form no closed guild, that through our especial vocation we are by no means estranged from that which to-day fills a great people with jubilant pride! If we have any advantage over others, it can be only perhaps this, that we more clearly discern how seldom in this world's history it occurs that an illustrious Sovereign house stands great and strong in the midst of a free people; that a prince, so favored of God bears his victor's garland with such noble modesty and even to his old age labors unweariedly for the Fatherland. His closing years are crowned by the lofty consciousness of having desired nothing for himself, by the sight of a flourishing dynasty, a family in which the virtues of the Hohenzollern are continued and of a people that under him for the first time happily united, in this general confidence in him and affection towards him is ennobled and formed anew.

We fear, thank God, no envy of the gods. We see in that which has been achieved, an earnest and pledge of the future. We thank God that he has given us Emperor William, and has to this day preserved him in heroic might; we pray Him graciously still to guard that revered head.

ARTICLE III.-CAUSES OF THE DECLINE OF FAITH IN THE DOCTRINE OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT.

THAT of late, the orthodox doctrine of future punishment has loosened its hold on the minds of many Christian people, admits of no dispute. Whether or not we can trace the process of this, we may be sure that it has not come suddenly, but by the protracted action of forces whose tendencies were not apparent until the result had been well-nigh accomplished. And thus it doubtless comes under those laws which modify moral and religious sentiment, and shapes the social life of each historical period. While not attempting to exhaust the causes which have brought this doctrine into discredit, it is our object, in this paper, to name a few of the more effective.

Let us first advert to two explanations, commonly supposed to account for this doctrinal defection, both of which are un satisfactory.

It is said that the change is owing to the inadequate and su perficial views of sin that prevail even in our Christian communities. It is claimed that if men realized according to its nature, the guilt and demerit of sin, their unbelief with regard to endless punishment would vanish. This is undoubtedly true. But this explanation is no radical solution of the question. For it only throws our inquiry back one stage, and leads us to ask, Why the prevalence of such inadequate views of sin? For, upon the face of it, the same causes which have worked unbelief with respect to future punishment, have occasioned defective views of sin.

It is alleged again, that much of this unbelief has its origin in the unsoundness of popular religious teachers, holding or thodox connections. But the allegation is not satisfactory. For these further questions await an answer, viz: What has occasioned their defection? And how is it that they retain their membership in orthodox bodies, and are tolerated in their pulpits? Not long ago the very smell of heresy on this doctrine would have forfeited them their "good and regular standing." We must look deeper, therefore, for the solution.

1. In the first place, it should be emphasized that the nature of the doctrine provokes dissent. Considering what human nature is, how prone to self-complacency; how ready to justify itself; how unwilling to acknowledge its ill-deservings; it is not strange that it should be reluctant to accept a doctrine that strips it of all claim to the rewards of goodness and consigns it to endless exclusion from God's kingdom. Such a doom hanging over our own future, and threatening those dearest to us, is exceedingly unwelcome. And then the extension of this exposedness to the millions who have died unreconciled to God, presents a thought, before which all the tender feelings of our nature recoil, before which reason is perplexed, and even faith retains its hold only by earnest clinging. Apart from revelation, this is the strongest evidence of the truth of the doctrine, viz: that man's sense of justice has so endorsed it that it has commanded a general assent of the Christian world, for over eighteen centuries. And this is confirmed by the fact that nearly all the religions of the world that open to man a future state teach punishment for the wicked, and many of them endless punishment.

To our own mind, the marvel is not that men doubt this doctrine, but taking its appalling nature into view, that any considerable portion of the world accepts it. It is not only repulsive to man's hopes and sympathies, it not only wounds his self-complacency, but, at first, seems so contrary to the Gospel, it is not strange that in certain states of the public mind it should provoke dissent.

2. The severe strain which has been put upon the Doctrine of Inspiration, has doubtless had something to do with the decline to which we refer. As soon as the objections to endless punishment have a hearing, and the deep reluctance to it has set the ingenuity of criticism at work on the Scriptures, how welcome any theory of Inspiration must be, which allows us to question the supreme authority of God's word! How easy to ascribe the plain teachings of Christ and the Apostles to the influence of Rabbinical theology, or of a Judaism modified and perverted by the philosophy of Alexandria or the mythology of Greece! What has been called the Higher Criticism, while it has exploded much that was superstitious respecting

the Bible, and while it has contributed largely to the emendation of the text, has taken such liberties with its teachings as have tended to scepticism upon their plainest meaning.

3. Add to this the Rationalistic Style of Interpretation, so prevalent among Commentators. It is true, that whatever contradicts reason cannot be the Word of God. The God of nature and the God of Revelation are one. He who made the soul and planted its instincts, is the same God who speaks by inspired men. And hence, if we are warranted to say that a given doctrine is contrary to man's higher reason, to the fundamental principles of love and justice, then we are warranted also to say, that it cannot be God's inspired truth. And in such a case, we are reduced to the alternative either of reject ing the professed revelation, or of modifying our interpretation of it. Applying this principle, it is claimed by the opposers of this doctrine that it is inconsistent with the Divine Benevolence that it outrages the sentiment of justice, and is at war with our best instincts. Thus the doctrine is pronounced incredible in advance of all examination of the meaning of Scriptural language; and, of course, the knife of criticism. just cuts it out of the Word of God. It is as if the crit ics had said: "We have determined beforehand that the doc trine ought not to be there, and therefore it is not there." This is the position of Hudson, of Constable, of Whiton, of Pettingell, and other opponents of the orthodox doctrine. A great show is made of examining the lexical and etymological meanings of the words zoe and thanatos, of aionios, of kolasis and others; but if one will carefully watch the course of the argument, and the animus of the writers, he will find that back of all this criticism there is an assumption that the doctrine is incredible. And the skill of the interpreter is expended in finding possible or plausible alternatives.

4. The Materialistic tendencies of the age seriously blunt the sense of moral responsibility, and with it, of course, the feeling of ill-desert. Some advanced scientists are avowed materialists. Others, who disdain the designation, are either agnostics, or if they profess to be theists, their teachings are towards a scientific scepticism. No God but natural law; no soul but physical force, generating thought, feeling, and choice, just as

it assumes the form of caloric, attraction, and motion; no moral law, of course, with its sacred, eternal sanctions. Thus sin and penalty in the Christian sense are swept away. It is evident that this scepticism, in no small degree, weakens faith in Revelation. And under its influence no part of that revelation is so likely to be brought into question as the doctrines of sin and penalty. The teachings and work of a Redeemer, the necessity of a change of character in conversion, the impor tance of right living, the obligations of love-these provoke little dissent and may be retained and coëxist as beliefs along with a half-fledged materialism. And it need not be regarded as strange if this mongrel system, half materialistic and half evangelistic, sometimes has abettors who regard themselves better and more intelligent Christians than those who receive Christianity in its native wholeness and simplicity.

5. The Exaggerated Humanitarianism of the day tends also to the softening, and often to the rejection of Retribution. The philosophy is this: Happiness is our being's end and aim. The promotion of happiness in the form of comfort is the grand design of the Divine Government. The sum of all Christian duty is therefore to relieve suffering, to ameliorate man's condition by healing his diseases, by clothing and feeding him, by providing a comfortable home for him, by removing even from prison life all aspects of severity, and by making judicial sentences as light as possible: also by well-planned hospitals for the insane, the deaf and dumb, the idiotic, the orphaned, and the aged. Many of those enterprises are carried forward by none with more zeal and self-sacrifice than by our best balanced Christians. But there are Reformers connected with those movements who seem to think that if people are only made comfortable, or if life can be made a holiday, then the perfect state is attained. Hence their philosophy rules out all disciplinary and probationary ends, whereby character grows heroic, and wholesome suffering follows waste, and wickedness. "God made man to enjoy himself." "Moral considerations have their places, but only as subordinate to enjoyment." A world of suffering hereafter is utterly inconsistent with such a system. The grossly wicked are only to be subjected to some remedial agencies; for wickedness is