Year: 1878

There is not one word here about


an irreversible doom to material


torment. The spirit of the answer


of our Lord on this occasion is this


THE fate of the souls whom He


hath made is in the hands of Him


who made them, and not in thine.


Enter thou in at the strait gate.


After combating the idea that il


was dangerous to hold any other


view than that of endless torment


being the destiny of the wicked,


Canon Farrar continued: What is


dangerous is to drive some into in


dignant atheism, and TO eRtangle


others under frightful superstition,


and to crush yet others with hor-


rible despair by representing to


them Him, whose name is love, as


q remorseless avenger instead of as
a Father, gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kind
ness. After showing how the more
hopeful view of the future life found
countenance in the Scriptures and
in the writings of the greatest and
best of the Fathers, and how it had


been preached In this age by many
of the Saints, at whose feet he
would gladly sit, Canon Farrer ask
ed Ii we see truth, are we to be-
come orthodox liays for God by
suppressing it, because those think
it dangerous who believe in no
more potent motive for virtue and
the love of God than a CHASTITY fear?
L would rather accept, as rejecting
the mind of God, the broad humani-
tartan charity-the keen and tender
sensibilities-than the hard systems
OF heartless theologians.


Having pointed out that there are
in the main three classes oil men
saints, reprobates, and that vast in !.
termediate state lying between, yet
shading off by infinite graduation
from these two extremes-Canon
Farrar, after, in an eloquent pas
sage, thanking God for the first
class, asked: What of the repro
bates? What of the other extreme?
If you ask me whether l must not
believe in endless torments for these
reprobates of earth, answer, Aye,
for them, and for thee, and for me,
too, until we have learned with ali
our hearts to love good and not evil.
L know that for these reprobates
Christ died. The bigot may Judge
their souls if he will; the Pharasee
may consign them, with orthodox
equanimity, to endless torments;
but l can not-will not. Not mine
at any rate, shall it be to close
against them, with impetuous recoil
and jarring sound, those gates of
hell, lest they should be more Justly
closed upon me; but l commend
them with humblest hope, even af-
ter this life of hopelessness, to Him
who did not loathe the whiteness of
the leper, and who suffered the wo-
man who was a sinner to wash His
feet with tears. Gods spirit has
nowhere taught US. that He who
gave can not give back; that He
who once made them innocent chill
dren cannot restore their innocence
again; that He who created them
He who wills them to be saved
can not create them in His own i'm
age, can not Obliterate all their vile
ness in the blood of Christ, and un-
create their sins. But the vast mass
of mankind belong to the third
class. They are not utter repro
bates, they are not perfect saints.
They try to face both ways. They
halt between two opinions. The
angel has them by the hand, and the
serpent by the heart And it is
those who do try to be Gods chill
Iren who realize their own exces
sive sinfulness. Having shown how
many. of the saintliest and tenderest
souls had been driven even to mad.
ness, as Cowper was; by the false
view of God which is given by the
pitiless anathemas of man, Canon
Farrar asked his hearers il when
they buried relatives or friends who
had not been holy or religious, they
Jared consign them, even in their
thoughts, to the unending anguish
Of the popular creed they taught2
An arbitrary infiction of burning
torment and endless agony, a mate
rial hell of worm and flame, a doom
10 everlasting sin, and all this with
no prospect of amendment, with no
hope of relief, the souls transgres-
sions of few brief hours Of strug-
Cling tempted life followed by bill
ions Of milleniums in scorching
fire, and all this meant not to cor
rect, but 10 harden, not to amend,
bat to torture and degrade-did you
believe 10 that for any one whom
You have ever loved? Again, say,
God forbid! Again, 1 say, fling
from me with adherence such q
creed as that. Let every Pharisee
gnash his teeth if he will; let every
1ogmatist anathematize; but that
cannot and do not believe. Scripture
will not let me; my conscience, my
reason, my faith in Christ, the voice
Of the spirit within my soul. will
not let me; God will not let me-