The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1870-02-23
For THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN.
"THE GATES AJAR"

This book, as we learn from the title page,
comes to US from the house of "Fields, Os.
good & Co., of Boston. 1t is written by
Mrs. b. S. Phelps, a daughter, if we are not
mistaken, of the late Professor of the Theo-
logical Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts,.
He will be remembered by the older minis
ters of the day, no doubt gratefully, for the
help he gave them in their Seminary course
in the study of Hebrew by his Grammar,
Chrestomathy and Lexicon, and by the
young as well as the old, as the author of
numerous commentaries on various books of
the Old and New TeStaments. He was in
clined to favor the ''free and advanced
thought of the day in opposition to ortho-
doxy. In his Commentary on Romans ne
harmonized in his exegesis with Albert
Barnes, and the New School, In his vol
luminous work on the Apocalypse, as well
as in his Commentary on Daniel, he assails
with warmth, if rot ipassion, what might be
called the specific school of prophetical in
depreciation represented by Newton, Scott,
and those generally who find direct refer
ence to the great historical events of differ.
ent ages, in prophecy. and especially in the
Apocalypse, and in Daniel. The daughter,
if we may form judgment from "Gates
Ajar," inherits her fathers propensity to
forsake the old paths, and to say things cal
culated to make orthodox eyes open wide.
It is evident that the generally received
ideas of heaven, derived from commenta-
ries, discourses and sermons, fall far short,
in the writer's judgment of the teaching of
Scripture The book is written to bring out
the true views now for the first time discov-
cred. We need not say that these views
are peculiar, and sometimes startling The
writer has spun with much art a thin thread
of narrative, on which she has strung her
pearls of thought on this subject. The hero
inc has brother, whose endearing abbrevia-
tion is Roy, whom she loves with an intense,
in fact, idolatrous affection. This brother
joins the Union army to help to crush out
the Shareholders rebellion" as our North
ern friends have been taught to call the late
civil war. She has just received letter
from Roy, in which he promises to make her
visit in May. While she is anticipating
with longing desire that meeting, while she
is thinking how slowly the weeks will move
on until the appointed day come, telegram
is brought which in two or three short abb
rupt words, announces the fact that he has
been shot dead in battle.
Her grief, even long after the first sudden
stroke, was of that intense kind that it re.
fused all comfort-all human means of con.
ISOLATION, nay, all divine means up to that
time revealed to consciousness, failed utter
I4y to reach her lease. ThS kindly meant
visits of sympathy from her pastor, from
the deacons of the church, from fellow Chris
tians, from those bereaved as she had been
annoyed her, in fact aggravated her trouble
The house of God became repulsive to her
She refused to enter it. She even turned
her back upon the table of the Lord. Th'
: views of heaven instilled into her mind in tht
Sabbath school, by the Bible, by the teach
ing of the pulpit, and the press, all the ole
views on which Gods saints had fingered
sweetly in thought, and by which they haC
been comforted in their sorrows, failed t.
afford her the slightest consolation. Nay
an exaggerated passionate side-view of on
of the old ideas about heaven, from whicl
she inferred that Roy would be so absorbe'
in God as to forget her, and all that wa
sweet and dear in their associated life OF
earth, nearly drove her to Atheism, and mad
ness.
In this crisis, when all the "waves an
pillows were passing over her soul, san in
terpreter, one among thousand" in tn
person of widowed aunt, whose husban
but lately deceased, had been devoted min
lister of Christ, appears upon the scene, an
from her lips, she receives those origina
teachings concerning heaven, which give t
"Gates Ajar" its piquancy as contributio
to theological science, and which proved t
: be a healing medicine to her wounded spirit
Her aunt wins her heart at once by one ser
: tence in letter: 81 have been thinkin
t how happy you will be by and by, becaus
g Roy is happy" She pronounces with tn
f utmost certainty on the question of Roy
, future happiness without knowing anythin
whatever of his state and condition there
b The sister had the evidence, that convince
!, her that Roy was a. child of God, and there
. fore safe, but she had not communicated tn
/, fact to any one, not even to the old deacon
who came to condole with her, and wb
It drove her almost wild by not speaking wit
}. the most undoubted assurance of the salv'
j. ton of her brother. And, by the way, or
s of not the least curious things in the bool
IS is the assured manner in which the reader
s informed of the presence of certain person
i in heaven, concerning whose future destin
n there might, on old orthodox principles,
/ some serious misgivings. On page 50, tt
% sister wonders, eff Roy has seen the Pres
), den" - Lincoln.) Aunt Winifred says, 81
n does not doubt it. She thinks that "aH IL
h soldiers must have crowded to meet him
= and "Oh," she says, "what sight to see
% All that has been established as moral
g probable concerning heavenly recOgnitio
= SO laboriously, is rendered indubitably ce
f tain in "Gates Ajar;" and many 9th