The Thesis.

Almighty God made man a three-fold being, of body, soul, and spirit. Man was endowed with free will. He had power to choose between obedience or disobedience to Almighty God; between good or evil; between eternal life or eternal death.

Adam rebelled; he chose evil, and mortality instead of immortality. In Adam all mankind fell under the curse and penalty of death. Our Blessed Lord opened up once more the way to eternal life. He is "the Way." He gives eternal life to those who truly seek Him. All who refuse Him remain under the curse, and their end is death for evermore.

The Arguments.

I. Is this a legitimate object for inquiry? Is the doctrine of eternal torment "of Faith"? The answer is, the Catholic Church has never defined the doctrine of the final doom of the wicked. She has taken, as her own, the exact words of Holy Scripture and nothing further. The duration of the punishment, the character of the great penalty, and kindred questions, no Council has ever pronounced upon. Many great men, as individuals, have held the doctrine to mean "eternal torment"; but likewise many equally great have held the contrary opinion.

II. Justin Martyr says, "Those who have appeared worthy of God, die no more, but others are punished so long as God wills them to exist and be punished."

III. S. Irenæus says, "The Father of all imparts continuance for ever and ever to those who are saved; for life does not arise from us, nor from our own nature, but it is bestowed according to the Grace of God. He, therefore, who shall keep the life given to him, and render thanks to Him Who imparted it, shall receive also length of days for ever and ever. But he who shall reject it, and show himself ungrateful to his Maker, deprives himself of continuance for ever and ever."

IV. It therefore may be granted that there has been, and is, a difference of opinion as to this doctrine. It also follows that the doctrine of eternal torment does not come under the rule, "Semper, ubique et ab omnibus."

V. The progress of science has wonderfully quickened and enlarged man's idea of the immensity of time and of space, and, in consequence, we now see what a very small part the earth plays in the economy of the material universe. The brief life of our planet, in the mystery of eternity, is but as a drop of water in a shoreless sea. But even now, after all our advance in knowledge, the mind turns giddy when made to dwell on the idea of eternity. We are unable to grasp it. We turn to figures, and putting aside our seventy short years of earthly life, let us suppose a hundred million years to pass by. What do we find? We have not expressed the tiniest part of eternity. Or, let us spend all our days in adding together the largest figures we can think of; at the end we will be no nearer the expression of the very smallest proportion of that vast whole.

VI. Another notable change is passing over the world. The illimitable love of Almighty God is, slowly but surely, through the Church, permeating all mankind. This is manifest in many ways, for no previous age can show such intense benevolence, expressed in works of love and mercy, in every department of human life and activity. To prove the truth of this statement let us note a few instances, not only in England, but throughout Christendom, that show marked improvement. Criminal codes, prisons. The care bestowed on the blind, deaf, dumb, insane, sick, poor, aged, little children, women, on wounded soldiers, on sailors, on miners, etc., etc. The lower creation also has participated in this outflow of love and tenderness.

VII. As this increase of sensitive sympathy continues, the doctrine of eternal torment will become more and more a stumbling-block to those outside the Church. The world will say, "If we see a horse so hurt that there is no hope of recovery, we destroy him, and put him out of his misery; but the Church teaches that the Creator will not destroy the wicked, who are unfit to live, but will miraculously keep them alive for evermore in pain and torment. Our philanthropic altruism is more merciful than the doctrine of the Church."

VIII. And how is this change affecting those within the Church? In controversy with the educated the mention of eternal torment is quietly dropped. Indeed, the subject of Hell is but rarely heard of in the pulpit, being now mainly considered an academic question, instead of a solemn and terrible reality important for every one of us.

IX. "If any man will do His Will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." (S. John vii. 17.) The more a man increases in the practice of all the virtues, the more certain he becomes of the truth of our most Holy Faith. The greatest of the virtues is Charity, which includes pity, sympathy, love and tenderness. There is no use in blinking the fact that the more tender-hearted a man becomes the more repellent the doctrine of everlasting torment becomes. In other words, the greatest saint finds this doctrine more difficult to believe than the babe in Christ. Now it is worthy of note, that of no other doctrine can such a strange statement be made.

X. As we are at present constituted, we cannot understand how any of us, who is a father, could enjoy perfect felicity, knowing that his son was enduring endless torment. And yet we know that our love is mean and pitiful, compared with the love of our Father which is in Heaven.

XI. Canon Gore says, "The Jews believed in an awful penalty after death for those who had egregiously sinned. Gehenna-that is, the Valley of the Hinnom, close to Jerusalem-was the place where children had been burnt alive in sacrifice to Moloch; and it had become later a metaphor for the place of punishment after death."

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XII. In the Bible there are three words, "Gehenna," Hades," and "Tartarus," for which we have in English but one word, "Hell." In common parlance this word, Hell, has been narrowed to represent only the word "Gehenna," or the place of final doom. It would be well, therefore, were we to transfer the Greek word "Hades" into our language, as we have already transferred the cognate word "Paradise."

XIII. No doubt this theory, that the writer is endeavouring to disprove, has at the present time a large following, and in the Middle Ages was widely held, and strongly preached. But as the Church advanced in knowledge of the Truth, many beliefs as widely held disappeared entirely. That is, of course, beliefs not "of Faith." S. Augustine says, "Though infants departing from the body without baptism will be in the mildest damnation of all, yet he greatly