FUTURE RETRIBUTION

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FUTURE RETRIBUTION

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By C. A. BOW M.A.
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Prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral
AUTHOE OP THE BAMPTON LECTURES ON "CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES
VIEWED IN RELATION TO MODERN THOUGHT "
'THE JESUS OP THE EVANGELISTS " "REASONS POE BELIEVING IN CHRISTIANITY'

LONDON
Wm. ISBISTEE Limited
56 LUDGATE HILL
1887

LONDON :
PRINTED BT J. S- VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED,
CITY ROAD.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
The Reasons which, in the Peesent Aspects of Thought, eender necessary
a Carepul Inquiry into the Truth op the commonly accepted Theoeies
respecting Futuee Reteibution.
The awful character of these theories, and the obstacles which they interpose to the
acceptance of Christianity aa a Divine Revelation, 1 — 3.  These theories briefly stated :
(1) The theory which affirms that the belief in certain abstract dogmas respecting the
ontology of Deity is necessary for salvation, 3 — 6. (2) The Predestinarian theory, and
its different modifications, 6 — 8. (3) The Baptismal theory, 8— 10. (4) The popular
theory, 10—12. (5) The doctrine>f Purgatory, 12. (6) The theories of life in Christ, of
universal salvation, and of the late Professor Maurice, 13 — 14.  Eternal damnation :
the awful character of the idea which it involves, 15, 16.  Statements of popular
theology respecting it, 16 — 19.
CHAPTER II.
Human Responsibility viewed in relation to the Divine Atteibutes op
Justice, Holiness, and Benevolence, as they are affirmed by Reason
and enunciated by revelation.
The invalidity of the theories which affirm that, because God is infinite and man finite,
it is impossible to obtain any knowledge of God as He actually is, and therefore that
the Divine attributes may differ widely from our human conceptions of them, examined
and considered, 20 — 24.  The Divine attributes of justice, holiness, and benevolence
correspond to our human conceptions of them, the only difference being that these
qualities exist in man in an imperfect state, but in God they are perfect, 24 — 26. 
Objections answered, 26 — 28.  Points of character, and the actions consequent on
them for which men are either irresponsible or possess only a modified responsibility
28 — 31.  Objections considered, 31 — 34.
CHAPTER III.
The same Subject as set forth in the Scriptures op the Old and New
Testaments.
The imperfect character of the Revelations of which the Old Testament is the record,
35 — 38.  Its elevated utterances respecting the Divine character and perfections, 38—
44.  Those which ascribe to Him the imperfections of man, 44 — 45.  The imper-

Ti CONTENTS.
fections of its moral teaching, and its accommodation to the low and imperfect ideas of
morality of those to whom its precepts were addressed, 45—49.  The imperfection of
portions of its moral teaching not only affirmed by our Lord and His apostles, but
recognised by several of the more enlightened prophets, 49-55.  The practice in these
early ages to ascribe everything to God's immediate agency, and the contrast in this
respect between the Old and the New Testament, 55— 58.  The nature of the prophetic
utterances, 58—63.  The affirmations of the New Testament, and those of the
enlightened conscience and moral sense, constitute our only guide as to the principles on
which God will judge men hereafter in their individual capacity, 63—64.

CHAPTER IV.
An Examination of the Reasons which we possess, independently of a
¦Revelation, foe believing that Man "will survive the Steoke of
Death, and that his conduct heee -will affect his condition here
after.
Reasonings based on our supposed knowledge of the metaphysical nature of the sou
unsatisfactory, 65—66.  The argument founded on the all but universal belief that
there is something in man which will survive the stroke of death, 66 — 68.  The
argument from the greatness of man's intellectual and moral powers, and the imperfect
scope which this life affords for their development, 68—69.  That derived from their
survival in full vigour up to the moment of dissolution, 69 — 72.  The moral argu
ment, 72 — 74;  Altruistic morality destitute of the requisite spiritual and moral power
to enforce its teachings on the masses of mankind, 74 — 78.  If there be no God, and
no hereafter, the impossibility of proving that self-sacrifice for the good of others is a
duty, 78—80.  The value of the above reasoning as affording proof that man will
survive the stroke of death, 81.  The unsatisfactory character of the reasonings of the
ancient philosophers on this subject, 81 — 83.  The above reasonings only valid to
prove that the personality will survive the dissolution of the body, but inadequate to
prove absolute immortality, the proof of which rests on the will, character, and purposes
of God, 83—85.

CHAPTER V.
The Imperfection op the Light which the Scriptures op the Old Testa
ment throw on the condition op Man apter Death.
The absence in the Pentateuch of any reference to a state of future retribution beyond
the grave, its sanctions being based on considerations derived from the present life alone,
86 — 90.— — The same true of the historical books, 90 — 91.  The popular ideas
respecting Hades, 91—93.  The narrative of the Witch of Endor, 93—96.  The
Book of Psalms : Their striking character as a record of the religious experiences of
their respective authors, 96—97.  The nature of their testimony as to the belief
respecting man's future condition after death, 97 — 103.  General conclusions re
specting the views of the Psalmists on this subject, 103 — 105.  The affirmations of the
prophet Isaiah on this subject: What they were calculated to suggest to his contem
poraries, 105—112.  The prophets, though earnest preachers of righteousness, never
appeal to considerations derived from a future state of retribution, either as an en
couragement to holiness or as a deterrent from sin, 112 — 115.  The remaining books
of the Hagiographa contain only two positive affirmations and one uncertain one, that a
state of retribution awaits man after death, 115 — 120.  General conclusions, 120 — 122.

CONTENTS. Vll

CHAPTER VI.
The Current Theories respecting Retribution contrasted with the
affirmations of Reason and Revelation eespecting the Divine
Character and Perfections.
The affirmations of the New Testament respecting the Divine character: God is just, i
God is holy, God is merciful, God is love. He will therefore judge each individual man
in conformity with these attributes, 123 — 125. — —The various theories of systematic and
popular theology considered in relation to these attributes : (1) The ontological theory,
125. (2) Those theories which affirm that men will be punished hereafter on account
of sins and tendencies to evil in the causation of which they, as individuals, had nothing
to do, 125 — 127. (3) The Predestinarian theories and their modifications, 127 — 129.
(4) The Baptismal theory, 129 — 131. (5) The theory of Professor Drummond and the
popular theories, 131 — 136.  God will judge individual men in conformity with that
character of which Jesus Christ is the image and likeness, 136 — 139.

CHAPTER VII.
The Account of the Creation and Fall of Man, as narrated in the
second and third Chapters op Genesis, in its bearing on the question
of Human Responsibility, and the validity op the various Theories
which have been erected on it, examined and considered.
Reasons for considering this subject, 140.  The total absence of any reference to what
is designated " the doctrine of the fall " in the remaining books of the Old Testament,
and in the teaching of our Lord, 141—143.  Also in seventeen out of the twenty-three
books which compose the remaining writings of the New Testament, 143 — 144.  The
references to the third chapter of Genesis in St. Paul's four remaining epistles examined
and considered, 144—149.  The narrative in Genesis : its statements on the assump
tion that it is intended to be a narrative of actual occurrences, 149 — 153.  The
inferences which, on this assumption, may be deduced from it, 153 — 157.  Its
silences, 157 — 159.  The reasons which have induced eminent theologians in all ages
of the Church to view the narrative as allegorical, 159—165.  General conclusions,
165—166.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE GENERAL POSITIONS OP THE NEW TESTAMENT EESPECTING A FUTURE STATE.
The definiteness of its statements respecting a future state of retribution contrasted with
the absence of them in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, 167—169.  Its affirma
tions respecting the condition of the personality between death and the resurrection, 169
_175.  The small amount of information which it gives respecting the secrets of
the unseen world, 175—177.  The hopes and aspirations of the holy concentrated
not on a disembodied condition of the personality, but on a future resurrection, when
it will be again re-united to a material organism, 177—179.  The contrast between
its positions, and those of the philosophic schools, respecting the superiority of the
embodied to the disembodied condition of the personality, 179—181.  Its affirmations
respecting the nature of the resurrection body, 181—184.

V1U CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.
The Terminology, or the Meaning op the Language employed by the
Writers op the New Testament respecting Future Retribution.
The terminology of the New Testament not technical but popular, 185.  The Greek in
which it is written such as was in popular use in the different Christian communities,
to whom its writers assumed that it would be intelligible, 185 — 187.  The meaning of
its terminology not scientific or technical, but such as it bore in the Greek which was
habitually spoken by the members of the apostolic Churches, 187 — 189.  Impossible to
erect a scientific psychology of man on its use of the words npcvfia, ^Inixyi, o-Sjia
(spirit, soul, and body), 189 — 190.  Tlvev/ia, spirit; the various meanings which it
bears in the New Testament examined, 190—194.  *vxn, soul; its various senses
examined and considered, 194—202.  t&ij.a, body; its usage by the apostolic
writers, 202 — 204.  Amv, age, or dispensation; ol alwres, the ages; ol olives tuw
alioiw, the ages of ages; and a'uinos, age-long, denote periods not of unlimited
but of limited duration, 204 — 208.  Inaccurately rendered, world, world without end,
for ever, or, for ever and ever, 20S — 209.  The meanings which these words bear in
the New Testament considered and examined, 209—216.  Capable of denoting dura
tion without limits when united with a negative particle, 216 — 217.  Their meaning
indefinite when used to express duration, 217—218.  Zwij, life, and 66.vo.tos, death:
the usage of these terms by the apostolic writers, 218 — 224.  Theories erected on
the assumption of their being used not in their popular but in a technical sense un
sound, 224— -227.  The meaning which the remaining words used in the New Testa
ment in connection with future retribution conveyed to the Greek-speaking Christians
in the apostolic Churches, 227 — 234. CHAPTER X.
The Teaching of the Synoptic Gospels, and op the Acts of the Apostles,
respecting the nature op Future Reteibution.
The reasons for considering these separately from the other writings of the New Testa
ment, 235.  The idea of the kingdom of heaven is that which permeates their teach
ing, 235—237.  The conception denoted by it, 237—239.  The teaching of John the
Baptist respecting retribution, 239 — 240.  Gehenna, our Lord's utterances respecting
it, 240—247.  The meaning which the word amoAeia (destruction) and other kindred
terms, when used to denote the penalty denounced against sin, would have conveyed to a
Greek-speaking Christian, 247—248.  The metaphors of the creditor and the debtor,
248—249.  That of the unfaithful steward, 250.  The parables of the wheat and the
tares, the drag-net, and the marriage feast, 250—254.  Blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit, 254 — 256.  The parables of Dives and Lazarus, the ten virgins, the ten talents
and the minas, 256—262.  That of the sheep and the goats, 262—268.  The refer
ences to future retribution in the Acts of the Apostles, 268—271.  General conclusions
271. '
CHAPTER XI.
The same Subject as set forth in the Gospel and in the Epistles op
St. John.
The use of technical terms peculiar to the writings of this Apostle, 272.  The ex
pression, cuwxtos '£«>[,' eternal or age-long life, used to denote a condition of man's
moral and spiritual being, not as a future but a present possession, 272—278.  A

CONTENTS. IX
similar usage pervades the Epistle, 278 — 282.  The Apostle's affirmations respecting
those who are finally impenitent, 282 — 284.  The sin unto death and the sin not unto
death, 284—286.  The Church and the world. The meaning attached to these terms
in the Apostle's writings, 286 — 292.  The contrast between those who are born of God,
and those who are the children of the evil one, 292 — 294  Our Lord's discourse with
Nicodemus : the nature of its affirmations examined and considered, 294 — 299.  The
sense which the expressions, born of God, children of God, and other kindred terms
bear in the Epistle, 299—300.  The children of the evil one, 300—302.  General
conclusions, 302—303.
CHAPTER XII.
The Doctrine op Retbibution as set forth in the remaining Writings
of the New Testament.
The four groups of St. Paul's Epistles considered in the order of their composition, 304—
305.  Retribution in the Epistle to the Thessalonians viewed exclusively in connection
with the Parousia, or coming of Christ, 305 — 308.  The judgments to be then executed
on the enemies of Christ; the apostacy and the manifestation of the lawless one, 308 —
311. — Allusions to retribution in the Epistles to the Corinthians, 311—315.  References
to the same subject in the Epistle to the Galatians, 315 — 316.  St. Paul's affirmations
in the Epistle to the Romans respecting the j udgments which await the finally impenitent
and the principles on which God will judge the world, 316—319.  His declarations
respecting retribution in the Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, and
in the pastoral Epistles, 319 — 322.  The apostates referred to in the Epistle to tho
Hebrews, 322 — 324.  Retribution as set forth in the Epistle of St. James, 324 — 326.
 St. Peter's statements respecting Christ's preaching to the spirits of the ante
diluvians in Hades, 326.  The Second Epistle-of St. Peter and the Epistle of St. Jude :
the nature and value of their statements, 326— 331.  The Apocalypse : The Epistles to
the Churches, 331—333.  Its imagery a mass of scenic symbolism, 333—334.  The
beast, the second beast, the image of the beast,, the harlot woman mounted on the first
beast, and the lake of fire into which they and their adherents are represented as being
cast and the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, constitute portions
of the scenic symbolism which was presented to the Seer's mind, and are not intended to
' depict objective realities, 334^—343.  The angelic proclamation and the explanatory
vision, 343—345.  The symbolism of this book not intended to be descriptive of
realities beyond the grave, but of the ultimate triumph of Christ over all enemies in
the present world, 345.  General conclusions, 346—347.

CHAPTER XIH.
Does Human Probation terminate at Death ?
The silence of the New Testament on this subject no reason for believing that a probation
under more favourable conditions will not be vouchsafed to those whose probation here
has been passed under unfavourable ones, 348-351.  Our Lord's affirmations respect.
ing the paternity of God considered in their bearing on this subject, 351-355.  The
benevolence of Christ, 355—356.  His compassion for sufferers and sinners, 356-359.
 The patience, forbearance, and gentleness of Christ, 359-361.  The sterner
asnects of our Lord's character, 361-362.  Jesus Christ the revelation of the Divine
paternity, benevolence, compassion, patience, and holiness, 363.— The plea which those
who have never heard of His Gospel may urge before Him when He judges the world m

X CONTENTS.
righteousness, 363 — 365.  Sanctification a gradual process, 365—367.  The pleas
which vast numbers of those who, though they have lived in Christian countries, yet
have never heard the Gospel, or only an imperfect version of it, may urge before
the all-merciful Judge for a further opportunity of embracing it, 367 — 372.  The
case of those whose probation has been cut short in early youth, 372 — 375.  St. Peter's
affirmations respecting Christ's preaching to the antediluvians in Hades examined
and considered, 375 — 379.  General conclusions, 379 — 380.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Validity op the Theories of TJniversAlism and op Conditional
Immortality.
The grounds on which the theory of Universalism rests independently of a revelation,
381 — 383.  The affirmations of Scripture which are alleged in its support, 383 — 386.
 Conclusions respecting it, 386 — 387.  The theory of Life in Christ, or Conditional
Immortality: Mr. White's general positions, 387 — 392.  Observations on these posi
tions, 392 — 399.  Questionable matter adduced in their support, 399 — 403.  The
simplicity of Apostolic Christianity, 403 — 401.

CHAPTER XV.
Summary of the Results op the Previous Arguments.
General results, 405—420.  Objections answered, 420—423.  Bishop Butler's posi
tions as to possibility of discovering truths in revelation not previously observed, and the
mode in which alone it is possible that such discoveries can be made, 423 — 424.

FUTURE RETRIBUTION.

CHAPTER I.
The Reasons which, in the Present Aspects op Thought, sendee
necessary a carepul inquiry into the truth op the commonly ac
CEPTED Theories respecting Future Retribution.
It is hardly possible to exaggerate the importance of the
following questions : —
1. Shall we continue to exist, as personal conscious beings,
capable of happiness or misery, after the death of our
bodies ; or -will death be a sleep from which there will be no
awakening ?
2. Assuming that we shall continue thus to exist, what
are the conditions on which our happiness or misery will
depend in the unseen world ?
To these questions, so profoundly interesting to each one
of us as individuals, Christianity returns two answers, definite
and distinct —
1. That we shall thus continue to exist.
2. That our conduct here will exert an influence unspeak
ably important on our condition beyond the grave.
So much is clear respecting the teaching of Christianity ;
yet there is no difficulty which, at the present day, presses so
heavily on the minds of thoughtful men as the various
doctrines respecting a future state of retribution, which a vast
majority of those sections into which the Christian Church is
divided, affirm to be its teaching on this subject. Although

3 FUTURE retribution.
the grounds on which these doctrines are alleged to rest
differ widely from one another, the general conclusion which
is deduced from them is for all practical purposes the same,
viz. that Christianity affirms that the overwhelming ma
jority of that innumerable multitude of men who have
existed in the past and who exist in the present, will
after this life is ended pass into a state of endless exist
ence in never-ending misery ; for this is the meaning which
is popularly attached to the word " damnation." The idea
that a single individual will continue to exist in a state of
torment, which will never terminate nor be relieved by a
single ray of hope, is sufficiently awful ; but when this fate is
assigned to that innumerable multitude which, according to
these theories, will constitute the lost, words fail to express
its awfulness. If it is true that Christianity affirms this, we
may almost say, in the words in which our Lord denounced
the sin of Judas, " Good were it for mankind if they had
never been born."
I need hardly say that to the non-Christian such a doc
trine constitutes the greatest of stumbling-blocks ; that to
the professed unbeliever it constitutes one of the strong
holds from which he attacks Christianity; that to the
thoughtful inquirer after truth it appears to ascribe to God
a character which the conscience he has implanted in man
pronounces to be unholy; and that the professed believer
in it for the most part evades its difficulty, either by refusing
to meditate on its awful import, or else by inventing some
way of evading its application to himself or to those near
and dear to him. Whatever may have been the case in the
past, so strongly is this difficulty now felt that we seldom
hear the doctrine of everlasting damnation proclaimed from
the pulpit, and when it is referred to, it is usually in a very
mild form compared with the awful reality which it involves.
Yet surely, if the affirmations on this subject which are

ACCEPTED THEORIES. 8
popularly attributed to Christianity are true, and if it affords
any means of escaping from this awful fate, humanity itself
suggests that this doctrine should be proclaimed on the
housetops, as a warning to the wicked and the careless ; nay,
more, it ought to have been written plainly, definitely, and
in a manner beyond the possibility of mistake, in the pages
of the New Testament, if such was the belief of its various
writers. The awfulness of the popularly accepted doctrines is so
great, and the obstacles which they are interposing to the
acceptance of Christianity are of so serious a character, that
it is become a matter of the highest importance in the
present aspects of thought to inquire whether they are
rightly attributed to the Christian revelation. Before enter
ing on this inquiry, however, it will be necessary to
enumerate and describe the chief theories on this subject
which have attained a wide acceptance among large sections
of the Christian Church.
I. — The Athanasian Creed.
The first of these theories in point of importance is that
which is laid down in the Athanasian Creed. I say in point
of importance, because it has been accepted as a correct state
ment of Christian truth by the entire Western Church. It
affirms —
1. " That whosoever will, i.e. willeth to, be saved, before all
things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith, which
faith, except everyone do keep whole and undented, without
doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic
faith 'is this."
The writer then proceeds to set forth the true Catholic faith
respecting the Trinity in twenty-five versicles, which contain
no less than seventy-two propositions respecting the ontology
of Deity. He concludes this portion of his subject in the
b2

4 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
following words: "He therefore that will, i.e. willeth to,
be saved, must thus think of the Trinity."
To this is added a second condition of salvation —
" Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that
he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus
Christ." This right faith is then defined in eight versicles which
contain twenty propositions respecting the ontology of the
Incarnation. Adding, then, these two sets of definitions
together, the Creed propounds no less than ninety-two propo
sitions of a highly abstract character respecting the ontology
of Deity and the Incarnation, as the Catholic faith, which
except a man keep whole and undefiled, he will without
doubt perish everlastingly.
The concluding portion of the Creed introduces a moral
element into this subject. Speaking of Christ as judge of
quick and dead, it adds —
" At whose coming, all men shall rise again with their
bodies, and give account for their own works. And they that
have done good shall go into life everlasting ; and they that
have done evil into everlasting fire."
It then concludes as follows —
" This is the Catholic faith, which except a man believe
faithfully, he cannot be saved."
In considering the affirmations of this creed it is necessary
that the reader's attention should be drawn to a fact which is
generally overlooked, that it nowhere defines what is the
meaning intended by " perishing everlastingly," or " going
into "everlasting fire." For anything which it affirms to
the contrary, these expressions may mean annihilation;
and so far they are consistent with the theory called " con
ditional immortality," or "life in Christ." But it is no less
certain that the meaning which is attached to them by
the overwhelming majority of those who read them or

ACCEPTED THEORIES. 5
hear them recited, is " endless existence in never-ending
torment." Only a few brief remarks on this portion of the subject
will be necessary.
The earlier portion of the creed makes salvation dependent
on a strict orthodoxy of belief in a large number of highly
abstract propositions respecting the ontology of Deity and the
Incarnation. But the intellectual powers of the overwhelming
majority of mankind are of so inferior a character as to render
them utterly incompetent judges of the truth or falsehood of
propositions of this description, or even of forming a definite
conception of their meaning. Yet without making any
exception in favour of those, the inferiority of whose intellec
tual powers disables them from forming a judgment on such
abstractions, or even taking into account the vast variety of
mental endowments which different men possess, the language
of the creed in its natural meaning, and without reading
anything into it between its lines, affirms that all who do not
hold " the Catholic faith," as therein defined, " whole and
undefiled, shall without doubt perish everlastingly." The
conditions of salvation, then, according to the creed are an
orthodox faith respecting the ontology of the Godhead and
the Incarnation, to which it adds the further condition of a
holy life.
It is true that numerous theologians have affirmed that we
must read into this creed numerous qualifications which
greatly mitigate its harshness. One of the last of these
is that what are called its damnatory clauses are to be under
stood as only applicable to those who, with full knowledge
and ample means of forming a judgment, reject the doctrines
as therein propounded.* Subject to this qualification, the
* It has even been proposed to place before it a rubric affirming that it is in
this sense that the so-called " damnatory or warning clauses" are accepted by
the Church of England.

6 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
number of those who reject it will be few, if any. But of
this and other qualifications of its natural meaning, the creed
itself contains no hint.
II. — The Creeds of the Roman Catholic Church.
Respecting these my remarks may be brief. It will be
sufficient to observe that they embrace dogmatic affirmations
on very numerous complicated positions in theology, with
the modern addition of a belief in the immaculate conception
of the Virgin, and of the infalhbility of the Pope ; and
that they declare those who are unable to accept the whole
range of dogmas contained in the creeds and confessions o
this Church to be outcasts from the kingdom of heaven. In
a word, no small number of their dogmas stand out in contra
diction to the entire range of modern thought.
III. — The Predestinarian Theory.
This theory is commonly, but incorrectly, designated Cal
vinism ; I say " incorrectly," because its fundamental prin
ciples were propounded in a systematic form ages before
Calvin, by St. Augustine ; but it should be observed that in
its later forms it has undergone considerable modifications.
Its importance arises from the fact that it underlies the con
fessions of faith of nearly all the Churches which sprung out
of the Reformation, and is still retained in those of most of
the Churches which are descended from them. The princi
ples which underlie the original theory, and its various sub
sequent modifications, may be briefly stated thus —
According to it, God in his secret counsels before the founda
tion of the world, for the purpose of manifesting his glory, has
elected a comparatively small number of mankind to everlast
ing life and felicity, and has left the remainder in that condition
of ruin which, according to this theory, was occasioned by the

ACCEPTED THEORIES. 7'
fall ; or, according to its more logical form, has predestined
them to everlasting damnation. This election and reproba
tion are the result of what is euphemistically called " God's
good pleasure," but more correctly His arbitrary will ; for,
according to this theory, the choice is made irrespective of all
moral considerations in the elect. In carrying out this pur
pose He created the first human pair, and so constituted
things, that in the event of their transgressing a particular
command they would not only incur the penalty of ever
lasting damnation, i.e. everlasting life in never-ending
misery, but all their descendants, though they had no part
in their guilt, would participate in their ruin. They fell ;
and in consequence of their fall the entire human race, even
infants who have died before they have had the opportunity
of committing actual sin, have become the subjects of God's
wrath and damnation. Such being man's ruined state by
nature, it pleased God, for the purpose of manifesting the
glory of His grace, to choose certain individuals, who, irre"
spective of any good thing in them or done by them, should
be rescued from this state of ruin, and brought to everlasting
salvation ; and, for the manifestation of His justice, either to
predestine the remainder to everlasting damnation, or to pass
them by and leave them in the state of ruin in which they
were involved by the fall. To realise this purpose of saving
the elect the Incarnation was effected, and, in conformity with
a covenant entered into between the Father and the Son in
the secret counsels of the Godhead, they were given to the
latter to redeem. This the Son undertook to accomplish by
satisfying the demands of the Father's justice for their sins,
original and actual. This he effected by offering Himself a
sacrifice to the Father, in doing which He drank out to the
dregs the cup of Divine indignation, which, but for his
interposition, must have been exhausted by the elect. Here
we encounter two views : one which affirms that Christ

"8 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
died for the sins of the elect only ; the other, that he
suffered the penalty due for the sins of the whole world,
but that the non-elect, inasmuch as they have never received
what is designated "an effectual calling," receive no benefit
from His atoning work, which, on the contrary, rather tends
to aggravate their ruin. Into the consideration of the
various opinions as to the mode in which the final salvation
¦of the elect will be secured we need not enter.
Let it be observed, that the view which represents God
as having consigned the non-elect to everlasting perdition
by a direct decree, and that which affirms that He has
simply passed them over and left them exposed to all the
consequences of the broken Adamic covenant, involve a
distinction without a difference. This is obvious, for if none
but the elect will be saved and if the non-elect will be lost, it
matters little whether their everlasting ruin has been the
result of a direct Divine decree, or of their having been left
exposed to the consequences of the fall. The result is the
same in either case, for according to the theory their terrible
fate is due not to their own sin but to a transgression in
which they had no share, and nothing which they can do is
capable of rescuing them from it. The latter view has
been propounded simply to avoid the direct affirmation that
God has created a large portion of mankind for the purpose
of glorifying what is strangely called " His justice," by
directly consigning them to everlasting ruin. Such, stripped
of all disguises, is the predestinarian theory.
IV. — The Baptismal Theory.
This theory has been, and is even now, held by numerous
sections of the Church. As far as the consequences of the
fall are concerned, between it and the predestinarian theory
there is no essential difference ; for they both concur in
affirming that all men are by nature children of wrath, from

ACCEPTED THEORIES. 9
o
the consequences of which no effort of their own can deliver
them. But from this fearful condition the theory which we
are now considering provides a partial deliverance in the
sacrament of baptism, which, if administered rightly* conveys
remission of original sin, i.e. of all the consequences entailed
on man by the fall, of all actual sins if repented of, and
the additional benefit of " spiritual regeneration." To this last
word various meanings are attached ; it may mean more, but
it never means less, than a transference from the kingdom of
the evil one into the kingdom of God, in which are such
means of grace that it is a man's own fault if he fails to
attain to everlasting salvation.
This theory is evidently a great improvement on the one
we have just considered ; but it leaves the unbaptised, i.e.
the overwhelming majority of mankind, exposed to all the
consequences of a sin in which they had no part, and
of their actual transgressions. Carried out to its legitimate
consequences, it consigns all unbaptised infants, though
they have died before it was possible for them to commit
an actual sin, just as the predestinarian theory consigns
those who are non-elect, to everlasting damnation. From
this result even the moral sense of Augustine, who first
reduced these theories to a systematic form, recoiled. He
therefore provided for infants a milder hell, designated
the " limbo infantium," yet still a most unpleasant con
dition to live in everlastingly. Others have endeavoured
to hide from themselves the terrible consequences of this
theory, by consigning the unbaptised to what they desig
nate " the uncovenanted mercies of God," which words, what
ever they may be supposed to imply, mean something very
* There are various theories as to what right administration consists in, some
holding it to be valid if administered by a layman, a woman, or a heretic,
while others affirm that it is essential to the validity, both of this and the other
sacrament, that it should be administered by one who possesses what is desig
nated Apostolical Succession.

10 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
different from the mercies of the Gospel. So obvious is
the inference from this theory that even unbaptised infants
may be the just subjects of God's wrath and damnation, that
the compilers of the baptismal service of the Church of Eng
land have deemed it necessary to add to it a rubric which
affirms that " it is certain, from God's word, that children
who are baptised, dying before they commit actual sin, are
undoubtedly saved." The natural inference from such words
is, that there is no certainty of the salvation of those who die
unbaptised, or, in other words, that it is consistent with the
Divine character to leave such exposed to the condemnation
which is affirmed to be due to every one who is naturally
engendered of the offspring of Adam, although they have
had no part in Adam's transgression or in the production of
those evil results in themselves with which it has been
attended. V. — The Sectarian Theories.
Similar results follow from the theories propounded by those
sects which affirm that there is no salvation outside their
communion, and that they are in exclusive possession of the
means of grace. The logical result of such theories is to
consign the overwhelming majority of mankind either to
everlasting damnation or to what are designated the uncove-
nanted mercies of God.
VI. — The Popular Theories.
Popular belief varies considerably respecting the conditions
which will admit one man to heaven and consign another to
hell, and for the most part is indeterminate and vague.
The following opinions are the most important : —
1. That it is necessary for the attainment of salvation to
pass through certain religious experiences, which are desig
nated " conversion ;" and that those who die in an uncon-

accepted theories. 11
verted state, having no share in the mercies of the Gospel,
will be consigned to that place which is popularly understood
by hell. What constitutes conversion is variously defined,
according to the views which are entertained by different
sects respecting its nature, but they for the most part agree
in affirming that it is some action of the Spirit of God on the
spirit of man, which is capable of being perceived by the
consciousness of the individual. In one opinion, however,
they all concur, that the unconverted will form an overwhelm
ing majority of mankind.
2. That a cordial acceptance of what is called the doctrine
of the atonement (what that doctrine is, is variously defined),
and an exercise of a personal faith in Jesus Christ, is neces
sary for salvation. Some, however, modify this theory, and
affirm that although faith is necessary to salvation, yet
the necessary faith may be something short of this, but what
it is is left indeterminate. This theory in like manner
excludes from salvation the great majority of mankind, and
exclusion from salvation, according to popular ideas, means
damnation. The remainder of the popular beliefs on this subject, owing
to their indefiniteness, are difficult to formulate in propo
sitions, but they concur in the following affirmations : —
1. That there will be no intermediate state of probation
after death, in which it may be possible for those who die
not incurably wicked, or whose probation in this life has been
passed under unfavourable conditions, to repent and turn
to God ; and that mankind at the day of judgment will be
separated into two divisions, designated the righteous and
the wicked, which will be exhaustive of the human race, the
one of which will go to heaven and the other to hell, thus
leaving no place for an intermediate class who are fitted for
neither. 2. That mankind thus divided will enter into a state of

12 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
happiness or misery, which will be unchangeable throughout
the eternity to come ; and that the misery of the wicked will
be everlasting, admitting neither of alleviation nor of hope ;
and that they will constitute an overwhelming majority of
mankind. Such are the chief theories respecting the condition of
mankind after death, which have been accepted as the teach
ing of the Christian revelation by one or more of the chief
sections into which the Christian Church is divided. Their
extreme awfulness has caused various modifications of them
to be propounded. Of these, those which have attained the
widest acceptance are —
1. The doctrine of purgatory, as it has been held by the
Roman and by several of the Oriental Churches.
This professes to provide an instrumentality whereby those
who die without having committed what is designated
" deadly sin," and who have fulfilled some condition which
entitles them to escape from hell, may expiate their venial
sins and become qualified for the enjoyments and the employ
ments of the heavenly world, the expiation being effected
through some form of penal suffering. This theory, whatever
may be its defects — and they are many — has at least the
merit of propounding a means of rescuing from never-ending
torment a considerable number of those who, according to
widespread popular beliefs, will be consigned to it. The
sufferings of purgatory may be great and of long duration,
but they will be neither hopeless nor endless, such
as those which are attributed to the hell of popular
theology.* * I am here speaking of pnrgatory apart from the latter abuses of this doc
trine, such as the efficacy of indulgences, transfers of the superabundant merits
of the Baints, and various acts supposed to free the sufferers in it from a portion
of the sufferings due to their sins.

ACCEPTED THEORIES. 13
2. The theory designated "life in Christ," or "conditional
immortality." According to this theory, all men are naturally mortal, and
their survival after death is no natural endowment of man,
but is a gift bestowed on him through Jesus Christ. Man,
however, as originally created, might have avoided death by
eating of the tree of life ; but this condition of things, in con
sequence of the sin of their progenitor, now no longer exists ;
yet, as the result of the Incarnation, all men will be raised
again in their bodies and rewarded or punished according
to their works, the wicked passing into a state of suffering,
which will ultimately destroy them. This is affirmed to be
the real teaching of the New Testament respecting future
retribution, and that the expressions therein used, such as
death, destruction, and others of similar import, signify
cessation of existence, and not continued existence in never-
ending misery.
3. The theory of universal salvation.
This theory affirms that Christianity teaches that there is
a time coming in the distant future when every being who
possesses a moral nature will be brought into voluntary sub
jection to God ; that neither reason nor Scripture affords any
ground for believing that human probation terminates at
death, and that it is the end and purpose of the Incarnation
to bring all things into voluntary subjection to Jesus Christ.
4. The theory of the late Professor Maurice.
This theory may be briefly stated as follows : —
The words alwv and dtwvtos, which are usually translated
in the Authorised Version by some words denoting existence
without limits to its duration, are frequently used in the
New Testament in a moral sense without any reference to
time. When they are used to denote duration, they mean
an age, a dispensation ; but when not so used, they denote
a state of mind which is capable of enjoying communion

14 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
with God. From this it follows that "eternal life" being
such a condition of mind, "eternal death" must be its
direct opposite. Consequently the word " heaven " is not
intended to denote a definite locality, but a state of mind
in close communion with God, and hell one of alienation
from him, of which the first constitutes the highest happiness
of which a rational being is capable, and the latter its misery
and ruin. But inasmuch as it is a great truth that God
wills not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should
turn from his wickedness and live, it follows that all God's
punishments are intended to be remedial. Consequently
nothing can be worse for the sinner than that God should
cease to punish him. On the other hand, God will continue
to punish him as long as he continues to sin. As long,
therefore, as God continues to punish, there is hope for the
salvation of the sinner. Hence it follows that " eternal
death," in its most awful aspect, is when God leaves the
sinner unpunished in his sin ; but what will be the ultimate
fate of such the theory leaves in considerable obscurity.
The difficulties with which the theories which we have
been considering are attended have been attempted, to be
concealed, by affirming that it is our duty to avoid passing
an opinion on a subject so mysterious, and to leave it in the
hands of God. But it is a subject which is far too per
sonally interesting to each of us to be thus quietly passed
over; and it is impossible to prevent thoughtful men, by
a reason such as this, from giving their gravest consideration
to a subject so profoundly interesting to us as individuals.
Nor are these difficulties lessened by the consideration, which
has been frequently urged, that there are various things
respecting the divine government of the universe into which
the finite intellect of man cannot penetrate, and respecting
which, therefore, it is an inadequate judge. This is undoubt
edly true, but it has nothing to do with the subject which

ACCEPTED THEORIES. 15
we are now considering ; for the moral questions which are
involved in these theories are the very things on which our
enlightened conscience and moral sense are fully qualified to
decide. Their first and primary dictate is, that might does
not constitute right ; and, after making due allowance for the
relative positions of God and man, that what would be unholy
in man cannot be holy in God. This being so, vain must be
all attempts to hinder the human mind from sitting in judg
ment on the question, whether the results of these theories
are in conformity with what reason and revelation affirm
respecting the character of that God of whom the Clirist of
the Gospels is the image and likeness.
Before concluding this chapter, let us endeavour to realise
in thought what the words " Everlasting damnation," accord
ing to the popular conception of it, really mean. It is almost
universally understood to mean an existence without end, in
a state of misery which will never cease.
Most of those who use these words fail to realise their
awfulness. This our limited faculties, even when taxed to
their utmost powers, are unable to do. I will, therefore, use
an illustration which has been often used before, but which
will help us to form an approximate conception of their awful
meaning. Let us suppose this entire globe to be dissolved
into grains of sand as minute as those on the ocean shore,
and that each of these represents a thousand years. Their
exhaustion involves a period so immense that our feeble
minds are utterly unable to grasp a duration so vast ; but
vast as it is, being finite, it must have a termination. Yet
when these millions of millions of millions of ages have run
out, the misery of those who perish everlastingly will, accord
ing to the popular theory, be no nearer a termination than
when they first began. This will be equally true if we suppose
the sun and the planets and the whole stellar universe which
is visible to the best optical instruments, to be resolved into

16 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
similar grains of sand, and that each grain represents a thou
sand years. Still, when every grain has been exhausted, there
will still remain an endless existence in never-ending misery
beyond. Is not this an appalling thought, even if it is to be
the fate ,of only a single individual? But when we consider
the array of figures which would be required to represent the
numbers of the human race who have existed in the past —
according to the best computations more than twelve hundred
millions exist in the present — and that those who, according
to the above theories, will thus perish everlastingly will con
stitute an overwhelming majority of them, the thought is so
awful that it may well set men thinking whether such
theories can possibly be true. Yet such is the action which
popular Christianity attributes to Him whom the Christian
Scriptures affirm to be the Father of mercies, the God of
all comfort, and of whom Jesus Christ is the image and
likeness. That these theories are widespread as the genuine teachings
of the Christian revelation, the following quotations prove
beyond the power of contradiction. The first is from a sermon
of one who is in the habit of addressing the largest congre
gation in London.
" Only conceive," says the preacher, " that poor wretch in
the flames who is saying, 0 for one drop of water to cool
my parched tongue ! See how his tongue hangs from his
blistering lips, how it excoriates and burns the lips of his
mouth as it were a firebrand ! Behold him crying for a drop
of water ! I will not picture the scene. Suffice it for me to
close up by saying that the hell of hells will be to thee, poor
sinner, the thought that it is to be to thee for ever. Thou
wilt look up there on the throne of God, and on it shall be
written, For ever. When the damned jingle the burning irons
of their torments they shall say, For ever. When they howl,
echo cries, For ever," &c.

ACCEPTED THEORIES. 17
The following is from a sermon of the same preacher of a
much later date : —
"We are sometimes accused, my brethren, of using
language too harsh, too ghastly, too alarming, with respect
to the world to come ; but we will not soon change our
note ; for we solemnly believe that if we could speak thun
derbolts, and in every look were a hghtning flash ; if our
eyes dripped blood instead of tears, no tones, words, gestures,
or similitudes of dread, could exaggerate the awful condition
of a soul which has refused the Gospel and is delivered over
to justice." Our second quotation is from a tract written by a Roman
Catholic priest, entitled " A Tract for Children and Young
Persons. The Sight of Hell. Published by the permission
of his Superiors." We may therefore draw the conclusion
that these Superiors, whoever they may be, hold some im
portant position in this Church, and consider that its contents
are suitable teaching for children and young people.
" See in the middle of that red-hot floor," says the author,
" stands a girl who looks about sixteen years old ; her feet are
bare. Listen, she speaks. ' I have been standing on this
red-hot floor for years. Look at my burnt and bleeding feet.
Let me go off this burning floor for one moment.' The fifthT
dungeon is a red-hot oven. The little child is in that red-
hot oven. Hear how it screams to come out ; see how it
burns and turns itself about in the fire. It beats its head
against the roof of the oven. It stamps its little feet on the
floor. God was very good to this little child. Very likely
God saw that it would get worse and worse, and would never
repent, and so it would have to be punished more severely in
hell. So God, in his mercy, called it out of the world in
early childhood."
These quotations speak for themselves. The reader will
scarcely be surprised to be informed that the tract from which

X8 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
the last passage is a quotation was very recently circulated
among the frequenters of Mr. Bradlaugh's Hall of Science,
as an example of what the largest section into which the
Christian Church is divided affirms to be the teaching of
Christianity respecting future retribution. After all, awful
as are these citations, they are little more than the popular
doctrines on this subject " writ large." I need hardly add,
that it is impossible to put a greater stumbling-block in the
way of unbelievers than such representations of Christian
teaching. But not only are the commonly accepted doctrines
respecting retribution a stumbling-block to unbelievers, to
doubters, and to the heathen, when they are told by the
missionary that they are essential features of the Gospel of
the God of mercy, grace, and love ; but they are scarcely
less so to a large and increasing body of intelligent Christian
laymen, who are unable to believe that the Author of the
Universe has created the human race with the clear fore
sight that the result of his creative work would be that
an overwhelming majority of those who have lived during
the past, and who are living in the present, after the few
brief years of this present life, will enter on a life of misery
which will present no hope of termination throughout the
endless ages of the future. This they are unable to believe ;
and when they are told that they must accept this doctrine
as true, or in rejecting its truth they must reject Chris
tianity along with it, they are far more likely to adopt the
latter alternative than the former. Nor, as I have already
intimated, do those who profess to believe in these doctrines
act on them as though they were realities ; for if they are
true Mr. Spurgeon's description of their awful character is
scarcely overdrawn ; yet their belief in them is inert, and
they for the most part refuse to contemplate the dread
realities behind, or to warn those who are near and dear to

ACCEPTED THEORIES. 19
them of their danger in tones of corresponding earnest
ness. These things being so, it is become a matter of supreme
importance carefully and calmly to investigate whether these
doctrines are the teachings of the New Testament respecting
that future state of retribution which it affirms to await
man beyond the grave ; or whether they are unauthorised
human inventions. In conducting this inquiry it will be
necessary to appeal to both reason and revelation ; for, as
Bishop Butler justly observes, however imperfect our reason
may be, it forms our only guide to enable us to judge of the
truth of a revelation. A candle may be an imperfect light,
but if we have no other it would be the height of folly to
refuse to use it. On moral questions also, affirmations of
the enlightened conscience and moral sense are authoritative,
for they constitute our only guide to enable us to discriminate
between right and wrong, between what is morally good and
what is morally evil. The subject must be approached with
reverence ; but no consideration must hinder us from
ascribing holiness, justice, mercy, and love to our Creator ;
for if He is not holy, just, merciful, and loving, the New
Testament affirms of Him that which is not true, and conse
quently it is impossible that it can contain the record of a
Divine revelation.

c2

CHAPTER II.
Human Responsibility viewed in relation to the Divine Attributes op
Justice, Holiness, and Benevolence, as they aee- affirmed by Reason
and enunciated by revelation.
It will be necessary to commence the consideration of this
subject by inquiring what is meant when it is affirmed that
God is just ; that He will judge the world in righteousness ;
that the judge of all the earth will certainly do right ; and
other similar expressions. In a word, when we ascribe jus
tice to God, do we mean that the Divine justice may be
something very different from the human conception of it 1
This is a question all important to our present inquiry.
> The investigation of this subject is rendered necessary
because a class of Christian writers, under the idea that they
were defending Revelation, have affirmed that when we
ascribe such attributes as justice, holiness, mercy, and benevo
lence to God, such conceptions are only relatively and not
absolutely true. This position is founded on the assumption
that the affirmation that God is both infinite, absolute, and
the first cause of all things, involves us in a number of
logical contradictions. From this the inference has been
drawn that because God is infinite and man finite, and inas
much as the finite cannot comprehend the infinite, all our
supposed knowledge of God's character and perfections is not
a knowledge of God as he actually exists, but one which is
only relative; or in other words, that justice, holiness,
mercy, and benevolence, as they exist in God, may differ

HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY. 21
widely from our human conceptions of those qualities. To
put the matter plainly, according to this theory, our human
conception of justice may differ widely from that of justice as
it exists in God ; and when St. Paul declares that He will
judge the world in righteousness, God's standard of what
constitutes a righteous judgment may differ widely from our
human conception of what constitutes justice.
These positions have been endeavoured to be proved by
a mass of metaphysical reasonings of a highly abstract
character. With them I will not trouble the reader, my in
tention being simply to appeal to the principles of common
sense. I shall only draw his attention to the fact that on
these principles as a foundation, that system of philosophy
designated Agnosticism is erected, which for all the practical
purposes of life is neither more nor less than moral Atheism.
Christian Agnostics, however, have taken a different course,
and have argued that inasmuch as it is impossible to know
anything of God as he actually is by the aid of man's rational
faculties, the only way in which a knowledge of Him
can be attained is by a revelation. This being so, the infer
ence is drawn that a revelation is not only possible but
necessary. It is simply marvellous that the obvious objection to this
last position should have escaped the notice of the eminent
metaphysical theologian who first propounded this theory to
the English public in a systematic form. According to that
theory the human understanding, because it is finite, is in
capable of attaining any real knowledge of the infinite, that is,
of God. But if this is owing to its limitations, it is impossible
that a true knowledge of God can be introduced into a finite
mind even by a revelation. A very homely illustration will
make this plain. A vessel which is so conditioned that, owing
to its size, it is only capable of holding a pint, can by no
possibility, no, not even by infinite power, as long as the con-

22 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
ditions remain the same, be made to hold a gallon ; for the
contrary supposition involves a contradiction. If, then,
man, owing to his finiteness, is so conditioned as to be
incapable of embracing a true conception of God as he actu
ally is, he must be equally incapable of doing so if his
supposed knowledge is derived from a revelation. This being
so, the fatal consequence follows that even the revelation of
God which the Christian Scriptures affirm to have been made
in the person of Him who declared, " He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father," only conveys a knowledge of God
which is relative and not a knowledge of Him as He actually
is. In accordance with this principle, the author above re
ferred to speaks of the attributes which the Scriptures
ascribe to God as regulative only, by which is meant that
although we should act on the assumption that they are true
representations of the divine attributes, yet that the realities
as they exist in God may differ widely from our human con
ceptions of them. If this be so, it may be justly asked, What
becomes of the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation ? Is
Jesus Christ the Image of the invisible God, or is He one
which is only relative and regulative, and not a veritable
revelation of the Father ? If the latter, the incarnation is
unreal. It is hardly possible to conceive of a position more fatal
to Christianity than the one in question. God demands
love, adoration, and reverence. "The first of all the
commandments is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with
all thy strength." How, I ask, is it possible to love a
being our knowledge of whom is only relative ? If we
love God it must be because something really exists in
Him which we can recognise as lovely. We are incapable
of loving an idea, a conception, a tendency, or anything
which is merely relative ; we can only love a being who

HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY. 23
possesses attributes which excite our love. We can love
God as He shines out in the person of Jesus Christ, because
we believe that the character of our Lord is a manifestation
of a reality as it exists in God ; but it is impossible to
arouse in the human heart either adoration, reverence, or love
for a conception which has no corresponding reality. The
affirmation, therefore, that " God is love," is either an affirma
tion of a reality as it exists in God or it is misleading and
untrue ; and when the Apostle adds that "He that dwelleth in
love, dwelleth in God, and God in him," it is evident that he
must have regarded the affection of love in man as the same
as the affection of love which exists in God, or else his
utterance is devoid of meaning.
One of the things which imparted to this system of
Christian Agnosticism a degree of plausibility was that it not
only seemed to break in pieces some of the advanced teaching
of unbelieving philosophy, but that it afforded an apparent
escape from the difficulties involved in the affirmations
both of systematic and popular theology respecting the
condition of man after death. Many of these positions —
may I not say an overwhelming majority of them — are felt
to be inconsistent with the ideas of justice, holiness, and
mercy, as they are affirmed by man's enlightened conscience
and moral sense. But if these attributes as they exist in
God differ from our human conceptions of those qualities,
not a few were induced to think that this position opened a
way of escape from the difficulties in question. The result,
however, of these theories has been to put into the hands of
unbelief a more dangerous weapon than it has ever yet
wielded against Theism and Christianity, as is abundantly
proved by the state of modern unbelieving thought, for they
are accepted by Mr. Herbert Spencer as the foundation of his
Agnostic philosophy, which affirms that God is unknown and
unknowable, and that, therefore, human conduct should be

24 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
regulated without any reference to Him. This form of un
belief is now become widespread among cultured unbelievers,
being the most plausible yet most dangerous form of unbelief
which has ever been propounded.
What, then, are the points in these theories which bear on
the subject we are now considering ? I answer, that while
pure Agnosticism affirms that we can know nothing of the
first cause of the universe, i.e. God, except that He exists ;
Christian Agnosticism affirms that our finite conceptions
are inadequate as representations of the various attributes
as they exist in God, and, therefore, that the Divine
attributes may be very different from our human conceptions
of them. Consequently the attributes which are ascribed to
God in the Scriptures, such as justice, holiness, mercy, benevo
lence, and even personality itself, are no adequate representa
tions of the Divine realities, which may differ widely from our
human conceptions of such qualities ; or, to put the position
nakedly, the attribute of justice as it exists in God, and in
conformity with which He will judge the world, may be
something different from that which our conscience and
moral sense pronounce to be just and righteous.
Not to enter into a number of interminable discussions
respecting the nature of the infinite, I observe that the
proper term to describe God's moral attributes is not infinite,
but perfect. The reason of this is, that the idea which
underlies the word " infinite " is quantitative, whereas some
of the attributes which we ascribe to God are incapable of
being so viewed. Of these, justice and holiness are examples.
Both of these attributes admit only of the idea of perfection,
and are entirely free from that of quantity, which is insepa
rable from that of infinitude. Thus imperfect justice is not
justice, but injustice, as far as it is imperfect. I fully admit
that when we affirm that justice is an attribute of God, our
conception of justice is a human one, but if man is made in

HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY. 25
the image of God, as Christianity affirms, and God not
fashioned after the image of man, the fact that it is a human
conception does not prevent it from being an attribute which
really exists in God ; and when we affirm that God's justice
is perfect we mean that God's omniscience gives him a per
fect knowledge of the minutest circumstances connected with
each individual, and that this enables him to estimate
correctly the precise degree of his responsibility. This
knowledge man has not, and, therefore, as far as this igno
rance prevails, his estimate of the character of an act is
imperfect, and, consequently, the judgment formed of it par
takes of the same degree of imperfection.
But this defect of our knowledge does not prevent our
conception of justice from being a true representation of that
attribute as it exists in God. The only difference between
justice as administered by God, and justice as administered
by man, is that the omniscience of God enables him to take
into account the circumstances of a man's birth, of his sur
roundings, and of those tendencies which have been trans
mitted from ancestors, with the formation of which as an
individual he has had nothing to do, and for which he is
therefore irresponsible. This a human judge is incapable of
doing, and therefore justice, as administered by him, is
necessarily imperfect. Thus, in the case of murder, a
human judge is incapable of taking into account the
various antecedents which Jiave helped to form the mur
derer's character, and which, as far as they have not been
created by himself, modify the guilt of the deed. Human
law defines as murder every act of killing which is not done in
self-defence, or as the result of an overwhelming provocation,
or of unsound mind, and sentences every variety of action
that comes within this definition to the penalty of death ;
but the omniscience of God enables Him to see in these
actions, which according to human law constitute murder, a

26 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
great variety of moral guilt. I have selected this particular
crime merely as an illustration, but the principle is appli
cable to every act of which law takes cognisance. Further,
there are many crimes, involving the deepest moral delin
quency, of which human law is unable to take any cogni
sance whatever, but which God as a righteous judge - will
certainly bring into judgment.
The same remarks are true, mutatis mutandis, of the
Divine holiness, i.e. the human conception of holiness is a
true representation of holiness as it exists in God, or, in
other words, God's holiness cannot be one thing and man's
holiness another. If this were possible, the command, " Be
ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy," would be utterly
unmeaning. I admit that the attributes of benevolence and
mercy may be conceived of as admitting of degrees, and that
a man may be spoken of as benevolent and merciful without
being perfectly benevolent and merciful ; but yet the human
conception of benevolence and mercy does not differ from the
Divine reality, except that these attributes exist in man in an
imperfect, whereas they exist in God in a perfect form,
summed up in the declaration, "God is love," to which
the Apostle adds, "he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in
God, and God in him."
From the above reasonings the following deductions are
necessary consequences : —
1. The conception of justice, as it is affirmed by the en
lightened conscience and moral sense, is a true representation
of justice as it exists in God.
2. The human conception of holiness, as it is affirmed
by the enlightened conscience and moral sense, is a true
representation of holiness as it exists in God.
3. The conceptions of mercy and benevolence, as they
exist in God and man, do not differ in kind but in degree,
the one being perfect, the other imperfect ; the negative side

HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY. 27
of God's benevolence being well expressed in one of the
collects of the Church of England, " God hates nothing that
He has made ; " its positive side by a passage in the Psalms,
" His mercies are over all His works"
It will perhaps be urged, as an objection to the first of
these positions, that whereas it is contrary to the human con
ception of justice for one man to kill another, yet God has a
right to take life at his pleasure. The answer to this is
obvious. Justice takes into consideration the relations
which exist between the parties, and those which exist
between man and man and between God and man differ
widely. Man has not given to his brother man the gift of
life, and therefore he has no right to take it from him. God
has conferred on him this gift, and therefore he has a right
to withdraw it at his good pleasure. The only exception
to this is, when its Avithdrawal is attended with suffering
which is not inflicted as a punishment for past sin, or with
suffering which is not intended to be corrective, i.e. to raise
the sufferer to a higher degree of moral elevation. In the
latter case suffering is not only consistent with the Divine
justice, but with the Divine benevolence.
It has been urged in vindication of certain theological
positions that the possession of almighty power gives the
Creator a right to do what he will with those beings whom he
has created. But by no possibility can might be translated
into right. The two conceptions differ from one another
utterly and entirely ; and all the efforts of an unbelieving
philosophy have failed to translate the one into the other.
God is almighty in power, but its exercise by Him is limited
by His attributes of justice, holiness, mercy, and benevolence,
from which it is true to say that He cannot swerve, in the
same sense as it is true to say, " God that cannot lie ; " i.e. to
do so would contradict His moral nature, which is the
essence of His being. He is glorious in power, but he is still

28

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more glorious in that power in Him can only be exerted in
conformity with His moral perfections, for He cannot deny
Himself. Assuming the above principles to be incontestably true, it
follows that the righteous judge of all the earth will only
hold man accountable for what he is responsible, and that
therefore He cannot punish him, consistently with His justice,
for anything in him which is independent of the control of
his will. To act otherwise would not be justice, but injustice.
The things therefore for which we are irresponsible are —
1. That tendency to moral evil which has been transmitted
to us by our ancestors, in the creation of which we, as
individuals, have had no part. That such a tendency,
though greatly varying in degree, exists in man is not a
theory but an unquestionable fact.
2. The variations in intellectual powers which exist in
different men. Thus some are endowed with the highest
mental powers, while others are born idiots. Between
these two extremes lie the utmost variety of mental endow
ment. But with the production of our mental powers we
have had nothing to do, for the distinction between one man
and another has been determined by a higher power than
man. But [our intellectual and our moral nature are inti
mately united and correlated to one another, so that defects
in the one cause defects in the other. For those of our
actions, therefore, which are due to defects in our mental
constitution we are irresponsible.
To these must be added all those actions which are per
formed in childhood. It is evident that an infant possesses
no responsibihty. Both its intellectual and its moral nature
are undeveloped, and its conscience is unformed. While this
continues so it can possess no more responsibility for its
actions than an animal. It is true that at an early age it
is capable of displaying passions and affections, but these

HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY. 29
are purely instinctive. It is no less certain, however, that
the irresponsible infant, in process of time, has become
a responsible agent ; but no human intellect can determine
the year, the month, the day, or the hour, when the
irresponsible infant became a responsible being. This has
been dependent on the gradual and unseen growth of its
moral and intellectual powers, and of a rational will,
which is capable of resisting the force of the appetites
and passions. This being so, the precise period when the
irresponsible infant became a responsible agent can only
be known to Him who knows all things. Between these two
periods, however, there lies one of mixed responsibility and
irresponsibility, the precise nature of which can only be
correctly estimated by Him who is able to penetrate into the
secrets of the heart.
3. The conditions of our birth and surroundings. With
respect to these conditions we have had no choice. They are
determined for us, and not by us ; yet they exert a powerful
influence on the formation of our characters, and on very
large numbers of mankind that influence is an extremely
unfavourable one. The power of this influence for good or
for evil is only known to Him who knows all things.
The important influence exerted on our characters by
the moral and spiritual atmosphere into which we are born
is undeniable. By being born into it we, of necessity,
spend all our early years in constantly inhaling it, whereby
we become to a great extent assimilated to it. Thus one
is born into an atmosphere which is comparatively pure ;
another, who inherits vicious tendencies from ancestors
deeply tainted with vice, is born into a family and a neigh
bourhood whose entire surroundings are vice and degra
dation. That such things exert a powerful influence on the
formation of character is proved by the fact that in the case
of the overwhelming majority of mankind, in that spiritual

30 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
and moral atmosphere into which they are born, and which
they have breathed from their earliest childhood, they grow
up, live, and die. It is true that in certain cases they
succeed in elevating themselves above it, but with respect
to the great majority the only change is that they sink into a
state of greater degradation. Yet for their characters, as far
as they are the inevitable result of their birth, and their
moral and spiritual environment, and are not self-caused,
they can have no responsibility ; for responsibihty can only
exist where there is freedom to do or to forbear.
4. Speaking generally, therefore, inasmuch as where there
is no freedom there can be no responsibility, God cannot con
sistently with his justice punish a man for what he has had
no hand in doing. Inherited evil, of whatever kind, is not
his sin but his misfortune. It is therefore not the proper
subject of punishment. It is in fact no more the subject of
just punishment than inherited physical disease. Moral evil,
however it may have originated, is doubtless repugnant and
therefore offensive to God. But where it is not self-caused it
cannot be the subject of just punishment, but, on the con
trary, it appeals to the Divine compassion. Hence, in the
words of the Evangelist, " God sent his Son to be the
Saviour of the world."
5. There are a very numerous class of actions which in
volve only a modified responsibility, viz. those in which
conscience and will have to resist the attacks of the appetites
and passions, some of which in particular men, and even in
particular races of men, exist in almost overwhelming force.
Thus of certain races bloodthirstiness is the characteristic ; of
others, lying is an inherent vice ; and so are many other
vices which it will be unnecessary to enumerate. These are
to a great degree the result of their birth and of their moral
and spiritual environment. So likewise is it with indivi
duals. Who can say what is the effect which is exerted on

HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY, 31
a child who is born into a family which has fallen into a state
of moral degradation, and whose education has been one of
moral corruption ? Further, certain evils in men's characters
are in no small degree the result of their bodily constitu
tion. To take a very familiar example : one man is by
natural temperament intensely passionate; another is calm,
even in the midst of provocation, and exhibits complete self-
command. Such differences are in no small measure due
to the various degrees of sensitiveness of our nervous sys
tems. Yet in all these cases men are not mere machines,
for the conscience and the will are capable of exerting
no little power in restraining these appetites and passions,
and even in subduing them. Such actions, therefore,
involve a modified responsibility, uniting in themselves
various degrees of freedom and necessity. In all such
actions so intricate is the web, that nothing short of omnis
cience is capable of disentangling it, and consequently of
appreciating the degree of merit or the demerit of the respec
tive agents. Under this head must be included that vast
majority of actions of whose merit or demerit men can only
judge by outward appearances. None but He who is able to
penetrate the secrets of the heart, and who perfectly knows
all the antecedents of the individual, can administer a justice
which shall be perfectly righteous.
We have hitherto considered the attribute of justice only ;
but God has other attributes, such as those which the book
of Exodus declares to have been announced to Moses on the
proclamation of the divine Name, viz. "The Lord, the
Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abun
dant in goodness and truth, shewing mercy for thousands,
pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will
by no means clear the guilty." These attributes, equally
with justice, form integral portions of the Divine charac
ter.

32 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
We may therefore safely assume,' ft: there is a God who is a
moral being, notwithstanding the clouds and darkness by
which in the present visible government of the world he is
frequently enshrouded, that justice, mercy, holiness, and
benevolence must be attributes of the Creator. I mean by
the " clouds and darkness that are round about him " the
amount of suffering and of evil with which this world
abounds, and which to some extent obscures our view of His
goodness. Still, the amount of happiness which the sentient
creation enjoys immeasurably exceeds the sufferings which
it endures. But if God is a moral being, He must be either
benevolent, indifferent to the happiness of His creatures, or
malevolent. The last He cannot be, for if He were, the
structure of all sentient creatures would have been designed
to produce pain ; but as matter of fact, there is nothing in
their structure the end and purpose of which is to produce
suffering. Nor can He be indifferent to His creatures' happi
ness, for then there would not be that superabundance of
enjoyment in the lives of those innumerable hosts of beings
which He has created, and who are daily dependent for the
means of enjoyment on His providential care. He must,
therefore, be benevolent ; and the large amount of suffering
which beyond all question exists in this world must be due
to some other cause than the absence of benevolence, be that
cause what it may. But benevolence and mercy are only
different aspects of the same quality : God must therefore be
mercifuL Now the function of mercy begins where that of
justice ends. A judge, as a just judge, is bound to take into
consideration all the circumstances of the case, and having
done so to pronounce sentence according to the degree of the
exact responsibility of the individual. It follows, therefore,
when we consider the mode in which God will execute judg
ment hereafter, and the nature of the sentence which he will
pronounce, that we must remember that He is not only perfectly

HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY. 33
just, but also perfectly merciful, longsuffering, and abundant
in goodness and truth. These attributes presuppose that
after judgment has been pronounced in conformity with
strict justice, there will be room for the exercise of mercy ;
for, to use the words of Scripture, " Mercy rejoiceth against
judgment." Doubtless all the attributes of God combine in
a perfect unity ; "in him mercy and truth meet together,
righteousness and peace kiss each other ; " or, to adopt the
language of another Psalmist, " Righteousness and judgment
are the habitation of his throne ; mercy and truth shall go
before his face ;" or that of St. John, " God is love ; and he
that abides in love, abides in God, and God in him."
But it will be objected, that in the present government of
the universe, as far as it comes within our ken, these prin
ciples are certainly not carried out, and that so closely is
society knit together, that we constantly witness men suf
fering for sins not their own, and descendants having to
endure the consequences of their ancestors' sins. Still
more, the forces of the universe, which can only be viewed as
expressions of the Divine will, make no distinction between
the evil and the good, but both perish alike in the con
vulsions of nature and the ordinary accidents of life. All
this is most true, and from the earliest dawn of human
thought to the present hour has formed a subject which
has deeply tried the minds of those who believe that this
universe is under the moral government of a God, the re
sources of whose power are devoid of limitations. Witness
the book of Job ; witness the expostulations of the Psalmists
and the prophets of the Old Testament dispensation. What
does this prove ? Not that God is not righteous in all His
ways and holy in all His works, but that the government of
this world only forms a portion of an order of providence in
which He is carrying out the purposes of His holy pleasure,
far too vast to be brought within the grasp of the finite intellect

34 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
of man ; but in which, under the Divine government, all
these providences, inexplicable as they are to our finite under
standings, will be ultimately found to have worked together
for good. But one thing is certain, that if death is the termina
tion of the conscious existence of man, and if after death all
sleep alike the sleep of unconsciousness, men, as individuals,
are not rewarded or punished according to their deeds. What,
however, if there be a God who is a moral being, is the in
ference from this ? Not that He is indifferent to sin and
holiness, to virtue and vice, but that, in the words of the
apostle, " He has appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness," when all the inequalities of the
present state of things will be redressed, and He will reward
and punish men in accordance with the strictest principles of
justice, holiness, mercy, and love; when, although clouds
and darkness are in his present visible dispensations round
about Him, it will be seen that righteousness and judgment
are the habitation of His throne. As we shall prove here
after, the present imperfection of the moral government of
the world forms the strongest reason which we possess,
independently of a revelation, for believing that our conscious
existence will not terminate at death.

CHAPTER III.
The same subject as set forth in the Scriptures op the Old and the
New Testament.
That various utterances of the writers of the Old Testament
in connection with this subject abound in difficulties, is un
questionable. Many of them ascribe to God the attributes
of justice, holiness, mercy, and goodness in the most
unqualified terms ; others, not less numerous, seem to the
ordinary student to affirm the contrary, Before I enter on
their consideration, I must invite the reader's careful atten
tion to the following all-important facts : —
I. The Scriptures of the Old Testament nowhere profess
to be the record of a single revelation, nor is this anywhere
claimed for them by the writers of the New. On the contrary,
the New Testament affirms that they contain the records of
various revelations, " spoken unto the fathers in the pro
phets, by divers portions and in divers manners." * It is also
obvious that they are addressed to men under a great variety
of circumstances, on which their bearing is immediate and
direct, but which have long since passed away. Consequently
the bearing of such utterances is only indirect on Christian
times. II. These revelations are affirmed by our Lord to be only
imperfect revelations of the Divine character and will, and
* As a rule, the quotations in this work, from both the Old and the New
Testament, are from the Revised Version.
d2

36 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
He tells us expressly that so imperfect were they compared
with the revelation made by Himself, that the greatest pro
phets and kings of the old dispensation had desired to see
the things which His disciples saw, and had not seen them,
and to hear the things which they heard, and had not heard
them ; and that although John the Baptist was greater than
the greatest of the prophets of that dispensation, yet he that
was little in the kingdom of God1 was greater than John.
III. Our Lord expressly affirms that there are precepts in
the Old Testament which are not absolutely good in them
selves, but are accommodations to the imperfect moral condi
tion of the times, and' that even the teaching of the Deca
logue is so far imperfect that to enable it to realise the true
ideal of morality it requires to be supplemented by His own ;
and that this is likewise true of the teaching of the prophets.
He came " to fulfil both," i.e. to realise the ideal which under
lay them. (Matt. v. 11.)
IV. An overwhelming majority of the utterances of the
Old Testament, its threatenings and its promises, are ad
dressed to men not in their individual but in their national .
capacity. The reason of this is,oas Professor Mozley has
pointed out in his work entitled " Ruling Ideas in the
Early Ages," that in those times the nation, the tribe, and
its chief counted for everything, and the individual} for
little or nothing. Thus the individuality of the wife was
swallowed up in that of the husband, of the child in the
parent, of the slave in his master ; the rights of individuals
as distinct from those of the families, tribes, or nations
Of which they formed a part, being scarcely recognised.
Attention to this fact will help to explain many of the
difficulties with which large portions of the Old Testament
are attended, especially its narratives of wholesale slaughters
without one word of censure or rebuke, which are sp
startling to the Christian reader. The truth is that the

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 37
moral sentiment of these primitive times saw nothing wrong
in them, but only what was a matter of ordinary practice.
Let it be observed, however, that this imperfect appreciation
of the rights of the individual was no peculiarity of the
Hebrew race, but was nearly co-extensive with the ancient
world. It was deeply impressed on Roman law and, through
its agency, has been the means of transmitting not a few evils
to times comparatively modern.
V. The revelations of which these Scriptures are the
record are of an extremely fragmentary character, and are
for the most part addressed to a single nation. The earlier
ones are also accommodated to low forms of human thought
and to imperfect conceptions of the character of God and of
moral obligation ; but the subsequent ones advance through
a succession of gradual stages to more worthy conceptions of
both, until they culminate in the person, work and teaching
of Jesus Christ. This being so, the books of the Old Testa
ment are, from a Christian point of view, of very unequal
value. It is remarkable that in two of them the name of
God is not once mentioned.
VI. The historical books constitute the remains of a far
larger body of literature which has now perished, but which
their authors repeatedly refer to as their authorities for not a
few of the facts which they narrate. They do this precisely in
- the same manner as other historians are in the habit of doing,
when they are not eyewitnesses of the events which they
record. Further, of not one of the historical books do we
know the name of the author with anything approaching to
certainty, nor does the author of any one of them make a claim
for superhuman guidance in the composition of his work.
VII. The Scriptures of the Old Testament prove beyond
the possibility of question that their authors possessed very-
varied degrees of enlightenment. This is proved by the fact
that they at one time apply to God some of the loftiest con-

38 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
ceptions of which the human mind is capable, and at others
the lower, and I might almost say the animal, passions of
man. Nor is the same writer always consistent in this
respect, for we not unfrequently find in the same book the
loftiest conceptions and the baser passions of man attributed
to the Most High. When this is the case, the writer, in
attributing such passions to God, must have thought it
necessary for the sake of his readers to clothe his utterances
in language derived from the current religious and
moral conceptions of his day. I will quote a few of these
contrasted utterances for the purpose of making my meaning
plain. In Numbers xxiii. 19, Balaam is represented as uttering
the following exalted truth : —
" God is not a man that he should he ; neither the son of
man, that he should repent : hath he said, and shall he not
do it ? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good ? "
But in Genesis vi. 6, we read —
" And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the
earth, and it grieved him at his heart." And in 1 Sam. xv.
35, " And Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord repented
that he had made Saul King over Israel." And in Ezekiel
xiv. 9, "And if the prophet be deceived, and speaketh a
word, I the Lord have deceived that prophet." And in
Micaiah's vision, the Lord is represented as saying to the
spirit who offers to go forth and be a lying spirit in the
mouth of Ahab's prophets, " Thou shalt entice him, and
prevail also. Go forth and do so."
Jeremiah thus writes respecting God's omnipresence : —
"Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off? saith the
Lord. Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not
see him ? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth ?
saith the Lord." (Jer. xxiii. 23, 24.)
Similarly grand is the description of His universal pre-

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 39
sence in the one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm, and in
Solomon's dedication prayer.
" Behold," says he, " the heaven of heavens cannot con
tain thee, how much less the house that I have builded."
But in Gen. xviii. 20, 21, we read —
" Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and
because their sin is very grievous, I will go down, and see
whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it
which is come unto me ; and if not, I will know."
The reader will easily find numerous similar instances
scattered throughout the pages of the Old Testament. I
have quoted the above merely as examples.
Let us now consider a few of the most important of its
utterances, which affirm that God, when he judges men in
their individual capacity, will act in conformity with the
principles which the enlightened conscience and moral sense
in man pronounce to be right.
The very striking narrative which is given in the book of
Genesis of Abraham's pleading for Sodom, proves that even
in those very early ages eminent saints, such as the father of
the faithful, took the same view of the principles on which
God would execute judgment as those which I have set forth
in the preceding chapter. The reader should observe that
the destruction of the cities of the plain is viewed through
out the narrative, not as an act of God's ordinary providence,
but as a special judgment on account of the wickedness of their
inhabitants, and therefore one in which it would be inconsis
tent with the Divine character to involve the innocent in the
destruction of the guilty. The sacred writer thus describes
Abraham's intercession : —
" And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou consume
the righteous with the wicked ? Peradventure there shall be
fifty righteous within the city. Wilt thou consume and not
spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous that are

40 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
therein ? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to
slay the righteous with the wicked : and that the righteous
should be as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not
the judge of all the earth do right ? And the Lord said, If
I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will
spare all the place for their sake. And Abraham answered,
and said, Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto
the Lord, which am but dust and ashes ; peradventure there
shall lack five of the fifty righteous ; wilt thou destroy all the
city for lack of five ? And the Lord said, I will not destroy
it, if I find there forty-five," &c, &c. (Gen. xviii. 23—33.)
In this passage we have that sense of justice which is
implanted in man's conscience and moral sense, pleading
with God, in executing his special judgments, to act in
conformity with the principles which they affirm to be just
and right, and a firm expression of faith on the part of the
Patriarch that He would certainly do so. "That be far from
thee," says he, "to slay" — the entire passage shows that
the words " to slay " are used to express the idea of slaying
judicially — " the righteous with the wicked, and that the
righteous should be as the wicked ; that be far from thee.
Shall not the judge of all the earth do right ? " Let it be
observed that the sense of justice and rectitude here ap
pealed to is not some high and incomprehensible justice and
rectitude, which may differ widely from our human conception
of these qualities, but that which is affirmed to be just and
righteous by the moral sense and the conscience of man, and
that the Patriarch was firmly persuaded that these attributes,
which together compose the character of God, bound Him in
executing special judgments, such as the one in question, to
act in conformity with those principles. I say "special
judgments" because it is impossible that Abraham could
have been ignorant that God's ordinary providences, such as
storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, and the various accidents of

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 41
life, are occurrences in which the righteous and the wicked are
involved in one common calamity,, and no distinction is
made in favour of the former.
But the reason on which he rests his plea is applicable to
a far wider class of subjects than the special case referred to.
If it is inconsistent with the character of the Judge of all the
earth, when He executes special judgments on sinners, to
destroy the righteous with the wicked, it is equally incon
sistent with it, when He shall judge the world in righteous
ness, to punish men for the evil in them which is not self-
caused, but which is the result of the conditions of their
birth and their surroundings — for not embracing a gospel of
which they have never heard, or of which they have only
heard an imperfect version — for not living up to a light which
they have not possessed ; or that He should not take into con
sideration, in estimating the guilt of an individual, the power of
temptation when brought to bear on a nature suited to yield
to its seductions. For all these things the fundamental prin
ciple involved in the Patriarch's plea is equally valid. That
be far from thee, when thou judgest all men according to their
works, not to take these things into thy consideration ; that
be far from thee to punish men for that for which they are not
responsible, and to punish them for that for which they only
have a qualified as though they had a full responsibility.
Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?
Early as was the age of Abraham, he stands in this inter
cession at a higher moral elevation than any other character
in the Old Testament, not even excepting Moses. Moses, it
is true, interceded for his own nation in their rebellions, but
Abraham for the inhabitants of a place who were both
strangers to him and who were sunk in the lowest form of
moral corruption. Moses urges for his plea that in destroy
ing the Israelites God would be dishonoured among the
Egyptians, who would say that he was unable to fulfil His

42 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
promises. Abraham urges as his plea the principles of
eternal justice. " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do
right ? "
Very numerous passages are to be found in the psalmists
and the prophets which in the most unqualified terms ascribe
justice, holiness, and mercy to God in His capacity of judge.
To quote and comment on even a small number of them
would swell this chapter to an undue length. I must, there
fore, trust to the reader's recollection, and content myself
with referring to the eighteenth chapter of the Prophet
Ezekiel, which constitutes the clearest utterance in the Old
Testament Scriptures respecting the principles on which God
will execute judgment on individuals. Let us, therefore,
examine it in detail. Before doing so it is necessary to draw
the reader's attention to the fact that the point at issue
between the prophet and those with whom he was contending
was the equity of God's dealings with mankind. This is
expressed in the following words : —
" Yet, saith the house of Israel, the way of the Lord is not
equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal ? Are not
your ways unequal ? Therefore will I judge you, O house of
Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God "
(Ezek. xviii. 29, 30).
In opposition to this charge of injustice the prophet enun
ciates the principles on which God will execute judgment
on men, not in their national, but in their individual
capacity. To avoid the necessity of quoting the entire
chapter I will state its salient points in the following pro
positions : —
I. God affirms that he has an absolute right to all the
services of his creatures, in virtue of their relation to Him as
their Creator. " All souls," saith He, " are mine."
II. Death is announced as the penalty of sin in the fol
lowing words : —

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 43
" The soul that sinneth, it shall die." *
III. " The just man shall surely live." What constituted
a just man in the opinion of the prophet is defined as
follows : —
^ " But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and
right, and hath not eaten on the mountains, neither hath lifted
up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath
defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a
menstruous woman; hath not oppressed any, but hath restored
to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath
given his bread to the hungry and hath covered the naked
with a garment; he that hath not given forth upon usury
nor taken increase; that hath withdrawn his hand from
iniquity and hath executed true judgment between man and
man; hath, walked in my statutes and hath kept my judg
ments — he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God."
1 Two of the duties here mentioned, viz. " hath not given
forth upon usury" nor "taken increase," are not moral
duties, but specialities of the Jewish political law, which
forbade a Jew to take interest of a Jew, but allowed him to
do so of a Gentile. Eating on the mountains was connected
with the worship of strange gods. The sins for the commis
sion of which the penalty of death is here threatened are
sins which are the opposite of the duties here enumerated.
IV. In executing judgment for the sins of individuals the
prophet affirms that God will act in conformity with the
* "When death is threatened in the Old Testament as the punishment of sin,
numerous passages make it clear that death in its ordinary sense was the thing
intended, and that the view of the prophets did not extend beyond it to any
consequences with -which sin will be attended in the unseen world. But the
peculiar emphasis which is laid on the word death, in this chapter, and in other
parts of the prophet's writings, suggest the idea that he at least had arrived at
the conclusion that sin might he attended with serious consequences to the
sinner beyond the grave. Still there is no direct affirmation that it would be
so ; and it is absurd to suppose that the Jews of this period would understand
the threatening in thfi sense which is attached to it in current popular theology.

44 FUTURE RETRIBUTION
strictest principles of equity. Thus, in contradiction to the
Widespread ideas of the ancient world, which involved whole
families in the guilt of some ancestor, more or less remote, he
affirms that —
" The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither
shall the father bear the iniquity of the son ; the righteous
ness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness
of the wicked shall be upon him."
V. The prophet affirms the efficacy of repentance to pro
cure pardon of sin, as follows : —
" If a wicked man turns from all his sins, and does that
which is lawful and right, all the transgressions that he hath
committed shall not be mentioned unto him ; in his right
eousness that he hath done, he shall live."
VI. And the inefficacy of past righteousness if the righteous
man falls from his righteousness into sin. Thus the prophet
writes —
" If the righteous man turns from his righteousness and
committeth iniquity, all the righteousness that he hath done
shall not be mentioned unto him. In the trespass that he
hath trespassed, and in the sin that he hath sinned, in them
shall he die."
VII. The prophet affirms that God has no pleasure in the
sinner's death. Thus he represents God as swearing by him
self: " As I live," saith the Lord God, " I have no pleasure in
the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn
from his way, and live."
Thus the principles here enunciated by the prophet, and
those enunciated by reason, conscience, and the moral sense,
as they are set forth in the preceding chapter, are in strict
and absolute agreement.
But it may be urged, and, as a matter of fact, with perfect
truth, that no inconsiderable portion of the Old Testament

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 45
abounds with declarations of an opposite character, and
affirms, both in precept and in fact, that the sins of ancestors
are visited on their descendants, and those of the guilty on
the innocent. Thus we read in the second commandment :—
" I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquities of the fathers on the children of them that hate
me, unto the third and fourth generation, and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my
commandments." So again on the occasion of proclaiming the Divine name
to Moses —
" The Lord, the Lord, a God full of compassion, and gra
cious ; slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and truth : keep
ing mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and
sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the
hviquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the
children's children, unto the third and fourth generation."
(Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7.)
That the iniquities of ancestors are visited on their
descendants in the present imperfect display of the divine
government of the world is a fact beyond dispute, and so far
these and similar passages only affirm what is the present
order of the divine government of the world, it being un
questionable that the sins of ancestors are visited on their
descendants ; that the guiltless often reap the fruits of the
sins of the guilty ; that the wicked often enjoy uninterrupted
prosperity, while the outward lot of the righteous is suffering
and self-sacrifice, and that both righteous and wicked are
ahke involved in a common calamity. But they by no
means affirm that this order of things would be a just order,
if man had no hereafter, but perished in the grave. Why
things are constituted as they are is beyond the ken of
man. But the following utterances do not relate to God's general

46 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
providences, but bear on them the appearance of something
special. Thus Samuel is represented as saying —
" Thus saith the Lord of Hosts : I have marked that which
Amalek did to Israel ; how he lay wait for him on the way,
when he came up from Egypt. Now go, and smite Amalek ;
and all that he hath, and spare them not, but slay both man
and woman, infant and suckling, ox; and sheep, camel and
ass." (1 Sam. xv. 2, 3.)
Not one word is here said that this order was given on
account of some present sin which had been committed by
this people ; but, on the contrary, it is expressly stated that
their extermination is directed as a judgment for a sin com
mitted by their ancestors several hundred years previously.
Nor would the difficulty be lessened if some present sin had
been given as the reason for directing it, because the " infant
and suckling," who were incapable of sinning, are included
in the order.
In a similar manner the direction given in a passage of
Deuteronomy with respect to the Canaanites is to destroy
everything that breatheth, though elsewhere it is simply to
drive them out of the land. It has been urged, therefore,
that it was in their power to avoid extermination by retir
ing from the country, or by tendering submission, which,
according to the history, was accepted in the case of the
Gibeonites, and even strictly observed, although the treaty
was obtained by means of a fraudulent misrepresentation. It
is therefore possible that a submission on the part of the
other Canaanitish tribes might have been attended with a
similar result,
I will quote only one passage more as an example of
numerous others. The author of Psalm cxxxvii. thus
writes : —
" 0 daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, happy
shall he be that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us.

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 47
Happy shall he be that taketh thy little ones, and dasheth
them against the stones."
Similar in point of principle are the wholesale slaughters
which are authorised by various utterances which are re
corded in the Old Testament. Thus in the war against the
Midianites, the order given is to kill every male child amono-
the little ones, and all the married women ; but permission is
given to preserve the unmarried as a portion of the spoil, i.e.
to reduce them to slavery. In like manner for the offence of
Achan in purloining a portion of the spoils of Jericho, the
order is that not only himself, but his sons, his daughters,
and his entire household should be stoned to death, and the
author of the book adds, that when this was done the Lord
turned from the fierceness of his anger.
It may be urged as in some degree affording an explana
tion of these exterminating slaughters, that in these ages the
idea of conversion was unknown, and consequently the only
way of getting rid of races deeply sunk in moral degradation
was by exterminating them ; but this gives no account for
the direction to slaughter infants and young children, who,
if they had been allowed to survive, might have enjoyed the
privileges to which the Gibeonites were admitted. But the
real difficulty is, that in very numerous cases the commands
for these slaughters are represented as having been directly
given by Him who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort ; nay,
according to some theories, by Him who said, " Suffer the
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of
such is the kingdom of God."
I will select one example out of many others as affording
proof of the low condition of the moral sentiment of those
times, and of the degree in which the Mosaic ordinances were
accommodated to it : I allude to that singular institution, the
cities of refuge. The object of this institution was to restrain

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that bloodthirsty and revengeful spirit which was then
sanctioned by public opinion as just and right. Not even the
most accidental homicide could escape the vengeance of the
blood-avenger, except by taking refuge in one of these cities ;
and even if he found him outside it during the life of the high
priest, his slaughter was legal. The special case referred to
is, if two men went out into a wood to fell timber, and the
axe of one of them should accidentally fall off and kill the
other, the blood-avenger was justified, according to the moral
sentiment then prevalent, in killing the accidental homicide,
unless he could escape to one of these cities, and even then,
unless he submitted to what might have been a long period
of confinement within its bounds. It is not too much to
say that any one who took the life of another under such
circumstances in any civilised modern country would be
justly subject to the highest penalties known to the law.
Yet there have not been lacking theologians who have seen
in this institution a type of Christ.
What shall we say, then, respecting this very numerous
class of precepts and practices which are recorded in the
Scriptures of the Old Testament, and of which the foregoing
are only cited as examples ? Are they to be viewed as
revelations of that justice and holiness in conformity with
which God will judge the world in righteousness ? or do they
belong to that class of precepts which were given to the
Israelites because of the hardness of their hearts — i.e. because
such was their low spiritual and moral condition, that any
thing higher or nobler would have been incapable of being
enforced on them ? or are not a few of them due to the fact
that the writers failed to realise those conceptions of Divine
justice and holiness which were enunciated by their great
ancestor when he interceded for the inhabitants of Sodom ?
That not a few of these utterances were accommodations to
the low spiritual and moral conditions of the times is not

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 49
only affirmed by our Lord but by several of the more enlight
ened prophets. Thus Ezekiel, after denouncing the reiterated
rebellion of the Israelites, writes —
" I lifted up my hand to them in the wilderness, that I
would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them
through the countries ; because they had not executed my
judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted
my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.
Wherefore I gave them statutes which were not good, and
judgments whereby they should not live, and I polluted them
in their own gifts." (Ezekiel xx. 23 — 26.)
This passage unequivocally affirms that there are statutes
and judgments in the Old Testament which are not founded
on the principles of eternal justice and holiness, but which
were designed to subserve a temporary purpose. Hence it
follows, in conformity with the prophet's declarations which
we have considered, with the affirmations of conscience, and, as
we shall see hereafter, with the declarations of the New Testa
ment, that it is impossible to quote them as affording any sup
port to certain theories as to the principles on which God will
execute his final judgment on mankind, or as justifications of
many practices which have been sanctioned by different sec
tions of the Christian Church. Further, they do not afford
the smallest reason for affirming, when we ascribe justice and
holiness to God, that these attributes can mean some indefi
nite conception of justice and holiness which may differ
widely from what our conscience and moral sense affirm
to be just and holy. The real difficulty of the passage is, the
apparent affirmation that " the statutes which were not good,
and the judgments whereby they should not live," are repre
sented as the direct utterances of the Holy One.
To omit numerous other prophetical utterances of a similar
import, especially those which speak of the sacrificial ritual,
the last prophet of the Old Testament dispensation declares

50 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
expressly that one of the Mosaic ordinances did not represent
the mind of God, but that it was given asan accommodation
to the moral condition of the times, viz. the Jewish law of
divorce. This was so lax that when a wife no longer found
favour in her husband's eyes it was permitted to him to give
her a writing of divorcement, and to put her away. Respect
ing this law the prophet thus writes : —
" Yet ye say, Wherefore ? Because the Lord hath been
witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against
whom thou hast dealt treacherously ; yet she is thy com
panion and the wife of thy covenant ; and did he not make
one ? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore
one ? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take
heed to thy spirit, and let none deal treacherously against
the wife of his youth. For the Lord God of Israel saith that
he hateth putting away." (Malaehi ii. 14, 16.)
Yet the following is the precept in Deuteronomy : —
"When a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it
come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he
hath found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her
a bill of divorcement, and give it into her hand, and send her
out of his house." (Deut. xxiv. 1.)
But the authority of the great teacher come from God is
far higher than that of any prophet. He, therefore, who
declared that He came not to abrogate the law but to fulfil
it (7r\r]ptoo-ai), i.e. to realise its true ideal and to purge it of
its defects, thus taught with respect to this enactment, in
reply to the following question of the Pharisees : —
" And there came unto him the Pharisees and asked him,
Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife ? tempting him.
And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses com
mand you ? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of
divorcement, and to put her away. But Jesus said unto
them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this corn-

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 51
mandment. But from the beginning of the creation, male
and female made he them. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and
the twain shall become one flesh  What therefore
God hath joined together let not man put asunder." (Mark x.
2—9.) Such an affirmation involves a great principle, viz. that there
are precepts in the Old Testament which do not realise the ideal
of the attributes of justice and holiness as they exist in God, or
as they are affirmed by the enlightened moral sense and con
science of man. It is impossible to confine the principle
which underlies this utterance to the single case before us ;
on the contrary, it must be true of every precept and practice
in the Old Testament which conflicts with our Lord's teach
ing, and with everything in it which ascribes to God a cha
racter contrary to that of Him who is his moral image and
likeness, and who has affirmed of Himself, " He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father."
St. Luke's Gospel contains the following narrative, which
has the most intimate bearing on the subject we are now
considering. It is as follows : —
"And it came to pass, that when the days were well nigh
come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his
face to go to Jerusalem ; and sent messengers before his face ;
and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans,
to make ready for him. And they did not receive him,
because his face was as though he were going to Jerusalem.
And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said,
Wilt thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and
consume them. But he turned, and rebuked them ; and the
went to another village." (Luke ix. 51 — 56.)
The translators add in the margin, " Many ancient copies
add, 'even as Elijah did.' Some add, 'and he said, Ye
know not what manner of spirit ye are of.' Some, but
e2

52 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
fewer, ' for the Son of Man came not to destroy men's lives,
but to save them.' " *
Whether the Evangelist really wrote the words, " even as
Elijah did," matters little as far as our present argument
is concerned; for it can hardly be doubted that James
and John,, when they made this proposal, must have had the
narrative in the Book of Kings in view, which describes
Elijah as calling down fire from heaven and consuming his
enemies ; and that they reasoned that as their Master was
far greater than Elijah, an insult offered to Him ought not to
meet with a less severe vengeance. If the other passages
inserted in the margin were really uttered by our Lord, it
somewhat strengthens our position ; but it is sufficiently
strong without them. What, I ask, is the necessary inference
from our Lord's rebuke? That He viewed the act of Elijah,
however necessary it might have been for the then times, as
inconsistent with the revelation of the Father made in His
own divine person, and with the ideal of the morality which
He taught.
But the whole of our Lord's teaching and practice, and
that of the writers of the New Testament, prove that the
revengeful feelings of the great men of the Old Testament
dispensation were inconsistent with the true ideal of morality.
Of this the following utterances afford decisive proof : —
" Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you,
Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you,
* It is easy to account for the omission of these words on the part of some
copyist, on the ground that he thought them a reflection on the act of Elijah ;
but if he did so with that intention, he ought not to have stopped short where
he did, but to have gone further, and omitted the fact that our Lord rebuked the
disciples for having made such a proposal. If, however, they are not genuine,
it is difficult to account for their insertion ; for, to adopt the language of Mr.
Mill, in speaking of our Lord's discourses as they are recorded in the three first
Gospels, they are far above the moral elevation of our Lord's primitive followers
to have invented them, and equally above that of the early Christians.

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 53
that ye may be the sons of your Father who is in heaven ;
for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain upon the just and on the unjust." (Matt. v.
43—45.) And— " Love your enemies, and do them good, and lend, never
despairing ; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be
the sons of the Most High, for He is kind toward the un
thankful, and the evil." (Luke vi. 35.)
In conformity with these utterances is the whole tone of
apostolic teaching, yet the writers of the Old Testament
habitually imprecate vengeance on their enemies, and even
devote them to destruction ; but we look in vain for their
prayers for them !
There are also not a few utterances in the Old Testament
which not only enunciate a morality, which is an accommo
dation to the low moral condition of the times, but which,
unless we admit that some human element has entered into
them, ascribe evil directly to God. Of these it will be suffi
cient to cite the following as examples : Thus the prophet
Ezekiel, speaking of the hypocrisy of those whom he was
addressing, in practising iniquity, and coming to a prophet
to inquire of God, writes —
"I, the Lord, will answer him by myself ; and I will set
my face against that man ; and I will make him a sign and
a proverb ; and I will cut him off from the midst of my
people ; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. And if the
prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord
have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand
upon him ; and I will destroy him from the midst of my
people Israel." (Ezekiel xiv. 7 — 9.)
So the prophet Isaiah —
" I form the light, and create darkness ; I make peace, ¦
and create evil ; I, the Lord, do all these things."

54 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
So also another prophet —
" Is there evil in the city, and I have not done it ? "
The vision of Micaiah also is a very striking illustration
of this line of thought. In it Jehovah is represented as
sitting on His throne, and all the hosts of heaven as standing
by Him, on His right hand and on His left. Jehovah is then
represented as saying, " Who will entice Ahab, that he may
go, and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said on this
manner, and another said, on that manner. And there came
forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will
entice him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith ? And
he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the
mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt entice
him, and prevail also. Go forth, and do so." (1 Kings xxii.
20—22.) Such is the imagery of the vision, which is evidently
deeply coloured with the prophet's own conceptions of the
mode of the Divine acting. I need not stop to point out
the imperfections of the Divine holiness which are contained
in the language in which it is described. It will be sufficient
to set against it the assertion of St. James —
" Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of
God ; for God cannot be tempted of evil, and he himself
tempteth no man. But each man is tempted when he is
drawn away by his own lusts, and enticed." (James i.
13, 14.) Yet the vision, in its naked form, represents the
All Holy as expressing His approbation of tempting Ahab to
perish through the medium of a he.
With respect to the affirmation, " If a prophet be deceived
when he hath spoken a thing, I, the Lord, have deceived that
prophet ; and I will set my face against that prophet, and I
will cut him off from the midst of my people," I ask
emphatically, Can God deceive ? Can God he ? Can He
directly in His own person dictate statutes which are not good,

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 55
and judgments whereby men cannot live ? Can He punish
a prophet for being deceived, if He Himself is the cause of
the deception ? The New Testament contains the following
utterances which dispose of all these questions once and for
ever : —
" God that cannot lie." (Titus i. 2.)
" Man shall not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matt. iv. 4.)
What then is the meaning of the imperfect moral utter
ances which are contained in the Old Testament? The reader
should observe that not a few of them are not intended to be
statements of abstract morality, but are political precepts ;
or in other words, a code of political legislation, which is
again and again in the New Testament ascribed to Moses.
What then is the end and purpose which is proposed by all
such legislation ? Not to anounce abstract principles of right,
but to enact such laws as are suited to the moral condition of
those for whom they are intended. A body of laws framed on
principles of high moral obligation would have been unfit for
a nation like the Israelites, just emerging from a condition of
barbarism and slavery. All that a legislator can effect is to
frame his laws a little in advance of the current moral
standard. Even in modern highly civilised European states,
a legislator is compelled to enact not what his conscience
pronounces to be absolutely just, but the nearest approxima
tion to it which the people for whom he legislates will bear.
This consideration will help to explain many of the precepts
of the Old Testament which fail to realise the ideal of
morality as it is affirmed by our enlightened conscience
and moral sense, and realised in the teaching of the New
Testament. They, in fact, formed the political code of the
people of Israel.*
* As it is impossible in a mere chapter to do justice to this subject, I must
refer the reader who is desirous of entering on it more fully, to a work of the

56 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
But the reader will naturally inquire, even after he has
given full weight to these considerations, How has it come to
.pass that not a few of these precepts of imperfect morality are
introduced with such expressions as "The Lord said unto
Moses," " Thus saith the Lord," and are even represented as
the direct utterances of the Holy One ? Are they really in
tended to affirm that the utterance which follows was the
result of a special revelation then and there communicated to
the prophet ; or do they only mean that Moses and the
prophets spoke in accordance with the special endowments
which were imparted to the former to qualify him for filling
the office of legislator, and to the latter to enable them to fill
the office of preachers of righteousness to the people of Israel,
and that it was in virtue of their special commission and of
their special endowments that they made use of the formulas
in question ?
A cursory perusal of the Old Testament is sufficient to
prove that it was the custom of these early ages to ascribe
everything which we now attribute to second causes to the
direct and immediate agency of God. To this immediate
agency its writers ascribe the activity of the forces which
energise in nature, and not a few of those which energise in
man. Hence it has come to pass that various actions are
ascribed to a direct Divine impulse which the line of thought
pervading the New Testament forbids us to attribute to Him
who is the Spirit of holiness, truth, and love. Two examples
will illustrate my meaning. The author of the Book of
Judges, after narrating the story of Samson's wager and
the trick by which his companions attained the solution of
late Dr. Mozley, Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford, entitled
" Ruling Ideas in the Early Ages," in which the learned Professor has discussed
at considerable length the imperfections of the moral teaching of the Old Testa
ment. In making this reference, however, I am far from wishing to imply that
I consider his solutions of the difficulties in question always adequate ; yet the
book is one of deep interest.

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 57
his riddle, thus describes the mode in which he paid the
forfeit which he had incurred :
" And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him,
and he went down to Askalon and smote thirty men of them
and took their spoil, and gave the changes of raiment unto
them that declared the riddle." (Judges xiv. 19.) That is
to say, that he killed thirty persons who, as far as anything
appears to the contrary in the narrative, had given him no
offence, to give thirty changes of raiment to his thirty com
panions who had seduced his wife into betraying his secret.
In the Second Book of Samuel we thus read —
"And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against
Israel ; and he moved David against them, saying, Go,
number Israel and Judah," &c, &c. (2 Sam. xxiv., which see.)
Here the impulse to an act evidently regarded by the
author as a great sin, is directly attributed to the Lord.
But the author of the far later Book of Chronicles attributes
the temptation to Satan. . Thus he writes —
" And Satan " (margin, an adversary) " stood up against
Israel, and moved David to number Israel." (1 Chron. xxi. 1.)
Thus the temptation which is directly ascribed to the
Lord in the Book of Kings is not less directly ascribed to
Satan in the Book of Chronicles, or it may be to some adver
sary of the Israelites, the same word meaning both Satan and
adversary, just as in the New Testament the word " devil "
(ha^oXos) has the double meaning of devil and calumniator.
The real explanation of these not infrequent direct attri
butions of evil to God is that there is no line of distinction
drawn in the Old Testament between what God does by his
own immediate and special agency and what he permits to
be done by second agents, whether they be evil spirts, men,
or the forces of nature. We also find an occasional absence
of this distinction in the New Testament. Thus St. Paul
writes to the Thessalonians, "For this cause God sendeth

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them a working of error" (Ivepyetav 7r\ai/ij9, an inworking
of error, but the rendering " strong delusion " of the Autho
rised Version fairly expresses the meaning of the Greek) ;
but St. James's affirmation, that God is never the tempter of
men to evil, leaves no doubt as to the real meaning of these
and similar expressions. Thus he writes —
" Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of
God : for God cannot be tempted of evil ; and he himself
tempteth no man."
All similar temptations, as well as various evils which
affect the bodies of men, are uniformly ascribed in the New
Testament either to the devil, i.e. Satan, or to his subordinate
agents, designated demons. We may, therefore, conclude
that all ascriptions of evil to God's direct and immediate
agency which are found in the Old Testament are due to the
fact that its writers in their utterances on such subjects were
either not elevated above the conceptions of the times, or
else that they accommodated themselves to them.
There is a section of the Book of Exodus which throws
considerable light on the use of these formularies in the Old
Testament Scriptures. I allude to those chapters which pre
scribe to the minutest details the mode in which the tabernacle
was to be constructed. They are introduced with the usual
formula, " The Lord said unto Moses," but we are informed
that previously Moses received an injunction — an injunction
which is twice repeated — to make it according to a pattern
which had been shown him in the Mount. This injunction
is thus referred to in the Epistle to the Hebrews —
"Even as Moses is warned of God, when he is about to
make the tabernacle ; for see, saith he, that thou make all
things according to the pattern that was showed thee in the
Mount." It is, therefore, clear that the author of this epistle was of
opinion that Moses was admonished to be careful to frame the

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 59
tabernacle according to a model which he had previously seen
in vision. But if he was admonished to frame it according
to a pattern previously shown him, what is the meaning of
his having been instructed as to every, even the minutest,
detail by a number of special revelations ? Surely these
would have rendered the injunction to be careful to frame
it according to the pattern unmeaning. It follows, there
fore, that the formula, " The Lord said unto Moses," so
often repeated in these chapters, was not intended to affirm
that every detail of the construction of the tabernacle was
then and there imparted to him by a number of special
revelations, but that it is used because, according to the wis
dom given to him to enable him to discharge the duties of
his office, he constructed according to the model which he
had previously seen in vision.
Chapters xiv. to xvii. of the First Book of Kings throw a
light on the nature of some of the prophetic utterances to
which the student would do well to take heed.
The prophet Ahijah dooms the entire house of Jeroboam
to destruction on account of his sin in making the golden
calves. Baasha carries this threat into execution by exter
minating his entire household. It is true that he is nowhere
represented as receiving a Divine direction to do this ; but if
he was acquainted with the denunciation of the prophet, he
might full well have considered that in carrying this threat
into execution he was acting in conformity with the Divine
will. Yet we read in the sixteenth chapter, " And also by
the hand of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, came the
word of the Lord against Baasha, and against his house, even
for all the evil which he did in the sight of the Lord to pro
voke him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like
unto the house of Jeroboam, and because he smote him."
Still more striking is the case of Jehu. The prophet who
anointed him king gives him a direct commission to exter-

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minate the house of Ahab, and in 2 Kings xii. the Lord is
represented as saying, " Because thou hast done well, in exe
cuting that which is right in mine eyes, and done unto the
house of Ahab according to all that which was in my heart,
thy sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of
Israel." Yet the prophet Hosea thus writes respecting the
act in question, "And the Lord said unto him, Call his
name Jezreel ; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the
blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause
the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease." (Hosea i. 4.)
The reader will remember that it was at Jezreel that one of
the great slaughters of the house of Ahab took place.
It is worthy of remark that the writers of the New Testa
ment have never once used these formulas. The nearest
approach to doing so is the following utterance of St. •
Paul :—
" If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet, or spiritual,.
let him take knowledge, that the things that I write unto
you are the commandments of the Lord." (1 Cor. xiv. 37.)
The Christian prophet Agabus also is recorded by St. Luke,
after binding his own hands and feet with St. Paul's girdle,
to have addressed him in the following words : " Thus saith
the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the
man that owneth this girdle, and deliver him into the hands
of the Gentiles." But according to the subsequent history,
the Jews did not bind Paul and deliver him into the hands
of the Romans, but, on the contrary, when they were striving
to kill him, the Romans, in direct contradiction to the wishes
of the Jews, rescued him out of their hands and bound him
with two chains, which act was the means of St. Paul's
escape from their malice.
This passage, therefore, throws great light on the use of
this and similar formulas with which the prophets prefaced
their utterances. Agabus had received a Divine direction to

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 61
warii Paul of the danger which he was about to encounter in
going to Jerusalem, but the particular form in which this
intimation was conveyed must have been the creation of his
own mind, and not dictated by the Divine Spirit, for the
details of the utterance were not realised by the event ; yet
the whole is prefaced by the words, " Thus saith the Holy
Ghost." It is evident that St. Luke, who has recorded both
the utterance and the facts, saw no inconsistency between the
words which he has attributed to Agabus and the facts as he
has narrated them.
Another passage in St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corin
thians throws additional light on the nature of the utterances
of the prophets of the Christian Church, whose rank in it was
only second to that of apostles. (1 Cor. xii. 28.)
"Let the prophets speak by two or three, and let the
others discern. But if a revelation be made to another sitting
by, let the first keep silence,, for ye all can prophesy one by
one, that all may learn and all may be comforted ; and the
spirits of 'prophets are subject to the prophets, for God is not a
God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the Churches of the
saints." (1 Cor. xiv. 29—33.)
This passage proves —
1. That a prophet of the Christian Church was so far
capable of abusing his prophetic gift as to use it in such a
manner as to be capable of creating disorder in the Christian
assemblies. See text and context.
2. That when a prophet spake in the congregation, the
others who possessed the prophetic gift were to sit by and
discern the nature of his utterance. This implies that they
were to determine how far it was in conformity with the
Divine Spirit, or how far a human element was mixed up
with it.
3. That the prophets usually spoke out of the fulness of
their ordinary Christian consciousness, and not as the result

62 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
of a special revelation then and there communicated, though
occasionally a prophet received a special Divine communica
tion, on his notification of which the prophet who was
addressing the assembly was to keep silence.
4. That the prophetic impulse was subject to the control
of the prophet's will.
Now it is incredible that the Christian prophet, endowed
as he was with the gifts of the Spirit promised by our Lord,
possessed an inferior degree of enlightenment or of Divine
guidance to that of his Jewish brother. If, then, the utter
ances of the former required to be " discerned " (ciaKpiveTWTav,
a very strong word, of which the English discern is but a
feeble rendering) by the other prophets who were present in
the congregation, before they could be accepted as certainly
conveying the mind of Christ ; or if, as in the case of Agabus,
the Divine Spirit only suggested to their minds a general truth,
and not the special form in which it was delivered, but left it
to the prophet to fill up its details, it is only reasonable to
assume that elements of imperfection must have been mixed
up with the utterances of the prophets of the Old Testament
dispensation whenever they contain anything which is incon
sistent with the teaching of our Lord, or with the character
of God as it is revealed in his divine person, or with the
affirmations of the enlightened conscience, which is the voice
of God speaking in man. It seems to me that on this prin
ciple alone is it possible to explain those utterances of the
Old Testament which represent God as tempting men to sin,
or as deceiving a prophet, or as authorising a subordinate
agent of His providence to carry out His purposes by inspiring
men who were regarded as prophets to utter a lie, and direct
ing them to go forth and do so. Balaam, as we have seen, at
a far earlier age had enunciated the great truth, " God is not
a man that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should
repent." Everything, therefore, in the Old Testament which

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. 63
represents God as possessing a character either different from
this, or from that of the Jesus of the Gospels, must be either
a human element which has entered into the prophetic utter
ances, or an accommodation to the low spiritual and moral
condition of the times.
The utterances of the New Testament on the subject we
are considering are clear, simple, and harmonious, and may
be all summed up in the following brief affirmations of our
Lord and His apostles : —
" The Father judge th no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son." (John v. 22.)
" The Son of Man shall come in the glory of the Father,
with his angels ; and then shall he render to every man
according to his deeds." (Matt. xvi. 27.)
" He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my sayings, hath
One that judgeth him. The word that I have spoken, the
same shall judge him at the last day." (John xii. 48.)
"The times of this ignorance God overlooked ; but now he
commandeth all men that they should everywhere tfepent,
inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in the which he will
judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom heohath
ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in
that he hath raised him from the dead." (Acts xvii. 30, 31.)
What, then, are the general conclusions from the positions
laid down in this and in the preceding chapter ?
1. That in the judgment to come, men will be held
responsible not for those things in them in the production
of which they have had no choice, but only for those things
in which they have been voluntary agents.
2. That in judging each individual, God will make allow
ance for the power of the temptations by which the indi
vidual has been assailed. This is required alike by His attri
butes of justice and of mercy.
3. That God will judge the world in conformity with His

64 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
attributes of justice, righteousness, mercy, and love, and with
that perfect knowledge of the circumstances of those whom
He judges, and of their inmost motives, which enables Him
to estimate aright the precise degree of the responsibility
of each individual ; and that all the theories respecting
the principles on which He will finally judge mankind, which
represent Him as acting contrary to justice, holiness, mercy,
and love, and the perfection of His knowledge, are con
trary to the affirmations of the enlightened conscience, and
that great truth, which lies at the foundation of Christianity,
that Jesus Christ is the revelation of the moral character of
God. 4. That God will judge the world in righteousness, in
Him who is the Son of God and the Son of Man, the perfect
man, Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man, of
whom His beloved disciple has written : " We have beheld,
and bear witness, that the Father hath sent the Son to be
the Saviour of the world."
5. That every principle or precept found in the Old Testa
ment, which is inconsistent with the character of God as it is
revealed in our Lord's person, actions, and teaching, forms
no portion of the Christian revelation, but is due either to an
imperfect understanding of the nature of the prophetic utter
ances, or to the fact that they were accommodations to the
low moral and spiritual condition of the times.
6. The mystery of evil as it exists both in the physical
and moral worlds is incapable of being solved by any faculty
of man, and is left unsolved by revelation ; but the latter
affords grounds for hoping that what we see so imperfectly
here we shall be able to comprehend more perfectly here
after.

CHAPTER IV.
An Examination of the Validity of the Reasons which we possess, inde
pendently op a Revelation, por believing that Man will survive
the stroke op death ; and that his conduct here will affect his
Condition Hereafter.
It is hardly possible to conceive of two questions more pro
foundly interesting than the following : —
1. Is there reason for believing that that which ive
designate ourselves will possess a conscious existence after
the death of our bodies ?
2. Assuming that a conscious existence awaits us beyond
the grave, is there reason for believing that our conduct here
will exert an influence on our happiness or misery hereafter ?
I have used the words " that which we designate our
selves " instead of the usual terms employed in this contro
versy, for the purpose of keeping clear of all subordinate
issues, because the all-important question is the following :
Shall we, in our conscious personality, not only survive
the death of the body, but also have a clear conscious percep
tion in the world beyond the grave that we are the very
beings who formed for ourselves certain characters, performed
certain actions, and neglected to perform certain duties
during the past period of our existence. This consciousness
of sameness and identity is the necessary condition for our
being the subjects of a righteous judgment hereafter for our
conduct here.
The discussion of this subject is spread over a very volu
minous mass of hterature, both ancient and modern. I
F

66 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
cannot but think, however, that all the really salient points of
the controversy lie within a narrow compass, because the
arguments for believing in a future state which at the
present day will be admitted to possess validity, independent
of the affirmations of a revelation, are comparatively few.
In former times great reliance was placed on reasonings
founded on the metaphysical nature of the soul ; but there
is now a general agreement among thoughtful men, that our
faculties are inadequate to enable us to penetrate into what
constitutes the abstract essence of being of any kind. Thus
all the investigations of modern science have failed to deter
mine what either matter, life, or sensation are in their essen
tial being. Respecting what motions are in themselves, or
how they are translated into sensations, and thence into
thoughts, notwithstanding the innumerable theories which
have been propounded, we know absolutely nothing. Pre
cisely similar is it with that which we designate the soul :
respecting what constitutes its essence, we are profoundly
ignorant. Consequently all reasonings which are based on
such supposed knowledge are valueless. This at once disposes
of nearly all the reasonings of the ancient philosophers on
this subject, and not a few of the modern ones. We may
read them with interest, but they fail to produce conviction.
I think that the grounds for believing in such survival,
which are derived from reason alone, may be stated under
the following heads : —
I. — The all but universal Belief of Mankind in a
State of Existence after Death.
I say " ah but universal," because it has been disputed
whether a few tribes, which are sunk into an extreme state of
barbarism, entertain this belief. One thing, however, is cer
tain, that all those who are elevated above that condition
have done so, except a few individuals who have reasoned

REASONS INDEPENDENT OF REVELATION. 67
themselves out of it. It therefore amounts to a practical
universality. From this the inference may be justly drawn,
that it is suggested by the nature and constitution of man.
Certain it is that it cannot have been deduced by an act of
reasoning, because the numerous uncultivated races of man
kind who believe in the survival of the personality after
death, however imperfect may be the form of that belief, are
incapable of that amount of abstract thought which would
be necessary to prove it. This being so, a belief which is prac
tically universal cannot be a delusion pure and simple, but
there must be a reality of some kind which corresponds to it.
Various attempts have been made to account for the
universality of this belief on other principles than that it has
originated in the constitution of human nature. Of these the
two following demand a brief notice.
1. That the intensity of the desire that men have to live,
has suggested the idea of a survival after death.
2. That this belief has been suggested by the act of
dreaming, which has led uncultivated races to infer that there
is something in man which is capable of energising apart
from the body. From this it is urged that the inference is
an easy one, that if man has a soul distinct from the body, it
may continue to exist after the death of the body. To this it
is added that the fact that some men have seen their departed
friends in dreams has suggested the belief that they have not
only survived the dissolution of their bodies, but that they
have actually appeared again.
With respect; to the first of these theories, I reply that men
have numerous and very strong desires which do not suggest
the idea of their future realisation. Why, then, should this
particular desire suggest, not only to a few individuals, the
belief that man will survive the stroke of death, but produce
an all but universal belief that he will thus survive, and that
too in the face of the phenomena of death, which, at least to
f2

68 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
the natural eye, have all the appearance of a termination of
existence. Second, the dream theory.
It falls outside the limits of this work to discuss the
phenomena of dreams. I must, however, ask the reader to
observe that the thing to be accounted for is not what they
may have suggested to a few individuals, but how it is
possible that they can have suggested the idea of an existence
after death to both the civilised and uncivilised races of man
kind in every part of the globe, however little intercourse
they may have had with one another. It will scarcely be
urged that the idea was likely to have occurred except to
a few. Are we then to assume that these turned missionaries,
and not only proclaimed this truth to their brother savages,
but that they succeeded in persuading them to embrace it ?
For the belief, as I have said, is all but universal. Let the
existence of this belief be accounted for, on some principle.
which will bear rational investigation ; otherwise the inference
is inevitable, that it is the result of the constitution of
human nature.
II. — The Argument from the Greatness of Man's In
tellectual and Moral Powers and the Imperfect Scope
that this Life affords for their Exercise and Develop
ment. This argument rests on the assumption that there is a
Creator of the universe, who is all-powerful and all-wise ; but
to those who affirm that there is no evidence for belief in such
a Creator, it has no cogency. It may be briefly stated thus —
Mankind are brought into existence in possession of various
faculties, and no inconsiderable number with faculties of a
high order, which are all capable of a higher and higher
development. Yet they seldom attain to their full maturity,
but are cut short in their career bv death. Thus those who

REASONS INDEPENDENT OF REVELATION. 69
die in the first year of their existence constitute one-fifteenth
of the human race, and more than one-third die before they
attain the age of twelve. This being so, the bringing such
multitudes into existence, endowed with the lofty faculties of
man, seems absolutely purposeless and a mere waste of crea
tive power, if man perishes at death. Of those who die in
youth and early manhood, the brightest prospects are nipped
in the bud ; and no small number of the remainder are cut off
before their powers have attained to their full maturity ; and
not a few die within a short interval after they have attained
to it. Even at best, the period of man's full activity is brief,
and not a few of the most highly gifted die in the midst of
their work, for which by a long course of training during
early life they have become pre-eminently fitted, and even in
the midst of their highest usefulness. It may be urged that
owing to the limitation of our faculties, we cannot penetrate
into the purposes of the Creator. This, however, is only
partially true ; for it is quite within our compass to affirm
that if man perishes at death, the things which I have above
referred to involve either a purposeless! expenditure of
power, or a lack of power, or of wisdom on the part of the
Creator. But if He is all-powerful and all-wise this is impos
sible. It therefore follows that death cannot be the termina
tion of man's existence, but that it is a removal into a sphere
of activity different from the present, where his powers will
find a sphere fitted for that development which, for reasons
into which we cannot penetrate, has been denied him here.
III. — The Survival of the Intellectual and Moral
Powers in their full Vigour up to a brief Interval
before Death.
While it is a fact that in a majority of cases the intellec
tual and moral powers decay with the decay of the body, yet
numerous instances have occurred where they have continued

70 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
in full vigour up to the moment of dissolution, even in cases
where the body has been worn out by a prolonged course of
exhausting disease. In such persons the intellect has been
as unclouded, the affections as active, and the faith as strong,
the moment before death, as they ever have been during life.
It is evident, therefore, that the diseases which have worn
the body out have left the intellectual and moral powers
untouched. But in a moment all is changed. The whole
of those powers which were in full activity immediately
before death are, to all appearance, gone without leaving a
trace behind. Nothing remains before us but an organism,
devoid alike of motion, intelligence, affection, and voli
tion. In one minute these three last were in full activity ;
in the next, if man perishes at death, they have ceased to be.
Is it credible that they have perished in an instant ? Perhaps
no one can fully appreciate the force of the impression which
such a scene makes on the mind of the beholder, except
those who have witnessed the sudden collapse of all those
powers which really constitute the man. To those who have
witnessed such a scene it seems incredible that the self-
conscious personality, the intellectual powers, and the warm
affections which at one moment were in full activity, have
ceased to exist in the next. It is true that this is an argu
ment the force of which it is impossible to exhibit in the
conclusion of a syllogism ; but it may full well outweigh
the force of many an adverse one. With respect to such
a death the natural language of the mind is, He is gone,
not, He has ceased to be.
The contrary opinion is founded on the fact that as we
are at present constituted, our mental powers can only display
themselves through a bodily organism, and that in an
overwhelming majority of cases they wear out with that or
ganism. From this the inference is drawn that they cease
to exist as soon as the body ceases to live. This, however,

REASONS INDEPENDENT OF REVELATION. 7l
by no means invalidates the argument in the preceding para
graph ; for it is unquestionable that exceptions to this general
rule exist, and it is on these exceptions that the argument
is founded. But the inference in question is greatly in excess
of the premisses. I fully admit that the fact that our mental
powers and our bodily organisation are most intimately cor
related is unquestionable ; and that the latter, when disor
dered, is capable of producing a corresponding disturbance
in the former. Of this the proof is not far to seek, for it is
a matter of painful daily experience. But this intimate cor
relation is all that modern science has succeeded in establish
ing ; yet this by no means proves that the man and his
bodily organism are identical. The moment after death
the body is there before us, little changed from what it was
the moment before death ; but all that constitutes the man
is gone in a moment, we know not whither.
How then stands the case ? What do we know and what
do we not know? Respecting the real nature of life we
know absolutely nothing. All the investigations of scien
tific men have failed to determine what it is, notwithstanding
the ardour with which they have pursued them. Equally
ignorant are we of the ultimate nature of mind. Both remain
at the present time as profound a mystery as they were
at the earliest dawnings of philosophic thought. This being
so it is impossible to prove, though it is easy to affirm, that
death is the destruction of our personality. All that we know
about it is its outward phenomena, viz. that it suspends the
manifestation of every previously existing power ; and that
it liberates the chemical forces, which were previously held
in check by the vital ones, so that they are able, without
let or hindrance, to effect the dissolution of our bodily
frame. But on our mental powers these forces are powerless
to act. Death, it is true, removes them from the sphere
of our cognisance, but that it destroys them there is not a

72 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
tittle of evidence, except on the assumption that brain
and mind are identical, for which the evidence is entirely
wanting. All that scientific investigation has succeeded in
establishing is that, as we are at present constituted, mind
requires a bodily organism for its manifestation, and that
in every act of mental activity there results a correspond
ing motion in the brain ; but how these motions are trans
lated into thought, and how thought originates motions
in the nervous ^ system, we know nothing. Whether our
personality will survive the stroke of death, science, qua
science, can neither affirm nor deny ; for it is a question which
lies outside its proper sphere, and must ever continue to do
so until it can prove that mind is nothing but a modification
of matter. One thing, however, we know for certain, that
we are personal voluntary agents, free from the iron law of
necessary agency, and capable of producing activities both
within and outside our bodies by an act of, and at the dicta
tion of, our wills. This being so, it is impossible to affirm
that man is incapable of existing, thinking, and acting under
other conditions than the present ones. Consequently my
argument remains untouched, despite of any number of
unproved theories respecting the nature of mind and body.
IV. — The Moral Argument.
This argument rests on the assumption that there is a God
who is not only the Creator of the Universe, but who is
also its moral Governor. I say " rests on the assumption,"
because the proof of it would far transcend the. limits which
must be assigned to this work. Assuming, therefore, that
a God exists, who is the moral Governor of the universe,
the argument that a state of retribution awaits man after
death is equivalent in force to what is designated a demon
stration. It may be briefly stated thus —
It is incredible that a moral Being, who has endowed man

REASONS INDEPENDENT OF REVELATION. 73
with a moral nature, can be indifferent as to whether he
realises or not the purposes for which He has endowed him
with that nature ; i.e. can be indifferent to virtue and vice.
This being so, it follows that God, as the moral Governor
of the world, will render to the virtuous and the vicious
according to their deeds ; or, to put this portion of the
argument clearly and distinctly, it is incredible that His
moral government should be so conducted that a career of
successful villainy should be a more prudent course to pursue
than one of virtue and self-sacrifice, which it undoubtedly
would be, in very numerous cases, if man perished at death.
Yet it is a fact which it is impossible to question, that in
the moral world, as far as it comes within human observation,
virtuous men are not rewarded nor vicious men punished
according to their deserts. On the contrary, if there is no
state of retribution after this life is terminated, there are very
numerous instances in which it would be far more prudent
with a view to one's own happiness, to gratify those appetites
(be they what they may) which a man thinks will afford him
the greatest amount of pleasure, rather than to lead a life of
painful virtuous self-denial. It is quite true that the fact that
suffering is the certain and inevitable result of certain kinds
of sin, indicates that the Governor of the world is not wholly
indifferent to moral actions ; but whatever indications of this
kind exist in the present constitution of things, it is still
evident that if man's conscious existence terminates at
death, the moral government of the world is of a very im
perfect character : for it is absolutely certain that under it
the holy are not rewarded, nor the evil punished according to
their deserts. Nay, more ; it very frequently happens that
astute bad men are far more prosperous than self-sacrificing
virtuous ones — a fact which has proved one of the deepest
trials to the holy from the earliest dawn of human thought.
The simple truth is, that if man perishes at death, the moral

74 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
government of the world is a scene of unspeakable confusion ;
for, as respects this life only, it is only too obvious that the
consummate but successful villain is often far better off than
the most self-sacrificing saint : for during life the one has had
nothing but prosperity and the other nothing but painful self-
denial, in many instances terminated by a torturing death;
yet if it be true that man perishes with the body, after life's
brief day, both alike will sleep the same sleep of unconscious
ness. It follows, therefore, if the Governor of the world be a
moral being, that what we call death cannot be the destruc
tion of our conscious existence, but that we shall pass into
one in which the present moral government of the world will
receive its vindication. But if, on the contrary, there will
be no future state of retribution, in which it will be well with
the righteous, and ill with the wicked, no such vindication
will be possible. In that case the old saying will be justified,
in a sense far wider than its author originally contemplated,
"Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." That is to say,
let each of us pursue the course which he thinks most con
ducive to his own happiness, or which is most suited to his
own tastes (be it what it may) during life's brief day ; for,
when life has become a burden, modern science will enable
us to bring it to an easy termination, and after death it will
be alike to the sinner and the saint, viz. a sleep from which
there will be no awakening, and which will not be disturbed
even by a dream.
If then man perishes with his body, what, I ask, becomes of
a righteous government of God ? It is certain that if he does
so, it must be confined to this life alone ; and, that after
death the righteous have nothing to hope for, nor the wicked
to fear. What, then, is the inevitable conclusion ? I answer,
that a righteous moral government does not exist. Let me
illustrate my meaning by an example which will be beyond

REASONS INDEPENDENT OF REVELATION. 75
dispute. That St. Paul was one of the most self-sacrificing
of men for what he believed to be the good of others, will not
be denied even by unbelievers. I take him as an example,
because from reverence I forbear to name the name of one
who was greater than he, and whom the apostle confessed
that he only imperfectly imitated. What then was his opinion
on the point we are considering ? I will use his own words :
" If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all
men most miserable." " If, after the manner of men, I have
fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me ? If
the dead rise not, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we
die." On the other hand, it is hardly to be questioned that
Fouche" was one of the most atrocious villains (and they
were many) of the most dismal period of the great French
Revolution. Yet what were the respective fates of these two
men ? While the former spent a life of incessant labour, in
the midst of almost incessant suffering for what he believed
to be the good of others, and finally perished by the exe
cutioner's axe, the latter, by his wonderful astuteness,
escaped from the calamities which engulfed his fellows in
iniquity, rose from one office to another, betrayed each party
in turn whom he professed to serve, became the prime
minister of him Avhose brother he had aided to murder, and,
finally, died quietly in his bed, surrounded with riches and
honours. Yet, if this life is the end of man's conscious
existence, who would not say that Fouche' was the prudent
man and the apostle a foolish enthusiast ?
It may be urged that in the estimation of the sufferings of
the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked, I have failed
to take into account the pleasure which is derived from an
approving conscience and the sufferings which result from a
condemning one. To this I reply that, in the case of the
self-sr.crificing saint, the sufferings have frequently been fear
fully real, and that no approbation of conscience (I am

FUTURE RETRIBUTION.

speaking of conscience as it is understood by unbelievers)
can metamorphose scourging and crucifixion into happiness.
On the other hand, I think that the sufferings which con
science inflicts on the prosperous evil-doer are generally
overrated, especially if the sinner is convinced that he has
nothing to fear beyond the grave. Further, in men prone to
evil, it is comparatively easy to quiet its remonstrances ; and
in proportion as they are disregarded, they become weaker
and weaker, until in men utterly abandoned, they cease
altogether, and conscience becomes as it were extinct.
Moreover, the approbation or disapprobation of conscience,
whether strong or weak, is only cognisant by the individual,
and therefore it can only exert a vague influence on others.
Thus it would be to little purpose to say to one who was
meditating an act of wrong, who -believed that no conse
quences would follow for his wrong-doing beyond the grave,
If you pursue that evil course, you will suffer from the
stings of an evil conscience, which will render your life
miserable. He would naturally reply, " I see no evidence
that conscience makes wrong-doers miserable. It may be so
in a few cases ; but there are at least nine hundred and
ninety-nine chances out of a thousand in my favour."
Butler justly says that conscience, " if it had might, as it
has right, would govern the world ; " but its might being
limited, it exerts a comparatively limited influence on the
conduct of the majority, If wicked men are to be deterred
from sin, some more powerful influence must be brought
to bear on . them than the fear of an accusing conscience,
whose accusations will cease when at death man ceases to exist.
But the consequences of the belief that the death of the
body is the final extinction of the man are so serious that
they afford a very strong reason for concluding that the
belief itself is not true. The facts of the moral world being
as they are, the disbelief in a future state of retribution is

REASONS INDEPENDENT OF REVELATION. 77
equivalent to the denial of a God who is its moral Governor,
and of a moral law which is based on His character and per
fections. Hence it follows that the only basis on which a
moral system can be erected is the desire which we each feel
to realise our own happiness. This being so, it follows that
right actions are those which effect this, and wrong ones those
which fail to do so. Consequently virtuous and vicious actions
resolve themselves into a calculation of consequences ; i.e.
a virtuous man is a good calculator of the consequences of
actions and a vicious man a bad one. But such a calculation
is an extremely complicated one, for not only do judgments
differ widely as to what pursuits will realise our own greatest
happiness, but even if this can be determined by accurate
calculation, there will remain a wide difference of opinion as
to the means by which this can be best realised in the very
uncertain contingencies of the future. Thus a man whose
tastes are elevated will affirm that man's greatest happiness
will be best attained by an ardent pursuit of the higher
culture of life ; another, in whom the animal instincts are
predominant (and these form the overwhelming majority of
mankind), will give it as his opinion that the shortest road to
happiness amidst the uncertain contingencies of life is the
best, viz. to throw oneself into the pursuit of sensual gratifi
cation. Who, then, shall decide ? It is evident that the
attempt to settle the question involves a calculation of so
complicated a character that it transcends the powers of
ordinary men and women. Consequently the line of conduct
which will best promote our happiness resolves itself into a
question of individual taste ; and the vicious man may justly
urge in his vindication, that considering the shortness of life
and the uncertainty of its duration, the most certain mode
of realising his own greatest happiness is the most obvious
one — viz. the gratification of whatever instincts and passions
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78 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
the laws of society, (which are nothing but the laws which
have been imposed by the strong on the weak), and thereby
incur their penalties, his right course is to evade them to
the utmost of his power by subtlety and craft.
To this it will be replied, that the most certain mode of
realising one's own happiness is to devote oneself to the
realisation of the greatest happiness of others. This prin
ciple forms the foundation of that system of moral teaching
which is so loudly trumpeted at the present day under the
imposing designation of Altruism ; but when examined, it is
neither more nor less than the old commandment, " Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," stripped of all the moral
and spiritual power which the great commandment, " Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul,
and strength," and which the principles of Christianity impart
to it, which alone are able to enable it to become a regulating
principle in human life. But to the affirmation that the best
way to realise our individual happiness is to give up the pur
suit of everything which terminates in self, and to seek the
greatest happiness of the greatest number, the reply is a very
obvious one. How do you know this, if man perishes at death ;
for to say the least of it, appearances are greatly against you ?
It is all very well for you to tell me that it is very noble to
do this, or that at some distant period of the future mankind
will be greatly elevated by the self-sacrifice of others and my
self for the benefit of future generations. But what will this
elevated state of future generations profit me when my per
sonal conscious existence has ceased to be ? You promise
me that I shall live in the memory of others, or perhaps
suggest that some portion of my present body .will enter into
the composition of some exalted being of the future after
the lapse of ages of evolution, and you tell me that the
thought of this ought to be an ample compensation for all
the acts of self-denial and suffering to which you invite me

REASONS INDEPENDENT OF REVELATION.
in the work of doing good to others. But I ask, what is
all this to me after I have ceased to exist as a conscious
being ? Promises of this kind are neither more nor less than
the administration of a little flattery to my vanity, a hundred
pounds of which are not worth a few ounces of real present
enjoyment, from whatever source derived.
But further I ask, how is it possible to get this principle
of altruism into operation ? Man is naturally a selfish being.
Having got rid of all the moral power which a belief in God
as the moral Governor of the universe, Christianity, and a
future state supply, what is the moral force which you possess
that is capable of overbearing man's natural love of those
pleasures which terminate in self, and of converting his natural
selfishness into the altruistic love of others ? The only pos
sible answer is, that man will become wiser and better through
a gradual process of evolution, aided by the self-sacrifice of
numberless future generations for the good of others more
future still. To this the answer is obvious. Your assertion
is destitute of proof. Your principle of evolution means not
the survival of the fittest, but the survival of the strongest.
Will it be pretended that the strongest are the morally fittest
to survive ? Who were the fittest to survive, Socrates, or his
accusers and judges ; the Christian saints, or their perse
cutors who cast them to the lions ; the inquisitor, with his
apparatus of torture, or those who perished under his tortur
ing hand ? The truth is, the mild and benevolent virtues
have no chance of survival in the struggle for existence
against the fierce passions of such men. But further, the
theory which affirms that the natural course of evolution
necessarily leads to the production of the nobler and the
better, when applied to man breaks down against the facts of
authentic history. What, I ask, has been the effect of three
thousand years of evolution on the Negro race ? Has the
present Hindoo race attained any appreciable degree of moral

80 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
elevation above their ancestors three thousand years ago ?
Which is the more elevated character, the modern or the
ancient Greek ; the Roman of the growth of the republic, or
the Roman of the fall of the empire ; the ancient Egyptian,
or the modern Copt ? Has the progress of the Chinese been
one of gradual moral elevation ? Is the modern Arab an
improvement on the ancient one ? If the races in whose
veins flow some mixture of Aryan blood are instances of
an evolution upwards, most of those above referred to are
instances of an evolution downwards. The prospect that
mankind will gradually become more and more elevated,
wiser, and better through the action of the principle of evolu
tion, as it has been propounded by modern unbelievers, derives
little encouragement from the facts of authentic history ; in
other words, it is a theory destitute of proof.
But the theory in question lies open to an objection which
is absolutely fatal. It is impossible to prove on the prin
ciples of Atheistic, Pantheistic, and Agnostic systems of
philosophy, that the sacrifice of oneself for the good of others
is a duty, for these systems evaporate the idea of duty of all
meaning. I ask, To whom is this duty due ? If to myself,
it resolves itself into the pursuit of one's greatest happiness.
If to others, what right have they to claim it on the prin
ciples of these philosophies ? Consequently a moral law,
speaking with authority and saying to man, You ought to do
this, it is your duty to do that, becomes an impossibility.
What, I ask, dpes " ought " mean in such a case ? Not that
there is a moral obligation on you to do so, but you owe it
to your own happiness so to do. What means duty ? That
you owe it to future generations so to do. Full well may it
be asked, " What are future generations to me, after my
personal self-conscious being has been swallowed up in the
immensity of things ? "
The above considerations, therefore, prove that if death

REASONS INDEPENDENT OF REVELATION. 81
involves the termination of our conscious existence, this world
is devoid of a righteous moral Governor, or in other words
that the moral world is a chaos and not a cosmos.
On the other hand, it follows as a necessary consequence that
if there is a righteous moral Governor of the world there must
be a state of things beyond the grave in which man will con
tinue to exist as a personal conscious being, and where
the present inequalities of the moral government of the
world will not only be redressed, but will be shown to
have been in harmony with the justice and benevolence of
God. Such then are the grounds which reason furnishes for be
lieving in man's personal existence after death. It will be
objected that they do not amount to demonstrations. It wil
be readily conceded that they are not demonstrations in the
sense in which that term is employed either by mathemati
cians or scientists. But there are other kinds of evidence
though not demonstrative in the strict scientific sense, which
leave no doubt in any rational mind. For example, in the
administration of justice a man is often convicted of crime on
evidence which no mathematician or scientist would call
demonstrative ; yet who, from want of evidence of this kind,
would say that the fact was not proved when it amounts to a
moral certainty ? Demonstrative evidence is not to be had in
the ordinary affairs of life, and if men were to forbear acting
until they could get it, the business of the world would be
brought to a standstill. I submit, therefore, that the four
reasons above adduced, although they are not demonstra
tions in a scientific sense, whether taken separately or to
gether, are such as to leave no doubt in a rational mind that
man will survive the stroke of death. Of these the last
amounts to a moral certainty, while the others amount to a
very high degree of probability.
It is a remarkable fact that while the question of man's
G

82 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
survival formed one of the chief subjects of discussion among
the ancient philosophers, the three last of the arguments we
have considered seem never to have attracted their attention.
The reason of this is obvious. They rest on the belief that
a personal God exists, who is all-powerful and all-wise, and
the righteous moral Governor of the universe. On this sub
ject the views of the ancient philosophers were extremely hazy.
Very few recognised the First Cause of the universe as a moral
being, or had a firm belief in the unity of the Godhead ; nor
did the phenomena of the moral world afford proof that it was
under the government of a righteous moral Governor. This
being so, they were unable to make use of the above arguments,
and were compelled to rely on those derived from the sup
posed metaphysical nature of the soul. Of all the philo
sophers of the ancient world, Socrates was the one who clung
most strongly to the belief that man would not perish with
the body, and that there would be a state of retribution, in
which it would be well with the righteous ; but when we
read his arguments for this belief, as they are set forth in the
" PhaBdo," and elsewhere, we immediately become sensible of
their inherent weakness. He himself confesses that they
only suggested a hope, and were far from amounting to a
moral certainty. This being so, the position which he takes
is that death would either be a perpetual sleep, undisturbed
even by a dream, or that it would introduce him to the
society of the good gods and of the heroes and philosophers
of his' race, with the latter of whom he would, without let or
hindrance, be able to discuss the subjects which his judges
refused to permit him to discuss here. Speaking generally,
the views of those philosophers who argued most strongly
that men would survive the death of the body, amounted
only to a vague hope, and never reached to such a conviction
as could exert a powerful influence on conduct. Conse
quently the moral power which such a belief was capable of

REASONS INDEPENDENT OF REVELATION. 83
exerting was extremely small, and the subject was far more
interesting as affording matter for philosophical discussion
than as having a direct bearing on the realities of life. The
reason of this is clear. The evidence for a future state is
inconclusive, except on the assumption of the existence of a
personal God, who is the all-wise Creator and the righteous
moral Governor of the world.
On the other hand, the popular ideas of the ancient world
on this subject assumed the existence of an underworld
which was the abode of the spirits of the dead, but ideas
respecting their condition there were vague in the extreme.
Impious offenders against the gods were believed to be
punished in a department of it called Tartarus, and ac
cording to some of the later poets those who had lived
pure and holy lives rested peacefully in the Elysian fields
until the time arrived when fate required that they should
pass from these regions of repose, drink the waters of forget-
fulness, and animate new bodies in the upper world. But
the earlier ideas, which as long as the multitude retained any
faith at all continued to be the popular ones, were gloomy in
the extreme. The ghost was believed to be a mere shadow
of man's former self, devoid of power, and requiring that its
recollection should be refreshed by tasting blood. Even
mighty heroes passed in Hades an existence compared with
which, in their own opinion, the lowest condition in the upper
world was preferable. Such ideas, therefore, were incapable of
exercising any practical influence on conduct, because while
they admitted that the soul survived the stroke of death,
they included no behef in the existence of one who, as the
righteous Governor of the world, is not indifferent to human
conduct, but who will call every individual into judgment for
his conduct here, and will reward or punish him according to
his works.
I readily admit that the reasons which prove that man will
g2

84 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
survive the stroke of death, and that he will be held respon
sible in the world beyond the grave for his conduct here, are
above the appreciation of an overwhelming majority of man
kind. Full well might we have expected, when we consider
the supreme importance to each individual man of the ques
tion whether his condition in the unseen world will be
dependent on his conduct here, that this all-important truth
would have been made one of those certitudes on which it
would have been impossible to have entertained a doubt.
But here, as in numerous other instances, our d priori ideas
as to what ought to be, fail to conduct us to a knowledge of
what actually is. Why it is, that the great masses of mankind
have been left in such uncertainty on a subject which con
cerns their deepest interests, is one of those mysteries in the
Divine government of the world into which with our limited
powers it is impossible to penetrate. We can only say with
the Apostle, " The times of this ignorance God overlooked ;
but now," having revealed the great truth of the responsibility
of man, " he commandeth all men that they should every
where repent ; inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness, by the man whom
he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all
men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."
In conclusion, let it be observed that none of the above
reasonings are adequate to prove the immortality of man.
All that they really prove is that his personality will survive
the dissolution of his body. It is generally assumed that
reasonings which avail to prove man's survival after death
are equally valid to prove his immortality ; or, as it is com
monly conceived, that the righteous will continue to exist
in happiness and the wicked in misery for evermore. But
this is a conclusion which the premisses will not justify. On
the contrary, judging by analogy, as disease destroys the body,
so sin may be ultimately destructive of the being of the

REASONS INDEPENDENT OF REVELATION. 85
sinner. The whole question of immortality depends on the
will, purposes, and character of God. This the New Testa
ment promises to the righteous, who may safely commit all
cares about the future to that God in whom, by abiding in
love, they abide, and He in them ; whose kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and whose dominion will endure for
evermore.

CHAPTER V.
The Imperfection op the Light which the Scriptures op the Old
Testament throw on the Condition op Man after Death.
In considering this subject it is necessary that the student
should never lose sight of the fact that the Old Testament is
not a single book, but consists of a number of small treatises,
which were composed by not less than fifty writers, who were
separated from one another by wide intervals of time, and
who derived their materials from various sources of informa
tion. As the question of the date of these various writings
is one which is greatly debated among critics, it will be im
possible to examine them in historical order.
I. — The Pentateuch.
We will, therefore, begin with the Pentateuch, although
we are fully aware that there are not a few critics who
assign to large portions of it a late date ; yet even these allow
that portions of its contents are unquestionably Mosaic.
Taking, then, the Pentateuch as a whole, it is obvious to
every reader that not a single passage can be found in it
which affirms in so many words that man will survive the
stroke of death. All that can be said is, that it contains a
few passages from which a belief in a future state may be
inferred, but direct affirmations it has none. This absence of
all direct reference to the subject is a most remarkable fact,
whatever view we may take of its authorship. If the whole

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 87
is Mosaic, it follows that Moses, who was learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians, of which wisdom we have the
strongest evidence that the doctrine of a future state formed an
important portion,* must have deliberately excluded it from
forming one of the sanctions on which his legislation rested.
This is equally true if he is the author of only portions of the
Pentateuch. If, on the other hand, we concur with those
critics who ascribe the authorship of the Book of Deuteronomy
to the prophet Jeremiah, then the absence of any direct
allusion to this doctrine in this book, as well as in that of the
prophet, is the more striking, because the intercourse between
Egypt and Judea was considerable, not only in his time, but
also in that of Solomon, and the evidence of the Egyptian
belief on this subject must have been patent to the eye of
every traveller. Further, if we accept the views of those
critics who are of opinion that the ritual and sacrificial por
tions of the Pentateuch were written subsequent to the cap
tivity, the absence in them of any direct allusion to a future
state is even more difficult to account for, because long prior
to the persecutions of the Syrian Kings, it had become an
article of popular belief; and unless the records of the
Maccabee martyrs are misleading, they were sustained in the
endurance of their terrible sufferings by the hope of a resur
rection. Whatever view, therefore, we may take, either of
the date or of the authorship of the Pentateuch, the absence
from it of any direct reference to a future state of retribu
tion, and the enforcement of its legislation by purely tem
poral considerations, is a fact the singularity of which cannot
be denied.
Although the Pentateuch contains no one single direct
* The book called " The Ritual of the Dead " was in existence long anterior
to tho time of Moses, and being learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,
it is impossible that he was not acquainted with it. Besides, every mummy case
bears witness that a belief in a future state, in some form or other, and even in
a judgment to come, was deeply impressed on the national mind.

88 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
affirmation that man will survive the stroke of death, a few
passages exist in it from which it may be made a matter of
inference. Of these by far the most important is that cited
by our Lord in his controversy with the Sadducees :
" I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob." " God," says he, " is not the God of the dead, but
of the living."
Yet all that our Lord here affirms is, that a belief in a
future state, or in a resurrection, is a just inference from this
Divine declaration. In St. Luke's record of our Lord's
words there is an intimation that the teaching of the Penta
teuch on this subject was obscure ; " For," says he, " that
the dead are raised even Moses showed in the place concerning
the bush." The words " even Moses " imply either that the
Sadducees would receive no doctrine as true except it could
be proved from the Mosaic writings, or else, that although a
belief in a future state, or a resurrection, was nowhere directly
affirmed in them, yet it might be inferred from the above
Divine declaration.
There is also a passage in the story of Balaam and Balak
which forms a kind of episode, and is apparently introduced
into the narrative from an independent source of information,
which contains an apparent reference to a future state. The
ungodly prophet is represented as saying, " May I die the
death of the righteous, and may my last end be like his.''
These words affirm that in the opinion of the speaker it
would be better to die the death of the righteous than the
death of the wicked, and, consequently, are an expression of
a belief on the part of Balaam in a future state of retribu
tion. There is also another passage which, very singular to
say, occurs in the midst of the genealogies of the antediluvian
patriarchs, from which a similar inference may be drawn :
" And Enoch walked with God ; and he was not, for God
took him." (Gen. v. 24.)

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 89
It is to be remarked that his death is not mentioned,
although the death of all the other patriarchs is mentioned ;
but if the writer meant to affirm that Enoch was translated
to heaven without dying his meaning is very obscurely ex
pressed. Such a passage, occurring as it does in the midst
of an antediluvian genealogy, is a very insecure foundation
on which to base a general doctrine of retribution.
It follows, therefore, that although it is possible, by the
aid of careful reasoning, to infer from a few passages in the
Pentateuch that man's conscious existence does not terminate
with the death of the body, yet the doctrine of a future state
formed no portion of the revelation which God made to Moses ;
nor does the book itself contain a single formulated state
ment, nor a single definite expression of hope or fear respect
ing it, nor even an attempt to enforce the practice of holiness
by a reference to it, or to deter from sin by warning sinners
of the consequences with which sin will be attended in the
unseen world.
Such are the facts. Rabbi Hermann Adler, in an elaborate
essay, has endeavoured to dispute them, but he is unable to
adduce a single passage in which the existence of a future
state of retribution is definitely affirmed in the Mosaic
writings. All that he can do is to draw the inference from
certain expressions that such a belief was entertained by a
small number of individuals, and at best several of his
inferences rest on a very insecure foundation. But be
tween this and the proof that there was any general be
lief in a doctrine of retribution, which possessed a moral
power such as to influence conduct, the distance is great
indeed. To account for the absence of this reference lies outside
the limits of the present work. I shah only notice a very
singular reason given for it by Mr. White, in his work en
titled " Life in Christ." The position taken by him renders

90 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
it necessary to prove that man was created mortal, though
capable of becoming immortal by eating of the tree of life ;
but in consequence of the fall and his expulsion from Para
dise, in the condition in which he is now brought into the
world, he has lost the hope of immortality. Consequently
the belief in immortality, as it was set forth in those theo
logical systems with which Moses came in contact, was
nothing better than a pernicious error. Hence the exclusion
of all reference to it in the Pentateuch. Yet, surely, if
the doctrine of immortality, as it was held by the Egyptians,
was untrue, or even dangerous in the form in which it was
held by them, it would have been easy to have corrected the
errors connected with it, and to have propounded in their place
the all-important truth that man's existence will not terminate
at death, but that a state of retribution awaits him in the
unseen world, in which the righteous will be rewarded and the
wicked punished according to their conduct here. The posi
tion in question, therefore, is obviously no adequate account
of the phenomena presented by the Pentateuch ; on the con
trary, even if we assume that its author was a firm believer
that a state of retribution awaited man beyond the grave, the
total absence of all direct allusion to it proves that he felt
that it could not be urged with any advantage on the con
sciences of the people for whom he was legislating, and that
they could be impressed only by considerations drawn from
the present life — considerations which he has set forth in the
strongest manner, promising outward prosperity as the reward
of obedience, and misery and destruction as the certain con
sequences of sin.
II. — Historical Books.
Let us next examine the testimony of the historical books
and of those portions of the prophetical writings which throw
light on contemporary beliefs, and the popular ideas re
specting a future state of retribution.

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 91
Not only is the history almost entirely silent on this sub
ject, but the sanctions by which the messages of the prophets
are enforced are based on considerations wholly temporal.
Thus the strongest denunciations against wicked monarchs
are, that they shall be cut off and all their male pos
terity, and that their dead bodies should be devoured by
dogs. Of this kind of threatenings in the writings of the
Old Testament — and they are full of expostulations and
threatenings — the strongest are that which the prophet
Jeremiah directs against the unrighteous king Jehoiakim,
that there should be no lamentation at his death and that he
should be buried with the burial of an ass ; and that against
the rebellious Jews, that Jerusalem and its temple should be
destroyed and the people carried captive to Babylon ; but
never once do any of the prophets refer to a state of retribu
tion after death for the purpose of warning the sinner as to
the terrible consequences of sin, or encouraging the saint in
his various struggles with the hope of a glorious future
beyond the grave. Of the gloomy views which were popu
larly entertained respecting the condition of man in the un
seen world and even participated in by eminent saints, the
hymn composed by Hezekiah, after his recovery from his
dangerous sickness, affords convincing proof. It is thus re
ported by Isaiah : —
"The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate
thee ; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy
truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do
this day ; the father to the children shall make known thy
truth." (Isaiah xxxviii. 18, 19.)
Yet of this eminently pious king the historian writes,
" He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, ac
cording to all that David his father had done. ... He
trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that after him none
were like him of all the kings of Judah, nor among them
that were before him." (2 Kings xviii. 3 — 5.)

92 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
The description in Isaiah of the entrance of the king
of Babylon into the underworld, though highly poetical, is
no doubt an accurate description of the popular ideas as to
the condition of man in Hades. I shall only cite three verses
of it— "Hell," (i.e. hades) "from beneath is moved for thee to
meet thee at thy coming ; it stirreth up the dead for thee,
even all the chief ones of the earth ; it hath raised up from their
thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall answer,
and say to thee, Art thou also become weak as we ? Art
thou become like unto us ? Thy pomp is brought down
to hell, i.e. Sheol or Hades, and the noise of thy viols ; the
worm is spread under thee, and worms cover thee." (Isa. xiv.
9 — 11.) The passage, from verse 12 to 20, is a lively de
scription of the lowly state into which the king of Babylon
had fallen, and of the insults with which he was received on
his entrance into the underworld.
From this description we learn what were the popular
ideas respecting the condition of man after death.
1. The existence of an underworld, into which the spirits
of men passed at death, was an accepted popular belief.
2. The great ones of the earth were supposed to retain a
kind of pre-eminence in it.
3. Their existence, however, was one of which weakness
was the most striking characteristic.
4. Their revengeful feelings were capable of being exerted
and even gratified at the sight of their oppressor, now become
as weak as they and fallen from all his earthly glory.
5. They rejoice that while their bodies were reposing in
honoured sepulchres, the body of their oppressor was cast out
as a carcass to be trodden under foot.
The condition, therefore, even of kings, in the under
world, was one of very shadowy greatness. The above descrip
tion bears a striking resemblance to the description of the

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LTGHT. 93
same place in Homer, who puts into the mouth of the ghost
of Achilles, the great hero of the Iliad, the assertion that the
condition of a slave on earth was preferable to his own,
although he was a king among the shades. If such, then,
was supposed to be the state of existence of kings and
heroes, we may conclude that that of the vulgar masses was
viewed as far more unenviable. Certain it is, that the idea
of a righteous retribution in the region of the dead, except
that a great oppressor would be received with jeers and
insults at his fallen state, is not even hinted at in this pro
phetical description. This is the more remarkable when we
consider the definiteness of the Egyptian views on this subject,
as they are set forth on the monuments and especially as they
are described in the " Ritual of the Dead," and that it is
hardly possible, remembering the intercourse which existed
between the two countries, that they had not penetrated
into Judaea.
We must now offer a few observations on that most singular
narrative, contained in 1 Sam. xvii., of Saul's dealings with
the Witch of Endor, as throwing light on the popular ideas
respecting the condition of departed spirits in the under
world. The facts, as they appear in the narrative, may be
briefly stated thus : —
1. Impelled by the danger of a great Philistine invasion,
Saul had exhausted all the authorised means of consulting
God, and had received no answer. In his desperation, there
fore, he applied to the witch to raise up Samuel from the
underworld. 2. The witch alone is represented as seeing the appari
tion, for, adds the narrative, " When she saw Samuel, she
cried with a loud voice ; " and on Saul asking her what she
saw, she answered, " I see a god coming up out of the
earth ; " and in reply to a further question, " What form is
he of?" she answers, "An old man cometh up, and he is

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covered with a robe ; " whereupon the narrative adds, " Saul
perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to
the ground and did obeisance." On this a dialogue between
Saul and Samuel is represented as taking place ; but no
where is it affirmed that Saul actually saw the apparition.
3. The apparition, designated by the author of the book,
" Samuel," is then represented as demanding of Saul, "Why
hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up ? " and on Saul's
giving the reason, he proceeds to prophesy the defeat of the
Israelites, and that Saul and his sons would be with him on
the morrow, on which Saul falls at full length on the earth
and there is no strength left in him.
Such are the facts as they are stated in the narrative. It
proves that the following were popular beliefs respecting the
condition of man after death at the time of the composition
of this book : —
1. That the soul did not perish at death but continued
to survive in the underworld.
2. That personages such as Samuel existed there in a
state of repose. This is proved by the words which Samuel
is stated to have addressed to Saul : " Why hast thou dis
quieted me, to bring me up ? "
3. That it was a popular belief that the art of necromancy
was able by means of its conjurations to bring up a departed
spirit from the underworld, even of a prophet so eminent as
Samuel. 4. No hint is given, either in this passage, or through
out the Old Testament, that spirits in the underworld were
receiving either reward or punishment, according to their
deeds done in the body.
If it be asked what are the actual facts which underlay
this strange narrative, I answer that, taken simply as it
stands, it admits of three alternative suppositions, with any
one of which it is consistent.

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 95
1. That the spirit of Samuel actually appeared.
2. That the apparition was the devil, who personated
Samuel. 3. That the scene was the result of a collusion between
the witch and one or more confederates (being analogous to
similar feats performed by modern conjurors), which Saul
and his companions mistook for a reality.
The objections against the first and second of these alter
natives are overwhelming.
1. It is incredible that God should have refused to answer
Saul by the authorised means of consulting him, and then
have vouchsafed him an answer through the conjurations of
a witch, a mode of prying into futurity which the law forbade
in the sternest terms, such as, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch
to live."
To meet this difficulty it has been urged that the appari
tion of Samuel was unexpected by the witch, and that he was
sent by God to announce Saul's destruction as a punishment
for having consulted her.
To this the answer is obvious, that there is no hint of this
to be found in the narrative. On the contrary, Samuel is
represented as complaining that he had been disquieted by
having been brought up ; but surely no holy spirit would
speak of having been disquieted if sent by God to deliver
His messages to man. If it be urged, as it has been, that
the witch's outcry implies that the real Samuel appeared as
an unexpected visitor in the midst of her conjurations, and
that the witch's cry was occasioned by terror at his appear
ance, it is quite as probable that it formed part and parcel of
the deception which was practised on Saul.
2. If it was the spirit of Samuel which actually appeared,
and this without any intimation that he did not appear as
the result of the witch's conjurations, but as a messenger
from God for the purpose of punishing Saul for his impiety,

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nothing could have been better fitted to confirm the popular
belief that necromancers possessed the power of summoning .
at their pleasure departed spirits from the underworld. In
a word, it would have confirmed the popular belief in witch
craft. 3. Equally strong are the objections against the assumption
that the apparition was the devil, who personated Samuel.
What, I ask, would have been the effect of such an appa
rition, if allowed by God ? Evidently it would have been
attended with the result of confirming the unhallowed belief
that necromancers possessed the power of summoning spirits
from the underworld for the purpose of prying into the
secrets of the future. Whatever activities may be supposed
to be possessed by the evil one, it is incredible that the moral
Governor of the world should allow him to enact a scene
like this.
It follows, therefore, that the third alternative must be
the true one, viz. that the entire scene was a trick practised
on Saul and his companions, but one not more wonderful
than the feats which are performed by modern conjurors,
spiritualists, and practitioners of sleight of hand. The entire
narrative, however, is doubtless a sufficiently accurate descrip
tion of the popular beliefs respecting the condition of de
parted spirits in Hades at the time when it was composed,
and of the power which necromancers were supposed to pos
sess of bringing them up for the purpose of consulting them.
HI. — The Testimony of the Book of Psalms.
Although the place assigned to this book in the Hebrew
canon is among the Hagiographa, it is necessary to examine
its testimony in this place, because the time of its composi
tion extends over the entire range of the history from the
time of David until after the return from the captivity, if not
to the time of the Maccabees. For our present purpose its

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 97
testimony is of the highest value, because it does not consist
of a number of abstract or even historical statements, but
most of the Psalms are a delineation of the inmost life and
the religious experiences of their authors — of their joys and
of their sorrows, of their hopes and of their fears. This
book is perhaps the most marvellous record of religious expe
rience which exists. Before we enter on the examination of
particular Psalms let us consider what is the impression
which the book makes on the reader's mind, taken as a whole.
1. The faith of its authors in a living God, His presence
in Providence, His attributes of holiness, justice, and mercy,
and that His moral government would receive its vindication
in the present life, was of a most intense character. We may
best describe it in the language of metaphor, by saying it
glowed with a white heat, such as we can scarcely conceive
of in the present day.
2. Yet while its authors entertained the strongest hope
that God would appear for their deliverance under the most
disastrous circumstances, even those who are of opinion that
a doctrine of a future state is to be found in the Psalms
cannot help admitting that it is nowhere directly put forth
as the foundation of that hope. In this respect the contrast
between this book and any book of hymns, in general use in
any section of the Christian Church, is remarkable. In the
one the hope of immortality is expressed in terms which
cannot be mistaken ; in the other it is a matter of inference,
and often of uncertain inference. Yet the reader of the
Psalms feels instinctively that they are most vivid delineations
of the religious experience of their authors, and that here, if
in any composition known to man, out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth has spoken.
3. The prominent motives which the writers of this book
put forth, as a sanction to holiness, and as a deterrent to sin,
are that holiness will be attended with prosperity in this life,

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and that sin will be attended, notwithstanding present
appearances, with adversity and ultimate destruction.
4. Many of the Psalms afford proof that their authors
had no definite belief in a future state of existence, in which
man's happiness or misery would be dependent on his con
duct here ; nay more, some of them are scarcely reconcilable
with a belief that the soul survives the death of the body.
5. Respecting the wicked, they are described as destined
to perish and to be consumed out of the earth ; but not a
word is said about their being punished in the underworld,
or that they will be raised to a resurrection of condemnation;
nor do the strongest of the imprecatory Psalmists devote
their enemies to anything more terrible than destruction.
Such are the general views of the authors of this most
remarkable book respecting a future state. Let us now con
sider a few specific Psalms, where their authors express a
hope that they will enjoy a blissful existence after death,
and a few whose authors seemed to have entertained no such
expectation. The conclusion of Psalm xvi. sets forth the brightest hopes
for its author beyond the grave. There is nothing equal to
it in the entire volume : —
" I have set the Lord always before me ; because he is at
my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart
is glad, and my glory rejoiceth ; my flesh also shall rest in
hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [i.e. Hades]
neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.
Thou shalt show me the path of life : in thy presence is ful
ness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for ever
more." This Psalm is referred to by St. Peter as Messianic. It
is obvious that the Psalmist spoke in it of some one hio-her
than himself, because his flesh certainly saw corruption.
Yet from its general import it is hardly possible to draw any

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 99
other conclusion than that its author expected to enjoy a
blissful existence with God after death.
From Psalm xvii. 1 5 we may draw a similar conclusion,
though the hope is expressed less distinctly. After affirming
that the men of the world have their portion in this world,
its author writes : —
" As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness ; I
shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness."
The conclusion of Psalm xxii. contains a strong affirma
tion that the person depicted therein will survive his tortur
ing death ; but it is throughout too Messianic to throw hght
on the belief of its author respecting himself. Still it is a
fair inference that he hoped that he might participate in
the triumph referred to.
In Psalm xxiii. we have the following affirmation : —
" Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death* I will fear no evil." This, however, is somewhat
qualified by the expressions of the two concluding verses :
that a table should be prepared for him in the presence of
his enemies, and that goodness and mercy should follow him
all the days of his life. These words seem to point to a
temporal deliverance.
While Psalm xlix. 14 threatens the wicked with a tem
poral destruction, the 15 th verse seems to imply that its
author expected to survive the stroke of death : —
¦ " For God shall redeem my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he shall receive me."
In every point of view Psalm lxxiii. is remarkable, as
setting forth the writer's views respecting the condition of
the wicked in this life, their ultimate destruction, and the
hopes which he entertained respecting himself. The general
* Is it not " valley of thick darkness " ? i.e. one of those Palestinian ravines
through which the shepherd had often to lead his sheep, and would be in special
danger of attack from wild beasts. The word tsalmaveth is doubtful.
h2

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prosperity of the wicked in this world was to him a terrible
temptation. Thus he writes : —
" Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my
hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued,
and chastened every morning." On reflection, however, he
came to the conclusion that successful wickedness was often
brought to a fearful end ; but the destruction to which the
wicked were brought was, as far as appears from the Psalm,
a destruction confined to this world only. He then sets
before us the hopes and expectations to which he rose after
he had overcome the temptations with which the apparent
prosperity of the wicked, and the sufferings of the righteous,
had assailed him.
" Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel," says he, " and
afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but
thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my
heart and my portion for ever. For lo ! they that are far from
thee shall perish ; thou hast destroyed all them that go a
whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw near to
God. I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may
declare all thy works."
These are the most important passages in the Psalms, ex
pressing a hope of immortality. A few others may be
adduced, but their reference to a future state is less distinct.
I therefore need not quote them. We might have expected
to find such allusions most frequent and definite in the
exilian and post-exilian Psalms, but it is not so, the highest
aspirations of their authors being for the rebuilding of Jeru
salem and the restoration of the temple worship in all their
former glory.
The following are expressions of hopelessness : —
Psalm vi. 5 : " For in death there is no remembrance of
thee : in Sheol who shall give thee thanks ? "

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 101
Psalm xxx. 9 : " What profit is there in my blood when
I go down to the pit ? Shall the dust praise thee ? Shall it
declare thy truth ? "
The seventy- seventh Psalm is one in which the writer
expresses his deep dissatisfaction with the present state of
things. This being so, it would naturally have suggested to
him a reference to a future state, if he had entertained any
definite hopes respecting it. But we find none. So also
with the eighty-eighth Psalm. It is pervaded by the darkest
gloom ; but instead of referring to a future state in which
the inequalities of the present would be corrected, it sets in
the blackest night.
" Wilt thou show wonders to the dead ? " says the Psalm
ist ; " shall they that are deceased arise and praise thee ?
Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave, or thy
faithfulness in destruction ? Shall thy wonders be known in
the dark, or thy faithfulness in the land of forgetfulness ? "
It is also remarkable that of the Psalms which have been
selected to be read at the funeral service of the Church of
England, while each of them refers in terms of deep pathos
to the shortness of human life, yet neither expresses a hope
of man's survival after death ; except it be in a single verse
of the thirty-ninth Psalm, where, after bemoaning the short
ness and vanity of life, the Psalmist says —
"And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in
thee." It may be urged that this hope refers to a future state ;
but the author of the Psalm concludes by praying for a
deliverance from temporal evil. Thus he writes —
" 0 spare me a httle, that I may recover my strength
before I go hence, and be no more."
Such are a few examples of the hopes and of the despon
dency with which the authors of several of the Psalms contem
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whelming majority of the Psalmists make no reference to a
future life, either in the way of hope or fear. It may be
urged that the firm confidence which they express in God
implies that in the midst of the discouragements of the
present they must have been supported by the belief in a
future life. Whether this be so or no I shall not inquire,
because all that concerns us in this argument is the fact that
this hope is nowhere distinctly formulated, although it is
evident that we have in these Psalms a vivid delineation of
the various religious experiences of their authors. What is
particularly remarkable is, that in numerous cases, where
some reference to a future state would naturally have
suggested itself, we fail to find it. Thus in the thirty-eighth
Psalm, to which I have, above referred, the sanction of holi
ness is temporal prosperity, and the reward of evil-doers is
destruction ; but even a hint that sin will be attended with
terrible consequences in the underworld is wanting. The
same remark is true of the entire book.
It may be objected to the correctness of this last state
ment that a passage in the ninth Psalm affirms that " the
wicked shah be turned into hell, and all the nations that for
get God." But here it must be remembered that the " hell "
of the Old Testament is simply the underworld, i.e. the
habitation of souls when separate from their bodies, and not
the hell of popular theology. The descent of the souls of
the wicked into the underworld is therefore the natural
result of that " rooting out of the earth " with which they
are so habitually threatened ; but not one word is said as to
any judgment being there executed on the wicked for their
conduct here. Even a religious man like Hezekiah, as we have
seen above, viewed it as a region devoid of the light of the
Divine countenance, dark and gloomy ; and it must not be
forgotten that the hymn in which his feelings on this subject
are recorded was composed not during his sickness, when he

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 103
may be supposed to have been labouring under deep depres
sion of spirits at having his work cut short at an early age,
but after his recovery — yet it contains not a single favourable
expression respecting his condition after death.
Our general conclusions, therefore, are —
1. That a few of the Psalmists succeeded in penetrating
the darkness which, under the Jewish dispensation, hung
over the condition of man after death, and entertained a hope,
so strong that it may be designated a firm behef, that their
spirits would enter after death on a life of close union with
and enjoyment of God.
2. That others, while they believed that the soul survived
in hades, viewed its condition there as one of weakness and
of gloom. 3. That the majority of the ¦ Psalmists, who probably
represented the popular ideas on this subject, considered
that the present life was the only sphere in which Divine
Providence would receive its vindication, and that prosperity
in this life was the reward of righteousness and adversity
was the punishment of sin. They also entertained a strong
faith that a time would come when all wicked doers would
be rooted out from the city of their God, and even from the
earth. Of this state of feeling the thirty-seventh Psalm is a
striking illustration. I must ask the reader to read it care
fully, as it is too long for quotation.
To the various writers of the Book of Psalms our Lord's
saying is strictly applicable, " Out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh." Their hearts were very full of
faith in God and of a desire for holiness. Out of that fulness
they have spoken clearly and definitely. The great majority
of them looked on prosperity as a sign of God's favour, and
on adversity as a sign of His displeasure. On this point
also they have spoken very distinctly. Not a few of them
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justifiable, but holy. On this point the expression of their
desire for vengeance on their foes, whom they seem to have
viewed as the enemies of their God, cannot be mistaken.
The expression of their desire for the light and joy of God's
countenance, and of their sense of God's constant presence, and
of His energy in providence, is equally distinct. But with
respect to a future state, while all seem to have viewed
the underworld as a region of darkness, some of them enter
tained a strong hope that God would not leave them for ever
in this region of gloom, but would bring them to one where
they would have fulness of joy in His presence ; others
viewed death with a feeling akin to despair, and not a few
looked for the vindication of the justice of God's providences
in this present world, without expressing a definite hope or
fear respecting the world to come.
One thing, therefore, is certain : there is no formulated
doctrine respecting a future state to be found in this book.
It contains no promise to the righteous of everlasting life,
and no threatening to the wicked of retribution beyond the
grave. The utmost that we can find in it is the expression,
on the part of some of its authors, of a strong hope, amounting
to a faith, that after death there awaited them a conscious
enjoyment of God. On the other hand, the wicked are
simply threatened with destruction ; but not a hint do we
find that they meant by destruction a never-ending existence
in torment.
The reader should observe that in estimating the teaching
of the Psalms as to a future state of retribution, I have only
to do with their affirmations on this subject just as I find
them. It is a mistake to import into them the light
which Christianity throws on man's existence after death,
and then to think that we have found it there. Nor is
it less so, by an act of reasoning, to import into them a
doctrine of retribution and of a judgment to come, as is done

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 105
by many, — to argue, for example, from the strength of the
Psalmists' faith in God that they could not have maintained
such a trust in Him unless they possessed a firm and definite
conviction that a future existence after death awaited them,
in which the inequahties of the present state of things would
be fully rectified ; for it is evident that although a few of the
Psalmists entertained a strong belief that a blessed existence
awaited them after death, a definite doctrine of retribution
in the unseen world is not contained in this book, and equally
certain is it that whatever might have been their individual
hopes, they never preached such a doctrine as a deterrent to
sin, nor was it a matter of popular behef. Obedience is
uniformly enforced by temporal considerations.
IV. — The Testimony of the Prophets, and first that
of Isaiah.
The observations which have been made respecting the
Psalms are to a great extent applicable to the prophetical
writings. It will be sufficient to refer to a few of their most
remarkable utterances on this subject. Of these the one
which sets forth the highest hopes respecting the future is
the hymn of triumph contained in the twenty-fifth and
twenty-sixth chapters of the prophet Isaiah. The following
passages are the most striking : —
" And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto
all peoples a feast of fat -things, of fat things full of marrow,
of wines on the lees well refined. And he will destroy
in this mountain the face of the covering that is cast
over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
He hath swallowed up death for ever ; and the Lord
God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the re
proach of his people shall be taken away from off ah the
earth ; for the Lord hath spoken it. And (in that day it
shall be said), Lo, this is our God ; we have waited for him,

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and he will save us : this is the Lord ; we have waited for
him; we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For in
this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall
be trodden down in his place, even as straw is trodden down
in the water of the dunghill," &c. (Isa. xxv. 6 — 10.)
The same triumphal hymn is continued throughout the
twenty-sixth chapter. It begins with the following definite
expression of locality : —
" In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah."
It concludes with the following bright anticipation : —
" Thy dead men shall live ; my dead bodies shah arise.
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for thy dew is as
the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut
thy doors about thee : hide thyself for a httle moment, until
the indignation be overpast. For behold the Lord cometh
out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for
their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose her blood, and
shall no more cover her slain." (Isa. xxvi. 19 — 21.)
The reader will not require to be informed that the entire
hymn is couched in language which is highly poetical, and
therefore cannot be understood as if it were simple prose.
First let it be observed that the imagery of the hymn is
entirely local. " The feast of fat things " is to be made " in
this mountain," i.e. iii Jerusalem. In the same place God will
destroy the face of the covering that is cast over all peoples,
and bestow all its accompanying blessings, among which the
prophet speaks of swallowing up death for ever. In the same
mountain also will the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall
be trodden down in his place. Also the hymn, continued
in chapter xxvi, is to be sung in the land of Judah ; and
in it the direction is given that the gates, i.e. the gates of
Jerusalem, should be opened that the righteous nation that
keepeth truth may enter in. The remainder, therefore, can

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 107
only be viewed as having the same local reference. It is true
that in the latter verses we meet with the word "world,"
which may be said to involve an extension of the prophet's
field of vision ; but this word is frequently used in Scripture
to denote, not the entire globe but some definite locality, and
in the immediate context the prophet says, " Thou hast in
creased the nation, 0 Lord ; thou art glorified ; thou hast
enlarged all the borders of the land." The imagery of the
hymn, therefore, contemplates only the land of Israel with
some considerable increase of its territory.
, The question, therefore, at once arises, What did the con
temporaries of the prophet understand to be the meaning of
his utterances ? Did they view the resurrection mentioned
in them as a national or an individual resurrection ? This
is the real point at issue, and not what we can see in
them with the light of the Gospel shining on them. Some
may consider the language of St. Paul conclusive on this
subject. He refers to the passage, quoted from the twenty-
fifth chapter, as follows : —
" But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
and this mortal shall have put on immortahty, then shall
come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed
up in victory." (1 Cor. xv. 55.) To this he adds the follow
ing words from the prophet Hosea : — " O death, where is
thy victory ? 0 death, where is thy sting ? " which stand in
the Revised Version of the prophet as follows : "I will ran
som them from the power of the grave; I will redeem
them from death : 0 death, where are thy plagues ? O
grave, where is thy destruction ? Repentance shall be hid
from mine eyes." (Hosea xiii. 14.)
The words cited from Hosea are unquestionably addressed
to Israel in its national capacity. Consequently in their
primary meaning, and in the immediate view of the prophet,
they can only relate to a deliverance from some great national

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calamity. The Apostle, therefore, must have cited the pas
sage as one which is capable of a higher and a lower mean
ing, i.e. that while it was used by the prophet in reference
to a great national deliverance, yet such was the elevation
of its language that it could only attain its full realisation
when death should be finally swallowed up in victory at the
general resurrection.
There is, therefore, nothing in the hymn which can be
viewed as a definite revelation of a resurrection, in which the
righteous shall be rewarded and the wicked punished accord
ing to their works. On the contrary, all its references are
unquestionably local, and therefore prove that what the
author expected was a national resurrection, and a realisation
of the Theocracy in a perfected form, in which, as we learn
from other portions of the prophecy, the rites of Judaism
were to continue to be celebrated. The language used is
unquestionably in the highest degree ideal and poetic,
and therefore it fully justifies the Apostle's ' apphcation of
it as receiving its perfect realisation in the resurrection
of the just. What hopes it might have suggested to the
contemporaries of the prophet, is quite another question. It
is evident that it failed to suggest to Hezekiah any strong
expectation of happiness in a world to come.
The latter portion of the prophecy (into the much-disputed
question of its date and authorship we shall not enter)
abounds with anticipations of a glorious kingdom of God,
which was to be established at some period of the future, in
which righteousness is to reign triumphant, and from which
wickedness is to be rooted out, and in the blessings of which
the Gentile nations are to share ; and with descriptions of its
Messianic king, under the designation of the Servant of
Jehovah, who, after having poured out his soul unto death,
was to enter on a new and triumphant hfe. Here the resur
rection of the Messiah is unquestionably affirmed, from which

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 109
it was open to pious Israelites to draw the inference that
they too would be raised to participate in the benefits of His
redeeming work. Still this is an inference only, and not a
direct affirmation of a resurrection or of a judgment to come.
Further, this latter portion of the prophecy, from the
fortieth to the sixty-sixth chapter, abounds with unmis
takable allusions to the return of the Jews from Babylon, the
rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple, and the restoration
of its worship, shortly after which events the glorious anti
cipations of the prophet were to receive their realisation ; but
they contain no direct affirmation respecting a future state
or a resurrection. The utmost that can be said of them is
that they may have suggested a hope to pious minds
that they too would share in the glories of the Messianic
kingdom. The last utterance of the prophet requires a separate notice.
After speaking of the glories of the restored Jerusalem and
the destruction of its enemies he writes : —
" And they shall bring [i.e. the Gentile nations] all your
brethren out of the nations for an offering unto the Lord,
upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules,
and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith
the Lord, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a
clean vessel into the house of the Lord. And of them also
will I take for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord. For as
the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall
remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and
your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one
new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall
all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And
they shall go forth, and look on the carcases of the men that
have transgressed against me : for their worm shall not die,
neither shall their fire be quenched ; and they shall be an
abhorring unto all flesh." (Isaiah lxvi. 20—24.)

110 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
This, with its context, is a very remarkable utterance. It
is evident that it was intended by the prophet to be a
description of the Theocracy under the government of its
Messianic king.
What, then, was the meaning which the prophet or his
contemporaries would naturally attach to the entire passage ?
I answer that they must have viewed it as a description of
a future kingdom of God, clothed in metaphors derived from
the current conceptions of the day. This is evident, for its
literal realisation involves an impossibility, except by the
continual working of hundreds of millions of the most astound
ing miracles. I allude to the passage which affirms that all
flesh shall come up every twenty-eight, and even every seven
days, to worship at Jerusalem. This not only involves a
worship pre-eminently local, a worship which our Lord has
affirmed to be abolished for evermore in the kingdom of God,
but a constant travelling to and fro, and the consequent with
drawal of all the inhabitants of the world from their various
employments. Further, it is affirmed that all those who thus come up to
Jerusalem to worship shall go forth and look on the carcases
of the men who have transgressed against God, whose worm
shall not die, nor their fire be quenched, and who are to be
an abhorring to all flesh. This has been actually understood
to mean that the glorified saints shall from time to time be
witnesses of and exult in the torments of the damned — an
idea which is not only in itself horrible, but utterly un
christian. What, then, does this passage mean ?
I answer that its imagery is evidently derived from that of
the detested Valley of Gehenna, situated within a short dis
tance of Jerusalem, where the filth and the corpses of criminals
were either left to be consumed by worms or by a fire which
was kept continually burning to consume the impurities of the
city. Into this place, according to the prophetic delinea-

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. Ill
tion, the carcases of those who had transgressed against God
were to be thrown, where they would meet with a worm and
a fire ever ready to consume them — a fate which in the eyes
of the Jews was extremely terrible.
The passage, therefore, neither affirms a future state nor a
resurrection. Taken with its context, the utmost that it could
have suggested was a hope that the just who had departed
this life would yet in some manner, which is not explained,
participate in the glories of the kingdom of God, of which
Jerusalem, and an enlarged Palestine, would be the last centre,
and that the wicked would most ignominiously be destroyed.
Nothing is more certain than that it does not teach or even
hint at a doctrine of everlasting damnation, or even of punish
ment after death ; for that which the prophet speaks of as
destined to be the prey of the worm that shall not die and of
the fire that shall not be quenched is not a living body, but
a dead carcase. Surely by no rational interpretation of the
words before us can a carcase mean a living being destined to
exist in misery which will never end. It has been usual to
interpret the words, " the worm which never dies," as mean
ing an ever-gnawing conscience ; but that this was the thing
intended the passage before us gives no hint. Certain it is
that carcases are destitute of a conscience.
My general conclusion respecting the book which we have
been considering is, that it contains no definitely formulated
affirmation respecting a judgment to come, that all its descrip
tions of the future kingdom of God are deeply tinged with the
localism of Judaism, and that while it contains numerous
passages which are calculated to produce a hope in the
holy that they shall participate in the blessings of this king
dom, even if they died before its manifestation, it consigns
the wicked to simple destruction. Still further, so imperfect
was the hold which the idea of a terrible retribution awaiting
the wicked after death had on the prophet's mind, or on

112

FUTURE RETRIBUTION.

that of his contemporaries, that although he, with all the
other prophets, was a vehement preacher of righteousness, he
has never once urged it on the sinner as a deterrent from sin.
The Prophet Jeremiah.
It is very remarkable that there is no definite allusion to a
future state or to a resurrection in this prophecy. The life of
the prophet was full of trials, of which he bitterly complains,
yet he nowhere consoles himself, like St. Paul, even with a
hope that "his hght affliction, which was for the moment,
worked for him more and more exceedingly an eternal weight
of glory." All his warnings addressed to his countrymen
(and they are many) are sanctioned by considerations derived
from the present life alone. To several of them I have referred
already. They present a striking analogy to the ideas which
were entertained by the Greeks, who held that for a dead
body to be cast out to be devoured by dogs was the greatest
calamity which could happen to man. So strong was this
feeling, that those who were victorious in battle always
granted to the vanquished a truce to enable them to inter
their dead, and the refusal of such a truce was considered the
greatest of impieties. Similar must have been the views of
those whom the prophet addressed ; for, as far as this pro
phecy affords any evidence of the belief of the prophet's
hearers respecting a future state of retribution, it is apparent
that they must have attached little weight to reasonings
founded on the expectation of a judgment to come, although
such reasonings, when urged by St. Paul, were capable of
disturbing the conscience of so hardened a sinner as Fehx.
The prophet also was compelled by his disobedient country
men to accompany them into Egypt. Yet, although in that
country the symbols of a future judgment must have every
where met their eyes, we meet with no reference to it even
in the stern threatenings of his Egyptian discourses. It

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 113
has been urged as a reason for this want of reference to a
future state of retribution in the prophetical writings, that the
Jews are addressed in them not in their individual but in
their national capacity, and that judgments can only overtake
nations in the present world ; but several of the threatenings
which were uttered by this prophet were addressed to indi
viduals. This, therefore, constitutes no adequate account of
the silence of so earnest a preacher of righteousness respecting
the punishments which await the sinner in the world to come.
His silence is a fact, whatever may be its explanation.
The Prophet Ezekiel.
We have already considered several important passages in
this prophecy ; we therefore need not repeat them. Speaking
generally, the prophet's promises and threatenings, like those
of Jeremiah, are derived from considerations which are limited
to the present life. In a few passages, however, an important
consideration is added. The sinner is threatened in them
not with simple destruction but with " dying in his iniquity;"
yet, if death be viewed as the termination of man's conscious
being, or if there was no definite belief in a state of retri
bution in the underworld, it would matter httle whether
a man dies in his holiness or dies in his sin. At any rate,
the expression "shall die in his iniquity" seems to be a
threatening to the wicked, not simply of destruction but of
retribution for unrepented sin after death, and imphes that
the prophet was of opinion that the threat in question was
capable of exerting some degree of moral power on those
against whom it was directed.
The vision of the dry bones has been frequently referred
to as a revelation of a resurrection. As it is well known
it will be unnecessary to quote it ; I shah therefore only
draw attention to the Divine speaker's own explanation of it.

114 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
" Then said he unto me, Son of man, these bones are the
whole house of Israel ; behold, they say, Our bones are dried
up and our hope is lost ; we are clean cut off. Therefore
prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God,
Behold I will open your graves, and cause you to come up
out of your graves, O my people ; and I will bring you into
the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord,
when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up
out of your graves, 0 my people. And I will put my spirit
in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own
land." (Ezekiel xxxvii. 11 — 14.)
Nothing can be clearer, therefore, than that this vision
was intended to be a promise of a national resurrection from
the national ruin of the captivity. The remainder of the
chapter also is one continued promise of a national deliver
ance, and contains no promise of an individual resurrection,
or even of a future state of happiness after death.
The Minor Prophets.
The remarks already made as to the place which a doctrine
of retribution occupies in the prophet Jeremiah are applicable
to the twelve minor prophets. There is no distinct affirmation
respecting it in any one of them. Their warnings and their
threatenings are addressed to Israel in its national capacity,
and are founded on considerations derived from the present
life. For repentance is promised national prosperity; for con
tinued disobedience is threatened national ruin, accompanied
with various temporal judgments. While these prophets are
one and all earnest preachers of righteousness, they never
refer to a future state, either as an encouragement to the
suffering righteous or as a terror to the prosperous evil
doer. In the prophet Habakkuk is the nearest approach
to such a reference, in his affirmation " The just shall live

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 115
by his faith ; " but standing alone as it does, it must be
admitted to be a very obscure one. A passage in this pro
phet's concluding hymn is a remarkable one, and requires
notice : —
" For though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall
fruit be in the vines ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and
the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls : yet will I
rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength, and he maketh my feet
like hinds' feet, and will make me to walk upon mine high
places." (Hab. iii. 17—19.)
The entire hymn is couched in language which is highly
poetical ; but while it contains expressions of the strongest
faith in God, even in the midst of the direst calamities, it is
most remarkable that it contains no reference to a future
state. We might naturally have expected that such tem
poral calamities would have suggested to his mind a refer
ence to a world better than the present ; yet all that he
says is, that despite of them he will rejoice in the God of his
salvation. Its concluding words, " He will make my feet
like hinds' feet, and will make me to walk upon mine high
places," point rather to a deliverance in this world than to a
better state of things in a world to come.
V. — The Hagiographa.
We have already considered the Book of Psalms, which
was placed by the Jews in this division of their Scriptures.
The Book of Proverbs contains an unmistakable reference to
a future state. " The wicked," says the writer, " shall be
driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope
in his death ;" but even here we have no reference to retri
bution following the wicked in the unseen world, and the
i2

116 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
general teaching of the entire book, and the enforcement of
its precepts are based almost entirely on considerations of
worldly prudence. On the other hand, while the Song of
Solomon and the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther con
tain no reference to a future state, the Books of Daniel and
Ecclesiastes contain two very distinct ones. To the latter of
these books, however, modern writers are almost unanimous
in assigning a very late date, and not a few hold the same
opinion respecting portions of the former. The author of
the Book of Daniel thus writes : —
" And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake ; some to everlasting life, and some to shame
and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many
to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." (Dan. xii.
2, 3.)
Here a future resurrection, which is to include righteous
and wicked, but not a universal one, is directly affirmed.
The resurrection also is to be a state of retribution ; for some
are to rise to everlasting life, in which they shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and
ever, while others are to be raised to shame and everlasting
contempt ; but what this latter condition means is left
indeterminate. The reference in the Book of Ecclesiastes is also clear, and
it is the more remarkable standing out as it does in striking
contrast to the general pessimism of the entire book. It is
as follows : —
" This is the end of the matter ; all hath been heard :
Fear God, and keep his commandments ; for this is the whole
duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judg
ment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good or
whether it be evil." (Eccles. xii. 13, 14.)
This constitutes the most definite enunciation of the doc-

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 117
trine of a judgment to come which is to be found in the Old
Testament.* The Book of Job.
The subject which is discussed in this book has a very
intimate bearing on the point under consideration ; in fact,
if a state of existence after death, in which the inequalities of
God's present providences would be redressed, had been
urged by Job in reply to the charges brought against him
by his friends, it could not have failed to put them to silence.
The question under discussion between Job and his friends
may be stated as follows : —
Is suffering a proof that the sufferer is a sinner? Is
prosperity a proof of God's special favour? In a word,
What is the meaning of suffering ? Job's friends urge in the
strongest manner that the calamities which had befallen him
proved that notwithstanding his professions he was a great
sinner, and therefore a great hypocrite. This their position,
both in theory and in fact, Job strenuously denies ; he asserts
his own integrity in the strongest language, and in words almost
irreverent he challenges God to enter into judgment with him
on fair and equal terms. Yet he is unable to throw hght on
the inequalities of providence or the reasons of his present
sufferings, and earnestly calls on death to bring them to a
termination, and he not unfrequently uses expressions the
* Since the above was put into type I have read Professor Momerie's work,
entitled "Agnosticism." I think that he has proved beyond all reasonable
doubt that tha doctrine of the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes is, that man's
conscious personal existence perishes at death, and that his work really ended
with the same words with which it began, " Vanity of vanities ; all is vanity."
Chap. xii. 8. This being so, the six concluding verses are an addition by a sub
sequent writer, who was desirous of expressing dissent from the author's views,
and of modifying the intense pessimism of the work in question. It is with satis
faction that I observe that the Professor's views respecting the absence of any
firm conviction that a state of retribution awaited man beyond the grave, on
the part of the writers of the Old Testament, are in substantial agreement with
those set forth in this chapter.

118 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
natural meaning of which is, that man's conscious existence
perishes at death.
Now it is obvious, when we consider the arguments of the
different interlocutors in this drama and the nature of the
subject which they discussed, that the doctrine of a future
state in which the inequahties of the present state of things
would be redressed, really constitutes the all-important factor
in this argument ; for unless there is a hereafter for man, it
is evident that the moral government of the world is of a
very imperfect character.
But if this belief had been firmly held either by Job or
his friends, he had simply to reply that the present state of
things is a very incomplete display of the Divine government
of the world, that there will be a future state in which its
apparent inequahties will be redressed, and that the end
and purpose of God's present providences can only be seen
in the light of the life to come, to have deprived their
reasonings of all validity. Full well might he have urged,
"It is true that I am a great sufferer, and so have been
many other holy men ; but the proper inference from my
sufferings is not that I am a great sinner, much less a hypo
crite, but that they will be made to conduce to my greater
happiness in the world to come." But instead of using
this obvious and all-conclusive argument, it is never once
referred to, except in one utterance of Job's, of very doubt
ful interpretation ; while very numerous utterances are put
into his mouth whose natural meaning is that man's hopes
and sorrows will alike terminate in the grave, and numerous
others in which he is represented as earnestly appealing
to God for a vindication of his integrity in this life and
for a return of his prosperity ; and this the last chapter
represents him as actually attaining, his prosperity being
doubled. As far, then, as the discussion between Job and his friends

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 119
is concerned, it leaves the point at issue precisely where it
found it. Under these circumstances a fifth interlocutor is
introduced, who undertakes to throw light on the subject
under discussion, and affirms that in his opinion neither the
reasoning of Job nor his friends was satisfactory; but
throughout his long speech there is not a single reference to
a future state of retribution, and he leaves the difficulty un
solved. Whereupon God Himself is represented as appearing
in answer to Job's repeated challenges ; yet throughout the
entire utterance which is attributed to Him there is not a
single reference to a future state in which His providences
should receive their vindication. Here, if anywhere, we
should have expected to have found it, but it is absent. God
silences Job, but this is effected by appeals to His works of
creation and providence, and by pointing out that they are
inscrutable by man.
The following is the state of the argument : With respect
to a future state in which the unequal distribution of good
and evil which this world presents would be redressed, with
the single exception above referred to, Job speaks in the
language of despair. No reference is made to it in the
speeches which are attributed either to his friends, to
Ehhu, or even to God Himself. To this silence the single
exception is the following utterance of Job, which is thus
translated in the text of the Revised Version, with a number
of alternative readings in the margin. Probably there is no
passage in the Old Testament, the exact meaning of which is
more disputed among Hebraists : —
" Oh that my words were now written ! Oh that they were
inscribed in a book ! that with an iron pen and lead they were
graven in the rock for ever ! But I know that my Redeemer
liveth [margin, Vindicator, God], and that he shall stand up
at the last upon the earth [margin, dust] ; and after my skin
hath been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh shall I see God

120 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
[here the margin presents no less than three alternative
readings] ; whom I shall see for myself [margin, on my side] ;
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another [margin, as a
stranger]. My reins are consumed within me. If ye say,
How we will persecute him ! Seeing the root of the matter
is found in me ; be ye afraid of the sword : for wrath bringeth
the punishment of the sword, that ye may know there is a
judgment." (Job xix. 23—29.)
The above, however, are far from exhausting the number
of alternative renderings of this passage which have been
proposed by learned Hebraists. From this variety of transla
tions the natural inference is that the meaning must be
extremely obscure ; and when we consider the number of
passages which affirm that there is no hope for man in the
grave, and that all the other speakers are silent respecting a
future state or a resurrection, even when the requirements of
the argument demanded such a reference, it is difficult to
imagine that it can be the expression on Job's part of a
definite behef in a future resurrection in which all that he
now endured would be fully compensated. If he entertained
such a behef the remainder of his passionate appeals and
arguments are incapable of explanation, as well as the entire
want of reference to it on the part of the other interlocutors.
The following are my general conclusions : —
1. The Old Testament does not contain a definite revela
tion of a future state of retribution awaiting man after death.
2. While the existence of an underworld is presupposed,
which was the habitation of departed spirits, the views
which were current respecting the condition of its inhabi
tants were extremely dark and gloomy.
3. A few of the most exalted minds entertained a strong
belief that the righteous after death would enter on a state
of existence in which they would enjoy a blissful communion
with God.

IMPERFECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT LIGHT. 121
4. The most terrible punishment with which the wicked
are threatened is destruction accompanied with a dishonoured
burial. 5. The doctrine of a future state of retribution is never
urged by the most earnest preachers of righteousness, either
as an incentive to holiness or as a deterrent from sin, or as
a reason for the patient endurance of present suffering, or as
affording a field for the vindication of the inequalities of
God's present providences.
I have only to observe, in conclusion, that within a period of
a httle over two hundred years from the death of Malachi, a
belief in a future state, and even of a resurrection, had become
so firm in the Maccabean martyrs as to be able to sustain
them under the most exquisite tortures, inflicted on them for
the purpose of compelling them to renounce their faith. It
will be sufficient if I cite the utterances which the author of
the Second Book of the Maccabees has put into their mouths
in the midst of their torments.
" So when he (the second brother) was at his last gasp, ho
said, Thou, like a fury, takest us out of this present hfe ;
but the King of the world shall raise us up, who have died
for his laws, to everlasting life."
" So when he (the third brother) was ready to die, he said
thus : It is good, being put to death by men, to look for hope
from God, to be raised up again by him ; as for thee, thou
shalt have no resurrection to life."
The mother, who was compelled to stand by and witness
the torturing deaths of her seven sons, is represented as
saying —
"Doubtless the Creator of the world, who formed the
generations of man, and found out the beginnings of all
things, will also of his own mercy give you breath and hfe
again, as you regard not your lives for his sake."
Also, " Fear not the tormentor ; but being worthy of thy

122 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
brethren, take thy death, that I may receive thee again with
mercy with thy brethren."
The foUowing is the utterance of the last brother : —
" For our brethren, who have now suffered a short pain,
are dead, under God's covenant of everlasting life ; but thou,
through the judgment of God, shalt receive just punishment
for thy pride."
Such are the hopes respecting a future state, and a resur
rection, which are attributed to these martyrs, under tortures
which may be well called infernal. We in vain seek for such
an expression of faith anywhere in the canonical scriptures
of the Old Testament. The words which the author of the
Book of Chronicles ascribes to the martyr Zechariah in his
dying moments, " The Lord look on it and requite it," are
not only devoid of the faith and hope expressed by these
martyrs, but they stand in striking contrast to the prayer of
him who, in his dying moments, kneeled down and cried with
a loud voice, " Lord Jesus, Receive my spirit . . . Lord,
lay not this sin to their charge." On what ground their
assurance of faith and hope was founded, or whence it was
derived, we know not ; certain it is that it could not have
been a mere opinion, or a hope resting on a mere probabihty,
such as that which is attributed to Socrates, but the most
powerful of convictions.

CHAPTER VI.
The current Theories respecting Retribution contrasted with the
affirmations of Reason and Revelation respecting the Divine
Character and Perfections.
It is, as we have seen, a great truth, affirmed alike by reason
and revelation, that God is just. Therefore, when He judges
the world in righteousness, He will judge each individual
man in conformity with his attribute of justice. God is holy;
He will, therefore, judge each man in conformity with His
attribute of holiness. God is merciful ; He will, therefore,
judge each in conformity with His attribute of mercy. But
all the Divine attributes combine in a harmonious unity in
the affirmation that God is love. Thus St. John writes —
" Beloved, let us love one another : for love is of God ;
and every one that loveth is begotten of God and knoweth
God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God ; for God is
love. Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that
God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the pro
pitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also
ought to love one another. No man hath seen God at any
time : if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his
love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we abide in
him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father hath
sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever

124 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in
him and he in God. And we know, and have beheved the
love which God hath in us. God is love ; and he that abideth
in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him. Herein is
love made perfect in us, that we may have boldness in the
day of judgment ; because as he is, even so are we in this
world. There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out
fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not
made perfect in love. We love, because he first loved us.
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a
liar : for he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen,
cannot love God, whom he hath not seen. And this com
mandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love
his brother also." (1 John iv. 7 — 21.)
I have quoted this passage at length because it proves,
beyond the power of contradiction, that in the Apostle's
opinion, love in God and love in man are precisely the same
in character, and only differ in degree, and puts an end, as
far as Scripture is concerned, to that most dangerous position,
that love in man may be one thing, and love in God a thing
widely differing from our human conception of love. This
being so, the same is true of all His other attributes. If
then this utterance has a divine authority attached to it,
nay, if it is even true, it proves that when God will judge the
world in righteousness, He will judge each individual man in
conformity with the attributes of justice, holiness, mercy and
love, according to our human conceptions of them, and not
in conformity with a standard which, for aught we know,
may differ widely from those conceptions. This truth is fun
damental to our present argument.
Let us now proceed to test the chief theories which have
been propounded respecting the principles in accordance with
which God will execute judgment hereafter, and which have
attained a wide acceptance among different sections of the

CURRENT THEORIES AND THE DIVINE CHARACTER. 125
Christian Church, by the Divine attributes of justice, holi
ness, mercy and benevolence, as we have proved them to be
affirmed by reason and enunciated by revelation.
I. Those theories which affirm that all those who do not
accept a particular form of dogmatic creed will be excluded
from salvation.
A large portion of these creeds make affirmations on sub
jects of a very abstract character, involving a number of
the most profound questions respecting the ontology of Deity,
the Incarnation, the nature of the Divine decrees, predesti
nation, the mode in which the atonement has been effected,
the modus operandi of the Divine Spirit in the regenera
tion and sanctification of man, and various other highly
difficult questions, which it will be unnecessary to enumerate.
Now the number of those whose mental capacity is such as
to enable them to enter on the discussion of such subjects,
to grasp the meaning of the propositions in which they are
expressed, and to form an opinion of the value of the
evidence on which they are alleged to rest, is extremely
limited. What then is meant by the affirmation that these
are such essential portions of Christianity, that those who
cannot receive them will be excluded from salvation ? Ob
viously, that God will punish a large portion of mankind for
intellectual defects for which they are irresponsible. To do
so is evidently inconsistent with the possibility of ascribing
either justice, holiness, mercy, or benevolence to the Creator.
It will doubtless be urged that all that is intended by these
denunciations is that only those will incur the penalty which
they threaten who wilfully, and with full light and knowledge,
reject the dogmas in question. But if this is the thing in
tended, why is not this expressly stated in the creeds in
question ? For if that is their true meaning, the number of
those who thus reject them will be comparatively few.
II. The theory which affirms that every man born into

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the world is, in consequence of the sin of Adam, the just
subject of God's wrath and damnation.
Such an affirmation means neither more nor less than this,
that it is just to punish one man for a sin committed by
another, and in the commission of which he had no share.
Surely it is unnecessary to offer proof that to do so is abso
lutely inconsistent with any possible conception of justice,
holiness, mercy, or love.
III. Closely akin to the above is the theory which affirms
that men are justly punishable for the tendency to evil which
they bring with them into the world. That such a tendency
to evil is transmitted to each of us from our ancestors is an un
questionable fact; and that evil of all kinds is offensive to God,
I firmly believe. But a man is no more responsible for being
born with a tendency to moral evil, or with a corrupt nature,
than he is for being born blind, or with a tendency to disease.
Such a tendency, instead of appealing to the Divine justice
for punishment, loudly appeals to the Divine compassion.
Our conscience and moral sense would unhesitatingly con
demn a human judge who would punish a man for being born
a cripple, or with a constitutional tendency to consumption ;
and what our conscience and moral sense would condemn in
a human judge cannot be reconcilable with any possible
conception of justice or holiness in God. What His attri
butes of justice, holiness, mercy, and love will cause Him to
do with those who die in this condition we will consider in a
subsequent chapter.
IV. Closely allied to the conditions of our birth are the
conditions of the surroundings into which we are born, and
the moral atmosphere which we inhale from our earliest child
hood. These conditions, which unquestionably exert a
powerful influence on the formation of our characters, have
been determined not by us, but for us. Consequently all
theories which represent God as consigning multitudes of

CURRENT THEORIES AND THE DIVINE CHARACTER. 127
men to everlasting damnation, without taking into considera
tion and making allowance for the condition of the sur
roundings into which they were born, are inconsistent with
ascribing to Him either justice, holiness, or mercy.
I by no means wish to affirm that men born, with ten
dencies to evil, into a corrupt moral and spiritual atmosphere,
which they habitually inhale from their birth, are totally and
absolutely irresponsible for their characters ; but that in
estimating the degree of their responsibility, justice demands
that these unfavourable conditions of probation should be
taken into consideration, and that when justice has pro
nounced sentence, mercy pleads.
V. The theory which affirms that God has elected a cer
tain portion of mankind to eternal life, and consigned the
remainder by a direct decree to everlasting damnation, or by
simply passing over the remainder has thus rendered that
result inevitable.
This decree of predestination is alleged to be irrespective
of all moral characteristics in the predestined. Both those
who are fore-ordained to everlasting salvation, and those who
are fore-ordained to damnation, are affirmed to be in an
equally lost condition ; and the choice is made irrespective
of anything good or bad, either in the elect or the non-
elect. Those who propound this theory, in order that they may
hide its awfulness from themselves and others, affirm that this
choice has been made in conformity with what they euphemisti
cally designate God's good, i.e. holy, pleasure; but choice, will,
or pleasure, independent of all moral considerations, cannot,
in conformity with the affirmations of reason or the teaching
of Christianity, be a holy pleasure : it is simply pleasure
divested of holiness. Under a sense of this, and for the
purpose of averting our eyes from the terrible reality, it has
been affirmed that this election has been made by God for

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the purpose of manifesting His glory, and it has even been
said, the glory of His grace. But a glory which is irrespec
tive of all moral considerations is the glory of power only ;
and power, pure and simple, may be an attribute of an
Ahriman. This theory, therefore, is utterly inconsistent with
ascribing to God the attributes of either justice, hohness,
mercy, or love, as they are affirmed to exist in Him alike by
reason and revelation.
VI. Precisely similar are the results which flow from
the various modifications of this theory, such, for example,
as that Christ died for the sins of the whole world, but
that the non-elect, not having received " an effectual call
ing," will derive no benefit from his atoning work ; or
that they can partake in its blessings if they so will, but
that the will in them to do so is and will be ever wanting,
and many similar ones, which it is unnecessary to particu
larise. What, I ask, can be more inconsistent with the con
ception of a Being who possesses the attributes of either
justice, mercy, holiness, or benevolence than to represent
Him as having chosen a comparatively small portion of
mankind to deliver from the consequences of the fall and of
their own transgressions, and as leaving the remainder, who
were no more guilty than the elect, though Christ has died
for all men, the certain inheritors of everlasting damnation,
because they are unable to embrace His atoning work from
want of an effectual calling ?
But it may be urged, You admit that from one cause or
another transmitted evil exists in man. Does not this
admission cover the predestinarian theory ? I reply, that it
is impossible to deny its existence, except by closing our
eyes to the most unquestionable facts. We see this daily in
the existence of numerous bodily imperfections, and in
terrible -diseases, which have been transmitted by ancestors
more or less remote, and which have been caused on their

CURRENT THEORIES AND THE DIVINE CHARACTER. 129
part by a violation of physical or moral laws. It is also an
undoubted fact that mental and moral diseases are so trans
missible, such as madness, imbecility, and even a tendency
to drunkenness and other vices. All these, and much more,
are unquestionable facts, and if man's existence terminated
with the death of the body, they would go far to prove that
the moral government of the world was of a very imperfect
character. But assuming all these facts to be beyond ques
tion, they do not affect our present argument, which is con
cerned with this, and this only, viz., What are the principles
on which God will judge each individual man hereafter?
Will He hold men responsible for what they have had no
part in doing ? This is what the predestinarian theory in
every aspect of it affirms that He will do ; and this is pre
cisely what reason and revelation concur in affirming that
He cannot do, consistently with His attributes of justice,
hohness, mercy, and benevolence ; for to do so would be to
deny Himself. Why things are as they are in the present
constitution of the world is a question that does not fall
within the limits of our present inquiry to investigate. We
have simply to take them as they actually exist. What
reason and revelation concur in affirming is, that whatever
amount of clouds and darkness are round about God's present
government of the world, He will ultimately judge each indi
vidual man in accordance with His attributes of justice,
holiness, mercy, and what the New Testament affirms to
constitute the essence of His moral being — Love.
VII. The Baptismal Theory. This theory, as I have else
where pointed out, modifies the extreme awfulness of the
two preceding ones by providing a remedy for the conse
quences of the fall in the sacrament of baptism, in which
those who are baptised receive the grace of regeneration, the
pardon of past sins, and such assistance from the Holy Spirit
as is necessary to enable them to attain eternal salvation,
K

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unless they abuse it to their own condemnation. While it
has received a number of modifications too numerous to par
ticularise, yet such is its general outline. It has the advan
tage of being far more merciful than the predestinarian
theories, because while these leave all but the elect in a con
dition that is absolutely hopeless, this places everyone who
is duly baptised in such a state that it is in his power to
attain everlasting salvation, unless through his own fault he
neglects to use the means of grace which are provided for
him in the Church.
Still it is only the baptised who participate in these
benefits, and the unbaptised are left exposed to all the con
sequences of the fall ; that is to say, to God's wrath and
damnation. But these constitute an overwhelming majority
of the human race, among whom, according to this theory,
when carried out to its logical consequences, are included the
virtuous heathen, and even those infants who have died
before they have committed actual sin without having received
the sacrament of baptism. I am well aware that not
a few who hold this theory stumble at these latter conse
quences, and endeavour to evade them ; yet such are the
logical results of the theory. But inasmuch as the over
whelming majority of the human race have lived and died
without having had the possibility of receiving the sacra
ment of baptism, or even of hearing the Gospel, it stands
exposed to the same objections as the previous ones, viz.
that the fundamental principles on which it is founded, as
well as the consequences which flow from them, contradict
the attributes of justice, holiness, mercy, and love, as they
exist in God, according to any conception which we can form
of them ; and if our human conceptions of them do not repre
sent the Divine realities, we have nothing to do but to take
refuge in the darkness of Agnosticism.
VIII. Very similar in character are those theories which

CURRENT THEORIES AND THE DIVINE CHARACTER. 131
affirm that it is necessary for salvation that men should pass
through certain forms of religious experience, of which what
is termed " conversion " may be taken as an example. This
word, in the sense in which it is for the most part employed
in systematic and popular theology, denotes a change of mind
which can be detected by the consciousness. The logical
result of such a theory is that it not only excludes from
salvation the overwhelming majority of mankind, but even
that large number of holy and virtuous men who have not
passed through the particular experiences in question.
One form of it which the very wide acceptance of Professor
Drummond's work, entitled " Natural Law in the Spiritual
World," proves to be extensively popular, requires a separate
notice. According to the Professor's theory, man as he is
born into the world is, to all intents and purposes, spiritu
ally dead ; and just as dead matter has no tendency to grow
into living matter, so there is nothing in the natural man
which can grow into the spiritual man. This being so, the
•change of the natural man into the spiritual man can only
be effected by a direct act of creative power, similar to that
which has been employed in imparting life to dead matter;
and not only so, but this operation has to be repeated sepa
rately in the case of every individual who becomes a spiritual
man. What, I ask, is the net result of this theory ? That
every man is brought into the world under such conditions
(and these conditions have been determined for him and not
by him), that he is as dead to everything spiritual as a
stone is ; and from that state he has no means of deliver
ance except by a creative act of God, imparting to him
spiritual life, in which he is wholly passive. But further,
inasmuch as, according to the Professor's view, spiritual life
involves an actual knowledge of Jesus Christ, and a spiritual
union with him, all non-Christians both have been and are
incapable of possessing it ; and as none but those who possess
k2

132 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
this gift will be inheritors of the future kingdom of God,
all who have never heard of Jesus Christ, however earnest
seekers after truth they may have been, will be excluded
from its blessing. Nothing can be clearer, therefore, than
that the effect of this and all similar theories is to exclude
from the kingdom of God all but a very select company of
the human race. How far such theories are consistent with
the character of Him the essence of whose moral being is
love, let the reader judge. It is, however, right that I
should add that the theory in question is silent as to the
ultimate fate of the unconverted, except that, being devoid
of spiritual life, they will have no share in the kingdom of
God* IX. The popular theories require only a brief notice, as
they are mainly composed of modifications of the preceding
ones. As I have remarked already, they are for the most
part indefinite and vague ; but they concur in affirming that
this life constitutes the sole period of human probation, and
that this hfe ended, the fate of every individual is fixed for
weal or woe throughout the eternity to come. According to
them mankind will then, or after the day of judgment, be
divided into two classes, the righteous and the wicked, the
first of which will pass into a state of everlasting felicity, and
the second into one of endless torment. Wliat, however,
will constitute the class which is designated the righteous,
and what that which is designated the wicked, is variously
* Among the numerous criticisms of this work I quote the following observa
tions on it in Canon Curteis's " Boyle Lectures " of 1885. " This singular and elo
quent book has obtained a great popularity ; but every thoughtful reader of its
laboured arguments feels tempted to exclaim ere he reaches the ultimate issue
' Nascitur ridiculus mus.' "What, only those immortal who are converted in
the Presbyterian sense of the word ? It is perfectly easy to make Scripture texts
countenance any theory whatever, even the Anglo-Israelite craze. And as the
earliest Latin father pointed out 1700 years ago, 'Nihil proficit congressio
Scriptarum nisi plane ut aut stomachi quia ineat eversionem aut cerebri," i.e.
" A warfare of Scripture texts sends a man either off his head or off his temper."

CURRENT THEORIES AND THE DIVINE CHARACTER. 133
defined in accordance with the different systems of theology
which are accepted by different sects, without taking into
account those conditions of irresponsibihty and mixed respon
sibility above referred to, which so largely enter into the
human character. Into these secrets man cannot penetrate,
but God's omniscience can. Consequently the rough-and-
ready mode of dividing mankind into the two great divisions
which popular theology designates the righteous and the
wicked, will most inadequately represent the divisions of
human character which will be made by Him, whose attributes
are omniscience, justice, holiness, mercy, and benevolence.
An illustration will make my meaning plain. Let us sup
pose — it is no supposition, but a terrible reality — that a
child is born with all the transmitted evil which is inherent
in two of the most degraded savages, and is brought up in
the midst of similar surroundings, the moral atmosphere of
which he inhales from his earliest infancy. When he has
grown up to manhood he becomes a being who may not be
unjustly characterised as possessing some of the worst passions
of the fiercest animal, united with not a few of the attributes
of a fiend, and in this state of moral and spiritual degrada
tion he lives and dies. How does popular theology dispose
of such a man ? It consigns to endless torments multitudes
who are twenty times less morally degraded. But how will
God judge him ? He will certainly only hold him respon
sible for the evil in him which has been self-caused, and not
for that which has been due to the conditions of his birth
and his surroundings. It is certain that the character of such
a savage is utterly opposed to the character of God : and that
its ¦ possession renders him totally unfit for the society of
the holy ; but it by no means follows that it will be con
sistent with the character of Him whose attribute is justice
and whose moral being is love, to consign such a man to a
condition of never-ending torment.

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Let us take another case. According to a system of popu
lar theology which has attained a wide acceptance, a man who
has been converted a short time before death, however de
graded may have been his past life, at once takes rank
among the righteous, and becomes fit to enter on the enjoy
ments and the employments of the holy. But what about
his character ? Has it at once become a holy character ? Is.
it suddenly changed, so as to render him fit for the society
of the saints ? Has his sudden awakening to the evil of his-
past life generated in him a number of holy affections, or in a
moment destroyed the evil ones ? We know that in those
cases of sudden conversion which are capable of being tested
by the results which follow it, sanctification is a gradual
process, only imperfectly wrought out after many a painful
struggle ; and such is the apostolic testimony, as is witnessed
by the Epistles. What reason have we therefore for believ
ing that it will be otherwise with a sinner deeply sunk in
moral and spiritual corruption, who turns to God an hour
before his death ? Unless a miracle is wrought in his special
case, of which Scripture affords no hint, he will carry with
him into the unseen world the character which he has
formed here, minus that change in it which takes place at
conversion. Can such a character, until it is thoroughly
renovated, be fit for the society of the holy or to enter into
their enjoyments or employments ? Far be from me the
idea that God will not receive all such to His mercy, and
that He will not provide for them the means of sanctification
in the unseen world. All that I am attempting to show is,
that the rough-and-ready method which is adopted by popu
lar theology of dividing manldnd into the two great divisions
above referred to, one of which will at once enter on the en
joyments and the employments of the perfected kingdom of
Christ, and the other into a state of torment which will
never end, has no standpoint in the character of God as it is

CURRENT THEORIES AND THE DIVINE CHARACTER. 135
affirmed by reason and as it is disclosed by revelation/""" Vast
must be the numbers of the human race who, while thev
have not died in a state of holiness, or in that state desig
nated conversion, yet have not died in a state irrecoverably
evil, or who have died in one not _ self-caused, which appeals
loudly to the Divine compassion. One thing and one only
can we affirm with certainty ; that God will judge all such in
conformity with His attributes of justice, holiness, mercy and
love, and that His omniscience will enable Him to estimate
rightly the effects that things for which a, man is irrespon
sible have exerted upon the formation of his character, and
on his actions which are the result of that character.
One further illustration of the point under consideration.
One man is born with a temper overwhelmingly passionate,
another with one so calm that it is not easy to ruffle it. We
see this distinction even in infants ; as matter of fact, we
are all deeply sensible that the state of our tempers is greatly
dependent on the state of our nervous systems. I select
violence of temper as an illustration because it is the fruitful
* It will be objected that several of the parables affirm that mankind will be
divided by Christ into the two divisions of the good and the bad ; and consequently
that there is no place left for a tertium quid, which in the eyes of the all-seeing
Judge will not be viewed as irremediably evil, or for a probation after death.
To this I answer, that what lam speaking of is the rough-and-ready mode of
dividing Ihe whole human race into those two great divisions which is adopted by
popular theology. But the language of the parables is far from sustaining the
objection in question. Our Lord thus explains the parable of the tares : " The
Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and shall gather out of his kingdom all
things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and cast them into a fur
nace of fire ; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the
righteous shine forth as the snn in the kingdom of their Father." This simply
affirms that those that are irreclaimably evil will be gathered out of Christ's
kingdom and cast into a furnace of fire, i.e. will be destroyed by some terrible
form of destruction ; and that those who are designated " the righteous " will be
immediately received into our Lord's perfected kingdom. These constitute the
two extremes of mankind in point of character; but the parable, like all the
other parables, is silent as to what will be the lot of that vast multitude of
mankind who lie between them, and who die in a state of mind which unfits
them for the enjoyments and the employments of the heavenly world, but yet
in whom all goodness is far from being utterly extinct.

136 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
source of a variety of crimes. Yet a man who commits a
crime under the influence of constitutional violence of tem
per may, in a moral point of view, be a better man than one
on whom temptations to anger exert httle or no force. Yet
it is impossible to include such characters under either of the
two great divisions of the righteous or the irrecoverably
wicked, according to the popular conception of them. The
passionate man cannot be a holy man, because the inabihty
to conquer the violence of his temper is a proof of either
moral or spiritual weakness. Nor can he be ranked among
those who are irrecoverably wicked, for I assume that it
is only on such that the merciful God will pass a sentence
of final condemnation. From this case, therefore (and
I have selected it out of a large number of similar ones
which will include a vast proportion of mankind), I draw
the general conclusion that in the eyes of perfect justice,
guided by omniscience, no small number of the human
race who have been born under unfavourable conditions of
probation may belong to a class which, while it is not holy,
is not beyond the power of recovery ; and that such,
though unfit to enter on the employments and the enjoy
ments of the perfected kingdom of Christ, may justly make
a strong appeal both to the Divine justice and the Divine
compassion. Most of the theories which we have been considering repre
sent the moral character of God not as that of which Jesus
Christ is the image, but as one which in almost every respect
stands contrasted with it. According to them, the Creator
has so planned and conditioned His creative work that the
overwhelming majority of the human race, after a brief space
of very uncertain temporary enjoyment, will enter on an exist
ence in misery which will never terminate. It has been
urged that this is the inevitable result of creating man a free
agent, and that the creation of a being who is capable of
exercising choice was in itself so desirable as to have justi-

CURRENT THEORIES AND THE DIVINE CHARACTER. 137
fied the conditioning of things as they are, notwithstanding
the unutterable mass of misery which has resulted from so
doing, which the Creator must have clearly foreseen. We can
only say, that if this is the necessary result of creating men
free agents, it is one terrible to contemplate and one which
is irreconcilable with any possible conception of one the
essence of whose moral being is love. But the true answer
to this solution is that of all such necessary results, when
affirmed of God, we know nothing.
Still further, while we admit that the predestinarian and
other similar theories do not invest the Creator with the
attributes of an almighty principle of evil, they make a near
approach to it ; for when they are divested of all subterfuges,
and hair-splittings, they affirm that God has so conditioned
his creative work, as respects mankind, that the final result
will be the everlasting felicity of a very small number
out of a multitude so vast as to be impossible to realise in
thought, and the everlasting misery, or (if we adopt the
theory called " conditional immortality") the annihilation of
the remainder through a course of painful, and in cases
of extreme wickedness, terrible suffering. We admit that this
constitution of things cannot be said to be the work of an evil
being who is almighty, for such a being would have created
man under such conditions that nothing but the greatest
amount of misery which is consistent with never-ending
existence would have been the fate of all, not only in the un
seen world, but in the present. This, however, is obviously
not the present constitution of things ; but if that beyond the
grave is such as these theories presuppose, it bears a far
greater resemblance to the work of a creator who is imper
fectly evil than to that of one of whose moral character Jesus
Christ is the image and likeness, and of whom He has
affirmed that He is kind even to the unthankful and the evil,
and has taught that it is our duty to be merciful as our
Father also is merciful.

138 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
In making these observations, let it not be for one moment
supposed that I am insensible to the terrible results which
flow from moral evil, whether it be self-caused or transmitted
from ancestors. That much of the evil which exists is self-
caused I firmly believe, and as such it is justly obnoxious to
God's righteous judgment ; but the evil in the individual
which is not self-caused appeals loudly to His mercy. Nay
more : strict justice is not mercy ; when, therefore, justice has
pronounced its sentence mercy pleads, and both the Old and
the New Testament affirm, with what we may almost call re
iteration, that God is merciful, and that His mercy endures
for ever, and extends over all His works. My object has been
to point out that the various theories above referred to are
entirely inadequate representations of the principles on which
God will judge the world in righteousness, i.e. in accordance
with His attributes of justice, holiness, mercy, and love, by
that man whom He hath ordained, and whom He has also
sent to be the Saviour of the world.
The alternative theories which I have mentioned above
will be considered in subsequent portions of this work.
My general conclusion, therefore, is that every theory which
has been propounded by the finite intellect of man respecting
a future state of retribution which is not based on the prin
ciples of eternal justice, and which is also not in conformity
with any conception we can form of God's holiness, mercy, and
love as they are revealed in the person, work, and teaching of
Jesus Christ is a misrepresentation of the principles on which
He will execute judgment hereafter. All that we can venture
to affirm is that God, who is possessed of perfect knowledge,
will judge each man, not as a mere member of a nation, of
a family, or of a race, but as an individual, according to his
actions as they have resulted from his character ; and that
He will attribute to him responsibility only for that portion
of his character which has been self-caused, and has not been

CURRENT THEORIES AND THE DIVINE CHARACTER. 139
the result of his birth or of his surroundings — in one word,
in accordance with the affirmation of the prophet, "The
righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him ; and the son
shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor the father bear
the iniquity of the son;" but each man shall be responsible
only for his own sin ; and when justice has spoken mercy
will plead.

CHAPTER VII.
The Account of the Creation and Pall op Man, as narrated in the
Second and Third Chapters op Genesis, in its bearing on the question
op Human Responsibility, and TnE validity op the various Theories
which have been erected on what 18 designated the doctrine op the
Fall examined and considered.
I have omitted to consider in the fifth chapter the narrative
of what is designated "the fall of man," as given in the
third chapter of Genesis, because it is a subject of such
importance that it requires a separate consideration. For not
only has it a most intimate bearing on the subject we are
considering, but the theory called " conditional immortality,
or life in Christ," is to no inconsiderable extent based on it,
and a large portion of the teaching both of systematic and
popular theology has been elaborated on the assumption that
it constitutes the foundation on which the superstructure of
Christianity is erected. As this last point is one of the
greatest importance, I will begin by offering on it a few brief
¦observations. The generally accepted theory on this subject is that Adam,
by his act of disobedience to the Divine command for
bidding him to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, incurred for himself and his posterity the
penalty of what is designated spiritual death, to be followed in
due course by natural death, i.e. the death of the body, and
this by eternal death, which is commonly understood to mean
a never-ending existence in torment. Further, it is held that
the comphcated scheme called the plan of salvation was
devised by God for the purpose of remedying the marring

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 141
of his original creative plan which the fall occasioned ; that
the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, including his incarna
tion, sufferings, death, and resurrection, was intended to be
remedial of the terrible consequences which have been
entailed on mankind, by Adam's transgression, although, ac
cording to generally-accepted theories, the remedy has been
an imperfect one ; and that His divine mission, but for the
fall, would have been unnecessary. The above views are
held with modifications too numerous to admit of a separate
enumeration here, but the above is a sufficiently accurate
statement of the general theological position.
Assuming this theory to be correct, we surely ought to
find in the pages of revelation some very definite affirmations
that Christianity is erected on the doctrine of the fall as its
foundation, and the references to it should be frequent.
What, then, are the facts ? I answer —
1. That from the third chapter of Genesis to the last
chapter of Malachi the fall of man is not once mentioned, or
even referred to, by the sacred writers. To this the only
apparent exception is Job xxxi. 33, but even this obscure
reference disappears in the alternative marginal rendering of
the Revised Version.
2. The fall of man is not only never affirmed by our Lord
to have been the foundation of His divine mission, but it is
not once directly referred to by Him in the whole course of
His teaching. To this the only apparent exception is a
passage in St. John's Gospel which may be viewed as a
reference to Genesis iii.
"Ye," says our Lord to the unbelieving Jews, "are of
your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your
will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and
stood not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is a
liar and the father of it." As the translation of this last

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-clause is not free from difficulty, the Revisers have given in
the margin the following alternative rendering : " When one
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for his father also is
a liar." (John viii. 44.)
It is, however, extremely doubtful whether those whom
our Lord addressed could have understood this utterance
as a reference to Genesis iii, because it contains no inti
mation that the devil was the tempter ; nor can such an
intimation be found anywhere in the Old Testament. On
the contrary, the tempter is, throughout the whole narrative,
affirmed to have been a serpent ; and it gives, as a reason
why it was able to act the part of a tempter, that " the
serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made." Nor is the serpent once identified
with the devil throughout the entire New Testament, except
in the Apocalypse ; and even St. Paul, though frequently
warning those to whom he wrote to beware of the wiles
of the devil, designates Eve's tempter as " the serpent."
Further, the sentence which is pronounced on the serpent as
a punishment for what he had done, though applicable to
literal serpents, is inconsistent with what is said of the devil
from one end of the Bible to the other. If, therefore, our
Lord's hearers had learned to identify the serpent of
Genesis iii. with the Satan of the Old Testament, or with
the devil (o htafioXos) of the New,'"" their information must
have been derived from some extra-biblical source, for the
Old Testament does not contain even a hint that its Satan
was the real tempter.
It will, perhaps, be urged that the following passage, in the
First Epistle of St. John, is a reference to our Lord's utter
ance as it is recorded in his Gospel.
* I say, " with the Satan of the Old Testament or with the devil of the New,"
because it is evident that the attributes which are attributed to each differ
widely. The demons (rd Saipivia) of the New are not even mentioned in the Old.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 143
" He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is
righteous. He that doeth sin is of the devil, for the devil
sinneth from the beginning. To this end was the Son of
God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the
devil  In this the children of God are manifested,
and the children of the devil ; whosoever doeth not righteous
ness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
For this is the message that ye have heard from the begin
ning, that we should love one another : not as Cain was of
the evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he
him ? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's
righteous ? . . . . Whosoever hateth his brother is a mur
derer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding
in him." (1 John iii. 7 — 15.)
The murder referred to in this passage seems to have been
understood by the Evangelist to have been that of Abel, and
not of Adam and his posterity.
3. No reference to the fall is to be found either in the
Acts of the Apostles, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in those
¦of St. Peter, St. James, St. John, and St. Jude, in nine of
St. Paul's Epistles, nor even in the Revelation, except in its
identification of the old serpent with the devil ; for the war
in heaven mentioned in it, between Michael and his angels,
and the dragon and his angels, with the casting down of the
•dragon to the earth, evidently refers to a time long subse
quent to the creation of man. It will doubtless be urged by
those who hold the popular theories on this subject, that all
these writings presuppose it, though they do not directly refer
to it. To this I answer —
First. It is incredible, if they presuppose it as the founda
tion on which their teaching rests, that all direct, and even
indirect, reference to it should be entirely wanting.
Secondly. In investigating a subject hke the present, we
have nothing to do with presuppositions and assumptions,

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which really mean nothing more nor less than reading into
the sacred page, for the purpose of meeting the exigencies of
our own theories, what is not to be found therein. By this
practice it is easy to make Scripture say anything which the
commentator or the reader wishes.
4. The references to the third chapter of Genesis in the
remainder of St. Paul's Epistles are four in number, one of
which is in the Epistle to the Romans, one in the First and
one in the Second to the Corinthians, and one in the First
Epistle to Timothy. As it is necessary to ascertain how far
these passages bear out the current theories on this subject,
I must examine them in detail. I will begin with the least
important. I. " For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead ; for as in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. xv. 21, 22.)
The references in verses 41 — 48 to the condition in which
man was originally created, having no direct bearing on the
doctrine of the fall, I shall consider in a subsequent chapter.
It should be observed that the Revisers have inserted
in the margin, at the word "Christ," "the Christ," the
definite article being in the Greek, though it is omitted in the
Authorised, and in the text of the Revised, Version. It is
also inserted in the Greek before the word " Adam," thus
running a parallel of antithesis between the natural and the
spiritual head of mankind. The passage then simply affirms
that like as in the original head of the human race, all die,
so in the second head of the human race, all shall be made
alive. This utterance may be quoted in favour of the theory
of conditional immortality, or of universal salvation ; but it is
impossible to get out of it anything analogous to the popular
doctrine of the fall, and the consequences thence resulting.
On the contrary, it affirms that " the all " who die in the
Adam will be made alive in the Christ.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 145
II. " For I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled
Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from
the simplicity and the purity which is toward [Greek, the]
Christ." (2 Cor. xi. 3.)
This passage proves nothing either way. All that it affirms .
is, that a parallehsm exists between the two cases, and the
reference would have been equally to the point if the Apostle
had viewed the narrative in Genesis iii. as allegorical, in the
same manner as in the Epistle to the Galatians he has
allegorised the narrative of Hagar and Sarah.
III. "I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion
over a man, but to be in quietness. For Adam was first
formed, then Eve ; but the woman, being beguiled, hath
fallen into transgression : but she shall be saved through the
childbearing, if they continue in faith, and love, and sanctifi
cation with sobriety." (1 Tim. ii. 12 — 15.)
The first part of this passage is a reference to the second
narrative of the creation, as given in Genesis ii., which is now
almost universally admitted among commentators to have
been derived from a different source of information from that
contained in Genesis i. The second part is a reference to
Genesis iii. and to the fall of man as therein recorded. But
the Apostle refers to it only for the purpose of enforcing a
simple duty, and makes no attempt to erect upon it a system
of theology.IV. " Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the
world, and death through sin ; and so death passed unto all
men, for that all sinned — for until the law sin was in the
world ; but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Never
theless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them
that had not sinned after the hkeness of Adam's trans
gression, who is a figure of him that was to come. But not
as the trespass, so also is the free gift. For if by the
trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace
L

146 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
of God, and the gift of the grace of the one man Jesus Christ,
abound unto the many. And not as through one that sinned,
so is the gift ; for the judgment came of one unto condem
nation ; but the free gift came of many trespasses unto
justification [margin, an act of righteousness]. For if, by
the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one, much
more shall they that receive the abundance of grace, and of
the gift of righteousness, reign in life, through the one,
even Jesus Christ. So then as through one trespass, the
judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
through one act of righteousness, the free gift came unto all
men to justification of life. For as through the one man's
disobedience the many were made sinners, even so, through
the obedience of the one, shall the many be made righteous.
And the law came in beside, that the trespass might abound ;
but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly,
that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord." (Rom. v. 12—21.)
The improvements in the translation of this passage in the
Revised Version are very great, and free it from many of the
mistaken inferences which have been deduced from the
erroneous renderings of the Authorised, making it clear to the
English reader that " the many " in the one clause of the
Apostle's parallelisms are the same persons as " the many " of
the other, whereas the Authorised Version leaves it open to
the inference that two different sets of persons are referred
to. Thus "the many" who through the one man's diso
bedience were constituted sinners, are precisely the same
persons as " the many " who through the obedience of the
one man Jesus Christ were constituted righteous. Notwith
standing these improvements, however, the argument remains
sufficiently involved; but the Revised Version accurately repre
sents its involutions as they exist in the Greek. These are

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 147
so great that I think that this passage must have been one
of those which the author of the Second Epistle of St. Peter
found hard to understand in St. Paul's writings. These
¦obscurities — and they are numerous — must have been the
result of his training in the rabbinical schools in which
he had been educated, and of the imperfection of the modes
of reasoning which were adopted in them ; yet there have not
been wanting those who have ascribed them to the direct
dictation of the Divine Spirit. Surely it is inconceivable
that He can be the author of obscurities either in thought or
style. One thing should be constantly kept in view by the
student of Scripture. Truths which are revealed by God,
and truths which are deduced by processes of reasoning,
stand on entirely different foundations, the one resting on
a Divine testimony, and the other on the validity of the
argumentative processes by means of which they have been
deduced. Obscurities of statement or imperfections in logical
reasoning can only be the result of the mental constitution
of the writer.
If, however, we take the above-cited passage as a whole,
and avoid entering on its subordinate positions, its general
purpose is sufficiently clear, viz. that it was the writer's
intention to affirm that the evil which has resulted from
Adam's trangression has not only been repaired by the work
of Jesus Christ, but that the mischief which has been
occasioned by the one stands to the good effected by the
other in what is called a ratio of greater inequality, i.e. that
the work of Jesus Christ has wrought far more good than
the transgression of Adam has wrought evil. As this subject
is one of great importance, I will briefly set before the reader
the most important positions of the Apostle.
1. "Through one man sin entered into the world, and
death through sin ; and thus death passed unto all men,
for that all sinned." The words l<f> w iravres vjfxaprov,
l2

148 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
here rendered "for that all sinned," are of very doubtful
import. 2. Although sin can only be imputed where there is a
known law — i.e., the idea of sin implies the violation of a
positive commandment — yet, as a matter of fact, the reign of
death has been universal, even over those who have not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, i.e., who have
not been violators of a known law : infants, for example, who
are incapable of such violation.
3. Adam, as the natural head of the human race, is the
figure of Christ as its spiritual head.
4. As through Adam's transgression " the many " (i.e. the
" all men " of the preceding clause) died, much more does
the gift of grace in Jesus Christ abound unto these same many,
(i.e. all men), by bestowing on them abundance of life.
5. As by Adam's one trespass judgment came upon all
men unto condemnation, so by Christ's one act of righteous
ness the free gift came of many offences unto justification.
6. As through the one man's disobedience the many (i.e.
all men) were made or constituted sinners, so through the
obedience of the one (i.e. Christ) the many (i.e. all men)
shall be constituted righteous.
7. Where sin has abounded grace has much more
abounded. 8. As sin has reigned unto death, even so grace shall reign
through righteousness (i.e. Christ's righteousness) unto
eternal life.
Such are the Apostle's affirmations in this remarkable and
very difficult passage. One thing respecting them is evident.
They bear a far closer resemblance to the theory designated
universalism than to the popularly accepted doctrine respect
ing the consequences of the fall.
What, then, is the conclusion which the above facts
justify ? I answer that the affirmation that Christianity is
based on what is commonly designated " the doctrine of the

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 149
fall " is destitute of all support in those Scriptures which
constitute our only records of revelation. It requires to, be
read into them before it can be found therein.
Let us now return to the consideration of the narrative in
Genesis for the purpose of ascertaining what are its actual
affirmations, as distinct from the theories respecting it which
have been propounded by theologians for the purpose of
making it square with their respective systems. Respecting
it there are two theories.
I. That it is a narrative of actual occurrences. This
theory is the commonly accepted one.
II. That it is an allegory. This theory has been held by
no small number of eminent writers and thinkers of the past
and of the present, among whom are the Bishop of London *
and the late Archbishop of Canterbury.!
Before entering on the consideration of the narrative in
question, I must remind the reader that it has a most im
portant bearing on our present subject, because the theory
known by the name of " conditional immortality," or " hfe in
Christ," is in no small degree based on the assumption that
man was created mortal, but capable of immortality by
eating of the fruit of the tree of life ; that the death
threatened to Adam as the penalty of eating of the fruit of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was extinction
of being on the day of his transgression, which, if it had
been strictly executed, would have involved the non-existence
of the human race ; and that the extension of his life after
his transgression, and the existence of the human race,
which was contingent on it, formed part of the dispensation
of mercy, which culminated in the Incarnation. J
* Bampton Lectures, p. 184.
t Lecture delivered at Edinburgh.
t On this point Mr. "White's able work, entitled " Life in Christ," contains
the following singular piece of reasoning. " It follows from this leading prin
ciple that the execution of the original curse denounced against the first man did
not take effect on the day of his sin, that it was in fact postponed for a
thousand years in his own person, and that this postponement, which gave

150 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
What, then, does the narrative in Genesis positively affirm
respecting the condition in which man was originally created,
the fall, and the consequences which have resulted from it ?
The first chapter, after giving an account of the creation of
the different animal races, describes that of man as follows : —
space for the propagation of a race descended from him, though in the image of
his own mortality, was the result of the action of redeeming mercy. Had the
sentence of law taken immediate effect, in the deepest of all senses in Adam
we all had died. The existence of our race then is a boon beyond the limits'of
law. "We are born, it is true, to a short and evil life : exiles from paradise, we
are born into a world smitten with a curse, which cankers half its blessings ;
born in the image of a fallen progenitor, by nature ' children of the indig
nation ; ' born under the sentence of dissolution, and in the valley of the shadow
of death, where mortality, not penal but natural, has reigned for countless ages
over the races that inhabit it — yet assuredly this is an existence far better than
none, considered even in relation to the blessings of time, inasmuch as all that
a man hath will he give for his life ; but when we consider that the gates of
eternal glory open out of this mortal world for repenting sinners, and that by
a wise numbering of our days during the period of trial we may obtain immor
tality, this brief grant of life to the myriads of the earth's population assumes
the aspect of a benevolence of which the true dimensions pass knowledge." —
P. 118, 119.
It is singular that so acute a reasoner as Mr. White should not have seen the un-
tenableness of several of the above positions. Surely it may be urged with no
small appearance of reason that if the threatening denounced against Adam and
Eve had been executed on the day of their transgression, it would have been a
greater act of benevolence than to have brought mankind into existence under the
conditions enumerated by Mr. "White. But he observes, in proof of his position,
"if the threatening had been strictly executed, the human race would never have
been born ; yet surely this is an existence better than none, even in relation to
the blessings of time.' ' Could not the Creator, I ask, have created another Adam
and Eve, to bring mankind into existence under more favourable conditions ?
But the position, " Surely this existence is better than none, even in relation to
the blessings of time, " is of a most questionable character, for such are the terrible
sufferings of many that there can be no doubt that if they were convinced that
there was no hereafter they would esteem a speedy euthanasia the greatest of
blessings. Buddhism is certainly founded on the assumption that our separate
conscious existence is far from being a blessing, and its adherents, as Mr. "White
has observed, include only a little less than one- third of the entire human family.
The reference to Satan's observation in the Book of Job, " All that a man hath
he will give for his life," is singularly inapt ; for even if it be true, it by no means
follows that he will consider existence in a continuous state of suffering a bless
ing ; but as applied here, the words can only mean that the non-existent, if the
proposal were made to them, rather than continue non-existent would prefer to
endure the greatest amount of suffering which falls to the lot of man. It is true
that Milton's Belial is made to affirm that existence, even in the flames of hell,
is better than non-existence ; but in this opinion few will agree with him.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 151
" And God created man in his own image. In the image of
God created he him ; male and female created he them, and
God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over every living thing that moveth on the earth."
— Gen. i. 27 — 29.
All the information, therefore, which this first narrative of
Creation gives us respecting the condition in which man was
originally created is that he was created in the image of
God. Although it gives us no information of what the image
of God consisted in, yet it is evidently intended to denote
that in man which distinguishes him from the animal
races. We may therefore safely infer that it consisted in
a moral nature, which the animal races are either wholly
destitute of, or possess only in the merest embryo ; and
those intellectual powers which distinguish him from them.
But how far these were developed in Adam, as he was origin
ally created, the narrative says nothing, nor does it furnish
any data on which to arrive at any certain conclusion. On
the question whether he was created mortal or immortal it is
silent, though it would seem not to be an unfair conclusion
that a being created in the image of God was not destined to
perish with the dissolution of his bodily framework.
But the second narrative of Creation enters into more
minute particulars. It tells us that —
" The Lord God formed man of the dust of the earth, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became
a living soul.",
Then, after describing the planting of the Garden of Eden,
and the placing in it of two trees, one designated the tree of
life, and the other the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, it adds —
" And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the

152 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God
commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat ; but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die."
On this follows the account of the creation of woman, in
order that she might be a helpmeet for man ; and of her
temptation by the serpent to disobey the Divine command
not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, under the promise that by eating it she and her
husband would become as God, to know good and evil. To
this temptation the woman yields, and on her tempting her
husband to do the same, he yields likewise. The effects
produced by eating of the tree of knowledge are thus de
scribed : —
" The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that
they were naked, and they sewed fig-leaves together, and
made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and
the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of
the Lord God among the trees of the garden. And the
Lord God called unto the man, and said, Where art thou ?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was
afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself."
The narrative then informs us that the man laid the blame
of his yielding to the temptation on the woman whom God
had given him for a companion, and the woman on the
serpent. On this follows the judgment pronounced on the
serpent for tempting the woman to disobey the Divine com
mand. " Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all
cattle, and above every beast of the field ; upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life ; and I will put enmity between thee and the woman,

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 153
and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise [margin,
lie in wait for] thy head, and thou shalt bruise [lie in wait
for] his heel."
The sentence on the woman is as follows : —
"I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception:
in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desire
shall be to thine husband ; and he shall rule over thee."
And upon the man —
" Because thou hast harkened to the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat of it ; cursed is the ground for thy sake :
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy hfe. Thorns
also, and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee, and thou
shalt eat the herb of the field ; in the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, until thou return unto the ground ; for out of
it wast thou taken : for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return."
On this follows the account of the expulsion from the
garden, and the guarding of access to it, by the placing
to the east of the garden cherubim, and the flame of a
sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree
of life, " lest," in the words of the narrative, " the man
should put forth his hand, and take also of it, and live for
ever." Such, then, without additions, is the simple narrative as
it is contained in Genesis. I need hardly say that upon it, as
a foundation, whole mountains of theories have been erected
and read into it, as though they were so many Scriptural
truths ; and thus it has been made the basis of a number of
very complicated systems of theology. This being so, let us
now consider what it affirms, leaves unsaid, or denies, first
asking the reader to keep in mind the all-important fact that,
inasmuch as the narrative of the fall is not once definitely re
ferred to in any Scripture which has been received into the

154 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
canon from the date of the compilation of Genesis until
St. Paul wrote his First Epistle to the. Corinthians about
a.d. 57 — and then only by way of illustration, and not as
affording a basis for a system of theology — the Church had
nothing to rely upon in the way of an authoritative state
ment respecting the fall and its consequences, but the natural
meaning of the narrative itself, during this long period of
time. Putting aside, therefore, all theories and conjectures
and poetic imaginations — these last have been very nume
rous — and looking only at its simple statements, I observe —
1. Portions of the narrative so far favour the theory of
conditional immortality, that the words used seem to imply
that man was created mortal, but capable of attaining im
mortality by eating of the fruit of the tree of life.
2. It is impossible to arrive at any certain conclusion
respecting the intellectual, moral, and spiritual condition ip
which man was orignally created from the words, " The Lord
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life ;. and man became a living
soul." The words imply, but yet do not affirm, that man's
body was formed out of those elementary pia&ciples of matter
of which science teaches us that it is actually composed, and
that it was vivified by breathing into his nostrils the breath
of life, which last act made him become " a living soul." By
these words the writer apparently meant to be understood
not only that principle of life which is common to man and
the animal, and perhaps the vegetable worlds, but all those
phenomena of mind which are common to animals and man,
and those which are the peculiar characteristics of man alone.
But the words are far too indefinite to enable us to lay down
a theory respecting the nature of the intellectual and moral
powers with which, prior to all education and experience, he
was originally endowed.
3. It is impossible to determine with certainty what mean-

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 155
ing the threatening, "In the day thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die," conveyed to Adam. At the time in ques
tion Adam's experience of death must have been confined to
that of the animal races ; though, taking the narrative as it
stands, it is doubtful whether he had witnessed even the death
of any of them. But assuming that he had, its phenomena
would have suggested that the thing threatened was extinc
tion of being. Theologians, however, have been wise above
what is written, and have assigned to it three different
meanings, according to their respective theories, viz. bodily
death, spiritual death, and eternal death — eternal death
being popularly understood to mean a never-ending exist
ence in torment, and spiritual death the destruction of
every holy feeling towards God, and a nature tainted with
moral corruption, and that it was spiritual death alone which,
according to the threatening, was to take place, and which
actually took place on the day of his transgression. Of these
last two meanings the words in question contain no hint.
Consequently, if it was intended that they should be so
understood by Adam, he must have been informed that such
was their intended meaning by a special revelation, respecting
which the narrative knows nothing and the entire Old Testa
ment contains not a single hint.
4. It is evident from the narrative that Adam and Eve
transgressed the Divine command under the influence of a
very slight temptation. From this the inference follows that
their moral character must have possessed that immaturity
and weakness which all character has before it has been
confirmed and strengthened by the discipline of life.
Against this, its obvious meaning, it has been objected,
that because it affirms that God saw everything which
he had made, and behold it was very good, man must
have been created in a very elevated condition both intel
lectually and morally. But this by no means follows, for the

156 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
words " good " and '' very good " do not necessarily denote
some abstract idea of goodness or perfection, but that the
work was very good in relation to the Divine purpose in
creation. The affirmation, " And God saw that it was good,"
is applied to His other creative works ; but the words by no
means affirm that each of them, taken separately, satisfies
the abstract idea of perfection; only that they were good,
each in their proper place, in the Divine plan of creation.
Thus it is impossible to affirm that the innumerable animal
races which devour one another are absolutely good in them
selves; yet they may be good in the position which they occupy
in a far-reaching creative plan which has not yet received its
oomplete realisation. Theorisers of former times have endea
voured to evade this difficulty by assuming that the devouring
character of the animal races has been one of the results of
the fall of man ; but this has been utterly disproved by the
•discoveries of science, it being an admitted fact that various
animal races have hved by the mutual destruction of one
another, and that death reigned among them long prior to the
appearance of man on the globe. According to the author of
the Epistle to the Hebrews, experience, trial, and struggling
with temptation, of which Adam and Eve, as they were
originally created, could have known nothing, are essential to
the perfection of human nature. Thus he writes : —
" Though he were a son, yet he learned obedience by the
things which he suffered ; and being made perfect, he became
to all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation."
<Heb. v. 8, 9).
And— " It became him, for whom are all things and through
whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to
make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering.
For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able
to succour them that are tempted." (Heb. ii. 10, 18).

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 157
5. All that the narrative affirms respecting the effects
which were produced on Adam and Eve by eating of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil is, that the eyes of them
both were opened ; that they knew that they were naked,
while their nakedness had previously caused in them no
feeling of shame ; and that when they heard the voice of
God they endeavoured to hide themselves from His presence
among the trees of the garden. To this is subsequently added
the following change of condition, denoted by the words : —
" Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good
and evil."
Respecting the meaning intended to be conveyed by these
words, numerous theories have been propounded. It has
even been supposed that this knowledge of good and evil,
which made man like God, was an evolution in an upward
rather than a fall in a downward direction ; others have
suggested that it is a bitter taunt ; but what, in the silence
of the narrative and of all Scripture, was the thing intended,
we have no means of determining.
6. It is entirely silent respecting the results which popular
and even systematic theology have attributed to the fall, viz.
the utter corruption of man's moral and spiritual nature, and
the transmission of that corruption from Adam to all his
descendants. 7. Equally silent is it respecting a covenant made between
God and Adam, on the assumption of which such important
theories have been erected by certain schools of theologians.
Respecting such a covenant the narrative in Genesis gives no
hint, and the other Scriptures are equally silent.
8. In like manner, it knows nothing respecting the
agency of the devil in the temptation, but on the contrary
this is from one end of it to the other attributed to a serpent.
It even gives the reason which enabled a serpent to act so
strange a part, i.e. that " it was more subtile than any beast

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of the field, which the Lord God had made." Moreover, the
curse which was pronounced on the tempter is only con
sistent with the idea that the author of the temptation was a
serpent. "Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou
above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days
of thy life." While these words are applicable to a serpent,
they are utterly inapplicable to the devil, of whose concern
in the temptation the narrative gives not a hint.
9. The narrative contains not one word implying that the
original threatening of death which was denounced against
Adam on the day of his transgression was carried into execu
tion, but much which implies that it was respited. Thus the
sentence pronounced on him is a hfe of toil to enable him to
wrest the means of subsistence out of an unfriendly soil, and
finally that he should return to the ground out of which he
had been taken ; and that pronounced on Eve is, that her
sorrow and her conception should be multiphed, and that her
husband should rule over her.
Such, and no more, is the information which the narrative
in Genesis furnishes respecting the fall and its consequences.
Let it be observed that this is all the information which the
records of revelation give respecting it, until more than half a
century after the birth of Jesus Christ, and that even then
the allusions to it are not direct but of a very incidental
character ; and, even including every expression which may be
supposed to be a remote reference to it, while the Old Testa
ment is almost, if not entirely, silent with respect to it, those
contained in the entire New Testament do not exceed eight
in number, and the most important of them simply affirms
that an analogy exists between the evil which has resulted
to man from Adam's transgression and the good which has
been effected by the work of Jesus Christ, the latter standing
to the former in a ratio of greater inequality, a result which

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 159
differs widely from the theories of popular theology respect
ing it.
That man is born with innate -tendencies to evil and in a
great majority of cases into surroundings suited to d velop
them, is an unquestionable fact, and one which is recognised
by several writers of the Old Testament and by every writer
of the New ; but respecting the mode in which these tenden
cies to evil have originated, and the law which regulates the
surroundings into which a man is born, both reason and
revelation are ahke silent. The facts, therefore, we must
accept, although we can give no account of their origin. In
reality the commonly accepted theories respecting the fall
and its consequences afford no explanation of the difficulty
for the solution of which they have been propounded, but
only remove it one step out of our view ; for if they are
accepted as an explanation of the origin of the evil which
exists in man, the question opens before us in all its myste
rious unanswerableness, How came things to be conditioned
so that the corruption introduced into the nature of one man
by his own act should be transmitted to his remote descen
dants ? and how has it come to pass that the devil, if created
good, has become the incarnation of everything which is evil ?
To questions such as these neither reason nor revelation is
capable of giving an answer.
The above observations have been made on the assumption
that the third chapter of Genesis is a narrative of actual
occurrences, for the purpose of setting before the reader a
statement of what it actually affirms, as distinct from what has
been read into it to enable it to form a support to the
theories of systematic and popular theology. The difficulties
involved in it, however, if it is viewed as a narrative of
historical facts, are so great that they have induced no small
number of theologians in all ages of the Church to arrive at
the conclusion that it is an allegory adapted to a childlike

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condition of the human mind, and even to compel those
who are firm behevers in its historical character to assign to
different portions of the narrative an allegorical meaning.
The reasons which have led to this conclusion may be briefly
stated as follows —
1. The fact that throughout the entire narrative the
tempter is most definitely affirmed to have been a serpent,
and that it contains not a single hint that any other than a
serpent was concerned in the temptation.
2. The reason given why the serpent was able to act as
tempter, viz. that " he was more subtile than any beast of
the field," proves that the author of the narrative considered
an actual serpent to have been the tempter, and that it was
his subtlety which enabled him to effect the temptation.
Now, although the ancients attributed extreme subtlety to
the serpent, the investigations of modern science have proved
that there are a large number of animals possessing far
more of those qualities which may be designated subtlety
than he.
3. The fact that the serpent is represented as speaking
with a human voice, and even as capable of reasoning with
the woman, is urged as a strong reason for believing that the
narrative was not intended to be an account of actual occur
rences. It has been urged by those who hold it to be
historical, that this ought to have led Eve to infer that it
was some evil being who was using the serpent as his instru
ment, and who was the real author of the temptation. What
she knew respecting the existence of evil spirits, or their power
of using animals for their evil purposes, we know not ; but
the excuse which she offers, for having yielded to the tempta
tion, " The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat," proves that
she drew no such inference ; and whether she ought to have
done so, in her ignorance of good and evil, we have no means
of judging,

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 161
4. Part of the sentence passed on the serpent implies that
it was capable of moving in a position more or less erect. If
this is not the thing intended, the words of the curse
denounced upon it, " On thy belly shalt thou go all the days
of thy life," if the serpent had been in the habit of moving
like other serpents, would have had no meaning. But a change
from an erect, or a semi-erect motion, to one on the whole
length of the body, would have involved a complete change
in the anatomical structure of the animal. Yet when we
examine the marvellous adaptations of the serpent's spine
and the apparatus by means of which its easy movement on
the ground is accomplished, we can feel nothing but admira
tion at the wonderful adjustments by means of which these
results are effected, which all point not to the effects of a
curse but to benevolent purpose on the part of the Almighty
Creator. 5. The second clause of the curse, "Dust shalt thou eat
all the days of thy hfe," has been urged as leading to a
similar conclusion. It seems to have been the general
opinion of the ancients that the serpent was capable of
feeding on dust. Thus we read in Isaiah, " And dust shall
be the serpent's meat." But we now know for certain that
although, in consequence of its motion on the ground,
a larger quantity of dust may enter into the serpent's
mouth than into those of other animals, it is incapable of
feeding on it. The idea that it does so is founded on an
error. 6. A similar result follows from the concluding portion of
the curse, which is as follows —
" I will put enmity between thee and the woman ; and
between thy seed and her- seed. It shall bruise (or, as the
marginal rendering of the Revised Version has it, It shall lie
in wait for) thy head, and thou shalt bruise (or, lie in wait
for) his heel." M

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It is urged that the words, " I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,"
although applicable to a literal serpent, are wholly inapplic
able to the devil, for the seed spoken of obviously means the
natural descendants of each ; yet it is impossible that the
devil can be said to have descendants. It is true that
" children of the devil " are spoken of in the New Testament,
but these are not his natural offspring but evil men having
his moral likeness. If on the other hand it be urged, as it
has been argued, that by the seed of the woman was meant
Christ, and by the seed of the serpent those bearing the
moral image of the devil, the threat of putting enmity
between them would have been superfluous, for, as the
Apostle observes, " There is no concord between Christ and
Belial." Besides, it is incredible that the word " seed "
should be used in two such widely different senses in the
same line.
But further, the words, " It shall bruise (or lie in wait for)
thy head, and thou shalt bruise (or lie in wait for) his heel,"
are a natural mode of speaking of the relations which exist
between man and the serpent race ; yet if, as it has been
often contended, this bruising or lying in wait for the ser
pent's head is a prophecy of the victory which Christ has
obtained over the devil through his temptation, death, and
resurrection, and the bruising or lying in wait for the seed of
the woman denotes Christ's sufferings and death brought
about by the devil's instigation, then it must be confessed
that this prophecy was one the meaning of which no one
could have guessed until he was authoritatively informed that
such was the thing intended. The enmity of man to the
serpent race is no doubt great, owing to the danger of acci
dentally trampling on and being bitten by it ; but there is
no evidence that the serpent is more hostile to man than it
is to any animal on which it is capable of feeding.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 163
7. Assuming the obvious meaning of the narrative to
be its intended meaning, viz. that the tempter was a serpent
capable of reasoning and speaking with human voice, it is
impossible to conceive what could have induced such a being
to tempt Eve to disobey the command of her Creator. Neither
his subtlety nor any endowment which he could have re
ceived from God will account for his forming so evil a
design. The narrative, however, represents him as acting
with the deliberate purpose of seducing Eve. This being so,
it presupposes that he had previously become animated with
hostile feelings towards God and man. Consequently sin
must have entered into the world anterior to the fall. It is
therefore not without apparent reason argued that all this
has the appearance of allegory or parable rather than a
narrative of historic facts.
8. It is also urged that if, according to the generally ac
cepted theory, the tempter was either the devil or an irrational
serpent of whom he had taken possession and used as his
blind instrument, we encounter in the sentence pronounced
on the serpent a moral difficulty which is all but insuperable.
The words, " On thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou
eat all the days of thy life," as has been observed above, are
utterly inapplicable to the devil, who, according to St. Peter's
metaphorical language, " walks about like a roaring hon, seek
ing whom he may devour," and can only apply' to a real ser
pent. This being so, it follows, if the narrative is intended to
be an account of actual occurrences, that judgment was not pro
nounced on the real criminal, but on a brute of which he had
either assumed the likeness or which he had used as the pas
sive instrument of his crime. But to represent the righteous
judge of all the earth as punishing an irrational animal and its
descendants for an act in which it was a mere passive instru
ment in the hands of another, is inconsistent with the Divine
character as it is affirmed ahke by reason and revelation.

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Milton, apparently for the purpose of evading this moral
difficulty, represents the serpent as incapable of laying the
blame on the real perpetrator of the crime, but this rather
increases the difficulty than removes it. Did the Omniscient
require to be informed what were the real facts ?
9. The condition of man in the primeval paradise is de
scribed as follows : — " The Lord God planted a garden east
ward in Eden, and out of the ground the Lord God made to
grow every tree which is pleasant to the sight and good for
food ; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river
went out of Eden to water the garden," &c. " And the Lord
God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to
dress it and to keep it."
According to this portion of the narrative the life of man,
if he had abstained from eating of the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, would have been that of a culti
vator of a well-watered garden, which brought forth ah the
necessaries of life in rich abundance, and abounded with trees
pleasing to the eye. Such a hfe, however it may be suited to
a condition of childlike innocence, is one which is ill fitted to
develop the higher powers of man. This is proved by the
condition of mankind in all those countries of the world
where the necessaries of life can be obtained with httle or
no exertion. In regions apparently less favoured, which
render toil and energetic effort necessary, we find the noblest
forms of human character. Even if we assume that Adam was
created with the higher faculties only in embryo, yet capable
of development, the condition of things in which, according
to the narrative, he was originally placed was one iU suited
to develop them. In fact, it does not even imply that any
provision was made for that purpose. This has induced
some to propound the theory that that portion of the sen
tence which condemned Adam to a life of toil was a blessing

THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL. 165
rather than a curse, and consequently that what has been
designated the fall was an evolution in an upward rather than
a degradation in a downward direction. It is, therefore,
argued that this account of the change in the original con
dition of primeval man presents far more the appearance of
parable or allegory than an historic narrative. Further, it is
urged that the failure of the attempt to find the river which
went out of Eden to water the garden, and " which from
thence was parted and became four heads," notwithstanding
the minuteness with which it is described, points to a similar
conclusion. I have thus endeavoured to set before the reader an im
partial statement of the facts as we read them in the Book
of Genesis, and of the references to them in the subsequent
portions of the Bible, divested of all theories and conjectures
respecting what they have been made to mean to make
them square with various systems of systematic and popular
theology. I have, therefore, taken the narrative simply as it
stands, and as it must have been understood during long
ages in the Church, in the absence of any authority in any
canonical book assigning to it any other meaning than its
natural one, it being, in fact, the only source of information
which the Old Testament supplies. But inasmuch as the
narrative, if it is received as a statement of actual occur
rences, abounds with difficulties of no ordinary character, I
have thought it right to set before the reader a brief sum
mary of the reasons which have induced numerous eminent
theologians to arrive at the conclusion that the account of
the fall as given in the third chapter of Genesis is allegorical,
and not intended to be a history of actual occurrences.
Which of these views is the correct one the reader must
now judge for himself. It only remains for me to observe,
whichever of them he adopts, that the various widespread
popular theories respecting the condition in which man was

166

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originally created, the nature of his subsequent fall, and the
consequences which have resulted from it, must be first read
into the narrative before they can be found therein, and that
it is impossible on anything which it contains to erect a
theory respecting the final destinies of mankind or the
nature of the life which awaits them beyond the grave.

CHAPTER VIII.
The General Positions op the New Testament respecting a Future
State.
In this chapter I propose to consider the general affirmations
of the New Testament respecting a future state, apart from
its special teaching respecting retribution. This last subject
will be considered in subsequent chapters.
The most careless reader cannot help being struck by the
contrast between the Old and the New Testaments in their
teaching respecting the survival of our conscious personality
and its condition after death, and especiahy by the absence of
any reference to it in the former as an incentive to holiness
and a deterrent from sin, and the habitual use made of it in
the latter for that purpose.* In the one this world is viewed
as the region of life and joy, and Hades and death as that of
darkness and of gloom. All this in the other is reversed :
death loses its terrors ; Hades has ceased to be the land of
darkness ; and to those who die in the faith of Christ, to be
absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. In
* I use the words " survival of our conscious personality " for the purpose of
keeping clear of various metaphysical and ontological difficulties with which this
subject has been needlessly perplexed. To us the practical and all-important
question is, Shall we ourselves survive the stroke of death with a consciousness
that we are the same beings that we have known ourselves to have been during
life ; and will our conduct here exert any influence on our condition in the un
seen world ? Disquisitions about the soul may be interesting as affording sub
jects for intellectual discussion ; but the one great question — the only question
to us of practical importance — is, Shall I, in my conscious personality, survive the
diesolution of my body, and will my conduct here affect my condition here
after?

168 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
the Old Testament its promises and threatenings are
sanctioned by considerations derived from the present life
alone ; in the New, they are sanctioned almost exclusively
from considerations derived from the life to come. In the
Old Testament, continued prosperity is promised as the
reward of obedience, and adversity, destruction, and a dis
honoured burial are threatened as the result of disobedience
and of sin ; and its most fervent preachers of righteousness,
whatever may have been their individual hopes or fears,
never enforce their exhortations by considerations drawn
from an existence after death. In the New Testament this
aspect of things is completely changed. All our hopes and
fears are concentrated on the future. Not one word is said of
actual prosperity in this life as the reward of obedience. On
the contrary, our Lord again and again warns his disciples,
that the result of following him, as far as this world is con
cerned, would be self-denial, suffering, and, not infrequently,
persecution and death, in return for which they would
receive full compensation in the age to come. St. Paul says
expressly, and doubtless as the result of a most trying
experience, " If in this life only we have hope towards Christ,
we are of all men most miserable." Yet he was sustained by
the consideration that though " his outward man was decaying,
his inward man was being renewed day by day ; and that his
light affliction, which was but for a moment, was working
for him more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of
glory." If in the New Testament the comforts of rehgion are
referred to, they are uniformly described as flowing from
internal sources and not from external prosperity, of which it
contains no promise. On the contrary, our Lord again and
again warned his followers against the expectation of it as the
result of their adhesion to him, in language similar to the
following : —
" He that loveth his life, loses it ; and he that hateth his
life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal."

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING. 169
So numerous are the affirmations in the New Testament of
the survival of the conscious personality after death, that it
would be superfluous to quote particular passages in proof of it.
I say, " survival of the personality," for this is involved in
the idea of a resurrection ; because if our personality perished
at death, a resurrection would not be a restoration of the
former personality, but the creation of a new and irrespon
sible one. It sets forth this truth under two aspects.
1st. That our conscious personality will survive the death
of our bodies.
2nd. That at some period of the future it will once more
manifest itself in some form of bodily, i.e. material organi
sation. It is to the last of these that its references are by far the
most numerous. It is uniformly connected with the realisa
tion of the idea of the perfected kingdom of God, and as the
embodiment of the Christian's highest hopes and aspirations.
But with respect to the first, its affirmations, though few, are
distinct and clear. The following are the most important : —
1. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
While there can be no doubt that no small portion of the
imagery of this parable is taken from the then current
popular ideas respecting the nature of the underworld and
the condition of the departed in Hades, which is represented
as consisting of two regions, separated from one another by
a deep gulf, but within sight and hearing of one another, in
one of which the righteous are represented as reposing at a
feast, and in the other the wicked as tormented in flames ;
yet after making all allowance for the imagery in which the
parable is clothed, it is impossible to understand it otherwise
than as intended definitely to affirm that the righteous and
the wicked exist in Hades in their conscious personalities,
capable of reasoning about the present, and possessing a lively
recollection of the past ; and that man's personality, when

170 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
separate from the body, is capable of activities which, as we
are at present constituted, are only capable of being exercised
through the aid of our present bodily organism. Further
than this the parable does not go. The silence of the New
Testament respecting the secrets of the unseen world is else
where unbroken throughout its pages. It is therefore incre
dible that its awful realities should have been intended to be
revealed through the imagery of a parable. But while this is
so, it is impossible to assign any meaning to it, except on the
assumption that the conscious personality after death passes
into Hades, and is there held responsible for its conduct
here. 2. Our Lord's answer to the penitent robber.
" Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom ;
and he said unto him, verily I say unto thee, To- day shalt
thou be with me in paradise." (Luke xxiii. 42, 43.)
This passage affords a striking illustration of the absur
dities of interpretation to which men will have recourse
when they have a particular theory to maintain. Those who
hold that man's conscious existence ceases at death, and that
it will not be renewed until the resurrection, propose to read
our Lord's words as follows : " Verily I say unto thee to-day,
thou shalt be with me in paradise." This strange device
has been adopted for the purpose of escaping the inference
which common sense suggests, that the affirmation was a
promise that the penitent robber should on that very day be
with our Lord in paradise, the theory in question requiring
that his personal consciousness should be extinct until the
resurrection. We have no means of ascertaining with certainty what
were the precise ideas which were entertained by the penitent
robber respecting the condition of man after death when he
prayed to Jesus to be remembered when He% came in His
kingdom. Being not a vulgar thief, as the Authorised

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING. 171
Version represents him to have been, but one of those bandits
who abounded at the time and afterwards, who rose in
insurrection against the Roman government, and who, pro
bably, like Barabbas, in doing so had committed murder, he
was doubtless strongly animated with the Messianic expecta
tions of his countrymen. This being so, the ideas of a bandit
respecting the unseen would be naturally those then current,
and our Lord's reply, if it was to be intelligible to him,
would be accommodated to those with which alone he was
acquainted. According to them, paradise was that upper region of
Hades, free from darkness and gloom, in which the Old
Testament saints reposed as at a feast, and where, they rested,
according to the imagery of the parable, in Abraham's
bosom.* The promise, therefore, Went beyond the prayer, it
being a promise not only to be remembered at our Lord's
coming in His kingdom, but to be received into this happy
region on that very day, immediately after death had released
him from his sufferings. It therefore amounts to a direct
affirmation of the survival of the conscious personality after
the death of the body.
3. The next reference to the condition of man after
death is the following passage in the Second Epistle to the
Corinthians : —
" For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle
[margin, ' bodily frame'] be dissolved, we have a building
from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens. For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed
upon with our habitation which is from heaven, if so be that
being clothed we shall not be found naked. For, indeed, we
that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not that
we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon,
* The reader will find a full account of the ideas which were entertained about
Paradise, and the origin of the word itself, in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible."'

172 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
that what is mortal might be swallowed up of life. Being
therefore always of good courage, and knowing that while we
are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord ; we
are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be
absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.
Wherefore we make it our aim, whether at home or absent,
to be well pleasing to him. For we must all be made mani
fest before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one may
receive the things done in [margin, ' through '] the body,
according to what he hath done, whether it be good or
bad." (2 Cor. v. 1—10.)
Although the precise meaning which the Apostle intended
to convey by the earlier portion of this paragraph is some
what doubtful, yet the general meaning of his utterance,
taken as a whole, is clear. In it he expresses the fullest
persuasion that when his bodily frame was dissolved by
death, he himself, i.e. his conscious personality, would be
present with the Lord ; and not only so, but that his presence
with Him would involve such a state of felicity that he was
willing to be absent from the body in order that he might be
present with the Lord. Such hopes and expectations
involve the belief that all those mental powers which consti
tuted his personality would continue to exist after death.
It is also equally plain that, contrary to every idea which
was entertained by ancient philosophers, he considered that
an embodied existence of some kind was preferable to a dis
embodied one. " Not," says he, " that we would be un
clothed, but clothed upon, that what is mortal might be
swallowed up of life." The point on Avhich his opening
words leave some doubt is, whether he expected to enter
"the house not made with hands" immediately after the
dissolution of his present bodily frame, or at some future
period, because he elsewhere connects that hope with the
coming of Christ.

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING. 173
4. The following is a further expression of St. Paul's
behef respecting his condition after death : —
" According to my earnest expectation and hope, that in
nothing I shall be put to shame ; but that with all boldness,
as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain. But if to live in the flesh — if this is the
fruit of my work, then what I shall choose I wot not [margin,
' I do not make known.'] For I am in a strait betwixt the
two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for it is
very far better ; yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for
your sake." (Phil. i. 20—24.)
This passage is a definite expression of the Apostle's belief
that the death of his body would occasion no break in his
conscious personal existence. Also that that existence after
death would be far preferable to his present earthly one,
compared with which " to die would be gain." These
affirmations, therefore, render it certain that the Apostle
firmly believed that he — not merely his spirit or his soul,
but the veritable Paul himself — as soon as he was divested
of his present bodily environment, would pass into a state of
conscious existence, in which he would be capable of enjoying
the presence of his Lord. Such a state of existence involves
the survival both of the rational powers and of the spiritual
and moral affections.
5. Similar also is the affirmation of St. Peter in the fol
lowing passage : —
"Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous
for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being
put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit ; in
which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison,
which aforetime were disobedient, when the long-suffering of
God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a pre
paring, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through
water." (1 Peter iii. 18—20.)

174 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
So also :—
" Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them
in the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you : who shall
give account to him who is ready to judge the quick and the
dead. For unto this end was the gospel " (margin, the good
tidings) "preached even to the dead, that they might be
judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to
God in the spirit." (1 Peter iv. 4 — 6.)
As this passage conflicts with numerous systems of theo
logy, various have been the attempts to fix on it a meaning
other than its natural one. Into the discussion of these I
shall enter in a subsequent chapter, when I consider whether
there is reason for believing that human probation will be
extended beyond the grave ; but for my present purpose I
shall assume that the reader who comes to its perusal un
fettered by systems, will arrive at the conclusion that, read
in its natural sense, it makes the following affirmations : —
1st. That Christ, after he expired on the cross, passed into
the underworld, and there preached to the antediluvians.
2nd. That he there announced good tidings even to the
dead. 3rd. That in St. Peter's opinion the conscious personality
survived in Hades in such a condition that those who had
passed into it were capable of understanding the good news
that our Lord announced, and that they were therefore in
possession of their inteUectual and moral consciousness.
6. The author of the Book of Revelation thus writes : —
" I saw under the altar the souls of them that had been
slain for the word of God, and for the testimony that they
held ; and they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O
Master, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our
blood on them that dwell on the earth. And there was
given unto them to each one a white robe ; and it was said
unto them that they should rest yet for a little while, until

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING. 175
their fellow servants also and their brethren, which should be
killed even as they were, should be fulfilled." (Rev. vi.
9—11.) This book is a book of symbols, and to this the passage
above cited evidently forms no exception, inasmuch as it
speaks of bestowing white robes on the souls (-^-ir^as) which
the seer in vision saw under the altar. Yet it is certain that
the imagery is founded on the assumption that after the
death of their bodies these souls retained their conscious per
sonality, in which they were capable of looking back on the
past and forward on the future, and addressing prayers, and
even remonstrances to Him whom they address as Master
(c"eo-7roT?7s, i.e. Lord in its highest sense). This passage also
is conclusive against the theory of those who affirm that in
the Greek of the New Testament the word ^-vxv (soul)
does not carry with it the idea of the conscious personality,
but only of that life which is extinguished at death. On the
language of the New Testament and its alleged psychology,
we shall have more to say hereafter.
Also —
" And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, Blessed
are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea,
saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, for
their works follow with them." (Rev. xiv. 13.)
This passage simply affirms that the dead who die in the
Lord are happy from the time specified and forward, in a
state of rest from their earthly labours. But happiness is
impossible without the possession of personal consciousness.
It adds that " their works follow them," i.e. that their works
wrought here follow them in the results which they will exert
en their condition of happy rest in the unseen world.
These six passages contain all the information which is
furnished by the New Testament respecting the condition of
man between death and the resurrection. This silence, to

176 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
whatever cause it may be owing, is most remarkable, for we all
eagerly desire to penetrate into the secrets of the unseen
world. Still, beyond the facts that we shall continue to exist
as personal beings, that our conduct here will affect our con
dition there, and that the saints will enjoy a bhssful rest
from their labours in the presence of Christ, with the one
single exception of 1 Peter iii, this silence is unbroken* Yet
this silence of the sacred writers could not have been owing
to the want of the means of getting information, for St.
John's Gospel not only narrates the resurrection of Lazarus
after he had been dead four days, but it informs us that at a
supper given to our Lord some weeks afterwards, at which
several guests were present, of whom the narrative imphes
that the Apostles were among the number, Lazarus was one
of those that sat at the table with Him. Did none of his
friends during this interval, or did none of the Apostles,
while they were sitting at the table with him, ask him about
his experiences in the unseen world ? It is incredible, but
that numerous questions must have been put to him respect
ing his condition when absent from the body. Similar oppor
tunities of attaining information on a subject so profoundly
interesting must have been possessed by those who conversed
with Dorcas, who, between her death and resurrection, must
have passed some days in Hades. Yet with the exception of
the above passages, respecting the secrets of the unseen
world the sacred writers are profoundly silent.
Nor is reason capable of throwing any additional light on
this subject. The cause of this is obvious, for we have no
data on which to reason. Thus while we know that we are
personal beings, we are ignorant as to what constitutes per-
* The contrast between the silence of the writers of the New Testament
respecting the unseen world, and the minuto descriptions given of it in the
Koran, is very striking. Writers of fiction would most assuredly have had
much to say respecting the condition of the departed.

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING. 177
sonality. We know that we are beings possessed of consci
ousness and free agency ; but what consciousness and free
agency are in themselves we know nothing. We know that
there is a most intimate connection between our conscious
personality and our bodily organism, and that they mutually
act and re-act on one another ; but how the former exists
when separated from the latter, whether it is capable of hold
ing any communication with the universe outside ourselves ;
how the motions of the one are translated into the sensations
and thoughts of the other ; or what a being who is capable of
consciousness and thought is in itself, as distinguished from
one which is incapable of either, no effort of our mental
powers is able to discover. This being so, in the silence
alike of reason and revelation, every theory which has been
propounded on this subject rests on no certain or trustworthy
foundation. Nor does the supposed psychology of the New
Testament furnish us with any data through which, by any
exertion of our reasoning powers, we can penetrate into the
secrets of the unseen world.
We now come to the most striking position of the New
Testament on this subject, viz. its promise of a bodily resur
rection as the consummation of the highest hopes and aspira
tions of man. I understand this promise to mean that a
time is coming in the future when the human personality,
which has been separated by death from that bodily frame
work through which alone during its existence here its
activities were capable of being manifested, will receive a
material organism of a different order and character, which
in the case of the holy will be fitted for the exercise of the
higher, i.e. the rational, spiritual, and moral activities of man,
and in which the lower or animal propensities will become
extinct. With respect to the wicked, although it affirms
their resurrection, it is silent as to the nature of their
bodily environment. The striking fact is that it is to a
N

178 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
resurrection and to a judgment following it, as distinct from
a condition of happiness or misery of the personality in the
underworld, that the hopes of saints and the fears of sinners
are uniformly directed by the writers of the New Testament.
Of its numerous utterances on this subject, I quote the
following as examples : —
" Marvel not at this ; for the hour cometh, in which all
that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come
forth ; they that have done good unto the resurrection of
life, and they that have done ill unto the resurrection of
judgment." (John v. 28, 29.)
" For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father,
with his angels, and then shall he render to every man
according to his deeds." (Matt. xvi. 27.)
" For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning
them that fall asleep, that ye sorrow not even as the rest that
have no hope. For if we beheve that Jesus died and rose
again, even so them that are fallen asleep in Jesus shall God
bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of
the Lord, that we that are alive, and are left unto the coming
of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, ,
with the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God ; and
the dead in Christ shall rise first ; then we that are ahve
and are left shall together with them be caught up in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be
with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these
words." (1 Thess. iv. 13—18.)
" For our citizenship is in heaven ; from whence also we
wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : who shall fashion
anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed
to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby
he is able even to subject all things unto himself." (Phil. iii.
20, 21.)

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING. 179
And still later, shortly before the Apostle's death —
" I have fought a good fight ; I have finished the course ;
I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me
the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, shall give me in that day, and not to me only, but
also to all them that love his appearing." (2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.)
It was to the resurrection, then, that the Apostle's hopes
were directed as being the consummation of his highest aspira
tions, even when in the immediate prospect of death, although,
as we have seen, he was firmly persuaded that immediately
after death he would pass from his earthly tabernacle into
the presence of his Lord.
Such is the position which the resurrection holds in the
New Testament in relation to a future state. In thus resting
the realisation of the highest aspirations of man on the
promise of a resurrection instead of on the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul, or even on its survival after the death
of the body, the writers ran counter to the entire course of
ancient philosophic thought. Oriental philosophy, and the
various systems connected with it, viewed the cessation of
personal existence and absorption into the to -rrav — i.e. the
sum total of all things, which was the only deity recognised
by Pantheism — as the highest object of human desire. It
therefore viewed the separate existence of the soul and its
union with a material organism — for according to its prin
ciples matter was the source whence all evil sprang — as a
dire misfortune ; and it enforced on its disciples, as the highest
duty which they owed to themselves, a most determined effort
to release themselves from its thraldom. This some tried to
bring about by abstraction and lofty contemplation, and
others by torturing the body ; but both sought to effect the
same result, though by means widely differing.
But while the philosophic schools of the Grecian world, with
which Christianity came into more immediate contact, held,
n2

180 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
with one or two exceptions, the doctrine of the immortality
of the soul ; yet its professors viewed the body as the soul's
prison-house, and they would have considered its future
union with a bodily organism, after it had been once liberated
from it, as the greatest of calamities. Its present union with
the body they viewed as the great obstacle to the attainment
of the knowledge of the realities of things, of which know
ledge, in its embodied state, it could only contemplate the im
perfect shadows, but when liberated from the body the soul
would then return to its proper sphere, and would hold com
munion with eternal truth. Such were the general views of
the Platonic schools. The Epicureans and the Sceptics, on
the contrary, held that death was the extinction of the entire
man, and that after death he had nothing either to hope for
or to fear. We need not, therefore, wonder, when St. Paul
asserted in the presence of his Athenian audience that God
had appointed a day in which He will judge the world in
righteousness, by the man whom He hath ordained, whereof
He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised
Him from the dead, that some mocked, and others said,
" We will hear thee concerning this matter yet again," and
that his converts were few ; for the doctrine of a resurrection
not only stood in opposition to their entire course of philo
sophic thought, but had nothing in common with the popular
beliefs. In propounding a doctrine of a future state, in which
the personality will again manifest its activities through the
instrumentality of a material organism, Christianity has gone
far to meet some of the difficulties which have been urged by
modern thought, and it may even be said to have gone half
way to meet the objections of modern materialistic philo
sophy. What does this doctrine mean ? That the perfection
of man does not consist in a condition in which he will exist
in a disembodied state, but in one in which he will be united

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING. 181
to a material organism. The vital question is now no
longer about the separate existence of the soul, and its
powers of thinking and acting in a disembodied state. The
endless metaphysics which such subjects involve we need
discuss no longer, for that alone which Christianity stands
pledged to is the reproduction of the entire man. Who that
believes that there is a God who made the universe will
venture to assert that such a reproduction is beyond His
power, or that He has not the means of maintaining the per
sonality in existence in the interval which will elapse between
death and the final and glorious manifestation of the kingdom
of Christ ?
Let us now briefly consider its positions respecting the
resurrection body.
1. Our Lord affirms that in the resurrection men will
neither marry nor be given in marriage ; that they will be
equal to the angels ; and that the resurrection body will be
no more subject to death. From these assertions we are
justified in arriving at the conclusion that our present animal
nature will then cease to exist.
2. St. Paul informs us that at the resurrection the body
of our humiliation will be fashioned anew, that it may be
conformed to the body of Christ's glory. The reader should
observe that the Apostle does not call our present body, as
the Authorised Version represents him as doing, "a vile
body." The Greek is to aw/j.a rfc Taiteivwaews, which the
Revised Version correctly renders, the body of our humilia
tion, i.e. a body suited to our condition as animals.*
* On this point it will be interesting to refer to an incident told by Miss
Whately in connection with the death of her father, the Archbishop of Dublin,
in her published biography of him. He had been suffering from an ulcer in his leg,
which occasioned him sufferings so severe that he earnestly prayed that he might
die. At length his prayer was granted, and the ulcer broke. Shortly before he
expired, when from weakness he was scarcely able to speak distinctly, his chap
lain read to bim his favourite chapter, Rom. viii., and concluded by reading the
two verses I have above quoted, from Phil, iii., as they stand in the Authorised

182 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
3. While the New Testament implies that our resurrection
bodies will in some way be connected with our present
bodies, it nowhere affirms that they will consist of the same
numerical particles. On the contrary, St. Paul tells us that
they will have no closer relation to them than the germ in
the seed bears to the future plant. This affirmation of the
Apostle frees us from the difficulties which arise from the
fact that our present bodies are in such a state of continual
flux, that within a comparatively short space of time every
particle which composes them is changed. All that the
promise of a resurrection demands is, that the personality,
which really constitutes the man, should be reinvested with
some kind of material organism. It has been urged that
it is necessary that the same particular body should be
raised, in order that inasmuch as it has formed one complex
being with the soul, it should share with it in reward or
punishment. But what is the body taken by itself? It is
a mere organism, incapable of doing either right or wrong,
the mere instrument through which the personality and
the animal passions act, being purely passive until it is
united with one or more of those principles which in our
ignorance of their real nature we designate by the words,
life, instinct, soul, mind, or spirit. The particles of matter,
therefore, which at different periods of our existence have
composed our bodies, have had no responsibility for our ac
tions, and being thus irresponsible, it is a matter of indiffer-
Version, in which the words occur, " our vile body." He was understood to say,
that he would have the right thing read to him. It was supposed that he meant
that he would have the passage read to him in the Greek; but as no Greek
Testament could be found in the sick man's chamber, it occurred to the chaplain
what it was which had pained the dying man, and going to the bed, he recited
the entire passage as I have quoted it above. ' ' For our citizenship is in heaven ;
from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : who shall fashion
anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his
glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things
unto himself." "That is right," said the archbishop, even when dying from a
painful ulcer ; " there is nothing vile which God has made."

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING. 183
ence out of what material particles our resurrection bodies
will be composed.
4. The same Apostle informs us that the resurrection body
will be organised in a wholly different manner from our
present earthly ones. Bodies may be organised in different
ways suited for the various conditions of life for which they
are intended. Thus man's present organism is one suited to
the conditions of his present mode of existence ; so also are
those of the different classes of animals, as for instance
those of beasts, birds, and fishes, which are framed in refer
ence to the conditions of their respective lives. In a similar
manner the resurrection body will be fitted to the conditions
of the resurrection life. According to his statements, our
resurrection bodies, compared with our present bodies, will
present the following contrasts : —
1. Our present bodies are subject to decay, disease, and
death, and even apart from disease they are so constituted
that they will ultimately wear out. From all these things
our resurrection bodies will be free ; i.e. they will be so con
stituted as to be incapable of corruption.
2. Our present bodies are composed of flesh and blood ;
by the latter of which their waste is constantly being re
paired by means of elements which are introduced into them
from our food. Our resurrection bodies will consist of
neither ; and will not, therefore, not being subject to waste,
stand in need of constant reparation.
3. Our present bodies are comparatively weak, and are
easily capable of exhaustion. Our resurrection bodies wiU
be fitted to be the instruments of the most powerful activities
of our spiritual, intellectual, and moral being, free from weak
ness and weariness.
4. Our present bodies are fitted to be the instrumentality
through which our animal nature acts. Our resurrection
bodies will be fitted to be the instruments of the activities of

184 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
the highest faculties of man, the action of which our bodies,
as they are at present constituted, hinder and impede ; or, to
adopt the language of the Apostle, our present bodies are
animal bodies (A^u^t/ca aw^ai-a), and connect us with the lower
orders of creation ; our resurrection bodies will be spiritual
bodies ('Trvev/j.artica), and will connect us with the higher.
The respective meanings of ^-v^t], i^-u^/roc, and Ttvev/M, irvev-
HaTiKos, we will consider in the next chapter. I shah,
therefore, conclude this part of our investigation with quot
ing the Apostle's final description of the resurrection state —
" For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible
shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have
put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that
is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 0 death, where
is thy victory ! 0 death, where is thy sting ! "
Respecting the employments of the saints in the resurrection
state Scripture is silent. All, therefore, that we can learn
respecting them is by inference from the description given
by St. Paul of the nature of the resurrection body and its
adaptation to be the instrument of the being which inhabits
it. On this point, therefore, we must rest content with the
assurance of our Lord, his Apostle, and the Psalmist —
"I go to prepare a place for you : and if I go and pre
pare a place for you, I come again and will receive you to
myself, that where I am there ye may be also."
" Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet
made manifest what we shall be. We know that if he shall
be made manifest, we shall be like him ; for we shall see
him, even as he is."
" In thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand
there are pleasures for evermore."

CHAPTER IX.
The Terminology, or the Meaning of the Language, employed by the
Writers op the New Testament respecting Future Retribution.
Before we can enter on an investigation as to what is the
teaching of the New Testament respecting a future state of
retribution, it will be necessary to consider the general
character of the language which is employed by its writers,
and the meaning of the terminology which they use respect
ing it. The English reader is in constant danger, in studying
the Authorised Version of the New Testament, of attaching
to its terminology the meaning which the English words into
which the corresponding Greek ones have been translated
bear in popular theology, and thus of reading his own pre
conceived conceptions into the sacred writings. One re
markable instance, out of numerous others, will suffice as an
illustration. The Greek word Kpiati is not unfrequently
translated in the Authorised Version by the English word
" damnation." Respecting the precise meaning of this word
at the time of the translators there may be some doubt, but
it is now popularly understood to mean an existence in never-
ending misery. Of such a meaning the Greek word icplo-19
contains no hint, and the Revisers have done well in having
removed the word " damnation " out of the Revised Version,
and in rendering this and other kindred terms by the word
"judgment," or some similar expression. Our object, there
fore, must be to ascertain the meaning which the sacred

186 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
writers intended to convey by their terminology, and also that
which they knew would be attached to it by those whom they
were addressing. This, and not the technical senses which
popular theology has attached to their English counterparts
is, I contend, their only true meaning. It should be ob
served, inasmuch as the Epistles of the New Testament are
addressed to particular Churches, and obviously with the
intention that they should be read to their respective mem
bers, that in endeavouring to ascertain the meaning of the
terms employed, we must not only consider the peculiar usus
loquendi of the author, but also the sense which those to
whom they were addressed were certain to attach to the terms
employed. It is always to be presumed that the writer of a
letter uses words in a sense which he knows will be attached
to them by his correspondents, i.e. in the ordinary meaning
of the words, and not in a sense which is peculiar to himself.
I make this observation because in expounding St. Paul's
epistles importance is often attached to certain expressions in
them as having a sense which was peculiar to the Apostle ;
whereas if he had used words in senses peculiar to himself,
he would have meant one thing by them, and those whom
he was addressing would have understood another. Writers
of letters, unless they wish to be obscure, write in language
such as they feel assured will be intelligible to those to
whom they write.
The Greek of the New Testament is the vernacular Greek
which was spoken in those places which had been Hellenised
by the conquests of Alexander the Great, and was in exten
sive use in no small portion of the Oriental world. This form
of Greek was that used by the Jews of the dispersion, and
into it the Scriptures of the Old Testament had been trans
lated at least a hundred and fifty years prior to the Advent.
It is commonly called Hellenistic Greek, which, in contra
distinction to the Greek in ordinary use, may be briefly des-

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 187
cribed as Hebrew thought expressed in Greek words. The
meaning of the words, however, is the same as that which
they bear in ordinary vernacular Greek, unless the context
shows that the author intended to use them in a special
sense, which was also understood in this special sense by those
whom he was addressing. Otherwise the writings would
have failed to have conveyed to the latter the meaning in
tended by the writer. The chief characteristic of this form
of Greek is its simplicity of construction, which has rendered
the New Testament capable of being nearly literally, yet
intelligibly, translated into that multitude of languages
in which it now exists ; whereas a literal translation of the
great classical Greek writers would be almost unintelligible to
the ordinary English reader.*
Its language, with the exception of what are called its
Hebraisms, is essentially popular. It contains no scientific
or technical terms. The members of the Apostolic Churches
were composed for the most part of the trading classes and of
slaves, and consisted of Greek- speaking Jews and Gentiles,
whose numbers in some churches were evenly balanced, while
in others one or other of these elements formed a consider
able majority. The Apostolic writings were intended beyond
all question to be intelligible to those to whom they were
addressed. Thus St. Paul takes it for granted that his
epistles would be read publicly in the churches, and in the
First Epistle to the Thessalonians, he gives special directions
that it should be read " to all the holy brethren." He must,
therefore, have assumed that the terminology which he em
ployed would have been thoroughly intelligible to the mem-
* If the reader is curious on this subject, he will find a striking example of
what I say in Hobbes's translation of Thucydides. The translation is nearly
literal, but the speeches, which are very numerous, are not only very painful
reading, but scarcely intelligible to the ordinary reader. The difference in
point of intelligibility between them and the most abstract writing in the New
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bers of this Church, the majority of whom consisted of Gentiles
who had been converted from heathenism a little over a year
prior to the date of the Apostle's letter, and who must have
understood his Greek in the sense which it bore in the
vernacular.* A similar observation is true of the other
epistles of the Apostle. They were intended to be read
publicly in the different Churches. This being so, the Greek in
which he wrote them could not have contained a number of
technicalities intelligible only to himself and a small body of
the members of these churches, but was Greek as it was
spoken and understood by the trading and lower classes — for
of such the Apostolic Churches were almost exclusively com
posed — in such places as Thessalonica, Corinth, Rome,
Galatia, Philippi, Ephesus, and Colosse. If the Apostle
attached a meaning to a word which those whom he addressed
did not understand by it, it would have been absolutely
necessary for him to have given some intimation of the
peculiar sense in which he used it, if he meant his communi
cations to be intelligible.
It is necessary that the nature of the Apostle's terminology
should be clearly understood, because it has been assumed
that several of the words used respecting future retribution
bear a technical sense in the New Testament. Thus, for
example, it has been maintained by one side of this contro
versy that " destruction," and words of similar import must
necessarily mean annihilation, and by the other, a never-
ending life in torment. All the Greek words thus translated
are wide in their signification, like our corresponding Enghsh
ones ; and among their many meanings, the precise one
* I have made this observation, because the short time which had elapsed
between the foundation of this Church and the composition of the Epistle ren
ders it impossible that its terminology could have acquired a special technical
sense during so brief an interval. The Epistle itself makes it evident that
although this Church was composed partially of Jews, the majority of its mem
bers consisted of recently converted Gentiles, whose acquaintance with the
Septuagint version of the Old Testament must have been indefinitely small.

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 189
which an apostolic writer intended to convey can only be
determined by a careful consideration of the context in which
it stands, and of the general usage of the word in question.
Keeping these observations in view, we will now consider the
meaning which the most important words which are used in
connection with the subject we are now considering bear in
the Apostolic writings.
I. Hvev/jta, ¦fyirfcr], <jwjm, usually translated, spirit, soul, and
body. A clear apprehension of the various senses in which these
words are used by the sacred writers is important, because
several attempts have been made, to elaborate a psychology of
man on the assumption that they are used by them with
something like philosophical precision, and therefore to base
certain doctrines connected with this subject on this as a
foundation. Of these the best known is the theory called
" The tripartite nature of man," which affirms that man (per
haps I should rather say, the regenerate man), is composed of
three distinct essences, body, soul, and spirit — a kind of
trinity in unity. The text which is usually adduced in proof
of this is the following passage of St. Paul : —
" And the God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and may
your spirit, soul, and body be preserved entire without blame
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he
that calleth you, who also will do it." (1 Thess. v. 23, 24.)
On the strength of this passage it has been affirmed that
an inspired Apostle teaches that man consists of three dis
tinct parts, viz. body, soul, and spirit, or at least that such is
the composition of the regenerate man ; and most important
theories have been erected on this as a foundation.
The objection against the assumption that St. Paul in
tended in this passage to teach a psychology of man which
should be philosophically accurate, is a very obvious one.
The passage is a prayer for the complete sanctification of his

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Thessalonian converts, and their preservation in holiness
unto the coming of Jesus Christ. It is therefore incredible
that in such a prayer he should have intended to elaborate a
philosophical psychology of man. On similar grounds we
might be equally justified in affirming that our Lord, in the
following utterance, teaches that man consists of four prin
ciples, viz. heart, soul, mind, and strength ; for, on being
questioned which commandment is the first of all, He
answers —
" The first is, Hear, 0 Israel ; The Lord our God, the Lord
is one ; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with
all thy strength." (Mark xii. 29, 30.)
The fact is, that in both passages the thing dealt with is
practical and not philosophical truth, and the words used are
the words which were current among ordinary Greek-speaking
people to denote various aspects of the entire man, without
any regard to whether they did or did not constitute an accu
rate psychology. But as these terms are frequently used by
the apostolic writers in connection with this subject, it will
be necessary to give a careful consideration to the sense in
which they use them.
First, Trvevfia, spirit.
The following are the meanings which this word bears in
the New Testament : —
1. It is applied to God himself. " God," says our Lord,
" is a spirit."
2. In the same passage in which it is thus used as
descriptive of the Divine nature, it is also employed to describe
those higher affections in man through the active exercise of
which he can alone render an acceptable worship to God.
" And they that worship him," adds our Lord, " must
worship him in spirit and in truth."
The point of contrast here intended to be brought out is

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 191
between such worship and the ritualism and localism of the
worship rendered to God under the Jewish dispensation.
3. It is used 'as the designation of the Comforter, whom
our Lord promised to send to his disciples after his removal
from them. Thus our Lord designates him, —
" The Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father."
(John xv. 26.)
4. It is used to denote that state of mind which is capable
of appreciating the higher forms of Christian teaching, as
contrasted with its elementary principles.
" I speak unto you," says St. Paul, " not as unto spiritual
but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with
milk and not with meat, for ye were not yet able to bear it ;
nay, not even now are ye able." (1 Cor. iii. 1, 2.)
It will hardly be contended that the Apostle considered
those whom he here designates as carnal to be devoid of what
is called spirit, or of spiritual life ; yet such they must have
been if the words are used with strict philosophical precision.
5. As a description of our Lord's teaching, as contrasted
with teaching which is mere legalism, literalism, and ritualism.
Thus he says : —
"It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth
nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit,
and are hfe." (John vi. 63.)
6. As a condition of the human mind, in which its higher
affections are in active exercise while its intellectual powers
are in abeyance. Thus St. Paul writes : —
" Yea, if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth but my
understanding (vow) is unfruitful. I. will pray with the
spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will
sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding
also." (1 Cor. xiv. 14, 15.)
It follows, therefore, that those who affirm from 1 Thess. v.
23, 24, that St. Paul teaches that man consists of three

192 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
separate entities, body, soul, and spirit, would be justified
from these words in adding on a fourth, viz. understanding
(vovs), for, taken literally, they affirm that spirit (irvevfia)
and understanding (vovs), as they exist in man, are two
principles distinct from each other. The truth is that the
Apostle is alluding to that abnormal mental condition
designated ecstacy, in which, while some of our mental
faculties are apparently asleep, others are in active operation.
Of this we who do not fall into the ecstatic state have some
experience in dreams.
7. As an influence which is exerted on the mind. Thus
the Apostle writes : —
" God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should
not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day."
(Rom. x. 18.)
So also he writes to the Corinthians : —
" I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit, have
already, as though I were present, judged him that hath
so wrought this thing." (1 Cor. v. 3.)
8. In the following passage it stands for the whole of the
mental powers, including the principle of animal life : —
" And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was
dead. But he, taking her by the hand, called, saying,
Maiden, arise : and her spirit returned, and she rose up imme
diately, and he commanded that something should be given
her to eat." (Luke viii. 53 — 55.)
9. As that in man which survives the death of the body,
i.e. our conscious personality. Thus St. Stephen prayed
immediately before, his death, "Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit." 10. The primary meaning of Trvevfia, as given in Greek
lexicons, is wind or breath ; its secondary ones are life, soul,
spirit. In the following utterance of our Lord we have it
used in its highest and lowest sense in the same sentence : —

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 193
" The wind [to ¦Kvedfia] bloweth where it listeth, and thou
hearest the voice thereof but knowest not whence it cometh
and whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the
Spirit" (Ik tov Hvev/jLaTos). (John iii. 8.)
Feeling the difficulty of assigning two different meanings
to the same word in the same sentence, the Revisers have
given as an alternative marginal rendering, "The Spirit
breatheth." Our Lord's utterance will then run thus : —
" The Spirit breatheth where it listeth, and thou hearest
his voice, but knowest not whence he cometh or whither he
goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit."
The reader will, I think, be of opinion that this rendering
deprives the comparison, "so is every one that is born of the
Spirit," of all meaning.
11. The word -xvevpia, with the addition of the word
" unclean," though occasionally without it, is habitually used
as descriptive of the nature of those beings whom the Gospels
designate Zaiptovia, rendered in both versions "devils," but
correctly in the margin of the Revised Version, "demons ;"
as, for example, " unclean spirits, or the spirit of an unclean
demon." The word Ttvev/ia, as thus applied, is devoid
of every conception connected with holiness. Respecting
the mode in which these demons exist the New Testa
ment is silent ; but it implies that they are disembodied
spirits, and that there is a strong desire on their part to
enter into men and animals, and to use their bodily and
their nervous organisations for their own evil purposes. It
is remarkable that the word Trvedfia, spirit, is only once, and
that in a passage of doubtful meaning, applied to an angel,*
the same writer carefully distinguishing between them and
the spirits of just men made perfect.
Such are the various senses which the apostolic writers and
* " Who maketh his angels (^vivixara) spirits," or as in the Revised Version,
"winds." (Hob. i. 7.) O

194 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
the Greek -speaking members of the different Churches
attached to the word -rrvev/JLa. It is evident, therefore, that
its meaning in any particular passage can only be determined
from the context. It is, in fact, used in its popular meaning
and not in an exclusive or. scientific sense.
Next, the word •^•uy,?}.
This word is generally rendered, both in the Authorised
and the Revised Versions, "soul," and occasionally "life,"
though the word -^v^ikos, which is directly derived from
it and expresses its adjective meaning, is translated in both
versions by the word " natural." The ambiguity of this last
word may be judged from the fact that Webster's Dictionary
assigns to it no less than fourteen meanings, none of which
precisely correspond with that of the word -^-in^i/roc. The
fact is, that while the Greek of the New Testament has the
words ¦^¦v^ikos, and Trvev/AaTiKos to express the adjective sense
of -^xif an(i ifvevfia respectively, the English has only
" spiritual " to express that of spirit, but no corresponding
adjective to express that of soul. This is unfortunate, for
from the word " natural," which is the translation of the
word ^rv^iKos in both versions, many doctrinal inferences
have been drawn which the word thus translated by no
means justifies. The word ^rrxfi, soul, bears a very wide
meaning in the New Testament ; equally wide, therefore,
must be that of its adjective, -^uy^oc, to which the Enghsh
has no corresponding word ; and to express its meaning it
would be necessary to invent such a word as " soulual," which
would stand in the same relation to soul as the word spiritual
does to spirit ; whereas the translation of the word -^uvikos
by " natural," leads the English reader to mistake the Apostle's
meaning. I will now adduce examples of the various senses
in which these words are used by the sacred writers.
In the Gospels the word ^-i^ (soul) is used to denote,
first, that in man which is capable of existing separate from

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 195,
the body ; secondly, the bodily life itself ; thirdly, both the
one and the other in the same sentence.
Of the first of these the following are examples : —
" Be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul (a^ux,1*)) ; but rather fear him who is
able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." (Matt. x. 28.)
In this passage the soul is not only contrasted with the
bodily life, but is spoken of as something which is capable
of existing separate from the body, and as containing the per
sonality. Men can kill the one, but they cannot kill the
other. " My soul (^rvxv) doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
(TTvevfia) hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." (Luke i. 46, 47.)
In this passage the words -tyvyyi, soul, and 7rvev/j.a, spirit,
are evidently used as synonymous in meaning, each denot
ing the personality, including the reasoning powers and the
higher affections of the mind.
" Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, . . . and ye shall find rest unto your souls " (ip-u^aiV).
(Matt. xi. 28, 29.) Here, again, the word -^-uyji), soul, is used
to denote the entire personality.
2. In the following passage it evidently denotes the bodily
hfe only : —
"Be ye not anxious for your life (-^-i>x»7)> what ye shall
eat or what ye shall drink, nor for your body what ye shall
put on. Is not the life tyvx't)) more than the food, and
the body than the raiment ?" (Matt. vi. 25.)
3. In the following utterances the word -v^-i/yV/ is used in
a more popular sense to denote in one part of the same sen
tence the bodily life, and in another part of it the per
sonality : —
" Whosoever would save his life tyvxvv) shall lose it,
but whosoever shall lose his life (-f vxvv) ror mJ sa^~e snaL^-
02

196 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
find it. For what shall a man be profited if he shall gain
the whole world and forfeit his life (-^-vxw)' or what shall
a man give in exchange for his life ty-ir%riv) •" (Matt. xvi.
25, 26.)
In St. Luke's Gospel this utterance is reported thus : —
"For whosoever would save his life (^rvxvjv) shall lose
it, but whosoever shall lose his life (-^¦iry^i') for my sake
the same shall save it. For what is a man profited if he gain
the whole world and lose or forfeit his own self ? " (Luke
ix. 24, 25.)
St. Luke's report of this utterance, therefore, renders it
certain that the word ^vxv is used in the first part of the
utterance, as recorded by St. Matthew, to denote the bodily
life, and in the second part the personality, "his own self"
being used as the equivalent of the ^rvxv 0I" St. Matthew,
the one being that which man can destroy and the other that
which he cannot.
"He that loveth his life (^rv%i]v) loses it, and he that
hateth his life (-f vx^v) in this world shall keep it (avrrjv)
unto life (gwr/v) eternal." "Now is my soul (-yi-iry//) troubled,
and what shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour."
(John xii. 25, 27.)
In this utterance the word ^vxv, in the two first places
where it is used, unquestionably means the bodily life and
nothing more ; but in the third (uvti)v) it is used to de
note something which does not perish at death, which will
be preserved unto life eternal (eir gm)v aiwvtov) ; and in
the fourth it can mean, nothing less than our Lord's entire
humanity. Thus in the account of the agony in the garden
we read —
" My soul fyvxri) is exceeding sorrowful even unto death."
What was thus sorrowful ? Surely not our Lord's bodily
life, but his human spirit ; that soul of which he had before
affirmed that those who were able to kill the body had no

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 197
more that they could do, for they were not able to kill the
soul. Similarly wide is its use in the other writings of the New
Testament. Thus we read in the Acts of the Apostles —
"And there were added unto them on that day three
thousand souls" (¦tyvxai). (Acts ii. 41.)
" Now the multitude of them that believed, were of one
heart and of one soul." (Acts iv. 32.)
" Confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to
continue in the faith, and that through many tribulations,
they must enter into the kingdom of God." (Acts xiv. 22.)
In each of these passages it is evidently used to denote
the entire man, including the personality, and the higher
affections ; and the idea of the bodily life seems not to have
entered into the writer's thoughts But in the two following
it denotes life in the popular sense of that word : —
" I perceive that this voyage will be attended with injury
and much loss, not only to the lading of the ship, but also
to our lives (-^-vx^)- (Acts xxvii. 10.)
"And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there
shall be no loss of life (-^rvxv^) among you, but only of the
ship." (Acts xxvii. 22.)
Yet in the same chapter the word is used to denote the
entire man : —
" And there were in the ship two hundred three score and
sixteen souls" (a^^cu). (Acts xxvii. 37.)
So also in the Epistles, St. James thus writes : —
" Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of
wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which
is able to save your souls" (yjrvx^)- (James i. 21.)
Here it obviously means a man's self. But in the follow
ing passage it is used to denote life and life only : —
" Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow, for
what is your hfe? (-vt-uxi?) for ye are as a vapour that

198 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away." (James
iv. 14.)
St. Peter, on the other hand, uses it to denote that in man
which survives the death of the body. Thus he writes : —
" On whom though now ye see him not, yet believing ye
rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiv
ing the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls "
(¦^vxwv). (1 Peter i. 8, 9.)
" Seeing ye have purified your souls (i^ir^a?) in your obe
dience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren."
(1 Peter i. 22.)
"Beloved, I beseech you, as sojourners and pilgrims, to
abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul"
Cfirx*7?). (1 Peter ii. 11.)
In this last quotation, instead of including man's animal
nature under the word •xfW'Y,?)) he expressly excludes it, desig
nating it by the term " fleshly lusts " which war against the
soul. In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is obviously used to
denote man's personality without any reference to his animal
nature. Thus the author writes : —
" But we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition,
but of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul"
(^rvxv*) (Heb. x. 39), the word soul in the previous verse
having been used in reference to God Himself. " But my
righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrink back, my
soul (-firxi)) hath no pleasure in him." (Heb. x. 38.) Here
God himself is represented as the speaker.
The use of this word in St. Paul's Epistles is extremely
rare, occurring in five or six passages only. In each of these
it is used to denote the entire living man. When, how
ever, the Apostle wishes to express the spiritual or higher
nature of man, in contrast to his animal or lower nature, he
for the most part makes use of the words irvevfia, spirit, and

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 199
oap%, flesh, occasionally varying the former by the words
gwrj, life, Kaplia, heart, and a7t\a'yxva> which, as employed
by him, has much the same signification. But the sense
which he has attached to the word -tyvxiKOs, which expresses
the adjective meaning of -^-uyj*7> requires a brief considera
tion. Thus he writes in the following passages : —
" Now the natural (-^-ux'fo?) man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him, and
he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged."
(1 Cor. ii. 14.)
"It is sown a natural (-^nrxiKov) body ; it is raised a spiritual
(itveofuniKov) body. If there is a natural (-^rvxtKov) body, there
is also a spiritual (nvevjiamKov) body. So also it is written, the
first man Adam became a living soul (eh ^rvx^jv gwaav) ; the
last Adam became a life-giving spirit (el? 7rvev/JLa ^wo-koiovv).
Howbeit that is not first that is spiritual (to irvevjiaTiKov) but
that which is natural (t^vxikov), then that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is from
heaven. . . . And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we
shah also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say,
brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God ; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put
on immortality." (1 Cor. xv. 44 — 53.)
It is important that the reader should observe that the
word here given, " natural," in both versions by no means
represents the meaning of the Greek ^rvxwos, of which it
professes to be a translation. The words (frvo-is and cpvatKo?
are the Greek representatives of the Enghsh words " nature "
and " natural ; " and with their use the writers of the New
Testament were familiar, as is proved by the following
examples : —
" We, that are Jews by nature (cpuo-ei) and not sinners
of the Gentiles." (Gal. ii. 15.)

200 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
"Does not nature (<pwi<;) itself teach." (1 Cor. xi. 14.)
"Do by nature (tpvaet) the things of the law." (Rom.
ii. 14.)
" The natural (<pvaiKrf) use into that which is against
nature" (tpwtv). (Rom. i 26.)
The above quotations prove that the words -^rvxv aQd
¦yJrvx'Kos are used in the New Testament in a wide, popular,
and somewhat indefinite signification, at one time denoting
that in man which is distinct from his bodily organism,
including his personality and his higher faculties ; at another,
his nature as an animal. It is in this last sense in which
it is used in the following passage : —
"The natural" ^vxikos, that is the "soulual" or animal)
"man receivethnot the things of the Spirit of God," and this
is equivalent in meaning to the words carnal or fleshly, which
the Apostle uses in numerous places of his writings to convey
the same idea. The carnal or animal man (-^-uY.'ffoV) is one
in whom the animal propensities dominate; the spiritual
man is one in whom the will and the higher affections have
attained the victory over man's animal nature, its propensi
ties and passions, and hold them in subjection.
It is evident therefore that the English word " natural,"
which is given in both versions as the translation of the
Greek ¦^¦vxiko?, is a very inadequate representation of the
Apostle's meaning in the above passages.
What then does he mean when he speaks of our present
body as a aulfxa ^vxikov, and our resurrection body as a aw put
itvevjAaTiKov ? A -^-vxikov aw/xa must be a body so organised
as to be a suitable instrument through which the principle
designated ("f irx?)) can manifest itself in action. To get a clear
idea of his meaning it will be necessary to refer to his views
respecting the condition in which the first man was created.
Quoting Genesis ii. he says : —
"The first man, Adam, became a living soul."

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 201
The passage in Genesis is as follows : —
" And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man
became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden
eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had
formed." (Gen. ii. 7, 8.)
The obvious meaning of these words is that Adam's body
was formed as a mere organism out of the dust of the ground,
and that by a special act of the Creator, " a living soul "
(gwaa ¦^¦ux'*}) was breathed into it ; and that the man thus
created was placed in the garden. What portion of man's
higher faculties were intended to be included under the
expression " a living soul " we are not informed ; but the
contrast which the Apostle draws between the ^rvx^ov (ren
dered natural) and the wevfrnTtKov (spiritual), in the follow
ing words, "Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual,
but that which is natural " (¦^¦vxikov), " then that which is
spiritual," throws some light on the sense in which he used
them, viz. that the one denoted man united to an animal
nature, in whom the spiritual element was comparatively
latent; and the other denoted man, in whom the animal
nature had passed away, and the spiritual element reigned
supreme. My conclusion from the review of the above passages is,
that the words 7tvev/xa, spirit, and ^vxy, soul, are frequently
used interchangeably to denote one and the same thing, viz.
everything in man which distinguishes him from a mere
animal. In one respect, however, -nvevixa. has a wider signi
fication than ^rvxv, being frequently applied to God, whereas
•^irxi) is only once so used ; 7rvev/ia is also used as the
designation of evil spirits, which -tyvxv never is. In another
respect -tyvxv ^as a wider signification than ¦nvevpta, being on
several occasions used to denote man's present bodily life,
which ¦nvevpta never is. It is somewhat remarkable that the

202 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
Enghsh word " soul " bears a similarly wide signification in
popular language, as, for instance, when we speak of a ship
going to the bottom and every soul on board perishing:
So St. Paul, addressing the sailors, says, " I exhort you to
be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of life (-^irx,?)?)
among you, but only of the ship." It is also worthy of
remark that our Lord is never once represented in the
Gospels as applying the word itvevfia to man, but only t^x?).
He once applies Ttvevpta to Himself when on the cross he
uttered the words, " Father, into thy hands I commend my
spirit ; " but what He there speaks of as His Ttvevfia,
according to St. John, a day or two before, he designated
His t^ux?). " Now is my soul (^rvxv) troubled, and what
shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour." It is im
possible therefore to base any theory respecting the psy
chology of man on the use of these words in the New Testa
ment. Sw/xa (body).
This word in its primary signification denotes our mere
bodily framework. It is also frequently used to include that
principle of animal life which, when united with it, distin
guishes it from dead matter, and occasionally in a wider sense,
to include the entire man. Of this last usage the following
are examples : —
" I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies (awptaTa) a living sacrifice, whohy
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." (Rom.
xii. 1.)
" Know ye not that your body (o-<3/xa) is a temple of
the Holy Ghost, which is in you? " (1 Cor. vi. 19.)
But in the following passages it is used to denote man's
animal, in contrast to his higher, nature : —
" But I buffet my body (aw put) and bring it into subjec-

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 203
tion, lest by any means after I have preached to others, I
myself should be rejected." (1 Cor. ix. 27.)
" And if Christ be in you the body (o-w/jlo) is dead " (not
that he meant devoid of life), " because of sin, but the spirit
(irvevpia) is life, because of righteousness." (Rom. viii. 10.)
But when he wishes to express the same idea he generally
uses the word flesh (aapg). Thus he writes : —
" For I know that in me, i.e. in my flesh (oapKl), dwelleth
no good thing." (Rom. vii. 18.)
In fact, as has been already observed, throughout this
chapter he speaks of his animal and spiritual nature as though
they constituted in him a kind of double personality, between
which was waged an incessant struggle for the superiority.
Thus he writes in continuation of the above passage : —
" For to will is present with me, but to do that which is
good is not. For the good which I would, I do not, but the
evil that I would not, that I practise. But if what I would
not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dweUeth
in me. I find then the law, that to me who would do good,
evil is present. But I delight in the law of God after the
inward man ; but I see a different law in my members war
ring against the law of my mind" (vovs) — surely ww must be
here intended to include not only intellect but conscience also
— " and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which
is in my members. 0 wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me from the body of this death. I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. So, then, I myself with the mind
(vovs) serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin." (Rom. vii. 18—25.)
My general conclusion, therefore, is that it is impossible
from the use of these terms in the New Testament to pro
pound a theory of the psychology of man. None of them,
as the above citations prove, are used with strict scientific
precision, or as denoting separate entities which conjointly

204 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
compose the man, but in the wide and indefinite sense
which they bear in ordinary Greek. Its affirmations assure
us of two things, and of two things only : —
First, that holy men will certainly enjoy a happy conscious
existence after death.
Secondly, that at some period of the future they will be
united to a material organism, called by St. Paul a spiritual
body, which will be an instrument adapted for the exercise
of man's highest intellectual powers and the most exalted
affections of his spiritual and moral nature.
II. — The words alwv (seon), aluivios, k6o-/io? (cosmos), &c.
These words are in very frequent use in the New Testa
ment in connection with the subject we are considering. In
the Authorised Version the translation of the two first is not
unfrequently misleading ; and it is to be regretted that even
the Revisers, while they have corrected some of the inaccu
rate renderings of the Authorised Version, have allowed them
selves to use English words which imperfectly represent the
meaning of the Greek ; and this occasionally in direct viola
tion of their own rule to translate the same Greek word by
the same English one, unless the sense of the passage renders
it necessary to do otherwise ; for example, in the case of
^rvxv, as we have seen above. Of this fault their rendering
of alwv and k6o-jio<s, in the parable of the tares, by the same
English word is a striking example, leading to an absolute
misrepresentation of the sense.
The word alwv means an age — i.e. a limited period of time
of indeterminate length, it may be long or it may be short,
from which it passes off to denote a dispensation — and alwvios
is an adjective which stands in the same relation to it as
'KvevixwrtKos does to irveuput, and ¦^rux<*'os to "^vxy- It is
never used to denote the world in which we live, though it
has been not unfrequently rendered by the word "world"

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 205
even by the Revisers, who, when they have so done, have put
the word "age," its true meaning, into the margin as an
alternative rendering. The sacred writers, be it observed,
were in the habit of dividing the past and the future into
a.number of ages or dispensations, one of which was —
The Jewish age, or dispensation.
Another —
The Christian age, or the present kingdom of God in its
incipient and progressive state, under which we are now
living. Another —
That same kingdom when it shall have realised the pur
poses of its institution ;
And a fourth —
When the Son shall have resigned this kingdom to God,
even the Father.
It is also even used to denote a short period of time, as
when the Apostle writes, " Who hath delivered us from the
present evil age," i.e. from the moral and spiritual corruption
of the times during which he was then living.
But the words in question are not confined to these definite
meanings ; they are frequently used indefinitely. Thus we
read of " the ages ;" and when the sacred writers wish to speak
of periods of very prolonged duration they use the words
"the ages of the ages" (ol alwves twv alwvwv), words which
are rendered in both versions " for ever and ever," but in the
Revised Version usually with the caution in the margin that
their strict translation is, " to the ages of ages." Towards the
end of the Apostolic age and in the times which followed it
the word alwv (a?on) had passed off in the hands of a set of
philosophic dreamers to denote not periods of time but a set
of beings, who were supposed to be emanations from the
primal Deity, who occupied an intermediate place between
Him and the universe of matter, in which they placed the

206 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
origin of evil. These seons constituted a very numerous
family, of whom the Demiurge, the Creator of this present
world, and who was the most remote from the primal Deity,
was one, and the Christ another, who united Himself to the
human Jesus at the time of His baptism, and very ungener
ously deserted Him at the time of His crucifixion. But of
these airy speculations the New Testament contains no trace.
The word alwv in the singular, its plural, alwves, and even the
far stronger term, tisTovs alwvas twv alwvwv, "to the ages of
the ages," are never the precise equivalent of duration without
limits. Our conception of that which we designate eternity
is a negative one, and denotes duration devoid of all limita
tions, or one which has never had a beginning and which will
never have an end ; whereas, the fundamental conception of
the Greek alwv, " age," involves the idea of limitation, and
its indefinite multiplication, " ages of ages," like our Enghsh
expression " millions of millions," really denotes only a finite
quantity ; for, however extended such periods may be, a time
must come when they will have an end. Yet when this
period, however inconceivably vast, has reached its termina
tion, we shall be no nearer the end of that which we designate-
eternity, than when these ages of ages first began. Putting
the matter briefly, it is simply impossible that the same word
can denote duration which is limited and duration which is
limitless. Practical as was the purpose of the Apostolic writers, it
may be a question whether our modern philosophic con
ception of eternity ever entered into their minds. With
them the great alwv was the age to come, or the Messianic
age. This formed the perspective of their thoughts respect
ing duration, and beyond its horizon they scarcely ever
travelled. The terms, " the age," " the ages," and " the ages
of ages," fully satisfied all their requirements, the two last
being used by them to denote limited periods of time

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 207
indefinitely long. When they wish to express an idea pre
cisely corresponding to that which we understand by our
word immortality, they use such words as 'Adavdata, death-
lessness, 'AcpOapata, incorruptibility, with their corresponding
adjectives, and such words as, by the aid of negative particles,
affirm that the original finite conception is destitute of
limitations. Further, let it be observed that whatever meanings the
sacred writers attached to the word alwv, &c, the word alwvto?
conveys their adjective sense. In English, however, we have
no corresponding adjective to the word age. In the absence
of one, we have adopted the Latin word " eternal," which not
only fails to convey to the English reader the idea of limita
tion expressed by the word age, or dispensation, but has passed
off into a technical sense denoting duration without limits,
and as such is hardly distinguishable from the word ever
lasting. Its English equivalent would be " age-long."
The word which the writers of the New Testament use to
denote the world in which we live is Koapto?, never alwv,
but in an overwhelming majority of instances they use the
word Koaptos in a moral sense, and for the most part in an
evil one. This is the all but universal usage in the ¦ Gospel
and in the First Epistle of St. John ; and generally through
out the New Testament the word in this its moral sense is set
forth as the great opposing principle to the kingdom of God,
or is used to denote the moral corruption of the state of
society as it then existed, and of that of all subsequent times
as far as they resemble it. Alwv also not unfrequently bears
a similar meaning, but generally with the addition of the word
nrovupos, "evil." Thus St. Paul writes, "That he might
dehver us from the present evil age," which word in both
versions is translated " world," though in the Revised Version
"age " is inserted in the margin.
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age," a period of very limited duration, and that those whom
he was -addressing would so understand it, for both he and
they were expecting the speedy manifestation of a better
one. It is evident, therefore, from this use of the word
alwv, and from others that we shall presently notice, that it
is used to denote an indefinite but a limited period of time,
whereas the conception of endlessness, or duration without
limits, being incapable of being realised in any positive form
of thought, can only be approximately expressed by the use
of negatives. This being so, it is impossible that the word
alwv, when standing by itself, can denote duration without
limits, or be the equivalent of what is popularly understood
by the English word eternal or everlasting.
The translating alwv by the word " world " is very mis
leading to the English reader. By it he is led to believe,
when he meets with such expressions as "the end of the
world," that the event referred to is the destruction of the
planet, whereas, what they usually mean is, the termina
tion of the age or dispensation. Of the confusion of thought
thus occasioned a remarkable example occurs in the parable
of the tares, as has been above observed, where the words
Koafio? and alwv are translated by the same word, " world,"
though they are carefully distinguished from one another by
the Divine speaker. " The field," says He, " is the world "
(6 Koajj.o^) ; the harvest is the end, not of the world, but
" the consummation of the age " (avvreXeta tov alwvov). Mis
translations of this kind have led to endless misconceptions
respecting what the writers of the New Testament mean when
they speak of the end of all things as at hand, the end of
the world, and, by consequence, the coming of Christ. It
is unquestionable that in not a few passages these and
similar expressions refer not to what we designate " the end
of the world," but the final winding up of the Jewish dispen
sation and the awful events with which it was attended, and

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 209
the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ or the
kingdom of God as a visible community on earth.
As the words alwv, and alwvto<; occupy an important
place in the controversy as to what is the teaching of the
New Testament respecting the future destiny of man, it will
be desirable to give a few examples of the sense which they
bear in the sacred writings.
The following passage stands thus in the Authorised
Version : —
" For then must he often have suffered since the founda
tion of the world (/coo-^oc) ; but now once in the end of the
world (avvTeXelw rwv alwvwv) hath he appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself." (Heb. ix. 26).
So erroneous is this translation, that the Revisers have sub
stituted for " the end of the Avorld," " the end of the ages,"
and have not even placed the word " world " in the margin as
an alternative rendering. Nothing, therefore, can be more
certain than that the sacred writer here means by "the end
of the ages " not what is commonly understood by " the end of
the world," but the termination of the Jewish dispensation.
This is evident, for it was then, and then only, that Christ
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Also
his use of the plural, " ages," shows that he must have been
of opinion- that there were other dispensations prior to the
Jewish. This passage, therefore, clearly proves that many
expressions in the New Testament which are commonly sup
posed to refer to the consummation of all things, refer not to
that event, but to the consummation of the Jewish dispensa
tion ; and that the Parousia, or as it is translated, " coming,"
of Christ (Parousia really means presence), often refers
not to His personal coming, but to a manifestation of His
presence in providence for the purpose of bringing that dis
pensation to a close.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read in both versions : —
p

210 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
"Through whom also he made the worlds," the word
" ages " being inserted in the margin of the Revised Version
as an alternative rendering. In St. John's Gospel the crea
tion of the world, i.e. of the Koapto<;, is ascribed to Jesus
Christ ; so also in the Pauline epistles, but the sacred writer
only affirms in this passage that through Him God consti
tuted the ages, or dispensations. The idea of " the worlds"
was unknown to the Hebrew and to ancient writers generally,
the ancients knowing nothing of the sun, moon, and stars, as
worlds. When the former wished to express the sum total of
creation, they designated it "the heavens and the earth."
Thus the Apostle writes —
" For in him were all things created in the heavens and
upon the earth, things visible, and things invisible." (Col.
i. 16). The following are examples of the meaning of the word
alwv when used to express duration : —
" Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and
ever." (Phil. iv. 20.)
The Apostle did not write " for ever and ever," but, as the
margin of the Revised Version has it, " unto the ages of
ages." So in the Revelation the sacred writer, speaking of
the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, is represented as
saying— " They shall be tormented day and night for ever and
ever." Here again the margin gives us as an alternative rendering
"unto the ages of ages," which beyond all question is the
correct one.
So again, " The Lord God shall give unto him the throne
of his father David ; and he shall reign over the house of
Jacob for ever " (eh tov? alwvas, i.e. " to the ages ") ; " and of
his kingdom there shall be no end." (Luke i. 32, 33.)
Strong, however, as this language is, it does not denote our

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 211
metaphysical idea of duration without limits ; for respectinc
the Messianic kingdom, St. Paul makes the following affirma
tions : —
" Then cometh the end, when he (i.e. Christ) shall dehver
up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he shall
have abolished all rule, and all authority, and power ; for he
must reign until he hath put all his enemies under his feet.
.... And when all things have been subjected unto him,
then shall the Son also himself be subjected unto him that
did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all."
(1 Cor. xv. 24—28.)
Here we have the positive affirmation of St. Paul, that
however prolonged may be the existence of the Messianic
kingdom throughout the seons to come, a time is coming
in the future when the Christ will resign that kingdom
to the Father, and the Son himself will be subjected to
Him that did subject all things unto Him, that God may be
all in all. This, however, will not take place until He has
abolished all rule, authority, and power, and put all His
enemies under His feet.
" Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world."
(Matt, xxviii. 20.)
Of the destruction of the planet our Lord says nothing.
Here, again, the margin of the Revised Version gives us the
correct meaning : —
" Lo, I am with you alway, even to the consummation of
the age," i.e. of the Messianic age.
Again : " As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets,
which have been since the world began." (Luke i. 70.) So
in Acts iii. 21 : " Whereof God spake by the mouth of his
holy prophets, which have been since the world began."
The Greek of the words here translated " which have been
since the world began," is in the one case twv aw' alwvos
TrpocpijTwv, and in the other, air' alwvos. Neither says
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212 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
anything about the beginning or ending of the world in
which we hve. Nor can the expression, a-n-' alwvos, pos
sibly mean from eternity, because prophets have not existed
from eternity, but only within historical times. St. Paul,
when he wishes to express the idea conveyed by the versions
writes, irpo KaTafioXfis Koaptov, i.e. " before the foundation of
the world." (Eph. i. 4.)
So again the Apostle writes : —
" Far above all rule, and authority, and power, and domi
nion, and every name that is named, not only in this world
but also in that which is to come." (Eph. i. 21.)
Here again the Revisers have given the exact meaning in
the margin : " Not only in this age but also in that which is
to come ;" the words, " this age," being used to denote the age
or dispensation under which the Apostle was living, and "the
age to come " the kingdom of the Messiah in its future
glorious manifestation.
A few verses further on he thus writes : —
" Wherein aforetime ye walked, according to the course of
this world (koto. toV alwvarov Koaptov tovtov)," or, as correctly
rendered in the margin, " according to the age of this world,"
the word alwva being here used to denote the existing state
of things as they came under the Apostle's observation, and
bearing only a very indefinite reference either to the past or
to the future.
In the next chapter we have the singular translation —
" To make all men see what is the dispensation of the
mystery which from all ages (awo rwv alwvwv) hath been
hid in God, who created all things .... according to the
eternal purpose («UTa -npoQeotv twv alwvwv) which he pur
posed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Eph. iii. 9 — 11.)
Here the same Greek words are rendered in one verse " from
the ages," and in the next but one by the word " eternal."
But while this is the rendering in the text, the Revisers have

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 213
thought it necessary to inform us in the margin that the
accurate translation of the Greek words is, not " the eternal
purpose," but " the purpose from the ages."
So again in the Epistle to the Romans : —
" According to the revelation of the mystery, which hath
been kept in silence through times eternal (xpovots alwvtots),
but now is manifested according to the commandment of the
eternal (alwvlov) God." (Rom. xvi. 25, 26.)
So also in the Epistle to Titus : —
" In hope of eternal (alwviov) life, which God, that cannot
lie, promised before times eternal (npo XP°VU>V alwvlwv)."
(Titus i. 2.)
In the second of these passages the Apostle affirms that God
promised "eternal life" before "times eternal." Here the
words "times eternal" are evidently used to denote, not
what we mean by eternity, but finite periods of time ; because
the Apostle affirms that God made the promise before these
" eternal times " (xpovwv alwvlwv) began. It is impossible,
therefore, that he could have intended to express by these
words what we understand by the expression, " the eternity
of the past," because he expressly affirms that these " eternal
times " had a beginning, when he says that the promise was
made before them. Similar also must be the meaning of
these words in the passage quoted from the Epistle to the
Romans. In each case the Apostle's meaning would be better
expressed by translating alwvlwv xpovwv, the age-long times,
for according to the commonly accepted meaning of the
word "eternal," to speak of anything as existing prior to
eternity is a contradiction in terms.
But in the same passage the Apostle uses the word alwvios
as an epithet of God. It may therefore be argued that it
must mean " eternal," in the sense of without beginning and
without end. But, inasmuch as the word alwvtos can only
convey the adjective meaning of the word alwv, and the

214 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
words alwv and alwves, when used to express duration, can
only express limited spaces of time, such as ages or dispen
sations, and their multiple, alwve? rav alwvwv, ages of ages,
i.e. limited spaces of time however long — for it is impossible,
by any process of multiplication, to make the same word
express the idea of limitation and the absence of it — there is
every reason for translating alwvtos Oedv, " the God who exists
throughout the ages," or, " the age-long God." When the
writers of the New Testament ascribe to Gocl existence with
out beginning, or existence without end, they use the words
aV8(oc, everlasting ; acpOapTos, incorruptible, 6 [t6vos exwv
aOavaoiav, who only hath immortality ; and the still more
definite expression used by the author of the Apocalypse,
to a, Kctt to w 6 wv, Kca 6 yv, ko.i 6 epxopuivos 6 iravTOKparwp,
the Alpha and the Omega, who is, and who was, and who is
to come, the Almighty. The language of the Old Testament,
however, is far richer than that of the New in its means of
expressing the self-existence of the Divine being. This idea
is conveyed whenever the sacred name Jehovah occurs ;
but it is completely lost sight of in the word Kvpio? (which
simply means Lord), which the Septuagint translators, owing
to their dread of uttering the sacred name, chose to substi
tute for it, from whom the writers of the New Testament,
who for the most part used this version, have borrowed it.
The ungrammatical Greek of the Apocalypse above quoted,
with its English translation, is the only expression in the
New Testament which adequately expresses the meaning
of the Divine name as it was revealed to Moses and used by
the other writers of the Old Testament Scriptures, bringing
prominently forward, as it did at every recurrence of it, the
idea of the self-existence of God.
This application of the word alwvtos to God, compared
with its usage by St. Jude, brings before us the extreme
limits within which the writers of the New Testament have

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 215
used it as an expression to denote duration. St. Jude writes
as follows : —
" Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them,
having in like manner with these given themselves over unto
fornication, and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an
example, suffering the punishment of eternal (alwvtos) fire ; "
or, as in the margin, "as an example of eternal fire, suffering
punishment" (Jude, verse 7).
Here the word alwvtos (rendered in both versions " eter
nal ") is evidently applied to the fire from heaven by which
the Book of Genesis tells us that these cities were destroyed,
and to the effects produced by it. It is impossible that the
passage can have been intended to be descriptive of the
punishment inflicted on the inhabitants of these cities in the
unseen world, because the writer refers to it as a visible and
palpable warning to sinners, whereas the punishments which
they will undergo beyond the grave are not visible and
palpable warnings, but matters of faith only. The writer of
the Epistle, therefore, when he applied the word alwvtos to
the fire by which these cities were consumed, must have
intended to affirm that the utter destruction of these cities
by fire from heaven had made them a permanent and
enduring monument of God's wrath against sin, and, as such,
a solemn warning to sinners in every age.
The following passage in St. Mark's Gospel shows the
importance in translating the words alwv and alwvto?, of
assigning to them a meaning strictly in conformity with that
which they bear in the original. Peter had just put the
question what they, i.e. the Apostles, should gain by having.
forsaken all and having followed Christ. Our Lord, having
promised them certain things which they would gain in this
life, adds, according to both versions : —
"And in the world to come" — the Revised Version has
placed " age " in the margin — " eternal life."

216 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
The Greek of this is, iv tw alwvt t£ epxofxivw gw>)v alwvtov.
Here, within three words of one another, the word alwv
is translated world and age, and its derivative alwvtov,
eternal. Surely the following translation is the exact repre
sentation of the Greek : "In the age to come, age-long life."
This would have rendered it clear to the English reader that
the word, here translated " eternal," cannot have suggested
to the speaker of Greek the idea of duration without limits.
If, however, notwithstanding St. Paul's assertion to the con
trary, it is urged that the " age to come," i.e. the kingdom of
the Messiah, will be one of unlimited duration, and conse
quently that the word alwv, without the addition of some
negative particle can denote duration without limits, then the
words ol alwves, the ages, and ol alwves twv alwvwv, " the
ages of ages," become meaningless.
So much for the positive meaning of the Avord alwv. But
when it is united with a term denoting negation, it is then
capable of expressing the idea of duration without limits. Of
this it will be sufficient to cite the following as examples : —
"Whosoever drinketh of this water shall never thirst."
Ov ptri ht-^-rjai] eh toV alwva. (John iv. 14.)
"If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death."
Qivarov oi /xiy Bewprja1)] eh tov alwva. (John viii. 51.)
"Whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die."
Ou /jli) a7ro6avff eh tov alwva. (John xi. 26.)
" Thou shalt never wash my feet." Ou pti) vl^np eh tov
alwva. (John xiii. 8.)
The union of the idea of negation with the word alwv
exerts precisely the same influence on its meaning as a similar
union does with English words which in themselves convey
the idea of limitation. Thus number becomes numberless ;
end, endless ; finite, infinite ; bound, boundless ; and many
others which it will be unnecessary to enumerate — the particle
of negation negativing the idea of limitation which is involved

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 217
in the finite term. The sense which the word alwv to?,
when used in conjunction with the word gwi) (hfe), bears in
the writings of St. John we will consider in a subsequent
chapter. The above passages prove that when the writers of the New
Testament employ the words alwv and alwvtov to denote
duration, they use them with great indefiniteness of meaning,
ranging from the remote period of the future, when the Son
shall deliver up the Messianic kingdom to the Father, to a
temporal judgment which is permanent in its effects, and
periods intermediate between them. Thus alwv is used to
denote the comparatively short period of the Jewish dispen
sation, and what St. Paul designates " this present evil age."
This indefiniteness of meaning would be better conveyed to
the English reader by introducing into the translation as an
alternative rendering the words age, or age-long, instead of
world, eternal, and everlasting. When, therefore, the English
reader meets in either version with such expressions as
everlasting, eternal, world, end of the world, world without
end, age, ages, the ages of ages, for ever and ever, the end
of the age, the consummation of the ages, &c, he should
always remember that these terms are all translations of the
Greek words alwv and alwvtov, except where the word world
is a translation of the Greek koo-[jlos or oUovpLevri 717, and
that the word Koo-ptos (world) is used in a great majority
of instances to denote not the material but the moral world,
and that when it is thus used it is nearly synonymous with
alwv novr/pos, this evil age, and is almost universally used in
a bad sense.
The opening address of the Epistle to the Galatians is a
striking example of the strange freedom with which both
versions have translated the word alwv, even when it is
used within four consecutive lines. Thus both concur in
translating Ik tov eveaTwTos alwvos 7rovvjpov, " from the pre-

218 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
sent evil Avorld," and two lines further on, eh tou? alwva?
Tft)j/ alwvwv, " for ever and ever." In the first instance, how
ever, the Revisers inform their readers in the margin that
the true meaning of the Avords is " the present evil age," and
not "the present evil world;" and in the second, that the
words eh tow alwva? twi/ alwvwv mean neither for ever
and ever, nor world without end, but, to the ages of ages ;
for alwv, being a positive term, can only denote in the
singular a period of limited but indefinite duration ; and in
the plural, periods of vast, indeterminate, yet limited dura
tion. Further, the fact that the Gnostic sects designated
those beings whom they conceived of as intermediate between
the Infinite God and the finite world by the term alwve?, aeons,
proves that the word alwv contained within itself the idea
of limitation as an essential portion of the conception involved
in it, for the last thing Avhich they intended to ascribe to
their imaginary alwve? was absolute or unlimited existence
either ex parte ante or ex parte post.
III. — Z«mj (Life), and QavaTo? (Death).
The words gwrj and OdvaTo? bear the same wide mean
ing in the Greek of the New Testament as the words life and
death bear in popular English, that of the one being the
direct negative of the other. What life is in itself we know
not ; and this being so, we are equally ignorant of what con
stitutes death. Both are used as designations of certain Avell-
knoAvn phenomena. As, however, the terms " life " and
" death " occupy an important place in this controversy, it will
be necessary to offer a few observations on the various senses
in which they are used by the sacred writers. Let us begin
with death.
The primary meaning of this word is the cessation of the
phenomena of life, whether it be that of a vegetable, an
animal, or a man. From this, its 'primary meaning, it has

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 219
passed into a number of secondary or metaphorical ones. So
also has life. Here, however, we have only to consider what
these words mean when applied to man.
To those who hold that man consists of nothing but the
particles of matter which compose his body, death means the
extinction of his personal conscious being. But inasmuch as
all mankind, with the exception of a small number of philoso
phical materialists, and it may be with the exception of a few
tribes Avho are sunk into a condition of the loAvest barbarism,
are firmly persuaded that there is something in man which is
separate and distinct from his bodily organism, these, Avhen
they use the word death, do not attach to it the idea of the
annihilation of the personality, because they believe that it is
capable of being separated from the body, and at death that
it passes into the underworld, where it continues to exist, it
may be, in a state of great weakness, yet still that it con
tinues to exist there as a conscious personality. The word
death, therefore, as used in its popularly accepted meaning,
does not involve the idea of the destruction of the man ; and
as the Greek words in the New Testament are used not in a
special technical sense, but in their ordinary accepted mean
ing, it does not denote this, unless there is something in the
context which renders it necessary that this meaning should
be assigned to it. Still less can it denote continued existence
in never-ending misery.
Considerable importance has been attached in this contro
versy to the meaning intended to be conveyed by the threaten
ing, " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,"
which was denounced against Adam as the penalty of violat
ing the command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, as though it determined the
sense in which the Avord death is used in Scripture when it
is threatened as the penalty of sin, or as defining the nature
of the spiritual condition in which mankind are born. As I

220 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
have considered the nature and meaning of this threatening
in a previous chapter, I need not repeat it here.
The word death, like all other general terms, has passed
by analogy to denote ideas to Avhich in its primary signifi
cation it is not strictly applicable. In such cases its meaning
is more or less wide and incapable of strict definition. Thus,
when we say that a man is become dead to a sense of right
and wrong, we do not mean by it that his moral nature has
ceased to exist, but that certain of its perceptions have
become weak or powerless. So likewise when we speak of
those affections which make up what we designate his spiritual
nature, such as love, benevolence, self-sacrifice, reverence, and
a vast number of others, and say of certain classes of men
that they are spiritually dead, we do not mean that
their affections have become so utterly extinct that not
even the rudiments of them remain, but that they are sunk
into such a state of weakness that the appetites which are their
opposites, and the animal passions, so greatly preponderate
as to hold their action in abeyance. In a similar manner we
speak of a man born blind as dead to a sense of colour, and
of one born deaf as dead to a sense of sound ; but all that we
mean by these and similar expressions is that he has no idea
of the meaning of the one or the other, owing to some imper
fection in his organs of sensation, and not that those mental
powers by which colours and sounds are perceived are extinct
in him, nor even that he would be incapable of perceiving
them if the physical obstructions were removed. Thus in ordi
nary language we apply the word " death " by analogy to a
great variety of subjects without intending to affirm, or even
to imply, that that which we speak of as dead has actually
perished. To take an extreme case, we speak in popular lan
guage of a limb as dead, yet we do not mean to affirm that it
has perished even as a limb, but only that the circulation of
the blood is carried on in it very imperfectly, or is temporarily

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 221
suspended. Equally wide is the use of the word death in the
New Testament when it is applied to the moral or spiritual
condition of man, and its precise meaning can only be deter
mined by a careful consideration of the context. Of this
width of meaning we have a remarkable example in St. Paul's
First Epistle to Timothy : " But she," says he, " who giveth
herself to pleasure is dead while she liveth." Of such a
woman the context makes it plain that the Apostle did not
mean to affirm that she was become actually dead to all moral
and spiritual good, but only that her moral and spiritual
hfe was far too much dominated over by her appetites and
passions. The seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is a
remarkable example of the wide sense in which the words
" life" and " death " are used by the Apostolic writers. It
demands therefore our careful consideration.
" Are ye ignorant," says St. Paul, " how that the law hath
dominion over a man as long as he liveth ? For the woman
that hath an husband is bound by the law to the husband,
Avhile he liveth ; but if the husband die, she is discharged
from the law of the husband. So, then, if while the husband
liveth she is joined to another man, she shall be called an
adulteress ; but if the husband die, she is freed from the law,
so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another
man." (Rom. vii. 1 — 3.)
Here the words "life" and "death," when applied to
the husband, are obviously used in their primary signifi
cation to denote physical life and physical death respectively,
but in the very next sentence the Apostle proceeds to use the
Avord death in a sense highly metaphorical.
" Wherefore," says he, " ye also were made dead to the law
through the body of Christ, that ye should be joined to
another, even to him that was raised from the dead, that we
might bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the

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flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law,
wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now Ave have been discharged from the law, having
died to that wherein avc were held, so that we serve in new
ness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." (Rom. vii.
4—6.) I need hardly remark, that in this passage the words " dead "
and " death" are used in three, if not in four, different senses.
What, then, does the Apostle mean when he says, " Ye also
were made dead to the law through the body of Christ,
that ye should be joined to another," &c. &c. ? Obviously,
that the work of Christ, having rendered the entire system of
legalism nugatory, the Christian is as completely freed from
all obligation to observe it as the wife is freed from the mar
riage bond by the husband's death ; and that having become
convinced of the powerlessness of legalism and its sanctions,
as a motive to holiness, he should take refuge in those new
moral and spiritual forces which are brought to bear on man
by the Gospel, which the Apostle fully describes in the eighth
chapter of this Epistle. He then adds, " But when we were
in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law
wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death."
What does he mean by this assertion ? I answer, that the
appetites and passions of man's animal nature being thus
roused into activity, and no power being furnished by legahsm
of sufficient strength to overcome their violence, gain so
complete a dominion over the entire man that they overbear
his higher affections and almost extinguish them. I say
" almost," because the existence of the struggle proves that
they were not extinguished altogether. "But noAV," adds the
Apostle, "we are discharged from the law, having died to
that wherein we Avere held." What is the death here spoken
of ? Clearly, the discovery of the spiritual and moral power
lessness of legalism as a motive to holiness, the ceasing to

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 223
trust in it, and the determination to have done with it for
evermore. Two verses further on we read : —
" But sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the com
mandment all manner of coveting ; for apart from the law
sin is dead. For I was alive apart from the law once ; but
when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. . . .
For sin, finding occasion by the commandment, beguiled me,
and by it slew me." (Rom. vii. 8 — 11.)
The Apostle is here alluding to the fact, that a com
mandment forbidding the gratification of a powerful appetite
often excites in those who are animated by no higher motive
than legalism can furnish, an increased desire to gratify it.
In speaking of sin " finding occasion," " Avorking in him
all manner of coveting," " deceiving him," and " slaying
him," the word " sin " is evidently a personification of man's
evil appetites and passions. What, then, does he mean Avhen
he says, that apart from the law sin is dead ? Not that these
passions were non-existent in him, but that they were com
paratively quiescent until they Avere stirred into activity by
the commandment forbidding their gratification. He then
adds, " I was alive apart from the law once." Surely, by the
Avords " I was alive," he did not mean to affirm that as a
legalist he was then a holy man, or what has been called
" spiritually alive ; " and that a full appreciation of the com
mandment caused him to sink into a condition of spiritual
death ; but that, prior to his attaining to a full sense of the
Avide-reaching character of the demands of the law, he thought
that he Avas a holy man, or that he was in a fair Avay of
becoming one. When, however, " the commandment came,"
¦i.e. when he had learned to appreciate the full extent of its
demands, " sin came to hfe again," or, in other words, his
sense of sin burst forth into fresh activity, and " he died,"
i.e. his hopes and expectations, derived from his original

224 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
legal standpoint, perished. So varied are the senses in which
the words sin, death, life, and their equivalents are used in
this single chapter.
The Apostle then proceeds with the description of his
spiritual struggles.
" So the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and
righteous, and good. Did then that which is good become
death to me ? God forbid ; but sin, that it might be shown
to be sin, by working death in me, through that which is good,
that through the commandment sin might become exceeding
sinful." (Rom. vii. 12, 13.)
Here, again, the word " death " is used in a double sense,
viz. first, as denoting the increased activity of his evil pas
sions, and, secondly, the destruction of his hopes of attaining
to holiness. So, also, the word " sin " is used in a twofold
sense, denoting in the first place the effects produced by the
activity of the evil appetites and passions, and, in the second,
the sense of the evil of their activity. In conformity with
these views, in the remainder of the chapter the Apostle
speaks of himself as possessing a kind of double personality,
one of which was constantly struggling against the other ; the
one being a personification of those appetites and passions
which were constantly instigating him to sin, the other being
his conscience and his moral and spiritual affections, which
led him to delight in the law of God after the inward man.
Still he found it a matter of practical experience, that as
long as he had nothing to fall back upon but the princi
ples of legalism, his higher nature was uniformly overborne
by his lower, i.e. by the overwhelming force of his appetites
and passions ; and in view of this he exclaims, " 0 wretched
man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death ?" but he immediately adds, " I thank God, through
Jesus Christ our Lord ;" and in the following chapter he pro
ceeds to explain the nature and the mode of this deliverance.

NEAV TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 225
The popularly accepted doctrines respecting Regeneration
and Conversion have exerted no little influence in leadinp*
the ordinary reader to attach a kind of technical sense to the
terms "life" and "death," as they are used in portions of
the NeAV Testament. These lay down that unless a man has
passed through certain experiences, which are denoted by
these terms, whatever may be his moral goodness he is yet
spiritually dead ; that he has nothing in him which is pleas
ing to God, and that consequently he is an outcast from the
kingdom of heaven. According, to these theories, regenera
tion, Avhich, in its popular sense, can only by the aid of a
subtle analysis be distinguished from conversion, is the
creation of a new nature in one who is spiritually dead,
Avhereby the entire man is transformed, by a creative act on
the part of God, from what is designated a state of spiritual
death into one which is called a state of spiritual life ; the
change in question being one so distinct and palpable as to
be capable of being distinctly perceived by the consciousness
of those Avho experience it, and involving quite as much a
creative act as the imparting life to a dead body. Hence the
broad distinction Avhich these theories lay down between the
converted and the unconverted, the regenerate and the un-
regenerate man, the one being fit to inherit the perfected
kingdom of God, and the other an outcast from it and ex
posed to all the consequences of the fall.
To theories of this kind, however, the following objections
are fatal : —
. First : They cannot be found in Scripture.
Secondly : There are numbers of undeniably holy men, men
who have sacrificed everything for Christ, and who, by exhibit
ing in their lives the principles of Christianity, have been Avhat
St. Paul calls "Epistles of Christ, known and read of all
men," who have not passed through the experiences in ques
tion. Not a few are there who having been born into the'

226 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
Church of Christ, and brought up under religious influences,
have never been sensible of haAing experienced such a
change of mind, feeling, and character as is denoted by such
expressions as passing from a state of spiritual death into one
of spiritual life ; and who have never been conscious of a
time when they were not the subjects of serious religious im
pressions, and of whom it cannot be said, as it may be said
Avith truth of heathen converts, and of professing Christians
who resemble them, that they have turned from darkness
unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God.
Such, then, are the indefinite senses in which St. Paul
uses the terms life and death. If the reader will peruse
the sixth chapter of this Epistle he will find the word
death there used in an equally wide and general sense. Let
us now consider its meaning when it is spoken of as the
penalty of sin. The following will be sufficient as illustra
tions : —
"The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is
eternal (alwvto?) life in Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom.
vi. 23.)
" If ye live after the flesh ye must "die (pteXXeTe dvoOvrjaKeiv,
are about to die), but if by the spirit ye mortify [margin,
make to die] the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (Rom.
viii. 13.)
In neither of these passages is there any warning given
that the words " death " and " to die " are used in any other
sense than that in which their Greek equivalents would
have been understood by ordinary speakers of Greek; still
less would it have occurred to such that the writer meant his
readers to understand by these terms a never-ending existence
in torment. Surely, if so fearful a fate Avas the thing intended,
the Apostle would have expressed himself in Avords the mean
ing of which was unmistakable, and not have left it as a matter
of very uncertain inference.

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 227
But in the following passage the meaning of the word
" die" is intensified by the context : —
" If ye believe not that I am he," says our Lord, " ye shall
die in your sins."
Here it is obvious that if the Divine speaker meant to
threaten those whom He was ^ addressing with bodily death,
or mere loss of existence, the addition of "in your sins"
would have been a pleonasm, because in that case it would
matter little whether a man died in sin or died in holiness,
for the saint and the sinner would at death pass alike into
a state of unconsciousness, undisturbed even by a dream.
The threatening of dying in sin unquestionably suggests that
the consequences of sin committed here would follow the
sinner in the unseen world. At the same time it contains no
hint that the consequences of dying in sin, instead of involv
ing death in any ordinary sense of that word, would be
never-ending life in never-ending suffering.
It would be easy to adduce numerous other examples of
the use of the terms gwrj (life) and BdvaTo? (death), and others
of kindred meaning, by the sacred writers, which prove
that they used them in the wide general sense which they
bear in ordinary Greek, and in the corresponding English ;
but those which I have referred to will, I think, be
amply sufficient for that purpose. They prove that it was
impossible that the Avord "death" could have been used by
them or understood by those to Avhom they wrote, in a
technical sense, denoting a condition of endless existence in
never-ending misery.
IV. — 'A-noXeia, d-KoXXvpti, oXeBpo?, e^oXoBpevw, Sta(p6etpw,
airoKTelvw, and other kindred terms.
All these words (to a speaker- of Greek) Avould convey the
idea of destruction, or one closely analogous to it ; and it is
impossible, unless some qualification were added to them
q2

228 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
intensifying their meaning, that they could convey any other
to an ordinary speaker of the Greek language. I will adduce
a few examples of their use by the sacred writers : — ¦
" God," says our Lord, " is able to destroy both soul and
body in Gehenna." Here the Greek word is aitoXeaat, which
corresponds closely in meaning with our English word " des
troy." Who, I ask, could by any possibility have understood
this utterance as meaning, God is able to keep alive both soul
and body in everlasting misery in Gehenna ?
"He that loveth his life" (the word for life is here ^irxri,
soul) "shall lose it" [aTroXeaet avTrjv, which strictly rendered
is, " shall destroy it" ] ; " but he that hateth his life (^vxn) in
this world shall ke|p it unto life eternal" (eh £wrjv alwvtov, to
the age-long. life). (John xii. 25.)
Here again the Greek-speaking Christian would under
stand by the word atroXeaei the ordinary idea denoted by the
term, destroy ; and the word would wholly fail to convey to
him that of existence in never-ending torment, without some
previous intimation that such was its intended meaning.
Similar, also, is the sense of the words in the two folio-wing
passages : —
"Broad is the road that leadeth unto destruction, el?
dvoXetav." (Matt. vii. 13.)
" Vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction, eh wiroXetav.".
(Rom. ix. 22.)
No hint is given in either of these passages that the
words were not intended to be understood in their ordinary
meaning. So, also, in the following passages : —
" God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish (im)
a-7roXr]Tai), but have eternal life" (gwvjv alwvtov, age-long life).
(John iii. 16.)
" For through thy knowledge, he that is weak perisheth

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 229
(aTToXXeiTai), the brother for whom Christ died." (1 Cor.
viii 11.)
"For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish
(d7roAouVTat) without law." (Rom. ii. 12.)
Surely in none of these passages would the speaker of
Greek understand that the thing intended by the word here
used was not perishing or destruction in the ordinary sense
of these words, but endless existence in torment, unless there
was some intimation in the context that this was the thing
intended, or unless the members of the Churches had been
previously taught to attach this special technical, but most
unnatural, meaning to the words in question.
But in the following passage the meaning" slightly differs : —
"The word of the cross is to them that are perishing
(toi? a7roXXvpievoi?) foolishness." (1 Cor. i. 18.) Here the
words " them that are perishing " evidently denote an act
not yet completed ; and, as far as the words are concerned,
one which may be of long or short duration, but which will
ultimately terminate in destruction.
"Who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction
(oXeOpov alwvtov) from the face of the Lord and from the
glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified in his
saints," &c. (2 Thess. i. 9, 10.)
In this passage the ordinary meaning of the word "destruc
tion " is qualified, not only by the word alwvtov, but by the
words which precede and follow. The destruction threatened
is "destruction from the face of the Lord, and from the
glory of his might," " at the revelation of Jesus Christ from
heaven with the angels of his power, in flaming fire, render
ing vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that
obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Who then are the persons against whom this threatening
is directed ? The context proves that those whom the Apostle
-had in view, when he wrote this passage, were the persecutors

230 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
of the Thessalonian Church. This the preceding context
makes certain : —
- " So that we ourselves glory in you in the Churches of
God, for your patience and faith in all your persecutions, and
in the afflictions Which ye endure ; which is a manifest token
of the righteous judgment of God, to the end that ye may be
accounted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also
suffer ; if so be it is a righteous thing with God to recom
pense affliction to them that afflict you ; and to you that are
afflicted rest with us at the revelation of our Lord Jesus
Christ from heaven." (2 Thess. i. 4 — 7.)
This passage makes it clear that the members of this Church
had recently been suffering very heavy persecutions, and that
it is against their persecutors that the threatening is imme
diately directed ; for, says the Apostle, if so be that it is a
righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that
fifflict you, and to you that are afflicted rest with us at the
revelation of Jesus Christ from heaven." We know also from
the First Epistle that both the Apostle and the members of the
Thessalonian Church thought that the triumphant manifesta-
'tion of the kingdom of , God, and the personal appearance, of
Christ to reign in it, was an event not far distant ; and although
in his Second Epistle he thought it necessary to warn them
that " the day of the Lord was not now present, but that an
¦apostacy would precede its manifestation," yet it is impossible
to reconcile the language which he uses in both these Epistles
'with the idea that he considered that the coming (Ttapowta,
presence) of the Lord was a remote event, or even that it
might not happen during the lifetime of those to whom he
,was writing. It was with such an expectation then that
he wrote the passage before us. Time, however, has proved
that both he and, the Thessalonian Christians were mistaken
in thinking that the personal coming of Christ was thus near ;
;but on the other hand, a great providential coming, by which

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 231
the Jewish dispensation was brought to a close, was an event
which was only seventeen years distant. Hence it is that
with these views of the nearness of the Advent he speaks of
their persecutors as being destroyed from the face of the Lord
and from the glory of his power.
But the destruction is described as an act of \rengeance.
"Rendering vengeance," says he, "to them that know not
God, and to them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ ; who shall suffer punishment." By using these words
it is clear that the Apostle did not mean either that their mere
exclusion from the presence of the Lord, or their simple
annihilation was the thing intended, but that the destruction
in question would be a fearful act of retribution.
But in the latter part of the clause, using as he does the
words " them that know not God, and them that obey not
the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ," he seems to extend the
threatened destruction beyond the mere persecutors of the
Thessalonian Church. Doubtless he had other persecutors in
view, and such enemies of Christ as he refers to in the next
chapter ; but by the Avords in question he could not have
meant mere ignorant unbelievers — for he had recently declared
at Athens that " the times of this ignorance God overlooked "
— but direct opponents of Christ and his Gospel.
What then does the Apostle mean, and what did the Thes
salonian Christians understand, by the words alwvtov oXeOpov,
which the Revisers have translated "eternal destruction,"
thus substituting " eternal " for the " everlasting " of the
Authorised Version. The Greek words oXe6po?, and oXXvpa,
from which it is derived, correspond as nearly as possible in
meaning with our English words " destruction " and " to des
troy," while the qualifying'word, alwvto?, is "age-long." Hence
it seems impossible that either the Apostle, or those to whom
he wrote, could have understood by these words " a never-
ending existence in never-ending misery." How is it pos-

232 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
sible that by the use of any quahfying adjective the word
destruction can be made to mean the everlasting existence of
the thing destroyed; that is to say, a destruction which is
never realised ? As then the former words of the Apostle
affirm that " the destruction " which he spoke of would be
a terrible act of retribution on the persecutors of whom he
spoke and on the deliberate opponents of Christ and His
Gospel, so, the addition of the qualifying adjective alwvtov
can only mean that the threatened " destruction " would be
final and complete.
The following passage in the First Epistle proves that the
meaning which has been above assigned to the word " destruc
tion " is the one intended by the Apostle.
" But when they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden
destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with
child, and they shall in no wise escape." (1 Thess. v. 3.)
Would any ordinary speaker of Greek have understood
that alcpviito? oXeBpo?, i.e. " sudden destruction," meant in this
passage " never-ending existence in never-ending misery,"
unless he had been previously informed that such was the
meaning intended by the writer ?
The following passage from the parable of the wicked
husbandmen illustrates the meaning which the kindred word
airoXXvpu, to destroy, bears in the sacred writers.
" When therefore the Lord of the vineyard shall come,
Avhat will he do unto these husbandmen ? They say unto
him, He will miserably destroy these miserable men, and will
let out the vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall
render him its fruits in their seasons." (Matt. xxi. 40, 41.)
Here it is evident that those who made this reply under
stood by the words, " He will miserably destroy these miserable
men," that the lord of the vineyard would punish these
Wicked husbandmen by putting them to one of those terrible
forms of death which were so common in the ancient world.

NEW TESTAMENT TERMINOLOGY. 233
Precisely similar is the use in the New Testament of the
words cpOopd, corruption, hacpOitpw, to destroy, e^oXoBpevw, to
destroy utterly, cntoKTeivw, to kill, Kpiot?, xplpta, KaraKpipia,
and other kindred terms, all meaning judgment, or con
demnation, but never the damnation of popular theology ;
dvaXiaKw, when applied to, persons, to kill or destroy, and
KaTapyew, to make useless or to abolish. To assign to these
words, and to1 the others above referred to, any other mean
ing than that which they bore in the ordinary Greek which
was spoken by the members, of different apostohc Churches, is
to destroy every principle of sound scriptural interpretation.
My general conclusion with respect to, the terminology of
the New Testament in relation to future retribution there
fore is, that the Greek words which are used by its writers
conveyed the same general meaning to a Greek-speaking
Christian as the corresponding English ones do to a reader
of English ; that they are used in their commonly accepted
signification, and not in a special or technical sense, which
Avould have been intelligible only to the initiated ; that
taking them as a whole, they were calculated to convey to
the reader the firm persuasion that it was the intention of
the writer to affirm that God will execute a righteous judg
ment on mankind in the world beyond the grave, when he
will reward and punish men according to their deeds ; and
that sin wilfully persisted in will be attended with suffering
which will end in the ultimate destruction of the sinner ; yet
that none of the terms employed in their ordinary or natural
meaning convey even a hint that the suffering will be of
endless duration. The general idea which they are calculated
to suggest to the mind of the reader may be well expressed
in the words of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews,
" It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of. the living
God ! " but they furnish us with no definite information
respecting the nature of the sufferings, or the length of time

234 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
they will have to be endured. For aught we know, sin
wilfully persisted in, i.e. evil become inherent and irreme
diable, which resists every means' of cure consistent Avith
the preservation of free agency in a moral being, may
bring about the destruction of the sinner in the course of
God's ordinary government of the moral and spiritual
world, without the necessity of any special intervention on
his part, just as disease brings about the destruction of the
body under God's ordinary government of the natural world.
I do not say that this will be so ; but the idea is quite con
sistent with all we know of the mode of the Divine acting in
both the moral and physical universe, in which, under His
superintendence and energising providence, all things are
made to work out His holy pleasure.

CHAPTER X.
The Teaching of the Synoptic Gospels and op the Acts op the Apostles
respecting the Nature op Future Retribution.
Having considered the terminology of the New Testament in
connection with future retribution, it is now necessary that I
should consider its positive affirmations respecting its nature.
I shall commence Avith the three first Gospels and the Acts
of the Apostles, because beyond all question these Gospels
contain an account of our Lord's popular teaching, whereas
the fourth Gospel is almost exclusively confined to reporting
such of his discourses as were addressed either to his intimate
followers or to learned Jews. To these I have added the Acts
of the Apostles, because it is not only in reality a continua
tion of the third Gospel, but it contains an account of the
popular teaching of the Apostles.
¦ The teaching of the Gospels respecting retribution is uni
formly associated with the great idea which interpenetrates
them, viz. that of the kingdom of heaven. Although I have
considered the position which this idea occupies in the Scrip
tures of the New Testament, its nature, and character, in
another work,* it will be necessary before entering on the
immediate subject of this chapter to offer a few very brief
observations on the important place which it occupies in the
apostolic writings. If any of my readers should desire fur
ther information on this subject, I must refer them to the
* " Revelation and Modern Theology Contrasted ; or, the Simplicity of the
Apostolic Gospel Demonstrated."

236 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
Avork in which I have considered it at length, and given proofs
of the positions which I here lay down.
The reader cannot fail to observe that the idea of the king
dom of heaven, or what is synonymous with it, the kingdom
of God, is one which underlies the entire Gospels. In St.
Matthew's Gospel these words occur no less than forty-one
times. Equally numerous are the occasions in which our
Lord is described as performing actions which proved Him to
be the Christ, i.e. the king of the kingdom of God ; and in
no inconsiderable portion of His teaching He assumes the
character of its supreme legislator, and the evangelists not un
frequently describe His entire teaching as a proclamation " of
the good news " of that kingdom. John the Baptist also com
menced his ministry with the proclamation, " Repent ye, for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand." So hkewise did our Lord.
St. Mark thus reports it : " Jesus came into Galilee preach
ing the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled
(TreTrXripwrat, i.e. filled up full), and the kingdom of God is at
hand ; repent ye, and believe in the gospel," i.e. in the good
news. In like manner, when at a later period of His ministry
He sent the twelve apostles and the seventy disciples out on
their respective missions, He directed them to proclaim that
the kingdom of heaven was at hand ; and to enable them to
give proof of the truth of their affirmation, He endowed them
with the power of working miracles. The same course He pur
sued throughout His entire ministry, to its very close ; for
not only are His parables explanations of different aspects of
the kingdom of God, and corrections of the popular misconcep
tions respecting it, but on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem
He openly assumed the Messianic title, and allowed Himself
to be proclaimed its king ; and when the Jewish rulers,^a few
days afterwards, charged Him before Pilate with going about
and saying that He was the Christ, a king, He affirmed that
He was a king, but the king of a kingdom not of this world,

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 237
but of one which is spiritual and moral, i.e. of the kingdom
of God.
The contents of the Gospels, then, may be briefly summed
up as consisting of a proclamation of the speedy setting up
of a kingdom called the Kingdom of God, a description of its
nature, an annunciation of its principles and its laws and of the
necessary qualifications for becoming its subjects, a delineation
of the character of its king, and a proclamation of Jesus of
Nazareth as its king. Yet, strange to say, although this
forms their subject-matter, and the subject-matter of the
teaching of our Lord Himself, the idea of the kingdom of
God scarcely finds any place in either systematic or popular
theology, but in its place has been substituted a number of
abstract dogmas as constituting the essence of Christianity.
The point, however, to which it is necessary to draw special
attention, in reference to the subject we are considering, is
that our Lord's affirmations respecting future retribution are
inseparably bound up with the idea of the kingdom of God,
as it is explained and illustrated in His teaching.
Let it be observed also that the kingdom of God of the
Gospels, and of the Acts of the Apostles, is the same institu
tion as that which is designated the Church in this last book
and in the Epistles. In the Gospels it receives the name of
the Church twice only ; in the Acts of the Apostles the words,
the Church and the kingdom of God, are used in nearly
equal proportions as designations of the same community ;
but in the Epistles, while the words " the kingdom of God"
are far from wanting, the term Church greatly preponderates.
What, then, is meant by the kingdom of God, the idea
of which is thus closely interwoven with the teaching of our
Lord and his Apostles ? I answer, that it is the designation
of that society, the promise of the setting up of which occu
pies so conspicuous a place in the scriptures of the Old Testa
ment, the advent of which was the subject of eager desire

238 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
both prior to and during our Lord's ministry ; which was
erected as a visible community on earth on the day of Pente
cost, and which will continue to exist until every opposing
power has been placed under the feet of the Son of God, after
which, the purposes of its institution having been fully reahsed,
the Son Avill resign the kingdom to the Father, that God may
be all in all.
While this is the general meaning of the kingdom of God
in the apostolic writings, the reader ought carefully to observe
that the sacred Avriters contemplate it under two aspects.
First —
The kingdom of God of the present dispensation, during
the continuance of which the evil will be mingled with the
good. This may be properly designated the period of its
growth. Secondly —
That aspect of it which is referred to in various Scriptures
when all evil shall be gathered out of it, the complete pur
poses of its institution realised, and during which all nations
will become its subjects. It is to this last state of things
that the various affirmations of the Christian Scriptures re
specting retribution are directly applicable. The division of
the kingdom of Christ into these two seons, or dispensations, is
distinctly recognised in the following utterance of St. Paul : —
" That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and reA^elation in the
knowledge of him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened,
that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what
the riches of the glory of the inheritance in the saints, and
Avhat the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who
beheve, according to the working of the strength of his
might, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from
the dead, and made him to sit on his right hand in the
heavenly places ; far above all rule, and authority, and power,

THE SYNOFTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 239
and dominion, not only in this age, but also in that which is
to come (ev tw alwvi tovtw, aXXa. Kal iv to. pteXXovTt), and
gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which
is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all."
(Eph. i. 17—23.)
The Jews, it is true, appear to have divided time into three
ages or dispensations, viz. the patriarchal age, the age of the
Mosaic dispensation, and the age to come, or the kingdom of
the Messiah ; but to neither of the two first of these are the
Avords of the Apostle, " not only in this age but also in that
which is to come," applicable, for it was only after his resur
rection that Jesus Christ was given to be the head over all
things to the Church. It follows, therefore, that the words
" not only in this age " must have been intended by the
Apostle to refer to the present Christian dispensation, or the
period of the Church's growth, and the age which is to come
to the kingdom of Christ in its glorious manifestation. Let it
be observed, however, that it is not two, but one and the same
kingdom of God, which is referred to both in the Old and the
New Testament, the descriptions of it in the former being
almost exclusively confined to the period of its glorious
manifestation. With these observations let us now consider
the direct affirmations of the Gospels respecting future retri
bution and its nature.
The first reference to it is in the preaching of John the
Baptist, in connection with his proclamation of the immediate
advent of the kingdom of God. Seeing many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he thus addressed them —
" Ye offspring of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from
the Avrath to come ?" &c. ; and " even now is the axe laid to
the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that bringeth
not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire."
(Matt. iii. 7, 10.)
Then, speaking of the coming Messiah, he adds —

&

240 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
" Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse
his ; threshing-floor, and he will gather his wheat into his
garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable
fire." (Matt. iii. 12.)
The first question which suggests itself in connection with
the Baptist's preaching is : What was the "wrath to come
which he warned the Pharisees and Sadducees to flee from ?
Was it punishment after death, or was it that terrible over-
throAV of the Jewish Church and nation which took place some
forty years afterwards, when the kingdom of God was finally
taken from them and given to the Gentiles ?
¦I answer that the Baptist described the wrath to come,
which he warned those whom he was addressing to flee from,
under two metaphors.
First, The act of cutting down a fruitless tree, and the
casting it into the fire ; and,
Secondly, The act of the winnower, who carefully sepa
rates the wheat from the chaff, the first of Avhich he gathers
into his barn, and the last he burns with unquenchable fire.
Both of these metaphors denote destruction, and, as applied
to sentient beings, painful destruction ; yet, even if this
threatening be supposed to apply to any judgment executed
beyond the grave on those whom he addressed, it is simply
impossible that those who heard it could have understood
that either metaphor could have been intended to mean
endless existence in never-ending torment, Avithout some
intimation on the part of the speaker that such was the
intended meaning of the warning. A fire may be unquench
able, but at the same time utterly destructive of that which
is cast into it. Besides, both the tree and the chaff are
described as cast into the fire and burnt, i.e. consumed.
Both metaphors are exactly suited to convey the idea of de
struction, but neither of them could possibly suggest that of
everlasting existence in torment.

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 241
Similar but still more terrible denunciations, uttered by
our Lord against the scribes and Pharisees, are recorded in the
twenty-third chapter of St. MattheAV — perhaps the most awful
utterances in the NeAv Testament. One of these denunciations
is as folloAvs : —
" Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because
ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men ; for ye enter
not yourselves, neither suffer them that are entering to enter."
(Matt, xxiii. 13.)
I draw special attention to this passage because it proves
beyond dispute that the kingdom of heaven, which these
scribes and Pharisees were capable of shutting against men,
cannot possibly mean that kingdom in its future glorious
manifestation, or the place popularly designated " heaven,"
or, as the kingdom of heaven is sometimes understood to
mean, a certain condition of mind and character ; for neither
of these had either scribe or Pharisee any power to shut
against men ; but that kingdom of God into which men are
now capable of entering, viz. the Messianic kingdom, Avhich
our Lord had again and again declared to be one of the great
purposes of His mission to set up.
The only passage in this awful chapter which can be sup
posed to be a reference to a future state of retribution is the
following : —
" Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape
the judgment of Gehenna !" (Matt, xxiii. 33.)
The meaning of the words, " the judgment of Gehenna,"
we will consider presently. Before doing so, however, I must
ask the reader's attention to the concluding words of this
terrible denunciation : —
" Therefore, behold I send unto you prophets, and wise
men, and scribes ; and some of them shall ye kill, and crucify ;
and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and
persecute from city to city ; that upon you may come ail the

242 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the
righteous, unto the blood of Zachariah the son of Barachiah,
whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Verily,
I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this genera
tion. 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets,
and stonest them that are sent unto her ; how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold
your house is left unto you desolate." (Matt, xxiii. 34 — 38.)
These words prove conclusively that the prominent idea in
the mind of the Divine speaker, throughout this discourse,
was that terrible destruction — perhaps the most awful in the
history of the world — which overtook the Jewish nation when
the old dispensation was brought to its final termination by
that great visitation of Providence which rendered the cele
bration of its rites and ceremonies impossible for the future,
and the Church of Jesus Christ was for ever separated from
Judaism, and set up as a distinct and visible community on
earth. The judgment spoken of in this concluding passage is
evidently a temporal and national judgment, because our
Lord expressly says, that all the past sins of the Jewish people
would be visited on that generation, and not a judgment to
be executed on men as individuals. Nations do not exist
beyond the grave ; and, therefore, if their sins are visited
upon them — and all history proves that they are — the judg
ments with which they are visited must be temporal judg
ments, brought on in the ordinary course of Providence, in
which alone it is that the iniquities of ancestors, can, in con
formity Avith Divine justice, be visited on their descendants ;
because, whatever has the appearance of injustice in such
judgments, taken by themselves, or in the general course of
Divine Providence, will receive its vindication when God
judges in righteousness men as individuals, by that man
whom He hath ordained.

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 243
In the following passages our Lord threatens certain sins
with the judgment of Gehenna, which in both versions is
unfortunately translated hell.
" I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his
brother shall be in danger of the judgment ; and whosoever
shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the
council ; and whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger
of the hell {i.e. the Gehenna] of fire" (ttjv yeevvav tov nvpo?).
(Matt. v. 22.)
" And if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it
out and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one
of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body
should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand causeth thee
to stumble, cut it off and cast it from thee, for it is profitable
for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that
thy whole body should be cast into hell." (Matt. v. 29, 30.)
Here, again, the word rendered hell is Gehenna.
A similar utterance is recorded by St. Mark, with the fol
lowing variations : —
" It is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than
having two hands to go into hell [Gehenna], into the un
quenchable fire.* .... It is good for thee to enter the
kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having tAvo eyes
to be cast into hell [Gehenna] where their worm dieth not
and the fire is not quenched." (Mark ix. 43 — 48.)
In these utterances our Lord addresses men as individuals,
and these warnings are beyond all doubt couched in language
which is highly metaphorical. In the first of them our Lord
threatens three classes of sinners with three kinds of punish
ment, varying in degree, analogous to those which could be
* In the Authorised Version the words ro 7rip to aofieoTov, are inaccurately
translated, "the fire that never shall be quenched." The Greek says nothing
about the future; strictly rendered it is "the fire the unquenchable." The
idea suggested by being cast into a fire which is unquenchable is destruction.
which is utter and complete.
r2

244 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
inflicted by three Jewish courts of justice. These punishments,
beyond a doubt, bore a meaning which was well knoAvn to his
hearers, but, in our ignorance of their precise nature, they are
somewhat obscure to us. Our Lord, hoAvever, evidently in
tended to convey the idea of gradation in future punishment,
the last one threatened being the most terrible, being analogous
to what his hearers understood by the " Gehenna of fire."
In the second passage above quoted, the threatening, freed
from metaphor, affirms that it is profitable for a man to get
rid of a passion prompting him to sin, however loved, by any
means however violent, rather than that the whole man should
be cast into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, to Avhich in
the second clause is added, "where their worm dieth not and
the fire is not quenched ;" on the same principle that a man
would prefer to part with his right eye, or his right hand,
rather than that his whole body should be cast into it.
What, then, did our Lord mean, and what did his hearers
understand, by the words, "the Gehenna of fire" ?
The words, " where their worm dieth not and the fire is
not quenched," are evidently an allusion to the following
passage in Isaiah : —
" And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to
another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come
to worship before me" (i.e. at Jerusalem) " saith the Lord ;
and they shall go forth, and shall look at the carcases of
the men that have transgressed against me ; for their worm
shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they
shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." (Isaiah lxvi. 23, 24.)
In this passage it is obvious that not living beings but
dead carcases are spoken of as a prey of the worm that
never dies and of the fire which is never quenched. Such
imagery, however, was one pre-eminently fitted to impress a
Jew, a Greek, or a Roman with the idea of all that is terrible
in death — for nothing Avas more abhorrent to their feelings

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 245
than that the bodies of the dead should remain unburied ;
and, consequently, to convey to those who heard the utter
ance we are considering, the idea that some terrible form of
destruction awaited wilful sinners in the unseen world.
It is important to observe that the word Gehenna, here
translated " hell," is neither more nor less than the name of a
valley situated a short distance from Jerusalem. To a Jew it
conveyed the idea of everything which was odious, for it had
not only been the scene of the Moloch worship of former times,
in which living victims were consumed in the fire, but it had
subsequently become the place to which all the dead carcases
and filth of Jerusalem were carried. We are informed by
Jewish writers that a fire was here kept continually burning
for the purpose of consuming them, but their authority for
this assertion is doubtful. We are likewise told that the
Jews viewed the scenes enacted in this valley as symbolical
of the punishment which awaited the wicked in the under
world. Be this as it may, the language is evidently sym
bolical — it is impossible to express truth respecting the unseen
world except in symbolical language ; — but the symbols were
fitted to impress those who heard our Lord "with the a-wful
consequences with which sin unrepented of will be attended
hereafter. Still there is nothing in the symbols used which
suggests the idea that the fate of such sinners would be a
conscious existence in torments which would never end. On
the contrary, the imagery suggests that of ultimate destruc
tion ; and it is difficult to see how in the ordinary use of
language they can bear any other signification ; for it by no
means follows because a fire is unquenchable that the same
victim "will continue to burn in it for ever, or, because a worm
will never die, that it will continue to prey for ever on the
same carcase. It has been urged that the worm that
never dies is a metaphor to denote an ever-gnaAving con
science ; but although such a meaning may suggest itself to

246

FUTURE RETRIBUTION.

philosophers and divines in their closets, it is most unhkely
that it would have done so to the promiscuous multitudes
Avhom our Lord was addressing. Both words must be alike
symbolical or alike literal ; and however they may be under
stood, they can only denote ultimate destruction.
St. Matthew records the following utterance of our Lord,
which throws considerable light on the metaphorical language
we have been considering : —
" Whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on
me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone
should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk
in the depth of the sea  And if thy hand or thy foot
causeth thee to stumble, cut it off and cast it from thee ;
it is good for thee to enter into life (el? tv\v gwijv) maimed
or halt, rather than, having two hands or two feet, to be cast
into the eternal fire (to nop to alwvtov). And if thy eye
causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from thee,
it is good for thee to enter into hfe with one eye, rather
than, having two eyes, to be cast into the hell of fire" (et? rr/v
jeevvav tov Twpo?, into the Gehenna of fire). (Matt, xviii.
6—9.) No one can entertain a doubt that the language of this
nassage is highly metaphorical, and that it is intended to be
an impressive warning, to those who are guilty of tempting
others into such courses, of the consequences Avith which that
sin will be attended ; the words to irvp to alwvtov, and ti}j>
yeevvav tov nvpo?, bearing the same meaning as in the pre
ceding utterances. But the words to which I would draw
the reader's particular attention are the following : "Whoso
shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to
stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should
be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the
depth of the sea." -Such a fate would be a far lighter doom
than to be cast into "the eternal fire," or "the Gehenna of

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 247
fire ; " but the Avords contain no hint that our Lord intended
by them to teach that the punishment of such a sin would
be a never-ending existence in never-ending torment. No
words could have been less likely to suggest this idea than
that it is profitable for a man to have a great millstone
hanged about his neck and he be cast into the depth of the
sea ; the former denoting terrible suffering AA'hich will be end
less and hopeless, and the latter a pain, probably not severe,
which will terminate in five minutes, or even less. Surely if
our Lord had intended it to be understood that the punish
ment of such a sinner would be endless existence in never-
ending torment, He would have said so plainly.
The following are denunciations against sin wilfully per
sisted in : —
1. "Wide is the gate and broad is the way which leadeth
to destruction" (eh ti)v a.7rwXeiav). (Matt. vii. 13.)
2. "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him who is able to destroy
(uTroXeaat) both soul and body in Gehenna." (Matt. x. 28.)
3. " Except ye repent, ye shall in like manner perish "
(ctTroXeiaOe). (Luke xiii. 3.)
4. "And it shall be, that every soul which shall not
hearken to that prophet shall be utterly destroyed (QoXoQpev-
GriaeTat) from among the people." (Acts iii. 23.)
5. "Behold ye despisers, and wonder and perish" (a(pav-
ia6f]Te). (Acts xiii. 41.)
All the Greek terms here used denote what in popular
English we mean by the word "destruction." They say nothing
as to whether the process of destruction will be long or short,
but they imply that it will be a painful one. No ordinary
speaker of Greek could have understood them in any other
sense without being warned that a different meaning was
intended to be attached to them. Few expressions could
have been less adapted to convey to the hearer the idea of a

248 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
conscious existence in never-ending torment. From the
second of these passages we learn that our Lord used
" Gehenna " as a symbol of the place of the future punish
ment of the wicked ; and from the fourth, that the destruc
tion of those spoken of would be utter and complete.
The two folloAving passages present us with the same
subject from a different point of view : —
1. "Agree with thine adversary quickly Avhiles thou art
with him in the way, lest haply the adversary deliver thee
to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and
thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt
by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the last
farthing." (Matt. v. 25, 26.)
2. "And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the
tormentors till he should pay all that AAras due. So shall also
my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye forgive not every one
his brother from your hearts." (Matt, xviii. 34, 35.)
The language of these passages is metaphorical, the metaphor
in the first being derived from the mode in which judges in
those days dealt with debtors ; and in the second, from the
mode in which masters punished their slaves, eAren those of
the highest rank. These practices were beyond all doubt Avell
known to our Lord's hearers, and He uses them as illustra
tions of the consequences which Avill overtake sin, wilfully
persisted in, in the unseen world. It should be observed,
also, that the word paaavum)?, " tormentor," does not
necessarily mean in the Greek language one who actually
inflicts tortures, but the keeper of a prison, the term being
applied to him because he not unfrequently acted in the
capacity of torturer.
The expressions, " Till thou hast paid the last farthing,"
and " Till he should pay all that was due," have been very
generally understood as affirmations that the punishment
alluded to will know no termination throughout the eternity

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 249
to come, on the ground that it is impossible for any sinner to
pay the debt Avhich he owes to Divine justice. But before
these words can be made to bear this meaning, it must
first be proved that suffering which will never terminate is the
just punishment of a finite sin, such as an unforgiving temper,
which is the sin referred to in the context. God will cer
tainly judge the Avorld in righteousness, and will therefore
proportion the punishment to the guilt of the transgressor.
The expressions used imply that the punishment of impeni
tent sinners will be severe ; but they convey no hint that
it Avill knoAv no termination. I am aware that it has been
urged that because God is infinite and man finite, therefore
every offence of man deserves an infinite punishment ; but the
argument is equally valid to prove that because man is finite
every offence of a finite being can only merit a finite punish
ment, and that when the punishment which is due to the
transgression has been undergone, the debt due to Divine
justice has been discharged. The argument on both sides, let
it be observed, is founded on considerations of justice alone,
leaving out all those which appeal to the Divine mercy and
compassion. It is true that in both metaphors the two per
sons referred to are represented as having incurred debts ;
but the relation betAveen a human creditor and a debtor very
imperfectly represents the relation which exists between God
and man. In both cases the creditor is represented as shutting
up the debtor in prison until he should pay the debt, which in
the latter case was an enormous one, thus rendering it impos
sible that he should do so, unless some friend interfered in
his behalf. This the humanity of modern legislation justly
forbids ; and it is impossible that man can be more merciful
than God. The truth is, that man's violations of the laws of
God are not debts, but sins ; and the punishment inflicted
on the transgression is not the mere payment of a debt, but
the penalty due to sin.

250 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
St. Luke records the following important utterance of our
Lord : —
" And that servant which knew his lord's Avill, and made
not ready, nor did according to his Avill, shall be beaten with
many stripes ; but he that kneAV not, and did things worthy
of stripes, shall be beaten Avith few stripes. And to whom
soever much is given of him shall much be required ; and to
whom they commit much, of him will they ask the more."
(Luke xii. 47, 48.)
Here Ave are again obviously in the region of metaphor.
The servants in great men's houses in those days were
slaves, even the one here referred to as the steward ; and for
slaves, the well-known instrument of punishment was the
scourge. The steward-slave of the parable, Avho, having been
set over his fellow-slaves during his lord's absence, had been
guilty of tyranny, gluttony, and drunkenness, is on his return
sentenced to be severely scourged, and others Avho had done
things worthy of stripes to be scourged, but with far less
severity. What then does this parable teach with respect to retribu
tion in the unseen world ? I answer, that God, in adminis
tering justice hereafter, will not punish all sins alike ; but
that his punishments "will be proportioned to the degree of
the guilt. Hardened sinners will be punished with great
severity; sinners far less guilty will receive a punishment
which will be comparatively mild, One thing is certain, the
symbol " shall be beaten with few stripes " cannot possibly
denote a conscious existence in a misery which will never end ;
for although the suffering at any particular instant may be
mild compared with that of the sinner to Avhom much has
been entrusted, and who has shamefully abused his trust,
yet if it has neither end nor hope of termination, it is im
possible that the symbol " shall be beaten Avith feAv stripes "
can be any adequate representation of its awful reality. Let

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 251
it also be observed that the entire passage does not contain a
hint that the punishment with which it threatens sinners is
a never-ending existence in torment, though the punishment
with which the great sinner is threatened is an aAvful one.
Again, " The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
that sowed good seed in his field, but while men slept his
enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his
way." The Divine speaker adds, "Let both" (i.e. the Avheat
and the tares) " grow together unto the harvest ; and in the
time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the
tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them ; but gather
the wheat into my barn." He then explains the parable as
follows : " The field is the world (6 Koapto?), the good seed,
these are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons
of the evil-one ; the enemy that sowed them is the devil,
the harvest is the consummation of the age (avvTeXeta tov
alwvo?), and the reapers are angels. As therefore the tares
are gathered up and burnt Avith fire, so shall it be at the con
summation of the age. The Son of Man shall send forth his
angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall
cast them into the furnace of fire ; there shall be the weeping
and the gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine
as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath
ears to hear, let him hear." (Matt. xiii. 24 — 43.)
This parable and its explanation form one of the most im
portant utterances of our Lord respecting future retribution.
The kingdom of heaven is here divided into tAvo seons, viz.
the period of its growth, and the period when it will have
realised the object of its institution. Wheat is used as the
emblem of the righteous, and tares as the emblem of the
evil. During the period of growth, i.e. during the present dis
pensation, the Avheat and the tares, i.e. the righteous and the
wicked, are to groAv together in the kingdom of God. Then

252 ' FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
comes another dispensation, beginning with what is called in
the parable the harvest, and in its explanation the consum
mation of the age. In this a separation between the wheat
and the tares is destined to take place ; the Avheat will be
gathered into the householder's barn, and the tares will be
gathered together in bundles and burnt.
Our Lord explains that by the field in which the seed was
sown he meant the world (Koapto?), that the good seed denoted
the sons of the kingdom, and the tares the sons of the evil-
one ; and that just as tares are collected together and con
sumed with fire at the time of harvest, so those that cause
stumbling, and those that do iniquity, will be gathered out
of his kingdom and cast into the furnace of fire at the con
summation of the age ; and the righteous will then shine as
the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
What then do these symbols imply respecting the punish
ment which awaits the finally impenitent at the consum
mation of the present Christian dispensation ? As the tares
are collected and burnt, so the wicked will be collected and
cast, not into a furnace of fire, as in the Authorised Version,
but into the furnace of fire, as in the Revised, the use of the
article showing that some definite furnace Avas referred to —
probably the Gehenna of fire referred to in our Lord's pre
vious teaching, or such a furnace as is mentioned in the Book
of Daniel. Whatever may be the absolute reality thus sym
bolised, it is simply impossible that the imagery of the
parable or of its explanation could have suggested to our
Lord's hearers that the thing threatened was an endless
existence in never-ending torment. The meaning Avhich it
was calculated to convey was that at the consummation of
the age some terrible form of destruction would overtake
evil-doers ; and the final warning, " There shall be the weep
ing and the gnashing of teeth," undoubtedly implied that the
destruction would not be an instantaneous one, but one which

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 253
would be gradual in its operation. The expression "the
Aveeping and the gnashing of teeth," 6 KXavOpto? ko.1 6 ppvypto?
Tmi/ oiovTwv (let the reader observe the double article) was a
symbol repeatedly used by our Lord in reference to those who
Avill be finally shut out from the perfected kingdom of God.
The use of the double article proves that the thing alluded
to by these words was something well-known to our Lord's
hearers ; but all we can now do is to conjecture what was
the thing intended, the image being apparently that of a
set of hungry persons who, by their own fault, were shut
out from a feast of which they Avere the spectators. The
symbol employed was one well fitted to convey to our Lord's
hearers the intimation that the destruction threatened would
not be instantaneous, but on the contrary would be a pro
longed period of misery, during which profound regret would
be felt for past folly — a condition which the idea of Aveeping
is calculated to convey — and remorse for the loss of happiness
that might have been attained — an idea which is suggested
by the words " the gnashing of teeth."
We have similar imagery in the parable of the drag-net —
" So," says our Lord in his explanation of it, " shall it be
at the consummation of the age. The angels shall come forth
and sever the wicked from the righteous, and shall cast them
into the furnace of fire ; there shall be the weeping and the
gnashing of teeth." (Matt. xiii. 49, 50.)
This last symbol is used in the parable of the marriage
feast in reference to the man who presumed to enter without
having on a wedding garment.
" Friend," says the king, "how earnest thou in hither, not
having a wedding garment ? And he was speechless. Then
the king said to his servants, Bind him hand and foot and
cast him out into the outer darkness ; there shah be the
Aveeping and the gnashing of teeth." (Matt. xxii. 12, 13.)
Here the symbol " the outer darkness " is evidently the

254 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
darkness outside the guest-chamber in the king's palace, and
the weeping and the gnashing of teeth denotes the despair of
one who, through his own fault, was excluded from partici
pating in the feast ; but the parable contains no hint that
the thing threatened was endless life in misery.
Again : " Therefore I say unto you, Every sin and blas
phemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against
the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak
a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him, but
whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit it shall not be
forgiven, neither in this Avorld nor in that which is to come,"
iv tovtw tw atwvt ovtc ev to pieXXovTi, in this age, nor in
the coming one. (Matt. xii. 31, 32.)
This utterance is thus reported by St. Mark —
"Verily I say unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven
unto the sons of men, and their blasphemies wherewith soever
they shall blaspheme. But whosoever shall blaspheme against
the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness (ovk ey/i a<peatv eh
tov alwva), but is guilty of an eternal sin." (Mark iii. 28, 29.)
The reader should observe that the passage in Mark pre
sents tAvo readings, one which has been adopted by the
Revisers, " an eternal sin " (alwvlov apuipT^pLaTo?), and the
other (alwvtov Kpttrew?), which has been adopted by the
Authorised Version, which is there translated " eternal dam
nation," but which really means eternal judgment, the
manuscript authority for the reading a.pLapr'r'jpiaTO? being
stronger than for that of Kpioew?.*
* This diversity of reading proves that it is impossible to base an important
truth on any mere isolated statement of the sacred writings. Critics have laid
down certain rules by which they judge which out of a variety of readings
foimd in existing manuscripts were the actual words written oy the sacred
writer. These rules, though admirable in their way, are by no means inf allible,
for inasmuch as our oldest manuscripts date no earlier than from the fourth
•century, it is quite possible— nay, it is highly probable— that in the course of
transcription, errors may have been introduced into the manuscripts of the third,
second, and even in those of the latter part of the first century, which have
become stereotyped in our present manuscripts ; and that now and then a word
in an apostolic autograph, may have been inadvertently substituted for another.

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
The utterance as reported by St. Matthew simply affirms
that those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit shall not
be forgiven, neither " in this age," i.e. the then existing age,
nor in the age to come. These words, therefore, simply affirm
that the blasphemer against the Holy Spirit will not obtain
foigiveness under either dispensation, but they give no hint
that the punishment will be an endless existence in torment.
But what if the reading " eternal sin" is the correct re
presentation of our Lord's utterance ? This reading has been
preferred by many, not only on account of its superior manu
script authority, but because the words " eternal sin " are
supposed to aid in getting rid of some of the difficulties with
which the idea of a never-ending punishment as the penalty
of a finite sin is attended. Thus it is argued that if a sinner
continues to sin endlessly, it will be consistent with justice to
punish him endlessly. Yet if it be granted that the word " sin "
and not "judgment " is the true reading in St. Mark, we have
no right to assume that he has reported our Lord's utterance
more correctly than St. MattheAV. But even if St. Mark Avrote
the words " guilty of an eternal sin," there is no reason Avhy
they should be understood as affirming that the blasphemer
will go on sinning for ever. To be guilty of an eternal sin.
and to be guilty of eternal sinning, are two very different
ideas, the first denoting a completed act, and the second a
continuous set of actions, which, on the assumption that the
word " eternal " means " never-ending," are a set of actions
destined never to be completed. How it is possible by
any single act to be guilty of eternal sinning is difficult to
•comprehend, except on the assumption that the utterance is
intended to affirm that God will punish the sin of blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit by consigning him who is guilty of it
to a state in which he will of necessity go on sinning for ever
as the penalty for his offence. Can this be true of Him who
willeth not the death of the sinner, but who desireth rather

256 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
that he should turn from his sin and live ? But the words
" guilty of an eternal sin " denote a completed act, i.e. an act
which is lasting in its consequences. As such they convey
the same meaning as those in St. Matthew, " shah not be
forgiven, neither in this age nor in the age to come."
But Avith respect to the general question, it is difficult to
see what is gained by substituting the words " eternal sin "
for " eternal judgment." If it is intended to affirm that
those innumerable multitudes of men which popular theology
designates the wicked will be consigned as a punishment for
sin committed here to a condition in which they will be
guilty of sinning for evermore, or even if this fate is reserved
for those only Avho are guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit,
it is impossible to reconcile such a state of things with St.
Paul's assertion that there is a time coming in the future
Avhen all the enemies of Jesus Christ will be placed in sub
jection under his feet, and when God will be all in all. How
is it possible, I ask, that." God can be all in all" if beings
will exist sinning against Him everlastingly? The sub
jection of all things to Jesus Christ and God's becoming all
in all can be effected by the destruction of those Avho are in
curably wicked, and by the drawing to Christ of those who are
not, by His divinely attractive power. "I," says He, "if I
be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me."
Such an affirmation is inconsistent Avith the widespread idea
that He will attract to Himself only that small fraction of
the human race which certain systems of popular theology
designate the elect, and that the non-elect will be consigned
to a condition in which they will be guilty of ceaseless sin
ning, and therefore of justly incurring the penalty of ever
lasting suffering.
Let us turn now to the parable of Dives and Lazarus.
This parable being one of considerable length, instead of
quoting it I must ask the reader to peruse it in either of the

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 257
two versions, It will be, necessary to consider it in some
detail, because it has been often treated as though its imagery
Avas intended to be a revelation of realities as they exist in
the unseen world, and some have even viewed it as almost a
history of actual occurrences. St. Luke, it is true, does not
affirm that it is a parable ; but neither does he do so of
several of our Lord's previous utterances which are unques
tionably parables. ' I shah assume, therefore, that it is one,
and, like ah other parables, that it was intended to impress
on those who heard it a moral lesson, which in the parable
before us is twofold :
First, that men will be responsible in the unseen world for
their conduct here.
Secondly, that those whom the great truths of revelation
fail to bring to repentance would not be brought to repentance
by those signs which our Lord's opponents were constantly
demanding of Him, even if one of them should be of so awful
a character as the appearance of one from the unseen world
testifying of its realities from his own personal experience of
them. The narrative being a parable, it is impossible that its
imagery can have been intended to be a revelation of the
secrets of the underworld. If we accept one part of it as
such we ought in consistency to accept the whole, and this
none of its expositors do. It is worthy of remark that its
imagery bears no resemblance to that of the Hades of the Old
Testament, but a closer one to those descriptions of Hades
which were current among the Greeks, in which, as in the
parable, there were two departments — an Elysium for the
blest, and a Tartarus, or place of fiery punishment, for the
eviL Though it is impossible to determine with certainty
whence the imagery was derived, there can be little doubt that
it was current with the scribes and Pharisees, who, together
with our Lord's disciples, are stated by the Evangelist to

258 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
have formed the auditory to whom this and the preceding
parables were addressed, the imagery of our Lord's parables
being habitually taken from things with which his hearers
were familiar.
The following considerations prove that the imagery of
the parable was not intended to be a description of the
realities of the unseen world : —
1. Concerning those realities the New Testament is else
where profoundly silent. It is therefore incredible, if it had
been intended to make a revelation of them, that it should
have been done in a parable and not in the way of direct
affirmation. 2. The imagery itself is inconsistent with the idea that it
was intended to be descriptive of realities, for it represents both
Dives and Lazarus as still possessing bodies in the under
world similar to those which they possessed on earth. Thus
Dives, though described as a personality which had recently
passed from the body, is yet depicted as having eyes and a
tongue, and as being in anguish in a burning fire : a descrip
tion inapplicable to a disembodied spirit. Lazarus, also, is
described as having a finger, which Dives entreats Abraham
to allow him to dip in water for the purpose of cooling his
burning tongue. In fact, the entire imagery presupposes
that both Abraham, Lazarus, and Dives are still in the body,
and surrounded by bodily conditions.
3. The two compartments of Hades are depicted as visible
from one another, so that the blessed witnessed the sufferings
of the lost, and the lost the felicity of the blessed ; but be
tween them lies an impassable gulf, yet not so wide but to
admit of their conversing with one another.
4. The prayer of Dives is represented as addressed to a
departed saint, who is described as receiving it without
rebuke. No other hint is to be found in the New Testament
that such a thing is possible, and, assuming it to be so, it

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 259
would form a justification of numerous superstitions of the
Church of Rome.
5. Dives is described as far from being lost to all good:
He possesses at least one estimable trait, for, if nothing can
be done to relieve his present anguish, he is anxious for his
five brothers, who by their conduct were in danger of sharing
his awful fate ; he therefore prays Abraham to send Lazarus
to warn them of their danger. This remnant of good feeling
in him is consistent with the idea that his sufferings were in
tended to be remedial ; but it is inconsistent with the popular
notion that all good has so utterly perished in one whom it
designates a lost soul that he is the just subject of punishment
without end and without hope. I am aware that it has been
urged that his solicitude for his brethren was purely selfish,
arising from a fear that if they should come to the same
place of torment as himself, they would add to his misery by
reproaching him that by his bad example and seductions he
had been the means of bringing them into this condition of
misery and ruin. But with respect to this theory it will be
sufficient to say that the parable does not contain a hint
that such was his motive. Surely, while any good remains in
a man he must be still the subject of the Divine com
passion, and therefore his condition cannot be irremediable.
For these reasons it seems impossible that the imagery of
the parable can have been intended to be descriptive of the
realities of the unseen world. It therefore adds nothing to
our knowledge of the nature of future retribution beyond
that which is afforded by the Scriptures we have been con
sidering. It has been objected to the view above taken, that it is
inconceivable that our Lord should have used the imagery in
question, if he had not intended to give his sanction to it as
descriptive of the realities of the condition of departed spirits
after death. To this I answer, that parables are only intended
s 2

260 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
to enforce the truth of the moral which they illustrate, and not
to guarantee that of the imagery by which it is illustrated.
This important fact has been too often neglected by interpreters
of our Lord's parables — a neglect of which that of the Good
Samaritan is a striking example. Our Lord himself has given
us its moral, but its imagery has been often interpreted as if
it were intended to be descriptive of certain truths which
have not the remotest connection with it and of which the
parable itself gives no hint. This habit of interpreters of
Scripture is neither more nor less than, when they do not
find it, -as they think, sufficiently edifying, to endeavour to
make it more so, by reading into it their own systems of
theology and then persuading themselves that they have
found them there. The imagery of the parable of the Unjust
Steward forms no vindication of his dishonest practices.
Turning next to the parables of the Ten Virgins, the
Talents, the Sheep and the Goats, and of the Pounds, I
again must ask the reader to peruse them in one of the two
versions. The three first of these form a continuous whole with our
Lord's great eschatological discourse, as it is recorded in St.
Matthew's Gospel, but they are omitted in their report of it
by both St. Mark and St. Luke. They are parables descriptive
of different aspects of the kingdom of heaven. In the first,
the virgins who came prepared with a sufficient supply of oil
for their lamps enter at once with the bridegroom into the
marriage feast, on which the door is shut. Afterwards the
five foolish ones, having obtained the necessary supply of oil,
pray that the door might be opened to give them admittance,
but the bridegroom replies that he knows them not. The
moral of the parable is drawn by our Lord Himself : "Watch,
therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour." Nothing
is said respecting the subsequent fate of the foolish virgins,
who are described as returning after they had procured the

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 261
necessary supply of oil, except that, notwithstanding their
earnest entreaties, they were excluded from the marriage
feast. The advice given them to purchase the needful pil,
and the fact that they succeeded in so doing, proves that it is
impossible to erect a dogma on the mere imagery of a parable.
The moral of the parable of the Talents is that men will
be made responsible hereafter for their conduct here, and
will be rewarded or punished according to the use which they
have made of the various gifts with which they have been en
trusted. It is illustrated by the supposed case of a traveller
who, on his return from a distant journey, demands of his
slaves an account of the use which they had made of the
various sums of money which he had committed to them to
trade with. Of these, two had made one hundred per cent.
profit on the sums entrusted to them, and they are rewarded
Avith a greatly increased trust, and a share in their master's
pleasures. But a slave who had made no use of his money,
but simply returned what he had received, is not only
deprived of the sum committed to him, but ordered to be
bound hand and foot and to be cast into the darkness out
side the lighted festal chamber, where would be " the weeping
and the gnashing of teeth."
The parable of the Pounds, which is recorded by St. Luke,
bears a close resemblance to that of the Talents, but the
Evangehst informs us that the special purpose for which it
was uttered was to correct a widespread misapprehension of
our Lord's hearers that the kingdom of God, in its glorious
manifestation, was then going to appear. With this purpose
in view he represents the great man, hke the Herodian princes,
as going into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom
and to return. During his absence he intrusts each of his
ten slaves with a mina (incorrectly translated " pound "),
with which they were to trade. Here a number of enemies
are introduced into the imagery of the parable, who do their

262 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
best to induce the overlord to refuse him institution into his
kingdom. They fail, however, to effect their purpose, and
the nobleman returns as king. Thereupon he demands of
his slaves an account of the use which they had made of their
respective minas, and rewards those who had respectively
made by trading one thousand and five hundred per cent., with
the government of as many cities as they had gained minas.
One slave had made no use of his money, and he directs that
it should be taken from him and given to him who had em
ployed that with which he had been entrusted to the greatest
advantage. Then follows the sentence which he pronounces
on his avowed enemies : " Those mine enemies, that would
not that I should reign over them ; bring hither, and slay
them before me." (Luke xix. 12 — ;27.)
While each of these parables is unquestionably intended to
teach that retribution for his conduct here wiU follow man in
the unseen world, not one of them drops a hint that the
punishment of the wicked will be a never-ending existence in
endless misery. On the contrary, the parable of the Pounds
imphes, that the fate of those who are irreclaimable enemies
of Christ will be ultimate destruction ; but all these parables
are silent on the subject of duration.
The parable of the Sheep and the Goats is attended with
difficulties which require a careful consideration. It is evi
dently a parable like the two preceding ones, and it is impos
sible that it can be, as it is regarded by many, an actual des
cription of the process which will take place on what is
usually designated " the day of judgment," when, according to
the popular conceptions of it, those countless multitudes of
mankind who have existed in the past, who exist in the present,
and who wiU exist in the future, will be raised from the dead
and will stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. That
this parable was not intended to be descriptive of such a
scene is clear from the following considerations : —

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 263
It contains no reference to a resurrection, which is not
even once referred to throughout the entire discourse of
which it forms the conclusion. The persons described as
standing before the throne are not " all that are in the tombs,"
but " all the nations," iravTa to. edvn, words which the Revisers
have translated in nearly every other place in the NeAV
Testament, "the Gentiles," a term which is uniformly used by
the sacred writers to denote Gentiles in contrast to men of
Jewish race, or to members of the Church* The principles
on which the latter will be judged are laid down in the two pre
ceding parables ; but the language of this third parable im
plies that those whom our Lord describes himself as judging
were not members of the Church, for not only do the words
wavTa Ta eOvrj, in accordance with the usage of the writers of
the New Testament, denote Gentiles in contrast to Christians,
but it is impossible that any Christian saint could have been
ignorant that works of mercy rendered to the least of those
whom the Judge designates his brethren, Avould be accepted
by Him as done to Himself. Yet when He tells those who
are placed on His right hand, that when hungry they had given
Him meat, when thirsty they had given Him drink, when a
stranger they had taken Him in, when naked they had
clothed Him, when sick they had visited Him, and when in
prison they had come unto Him, their ansAver implies that
they were ignorant that good deeds done to others would be
esteemed by the Judge as done to Himself.
What then is the leading idea of the parable ? I answer :
that the principle on which those who have not had the
* Of the usage above referred to the following are examples: — Matt. vi. 33,
x. 1, xii. 19—21, xviii. 19, xx. 25. Luke ii. 32, xviii. 32, xxi. 24, xxii. 25.
Acts ix. 15, xi. 1—8, xiii. 46, xiv. 2, 5, 28, xv. 3, 7, 14, xviii. 7, xxi. 21—25,
xxii. 21, xxvi. 17, xxviii. 20—28. Rom. i. 13, ii. 14—24, ix. 30, xi. 13—26,
xv. 12, 16, 19, 29. These references will be sufficient as examples. It will be,
therefore, needless to refer to every passage in which .the words rd iOvri are
similarly translated in the remaining epistles.

264 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
benefit of a divine revelation will be judged hereafter, is the
presence or absence in the individual of a spirit of love,
mercy, and compassion. But, inasmuch as the Judge is
assumed to be a righteous Judge, those who will be condemned
for the absence of these qualities cannot be such as Avere incap
able of feeling them, owing to an evil nature transmitted from
their ancestors, or to the nature of the environment in
which they were born and educated (vast numbers of savages
are such) ; but those in Avhom they have become extinct, by
a voluntary course of evil actions. Respecting the sentence
which will be pronounced on those who have been born into
such unfavourable conditions, or whether, taking them into
His merciful consideration, they may not be among the
number of those whom He will place on His right hand, the
parable is silent. One thing, however, we know for certain,
that the Judge of all the earth will certainly do right ; and
therefore that in executing judgment on those innumerable
multitudes of mankind who have been born and educated
under these evil influences, He will hold them account
able only for what they have had, and will not hold them
accountable for what they have not had.
The sentence passed on those on His left hand is as
follows : —
" Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire (eh to
irvp to alwvtov), which is [Greek, has been] prepared for
the devil and his angels." The Judge then proceeds to give
the reason for this sentence, viz. that those thus condemned
had neglected every one of the duties which those on His
right hand had performed ; and on their remonstrating that
they had never thus neglected Him, He repeats the assurance
that those who had thus neglected His brethren were in His
estimation guilty of neglecting even Himself. Then follow the
words —
" These shall go away into punishment eternal (el? KoXaatv

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 265
alwvtov), but the righteous into life eternal " (el? gwrjv alwvtov).
(Matt. xxv. 46.)
The reader should notice the emphasis which in the Greek
is laid on the words " the eternal fire," of the preceding
clause, the article being prefixed to both the adjective
alwvtov and to the substantive nvp. This proves that the
fire in question was a fire well known to our Lord's hearers,
viz. the Gehenna referred to in His preceding teaching.
Fire, when used in Scripture as a metaphor, bears two signi
fications, which differ widely from each other, usually
denoting an instrument of destruction but more rarely one
of purification. The fire referred to in this passage, being
described as prepared for the devil and his angels, shows that
it is used in the former sense ; in fact, when it is used to
denote an instrument of purification there is usually some
thing in the context which shows that such is its intended
meaning. But although this fire, as far as its duration is
concerned, may mean whatever is denoted by the word
alwvto?, — which, when it refers to duration, is best repre
sented in English by the word " age-long," — there is nothing
in the words themselves to imply that those cast into it
will continue to exist for ever in it, or that they will not
be ultimately destroyed by it, though the words certainly
imply that their destruction will be a terrible one.
We must now consider the meaning of the concluding
words : —
" These shall go away into eternal punishment (el? KoXaatv
alwvtov), but the righteous into eternal life" (el? gwyv
alwvtov). Let it be observed that the KoXaatv alwvtov into
Avhich those on the left hand of the Judge are described as
going, is evidently the same thing as is denoted in the
preceding sentence by the words, to irvp to alwvtov, the
"fire which is eternal, prepared for the devil and his
angels."

266 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
It has been urged that if the word alwvto? in this passage,
when united with KoXaat? and nvp, does not denote a state
of punishing (I advisedly use the word punishing, because the
word punishment denotes a completed act) which "will have
no termination, then the same word when united to gwrj, life,
gives no assurance to the righteous of a life which will never
end. I fully admit that the word alwvto?, when united with gwrj,
life, must have the same meaning as it bears when it is in
the same sentence united with the words KoXaat?, or izvp.
But there is this difference between the two cases. When
the seon, or seons, denoted by the word alwvto?, are coming
to a close, ah holy beings will still be able to look up to Him
who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty,
as the unchangeable father of mercies and the God of all
comfort, and as in His essential being, love ; and their
" abiding in love," causing them to abide in God and God in
them, affords the strongest ground for trust that their life
with God will never end. Full well, therefore, may they be
satisfied during the seons of the future with living in that
state of hope and trust in God in which the saints of the Old
Testament lived and died, though its pages contain no express
revelation of a life to come. Yet, as we have seen, not a few
of the most enhghtened saints of that dispensation entertained
the firmest faith, notwithstanding the clouds and darkness
with which God's present providences were enshrouded, that it
would be finally well with those who loved God, and who
lived in obedience to His laws. Why, then, should not the
inheritor of the perfected kingdom of God be satisfied with
the same assurance as supported his Jewish brother during
the age in which he lived, that God, who is unchangeable in
His perfections, will never desert them that love Him
throughout ah the ages of the future, Avhen, to use the words
of the Apostle, " God will be all in all ? " This is an assur
ance on which we may rely with far more fulness of conviction

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 267
than on a word which varies so greatly in meaning as the
word alwvto?, " eternal."
With respect to the word " fire," I have taken it for
granted, in accordance with the almost unanimous opinion of
modern commentators, that it is used in a metaphorical
sense throughout our Lord's discourses ; and that it is not
intended to affirm that sinners, whether in the body or out
of the body, will be cast into a furnace of material fire,
but that they will be punished with a punishment of which
fire is a suitable symbol.
What then is the meaning intended to be conveyed by the
affirmation, "These shall go into eternal punishment" (el?
KoXaatv alwvtov) ? The following are the meanings which
are given to the word /roAaovs' in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon.
Its primary meaning is " a pruning," its secondary ones
" a checking, a punishing, chastisement, correction, punish
ment ; " and of its corresponding verb, koXcl^w, " to curtail,
dock, prune ; " also " to keep within bounds, hold in check,
bridle, check ; " hence " to chasten, correct, punish." Such
are its ordinary meanings, its primary one being derived
from the act of pruning trees, and its secondary ones de
noting every thing included under the common term punish
ment. In the last clause it unquestionably means the same
thing as " the eternal fire " of the first, into Avhich those on
the left hand of the Judge are sentenced to depart, and
stands in direct contrast to the invitation to those on His
right hand " to inherit the kingdom prepared for them from
the foundation of the world," i.e. the kingdom of Christ,
which, although it is frequently designated in the Scripture
" eternal," we yet learn from St. Paul, will not be without
limits as to its duration.
It is contended by many, especially by those who hold the
theory known by the name of universahsm, that the word
KoXaat? means punishment with a view to correction. That

268 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
this is one of its meanings we have seen above ; but when
the writers of the New Testament wish to express this idea,
they use the word 7ra&eta to denote it. The word KoXaat?
is very rarely used by them, and with the addition of
alwvto? only this once. I think that the sense of the entire
context forbids us to assign to it in this place the meaning
of "correction." The words alwvtov KoXaatv, therefore,
must be understood as bearing the same sense, as that of
their general assertions respecting the nature of the punish
ment which will be inflicted on the sinner who is finally
impenitent. But as I have already observed, inasmuch as the New
Testament passed through more than fourteen centuries
of transcription before it was committed to the safe custody
of the printing-press, it is impossible to be certain that
an isolated expression was the word actually employed by
the sacred writer. It is true that all our existing Greek
manuscripts read the word KoXaatv, punishment ; but it is a
singular fact that the two most ancient, and several more
modern manuscripts, of the Italic or ancient Latin version
of the New Testament, which dates as early as the second
century, and constituted the New Testament of the Churches
which spoke Latin, in place of " punishment " read " fire,"
ignis. If we suppose that this version has preserved the
true reading, the difficulty disappears ; because in that case
the nvp alwvtov of the second clause is the same thing,
as the to irvp to alwvtov of the first ; and the word nvp,
fire, bears the same meaning as it does in other parts of
Scripture, when it is spoken of as the instrument of the
destruction of the finally impenitent.
The references in the Acts of the Apostles to a state of
retribution are extremely few, and of a very general cha
racter. This the reader will see from the following pas
sages, which are the only ones in which even an apparent

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 269
reference is made to it. St. Peter thus remarks respecting
Judas —
" To take the place in the ministry and apostleship from
which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place."
(Acts i. 25.)
Respecting him our Lord had made the awful declaration —
" Woe unto that man, through whom the Son of Man is
betrayed. Good were it for that man if he had not been
born." (Matt. xxvi. 24.)
Further than this respecting the nature of his punishment,
the Scriptures are silent.
" And it shall be, that every soul which shaU not hearken
to that prophet shall be utterly destroyed (i%oXo6pev6r}aeTai)
from among the people." (Acts iii. 23.)
The Greek language does not possess a stronger word to
denote utter destruction than the word here used.
St. Peter thus denounces the sin of Simon Magus in
seeking to obtain the power of conferring the Holy Spirit in
return for money : —
" Thy silver perish with thee, because thou hast thought to
obtain the gift of God with money. Thou hast neither part
nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right before God.
Repent, therefore, of this thy wickedness, and pray the Lord,
if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee.
For I see that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the
bond of iniquity." (Acts viii. 20 — 23.)
St. Paul and Barnabas thus address the blaspheming
Jews : —
" It was necessary that the word of God should first be
spoken to you. Seeing ye thrust it from you, and judge
yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the
Gentiles." (Acts xiii. 46.)
So also at Corinth, when the Jews blasphemed, St. Paul
shook out his raiment and said unto them —

270 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
" Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean ; from
henceforth I will go to the Gentiles." (Acts xviii. 6.)
The historian gives us the following brief summary of
St. Paul's address before Felix, one of the basest of men,
concerning the faith in Christ Jesus.
"And as he reasoned of righteousness, and temperance,
and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified, and answered,
Go thy way for this time ; and when I have a convenient
season I will call thee unto me." (Acts xxiv. 25.)
Such are the only references, if some of them can be con
sidered references, to this subject. It is evident that they
throw no additional light on the point we are considering.
The gospel of the apostolic preachers was a gospel of sal
vation, and only on very rare occasions did it contain denun
ciations of judgment ; and even these contain no hint that
the judgment threatened was a never-ending existence in
never-ending misery. At the same time their affirmations
that man would be held responsible hereafter for his conduct
here are distinct and plain.
My general conclusion, therefore, is, that in the Synoptic
Gospels, and in the Acts of the Apostles, the terms used to
describe the future punishment of men irrecoverably wicked,
unless some signification is assigned to them which they do
not naturahy bear, affirm that it wih be some aAvful form of
destruction ; and that in the final judgment pronounced on
each individual, the great truth which was proclaimed by
St. Paul at Athens will be fully realised : —
" The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now he
commandeth all men that they should everywhere repent,
inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in the which he will
judge the world in righteousness, by the man whom he
hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all
men in that he hath raised him from the dead." (Acts xvii.
30, 31.)

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 271
Yes, by the man whom He hath ordained ; not another
Jesus, but the veritable Jesus of the Gospels, who is the
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, as He is depicted there,
the all-holy, and the all-compassionate Saviour, meek and
lowly in heart ; the great self-sacrificer, who came not to
condemn the world, but that the world through Him might
be saved.

CHAPTER XI.
The same subject as it is set forth in the Gospel and the
Epistle op St. John.
It wiU be necessary to consider this Gospel and Epistle
together, because in these alone of the sacred "writings we
are in the presence of a terminology, portions of which are
special, and technical, and such as was current in certain
philosophical schools of thought at the time when they were
composed. The Epistle also is a kind of commentary on
the Gospel, and presupposes that those for whose instruction
it was intended, even if they were not in actual possession of
it, were familiar with its peculiar aspects of thought, either
from the teaching of the Apostle himself or from some other
source of information.
It is remarkable that in the writings of this Apostle there
are only four passages which make a definite affirmation
respecting a judgment to come, and one only Avhich affirms
that this judgment awaits man after the resurrection. On
the other hand, the passages are numerous which affirm that
which is designated alwvto? gwi'j, which in the Revised Version
is uniformly translated " eternal life," and in not a few places
as a correction of the translation " everlasting life " of the
Authorised Version, and which will be not merely a future
but is a present possession of the believer.
But while there are only this inconsiderable number of direct
references to future retribution in the writings of this Apostle,
there are numerous indirect ones. These are set forth under
the following contrasts : —

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 273
I. The contrast between £W/ (life) and QdvaTo? (death), the
one being the antithesis of the other.
II. That between the Church, or kingdom of God, and the
world ; the one being viewed as the region of holiness and
life, and the other of sin, corruption, and death.
III. That between those who are born of God and those
who are the children of the evil one.
I. The contrast between £wyj (life) and 6a.va.To? (death).
It is a remarkable fact, to which the reader's attention should
be drawn, that although the word alwvto? (eternal, i.e. age
long) is frequently joined as an adjective to gwr) (life), it is
never once so joined to its contrast, Odvaro? (death). The
term life, as applied to man, is almost invariably used in the
discourses of the Gospel and in the Epistle to denote not life
in its ordinary sense but that life in him which is spiritual
and moral ; or, in other words, all the higher faculties of man
when they are in active operation in the service of holiness. """
Death is used to denote the opposite of this, viz. that con
dition of man in which his higher affections are latent, and
Avhen in consequence of this he is a prey of the lower
appetites and passions ; and, secondly, a condition in which
everything in him which is capable of being perverted to
evil is in a state of active opposition to holiness and to God.
The following are examples of the Apostle's use of the words
alwvto? gwrj and of the meaning which he attaches to them :
* Life in its primary meaning denotes that principle which differentiates
living from dead matter ; but what it is in itself, scientific research has failed,
and probably ever will fail, to discover. From its phenomena we infer that
it is a force which, as long as it energises in man, animals, and vegetables,
is capable of counteracting the operation of the physical forces, and of producing
a number of results which they are powerless to effect. From this, its primary
meaning, it has passed |off into a number of secondary ones, which will readily
occur to the reader. In like manner we are entirely ignorant of what death is
in itself. As we use the word in ordinary language, it simply means the cessa
tion of the phenomena of life, or the opposite of that which we mean by life,
whether we use that term in its primary or its various secondary meanings.
T

274 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
1. " Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word,
and believeth on him that sent me, hath eternal life (l'x«
gwr/v alwvtov), and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed
out of death into life. Verily, verily I say unto you, the hour
cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of
the Son of God ; and they that hear shall live. For as the
Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son to
have life in himself; and he gave him authority to execute
judgment, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this,
for the hour cometh in which all that are in the tombs shall
hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done
good, to the resurrection of life ; and they that have done ill,
unto the resurrection of judgment." (John v. 24 — 29.)
This utterance is a very important one, and therefore I
must set forth its definite affirmations in as many distinct
propositions. It affirms —
1st. That eternal life is not merely that condition of
existence to which the believer wih be raised at the resur
rection, but it is a thing of which he is even now in actual
possession. Our Lord does not say that he shall be raised
to eternal life at some period of the future, but that he is
already in possession of it ; not that he shall pass from death
unto life, but that he has already done so. It follows, there
fore, that the idea which in this passage is conveyed by the
words "eternal life" is not that of mere duration, but that
it is a condition of man's spiritual and moral being which
will remain unaffected by the dissolution of the body.
2nd. That the " eternal life " here spoken of is the result of
hearing Christ's words and believing on Him that sent Him,
i.e. that it is a spiritual and moral change which wih be
effected in the mind of man by awakening in it a living
faith in God and in Jesus Christ.
3rd. That the change involved is not a sudden creation,
which imparts to the spirit of man qualities and powers of

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 275
which it was previously destitute, but a gradual one, viz. a
passing out of a state of death into one of life ; i.e. that he
who hears Christ's words, and believes on Him that sent
Him, thereby passes out of that condition in which his
spiritual and moral powers and affections existed in a state
of latency into one in Avhich those powers and affections
pass into a condition of active energy. I am aware that
there are those who hold that man is brought into the world
in a condition so depraved that nothing good exists in him
even in a latent state ; but this is a theory which contradicts
both facts and Scripture. " Why," says our Lord, " do ye
not of yourselves judge that which is right ? "
4th. The last clause of this utterance is the only one in the
writings of this Apostle which distinctly affirms that there
will be a general resurrection both of the evil and of the
good. " Marvel not at this," says our Lord, " for the hour
cometh in which all that are in the tombs shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and shall come forth ; they that have
done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have
done ill unto the resurrection of judgment."
This resurrection is carefully distinguished from the resur
rection mentioned in the preceding clause, for after affirming
that "eternal life" is a present possession of the believer, the
Divine speaker adds —
" Verily, verily I say unto you, the hour cometh, and now
is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ;
and they that hear shall live."
Our Lord, in these words, not only says that this hour Avas
coming in the future, but that it was now actually come
(" and now is "), Avhen the dead — not those in the tombs — ¦
shall hear His voice, and that they that hear shall live.
It is evident that in these words He is speaking of something
different from bodily death. Of that He speaks when He
affirms that all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice
t2

276 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
and shall come forth. They will have no option but to hear
and to obey. But those designated "the dead" at verse 25
are represented as having an option whether they wih hear
His voice to any practical purpose, for it is only those who
hear that will live. The words are descriptive, therefore, of
persons who hear Christ's words and believe, on Him that
sent Him, and who, therefore, possess eternal life as a present
possession. It should also be observed that when our Lord
speaks of those in the tombs who have done ill as coming
forth to a resurrection of judgment, He leaves the judgment
to which they will come forth undefined, both as to its nature
and duration.
Again our Lord declares —
2. " This is the will of my Father, that every one that
beholdeth the Son, and believeth on him, should have eternal
life ; and I. will raise him up at the last day." (John vi. 40.)
In this utterance " eternal life" in man is affirmed to be
the result of beholding (Bewpwv, contemplating) the Son
and believing on Him. The first of these acts involves a
steady contemplation on the part of the beholder of the
Divine perfections which shine forth in the person of Jesus
Christ ; and the second, a cordial acquiescence in and accept
ance of , them, as the supreme manifestation of holiness and
goodness. Thus, to use an illustration, just as the natural
sun kindles into active energy the hfe which lies latent in the
seed, so the Sun of the spiritual world quickens into active
energy those powers and affections which, until they feel His
vivifying influence, lie latent, and are for practical purposes as
good as dead in the soul of the beholder. " In him," says
the Apostle in the preface to his Gospel, " Avas life, and the
life was the light of men." Respecting the mode of
operation by which these results are produced, Avhether in
the natural or the spiritual and moral worlds, we are ahke
ignorant.

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 277
3. " He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath
eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day ; for my
flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I
in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live be
cause of the Father, so he that eateth me he shah live because
of me." (John vi. 54 — 57.)
Several other utterances occur in this chapter presenting
different aspects of the same thought.
I have no intention of entering into the controversy which
has raged over the meaning of the words " He that eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood," but I shall assume that they
are a highly metaphorical expression, intended to denote that
which is referred to in the preceding passage as the steady
contemplation, the cordial acceptance, and the appropriation
to itself, on the part of the spirit of man, of the person of
Jesus Christ, the drawing of that spirit to Him by the power
of His divine attractiveness, and of the character of God as
revealed in Him. What, then, does our Lord affirm respect
ing this act of eating His flesh and drinking His blood ? The
answer is not far to seek. He that does this ¦will not only have
eternal life as a possession in the future, but he actually has it
now ; Christ will raise him up at the last day ; His flesh is
spiritual meat and His blood spiritual drink ; he that eats the
one and drinks the other abides in Christ and Christ abides
in him, thus bringing Christ and the believer into the closest
state of spiritual union ; and as I have said above, this
abiding in Christ, and through abiding in Christ abiding in
the Father, forms the surest pledge of the immortahty of the
sanctified and holy man. I make these observations be
cause it has often been urged that if alwvto? does not mean
" everlasting " in the strict philosophical sense, the Christian
has no promise of immortality. I answer, that the strongest
possible promise of immortahty is the affirmation of our Lord

278 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
that He and His Father abide in the holy man and the holy
man in them.
4. " Even as thou hast given him authority over all flesh,
that whatsoever thou hast given him to them he should give
' eternal life ;' and this is ' life eternal,' that they should know
thee, the only true God, and him whom thou hast sent, even
Jesus Christ." (John xvii. 2, 3.)
This utterance of our Lord is an unequivocal affirmation
that that which is here designated " eternal life " is a present
possession of the believer, and that it consists in " knowing
the only true God, and him whom he has sent, even Jesus
Christ." What, then, does the word "know" mean in a
context such as this ? Evidently not a mere intellectual act,
but one which is spiritual and moral. " Eternal life," then,
in this utterance is not used to denote the mere duration of
the life, but a condition of man's spiritual and moral being
whereby he becomes united to God and God to him.
Equally strong is the testimony of the Epistle. The same
idea runs throughout it. I shall, therefore, only quote a few
of its most striking affirmations, asking the reader to observe
that when the Apostle uses such expressions as knowing God
and knowing Christ, abiding in God and abiding in Christ,
and abiding in the light as God is in the hght — expressions
which ar6 with him of frequent occurrence — his meaning is
substantially the same as that of our Lord's great declaration
that eternal life consists in the knowledge of the only true
God, and of Jesus as the Christ whom He has sent.
The Epistle is introduced by a brief preface in which the
Apostle describes its scope, and sets before his readers the
source and fountain in which the eternal life of which he speaks
resides, viz. the person of Jesus Christ, from whence it flows to
man, and affirms that its historic manifestation in Him formed
the subject of the apostolic testimony. He thus writes —
" That which was from the beginning ; that which we have

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 279
heard ; that which we have seen with our eyes ; that which
we have beheld, and our hands have handled concerning
the word of life (and the life was manifested, and we have
seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the
eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested
unto us) ; that which we have seen and heard, declare we
unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us ; yea,
and our felloAvship is with the Father, and with his son Jesus
Christ. And these things write we unto you that our joy
may be fulfilled," i.e. filled up full. (1 John i. 1 — 4.)
The Apostle here affirms, with what seems to be almost
needless reiteration, that the eternal life of which he was
going to speak was no mere period of duration in the future,
but that it had been manifested in an historic person with
whom he had had the most intimate relations. " The life was
manifested," says he, " and we have seen it and bear Avitness,
and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with
the Father, and was manifested unto us."
The life here spoken of, therefore, is evidently one which
is spiritual and moral, and consequently one above the con
ditions of time and space ; for it was a manifestation to man,
in the person, work, and teaching of Jesus Christ, as they
had been witnessed by the Apostle, of that eternal life which
prior to such manifestation was with the Father. Precisely
to the same effect he writes in the preface to the Gospel.
" In him," i.e. in Jesus Christ, " was life, and the life was the
light of men, and the light shineth in the darkness." These
words render it certain that the Apostle here uses the term
" life" exclusively in a moral and spiritual sense, for natural life
is not the " light of men," nor does it " shine in the darkness."
The " life," therefore, here spoken of is a vivifying principle,
which radiates from Christ, and which is capable of calling
into energetic action everything spiritual and moral which
hes latent in the spirit of man.

280 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
In the following passages the Apostle speaks of " eternal
life " not only as a possession now actually abiding in the
believer, but he identifies it Avith love, which he shortly after-
Avards pronounces to be the essence of the character of God,
and affirms that he that abides in love abides in God, and
God in him. Thus he writes —
" For this is the message which ye heard from the be
ginning that we should love one another. . . We know that we
have passed out of death into life, because we love the
brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth vn death.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer : and ye know that
no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." (1 John iii.
11, 14, 15.)
" No man hath beheld God at any time ; if we love one
another God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Hereby know we that we abide in him, and he in us, because
he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have beheld and
bear witness that the Father hath sent the Son to be the
Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is
the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God. And
we have known and have believed the love that God hath
in us. God is love, and he that abideth in love abideth in
God, and God abideth in him." (1 John iv. 12 — 1 6.)
In these passages the affirmation is express that the
possession of the spirit of love is an all-sufficient proof
that a man has not only passed out of the spiritual and
moral condition designated death into one of life, but that
having the spirit of love he now actually has eternal hfe
abiding in him. The expression " eternal life," therefore, is
used by the Apostle not for the purpose of denoting mere
duration, but as denoting a state of mind which abides in
the closest union with God, and God with it. This abiding
of man in God, and God in man, thus forms the strongest
pledge that man wih still continue to exist in happiness after

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 281
the eternal ages have passed away ; otherwise this union would
be severed.
The same idea is conveyed in the following passage : —
" The Avitness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life :
and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life. These
things have I written unto you that ye may know that ye have
eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God." (1 John v. 11—13.)
In this passage " life " and " eternal life " are evidently
used to denote the same thing. According to the Apostle,
" the having the Son " carries with it the actual possession of
life in its spiritual sense ; and in the concluding words of the
above quotation he affirms that he wrote these things to the
Church in order that they might know not merely that they
would enter on eternal life at some period of the future, but
that they had it now as a consequence of believing on the
name of the Son of God. The reader should observe that the
phrases "having the Son," "believing on the Son," "having
life," and " having eternal life," and similar expressions, are
used throughout this Epistle not as denoting the mere con
victions of the understanding, but the innermost convictions
of man's moral and spiritual being.
It will be unnecessary to cite additional passages in proof
of the position which I am seeking to establish, because the
careful reader cannot fail to perceive that the same idea, ex
pressed in different language, underlies by far the larger por
tion of the Epistle. Life with the Apostle is not used to
denote mere existence, but life which is worth living, life in
its highest sense, i.e. the active energy of the highest powers
of man. I have used the words " spiritual and moral " in
close conjunction, not only because I think that it is ex
tremely difficult to draw a line which will clearly denomi
nate the one from the other, but also because, when thus

282 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
united, they denote everything that exists in man higher than
that nature which he shares in common with the animals.
Of the use of the word " death " in the Apostle's writings,
or of some word which is equivalent to it in meaning, the
following are examples : —
" He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life ; but he
that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of
God abideth on him." (John iii. 36.)
" Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of God, and drink
his blood, ye have not life in yourselves." (John vi. 53.)
" I said unto you that ye shall die in your sins, for except
ye believe that I am he ye shall die in your sins." (John
viii. 24.)
" The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shah hear
the voice of the Son of God." (John v. 25.) Here mark
the distinction already referred to between the dead and
those that are in the tombs.
" If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch
and is withered, and they gather them, and cast them into
the fire, and they are burned." (John xv. 6.)
" We know that we have passed out of death into life.
He that loveth not abideth in death." (1 John iii. 14, 15.)
" He that hath the Son hath life ; he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life." (1 John v. 12.)
" If a man see his brother sinning a sin which is not unto
death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for them that
sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death ; not concern
ing this do I say that he should make request. All unrighte
ousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death." (1 John
v. 16, 17.)
It is obvious that in nearly all these passages the thing
denoted by the word "death" or its equivalents, is a condition
of man in which his moral and spiritual affections are either
latent, like the germ in the seed, until some vivifying

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 283
influence is exerted on it from without, or else one in Avhich
the entire man is in a state of active opposition to holiness.
The three first of these, as well as several of the passages
previously quoted, Avhich describe life as directly connected
with faith in and love to Jesus Christ, and death as the
absence of both, require further consideration.
How then stands the case with the overwhelming majority
of mankind, who have lived and died in the condition in
Avhich they were born and educated ; and who have never
heard of Jesus Christ, His gospel, or His Father as revealed
in Him ? The same question may Avith equal justice be
asked with respect to those vast multitudes in nominahy
Christian countries, in which the gospel which has been
proclaimed has failed to set forth Jesus Christ in the loveli
ness of his divinely attractive character, or the character of
God, as a God who is loving, holy, just, and true. The
former have never once had the opportunity of catching a
glimpse of the rays of Him who is the Sun of the spiritual
and moral world, and of receiving those vivifying influences
which flow from the steady beholding and contemplation of
Him. Can the latter be said to have rejected Him, when
perhaps what they have rejected has been some miserable
caricature of His divinely attractive person ? For according
to His own declaration, it is only to those who have been
guilty of rejecting Him that the following utterance is
applicable : —
" He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my sayings, hath
one that judgeth him. The word that I have spoken, the
same shall judge him at the last day. (John xii. 48.)
I need hardly say, in reply to these questions, that the
utterances which we have been considering are entirely silent
as to what wih be the ultimate condition of that overwhelm
ing majority of mankind who live and die in ignorance of
Jesus Christ. It is certain that they cannot apply to those

284 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
Avho have either never heard of the gospel, or who have only
had set before them an imperfect version of it. " How,"
says St. Paul, "can they believe without a preacher? " Hoav
can they love God who have never heard of his loveliness ?
What then will be their fate ? One thing is certain. The
righteous judge of all the earth will condemn no man for not
having accepted a gospel of Avhich he has either never heard,
or of which he has only heard an imperfect version. WiU then
this overwhelming majority of mankind be simply annihilated?
It is difficult to believe that they will be so in the face of the
reiterated declarations both of the Gospel and the Epistle,
that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world ;
and of our Lord's declaration, "I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me." But it is certain that an
overwhelming majority of the human race have lived and
died in a state of spiritual and moral degradation, and there
fore that they have not possessed the life spoken of in the
utterances which we have been considering. What then
awaits them ? I can only conceive of two alternatives- as
possible ones : either that they will be blotted out of exist
ence, or that there will be a condition of things beyond the
grave in which they will enter on a more favourable state of
probation than has been vouchsafed to them here ; for the
wrath of God can only abide on those whose sinful condi
tion is the result of their own voluntary act.
The last of the passages above cited demands a brief notice.
It is the only Scripture in which sins are divided into tAvo
classes. " There is," says the Apostle, " a sin unto death,
and a sin not unto death;" and he makes this remark with
the full consciousness that all unrighteousness is sin.
The language here used evidently implies that the distinc
tion between these two classes of sins Avas one which was well
known to those to whom he was writing, otherwise it would
have been absurd to give a direction that prayer should be

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 285
offered for those who were guilty of the one and withheld for
those who were guilty of the other. The foUowing passages
from the Epistle to the Hebrews throw light on the nature of
the sin which is here spoken of as a sin unto death : —
" For, as touching those who were once enlightened, and
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the
Holy Ghost, and tasted of the good Avord of God, and the
powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible
to renew them again unto repentance, seeing that they crucify
to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open
shame." (Heb. vi. 4 — 7.).;
Again : —
" For if Ave sin wilfully after we have received the know
ledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness
of fire which shall devour the adversaries. A man who hath
set at naught Moses' law died without compassion on the
word of two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punish
ment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy who hath trodden
under foot the Son of God ; and hath counted the blood of
the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing,
and hath done despite to the spirit of grace?" (Heb. x.
26—29.) In both of these passages the sin referred to is evidently
the sin of wilful apostacy, after a man has received the fullest
knowledge of Christ ; not simply a knowledge of the under
standing, but one in which a man in some degree has had ex
perience of its blessings. " Such," says the sacred -writer, " it
is impossible to renew again to repentance." How could it be
possible, when the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ has
been exhibited before them in vain ? On such apostates aU the
resources of Divine mercy and goodness have been exhausted,
and there remains for them nothing but a fearful expectation
of judgment and a fierceness of fire which shah devour the

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adversaries. Observe what the sacred writer describes them
as having done : " They have trodden under foot the Son of
God, counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were
sanctified, an unholy thing, and done despite unto the spirit
of grace." Surely this is the sin unto death, for which the
Apostle was unwilling that those whom he addressed should
make request, Avhile for aU other sins he directed them to
pray. Yet, though a sin unto death, neither St. John nor
the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives a hint, how
ever awful the consequences of it may be, that the penalty
attached to it was an endless existence in never-ending tor
ment. The latter, on the contrary, distinctly affirms that the
judgment and the fierceness of fire would devour the adver
saries. How easy would it have been for him to have said
that they would be consigned to torments which would never
end, if that Avas in his opinion the penalty which would be
incurred by sinners of this description.
In concluding this portion of our subject, I have only to
observe that the overwhelming majority of mankind, who
have lived and died either without having heard of Jesus
Christ and His Gospel, or only of an imperfect version of it,
do not come within the denunciations of either the Gospel or
the Epistle. Such have certainly not been guilty of rejecting
Christ or his sayings ; nor have they trodden under foot the
Son of God, or put Him to an open shame. Whether there is
reason for believing that a probation, under more favourable
conditions than that which was vouchsafed them here, will be
reserved for such, requires a separate chapter for its con
sideration;
II. — The Church, or Kingdom of God, as opposed to
the World, the Region of Darkness and of Sin.
It is remarkable that while the kingdom of God is spoken
of in the Gospel, yet neither it nor the Church is mentioned

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 287
by name in the Epistle ; but in it we have frequent references
to that which is its equivalent. Thus the writer speaks of
himself, and of those whom he is addressing, as members of
a community in which the spirit of God abides. This com
munity, can be none other than the Church of the Pauline
Epistles, and the kingdom of God of the Gospels and the Acts
of the Apostles.
To enable us to form a correct idea of the meaning of
these contrasts in the Apostle's writings, it will be necessary
to transport ourselves in thought to the thirty years which
elapsed between A.D. 60 and a.d. 90, and thus endeavour
to realise the state of things which had recently filled the
Apostle's vision. During this interval he had seen the evh
spirit which underlay the Judaism of our Lord's day culmi
nate in its final state of corruption ; and he had witnessed
the terrible overthrow of the Jewish Church and nation.
Shortly before, and also during, the last years of his life, the
might of the Roman Empire had endeavoured to extinguish
the Church in blood. Terrible, indeed, were the times in ques
tion. Religion had long since ceased to exert any influence for
good in the pagan world, as far as it came under the Apostle's
view. The only real religion which existed in the Roman em
pire was the worship of power in the person of the reigning
Ctesar, who was too often a monster of iniquity. The worst
forms of profligacy no longer hid themselves in secret, but
flaunted themselves in the hght of day. Moral corruption had
so eaten into the vitals of pagan society as fully to justify the
expression, " the whole Avorld lieth in wickedness ; " and, as
far as the then existing condition of society was concerned, it
contained no power Avhich was capable of arresting its down
ward course. On the other hand, scattered over this vast
ocean of sin and corruption, the Apostle's eye caught sight of
a few small Christian communities, standing out as islands of
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which they were surrounded, and the professed end of whose
existence was the promotion of holiness both in themselves
and in the evil world in which they dwelt.
What, then, is the idea which the Apostolic writer intended
to convey by the term " the world" ? In a few instances
it is used by him to denote the world in which we live ;
also, in a few more, its inhabitants, i.e. the whole human
race. Of these uses the prologue to the Gospel furnishes
the following example : " He was in the world, and the world
Avas made by him, and the world knew him not ;" in the first
two cases the word " world " being used to denote the world
in which we hve, and in the third its inhabitants. But
in the great majority of instances in which it occurs it is
used in a moral sense, to denote the entire condition of
thought, feeling, and morality, which came under the
Apostle's view outside the Church of God. In this, its moral
sense, it has a twofold reference. In the Gospel it usually
denotes the principles and the spirit of Judaism, as they
exhibited themselves in opposition to the person, work, and
teaching of our Lord ; in the Epistle, the entire tone of thought
of the heathen world, as far as it came under the Apostle's
observation. As the Church, in the great principles Avhich
animate it, is viewed as the region of holiness and the
abiding place of the spirit of God, so the world outside it
is spoken of as the region of spiritual and moral corruption,
and as under the dominion of the evil one. But it is certain,
from the Pauline Epistles, that unworthy members Avere to be
found in all the Apostolic Churches, though they are only
referred to in this Epistle under the designation of antichrists,
A?ho had separated themselves from the communion of the
Church. It follows, therefore, that the communities whom
the Apostle was addressing were contemplated by him in their
ideal and not in their actual character ; as what their members
ought to be in virtue of their Christian profession, rather

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 289
than as Avhat they were in individual cases. But as the
world throughout the Epistle is the antithesis of the Church,
it is used in the same ideal sense as the abode of all moral
evil and corruption, i.e. as the principles and the spiritual
and moral atmosphere of the one tended only to holiness, so
those of the other tended only to sin. The Church, then, as
contemplated by the Apostle, is the region of light, holiness,
and the abiding-place of the Spirit of God ; the Avorld, that
of darkness, spiritual and moral corruption, and in its ani
mating principles tending only to evil.
It is necessary that the reader's attention should be drawn
to these important facts, otherwise he will be in danger of
mistaking the Apostle's meaning.
Speaking generally, it was far from his intention to affirm,
in those passages where he speaks of the world in contrast
to those Christian communities for whose use the Epistle
was intended, that all their members realised the true ideal
of the Church, and that all those whom he designated
" the world," realised the ideal of the spiritual and moral
corruption which he denounces under that expression.
One further remark is necessary. What might be said,
and said truly, of the world of the Apostle's day is not
directly applicable to that in which we live — a world which
the Church of Jesus Christ has been leavening Avith the
principles of Christianity during more than eighteen centu
ries of time. It is only true of it as far as its moral and
spiritual atmosphere continue to be leavened with the
principles of legalism and paganism. It is true that the
leavening of humanity with the principles of Christianity is
described by our Lord Himself in several of His parables as
a slow and gradual process ; but surely between the world of
the Apostle's day and that which we designate the modern
world a great gulf lies, the vastness of which can only be
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with the literature of the Apostolic age and of the century
which preceded it. With the Christian Church and aU its
agencies for good existing in the midst of it, it cannot now be
said that the whole world lies in the evil one, though when
the Apostle contemplated the little Christian communities of
his day, scarcely visible in the midst of the great pagan world,
he might full well use such an expression to designate that
mass of spiritual and moral evil by which he was surrounded.
I have made this observation because the ordinary reader
is apt to interpret the language which the Apostle uses respect
ing the world in the midst of which he lived, as though it
Avere applicable without qualification to the modern world.
Yet the world, though thus characterised as the seat of
evil and corruption, is affirmed in the folloAving passages to
be the subject of redemption.
"Behold," says the Baptist, "the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world." (John i. 29.)
"God so loved the world," says our Lord, "that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not
his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world
should be saved through him." (John iii. 16, 17.)
" The bread that I give is my flesh, for the life of the
world." (John vi. 51.)
" And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto myself." (John xii. 32.)
" I came, not to judge the world, but to save the world."
(John xii. 47.)
"He is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours
only but also for the whole world." (1 John ii. 2.)
" To this end Avas the Son of God manifested, that he
might destroy the Avorks of the devil." (1 John iii, 8.)
These passages unquestionably affirm that God loves the
world, that Jesus Christ takes away the sin of the world,

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 291
that He came to save the Avorld, that He gave His life for the
life of the world, that He is the propitiation for the sins of
the whole Avorld, and that He came to destroy the works of
the devil. Yet it is an unquestionable fact that an over
whelming majority of those Avho constituted the world of the
Apostle lived and died in a state of spiritual and moral
degradation, and that such constitute an overwhelming
majority of the human race. Has the work of Jesus Christ,
then, proved a failure ? Has He given His life for the life of
the world in vain ? Will spiritual and moral evil continue to
exist for ever ? Will rebellious wills be capable of resisting
for ever the power of His divine attractiveness ? Will He not
succeed in destroying the works of the devil, but after all that
He has done and suffered, will He leave those countless
multitudes, in numbers numberless, who will constitute the
overwhelming majority of mankind, to exist for ever in a
state of rebellion against God, and in a state of misery which,
through the endless succession of the sons of the future, will
never know even the hope of a termination ? To these ques
tions, ignorant though we are as to the mode in which God
Avill solve them, I think that everyone who dwells in love,
thereby dAvelling in God and God in him, must answer, God
forbid ! The saints of the olden dispensation lived and died
Avithout any express revelation assuring them of a happy
existence beyond the grave. They had frequent occasions to
say, as far as their experience of life was concerned, Many
are the reasons why we should be cast down, and why Ave
should be disquieted within us. Yet they hoped in God. Less
trying, however, is our position respecting those countless
multitudes who have lived and died Avithout having had set
before them the message of God's redeeming love. True it
is that we have no express revelation (unless it be in two
passages of the sacred Avritings) Avhich discloses the secrets of
the unseen Avoiid ; but we have the assurance that the end
u 2

292 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
and purpose of the mission of Jesus Christ was to save the
world, and that God loves the world ; and also we possess the
revelation of the Divine character and perfections shining
forth in Jesus Christ — a revelation so clear that, according to
His own affirmation, he that hath seen Him hath seen the
Father ; and we have the affirmation of the Apostle, that a
time is coming when all things shall be subdued to Jesus
Christ and when God shall be all in all.
III. — The Contrast between those who are Born of
God, and those that are the Children of the Evil
One.
Several of the points which fall under this division of our
subject I have already considered under the two preceding
heads. I shall therefore only draw attention to those which
are peculiar to it.
A widespread system of popular theology divides mankind
into tAvo classes, the regenerate and the unregenerate, i.e. those
Avho have been the subjects of a neAV spiritual birth and those
who have not experienced the change in question, the former
of whom will inherit the kingdom of God, while the latter wih
be excluded from it, and, according to widespread systems of
popular theology, consigned to a misery which will never end.
This change is designated regeneration,* or the second birth,
* It is a singular fact that the word " regeneration," which is in such general
use in popular controversies, is of very rare occurrence in the New Testament.
It is used only in the following instances. In reply to Peter's question, "Lo, we
have left all, and followed thee ; what then shall we have ? ' ' our Lord replies,
" Verily, I say unto you, that ye that have followed me, in the regeneration
(iv ri] iraKiyyiviaii}), when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory,
ye also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Here
it is obvious that the word is not used as the designation of a subjective condi
tion of the human mind, but of the kingdom of Christ in its glorious mani
festation. We next meet with it in the Epistle to Titus : " But when the kind
ness of God our Saviour, and hia love towards man appeared, not by works
done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he
saved us by the washing of regeneration (Sid XourpoO jraXtyytvtaiag, margin,

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 293
which, as I have observed above, in the case of adults, is not
easy to distinguish from Avhat is popularly called conversion.
Innumerable have been the discussions and the theories as
to what the change consists in which is designated regenera
tion both in systematic and popular theology. I think, how
ever, that all that is essential in them may be expressed
under the three following heads : —
1. That regeneration is a change wrought in the human
soul by a new creative act of the Spirit of God, whereby,
having been born spiritually dead, it is made spiritually alive ;
some holding that this change is effected at baptism, and
others before or after it. This change is what is called in
scientific language " a subjective change."
2. That it is a change in outward condition, which takes
place in baptism, whereby, to use the words of the Church
Catechism, the baptised person is made " a member of Christ,
a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven."
This may be designated an objective change.
3. That it is a change both subjective and objective ; or,
in the words of the Catechism of the Church of England,
it consists of two parts, an outward and an inward, the
latter being described as a death unto sin, and a new birth
unto righteousness ; for being by nature born in sin, and
children of wrath, we are thereby made the children of
grace. The reader will observe that this definition is vague,
lover of regeneration) and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he poured
out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." (Titus iii. 4 — 6.)
Here the words " washing, or la ver of regeneration," can only mean baptism,
in which the baptised made an open profession of their acceptance of Christ as
King of the kingdom of God. St. Peter uses a somewhat different word to
denote the great change which, as a consequence of their acceptance of Christianity,
had passed over those Jewish Christians to whom he wrote, "Seeing you have
purified your souls in your obedience to the truth, see that ye love one another
from the heart fervently, having been begotten again (dvayeyewnfisvoi), not of cor
ruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and
abideth for ever." (1 Peter i. 22, 24.) These form the only examples of the use
of this word in the New Testament.

294 FUTUKE RETRIBUTION.
and enables no small variety of opinion to be included
under it.
These theories are supposed to be propounded in the third
chapter of this Gospel, in our Lord's discourse with Nicodemus;
and the particular interpretation of it which they involve to
be supported by certain passages in the Epistle which we
have been considering. The portions of the discourse which
bear on this subject are as follows : —
" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
anew (yevvrjOf] avwBev) he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he
is old ? Can he enter a second time into his mother s Avomb
and be born ? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born of Avater and the Spirit he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh ; and that Avhich is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born aneAV
(avwBev). The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou
hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh
or whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the
Spirit." (John iii. 3—9.)
What advantage the Revisers supposed would result from
substituting the word " anew " for " again " of the Authorised
Version it is difficult to imagine. Equally difficult is it to
conceive what could have induced them to place the words
" born anew " in the text, and " born from above " in the
margin ; for that the natural meaning of the Greek word
avw is "above," and its compound, dvwOev, "from above," is
unquestionable. The Evangelist himself uses the word avwOev
in the signification of " from above " in the immediate con
text in the folloAving passage : "He that cometh from above
(dvwQev) is above all." Here the word is properly translated
in both versions " from above ; " but the Revisers, in viola
tion of their own rule, to translate, as far as possible, the same

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 295
Greek Avord by the same English word, have rendered it
in John iii. 3 and 7 "anew," and in Averse 31, "from
above." Nor is this a solitary use of the word in the Evan
gelist; for addressing the JeAvs our Lord says, "Ye are from
beneath (eK twv kcitw), I am from above (e/c twv ctvw)." So
again in our Lord's address to Pilate : " Thou wouldest have
no power against me except it were given thee from above "
(dvwBev). In a secondary sense this word may be used to
denote, from the commencement of a thing. Thus St. Luke
uses it in the preface to his Gospel, when he speaks of the care
Avhich he had taken to investigate the truth of everything
Avhich he reports from the commencement of our Lord's
ministry. Here he uses the word avwQev, meaning " from the
first." In fact this word can only be made to signify " again"
by representing a person as going upwards to the commence
ment of a thing, and then doing it over a second time ; but
to justify us in assigning this meaning to it, there ought to
be something in the context which shows that the speaker
or writer intended to use it in this very unusual sense. But
in the utterance, " Except a man be born avwOev he
cannot see the kingdom of God," there is nothing even to
hint that the word is used otherwise than in its natural sense,
" from above" — a sense which the author must have assigned
to it, for in his epistle he uses as its equivalent the words
"born of God."
It has been urged that the word avwOev must be translated.
"again" or "anew" in this passage, because the question of
Nicodemus, " How can a man be born when he is old ? Can
he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be
born ? " implies that he understood our Lord as affirming the
necessity of a man's experiencing a second birth as a necessary
qualification for entering into the kingdom of God. I think
that there is no necessity to attribute to a man who bore the
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follower of our Lord, and who in the end openly confessed
him, such extreme stupidity as is implied in the question,
" How can a man be born when he is old ? can he enter the
second time into his mother's womb and be born ? " if it was
intended for anything else than a strong metaphor, to denote
Avhat the speaker thought was a matter of extreme difficulty,
viz. that a full-grown man could change his formed habits
and character. Not only is the language of strong metaphor
very common in the sacred writings ; but it is not infrequent
even in our Lord's teaching. Of this the following passages
are examples : —
" It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God ; " words
which our Lord subsequently explained to his astonished
disciples to be a strong metaphor, intended to enforce the
important truth, how hard it is for them that trust in riches
to enter into it.
So again in enforcing the duty of faith in God he employs
an equaUy strong utterance which it is impossible to under
stand otherwise than as a striking metaphor : —
" Verily, I say unto you, whoever shall say unto this moun
tain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea, and shall not
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh
to pass, he shall have it." (Mark xi. 23.)
Instead of being a blessing, it would be a great curse if
we had only to ask of God and obtain whatever Ave asked for.
The language therefore is a strong metaphor, intended to
enforce the duty of prayer.
Nicodemus doubtless had often read the following passage
in the Prophet Jeremiah : —
" Can the Ethiopian change his skin and the leopard his
spots ? then can ye also do good that are accustomed to do
evil." (Jer. xiii. 23.)
Surely the prophet did not mean, nor Nicodemus understand

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 297
him as meaning, that it was as impossible for a man of formed
habits to turn from evil to good as for an Ethiopian to
change his skin and the leopard his spots, but only that the
language employed was a metaphor to express a thing which
was extremely difficult. Nicodemus's question therefore may
full well be understood as expressing his sense of the extreme
difficulty of effecting that change of mind and character
which our Lord affirmed to be necessary for Avorthy member
ship in the Messianic kingdom. It should be observed that
our Lord's reply makes no reference to Nicodemus's supposed
difficulty respecting the impossibility of a second birth, but
merely repeats the truth involved in his previous utterance in
a somewhat altered form : —
" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God." (John iii. 5.)
In this utterance it is impossible to understand the Avord
" born," as applied to being born of water, other than in a
metaphorical sense. Why, then, is it to be understood in a
different sense, i.e. as denoting an actual second birth, in the
Avords which immediately follow ?
AVhat, then, is the kingdom of God here referred to ? To
this question no doubt many ¦will answer, " heaven." But
surely the kingdom of God in this passage can be none other
than that kingdom of which the Synoptic Gospels inform us
that our Lord went about proclaiming that it Avas about
shortly to be set up ; the speedy advent of Avhich was then a
matter of general expectation ; which he commanded the twelve
and the seventy when He sent them on their respective
missions to announce as being at hand ; and of Avhich He Him
self declared before Pilate that he claimed to be the King.
What, then, was that kingdom ? Is it possible when our Lord
announced it to be at hand, that its advent was yet distant long
centuries in the future ? The Acts of the Apostles renders

298 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
it certain that it is none other than the Church of the present
dispensation. This is also proved by our Lord's second utter
ance, which is intended to be explanatory of the meaning of
his first : " Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Many attempts
have been made to put some most unnatural meaning on the
words "born of water " by those Avhohave a particular theory
to maintain respecting that which constitutes regeneration ;
but it is incredible, unless words are meaningless, that it can
refer to anything else than the well-knoAvn rite of baptism,
Avith which Nicodemus, as a Pharisee, Avas familiar ; a rite
which the Baptist affirmed that he was divinely authorised
to administer even to Jews ; which was administered by our
Lord's disciples, under his own immediate sanction and
authority ; which was subsequently ordained by himself as a
condition of membership in his kingdom ; and which was
required by the Apostles as a condition of such membership,
even of those Avho had previously received the gifts of the
Divine Spirit. To this he adds a further condition Avhich is
spiritual and moral ; that to constitute a man an acceptable
member of His kingdom he must be likewise born of the
Spirit. To understand the meaning of this utterance it is neces
sary to keep in mind that it is addressed to a Pharisaic Jew
for the purpose of correcting the erroneous ideas which Avere
then current respecting the kingdom of the Messiah, the
advent of which was the subject of eager popular expectation.
What, then, were the ideas which such entertained respecting
the conditions of membership in it ? Natural descent from
Abraham or incorporation into his family by the rite of cir
cumcision, and obedience to the whole law, moral, ceremonial,
and ritual, as interpreted by the Pharisaic School, being a
mass of ritual observances encompassing a man's entire life, a
burden which St. Peter designates " a yoke which neither our

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 299
fathers nor we were able to bear." In opposition to such
views our Lord affirms that neither of these would convey a
right to membership in this kingdom, but on the contrary
the right to enjoy its benefits would depend on a state of
the heart and character, followed by the open acknowledg
ment of Himself as its King by the act of baptism in His
name. That the conditions of acceptable membership in the
kingdom of God which Avas about to be set up would be
wholly different from the popular conceptions of them, had
been previously announced, in the folloAving words, by the
Baptist in his address to the Pharisees and Sadducees, who
came to his baptism.
" Ye offspring of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from
the wrath to come ? Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of
repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, We haATe
Abraham to our father ; for God is able of these stones to
raise up children unto Abraham." (Matt. iii. 7 — 9.)
In like manner St. Peter, after proclaiming Jesus to be Lord
and Christ — i.e. the King of the kingdom of God which was
then being actually set up, and into which he exhorted the
multitudes who were affected by his preaching to enter — in
answer to their inquiry, Avhat it behoved them to do, thus
answers : " Repent, and be baptised, every one of you, in the
name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
Such, then, was the meaning Avhich the Apostles put upon
our Lord's declaration, " Except a man be born of water, and
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God ; "
and of their own apostolical commission, "Go ye, therefore,
and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name
of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."
The expressions " born of God," " children of God," and
others of similar import, are of frequent occurrence in the

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Apostle's writings, and are uniformly used to denote Chris
tians who are living up to their Christian calling. Thus he
writes : —
" Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
on us, that we should be called children of God, and such we
are. Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not made
manifest what we shall be." (1 John iii. 1, 2.)
Again — " Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is
begotten of God, and whosoever loveth him that begat loveth
him also who is begotten of him. Hereby we know that we
love the children of God, when we love God and keep his
commandments. For whosoever is begotten of God over-
cometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith." (1 John v. 1 — 4.)
Again — "We know that whosoever is begotten of God
sinneth not." (1 John v. 18.)
Also — " Whosoever is begotten of God doeth not sin, for
his seed abideth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is
begotten of God." (1 John iii. 9.)
In all these passages it is evident that the Apostle uses the
terms " born " and " begotten of God " as synonymous mth
Christians who live up to the height of their Christian calling ;
and they are exclusively applied by him to members of the
Church, and presuppose an actual acquaintance with the person
and work of Jesus Christ. The expressions " born from above"
and born of "water and the Spirit" convey substantially the
same meaning.
Let us noAv consider who those are who, in contrast to the
above, are designated " children of the devil." The following
are the passages in which this term occurs : —
"Ye are from beneath ; I am from above ; ye are of this
world ; I am not of this world." (John viii. 23.)
Still more emphatic in the same chapter —
" Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 301
father it is your will to do (OeXeTe Trotetv). He was a mur
derer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because
there is no truth in him." (John viii. 44.)
Let it be observed that these two utterances are addressed
to our Lord's bitterest opponents, and are therefore applicable
to such only. On one point the second utterance is emphatic :
"The lust of your father it is your will to do."* Those,
therefore, whom our Lord was addressing proved that they
Avere his genuine children by their resemblance to him in
character, shoAvn by their attempts to murder Jesus. Sonship
of the devil, therefore, consists in the deliberate wUl and pur
pose to do the devil's deeds ; i.e. men thus described have
fallen into a state of wilful and conscious opposition to holi
ness and to God, Avhich is described throughout the NeAv
Testament as the leading trait of the devil's character.
The Epistle presents us with the following contrasts between
the children of God and the children of the devil : —
"My little children," says the Apostle, "let no man lead
you astray. He that doeth righteousness" (6 -notwv ti)v
ciKaioavvt]v) " is righteous, even as he is righteous ; he that
doeth sin" (6 -notwv tt]v dptaprtav) "is of the devil, for the
devil sinneth from the beginning. To this end was the Son of
God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devU.
Whosoever is begotten of God doeth not sin" (dptapTiav ov
¦Kotet), " because his seed abideth in him, and he cannot sin
because he is begotten of God. In this the children of God
are manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever
doeth not righteousness " (ptt) -notwv iiKaioavvi^v) " is not of
God, neither he that loveth not his brother." (1 John hi.
7—10.) * The words 9i~KtTt iroiiiv convey a very different meaning from the render
ing in the Authorised Version, "ye will do." The strict translation is, "ye
will to do," which means a direct and wilful persisting in sin, or a condition in
which all good has ceased to exist, and the entire man has hopelessly surrendered
himself of his own free choice to the practice of evil.

302 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
Again — " We know that whosoever is begotten of God
sinneth not " (ovx dpLapravet), " but he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself, and the evil one toucheth him not." (1 John
v. 18.)
It should be observed that the words " doeth righteous
ness " and " doeth sin " are but Aveak renderings of the Greek
o -notwv Ti]v htKaioavvi^v, and 6 -notwv tj]v apuapriav, which
denote one who by a deliberate act Avorks or practises the one or
the other. Also, as the Apostle beyond all question recognised
the truth of the saying, " There is not a just man upon earth
Avho doeth good and sinneth not," he must have intended to
convey by the words oi'x d/mapTavei, " sinneth not," in the last
quotation, the same idea Aviiich he expressed in the first by
6 -notwv t})v apaprlav, viz. one Avho sins habitually and with
a will to sin, and not one Avho falls into sin by the force of
temptation or of circumstances over Avhich he can exert no
control. It is evident, therefore, that by the terms " children of
God " and " children of the devil" the Apostle did not intend
to divide mankind into two great divisions which should be
exhaustive of the family of man, or to affirm that there was
nothing intermediate between these tAvo extremes of character.
If this had been his purpose, inasmuch as in his Avritings
sonship to God presupposes a knowledge of, a personal
union with, a love to, and an abiding in God and Christ,
it Avould folloAV that not only the overwhelming majority
of the human race who have never heard of the revelation
of God in Jesus Christ, but even those who in the darkness
of the pagan Avorld have been earnest seekers after truth,
must be ranked among the children of the devil. But such
an idea is not only dreadful in itself, but it contradicts the
Divine attributes of justice, holiness, mercy, and love, the
revelation of God made in Jesus Christ, and the express
assertions of St. Paul which I have already quoted as to the

THE GOSPEL AND EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 303
principles on Avhich God will judge those Avho have never
had the benefit of a divine revelation.
The fact is that the case of those who have never heard of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or have only had some imperfect
version of it, of those in whom all good is not become utterly
extinct (for, as we have seen, such only are designated the
children of the devil) is not once referred to in the Gospel or
the Epistle. Consequently both are silent respecting the
ultimate condition of such, except so far as it can be inferred
from such utterances as " I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto me," and " we have seen and bear
record that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the
Avorld." The denunciations both of the Gospel and the
Epistle are directed only against evil men before whom Jesus
Christ has been set forth in all the power of His divine
attractiveness, and who, having had Him thus held up before
them have, with full knowledge, Avilfully and deliberately
rejected Him.

CHAPTER XII.
The Doctrine of Retribution as set forth in the Remaining Writings
of the New Testament.
We will consider first the Epistles of St. Paul.
Although these abound with the strongest assurances that
glorious prospects await believers in the world beyond the
grave, and although the Apostle lays down clearly the great
principle that God will judge the world in righteousness,
yet they afford little information additional to that which we
have derived from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles
respecting the nature of the retribution which awaits those
who finally reject the Gospel, or respecting the condi
tion of those after death Avho have lived and died Avithout
having had the opportunity of accepting or rejecting that
message of good news to man, which our Lord again and
again affirmed that it was the end and purpose of His mission
to proclaim. Several of the Apostle's most important affirma
tions respecting the hopes and prospects of believers we have
had occasion to consider in the preceding chapters. It will,
therefore, be unnecessary to discuss them here. All that
remains for me to do in this place will be to set before the
reader his general positions respecting future retribution.
The Apostle's writings naturally divide themselves into
four divisions, the composition of which was separated from
one another by a considerable interval of time.
1st. The two Epistles to the Thessalonians, written about
A.D. 53, 54.

THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. 305
2nd. The two to the Corinthians, and those to the Gala-
tians and Romans, written a.d. 57, 58.
3rd. Those to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and
Philemon, composed about a.d. 62.
4th. The three pastoral Epistles, of uncertain date, except
the Second Epistle to Timothy, which Avas Avritten shortly
before the Apostle's death.
It will be observed that the first three groups are separated
from each other by an interval of about four years. I pro
pose to consider them in the order of their composition, be
cause there is a considerable difference of view between the
earlier and the later ones.
I. The two Epistles to the Thessalonians.
The idea Avhich pervades these two Epistles is the Parousia
of Christ, commonly called His second advent. It is men
tioned in no less than seven out of the eight chapters into which
these Epistles are divided. I think that it is impossible to
peruse them without arriving at the conclusion that both the
Apostle and those to whom he wrote were persuaded that it
was an event which would take place after no long interval of
time. From the Second Epistle we learn that the members
of this Church considered it to be an event then actually
imminent ; and that some of them were so firmly persuaded
of its near approach that, in expectation of it, they neglected
their ordinary business. One of the purposes for which the
Apostle wrote his Second Epistle was to correct this idea.
Thus he writes —
" We beseech you, brethren, touching the coming (the
Parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together
unto him, to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from
your mind, nor yet be troubled either by spirit, or by word,
or by epistle as from us, that the day of Christ is now pre
sent" (hveoTy]Kev). (2 Thess. ii. 1, 2.)
x

306 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
Having thus warned his readers, he then reminds them that
he had had much to say on this subject when he was among
them, and especially that our Lord's Parousia would not come
to pass until an event which he calls " the apostacy " had
taken place, and a personage whom he designates " the man
of sin, the son of perdition," had been revealed, " whom the
Lord Jesus would slay with the breath of his mouth, and
bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming "
(tyj? -napovala? aiiTov). (2 Thess. ii. 8.)
The entire passage is evidently written in enigmatical lan
guage, under the apprehension that if he spoke in plain terms
it might compromise the Church with the public authorities,
for even during his residence at Thessalonica the very dan
gerous charge had been preferred against him of " setting up
another king, one Jesus." But he evidently calculated that
those who had heard his oral teaching on this subject would
understand his meaning. The reader is doubtless aware that
an interminable controversy has arisen as to what the Apostle
meant by " the apostacy," and Avhat was the idea which he
intended to. convey under the figure of " the man of sin, the son
of perdition," who was to appear prior to the Parousia of
Christ. Into this controversy I shall not enter. I shah only
assume that although this passage proves that St. Paul did
not think that our Lord's coming was close at hand, yet it
seems impossible to read these Epistles and the other writings
of the New Testament without arriving at the conclusion that
the entire Apostolic Church considered it to be an event not
very remote, and never thought that eighteen centuries,
perhaps a far longer period, would elapse before this glorious
manifestation of Christ would take place. In his later
Epistles the Parousia of Christ occupies a far less prominent
place, and in the one last written, while he is stih looking
forward to it as the consummation of his highest aspirations,
he is expecting not it, but death.

THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. 307
In reading the New Testament it is necessary that the
fact should be kept steadily in mind, that not only the
Apostolic Church, but the Apostles themselves, were in error
when they thought that the coming of Christ in visible glory
was an event which would take place at no distant period of
time, perhaps in the lifetime of some of the existing genera
tion. Our Lord had affirmed that " it was not given to them
to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath set
within his own authority." They, therefore, continued ignorant
that the glorious manifestation of the kingdom of God was
an event which would not happen until some period of the
far-distant future.
Such being the prominent position which the Parousia, or
coming of Christ, occupies in these Epistles, it is hardly neces
sary to observe that future retribution is only referred to by
the Apostle in direct connection Avith it. Of these references
the following are examples : —
1. " For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concern
ing them that fall asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as the rest
that have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so also them that are fallen asleep in Jesus Avill
God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the Avord
of the Lord, that we that are alive, and are left unto the
coming of the Lord, shall in nowise precede those that are
fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from
heaven Avith a shout, with the voice of the archangel and
Avith the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise
first : then we that are alive and are left shall together
with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore
comfort one another Avith these Avords." (1 Thess. iv. 13 — 18.)
From this passage we learn that the Thessalonian Chris
tians were greatly disturbed respecting the lot of those among
them Avho died prior to our Lord's manifestation in glory.
x2

308 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
The Apostle therefore assures them that those who had fallen
asleep prior to this event would be in no worse position than
those who were alive to witness it, and that he had Divine
authority for saying that departed saints will be raised from
the dead before those who are living at the time of his
appearing would be summoned to meet him. It should be
observed that the resurrection of which the Apostle here
speaks is exclusively a resurrection of believers.
2. In the following verses the Apostle speaks of the fate
of those sinners Avho are alive at our Lord's coming : —
" But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye
have no need that aught be written unto you. For your
selves knoAv perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh, as
a thief in the night. For Avhen they are saying, Peace, and
safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail
on a woman with child ; and they shall in no wise escape."
(1 Thess. v. 1—3.)
The judgment with which these sinners are here threat
ened is a sudden destruction (atyvtito? 8Xe6po?.) It is diffi
cult to conceive that the word oXeOpo?, the Greek equivalent
of our English word destruction, when united with the word
sudden, could have been understood by the Thessalonian
Greek-speaking Christians as meaning a continuous existence
in never-ending misery.
3. Similar is the affirmation made in the following
passage : —
"If so be that it is a righteous thing Avith God to recom
pense affliction to them that afflict you, and to you that are
afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ
from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, ren
dering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall suffer
punishment, even eternal destruction (alwvtov oXeOpov)
from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of his might,

THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. 309
when he shall come to be glorified in his sajnts, and to be
marvelled at in all them that believe (because our testimony
unto you was believed) in that day." (2 Thess. i. 6 — 10.)
Who are the persons here described as suffering punish
ment at the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ ? I will
answer in the Avords of the Apostle : " Them that afflict you,"
" tltem who, at the time of His appearing, know not God, and
that obey not the gospel." I say " at the time of His appear
ing," because there is no reference made in this passage, nor
even in either of the Epistles, to a resurrection of any who
are not saints. Consequently, the persons referred to are wicked
men who are living at the time of our Lord's second coming.
What, then, is the punishment threatened ? I answer in
the Apostle's own words : "It will be a righteous thing
Avith God to 'render affliction to them that afflict you ; and
to you that are afflicted, rest." Also, when our Lord shall
come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled
at in all them that believe, " those that know not God, and
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, will suffer
punishment, even eternal destruction (alwvtov oXeOpov) from
the face of the Lord, and from the glory of his might."
I have been careful to use the Apostle's Avords, because
this is one of the passages of the NeAv Testament which are
most relied on to prove the endlessness of the punishment
of the wicked. I have already drav/n attention to the fact,
that the word alwv and its compounds do not suggest the
philosophical idea of endlessness, but of indefinite yet limited
periods of time, varying from "the present evil age " to " ages
of ages." StiU more important is it to observe that the Apostle
is not here speaking of those who have died prior to the
advent, without having embraced the gospel, but of certain
persons who were then actually hving and persecuting. Re
specting these he has more to say in the context which
immediately follows. In it he tells the Thessalonians that

310 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
an event, of which he had Avarned them when he was present,
which he designates "the apostacy," and the manifestation of
a power which he designates " the man of sin, the son of per
dition," would take place prior to the advent. Now, without
attempting to define what was the precise idea which the
Apostle intended to convey by these words, it is evident that
he intended those to whom he wrote to understand by them
some persecuting world-power, which would set itself in
opposition to Christ and his gospel, respecting which he thus
writes : —
" And then shaU be revealed the lawless one, whom the
Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and
bring to naught by the manifestation of his coming."
(2 Thess. ii. 8.)
What, then, is the natural meaning of these words ? As
" the lawless one " is evidently intended to denote some anti-
christian world-power, the words " slay with the breath of his
mouth, and bring to naught by the manifestation of his
coming," must mean that this Avorld-power would be utterly
annihilated by our Lord at His Parousia ; and therefore they
affirm nothing respecting the nature of that retribution which
awaits sinners in the unseen world. Further, as these pas
sages stand in the closest juxtaposition, we can scarcely err in
assuming that the same persecuting world-power is spoken of
in each. In the second chapter he affirms that " the Lord
would slay," or, as some copies read, " consume it, by the
breath of his mouth, and bring to naught by the manifesta
tion of his coming," to which the corresponding words in the
immediate context in the first chapter are, " at the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven in flaming fire, render
ing vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall suffer
punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the
Lord, and from the glory of his might."

THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL.

311

What, then, is the meaning of the Avords " eternal destruc
tion" (alwvtov SXeBpov) ? Certainly it would be difficult to
find a word in the Greek language less fitted to suggest the
idea of endless existence in torment than oXe6po?, or in
English than the word " destruction ;" for destruction can by
no possibility be made to mean endless duration ; no, not even
with the addition of the word " age-long ; " for even if the
word alwvto? could be understood as meaning " never-ending,"
then alwvto? SXeOpo? must mean " a destruction Avhich never
will be completed," a meaning which is self-contradictory.
Doubtless the word " eternal" (alwvto?) added to destruc
tion, was intended to impart to it an intensity of meaning.
What, then, is that meaning ? I answer, a destruction which
would be utter and complete, and from which there would
be no revival during the ages of the future.
II. — The Epistles to the Corinthians, Galatians, and
Romans.
In the two Epistles to the Corinthians the references to the
future retribution of the wicked are few. The following are
the most important : —
1. " The word of the cross is to them that are perishing,
foolishness, but unto us which are being saved it is the
power of God." (1 Cor. i. 18.)
The Revisers have correctly translated the words toi?
cnroXXvpievoi?, and to?? awgoptevot?, rendered in the Autho
rised Version, " them that perish, and them that are saved,"
by the words " them that are perishing, and them that are
being saved," the Greek denoting, in each instance, not a
completed but an uncompleted act. The Apostle, therefore,
is not speaking of a state of things beyond the grave, but
of one which was then existing inside and outside the
Church, and describing its twofold tendency, which, when
completed, would be destruction or salvation. It was, in

312 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
fact, a process, i.e. a work Avhich was being continually
carried on.
2. " Wherefore judge nothing before the time until the
Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of
darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and
then shall each man have his praise from God." (1 Cor. iv. 5.)
Here the Apostle simply affirms that the judgment which
God will execute hereafter, whether on the righteous or the
wicked, will be a righteous judgment ; and that, knowing the
inmost secrets of the heart, He will frequently reverse the
judgments which men form of one another.
3. " Know ye not, that the unrighteous shall not inherit
the kingdom of God ? Be not deceived : neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you ; but ye Avere
Avashed ; but ye were sanctified ; but ye were justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus, and in the spirit of our God."
(1 Cor. vi. 9 — 11.)
In these words the Apostle affirms that such characters
will have no share in the kingdom of God in its future glo
rious manifestation ; but he is silent as to the nature or the
duration of the retribution AA'hich aAvaits them in the unseen
world. 4. " Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink
the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body
and the blood of the Lord. For he that eateth and drinketh,
eateth and drinketh judgment (KplpLa) unto himself if he dis
cern not the body. For this cause many among you are
weak and sickly, and not a feAv sleep. For if Ave discerned
ourselves, Ave should not be judged. But Avhen Ave are
judged we are chastened of the Lord, that Ave be not con
demned with the world." (1 Cor. xi. 27 — 32.)

THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. 313
This passage is an important one, because the Authorised
Version has taught its readers that those Avho eat of the
bread and drink of the cup of the holy communion un
worthily eat and drink unto themselves damnation.
This the Revisers have properly altered into "judgment,"
for the word Kplpa bears no such meaning as that Avhich in
current theology is attached to the Avord " damnation." The
profanation which is described in the context Avas one of the
most extreme character, in some cases nothing short of getting
drunk at the love-feast which preceded the celebration of this
sacred rite, the perpetual memorial of Christ's giving Himself
for the life of the world ; but Avhat was the judgment which
the Apostle tells us fell on those who were guilty of it ? Not
damnation but sickness, and in not a few cases death. These
he affirms to have been inflicted, not for the purpose of ven
geance but of chastisement, in order that those who Avere
guilty of the sin in question might not be condemned with
the world. To those Avho affirm that probation is confined
to this life, it may seem strange that the Apostle should speak
of death, which he terms sleep, as a chastisement.
5. " For we are a sweet savour of Christ unto God in them
that are being saved, and in them that are perishing : to the
one we are a savour from death unto death ; to the other a
savour from life unto life." (2 Cor. ii. 15, 16.)
To this passage the same observations are applicable as to
number one.
6. " For Ave must all be made manifest before the judgment
seat of Christ, that each may receive the things done in the
body, according to Avhat he hath done, whether it be good or
bad. Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade
men." (2 Cor. v. 10, 11.)
The Apostle here affirms that God will call men to account
hereafter for their conduct here ; that He will reAvard and
punish them according to their actions ; and that the judg-

314 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
ment which He will execute will be a discriminating judgment,
not a judgment according to outward appearances, but accord
ing to inward realities. " We must," says he, "all be made
manifest before the judgment seat of Christ." We further
learn from this passage that when he Avarned men of the con
sequences with Avhich wilful sin will be attended in the
unseen world, the topic which he urged on their consideration
was "the fear of the Lord," by which he endeavoured to
" persuade men " to turn from their evil Avays, i.e. he urged
upon them the consideration of a judgment to come, in Avhich
a righteous God Avould render to evil men a retribution
exactly proportioned to their evil deeds ; but his words con
tain no hint that he was in the habit of Avarning sinners — •
vast numbers of those whom he addressed must have been
ignorant of a fact so awful — that their doom Avould be a
never-ending existence in never-ending torment.
The Epistle to the Galatians.
Except where the Apostle speaks of the curse of the
lav;, from which Christ redeemed those under it by under
going that curse, this Epistle contains only two references to
a state of retribution. The first is a simple warning that
those who practise the works of the flesh which he enumerates
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The second is con
tained in the foUowing Avords : —
" Be not deceived : God is not mocked ; for whatsoever a
man soweth that shall he also reap. For he that soweth unto
his flesh shaU of the flesh reap corruption (tpOopdv), but he
that soweth unto the spirit shall of the spirit reap eternal
life " (gw>)v alwvtov). (Gal. vi. 7, 8.)
God, says the Apostle, is not mocked, for a man shaU reap
precisely what he sows. What, then, is sowing to the flesh ?
The giving the rein to man's animal passions until they be
come dominant in him. What is sowing unto the spirit?

THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. 315
The cultivation of all those affections which tend to holiness
until they become dominant over the entire man. The reap
ing of the one will be (pBopct, corruption ; the reaping of
the other will be alwvto? £»)/, eternal life.
The word <p6opd in ordinary Greek means corruption,
decay, and destruction. Surely if the Apostle had intended
to warn those to Avhom he was Avriting, that the conduct
which he denounces would incur the penalty of a conscious
existence in torments Avhich would never end, he would not
have expressed a truth so awful by such a word as (pOopd,
corruption, Avhich in its ordinary acceptation conveys no hint
of such a meaning, but in terms which Avere clear and unmis
takable. Further, the reader should observe that Avhile the
Apostle has added the adjective alwvto?, eternal, to the
" life " which those who soav to the Spirit shall reap, he has
abstained from adding any word expressing duration to the
(pdopd which shall be reaped by those who sow to the flesh.
To say the least of it, the omission is remarkable.
The Epistle to the Romans.
The following are its most remarkable utterances respect
ing future retribution : —
" The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Avho hold doAvn the
truth [margin, who hold the truth] in unrighteousness."
(Rom. i. 18.)
The Apostle here affirms that even in the Gospel God's
wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men, and that it will be directed against those who hold
down the truth in unrighteousness. But as it is impossible to
do this without knoAving what " the truth " is, his denunciation
is only applicable to those Avho have had the means of know
ing it. Further, although the Apostle's declaration that God's
wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness

316 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
of men implies that wilful sin will be attended with terrible
suffering, he does not utter a word which affirms, or even
implies, that God's holy and righteous indignation against it
can be satisfied only by the endless suffering of the sinner.
In the next chapter he lays doAvn the general principles
on which God will execute judgment in the following words : —
" Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and for
bearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of
God leadeth thee to repentance ? But after thy hardness and
impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself Avrath in the day of
wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who
Avill render to every man according to his works : to them
that by patience in welldoing seek for glory and honour and
incorruption, eternal life ; but to them that are factious and
obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be Avrath
and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul that
worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek ; but
glory, and honour, and peace to every man that worketh
good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek : for there is
no respect of persons with God." (Rom. ii. 4 — 9.)
It will enable the reader to see clearly Avhat are the truths
which the Apostle intended to affirm in this passage if I set
them before him in as many distinct propositions.
1. That God's judgment will be a righteous judgment,
holding men responsible only for what they have, and not for
what they have not, and that " he will render to every man
according to his ivorks," whether he be Jew or Gentile.
2. That the goodness of God leads men to repentance —
a truth, as we have seen already, clearly expressed by the
prophet — "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked, but that the Avicked should turn
from his ways and live." (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.)
3. That to every man that works good, whether he has
lived with the light of a revelation or Avithout it, and who

THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. 317
patiently continues in welldoing, God will render glory,
honour, peace, and eternal life.
4. To them that obey not the truth (observe that disobe
dience to truth involves the knowledge of truth), but obey
unrighteousness, and are finally impenitent, God will render
wrath, indignation, tribulation, and anguish at the time of
the revelation of His righteous judgment.
5. That while the Apostle mentions "eternal life" (fro*)
alwvto?) as the recompense which will be rendered to those
who have worked good, he abstains from using any word
which denotes duration Avhen he speaks of the Avrath, indig
nation, tribulation, and anguish which God will render to
every man that works evil. All that he affirms is, that sin
wilfully persisted in will be attended with fearful suffering
on the part of the sinner.
The Apostle next proceeds to lay down, in the following
remarkable words, the principles on which God will judge
mankind : — -
" For as many as have sinned without law " (the words
" Avithout law " here are used as equivalent to without the
benefit of a Divine revelation) " shall also perish (cfnoXovvTat)
Avithout law ; and as many as have sinned under law shall
be judged by law ; for not the hearers of a law are just before
God, but the doers of a law shall be justified [margin,
accounted righteous] ; for when Gentiles, which have no law,
do by nature the things of the law, these, having no law, are
a law unto themselves, in that they show the work of the law
Avritten in their hearts, their conscience bearing Avitness there
with, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else
excusing them, in the day when God shall judge the secrets
of men, according to my Gospel, by Jesus Christ." (Rom. ii.
12—16.) In this passage the Apostle makes the following affirma
tions : —

318 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
1. That God in executing judgment will take into con
sideration the circumstances of a man's birth and his sur
roundings, and that He will not judge a man who has been
born and educated under disadvantageous conditions as
if he had been born and educated under more favourable
ones. 2. That mankind are not born so depraved as to be natu
rally incapable of all good, but that those who have hved
without the benefit of a revelation may yet do by nature
(tpvaet) the things taught by a revelation, i.e. they possess
the light of conscience ; and those who act up to its hght
Avill stand in a far more favourable position than those who,
with the advantage of a revelation, have not lived up to the
light with which they have been favoured.
3. The word which the Apostle here uses as descriptive
of the condition of those who will fall under the Divine judg
ment as finally impenitent is airoXovvTat, which corresponds in
meaning Avith the English word perish. He has told us in
the preceding paragraph that this perishing will involve a
display of the Divine indignation and wrath, and that it will
be attended with tribulation and anguish ; but in neither
does he drop a hint that he meant, by the " perishing " of
which he speaks, continuous existence in never-ending misery
— a meaning which the word he uses Avholly fails to suggest
in its ordinary signification.
The general meaning of these declarations of the Apostle
is unmistakable. They definitely affirm that God will judge
mankind hereafter according to what they have had, and not
according to what they have not had ; according to what they
have been responsible for doing, and not for actions for
which they have had no responsibility ; and that punishment
will be inflicted in exact proportion to crime. Everything,
therefore, in the subsequent portion of the Epistle, where he
only indirectly refers to the subject of retribution, must be

THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. 319
read in the hght of these definite affirmations. The most
important of these I have had occasion to consider in previous
chapters. III. — The Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians,
COLOSSIANS, AND PHILEMON.
1. The Epistle to the Ephesians scarcely contains a refer
ence to the judgments which will be incurred by the finally
impenitent. Its great subject is the Church of Christ,
viewed in its progress from its present state of imperfection
to its future glorified condition. With respect to certain
classes of sinners, Avhom he particularises, the Apostle simply
affirms that they have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ
and God ; and that, because of certain practices, " the wrath
of God comes on the sons of disobedience ; " but respecting
the form in which that wrath will display itself, or the dura
tion of the sinner's punishment, he says nothing. He also
reminds the members of this Church that in their heathen
state they had been dead in trespasses and sins, separate
from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and
strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and
without God in the world. But instead of dwelhng on
Avhat would have been their fate if they had died in this
condition, he turns to a subject more congenial to him, and
adds : —
"But noAV in Christ Jesus ye that were once afar off are
made nigh in the blood of Christ ; for he is our peace ....
for through him we both " (i.e. Jew and Gentile) " have our
access in one Spirit unto the Father. So, then, Ave are no
more strangers and sojourners, but fellow-citizens of the saints,
and of the household of God, being built on the foundation
of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief corner-stone." (Eph. ii. 13 — 20.)
2. In the Epistle to the Philippians occurs the passage

320

FUTURE RETRIBUTION.

which we have already considered, in which the Apostle
expresses his confident expectation that when he was removed
from this earthly scene he Avould be with Christ. That which
follows is the only one in Avhich he speaks of the retribution
which aAvaits the wicked : —
" For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell
you even Aveeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of
Christ ; AA'hose end is perdition (d-nwXeia), whose God is their
belly, Avhose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." ,
(Phil. iii. 18, 19.)
The English Avords "perdition" and "destruction" accu
rately convey the idea Avhich is expressed by the Greek word
airuXeia, which is Avholly silent respecting duration. With
this the Apostle threatens those Avhose conduct marked them
out as enemies of the cross of Christ. When he adds that he
wrote this even weeping, he implies that their destruction
would not be a sudden extinction of being, but that it Avould
be one which involved sufferings fearful to contemplate ; yet
he gives no hint that he believed1 that those sufferings would
be endless.
3. The Epistle to the Colossians, while it is full of antici
pations of the glories which await holy men in the perfected
kingdom of God, contains only one reference to the fate which
awaits evil men in the world to come, and that a very inci
dental one. It is as follows : —
" For which thing's sake cometh the Avrath of God on the
sons of disobedience." (Col. iii. 6.)
What, then, are the sons of disobedience here threatened
Avith ? The wrath of God. This, as the Apostle has explained
in the Epistle to the Romans, will be accompanied Avith tribu
lation and anguish on the part of the impenitent sinner, but
he nowhere even hints that this tribulation and anguish will
be of endless duration.
4. The Epistle to Philemon is silent on this subject.

THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. 321
IV. — The Pastoral Epistles.
The first Epistle to Timothy contains no affirmation on this
subject, and in the second only incidental references to it,
such as —
" Now, in a great house there are not only vessels of gold
and silver, but also of wood and of earth ; and some unto
honour and some unto dishonour." (ii. 20.)
" Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil ; the Lord
reward him according to his works." (iv. 14.)
" At my first defence no man took my part, but all forsook
me. May it not be laid to their account." (iv. 16.)
These utterances are simple affirmations of the Apostle's
firm belief in a judgment to come, in which God will reward
and punish men according to their deeds ; but that that
judgment will result in consigning all those on whom God's
wrath will fall to a condition of endless misery, the Apostle
nowhere affirms.
Such are the affirmations of St. Paul respecting the retri
bution which will fall on the finally impenitent in the unseen
world. The terms used by him, as descriptive of it, must
have conveyed to ordinary speakers of Greek the idea of
destruction, and not a few of destruction attended with pain
ful suffering ; but respecting the mode in which it would be
brought about, or the time which would elapse before it
was accomplished, he gives us no information. Not one of
the terms which he uses would, to an ordinary speaker of
Greek, convey the meaning of everlasting existence in tor
ment — which meaning must be first read into them before it
can be found in them ; nor does he give a single hint to his
readers that this was the sense which he intended to attach
to them. His strongest expressions are, " wrath, indignation,
tribulation, and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh
evil;" but that the Divine justice can be satisfied with
Y

322 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
nothing but inflicting this tribulation and anguish during
periods of endless duration, seems not to have entered into
the mind of the Apostle.
V. — The Epistle to the Hebrews.
Its author, after stating that a belief in an eternal judg
ment (KplpuiTo? alwvtov), and a resurrection from the dead,
were among the first principles of Christ, thus writes : —
" For as touching those who were once enlightened, and
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the
Holy Ghost, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers
of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to
renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to
themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open
shame. For the land that hath drunk the rain that cometh
oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose
sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God ; but if it
beareth thorns and briars, it is rejected, and nigh unto a
curse ; whose end is to be burnt." (Heb. vi. 4 — 8.)
Of whom is the sacred writer here speaking ? Certainly
not of those apostates who had fallen away under the pressure
of persecution, but of persons who had wilfully done so after
they had enjoyed the highest privileges of Christianity, and
had even had a personal experience of its blessings ; Avho, after
they had been enlightened, and had tasted of the heavenly
gift ; after having been made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
and having tasted the good word of God, and the powers of
the age to come (i.e. the Messianic age), yet, by an act of
open apostacy, had fallen away from Christ. Such a descrip
tion suits only the case of persons Avho have had clearly set
before them the character of God, as it is revealed in Jesus
Christ, and who, with a full knowledge of Christianity, have
once embraced it, and afterwards have been guilty of a deli-

THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 323
berate apostacy. Such persons the -writer considered that it
was impossible to renew to repentance. Yet what is the
imagery by which he illustrates their ultimate fate ? That
of a field, which after it has drunk in abundance of rain, and
had the benefit of careful husbandry, brings forth nothing
but briars and thorns, " Avhose end," says he, " is to be
burnt." These Avords certainly give no hint that the Avriter
considered that such sinners would continue to exist for ever
in never-ceasing torment.
He subsequently describes the fate of such persons in the
following words : —
" For if we sin wilfully, after we have received the know
ledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin,
but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness
of fire, which shall devour the adversaries. A man that hath
set at nought Moses' law died without compassion on the
word of two or three Avitnesses. Of how much sorer punish
ment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden
under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of
the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and
hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace ? For Ave know
him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me ; I will
recompense : and again, The Lord shall judge his people. It
is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
(Heb. x. 26—31.)
Both versions translate iaOletv ptiXXovTo? tov? v-nevavTtov?,
" shall devour the adversaries," as though it were merely a
future tense. It must not be concealed, however, that the
Greek really means, "is about to devour the adversaries,"
being, apparently, an allusion to the expectation of the speedy
coming of Christ, so prevalent in the Apostolic age. Yet
although Christ did not come personally it must not be for
gotten that an event took place in that age which our Lord
frequently described as his -napovaia, or coming ; a coming
y2

324 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
which he declared that many of his adversaries would live to
behold, and which would be attended with a terrible destruc
tion of his foes. I allude to that great event by which the
JeAvish dispensation was brought to a close, and the Church,
or kingdom of Christ, was estabhshed as a distinct and
visible community upon earth. Our Lord thus describes
this aAvful visitation of Providence : —
"For then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not
been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever
shall be." (Matt. xxiv. 21.)
But although the words pteXXovTO? iaOletv tov? V7revavTtov?
imply that the author had this event in view, yet the context
shows that he intended his language to have a general apph
cation. What, then, was the judgment with which he
threatens these persons of whom he speaks, by the words "a
fierceness of fire which is about to devour the adversaries " ?
What idea, I ask, was such a metaphor calculated to convey ?
Not an endless existence in misery, which is incapable of
being expressed by the word eaOtetv, to eat or devour, but
some terrible form of destruction which he endeavours to
depict in all its awfulness by his concluding words, " It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
VI. — The Epistles of James, Peter, and Jude.
In the Epistle of James we have only a few distant
allusions to future retribution. Thus he writes : —
" The lust, Avhen it hath conceived, beareth sin ; and the sin,
when it is full grown, bringeth forth death." (James i. 15.)
By the word " death " in this passage the Apostolic writer
apparently meant a condition of man's spiritual and moral
being, in which every tendency to good has Wecome over
mastered by that which is evil. If this was his meaning, the
passage is silent respecting the nature of the punishment

THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. 325
which awaited such a man hereafter. On the other hand,
if he intended by the word " death " to affirm anything
respecting the sinner's condition in the unseen world, few
words are less suited to convey the idea of a continuous ex
istence in never-ending torment than that used by him.
" For judgment is without mercy to him that hath shoAved
no mercy. Mercy glorieth against judgment." (James ii. 13.)
In this last sentence the principle is distinctly laid down,
which I have already shown to be that in accordance with
which God who is righteous, just, merciful, and loving, will
judge the world. Mercy begins precisely at the point where
strict justice ends. " Mercy glorieth against judgment."
"Be not many teachers, my brethren, knowing that we
shah receive heavier judgment." (James hi. 1.)
These words are a repetition, in another form, of our
Lord's utterance, " To whom much hath been given, of him
shall much be required."
" One only is the lawgiver and judge, even him who is
able to save and to destroy." (James iv. 12.)
Here, again, we have another repetition of one of our Lord's
utterances, the meaning of which Ave have already considered :
" Fear not them that kill the body, but after that have no
more that they can do ; but fear him who after he hath killed
hath power to cast into Gehenna ; yea, I say unto you, fear
him." (Luke xii. 4, 5.) Once more : —
" My brethren, if any among you do err from the truth,
and one convert him, let him know that he that converteth a
sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul (^-i>x>/>
not -nvevpta) from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins."
(James v. 19, 20.)
The soul here is to be saved from " death," not from a
continuous existence in never-ending torment.
In these passages the apostolic writer does nothing more
than affirm the great truth of human responsibihty, and

326 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
assert that God will reward and punish men according to
their deeds. Respecting the nature of that punishment he is
silent, and the language which he uses fails to suggest the
idea that it will be of endless duration.
The First Epistle of Peter contains the remarkable affirma
tion respecting our Lord's preaching to the spirits of the
antediluvians, and the preaching of the Gospel to the dead;.
As the discussion of this subject involves the all-important
question whether there is reason for believing that human
probation terminates at death, or that a change in the state
of mind in which the overwhelming majority of mankind
leave this world may take place as long as the mediatorial
reign of Christ continues, we must reserve its consideration
to a separate chapter.
The authenticity of the Second Epistle of St. Peter is far
more questionable than that of any writing in the New Testa
ment. Large numbers of eminent critics have expressed the
gravest doubts respecting its genuineness ; and it is impossible
to deny that the reasons which have been urged against its
authenticity are very strong. This being so, it is useless to
quote it in proof of any position which is not clearly set
forth in those sacred writings respecting whose right to a
place in the Canon no doubt has ever been entertained in the
Church. For the authenticity of the Epistle of St. Jude the
evidence is stronger, but yet weighty doubts have been enter
tained respecting its canonical authority. I mention these
facts because of the peculiar character of their positions
respecting the subject we are now considering. One thing,
however, is worthy of particular attention. The context
of those portions of these epistles which bear on our present
subject render it certain, unless all certainty in criticism
must be abandoned, either that the author of the Second
Epistle of St. Peter borrowed from Jude, or that the author of
Jude borrowed from the Second Epistle of St. Peter. Critics

SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER AND EPISTLE OF JUDE. 327
vi great Aveight are of opinion that the Epistle of St. Jude
is the original, and that those portions of 2 Peter which so
closely resembles it are the copy. If this be so, it throAvs
great suspicion on the authenticity of the latter ; for it is
incredible that such a man as the Apostle Peter, writing with
the full Aveight of apostolical authority, would have borrowed
from another writer.
The author of the Epistle of St. Jude describes himself as a
servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. This descrip
tion represents him as one of those who are referred to in
the Gospels as the brethren of our Lord, of Avhom one
was named Jude ; and as St. John tells us that they did not
believe in him at a late period of his ministry, it is hardly
possible, notwithstanding all the arguments Avhich have been
urged to the contrary, to identify him with Jude the Apostle.
One very remarkable characteristic of this brief epistle is a
reference to apocryphal writings such as occurs in no other
writing in the New Testament. These epistles therefore belong
to that class of writings respecting the canonical authority
of Avhich grave doubts have been entertained in the Church ;
and thus they are writings of inferior authority. With these
cautions I will now proceed to examine their affirmations
respecting the judgments which will be executed on sinners
in the unseen world. Of these the two following passages
will serve as illustrations : —
" For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast
them down to hell (TapTapwaa?), and committed them to pits of
darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the
ancient world, but preserved Noah, with seven others, a preacher
of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the
ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into
ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, having made them
an example to those that should live ungodly ; the Lord
knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to

328 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the day of
judgment ; but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the
lust of defilement and despise dominion. Daring, self-willed,
they tremble not to rail at dignities. Whereas angels, though
greater in power and strength, bring not a railing judgment
against them before the Lord." (2 Peter ii. 4 — 11, &c.)
The corresponding passage in Jude is as folloAvs : —
"And angels that kept not their own principality, but left
their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting (aihtot?)
bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them,
having in like manner with these given themselves over unto
fornication, and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as
an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire (-nvpo?
alwvtov). Yet in like manner these also in their dreamings
defile the flesh, and set at naught dominion, and rail at
dignities. But Michael, the archangel, when contending with
the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not
bring against him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord
rebuke thee." (Jude 6 — 19.)
A few verses further on we have a quotation from the
apocryphal book of Enoch. The author having previously
described those respecting whom he Avas writing as autumn
leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots ;
wild waves of the sea foaming out their own shame ; Avan-
dering stars for whom the blackness of darkness hath been
reserved for ever (eh tov alwva), adds, " and to these also
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied saying, Behold
the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his holy ones, to
execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of
all their works of ungodliness, which they have ungodly
wrought, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners
have spoken against him." (Jude 14, 15.)
To enable the reader to form an accurate judgment respect-

SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER AND EPISTLE OF JUDE. 329
ing the nature of the positions taken by the writers of these
two Epistles respecting future retribution, it is necessary that
he should read through the whole of 2 Peter ii, and carefully
compare it with the Epistle of St. Jude ; for whatever ideas
we may entertain respecting these two Epistles as portions of
canonical Scripture, they undoubtedly throw light on the
opinions which were held on this subject at the time when
they were written. The two passages above cited, hoAvever,
make it clear that it is impossible to base upon them a defi
nite theory respecting either the nature or the duration of the
punishment which awaits the finally impenitent in the unseen
world ; the judgments referred to, with the exception of those
inflicted on the fallen angels, being for the most part of a
temporal character.
It is true that St. Jude speaks of the cities of the plain
as set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of
eternal (alwvtov) fire. What was the meaning Avhich . he
intended to convey by the word here rendered "eternal"
can only be a matter of conjecture. That he did not use
it as meaning either " everlasting "or " age-long" is evident,
for he could not but have been aware that the fire Avhich
consumed them had been extinct for centuries. Probably all
that he intended was that the judgment in question had been
permanent in its effects, and that the ruin of these cities
Avas complete, and as such it was a standing memorial to all
future generations of God's indignation against sin. So the
author of 2 Peter ii. evidently understood it ; for the language
used respecting it in Jude is thus softened down by the
latter writer : —
"And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into
ashes condemned them with an overthrow, having made them
an example to them that should live ungodly." The Greek
in 2 Peter ii. is v-noietypta TeOetKw?, and in Jude -npoKetvTai
hetypxi. Both expressions convey the idea of a palpable

330 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
and visible Avarning, and therefore neither the one nor the
other can be descriptive of the nature or the duration of the
punishment which will overtake those who are finally im
penitent in the unseen world.
But the allusions to the angels that sinned are so peculiar
as to require a brief notice. In 2 Peter ii. they are described
as cast down into hell and committed to pits of darkness
to be reserved unto judgment. The word here translated
" cast down to hell" is Taprapwaa?, meaning "thrust down
into Tartarus." This Avord is used nowhere else in the
New Testament, being of purely pagan origin, and denoting
the place where, according to the fictions of the Greek poets,
the Titans and extremely impious men were punished, but
the terrors of which, if Ave may believe a nearly contemporary
Roman poet, had ceased to exert an influence on any but
Avomen and children. It seems scarcely credible, famihar as
he was with the idea of Gehenna, that the Apostle Peter
should have made use of a word which was associated Avith
nothing but pagan fictions, and which had even then fallen
into contempt.
The account of the fallen angels and their punishment, as
given by St. Jude, is as follows : —
" And angels that kept not their own principality, but left
their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting (alhiot?)
bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."
The word here translated " everlasting " more nearly cor
responds with our modern idea of duration without limits
than any other word in the New Testament.
What, then, do these passages affirm respecting the condi
tion of the fallen angels ? Both writers represent them as
kept in a state of duress : 2 Peter ii. as thrust do-wn to
Tartarus, and committed to pits of darkness ; and Jude
as kept in eArerlasting bonds under darkness unto the
judgment of the great day. Both these passages, then, affirm

THE APOCALYPSE. 331
that they are kept in close confinement, and consequently
that they are not ranging at large tempting men. In what
relation they considered these fallen angels to stand to the
Satan of the Old Testament and to the devil and the demons
(to. hatptovta) of the New, where all these are spoken of as
at liberty and in a state of constant activity for evil, it is
difficult to imagine. Even St. Jude speaks of the devil only
a few verses further on as engaged in disputing with the
archangel Michael about the body of Moses ; and St. Peter,
in his unquestionably genuine epistle, describes him as a
roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour ;
and all the other Avriters of the New Testament describe " the
devil " (o hidfioXo?) and " the demons " (tcl catptovta) as in
a state of constant activity in opposition to Christ and His
gospel. I dravv attention to these singularities of statement
for the purpose of showing hoAV useless it Avould be to quote
either of these Epistles as authoritative on our present subject.
VII. — The Apocalypse.
It now remains for us to consider what light the Book of
Revelation throws on the question of retribution.
This book being beyond question a book of symbols, it is
difficult to determine what are the reahties to Avhich they
point. The greatness of this difficulty is proved by the fact
that although many hundreds of treatises have been com
posed with a view of interpreting its symbolism, hardly any
two agree together as to its meaning ; and to this hour the
most eminent critics and commentators are at issue as to the
fundamental principles on which it is to be interpreted.
Still more, while numerous books have been written, which
have been very popular in their day, for the purpose of assign
ing to these symbols a definite prophetic meaning, and of
pointing out their fulfilment in the facts of history, yet on
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332 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
proved to be based on purely arbitrary principles ; and
when in reliance on them commentators have ventured to
predict the future, their predictions have been uniformly
falsified by the event. In the present state of our knowledge
all that we can venture to affirm with certainty respecting
this book is, that it was intended to be a strong affirmation
of the ultimate triumph of Christ over every opposing power,
and as such an encouragement to the Church in times of
darkness, trial, and persecution. Certain it is that the key
by which its symbohsm can be interpreted so as to be fitted
to the facts of history remains undiscovered to this hour, each
writer having his own particular system of interpretation.
The most probable opinion is that the seer's perspective was
limited to the events of the times which were then impend
ing. It should further be noted that this book belongs
to that class of writings respecting whose canonical authority
serious doubts were entertained in portions of the early
Church, the books in question being the Epistle to the
Hebrews, that of James, 2nd Peter, 2nd and 3rd of John,
Jude, and the Revelation. With these cautions I will now
proceed to consider the most important passages in this
book which bear on our present subject.
Each of the seven Epistles concludes with a promise and a
warning, of which the following are the most important : —
1. "To him that overcometh wih I give to eat of the
tree of life, which is in the paradise of God" (Rev. ii. 7);
the warning being the threat of removing the candlestick,
which represents the Church, out of its place.
2. " He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second
death." (Rev. ii. 11.)
3. "And I willkul her children with death." (Rev. ii. 23.)
4. "He that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto
the end, to him will I give authority over the nations ; and he
shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter

THE AFOCALYPSE. 333
are broken to shivers, as I also have received of my Father ;
and I will give him the morning star." (Rev. ii. 26 — 28.)
5. "I come quickly ; hold fast that thou hast, that no man
take thy crown. He that overcometh I will make him a
' pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no
more ; and I will write on him the name of my God, and the
name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which
cometh down out of heaven from my God, and my own new
name." (Rev. iii. 11—13.)
These affirmations are all of so general a character that it
is impossible to erect any definite theory upon them. The
fourth evidently presupposes the existence of adverse world-
powers at the time spoken of, over which "he that over
cometh, and keepeth Christ's works unto the end," is to have
authority, and which he is ultimately to break in pieces like
a potter's Aressel.
We now come to the Apocalypse proper. It consists of
two scenes, an earthly and a heavenly one. The earthly one
depicts the Church and the individual believer as in a state
of persecution, trial, and suffering ; the heavenly one de
lineates both as triumphant and glorious, which state of
things is ultimately transferred to the earthly one. This
triumphant state, however, is uniformly depicted by the aid
of symbols derived from scenes of earthly magnificence, and
not unfrequently from ideal ones, such as a city whose gates
are pearls, and the street of Avhich is of pure gold, as it were
transparent glass ; and whose height, breadth, and length are
all equal. The condition of the saints being thus depicted by
the aid of earthly symbols, we may conclude that that of the
enemies of Christ will be delineated in symbols of a similar
character, it being absurd to assume that the one is intended
to be symbolical and the other literal. Thus we read —
" And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was
a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of

334 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
hair, and the AA'hole moon became as blood, and the stars of
the heaven fell unto the earth, as a fig-tree casteth her unripe
figs when she is shaken with a great wind. And the heavens
were removed as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every moun
tain and island were moved out of their places. And the
kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and
the rich and the strong, and every bondman and freeman hid
themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains ;
and they say to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us, and
hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and
from the Avrath of the Lamb ; for the great day of their Avrath
is come ; and who is able to stand? " (Rev. vi. 12 — 17.)
Here we are evidently in the region of symbolism of a
highly poetic character, which none will take to be descriptive
of realities, except a few extreme literalists, with whom it
would be a waste of time to argue. The description is evi
dently intended to impress those that read it with the idea
that a terrible destruction awaits the persistent enemies of
God ; but beyond this we can affirm nothing.
In Revelation xiv. we thus read : —
" And another angel, a third, followed them, saying, If any
man worshippeth the beast and his image, and receiveth a
mark on his forehead, or upon his hand, he also shall drink of
the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in
the cup of his anger ; and he shall be tormented with fire and
brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the pre
sence of the Lamb ; and the smoke of their torment goeth up
unto ages of ages ; and they have no rest day nor night, they
that worship the beast and his image, or whoso receiveth the
mark of his name." (Rev. xiv. 9 — 11.)
To determine the meaning of this passage it will be necessary
to set before the reader the chief points of the author's descrip
tion of the beast and of his image, of the lake that burns with
fire and brimstone, and of the things — I cannot say persons

THE APOCALYPSE. 335
— which will be cast into it, as they are set before us in the
preceding and following chapters. And first of the beast : —
" And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten
horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and
upon his heads names of blasphemy. And the beast that I
saw was like a leopard, and his feet Avere as it were the feet
of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion ; and the
dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great autho
rity. And I saw one of his heads as though it had been
smitten unto death, and his death-stroke Avas healed." (Rev.
xiii. 1 — 3. See the remainder of the description.) The
seer then beholds a second beast coming up out of the
earth, " and he had two horns like unto a lamb, and he spake
as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the authority of the first
beast in his sight. And he maketh the earth and them that
dwell therein to worship the first beast, Avhose death-stroke
was healed, .... saying to them that dwell on the earth
that they should make an image of the beast. . . . And it was
given unto him to give breath unto it, even to the image of
the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and
cause that as many as would not worship the image of the
beast should be killed. And he causeth all the small and
the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond,
that there be given them a mark on their right hand, or upon
their forehead ; and that no man should be able to buy or to
seU, save he that hath the mark, even the name of the beast,
or the number of his name." This number is 666. (Rev. xiii.
11 — 17.) This second beast is elsewhere designated "the
false prophet."
" And the fifth angel poured out his bowl [of the wrath
of God] on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was
darkened, and they gnawed their tongues for pain." (Rev.
xvi. 10.)
"And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon,

336 FUTURE RETRIBUITON.
and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of
the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it- were frogs ; for
they are the spirits of devils [demons] working signs."
(Rev. xvi. 13, 14.)
In the seventeenth chapter we are introduced to the first
beast, with a harlot woman mounted on him, having on
her forehead the following name, "Mystery, Babylon the
Great, the mother of the harlots, and of the abominations of
the earth." The seer then affirms that the seven heads of
the beast are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth ;
that they are also seven kings, of whom five are fallen, one
is, and one is yet to come ; and that the beast that was, and
is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven, and
goeth into perdition ; and that his ten horns are ten kings,
which have no kingdom as yet. And he concludes his ex
planation by affirming, that " the woman that thou sawest is
that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth."
The great city, which was then reigning over the kings of
the earth, is obviously heathen Rome., which had been recently
drunken with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of
Jesus. One passage more, as to the fate of the beast, and the
false prophet, must be quoted : —
" And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and
their armies gathered together, to make Avar against him that
sat upon the horse, and against his army. And the beast was
taken, and with him the false prophet : they twain were cast
alive into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone ; and
the rest were killed with the sword of him that sat upon the
horse, even with the sword that came forth out of his
mouth." (Rev. xix. 19—21.)
The reader should observe that in Rev. xix. the fate of
being cast into the lake burning with fire and brimstone, is
decreed against every one that worships the beast and his

THE APOCALYPSE. 337
image, and Avho receives his mark ; that in chapter xiii. the
whole world are described as doing so ; and in the same
chapter the image of the beast is said to cause as many as
refused to worship itself to be killed. Further, so numerous
are his adherents that they are described in chapter xviii.
as consisting of peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and
tongues. Who then is the beast ? For if these passages are intended
to refer to future retribution, it is most important that his
identity should be determined. To this question commen
tators have returned answers of the most varied character.
Some have affirmed that he is Nero ; others, the succession of
Roman emperors ; others, the pagan empire itself, others the
revived Roman empire of the West under Charlemagne and
his successors ; others, the Pope ; others the Papal system and
the Romish Church ; others Mahomet. Romanists have
affirmed that Luther, in their mode of spelling his name,
contains the number of the beast ; there have not been Avant-
ing those who have affirmed that he is Napoleon I. ; and
beside these, there are a large number of persons who take
the safe course of deferring the fulfilment of this prophecy to
some future period, despite the affirmation of the seer that
the things of Avhich he prophesied must shortly come to pass ;
and they affirm that the beast is an antichrist yet to be re
vealed. Again, who is the second beast, or false prophet ? What also
is the image of the beast, to which the false prophet imparts
breath, enabling it to speak, and which is able to direct that
those Avho refuse to worship itself should be killed? I need
not say that the ansAvers Avhich have been given to these
questions are multiform, and of a most uncertain character.
Yet if the proclamation of the angel is intended to be a literal
description of the fate which aAvaits the innumerable multitudes
who are here described as the adherents of the beast, Ave surely
z

338 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
have a right to expect that men should not be left in doubt
who the beast, the false prophet, and the image of the beast
are, and what is the nature of that sin which constitutes
adherence to them. It is evident that up to the present day
the Church has failed to discover the key which is capable of
unlocking the secrets of this prophecy, and of assigning a
definite meaning to its various symbols ; and it is hardly too
much to say that the various commentaries which have been
written on this book are little more than guesses founded on
fanciful analogies.
Amidst this mass of uncertainty, however, one thing seems
certain, that this book is a drama, intended to depict by the
aid of scenery consisting of a number of symbolical represen
tations, the ultimate triumph of Christ over every conceivable
form of hostile power. As long as we study it in this point of
view we are safe, and the book itself becomes to the Church of
all ages a source of encouragement during the various trials
and discouragements which it has to encounter during this
earthly scene, from whatever source they may arise ; and it con
veys the assurance that, be they what they may, Christ will
ultimately conquer. But when we attempt to assign to each
of its symbols a definite meaning, which can be realised in
historic fact either of the past, or the present, and, I should
add, of the future, the experience of eighteen centuries of
interpretation proves that we are attempting to solve the
insoluble. If the assigning a definite meaning to each of
the scenic representations of this book, and a fulfilment of
them in historic fact, be the right way of studying it, then it
is difficult to understand how it can be " a revelation of
things which must shortly come to pass," for now, after
eighteen centuries of careful study, the whole Church is at
hopeless disagreement as to their meaning. But if, on the
contrary, its purport be that which I have above intimated,
it is not only a revelation of things which must shortly come

THE APOCALYPSE. 339
to pass — the time of its composition being on every theory one
of terrible persecution — but it has come to pass during all
those times when the Church has had to struggle with open
enemies or inward foes, from all Avhich struggles Christ has
emerged triumphant.
That the dragon, the beast, the false prophet, and the
image of the beast are all symbols, forming portions of the
scenery which presented themselves to the seer's mind, it is
impossible to doubt. They neither have nor can have an
individual existence. All four are apparently designed to
represent different forms of worldly, it may be even spiritual,
power, standing out in opposition to the kingdom of Christ.
But if these are scenic symbolical representations, who are
their adherents ? And what is the lake burning with fire and
brimstone into which the dragon, the beast, the false prophet,
and their adherents are ultimately cast, and where afterwards
two other symbolical beings, Death and Hades — the latter
being the underworld and the former having no other exist
ence than as a poetic creation — Milton's Death, for example
— are sent to join them after Christ's final triumph over
evil ? In fact, the entire book consists of a series of sym
bolic scenic representations. Such is unquestionably the de
scription of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven,
a city composed of " pure gold, like unto pure glass," twelve
thousand cubits in height, twelve thousand cubits in length,
and twelve thousand cubits in breadth, with twelve founda
tions, each composed of precious stones, and twelve gates,
each composed of a single pearl. It is impossible to under
stand these things as intended to denote actual realities,
or that — in contradiction to the words of Him who said,
" Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when neither in this
mountain nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father ....
for the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for such doth

340 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
the Father seek to be his worshippers " — the glorified Mes
sianic kingdom will have a local centre.
As a further illustration of the scenic and ideal character
of the imagery of this book, I would draAV the reader's atten
tion to the description of the destruction of the mystic
Babylon, which is identified with the woman riding on the
beast, the woman being subsequently affirmed to be that
great city which was then reigning over the kings of the
earth. On its fall it is described as become the habitation
of devils (i.e. demons), and a hold of every unclean spirit,
and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird. All this is
surely poetic imagery. Then follows a lengthened description
of the lamentations over her fall by the merchants of the
earth who had been made rich by her luxuries, and Avho are
represented as standing at a distance for fear of her torment.
Surely it is impossible to read this description without arriving
at the conclusion that it is an ideal one. The Babylon in
question, which is represented throughout the prophecy as
the seat of the kingdom of the beast, is in this description
represented as the centre of the commerce of the whole
world. This Rome never Avas, and from its situation never
can be. If this description is other than an ideal one, the
Babylon of this lamentation far more closely resembles modern
London than any city Avhich has existed either in ancient or
modern times, but the descriptions in the preceding chapters
of the Apocalyptic Babylon are totally inapplicable to it. It
is easy to say with the Futurist, that at some period yet to
come Rome may become the centre of the Avorld's commerce,
and thus its fall may correspond with the description here
given of the fall of Babylon. Nothing is easier than for the
interpreter of prophecy to take refuge in the future, because
until it arrives it is impossible to bring his vaticinations,
however extravagant they may be, to the test of fact, even if
he affirms that the New Jerusalem will literally descend from

THE APOCALYPSE. 341
heaven, constructed precisely as it is described in the last
chapters of this book, or that a temple will yet be erected
there, constructed precisely after the model of that described
in Ezekiel' s vision, in which will be again celebrated a system
of ritual worship. My strong conviction is that whoever
reads Revelation xviii, unprejudiced by system, will arise
from its perusal with the conviction that it is intended by
the -writer, without pledging himself to any of its details,
to be a symbolical description of the overthrow of every
earthly power which rises in opposition to the kingdom of
Christ. Again, after the faU of Babylon the Lord Jesus is depicted
as issuing from heaven mounted on a white horse, arrayed in a
garment sprinkled with blood, with a sharp sword issuing from
His mouth, and as having on His garment and on His thigh
written, " King of kings and Lord of lords," followed by the
armies of heaven, likewise mounted on white horses, clothed
in fine linen pure and white. Against Him the beast, and
the kings of the earth and their armies, gather together to
make war. The result of the battle is that the beast and the
false prophet are both captured, and are cast alive into the
lake that burns with fire and brimstone ; and the kings with
their armies are killed by the sword Avhich proceeded out of
the mouth of Him who sat on the white horse. Another great
battle is described as taking place after the Millennium, to
engage in Avhich armies as numerous as the sand of the sea
are gathered together. These encompass the camp of the
saints and the beloAred city, but fire comes doAvn out of heaveD
and devours them. On this occasion the devh is cast into the
lake of fire and brimstone, to which the beast and the false
prophet had been consigned more than a thousand years pre
viously, to be tormented day and night unto the ages of ages.
Can any doubt that we are here in the presence of ideal
symbolism ?

342 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
On this follows the judgment, and the final triumph of
Christ, the result of which is described as follows : —
"And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire,
This is the second death, even the lake of fire." (Rev. xx. 14.)
In this passage we are unquestionably in the presence of
two ideal creations. Death is certainly not a being who has
an actual existence, and hades is the underAvorld, the abode
of departed spirits. Consequently we have no less than four
personifications — viz. the beast, the false prophet, death, and
hades — described as cast into the lake of fire, the smoke of
the burning of which goes up unto the ages of ages. But if
those who are described as cast into the lake of fire are ideal
symbols, how is it possible to affirm that the lake of fire and
the other adjuncts of the description are not symbols like
wise, and that the smoke of their torments ascending up to
the ages of ages is not of a similar character ?
The beast being a symbol, who, then, are his worshippers
and the worshippers of his image to which the false prophet
imparts life, and those who have received his mark, who are
described as drinking of the wine of the wrath of God
which is prepared unmixed in the cup of His anger, and as
tormented unto ages of ages with fire and brimstone ? Surely,
if this is to be the literal fate of the worshippers of the beast
and his image, it is of the highest importance that we should
be left in no doubt what the beast and his image are intended
to represent, or who they are that bear his mark on their fore
heads or on their hands. But respecting these things certainty
there is none ; for as to who they are each commentator
has a theory of his own, and their number is legion. This
difficulty is increased by the fact that while in the angelic
proclamation the adherents of the beast are threatened with
being cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone,
in the nineteenth chapter, which describes the final victory of
the Lamb, while the beast and the false prophet — i.e. the

THE APOCALYPSE. 343
symbols — are described as cast alive into this lake, their
adherents are affirmed to have been killed by the SAVord
which proceeded out of the mouth of Him that sat on the
horse, and all the birds to have been filled with their flesh.
But the angelic proclamation, if viewed as a statement of
fact, and not an ideal delineation, contains a startling affirma
tion Avhich it is impossible to leave unnoticed, viz. that the
adherents of the beast will be tormented Avith fire and brim
stone, in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence
of tlte Lamb ; that they will have rest neither day nor night,
and that the smoke of their torment tvill ascend up unto ages
of ages. Are we then to accept it as a literal fact that He
who Avas habitually moved with compassion at the sight of
human suffering and human sorrow ; that He Avho wept
over Jerusalem in foresight of its impending ruin ; that He
who uttered the parables of the lost sheep, of the prodigal
son, and of the good Samaritan ; that He who affirmed that
He came not to judge the world, but to save the Avorld ; that
he who said to Pilate, "Therefore he that hath delivered me
unto thee hath the greater sin ; " that He Avho, Avhen He was
being judicially murdered, said, " Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do," — looks on Avhile these innumer
able multitudes Avho are described in this book as the adhe
rents of the beast, are tormented Avith fire and brimstone,
from which they have rest neither day nor night ; or that
the author of the book intended this to be a literal descrip
tion of actual occurrences in the unseen Avorld? Surely
if this terrible picture is intended to be other than an ideal
poetic symbol, descriptive of the utter destruction of every
world-power which sets itself in opposition to the king
dom of God, it does more to render questionable St. John's
authorship of this book than all the arguments Avhich have
been adduced in favour of it to support it.
But the explanatory vision recorded in the seventeenth

344 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
chapter hints in dark and enigmatical terms that the sym
bolism of this book was not intended to unfold the realities
of the unseen world, but to be descriptive of divine judg
ments in the present Avorld. I say in enigmatical terms,
because if the seer had made use of plain language he Avould
have exposed himself and the Church to the charge of a
treasonable conspiracy against the existing order of things,
and have kindled anew the fires of persecution, from which
the Church had only just emerged. Nothing Avould have
more aroused the wrath of the existing world-powers than an
open statement of those hopes and expectations of Christians
respecting the future, which are here veiled in poetic symbols.
Speaking on the same subject, St. Paul, as we have seen,
adopted a similar mode of expressing himself, though one
far less complicated.
In this explanatory vision a fresh symbol is introduced,
viz. that of a harlot Avoman seated on many waters. The
seer is then conveyed into a wilderness, where he beholds
this woman mounted on a scarlet-coloured beast, fuU of
names of blasphemy, and having on her forehead a name
written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of the
harlots, and of the abominations of the earth. This Avoman
is further represented " as drunken Avith the blood of the
saints and of the martyrs of Jesus." The beast on Avhich
she sits is then identified with the beast of the former visions
by his having seven heads and ten horns. The seer is
informed that the seven heads are symbolical of seven moun
tains — the well-knoAvn description of Rome — on Avhich the
Avoman sits ; and also they are symbolical of seven, kings, of
Avhom five Avere then fallen, one was existing, and one was
not yet come, but who when he came would continue a short
time. The beast himself is also symbolical of an eighth king,
who would go into perdition. The ten horns are also in
terpreted to represent ten other kings, Avho had received no

THE APOCALYPSE. 345
kingdom when the seer wrote, but who Avere to receive
power for a short time with the eighth king, and would concur
with him in waging war with the Lamb. The seer is further
informed that the waters on which he had seen the woman
sit were symbolical of multitudes, and peoples, and nations,
and tongues. Finally, he is informed that the harlot woman
is a symbol of that great city Avhich was then reigning over
the kings of the earth.
Such is the angel's interpretation of the symbolism before
us. Can there be any doubt that it was intended to
be a symbolical representation of that great world-power
Avhich was then ruling over the fairest regions of the earth,
whose seat was Rome, the rulers of which had been recently
drunk with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of
Jesus ? WThat, then, is the object of the visions in which this
symbolism is embodied ? Evidently to proclaim its utter,
final, and irrevocable destruction, and the triumph over it
of the Church of Jesus Christ, which it persecuted and
attempted to destroy. This then, Avithout attempting to
interpret the details, is the general purport of these visions,
expressed, as they intentionally are, in dark enigmas. This
being so, they were intended to be descriptive, not of the
realities of the unseen world, but of the doAvnfall of this
great persecuting Avorld-power, and all similar ones which set
themselves in opposition to Christ and his gospel, and also
of Christ's ultimate triumph over all earthly opposition.
Consequently their terrible imagery is intended to be descrip
tive of occurrences in this world, and not to disclose the reali
ties of the world beyond the grave. It is, therefore, useless
to base on the imagery Ave have been considering any theory
as to the nature or the duration of the punishments which
Avill be undergone in the unseen world by those sinners who
are finally impenitent. • Kingdoms, states, societies, and
churches can only be judged on this side the grave.

346 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
My general conclusion, therefore, is that the affirmations
of the apostolic Avriters respecting the condition of sinners in
the unseen world are general, and not specific. They affirm
in no doubtful language that such will undergo the awful con
sequences of the wrath of God against sin which is wilfully
persisted in. Their final destiny is denoted by the word
destruction, or some other of kindred meaning ; and in not
a few instances the New Testament language implies that
their ultimate destruction will be brought about by a course
of painful suffering — suffering in exact proportion to their
guilt ; but gives no hint that the terms employed to denote
it are used in -a different sense from that Avhich they bear in
ordinary conversational Greek. All, therefore, that reason and
revelation affirm is that man will survive the stroke of death
as long as is necessary in order that the apparent imperfections
of God's present moral government may receive a perfect
vindication in a world to come ; and although the promise of
everlasting life is in the NeAv Testament made to the holy,
no declaration can be found therein Avhich affirms that evil
beings will continue to exist for ever, or that those in Avhom
all good has become extinct are incapable of being destroyed
by sin, in. a manner analogous to that in Avhich physical
diseases in the course of God's ordinary providence destroy
the body ; nor has reason anything to say to the contrary.
On the following points a uniformity of statement per
vades the sacred writings : that God will judge the world in
righteousness ; that He will judge individual men according to
the precise degree of their responsibility ; that He will reward
and punish them according to their works, and that it will
be finally well with the righteous and iU Avith the wicked ;
but, as it is a matter of our Lord's express affirmation that
the knowledge of the times and the seasons of God's provi
dential government formed no portion of the revelations
which were imparted to the Apostles, so their Avritings lead

THE APOCALYPSE. 347
us to believe that the nature and the duration of the punish
ments which await impenitent sinners in the unseen world
were not made to them a subject of special revelation. The
gospel which they preached Avas a gospel of good news ; and
the words which Abraham in the parable is described as
addressing to Dives are equally true of those Avho, Avith full
light and knowledge, reject it, viz. that they will not be
persuaded to embrace it, although all the secrets of the un
seen world Avere disclosed to their vieAV. This being so we
must be content to know that a time is coming when God
will render to the righteous and to sinners according to their
works ; that He will do this in conformity with that which
man's conscience and moral sense will recognise as perfect
righteousness ; and that a time is coming in the future when
everything, whether in heaven, in earth, or in the under
world, will be finally put under the feet of the Son of God,
when God will become all in all.
This, however, cannot be accomplished as long as a
rebellious will continues to exist in opposition to him.

CHAPTER XIII.
Does Human Probation terminate at Death ?
This question is of the highest importance in connection with
our present subject, because, if human probation is extended
beyond the grave, it frees us from that overwhelming mass of
difficulties -with which the theories we have been considering
are encumbered. It will, however, probably be contended
that all inquiry into this subject is barred by the silence of the
New Testament respecting it ; and that it is incredible, if the
moral and spiritual condition in which men die can undergo a
change for the better in the unseen world, that such a fact
should not have been announced in the pages of revelation
in terms that are clear and unmistakable. To this I
answer —
1. While no passage can be found in Scripture which
definitely affirms that man's probation is confined to the pre
sent life, there are two passages in the First Epistle of
St. Peter Avhich imply — I may almost say assert — that there is
a possibility, at least for those Avho have had no opportunity
of accepting the gospel here, of accepting it in Hades.
2. Even if it be admitted that the New Testament is
silent on this subject, that silence is no proof that human pro
bation terminates with the present life. The Old Testament
Scriptures present us with a case precisely analogous. They
contain only two positive affirmations, and those in Scriptures

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH ? 349
of a very late date, that a judgment to come awaits man in
the unseen world, in which he will be rewarded or punished
according to his works ; and of the two passages referred to,
one affirms not a general, but only a partial resurrection.'55'
Yet this silence respecting a future state of retribution proves
nothing ; for as Ave haATe seen, AA'hile many of the Old Testament
saints contemplated this life as the only sphere where it was
possible to enjoy the light of God's countenance, and Hades
as the region of darkness and of gloom, yet a few of them
entertained a firm conviction that God would not desert
them in death, and that they would continue to live in His
presence, where there would be fulness of joy, and at His right
hand, where there would be pleasures for evermore.
On what, then, was this conviction founded ? Certainly not
on any express affirmations respecting a future state which
are to be found in the pages of the Old Testament, but on
inferences from the character of that God in whom they
trusted as holy, just, merciful, and good. Thus our Lord
tells the Sadducees that they might have inferred that man
will survive the stroke of death from the Divine declaration,
"I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob." " God," says he, " is not the God of the
* The passages referred to are the following : —
" This is the end of the matter, all hath been heard : Fear God, and keep
his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man ; for God shall bring every
work into judgment, and every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether
it be evil." (Eccles. xii. 13, 14.)
And— "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to
everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that
be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many
to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." (Dan. xii. 2 — 4.)
The general opinion among critics now is that the Book of Ecclesiastes was
one of the latest written books in the Canon. The important point for the reader
to observe is that both these books were composed long after those writers of
the Old Testament, who have expressed the strongest hopes that they would
survive the stroke of death, had passed away from this earthly scene, and con
sequently that these could not have been the foundation of their hopes.

350 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
dead," i.e. of the non-existent, " but of the hving ; for all
live unto Him."
This passage Avas probably selected by Him as being the
clearest in the entire Pentateuch from which a life to come
may be inferred ; yet it is an inference only, and not a posi
tive affirmation, that a future state of existence awaits man
after the dissolution of his body.
What, then, is the bearing of this silence on the question
before us ? I answer, that even if there is no affirmation in
the New Testament that man's probation does not terminate
at death, it by no means proves that there will not be a pro
bation beyond the grave for those innumerable multitudes of
mankind who have not been guilty of a direct rejection of
Christ in this life, or Avho have never heard of the gospel of
His grace, or who have heard only an imperfect version of it.
This silence simply places us in the same position respecting
a probation in the unseen world as the Old Testament saints
were in respect of a life to come. The revelation under
which they lived conveyed to them no direct assurance of such
a life. Their faith in one was an inference founded on the
character of God. Why may Ave not draw a similar infer
ence — that a state of probation will be afforded in the unseen
world to those Avhose probation here has been passed under
the unfavourable conditions to which I have above referred
— from that character as it is revealed in Jesus Christ and
manifested in his entire work, actions, and teaching, accord
ing to his declaration as it is recorded in St. John's Gospel
in the following utterance : —
" If ye had knoAvn me ye should have known my Father
also ; from henceforth ye know him and have seen him.
Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father and it suf-
ficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time
with you and yet dost thou not know me, Philip ? He that
hath seen me hath seen the Father ; how sayest thou, Show

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH? 351
us the Father ? Believest thou not that I am in the Father
and the Father in me ? The words that I say unto you I
speak not of myself, but the Father, abiding in me, doeth his
works. Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father
in me ; or else beheve me for the very works' sake." (John
xiv. 7—11.)
These words are an express affirmation on the part of the
Divine speaker that in His person, actions, and teaching, He
is a revelation of the moral perfections of God. This being so,
it will be necessary that I should set before the reader the
most important points of the character of God as it is revealed
in the person, actions, and teaching of Jesus Christ, in order
that we may be able to enter on the consideration Avhether
it is consistent with the perfections of God that the probation
of every member of the human family should terminate at
death ; and whether we have not the strongest reasons for
believing that those innumerable multitudes of mankind,
Avhose probation here has been passed under unfavourable
conditions, will have one afforded them hereafter under more
favourable ones,
I. — The Revelation of the Paternity of God.
In the Sermon on the Mount Ave have the following affirm
ations respecting it : —
"Ye therefore shall be perfect, even as your heavenly
Father is perfect." (Matt. v. 48.)
" Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men
to be seen of them, else ye have no reward with your Father
which is in heaven." (Matt. vi. 1.)
" That thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father, who
seeth in secret, shaU recompense thee." (Matt. vi. 4.)
" Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before
ye ask him ; after this manner therefore pray ye, ' Our Father
Avhich art in heaven.' " (Matt. vi. 8, 9.)

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"For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you ; but if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
(Matt. vi. 14, 15.)
"That thou be not seen unto men to fast, but of thy
Father which seeth in secret ; and thy Father, which seeth in
secret, shall recompense thee." (Matt. vi. 18.)
" Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither
do they reap, nor gather into barns ; and your heavenly
Father feedeth them." (Matt. vi. 26.)
"For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things." (Matt. vi. 32.)
It Avill doubtless be objected by the holders of certain
theological systems that God is only the Father of the holy,
and that He has ceased to stand in a fatherly relation to the
sinful ; and consequently, inasmuch as man is born in sin, he
is not born a child of God. My reply to this is the follow
ing assertions of our Lord : —
" That ye may be the sons of your Father who is in
heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the
good, and sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust."
(Matt. v. 45.)
God's causing His sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
and His sending rain on the just and on the unjust, is here
affirmed by the Divine speaker to be a manifestation of His
universal Fatherhood.
" If ye then, being evil, knoAV hoAV to give good gifts unto
your children, how much more shaU your Father which is in
heaven give good things to them that ask him." (Matt. vii. 11.)
Here the feeling of paternity, as it exists in man, is de
clared to be the image of paternity as it exists in God.
" And they brought unto him little children that he should
touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. And when Jesus
saw it, he Avas moved Avith indignation, and said unto them :

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH? 353
Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them
not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto
you, whosoever shaU not receive the kingdom of God. as a
little child, he shall in nowise enter therein. And he took
them up in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon
them." (Mark x. 13— 16.)
The issue before us is a simple one. Did our Lord view
little children as being, or as not being, children of God ?
Or did He consider as outcasts from His Father's paternal
love those at whose being forbidden to approach to Him He
was moved with indignation, whom He took up in His arms,
laid His hands on, and blessed, saying that whoever should
not receive the kingdom of- God as a little child should in
no wise enter therein ?
I fully admit that a son who is persistently rebellious may
justly forfeit the privileges of sonship ; but the question here is
whether God is revealed by our Lord as standing to all man
kind in the relation of a Father, or whether an overwhelming
majority of the human race no longer participate in the bless
ings of Divine Fatherhood, but are viewed by Him as' out
casts from His family ? It will hardly be contended that the
utterer of the parable of the Prodigal Son did not intend to
depict the father in the parable as yearning with the feelings
of a parent over his lost son ; and that he is not intended- to
be the image of the relation in which God stands as Father
even to those who are infected with the evil spirit of which
the prodigal son is the type. "He is kind," as St. Luke
elsewhere reports our Lord's words, "unto the unthankful
and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also
is merciful." I conclude, therefore, that our Lord's teaching, as it is re
corded jn the Gospels, sets forth the all-important truth that
the relation in which God stands to mankind as their creator
and preserver is best represented by that which a father bears
A A

354 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
to his offspring ; and that man being made in the image of
God, the parental and the filial relations in man are images —
very imperfect images, I grant, but yet images — of the perfect
reality which exists in the Godhead between the Father and
the Son ; only God's fatherly character towards His creatures
is more perfect, more loving, more tender, and more holy than
the relation which exists between a human parent and his
child ; and as nothing but some crime of the deepest dye can
destroy the parental feeling which parents entertain for their
offspring, so nothing but a condition of -wickedness on the
part of man which is past all the means of cure that are
capable of being brought to bear on a moral being, can sever
the relation in which God stands to men as their Creator and
their Father. So completely does this view of the relation in
which God stands to man pervade the teaching of the New
Testament, that wherever the Divine name is mentioned His
fatherly relationship is almost universally presupposed. Thus,
He is the Father who so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son that the world through Him might be
saved ; He is the Father of mercies, the God of love, the God
of all comfort, the God of patience and consolation ; the God
of hope, the God of peace ; the Father who sent the Son to
be the Saviour of the world ; the Father who willeth not that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance ;
the Father, whose character is the counterpart of that of the
shepherd who, on finding his lost sheep, when he has re
covered it, returns from the pursuit, laying it on his shoulders
rejoicing ; and of the father who, when he sees the prodigal
yet afar off, is moved with compassion, runs to meet him,
falls on his neck, and kisses him.
This parental character as ascribed to God is meaningless
unless it involves the primary moral conceptions which enter
into the idea of fatherhood in man. Among these, therefore,
must be love in its purest form : a watchful care for the weU-

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH? 355
being of His children, compassion for their weaknesses, a
careful allowance for the power of internal and external temp
tation as compared with their strength to resist it, the
exercise of impartial justice between the different members
of His family, the not holding one responsible for the sins of
another, and the not punishing as sin that of which a man has
had nothing to do with the causation. All these and similar
qualities are essential to the conception of fatherhood, and
the human father in whom they are wanting would be
properly designated as destitute of proper, parental feelings.
These qualities must, therefore, exist in absolute perfection
in Him who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
a perfection of which the gift of Jesus Christ for man con
stitutes the measure and the revelation.
II. — The Benevolence of Christ.
It is almost a platitude to affirm that the portraiture of
our Lord, as it is delineated in the Gospels, constitutes an
embodiment of benevolence in the purest form. So perfect
is it that the highest flights of poetic imagination have never
succeeded in depicting a benevolence equally perfect. It is a
benevolence not of sentiment but of deeds ; nor is it of deeds
which cost little or nothing, but of an habitual sacrifice of
self, persistently carried out through an entire life, and cul
minating in an ignominious death. It is, in fact, one con
tinuous act of self-sacrifice for the good of others, manifesting
itself in unceasing efforts to cure the moral and spiritual
diseases of those with whom He came in contact, to elevate
the degraded to a life of holiness, to impart hope to the peni
tent, strength to the weak, and finally a carrying out of
self-sacrifice to its extremest limits, by giving His hfe for the
life of the world, not in the tranquil death of a Socrates,
but in the ignominy and the unspeakable anguish of the
cross.
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If, then, it is true that " he that hath seen Jesiis Christ
hath seen the Father," the benevolence of this Divine life
must be. a revelation of the benevolence which exists in God.
It is impossible that God can be less benevolent than Christ.
The entire work of Jesus Christ is, therefore, a manifestation
of the love for man which exists in God. " Herein," says St.
John, " was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath
sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might hve
through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins." (l John iv. 9, 10.)
III. — The Compassion of Christ for Sufferers and
Sinners. To enable me to set the compassion of Christ, in all its reality
and fulness, before the reader, it would be necessary to quote
a large portion of the Gospels. In them He is depicted as
habitually moved Avith compassion at the sight of suffering,
and even for sin, so far as it is the result of human weakness,
and not of a wiU with deliberate purpose set in opposition to
the holiness of God as revealed in Him. Of His compassion
for human suffering a single illustration must suffice. Thus
St. Matthew -writes : —
" And when evening was come, they brought unto him many
possessed with devils, and he cast out the spirits with a word,
and healed all that were sick ; that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our
infirmities and bare our diseases." (Matt. viii. 16, 17.)
This is undoubtedly a very singular apphcation of a pas
sage from the Old Testament. It is inconceivable that the
Evangelist meant to affirm that our Lord, in curing diseases,
took them on Himself, or bore them about with Him. It is
obvious, therefore, that the thing intended is, that He was
moved with such deep compassion at the sight of human woe,

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH? 357
that He seemed as if He himself were bearing the burden of
the diseases He cured.
Of His compassion for sin into which men are dra-wn by
weakness and temptation, we have a portraiture given us in
the fifteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, which is so perfect
that any attempt to portray it in any other language than
that of the Evangelist is to mar its perfection. I shaU there
fore simply quote his opening words : —
"Now all the publicans and sinners were draAving near
unto him for to hear him. And both the Pharisees and
scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them." In answer to this objection our Lord
uttered the three parables of the lost sheep, the lost piece
of money, and the prodigal son. Let the reader study them,
and he will require no further proof of the Divine com
passion for sinners which dwelt in the bosom of Jesus Christ,
verifying His own declaration, "I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners."
Another striking example is that of the Avoman taken in
adultery : —
" And Jesus lifted up himself and said, Woman, where are
they ?" i.e. her accusers. "Did no man condemn thee ? And
she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I con
demn thee ; go thy way ; from henceforth sin no more."
(John viii. 10, 11.)
Such is the compassion for human suffering and for human
sin which the Gospels affirm to have dwelt in the bosom of
Jesus Christ. If, then, His saying be true, " He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father," a similar compassion must
reside in God, as it is impossible that Christ can be more
compassionate than God ; for He himself affirms, " I am
in the Father and the Father in me," and, " the Father
abiding in me doeth his works." Compassion, therefore,
forms an essential feature in the character of God, and every

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representation of God which is inconsistent with the existence
of this compassion in Him, must be due either to the imper
fection of human reason, or be the result of narroAvness and
want of moral appreciation.
Yet, not-withstanding the existence in God of a benevolence
and a compassion, such as I have above described, it is a fact
that not only do sin, and suffering as a consequence of sin,
but suffering independent of sin, exist, and that in no small
degree, in the world in which Ave live. It may be urged, then,
if God is almighty, and as divinely compassionate as Christ
is compassionate, why does He not annihilate all these evUs ?
And if Christ was thus compassionate, why did He confine
the exercise of His superhuman power within the hmits which
He did, and not cure all the evils from which men suffer
which are not self-caused ? The only possible answer to
these questions is, that they are only a particular form of that
great mystery, the existence of evil in the universe of One
whose power and wisdom are unhmited and whose goodness
is perfect ; and that this is a problem the solution of which
transcends the powers of the human intellect.
But it will, perhaps, be urged that our inability to solve this
question invalidates aU reasonings from the Divine character
as to the condition of men after death. To this I answer,
that while our view of the Divine government is far too limited
to enable us to form a judgment respecting the results which
flow from the permission of the existence of evU and of
suffering during the present constitution of things, yet the
principles on which God will judge mankind, and the con
dition to Avhich the various classes of sinful or imperfect
men will be consigned in consequence of that judgment,
involve considerations which are purely moral ; and therefore
we are adequate judges whether the various theories which
have been propounded on this subject are in conformity with
the character of God, as it is revealed in Jesus Christ, and

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH ? 359
whether that character does not afford firm grounds for the
behef that for that large portion of mankind, who have been
born and educated under the unfavourable conditions above
referred to, and who have never had the opportunity of
rejecting Jesus Christ during the present life, a period of
probation under much more favourable conditions will be
extended to them beyond the grave.
IV. — The Patience, Forbearance, and Gentleness of
Christ. To enable me to set these traits of our Lord's character
vividly before the reader, it will be necessary that I should
make a few citations from the Gospels. In St. John's Gospel
the Jews are represented as applying to him tAvo terms of the
bitterest reproach : —
" Say we not well, that thou art a Samaritan and hast a
devil ? " A more opprobrious term than the first of these it
was hardly possible for one Jew to apply to another. The
second could not be otherwise than most offensive to one who
declared that it Avas the end and purpose of His mission to
destroy the works of the devil. The reproach conveyed by
the two conjointly must have been of the keenest description.
Let us hear His calm answer : —
" I have not a devil, but I honour my Father, and ye
dishonour me. But I seek not mine OAvn glory ; there is one
that seeketh and judgeth." (John viii. 49, 50.)
In a similar manner, when struck by one of the officers of
the high priest, He calmly replies —
" If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil ; but if
well, why smitest thou me ?" (John xviii. 23.)
But the entire scene of the passion, as an example of
patience and forbearance, cannot be better expressed than in
the words of him who in an hour of weakness denied Him —
" Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth

360 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
who when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered,
threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth
righteously." (1 Pet. ii. 22, 23.)
St. Luke furnishes us with the following most remarkable
account of our Lord's forbearance in the presence of religious
intolerance : —
" And it came to pass that he steadfastly set his face to go
to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face ; and they
went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make
ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his
face was as though he were going to Jerusalem. And when
his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Wilt thou
that we bid fire to come down from heaven and consume
them ? And he turned and rebuked them. And they went
to another village." (Luke ix. 51 — 56.)
I have quoted this passage as it stands in the Revised Ver
sion, not that I think that there can be any doubt as to the
authenticity of the words which are placed in the margin,
" even as Elijah did," or of our Lord's reply, " Ye know not
what manner of spirit ye are of, for the Son of man is not
come to destroy men's lives [here again we have ^vxd?, souls],
but to save them." Many reasons may be given why these
Avords may have been omitted by a transcriber, but none why
he should have gratuitously inserted them. To adopt the
words of Mr. Mill, they contain a morality far too lofty for
any Christian of the early ages to have invented ; may I not
say the Christians of aU ages, even of the present ?
This utterance of our Lord is preceded by one little less
remarkable which is recorded by the same evangehst : —
" Master," says St. John, " we saw one casting out devils in
thy name, and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us.
And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not, for he that is not
against you is for you." (Luke ix. 49, 50.)
This is an utterance which far transcends the level of the

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH? 361
ideas of the Christian sects of every age, including both what
is called the Catholic Church and the various sects of the
nineteenth century.
Let us now contemplate another aspect of this part of our
Lord's character, observing that hardly anything is more
provocative than extreme stupidity, especially when it has
almost the appearance of being wilful.
"And the disciples came to the other side and forgot to
take bread. And Jesus said unto them, Take heed and
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, We took no
bread." (Matt. xvi. 5—7.)
The stupidity manifested by the Apostles on this occasion
seems almost incredible. On no point had our Lord more
laboured throughout the entire course of His previous ministry
than to impress on them the all-important truth of the worth-
lessness, in a moral point of view, of all distinctions between
meats and drinks and the minutiae of ceremonial ordinances ;
and yet, though they were accustomed to parabolic teaching, the
result produced on their minds by this utterance was, " See,
he is warning us against bread which has been manufactured
by Pharisees or Sadducees." Let us hear His mild reply : —
" How is it that ye do not perceive that I spake not to
you concerning bread ? But beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees."
But I need not trouble the reader with further quotations
as illustrations of this aspect of our Lord's character, for it is
everywhere impressed on the narrative of the Gospels. The
general impression produced by it cannot be better or more
concisely expressed than in St. Matthew's apphcation to it of
an Old Testament prophecy —
"A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax
shaU he not quench, until he send forth judgment unto
victory."

362: FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
V. — The Sterner Aspects of our Lord's Character.
Under this head are included the various occasions on
which He denounced hypocrisy, sin wilfully persisted in when
men's eyes are open to the evil of it, and the sin of those who
dehberately throw temptations in the way of others. The
sin of the hypocrite is that against which His most terrible
denunciations are levelled.
The reader will readhy remember numerous instances of our
Lord's anger which are recorded in the Gospels. I shall,
therefore, only draw attention to that terrible denunciation
of religious hypocrisy which is recorded in the twenty-third
chapter of St. Matthew. I need not repeat each denunciation.
It will be sufficient to quote the concluding words.
" Fill ye up, then, the measure of your fathers. Ye ser
pents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judg
ment of Gehenna? Therefore, behold, I send unto you
prophets and wise men and scribes ; and some of them ye
shall kill and crucify, and some of them ye shaU scourge in
your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, that upon
you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth,
from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of
Zachariah, the son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the
sanctuary and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these
things shall come upon this generation. 0 Jerusalem, Jeru
salem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings ; but ye would not. Behold your house is left unto
you desolate." (Matt, xxiii. 32 — 38.)
Any commentary on this delineation of offended holiness,
united as it is with the divinest sympathy, would only weaken
its effect. I shall, therefore, leave it to speak for itself, with
the single observation, that in this aspect of His character
Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God.

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH? 363
What, then, is our general conclusion ? The moral cha
racter of Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the Divine
paternity, of the Divine benevolence, of the Divine compas
sion, of the Divine patience and gentleness. It is also the
image of the Divine holiness when it comes into contact
with sin wnfully persisted in, and, at the same time in
blessed union with it, of that Divine compassion for sinners
which exists in God, even when he carries out the laws of
the moral Avorld, by the action of which suffering is the
inevitable result of sin — a compassion realised in our Lord's
declaration, " God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever beheveth in him should not
perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not his Son into
the world to judge the world, but that the world should be
saved through him." (John iii. 16, 17.)
Such, then, being the moral character of God as it is
revealed in the person, work, and teaching of Jesus Christ,
we must now consider whether it does not afford a firm
ground for believing that a probation will be extended to a
large portion of mankind in the world beyond the grave.
As I have proved in a previous chapter, the conditions under
Avhich mankind are born, and the surroundings in the midst
of which they are educated, have a most important influence
in determining the degree of their responsibility ; and as
these conditions greatly vary, the consequent variety of their
responsibility must be carefully weighed in determining the
question whether this present life is the one only scene of
human probation. In considering this subject I observe —
I. It is an undeniable fact that an overwhelming majority
of the human race have lived and died without having ever
heard of Jesus Christ or His Gospel, and that the character
in which they have died has been such as to unfit them to
enter on the employments and the enjoyments of the saints
in the perfected kingdom of Christ ; nay, more, in innumer-

364 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
able multitudes it is the very opposite of that character.
May not these justly plead with Him who will judge the
World in righteousness, We have never rejected Thee or thy
teaching, for we have never heard of Thee nor of thy gracious
words ? Wilt not Thou, who hast declared if the men of Tyre
and Sidon had been priAuleged to -witness the mighty works
Thou hast wrought elsewhere, that they would have repented
in sackcloth and ashes, afford us yet an opportunity of accept
ing the Gospel of Thy grace, of which we have never heard ?
If, on the other hand, it be urged that the saying of the
Apostle, "the times of this ignorance God overlooked,"
applies only to the past,! reply first, if God wiU overlook the
ignorance of the heathen world before the coming of Christ,
it proves the point which I am seeking to estabhsh ; and,
secondly, as the numbers of men who have since died with
out having ever heard of Christ or of the command to repent
are in numbers numberless, they wiU receive the same merci
ful consideration. Witness the Chinese, witness the Hin
doos, witness the inhabitants of Central Asia, witness the vast
multitudes who have inhabited Africa. Not one in twenty
thousand of these has ever heard the voice of the missionary.
What, then, is to be their final doom ? They will have to
come forth to judgment, for "AU that are in the tombs,"
says Jesus Christ, "shah hear his voice, and shall come
forth." Is it to be to a resurrection of condemnation,
the ultimate end of which wUl be either a never-ending
existence in torment or else annihilation ? Surely the plea,
We have never heard of Thee or of Thy salvation, wiU
ascend up with acceptance before that Judge who is not
only righteous but who has revealed the paternity of God,
who is Himself the revelation of His benevolence, His
compassion, His patience, and His forbearance, and will induce
Him to afford them another opportunity of embracing Him
and His salvation ; for He came not to save a mere fraction of

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH? 365
those countless multitudes which constitute the human race,.,
but to save the world. But how can He be said to save the
world, if the overwhelming majority of the human race are
•¦permitted by Him to perish, without having had vouchsafed
to them the opportunity of even hearing of the Gospel of His
grace ?
It wUl doubtless be urged by some that God will pardon
every sin which has been committed in ignorance, and there
fore that the assumption that there will be a state of proba
tion for this class of sinners is needless. To this I answer,
that while I readily accept the first part of this proposition,
the conclusion deduced from it by no means foUows. The
overwhelming majority of these die in an unholy state, utterly
unfit to enter on the employments and the enjoyments of
the heavenly world. In their characters is nothing high or
elevated, but, on the contrary, much which is evil, low, and
'degraded. Look at the average Chinese, or Hindoo, or Negro,
or native of Australia, or Patagonia, or the scalping Indian. Is
it possible to imagine that characters such as these, if admitted
into the company of the saints, would enjoy one moment of
happiness or pleasure in such society, or would be capable of
entering on any pursuit which is lofty and elevated ? I fuUy
admit that, as we are at present constituted, our bodily
organism exercises a powerful influence on our spiritual and
moral being, and when it is disorganised, this influence is a
potent influence for evil. Of this proof is needless, for we
each know it from our OAvn experience. When, therefore, the
spirit is separated from the bodily organism with which it is
now united, the evil influences which it exerts — for example,
those which arise from a disordered nervous system or a
diseased brain — will cease, and a man may be far less pos
sessed by the spirit of evil than he has appeared to be during
life. Still there is such a thing as spiritual wickedness, which
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366 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
and when the union between spirit and body is dissolved by
death, it far from follows that those evil influences desig
nated by St. Paul " the minding of the flesh," wiU not have
impressed themselves on that spiritual and moral being which
will survive the stroke of death and pass into the unseen
world. One thing, however, is certain, that an overwhelm
ing majority of those to whom we have referred die in a
state very remote from holiness ; many with fierce, sen
sual, and evil appetites strongly predominating in their cha
racters, and all, in greater or less degree, devoid of those
affections which are the fruit of the Spirit of God. If, then,
God pardons every sin which they have committed, what will
be the condition of those who die in a state of mind which
renders them unfit to participate in the employments of the
holy? It whl, perhaps, be urged that God will transform them
from a state of unholiness into one of holiness by a super
natural exercise of His power. But that He wUl do so neither
reason nor Scripture affords a hint. Even in those cases which
are called sudden conversions not a little of the old man
remains, which requires a course of painful discipline before
it can be eradicated. Both Scripture and reason concur in
affirming that the growth of holiness in man is a slow and
gradual process. According to the affirmations of the author
of the Epistle to the Hebrews, even Jesus Christ Himself
learned obedience by the things which He suffered. What
reason, then, have we for believing that this universal law of
the spiritual world will be reversed, and this great change
effected from sin to holiness, or from imperfect to perfect
holiness, by a sudden transformation of those who die in a
condition unfit for the society of the holy, by an exertion of
Divine power which, in many cases, must almost amount to a
new creation ? To this there is an alternative. Our Lord
assures us that in His Father's house there are many man-

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH? 367
sions. Why may not some of these be places where proba
tion will be continued for such persons as those above referred
to, under more favourable conditions than those which have
been vouchsafed them here ? Why may not some of these
many mansions be places fitted for the growth in holiness of
those who die in a state of spiritual and moral imperfection ?
St. Paul assures us that Christ's Messianic reign will continue
until He has put all enemies under His feet, and that He will
not resign the kingdom to the Father until all things have
been subdued unto Him ; and he elsewhere tells us that God
has highly exalted Him, " that in the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth,
and things under the earth " (or as in the margin, things in
the world below) ; " and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." What,
then, I ask, is there in Scripture which implies that for the
persons above referred to probation will not be continued
during the whole period of Christ's Messianic reign ? Do not
the Divine attributes of justice, benevolence, and compassion,
of which attributes, as they exist in God, Jesus Christ is the
revelation, demand that some opportunity should be afforded
them of embracing that Gospel of which they have not even
heard while they continued here ?
II. Equally certain is it that vast numbers of those who
have lived and died in nominally Christian countries have
never had any real opportunity of accepting or rejecting the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not a few have been born and edu
cated in an atmosphere of irreligion and' of vice, into which an
influence for good has rarely ever penetrated. Will the cry
of such rise up in vain into the ears of that compassionate
Judge who, in the days of His earthly life, bore in untiring
patience with human infirmities, and even with sins which
were not deliberate and wilful ? It wiU, perhaps, be urged
that all these have had opportunities of embracing the Gospel

368 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
if they had so chosen. To this I answer in the words of the
Apostle, " How shall they call on him in whom they have not
believed ; or how shall they believe on him of whom they
have not heard ; or how shah they hear without a preacher ? "
The only preacher they have heard has been that most
uninviting type of Christianity displayed in the ordinary rela
tions between man and man, which, while it may exclaim,
" Lord ! Lord ! " leaves undone the things which He says —
a Christianity more fitted to repel than to attract. Surely
those who have been exposed to influences like these may
justly put in a plea for mercy, may I not rather say, for a
probation under more favourable conditions than those of
their past lives, at the bar of that Judge who is both com
passionate and just, and who urged as a reason for the for
giveness of His murderers that they knew not what they did.
III. But there is another class of persons, who have hved
in nominally Christian countries — and that a very numerous
one — who may justly put in a similar plea before the
Judge who will certainly do right. I allude to those who
have had set before them only imperfect versions of the
gospel, and who have been told by those claiming to be the
authorised teachers of the Church that this imperfect version
of Christianity constitutes the essence of Christianity itself. I
shall not attempt to enumerate these imperfect versions, or to
describe in what their imperfections consist. I think that no
reasonable man will dispute the fact that during the eighteen
centuries of the past they have been numerous and have
been various, and that large sections of the Church have
propounded systems of theology as Christianity, beneath
which, even if they are not different gospels from that pro
claimed by our Lord, His teaching and His divinely attrac
tive person have been hidden from the eyes of men. May not
these justly put in the plea before Him who, during his earthly
life, was moved with compassion for those Avhom He described

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH ? 369
as sheep wandering without a shepherd : " We have not been
guilty of rejecting thee, or thy gospel, but what Avas reaUy
a caricature of both. Often, instead of having had thy
Father set before us as the God of mercies and the God of
love, Ave have had Him depicted as possessing a character
revolting to the conscience and the moral sense which He has
implanted within us ; often, instead of having thee set before
us in the Divine attractiveness of thy character, we have
been told that thy gospel required us to believe, as necessary
to salvation, a number of hard dogmas which we could not
understand ; often, instead of its having been set before us
that thy yoke is easy and thy burden light, have we been
told that thy gospel imposed on men a number of ritual
ordinances devoid of moral worth and difficult to be borne.
Above all, we have found a terrible stumbling-block in those
multitudes who have hailed thee as Lord but Avho have lived
in habitual disregard of thy commandments, and in hearing
one proclaimed as possessing all thy authority on earth
whose character too often has been the very opposite of thine.
Wilt not thou, 0 compassionate Jesus, take these things
into thy consideration, and afford us yet an opportunity of
knowing both thee and thy gospel, and thy Father whom
thou hast revealed, — not as they have been set before us
during our earthly probation, but as they reaUy are ? " I
cannot but think that such pleas as these will find acceptance
with Him who came to be the propitiation for the sins of the
whole world, and who said, " I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me."
IV. We must not confine our inquiry simply to the con
sideration whether a large portion of mankind, during this
present life, have had the option of accepting or rejecting
the gospel of Jesus Christ. The subject before us requires
to be considered under other and very important aspects.
It is a truth which no observer of facts will deny, that
B B

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mankind bring into the world with them a nature far more
inclined to evil than to good, and that the evil characters
which have been formed by ancestors very frequently re
appear as tendencies to the same kind of evil in their descen
dants, in a manner somewhat similar to that in which diseases
of ancestors reappear in their bodies. These are facts which,
Avhatever theory may be propounded in explanation of them,
are beyond the possibility of dispute. Further, it is no less
certain that an overwhelming majority of mankind have been
born into an atmosphere of moral and spiritual degradation —
one, it is true, of different degrees in different surroundings,
but one which, in the case of numerous savage races, and
even in some so-called civilised races of mankind, must be
characterised as simply awful. I need not quote instances of
them ; they will occur to every reader. In the midst of this
state of moral and spiritual corruption the new-born child is
born and educated. He has been inhaling it during his
early years, long before the powers of his intellect have been
sufficiently developed to enable him to exert an independent
judgment between right and wrong, until it has become a
portion of his spiritual and moral being. Thus it is that we
see impressed on mankind the various distinctions of race,
with their good and evil qualities which, unless some power
ful external influence is brought to bear on them, propagate
themselves from generation to generation. At the same time
it is a fact that, in the course of the historical development
of the great races of mankind, apart from some regenerating
influence exerted on them from without, after they have
reached a certain point in their development, the tendency of
their better qualities has been to diminish and of their evil
ones to increase. All these are hard facts which cannot be
denied, account for them as we may.
Let us grapple face to face with some of the stern facts
with which we are confronted. A child who is born with

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH ? 371
tendencies to evil, and in the midst of a moral and spiritual
atmosphere such as I have supposed, is certainly placed in
a most unfavourable position for growing up into a holy man.
Should I not rather say, that it is morally impossible that he
should do so, unless some powerful influence is brought to baer
upon him from without, and unless he can be removed from
the influence of that corrupt moral and spiritual atmosphere
in which his character has been formed. We need not go for
examples of what I mean to countries into which no Christian
influences have ever penetrated ; nor need we summon as
witnesses the fierce passions and the degraded practices of
the savage races of mankind. We may find them in abun
dance in the very midst of the civilisation and of the pro
fessed Christianity of our own London. Who shall tell the
number of those who are born of parents steeped in vice, and
who have been brought up in their childhood and in their
youth in the midst of nothing but vicious surroundings ?
May not all those who have been born under such influences
as these to which I have referred, put in a plea before the
judgment-seat of that Judge who is both perfect in justice,
perfect in love, and perfect in compassion, that another pro
bation be afforded them, free from the disadvantages of the
past, and in which there will be influences for good capable
of counterbalancing these disadvantages ? Surely such may
justly plead, " 0, thou righteous Judge, though thou hast
no spot of sin within thee, thou knowest from thy own
experience what temptation means, for thou hast suffered,
being tempted ; wilt thou not have mercy upon us, and afford
some fresh condition of probation to us, who not only have
been born with sinful tendencies transmitted to us from our
ancestors, but who have passed our childhood and youth in
an atmosphere of moral and spiritual corruption into which
scarcely an influence for good has ever penetrated ? " I cannot
think, with the Gospels in my hands, that such an appeal to
bb2

372 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
Jesus Christ would be made in vain, for He is not less merci
ful and compassionate now in His exalted condition than He
Avas during His abode on earth.
V. One additional class of persons requires notice who will
be able to put in a strong plea before Him who is not only a
righteous Judge, but a merciful Saviour. I allude to that
vast multitude of the human race the period of whose proba
tion is cut short by death during childhood and early youth.
The death tables inform us that of every million born in
any particular year, more than three hundred thousand are
removed from this earthly scene before they have attained to
the age of fifteen — i.e. during that period of life in which,
while reason, conscience, and the higher faculties of man are
only imperfectly developed, the foundations of character are
laid, and we are more capable of being impressed by our
surroundings, whether they are good or evil, than during any
subsequent period of our lives. Who will venture to affirm
that in the case of an overwhelming majority of such who
have existed in the ages of the past, their surroundings
have not involved the inhahng of a moral and spiritual atmo
sphere far more interpenetrated with evil than with good ?
Respecting infants Avho die in the first year of their existence,
though even they show signs of evil passions, I will say
nothing ; but it is a fact beyond the possibility of . dispute,
that no small amount of evil displays itself in those who die
during the first fifteen years of life. All those who have had
the charge of youth are only too painfully aware that various
forms of evil character display themselves in early youth.
Thus one displays an utter disregard for truth ; in another
the elements of conscience are imperfect ; another is subject
to violent passion ; another is headstrong ; another is
constitutionally idle ; another is mean ; another, even at
this early age, is the prey of the sensual passions. These
forms of evil are most difficult to deal Avith under favour-

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH ? 373
able circumstances. What, then, must they be when they
are left unchecked to develop themselves in a congenial
atmosphere? Of this last form of evil I have witnessed,
when a boy, a case which I shall never forget. One morn
ing when at school I sat next a precocious lad of about
fourteen, during which he poured into my ears a mass of
the foulest matter, with which I will not defile my pen.
Four hours after, when larking with other boys, he fell from
a great height and was taken up dead. What shaU we say
with respect to cases such as these ? Will there be no ex
tension of probation in the unseen world for those whose
probation has been prematurely cut short in this ? Will
there be no opportunity afforded to such for repentance after
they have passed away from this earthly scene ? Will they,
according to a system of theology which has attained a wide
acceptance, be consigned to an existence in misery which will
never end ? Or, according to another, to a limbo infantium,
i.e. to a mild kind of hell ? Or will they, in accordance with
another theory far less generally accepted, be simply annihi
lated ?
To these questions it will not improbably be answered,
God will pardon all sin which has been committed before the
intellect, the conscience, and the moral sense have attained
to their maturity. This I fully believe, but it does not remove
the difficulty ; for those to whom I have referred die in
various states of unholiness, which must render them unfit
for the society and the employments of the holy. If they
are to be happy, their evil affections must be destroyed and
pure and holy ones must be generated. It will probably be
urged that this change will be suddenly effected by an exer
tion of God's almighty power. But the Scriptures uniformly
teach that the mode in which the Divine Spirit acts in the
sanctification of the unholy in the present kingdom of His
grace is not by a sudden transformation of character, but

374 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
by a gradual growth in holiness. What reason have we for
believing that it wih be otherwise in the unseen world ? It
is true that the putting off of the body may free us from
those tendencies to evil which result from our union with it ;
but what is requisite to qualify us for the employments and
the enjoyments of the perfected kingdom of Christ is not the
mere negation of evil, but the actual possession of affections
which are elevated, pure, and holy ; or in other words,
a state of mind and character fashioned after the image
of Jesus Christ. There is another solution of this difficulty
to which I have already alluded. In our Father's house
are many mansions. Why may not some of these many
mansions be furnished with the means fitted to enable
those who die under the conditions above mentioned, to
grow up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ ?
It will probably be urged as an objection to the views
maintained in this chapter that they involve the doctrine of
purgatory. To this I answer, my position is that it is in
conformity with the character of God, as it is revealed in
Jesus Christ, to afford to those who have never heard of His
gospel in this life, or only an imperfect version of it, an
opportunity of accepting it hereafter ; and to those who in
other respects have lived under unfavourable conditions of
probation here, a probation under more favourable con
ditions in the unseen world ; and that He will not impute
to any man as guilt anything of which that man is not the
originator and cause, but, on the contrary, that such a
man is the proper subject for the Divine compassion. I can,
therefore, only say that if this position involves a doctrine
of purgatory, be it so. But I would ask the reader to
recollect that it is a doctrine of purgatory which differs toto
coilo from that which is taught either in the systematic or
the popular theology of the Roman, or any other section of

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH? 375
Christian Church ; and that it is not a purgatory which is
penal, but one of amendment and of growth in holiness,
and one in which the gospel of Jesus Christ will be set
forth, not in the caricature which has been too often ex
hibited by sections of the Church, nor even in an imperfect
version of it, but as it was proclaimed by Him Avho said
that He came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Surely
then He who came to give His life for the life of the world
will provide some means hereafter of enabling those multi
tudes of men who, in numbers numberless, have never heard
of the gospel of His grace, or only some imperfect version
of it, to embrace it in the unseen Avorld.
Of this opinion was St. Peter. The following are his
affirmations which bear on this subject, to which I have
already referred : —
" Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for
the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit ; in Avhich also
he went and preached to the spirits in prison (ev <f>vXaKy),
which aforetime were disobedient, when the long-suffering of
God waited in the days of Noah when the ark was a preparing,
wherein few, that is eight souls, Avere saved through water,"
or as in the margin, were brought safely through Avater ;
" which also after a true likeness [margin, in the antetype]
doth noAV save you, even baptism ; not the putting away
the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
towards God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." (1
Peter iii. 18—21.)
A few verses further on the Apostle adds —
" Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them
in the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you : Avho shall
give account to him who is ready to judge the quick and
the dead. For unto this end was the gospel [margin, the
good tidings] preached even to the dead, that they might be

376 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to
God in the spirit." (1 Pet. iv. 4—6.)
I need hardly inform the reader that the number of refined
criticisms to which these two passages have been subjected
by those who hold that human probation terminates with the
present life is extremely great. I shall not discuss them, but
I shall take it for granted that the true meaning of the words
is that Avhich would suggest itself to any Greek-speaking
member of the apostolic Churches Avho was free from the
trammels imposed by systems of theology, and Avas a stranger
to the discussions which have taken place on this subject, ,
whether in ancient or modern times. The real question is
not what the Apostle's language may be made to mean, but
what is its natural meaning. It is worthy of remark that a
writer on conditional immortality, who adopts the position
that human probation terminates Avith the present life, takes
the bold course of pronouncing the entire passage an inter
polation, for no other reason than that he finds it impossible
to reconcile either it or the subsequent affirmations about
baptism with his system of theology.
What, then, is the first affirmation of the Apostle if Ave
construe his language in its apparent natural meaning ? I
answer that our Lord, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened in the spirit, went and preached to the spirits in
prison (i.e. to the antediluvians in Hades) Avho were aforetime
disobedient, while God's long-suffering Avaited in the days of
Noah. Against this apparently natural meaning of the words
two interpretations have been proposed which require notice.
Of these the first is that our Lord, prior to His incarnation,
through the ministry of Noah and the preparation of the ark,
preached to the spirits of the antediluvians who were in
prison at the time of His death. If this, however, Avas the
Apostle's intended meaning, I can only say that it is difficult
to conceive how it is possible to express it in language which

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH ? 377
is more obscure and unnatural. Equally difficult is it to
understand what purpose the writer had in view in making
such an affirmation.
The second is that Jesus Christ, while put to death in the
flesh, but quickened in the spirit, actually preached to the
spirits of the antediluvians in Hades, but that His preaching
was not an announcement of good news to those whose pro
bation had been one which had been attended Avith unfavour
able conditions while on earth, as must have been the case
with multitudes of the antediluvians who perished in the
flood, but that it Avas an announcement of liberation from
prison to one class, and of judgment to another, through the
accomplishment of His atoning work.
It seems to me that nothing more is required to expose
the unsoundness of these two positions than to set them forth
distinctly and place them side by side with the words of the
Apostle, and to let the reader judge. This also Avill be the
best course to adopt to enable him to form a judgment of the
Value of numerous other criticisms of this passage.
The second passage above quoted stands in the closest con
nection with the first, being separated from it only by a few
verses, and therefore it can hardly be understood as referring
to anything else than the preaching just referred to. What
meaning, then, did the Apostle intend to convey by the words,
" Who shall give account to him who is ready to judge the
quick and the dead ; for unto this end was the good tidings
(the gospel) preached even to the dead, that they might be
judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to
God in the spirit" ?
Here, then, in the course of fifteen words the Apostle twice
uses the words " the dead." In the first instance the words
"the dead" unquestionably mean the dead in the ordinary
sense of those words, because in the very same sentence they
are used as the opposite of the living : " Avho is ready," says

378 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
he, " to judge the quick and the dead." Is it possible, I ask,
that when he writes in the words immediately following,
" For unto this end Avas the gospel," i.e. the good tidings,
" preached even to the dead," that he could have intended
his reader to attach a AvhoUy different meaning to the words
" the dead," viz. the spiritually dead while on earth ? Such
modes of interpretation may make Scripture mean anything
or nothing.
If we are content to understand language in its ordinary
sense, the Apostle's meaning is not wanting in distinctness.
The gospel was preached to the antediluvians in order " that
they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but
live according to God in the spirit." That is, they suffered
as other men suffer in the ordinary course of providence
in one overwhelming calamity, Avithout any distinction
having been made between different degrees of individual
responsibility, just in the same manner as Avhen a vast multi
tude of men are destroyed by an earthquake, a volcano, or the
sinking of a ship at sea. Thus the antediluvians were judged
according to men in the flesh, i.e. without any distinction
being made between degrees of guilt, and in the state in which
they died they passed into Hades ; but the gospel Avas preached
to them there that they might be quickened according to God
in the spirit, i.e. that the means of recovery and salvation
might be again put within their reach.
It will, perhaps, be objected that these utterances of St.
Peter were made Avith respect to the antediluvians only, and
that when he wrote the passage in question, for anything
that appears to the contrary, these, and none but these, came
Avithin the Apostle's view. This I fully admit, and it is
difficult to assign the reason why these alone are referred to.
But this does not alter the fact that it Avas the belief of St.
Peter that our Lord did preach glad tidings to the spirits of
the antediluvians who were confined in Hades during ¦ the

DOES HUMAN PROBATION TERMINATE AT DEATH? 379
interval which occurred between His expiring on the cross
and the morning of His resurrection. One reason why these
alone are referred to has a certain degree of probability, but
that is all. The catastrophe of the flood was not only well
known to those to whom the Apostle wrote, but it formed
the most terrible judgment which is recorded in the Scrip
tures of the Old Testament, and one in which it was obvious
that no distinction was made between different degrees of
responsibility ; for in it the grey-haired sinner and the youth
just entering on his responsibility perished alike. Full well,
then, might the question have occurred to the Apostle, or to
those to whom he wrote : as all the antediluvians suffered a
common judgment in the flood, will they all suffer a common
judgment in the unseen world, however they may have
differed in their different degrees of guilt ; and will they have
no opportunity of embracing that message of good news to
men, of which they never heard ? If this were so, the
Apostle's answer is, Jesus Christ, between His death and His
resurrection, proclaimed glad tidings to the spirits of the
antediluvians in Hades.
But this reference to these alone does not hinder us from
drawing an inference from the fact affirmed by the Apostle.
No passage from the Pentateuch can be quoted which directly
affirms that man will survive the death of the body ; yet our
Lord tells the Sadducees that they might have justly inferred
this great truth from the Divine declaration, "lam the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." In the
same manner, we are justified in inferring from the fact that
our Lord proclaimed glad tidings to the spirits of the ante
diluvians in Hades, that some opportunity of embracing His
gospel will be afforded to those innumerable multitudes of
mankind, whose earthly probation has been passed under
equally unfavourable conditions — a conclusion to which the
attributes of God, as they are revealed in Jesus Christ, evi-

380 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
dently point, and which is suggested by the concluding words
of St. Paul's address to the philosophers at Athens — " The
times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now he com-
mandeth men that they should all everywhere repent, because
he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness" — ^and by his affirmation that a time is
coming in the future when in the name of Jesus every
knee shall bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and in the
underAvorld, and confess Him Lord, to the glory of God the
Father ; and that God -will then become all in all. In
what righteousness, I ask, does the Apostle affirm that God
will judge the world? Will it be a righteousness which
the conscience and moral sense He has implanted in man
affirm to be righteousness, or will it be in conformity with
attributes of a wholly different character, to which the name
of righteousness has been given, but which differs vridely
from our human conception of it ? Let the reader judge.

CHAPTER XIV.
The Validity op the Theories op Universalism, and of Conditional
Immortality.
These two theories have been propounded by two different
schools of thoughtful men, who have felt themselves unable
to reconcile the commonly accepted doctrines of retribution
with the character of God, as it is affirmed by reason, with the
revelation of that character in the person, work, and teaching
of Jesus Christ, and with the general teaching of the Scrip
tures of the New Testament. It will, therefore, be desirable,
before concluding this argument, to give them a brief con
sideration. The first of these theories lays down that the victory of
good over evil will ultimately result in the recovery of
every moral being in the universe to holiness and to God,
and that the end and purpose of the Incarnation was to effect
this. Its fundamental principles may be stated as foUows : —
1. The vast extent of the universe, its comphcated struc
ture, and its adaptations in numbers numberless prove that it
is the work of a being to whose wisdom and power it is
impossible to assign any limitations conceivable by man, and
that therefore there is no possible obstacle which can hinder
Him from effectuating the purposes of His will, whatever that
wiU may be.
2. That, notwithstanding the clouds and darkness with
which portions of the Divine government of the universe are

382 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
enshrouded, the Christian revelation assures us that God is
perfectly holy, benevolent, just, and good, and that the essence
of His moral character is love. This being so, it is urged
that it follows, as a necessary consequence, that His Avill must
be the ultimate happiness of those moral beings whom
He has created, yet that this will cannot attain its perfect
realisation so long as evil continues to exist.
3. Yet, while it is a great truth that God is unlimited in
power and Avisdom, perfect in holiness and benevolence, it is
a fact which is beyond the possibility of question that a large
amount of moral evil — who shall say how large ? — has, for
purposes inscrutable to man, been permitted to enter the
universe of the Creator ; and this evil is not a mere passing
shadow, but a terrible reality, which in beings gifted with
immortality, unless uprooted, will work out results awful to
contemplate, during the aeons of the future ; i.e. the existence
of moral evil, with all the fearful consequences which accom
pany it, will be perpetuated for ever in the universe of Him
who is all holy, all benevolent, and at the same time almighty
and all wise, and which universe has been brought into
existence by His sovereign pleasure.
4. Inasmuch as the essence of moral evil consists in the
existence of a will opposed to holiness and to God, if evil
beings will continue to exist for ever, however much they
may be restrained in their activities or however terrible may
be their torments, wills animated with hatred and opposition
to God will continue to exist for ever. If this be so, it fol
lows that the reign of evil will be everlasting over portions of
God's created work, and consequently that the affirmation of
St. Paul that it is " his good pleasure unto a dispensation of
the fulness of the times to sum up all things in Christ," and
to become "all in all," will never be accomplished, as it is
impossible that God can be all in all so long as a will con
tinues to exist in opposition and unsubdued to Him.

UNIVERSALISM AND CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. 383
5. Assuming these principles to be true, the Universalist
argues that it is incredible that God has so constituted the
moral universe that moral evil, Avhich is the opposite to His
holiness, and suffering, which is the opposite to His benevo
lence, should continue to exist for ever in the universe of
Avhich He is the sovereign Lord ; and therefore he infers
that He will adopt some means — and who shall assign a hmit
to His resources ? — of rescuing the moral beings whom He
has created and endowed with immortality from the per
petual dominion of evil, and of bringing them into voluntary
union with Himself.
6. The Universalist also alleges that the general affirm
ations of the New Testament respecting the end and purpose
of redemption, and not a feAV of its express declarations, all
point in the same direction. Of these the folloAving are the
most striking : —
(1.) " Behold the Lamb of God, Avho taketh away the sin of
the world." (John i. 29.)
(2.) " And we have beheld, and bear Avitness that the Father
sent the Son to be the Saviour of the Avorld." (1 John iv. 14.)
(3.) " For God sent not his Son into the Avorld to judge
the world, but that the world should be saved through him."
(John iii. 17.)
(4.) " The bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life
of the world." (John vi. 51.)
(5.) " And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for
ours only, but also for the whole world." (i John ii. 2.)
(6.) "He died for all." (2 Cor. v. 15.)
(7.) " For to this end we labour and strive, because we
have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour
of ah men, especially of them that believe." (1 Tim. iv.
10, 11.)
(8.) " For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salva
tion unto all men." (Titus ii. 11.)

884 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
(9.) "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that
which is lost." (Luke xix. 10.)
(10.) "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, shall draw all
men unto me." (John xii. 32.)
(11.) " For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in
him (i.e. Christ) should all the fulness dwell ; and through
him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace
through the blood of his cross ; through him, I say, whether
they be things on the earth or things in the heavens." (Col. i.
19, 20.)
(1 2.) " Having made known unto us the mystery of his will
according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him
(i.e. Christ) unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to
sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and
the things upon the earth, in him." (Eph. i. 9, 10.)
(13.) "Wherefore also God hath highly exalted him, and
given him the name which is above every name, that in the
name of Jesus every knee should boAv, of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth (i.e. the
underworld), that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. ii.
9—11.) (14.) " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto him
self, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We are am
bassadors, therefore, on behalf of Christ, as though God were
entreating by us ; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye
reconciled unto God." (2 Cor. v. 19, 20.)
(15.) " For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God
our Saviour, who willeth (6eXet) that aU men should be
saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim. ii.
3, 4.)(16.) "For if by the trespass of the one the many died,
much more shall the grace of God, and the gift by the grace

UNIVERSALISM AND CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. 385
of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many."
(Rom. v. 15.)
(17.) " So then, as through one trespass, the judgment came
upon all men unto condemnation, even so, through one act
of righteousness, the free gift came upon all men to justifica
tion of life. For as through the one mans disobedience the
many were made sinners, even so, through the obedience of the
one, shall the many be made righteous." (Rom. v. 18, 19.)
(18.) " And when all things have been subjected to him,
then shall the Son also himself be subjected unto him that
did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in ah."
(1 Cor. xv. 28.)
(19.) " Every created thing which is in the heaven, and on
the earth, and under the earth {i.e. the underworld], and in
the sea and all that is in them, heard I saying, Unto him that.
sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing,
and the honour, and the glory, and the dominion, unto the
ages of ages." (Rev. v. 13.)
These are the most important passages in the New Testa
ment on which the Universalist bases his theory. Of these
he alleges that the first eight distinctly affirm that the end
and purpose sought to be effected by our Lord's divine
mission was the salvation of the world ; that, in the ninth,
He himself declares that He came to seek and to save the
lost ; in the tenth, that He will effect this by drawing all
men unto himself ; in the five following, that the final recon
ciliation of all things to God is the purpose sought to be
realised by the incarnation, and that it is the wiU of God
that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge
of the truth ; in the sixteenth and seventeenth, that the Avork
of Jesus Christ has not only in every respect remedied the
evil brought on mankind by Adam's transgression, but that
it has been far more efficacious for good than his trans
gression for evil ; and in the eighteenth and nineteenth, that
c c

386 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
a time will come in the future when the reconciliation of all
things to God will be finally accomplished, and that God will
then be all in all.
Such, without entering into minute details, minor con
siderations, and the great question of free agency, involving
as it does some complicated metaphysical problems, are the
great principles on which this theory rests, and such are the
chief passages in the New Testament which are quoted in its
support. Most of the latter have been discussed in previous
chapters. It is, therefore, not my intention in this place to
point out where I consider them incapable of bearing the
weight of the hypothesis which has been erected on them.
The reader will observe, from the positions laid doAvn in
this work, that while I consider the hypothesis to be an
approximation to the truth, yet I cannot accept it as the
entire truth. I say " an approximation to the truth," be
cause I think that it is the teaching alike of reason and
revelation, that as long as there is any good in a man he
will continue to be the subject of God's merciful regard, and,
through the work of redemption which has been effected by
Jesus Christ, capable of recovery to holiness and to God ;
and that those only are irrecoverable in whom the reign of
evil is become absolute and complete. Respecting such, the
habitual language used by our Lord and his Apostles seems
to be decisive. I need not repeat the language in which
they express the fate of the finally impenitent. The words
Avhich they use to express this can only have the natural
meaning which they bore in the Greek spoken in the primitive
Christian societies, and of which the Enghsh word " de
struction," and others of kindred meaning, are sufficiently
accurate representations. The Universahst endeavours to
evade this by affirming that when the Scriptures threaten
the finally impenitent with destruction, or some kindred
term, the thing intended is the destruction of the sin, but

UNIVERSALISM AND CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. 387
the recovery of the sinner. I have already observed that the
principle of interpretation which assigns to the term destruc
tion, and to similar expressions, the meaning of never-ending
existence in never-ending torment, is to attribute to them a
wholly non-natural signification. I therefore cannot think
the mode of interpretation of these terms which is adopted
by the Universalist to be less non-natural than that which
assigns to them the above meaning. Surely it is a mode of
dealing with language which no one Avould adopt, unless
compelled by the exigencies of a theory.
It is a blessed truth, affirmed by the Christian revelation,
that there is a time coming in the future when God will have
reconciled all things unto himself; and when evil will cease to
exist in the universe which He has created. There are only
two ways in which this can be effected — either by the con
version of evil beings, or by causing them to cease to exist.
The Universalist affirms that it is in accordance with the
Divine character that the mode in which this will be effected
will be by their ultimate conversion. This the language of
the New Testament, taken in its obvious meaning, denies.
It remains, therefore, that the second alternative is the only
possible one ; that evil beings will be annihilated, either by
an exertion of God's almighty power, or because He has so
constituted the moral universe that, under His providential
government, the disease of evil will ultimately destroy man's
spiritual and moral being, just as incurable physical disease
destroys his bodily life.
The Theory of Conditional Immortality, or Life
in Christ.
This subject has been treated by numerous writers, who
while agreeing in fundamental principles, have set it forth
under various modifications according to their own different
points of view. If I were to enter into a complete criticism
cc2

388 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
of this theory and its modifications, a volume of considerable
size would not be too large to devote to its consideration.
In endeavouring to set before the reader its general positions,
and the grounds on which this theory rests, it wiU be neces
sary that I should confine myself to the work of one who may
be considered its most powerful advocate. None wiU, I think,
hesitate to assign this place to the work of the Rev. Edward
White, entitled " Life in Christ." The title of the work is
a sufficiently clear indication of the positions which the
author seeks to estabhsh. These are two, viz. that man's
survival after death is not due to any natural immortality
which he possesses, but is the gift of God through the
Incarnation ; and that the commonly accepted doctrines of
systematic and popular theology, which affirm that the penalty
of sin will be an existence in never-ending torments, and that
this . will be the fate of an overwhelming majority of the
human race, is destitute of support both in reason and in
Scripture. The second of these is argued with a force which
leaves little to be desired ; but the general theory itself,
and the reasons adduced in proof of it, owing to the Avide
extent of the subject matter which, with the view of
strengthening his argument, the author has introduced into
the controversy, render it extremely difficult to express his
views in a number of distinct propositions, the work itself
consisting of not less than 538 closely-printed pages. The
following, however, will give the reader a general idea of his
chief positions : —
1. The theory of man's natural immortality is a heathen
fiction, destitute alike of any foundation in reason or in
Scripture. On the contrary, man was, like the other animal
races, created mortal (but capable of becoming immortal), and
in his present state, apart from the Incarnation, death would
have been the termination of his existence, as it is of theirs.
This position is founded on the account of the creation and

conditional immortality. 389
faU of man, as given in the second and third chapters of
Genesis, and on various considerations derived from the
aUeged discoveries of modern science.
2. But while man was created mortal, he differed from the
other animal races, in that he was created capable of becoming
immortal by eating of the fruit of the tree of life. On this
are based several theories which it will be unnecessary to par
ticularise. 3., The penalty denounced against the violation of the
Divine command, forbidding Adam to eat of the fruit of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was death, i.e. the
loss of existence, on the very day of his transgression, and
if this penalty had been executed according to the strict
terms of the threatening, the human race could not have
come into existence.
4. In consequence of the Divine purpose to introduce a
dispensation of mercy through the Incarnation the threaten
ing was not executed.
5. Even under the economy of redemption, death destroys
man as man ; i.e. it destroys his animal life and his bodily
organism; and apart from these, neither the personality,
nor the spirit, nor the soul, constitute the man. In a word,
according to this theory, man, as man, ceases to exist at
death, and is dissolved into his component parts, neither
of which, when separate from the others, nor aU, when sepa
rated from the bodily organism and the animal life, consti
tute the man, who can only be restored to the fulness of his
being by a resurrection. So completely does the author carry
out this theory, that he even goes the length of affirming that
death destroyed Christ as man. This position is rendered neces
sary by the theory which he propounds respecting the nature
of the atonement, and of the penalty attached to the violation
of the law of God, and several other considerations which
form a portion of his general theory of life in Christ. I need

390 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
hardly observe that these positions rest on inferences and
metaphysical problems of a very doubtful and complicated
character. 6. Adam, by his transgression and consequent expulsion
from paradise, being excluded from eating of the fruit of the
tree of hfe, both he and his posterity remained in the
original condition of mortality in which they were created.
7. For the purpose of introducing a dispensation of
mercy, the penalty of instant death denounced against the
violation of the Divine command was not executed on Adam ;
but on the contrary, he was respited, and continued to
live several hundred years afterwards ; and thus the human
race, which would have perished in him if the threatened
penalty had been executed, was brought into existence ; but
under the disadvantageous condition that through the
transgression of their first progenitor sin entered into the
world, death by sin, and thus death passed upon aU
men. This last result, if I understand the theory rightly,
would have been the natural consequence of Adam and his
posterity being excluded from access to the tree of life ;
and the death which would thus have passed upon all
men, had it not been for the dispensation of mercy to be
brought about by means of the Incarnation, would have
been extinction of being, which would have rendered punish
ment beyond the grave for sins committed here impossible.
8. The present existence of the human race, the sur
vival of the personahty in Hades, and the future resurrec
tion of the righteous and the wicked, are due to the same
cause. 9. Saints who have become united to Christ in this
hfe, instead of passing into Hades, will after death enjoy a
happy existence in the presence of Christ ; but their felicity
will not be complete until after the resurrection, when the
entire man will be once more reconstituted.

CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. 391
10. At the judgment vast numbers who have never heard
of Jesus Christ or the Gospel of His mercy, but who
have lived up to the light which was in them, and who have
exhibited the spirit of love, wiU be reckoned by Christ among
the righteous, and be invited by Him to enter into the
kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the
world. 11. Another result of the incarnation will be the resur
rection of the wicked for judgment. I use the words
" another result of the incarnation," because according to the
original theory, if the penalty incurred by Adam had been
strictly executed — and its non- execution was due to the
Divine purpose of mercy in the incarnation — the entire
human race would have perished in him ; and consequently
their present existence and the survival of their personality
in Hades, and their future resurrection are the result of the
Divine purpose in redemption.
12. After the judgment sinners will be punished accord
ing to the strictest principles of justice in exact proportion
to their deeds ; but their sufferings will not be of an un
limited but of a limited duration, and will terminate in the
extinction of their being, and thus evil will be finally extin
guished in the universe of God.
13. Both reason and Scripture afford grounds for believing
that those who have had no opportunity afforded them of
embracing the gospel here — and these compose the over
whelming majority of mankind who have hved in the past,
and who are living in the present — will have an opportunity
afforded them of doing so in Hades.
I have used the words " in the past and in the present,"
because there are not wanting writers who, to escape from
the difficulties involved in the popular theories of retri
bution — which affirm that the saved will constitute a small
minority, and the lost the overwhelming majority of the

392 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
human race — suggest that those who will be born during the
Millennium will redress the balance, if they do not make the
number of the saved greatly to preponderate. I repeat it, the
real question is not whether in the ultimate issue of things
the saved or the lost will constitute the majority of man
kind, but whether it is consistent with the character of One
whose wisdom and power are unlimited, and the essence of
whose moral being is love, to have so constituted the moral
universe that the ultimate result will be not only that
moral evil, Avhich is the opposite to His holiness, wih
continue to exist in it for ever, but that those multitudes
who, according to popular belief, will constitute the lost,
are destined to pass a never-ending existence in never-ending
torment. Such are the most important positions of this theory, as
far as they bear on the immediate subject of the present work.
I have discussed most of them either directly or indirectly in
the preceding pages, and from them the reader will be able to
determine how far I assent to or dissent from the reasonings
in question. While agreeing with the main position which
it is the object of the work to establish, viz. that the theory
of retribution so widely accepted, both in systematic and
popular theology, has no basis to rest upon either in reason
or revelation, I cannot but think that many of the principles
on which no inconsiderable portion of the argument is
founded are open to very serious objections ; and that this, on
the principle that the strength of a chain is that of its
Aveakest link, greatly weakens the force of those points in
Mr. White's reasonings which are extremely powerful. One
thing can hardly fail to strike the reader of this work, — the
inconsiderable use which is made in it of the moral argument.
A few additional remarks only will be necessary.
With respect to the first of the above positions, the
reader should observe that, according to the author's theory,

CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. 393
man was created mortal, just as the other animals were
created mortal ; that is to say, according to the original
law of his being, death would have been the annihilation
of his personal conscious existence, as it is the annihila
tion of that, be it what it may, which constitutes their in
dividuality. This theory is, however, so far modified as to
make it of little value for the purpose for Avhich it is pro
pounded ; for it is admitted that although man was created
mortal, he was also created capable of becoming immortal by
eating of the fruit of the tree of life. This being so, there
must have been an essential difference in the constitution of
man and animals with respect to their powers of surviving
the stroke of death ; for whUe man was created capable of
becoming immortal by eating of the fruit of the tree of
life, it is not urged that the same result Avould have been
produced on animals if they had partaken of this fruit. On
the contrary, the whole theory is founded on the assumption
that animals and man in the natural course of things would
be utterly destroyed at death. Into the thorny question
whether animal life — be the vital principle what it may — is
annihilated by death I shall not enter.
A considerable body of scientific opinion — it would be
incorrect to call it evidence, for the entire question lies
outside the range of scientific investigation — in favour of
the theory that man perishes at death, is adduced by the
author in the four opening chapters of the work. I fully
admit that evidence of his survival which is strictly scientific
there is none. But, in accepting this as a fact, the reader
should keep in mind, what is too often forgotten in contro
versies connected Avith this subject, that the kind of evidence
designated " scientific " is very far from being the only kind
of evidence Avhich is absolutely conclusive; that in the
practical affairs of hfe the evidence, though in numerous
cases it leaves on our minds the highest degree of certainty,

394 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
is of a very different character from that which is so design
nated,"* and that the opinions of scientists, when they travel
beyond the special subjects of their investigations, are of no
more value than those of other thoughtful men. Further,
it should never be forgotten, that while no scientific evidence
exists that man will survive the death of the body, on the
other hand it is equally true that no such evidence exists
that the death of the body will be the destruction of the
personality. As I have said in a former chapter, all that
science has succeeded in proving is that in man, as he is
at present constituted, mind and brain are most intimately
correlated to one another. But for the theory that the de
struction of the brain is the destruction of the conscious
personality, or that the personality is incapable of existing,
acting, thinking, and perceiving under conditions different
from the present ones, anything approaching to scientific
evidence is entirely wanting.
It is true that Mr. White is careful to inform his readers
that he does not accept the scientific evidence, to which he
refers, as indubitably true, and that he is fully aware that
much may be said on the other side of the question. Still,
it is clear that he considers it to afford considerable support
to his general position. If this were not so, why adduce
it ; for if it is inconclusive, as it certainly is, the effect of
such reasonings is not to strengthen an argument but to
weaken it. It is also unfortunate that the theories re
ferred to have been extensively propounded by Atheists, Ag
nostics, Positivists, and Pantheists as alternatives to Chris
tian theism. Mr. White, however, in his preface to the third
edition of his work, admits, in the following singular passage,
that the body of scientific opinion put forth in chapters I.,
* Of this kind of evidence, that which in criminal cases brings to the mind of
a jury the fullest conviction of indubitable certainty is a striking example.

CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. 395
II., III., and IV. adds little to the weight of his general
argument. He thus writes : —
" If the reader who cares httle for scientific opinion finds
the opening sections not to his taste, he can commence the
perusal of this book at the fifth chapter without serious
hindrance to the understanding of the general argument."
Is this most serious question, then, to be resolved into one
of taste ? To what purpose is it to adduce a number of
- scientific theories in support of the argument that man,
• according to his original constitution, perishes with the death
of the body, when they are unproved theories and nothing
more, and then tell the reader that if the chapters which con
tain them are not to his taste it is unnecessary to peruse
them ? The only result of inserting them is to embarrass the
argument with so much questionable and, on the author's
own admission, unnecessary matter.
The theory that man, as he was originally formed, was
created mortal, and was so conditioned that death would have
been his annihilation as a conscious being, yet that he might
not only have continued to live for evermore, but also have
been elevated to a higher order of existence by eating of the
fruit of the tree of life, is only consistent with the assumption
that mind and matter are identical. It is conceivable that
the eating of a fruit might have the effect of counteracting
the natural tendency of the body to decay ; but what
influence it could have exerted on man's inteUectual, moral,
and spiritual being it is difficult to imagine, except on the
unproved assumption that he is nothing but organised matter
endowed with life. Whether the second and third chapters
of Genesis furnish data sufficient to support the weight of
this theory I have considered in a former chapter, to which I
must refer the reader* It will, therefore, be only necessary
to observe that on points such as these the obscurity of the
* See Chapter VII.

396 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
narrative affords ample scope for the exercise of the theo
logical imagination, of which theorists of all kinds have made
the most ample use. Those who maintain that moral and
spiritual results can be wrought in man by eating of the fruit
of a tree should abstain from " casting stones at those who
hold that spiritual regeneration is effected in baptism, or that
spiritual life is sustained by eating of the consecrated bread
and drinking of the cup of the Holy Communion. We hold
that moral and spiritual effects must be wrought by moral
and spiritual influences, and that our Lord's affirmation, " Not
that which entereth into the mouth defileth a man " is not
less true in a slightly altered form, " Not that which entereth
into the mouth can make him more holy."
The propositions numbered three and four I have for all
practical purposes considered above ; but the fifth proposition,
that even under the economy of redemption death destroys
man as man, and that portions of his complex being survive in
Hades, involves a number of very complicated and metaphysical
theories respecting the ontology of man, into the reahties of
which it is impossible, with our present faculties, to pene
trate. Consequently it forms a very insecure foundation on
which to erect any theory respecting future retribution or
the condition of man after death. Mr. White, however,
boldly presses this theory to its extreme logical consequences,
and argues from it and from certain theories respecting the
atonement, and from the death which was threatened by the
law as the penalty of transgression, that our Lord when He
expired on the cross ceased to exist as man. Most Christians
Avill, I think, draw the conclusion that if this is a necessary
inference from these premisses, they must contain in them
principles which are essentially unsound, and that, as far as
scriptural authority goes, they must be based on misappre
hensions of the teaching of the sacred writers, or on inaccurate
deductions from it. Full well may it be asked, If Christ,

CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. 397
when He expired on the cross, ceased to exist as man, was
the incarnation suspended between His death and resurrec
tion, or did His assumption of a body at His resurrection
involve a second incarnation ? The reader will, I think, be
of opinion that theories of this kind involve us in questions
which transcend the limits of our finite understandings, and
respecting which certainty is unattainable. The only effect,
therefore, of introducing them into this argument is to weaken
it, instead of yielding it an additional support.
With respect to propositions six, seven, and eight, it is. far
from being so clear as Mr. White supposes, that the not
carrying into execution of the penalty of death — i.e. annihi
lation — with which Adam Avas threatened on the day of his
transgression, was an act of mercy to the human race. At
any rate, as I have observed above, the contrary view is
quite maintainable. For if, in conformity with the theory,
Adam had ceased to exist, mankind, and all the evils which,
according to popular theology, have resulted from the Fall,
would have been non-existent, and another Adam might have
been created to bring the human race into existence under
more favourable conditions. Further, the position that the
continued existence of fragments of the disintegrated man in
Hades — there awaiting judgment for the deeds done in the
body until the entire man has been reconstituted at the
resurrection — is solely due to the incarnation, to say the
least of it, rests on data of a most questionable character, and
is therefore a very insecure one to form any portion of the
foundation on which to erect a theory of retribution. It is
true that in speaking of the FaU Mr. White chiefly dwells
on the fact that death has passed upon aU men as one of the
results of Adam's transgression, and that death is now not
penal but natural ; but as he has laid down that man was
originally created mortal, all that can be meant by the words
"by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,"

398 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
is, that death became his inevitable doom owing to his ex
clusion from eating of the fruit of the tree of life, by doing
which, as he was originally constituted, his "mortal" would
have put on immortality; and he has little to say as to how
far that vast amount of moral evil which unquestionably exists
is one of its results.
StiU the terrible consequences of transmitted evil which
popular theology attributes to the Fall are not a theory, but
a fact, and this fact must not be excluded from the discussion
of the position under consideration. For Mr. White lays
down that the non-execution of the penalty of death de
nounced against Adam on the day of his transgression, the
prolongation of his life, by means of which the existence of
the human race in its present condition was made possible,
and the survival of man's personality in Hades for the pur
pose of judgment and retribution, are due to the Divine
purpose of mercy, to be subsequently realised in the incar
nation ; and that, apart from this purpose, death would have
been the extinction of his being, and consequently, as far as
the present human race is concerned, both physical suffering,
and moral evil, with all the terrible consequences thence
resulting, both here and hereafter, would haATe been non
existent. Positions like these, to make them available for the
purpose for which they are here propounded, must be estab
lished by the strongest proof. In a word, they ought to be
founded on direct affirmations of Scripture, and not on a num
ber of very questionable inferences and reasonings, respecting
the validity of which ordinary people are inadequate judges.
With propositions nine and ten I cordially concur; but
with respect to eleven, which lays down that the resurrec
tion of the wicked for the purpose of judgment and punish
ment is the result of the Divine purpose of mercy in the
incarnation, and that but for it death would have been the
extinction of their being, it seems to me that nothing but

CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. 399
the exigencies of a particular theory could have induced Mr.
White to have propounded so questionable a proposition.
While I fully concur with the general principles which are
involved in propositions twelve and thirteen, I cannot but
think that the theory which is propounded in number five, that
man, as man, perishes at death, and that only a portion of
him, though a very important one, continues to exist in Hades,
seriously interferes with the idea that those who have had no
opportunity of embracing the Gospel here will have the oppor
tunity afforded them of embracing it in the underworld.
How, I ask, can this be possible if man, as man, no longer
exists after death ? In that case it would not be the man,
but only a portion of him, which would be capable of being
evangelised in Hades. Mr. White elsewhere lays it down as
necessary to man's full responsibility for his actions during
his earthly life, that his complete manhood should be recon
stituted by the re-union of the body with that portion of him
which survives death (by whatever name we choose to desig
nate it, be it personality, spirit, or soul), in order that the
former, having been a sharer with the personality in its
actions during life, may also be a sharer in the consequences
which will result from those actions in the unseen world ; for,
according to the theory, the personality when separated from the
body does not constitute the man, but only a portion of him.
I have drawn attention to these points for the purpose of
showing with what unnecessary difficulties theories such as
the above encumber the subject under consideration. It is
right, however, to observe that the reason why a great deal of
questionable matter has been introduced into this contro
versy is, that it is the object of the theory designated " Con
ditional Immortality," or " Life in Christ," to estabhsh two
positions which are wholly distinct from one another. The
first of these is —
That the endless life of the righteous will not be the result

400 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
of any natural immortality inherent in man, but that it is a
free gift of God imparted through the incarnation, and is due
to a creative act of God, designated regeneration, and is the
consequence of the regenerate man abiding in Christ and
Christ in him.
The second —
That the punishment of the wicked in the world to come
wiU not be of endless duration.
The proof of this first position is supposed to afford
additional strength to the second. It seems to me, on the
contrary, greatly to weaken it, by introducing into the con
troversy a wide range of subjects the evidence of which is
of a very complicated and doubtful character.
For the purpose of enabling the reader to form a judgment
as to the highly complicated nature of portions of the argu
ment, I cannot do better than quote the titles which Mr.
White has affixed to nine chapters, occupying nearly one-
third of the entire work. They are as follows : —
1. The Serpent in Genesis : an Excursus on the Scripture
doctrine of an Evil Superhuman Agency concerned in the
Destruction of Mankind.
2. The Death Penalty of the Mosaic Law.
3. The Opposed Doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees
in relation to a Future Life, and Christ's Rejection of both.
4. The incarnation of the Life, or the Logos made flesh, that
man might live eternally.
5. Justification of Life.
6. The New Covenant of Life in the Blood of Christ ; or
the Nature of the Death of Christ, and its place in the
Divine Government as an Atonement for Sin.
¦ 7. Regeneration unto Life, through Union with the Incar
nate Word, by the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.
8. Hades, or the State of Man between Death and the
Resurrection, under the Economy of Redemption.

CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. 401
9. The Resurrection to Life Eternal at the Coming and
Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I need hardly observe that the discussion of these positions
involves us in questions in the highest degree difficult of
solution, and respecting which eminent Christian Avriters, the
sincerity of whose search after truth it is impossible to question,
have taken, and still continue to take, very divergent vieAvs.
But inasmuch as the titles of these chapters give the reader
only a faint idea of the amount of abstract matter which is
thus introduced into this controversy, and of the consequent
uncertainty of the basis Avhich it affords for the erection on
it of a theory of retribution, I will name some of the subjects
discussed in them in the author's own words. Thus —
1. In the chapter entitled "The Incarnation of the Life;
or the Logos made Flesh that Man may live eternally," the
following subjects are discussed : —
Christ's deity the crux of the Gospels ; object of John to
deify Christ ; John's doctrine of the Logos ; triple personality
of Christ ; eternal life by the incarnation ; eclipse of faith by
mysticism ; genius of Oriental thought ; definiteness of the
Greek language ; the Book of Genesis the key to Scripture ;
the Rabbinical doctrine of a judgment to come.
2. In the chapter entitled " Justification of Life " the
folio Aving subjects are brought under discussion : —
Forensic justification ; fourfold justification ; patristic justi
fication ; three errors in justification ; justification and im
mortal life ; influence of psychology on the doctrine of justi
fication. 3. In the next chapter Ave are involved in the discussion
of the following profound and abstract questions : —
The nature of the death of Christ ; the curse borne by
Christ ; the meaning of salvation by blood ; the atonement
of Christ ; the propitiatory sacrifice ; causes of Unitarian
doctrine ; an excursus on the sensibility of God.
D D

402 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
Surely the investigation of this last subject is an attempt
to intrude into things which transcend the powers of the
finite intellect of man.
Not to weary the reader's patience, I will only trouble him
Avith an enumeration of some of the subjects treated in the
chapter entitled "Regeneration unto Life :" —
Apostolic doctrine of the new birth ; spiritual regeneration
in baptism ; Nonconformist ideas on baptism ; apostohc doc
trine on baptism ; patristic ideas on baptism ; influence of the
patristic doctrine ; regeneration through the Word ; regenera
tion through fragmentary truth ; body, soul, and spirit ; the
creation of the Pneuma ; complex origin of lives ; signs of
regenerate life ; physical and spiritual germ life, &c, &c.
It is hardly necessary to observe that most of these sub
jects, thus unnecessarily introduced into this controversy,
form some of the most difficult problems of theology. Not a
few of them are theories representing the view of the doctrine
of the atonement and of the regeneration of man which is held
by that section of the Church usually designated evangelical.
Others involve questions going to the utmost limits of human
thought, and some Avhich transcend its limits altogether. On
their discussion whole libraries have been Avritten ; and yet
men, equally able, learned, pious, and earnest seekers after
truth in all ages of the Church, have arrived at widely
different conclusions from precisely the same data. WThat,
then, is the inference which may justly be draAvn from this
diversity of opinion among such men as the above by those
who come to the study of these subjects unbiassed by system
and free from the trammels which it imposes ? Surely, that
the data on Avhich such theories have been erected must
be of a very uncertain character, and therefore that they
can form no essential portion of Christianity. What, then,
sre they? Even if we rate them at the highest, they are
not affirmations of revealed truth, but deductions of human

CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. \ 403
reason from certain principles supposed to be contained in
it ; and as such they are subject to all the uncertainties
arising from the errors to which the logical intellect is liable
Avhen it attempts to grapple Avith abstract questions, not a
feAV of which involve us in the discussion of subjects trans
cending its grasp. Respecting these and all similar questions
the words of Job are true, " Therefore have I uttered things
that I understood not ; things too wonderful for me, that I
knew not."
If, then, to proclaim glad tidings to the poor is one of the
great characteristics of Christianity which distinguish it from
every religion of the past or of the present ; if, as our
Lord affirmed, He was anointed with the Spirit of God
for this very purpose ; if He came not to call the righteous
but sinners ; if it is true that He rejoiced in spirit, and said,
" I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes," then the discussion of such ques
tions as " forensic justification," " fourfold justification," " the
influence of psychology on the doctrine of justification," "the
triple personality of Christ," " the nature of His death, and
of the curse of the law borne by Him," " the meaning of sal
vation by blood," "the sensibility of God," "the creation of
the pneuma," "complex origin of lives," "physical and
spiritual germ life," and many others introduced into this
argument, being, as they are, questions only capable of
being understood by the wise and prudent, even if they
are by them, can have no other effect than that of encum
bering Avith a number of perplexing difficulties a subject
Avhich ought to be of the profoundest interest, and there
fore intelligible to the humblest Christian. But even
Avith respect to theologians and professed students of such
subjects, if it is necessary for them to Avait until something
like a unanimity of opinion is arrived at respecting such
d d 2

404 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
complicated questions before they can come to a conclusion
as to what is the teaching of Christianity, on the subject of
future retribution, they will have to wander long in uncer
tainty and doubt. While agreeing, therefore, with Mr. White's
general position, and fully recognising the power of portions of
his argument, I can only regret that he has endeavoured to
impart to it additional strength by reasonings of so question
able a character, and by treating as essential truths of
Christianity principles respecting which the utmost diversity
of opinion has prevailed in all ages of the Church, and still
continues to prevail among students of revelation who are
equally learned, able, pious, and earnest seekers after truth.
On the subjects above referred to it will be impossible for
ordinary Christian people to form an opinion as to the validity
of his reasonings ; yet these constitute the very class which
stands in special need of enlightenment as to what is the
teaching of the New Testament respecting future retribution,
in contradistinction to the widespread popular theories re
specting it ; for it is among them that the most dangerous
errors are most widely diffused.

CHAPTER XV.
Summary of the Results of the Previous Arguments.
It now only remains that I should set before the reader a
summary of the most important conclusions, and offer a feAV
brief observations on the positions established in the preced
ing chapters.
I. The importance of the investigation is undeniable ; for
to unbelievers and doubters the theories which we have been
considering constitute one of the greatest stumbling-blocks
in the way of their acceptance of Christianity as the revelation
of One whose attributes are justice and mercy, and the
essence of whose moral being is love. No less must it be
so to the heathen, Avhen they are informed by the mission
ary that the eiayyeXtov 6eov, i.e. the message of good news
from God to man* — for this is the precise meaning Avhich the
Avords must have conveyed to every speaker of Greek who
heard them — consigns the overwhelming majority of man
kind, their ancestors and unconverted friends included, to an
endless existence in never-ending torments. To the thoughtful
Christian, when he endeavours to picture to himself the dread
reality, it proves one of the severest trials of his faith ; and to
* Our modern word " gospel ' ' fails to convey to the speaker of English the
idea which the word hayykXiov conveyed to the speaker of Greek. To the
latter, the ev in kvayyiXiov necessarily conveyed the idea of something good, and
the ayyiXiov of a message or news. Consequently ro ivayyiXiov tov Qtov means
good news, either from or about God ; ro ivayyiXiov tov Xptorou good news
about Christ ; and ro ivayyiXiov ri)c j3amXeiae good news about the kingdom of
God. This is all lost in our modern English word "gospel."

406 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
the ordinary professor of Christianity the behef in it is a mere
dead faith barren of results, which for the most part he con
tinues to believe by refusing to realise what the words " end
less existence in never-ending torment" mean. The question
therefore, whether that which is commonly designated " the
doctrine of eternal damnation" is a portion — and if a portion
it must be an essential portion — of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
or whether it is a tradition of men which has been superadded
to that gospel, is one which it is impossible for those who
believe in Christianity as a Divine revelation to make the
subject of too earnest an inquiry.
II. With respect to the theories which affirm that because
God is infinite and man finite we can have no certain knoAv-
ledge of the realities as they exist in God ; and therefore
that our conceptions of the Divine attributes, and even the
affirmations which revelation makes respecting them, may
differ from those reahties — as, for example, that justice as an
attribute of God may differ widely from what the conscience
and moral sense which He has implanted in man pronounces to
be just ; we have proved them to be alike repugnant to reason
and revelation. Consequently, when the Scriptures affirm
that God will judge the world in righteousness, they can only
mean that He will do so in conformity with what our con
science and moral sense affirm to be righteous and just, and
not in conformity with some standard of justice which may
differ widely from it. It is hardly possible to over-estimate
the importance of the bearing of this principle on the question
of future retribution.
IIL The great truth that a time is coming when God will
judge the world in righteousness, and render to every man
according to his deeds, is definitely affirmed in the Scrip
tures of the New Testament ; and although those of the Old
are silent as to a judgment aAvaiting man beyond the grave,
when they speak directly of the divine character and perfec-

SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 407
tions they uniformly ascribe to God the attributes of justice,
holiness, and mercy. Yet there are numerous utterances,
nay, commandments, in these older Scriptures which fail to
commend themselves to the enlightened conscience as either
good, merciful, or holy, the imperfection of which was even
recognised by its more enlightened prophets, and which
stand in striking contrast to the teaching of our Lord.
Further, I have shown that these Scriptures contain the
records of a number of progressive revelations which were
accommodated to the imperfect moral condition of those for
whose use they Avere intended ; that they are, in a word, the
record of the mode which was adopted by God in the education
of the Jewish people, Avhereby they Avere gradually elevated
from that state of degradation, which is the natural result of a
long-continued period of slavery, to more worthy conceptions
of religion and morality, such as would qualify them to
become the heralds of Christianity to mankind. Conse
quently, inasmuch as those Scriptures are entirely silent
respecting a judgment beyond the grave, and are strictly
limited to dealing with a particular nation in its temporal
capacity, the utterances of which I am speaking have no bear
ing on the principles on which God will judge individuals
hereafter. They relate solely to the present moral government
of the world, Avhich, as far as it comes within our view, is
confessedly an imperfect one, and therefore are wholly in
applicable to that judgment in which its inequalities wiU be
rectified by rendering to every man according to his works.
IV. With respect to the question Avhether Ave have grounds
for believing, independently of the express affirmations of a
revelation, that man will survive the stroke of death, and that
his conduct in this world will exert a most important influence
on his condition hereafter, I have proved that it is one which
lies outside the range of scientific investigation, and that
while there is no evidence which is strictly scientific that man

408 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
will survive the death of the body, science is equally impotent
to prove the contrary. Equally valueless, also, are aU meta
physical arguments on this subject, owing to the fact that we
knoAv nothing whatever respecting the ontology of man. On
the other hand, reason furnishes strong grounds for believing,
on the assumption that a God exists, who is all-powerful and
all-wise, that such survival is in the highest degree probable ;
and on the further assumption that He is the moral governor
of the world, renders such survival a moral certainty.
I have also drawn the reader's attention to the fact that
two questions which ought to be kept entirely distinct, have
been habitually confounded together in this controversy.
One of these is, Have we reason for believing that man wih
survive the dissolution of the body ? the other, WiU that
survival be of endless duration ? This is an important dis
tinction ; for while there may be abundant evidence to
prove the one, it may be far from sufficient to prove the
other ; whereas it has been commonly taken for granted
that those arguments which prove survival also prove that
that survival will be of endless duration. On the contrary,
all that reason can positively affirm is, that if there is a God
who is the moral governor of the universe, man wiU con
tinue to exist long enough to enable the Divine government
to receive its vindication as a righteous government by the
correction of its present inequalities, and by the righteous
being rewarded and the Avicked punished according to their
deeds. It is commonly assumed if man survives the stroke
of death that he must survive for ever ; but this is by no
means a necessary consequence. For other causes, e.g. the
disease of moral evil wilfully persisted in, for aught we know
to the contrary, may be capable of destroying man as a per
sonal conscious being. No being that has been brought into
existence by the will of another can have endless existence
inherent in itself. Of One only, whose being has had no

SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 409
beginning, can it be said with truth that His existence must
be everlasting. Inasmuch, therefore, as man is destitute of
self-existence, the length of the period during which he will
continue to exist must be dependent on the good pleasure of
Him who by His all-powerful energy maintains him in being
every moment. Unless, therefore, it is the pleasure of Him
who is as merciful as He is just, and Avho is as just as He is
merciful, to keep such beings in existence, in order that they
may expiate their past sins by sufferings Avhich will have no
limits as to their duration, these evil beings will cease to exist
whenever it pleases the all-merciful to cease to exert that
energy Avhich alone maintains in existence both the evil and
the good. It' has been necessary to draAV attention to this
particular point because the doctrine of the inherent immor
tality of the soul, as it is commonly understood, is supposed
to carry along with it, as a necessary consequence, that evil
spirits and evil men must continue to exist for ever in tor
ments which will never terminate.
V. However we may regard the imperfection of the light
Avhich the Scriptures of the Old Testament throw on the con
dition of man after death, yet its imperfection is a fact the
truth of which it is impossible to deny. The following points
respecting those Scriptures are proved in Chapter V. : —
1. With two exceptions (and these occur in books of a
Very late date), they contain no direct affirmation that a
judgment awaits man beyond the grave, in Avhich the righteous
will be rewarded and the Avicked punished according to their
deeds. 2. While some of the more eminent Old Testament saints
entertained a strong hope of a happy existence with God
after death, yet others considered that the light of God's
countenance Avas only to be enjoyed during the present life,
and that the underworld was a region of darkness and of
gloom. In this gloomy view of the condition of man after

410 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
death, as far as his survival was believed in, the popular
mind fully concurred.
3. The prophets, though most earnest preachers of righte
ousness, and although they habitually urged on their hearers
the consequences with which persistent sin will be attended
in this life, never appealed to the terrors of a judgment to
come as a deterrent from sin ; nor did they urge on the-
righteous, as a support under their present trials and suffer
ings, the belief in a state of existence beyond the grave in
Avhich the inequalities of present providences would be re
dressed. Whatever their opinions on these subjects may
have been, it is a certain fact that their exhortations were
based on purely temporal considerations. The same is
equally true of the sanctions on Avhich the Mosaic legislation
rested. Yet the Book of Psalms, of Job, and several of the
prophetic writings, make it certain that the inequalities of
present providences proved to holy men of old a seArere trial
of their faith.
VI. The Christian Scriptures make the following definite
affirmations respecting the condition of man after death : —
1. That our conscious personality wul survive the death of
our bodies.
2. That [we shall be held responsible hereafter for our
conduct here.
3. That at some period of the future our personality will
once more manifest itself in some form of bodily, i.e. material
organisation. 4. That with the exception of a feAV passages Avhich speak
of the condition of the departed saint as one of happiness,
rest, and peace, the New Testament preserves an almost total
silence respecting the condition of man between death and
the resurrection ; and it is to a future judgment, in connec
tion with a resurrection, that the hopes of the holy and the
fears of sinners are specially directed.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS. - 411
5. That its affirmations and warnings respecting future
retribution are made with a direct reference to Christ's
Messianic kingdom, and to His future coming, for the purpose
of reahsing its ideal. In one passage only is a direct
reference made to that period of endless duration which will
succeed His delivering up of this kingdom to the Father,
when, as the Apostle affirms, God will be all in all. With
respect to anything beyond this its silence is complete.
6. One further point is worthy of particular attention in
connection with the subject Ave are considering, and it is un
doubtedly a remarkable one. In appealing to men's hopes
and fears, the writers of the New Testament do not rest their
appeal on what is commonly called " the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul," but on a future resurrection, Avhich
is to take place at the coming of our Lord in triumphant
glory. It is then, they affirm, that God will render to every
man according to his Avorks.
VII. The revelation of the Divine character and perfec
tions, as they are set forth in the Scriptures of the New Tes
tament, with Avhich revelation the voice of reason is in strict
accord, renders it certain that God will hold men respon
sible hereafter only for what in them has been self-caused,
and not for that in the causation of Avhich they have been
passive agents. Consequently He will not hold men respon
sible —
1. For the evil in them which has been transmitted to
them from their ancestors.
2. For the evil in them Avhich is the result of the environ
ment in which they have been born and educated.
3. For not having embraced a gospel of Avhich they have
either not heard, or of which they have only heard an imper
fect, perhaps a distorted, version.
4. For not having lived up to a light which they have
never enjoyed.

412 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
5. Also in cases of mixed responsibility, which are very
numerous, God's omniscience will enable Him clearly to dis
criminate between that in a man for which he has been, and
that in him for Avhich he has not been responsible, and wUl
only hold him accountable for that in the production of which
he has been a voluntary agent.
6. The righteous Judge of all the earth -will not only
judge men in conformity with His attribute of justice, but also
in conformity with that of mercy ; or, according to a scrip
tural expression, " Mercy rejoiceth against judgment ; " i.e.
when justice has spoken mercy will plead.
7. As far, therefore, as popular theories respecting retri
bution conflict with these principles, they are opposed alike
to the affirmations of reason and revelation.
VIII. With respect to the account of the creation and
fall of man, as narrated in the second and third chap
ters of Genesis, Ave have established the following posi
tions : —
1. The narrative of the fall is not once referred to in the
subsequent writings of the Old Testament ; nor is it directly
referred to by our Lord in the whole course of His teaching,
nor affirmed by Him to have been that Avhich rendered His
mission necessary; and that it is only directly referred to in
five out of the twenty-three remaining writings which com
pose the New Testament, and even then not for the purpose
of erecting Christianity on it as a foundation.
2. A vast number of those dogmas which, according to the
affirmations of systematic and popular theology, rest on this
doctrine as a foundation, must be first read into the narrative
before even a hint of them can be found therein ; and this
is equally true, Avhether the narrative is viewed as a history
of actual occurrences or as an allegory.
3. It is impossible to base on it any theory as to the
condition in which man was originally created ; for while the

SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 413
first narrative of creation affirms that he was made in the
image of God, the second strongly suggests, though it does
not affirm, that the moral and spiritual condition in which
he Avas created was one of considerable imperfection ; inas
much as it represents both Adam and Eve as capable of being
easily seduced by a slight temptation to disobey what they
knew to be the express command of their Maker, and that
the life to Avhich Adam was destined, if he had continued in
his original condition, would have been that of a cultivator
of a fertile garden which yielded him sustenance and pleasure
with little labour. Such a kind of life is certainly not one
which suggests the idea of either high intellectual, moral,
or spiritual elevation.
4. Equally imperfect are the materials furnished by either
of the two narratives to enable us to arrive at any certain
conclusion whether man, as he Avas originally created, was
subject to the law of death, in the same manner as the
other animal races ; and if he was so created, whether death
would have been the extinction of his being, as it is com
monly supposed to be of theirs. The first narrative, which
affirms that he Avas created in the image of God, favours the
idea that he was created not subject to the law of animal
mortality ; but the second more than implies that his exemp
tion from death would not have been due to anything which
Avas naturally inherent in him, but that it would be the
result of his eating of the fruit of the tree of life.
5. The narrative contains no hint that the death threat
ened as the penalty of violating the Divine command not to
eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
Avas intended to convey to Adam the idea either of what is
designated spiritual death, or of a never-ending existence in
torment ; still less that he would entail this terrible doom on
his innumerable posterity, or that his sin would be imputed
to them. These and various other theories which have been

414 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
propounded by theologians find no place in the narrative we
are considering.
6. The strongest affirmation which can be found in the
New Testament, as to the effects which have resulted to the
human race in virtue of their descent from Adam, is con
tained in^the two following passages of St. Paul : —
"As through one man sin entered into the Avorld, and
death by sin, and so death passed unto all men, for that all
sinned." And, " As in the Adam all die, so also in the Christ
shall all be made alive."
Beyond these tAvo affirmations it is silent as to the con
sequences which are alleged to have resulted to mankind
from Adam's transgression.
The general result, therefore, of an examination of this
narrative is, that it furnishes no adequate data on which to
erect a theory of future retribution.
IX. With respect to the meaning Avhich the apostolic
Avriters intended to convey by the terminology employed by
them, we have arrived at the following most important con
clusions : — ,
1. That the Greek in which the New Testament is written
is Greek as it was spoken and understood in those places in
Avhich the Churches had been founded, for the use of whose
members these different writings were intended.
2. That consequently the words employed by the apostolic
Avriters are not used in a special or technical sense, such as
they have subsequently acquired through the elaboration of
systems of theology, but in the Avide and popular sense which
Avas attached to them by Greek-speaking people at the time
Avhen these writings were composed.
3. That the shortness of the time which elapsed betAveen
the composition of some of these writings and the foundation
of the Churches to which they are addressed, and the con
stant influx into them of fresh bodies of Gentile converts,

SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 415
must haAre proved an effectual barrier against the termino
logy employed respecting retribution acquiring a technical
sense, during this brief interval of time, among the members
of these different Churches, widely separated as they were
from one another.
4. The writings of St. John form the sole exception to the
use of language which is not purely popular, but the technical
terms which he employs are extremely few. The most im
portant ones used by him were such as were current in certain
philosophical schools of thought at the time when the writings
in question were composed, and as they were composed near
the close of the first century, these terms had become more or
less familiar to the members of the different Churches. Few
of them, however, have an immediate bearing on the question
of future retribution. Words in St. Paul's writings, which
some mistake for technicalities, were rendered familiar to
the ordinary speaker of Greek by being terms in common
use in the administration of justice. These also, though
they have an important bearing on the great question Avhich
was eagerly discussed Avhen the Apostle Avrote, viz. the obliga
tion of Christians to observe the Mosaic laAV, have no direct
reference to the question we are considering.
5. Such being the usus loquendi of the apostolic Avriters,
it follows that the terminology employed by them respect
ing the retribution Avhich will overtake the finally im
penitent in the unseen world is not used in a technical
sense conveying one single definite meaning, but in the
Avider and more indeterminate one Avhich such terms bore
in the mouth of an ordinary speaker of the Greek language,
such as the English Avords, Avhich in the Revised Version are
given as the equivalents of the corresponding Greek ones,
bear in ordinary conversational English.
6. It Avould have been impossible either for the early
converts or for those Jewish or heathen auditories which the

416 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
Christian missionaries were in the habit of addressing to have
attached any other meaning to their language than that Avhich
Avas the popularly accepted one, unless some intimation had
been given that the terms employed must be understood by
the hearers not in their ordinary meaning but in some special,
definite, and technical, sense. Thus, to take an example, it
Avas impossible that an ordinary speaker of Greek could have
understood the word SXeOpo?, destruction, to mean " endless
existence in never-ending torment," unless some means had
been adopted to inform him that the speaker or the writer
attached this special meaning to the word in question, and
uniformly used it to convey this very special and technical
signification to the minds of those whom he was addressing.
7. None of the terms used by the Apostolic Avriters in
speaking of the retribution which will overtake impenitent
sinners in the unseen Avorld, according to their natural signi
fication, convey the idea that the punishment threatened Avas
an endless existence in never-ending torment, nor do these
writers drop any hint that they intended their readers to
attach such a special and technical meaning to the words
in question. In fact, to have used them in this sense, with
out even a hint that this was the thing intended, would have
been to employ Avords in a sense which would have been
both non-natural and misleading.
8. Respecting the meaning of the word alwv, I have proved
that when it is used to denote duration it is incapable of
expressing the idea of duration Avithout limits, unless it is
united with a particle of negation. When it is not thus
united it expresses a period of indefinite but limited duration,
such for example as an " age " or dispensation. An alwv,
therefore, may be a short or a prolonged period of time.
In this, its indefiniteness, it differs from our modern terms
by which we express the idea of duration, which are all
definite ; nor can the idea of absence of limits be forced into

SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 417
them by any process of multiplication. Thus a year or a
century is an unmistakably definite period of time; and
although millions of miUions of years is an idea the vastness
of which our minds find it difficult to grasp, yet we know
that a period must arrive when they will be exhausted, but
that then what we designate endless duration will be no
nearer its termination than when they first began. This is
equally true of the words alwve?, and alwve? twv alwvwv, the
multiples of alwv, and also of the word alwvto?, which merely
expresses their adjective meaning. Alwv may therefore denote
a period comparatively short, such as "this present evil age ; "
and its multiples, such as alwve? alwvwv, i.e. ages of ages,
that of one indefinitely vast, yet of limited duration. The truth
is, the vista of the apostolic writers respecting the future was
confined to the period of the Messianic reign. This being so,
the various terms which the writers of the New Testament
use as expressions of duration are not intended to denote
the philosophical idea of endlessness, but protracted periods
of time indefinitely long. Still, a time must come Avhen,
whether they be thousands, hundreds of thousands, or hun
dreds of millions of years, the ages, or the ages of ages,
they will be exhausted ; and however long may be the inter
val before the Avork of redemption is finally accomplished,
and the Son will resign the kingdom to the Father, that
which we designate eternity, or a duration without limits, i.e.
endlessness, must lie beyond it ; but into this the vision of the
apostolic writers did not penetrate, it being confined to the
alw vto? flaaiXela, that is, "the age-long kingdom" of our
Lord Jesus Christ, age-long in this connection being a term
exactly equivalent in meaning to the Greek alwvto?.
X. I have devoted three chapters of considerable length
to the careful examination of the specific affirmations of the
writers of the New Testament respecting retribution. These
are far too numerous to render it possible to set before the
E E

418 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
reader, in a brief summary, the conclusions resulting from
them all. I can, however, place before him in. a single sen
tence the general result of the investigation. While they
are unanimous in affirming that God will render to every
man hereafter according to his works, to the righteous
according to his righteousness, and to the wicked according
to his sin, they not only make no direct affirmation that the
punishment of evil men will be of endless duration, but the
terms Avhich they use to denote that punishment, in the ordi
nary sense which they bear in the Greek language, negative
the idea of endlessness. From this a further conclusion fol
lows : inasmuch as a time will come at some period of the
future, when " God will be all in all," it is a necessary con
sequence that evil beings will then have ceased to exist in
the universe of God, and this result can only be brought
about in two ways, either by their conversion or by their
destruction. XI. This conclusion brings us face to face with two ques
tions of the deepest interest, namely, Is there reason for believ
ing that a probation will be afforded beyond the grave to those
innumerable multitudes of mankind Avhose probation here
has been passed under unfavourable conditions ? Will those
Avho have never once had an opportunity of embracing the
gospel here, or who have only had set before them some
inadequate or distorted version of it, have an opportunity
afforded them of embracing it hereafter ? Or, to put the
question at issue in a slightly altered form, avUI those Avho
die in a condition not lost to all good have an opportunity
afforded them for repentance and amendment, and those Avho
die imperfect in holiness for a groAvth in holiness, in the un
seen Avorld ?
To these questions only one writer in the New Testament
gives an answer Avhich is definite and distinct. I have shoAvn
that St. Peter affirms in tAvo passages of his Epistle — unless

SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 419
for the purpose of evading the natural meaning of his lan
guage we put on it a most strained interpretation — that such
an opportunity has been afforded to a portion of the human
race, viz. to the disobedient antediluvians who perished in
the flood, and that Jesus Christ proclaimed to them " good
tidings " between His death and resurrection ; and also that,
although the Apostle mentions the antediluvians alone,
the inference is irresistible that men who have lived and
died under equally unfavourable conditions will be similarly
favoured. But while St. Peter is the only writer in the New
Testament who makes an express affirmation on this subject,
I have further shown that the same inference follows as a
necessary consequence from the character of God as it is
revealed in the person, work, and teaching of Jesus Christ,
and that the appeal of those who have lived and died under
the unfavourable conditions referred to in former chapters
cannot but come up with acceptance before Him by whom
God will judge the world in rightebusness, who is as merciful
as He is just, and who came to give His life for the life of the
world. ( n
XII. To the same conclusion those considerations point on
which the theory of universahsm is based, and also those
numerous passages of Scripture which I have adduced in the
last chapter which affirm the all-embracing efficacy of Christ's
redeeming work, and the ultimate and final triumph of good
over evil through Him. Is it possible, I ask, to read these and
believe that the final result of redemption will be the salvation
of only a small portion of the human race, and the consigning
of multitudes, so numerous as to transcend our powers of
definite conception, either to an existence in misery which will
never end, or to ultimate annihilation ? So strong are these
declarations that, as I have observed, if they stood unqualified
by other declarations of our Lord and His Apostles, which
in their natural meaning affirm the destruction of the finally
E e 2

420 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
impenitent, they would go far, very far, to suggest, if they
would not absolutely prove, that the result of Christ's redeem
ing work wih be the ultimate recovery of every evil being to
hohness and to God. But, as it is an unquestionable fact
that the overwhelming majority of mankind have both hved
and died in a condition either of positive unholiness or in
one of very imperfect holiness, it foUows, unless these Scrip
tures make unmeaning affirmations, and unless the Divine
attributes of justice, holiness, mercy, and love differ widely
from our human conceptions of these quahties, that a state
of things must await man beyond the grave in which those
whose probation here has been passed under unfavour
able conditions will enter on one hereafter where the con
ditions will be favourable ; in which those who have had no
opportunity afforded them of embracing the gospel here will
have one afforded them of doing so in the unseen world ; in
which those who die in a condition in which ah good in them
is not utterly extinct may be capable of recovery to holiness ;
and in which those who die imperfect in hohness may have
the opportunity afforded them of gro-wing " to the measure of
the stature of the fulness of Christ." Such are our general
conclusions. It will doubtless be urged as a fatal objection to the chief
positions maintained in this work that the doctrine of the
everlasting damnation of the wicked — i.e. their endless exist
ence in never-ending torment — has received so wide an accept
ance in the Christian Church as to render it one of its
catholic doctrines, and that this acceptance has been so wide
and general as fully to realise the maxim, "Quod semper,
quod ubique, quod ab omnibus ; " that is to say, what all
Christians have always everywhere believed must constitute
an essential truth of Christianity, and consequently the truth
of this doctrine is so placed beyond dispute as to render all
further inquiry into it useless.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 421
To this I answer, that this much-vaunted rule for deter
mining what constitutes an essential Christian truth is little
better than a pyramid erected on its apex. It may be
theoretically correct to say that what all men always every-
Avhere have believed must be true, or that what aU Christians
always everywhere have believed to constitute an essential
truth of Christianity must be one of its essential truths.
Whether this be so or not, it will be unnecessary to dis
cuss here ; for the moment we attempt to give this rule a
practical application it vanishes into thin air as a test of
truth, for the very simple reason that we have no possible
means of ascertaining either what all men or what all Chris
tians have always everywhere believed. If, on the other
hand, we interpret the rule in question into meaning
only what the majority have believed, it requires no proof
that such beliefs are very uncertain tests of truth. If,
however, it be alleged that all that the maxim means
is, that whatever doctrine has been accepted by what is
designated the Catholic Church must constitute so essential
a truth of Christianity as to render superfluous all further in
vestigation into its claims to be accepted as such, we then
become involved in the following very difficult questions,
viz. what constitutes universal acceptance by the Catholic
Church ? through what medium is its voice heard ? and
how is this universal acceptance to be proved during the
long ages of the past ? So complicated is the mass of matter
which must be carefuUy investigated before it is possible
to arrive at anything approaching to certainty on such
subjects, that it will be long, indeed, before we can deter
mine what are and what are not essential truths of Chris
tianity, if this is the only mode by which the validity of such
truths must be determined. Any further discussion of this
question, however, is superfluous ; for whether such rules are
valid or invalid for the purposes for which they have been

422 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
put forward, it is a matter of absolute certainty that in all
ages of the Christian Church, as far as our historical evidence
extends, there have been eminent theologians who have been
unable to accept as a Christian verity the commonly accepted
doctrine known by the name of eternal damnation. This
being so, the affirmation that it is a doctrine which has beeD
accepted always everywhere by the Catholic Church of Jesus
Christ is untrue, and therefore the theory which has been
erected on the assumption of its truth is invalid.
But the extensive acceptance of a particular position by
the Church, as true, is very far from constituting any adequate
reason for believing that it must be so. As I have above
remarked, the evidence is wholly wanting that any except
those very simple truths on which Christianity is based, and
the denial of the truth of which would completely nullify it,
have received the universal assent of the entire Christian
Church. On the contrary, there are several positions which,
as far as our evidence goes, have made a very near approach
to receiving such assent at different periods of the Church's
history, which are now recognised as untrue. Of these a feAv
instances will suffice. Once it was an all but universal belief,
if not an actually universal one, that the sun moved round
the earth, and that to affirm the motion of the latter was a
most flagrant denial of the truth of Scripture ; and when
those appeared who openly controverted the truth of this
belief, the position taken by them was pronounced a heresy.
So it was with the behef that there are antipodes. Up to our
OAvn day, the belief that the world was created in six natural
days had a far stronger claim to be a catholic belief than an
overwhelming majority of the dogmas in behalf of which
such a claim has been asserted ; and the idea that animal and
vegetable life had existed on the globe for hundreds of thou
sands of years, would have been pronounced one of the most
dangerous of heresies. It would be easy to enumerate many

SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 423
other positions which have received an equally wide accept
ance, and which modern investigations have shown to be
utterly untrue. But to come to dogmas AA'hich are more
avoAvedly Christian. It is impossible to read the New Testa
ment, and attach to language its natural meaning, without
arriving at the conclusion that the behef that the personal
coming of Christ was then actually imminent, or at any
rate an event not very remote, was an all but, if not an
actually, universal belief of the apostolic Church; yet time
has proved that that belief was founded on a mistake. Not
to mention others, two beliefs may establish a far stronger
claim to universality than that which affirms that the ulti
mate fate of those who die in an unholy state will be a never-
ending existence in never-ending torment. I allude to the
widespread belief, in the early Church, Avhich was accepted as
true by a majority of its most eminent doctors and teachers,
that the atonement Avas a sacrifice offered to the devil ; and
to the still more widespread and fatal belief, Avhich has been
sanctioned by the highest authorities of the Church and
State during not less than fourteen hundred years, that per
secution is a laAvful instrument to employ in the defence of
Christianity, the suppression of so-called heresy, and in the
propagation of the faith. With these instances before us, it
is absurd to invoke the Avide acceptance of this doctrine as a
bar to our summoning it to answer for its truth at the tri
bunal of reason and revelation.
I will conclude with a citation from the work of one, whose
praise is in the gospel throughout all the Churches, as to the
possibility of the discovery of truths hitherto overlooked in
the records of revelation and the mode in which such in
vestigations must be conducted to render them fruitful of
results : —
" And as it is owned the whole scheme of Scripture is not
yet understood ; so, if it ever comes to be understood, before

424 FUTURE RETRIBUTION.
the restitution of all things, and without miraculous inter
positions ; it must be in the same Avay as natural knowledge
is come at : by the continuance and progress of learning and
of hberty ; and by particular persons attending to, comparing
and pursuing, intimations scattered up and down it, which
are overlooked and disregarded by the generality of the world.
For this is the way, in which all improArements are made ;
by thoughtful men's tracing on obscure hints, as it were,
dropped us by nature accidentally, or which seem to come
into our minds by chance. Nor is it at all incredible, that a
book, which has so long been in the possession of mankind,
should contain many truths as yet undiscovered. For, all the
same phenomena, and the same faculties of investigation,
from which such great discoveries in natural knowledge have
been made in the present and last age, were equally in
possession of mankind several thousand years before. And
possibly it might be intended, that events, as they come to
pass, should open and ascertain the meaning of several parts
of Scripture." (Butler's Analogy, Part II. Chap. III.)
A period of a century and a half will very shortly have
elapsed since this very remarkable passage was written by
this most profound thinker. When he -wrote it physical
science was in its early youth ; the critical and historical
sciences, if then born, Avere in their infancy. Since then
these, especially the former, have thrown an illumination on
the realities of things which may be said to amount to
a revelation, communicated, to adopt the bishop's language,
" without miraculous interpositions." This illumination has
reflected an amount of light on the Bible, its historical
character, and on its interpretation, such as the student has
never enjoyed before. Pre-eminently Avorthy, therefore, of
the deepest attention of the Christian student, are the con- ¦
eluding words of the above quotation: "Nor is it at all in
credible, that a book, which has so long been in the possession

SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 425
of mankind, should contain many truths as yet undiscovered.
For, all the same phenomena, and the same faculties of in
vestigation, from which such great discoveries in natural
knowledge have been made in the present and the last
age," — and we may justly add to the bishop's words, in
the present age — "were equaUy in possession of mankind
several thousand years before. And possibly it might be
intended, that events, as they come to pass, should open and
ascertain the meaning of several parts of Scripture."
Such, then, were the views entertained by this profound
thinker, greatly lauded, it is true, by all parties in the
Church, but some of whose most important positions not a
few of these parties have deemed it expedient to ignore.

INDEX OF SCEIPTUEE EEFEEENCES.

Genesis. page
i. 27—29  145, 151
ii. 7, 8  151, 200, 201
ii. 8, 9  164
ii. 15—17  151, 164
iii. 7—10  152
Ui. 13—15 . 152, 158, 160, 161, 162
iii. 16—20  • . . 153
iii- 22  153, 157
v. 24  88
vi. 6 . . . . .38
xviii. 20 — 21  39
xviii. 23—33  40, 42
Exodus.
xx. 5, 6  45
xxii. 18 . . . . . . 95
xxxiv. 6—7  31, 45
Leviticus.
xix. 2  26
Numbers.
xxiii. 10  88
xxiii. 19  38
Deuteronomy.
xxiv. 1  50
Judges.
xiv. 19  57
I. Samuel.
xv. 2—3  46
xv. 35  38
xxviii. 12—15  93, 94
II. Samuel.
xxiv  57
I. Kings.
viii. 27  39
xvi. 7  59
xxii. 20—22  54

II. Kings.

PAGH

x. 30 .

. . 60

xviii. 3— 5 .

. . 91

I.

Chronicles.

Job.
ii. 4 . .
xix. 23—29
xiii. 3
Psalms.
ix. 17
xvi. 8—
11 ... .
98
xvii. 15
xxiii. 4—
-6 . .
xxxix. 7, 13
xlix. 14 — 15 .
Ixxiii. 13, 14, 24-2S
lxxxv. 10 . . .
lxxxviii. 10 — 12
lxxxix. 14 . . .
cxxxvii. cxlv. 9 . . .
xiv. 9—11 .
xxv. 6—10 .
xxvi. 1, 19—21
xxxviii. 18 — 19 .
xiii. 3 . . .
xiv. 7, 25 .
lxvi. 20—24
57
150 120
403
100 102
, 184 99 99
101101 99
100 33
101 334627
Proverbs.
xiv. 32  115
Ecclesiastes.
xii. 13—14  116, 349
Isaiah.
... 92
... 106
... 106
. 91
... 361
... 53
... 109
lxvi. 23—24  244
index;.

427

Jeremiah.
... „„ PAGE
xiii. 23  296
xxiii. 23—24  38
Ezekiel.
xiv. 7—9  38, 53
xviii. 4—9  42, 43
xviii. 20—24 . ... 44, 139
xviii. 29—30 . . 42
xx. 23—26 . . . . 49
xxxiii. 11 ... . . 316
xxxvii. 11 — 14  114
Daniel.
xii. 2—4  116, 349
Hosea.
i. 4  60
xiii. 14  107
Amos.
iii. 6  54
Habakk.uk .
ii. 4  114
iii. 17—19  115
Malachi.
ii. 14—16  50
II. Maccabees.
vii. 9, 14, 23, 29, 36 . . 121, 122
Matthew.
iii. 2  236
iii. 7—10  239, 299
iii. 12  240
iv. 4  . 55
v. 11  36
v. 22  243
v. 25, 26  248
v. 29, 30  243
v. 43—45  52, 352
v. 48  351
vi. I  .351
vi. 4  351
vi. 8—9  351
vi. 14—15  352
vi. 18  352
vi. 25  195
vi. 26, 32  352
vii. 11  352
vii. 13  228, 247
viii. 16, 17  356
x. 28 .... 195, 228, 247
xi. 28, 29  195
xii. 31, 32  254
xiii. 24—43  251

Matthew (continued)
xiii. 49, 50 . .

xvi. 5 — 7 .
xvi. 11 . .
xvi. 25, 26
xvi. 27
xviii. 6, 9 .
xviii. 34, 35
xioc. 24 . .
xix. 27, 28 .
xxi. 40, 41
xxii. 12, 13
xxii. 37, 39
xxiii. 13
xxiii. 24—38
xxiv. 21
xxv. 41
xxv. 46
xxvi. 24
xxviii. 19, 20

Mark

1.
iii.ix. x.
x.
xi.
xii. xii.
xiv.

14, 15
28, 29
43—48 2—9 14—16
23
26, 27, 30
29—3034

PAGE
. 253361
. 361
. 196
63, 178
. 246248
. 296
. 292
232
. 253 78
. 241
241, 242, 362
. 324264
. 265
209
211, 299

. 236
. 254
. 243
. 51
353
. 296
22, 88
. 190
. 196

1.i.
vi.
viii. ix.ix.
ix. x.
xii.
xii.
xiii. xv.
xvi.
xix. xix. xx.
xxiii.
xxiii.

Luke.
32,33  210
46, 47  195
70  211
35 .^s  53

. 192
. 196
51, 360
. 360
. 403
. 325

53—55 ....
24, 25 . . . .
51—56 ....
49, 50 . . . .
21 
4 5
47, 48 .... . 250, 325
3  247
 357
19—31 . ... 169
10 . . . . ". 384
12—27  262
37  88
42, 43  170
46  202

John.

i. 10, 29
iii. 3—9
iii. 8
iii. 16, 17
iii. 36 .

. . 288, 290, 383
294, 295, 297, 299
 193
228, 290, 363, 383
 282

428

INDEX.

iv. v.
v.
vi.vi.vi.
vi.vi.
viii. viii.
viii. viii.viii.viii. xi.
xii.xii.xii.
xii. xii.
xiii.xiv. xv.xv.
xvii.
xviii.

178, 2

74,

John (continued).
14, 21
22 .
24—29
40 .
51 .
53 .
54—57 63 .
10, 11
23 .
24 .
44 .
49—50
51 .
26 .
25 .
25—27 27 .
32 .
47,48

7—11 6262,3 23 .

256, 2°4, 290,
. 63,

PAGE
216, 339
. 63
275, 282
. 276
290, 383
. 282
. 277
. 191357
. 300
227, 282
142, 300
. 359
. 216
.' 216
168, 228
. 196
. 202
369, 384
283, 290
. 216
184, 350
. 282 191
. 278
. 359

The Acts.

ii. ii.
iii. iii. iv.
viii.xiii.xiii. xiv.
xvii.
xviii. xxi.
xxiv.
xxvii. xxvii.

-23

25 38 41
21 23 32
20-
41 . .
46 .
22 . .
30, 81, 32
6 .
11
25 .
10 . .
22—37 .

269 299
. 197
. . 211
247, 269
. . 197
. 269
. . 247
. . 269
. . 197
34, 63, 84, 180, 270
. . 270
. . 60
. 270
. . 197
. . . 197, 202

Romans.

i. 18 . .
i. 26 . .
ii. 4—9 .
ii. 12 . .
ii. 12—16
ii. 14 . .
v. 12—21
vi. 23 . .
vii. 1—6 .
vii. 8—11

.... 315
. . 200
. . . .316
. . 229
 317
 200
145, 384, 385, 414
 226
. . . 221, 222
 223

Romans {continued).
vii. 12—13  .224
vii. 18—25  203
viii. 10  203
viii. 13  226
ix. 22  228
x. 14  284
xi. 8  192
xii. 1 . . . . . . 202
xvi. 25, 26  213
I. Corinthians.
i. 18  229, 311
ii. 14. ... . . 199
iii. 1, 2 . ' - . .191
iv. 5  312
v. 3  192
vi. 9—11  312
vi. 19 . . . . . 202
viii. 11 . . ... . . 229
xi. 14  200
xi. 27—32  203, 312
xii. 28  61
xiv. 14, 15  191
xiv. 29—33  61
xiv. 37  60
xv. 19  75
xv. 19, 21, 22 . . . 144, 168, 414
xv. 24—28, 32 . . . 75, 211, 385
xv. 41—53 . .... 199
xv. 55  107, 184
II. Corinthians.
ii. 15, 16  313
v. 1—11  171, 313
v. 15  383-
v. 19, 20  384
vi. 15  162
xi. 3  145

Galatians,

i. 4
ii. 15
vi. 7—8

205—207
. . 199
. . 314

Ephesians.
i. 4  212
i. 9—10  384
i. 17—23 . . . 212, 239
ii. 2  212
ii. 13—20  319
iii. 9—11  212
Philippians.
i. 20—24  173
ii. 9—11  384

INDEX.

429

Philippians x ' PAHE
m. 18, 19  320
iii. 20, 21 . . . . 178
iv. 20  210
Colossi ans.
i. 16  210
i. 19, 20  384
iii. 6 . . ... .320
I. Thessalonians.
iv. 13—18  178, 307
v. 1—3 . . . 232, 308
v. 23, 24  189, 191
II. Thessalonians.
i. 4—7  230
i. 6—10 . . 229, 231, 309
ii. 1, 2  305
ii. 8—9, 11 .... 57, 306, 310
I. Timothy.
ii. 3, 4  384
ii. 12—15 ... ... 145
iv. 10, 11  383
v. 6  221
II. Timothy.
ii. 20  321
iv. 7, 8  179
iv. 14  321
iv. 16  321
Titus.
i. 2  27, 55, 213
ii. 11  383
iii. 4—6  293
Hebrews.
i. 1  35
i. 2  210
i. 7  193
ii. 10, 18  156
v. 8, 9  156
vi. 4—8  285, 322
viii. 5  58
ix. 26  209
x. 26—31  285, 323
x. 38, 39  198
James.
i. 13, 14  54, 58
i. 15  324
i. 21  197
ii. 13  33, 325

James (continued). PAGE
"i- 1  325
iv. 12 . . . . . 325
iv. 14 . ... . 198
v. 19, 20  325
I. Peter.
i- 8, 9  198
i. 22—24  198, 293
ii. 11  198
ii. 22, 23  360
iii. 18—21 . . . 173, 176,' 375
iv. 4—6  174, 376
II. Peter.
ii. 4—11  328, 330
I. John.
i. 1—4  279
ii. 2  290, 383
iii. 1,2  184, 300
iii. 7—15 ... . 143, 282, 301
iii. 8  290
iii. 9  300
iii. 11, 14, 15  280, 282
iv. 7—21 . 30, 64, 124, 280, 356, 383
iv. 16  23, 26, 33
v. 1—4  300
v. 11—13  281, 282
v. 16, 17  282
v. 18  300,302
Jude. i
6—10  215, 328, 330
14, 15  328
Revelation.
ii. 7  332
ii. 11  332
ii. 23  332
ii. 26—28  332
iii. 11—13  333
v. 13  385
vi. 9—11  175
vi. 12—17  334
xiii. 1—3  335
xiii. 11—17  335
xiv. 9—11  334
xiv. 13, 14  .175
xvi. 10, 13  335, 336
xvii. 5 . .  336
xix. 19—21  336
xx. 10 . . ... 210
xx. 14  342

g fye zame Jlufljor.

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