The poor white man goes, with his humbly-dressed family, to the sanctuaries of his own class; he prefers to go there, and no fastidious church in the land fears his undue intrusion into its garnished aisles; there is no "line" of discrimination against him there, except the undefined, the tacit one, which social convenience or his own good sense and good taste may sug gest. Why not give the colored citizen equal right, especially in the temples of our common God? If, like his poor white, or Japanese, or Chinese brother, he should rise, in individual cases, in culture and social condition-in manners, dress, intelligence, etc.—to a rank essentially equal with your own, and should then seek for his family a well-paid pew in your sanctuary, why forbid him? In every land under heaven, except this Christian republic, he has not only the right to do so, but is welcomed as a "man and a brother." In St. Paul's, in Westminster Abbey, of London, in Notre Dame, of Paris, in St. Peter's, of Rome, no prince nor coxcomb would decline to sit beside him. We alone, in all the Christian world, have the ungracious, we were about to say the ridiculous, fastidiousness to order him away from us, or take ourselves away from him. There is no church of the land in which a well-dressed and a wellmannered Japanese or Hindu would not be admitted, and be even an object of generous interest however conspicuous his seat there. Why, then, repel an African fellow-citizen of equal social condition? We repeat that the prejudice, which has ordained among us the "color line," is an egregious social fallacy, against which every really high-minded citizen should protest as belittling to our national good sense, our religion, and our republicanism. We believe, further, that nearly all our apprehensions of social inconveniences from the obliteration of that "line," especially in the Church, are utterly fallacious. We believe that in "Old Trinity," in "Grace Church," or any other notable church of New York, the habitual appearance of a well to-do, cultivated African family in their own pew would soon come to be considered an honor to the congregation. It would be a noteworthy example of Catholic Christianity as acknowledged in all the high places of Christendom beyond our own land. It would be a triumph over prejudice to which the Christian heart of the community would, soon or later, respond with admiration. It would be such a recognition of our common humanity as could not fail itself to be recognized with honor by all thoughtful men. One topic more we might allude to here as of immeasurable importance, in respect to the African-American, namely, his education; but we have reached the proposed limit of this article, and what need of enlarging on a subject of such obvious significance, one upon which there has been so much public interest, to which so many heroic men and women are devoting their lives, and to which individual philanthropists have consecrated millions! Let us say, in conclusion, that notwithstanding the grave difficulties of the problem we have been considering, and the merely hypothetical solutions of it we have suggested, yet the treatment of the colored man, which we have urged, seems to us to be about the sum of our responsibility for, and practicable management of, the question. Let us do this our duty, and leave the rest to that beneficent Providence which has hitherto guided our national destiny. Great things are undeniably before us all, whites and blacks, in the providential programme of this grand New World; humanity is here probably to take on new developments such as have never been dreamed of in our political and social speculations. It may not be for us to forecast these coming destinies by our theories, but we can forecast them by our practice. Let us emancipate ourselves from prejudices: let us rise above traditional fallacies; let us seek to embody in our legislation, and in all our social conventionalism, the universal principles of humanity, religion, and liberty, and the God of our fathers will take care of our country and our children. ART. VII.-PROBATION AFTER DEATH. [FIRST ARTICLE.] PROBATION is the moral trial of intelligent and free beings, under divinely-appointed conditions, in preparation for reward or punishment in the world to come. As used by Bishop Butler, who first brought the term into prominence, it means "that our future interest is now depending, and depending upon ourselves; that we have scope and opportunities here for that good and bad behavior which God will reward and punish hereafter; together with temptations to one, as well as inducements of reason to the other." * Over against our natural depravity, which of itself would necessitate a failure, is placed the everavailing grace of the atonement, whereby success is possible to every man. The central point of the test is not, however, an unfailing, perfect obedience to law, as with Adam before the Fall, but a new one, adapted to fallen beings, of the acceptance or rejection of the gracious remedy in the cross of Christ, through which alone can the power of sin be escaped and holi. ness won. The providential advantages of individuals greatly vary with different ages and other circumstances, and it may be safely assumed that the Judge of all the earth, who surely will do right, knows well how to measure responsibility in every case. But if any be destitute of intelligence, or if any, because of some necessitating agency outside of himself, be not free to choose his course, he stands as a non-probationer, for whom any proper trial is not conceivable. The general faith of the Christian Church is that human probation closes with the present earthly life, and that in the final judgment at the end of the world every person will receive his eternal and unalterable award according to his character, the righteous being crowned with everlasting blessedness, and the wicked consigned to everlasting conscious punishment. From this common faith there are three classes of dissent, holding, 1. The ultimate recovery to holiness of all wicked men and fallen angels, and the cessation of evil throughout the universe, involving the continuance of probation until it is accomplished. 2. The continuance of probation to the impenitent during the period between death and the judgment-day, at which time the final award will be made. 3. A second probation after death for those who in this life have had no knowledge of Christ and his Gospel, such as the heathen and children dying in infancy. In the examination of the question of probation after death, while our ultimate appeal must be to Holy Scripture, and especially to the words of Christ himself, the query arises whether our Lord in any way contradicted the opinions on the subject of the eternal punishment of the wicked prevalent in his day, "Analogy," part i, chap. iv, 1. and also whether the doctrine held by his early followers was in accord with that which he taught. For it would be a very important, but difficult, task for the denier of endless punishment to explain why, if the Jews were wrong, he did not correct them, and also, if the early Christians had fallen into error, how it came to pass, and how it became so unanimous and unquestioned. Let us, then, notice first: I. The sentiment held at and about the time of Christ. 1. Among Jewish writers. The Book of Judith, (xvi, 17,) written about a hundred years before Christ: "Woe to the nations that rise up against my kindred. The Lord Almighty will take vengeance of them in the day of judgment, putting fire and worms in their flesh; and they shall feel them and weep forever." The Book of Enoch, (ciii, 4, 5:) "Woe to you, sinners, when ye die in your sins, and they who are like you say of you, Blessed are these sinners. Has it not been shown to them that, when to the receptacle their souls shall be made to descend, their evil deeds shall become their greatest torment? Into darkness, into the snare, and into the flame which shall burn to the great judgment, shall their spirits enter, and the great judginent shall be for every generation, even forever." The Fourth Book of Esdras, (vii, 36:) "A lake of torment shall appear, and over against it a place of rest and the oven of gehenna shall be shown, and over against it a paradise of delight. . . . If one be of those who have despised and not kept the way of the Most High, or who despised his law and who hated those who fear him, their souls shall not enter the habitations, [garners;] but shall wander about thenceforth in torments, ever grieving and sad." The Apocalypse of Baruch, (lxxxv, 98:) "Prepare ye your souls, that, when ye have ended your voyage and disembarked, ye may rest, and not be condemned, for the Most High will bring all these things. There will be no more place of repentance, nor bound to times, nor length to hours, nor change of way, nor place for petition, nor sending of entreaties, nor obtaining knowledge, nor giving of charity, nor entreaties of parents, nor orison of prophets, nor help of the righteous, but there will be sentence to the destruction of the way of fire, and the path which leadeth to the hot coals." Josephus, ("Ant.," xviii, 1, 3:) "The Pharisees believe that souls have an immortal vigor in them, and that beneath the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, ειργμὸν ἀϊδιον ; but that the former shall have power, the other have permission, to revive and live again," and that the souls "of the wicked are to be ἀϊδίῳ τιμωρίᾳ κολάζεσθαι, punished with eternal vengeance.” * Dr. Farrar objects to Josephus generally as an untrustworthy witness, and to these passages in particular, because "his words are unscriptural." Yet the latter citation contains the very words which he complains were not used by our Saviour if he intended to teach endless punishment, admitting at the same time that "Josephus and some Christian writers, when they want to speak of endless retribution, do use such words." § The real reason may be that dïdios would better express to strangers, unfamiliar with the Hebrew mode of thought, the idea intended by αἰώνιος. Dr. Pusey, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, is authority for the statement that the expression of belief was uniform and unmistakable, with the one exception of the Sadducees, who did not believe in a future life, "but whoever did believe in it, believed in the eternity of the weal and woe which God would allot to the righteous or the wicked." The theory that punishment in gehenna is limited, he shows, originated with Rabbi Akiba, eighty-six years after our Lord's ascension, and had reference, not to all mankind, but to the Jew alone. I 2. Among early Christian Fathers. Ignatius of Antioch, A.D. 107: "One so defiled [by corrupting the faith of God] will go into the unquenchable fire, and in like way he who heareth him." Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, A.D. 155, when threatened with the stake, replied, "You threaten me with fire that burns for one hour and then cools, not knowing the judgment to come nor the perpetual torment of eternal fire to the ungodly." "Bell. Jud.." ii 8, 14. "Mercy and Judgment," p. 193. "Mery and Judgment," p. 196. |