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THE

WHAT DO THEY MEAN?

BY REV. E. G. BROOKS.

IF Christianity be actually a vital element in the life of individuals and of the world, if the ripening and enlargement of religious thought towards the fulness of the Gospel have any thing to do with the ripening and enlargement of life, and the progress of our Christian civilization, then nothing that, in any way, serves to promote this process of ripening and enlargement, or that assures us that it is going forward, can be unimEven portant or undeserving our attention. straws tell us which way the wind blows, and And bubbles proclaim the direction of currents. so circumstances or expressions of opinion that would otherwise attract no notice, may assume very great importance as the types of changes that are gradually going forward in the religious convictions of the people; as indications that thought is broadening, that sympathies are widening, that old and severe opinions are being outgrown, and, in spirit, if not in form, renounced, that a more genial, more comprehensive, more Christian theology, is gradually taking possession of the general mind, and therefore that a work is being done in the deepest life of our communities, from which we have much to hope in the way of individual and social progress.

any thing to tell us in this direction; that we gather up the waifs and fragments of action or of utterance which have any meaning to this end; that we mark even the straws and bubbles and whispers that indicate the direction of theological currents, or the things that are being silently

thought in the churches and among the people.

the

There is now in course of publication in the Atlantic Monthly, a serial story which has great significance in this respect. As we scarcely need to say, the story is written by Mrs. Stowe daughter of Dr. Beecher; - the wife of one of the Professors in the Theological Seminary at Andover; the associate and to no small extent the pride of the elite of the Congregational sect, and one who probably still, in some way, professes faith in the old theology in which she has been educated. And yet, in every number which has thus far appeared, there have been statements and methods of dealing with the established ideas, which must shock every one who really sympathizes with these ideas, and which it is quite impossible to reconcile with any vital faith in, or any actual respect for them.

One of the heroes of the tale is Dr. Hopkins, the celebrated author of that form of Calvinism which asserts that it is necessary for one to be willing to be damned in order that he may be saved; and the narrative leads us among those who hold the old theology, and involves constant reference to its ideas and their influence in affecting character and coloring life. Let us cite some of the things thus said, and consider their meaning as coming from one of the lights of the socalled evangelical world.

One of the cardinal doctrines of the received theology is the doctrine of total depravity-a doctrine which contemns and dishonors human nature, and only leads legitimately to the meanest estimate of unregenerate souls. And yet,

Mrs. Stowe, speaking from among those who take this low view of human nature, says, "As to every leaf and every flower there is an ideal to which the growth of the plant is constantly urging, so is there an ideal to every human beinga perfect form in which it might appear, were every defect removed and every characteristic excellence stimulates to the highest point. Once in an age, God sends to some of us a friend who loves in us—not a false imagining, an unreal character, but, looking through all the rubbish of our imperfections, loves in us the divine ideal of our nature, loves not the man that we are, but the angel that we may be. Such friends seem inspired by a divine gift of prophecy like the mother of St. Augustine, who, in the midst of the wayward, reckless youth of her son, beheld him in a vision, standing, clothed in white, a ministering priest at the right of Godas he has stood for long ages since. Could a mysterious foresight unveil to us this resurrection form of the friends with whom we daily walk, compassed about with moral infirmity, we should follow them with faith and reverence through all the disguises of human faults and weaknesses, "waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." There be soul-artists, who go through this world, looking among their fellows with reverence, as one looks amid the dust and rubbish of old shops for hidden works of Titian and Leonardo, and, finding them, however cracked or torn or painted over with tawdry daubs of pretenders, immediately recognize the divine original, and set themselves to cleanse and restore. Such be God's real priests, whose ordination and anointing are from the Holy Spirit; and he who has not this enthusiasm is not ordained of God, though whole synods of bishops laid hands on him."

What kindred has such a view of unregenerate man with the doctrine of total depravity, or how can one who really has any faith in this doctrine, any sympathy for it, thus speak - not of what by a miracle we may become, but of what we are in the essence and actual present possibilities of our nature? It is as a worm, and not as an unfledged angel, it is as a worthless piece of corruption, and not as simply an undeveloped son of God, at present "compassed about with moral infirmity, and disguised in human faults and weaknesses," that the creed of the church in the doctrine of total depravity represents man, -assuring us that he needs to be morally re-created before he can really have any nobleness or excellence in him; and is it not a fact which we may

well pause to consider, when we find one, of such so-called evangelical surroundings and sympathies, giving us such a picture of the nature and intrinsic worth and possibilities of souls? Where will the doctrine of total depravity be when such representations of man's nature are accepted as true?

The manner in which Mrs. Stowe refers to the doctrine of endless misery, and to its effects on its believers, is, however, the thing that is perhaps most significant, and most remarkable. We have marked several passages on other points, which seem to us to mean a great deal; but it would occupy too much space to give them, and we will pass therefore at once to the point of chief interest; to the point of chief interest, because, after all, this doctrine of endless misery is the grand error in which all the errors of the church culminate, — is the blot and blasphemy of the theology of which it is part; and when men and women begin to see this as it is, and to recognize its influence, and the state of mind in which only it can be complacently believed, and to shrink away in disgust and abhorrence from it, the step is but short to an entire rectification of opinion, or to such a rejection of this doctrine as shall make any of its associate errors comparatively unimportant.

And first, let us see what Mrs. Stowe says concerning the confusion and contradiction of the old theology, chiefly because of the presence of this doctrine of endless misery, and its effect to discourage religious interest and effort. "It's all a maze," she makes one of her heroes say, speaking of religion as it was presented to him, "It's all a maze; I can't find top, nor bottom, nor side, nor up, nor down to it; it's you can, and you can't, you shall and you shan't, you ¦ will and you won't. -... It's all any where and no where to me; it don't touch me; it don't help me ; and I think it rather makes me worse." And another character is represented as "declarin' that the best folks never had no comfort in religion, and for her part, she didn't mean to trouble her head about it, but have jest as good a time as she could while she's young, 'cause if she was 'lected to be saved she should be, and if she wa'n't, she couldn't help it, any how."

Now it may be that these persons may be represented, in the progress of the story, as becoming somehow reconciled to the so-called evangelical, or Calvinistic theory of religion, and as morally benefitted by it; but if it shall prove so, here these statements will remain, to have a far greater effect on many minds in exhibiting

the absurdity of this theory, than any set argument could have; and it can scarcely be doubted that they show on the part of Mrs. Stowe and those she represents, a consciousness of the practical inefficiency of this theory a consciousness of its effect to perplex, confuse and discourage with respect to every thing called religion and the religious life, which can hardly admit of much confidence in its truth. It has been our grand objection to so-called evangelical doctrines that they do so confound the inquiring mind, as to disgust it with the very thought of religion, and to disincline it from any actual religious ef fort; nor is it surprising to us that religious neglect and even unbelief should have become so prevalent in consequence: but is it not a fact of much significance that out of the very heart of the so-called evangelical church itself should come a voice not only admitting, but averring the same thing?

But what does Mrs. Stowe say of the influence of this doctrine of endless misery on the tone of feeling and the view of life? Hear her: "It was easy enough for Mary to believe in self-renunciation- for she was one with a born vocation for martyrdom. ... But when she looked around on the warm, living faces of friends, acquaintances and neighbors, viewing them as possible candidates for dooms so fearfully different, she sometimes felt the walls of her faith closing round her as an iron shroud"-mark the expressiveness of the figure, "she sometimes felt the walls of her faith closing round her as an iron shroud;""she wondered that the sun could shine so brightly that flowers could flaunt such dazzling colors that sweet airs could breathe, and little children play, and youth love and hope, and a thousand intoxicating influences combine to cheat the victims from the thought that their next step might be into an abyss of horrors without end. The blood of youth and hope was saddened by this great sorrow which lay ever on her heart — and her life, unknown to herself, was a sweet tune in the minor key. It was only in prayer, or deeds of love and charity, or in rapt contemplation of that beautiful millennial day which her spiritual guide most delighted to speak of, that the tone of her feelings ever rose to the height of joy."

Mrs. Stowe is doubtless, in this description, reading us a lesson out of her own religious experience—and is it not difficult to avoid the belief that she is aware of the moral argument she is thus urging against this doctrine of endless

misery, and is intending to have it tell in fostering an abhorrence and rejection of it?

But this is not all. She presents us with another character - one of her finest creations, in whom like, but even sadder results are produced. Describing her as a listener to Dr. Hopkins' preaching, she says, "No pair of eyes followed the web of his reasonings with a keener and more anxious watchfulness than" hers; and "as she was drawn along the train of its inevitable logic, a close observer might have seen how the shadows deepened over them. For while others listened for the clearness of the thought, for the acuteness of the argument, she listened as a soul, wide, fine-strung, acute, repressed, whose every fibre is a nerve, listens to the problem of its own destiny, listened as the mother of a family listens, to know what were the possibilities, the probabilities of this mysterious existence of ours to herself and those dearer to her than herself. The consequence of all her listening was a history of deep inward sadness. That exultant joy, or that entire submission, with which others seemed to view the scheme of the universe, as thus unfolded, did not visit her mind. Every thing to her seemed shrouded in gloom and mystery; and that darkness she received as a token of unregeneracy, as a sign that she was one of those who are destined, by a mysterious decree, never to receive the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ. Punctilious in every duty, exact, reverential, she still regarded herself as a child of wrath, an enemy to God and an heir to perdition; nor could she see any hope of remedy except in the sovereign, mysterious decree of an Infinite and Unknown Powera mercy for which she waited with the sickness of hope deferred."

These persons, thus described, are fictitious persons; but the experiences thus attributed to them are real experiences drawn from life by one who has known them herself, or known them in others, and have been the experiences of millions of souls. They tell with vivid and impressive force what must be the effect of the doctrine of endless misery, held on any ground, or in any view, on every thoughtful and sensitive mind, and suggest objections against the doctrine, and furnish a ground of proof that the Gospel does not teach it, which Mrs. Stowe is too clear-headed not to see, and too true-hearted not to feel: and the question irresistibly comes, What does she mean in saying these things, unless she designs to intimate that she and others like her have no faith in a doctrine of which such things

can be said, and would di-suade others from any faith in it, or any other feeling than that of abhorrence towards it?

The case as she presents it is made still worse against the doctrine in question, by what she says of the class who can believe it, and maintain any thing like complacency in doing so. Describing one who affirmed that he fully believed, and found no difficulty in believing, she says, "He was one of that class of people who, of a freezing day, will plant themselves directly between you and the fire, and there stand and argue to prove that selfishness is the root of all moral evil... He was one of those men who suppose themselves submissive to the Divine Will, to the uttermost extent demanded by the extreme theology of that day, simply because they have no nerves to feel - no imagination to conceive what endless happiness or suffering is, and who deal, therefore, with the great question of the salvation or damnation of myriads, as a problem of theological algebra, to be worked out by the inevitable X, Y, Z."

This specimen of characterization can scarcely fail to remind us of Ward Beecher's remark that "Selfish men always believe in total depravity," and well describes the only class who can really think of the doctrine of endless misery and believe it, without having life shadowed, and every fibre of their soul agonized by it. And the conclusion is inevitable that, unless we are to believe that the Gospel is adapted only to cold, hard and selfish hearts, and that it is only in mockery that Christ says to any others, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest," this doctrine can form no part of that Gospel which was bestowed to "give the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

But we must desist. The reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions as to the meaning of the things thus quoted, coming from one occupying the position of Mrs. Stowe. She is the representative of a class- a class including the finest minds, the richest culture, the keenest moral sensibility and the broadest human sympathies to be found in so-called evangelical communion and if any reader can believe that she or the class she represents, is in thorough sympathy with the theology of which she thus speaks, and especially with the doctrine of endless misery, the effects of which she thus describes, can doubt that these things indicate a wide failure of confidence and respect in regard to the prevalent theology, even in the churches and

or

sects that profess it, and a proportionate approximation to our ideas, or a preparation to receive them then we can only say that such an one can take a very different view of things from what is possible to us.

We have no idea that Mrs. Stowe, or those like her, are yet Universalists. But we may well thank God for all that tells that they are sickening of the old creeds, and revolting from them, and that thus the leaven of broader and more Christian principles is thoroughly at work. All such utterances as these now quoted, not only tell what is, but are prophetic of what is to be—when the tendencies thus revealed shall have perfectly wrought themselves out into their results. They tell us that the church as well as the world is become weary of the hard and narrow doctrines which have so long ruled the faith and poisoned the life of Christendom, and thinking better things of God and of Christ, and hoping and believing in better results for humanity.

And then, who can estimate the influence of such testimonies and discussions, as they are multiplying around us - their influence, first, in encouraging doubt concerning the old beliefs, and then in leading souls into a larger and better faith? Mrs. Stowe has no design of writing Universalist tracts: but these things that she is saying going forth as they do among the thousands, who read her with delight, and who drink in the juice of her thought through their open sympathies, are doing more against the old theology and for the promotion of our ideas, than our books or tracts could possibly do, reaching minds and hearts that we could never thus reach. And she is but one of many thus building better than they know, and laboring for results they do not perhaps intend.

Let us, then, be encouraged in view of all the encouragements thus furnished us, and accept all these indications of a growing freedom of thought and enlargement of faith, as so many signs of a ripening individual Christian culture, and of more positive elements at work for the promotion of a nobler type of Christian civilization. As truth extends, souls enlarge and are uplifted, and life is ennobled and Christianized. And while rejoicing in the work of others; let us see to it that the needed work on our part is not lacking; and interested in the indications that others are growing in faith, let us fail not to be interested in our own growth in the apprehension and application of the truth - that while others are coming into the light, we walk as