EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT AND MODERN SPECULATION. BY THE REV. WILLIAM REID, LOTHIAN ROAD UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, EDINBURGH. EDINBURGH: WILLIAM OLIPHANT & COMPANY. 1874. EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY M'FARLANE AND ERSKINE (late Schenck & M'Farlane), Rec. viov. 9, 1874. H AVING treated somewhat briefly in my former work, "Things to Come," of the doctrine of Future Punishment; and it having been suggested by critics and personal friends that a fuller discussion of the subject, published in a separate form, might serve the cause of truth; I have readily complied with the suggestion, as, notwithstanding the frequent and persistent assaults made upon this article of Christian belief, no attempt at its vindication, so far as I know, beyond what is contained in an occasional periodical article, sermon, or brief treatise, has for many years issued from the Scottish Press. Nor is it merely the assaults of recognised infidels that require to be met in these days, but the compromising policy of those whom none will suspect of either ungodliness or unbelief. Dogmatic theology in general is freely assailed. Nothing gains a readier ear and is surer of applause, than a reckless disparagement of fully established doctrine. It savours of a liberal and tolerant spirit; as if men could be more truly Christian by casting to the winds that on which Christianity can alone be based. To say nothing of Arnold's "Literature and Dogma," we may advert to a notable instance of this, to be found in the recent utterances of the Right Honourable W. E. Baxter, M.P. "The laity of Scotland, it appears to me," said he, "are beginning to take much broader, and larger, and more liberal views in these matters. They regard creeds and catechisms, whatever good there may be in them, as much more immaterial than their forefathers did; and my thorough conviction is, that if the clergy do not keep pace with the times, but indulge in what is popularly called heresy-hunting, and in constant dissertations upon abstruse doctrines which may admit of many interpretations, there is a great danger of their losing a large portion of their influence, of the decadence of which we see some symptoms already. Now, my opinion is, that modern literature and modern discoveries have thrown a new and brighter light upon the pages of Holy Writ, tending to diminish and lessen the influence of dogmatic theology, and to exalt the Christianity of the life and of the heart."* Now we certainly marvel, that while literary and public men so eloquently eulogise conduct and life, to the dispar agement of Christian doctrine, they seem utterly to overlook the fact that such conduct and life, can alone find existence in the belief of the doctrine which they so cavalierly dismiss, as scholastic and worthless dogmas. How, we ask, can either the heart or the life have aught of Christianity, apart from an apprehension and belief of dogmatic theology? The fact of the Incarnation, the fact of the Atonement, are dogma, and we require to be informed, how there may be Christian life at all, apart from the apprehension and belief of both. To condemn religious dogma is, in reality, to condemn religious * Address at Dundee, 2d October 1873. reflection, for we cannot ponder Scripture, or attempt to gather up its scattered disclosures on any subject, without a systematic arrangement of those separate announcements. Compliance, therefore, with the counsels of newspaper writers, literary essayists, and public lecturers, would be to exchange systematic views of divine truth for undigested crudities, and to deny to theology what is essential to advancement in every other science. Worse than that, it would be to abandon the experience of religion and all progress in the Christian course; for there is not an affection which enters into Christian experience, or a duty which enters into Christian practice, or an advance made in Christian holiness, but has its source and impulse in Bible truth; and it is the deep conviction that the doctrine, to which the following pages are devoted, is among the stern realities disclosed in Scripture, and that it is fraught with a great practical design proportionate to its awfulness, which has induced me to ponder so long, and introduce so fully to the notice of others, a subject so appalling. My object has been to present a resumé of the entire argument for the doctrine, in a form fitted to be useful to general readers. In doing this I have been obliged to make more frequent reference to the original Scriptures than is consistent with a work designed for popular use, since the question so much depends on the import of terms; yet it is hoped this will not prove a serious disadvantage to the reader of ordinary intelligence. Special attention has been given to the subject of Destructionism, or the alleged annihilation of the finally impenitent, on account of the prominence which it has recently acquired, owing to its acceptance by many English Nonconformists, and Broad Church Episcopalians, as a solution of the difficulties which beset the doctrine. |