ART. VI. Modifications of the popular Doctrine of Endless Misery. The design of this article being somewhat novel we would have the reader clearly apprized of the course we intend to pursue. Our immediate aim is not to confute the doctrine of endless misery; but to point out the inconsistency of certain modifications it appears to be undergoing. Some of our speculative divines, unwilling to dispense with so imposing a tenet, and feeling, nevertheless, unprepared to maintain it in all its native barbarity, have hoped to accommodate it, in a degree, to the dictates of reason and humanity. But while attempting this, they seem wholly to forget the ground on which they rest the very doctrine itself. With an oversight, remarkable, but not uncommon with ingenious speculatists, they, in the first place, advance the general hypothesis on certain alleged proofs; and then they proceed to modify it, till they remove it entirely from the reach of those proofs, even were the original appositeness admitted: thus leaving the structure, much improved perhaps, but deprived of its foundation. The exposure of this fact, if made with sufficient plainness, will lead the advocates of the doctrine to see that they must either bring it back to its proper though horrible character, or abandon it altogether. In such an alternative, we doubt not that many of them will choose the latter course; and when the case becomes generally understood, we believe that the tide of improvement, which is already felt, will be directed more fully to the abolition of the obnoxious dogma, instead of being diverted in vain attempts for its amendment. The soul ground on which endless misery is believed and urged, as an article of the Christian religion, is, if we mistake not, the supposed fact that the Scriptures teach it; or, at least, that they explicitly mention a punishment in eternity, without warranting the hope of its termination. It is on the Bible, we are told that the doctrine rests. And if, for the purpose of reducing the question into a definite compass, we ask, on what part of the Bible? a multitude of noted and oft repeated texts is brought forward. As it is important to mark the character of the testimony on which so much depends, we shall do well to insert it at some length. It consists of such passages as the following: As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." 'We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ; for it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to 1 Heb. ix. 27 2 Rom. xiv. 10--12. that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.'3 'When the son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited me not. ... And these shall go away into everlasting punishment,'4 I say unto you, that every idle word that man shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment; for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.'5 After thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds. Because I have called, and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, 6 3 2 Cor. v. 10. 4 Matt. xxv. 31-46. 5 Matt. xii. 36, 37. 6 Rom. ii. 5, 6. but they shall not find me." 'Said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house hath risen up, and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are ; then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.” The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."2 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest, day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.'3 These and all similar texts relate directly, it is affirmed, to the future world; and on their au 1 Luke xiii. 23-27. 3 Rev. xiv. 10, 11. 2 2 Thess. i. 7-9. thority, when so applied, is the notion of endless misery maintained. Take these away, and it would no longer exist, as a part of the Christian faith. It might, indeed, be still cherished, possibly, and offered as a mere philosophical conjecture, like the theory of Burnet concerning the earth's creation and changes, or that of Darwin concerning the origin of the moon and planets; but it would cease from our pulpits, our creeds, and our courses of religious instruction, and retire to the closet of the student, and the brain of the speculatist. Now, it is manifest that a doctrine which claims to be founded immediately on these texts, must, in order to preserve any consistency, be carefully modified according to the tenor of their testimony. If they teach the fact, they just as authoritatively teach the mode. And indeed we find that the notion of endless misery, such as it is in the common vulgar acceptation, is, for the most part, well enough conformed to the language of these passages, admitting that they refer at all to the subject. After death, or at the end of time, there is to be a general judgment; when all nations, all mankind, are to stand before the tribunal of Christ, and be judged and sentenced with regard exclusively to the characters formed, and the deeds done, while in the body. Those who shall be found to have led lives of wickedness, or to have died without saving repentance, will be. consigned to eternal torment for the sins they committed in this world. Though the intenseness of their sufferings will vary according to the magnitude and number of their past transgres |