interval which occurred between His expiring on the cross and the morning of His resurrection. One reason why these alone are referred to has a certain degree of probability, but that is all. The catastrophe of the flood was not only well known to those to whom the Apostle wrote, but it formed the most terrible judgment which is recorded in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and one in which it was obvious that no distinction was made between different degrees of responsibility; for in it the grey-haired sinner and the youth just entering on his responsibility perished alike. Full well, then, might the question have occurred to the Apostle, or to those to whom he wrote: as all the antediluvians suffered a common judgment in the flood, will they all suffer a common judgment in the unseen world, however they may have differed in their different degrees of guilt; and will they have no opportunity of embracing that message of good news to men, of which they never heard? If this were so, the Apostle's answer is, Jesus Christ, between His death and His resurrection, proclaimed glad tidings to the spirits of the antediluvians in Hades.

But this reference to these alone does not hinder us from drawing an inference from the fact affirmed by the Apostle. No passage from the Pentateuch can be quoted which directly affirms that man will survive the death of the body; yet our Lord tells the Sadducees that they might have justly inferred this great truth from the Divine declaration, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." In the same manner, we are justified in inferring from the fact that our Lord proclaimed glad tidings to the spirits of the antediluvians in Hades, that some opportunity of embracing His gospel will be afforded to those innumerable multitudes of mankind, whose earthly probation has been passed under equally unfavourable conditions-a conclusion to which the attributes of God, as they are revealed in Jesus Christ, evi

dently point, and which is suggested by the concluding words of St. Paul's address to the philosophers at Athens—“ The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness"-and by his affirmation that a time is coming in the future when in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld, and confess Him Lord, to the glory of God the Father and that God will then become all in all. In what righteousness, I ask, does the Apostle affirm that God will judge the world? Will it be a righteousness which the conscience and moral sense He has implanted in man affirm to be righteousness, or will it be in conformity with attributes of a wholly different character, to which the name of righteousness has been given, but which differs widely from our human conception of it? Let the reader judge.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE VALIDITY OF THE THEORIES OF UNIVERSALISM, AND OF CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY.

THESE two theories have been propounded by two different schools of thoughtful men, who have felt themselves unable to reconcile the commonly accepted doctrines of retribution with the character of God, as it is affirmed by reason, with the revelation of that character in the person, work, and teaching of Jesus Christ, and with the general teaching of the Scriptures of the New Testament. It will, therefore, be desirable, before concluding this argument, to give them a brief consideration.

The first of these theories lays down that the victory of good over evil will ultimately result in the recovery of every moral being in the universe to holiness and to God, and that the end and purpose of the Incarnation was to effect this. Its fundamental principles may be stated as follows:

1. The vast extent of the universe, its complicated structure, and its adaptations in numbers numberless prove that it is the work of a being to whose wisdom and power it is impossible to assign any limitations conceivable by man, and that therefore there is no possible obstacle which can hinder Him from effectuating the purposes of His will, whatever that will may be.

2. That, notwithstanding the clouds and darkness with which portions of the Divine government of the universe are

enshrouded, the Christian revelation assures us that God is perfectly holy, benevolent, just, and good, and that the essence of His moral character is love. This being so, it is urged that it follows, as a necessary consequence, that His will must be the ultimate happiness of those moral beings whom He has created, yet that this will cannot attain its perfect realisation so long as evil continues to exist.

3. Yet, while it is a great truth that God is unlimited in power and wisdom, perfect in holiness and benevolence, it is a fact which is beyond the possibility of question that a large amount of moral evil-who shall say how large ?—has, for purposes inscrutable to man, been permitted to enter the universe of the Creator; and this evil is not a mere passing shadow, but a terrible reality, which in beings gifted with immortality, unless uprooted, will work out results awful to contemplate, during the æons of the future; i.e. the existence of moral evil, with all the fearful consequences which accompany it, will be perpetuated for ever in the universe of Him who is all holy, all benevolent, and at the same time almighty and all wise, and which universe has been brought into existence by His sovereign pleasure.

4. Inasmuch as the essence of moral evil consists in the existence of a will opposed to holiness and to God, if evil beings will continue to exist for ever, however much they may be restrained in their activities or however terrible may be their torments, wills animated with hatred and opposition to God will continue to exist for ever. If this be so, it follows that the reign of evil will be everlasting over portions of God's created work, and consequently that the affirmation of St. Paul that it is "his good pleasure unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times to sum up all things in Christ," and to become "all in all," will never be accomplished, as it is impossible that God can be all in all so long as a will continues to exist in opposition and unsubdued to Him.

5. Assuming these principles to be true, the Universalist argues that it is incredible that God has so constituted the moral universe that moral evil, which is the opposite to His holiness, and suffering, which is the opposite to His benevolence, should continue to exist for ever in the universe of which He is the sovereign Lord; and therefore he infers that He will adopt some means-and who shall assign a limit to His resources ?-of rescuing the moral beings whom He has created and endowed with immortality from the perpetual dominion of evil, and of bringing them into voluntary union with Himself.

6. The Universalist also alleges that the general affirmations of the New Testament respecting the end and purpose of redemption, and not a few of its express declarations, all point in the same direction. Of these the following are the most striking

(1.) "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." (John i. 29.)

(2.) "And we have beheld, and bear witness that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." (1 John iv. 14.)

(3.) "For God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him." (John iii. 17.)

(4.) "The bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." (John vi. 51.)

(5.) "And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." (1 John ii. 2.)

(6.) "He died for all." (2 Cor. v. 15.)

(7.) "For to this end we labour and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe." (1 Tim. iv. 10, 11.)

(8.) "For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation unto all men." (Titus ii. 11.)