of restraint it will not be 
 needed. Many seem to think that limited punishment is 
 the same in nature and character as that which is un- 
 limited, and that the considerations which will harmonize 
 the former with divine goodness will harmonize the latter. 
 But this is by no means true. Endless punishment is not 
 the principle of restraint and cure, which is so clearly 
 compatible with eternal right, simply perpetuated without 
 limit as some have apprehended it, but it is essentially and 
 radically a different thing. If it be conceded that punish- 
 ment is a divine method of deterring from sin and saving 
 the lost, that it was ordained for that purpose and that 
 only, then endless punishment is a misnomer. There 
 might be endless suffering, but it could only be character- 
 ized as endless revenge, and not punishment. Let it be 
 
128 THE LATEST WORD OF UXIVERSALISM. 
 
 emphasized, according to any wholesome definition of 
 punishment, any at all in harmony with Christian principle, 
 it must from the very nature of the case be limited in 
 duration, and endless punishment is an impossibihty. It 
 would seem to be a serious thing to charge upon God the 
 ordainment of an instrumentality which of necessity must 
 defeat its own end, which must ultimately become useless 
 as a restraint, and, instead of being efficient as a reform- 
 atory power, inexorably bars every avenue to reform and 
 salvation. If it was the design of this penalty simply to 
 perpetuate wickedness and increase the sum of human 
 misery, it might be pronounced a pre-eminent success, 
 while for sheer cruelty and cool diabolism it could have no 
 parallel in fact or imagination ; but, if its purpose be 
 reform and blessing, it must be characterized as a failure, 
 and the stupendous folly and stupidity of its enactment 
 cannot be overstated. 
 
 If it results beneficently, as it would seem all the 
 agencies of a beneficent God of infinite power must 
 result, it cannot be othenvise than of limited duration ; for 
 the blessing can only come after punishment has done its 
 complete work and its functions have ceased. If the 
 functions of punishment are to restrain and reform, suc- 
 cessful punishment must ultimate in restraining and re- 
 forming all men ; that is to say, it must do its part in this 
 work and then cease and determine. If any one inquires 
 
P UNISHMENT. 1 2 9 
 
 whether punishment will be unending, basing our conclu- 
 sions on these considerations, with very great confidence 
 and emphasis a negative reply may be given. But, if the 
 question is as to the precise date at which it will end, the 
 answer must be, — no man can tell. The most definite 
 thing which can be affirmed with regard to it is, it will be 
 when it has wrought its work and accomplished its end. 
 It will certainly have taken place when Jesus, having 
 brought all sinners to bow in penitence and submission, 
 having subdued all things to himself, shall deliver up the 
 kingdom, and " God shall become all in all." It is 
 difficult, ay, impossible, to see any field or function for 
 punishment beyond that jubilant consummation. 
 
 There is one other element of divine punishment, which, 
 in order that it may reach the maximum of its restraining 
 efficacy, should be clearly unfolded and vigorously set 
 forth, — viz., its certainty. This great, potent instrumental- 
 ity has to a large extent been shorn of its influence in re- 
 ligious teaching, notwithstanding the emphasis which has 
 been thrown upon its severity, because its certainty has 
 been reduced to the minimum. While endless punish- 
 ment has been set forth as the most fearful thing of which 
 it is possible for the human imagination to conceive, while 
 
 it has been embodied in blood-curdling figures and clothed 
 in awful rhetoric, even as an excitant of human fear, to a 
 very considerable extent, it has proved a failure on account 
 
 9 
 
130 TIFF. LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 of the uncertainty which has hung about it. It is not 
 often that any man has apprehended it as something pre- 
 pared for himself, while the few who have done so have 
 usually become insane. It has never been preached as 
 the penalty for sin which will inevitably be enforced. To 
 do so would be to absolutely quench the hope of the 
 world, for all have sinned. If unending suffering is de- 
 nounced upon transgression, then the element of uncer- 
 tainty must inhere in it, unless all men are to be its victims. 
 Accordingly, men have been taught, not if they go into sin 
 they will surely suffer its penalty which is endless, but that 
 they will suffer it unless they repent before the day of 
 probation shall close. This possibility of escape substan- 
 tially annuls its power to stimulate restraining fear. With 
 repentance and conversion, — a metamorphosis which may 
 be instantaneously experienced and thus the penalty for 
 sin entirely escaped, — the fear of hell will not be likely to 
 weigh very heavily upon the average sinner, nor will he be 
 very reluctant to go into forms of transgression which he 
 is persuaded may possibly have no unpleasant conse- 
 quences whatever attached to them. If we would make 
 punishment truly appalling, we must make men feel that it 
 is something that is sure to come in all its fulness upon 
 the soul that sins. 
 
 It is held by many who are really well-meaning and 
 somewhat thoughtful that it would be dangerous to the 
 
PUNISHMENT. 131 
 
 morals of the world to have the duration of punishment 
 relaxed or made any thing short of endless, especially if 
 men are taught that it will issue in salvation. But in 
 human laws it has been found that the severest have not 
 been the most restraining, but rather those most likely to 
 be executed. It was found that the death penalty for 
 theft was not as efficacious to prevent the crime as some- 
 thing milder, which could be uniformly enforced. So it 
 will be found that what will be lost to the power of divine 
 punishment to deter from sin by the limitation of its 
 duration will be more than made up by its certainty. Im- 
 press upon the human soul the fact that, although the 
 consequence of sin is not endless suffering, it is something 
 fearful, perhaps beyond what any man has conceived ; 
 that, fearful as it is, it is nevertheless in harmony with the 
 divine character and sanctioned by the purest love, and 
 such as it is will be infallibly executed, and it would seem 
 that we shall get all the leverage from human fear for 
 awakening and redemption that is either wholesome or 
 needful. In fact, we get the greatest possible. It is not 
 for the purpose of quenching or diminishing fear as an 
 element of rehgious influence, but of increasing and inten- 
 sifying it, that our theologies should be reconstructed, and 
 punishment be set forth as limited, but certain. We would 
 have it changed from an empty threat, which from its very 
 nature and because of its fearfulness cannot surely be 
 
I "^ 2 
 
 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 fulfilled, to a solemn verity which can by no possibility 
 fail. 
 
 We are persuaded that, while no religious instrumen- 
 tality has ever yet unfolded the fulness of its possible 
 strength, it is pre-eminently true that fear has not ; and 
 when divine punishment shall be truly apprehended, and 
 when it shall have taken its proper place among the 
 Christian forces, it will develop a potency undreamed of 
 by any man, and do execution in the ranks of the enemy, 
 which shall be recognized as at once unprecedented and 
 tremendous. To exalt punishment to this place and give 
 it this power is a work worthy the best endeavors of the 
 Christian thinker and philanthropist. 
 
SCRIPTURE EXEGESIS. 133 
 
 THE RATIONALE OF SCRIPTURE EXEGESIS. 
 
 BY GEORGE HILL. 
 
 IN common with all Christians, Universalists appeal to 
 the Scriptures as the ground of their faith and doc- 
 trine. If Christ and the Apostles did not teach the final 
 salvation of all men, and did we not find that doctrine 
 clearly set forth in word and spirit, in their discourses 
 and epistles, we should have no valid authority as religious 
 teachers, and no right to a place in the Christian Church. 
 It is true that there are intimations of this grand result, 
 in the works of God, his kindly providence over man, the 
 witness of his goodness, in the general order and benef- 
 icence of nature, as likewise in the gifts and ministrations 
 of his spirit. The philosopher and scientist find no evi- 
 dence of malignity in the laws and operations of creation. 
 They find pain and penalty, but they come through the 
 violation of wisely ordered law, and are intended to en- 
 force obedience. These are physical evils incidental to 
 organic structure, but they serve to render man alert, 
 sharp, and self-sustaining. 
 
134 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 They are fugitive and transient, and the more they 
 are disclosed and understood, the more convinced we 
 are, that the evil which does exist, is for some good pur- 
 pose, and for the final blessing of all sentient beings. In 
 the words of Leigh Hunt : " This palpable revelation of 
 God called the universe, contains no evidence whatsoever 
 of the thing called eternal punishment." This is the 
 testimony of a poet ; the profoundest students of science, 
 with scarcely an exception, express the same opinion. 
 
 But notwithstanding these facts and inferences from 
 nature, the pillar and ground of our faith must be sought 
 and found in the revelation of God's will and law, to moral 
 and spiritual beings. In the scriptures of divine truth 
 he has declared his own character, and his purposes con- 
 cerning the duty and destiny of man. There is where we 
 must look for authority and explicitness of statement. 
 Divinely inspired scripture is given as our ground of faith 
 and hope. Properly understood, it is a " lamp to our feet, 
 and a light to our understanding." God speaking directly 
 to man, we have a right to expect a more clear and ex- 
 plicit statement of the Divine nature, requirements, and 
 purposes, than can be found in nature. Hence, for cer- 
 tainty and authority, in faith and duty, we go to the Bible 
 and rest our cause on what it truly teaches. 
 
 But Christians of all denominations make the same 
 appeal, with similar confidence, drawing thence doctrines 
 
SCRIPTURE EXEGESIS. 1 35 
 
 variant and contradictory, giving the appearance to one 
 unskilled in the proper rules of interpretation, of the 
 worthlessness of the authority of common appeal. There 
 are radical and hostile differences in the vital doctrines of 
 Christian sects; infidelity thrives on them; indifference 
 and immoraUty take advantage of them. The quarrels 
 and controversies of the different branches of the Church 
 are its greatest hindrance to progress in its work. Learned 
 men, honest and sincere, stand up and in the name of 
 the same God, and on the authority of the same Book, 
 proclaim entirely opposite messages. They differ in the 
 conception of his character, the nature and office of 
 religion, the duty and destiny of mankind. Thought- 
 ful people hardly see how this can be, when all have the 
 same word and authority as the basis of their faith and 
 teaching. 
 
 But the cause of the discrepancy is not in the letter 
 of scripture, nor in the dishonesty of the preachers. The 
 word of God is not contradictory, nor is Christ divided, 
 that one says " I am of Paul, another, I am of Cephas, 
 another, I of ApoUos." These men differed in their 
 understanding of Christ, and the correct interpretation 
 of his religion. They were all equally honest, but none 
 of them, with the exception of Paul, saw at once the full 
 measure and compass of Christ's mission to our world. 
 They drew their conclusions, as the great body of 
 
136 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALIS^. 
 
 religious teachers continues to do, from an imperfect con- 
 ception of the magnitude of the grace of God in the Gospel. 
 Bound by old prejudice, and standing on a half-truth foun- 
 dation, their interpretation of Christianity fell short of its 
 own purpose and of the needs of man. Sects have origi- 
 nated and grown from a similar error. Each represents 
 a portion, but not the whole, of the truth. When men 
 become large enough in mind and spirit to survey, and 
 take in the whole of Christian doctrine, religious teachers 
 will approach that " unity of the faith and of the knowl- 
 edge of the Son of God," spoken of by the apostle. 
 
 This suggests that the value of the Scriptures to us, 
 their unity and authority, depends on the principles and 
 rules of exegesis which we follow. About many scripture 
 doctrines, there is no controversy. All Christians believe 
 in God, in Christ, as the Son of God and Saviour of men ; 
 they all believe in immortality, in repentance and the 
 necessity of good works. These things are so plainly 
 taught that the " wayfaring man though a fool need not 
 err therein." But there are other things which require 
 explanation, and some portions of the text which require 
 interpretation. The Scriptures do not dogmatize, do not 
 teach doctrines in a systematic way. Hardly any funda- 
 mental doctrine of scripture is laid down and fully eluci- 
 dated, in distinctive texts. If it were, there could be 
 no manner of mistake concerning its meaning. But God 
 
SCRIPTURE EXEGESIS. 137 
 
 in his word deals as ^^dth children, giving instruction 
 through the medium of human speech, pictures drawn by 
 imagination, parables, and spiritual visions. Revelation 
 is subject to these peculiarities. 
 
 And here arises the opportunity for fanciful views ; for 
 mistake and misinterpretation. It requires study to find 
 out the word of God, and then careful judgment to 
 rightly interpret it. 
 
 Most of the doctrinal differences bet\veen Universalists 
 and their opposers, arise from different principles of 
 exegesis. We hold to the integrity of the Word of God 
 as finnly as they, but from our stand-point, the word dis- 
 closes a different message and significance to us. We are 
 not open to the charge of infidelity because we insist upon 
 a broader and more liberal basis of interpretation than 
 that adopted by the Church in the darker and more super- 
 stitious ages of the world. The science of theology is pro- 
 gressive. Knowledge and the gro\\th of the human mind 
 unfold more clearly the character and revelation of God. 
 
 It is not therefore presumptuous in Universalists, coming 
 to the Scriptures as they do, after centuries of doubt, 
 dispute and unrest, modestly to claim that they discern 
 the cause of past error, and think they are able to bring an 
 improved exegesis of divine revelation. We cast aside what 
 has proved itself of no avail, and seek the truth, through those 
 means and methods given by the author of truth itself. 
 
13S THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 Uni\'ersalists in their interpretation of Scripture are 
 go\-erned by the following general rules, viz. — 
 
 1. God's word must be interpreted as consistent with 
 itself. 
 
 2. It must be interpreted as consistent with his own 
 character. 
 
 3. It must be interpreted as consistent with reason and 
 moral intuition. 
 
 I. The object of Divine Revelation is to " acquaint man 
 with God," teaching him the way of life, and bringing 
 him to holiness and happiness. To this end, God has re- 
 vealed his character as a righteous and holy Being. The 
 leading thought of the Bible is the purity and righteous- 
 ness of its Divine Author. The unfolding of this fact is 
 the foundation on which he claims to be God, and to 
 demand the confidence and worship of mankind. In 
 the very earliest ages of revelation, while men's spiritual 
 conceptions were so dim as hardly to discern God at all, 
 not daring to speak his name, they were conscious of the 
 presence of a Power above, and not within themselves, 
 "which makes for righteousness." And when this power 
 disclosed itself his message was, " I am a just and right- 
 eous God, and I require man to be righteous and just." 
 The law of human righteousness sprang from the divine 
 righteousness. Man is required to be pure and good, 
 because God is pure and holy. His pattern and example 
 
SCRIPTURE EXEGESIS. 139 
 
 are from above. Almost the entire purpose of the spir- 
 itual part of the Old Testament is to so reveal the righteous 
 and beneficent character of God, as to win the Hebrews 
 to himself as a " peculiar people zealous of good works." 
 He was their righteous Judge, Lawgiver and Father. He 
 could but do what was right. 
 
 Conceding this, there are laany passages of scripture 
 which speak of the anger, vengeance, and vacillation of 
 God, of his commands to g(0 to war, to slaughter cap- 
 tives, to despoil their en£m-ies> — commands in perfect 
 accord with the spirit of the times, but inconsistent with 
 the character of a righteous and holy God. 
 
 Learned men of the Church have found warrant in the 
 letter of scripture, both Old Testament and New, for 
 doctrines concerning God's dealings with men both in 
 this world and in the next, which render him heartlessly 
 unfeeling and cruel. Were these doctrines actually taught 
 in the scriptures, they would be in conflict with their lead- 
 ing thought, viz. that God is a righteous and holy God. 
 How then are we to interpret those passages ? Shall we 
 bend the leading thought and purpose of the Bible to an 
 inferior and less worthy thought? Or shall the lower 
 yield to the higher? Manifestly the latter. Let God be 
 true, though all his servants shall be found false. We 
 would not reject any portion of the Bible, but calling to 
 our aid criticism, the knowledge of local custom, modes 
 
I40 TUE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 of expression, the union of the human with the divine 
 element in all revelation, we shall find sufficient data to 
 justify us in maintaining the harmony and consistency of 
 the word, with the character of God, and with itself. It 
 is all true, but not all on the same spiritual elevation. 
 Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and carnal with 
 carnal, there is no conflict of statement. God cannot 
 contradict himself. That only is his word exclusively, 
 which is in perfect harmony with himself. Our standard 
 of exegesis carries us higher than our own thoughts and 
 ways, to the consistency of the record of his thoughts 
 and ways. 
 
 2. The interpretation of scripture must be consistent 
 with God's character. We know his character by what he 
 says of himself and by its reflection in ourselves. " Our 
 whole nature leads us to ascribe all moral perfection to 
 God and to deny all imperfection in him. And this will 
 for ever be a practical proof of his moral character, to such 
 as will consider what a practical proof is, because it is the 
 voice of God speaking to us," says Butler. He is the 
 supreme good, the perfect One, altogether lovely. " He 
 doeth good," says the Psalmist. He does not rest his 
 character wholly on his assertion, but points to his works, 
 his providence, his care for all. " He is gracious and full 
 of compassion ; he is holy in all his works." Every in- 
 spired writer bears testimony to the high and beneficent 
 
SCRIPTURE EXEGESIS. 141 
 
 character of God. He is Love, and loves all his children. 
 These propositions are generally, nay, we may say univer- 
 sally conceded. If then the Bible is his word, it cannot 
 teach any thing which is inconsistent with the above con- 
 cession. Every divine attribute, purpose, and expression, 
 must harmonize with it. To accept any doctrine purporting 
 to come from scripture as true, which characterized him 
 otherwise, would be contradictory and therefore false. 
 
 Nor can there be any antagonism in the various attri- 
 butes which compose the Divine Nature. No claim for 
 justice can conflict with the office and exercise of love. 
 He is just, because he is good ; " merciful because he 
 rendereth to every man according to his deeds." It would 
 be unjust to remit the penalty of sin, or to forgive those 
 who do not deserve, and would not profit by forgiveness. 
 He is just in rewarding the righteous, and punishing the 
 guilty. Retribution is as much the requirement of love, as 
 of justice. The perfection of the Divine character is the 
 key to the right understanding of all his judicial and 
 punitive dealings with mankind. 
 
 Now, if there are any passages of scripture which seem 
 to teach that God is vindictive, punishing to gratify his 
 own feelings, or to sustain the majesty of his own law, 
 rather than for the correction and benefit of man, this 
 apparent meaning is not the true meaning, because it 
 conflicts with the character of God, and the purpose of 
 
142 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 his moral government. Such passages, if there are any, 
 are either faulty in translation, or else partake too largely 
 of the mind and feeling of the writer. 
 
 The latter is never the case, however, where the spiritual 
 judgments of God are applied to men ; but sometimes in 
 the ministration of temporal retribution, the feeling and 
 conduct of God are described in terms of passion and 
 harshness comporting more nearly with the character of 
 man, than with that of the serene majesty and holy feeling 
 of the Divine Father. 
 
 But it may be objected that such a rule of exegesis 
 determines a priori what scripture ought to teach, rather 
 than what it actually does teach. We are to determine 
 what Scripture is by criticism, and what it teaches by 
 interpretation and comparison. The scholarship of the 
 Church at the present time, as never before, is directed to 
 the purification of the sacred text, and a correct transla- 
 tion of the same, into modern tongues. And it is a re- 
 markable fact that this critical and literary ability is giving 
 us a text and translation in perfect accord with the 
 righteous and merciful character of God. Words and 
 phrases on which important theological doctrines have 
 been built up and sustained, are left out, or so modified 
 in meaning as not to impugn the Divine goodness. The 
 meanings which men have worked into the letter of scrip- 
 ture, are withdrawn, and the meanings of God and Christ 
 
SCRIPTURE EXEGESIS. 
 
 143 
 
 are permitted to shine with unobstructed clearness. New 
 and broader rules of exegesis are apphed, and the crystal 
 stream of truth from the divine fountain is clarifying the 
 verbal channels and human conceptions, by which the 
 truth must reach the mind and heart of man. In the light 
 of unlimited grace, and the divine perfection, scholarly 
 criticism eliminates from the Bible the words " damna- 
 tion," " hell," " everlasting punishment," " sacrificial atone- 
 ment " and the popular meanings they have borne, leaving 
 nothing in the letter that can mislead the reader, or reflect 
 upon the character and government of the Almighty. 
 
 3. The Scriptures must be interpreted according to rea- 
 son, and the moral intuition of man. These are funda- 
 mental attributes of human nature. They were given of 
 God, before the Bible was \\Titten, and revelation to reach 
 and affect man, must be in harmony with his nature. He has 
 a right to reject any message, whatever its pretension, which 
 conflicts with right reason and his moral sense. Leigh 
 Hunt, in his autobiography, expresses a healthy sentiment, 
 when he says, " If an angel were to tell me to beheve in 
 eternal punishment, I would not do it ; for it would better 
 become me to believe the angel a delusion, than God 
 monstrous ; and we make him monstrous when we make 
 him the author of eternal punishment. For God's sake 
 let us have piety enough to believe him better." And 
 Bishop Butler says, " Reason is the only faculty whereby 
 
144 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 we have to judge of any thing, even of revelation itself." 
 If then any doctrine taught in the name of revelation con- 
 flicts with reason and moral intuition, the presumption is 
 that it is no part of the revelation of God. If the doc- 
 trines of Christianity are a proof of its divine authority, as 
 Butler claims, the presence of the doctrine of endless pun- 
 ishment in Christianity, would prove either that Christianity 
 is not divine, or else that the doctrine is not found in the 
 Gospel. Reason and intuition tell us that the doctrine of 
 endless punishment is inconsistent with the character of a 
 just and good God, and therefore cannot be a part of his 
 word.i Dr. John Young, author of Creator and Creation, a 
 work commended for its profound and just reasoning by the 
 late Sir Wm. Hamilton, says : " On one point it is im- 
 possible to feel the least hesitation ; eternal punishment 
 in the sense of conscious suffering, even in a single in- 
 stance, is inconceivable and unendurable by any sound 
 and sane conscience." And then, to meet the theory that 
 the sinful soul hereafter may be doomed to a state of all 
 but unconscious stupor, and moral death, he continues, 
 " With great reverence I venture to express the conviction, 
 that if the Great Being foreknew that even this eternal 
 torpor, but much more that eternal misery, conscious suf- 
 fering, would be the doom even of a single creature, it is 
 incredible that He should have given existence to that 
 
 1 Contemporary Review, April, 1878. 
 
SCRIPTURE EXEGESIS. 145 
 
 creature." It may be said that reason is carnal and the 
 moral sense perverted, and that therefore they are not a 
 safe guide to follow in the interpretation of the word of 
 Infinite Holiness. But in reply, if we admit the utter per- 
 version of reason and the moral sense by sin, we destroy 
 the utihty of any revelation from God, or the possibility 
 of any spiritual communication with him. An unmoral 
 being could not know or understand God. A totally 
 wicked and perverse nature would be in the same condi- 
 tion. Hence we contend that man never loses the use of 
 reason and moral judgment. And besides we notice that 
 it is those whose reason has been cultivated to the highest 
 degree and whose moral natures have been regenerated by 
 piety, that are the most sensitive and clear in their con- 
 demnation of those theological dogmas which outrage the 
 higher nature of man. It is not the worst, but the best 
 men, who are the quickest to see the inconsistency of end- 
 less torment with the divine character and human reason. 
 The poet Whittier says — 
 
 " Nothing can be good in Him 
 
 Which evil is in me. 
 The wrong that pains my soul below, 
 I dare not throne above ; 
 I know not of His hate — I know 
 His goodness and His love." 
 10 
 
146 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 We cannot believe that God says or does any thing which 
 our reason and moral intuition tell us he ought not to do 
 and say. 
 
 Nor can man really love and worship a being whose 
 character and laws are contrary to his sense of right and 
 his ideas of loveliness. He may, by force of education, 
 beheve in, and fear such a being, but he will not love him. 
 He may not have the courage to say with John Stuart Mill, 
 " that if God will send him to hell for not loving a Being 
 many of whose traits are unlovely and abhorrent to his soul, 
 then to hell he will go," nevertheless this expresses the feel- 
 ing of every one of sound moral sense. It is not the prov- 
 ince of reason and conscience to decide what ought to be, 
 or what God ought to say and do, but it is their province to 
 examine and decide as to the true and the untrue. Man 
 is urged to come and " reason together with God ; " " and 
 to taste and see that the Lord is good." How could he 
 do these, unless reason and moral sense are supreme 
 within him ? God claims to do only what is right in man's 
 sense of right. Hence the true interpretation of scripture 
 must yield a result, consistent with his higher nature. 
 
 With these fundamental principles of exegesis firmly fixed 
 in the mind, — viz, that God's word must be consistent 
 with itself; with his own character; and with moral intui- 
 tion, — there can be no insuperable difficulty in determining 
 what revelation teaches. We have the key to the meaning 
 
SCRIPTURE EXEGESIS. 147 
 
 of the judicial and punitive portions of his word, and are 
 able to detect every blemish of theological bias and liter- 
 ary error in the translation. We are able to test the truth 
 of doctrines taught in the name of revelation. We can 
 " try every spirit, whether they are of God." Our battery 
 sweeps the whole field. We no longer grope our way 
 in darkness and uncertainty, ever asking " what is truth," 
 meeting with no sure and satisfying response, but we have 
 the principles of certitude within our grasp. It brings 
 every question of doctrine before the high court of rea- 
 son and conscience. When told by the sacrificialist that 
 without the atoning blood of Christ to rescue men from 
 the dreadful doom of endless woe, there could be no cause 
 of joy and gratitude on the part of the saved, in the 
 words of Martineau we reply, — " If to rescue men from a 
 dreadful fate in the future be a just title to our reverence 
 and love, never to have designed that fate, claims an affec- 
 tion yet more devoted ; if there be a divine mercy in 
 annihilating an awful curse, in shedding only blessing 
 there is surely a diviner still." A correct knowledge of 
 the character of God destroys the supposed contingency 
 on which an unreasonable doctrine is made to rest. 
 
 It has long been the habit, we may say the misfortune 
 of orthodox interpreters, to adopt that view of those texts 
 of scripture that treat of retribution, which makes God the 
 worst being in the universe. He brings myriads of human 
 
14S THE LATEST WORD OF UiYIVEESALIS.}/. 
 
 beings into existence, knowing before he created them the 
 absolute certainty of their doom to endless loss and pain. 
 He was under no compulsion to give them life. They 
 receive no compensation in this brief world for the unend- 
 ing woes beyond. If they co7i/d avoid their fate, He 
 knew they would not. It would be infinitely better never 
 to have been bom. No sophistry of argument can con- 
 vince a reasonable being, that it is right and beneficent to 
 create immortal souls under such circumstances. The 
 best minds among them confess that the conduct of God 
 is dark and inexplicable. Even Calvin said it was " hor- 
 rible." It repels all love and confidence. And yet 
 Orthodoxy denies every broad and generous canon of 
 biblical exegesis, and insists upon an interpretation so 
 narrow and unjust as to render the Bible repulsive, and 
 to crush out religion itself, did it not originate in a source 
 too high and divine to be affected by the creeds and 
 superstitions pubhshed in its name. Christianity cannot 
 be impaired ; but its credibility is weakened by the false 
 doctrines attributed to it. These have repelled thousands 
 from the church, and reared a wall of partition between 
 liberal scientific thought and the popular demands of faith. 
 Christians must adopt a higher and more catholic exegesis, 
 if they would avoid divisions and win the loyalty of large- 
 minded men who are able to trace the ways and goodness 
 of God in his works. It is complained that philosophers 
 
SCRIPTURE EXEGESIS. 149 
 
 and scientists are infidels. But generally it will be found 
 on inquiry, that they do not reject the religion of God and 
 Christ, but the interpretation of that religion, maintained 
 by the narrower sects. On the essentials of religion there 
 should be unity of faith, then the full force of revelation 
 could be hurled against indifference and unbelief. This 
 is a matter that concerns not Universalists alone, but all 
 other sects as much. The Bible loses in authority as the 
 various doctrines drawn from it neutralize and destroy 
 each other. It is a house divided against itself, not by 
 any intrinsic division of its ow^n, but by the unwise and 
 erroneous interpretations put upon it by its friends. The 
 defenders and believers in revelation owe it to themselves, 
 as well as to the cause they represent, to throw aside tradi- 
 tion and prejudice, and to come together and adopt a 
 science of interpretation that shall eliminate error and 
 bring forth the truth. They are not fit for the defence of 
 the Word, if they cannot see the meaning and purpose of 
 God in it. 
 
 Universalists by no means claim that they are the only 
 ones who bring conscience and reason to bear upon the 
 interpretation of scripture. They are not the only ones 
 who are anxious to have the truth known. There are good, 
 sincere men in other sects, who believe they are defending 
 the truth of God, in upholding doctrines which our reason 
 and moral sense tell us are wrong, and contrary to his 
 
150 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 character. They think they find a warrant for them in 
 the letter of scripture. All we have to complain of is, 
 that they allow the force of early education and sectarian 
 fealty to blind their minds to the new and brighter light 
 shed upon the sacred page since the day of Calvin and 
 Edwards ; and to the urgent duty of a re-examination of 
 the question as to what is taught in the Scriptures. There 
 is an appearance of blind obstinacy, not only in defend- 
 ing exploded and outgrown dogmas, but in seeking new 
 grounds of defence for what the honor of God, and the 
 glory of his church, require to be given up. It would be 
 more in keeping likewise with personal integrity when 
 some of these old doctrines are abandoned ; such as 
 " infant damnation," " total depravity," " election " and 
 "predestination," to own the mistakes of the past, and 
 thank God for the new light which has led to a milder 
 and better faith, than to deny the past, and claim the 
 labors of others as their own. In the great changes of 
 modem theological opinion now going on, many of them 
 coming completely up to our line of advance, and others 
 very nearly, we fail to discover scarcely a hint of indebted- 
 ness to the labors and courage of those who have borne 
 the heat and burden of the controversy that compelled 
 this theological change of base for the better. How- 
 ever, we are content, only that truth advances and men 
 are blessed. It is sufficiently gratifying to Universalists to 
 
SCRIPTURE EXEGESIS. 151 
 
 see good and learned men of other churches adopting 
 their principles of exegesis, and coming to their conclu- 
 sions as to the character of God, the nature of salvation, 
 the purpose and Kmit of retribution, the mission of Christ, 
 and the relation man will sustain to God in the future. 
 We can ask for no more cheering signs of progress in this 
 direction than we are meeting with of late. 
 
 But our duty is clear; and that is to continue in 
 the future as in the past, to defend the Bible and the 
 Gospel against the harm and reproach brought upon them 
 by their professed friends. There can be no effectual oppo- 
 sition urged against a reasonable, humane, and practical 
 religion, bringing the love of God to man, and causing 
 the love of man to flow out to his fellow-man. In teach- 
 ing people to, ^^ thi7ik 7ioble things of God,''' we are bring- 
 ing the kingdom of God on earth, making man more 
 noble, and consequently better and happier. 
 
 A correct exegesis of the Bible Hfts it above popular 
 objections, increases faith in its consolations and proffered 
 helps. It reveals God as the loving, ever-present, sustain- 
 ing Spirit, seeking to save, and never leaving, nor forsaking 
 his children. He is no longer a distant monarch, guard- 
 ing his throne " caring more for his law, than for his own 
 Son, or the happiness of a universe of souls," ruling his 
 domain, as an earthly despot rules a kingdom, but he is a 
 loving, compassionate Friend, imposing his law of right- 
 
152 THE LATEST WORD OF' UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 eousness and duty, not for his own, but for man's good. 
 His religion is given for this world, to save and bless man 
 now and here. Right views of God and his word lift 
 every cloud of darkness and dread from the soul, and 
 crown man's existence with a priceless value, giving him 
 the glorious life that now is, and an " inheritance incor- 
 ruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved 
 in heaven." 
 
THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. 1 53 
 
 THE RELATION OF THIS LIFE TO 
 THE NEXT. 
 
 BY JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS. 
 
 'THHE belief in immortality materially modifies the view 
 •^ we take of the relation of this life to the life to 
 come. Most of our convictions about duty and destiny 
 show new relations in the light of the faith that the soul 
 lives after the body is dead. Ethics takes a new vantage 
 ground. Religion presents new motives. And even sci- 
 ence finds her results harmonized and crowned with 
 inspiring hopes, if the soul is conceived to be an imper- 
 ishable force. It makes great difference in our views of 
 this life, whether we believe it to be connected with the 
 future as a period of trial, of preparation, or of spiritual 
 infancy; or whether we believe the two to be wholly 
 unconnected, save as different states of one substance. 
 And since much of the meaning which we attach to the 
 future grows out of our conception of the present, we 
 may properly begin at this point to discuss the relation 
 of the present Hfe to the next. 
 
 Universalism holds the present life to be the initial 
 state of a moral order, whose progressive stages are to 
 
154 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 be endless. The doctrine of the soul's immortality carries 
 the implication of a thread of unity, running through all 
 life and experience, and linking to each other all the 
 stages of the soul's development. The life we lead at 
 any point in our history, is a part of one organic whole. 
 The persistence of personal identity binds the events of 
 our lives in a mutual dependence upon each other, and 
 relation to itself; and immortality perpetuates this rela- 
 tion. The conscious spirit holds the past life in relations 
 to the present. It will be the bond between the present 
 and the future life. From the earliest moment of separate 
 existence, there is an indivisible unity in the experiences 
 of a human soul. The past grows into the present ; the 
 present has its influence on the future. The life, at any 
 period is related in both directions, backward, as an 
 effect, and forward as a cause. Every act in the soul's 
 life is definitely related to character, and modifies the 
 course of destiny. The idle word for which we must 
 give account in the judgment (Matt. xii. t,^) ; the least 
 things, in which we are commanded to be faithful 
 (Luke xvi. lo) ; as well as the offences which are like 
 millstones about the neck (Matt, xviii. 6), — are parts of 
 one organic whole. The life of the soul is one life, here 
 and hereafter. The same unity which runs through the 
 life of the individual is manifest in the laws under which 
 that Hfe develops. Science has rendered theism a great 
 
THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. 155 
 
 service in demonstrating the unity of nature. It has 
 taught us the oneness of the universe, and the inseparable 
 connection of all its parts. We know, in regard to matter, 
 that the laws of its structure and changes have never 
 altered. They are the same to-day as when light first 
 broke upon chaos. They are one in Jupiter and Arcturus, 
 and the formulae which we work out upon our earthly 
 blackboards discover for us a new planet on the confines 
 of the solar system. We may affirm the same to be true 
 of the moral system of things. There is one moral law 
 for all worlds, because there is one Divine Nature, one 
 Supreme Will. The principles of God's reign are neither 
 transient nor variable. In all times and places, his law 
 expresses his nature. Since that cannot change, the 
 fundamentals of the moral law cannot alter. Moral dis- 
 tinctions are therefore unalterable. And so is the soul's 
 relation to this law (Ps. xxxiii. 11; Jas. i. 17). So it 
 must be true that the moral law is one in its fundamentals, 
 and that it will ever}^here be administered upon the 
 same principles. 
 
 Since, therefore, the life of the soul and the nature of 
 the system under which that life develops, exhibit a con- 
 stant unity, we affirm that the present life is the first step 
 in an eternal march. It is the soil in which the soul 
 roots itself for an eternal growth. It is the primary grade 
 in an eternal spiritual education. The grand law of 
 
156 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALIS Jf. 
 
 progress, whose workings in the past have been unfolded 
 to us by modem science, is the law of all life, spiritual as 
 well as physical ; and Universalism holds that the admis- 
 sion of this law as the universal method of God, in 
 connection with the belief in the soul's immortality, 
 establishes, by implication, the fact that this life is the 
 prelude to a nobler condition yet to come. The begin- 
 nings of the soul here will there be carried on to greater 
 things. The germination of the spirit here will be suc- 
 ceeded by an unfolding, in the future, into more abundant 
 life. That is the tenor of the New Testament, as it is the 
 inference from philosophy. Jesus Christ and his apostles 
 both taught this truth. We are not to look upon this life 
 as final, but are to anticipate a more satisfactory condition 
 hereafter (Heb. xiii. 14). In this life we enjoy only the 
 feeble beginnings of that insight and spiritual capacity 
 which will be ours when we see face to face ( i Cor. xiii. 
 12). The present is a period of preparation, in which 
 the soul is fitted for its disembodied existence (John xiv. 
 2, 3). It is the imperfect, the chrysalis condition, which 
 precedes a more glorious and complete existence. This 
 is the epoch of life when we learn the tangible and mate- 
 rial ; but that is an epoch when we are to know the un- 
 trammelled powers of the spirit (Rom. viii. 18). This 
 is the state of unharmonious moral relations, discordant 
 natures, opposing tendencies. But the future is the con- 
 
THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. 157 
 
 dition of settled dispositions, steadily unfolding powers, 
 and spirits reconciled, harmonious, peaceful (Rom. viii. 
 21 ; Rev. xxi. 4). This life, indeed, is but the short 
 camp of a night, the bivouac of the soul on its march to 
 the confines of the immortal country. "For here we 
 have no continuing city, but we seek one to come." 
 
 In one sense, then, we may say that t/ie present life is 
 a p7'ohation. It is the gradual change from state to state, 
 and, being a progressive development, involves the condi- 
 tion of trial and ascertained fitness as a preliminary to 
 advancement. Life is a perpetual apprenticeship, in 
 which to-day helps determine what to-morrow shall be, 
 and fidelity is the measure of reward. In this school no 
 man is promoted until he has fulfilled all requirements. 
 He takes his rank from what he is. His condition and 
 character are the product of all his past life. Failure 
 and fault subtract so much from the sum-totals of char- 
 acter. Holiness raises the soul to the higher grades. 
 We represent in ourselves, at any given moment, exactly 
 the value of the experiences we have passed through, 
 so that if the past has been a season of sinfulness and of 
 short-coming, the present will be one of narrowed enjoy- 
 ments and reduced capacities ; if it has been profitably 
 used, our souls are the larger and the further along in 
 spiritual growth. Every stage of life, therefore, is pro- 
 bational, so far as it proves our fitness for spiritual pro- 
 
158 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 motion, or exposes our deficiencies and our inabilities. 
 We must deserve, or we do not receive. We reap only 
 what we sow, and every moment of our lives is the proof 
 of what our past has been, as well as a condition which 
 will help determine the future. 
 
 The unity of individual life, as well as of the moral 
 law in this and all worlds, warrants the belief that this 
 link binds the present to the future life. We are in train- 
 ing here for activity there. Our fitness depends on our 
 faithfulness. If we have learned the elements of grace 
 and holy living in this life, we are fitted for advancement 
 in that other. If we have neglected our opportunities 
 here, if we have been careless or rebellious pupils, we 
 must take a lower place there, and perfect ourselves in 
 the rudiments. Until we do, we get no promotion ; for 
 it is one of the rules of this school of life, that no man 
 can expect to have elevated experiences until his soul is 
 fitted for them. Here and hereafter, we shall be advanced 
 in knowledge and in happiness only according to our 
 qualifications. And we must believe that the beginnings 
 of the future life are shaped by what has been done in 
 this life. A soul takes into the next world what it carries 
 out of this. Character cannot be dropped like the body. 
 It is the self which we carry with us ; and if the present 
 life has dwarfed that self by neglect, or weakened it by 
 abuse, or corrupted it by sin, then dwarfed, and weakened, 
 
THIS LIFE AND TEE NEXT. 159 
 
 and corrupt, it must enter the future life. So far as this 
 life, then, is a manifestation of fitness, so far it is a 
 probation. So far as every stage of life is a preparation 
 for succeeding ones, so far this life determines the plane 
 on which we shall begin the next. 
 
 But we are not to consider this life as deterniining the 
 final destiny of the soul, nor regard it as a period of sus- 
 pended judgment, whose purpose is merely to test the 
 qualities of the spirit before it is judged worthy of an 
 endless heaven or fit for an endless hell. It is greatly 
 exaggerating the meaning and importance of this life to 
 conceive that its short opportunities are to decide the 
 destiny of eternal years. It were a singular travesty 
 upon the divine justice, to hang man's everlasting fate 
 upon the blind decision of his infancy and ignorance. 
 Yet this is exactly what we must do, if the moral choice 
 we make in this life decides finally all our future. This is 
 the stage of life in which we are least aUve to the enor- 
 mity of evil, or the attractiveness of good. This is a 
 tentative period, in which we grope after our good, ham- 
 pered by ignorance, fear, and passion, uncertain of many 
 of the things which are most powerful as motives, very 
 poorly prepared to make a final decision between good 
 and evil. In this life, moreover, we have but just begun 
 to feel the traction of divine grace, which is surely, 
 steadily, though with the deliberateness of a power which 
 
l6o THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 has no lack of time, drawing souls to a higher life. Now, 
 is it possible to believe that divine love would hinge the 
 eternal fate of a moral being upon the impulsive and 
 unenlightened decisions of a will and judgment only in 
 their infancy? Human existence, by such a theory, 
 would be the unfairest of struggles. For if souls are put 
 here to decide finally their future fate, they ought to do 
 so with every possible advantage. When the stake is 
 so awful, no man ought to be handicapped in the race. 
 But we are by no means evenly started in this life ; and 
 if there be no opportunity for improvement or change of 
 character after death, then the doom of rejection would 
 fall most frequently upon the morally unfortunate. For 
 by far the larger number of those who become confirmed 
 sinners in this life are those who inherit evil dispositions, 
 or whose surroundings are, and always have been, evil. 
 The moral accountability of man is qualified in a thousand 
 ways, — by his predispositions, by his surroundings, by 
 his ignorance, by his involuntary susceptibilities. And 
 often those who do the worst are the most excusable. 
 But unless we all start alike, and are accountable without 
 any qualification for our moral status at the close of this 
 life, it were a poor imitation of justice to make our char- 
 acters then fix our fate finally. If this life is a probation, 
 in the popular sense, then the heathen, dying in sin, on 
 the Pacific Islands or in North Street alleys are practi- 
 
THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. i6l 
 
 cally doomed for ever. Those who confessedly have the 
 poorest chance in this hfe have none at all in the next. 
 Those whom Providence allows to come into this world 
 loaded with the misdoings of past generations, that same 
 Providence allows to be doomed by their involuntary 
 tendencies to unending misery ! This is equivalent to 
 the worst form of fatahsm. It is the doctrine of repro- 
 bation, in its most offensive guise. It puts man between 
 the millstones of inherited tendency and corrupt sur- 
 roundings, and ensures the moral death of three quarters 
 of our race. 
 
 While, then, we by no means admit that death closes 
 the account of God with the soul, or terminates its chances 
 of moral recovery, we do assert that conduct in this life 
 determines the moral condition in which we shall begin 
 the next. Let us next inquire what are the respective 
 effects of righteousness and of sin in this life, which 
 decide the beginnings of life hereafter, and how the con- 
 ditions of the future may be expected to modify the 
 character formed here. 
 
 The effect of holiness upon the human soul is to in- 
 crease its capacities and heighten its joys. Harmony 
 with God, the doing of his will, love of righteousness, 
 are uniformly spoken of in the New Testament as " life," 
 "eternal life," hfe that "abideth for ever " (John xvii. 3 ; 
 
 V. 24; I John ii. 17). The effect of right conduct, con- 
 
 II 
 
1 62 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALTSM. 
 
 sidered of course as the expression of a good heart, is to 
 enlarge the powers of the human soul. Under natural 
 laws of the spirit, exercise in godliness increases all godly 
 traits. These traits become character in us. And when 
 we leave the body in which we have been dweUing while 
 we acquired them, they will go with us. 
 
 On the other hand, the effect of sin upon the soul is 
 narrowing and corrupting. By contact with evil, we 
 reduce the moral force of our natures, cut off the sources 
 of pure enjoyment, and diminish our capacities for spir- 
 itual peace and pleasure. Just as a disease affects the 
 body, so sin affects the soul. It cripples the will. It 
 dwarfs the affections. It taints the thought. A man is 
 less a man by being a sinner. His life is worldly, identi- 
 fied with the outward, bound up in the body. His whole 
 nature, so to speak, is thrown out of gear. The equi- 
 librium between the faculties is lost. And as a matter 
 of course, there is no peace for the soul which is thus 
 deranged by sinfulness. Inward joy comes only of in- 
 ward harmony. It can never exist while the soul is 
 divided against itself, rent by passion, and shaken by the 
 strife between self-love and duty. So that the inevitable 
 consequence of sin is misery. An evil heart is narrow, 
 demoralized, and wretched. Like the results of righteous- 
 ness, the consequences of sin are inward effects. They 
 are organic in the soul. They may have been produced 
 
THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. 163 
 
 by the acts of the body. They may have come of sug- 
 gestions of the flesh. But they have become spiritual facts, 
 and even if we suppose their cause removed, and the soul 
 to be free from the body, these effects have passed out of 
 the limits of the physical man. The sin which may have 
 begun as a carnal impulse, has jarred the whole nature 
 into disorder, and ends by demoralizing the spirit. 
 
 We therefore get no adequate idea of sin if we regard 
 it as essentially confined to the body, and this earthly 
 life. Sin is not a physical infirmity, like blindness ; nor 
 a morbid development of the appetites, like gluttony; 
 nor a temporary ascendency of the flesh over a resisting 
 mil ; nor the stupefaction of the soul by the lust of the 
 body. Sin is, essentially, the resistance which the soul 
 makes to the divine order. And however suggested, 
 under whatever temptation committed, by whatever out- 
 ward circumstances facilitated, sin is in the last analysis, 
 an inward fact. It is a moral derangement. It affects 
 the very substance of the soul. It is not a mere shadow 
 cast on the surface of the spirit by passing clouds of 
 passion. It is a darkening of the waters by the infusions 
 of evil. It is not merely the retardal of the soul's devel- 
 opment, but a distortion of the inward nature, a diseased 
 and deforming growth. 
 
 We are now at a point at which we may properly ask, 
 in what way the separation of the soul from the body, in 
 
1 64 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 the experience of death, may be expected to affect its 
 moral status. We have clearly before us the nature of 
 sin, as an immoral act of the will, which touches the sub- 
 stance of character. Is it not a natural inference that 
 this moral derangement may, and in many cases does, 
 outlast the connection of the soul with the body ? We 
 spend this life in forming character. Our sins confessedly 
 affect this character. And character, moreover, is a fact 
 which transcends mere physical causes. Upon such facts 
 as these we build the belief that the life of this earth 
 determines the beginnings of the life on which we enter 
 at death. Whatever the soul is, at the close of this state 
 of existence, that it must be, by all analogy, an-d by the 
 inferences from the present life, when it enters the future 
 state. If the will be perverse and the affections estranged 
 from God ; if the soul be darkened by hatred or dis- 
 turbed by contending lusts ; if the nature be scarred with 
 the wounds of sin, or flushed with its burning fever ; then 
 these terms describe its condition as it passes the bourne 
 of the grave. If we have overcome the evil of this world, 
 and are pure in spirit, fervent in holy affections, tender- 
 hearted, forgiving, and loyal to the truth, we enter the 
 next life upon higher levels, and come into more imme- 
 diate enjoyment of its blessings. But every soul enters 
 the next life in a state which exactly represents its faith- 
 fulness or its unfaithfulness in this. 
 
THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. 165 
 
 It seems probable, moreover, that the same methods 
 of discipline and retribution will continue in the future as 
 are employed here to restrain the sinful, and overthrow 
 the defiant. The uniformity of God's moral government 
 is our warrant for supposing that the means employed in 
 this world to deter from sin, or to break do^vn persistent 
 evil by moral catastrophe continue beyond the dead-Hne 
 of the body. He who is under the bondage of sin is 
 equally under the bondage of punishment for sin. And 
 if we enter the next life in our sins, we enter it also in 
 certain danger of their penalties. If the resistance of 
 the will to the eternal moral law alienates the heart from 
 God up to and beyond the gates of Death, the eternal 
 laws of moral compensation will inflict suffering as long 
 as this alienation lasts. Until the will consents to the 
 divine order, there is no deliverance from the thraldom 
 of retribution. So that if any soul goes into the future 
 unrepentant, we must believe that the progress of penalty 
 and discipline goes on, at the same time that grace per- 
 suades and love invites, until the evil heart is overcome. 
 
 For it must be noticed how often the way for divine 
 love is prepared by the complete overthrow of the selfish 
 soul, the wTeck of its purposes, and the do^vnfall of its 
 strength. Some men push their wickedness to such 
 lengths that they are only to be checked by utter ruin. 
 When they are crushed, they are for the first time ready 
 
1 66 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 to rise. When they realize the completeness of the 
 divine power, they are for the first time ready to obey it 
 freely. Many a man must meet his Waterloo, and medi- 
 tate upon his downfall in some moral St. Helena, before 
 he is ready for the restorative work of divine grace. In 
 the case, therefore, of the morally stubborn and callous, 
 who go out of this world, defiant, reckless, wilful, it is 
 impossible to avoid the inference that the overthrow 
 which would have been a necessary part of their history 
 here, if the whole work of salvation had been enacted 
 before our eyes, will go on behind the veil. The desperado 
 who " dies game," as well as the selfish worldling who 
 goes hence with a sneer at the tears of his friends, will 
 be humbled and reduced by stern, punitive agents of 
 divine law. The resistance of the divine order to their 
 wilfulness, must continue until they learn that the Infinite 
 Will is stronger than the finite. Then the time is ripe 
 for the healing work of grace. If overthrow is necessary, 
 it must be borne. If not here, then hereafter. 
 
 Let us add, at this point, that the belief in the future 
 punishment of sins is strengthened by the fact that this 
 life affords so many instances of what may be called 
 cumulative punishment. All the consequences of sin are 
 not coincident with its commission. Some of them are 
 frequently held back, gather but slowly, and befall the soul 
 long after the beginnings of the sin which caused them. 
 
THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. 167 
 
 They are often kept in the leash, as it were, until the 
 providential moment when their stroke will be most 
 sweeping. The harvest of evil-doing is often a long time 
 in ripening; and the sickle is not put in until the full 
 time is come. The defaulter goes for years undetected. 
 The adulterer may cover his tracks through many seasons. 
 The hypocrite often keeps up the show of virtue so well 
 that the world calls him saint. But after long immunity 
 the tardy blow may fall in a way to bring down all the 
 retributions at once. The calm and quiet days may be 
 succeeded by a very cyclone of vengeance. Then comes 
 the devastation of the good name, the blight of briUiant 
 laurels, the wreck of influence and reputation. Then is 
 the burning of the tares. In these crises of life, evil 
 breaks down and is exposed. They are natural culmina- 
 tions of wrong-doing. And in cases where death inter- 
 venes before the cHmax of the overthrow is reached, and 
 when we feel sure that nothing but the removal of the 
 offender from the earth has saved him from complete 
 exposure and humiliation, who can repress the question 
 whether death has interrupted the steady drift of events, 
 or whether, in the invisible world, there be not in store, 
 the same judgment of disclosure and downfall, the morti- 
 fication of pride and the conquest of the stubborn will, 
 as might have overtaken the evil-doer had he continued 
 in the earth. It is true, to use words familiar in' discus- 
 
1 68 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 sions of this matter, that we " get our punishment as we 
 go along." But sometimes only in part. There are 
 reckoning times of God, when delayed judgments fall, as 
 they fell on Jerusalem, on Rome, and on slaveholding 
 America. There are many cases in which our minds 
 find no satisfaction for the sense of justice, save in the 
 thought, that haughty sin, which holds its head so high 
 in this world, will in the next, be brought low in the dust, 
 under the culminating judgments of God. 
 
 If now we turn from the case of the impenitent, to that 
 of the penitent dead, Universalism affirms that even they 
 may expect such discipline and chastening experiences 
 as contribute to moral progress. Though we go into the 
 next life with humble, contrite hearts, we still have wrong 
 tendencies which need restraint, imperfections to be cor- 
 rected, and deficient affections to be developed. Now, 
 whatsoever means God takes to remove these defects 
 are remedial and disciplinary. They are like the means 
 by which a dull scholar is urged forward. They are like 
 the exercise which a physician prescribes for his patient. 
 They hurt, but they help. All the efforts of souls but 
 little trained in virtue may be of this nature, in the other 
 life. We are not permitted to know. Revelation is 
 silent upon this topic. But it seems no more than 
 rational to suppose that the same plan by which God has 
 seen fit to educate us into holiness in this life, should hold 
 
THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. 169 
 
 over into the next. And according to the most ancient 
 order of the moral creation, the sanctification of the soul 
 is accomphshed by discipline and correction. Whatever 
 remedial or educational influences are necessary to our 
 growth in that Hfe, it may be expected, will exercise even 
 those who have learned the lesson of resignation and 
 submissiveness. If we believe in eternal progress we 
 must beheve in the discipHnes by which progress is 
 secured. But these are very different from punishment, 
 which involves alienation from God, moral retributive 
 suffering, and the agencies of pain, employed to restrain 
 or overwhelm the sinful heart. The former are entirely 
 compatible with happiness and moral peace, but the latter 
 are not. And while disciphne will be needful for all who 
 enter the next world, as beings morally deficient, punish- 
 ment will only be inflicted so far as old courses of sin 
 have not yet worked out their results of penalty, or so 
 far as a continuous disposition to wrong-doing calls for 
 retribution. But when penitence has done its saving 
 work, however low down in the scale of moral being it 
 finds the soul, these penalties will cease, and the chastise- 
 ments of God will only exercise the soul as helpful 
 restorative discipline. 
 
 If we have not referred before to the helpful conditions 
 which will make the future life by its very nature a re- 
 demptive state, it certainly is not because this thought is 
 
lyo THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 of slight importance. Universalism regards the next life 
 as a condition full of hope and promise to sinful souls. 
 For then they begin an existence in which many of the 
 surroundings which in this life have made sin easy, and 
 even have proved temptations to evil, will be abohshed. 
 The body, though not the seat of sin, is a fruitful source 
 of temptations, and a provocation to many of the grossest 
 and most degraded acts of the mind. Many times, no 
 doubt, the will consents to sin only from the force of 
 overpowering passions of the body. In a condition, 
 therefore, in which these are removed, the soul will have 
 a fuller opportunity to redeem itself and to break from 
 the bondage to evil. The inebriate will be better able to 
 overcome his sinful dispositions, if he is no longer ham- 
 pered by the diseased appetites of his body. The liber- 
 tine will be free from the foul allurements which have 
 corrupted his nature. And whatever pressure has rested 
 on the soul, cramping its powers and repressing its 
 aspirations by the carnal desires which belong to its 
 earthly environment, will be removed with the dissolu- 
 tion of the body. This will be a great gain to the soul, 
 — a negative gain, no doubt, — merely the removal of 
 unfavorable surroundings. But nevertheless it will be 
 a gain. It will be like the transfer of a sick man from 
 a hurtful to a salubrious climate. The change does not 
 cure him, but it puts him in surroundings which will. 
 
THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. 171 
 
 Death does not save the soul, but removes it to surround- 
 ings incalculably more favorable to the work of grace 
 than those of this earth. The voices of the heart which 
 plead for righteousness will no longer be drowned by the 
 noisy clamors of appetite. The evil inclinations of the 
 mind will no longer be strengthened by the morbid 
 cravings of the flesh. The suggestive and tempting sur- 
 roundings which have so often excited the soul to trans- 
 gression will have disappeared. The ignorance which 
 concealed many a reality which might have warned or 
 persuaded the mind to avoid the evil it meditated, will 
 give place to clearer revelations of the truth, and more 
 powerful motives. Three things which are a heavy weight 
 on the soul in its battle with evil, we shall leave behind 
 us. We shall be free from the physical body, with all its 
 tendencies to overcome the spirit with carnal practices. 
 We shall be clear of the surroundings of the body, the 
 earthly environment, which contains so much to distract 
 the moral energies, and which thrusts its importunate 
 demands between us and the ideals of conscience. And 
 we shall be emancipated from much of that ignorance 
 which now subtracts from the restraints and motives of 
 the soul. 
 
 Moreover, if with this great change the soul passes 
 into a realm where new surroundings impress the mind 
 with the solemn reality of many things which had hitherto 
 
172 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 seemed unreal, is it unreasonable to expect that great 
 moral changes will be effected in the character? Under 
 the stimulus of the release from old temptations, and the 
 access of light such as may be confidently expected in 
 that glorified state, why may we not look on the change 
 from this life to the next as a passage from night to dawn, 
 in which the dormant or down-trodden spiritual energies 
 will wake and begin the labors of holiness ! There is 
 that in the very nature of this rising of the soul into a 
 higher life which suggests a wonderful upheaval of the 
 spirit, the overthrow of its old prejudices, the cracking 
 of the hard shell of habit, and the exposure of the mind 
 to dazzling moral light. Under such an experience who 
 can doubt that the soul will be quickened most power- 
 fully? Who can doubt that the process of redemption, 
 even of the stubborn, will be wonderfully hastened, and 
 that the future state itself will be one of the sublimest of 
 God's agencies for the conversion of men ! 
 
ETERNAL LIFE. 
 
 173 
 
 ETERNAL LIFE. 
 
 BY PROF. C. H. LEONARD. 
 
 'T^HE Gospels speak of two classes of persons, the 
 "righteous" and the "unrighteous," the "blessed" 
 and the " cursed." It is clear, also, that Jesus beheved 
 in "hfe eterna}" for the righteous, the good; and in 
 "punishment eternal" for the "unrighteous," the bad. 
 And it is needless to say that all the methods of rehgion 
 will be determined by the meaning we give to these words 
 of the Saviour, — by the conception, that is, which we 
 have of the states and consequences that these two sets of 
 phrases describe. 
 
 It is the purpose of this paper to give what we conceive 
 to be the true view of the t^vo characters, and the two cor- 
 responding destinies, as those characters and destinies are 
 portrayed in the Gospels, and especially in the sapngs of 
 Jesus. The inquiry will be : Who are the good, the 
 "righteous," the "blessed;" who are the bad, the "un- 
 righteous," the "cursed;" what precisely is meant by 
 the "life eternal" which the good enjoy, and the 
 "punishment eternal" which the bad suffer. On each 
 
174 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 of these points we must, of course, be brief; and yet we 
 hope to omit nothing which will be necessary to a clear 
 understanding of the matter. Consider then : — 
 
 I. Who are the good, the "righteous"? We cannot 
 do better than seek the answer in the Saviour's own 
 words and illustrations. In the twenty-fifth chapter of 
 Matthew's Gospel, we read that those whom the Lord 
 called good, the "righteous," did not know that they were 
 so. He told them that, in giving food to the hungry, 
 drink to the thirsty, shelter to the houseless, clothing to 
 the naked, comfort to the sick, they were doing the same 
 things to him. This was what the " righteous " could not 
 understand. " When saw we thee an-hungered, and fed 
 thee ? or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? When saw we thee 
 a stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? 
 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and visited 
 thee?" The reply was : "Inasmuch as ye have done it 
 unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done 
 it unto me." This must have seemed very simple to those 
 who heard Jesus speak ; and, how hard soever for them to 
 believe that they were included among the number for 
 whom so great an "inheritance" was "prepared," they 
 could not have failed to understand that the " righteous " 
 man is the man of righteous deeds, and just such homely 
 deeds, too, as lie in the way of almost any one of us. Nor 
 can we fail to see that in these solemn sentences which 
 
ETERNAL LIFE. 175 
 
 announce the Divine judgments, the very heart of Mercy 
 speaks as if it were ready to break for the sufferings of 
 the world, — the most impressive fact of all being that the 
 Saviour himself suffers mth the humble poor, the hungry, 
 the naked, the prisoner, and that they who, from a pure 
 motive, try to help God's poor and suffering ones are, on 
 that account, "righteous," "blessed." Besides, in this 
 whole discourse, the most remarkable that ever fell from 
 human hps, we have nothing like an enumeration of tests, 
 — surely, nothing like what we are apt to hear to-day. 
 It is wonderful that nothing is said about faith, pious trust, 
 repentance, conversion, regeneration. Absolutely nothing 
 is spoken of here but the every-day conduct of one who 
 feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick and the 
 sinful; and we are forced to believe that the man of 
 righteous deeds is the righteous man. The doctrine is in 
 one plain text of that Apostle who knew best how to in- 
 terpret the Master's words : " Little children, let no man 
 deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, 
 even as God is righteous." At the risk of repetition, we 
 have to say, then, that there can be no good life without 
 good works. When, however, we say in the language of 
 St. John, " He that doeth righteousness is righteous," we 
 do not mean, of course, that such an one is without right 
 thought and right feeling, that he is destitute of faith and 
 love. We mean only that what a man thinks and feels 
 
176 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 must be brought out in his actions, else the thought and 
 the feeling will pass for ever away. Hence it was that 
 Jesus laid stress upon conduct, "fruits." He perplexes 
 us with no refinements of language. He talks of things 
 that all persons can understand. It is assumed, in all his 
 teaching, that the man of right and true life will be a man 
 of faith and love ; for these are the very things that con- 
 stitute the man, and make the action of the life right 
 and true. But this is not the whole truth of Jesus. 
 The faith and love will not stay in the soul where they do 
 not prompt to deeds. Thought, feeling, religious spirit, 
 will not live and grow until they begin to work outwardly. 
 Righteous feeling does not make a righteous man. All 
 that is pure and devout within a man must be invested 
 with conduct, become a part of nature and liistory, before 
 there can be any thing like righteousness. Just as the 
 sorry feeling is not all of repentance ; just as that feeling 
 must lead to amendment, to reformation, altered habits, so 
 pious emotions are not all even of piety, — surely not all of 
 righteousness. The emotion must break out into energy. 
 The feeling within must become doing. The soul was 
 made to bear fruit ; and it will not do to let it run to leaf. 
 Nor must its vitality be headed back. It must go forth to 
 fill every part of life, and to mature some best product. 
 There is no other way for it to be righteous, but to do 
 righteousness. Christ, therefore, puts deeds into the 
 
ETERNAL LIFE. 177 
 
 foreground of requirement. " Do you want to be a 
 good man? Do you want to live?" "Keep the com- 
 mandments." "This do, and thou shalt live." "Ye 
 are mine, if you do whatsoever I command you." When- 
 ever sincerity goes to Jesus with the deepest question of 
 the soul, he throws it at once upon actions. He says : 
 What are you doing? What are the commandments? 
 Are you keeping them ? If you are, it is well. You are 
 on the way to the best life. Do the work that is nearest at 
 hand, and so continue to do, until, by rising stages of suc- 
 cess, you reach a better and better state. And thus, in 
 the very methods of righteousness, the Saviour recognizes 
 its degrees, ranging from lower to higher. The question 
 is not. Have you done all that a soul is called to do ? but. 
 Are you doing what you have the might to do? The 
 question, again, is not, Have you reached the heights of 
 God ? but. Are you moving towards them ? The " right- 
 eous " include all of right life, all on any range of existence, 
 who are doing righteousness. Some, doubtless, are at the 
 base of God's hill ; the feet of many are upon the slopes ; 
 and others, we fain would hope, are nearing the summit. 
 
 2. After what has been said above, but little is required 
 upon the next point : Who are the unrighteous ? The 
 question is virtually answered. If the " righteous " man is 
 the man of righteous deeds, the " unrighteous " man is 
 one who refuses, or neglects, to do righteous deeds. 
 
 12 
 
ijS THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 Jesus, ill the person of the poor, the suffering, the sinful, 
 is not cared for ; and he still says, " Inasmuch as ye did it 
 not unto one of these the least of God's lowly ones, ye did 
 it not unto me." You have not done righteous deeds. 
 To state the doctrine in another way : The unrighteous 
 man is one whose thoughts, feelings, and conduct do not 
 correspond. Or, if they correspond, the conduct is but 
 the expression of a wrong inward state. The correspond- 
 ence in this case is the fatal thing. In the case of a right- 
 eous man, the greatest glory is, that the inward and outward 
 aspects of the life are accordant, — exactly correspond. 
 The one assures and completes the other. Inward faith 
 and love are the soul of deeds ; but deeds react, and be- 
 come the one great method of the soul, giving it shape 
 and permanence. In other words, character is not born 
 until body is given to thought and feeling. When good 
 thought and good feeling find investiture in action, we get 
 good character. When bad thought and bad feeling ma- 
 ture in conduct, we get bad character. In each case 
 what sets the seal to the life is conduct. Therefore the 
 Gospel accents deeds. They are the salt that saves the 
 life ; they alone give health, consistence, force, to what 
 would else evaporate or decay. And this, in principle, 
 must be as true of the one class as of the other, of 
 the bad as well as the good. And it ought to be said of 
 the latter class as of the former, that what fixes character 
 
ETERNAL LIFE. 179 
 
 is not one act, nor two, nor t^venty, but the habit of ^vrong 
 thinking, feeUng, and acting. The question in regard to 
 any man is, Which way does his Hfe sweep ? No matter 
 about the ripples on the top of the Hfe ; at any rate, these 
 are relatively unimportant, as compared with the current of 
 the Ufe. Is that flowing in the right direction? On the 
 whole, prevailingly, that is, does the man move towards 
 God, and all good objects? If so, he is a good man. If, 
 on the other hand, the life sweeps the wrong way ; if, on 
 the whole, the life is a descent towards the things that are 
 opposed to God and goodness, that fact determines the 
 character of the hfe. It is bad, and bad simply because it 
 goes the bad way. Its whole movement, as determined 
 by that within, which really constitutes the life, shows what 
 it is. No chance deed, no single, sudden lapse, deter- 
 mines character, but what has the complexion and force 
 of habit. The one good deed, the one action, though it 
 come of good impulse, does not make a good man. It 
 does not follow, that the man who is moved to extem- 
 pore pity, and, out of that fresh feeling, gives largely to 
 the poor, is necessarily, and on that account, a benevolent 
 man. He may be a miser, for all that. Nor does it fol- 
 low that a man is a bad man, in character bad, because he 
 has been overtaken in a fault. What gives character to 
 character is continuance in well or evil doing. Indeed, 
 the original word from which we get our word charac- 
 
l8o THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 ter, signifies to cut or carve as upon stone or other hard 
 material. So character is the shape of the man as pro- 
 duced by the sharp incision of thought, the subtle handling 
 of feeling, and the force of deeds. Character is the result 
 of this mysterious wear of the inner and the outer life ; 
 and, of course, admits of degrees of excellence, and stages 
 of deformity. 
 
 This, then, seems to be the New Testament idea of the 
 good and the bad, the righteous and the wicked. These 
 are the two characters. What now are the two destinies ? 
 These might be inferred from the two characters. There 
 is a sense, indeed, if thought could only grasp the truth, 
 in which character is destiny ; because all questions of 
 destiny may be resolved into questions of being. The 
 question so often put. What is to become of us ? is irrele- 
 vant and impertinent in the light of a true psychology ; for 
 character and destiny are inseparable, if not identical. 
 The good man is, not is to be blest; and the bad 
 man is, not is to be cursed. Good character does 
 not so much promise, it constitutes the eternal life ; 
 and bad character is not so much threatened with " loss," 
 " death." It is loss, it is death. What it is denied, or 
 deprived of, is not so bad as its own state, just as loss 
 of sight is worse than any thing which results from that 
 loss. It is sad not to see the countenance of one's friends, 
 and the blush of beauty on the face of nature, but it is 
 
ETERNAL LIFE. i8l 
 
 sadder to be blind. So, as the best thing you can say of 
 a good man is, He is a good man ; so the worst thing you 
 can say of a bad man is, He is a bad man. Nothing that 
 comes of character can suggest so real or so complete an 
 idea of destiny as the character itself, good or bad. 
 
 But we shall keep more closely to the method of this 
 essay, if we inquire, first, as to the meaning of eternal life, 
 which the good are said to enjoy, and of the eternal punish- 
 ment, or, to preserve the antithesis, the eternal death, 
 which the bad are said to suffer. 
 
 I. The eternal hfe. In attempting to define this phrase, 
 or to describe the state which it points out, we cannot do 
 better, perhaps, than to ask how it is used in the New 
 Testament. And the moment we do consult Gospels and 
 Epistles, we are surprised to see how frequently life is re- 
 ferred to as something different from existpnce, and differ- 
 ent, too, from immortality itself. The one thing that 
 men are called to is life ; the one thing that they are eager 
 to secure is Hfe ; and, more than any thing else, life is 
 the final cause of all Christian training and discipline. 
 We may not always understand the method of Christianity, 
 but we can hardly fail to see that its crowning object is 
 ii/e. If it bring instruction for ignorance, pardon for 
 penitence, salvation for sin, it is that the taught and the 
 forgiven and the saved soul may be quickened, made 
 alive ^vith the life which it is its special office to impart. 
 
lS2 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 It is wonderful, indeed, to note with what recurrence the 
 Saviour speaks of life as the end beyond all others in 
 the great work which he came to do. As we have just 
 hinted, he came to bear witness to the truth, to tell men 
 \\-hat they are, and where they are, and what, as souls, they 
 are to do and be ; he came to fulfil the law, to complete 
 all law in lo\-e, so that duty will be no more duty than 
 pleasure ; he came to save the soul, not in the sense of 
 rescuing it from a penal doom, but in the sense of emanci- 
 pating it from all wrong. But he does not stop with this 
 threefold work, great and glorious as it is. He goes on to 
 complete it all in the communication of a life of which he 
 is the perfect possessor, and the only communicator to men. 
 He does every thing else for us that, at last, he may do this 
 greater work in enlivening the souls which his truth has 
 instructed and his salvation has blessed. Now, this Hfe is 
 called " eternal ; " and the first thing that we learn about it 
 is, that it is a present possession. " He that believeth on the 
 Son /laf/i eternal life." " Verily, verily, I say unto you. He 
 that believeth on me hath eternal Hfe." " Whoso eateth 
 my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life." " Who- 
 soever believeth in him (Christ) should not perish, but have 
 eternal life." " Whosoever drinketh of the water that I 
 shall give him shall never thirst ; but it shall be in him a 
 fountain " — '^riyi] — " of water springing up into everlast- 
 ing life." " He that heareth my word, and believeth on 
 
ETERNAL LIFE. 183 
 
 Him that sent me, kath eternal life, and shall not come 
 into condemnation, but has passed from death into life." 
 These sayings, and many others which might be quoted, 
 show that the eternal life of which Jesus speaks is a 
 present possession of the human soul ; that it is, — not 
 will be. Meyer, whose " orthodoxy " will not be ques- 
 tioned, and whose learning places him in the front rank of 
 New-Testament critics, says, in commenting upon several 
 of the above passages, and especially upon the words 
 t,(oriV nimviov, that they " signify the eternal Messianic life, 
 which the believer already possesses." " It is that moral 
 and blessed Hfe, which is independent of death." Liicke, 
 also, whose opinions are eagerly sought by all students of 
 exegesis, says that the i^oor] aiwnog, the eternal life, is the 
 "sum of Messianic blessedness," "an existing life," "a 
 present reality " in the soul. He says over and over again 
 that " hath " and " hath passed " indicate that the " life " 
 spoken of is not a life after death, but one that begins here 
 in this world, — a higher kind of life, "a resurrection 
 process prior to bodily death." So much, then, ought 
 to be plain, that the eternal life, however defined, is a 
 present possession. It is what the believer in Christ /las. 
 He confides in him who is the life ; and his mind and 
 heart are fed out of the mind and heart of the living Lord 
 and Redeemer. 
 
 But we do not reach the defining characteristic of the 
 
184 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 eternal life by study of those texts alone which speak of it 
 as a present possession. Indeed, the word possession 
 is misleading. It may refer to what is external to the soul 
 itself, when, in truth, it does refer, in this case, to what is 
 inward and substantive. The soul does not possess the 
 eternal life as it may be said to possess the objects of 
 nature, the facts of history, and the experiences of men. 
 The eternal life is not so much an object of contemplation 
 as a fact of being. At any rate, it is so much a part of the 
 soul that, though we may t/imk of it as separate from being, 
 it is inseparable from it. It is the soul's life, and therefore 
 a fact of consciousness. The entire truth is stated in the 
 words of Jesus : '' This is life eternal, that they might know 
 thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast 
 sent." The most eminent teachers of the ancient church 
 quoted this verse as Christ's own definition of the phrase, 
 *' eternal life ; " and the best modern biblical critics agree 
 that it refers to a state of the soul itself. They teach that the 
 " knowledge " of God and Christ is not a means of attaining 
 the eternal life ; but that that " knowledge " is vital, and 
 constitutes the eternal life. This " knowledge " of God and 
 Christ, which comes of inward experience of the truth, 
 and of the love of God in Christ, is the eternal life. The 
 " knowledge " is the subjective, formative principle of the 
 " life." It is its very germ, whose unfolding is possible in 
 this world, amid the mortal hindrances, and whose fuller 
 
ETERNAL LIFE. 185 
 
 development will appear hereafter, when all mortal con- 
 cealments are taken away. This is the view taken by De 
 Wette, Meyer, Olshausen, Tholuck, Bengel, Alford, and 
 many other German and EngHsh commentators. They 
 all accent that interpretation of the words of Jesus which 
 makes eternal life a state of the soul. They all recognize 
 a " spirit " in man, in all men, that is, which is the root of 
 the eternal Ufe. The Hfe was with the Father from the be- 
 ginning, was manifested in the Son, and is given to the 
 soul by the Father through the Son. The eternal Ufe, 
 therefore, is the life of God in the soul, and of the soul in 
 God. Fichte says, " Love is hfe. Where I love, I hve. 
 What I love, I live from that." And this is not only pro- 
 found spiritual philosophy, but the deepest truth of revela- 
 tion. St. Paul teaches us that we love earthly things 
 because our life is earthly, and that love of heavenly things 
 comes of heavenly life. If we love what is right and true 
 and good, our Hfe is spiritual, eternal. If we love lower 
 things, earthly things, our hfe is earthly, temporal. If we 
 love God as he is shown to us by Jesus, we hve from God, 
 and so Hve the eternal Hfe. Eternity has reaUy begun in 
 that soul that is deepening into life from a pure love of 
 right, and truth, and goodness. 
 
 If it were necessary to add any thing to what has already 
 been said, to make clear that the eternal Hfe is greater than 
 mere duration, that it is a state of the soul, and a very 
 
1 86 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 present, inward good, we might refer to those incidents 
 and sayings of the Gospels which make it sure that this 
 great Kfe is something man can get by his own en- 
 deavors. When the young man asks Jesus what he shall 
 do that he may have eternal life, the Master replies in such 
 a way that the young man feels that he must do something 
 to secure the great boon and blessing. If the questioner 
 had been thinking of mere continuance of existence after 
 the death of the body, Jesus would not have answered as 
 he did. It is evident that he interpreted the question to 
 mean : What shall I do that I may get the true Hfe, — the 
 inward, spiritual life? To do good, to help the poor, 
 to keep the commandments, is the way to become a better 
 man. This better life within is what the young man 
 wanted, and Jesus spoke of the only way of getting it : by 
 keeping the divine law, helping others, following him. In 
 substance, this is what he said to Peter, also, when that 
 disciple told his Lord that he and the others had left all 
 to follow him. " There is no man that hath left the 
 dearest treasures of this world, but shall receive a greater 
 good ; and the greatest good which will accrue from all 
 your denials is the eternal life, the deeper life of your mind 
 and heart. Leave lower things and employments, and 
 follow me in the higher Hfe, and you will gain in truth, in 
 purity, in love. The spiritual or inward life is compen- 
 sation enough for all your denials and sacrifices." The 
 
ETERNAL LIFE. 187 
 
 words of Jesus, then, rightly interpreted, show that the 
 eternal Hfe is something which we may secure by inward 
 and outward work, — just such service, indeed, as will re- 
 sult in a fairer mind and richer heart. There would be 
 little sense in calling us to right and true and loving action 
 as preparation for endless existence. But such action is 
 rightful preparation for the eternal life j since that refers to 
 the kind of life, and not primarily to the quantity or dura- 
 tion of it. We shall be confirmed in this view as we go on 
 to consider what is presented in the New Testament as the 
 natural antithesis of the eternal life. 
 
 2. The eternal punishment. We write ^/^r;?^/ punish- 
 ment, because it is conceded by scholars that the words 
 " everlasting " and " eternal " stand, in the English version 
 of the Scriptures as the equivalent of the Greek word 
 uiojvin^. In the passage so often quoted, — Matt. xxv. 46, 
 — " •AolaGiv aicoptov " and " ^cotjv aiwviov " are set forth as 
 the opposite destinies of the righteous and the wicked. If 
 we adopt into our language the word which Tennyson has 
 made familiar, the saying of Jesus will read : " These shall 
 go away into * seonian ' punishment, but the righteous 
 into ' aeonian ' life." The adjective (aeonian) means no 
 more, no less, in the former case, when applied to punish- 
 ment, than in the latter, when apphed to life. yEonian 
 life, as we have tried to show, is the life of God in the 
 human soul. The quality, and not the quantity, of the life 
 
1 88 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 is pointed out. Tlierefore, the aeonian punishment is the 
 kind of punishment, and not the duration of it. Grant, as 
 some persons are eager to have us, that the Greek noun 
 al(ov means eter?tity. The most we could say, even then, 
 would be that nlmviog means belonging to eternity ; and, of 
 course, it would be just as fair to say that the aeonian pun- 
 ishment is the punishment which takes place in eternity, 
 as that it is punishment which lasts through eternity. 
 Some critics, it may be, have been swift to deny that 
 aiconog has any reference to duration. Others have 
 labored to show that the word signifies " endless," " for 
 ever." By far the better class of scholars concede " that 
 the adjective aianog, neither by itself, nor by what it de- 
 rives from its noun, ul(6v, gives any testimony to the end- 
 lessness of future punishment." The most that can be 
 said is, that the punishment belongs to, or takes place in, 
 the aeon, or the aeons, to come, — not in the eternity, or 
 the eternities (which would be very incorrect) to come, 
 but in the age or ages to come. Dr. Tayler Lewis, in his 
 "Excursus on Ecclesiastes," i. 3, in Lange's Commentary, 
 takes this view, and to him we refer the interested reader. 
 He says that " the preacher, in contending with the Uni- 
 versalist, or Restorationist, would commit an error, and, it 
 may be, suffer failure in his argument, should he lay the 
 whole stress of it on the etymological, or historical signi- 
 ficance of the words aiaVj uiconov, and attempt to prove 
 
ETERNAL LIFE. 189 
 
 that, of themselves, they carry the meaning of endless 
 duration." In allusion to Matt. xxv. 46, he says : " There 
 comes at last the end. Sentence is pronounced. The 
 condemned go away zlg xoXaaiv alcanov, the righteous 
 ^lg ^oitjv aicoviov. Both states are expressed in language 
 precisely parallel, and so presented that we cannot exeget- 
 ically make any difference in the force and extent of the 
 terms, ^icoviog, from its adjective form, may perhaps 
 mean an existence, a duration, measured by aeons, or 
 worlds (he means ^m^- worlds, and not worlds in space), 
 just as our present world, or aeon, is measured by years or 
 centuries. But it would be more in accordance with the 
 plainest etymological usage to give it simply the sense of 
 d/am habba, — the world to come. These shall go away 
 into the punishment (the restraint, imprisonment) of the 
 world to come, and these into the life of the world to come. 
 That is all we can etymologically make of the word in 
 the passage." The word alxhv, from which cdanog derives 
 all the meaning it has, is never used in the sense of end- 
 less. In the Greek philosophers, in the Septuagint, and 
 in the writings of the New Testament, it always means 
 a period of time. The fact, too, that this word {aim') 
 has a plural ought to convince us that eternity is no 
 proper translation of it, for how could we speak of the eter- 
 nities ? Besides, the Scriptures use the phrase, ovxog 6 aicov 
 (this age), meaning only, as our translators have taught 
 us, " this world," this age, this epoch. It surely, then, is 
 
1 90 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 not a very bold thing to say that aicoviog means, and must 
 mean, belonging to an age or dispensation, and that alw- 
 rwg xolaoig (aeonian punishment) is the punishment that 
 takes place in that age or dispensation. At any rate, we 
 are not obliged to put the common idea of eternal into 
 this pregnant word. To us the New Testament teaches 
 that, as the good go into that spiritual life which is charac- 
 teristic of the Christian aeons, so the bad go into aeonian 
 punishment, or that punishment which marks the same 
 aeons. The good go into seonian, spiritual life, because 
 they have " knowledge " of God and of Christ. They see 
 God's truth and God's love, and are conscious of that in 
 their own souls which is in harmony with that truth and 
 love, and so they are at rest. The bad see the truth and the 
 love of God and their own evil at the same time, and so 
 are condemned. They suffer the aeonian punishment, the 
 spiritual death. And here we must guard against putting 
 any meaning into the aicovcog xoXaatg (eternal punishment) 
 which the words themselves will not bear. The primary 
 meaning of the word which Jesus uses {xolaGig) , and 
 which in the New Testament is rendered punishment, is 
 "to prune." In this first use of the word, it implies that 
 I^rocess by which trees are treated, that they may grow 
 more vigorously, and, above all, bear better fruit. In its 
 figurative use, as applied to the moral life, it means those 
 methods by which character is improved, made vigorous 
 and fruitful. It carries the meaning of correction, dis- 
 
ETERNAL LIFE. 
 
 191 
 
 cipline. According to Aristotle, when the Greeks wanted 
 to point out the " kind of punishment which is intended 
 for the vindication of law and justice," they used, not 
 'Aolaaig (the word used by Christ), but another word, 
 TifAcoQia, which indicates the vindictive character of pun- 
 ishment. So far, then, as the truth hinges upon the mean- 
 ing of a. word, the use of which by the Saviour could not 
 have been accidental, he means a punishment which will 
 result in the sinner's reformation. The wicked are judged 
 by Christ's truth and Christ's love, and are thus made to 
 see what and where they are ; and they go away from that 
 invisible bar into the aicoviov 'Aolaaiv, the aeonian punish- 
 ment, to suffer, indeed, we know not what hard, long 
 discipline, but to suffer that they may be saved ; for the 
 severest scourging upon impenitence is but the correction 
 of Christ's loving wrath. 
 
 We might pause here, but for a single objection which 
 has been accented in the current controversy on this sub- 
 ject. It is urged, with apparent conclusiveness, that since 
 alconog " must mean as much for the wicked as for the 
 righteous," and that since the aeonian life means endless 
 life, the aeonian punishment must mean endless punish- 
 ment. To this we reply, that, while it is true that " both 
 states are expressed in language precisely parallel, and so 
 presented that we cannot exegetically make any difference 
 in the force and extent of the terms," it is by no means 
 certain that " aeonian life " denotes endless Hfe. The idea 
 
192 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 of duration is involved in the Greek adjective, aicopiog, but 
 primarily it does not indicate the length of the life, but 
 life of a certain kind. The severest textual criticism will 
 not be able to justify the " quantitative interpretation," to 
 the extent, we mean, of showing that the phrase seonian 
 life means endless life. It shows rather that it is the life 
 which belongs to the aeon or aeons. To repeat what we 
 have elsewhere set down, the aeonian life is the life which 
 a good and true man has. " He that believeth on the 
 Son hath aeonian life." " This is the record, that God 
 hath giveft unto us aeonian life, and this life is in his Son, 
 He that hath the Son hath life ; and he that hath not the 
 Son hath not life." " This is the aeonian life, that they 
 may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom 
 Thou hast sent." These texts refer to the ki7idoi life, and 
 not to the duration of it ; and it would seem that the per- 
 petuity of the life is secondary to that vitality which cha- 
 racterizes it. So far, then, as any thing is to be inferred 
 concerning aeonian punishment, it is not endless. Pri- 
 marily, it is the punishment which belongs to the aeon, or 
 aeons. It is the quality of the punishment, and not the 
 quantity of it. The true force of the aeonian punishment is 
 in its spirituality, and not in its endlessness ; and the soul 
 that is " eternally " separated from God is the one that is 
 inwardly separated from Him, and so from blessedness and 
 bliss. Moreover it would be difficult to show, on ethical 
 grounds, that any suffering would accompany sin, if sin 
 
ETERNAL LIFE. 193 
 
 were endless ; for such suffering is possible only when the 
 soul has sight of some good, some virtue, which it desires. 
 Guilt could never occur unless the soul became aware, 
 conscious of a truth, a good, which it had \vronged. Con- 
 tinuous sin would preclude such consciousness. Con- 
 sciousness of sin, however, is a fact. Always when a soul 
 sins, it knows that it sins, and that, too, in the light of 
 what is opposite to sin. The sin, then, is broken in upon, 
 is interrupted, by so much of good as the soul sees and 
 knows, and in knowledge of which it is judged and con- 
 demned. Endless sin, therefore, would seem to be im- 
 possible to a moral being ; and if endless sin is impossible 
 to such a being as man, it is hard to see on what grounds 
 endless suffering is to be justified. The only idea that is 
 admissible is the one which the New Testament teaches : 
 that the sinner suffers aeonian punishment, which is inward 
 and spiritual, — a punishment which is occasioned by the 
 sight of the good which judges him. The suffering, as we 
 believe, is a means to an end, and that end is amendment 
 leading to virtue ; and so on to recovery. This is the 
 ultijnate destiny for the "righteous " and the "wicked," 
 — for those who go into seonian life, and for those who go 
 into aeonian punishment. It is the end beyond all seons, 
 and beyond all aeons of aeons. And the one consumma- 
 tion to which the discipline of all future but still interme- 
 diate ages conducts is universal redemption. 
 
 13 
 
194 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 L 
 
 IMMORTAL LIFE. 
 
 BY A. J. PATTERSON, D.D. 
 
 IFE is the cause and not the result of material organ- 
 
 ism. Particles of matter do not combine and create 
 life by spontaneous generation. A life-principle touches 
 matter, and weaving it into living tissue, clothes itself with 
 material form. The child does not live because he grows, 
 he grows because he lives. The body is not primal, and 
 the spirit incidental. The soul is the real entity, and the 
 body is a garment which the soul puts on. We recognize 
 this truth even in the common language of hfe. We say 
 my hand, my head, my body. It is not me : it is mine. 
 No member of my body is me, nor are all the members 
 combined. They are all mine. Now who am I, that 
 possess this hand, this head, this body, all these material 
 members, through which I come into connection with 
 material things ? I am a living, thinking, hoping, loving, 
 and aspiring soul. " God is a spirit," and I am his child. 
 I shall lay aside these earthly implements and garments 
 by and by. But the change will not be death. It will 
 rather be the morning dawn of real life. 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 1 95 
 
 But how can man live, self-conscious and active, with- 
 out his material organs ? How can he see without eyes, 
 or hear without ears, or think, or feel, or love, when brain 
 and heart are mouldering in the grave ? The answer is 
 not difficult to find. A little study of the human consti- 
 tution reveals the fact that it is not the eye that sees, nor 
 the ear that hears. Delicately constructed as are these 
 organs of sense, they have no power of their own. They 
 are only windows of the earthly house, through which the 
 conscious soul within, holds converse with the outer world. 
 If it can see so much of beauty and hear so much of 
 melody through the narrow casement of its prison, shall 
 it not have clearer vision and listen to diviner songs when 
 its prison walls are broken down, and it stands mth un- 
 veiled face in the presence of the excellent glory ? 
 
 That man's conscious selfhood centres in his spirit 
 rather than his body, is evident in the changes which come 
 to the body during life, without affecting his identity. 
 The man of gray hairs is the same conscious being that he 
 was in childhood. Tracing his way step by step along the 
 halls of memory, he finds that his identity remains un- 
 broken. His body has changed again and again, in form 
 and feature, and even in its constituent elements. Not a 
 particle of matter remains, of which it was composed 
 when he was ten years old. He has literally put off one 
 body and put on another half a score of times. But he 
 
196 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 has not lost identity. He has been the same conscious 
 soul from first to last. If the soul, without shock, or 
 check, or loss of conscious life, may pass from one material 
 body to another, why may it not, with equal exemption 
 from harm, pass from the material to the spiritual body, and 
 enter the fair realm of spiritual existence ? 
 
 Once more. It is well known that the loss of a hmb 
 does not in the slightest degree maim the soul. The self- 
 conscious spirit remains in its integrity. Only the material 
 form has suffered loss. Remove one hmb after another, 
 until only the vital part remains, and the man is still a 
 man. His vote would go as far in deciding an election 
 as that of his more fortunate neighbor. His prayer would 
 be just as acceptable in the ear of Heaven. His powers 
 of will, of thought, of feehng, of veneration, of devotion, 
 may have suffered no abatement. He never felt himself 
 more truly a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, an im- 
 mortal child of God. Throw off the little that remains of 
 that wasted body, and who can say that it shall reduce by 
 the minutest fraction the stature of the soul. 
 
 It is a recognized law of science, that nothing which is, 
 can absolutely cease to be. It may pass through numer- 
 ous changes, combinations, modifications. But that some- 
 thing should become nothing, is impossible. You cannot 
 reduce to nothing a grain of sand or a drop of dew. You 
 may grind the sand to powder, and scatter it to the four 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 197 
 
 winds of heaven. Still it is something. The plant or 
 earth may drink the dew, or it may be converted into 
 vapor and wafted away on the wing of a cloud ; still it is 
 something, and it has a place in the economy of things. 
 By a law of the mental constitution, it is not possible even 
 to conceive of its destruction. Much less can you for- 
 mulate the idea of your o\vn destruction. Your body may 
 undergo great changes. It may be burned to ashes, or 
 buried in the earth or sea, and return to its original ele- 
 ments. But no least particle of it is lost. It is carefully 
 preserved by that God, who, in his miserly economy, has 
 made nothing for destruction. Your soul also may un- 
 dergo great changes. The limitations of thought do not 
 necessitate the idea of its existence after death in the 
 same mode or form that it exists to-day. But you cannot 
 conceive of its absolute destruction. It is not a phenome- 
 non, but an entity ; not a dream but a reality. And you 
 can think of no change through which it may pass, in the 
 eternity that holds you in its arms, in which you will not 
 be concerned, and, in a sense, be consciously present to 
 behold. Your continued existence therefore becomes a 
 necessity ; for, by the limitations of thought, you cannot 
 conceive of its absolute end, and it is a recognized law of 
 metaphysics that what cannot be thought cannot be true. 
 The tenacity Avith which we cling to our identity affords 
 another cogent argument for immortality. There is not a 
 
198 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 man in the world, who, if the thing were possible, would 
 drop his own conscious selfhood and assume that of an- 
 other. You may be willing to change places with another. 
 You may covet his wealth or wisdom, his beauty or talent, 
 his honor or influence. But yo7i would occupy his place. 
 You would change places with him. You would not be him. 
 The self-conscious 7?ie must go with you everywhere. 
 The throne of God himself would be of little concern to 
 me, if / were never to see its glory. Why was this in- 
 stinct planted in the soul? Was it to tantalize us for a 
 little while, as the cat or tiger toys with its victim, and 
 then blot us out of existence? Is not this clinging to 
 identity a prophecy of immortahty, a pledge from God 
 himself that we are born for an endless life ? 
 
 And why " this pleasing hope, this fond desire, this 
 longing after immortality," if we are limited to the nar- 
 row span of threescore years and ten? Philosophers 
 tell us that " the universe is governed by attractions," and 
 that "there can be no attraction toward nothing," but 
 " wherever there is attraction, there is and must be an 
 attracting object." They also tell us that " Correspond- 
 ency is a law of the universe," that " provision has been 
 made for every natural want," and that legitimate " desire 
 and tendency are a sure index of destiny." This law is 
 abundantly illustrated in the natural world. The house- 
 plant turns its leaves and grows towards the window, seek- 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 1 99 
 
 ing sunlight. Sunlight has been provided to reward its 
 quest. The vine sends out its claspers, seeking something 
 to which it may cling. Branches extend above it their 
 strong supporting arms. The germinating seed sends 
 a root downward, seeking moisture. Moisture has been 
 provided to nurture its life. It sends the blade upward, 
 seeking air and sunlight. Air and sunlight are found 
 to answer its demands. The migratory bird is drawn 
 by a strange longing toward summer lakes and fruit- 
 ful fields, far, far away. It does not make its journey 
 over sea and land in vain. Man is hungry, and the earth 
 teems with abundance. He is thirsty, and a spring is at 
 his feet. He craves companionship, and beautiful beings 
 are all about him to share his love and to return their own. 
 There is no natural want, instinct, or longing, of vegetable, 
 animal, or man, for which God has not made provision. 
 Now apply the analogy to the subject under considera- 
 tion. Man does desire an immortal life. There is no 
 want or longing that is more natural or universal. What 
 is the legitimate inference ? That man shall live for ever. 
 It cannot be that the good God, who has balanced want 
 and supply throughout his universe, so carefully that there 
 is no hunger of beast, bird, fish, or insect which cries in 
 vain, will, when he comes to man, the noblest creature of 
 all, impart a longing that is never satisfied, and that 
 the highest and holiest longing of his nature. It may 
 
200 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 be objected that there are wants of beast and nan 
 that cry in vain, that many an animal dies of hunger, 
 that man has an intense desire for wealth, or fame, or 
 position, that is never realized. It is not claimed that 
 every outcropping of desire is, on the instant, answered. 
 But it is claimed that there is that which would, if it could 
 be obtained, answer every natural desire. Nor is it claimed 
 that every peculiar form of want which man can know is 
 ever to be satisfied. In our present perverted con- 
 dition, there are desires that are not natural or legiti- 
 mate, that ought to be and will be denied. But these are 
 not fundamental intuitions, like the longing for immortal 
 life. They spring from our peculiar surroundings, and 
 may have their birth and death with them. This is a 
 natural want of man, found under all conditions, and 
 hence must have been provided for. " God does not 
 create a desire to mock it. There are no dissonances in 
 his works. The constitutional instincts raise no false ex- 
 pectations. The structure of the human constitution 
 is not an organized lie." ^ Emerson has uttered no sub- 
 limer sentiment than when he says, " Every thing is 
 prophetic, and man is to live hereafter. The implanting 
 of a desire indicates that the gratification of that desire is 
 in the constitution of the creature that feels it. The 
 Creator keeps his word with us. All I have seen teaches 
 
 1 Joseph Cook. 
 
JMMOETAL LIFE. 20I 
 
 me to trust the Lord for all I have not seen." ^ This argu- 
 ment is old as Cato, but it has lost none of its force by 
 the repetitions of the ages. 
 
 This longing for immortal life is not a thing of cultiva- 
 tion merely. It is found in all nations and ages, in all 
 grades and conditions of society. The polar Indian feels 
 it in his hut of snow. The rude African feels it, sit- 
 ting beneath his palm. The philosopher is stirred by it 
 in his profoundest investigations. Job longed for a sure 
 answer to the question, " If a man die, shall he live again ? " 
 The believing Christian finds his sweetest solace in the 
 assurance, " He is not here, but is risen." How shall we 
 account for this almost universal expectation, except it be 
 on the supposition that it was planted in the soul by the 
 God who made the soul. It is a prophecy of destiny 
 \vritten not on parchment or tables of stone, but on the 
 tables of the heart. " As the insect throws out its antennae, 
 and by their s-ensitive nerves, finds that which is beyond its 
 sight, so man throws out the arms of intuition and aspi- 
 ration, and touches that which is behind the veil." 
 
 This prophetic voice, co-existent almost with the race, 
 grows clearer and more distinct under the influence of 
 cultivation. What was only a faint whisper in the ruder 
 ages and nations, a longing which did not ripen into 
 satisfying faith, beneath the light of Christian cultivation 
 
 1 Essay on Immortality. 
 
202 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 and scientific investigation, becomes a sonorous assurance, 
 a sweet and satisfying song of trust and peace and praise. 
 The wisest and best men, the men who have known most 
 of nature and lived nearest God, the men who have stood 
 and stand as beacon-Hghts, to show the succeeding gener- 
 ations how to honor God and gain the highest ends of life, 
 are men who have shared, in largest measure, the faith of 
 immortality. 
 
 And it is a significant fact, that this faith grows brighter 
 and clearer as men near the border-land which separates 
 faith and sight. Many a man whose faith was weak, when 
 the pulses of life were high, has grown into it more and more, 
 as the life-tide ebbed away, until, like Moses from Pisgah, 
 he could see the " sweet fields beyond the swelling flood." 
 Whatever one's doubts or speculations may have been in 
 life, it is rare indeed for a sane man to confront death 
 without beheving in a life to come. This is what we 
 should expect if immortal life be true. But if death were 
 the end, and immortality a dream, we should expect to 
 see men, all men, start back appalled, as the dream van- 
 ished, and they confronted annihilation. 
 
 Another evidence of immortality is found in the imper- 
 fect state of man on earth. We do not refer so much to 
 the millions who enter life, and breathe the air for a few 
 days or months and pass away, — little children that begin 
 to unfold their possibilities, and are plucked before their 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 
 
 203 
 
 time ; nor to the millions who^ living to mature years, die 
 as children in knowledge ; nor to the millions, even more 
 unfortunate, who are dwarfed and wasted by sin, — though 
 it were passing strange if no further chance were given 
 them to fulfil the purpose of their creation. We refer to 
 all men, the wisest and best, as well as the weakest and 
 meanest of our race. God gives the forest-tree time to 
 mature. It grows at leisure, and fulfils the purpose of its 
 life, and sinks perhaps into slow decay. The horse is 
 satisfied with a comfortable stall and well-filled manger, 
 or an abundant pasture. He has learned as much when 
 seven years old, as he will ever know. He has no com- 
 prehensive plans for the welfare of his kind to leave unfin- 
 ished, no intricate experiments pursued for years and 
 years in the quest of truth, which, if he dies an hour too 
 soon, may be as if they had never been. He has no un- 
 answered longing for something yet to be. But where is 
 the man who can say that his work is finished, that his 
 plans are consummated, that his possibilities are fully ripe ? 
 Newton, when dying, felt that he had only gathered, as it 
 were, a few pebbles along the shore of an illimitable con- 
 tinent, that he had only touched the surf of an illimitable 
 sea. Such is the experience of the greatest and best men 
 who have lived or died. If the philosopher shall never 
 finish the investigations from which he was summoned by 
 the messenger of death ; if the poet shall never complete 
 
204 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 the song that was cut short by his failing breath ; if the 
 artist shall never realize the high ideal for which he perhaps 
 starved in a dim attic, and worked on until he fainted at 
 his tasks, and died with fame and fortune just within his 
 reach ; if the Christian shall never meet that Saviour in 
 whose name he marched through martyr fires ; if the poor 
 child of sin, who failed in the stress of life, though longing 
 for holiness with most intense desire, shall never stand 
 clothed in white among the ransomed company, — then law 
 is a lie, and life is a mockery, and man is the one stu- 
 pendous failure in the universe. God gave this higher 
 ideal than we can attain on earth, this hunger for knowl- 
 edge, this longing for perfection. As God is God and 
 cannot act a lie, he must grant us some sphere in which 
 to grow unto perfection, and gain the stature of men in 
 Christ. 
 
 Turning now to the later Revelation we find abundant 
 confirmation of these voices of the human soul. Though 
 the truth of immortality is not clearly proclaimed in the 
 Hebrew Scriptures, there are intimations of it, foregleams 
 shining in the lines and between the lines of patriarchs 
 and prophets. The hope of the Shunammite mother must 
 have been more than mere longing for life beyond death, 
 when, to the prophet's question, " Is it well with thee, is it 
 well with thy husband, is it well with the child?" she 
 answered, "It is well." The same dawning faith appears 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 205 
 
 in the questions which welled spontaneously from the bur- 
 dened heart of Job, " If a man die, shall he live again? " 
 " There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout 
 again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease, 
 but man dieth and wasteth away, yea, man giveth up the 
 ghost, and where is he ? " " Shall he live again ? " " Where 
 is he?" Not quite sure, yet clinging to the hope that 
 there is life beyond the grave. David shows that he had 
 something more than a dream of future existence, when, 
 bending over the fonn of his dead child, he exclaimed 
 " I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." The 
 Preacher uttered a philosophy worthy of any age, when he 
 said, " The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the 
 spirit shall return unto God who gave it." 
 
 But though these early servants of God had foregleams, 
 they were only foregleams of Immortality. The full reve- 
 lation was reserved for Him who is greater than Moses, or 
 David, or the Prophets. Christ brought " Life and Im- 
 mortality to light." He taught in unmistakable language 
 that only the body dies. To the disciples, hunted from 
 city to city by cruel persecution, he said, " Fear not them 
 that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." To 
 the Sadducees who denied a future life, he said, " In the 
 Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, 
 but are as the angels of God in heaven." And " that the 
 dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he 
 
206 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 called the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 
 and the God of Jacob. God is not a God of the dead, but 
 of the living, for all men live unto him." These patri- 
 archs had slept for generations, in the grave at Machpelah, 
 and yet as Jesus saw them they were still alive. This truth 
 was made more plain to the disciples, by the visible ap- 
 pearance of Moses and Elias on the Mount of Transfigu- 
 ration. Christ also told them of his own approaching 
 death, and of the resurrection that should follow, and 
 gave them the comforting assurance, " I go to prepare a 
 place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I 
 will come again and receive you unto myself, that where 
 I am there ye may be also." '' And I, if I be Hfted up from 
 the earth, will draw all men unto me." These are wonder- 
 ful words, words which brought the immortal life to the 
 comprehension of men more clearly than any that had 
 ever been spoken before. But words were not enough. 
 They may be misapprehended. They were to the disciples 
 like idle tales. Christ would be a perfect revelation of 
 immortality. The truth he taught he would illustrate 
 before their eyes. Hence he welcomed the pains of 
 tlie cross. He was laid in the tomb. Its door was 
 closed and sealed and guarded. His enemies would 
 stamp with falsehood his words, " Destroy this temple, and 
 in three days I will raise it up." They would make it 
 plain to all the world that he could not and did not rise. 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 20 7 
 
 But there were watchers at that tomb more powerful than 
 the soldiers. Keeping faithful guard were two angels, 
 appointed by the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Man 
 had groped in darkness through the long night of the ages. 
 The hour had come for the day-star to arise. That star 
 arose never to know a setting, when the women came to 
 the sepulchre, and found the stone rolled away, and heard 
 the angel say, " He is not here, but is risen." From that 
 glad hour the disciples were new men. Timid and vacil- 
 lating before, they were now brave as lions. Confident of 
 immortal life as they were of their own existence, they 
 went forth preaching Jesus and the Resurrection. " Be- 
 cause I live, ye shall live also," was their constant assur- 
 ance, their perpetual inspiration. In this hope, they planted 
 churches. In this hope, they confronted persecution. In 
 this hope, they sung paeans even in the midst of martyr- 
 dom : for they had learned that it is " better to depart and 
 be with Christ ; " that " If our earthly tent habitatioti were 
 dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made 
 with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
 
 Having established the truth of an immortal life, by 
 an appeal to the nature of man and the voice of inspira- 
 tion, let us now see what light we can gain concerning the 
 modes and conditions of our life beyond the grave. 
 
 The question which confronted the Apostle is pertinent 
 to-day : " How are the dead raised up, and with what 
 
208 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 body do they come?" Will it be a resurrection of the 
 identical material body ? No, the body of flesh and blood 
 is not to enter the immortal state. None of us who have 
 felt the pains, experienced the accidents and battled with 
 the want and weakness which inhere in the earthly body, 
 would care to take it up again, after we have laid it down. 
 It serves a wise and useful purpose in this rudimental 
 state ; but it is not adapted to the needs of an endless life. 
 Paul makes the question of the resurrection-body very 
 plain. He says, " That which thou sowest is not quick- 
 ened except it die ; and that which thou sowest is not the 
 body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat 
 or of some other grain. But God giveth it a body as it 
 hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. So 
 also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corrup- 
 tion, it is raised in incorruption ; it is sown in dishonor, 
 it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in 
 power ; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual 
 body." When we plant a grain of corn, we do not expect 
 to see the identical kernel rise. We know that under the 
 chemical influence of sun and shower, the grosser material of 
 which it is composed will be dissolved and drop away. But 
 we also know that it contains a germ, an elemental principle 
 of life, which is quickened by the very elements that de- 
 stroy the grosser material, and which springs up a more 
 beautiful form, a more vigorous and glorious Hfe. Within 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 2 09 
 
 that kernel of corn, in embryo, are " the blade, the ear, 
 the full corn in the ear." Place it under the microscope, 
 and we see them there complete in all their parts, only 
 waiting the vivifying touch of chemical affinities, to burst 
 the shell, and spring into the hght an expanded hfe. Is 
 it not so with man ? Take the magnifying lens of Reve- 
 lation, and look through it into the depths of a human 
 soul. What dost thou behold ? An embryo angel, wait- 
 ing the breath of God that shall give it life and cause the 
 grosser form to drop away. The material form shall not 
 rise in the resurrection. " The body shall return to the 
 dust as it was." A more glorious spiritual body shall rise. 
 "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." 
 And the spiritual body is, in some mysterious way, con- 
 tained in these forms of flesh and blood, even as the oak 
 is contained in the acorn-shell. The spiritual is not some- 
 thing apart from the material body, which the soul puts on 
 as a garment. It springs from it, and is perhaps fed by it, 
 as the plant springs from the seed. 
 
 This is indeed a mystery. So is vegetable hfe a mys- 
 tery. We cannot explain, nor even understand, how the 
 tree compacts its fibre, and the flower puts on its delicate 
 hue, any more than we can tell how the spiritual body rises 
 unseen and yet real, when the fleshly body drops away. 
 
 But while mysterious, it is not impossible nor unreason- 
 able. If we study human nature with a little care, we find 
 
 14 
 
2IO THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 it easy to believe. If we study nature with a little care, 
 our faith gains confirmation. Suppose that we had never 
 seen an tgg, and knew nothing of the life which it con- 
 tains, would we not as soon expect to see life issue from 
 a stone, and soar and sing, as from its little shell. And yet 
 experience reveals the truth, that the tgg contains a bird 
 in embryo. 
 
 A loathsome worm grovels in the dust beneath our feet. 
 We see in it no present or prospective beauty. But within 
 that vile form, God can see the butterfly, that is yet to flit 
 on wings of purple and gold, from flower to flower, and 
 sip the choicest nectar. "Who shall change our vile 
 body, and fashion it like unto his own glorious body." 
 
 It is only the outer covering that we behold. The eye 
 does not take in a tithe of the marvels that are contained 
 in these temples of the spirit. Man has many bodies. 
 He has a body of bones mysteriously joined together. 
 Then he has a body of sinews, muscles, and flesh, cover- 
 ing the bones, folding them in, holding each in its place, 
 and giving him the form of symmetry which we so much 
 admire. Then he has a body of veins and arteries, inter- 
 lacing and winding their way to every part of the complex 
 system. Then he has a body of nerves of sensation, so 
 subtle and ethereal that you can hardly tell whether it is 
 matter or spirit sending its threads to the remotest fibres 
 of the intricate economy. Each of these bodies is so per- 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 211 
 
 feet that if it stood by itself, separated from all the rest, 
 but its several parts in their right relations to each other, 
 you would not only recognize it as a human body, but 
 could almost trace the features of the man to whom it be- 
 longed. Then the scientist tells us that there is a body of 
 bioplasm weaving the nerves and other tissues. And, back 
 of all, is the life-force or principle that touches bioplasm 
 and gives it life. But we need go no farther than the 
 nerve-system, with which all are familiar, for our purpose 
 of illustration. If we prick our finger with the finest 
 needle, a nerve, subtle, unseen, ethereal, at once reports 
 to the brain that the finger is in danger. The brain issues 
 its command to the muscular system. Its forces are called 
 into quick action, and the finger is taken out of harm's 
 way. We see a glad and gleeful child approaching, and 
 our hearts meet it with a thrill of joy. Or that child is in 
 a place of exceeding peril, and our hearts stop beating in 
 their agony. We hear a voice of satisfaction, and our soul 
 takes up the song. We hear a wail of sorrow, and our 
 eyes are moist with tears. Imagine another body, running 
 through this complex system, as much more ethereal than 
 the nerve system, as that is than the body of flesh or of 
 bones, and how easy it is to imagine this body, finer than 
 bioplasm, fine as the life-force that moves the bioplasm, 
 clothing the soul, constituting the texture and substance 
 of its being, in the fair realm where spirit reigns. 
 
212 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 Indeed, if the nerve-system which conveys physical 
 impressions is so delicately strung that it seems almost 
 spiritual, what shall we say of that finer medium of thought 
 and affection, of hope and of memory. We see a lovely 
 object, and our affection kindles at once toward it. What 
 is the electric wire connecting the eye and the seat of 
 affectional Hfe ? We hear a reasonable request in gentle 
 tones conveyed, and we run with glad alacrity to fulfil it. 
 We hear a stern unreasonable command, and are in 
 rebellion in a moment. Now what is this channel of 
 communication between the outer and the inner man? 
 We know that there is such a medium, and it sends its 
 complex threads into every department of our being. 
 But precisely what it is, who can tell ? We remember a 
 face or voice of long ago, and our heart thrills like the 
 strings of a harp swept by the fingers of David. Or we 
 catch through the shadows of the future a glimpse of 
 good or ill to come, and we are filled with joy or pain. 
 What is this medium of memory and of hope connecting 
 us so closely with the departed days or the coming years ? 
 Can the eye see it? Can the hand clasp it? Can sci- 
 ence explain it ? And yet it is as real as any material 
 thing. Who shall say that these transparent, intangible, 
 incomprehensible channels of thought and feeling, of 
 hope and memory, are not, so to speak, the feet and 
 hands, the eyes and ears, the head and heart of our 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 21$ 
 
 Spiritual body. They are pent up now in this material 
 form. They are only the germ of what they are to be. 
 Hence affection is cold and reverence is feeble. Hence 
 memory fails and hope is dim. But when they burst 
 these bonds of clay and put on perfect life ; when the 
 germ becomes a tree, and the egg is transformed into a 
 bird of paradise, how clear wiU the vision be, how true 
 and pure its loves, how satisfying and enduring its joys ! 
 
 Another question which perplexes many minds is that 
 of identity. Shall we retain our conscious personality in 
 the immortal state ? If we are to live hereafter at all, we 
 must retain our conscious identity. If I lose all memory 
 of what I am and what my surroundings are, if none of 
 the peculiarities which distinguish me now continue, and 
 there is no connecting tie between the present and the 
 future, there is for me no immortal life. Unless this con- 
 scious being that I am shall live beyond the river, and 
 live for ever, the thought of immortality is of no personal 
 worth to me. Though another being should be created 
 from my sleeping dust, if I lose my conscious life with 
 •the expiring breath, then this life is all there is for me. 
 But I am not confined to such narrow spheres. Paul 
 knew the nature of man and the destiny which awaits him, 
 when he compared the body to a moving tent, and gave 
 the assurance that " If our earthly tent-habitation were 
 dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made 
 
214 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 with hands, eternal in the heavens." This figure is very- 
 significant. We are living now in a tent, a movable, a 
 temporary habitation. We are to have a building, a 
 house, an eternal abode. One suggests firailty and lack 
 of perpetuity j the other, strength, solidity, endurance. 
 If we move from one house to another, we do not lose 
 identity. We are the same conscious soul in the palace 
 that we were in the tent or hovel, in the new house that 
 we were in the old. Neither shall we lose our conscious 
 selfhood in passing from the earthly to the heavenly- 
 house. The change is not in ourselves so much as in 
 our surroundings. The entire life of the soul is one, in 
 this world and in the world to come. If there seem to 
 be two distinct lives, it is because we see inadequately, 
 — see as "through a glass darkly." When our eyes 
 are opened, and we "see as we are seen," we shall find 
 that souls on earth and spirits in heaven form but one 
 family of God, that these are only different apartments 
 in the house of many mansions. 
 
 If this be true, the answer of the question becomes 
 natural and easy, " Are our departed friends still cognizant 
 of our condition and interested in our welfare?" The 
 veil is doubtless very thin which separates us from the 
 departed. We see them no longer, because material 
 eyes cannot take in spiritual realities. But they may be 
 near us, their spirit-hands may rest upon, us, their love 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 2 1 5 
 
 and sympathy may be as tender and as true as when they 
 walked by our side. Ai-e there not times in our experi- 
 ence when it seems as if we have ahiiost held actual 
 communion with the dead ? — when in form and feature, 
 in voice and accent, they come before us so distinctly, 
 that for days it almost seems as if we had enjoyed a 
 visitation from these friends ? I thank God that it is so 
 with me. My beloved are not lost or dead. They sit with 
 me in my home. They meet me at the altar of prayer. 
 They help me in my weakness. They cheer me in my 
 despondency. They comfort me when I am troubled. 
 They help me in many ways to gain the victory over the 
 world. They win and lead me up and on toward heaven. 
 I do not mean to say that they come in a form that I 
 can see, or that they present a hand that I can clasp. 
 Such a conception of spirit intercourse were gross and 
 quite unsatisfying. But I am conscious of communion 
 with invisible spirits. And why should it not be so ? All 
 Christians believe in the spiritual presence of the Saviour. 
 Eighteen hundred years ago he ascended to his Father 
 and our Father, since which time no mortal eye has seen 
 the head that was cro^vned with thorns, or the hands 
 that were pierced by the nails. Paul indeed tells us that 
 he had seen the Lord ; but he saw, doubtless, not with 
 natural vision, but by a kind of second sight. And yet, 
 though he come not to us in any form that we can see, we 
 
2l6 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 believe that he fulfils the promise, " Lo, I am with you alway 
 even unto the end of the world." And if Christ may thus 
 come and help and bless us, may we not beheve that our 
 own beloved ones, who walked with us these earthly ways, 
 and shared life's good and ill, may, in a similar sense, 
 attend us as our helpers and our friends ? There is no 
 room for Christians to doubt, when we remember the 
 words of the Apostle, " Are they not all ministering spirits, 
 sent to minister unto those who shall be the heirs of 
 salvation?" 
 
 It may be objected that such connection between the 
 living and the dead would destroy the peace of heaven ; 
 that the departed ones could not see the sin and suffer- 
 ing that are in the world, without being weighed down 
 by perpetual sorrow. But do they not know, even if 
 they could not see, that it is a world of sorrow, sin, and 
 suffering ? Have they not lived in it and experienced its 
 pains ? And would it be a source of relief to them to be 
 entirely cut off from all knowledge of the friends whom 
 they have left behind? If you have removed from an 
 old home, leaving aged parents or im^alid sisters behind 
 you, do you desire to suspend all intercourse with them 
 lest you should hear that they are suffering? If there is 
 sickness, or sorrow, or even sin in that home, do you not 
 want to know the worst, that you may lend a hand, if 
 possible, to help and save ? Are our dear ones who have 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 217 
 
 passed on from death to life less interested in us who are 
 still in the valley of the shadow of death ? 
 
 Again, no one believes that God is ignorant of the sin 
 and sorrow that burden our race. Nor does anybody 
 suppose that God is really miserable. Now, how can 
 God, with his great father-heart, look do\vn and see his 
 children struggling in poverty, wasting themselves in sin, 
 bearing the heavy crosses of sickness and bereavement 
 which so weigh down our hves, without becoming the 
 most unhappy being in the universe? Simply because 
 God can take in all conditions and relations, causes and 
 results. He foresees the end of these human ills. He 
 knows that " these Hght afflictions which are but for a 
 moment, shall work out for us a far more exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory." It may be so with our trans- 
 lated ones as they look down from heaven. Their 
 vision may be so enlarged, that they can comprehend 
 God's gracious plan, and so see harmony where we see 
 only conflict and confusion. Then they must know 
 that these "afflictions are but for a moment." And 
 while they give us sympathy in the hard struggle by 
 which we cUmb the rugged way of life, they rejoice ; for 
 they see that the race is almost ended, that but a little 
 way before us is the home of everlasting peace and rest. 
 
 These reflections bring us to an easy answer of that 
 other question which, rising from the heart, trembles upon 
 
2i8 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 the lips of so many bereaved ones, '' Shall we know our 
 friends hereafter?" If we retain our identity, and there 
 is an intimate connection between the present and the 
 future, recognition follows as a natural consequence. 
 Our separation is only for a little while. The longest life 
 on earth is but a day with God and those who dwell with 
 him. We may have intuitions or instincts adapted to 
 our higher state by which we shall find our own. But if 
 this shall not be, and if with the lapse of time we might 
 forget them, they will never forget us. They are con- 
 stantly watching over us, and will come to meet us when 
 we cross the river to the bright immortal shore. Recog- 
 nition and reunion are indispensable to a perfect heaven. 
 God has joined us to our fellow-men by tender, social, 
 and kindred ties. Much of our purest joy, many of our 
 holiest interests, are associated with our friends. They 
 are intimately linked with all our memories and hopes. 
 If we retain our identity, these memories will extend into 
 the future life. Unless we lose all that is purest and best 
 within us, these loves and interests will continue there. 
 We desire the companionship of our beloved now. We 
 shall want their presence and fellowship always. Unless 
 we meet them in the home of the soul, though its walls 
 were of jasper, its gates pearl, its streets gold, and its 
 temple of light, it will be no real home. We shall be 
 for ever longing, pining, seeking for the loved and lost. 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 219 
 
 Shall all be equal as they enter upon the life that is to 
 be? Or shall there be different degrees of attainment 
 and of happiness there as here? Evidently the latter. 
 We take with us such acquisitions only as we have gained. 
 We begin Hfe on the other shore with the same spiritual 
 stature that we leave it here. If we have wisely improved 
 the school of time, we are well fitted to enter the school 
 of eternity. If we have squandered our opportunities, 
 we must take our place at the foot of the class. If we 
 have kept God's law, and lived in fellowship with our 
 Saviour, we enter that world as "men in Christ." If we 
 have put God and Christ away from heart and mind, we 
 must begin as little children. "There is one glory of 
 the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another 
 glory of the stars, and one star differeth from another 
 star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead." 
 Death rids us of many hindrances, but it adds nothing 
 to our spirit's stature. We are saved by the truth and 
 grace of Christ received into the willing soul, not by the 
 archer's spear or the sepulchre's mould. But each soul 
 is given standing-room, and a chance for improvement on 
 the shore of eternity. Each soul is still a child of God, 
 and a pupil in the school of Christ. Each soul has the 
 goal of .perfection before him, and the voice of God still 
 calling him to so run as to attain. We shall be aided 
 and encouraged by those who are in advance of us, while 
 
2 20 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 we in turn shall lend a hand of help to such as are 
 beneath us, and as mutual helpers we shall rise from 
 strength to strength, from glory to glory, and our voices 
 shall blend in the joy song of redemption. 
 
 Arctic explorers tell us that in the cheerless polar regions 
 there is an attempt on the part of nature, during the brief 
 summer, to put on verdure and bloom. On the sunny 
 side of the iceberg, where the earth appears, cedars and 
 willows spring up and try to grow. But the summer is 
 so short, and the winter so severe and long, that they 
 never attain a growth of more than six inches high. A 
 whole forest of them can be covered by the palm of the 
 hand. To become trees in that land of ice and snow is 
 impossible, although it is in their nature to grow unto 
 gigantic proportions. Transplant one of those cedars to 
 the deeper soil of the temperate zone, and note the 
 change. It has the same nature and begins here with 
 the same stature. But its surroundings are more favor- 
 able. It strikes its roots into the fertile earth. It Hfts 
 its trunk and branches into the warm air and sunlight. 
 It drinks the dew and rain, and grows from year to year, 
 until at length it stands a monarch of the hill. 
 
 Man is not unlike the cedar beneath the iceberg. It 
 is but little growth which any soul attains in this winter- 
 world. Some of our race, the Pauls and the Newtons, 
 become perhaps six inches high ; the great majority of 
 
IMMORTAL LIFE. 221 
 
 men only break ground on this earthly shore. But there is 
 a deathless principle of life and growth in every soul. All 
 are transplanted to the summer-land of immortality. 
 And there, in the sunshine of an infinite love, and be- 
 neath the showers of an infinite mercy, we shall grow in 
 grace and knowledge, and fulfil the purpose of our crea- 
 tion, and stand at last, exalted, crowned, and honored, 
 as immortal sons of God. 
 
22 2 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 UNIVERSALISM (SCRIPTURE). 
 
 BY A. St. JOHN CHAMBRE, D.D. 
 
 A S no alleged revelation of Holy Scripture is to be 
 established by isolated passages, or any mere collo- 
 cation of texts, it is not claimed that those presently to 
 be examined demonstrate, apart from all other considera- 
 tions, the doctrine of universal salvation. The Biblical 
 teaching upon the great subject of human destiny is to be 
 gathered from the scope and drift of Holy Scripture, and 
 from the revelation which it makes of the character of 
 God, and of the relations which exist between God and 
 men. There must be noted the declared purpose of God 
 in creation, especially the Creation of humanity, the nat- 
 ure of humanity, the fact and possibilities of sin, and the 
 object and progressive unfolding of the mission of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Other chapters of this book will, no 
 doubt, bring all this, more or less fully, to the attention of 
 the reader. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is desirable, and quite important, to dis- 
 cover what textual basis there may be in the sacred writ- 
 ings for the doctrine of the final salvation of all men. It 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 223 
 
 is therefore proposed to show that a large class of Scrip- 
 ture passages at least appear to teach this doctrine, and 
 to teach it explicitly. It is not overlooked that other 
 interpretations may be put upon them, and are put upon 
 them. But it will be seen that they are fairly susceptible 
 of an interpretation in harmony with Universalism. Nay, 
 in many instances it will be perceived that the only obvi- 
 ous and natural interpretation compels this. It is, of 
 course, impossible to quote here all the texts accepted by 
 UniversaHsts as teaching their faith. Many, considered 
 even stronger, in certain particulars, than any advanced, 
 must be altogether unnoticed. In the limits assigned, the 
 design is to make as clear as possible certain affirmations 
 and declarations of inspiration. It is not believed that, 
 in any instance, Scripture has been strained or wrested. 
 There certainly has been no such intention. In no case, 
 moreover, is the critical exegesis exhausted. This could 
 not be, without more space t^an has been allotted to this 
 chapter. Besides, this book is designed at least as much 
 for the unlearned as for those who have power to examine 
 the original versions for themselves. 
 
 Immediately after the Fall, and the fearful curse pro- 
 nounced as consequent upon it, the Old Testament re- 
 cords a magnificent promise and prophecy of a redemp- 
 tion that should be commensurate therewith. " I will put 
 enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy 
 
2 24 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou 
 shalt bruise his heel." ^ On this, Dr. Lange says, " The 
 protevangel . . . contains the germ of all later Messianic 
 prophecies ; therefore, it is so universal, so comprehen- 
 sive, so dark, and yet so striking and distinct in its funda- 
 mental features. As the ground outhne of the future 
 salvation, it denotes, i. The religious ethical strife be- 
 tween good and evil in the world, and the sensible pres- 
 entation of this strife through natural contrasts, — the 
 serpent, the woman. 2. The concrete form of this strife 
 and its gradual genealogical unfoldings : the seed of the 
 serpent, the seed of the evil one, and the children of evil ; 
 the seed of the good and the children of salvation. 3. The 
 decision to be expected : the wounding of the woman's 
 seed in the heel ; that is, in his human capability of suffer- 
 ing, and its connection with the earth ; the treading down, 
 or the destruction, not of the serpent's seed merely, but 
 of the serpent himself, and that, too, in his head, the very 
 centre of his life. The whole is, therefore, the prediction 
 of an universal conflict for salvation, with the prospect of 
 victory. From this basis, the promise proceeds in ever- 
 narrowing circles, until it passes over from the general 
 seed of the woman to the ideal seed, and from that again 
 draws out in ever-widening circles, together with the self- 
 unfolding promise of the kingdom of God. Thereby, too, 
 
 ^ Gen. iii. 15. 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 225 
 
 does the conception of the promise assume an ever-deeper 
 and richer form." ^ 
 
 This is sufficiently suggestive, while it is certainly care- 
 fully guarded in the interest of a limited triumph of good 
 over evil. A critical examination of the promise, however, 
 leaves no room to doubt its intended universal application, 
 with the " prospect of victory " as universal as the " pre- 
 diction of an universal conflict for salvation." The enmity 
 shall be between the seed of the woman and the seed of 
 the serpent. The serpent, which, whatever else it may 
 mean, means sin, shall bruise the heel of the seed of the 
 woman. But the seed of the woman, he — 5<-n — shall 
 bruise, utterly crush, destroy, — 'n^^-7 — the head of the 
 serpent. The promise and prophecy gradually unfold. 
 To Abram, of the seed of the woman, it is said, " In thee 
 shall all families of the earth be blessed ; " ^ and, " In thy 
 seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." ^ The 
 same promise is made to Isaac ^ and to Jacob,^ of the seed 
 of Abraham. That both prophecy and promise rest in Jesus 
 Christ \\\\\ not be questioned. St. Peter declared to the 
 people of Jerusalem, " Ye are the children of the prophets, 
 and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, 
 saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kin- 
 dreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God, hav- 
 
 ^ Com. in Gen., p. 247, Am, ed, - Gen. xii. 3. 
 
 3 Gen. xxii. 18. ♦ Gen. xxvi. 4. 
 
 ^ Gen. xxviii. 14. 
 
 15 
 
2 26 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 ing raised up his Son, sent him to bless you, in turning 
 away every one of you from his iniquities." ^ St. Paul 
 says, " The Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify 
 the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel 
 unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." 
 " That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gen- 
 tiles through Jesus Christ." ^ Unto Christ, and his work 
 of salvation, is then traced the promise of salvation, in the 
 words, " Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises 
 made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many : but as 
 of one, — And to thy seed, which is Christ." ^ Christ, 
 therefore, is the seed of the woman, of wjiom it is said, 
 ^'Jle shall bruise thy head." " When the fulness of the 
 time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, 
 made under the law, to redeem them that were under the 
 law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." ^ The 
 blessing is to be to " all nations," to " all kingdoms," to 
 " all families " of the earth, and is to consist in the turning 
 away of all (every one) from iniquities, in order to their 
 adoption as sons of God ; /.<?., in order to their salva- 
 tion. 
 
 In no instance will a critical examination of the Old 
 Testament prove adverse to this prophecy and promise. 
 So far as it makes a revelation at all, it is a revelation — 
 
 ^ Acts iii. 25, 26. 2 Gal. iii. 8, 14. 
 
 3 Gal. iii. 16. * Gal. iv. 4, 5. 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 227 
 
 notwithstanding all the sin and wandering of humanity, 
 and in absolute harmony with the severest judgments on 
 account of sin — of goodness, of mercy, of love, of long- 
 suffering, of forbearance, and of forgiveness, on the part 
 of God towards the children of men. Of the memorable 
 interview between God and Moses it is said, " And the 
 Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, the Lord God, 
 merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in 
 goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiv- 
 ing iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no 
 means clear the guilty." ^ The whole passage is remark- 
 able for its strength and beauty, and its wide-sweeping sig- 
 nificance. He is "long-suffering," — ^ong, i.e. slo^a of 
 anger, ^^t\ii. Tjli^- He is the lastvigly strong God, "-55 ; 
 and therefore He is "keeping mercy," there is abiding 
 kindness, icn, with Him, to the thousands, 'z^t:\^, — 
 not of individuals only, but of years and of ages. For 
 ever, or while it shall be needed. He forgives, is lifting, 
 5«r:, i.e. taking away, the sins of men. The Psalmist has 
 substantially the same thought, when he says, " He will 
 not always chide, neither will he keep his anger for ever." ^ 
 "Thus saith the Lord " to Isaiah, " I will not contend for 
 ever, neither will I be always wroth ; for the spirit should 
 fail before me, and the souls which I have made." ^ It 
 would seem that no words could more forcibly express the 
 
 ^ Exodus xxxiv. 6, 7. ^ Ps. ciii. 9. ^ Is. Ivii. 16. 
 
2 28 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 perpetual loving-kindness and tender mercy of the Infinite, 
 or the intention of God to turn away His judgments, when 
 they shall have served their end, and accomplished their 
 purpose. Isaiah plainly intimates that no soul could exist 
 under an abiding condemnation. It would exhale its life 
 under the fearfulness of its hopelessness ; it would cease 
 to exist as a sentient being. The writer of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews — that New-Testament commentary on the 
 Pentateuch — well paraphrases the record of the revelation 
 which God makes of Himself to Moses : " For he hath 
 said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." ^ The 
 quintuple negation, ov p/ oe dvoo, ovd' ov (a/j oa lyyiuzalmoo, 
 is of great force and significance. It is equivalent to " I 
 will not, I will not leave thee. I will never, never, never 
 forsake thee." The eternal God eternally abides in kind- 
 ness. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 
 The same towards each, and towards every human crea- 
 ture. His mercy remains " unto the thousands " of men 
 and of ages. 
 
 When the fulness of the times was come, God sent forth 
 his Son. In this seed of the woman, the intent of God 
 in the redemption of the world is made clear to an extent 
 of which the old world had no conception. The thoughts 
 here suggested cannot now be developed. The exam- 
 ination of the New Testament reveals the fulfilment of 
 
 ^ Heb. xiii. 5. 
 
UNIVERSAL! SM. 229 
 
 salvation, — the "filling up of salvation " promised and 
 prophesied under the elder dispensation. The seed of 
 the woman appears, whose work is to bruise the serpent's 
 head. 
 
 Take the annunciation of the angel, and the song of the 
 heavenly host, at the advent. " Fear not : for behold, I 
 bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all 
 people. For unto you is born this day in the city of 
 David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." " Glory to 
 God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward 
 men." 1 Here is the proclamation of the Gospel — • 
 evayyeli^o^ui, good tidings, — which is a great grace, 
 y/ioav, an occasion of great joy, " which shall be to a//, 
 to the people," 7Jrig Hoxai Tzavxi to; Xum. That this has 
 reference to the people of Israel only is a position not 
 justified by the text — is, indeed, subversive of the whole 
 idea of the Gospel, which is asserted to be for the world. 
 In view of this Gospel, there is ascribe.d glory in the 
 highest to God ; and the assurance of peace to men, of 
 His good pleasure. 'Ev dvdQcoieoig evdoyJa, "to men of 
 pleasure " must be rendered, to men, of the pleasure of 
 God, I. e. of the free grace of God. " For the Son of 
 Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost," "^ 
 u7to)M).6g. He came to seek and to save the utterly lost, 
 perished. AnoXlvni is very strong. Yet, from this con- 
 
 * Luke ii. 10, 11, 14. ^ Luke xix. 10. 
 
230 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 dition of death the Son of Man saves, — seeks out, and 
 saves. 
 
 Jesus Christ is the " Lamb of God, which taketh away 
 the sin of the world." ^ He lifts, aiowv ; carries away, 
 j^ir: ; the sin of the world, x6g{xov. Jew and Gentile are 
 included here, throughout the world. This, in the most 
 comprehensive sense possible. 
 
 " God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the 
 world, but that the world, through him, might be saved." ^ 
 Not that XQivii zov '/oafiov, but that oadrj 6 aoGfiog, through 
 him. The Gospel is of salvation, not of condemnation. 
 "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things 
 unto his hands." ^ Hath given all, navTa, i.e. every one, 
 into his hands. For what purpose ? To what end ? " All 
 that the Father giveth me shall come to me ; and him that 
 cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." '^ All, naVy 
 "every one" whom God hath given — He has given 
 every one — shall come, i]^u ; and the one who comes, 
 he will never, never, ov pj, cast out, or reject. 
 
 " And I, if I be Hfted up from the earth, will draw all 
 men unto me." ^ These words are remarkable at once 
 for their strength and their reach of significance. How- 
 ever they may point to the cross and its power, they reach 
 beyond, and take hold of the exaltation of Christ, and his 
 
 ' John i. 29. ^ John iii, 17. ^ John iii. 35. 
 * John vi. 37. Comp. 38, 39, 40. ^ John xii. 32. 
 
UNIVERSALIS JI. 
 
 231 
 
 reign beyond this world, in which he is still drawing to 
 himself. The Greek is, x«j'co, tap vip(od(a ta rr^g y^^g, ndv- 
 Tag D.y.voco TtQog Ifiavror. " And I, when I shall have been 
 exalted oiitofxhQ earth, all (everyone) I shall draw to 
 myself." It would seem that no declaration could well 
 be stronger, or more wide-reaching, or more complete. 
 It takes in the ages, present and future, for the carrying 
 forward, and the completion, of the great work of redemp- 
 tion which Christ came to effect. 
 
 " Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he 
 should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given 
 him." 1 The "all flesh" here, rtdaqg acajy.og, is a com- 
 mentary upon the " all," the " every one," we have already 
 had. The Lord Jesus has authority over every one, that 
 to every one may be given eternal Hfe, ^lo/}*' aimnov, i.e. 
 spiritual Hfe, the hfe of God in the soul, without which, of 
 course, there is no salvation, but with which salvation is 
 assured. 
 
 If the Gospels are left at this point, it is not because 
 they are exhausted in relation to the subject-matter of this 
 chapter, but only because there is no space for further 
 reference. The blessing promised in the garden, repeated 
 to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and expressed in manifold 
 types and symbols, has taken form. The seed of the 
 woman, Jesus Christ, who was before Abraham, is revealed 
 with power and will to destroy the seed of the serpent. 
 
 1 John xvii. 2. 
 
232 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 The glad message and assurance of salvation are con- 
 tinued by the apostles, when the Son of God was received up 
 into glory. St. Peter reminded the Jews, after he had 
 healed the lame man at the beautiful gate of the temple, 
 that it was by virtue of faith in Christ that the miracle was 
 performed, — faith in him whom they had so recently cru- 
 cified, but who had burst the bars of death, and was risen 
 into heaven, — and then states, " Whom heaven must re- 
 ceive until the times of restitution of all things, which God 
 hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since 
 the world began." ^ Direct reference is then made to the 
 Abrahamic covenant, and to Samuel, and to all who fol- 
 lowed after, foretelling " those days," verse 24, rag ruiiQag 
 ravzag, i.e. of " the restitution of all things." The restitu- 
 tion of all things is the restoration of all, of "every one," 
 anoAaTaaxdascog Ttdvrcov. Specific reference, no doubt, 
 for the purpose in hand, is made of the promise by the 
 Apostle to those about him, the Jews, as the children of 
 Abraham ; but the promise is itself world-wide and uni- 
 versal. This can scarcely be seriously questioned. The 
 71SUS loquendi requires dTzoyiaraazdoaojg to be understood 
 as a restoration, a reinstating in a condition which had 
 been forfeited or lost, i.e. a condition of purity, and fellow- 
 ship with God, such as is represented as existing before 
 the temptation and Fall. Substantially, though naturally 
 
 1 Acts iii. 21. 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 233 
 
 guardedly, this idea of universal restoration is accepted by 
 the latest authorities.^ 
 
 In the thought of the Apostles, the whole race was lost 
 in sin, bound by it, and unable to escape from it and its 
 curse. So St. Paul, setting forth the grace of God, asserts, 
 that " God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while 
 we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." ^ The conclu- 
 sion is very clear, and very fully set forth, " Wherefore, as 
 by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; 
 and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned : 
 therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all 
 men to condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of 
 one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of 
 life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made 
 sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made 
 righteous. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so 
 might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life 
 by Jesus Christ our Lord." ^ Whatever dogmatic views 
 may be held ^vith regard to the Fall, or the Sin, or the 
 nature of the Death here spoken of, the purpose of the 
 Apostle is evidently to show grace triumphing over sin, 
 and life over death, and a restoration to God, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. To this effect are the latest, most 
 learned criticisms. Dr. Schaff^ says : " The complete 
 
 ^ Lechler in Lange. Com. Acts iii. 11-26. Doc. et Eth. 6, p. 69. 
 2 Rom. V. 8. ^ Rom. v. 12, 18, 19, 21. 
 
 * Lange. Com. Rom. p. 175, n. 
 
234 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 antithesis would read thus : ' As, (octisq, by one man 
 (Adam) sin, // dfiaQiiu, entered into the world, and death, 
 6 ddvaxog, through sin, and thus death extended, dir^ldeVj 
 to all men, inasmuch as all sinned, ijfAaQiov : so also, ovrag 
 '^ai, by one ma7i, Jesus Christ, righteousness^ ij ducuoavvt], 
 entered into the world, and life, ij ^coij, through righteous- 
 ness, and thus life shall extend, disXEvcnai, to all men, in- 
 as77iuch as {on condition that^) all shall believe, Ttiarevoonai. 
 . . . The great points of comparison are : (i) Sin and 
 death as a principle and power, proceeding from Adam ; 
 righteousness and life, as a counteracting and conquering 
 principle and power, proceeding from Christ, upon the 
 whole human race. (2) Death passing upon all men 
 by participation in the sin of Adam ; life passing upon all 
 men by participation in the righteousness of Christ." 
 This language, from the point of view occupied by Dr. 
 Schaff, is very direct, and very explicit. It is true, that an 
 immediate eifort is made to destroy the logical force of 
 the language, and to show that the analogy is not absolute, 
 since, while all men are one with Adam, all men are not 
 one with Christ ! Nevertheless, honest criticism evokes the 
 confession that " what Christ gained for us is far greater 
 (^Ttolloj fidlXov tTteQiaaevasv, v. 15, compare tj]v mni66uav 
 
 1 There can be no doubt that faith is a " condition " of salvation. " All 
 shall believe," is, howrever, the obvious thought of the Apostle. It would 
 seem, then, that the "on condition that " is a gloss that may be rejected. 
 It is not germane to the text, which is not conditional. 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 235 
 
 rr^g laQixQig, v. 17, and vm(JsmQiaaevaev tj x^'^^'^j ^' 20) 
 than what was lost by Adam." The remarkable admission 
 is also made,! that " The inference of a imiversal salvatioti 
 from this verse (19), as also fromver. 15 {dg rovg Ttollovg 
 tmQLoaevaev) , and 18 {etg ndiTag clrdQcoTtovg eig dr/.camaiv 
 ^Mtjg), is very plausible on the surface, and might be made 
 quite strong if this section could be isolated from the rest 
 of Paul's teachings on the terms of salvation," etc. It is 
 not only "very plausible," but — and not without careful 
 examination — it is difficult to see how any other conclu- 
 sion, not to say " inference," can be deduced from these 
 and the other verses under consideration. The 01 nolloi 
 and the xovg nollovg of v. 15 have, beyond doubt, the 
 same force. If the " many " be dead, through the offence 
 of one, the grace of Jesus Christ abounds to the same 
 " many." Beyond all doubt, also, the Ttdviag dvdQmnovg, 
 twice repeated in v. 18, has the same significance as the 
 01 nolloL of v. 15. The judgment of condemnation on ac- 
 count of sin was to " all men," to " the many " dead in 
 sin. The same " all men " are the men who have sinned, 
 and upon whom death passed on account of sin, v. 12. 
 As there can be no limitation in the one case of the mhreg, 
 oi TtoRoi, Tidvzag dvdQcoTZOvg, so there can be none in the 
 other. As extensive as is the evil of sin, so extensive is 
 the remedy. If Adam is the type of universal sinfulness, 
 ^ Lange. Com. Rom., p. 1S9. 
 
2^6 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM, 
 
 Christ is the type of universal righteousness. If in Adam 
 all men are lost, in Christ all men are to be saved, — " shall 
 be," fut. indie, xaraarad/jaovTai. 
 
 " For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth 
 for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature 
 was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of 
 him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the 
 creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of 
 corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travail- 
 eth in pain together until now." ^ The word " creature," 
 in verses 19, 20, 21, must be rendered " creation," Tixiaig, 
 as it is in v. 22. In v. 20, according to the most ap- 
 proved reading, a comma should be placed before the 
 words "in hope," fcV tXmdi, which should be immediately 
 connected with v. 21. The whole creation is in hope of 
 deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the free- 
 dom of the glory of the children of God, ^4' T:rjv alevdeQiav 
 rrjg do^Tjg rmv tmvoav jov Oeov. It is the patient, eager ex- 
 pectation, hope, uTtoHaQadonia, of the creation. It is sub- 
 ject to vanity, to this bondage of corruption, not willingly, 
 but by the will of God ; but in hope of deliverance. For 
 this creation groans and travails. Can there be a reason- 
 able doubt of the result ? Whatever view may be taken of 
 the meaning of " creation," xrioig, it must at least include 
 
 1 Rom. viii. 19-22. 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 237 
 
 humanity, and point definitely to all humanity not yet re- 
 deemed, but needing and capable of redemption. Con- 
 sciously or unconsciously, humanity is striving after salva- 
 tion, — after God, as its final goal. That humanity is, at least 
 primarily, in the thought of the apostle, by :irloig, would ap- 
 pear from the consummation to which the yiTiGig looks, — 
 the freedom of the glory of the children of God, as the heirs 
 of God and joint-heirs with Christ, v. 1 7. That there is here 
 a direct pointing to the " Restitution of all things," to final, 
 universal salvation, would seem to be clear. The whole 
 chapter is to this effect, and will well repay careful and criti- 
 cal consideration, especially with reference to its closing 
 words : " For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, 
 nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things pres- 
 ent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
 other creature, -ATicig hena, shall be able to separate us 
 from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 What more could be added here to make this universal 
 in significance? 
 
 " For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant 
 of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your o^vn con- 
 ceits : that bhndness in part is happened to Israel, until 
 the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel 
 shall be saved ; as it is written, there shall come out of 
 Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from 
 Jacob : For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall 
 
238 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 take away their sins. For God hath concluded them all 
 in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. For of 
 him, and through him, and to him, are all things : to whom 
 be glory for ever. Amen." ^ The entire chapter ought 
 to be thoughtfully consulted, and will well repay careful 
 study, as it labors to show, that whatever may be the tem- 
 porary obscurations, Jews and Gentiles, in the " economy," 
 olyioviiivij, of God, are destined for salvation. The pur- 
 pose of God loses sight of no individual, and keeps stead- 
 ily in view the reconciliation of all things to Him. The 
 blindness, or hardness, nodQMag, was upon Israel only 
 until the fulness, 7zXf]Qcofxa, of the Gentiles should come in, 
 ehtldt]. Clearly, into the kingdom of God, into faith in 
 Christ, unto salvation, in an absolute sense, all Gentiles 
 shall be brought, — equally all Israel, Ttdg 'laQarjl. Lan- 
 guage could not well be stronger. God has concluded 
 a/l, Tovg Ttdvrag, both Jew and Gentile, in unbelief, that he 
 might have mercy upon them all, rovg Ttdvrag. That the 
 Apostle teaches universal salvation here, can be evaded 
 only upon the ground that he knew that some souls would 
 refuse to accept the proffered mercy, and so, in the exer- 
 cise of a freedom which will not be disturbed, would be 
 self-excluded from heaven. If the possibihty of such a 
 result could be shown, it might shake the argument. But 
 to do this is, in the nature of the case, impossible. Given 
 
 1 Rom. xi. 25, 26, 27, 32, 36. 
 
UNIVERSALIS M. 239 
 
 the purpose of God to secure universal salvation, and 
 human freedom will freely bow at length to Him. " Thy 
 people shall be willing in the day of thy power." ^ There 
 is absolutely no evidence that the Apostle doubted the 
 fulness of his own argument. Well, therefore, might he 
 exclaim, " For of him, and through him, and unto him, 
 ^4* cwTov, are all things, ra navza, to whom be glory for 
 ever. Amen." 
 
 " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be 
 made alive." ^ Whatever the " death " may mean, whether 
 taken in the largest sense, or only as referring to physical 
 dissolution, these words are significant of universality. 
 The same "all," Tzuvreg, who "are dying," dnodr/jay.ovaiv, 
 " shall be made ahve," fut. indie, l^cooTtoirjOi^aorTca, in 
 Christ. Beyond this, i.e., after the resurrection, although 
 when is not stated, nor can it be known to us without a 
 revelation, there shall be an "end." "Then cometh the 
 end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, 
 even the Father ; when he shall have put down all rule, 
 and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he 
 hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that 
 shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things 
 under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under 
 him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all 
 things under him. And when all things shall be subdued 
 
 ^ Ps. ex. 3. ^ I Cor. XV. 22. 
 
240 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVEESALISM. 
 
 unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto 
 him that put all things under him, that God may be all in 
 all." 1 This " end," v. 24, riXo^, may refer, as is some- 
 times assumed, to the termination of the process, or 
 processes, of the resurrection, which may be successive 
 and progressive. But, however that may be, it certainly 
 points to the closing of the Messianic reign, when the 
 present state of things shall be past, and an immortal 
 life, embracing all, shall be fairly entered upon. At this 
 time, whenever it shall be, the mediatorial kingdom will be 
 delivered up to God. Previous to this will have been put 
 down all rule, and authority, and power, — that is, as is 
 almost universally conceded, all that is not in harmony 
 with God and His righteousness. Christ must himself 
 reign until this shall be accompHshed, until all enemies 
 are subdued. Last of all, death itself is destroyed. It is 
 destroyed, done away with, by the completion of the resur- 
 rection. Then, when Christ has brought all, ra itavxa, into 
 subjection to himself, he will deliver up his mediatorial king- 
 dom, and subject himself, vTzorccyrjaerai, to God, who origi- 
 nally put all, ra navxa, under him, and then God will be 
 zci TzdvTa tv Ttaaiv, — "not all in some," but all i/i all. 
 The critical objections to this conclusion are not out of 
 mind ; but they obtain validity only by a departure from the 
 obvious meaning of the Apostle's language, as well as the 
 
 1 Cor. XV. 24-28. 
 
UNIVERSAL TSM. 2 4 1 
 
 entire drift of his argument. Truly, " God was in Christ 
 reconcihng a world unto himself." 1 
 
 " That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he 
 might gather together in one all things in Christ, both 
 which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in 
 him." 2 It is the good pleasure of God, purposed in Him- 
 self, V. 9, that in the fulness of time He will gather up to- 
 gether in one, all, t« navza, in Christ, tv tm Xqioto). All 
 in the heavens, to. tv roig ovQcivoig, and all on the earth, 
 ra tm zrjg yijg. Here, again, whatever meaning we may 
 assign to ra Ttdvra, it must be inclusive of humanity. Its 
 universality is almost universally conceded. Indeed, there 
 can be no doubt that it was the intention of the Apostle to 
 refer definitely to men, referring, as he does, again to 
 Christ, in v. 11, and declaring that in him "we have ob- 
 tained an inheritance, being predestinated according to 
 the purpose of him who worketh all things after the coun- 
 sel of his own will." 
 
 " Wherefore, God hath highly exalted him, and given him 
 a name which is above every name : That at the name of 
 Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and 
 things in earth, and things under the earth; and that 
 every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
 the glory of God the Father." 3 " Every knee," TtCiv yow, 
 refers, of course, to beings. "In heaven," "in earth," 
 
 ^2Cor. V. 19. 2 Eph j_ jQ^ 3 Philip, ii. p^ 10^ „ 
 
 16 
 
242 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 " under the earth," it is conceded, signify the entire reahii 
 of worshipping creatures, — the whole intelligent creation. 
 " Every tongue," ndau ylojaaa, has the same significance. 
 The bowing of the knee, yid^ipn, is the act of adoration. 
 The confession of the tongue, t^o^oXoyi^atjiat, is the ex- 
 pression of what the bending knee indicates, — the ac- 
 knowledgment, including the praise and gratitude for 
 good received, of the Lordship of Christ, to the glory of 
 God the Father. If universal salvation is not involved in 
 all this, it is, at least, a strange use of language. 
 
 *' For it pleased the Father that in him should all ful- 
 ness dwell ; and having made peace through the blood of 
 his cross, by him to reconcile all things to Himself; by 
 him, <I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in 
 heaven." 1 As before, the rd Ttavxa here, the "all," has 
 reference — can only have reference — to every one — 
 ev'ery^one needing, or susceptible of, salvation, and must 
 be inclusive of humanity, if not applying ojily to humanity. 
 All, whether they be on the earth, or whether they be in 
 the heavens, ehe. xd Im rtjg yijg, eiTa rd ti roTg ovQavolg. 
 For a/l men is peace " being made through the blood of 
 his cross." " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
 all men unto me." All men, therefore, according to this, 
 will God "reconcile to himself," aTtoxaTaXld^ai eig avrov, 
 through Jesus Christ. 
 
 ^ Colos. i. 19, 20. 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 243 
 
 " I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, 
 prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for 
 all men, 7idvrm> dvdoMmov, for kings, and for all that are 
 in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life 
 in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and accept- 
 able in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have, dilti, 
 all men, navtag drdocoTtovg, to be saved, and to come unto 
 the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and 
 one Mediator betvveen God and men, dvOocoTKor, the man 
 Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, Tzdvzmv, to 
 be testified in due time." ^ The language is very explicit. 
 The all men for whom we are enjoined to pray, are the all 
 men God will have to be saved, and the all men for whom 
 Christ gave himself a ransom. This universality is con- 
 ceded. It is objected, however, that the "will have," 
 Ot'lsi, of God is not determinative of salvation to all men. 
 It is urged that it is simply a desire on the part of God. 
 But, and obviously, the whole drift of the language of 
 the Apostle, in the verses above, is against the idea of 
 mere desire. The verb, moreover, carries, not only the 
 meaning of wish, or desire, but the idea of deliberate pur- 
 pose ; a will, back of which is ability and power to accom- 
 plish it. Donegan gives the form, i9tloo : " To will ; to 
 wish, — to be wont or accustomed, and, according to the 
 context, to be able, to mean." In accordance with the 
 
 ^ I Tim. ii. 1--6. 
 
244 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALTSM. 
 
 context above, the natural idea is, a will of purpose, and 
 of a purpose which, in the nature of the case, cannot 
 be thAvarted. Only the thought that the doctrine of the 
 " Restoration " cannot be in the New Testament, could 
 lead to any other view. The Apostle has the same word, 
 when he says, " Having made kno\vn unto us the mystery 
 of his will, d^XriiiciTog (from delca), according to his good 
 pleasure, which he had purposed in himself, that in the 
 dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather to- 
 gether in one all things in Christ," &c. Even as a will of 
 desire only, however, it would be impossible that it should 
 fail. God's own words are : " My counsel shall stand, and 
 I will do all my pleasure." i 
 
 It would seem further, that, among the Gentiles, perhaps 
 also among the Jews, a measure of the persecution the 
 Apostle experienced, grew out of the nature of the faith he 
 proclaimed. He declares : " For, therefore, we both labor, 
 and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, 
 who is the Saviour of all men, ndvtojv dvdQcoTtcov, especially 
 of those that believe." ^ Without reservation, God is here 
 set forth as the Saviour of all men ; while he is, also, in an 
 especial manner, the Saviour of believers. The word 
 (jon/jo, Saviour, uniformly so translated, in connection 
 with God or Christ must be taken in its fullest sense. Of 
 the nature of the special salvation there need be no expla- 
 
 ' Isaiah xlvi. lo. ^ i Tim. iv. lo. 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 245 
 
 nation, since, obviously, the reference can only be to those 
 already entered into the faith of the Gospel. What God 
 intends for all, all will obtain in due time. It is given, 
 in large measure, at once, to those who now accept Him 
 and the word of His grace. 
 
 " For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath ap- 
 peared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness 
 and worldly lusts, we should hve soberly, righteously, and 
 godly, in this present world." ^ Literally, " For the grace 
 of God imparting salvation to all men hath appeared." 
 That is to say, It is revealed that the grace of God imparts 
 salvation to all men, rtaaiv dvOQcanoig. The construction, 
 " imparting salvation to all men," omTi'^oiog ndoiv dvdow- 
 noi^, is in strict accordance with the text, in the light of 
 most recent researches. "Bringing salvation," — which 
 is perhaps as good a rendering, though not as true and 
 clear, — is adopted by such exegetes as Alford, ElHcot, De 
 Wette, &c. The // of the received version is rejected, as 
 not in the best codices. 
 
 " Thou hast put all things, ndvra, in subjection under 
 his feet. For in that he put all, rd rcdvxa, in subjection 
 under him ; he left nothing that is not put under him. 
 But now we see not yet all things, rd Ttdrta, put under 
 him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than 
 the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory 
 
 1 Titus ii. II, 12. 
 
246 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 and honor ; that he, by the grace of God, should taste 
 death for every man, vtiIq Ttavxog.''^ ^ Man was created in 
 the image of God, when made a Hving soul.^ He is thus 
 crowned with glory and honor. In the purpose of God, 
 all things were to be subject to man,*^ except God. This 
 dominion, and this honor and glory, might be — was 
 temporarily — lost. But it should be regained in the 
 Messianic world, or reign of Christ, — reahzed before that 
 reign should end, and the kingdom be delivered up to 
 God. The writer to the Hebrews argues, that we do not 
 see all this accomplished yet, and now, as to man. But 
 we do see Jesus, made, as man himself was made, also a 
 little lower than the angels in his humanity, on account of 
 his suffering of death crowned with glory and honor — 
 which death he died, by the grace of God, for every man, 
 vmQ TtavTog. Of this final clause, Dr. Moll ^ says : " The 
 author's main point is not to explain why Jesus has gone 
 through suffering to glory, . . . but to declare the object 
 to be subserved alike by the incarnation of the First-Born, 
 and the exaltation of the Crucified One in the inseparable 
 unity of the theanthropic person, Jesus ; viz., the fulfil- 
 ment of the divine purpose, that Jesus should, by the 
 grace of God, for the benefit of every one, taste of death." 
 Dr. Moll says, indeed, that " there is no reason for laying 
 
 ' Heb. ii. 8, 9. ^ Gen. i. 26 ; ii. 7. 
 
 3 Gen. i, 26-28 ; Ps. viii. "* Lange. Com. Heb. ii. 5-13, p. 51. 
 
UXIVER SALTS Jf. 247 
 
 the entire stress on vTtsQ nrnTog,^ but admits that " the 
 masc. sing, is employed with a designed emphasis." He 
 says, moreover, that " the weight of the thought is rather 
 distributed nearly equally between the impressive closing 
 words yevatjTcu davdxov, taste of death, the vmo ncaTog, 
 which declares the imiversality of the purpose and merit 
 of his death, accomplished by his entrance into glory, and 
 the xtiQixi deov, which refers back the whole, for its efficient 
 and originating cause, to the grace of God." The ideal 
 seed of the woman, cro^vned with glory and honor, is the 
 representative man, the pledge that humanity will be in 
 like manner crowned in the fulness of time. 
 
 " He is the propitiation for our sins, — and not for ours 
 only, but also for the sins of the whole world," ^ Tten} olov 
 Tov xoofiov. Whatever may be implied in the word " pro- 
 pitiation " here, it must certainly apply not only to those 
 already believers, but to the " whole world." Dr. Braune,^ 
 while assuredly not accepting the conclusion of the Uni- 
 versalists, remarks upon this passage : " The Apostle's 
 design was manifestly to show the universality of the pro- 
 pitiation, in the most emphatic manner, and without any 
 exception. This renders any and every limitation inad- 
 missible." The iladfiog, the reconciliation unto God, is of 
 the whole world, in the salvation of the world from sin, 
 through Jesus Christ. 
 
 ^ I John ii. 2. 2 Lange. Com. i John ii. i, 2, p. 45. 
 
248 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 In conclusion, not as having exhausted the subject, or 
 as having examined all the passages bearing upon the 
 question, but because the allotted space has been used, 
 attention is called to the words, " He that believeth on the 
 Son of God hath the witness in himself : he that believeth 
 not God, hath made him a liar ; because he believeth not 
 the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the rec- 
 ord, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is 
 in his Son." ^ The word " record " will be better rendered 
 " testimony." He that believeth on the Son of God has 
 the solemn witness — testimony — of God in him, — the 
 testimony which God testifieth of his Son, ^aQiv()iav, ^le^a^- 
 TVQrfABv. Which testimony is, that He has given eternal 
 hfe to men in Jesus Christ. Is this true, or is it not? 
 Has He, or has He not ? If not, no man can prove Him 
 false by unbelief. But if otherwise, every man may well 
 tremble at that attitude of unbelief which makes God a 
 liar. 
 
 ' I John V. 10, II. 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 249 
 
 UNIVERSALISM (PHILOSOPHY). 
 
 BY PRESIDENT ELMER H. CAPEN. 
 
 E 
 
 'VERY system of truth which lays claim to human 
 belief must be able to vindicate its philosophy. It 
 is not enough that it can point to the obvious teaching of 
 Holy Scripture ; it must also show that it accords with 
 human reason, that it does no violence to the nature of 
 God as we know it, or to the nature of man as we have 
 observed it. Tradition, doctrine, authority, the most pos- 
 itive declarations apparently of the Bible, cannot long 
 make head against antecedent improbabiUties. It is more 
 likely, men will not fail to conclude, that our interpreta- 
 tions of Scripture should be erroneous, than that reason, 
 experience, and the known sequences of things should 
 be at fault. The intellectual progress of the world has 
 established this conclusion, namely, that truth is uniform ; 
 that the law of God is harmonious and all-pervading ; that 
 nowhere in the universe is one set of principles opposed 
 to another set of principles ; that whatever is unmistak- 
 ably taught on one plane of being must be essentially 
 true in every stage of existence, however enlarged and 
 strengthened by a deeper knowledge or a wider experi- 
 
250 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 ence. The hope not only of religion, but of every phase 
 of religious development, is limited by its ability to recom- 
 mend itself to the thought and life of humanity. 
 
 No form of belief has made stronger or more confi- 
 dent appeals to the Scriptures than Universalism. Against 
 every assault it has intrenched itself successfully behind 
 the unmistakable declarations of God's Word. The 
 Scriptural arguments in its defence have always been in 
 the nature of a demonstration, while its exegesis of diffi- 
 cult and disputed passages is in substantial agreement with 
 the best scholarship of every time. But the Scriptural 
 argument is effectually reinforced by the philosophy of 
 Universalism ; and it carries conviction when it is candidly 
 examined, because it so fully coincides with the instinctive 
 beliefs of the human soul. Given the nature of God as 
 it is conceived by every Christian, and the Universalist 
 conclusion respecting his relations, not only to the whole, 
 but to every particular member, of the universe, is inev- 
 itable. It is only when some conflicting element in 
 revelation is assumed, or when the mind bows to the 
 demands of a relentless creed, that a result at variance 
 with this is reached. 
 
 The essential features of Universalism, briefly stated, 
 are these : — 
 
 I. Its Theology embraces (i) God, infinite, all-wise, 
 just. His attributes are rooted in and all their operations 
 
UNI VERSAL ISM. 2 5 I 
 
 are controlled by love, which is his nature. He is not 
 only the Creator of every thing, but the Father of every 
 soul. An intelligent plan preceded the creation, and runs 
 through it from the beginning to the end. Nothing has 
 been created, nothing permitted, that did not enter into 
 this plan, or is not effectually held in its grasp. God is 
 everywhere ; not in the theosophic, nor yet in the pan- 
 theistic sense, but as a tender, loving, paternal, con- 
 sciously active, independent, free Personality, who directs 
 all the activities of time and eternity, shapes all events, 
 moulds and wins all souls to himself. 
 
 The Universalist Theology embraces (2) Christ, the 
 Son of the Father, who was from the beginning with him^ 
 sharing his counsels, executing his will. He voluntarily 
 took upon himself our nature, and lived among us a purely 
 human, although in some respects a superhuman, trans- 
 figured, divine hfe. He taught after the fashion of men, 
 although his doctrine bore upon it the unmistakable 
 marks of its heavenly origin. He meekly suffered re- 
 proach for the truth's sake, and died in his unyielding 
 devotion to the will of God and the welfare of men. 
 The mysterious but simple and apparent union thus of 
 two natures, the divine and the human, in the person of 
 Christ, makes him not merely the representative of God 
 to us, not merely the elder brother of man, in whom the 
 possibilities of our nature are realized, but the connecting 
 
252 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 link between the divine and the human, the medium of 
 communication between us and our heavenly Father, the 
 one by whom the whole human race, and every individual 
 member of it, is brought into contact and connection 
 with God. No system holds more tenaciously to the 
 always active, living presence and power of Christ. No 
 system makes the dependence of the soul more absolute 
 upon him for spiritual instruction, for moral guidance, for 
 every thing that constitutes its essential life, as well as for 
 the fulfilment of its heaven-aspiring hopes. 
 
 In respect of the doctrine of (3) the Holy Ghost, the 
 Universalist Theology is at one with primitive Christianity. 
 It holds to the truth, which is as old as the Church, that 
 the Spirit ever " proceedeth from the Father and the Son ; " 
 that it is that by which God manifests himself, makes his 
 presence and power felt in history, in nations, in institu- 
 tions of every name, in the soul of man ; that it is that 
 through which the divine work is done, and is the un- 
 ceasing witness of the Father's personal interest and love ; 
 that it is that also by which Christ impresses himself upon 
 our consciousness, appeals to our sympathies, draws forth 
 our affections, reahzes the promise, " I will not leave you 
 comfortless ; " that it is that which pleads and strives with 
 men everywhere, reminding them of neglected duty, re- 
 proving them for sin, quickening, stimulating, urging them 
 to an obedient and holy life ; that it is that which inter- 
 
UNIVERSAL ISM. 253 
 
 cedes for men with God, striving with us and for us, 
 giving effectual emphasis to our prayers, keeping us from 
 despondency and fear, filling us with fresh hope, beget- 
 ting within us, even in seasons of disappointment and 
 sorrow, matchless peace and heavenly joy, — always lifting 
 us, on the abundant and irrepressible tide of its energy, 
 towards the bosom of the Infinite. 
 
 2. In its doctrine of Man, Universalism holds that man 
 is a child of God. He is endowed with attributes which 
 are like God's, and which proclaim his immortal nature 
 and destiny. He has intelligence and a moral sense. He 
 is responsible and free. He has the power of distinguish- 
 ing right and wrong, and can choose between them. 
 But, whatever choice he makes, he is accountable for it. 
 He is under law. If he does wrong, he must pay the 
 penalty of wrong. If he does right, the voice of God 
 will say, " Well done." But penalty is not arbitrarily 
 annexed to wrong-doing ; there is no element of vindic- 
 tiveness in it. It is not applied for the purpose of 
 soothing the offended majesty of Heaven. It is reme- 
 dial in its aim. It reminds the offender that he is 
 God's child, and that he has broken God's law. If 
 he sins repeatedly, he will be punished repeatedly. 
 No amount of penalty can destroy his freedom. He 
 may choose to sin as long as he is willing to take 
 sin and penalty together. But, whenever he shall be 
 
2 54 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSAL ISM. 
 
 moved to a different choice, the way will be open. 
 Neither can his freedom operate in any way to destroy 
 the relation which exists between him and God. What- 
 ever he does, whatever he suffers, he is still God's child ; 
 and nothing can permanently efface from his soul the 
 image of the Father. He is always, therefore, under the 
 moral government of God. For his sake this government 
 was established. For his sake, that is, the law was given, 
 the prophets sent, the Gospel proclaimed ; for his sake 
 Christ died. No more emphatic testimony than this 
 could be given of the inherent worth of the human soul. 
 It is not, therefore, according to the nature of things, not 
 within the range of the divine possibilities, that man ever 
 should be abandoned to his own devices, ever utterly 
 given over to a " reprobate mind ; " but he will be held 
 in the divine control and the divine love until of his own 
 choice he acknowledges the justice of that control, and 
 yields joyfully and thankfully to the behests of that love. 
 
 3. These views of God, and Christ, and the Holy 
 Spirit, and Man, foreshadow the Universalist view of 
 Destiny. We hold that the sovereignty of God will be 
 completely vindicated in the ultimate harmony of the 
 moral universe. No power on earth or in heaven can 
 defeat the purpose of God to bring every thing into subjec- 
 tion to himself; in other words, to be the actual and the 
 actually recognized Master in his own dominions. The 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 255 
 
 process by which this result is to be secured is neither 
 violent nor mechanical ; but it springs out of those natural 
 relations which God has estabhshed between the different 
 parts of his economy. It involves, to be sure, the happi- 
 ness of souls ; but happiness is reached only through 
 voluntary obedience. Righteousness, in reality, is the 
 end ; happiness is only an incident. The thing which God 
 demands of every soul is rectitude, moral purity, spiritual 
 submission. This is the end towards which he works, 
 and there will be no pauses until the end is reached. 
 
 It will not do to say that man's freedom may defeat 
 the beneficent intentions of the Almighty; for that 
 would be a poor sort of freedom which practically dooms 
 men to endless sin. Nor will it do to affirm that the 
 power of evil habit may become so strong that it will be 
 impossible for men any more to choose eifectually the 
 right. That would be to contradict every theory on which 
 the recovery of souls is sought in this world ; the univer- 
 sal assumption being that no case is so desperate as to be 
 beyond the saving efficacy of infinite grace. This posi- 
 tion, which is the last refuge of modern Orthodoxy, sa- 
 vors both of fatalism and atheism. It is fatalistic in so 
 far as it fixes, beyond all hope of amendment, the condi- 
 tion of any soul. It is atheistic in so far as it puts the 
 final destiny of man entirely in his own keeping. Equally 
 futile is the claim that death determines the moral condi- 
 
256 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 tion of humanity. For it is absurd to suppose that death 
 will change either the nature of man or the disposition 
 and purpose of God. So long as man is man, he may- 
 forsake evil and embrace righteousness ; so long as God 
 is God, he will certainly restore the penitent and welcome 
 the returning prodigal. It only remains to look at the 
 object which has been steadily pursued in the giving of 
 the Law and the promulgation of the Gospel, to feel 
 assured that the poet manifests a profoundly philosophical 
 insight when he sings : — 
 
 " I can but trust that good shall fall, 
 At last — far off — at last, to all, 
 And every winter change to spring." 
 
 In one vast, resistless movement, the whole creation 
 sweeps towards the grand finality of universal holiness and 
 universal love. 
 
 The foregoing are only the more prominent features of a 
 great system. Taken together, they constitute what may 
 be called the Universalist idea. Unquestionably, this 
 idea meets the demands of a sound philosophy. It not 
 only does no violence to the intellect and the moral senti- 
 ments, but it completely answers all their requirements. 
 
 It is essential that a system, to be philosophical, should 
 rigidly conform to the laws of thought. No affront must 
 be offered to the faculties. No impossible task must 
 be demanded of the intelligence. But every postulate 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 257 
 
 must commend itself to the dictates of an enlightened 
 reason. Not only must the separate propositions be 
 able to stand the test of the severest intellectual criti- 
 cism, but the whole doctrinal fabric must be such that, 
 when turned about on every side, the keenest scrutiny 
 can find no flaw or blemish ia it. Like a perfect armor, 
 the different parts must so fit together that the fiercest 
 antagonist can find no place through which he can thrust 
 his remorseless lance. Then, if it serves the purpose it 
 was intended to serve, fills the place it was meant to fill, 
 does the work it was fashioned to do, and is not out of 
 joint with the known ways and works of God, whatever its 
 shortcomings in other respects, on the side of thought 
 at least no impeachment can be made of its philosophy. 
 
 Let us pause here for a moment. What do the laws of 
 thought require ? 
 
 The first requisite is clearness. It would seem some- 
 times as if men believed the opposite of this, — as if when 
 a subject is involved in an obscurity as dense as a New- 
 port fog it is philosophical ; or as if when it is chaotic or 
 nebulous, without any organic centre, and floats before 
 the mind in a dim and dream-like way, it is philosophical. 
 But no philosophy which could stand the jolts and jars of 
 time was ever made out of such flimsy material. Clear- 
 ness is the only plank that will bear the strain. But the 
 Universalist idea, as I have sketched it, does not fail in 
 
 17 
 
25S THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 this particular. No mist of uncertainty or doubt ob- 
 scures its outlines ; no vague and formless opinion, no 
 unintelligible or random thought, helps to make up the 
 body of its doctrine. The system as a whole stands forth 
 to the eye of the mind as clearly and sharply defined as 
 a mountain peak against the western sky in a cloudless 
 morning. 
 
 Nor is the law of clearness violated in any of its 
 component parts. The notion of an all-powerful, all- 
 wise, just, beneficent God, who is at once Creator and 
 Father, and whose fatherly affection and fatherly care 
 are unceasing, is certainly intelligible. The proposition 
 that the Son came voluntarily into our world, lived a 
 human Hfe, taught a divine doctrine, and finally died for 
 the salvation of men, however at fault it may be tried by 
 other tests, is a clear proposition. The doctrine of the 
 Holy Ghost as a living and omnipresent witness of God 
 and Christ, and the operative agent of all divine benefi- 
 cence and all human saintliness, offers nothing which the 
 thought of man cannot easily and effectively grasp. The 
 view we hold of man as 1 he child of God, peccable but 
 free, with moral instincts and attributes which lead him 
 to respect virtue, with good enough in him to justify the 
 gracious offices of Christ and the Holy Spirit in his 
 behalf, is neither hazy nor nebulous. So, finally, the 
 Universalist doctrine of destiny, pointing to the grand 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 259 
 
 consummation of universal righteousness, is not open to 
 the charge that it is incomprehensible. True, it is said 
 to be inconceivable that God will finally take the most 
 heinous sinners into the abodes of unending bliss. But 
 that is just what he is said to do under every system that 
 bears the name of Christian. It is said to be utterly 
 against reason that men who have wasted their lives in 
 worldly and wicked ways should be permitted after death 
 to dwell in the mansions of God with the redeemed. But 
 the objection lies against every form of Christian doctrine 
 that has ever been taught among men. The extension of 
 the process from a portion of the race to the whole of it 
 does not alter the principle. 
 
 Consider for a moment the reasonableness of the prin- 
 ciple. Is it absurd in a moral universe that sinners should 
 be redeemed ? If some, why not all ? Which, indeed, is 
 the more inconceivable : that hohness, which is at war 
 with sin, should finally prevail, or that evil should be per- 
 manently enthroned? — that God, who made man and 
 subjected him to law, should always maintain his ascend- 
 ancy over him, and through the operation of the law 
 which he ordained for him secure his voluntary submis- 
 sion, or that the creature should finally spurn the Creator, 
 and effectually resist and defy his authority ? If the former 
 conception is thought the more reasonable, it is not hkely 
 to fail of acceptance from lack of clearness. 
 
26o THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 But the laws of thought are not properly observed un- 
 less a system is self-consistent, — unless its different parts 
 are held together by an unbroken chain. It is possible 
 for many truths, which are at once intelligible and clear, 
 to coexist, and to be thrown very closely together by 
 some principle of association, yet between which there is 
 no vital and necessary connection. A system may be 
 constructed as a mason constructs a wall, — using stones of 
 different sizes and shapes, fitting each one into its proper 
 place, and binding them all together with some artificial 
 material ; or it may spring out of certain primal and 
 necessary truths, and grow as the tree grows from the 
 ground according to a principle of vitality inherent in 
 the seed, extracting by the law of assimilation from earth 
 and air the elements that are essential to its development. 
 A system which claims for itself a philosophical basis 
 must be organic. 
 
 Here Universalism will be found to bear the test. Its 
 general idea is not at variance with any of the special 
 truths on which it rests, nor is there any conflict between 
 these truths themselves. The whole conception is harmo- 
 nious. Between premise and conclusion there is not the 
 slightest gap, — the connection is necessary and inevita- 
 ble. Every process of reasoning which marches straight 
 from a legitimate starting-point to a conclusion cannot 
 fail to find that a Being whose nature is love, and who is 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 2 6 1 
 
 not limited in wisdom or power, will not only purpose the 
 ultimate moral purity of his creatures, but institute meas- 
 ures which will certainly bring it to pass ; not only pur- 
 pose the destruction of evil and the permanent and perfect 
 triumph of good, but actually secure that result. In hke 
 manner, it is necessary to think that the Son of God, who 
 came from heaven to reveal God, to enforce duty, and to 
 point out the destiny of the race, who in this work, and 
 to induce men to accept his doctrine and leadership, 
 voluntarily suffered reproach and death, would leave no 
 essential thing undone which would make his dying decla- 
 ration, " I have finished the work which Thou gavest me 
 to do," less than the Uteral and exact truth. Moreover, 
 the conception of the Holy Ghost as the ever living and 
 active agent, working constantly, both in time and in 
 eternity, towards the result which the Father and the Son 
 alike have set out to accompHsh, is certainly not illogical. 
 Neither is it inconsistent to suppose that a free creature 
 like man, with penalty always treading relentlessly on the 
 heels of transgression, and with God, and Christ, and the 
 Holy Spirit, and good angels pleading with him to forsake 
 iniquity, should " somehow, somewhere," ^\dllingly and 
 eagerly seek the welcoming embrace of a loving God. 
 
 Again, the laws of thought require that a philosophical 
 system should not be at variance with the known order of 
 things. If its postulates contradict what we find in nature 
 
262 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 or the human soul, we have no right to make them. If it 
 assumes any thing which the course of history, or the 
 actual experience of men, will not justify, its assumptions 
 must perish. Our beliefs must not greatly outrun the 
 regular recurrence of human events j our hopes must 
 ever be fortified by our experience. No theory will com- 
 mand general assent so long as it disregards incontestable 
 facts. What will be must be in conformity with what is, 
 and only from what is may we form any just notion of 
 what will be. 
 
 The Universalist faith has nothing to fear from the 
 application of this rule. It does not ask the acceptance 
 of a single principle which is unnatural, or which is open 
 to a priori objection. Power, wisdom, goodness, are 
 manifest in the universe ; purpose to bless and save 
 runs through all the great religions which have claimed a 
 divine origin ; the desire for virtue, the hope of heavenly 
 favor and heavenly bliss, are native to the human mind. 
 Men have observed, it is true, that nature in some of its 
 aspects is cruel, and hence have concluded that cruelty is 
 a permanent factor in the mind of God. But only a very 
 narrow induction could yield so poor a result. It is not 
 si range, perhaps, that Stoicism, which was the most stalwart 
 system of antiquity, should have bowed with equal awe 
 before good and ill, and ascribed them both to fate. But 
 the Stoic was confined in his observation to a very narrow 
 
UNI VERSAL ISM. 263 
 
 range of things. He could not take in the vast spaces 
 which the astronomer of our time traverses, and watch 
 the play of law working always to beneficent results in 
 the material universe. He was not cognizant of tlie 
 immense cycles which are as an open book to our mod- 
 ern geologist, and through which he sees ever order, 
 harmony, beauty, and a higher fonn of Hfe, constantly 
 emerging. He had not at his command whole sections 
 of human history showing how nations have come into 
 being, lived out their day, performed their work, and then 
 passed for ever from the stage of existence, by means of 
 which the historian of the present time may study the 
 progress of humanity. No wonder if he thought evil was 
 a permanent thing, with nothing to mitigate it. There 
 may be pain in the upheaval of a mountain, in the rush 
 of a cataract, in the swing of planets, in the sweep of 
 cycles, in the blood and carnage of revolution ; but he 
 who perceives that these things are only preparing the 
 way for wider and more permanent blessings will not base 
 upon them an accusation against the goodness of God. 
 
 It is sometimes affirmed that the Universalist argument, 
 based on the goodness of God, against endless suffering 
 holds against all suffering whatever. We see suffering, it 
 is alleged, here and now ; therefore we have no right to 
 infer that it may not always last. So ? Does the mind 
 regard as identical temporary suffering, which may be 
 
264 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 punitive and which may be disciplinary, and suffering 
 which is unlimited and without conceivable purpose or 
 possible end? Properly interpreted, Universalism is not 
 inconsistent with things that are. 
 
 If we add to the laws of pure thought the laws of ethics, 
 our faith will be strengthened, and not weakened. An 
 essential part of man's nature is moral. Therefore a 
 religion which will fully meet the natural wants of man 
 must be such as his conscience can approve. Conscience 
 which gives us the sense of right, justice, goodness, truth, 
 virtue, judges, not only with reference to our own con- 
 duct and that of our fellow-men, but with reference 
 to the moral quality in the constitution and course of 
 things. Religion makes its first appeal to the mind 
 through the conscience. The reason for this is evident. 
 The moral nature of man is that in which he most nearly 
 resembles his Creator. While conscience as the source 
 of our moral ideas carries with it its own authority and 
 obligation, it is constantly pointing to something that is 
 above and beyond. It is seeking ever to clarify and per- 
 fect its judgments by a nearer view of the eternal recti- 
 tude, by those indications of God's will which are to be 
 found in nature and the soul. Our very confidence in 
 our own moral judgments comes from our faith in the 
 absolute rectitude of him who gave us our moral sense. 
 We believe that the test by which we measure both our- 
 
UNI VERSALISM. 265 
 
 selves and others is safe and trustworthy, because it has 
 been given to us by One who is perfectly infallible. For 
 the same reason, also, we have confidence in the test when, 
 by means of it, we seek to determine what we should natu- 
 rally expect of a government instituted and carried on 
 by the Parent and Fountain of all virtue. We cannot 
 believe that the conduct and character of God will vary 
 in principle from that which makes conduct and charac- 
 ter meritorious in man. If we are asked to believe any 
 thing which conflicts thus with the legitimate action of 
 our moral faculty we shall be justified in refusing. 
 
 Precisely what are we compelled, by our moral consti- 
 tution, to believe in respect of God and his govern- 
 ment? There is no question what we are obliged to 
 believe with reference to ourselves. Nothing can efface 
 from our minds the conviction that sin is terrible, odious, 
 abominable. No amount of schooling or practice in 
 iniquity can weaken the force of this conviction. True, by 
 repeated indulgence the moral sense may become some- 
 what callous ; but its callousness will be like the callousness 
 of the stone-cutter's hand, which when the horny cuticle 
 is torn away is more sensitive than ever. We not only 
 believe in the " exceeding sinfulness of sin," but our 
 nature revolts at it ; we loathe it ; we feel bound to make 
 war upon it, to wrestle with it, and to seek its extermina- 
 tion in ourselves and others. We hate it, however, not 
 
2 66 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 merely because it is inherently hateful, but because God 
 hates it, because it is opposed alike by his law and his 
 nature, of which his law is the expression. 
 
 The course of moral discipHne which renders the most 
 efficient aid to man in his conflict with evil is regarded as 
 at once the most successful and the most godlike. How 
 is it possible for us to believe, then, that God, by the 
 different instrumentalities which he has sanctioned, pur- 
 poses any thing less than the complete destruction of sin ? 
 Surely he will not complacently witness the permanent 
 establishment of what he hates, and what he calls upon 
 us to resist and destroy. To aflirm that would be to 
 affirm that he is indifferent to what his nature antago- 
 nizes and repels. God's government upon its face seems 
 to aim at the destruction of iniquity ; and I do not see 
 how it can be called a perfect government, if it fails to do 
 what it sets out to do. If we can reason at all from 
 human analogies, it cannot. The father whose control 
 over his children is such as to keep them from tempta- 
 tion, and train them up to useful and virtuous lives, is 
 the good father. His example is commended as worthy 
 of all imitation. The state that exerts the most beneficial 
 influence upon its citizens, so that its laws are cheerfully 
 obeyed, and so that there is no rebellion and no discord, 
 and only a minimum of crime, is sure to be the admiration 
 of history. But the one particular in which our civiliza- 
 
UNI VER SAL ISJf. 267 
 
 tion is conceded thus far to be a failure is in its treatment 
 of the criminal classes of society. It is not so much that 
 it does not prevent crime, as that no successful method 
 of reform has yet been instituted. We may restrain the 
 criminal, and make an example of him that will be a terror 
 to evil-doers. But that is hardly thought to be the highest 
 result attainable by a Christian state. The real problem 
 yet to be solved is, how to cure the criminal, — how to 
 transfonn him into a citizen. In like manner, the moral 
 judgment of mankind will agree that it is scarcely the 
 noblest function of God's disciphne to simply punish the 
 sinner, and leave him to his fate. 
 
 In reply to Dr. Sawyer's assertion, that God could not 
 leave the sinner finally to himself, without renouncing the 
 moral responsibihties he willingly assumed in his creation, 
 President Porter says : " I would submit that those who 
 concede that God can permit the sin which he hates, and 
 the sinner whom he must punish, to exist at all, cannot 
 assert that God is morally bound not to create a being 
 who he foreknows will sin for ever." The weak point in 
 this objection is, that it fails to recognize any distinction 
 between what is transient and temporary and what is final 
 and endless. I may not, indeed, be able to give any 
 other account of the existence of sin than that is a neces- 
 sary incident of man's freedom. But what of that ? AU 
 my moral instincts are not outraged by its presence in the 
 
268 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 world, since I have reason to believe that it will ultimately 
 pass away. I can safely leave its existence, therefore, 
 among the secret things that belong to God. But to say 
 that sin is here as a finality, and that there is no hope for 
 the sinner either in time or eternity, is to take a purely 
 pagan view of life, is to leave the Christian element en- 
 tirely out, or to make so poor a use of it that it is practi- 
 cally worthless, and to put a strain upon the moral sense 
 which very few persons of tender conscience can endure. 
 " The enigma of life, with its sorrows and joys, its smiles 
 and tears," is not only unsolved, but is darker than ever 
 before. 
 
 The view here taken is immeasurably strengthened by 
 the fact that the progress of our Christian civilization is all 
 in this direction. The further men advance in the appli- 
 cation of Christian truth, the further they are from that 
 practical dualism which makes Augustinianism or Calvin- 
 ism so repulsive and awful. The time was when theolo- 
 gians serenely contemplated the consignment of the larger 
 part of the human race to endless suffering. The time 
 was when the leading lights of Christendom did not hesi- 
 tate to divide the moral universe between God and the 
 Devil, giving the Devil by far the larger part. To-day all 
 this is reversed ; and it is not only the prevailing opinion 
 in the Church, but the thought of the most prudent 
 teachers in the Orthodox party, that the number who will 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 269 
 
 be finally lost, compared to the sum total of humanity, is 
 very insignificant. Not only so, but those who are the 
 most reluctant to accept the terrible notion of endless 
 suffering, or endless sin, are the persons whose moral 
 nature is the keenest and most active, and who are the 
 most deeply imbued with the spirit and flavor of Christi- 
 anity. How are we to account for this? Can it be that 
 Christianity in its practical development is at war with its 
 essential principles? Can it be that the spirit which it 
 infuses into civilization would lead men to question the 
 special truth which is the most important of all for them 
 to know and accept ? Can it be that in educating and 
 moulding the moral sense it yields almost inevitably a kind 
 of splendid sentimentalism which makes men incapable of 
 facing the stern realities of life and destiny? A moment 
 of careful reflection must remove the grounds of so des- 
 perate an alternative. 
 
 There is another portion of man's nature, partly moral, 
 partly intellectual, but more properly perhaps belonging 
 to the department of the feelings, which a perfectly true 
 religion ought to satisfy. There are what may be called 
 the social and humane instincts, of which religion is bound 
 to take some account. Men and women have been set 
 apart in families ; and the family relation is the source not 
 only of the tenderest and purest affections, but of the 
 deepest, and in some respects the holiest, joys of life. 
 
270 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 Again, families are bound together into communities and 
 states ; and out of the daily neighborly intercourse of man 
 with man, in the discharge of his duties to society and the 
 state, are born countless forms of social amenity and ex- 
 alted friendship. Something is due to the qualities on 
 which these relations are based and out of which these 
 affections spring. If religion, in its possible outcome, 
 does violence to the most sacred domestic feelings, denies 
 the most precious domestic hopes, and not only wrenches, 
 but demands the extinction of, all domestic instincts, it 
 cannot long command the assent of enlightened judgment. 
 There may be those who will believe it, because they think 
 they find it in the Word of God ; but more will reject at 
 once the teachings of Scripture and all the claims of re- 
 ligion. In like manner, if the noblest forms of self-denial 
 and disinterested human love are wholly overlooked in the 
 ultimate applications of justice, very soon men will begin 
 to question altogether the divine intervention in the whole 
 scheme of things. They will prefer to attribute the allot- 
 ments of good and ill, in which there is so Httle to satisfy 
 the native sense of justice, and so much to offend the 
 sympathetic and humane qualities of the soul, to a re- 
 morseless fate, and return again to the heroic but terrible 
 consolations of the Stoical philosophy. 
 
 But as there is a broader kinship than that of family or 
 neighborhood, so the demands of humane feeling are not 
 
UNIVER SALTS M. 2 7 1 
 
 entirely met when every thing has been discharged that is 
 due to those dear ones with whom we share our secret 
 thoughts, and to our fellow-travellers to whom we iitipart 
 our hopes and fears, and from whom we receive encour- 
 agement and sympathy. The Christian religion, which 
 begins with the idea of the fatherhood of God, specifically 
 inculcates the doctrine of human brotherhood. Society 
 is one, the nations are one, the race is one. Nothing 
 that concerns humanity as a whole, nothing that affects 
 any individual member of the race can be treated with 
 indifference by him who seeks to put in practice the spirit 
 and doctrine of Christ. This is the truth which seeks 
 expression in the varied instrumentalities by which law, 
 order, and all the complex relations of social life, are pro- 
 moted. It is the aim of legislation, the palpable goal of 
 diplomacy, the inspiration of all statesmanship. 
 
 But the truth which is inculcated thus by religion, and 
 which meets with such general practical recognition, is 
 receiving scientific confirmation. All Hnguistic investiga- 
 tions, all studies relating to the fundamental qualities of 
 races and types, all biological observations and inductions, 
 point distinctly to the organic and indestructible unity of 
 mankind. When Christianity teaches, therefore, that 
 " God has made of one blood all nations of men," it is 
 not proclaiming an arbitrary dictum, which, however true 
 in the realm of ideas, has no solid basis in the realm of 
 
272 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 fact ; but it is giving utterance to one of those principles 
 which history and science ahke attest. The inference 
 from this is that, when it is said Christ came to save the 
 world, humanity is meant. The term humanity is inclu- 
 sive, and not exclusive. It covers not only sects and 
 kingdoms and races, but the individual members which 
 constitute the grand whole. The world, therefore, cannot 
 be said to be saved, unless its different divisions of race 
 are saved. The races are not saved, unless men are saved. 
 But we can go farther even than that, and declare, not 
 merely that humanity is not saved but by the salvation 
 of its different members, but that the individual is not 
 saved except as the whole is saved through the separate 
 persons who compose it. 
 
 A brief glance at the actual state of things will illustrate 
 this point. It is true that society cannot reach perfection 
 but through the perfection of those whose relations with 
 each other make up what we term society. But it is equally 
 true that men, under the social law, cannot become even 
 relatively perfect, unless the state in which they find them- 
 selves is favorable. The health of my moral nature is 
 sensibly affected by the moral atmosphere I am compelled 
 to breathe. Gross corruptions in the world around me 
 enfeeble my constitution, and hinder me from reaching the 
 summits of possible good. The evil of my neighbor is an 
 unfailing clog upon my own virtue ; and not until purity is 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 273 
 
 universal can I hope to feel those invigorating influences 
 which ^vill give my moral nature its utmost possible devel- 
 opment, bringing me " unto a perfect man, unto the measure 
 of the stature of the fulness of Christ." So that it is diffi- 
 cult to conceive how any considerable part of mankind 
 can attain that degree of holiness to which the teaching 
 and sacrifice of Christ seem to point, so long as another 
 part of it is weighed down by a burden of wickedness and 
 woe. The salvation of the world, then, involves the sal- 
 vation of individual men ; the salvation of individuals, in 
 the sense in which Christ meant they should be saved, 
 when he said, " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
 draw all men unto me," involves the salvation of the world, 
 using the term world with the broadest and most compre- 
 hensive meaning of which it is capable. 
 
 Besides these intellectual and moral grounds of Univer- 
 salism, there are some general considerations which serve 
 to recommend it as the religion which is demanded by the 
 nature of man and the constitution of the world. One of 
 these is the inherent stability of the system. Truth is 
 unchangeable in its essence. The special forms of its 
 manifestation, the dress it wears in different epochs, the 
 methods by which it is inculcated, may vary ; but the 
 ground-work and substance of truth itself is unchanging 
 and unchangeable. This always has been and always 
 must be a prominent characteristic of Universalism. 
 
 18 
 
2 74 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 Other systems have changed in their fundamental ideas 
 and doctrines ; and their more candid advocates will 
 frankly admit the changes they have undergone, and even 
 point them out with feelings of pride and exultation. 
 From almost all the older creeds the elements of vindic- 
 tiveness and fate have been eliminated, and in the place 
 of them moral persuasiveness and infinite love have been 
 inserted. Apart from the historic continuity of the 
 churches that even now formally hold such creeds, we 
 should not be able to recognize them as theirs by any 
 thing in the thought and life of to-day. Indeed, in many 
 of their more prominent features we could scarcely dis- 
 tinguish them from our own broad and beneficent view. 
 No more convincing proof is needed of their native 
 weakness. 
 
 To be sure, Universalism has changed in some of its 
 aspects. It has given up the bald literalness which char- 
 acterized some of its earlier interpretations of Scripture, 
 and abandoned much that was mechanical in its philosophy. 
 It has moved up to a higher stage of thought and life. It 
 takes broader and more comprehensive views. It employs 
 more complicated and flexible methods. It has attained 
 a larger and deeper spiritual insight. But these changes 
 are only superficial. They affect little more than the 
 vesture of the doctrine. The essential features are the 
 same. Our views of the nature and purposes of God, of 
 
UNIVERSAL ISM. 275 
 
 the offices of Christ and the Holy Spirit, of the moral con- 
 stitution and destiny of man, as well as of the process by 
 which human redemption is secured, remain the same. 
 These cannot be changed without destroying the entire 
 body of doctrine which they help to constitute. Herein, 
 then, we have a most important requisite of a sound and 
 durable philosophy. Herein we have abundant reason 
 for believing that our doctrine is at least a part of eternal 
 verity ; since it conforms to those laws by which the truth 
 is handed down, without alteration or amendment, from 
 generation to generation and from age to age. 
 
 It is enough to call attention to one other phase of the 
 Universalist philosophy, which certainly holds no unim- 
 portant place among the reasons which recommend it as 
 the religion of humanity. It is a harmonious system. It 
 builds ever, not only on the indivisible unity of God, 
 but on the indivisible unity of man. It points to the 
 harmonious relations of moral truths and moral laws. All 
 other systems fail just here. Practically, they destroy even 
 the unity of God, since they compel him to divide the 
 moral universe with a principle of evil, which is as absolute 
 within its proper sphere and as durable as his own nature. 
 They break the human race into sections, putting a barrier 
 between them which they cannot pass ; separating thus, 
 according to some mysterious principle of discrimination, 
 not only great masses of men, but neighborhoods and 
 
276 THE LATEST WORD OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 families, snapping asunder with remorseless insensibility the 
 most delicate tendrils of the human heart. They perpetu- 
 ate discord. They exalt and glorify confusion and moral 
 chaos. For certainly there can be no union between God 
 and sin : he will not join hands with what he hates with 
 infinite hatred, or give his approval to what he is exerting 
 himself to the utmost to destroy. Neither can there be 
 any harmony between saints and sinners, between heaven 
 and hell. But who that thinks of God, as the Universalist 
 faith conceives him, as a Being infinite in wisdom and 
 power, perfectly just, perfectly true, inexhaustibly tender, 
 " doing his will in the armies of heaven and among the 
 inhabitants of the earth," — can for a moment feel 
 that the universe is moving towards any such result, can 
 believe that the Creator and Governor of men will rest 
 contented with any thing less than the conquest and 
 destruction of evil, through the obedience and hoHness of 
 souls ? With unbroken confidence, growing stronger and 
 stronger with every trial of it, we look for the reign of 
 universal righteousness, for the ultimate triumph over 
 sin, and over the sinful affections of humanity, of a 
 loving God. 
 
 Thus the Universalist idea meets every test by which a 
 form of religious philosophy must be tried. It quails not 
 under the application of the laws of thought. It answers 
 the severest demands of the conscience, and awakens a 
 
UNIVERSALISM. 277 
 
 welcome response in the moral instincts of the human 
 heart. It is humane ; charged with the tenderest charity 
 and the broadest philanthropy. It is permanent and 
 durable as the substance of truth and the nature of God. 
 It is harmonious ; keeping in view forever — 
 
 " One God, one law, one element, 
 
 And one far-oflf divine event, 
 
 To which the whole creation moves." 
 
 Cambndge : Press of John Wilson and Son. 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
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