things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches." 2 Cor. 9: 23-28.

Read the early history of the Church, and you will see that when she was the most pure and holy, her members were persecuted the most. They were outraged, tortured, and put to death by their Roman and Jewish enemies in the most cruel manner. But if this is a world where the righteous are always fully rewarded, and the wicked fully punished, how could these things be? Do you say that the Apostles and primitive saints enjoyed a peaceful mind while they endured great physical suffering? Very good, But their peace of mind did not arise from their physical sufferings. Besides, if your doctrine be true, they were entitled to all this peace of mind without any of this physical suffering. Did they suffer according to their characters? then their characters must have been as infamous as their malignant persecutors, for they were great sufferers, so much so that Paul exclaimed, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable."1 Cor. 15: 19.

Again; I find a strong objection to your system, in the unequal operations of divine providence, Providence does not manifestly balance the scales of justice, and distribute her favors in this world according to individual character.

Look at the blessings of rain and sunshine. Are these favors distributed according to character? This you will not pretend. The Saviour says, God "maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust. Math. 5: 45. If all are dealt with by divine providence according to their deserts, we might expect that rain and sunshine would fertilize the soil of the righteous, and leave the lands of the wicked, cold, dry and barren.

When famine, pestilence, earthquakes, or war afflict a nation or community, the judgment is not distributed according to individual character. The righteous and the wicked suffer together. This is proved by the history of all such calamities. In the operations of divine providence, the wicked are not unfrequently saved from deserved punishment in this world by the righteous. The records of our faith inform us, that if there had been ten righteous men in ancient Sodom, it would nothave been destroyed. In this instance, ten righteous men would have saved perhaps, an hundred thousand idolaters from justly merited temporal punishment. So on the other hand, the wickedness of the wicked, not unfrequently involve the innocent in great temporal suffering, more apparently sometimes than they suffer themselves. Take the case of the Salem tragedy, as an

illustration of this fact. Crowninshield, the most daring and hardened murderer in that horrid affair, made a sudden exit, by the help of a haltar, to the heavenly world, according to your system. He left respectable and virtuous parents behind him, to mourn over his character and dreadful end. This was the case also with the Knapps. They had worthy parents, and their guilt and infamy have already brought a worthy mother down, broken-hearted, to the grave. In that horrid murder in which the Knapps and Crowninshield were concerned, untold anguish was inflicted upon their parents and family connexions. The culprits, according to Universalism, were soon removed from their sufferings and guilt to glory; but the poor parents, brothers and sisters, were left disgraced, and broken hearted, to mourn and suffer in this world of equitable retribution! Here you see the innocent suffer for and with the guilty. They not only suffer with the guilty, but in this case, MORE than the guilty.

These are, in my mind, serious difficulties in your system. I am well acquainted with your principal authors, but I have never known them to explain these things away, nor do I think if they should make the effort, they would stay explained.— While the laws of nature and mind remain unchanged, so long it must remain true, that a just and equitable retribution is not experienced in this world.

Yours as ever.

LETTER VIII.

My Dear Sir:

I find another difficulty in your system arising from the existence and operation of human laws. If, as you profess to believe, sin is its own punisher, and righteousness is its own reward, and this retribution is full and adequate, then any punishment in addition to that which is fully and equitably administered by conscience, must be so much cruel and unjust inAliction. And to admit that any of our race are cruelly and unjustly punished in this world, is to admit the existence, or the necessity at least, of a future retribution in which their wrongs may be redressed, and the government of God equalized. I must regard then, the fact that human laws exist, and are administered by rewards and punishments, as a circumstance

fatal to your system of no future retribution. If sin, in the operations of conscience, fully and inevitably punishes itself to the full extent of its deserts, then every stripe administered by human laws is so much punishment more than is deserved; and if any one of the whole race is punished upon the whole, more than he deserves, Jehovali must in the world to come, redress his wrong, or his moral government will forever stand impeached before the moral universe, as too weak to protect the innocent, or too partial to be universally and eternally good. Thus you see that the fact, that human laws exist, is in itself a refutation of Modern Universalism.

But I find a still more serious difficulty in the obvious fact, that human laws are unequal in their operation. Let me illustrate this remark.

1. Human laws do not provide any special rewards for the righteous. In our government, the civil law aims only to protect its loyal subjects, and restrain the depredations of its most unprincipled citizens. The government throws its fostering and defensive arm equally around the righteous and unrighteous, the pious Christian and the vaunting Infidel. So far as government has any immunities to bestow, they are generally lavished upon the unprincipled parasites of party. The pious, humble, sincere followers of Christ, seldom, if ever, have any part in the spoils," which are known to "belong to the victors." In our own government, which is perhaps the best on earth, lucrative offices are generally distributed among a reckless set of headlong politicians, who receive their appointments, not by reason of their virtues and talents, but in consideration of the services which they may have rendered to the dominant party.

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2. Human laws often punish the pious because of their piety. Our Saviour was scourged and crucified by the operation of human laws. John the Baptist was beheaded, Stephen was stoned, James was killed, Peter and John were imprisoned, Paul and Silas were whipped and imprisoned at Philippi, by the unequal and unjust operation of human laws. By the unequal operation of human laws, many of the Old Testament saints "had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented." Read the history of the primitive Church. How many thousands of her most pious and devout members, were by human laws, imprisoned, tortured, and put to death?

In the days of Nero, that cruel tyrant had Christians enveloped in pitched sheets, and set on fire to illuminate his gardens in the evenings. He sometimes had the followers of Christ brought into the theatre at Rome, sewed up in the skins of wild beasts, and then thrown into the arena for the dogs to tear in pieces, for the amusement of the rabble. Read the history of the church. Since the rise of popery, see how many hundreds of thousands of the most pious christians, such as the Waldenses and Albigenses in the dark ages, and the protestants since the Reformation, have been imprisoned and cruelly put to death for their religion. Here then you see that human laws do not administer a just retribution. They are sometimes cruel in themselves, and unjust in their operations.

3. Again. The unjust operation of human laws may be seen in the fact, that they do not always punish the guilty.The innocent sometimes suffer in their stead. The guilty have many ways by which they contrive to elude the penalty of human laws. The newspapers have lately given an account of a respectable English merchant at Gibraltar, who was tried and condemned to be hung for murdering his daughter. When upon the gallows, an individual present, who had been active in procuring his conviction, came forward and confessed that he himself was the murderer.

4. The unequal operation of human laws may be seen again in the fact, that crimes regarded as atrocious and punishable in one state or country, are encouraged and protected by the laws in other states or countries.

For instance. In America, polygamy is regarded and punished as a crime. In Turkey, this crime is regarded as a virtue, and is countenanced by the laws. In several states of this Republic, it is regarded as no offense against God or man to enslave the colored race, and trade in human flesh; but in New England, involuntary slavery is regarded as a crime, and is punishable by the laws. In Massachusetts, it is regarded as a crime to buy or sell lottery tickets; but in Rhode Island, this traffic is allowed and protected by law. I might give you many other examples of the unequal operations of human laws; but those already given are enough to establish and illustrate this point.

We have seen that an equitable retribution is not administered in this world by the operations of conscience, nor by the operations of circumstances, nor by the operations of divine providence, nor by the operations of human laws, and with so much evidence against the hypothesis, we cannot be justified

in its adoption, without the most unequivocal testimony of the written Word. Let us now enquire then: Do the scriptures clearly teach the doctrine that all are equitably and fully rewarded and punished in this world? This question I intend to investigate at some length in my future letters. But in closing this communication, you will allow me to direct your attention to two or three texts, which directly affirm that men are not rewarded and punished in this world according to their characters. Ezra says, he and his people, though they were punished severely, were punished "less than their iniquities deserved." "And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass, seeing that God has punished us less than our iniquities deserve." Ezra, 9: 13. Now if some men are punished LESS here than their iniquities deserve, then it follows unavoidably that all are not rewarded and punished here according to character. Again, the Psalmist bears testimony to the same fact when he says, " He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." "Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world; they increase in riches."-Pss. 103: 10, and 73: 12. Solomon confirms this testimony of Ezra and David, when he says: "There be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous." Eccl. 8:14. Other testimony might be adduced from the Scriptures to the same point,but it is not necessary to quote more texts at this time. The arguments and illustrations here given, I hope you will seriously consider. Be careful and not hang the salvation of your soul upon an hypothesis so repugnant to sound philosophy, human experience, and the Word of God. May God give you light and truth.

Yours as ever..

Having gone through, in my previous letters, with what you will allow me to call my philosophical argument, in my present and future letters, I propose to investigate the scriptures with you. We have seen that the doctrine of no-future-pun