not be expected to know much of the purposes of God. It is painful to know that the neglect of the Old Testament here confessed is very common. Hence the meagre and dishonoring views of God's great plan which this book was written to correct. Does not this writer know that the only Scriptures which Jesus quoted, and out of which He explained to His disciples His death and resurrection and the things concerning Himself,”—the only Scriptures out of which St. Peter drew his sermon at Pentecost, and from which Paul reasoned concerning the Christ, and of which he says "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," were these Old Testament Scriptures. In them are conveyed the very "life and immortality brought to light in the gospel." They are the very temple on which the New Testament has raised its pinnacles which point to heaven. And they cover in their wide range of promise "the restitution of all things of which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." If the Old Testament were rightly studied and prized in our day,`our book need never have been written. And such Conferences to confirm men's wavering faith in the inspiration of the Scriptures, as the one just held in Philadelphia, would not have been needed. Shame on the insinuation that "to go to the Old Testament for instruction on these subjects is to go back to the dark!"

This review, however, recommends the book "to intelligent, dis criminating persons who desire to see what can be said in favor of the doctrine of final restitution." We have said above that our view of restitution does not require universalism. But some people speak of "the restitution of all things" as if to believe in it were a heresy, forgetting that both the phrase and the thing itself are in the Bible; and so imbedded in it that St. Peter at Penecost declares that this is one of the main things which God has been raising up holy prophets to speak about from the beginning of the world.

The Wesleyan Advocate (Macon, Ga.) says: "This book is from a Presbyterian Minister, and is his contribution to the settlement of what he calls a burning question. How far it will go in this direction we will not say, but it will to many thoughtful readers furnish suggestions and expositions of Scripture passages that will be very helpful.”

The Lutheran Observer after giving a brief outline of the views presented, says: "The work is written in a devout Christian spirit, and the views of the author are presented with earnestness and force."

The Christian Mirror (Congregationalist) after a similar brief summary says: 'Though we do not agree with the author's views, yet he seems to have treated his subject with an earnest, reverent spirit which we respect."

The Church Union speaks of it as "a deep book treating of a subject which concerns every man and woman in the world," and as giving new interpretations of the Bible which we may carefully consider."

The Herald of Gospel Liberty, (Dayton, Ohio) after quoting freely from the Preface, says: "The author is a minister of the Presbyterian Church in good fellowship, but protests, with an honorable spirit, in an able argument, against the eternity of punishment. (It should have added, "as set forth in the standards of that church"). He is entitled to a candid hearing, and the reader will be deeply interested in his peculiar presentation of the truth as he sees it. We should read without prejudice and impartially judge. For those who wish light on this question, we know of no better work."

As specimens of criticism by a few of the secular journals we give the following:--From The Princetonian: “The question of Future Punishment, in all its phases, is the subject of discussion in the volume before us. Mr. Baker claims that the church at large holds erroneous opinions on this all-important subject, simply because, in forming their judgment, they have taken the New Testament only, and neglected the Old. Here the reader is carried back to the very beginning of the Old Testament and invited to proceed from thence to the study of the whole subject of man's destiny, of God's great plan of grace and of the church's priestly calling under it. Resurrection, our author declares, is redemptive, but a process of sorting and judgment as well as of deliverance. The death-state or sheol is essentially penal, deepened and prolonged according to the intensity of evil character. The word of

God warrants the belief that sinful men must serve out their death sentence, and then be restored to the life and estate of manhood through resurrection. After this they may be amenable to the discipline of the gospel, and capable of winning the prize it sets before them. In other words Mr. Baker affirms the non-existence of eternal punishment, and believes that retribution is only temporary, and in proportion to one's evil deeds. Every assertion is strengthened by numerous quotations from the Bible, and the arguments are detailed with the greatest of care. Although we are hardly prepared to accept the author's position, yet believing him to be perfectly sincere, and to have only the good of Christianity at heart, we can recommend the book to any who desire to know what support can be found in the Bible for such a theory."

If the writer of this courteous notice had read the whole book as carefully as he has read the preface, he would have seen that we do not teach that "all retribution is only temporary," but that we distinctly affirm that incorrigible sinners will be destroyed in a "second death" out of which the Scriptures give no promise of a second resurrection.

The West Jersey Press (Camden, N. J.,) kindly says: "The Rev. Lewis C. Baker, formerly of this city, and many years the highly esteemed pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Fourth and Benson Street, has recently published a book entitled "The Fire of God's Anger, or Light from the Old Testament upon the New Testament Teaching Concerning Future Punishment,' in which he claims to have found a solution for the graver problems connected with this subject. He contends that the ministers and members of the Presbyterian Church have the right to freely discuss the whole question, and he repudiates 'that low idea of the Church which makes it a merely voluntary association, formed in the interests of a certain system of doctrine.' He also believes that 'a church which builds hospitals for the sick, and retreats for the aged and the poor and the insane; which seeks to carry Christ's consolation to the men of every class, maimed and wounded in this battle of life; which carries His gospel to the sons of want on heathen shores, and which grows inio the life of Christ by so doing,

cannot long remain content with a view of His redeeming work which makes death the limit of it, and which estops her from any further priestly ministry toward the ignorant and the outcast beyond the grave.' We are not, however, to infer that Mr. Baker preaches the doctrine of universal salvation; or that there is escape for any man from the operation of the universal law of God by which whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.'

"A secular journal is perhaps precluded from dealing with questions of theology and interpretation of the Scriptures. It is, however, notorious that the subject of future retribution is exciting at this time extraordinary interest in the public mind. There are few subjects which excite so much. The signs of an approaching revolution in Christian theology are multiplying. The whole thinking world of to-day finds its deepest convictions uttered in Tennyson's noble words:

Our little systems have their day;

They have their day and cease to be;
They are but broken lights of Thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.

It is not to be supposed that the mere quoting of authorities, however venerable, will satisfy such a state of mind. The volume is therefore timely and valuable to all studious enquirers."

Many literary critics do not read much beyond the preface of the books they undertake to review. The writer of the following appreciative notice in Words of Truth has evidently done more than this.

THE FIRE OF GOD'S ANGER.-This is a new book added to the ever increasing library on the subject of Future Punishment. The author, L. C. Baker, of Philadelphia, is a Presbyterian minister who, like many of his class, is in revolt against the God-dishonoring doctrine of eternal torment.

We have not had opportunity to give the book a critical reading, but from a general review of its contents, the argument appears to be that the "Fire of God's Anger" is disciplinary as well as penal. It also teaches the "Larger Hope," not on the basis of the "And

over theory," of probation in death, but of probation after resur rection, with the result of elevation to a spiritual condition for the worthy, and consignment of the unworthy to the second death. The dominant idea of the work is the final and complete overthrow of evil in every form, and touching the doom of the finally impenitent we quote as follows: "Everything and every one that clings to the empire of evil perishes with it. This grand result is entirely inconsistent with the idea of the perpetual existence of these enemies in endless agony in some hell of fire. Hell, in any such aspect of it, is itself doomed to destruction. And, therefore, all who are consigned to it perish with it. The idea that God will preserve in a deathless existence of misery those who fail to enter into life is irreconcilable with His character and purposes, and is utterly at war with all that is told us concerning His crowning gift of eternal life. There can be no immortal life in sin, for sin is essentially the destroyer of life. Any organism in which it is embodied contains the seeds of its own destruction."

"The book is written in a remarkably clear, forcible and logical manner, and the analysis of Old Testament teaching is quite original, and in some instances startling. The author is evidently a careful and critical Bible student, and we heartily endorse the spirit in which he teaches. To use his own words, 'He enters this field of inquiry not to criticize or dogmatize, but as an humble seeker after truth, hoping, if he fail to find that he may at least point out a path along which it may be sought, and which leads out of our present twilight toward the sun-rising.'

Although not prepared to accept all of its conclusions, we welcome the work as a valuable addition to the literature of this great subject."

We have been specially anxious to know what reception would be given to this book by the journals of our own church. Most of them as yet have been silent. The Interior gives quite a fair summary of the preface, and says it does not exactly see why we should claim our view to be superior to that of Andover. We reply, because there is so much in Scripture to sustain our views, that the book is replete with Scripture quotations. Whereas the