point, and contending very strongly that the soul will retain its identity, they hold that men will enter into the other world with the same moral character which they have here-that therefore some will start in the race of eternal life more advantageously than others, but all progressing upward forever. The consequences of wickedness in this life will be different degrees of inferiority and disadvantage in character and condition in the other world, an endless deprivation and loss. No. future probation is recognized. This class probably embraces a large majority of modern Universalists, especially the more thinking and progressive wing of that body, and there is no perceptible difference between their views and those of the progressive Unitarians of the present day, with whom, of late, there have been many attempts to affiliate and unite.* OTHER POINTS. The Universalists, like the Unitarians in late years, have adopted a kind of mediatorial phraseology, using the same styles of speech, in reference to theological and religious matters, which prevail among the evangelical sects, but which, when they explain them, plainly designate ideas very different from their evangelical meaning. Such a pseudo terminology thus becomes a mere semblance, a masked battery, from which destructive volleys are often fired into unsuspecting souls. This denomination has suffered more than perhaps any other from the ravages of modern Spiritualism, which seems to have affected, to some extent, the views of many of them even in regard to the soul's condition in the future state. And modern Rationalism has undoubtedly exerted a great influence over a large number of their ministers and members, although not so extensively or so fatally as among the Unitarians. Greater reverence is felt for the Bible among the Universalists as a body. Within the last period there has been a manifest effort to * See correspondence and editorials in the "Liberal Christian" during the last five years. The editor of the "Liberal Christian," April 4, 1871, says that the difference between these two bodies now is mainly one of perspective; one putting the doctrine of the salvation of all men in the front ground, and the other reserving it in the back ground. organize the denomination more fully, to promote a more practical religious life among their people, to make them more devout, and to introduce various forms of social worship, such as prayer and conference meetings, etc. Religious activities have been, to some extent, inaugurated in some of their leading Churches, chiefly in the larger communities, and frequent confessions are heard among them of great wants in the direction of religious life and zeal-"a general lack of heartiness and amplitude in their customary mode of public worship and religious observance "*-that they "do not make their theory a practical force in the denomination,"† as they feel that they ought. These and other similar confessions are frequently made without seeming to suspect whether, in departing so far from the true doctrine of the efficacy and power of saving grace, through faith in an atonement for sin, into the barren and lifeless sentimentalism of Socinianism, they have not cut themselves off from the only source of spiritual life and power. THE PERIODS COMPARED. In the last two periods we have found an agreement in all those doctrines which are essentially Socinian in their character. We find the doctrines of a hell and a future general judgment discarded. In both periods it has been held that men suffer disciplinary punishment for sin in this life, and that regeneration is not a supernatural change wrought by the Holy Ghost, but is merely the beginning of a new life, a ceasing to do evil and learning to do well. The disagreements of the doctrines of the third period from those of the second period are not numerous. They are, 1. The old doctrine of "death and glory" is not so distinctly set forth. The objective aspect of the denomination is more expressive of some kind of correction, or, at least, of moral culture after death. 2. Restorationism is more generally accepted than during the second period. 3. The moral connection between this life and the next, and the state of progression to which reference has been made, and which is now probably the more current view of the future state, was almost wholly unknown in the second period under Ballou. *The Universalists' Centennial, p. 13. + Ibid., p. 72. Between the second and the first periods we have noticed radical differences: the rejection of the doctrine of depravity, the Trinity, the atonement, as substitutional and expiatory; regeneration by the Holy Ghost, a personal devil, a local hell, a general judgment, as held by Murray and Winchester, the adoption of modern Socinianism, and the happiness of all men at death. Only one point of doctrinal agreement runs through all the periods, namely: The final holiness and happiness of How great is the contrast between the earliest and the present phases of Universalism! all men. The modern school of Restorationists have very decidedly rejected Mr. Winchester, representing his views as monstrous, and holding them up to ridicule. Thus have they disowned him who, more than any other individual, has been the founder of their system in this country. The following extract will show the contrast between the founder and his followers. Mr. Winchester says: "Ques. Is the lake of fire and brimstone real or figurative? Ans. Real, by all means, according to the literal sense of Scripture." Again, "They are cast alive into a lake of fire and brimstone, where they shall be constantly tormented, day and night, to the ages of ages, without cessation. . . . As the lake of fire is the last punishment which shall be inflicted upon rebels, none that enter there can ever be loosed from it until they are wholly subdued." † MR. MURRAY DISOWNED BY HIS CHILDREN. As early as 1841, Mr. Ballou, referring to Murray and Winchester, said, "The particular opinions about which these fathers of our Israel differed are now generally disbelieved by Universalists in the United States." In the same year, and only twenty-six years after the death of Murray, it became a question which awakened considerable debate, whether an or daining council ought to hesitate to ordain a preacher who held to Mr. Murray's type of Universalism. Mr. Whittemore says: § "Father Ballou supposed that it would not be prudent to ordain such, except over societies of similar views, or societies who understood the candidate to hold the peculiar opinions to which * Winchester on Prophecies, vol. i, p. 223. Life of Ballou, vol. iii, p. 321. † Ibid., vol. i, p. 227. we have referred. There seems, however, to have been but little need of raising that question, as a Universalist of that kind could scarcely have been found at the time of which we write." But, at the present time, the contrast is undoubtedly still more striking, and doctrines such as Murray and Winchester preached would not now be endured in Universalist congregations. Rev. G. L. Demarest, in his Introduction to the Centenary Edition of the Life of Murray, referring to his doctrinal views, says: "It is probable that no living man or woman now entertains them in their wholeness." "Mr. Murray's peculiar opinions were not of a character to secure a permanent hold of the public mind, or largely to affect a thinking people." This is certainly a very frank, though humiliating, acknowledgment to make, in the face of a centennial celebration in recognition of Mr. Murray's fatherhood of the denomination. But the fact acknowledged is a patent one. Let us now see THE FATHER OF UNIVERSALISM DISOWNING HIS CHILDREN. Had Mr. Murray appeared among them at any time during the last thirty-five or forty years he could hardly have recog nized them as his children either in doctrine or spirit. Even Mr. Demarest, referring to the Unitarian tendencies which had begun to appear in Murray's life-time, says: "He was so earnest in his faith, and in each item of it, that he could not view with indifference the evident departure of the Church which he had organized from it. He especially viewed 'Socinianism' with abhorrence, and professed more sympathy with Calvinistic Partialism than with Unitarian Universalism." But Mr. Murray shall speak in his own words. As we began with Mr. Murray, it is fitting that we close with him. The following extract is very pertinent. It is from a pamphlet published by him in Boston in 1791, entitled "Hints Relative to the Forming of a Christian Church; and an answer to the question, What constitutes a Universalist ?" Referring to those who advocate the salvation of men after a period of punishment after death, he says: They cannot, we conceive, with any degree of propriety, be called Universalists on apostolic principles; nor does it appear that they have any idea of being saved by or in the Lord with an everlasting, or with any salvation. It is difficult to find what they will have to thank God for at last, they having paid their own debt, and in their own persons satisfied Divine justice. Such Universalists have nothing to do with the ministry of reconciliation; the doctrine of the atonement and the acceptance of the Beloved is out of their plan. Such Universalists as these are as far from the doctrines of the Gospel as their opponents, (the Partialists.) These are Pharisaical Universalists, who are willing to justify themselves, and such Universalism as this will be more acceptable to an adulterous generation than the Universalisin found in the ministry of reconciliation.-Pp. 40, 41. ART. VIII-SYNOPSIS OF THE QUARTERLIES, AND OTHERS OF THE HIGHER PERIODICALS. American Quarterly Reviews. BIBLICAL REPERTORY AND PRINCETON REVIEW, April, 1871. (New York.)1. The Miracles of Christ "Critically Examined." 2. Life and Times of David Zeisberger. 3. The Moabite Stone. 4. Newman's Grammar of Assent. 5. The Constitution of the Person of Christ. 6. The Writings of Solomon. 7. Professional Ethics and their Application to Legal Practice. BIBLIOTHECA SACRA, April, 1871. (Andover.)-1. Free Public Libraries. 2. Justice-What is It? 3. The Church-membership of Baptized Children. 4. The Idea of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, in Itself and in its History, Proof that it is from God. 5. Our Lord's Sacerdotal Prayer-a New Critical Text, Digest, and Translation. 6. Methods of Perpetuating an Interest in Hearing the Gospel. 7. Memorial of Dr. Samuel Harvey Taylor. 8. Notes on Egyptology. 9. Biblical Intelligence-England. EVANGELICAL QUARTERLY REVIEW, April, 1871. (Gettysburgh.)-1. The Theistic NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, April, 1871. (Boston.)-1. An Erie Raid. 2. On the |