than believe that God wronged a single soul. My sympathies are with the advocates of the doctrine of extended probation when the contest is between them and those who teach that souls are lost-whether few or many-without having had the opportunity to accept God's grace.

But if we do not accept the doctrine of extended probation, we must suppose that there is such a thing as education and development, perhaps discipline and purification, in the other life. Multitudes of souls go out of the world-it seems reasonable to believe-in a salvable state yet altogether unfit for the highest blessedness. A third of the human race die in infancy before the moral powers are developed. The best Christians are imperfect and sinful when they die.

But I must pause, before I enter upon this part of our subject, to anticipate the objection that I am about to advocate a view tantamount to the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory. Purgatory is neither continued probation. nor is it the education of souls in heaven. It is a place and state of suffering and expiation for those who, while certain of salvation, have not made that complete satisfaction for their post-baptismal sins which the Roman system requires. According to the Roman Catholic doctrine every sin committed after baptism must be punished either in this life or the other. Purgatory is the place where the residuum of punishment is inflicted. The length of the soul's stay in this place of suffering may be shortened by the prayers of the faithful on earth, the intercession of the saints, and especially by the sacrifice of the mass. The suffering-which only according to a part of the Catholic theologians is by literal fire-is mitigated by the certainty of heaven and of God's ultimate favor and love. The majority of Christians have to pass through purgatory. It is a place entirely distinct from heaven and the abode of the lost, and it is a place of punishment.

Now in assuming that there is education and discipline

for souls that are certain of salvation, we differ from the doctrine of purgatory in every essential point but one. The one point is the certainty of salvation. The points of difference are, first, that we suppose all these souls to be in heaven, not in a different state and place; and secondly, that we deny their subjection to punishment, affirming that they are in the full light of God's love and favor. What we assume is, that heaven is a school, in which, under the gracious tutelage of God and Christ and the holy angels, and such redeemed souls as have attained a higher stage of spiritual development, the weak, sinful, imperfect souls-the great multitude of children, the heathen, be they many or few, who are salvable, the vast numbers born in Christian lands who have professed Christ, but have had a wholly imperfect Christian experience, all, in a word, who stand on the lower rounds of the spiritual ladder—are disciplined and trained for that fulness of blessedness and service which God has in store for His children. Nor would I altogether exclude from this school of Christ any human follower of his, since none of those who die have attained or become perfect. Viewed in this way heaven, during the intermediate state, is a place of growth. It is a busy, active place, where the hindrances of the earthly life are no longer present and the progress is steady and glorious.

But, it is asked, Does not this imply that there is sin in heaven? In reply I would say that, to my mind, there is nothing incongruous in the thought that such sin as would be compatible with a state where all were striving to attain the great end of their being, sin of mere infirmity and frailty and imperfect development, should temporarily exist there. But do not feel at all sure that this is the case. I cannot agree with those who think that death has no influence upon character. It is a great and radical crisis to those who are introduced by it into heaven. Let the soul be separated from the earthly body, with the temptations

and impulses to sin inherent in it, and let it be brought into a perfectly holy environment, let it have the vision of Christ, and supposing the supreme choice of the soulas we must assume it-to be for the good, I am not sure that such a soul will not in a way entirely accordant with its freedom be delivered from sin, while only its imperfection and immaturity will be left. It may be that the immemorial Protestant belief upon this point is right, and that there is a real truth in the words of the Assembly's Catechism, that "the souls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory." Of course such perfection must be relative and not absolute; there must be something negative about it. But may not the holiness which the perfectionists claim as attained in this life be actually attained, through the joint action of the regenerate will and the holy environment, under the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit, after the "body of this death" has been laid aside and the sinful environment of earth left behind? I can conceive of even a heathen, in whom there was already the germ of a holy choice, thus turned in an instant from positive evil and made the docile and humble pupil in Christ's school.

Yet on this whole subject I would speak modestly, remembering how little revelation has made known to us on the subject and how incompetent we are to speculate upon it. In any case, the school of Christ must do its work. The Christian who has made the highest attainments here will find himself a mere learner there, while multitudes will have to learn the very A B C of the heavenly knowledge and begin at the lowest stage of the heavenly discipline and development. But what blessed work it will be for Teacher and scholars, all seeking the one great end and animated by the same holy spirit. There the Saviour's principle will find its perfect illustration, that the greatest shall be the minister and the first shall be the bond-servant (Mat. xx. 26, 27). What

opportunities there will be there for those who have been taken from this world in the fulness of their powers and capacity for service in God's kingdom! They may be the assistants of the great Teacher. There Eliot and Brainard may have found the souls of their Red Indians, and Moffat and Livingstone the souls of their dearly loved Africans. There some who have been snatched away just as their ministry for Christ was beginning on earth may find a higher ministry, which will engage to the full their best powers and give scope to all the attainments they made below.

But someone will say, "You reject the doctrine of extended probation because it is not taught in the Scripture, but you put in its place speculations about education and development about which the Scripture is equally silent. Are you not inconsistent?" I think that there is no inconsistency here, though I freely admit, as I have done before, that what has been said is largely speculation. The question is, between the two speculations which, on the whole, is the most in accordance with the general principles of Scripture and the suggestions of the Christian consciousness? This question each must answer for himself, or, if he will, refuse to answer it and maintain the silence of faith. Thank God, Christians can differ upon this point and still be loyal Christians, humbly submissive to the teachings of revelation. Let every man be persuaded in his own mind; let every man be tolerant of the speculations of others, remembering the ignorance. One thing we all know, that God is love, and on that knowledge we must all rest, like the trusting child on its

mother's bosom.

Finally, let us remember that the intermediate stateas the name implies-is not the final state. It is provisional and expectant. In comparison with what is to be, it is an imperfect state. Even the blessed ones in heaven have not been perfected. for them.

God has better things in store

XXVII.

THE DAY OF THE LORD

THERE is a marked difference between the attitude of Christians to-day and that of the early church toward the great subjects of eschatology. Our thoughts are concerned chiefly with the life after death and the condition of individuals in it-where the departed are, whether they are conscious, whether they are in the company of those who have gone before, what their activities are, how much knowledge they have about this world and how much communication with it, whether there is probation or development in the other world. The early Christians, under the fresh impulse of Christ's teachings and those of his inspired apostles, turned their thoughts chiefly to the earthly future of God's kingdom, and especially to that great crisis by which the present order of things is to be brought to a close and the eternal order established. It was but seldom, if we can judge from the New Testament, that they raised any questions respecting the state after death, and then only that they might be sure that those who died in the Lord before the great consummation would be kept in happy communion with the Saviour and brought with him at his second coming to take part in the solemn scenes of the last day, and share in the glory and blessedness of the final and eternal state. Their thought was not so much of the individual as of the church and of the kingdom.

We need to put the emphasis where it was placed by the first Christians. In order that this should be done, it