That Unknown Country

REV. F. D. HUNTINGTON, D.D., LL.D., Bishop Protestant Epis. Church of Central New York.

REV. ABRAM S. ISAACS, D.D., Editor The Jewish Messenger, New York.

REV. HENRY E. JACOBS, D.D., Professor Evangelical Lutheran Sem., Philadelphia. REV. JAMES LEGGE, D.D., Professor Chinese Literature and Language, Oxford

University, England.

REV. A. H. LEWIS, D.D., Editor The Outlook and Sabbath Quarterly.

REV. DANIEL A. LONG, A.M., D.D., LL.D., President Antioch College, Ohio.

REV. CHRISTOPHER E. LUTHARDT, D.D., Leipzig, Germany.

REV. R. S. MACARTHUR, D.D., Pastor Calvary Baptist Church, New York.
CARDINAL HENRY E. MANNING, Archbishop of Westminster, England.

REV. A. A. MINER, D.D., LL.D., Pastor Columbus-Ave. Universalist Church, Boston.
REV. A. P. PEABODY, D.D., LL.D., Professor Harvard University.

PROF. STANLEY LANE-POOLE, Translator "Speeches and Table-talk of Mohammed."

REV. C. W. PRITCHARD, Editor The Christian Worker, Chicago.

PROF. T. W. RHYS DAVIDS, London University. Late Judge of the Court in Ceylon.
REV. J. W. RICHARD, D.D., Professor Theological Seminary, Springfield, Ohio.
REV. AUGUSTUS SCHULTZE, D.D., President Moravian Theological Seminary,
Bethlehem, Pa.

REV. JOSEPH T. SMITH, D.D., Late Moderator Presbyterian General Assembly, Baltimore.

HON. G. G. STOKES, President of the Royal Society of England. Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge.

REV. N. SUMMERBELL, D.D., Pastor Christian Church, Milford, N. J.

PROF. DAVID SWING, (Independent,) Chicago.

REV. T. DEWITT TALMAGE, D.D., LL.D., Pastor Brooklyn Tabernacle.

REV. WM. J. R. TAYLOR, D.D., Pastor Dutch Reformed Church, Newark, N. J.
REV. H. W. THOMAS, D.D., Pastor People's Church, Chicago.

REV. CHARLES F. THWING, Pastor Plymouth Church, Minneapolis, Minn.
REV. EDWARD WHITE, D.D., Professor in New College, London, England.

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.

IN the course of recent public discussions which attracted wide attention, especially in America, and which involved questions concerning the state of human existence after death, it appeared, if not to participants, at least to many on-lookers, from near and far, that there was much uncertainty and vagueness in men's minds, we will not say as to their opinions, but as to each other's opinions.

This is as much as to say that there was wanting one of the primary conditions of intelligent and profitable discussion. No waste of words and arguments is more useless than discussion which imputes to an antagonist opinions which he does not hold, or makes him responsible for inferences which he repudiates.

Not only to furnish a basis for intelligent argument among theologians, but among all thoughtful and reasonable men to give whatever of definiteness and certainty can be attained on subjects which to all serious minds are invested with a grave interest and an awful fascination, there was need of a source of information for which the libraries of the world might be searched in vain. This is the need which the present volume proposes to supply.

What are the beliefs of the present day concerning the Life to Come? The answer must be sought from sincere and thoughtful men among our contemporaries, representing various schools and tendencies of theological opinion. And it is to these we have appealed. Among the names of the writers for this volume will be found some whose fame is co-extensive with the English language; and others who through wide regions and communions are honored as leaders or representatives of religious thought. And, unless we

have failed of our purpose, no important school of theological opinion is without its able and adequate representative here.

The volume might have been more curious if it had ranged over a wider field. But to enhance its real interest and value, the writers have been requested to treat of the future life in its penal aspect only.

The intelligent reader will expect to find, as the natural and helpful introduction to such a volume, some sort of exhibit of the opinions of former ages. And he will not be disappointed. A catena

of the utterances of ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church, as well as of more modern Theologians, prepared under the direction of one of the most eminent of living scholars in ecclesiastical history, occupies by no means the least important pages of the book. It remains only to commend the book, with all its wide diversity of belief and argument, to the thoughtful attention of this most serious and thoughtful age.

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, 1889.

THE PUBLISHERS.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Opinions of Former Ages of the Christian Church Concerning Future Punishment, in

the Language of Representative Writers.-First Patristic Period: The First Three

Centuries.-Second Patristic Period: A. D. 301-600.-The Scholastic Period.-The

Reformation Period. . .

CHAPTER II.

By the Rev. LYMAN ABBOTT, D.D., Congregational Pastor of the Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, N. Y.,

and Editor of the Christian Union, New York City.

Revelation the Only Source of Knowledge on this Subject.-Changed Views of God's