12. It need hardly be said that the topic I have been pursuing in the last few pages bristles with questions of

a future state of existence, has been determined by the object I proposed to myself in the present chapter. It thus leaves unnoticed various questions of no little importance. There is a prevalent belief that the remedy for spiritual evil, if it has previously been applied in vain, can never take effect after death; and moreover, that it is applicable only to the guilt and misery of fallen man. The considerations that have originated and are thought sufficient to establish this belief it would have been beside my immediate purpose to specify in the text, nor indeed can they be adequately dealt with in a note. Those who are desirous that both sides of the question should be fairly presented to them will find in the many able publications that have appeared on the subject ample material on which to exercise their judgment. I will here content myself with a brief exposition of what I conceive to be the true force of the word alúvios, so far as the question at issue is concerned, premising that I assume it to indicate nothing short of boundless duration.

The judgments which are brought about in the way of phenomenal change are twofold, viz. (1) those which are effected simply, and without human design, by the operation of physical laws, and (2) those which are awarded by human tribunals. In the execution of the former there is no necessary imputation of moral guilt: in all cases in which penal consequences await transgression of the laws of nature presumptuous folly and excusable ignorance are confounded in one common doom. As to the latter, even the absence of all liability to judicial blunders would still leave it manifestly impossible so to graduate and so to administer punishments that they shall precisely tally with spiritual demerits. Accordingly, in the penal operation alike of physical and of human laws, the judgment of God, although it may be foreshadowed and in a manner indicated, is never truly revealed. But punishments thus inflicted are in their nature temporal. Human justice may deprive the criminal of his liberty for a longer or a shorter period, or it may confiscate his goods, or it may bring his earthly career to an untimely and ignominious close; but in any case, no sooner has he suffered the full penalty awarded him than he has expiated his offence; and now, no matter what his character may be, in the eye of the law he is free from guilt. On the other hand, the sort of punishment that is fittingly awarded to spiritual evil, being adapted to disclose its true character, and therefore such that the wicked, instead of expiating their transgressions by a definite amount of suffering, never satisfy the claims of justice and become entitled to

unspeakable importance in respect to men's highest hopes and their deepest fears. These questions, however, cannot

release, may properly be termed eternal and therefore endless. This application of the word, it will be observed, by no means precludes the hope that they may at some time or other cease to be wicked, namely by submitting to the righteousness of God and thereby availing themselves of that Atonement which, if we are to believe the Scriptures, is sufficient for the reconciliation of all things to God, whether those which are on the earth or those which are in the heavens (Col. i. 20). Equally instructive is the significance of the term in its corresponding application to life. For endless extension is no arbitrary characteristic of the blessed condition of the righteous: the life revealed in them in a future state of existence is their true and proper life, it belongs to them as such, it is inseparable from their righteousness. Even now, while they have to wait for the revelation and the blissful experiences by which it will be attended, the life out of which these experiences will arise is theirs. Nothing less than this can be the import of those pregnant words: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life" (John v. 24).

It must be apparent to all ministers of the gospel who have had any familiarity with deathbed scenes, that natural affection and the vulgar doctrine concerning future punishment have effected a compromise between their respective claims, in the prevalence of a kind of hope which is ever tending to frustrate the effect of calls to timely repentance. In a large majority of cases Infinite Mercy is fondly relied upon as having wrought in the dying sinner, if only at the moment of departure, the qualification requisite for immediate entrance into heaven. Let a life of persistent inattention to Divine promises and warnings be only closed with some devout acknowledgment of the verities so long ignored, and then a warrant is conceived to have been found for the vague but inextinguishable hope.

To the remarks I have here made in reference to this mysterious and painfully interesting subject I will only add that I know of none which more imperatively requires in those who approach it a reverential spirit. Whichever of the two opposite views may commend itself to the heart and intellect of the inquirer, he greatly errs unless he adopts it under a deep sense of responsibility and in the fear of God. If, however, such indeed be the tone of his mind, he cannot but feel profound respect and sympathy for those who, as he has reason to believe, have proceeded in a similar spirit of holy caution, and yet have arrived at conclusions which he is unable to accept. He must

I

be discriminated and fully dealt with here, my object in this chapter being, not to draw out my argument into eschatological conclusions, but simply to define and establish the function of the Moral Sense in relation to the discovery of the Fundamental Character. Relatively to that Being to whom all Power belongs, this sense must of course be regarded, not as an originating energy, but as a merely receptive capacity. Accordingly, in so far as the matter to be apprehended can be no otherwise than spiritually discerned, the true interpretation of the Letter presupposes the operation of an enlightening Spirit. To all intelligent and well-informed students of history, indeed to all competent observers merely, who have sufficient acquaintance with the existing spiritual condition of their fellow-men, it is, I venture to assert, a patent fact that, wherever the Bible is either accepted or impugned, there is no snare so deceitful as the Letter. To shun or escape from its toils involves that free and honest exercise and that Divine illumination of the Moral Sense through which alone it is possible to arrive at scientifically impregnable conclusions respecting the Mind, the Will, the Purposes, in a word, the Character of God.

bear in mind that both views have the countenance of saintly names. As to the truth on which the controversy hinges, it is in the hands of Almighty God; it cannot be overthrown by human opinion on the one side or on the other; but in the interests of the truth the matter cannot be too searchingly discussed or too thoroughly ventilated.

For further remarks relative to the subject which has been touched upon in this note, the reader is referred to chap. xi.

CHAPTER VII.

TESTIMONIES TO A SPECIFIC AND UNIQUE HISTORICAL

REVELATION.

Ο ἑωράκαμεν καὶ ἀκηκόαμεν, ἀπαγγέλλομεν καὶ ὑμῖν, ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς κοινωνίαν ἔχητε μεθ ̓ ἡμῶν.”—I JOHN i. 3.

1. My line of argument hitherto, in so far as it is indispensable to the stability of the conclusions arrived at, has involved no examination of historical testimonies, and therefore, as will be easily understood, has been that of a mere theist. But, seeing that no fact or phenomenon can

" I am far from thinking that the data assumed in the preceding chapters would have sufficed to suggest even the outline of that superstructure of theistic philosophy which I have been building upon it. The following speculations of a singularly inquisitive and subtle reasoner among the élite of the philosophers of ancient heathendom make it evident that enlightened theism in these days is immensely indebted to the Christian faith

“Ἡ δὲ τελεία εὐδαιμονία ὅτι θεωρητική τίς ἐστιν ἐνέργεια, καὶ ἐντεῦθεν ἂν φανείη. Τοὺς θεοὺς γὰρ μάλιστα ὑπειλήφαμεν μακαρίους καὶ εὐδαίμονας εἶναι· πράξεις δὲ ποίας ἀπονεῖμαι χρεὼν αὐτοῖς ; Πότερα τὰς δικαίας ; Η γελοῖοι φαινοῦνται συναλλάττοντες καὶ παρακαταθήκας ἀποδιδόντες καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα; ̓Αλλὰ τὰς ἀνδρείους, ὑπομένοντας τὰ φοβερὰ καὶ κινδυνεύοντας, ὅτι καλόν; Η τὰς ἐλευθερίους ; Τίνι δὲ δώσουσιν ; ̓́Ατυπον δ ̓ εἰ καὶ ἔσται αὐτοῖς νόμισμα ἤ τι τοιοῦτον. Αἱ δὲ σώφρονες τί ἂν εἶεν; Η φορτικὸς ὁ ἔπαινος, ὅτι οὐκ ἔχουσι φαύλας ἐπιθυμίας; Διεξιοῦσι δὲ πάντα φαίνοιτ ̓ ἂν τὰ περὶ τὰς πράξεις μικρὰ καὶ ἀνάξια θεῶν. ̓Αλλὰ μὴν ζῆν τε πάντες ὑπειλήφασιν αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐνεργεῖν ἄρα· οὐ γὰρ δὴ καθεύδειν ὥσπερ τὸν Ενδυμίωνα. Τῷ δὴ ζῶντι τοῦ πράττειν ἀφαιρουμένου, ἔτι δὲ μᾶλλον τοῦ ποιεῖν, τί λείπεται πλὴν θεωρία; Ὥστε ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐνέργεια, μακαριότητι διαφέρουσα, θεωρητικὴ ἂν εἴη ” (Aristotle, Nicom. Eth. x. 8).

The wisest of the heathen could picture to themselves a God who

be conceived to be absolutely foreign to the Fundamental Science, the sketch I have undertaken of its leading principles would be inexcusably incomplete were I to leave out of view the possibility of obtaining relevant and reliable information from records of past times. All my readers, therefore, who have followed me in my inquiry up to this point I invite to accompany me in the direction I have now indicated; for I feel sure that the theist, if his mind spends his time delightfully in the exalted occupation in which philosophers find pleasure-a God whose life is one of uninterrupted and endless contemplation; but any kind of beneficent energy that might be accounted worthy of Divinity they were simply at a loss to imagine.

In the opinion of Renan historical facts have no value whatever in the establishment of theological verities, and historical research in reference to these matters can serve no other purpose than to explode certain of the errors which have retarded the progress of true philosophy.

"Je fus entraîné," he says, vers les sciences historiques, petites sciences conjecturales, qui se défont sans cesse après s'être faites, et qu'on négligera dans cent ans. On voit poindre, en effet, un âge où l'homme n'attachera plus beaucoup d'intérêt à son passé. Je crains fort que nos écrits de précision de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, destinés à donner quelque exactitude à l'histoire, ne pourrissent avant d'avoir été lus. C'est par la chimie à un bout, par l'astronomie à un autre, c'est surtout par la physiologie générale que nous tenons vraiment le secret de l'être, du monde, de Dieu, comme on voudra l'appeler" ("Souvenirs d'Enfance et de Jeunesse," p. 263).

One of the prerogatives of man, as compared with the lower animals, is that he has a history—an ever-lengthening past, rich in materials to which he largely owes the multiplied refinements of an ever-progressive culture. It is hard to believe that he is destined to become indifferent to this prerogative, and to neglect to profit by it. He will do wisely, no doubt, to aim at an increasingly profound and extensive knowledge of those conditions of life and well-being to which he is subject in common with the creatures that have no thought of past or future; but in limiting his researches to this kind of study he will assuredly make no advance towards grasping the secret of his own existence, or of that of his surroundings, so familiar and yet so mysterious.