involve new states of feeling, it is a fair question whether the opinions themselves do not differ more as forms of thought than as expressions of sentiment; and whether beneath the apparent diversity there may not often be a substantial harmony. A discussion of the subject should elicit whatever truth lies in this direction. In the inquiry for the true one of the three opinions, that which lies intermediate between the others,-which asserts neither the eternal happiness nor the eternal misery of those who may be worthy of neither,-claims its share of consideration. Can it be a just mean between two extremes? Is it apparently supported by manifold passages of Scripture? Can it reconcile apparently conflicting texts; or can it vindicate the peculiar doctrines of Christianity against opposite objections? Has it a respectable place in the history of Christian doctrine? Can it have been both held and lost by the Church? And if so, how is the grand error involved in its loss to be accounted for without impairing all confidence not only in man but in Providence itself? It is easy to suggest such considerations respecting the view offered in the following pages. Whether such as make in its favor have had undue influence with the writer, he leaves for others to decide. He will only plead in behalf of certain features of his book, that his experience persuades him a treatise on the subject should be- even more than it is argumentative -one of suggestions and helps to the reader's own thinking and investigation. To various friends he is under many obligations for the suggestion of facts and thoughts, for aid in the prosecution of his inquiries, in securing a favorable publication of the book, and in revising the sheets for the press. He is sure that any resulting development of Christian truth will be to them, as it should be to himself, the best reward. CONTENTS. § 1. The Rationalist Theory. - 2. The Christian Theory.-3. Influence of the two Theories.-4. Combination of the two Theories. 5. Effects of and End of Evil.-4. The Idea of God and the Conception of God. 5. The Four Theologies.-6. The Notion of Evil as an Eternal Necessity is Dualistic.-7. The Analytic Argument. -8. Historical Illustration. — 9. The Reaction. Agony of Faith. 10. Absolutism.-11. The Reäc- tion. Prostitution and Prostration of Faith. 12. Pantheism. The 1. Theodicy a Duty. Absolutism.-2. Sin against God as an Infi- 1. Is the Immortality of the Soul assumed in the Bible?-2. Is the Immortality of the Soul implied in the Language of the Scriptures ? — 3. The General Tenor of Scriptural Language respecting Man's Destiny. -4. Passages supposed to prove the Immortality of the Lost.-5. Cir- § 1. Eastern and Ancient Doctrine. - 2. The Grecian Schools.-3. The Popular Faith. The Pious Fraud.-4. Fourfold Doctrine of the Immor- tality of a Class.-5. Early Christian Doctrine. 6. Man's Intermediate Nature.-7. The Origin of the Conflict.-8. Results in the Eastern Church.-9. Results in the Western Church. 10. Jewish and Mediæval § 1. The Reflex Influence of Theodicy.-2. Faith in Second Causes. - 3. The Temporal and the Eternal.-4. The Unseen World. -5. The Mystery of Sin.-6. The Advantages of Evil over Good.-7. Theory of Satisfaction for Sin.. 8. Theology of the Feelings. 9. Exegetical Causes.-10. The Sense of Human Depravity.-11. Lack of Faith in the Power of Goodness. 12. Draco.-13. The Notion of Punishment as specially Moral.-14. Negative and Positive Evil. 15. Anchorite Con- CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. 1. Fear and Shame.-2. Severity and Certainty.-3. Mystery and -2. The Maternal Character of the Church. 3. The Missionary Motive.-4. The Campaigning Spirit. - 5. A Test of 1. Life the True Good.-2. Sensation and Motion.-3. Thought.— viii 469 |