CHAPTER III.

UNIVERSALISM HOLDS THAT THE WHOLE TENOR OF SCRIPTURE POINTS TO THE FINAL RECOVERY AND HOLINESS

OF THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE.

All Punishment must be Salutary, Disciplinary, Remedial, not Vengeful; and whatever Punishment may be Needed in the World to Come, to Bring Souls to Repentance, will be Administered Parentally, not Vindictively.-Salvation from Sin and its Deformities is the Normal Destiny of Every Soul.-Repentance and Abandonment of all Evil the Means to this End.-The Spiritual Progress wrought by Christianity is and must be toward the Universal Emancipation from Vice.-The Good of the Race Manifestly Attainable by a Terminable Punishment. Christianity Tends to Conviction that there ought to be a Higher Aim in Punishment than Vengeance.-God's Judgments and Retributions are in the Nature of Love and Réclamation, not in Hatred.-An Aimless, Unmitigated, and Eternal Curse upon any Creature not Characteristic of the Beneficence of Deity. The Work of Salvation not Limited to the Present Physical Life.-This Fact Covers all the Relations of Christ and Eternity to the Heathen and to those who Perished before He came on Earth, or who have never Known Him in this Life. Suffering and Discipline for Continued Sinful Choice extend into the Future World, until, in God's Economy, the Will finally makes Free Choice of Good.-The Losses and Penalties Entailed by Sin in the Moral Nature are Repaired, in the Future Life, only after Periods of Unknown Duration.

By Rev. JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS, D. D., Pastor of St. Paul's Universalist Church, Chicago, Ill.

THE position of Universalists in reference to the belief in future punishment may be stated in few words. They hold that, as it is clear that many men die in their sins, and as it is equally clear that the Scriptures teach that God purposes to save all men from their sins, therefore, two inferences follow: first, that all punishment must be salutary, disciplinary, remedial; and, second, that whatever punishment may be needed, in the world to come, to bring souls to repentance, will be administered. Whatever differences

of opinion there may be as to particulars, this general statement covers the faith of all classes of Universalists.

It is, however, well understood that as to these particulars there has been some variety of belief among the modern Universalists. The early believers in this faith, in America, held to the doctrine of limited future punishment. Hosea Ballou, in his later years, held that "the Scriptures begin and end the history of sin, in flesh and blood; and that, beyond this mortal existence, the Bible teaches no other sentient state but that which is called by the blessed name of life and immortality "; and beyond the teaching of Scripture he refused to dogmatize or speculate. Many of his followers, however, were not so scrupulous, but disbelieved in any future punishment. For the last thirty years there has been a reaction from the opinions of this class of Universalists, and it has been more and more widely taught that the present and the future life are organically one, so that the moral consequences of conduct and the character of the soul run beyond the limit of death, affecting at least the beginning of the soul's disembodied condition. In justice to those who have been popularly known as "Ballou Universalists," it is to be distinctly remembered that neither they, nor Ballou, ever held that death wrought a miraculous change in the soul, but only that the ineffable glory and impressiveness of the future would so affect the mind and heart that the impenitent soul, just entering the immortal life, would be irresistibly drawn to the disposition of humility and love. Death was not in their thoughts a savior of souls, but merely the transcendent opportunity for impressing, persuading, and converting the soul. It is probable that the views of the majority of believers in Universalism, in this country, are expressed in the words of a minute adopted at the Boston Ministers' Meeting in 1878. "Whatever differences in regard to the future may exist among us, none of us believe the horizon of eternity will be relatively either largely or for a long time overcast by the clouds of sin or punishment, and in coming into the enjoyment of salvation, whenever that may be, all

the elements of penitence, forgiveness, and regeneration are involved. Justice and mercy will then be seen to be entirely at one, and God will be all in all."

It is to an exposition of the views of that portion of Universalist believers who accept the doctrine of future punishment that I address myself.

In the first place, it is assumed and asserted that the human race needs salvation. Sin is universal with our race. The moral life of man is narrowed and corrupted by moral evil. The selfish and disobedient use of the will demoralizes human nature. It throws the soul into disorder, deranges its functions, and disorganizes its life. It is not merely a retardal of the soul's development; it distorts the inner nature, and smites it with disease and deformity. So that something more than progress is necessary to bring the soul into true and normal relations with God and his law. Salvation implies the correction of evil and abnormal conditions, the removal of corrupting influences, the consent of the will to the divine order and commandment. If that condition of the soul is not brought about in this life, if death finds the soul still in revolt, still in subjection to evil dispositions, still defiant, perverse, or corrupt, clearly that soul is unsaved. Nor is salvation possible, in any true sense, until the soul has been reclaimed from these conditions, and inwardly renewed. Universalism is at one with the whole course of Christian belief from the beginning, in recognizing the evil of sin, its essential character as resistance to the divine order, the necessity for its removal by repentance, conversion, and regeneration,—that is, by a recognition of its enormity, a resolve to forsake it, and the assumption of a right disposition and life toward God. That this condition has not been reached by multitudes, perhaps one may say by the majority, of those who pass out of this life, is a proposition which needs no word of supporting argument. It is universally conceded.

But this condition of salvation is the good toward which, in the providence of God, all souls are moving. This is the most natural