his conscience-is left to form his own opinion of the kind of treatment he may expect. And then of course self-love will prompt to the most favorable conclusions. One thing is plain. The ungodly do not credit the preachers of eternal woe. Does any one imagine that the mass of our population believe anything like it? Then let us recognise how fearfully we have contributed to bring about the ruinous indifference to religion which we lament. For having, by our terrible exaggerations of the future, weakened and utterly lost the confidence of the irreligious in our statements, we have unintentionally set them loose to think almost how they will in regard to their state after death; and have thus absolutely prepared the soil for the reception of those very seeds of error, the growth of which, and their legitimate and now ripening fruits, fill us with dismay. It is appallingly dangerous, my brethren, to weaken and destroy in the masses their belief of the preachers of christianity. But this is done, and now almost every body sees it. Of course it would be absurd to attribute the sad effect to any one cause alone. But melancholy personal reminiscenses, observation, and the testimony of many of the very class referred to, convince me, as does all reasoning on the subject, that to the cause now indicated must we attribute very much of that almost systematic and confirmed irreligion which we deplore. Many christians are fearfully alarmed at the doctrine of universal restoration, and shrink from the view suggested in this work, chiefly, as tending to promote it. Strange notion this. Do they not perceive that the doctrine of universal restitution (quite as scriptural as that of infinite misery) derives one of its strongest recommendations from the incredible horror of the prevailing belief? Does not exaggeration of one kind beget exaggeration of just the opposite kind? Repelled by perceived error in one direction, do not most men unwisely fly as far in the contrary direction? Let one class exaggerate the justice of God, and what more natural than that others should equally exaggerate his love and mercy? Let the orthodox distort the one attribute into injustice, and many who are shocked thereat will as unwisely distort the other into weakness. I beg then to submit to the thoughful, that to threaten the rebellious and impenitent with destruction,—with a "miserable destruction "will be to secure the verdict of their own consciences. For why should the All-sustainer, in whom alone we live and move and have our being, keep in existence those wretched creatures who, while they never can be happy in themselves, by reason of their confirmed opposition to God, can never be of any service to others, but the melancholy reverse;-blighting some part of God's fair universe with their presence and incorrigible viciousness, and distressing the holy and the compassionate by the knowledge of their sinfulness and misery? Let us scripturally present to them the incurred "wrath" of heaven, and then when we demand with the apostle 'Is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance?' they shall be selfcondemned and speechless. Thus then it is believed that our doctrine will strengthen the preacher, and weaken the sinner-greatly increase the moving power, and diminish the repelling, and so, in a twofold manner, secure a holier result. § 6. And this will be additionally secured by another thing. If preachers, when the future condition of the wicked is their theme, find themselves deprived of their common topic of declamation-the eternal duration of the suffering-they will turn the same amount of energy of appeal into another and more efficient direction. They will dwell on the certainty of it*- -on the nearness of it— on the justice, propriety, and necessity of it. It has often appeared to me that very much of the endeavor to impress the sinner's mind, by heaping up illustration after illustration of a whole eternity spent in woe, has been thrown away. Nearer, and directer, and more forcible considerations have meanwhile been forgotten or overlooked. And by dwelling chiefly on the element of eternity, the sinner has been almost taught that it would not be so very terrible if it were not everlasting. But those other considerations, it is submitted, are in the very nature of things greatly more adapted to convince and to affect. § 7. Again, if the ministers of religion become convinced that they are not justified by scripture in threaten *The reader will allow me to commend to his notice a tract by Rev. E. White, entitled "The Terrors of the Lord: an Argument with the Fearless." It is published by Jackson and Walford, and is admirably adapted for circulation among the class specified ing the sinner with an eternity of woe, that same holy anxiety which has prompted them, though thus disproportionately, to make the chief appeal to his fears, which it was hoped (but in most instances in vain) terribly to arouse-will now prompt them to besiege men the more assiduously and variously on the side of their hopes and affections. Preachers must arm themselves with motives. They have nothing else to work with. And if one kind be somewhat lessened, they will pay so much the more attention to, and use so much the more powerfully, those which legitimately remain. And thus it may be expected that, while there is abundantly sufficient of the terrors of the Lord,' religion will become in their hands much more generous and elevating and joyous and attractive than it has heretofore been. And as those who are most under the influence of noble and elevated considerations most thoroughly take on true nobleness of character, the whole effect must be in every way beneficial. Will the pious reader, whose praiseworthy solicitude made him deprecate the discussion which has been raised on this solemn subject, kindly accept and candidly consider the few suggestions that have been briefly submitted to him. It is hoped that he will see some reason for believing that his previous fears were groundless, and that, at all events, it is not in the nature of things that injury should result from the views submitted in these pages. Possibly he may come at length to agree with the writer, that, so far as short-sighted mortals can judge, they seem every way more adapted for various good, than those which have so long held almost universal and unquestioned sway. Still the one question must be, 'What is Truth?' And we can at least agree in this, that we will seek anew that light which cometh from above; for if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally to all men.' He is 'the Father of lights.' The spirit which he breathes into his children, is the spirit of truth. Lead us, O Lord, and guide us! To whom should we go but unto thee? Thou hast the words of Eternal Life. VINCENT L. DILL, Stereotyper, Sun Building, N. Y. CHAPTER I. HE CREATION OF MAN-A LIVING SOUL-USE OF THE TERM SOUL-SOULS PROPOGATED BY NATURAL DESCENT -OBJEC TIONS EXAMINED. THE visible creation comprises the material universe, and all hat is contained therein; and more especially the human race. The creation of the world in general, and of its individual parts, is related Gen. i. It is also described Job xxvi. 7, &c., and xxxviii., and in various passages of the Psalms and ProphetsPsal. xxxiii. 6-9, civ., cxlviii. 5: Prov. viii. 26, &c.: Amos iv. 13: 2 Pet. iii. 5. Previously, however, to the creation of man, as if to intimate the superior importance of the work, the Deity speaks like a man deliberating: Gen. i. 26. “God said, let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness.” So that it was not the body alone that was then made, but the soul of man also, (in which our likeness to God principally consists); which precludes us from attributing pre-existence to the soul which was then formed-a groundless notion sometimes entertained, but refuted by Gen. ii. 7: "God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; thus man became a living soul." Job xxxii. 8: "There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." Nor did God merely breathe that spirit into man, but moulded it in each individual, and infused it throughout, enduing and embellishing it with its proper faculties. Zech. xii. 1: "He formeth the spirit of man within bim." We may understand from other passages of Scripture, tha when God infused the breath of life into man, what man thereby received was not a portion of God's essence, or a participation of the divine nature, but that measure of the divine virtue or influence, which was commensurate to the capabilities of the recipient. For it appears from Psal. civ. 29, 30, that he infused the breath of life into other living beings also: "Thou takest away their breath, they die. . . . thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created;" whence we learn that every living thing receives animation from one and the same source of life and breath;* inasmuch as when God takes back to himself that spirit or breath of life, they cease to exist. Eccles. iii. 19: “They have all one breath." Nor has the word spirit any other meaning in the sacred writings, but that breath of life which we inspire, or the vital, or sensitive or rational faculty, or some action or affection belonging to those faculties. Man having been created after this manner, it is said, as a consequence, that "man became a living soul;" whence, it may be inferred, (unless we had rather take the heathen writers for our teachers respecting the nature of the soul,) that man is a * The same idea is distinctly taught in Job xii. 10, “In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.” H He formed thee, Adam, thee, O man, ... Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed Paradise Lost, VII, 523. |