THE

Death of Death

OK

A STUDY OF GOD*S HOLINESS IN CONNECTION WITfl
THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL, IN SO FAB AS
INTELLIGENT AND EESPONSIBLE
BEINGS ARE CONCERNED.

AN ORTHODOX LAYMAN

J. W. RANDOLPH & ENGLISH
1302 & i MAIN ST., BlCHMOND.
1878.

Entered, according to Act 6f Congress, in the year i8?8,
By the Authok,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington.

PREFACE.

To the preparation of this essay have been devoted the
hours that could be economised from various other engage
ments, during a part of the year just passed.
It was almost entirely finished before the writer was
aware of the discussion which has sprung up recently in
the pulpits and religious newspapers of England and
America on the subject of future punishment. While,
therefore, it was prepared without any reference to that
discussion, its publication has thereby become opportune.
The first part is devoted chiefly to the presentation of
the negative side of the argument, or to removing the errors
and misunderstandings which seem to present impediments
to a candid consideration of the question. The positive side
of the argument is fully set forth in the second part, though
it is foreshadowed in the first.
Should the conclusions we have reached meet with any
active opposition, we respectfully ask three things of any
one, if there be any one, who shall be offended by them —
First. That he will not criticise the book until he has
read it.
Second. Nor till he has taken pains to understand the
extent and limits of the argument.
Third. That he will not, as is so often done, set up "men
of straw" of his own, and claim, when he has triumph
antly knocked them down again, that he has answered us;
but will candidly and fairly examine the arguments that

IV PKEFACE.
are here set forth, instead of those which he may choose,
without any good reason, to impute to us.
The book is the fruit of deep and solemn convictions.
"We humbly trust that it casts some of the benign beams
of eternal truth into the dark places of the moral world ;
that it dispels some of the clouds and darknesses which have
so long hung over the problem of evil; and that it gilds
with at least some little of the "light from heaven" the
true relations of man to his Creator.
Our unceasing prayers shall go up that it may be owned
and blessed by Him, whose aid in its preparation has been
unceasingly sought, or else, if not according to His will,
that it may be brought to naught,
January, 1878,

TABLE OE CONTENTS.

PART I.
The Problem of Evil Incapable of Solution on the Basis of a
Hopeless Future Punishment, or of Annihilation. Page
Chapter I— Preliminary Narrative and Statement
of the Question  3
The Theological Seminary of Virginia— Adjacent Schools — Re
ligious Influences — A Very Pisgah — Bishop Meade's Sermon
—Its Effects — Visits and Sermons of the Clergy — Mediaeval
Horrors — The Gates of Hell — Its Lurid Fires — Shocked and
Terrified Souls — A Mother's Teachings — A Youth of 15 —
Conflict in his Bosom— A Child in Darkness — Blind Gropings
After Light — Seeking a Father's Hand— Stunned — Enforced
Quiets — The Difficulty Recognized — The Origin of Evil —
Night — Searching the Scriptures — Immature Powers — Dawn
Breaking Gradually — Punishment Clearly Revealed, and
Instinctively Accepted — Hopeless Punishment Inconsistent
with the Holiness of God — Punishment, not Hopeless but
Reformatory, Consistent with that Holiness — Noonday.
Chapter II— Life and Death  17
The Universal Questions — Whence am I? What ami? Whither
go I? — The Wonderful Achievements of Science — But Sci
ence cannot Answer — Nor can Philosophy — Nor can Ancient
or Modern Wisdom and Experience — The Scriptures Alone
can Answer — If their Answer be not True, we are in Mid
night Darkness Still — Man, the Prince Imperial of Earth —
The Breath of God — Made in the Image of God, his Father —
Made Immortal in Body and Soul — His Immortality Condi
tional on Unity with God, who is "the Life" — Forfeited by

VI CONTENTS. PAGE"
Sin— Death Introduced— Not mere Dissolution of the Flesh,
as in the Death of Beasts — Death in Man a Condition of the
Soul or Mind Resulting from Alienation from the "Life of
God " — Incurred the Instant that he Sinned — Dead while he
Lives — Resulting from his own Fault.
Chapter HI— Life Renewed— Death Confirmed  32
The Universal Questions Again — After Death, What? — "If a
Man Die, shall he Live Again?" — Scripture Alone can An
swer — "As in Adam all Die, so in Christ shall all be Made
Alive" — The Promise not Absolute, but Conditioned on our
Will and Co-operation — We Need only Strive against Sin and
Accept Christ — At our "Appointed Time," the Body to
Earth, the Soul to God— The State of the Soul Afterwards—
Those "in Christ" Alive Again, the Rest Still Dead — In a
Conscious State— Rest and Peace for the One, Misery for the
Other— The Resurrection— Paradise Lost Nothing to Para--
dise Regained— Immortal Happiness to the Souls of the
Blessed, Restored to Immortal Bodies — Welcomes from the
Blessed Dead and all the Company of Heaven — " The Lost "
Suffering Bitterly and More Acutely than when on Earth—
How is God Affected by their Sufferings ?— This Solemn
Question to be Answered in Future Chapters — Review of
This and the Last Chapter.
Chapter IV— The Various Theories as to the Condi
tion of "The Lost"  45
The Number of People in the World — The Innumerable Mul
titudes that have Lived — A Fearful Statement — Various
Theories— First, that of Endless and Hopeless Punishment
— The Two Hostile Parties which Divide those who Hold it—
Dr. Bledsoe's Theodicy— A Great Explorer— His Discussion
of the Origin of Evil— Attempt to Prove it Consistent with
God's Holiness on the Concession of a Hopeless Punish
ment—Its Failure — Does not Satisfactorily Explain the Act
of Creating Man, Knowing that He Would Fall into Hope
less Suffering — The Explanation Impossible on that Theory,

CONTENTS. Vii
Page
even for Dr. Bledsoe— His View Reserved for Examination
in Chapter VI— Second, Theory of Annihilation Contrary to
our Instincts— Contrary to our Reason— Contrary to Scrip
ture—If Credible, more Acceptable thau the other.
Chapter V— The Various Theories as to the Condi
tion of "The Lost," Continued  60
A Still Milder Opinion— Third, The Theory that the Future
Punishment is Ionian, or for the ^Eon, Age, or Dispensa
tion — Its Duration only Stated Indefinitely by Scripture —
The Punishment there Revealed is Qualitative, not Quantita
tive — It is one "Taking Place in Eternity" — Review of all
the Texts in Scripture that are Usually Thought to Favor a
Hopeless Punishment — Demonstration that they do Not do
so — Fourth, The Theory that Future Punishment will En
dure as Long as the Sinful Temper Endures, but is Termina
ble by Repentance and Restoration to the "Life of God,"
through Christ, in the Next World as well as in this — Its Truth
to be Established by the Ensuing Chapters.
Chapter VI — Sin not Necessarily Self-Perpetuating,
and its Punishment not, therefore, Unending  81
An Infinite Punishment not Communicable by Human Lan
guage — Nor to the Human Mind — Eternity not Thinkable,
and, therefore, Incommunicable — Utmost Space or Time In
telligible only as Being Indefinite — Infinite Happiness of the
Blessed Dead, not Resting on any Such Indefinite Words as
"Everlasting," "Eternal," &c, but on their Heirship with
Christ — Bledsoe's Theodicy admits a Qualitative Punishment,
but Argues that it will Never End Because the Sinner will
Never Cease to Sin — Not Sustained by Scripture— Nor by the
Nature of Sin — Nor by the Nature of Man — Sin a Disease,
but not an Incurable One — Man the Same Being, Here and
Hereafter, in all Essential Qualities — If Capable of Repen
tance Here, why not Hereafter? — Death Here, and Death
Hereafter the Same in Kind, only Differing in Degrees of
Pain — "Death Eternal," "Death Everlasting " not Scrip-

Viil CONTENTS. Page
ture Phrases— Bledsoe's Theodicy Seems to Justify the Crea
tion of one Sure to Fall into Hopeless Misery, Because this
World is a Dim Speck of Vitality in a Boundless Dominion
of Light, and was Necessary to the Glory of God and of His
Universe— Not Sound— God's Justice and Mercy Over all His
Works, the Least as well as the Greatest— No Glory could
be so Advanced or could Justify the Creation of Beings, the
Heirs of Misery Without End— Sin and Death will Triumph
in no case over God — He will Triumph in every case over
them— God can Save all His Miserable Creatures— Is willing
to do so— That He has Made Provision to Effectuate it Ulti
mately is to be Proved in Part II of this Book— Thus His
Holiness may be Vindicated even in Connection with the
Existence of Evil.

PART n.
The Problem of Evil Capable of Solution on the Basis of a Fu.
ture Punishment not Hopeless but Reformatory.
Chapter I— The Ministry of Sorrow; and Herein, of
the "Anger" of God, His "Wrath," His "Ven
geance"  103
Scripture Truth Conveyed to us in Paradoxes or Seeming Con
tradictions — We are to Draw the Resultant Truth — Between
God's Anger and His Loving Kindness, His Wrath and His
Tender Mercy, His Vengeance and His Love — Between His
Hardening the Hearts of Pharaoh and the Jews, and His
Tempting no one with Evil — Between His Unchangeableness,
and His Repenting "at His Heart" of the Creation of Man —
Thus Learning how God Feels Towards us — These Harsher
Terms not Literal, but an Accommodation to our Mode of
Viewing Things — Resultant, He Hates the Sin but Loves
the Siuner — His Anger, Wrath, Vengeance, Consistent with
the Tenderest Love for the Worst Offenders— Our Life a Pil
grimage — A Travelling School — God our Schoolmaster

CONTENTS. IX
Page
Teaching His Children from the Love of Them — The Les
son — He Permits us to Build Tabernacles, if they are Types
of the Heavenly City — The Strange Tabernacles we Build —
They Must Come Down — The Mourning over their Fall —
The Precious Gif c — If we will not Learn the Lesson, What
Then ? — Earthly Parentage the Type of the Divine Feelings
and Conduct Towards us — The Type Chosen by God Him
self—The Two Illustrated— "The Lord will not Cast off
Forever " — Another and Severer Probation to be Accorded
to those who Fail in This — On that Condition all Sorrows
here are Good Things — The Ministry of Sorrow a Redeem
ing Influence.
Chapter II— The Ministry of Sorrow, Continued ; and
Herein of Inequalities ; of Fortune, of Spiritual
Opportunities, and of Spiritual Susceptibilities. 124
God's Dealings with the Individual — Job's Wonderful History —
Teaching that God's Works Specially in the Case of each of
us ; Works not on a Fixed and Inexorable Law, but on the
Principles of Equity ; Employs for our Good every Agency
in Heaven, Earth and Hell ; Adapts every Circumstance
of Fortune and Condition to our Peculiar Cases, and does it
all for our Reformation— Cases Illustrating the Various Ine
qualities of Life — One Possessed of every Temporal and
Spiritual Advantage and Opportunity, Contrasted with one
Entirely Destitute of Them — Rev. James Chisholm Con
trasted with Various Men — Men Endowed by Nature with
Violent Passions — Men Endowed with Weak Spiritual Sus
ceptibilities — These Inequalities Irreconcilable with the
Justice of God, on the Theory of a Hopeless Future Punish
ment—On our Theory they all are Entirely Reconcilable with
God's Justice — This Illustrated by the Principles Set Forth
in Job's Case, and by the Infinitely Varied Destinies of the
Multitudes of our Race in the Occupations of the Future Life.

X CONTENTS. Page
Chapter III— The Divine Plan of Creation and of
Salvation  151
The Plan of Both Considered and Devised as a Whole in the
Counsels of the Eternal Trinity — Made in the Image of God,
we may Reverently Conceive that Plan, in Some dim Mea
sure—The Plan Set Forth, in the Light of Scripture — The
Principle of Law and Morals on which the Weight of Con
curring Texts is to be Estimated — Texts Set Forth at Large
which are Deemed Conclusive Proof of the Plan of Salva
tion above Propounded — They are Strong in Themselves —
They Support each other with Cumulative Force — They
Support each other in Geometrical Ratio — They Present a
Conclusive Case — They Set Forth a New Probation — The
Consequent Capacity for Repentance in the Future World —
The Ultimate Restoration of all Things to the Love and Fa
vor of God — The Harmony of the Universe.
Chapter IV — Objectors and Objections  178
Partisan Theologians — Denunciations of all who Question the
Infallibility of Accepted Dogma — Unnecessary Conflict be
tween Revelation and True Science — Fears that Betray Lack
of Faith — Welcome to Honest Investigators — And to New
Facts — Honest Thinkers — Their Errors — Fears of Disturbing
the Faith and Repose of Simple Souls who Implicitly Be
lieve — They Would have Forbidden the Reformation — Would
Stop all Progress Hereafter Towards Infinite Truth — Objec
tions to Reviewing the Doctrine of Future Punishment Con
sidered—The Truth to be Uttered by all Before all other
Things— Consequences not within our Ken— In God's Con
trol Alone— Men Wrest all Scriptures and 'all Truth*- Yet
This did not Silence Paul — The Doctrine of Hopeless Future
Punishment an Impediment to Religion— It does not Produce
Repentance, because Generally Disbelieved— Even by those
who Accept it Dogmatically — Incredible, Because Hope is
Indestructible— Less Effective than the Doctrine of a Refor
matory Punishment, which is Credible by all— Illustrations—

CONTENTS. ±1
Page
The Apostles' Creed Contains " Life Ever-Lasting"; but not
Ever-Lasting Punishment— Hopeless Punishment Not a Test
of Orthodoxy in the Episcopal Church — Her Wise Course-
False Ideas of Earthly Pleasure— False Ideas of the Com
parative Guilt of Different Sins— False Ideas of the Effect of
Repentance — "Judge Not " — Illustration.
Chapter V— Review and Conclusion  201
Appeal Against Misrepresentation — Or Misunderstanding —
Restatement of Conclusions Reached — Restatement of Heads
of argument — Universal Harmonies — Te Deum Laudamus —
"Conclusion of the Whole Matter" — Let no one Wrest it —
Future Punishment, Though not Hopeless, may Exceed in
Anguish all that we can now Realize — But will Attain the
End for which it was Ordained, the Instruction of Men and
Angels, and the Ultimate Destruction of All Evil.

EkRAtA.
Page il, 15th line from bottom, for did know read did not know.
18, lines 11, 13, strtice out quotation marks.
21, 11th line from bottom, for this, read thee.
22, 4th and 5th lines, put in quotation marks, "as well might
pigmies lift a mountain from the sea."
23, 1st line, for molded, read moulded.
25, 18th line, for lent, read bent.
37, 11th Hue from bottom, for had, read has.
46, 7th line, for adherance, read adherence.
46, 12th line from bottom, for ipsi, read ipse.
46, 9th line from bottom, for /our, read few.
63, 4th line, f oi dxaTdhro^, read dtcardhto^.
70, 14th line from bottom, for dtScoi;, read di'dio£.
96, 14th line, for is, read are.
98, 14th line from bottom, for union, read unison.
108, 14th line from oottom, iorpityeth, read pitieth.
118, last line, for has Carcassonne, read has his Carcassonne^
119, 3d line, for posession, read possession.
125, last line, for becittleing, read belittling.
136, 10th line from bottom, for detre read cVetre.
140, 12th line, for or, read on.
143, 7th line from bottom, for each, read every.
144, 11th line from oottom, for replyest, read repliest.
160, 6th and 7th lines, for state knowledge, read state of know
ledge.
164, 5th line from bottom, for the, read they.
170, 1st line, for no, read on.
174, 9th line from bottom, for second, read second.
181, 16th line, for theoglogians, read theologians.
188, 9th line, for be made far more realistic, read be far more
keenly realized.

PART I.

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL NOT CAPABLE OF SOLUTION
ON THE BASIS OF A HOPELESS FUTURE PUNISH
MENT, OR OF ANNIHILATION.

THE DEATH OF DEATH.

CHAPTER I.
preliminary narrative and statement of the
question.
ON a range of elevated hills about three miles from Al
exandria, in the State of Virginia, and commanding an
extensive and beautiful bird's eye view of that town, of
Washington city, of the Potomac river and of the adjacent
country, stands the Theological Seminary of the Protestant
Episcopal Church of the diocese.
A little more than thirty-five years ago there stood on
the same range of hills on either side of the Seminary, and
distant from it a quarter and half a mile respectively, two
large schools for boys. One of these schools still exists
there, growing in vigor and usefulness as its years increase.
The boys of these two schools worshiped at the Semi
nary chapel, located on the central hill of the range on
which the three stood, and the two tides of buoyant and
vigorous youth met and mingled within its walls on Sab
bath mornings and evenings, and at other seasons, each
receiving and bestowing the inevitable sympathies of such
association. On the boys of these two schools were ex
erted ceaselessly the holy influences of God's blessed
Word, intensified in their effects by the heavenly atmos
phere of this "School of the Prophets" which lay between

4 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
them — an atmosphere which, to the spiritually-minded,
seemed a perpetual incense crowning that favored hill,
and rising up, day and night, in grateful adoration to
God. At least thus it seemed to one of those boys who
lived there for five years, from 1838 to 1843 ; and, as in
after life, even to this day, he has looked forth on this sad
earth, and has seen five generations of the heralds of the
cross who left that hill while he was there, bearing the glad
tidings of God's peace with man, and planting the Rose of
Sharon in every desert land, he has felt and still feels that
what to him was then seeming only, was in truth a great
reality. For these thirty-five years, in America, in Europe,
in Asia, in Africa and in the "isles of the sea," these five
generations of Christian champions have waged perpetual
war against the kingdom of "sin, Satan and death," and
revealed the glorious light of the "Sun of Righteousness"
to those who "sit in darkness." Some of them, veteran
soldiers of the " King of Kings," still fight in the fore-front
of this life-long battle ; while the greater part, at His com
mand, have sheathed their swords, yielded their places to
younger soldiers and have themselves entered into the full
blaze of that uncreated light, which, with feebler rays, once
attended their steps and lit up the gloom of sin and sorrow
which surrounded them here.
In addition to the sacred influences of the place itself)
it was frequently favored, from time to time, by the pre
sence of distinguished preachers — Bishops and Presbyters —
from all parts of the country, on official and other visits>
bringing with them fresh sheaves of holy zeal, of prayer,
of praise, and of the manna of the Word, all ripened by
mature experience and increase of faith and love. Such
means of grace as were enjoyed there could not, surely, be
surpassed on earth ; and, doubtless, thousands have looked

STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION. 5
back on that trysting place of the saints — one at least
has — as a very Pisgah, from which were often caught bright
glimpses of the "promised land."
On one of his official visits, during the period stated, the
late venerable Bishop Meade, of Virginia, occupied the
pulpit, and preached from the text: "Escape for thy life:
look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain ;
escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed" (Gen. xix,
17). That sermon lingers in the memory to this day. It
produced a tremendous effect on scores of youthful minds
and hearts, as well as upon those of riper years. The
Bishop returned to the discharge of other duties in various
parts of his large diocese, but left behind him a most pro
found interest and anxiety about spiritual things. The
opportunity was not to be lost. Religious services, prayer
meetings, sermons, were multiplied. Distinguished preach
ers came from different directions to participate, and the
impressions made by the Bishop's address were deepened
and prolonged by every means in the power of the Chris
tian ministers and people of the neighborhood. As might
have been expected, many who had scarcely bestowed
a thought on their soul's salvation were brought un
der the influence of sacred truths; while many, who
were faithful before, were refreshed and quickened. For
months these scenes went on, and the effect on the two
schools was wonderful. Many, of course, afterwards fell
away, but others could date from that period, their earnest
attention to the subject of religion.
All this was good — how good we shall only know here
after — but now is to be mentioned that without which this
book would never have been written.
Unfortunately, in that day more than in this, the doc
trine of exquisite and unending punishment was considered

6 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
the most effectual weapon that could be wielded from the
pulpit, and was taught with the energy and described with
the painful minuteness of the mediaBval age. The gates
of hell were constantly kept open, and the lurid glare of
its pitiless fires was cast upon trembling congregations with
relentless pertinacity. Among the ministers who visited
our " hill of Zion " in this period were some whose preach
ing was of this type. Their chief force was expended on
this theme, and souls already seeking to escape the burden
of their sins, and feeling their way after Christ, were so
shocked and terrified, that their eyes were kept fixed on
the abyss below instead of being lifted in love to him who
bore their sins for them "in his own body on the tree."
It is impossible to record here the spiritual experiences
of various individuals during this eventful period— time
would fail to do so. One case only, better known than that
of others, will be recorded.
Among those who attended one of these schools was a
youth of about fifteen years of age. Perhaps Samuel's
mother did not give him to the Lord with a more yearning
desire that he would accept the gift, than did the mother
of this boy from the day of his birth. At this early age
he believed himself a Christian. He knew no period of his
life that he did not look up to God as his Father, and feel
that he was reconciled to him by the blood of Christ. He
rejoiced at the religious interest around him, and greatly
enjoyed the increased earnestness and zeal manifested on
every hand in the prayers and praises of the people of God.
He had not as yet been confirmed, waiting for that purpose,
whether right or wrong, a maturer age. Now, of course,
the subject pressed earnestly on him, and would have
ended in his confirmation, but for the distress of mind ex
cited by the preaching above referred to.

STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION. 7
He heard learned, eloquent and holy men, to whom he
looked up with reverence, constantly pouring out in dismal
tones the dirges of the damned. They went into the mi
nutest particulars, dissecting the lost soul and displaying
its quivering nerves, agonized beneath the relentless wrath
of God. Illustrations such as these were constantly em
ployed :
You know what exquisite agony it is to burn your finger,
how it aches and throbs with almost intolerable anguish —
now imagine your whole body bathed in a fierce undying
flame, and conceive, if you can, the unutterable torture to
which you will be subjected; while all the time the blazing
eye of an offended God is bent in vengeance on your
smitten soul. Could you endure one instant of it? Will
you neglect to come to Him now at the risk of such hideous
and everlasting ruin ? Ah ! that's the worst of it — everlasting
woe, never-ending fire, torture unspeakable and eternal. And
consider what eternity is. A school- session seems a long
time to you — a lifetime seems to you almost unending —
but this is nothing to eternity. If it should be your dismal
fate to sink into that dreadful abyss of hideous ruin, you
will spend a lifetime, yea, many lifetimes, but eternity will
have just begun. You will abide there till after the story of
this world shall have been told, till sun, moon and stars
shall have been burned up, till the elements shall have
melted with fervent heat, and the heavens shall have rolled
together like a scroll; but eternity will have just begun. Mil
lions and billions of ages will roll away over your devoted
head, and these multiplied by countless millions and bil
lions more shall pass away; but to your agonized cry —
" How long shall these intolerable burnings eat into my
soul ? " — the dreadful voice of your " Father in Heaven,"
with appalling thunder, shall reply — "Eternity has just begun,

8 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
and it shall never, never see an end of your well-deserved
misery and despair. Hope has never entered your drear
abode, nor can her lightsome wing cross the,dread abyss
between you and this heavenly land." And then His
dreadful eye shall blaze through and through all the dark
secrets of your soul, and you will lie still, paralyzed by
that awful gaze — the helpless victim of eternal death.
In this style many solemn services were saddened;
and subdued souls shrank away in dreadful horror at their
liability to miss the " narrow way " and fall into this broad
and dismal gulf — the descent to which was described to be
so easy that by far the largest portion of mankind would
surely sink beneath its waves. It was not a wholesome
fear, such as a true interpretation and presentment of God's
holy word is sure to produce; but a dumb, paralyzing fear
that crushed sensitive souls, and made the bold and skep
tical blaspheme. God was painted sometimes (of course
unconsciously by the preacher) as a remorseless tyrant,
but at the same time described as just — much in the same
way, though not in the same terms, as Melancthon once
maintained that " God wrought all things, evil as well as
good;" that he was "the author of David's adultery and
the treason of Judas, as well as of Paul's conversion."
Sometimes sermons were preached describing an offended
God, in tone, if not in words, as bad as the following from
a sermon — " Sinners in the hands of an angry God " — by
even so great and good a man as Jonathan Edwards : " He
will crush you under his feet without mercy; He will
crush out your blood and make it fly, and it shall be
sprinkled on His garments so as to stain all his raiment.
He will not only hate you, but He will have you in the
utmost contempt," &c. Inspired wisdom (Isaiah lxiii, 3)
uses a portion of this language in a highly figurative de-

STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION. 9
scription of the triumph of Christ over the Gentile enemies
of Jerusalem or of his church. But here, man dares to
add to it; to apply it enlarged, intensified and literally to
God's alleged rage and vengeance against the individual sin
ner; and to paint the great and good Jehovah as crushing
under His feet without mercy His helpless creature — crushiny
out his blood and making it fly.
Under such preaching the display of the love of Christ,
which was faithfully and tenderly made, lost nearly all its
force. The shocked and terrified soul could not see it in
its true beauty and power, through the murky mists and
fogs thus cast around it.
The effect of such teaching on the youth, whose spiritual
experiences we are describing, was unutterably horrible.
He had looked habitually on the benigner side of spiritual
truth. He had looked on God as his " Father in Heaven,"
and in raising his eyes by night or by day to the firmament
above him, or looking around him upon earth, he could
see written everywhere in rainbow beauty over his visible
universe, on matter and on man, in the light of His holy
word, that alluring and inspiring truth " God is Love" — a
truth older than when "the stars sang together and all the
sons of God shouted for joy" — a truth beaming from the
primeval councils of the Eternal Trinity, but only mani
fested in its full beauty and amazing glory when the Divine
Redeemer " tasted death for every man " (Heb. ii, 9).
The new teaching he was now receiving, the new reve
lation of God, made to him by those whom he justly re
vered, and whose arguments he was unable to answer,
filled him with dismay— not for himself, for he be
lieved that he was safe in Christ, but at the overthrow of
his sweet visions of the Father's face, at the dreadful ques
tion, "was he indeed such as he was described?" At first

10 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
appalled, and then stunned as by a sudden blow, he ceased
almost to think, his joy in God withered like a flower be
neath a hoar-frost, he lost all interest in the sports or occu
pations of boyhood, he frequented solitudes — in thickets,
in garrets and in desert places — seeking rest and finding
none; agonizing for peace in prayers which seemed not to
penetrate the heavens, but to rebound as from a brazen
sky. Thus he suffered from a sense of untold loneliness
and desertion ; as a child in outer darkness, who wails for
the guidance of its father's hand.
And so long months of anguish passed, until it seemed
that if it should continue indefinitely, his reason would
give way and the darkness of utter nothingness would
settle down around him. Meantime, his interest in relig
ious things being known, he was repeatedly invited to be
a candidate for confirmation ; but to the surprise of others,
he sadly declined without assigning any reason for it. In
truth, he feared now that he was a hardened sinner, obsti
nate, self-willed, and, perhaps, possessed of the devil, since
he did not accept with joy, but groaned in spirit, and
struggled against a recognition of God as now disclosed to
him. He felt that he did not believe what had been
preached, and fought against his unbelief. He did not
dare deliberately to repudiate it or to search into these
great questions. He feared he might be guilty of blasphe
mous presumption in doing so. He even feared that he
was an atheist or an infidel, setting up idols of his own
for worship, instead of bowing down in humble self-re
nunciation before the true God of heaven and earth, who
had been disclosed to him in his most fearful attributes by
his ministers, in order that he might be aroused from his
fond dreams, and seek the salvation of his soul in a diffe
rent way from that which he had hitherto believed the

STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION. 11
right way. He therefore kept all his sad and troubled
thoughts shut up in his own bosom. When Christian min
isters and others tendered their sympathy and aid and
sought his confidence, he did not extend it to them, be
cause he was unwilling that his unbelief and hardness of
heart should be known to them; for he felt that he
could not make them understand the whole case, and
that they would condemn him, and so increase his misery
instead of comforting him. To God alone was he willing
to confess it all ; for though he scarcely knew now whether
he prayed to the God of his childhood or the God of late
revealed to him, yet down in his heart of heart he felt
that the Father of all was still his Father; that He knew
the end from the beginning; that he knew all his secret
motives, and saw and sympathized with his helpless crea
ture struggling for light, and feeling after him if haply he
might find him.
As before said, he had been stunned, and therefore for a
long time he dictknow precisely the cause of his condition.
Besides, his wearied mind and heart shrank like an ex
posed nerve from an analysis of his thoughts. It was
only after long months of dumb, still suffering, and then
gradually, step by step, that he was enabled to realize and
define plainly to himself the causes of his malady.
At last it shaped itself in his mind thus :
First. He had been taught by those who were beyond
doubt striving to know God for themselves and in order
that they might teach others; by those whom he justly
loved and revered as ministers of Christ's gospel ; by those
who were his saints, as surely as were any on earth or in
heaven, that the God whom he worshiped with the sim
ple faith of childhood as a God of love— love infinite and
divine to all His creatures on earth — was in truth a God of

12 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
love to only a portion of them, such as should come to
Christ in this brief life, but was a God of vengeance, infi
nite, divine, unending and inexorable, to the far larger
number. Second. If this were so, the question came with resist
less force, in spite of the dread of offending God — in spite
of the dread that it was a suggestion of the devil — in spite
of conscious weakness of finite intellect and ignorance of
things Divine — why, then, did the God of love, of infinite
tenderness, of boundless compassion, create unending mil
lions of beings, endowed with exquisite capacity for joy or
sorrow, for happiness or misery ; endowed even with divine
capacity for them, because made "in his image, after his
likeness," when he foreknew in the councils of eternity,
that the large majority of them would, the moment after
their creation (for life is but a moment in the eternal scale),
sink into utter and hopeless mortal and immortal agony,
to endure as long as God himself should exist?
He thus found himself confronting that dread question,
which has perplexed the ages, but which had never given
him a moment's uneasiness before — the question of the
Origin of Evil.
The preachers, above-mentioned, had repeatedly asked
and answered this question in the course of their sermons,
and their answers had always been " we cannot tell except
by saying it is the will of God." But this gave no peace.
He had read what Pollock said of it in " The Course of
Time": "In mind, in matter, much was difficult
To understand : but what in deepest night
Retired ; inscrutable, mysterious, dark,
Was evil ; God's decrees ; and deeds decreed
Responsible. Why God, the just and good,

STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION. 13
Omnipotent and wise, should suffer sin
To rise. Why man was free, accountable ;
Yet God foreseeing, overruling all.
Where'er the eye could turn, whatever track
Of moral thought it took, by reason's torch,
Or Scripture's led, before it still this mount
Sprung up, impervious, insurmountable ;
Above the hnman stature rising far ;
Horizon of the mind — surrounding still
The vision of the soul with clouds and gloom.
Yet did they oft attempt to scale its sides,
And gain its top. ******
To pass it was no doubt desirable ;
And few of any intellectual size,
That did not sometime in their day attempt ;
But all in vain ; for as the distant hill,
Which on the right, or left, the traveler's eye
Bounds, seems advancing as he walks, and oft
He looks, and looks, and thinks to pass ; but still
It forward moves and mocks his baffled sight,
Till night desoends and wraps the scene in gloom ;
So did this moral height the vision mock ;
So lifted up its dark and cloudy head
Before the eye, and met it evermore."
Deeply did our youthful sufferer feel the truth of all
this, on the theory of God's moral government which had
alarmed him. He felt in his inmost soul that that theory
had wrapt in the gloom of a rayless night all the scenery
of earth and heaven which had hitherto gladdened his
eyes. But both his mind and heart repelled that the
ory. He now remembered that our blessed Saviour had
said " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have
eternal life ; and they are they which testify of me " (John
v, 39). He therefore ventured at last, before abandoning
himself to despair, to examine the question for himself as
well as he could, in the light of his feeble and immature

H THE DEATH OF" DEATH".
reason, guided and chastened by the very word of God
himself. But his effort was, for the present, vain. The
burden he had borne had broken his springs, and the
mind, unable to bear the intolerable load any longer,
ceased to exert itself, and settled down into stolid inaction
or restless rest. No formal effort was afterwards made to
grapple vigorously and decisively with his difficulty ; but
gradually, by meditation, prayer, anl the reading of God's
Word alone (for on this subject he read no other book), light
dawned ray by ray upon his soul, till in about ten years
after that gloomy night had settled down upon him, his
whole firmament was radiant with peace and beauty and
perfect repose, in the consciousness of God's love and
mercy indissolubly bound up with his justice, in the con
sciousness that justice and mercy are only human terms
for the same Divine attribute.
If we are not deceived in supposing that this result was
not a delusion — if peace was really and fairly obtained
after these ten years of sorrow and suffering, then surely
the mode in which it was secured is important to be known.
How, then, was it obtained? As usual in all such cases,
by the simplest means — by eliminating from the accepted
dogma nothing of all its terrible proportions but the single
element of hopelessness.
First, then, he accepts with others the awful truth of
eternal punishment; but he accepts it with the limitations
prescribed alike by reason and by Scripture. He believes
that sin, with all its consequences in this life and the next,
alike, has for its sole and terrible end alienation from God,
who is the Life, and that so long as that alienation exists,
whether here or hereafter, so long will its consequences —
shame and misery, by the Scriptures called death — exist;
that if the one be unending, so also is the other; that if

STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION. 15
sin be unending, so also will be condemnation ; or, in other
words, sin unending is death unending; that this is the
Scripture meaning of eternal punishment — a punishment
co-existing with the sinful state ; but that though eternal
in this sense, it is not necessarily unending, because death
does not destroy any of man's capacities, whether that of
repentance or other, and because we are warranted both
by Scripture and by reason to believe that if at any time
any of God's creatures should seek restoration to his favor,
infinite compassion would respond. He does not think
reason or Scripture forbid us to suppose man capable of
repentance in another world, and that alone is the condi
tion of reconciliation to God through Christ in this world
or the next. Finally, he believes that if the sole and ter
rible end of sin is alienation from God, and the conse
quent destruction of the harmony of His universe, so much
more is the sole and unspeakable glorious end of the sac
rifice of the Son of God, the reconciliation of the creature
with the Creator, and the consequent restoration of that
harmony. Second. On the concession that future misery in the world
to come, though eternal, in a certain sense, is not necessarily
unending; that though unspeakably terrible and of indefi
nite duration, it is not necessarily hopeless ; that in the future,
as in the present, it results from sin, and is coterminous with
it; that repentance and return to Christ are the eternally or
dained antidotes to the poison of sin — the goodness and
love of God in the creation of man can be demonstrated,
even in connection with the existence of evil. Nay, more,
it can be shown that though God is not responsible for the
existence of evil, except in so far as the creation of a free
agent has made him so, yet that its existence has been
turned into a blessing, not merely for a portion of man-

16 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
kind, but for every intelligent creature " in heaven and in
earth and under the earth."
The following chapters are designed to .display the argu
ment by which these conclusions are established. They
have brought unspeakable repose on these great questions
for now more than a quarter of a century to one suffering
soul. If by God's grace their rehearsal shall do the same
for other sufferers, surely years of suffering would be amply
compensated. If the argument is based on sound reason, and supported
by a true interpretation of the Scriptures, as it is believed to
be, it is founded on a rock. If it be not so supported, it is
worth nothing, however sound it may appear in the light
of reason alone.

LIFE AND DEATH. 17

CHAPTER II.

LIFE AND DEATH.

IN any effort to ascertain the character of the future state,
it is essential that we should first discover the nature
of life and death in general. Without a clear understand
ing on this point we shall vainly endeavor to comprehend
that future state, or even to know how there can be any
future state at all. Confusion of thought on the threshold
has produced here, as in all cases, much of the existing
error on the whole subject. Let us then patiently search
for a true view of these wonderful phenomena.
Every man and woman of ordinary intelligence some
times asks, with anxious foreboding — "Whence am I?
Whither am I going? What is to be the end of this
strange existence? Where shall I be when dissolution
closes up this moital career?" These momentous ques
tions have gone up from the human heart ever since man was
created. They make up the universal cry. They force
themselves in our hours of pleasure, and blend themselves
inextricably with all our sorrows. In times of bereave
ment, of loss, of perplexity, and especially of danger, they
spring up spontaneously and demand an answer. Even
the most degraded heathen, sunk in midnight darkness,
vainly asks of heaven and earth the meaning of life, and
peers anxiously into the unknown future.
If we consider these questions from a merely human
stand-point, we are haunted by myriads of dark and
doubtful surmises. Like children moving with beating

18 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
hearts and trembling steps through long-deserted and
dust-covered halls in the ghostly twilight, we are terrified
by mysterious voices, and still more mysterious silences.
Even that prince of philosophers and moralists, the peer
less Socrates, here found his sublime and life-long wisdom
to be little better protection against alarm than the igno
rance of the little child whom he so much resembled in
humility. His glorious dreams of immortality were, at
last, mere dreams, mere trembling hopes, as he himself
confessed. Modern science has extended its * discoveries in every
direction throughout the visible and invisible universe,
but throws no light on these great questions.* What has
it not achieved ? It has measured the earth from pole to
pole, mapped it out into scientific Empires, Kingdoms and
Provinces ; and told the story of everything on its surface,
in its' caves, and on its mountain tops. It has analyzed
the waters of all the oceans, and become familiar with its
multiform inhabitants. It has laid off on its restless and
fickle waves great highways for the monarch ships, and
marked these highways with invisible but easily-read
mileposts. It has asked of the subtle winds, and the
winds have answered whither they went, and have then
been harnessed to every out-going ship, enabling it to select
with certainty that which would bear it most safely and
quickly to its desired port. It has descended into the
bowels of the earth and of the ocean; forced from the re
luctant womb of the one all the treasures carefully hoarded
there during its long travail, and from the opened maw
of the other its primeval secrets. It has tunnelled the one
for highways at its will, and on the low lying spinal column
of the other it has strung a little nerve that throbs with
vital force, and unites in the bonds of instant communica-

LIFE AND DEATH. 19
tion worlds divided by its waste of waters. It has bowed
down over a little piece of magic crystal, and new worlds
of active life have sprung from the invisible as if created
by it. It has weighed the sun with his whole system to a
pound. It has analyzed the very materials of which he
is composed, and told his separate and compound ele
ments. It has defined his multiform motions — axial
spiral, orbital. It has catalogued the stars, and made
them familiar acquaintances — noting their composition,
distances, and stupendous movements. It has turned
its wondrous glasses on little mist-spots scattered in
great numbers through the sky, but scarcely distinquish-
able from -refracted star-light — and lo! from abysmal
depths new firmaments have broken out in almost intole
rable splendor, radiant with a Divine beauty, and so sug
gestive of the "music of the spheres," that in man's deep
soul he seems to hear as still prolonged the choral songs
which were raised when the " morning stars sang together."
Take an example — a golden shield of packed suns in
the constellation Hercules. When Sir William Herschel
saw it for the first time through his great reflector, "it
almost made him leap with mingled astonishment and
delight." An eminent astronomer doubts " whether any
person ever saw it for the first time through a large tele
scope without a shout of wonder." Light flying at the
rate of 192,000 miles a second has taken 2,000 years to
reach us from this object of wonderful glory. But this
amazing distance is almost within hand-reach of us as
compared with others of those little mist-spots of which
we have spoken. There is a nebula in Andromeda. It is
"easily shown to b? so far away that the light by which
we see it must show it as it was at least a million years
ago, instead of as it is to-night. The rays have been all

20 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
this time charging across the void at the rate of 192,000
miles a second," and its breadth across the sky is 30,000
years as light flies. In this survey "the fifty-three-foot
reflector is surveyor-general, and a light sprite carries the
chain." (Vid Ecce Cesium, pp. 139-146.)
Professor Mitchel, in a lecture on astronomy, after re
viewing its mighty facts, said that it seemed to him that
the "wild dream of the German poet (Jean Paul Richter)
was more than realized." God called man into the vesti
bule of Heaven, saying, " Come up higher, and I will show
you the glory of my house," and to His angels that stood
about the throne, He said — "take him, strip him of his
robes of flesh ; cleanse his affections ; put a new breath
into his nostrils, but touch not his human heart — the
heart that fears and hopes and trembles." A moment,
and it was done ; and the man stood ready for his unknown
voyage. Under the guidance of a mighty angel, with
sounds of flying pinions, they sped away from the battle
ments of heaven. Sometime, on the mighty angels' wingS)
they fled through Saharas of darkness, wildernesses of
death. At length, from a distance riot counted save in the
arithmetic of heaven, light beamed upon them — a sleepy
flame, as seen through a fleecy cloud. They sped on their
terrible speed to meet the light ; the light with lesser speed
came to meet them. In a moment the blazing of suns
around them— a moment the wheeling of planets : then
came long eternities of twilights ; then again appeared
more constellations, one succeeding another around their
path, above, below, and on either hand in countless num
bers, in endless complexity of amazing forms and magni
tudes, and with intervening infinitudes of darkness and of
space. Suddenly, as thus they sped from eternity to eternity

LIFE AND DEATH. 21
over abysmal worlds, a cry arose that systems more mys
terious, worlds more billowy, other heights and other
depths, were coming, were nearing, were at hand. At last
the man sank down shuddering; and weeping, and crying
"Angel, I can go no further; insufferable is the glory of
God; let me lie down in the grave and hide myself from
the Infinitude of the Universe, for end there is none."
"End is there none?" demanded the angel. And from the
glittering stars that shone around, there came a choral
shout "End, is there none?" "End is there none?" again
demanded the angel, " and it is this that awes thy soul ?
I answer, end is there none to the universe of God ! Lo !
also, there is no beginning."
Man's restless research has looked into all these deep
things; nor is this all. Every object in heaven and earth
has been analyzed by his chemistry — the invisible air, the
upper firmament, light, heat and electricity have yielded
up to him a larger or smaller portion of their secrets; and
when chemistry has failed, the far more subtle analysis of
an induction that seems to have no limits to its capacity
has pushed his researches into fields thought hitherto to
be inaccessible, until we are ready to exclaim "the spirit
of the Holy God is in titis? 'ffk^- -
But though man has done all this, there is one thing he
has notdone, nor will ever do — that spirit does not permit.
He has never explored the secret of Life. He has sought
diligently, by chemical action and reaction, by searching
and purifying fires, by microscopic dissection, but has
sought .in vain, to find the ultimate germ of that myste
rious force — vitality. Not only a true and reverent science
has sought it, but "science falsely so-called" has coveted
this great secret, not that it might shed more light upon
the truth of God, but that it might itself excite this force,

22 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
and so eliminate God from his universe and dispense with
a creator. With this view, ungodly men have toiled
patiently, with eager desire and with infernal aid, to un
ravel this mystery. As well might pigmies lift a moun
tain from the sea! Door after door they have opened, veil
after veil they have raised; but still that awful mystery
abides in the "Holy of Holies" — the bosom of God. Let
them exhaust their efforts, let them test to the utmost the
ultimate molecules of gases, and vapors, and spirits, and
subtle essences, — they cannot analyze the breath of God!
It is not only modern science, whether true or "falsely
so-called," that has longed for the solution of this myste
rious life, and of the still more mysterious death by which
it is invariably followed. The great philosophers of all
antiquity — notably those of Athens — whose cultivated in
tellects sowed their firmaments with great lights that still
sparkle down the centuries even to our own time — ex
pended all their powers in anxious though futile efforts to
solve this great mystery. If, then, modern science; if the
wisdom of the mighty dead of the past; if the traditions
of buried empires, around whose veiy tombs still lingers
after the lapse of millenniums a halo of intellectual light,
can give us no aid — whither shall we turn for help? Shall
we turn to the atheist, and let him answer for us that there
is no God ; that we are the victims of some blind fate, and
that after a few more years we shall go down into the grave
to " lie in cold obstruction and to rot," and that we shall
then be no more at all? Shall we go to the eclectic phi
losopher, and let him answer for us that nothing exists;
that we are dreams; that all things else are dreams, and
that our future, whatever else it may be, will only be a
dream of dreams? Shall we go to the materialist, and
learn from him, as well as his jargon will permit, that we

LIFE AND DEATH. 23
are not dreams at all, but mere lumps of matter, molded
into their present shapes by a concourse of attractions, re
pulsions and other forces ; and that by a change in the re
lations and dependencies of the different parts of these
lumps of matter, they will some. day be infinitely sub
divided again, and that throughout endless ages we will
be diversifying with our scattered molecules, clouds and
vapors, and worlds and suns ? Alas ! there is no food for
the hungry, no drink for the thirsty, no rest for the weary
here. Is there, then, no solution of the question? Are we in
deed involved in hopeless doubt and gloom? Has this
long wail of human woe gone up for six thousand years,
only to be lost in space, or met by the heartless echoes of
preceding cries of anguish ? Are we indeed the helpless
occupants of a sad and ruined world, cast off by some
blind fate, and doomed to wander aimlessly and without a
destiny in the abysses of a boundless space? Oh 1 if this
be so, what dismay, what horror of great darkness should
possess our souls I Well may we shudder at the hideous
"science, falsely so-called," which, even at this day, would
invite us to eat and drink with the vain philosophy of the
Epicurean; or to spin out our days with the indifference
of the stoic ; which would consign us to such frigid thoughts,
such outer darkness. Let us turn then from the cold and
cheerless regions we have been exploring and enter into
another sphere; into an atmosphere all the more bright
and glowing, by reason of the contrasted gloom. Let us
lift up our hearts in praise and adoration to the great Cre
ator of heaven and earth, and bless his holy name that he
has revealed himself to us by his sacred Word.
Now mark. That Word contains, as we have seen, the
only light we have on these great questions. If it be not

24 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
true, we are in midnight darkness still. But surely there
is some light there, whether it be more or less, and it is all
we have. How eagerly, then, should we search it! Think
what an inestimable treasure it would have been to Soc
rates and Plato, to Cato and Cicero, as it has been to so
many of like spirit with them — to Newton, to Johnston, to
Brewster, to Maury, and to many ten thousands of like
mind. How those old philosophers would have bathed
their very souls with ecstacy in its glorious light! And
shall we do less? There, and there alone will we find the
answers to these great questions that men are continually
asking as to their origin, their present state and their fu
ture destiny.
It's first utterance is — " In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth " (Gen. i, 1). In due time he filled
the earth with beauty. Grasses, and trees, and flowers, and
fruits, in unending profusion, covered the earth and satis
fied with endless adaptations all living things. Animals,
and creeping things, and fowls of the air, sprang from the
creative word with amazing prodigality. Earth, with all
its teeming millions, was a scene of joy. The blessed sun
light, and the soft rays of the moon, gilded the day and
silvered the night with inexpressible glory, and the stars
looked down with sympathy, on a peace and beauty ri
valling their own. The fragrance and melody of spring,
the maturer graces of summer, pregnant with promised
fruit, autumn's abundant harvests, and winter's garnered
comforts, each filled its special part in the circle of per
petual delights. Over this scene God's spirit brooded, and
all created things rejoiced in his smile.
But there yet remained one crowning act. A higher ex
ercise of the creative will was needed to complete the work.
This Paradise was without a head. Among all the living

LIFE AND DEATH. 25
things peopling the earth, there was not one capable of
government — not one knowing his Creator, and capable of
returning conscious love and gratitude for the gift of life,
with all its attendant happiness. And so, in the councils
of the Triune God, it was said: "Let us make man — in
our own image, after our likeness " (Gen. i, 26). " And the
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground " (Gen.
ii, 7).
Now, when the body of man was thus moulded by the
plastic hand of his Creator into that form of wonderful
beauty, it would soon have fallen into decay and returned
to dust again, if nothing more had been done. The ele
ments of which it was composed would soon have sepa
rated under that balmy sky, beneath which it was reposing
in unconscious symmetry and grace. It would only have
presented for a little while before its decay that sweet pa
thetic appearance which the poet describes as seen by him
" * Who hath /ent him o'er the dead, ¦67
'Ere the first! day of death hath fled,
****** And marked the mild angelic air,
The rapture of repose that's there,
Before decay's effacing fingers
Have swept the lines where beauty lingers."
But man was not doomed thus to decay. God " breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living
soul" (Gen. ii, 7). "So God created man in his own image;
in the image of God created he him; male and female cre
ated he them " (Gen. i, 27). When God thus breathed
into that lifeless body the " breath of life " (which was the
breath of God) man became a "living soul," composed of
body and spirit linked in immortal union. And in the
immortal union of the two, there was the image and like-
2

26 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
ness of God — not in the spirit alone, but in the body and
spirit united in immortality of life — a likeness disclosed
to us when God was manifested in the face of our Saviour
Christ, who was the express image of His person (Heb. i,
3). And now the work of creation was done, and God pro
nounced all that he had made " very good." In answer
to the Divine approval " the morning stars sang together,
arid all the sons of God shouted for joy " (Job xxxiii, 7). One
universal jubilee from the earth and from all living things
rose like sweet music on the air, and announced the com
pletion of another world perfect in its maker's eyes. Man,
the child of heaven, sat in heavenly bowers and fed day
by day on heavenly fruits. Fullness without satiety, joy
without weariness, hope without fear, expectation without
disappointment, sweet repose, health, peace and perfect
innocence, all blended their manifold influences in his body,
mind and soul; and gave him a foretaste of the still better
things to be revealed hereafter. Angelic ministries watched
over him, and beneath the smile of the common Father in
Heaven," shed odors of immortal origin around his couch
and about his path. Messages, borne more swiftly than
electric speed, by angel's wings from heaven to earth and
from earth to heaven, passed and repassed, charged with
sympathy and protection on the one hand, and fidelity and
gratitude on the other. Oh ! sweet and blessed scene ! Oh 1
lost Paradise of our race, how our hearts ache and yearn
as we recall thy joys! Even we, who have never tasted
the fruits of Eden, yet feel in our heart of heart that the
princely heritage was once our own, and that still its po-
sessions are congenial to us. We may sometimes content
ourselves with the coarse raiment and unsavory fare of the
wilderness ; but it is only to mourn in our hours of thought,

LIFE AND DEATH. 27
with intense longing, with insatiable desire for the better
things to which we were born.
Man, then, at his creation was immortal, but his immor
tality, like that of other creatures of God, was con
ditional. God:s immortality alone is absolute. The con
dition of man's immortality in body and soul was -the
continual influx of the quickening spirit — which could be
prevented by himself alone. Its interruption would be
death. Sin alone, violation of the will of God alone could
produce that death; and that inevitably would do so, be
cause it would produce alienation from God, who not only
is the bestower of life, but who only "hath life in himself"
(John v, 26), who only is "the Life" (Ibid, xiv, 16). In
short, the condition was that he who should be "alienated
from the life of God" (Eph. iv, 18) by resisting or neglecting
or failing to do His will would forfeit his immortality. If
man sinned, he would die, body and soul (though his body
might not be immediately dissolved), the moment that he
sinned. He would not merely incur the penalty of a
future death, but at the instant that he sinned, the sin
would be his executioner — he would die then and there.
"In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die"
(Gen. ii, 17). He would be dead while he lived (1 Tim,
v, 6), and all his descendants would be but the dead heirs
of a dead father.
Thus endowed, and thus warned, man, the prince im
perial of this beautiful world, moved through Eden, its
acknowledged head. The clear sweet air, the rolling land
scape, the streams, the rocks, the trees, the flowers and
fruits, the animals, the birds, the clouds, the sky, the fir
mament at night — all filled him with delight, and bore up
his thoughts in joy and thanksgiving to God, the gracious
giver of them all. Oh! that that universal jubilee were

28 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
still ringing in our ears ! Oh ! that the course of time had
not been changed, and that we were still part of many
blessed generations, perpetuating that eternal anthem !
Alas ! for us, this was not to be ! We are the heirs of a
forfeited immortality.
Though invested by his Creator with imperial dominion,
possessed of complete happiness, and with capacities for
increasing and eternal felicity, man was not content. In
stead of the gradual increase of knowledge and power
ordained for him, he coveted its immediate possession.
His rebellious heart was stimulated by the fraudulent sug
gestions of a being more rebellious and more subtle than
himself, and instead of submitting to the will of his Maker,
he chose to exert his own in things forbidden. Disobedi
ence to the God in whom was his life severed him from
that life. Alienation from life brought in death, and all
nature shuddered with conscious ruin. "All the founda
tions of the earth " slipped " out of course " (Ps. lxxxii, 5).
Then, instead of an universal jubilee, there arose one uni
versal discord. Instead of flowers and fruits, the earth
produced thorns and thistles and noxious plants. Instead
of peace, the blood of the innocent reddened the rivers
and the seas, and cried out to God from the ground. And
so man, the wisest and best beloved of all the creatures of
the Father, insanely exchanged innocence for guilt, im
mortal life for death, and the paradise of his birth for a
howling wilderness.
But if he continued, and his descendants do now con
tinue, though dead, to move about in this same world with
no apparent change, what was this death ? It is important
that we should carefully note the precise answer of Scrip
ture to this question, because, from our habit of applying
the word death almost exclusively to that dissolution of

LIFE AND DEATH. 29
the body which separates it from the spirit, we may miss
the great truths designed to be conveyed to us. Geology
seems to teach us that death, in the mere sense of disso
lution of the flesh, had taken place in beasts many ages
before man's creation, and therefore altogether independ
ently of his sins. Beasts were not made immortal, and
therefore died naturally, and in a manner not necessarily
involving any evil. Man died unnaturally, and doubtless
his death — prince and governor as he was — involved evil
to all his subjects. The question as to the death of beasts —
viz, the mere dissolution of the flesh — is a very different
question from that as to the death of man. To the question
as to the death of man, we have emphatic answers in
Scripture. The many texts which inform us that alienation from
God — walking in trespasses and sins, spiritual ignorance
through neglect, unbelief, living in pleasure, &c, &c, are
death — are all summed up in that clear and well-defined
utterance of the Spirit: "To be carnally-minded is death,
but to be spiritually-minded is life and peace" (Rom. viii,
6). We learn from this and the texts alluded to, that life
and death, in the Scripture sense of the words, are condi
tions of the mind or soul, producing happiness or misery; and
the reason why this state is death, is given — "Because the
carnal mind is enmity against God" (Ibid 7), who is the
fountain of life and happiness. Alienated from Him, we
die, body and soul, and this alienation and consequent
death must necessarily be complete the instant that we
sin. We are then "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. i»
1). We are not under sentence of death to be executed at
some future period, but dead then, on the instant — so that
our " eternal death " (whatever that may be, for it is not a
Scripture phrase) has already commenced, even while we

30 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
are — what in common language we call — alive. The con
sequences of this death are that we have lost our "likeness "
to God, lost our unity of soul and body in immortality of
life — a likeness and unity that can never be restored till
the "new heavens and the new earth" shall appear as the
fit receptables for new bodies restored through Christ to
immortal union with redeemed souls. And so, when " our
appointed time " comes, " then shall the dust return to the
dust as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave
it"(Eccle. xii, 7).
Do we think that we have no part in this great fall except
to suffer from it, and blame our first parents that they
have bestowed on us by their sin a corrupt nature, fancy
ing that if we had been in their place we would not have
fallen ? If such a thought has entered our minds, let us
search our hearts. The key-note of the universal harmony
of the first paradise was conformity to the unerring, loving
will of our Father in heaven. Do we possess that key
note? Or is it either wanting, or, at the best, "like sweet
bells jangled, out of tune and harsh ? " Do we submit to
what we suppose to be that will, or do we resist it ? Do
we keep our minds and hearts pure, our hands clean, and
use this world as not abusing it ? If, as we think, God
permits bereavement, the loss of wife or child ; if adversity
befall us ; if we are embarrassed in our business ; if our
fortunes are broken at a blow ; if we are in want, even in
want of necessaries, — do we humbly submit to what we
suppose the will of God in these dispensations, and cast
all our care on Him ? Do we not rather submit to it be
cause we cannot help it? Or else daily resist it, and mur
mur and cry against it, and weary heaven and earth with
our complaints ? Ah ! we want God's will to be done, if
it conforms to our own. In truth, we do not want His will

LIFE AND DEATH. 31
to be done at all — we want our own wills to be done. It
is vain for us to complain of our first parents, and to say
that if we had been placed in their circumstances we
would never have forfeited our glorious heritage. Such
thoughts are deep delusions and deceptions of our hearts.
We are, of our own wills, partakers of their sin every day
and hour, in cases where, if we would, we could do otherwise.
So then, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of
God" (Rom. iii, 23). "There is none righteous, no, not
one. There is none that understandeth, there is none
that seeketh after God" (Ibid 10-11). We have "all gone
out of the way," all " together become unprofitable ; there
is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Ibid 12).
It will appear in the sequel that the fault of this de
parture was wholly our own, and that God, after our crea
tion, did all that omnipotent wisdom and love could do to
prevent it. For the present it is assumed. We hope also
to be able to show that the creation of a being sure to fall,
can be justified on sound principles, which can be easily
understood ; and that those principles agree with Scripture.

32 THE DEATH OF DEATH.

CHAPTER III.
LIFE RENEWED — DEATH CONFIRMED.
ALL then have fallen, not only in Adam's fall, but each
by his own fault; and each of us is now making his brief
pilgrimage and probation through that wilderness which
received our first parents when the gates of Eden closed
behind them for sins similar to our own. The solemn
question, the universal question, comes back to us with
new force. When we have passed the wilderness, what
then? What is reserved for us in that great future, stretch- -
ing so relentlessly before us? "If a rnan die, shall he live
again?" (Job xiv, 14). It cannot be long before these
questions will come home to every son of man with awful
solemnity. By all of us they must be met and answered
soon; by some of us very soon. These questions, even
more than that in regard to the origin of life, have baffled
all human wisdom. No seer has ever been found capable
of grappling with such problems. Their solution must
come down from God out of heaven. Like weary trav
elers, surrounded by night and the road lost, we must
sink down into indifference or despair, unless we will open
our ears and hear the gracious voice coming down from
above, and revealing to us One who is " the way, the truth
and the life " (John xiv, 6) — the only true way by which
we can ever see life renewed in us. All we who are weary,
all we who are sorrowing, all we who are in doubt or diffi
culty, all we who fear or would know the future, may re
joice with joy, unspeakable and full of glory, that the same

LIFE EENEWED — DEATH CONFIHMED. 33
heavenly voice declares to us that " as in Adam all die, so
in Christ shall all be made alive " (1 Cor. xv, 22).
Yes, heaven and earth may well rejoice at the life-giving
word ; but before taking in its full measure of comfort it
becomes us to enquire on what terms we are to be made
alive — whether the promise is absolute or conditional.
As our sins, the result of our non-conformity to the will
of God, have produced alienation from Him, and conse
quent death and misery, so a restoration to life and happi
ness can come alone from a new conformity to that will.
Accordingly, the Apostle prays us " in Christ's stead " to
be "reconciled to God" (2 Cor. v, 20). But how is that
reconciliation to be effected ? Our consciences convict us
of having offended God in the past; and we well know,
that weak and corrupt as we are, we shall offend him again
in the future. The sinful past is irrevocable, the sinful
future is certain. What then is to be done? For surely,
unless some provision is made beyond our own power or
strength to effect that reconciliation, it can never be
effected. Happily for us just such a provision has .been
made. We read that " while we were yet without strength, in due
time, Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. v, 6); that "God
commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us" (Ibid 8); that "this is a faith
ful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. i, 15). Yes,
verily, it is worthy of all acceptation, and by all, for we are
also told that "neither is there salvation in any other, for
there is none other name given under heaven, among men,
whereby we must be saved " (Acts iv, 12).
Is it asked how the death of Christ, though Son of Man
and Son of God, can enure to our benefit ; how the blood

34 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
of the innocent can wash the guilty clean ? We cannot
answer. We learn from St. Paul (Eph. i. 9-11) and from
other texts that it is a great mystery ; and from St. Peter
that it is one which " the angels desire to look into " (1
Peter i, 12). We'cannot probe it with " hows " and " whys."
It is enough for us to reap its benefits ; it is enough for us
to know that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from
all sin " (1 John i, 7) ; that " God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself" (2 Cor. v, 19), and that God
" made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (Ibid
21). Does the death of Christ save us then, as matter of
course? No; we must co-operate in the matter ; we must
"work out our own salvation with fear and trembling"
(Phil, ii, 12); we must be "workers together with him"
(2 Cor. vi, 1). His death is potential to save us, but in
order to avail ourselves of it, we must desire to be saved
by it, and fulfill the terms on which it enures to our benefit.
We must strive to follow the example of obedience to Godj
which he set while on earth ; we must strive to walk in
the path once trod through fiery trials and temptations by
"* * * * * those blessed feet, ,
Which (eighteen) hundred years ago were nail'd
. For our advantage on the bitter cross."
A boat is capable of saving a ship-wrecked mariner, but
in order that it may do so, he must exert himself to get
into it. So the ark of our salvation must be reached by
our own efforts. - God and man must concur in the great
work — God to provide the means of salvation, and we to
endeavor, by his help, to subdue our stubborn wills, our
unholy desires and affections, our worldly lusts; and so

LIFE RENEWED — DEATH CONFIRMED. 35
seek to avail ourselves of those means. As soon as we are
prepared to do this, and so to accept the salvation that is
by Christ, the lost key-note of the universal harmony is
restored to our souls, and we again become "heirs of God,
and joint heirs with Christ " (Rom. viii, 17).
To attain this blessedness we need only try earnestly to
do God's will. We will never succeed fully in this world.
No Christian has ever lived; none is now living; none will
ever live, who has not sinned; who does not sin now daily
and hourly ; who will not sin hereafter, oftentimes grossly.
St. John and St. Paul and all the inspired writers set this
before us vividly and constantly. They do not apply it to
past but to present sins. One of them says : " We are all
as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags" (Isaiah lxiv, 6). Another says: "If we say that we
have no sin " (even the best; — even St. John) " we deceive our
selves,, and the truth is not in us" (1 John i, 8). Another
says he finds a law in his members (to which he yields)
which wars against the law of his mind — the thing " I
would, that do I not, but what I hate, that do I; the good
that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not,
that I do. Oh ! wretched man that I am, who shall de
liver me from the body of this death" (Rom. vii, 15-25).
Now these men were the chiefs of all the Christians, the
very elect of God, and they are speaking of themselves as
the representatives of all Christians. It is not therefore a
question of our sins, past, present, or to come — it is a ques
tion of our intent, of our will and purpose. Even human
law holds a man a criminal or a good citizen, not with re
ference to the fact of crime, but to his intent. If, then, we
can truthfully say with Paul, "So, then, with the mind, I
myself serve the law of God," then we may rejoice to believe
that we are Christians, and have passed from death unto life,

36 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
even though we are obliged to mourn with him, that we
serve "with the flesh the law of sin" (Ibid), for then, im
mediately, life, immortal life, is restored to our souls.
But, when our "appointed time" comes, and the spirit
returns to God who gave it, we must leave our ruined
bodies behind. Christ redeems the soul, but not the fallen
body. " If (even if) Christ be in you, the body is dead be
cause of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness "
(Rom. viii, 10). The bodies of all die, therefore, because of
sin, and return to their dust, but the spirits of all return to
God who gave them — those who are in Christ being in life,
and those who are not in him being dead in "trespasses and
sins," just in the same sense, and from the same cause, that
they were dead before their bodies returned to the dust.
But, when the spirits of all have thus returned to the God
who gave them, what is their state? We have already seen
that they are in a state of life or death, accordingly as they
have accepted the redemption of Christ or not; but are
they floating about like invisible mists in the other world,
or are they in some definite place, and are they conscious
or not? In the spiritual world there are several places or
departments. The alternate phrase of the apostles' creed
speaks of the "place of departed spirits." This place is-
spoken of in the Scriptures, in the original, as Hades, and
means the invisible place of the dead, or a place beneath.
It is unfortunate that in our version of the Scriptures it
is often translated Hell, which conveys a false idea of it to
our minds. It is a place beneath, because, whatever it
may be in reference to the earth, it is lower than the high
est heavens, of which it is said "David is not yet ascended
into the heavens" (Acts ii,. 34), and to which St. Paul
ascended in that wonderful vision, and heard " unspeaka
ble words which it is not lawful for a man to utter "; and

LIFE RENEWED— DEATH CONFIRMED. 37
when the glory and " abundance of the revelations " made
to him were so bewildering, that to prevent his being
" exalted above measure," God had to send him a "thorn
in his flesh." He tells us that whether " in the body" or
"out of the body," he could not tell, he was "caught up
to the third heaven," where he saw these wondrous things
(see 2 Cor. xii, 1-10). This means probably the highest
heavens, where God pre-eminently displays His glory; but
wherever it was, it was a different place from that visited
by the Divine Redeemer when he "went and preached
to the spirits in prison " (1 Pet. iii, 19). This was proba
bly the place of those not in Christ, and was one depart
ment of this Hades, or " place of departed spirits," while
the other is the place of those in Christ; for he told the
dying thief, "verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou
be with me in Paradise " (Luke xxiii, 43). In this place
of departed spirits, the dead of all the past await the
" change," to come on the morning of the resurrection.
But while thus waiting, are they conscious of their state?
Why should they not be ? We have seen that death, in the
Scripture sense, is a condition of the soul, by which,
through sin, it is put out of harmony with God, and that
it haffl two consequences — one of them the utter destruc
tion of the body, at its " appointed time '.' — and the other,
the immediate misery of the soul and its "return to God"
at the same "appointed time." But the soul is the seat
of consciousness, and not the body; so that it would seem
that the destruction of the latter would not involve a loss
of consciousness. The wicked were "dead in trespasses
and sins" before their bodies returned to the dust — that is,
while they were, what we call, alive, but yet they were
conscious then. Why should they not be so now, when
(their spirits being with God) they are alive in a far higher

38 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
sense ? They are so, and with all the exquisite sensibility
of this intenser life, they have gone down into the " place
of departed spirits," unrelieved, as hitherto, by the amuse
ments, and pleasures, and distractions of this life, with all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eye, and the pride of life — its riches, its honors, its ambi
tions, its hopes — all passed away forever, they stand face
to face with a gracious God — a compassionate Father — a
loving Saviour — a yearning Spirit, whose laws they have
violated, whose proffered salvation they have rejected or
neglected, whose gentle and persuasive influences they
have received in vain; and so there settles down upon
their ruined souls the misery of creatures alienated from
their God — conscious guilt, remorse for the past, and sad
forebodings for the future — tortures which have no present
mitigation, even from that .
" Bless'd tear of soul-felt penitence,
In whose benign redeeming flow,
Is felt the first, the only sense
Of guiltless joy that guilt can know."
We turn now from this sad scene to soothe our spirits
by the contemplation of the " dead in Christ." Every
reason that goes to show that the wicked continue in a
conscious state of suffering after the dissolution of the
body, gives increased conviction that the blessed dead
continue then in a conscious state of bliss, awaiting the
" day of the Lord." In addition we have the warrant of
Scripture for this conviction ; for we are there told that
Moses and Elias appeared at the transfiguration, "talking
with Jesus " (Mark ix, 4; Matt, xvii, 3), and spake to him
" of His decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusa
lem " (Luke ix, 31). We are also exhorted by our blessed
Lord to use our money for the benefit of others, so that

LIFE RENEWED — DEATH CONFIRMED. 39
when we depart hence, the friends we have so made, and
who have preceded us, may welcome us to Paradise, "-and
I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon
of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive
you into everlasting habitations" (Luke xvi, 9). • St. John
saw in vision beneath the altar (long before the resurrec
tion) the "souls of them that were slain for the word of
God and for the testimony which they held; and they
cried with a loud voice and said, 'How long, 0 Lord,
holy and true, dost Thou not avenge our blood on them
that dwell on the earth ? ' And white robes were given
unto every one of them; and it was said unto them that
they should rest yet for a little season, until .their fellow-
servants also, and their brethren that should be killed as
they were, should be fulfilled" (Rev. vii, 10-11). Let this
be figuratively expressed, still it conveys the idea of con
scious rest (oh blessed word!) for those who "sleep in Je
sus." That the blessed dead are "asleep" or "at rest,"
does not, therefore, impair the force of these comforting
convictions. It is doubtless an incomplete state until at the
resurrection they are invested with their '' glorified bodies ";
but it is a state of sweet, conscious rest. It appears, then,
that if we depart "in Christ," we shall immediately "see
Him as He is," in the "Paradise of God," and rest in
peaceful, conscious expectation of our perfection at the res
urrection, by investiture with bodies "fashioned like unto
His glorious body" (Phil, iii, 21). No gloom of the grave
awaits God's ransomed ones. Death has come, and found
nothing in them for his blazing sword. He will, indeed,
win a temporary triumph over their frail bodies, but on
the beautiful garments in which their souls are arrayed by
Him who " bore their sins in His own body on the tree,"
the smell even of His fiery breath shall not be found..

40 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
And now, though Paradise has been lost, it is nothing to
a " Paradise regained." The bitter sorrow, the long delay,
will enhance an hundred fold the glorious restoration of
eternal joy. And that joy is ours— is ours, oh weary, strug
gling, sorrowing fellow-mortals, if we will only strive for
it; if we will only regain, by accepting Christ as our
Saviour, that virgin grace which made its charm, honest,
earnest submission to the will of God. When we shall
have bowed our stubborn wills, to rest our all on " Jesus
Christ, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks
foolishness" (1 Cor. i, 23), we shall have fulfilled all the
law, because his merit of obedience will enure to our
benefit. And then heaven is ours. Come what will to us in this
world, we shall re-enter when we depart hence on immor
tal life. We shall join the great "assembly and church of
the first-born which are written in heaven" (Heb. xii, 23>
We shall be received with joy and gladness by the loved
ones who have gone before, now more loving and beautiful
than ever, on the everlasting hills of Zion, and with them
swell the sweet anthems of the restored Paradise of God.
And then some day the soft, sweet resurrection signal (soft
and sweet in that pure air) shall echo through those happy
hills, and "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and
so shall we ever be with the Lord" (2 Thess. iv, 16-17). In
that glorious fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, St-
Paul, glowing with unwonted eloquence, describes the
resurrection with rapt enthusiasm. He tells us that there
is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. We have

LIFE RENEWED — DEATH CONFIRMED. 41
already seen that the natural body is destroyed utterly
" because of sin " ; but St. Paul tells us that out of it —
as a flower out of an ugly seed, and bearing the same re
lationship to it — shall spring a spiritual body. This seed
sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption ; sown in
dishonor, it shall be raised in glory; sown in weakness, it
shall be raised in power; sown a natural body, it. shall be
raised a spiritual body. In this light we can see the re
deemed standing before the bar of God, radiant in beauty,
strength and immortality, and clothed with the robes of
Christ's perfect righteousness. God's searching eye sees no
spot upon them ; and being justified by faith, their immor
tality in body and soul restored, they enter into the many
mansions of their Father's House in the Highest Heavens,
with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads — angels
and archangels, and all the company of heaven, uniting
in their glad welcome home, to their unending rest.
But what of the lost? We have seen them conducted
by their sins to their own place in Hades. We have seen
them suffering there, from remorse of conscience, from
utter desolation and loneliness, as aliens from their Father
in heaven — and suffering these things with a keenness and
bitterness which the distractions of earth prevented while
they were here, but which the realities of the spiritual
world develop now with terrible energy.
But how is God affected by their sufferings? Does He
sternly or coldly see them writhing there ? Does His holy
eye blaze through and through their naked souls, increas
ing their pangs and extinguishing all hope of their abate
ment by any means in heaven or earth that Omnipotence
can employ? Is the tender, pitying glance of Him who
was on earth the God of love, turned for them into fiery
flames of consuming vengeance — vengeance inexorable

42 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
and complete? Is He no longer the God of love for a por
tion of His miserable creatures, but the God of war and
wrath for them? Did they indeed read in lurid flames
over the brazen gates of the dread abyss before they shut
with horrid clang behind their shuddering souls : " Leave
hope behind, who enter here?" Have the faculties of
their souls been utterly destroyed by sin, so that they them
selves are new creatures of her hellish hand ; or has hope —
that last, most indestructible of them all — alone closed her
weary eye, and left but her tomb in hearts and minds from
which she was once inseparable ?
Or, on the contrary, does the Spirit of God still brood
over this dismal scene? Does redeeming love still yearn
for the lost soul ? Does the wail of the Divine Compassion,
infinite and indestructible, still mourn, even if afar off,
over that sorrowful fate? Is there still any hope that
once again, "in the fullness of times," after whatever un
counted period, through the "tribulation and anguish " in
flicted by sin, there may be produced in the damned a
desire to cease from sinning ? Is there still any hope that
the punishment of the future state is not vindictive but
reformatory ? Is there still any hope that infinite wisdom,
by infinite redeeming love, will yet bring order out of con
fusion, and restore to harmony and peace and joy the en
tire universe it has made ?
It is the object of the following chapters to answer these
solemn questions, and, by God's help, to show that the
true consummation of the Divine plan in the sacrifice of
Christ, is the ultimate restoration of peace "in heaven
and in earth, and under the earth." This golden key, if
it can be found, will unlock the gloomy, rust-eaten door,
behind which is hidden the precious secret of the "origin
of evil." Once inside, we may subject it to analysis, and

LIFE RENEWED— DEATH CONFIRMED. 43
we may find that in the "alchemy of heaven" inevitable
evil has been converted into an eternal blessing, unattain
able in any other way, to every intelligent creature in God's
entire universe ?
A brief review of this and the preceding chapter may
be useful.
1st. We have seen that life and death cannot be ex
plained by man, but are revealed by God alone.
2d. That life is the "breath of God," by which man was
made immortal, body and soul, an immortality conferring
happiness, but conditioned on conformity to the will of God.
3d. That man violated the condition, and by sin incurred
the forfeiture — dying, body and soul — the instamt that he
sinned; and that this death is a condition of the mind or
soul, accompanied by its immediate misery and the future
ruin of the body.
4th. That though thus "dead while he lives," his body
will return to the dust only at an "appointed time" there
after; and that his soul does not consciously suffer complete
misery till then, by reason of the distractions of the
world, and his present incapacity to appreciate the unseen
realities of the spiritual world ; by reason of the superior
influence over the mind of the things that are seen, though
temporal, as compared with the things that are unseen,
though eternal.
5th. That dissolution of the body and death of the soul
are due to alienation from the life of God, in whom alone
we are alive.
6th. That provision is made by the death of Christ, for
restoration to the life of God, which carries with it, for all
who accept it before the dissolution of the body, the re
newal of the soul's happiness, and its conscious rest in
Christ in the place of departed spirits, after that dissolu
tion has taken place.

44 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
7th. That the old body being hopelessly dead "because
of sin," and soul and body united in immortality, being
necessary for one in the " image of God," a new body will
' rise at the resurrection from the old, as a flower from the
germ, to be united to the soul in indissoluble union,
both free from danger of another fall by likeness to
Christ and heirship with him in glory.
8th. That those who do not accept the provision made
for them in Christ before the dissolution of the body, have
"no part in him" in this world, and go into the "place of
departed spirits," still dead in "trespasses arid sins"— just
as they were here and with the same conscious suffering,
but intensified by a realization of their position not possi
ble while they were on earth.
What then?

CONDITION OF THE LOST — VARIOUS THEORIES. 45

CHAPTER IV.
THE VARIOUS THEORIES AS TO THE CONDITION OF THE LOST.
THE calculations of the learned German statisticians —
Drs. Behm and Wagner — place the present population
of the earth at between fourteen and fifteen hundred mil
lions of souls. It would be a vain attempt to ascertain
how many have lived on the earth since the creation of
man. Any estimate that could be made would place their
number at many thousands of millions — figures that con
vey no appreciable meaning to our minds, except that of
an inconceivable multitude. Now the view accepted by a
large section of the multiform Christian creeds is, that the
great majority of these multitudes — at least of the adults —
are hopelessly lost. Surely, so fearful a statement must
fill every unbiased mind with horror and dismay. Even
the loss of one single soul, doomed to an endless and hope
less torture, inconceivable in degree as in duration — a
doom of which one has said, "it is infinitely beyond the
highest archangel's faculty to apprehend the thousandth
part of the horror" — is appalling beyond description.
When such a thought has once entered the mind in vital
form, it cannot be at rest till it has inquired how such a
calamity could have befallen any of our race, much more
the largest number; and in our vague ideas of the sove
reignty of God, our first thought is that He must in some
way be responsible for it; that He could, if He would,
have prevented it. Against such a thought the mind, not
less than the heart, will revolt sooner or later with unut-

46 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
terable loathing, unless it is bound by the trammels of a
traditional creed, paralyzed by some accepted dogma, or
conscious of its impotence, is ready to resign all thought
and accept whatever monstrous doctrine its masters and
teachers may impose upon it. To this last sad condition
the majority, even of intelligent men, seem willing to re
sign themselves ; and a blind adherance to dogma, whether
caused by this self-surrender, or by party spirit, has pro
duced and is still producing more desolation in the earth
than all the excesses of radicalism are able or ever will
be able to produce. But in every age of the world and of
the church, there have been multitudes who could not be
thus satisfied, and who either consciously or unconsciously
have wrought out ^theories and systems for themselves,
which have given them more or less satisfaction — each
having a system, which, in his wisdom or his ignorance, '
appeared to him to conform more nearly to the truth of
Scripture than those of others. Whatever follies may
have been thus committed, it is better so than that they
should have settled down into ignorance, indifference or
submission to the ipsl dixit of a despotic spiritual autho
rity. The one at least gives evidence of life — the other is
the silence of spiritual sleep or death. We need only
notice the%«r theories that are accepted by considerable
bodies of men ; and even from these we exclude that sen
timental opinion which affirms that man deserves no suf
fering in the future world for what he did here, and that
even if he did, God is too merciful to permit him so to
suffer. We confine our attention to those who accept the
words "eternal" or "everlasting" punishment as descrip
tive of the condition of the lost; but who interpret those
words jn different senses. Of these there are four classes;

CONDITION OF THE LOST — VARIOUS THEORIES. 47
1st. Those who interpret those words as meaning endless
and hopeless punishment.
2d. Those who interpret them as meaning a punishment
that either immediately annihilates, or else endures till it
extinguishes the soul.
3d. Those who interpret them as meaning a punishment
that is xonianx or till the end of the seon, age, or dispensation .
4th. Those who interpret them as meaning a punish
ment or suffering, indefinite as to its duration ; but who be
lieve also that it is one enduring as long as the sinful tem
per endures, and terminable in the future life as in this
by repentance and restoration to God through Christ.
First. Those who interpret the words as meaning endless and
hopeless punishment (either as matter of dogma, or as matter
of deliberate and intelligent opinion) constitute a large
part of the Christian Church. But though at one as to the
punishment, they are divided into antagonistic parties as
to the subjects of it. They agree that none can escape the
punishment save those only who accept Christ's salvation
in this life; but there they diverge. One of them main
tains that those only are saved who from eternity were
elected to salvation by God, and that the lost were equally
elected from eternity to damnation by Him, in each case
without any merit or demerit on the part of those thus
disposed of, but by the will of God. Those by whom this
strange extreme of doctrine is generally held, stand, and
have always stood, as high for pure and undefiled religion
as any body of Christians whatever — one of the many
proofs we possess that mistake of doctrine may well har
monize with righteousness of life. The other maintains
that no man is lost except by his own will; for that the
offer of salvation is made to all, and all are free to accept
or reject it as they themselves may elect. An incessant

48 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
war has been waged between these two schools of opinion.
Whole libraries have been poured out on either side, by
men of wonderful ability and learning, with no progress to
wards the settlement of their differences. Now it is plain,
that if the hopeless and unending punishment of man in the
world to come, even for his own fault, raises in the mind
anxious inquiry as to how this can consist with the holiness
of God, the suggestion that it was deliberately purposed and
planned by God in the beginning, and that he made these
poor lost souls expressly for this dismal fate, adds unspeak
able difficulty to the inquiry, or rather renders the question
entirely insoluble. For centuries the church has been deaf
ened by the din and clamor of a strife, hopeless of result,
because both sides were reasoning all the time from false
premises. At last there is a prospect that as soon as the
advocates of the darker view shall calmly examine the
new light thrown upon the subject, there will be a peace
or at least a truce. It was reserved for a great living*
thinker to bestow this light: As when a new land is
sought, one searcher will find an adjacent island, another a
promontory, another and another some projecting head
land, till at last one shall explore the whole coast, explode
their conjectures, correct their errors, and give a consistent
map of the land — so this great discoverer has supplied us
with a chart of new realms in moral science. This son of
Anak has removed mountains of hoary errors and soph
isms, and made a demonstration that on this point seems
to be complete. In his immortal work (Theodicy) Dr.
Bledsoe has demonstrated, if anything is capable of de
monstration, that the idea of God dooming men, infants
or adults to eternal perdition, without any reference to
•Note.— All ol this book but the last two or three chapters was written before
his lamented death.

CONDITION OF THE LOST — VARIOUS THEORIES. 49
their deserts, and of his own mere will, is as false as it is
unspeakably horrible, and is a caricature of the Deity be
cause utterly inconsistent with every principle of justice or
mercy. Those who wish to see the argument in all its
grand proportions, and to see the crashed and scattered
bones of its great antagonist around it, will enjoy a great
pleasure by referring to the book itself.
Though relieved of this nightmare, as it seems to us, the
question still remains — how are we to reconcile the endless
and hopeless punishment of any of God's creatures with
His holiness?
For ages men have been crazed by thinking too con
stantly and unwisely on the great question of the origin of
evil. They have blinded themselves by gazing too intently
and with bad eyes into the darkness. Great and good men,
however, have from time to time, explored almost every
principle on which the solution of the question depends.
Strong intellectual lenses have concentrated the light upon
them as with dark lanterns ; but, unfortunately, such lan
terns, though they could cast great avenues of light every
where over the dark waters, could only cast them in one
direction at a time, because, elsewhere, surrounded by dog
matic shades and shadows. Great intervening darkness
lay between these avenues. Some have built or fancied
mysterious bridges across these chasms, and from them
have mapped out the whole space ; and have become angry
with those who could not understand these maps that
seemed so plain to them — while others have contented
themselves with the light they saw, and faithfully believed
that they would be as well content with the remaining
space, if they could only see it. A great Pharos at last ap
pears erected on a rock, absorbing these avenues in one
broad sheet of light radiating throughout its sphere, and

50 THE DEATHS OF DEATH.
illuminating the dark and stormy waters around it. Un
fortunately it was not elevated sufficiently high to reach
the whole horizon of the argument.
With the great question of the origin of evil on the sup
position that any are doomed to hopeless and endless pun
ishment, Dr. Bledsoe grapples mightily, and endeavors to
prove that moral evil is consistent with the holiness of God,
even on that supposition. Having cleared away the diffi
culties interposed by the sophistry and dogmatic rigidity
of his adversaries, he propounds his own theory. It is not
possible to state that theory -in this little essay in all its
completeness, even if we were capable of doing so. The
club of Hercules cannot be made to fit conveniently into
a receptacle intended for a quarter staff. We must, there
fore, endeavor to present briefly its bare outlines, as we
understand it, in our own words, though we are quite con
scious that we may not thus do full justice to it, or inter
pret even these outlines fairly. We will try to do so.
When God created man he felt towards him all those
sentiments of affection, which we can only faintly typify
by a father's love for his child. He desired earnestly that
man should exhibit to him the love and obedience of a
child, of which he was inconceivably worthy. Foreseeing
that in his heedlessness and waywardness, this child would
fall away from his Divine Father, he made in advance an
ample provision to redeem his fall and restore him to his
favor. He created man, this son of His, in His own like
ness, provided bountifully for him, employed all the agen
cies for his happiness and well-doing that boundless love
could suggest and limitless power command, and laid on
him only the obligation of obedience and gratitude. In
spite of all this man fell from his allegiance, and added
obstinate unbelief to his ingratitude by a refusal to accept

CONDITION OF THE LOST — VARIOUS THEORIES. 51
the provision made for his redemption. He thus incurred
just punishment as the penalty of his sin. But, if indeed
ineffable love yearned over the sinner, why did not om
nipotent power prevent his fall? Because even omnipotent
power could not prevent it. What is omnipotence? Not
the power to do everything — but only that which is true
and right. God, for example, we may reverently and joy
fully say, c mnot work a contradiction ; for the very nature
of Him, who cannot lie, who is perfect and complete, judg
ing right, would forbid it. God cannot make two and two
equal to five, or the part equal to the whole, for these things
would be contradictions. We must bear this in mind when
we consider man's case. God had made all beautiful and
wonderful creatures op the earth without number, before
man's creation; but among them all there was not one
being endowed with a sense of moral responsibility, not
one capable of returning conscious love and gratitude to
its Maker. The law impressed upon the nature of all ex
isting things was, that after their creation they should con
tinue what they were, by no voluntary or co-operative
agency of their own, but by the external power of God.
The birds sang by an irresistible impulse, simply because
they could not help it; and all other creatures played their
parts by a similar necessity of their natures,
But man, made in the image of God, after His likeness,
must necessarily possess in some degree the Divine capaci
ties (the same in kind, though infinitely lower in degree),
and among them the capacity of Avilling to do or to forbear
to do, free from external control. If he did not possess
this power, he would be in no moral respect different from
the bird that sings because it must. If God, after man's
creation, could have coerced his will, the coercion would
have been an act of power contrary to the very nature of

52 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
man, and its effect would have been either to annihilate
him or to change him into a brute. But so long as man
continues to be man, his love and willing obedience cannot
be coerced, for this would be a contradiction — a thing im
possible with God. Of course the man may be forced by
stress of pain to do so and so, but then it is no longer an
act of the will, or a willing act. And so man was to do or
to forbear to do God's will, to love or to hate Him at his
own mere will. God could persuade, entreat, allure him
in all gracious ways, but could not coerce his love or
compel a willing obedience, for these are contradictions in
terms. The law of man's nature, then, the condition on
which alone he could exist at all as man, was, from the ne
cessity of the case, the very reverse o"f that imposed upon
all other creatures — viz : that he should continue what he
was at his creation, the son of God, and as such heir of
all things in earth and heaven, not simply by the external
power of God, but by his own voluntary will and efforts,
co-operating with the gracious aid of his Father in heaven.
Even if there were no revelation on the subject, we our
selves are conscious that we are free to love or hate, to do
or refuse to do without any control beyond our own wills.
And he who was both God and man declares, not that we
cannot have life", but that "ye will not come to me that ye
may have life" (John v, 40). It thus appears that God is
in no sense the author of sin and its consequent suffering,
or responsible for its existence in any way on account of
his failure to prevent man's fall. He does not impose
punishment on the sinner, but the sinner brings punish
ment, or, to speak more correctly, suffering on himself by
his sins, from the nature of the case.
Thus far this argument seems to be entirely satisfactory.
We are unable to see how any rational answer can be given

CONDITION OF THE LOST — VARIOUS THEORIES. 53
to it. But at this point Dr. Bledsoe diverges from the ad
vocates of a benigner creed. He alleges that if the sinner
departs this life impenitent, the punishment is endless, not
because such a penalty is merited by every sin, but because
the culprit will continue to sin forever. He quotes the ar
gument of another against the proposition that each sin
merits an eternal penalty, and comments thus: "This
answer alone, though perhaps not the best that might be
made, we deem amply sufficient. Indeed does not the po
sition that a man, a poor, weak, fallible creature, deserves
an infinite punishment, an eternity of torments, for each
evil thought and word, carry its own refutation along with
it? and if not, what are we to think of the attribute of
justice which demands an eternity of torment to inflict the
infinite pangs due to a single sin? Is it a quality to in
spire the soul with a rational worship, or to fill it with a
horror that caste th out love?" (Theodicy, p. 296). "We
say, then, that eternal sufferings are deserved by the finally
impenitent, not because every sinful act carries along with
it an infinite guilt, nor because every sinner may be imag
ined to have committed an infinite number of sins, but
because they will continue to sin forever. It will be con
ceded that if punishment be admissible at all, it is right
and proper that so long as acts of rebellion are persisted
in, the rewards of iniquity should attend them. It will
be conceded that if the finally impenitent should continue
to sin forever, then they forever deserve to reap the rewards
of sin. But this is one part of the Scripture doctrine of
future punishments that those who endure them will
never cease to sin and rebel against the authority of God's
law" (Ibid p. 303-4). "We do not suppose the soul of
the guilty will continue to sin forever, because it will be
consigned to the regions of the lost; but we suppose it will

54 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
be consigned to the regions of the lost, because by its own
repeated acts of transgression, it has made sure of its eter
nal continuance in sinning" (Ibid p. 305). Now to all the
principles laid down in the foregoing extracts, we are
bound to give our assent, for they seem like almost, if not
quite all those laid down in the "Theodicy" to be abso
lutely unanswerable. But there is one fact (as we will call
it) assumed or stated, and claimed to be in accordance
with the "Scripture doctrine of future punishments,"
which does not seem to be sufficiently established — to wit:
that the finally impenitent (he who dies in his sins) has
himself "made sure of an eternal continuance in sinning."
If this be not true, then it would seem that in accordance
with the principles here laid down, another step must be
taken in order to show " moral evil to be consistent with
the holiness of God." If it be true, it must be admitted
that Dr. Bledsoe has shown that as God could not pre
vent man, after he wns once created, from sinning, he
is not immediately responsible for the eternal punishment
which results. But this appears only to remove the difficulty
one step further; for the question still remains — why did He
create any man, knowing that he would or could thus sin
to his everlasting ruin, in spite of the use by God of all
possible means to prevent him ?
Dr. Bledsoe anticipates this objection. He says: "We
have already said that the only real question is, not why
God permitted evil, but why he created beings capable of
sinning. Such creatures are beyond all question the most
noble specimens of his workmanship. St. Augustine has
beautifully said that the horse which has gone astray is a
more noble creature than a stone which has no power to
go astray. In like manner we may say that a moral agent
that is capable of knowing and loving and serving God

CONDITION OF THE LOST — VARIOUS THEORIES. 55
though its very nature implies its ability to do otherwise,
is a more glorious creature than any being destitute of such
a capacity. If God had created no such being, his work
might have represented him ' as a house doth the builder,'
but not ' as a son doth his father.' If he had created no
such beings, there would have been no eye in the universe
except His own to admire and to love His works. Traces
of His wisdom and goodness might have been seen here
and there scattered over His works, provided any eye had
been lighted up with intelligence to see them ; but nowhere
would His living and immortal image have been seen in
the magnificent temple of the world. It will be conceded
then that there is no difficulty in conceiving why God
should have preferred a universe of His creatures, beaming
with the glories of His own image, to one wholly destitute
of the beauty of holiness and the light of intelligence.
But having preferred the noblest order of beings, its in
separable incident, a liability to moral evil, could not have
been excluded."
"Hence God is the author of all good, and of good
alone; and evil proceeds not from Him nor from His per
mission, but from an abuse of those exalted and unshackled
powers whose nature and whose freedom constitute the
glory of the moral universe " (lb. p. 198).
True it is that " creatures beaming with the glories " of
God's image are infinitely preferable to those without in
telligence enough to sin ; and it will therefore be conceded
that "there is no difficulty in conceiving why God should
have preferred a universe " of such. But this gives us no
aid in conceiving how His holiness is consistent with their
creation, when He knew that they would, after their crea
tion and their brief existence, be the victims of unending
and remediless torment — nor of conceiving how such suf-

56 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
ferings are to be justified, because the " glory of the moral
universe" could not be established without a state of
things which rendered them inevitable.
But if it can be shown that God created these intelligent
and responsible beings, foreknowing that though they
would sin and suffer the penalty due to their sins — a pen
alty the effect of which would be reformatory — that though
they might not repent under the discipline of this earthly
dispensation; yet that they would do so ultimately, even
if in the indefinite future, under the severer discipline of
the place of departed spirits, or of the place into which
they would be received after judgment; and that that suf
fering would, as a foil, only heighten the joy and glory of
their restoration — a joy and glory only attainable for them
through such suffering — then indeed may we see clearly
that "moral evil" has been turned by God into a blessing;
and was the only means by which he could "give and con
tinue existence to free moral agents, and govern them
for their own good, as well as for His glory " (Ibid p. 198).
We hope to be able to show hereafter that on the theory
(a reasonable one indeed it seems) that death does not ex
tinguish the faculty of repentance any more than it does the
rest of the faculties of the soul, an ultimate restoration to
God is demonstrable on known principles, and that a true
interpretation of Scripture is consistent with that demon
stration, and in fact confirms it. Without such a theory
we do not believe the existence of "moral evil" con be
shown to be "consistent with the holiness of God," even
by such a master as Dr. Bledsoe.
At all events, even those who cherish this hopeful faith
are greatly indebted to him for the aid he has given them
in finding peace on the great question of the origin of
evil, by removing mountain ranges, very Alps and Apen-

CONDITION OF THE LOST — VARIOUS THEORIES. 57
nines of ancient clouds and darknesses, which, though they
had been left behind them, would still have threatened
them with recurring doubts on these old questions. This
great purifier of moral atmospheres has shown them a clear
and smiling sky in their rear.
Second. Those who interpret the words as meaning a punish
ment that either immediately annihilates, or else endures till it
extinguishes the soul.
Of this doctrine it may be remarked that, as with almost
every conceit which men have adopted on every possible
question about religion, there is a good deal in the Scrip
tures that may be interpreted in harmony with it; but
there is much more there which is in antagonism with it.
Moreover, it is one among those least consonant with
reason and with instinct. It is in part for this reason, per
haps, that it has found fewer adherent's, under any creed,
than some harsher opinions on the future destiny of the
impenitent. Little therefore need be said about it.
Philosophically, it is inconceivable that the all-wise
Creator, who sees the end from the beginning, could anni
hilate anything he had made. This would imply a vacil
lation unworthy of infinite foresight. To change its form
according to different emergencies of time and season and
occasion, would only be a conformity to the law of variety,
which is one of the chief glories of creation; but to anni
hilate any essence could serve no good end, it would seem,
if it were wisely created in the beginning. The natural
philosophers have long since adopted as a canon that no
atom is ever lost, in whatever varieties of form and con
dition it may reappear. The idea of annihilation is abhor
rent to reason and to sentiment, but we readily admit that
neither of these are entirely safe guides on such high
themes. To the "law and to the testimony," as interpreted

58 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
by a just reason and sentiment alone, can we with perfect
safety submit such questions.
The state of the wicked is almost everywhere described
in Scripture as a continued existence; thus, they are to be
subjected to " wrath and indignation, tribulation and an
guish" (John ii, 8-9); they are to awake to "shame and
everlasting contempt " (Dan. xii, 2) ; and in almost all the
texts descriptive of their condition, a state of conscious suf
fering is described, and not of annihilation. Why need
they "awake" to be annihilated? This might have been
done while they slept, if intended. If they are not to be
annihilated immediately after they awake to judgment,
but are to linger out ages of shame and anguish, until the
soul, no longer able to bear the intolerable load, languishes
into a dismal extinction, the task of reconciling such a
fate with the pity and love of God would be an absolute
impossibility. There is no mere man not utterly besotted,
who could witness the writhings of a mangled brute mor
tally wounded, whose pity would not extend the merciful
blow that would end its pangs; and can we suppose that
God, who intended ultimately to annihilate the impeni
tent dead, and who could annihilate, if He chose, as easily
as He could create, would be less pitiful than man ?
In many texts there are strong side-lights against the
idea of annihilation. As an example, take Isaiah lvii, 16:
" For I will not contend ^forever, neither will I be always
wroth ; for the spirit should fail before Me, and the souls which
I have made," — as if to say, "since it is impossible that the
souls which I have made can fail before Me, as they must
do if my wrath continue to burn, therefore I cannot be
wroth forever." This text bears even more strongly against
the idea of an endless and hopeless punishment than it
does against the idea of annihilation ; but as we reserve

CONDITION Of THE LOST — VARIOUS THEORIES. 69
the former for future consideration, we only remark here
that horrible as either idea is, the latter is least so, and
•might be more generally accepted but that its rival has
the prestige of traditional dogma to support it and give
it the advantage:

6"0 The Death of death.

CHAPTER, V.
THE VARIOUS THEORIES AS TO THE CONDITION OF THE LOST —
CONTINUED,
A STILL milder form of opinion is now to be stated.
Third. Those who interpret the words as meaning a pun
ishment that is seonian, or till the end of the aeon, age, or dis
pensation. As we have presented the views of one, among the ablest
and most philosophical of those who believe in the endless
and hopeless punishment of the wicked, so now we present
as the representative of the third view an able Scriptural
discussion of the question recently published anonymously
(by Lockwood Brooks & Co., Boston, 1876). It is by an
" orthodox minister of the gospel," and is named "7s eter
nal punishment unending?" The author denies the doctrine
of endless and hopeless punishment to be revealed in
Scripture, and states his conclusion to be that of "nesci
ence," viz: that the Bible, while teaching future punish
ment in terms sufficiently explicit and severe for the pur
poses of moral government, does not positively declare the
duration of that punishment (preface). In other words,
" that the Scriptures really leave the duration of the ' aeo-
nian punishment' an open question" (p. 83). The author
states that the design of his " essay is a mere inquiry into
facts," as to what the Bible teaches expressly or impliedly;
and that " no entrance is designed into the metaphysical
and ethical arguments which the subject invites and by

The various theories — continued. 61
which it is often perplexed, but simply an inquiry into
the answer which the Scripture returns to the question —
Is ' eternal punishment'' absolutely endless?" (preface). Lest
any one should suppose the title of the argument to be
one proposing a sort of identical equation, as if "eternal"
necessarily means the same as "endless," he refers the
reader to the sequel. The argument is confined almost en
tirely to a critical and exegetical discussion of Scripture
texts bearing on the subject. The following is an outline
of the argument.
There are many passages in our English Testaments that
look like declarations of the endlessness of future punish
ment. At the head of the list stands Matthew xxv, 46 :
"These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into life eternal." The question presents itself,
whether our. translators have correctly represented the
original words of our Lord. Now these words "everlasting,"
"eternal," are here and everywhere in the Scriptures
represented in the original by the single Greek adjective
alcovtov (seonion) — a word anglicised by Tennyson seonian,
so that the text above and all similar texts mean "Eeonian
punishment" and "seonian life."
The adjective seonian is derived from the Greek noun
seon {aloju). The Old Testament was translated during the
second and third centuries before Christ from the Hebrew
into Greek. It is called the septuagint, and is designated
by the numeral LXX— which was the Bible of the Apos
tles. The use of the word in the LXX will help us to un
derstand its use in the Gospels and Epistles. If the word
seonian has not a strict and uniform reference to endless
duration in the LXX, we shall need a decisive reason for
assigning it such a meaning in the New Testament. Before
considering the meaning of the word, it may be remarked

&i The death of death.
that if aeon be taken to mean eternity, seonian the adjective
might well mean belonging to eternity; and seonian punish
ment might mean the punishment taking place in eternity
(without any reference to its duration) as well as the pun
ishment that lasts through eternity. But what does seonian
mean in the Scripture? We find it to be of most elastic
meaning. In Genesis xxi, 33, it is used of God — "the
everlasting (seonian) God." In Ibid xvii, 8, of Abraham's
title to Canaan — "an everlasting (seonian) possession.'* In
Numbers xxv, 13, of Phinehas and his posterity — "aft
everlasting (seonian) priesthood." In Proverbs xxii, 28, of
boundaries — "the ancient (seonian) landmark1." In Hab-
akkuk iii, 6, of "the perpetual (seonian) hills." Thus the
word may denote any extent of duration, from a landmark
to the Infinite God, and is to be interpreted therefore in
respect to duration with reference to the word joined with it.
In the New Testament it is used in the same way in refer
ence to the ages past; as in 2 Tim. i, 9 — "before the world
began" or before seonian times. In regard then to the
important text in Matthew, whether we understand that
" seonian punishment" means simply the punishment taking
place in eternity — a translation that the highest scholarship
approves of — or whether we think that the word has some
reference to duration also, we are far from obtaining from
the word seonian any testimony to the endlessness of future
punishment. But the Greek like the English has its appropriate word,
says our author, to "express with precision the idea of
endlessness. When the endlessness of future punishment
was first declared to be an article of the Christian faith,
in the middle of the sixth century, the word ateleutetos
(dreteursTOt; — endless) was employed for that purpose — a
word not found in the New Testament, but quite classical.

THE VARIOUS THEORIES — CONTINUED. 63
The word endless is found in our version in 1 Tim. i, 4 —
"endless genealogies" — where the orginal is aperantos
[ditepavToz — interminable), and also in Heb. vii, 16 —
"endless life" — where the original is akataleutos (dxcertUuroc
— indissoluble). * * * Can it be regarded as accidental
and insignificant that the sacred writers never employed
such terms in describing the future state, but confined
themselves to what appears thus far as an elastic and am
biguous word — seonian? " (p. 7-8). " It is beyond all ques
tion a fact that demands to be accounted for before pro
ceeding to fabricate out of a single ambiguous word of so
varied an application as this seonian, a test either of doc
trinal orthodoxy or of church communion" (p. 9).
But if the adjective seonian gives us no necessary idea of
endlessness, let us see if the noun seon, from which it is
derived, does so. This word is used by the LXX as the
equivalent of the Hebrew word 'Olam, which in the Hebrew
Testament very frequently meant a world-period or cycle.
In Ecclesiastes i, 4 : " The earth abideth forever," literally
for the 'Olam or cycle — LXX for the seon. In Psalm cxlv,
13: "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom," literally a
kingdom of all 'Olams or cycles — LXX of all aeons. In
Exodus xl, 15: "Their anointing shall surely be for an
everlasting priesthood," literally for a priesthood of 'Olam
or a cycle — LXX a priestly anointing for the seon (but
note that this 'Olam, cycle, or seon, closed with the Mosaic
dispensation. — Heb. vii, 11-12). In Psalm cxliii, 3:
"Those that have been long dead," literally the dead of
'Olam, or, as we should say, "the dead of ages" — LXX the
dead of aeon. " The word seon accordingly retains in the
New Testament this peculiar Hebraistic color which the
LXX have given it" (p. 10). He then gives great num-
bors of instances frorn the New Testament, commencing

64 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
with Matthew xxviii, 20: "With you always to the end of
the world " (end of the ason), and ending with Revelations
iv, 9: "Who liveth forever and ever" (to the aeons of the
aeons). He then states that an examination of all the
passages in the New Testament' in which the word occurs
will yield the following results :
1. That it denotes a period of duration.
2. That it is used very frequently, much more often than
by the classic Greek in the plural. This fact is in the way
of the assertion that seon has inherently the idea of infinite
duration, for only finite things can have a plural. We
cannot speak of the coming eternities, but Paul speaks
(Eph. ii, 7) of "the ages (seons) to come."
3. That the present world-period or course of things is
spoken of as this aeon, or the seon, or an seon.
4. That the period or course of things which is imme
diately to succeed the present is likewise called that aeon,
or the seon, or the coming aeon.
5. That past duration, the course or courses of things
that have proceeded the present, is called the aeon, or the
seons, or simply seons.
6. That future duration in its whole compass is described
as a succession of seons.
7. That the regular phrase for unlimited duration— for
the seons, or for the seons of aeons — strictly denotes an indefi
nite succession of these finite periods or asons.
8. That there 'is no single word that regularly carries the
meaning of our word eternity.'
But it is said that the phrase eis ton aiona (ec<; tov alwva)
—for the seons — translated in our version "forever," (as in
John vi, 58), "uniformly denotes endless duration," or, as
Dr. Robinson's " New Testament Lexicon " says, " for the
seon " is to be regarded as " always implying duration with-

THE VARIOUS THEORIES— CONTINUED. 65
out end" (Lexn. p. 21). He cites as instance Heb. v, 6,
where Christ is spoken of as a "priest forever." But the
priesthood of Christ being, according to the Westminster
catechism, one of the three offices which Christ as our Re
deemer executes, it continues only so long as His redeem
ing work continues. It.ends when redemption is accom
plished. So Prof. Stuart, a high authority, remarks upon
Heb. v, 6 : " ' For the aeon ' is to be taken in a qualified
sense here, as often elsewhere, — compare Luke i, 33, with
1 Cor. xv, 24, 28. The priesthood of Christ will doubtless
continue no longer than His mediatorial reign; for when
His reign as mediator ceases, His whole work both as
mediator and as priest will have been accomplished"
(covenant Heb. p. 340).
Again, Dr. Robinson cites: "I will pray the Father,
and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may
abide with you forever (for the aeon), even the Spirit of
truth " (John xiv, 16). Now the mission of the Spirit as
comforter is during the period that Christ has gone to pre
pare a, place for His disciples. As God the Holy Ghost He
will be with them forever, but as Comforter he comes
during the absence of Christ. These are the terms of the
office. The third instance cited by Dr. Robinson is in 1 Pet. i,
25: "The word of the Lord endureth forever" (for the
aeon). It is true that the word of God endureth forever —
for the seons of the seons — but the context shows that the
thought in this, text is simply that the word of God is not
transitory, but stands to the world's end— just as in Deu
teronomy xxix, 29 : "The things which are revealed belong
to us and our children forever," — in which the extent of
the reon is defined by the words immediately following:
" That we may do all the words of this law " during the

66 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
period of the Mosaic dispensation, which ended near two
thousand years ago.
In the New Testament our translators have stamped this
limited meaning on eis ton aiona. See 1 Cor. viii, 13 : "I
will eat no meat while the world standeth " (for the seon).
The Old Testament use of the phrase in the LXX exactly
corresponds with this, and there occur, as Dr. Taylor Lewis
observes, "immense extremes in the use of the word" — as
in Exodus xxi, 6, the servant "shall serve his master for
ever" (for the ason), and in Deut. xxxii, 40, where God says
" I live forever " (for the seon). Here temporal service and
Divine existence are comprehended within the elastic
limits of the same phrase.
"The result of a critical analysis of all the passages
where the phrase occurs is this : it uniformly denotes not
'duration without end,' but permanent duration; permanent
according to the nature of the subject, covering in one case
merely the period during which a blasted fig-tree stands
(Matt, xxi, 19), and in the other the eternity of our Lord.
To affirm that it always implies duration without end, is as
contrary to fact as to imply that it never does" (p. 16).
If then the punishment of the wicked is to be measured
by a term meaning duration according to the nature of
the subject, "the very point on which we need information
is, how long is that? How long with reference both to the
desert of punishment and the nature of the punishment,
and the capacity of the sufferer to endure punishment,
and the character of Him who appoints the punishment?"
(p. 7). "If it be assumed (1) that the aeonian punish
ment means punishment forever, and (2) that this 'for
ever' means as long as the person who is punished exists,
it remains to be shown (3) that his existence is itself
endless before his punishment can be positively declared

THE VARIOUS THEORIES — CONTINUED. 67
to be an absolutely endless one, and the passage of Scrip
ture that affirms this (3) yet remains to be discovered"
(P- 17).
"It seems then that the adjective seotbian, neither by it
self, nor by what it derives from its noun xon, gives any
testimony to the endlessness of future punishment. Futu
rity being represented in the New Testament as a succes
sion of seons, 'seonian punishment,' so far as the phrase it
self can carry its own interpretation, is altogether of in
definite duration, — all that the definition 'seonian' gives
with any certainty being this, that this punishment belongs
to or occurs in the seon or the seons to come" (p. 17).
If then the word seonian does not convey the idea of an
endless punishment, do any words connected with it give
it that signification? We find "seonian fire11 (Matt, xviii,
8); "seonian damnation," where a more approved reading
is "seonian sin" (Mark iii, 29); "seonian judgment" (Heb.
vi, 2). None of these words add further definiteness to
the adjective — indeed, the phrase " seonian destruction " (2
Thess. i, 9) needs the constant vigilance of the traditional
Bchool to rescue it from the abuse of the annihilationists.
There are some texts that in our version are as decisive
as the great text in Matthew xxv, 46, already examined,
but which in the original become quite as indefinite. Thus,
in Mark ix, 43, "The fire that never shall be quenched,"
the word " never " is a contribution of our translators to
the original word asbestos (<3!c/3scroc). This may be trans
lated "unquenched" as well as "unquenchable," and even
if translated " unquenchable," the word may mean a fire
that lasts very long, or is for the present beyond control,
just as well as one that is literally endless. We often say
that a fire rages with " unquenchable fury," which only

68 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
burns till its material is consumed. Isaiah uses the word
(lxvi, 24) of the "carcasses" of rebels that were burned.
A similar addition to the force of the original has been
made by our translators in Mark iii, 29: "Hath never for
giveness." The original in the most approved texts reads;
"Hath not forgiveness for the seon, but is involved in an
seonian sin." In the parallel text in Matthew xii, 32, the
original fairly rendered reads : " It shall, not be forgiven him
either in this seon or in the one to be." Perhaps no text has
been more strained beyond its legitimate import than John
iii, 36: "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God abideth on him." " Shall not see
life1" is assumed to mean "shall never see life." "The
wrath of God abideth on him" is assumed to be the same
as "abideth evermore." Thus have orthodox men taught
their opponents to wrest the Scriptures.
"There are, however, three texts in the New Testament,
in which the form of words elsewhere denoting unlimited
duration is used in what seem to be descriptions of future
punishment": 1. "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever
and ever (for seons of seons) " — Rev. xiv, 11.
2. "And her [Babylon's] smoke rose up (literally rises
up) forever and ever (for the seons of the seons) " — Rev.
xix, 3.
3. "And the devil (with the beast and false prophet)
shall be tormented day and night forever and ever) for the
seons of the seons) " — Rev. xx, 10 (p. 23).
If we deal with these texts as investigators rather than
as advocates, we will not find them to give additional
strength to the idea of endless punishment. The first two
may be considered as one. The original of the imagery is
found in Isaiah xxxiv, 10, in reference to the judgment on

THE VARIOUS THEORIES — CONTINUED. 69
Idumea, "the smoke thereof shall go up forever " (Hebrew
"for 'olam;" LXX, "time of seon). "The New Testament
prophet simply intensifies the ancient figure to ' seons of
seons.' But of course neither Isaiah nor John meant lit
erally smoke. The 'smoke' of torment means a sign of
torment, just as smoke is a sign of fire. A sign of torment
or punishment, then, is to 'rise up' forever and ever.
Here, now, if we no more desire to exaggerate the declara
tions of Scripture than to evaporate them, we have to ask
the question — does this mean any more than that the pun
ishment is to be so signal, so memorable, that its sign or
memorial, rising up in remembrance will be before intelli
gent minds forever? We find warrant for this view in
Jude 7, where we read that 'Sodom and Gomorrah * *
are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of
eternal (seonian) fire.' The fires that destroyed these cities
soon ceased to burn. But so signal was the catastrophe, so
proverbial in after ages became the names of Sodom and
Gomorrah as perpetual monuments of wrath, though
buried out of sight, that the transient fire storm which
overwhelmed them, became in the living uses of history
and of moral instruction a fire truly seonian, the same in
moral effect as a fire literally everlasting " (p. 24).
"The remaining text is unique. The devil, the beast
and the false prophet (who or whatever may be denoted
by this infernal trinity) are to be 'tormented day and night
forever.' * * * But taking the words at their face
value, as we are bound to take all the words of Holy Writ,
it appears that these three enemies of God (who, by the
way, do not seem to be human beings) are to be tormented
endlessly. Are we now to take this as a literal statement of
fact ? * * * In the context we read that ' death and
hell (Hades, elsewhere meaning the place of departed souls)

70 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
were cast into the lake of fire' (verse 14). Is not one of
these neighboring expressions probably just as literal or
just as figurative as the other? Or must we believe that
John mixed things here, so that the plainest prose and the
most .high wrought poetry stand in contiguity, with no
sign of transition to guide the interpreter?
How many such proof-texts from the poetical imagery of
a book of promise, written for the consolation of a martyr
church, would be sufficient to counterbalance the omiss:on
from Gospel or Epistle, of the single plain didactic state
ment we are searching for?" (p. 25).
"There is, however, a text in the Epistle of Jude (verse
6) which some suppose of special weight — 'The angels
which kept not their first estate; * * * he hath re
served in everlasting chains unto the judgment of the
great day.' The value of this text is thought to lie in its
supplying a decisive synonym of the uncertain term
seonian — for everlasting does not stand here as the equiva
lent of seonian, but for a word, aidios (didioz), which we
may anglicise as aidian " (p. 26). Aidian is a word " applied
to the eternity of God (see Rom. i, 20), 'even His eternal
(aidian) power and Godhead'" (p. 27). But so is aeonian
applied to the eternal God. If, however, aidian means
uniformly everlasting — though it appears in the New Tes
tament only in these two texts — why is it never applied as
descriptive of the human destiny in the future state ? In the
" writings of the Apostles the futurity of mankind is only
seonian" (p. 27). In regard to the text from Jude, Barnes
says in his notes: "This passage does not in itself prove
that the punishment of the rebel angels will be eternal,
but merely that they are kept in a dark prison, * *
whicb ijB to exist forever with reference to the finaj. trial "

THE' VARIOUS THEORIES — CONTINUED. f 1
(p. 28). So that he does not construe it here as necessarily
everlasting. Our author, having thus concluded that no text in
Scripture teaches exclusively the doctrine of an endless
future punishment, comes to the inquiry whether the New
Testament teaches it by direct implication.
He then admits that what Dr. Lewis calls "an aspect of
finality," appears there with reference to the future of the
wicked. He cites: "If ye believe not, ye shall die in your
sins;" "Whither I go ye cannot come" (John viii, 21, 24);
that a man might "lose himself or be cast away " (Luke ix,
25) ; Apostates are likened to land that bears only thorns,
"whose end is to be burned" (Heb. vi, 8); and then the
Apostle goes on to say that for such "there remaineth no
more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of
judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour the ad
versaries" (Heb. x, 25,26). The judgment proceeds ac
cording to "the deeds done in the body" (2 Cor. v, 10);
" whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him
will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven;
but whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also
deny before my Father which is in heaven" (Matt, x,
32, 33). All such passages may be made to favor "an
aspect of finality," but if we are seeking proof-texts, rather
than pretexts, we find that these texts agree as well with the
doctrine of annihilation as they do with that of unending
punishment; and the restorationists also may plausibly
claim that they agree also with their view. But suppose
not, we must still inquire if this finality is absolute or
relative? "Does it cover merely an indefinite period how
ever protracted, or rather duration that never comes to a pe
riod? Is it a finality for a single seon or more (compare
again Mark iii, 29 — 'hath not forgiveness for the aeon,but is

72 THE DEATH OF DEATH.

involved in seonian sin'), or 'for the seons of the seons?'
If the punishmentof the wicked were to be perpetuated
for an seon or seonian period of great duration, that pros
pect might not be inconsistent with the Scriptural repre
sentation of the disposition made of the wicked at the last
day as a finality. A finality no doubt, but how much of a
owe? is the question which we now reverently put to the
Holy Oracle" (p. 35).
" Looking forward then into the indefinite succession of
the seons, we ask, is there any clear, decisive word of Scrip
ture that shuts us up to the certainty that the result of the
present life is an absolute finality to the lost?" (p. 36). If
we point to the declaration, "there remaineth no more sac
rifice for sins " (Heb. x, 26), we are challenged to show con
clusively how far forward this "no more" reaches. Is it a
nevermore? or may it not mean, in accordance with so many
other Scriptures, "no more" for the aeon, or for an indefi
nite period? And so in the text: "Ye shall die in your
sins, whither I go ye cannot come" (John viii, 21), we are
reminded that when Christ gave this warning he abstained
from uttering the conclusive never. Many texts have been
misused and forced beyond their plain sense, in support
of the doctrine of endless punishment — for example John
v, 29: "They that have done evil to a resurrection of
damnation, which, in truth, means .a resurrection of judg
ment." In like manner it has been hastily inferred from
" the great gulf fixed " (Luke xxi, 26) between Lazarus
and Dives, that Dives himself was "fixed" (Greek — made
fast) forever in the "place of torment." The scene ap
pears to be laid in the middle state between death and
the final judgment, and "fixed" may signify what existed
during that state. Nothing whatever is said of his condi
tion beyond the middle state.

THE VARIOUS THEORIES — CONTINUED. 73
Often the language of emotion or of parables is put upon
the rack of strict construction, in support of the extreme
view. Such testimony in its favor is supposed by some to
be given by Christ's remark about Judas (Matt, xxvi, 24) —
" It had been good for that man if he had not been born."
We are ignorant of the "special thought that prompted
Christ's remark. He spoke as he felt in view of what he
saw coming upon Judas. Who of us is competent to say
what it was in Judas' situation that most impressed
the Master's heart ? The remark is however, be it observed,
as consonant with the theory of Judas' ultimate extinc
tion as with the theory of his endless punishment" (p. 41).
"No more can one fairly deny that Christ's remark
about Judas is applicable with reference merely to the
present life, to men whom society has determined to put
in the pillory of 'shame and everlasting contempt '_(Dan.
xii, 2). Is it not perfectly just to say of a traitor like
Benedict Arnold, with reference solely to his infamous
place in his country's history, 'It had been good for that
man if he had never been born ' ? " (p. 41-2).
Attempts at strict construction of the parable -of the
unmerciful servant (Matt, xviii, 23, 35) have led interpre
ters of different schools in opposite directions. In verse
34, " delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all
that was due," Universalists have found their doctrines,
Romanists their purgatory, others the doctrine of endless
punishment — all in the pregnant monosyllable " till." The
Universalist and the Romanist assume that the debt will
sometime be paid. While all the time the parable meant
simply to teach that he "shall have judgment without
mercy, that hath showed no mercy " (James ii, 13). "The
history of the interpretation of such a passage exhibits the
spell which any prepossession as to the contents of Scrip-
4

74 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
ture always casts upon the interpreter, however endeavor
ing to construe language strictly " (p. 43).
"Another passage similarly misused is Matt, v, 25, 26 —
especially the last clause — 'thou shalt by no means come
out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.'
Professor Bartlett, following Meyer, regards this as teach
ing ' an endless imprisonment,' and that Hhe removal of
sin from the prisoner is an impossibility.' Theodore
of Mopsuestia, the greatest theologian of the Eastern
Church in the fifth century, took just the opposite view,
'for never would he have said 'till thou hast paid the
uttermost farthing,' were it not possible for us, paying
the penalty of our faults, to be freed from them.' At the
root of each view of the passage lies the mistaken pre
sumption, that it teaches something about future punish
ment and its duration. .Curious indeed are the contortions
of commentators to explain on this presumption who the
' adversary ' is. Clement thought he was the Devil, Aug-
tine thought he was God, and so on. But the reference of
the text to future punishment at all is as imaginary as in
that other text, which is worth mentioning here, only lest
some reader should suppose that we do not know how he
relies on it, viz: 'If the tree fall toward the south, or to
ward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there
shall it be'" (Eccle. xi, 3).
" Still another passage where the reference, which some
think they find to a changeless future state, is wholly
foreign to the original thought is in Rev. xxii, 11: 'He
that is unjust, let him be unjust still,' etc. Lange (Com
ment, p. 397) interprets it as follows: 'If we saek for a
common fundamental thought that shall lie at the basis
of all four propositions, it is contained in the following
words : 'since the judgment is at the door, let every person

THE VARIOUS THEORIES — CONTINUED. 75
prepare himself for it after his own free choice." That this
very idea indirectly offers to the wicked the strongest ad
monition to repent is self-evident. Dr. N. Adams very
fitly remarks: 'Among the closing words of the Bible
these accents fall on the ears like the last notes of a bell
that calls to the house of prayer.' The context (verses
10, 12) certifies that this call is to an immediate, present
decision of the future state. That this is an unalterable
decision for an endless future, may be true, but, as a con
clusion from this text, it is reached only by one of those
surprising jumps by which some expositors are wont to
leave their texts far behind " (p. 43-4).
Our author thus reaches the conclusion that Scripture
does not either expressly, or by necessary implication, re
veal to us an endless future punishment for the wicked.
He then discusses the question whether we are bound
to infer it as the natural result of sin. This he affirms is
a speculative question, and cannot be definitely decided.
We can no more say now, as we could in considering what
the Scriptures actually say or abstain from saying, what is
certain, but only what is probable. And we must observe
that the " Scripture has abstained from explicitly answer
ing this question, and has left us to draw our own inferences
from what it has revealed of the nature and tendency of
sin to perpetuate its own punishment " (p. 53).
After dwelling on the self-perpetuating nature of sin, he
says: "If now we set aside the question of a possible re
storation, there are before us two alternative suppositions,
and only two which may be expressed in a triple form,
viz : either this destructive work of sin runs on without
end, or its tendency is to a limit beyond which there is
nothing more to be destroyed, and consequently nothing
more to suffer. Either this worsening growth of sin con-

76 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
tinues unlimited, until even the least of lost sinners be
comes an inconceivable colossus of iniquity, a vastly in
tensified Satan, or it stops somewhere. Either the Almighty
exerts his power to preserve hopeless sufferers in existence
for the soie purpose that they may perpetually endure de
struction; or at length he permits them, when their disease
has run its course and done its work, to lose their existence,
which can no more be anything but to them a curse, to
the universe a discord, and to him a regret" (p. 54-5).
"We affirm with the fullest persuasion, that a doctrine
so fraught with horror as the endless conscious misery of
fellow-creatures, is not to be accepted as a tenet of the
Christian faith on any less conclusive evidence than an
unmistakable word of God. And none such can we find.
Future punishment is indeed most positively announced
by all the symbolism of pain and woe. The duration and
result of it are shrouded in a dread impenetrable mystery
by the terms that describe it. * * * The single point
of the endlessness of the seonian punishment is not yet re
vealed. It is not disproved by aught that is said. It may
be true for aught that we yet know. But until we have
received a positive revelation of it, we are not required to
accept it as an article of the Christian faith. For aught
that we yet know it may not be true" (p. 61).
"We speak Scripturally of 'eternal punishment' only
when we drop from the phrase the idea of duration, and
mean simply the punishment taking place in eternity. That
this is no modern liberal use of the word, our English
Bibles bear witness in the phrase 'eternal judgment' (Heb.
vi, 2), which Robinson's lexicon refers to the 'judgment
of the last day,' and which means simply the judgment
taking place in eternity" (note to p. 55).
We are then left at liberty to "choose whichever of these

THE VARIOUS THEORIES — CONTINUED. 77
two alternatives our own reason may approve, viz : the
ultimate extinction of the sinning soul by the spreading
cancer of its own decay, or the infinite continuance of the
'destruction ' of a finite being, upheld in endless being by
Almighty power, in order that it may be endlessly de
stroyed; like that 'Prometheus bound,' according to the
Greek poets, on Mount Caucasus, whose liver, perpetually
devoured by vultures, and as perpetually growing to be
devoured unceasingly, gave an endless banquet to them,
and to him an endless torment. He who can be certain
that these opposite alternatives bound the diverse possi
bilities of the case, will perhaps not be at a loss which to
choose" (p. 62).
Finally our author says that the . conclusion he has
reached may be regarded by some as met in some measure,
by the historical objection. That objection may be pre
sented "in some such form as this — it is said: The doc
trine of eternal punishment is not attractive to any mind.
How comes it then that the best minds of the church have
for many ages recognized it in the New Testament, if in
deed it be not there? This question, though weighty, is
neither unanswerable nor difficult. The conclusions of
the best minds as to what the Scriptures actually teach
are liable, especially in uncritical ages, to be vitiated by
wrong translations " (p. 64). Of which he gives instances,
for example that of Augustine drawing from the Latin
version of Rom. v, 12, and transmitting to after ages the
notion that " all sinned in Adam " (" in whom all sinned ") ;
whereas in the Greek it reads "because all sinned." He
then, after giving other instances, points out the erroneous
notions that have come down to us from these same "best
minds" — such as the damnation of infants, purgatory and
the like; and the lower culture, moral and intellectual, of

78 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
ancient than of modern times, under which harsher views
of justice, and of punishment, human and divine, pre
vailed there.
But if we are to be greatly influenced on such questions
by traditional views, the weight of authority is against the
idea of endless punishment. The Greek was the vernac
ular tongue of most of these writers, and they use the same
word which is used in the Scriptures — seonian — in their
views about future punishment. In addition to this we
have the positive testimony of many of them against an
endless punishment. He cites from their writings passa
ges which show that Justin Martyr regarded seonian pun
ishment as indefinitely rather than infinitely long, and in
some cases at least .designed to terminate by the will of
God in loss of existence; that Augustine himself enter
tained views much milder than that of the modern idea of
Hell, and in his commentory on Matt, xii, 32, used this
language : " For it would not be truly said of some that
they are forgiven neither in this age (secvlo) nor in the fu
ture, were there not some who though not in this are for
given in the future." See the passage discussed in Lange's
Comment on Matt., pp. 227-229 (see p. 20, note) — that
Irenseus seems to have anticipated with Justin Martyr,
that the wicked would ultimately cease to exist — that the
Alexandrian school of theology, as represented by its two
great teachers, Clement and Origen (A. D. 253), was by far
the greatest light of the first three conturies, and was,
as is too well known to need proof thoroughly imbued
with restorationism (see Neander's Church History, I,
656) — that the same is true of the Church of -Antioch, a
century and a half later, as represented by Diodorus of
Tarsus, and especially by the "Master of the East" Theo
dore of Mopsuestia (died A. D. 427), whom Dr. Dorner

THE VARIOUS THEORIES — CONTINUED. 79
calls the first oriental teacher of his time — that Gregory of
Nyssa (died A. D. 395), whom Dr. Schaff calls "one of the
most eminent theologians of his time " (History of Chris
tian Church, III, 906), expounded and maintained the
doctrine of a universal restoration " with the greatest logical
ability and acuteness, in works written expressly for the
purpose " (Neander's Church History, II, 677) — that " in
the oriental church, in which, with the exception of those
subjects immediately connected with the doctrinal contro
versies, there was greater freedom and latitude of develop
ment [and in which also, we are to remember, the original
language of the New Testament was the tongue in which
every church teacher taught and wrote], many respecta
ble church teachers still stood forth without injuring their
reputation for orthodoxy, as advocates of the opposite doc
trine [restorationism] until the time when the Origenistic
disputes caused the agreement with Origen in respect to
this point also to be considered as something decidedly
heretical" (Neander's Church History,TI, 676)— that the
Lutheran Dr. J. C. Doderlein states the historical point as
follows: "the more highly distinguished in Christian an
tiquity any one was for learning, so much the more did he
cherish and defend the hope of future torments some time
ending." After mentioning some distinguished names,
Dr. D. goes on to say: "This, however, was not the view
of a few persons and one privately entertained, but general)
and maintained by many advocates. Augustine, at least
(' Enchiridion,' ch. 112), testifies that ' some, nay, very many,
pity with human feeling the everlasting punishment of
the damned, and do not believe that it is to be so.' The
following age, although a belief in perpetual torments pre
vailed by authority, yet clearly did not lack milder
views" (Instit Theol. chr. II, pp. 199-202)— and finally,

80 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
that the authority by which the doctrine was finally m-
posed on the church was of this sort: "The endlessness of
future punishment was first authoritatively announced as an
article of the orthodox creed in the year 544, at the in
stance of the Emperor Justinian I, an authority in theo
logical matters of equal respectability with King Henry
VIII of England" (p. 78).
Our author then, in another chapter, declares his dissent
from the restorationist view, as not to be proved by Scripture.
His conclusion from the whole discussion is, that on the
subject of the condition of the lost, we have no positive
evidence from Scripture of anything but a punishment,
the duration and result of which is shrouded in an impene
trable mystery.
Fourth. Those who interpret the words as meaning a pun
ishment, or suffering, indefinite as to its duration, but who be
lieve also that it is one enduring as long as the sinful temper en
dures, and terminable in the future life, as in this, by repentance
and restoration to God, through Christ.
We are not able to give in detail the views of those who
may hold to the above opinion, because, while reading
freely on the other side, we have all our lives abstained
studiously from reading the works of either Universalists
or Restorationists. The proposition is an expression of
those principles which we hope will be found to be sus
tained by the sequel, aided by what has been already
written.

SIN NOT NECESSARILY SELF-PERPETUATING. 81

CHAPTER VI.
SIN NOT NECESSARILY SELF-PERPETUATING, AND ITS PUNISH
MENT NOT THEREFORE UNENDING.
THE demonstration in the last chapter that Scripture
neither by its terms, nor by necessary implication,
teaches the infinitely unending character of future punish
ment, seems to be complete. We are at liberty then to seek
for some other view in regard to its duration, which shall
harmonize both with reason and Scripture. The anonymous
author of that argument prefers, with good reason, the
view that the quantitative duration of future punishment is
not intended to be revealed at all ; but that the punish
ment, so far as indicated by the words describing it, is to
be one "taking place in eternity." But even he seems to be
trammelled by the idea that an infinite punishment might
have been definitely revealed to us by God, by the suita
ble use of the words "never," "never ending," "everlast
ing," and the like, had He seen fit to do so; and he repeat
edly speaks of how near the Scriptures come to such a
revelation without actually making it. From this he
draws an argument in favor of his views, viz : that since it
might have been done and has not been done distinctly and
indisputably, therefore he is right in supposing that it
was not intended to be done by the language which others
rely on to prove it; and that so we are left simply with
"nescience" on the subject.
We submit that it is true, not only that Scripture does
not reveal expressly or impliedly an infinite future punish-

82 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
ment, as he has so clearly proved, but that such a punish
ment could not have been definitely revealed by such words or
by any word. We have already seen from Dr. Bledsoe
what is approved both instinctively and by our reason,
that God cannot work a contradiction. Now the mind of
man is by his very nature limited and finite, and an end
less punishment, or an endless thing of any sort, is by its
nature infinite. Again, human language is like the human
mind, limited and imperfect, and cannot therefore be made
the medium of a perfect revelation. To say that God
could convey a perfect revelation of an infinite thought,
through the imperfect medium of human language, into
the finite mind, is to say that which is triply contradictory
in terms. Indeed the very words which we use — endless
eternal, infinite — can by no possibility convey to our minds
anything more than the idea of indefiniteness. A great
modern thinker — the late Rev. William Sparrow, D. D.—
in a sermon on "subjects that do not concern us," says : " time
we understand, but eternity we do not understand ; it is
not even thinkable. It is not, as perhaps we may have
been in the habit of supposing, a mere elongation of time-
* * * We speak, indeed, of eternity in application to
man, but not in its proper and. distinctive meaning ; we
mean by it in such case, only time with its limits undeter
mined," etc. (sermons p. 284). Of the eternal God him
self, what can we understand except that he is beyond our
conception great, wise, good and perfect? Of his existence
from eternity to eternity, from seon to seon, what can we
understand except that He has existed from a period and
will endure to a period beyond our conception? What else
but a recognition of this incapacity of our minds, is meant
by that question in Scripture " Canst thou by searching find
out God ?" (Job ii, 7). As in regard to time, so it is in regard

SIN NOT NECESSARILY SELF-PERPETUATING. 83^
to space. We call space infinite or unending. Can we
understand anything of it except that it expands indefi
nitely? Conceive a great white ball to be launched with
irresistible force by an Almighty hand, from our world out
into space. Watch it as it moves indefinitely on its way;
follow it with the eye as it goes through our solar system,
stretches away through constellations and sun clusters, and
still moves on, on, on through the lights and intervening
darknesees of myriads of nebulae; pursue it; wait on it till
eye and brain reel, and the mind is wearied. Our feeble
powers will compel us at last to say — " it must find an end
somewhere;" but even then the exhausted mind will react
enough to say on the instant — " there must be more space
beyond that end." Yes, truly, the idea of eternity is "un
thinkable," and therefore incommunicable.
But some one will say — "if this be so, what warrant
have we for the idea of what we call the unending life of
the blest ? We see in Matt, xxv, 46, the language, ' these
shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the right
eous into life eternal' — thus using equivalent terms for the
two conditions. If a definite idea of what we call unending
punishment cannot be conveyed to us by human language,
neither can a definite idea of what we call the infinite and
unending bliss of heaven be so conveyed." We admit the
consequence. Not only so, but in the original Greek, the
terms are not merely equivalent but identical. But these
terms may mean simply the life or punishment "taking
place in eternity;" and if not, we do not rest the duration
of the bliss of heaven on any such vague and indefinite terms.
They were not intended to convey, because they cannot be
made to convey an idea of quantitative duration. The
duration of the bliss of heaven depends on far clearer and
more definite declarations of Scripture than these. We

84 THE DEATH of DEATH.
rest it on those unspeakably grand and glorious texts
which declare that the redeemed shall be partakers of
Christ's glory; that they are one with God in Christ; that
they are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom.
viii, 17), and the like. Surely no more complete and per
fect assurance could be given of their infinite reward.
They cannot desire, nor is it possible for language to con
vey, a fuller idea of happiness and security. If their
blessed state shall endure as long, and be as full of glory
as the heirship of Christ, all further words are beggared.
Though it seems clear, then, that a punishment quantita
tive as to its duration is not revealed, yet it seems equally
clear that a punishment qualitative as to its duration is
revealed — that is to say, a punishment self-executory, the
result of sin, and enduring as long as the sinful temper en
dures. Dr. Bledsoe agrees to this. He puts it thus : " We
must take our stand on the position that Omnipotence
cannot necessitate holiness, and must have recourse to re
wards and punishments to secure it, otherwise all evil and
suffering will remain an inexplicable enigma," &c. (Theod
icy p. 306-7). Agreed — but what is the degree of the pun
ishment? He replies by another question — "Does not
the position that a man, a poor, weak, fallible creature, de
serves an infinite punishment, an eternity of torments,
for each evil thought or word, carry its own refutation
along with it?" (lb. p. 296). But he says further, "it will
be conceded that if the finally impenitent should continue
to sin forever, then they forever deserve to reap the rewards
of sin" (lb. p. 304). Agreed — but will they necessarily
continue to sin forever? To this he answers^-" This is
one part of the Scripture doctrine of future punishments,
that those who endure them will never cease to sin and
rebel against the authority of God's law" (lb. p. 304);

SIN NOT NECESSARILY SELF-PERPETUATING. 85
that " the soul of the guilty * * * will be consigned
to the regions of the lost, because, by its own repeated acts
of transgression, it has made sure of its eternal continuance
in sinning" (lb. p. 305). He further says: "The spectacle
of punishment for a single day, it will be admitted, would
be justified on the ground that it was necessary to support
for a single day a government, especially if that govern
ment were vast in extent and involved stupenduous in
terests. But if suffering for a single day may be justified
on such ground, then the exigencies of such a government
for two days, would justify a punishment for two days,
and so on ad infinitum. Hence the doctrine of eternal
punishment in common with the eternal moral govern
ment of God is not a greater anomaly than temporal pun
ishments in relation to temporal governments" (lb. p. 307).
The analogy between temporal governments and the
"eternal moral government of God" does not "run on all
fours," because the temporal ruler is in no way responsible
for the citizenship of the culprit. He did not make him
a subject foreknowing that by becoming so he would surely
become a criminal. This, however, is a prime factor in
the investigation of the moral government of God. Still
the position may be admitted to be sound in respect of
both governments; provided, first, that the creation of the
criminal can be justified in connection with such fore
knowledge ; and, second, that the penalty annexed to the
offence be merely sufficient to vindicate the authority of
the government, or to "support it." But Dr. Bledsoe ad
mits that the principle of the divine government rests,
not on the visitation of each offence with an infinite pun
ishment, for that this would be unjust; but he rests it on
the assumption, as we have seen, that those who endure it
(that is, all who go into the other world impenitent) "will

861 THE" DEATH OF DEATH1.
never cease to sin and rebel against the authority of God's law."
If this be not trUe, then he does not accept or recognize
as just the doctrine of eternal punishment, for he further
states that " no one except those who place themselves be
yond the possibility of salvation by their own evil deeds
is ever lost" (lb. p. 331).
Admitting now, as we do, that the punishment of sin
must endure whether in this world or the next, as long as
the sinful temper endures, let us see if we are bound to
accept the assertion that the "finally impenitent" (those
who leave this world in their sins) will certainly continue
to sin forever. Dr. Bledsoe declares that this is "one part
of the Scripture doctrine of future punishments " (lb. p.
304), but does not state the Scripture texts on which he
relies. If it be true, it must be so either because sin is in
its nature surely self-propagating, or because there is some
thing in man's nature or circumstances that makes it so.
Now we deny that there is any statement in Scripture
which explicitly, or, by necessary implication, teaches
that sin either here or hereafter is surely or certainly con
stantly progressive. In Prov. v, 22, it is said that "his
own iniquities shall take the wicked himself," and "he
shall be holden with the cords of his own sins;" and in
2 Pet. ii, 14, he is spoken of as one " having eyes full of
adultery, and that cannot cease from sin." But a reference
to the original will show that this is not a doctrinal or
prophetic declaration that there is any sinner who cannot
or will not cease from sin, but is only a description of those
who are constantly sinning. The verb "cannot" is not
used in the original Greek, but the adjective, denoting a
constant or ceaseless habit; just as we say of any one pos
sessed of a ^bad habit, he is constantly doing so and so, he _
is ceaselessly doing so and so, he is everlastingly doing so

SIN NOT NECESSARILY SELF-PERPETUATING. 87
and so. All such texts declare, what is the experience of
us all, that the habit of sinning, like every other habit, is
a growing one, and if not restrained carefully, has a ten
dency to self-perpetuation — that sin is like a disease of the
body, a fretting sore or cancer, which tends to enlarge itself,
and will do so unless it is cauterized or extirpated. But
there is no text in Scripture that describes this disease of
sin as surely self-perpetuating, either in this world or in
the world to come — no text that describes it as a disease
that is certainly fatal and immedicable even by the great
Physician. On the contrary, all the threatenings and pro
mises of Scripture are based upon our assumed capacity
to check its ravages, by God's help, and it is a matter of
daily experience that this is done. If this were not so,
then no man could escape. Once inoculated with the
deadly poison of a single sin, his eternal ruin would be
inevitable, and among all the myriads of our race, there
would not be one that could be saved. Such a doctrine
would "shut the gates of mercy on mankind," in this
world, no less than in the world to come. This is the in
evitable consequence of asserting that sin, by its very nature,
is surely self-propagating — a consequence to the full as
horrible as the doctrine of election and reprobation, against
which Dr. Bledsoe expends so successfully his great
strength. If then sin be not, by its own nature, certainly self-pro
pagating, the doctrine that the finally impenitent "will
never cease to sin " must be due, if true, to some change in
man's nature wrought by his departing from this world
impenitent. Can there be any such change? Body and
soul are indeed essential parts of man, but the body is only
the tabernacle, the garment of the soul. The soul is the
animating principle, and the seat of all the moral faculties

88 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
and endowments of man. Its possession of these faculties
in no way depends on its connection with the body, how
ever essential that connection may be. When dissolution
comes it is simply a temporary severance of that connection ;
a putting off by the soul of its earthly clothing. How can
we conceive that this severance can deprive the soul of any
of its moral attributes? Nay, do we not know that it can
not be so? If, when we depart hence, we are incapable of
repentance, one of the essential qualities of our nature as moral
and responsible beings, why should we suppose that we would
then possess any of the other faculties which now belong
to us? If one shall be extinguished, why not the rest?
And why, least of all, should the capacity for repentance
be that one? Surely the motive to repentance will be
stronger there than here, if we have any just conception of
the future state at all. We shall then see " face to face " all
the truths which we see here only " through a glass, darkly."
If we may repent here, but may not repent there, where
we shall see the beauty of holiness and the ugliness of sin
better than we do here; or if we may not have there that
sorrow for sin which is the first step to repentance here, it
must be because the faculty itself has been extinguished.
But the destruction of one of our faculties, its hopeless
ruin, would be, so far as our identity is concerned, the de
struction of them all, for the completeness of the moral
being would be destroyed. On such a su pposition we would
be new creatures, and, therefore, not responsible for the sins
committed by the former creatures here. This would be
equivalent to annihilation; for we must either be the same
beings there that we are here, that is, with all our essential
attributes unimpaired, or else — there is no other conclu
sion — the former being has passed away. How then should
gin prevent our repentance in the future life any more than

SIN NOT NECESSARILY SELF-PERPETUATING. 89
in this? Thousands and thousands of men, who have
sinned ceaselessly and grossly to extreme old age, have
(thank God) repented at last, and gone to the bliss of the
redeemed. Few, indeed, as compared with any given num
ber may do so, but on the whole they may be numbered
by thousands. To doubt it would be to doubt the power
of the cross of Christ, and its adaptation to our fallen state.
On the other hand, there are as many thousands whose
lives have been in all moral respects such as to command
the respect and admiration of men, who have yet departed
without accepting Christ's salvation. Take the case of the
young ruler who ran and kneeled to Christ himself, to know
what he should do " to inherit eternal life " (Mark x, 17-22).
He was rich in this world, having "great possessions." And
yet, though surrounded by corruption and beset by temp
tations to lusts which he could easily have gratified, he had
led a strictly moral life, having kept with a godly loyalty
all the commandments which Christ named to him from
his youth. He must have said this truthfully, for the,Divine
Redeemer knew his heart, and when he declared his man
ner of life, "Christ beholding him, loved him." Though
he rejected Christ's advice on account of his love of his
possessions, as most of us in his place would have done,
yet he evidently did so sorrowfully and reluctantly. He
sinned, it is true, for covetousness, which is idolatry, is as
damning as any of the offences which we call "gross sins,"
if not more so; but many of the life-long sinners to
whom we have referred committed habitually, no doubt,
not only the sin of covetousness, but the many others also
from which this young man had been free. It is true in
deed that if one " offend in one point, he is guilty of all "
(James ii, 10), because his offence is that he has set at
naught the obligation of the law; but yet it is equally true,

90 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
that when we are weighing the force of the habit of
sinning, and the capacity to turn from it, the difference is
broad and important in favor of the young man we are
considering. The tendency of sin and of sin alone is to
harden the heart, and make it more difficult for us, in pro
portion to the inveteracy and abundance of our sins, to
repent and turn to Christ; and thus the difficulty in the
way of the life-long sinner is comparatively much greater
than in that of the younger and less-hardened sinner. Can
we suppose then that if dissolution had overtaken that
young man who kneeled to Christ immediately after his
interview with Him — that is to say, while still in a moral
frame so comparatively pure as to command the Saviour's
approbation — there would have been anything in his nature
or in the nature of sin which would render it more difficult
or even as difficult for him to repent in the other world
as it was for the life-long sinner to repent in this?
Nay, what warrant has any one to say that after a life
of sinning here, however long, a man may turn to God
and live ; but that within five minutes after he has passed
the veil that opens to him in all its reality his true relations
to his God, he has lost the blessed privilege and capacity
of returning to him ? True, he will not do so till his hard
heart has been broken by suffering, and moved by grati
tude for the Saviour's love; and it may be that in some cases
long ages of rebellion will pass away before it is so; but
there is in Scripture and in what we know of man's
nature, and of the nature of sin, no reason why, in any
case, the hope of his doing so is to be excluded. This
life is described by Scripture as a scene of probation, of
trial, of discipline for our good. This discipline is made -
effectual by God's providences, as we call them — that is
(among other things), by difficulties, by disappointments,

SIN NOT NECESSARILY SELF-PERPETUATING. 91
by the sufferings and sorrows which sin produces, by the
stings of conscience, by the Blessed Spirit's influences
and His display of the love of Christ for the sinner even
in the midst of his ingratitude and rebellion. Now, can
we say that these things will be inoperative or ineffectual
yonder? On the contrary, do we not understand that
these very sort of things make up the sufferings of the
world to come? If their legitimate tendency here is re
formation, why should not their operation on the very
same nature be so there ?
The Scriptures speak of the state of the wicked both
here and hereafter as a state of death. As we have already
seen (in chap, ii), death, in the Scripture sense, is a con
dition of the soul, an alienation from the "life of God";
and what we call death — the dissolution of the flesh — is
in truth only a resulting incident of death. Now, the
Scriptures also speak of death here and hereafter in the
same terms, and describe it as due in both cases to the same
cause, viz: "enmity against God." It is sin which causes
and increase of sin which increases that enmity, and not
the fact of dissolution or what we call death. On the con
trary, so far as our experience goes, the apprehension and
the approach of dissolution both tend to abate it. If this
be so, why should the one condition be capable of revival
and the other not? In the one case it may be more diffi
cult than in the other ; but why should it be absolutely
impossible in the one, and frequent in the other? But,
further, the Scriptures not only speak of death here and
hereafter in the same terms, but they never speak of" death
eternal," " death everlasting." No such coinage as that ever
tame from the pure mint of God's Holy Word, but is the
counterfeit currency of man. The anonymous author,
whose book we have reviewed, notices this in the following

92 THE DEATH OF DEATH*
language: "The Scriptures, which speak freely of seonian
sin, judgment, fire, destruction, never use the expression
seonian death. The phrase 'second death,' four times
occuring in the revelation of John (as Rev. ii, 11), only
shows how near the Scripture comes to that other expres
sion without using it, and serves to make more marked
the thorough avoidance of it. Yet theology uses it, or
what is meant to be its equivalent, and freely speaks of
' everlasting death.' So our hymn —
' Nothing is worth a thought beneath
But how I may escape the death
That never, never dies.'
It is difficult for one who believes that the sacred writers
were under a divine superintendance in their use of lan
guage to avoid believing that it is not without reason that
the Scriptures invariably decline to employ a phraseology
which the interpreters of Scripture have found so appro
priate to their own views" (p. 58).
Especially is this difficult when the opposite phrase
"everlasting life" and similar expressions are so constantly
used. This surely needs accounting for if it be true that
sin certainly perpetuates itself, or is perpetuated to endless
and hopeless death. We account for it by the belief that
no being in God's universe ever is or can be condemned
to a state where repentance and return to his Creator and
his God is impossible.
Dr. Bledsoe indeed uses great moderation on this mo
mentous subject. After quoting from Butler the statement
that there is a certain bound, which being transgressed,
there remains no place for repentance "in the natural
course of things," he proceeds; "and may we not add, nor
in the supernatural course of things either; and there only

SIN NOT NECESSARILY SELF-PERPETUATING. 93
remains a certain fearful looking for of judgment? As
this may be the case for aught we know (italics ours), nay, as
it seems so probable that it is the case, no one is authorized
to pronounce endless sufferings unjust, unless he can first
Bhow that the object of them has not brought upon him
self an eternal continuance in the practice of sinning — in
other words, unless he can first show that the sinner does
not doom himself to an eternity of sinning" (Theodicy p.
305). Now, though this is moderate, is it not putting the
burden on the wrong shoulders? Is it not requiring the
proof of a negative? May we not rather say that "no
one is authorized to pronounce endless sufferings just, un
less he can first show that the object of them has brought
upon himself.an eternal continuance in the practice of
6inning." We think so, and as we have said before, Dr.
Bledsoe has not done this. We have endeavored to assume
the misplaced burden, and to " prove the negative," so far
as such a thing is capable of proof.
If, notwithstanding all this, it still be said that the nature
either of sin or of man is such that dying impenitent he
cannot or will not afterwards repent, then the reply is that
it is no vindication of the holiness of God to say, as Dr.
Bledsoe does, that he is not responsible for evil because
after he created man he could not prevent his sinning ; or
to say that he could not coerce man or necessitate his
holiness. For, though this is true, the answer is that he
could have forborne to create a being, whose utter and
hopeless ruin immediately after his creation he could not
prevent. It is no just reply to this to say, as Dr. Bledsoe
does, "To thiswe answer that God did not choose to pre
vent sin in this"way,but to create the world exactly as he
did, though'he foresaw the fall and all its consequences,
because the highest good of his universe required the

94 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
creation of such a world" (lb. p. 203); because the "suf
ferings of the guilty" are "connected with the majesty
and glory of God's universal and eternal empire" (lb. p.
307) ; or because " this world with all its wickedness and
woe is but a dim speck of vitality in a boundless do
minion of light that is necessary to the glory and perfection
of the whole" (lb. p. 207). To those who look at this
world as we do, not from the outskirts of a "boundless
dominion," whence it looks like a " dim speck," but from
its very bosom, it is by no means of such little consequence;
and even if it were, we are to remember that we are con
sidering this question, not as one de minimis, concerning
which justice and law care not, but as one of indescribable
importance to us, and as one to be weighed on the princi
ples of that justice which sways everything in God's
"universal and eternal empire," the least as well as the
greatest. Yes, blessed be God ! the microscope has illus
trated the wondrous truth taught us by His Holy Word,
that to Him great and small are the same; and that our
little world is as much the object of His Almighty care,
and the subject of His unerring justice, as central heaven
itself. " His tender mercies are over all His works " (Psalm
cxlv. 9).
What answer is it then to tell us that in view of the good
and glory of the universe and Himself, " God did not choose
to prevent sin " by forbearing to create immortal beings,
who would immediately and certainly fall, albeit by their
own fault, into an "infinite punishment, an eternity of
torments" (lb. p. 296), without hope of release? This is
the very answer which Dr. Bledsoe's victims — the advocates
of election and reprobation — are wont to make. If you
ask of them how it can be right to elect a man from all
eternity, for no evil he has ever done, to an infinite tor-

SIN NOT NECESSARILY SELF-PERPETUATING. 95
ment, they reply, because in the councils of God's wisdom
he chose to do so, for his glory; and if you suggest that no
wisdom or glory could justify such an act, they flash upon
you the lightning of the demand — " Who art thou that re-
pliest against God ? " It seems strange that Dr. Bledsoe
should use a weapon in defence of his position, which his
terrible blows have shown to be so weak in the hands of
his adversary. We therefore venture to say on his own
authority, which we estimate very highly, that it is a vain
reply. It doeB not exclude us from enquiring into the
justice and holiness of a choice, ascribed by him to the
Almighty, without, as we think, any good reason for it.
We are constrained to think that if his great intellect had
here thrown off, as it has so often done, the trammels of a
traditional creed, he would never have been found justi
fying the creation of one sure to fall, even by his own
will, into undying pangs, for the sake of any "glory of
the universe." Nol a thousand times, no! .that glory
could only be marred and stained all over by such an
election. It can have no harmony if the infinite and un
ending wailings of anguish and despair are necessarily to
be mingled forever with its otherwise grand and glorious
tones. Punishment there must be, sufferings are inevi
table — punishment and sufferings bitter and sorrowful,
and well-deserved, will be the result of man's own sinful
rebellion against the authority of God's law. They are
inevitable, because God cannot coerce the unruly wills of
sinful men into love for Him, so long as they are men,
without a violation of their natures and his own. But
justice requires only that they shall be reformatory pun
ishments. The true end of punishment will be attained,
so far as the sinner is concerned, if they shall at some
future time produce reformation through the love of Christ,

96 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
God's law will thus be vindicated, and justice can ask no
more. The Scriptures tell us that there are degrees of guilt:
that some shall be "beaten with many stripes," and some
" with few stripes " (Luke xii, 47, 48). But this cannot be
if both are unendingly beaten. If it be said that one will
be beaten with lighter stripes than another, it does not
respond to the text, and if it did, a lighter punishment, if
unending, leaves us little to choose, between it and a heavier
one, for the duration of it is the real pang in each case.
If, however, the punishment be not a hopeless one, but only
lasts till its true ends, the reformation of the sinner, and
the moral discipline of the universe of intelligent creatures,
is attained by the vindication of the law, then the text
will be fully met and the "glory of God's universal and
eternal empire" will be established on a sure foundation.
The temporary discord will only enhance its ultimate
peace, and no harsh note will mingle with the "weio song"
that shall be sung to the glory of Him through whose self-
sacrifice the triumph will have been achieved. On this
supposition justice and mercy could both applaud the
creation of a moral agent, though God foresaw that he
would fall into sin and sorrow ; for He also foresaw that
he would be redeemed from that fall stronger than when
he fell. It would plainly appear to be just and merciful
to create a being "necessary to the glory of the universe,"
who would inevitably fall, if he could and would be re
stored, because by restoration from that fall he would have
attained a secure bliss and glory, impossible for him in any
other way.
We conclude then that there is no warrant for saying
that the " finally impenitent " (those who depart this life
in their sins), " will never cease to sin and rebel against

slN not Necessarily self-perpetuating. 97
the authority of God's law," but have thus made " sure of
their eternal continuance in sinning"; and therefore un
ending punishment cannot be inferred from that principle
or alleged fact. We have admitted that the tendency of sin
is to self propagation, and therefore it remains to be con
sidered whether that tendency may be, and probably will
be, or not, checked and overruled, till man is delivered from
his sins. We see around us every day in the cases of the
"chiefs of sinners" that it may be, and is, capable of being
checked and reversed — and this might of itself be sufficient
on the point — but our enquiry goes further, viz: whether
it will be so in every case ; whether, in spite of the nature
of sin and the nature of man, the provision made for him
may be sufficient for this end in all cases, and whether the
Divine influences may be strong enough to induce the ac
ceptance of it by all ; whether sin and death will at last
triumph over God's love and power in any case; or whether,
on the contrary, He will triumph in every case over them.
In short, whether He can and will repair the evil by which
His perfect universe has been marred.
Now to say even of a man that he can make a cunning
instrument or machine, but cannot repair any damage it
may suffer; or, if it is irreparable, that he cannot destroy
it utterly and make another like it, would be an absurdity.
He, who can make, can repair or make anew. If then it
be absurd to say such a thing of man, how much more
absurd, nay how blasphemous, would it be to say such a
thing of God! God can then repair the fall of man. Not
only can He save a few of His poor miserable creatures, but
He can erase from the tablets of eternity all the stains of
time, and can make those very stains themselves cleansing
and purifying. To do it, He need not coerce man's will or
necessitate his holiness, but He need only use, as He is now
5

98 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
doing, and can still more effectually do hereafter, the abun
dant persuasive and alluring influences which are at His
command, till sooner or later, either here or hereafter, accord-.
ing to the various natures of those to be influenced, the
desired effect is produced. If this be so, the only question
is, whether He is willing to do so. On this point we have
assurances without number from His own infallible lips.
One only need be cited at this stage of our enquiry. We
read that the Lord is "long-suffering to us- ward not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repent
ance" (2 Pet. iii, 9). If it be true that he is not willing
that any should perish, has He manifested that willingness
by any provision capable of preventing us all from perish
ing? He has done so. He has set forth a remedy of so stu
pendous a character, of such a benign, ameliorating, redeem
ing efficacy, that "all creatures in Heaven, and on the
earth, and under the earth," though they could only under
stand in part the depth of its profound and wondrous im
port, broke out spontaneously when they first heard it, in
a resistless union of song and praise and rejoicing adoration
(Rev. v, 13). Not only is He willing and able to save all,
so that not any shall perish, and to set forth the means of
doing it— His Son, who is His "Word" — but in Isaiah's
prophetic declaration He assures us that He will succeed.
Speaking of Christ and the success of His redemption, he
says: "so shall My word be that goeth out of My mouth;
it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto
I sent it." (Isaiah lv, 11).
We reserve for a future chapter the display of the infi
nite moral miracles wrought by this provision (chap, iii,
Part ii). We think it will then appear that it has removed
forever the inherent impossibility of controlling, even by

SIN NOT NECESSARILY SELF-PERPETUATING. 99
Divine coercion, the unruly will of sinful man; that it has
made that possible through love, which God by power could
not do; that it has shown in the infinitely glorious light
that surrounds the eternal throne, that love is greater than
power; and that though man's will cannot be coerced, yet
that an influence stronger than the determined will shall
bring it, sooner or later, either in this world or the next,
after needful suffering, into willing subjection. We will
then endeavor also to show more particularly how the
scheme here set forth is fortified by Scripture. For the
present we only add that on this view the otherwise insolu
ble difficulty which has perplexed the ages is removed,
and the existence of sin and evil becomes much more easy
to reconcile on reason, with the wisdom and love of God.
Given the doctrine, that the Divine punishments are reform
atory, not vindictive, and the darkness is cleared up. Ignore
this view, and in spite of faith, man's reason staggers and
reels before the awful gloom.

PART II

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL CAPABLE OF SOLUTION ON
THE BASIS OF A FUTURE PUNISHMENT, NOT HOPE
LESS, BUT REFORMATORY.

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW. 103

CHAPTER I.
THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — AND HEREIN, OF THE "ANGER " OF
GOD, HIS "WRATH," HIS "VENGEANCE."
IN this investigation we include in the term "sorrow"
the effects of all those trials that crowd our .mortal
career — whether they be weaknesses of any kind, disap
pointments, losses, bereavements, slanders, treacheries, be
trayals, temptations, or any other form of what we call
evil. And we do this in accordance with that pathetic de
scription of our Divine Master, by which He is presented to
us as the "Man of Sorrows" (Isaiah liii, 3) — one, thank
God, who has experienced all our trials and temptations,
and can therefore be "touched with a feeling of our in
firmities" (Heb. iv, 15).
Before proceeding however to consider the ministry of
sor*ow, let us endeavor, as preparatory thereto, to realize
as well as we can how God feels toward us.
Almost all Scripture truth is conveyed to us in para
doxes, or seeming contradictions. This is probably because
truth is rarely to be found in extreme statements, and can
rarely be defined fully by a single term or phrase, but is
the resultant of divers and diverse principles. Man is
greatly benefited by a diligent search for this resultant
among adverse or conflicting statements, and the exercise
and discipline he derives from that search is a part, and
an important part, of the trying and proving which a pro
bationary state implies. Especially is this true of all the
attributes of Deity, which, in their direct conception or de-

104 THE DEATH OF DEATH,
finition, are incommunicable to the limited and incompe
tent mind of man. It has already been said that human
language, through which the great body of truth is con
veyed to us, is, like the human mind, imperfect and finite;
and cannot be made even by Divine power the vehicle of
infinite truth — for that this would be to work a contradic
tion, of which God is incapable. Such a work is not the
subject of power, and if it were, it would be abhorrent to
the God of truth.
But apparent contradictions — apparent, because they
present the opposite sides of the same thing — are the only
vehicles of that measure of infinite truth which is com
municable to us. Almost all the strife of tongues among
those who accept the same Scriptures as the Word of God,
arises from an exclusive gaze by the one or the other upon
one of the manifold sides of truth, which prevents him
freii»i.<Aawing this resultant, and thus seeing the whole
truth. What but this causes the unending logomachy be
tween those who assert man's free agency without due re
gard to the Divine Sovereignty; and those who astert the
, Divine Sovereignty without due regard to man's free
' agency — between those who exalt faith at the expense of
works, and those who applaud works at the expense of
faith ?
We have many examples in Scripture of the apparent
contradiction above referred to; both in single texts, and
in groups of texts. Dr. Bledsoe expounds for us a text of
the first class, in harmony with his demonstration of the
freedom of the will (Theodicy p. 175, and elsewhere), and
proves that except on that demonstration, its apparent con
tradiction cannot be explained — " Work out your own sal
vation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh
in you to will and to do of His good pleasure" — or because

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW. 105
of his favor towards you — (Phil, ii, 12, 13). It is surely,
at first sight, a strange reason that is assigned for our
painful efforts, that God may and does accomplish the end
for us. But when, by the light of the torch held up for
us, we learn that God works alone in the two passive
faculties of the mind, viz: the "intelligence" and the "sen
sibility " (Theodicy p. 132) — or the apprehension and the
desire — while man works in the will, then there is beauti
ful harmony, instead of contradiction in the text. Of the
other class — groups of texts apparently in conflict with
each other — there are many examples in the Scripture.
Take one class. In Mai. iii, 6, it is said, "I am the Lord,
I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."
In Heb. xiii, 8, Paul, speaking of our Lord in his Divine
character, says of Him : " Jesus Christ, the same yester
day, to-day and forever." And yet, in Genesis vi, 6, it is
said of the unchangeable and unerring God, "it repented
the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved
Him at His heart." Again, many texts tell us of the terrible
anger of the Lord, of His being angry with the wicked
every day, of His fierce wrath, of His burning vengeance.
It is spoken of as a consuming fire, as abiding on the sin
ner. His vengeance is said to be poured out upon them;
and after every figure is exhausted, the question is asked —
" Who can stand before his indignation, and who can abide
in the fierceness of his anger?" On the other hand, we
are assured that His wrath endureth but a moment; that
He is long-suffering, offender pity and compassion, and will
not keep His anger forever; that He knoweth our frame and
remembereth that we are but dust; that He will not "eon-
tend forever," neither be "always wroth," for that if He
should do so, the "spirit should fail" before Him and "the
souls which He had made " would cease to be. Therefore

106 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
He urges contrition, and promises to abide with the humble
to revive them. He assures us that He is the Father of all,
even though as miserable sinners we have ruined our
selves ; and that so pitifully does He regard us, even while
we are rebelling against Him, and pouring contempt on
all His love, that He provides for us, even in anticipation,
by the sacrifice of Christ; and is not willing that any of us
should perish, but that'o^ of us should come to Him and
be saved.
Now all these last mentioned things are utterly incon
sistent with any idea of anger, wrath, vengeance, in the
ordinary sense, towards His miserable creatures. So that
we may feel sure that such terms do not represent, in that
ordinary sense, the Divine feelings, but are an accommo
dation to the human mode of viewing things — an attempt
to convey measurably to our minds an idea of the Divine
emotions which are incommunicable to us in their real
condition. It is as if God said to us — "you cannot under
stand Me, 'for My thoughts are not as your thoughtsj
neither are your ways My ways ' " (Isaiah lv, 8), but I in
tend by these words to convey to you some notion of My
horror of sin; and in order that I may do so in such a
way that you can faintly understand it, I say to you that
if I were a man I should be fiercely angry with him that
committed it, should hate him, should burn with
wrath against him, and should wreak my vengeance on
him. In illustration of this interpretation, let us take the
cases of Pharoah and the Jews. In Exodus iv, 21, it is
said : " And the Lord said unto Moses, when thou goest
to return into Egypt, see that thou doest all these wonders
before Pharoah which I have put in thy hand: but I will
harden his heart that he shall not let the people go." It
js afterwards stated that He did harden his heart. In Isaiah

THE1 MINISTRY OF SORROW*. lOf
vi, 10, God is represented as saying to His prophet of the
Jews, "make the heart of this people fat, and make their
ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their
eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their
heart and convert and be healed." (See also xii, 40.) Here
and in texts like these, God is represented as hardening
the hearts of Pharoah and the Jews, that the one might
incur fuller vengeance, and that, the others might not re
pent and return to him. Now, if these various classes of
texts are to be interpreted literally in their apparent sense,
and not in the sense we have given, then how repulsive is
the picture presented to us ! God, deliberately resolving
in the councils of eternity, on the creation of man, gather
ing together the angels and arch-angels, and all the glorious
hosts of Heaven to witness the stupendous act — one thril
ling with joy and praise all the animate and inanimate
universe — and then, not long after, repenting that He had
done it; grieving at His heart for the fatal act; burning with
such rage against His erring creature, that in order that His
vengeance against him might be the more complete, He
actually blinds him and hardens him into deadlier sin.
How our very souls revolt against such a hideous carica
ture of the Divine character as is presented by a literal in
terpretation of such words and texts ! We know in our
inmost souls that our Father in Heaven is incapable of
vacillation, of anger, of wrath, of vengeance in any such
sense. Though all the angels and arch-angels in heaven
should appear and tell us He is such an one, we would
hold them in derision. We would only conclude that in
stead of angels of light, these lying spirits were in truth
demons "come hot from hell," who had put on the livery
of heaven to deceive us. It is the literal interpretation of
such texts that points the blasphemy of the atheist, pro-

10$ THE DEATH OF DEATH.
vokes the indifference of the worldly, and sorely tries the
faith of the humble and sincere, but ignorant Christian.
A true understanding of God's relations to us, as far as our
feeble faculties will permit, will reveal Him to us as hating
the sin, but loving and pitying and yearning over the sin
ner. St. Paul says "the wrath fit God is revealed from
heaven against (what? Ungodly men? No; but) all un
godliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in
unrighteousness " (Rom. i, 18) ; but nevertheless His hand
is stretched out to these unrighteous and ungodly men,
every day of their lives beckoning and alluring them to
return to Him. Oh, unrighteous man, "Return unto the
Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity " (Hos.
xiv, 1). Oh, sinner, "thou hast destroyed thyself, but in
Me is thy help " (lb. xiii, 9). " Look unto Me, and be ye
saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and there
is none else " (Isaiah xiv, 22). " Wash ye, make you clean,
put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes,
cease to do evil, learn to do well" (lb. i, 16, 17). If ye
will do this, then " like as a Father pityeth his children,"
so will I pity you, for I know your frame, I remember
that you are dust (Ps. ciii, 13, 14). " Come now, let us
reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool" (Isaiah i, 18); yea, "as far as the east is
from the west," so far. will I remove your transgressions
from you (Ps. ciii, 12). " I will come unto you " and " make
my abode " with you (John xiv, 23), and " I will be your
God, and ye shall be My people" (Jer. vii, 22). Thus
tenderly does God feel towards the vilest sinners that we
can imagine; and therefore, whatever the "anger," the
" wrath," the "vengeance" of God may be, these words are
not to be taken literally, as if they were like similar emo-

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW. 109
tions in man, for they are not inconsistent with the contem
poraneous existence in the Divine bosom of exquisite love and
tenderness for the worst offenders.
We may now see how false is that vague idea — so com
mon, and yet so unworthy of the Divine character— that
God hates the sinner, rather than the sin, and loves the
righteous only. If so, which of us can He love? for "there
is none righteous, no not one." On the contrary, the only
hope of our race is that He loves us all — the vilest sinner
that can be conceived as well as the greatest saints — who
are confessedly great sinners. As a resultant of all the
texts in regard to the love of God, we may say that there
is a difference in the Divine emotions excited by the two
classes. Towards the latter He feels, for Christ's sake, the
love of approbation; towards the former He feels a love of
pity and compassion. It is a glorious, an elevating and
an inspiring truth, that illuminates the bright courts of
Heaven, the dark valleys of earth, and even the gloomy
portals of the grave, that God loves all His creatures —
whether they be more or less, or not at all, worthy of it —
with a yearning love, infinite and Divine, and that His
love of approbation is ready for the vilest and most de
graded the instant that he is ready to accept this "gift of
God," through Jesus Christ our Lord, his almoner..
We assume, then, as needing no further illustration, that
such emotions as those of "anger,"" wrath," "vengeance,"
in the ordinary sense, do not abide in the bosom of our
Father in heaven ; and that such terms are merely designed
to convey to us an idea of God's horror and detestation of
sin, as disturbing the harmony of His creation, and sepa
rating His creature from the " life of God " — his Creator.
We are now prepared intelligently to consider our sub
ject, which we hope to display as a great mercy, demanding
our gratitude to the giver of all good things.

116 THE DEATH OF DEATH".
How then does the Divine hatred of sin, combined with
His love and pity for the sinner, manifest itself in action ?
Chiefly by that wonderful mystery of the sacrifice of Christ
for the accomplishment of our restoration from sin. Here
omnipotent power and ineffable love appear in an intense
activity, wholly Divine. But they also manifest themselves
in action in subordinate modes. It is these subordinate
modes that constitute what we call " the ministry of sorrow."
The necessity of this ministry grows out of the nature
of our brief life, and its object — in its nature probational,
in its object preparatory for a higher and more permanent
existence. The Scriptures describe both the one and the
other in countless texts. Our life is declared to be as grass,
as the flower of the field, as a vapor, as a shadow, as a
dream, as a handbreadth, as a swift boat or ship passing
by, as a shepherd's tent to be struck soon, as a weaver's
shuttle, as a pilgrimage in which we have no continuing
city, as a school in which we are to be educated. The
object of that life is declared to be that we may know God,
and love and obey Him, that we may be accepted by Him,
not only here where we are " pilgrims and strangers " (John
xvii, 16), but in that " continuing city " which we seek, and
which is "to come," at the end of our pilgrimage (Heb.
xiii. 14). During that pilgrimage we are as children — not
only as children, but really children — at school; where we
have a diligent, faithful, and, if necessary, a severe school
master called "the Law of God," who by instruction, by
penalties, by sorrows and by afflictions, is to bring us to
Christ (Gal. iii, 25). He is to fit us to occupy, through
grace, one of those " many mansions " (John xiv, 2) in that
heavenly city, that "building of God," that "house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens " (2 Cor. v, 1),
where we shall no longer need a school-master, but shall
be perfect men in Christ (Col. i, 28).

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW. Ill
We cannot too often impress on our minds the fact that
this life, this probation, this pilgrimage or whatever else
we may call it, is«really and literally a school — a traveling
school like those of the scientists who take their pupils
through our western wilderness to teach them natural his
tory practically, as well as theoretically. Its whole object
is educational — to prepare us for a higher order of life —
and compared with that object, our experiences of pleasure
or pain by the way, sink into utter insignificance, except
as they advance or retard it. But what a school ! what an
infinite variety of tempers and dispositions and aspirations
in its scholars ! This infinite variety proves it to be God's
school. God then is our school-master, and he teaches us not like
a salaried teacher, however kind and faithful he may be;
but as a tender father, who instructs his children from the
love of them ; and who administers needful discipline not
the less strictly, but the more so because of that very love
— " For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom He receiveth " (Heb. xii, 6). And He loves
us all, so that in chastening us, He deals with all of us "as
with sons, for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth
not? But if we be without chastening, whereof all are
partakers, then are we bastards and not sons " (lb. 7, 8).
Now the great impediment with us all in the way of our
education for a higher state of existence is, that we want
to build our " continuing pity " here. The visible and tan
gible things around us seem to us more real than the objects
and employments of that "house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens." Like children of smaller growth,
we find it hard to realize that the future is more important
than the present, and that the present is always best em
ployed in preparing for the future. But we must learn this

112 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
lesson before we can fulfill the end of our existence, and
our kind Father, if He finds us set in this way, will so deal
with us as to persuade us to look for that which is " to come."
He permits us indeed to build our houses and cities here,
but they must not be "continuing" ones — they must only
be tabernacles — and then we may enjoy them for a shorter
or longer period, or during all our pupilage, as may be best
for us, provided they are built as types of the heavenly
buildings, and have some resemblance to the house and
city "not made with hands." But if they have not that
resemblance, they must come down, however much it may
grieve us ; for it is better for us to suffer a brief sorrow, than
to endure a longer woe, before the lesson is learned.
And what houses we do build !
One builds for himself and family, along the pilgrim
path, a tabernacle on the pattern of the heavenly home,
and there long enjoys the highest happiness his pilgrim
state admits. But gradually idols appear in every apart
ment of this tabernacle ; and, strange to tell, the pilgrims do
not recognize their presence — for do they not daily fall down
before the Father of all and acknowledge Him alone to be
their Father and their God? But, alas! self-deceivers as
we are — the wife and children have become idols to the
father, the husband and children have become idols to the
wife, and father and mother, or brothers or sisters have
become.idols to the children — and they know it not!
Another builds for his household a similar tabernacle.
He models it on the house not made with hands. He care
fully frames it as a type, a memorial of the heavenly home;
and sweet flowers spring up around it, of joy, and peace,
and resignation to the Father's will, even though He should
remove this sweet tabernacle, and send them again to a

THF MINISTRY OF SORROW. 113
tent by the wayside. Their peace and joy are great — too
great, for alas ! they soon become " exalted above measure,"
and before they know it, the type has become more en
gaging than the thing typified; the shadow has usurped
the place of the substance ; they have forgotten that they
are pilgrims, and have lived as though they were in a
"continuing city." The whole tabernacle has become an
idol, and perchance they know it not.
Another bethinks him, " I too will build a tabernacle
along the pilgrim path; but my tabernacle shall surpass
all others. It shall be crowned with a pillar of fame, in
law, in medicine, in literature, in science, in art, or in poli
tics; so that my brother pilgrims, as they stream along,
shall pause awhile and admire it. They shall say 'behold
how this tabernacle dwarfs all others,' and they shall long
talk of its glory — yea, and ages after my pilgrimage is
over, they shall pause — for it shall remain — and my name
shall be linked with it. It shall indeed be built on the
pattern of the heavenly building; but I will decorate it
with grand legends of great deeds. I will hang banners
from every point, and it shall stand as a house of glory to
my Father's name — and to mine. He will be honored in it,
for it will give me great influence over my brother pil
grims; and I will exert that influence for their good, and
His glory, and doing this I may rightly reap great glory for
myself." But when this tabernacle of fame is completed,
or in a fair way to be completed — spreading out its wings
and courts on every side — it has become in truth a strong
tower instead of a tabernacle, and the poor pilgrim thinks
it is a " continuing city," and forgets that he is looking for
a city "to come."
Another thinks to build a tabernacle which shall shine,
like a palace, with gems of gold and precious stones. He

114 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
secures from his fellow pilgrims all that he can get, by
whatever lawful means, whether of gold, or silver, or dia
monds, or pearls, or even inferior things. Wealth is a
great blessing, he thinks, if it is properly used ; and he
will use it properly, not merely for himself, but for the
benefit of his fellow pilgrims. He will instruct the igno
rant, he will shelter the weary and storm-beaten, he will
clothe the naked, feed the hungry, comfort the desolate,
heal the wounded, bind up the broken-hearted, pour in
the oil of joy for mourning, and bestow the garments of
praise for the spirit of heaviness. His tabernacle shall be
a resting-place and a home for all who need, for the
Father's sake — and though he means to enjoy it himself,
yet his chief joy will be that he is acting as a steward, an
almoner of the bounties of the common Father, towards
all his needy children on their weary pilgrimage. He re
solves that his tabernacle shall be pre-eminently useful
and beautiful, if he can make it so. And so he builds.
But his plans grow as he proceeds. ¦ The building is never
complete — room is added to room, hall to hall. His abun
dant gold and silver is always expended as fast as received
in additions and improvements. His precious stones are
all consumed as fast as they are gathered, in filling up on
mosaic tablets — in letters of diamonds and pearls and
rubies and agates, and many others — texts and holy
legends from the pilgrim's roll, descriptive of the duty and
the glory of his benevolent plans. So, when the weary,
the poor, the friendless and suffering pilgrims who are
passing by call in for relief, allured by the invitation on
these tablets, there is no shelter, for the whole house is
filled with the debris of the building; there is no gold with
which their wants could be supplied elsewhere,. for it is all
needed to complete the tabernacle. They must pass on

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW. 115
with kind promises to be fulfilled at a " convenient season,"
or "when all things are ready." In process of time the
building, though incomplete — for it will never be finished —
blazes with such beauty, allures with such irresistible fas
cinations, that the pilgrim is bewildered by it. By reason
of the " deceitfulness of riches " (Matt, xiii, 22) he is so
blinded as to think this gaudy tabernacle more beautiful
and more desirable than any building can be that is yet
"to come." And so he dreads the idea of resuming his
pilgrimage, and shrinks from what he considers worse than
death — a parting from his earthly tabernacle, in order to
reach the "continuing city."
Other pilgrims — generally of the younger sort — reason
with themselves that the Father did not mean their pil
grimage to be dull and dreary; that He intended them to
enjoy all lawful pleasures, and to be as happy as they can
be on such a journey. And they reason well, for surely
they correctly state His gracious will. And so they com
bine, and build a fairy tabernacle. They cement its walls
with bouyant and vigorous health. They adorn it with airy
pillars, and arches, and verandahs, and balconies. They
decorate it with the buds and blossoms of spring, with
wreaths of flowers and wild grasses, and autumn leaves,
and ivy, and mistletoe. They surround it with an atmos
phere of illusions, which echoes also with songs and dances,
and rippling laughter, and merry jests, and graceful move
ments — and they call it the " temple of innocent pleas
ures." But they forget that moderation — the most diffi
cult thing for the young — must be the hand-maid of pleas
ure; that the admissible pleasures are only the pleasures of
the way-side, or those to be found in tabernacles that con
sist with pilgrimage; and that even the joys that these af
ford cease to be innocent when they become excessive.

116 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
They forget that permanent tabernacles of pleasure are
unlawful, since they make their occupants reluctant to
turn towards the pilgrim path, and hide from their eyes
the end of their pilgrimage, and the building " to come."
And so, in the mad dance of pleasures no longer innocent,
they find their "continuing city" — their paradise — at least
they seek no other.
But time would fail to tell of all the different kinds of
tabernacles, towers, palaces, pleasure houses, chapels of
ease, gardens of delight, mountains of strength, and the
many other varieties of buildings that these pilgrim schol
ars erect — all interfering more or less with the object of
their journey. We have given, by way of example, a few
of the better sort. All these and many other kinds are
built also by others, who commence, not with the good
purposes of those above mentioned, and who forget more
or less in building the pilgrimage, its end, and the "house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Others
still there are, who not only forget as do these last, but
who — each one of them — chooses to build his "continuing
city " here, and who so builds as to obstruct and even to
ensnare others.
Now, our kind and tender Father, our wise school
master, sees and hears all this. He sees that His scholars
are not learning the needful lessons He has prescribed, and
He "visits" them for these things (Jer. v, 9), wielding the
penalties of the broken law. At His approach the idols in
the tabernacle fall down shattered; the tabernacles that
were themselves idols crumble; the pillars of fame either
topple over with a tremendous crash, or stand revealed in
new characters as pillars of reproach or infamy; the tap
estries and gold and precious stones of the palaces of
wealth are consumed by moth and rust, or dissolved by

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW. 117
self-developed fires, and the palaces themselves become
shapeless and blackened ruins; the airy temples of pleas
ure lose the cement of their walls, and tumble into hideous
wrecks, or else flee away like visions, leaving behind only
the ashes of departed joys; the chapels of ease are crushed;
the gardens of delight are withered; the mountains of
strength are thrown down.
Or, if any of these remain as before, it is only because
the lesson designed to be taught may be better impressed
on some by permitting them to stand and prove their
utter hollowness, even when fully tested. We have an
illustration of the last case in the instance of a pilgrim
mentioned by Gibbon, the historian, of the "decline and
fall" of a city sometimes called "eternal." He says "our
imagination is dazzled by the splendid" magnificence of
Abdalrahman, one of the Saracen monarchs in Spain. He
spent on his palace and gardens of Zehra, near Cordova,
constructed "in honor of his favorite Sultana," fifteen mil
lions of money and "twenty- five years" of time. The
buildings were "sustained and adorned by twelve hundred
columns of marble" from Spain, Africa, Greece and Italy.
The audience hall was "incrusted with pearls and gold."
The whole was designed and decorated by the "artists of
Constantinople, the most skillful architects and sculptors
of the age." His body-guard was composed of "twelve
thousand horse, whose belts and scimitars were studded
with gold." The following testimony was left by this
princely pilgrim at his departure: "I have now reigned
about fifty years in victory or in peace; beloved by my
subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my
allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure have waited
on my call, nor does any earthly pleasure seem to have
been wanting to my felicity. In this situation I have dili
gently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness

118 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
which have fallen to my lot. They amount to fourteen. Oh,
man, place not thy confidence in this present world!"
Take a second case — that of a nobler pilgrim, a great
and successful statesman and author. In the preface to
M. Guizot's book, "Christianity viewed in relation to the pre
sent state of society and opinion," he says : " In the course of
my long life I have seen much and done somewhat. I
have taken part in the world's affairs. I have quitted it,
and am no longer anything more than a spectator. For
twenty years I have been essaying my tomb. I have gone
down into it living, and have made no effort to issue forth
again. Not only have I experience of the world, but noth
ing attaches me to it. Could I still be of any service to
the two great causes, in my eyes but one — the cause of
Christian faith in men's souls and the cause of political
liberty in my country, I should await with thankfulness
in the bosom of my seclusion the dawn of that eternal day
which 'fools call death,' says Petrarch."
That sweet poet of the South, the late John R. Thomp
son, translated the touching poem "Carcassonne" from
the French of Gustave Nadaud. It tells of an old man
who had lived all his life within three leagues of the beau
tiful, and to him wonderful, city of Carcassonne. His
highest earthly ambition was to visit this city. The hope
of doing so some happy day beguiled the tedium of his
monotonous and life-long labors; but his simple hopes
were ever disappointed by the exactions of poverty and
the necessity of daily toil for daily necessaries. At last,
in old age, he was invited by a stranger to go with him on
this journey, the object of his life-long wishes. Next day
they started — " But * * * * half way on
The old man died upon the road :
He never gazed on Carcassonne.
E^aeh mortal has Carcassonne | "

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW. ll0
So, in one way or another, whether by loss and bereave
ment, by disappointment in possession, or by vain hopes
of posession, the discipline is the same.
And then there is sorrow along the pilgrim path — the
mourning of bereaved husbands and fathers — the wails of
widows and children — the tears of faded hopes — the silent
misery of disappointment — and the rebellious though im
potent cries of rage and despair. All these discordant
sounds proclaim to those who interpret them rightly that
our tender Father in Heaven, our gracious and wise School
master, is rebuking us, His children; is disciplining us,
his scholars, just in the same way (but with infinitely more
of wisdom and loye) that our earthly fathers act. They
proclaim that He who "is love" is exhibiting that love
even to the worst of us. They proclaim that the giver of
all good things has brought to us a precious gift — the
'' ministry of sorrow." He designs that ministry to reprove,
exhort, reform and bless us ; to bring us back from our
heedless and wayward thoughtlessness and forgetfulness ;
to start us anew on our pilgrim way, with knowledge based
on experience now, that here we "have no continuing
city, but seek one to come."
But suppose all these means fail to teach the needful
lesson during this whole pilgrimage; suppose the scholars
will not learn what their Father would have them learn,
what will that wise and loving Father do then ?
Now the advocates of the traditional dogma — those who
hold that there is only one pilgrimage or probation — can
not answer this question consistently with the holiness of
God. On their theory these sorrows are evil and only evil
to all those who are not reformed by them, for they are
only a foretaste of exquisite and hopeless pangs for the
great majority. The existence of evil in the world is with

120 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
them an awful mystery — a contradiction of the love and
power of God, the solution of which they do not attempt,
because from their stand-point it is insoluble; and which
they remit to a vague faith, that what they do not now
understand to be just will be shown to be so hereafter.
On our theory these evils are shown to be good and only
good to all; for they are brought by God out of sin, the
only real evil in the world. (and one which God could not
prevent without a violation of man's nature or His own)
for the beneficent end of ultimate restoration.
The figure most often employed in the pilgrim's roll, to
instruct us of the Divine Father's mind towards us, is that
of earthly parentage. It is the chosen type — chosen by
the Divine Father Himself — as most fitting to inform us of
His feelings and purposes towards us. If an earthly
father, though himself evil, shall yet through love do so
and so for his children, in the midst of their negligence,
their obstinacy, and even their rebellion, then "how much
more shall your Father which is in heaven " do so? (Matt.
vii, 11). Let us take then this golden thread of truth, and
like him who explored the labyrinth of old, follow the
clew through all doubts and difficulties.
Now what would an earthly father — such an one as we
call good and wise — do with a son at school who neglected
his studies or despised learning, or resisted the authority
of his teacher? There can be but one answer to such a
question. He would bear with him, and exhort and per
suade and allure him to a better way, as long as forbear
ance presented any hope of his reformation. If he found
that his goodness did not lead him to repentance (Rom. ii,
4), then he would resort to sterner measures, not from a
feeling of vengeance, but of love, and for the good of his
child. He would now subject him to all the discipline
admissible in that school.

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW. 121
But suppose he still remains incorrigible through it all —
will he then cast him off and turn his back on him for
ever? Oh ! no, no, even htiman love can stand such a test
as that. Even human love will yearn with parental stead
fastness over the son of its loins. It will abate no jot of
heart or hope. This wise, loving father will make another
and another effort for the welfare of his erring boy. He
will place him in another school; where there is severer dis
cipline, and exhaust there all the means which " goodness
and severity" (Rom. xi, 22) can employ for his reforma
tion. If he yet fails to bring him to himself, and to induce
him to exert his powers in those studies which may fit
him to fill an elevated sphere in life, does he then abandon
him? No good or wise earthly father could do so. No, if
he cannot induce him to fit himself for a high rank in his
future life, he will do for him the best that remains for him
to do — he will endeavor, at least, to fit him for usefulness
in a lower sphere. He will subject him to still greater dis
cipline. He will apprentice him to a taskmaster, where
work must be done, or still greater severity must be em
ployed. He will put him at the work-bench, at the bel
lows, at the anvil.
But if at last this fails ; if the boy is utterly incorrigi
ble; if he deserts the post to which he has been assigned;
if now looking on the needful discipline to which his
father has subjected him as unkind and unjust, he resigns
himself to his own devices, mocks at his father, and de
spising him and his counsels, abandons his home and flies
to some distant point, where, without restraint, he can
revel in iniquity and shame— if he does all this and much
more, does that father desert him at last? God forbid!
That wretched but still loved child oppresses his thoughts

122 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
by day and by night. All human means being exhausted,
he throws himself on the Divine aid entirely. He bears
that wanderer on his groans and prayers up to Him who
is able to help. As long as life lasts, God shall hear of
him ceaselessly; from lips that plead his cause, and be
seech that the rod may not fall on him to condemn and
destroy, but to arrest and amend him. That father will
never give up that boy, though all hell should gape for
him. Against "principalities, and powers, and the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in heavenly places" (Eph. vi, 12), he will oppose in that
dear, ruined boy's behalf the seven-fold shield of prayer,
all radiant with undying hope in God.
In what we have set down as to the feelings and conduct
of a wise and good earthly father, we are sure nothing has
been overstated. That conduct, as above set forth, com
mends itself to our sense of love and mercy and justice ;
and in it we have, on the infallible word of our Divine
Father himself, an exact example in kind, though infinitely
lower in degree, of his feelings and conduct towards the
worst, the most obstinate and the most rebellious of us all.
If the earthly father does habitually give to his erring and
ungrateful children these good gifts of love and forbearance
and fidelity to the end; if he never abandons the lost child
while life endures, "how much more" shall our "Father
which is in heaven " give the good gift of His " Holy Spirit
to them that ask Him " (Luke xi, 13), even to the end of
life, whether here or hereafter? The earthly father's life is
limited, but his love pervades the whole of it. The heav
enly Father's life is infinite; but He makes the earthly and
finite life of the earthly father the type of His eternal re
lation toward us ; and His love to us pervades His eternal
life just as the earthly love pervades the earthly life — only
" how much more ! " If God's relation to us be in truth that

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW. 123
of a father, we may rest assured that He will never abandon
us utterly. It would be monstrous to suppose that while
human love endures many probational trials of the erring
child, and never surrenders him, God's patience should be
exhausted by one brief probation. Oh no ! if one of God's
children continues to resist His instructions to the end of
this brief probation, another and severer one awaits him;
but God will never give him up finally: "for the Lord will
not cast off forever: but though He cause grief, yet will He
have compassion, according to the multitude of His mer
cies. For He doth not afflict willingly (in the Hebrew
'from His heart'), nor grieve the children of men" (Lam.
iii, 31, 33). "Fear thou not, 0 Jacob my servant, saith
the Lord. * * * I will not make a full end of thee, but
correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly
unpunished" (Jer. xlvi, 28). These declarations were
made to a people who had defied God grossly, and by the
mouth of the very prophet who was sent to tell of their
terrible overthrow as a people. God will not desert them
finally for the sake of Abraham, whose seed they were after
the flesh ; nor will he finally desert us, for the sake of
Christ, who took upon Him our flesh, that He might save
us miserable sinners.
We are warranted by this glorious type of the fatherhood
of God, in the belief that the infinite resources of redeem
ing love will operate upon his erring children till reforma
tion is attained, either here or hereafter, whatever sorrow
ful experiences must first be endured. They will indeed
be bitter, but they will be blessed; for oh ! benign "ministry
of sorrow," thou art the hand-maid of eternal parental
love. Thou art a merciful gift from God our Father. Thy
robes indeed are stained with blood, but it is redeeming
blood — for even the "son of man" was made "perfect
through sufferings " (Heb. ii, 10),

124 THE DEATH OF DEATH.

CHAPTER II.
THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED — AND [HEREIN, OF IN
EQUALITIES OF FORTUNE, OF SPIRITUAL OPPORTUNITIES,
AND OF SPIRITUAL SUSCEPTIBILITIES.
HAVING now considered the general character of the
Divine discipline, let us descend into particulars.
In that wonderful book of Job we have a detailed exam
ple of God's dealings with the individual sinner, such as is
nowhere else to be found in Scripture, although in entire
harmony with what we elsewhere read therein. Ordinarily
we are only permitted to see the execution of God's work;
but here the veil hanging between us and the unseen world
is lifted sufficiently to enable us to see in detail the plan
ning of it in a particular instance. The great worker Him
self vouchsafes that we may see not only His completed
work, but Himself at work upon it.
It appears that there was a day when the " sons of God
came to present themselves before the Lord," and that
Satan "came also among them" (Job i, 6). It seems
strange to us that Satan should have been "among them."
Theologians have thought, indeed, that Satan had free ac
cess to the heavenly places, till after the manifestation (or
the temptation) of our Lord; but that then took place that
"war in heaven," in which "Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon (or the Devil), and the dragon fought
and his angels, but prevailed not" (Rev. xii, 7); and that
gince that time neither he nor his angels have had such
access — for it is added in the eighth verse, "neither was

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED. 125
their place found any more in heaven." They may be
right as to their theory and their dates, but whether so or
not it is not material to our investigation to enquire; nor
to enquire whether the book of Job is a record of events
which actually occurred, or an allegory. In either case
the teaching is the same.
When Satan thus appeared before God, he drew from
him a statement that he had been diligent in his business;
he had been "going to and fro in the earth," and " walking
up and down in it" (lb. i, 7)— not idly we may be sure;
and God, assuming that he had been engaged in his fell
work, asks him "hast thou considered my servant Job,
that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an
upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil?"
(lb. 8). Job was perfect, not in an absolute, but in a re
lative sense; that is, he was perfect in external conduct,
and in spiritual excellence so far as Satan could see. That
the word is used in this sense appears by the sequel. Now,
doubtless Satan had expended on Job all his efforts, and
he seems to have despaired of getting him into his power,
for he does not deny the statement of Job's perfection.
His subtlety was great, but he was not omniscient, and
therefore he could not see, as God did, the real weakness
and imperfection that lay hidden down in the bottom of
Job's heart — hidden from himself as well as Satan. Job's
sin was one very common with those who "fear God and
eschew evil " — self righteousness — and it is the nature of that
sin that we who commit it are deceived by it, so that we
are unconscious, of it.
But Satan made the mistake of supposing that Job's
righteousness was only the complacency of him whose
every want had been supplied. In answer therefore to
what he supposed a taunt from God, as if belittleing his

126 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
power, he charges that Job's invulnerability was due not
to his lack of skill, but to the fact that God had so hedged
him about as to prevent access to him; and he declares
that if God will remove this hedge, so that he may strike
down Job's prosperity and destroy all his earthly interests,
he will curse God to his face. The permission Was given,
and crash after crash fell on Job's earthly life, removing
houses, flocks, herds, wealth and children, till nothing re
mained of his fair possessions but utter wrecks and blasted
prospects, of which an unworthy wife, who in her rage
advised him to "curse God and die," was the fitting com
plement. But grand old Job stood sublimely erect amidst
the ruins, and poured into the ear that is ever open to the
cries of distress, that triumphant miserere which with
pathetic melody has soothed and comforted humbled and
sorrowing hearts through all the centuries since its utter
ance: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and
naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave and the Lord
bath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord" (lb.
21). Baffled and rebuked, the tempter left him.
Again there was a day when the sons of God presented
themselves to the Lord, and again Satan was among them.
Sore at his last defeat, he makes no allusion to it when
again asked about Job's perfection, but abruptly says,
"skin for skin; yea, all that a man hath will he give for
his life (or his person); put forth thine hand now and
touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy
face " (lb. ii, 4, 5). He is conscious of his former mistake
and now searches Job more deeply. Surely he thinks he
will not endure all things — his love of God cannot be so
unselfish, so sublime as to endure the worst that may be
fall him. Full liberty is given him to do with Job as he
pleases, so that he spare his life. He loses not a moment's

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED. 127
time ; he is impatient for Job's ruin and his own revenge.
He "went forth from the presence of the Lord," and smote
Job with such sore bodily disease and suffering, that he
could find no better mitigation of his pain than to sit in
ashes. He was so changed in appearance that three out
of the four who, alone of all his former friends, visited
him, did not know him till they came near to him ; and
then, softened by pity, they wept for him (lb. 12). His
"brethren," his "kinsfolk," most of his "familiar friends,"
his "acquaintance," his "maids" and "servants," and his
unworthy wife, deserted one who had lost his wealth and
presented a disgusting appearance (lb. xix, 13-17). He
was utterly desolate. Satan bad shot his last terrible
shaft, and it had found Job's heart. His integrity to God
trembled in the balance, but though he held that firm,
and so disappointed and humiliated Satan again, yet he
fell in another way. Satan's arrow searched in Job's
heart in vain for rebellion against God, but found a con
genial resting place in his self-righteousness ; and there it
rankled till Job's eyes were opened.
We read that Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, three of the
four friends who still adhered to him, charged him over
and over again with self-righteousness. Though God after
wards rebuked them, because, said He, "ye have not
spoken of Me, the thing that is right " (lb. xlii, 7) ; yet
their charge against Job was true; for after they had
ceased to answer him, "because he was righteous in his
own eyes" (lb. xxxii, 1), Elihu, his fourth friend, whose
counsel God seems to have approved, charges him with
justifying "himself rather than God" (lb. 2), and with
saying, "I am clean, without transgression, I am innocent;
neither is there iniquity in me" (lb. xxxiii, 9); "I am
righteous, and God hath taken away my judgment " (lb.

128 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
xxxiv, 5). Under Elihu's rebuke Job was dumb. We
are aware that many critics regard Elihu's part in this nar
rative as an interpolation by a later hand. We need not
enter into this controversy. Whether it be so or not, Job's
assertion of his righteousness and his questioning of God
for rewarding it with affliction is indisputable. God Him
self afterwards charges him with it. Howbeit, Job now,
for the first time, begins to see his error. He gradually
sees that all this time, down in his heart of hearts, he has
been pluming himself on his excellence; that he has been
so possessed of the idea that his prosperity was a reward
for his righteousnes?, instead of a free and unmerited gift
of God, that he has been actually unconscious of its false
hood and grossness. Ah ! how some of us should know
the feeling! If we are greatly prosperous; if we have made
some attainments in the gifts of grace, in the love of God,
how we begin to plume ourselves ! to fancy that we are
favorites of heaven because we are so good — in fact, so
much better than others. And then we need the rod; then
we may look out for a fall; then Satan will be sure to trip
us. Even St. Paul was in danger of being " exalted be
yond measure" by peculiar privileges, and like Job, had
to have a "thorn in his-flesh," to keep him mindful of his
nothingness in the comparison with God (2 Cor. xii, 7).
And so Job was now thoroughly humbled, and then the
time of mercy had come for him. Then God, who "for-
getteth not the cry of the humble" (Ps. ix, 12), and who
loves and dwells with him that is of an humble and con
trite spirit" (Isaiah lvii, 15), made manifest to him His
gracious presence. He shows him his utter weakness and
the folly of his past opinions in such plain terms, as to
impress the lesson on him forever afterwards — " Who is this
that darkeneth counsel by words without wisdom? Gird

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED. 129
up now thy loins like a man, and answer thou me. Where
wast thou when /laid the foundations of the earth?" (Job
xxxviii, 2, 4). " Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty,
instruct him? He that reproveth God let him answer it.
Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? Wilt thou con
demn Me that thou mayest be righteous?" (lb. xl, 8).
At last Job is free from his secret sin. He has seen it,
repented of it and now confesses it. "Out of weakness,
now made strong" (Heb. xi, 34), he acknowledges that he
had uttered things that he understood not, but rejoices that
he has also learned truths about himself and God, which
he never knew before. And then, grand in humility and
faith, he pours out his heart before Him — " I have heard
of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth
Thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and
ashes" (Job xlii, 5, 6).
Let us endeavor to draw from this wonderful narrative
the lessons taught by it.
First. We see that God works, not only in directing the
affairs of nations, of the world or of the universe; but
that He works personally and as grandly in the affairs of
individuals — just as nature discloses as wonderful and as
perfect a work on infinitesimal things, as upon things of
inconceivable magnitudes.
Second. We see also, that though God generally works by
law, yet that He does not merely set in motion the gigantic
machinery of an inflexible law, to workout its inexorable re
sults; but that He intervenes and satifies the law by new
conditions. In human jurisprudence this adaptation of
law to new conditions is called equity. So we may say that
God's decisions and acts are not limited by the rigid con
ditions of law alone; but by the principles of equity, which,
though it " follows the law," yet does that which law can-

130 THE DEATH OF DEATH,
not do. The law had condemned Job for a sin indulged
until he became unconscious of it. His condition, there
fore, was hopeless. But God specially intervenes. He
opens Job's eyes by afflictions ; and then his repentance
disarms the law, or rather through grace fulfills it. It was
equitable that an unconscious sin should be made conscious,
before the sword of the law should finally fall.
Third. We see that God does not thrust us out from His
side, into the midst of hot temptations, with the stern com
mand alone, "do this, and thou shalt live; do that, and
thou shalt die." Oh no, our Father in Heaven does far
more than this. He employs every agency in heaven and
earth for our safety; and if we fall, He employs every
agency in heaven, earth and hell for our reformation. He
avails Himself in Job's case of Satan's malevolence to
wrest him finally and forever from his power. And in
what a wonderful way He does it! He actually goads Satan,
not once, but twice, into a renewal of his temptations.
Now this seems a very strange thing, for it appears at first
sight that God wills that Job shall be tempted to evil. On
the other hand, we read, "Let no man say when he is
tempted, 'I am tempted of God:' for God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither (so) tempteth he any man; but
every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own
lusts and enticed" (James i, 13, 14). Here seems to be
another of those apparent conflicts, to which we have al
ready referred. Let us endeavor to understand it. God
indeed tempts no man to evil; but what is evil? Sin, and
sin alone, is evil. All other such things as we call evil, are
merely the consequences of sin; and are in truth good
things, if by God's grace they arouse us from our sin. What
then is sin? It is a condition of the heart. The outward
act is not the sin, it is only the evidence of the sin, It is

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED. 131
often the shame of the outward act which stimulates us to
eradicate the sin from the heart. Now, Job was in a state
of sin, which was so deeply hidden down in his heart from
himself and others, that, for want of provocation, it did
not manifest itself by any outward act, and so he did not
see it. But now God comes and stimulates Satan to tempt
Job — in order to make him sin? God forbid that we should
say so ! no, but in order to develop in him an external
manifestation of his inward sin, so that he might be con
vinced of it. Satan aimed to do something else, viz: to
make Job curse God, and failed; but he did succeed in
making Job do that which, putting the effect for the cause,
we call sin, viz: to complain that God had not given his
righteousness its just reward. His questioning of God was
not the sin, but only the outward manifestation or evidence
of his sin.
We may learn from this, therefore, that though God does
not tempt us " with evil," yet that it may be in accordance
with His will that we should be tempted to outward acts,
when they are only the evidences of our sin, and when the
shame and misery they produce may lead us to see the sin
in its true light, and to repent of it; for then these outward
acts, though the fruits of evil, may have good effects.
Though at first sight, therefore, God's commission to
Satan to tempt Job seems strange, yet on closer examina
tion it appears not to be so. We must be careful to con
sider well what may seem strange in God's dealings with
us — in accordance with St. Peter's warning that we are not
to think it "strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try
us as though some strange thing happened unto us, but to
rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of Christ's sufferings "
(1 Pet. iv, 12, 13). And this evidently refers to temptations
rather than to bereavements or losses. Of the former, St.

132 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
Paul says "there hath no temptation taken you but such
as is common to men; but God is faithful, and will not
suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will
with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you
may be able to bear it" (1 Cor. x, 13). And He was thus
faithful to Job; for though he fell, he was enabled to re
pent. Fourth. We see an adaptation by God of His punish
ments to the particular case; teaching us that He deals
with each of us according to our need — according to the
particular character of our temperament and surroundings.
Not one single sorrow or trial fell on Job that could have
been spared him. Of this we may be absolutely certain.
If Job had been too fond of his children, their removal
would probably have been all that was necessary; if he
had been too greedy of earthly fame or reputation, its loss
would probably have been sufficient; if he had loved his
wealth too much, his poverty would perhaps have healed
him of covetousness; if the love of pleasure had been his
snare, bodily affliction might have saved him. But Job's
sin was neither of these. It was deeper and broader than
them all. His self-righteousness was the sin of his heart,
the idol of his worship. So inveterate had this worship
become that he did not know how evil it was ; and his pros
perity and happiness in all his worldly interests, were to him
the evidences of his righteousness. To rouse him, therefore,
all must be removed from him. To prove to him that he
was self-righteous, rather than righteous, his evidences must
be taken away; until he could say with the Psalmist,
"before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now have I kept
Thy word" (Ps. cxix, 67). Let us clearly see and remember,
that God, of necessity, deals with each of us according to our
need, and according to our various dispositions and circum
stances.

The Ministry of sorrow — continued. 15$
Fifth. As in the general view of God's dealings with us,
in the preceding chapter, we again find here the truth that
all His punishments are for the sake of reformation. That
was evidently the whole object in Job's case. There was
no wrath exhibited, no vengeance displayed. God speaks
of him to Satan in terms of gentleness, and of approbation
of his other virtues, at the very time that Job was in that
state of sin which called for such terrible chastisements.
He then speaks of him in the very same terms that He
uses when Job had afterwards humbled himself under
His mighty hand. His whole dealing with him is marked
by the calm and kind manner of the surgeon, when he is
about some terrible operation which is necessary to save
life. Thank God, we can find nowhere, even in His most
painful dealings with us, any evidence of vengeance, but
only of an unspeakable love, bent on our reformation.
Even in the cases of the nations destroyed utterly, men,
women and children, by the command of God to the Jews,
it was not wrath, but mercy and love which removed them
from a probation in which they had hopelessly degraded
themselves, to another scene of trial; where, under a plainer
view of spiritual things, and a severer discipline, they
might yet be redeemed. Especially was it a mercy to the
children that they should be removed while yet in inno
cence from inevitable corruption and misery.
Sixth. The preceding deductions from the narrative teach
us God's purposes, and modes of work in relation to us ;
but there still remains another grand lesson to be drawn
from it — a lesson without which in some form we could
never see how the holiness of God could be reconciled with
the existence of evil. It is the lesson that though God's
corrections seemed to Job for a long time very evil, as they
often do to us ; yet that they are in truth good things, because

1U THE DEATH! OP DEATH-.
their object and effect are to bring good out of evil — the evil
of sin, which, as we have seen, God could not prevent with
out a violation of man's nature and His own. So that it may
be truly said, "Behold, happy is the man whom God cor-
recteth " (Job v, 17). This plainly appears from the expe
rience of Job, in harmony with that of the Psalmist, "it is
good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn
Thy statutes" (Ps. cxix, 71); and also in harmony with
the express declaration of God — when He once let slip His
thunders upon an entire people who had abandoned Him —
that He did it "for their good" (Jer. xxiv, 5). The trials
and sorrows of life, which we call evil, are, therefore, in
truth good, and good aldne — provided it be also true that
they, alone, or in combination with whatever others in the
future, shall ultimately bring us through grace to a higher
and better life.
Enlightened by the great principles laid down for our
guidance in this wonderful book, let us now endeavor to
illustrate their application to the various inequalities of
life, viz : inequalities of fortune, inequalities of spiritual op
portunities, and inequalities of spiritual susceptibilities.
Now, as we know, God's works are infinitely varied.
Creative energy alone can and it must expand into this
infinite variety. All nature, everything in heaven and
earth, everything in God's entire universe, teaches us, in
harmony with Scripture and our instinctive perceptions,
that God, if he be God, must develop this creative energy
in unending forms and relations. Even man — because
made in the image of God — would be utterly miserable if
restrained in the exercise of his faculties of invention,
production and reproduction to the extent of his powers.
The possession of faculties forbidden to exert themselves,
would be unmitigated torture. To say that God should

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED. 135
restrain his creative power within any definite proportions,
or in particular instances not involving a contradiction, is
simply to say with the fool that there is no God.
Think of it, then — there are no two things alike, so far
as we know, in God's entire universe. Oh, no, no, no — no
two leaves of the forest wave in the same way ! No two
little face-spaces, in all their endless variations, can show
the same features! No two of the heavenly hosts are
alike in glory ! No two human souls are alike in capacity
or in destiny ! Infinite, infinite, infinite variety is stamped
on all God's works, whether physical, mental or moral!!!
We can now perceive what a field there is for infinite
varieties of administration; for rewards and punishments
and providential arrangements, suited to unending condi
tions of mind and temper and disposition — of which Job's
case was only one, though a most instructive one.
First then — as to inequalities of fortune. We need not ex
emplify them by particular instances — they are apparent
to us all, from the king on his throne, to the beggar on the
dunghill; from those who stand upon the topmost height
of every earthly comfort and refinement, to those who, in
the dark valleys of life, groan under their heavy burdens
of neglect and want. True it is that men may in some
cases, sink into the lowest places of earthly fortune by
their faults, or rise into the highest by their efforts; but it
is equally true that, as a rule, the lot of different men is
cast for them by what we call providential circumstances ;
and that usually the opportunities of fortune do not de
pend upon the man, but are provided for him without re
gard to any personal merit or demerit on his part.
Now on the concession that creative energy did justly
and wisely, as it did inevitably, produce the variety above re
ferred to; that this Hfe is only preparatory for a higher life ;

136 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
and that the discipline of sorrow will ultimately bring us
through grace to a restoration of our lost estate, and is
necessary for that end, we can easily reconcile our sense
of justice with the unequal circumstanoes of joy or sorrow,
of poverty or wealth, of apparent happiness or misery
among men. On the conditions stated, the conclusion is
inevitable that each has that fortune which is best adapted
to deliver him from the power of sin, the only real evil
that can afflict him; and so to educate him for that higher
state for which he is intended after the brief dream of life
is over. In Job's case we see that these sorrows were exactly
adapted to him, and necessary for his reformation. If they
had failed in their end at the first, yet they might have
been effectual, if in substance repeated again and again
indefinitely. Nor can any reason be conceived why, in
another probation, appropriate sorrows might not be even
more effective than in this.
But if it be not true that that restoration will ultimately
be brought about, either here or hereafter, by means of the
dismal sorrows that surround us, or by others which we
can conceive, then these inequalities of fortune must remain
irreconcilable on reason, with the justice and mercy of
God — for they have no raison detre.
We do not embrace in this argument the sufferings of
infants. Our whole discussion relates to the question of
evil in so far as intelligent and responsible beings are con
cerned. The sufferings of infants are inarticulate. We
cannot interrogate them to know what they are, how great,
or even whether they are consciously real. If they be so, they
may have, for aught we know, some moral effect — accord
ing to the idea of the poet, who, speaking of a babe in
heaven, says its life was—

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED. 137
"Rough only for a babe ; but every step
Ta'en by her little bleeding feet, had left
It tracery upon her spirit now,
In tender lines of love and peace and praise."
It may be so — we cannot tell; but one thing we know,
that if we can vindicate as we think they may be vindi
cated, God's love and mercy and justice, in connection
with the existence of evil, in so far as intelligent and re
sponsible, beings are concerned, no doubt will remain on
any mind that the apparent sufferings of those innocent
beings who are of "the kingdom of heaven," could be as
well explained if the elements of the investigation were
equally in our possession.
But the inequalities of external fortune are not the only
inequalities that exist, nor the most important. There are
other inequalities to be accounted for, not caused in whole
or in part by men themselves, as those of fortune some
times are, but inequalities inherent in their providential
circumstances, or in their natures. The individual in
stances which we shall give of these, will be of course as
single sands from the sea-shore, but will we hope suffi
ciently illustrate the principles involved.
Second. There are great inequalities among us from our
very birth in spiritual opportunities.
We take two instances which may cover all that lie be
tween them.
One man is placed by no effort of his own in the very
sunlight of God's smile. In his earthly prospects, in pe
cuniary means, in social standing, and in whatever else
that may be desirable, nothing remains to be suggested
that can contribute to his advantage. All evils that can
be foreseen are warded off. All temptations of an external
sort are as far as practicable removed. He is surrounded

138 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
by every influence that can contribute to his temporal and
eternal weal. From his infancy pious parents point his
eyes upwards. They teach him Divine things — they "talk
of heaven, and lead the way." The benign influences of
the Sabbath-school, of parental instruction, of the services
of the sanctuary, of prayer for guidance from on high,'
surround him like an atmosphere. As far as love and
foresight, human and Divine, can provide for it, he is made
as safe as a lamb in a sheltered fold, or as a lovely flower
in a well-watered garden. His life conforms after its kind
to this beginning, and in due time he ends his days in the
peace of God and man, and enters into his eternal rest.
Another man is placed, by no fault of his own, in cir
cumstances the very reverse of all this — though his lot is cast
in a Christian land. From hio infancy he is surrounded
by squalid poverty — by an ignorance, blasphemy and de
pravity of which most of us can have no conception. He
grows up, wallowing, like a pig, in some crowded tene
ment, such as those in the "Five Points" of New York,
and in the very atmosphere of physical and moral cor
ruption — in which morality and immorality are not
even empty names, for the distinction between them
is almost unknown. He hears of God only in the curses
of rage and blasphemy. The name of Jesus is known to
him only in the same way ; and of him as a Saviour he
never hears, or if he does, he knows no more what is meant
by it than he does of the Copernican theory. He grows
up with no conscience or with a perverted one; and he
finds his place among the "dangerous" or "criminal
classes," by a law almost, if not quite, as urgent as the law
of gravity. If by any chance he is brought temporarily,
in after life, under the influences of the Gospel, or is even
instructed in the first principles of that great lesson to

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED. 139
which Divine wisdom has assigned a lifetime of effort,
and which, in our experience, requires it, he is like one
learning the Chinese language without acquaintance with
it symbols.Now we reverently ask, in the holy name of the God of
justice; we solemnly cry out to heaven and earth, in the
joint names of love and mercy, and ask — why this diffe
rence? You may say that if we could look into the past, and
trace the ancestry of these two men, we could see that
hereditary virtues in the one case, and hereditary vices in
the other, had produced naturally and inevitably the two
conditions — according to the law that the sins of the
fathers are visited on the children. It may be so. We
admit, in point of fact, the general operation of that law,
so far as it affects the nation, the community, or even the
earthly condition of the individual. The conditions of
human life must be entirely changed, perhaps, if the sins
of the fathers are not to be visited in this sense on the
children; for as God cannot prevent the sins of men,
neither can he always prevent this hereditary effect with
out changing man's nature. This effect appears distinctly
in action in the case of the heathen nations — the brother-
miserables of the unhappy man we have described. That
admirably book — "The Bible and the Classics" — the fruit
of forty years' labor by the late venerable Bishop Meade,
of Virginia; and which may be his monument when his
bishopric shall have been forgotten in all but the name —
makes it clear that all the barbarous races of every age
and clime, or their ancestors, originally possessed the true
faith. For it proves that in all these religions are to be
found traces, more or less distinct, of the fall, the sacrifice
for sin, and the restoration of sinners through that sacri-

140 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
fice; and it also proves that the nearer we can get, in the
history of any race, to the original revelation of God out
of heaven, the clearer become these traces of truth. But
the fathers departed from the faith more and more, gene
ration after generation, till this original revelation was
piled over, Pelion on Ossa, by mountains of error and cor
ruption ; and till midnight darkness settled down upon
their descendants, leaving only here and there traces of
these fundamental truths. Thus were the sins of the
fathers visited upon the children.
But we utterly deny the justice of such a law in its ope
ration ot the ultimate spiritual condition of the individual.
Here the eternal fatherhood of God comes in and reverses
the operation of the law. There is, there can be no justice
in any law which demands that a man shall be damned
for his earthly father's sins, and therefore no such law is
God's law. On the contrary, in matters of life and death,
it is thus laid down by God Himself: "The soul that sin-
neth it shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of his
father" (Ezekiel xviii, 20), but "every man shall be put
to death for his own sin" (Deut. xxiv, 16).
Now, on the traditional dogma of future punishment
which denies to the unhappy child of God whom we have
described (and to his brother heathen) a new probation,
though he had little or no chance in this one — he is to "lie
down m everlasting burnings," for an ignorance for which
he was not responsible, and for a moral depravity almost
unavoidable in the circumstances in which he was placed.
That dogma, then, cannot explain this inequality.
Third. There are great inequalities among us from our
birth in spiritual susceptibilities.
Take several extreme cases, so that the principles which
cover them may cover the infinite varieties of character
that lie between them.

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED. 141
One of these extremes may be fitly represented by the
life and character of the sainted Chisholm, whose pure and
gentle spirit rose in 1855, on the wings of the pestilence,
from Norfolk, that sad, fever-scourged " City by the Sea,"
to a purer air — from a charnel-house, to the "house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens." We knew him
well when he was a student of divinity. His sweet and
gentle nature seemed almost too shrinking for effective
action in this rough world; but only seemed so, as the
sequel proved — for surely his was a heroic life and death.
His face beamed with the light from inner purities. His
manners were soft and almost timid. As a teacher of
youth, he employed that higher and better discipline which
none but the loving heart and reluctant hand can employ.
When his scholars were idle or negligent, or ventured on
those pranks and tricks by which they so often annoy their
teachers, a word of earnest remonstrance and appeal from
him, in pathetic rather than judicial tones, would often
prove more effective than the rod in the hands of sterner
teachers. In manner, in appearance, in conversation, in
character, he always reminded us of the "beloved dis
ciple." We verily believe that the slightest chastisement
from his heavenly Father's hand would have proved more
effective on him than desolating lightnings of penal discip
line on sterner natures. We believe that he could scarcely
have survived what he regarded as a withdrawal from him
of his heavenly Father's face. Early called to serve his
Master in that highest of all earthly service — the ministry
of His Word — he grew in grace and in the knowledge of
his Lord, till he seemed to those who knew him best as
already, in spirit, severed from earth and meet for heaven.
Now we remark that this saintly man had all this, not
by his own merit — he would have been the first to disclaim

142 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
it — but by the gift of God. Nay more, his original tempe
rament, bestowed on him by God in his unconscious in
fancy, alone enabled him to become, so early, the recipient
of such rich gifts of grace.
Compare this case with another — we do not name him —
a man endowed by nature from his birth with volcanic
passions of every kind ; one organically perfect, and of in
tense vitality; one to whom the joys and pleasures and
excitements of this carnal life are intensely alluring; one
whose pulses of passion are to most of us inconceivably
strong; one whose temptations are as tempests compared
to the milder winds that blow us about; one on whom the
streams of downward influence are very cataracts of Niag
ara as compared with the rapids that float us on below.
This man is placed by God in a furnace of baleful fires,
heated seven times hotter than it is wont to be heated.
He is at the same time endowed with strong spiritual de
sires. A mighty conflict rages in his heart, which wriDgs
from his soul at every frequent fall the cry — " Oh ! wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?" If to the last, he rises after every fall, with his
weary eye still fixed on Christ, he is surely one of the
anointed "kings and priests unto God." But suppose he
falls and does not rise again before the life-long battle ends!
In either event there is great inequality between him and
the Rev. James Chisholm — an inequality not produced by
themselves, but by the conditions of their natures and
temperaments for which they individually were not re
sponsible, and which rendered it most difficult for the one
and comparatively easy for the other to walk in the same
heavenly path.
The traditional dogma as to future punishment cannot
show the justice of this inequality.

THE MINISTRY of SORROW — CONTINUED. 143*
But compare with these another case — one whose counter
part is known to most of us. He has much of the vitality
and passion of the last without his spiritual susceptibility.
By nature, rather than by habit, he is of the belligerent,
aggressive and self-asserting type. He is obstinate in his
opinions when once they are formed, arid can be persuaded
by no apparent earthly means from a predetermined course.
He is impenetrable to rebuke, remonstrance of persuasion,
and invulnerable to any of the ordinary chastisements of
life. He has what seems to be an absolute incapacity to
believe much more than he sees and hears and handles.
To him, therefore, the things that are seen and temporal
are the only real things; and the things that are unseen
and eternal are visions of things that may or may not be
true, but are too vague and intangible to be the basis of
faith with him. All these things are conditions of nature
or temperament,"as said before, which were born with him.
He is by no means a depraved or abandoned man — on the
contrary, he sees that certain principles of virtue are in
dispensable for individual well being and for the good of
the race; and he strives to propagate and live up to such
principles. But he takes no personal interest in the Chris
tian religion, because he thinks that no one can be certain
about anything connected with it; and because the dissen
sions among Christians themselves prove to him that they
who have studied it most understand it least — for each of
the various creeds is at war with eetelrother. 2^*-0^y
Take as a fourth case, the same type of man, differing
from this one only in the fact that he leads a life of
thorough self-indulgence in all the forms of sin, under the
influence of his strong passions and the weakness of his
moral restraints.
Now, character is a very complex thing, and in its for-

144 The death oF death;
mation, temperament or natural disposition, may be more
or less modified by proper culture. But the fact remains
that natural capacities and incapacities are prime elements
in awarding judgment on man's responsibility.
How then are we to account for the inequalities existing
between the soul that is happily constituted and that
which is unhappily constituted for moral effort? between
the soul endowed with exquisite spiritual susceptibilities,
and that which is comparatively insensible to such in
fluences? All have to travel the same road, under the
same penalties, but with unequal capacity to do the one
or avoid the other.
The traditional dogma cannot explain the justice of
these inequalities — which, let us bear in mind, are in
finitely varied.
Now, in order to vindicate any government whatever,-
human or divine, inequalities of administration, however
inevitable, must be accounted for and brought within the
principles of justice. God Himself recognizes the propriety
of this. He does not reply to an honest enquiry into the
justice of any arrangement of His, as some of those who
claim especially to know His will are accustomed to do.
" Who art thou that replyest against God?" He reserves
Buch language for those who desire rather to condemn Him
than to vindicate His justice. He uses a different language
to all honest investigators— " search and see," "try the
spirits," be jealous of accepting as My will what may be
told you by those who may or may not know it, till you
have seen by honest prayerful examination, "whether
these things be so." Even to those whose enquiries are
mixed with cavilling, or are uncandid, He sometimes uses
this language. When even the rebellious Jews charge Him
with injustice or inequality in His ways, He vouchsafes,

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED. 145
instead of cutting off their speech, to reason with them
and to prove His justice to them by an appeal to facts and
to their consciences. On one of these occasions, He thus
answers them : " Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked
should die? saith the Lord, and not that he should return
from his ways and live? * * * Yet ye say that the
way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, 0 house of Israel,
is not My way equal? Are not your ways unequal? *
* * for I have no pleasure in the death of him that
dieth, saith the Lord; wherefore turn yourselves and live"
(Eze. xviii, 23-32). This is in answer to complaint of in
justice, on account, among other things, of the supposed
responsibility of the children for the sins of the fathers
already noticed. These various texts contain the lesson
that we are entitled to enquire into apparent inequalities.
Now, on the concession that the Heavenly Father is in
truth, as He says He is, like an earthly father in love and
forbearance, and much more loving and forbearing than
he, we may reasonably suppose that He will not confine
His children to one brief probation, in which alone they
can prepare for heaven or escape hell. If this be so, all
difficulties are removed, all inequalities are adjusted.
Let us see if it be not so. We have already seen — fol
lowing Dr. Bledsoe — that sin is the assertion of a free will
in things forbidden by God ; that it is a contradiction in
terms to talk of coercing a free will or enforcing love, and
that therefore God could not prevent sin without a contra
diction, which is impossible with God. Hence the only
real question in regard to God's holiness in connection
with evil is, as Dr. Bledsoe truly says, why He created be
ings whom He knew would surely fall into sin. We have
endeavored to show (Part I, ch. vi) that Dr. Bledsoe has
not answered this question satisfactorily ; and that it can-
7

146* THE DEATH OF DEATH.
not be answered satisfactorily on the traditional theory in
regard to future punishment. But we think it can.be an
swered satisfactorily on the theory of ultimate restoration
of the universe to peace and harmony; or on what will
practically amount to the same thing, so far as we are con
cerned, the theory that man's nature involves a capacity
for repentance after dissolution of the flesh, as well as be
fore that dissolution. The argument on that- theory will,
in brief, stand thus: The creation of a free agent is neces
sary to the glory of the universe, and Creative power can
be contented, in the nature of things, with nothing less
than such a being. Such a being may fall, and thus evil
will irresistably result. It is unjust that God should
create beings who may fall into exquisite and hopeless suf
ferings, in spite of Divine power to prevent it. But, on
the other hand, it is just and merciful and worthy of
Divine power to create beings who will fall if their suffer
ings are temporary and only such as are necessary to fit
them each for the highest state of which his nature is
capable, and which he could not attain as a free agent
without such temporary sufferings as may be adapted to
his peculiar case. Hence we may conclude that evil is
necessary if God is to create free agents, but that it is not
eternal, and shall not triumph over God: for He can bring
it to an end, consistently with the freedom of the will, by
the temporary suffering of man, through the eternal salva
tion of Christ; and in truth turn it into good.
On this argument neither the inequalities of life nor the
existence of evil can present any difficulty to an intelli
gent mind; as we proceed to illustrate still further.
We have learned from the book of Job that God works
personally and specially in the case of each of us, not only
on a fixed and inexorable law, but on the principles of

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED. 147
equity ; that He employs in this work every agency at His
command in heaven earth and hell, for our redemption;
that He adapts the circumstances of sorrow bereavement
or temptation best fitted to arouse us from our sinful state,
to our peculiar temperaments and conditions; and that He
does all this in love and mercy — because solely intended
for our reformation and happiness; not only here, but
especially, in our future life.
What, then, is that life? It is designed to be a higher
and better life, we know — but what sort of life? Is it to
be a life of peace and rest alone, of joy and praise and
heavenly song? Is it to be a life of mere luxurious enjoy
ment of the blessings of perfect health of body and mind
and soul, and of angelic social intercourse? These, and
much more than these, will no doubt thrill with joy every
heart in that glorious home; but these will be, we must
believe, only a part and the smaller part of that ineffable
bliss; or, rather, these will be but the sequel or the inter
ludes in that which is far higher — active service of our
God in such work as may be prescribed by Him for each
of us. Let any Christian, even here, cease or slack from
work for God in his appropriate sphere, and he will know
from bitter experience how his faith languishes, his love
grows cold, and his joy in God withers like a frosted
flower. And so it must be there, for our natures will not
be changed otherwise than by being purified through
Christ. Luxurious self-indulgence, idle seeking of mere
happiness, would introduce discord and misery even into
that blessed abode. Happiness is a maid divine, too coy
to be caught when sought for her own sake alone, but she
will fly speedily, adorned with bewitching smiles of love
and tenderness, and rest all her charms of grace and beauty
on the bosom of Him who has allured her by brave and

148 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
faithful service of her Father and her God. Let a man
cease from work even in this world, and though you crown
him with wealth and fame and all that men most prize,
yet he will be wretched and miserable. It has often been
said that the hardest work any man ever did was to do
nothing. His nature demands effort, and both here and
yonder that demand must be met, if he is to be happy, by
constant employment.
When our Saviour tells us that in His "Father's house
are many mansions" (John xiv, 12); when we are told in
so many texts that each man's position there will be as
signed him according to the deeds done in the body; that
there are degrees of glory in the Father's house, &c, — we
are to understand that in this world we are, each of us,
being moulded and prepared for some particular purpose,
some particular employment, which shall be peculiarly
our own. Some are being prepared, like "Michael, the
prince," (Dan. xii, 1) for God's sterner work — to lead his
embattled hosts or execute his judgments; some, like
" Lucifer, son of the morning," before he fell, to rule some
world, some star-cluster, some nebula, or some other mighty
province of God's universal empire; some, like Gabriel, to
" stand in the presence of God," ready to " fly swiftly " and
convey His gracious will (Luke i) ; and some — ah ! let us
not forget them, the gentle, loving Johns — to participate
jn the pure atmosphere nearest the throne, with cherubim
and seraphim and all the angelic hosts, in all ecstatic
ministries of delightful service. The things that are un
seen by us here are, as we are told in Scripture, the real
things, and all this blessed work will be intensely real.
Now, it would be folly in any father or teacher to sub
ject a gentle, timid nature to the severe experience or dis
cipline that may be essential to fit a sterner character for

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW — CONTINUED. 149
his appropriate work or position in life. It would abso
lutely unfit him for the station he might otherwise fill well.
We may be sure then that God will do no such thing. If
He needs to develop a being for the gentler ministries of
heaven He may endow and discipline one like the saintly
Chisholm; if one is needed for sterner or more active
work, the endowments and discipline of the more in
tractable characters with whom he has been compared
might be appropriate to that end. But if their earthly
discipline, through fierce temptations operating on human
infirmity, or through lack of spiritual susceptibility, either
inborn or induced by sin, cannot be made effective here,
why may it not be made so in conjunction with the dis
cipline of that world where the spiritual eyes are opened to
its realilties, and where the shadowy things of earth have
passed away. It may well be that privation in this life of
the gifts of fortune, of spiritual opportunity, and of spir
itual susceptibility in one case, and their full bestowal in
another, would prove, in connection with a future proba
tion, the most appropriate and even indispensable condi
tions of that highest happiness and perfection of which
each is capable, and of the overthrow of all evil.
It thus appears that all conceivable inequalities may,
on the theory we maintain, be easily reconciled, not only
with justice and equity, but with the highest good of the
creature. Wisdom and love can both applaud them since
they are consistent with bestowing on each the greatest
good of which his peculiar nature is susceptible, and since
his ultimate restoration to the favor of God will render all
temporary experiences of sorrow so utterly insignificant
that he can join with the Psalmist in the highest possible
conviction that it was good for him to have been afflicted.
Nay, given the condition that God designs ultimately

150 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
to bring to an end the reign of sin and 1o restore the har
mony of His entire universe, and we can have no difficulty
in understanding that infinitely varied inequalities in tem
poral dispensations are the only means which wisdom and
love can employ to mould to that blessed plan the in
finitely varied natures of intelligent creatures. No other
course is possible or would be just and merciful in dealing
with free agents whose wills are not "to be coerced but per
suaded into harmonious action.
Let us pause here and gather up the more prominent
truths we have thus far attained.
First. We have seen (Part I, ch. v) that there is no word
in Scripture which compels the belief of a hopeless punish
ment in the world to come.
Second. We have also seen (lb. ch. vi, et supra) that
there is nothing in the nature of man or the nature of sin
which forbids us to hope that the lost soul may repent and
turn to God in the future life.
Third. In the last chapter (Part II, ch. i) we took a
positive step, and showed that God's nature, as our Father
and his connection with us in that relation, are plain bases
of that hope — nay, that we could not give effect to His
Word revealing that relation in its simplicity and truth,
or realize it in its wonderful glory without accepting that
hope. Fourth. We now take another positive step and show
that all sorrows and bereavements and losses; all inequal
ities of fortune and of spiritual endowments, and all diffi
culties in respect to the existence of evil, can be explained
and reconciled with the justice and love of God on the
basis of that hope — but that without that hope midnight
darkness and gloom surround all these questions.
In the next chapter we hope to show that these conclu
sions are affirmatively supported by Scripture.

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 151

CHAPTER III.
THE DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND OF SALVATION.
WE learn from Scripture that the plan of creation and
salvation, was considered and arranged in the coun
cils of the eternal Godhead, before the world began.
We read that "the Word," or Christ, "was in the begin
ning with God ; all things were made by Him ; and with
out Him was not anything made that was made" (John i,
2, 3). This is spoken of Christ as distinguished, in His
mediatorial character, from the Godhead. And when we
are told, in this sense, that without Him nothing was made,
we are to understand that without a mediator, nothing
could have been made — for inevitable evil would have
brought universal and remediless misery to all the works
of God; and, therefore, it would have been inconsistent
with the character of God to have made them.
Accordingly, in perfect harmony with this view, we read
in Heb. i, 2, that God " hath in these last days spoken unto
us by His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He hath appointed heir
of all things, by whom also He made the worlds" — worlds
whose creation could not have been permitted by His
justice and mercy, without the prearranged salvation of
Christ. Therefore, we further read in 2 Tim. i, 9, 10, that
God "hath saved us and called us with an holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the
world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing

152 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
of our Saviour Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath
brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel."
We learn from this that in the councils of eternity, Christ was
ordained to call men, by His merit, not theirs, from the sin
into which they would fall; and that He would make that
call so effectual, as actually to " abolish death " — that death
which sin would introduce.
St. Paul, speaking of these wondrous things, declares
them to be "the wisdom of God in a mystery, which God or
dained before the world unto our glory " (1 Cor. ii, 7). And
he blesses God that " He hath chosen us " in Christ, " before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and with
out blame before Him in love " (Eph. i, 4).
The Saviour Himself crowns the truth of an eternally
ordained salvation, when in His last prayer as Mediator,
he says, " And now, 0 Father, glorify Thou Me with thine
own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the
world was" (John xvii, 5). This glory, we may not doubt,
was the glory of devising the creation and restoration of
all things.
:. To form, therefore, an intelligent idea of creation and
salvation, we must look at them as a whole so far as we may
be enabled by God's Holy Word to do so. To attempt to
understand salvation, without its component part, the plan
of creation, or creation without the scheme of salvation
on which it is based, would be like the attempt to under
stand a world by examining one of its hemispheres alone.
The failure to bear this in mind always is doubtless the
source of much of the vagueness and confusion which
involve the question of the future destiny of our race.
Since we are made " in the image of God — after his like
ness," and are, therefore, invested with the Divine capaci
ties in kind, though they are infinitely lower than the

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 153
Divine in degree, we are capable of understanding in some
dim measure the Divine emotions and plans as revealed
to us in Scripture. And, therefore, we are honored with
a glorious privilege — we are earnestly invited by our Father
in heaven to "search the Scriptures," to see what is the
truth aboilt these great things; to test every "doctrine
whether it be of God" (John vii, 17); to try the spirits
(those who teach us) whether they are of God " (1 John iv,
1). It is not then presumptuous in us reverently to
attempt in the light of Scripture the realization of the
mode in which our Father in heaven did consider and
elaborate the plan of creation and salvation, "before the
world was." The plan we might conceive would indeed
be worth nothing as matter of proof, if it should not be in
harmony with what He has revealed. But if it should
prove to be at least equally in harmony with His revela
tion with any other plan; and should, moreover, cover
the whole ground, harmonize His justice and His mercy,
and remove the difficulty of conceiving how evil in this
world and the next can consist with His holiness — then
may we indeed rejoice to believe that we have the true
thread which can lead us out of the labyrinths of doubt
and difficulty by which we are beset. A fortiori, if the
Scripture confirms that plan, we may consider it conclu
sively established, even though it should be thought there
is nothing positive iri Scripture on the subject.
We think, however, that the plan we shall submit is not
only marked by all the foregoing features, but that Scrip
ture fairly interpreted establishes it positively.
We may then conceive our God and Father in heaven,
sitting in those councils of eternity of which we read
above, and devising our world. From the lips of Jehovah
we may hear, with adoring awe, the first words— "Let us

154 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
create another heaven and earth; let us fill it with beauty
and joy; let us crowd its seas, its continents and its firma
ment with "living things" — with birds, with fishes, and •
with things moving in the waters; with cattle and creep
ing things and things moving on the earth. Let us make
the earth bring forth all the food needed for the sustenance
of all these living things. Let us adorn it with light and
warm it with genial heat, so that all may be happy
there; nor let us stay our hand till the whole shall
be so perfect that we ourselves shall say it is 'very
good.' Our angelic hosts will rejoice to see this new ex
hibition of our love and power. They will rejoice to visit
another happy world, floating in the depths of boundless
space, where they can study with a new delight still
further manifestations of our infinite Creative work, until
we increase their ecstacy with a greater wonder still. Till
then they will see beautiful creatures in unending variety)
and possessing for them the charm that they are mere inert
matter, moulded into intricate and diverse forms of living
grace. These creatures, so strange to them, because so un
like them in having no ' gift Divine,' no knowledge even
of their Maker's love, will yet inspire them with pleasing
thoughts of our glory and our might. Then, while they
are thus engaged, let us surprise them with a new wonder
and delight — 'let us make man in Our image, after Our
likeness' (Gen. i, 26), but yet 'a little lower than tne
angels " (Ps. viii, 5 ; Heb. ii, 7). This younger and weaker
brother will call forth all their tenderness and give them
a new and delightful employment — the ministry of service
(Heb. i, 14), the joy of bestowing happiness upon those
less favored than themselves. Their present bliss derived
from us shall thus be enhanced until they 'shout for joy.'
" But here a great difficulty springs up — if we create man

DIVINE PLAN Of CREA.TKM, AND SALVATION. l5!j
endowed with Divine capacities, his will cannot then be
controlled by us. His liability to fall will be inseparable
from the freedom of his will. Living in the world, and
thus, unlike the angels, away from the shelter of his
Father's home, seeing only by faith instead of having con
stant communion with us, he may forget us, and rebel
against us, by doing his own will instead of our's. Nay,
we foresee that he will do so, as we foresee that even some
of the angels will not keep their first estate. If they shall
fall — from our very side, and in our presence — how much
more shall he? Weak he will be, by reason of flesh and
sense, urging his will to self-assertion ; and the contagious
influence of depraved example in others, when once sin
begins to work, will intensify this evil tendency. At the
same time the fallen angels will seek to involve him in
the same ruin with themselves. If he resists them he will
no longer be wrestling against flesh and blood, like him
self, but against principalities, against powers,- against the
rulers of the darkness of the world, against spiritual
wickedness in heavenly places (Ephesians vi, 12). Yes,
he will surely fall. Every man and woman that shall
live will fall. All will depart from us and be filled with
their own devices (Prov. i, 31). This fall will bring in
death, and the bitter sting of that death will be sin (1 Cor.
xv, 56) — a constant resistance of our authority, the con
sequent ruin of our world, and with it an end of that uni
versal harmony which now fills our entire creation, and
which is the joy and glory of God.
"I am, I am power, I am justice, I am mercy, I am joy,
I am peace, I am love (1 John iv, 16), I am 'over all'
(Rom. ix, 5), I am 'all in all' (1 Cor. xv, 28) — irreparable
evil cannot therefore be brought into our universe. How then
can we create a being who, in spite of all that power and

156 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
love can do, will immediately sink into hideous and hope
less misery and ruin? True, we are not God if we cannot
create at will infinite varieties of forms and endowments.
Creative wisdom and love and power cannot be content
with mere negative forms of being. The Divine Spirit
must expand into higher effort. It has already done so in
the ministering spirits that surround the Godhead, and
execute our supreme will. Even man, if he should be
created, endowed as he would be with a divinely restless
mind, would, from his very nature, multiply the works of
his hands in unending forms. If he should be denied the
right to do so, his existence would be an unmitigated
curse; and gloom, wretchedness and despair would forever
deprive him of a moment's peace, far more of joy. The very
first demand of his nature would . be employment, inven
tion, various development of his God-given powers. He
had as well, nay, far better be an oyster or a stone, than to
be the possessor of powers capable of perpetual and blissful
exercise, and yet be forbidden the lawful employment of
them. And this is simply because he would be made in
our image. The Divinity that would stir within him
would be but a spark of that creative energy which is an es
sential part of our infinite love and power. Our divinity, then,
cannot deny itself (2 Tim. ii, 13), and must therefore exer
cise itself in all creative or productive energy that is con
sistent with our holiness.
" But can creative power be justly exercised on any crea
ture, which, by the act of creation, is immediately placed
where creative wisdom knows that it",will fall into hopeless
misery and ruin, without a remedy from that creative power
itself? True, creative power must of necessity be exerted,
but creative holiness cannot permit its exertion if absolute
evil will result to the object of this creative power. Such

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 157
an act would bring Confusion and contradiction into a
world made and ruled by infinite wisdom and -love — and
God cannot be the 'author of confusion, but of peace'
(1 Cor. xiv, 33). He cannot create one who shall be
tempted to hopeless ruin, knowing that he will certainly
fall under the temptation ; for then it would not be true
that ' God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth
he any man ' (James i, 13). No glory of ours could justify
such utter and hopeless misery without end. That glory,
to be pure; must harmonize with justice to each of its
elements or constituent parts. It would be dearly bought
at the expense of injustice or wrong to the meanest of our
creatures, for justice doth thrice demand that if any man
sin, he must be put to death for his own sin alone (Deut.
xxiv, 16; 2 Kings xix, 6; 2 Chron. xxv, 4), and not from
any considerations of advantage to ourselves or others.
The glory of our universe would be marred and stained
all over by the anguish of a single intelligent or sensitive
being, languishing for its sake, incurably, anywhere within
its boundless space. Evil and disorder would triumph over
God, and would themselves be Gods.
"Here, then, is the difficulty that demands eternal coun
sels — a Divine necessity to create a being who will surely
fall, immediately, into sin, and bring in universal misery;
the Divine holiness inconsistent with the continuance of
that evil, because God must be all in all. Man's creation
necessary — man's ruin inevitable, in spite of any means
that God can employ, because man's will is free.
But with us the end is seen from the beginning, for with
God nothing shall be impossible (Luke i, 37). Our counsels
are but the echo of the infallible word of power. On the
condition that evil can be made temporary ; that a pro
vision can be made for the redemption of man from his

0>8 THE DEATH! OF1 DEATH*.
fall — a provision so complete and so potent that we fore
see that by an acceptance of it man can and will be re
deemed; that some under one dispensation of external
circumstances, and some under another; that some in a
shorter, and others in a longer time; that some in this
world, and others in the next — each after his own man
ner and according to his peculiar disposition and character,
yet all at last — will accept this provision, then surely there
is no inconsistency with holiness in creating such beings.
The temporary evil resulting from the creation of such a
being will not be absolute evil — for it may and will, on the
condition of ultimate overthrow, be in truth converted by
that overthrow into an eternal good: because it will have
given needful experience to the creature, it will have in
ured the soul to contest against all that is contrary to the
will of God, and taught it the danger of a fall.
"Man may thus be justly created. And so 'let us make
man in our image, after our likeness.'"
Before producing the texts which, as we think, will be
found not only to be in harmony with this view, but to
establish it — in connection with those already cited — let
us lay down the principle on which their weight is to be
estimated. It is what we will call the mathematical principle, and is
one which is to be found stated in the books on morals
and on law. It applies to the proof both of facts and of
doctrines. It will probably be found stated nowhere more
clearly and tersely than by Wills " on Circumstantial Evi
dence," ch. viii, § 2, p. 239. We quote from the first
American, following the third English edition:
" In proportion to the number of cogent circumstances,
each separately bearing a strict relation to the same infer
ence, the stronger their united force becomes, and the more

DIVINE PLAN~OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 159
secure becomes our conviction of the moral certainty of
the fact they are alleged to prove; as the intensity of light
is increased by the concentration of a number of rays to
a common focus. It is forcibly remarked by a learned
writer, that the ' more numerous are the particular analogies,
the greater is the force of the general analogy resulting from
the fuller induction of facts, not only from the mere acces
sion of particulars, but from the additional strength which
each particular derives by being surveyed jointly with
other particulars, as one among the correlative parts of a
system' (Hampden's Essay, p. 63). Although neither the
combined effect of the evidence, nor any of its elements,
admits of numerical computation, it is indisputable that
the proving power increases with the number of the inde
pendent circumstances and witnesses, according to a geomet
rical progression. Such evidence, in the words of Dr.
Reid (Essay on the Intell. Pow., ch. iii), may be compared
to a rope made of many slender filaments twisted together.
The rope has strength sufficient to bear the stress laid upon
it, though no one of the filaments of which it is composed
would be sufficient for that purpose."
In Starkie on Evidence (margin p.) 853, the same prin
ciple is laid down, and he says " the probability derived
from the concurrence of a number of independent proba
bilities increases not in a merely cumulative, but in a com
pound and multiplied proportion. This is a consequence
derived from pure abstract mathematical principles."
The probabilities in favor of the truth towards which a
number of concurring facts or authorities converge, are
almost innumerable; and even if a converging series of
facts or principles could be found pointing in the other
direction, it would present a case in which the superior
of the probabilities in either direction must decide

160 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
the matter. All scientific truth results from a comparison
of probabilities; for as Froude says in his " Plea for the free
discussion of theological difficulties" (Short Studies), "the
conclusions of science are never more than in a high de
gree probable; they are no more than the best explanation
of phenomena, which are attainable in the existing state
, knowledge." Nor need we expect a higher degree of cer
tainty in most of the disputed questions of theology.
We not only believe, however, that the theory of God's
moral government which we here present, is a far better
"explanation of phenomena" than can be presented by
the traditional view; but that it rises to a still higher plane.
We have already seen (Part I, ch. v) that there is nothing
in Scripture which, if fairly interpreted, is in conflict with
our theory; and of course, therefore, that there is no con
verging series of facts or principles pointing in the other
direction. If, therefore, a large number of converging texts
can be produced which are favorable to it, a conclusive case
will be made out on the principle above laid down.
We invoke this principle for the benefit of those who
may be inclined to think that the texts we shall produce,
taken separately, are like the filaments of the rope, insuffi
cient for our purpose, as tending very slightly in our direc
tion. We shall produce, for the benefit of candid investi
gators of this class, a body of texts which, for the number
of human agents employed in writing them, for the various
circumstances under which they were written, and for their
apparent relation to the subject, derive strength from each
other " according to a geometrical progression," and together
make a rope of authority which cannot be broken.
We ourselves do not regard the principle as necessary
for our purpose, for we feel sure that most of the texts we
shall adduce are conclusive in themselves by their own

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 161
inherent weight; and that taken altogether they constitute
a revelation that is absolutely indisputable, if candidly
considered. Well might Isaiah say: "Verily thou art a God that
hidest thyself, 0 God of Israel, the Saviour" (xiv, 15), for
men have been, constantly stumbling amid the apparent
contradictions in His word already referred to, and are
now daily saying of Him, in regard to this and almost
every other question : " Lo He is here, lo He is there." Yes,
God delights to hide Himself from us, that He may stim
ulate us to search for Him. Let us endeavor to find Him
on this question :
In Isaiah lvii, 15-16, is a text which we have already
referred to as a "side-light" against the idea of annihila
tion. It is a direct light against the idea of a hopeless
punishment. "For thus sayeth the high and holy One
that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in
the high and holy place, with him also that is of a con
trite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For 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." Now, here is as plain a declaration as can be
made that if God should continue to withdraw His face
from any of His creatures, their souls and spirits would
fail before Him — or, in other words, be annihilated ; and
He declares almost in terms that this cannot be, and that,
therefore, He cannot be wroth forever. The alternative
presents itself then, either that because God cannot be
wroth forever, a contrite and humble heart must be de
veloped some day in every one of us; or else that some day
the souls of all who are not "contrite and humble" must
be annihilated. The idea of annihilation we have already

162 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
endeavored to prove inconsistent with the wisdom and
foresight of God; but whether so or not, the text remains
opposed to the idea of an endless and hopeless punish
ment. Again, in Matt, xii, 32, we read that "all manner of sin
and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blas
phemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto
men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Holy
Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor
in the world which is to come."
The advocates of the traditional dogma contradict this
text. According to their doctrine there is no repentance
in "the world which is to come"; but here it seems to be
plainly irriplied that there is such repentance. We have
already seen (Part I, ch. v) that St. Augustine allows this —
saying in his commentary on the text, " for it would not
be truly said of some that they are forgiven neither in this
age (seculo) nor in the future, were there not some who,
though not in this, are forgiven in the future."
But some one will say that the text proves that there is
at least one sin, which will not be forgiven in the future
life. Does the text prove this? Theologians have vainly
attempted to define this mysterious sin against the Holy
Ghost. The general, if not the universal conclusion is now,
we believe, that it is not a specific sin at all, but a persistent
habit of resisting the Holy Spirit of God, so that His re
straining and renewing influences cannot become operative.
But suppose it be some specific sin — the text only declares
that it shall not be forgiven in the seon that is to succeed
the existing seon. It does not declare that it shall never be
forgiven. The language is that it shall not be forgiven
iv touto) rw al&vt outs iv rat peXXovrt. This last word
conveys as well the idea of an immediate as of a remote

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 163
succession; so that the words may read "in this aeon, nor
in that which is about to come." But whether so or not,
the Scripture in the original preserves here (in the word
aitovi), as everywhere else, the same indefiniteness as to
the quantitative duration of retribution. So that even he
who commits the sin against the Holy Ghost, though he
may not be forgiven in some future seon, may yet be for
given at some time in the future. This text, therefore,
while apparently excepting for an seon or a time him who
sins against the Holy Ghost, is yet full authority for the
proposition that " all manner of sin " may be forgiven in
the future life as well as in this.
If this be not the true interpretation of the text, then
this mysterious sin, whatever it may be, may constitute
the sole exception to our theory; for it is the only case in
which there is not forgiveness of " all manner of sin " in the
" world that is to come," as well as in this.
Again, the traditional dogma is much narrower than the
following text. In Tim. iv, 10, St. Paul, after speaking of
the profitableness of Godliness, says: "for therefore we
both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the
living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those
that believe."
Now, from this text we learn that though Christ is the
Saviour of those who believe while in this world in an espe
cial sense; yet that in some sense he is the Saviour of all,
whether they believe in this world or not.- But on the
traditional dogma, he is in no sense the Saviour of those
who do not believe while in this world. He does indeed offer
them salvation, but if they reject it he cannot be their Sa
viour. So that dogma contradicts this text also. Our the
ory, on the other hand, affirms the text, in an intelligible
Bense. It is entirely proper to say that those who believe

164 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
while in this world are saved in an especial manner, be
cause they are to be " made unto God kings and priests,
and shall reign on the earth" (Rev. v, 10); and because
they escape the bitter intermediate sorrows and sufferings
of those who delay or protract their coming to Him.
In Isaiah xiv, 22-24, it is said : " Look unto me and be ye
saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is
none else. I have sworn by Myself — the word is gone out of
My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return — that
unto Me every knee shall bend, every tongue confess. Surely
shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and
strength; even to Him shall men come; and all that are
incensed against Him shall be ashamed before Him."
This declaration is repeated in Phil, ii, 9, 11, where, after
exalting the self-sacrifice of Christ, the apostle says:
" Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him
a name which is above every name ; that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in
earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory df God the
Father." The apostle then exhorts us to work out our own
salvation with " fear and trembling," assuring us of the help
of God. We need to do so with fear and trembling be
cause it seems, as was said before, that those who come to
Christ in this world, are to be " made unto God kings and
priests, and shall reign on the earth" (Rom. v, 10),
and because also they escape all the sufferings of the future
world which those who reject Him here must endure before
tha.are finally saved.
The adherents of the traditional dogma are wont to in
terpret these and similar texts as describing a compulsory
confession. They add other words to the text, and say the
confession will be one, " willing or enforced," &c. There

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 165
is nothing, however, in the texts, or anywhere else, to jus
tify such an interpretation, but the contrary. Neander,
in his Church History (note to pp. 676, 678, vol. 2), states
that Didymus in his exposition of this passage "speaks
of calling on the name of Christ, which extends to the
salvation of all." Perhaps Didymus knew no more about
it than other people, but those who like the authority of
"the Fathers" may like his confession. If we liked their
authority better than we do, we might cite a goodly num
ber of them in support of these views.
Now, here are texts in which God declares not only that
to Him in the name of His Son Jesus every tongue shall
confess and every knee shall bow of things in heaven and
earth and under the earth, but He has sworn by Himself in
righteousness that it shall be so; and here we are to re
mark, as well as in connection with the texts hereafter to
be adduced, that " things under the earth" are almost, if
not universally held by theologians to mean things in hades
and in hell, including the lost souls of men and of the
fallen angels.
Take another text. In 1 Tim. ii, 4, 6, it is declared that
" God our Saviour * * * will have all men to be saved
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there
is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the
man Christ Jesus ; who gave himself a ransom for all to be
testified in due time."
Now, it is not the fact that Christ is our mediator that
is to be thus testified. That had been already done, by
the prophets, by Christ himself, by Paul who wrote these
lines : but the thing yet to be testified (or made manifest
in a practical, way) is, that he who gave himself a ransom
for all will have all men to be saved. And the reason why
this jtruth, so plainly revealed, is to be remitted for its fid-

166 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
fillment to some future time, is, plainly, because the work of
His grace could not be completed finally in thisworld (as we
shall see more plainly hereafter), inasmuch as many men
would fail or refuse to accept that ransom, till the realities
of the future world should "in due time" incline them to
it. This text corresponds on this point with those from
1 Cor. xv and Rev. iv, 5, to be cited presently.
We come now to more important texts ; to those
which make such plain and positive statements on this
momentous subject, that it is a marvel they have not al
ways been considered conclusive of it. We feel sure they
would always have been so considered, but for the bias pro
duced by the false interpretations of the texts in regard to
the seonian punishment, which have been already exposed.
In 1 Peter iii, 18, et seq., we read that "Christ * * *
hath once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust that
He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh
but quickened in the spirit; by which also He went and
preached unto the spirits in prison." Then follows a ref
erence to those who repented not in the days of Noah.
This passage has always been a difficult one to the tradi
tional theologians, and many curious contortions have been
made around it by the commentators, in order to make it
square with their theories. But one thing is clear, that
at some time and under some circumstances Christ
preached to the souls "in prison." It may have been at
the time when, according to that universal confession — the
apostles' creed — He "went into the place of departed spir
its." But wherever it was, since He went as the Christ, He
could, we may feel sure, have preached to them only the
gospel of peace. The text is a stumbling block and a
snare, or else utterly inexplicable on the traditional dogma
about future punishment; but is entirely intelligible on

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 16?
our theory. If the lost are capable of repentance here
after, nothing could be more fitting than the announce
ment to them by Christ himself of His redeeming love,
by which alone their repentance could be made effective.
The fact that there is only one text of this sort, amounts
to nothing against its teaching; for to him who believes
it is God's word, one text is as conclusive as a million.
In Ephesians i, 9-11, after a glowing description of the
redeeming love of God in Christ, the apostle tells us that
God has "made known unto us the mystery of His will, ac
cording to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in
Himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, He
might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which
are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him."
It is impossible for language to convey to us more
strongly than this does the plain statement that it is God's
purpose, not in this earthly time, but in the dispensations of
His grace, in the "fulness of the times" (plural rcov katpaiv),
to restore all things to Himself in Christ. A cavil can
scarcely be made in respect to it. It may indeed be said
that the things "under the earth" are not alluded to here
as in the text from Philippians above cited. But to such a
mere cavil the answer is plain. The controlling words
in that text are "every knee," "every tongue," and in this
the controlling word's are the "all things" that are to be
gathered together "in one" in Christ. The other language
is merely expletive.
But let us take another text which is even more conclu
sive than this, and to which such a cavil cannot be made
with a grave face ; for though the terminal words are prac
tically the same, yet the ruling words exclude the cavil
even more decidedly than those above. After another and
still more glowing eulogy of Christ, the apostle tells us in

168 the death of death.
his epistle to the Colossians i, 18-20, that he is "the head
of the body, the church : who is the beginning, the first
born from the dead; that in all things he might have the
pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father that in him
should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or
things in heaven."
Now, if ideas can be conveyed by words, we understand
it to be here declared that it pleased God to make peace
through the blood of Christ. Peace where? Why, peace
where there was no peace before— peace everywhere — peace
throughout a discordant universe; for by this alone could
He " reconcile all things" unto Himself. The language in
cludes everything that is not at peace. God will not, as
men sometimes do, " make a desolation and call it peace,"
but He will bring in the fulness of peace that is found in
Christ. Can language be more positive? If it is possible for it to
be so, we now cite texts which may illustrate that pos
sibility :
In 1 Cor. xv, 22-26, we read that " as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man
in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that
are Christ's at His coming. Then cometh the end, when He
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the
Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all au
thority and power. For He must reign till He hath put
all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death."
And in 2 Tim. i, 10 (already quoted), it is said that the
grace of God is " made manifest by the appearing of our
Saviour Christ, who hath abolished death, and brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel."

1 I

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 169
Now, in reference to the death in Adam, and the life in
Christ for all men, the words "as" and "even so," in our
version, are represented in the original by the words- tbzitep
and ouro), which may be translated so that the text will
read "in the same way or manner as in Adam all die, so in
this way or in like manner in Christ shall all be made
alive." As death came upon all in the one case, so exactly
shall life be restored to all in the other. As the corrupt
nature derived from Adam did, with the concurrence of
all, bring death upon all, so the grace of Christ, with the
concurrence of all, shall restore all to life. It is not merely
a doctrinal statement, but is, like the rest of this chapter,
a prophetic declaration of the fact that all shall be made
alive in Christ. The apostle then proceeds to illustrate the
truth he has stated. He declares that though this will be,
yet that it will be accomplished in a certain " order" at and
after the resurrection. Of that resurrection Christ is the
"first fruits" already garnered. "Afterwards," to wit, at
the resurrection, there will be other fruits, viz: "they that
are Christ's at His coming;" and they will "meet the Lord
in the air," with the "dead in Christ" who have already
risen, as we learn from 1 Thess. iv.
"Then (eka) cometh the end." When? Why, afterward,
for this is the force of the word in -the original, as well as
of the word "then'1' in our own language. "Afterward
cometh the end." How long afterward? Why, the end
cometh "when He shall have delivered the kingdom to God(
even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule,
and all authority and power." How long will it be till that
is accomplished? God knows; but however long it may
be, Christ " must reign " till it is accomplished, " till He hath
put all enemies under His feet," including Death, the last of
them all. Till then the kingdom will not be delivered up
8

170 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
to the Father, and Christ's mediatorial work must go bo,.
But some blessed day, however far off it may be, He shall
end that glorious work by a complete conquest of all His
enemies. And who are these enemies? Are they poor
sinful men who have rejected Him in this life? Oh, no,
no ; He does not hold these to be His enemies — these are
his poor lost sheep — these are the wanderers from the shel
ter of His fold — these are they for whom He died — these
are they for whom He left the glory of heaven to abide in
the moral waste of this our world, for they are included
in the "all" men. The only enemies He Himself names
are spiritual enemies — sin and death and hell, and their
children, shame and sorrow and despair, and such as these.
Though legion in name, they are in truth all one great
enemy. Any one of these names will do for all — and here
St. Paul takes the central name, the one we know and
dread the most; the one around which they all gather, and
which most fitly includes them all — Death — " the last enemy
that shall be destroyed is death," and with death shall also
be destroyed that hell which is His creature and which
"follows with Him" (Rev. vi, 8). Death is the last
enemy, because now the sinful probation has ceased.
Death has gathered all the harvests that sin had matured,
and garnered them in his gloomy prison b,ouse of hell.
But the kingdom is now to be delivered up to God the
Father. Death is now to be despoiled of his prey. His
prison doors are to be unbarred, for his prisoners have
called on Him who is "mighty to save." The "set time is
come," yea, "the fulness of times." "0 death, where is thy
sting ? 0 grave, where is thy victory ? " The Conqueror of
the grave is nigh, the Victor over death has come. His
righteous sword is ready. It sweeps with Almighty power
through the air, and death is destroyed! Death is abolished!
Alleluia I Amen !

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 171
Now, on the traditional dogma death will never be " abol
ished," death will never he "destroyed," for neither the one
nor the other can take place so long as he holds in his dread
ful grasp either annihilated or suffering souls. But let human
dogmas be what they will, we bless and praise Thee, 0
Thou Father Almighty, Thou blessed Son, Thou quicken
ing Spirit, Thou glorious eternal Triune God, that Thou
hast promised, and that Thou wilt fulfill that glorious pro
mise that death shall be destroyed, yea, abolished through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
But we rise now to a still higher plane. To the "beloved
disciple" was given the last recorded revelation from on
high. He was permitted — as were Paul and some of the
holy prophets of an earlier time, but "more abundantly
than they all " — to see visions of the heavenly world, and
to record them for our instruction.
In Rev. iv and v, we have, as we may well esteem it, the
unspeakable privilege of attending the court of heaven,
and witnessing through the eyes of John the great council
of the universe, in which God disclosed the full meaning of
the sacrifice of Christ. While John was gazing, he heard
a voice, " as it were of a trumpet," which said to him,
"come up higher, and I will show thee things which must
be hereafter." "A throne was set in heaven, and one sat
on the throne, * * * and there was a rainbow round
about the throne." And then there was heavenly worship
and ascriptions of praise from the heavenly hosts, and from
those that were redeemed from among men, to Him that
sat upon the throne. And John saw "in the right hand of
Him that sat upon the throne, a book written within, and
on the back side sealed with seven seals."
Now, what was this book? It seems very clear that it
was the book of Christ's redemption — the book in which the

172 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
full meaning of His mediatorial work was written down.
John was apparently not yet fully acquainted with its
scope as then to be displayed; and both he and the rest of
our race, as well as the angels who "desire to look into"
the mystery of Christ's salvation (1 Pet. i, 12), shall yet
learn in future ages still more of it. The writing on the
back side of the book could be read of course by all. That
was the open and apparent truth that the " dead in Christ,'
and those who should wait and long for his coming, would
be saved by Him, combined with hints and hopes of still
greater benefits to all God's creatures. John knew all this ;
the four and twenty elders knew all this; all the heavenly
hosts knew all this. Christ had proclaimed it. John had
experienced it. The apostles who had all passed away
had declared it; and with more or less of distinctness had
set forth still deeper truths in connection with the sacrifice
of the Son of God. All this could be seen on the "back
side" of the book. But oh! if these glorious truths, and
the still larger hopes to which we have referred, could be
seen on the back side of the book, what was "within" the
book so jealously sealed with seven seals ? Did it tell of
other ineffable triumphs of the cross ? Did it tell dis
tinctly anything of those sheep that were lost! lost! lost?
Did it bring their fate out into the light of heavenly day,
instead of leaving it in the comparative twilight of apos
tolic epistles ? Did it tell the destiny of the great majority
of mankind, about whom John may then have had some
doubt? Or.— let us ask it slowly, and with suppressed
voice, — did it tell the fate of those who lost their "first es
tate " in heaven itself — the lost angels and arch-angels.
To these questions we can only answer as yet that
"within" were "the things which must be hereafter."
We may vainly endeavor to conceive how John watched

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 173
that book, and what should be done with it. A strong
angel proclaimed with a loud voice and asked, "who is
worthy to. open the book and to loose the seals thereof?"
Surely some mighty being will come forward clothed with
arch-angelic purities, and open those awful seals. Doubt
less there was deep "silence in heaven," as on another oc
casion, and doubtless all watched eagerly for such a majestic
volunteer; but in vain they watched — "no man in heaven,
nor in earth, nor under the earth, was able to open the
book, neither to look thereon." Still all waited and hoped
against hope, but no one came, and John "wept much be
cause no man was found worthy to open" this mysterious
book, till one of the elders came and comforted him, saying
to him "weep not; the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root
of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose
the seven seals thereof." The elders are considered by
theologians the representatives of the redeemed; and cor
rectly so, no doubt, as appears from the 9th verse of chap.
v. But neither these representatives of the redeemed nor
any of the heavenly hosts could open those mysterious
seals — but He and He only was worthy to do so, who was
in majesty "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," and in gen
tleness a lamb — a "lamb as it had been slain." He alone
could show the mysterious purpose of the Godhead,
hitherto partly hidden, but now to be brought into the
open light and proclaimed plainly to all, to the full extent
of their capacity, to understand this grand result of the
councils of eternity. And what was this mysterious pur
pose? We read that when this lamb that had already been
slain took the book "out of the right hand of Him that
sat upon the throne," all the heavenly hosts "fell down
before Him, having every one of them harps and golden vials
full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints. And they

174 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
also sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the
book, and to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain
and hast redeemed us to God, by Thy blood, out of every
kindred and tongue and people and nation; and hast
made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall
reign on the earth." The narrative twice speaks of the
book as held in the right hand of Him that sat on the
throne — betokening that the revelation was to be a mani-
-festation of Almighty power.
It seems that thus far the lamb had taken, but had not
opened the book, for there are no other praises than those
of the heavenly hosts, and those already redeemed, and the
cause assigned for their praise is that accomplished redemp
tion. But in the 11th verse John commences another reve
lation, which evidently indicates what took place after the
opening of the seals of the book. Now were disclosed
" the things which must be hereafter," which John so eagerly
desired to know, viz : what should be the course of this
world, its sins, its wars, its famines, its pestilences, its per
secutions, its death on the pale horse, and all else that
should afterwards occur, till that grand final consumma
tion, when all evil should .be brought to an end, and
"Death and Hell" should be "cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death" (Rev. xx, 14). Oh blessed
word ! the lake of fire, which is the second death, is the
death of death and hell! Then John's heart must have
glowed with joy and exultation. He says "and I beheld
(what was in the book, no doubt), and I heard the voice of
many angels round about the throne, and the (living ones),
and the elders : and the number of them was ten thous
and times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; say
ing with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to
receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 175
glory, and blessing." Now observe — in the first song of the
elders and the heavenly hosts at the taking of the book,
and before it was opened, the praise was declared to be on
account of the redemption of the former, and these two
classes alone join in it. But now when the book is opened
and the glorious vista of redeeming love clears up before
them (as subsequently set down in order for us by St.
John in the Book of Revelations), there is no longer any
room for specific praise, but all thought, all feeling is swal
lowed up in the matchless glory of the revelation and of
Him by whom it was revealed. And now the elders and
the heavenly hosts are no longer alone in their exultant
praise. Now, in John's vision, those who were still the
victims of sin on earth, and those — 0 wondrous truth! —
those despairing ones who inhabited the dismal abode of
the lost, whether they were angels or men, broke forth like
the sound of many waters, shouting in unison with those
already saved the song of a redeemed and perfected uni
verse. "And every creature which is in heaven and on earth
and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are
in them heard I saying ' blessing and honor and glory and power
be unto Him that sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb forever
and ever.' "
This was no "enforced" song. It was a joyous and ex
ultant shout of irresistible praise and thanksgiving, from
every creature in heaven, earth and hell. For let it be ob
served — First. The words "under the earth" are almost if
not quite universally conceded by theologians to mean, as
already said, the inhabitants of hades and hell; and the
word "sea" is likewise held to describe a great multitude
anywhere, or the infinite ether in which float the manifold
works of God. Second. The inhabitants of heaven, the
representatives of the redeemed, and all that were in

176 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
earth, or under the earth, or anywhere in boundless space
— sing the same song, at the same time, and in the same
terms. We have now adduced texts that seem to us" conclusive.
We know what distortions of them all have been made by
the traditional theologians in order to explain them in
accordance with their views. We know how men (we our
selves, not less than others in all save in capacity) can read
almost anything they choose into Scripture, by ingenious
explanations of some things and learned smotherings of
others. We present the texts we rely on in their sim
plicity, to speak for themselves, only calling attention to
their salient points. There i3 scarcely one of them that
can be rationally explained, if fairly dealt with, in con
sistency with the traditional dogma of hopeless punish
ment, and they each and every one conform to our view.
In the absence of anything, fairly interpreted, to the con
trary, either one of them is unanswerable as an authority
in favor of our position. Taken together, in accordance
with the principle of law above laid down, rising as they
do in cumulative force, and each giving strength to the
other as in a bundle of rods, they point unanswerably to
the ultimate elimination from God's universe of the dis
cord of sin and sorrow, and to the ultimate restoration of all
things to the love and favor of our Father in Heaven. He
has spoken it.
"Sing ye heavens, rejoice 0 earth," the love of Christ,
tender, alluring to the mind, sweeter than life itself to the
heart, shall warmly beam upon the soul; and then, either
now or hereafter, the robe of sin by which it is imprisoned
— though all the more closely folded to the heart by reason
of the very deadness and coldness of penal blasts — shall
gladly be thrown off. Here are disclosed some of the

DIVINE PLAN OF CREATION, AND SALVATION. 177
mysteries of Christ's sacrifice. It works moral miracles, it
makes the filthy clean, the darkness light, the guilty inno
cent, the free will submissive — in short, it removes all the
apparent contradictions and impossibilities that may be
conceived from the universe of God.
"All glory be to Thee, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father,
for that Thou, of Thy tender mercy, didst give Thine only
Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our re
demption; who made there (by Hio one oblation of Him
self, once offered) a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice,
oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world."
Yes, "once offered"; once for all; once — but for all time,
and for all eternity, and "for the sins of the whole world." It
was conceived in the primeval counsels of the Godhead,
and reaches forth throughout the countless ages of the
future. All creatures in the universe may well rejoice in
it, because all creatures in the universe shall reap its bene
fits. The highest archangel in heaven and the lowest
demon in hell, each after his kind, shall in the age of ages
be participants in the everlasting harmony and joy which
by it shall be restored to a groaning and discordant uni
verse.

178 THE DEATH OF DEATH.

CHAPTER IV.

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS.

AT first sight it would seem strange that any human being
— and especially that any Christian who loved the
Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity — should be aggrieved at any
attempt to show that, according to the infallible word of
God, His mercy and His justice can be reconciled in the
harmony of His universe ; at any attempt to show that the
sacrifice of Christ, the incarnation, the sorrowful pilgrimage,
and the death of the Son of God, have a deeper significance
and a wider sweep than he had hitherto supposed. It
seems indeed strange that any could be distressed to think
that God, who is over all his works, and who is "all in all,"
will some day establish everlasting peace; will some day
bring into perfect union and communion with Himself the
poor sinners who have lost their way to Him, or who have
been beaten back into the misery of alienation from Him
in this life, by the temptations of the world, the flesh and
the Devil. Above all, it seems strange that men should be
distressed or disturbed at the attempt to prove the suf
ficiency, for this end, of the stupendous sacrifice of the Son
of God. One would think that any honest attempt of that
sort, by a rational and pains-taking man, would be met by
the "Godspeeds" of all who heard of it. Even those who
had fixed opinions to the contrary formed on careful ex
amination and deliberation, might be supposed to say, "Go
pn? if you honestly think so ; we have failed to see it, but

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS. 179
if you can show it on reasonable interpretations of God's
holy Word, we will rejoice with you, and hail the result as
worthy of another, a higher, and a sweeter note than we
have ever touched before in our songs of praise to the glory
of God and of the Lamb."
Alas! alas! how different the reception which meets
every honest effort to search after God, if happily he may
be found, when that effort is an unfashionable one, or when
it ventures to question the infallibility of accepted dogma !
Of those who thus oppose theinselves to all that is not
expressed in rigid formulas, there are two classes:
First. Those (in whatever church) who are lacking in
the capacity or the disposition to consider or form inde
pendent opinions for themselves. Of this class are some
professional theologians,, who consider it a mortal offence
that any one should fail to submit implicitly to the ex-
cathedra utterances of their party, which they are pleased
to call "the Church," and who mean, even by "the Church," /
only the little branch of it to which they have given their/
allegiance. To the creed of that party or church, be itj
long or short, they accord absolute authority, however it\
may differ from the creeds of other Christian bodies, as
honest, as prayerful and as intelligent as their own. Their <
style is that of denunciation of all who differ with them;
and they often describe even those who question the truth
of some dogma of theirs, not among the essentials of the
faith as necessary to salvation, as "rationalists," "free
thinkers," or "skeptics." They never descend to consider
calmly any opinions that may be expressed, or to remove
kindly any honest difficulties in the way of what they call!
the "orthodox" creed (or their creed), for that would im
ply that it might by possibility be, in any point, a mistaken
creed. This they will in no wise admit. They claim for

180 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
it, on the contrary, that infallibility which they indignantly
deny to the Pope or the dogmas of his church. Any creed
or opinion which differs from their own is, therefore, an
attempt to make war on the truth of God, and its pro-
pounder is conceited, presumptuous and rationalistic.
The truth is, this Whole matter of creeds is a strange and
unphilosophical one. Protestants assert against Rome the
freedom of private judgment in religious matters, and
deny the authority of the church to lay down ex-cathedra a
faith for all. Then, straightway, most of them (each de
nomination for itself, and each differing from all the rest),
proceed to propound a long series of intricate and difficult
propositions, the greater part of which are not of the essen
tials of salvation, each of which requires a long course of
study for the formation of a satisfactory opinion on it one
way or the other, and on which not one in ten of their
numbers, whether lay or clerical, can possibly have any
intelligent opinion at all. These propositions are then
called a creed or confession; and all the ministers and
members of the denomination which framed it are re
quired to accept it. It is perfectly absurd that they should
be expected to do so intelligently; and it is therefore
equally absurd that such creeds should be made the tests
of orthodoxy or of church membership. All those who
accept them merely on the authority of the church, are in
no better position than the Romanist, who must blindly
adhere to the teachings and authority of his church,
whatever error it may set forth. It is matter of every
day experience, that it is one of the most difficult things
to make any considerable number of persons agree on the
same side of any disputed question. Juries are hung
every day on single and simple issues. The difficulty in
creases in geometrical ratio, if there are many persons and

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS. 181
many issues. How ridiculous, then, is an arbitrary denun
ciation of any honest thinker as skeptical or wicked, be
cause, having considered it, he is unable to agree with his
critic on some one or more of these difficult and varied
questions. In so far as creeds or confessions contain only
the essential doctrines of Christianity — those generally con
sidered necessary to salvation — they are good things. Or,
if— though containing all else that is usually embraced in
them — they are merely to be considered as the opinions
which the church recommends to her members for their con
sideration or approval, they are well enough. But when
they are made the tests of orthodoxy, they are not one
whit less offensive than the dogmas of the Romish coun
cils, or of the Pope, for both are enforced by penalties of
one sort or another as if infallible.
It is of such theoglogians as those above mentioned that
Mr. Froude (with whom we differ in many things) so well
says in the lecture already referred to: They "are loud
and confident; but they speak in the old angry tone which
rarely accompanies deep and wise convictions. They do
not meet the real difficulties; they mistake them, misre
present them, claim victories over adversaries with whom
they have never even crossed swords, and leap to conclu
sions with a precipitancy at which we can only smile. It
has been the unhappy manner of this class frpm imme
morial time; they call it zeal for the Lord, as if it were be
yond doubt that they were on God's side — as if serious en
quiry after truth was something which they were entitled
to resent. They treat intellectual difficulties as if they
deserved rather to be condemned and punished than to be
considered and weighed, and rather stop their ears and
run with one accord upon any one who disagrees with
them than listen patiently to what he has to say. * * *

18" 2 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
They refuse dangerous questions as sinful, and tread the
round of commonplace in placid comfort. * * * They
repeat a series of phrases which they are pleased to call
answers to objections; they treat the most serious grounds
of perplexity as if they were puerile and commonplace;
while it is notorious that for a century past extremely able
men have either not known what to say about them, or
have not said what they thought."
It is such theologians as these who have provoked an
unnecessary antagonism between true science and religion.
Their principles, or their lack of principle, would have
made them participants in the persecution of Galileo, and
in the various insane assaults that have been made from
time to time upon the facts of astronomy and geology-
If any new facts or principles are discovered which com
pel a new view of some portion of revelation, they assail
them violently and- denounce their discoverers as enemies
of the truth of God — when in fact they are only enemies
of their false interpretations of that truth. They have
thus often driven honest investigators into apparent an
tagonism with religion ; and alas ! in some cases, confirmed
in such a position those who without their misconstruc
tions would never have assumed it.
If there be any system of science or of morals (and un
fortunately there are some) which has for its object the over
throw of our faith in God, and the elimination of the
Divine Creator from His universe, then let all assail it in
the name of the Lord Jehovah ; for such a system would
reduce our race to a condition worse than that of heathen
ism. But let us be very sure that any system is of this
character, before we presume to bend our bows against it
in the name of the Lord. It is said that Darwinism is of this
character. It may be so. One of the bishops of the

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS. 183
Church of England stated in a recent public utterance
that a distinguished scientist, an advocate of that system,
informed him that his object, in common with that of
many others of its adherents, in supporting it, was to dis
pense with a Creator; and that this was the tendency of the
system. It is folly to call any system a scientific one
which has any object except the truth. If this adherent of
Darwinism correctly represents its animus, it is a mockery
to call it science — it is only a frantic form of atheism. But
if we presume to speak in the name of the Lord, let us care
fully reserve our judgments till we are sure we correctly
understand the matter. Let us accept all the facts, but re
pudiate all inferences from those facts which leave us the
prey of any blind laws of matter — for these inferences must
be false if they deny the universal and instinctive belief
of all mankind, in all ages, and among all nations, in a
Divine Creator. Facts once ascertained we must accept,
and if they correct our confident but ignorant and false
interpretations of Scripture, so much the better. They
have often done so to the glory of God and the good of
man, but such facts, when fully understood, have never re
versed thus far a single fact of Scripture, however they
may have placed it in a new light. Let us never fear new
facts. They, we doubt not, are new revelations from God>
and as surely as God exists, they will conform to the truths
of His Word. By showing our jealousy of facts, and of
honest and godly investigations of the legitimate infer
ences to be drawn from them, we betray our lack of faith,
we prove our fear that God's truth cannot take care of
itself, we show that we ourselves have doubts whether in
deed it be His truth. Rather let us march confidently
under the banner of the Lord of Hosts. Let us know that
in that sign we shall conquer, and that beneath its folds

184 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
we ourselves shall be made to see again, at every new 'as
sault upon it, as has been seen before a thousand times —
that the wisdom of man is foolishness with God. Let us
greet with kindness all honest, intelligent and conscien
tious efforts to vindicate the glory of God for the good of
man — even though we may differ with their advocates, or
they may fail in their endeavor. Let us frown only on
those efforts whose purpose is to dishonor him, and to wrest
from our suffering race the Divine consolations they now
enjoy. Let us frown only on enemies of the truth, among
whom may be ranked those "blind guides" whom we
have described, and who, by senseless clamor and unjust
aspersions, give to those enemies the best aid and comfort
they can bestow.
For such objectors as these none need write, nor need it
be material to any one what may be their judgment of
his work, for he may assume beforehand that it will be of
the usual sort. If they are right in their unreasoning ad
herence to prescribed dogma, and in their style of meeting
difficulties, the reformation was a great mistake, and it was
very unfortunate that the stake and fagot did not extin
guish at once the fiery zeal of Luther and the gentler
pleadings of Melancthon. No one need trouble himself
about their opinions until they have settled with the Pope
their rival claims to infallibility; andas.it is certain he
will never come to them, they should go to him, and so
combine a unity of dogma to be received without inquiry,
whatever absurdities it may contain.
But there is a second and a very different class from this,
whom all must respect, but who also often oppose them
selves to all that is not set down in the formulas of their
respective churches. It consists of those honest thinkers
who, from what we consider mistaken notions of policy,

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS. 185
are unwilling to disturb what has been once settled, even
when they think it was settled amiss. While claiming no
practical infallibility for any human interpretation of God's
Word, whether made by their own churches or others, they
yet fear that any revision of such interpretations once
established may be perilous, even though just, as calculated
to unsettle the faith and disturb the repose of the simple
souls who implicitly believe. This is an amiable senti
ment, and is worthy of careful consideration ; but by such
consideration its amiability may be shown to be its chief
merit, since reason condemns it. It is, if sound, a valid
bar to all progress in doctrine — all further approaches to
that infinite truth whose depths we shall never fathom
even in eternity. Such a sentiment, if sound, should have
prevented the Reformation, the successive revisions of
doctrine after the Reformation, the revision of our version
of the Bible now going on, and whatever other step that
may now or hereafter be taken to draw from that bottom
less ocean of truth — God's blessed Word — nearer and better
views of the inconceivable wisdom and love which mark
His varied relations to our race.
But let us consider more particularly the various objec
tions that may be made to a revision of the doctrine of
future punishment.
And first, let us weigh the force of the objection that
such a revision may disturb the repose and unsettle the
faith of others, whether they be thinkers, half-thinkers, or
those who do not think for themselves, but accept im
plicitly what is given them by those in whom they
confide. Now we confidently lay down the proposition that each
man on earth and all of us together are under the solemn
obligation to God to seek first, and before all other things to

186 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
know and make known His truth to the best of the
ability He may have given to each of us. This we have to
do, but with consequences we have nothing to do. God
has not placed the latter within our ken, for it is absolutely
impossible for any one of us to say what will be the full
consequences of any act he has ever done, or will ever do,
or even of any word spoken by him. Whenever men have
assumed that they could and should shape their conduct
by what they imagined might be its consequences, disaster
has befallen them or others in the end, and the truth has
always suffered by it. Look at the Jesuits. No more de
voted and self-sacrificing efforts were ever made than those
of Ignatius Loyola, their founder. He honestly sought
the glory of God, and so did many of his followers. He
and they sought it as honestly as did Paul when he per
secuted -Christ through His disciples. No man can doubt
it fairly and intelligently. But, unfortunately, they pre
sumed to think that they could .foresee the consequences
of certain acts, and were tempted, in order to avoid certain
supposed evil consequences, and to effect certain supposed
good consequences, to withhold temporarily the truth —
just as the Romish Church now withholds the Scriptures
from the laity, for fear of their wresting it — and this finally
resulted-in the doctrine that the "end justifies the means."
What hellish consequences have followed, in point of fact,
from this doctrine, and how the truth has been buried by
it under mountains of error, let history tell. No, let God's
truth appear, though it should prove every man a liar]
whether he be pope or president, or member of councils,
of conventions, of synods, of associations, or of any other
human organization. Even on the score of expediency, it
should be so; for if we are to judge of the consequences of
a new view of the doctrine of future punishment or of any

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS, 187
other doctrine on those whose cases we are considering, we
may confidently believe that it is better they should have
their faith and repose disturbed for awhile, than that they
should hold falsely any part of the truth of God.
Second. It is sometimes said that if the extreme doctrine
of future punishment is reviewed, and a milder one is
established, it will be wrested by the careless thinkers, the
half-thinkers and those who desire to wrest it for any
reason, and that then it will be made to mean something else,
viz : freedom from penalty. The same views as those above
expressed as to consequences belong here ; but besides, we
may fairly say that this is no just criticism of the doctrine
propounded or of the act of propounding it, but is simply
a criticism of human nature. What doctrine, what Scrip
ture is there, that men do not wrest? It is the infirmity
of our nature and the influence of the Devil, which render
this inev:table, just as they result in every form of evil.
But that is no reason why any doctrine or truth should be
suppressed. If it were, then St. Paul would not have
written those " things hard to be understood," which St.
Peter tells us the " unlearned and unstable wrest as they do
the other Scriptures unto their own destruction." 2 Peter,
iii, 16.
Third. It is sometimes said that if the dogma of a hope
less future punishment for the sins of this brief life is
overthrown, and the doctrine established that men may
repent hereafter, with the hope of ultimate restoration to
happiness, they will not fear to sin, but will rather prefer
to enjoy all the pleasures of this life, and postpone to a
future time their repentance and acceptance of Christ.
And that this will be the more easily appreciated when we
consider that even the doctrine of an inconceivable and
hopeless torture in the future world is sufficient to alarm

188 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
only a comparatively small number. Again, let us be re
minded that we have nothing to do with the consequences
of uttering the truth, if it be truth; but as all these ob
jections proceed on an estimate of consequences, we must
answer them.
Now, we are of those who believe that it is "the good
ness of God (that) leadeth (men) to repentance" (Rom. ii,
4), rather than the terrors of the law. So that even if
those terrors could be m#dtr1kr-mcu^_j£alisiic than they
are under the traditional dogma, we need not expect the
chief fruits of the Spirit from preaching that doctrine, but
rather from preaching the goodness and love of God. Love
is almost infinitely more persuasive than fear. Even the
tenderest woman who trembles at each "sudden sound or
shock," will dare for love's sake the most fearful dangers
from man, or beast, or nature in her wrath. And so with
the bravest man. It is not because there is not sufficient
of terror in the traditional doctrine to arouse men that
they do not repent, for how could its horrors be increased?
But men are indifferent to the doctrine, because they do
not believeit. Our own experience is that both with intelli
gent and cultivated men, and with the ignorant, there is
most generally an open or hidden unbelief in a hopeless
future puntshment. Hope is as much an essential part of
man's spiritual nature as blood is of his physical nature.
It is the very circulating principle of his soul, without
which it would be no soul at all. It is the very spinal
marrow of the spirit. There may be morbid or deranged
exceptions, but if you call on a man healthy in body and
soul to believe that there will ever be a time when he will
endure a hopeless punishment, you call on him to believe
that which is contrary to his nature, and therefore he
cannot believe it. He may accept and even subscribe

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS. 189
to your doctrine as one which you and others think most
fitting, for some reason, to be expressed in formula; but
as to. taking it into his healthy soul as part of his living
faith, he will not, and he cannot. He will go from your sidei
even though he be a minister of the altar, to the death
bed of one whom he and all believe to have gone down,
according to the dogma, to a hopeless misery, and he will
comfort himself and the bereaved ones with the words —
"he is in the hands of a loving God and Father who made
him, and will be just and merciful even to him." He will
thus — it is done every day — admit into his own mind and
inject into those of others that indestructible hope which
his dogma repudiates, but which he still clings to, because
it alone can comfort him or them.
Even if it consisted with man's nature to believe from
his heart in a hopeless state, men will not believe that any
intelligent and immortal creature could be consigned to it
by Divine power so long as they believe that "God is
love;" for nothing can persuade them that in some way
justice and love will not work together with Omnipotent
power for the ultimate well being of that creature.
Let God's truth be preached, then without any reference
to those consequences which He keeps within the sphere
of His own control in a manner unfathomable by us. But
we may still say that if we are to consider consequences
at all in answer to such objections, it will appear that the
preaching of a punishment not hopeless but reformatory
will be far more effective than the ancient doctrine of
hopeless horrors, which was first made obligatory by sec
ular authority centuries after the existence of the primi
tive church (see Part I, chap. V), in order to control the
conduct of ignorant and turbulent races, who could be re
strained only by superstitions or by fears.

190 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
God indeed sets before us rewards and punishments as
motives to turn to Him and live; but surely we need not
exaggerate those punishments. In their real condition,
they are sufficient for moral discipline, and that is their
only end. Are they not? Suppose one of us should be
lieve in his heart that in the course of twelve months he
would certainly be hanged on a gallows unless he brought
some gift mysterious and hard to find to the judge who
sentenced him : would he not, like the Peri so beautifully
painted by the poet, compass heaven and earth to find it?
Would he not endure fatigue, hardship, heat, cold, weary
days and sleepless nights with eager soul to find it? Would
he not begrudge every moment lost from the search and
rejoice with a joy entirely inexpressible when he found it?
And why? — because he believed that he would thus escape
a great temporal evil. Well, then, suppose one of us believed
from his heart that if he did not come to Christ in this brief
life, he would not only suffer the pangs which come from
sin in his own experience here, but for an indefinite period
after death, perhaps for many ages, — or, at least, till he
should turn from his sinful state and come to Christ. Sup
pose he believed from his heart that those pangs would be
intensely increased by the absence of all earthly allure
ments and deceptions, and by the unseen realities of the
spiritual world, — alienation from God, separation from the
blessed dead even of his own household, companionship
with all that is unclean and abominable, remorse of con
science, and all else that we can conceive of the bitter sor
rows of hell, — would not the motive be sufficient? Would
not these "terror! of the kw^' .stimulate him to all needful
effort with a force inconceivably greater than that which
moved him to escape a temporal punishment? No stronger
stimulant could be supplied in the way of penalty — nay,

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS. 191
. none so strong, for this punishment is credible by all; and
as was said before, it is only unbelief that could deprive
a future punishment of its power. That unbelief will
ever be, not only a stumbling block in the way of the
traditional dogma, but much more, and far worse, the uni
versal incredulity of men as to the doctrine commonly
preached about future punishment, has a reflex action,
and causes skepticism as to the whole religious system to
which it belongs. We believe, on evidence furnished by
much observation in the general and the particular, that
more men are kept out of the church, or indulge in skep
tical opinions, by reason of the doctrine of a hopeless
future punishment, than by any other single impediment
whatever. We believe also that it renders forever insolu
ble the problem of the existence of evil, and produces in
all minds a sense of unrest at its apparent injustice under
the sway of an all-wise and Almighty Ruler. The Apos
tles' Creed is the most universally accepted of all that have
ever been penned. It contains all that is necessary to sal
vation. Cannot the churches unite on that, and preach
all that is there set down for doctrine? Their preaching
would then be as comprehensive as the universal faith, in
cluding that dread bar of judgment, before which we shall
all stand, both " quick and dead." But it would not contain
the doctrine of a hopeless punishment — for that creed, belt
well observed, requires us to believe in the "life everlasting,"
but says nothing of everlasting punishment.
The Episcopal Church is more liberal on this, and on
all questions, than most of the others. She nowhere ex
pressly declares or defines this doctrine, but leaves her
people to draw from the Word of God their own opinions
on it. She is thus liberal on every other question — for
though she lays down her opinion on various subjects, by

192 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
way of guiding those who desire or seek her counsel, yet
she only binds her members in baptism to "believe all the
articles of the Christian faith as contained in the Apostles'
Creed;" and her ministers are enjoined in ordination to
draw all their counsel from the Holy Scriptures, holding
as she does in her Article VI, that "whatsoever is not
read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is' not to be re
quired of any man (whether minister or layman) that it
should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought
requisite or necessary to salvation." Beyond this she lays
no burdens on the consciences of ministers or people; and
though in her liturgy her people pray in the language of
Scripture to be delivered from "everlasting damnation,"
yet she nowhere defines these words to mean a hopeless
punishment, but leaves them to be defined by every man's
conscience in the sight of God. This is wisdom. If all
the churches would pursue a similar course, the Gospel of
Christ would have free course and be glorified, by identifi
cation with the essential doctrines of salvation as contained
in the Apostles' Creed, and by liberty in respect to all non
essentials. Fourth. But the most common of the objections to any
mitigation of the extreme view grows out of the seeming
injustice that a man should enjoy all the unlawful pleasures
of this life, steep himself in all wickedness and all abomi
nations, and yet should be thought capable hereafter of en
joying the bliss of heaven in company with him who has
studiously denied himself all forbidden pleasures while on
earth. Now tais is an objection more apparently than
really just. Though it seems to be based on justice, yet its
root is rather in self-righteousness and a false estimate of
the sins of others.

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS. 193
It rests chiefly (a) on false ideas of earthly pleasure ;
'(b) on false ideas of the comparative guilt of different sins
and different sinners-; (c) on inadequate ideas of the effect
of repentance.
(a). Rightly considered, no earthly pleasure can be
weighed for one instant in the same scale with the heavenly.
"Go, wing thy flight from star to star,
From world to luminous world, as far
As the universe spreads his flaming wall :
Take all the pleasures of all the spheres,
And multiply each through endless years,
One minute of heaven is worth them all !"
Besides this, earthly pleasures, even the best of them,
are more or less mixed with sinful excess; and the worst
¦of them are wholly sinful. In truth, even to him whom
we call the good man this world affords little happiness,
and that little is afforded only because it is linked with
heavenly things. But he who enjoys this world for its own
«ake alone, is constantly deluded by the hope of happiness,
yet really reaps instead perpetual unrest or actual misery.
Let no one, therefore, envy him who seems to reap earthly
joy, or think that be has received anything which, if de
nied to another, would produce injustice.
" Poor race of men !" said the pitying spirit,
" Dearly ye pay for your primal fall —
Some flowerets of Eden ye still inherit,
But the trail of the serpent is over them all !"
(b). But the false ideas which we harbor as to the com
parative guilt of different sins, or of different sinners, are
still more erroneous. Men have a code of their own in
regard to sin, even when they acknowledge Scripture" as
supreme. Sins against person and property, such as

194 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
murder, forgery, stealing, lying, rape, seduction, &c, they
hold to be the most deadly and unpardonable, as well as
disgraceful — for self-interest guides them in this judgment,
and " If self the wavering halance shake,
It's rarely right adjusted."
But sins against one's self or against God, of a different
kind, such as fornication, irreverence, prayerlessness, swear
ing, covetousness, and the like, they consider far more ve
nial, and they cloak them with the charitable suggestion
that they spring rather from weakness than from malice
(as if in this respect they differed from the other class of
sins) ; and thus they
" Compound for sins they are inclined to,
By damning those they have no mind to."
Nay more, he who commits these last named sins is well
received socially, and if his covetousness has been grati
fied by success, he is not only well received, but is honored
by almost all, and is pointed out to the young as a model
for their imitation, for public spirit, for enterprise, and for
good citizenship.
But God's ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our
thoughts. He ranks the sins that men call venial and
treat with toleration among those which they call disgrace
ful, and enumerates them over and over again in the same
lists in His Holy Word. In truth, the sin for which men have-
the greatest toleration — covetousness — He puts before them
all in guilt, for He declares it to be idolatry, the deadliest
sin that man can commit against his Maker.
Again, man looks at the outward sin, but cannot look on
tile heart, and therefore cannot justly estimate the com
parative guilt of any two men, however the one may be-

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS. 195
apparently depraved, and the other apparently moral.
Moreover, he cannot understand the circumstances under
which any sin or sins may have been committed. He
knows not the force of the temptation, the degree of re
sistance, or the anguish of the fall. Hence, God, who-
knows all these things, forbids us, as individuals, to judge-
our fellow men under any circumstances ; and tells us that
we have neither the right nor the capacity to do so, and
will surely err if we attempt it. It is an instinctive appre
ciation of this truth which makes us hide our sins most
anxiously from our fellow-men, even when we are sure of
their love for us; while we willingly confess them to God.
We know that He fully understands the whole case, and
is "full of compassion" for us. One who felt from ex
perience the injustice of human judgment, thus sweetly
deprecates it :
" Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman ;
Tho' they may gang a kennin wrang,
To step aside is human :
One point must still be greatly dark,
The moving why they do it.
And just as lamely can ye mark,
How far perhaps they rue it.
" Who made the heart, 'tis He alone
Decidedly can try us.
He knows each chord — its various tone,
Each spring— its various bias :
Then at the balance let's be mute,
We never can adjust it ;
What's done we partly may compute,,
But know not what's resisted."
You see that poor wretched parricide, who has sounded
all the depths and shoals of unspeakable iniquity and

196 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
t
abominations, and has now crowned a life of crime and
Shame by slaying the father that begat him. You know
that if he is now released from arrest he will be ready
to shock your moral sense, and that of the whole world,
by any other crime which his abandoned nature may sug
gest. Do you despise him and judge him ? Judge him
not— he may be in God's sight, yea, if you knew all, in your
own, a less guilty man than yourself. Are you offended at
this? Then consider that his lot has been cast from in
fancy among depraved associates and in moral darkness ;
that he has had no instruction, no culture, no spiritual
¦opportunities; and that his depravity is a growth as natural
in his circumstances as the growth of his beard. Despise
"not the sinner, then, though you detest the sin. Rather,
turn your eyes from his sad case, and cast your gaze into
the dark depths of your own heart. Rehearse to yourself
the secrets of your soul. You have been cultivated and
watched and tended from your childhood by God's agents —
your parents and friends, and His ministers. Do you not
blush when you look over your past life ? Have you never
shocked your own moral sense by your vile thoughts, or
words, or deeds? Would not some of them shock the
moral sense of the world if they were fully known? One
of the purest female writers in iriodern literature says what
has been repeated and approved by others — that if the
: secret sins of thought, word and deed, of each of us, were
written on our brows, each of us would shrink away from
every other as from a leper ; for each would see his neigh
bor's crimes, but would not see his own. This is a good
illustration of the abysses of corruption in the human
heart, and of that self-righteousness which judges others.
Look, then, at your sins in this way, and then say, if you
-can, that you are holier than that poor, abandoned parri-

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS. 19T
cide. Throw the first stone at him. Dare to lift up your
brow, if you can, and say — " 'Master, this man was takenT
in such and such sins, 'in the very act,' and he deserves to
die eternally ; for he is not susceptible, as I am, of Thy
great salvation." Oh ! blind Pharisee; you know you dare-
not do so; you, and all the other judges with you, must
go out one by one, judged yourselves out of your own
hearts and mouths.
(c). But still worse are the inadequate ideas of the ef
fect of repentance, though we have only space to glance at
them. You judge that poor parricide for his sins, deep and
black indeed, but perhaps no worse in God's sight tharl
your own. But suppose they are far worse in guilt. Sup
pose he is, by comparison with yourself, as odious as you
think him, and that you may justly consign him to a hope
less ruin because of those sins — yet you cannot do so, if he
repents. If he once takes hold on Christ, no matter how
terribly he has sinned, "it is God that justifieth ; who is he
that condemneth?" (Rev. viii, 33). In that case you cannot
despise him. On the contrary, if he repents, you must pity
him, and desire his pardon ; for no mortal can witness, with
out compassion and forgiveness, the painful writhings of
remorse, and the tearless wailings of a broken heart.
" Who by repentance is not satisfied,
Is nor of heaven nor earth ; for these are pleased ;
By penitence th' Eternal's wrath's appeased."
In truth, there is much misunderstanding on this whole
subject. Boswell tells us that when England was spoken
of as a Christian country in the presence of Dr. Johnson,
he admitted that it might be so called as having the Chris
tian religion established in it, but not because those who

198 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
professed it generally understood what it was : for, said he,
.go now on the street and stop the first ten Christian men
of intelligence and culture you meet, and ask them what
the Christian religion is — nine in ten of them will prove
¦by their answers that they do not understand it. It is to
be feared that there is great truth, in this, even at this day.
Most people will speak now-a-days of "the saints," of
"the holy," of "the righteous," with the idea that they are
describing people more or less free from actual sin, and will
contrast them with " sinners," as if these saints were not sin
ners themselves. But Scripture speaks of all as "sinners,"
and in the Scripture sense the " saints," the " holy," the
¦"righteous," are so named not with reference to their free
dom from actual sins, but with reference to their self-de
votion as strivers against sin, and as those who, having no
righteousness of their own, seek by accepting Christ to be
clothed with His righteousness.
This mistake manifests itself everywhere, both in the
church and in the world. Men say, " these Christians are
no better than we are," as if that were the test of their Chris
tianity, instead of the honest purpose and effort to serve
God in Christ, however ineffectually. They are often right
in saying that even true Christians are no better than they
are. Oftentimes they are not so good in a moral sense as
some men of the world, even though honest Christians —
by reason of differences of temperament, opportunity,
temptation, &c. But at the bar of God the difference be
tween them will be found to be, that one has repented and
striven against his sins, and taken hold of the hand of
Christ, held out to him ; while the other has rejected that
bleeding hand, and held on to the world's hand. "Saints"
are simply struggling sinners — witness the testimony of Paul,
of John, of Isaiah, and of all the sacred writers; and many

OBJECTORS AND OBJECTIONS. 199
a struggling sinner, whom the church and the world regard
as abandoned, is in truth a struggling saint — weak, and for
ever falling, but repentant.
An able professional man and an earnest Christian, of
peculiar temperament, fell under public and private cen
sure, but for no disgraceful conduct. He was put " in Cov
entry " by many of his associates. We believed him un
fairly judged and unjustly dealt with, and made no change
in our conduct towards him, except to manifest increased
consideration for him. He fell into excess, in bitterness of
spirit. More than once afterwards, he staggered up to us
on the street, and with pathetic tones and tearful eyes,
quoted to us an extract from one of his own poems, repre
senting the aspirations of his soul, however he may, in
human weakness, have fallen short of them.
¦|Be ever thus, howler forlorn,
Still fix on high thy steadfast gaze,
Trample, in calm but noble scorn,
On human blame or human praise.
Then, though thy path be thunder-riven,
Though hateful pit-falls crowd thy way,
Still ever trust, and meekly pray,
Thy Father — God who is in heaven."
Do you judge this man? Wejudge him not. With tears
then, and tears now, we confess that he may have been a
better Christian than either of us ; weak enough like our
selves to fall into sin, but strong enough to look to Christ
in spite of his sins.
Let us cease judging others; let us recognize our inca
pacity to understand, far less to define in the slightest de
gree the different merits or demerits of men, in even one
¦of the innumerable varieties of character and experience
which in fact exist. We will then cease to think any man

200 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
unworthy to be a candidate for eternal life, however l»w
he may have sunk ; and we will be much more likely to>
consider our own ways than to criticize those.of others.
Our theory, to which this last objection is made, disarms
it; for that theory recognizes the restoration of no man, be-
his sins great or small, who does not " repent and believe ; "
and the only point in which it differs from the traditional
view on the subject is, that it holds repentance to be pos-^
sible for all sinners, in the future world as well as in this.
Fifth. The historical objection to any change in the tra
ditional dogma has been already answered in Part I, ch..v.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION. 201

CHAPTER V.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION.

OUR task is now completed. It only remains to guard
against misconstruction. We beg, in the name of
justice and of that gentle charity which "thinketh no
evil," and, better still, worketh it not, that no one will mis
represent our position, as if we were opposed to future
punishment, or to any punishment necessary for moral dis
cipline. Should he do so, he will only increase what he-
may consider evil, besides weakening any fair and candid:
dissent from our position. Let no reader say, let no hearer-
think, that we have uttered more or less of doctrine than
is here written down. We now record it in brief, that all
we have meant to prove by the preceding pages may be
seen at a glance, and we do this, especially, that if any
man shall unhappily, bear false witness against us his.
neighbor, he may hereby be convicted of having done so
wilfully. First. We believe in our "heart of heart," and here
propound the doctrine of "eternal" or "everlasting pun
ishment," in the terms laid down in Scripture; but we
hold it to be " eternal " or " everlasting " in the sense that
it is to be a punishment " taking place in eternity," and to
endure as long as the sinful temper endures.
Second. We believe that by the necessity of man's nature, he-
must be capable of repentance after the dissolution of the-
flesh, as well as before that dissolution, — since the capacity

202 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
for repentance is a necessary attribute of the soul and not
of the body; and since the capacities of the soul can in
no sense depend on their connection with the body, which
is an impediment in the way of their full action, rather
than an aid to them.
Third. We believe that the motive for repentance will be
inconceivably quickened by the realities of the future
world; and that the capacity, co-existing with a stronger
motive, will stimulate to repentance there those who failed
to repent here in a much more effectual manner than was
possible in this life.
In this belief in the capacity of the soul for repentance
hereafter, consists, we repeat, our only real difference with
the traditional dogma.
Fourth. We believe that the Scriptures support this view,
-and teach the consequence, -which a priori we would infer
from it that it will ultimately result effectively in the resto
ration of all created things to the favor of God, their
¦Creator. Thus the problem of evil will be solved by con
verting that evil into an eternal good.
These conclusions, neither more nor "less, are those which
we consider established by the preceding argument. For
still further security against misrepresentation, we now
also review the argument itself and present an analysis of
it, in such form that its weight as a whole may be seen at
a glance. Of course we can give only the skeleton of the
•argument, but its course and its leading points will be
plain enough.
We have submitted —
First. That life and death cannot be explained by man,

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION. 203
but are revealed by God alone; and that they are defined
as follows in His Holy Word :
(a). That life is the "breath of God," by which man was
made immortal, body and soul — an immortality conferring
happiness, but conditioned on conformity to the will of
God. (b). That man violated the condition, and by sin in
curred the forfeiture — dying, body and soul, the instant that
he sinned; and that this death is not what in common
terms we call death — viz: the dissolution of the connec
tion between soul and body — but a condition of the mind or
¦soul, resulting in its immediate misery and the future ruin
of the body. The man who is not " in Christ" is as dead now
as he will ever be, should be even become hereafter a " lost,
soul" — the difference between the two conditions being
one — not of kind, but — of degree of misery.
(c). That though thus " dead while he lives," his body
will only return to the dust at its "appointed time," and
that his soul does not consciously suffer complete misery
till then — by reason of the distractions of this world, and
his present incapacity to appreciate the unseen realities of
the spiritual world, in consequence of the superior influence
over the mind of the things that are seen and temporal, as
compared with the things that are unseen and eternal.
(d). That the dissolution of the body and the death of
the soul are due to alienation from the " Life of God," in
whom alone we are alive.
(e). That provision is made by the death of Christ for
restoration to the " life of God," which carries with it, for all
who accept it before the dissolution of the body, the re
newal of the soul's happiness, and its conscious rest in
Christ, in the place of departed spirits, after that dissolu
tion has taken place.

204 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
(f). That the old body being hopelessly dead, "because
of sin," and soul and body united in immortality being ne
cessary for one in the "image of God," a new body will
arise at the resurrection from the old, as a flower from the
germ, and be united to the soul in indissoluble union —
both free forever from danger of another fall, by likeness
to Christ and heirship with Him in glory.
(g). That those who do not accept the provision made
for them in Christ, before the dissolution of the body, have
no part in Him in this world, and go into the " place of
departed spirits," still "dead in trespasses and sins"—; just as
they were here, and with the same conscious suffering, but
intensified by a realization of their position not possible
while they were on earth.
Having thus laid down on the basis of Scripture the
nature of life and death, and their consequences, and shown
that the happiness of the redeemed will endure as long
as the heirship of Christ shall endure, the question arises
whether . that condition of soul, which the Scriptures call
death, is capable of being changed by a renewal of the
"life of God" in the soul, after dissolution of the flesh as
well as before that dissolution.
And here commences the real issue between the advo
cates of the traditional dogma and ourselves.
We then submit that the "life of God" is capable of
being renewed in the soul after dissolution, just as it is be
fore; and that without such renewal, the holiness of God,
which is indisputable, cannot be vindicated in connection
with the existence of evil.
We then show that none of the various theories as to
the future condition of the lost, including what we con
stantly call the "traditional theory," can vindicate that
holiness, but that they leave the whole subject in mid-

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION. 205
night darkness and gloom. On the other hand, we submit,
in full competition with them, our theory, as a complete
vindication of that holiness. And we proceed to prove it,
as follows:
Second. God's holiness — his justice and mercy — are ut
terly inconsistent with the creation of a being, certain to fall
immediately after his creation (for life is but a moment in the
eternal scale) into hopeless sufferings, "of which it is infinitely
beyond the highest archangel's power to conceive the
thousandth part of the horror."
And it is no answer to this to say, as Dr. Bledsoe does,
that 'God could not prevent man from sinning after he was
once created, without a violation of man's nature and His
own, and the consequent working of a contradiction in coerce-
ing a willing obedience and love: for though this is true, he
could have forborne to create one who would fall immediately
Into those pangs in spite of all that Divine power could do
to prevent it.
Nor is it an answer to say, as he does, that the glory of
God and of His universe required the creation of such a
miserable being ; for no glory could be reaped, or could be
Justified, if capable of being reaped, from such horrible
and immortal misery of any creature whatever. But,
Third. The creation of an intelligent and immortal
being — necessary by reason of those very qualities to the
glory of the universe — can not only be justified in view of
God's justice, but applauded in view of his love and mercy,
even though he will be sure, in the exercise of his free will,
to fall into sin and sorrow : provided a provision is made
capable of redeeming his fall, and so potent that ultimately it
will restore him to God, stronger than when he fell: and
^provided the suffering incurred by the delinquent is no
more than necessary for the moral discipline of his pecu-

206 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
liar nature. On the conditions stated, the temporary fall
will not only, as a foil, enhance his ultimate joy and gloryr
and make the sufferings necessary for their attainment in
significant, however severe tempofarily ; but those suffer
ings will prove to be good and only good, since they were
the only means by which free-willed immortals, away from
their Father's home, could attain the highest felicity of
which they were capable.
That such a provision has been made, and that such ul
timate security will be attained by all, appears from the
following considerations, which are fully set forth, and, as
we think, satisfactorily established by the argument:
(a). There is no word or text in Scripture which, fairly.
interpreted, compels the belief that there is a hopeless
punishment in the world to come.
(b). There is nothing in the nature of man, or in the
nature of sin, which forbids us to hope that the lost soul
may repent and return to God in the future life. On the
contrary, since it is the same soul, with all its essential
faculties unimpaired, and since the death of the soul in
the hereafter is precisely the same as its death here, viz :
alienation from God — only more keenly realized, in its
sorrowful consequences, there than here — it is more likely
to repent there than here.
(c). This life is a probationary school, designed to edu
cate us for another and higher life, and God our Father is
our school-master. The rule of His conduct towards us in
those relations is the conduct of a wise and good earthly
father (as we call good) towards his children — only how
much more wise and better than he ! No good and wise
earthly father could confine his children to one trial of
their difficult duties, in one session or school, and then cut
them off utterly as the penalty of one failure. Nor can

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION. 207"
God do so. So that without the doctrine of repentance in
the future life, or that of another probation, we cannot
give effect to His word revealing his paternal relations to'
us, nor realize in its simplicity and truth the wonderful)
glory of our filial relations to Him.
(d). On the basis of that doctrine, all sorrows and be
reavements and losses, all inequalities of fortune, all inequalities:
of spiritual opportunities, all inequalities of spiritual suscepti
bilities, all inequalities of spiritual endowments of any sort, and
all difficulties in respect to the existence of evil — can be ex
plained, and reconciled with the holiness of God. But
without that doctrine, dismal and* eternal gloom surround*
all these questions.
Fourth. The doctrine pointed out* by these considera
tions is not only fortified, but established by Scripture texts-
that can in no way be rationally explained, except in ac
cordance with it ; nay, though strong by their individual
force, they concur in one direction, each strengthening the
other in a geometrical ratio ; and thus they conclusively
establish the doctrine, which alone can vindicate the holiness of
God, in connection with the existence of evil.
From these texts we learn that God's countenance will
not be withdrawn forever from His unhappy creatures who
have rebelled against Him, forthat this would result in their
annihilation, which cannot be; that therefore he has pro
vided a means by which " all manner of sin " shall be for
given — "in this world" and "in the world which is to
come " — here if the provision be accepted here ; there if it
shall be postponed to the hereafter. Hence the Saviour
is described as in an especial manner the Saviour of those
who come to him here; but as being also the Saviour of
the rest in some sense. He is therefore the Saviour of
these last in the next world, for as they rejected him in

208 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
ithis life, he is in no sense their Saviour here. In further
proof of this, the Scriptures declare, in various places, both
in the Old and New Testament, that at the name of Jesus
•every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, whether of
=those in heaven, earth or hell; and this He has sworn by
Himself. That this will not be an enforced, but a glad, ex-
Tiltant confession, appears from various texts.
That He " will (thus) have all men to be saved," appears
from the fact, that He gave Himself a "ransom for all,"
"which is to be " testified in due time " by the result. That
result is to appear in the "fulness of times," when He will
""gather together in one all things in Christ;" for "having
made peace (everywhere) through the blood of His cross,"
¦God will thus " reconcile all things to Himself," whether
"they be things in earth or things in heaven. Nay, even
•the things in hell shall be partakers of this joy, for this
.gracious Saviour " went and preached to the spirits in pri
son " the glad tidings of that universal peace.
Therefore, "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
¦nil be made alive." But there can be no peace so long as
•death, the son of sin and father of hell, exists; and, there
fore, not only Christ, "the first fruits," and those who shall
be His "at His coming," have escaped or will escape death
•at the resurrection, but the whole universe shall escape
•death: for after the resurrection, Christ "must reign till He
hath put all enemies under His feet," the last of whom
«hall be death. Then, 'death will be destroyed — yea, abol
ished — by being cast with hell into the "lake of fire," which
is the second death.
Over this glorious cousummation all creatures, in God's
•entire universe, rejoice with a holy joy that fills the ear of
*God with •the -melody ' of an harmonious and everlasting

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION. 209
homage. And so unbroken peace shall at last be estab
lished by the blood of Christ between God and his erring
creatures, never more to be d:sturbed by sin or sorrow or
death. So it is written, 0 blessed God, thou Father Almighty,
"therefore with angels, and archangels, and with all the
company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious
name, evermore praising Thee and saying, Holy, Holy,
Holy Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy
glory; glory be to Thee, 0 Lord most high! Amen!
We have now uttered what we believe to be God's truth — .
that evil shall not triumph over God in any case, but that
He shall triumph in every case over it; and that there will
come a glorious day when angels, and archangels, and men,
• and all creatures in heaven, and on earth, and under the
earth, and in the sea, and all things that are therein, shall
unite in jubilant and exultant shouts and songs of praise
and thanksgiving at the overthrow of all sin, and sorrow,
and separation in the universe of God, and the restoration
of that universe to the favor of its Creator.
But let no man wrest what we have said — let no man
presume upon it — to continue in sin ; for if the affecting
evidences of God's love and favor in Christ; if the " beauty
of holiness ; " if the sorrows, bereavements and disappoint
ments which surround us here, are not sufficient to bring
Us to Christ, the discipline of sorrow and suffering neces
sary to that end after death, may exceed all that we can
imagine, though it Will at last attain the end for which
it was appointed— the instruction of men and angels, and
the restoration of the harmony of the universe.
Rather, let us all work out our own salvation " with fear
and trembling," that we may escape the bitter sorrows of
10

210 THE DEATH OF DEATH.
sin in this world and the next; and so join, immediately
after our dissolution, with that great " assembly and church
of the first born which are written in heaven," in everlast
ing joy in the presence of our Saviour and our God.

THE END.

YALE UNIVERSITY I

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