Morning journal and courier., 1882-09-21
Sournal a1th Courier.
Rev. Dr. Newman Smyth.
TcoNT1NUED FROM SECOND PAGE.
Thursday Morning. Sept. 21, 1882.

to me in so far as it fails to and to emphasize the ethical ne- cessity to perfect being of satisfaction, | and the condemnation of sin through suffer- ing for it in forgiving it.
 In order to prevent misapprehension upon subject of so great importance will briefly | indicate my belief in the following clements | of doctrine of the atonement l
 1. Some outgoing of God toward sinners l by which shall be realized In human history 1 his whole disposition toward sin Forgive ness cannot be & passive state of divine dis position or mere maintenance of what God would do. Atonement is what God has done. More than manifestation of God in Christ seems to be required some Christ actualiza- tion realization of God in Christ in our humanity seems necessary for the reality of forgiveness.
 2. Gods satisfaction of himself in his whole ethical personality in the forgiveness of sin. It might be legal pardon, but would not be human and still less divine forgiveness, if the whole moral personality should not be satisfied in the restoration of the wrong doeS to friendship. God in his righteousness therefore, we'll as in his grace, must really enter into and be satisfied n the forgiveness of sins on earth.
 3. Such realization of the divine charac- ter in our history to draw us to God in penitence and faith.
 f. Such a self-satisfaction of God in his whole moral personality in the foreiveness of sins as shall satisfy the moral nature of all | holy beings, and thereby preserve all moral | interests of the kingdom of God. Whatever relation toward sinners satisfies God himself | will answer the ends of the divine govern ment and fulfill the spirit and purpose of the I law.
 ! ,. The possibility of such self realization in humanity, and such self satisfaction of God l in taking away the sin of the world, find in the capacity of vicarious life and suffering | which is immanent in the nature of love. ooEk Io&i0 between moral persons, and is possessed, therefore, by the infinite one in the highest | degree. The idea of perfect moral being l involves the possibility of perfect vicarious l ness, of incarnation and self-sabstitution for l another.
 G. The vicarious method of Gods forgive ness of mans sin is the life and death of I Jesus Christ, in whose person all the condi- tions for the work of divine forgiveness of 1 sin on earth are met.
 This vicarious method of Gods forgive ! ness through Christ can study with the most satisfaction by ponder1ng the ethical l clements necessarily involved in any true personal forgiveness of wrong. The divine grief over the sin of the world realized in the l sufferings of Christ seems to me to be an i'm minent necessity of perfect love. l confess, 1 however, that the clearest views of the atone ment which at times can obtain from the highest human analogies of forgiveness are but glimpses into the mystery of divine grace ! in the cross of Christ.
 III. The future life The center of the Biblical doctrine of the future life is Jesus teaching concerning the final judgment. believe that this present dispensation, or world age, shall come to an end at the day of judgment. believe that this world age is the time of probation and that every person l born into this world shall have one fair and l sufficient p:obation under conditions of grace. believe that the end of probation is, for the present system as whole, the day of judg ment, and for the individual his confirmed self determination in good or evil. believe that the end of probation for the individual IS not and, from the nature of moral free dom, cannot be any outward circumstance, temporal accident, or physical change like the death of the body. believe that now the conditions of eternal life are offered in the gospel and that whoever wilfully neglect or reject them is in danger of the sin against the Holy Ghost which Jesus said hath never forgiveness either in this world or the world ! Go cone.
 I believe that if incidentally, in the develop ] ment of Gods purpose of grace under the l limitations of system of nature, sufficient l conditions of gracious probation may not I have been furnished in this world to any particular generation, class or individual Gas. | for example, infants, idiots, antediluvians, l some heather and children born apparently to no moral chance), can trust God to pro I vide for such some special opportunity for l repentance in Hades before the final iudg- { ment. I cannot but think there is some ! scriptural warrant for this trust in the fact that Jesus preached to a certain class of spir- l it's in Hades. It also seems to me to be 8 logical deduction from the principle of indi vidual accountability which has been main tained in our New England theology. While ! as preacher of the gospel have no author ity to offer to any man any time of salvation but now, I must allow that Jesus Christ be I fore he shall give up his mediatorial king ! fn ha ios unrevealed to us of offering himself gracious ! ly to any who may not have had decisive probation in this life. Of what constitutes in particular cases Q decisive probation ! the judges, but God shall judge. l | believe that the obligation of Christian missions rests upon the commandment of the | Lord and will be increasingly owned by the church in proportion as it obtains higher views of Gods love for the world but so sa- I cred cause should not be bound up with extra scriptural limitations of Gods mercy. l believe that when the end of this world shall come, at the last great day, these things which are temporal shall be superseded by those things which are eternal. What this eternal order kind of existence is, I have not now, under this present temporal form of life, power definitely to conceive. I regard such phrases as endless time, everlasting duration as permissibly expressive of the finality or perma | definitions of the eternal which tran scends conception. and accept Jesus teach 1 ing of the possibility of eternal life death in the moral positiveness and metaphysical 1 1ndefniteness in which he saw fit to leave for l our use his doctrine of the future life. I do not accept the burdens, often too heavy to be borne, imposed upon this faith by the traditions of men who add to Jesus simple gospel their vain earthly and temporal imagi- nations of the eternal life and it's moral rela. l tions.
 I cannot believe in annihilation, or the ex- Enction from the sum of being of anything that has been made. How far moral person. ality may be self-vacated by persistent sin, and soul killed, is one of those doubtful questions which I am content to wait for the day of revelations to answer. I cannot fin either in scripture or Christian reason sv ficient authority to warrant teaching af dogma the hope of final reconciliation ct al evil to the good will of God.
 I cannot deny the possibility inher er.t i, moral freedom of eternal sin, and l. thinl that Jesus leaves open as real danf,er to b. feared the possibility of final reje ,ct ion O. the Holy Spirit. In full sympathy with thu objects of evangelical preaching concernin, the rewards and punishment of the futur, life, and in the endsavor to kee Q the solemn sanctions of eternity in the hearts as,d con sciences of men, I would breach the posi- tive, verifable moral elements of retr ibutiol and be content with humble indefn itenes ana reserve concerning those portions of tn l Biblical doctrine of the last things of whiel we can form at best only negative concep tions, and also with regard to those, final is sues of the creation which the God of th Bible has not chosen clearly to dis close to u in this period of our mental and II loral edu l cation.
 Finally, and in general, I accept as markin. my spiritual ancestry the historic oreeds O the church, and in that line of evaugelica descent am not ashamed to sta nd,-holding however, my inherited beliefs in the espon abilities of Christian liberty, subject alwayl to correction and expansion. praying ever fo the teachable spirit and hoping that in thu humility of true theological science I ma, keep the faith of the Christian ages, and il the love of whatsoever things are true. i, the unity of the spirit with all honest think CTS, l would press forward toward the tul and final orthodoxy of the kingdom of God
 The candidate having clossd the reading o the paper the questions were in order. Rev hr TolI