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here struggling is one element in what this writer calls a conflict of beings in human nature. So, also, as we have seen, each struggling life carries along with it a train of those who have gone before. We have no doubt that the hidden depths of man's being contain greater wonders than the telescope or microscope can reveal of the wonders of creation. If we could explore them, the mysteries of heaven and hell, of punishment and reward, of resurrection and eternal judgment would all stand revealed. The secret of the universe, and of God Himself is hidden in man.

There is nothing, therefore, in all these objections to frighten any one of us from faith in God and immortality. We find these truths not only unshaken, but confirmed by all that Science can disclose. And instead of the gloomy scepticism, which hangs like a pall over the world, we have a light of faith and hope which can never grow dim. And we have also the highest motives to excellence of character and of conduct. Each of us is working out a destiny not only for ourselves, but for those whose lives we inherit and for the race, while the Christian is stimulated by the assurance that he is called to be a co-worker with God in the preparation of humanity to be His eternal abode.

SIMPLIFICATION.

It is evident to us, and we think it will be also to our readers, that our more recent statements of the truth have been in the direction of simplification. When we began this magazine, the first principle that we perceived and announced with clearness was the redemptive nature of

resurrection, and the consequent error of the Church in conceiving of it as a curse to the larger portion of mankind. We were equally clear in perceiving that a large proportion of the race, upon their exit from this life, were not fit to enter upon the activities and enjoyments of the eternal life, and that their resurrection must be one "of judgment." But judgment, in the broad view of Scripture, is the divine method of purgation and amendment. We saw, also, that it was both more rational and more scriptural to locate this corrective process in the life period introduced by resurrection, rather than in an intermediate state which is neither a state of life nor of death. The hope that man shall live again is always connected in Scripture with the hope of resurrection. And it defines but two forms in which human life can be embodied-the earthly and the heavenly. The question of the resurrection of the unjust becomes, therefore, greatly simplified when we understand it to be their return to life under earthly conditions, which are necessarily those of bondage and discipline. It is possible to conceive that some other earth or planet than this may provide the arena for their new trial in life. But it is more likely that all the conditions for it exist in the present constitution of the human race, and that, under these conditions, imperfect souls are retained in connection with the body of humanity, and prepared for rebirth into life on the earth. This accords with the whole teaching of science as to the development of life. The history of life on the planet is that of transmission through a seed, with a continual advance from lower to higher forms. Is it likely that the races of mankind form any exception to this universal law? If the

human type of life has come up through the animal line on to this high plane, why may not the various races of mankind also furnish successive steps by which the man is being prepared for the heavenly plane? Here, as everywhere, nature seems to use its material of life over and over again until the perfect type is reached, and the earthly man is prepared to be transformed into the heavenly.

Such a view transfers these deep mysteries of resurrection and coming judgment from the region of the future and of the unknown to the realm of life with which we are surrounded and in part familiar. This simplifies the whole matter, and makes even the interpretation of Scripture more simple. It makes the kingdom and reign and judgment of the Christ to be facts of the living present. It shows that the realm of death and hell lies around us, and makes visible and actualizes in human experience the unvarying law of retribution and reward. And it especially harmonizes with the prime fact testified to in the gospel, that there is but one type of immortal man, and one kind of life which is superior to death, and eternal.

In brief, we may say that we have here a new governing principle which must transform the whole domain of theology, and especially its conception of the last things. That principle is that the divine processes of redemption, as they relate to both the living and the dead, are going on continually within the bosom of humanity.

ANY one who can work out in our day the problem of an eschatology that shall be at once reasonable and scriptural and scientific will confer upon the Church and upon mankind the highest boon.

OTHER ASPECTS OF TRUTH.

There are two aspects of the doctrine we have been teaching in this magazine which we desire to more fully examine and present. They relate to some practical solutions of the problem of the world's evil, of which we have learned so much that is true in theory. We desire to inquire, first, how these doctrines of redemptive resurrection, of the re-embodiment of unjust men on the earthly plane of life for further trial and judgment, of the solidarity of the race by which the weal and woe of the individual is closely bound up with that of his kindred and of the whole human brotherhood, can be applied to the correct understanding and removal of those social evils which afflict the race and infect all the forms in which it is organized; and secondly, we wish to inquire into the bearing of these doctrines upon the evils under which individual men suffer continually in body and soul.

The question as to what is a Christian commonwealth and what is needed to make society Christian is now forcing itself anew upon the attention of the Church. The discussion in the recent Episcopal Congress shows how the hearts of men are being stirred up on this subject. On all sides we hear that the Church has never lived up to the doctrine of Jesus concerning the brotherhood of man and the love of the neighbor. And that society and trade throughout Christendom are built up upon the selfish principles of rivalry and competition is manifest to all. The condition of the poor under this system is as bad in London and Berlin as it is in Tokio and Calcutta.

Socialists, Theosophists, and many scientific thinkers of the day are declaring that Christianity has proved itself unable to grapple with these problems, and are proposing to take them out of its hands. This is because the Church has not yet fully understood the mystery of the human race as constituted after the pattern of a divine ideal manhood which has reached various stages of expression through these human forms, and which is struggling through them toward perfection, and because of which the race is bound together in a common brotherhood and destiny. The Church has always preached the doctrine of self-sacrifice for the good of others, but it has not yet discovered the deep scientific principle upon which this law of progress to a higher life is based, and by which the salvation of the individual is linked in with that of the race to which he belongs. We do not hesitate to say that she needs now to give far less place to that spirit of “ otherworldliness" which has controlled her teaching in the past, and to open her eyes to the fact that the great processes of salvation, of reward and retribution, of heaven and hell, of resurrection and eternal judgment are going on now in this world; that in the structure of this present humanity there are hidden all these wonders awaiting disclosure, that "spirits in prison" are even here and now shut up in these human bodies, to be preached to and ministered unto, and that the issue of a redeemed humanity, freed from the curse of pain and sin and death, is one that we must seek to actualize here on the earth.

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And here we touch the borders of a range of truth which what is now popularly known as "Christian Science is seeking to explore. It teaches the doctrine that

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