VOL. II.]

NOVEMBER, 1886.

[No. 11.

ANDOVER ON TRIAL.

The "probation heresy," as it is called, which has been made a leading feature of the New Theology taught at Andover, is about to be brought to the attention of the Christian public in a way that must excite a widespread interest and that will lead, we trust, to its most searching examination in the light of Scripture. The five Professors at Andover who are known to be in sympathy with the new doctrine are to be arraigned before the "Board of Visitors" of that Seminary for heresy, and for breach of trust in teaching doctrines inconsistent with the system they had pledged themselves to teach, and for the support of which the endowment funds of the institution were first given. It is needless to say that the Congregational Church is profoundly agitated by the raising of this issue. The late meeting of the American Board seems to have brought the matter to a crisis. For it is at this point-the practical application of the new doctrine to the work of Foreign Missions—that its bearing is most vital and its danger most apparent. Another serious breach is thus threatened in the already torn and distracted church of Christ. And yet, as we have repeatedly shown in these pages, there is, if these brethren would only see it, a way of reconciliation,

How stands the case? On the one hand he must be blind who would deny that there is a deep and earnest desire in all branches of the church for some restatement of the old doctrine concerning the relation which God sustains toward mankind, and His purposes toward it. It would be folly also to assert that this sentiment is always associated with a loose view of the inspiration of the Scriptures and with a careless religious life. It is largely the result of the better knowledge of God, and the deeper view of His Word wrought by His own Spirit in the hearts of His children. On the other hand, no one can fail to see the danger to the souls of men in a doctrine that encourages them to believe that after death judgment is postponed and their trial for eternal life continued. And as to the bearing of this doctrine upon missionary effort the common sense of most men will acquiesce in the opinion, which we find frequently expressed in the comments of the secular press, that, if the heathen who have never heard of Christ are not now condemned, and if they are to have the gospel preached to them after death, perhaps under better circumstances, why expose them to the risk of eternal damnation by sending them now the gospel, which the most of them refuse ? Better let them die in ignorance. It is also apparent to every deep student of Scripture that it presents two apparently opposing lines of testimony upon this subject. On the one hand it is seen that it reveals a divine plan for the recovery of the human race from sin and death, and that the key-note to this plan is given in the primal and oft-repeated promise that in a chosen

seed all the families of the earth are to be blessed. And the further truth is seen by the anointed eye, as vital in the plan, that death cannot defeat God, or annul His promise, but that in the execution of it He must prove Himself to be the God of the dead as well as of the living. For the larger part of the "all" interested in the promised blessing were never reached by it. They are among the dead. And, yet on the other hand, there are solemn testimonies which seem to require the belief that death ends all hope.

Where then is the reconciliation? It lies in, and must result from a proper adjustment of, these three principles.

I. An unquestioning acceptance of all that the Bible teaches concerning the present condemned state of sinful men, whether in Christian or heathen lands, of the wrath that now abideth on them, and under the burden of which they must go down to death and to a destruction in hell.

2. The location of this punishment where the Scriptures always place it,-in that death-state which is the wages of sin, and which continues until the resurrection.

3. In a recognition of the fact that resurrection out of this death-state is a redemptive act, and that such a resurrection is that definite provision of God's grace, in Christ Jesus, by which the ancient promise of bless. ing to "all the families of the earth" is made good. This universal recovery to life is to be discriminated from universal salvation to eternal life. For the law of it is, "To every seed his own body," and

Every man in his own order."

The primal fact about it, however, is that it is, even to the unjust, a boon, and not, as the old theology teaches, an aggravated doom and a curse.

Here, then, we have a basis of reconciliation which we entreat our Congregational brethren of both schools to consider. On the one hand we are enabled to hold that all men who die in their sins-and this is the sad condition of certainly the vast majority of the heathen go down to death under a definite damnation. From this they need immediate salvation through the Only Name by which men can be saved. We see also that the intensity and the duration of this penalty will be proportionate to their guilt. On the other hand, we find full scope for the gracious operation in man's behalf of our God, who is Love, and for the larger hope, which can be properly held only as it connects itself with the hope of resurrection.

In connection with the missionary problem we entreat them also to consider that it is not God's revealed purpose to convert all the world through the preaching of the gospel in this dispensation. If that has been His purpose it has failed. It has been a failure. even in Boston. That purpose is to gather a church out of all nations and kindreds and tongues, a chosen seed of promise under Christ the Head, in which all nations are to be blessed in an age to come. This gives an altogether new character and aim to missionary enterprise. And the nature of it will never be properly understood, nor the grandeur of it appreciated, until this aim of it be recognized.

EXTRACT FROM "CREATION AND REDEMPTION." (pp. 330-332.)

"Who are they who are condemned to the second death? All who are raised from death at this general resurrection? All who are not counted worthy to be raised at the first resurrection? By no means. We are told that then all those raised at the last shall be judged by the things written in the books, and that then also the Book of Life is opened, and only those whose names are not found therein are adjudged to the second death. What a wide door for God's mercies is opened here! No man is condemned to the second death for Adam's sin. All men were indeed sentenced to the first death in Adam for Adam's sin; and, if Christ had not redeemed them from it, that death would have been eternal. But He did redeem mankind. Men talk idly who argue that He only redeemed the elect. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. And none are condemned to the second death, but those who have brought that dreadful sentence on their own heads by wilful sin and crime' against God and man and their own conscience. We are told the following certainly are adjudged to it: The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, these are not found in the Book of Life; their names have been erased. But myriads of the sons of Adam will be found written in that book who, not being found worthy to take their places among the rulers of that kingdom, were not