a common saying among us that the atonement is too large to be held in the mould of any single theory. Yet I think that most of us give it a Godward, as well as a manward, efficacy. One of the brightest jewels in our Congregational crown is the memory of Horace Bushnell; but our best thought would not admit, unless I am much mistaken, that this brilliant and spiritual theologian said the last word on this high theme. What is called the Catholic doctrine of the Atonement, namely, that Christ's death was in some true sense the objective ground of the forgiveness of sin, still commends itself to the larger number of our Christian people.

The whole drift of modern thought, and the pressure of the movement I have tried to describe, have been concentrated upon the problems of eschatology. The conflict of soul upon these subjects through which we have passed has been no less intense, because we have known that it was not peculiar to us. The old Calvinism, which our fathers loyally accepted, left a part of mankind wholly out of reach of Christ's redemptive grace. When the New England theology broke the iron ring of this consistent and logical system by the adoption of the doctrine of a universal atonement, it was inevitable that new questions should arise.

During the last decade we have been discussing, as the world pretty well knows, the relation of the heathen to God's grace in Christ. The old view, which prevailed during the last century, and had many advocates until quite recent times, doomed the heathen as a mass to perdition. This severe doctrine has been generally abandoned. Our discussions have not been upon this point, but upon the question as to the manner and grounds of the salvation of those heathen who are saved. The common view has been that their imperfect faith, based upon their natural knowledge of God and such elements of truth as are to be found in their corrupt religions, is reckoned to them

for righteousness for the sake of Christ, who gave himself a ransom for all, and that so their eternal destiny is settled on the basis of the decisions of this life. The able and devoted teachers in our beloved mother theological seminary at Andover have urged the other view, common in Germany, that an opportunity is granted the heathen in the other life, between death and the judgment, to hear the Gospel and accept or reject Christ. I do not propose to enter into the merits of our controversy. So far as it has involved unchristian bitterness, we are ashamed of it. We are hard fighters on our side of the water, and both parties have dealt heavy blows. The result of the discussion has been to emphasize the silence of the Scriptures on the subject. The majority still hold the older view, because it seems to us more in accord with the general drift of the Scripture and the principles of our New England theology. But there is an increasing willingness to admit that our speculations cannot exhaust the possibilities of God's redemptive grace, and that a point of this sort can never permanently be made a test of orthodoxy. The much more difficult question of future punishment has not been the subject of important controversy among

us.

But it has profoundly affected us. Our deeper conception of Christianity, our enlarged view of the infinite love and mercy of God, our stronger realization of the power of Christ's redemption, have united to give this subject a peculiar painfulness and solemnity. It has pressed not only upon our theologians, but upon all our thoughtful men and women. It is a subject of peculiar difficulty to many of our most promising students of divinity. Some among us find relief in the theories of the "larger hope" and "conditional immortality." If the greater number continue to hold in substance the immemorial doctrine of the Christian church, it is because we cannot convince ourselves that the words of Christ and his Apostles, fairly interpreted, sanction any other view.

It is with us a matter of loyalty to our Master, whose word is our final authority. Our difficulties and perplexities we cast on him, and leave him to show us at the Last Day how this awful fact is consonant with love and justice.

Such is the present direction of theological thought among us, so far as I am able to understand it, and, in the brief time allotted me, to describe it. The outlook is one of hopefulness. Our faces are toward the light. As we are striving for more of the power of Christ in our life, so we are striving for more of the truth of Christ in our Christian thought. And we believe that we shall attain it steadily as the years advance, "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

35

I. INDEX OF SUBJECTS

[The indices were prepared by the author's colleague and valued friend,
Professor Francis B. Denio. -ED.]