I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and untc the Lamb forever and ever." Rev. v.

In the eloquent language of Athanase Coquerel, the distinguished Protestant preacher of Paris, and an able advocate of universal restoration: "What an affecting and majestic arrangement of the universe, where there is a place for all; and an immortality where there is an opportunity for all! These thoughts are so delightful and consolatory, that we feel constrained to regard their sublimity as one guaranty more for their truth. And the glory of the Redeemer of the world is compromised by the opposite doctrine, as much as our joy and love. To believe in an eternal hell as well as an eternal heaven, is to bring to the same level the power of evil and falsehood, and that of goodness and truth; it is to deny that virtue has an internal and irresistible force, which eventually will overcome evil; it is to deny that truth ought to outweigh error. I ask, is it administering to the glory of Jesus to say to him: Thy redemption stops for man at the tomb; powerful on this side, it is powerless beyond; it loses itself, so to speak, in the dust of the sepulchre, in the night of death; its efficacy lasts for the duration of human life only; beyond this life, it no longer bears fruit, and has nothing to give. Is it not a much better service to the glory of His mercy to announce new triumphs, and to say to him: "Thou savest ever; thou reignest over the living and the dead; thy redemption retains all its value through immortality; thy reign in heaven at the right hand of God, continues thy mission, in this world; thou intercedest al

ways with equal power; thou savest always with equal goodness!"'

We have already indicated, with sufficient clearness for the intelligent reader, the spiritual character of the agencies and processes by which the soul is to be raised up and redeemed in the resurrection; but there are some special points which, for the sake of the inquirer, may call for farther elucidation and illustration. And it is necessary, in order to meet a supposed difficulty, often stated in the following form:

"A change of place is not a change of character. To suppose that its entrance into the future world will affect the moral tendencies of the soul, or givę a new direction to its dispositions, desires and aims, is

66

"Le Christianisme Experimental." Translated and published in London under the title of Christianity; its perfect adaptation to the Mental, Moral and Spiritual Nature of Man," 1847. This is Coquerel's great work, the sum of his philosophy, religion, and life experience; the last chapter of which has this title: "The Expectation of Universal Restoration,” in which he argues the subject with eminent ability and learning. Later still he has published another work on this subject: "La Mort Second et les peines eternelles," or "The Second Death and Eternal Punishment." A single sentence more: O my brethren," he exclaims, accept this magnificent hope of the final redemption of all in Christ. To the triumphs of your Divine Saviour, there lacks only the abolition of hell. Do not restrict His reign to the narrow limits of a mortal career. Make room in eternity, and give extension in heaven, to what is infinite in the love of Jesus." It is pleasant to know that the great doctrines of our faith are preached thus eloquently to a congregation of two thousand persons, by one of the most celebrated Protestant Ministers of France and that, too, in the heart of Paris, a few steps only from the very church whose heavy bell gave the signal for the St. Bartholomew massacre!

as reasonable as to argue that a voyage to India would change the moral character of a man, or make a saint of a sinner. No: the character we form in this life, we carry with us into the other."

This objection proceeds on the ground that the interest of Christ in the soul, his relation to it as a Saviour, ceases with this life; and that in the future world it will be left to itself without guidance, instruction or assistance. But the Saviour, as shown already, never abandons the soul, any more than the shepherd abandoned his sheep when it went from the fold into the wilderness. He follows it in this world,

1A comparison of this old school Orthodox and Unitarian philosophy with the following from liberal Orthodoxy, will give us one of the signs of the times:

"There is a strong tendency manifested among men at this time to make the other life an absolute and literal continuation of this. Just

as a man goes out of this world, just so he begins in the other world,' they say.

If you take a seed that has ripened in Nova Zembla, and bring it into the tropics, and plant it, it will not be what it would have been in Nova Zembla, with a short growing season, and the scantiest supply of food. It will have, with a long summer, and an abundant supply, a growth to which no one would suspect that it could attain, who had only seen it grow in the frigid zones. Many things that are shrubs in the frigid zones, are high, waving century oaks in the tropics. And so men in this life are in conditions which, though fitted to develope the earlier stages of human growth, are not fitted to develop the full estate of that idea which God has expressed in the creation of man. And we may hope that when we bid adieu to our mortal life, we shall leave behind some things which are necessary to the exigencies of our condition here, but which will not be necessary to our state there. Our imagination, our reason, our affections, and our moral sentiments, we shall doubtless carry with us; but the conditions of our life will be so different that we shall be like men taken from poverty into abundance; from winter, into summer; from a cold climate and a frozen soil, into a soil never locked by ice, and skies that never know frost. Our life there shall be ampler, fuller, nobler than it is here."- H. W. Beecher's Sermon on Death

and into all worlds beyond, as a Guide, and Teacher, and Redeemer, till it is found and restored.

But this objection, or the comparison it sets up, fails specially by falsely substituting "place," or the act of passing to it, for "circumstances."

If a voyage to India would have no effect on the character of a man, very likely India itself would. It is not pretended that the mere passage over the sea would effect him morally; but most assuredly he would be affected by the new circumstances and influences which would meet him at his coming; by new associates, and customs, and manners; new estimates of virtue, new principles of action, and views of morality. And how abundantly was this illustrated in the early history of the English East India Company. How completely, in many cases, were the men who first went out to that country, revolutionized in character, principles and morals.

So it is not the mere act of dying, or passing from one world to another, that we regard as affecting that change in the moral condition of the soul, which sets it heavenward, and turns all its impulses and aspirations toward holiness and God. But it is the mighty change in its circumstances, the new and powerful influences by which it will be engirded and acted upon, as soon as it enters upon its new sphere of being.

And when we consider to what extent character in this world is modified by, and dependent on, condition and circumstances; we can scarcely err in giving some weight to this argument.

Look at the wonderful contrasts produced in the Asiatic and European, the African and American, by the influence of geographical position, climate, the

soil and productions of the earth; by modes of life, customs, superstitions, knowledge and social organization. And consider what a tremendous power over the moral nature, over the development of character, the mind and the affections, aims and enjoyments, is had by education and ignorance, plenty and poverty, kindness and neglect, virtuous and vicious companions, the presence and absence of temptations. Look into the condition of the destitute and dangerous classes on the one hand, and, on the other hand, into that of those who enjoy all the privileges of mental and moral culture, religion, virtuous society, and a ready and abundant supply for all their physical wants. I am persuaded that any one will feel convinced by the examination, that much of our goodness is due to the favorable circumstances and influences by which we have been surrounded from our birth; and that more wickedness than is generally supposed, is to be put down to hunger, and nakedness, and uncleanness, to bad air, and bad food and shelter, to ignorance and evil associations. The apostle rightly says, "Evil communications corrupt good manners;" and it is equally true that good communications help to reform bad manners.

And can we estimate, then, too highly, the power for good over the soul which will be put in action by the new and wonderful circumstances in which it will be placed on its entrance into the spiritual world, by the mighty and divine influences brought to bear upon it? No longer seeing through a glass darkly, as it did when veiled within the body, it there sees as a spirit, face to face, and perceives the real character and true relations of things. And what sudden rev