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 BX 9941 .A5A 1885 
 
 Allin, Thomas. 
 
 The question of questions 
 
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Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2009 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Tiieological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.arcliive.org/details/questionofquestiOOalli 
 
THE QUESTION OF QUESTIONS 
 
 IS 
 
 CHRIST INDEED 
 
 THE 
 
 SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD? 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. THOMAS ALLIN. 
 
 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use 
 
 great plainness of speech. 
 
 II Cor. iii 12. 
 
 LONDON : 
 T. FISHER UNV/IN 
 
 26, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 
 1885. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 The Flotrerintj Plants and Ferns of Co Cork 
 
 J. VIarcke, Printer, etc., Weston-super-Mare. 
 
v-^ ■ 
 
 
 P n E F AC E. 
 
 No question more momentous than that Ijriefly discussed in 
 the following pages can arise, for the point really at issue 
 is no less than the whole future destiny of our race. 
 
 The last quarter of a century has seen a most significant 
 change in the minds of our contemporaries on this 
 question. On every side the old belief in endless torment 
 is passing away; and though it may be enforced on rare 
 occasions in the pulpit, it no longer commands the accept- 
 ance of the majority of thoughtful men anywhere. 
 
 But while we hail with joy this awakening, we must 
 remember that the void thus left in our Creed requires to 
 be filled up. We have to build as well as to destroy. The 
 old belief in pain without end in Hell has lost its power. 
 What shall take its place 1 Has the Church no clear and 
 definite message on this all-important point ? 
 
 The following pages aim at showing that the true answer 
 to this enquiry is to be found in the teaching of Scripture 
 (whose supreme authority we fully recognise), as to the 
 assured and aljsolute victory of Jesus Christ ; as to the 
 boundless nature of His empire over all souls. To ])ring 
 honour to His Cross ; to exalt His work of Redemption, as 
 destined one day to i-cstni-c all tlu'ngs, and thus to I'cconcile 
 
our Creed with the deepest convictions of our moral nature, 
 this is the true meaning of the hirger Hope, and not, as so 
 many seem to beheve, a desire to make light of sin, to 
 explain away its penalties, or to paint God as a Being 
 weakly tolerant of evil. 
 
 In this volume will be, I hope, found a recognition clear 
 and emphatic of the guilt of sin and its assured punish- 
 ment ; nay, it will, I trust, be shewn how, ^in fact, the 
 larger hope, more fully than any other view, recognises the 
 true evil of sin, and assigns to the Divine penalties their 
 true end. 
 
 And so I send forth these pages, claiming for their 
 contents little or no originality, but trusting that in them 
 will be found reasons* clear and Scriptural for this as the 
 true hope of the Gospel, the actual redemption and restor- 
 ation, not of some men, but of mankind ; not of some 
 things, but of all things, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 
 
 * I have not presumed to say or to discuss what God, in the 
 abstract, can or cannot, will or will not do. The argument here 
 employed is simply this. God has both in His unwritten revelation 
 of Himself to our moral sense, and in His written Word, declared 
 distinctly against the doctrine of endless torment. 
 
r X TEX T s. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGE. 
 
 Th3 (J, ier,tiou State,! - 1 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 The Pop-.ihir Creel Wholly Untenable- ■ - 17 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 The Same — (Continued) - - - - - 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 What The (Jliurch Teaches - - - - - 0.3 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ^Vhat The Old Testament Teaches - - - 8.3 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 What The Xew Testament Teaches - - - 95 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Same — (Continued)- - - - - - 115 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Same— (Continued) - - - - - 141 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Scri|)tui-al Doctrine of the Ages — of Death — 
 
 of Judgment — of Fire — of Electi(jn - - KiT) 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Suuimarv and Conclusion - - - - - 1!)5 
 
 XoTE— On St. Mark ix., -I^-dO. 217 
 
 ,, On the future recovery of the lost, 
 
ERRATUM. 
 Paye 10:!, line 8 — omit '"then." 
 
THE QUESTION STATED." 
 
" Shall not the judge of all the earth do right." — Gen. xviii, 25. 
 
 Will the Lord east off for ever ? 
 And will He be favourable no more ? 
 Hath (tOd forgotten to be gracious ? 
 Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies ? 
 And I said this is my infirmity ; 
 
 But I will remember the years of the right hand f>f the Most 
 High. — Psalm Lxxvii, 7-10. 
 
 What am I but the creature Thou hast made ? 
 What have I but the blessings Thou hast lent ? 
 What hope I but Thy mercy and Thy love ? 
 I claim the rights of weakness, I the babe 
 Call on my Sire to shield me from the ills 
 That still beset ray path » * * * 
 Thou wilt not hold in scorn the child who dares 
 Look up to Thee, the Father, * , * * 
 
 0. W. Holmes. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 — "j-j--^ ^^^- — 
 
 THE QUESTION STATED. 
 
 1. The following' pa^-es are written under the 
 pressure of a deep conviction, that the views 
 <i'enerally lield, as to the future punishment of the 
 ung'odly, wholly fail to satisfy the plain statements 
 of Holy Scri])ture. The popular creed has main- 
 tained itself on a Scri]jtural basis solely, I believe, 
 by hardening into dogma mere figures of oriental 
 imagery ; by mistranslations and misconceptions 
 of the sense of the original (to which our Author- 
 ised Version largely contributes) :- and finally, 
 by comjilotely ignoring a vast body of evidence 
 in favour of the sah'ation of all men, furnished, as 
 ^\'ill be shewn, by xqyy numerous passages of the 
 New Testament, no less than by the great ])rin- 
 ciples that j)ervade the teaching of all Ivevehition. 
 Again, I write, because persuaded, that however 
 loudly asserted and widely held, the po])ular 
 belief is at best a Tradition — is not an Article 
 of Faith in tlie Catholic Church — is taught in 
 no Creed accejjted 1)V East and AVest ; nay, is 
 
THE QUEST 10 X STATED. 
 
 distinctly ojjposcd to the views of not a t'oAv of 
 the : holiest and.. wisest Fathers of the Church, in 
 ]:)rimitive times ; who, in so teaching-, expressed 
 the hehef of ^'erv many, if not the majority, of 
 Christians in tlioir days. 
 
 '1. Furtlior. I wi'ite. hceanse deeply and pain- 
 fully convinced of the very serious mischief which 
 lias been, and is being produced by the ^'ie\^^s 
 generally held. They in fact tend, as nothing 
 else ever has, to cause, I had ahnost said, to 
 justify, the scepticism now so widely s])rea<l : 
 they effect this, because they so utterly conflict 
 with any conception Ave can form of common 
 justice and equity. 
 
 3. Therefore, of mercy I shall say little in 
 these pages : it is enough to appeal, when s]ieak- 
 ino- of moral considerations, to that sense of Kiglit 
 and Wrong which is God's voice speaking within 
 us. Indeed, among the many misconceptions 
 with which all higher views of the Gospel are 
 assailed, few are more unfounded, than that which 
 asserts, that thus God's justice is forgotten in th6 
 ])rominence assigned to His mercy. This objec- 
 tion merely shews a complete misapprehension of 
 the views here advocated. For these vieAvs do in 
 fact ap}:)eal to, and by this appeal recognise, first 
 of all, the justice of God. It is precisely the 
 sense of natural eciuity A\'hich God has planted 
 within us, that the po])ular belief in endless 
 torment most deeply wounds. 
 
tiif: quest 10 X stated. 
 
 4. And tlit'se coiisidci'ntions are intact a coiii- 
 pleto answer to some other objections often heard. 
 " Why (hstur)) men's minds," it is said, "why un- 
 "• settle their faith, why not let well alone ? " By 
 all means, 1 reply, let well alone, hut never let ill 
 alone. ]\[en's minds are already disturbed: it is 
 because they are already (hsturbed, that we would 
 calm them, and would restore the doubters to 
 faith, by ])ointin_ii- them to a larg-er hope, to a 
 truer Christianity. A iiTaver objection arises, 
 but like the former wholly without foundation in 
 tiict. It is said, " I'y this larger ho])e you in 
 *• fact either weaken or wholly remove all belief in 
 " future ])unishnient. You explain away the guilt 
 '• of sin." The very opposite is surely the truth, 
 for you establish future punishment, and with it 
 that sense of the reality of sin (to which con- 
 science testifies) on a firm basis, only when you 
 teach a plan of retribution, which is itself reason- 
 able and credible. A penalty which to our 
 reason and moral sense seems shocking, and 
 monstrous, loses all force as a threat. It has 
 ever been thus in the case of human punishments. 
 And so in the case of Hell. Outwardly believed 
 it has ceased to touch the conscience or greatly 
 to influence the life of Christians. To the mass 
 of men it has Ijecome a name and little more (not 
 seldom a jest) ; to the sceptic it has furnished 
 the choicest of liis weapons ; to the man of 
 science a mark for loathing and scorn : while, 
 alas, to many a sad and droo])ing heart, who 
 louu's to follow Christ moi-e closclv, it is thi' 
 
THE QUESTION STATED. 
 
 chief woe und burden of life. Vmt the conscience, 
 when no long-er wounded by extravagant dogmas, 
 is most ready to acquiesce in any measure of 
 retribution (how sharp soever it be) which yet 
 does not shock the moral sense, and conflict with 
 its deepest convictions. And so the larger hope 
 most fully recognises at once the guilt of sin, and 
 the need of fitting retribution : nay, it may be 
 claimed for it, that it alone places both on a firm 
 and solid basis, by bringing them into harmony 
 with the verdict of reason, of conscience, and of 
 Holy Scripture. 
 
 5. It is better now, for clearness sake, to define 
 that popular view of future punishment, of 
 which I shall often 8])eak. It is briefly this : — 
 That God will after death ]xiss on the ungodly a 
 sentence of endless pain, of endless torments ; 
 that from this suffering there is no hope of escape ; 
 that of tliis torment there is no possible allevia- 
 tion. That when your imagination has called up 
 a series of ages, in api)arently endless succession, 
 all these a^es of i)ain and of agonv, undergone 
 by the lost, have diminislied their cu]) of sufi'enng 
 bv not so much as one single drop ; their pain is 
 then no nearer ending than before. Those who 
 hold this terrible doctrine to be a part of the 
 ''glad tidings of great joy" to men from their 
 Father in Heaven, difi'er indeed as to the number 
 of the final Iv lost : some make them to be a 
 mapritv of mankind, some a minority. Now it 
 ma\- be gi':i\('l\' (|iu'sti(ni('(l whctlicr there can be 
 
THE QUEST TO X STATED. 
 
 \\\\\ (loiibr :ir all fi-oiii tlu'ir /xi/'nt of I'ie.ir on this 
 lu'ad. l'"<ii' rlic texts on wliicli tlu'V rely .seeiii, 
 to most luiiiils. if they teach the popular creed at 
 all. to teach, just as cleai'ly. that the lost shall be. 
 tlie majority of men. " Many are called but few 
 •• are cliosen." •" Fear not fitile il<x-k." '' Xarrow 
 "is the wav that leadeth to life and fcio there be 
 '• that find it." " AVith most of them, (tod was 
 " not well ])leased." Indeed, it seems perfectly 
 clear that the popular view requires us to believe 
 in the linal loss of the \ast majority of our race. 
 For it is only the truly converted in this life (as 
 they assert) who reach Heaven : and it is beyond 
 all fair ([uestion, that of professinfj; Christians 
 only [I small })ortion are truly converted ; to say 
 nothing of the myriads and myriads of those who 
 have died in Pao-anism. Hut even waiving this 
 point, the objections to the popular creed are in 
 no way really lightened by our belief, as to the 
 relati\'e numbers of the lost and the saved. The 
 real difficulty consists in the infliction of any 
 such ])enalty, and not in the number who are 
 doomed to it. Xor need we forget how incon- 
 ceivably vast nuist be that number, on the most 
 lenient hypothesis. Take the lowest estimate ; 
 and when you remember the innumerable myriads 
 of our race who have passed awa\' — those now 
 living — and those yet unborn — it becomes 
 clear that the number of the lost nuist be some- 
 thin"- in its vastness defvino- all calculation ; 
 and of these, all, be it remembered, children of 
 the great Parent — all made in Ills image — all 
 
THE QUEST 10 X STATED. 
 
 redeemed b}^ the life blood of llis dear Sox ; and 
 all shut up for ever and e\'er (words, of whose 
 awful meanino-, no man has, or can ha\e, the xgyy 
 faintest conce])tion) in blackness of darkness, in 
 despair, and in the company of de^•ils. 
 
 (j. Let me next shew what this Hell of the 
 popular creed really means, so far as human words 
 can dindy convey its horrors, and for this j)urpose 
 I subjoin the following extracts- -one from a 
 Roman Catholic divine, one from Dr. Pusey, 
 and one from Mr. SruuGEoN. " Little child, if 
 " you go to Llell there will be a devil at your side 
 " to strike \o\i. He will go on striking you every 
 ''minute for ever and ever ^\\t\\o\\t stopping. The 
 " hrst stroke will make your body as bad as the 
 "body of Job, covered, from head to foot, with 
 " sores and ulcers. The second stroke will make 
 " your body twice as bad as the body of Job. The 
 " third stroke will make your body three times as 
 " bad as the body of Job. The fourth stroke 
 "will make your body four times as bad as the 
 "body of Job. How, then, will 3 our body be, 
 " after the de\il has been striking it every moment, 
 " for a hundred million of years without sto})p- 
 •"ing." Perhaps at this moment, seven o'clock 
 " in the evening, a cliild is just going into Hell. 
 " To-morrow evening, at seven o'clock, go and 
 "knock at the gates of Hell and ask what the 
 " child is doing. The devils will go and look. 
 " They will come back again and say, the child is 
 " burning. Go in a week and ask wliat the child 
 
THE QUESTION STATED. 
 
 "• is doing ; you will get the same answer, it is 
 " hwning. Go in a year and ask, the same 
 "answer comes — it is hurning. Go in a milhon 
 "of years and ask the same question ; the answer 
 " is just the same — it is burning. So if you go for 
 " ever and ever, you will always get the same 
 "answer it is bvrimig in the five.^'' — Tlie Sight of 
 Hell., by Rev. J. Furniss, C.S.S.H., Permissu 
 Superioruiii., published by Duffy, Sons, & Co. 
 " Gather in one, in your mind, an assembly of all 
 " those men or women from whom, whether in 
 " history or in fiction, your memory most shrinks, 
 " gather in mind all that is most loathsome, most 
 " revolting * * * conceive the fierce fiery eyes 
 " of hate, s])ite, frenzied rage, ever fixed on thee, 
 '• lookiniT thee tlirou";!! and thronu'li with hate 
 '"'*** hear those yells of blaspheming, concen- 
 " trated hate, as they echo along the lurid vault 
 ''of Hell; every one hating every one * * * Yet 
 " a fixedness in that state in which the hardened 
 " malignant sinner dies involves, without any 
 " further retribution of God, this endless misery." 
 — Sermon by l\ev. E. B. Pusey, D.D., Eegius 
 Professor of Hebrew, and Canon of Christ 
 Church, Oxford ((juoted from Errors and IWrors 
 of Blind Guides). " When thou diest thy soul will 
 " be tormented alone ; that will be a Hell for it : 
 " but at the Day of Judgement thy body will join 
 "thy soul, and then thou wilt have twin Hells, 
 " th}' soul sw( ating drops of blood, and thy body 
 '' sufiuscd with agonv. In fire, exactly like that 
 '' we have on earth, thv body will lie, asbestos like, 
 
10 THE QUESTION STATED. 
 
 " for ever unconsumed, all thy veins roads for the 
 " feet of pain to travel on, every nerve a strini»', 
 " on which the Devil shall for ever play his 
 " diabolical tune of Hell's unutteral)le lament." — 
 Sermon on the Resurrection of the Dead, by Rev. 
 C. H. Spurgeon (Cited by Archdeacon Farrar 
 in Mercy and Judgement.) Awful as are these quota- 
 tions, I must repeat, that they give no adequate 
 idea at all of the horrors of Hell ; for that which 
 is the very sting of its terrors — their unending- 
 ness — is beyond our power really to conceive, 
 even approximately : so totally incommensurable 
 .are the ideas of time and of eternity. 
 
 7. But it will be said, we no longer believe 
 in a material Hell — no longer teach a lake of 
 real lire. I might well ask, on your theory of 
 interpreting Scripture, what right have you so to 
 teach ? But let me rather welcome this chano-e of 
 
 o 
 
 creed, so far as it is a siii'n of an awakenino- moral 
 sense. Yet, your plea, in mitigation of the horror 
 your doctrines insjDire, cannot be admitted ; for 
 when you offer for acceptance a spiritual, rather 
 than a material flame, who is there that cannot 
 see that the real difficulty is the same, whether 
 you suppose man's body burned or his spirit 
 tortured ? It may be even maintained, fairly, 
 that a Hell which torments the higher part, is 
 rather an aggravated than a mitigated penalty. 
 
 8. Merely to state this doctrine, in any form, 
 is to refute it for very many minds. So deeply 
 
THE QUESTION STATED. 11 
 
 does it wound, wliat is best and holiest in ns ; 
 indeed, as I shall try to shew further on, it is, for 
 all ]n-actical purposes, found inci'edible, even by 
 those Avho lionestly profess to believe it. This 
 terrible dithculty, felt and acknowledged in all 
 a,_o;es, has been largely met for the Koman 
 Catholic, b\' the doctrine of Purgatory, which 
 becaine developed as the belief in endless torment, 
 gradually supplanted that earlier and better laith, 
 which alone finds expression in the two really 
 Catholic and Ancient Creeds, faith in Everlasting 
 Life. How immense must have been the relief 
 thns afi'orded, is evident, when we remember that 
 the least sorrow, howe\'er imperfect, the very 
 sUghtest desire for reconciliation with GrOD, though 
 deferred to the last moment of existence, was 
 believed to free the dying sinner from the pains 
 of Hell, no matter how aggra^'ated his sins may 
 have been. Among the lieformed Communions 
 this difficulty was met, no doubt, by a silent 
 incredulity — often unconscious — yet ever in- 
 creasing, on the part of the great majority ; 
 indeed, some divines have at all times, both in 
 England and on the Continent, openly avowed 
 their disbelief in endless torments. This growing 
 incredulity has found, in our day, open expres- 
 sion, in a remarkable theory, that of Conditional 
 Innnortality (itself a revival of an earlier belief). 
 This doctrine, briefly stated, teaches, that man is 
 naturally mortal, that only in Jksus CiiuiyT is 
 immortality conferred on the righteous — that 
 the un<'-()llv shall 1):; iudu'ed, and after due 
 
12 THE QUESTIOX 8TATEB. 
 
 punishment, annihilated. 
 
 9. Of this dogma I shall at once say, that, 
 while it degrades man, it fails to vindicate God. 
 A writer, whose words I am glad to adopt, speaks 
 of it as " that most wretched and co^^'ardly of all 
 " theories, which supposes the soul to be natur- 
 " ally mortal, and that God will resuscitate the 
 " wicked to torment them for a time and then 
 " finally extinguish them. I can see no ground 
 " for this view in Scripture but in mistaken inter- 
 " pretations, and it does not meet the real difficulty 
 "at all, for it supposes that evil has in such cases 
 " ■finally triumphed, and that God had no resource 
 " but to punish and extinguish it : which is essen- 
 " tially the very difficulty felt by the sceptical 
 " mind. I have called it cowardly, for it surren- 
 " ders the true nobility of man, his natural 
 " immortality, in a panic — at an objection, and 
 "like all cowardice, fails in securing safety." — 
 Donellan Lectures^ p. 31, by Kev. Dr. Quarry. 
 Besides, this theory has evidently the characters 
 of a makesliift, an after thought, The conscience 
 has been shocked by the po})ular creed, and has 
 taken refuse in the "first shelter that ofi^'ered. 
 Men have seen death and destruction repeatedly 
 denounced in the Bible as the sinner's doom, and 
 they conclude, contrary to the Avhole s])irit of 
 Holy Scripture, that death, in its ])ages, implies 
 annihilation. But this view is, in the case of the 
 Old Testament, quite vuifounded ; for earthly 
 destruction is all that the ex])ressions, there relied 
 
THE QUESTION STATED. 13 
 
 on, really teach ; and in the case of the New 
 Testament is coin])letely inadeqnate : because, 
 there, death and destruction have a far wider 
 signiiicance, and one far deeper. Nay, as I hope 
 to ])oint out, there is in Xew Testament usage 
 a deep spiritual connection between death and 
 life ; death becomes the path to, and the condition 
 of life. 
 
 10. Another view adopted by a number, pro- 
 bably extremely large, and increasing, differs alto- 
 gether from that last stated. Those who hold it 
 have had their eyes opened to the fact, that the 
 Xew Testament. contains \'ery many long neglected 
 texts which teach the salvation of all men. They 
 have also learned enough to have their faith 
 gravely shaken in the popular interpretation of 
 the texts usually cpioted in proof of endless pain. 
 The theory of conditional innnortality fails to 
 satisfy such men. They see that it is altogether 
 unsuccessful in meeting the real diiiiculty of the 
 ])!)pular creed, i.e.., the trium])li of evil over good, 
 (jf Satan o\'er the Saviour of man, and therefore 
 o\Qv God. They perceive, too, the narrow and 
 arbitrary basis on which it rests in appealing to 
 Holy Scripture. And so they decline to enter- 
 tain it as any solution of the question, and say, 
 " We are not able -to accept any theory definitely 
 " of the future of man, because we do not see that 
 " anything has l)ecn clearly revealed. Enough has 
 " been disclosed to shew to us that God is love, 
 ''and we are content tolx'lieve, that ]iapp(Mi what 
 
14 THE QUESTION STATED. 
 
 " will, all will ultimately be shewn to be the 
 " result of love divine." 
 
 11. It is impossible to avoid sympathy with 
 much of this view ; but does it meet the needs of 
 the case — is it adequate to the wants of the human 
 heart — does it satisfy the conscience — does it 
 give fair and full weight to the glorious promises 
 of the Gospel, long hidden but now coming to 
 light ? I am persuaded that it does not ; I am 
 also persuaded that its very vagueness is fatal to 
 any general acceptance of this teaching ; we have 
 a right to enquire, and to know, not indeed the 
 details of our future life, but this broad fact, is 
 there hope for our race — shall we indeed reach a 
 haven of rest ? Involuntary passengers, in this 
 solemn voyage between life and death, we cannot 
 rest without knowing some thing more definite 
 of our destmation : and we belie \'e that we have 
 in the Bible some definite hope, some clear and 
 distinct information. Life and immortality, 
 we are assured, have been brought to light b\' 
 Jesus Christ. He has assured us that His 
 will is to save all men, and we cannot imagine 
 His will not being effectual. He promises, not 
 b}^ one or two but by all His holy Prophets, a 
 time of restitution of all things, not some things. 
 He tells us how the leaven of the kingdom shall 
 leaven the whole lunq) ; how the Good Shei)herd 
 shall seek on and on till he iind the stray sheep. 
 He assures us that, if in Adam all die, in Christ 
 shall all ])e made alive. He points to the certain 
 
THE QUESTION STATED. 15 
 
 victory, when every enemy overcome, and the 
 o'lorious end reached, Gud shall be All in All. 
 With these, and many other so expHcit promises 
 on every hand ; men will not, cannot, ought not, 
 to be content to believe that nothing definite is 
 to be gathered, as to the destiny of our race, from 
 Ploly Scripture. 
 
 12. In opposition to both these theories stand 
 the views here advocated, which have been always 
 held by some in the Catholic Church, nay, 
 which represent, I believe, most nearly its primi- 
 tive teaching. These views are, I know, now 
 widely held by the learned, the devout, and the 
 thoughtful in our own and in other Communions. 
 Briefly stated, they amount to this :— That we 
 have ample warrant, alike from reason — from the 
 observed facts and analogies of human life — from 
 our best and truest moral instincts — and from 
 Holy Scripture itself, to entertain a firm hope 
 that God our Father's design and purpose is, and 
 has ever been, to save every child of Adam's 
 race. 
 
"THE 
 " POPULAR CREED WHOLLY UNTENABLE.' 
 
" These questions * * * educated men and women of all 
 " classes and denominations, orthodox, be it remembered, as well as 
 ' ' unorthodox, are asking and will ask more and more till they receive 
 " an answer. And if we of the clergy cannot give them an answer, 
 ' ' which accords with their conscience and reason * * * then 
 " evil times will come, both for the clergy and the Christian religion, 
 " for many a year henceforth." — Canon Kingsley — Water of Life, 
 p. 71. 
 
 " The answer which the j)opular theology has been tendering for 
 '* centuries past will not be accepted much longer * * * I 
 "disclaim any desire to uphold that theology which I have never 
 "aided in propagating." — Rev. Dr. Littledale — ContevqMrari/ 
 Review, 1878. 
 
 ' ' Man is based on Hope, he has properly no other possession \mi 
 "Hope ; this habitation of his is named the place of Hope." — 
 Carlyle — French Revolution, p. 35. 
 
 ' ' One's heart rejoices at the awakening that is coming upon the 
 ' ' rising generation. " — Letters from a Mystic, p. '25. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 — -5-^-^ ■^<-< — 
 THE POPULAR CREED WHOLLY UNTENABLE/ 
 
 The next ste]) will be to state, more in detail, 
 the various considerations that render it hnpos- 
 sible to acce]:»t the popular view of future punish- 
 ment. My iirst ap]3eal shall be to that primary 
 revelation of Himself, which God has implanted 
 in the heart and conscience of man. I am merely 
 expressing' the deepest and most mature, though 
 often unspoken, conviction of millions of earnest 
 Christian men and women, when I assert, that to 
 reconcile the popular creed, or nny similar belief 
 in Hell, with the most elementary ideas of justice, 
 ecpiity, and goodness (not even to mention mercy), 
 is wholly and absolutely impossible. Thus this 
 belief destroys the ojily ground on which it is 
 possible to erect any religion at all, for it sets 
 aside the primary convictions of the moral sense ; 
 and thus paralyses that, by which alone we are 
 capable of religion.* If God be not g;ood, just, 
 
 * Those who object to this position are invited to state clearly on 
 what other basis they propose to erect the fabric of religion in the 
 heart and conscience of man. I am capable of relii,non, solely, 
 because within me (ioD has placed a moral sense : therefore, to 
 •Icstro}' this is, with it, to destroy all religion. 
 
20 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 and true, in the human acceptation of these terms, 
 then the whole basis of revelation vanishes. For 
 let me once more repeat that, if God be not good 
 in our human sense of the word, I have no 
 guarantee that He is true in our sense of truth. 
 If what is called goodness in God in the Bible, 
 should prove to be that which we call badness in 
 man, then how can I be assured that, what is 
 called truth in God, may not really be that which 
 m man is called falsehood ? Thus no valid 
 communication— no revelation — from God to 
 man is possible ; for no reliance can, on this view, 
 be placed on His veracity. 
 
 The popular view to you is familiar, and 
 perhaps you do not realise its true bearing, or the 
 light in which it really presents the character of 
 God. But consider how this dogma of endless 
 torture must strike an enquirer after God, one 
 outside the pale of Christianity, but sincerely 
 desirous of learning the truth. There are such 
 men — there are many such. You tell this en- 
 quirer that God is not Almighty only, but all 
 Good ; that God is indeed Love ; that God is his 
 Father. But these terms are words ivithout any 
 meaning at all, if they have not their common 
 ordinary sense when applied to God. Such a 
 man will say, you tell me God is good, but what 
 acts are these you assign to Him ? He is a 
 Father ; but He brings into being myriads of 
 hapless creatures, knowing that there is in store 
 for them a doom unutterably awful. He calls 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 21 
 
 into existence these creatures, whether they will 
 or no ; though the bottomless pit is yawning to 
 receive them, and the flames ready to devour them. 
 The question is not, whether they might have 
 escaped ; the real question is, do they in fact 
 escape^ and does He know that they will not escape. 
 And you assure me that this Great Being is 
 Almighty ! is Love essential ! is the Parent of 
 every one of these creatures, who are doomed and 
 damned ! What fair answer do you propose to 
 give to these questions if addressed to you ? 
 
 But probably the way in which most people 
 satisfy their own minds, when doubts arise, as to 
 the endless nature of future torment is this. 
 *' Endless pain and torment is but the result of 
 " sin freely chosen, and finally persisted in by 
 "the sinner," it is said. Now, let us look more 
 closely at this statement, and see what it really 
 means. Doubtless all will admit that God is 
 Almighty ; that God is all true ; that God is all 
 good ; that He is, in short, infinite in power, in 
 truth, and in goodness. But when you tell me, 
 that it is possible for the human will to resist the 
 divine, you are, in fact, denying each of these 
 divine attributes. You deny that God is Almighty, 
 for you make man's will stronger than His. You 
 deny God's veracity, for He has over and over 
 asserted, that to Him every knee shall bow, and 
 every tongue confess. You deny God's infinite 
 goodness, for the obstinate and final choice of 
 evil, by any of His creatures, is a triumph of evil 
 
22 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 over good. 
 
 And further still, though I do not profess here 
 to discuss the various questions involved in 
 man's free will, yet there is something that 
 ought to he said, as to the extent of free choice, 
 which man really has — something not to be lost 
 sight of in deciding this question of free choice. 
 In the first place, man can exercise no choice at 
 all, as to the strength of that will he receives ; 
 no choice at all, as to the circumstances that 
 surround him, in infancy and childhood, and 
 which colour his whole life ; no choice at all as 
 to the original weakness of his nature, and its 
 inherent tendency to evil. More, still, he can 
 exercise no choice at all, on this vital question, 
 whether he will or will not have laid on him the 
 awful perils, in which, on the po])ular \4ew, the 
 mere fact of life involves him. You tell me of 
 the terrible risks of human life, of its infinite 
 responsibilities ; you are fond of enlarging on 
 the taint of original sin, on our inability to help 
 ourselves. True, but what does all this prove ? 
 surely this, that a good Being would not have 
 bestowed such a gift, except with a purpose, 
 clear and definite, that all should issue in good. 
 " Nothing," says Bishop Np:wton, " is more con- 
 " trariant to the divine nature and attributes, 
 " than for God to bestow existence on any 
 " being, whose destiny He fore-knows nuist 
 " terminate in Avretchedness without recovery." 
 — Dissert, on the Final State of Man. " Witli 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 2S 
 
 "great reverence I venture to express the 
 " conAdction, that if the great Being fore-knew 
 " that eternal misery — conscious suffering — 
 " would be the doom, of even a single creature, 
 " it is incredible that He would have given exis- 
 " tence to that creature." — Creator and Creation^ 
 Dr. J. Young. Yes it is incredible ! and this 
 is, alas, but one of many incredible things the 
 popular creed is trying to make men accept. 
 
 Yes, the question is essentially this, and no 
 argument can evade this enquiry : — Is God 
 good, and is He a just God, as men use these 
 terms, or is he not ? Indeed if the God we 
 worship be not good, as we call goodness, it were 
 better for us not to worship him at all : better 
 for us to worship nothing at all, than to worship 
 an e\T^l Deity. But the popular view represents 
 God as doinii* that which the most deg-raded 
 human being would not do. " This view," says 
 the Bev. Dr. Littledale, "puts God on a 
 " moral level with the devisers of the most 
 "savagely malignant revenge known to history." 
 Contemporary Revieio^ 1878. 
 
 Again, a difficulty equally grave, is the follow- 
 ing : — That the popular view, while admitting 
 God's power and goodness to be inhnite, yet 
 teaches that evil shall ultimately prevail — a 
 position obviously untenable, and indeed absurd. 
 " Order and right cannot hut prevail hnally, in a 
 "universe under His Government." — Butler's 
 
24 THE POPULAE CREED 
 
 A nalogy (Introduction) . For argue as you please, 
 reiine, explain away, it continues still an insiqjer- 
 ahle difficulty, on the popular view, or any mere 
 modilication of it, that the Devil is victor and 
 triumphs over God and goodness. It is nothing 
 at all to the purpose to allege, either that those 
 who perish finally have chosen evil of their own 
 will, or that all evil bemgs are shut up in chains 
 and torment : it is the very permanence of evil 
 in any shape : its continued presence —7io matter 
 from ivhat cause — that constitutes the triumph of 
 the Evil One. 
 
 Again, so revolting to our moral nature is the 
 popular creed, that it, more than any other 
 cause, as has been said, produces the most wide- 
 spread unbelief. " Compared with this," remarks 
 J. S. Mill, " all other objections to Christianity 
 " sink into insignificance." Let me speak 
 plainly. Too long — far too long — have the 
 clergy been silent ; content to complain of a 
 scepticism, of which a doctrine they continue to 
 teach (without, I believe in many cases, more 
 than a languid and traditional acceptance of it) 
 is a main cause. For my j^art it seems far nearer 
 the truth to complain of, to be amazed at the 
 extent of human credulity. What folly is there 
 that men have not been in all ages only too 
 willing to believe — what false prophet has ever 
 wanted followers — what craze has ever lacked 
 disciples ? Nay, in this England of ours, of 
 whose scepticism you complain, here too what 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 25 
 
 limit can you assign to human credulity? Take 
 the great Anglo -Israel craze, the Spirit-rapping 
 mania, the Tichborne Claimant craze, take a 
 thousand others : the public is ready for one 
 and all ; and yet you speak of unbelief as ram- 
 pant ! If it be rampant, be very sure that you 
 must have greviously overstrained the faculty of 
 belief, by doctrines impossible for man to believe. 
 Nay, worse still, by teaching these evil traditions 
 (for they are no more) as part of the revelation 
 of that God whose blessed Sox tasted death for 
 every man. Yes, the pecuhar horror of the 
 popular creed is, that it sets up evil as an object 
 of worship — of reverence — of love. 
 
 Now if the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 be any one thing, more than another, it is good 
 news ; and not this merely, but good news to all 
 men ; not to the elect, or to the good, but to 
 every son of our common parent Adam. It 
 means that we all have reason to bless God for 
 our creation — as the Church teaches us to pray 
 — not surely that we may have reason, but that 
 we ha^'e reason, a very different thing. What 
 but this is the meaning of that touching verse, 
 in which our Lord, hy a hint., as His manner is 
 so often in convening the deepest truth, imparts 
 — to those who have ears to hear — so much, 
 when He says : — " A woman when she is in 
 " travail hath sorrow, because her hour has 
 "come ; but as soon as she is delivered of the 
 " cliild she ibrgettctli her anguish for joii tliat a 
 
26 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 " man is horn into the world ? " I ask then, have 
 you, who complain of scepticism, made certain 
 that your own teaching is not, in great part, the 
 very cause of this evil ? Are you certain that 
 you are preaching not merely a possible salva- 
 tion, followed by a probable Hell, but an actual 
 deliverance wrought out for each man by the 
 Saviour ? Do you yourself believe, in the plain 
 natural sense of the words, that, "He hath been 
 " manifested to put aAvay sm by the sacrifice of 
 " Himself ; the original imports an actual des- 
 " truction of sin?" — Heh. ix, 26. Have you 
 ever taught this as good news, that He came, 
 "that through death He might destroy him that 
 "had the power of death, i.e., tlie Devil ?" — Heh. 
 ii, 14. 
 
 Yes, the question of all questions is. Is God 
 indeed love, is the Gospel really good news, not 
 possible but actual, real glad tidings ? All 
 around us, thouo'htful men are more than ever 
 reflecting on these points ; -udiat answer do you 
 propose to give ? They are thus enquiring — 
 pondering — of themselves, of their lot, of their 
 hopes and fears in the future : — I find myself in 
 this world (so run their thoughts) ; on me are 
 laid, ichether I luill or no, the awful responsibilities 
 of time, and of eternity. At my entrance on life 
 I received not a nature upright, but one already 
 fallen, and that for no fault of mine ; stained, 
 and that with no sin of mine. And to this nature 
 so weak, so fallen, so helpless, come, in every 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 21 
 
 variety, temptations, wiles, and allurements 
 such that no man has wholly withstood, or can 
 withstand, their subtle ]3ower. Now if this be a 
 part of my probation, if it be a path to better 
 thmgs, I can in submission — nay, in gladness 
 even— bend to my Creator's will : I can take 
 courag-e, and, though iaint, still pursue the 
 narrow path that leads to life. But how can I 
 believe that, a loving Creator — all powerful as 
 He is all good — does so arrange, does so permit, 
 that, for any one soul, this sad and fallen estate 
 of human nature shall prove but the portal to 
 endless woe. So men reason. I do not wonder, 
 I rejoice, that they have ceased to believe, that a 
 divine parent can do that, which an earthly parent 
 could not do without eternal infamy. For next 
 imagine anv degree of folly and sin, that can 
 stain human nature, to be accumulated on the 
 head of some one sinful child of man, and I ask, 
 can you believe that any human father, any 
 mother, that once loved that child, could brmg 
 herself calmly to sentence her offspring to an 
 endless Hell ; nay, herself to keep that child there 
 in ano'nish that never shall terminate. 
 
 o 
 
 But further, there is this most grave difficulty : 
 all sin, be it never so black (and God forbid 
 that I should even seem to weaken its blackness), 
 is but Unite. Yet, for these finite sins, you tell 
 me an infinite punishment is the due penalty. 
 But finite and infinite are wholly incommensur- 
 able terms. Have 3'(ni ever set yourself seriously 
 
28 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 to realise wliat punishment, protracted for ever 
 and ever indeed means? In fact, the idea of 
 illimitable time mocks our utmost efforts to 
 grasp it. " The imagmation can come to a stand 
 " nowhere or ever. On the mind goes, heaping 
 " up its millions and billions and quadrillions of 
 " millions. It is to no purpose, time without a 
 " beginnmg — without an end — still confronts it. 
 " As thus thought of, the mind recoils from the 
 " contemplation, horrified, paralysed with terror. 
 " 0, wdiat say ye to this, ye orthodox defenders 
 " of the dogma of everlasting punishment — your- 
 ^'' selves safe in the everlasting arms." — Good the 
 Final Goal of III^ p. 113. Yes, it is the innate 
 sense of justice and equity that is utterly outraged 
 by the popular doctrine. Would it not be better 
 to set these tilings straight before you complain 
 of the wide-S2:)read prevalence of scepticism ? 
 
 Further, it is said — for what have not men 
 said, at what straw have they not grasped, in 
 vain attempts to support a doctrine that each day 
 crundjles under their touch ? It has actually been 
 argued that a sin is intinite, because committed 
 against an inhnite being : so that, I suppose, to 
 rob a nobleman would be a greater crime, 
 morally, than to deprive a beggar of his last 
 penny ! 
 
 Again it is said, that perhaps the flames of 
 Hell may be needed to terrorize some far distant 
 sinful orb ; that rebels against God, in some 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. SO 
 
 other planet, may read, by the light of Hell-iire, 
 the dano-ers of sin. Yes, it has been gravely 
 alleged that a Being, whose name is Love, will 
 hght, and keep alight through unending ages, a 
 ghastlv living torch for such a purpose as this — 
 a torch — each atom of which is composed of a lost 
 soul, once His child, once made in His image, 
 once redeemed by the Cross of His dear Son ! 
 You know this has been taught, and yet you 
 actually complain that men are sceptical, and 
 that thoiiglitful artisans reject such a creed with 
 scorn. 
 
 And let us not forget how much this belief has 
 fostered in man a spirit of cruelty. It is sad, 
 but true, to recollect how much of the suffering- 
 inflicted by man, on his brother man, has been 
 due, directly or indirectly, to the belief in Hell. 
 Plow many ghastly tires has it not helped to 
 light up here on earth, each containing a living, 
 agonizing human being, often thus punished for 
 a trifling error in creed ? For if men beheved 
 that God would light up the gloomy flres of Hell, 
 and kee]) them blazing to all eternity, it was an 
 easy and a natural step, to set up in His name 
 a little copy of His justice, and thus, as it were, 
 to anticipate God's sentence. " As the souls of 
 " heretics are hereafter to be eternally burning in 
 " Hell," such was the reasoning of Queen Mary 
 in defence of her awful persecution, " there can 
 " be nothing more proper than for me to imitate 
 " the divine vengeance, l)v burning them here on 
 
30 THE POPULAR CT.EEP 
 
 " earth." I say, that however familiar this may 
 be, it is necessary to ponder well the sad facts, 
 for b}'- awakmg a righteous horror and indigna- 
 tion we may often most effectually combat such 
 dogmas. And more must be said, not alone 
 have the popular doctrines done all this, but they 
 have greatly influenced for evil the general course 
 of human legislation, and human thought. You 
 may assuredly And traces of the baneful influence 
 of a belief in Hell-fire, in a spirit of cruelty 
 infused into many laws once current, now, and 
 justly, abhorred by all. N^ay, it has indeed 
 poisoned the very fount of pity and love by 
 representing Him, whose we are, and before 
 whom we bow, as calmly looking on during the 
 endless cycles of eternity at the agony of myriads 
 upon myriads of His creatures. 
 
 But further, it must be added, that by this 
 shocking creed the moral tone is lowered all 
 round, wherever it is accepted. Men are by it 
 famiUarized with the idea of suffering and sin as 
 permanent facts. They have even in some sort 
 learned to consider Heaven as de])endant upon the 
 belief in an eternal Hell. Nay, I will say, that 
 even the holiest men believing the popular 
 creed are unconsci(3usly depraved, morally and 
 spiritually. You will find for instance, one so 
 holy and so revered as Keble, pleading (see 
 Hymn for second Sunday in Lent) for endless 
 torment, on the plea that if this were not true, 
 then endless ])liss in Heaven would also not be 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. SI 
 
 true. To put it plainly, he would, as I under- 
 stand his words, purchase Heaven's unending 
 bliss at the terrible cost of the endless, hope- 
 less torture of the lost ! Here I will only say, 
 that I know not whether his logic, or his moral 
 tone be more unsound. Do but for the moment 
 compare the spirit of Keble with, I will not say 
 the spirit of Christ, but with that of St. Paul, who 
 wished himself accursed from Christ if thereby 
 he could save his brethren ! As to Keble's 
 argument, that will be fully answered in con- 
 sidering, in a later chapter, *S^. Matthew xxv, 46. 
 Meantime, as a further illustration, I copy the 
 following from a Periodical lying before me : — "I 
 " was talking the other day with a very learned 
 " Catholic ecclesiastic, who told me that he had 
 " been called on to give the last Sacraments to a 
 " poor Irishman. He found his penitent with 
 "some free -thinking friend, who was arguing 
 " that there was no Hell. The dying Celt raised 
 " himself up with much indignation ; ' no Hell,' 
 " he exclaimed, ' then where is the poor man's 
 " consolation'^'' " 
 
 And this difficulty goes further still : for we 
 cannot suppose that the saints in Heaven are 
 without the memory of the past. Even Dives, 
 in the flames of Hades, remembers with pity his 
 brethren. But unless you make the impossible 
 supposition, that the blessed lose all memory in 
 Heaven, then they must either suffer keenly at 
 the thou'dits of the torments of their dear ones 
 
83 TEE POPULAR CREED 
 
 lost in Hell, and tormented for ever and ever ; or 
 they mnst be on a loiver level, morally and 
 spiritually, than was even Dives, choose which 
 alternative you please. 
 
 You may not perhaps know the sad lengths to 
 which theologians have gone (the moral tone, as 
 I have said before, having been depraved by their 
 awful creed), and I therefore subjom a few 
 extracts — for whicli I am indebted to Canon 
 Farrar. They are from sources so widely apart 
 as a medieval schoolman, and a modern Puritan. 
 " That the saints may enjoy their beatitude more 
 " thoroughly, and give more abundant thanks for 
 " it to God, a 2)erfect sight of the punisliment of 
 " the damned is granted them." — St. Thonms — 
 Summa iii, Sitppl. Qu. xciii, 1. Take another 
 instance, from Peter Lombard, " Therefore the 
 " elect shall go forth to see the torments of the 
 " impious, seeing which they will not be grieved, 
 " ]3ut will be satiated tcith joy at the sight of the 
 ^''unutterable calamity of the impious." — -Senten. 
 iv, 50. Again hear another from a modern 
 divine, " The vitw of the misery of the damned 
 " will double the ardour of the love and gratitude 
 " of the saints in Heaven." This is the opinion 
 of the once famous JoNxYtuan Edwards. Another 
 American divine uses even stronger language. 
 " Tliis display of the divine cliaracter," said S. 
 Hopkins, "will be most entertaining to all who 
 "love God — will give them the highest and most 
 '''' inef(d)le jdensure. Should the fire of this eternal 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 38 
 
 '''■ jninishnient cease .^ it ivould in a great measure 
 " obscure the light of Heaven, and put an end to 
 " a great part of the happiness and glory of the 
 '"'' blessed. ''"' — Works^ vol. iv, xS^rm. xiii. To this 
 the beUef in Hell-tire has reduced the niinisters 
 of Christ, to pemiing j^assages like the above 
 (easily to be multiplied) — passages, than which 
 all literature does not contain anything more 
 revolting. I must ask you, as a rehef from these 
 truly fearful words, to read the following touch- 
 ing picture (not this time from an ecclesiastical 
 source) : — 
 
 What if a soul redeemed, a spirit that loved 
 While yet on earth, and was beloved in turn, 
 And still remembered every look and tone 
 Of that dear earthly sister, who Avas left 
 Among the unwise virgins at the gate : 
 Itself admitted with the bridegroom's train, — 
 What if this spirit redeemed, amid the host 
 Of chanting angels, in some transient lull 
 Of the eternal anthem, heard the cry 
 Of its lost darling, whom in evil hour 
 Some wilder pulse of nature led astray. 
 And left an outcast in a world of fire, 
 Condemned to be the sport of cruel fiends, 
 Sleepless, unpitying, masters of the skill 
 To wring the maddest ecstasies of pain 
 From worn-out souls that only ask to die, — 
 Would if not Jong to leave the h/iss of Heaven, 
 Bmring a little water in its hand 
 To moisten those poor lips tlvit plead in vain 
 With Him we call our Father ? 
 
 0. W. Holmes. —77/,^ Poet at flie Bredfis! Tahh: 
 
 Xor have I yet done with this point. I say 
 next that the popular creed does in fact teach 
 
84 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 men to think lightly of sin. This seems a 
 paradox, and no doubt you wonder : but consider 
 for a moment what the fact is. Tell me, that 
 God will permit an eternal Hell, with its miser- 
 able population of the lost, to g-o on sinning to 
 all eternity ; and what idea is it you really convey 
 to me ? It is, I reply, toleration of sin. Have you 
 ever thought of this ? I avail myself of the words 
 of a thoughtful writer, and say, " that nothing so 
 " effectually teaches men to bear with sin as the 
 " popular creed, because we profess to believe that 
 " God will bear with it for ever." — Letters from a 
 Mystic. On the other hand it is, I believe, often 
 precisely those who most deeply feel the taint 
 and evil of sin who reject most completely the 
 popular creed ; for in proportion to their horror 
 at sin, is the depth of their conviction, that sin 
 cannot go on for ever.. There is also a very serious 
 question — to which I venture to allude in passing 
 — if sin is to endure for ever in Hell, must it 
 not increase and go on increasing through all 
 eternity. Think to what point of horror the 
 accumulated sin of the myriads of the lost will 
 have reached, when even a few of the cycles of 
 eternity are over : and this vast and inconceiv- 
 able horror and taint is to go on, and on, and on, 
 for ever, and ever, and ever increasing, under the 
 rule of Him who is of purer eyes than to behold 
 iniquity ! 
 
 There is again, a difKculty— an impossibility 
 rather — in reconcihng the })opular creed with 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 35 
 
 the view, which either Holy Scripture or reason 
 give of punishment- — ^its object and nature. 
 Apart from all question of its justice — apart, too, 
 from the horror it excites — endless, hopeless tor- 
 ment, is a useless, and therefore a wanton, inflic- 
 tion : it is a mere barbarity, because it is only 
 vindictive, and in no sense remedial. Punish- 
 ment is, on any true theory, no less remedial 
 than vindictive, nay, is essentially remedial and 
 corrective. Our day has seen a complete revolu- 
 tion in the ideas men form of punishment and its 
 end : in few things has the advance been more 
 marked over the past, than in our recognition of 
 the true object of penalty. Not that mere pain 
 is looked on as necessarily remedial, but with the 
 penalty, we now seek to combine corrective 
 influences ; the whole spirit of punishment has 
 been altered with the chanf>:e in men's minds, 
 and a higher tone now every where prevails. 
 But let me ask, to whom is due this marked 
 change for the better, in our ideas of punishment ? 
 Surely to that Great Being who guides and orders 
 by His providence all human things ! This 
 being so, it is wholly incredible to assign to the 
 divine punishments, this very character of mere 
 vmdictiveness, which men have in all enlightened 
 systems abandoned. This is, I repeat, impossible 
 to believe, for when G-qd chastises it is for our 
 profit, as the Bible says. He punishes, as an old 
 Father puts it, medicinaUi/. Yes, it is impossible 
 to believe the ordinary dogma, for if God does 
 indeed by His ])rovidence — by His Spirit — direct 
 
S6 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 and enlio;hten men's minds, leadinof them to 
 higher and truer thoughts on this subject (as on 
 all others), then to suppose that His own 
 punishments are regulated on the very system, 
 which He has taught us to abandon, is truly 
 impossible. 
 
 Nor can I close this subject without remarking 
 that there is a highly significant expression found 
 in that very passage, most often on the lips of 
 the defenders of endless pain, which yet, curiously 
 enoua'h, furnishes the material for an answer to 
 their creed : I speak of St. Mattheit;x:s.v, 46. The 
 term there applied to the punishment of the 
 ungodly is not the ordinary Greek word to 
 denote penalty, but it is a term {Kolasis) denoting, 
 literally, jwuning, i.e., a corrective chastisement — ■ 
 an age-long (but reformatory) punishment. 
 Surely the choice of this particular word, to 
 designate the future suftering of the ungodly, is 
 full of signihcance : unless, indeed, any one 
 should prefer to think that chance dictated its 
 selection in this inspired sentence. But should 
 you hear it brought as an argument against the 
 larger hope, that its advocates deny the retri- 
 l)utive character of punishment : assuredly this 
 is not so. They merely assert, that while 
 punishment is truly retributive, its paramount 
 end is not this, but the higher aim of amending 
 bv chastisement. (See on this whole subject the 
 remarks on God's judgements in a subsequent 
 chapter.) 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 37 
 
 I must also remind you of another feature of 
 the popular belief, which seems to present a great 
 difficulty ; it is what I must call its paltriness, its 
 poorness. Let us for the moment, not think of 
 God as a good, loving, and righteous Being. 
 Let us now simply regard Him as great, as irres- 
 istible, as almighty. Viewed thus, how difficult 
 is it to accept that account which the ordinary 
 creed gives us of this Being's attempt at the 
 rescue of His fallen creature man. An Almighty 
 I:)eing puts forth every effort to gain a certain 
 end ; sends inspired men to teach others ; works 
 miracles, signs, wonders m Heaven and on earth, 
 all for this end of man's safety ; nay, at the last, 
 sends forth His own Son — very God — Himself 
 Almighty. The Almighty Son stoops not alone 
 to take our nature on Him, but lower still — far 
 lower — stoops to degradation ; meekly accepts 
 insult and scourgmg, bends to the bitter Cross 
 even, and all this to gain a certain end. And 
 3-et, they tell us, this end is not gained after all. 
 man is not saved, for countless myriads are in 
 fact left to hopeless, endless misery ; and that 
 though for every one of these lost ones, so to speak, 
 has been shed the life blood of God's own Son. 
 Now, if I may be permitted to sjDeak freely, it is 
 wholly inconceivable that the dehnite plan of an 
 Almighty Being should end in failure — that this 
 should be the result of the agony of the eternal 
 Son. 
 
 And continue this thouuiit. If we think of 
 
38 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 God at all worthily, we cannot help thinking of 
 Him as working for high and worthy ends. 
 Therefore we cannot help thinking of Him, as in 
 creation, working for some end worthy of Himself. 
 But what end does the popular creed assign to 
 Him ? A creation broken, marred, mutilated, 
 ruined, and so to continue for ever. A creation 
 ending in misery, pain, woe unutterable, to 
 infinite numbers of the created : and all this 
 misery and horror brought into sharper relief by 
 a vain and fruitless attempt to save all : by a 
 purpose of love declared to all, and yet not in fact 
 reaching all : a creation wliich is the portal for 
 one half, or more of the created to Hell ! And 
 you gravely ask thoughtful enquirers, to believe 
 this ; to believe that for such an end, and con- 
 templating these horrors destined never to cease, 
 the morning stars are described as singing 
 together, and all the sons of God shouting for joy 
 on the morning of creation. 
 
 But again, there comes this very serious 
 obstacle to accepting the popular creed. I shall 
 state it thus, either this creed is true or false. If 
 false — the question is ended. If true —can you 
 explain to me this strangle fact, that nohody acts 
 as if he believed it f I say this, for any man who 
 so believed, and who possessed but a spark of 
 common humanity — to say nothing of charity — 
 could not rest, day or night, so long as one sinner 
 remained who mio;ht be saved. To this all would 
 give place : pleasure, learning, business, art, 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 39 
 
 literature ; nay, life itself would be too short for 
 the terrible warnings, the burning entreaties, the 
 earnest pleadings, that would be needed to rouse 
 sinners from their apathy, and to pluck them 
 from endless tortures. Ask me what you will, 
 but do not ask me to believe that any human 
 being, who is convinced that perhaps his own 
 child, his wife, his friend, his neighbour even, is in 
 danger of endless torment, could, if really per- 
 suaded of this, live as men now live, even the 
 best men. Who can avoid the inevitable conclu- 
 sion that its warmest adherents really, though 
 unconsciously, find their dogmas absolutely 
 incredible? " The world would be one vast mad- 
 '"'' house ^^'' says the American scholar Hallsted, 
 " if a realising and continued pressure of such a 
 "doctrine was present." Remark again how 
 this doctrine breaks down the moment it is reallv 
 put to the test. Take a common case : a man 
 dies — active, benevolent, useful in life, but not a 
 religious man, not devout. By the popular creed, 
 such a man has gone to Hell for ever. But who 
 really believes that ? nay, instinctively, our 
 words grow softer when we speak of the dead, in 
 all cases. 
 
"THE 
 " POPULAR CREED WHOLLY UNTENABLE,' 
 
" Far be it from us to make light of the demerit of sin. But endless 
 "punishment — I admit my inability (I would say it reverently) to 
 "admit this belief together with a belief in the Divine goodness— 
 " the belief that God is Love, that His tender mercies are over all 
 " His works." — John Foster, on Future Purmhment. 
 
 " Can these dark dogmas be true of a Father who bids us be 
 " perfect as He is, in that He sends His sun to shine on the evil and 
 " the good, and the rain on the just and the unjust. Or of a Son 
 * ' who so loved the world that He died to save the world — and surely 
 " not in vain." — C. Kinosley. 
 
 " And now that we are emerging from the shadow of the doctrine, 
 " we look with a shudder and ask ourselves, how it was possible 
 ' ' that Christian men should believe it, and should connect such 
 "unutterable horrors with the administration of a Being, who has 
 " given to us in Calvary the measure of His love, " — Rev. J, Bald- 
 win Brown — Cont. Review. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 « THE POPULAR CREED WHOLLY UNTENABLE. ' 
 
 Pursuing our argument — let me next point 
 out a practical difficulty of the gravest kind 
 which arises on the popular view. It is this : 
 how can you on any such princi])le deal fairly or 
 equitably with the mass of men ? Let us speak 
 plainly : do tell me who and what are the great, 
 nay, the overivheliiring majority of the baptized ? 
 They are assuredly neither wholly bad, nor 
 wholly good ; they are neither bad enough for 
 Hell, nor good enough for Heaven. Now how 
 can you adapt your theory to this state of things, 
 which is, I think, quite impossible to deny ? 
 Look around you, survey the mass of mankind : 
 of how few, how very few can you affirm that 
 they are truly devout, converted, holy. Christ- 
 like ; take which term you please. Can you affirm 
 this of one in ten ; in twenty ; in a hundred 
 even, of those baptized into Jesus Christ ? 
 Take as an illustration any English parish you 
 please. Take its entire population, what are they. 
 
44 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 how many are the really good? Take any village, 
 or select some one of our English towns, muster 
 its whole population in imagination, how many 
 true, holy servants of Jesus Christ will you 
 find there ? The mass, what are they ? Do 
 meet this question, and look the facts straight in 
 the face. What is to be the doom of the mass of 
 baptized Christians — they are not holy, but 
 are they bad? Nobody out of the pulpit — and 
 seldom there in these days — ventures to assert 
 any such thing. Indeed there is abundant good 
 in this crowd of human beings, and still more, 
 there is almost infinite capacity for goodness, amid 
 the evil. Everywhere you will find unselfish 
 parents, hard workers, loving sisters, true friends ; 
 everywhere traces, distinct enough amid all the 
 sin, yes, and traces in abundance of goodness, 
 kindness, patience, self-sacrifice, sometimes car- 
 ried even to great lengths. Let an emergency 
 arise, let sickness come, what devotion does it 
 not call forth — A\diat love unstinted, what self- 
 forgetfulness ? Now your system, that which 
 you call the good news brought from Heaven by 
 Jesus Christ, forces you to believe that God 
 will consign all these hapless children of His, 
 because unconverted, unrenewed, to a doom 
 which in its lightest form is awful beyond all 
 powers of imagination ; to the company of devils 
 for ever and ever ; to darkness mdjroken by a 
 single ray of light. Permit me one question 
 more, would not any creed, anything, he a positi\'e 
 relief from such a //cxv/>^/ as this of yours V Can 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 45 
 
 there be a mockery more solemn, more em- 
 phatic, than to call this any part of the glad tidings 
 of great joy ? Is it not time for the clergy, not 
 merely in private to ponder these things, con- 
 vinced or half-convinced of their truth, but to 
 speak out as in God's name — as God's ministers? 
 
 And Avhile I am speaking of men as they are, 
 and of the life they lead, let me add here a 
 statement of another very grave difficulty in the 
 M'ay of accepting an endless Hell as the doom of 
 any man, the issueof any life. Wherever human 
 beings exist, in what form of community it 
 matters not, in what climate or under wliat con- 
 ditions of life soever, there is found everywhere 
 a deep spontaneous belief, call it feeling, instinct, 
 what you please, that connects the marriage tie 
 and the birthday with joyful associations, with 
 mirth and gladness. Now why is this — has it 
 no meaning? So deep an instinct, one so truly 
 natural and spontaneous as this comes surely from 
 the CiiEATOii of all. His voice it is that bids the 
 P)ridegroom rejoice over the Bride, that bids the 
 heart of the mother overflow with tenderness 
 towards her l)abe. This being so, again let me 
 put the question, and ask, loliy has this been so 
 ordered? It is God who has so ordered ; do 3^ou 
 think He has had no ])urpose in so doing, no 
 message to convey to those who have ears to 
 hear? Is it possible that our Heavenly Father 
 sliould bid His creatures everywhere to rejoice 
 with n special joy at the marriage feast, at the 
 
46 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 natal hour, if these births were in fact destined 
 to add largely to the ranks of Hell, to the hosts 
 of evil ? Do think over the matter calmly, and 
 ask yourself if that is possible, if you can believe 
 any such thing. 
 
 And as you think it over, take with you these 
 words of Jesus Christ (that hint so much), need 
 I once more quote them ? They remind us how 
 the mother, in the " perilous birth " hath sorrow ; 
 but add, that all that sorrow is swallowed 
 up in joy, ''''joy that a man is born into the 
 "world." Dwell on these words that you may 
 grasp all they convey. Indeed in this lies the 
 whole matter. It is ajoi/ that a man — any man 
 — should be born into the world. See how wide 
 the words are ! If you tell me it is but a blind 
 instinct of the mother, yes, I reply, it is this very 
 blindness, as you call it, of the instinct that 
 constitutes its force, for it thus betrays its origin ; 
 it is implanted ; and by whom ? by the Great 
 Parent, for it is spontaneous and betrays His 
 liand. Do you ask me to believe that He has 
 done this without a meaning, without a certain 
 purpose of good ? Can I believe that our Father 
 ])ids any mother's heart to stir with joy at the 
 sight of her inlimt while He knows that this 
 infant is destined to be, will be, one day shut up 
 into endless torment? 
 
 And again, can you reconcile your theorv of 
 endless toriiiciit awaiting so large a ])()rti(»ii of our 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 47 
 
 race with that natural thirst for joy, that longing 
 for happiness each one finds within. It matters 
 not whether this has been slowly developed, or 
 created at one stroke, all that matters to this 
 argument is its naturalness., its universality. This 
 longing for happiness cannot then have been 
 accidental, there must be in it a design on the 
 Creator's part. Now, do say, what that design 
 can have been ? To mock us — ;to mock any one 
 of us — is that possible ? "If the popular theory 
 " of future endless torment were true, what 
 " sublime mockery would there be in placing poor 
 " wretches first upon earth, where are heard the 
 " merry shouts of careless children, the joyous 
 " sono- of birds, w^here above our heads, 
 
 'With constant kindly smile the sleepless stars, 
 ' Keep everlasting watch * * * ' 
 
 " w^here beneath our feet the delicate beauty of 
 " flowers of every tint gladden the eye. What 
 " would have been thought of the propriety of 
 " placing a hundred bright and cheerful objects, 
 " suggestive of peace and happiness, in the ante- 
 " room to the torture chamber of the inquisition ? 
 " It deserves to be noted that man, the only 
 " animal that laughs, has of all animals, according 
 "to the popular theory, least cause to laugh." — 
 Errors and Terrors., p. 64. 
 
 But there is nnich to be said bevond remarking" 
 on our natural thirst for joy and happiness, 
 and the difficulty of explaining why it was ever 
 imphmted in man, except with a design that it 
 
48 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 should one day be gratiiied, fully and freely. 
 There is this to be said, there is stored in every 
 man a vast possibility of growth, of expansion in 
 every direction, mental and intellectual, no less 
 tlian spiritual. There are almost infinite germs 
 in man, so to speak, capacities of every sort, latent 
 as yet, but capable of a development, perhaps 
 ]3ractically boundless, stored now up within us : 
 they are perhaps unsusjiected by the majority, 
 and it is only at interxals, and as it were by 
 chance, that we gain a passing glimpse at them. 
 ])Ut undoubte lly they exist, and their existence, 
 like that of all other natural facts, requires an 
 explanation. Why do they exist — who planted 
 within us these powers, and for what end ? And 
 they have been gi\"en to all^ not to the good 
 merely, but to man as man. I cannot but see in 
 the very fact of their existence a silent prophecy, 
 an intimation that the spark shall not be quenched 
 in any case. Are they not a very message to 
 man from God, a hint^ eloquent by its very 
 silence, eloquent and instinct Avitli hope ? 
 
 Consider next how strongly the analogy of 
 nature, which is after all a very real revelation of 
 God, bears against the popular view, which limits 
 to the few moments of our present life all our 
 chances of discipline, amendment, probation, and 
 that though " all reason, all experience, all scrip- 
 " ture, unite in this, that the Divine work of 
 " teaching goes on behind, as well as before, the 
 " veil." See to what your creed really amounts. 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 49 
 
 You contradict all that we know of God's ways 
 from every channel, in teaching that the mere fact 
 of dying is the signal for a total change from all 
 that has gone before. Consider this, and say 
 whether any view which interposes so wide a 
 gulf, as that commonly held does, between our 
 present and our future life, can be true. In all 
 God's dealings with us no sharp break intervenes 
 between the successsive stages of life : each 
 condition of being is developed out of a prior, 
 and closely related stage. Now this being so, 
 you ask me to believe that in another age all 
 this is reversed, and that men with ample 
 capacities for good still existing, are to be at 
 one bound, consigned to outer darkness, to 
 hopeless, endless torture. And the difficulty 
 (surely an enormous one) of believing that a 
 Parent will deliberately crush out all the lingering 
 tendencies to good in His own children, is 
 increased by the following consideration, viz : — 
 that the whole of our human life here is so mani- 
 festly incomplete, so inchoate, that it has hardly 
 afforded, in very many cases, a satisfactory 
 probation, and in not a few cases, no probation 
 at all. 
 
 This thought may be pursued further thus : 
 an old proverb says very wisely, " the mills of 
 " God grind .v/r^zr/y," and this Divine slowness or 
 long-suffering is very conspicuous in God's ways. 
 How slowly has He been fitting this earth for 
 ninn's habitation, and bv what a lonir continued 
 
50 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 succession of stages, age succeeding age. At 
 length man steps on the earth. Now, is all the 
 Divine slowness to be at once changed — and 
 why should it be ? Man is to live for ever and 
 ever : we are apt to forget what this means, and 
 how altogether impossible it is to assign any 
 proportion between the fleeting moments of 
 earthly life, and the eternity that stretches away 
 for ever and ever. If we compare a human life of 
 average duration to one second of time, and com- 
 pare eternity to the aggregate of all the seconds 
 that have passed since time was, and that shall 
 pass while time endures, still we assign to human 
 life a proportionate duration infinitely too long. 
 Now am I to believe that the same God who 
 expends hundreds of thousands of years, in 
 slowly fitting this earth for man's habitation, will 
 only allow to man a few fleeting years, or months, 
 or hours, as it may be, as his sole preparation 
 time for eternity. To settle questions so unspeak- 
 ably great in their issue, questions, stretching 
 away to a horizon so far distant, that no power of 
 thought can follow them, in such hot haste, does 
 seem quite at variance with our Heavenly Father's 
 ways, with all He has shewn us of His modes of 
 acting. Besides, do but look at the world : far 
 the larger part of its population has not even heard 
 of Jesus Christ. Are they —these untold myriads 
 of myriads of hapless creatures — first to hear of 
 Christ at the Day of Judgement? 
 
 Finally we pass ^) Holy Scripture. Here we 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 51 
 
 are at once confronted by a difficulty, so grave, 
 tliat I confess, it to me seems quite decisive 
 against the popular view. This difficulty is, that 
 you are thus forced absolutely to ignore^ to 
 suppress a ^^ery large part of the Bible : a very 
 numerous class of passages which clearly hold out 
 a promise of universal restitution, or at least 
 imply a destine t hope for all men. The view 
 generally held is, in short, one-sided, and therefore 
 wholly unfair : it is as though a judge should base 
 a decision of the most weighty importance on one 
 set of witnesses merely, neglecting the others 
 who testify in a directly opposite sense. " Only 
 " imao^ine the book of nature beingf studied in 
 " this way, with one class of facts systematically 
 " ignored ; with one law, say of gravitation, fully 
 " laid down, while the opposite law of centrifugal 
 " motion was altogether overlooked, what results 
 " in science could follow from such a method ? 
 " Yet this is the way in which not a few yet read 
 " the Scriptures, taking their hrst partial sense 
 " readings for the truth, and shutting their eyes 
 " to all that the same Scripture testifies on the 
 "other side." — Catholic Eschatology Examined, 
 Jukes, p. 14. 
 
 An interesting illustration of the fact that the 
 New Testament is full of passages teaching the 
 larger hope, is furnished by the undoubted, but 
 often unperceived, occurence over and over again, 
 in the works of those who hold the popular creed, 
 of language, which if fairly understood, imports 
 
52 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 the salvation of all men. This no doubt arises 
 from the fact that phrases are used freely, while 
 a traditional creed does, as so often, blind men to 
 the real force of the expressions they employ — 
 blind them in fact to everything outside the line 
 of thought, which they are taught to believe con- 
 stitutes the truth. Perhaps the best illustration 
 that can be given of what I mean, will be 
 gained by quoting from some collection of 
 popular Hymns. I take then the well-known 
 Hymns Ancient and Modern^ and quote a few 
 passages as instances of my meaning. Hymn 45 
 has this verse : — 
 
 "Thou, sorrowino; at the helpless cry, 
 " Of all creation doomed to die, 
 "Did'st save our lost and guilty race." 
 
 But this is universal salvation : the race of man 
 saved, if words have any meaning. And this 
 thought — the race saved^ — finds frequent expres- 
 sion elsewhere in these Hymns ; nor let any man 
 who regards honesty of speech, and common 
 truthfulness, say that to offer salvation merely, 
 is, or can be, the same thing as to save. See 
 Hymns 56, v. 3, 4, 5, 6 ; 57, v. 3 ; 62, v. 2, 6 ; 
 200, V. 6, etc. Again, listen to these solemn 
 words and tell me what they mean. Hymn 97, 
 Part 2, V. 2 : — 
 
 " Precious Hood which all creation, 
 "From the stain of sin hath fired.'" 
 
 And again v. 5 : — 
 
 "That a shipwrecked race for ever 
 "Might a port of refuge gain," 
 
V! HOLLY UNTENABLE. 58 
 
 And HyDin 103, v. 5 :— 
 
 " So a ransomed world shall ever 
 " Praise Thee its redeeming Lord." 
 
 Can it be right to talk of a ransomed world for 
 ever praising its Redeemer, and yet to mean that 
 all the time the world is not actually ransomed, 
 and perhaps half, perhaps more, of its population 
 are groaning in endless pain? Is this consistent 
 with truth? Again, other Hymns call on all 
 creation to sing "God's praise. Shall this praise 
 then echo from Hell ? See as a specimen. Hymns 
 144, V. 3 and 6, and 299, v. 4, etc., etc. I might 
 well quote, m proof of this address to all creation 
 to praise God, the familiar Doxology, but I will 
 only notice here a well-known Hymn, No. 222 : — 
 
 " day for which creation, 
 " And all its tribes were made ; 
 " O joy for all its former woes, 
 "A thousand times repaid." 
 
 Now I will simply ask what these words mean : 
 all creation is to have all its woes a thousand 
 times repaid : if this is not universalism, what is 
 uni\"ersalism ? Again, over and over, Christ is 
 said to have vanquished sin, death, and Satan : — 
 Hymns 147, v. 2 ; 148, v. 2 ; 196, v. 3, etc. 
 But how can this be true on the popular creed ? 
 To say that sin is vanquished, and death and 
 Satan, while Hell receives its myriads of the 
 lost, is worse than absurd, t-.y., take this line 
 from Hymn, Xo. 196 : — 
 
 " Death of death, and Hell's destruction," 
 and sav if tlie uni\ersalist's creed could be more 
 
54: THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 distinctly stated : his utmost hopes have never 
 gone beyond a vision of death abohshed, and Hell 
 destroyed ? To pursue this further is needless, 
 though it would be easy, and indeed full of 
 interest : but I may point out how significant it 
 is to find the very opponents of the larger hope 
 forced^ unconsciously, to employ language directly 
 teaching universal salvation. The explanation 
 is simply, that they have been using the words 
 and ideas of Scripture, while the fair, honest 
 meaning of their own words is obscured for them 
 by the spell of a narrow traditional creed. 
 
 I can only permit myself a momentary allusion 
 to another highly important class of passages, 
 which are quite meaningless on the popular view 
 — those which teach the doctrine of " the ages," 
 and which, though obscured, unfoi'tunately by 
 our version, are yet really a very prominent 
 feature in the teaching of the New Testament, as 
 I hope to shew in a later chapter. But there 
 are, apart from all these passages, certain ten- 
 dencies in the Gospel, whose drift and character 
 are impossible to mistake. That these tendencies 
 exist I am far more certain than I can be of the 
 meaning of any number of highly figurative texts. 
 Now these tendencies are too clear, too broad, 
 too distinct, to be considered accidental. So far 
 from being a product of the age in which the 
 New Testament was written, they are in conflict 
 with the spirit of that age, and in advance of it. 
 They must therefore represent something in- 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 55 
 
 herent in the Author of Christianity, and some- 
 thing essential to His design. I put the case 
 very moderately in saymg how extremely 
 difficult it is to reconcile the popular creed with 
 these undoubted tendencies of the New Testa- 
 ment. Can I reasonably believe that a system 
 which beyond all other creeds has been distin- 
 guished by promoting mercy, goodness, love, 
 tenderness for body and soul ; a system, of which 
 these qualities are the very essence, does mdeed 
 teach a doctrine of punishment so shocking, so 
 horrible, that if really believed, it would turn 
 this earth into a charnel-house, and spread over 
 all nature lamentation, mourning, and woe ? 
 
 Let me next shew that certain great principles 
 of Revelation conflict with the popular creed. 
 " I am sure " says a thoughtful writer, " these 
 "are the two fundamental features of the 
 " Christian Revelation, of which all its utterances 
 " are the manifold expression, viz : — 
 
 " 1. — The Parental Love of the Father. 
 
 "2. — The Solidarity of mankind to be 
 " conformed to the image of His Son." — Letters 
 from a Mystic, p. 169. 
 
 \. — Xo one can deny that the New Testament 
 contains a special revelation of the parental tie 
 uniting us to God. When ye pray, say, "our 
 " Father ;" these two words convey the spirit of 
 the whole Gospel. Now it is not too nuich to 
 assert tliat tlie view ofenerallv held is an absolute 
 
56 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 negation of all that the parental tie implies. It 
 robs the relation of all meaning. It reduces to a 
 simple mockery the Divine Fatherhood, though 
 that is of the very essence of Christianity. 
 
 I repeat, the essence of Christianity perishes in 
 the virtual denial of any true fatherhood of our 
 race on God's part. Follow out this thought, 
 for it is of primary importance. We lose sight 
 of the value of the individual soul when dealing 
 with the countless millions who have peopled 
 this earth, and have passed away. What is one 
 among so many ? we are tempted to say, for- 
 getting that the value of each human being is 
 not in the least thereby altered : each soul is 
 of infinite value as if it stood alone, in the eyes 
 of GrOD its Father. And more than this, are we 
 not altogether apt to forget another vital point, 
 to forget whose the loss is, if any one soul 
 perishes ? it is the man's own loss, says our 
 popular creed. But is this all ? No, a thousand 
 times no ! It is God's loss : it is the Father who 
 loses His child. The straying sheep of the 
 parable is the Great Shepherd's loss : the missing 
 coin is the owner's loss. In this very fact lies 
 the pledge that He will seek on and on till He 
 find it. For think next of the value He sets on 
 each soul. He has stamped each with His own 
 image : has conferred on each a share of His 
 own immortality — of Himself: do but realize 
 these things ; put them into plain A\'ords, till 
 vou come tlioi-ouiihlv to believe tlieni, and vou 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 57 
 
 must see how impossible it becomes to credit 
 that unworthy theology, which tells you that 
 such a Father can ever let perish the work of His 
 own tingers, His own offspring. One step 
 further to make this clearer : how has He shewn 
 His sense of the value of the human spirit ? 
 The Incarnation must say. It is human life 
 taken into closest alliance with the divine, man 
 and GrOD meetms: in the God -man. And then 
 follows the Atonement, proof on proof of the same 
 truth, when He tasted death for every man, He 
 in whose death all died. Such is the chain, 
 whose golden links I have been endeavouring to 
 follow and trace, whose links bind to the Father 
 above evt^rt/ human soul ; every human soul, l)e it, 
 distinctly aftirmed. Or stay, is there not yet 
 wanting the final link to complete this chain ? 
 It is to be found in the great truth, which com- 
 pletes what I have b^en saying ; the truth of the 
 Oneness of the human race, its organic unity. 
 Let us consider this. 
 
 2. This princi])le of the Oneness of our race is 
 very legible in the divinely-given symbolism of 
 the old law, and is reflected in the gospel with 
 perfect cleai'iiess. AVliat but this is the teaching 
 of the "first-fruits,'' and the '' first-born" in Scrip- 
 ture? These imply and include, the one, the ivhole 
 har\est ; the other, the whole family, and not less. 
 Now Christ is the '' first-fruits." — 1 Cor., xv, 2."^, 
 and Christ is tlie '"first-born." — Col. i, 18. 
 And what follows let St. Fail sav. " If the first- 
 
58 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 " fruit be holy the lump is also holy," the whole 
 race. Thus this principle is affirmed in the great 
 central doctrine of the Incarnation. For in 
 Christ the tirst-friiits, mankind, i.e., the aggregate 
 of humanity, is taken into God. And so in His 
 death all died, as the New Testament assures us ; 
 and equally in His resurrection all rise, nay, are 
 risen. In other words, Christ's relation as the 
 second Adam is not to individuals, but to the 
 race, further it is an actual, not a possible or a 
 potential relation, an actual relation giving salva- 
 tion to all. " Once introduce the belief in Christ's 
 "divine nature, and His death and resurrection 
 " are no longer of the indi\'idual, but of the race. 
 " It was on this belief that the Church was founded 
 " and built up. The belief was not indeed drawn 
 " out with exact precision, yet it was always 
 " implied in the relation, which the believer was 
 " supposed to hold toward God. The formula of 
 " Baptism, which has never changed, is unintellig- 
 " ible without it. The Eucharist is emptied of the 
 " blessing which every age has sought in that 
 " Holy Sacrament, if it be taken way. If Christ 
 " took our nature upon Him, as we believe, by 
 " an act of love, it was not that of one, but of all. 
 " He was not one man only among men, but in 
 " Him all humanity are gathered up : and thus 
 " now as at all time, mankind are, so to speak, 
 " organically united with Him.'' — Westcott, Gospel 
 of the Rtsurreciion, p. 176. And this it is, I 
 think, this union of the race of man with Him- 
 self, that Jf.sus Christ would teach in one of 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 59 
 
 His many jyregnant hints ^ by always speaking of 
 Himself in His redeeming work, as the Son, not 
 of the Jew, not of the Gentile, not of Mary, not 
 of the Carpenter, but the Son of Man. 
 
 Yes, the Oneness of mankind is a principle that 
 from the fall to the story of the Incarnation, runs 
 through the texture of Holy Scripture. Have you 
 ever quietly thought over the very strange fact of 
 what is called original sin ? Have you asked 
 yourself what it means, that you are suffering 
 for somethino; done thousands of vears before 
 your birth ? The questions raised by this 
 enquiry we need not try to settle, but we may 
 say that it means at least this, the organic unity 
 of mankind ; that mankind is not a collection of 
 separate units, but an organised whole. Each 
 individual is not, so to speak, complete in himself, 
 but is a living stone in the great building, is a 
 member of one great body, a member that if 
 withrawn, there would ensue a distinct loss to 
 the whole, a mutilation in fact of the body. And 
 so Adam's sin sent a shock through the whole 
 body, exactly as when a hurt to any part sends 
 a shock through our present body. This is the 
 painful side, but it is only one side ; and unfortu- 
 nately the popular creed, as so often, persists in 
 looking at one side only, and that the dark side, 
 and in looking away from the bright side, or at 
 least in so looking at it as to miss its real aspect. 
 But here the New Testament comes to our rescue 
 and assures us that " if in Adam all die, so in the 
 
60 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 " second Adam all shall be made alive." The race 
 is fallen ; true, but the race is risen ; quite as 
 true. Both facts strictly correspond ; 
 
 " Of two such lessons why forget 
 
 " The nobler and the Christlier one 1 " 
 
 A partial salvation is thus in absolute conflict 
 with this fundamental principle which the fall 
 aflirms, and to which the Incarnation testifles ; 
 the unity of mankind, its Oneness. A partial 
 salvation is in direct opposition to the great truth 
 put by St. Paul so clearly, that I never read his 
 words without a feeling of wonder that any 
 doubt can exist on this head. '' If through the 
 " offence of one (the) many be dead, much more 
 " the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which 
 " is bv one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded 
 "unto (the) many * * as by the offence of one, 
 ••judgement came upon all men to condemnation, 
 " even so by the righteousness of one, the free 
 " gift came upon all men unto justiiication of 
 " life." Observe, the offence is a thing actually 
 imparted to, actually staining, ruinmg all men. 
 And Jesus Christ came to bring to every man, 
 to humanity, a salvation which shall be to man- 
 kind much more than the fall. But the po])ular 
 view reads mucli les:'<, and in millions of cases as 
 imu'ti less as Hell is less than Heaven. 
 
 !>iit again, the \\e.\y geiierallv held conflicts 
 with another great j)rinciple, viz : — the unchange- 
 ableness of God. " If God be unchangeable then 
 " what we see of Him !it aiiv moment nnist be 
 
WHOLLY UNTENABLE. 61 
 
 " true of Him at every moment of time, true of 
 " Him also both before and after all the moments 
 " of time ; always and forever true of Him. If 
 " His purpose be to save mankind, that purpose 
 " stands firm for ever, unaffected by man's sin, 
 " unshaken by the fact of death, unaltered and 
 '' unalterable by men, by angels, by ought con- 
 '' ceivable." — Salvator Mimdi^]). 158. Redemption 
 is no after-thought, it Avas planned in the full 
 knowledge of all the extent of man's sin, knowing 
 all, God declared his purpose to be to save the 
 race. Redemption then is something indefeasible, 
 except indeed God can change, or man be 
 stronger than GrOD, or the will of the created 
 stronger than the \\\\\ of the Creator. " The 
 '' gifts and calling of Ttod are without repen- 
 " tance." —Rom xi. 29. That is, what God gives 
 cannot In.' ]-efused. wliom God calls they must be 
 saved. And this unchangeable purpose of God 
 is stated afresh in the words that describe Jesus 
 Christ as " tke same yesterday, to-day, and for 
 "ever" (for the ages). Words deeply signifi- 
 cant, and yet, whose true teacliing so very often 
 escapes attention. 
 
 And here let me close this part of my argu- 
 ment by introducing a, storv. for whose truth I 
 vouch, to show how ])ractica.l these considerations 
 really are. In a certain quarter of London one of 
 the many Evangelists, employed for that purpose, 
 had gone forth to preach to the people. When 
 he had concluded an eloquent address, he Avas 
 
62 THE POPULAR CREED 
 
 thus accosted by one of his hearers : — " Sh'," 
 said the man, " may I ask you one or two ques- 
 tions?' 'Surely," said the Preacher. "You 
 have told us, that God's love for us is very 
 grea^; and very strong.' ' Yes.' ' That He 
 sent His Son on purpose to save us, and that I 
 may be saved this moment if I will.' ' Yes.' 
 But, that if I go away without an immediate 
 acceptance of this offer, and if a few minutes 
 after I were to be, by any accident, killed on 
 my way home, I should find myself in Hell for 
 for ever.' ' Yes.' ' Then," said the man, " if 
 so, I don't want to have anything to do with 
 a Being ivhose love for me can change so completely 
 in jive minutesy 
 
"WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES.' 
 
" Proinde universos quidem salvat. " — St. Clement of Alexandria, 
 Fragm. in I Joan. 
 
 " merciful God who hast made all men, and liatest nothing that 
 " Thou hast made ; nor wiliest the death of a sinner » * * 
 " Have mercy upon all Jews, Intidels, and Heretics, « * • 
 " and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to Thv fold, that they 
 "may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites. " — Good 
 Friday Collect. 
 
 " Valde alienum est ab Eo, ut ullam ratioualem creaturam penitus 
 " perii'e sinat. " — Bos. " Non potest aliter putare cor rationale. " — 
 St. Anselm. Gur Deus Homo, ii, 4. 
 
 "O God, whose nature and prosj^erity iti ever to have mei'cy and 
 "to forgive." — Book of C'oiainon Prnijer. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 — ^-«->- -^-e-?" — 
 
 " WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES^ 
 
 In this chapter I propose to consider what the 
 teaching of the Church really is on the subject of 
 future punishment (including a review of our 
 own Book of Common Prayer). Before attempt- 
 ing this, let us for the sake of greater clearness, 
 sum up shortly the various arguments which 
 have been occupying us in the two preceding 
 chapters, and which, as I believe, shew how 
 completely untenable is the popular view of 
 future punishment — even without considering 
 the vast body of direct Scriptural evidence 
 to the same effect which I shall quote in later 
 chapters. 
 
 First then, we have seen how it has pleased 
 God to put within us a revelation of Himself, in 
 our moral nature, and we iind it impossible to 
 reconcile this His revelation, nay. His primary 
 revelation, with the dogma of an endless Hell. 
 We have been reminded how self-contradictory 
 it is to assign to God, acts which the worst 
 Iiumau beiuii" would not commit, and vet in the 
 
G6 WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 
 
 same breath to call Him o-ood. In the fact of the 
 terrible solemnity, clanger, and awe, that surround 
 human life, we read a proof that a good Being 
 would not have bestowed such a gift on man, 
 whether he will or will not, except with an un- 
 doubted purpose that it should end in good. 
 Further, we assert that the popular creed is 
 wholly incredible because it involves the "final 
 triumph of evil over good ; while it is also fairly 
 open to the gra^'e charge of producing a wide- 
 spread unbelief, by the shock it gives to the human 
 conscience, nay, of producing " more scepticism 
 than any other cause has e\'er done. Again, it 
 has been pointed out that it is palpably unjust to 
 assign to finite sin an infinite penalty : and 
 attention has been directed to the tendency of the 
 l^opular creed to promote a spirit of cruelty in 
 human legislation, and in manners generally, and 
 indeed to low.er the moral tone all round, where 
 ever it is received. It lias been also shewn how 
 extremely difficult it is to form any conception 
 of the redeemed in Heaven as enjoying their own 
 bliss, while conscious of the torment of the 
 damned ; while it is at least equally difficult to 
 imagine them ignorant of it. Further, I have 
 shewn that the popular creed really tends to 
 make men tolerant of sin, because it teaches men 
 to look on sin as a thing God will tolerate for 
 ever in His universe. Again, the impossibilit}^ 
 has been dwelt on of reconciling the po])ular 
 view with what reason and Scripture teach, as 
 to the nature and end of ])unishment, a point 
 
WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 67 
 
 which really goes to the centre and core of this 
 whole question. It has been shcAvn that a 
 penalty, which is only vindictive, and has no 
 liiofher end, is mere barbarism. I have also 
 pointed out the absurdity of the supposition that 
 God — considered simply as Almighty — can have 
 put forth such efforts to rescue mankind and yet 
 have failed, as the creed generally held represents 
 Him to have done ; and that, though He exerted 
 His utmost strength, as is evidenced by His not 
 sparing His own Son. Lastly, has been shewn 
 the utter unreasonableness of asking others to 
 accept a view of future torments as endless, which 
 its warmest defenders shew by their own acts, 
 that they do not themselves believe ; because 
 they in fact "find it practically incredible. 
 
 Grave and weighty as the foregoing argu- 
 ments are, they are not nearly all the preliminary 
 considerations that can be urged against the 
 popular view, and I shall now briefly sum up the 
 further proofs contained in chapter iii. The first 
 |)oint alluded to has been the practical impossi- 
 bility of dealing fairly with the mass of human 
 beings on the ordinary view ; because the vast 
 majority are too good for Hell, and not good 
 enough for Heaven. Another plea against the 
 ordinary creed has been drawn from that natural 
 and universal instinct which everywhere connects 
 with ideas of joy the marriage day, and the hour 
 of birth, and has been argued that God, in giving 
 this instinct universallv, cannot have intended to 
 
68 WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 
 
 raise hopes which He does not design fully to 
 satisfy. A similar argument has been drawn 
 from the natural and spontaneous thirst for 
 happiness which God has planted within every 
 man ; and also from the fact — that there are latent 
 in man vast capacities — which surely implies an 
 intention to develop them one day. Attention 
 has next been called to the difficulty of reconcil- 
 ing the view generally held, with the analogy of 
 nature and of GtOd's way of working, a point 
 which a thoughtful mind can follow out in many 
 ways. Passing to Holy Scripture, a difficulty 
 of the very gravest kind has been shewn to exist, 
 because the popular creed does absolutely reject the 
 plain statements of a very large class of passages, 
 which teach the salvation of all men : of this 
 full proof will be given, as befits its importance, 
 in the chapters that are to follow. Meantime, as 
 illustrations of the fact that these passages do 
 exist in the Bible, quotations hav^e been given 
 from Hymns, which though written by opponents 
 of the larger hope of salvation, do yet in fact 
 unconciously express that hope very clearly ; 
 because steeped in Scriptural phraseology, and 
 imbued with its spirit. Again, it has been 
 remarked that the popular creed directly conflicts 
 with the admitted tendencies of the New Testa- 
 ment towards love and tenderness. Again a fun- 
 dmaental opposition has been pointed out between 
 a partial salvation and the great principles reveal- 
 ed in Scripture, of the Divine Fatherhood and the 
 Solidarity of mankind. Tlie former principle is 
 
WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 69 
 
 obviously sacrificed by the popular view, which 
 robs it of all meaning. The latter principle, 
 though not so generally recognised, is yet a 
 fundamental principle of Scripture, is implied in 
 every part of its teaching, e.g., by the doctrines 
 of the Fall of man, of the Incarnation, and of the 
 Atonement. These all do recognise the organic 
 unity of the race : but this unity is in direct 
 conflict with a partial salvation. Finally, it has 
 been shewn that the Divme unchangeableness is 
 impeached by the ordinary creed, for God having 
 once planned the world's salvation, His plan and 
 counsel cannot change, but stand for ever good, 
 unchano:ino; as He is without chano^e. 
 
 Having thus concluded our summary, let us — 
 before we turn to Holy Scripture and examine 
 its teachinofs as to the future life — as it were 
 pause on its threshold, and enquire what the 
 teaching of the Church may be. And first, in 
 the very term " Catholic," I cannot but find a 
 significant lesson, in this very term which the 
 Church has chosen to designate her mission. 
 For what do these pages plead, but for the truest 
 and widest catholicity of the Church of God, for 
 a catholicity of salvation, an Incarnation which 
 shall indeed mean the taking, not of some men, 
 but of the manhood, the race, into God — for an 
 atonement so wide, so ettectual, so catholic, that 
 no human sin shall escape, no guilt defeat its 
 power to save. Indeed, as a thoughtful writer 
 already quoted says, " until the Christian religion 
 
70 WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 
 
 " is posited on universal being, and that the 
 " calling of certain members into light or glory 
 " is for the well-being of the whole, its catholicity 
 "is a fiction." I think most readers are not 
 aware how very widely the hope of the salvation 
 of all men was held in the primitive church. 
 Those who believed and taught it, more or less 
 openly, or held kindred views, were among the 
 most learned, the most eminent, and the most 
 holy of the Christian Fathers. Passages to this 
 effect may be found in the writings * of S. 
 Clemnet of Alexandria ; S. Ambrose ; S. 
 Gregory of Nazianzus ; S. Gregory of Nyssa. 
 Other names that may be cited as holding the 
 same views are, Diodorus of Tarsus, tutor of 
 S. Chrysostom ; Theodore of Mopsuestia ; 
 Theophilus of Antioch, 168, A.D. ; Athenag- 
 ORAS, 177, A.D. To these must be added the 
 great name of the saintly Origen, perhaps 
 intellectually the greatest of the Fathers ; as was 
 John Scotus Erigena probably the greatest of 
 the Schoolmen ; and both uncompromising 
 advocates of the salvation of all men. " It 
 " would seem, thus, that three at least of the 
 " greatest schools of ancient Christian theology — 
 " those of Alexandria, Antioch, and Cesarea — 
 "leaned, on this subject, to the views of Origen, 
 
 * The doctrine of Beaerve, widely held at this time, probably at 
 once restrained many from openly avowing their acceptance of the 
 doctrine of the final salvation of all men, and also explains why 
 others of the Fathers wrote at times with apparent inconsistency on 
 this subject. 
 
WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 11 
 
 " in favour of the 8al\ation of all men ; not in 
 '' tlieir details, but in tlieir f^'cneral liopefulness." 
 — Mercij andJii(I(/ement.i p. 226. I append a few 
 extracts to sliew how these Fathers taught in 
 the early centuries. 
 
 S. Clemioxt of Alexandria writes, " so He 
 '' saves nil men. Some He converts bv penalties, 
 '' others who follow Hoi of their own will and in 
 " pursuance of the worthiness of His honour ; that 
 " every knee may be bent to Him, of those in 
 '' Heaven, on earth, and under the earth ; that 
 '• is angels, men, and souls, who before His 
 " coming passed away from this mortal life." — 
 Aduinh. in i ep. S Joann. These are words 
 which s])eak tor themseh'es. Again S. Iren^eus, 
 writuig in the second century, has the following, 
 '•wherefore He also drove him out of Paradise 
 " and ])ut him tar from the tree of life, not 
 " grudging liiui the tree of lifo, as some presume 
 "to say, but taking piUi on him, that he might 
 "not continue always a transgressor ; and that 
 " the sin which was in him miglit not be immortal, 
 " and the e\il interminable and irremediable.'^ — 
 Cmitr. Ha'r. iii, c. 2o. 
 
 S. (tke(;()RY of jS'yssa, in a remarkable passage, 
 speaks of Curist as " both freeing mankind from 
 " their wickedness, and healing the iwy inve?itor 
 '' of ivickedness, (the Devil). — Catech. Orat. tom., 
 iii, chap. 2(). See how wide and distinct and 
 uucomproinisiug tliese words an^ ; and yet many 
 
72 WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 
 
 people speak of the dogma of universal salvation 
 as a modern novelty. Again, in another treatise, 
 the same o-reat Father writes thus, " for it is 
 " needful that at some time evil shall he removed 
 " utterly and entirely from the realm of existence. 
 " For since by its very nature evil cannot exist 
 " apart from free choice, when all free choice 
 " becomes in the power of God, shall not evil 
 " advance to utter abolition, so that no receptacle for 
 " it shall he left. — De Aninia et Resurrect, tom. iii, 
 p. 227, ed. Paris. Here you observe that the 
 saint anticipates the utter extinction of evil at 
 some future day. Again, writing on Phil, ii, 10, 
 S. Gregory says that " in this passage is sig- 
 " niiied, that when evil has been obliterated in the 
 " long circuits of the oeons, nothing shall be left 
 " outside the limits of good ; but even from them 
 " shall be unanimously uttered the confession of 
 "the Lordship of Christ. — De Aniina et Resur- 
 rect., opp. i, ed Paris. 
 
 Another early Father writes thus, " and God 
 " shewed great kindness to man, in this, that He 
 " did not suffer him to continue being in sin for 
 " ever ; but as it were by a kind of banishment 
 " cast him out of paradise, in order that, having 
 " by punishment expiated within an appointed 
 " time the sin, and having been discipHned, he 
 " should afterivards be rec(dled. * * . * Further 
 "just as a vessel, when on being fashioned, it has 
 " some flaw, is re-moulded, or re-made, that it 
 " mav become nnc and entire ; .w also it happens to 
 
WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 73 
 
 " man by death. For he is broken up by force, 
 " that in the resurrection he may be found whole, 
 " I mean righteous, spotless and immortal. — 
 Theopiiilus of Antioch, ad Autolycum, ii, 26. 
 
 I shall close this list with a passage, very 
 distinct in its teaching of the larger hope. It 
 really expresses the opinions of "a remarkable 
 woman S. Macrina, sister of S. Gregory of 
 Nyssa, and is taken from the same book De 
 Anima, p. 852, of S. Gregory, which has been 
 quoted above. " The word seems to lay down 
 '' the doctrine of the perfect obliteration of wicked- 
 " ness, for if God shall be in all things that are, 
 " obviously wickedness shall not be in them." 
 These words are a comment on 1 Cor., xv, 28, 
 which speak of the time yet to come when God 
 shall be " all in all," words which to those early 
 saints conveyed a distinct impression that all 
 evil would be obliterated. 
 
 And here I desire you to remark, when you 
 read these opinions of the Fathers, in order 
 rightly to estimate their weight, that they were 
 written in an age when the very idea of mercy, 
 as we now conceive it, was wholly unknown. 
 Penalties were of every day occurrence then, that 
 would now send a thrill of utter horror through 
 the whole civilised world if inflicted in any one 
 case ; if indeed the details could be printed at all. 
 Xow when men livino- amidst these horrors — 
 familiar with them all tlieir live>s, and accepting 
 
U WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 
 
 them as part of the order of thmgs — found it yet 
 impossible to believe in an endless Hell, we may 
 well hail with pleasure their testimony. For in 
 their case it was no mere sentimentalism, no 
 exaggerated tenderness — such feelings were in 
 that age impossible — that led them to proclaim 
 the salvation of all men. It was merely the 
 strength of their conviction that the gospel 
 meant what it promised — life to the world. It 
 was their deep abiding persuasion of the victory 
 of Jesus Christ, and of its completeness. They 
 so taught because they gathered from the very 
 spirit of the gospel and from its letter — its 
 distinct and repeated promises — as I hope to 
 shew, a certainty, that the empire of Chhist was 
 destined to embrace all creation. 
 
 Nor is this all. Most deeply significant is it 
 that these opinions * were held without the least 
 consciousness on the part of these Fathers, that 
 in so teaching they were deviating into the bye- 
 paths of new or strange opinions. " For express- 
 
 • It is also important to bear in mind that the early Fathers held, 
 almost unanimously, the doctrine of an intermediate state after 
 death. Thus, e. (j. , so far from believing what our popular creed now 
 teaclies, let us hear Justin Martin saying, " those who talk of their 
 "souls going straight to Heaven after death are not Christians, or 
 " even Jews." — Dial. These Fathers were practically unanimous in 
 believing in a work of purification going on after death, a sort of 
 cleansing fire (not the Roman Catholic Purgatory, which ia a later 
 and quite distinct belief). I call attention here to all this, because 
 it is essential that we should learn how unfounded is our motlern 
 notion that death terminates our chances of spiritual growth, and 
 amendment, and discipline. 
 
WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 75 
 
 " ing this hope, or this doctrine, tliey were never 
 " ahiised, never attacked, never censured, never 
 ^^ so much as challenged. They Uved, and they 
 " died, and they have continued in the odour of 
 " sanctity. They are recognised as Saints and 
 " Fathers to this day." Nay, St. Gregory of 
 Nyssa, the most outspoken of them all, was inainly 
 the author of the final clauses added to the 
 Xicene Creed at the second General Council. 
 
 But notwithstanding this, the assertion is still 
 repeated that the dogma of the final sah'ation of 
 all men was condemned in the person of Origen, 
 at the fifth General Council. This assertion is, 
 as will be shewn, distinctls' untrue. An attempt 
 Avas indeed made to procure a condemnation of 
 this doctrine, hut it com]>letely failed. For a 
 clearer understanding of the facts it must be 
 premised that under the term "Origenism" were 
 included very many speculative o])inions of 
 Origen, in no icay ivhaiever necessarily connected 
 with the belief in the final salvation of all men. 
 " That belief was, in fiict, widely held by those 
 " who opposed Origen in everything e^.se." 
 From this it follows tha't a condemnation of 
 Origkn, or of "Origenism," would of itself prove 
 nothing as to the condemnation of the doctrine of 
 the final salvation of all men. On the whole I 
 have thought it better for the avoidance of any 
 doubt, instead of stating the case in my own 
 words, to reproduce here an account of the whole 
 matter from the pen of one whose com])etence 
 
76 WHAT THE CEURGH TEACHES. 
 
 will, I presume, not be questioned. It is right 
 to add that some able critics dispute even the 
 fact of the condemnation of Origkn (referred to 
 below) at the fifth General Council, and produce 
 reasons to show that his name was probably a 
 later interpolation ; but this is not material to 
 the really important fact, which is, that neither 
 the fifth nor any prior or subsequent General 
 Council has ever condemned the belief in the final 
 salvation of all men, in the person of Origeti, or of 
 anyone eke. 
 
 " Origen's opinion on the final restitution of 
 " all souls was especially disliked by the Emperor 
 " Justinian, and he caused the ' Home Synod ' 
 " of Constantinople (i.e., a committee of Bishops 
 " from a small number of sees near Constanti- 
 " nople, who, with some ofiicers of the Metropoli- 
 " tan Church, formed a standing council for the 
 " Patriarch) to meet in 541, expressly to condemn 
 '' this amongst other opinions of Origen. Tlie 
 " Synod passed fifteen canons, in which various 
 '' theories of Origen's were condemned, but 
 " deliberately omitted the particular one in 
 " question. Twelve years later the fifth General 
 '' Council was assembled, and in one of its canons 
 " condemned Origen by name amongst several 
 " others, but did not state what opinions of his 
 " were heretical ; and as it was itself con\'ened to 
 " discuss certain Nestorian views then current, 
 "no argmuent can be drawn from the business 
 •' befoi'c it that it hjid this particular tenet in 
 
WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 77 
 
 " mind. The fifteen canons of the Home Synod 
 " of 541 have been by some mistake incUided in 
 " the decrees of the iifth General Council, but 
 "• even if the Council had adopted them as its own 
 " (of which no probability exists), that would 
 " leave the point in question untouched.' 
 
 '' The only shadow of ground for the current 
 'impression on the subject is that the first of the 
 ' fifteen canons aforesaid of the Home Synod runs 
 ' thus : ' If any one should assert the fabulous 
 ' pre-existence of souls, and the monstrous resti- 
 ' tution which follows therefrom, let him be 
 ' anathema.' This can mean onl}^ that the 
 ' particular theory of restitution here specified is 
 ' condemned, and no other, so far as the canon is 
 ' concerned. But we learn what it was from the 
 ' fourteenth canon, which is as follows : ' If any 
 ' one shall say that in the future all rational 
 
 • beings will form a single unit, personality and 
 ' number disappearing along with their bodies, 
 ' and that the ruin of the worlds and the putting- 
 ' off of the body will happen in virtue of know- 
 ' ledge of intellectual things, and also the loss of 
 ' [distinctive] names, and that there shall be an 
 ' identity of cognition and personality, and that 
 
 • in this fabulous restoration they will be mere 
 ' naked spirits, as was the case in their fictitious 
 ' pre-existence, let him be anathema.' ' This is 
 ' decisive that the Synod took no account what- 
 ' ever of the Emperor's injunction to condemn 
 ' OiiKJKx's denial of (nei-Iasriiig j)uiiishment, and 
 
78 WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 
 
 " thereby intended to leave it an open question." 
 — Church Times, Feb., 1884. 
 
 To the influence of St. Augustine, more than 
 to any other single cause, is probably due the 
 adoption of a harsher and narrower creed, by 
 the Church in general, at a later day ; and at a 
 time when, it must be remembered, learning was 
 dead and there prevailed in the Western Church, 
 during many centuries, a wide-spread ignorance 
 of the orio;inal lano-uao-es of both the Old and 
 New Testament. Combined with this ignorance 
 there was also a general ferocity, and corruption 
 of manners. ISTor must we forget to state the 
 important fact, that St. Augustine was himself 
 imperfectly acquainted with Greek, having, as he 
 confesses, shrunk from the toil of learninof it 
 thoroughly. — Conf. i, 14. And it is no disrespect 
 to remark on the feebleness (and indeed vacillat- 
 ing character^ of his arguments in consecpience. 
 Xor ouo-ht we to lose sio-ht of the further fact, 
 that the current belief, which grew up in later 
 years, was so completely tempered by the 
 doctrine of Purgatory (developed in these centu- 
 ries) as to be for all practical purposes well nigh 
 superseded. 
 
 But the earlier iiiitli was ])y no means 
 wholly dead. From amid the prevailing cor- 
 ruption and darkness, voices were still raised 
 at inter^•als to proclaim the larger hope. A 
 strikinii' instance is tliat furnislied l)v the case of 
 
WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 79 
 
 the famous John Scotus Erigena, who in the 
 iiiiith century, as the result of a careful study of 
 the Greek Fathers, proclaimed distinctly the 
 doctrine of universal salvation. Nor are later 
 instances wanting. " Both St. Thomas Aquinas 
 " and Durandus shew us that, even in their day, 
 " absolute universalistn was not unknown. It 
 " was the opinion of the school of Gilbert of 
 " Poictiers — St. Thomas Aquinas, Sent, iv, 45 
 " — and 'aliquorum juristarum ' — Durandus." — 
 Mercy and Judgement, p. 45. Again, a great 
 name, St. Anselm, in the twelfth century, writes 
 thus : " It is quite foreign to God's nature to 
 " suffer any reasonable creature wholly to perish." 
 — Cur Deus Homo, ii, 4. A striking proof of 
 the survival of the earlier hope ; "nor," adds the 
 Saint, "is it possible for the reasonable mind to 
 " think otherwise." 
 
 Xo doubt some will say : but does not the very 
 fact that this belief in an endless Hell was per- 
 mitted to spread so widely prove its truth ? If 
 so, I reply, why not then carry out your theory ? 
 Is trans ubstantiation true because it has prevailed 
 so widely ? Papal infallibility is a belief very 
 Avidely spread ; is it therefore to be accepted ? 
 The cultus of the Blessed A^irgin is very wide 
 spread ; is it therefore Scriptural ? Instances 
 without end might be added. In fact, no more 
 groundless belief can be pointed out than this, 
 that the prevalence of an opinion is a proof of its 
 truth. Are they who hold this strange opinion 
 
80 WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 
 
 prepared to join the Church of Eome, and accept 
 the supremacy of the Pope, because this belief is 
 that of the vast majority of Christians in the 
 Western Church ? It has pleased God to permit 
 in numberless cases error to prevail, and obscure 
 in this present age His truth. This very fact is 
 but a louder call to us to work against all that 
 hides or distorts that truth. Nay, it points not 
 uncertainly to a conclusion in perfect agreement 
 with the larger hope ; this namely, that the 
 present is but an initial stage of being ; one of 
 many ages, during which God is slowly, very 
 slowly, working out a vast plan, and permits for 
 a moment, as it were, an apparent triumph to 
 error and to evil. 
 
 But in God's providence the true hope and 
 faith of His Church has found expression in 
 two documents, of an authority in its kind quite 
 unique and fundamental ; the two Creeds * the 
 Apostle's, and that we call the Nicene. Rightly 
 to estimate the weight of the testimony they 
 bear, let us remember that in the second Great 
 Ecumenical Council, where the Nicene Creed 
 received its present shape, S. Gregory of Nazi- 
 anzus (whose opinions are above referred to) 
 presided : while the chief author of the hnal 
 
 * Whatever we may think of the Athanasian Creed, when it 
 speaks of " everlasting," that term can mean no more than the 
 Scriptural aionios, wliich it represents, and as it is clear that ever- 
 lasting is not the meaning of aioiiio.s, this creed is really quite 
 consistent with the larger hope. 
 
WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 81 
 
 clauses, then added to the Creed, and ending with 
 the significant words " I believe — in the life of 
 the world to come," (in the life, be it remem- 
 bered, and in nothing more) was S. Gregory of 
 Nyssa, whose words, quoted above, shew him to 
 have been an unhesitating advocate of universal 
 salvation. What can be more significant of the 
 belief of the Church in these primitive days ? 
 Look at the facts. To a known believer in 
 universal salvation is entrusted principally, by 
 the Church, in her Great Council, the duty of 
 defining the faith ; and that definition runs thus : 
 '' I believe in the life of the world to come." 
 And mark the position these words occupy in 
 the creed fas does the corresponding clause 
 in the Apostle's Creed). They close, and as it 
 were, sum up the whole. The creed opens with 
 a statement of belief in the Great Creator ; it 
 speaks of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost : of 
 the work of salvation, of the Incarnation, etc. 
 But the great procession of the Christian verities 
 ends, in both creeds, in the expressive assertion 
 of faitJi in everlasting life. It is, as though both 
 creeds prot;laimed —that to this all Christian truth 
 led, in this all Christian hope culminated. Do 
 not fail, too, t^ remark the significant clause in 
 the Nicene Creed, which tells us that, in Scrip- 
 tural phrase, Christ's kingdom shall have no end. 
 And again, remember how that most ancient 
 Hymn, the Te Deum, declares that Chuist took 
 on Him "to deliver man.'' But how man, z>., 
 niinikind is delivered, or (Christ's kinu'dom has 
 
82 WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES. 
 
 no end, while yet a Hell swallows up half the 
 human race ; that has never vet been explained. 
 
 Let us now pass on and see what our own 
 Church teaches on this point. We shall I think 
 find, if we examine it carefully, in our Book of 
 Common Prayer — moulded as it is on primitive 
 lines — not a few testimonies in favour of the larger 
 hope. Go, for instance, into any of our Churches 
 at the solemn service of Holy Baptism — what is 
 the profession of faith required from the sponsors, 
 how does it end ? " Dost thou believe in ever- 
 lastino- life after death " and not a ivord or hint 
 further. How suggestive, is it not ? Again, in 
 our Litany do we not pray that it may please 
 God to have mercy, not on some men, but on all 
 men ? Is this not the larger hope ? Do we not 
 also address, in the same Litany, Jesus Christ 
 as the " Lamb of God that taketh away the sins 
 of the world," and that twice over ? Do we not 
 in Holy Connnunion repeat, three times in one 
 prayer, this touching and truly Catholic address 
 to Christ, as " takino awav the sins of the 
 " world ? " And here it is right to ask, are 
 words mere counters, a mere pretencf^, and that 
 in oiu' holiest moments ? How does Christ 
 take away the sins of the world, if to all eternity 
 in Hell the sins of any men remain not taken 
 away ? On this ])oint our Book of Common 
 Prayer is specially em])hatic, for in tlie pro])er 
 preface for Easter-day we are bidden to remember 
 how Christ " //r/M takni ainiy the siiis of the 
 
WHAT THE CIIURCH TEACHES. 83 
 
 " world ; and has by His death destroyed death.'' ^ 
 But to abolish death in its Scriptural meaning is 
 surely to abolish all that the Fall brought on 
 man. Take next another instance : in one of 
 her Ember-day Collects, the Church bids us thus 
 prav : " To those who shall be ordained to any 
 " holy function, grant Thy grace that they may 
 " set forth Thy glory, and set forward the 
 " salvation of all men." Does the salvation of all 
 men mean the damnation of most men ; of aiiy 
 man ? Again I need not remind you how we 
 pray " for all sorts and conditions of men ; that 
 " God's saving health may reach all nations." 
 And so too when the Church bids us render 
 thanks for a world redeemed, and for our creation, 
 no less than for our redemption, how can this be 
 if creation be not a certain promise of good ? If 
 creation does, as a matter of fact, imply an awful 
 unutterable risk of Hell's torment, why bid a 
 man give thanks for that which may be to him 
 an occasion of endless pains ? I will close this 
 brief survey by reminding you of a fact, perhaps 
 not always remembered, that our Church de- 
 liberately expunged that article of hers which 
 (adopted in 1552) condemed the belief in the 
 final salvation of all men. 
 
" WHAT THE OLD TESTAMENT TEACHES.' 
 
*' He will not always chide, neither keepeth He His anger for 
 ""ever." — Psalm ciii, 9. 
 
 " His anger enclureth but a moment." — Psalm xxx, 5. 
 
 " From the time at which this great and far reaching promise or 
 ' ' gospel was given to Abraham, the universal scope of the Divine 
 ' ' redemption is insisted on with growing emphasis, even in those 
 "Hebrew Scriptures which we too often assume to be animated 
 "only by a local and national spirit." — S. Cox, D.D., Salvator 
 Mundi, p. 177. 
 
 " As it is written in the book of Esaias the prophet saying : — 
 " Prepare ye the way of the Lord * * * Every valley shall 
 " be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low * • * 
 " and allflenh shall see the salvation of God." — St. Luke, iii, 4-6. 
 
 " Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity » • • 
 " He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He deligliteth in 
 "mercy." — Micah vii, 18. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 " ir//,47' THE OLD TESTAMENT TEACHES: 
 
 In the last chapter I endeavoured to give you 
 an outhne of what the Church has taught on this 
 suhject. I trust it has been made clear that the 
 belief in the final salvation of all men is no 
 novelty, no modern brand-new doctrine ; got up 
 to meet the difficulties of a sentimental age. You 
 have seen on the contrary, that this belief has 
 found expression in the writings of many of the 
 most eminent Fathers, especially the great Greek 
 Fathers (whose authority would naturally be 
 greatest on a question affecting the text of the 
 Xew Testament) and that in the purest ages of the 
 Churcli.* You have looked with me at the two 
 Ancient Creeds, and have seen how sugo-estive is 
 their testimony, Gs])ecially when the facts are con- 
 sidered which I have given above, with regard to 
 
 * The popular view — though doubtless always held by some- 
 did not become the geuer.il belief till an age of comparative darkness 
 and ignorance had succee led the days of the great Greek Fathers. 
 
88 WHAT THE OLD TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 the Mcene Creed and the second General Council. 
 " There is great significance," says an excellent 
 authority, " in the fact that in the simplest of 
 " our symbols, the Apostle's Creed ; and in the 
 " most universal of them, theNicieno-Constantino- 
 " politan we are called on to express our belief in 
 "the life but not in the death to come." — Rev. 
 Dr. LiTTLEDALE, Co7ii. Revleiv. You have been 
 shewn that the attempt to procure the condemna- 
 tion of Origen's belief in the final salvation of all 
 men comjiletely failed., a fact ever to be borne in 
 mind ; and that the question remains, so fiir as 
 Church authority is concerned, an open one to 
 this day. Again, an examination of our own 
 Prayer Book has shewn the larger hope for all 
 men embodied there in various forms. It has 
 found distinct expression in not a few parts of 
 our Church's service, liturgy and ])rayers. 
 
 From the Church I next turn to the Old 
 Testament. There, too, we shall find abundant, 
 perhaps to many, unexpected confirmation of the 
 larger hope, though I can merely attempt to give 
 an outline, and that a brief one, of its teiiching. 
 True, in the Old Testament the promises are, 
 it may be said, mainly temporal, but still we 
 have unmistakeable evidence of a plan of mercy 
 revealed in its pages, and destined to embrace all 
 men. Nor need this interpretation of the older 
 volume of God's word rest on mere conjecture : 
 let me call as a witness, no less a person than the 
 Apostle S. Peter. fie shall tell us what the 
 
WffA7' THE OLD TESTAMENT TEACHES. 89 
 
 true teachino; of the Old Testament on this 
 subject is. The Apostle in one of the very 
 earliest of his addresses, Acts iii, 21, takes 
 occasion to explain the real purpose of God in 
 Jesus Christ. There is to come finally a time 
 of universal restoration, " restitution of all 
 " things." He adds the sio;nificant words that 
 God had promised this " by the mouth of all 
 " His holy Prophets since the world began ; " 
 and therefore we who teach this hope are but 
 following- in the steps of all God's holy Prophets. 
 Thus S. Peter would have us go to the Old 
 Testament, and weave, as it werf', its varied 
 predictions into one concordant whole : gather 
 its scattered promises till they with one voice 
 proclaim the restitution of all things. 
 
 It is not my design minutely to consider the 
 varied promises of blessing to all men contained 
 in the Old Testament, though they can be traced 
 almost everywhere. Thus with the promise to 
 Abraham was blended an intimation of blessing 
 to the race of man ; to all the families of the 
 earth. And this intimation of a Avorld-wide 
 blessing, as has been often pointed out, grows 
 more fre(|uent as the stream of revelation flows 
 on. " The Psalmists are full of the largest and 
 " hap]:)iest forecasts. When they speak of the 
 " coming Messiah, they are at the farthest from 
 " claiming the blessing's of His reiofn exclusivelv 
 " for themselves ; on the contrary, they say, ' His 
 " name shall endure for ever : His uame shall be 
 
90 WE AT THE OLD TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 " continued as long as the sun ; and men shall 
 " be blessed in Him ; all nations shall call Him 
 " blessed ' * * * " They constantly breathe 
 " forth the invitation, ' praise the Lord all ye 
 "nations; praise Wm all ye people.'' — Salvator 
 Alundi. p. 178. Let me further instance such 
 words as these, " unto Thee shall all flesh 
 " come." Other exjmiples of the same address 
 to all nations — to all peoples--bidding them join 
 in God's praise, and sui-ely anticipating- that 
 they would one da}' do so, are frequent in the 
 Psalms. Take for example those our Prayer 
 Book has made familiar, e.g., Cantaie Doinmo. 
 It is not alone the house of Israel that shares 
 God's mercy and truth, but all the ends of the 
 ivorld are declared to liave seen the salvation of 
 our God — see Is. xl, 5 — and so in the next verse 
 all lands are bidden to shew themselves joyful 
 unto the Lord. To the same effect is the familiar 
 clause of the Jubilate, " be joyful in the Lord 
 " all ye lands." In fine, in this spirit the Psalter 
 closes with the noble far-resounding strain, '' let 
 "everything that hath breath, praise the Lord." 
 In this universal hope is to be found the true 
 spirit of the Psalmists, in these invitations ad- 
 dressed, not to Israel, but to all nations. 
 
 Of the greater Prophets the same is true ; 
 though I need not speak in detail of them. From 
 amid their varied contents, at times break forth 
 promises of the widest, amplest hope ; anticipa- 
 ti(ms of a time of universal bliss and joy, of a 
 
WHAT THE OLD TESTAMENT TEACHES. 91 
 
 world in which all pain and sorrow shall have 
 passed away. But these passages are in the 
 main familiar to you, and I need hardly quote 
 them. They have found their way to the heart 
 of Christendom, and have stamped themselves 
 on its literature. " Take however only this one 
 sentence from the evangelical Prophet, and 
 take it mainly because S. Paul echoes it back, 
 and interprets it as he echoes it. It is Jehovah 
 who speaks these words by the mouth of 
 Isaiah : ' Look unto me and be ye saved, all 
 ye ends of the earth ; for I am God and there 
 is none other : I have sworn by myself and 
 the word is gone out of my mouth in righteous- 
 ness and shall not return, that unto me every 
 knee shall bend and every tongue confess.' 
 Could any words more emphatically declare 
 it to be the divine purpose that the whole earth, 
 to the very end of it shall be saved ; that 
 every knee shall bow in homage before God, 
 and every tongue take the oath of fealty to 
 Him ? Are we not expressly told that this 
 declaration, since it has come from the righteous 
 mouth of God, cannot return unto Him void, 
 but must accomplish its object ; that object 
 being the salvation of the human race ? St. 
 Paul echoes this great word in the epistle to 
 the Philippians, and though on his lips it gains 
 definiteness and precision, assuredly it loses no 
 jot or tittle of its breadth : he affirms, Phil, ii, 
 ' 9-11, ' That God hath highly exalted Him, and 
 'given Him a name which is above every name. 
 
92 WHAT THE OLD TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 " in order that at the name of Jesus every knee 
 " should bow ; ' " not only every knee of man — 
 " for now the promise grows incalculably wider — 
 " but ' every knee in Heaven and on earth, and 
 " under the earth : and that everi/ tongue should 
 " confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
 " of God the Father.' " It is hard to understand 
 " Isaiah as proclaiming less than a universal 
 "redemption, but if S. Paul did not mean to 
 " proclaim a redemption as wide as the universe, 
 " what use or force is there in words? " — Salvator 
 Mundi, p. 180. 
 
 And remember how full are the Prophets, and 
 the Psalms no less, of pictures of the vastness of 
 the divine mercy, of His tenderness that never 
 fails. Even from amid the sadness of the 
 Lamentations we hear a voice assuring us that 
 "God will not cast off for ever ^ but though He 
 " cause grief, yet will He have compassion 
 " according to the multitude of his mercies." — 
 Lam. iii, 31. Or take these words of 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." — Isaiah 
 Ivii, 16. This idea is a favourite one ; the 
 contrast between the short duration of God's 
 anger and the enduring eternal character of His 
 love. " So, in a little wrath I hid my face from 
 " thee for a moment, but with everlasting kind- 
 " ness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord 
 "thy Redeemer."— /.s\ liv, 8. 
 
WHAT THE OLD TESTAMENT TEACHES. 93 
 
 We have spoken of the pictures of universal 
 blessedness that are to be found in the greater 
 Prophets, " perhaps " says the author ah'eady 
 quoted, " some of you may not be equally 
 " familiar with the fact that these same pictures 
 " are also to be found in the minor Prophets ;" 
 a fact very suggestive that " every one of these 
 " brief poems, or collections of poems, has its tiny 
 " Apocalypse. And mark this point well, while 
 " each of the minor Prophets sees the vision 
 " of a whole world redeemed to the love and 
 '' service of righteousness, this vision of redemp- 
 " tion is invariably accompanied by a vision of 
 '"'' jii(h]einetity The significance of this will be 
 seen when we come in a later chapter (ch. ix) to 
 discuss what the true meaning is of these divine 
 judgements, which are too often regarded as 
 merely implying God's wrath. 
 
 At least, if not all, yet very many of the 
 minor Prophets do predict the coming of a time 
 of universal redemption. So Joel, ii, 28, tells 
 of the spirit as being poured upon all flesh. 
 Habbukuk can look beyond the terrors of 
 judgement and see the " earth filled with the 
 " knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the 
 " watern cover the sea^ — ch. ii, 14. Is not this 
 wonderful ? Can you not enter into St. Peter's 
 words as he stood forth, while yet Christianity 
 was scarcely born, to proclaim as its glorious aim 
 and scope, the universal restoration — the paradise 
 God refrained for mankind — all thino-s made 
 
94 WHAT THE OLD TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 new. {Acts iii, 21.) 
 
 But I resume. In Zephaniah we read the 
 same glorious prospect, the same universal hope. 
 He speaks of God's judgements as being terrible 
 to the nations, in order that " men may worship 
 " Him, every one from his place even all the isles 
 ^^ of the heathen.''^ — ch. ii, 11. And again, in the 
 same Prophet, we are told how God is to send 
 His fiery judgements to purify men, " that they 
 " may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve 
 " Him with one consent'' (ch.iii, 8-9). So Malachi 
 closes the prophetic line with an intimation indeed 
 of judgement — of a refining fire — but together 
 with this, nay in consequence of this, is the pros- 
 pect unfolded, that from the " rising of the sun 
 " unto the going doivn of the same, God's name 
 " shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every 
 " place incense and pure offerings shall be offered 
 "to Him " (chs. i, 11, and iii, 2-3). 
 
 Brief as the above survey has been, it has, I 
 trust, served to indicate how, through all the 
 Old Testament, the thread of universal hope runs : 
 how the Prophets — Seers and Psalmists — of 
 Israel did foreshadow a coming age ; when sin 
 should be no more, and sorrow and sighing 
 should flee away for ever. To the New Testa- 
 ment I propose to devote an examination more 
 in detail, as its great importance demands, in the 
 next chapter. 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES," 
 
• ' And here I may briefly say, that to my owii mind, the language 
 *' of the New Testament appears unequivocally to affirm the redemption 
 '^ of all men; their actual redemption from this evil and diseased state 
 " in which we now are ; the actual raising up of all to a perfect life. 
 " To my own mind this univer.mlity seems to be clearly expressed in 
 "Scripture, and to give an unutterable delight to life." — James 
 HiNTON, The Mystery of Pain, p. 61. 
 
 ' ' I have read most of the books on the tlieme discussed in this 
 " volume, which have appeared during the last half century * * * 
 ' ' but on the whole I think I may say, quite simply and honestly, 
 "that I have got my views (m favour of a universal salvation) from 
 " long study of the New Testament itself, and not from any conament 
 "on it." — S. Cox, D.D., preface to Salvator Mundi. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHESr 
 
 We now turn to an examination of the very 
 numerous passages in the New Testament which 
 clearly declare, or imply, the salvation of all men : 
 how numerous these are, how distinct their 
 teaching, we shall see. One thing only I ask, 
 which common fairness and honesty require, that 
 our Lord and His Evangelists and Apostles may 
 be understood to metm ivhat they say. Thus, to 
 take a few instances out of many : when they 
 speak of all men I assume them to mean all men, 
 and not some men ; when they speak of all 
 things I assume them to mean all things ; when 
 they speak of life and salvation as given to the 
 world, I assume them to mean given, and not 
 merely offered ; when they speak of the destruc- 
 tion of death, of the Devil, of the works of the 
 Devil, I assume them to mean that these shall he 
 destroyed, and not preserved for ever in Hell ; 
 when they tell us that the whole of creation suffers 
 but that it shall be delivered. I assume thev mean 
 
08 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 an actual deliverance of all created things ; when 
 they tell us that Redemption is wider, broader, 
 and stronger than the Fall, I assume that they 
 mean to tell us at least this, that all the evil 
 caused by the Fall shall be swept away ; when 
 they describe Christ's empire as extendmg over 
 all things and all creatures, and tell us that every 
 tongue must join in homage to Him, I assume 
 them to mean what their words convey in their 
 ordinary sense : if I did not, should I not, in 
 fact, be making God a liar ? 
 
 S. MATTHEW xviii, 2. 
 
 " For the Son of Man is come to save that 
 which is lost." 
 
 Now the question is simply this, will Jkslts 
 Christ do what He has come to do? Will He 
 save the lost, and not some of the hst merely, a 
 totally different ihiny ? How can *' the lost " be 
 saved, if countless myriads, as the popular creed 
 teaches, shall be finally lost ? nay, if any are 
 finally lost, surely " the lost " are not saved. 
 
 S. MATTHEW xii, 32. ' 
 
 " And whosoever SPEAKETH a word AfiAINST 
 
 THE Son of Man it shall be forgiven 
 
 HIM, but whosoever SPEAKETH AGAINST THE 
 
 Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him, 
 neither in this world, n()r in the world 
 
 TO COME." 
 
 I cite this passage for the sake of the remark- 
 able hint it conveys as to forgiveness in the 
 
W/fAT 77//; XEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 00 
 
 world to come, a jwint of pniiiary itnportaiice in 
 opposiii<i; the popular creed. Let me ([uote here 
 the words of an eminent Divine, Archbishop 
 Wake, who in his Discourse of Pan](itory., p. 20, 
 says, speakinii- of this future for<j-iveness in 
 connection with the present passage, " It may 
 " with much more aoTeement to the text follow 
 " that ^7// mfn, he their sins ichat they may, shall 
 '' lian' (/race of re})entance, ivherehy they way he 
 '''pardoned in the world to come, bhisphemy against 
 ''the Holy Ghost alone excepted."' Our version 
 here, as so often, in rendering '" age " by the 
 incorrect term " world," has quite obscured the 
 meaning. Scripture nowhere, I think, speaks of 
 the present and the future world, as though there 
 were but these two ; it tells us unifonnly of a 
 present "'age" to which many ''ages" are to 
 sujceed ; through all whicli the Divine plan in 
 the work of Redemption is to go on. And even 
 the mysterious sin against the Holy Ghost may, 
 with ]>erfect conformity to the present passage, 
 iind pard )n, if not here or in the next age yet 
 in some distiint one. 
 
 S. MATTHEW xiii, 33. 
 
 "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto 
 
 leaven which a woman took and hid in 
 
 three measures of meal till the whole 
 
 was leavened." 
 
 Here is a passage which assuredly teaches a 
 universal salvation. The kingdom of Heaven is 
 set on this earth as leaven in meal : and as the 
 
100 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 leaven works till the whole mass is leavened, so 
 the Kingdom of Heaven is destined to leaven 
 the whole earth, i.e., to save all men. You 
 cannot limit the " meal " of the parable in any 
 way, it is the whole world that Christ claims as 
 His kingdom ; of the world He is the light, 
 the life, the Saviour. All things are His and all 
 souls (whether behind the veil or not), and all 
 that Christ claims —" ^Aii? «^Ao/e"-- shall one 
 day be leavened. 
 
 S. LUKE i, 33. 
 "Of His Kingdom there shall be no end." 
 
 No end of His kingdom ! but if there be a Hell 
 full of souls finally lost, there would surely be an 
 end to His kingdom, and this text could not be 
 true. To assert for Christ a kingdom without 
 any limit or bound, is plainly to teach a universal 
 salvation. 
 
 S. LUKE iii, 5. 
 
 "All flesh shall see the salvation of 
 God." 
 
 Quoted from Isaiah ; he says, speaking of 
 redemption, ch. xl, ^'' Every valley shall be 
 " exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be 
 " made low, and the glory of the Lord shall be 
 " revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.'* 
 Can you fairly reconcile these words with a 
 partial salvation ? Thus when the Prophet says 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 101 
 
 in the same chapter, verse 6, " all flesh is trrass," 
 who doubts the universality of his words ; and if 
 so, is it not a violation of all fairness in an 
 exactly parallel case, to doubt the universality of 
 the salvation ? 
 
 S. LUKE xii, 48. 
 
 '' But he that knew not, and did commit 
 
 thinlis worthy of stripes, shall be beaten 
 
 with few stripes." 
 
 " This seems to prove that there is such a thing 
 " in the life to come as a terminable retribution. 
 "Can ^ few'' be synonymous with '■endless'^'''' — 
 i^ee Mercy and Judgement J p. 478. It has been 
 ])ertinently asked " what is to be done (on the 
 " popular view) with the man after the few stripes 
 '* have been inflicted ? " 
 
 S. LUKE XV, 4. 
 
 " What man of you having an hundred 
 sheep in the wilderness, if he lose one of 
 
 them doth not LEAVE THE NINETY AND NINE 
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS AND GO AFTER THAT WHICH 
 
 IS LOST UNTIL HE FIND IT ? " 
 
 " Yes " says a writer already quoted, " as long 
 " as there is one member of the race imperfect, 
 " the shepherd parent is pursuing it in love until 
 " it be safely rested on his shoulders ; and all 
 " the rest of mankind are crying out for the 
 " missing member, without which their own life 
 "does not fullv or freely vibrate." See how 
 
]02 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 broadly Christ puts this case. It was to all the 
 jmhlicans and sinners, v. 1 , that He was speaking, 
 lest we might narrow His precious words to a 
 few elect. And agaui see how broadly Hp: bases 
 His aro-unient, " what man of vou," He asks 
 " would not do this ? " As thouiJ-h to assure us 
 that in the connnon feeling of liuraanity, shared 
 by even publicans and sinners, we liave safe 
 w^arrant to conclude that our Father will seek on 
 and on till He find every erring child. Lastly, 
 note how the straying sheep is represented as 
 being the shepherd's loss. When man strays God 
 is the loser, and God in seeking man is trying to 
 retreive His own loss, l>ut how seldom is this 
 weighty truth recognised ? 
 
 S. LUKE XV. 8. 
 " Either what woman HA^'I^G ten pieces of 
 
 SILVER, if she lose ONE PIECE, DOTH NOT 
 
 LIGHT A CANDLE AND SWEEP THE HOUSE AND 
 
 SEEK DILIGENTLY TILL SHE FIND IT ? " 
 
 Here is precisely the same broad human basis, 
 and the same idea, the sense of loss is that 
 of the owner, i.e.^ God. Keep steadily in view 
 three facts, which distinctly emerge from these 
 parables: 1 — our own feelings of lo\e and pity 
 are a safe guide to God's feelino-s ; " what man 
 "of you? " 2 — every lost soul is God's loss, who 
 therefore may be trusted to seek its recovery ; 
 and ?i — to seek till hie find if. 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 103 
 
 S. LUKE xiii, 20-1. 
 
 " WhEREUNTO shall I LIKEN THE KINGDOM OF 
 
 God 1 IT IS LIKE LEAVEN, WHICH A WOMAN 
 
 TOOK AND HID, IN THREE MEASURES OF MEAL, 
 
 TILL THE WHOLE WAS LEAVENED." 
 
 Till the lohole was leavened, remember. Not 
 till then shall the Kino^'lom of Heaven be com- 
 plete ; not till then the race redeemed shall have 
 been leavened through and through. — See note 
 on S. Matt. xiii. 88. 
 
 S. LUKE xix, 10. 
 " For THE Son of Man is come to seek 
 
 AND to save that WHICH WAS LOST." 
 
 If SO, I gather from His own parables, and 
 His essential nature, that so long as miy thing is 
 lost, Jksus Christ will go on seeking and saving ; 
 I'or is He not always the same ? " The lost " 
 are His charge, and not some of the lost, a very 
 different thing, as I have before said. Shall any 
 thing separate any lost one from His love ? Is 
 Hp: not Lord of the dead as truly as of the living ? 
 Did Hk not go from the bitter cross to the lost 
 spirits in prison, to preach, as St. Petior tells us, 
 the Gospel- to the dead. And yet too many of 
 us hav^e been trained to think that death is so 
 strong a thing, that it paralyses His power to 
 save ! We have not yet learned that all things — 
 life and death, time and eternity — are in Jesus' 
 hand. We have forgotten, apparently, that all 
 power has been given unto Him ; that He has 
 the kcvs of rloath. 
 
104 WE AT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 S. JOHN i, 7. 
 " The same came for a witness, to bear 
 
 WITNESS OF the LIGHT, THAT ALL MEN THROUGH 
 Him MIGHT BELIEVE." 
 
 Yes, that all men might believe, that is indeed 
 the Divine purpose — the purpose of Him who 
 sent the Baptist. But who is there that shall 
 say, that what God purposes to do He wall fail 
 to accomplish ? I know that He cannot fail : 
 I read distinctly of the iminutability of His 
 counsel, of His purpose (Heh. vi, 17). Am I to 
 believe that the immutable purpose of the un- 
 changing God shall come to nothing? 
 
 S. JOHN i, 2-9. 
 "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh 
 
 AWAY the sin OF THE WORLD." 
 
 I often ask myself, how could the extent of 
 the w^ork of Christ be more distinctly intimated. 
 It is the world's sin, and not less, that He 
 takes away. But if it is taken aivay, how can 
 there be an endless Hell for its pLinishment ? Is 
 all this mere playing with words? Have w^e come 
 to asserting that of G( )d\s word ? 
 
 S. JOHN iii, 17. 
 " For God sent not His Son into the world 
 
 TO condemn the world ; BUT THAT THE WORLD 
 THROUGH Him MIGHT BE SAVED." 
 
 Again the same plain statement, as to the 
 ivorhVs salvation and God's purpose to save it ; 
 and aimin I ask, arc we to believe God when 
 
WHAT THE iVEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 105 
 
 He tells us that His purpose in Redemption is 
 the salvation of the world, and assures us by His 
 Prophets that His word shall not return unto Him 
 void, but shall accomplish that which He pleases. 
 
 S. JOHN iii, 35. 
 
 "The Father loveth the Son, and hath 
 given all things into his hand." 
 
 The relevance of this is obvious, " all that the 
 "Father hath given me," says Christ, "shall 
 " come unto me," ch. vi, 37. It is one of the 
 large group of passages showing the universality 
 of Christ's Kingdom. Compare ch. xiii, 3, and 
 see the connection of the gift of all things to 
 Christ and His atoning death — very signihcant 
 I think, and perhaps overlooked by many. Also 
 see 6'. Matt, vi, 27, where just before the well- 
 known appeal, " come unto me," Jesus has been 
 saying that all things were delivered unto Him by 
 His Father ; a connection surely suggestive. 
 Read, too, in tliis light, S. Matt, xxviii, 18, and 
 note the connection between all power claimed 
 by Christ, and His claiui to bring all nations 
 to chscipleship. So Heh. ii, 8-9, in this last 
 passage again the connection between the gift 
 of ali things to Jesus Christ, and His atone- 
 ment is very marked - His tasting death, for 
 every man. The Divine Son is set over all 
 things ; as He creates all things (actually) so He 
 redeems and restores all things (actually, not 
 potentitdly) ; His rclaticm is to all. not a part. 
 
106 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 God has given to Him all things ; and all things 
 given to Him shall come to Him. So says Holy 
 Scripture, and the universalist is but accepting 
 and believing what it says. 
 
 S. JOHN iv, 42. 
 
 " This is indeed the Christ, the Saviour 
 OF the world." 
 
 The same truth — the ivorld saved. In saying 
 God is the creator of the world, an actual creation 
 is meant ; so in saying Christ is the Saviour of 
 the world, not anythmg less than an actual salva- 
 tion is meant ; a point I must be forgiven for 
 pressing, so true is it and so generally forgotten. 
 
 S. JOHN vi, 12. 
 "Gather up the fragments that remain, 
 
 THAT nothing BE LOST." 
 
 In passing we may note this passage, for 
 Christ's hints go very far, and are full of mean- 
 ing. What is the larger hope but this, that of 
 all that the Father hath given Him He will lose 
 nothino; ? 
 
 S. JOHN vi, 33. 
 
 "The bread of God is He which cometh 
 
 DOWN FROM Heaven, and giveth life unto 
 
 the world." 
 
 Here we are told that life is given, not offered 
 merely, to the world. The world (Kosmos) is in 
 Scripture the ungodly mass, the outer circle. It 
 is contrasted with the inner circle of the faithful, 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 107 
 
 the elect. But this wmid is over and over again 
 claimed by Christ. He saves it ; He gives life 
 to it ; He gives light to it. Remember to 
 " oifer " is not the same as to " give." 
 
 S. JOHN vi, 37-9. 
 " All that the Father giveth me shall 
 
 COME to me, and him THAT COMETH TO ME I 
 ^YILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT ; FOR I CAME DOWN 
 
 FROM Heaven not to do mine o\Vn will, but 
 THE will of Him that sent me. And this 
 is the Father's will which hath sent me, 
 
 THAT OF ALL WHICH He HATH GIVEN ME I 
 SHOULD LOSE NOTHING." 
 
 Tliis is very explicit ; we have seen that God 
 the Father has given to Christ, not some things, 
 but all things ; and here we have the w^ord and 
 promise of Jesus Christ that, all that has been 
 given to Him shall come to Him, and that nothing 
 shall be lost (ch. vi, 12). What further is needed 
 to prove from Scripture a universal salvation ? 
 What further could God ])ossibly say ? 
 
 8. JOHN vi, 51. 
 
 "My flesh WHICH I will GIVE FOR THE LIFE 
 OF THE WORLD." 
 
 Again it is the world for whose life Christ is to 
 give His fiesli. Can He give in vain ? His gifts 
 are " without repentance," i.e.^ must be eifectual. 
 To say that His word can return to Him having 
 failed, or His gifts not take effect, is to contra- 
 dict Holy Scripture. 
 
108 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 S. JOHN viii, 12. 
 "Then spake Jesus again unto them, I am 
 
 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD." 
 
 Here, too, the ivoiid., the ungodly world, is 
 that of which Christ is the Light as well as the 
 Life. 
 
 S. JOHN ix, 5. 
 
 " When I am in the world, I am the light 
 OF the world." — Rev. Version. 
 
 The same idea over and over again ; not the 
 elect merely, but the vmrlcl., enlightened ; quick- 
 ened ; saved. 
 
 S. JOHN xii, 32. 
 
 " And I, IF I BE LIFFED UP FROM THE EARTH, 
 WILL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME." 
 
 One would expect that Christ's own words 
 would be belived by those Avho teach in His 
 name. I think the plainest comment the best 
 here. A partial drawing, / ^., a partial salvation 
 makes His words untrue. One reads * the com- 
 ments of good men on this passage, with a feeling 
 akin to despair, as they attempt to make Jesus 
 Christ say that which He did not say, and not 
 say that which He did say. It is only in reading- 
 such remarks of commentators that one realises 
 
 * Canon Westcott is an honourable exception, who, in the 
 Speaker'ti Commentai'y, says : — " The phrase must not be limited in 
 "any way; we must receive it as it stands." Surely ! but to 
 receive it as it stands is to teach, in plain words, universal salvation. 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 109 
 
 the terrible power of an evil traditional creed to 
 pre vert the judgement, and to blind good men 
 to the plainest teachings of the Bible — to its 
 clearest promises of universal salvation ! 
 
 S. JOHN xii, 47. 
 
 "For I CAME NOT TO JUDGE * THE WORLD, BUT 
 TO SAVE THE WORLD." 
 
 This is as distinct as possible : its force can 
 only be evaded by asserting that Christ will fail 
 to accomplish that very thing which He came to 
 do : and this assertion must be made in the teeth 
 of those repeated and explicit passages which 
 declare the completion of His triumph — the 
 endlessness of His kingdom. 
 
 I JOHN ii, 2. 
 
 " And He is the propitiation for our sins : 
 
 and not for ours only, but also for the 
 
 sins of the whole world." 
 
 Notice here the world contrasted with the true 
 disciples ; and yet the propitiation is not to be 
 conlined to the few, it is for all, S. John's 
 anxiety is to assert this for all. Kemember too, 
 that here in whatever sense Christ is a propitia- 
 tion for " our " sins, in the same sense He is so for 
 
 * Of course the meaning is, tliat the work of Jesus Christ is the 
 salvation of the world : the text cannot, in the face of numerous 
 passages, intend to teach that Jksus does not judge ; in fact it is to 
 the Sox that judgement has been committed. But He, by His 
 judgements, saves (see Ch. ix, section on judgement). 
 
no WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 the sins of the whole world. Here, as so often, 
 the narrower and wider purposes of salvation are 
 both mentioned : the narrower not excludino-, as 
 in the popular view, but including and imjilying 
 the wider ; a truth of the deepest importance. 
 
 I JOHN iii, 8. 
 "For this purpose the Son of God was 
 
 MANIFESTED, THAT He MIGHT DESTROY THE 
 WORKS OF THE DeVIL." 
 
 Now who can read with impartial mind this 
 explicit statement, and doubt its meaninp^ ? The 
 very purpose of the manifestation of God's Son 
 is the sweeping away of Satan's works. How 
 then can this jjossibly he true, while pain and sin 
 and Hell endure for ever and ever? No id^as 
 can be more exactly opposed than the permanence 
 of evil, and yet the destruction of the works of 
 the Devil. Is sin the Devil's work ? Is all that 
 sin involves the work of the Devil ? Yes, or 
 No ? You cannot answer in the negative. But 
 if the affimative be true, then all is to be swept 
 away ; Hell and sin and sorrow. 
 
 I JOHN iv, U. 
 
 " And we have seen and do testify, that 
 THE Father sent the Son to be the Saviour 
 
 OF THE WORLD." 
 
 Does it not savour of mockery to say that tlie 
 Father sent the Son to destroy evil and to save 
 the world, and yet that neitlier sliall evil be 
 destroved or the world sa^'ed! And remember. 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. Ill 
 
 I am only pleading for Christ's doing the very 
 thing He has come to do, and promised to do. 
 
 REVELATIONS i, 18. 
 
 "I HAVE THE KEYS OF HeLL AND DeATH." 
 
 Significant surely ! How, if so, can death 
 (the second, or any death) sever from Jesus 
 Christ {ivho holds the keys), from His power to 
 save ? If this were only believed, what light 
 (sorely needed) it would shed on the whole 
 subject of death. — See on death in ch. ix. 
 
 REVELATIONS v, 13. 
 
 "And every creature which is in Heaven, 
 and on the earth, and under the earth, 
 and such as are in the sea, and all that 
 are in them, heard i saying unto him that 
 
 SITTETH ON THE THRONE, AND UNTO THE LaMB, 
 BLESSINGS, ETC." 
 
 How comprehensive this picture ! Its words 
 embrace every created thing —on the earth, and 
 under the earth, and in the sea. All are represen- 
 ted as swelling the chorus of praise to God, and to 
 the Lamb. Yes, to such an ending we trust and 
 hope that all creation is indeed coming, because 
 we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour 
 of all men and because we believe His own 
 words that promise that all things shall be made 
 new. Else, how could all things join in this 
 glorious chorus ? Note, too, how the story of 
 salvation is here told, so to speak. It goes (as 
 pointed out alrcadv, see / John ii, 2) from the 
 
112 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. ^ 
 
 few to the many. First, the elders, and the living 
 creatures, raise the song of praise. They are said 
 to be the redeemed out of every kindred and 
 nation. Then is heard the voice of many angels, 
 and lastly comes the turn of every creature wliich 
 is in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the 
 earth, to join in the strain of praise, which has 
 now swelled so as to embrace the universe. 
 
 REVELATIONS xxi, 5. 
 "Behold I make all thl\us new." 
 
 It is the same glorious hope, not for some, but 
 for all., no less than all things are to be made new. 
 Here again we have a universal restoration 
 distinctly promised — the salvation of all. 
 
 REVELATIONS xxii, 2-3. 
 " And the .leaves of the tree were for the 
 
 HEALING OF THE NATIONS. AnD THERE SHALL 
 BE NO MORE CURSE." 
 
 Here is a striking hint — after the manner of 
 the Scripture — as to a future work of restora- 
 tion ; a hint that the nations are one day to be 
 healed ; that in another age there shall be 
 ministries of salvation ; for all this is subsequent 
 to the passing away of the present earth, and the 
 present Heaven (ch. xxi, 1). And as a result 
 of this healing, there shall be no more ciu'se — no 
 pain — no tears — and no endless Hell therefore, 
 but all thiiKjs made new. 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. US 
 
 ACTS ii, 17. 
 " And it shall come to pass, saith God, I 
 
 WILL POITR OUT OF MY SPIRIT UPON ALL FLESH." 
 
 This, and no less^ is over and over again 
 declared to be the scope and extent of Christ's 
 Redemption. Compare these words, too, with the 
 passages following, in one and all of which S. 
 Peter emphatically states the wiiversality of 
 Christ's work of salvation ; it is to turn "every 
 " one of them from his iniquities ; " nay, it is to 
 culminate in a time of renewal of all tliin"-s, as 
 our next citation shall shew beyond anv pos- 
 si})ilitv of doubt. 
 
 ACTS iii, 21. 
 " Whom the Heavens must receive until the 
 
 TIMES OF restitution OF ALL THINGS, WHICH 
 (tOD HATH SPOKEN BY THE MOUTH OF ALL HiS 
 
 HOLY Prophets since the world began." 
 
 Can the Bible speak more distinctly ? Can 
 words be plainer, clearer, more explicit? All 
 things are to be restored ; and this is said to be the 
 meanino; of the work of Christ, the meaninof- of 
 the promise to Abraham, of the Jewish coven- 
 ant (v. 25, and c. ii, 17), the meaning of the 
 <)ut])oured spirit. This is the language held by 
 all the Prophets since the world began. I repeat, 
 either these words of the Apostle are untrue, or 
 there shall one day be a universal restoration — ■ 
 rill thiiiii's made new — all men snved. 
 
114 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 ACTS iii, 25. 
 
 " Saying unto Abraham, in thee shall all 
 the kindreds of the earth be blessed." 
 
 Here is the blessed purpose of God, wliicli St. 
 Paul speaks of as a promise that Abraham 
 should be ''heir of the ivorhV (Rom. iv, 13) ; the 
 purpose by which GrOD chooses a people as "first 
 "fruits" of all the earth ; and so implies the 
 salvation of all men. 
 
 If in these comments the same ideas recur, 
 that is because in Scripture they too recur ; and 
 I feel it right to press on your attention this 
 very fact of their reiterated mention in the Bible. 
 Let me close this chapter, as I began, by remark- 
 ing that I have throughout, merely assumed the 
 Bible to mean what it says. I dare not do other- 
 wise, for — to take one instance — I can hardly 
 conceive a greater insult offered to Christ than 
 to say, that jn^ofessijig to draw all me?} unto Him- 
 self He really only means to draw some men. 
 
" WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES.' 
 
" Love — hopeth all things. "—I Cor. xiii, 7. 
 
 " I think all the ways lead to our Father," said the little Pilgrim 
 (though she had not known this till now), " and the dear Lord walks 
 " about them all. Here you never go astray." — A Little Pilt/rim in 
 the U/i.-fec)}, p. 62. 
 
 " With me, this final victory (of good over evil), is not a matter 
 " of speculation at all, but of absolute faith ; and to disbelieve it 
 " would be for me to cease altogether to tritfit or to worship God " — 
 Bishop EwiNG. 
 
 " I have a creed," I replied, " none better and none shorter. It 
 " is told in two words, the two first of the Paternoster. And when 
 " I say these words I mean them." — 0. W. Holmes, Autocrat of the 
 Breakfast Table. 
 
CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 " W/TAT THE XEW TESTAMENT TEACH ESr 
 
 III the last chapter we saw how very numerous 
 are the passages which the writings of ^S. Matthew, 
 S. Luke, and S. John contain, clearly asserting 
 the salvation of all men, or implying it by neces- 
 sary inference. We now, in the present chapter, 
 ])roceed to consider the many and weighty 
 declarations, to the same effect, furnished by the 
 epistles of S. Paul, S. Peter, and that to the 
 Hebrews. T may here say, that we shall find in 
 these books the stream of promise still widening 
 — the blessed jjurpose of lledemption as universal 
 ill its effects —indicated with a precision of 
 language, and a varietv of illustration, convincing 
 to any fair iiiinil. 
 
 As we read these passages of Holy Scripture, 
 our surprise increases to amazement at those who, 
 witliin the Church and without it, do in fact 
 
118 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 desire iis to return to the bondao-e of mediaeval 
 tradition on this subject of future punishment. 
 Nay, that is to U7iderstate the case, for, even in 
 the darkest middle ages, men would not believe 
 that cruel doo-nia of endless tornient in all its 
 present cruelty. They had not then quite 
 forgotten the teaching of earlier and purer days, 
 and, as has been explained, the belief in Hell 
 was then so completely tempered by the doctrine 
 of Purgatory as to lose more than half its terrors. 
 So that in very deed in asking all men to believe, 
 and clergy and ministers to teach, endless torture 
 in Hell — unrelieved by any terminable punish- 
 ment beyond the grave — they are not merely 
 reproducing the cruel beliefs of the darkest ages, 
 but they are positively seeking to aggravate their 
 terrors ; to open for us beyond and " beneath the 
 " lowest depth., a lower deep " of horror, unutter- 
 able and inconceivable. 
 
 KOMANS iv, 3. 
 
 " For the promise that he should be the 
 
 heir of the m'orld was not to abraham, or 
 
 to his seed through the law, etc." 
 
 Here remark how distinct is the assertion — 
 how clear and precise — that in the promise to 
 Abraham is implied a universal blessing. The 
 election by God of the Jews really involves the 
 ivorUrs salvation ; for Abraham is " heir of the 
 "world," i.e.., receives, as his inheritance, the 
 u'hole world. In a later cluipter (ch. ix) I have 
 
WHAT THE XEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 119 
 
 pursued at more len<^th this all important fact, 
 tliat the essential idea inv^olved in the Divine 
 election, is hy it to convey a blessing to all ; not 
 to offer, but actually to impart this blessing-. 
 
 ROMANS V, 15-18 
 "But not as the offence, so also is the 
 
 FREE GIFT. Foil IF THROUGH THE OFFENCE OF 
 ONE MANY BE DEAD, MUCH MORE THE GRACE OF 
 God, AND THE GIFT BY GRACE, WHICH IS BY 
 
 ONE MAN, Jesus Christ, hath abounded 
 
 UNTO MANY. THEREFORE AS BY THE OFFENCE 
 OF ONE, JUDGEMENT CAME UPON ALL MEN TO 
 CONDEMNATION ; EVEN SO BY THE RIGHTEOUS- 
 NESS OF ONE THE FREE GIFT CAME UPON ALL 
 MEN UNTO JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE." 
 
 I cannot but earnestly commend a study of 
 these verses, and with them, of the whole drift and 
 argument of the passage. It is, I do not fear 
 to assert, ahvliiteli/ irreconcilable with a partial 
 salvation. It contains a statement as explicit as 
 w^ords can convey it, of this great truth— God's 
 remedv is stronger than sin. Wherever, upon 
 whomsoever sin has lighted, there shall God's 
 grace, through Jesus Christ, come to heal. In 
 the very same sense as " the many " (all men) 
 were made sinners, so the " many " shall have 
 righteousness — not merely oU'ered them — but 
 ])e made righteous. Less than this cannot 
 satisfy the original text, about the meaning 
 of which there is no question at all. Will 
 the ad\-ocates of the popular creed explain how 
 
]20 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 the grace of God (v. 15) can be mightier^ in flict, 
 than the Fall, if there be a Hell rino^ino- to all 
 eternity with the groans of the lost ? Will they 
 explain how grace can much more abound than 
 the offence — if there be a place of endless torture 
 to punish the offence — if the offence be never 
 taken away? 
 
 ROMANS viii, 18-19-21-22 23. 
 "For I RECKON that the sufferings of this 
 
 PRESENT TIME ARE NOT WORTHY TO BE COMPARED 
 WITH THE GLORY WHICH SHALL BE REVEALED 
 
 IN US. For the earnest expectation of the 
 
 CREATURE WAITETH FOR THE MANIFESTATION OF 
 THE SONS OF GOD. 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 TRAVAILETH 
 IN PAIN TOGETHER UNTIL NOW. * * \YaITING 
 FOR THE ADOPTION, TO WIT, THE REDEMPTION 
 OF OUR BODY." 
 
 Here is a glorious passage in which tlie larger 
 hope is not dimly, but explicitly taught — taught 
 Avith absolute clearness. As to the details of St. 
 Paul's meaning, men may fairly differ ; but his 
 central thouofht is clear. All created thino\s 
 have been subjected to vanity — to pain and 
 suffering. Yet these are but the travail pains of 
 a new birth ; all that suffers shall be delivere<l 
 from the bondage of corruption. Note how 
 here (alone in the Ncav Testament I think) are 
 the sufferings of the whole creation alluded to, 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 121 
 
 and how emphatic is the assertion that every 
 created thing — pasa he ktisis —is awaiting Re- 
 demption. 
 
 ROMANS viii, 32. 
 "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." (Ta pan fa.) 
 
 God's gift of His Son means giving man every 
 thi?ig, i.e., all things — all persons. True, the 
 elect are primarily here referred to, but the elect 
 are only the representatives of all (see the quota- 
 tions following). And if the elect are given all 
 things, surely they are given the eternal salvation 
 of all their brethren. If this were not so, how 
 could tliey have all things ? (/ Cor. iii, 21-23). 
 
 ROMANS xi, 15-16. 
 
 " For if the casting away of them be the 
 reconciling of the world, what shall 
 the receiving of them be, but life from 
 
 THE dead ? FOR IF THE FIRST FRUIT BE HOLY, 
 the lump is also HOLY." 
 
 Here are neglected truths plainly stated. The 
 calling of the Jews is linked in God's plan with 
 the world's salvation (v. 12). They are His 
 people, in the truly divine sense, that by them 
 the world's salvation may be worked out. They, 
 as ' first fruits,' represent and pledge the world — 
 this is the true election and this only — and 
 Jksus Christ has, bv His Cross, made of Jew 
 
122 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 and Gentile " one new man " — suggestive words 
 {Eph. ii, 15). Abraham is thus made, in 
 Scripture phrase, the " heir of the world." But 
 it is precisely this breadth of the Divine purpose 
 that the Bible is so anxious to enforce, and the 
 popular creed so anxious to deny. 
 
 ROMANS xi, 26. 
 "And so all Israel shall be saved." 
 
 Not one soul therefore lost finally ; not a 
 Dives — not a Judas — if all shall be saved. And 
 Israel is but a type of all mankind. Israel is the 
 election- -but God's election means, that in 
 Israel " all the families of the earth shall be 
 " blessed." 
 
 EOMANS xi, 29. 
 "For the gifts and calling of God are 
 
 WITHOUT repentance." 
 
 That is, what God gives. He gives eftectually. 
 When He calls, men must hear — a fact of the 
 deepest significance, and yet so generally for- 
 gotten, in considering the plan of salvation. He 
 intends His salvation to be effectually offered to 
 all men through Jesus Christ. 
 
 ROMANS xi, 32. 
 
 "For God hath concluded them all in 
 unbelief, that He might have mercy upon 
 
 ALL." 
 
 Words that surely need no comment. All in 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 123 
 
 unbelief — in order to the salvation of all. Where 
 then is any room for a partial salvation ? 
 
 ROMANS xi, 36. 
 
 "For of Him, and through Him, and to 
 Him, are all things." 
 
 Compare this with the promise of that time, 
 when (tOD shall be All in All ; and look at the 
 context — these words are St. Paul's bm-st of 
 joy as he discerns a glorious future, a time when 
 all things, without exception, shall be summed 
 up in God. Here it is worth Avhile to sum up 
 clearly a few of the conclusions of this wonderful 
 chapter, viz. : — 
 
 a. God's rejection of Israel is apparent only, 
 for His calling is indefeasible, and therefore 
 
 b. All Israel shall be saved— without excep- 
 tion. 
 
 c. Israel, i.e. the elect, is so closely linked 
 with the world, that their very rejection means 
 the world's salvation — in God's mysterious plan* 
 
 d. So close is this tie between the elect and 
 the world, that a further promise follows, that 
 Israel's restoration shall be to the world " life 
 " from the dead "' — v. 1 5 — in itself a very suggestive 
 phrase as to God's way of giving life — see ch. ix. 
 
124 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 EOMANS xiv, 9-11-12. 
 "For to this end Christ both died, and 
 
 ROSE, AND revived, THAT He MIGHT BE LORD 
 BOTH OF THE DEAD AND LIVING. FOR IT IS 
 WRITTEN, AS I LIVE, SAITH THE LORD, EVERY 
 KNEE SHALL BOW TO Me, AND EVERY TONGUE 
 SHALL CONFESS TO GOD. So THEN EVERY ONE 
 OF US SHALL GIVE ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF TO GOD." 
 
 Death does not affect Christ's power over all 
 — or His purpose to bring all into harmony with 
 Himself — perhaps as hinted here by judgement 
 (see eh. 9). To Him is assigned an empire — to 
 which death can set no limit — to which, empha- 
 tically tliere is no end. 
 
 I CORINTHIANS xv, 22. 
 "For AS IN Adam all die, even so in Christ 
 
 SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE. 
 
 Few passages are more exultant than this, in 
 which St. Paul tells how complete, how uni- 
 versal, the victory of Christ shall be. He starts 
 in the text by asserting a great, but forgotten, 
 principle — the oneness of mankind — (on Avhich 
 see above p. 57). And remember, as Adam 
 actually brought death, spiritually, to all, so the 
 second Adam actually brings life, spiritually, to all. 
 No offer of life can for a moment satisfy the plain 
 language of the text. Nothing less than life 
 really — spiritually imparted to all by the second 
 Adam — can fairly express St. Paul's meaning. 
 In plain words, St. Paul is here distinctly teach- 
 insf the salvation of all men. 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 125 
 
 I CORINTHIANS xv, 25 28. 
 " For He must reign, till He hath put all 
 
 ENEMIES UNDER HiS FEET. * * ThAT GOD MAY 
 BE ALL IN ALL." 
 
 A dominion absolutely endless — boundless, is 
 here claimed for Christ — all enemies, and all the 
 ])ower of the enemy, yield in submission to Him. 
 AYhere is a prospect so p^lorious as this ? It points 
 to the End (x. 24) ; when the many ages of this 
 dispensation shall have passed, and Christ shall 
 ■finally have triumphed ; when the last straying 
 sheep shall lia\'e been found ; when the last 
 enemy shall have been overcome ; then Christ 
 shall lav down the kino-dom, and God be " All 
 "and in All." There is here, at the End., no 
 place for sin — no trace of evil — no Hell — for is 
 not (ioD All and in AH? 
 
 1 CORINTHIANS xv, 55-57. 
 
 "0 DEATH, WHERE IS THY STING 1 DEATH, 
 
 WHERE IS THY VICTORY 1 " ( 'f/iP true reading.) 
 
 Fitly do these words close this chapter, with a 
 prospect oi universal victory over every opposing 
 ]jower. I ask my readers quietly to think over 
 the whole drift of this chapter ; to mark the 
 Apostle's increasing rapture, as his argument 
 expands, and as the pros])ect opens before him of 
 a universe yet to be, from which every form of 
 e\'il is banished. Let them consider these two 
 thoughts, ever present to the Apostle's mind 
 here : the oneness of mankind in Christ, and the 
 certainty and universality of Christ's \-ictory ; let 
 
126 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 them, with S. Paul, look on m thought to the 
 End, when God shall be All in All ; then let 
 them say if the salvation of all men be not 
 taught in Holy Scripture. 
 
 II COKINTHIANS v, 14. 
 
 " For the love of Christ constraineth us ; 
 
 because we thus judge, that if one died 
 
 for all then all died." 
 
 This is the true rendering : so close is the 
 union between Christ and mankind, (not some 
 men) that in the death of Christ all men died. 
 All actually shared that death , here is again the 
 great truth of the Solidarity of men ; the Atone- 
 ment is actual, not potential for every human 
 being : actual and indefeasible, not for the elect, 
 but for all : * and pursuing this train of thought 
 S. Paul tells how : — 
 
 II CORINTHIANS v, 19. 
 
 " God was in Christ reconciling the world 
 UNTO Himself." 
 
 Here is once more stated the extent of Christ's 
 work, it is the world reconciled, and no less than 
 the world. The question is, by \^dlat right do 
 we limit its efficacy, when God assures us that 
 His gifts and calling are without repentance, and 
 
 * St. Paul's words, in v. LS, would almost seem to imply th.at 
 the vastness and universality of the Gospel plan had carried him at 
 times out of himself, as he endeavoured to realise its magnilicence. 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 127 
 
 His purpose immutable ? Is God in earnest ? 
 does He mean ivhat He says ? I speak Avith 
 reverence . This is a question that must surely 
 often rise unbidden, as we read these statements 
 of the Bible, and compare them with the popular 
 creed, which so often turns " all " into " some," 
 when salvation is promised to " all," and turns 
 the " world," when that is said to be saved, into 
 a mere fraction of men. 
 
 GALATIANS iii, 8. 
 "In Thee shall all nations be blessed." 
 
 The force of texts like this lies in the fact, that 
 they shew the true meaning of God's election, 
 and that they are links in that great chain of 
 promise — of blessing to all men — which St. 
 Peter assures us God spake by the mouth of all 
 His holy Prophets, and which he declares to 
 mean the restitution of all things. 
 
 EPHESIANS i, 10. 
 
 "That in the dispensation of the fulness 
 OF the times, He might gather together in 
 one all things in Christ, both which are in 
 Heaven and which are on earth ; even in 
 Him." 
 
 Could the writer of these words have really 
 believed — could he have possibly believed — in a 
 Hell swallowing up its myriads of victims ? 
 What can convey the idea of a future, in which 
 all things — all the universe —shall be brought to 
 Christ, if this passage does not convey it? But 
 
128 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 if the universe, and its contents, are summed up 
 in Christ, where is any possibiUty of an endless 
 Hell ? How shall it exist — when all shall exist 
 in Christ ? Remark the contrast, for it is signifi- 
 cant. All shall he in Christ, says St. Paul, 
 many — very many — shall be in Hell for ever, 
 says the popular creed. So vast, the Apostle 
 states, is the hope of His calling (v. 18) — such 
 the exceeding greatness of His power. By this 
 Christ was raised and set in Heavenly places, 
 far above all dominion, and as our next quotation 
 shall shew : — 
 
 EPHESIANS i, 22. 
 " God hath put all things under His feet." 
 
 Yes, to Jesus Christ all are to be brouo-ht — 
 all things are to bend to Him, Now can you — • 
 forgive my repeating the question — find place 
 for Hell torments in a universe in which every- 
 thing is to be summed up in Jesus Christ, in 
 which every knee is to bend to Him, and to Him 
 every tongue to confess ? Do answer this fairly ? 
 With our thoughts, as were St. Paul's, full of 
 this all-glorious consummation, let us just notice 
 briefly, as we pass, two verses a little further on 
 in the epistle, which are full of the same hope 
 indirectly. 
 
 EPHESIANS iii, 8. 
 " The unsearchable riches of Christ." 
 
 Not unsearchable surely, if limited by the brief 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTA3IENT TEACHES. 129 
 
 span of human life in their power to save the 
 lost ; not unsearchable, if the Redemption He 
 wrought end in even a partial failure, nay, in 
 failure in even a single case. 
 
 EPHESIANS iii, 20. 
 *'To Him that is able to do exceeding 
 
 ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL THAT WE ASK OR 
 THINK." 
 
 How shall we, with all these reiterated texts 
 fresh in our minds, in any wise narrow that 
 which Christ shall do for sinners ? How shall 
 we, or can we, rightly place any limit, or hound, 
 or end to His salvation and His empire over 
 men ? Do not tell me, with such words of Holy 
 Scripture in our memories, that we err if we 
 think nobly of the future of man : our error is 
 surely this, that we do not think nobly enough, 
 even in oar most hopeful moments! 
 
 EPHESIANS iv, 10. 
 
 " He ASCENDED UP FAR ABOVE ALL HEAVENS, 
 THAT He MIGHT FILL ALL THINGS." 
 
 But if Christ is to fill all things —the universe 
 — how can evil subsist eternally ? 
 
 COLOSSI ANS i, 15-19-20. 
 
 " Who is the image of the invisible God, the 
 first-born of every creature : for it 
 pleased the Father that in Him should all 
 
 FULLNESS dwell; AnD, HAVING MADE PEACE 
 
 through the blood OF Hls cross, by Him 
 
180 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 TO RECONCILE ALL THINGS UNTO HiMSELF ; BY 
 
 Him, I SAY, WHETHER THEY BE THINGS* IN 
 
 EARTH, OR THINGS IN HEAVEN." 
 
 I ask you carefully to read and consider this 
 
 passage, and say, if it does not contain a clear 
 
 statement that Christ is the "first-born " of all 
 
 creation, and thus sums up in Himself all, not 
 
 the elect or the holy, but mankind (see pages 
 
 57-59), whose solidarity is thus affirmed 7 I ask 
 
 you further, in all calmness to weigh the words 
 
 in which S. Paul traces this prerogative of Jesus 
 
 Christ through creation up to redemption ; to 
 
 take in their simple grandeur the words, which 
 
 tell how He on and by the Cross reconciled all 
 
 things unto Himself, whether on earth or in 
 
 Heaven. I ask you finally what these words can 
 
 mean if they do not mean a certain restitution of 
 
 all things ? Can the Apostle mean less than 
 
 this ? 
 
 PHILIPPIANS ii, 10-11. 
 
 "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." 
 
 This is S. Paul's statement of the great vision 
 of the AjMcali/pse {Rev. v. 13), in which every 
 
 * Observe here, as elsewhere, S. Paul seems to provide against a 
 possible or a probable doubt as to the extent of this reconciliation 
 by repeating his assertion and emphasising it. 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 131 
 
 created thing in heaven and on earth and under 
 the earth unites to sing — Blessing, etc., to God 
 most high. Could a picture more universal be 
 painted — every knee, in heaven, on earth, under 
 the earth ? But if every created thing swells 
 the chorus, there can be none left shut up in 
 endless pain ; there can be no soul finally lost. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS iii, 21. 
 
 " Able even to subdue all things unto 
 Himself." 
 
 In what sense this subjugation of all things to 
 Christ is to be imderstood (if indeed any doubt 
 could exist), is clear from such passages as ch. 
 ii, 9-11 of this epistle. It is not the drivino- 
 into Hell of blaspheming myriads ; it is every 
 knee bent in Jesus' name ; and everv tongue 
 confessing Him. 
 
 I. TIMOTHY ii, 3-4. 
 
 " God our Saviour, who will have all men 
 to be saved." 
 
 One must be careful not to confound the 
 divine will and that of man. God's will must 
 be effectual, because with Him to will and to do 
 are the same. And note the context of this 
 passage : prayer, intercessions, and giving of 
 thanks are to be made for all men (v. Ij, because 
 this pleases God who wills the salvation of all : 
 " for there is one God and one Mediator, Jesus 
 " Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all.'' 
 
1S3 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 I TIMOTHY iv, 10. 
 
 " The living God, who is the Saviour of 
 all men, specially of those that believe." 
 
 Any possible obscurity in this passage becomes 
 clear the moment we reflect on God's plan by 
 which the elect — those who believe — are first 
 saved, and then become the means, here or in 
 the ages yet to come, of saving all men ; as 
 will be more fully explained in a subsequent 
 chapter fch. ix). Note, the clear statement that 
 God is (actually) the Saviour of all men. \n 
 saying God is the Creator of all men, no one 
 doubts that a universal creation is meant, so in 
 saying God is the Saviour of all men, a universal 
 salvation is assuredly meant. 
 
 II TIMOTHY i, 10. 
 
 "Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath 
 abolished death." 
 
 Death is ahoUshed, and with death that which it 
 in Scripture implies, sin and evil. For death 
 abolished and Hell maintained for ever are plain 
 contradictions. Again, we may very well ask 
 those who maintain the doctrine of conditional 
 immortality, how death can be abolished, and yet 
 swallow up finally all sinners in a sentence of 
 annihilation — as they teach — (a plain absurdity)? 
 
 TITUS ii, 11. 
 
 " For THE GRACE OF GOD THAT BRINGETH 
 SALVATION HATH APPEARED TO ALL MEN." 
 
 Yes, to all men, salvation : this is precisely 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 1S3 
 
 the larger hope. But how is " salvation brought 
 "to all men" consistent with the damnation of 
 myriads of men — nay, of any man ? 
 
 I PETER iii, 19. 
 "He also went and preached unto the 
 
 SPIRITS in prison." 
 
 If we believe these words of the Apostle, they 
 amount to a complete overthrow of the popular 
 view of the state of the sinful dead ; for plainly 
 these words do shew a process of redemption as 
 </oiii(/ on after death, which the popular creed 
 flatly denies. Kemark, too, who they were to 
 whom Christ preached : they were not those 
 who had previously no chance of salvation, but 
 they seem to have been those who had sinned 
 against the greatest light known in their day : — 
 They were those who had been disobedient in the 
 days of Noah. Yet it was to these men that 
 Jesus went with His offer of salvation, after their 
 earthly probation was over, after they had been 
 shut up ' in prison.' And let us remember that 
 this is not inserted in the New Testament idlv : 
 it is designed to teach us ; and what it is 
 designed to teach may surely best be expressed 
 in, or at least gathered from words which I make 
 no apology for quoting again and again, " Jksus 
 " Christ is the same to-day as He was yesterday, 
 " and for ever the same," i.e., the same behind 
 the veil as before it, the same Saviour of the 
 dead as of the livini?. 
 
134 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 I PETER iv, 6. 
 
 "For this cause was the gospel preached 
 also to them that are dead, that they 
 might be judged according to men in the 
 flesh, but live according to god in the 
 
 SPIRIT." 
 
 Words, these, surely full of hope! Notice 
 again here the connection hetween judgement 
 and salvation (see v. 5). St. Peter in this 
 reference to the preaching of the gospel to the 
 dead, must have — as just remarked— -intended a 
 lesson to the Christians of his day, and of our 
 day ; must have meant a hint as to what God's 
 plan of mercy in the full extent is, else the 
 reference could hardly have been made. Here 
 we see sinners dead and judged and yet, in 
 very deed, evangelised — saved — alive to God in 
 the spirit. How truly scriptural the larger hope 
 is! How truly unscriptural the limiting of 
 God's mercy and Christ's ministry of salvation, 
 by the fact of death, as the popular creed teaches. 
 
 11 PETEK iii, 9. 
 "The Lord is not slack concerning His 
 
 PROMISE, AS some MEN COUNT SLACKNESS ; BUT 
 
 IS LONG-SUFFERING TO US-WARD, NOT WILLING 
 
 THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH, BUT THAT ALL 
 
 SHOULD COME TO REPENTANCE." 
 
 If, then, any do perish, God's will and design 
 must have been successfully resisted ; a thing 
 absurd, for both are innnutable. 
 
WHAT THE XEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 135 
 
 HEBREWS ii, 8-9. 
 
 "Thou hast put all things in subjection 
 UNDER His feet, etc." 
 
 This is to be compared with that very large 
 class of passages which speak so clearly of 
 Christ's kingdom as destined to extend over 
 all things {e.g., Eph. iv, 10; i, 10; P/a7. iii, 9-11; 
 Rev. V, 13); as an empire absolutely miiversal, 
 destined to be co-extensive with all creation. I 
 do not see how the true force of these texts can 
 be found, except in the fact of Christ's being 
 destined to reign in th^ hearts of all men one 
 day. It is of Christ's redemption these passages 
 alf speak, not of His rule apart from that ; and 
 so here verse 9 ends thus : " That He by the 
 " grace of God should taste death for every man." 
 But this is clearly brought out as the true mean- 
 inir Avhen we read as follows— in the .same con- 
 nection and as a sequel : — 
 
 HEBREWS ii. 14. 
 "That through death He might destroy 
 
 HIM that had the POWER OF DEATH, THAT IS, 
 
 THE Devil." 
 
 But the destruction of the Devil is inconsis- 
 tent with the continuance of death and evil (if 
 words are to have any meaning at all). 
 
 HEBREWS vi, 17. 
 
 "The IMMUTABILITY OF HiS COUNSEL." 
 
 Yes, on this we build I AVouM you know 
 
136 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 what His counsel is ? turn to // Peter iii, 9 : 
 " Not willing that any should perish, but (willing) 
 " that all should come to salvation." The word 
 translated, 'willing,' is the same as the ' counsel ' 
 of this passage. And thus, if His will is immu- 
 table — a partial salvation becomes impossible. 
 
 HEBREWS viii, 10-11. 
 "For this is the covenant that I will 
 
 MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE 
 DAYS, SAITH THE LORD ; I WILL PUT MY LAWS 
 INTO THEIR MIND, AND WRITE THEM IN THEIR 
 HEARTS : AND I WILL BE TO THEM A GOD, AND 
 THEY SHALL BE TO ME A PEOPLE : AnD THEY 
 SHALL NOT TEACH EVERY MAN HIS NEIGHBOUR, 
 AND EVERY MAN HIS BROTHER, SAYING, KNOW 
 
 THE Lord : for all shall know me, from 
 
 THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST." 
 
 This is spoken of the New Covenant, and is a 
 distinct statement of its true extent. ^//, from 
 the least to the greatest^ are to know God. Now, 
 can a partial salvation really be said to satisfy 
 these plain words, on any principle of common 
 honesty of interpretation, of common trathfalness? 
 
 HEBREWS ix, 26. 
 
 "Now ONCE IN THE END OF THE WORLD HATH 
 He APPEARED TO PUT AWAY SIN BY THE SACRI- 
 FICE OF Himself. "^/2w. Version 
 
 See how very significant the words are, it is 
 the destruction of sin, its annihilation that is 
 said to be the object of the manifestation of 
 Jesus Christ. But this annihilation of sin and 
 
WHAT THE XEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 1S7 
 
 evil cannot by any fairness of interpretation take 
 place if Hell and its horrors go on for ever. Sin 
 put away — all sin abolished — is the promise of 
 the text and the hope of the universalist. 
 
 HEBREWS xiii, 8. 
 "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and 
 to-day, and unto (throughout) the ages." — 
 
 So ill the Original. 
 
 The same throughout ' the ages ; ' words little 
 heeded, I fear, and yet which contain indeed the 
 very essence of the Gospel — the very sum and 
 substance of the true hope for our i-ace. I rejoice 
 to close Avitli such a ])assage tliis long list of 
 texts from Holy Scripture, which one and all 
 testify to the assured hope there is in Jksus 
 Christ of the salvation of every child of Adam. 
 For what is it these words teach ? not that 
 Christ is now a saviour, and will in future be 
 merelv a judge to condemn, but that what He 
 was on earth that is Hk now, and that He will 
 be through ' the ages ' (judging ever, but only a 
 judge that He may by it be a saviour). "These 
 '' words imply that through the ages a saviour is 
 " needed, and will be found as much as to-day 
 " and yesterday." 
 
 Indeed I might almost say, that this passage 
 holds the key to the Avhole mystery of future 
 punishment, and future salvation. It bids us 
 look beyond the present life, to a series of ages 
 yet to come, and there see Jesus Christ still 
 
]38 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 working to save ; doubtless by penalty, by sharp 
 discipline, by fiery trial in the case of hardened 
 sinners, but still through ' the ages ' the same 
 Jesus, i.e.^ Saviour, and destined to continue His 
 work of salvation till the last wanderer shall 
 have been found. 
 
 And here let me say, that this series of pass- 
 ages of Holy Scripture, lengthened as it is, might 
 easily have been still increased. So far from 
 producing every possible passage that teaches the 
 larger hope, I might have easily cited other texts 
 that teach, or imply the same. In proof of this, 
 let me but take two clauses of the Lord's Prayer ; 
 " Our Father," these two words really involve 
 the whole question — they convey all I teach --are 
 the charter of our humanity — they form a tie 
 never to be broken between man and God. 
 " Thy will be done on earth as in Heaven." 
 But how is His will done in Heaven ? it is 
 universalh/ done. Shall it not then be universaUy 
 done on earth too? Does Jesus Christ ])iit into 
 our mouths a petition which He does not design 
 to fulfil, nay, to fulfil in larger measure tlian we 
 can hope ? Would you have further proof how 
 true it is that I have not exhausted all the pass- 
 ages of the New Testament that teach the larger 
 hope ? — although I ])refer to ap])eal on this point 
 (see p. 4) to the Divine justice — I have but to 
 ({uote the memorable words, which may fitly 
 wind up the series, " (jod is love " To this 
 point all His attributes converge. Love is the 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 139 
 
 name of that character, which united they form 
 (love eternal, inhnite, divine). Can this love, by 
 any possibility, consign to hopeless, endless, agony, 
 its own children? Could this love, by any possi- 
 bility, have called into being any one creature 
 knowinir that unendini'- torture would be its fate ? 
 Can infinite love ever cease to love — can love 
 essential ever fail ? — let the Apostle reply, 
 " Love Jievei' failetky 
 
 * 
 
 A few words of earnest caution must be added 
 here. I trust it has been made plain in these 
 ])ages, tliat in teaching universal salvation, I 
 have not for a moment advocated the salvation 
 of sinners while they continue such. Far other 
 is the view maintained here : it is the certain 
 punishment of sin I teach — God's judgement 
 upon all sin (a judgement awful it may well be 
 in its duration and in its nature for the hardened 
 offender), but in all cases directed by love and 
 justice to tbe final extirpation of sin. Nay, I 
 liave opposed the popular creed on this very 
 ground (pp. 5 and 34) that it in fact teaches 
 
 • In the above biief notes I have not attempted an exhaustive 
 comment. It has been my aim to jjoint out the plain natural meaning 
 of the passages cited, in their bearing on the future destiny of man, 
 and to present this meaning in the most simple and straightforward 
 way. Specially have I urged the imperative necessity of truthfulness, 
 of assuming that what the sacred writers say, that they mean, in the 
 ordinary acceptation of their words— that in saying, e.(j., ' I make all 
 ' things new,' Christ really means all things and not somethings; 
 that in saying ' (ion is the Saviour of all men,' the Apostle means 
 that God really docs save all men. 
 
140 }VHAT THE XEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 men to make light of sin, and tliat in two wavs : 
 tirst because it sets forth a sdieme of retribution 
 so unjust as to make men believe its penalties 
 will never be inflicted ; and next because it in 
 fact asserts that God either will not or cannot 
 overcome and destroy evil and sin, but will bear 
 with them to all eternity ; will permit them to 
 continue defiling and darkening His universe for 
 ever and ever. Let me then say with all due 
 emphasis, that not one word has been written in 
 these pages tending to re])resent God as a merely 
 o'ood natured l>einf''- -all-indulo-ent to the sinner 
 — who regards as a light matter the violation of 
 PI IS holy law. Such shallow theology, God 
 forbid that I should teach. It is, I fully admit, 
 in the hght of Calvary that we are bound to see 
 the true guilt of sin. But let us beware lest, as 
 we stand in thou2:ht at the foot of the Cross, we 
 dishonour the Atonement by liniiting its power 
 to save — by teaching men that it does in fact fail 
 to save countless myriads — that Christ is after 
 all not the victor but the vanquished ! Nay, let 
 us beware lest in words professing to honour 
 Christ, we in fact make Him a liar ; for He has 
 never said, ' I, if I be lifted up, will draw some 
 ' men,' or even ' most men,' but ' I will draw all 
 ' men unto me.' 
 
" WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES." 
 
"The word Hell, the sacred writers never use, in the sense which 
 " is generally given to it." — Dr. Ernkst Petavel — The Struggle for 
 Eternal Life. 
 
 "The first class of Scriptures we have to examine are those in 
 ' ' which the words ' Hell ' and ' damnation ' occur, for it is on these 
 " passages mainly that the popular misconception is based * * * 
 ' ' No doubt many of you will be surprised * * * to hear that 
 " neither of these words is to he found in any part of the New Testament, 
 " or indeed in any part of the whole Bible ; nor any word which at all 
 " answers to the conception which they quicken in our minds. ' Not 
 " to be found in the New Testament,' you say, ' why, I can shew 
 ' ' you a dozen or a score of places in which these words are to be 
 "found.' But are you quite sure that it is the New Testament in 
 "which you find them ? It is a version, a translation, of the New 
 ' ' Testament of coui'se ; but does it necessarily follow that the 
 ' ' translation is an accurate one ? I am sorry to say that in so far 
 "as it uses the words ' Hell ' and ' damnation ' it is demonstrably an 
 " inaccurate and misleading one." — S. Cox, D.D., Salvator Mundi, 
 page 39. 
 
 " Dr. Clapp proceeds to give an account of his studies : — Carefully 
 " reading through the Old Testament in Hebrew, he was unable to 
 "find the doctrine he sought (that of endless punishment), or even 
 * ' to find in the Hebrew a word at all corresponding to ' Hell ' as a 
 "place of future punishment. • * * Confessing that he could 
 " not find in the Hebrew Old Testament the text he sought, he still 
 " turned with perfect confidence to the New ; but after a study of 
 ' ' eight years was compelled by his conscience to admit that he could 
 '^ not find a single text in the Greek Testament which, ivhen fairly 
 " interpreted, affirms the endless misery of any hunian soul." — Theology 
 of the i?ii/e— Chancellor Halsted. 
 
 " Ideo Dives ille in Evangelio, * » * paenalibus torquetur 
 " serumnis, ut ritius pussit eradere." — S. Ambrose, in Ps. cxviii, 1. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ''WHAT THE lYJ^W TESTAMENT TEACHES." 
 
 In tlie preceding; chapters we have examined 
 the various jjassages of the New Testament which 
 teach, or imply clearly, the lar^^^er hope for all 
 men. In the present chapter I purpose consider- 
 ing the chief texts alleged in favour of the 
 received doctrine ; and I hope to shew, that 
 while undoubtedly the penalties threatened against 
 sinners are sharp and terriljle, still they are not 
 tndUss. I belie\'e that im one passage can be 
 found any where in the I^ible that so teaches, 
 when fairly translated and understood. I must 
 ask you, before we proceed to our examination of 
 these passages, to bear in mind the following 
 considerations : — 
 
 1. (J()i)\s threats do not stand on the same 
 footing as His promises ; for -the latter contain a 
 distinct engagement with those who fulfil the 
 conditions, while His threats differ in containing 
 no such enji'ajifement, because no one is aggrieved 
 
144 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 although they should not be maintained. 
 
 2. A fact of the deepest significance is this ; 
 that although many terms and phrases existed, 
 by which tlie idea of unendingness might have 
 been conveyed, yet none of these is applied by 
 our Lord and His Apostles to the future punish- 
 ment of the impenitent. The intent to threaten 
 and to warn the ungodly is no doubt quite clear, 
 but the precise nature and duration of the penal- 
 ties threatened is ve?y indefinitely stated, and 
 nowhere stated to he uneyiding. 
 
 3. Again, while the texts already quoted in 
 flivour of the salvation of all men, use lanouao-e 
 clear and explicit, and are a fair rendering of the 
 original in all eases, it is not so in the case of the 
 passages usually alleged to prove endless torment. 
 In all cases where they seem to the English 
 reader so to teach, they are either mistranslated or 
 misinterpreted, or both. 
 
 4. As instances of AvhoUv incorrect renderinof 
 in our version, let me take the words ' Hell ' and 
 'damnation,' * (the terms 'everlasting,' 'eternal,' 
 and ' for ever and ever,' also complete mistransla- 
 tions, will be elscAvhere fully discussed). ' Hell' 
 is really, in our Bibles, the rendering of three 
 
 * I may again remind my readers how inaccurate is tlie assumption, 
 all Ijut universally made, that these terms <ire in the Bible. They 
 are merely in a certain human and fallible translation of the Bible, a 
 totally different thing. 
 
WHAT THE XEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 145 
 
 widely differing Greek words, viz., " Gehenna," 
 " Hades," and " Tartarus," a fact in itself a 
 sufficient comment on the accuracy of our trans- 
 lation. " 6^^/it'/i?zrt " occurs eleven times in the 
 New Testament as used by our Lord, and once 
 by St. James. In the original Greek it is taken 
 almost unchanged from the Hebrew (Ge-hinnonij 
 i.e., valley of Hinnom), an exauiple which our 
 translators surely ouo'ht to have followed and 
 rendered Gehenna, as it is, by Gehenna, This 
 valley lay outside Jerusalem : once a pleasant 
 vale and later a scene of Moloch worship, it had 
 sunk into a common cesspit at last. Into it 
 were flung offal, the carcasses of animals, and it 
 would seem, of criminals, and in it were kept fires 
 ever burning (for purijication be it remembered), 
 while the worms were for ever preying on the 
 decaying matter. The so called undying worm 
 and flame, of which so much has been made (i) 
 were purely temporal and finite (ii), preyed only 
 on the dead body (iii) and were one and all puri- 
 factory : three ])articnlars essential to the due 
 understanding of the passages on Avhich the 
 dogma of endless torments has been so unfairly 
 based. Hades is a purely classical term, denoting 
 merely the state or j)lace of disembodied spirits 
 alter death. Our Revisers have, by a tardy 
 justice, struck Hell as its translation, out of 
 their version. It (Occurs in the Gospels and 
 Epistles five times, twice in the Acts, and four 
 times in the Ivevelations. Its true meaning is 
 hardly now a subject of dispute by any one : it 
 
14G WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 denotes that intermediate state, or place, which 
 succeeds death ; a state, which in our recoil from 
 Romish error, we have almost ceased to recognise 
 at all. Tartarus occurs once only (in the verbal 
 form) in the New Testament, in // Peter ii, 4. 
 It also is a classical term, used there most often, 
 although not always, for the place of future 
 punishment of the wicked. Here St. Peter 
 applies it not to human beings, but to the lost 
 angels, and in their case it denotes no final place 
 of torment^ but a prison in which they are kept 
 awaiting their final judgement, so to render it by 
 the term Hell is simply preposterous. 
 
 ' Damnation,' ' dannied,' both of these terms 
 represent merely two Greek words (and their 
 derivatives), krino and katakrino, i.e., to judge 
 and to condemn. Our Kevisers have felt how 
 unwarrantable the former translation was, for 
 which there is indeed this excuse, that pro- 
 bably, when the authorised version Avas made, 
 the meanino- of the word ' damn ' was far milder 
 than it has since become (as was certainly the 
 case with the term ' Hell '). To import into 
 these words the idea of endless torment is to err 
 against all fairness and all reason, for they simply 
 mean to 'judge,' and at most, to 'condemn.' 
 Of endless condemnation there is no thought in 
 the orioinal, in anv case where these words occur. 
 [In one passage, // Peter ii, o, the word ' damna- 
 ' tion' represents a different (Ireek word, '"apokia,* 
 :iii<l is riiihtlv rciidcrtMl l)v our Ivcvisers as 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 147 
 
 ' destruction,' in that place.] 
 
 ]\Iost significant is it that when we look at the 
 orio'inal of the N^ew Testament, the whole idea of 
 endless punishment, that we associate with these 
 words, ' Hell ' and ' damnation,' wholly disap- 
 pears. The horrors of unending agony, which 
 these terms yet conjure up for so many, vanish 
 when we come to know that by ' damnation ' is 
 simply meant 'judgement,' or at most ' condem- 
 ' nation,' as our Revisers now most fully admit 
 in their version of the New Testament, and by 
 ' Hell ' is only meant, either the place of disem- 
 bodied souls — Hades — fas our Revisers now 
 render it) — or the Jewish Gehenna fsee margin 
 of revised version), a place of temporary punish- 
 ment, where the worms fed contioually it is true, 
 and the tire for ever burned ; but in both cases 
 }>urifying and causing no pain (for the bodies 
 were those of the dead), and where both ' undying ' 
 worm, and ' unquenchable * fire, have long since, 
 in their literal sense, passed away. True it is, 
 most true, that while no unending torment is 
 threatened by our Lord, yet His words do 
 convey most weighty and most solemn warning 
 to the sinner — warning that I am persuad( d 
 gains in real weight and solemnity when its true 
 import is discerned- -because the conscience 
 recognises its justice. 
 
 r.astly, let me repeat tliat I accept heartily and 
 emphatically — in their true natural sense — every 
 
J48 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 warning, liowever terrible, and every penalty 
 threatened a^iiinst sinners in God's word : but 
 that true natural sense is not, as I hope to shew, 
 in any one case that of endless torment. My 
 quarrel with the advocates of the popular view 
 (as far as the Scripture is concerned) is that, 
 while assio-ninsf to one class of texts a meanino-, 
 which they cannot fairly bear, they at the same 
 time wholly put out of view — blot out from the 
 Bible in fact — a very large and weighty class of 
 passages, furnished by the ISlew Testament, in 
 favour of universal salvation. Thus, as so often 
 happens when men persist in seeing only one 
 side, they fail to apprehend the true meaning 
 even of that one side, whicli they present to us 
 as though it were the whole. 
 
 S. MATTHEW iii, 12. 
 
 "He shall bi^rn up the chaff with un- 
 quenchable FIRE." 
 
 (a) The word ' uiKpienchable ' is hardly a fair 
 rendering of the original — which certainly does 
 not convey the idea of a tire that never can be 
 quenched — but of a fire which cannot be checked 
 or quenched in doing its work. In Homer, 
 where this word first occurs, it is " applied to 
 " the fire which for a few hours rages in the 
 " Grecian fleet — to the gleam of ItIector's lielmit 
 " — to glory — to laughter and to shouting." In 
 the saine ])()])ular way, niihout a ihovi/ht of endless 
 dunit'ion, it is found in ecclesiastical writers. 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 140 
 
 " EuSEBius says of two martyrs, that they were 
 " consumed with ' unquenchable ' lire ; and again 
 " of other two, that they were destroyed by ' un- 
 "quenchable' fire." — Farrar — Mercy and Judge- 
 ment^ p. 406. 
 
 (b) If the context be examined it will, I 
 think, appear that the reference is to a present, 
 and then impending, judgement — a present work 
 of Christ, and not a future punishment. 
 
 (c) And next, the passage shews, that all are 
 to share the fiery baptism of Christ, the baptism 
 of lire that puriiies and rehnes. So Scripture 
 teaches, "Every one shall be salted with fire." — 
 S. Mat. ix, 49. Doubtless all that is worthless 
 shall be burned up ; but the very purpose of this 
 fire is purification, not toi'ture. See chapter ix, 
 section on ' fire.' 
 
 8. MATTHEW v, ii2. 
 
 "Whosoever shall say thou fool shall be 
 IN danger of IIell-fire." 
 
 I am not Jifraid to assert that the popular 
 interpretation is not unfounded alone, but 
 reduces the words of Christ to an absurdity here. 
 "It is incredible that to call a man a fool should 
 " be so much a "worse crime than to call him 
 " Eaca, that, whereas for the one offence, men 
 " are to be brought before a court of justice, for 
 " the other they are to be damned to an everlast- 
 " in^- torment." Xeed I sav further here 
 
150 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 that the Hell-fire of this passage is the fire of 
 ' Gehenna,'' the temporary punishment of the 
 criminal. See note on S. Mark ix, 43. 
 S. MATTHEW xxiii, 33. 
 
 " how shall ye escape the damnation of 
 Hell?' 
 
 Not one syllable is needed by way of comment 
 here, but to replace a misleading translation by 
 the true rendering — " How shall ye escape the 
 "judgement of Gehenna"" — the Jewish punish- 
 ment awarded to criminals. 
 
 MATTHEW \, 29-30, and xviii, 8-9. 
 " And if thy right eye offend thee pluck 
 
 IT OUT and cast it FROM THEE, FOR IT IS 
 
 PROFITABLE FOR THEE THAT ONE OF THY MEMBERS 
 
 SHOULD PERISH, AND NOT THAT THY WHOLE BODY 
 
 SHOULD BE CAST INTO HeLL, ETC., ETC." 
 
 These two passages are so similar that they 
 may be considered together, and may be com- 
 pared with St. Mark ix, 4o-50, where a full 
 comment is given. Here it is enough to say that 
 the ' Hell ' of the text is merely ' Gehenna* and the 
 punishment, that temporary one inflicted on evil 
 doers. ' Hell-fire ' is the fire of Gehenna, already 
 explained, ' Everlasting fire,' of chapter xviii, 8, 
 is luonian fire. See next c]ia})ter, sec. on aionios. 
 
 S. MATTHEW xxv, 46. 
 
 " And THESE SHALL GO AWAY INTO EVERLASTING 
 
 PUNISHMENT, BUT THE RIGHTEOUS INTO LIFE 
 
 KTKUXAL." 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMEXT TEACHES. 151 
 
 I think it will be found that this oft quoted 
 text, if fairly translated, requires an interpreta- 
 tion quite distinct from that of the popular 
 theology, and opposed to it. 
 
 (a) ' Everlasting ' and ' eternal,' merely 
 represent the Greek word aionios^ and mean of or 
 belonging to an age — ceonian. See next chapter. 
 
 (b) The word translated punishment is a 
 remarkable one, it means, literally, ^:>rw?i//?,//, i.e.^ 
 corrective punishment, and should be so rendered. 
 
 (c) So that which is threatened is the opposite 
 of our popular Hell ; it is an it'onian discipline, 
 a corrective process, proper to the age — or ages. 
 
 (d) l)ut it will no doubt be said, that the 
 same word is applied to the happiness of the 
 saved and to the punishment of the lost, and that 
 if it does not mean endless in the latter case then 
 the bliss of the redeemed is thus rendered 
 uncertain. I reply, even were it so, we are not 
 at liberty to mistranslate the original : but 
 further, no o-reater error can be imao'ined than 
 this assertion. The facts are simply these : — In 
 this passage all that is asserted is that a certain 
 ' u'onian ' penalty, and a certain ' it^onian ' reward 
 will respectively be the lot of the wicked and of 
 the righteous ; so far both the penalty and the 
 reward stand on the same footino*. But this 
 niereh/ leaves open the whole ([uestion of the 
 precise duration of either, so far as the ])resent 
 passage goes, Tliat the ' a^onian ' ])('nalty will 
 
152 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 terminate, we have the clearest assertion else- 
 where in Scripture, as the passages discussed in 
 chapters vi and vii amply prove. That the 
 ' ieonian ' reward will go on unendingly, follows 
 from the very nature of God, and of goodness, 
 and from ample Scriptural proof besides. 
 
 (e) There is another important question 
 which arises here — to rvhat time are we to refer 
 this judgement scene. Thes3 words close a con- 
 tinuous discourse extending over chapters xxiv-v. 
 There seems no break throughout. And remember 
 the question of the disciples, in chapter xxiv, is 
 really not about the end of the ' world,' but of 
 the 'age,' and Christ Himself says, v. S-i, All 
 the things He is speaking of should be fulfilled 
 before the passing away of the then generation. 
 " To judge by a simple straightforward reading 
 " of these chapters, the scene of the Son of Man 
 " sitting upon the throne of His glory, belongs 
 " as properly to the time of the destruction of the 
 " temple, as the fleeing (^f those in Judea into 
 " the mountains." — Rev. J. Llewelyx Davies. 
 
 8. MAKK ix, 43-50. 
 "And if thy hand cause thee to stumble, 
 
 CUT it off : IT IS GOOD FOR THEE TO ENTER 
 INTO LIFE MAIMED, RATHER THAN HAVING THY 
 TWO HANDS TO GO INTO HeLL, INTO THE UN- 
 QUENCHABLE FIRE. And if thy foot cause 
 
 THEE TO STUMBLE, CUT IT OFF : IT IS GOOD FOR 
 THEE TO ENTER INTO LIFE HALT, RATHER THAN 
 HAVING THY TWO FEET TO BE CAST INTO HeLL. 
 
 And if thine eye cause thee to stumble. 
 
WHAT THE NEW TEST AM EXT TEACHES. 15S 
 
 CAST IT OUT: IT IS (^OOI) FOR THEE TO ENTER 
 INTO THE KIN(;D0M OF GOD WITH ONE EYE, 
 RATHER THAN HAVING TWO EYES TO BE CAST 
 INTO HELL ; WHERE THEIR WORM DIETH NOT, 
 AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED. FOR EVERY 
 ONE SHALL BE SALTED WITH FIRE." — ReV. !>/>•. 
 
 (a) Xote, first, that the re\'ised text omits v. 4-1 
 and 46, which lend in oar ordinary version so 
 much weifi'ht to the tlireats liere uttered. 
 
 (b) Observe next tliat the whole passage 
 depends on the statement of v. 49- -a fact gene- 
 rally overlooked — " For every one shall be salted 
 "with lire." These words assion the reason for 
 the whole ])receding clauses, and indeed seem 
 plainly enough to shew that the true reference in 
 this passage is to some sacrificial or purifying 
 jn'ocess, which every one must undergo ; as in 
 / Cor. iii, 13, "the tire shall try every man's 
 " work." If the sacrifice be not made voluntarily 
 — if the e}'e or the foot be not sacrificed — a 
 sharper sacrifice — a severer penalty will l)e 
 demanded. In an appendix a fuller discussion 
 of this passage will be found. 
 
 (c) The word translated Hell is simply, as 
 already explained, the Jewish Gehenna — the 
 valley of Hinnom — a place of purely temporary 
 punishment. To turn this into Hell — with all 
 its terrific mediaeval horrors annexed —is to 
 violate every rule of fair translation, nay of 
 truth. 
 
 (il) The phr;ise, "where their worm dieth not 
 
154 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 " and the fire is not quenched," is quoted from 
 the Old Testament (specially Isaiah Ixvi, 24). 
 The reference is to the worm and to the iire that 
 preyed on the dead bodies of malefactors, cast out 
 into Gehenna. In the striking* metaphor of the 
 East, these worms, and this lire are said not to 
 die, and not to be quenched ; because the fires 
 were kept constantly burning to drive away pollu- 
 tion, and the worm was always preying on the 
 corpses and offal. The phrase, ' into the fire that 
 ' never shall be quenched,' it will be seen disap- 
 pears in the Revised Version. The original 
 word is the same already commented on in the 
 note on S. Mattlierv iii, 12, translated 'unquench- 
 ' able,' and proved to have been frequently applied 
 to a fire, not merely temporary but often very 
 brief in its duration. 
 
 (e) I have already admitted fully the solemn 
 nature of our Lord's threats, in the case of the 
 ungodly, and I desire as fully to recognise that 
 while Gehenna literally and primarily means 
 the valley of that name, and its temporary 
 ]ienalties, there is often, doubtless, also in our 
 Lord's words, an allusion to that dark province 
 of the underworld where the Jews believed the 
 souls of the sinl'ul were panishcd. lUit this 
 punishment was not believed by them to be 
 endless, which is the point at issue. Nay, the 
 penalties of Gehenna in this sense were by 
 many of the Jews believed to be of brief, nay, 
 of verv brief duration. 
 
WHAT THE .YEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 155 
 
 S. MARK iii, 29. 
 
 " He that shall blaspheme against the 
 
 Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is 
 
 in danger of eternal damnation." 
 
 I select this passage as a striking instance of 
 tlie wholly unsatisfactory grounds on which tlie 
 popular dogma rests. The words, ' hath never 
 'forgiveniss,' really mean in the original 'hath 
 ' not forgiveness,' eiston aiona, ' for or during the 
 'age' — a period not defined — and indeed seem to 
 im])ly that after the age forgiveness may be had. 
 The words ' eternal danniation ' are clearly 
 wrong. Damnation is in any case merely 
 judgement, but the true reading is ' sin,' and the 
 true translation is ' is guilty of an ajonian sin,' 
 i.e., as has been just said, a sin, ' the effect of 
 ' which must clini>- to the sinner in the future a"-e 
 or a»on. 
 
 S. MARK xiv, 21. 
 
 "GoO]) WERE IT FOR THAT MAN (JUDAS) IF HE 
 HAD NOT BEEN BORN." 
 
 (a) The words, as has been remarked, 
 easily admit of a different rendering, ' good were 
 'it for lIi.M, i.e., Chuist, if that man, i.e., Judas, 
 'had not been born.' Grammatically this trans- 
 lation is faultless. 
 
 (b) ^\ hen we remember hoAV uncom})romis- 
 ing in many cases are the Divine threats, which 
 yet are subsequently wholly modified ; and when 
 on tlie othc]- hand we remember the clear and 
 
]56 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 repeated promises of universal salvation already 
 quoted, we may well hesitate, and more than 
 hesitate, before we put such a sense on the woe 
 pronounced on Judas, as to make it plainly 
 contradict all these promises of Scripture. 
 
 (c) Kemember too the special promise that 
 " all Israel shall be saved.*^ Judas was assuredly 
 an Israelite. 
 
 (d) Kemember further, that even if taken in 
 their extremest sense, the words of Judas' doom 
 luholly fail to prove tliat he was condemned to 
 endless suffering. They would be satisfied to 
 the utmost if Judas were to have sentence of 
 annihilation passed on him at the Last Great 
 Day : nay, had he at the moment of betrayal 
 died " and never suffered one pang- more they 
 " would be to the fullest extent true." * 
 
 8. LUKE xvi, 20. 
 The Parable of Dives. 
 
 (a) Dives, like Judas, is a son of Abraham, 
 " and all Israel shall be saved," says St. Paul 
 expressly. 
 
 * Even in early days some believed that Ji'das hurried out of 
 this workl to obtain Christ's forgiveness beyond the grave. We 
 need not endorse this view, but to me it certainly seems as if the 
 heart of Jesus, and the love of Jesus, would not have refused mercy 
 to His betrayer on the least sign of repentance in this or another 
 world. 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMEXT TEACHES, i.57 
 
 (b) Dives was certainly not in Hell, but in 
 Hades (as our Revised Version admits), in the 
 intermediate state ])efore the Day of Judgement, 
 not in a state absolutely fixed. 
 
 (c) Dives is represented as distinctly im- 
 proved by his chastisment ; he has learned to 
 think for others. Can God by his discipline 
 produce this aniendment merely to crush it out in a 
 future state of Jiopeless pain ? Is this credible ? 
 
 (d) It is not said that the gulf shall continue 
 impussable ; what is said is, that it is so (was 
 then. so). The case is as if a man were imprison- 
 ed for a hxed time, and his friends are sternly 
 told " between him and you is a barrier ])laced 
 " which cannot be passed," This would be 
 exactly true, though the barrier were to be re- 
 moved, wlien the fixed period of ])unishment 
 ceased, 
 
 (e) And even were tliis not so, who are we 
 to say that the gulf, impassable to man, cannot 
 l)e passed bv CiiiiiST, bv Him who hatli the 
 " Keys of Death and HelV. '' 
 
 (f) liesides, the popular interpretation misses 
 the point. The whole parable is meant, not to 
 teach us how a wicked man will find himself in 
 Hell, but how a self-indulgent life here will lead 
 to shar]) future suffering and discipline, 
 
 (g) Those inclined to doubt what I have 
 abo^'e said uvdx bo well referred to the words of 
 
158 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 the great St. Ambrose, who, commenting- on 
 Ps. cviii, says thus, " So then that Dives in tlie 
 " gospel, although a sinner, is pressed with penal 
 " agonies that he may escape the sooner^'' thus 
 asserting clearly his belief in Dives' hnal salva- 
 tion. 
 
 S. JOHN iii, 36. 
 
 " He that believeth not the Son shall not 
 see life, but the wrath of god abideth on 
 
 HIM." 
 
 Here the meaning is clear ; the unbeliever, 
 continuing such, shall not see life, but if he cease 
 to be an unbeliever, he may surely obtain peace. 
 If it were not so all would be lost. If the sense 
 put popularly on this passage were true, ' no man 
 ' once an unbeliever could have any hope.' 
 
 S. JOHN V, 29. 
 
 " They that have done evil unto the resur- 
 rection OF damnation. 
 
 Here it is hardly needful to do more than 
 point to the revised translation, ' the resurrection 
 of judgement,^ not even condemnation, which 
 would be a diflerent Greek word. 
 
 We have now considered, if not all, yet cer- 
 tainly all the strongest passages contained in the 
 New Testament, and supposed to teach the 
 popular creed, except those of the mysterious 
 book of Revelation, To this let us now turn. 
 And here, at the outset, I protest against the utter 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 159 
 
 unfairness of attempting to build any definite 
 theory of Hell on the imagery of a book of 
 mysterious visions, and full of highly-toned 
 Oriental metaphors. Its visions speak the 
 language not of prose but of poetry, and that the 
 poetry of an Eastern race, tar more imaginative 
 and liighly wrought than that of the West. To 
 judge these metaphors as though they spoke the 
 lano'uao'c of theolo""v is worse than unfair, it is 
 even absurd. 
 
 Take an instance : turn to chapter xiv, J)-ll. 
 Terrible as it seems at tirst sight, it is really 
 concerned with the times of Nero — who is 
 certainly the lieast. The worshippers of the 
 l>east who are to be tormented, are his followers, 
 and the reference in the torment is simply to the 
 terrible earthly calamities actually happening to 
 Rome at that epoch. Who, of whatever school 
 of thought, is there who does not feel a weight 
 rolled away, when he perceives that the true 
 meaning of the liighly wrought metaphors of this 
 passage — as to the worshippers of the Beast 
 being tormented night and day, in the presence 
 of the Lamb and the Holy Angels — may be 
 most fully found in these terrible earthly suffer- 
 ings which befell Rome, " while the Lamb and 
 "the Holv Angels are, in human language, repre- 
 " sented as cognisant of this punishment ? The 
 " smoke which ascends for ever and ever," should 
 be for ' a'ons of a'ons;' ' ages of ages.' This is a 
 phrase ])orrowed jiartly I'roiii Genes/'s x'lx, 2(S, and 
 
100 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 partly from Isaiah xxxiv, 9-10, both of which refer 
 to Umporal judgements, " and may very well, in 
 " the highly figurative language of prophecy, 
 " have such application in the Apocalypse, with- 
 " out the remotest allusion to the state of souls 
 " in the world beyond the grave." Even Mr. 
 Elliott, in his Horce Apocalypticce, explains this 
 passage of merely temporary judgement. See 
 on this subject, Mercy and Judgement, p. 470. 
 
 Note too in this connection — as showing the 
 true meaning of the highly wrought metaphors 
 of the East — the deeply impassioned language in 
 which Isaiah describes the temporal calamities 
 of the land of Idumea (in the passage referred to 
 above), its streams are " to be turned into pitch 
 " — its diist into brimstone — its land into burning 
 '■^ pitch- -it shall not be quenched night nor day — its 
 " smoke is to go up for ever.*' Xow when we know 
 that these metaphors —sounding so awfully — do 
 yet refer to merely temporal judgement — to 
 judgements of a momentary duration, so to 
 speak, we shall the better be able to assign its 
 true meaning to all the figurative and poetical 
 language of tliis book of Revelation. 
 
 I therefore must ask you to bear ever in mind 
 how unfair, nay impossible, it is to harden into 
 dogmas the glowing metajihors of Eastern poetry 
 if we desire to reach their true meaning. In fact 
 if such language be taken literally its whole 
 moaning is lost. W. e.g.. even in the cas(,' of 
 
WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 161 
 
 some of our Lord's words, wliicli are less figura- 
 tive — -I take them literally — I pervert their sense. 
 Am I in very deed to hate my father and mother 
 because Christ says it is necessary so to do : or 
 to pluck out my right eye literally ? Or take 
 a case — well put })y Canon Farrau — to shew 
 how widel}' the true sense of the figures of 
 Scripture differs from the literal meaning. Egypt 
 is more than once said, in the Bible, to have 
 been an iron furnace to the Jcavs, and yet their 
 condition there was so far removed from being 
 one of torment, that they actually said "it was 
 well with us there," and positively siglie 1 f )r its 
 enjoyments. In conunon fixirness, therefore, lam 
 forced to maintain that no doctrine of endless 
 pnin can be V)ase(l on figures of Eastern imagery. 
 Having then, already considered the well-known 
 passage in ch. xiv, it will be sufficient if I close 
 this cha})ter by an examination of another often 
 quoted passage. 
 
 REVELATION xxi, -S. 
 
 " But the fearful and unbelieving, and the 
 abominable, and murderers * * * and 
 all liars, shall have their part in the 
 lake whic^h burneth with fire and brim- 
 stone : which is the second death." 
 
 fa ) It will be necessary to consider the entire 
 context of this verse if we desire to understand 
 its purport. It opens with the vision of the 
 great white throne, ch. xx, 14, and we find that 
 after the judgement of that Great Day, so fjir 
 from death and Hell (Hades) continuing, they 
 
162 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 are " cast into a lake of fire " — very unlike, nay, 
 contradicting the popular view. 
 
 (bj Then comes a declaration that God is to 
 dwell with men — not with the saints — but with 
 men as such, and that as a consequence, they 
 shall be His people^ and God shall he loith them, 
 and he their God. 
 
 (c) It is distinctly said there shall be no more 
 death, neither sor?vw nor crying nor any more pain. 
 Is this not a denial of an endless Hell rather than 
 an affirmation of it — nay an emphatic denial of 
 such a doctrine ? 
 
 fd) Then comes a voice from the throne with 
 a glorious promise, " Behold J make all things 
 " new,^'' not some things. Note, too, this 
 promise is remarkably emphasised, it opens with 
 the word " Behold " to draw attention to it : it 
 closes with the command to write it, ' for these 
 ' words are true and faithful.' Was there no reason 
 for this ? Is there not thus attention drawn to 
 this as the central point of the wliole vision — all 
 things made new. But this again is a denial of 
 the popular creed. 
 
 (e) In close connection with such promises 
 come the hig-hlv fio'urative tlu'eats of the lake of 
 fire. It is perhaps just possible that this may 
 imply, although I do not think so, the destruc- 
 tion of those cast into it ; but it is wholly impos- 
 sible to nnderstand it as teacliing endless torment 
 in the face of what has just been promised— no 
 more crving, nor ])ain, \. 4. Therefore, T cannot 
 
WHAT THE X7':]Y TESTAMEXT TEACHES. 103 
 
 bat conclude, lookiiifi* at the repeated promises 
 (see ' e ' and ' d ') of this very passaii'c, which 
 contrast in tlieir perfect clearness with the highly 
 figurative language of its threats,* looking at the 
 true meaning of God's judgements and at the 
 Mhole spirit of Holy Scripture — nay, its express 
 declaration of universal pardon- -that what is here 
 taught is some sharp, hery, discipline — a iire 
 that purities while it punishes- -a hre that is, in 
 God's mysterious way, an agent in making all 
 things new. 
 
 AVe thus see that the Apocalyptic visions lend 
 as little support to the dogma of endless torment 
 as do the other Scriptures. That doctrine is not, 
 I am dee])]v ])crsuaded, to be found in a single 
 passage of (iod's word, if translat'Hl accurately 
 and fairly interpreted. And here let me, as I con- 
 clude this branch of our sul)ject, before passing on, 
 ask those who honestly believe, that with this 
 dogma of Hell-fire is bound up the sole force able 
 to deter men from sin, to remember that to 
 assert this is to contradict the whole weight of 
 human experience. For in every age experience 
 has shewn decisively, that it is not the magnitude 
 
 * " How little can we build dogmas on such metaphors as the 
 "Devil being cast with the Beasts (Nero and the Roman world- 
 " powei's) and the false Prophet — ch. xx, 10-14 —into the lake of tire 
 "and brimstone • » * into which also are to be cast two 
 "such abstract entities as ' Death ' and ' Hades.' At any rate this 
 " lake of tire is on the earth ; and immediately afterwards we read of 
 " that earth being destroyed, and of a new Heaven and a new earth, 
 " ill whicli there is to be no more <leath or curse." — Canon Fakhar. 
 
1G4 WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 
 
 of the penalty that deters men from sin or cruno, 
 it is the certainty of its infliction. Kay, it must 
 be said on the contrary, that few doctrines have 
 done so much in these days to sliake the belief in 
 any real punishment of sin hereafter as that of an 
 endless Hell. For, as I have already briefly 
 attempted to prove (p. 38-9), nobody can be 
 found who, by his acts, shews that he in fact 
 believes and accepts so terrible a doo-ma. From 
 this it follows that, so long as it is taught, the 
 whole subject of future punishment becomes, for 
 the mass of mankind, doul)tful, shadowy, and 
 unreal. Thus a tone of secret incredulity is 
 fostered, an incredulity which, beg'inning at this 
 particular dogma assuredly does not end there, 
 l)ut affects the whole of re\ealed religion. 
 
 It is not merely that those Avho still teach the 
 popular creed thus furnish the sceptic with the 
 choicest of his weapons, by enlisting the moral 
 forces of our nature on the side of unbelief. They 
 do more than this. They thus, unconsciously I 
 admit, but most effectively, teach men to profess 
 a creed with the lips to which the spirit and the 
 life render no vital allegiance. By this means 
 the whole Gospel of Jesus Cuius r is lowered and 
 discredited, because if men see a doctrine of this 
 kind maintained in words but in fact denied, 
 (because in practice found to be wholly incredi- 
 ble) they will assuredly apply the lesson, so 
 learned of professed belief and real scepticism, to 
 the whole svstem of Christian truth. 
 
THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF ' THE AGES, 
 
 OF 'DEATH; OF 'JUDGEMENT,' OF 'FIRE, 
 
 OF 'ELECTION.' 
 
" Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? " — Rom. viii, 38. 
 
 ' ' The infinite love pursues the soul beyond the grave, and there 
 " has dealings with it." — Bishop Forbes, on the Artkk.-i. 
 
 ' ' The ende of their wrath and puuyshemente intendeth nothynge 
 " elles but the destruction of vices and savynge of menne : wyth so 
 " usyinge and ordering them that they cannot chuse but be good, 
 "and what harm so ever they did before, in the residewe of theyr 
 ' ' life to make amendes for the same."— Sir T. More — Utopid. 
 
 " Do we want to know what was uppermost in the minds of those 
 *' who formed the word for punishment, the Latin pce))a or puiiio : — 
 ' ' The root pn in Sanscrit which means to cleanse or purify, tells us 
 " that the Latin derivative was formed not to express mere striking 
 " or torture, Ijut cleansing — correcting— delivering from the stain of 
 " sin."— Professor Max Muller. 
 
 " Jesus lives ; henceforth is Death 
 But the gate of life immortal" 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 — "?-^-^ <-<-<— 
 
 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF ''THE AGES" 
 OF ''DEATH;' OF "JUDGEMENT," OF "FIRE;' 
 
 OF " election:' 
 
 In the last chapter we have considered the 
 proofs, often drawn from certain passages of the 
 New Testament, in favour of the ordinary view 
 of future punishment, and have seen how com- 
 pletely they fail to teach its unending character 
 when fairly translated and fairly understood. In 
 the present chapter I proj^ose to complete our 
 examination of the Scriptural argument hy a 
 discussion of the teaching of the Bihle as to the 
 yarious topics referred to in the heading of this 
 chapter, which have a yery close relation to the 
 suhject of future punislunent. To this discus- 
 sion we now turn. 
 
168 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 First, let us in order to ascertain the scriptural 
 doctrine of ' the ages,' consider the true meaning 
 of the words aion and monios. These are the 
 originals of the terms rendered b}" our translators 
 ' eternal,' ' everlasting,' ' for ever and ever : ' 
 and on this translation, so misleading, and indeed 
 Avholly incorrect, a vast portion of the 2W])ular 
 dogma of endless torment is built up. I say 
 without hesitation, misleading and incorrect ; for 
 aion means ' an age,' a limited j^eriod, whether 
 long or short, though often of indefinite length ; 
 and the adjective aionios means ' of the age,' ' age- 
 ' long,' ' a'onian * and never ' everlasting ' (of 
 its own jDroper force) : it is true that it may be 
 applied as an epithet to things that are endless, 
 but the idea of endlessness in all such cases comes 
 not from the epithet, but only because it is 
 inherent in t\\i object to which the epithet is 
 applied, as in the case of God. Indeed so far 
 from endless duration being implied by the term 
 aionios^ it sometimes includes hardly any idea of 
 duration at all. Sometimes, as in St. John, the 
 ioonian life (eternal * life) of which he speaks is a 
 life not measured by its duration, but a life in the 
 unseen — life in God. 
 
 " The word by itself, whether adjective or sub- 
 " stantive, never means endless.'" — Canon Fakrar. 
 
 * It is well to remember that in tliis Ixiok I have, as a rule, used 
 the term ' eternal ' in its popular sense of endless. 
 
OF THE AGES. 169 
 
 " The conception of eternity, in the Semitic 
 " languages, is that of a long duration and series 
 " of ages."— Rev. J. S. Blunt— i>zc/. of Theology. 
 " 'Tis notoriously known," says Bishop Rust, 
 " that the Jews, whether writing in Hebrew or 
 " Greek, do by olam (the Hebrew word corres- 
 " ponding to aiori) and uion mean any remarkable 
 " period and duration, whether it be of life, or 
 " dispensation, or polity." " The word aion is 
 " never used in Scripture, or any where else, in 
 " the sense of endlessness (vulgarly called eter- 
 "nity), it always meant, botli in Scripture and 
 " out, a period of time ; else how could it have a 
 " plural — how could you talk of the aums and 
 " wons of wons as the Scripture does." — C. 
 
 KiNGSLEY. 
 
 As a further iUustration of the meaninof of 
 aion and aionios let me point out that in the 
 Greek version of the Old Testament — in use in 
 our Lord's time — these terms are repeatedly 
 applied to things that have long ceased to exist. 
 Take a few instances out of many. Thus the 
 Aaronic priesthood is said to be ' everlasting,' 
 iVuiii. XXV, 13. The land of Canaan is given as 
 nn ' everlasting' possession, and ' for ever,' Ge?i. 
 xvii and xiii, 15. In Drat, xxiii, 3, 'forever' 
 is distinctly made an equivalent to ' even to their 
 'tenth generation.' In Lam. v, H), 'for ever 
 'and ever' is the equivalent of from 'generation 
 ' to generation.' The inhabitants of Palestine 
 are to bo bondsmen ' fc^r ever,' Lev. xxv, 46. 
 
170 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 In Num. xviii, 19, the heave offerings of the holy 
 things are a covenant ' for ever.' Caleb obtains 
 his inheritance ' for ever,' Josh, xiv, 9, etc. 
 Another instance from the Old Testament may 
 be found in Isaiah xxxii, 14, where we are told 
 ' the forts and towers shall be dens/t*?' ever, until 
 ' the spirit be poured upon us.' These instances * 
 might without difficulty be increased, but enough 
 has probably been said to prove that it is wholly 
 impossible, and indeed absurd, to contend that 
 any idea of endless duration is necessarily implied 
 by either aion or aionios. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, our translation has 
 steadily adhered to the terms ' eternal ' and ' ever- 
 ' lasting ' as the equivalent of aionios ; against 
 this we have only to offer the strongest protest, 
 the most earnest remonstrance. Meantime I 
 should like further to ask : if aionios does indeed 
 mean ' eternal,' how is it that the substantive aion 
 is in no case translated by the corresponding noun 
 ' eternity ? ' Why have not our translators done 
 this, which on their own principles seems obviously 
 required ? I think I can tell you, it would 
 reduce the word of God to an absurdity. Let 
 me give you some instances of the result of trans- 
 lating aion by eternity. In the first place, you 
 would have over and over aoain to talk of the 
 
 • So in Jmh vii, Sodom and (iomorrah are said to be suffering the 
 vengeance of eternal (soonian) fire, i.e., tlieir temporal overthrow by 
 fire. 
 
OF THE AGES 171 
 
 * eternities.' We can comprehend what ' eternity' 
 is, but what are the ' eternities ? ' You cannot 
 have more than one eternity. The Doxology 
 would run thus : " Thine is the kingdom, the 
 " power and the g'lory, ' unto the eternities.' " 
 Take another instance. In the case of the sin 
 against the Holy Ghost, the translation would 
 then be, " it shall not be forgiven him ' neither 
 " in this eternity nor in that to come.* " Our 
 Lord's words, St. Matt, xiii, 39. would then run, 
 " the harvest is the end of (the) eternity," which 
 is to make our Lord talk nonsense. 
 
 Again, in St. Mark iv, 19, the translation 
 should be, " the cares," not of this world, but 
 " the cares of this eternity choke the word." In 
 St. Luke xvi, 8, " The children of this world " 
 should be " the children of this eternity." 
 Romans xii, 2, should run thus : " Be not con- 
 " formed to this eternity," In / Cor. x, 11, the 
 words " upon whom the ends of the world are 
 " come," should be " the ends of the eternities." 
 Take next Gal. i, 4 : " That Hk might deliver 
 " us from this present evil world," should run 
 thus, "from this present evil eternity." In 
 // I'lmothji i\', 10, the translation should be 
 ' Demas hatli forsaken me, having loved this 
 ' present eternity.' Take a last example, ' Now 
 ' once at the end of the ages hath He been mani- 
 ' fested ' should read, on the popular view, ' at the 
 ' end of the eternities.' Let me state the dilemma 
 clearly. Aion either moans eternity (endless 
 
172 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 duration) as its necessary or at least its ordinary 
 significance, or it does not. If it does, why have 
 our Translators never so rendered it ? If it does 
 not, what right have they to render the adjective 
 aionios by the terms ' eternal ' and ' everlasting ?' 
 
 There is much more to be said. Besides 
 persisting in a rendering so misleading, our 
 Translators have really done further hurt to those 
 who can only read their English Bible. They 
 have, in fact, wholly obscured, a very important 
 doctrine, that of ' the ages,' This when fully 
 understood throws a flood of light on the whole 
 plan of redemption, and the method of the 
 Divine working, as we shall see. It will be in- 
 terestinfif if I aive you a few instances to illustrate 
 this fact. You will, I think, see how much force 
 and clearness is gained by restoring to the Bible 
 the true rendering of the words aion and aionios. 
 I will begin by a Avell-known passage, *SV. Matt. 
 xxiv, 3. There our version represents the 
 desciples as asking Jesus 'what should be the 
 ' sign of the end of the world.' It should be 
 the end of the 'age,' the close, in fact, of tlic 
 Jewish age or dispensation, marked by the fall of 
 Jerusalem. In St. Matt, xiii, 39-40-49, the true 
 rendering is not the end of the ' world,' but of 
 the ' age,' a change of nuich significance. So 
 St. John xvii, 3, ' This is life 'eternal,' should 
 be ' the life of the ages,' ?>., peculiar to those 
 ages in which the scheme of saKation is being- 
 worked out. Or take three passages of the Epistle 
 
OF THE AGES 173 
 
 to the Hf brews v, 9 ; ix, 12 ; and xiii, 20, 'eternal 
 ' salvation ' should be ' leonian ' or of the ages ; 
 ' eternal redemption ' is ' redemption of the ages,' 
 the ' eternal covenant ' is ' the covenant of the 
 ' ages,' the covenant peculiar to the ages of re- 
 demption. In Ejihesians iii, 1 1 ' tlie eternal 
 ' purpose ' is really the purpose of ' the ages,' i.e. 
 developed, worked out in ' the ages.' In the same 
 Epistle, chapter iii, 21, there occurs a suggestive 
 phrase, as usual altogether obscured by our 
 version, ' unto all the generations of the age of 
 ' the ages,' Thus it runs in the original, and it 
 is surely not dealing fairly with God's word to 
 wrap up this elaborate statement which gives such 
 ])rominence to the ' ages ' in the mere paraphrase 
 of our version ' throughout all ages.' In 1 Cor. 
 X, 11, ' the ends of the world' are the 'ends of 
 ' the ages. In the same Epistle, chapter ii, 6-7-8 
 the word aion occurs four times translated ' world' 
 it should be ' age ' or ' ages ' in all cases. 
 
 Again in Ilehreirs xi, .3, ' by whom He made 
 ' the world ' should be ' the ages.' In Hebrews 
 ix, 26, 'now once in the end of the world hath 
 ' He appeared ' should be ' in the end of the ages.' 
 Again the closing words of St. Jude present us 
 with a remarkable instance of the use of this 
 word ai(ni. It is literally, ' To the only God, 
 ' be glory, majesty, dominion and power — before 
 'every age — and now, and unto all the ages,' i.e., 
 before the ages began, and now, and through- 
 out all the ao'es vet to come. So in lur. i 6, 
 
174 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 we have ' g'lory and dominion ' ascribed unto 
 Christ, ' unto the ages of the ages,' in the 
 original. Again in I Tim. i, 17, 'the King 
 ' eternal ' should be ' the King of the ages ; ' vi, 
 17, 'charge them that are rich in this world' 
 should be 'in this age.' // Peter ii, 17, 'the 
 ' mist of darkness is reserved for ever ' should be 
 ' for the age,' for a period finite but indefinite. 
 A striking phrase closes this Epistle, ch. iii, 18 — 
 wholly obscured in our translation — which renders 
 'to Him be glory both now and for ever,' instead 
 of, as the original requires, ' unto the day of the 
 ' age,' * see v. 8, which explains the reference. 
 This list I might without difficulty have increased, 
 but enough has been said to shew the prominence 
 given in Scrijjture to the doctrine of ' the ages.' 
 For who can fail to see, in these repeated instances 
 from Holy Scripture, at least some definite pur- 
 pose in the use of these peculiar terms ; or who 
 can refrain from the deepest regret that our 
 Translators should have so steadily refused to 
 acknowledge this plain fact. 
 
 T^et me now try to state briefiy and clearly 
 what the doctrine of ' the ages ' is. I borrow the 
 words of Mr. Jukks : — " It will, I think, be found 
 "that the adjective — ^n>//m//— whether applied 
 
 * Take as an instance the hard measure dealt by our revised version 
 to this word n'loti ; you will find in a very short connjaso- the epistle 
 of St. I'aui. to the Kphesians— that they employ — to translate it — 
 four dilJ'e rent English words or phrases (in eh. i, 21, eh. ii, 2, ch. ii, 7, 
 and ch. iii, 11). 
 
OF THE AGES 175 
 
 "to 'life,' 'punishment,' 'covenant,' 'times,' or 
 " even God Himself, is always connected with 
 " remedial labour, and with the idea of aofes or 
 " periods, in which God is working- to meet and 
 " correct some awful fall." There is present in 
 the word in fact a certain spiritual or ethical 
 force, and a reference to ' the ages ' in which a 
 redeeming process is going on. It is the more 
 needful to insist on this, because in our recoil 
 from the Roman Catholic teaching about purga- 
 tory, masses for the dead, etc., we have gone 
 too far into the opposite extreme, we have from 
 our childhood been trained to limit all God's 
 possible dealings with us, to the narrow span of 
 our brief earthly existence. But surely this is 
 to shut our eyes to the truer and higher teaching 
 oi the gospel. What does God mean by the 
 repeated reference to these ' ages,' when He 
 speaks in the New Testament of His redeeming 
 plan ? On the popular view these passages go 
 for nothing. Is this fair or reasonable ? But 
 by accepting what they plainly teach, we are 
 enabled to harmonise God's threatenings with 
 His clearly expressed purpose to save all men 
 finally. 
 
 Therefore, we who teach the larger hope feel 
 constrained to believe, that in these ' ages ' is 
 indicated the true scope of redemption, as a vast 
 plan, the accomplishment of which is spread over 
 many periods or stages, of which our present life 
 forms but one, and it may be, a very brief part. 
 
176 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 Through these ' ages ' it seems clearly taught in 
 Scripture that Christ's work is to go on, for 
 ' Christ is the same to-day, and yesterday, and 
 ' unto the ages,' ITeh. xiii, 8 ; and He assures us 
 that ' He is alive unto the ages, and has the 
 'keys of death and of Hades,' Rev. i, 18 (the 
 true rendering), words significant in this con- 
 nection. This, then, on the plain warrant of 
 Scripture (although our translation completely 
 obscures the lixct), we believe to be the ' purpose 
 'of the ages,' Eph. iii, 11. We believe that 
 not in this brief life only, but through future 
 ages, Christ's work shall go on till, as we hope 
 from His own teaching, the last straying sheep 
 shall have been found by the Good Shepherd. 
 Nay, we are permitted in Holy Scripture a 
 momentary glance beyond that limit — in these 
 all-glorious words : — ' Then,' at the expiry it 
 Avould seem of these ages,* ' cometh the eml.,'' 
 when every enemy vanquished, ' Christ shall 
 ' have delivered up the kingdom unto God, and 
 ' God shall be All in All.'—/ Cor. xv, 24. 
 
 Another class of texts, to which I ask your 
 attention, are those which speak of ' deatli ' and 
 ' destruction ' as the portion of the ungodly. I 
 have tried to shew how, when we examine the 
 
 * It is worth while reminding my readers that our revised version 
 has very frequently admitted the correct rendering of awn as oye into 
 the margin. Let us hope that in the final revision, which one day 
 must l)e undertaken, this rendering will appear in the text. 
 
OF DEATH 111 
 
 original and compare text with text, we see that 
 not an endless hopeless doom is taught, in the 
 passages most often quoted to prove the popular 
 creed, but rather a discipline of the ' ages,' 
 remedial however sharp, and finite however 
 lengthened it may be. Turning now to the texts, 
 sufficiently numerous and clear, that denounce 
 ' death ' as the sinner's portion ; I may well ask, 
 what then ? is hope thus finally excluded ? what 
 is death ? 
 
 There are two answers commonly given. 
 First comes that of the popular creed which says, 
 death in the case of sinners means liviiuj for ever 
 in pain and torment ; so that I am actually re- 
 quired to believe that death means life protracted 
 for ever in pain, and that destruction means 
 preservation in eternal anguish ! The recoil 
 from such incredible teaching has produced the 
 second view of ' death ' as meaning ' annihilation,' 
 now maintained by those who teach tlie doctrine 
 of 'conditional immorality.' — See pp. 11-3. 
 
 In answer to this strange and novel teaching, 
 I would ask, in the words of an author ah'eady 
 quoted, " Are any of the varied deaths which 
 " Scripture speaks of as incident to man, his non- 
 " existence or annihilation ? Take as examples 
 " the deaths referred to by St. Paul, in the sixth, 
 " seventh and eighth chapters of the Epistle to 
 " the Romans. We read (ch. vii, 7) ' He that is 
 " dead is free from sin.' Is this ' death ' wbich 
 
178 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 " is freedom from sin, non-existence or annihila- 
 " tion ? Again, when the Apostle says (ch. vii, 
 "9) 'I was alive without the law once, but when 
 "the commandment came, sin revived, and I 
 " died.* Was this ' death,' wrought in him by 
 " the law, annihilation ? Again, when he says 
 " (ch. viii, 6j, ' To be carnally minded is death,' 
 "is this death non-existence or annihilation? 
 " And again, when he says, (ch. viii, 38) ' Neither 
 " death nor life shall separate us,' is the ' death ' 
 " here refered to annihilation ? When Adam 
 "died on the day he sinned {Gen. ii, 17), was 
 "this annihilation? when his body died, and 
 "turned to dust {Gen. v, 5), was this annihila- 
 " tion ? Is our ' death in trespasses and sins ' 
 " {Eph. ii, 1-2) annihilation ? Is our 'death to 
 "sin (i?(?w. vi, 11), annihilation. * * * Do 
 "not these and similar uses of the word prove 
 " beyond all question, that whatever else these 
 " deaths may be, not one of them is non-existence 
 " or annihilation ? " 
 
 But if death be neither living for ever in pain, 
 nor annihilation, what then is it ? Death is 
 bodily dissolution ; it is for uian ' a separation 
 ' from some given form of life which he has lived 
 ' in ; ' it is the way out of one state of being into 
 another. Thus understood, how should death 
 shut out hope? Nor is it really opposed to life, 
 in fact it is a pathway to life ; nay, the very con- 
 dition of life in many cases. ' Except a corn of 
 ' w^heat fall into the ground and die, it abideth 
 
OF DEATH 170 
 
 ' alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit. — 
 St. John xii, 24.* Is there not here a great truth 
 hinted at of universal application ? Is not the 
 connection a very real and vital one between 
 dying and future life ? and so the Apostle says 
 that ' he that is dead is freed from sin,' Rom. v, 
 27, i.e.^ is aUve to God. Cannot it be that this 
 death threatened against the ungodly is, after all, 
 the way, however sharj), to life even for them ? 
 Do you remember the words of St. Paul, Rom. 
 xi, 15, ' AVhat shall the reconciling of them be 
 ' but life from the dead ; ' on the view generally 
 lield these words, so significant to the thoughtful, 
 lose all real force. 
 
 And yet you who uphold the popular creed 
 assume that to die is the end of all hope to the 
 sinful. Again, let me ask, on what authority do 
 you teach this doctrine, unknown to anticpiity, 
 unknown to Scripture ? AVho commissioned you 
 to teach, that to die is to pass into a state beyond 
 the reach of Christ's grace ? If so, why are we 
 told so significantly the story of Christ evangel- 
 ising the spirits in prison ? Why does the 
 Apostle tell us that the Gospel was preached to 
 the dead? or why these repeated and exultant 
 questions, ' death where is thy victory ? ' ' 
 
 * I contiue myself, iii attempting to bring out the true significance 
 of 'deatli,' to the New Testament. In the Old Testament its 
 threatenings, of ' death ' and 'destruction,' are, if not exclusively, 
 mainly temporal, as are its rewards. 
 
180 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 ' death where is thy ^\a\\% ? ' Why lia^^ the Xew 
 Testament, with such varied iUustratioiis, pressed 
 on us this fact, that Christ has overcome death, 
 has destroyed death, if death is to put a stop to 
 His power to save ? So far from this, St. Paul 
 in aid of his argument in the famous chapter on 
 the resurrection, invokes the analogy of nature, 
 as shewing that to die is a path to hfe, a condi- 
 tion of hfe. ' Thou fool,' says the great Apostle, 
 ' that which thou sowest is not quickened except 
 ' it die' 
 
 Who shall limit this truth in its operation ? It 
 certainly does hold good in many cases in the 
 spiritual order — of that we are assured. ' If we 
 ' be dead with Him, we shall live with Him.' — 
 // Tim. ii, 11. 'We which live are always 
 ' delivered unto deatlt for Jesus' sake, that the 
 Hife also of Jesus might be manifested in us.' — 
 // Cor. iv, 11. May not deatli then be the very 
 ii.strument by which God quickens the sinner, 
 and that in two ways ? 
 
 i. By the death of the body, which takes a 
 man out of the present age into a state more 
 fitted to rouse and to save. 
 
 ii. liy the death of the s])irit, ?.t\, its being- 
 searched through and through by God's fiery 
 discipline — by His sharp surgery — till it die to 
 sin and live to righteousness. 
 
 In all this subject of deatli there is a strange 
 
OF DEATH 181 
 
 narrowness in the views yet lield g'enerally, so 
 unlike the old faith of the Catliolic Church — so 
 blindly traditional — as though the fact of dying- 
 could change God's unchanging purpose, as 
 though His never failing love were extinguished 
 because we pass into a new state of existence, as 
 though the power of Christ's cross were exhausted 
 in the brief span of our earthly life. So far from 
 this, has not Christ abolished death ? Is He 
 not Lord of the dead ? Did He not evangelise 
 the dead ? Has He not the keys of death ? On 
 the popular view, what depth of meaning can you 
 assign to these words ? 
 
 May I be permitted a few words before passing 
 on ? What welcome light is thrown by the 
 view of death, just given, on that which else so 
 sorely tries our faith. I mean those very frequent 
 catastrophes which involve in a common destruc- 
 tion the innocent and the guilty — the earthquake 
 —the storm — the pestilence — the famine — the 
 shipwreck — the tire — know no mercy apparently ; 
 spare no sex ; respect no age. And very often, 
 not merely do the innocent suffer with the guilty, 
 but for the guilty. All this does try — often 
 sorely — and j^erplex our faith. But how, if death 
 he a ;/ai//, does not all the strain and perplexity 
 vanish, if we see in death God's angel of mercy, 
 and connect with it thoughts of hope, even for 
 the sinner. Not that I mean for a moment to 
 d<my its terrors to the ungodly ; but to believe 
 tliat is (piite consistent with a firm iiiith, that 
 
]82 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 its ultimate purpose is, even for the worst, one of 
 mercy, that, at any rate, to pass through ' the 
 ' gate of death ' into a new state of existence is 
 not, and cannot be, to pass beyond the power of 
 Christ to save. Although to die may be, nay 
 must be, for the sinner to pass into a state of 
 suffering prolonged, so long as his sin endures, 
 yet even sinners are in Christ's hand ; and 
 although dead to us, are yet within the reach of 
 the working of that grace which must one day 
 overcome all sin, and sum up all things in Him 
 who is All and in All. 
 
 And what is true of death ' as threatened a^'ainst 
 the sinner is true no less of 'judgement,' even in 
 its most extreme form. We are not without very 
 distinct teacliing in Holy Scripture on this point. 
 It has been already noticed how, in the minor 
 Prophets, the vision of universal bliss is ever 
 associated with a vision of '' judijeriu'nt'' (see pp. 
 93-4). Why is this so significantly done? It is 
 because the way to blessedness lies throiu/h the 
 divine judgements. In these often unperceived 
 connections lies surely much of tlie deepest 
 teaching of Holy Scripture. On the popular 
 view this connection of judgement and blessed- 
 ness loses all meaninir. 
 
 ft" 
 
 ' Judgement,' in fact, Uke ' lire,' is the portion 
 of all, and not of the sinner merely. It must 
 begin at the House of God. ' He scourgeth 
 every son whom He receiveth.' True — you may 
 
OF JUDGEMENT 183 
 
 say — but what of the sinner, is there hope for 
 him in God's judgements ? Does God's judge- 
 ment mean mercy in his case ? Surely, I reply, 
 of this truth Scripture is full. Take for instance 
 St. Peter's words, as he tells the story of the 
 preaching" of Christ to the spirits in prison (a 
 passage that even if it stood alone would shew 
 how untenable is the popular view as to the state 
 after death). The spirits are specially described 
 as those of the disobedient dead — those who 
 rejected Noah's preaching. From their case 
 St. Peter turns to speak to the ungodly of his 
 own day, and warns them that they shall have to 
 give account to Him who is ready to judge the 
 quick and dead. And mark what follows : ' For 
 ' this cause,' he adds, ' was the gospel preached, 
 ' (even) to the dead^ that they might be judged 
 ' according to men in the flesh, bat lire according 
 ' to God in the spirit.' Is not judgement here 
 most closely related, not to damnation, for the 
 sinner, but to spiritual life, is it not the path to 
 life? 
 
 Would you have further proof ? Consider 
 next what St. PAULsaysof thecase of HYMEN.ia'S 
 and Alexander, / Tim. i, 20. They had put 
 away a good conscience, had become blasphemers, 
 had made shipwreck of faith. lie thereupon 
 hands them, over to Satan.. You can hardly 
 imagine a more desperate state. Thrust by 
 Apostolic authority out of God's Church, and 
 handed over to (ron's eneinv, and that after 
 
184 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 having made shipwreck of their faith. But what 
 follows ? it is that they may learn not to blas- 
 pheme. This terrible judgement was a cure — a 
 path to life and restoration. 
 
 In this connection, as shewing how the utmost 
 conceivable severity of the Divine judgements 
 is consistent with final salvation. I ask you 
 next to remember how St. Paul tells of Israel 
 that 'wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.' 
 — / Thes. ii, 16. The wrath of God to the utter- 
 most ! and yet the same Apostle tells us that all 
 Israel shall he saved ! Suppose it had pleased 
 Gob to withold this later revelation of His 
 purpose from our knowledge at present, who 
 would not have said, hope is quite gone ? But in 
 fact wrath to the utmost ends in mercy to all. 
 
 Another equally striking instance of the con- 
 nection of judgement with life and amendment, 
 is furnished by St. Paul's treatment of the inces- 
 tuous Corinthian. ' I h^wQ judged already in the 
 ' name of our Lord Jp:sus Christ, to deliver 
 ' such an one unto Satan for the destruction of 
 ' the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the 
 ' day of the Lord Jesus.' — / Cor. v, 3. Few 
 more suggestive passages exist in the New Testa- 
 ment. Here is a man delivered by Apostolic 
 authority — in the name of Jesus Christ — to 
 Satan, handed over to Satan. But mark the 
 object and the result. It is to end not in misery 
 but in joy — not in death but in life — say rather 
 
OF JUDGEMEXT ISo 
 
 in life attained by means of God's awful 
 judgement.* What light is thus thrown (for are 
 not these thing written for our learning?) on the 
 mysterious subject of God's judgements — nay of 
 His vengeance. f " mon ame sois tranquille 
 '' et attends en paix le jour des vengeances eter- 
 '• nelles, c'est le jour de Ciiuisr, et ce sont les 
 " vengeances de Christ. C'est done un jour de 
 " salut et ce sojii des vengeances d^ amours — G. 
 MoNOD, Le J'luh/einent Dernier^ p. 28. Nay, what 
 light is there not thus reflected on the essential 
 idea and purpose of all the Divine punishments, 
 both here and hereafter : for the unchanging G(^D 
 cannot vary His great purpose, His essential 
 plan, cannot now punish to amend and hereafter 
 change His method : to do so Hi-: should change 
 His own nature. 
 
 Thus you see what the Bible teaches about the 
 di\ine 'judgements,' even in their very sharpest 
 form. The}' are remedial and medicinal : thc}^ 
 do not, at the very extremest, exclude hope ; they 
 are rather tlie channel through which healing 
 comes. Do you need proofs ? Permit me to 
 
 * " Destruction itself may be the very condition of salvation. 
 "* * * This wretched Corinthian was, as we know, delivered 
 "from the power of the Devil by being delivered info the power of 
 "the Devil."— The. Lartjer Hope. 
 
 t Bearing in mind tliesc considerations, can we not understand the 
 f)therwise strange insertion of the clause about vengeance in the well 
 known passage describing Christ's mission, "To proclaim the 
 " acceptable year of the Lokd, and tlte day of vfix/eance of our (ioD." 
 /..,,;„// Ixi, 2 •'. 
 
186 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 repeat briefly, and to emphasise what I have just 
 said. In Holy Scripture we read, as you have just 
 seen, how the wrath of God came upon the Jews 
 to the uttermost. Weigh well these words and 
 what they convey. It is as though the cup of 
 Divine vengeance was drained to the last drop, as 
 though God had exhausted all his vials of anger, 
 and left Himself no more that He could do. 
 And even then, does all this wrath mean that 
 hope is at an end, that salvation is impossible ? 
 It means the very reverse. Xot only is hope 
 still remaining, not merely is there a chance of 
 salvation, but salvation is promised, is assured ; 
 nay, salvation in its amplest f(^rm — salvation to 
 the uttermost (for all Israel shall be saved) — is 
 the end of wrath to the uttermost. 
 
 Nor is this an isolated example. You have 
 been pointed to the case of Hyment^us and Alex- 
 ander, who — bankrupt in faith, castaway — are 
 handed over to Satan. Can you imagine t(j all 
 appearance a doom more terrible ? and yet it is 
 all done' that they may learn not to blaspheme. 
 The judgement has worked a cure, sharp as it 
 has been, it is all but a medicine to heal the soul, 
 a process of cure and not of perdition. So with 
 the incestuous Corinthian. His case is the same, 
 he, too, is turned over to the evil one ; lost surely 
 you will say. if ever a case was hopeless it would 
 be this. But he too is restored, welcomed back 
 to the fold. Lastly, recall those whose case is 
 more strikinu" still — more strikint!:. for in the 
 
OF FinE 187 
 
 other cases spiritual healing came in the present 
 life — but in the case of the disobedient Antedilu- 
 vians they went down to the pit unrepentant. 
 (ttOd's messenger, Xoah, vainly preached to them. 
 A life of special disobedience was crowned by a 
 death of special judgement ; even so is their's 
 then a hopeless doom ? Is that the meaning of 
 God's judgement ? So far from this being so the 
 Bible lifts the veil of the unseen world ; tells us 
 how the Gospel message reached these sinners after 
 death, in order that they might be judged accord- 
 ing to men in the flesh, but live accordino; to 
 God in the spirit. 
 
 But next a few words must l)e added as to the 
 true place ' lire ' holds in the teaching of the New 
 Testament. It, like judgement, so far from being 
 the sinners portion only, is the portion of all. 
 Everyone^ says our Lord in a solemn passage 
 (usually misunderstood, St. 3irtr/i'ix, 43-50), evenj- 
 one shall be salted with ' hre.' PIe signiticantly 
 reminds us that He 'came to aend Jire upon the 
 ' earth.— aS'. Lah' xxii, 49. And so " the ' fire ' shall 
 '' try every man's work." Our Lord is described as 
 baptizing his disciples with ' fire.' St. Peter bids 
 his converts not wonder at the ' fiery ' trial which 
 they must pass. This was the firm belief of the 
 old Fathers, without perhaps any exception fsee 
 note p. 74). Let St. A:\ibhose s})eak. Writing 
 on Ps. cxviii, " all," he says, " must be proved by 
 •' fire, as many as desire to return to l-'aradise. 
 " For. not idiv has it lu'cn written, that when 
 
788 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 " Adam and Eve when driven forth from Para- 
 " dise, God placed at the gate thereof a flaming 
 " sword which turned every way. All then must 
 " ]mss through tliese fire.s, whether it be that 
 " John the EvangeUst wliom the Lord so loved, 
 " or that Peter who received the keys of the 
 " Kingdom of Heaven." — Se7'f)t. xx, 12. 
 
 So far from seeking to explain a\\'ay the 
 solemn warnings of the Gospel, the larger hope 
 in fact presses them home. It warns everyone 
 that the way to life lies through the ' hres,' that 
 the cross must either be taken up here and now, 
 or else if sin be indulged in, that there awaits the 
 sinner hereafter a far more terrible ordeal, a 
 Divine ' fire ' that shall search him through and 
 through. AVe, then, who teach hope for all men, 
 do not shrink from, but accept in their fullest 
 meaning^ those mysterious ' fires ' of Gehenna of 
 which CiiKiST speaks (kindled for purification), 
 as in a special sense the sinner's doom in the 
 coming ages. If, as the Bible plainly teaches, eiU 
 must pass through ' the fires,' then for the sinner 
 douljtless a far sharper fire must be kindled here- 
 after. l^)ut taught by the clearest statements 
 of Scripture (confirmed as they are by all the 
 analogies of nature), Ave see in these 'fires' not 
 a denial of but a mode of fulfilling the assured 
 ])romise — '' IJehold, I make all ihim/s neiv.^^ 
 Tliey in iact are but mistaking the whole signifi- 
 cance of fire in its Scriptural usage who regard 
 it as implving mcrol\' torment. Alike nature 
 
OF FIRE 189 
 
 and Scripture teach a far different lesson as to 
 the uses of 'fire.' Its mission is to bless and to 
 purify. It sustains life and cherishes it. No 
 doubt it has a mission of destruction, but even 
 then its agency is in the end to promote and call 
 forth fresh life and growth. 
 
 Had these facts been borne in mind, how much 
 painful controvers}^ would have been spared ; how 
 many sad hearts would have escaped the suffering 
 of needless pangs, if they had but remembered or 
 been taught the benejicc/it action of fire. For 
 again and again recalling this fact, and trying to 
 impress it on the minds of men no apology is 
 nee<led. Few more necessary offices can be 
 undertaken by those who treat of this subject 
 than to assert the life-giving, the cleansing, the 
 })urifying agency of fire, in opposition to that 
 untrue and gloomy view that looks on it as an 
 agent of mere torment. " Fire,' in Scripture, is 
 ''the element of ' life ' {Is. iv, 5), of ' purifica- 
 " tion ' {Matt, iii, 8), of 'atonement' (Ler. xvi, 
 " 27), of ' transformation ' (TI Peter, iii, lOj, and 
 " at the worst only of ' total destruction ' {Rev. 
 " XX, 9), nerer of 'preservation alive ' for pur- 
 " poses of anguisli." And the popular view 
 se'ects preciselv this latter use, never found in 
 Scripture, and represents it as the sole end of 
 God's fiery judgements! Xeed I say more? By 
 sucli means as this has the traditional creed been 
 built u]) ; on arguments so unsound, so partial 
 does ir rest : arixuments whose weakness is 
 
190 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 brought into clear relief by the very Scriptures 
 to which it appeals, even without considering 
 the abundant evidence furnished by nature of the 
 beneficent agency of lire. 
 
 There remains for our consideration, a very 
 important class of passages, supposed, but, as 
 I shall hope to shew, erroneously, to favour the 
 popular creed. These passages — to which I 
 would now briefly advert — are those that speak 
 of the 'elect,' and their fewness (see p. 7), of the 
 ' many ' called but the ' few ' chosen. That 
 Gob's election is a doctrine clearly revealed in 
 Scripture, none can doubt : although, unfor- 
 tunately, around few subjects has the battle of 
 controversy been so furiously waged. One great 
 party has, in affirming God's election — which is 
 true — so affirmed it as to make Him into an 
 arbitrary and cruel tyrant — which is false. But 
 the truer and deeper views of God's plan of 
 mercy through Jesus Christ — now in the 
 ascendant, I trust — teach us to affirm distinctly 
 the doctrine of the Divine election of ' the few,' 
 and just because we so affirm it to connect with 
 it purposes of universal mercy. 
 
 For what is the true end and meaning of 
 God's election when rightly understood? The 
 elect, we reply, are chosen, not for themselves 
 only but for others sake. They are ' elect,' not 
 merely to be blessed but to be a source of blessing. 
 God's choice of ' tlie few ' is not desio-ned to ter- 
 
OF ELECTION 191 
 
 ininate with them. It is not merely with the 
 paUry object of saving a few, while the vast 
 majority perish, that God elects ; it is with a 
 Divine purpose, a purpose of mercy to all ; it is 
 by ' the few ' to save ' the man)-,' by the elect 
 to save the world. " If you go to Scripture," 
 says Dr. Cox, " you will hnd this its constant 
 " teaching-. Even in those earlv days when one 
 " man, one family, one nation, were successively 
 " chosen, to be the depositories of Divine truth, 
 " when, therefore, if ever we might expect to find 
 '• the redemptive purpose of (xOd disclosed within 
 '• narrow and local limitations, when unquestion- 
 '' ably it was much fettered and restrained by 
 " personal promises, and by national and tem- 
 '' porar>' institutions, the Divine purpose is for 
 '• ever oversteping every limit, every transient 
 " localisation and restraint, and claiming, as its 
 "proper sphere, all the souls that are and shall 
 "be." 
 
 Tliis admits of easy proof. Take a typical case 
 to shew what God's election really means. Take 
 the case of Abraham, the father and founder of 
 (jOd's elect people. What was the promise to 
 him ? 'That in his seed slioiild all the fannhes 
 ' of the earth be blessed.' This was of the essence 
 of (jOd's election. And to this effect St. Paul 
 speaks with perfect clearness. The promise to 
 Abraham was, he tells us, that he should be the 
 heir of the irorld^ Rom. iv, 13, words most expres- 
 sive, and yet without meaning on tlie common 
 
192 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
 
 view of election. In other words the Jews, as 
 God's people, have, as their inheritance, all lands, 
 all peoples. In the same Epistle (to the Romans) 
 St. Paul points out how close the connection is 
 between Israel and the world — p.p. 121, 123. 
 Three times over he asserts their very fall to be the 
 riches of the world, and asks if so, what will not 
 the reconciling of Israel be (to the world). In 
 short, on God's elect people liang's the lot and 
 destiny of mankind — see Gal. iii, 8, and Acts iii, 
 21-5 ; the latter passage is very interesting. St. 
 Peter there asserts the connection between a 
 universal restoration and the promise to Arra- 
 iiAM, ?'.<?., his election. These topics have been 
 already touched on in earlier chapters, but with- 
 out ao:ain referrin"; to them here, I could not have 
 given any clear view of the Divine election — as a 
 fact undoubtedly taught in Scripture and yet 
 implying a purpose of mercy to all. 
 
 A further admirable illustration of this may be 
 given (furnished by Holy Scripture), from its 
 teaching as to the ' iirst fruits,' and as to the ' first 
 'born.' Israel, as God's elect, is the 'first fruits' 
 — Israel the ' first born.' But the ' first fruits ' 
 imply and pledge the icliole harvest ; the ' first 
 ' born ' involve and include in the Divine economy 
 the ulnde fixmily (as indeed has been said in a 
 former chapter). " The first born and first fruits 
 " are the ' few ' and the ' little flock,' but tliese, 
 " although ' first delivered from the curse,' have 
 " (( rt'/dtio/i to the irholc (■/'/■{(t/o/t^ which shall be 
 
OF ELECT 10 X 193 
 
 " saved in the appointed times by the iirst born 
 " seed, that is by Christ and His body." You 
 thus see that we, so far from denying or weaken- 
 ing the election of the fcir, lay stress on it. Rightly 
 viewed, God's electing grace stands, not opposed 
 to but in complete agreement with the widest 
 hope for all men. It becomes indeed a corner 
 stone, so to speak, in the edifice of the world's 
 salvation, for His ' elect' few are the very means 
 by which our Father designs to bless all Uis 
 children ; designs to work out His plan of uni- 
 v^ersal salvation. 
 
 Thus I have tried to shew briefly, and doubtless 
 very imperfecth\ Avhat the true teaching of Holy 
 Scripture is as to the ' ages,' 'death,' 'judgement,' 
 'fire,' and ' election.' It would be easy to add 
 to, and easy to follow out the lines of thought 
 already indicated. Thus, I mio-ht shew at lenjjth 
 liow numerous are the references to ' the ages,' 
 made by the Xew Testament, how com])letely 
 this doctrine leavens its pages. As to ' death ' 
 it might be pointed out how Christ compares it 
 to sleep — but sleep is Xature's restorer. It but 
 refreshes, renews, and invigorates. Au:ain it 
 nnght be shewn how strikingly the actual state of 
 the world confirms the view given above of 
 ' death.' For it can hardly be doubted that the 
 redemption of Christ is meant to be communi- 
 cated to all those intei-ested in it. But of those 
 born into the world how few, comj)aratively, have 
 even lieard the nam*' of Christ in their present 
 
104 THE SCRIPTURAL DOC'TRrXE 
 
 state of being. In fact, with singular infelicitv, 
 does the popular creed at once unduly exalt and 
 unduly depress our present life ; unduly exalt it 
 by representing it as the sole period in which 
 Christ's grace can effectually reach the sinner ; 
 unduly depress it, by adjourning to a distant 
 future its most solemn facts, forgetting that 
 already ' the solemnities of eternity enfold u.-;,' 
 that already we are standing at the tribunal * of 
 God, that His 'judgements' are now and ever in 
 session, His ' tires ' are already kindled. How, 
 then, shall these change their essential nature ? 
 how shall His 'judgements' cease to be remedial? 
 His ' tires ' cease to be beneficent and purifying ? 
 merely because we experience the change called 
 death'? 
 
 * So in St. Mdtf. xiii, 39-40-40, all the solemn imagery of these 
 parables does not ]>elong to the rtnal close of the woi-ld, hut of ' the 
 ' age ' — see margin of Rev. Yer. Tlie same may very probahly be 
 said of the great judgement scene in St. Malt, xxv — see p. \'>'2. 
 
"SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION." 
 
" Ye have seen the end of the Loud : that the Loun is veiy pitiful 
 "and of tender mercy. " — St. James v, 11. 
 
 " But it shall Cdme to pass that at t-i'i-iii/ti/ timt it shall be lii/ht." — 
 Zedi. xiv, 7. 
 
 " Be the day weary or be it long, 
 
 " Still it ringeth to evensong." Pkklton. 
 
 " The little Pilgrim listened with an intent face, clasping her liands 
 " and said, ' But it never could l)e that our Father should l)e over- 
 " come l)y evil. Is tliat not known in all the worlds ''.' " — I'he Little 
 Plhjrhn, p. 122. 
 
 " Tliis world is strange and often terril)le ; but be not afraid, all 
 " will come right at last. Rest will conquer Restlessness ; Faith will 
 " conquer Fear ; Order will concjuer Disorder ; Healtli will conquer 
 " Sickness ; Joy will conquer Sorrow ; Pleasure will conquer Pain ; 
 " Life will compter Death ; Right will conquer ^Vrong. ^4// will he 
 ^^ well at last." — Madam How and Ladij Wln/V. Kincsley. 
 
 " Chiusto dedit Pater omne judicium. I'oterit ergo te ille damnare. 
 " quern redemit a morte, pro quo se obtidit, cujus isti.m su;v Uioitis 
 " mercem esse cognoscit ? Noune dicet, (ime titilitas in sanyidne vieo 
 '^ si danuio <iuem Ijise sulraci / '- S, Amukosi — 1><' Jaevlt. tt Vit. Beat, 
 
CHAPTEU X. 
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIOX 
 
 It is now time to draw to a close these pages, 
 briefly to sum up the course of the argument, 
 and to state tlie conclusions at which we have 
 arrived. I have shewn, first, how completely 
 impossible it is to reconcile the belief in endless 
 torment with the plain and unmistakeable convic- 
 tions of our moral nature, God's highest gift to us. 
 Few things are more wonderful in this whole 
 question than the reluctance so many feel to follow 
 out these unhesitating convictions to their oidji 
 jxtssihle legitimate conclusion, the rejection ot 
 that d(wma which so flatly contradicts them. It 
 is not intended tor a moment to assert that these 
 con\ictions are an absolutely infallible guide ; 
 for indeed of what can it be said that its directions 
 reach us in aii infdliblc form ? Can that be said 
 of the IViblc itself? Are those who translate it 
 infallible? Are those wlio comment on it iiifd- 
 lible ? A i-e those wlio read it free from env »i-, i'rom 
 
IDS SUMMARY AND CONCLUSTOX 
 
 prejudice, from ignorance ? But no one therefore 
 doubts its divine authority, or fails to see in it a 
 guide practically sufftcient, and binding on us. 
 Exactly so in the case of that other and primary 
 revelation of God to the heart and conscience of 
 man. Although we do not claim infallibility for 
 all its conclusions, yet we do claim that the 
 deliberate verdict of our moral sense represents 
 to us the voice of Gon practically. And therefore 
 that which contradicts our deepest moral intui- 
 tions, convictions, instincts (call them what you 
 please), cannot he true. ^iiy, by these verv 
 convictions, and by these alone, it is, that life 
 is ordered, that society subsists, that reli"'ion 
 itself becomes possible. Now this being so, we 
 cannot dare, as the popular creed does, to attribute 
 to our Creator acts, which we know and feel 
 would be utterly cruel and horrible in an 
 earthly parent. It is a blasphemy against our 
 Maker so to do, it is doubly a blasphemy against 
 Him who is "our Father." Again, of the untold 
 evil caused by teaching endless torture in Hell 
 as part of the gexxl news whicli Jesus Cmhist 
 came to bring, I have spoken, and have pointed 
 out that it has done more to produce unbelief 
 than probably all other causes put together. 
 
 An important point lias been briefly discussed 
 (p. 21-2), viz : the attempt made to remc^ve the 
 overwhelminj'' moral diiiiculties attendiuii' the 
 popular creed, ])y asserting that endless torments 
 are but the result of the human will freely 
 
srjfjfAnr and conclusion 199 
 
 choosing evil ; so that, as the phrase is some- 
 times put, the (ioors of Hell are " locked on the 
 "inside." iSow if this phrase be designed to 
 convey that myriads upon myriads of creatures, 
 children of a God, absolute in goodness and in 
 power, will continue deliberately to choose evil to 
 all eternity, I can only repeat that the real diffi- 
 culties are not so much as touched * by any such 
 theory. The intellectual difficulty remains the 
 same, for the Almighty is thus defeated ; the 
 Scriptural difficulty remains the same, for its 
 promises of universal restitution come to naught ; 
 and the moral difficulty is untouched, for the 
 final victory remains with the powers of darkness 
 on this vie^v. 
 
 lUit I have no space here to attempt any 
 complete summary of the difficulties (already 
 indicated in chs. ii-iii), moral, intellectual, and 
 practical, that beset the popular view. One 
 instance only I can give. All our creeds describe 
 God as Almighty : but if this be t7'ue then it 
 follows that the purposes of such a Being cannot 
 fail, nor His Avill be resisted Avitli success. And 
 yet the ordinary creed presents to us Omnipotence 
 
 'And the same may be, said of the varidus modifications of the 
 popuhir creed now current — sucli as, that not bodily but mental 
 pain will bo the penalty inllicted on ' the lost ' — or that a sort of 
 maimed and crippled existence, not wholly or not very painful, will 
 be their doom— or that ' the lost ' will, after some torments, be annihi- 
 lated — of all these varying theories not one touches the real difficulties 
 as stated above. 
 
200 SU 31 MARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 practically impotent ; a design to save all men 
 (for this cannot be denied if the Bible speaks truly), 
 formed by the Almighty, and formed only to fail. 
 What a weapon to place in the hands of the 
 sceptic ! "You have, in fact," he will say, "two 
 " unequal measures,* two varying standards of 
 " truth. Which am I to accept ? Am I, or am 
 " I not, to believe in the Almighty Being your 
 " creeds proclaim — am T to accept your theory, 
 " or your practical belief? Am I to confess my 
 " faith in the irresistible and unchanging will of 
 " God, or shall I believe that this irresistible will 
 "may be so successfully resisted as to pUmge 
 " half creation into chaos and ruin ? " 
 
 From these weighty matters we passed on to 
 consider the authorised teachino; of the Church. 
 I have shewn you how, in spite of the doctrine of 
 reserre, then widely prevalent, and specially 
 applicable to such a dogma as the larger hope, 
 not a few of the greatest of the early Fathers 
 taught, more or less openly, the salvation of all 
 mankind. Further, we have seen how the 
 attempt to procure a condenmation of this belief 
 in the case of Origen signally failed, and how in 
 fact no general council has ever condemned it, 
 
 * You can in fact justify the popular creed in one way, and in that 
 alone, by attaching to each term we apply to God two contradictory 
 meanings. He is Almighty and yet not Almighty, good and yet not 
 good, in the only sense we connect with the word ; loving and yet 
 not loving, a Father and yet not a Father, etc. 
 
SI \y J! Any .\xn coxclustox .wi 
 
 ihus It'avin^- it, so 1;ir as the Cliiirch i.s coucerncd. 
 a perfectly open (piestion. Nor have Ave omitted 
 to remark how the two Ancient Creeds — the 
 Apostles' and the Nicene — close tlieir statements 
 ot' Christian trutli liy the assertion of a helief m 
 I/k' life to came, and are ^/tj///Jiruntlj/ silent as to 
 anvthini;: more than this. in our l)()ok of 
 Connnon i^rayer ag'-ain, ihshioned as it is on the 
 old lines, not a few passages have been noticed 
 that imply the larger liope, and teach, more or 
 less, diiectlv the salvation of all men. 
 
 From the Churcli we turned to consider the 
 all important ( question of the teachinL'; of Holy 
 Scripture. I have pointed out how, even in the 
 Old Testament, there are intimations from the 
 ver\' first of a future blessing, designed to embrace 
 rail tlie race of man. These intimations become 
 more and more distinct as the ])lan of God is 
 more fully disclosed, and both Psalmists and 
 Prophets unite in their promises of a golden age 
 yet to come, when the knowledge of the T.ord 
 shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. 
 The Xew Testament received more minute atten- 
 tion, due to its su]jreme importance. The 
 passages — at least the most important ones — 
 snjiposed generally to teach the popular creed, 
 ha\(' been carefully considered, and we have seen 
 reason to conclude that they, one and all, 
 wliile em]»liatically warning sinners of wrath to 
 <'oiu(', teach nowliere an cml/es.^ ]mni<lim('nt, no- 
 i\'].icr<' ;iii iinciidinu' licll. 
 
S03 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 Next, I have dwelt on this surely verv 
 suggestive fact, that in not a few cases the verv 
 arguments from Scripture, alleged in favour of 
 the popular creed, do in fact, when fairly mider- 
 stood, teach the reverse. Thus you remember 
 how a chapter was devoted to a brief discussion 
 of certain classes of texts, usually quoted in fovour 
 of the popular belief, ('jj., those speaking of God's 
 ' election of the few,' of ' death,' of 'judgement,' 
 of ' tire,' of ' the ages.' I have attempted to 
 shew that iha true teaching of Holy Scripture on 
 all these points is in absolute harmony with the 
 larger hope ; that to insist on one and all of these 
 ]:)oints is but to bring into clearer relief the 
 doctrine of universal salvation. 
 
 And as the larger hope leads us to athrm and 
 emphasise the teaching of Scripture as to the guilt 
 of actual sin and its certain punishment, so it 
 teaches us to give ])rominence to the fact of 
 original sin. For in this it sees a clear proof of a 
 fundamental doctrine of Scripture, the organic 
 imity of our race ; a doctrine lying at the root 
 of the Fall and the Incarnation. Each infant born 
 into a state of sin is a witness to its truth, and 
 bears in its whole life sad proof of the organic 
 unity of our race in the taint drawn from our first 
 parent Adam, l^ut this unity is to be traced 
 not alone in the tie connecting us with the first 
 Adam, but as truly in the bond which unites us 
 with the second Adam. Tn words adnhtted— this 
 is in iiu't denied by the pitpular creed — but once 
 
SUMMARY AXn COXC'LUSTOX 20S 
 
 admitted as a vital fact, it follows necessarily that 
 Christ's relation is not to men singl}^, but to man, 
 i.e., mankind. Therefore the salvation which 
 He brings is not (cannot be) a thing of 
 individuals, but of all. Therefore a partial 
 salvation is not possi])le, for Christ redeems, not 
 individual men, but mankind ; not human beings 
 severally, but humanity. Christ has nothing to 
 do with a part of our race. As the second Adam 
 He sums up in Himself and saves the human 
 race, " For as in Adam all die, so in (the second) 
 " Adam shall all be made alive." 
 
 I have also pointed out that it is not the larger 
 hope, but the popular creed, that in fact teaches 
 men to think lightly of sin, by teaching, as it 
 does, that God means to tolerate its presence for 
 ever in His universe. And so with God's 
 punishments, how often is it not said that those 
 who maintain the final salvation of all men do 
 not believe in future punishment at all, or at 
 least rob God's penalties of all meaning by their 
 belief. Exactly the opposite, I re])ly, is the fact. 
 For the true end of punishment is only clearly 
 recognized when it is seen that — although no doubt 
 retributive — it is essential 1\' remedial and medi- 
 cinal. To affirm this as the end of all God's 
 ])enalties is to bring into clear relief and not to 
 ignore the Divine punishments. Further, it 
 must lie said, that these punishments gain, both 
 in clearness and in certaintv, when they are 
 tauii'lit in a rensonable lorni, for then, and then 
 
304 SUMMARY AXD COXCLUSTON 
 
 only, do they elicit a response from the conscience 
 and deter, in fact, from the commission of sin. 
 
 But our examination of the New Testament 
 has not been contined to the general points just 
 referred to. Two chapters, \\ and \'ii, have been 
 devoted to a series of notes, designedly brief and 
 simple, pointing out how full the Xew Testament 
 is of passages (alas, neglected or explained away), 
 and yet distinctly teaching or implying the iinal 
 salvation of all men. So deeply im]>ortant is this 
 evidence furnished by the Xew Testament in 
 favour of a universal salvation, tliat I venture 
 here to apj^end a brief summarv of the ]:>assages 
 alreadv quoted. 
 
 In chapter vi the e\'idence funusluMl bv the 
 writings ot the Evangelists has ])een considered. 
 Let me point out how clear it is, how emphatic. 
 Thus we have seen how to CHiiisr is assigned a 
 kingdom absolutely without l>ound or limit ; * 
 how all flesh are to see the salvation IJe gives. 
 You have read how the leaven of His Kingdom 
 must Avork on till the irliolc is leavened, and the 
 Good Shepherd seek on till each sheep Me has lost 
 is found. You have read how the Son of Man 
 came to seek and save, not some of the lost, but 
 simply " that which was lost," i.e., siuiply " the 
 " lost." His mission is au'ain described as haviiio- 
 
 * The passages alluded to, in these and the i'dllowiiig paragrapha, 
 have been already given at length in ehs. vi-vii. 
 
SUiiniARY ANT) rONfLrSlOX 20r, 
 
 as its object the salvation of the worhh and Wv. 
 is said to take away the sin c^f tlie whole world. 
 Do these terms fairly represent a partial saKation, 
 are they honestly consistent ^^'ith it ? A,i;-ain. it 
 is said that all tli//u/,s have been a'iven to tlio Son, 
 and that all that is so <;iven shall conic to Him. 
 He is repeatedly described as the Sa\ iour of the 
 worhl (\yhich yet Hk does not in fact save on the 
 ])opular view), as the IJ^'lit of the world. Ih'; is 
 said not to ott'c.r jjut to ///'/v life to the world ; a 
 totally different thing- I 11 k says (no words can 
 be more absolute), speaking of His Cross, that 
 Hk will draw all men unto Mi^rsKi.F. He adds, 
 that Hk c:nne m*! to jiidge. but to s;n'e tlie 
 w < >rld. 
 
 All these passages are familiar : tnie. bnt can 
 Noii ])ossi})lv on anv fair theory of the meaning of 
 human language reconcile them witli the horrors 
 of an endless Hell, oi- with :i jiai'tial sidxation ? 
 H' the sin of the irlmlc irarhl !><■ f(il,n/ mnnj. Il()^\- 
 shall tliere be a Hell for its endless punishment ? 
 If ^-f// things without exception (the original is 
 the Avidest possible), are given to Christ, an<l all 
 so given to Him shall come to Him. can you 
 reconcile this with unending misery ? Ihtt let us 
 go on : we find language over and over again 
 employed by the Evangelists quite as strong and 
 as decisive against the popular ci-eed, as that just 
 quoted. When, for instance, we read in St.Jolin 
 liow (ion's Son was manifested for the verv 
 ])ni'])ose oi' sirn j)in(/ >/ir/n/ flif /rorls of the Jhril ; 
 
206 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 is that consistent by any possibility witli the 
 preserving these works in Hell? Is tliere no 
 signihcance in Chkist's telling us that He is 
 " ahve unto the ages, and has the keys of Hell 
 " and death?" Or again, what does the promise 
 to make nil things new mean ? If this be not a 
 promise of universal restoration, what is it ? 
 Again, remember the promise that there shall be 
 no more curse, and no more pain. Lastly, ponder 
 over the glorious vision of the Apocalypse, where 
 every creature in Heaven, on earth, and under 
 the earth, is described as ioinino- in the sons: of 
 praise to God and to the Lamb ; and ask yourself 
 if less than a universal salvation can possibly 
 satisfy the plain sense of these words of Scripture. 
 Such are some passages already quoted, see chapter 
 vi ; and yet these are by no means the whole of 
 the evidence the New Testament furnishes, we 
 have next to consider a very large body of fresh 
 passages quite as strong, quite as distinctly 
 teaching the same truth, furnished by the Epistles 
 of St. Paul, St. Peter, and that to the Hehren-s 
 (see chapter vii). 
 
 St. Paul's Epistles especially are full of the 
 most glowing anticipations of the universal reign 
 of Christ, and the assured triumph of His King- 
 dom over evil and sin. Thus Abiiaiiam is to 
 receive the world, and no less, as His portion, 
 i.e., in God's elect seed all are to be saved. 
 Whatever the Fall has done to injure mnn is to 
 be repaired, and umch more than repaired, h\- the 
 
^^UJLUARY ANJJ CONCLUSION. 201 
 
 gift of God's o-race in Christ. Ijiit is it possible 
 to undo (ill that sin lias done if a sino-le soal be 
 left in endless loss ? would not St. Paul be in 
 fact speaking untrnhj in suck a case ? Further, 
 the same apostle assures us that the u-liole 
 creation shall be deU\-ered into the glorious 
 liberty of God's children. And again he argues 
 that the very fact of God's giving His Son proves 
 that with Hni all things are given— the original 
 word is the widest possible, and certainly includes 
 all souls. Ag-ain <ill Israel are to Ije saved (and 
 Israel's salvation is that of the world, see p. 12oj, 
 for, adds the Apostle, God's gifts and calling are 
 undefeasible : words significant in the highest 
 degree, for what is the popular creed but an 
 emphatic asgertion that God's calling may be 
 defeated, and God's gifts set at naught? And 
 what St, Paul here' asserts is echoed in the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, which assures us of the 
 immutability of God's counsel. Again has God 
 shut up (ill in unbelief, it is, St. Paul says, that 
 He may liave mercy upon (tU. Does (ill mean 
 ^soine^'ui the latter ckuse, and not in tlie former 
 here ? 
 
 Once more, the. same Aj^ostle assures us — and 
 mark these words, for they are surely conclusive 
 — that if the first Adam brings death universally, 
 then the second Ada.m is to bring universal life. 
 If sin al)ounds, iinu-h more shall grace abound. 
 Weigh these words well, for in saying that the 
 secoi]d Adam has in fact ihil/'d in iii\)*ia<ls of cases 
 
208 SUMMARY AND C'ONCLUSmx 
 
 to undo tlie e\'il caused by the Fall, \o\\ are 
 oiving these words of Scripture the flattest con- 
 tradiction that it is possible to give. Then as to 
 Christ's empire, the Apostle says it must extend 
 universally, that to Him every knee must bow, 
 aud ererij tongue confess ; that one day — at the 
 end — God shall be all in aU. In fact St. Vavu 
 never seems to Aveary of claimino^ this universal 
 dominion for Christ. ^4// thing's ai-e to be 
 gathered together in one in Christ (not in Hell 
 surely!) words repeated even more emphatically 
 when the Apostle asserts that by the ]>lood of tlie 
 Cross all things have been reconciled luito the 
 Father. Does the reconciliation of all thinc^s, /.c\, 
 the universe, by the C-ross mean the sending of 
 countless myriads to endless ])ain? Further, the 
 Apostle assures us that tlie living God is the 
 Saviour of (ill, that Jksits Christ has (iholinlied 
 (Ic/ilh, that the grace of God bringetli sah'ation . 
 to {/ll men. Ai-e these statements consistent 
 with a partial salvation ? 
 
 St. Peter too, speaks to the same efiect. You 
 remend)er that he tells the wonderful story of 
 Christ preaching t<> the (lend who liad once been 
 disol)edient and were apparently hst ; a storv 
 whose significance is the very greatest possil)le, 
 as indicating how l)ehind the veil Christ works 
 on to heal and to save : and in his second Epistle 
 adds, that the Lord is not willing that nnn should 
 perish. Is God's deliberate counsel — such is the 
 ()i"i<_:"inal \\(»rd — to come to iiothiiiu; ? Tlicu '\\\ 
 
SUM J! Any AXD CONCLUSIOX 200 
 
 the Epistle to the lldircirs ^ve have some remark- 
 able testimony to the same effect. Thus we have 
 tliere repeated the assertion that all things are to 
 be 23ut under Christ ; that His object in dyiiif^ 
 "was to destroy the De\il, that once in the end of 
 the age has He appeared to put away, i.e , abolish 
 sin by His sacrifice of Himself. Do say how 
 the aboUtion of sin is or can be consistent with 
 the maintaining of evil in Hell for ever ? Finally 
 let me remind you how precise and emphatic the 
 promise is (see Hebrews viii, 10-1), that one day 
 all shall know the Lord, from the least to the 
 greatest. 
 
 Such is a very brief outline of the teaching of 
 Scripture, for I have not by any means cited here 
 all its promises of universal salvation. It is, you 
 see, no case of isolated texts. It is no case of 
 building upon Eastern metaphors, of dogma rest- 
 ing upon misconceptions of the original. It is 
 (piite the contrary. It is evidence, clear and 
 unambiguous, and not tliis alone but repeated 
 over and over again as we have seen. You have, 
 in fact, line upon line, promise upon promise, 
 assertions, varied, reiterated, accuniidated, yet amid 
 all their variety pointing with one consent to 
 this great central thought, to the completeness of 
 the triumph (if Jesus Christ, to the boundless 
 nature of His empire over all souls ; to the 
 iLssurance of a victory, infinite and absolute, AVon 
 by His incarnation, His death,, and His resur- 
 rection, over all the powers of evil. 
 
210 SUJUfARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 This being so, let me next ask, have you Avho 
 maintain the popular cieecl, ever quietly thought 
 over the terrible slio;lit vou offer to the whole 
 work of ChrIvST, to His incarnation and His 
 passion, by asserting the- final loss of countless 
 myriads of our race ? He has come, we know, 
 to save the world. He, the Almyjhty One ; very 
 God of very God: but you are never tired of 
 proclaiming in all your writings, in all your 
 pulpits. His defeat! His Apostles announce, in 
 lano'uaore strons; and clear, in words that still 
 burn and throb with life. His victory over death. 
 You announce death's victory over Him, for Hell 
 filled to all eternity with its wailing millions is 
 His defeat, nay His utter defeat. Could you 
 more effectually make light of His atonement ? 
 Could you, in fact, more truly pour scorn on His 
 Cross and Passion ? I read in His word, that in 
 His death all (actually) died, (so vital, so close is 
 the union between Him and all the race of man). 
 Are they then to go down to endless pains, those 
 lost ones udio died with Jesus (see p. 126), those 
 souls of His creating, of His redeeming, still wet, 
 so to speak, with His most precious blood, still 
 pursued by His love (for love is unfailing), are 
 these souls to spend an eternity of torment ? 
 Am I to proclaim this as the victory of Jesus 
 Christ, this as the glad tidings of great jo}^ ? 
 
 Do allow me ihrther, for I want again and 
 again to ])r()test against the dishonour done to 
 Cod's word l)y tlic p()|)ular ('r(H'<l— d(^ allow mo 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 21 1 
 
 1)GforG I leave this solemn subject, to ask what 
 the meaning is on the popular view, of the oft 
 repeated promises of the Xew Testament to 
 Christ of a universal empire ? What do they 
 mean, if tliey do not really mean, that to Christ's 
 kingdom there shall one day he actually no limit? 
 Is it (rue, in the natural acce|)tance of the words, 
 that in Christ tdl thini/s, h^pli. i, H) — the original 
 Avords are the widest possible — are to be summed 
 up. Is it true that Cii hist has actually abolished 
 death ; that He has been manifested for this very 
 end, that He might destroy nil the works of 
 the Devil ? Or is it a mere dream of the Evan- 
 gehst when he tells us that God has given to Him 
 all things, and tliat all things that the Father 
 hath given to Him shall come to Wm] But if 
 all this, and far, far more than this, is actually 
 written in Holy Scriptui-e, do explain how it is 
 that you can teach that sin is etei-nal, ruin 
 eternal. Hell eternal ? What ! sin everlasting, and 
 yet the sins of the world taken away by the 
 J. and) of God. Hell for ever preying on the 
 countless tribes of the lost, and yet the Avhole 
 creation delivered into the glorious lil)erty of the 
 cliildrcn of Goi), 
 
 Do but reflect and see what it is you are, in^ 
 fact, teaching. Christ "h;)lding the keys of 
 " Hell " and never opening! Christ "making all 
 " things new," and yet things and ])ersons in- 
 numerable not renewed I The (Jood Shepherd 
 ".seckinu- till IIk finds," and vet never linding! 
 
212 SUMMARY AXD COXCLUSTOX 
 
 " Xo more pain," and yot ]inin ibr evermore! 
 " No more curse," and yet Hell eclioing- forever 
 ^vith the curses of tlie lost ! " Tears wiped from 
 " e\'ery eye/' and yet tlie lost forever weeping'! 
 " E\'ery creature which is in Heaven and on the 
 " earth and under the earthy and such as are on 
 " the sea and all that are in them, saying blessing- 
 " and g"lory and honour to God" and yet an 
 infinite numl^er of creatures shut up for ever and 
 ever in misery ! " All made alive in Christ," 
 and vet myriads sunk in hi)]>eless, endless death. 
 
 Finall)-, what remains to say ? It reuKuns 
 only that I plead for the acceptance of the larger 
 ho]>e, as taught and believed by so inany in 
 primitive days ; a hope, and a iirni faith that it 
 has ever been the purpose of our Father to .save 
 all His human childi^n. To believe less than 
 this would be, not alone to contradict the plain, 
 and re|>eated teachings of Holy Scripture, as I 
 liave tried to shew, but to mistake its whole scope 
 and purpose. For what is the Bible? it is the 
 story of a UestoratioUy wider, deeper, mightier 
 than the Fall, and therefore bringing to every 
 child of Adam healing and salvation. It is not, as 
 tlie ])opular creed teaches, the self-contradictory 
 story of One Almighty to sa\-e and yet not, in 
 fact, savintr those for whom He died. It is 
 the story of infinite love seeking "till it find, 
 a love tljat never iaileth, never, though Heaven 
 and earth i)ass away. It is the story of the 
 uiichanuing pui'[)ose of th.e unchanging (t(^d. 
 
SUJIJIARY AND CONCLUSION. 21 S 
 
 Fiirtlici', bv tliis laro-er hope, and by // (done^ 
 can wo accept and harmonize every hne and letter 
 of Holy Scripture, its solemn threatenings to the 
 sinnerj no less tlian its repeatc 1 promises of life 
 to all. These threatenings I accept implicitly. 
 Tliey are, as we have seen, fully reconciled with 
 the promises of universal salvation the moment 
 we have learned to realise tha true meaning of 
 Goivs judgements and penalties, and led by His 
 word to sec in 'the ages' yet to como His 
 purposes being steadily worked out. 
 
 Yes, I believe, because the Xcw Testament so 
 teaches and all reason contirms it, that to this 
 brief life there succeed many ages, and that 
 " through these ages an increasing purpose runs." 
 In these ' ages ' and during their progress it is that 
 GoiVs threatenings find their complete fulhlment 
 for the ungodly, and the many successive scenes 
 of the drama of redemption are slowly unfolded, 
 and carried to completion. For God's purpose 
 to save all men once declared nuist stand hrnifor 
 ever from His very nature ; and to this end it is 
 that His penalties are inflicted, that in Jesus 
 CiiiiiST one day all created things may be sum- 
 med up. And this being so, we who hold the 
 larger ho])e arc ]ire]iared fully to believe that 
 there await the sinner in ' the ages' yet to come, 
 (jOd's fiery jurlgements ; that leonian discipline 
 protracted "till the will of man yield to the will of 
 " our Father," and till, as in the silent prophecy 
 of tho fami1i;ir woi-ds, '• that will I'.o done on earth 
 
214 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 "as it is in licavcn." 
 
 For this I plead, for a hope, wide as that which 
 swelled the Saviour's heart, when looking steadily 
 at the Cross He said " I, if I be lifted up will 
 " draw all men unto nie." I plead for the simple 
 truthfulness of the explicit promise made by all 
 God's Holy Prophets, that there shall be a 'resti- 
 ' tution of all things," Acts iii, 21. The issue may 
 be simply stated, is this pi^omise true or is it un- 
 true ? The dilemma cannot be avoided — yes 
 or no ? 
 
 For my part, in this promise I believe — in the 
 true catholicity of the Churcli of Christ, as 
 destined to embrace all mankind, in the power of 
 His redemptioii, as something which no will can 
 resist, to which all things must yield one day in 
 perfect sul)mission, love and harmony. I plead 
 for the acce])tance of this great central truth, that 
 the victory of Jesus Christ must be final, abso- 
 lute, and complete — that nothing can impair the 
 power of His Cross and l-*assion to save the 
 human race. I believe that He shall see of the 
 travail of His soul, and be satislied. And I feel 
 assured that less than a world saved, a universe 
 restored, could not satisfy the heart of Jesus 
 Christ, or the love of our Father. Therefore in 
 these pages I have j)leaded for the larger hope. 
 Therefore I believe in the vision, g'lorious be}'ond 
 all power of human tliought fully to realise, of 
 a ' Paradise regained,' of a universe iVom which 
 
SUJIJIARY AND CONCLUSION 215 
 
 every stain of sin shall have been swept away, in 
 which every heart shall he full of blessedness, in 
 which " God shall be all and in all," — Amen. 
 
/V 
 
IsrOTES. 
 
 On St. Mark ix, 43-50. 
 
 I think a dispassionate reader will see at once that the 
 key to this passage lies in the clause which assigns the 
 reason of the whole preceding verses. ' For pv^rij one must 
 ' be salted with fire.' In fact, Jesus Christ is here warning 
 His disciples — not that sinners will go to Hell, but that 
 there is no possibility for any one to escape the ' fire.' He 
 states this in terms highly figurative, which allude to the 
 Jewish law of sacrifice — which enjoined salt in every meat 
 offering — ' All must be salted Avith fire.' In other words, 
 sacrifice is the great Christian law. If the eye which offends 
 be not voluntarily plucked out, then a sharper sacrifice will 
 be exacted — a more intense salting with fire will be required, 
 i.e., with the fire of Gehenna. To revert to the laAv of 
 saci'ifice — which explains this — we must remember that the 
 sin offering was cast out without the cam]i. and there 
 burned. This answers to Gehenna in the text, which lay 
 outside the city. Such a fiery sacrifice will bo exacted, 
 says our Lord, from those who neglect to sacrifice them- 
 selves. 
 
 But it is said, this fire ' is not quenched ' and ' the worm 
 
 * dieth not.' A.ssuredly ; but this very phrase, 'the fire is 
 ' not quenched ' is but a quotation from the Old Testament, 
 where it lifix no .<<'i/rh moaiihui as the popular view asserts — - 
 nor any meaning at all similar. It occurs applied first to 
 the burnt offering in Lev. vi, 13. The words of the Septua- 
 gint there, are the very same as those of the text here. 
 They imply no thought of endless burning — still less of 
 ondless suffering — but are, in fact, an equivalent to such a 
 ])hrase as this, 'there is a fire always burning.' They a'^e 
 \ised just as if wc were to say, ' on the altar the fire is con- 
 
 * stantly burning ; ' l)ut that A\ould imply no assertion that 
 the fire Avould go on literally for ever and ever. Any such 
 assertion would he a distinct ])erver*ion of Scripture there, 
 and assn)-edlv is so lierc. 
 
ON THE FUTURE RECOVERY OF THE LOST. 
 
 In speaking of punishment as remedial as well as retri- 
 butive, we do not mean that it alone can effect any change 
 in the nature of those undergoing the sentence. The great 
 medicinal agencies of the future are assumed to be the same 
 as those now bringing salvation to the lost and guilty, viz., 
 The love of God through Jesus Christ, by the operation of 
 the Holy Spirit, can alone complete the recovery of the 
 human race. By what particular channels these are to be 
 applied Ave do not presume to state with any exactness 
 where Scripture is silent. But an enquirer may be reminded 
 that many of the existing agencies may well be conceived 
 to work on in the future ages, and to work then under con- 
 ditions more favourable than those now in force, in a new 
 and wholly spiritual state, when our eyes, now holden, 
 shall have been fully opened. 
 
 Nothing forbids our believing that the Church's missioxi 
 to the lost may be continued in the coming ages, nor that 
 fresh agencies may be added — -fresh ministries of love and 
 of fear — ministries on the part of higher intelligences, with 
 whom, when the veil is lifted, we may be permitted to hold 
 direct personal communion. Nay, who shall prevent our 
 hoping and believing that Jesus Christ himself, who is " the 
 same unto the ages,'" will still behind the veil, seek on and 
 on till the last wanderer be found. 
 
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