circumstances, the same. We must condescend to the intelligence of the child and the childlike intelligence of the savage. The mind of the child will expand with age and education, that of the savage, in spite of a low receptivity for culture, will remain permanently childish, and any religious doctrine suited to his condition must be permanently anthropomorphic. On the contrary, the intelligent heathen and the uneducated member of Christianized society lack culture. In the effort to impart improved religious conceptions the intellect requires expansion and furniture. The heathen Hindu or Chinaman is not to be approached in the same way as the degraded Dyak or the Kroo.

If, then, the adequacy of our conception of divine things is conditioned by cultural as well as constitutional intelligence, we see how intimately connected are education and an exalted type of religion, and how inseparable are ignorance and superstition, bigotry, idolatries, fetichism, and other forms of anthropomorphism, and how deeply interested are the higher interests of religion in the progress of ideas which furnish and enlarge the intelligence.

ART. III. THE FINAL OUTCOME OF SIN.

THE Gospel is the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. In it God reveals his method of saving men; and there is no other method of which we know any thing whereby they can be saved. What, then, is to become of those who obey not the Gospel?

This awful question cannot be settled by reason alone, for we have not sufficient data on which to base conclusions; neither can it be decided by experience, for as yet the rewards and punishments of the future are but truths in man's intellect, not facts in his history. Still less can we decide it by our instincts or desires. We are not at liberty to reject a truth because we do not like it. All we know, or can know, in this life, about this doctrine, must come from revelation; for only one who has been behind the veil, and knows the end from the beginning, can speak with authority. If, then, we would avoid

mistakes which all eternity cannot rectify, we must listen reverently to what God the Lord hath spoken.

Within the past few years the doctrine of future—especially eternal-punishment has been widely discussed. A good deal of vehement rhetoric has been expended in denouncing the doctrine as derogatory to the Divine character, thus presenting the awful spectacle of sinful, short-sighted men sitting in judgment on their Maker, and presuming to settle what is and what is not becoming in the administration of his government. So, in former times, men vehemently denied that the earth revolved around the sun; but in spite of all their clamor the earth still swept onward in its orbit and so, regardless of men's reckless denunciations, God's mighty truths will march onward to the accomplishment of his vast designs.

It is worthy of note that those who denounce the doctrine of eternal punishment fight very shy of Scripture. But what else could be expected, since the texts which, to say the least, seem to teach the doctrine are so numerous and plain that it is very difficult to make them mean any thing else; while the few that are pressed into service to buttress up the notions of "annihilation" or "restoration," give an uncertain testimony, and afford only a feeble support. And yet, in all fairness, it must be admitted that the objections of the more thoughtful opponents of this solemn truth do not lie so much against the doctrine as taught in the Scriptures as against that monstrous perversion of it which at one period was almost universally accepted throughout Christendom.

In the present paper we limit the discussion to the case of those who have heard the Gospel; with the heathen we have, at present, nothing to do. Our inquiry respects only what is the final outlook for those who, from the sound of a preached Gospel, and the presence of a crucified Christ, go unsaved to death and the judgment.

There are certain truths in reference to which it may be assumed that all believers in revelation hold common ground. All believe in divine government and law; in the probationary character of man's present state; in a final judgment, when the good shall be rewarded and the wicked shall be punished. But just here, in regard to the nature and duration of the

punishment, there begins to be a divergence of opinion. This is the point on which we desire light. Is the punishment of the wicked to last forever? or shall it cease at length in restoration to the divine favor, or in utter extinction of being? To put it in the incisive words of inspiration, "What shall the end be the ultimate destiny'] of them that obey not the Gospel of God?"

SHALL IT BE A SECOND PROBATION?

A second probation implies that men may be saved through some other medium than the death and intercession of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures clearly teach that now the government of the world is in the hands of a Mediator; but at the end of man's probation as a race, Jesus will ascend the throne of judg. ment, bestow rewards and assign punishment, and, having put down all antagonistic authority and power, will deliver up the kingdom to God the Father. 1 Cor. xv, 24-28. Then the mediation of Christ will cease, and the name of Jesus will no longer be available as a sinner's plea. If, therefore, a sinner can be forgiven and saved during a second probation, it must be on other conditions and by other means than those available in the present life; and if by other means and on other grounds than the death and intercession of the Son of God, then it appears that the death of Jesus was uncalled for and a terrible mistake. For if God can forgive and save a sinner in a future state without a Saviour, he can in this.

Perhaps the advocates of a second probation would say, that this is not their meaning; that, instead of expecting probations for all beyond the judgment, they only claim that in the interval between death and the judgment those who had no chance in this life-who never heard of a Saviour's love, who were surrounded from infancy by the darkness of heathenism-will have an opportunity of hearing and accepting the Gospel.

If this be what is meant by a second probation, it does not touch the class whose case we are now considering, namely, those who heard the Gospel but did not obey it. The ground of their condemnation will be, that, being illuminated, they loved "darkness rather than light, because" their "deeds" were "evil." And even in regard to the heathen the claim is 34-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. I.

irrelevant; for they will not be judged by the law of a Gospel revelation, but by "the law written in their hearts."

To claim a second probation is to charge God with a want of fairness in his dealings, since it implies that a sufficient chance has not been given to some in a first probation. But observe, the condemnation is not that they did not know the Gospel, but that knowing it they did not obey. That which God requires of every man is, that he follow promptly and faithfully the light he has; and surely, upon the very face of it, in respect to that all men have an equal chance. If the heathen are condemned, it is not because they did not believe. on Jesus, of whom they had never heard, but because "when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." And if the heathen, who have only the light of nature and the natural conscience, are without excuse, much more they who have the light of divine revelation in the person and teachings of Jesus Christ. 2A second probation could not bring within our reach any more potent agencies than those now employed. God does not bring men to himself by a force which compels the will, but by appeals to motives the most powerful that can influence human conduct; and yet even these may be effectually resisted. Is belief of the Gospel necessary to salvation? And will there be a new gospel preached "unto the spirits in prison" whose truths will be more effective than those of the "Gospel of the grace of God?" Certainly a divine Saviour is the only ob ject of saving faith; and we are not told of any other Christ who, in the other world, can bid the sinner "look and live." The divine Spirit is the only power that can awaken the conscience and renew the heart, and that Spirit operates among men here and now; but we have no hint in Scripture that he carries on his renewing work in the world to come. And if these mighty agencies fail, in any instance, to bring men to repentance here, what reason have we to believe the same agencies or others, if such are conceivable-will be more suc cessful there? On the contrary, the probabilities of salvation during a second probation, if such were afforded, would be vastly less than during a first, for every unsaved man would enter that second probation with hardened sensibilities, with

the sins of a first probation already in his way, and with the increased difficulties arising from matured badness of character, and fixed habits of resisting the Spirit of God.

But, it is contended, the advantage of a second probation would be this: In the spirit-world the supreme importance of salvation would be so clearly seen and so deeply felt that men would then yield to the Spirit of God and be saved. But this assumes that there are means of convincing men more powerful than the truth and Spirit of God; whereas Christ himself says, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." It is not more light and pressure from without that men need, but simply willingness within.

The doctrine of a second probation implies, that its chances shall be interminable; for no better reasons could be assigned for punishing an impenitent sinner at the end of a second probation than at the end of a first, while with each succeeding term of probation the probabilities of the salvation of the impenitent would be inconceivably lessened. There is a universal tendency among men to "neglect the great salvation," and one of the most powerful motives to dissuade them from this fatal mistake is furnished by the near approach of the day when they are taught to believe that life and opportunity shall cease together. Hold out to the impenitent sinner the prospect of a second probation, and the force of this motive is largely neutralized; for the great majority of unconverted men would desire nothing better than to continue as they are through an unending probation.

Above all, there is no hint in Scripture that men will have a second probation; but instead, all that it says on the subject of man's destiny points in an opposite direction. He is exhorted to "flee from the wrath to come," and "lay hold on eternal life;" he is warned that the barren ground "is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned;" he is assured that "now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation;" he is summoned, as it were in advance, to the judg ment, and hears the voice of Christ saying, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels as though to remind him that the opportunity for "works meet for repentance" would cease the moment he should leave this