truth and righteousness. Life as a rule is masked and disguised, not only from observers, but even from itself, and the removal of disguise, the stripping off the mask, is the judgment. What is termed conversion is, as far as it is real, such a crisis a revelation of the true nature of man's thoughts and acts to himself, divine light flashing into a man's soul and making everything plain. There are few of us who are acquainted with or who court such an experience in life; we shrink from examining ourselves too closely; we are glad to do it according to some artificial standard, or even in some cases to allow a fellow-creature to cross-examine us, knowing very well that he in his ignorance is sure to pass by those especial spots which we are careful to hide, and thus we palter with our souls.

This Judgment or crisis is the culmination of life up to a certain point; and it must be conceded, if man is immortal, that it is only the briefest and most preparatory stage of life which is completed at death. And it is most irrational to assume that thereupon is given not only a verdict on the past, but a fixed and irrevocable determination of the future; not such a judgment as will greatly influence future actions, but according to orthodoxy

such a decree as will prevent the possibility of all free action or self-improvement, and bind the victim of it down to an eternal existence of objectless and hopeless misery and sinfulness.

Apart from mere theology, all that the world has seen and known of God would teach us that such an improbable order of things ought by no means to be ascribed to Him, so infinitely is it removed from everything which we have been taught to consider divine.

All that we can fairly say this passage implies is, that after death, or rather after this,' there will be for everyone a vital crisis, a reckoning up of the past, a revelation of the true character of his deeds. But it does not follow that this supreme hour will not be succeeded by shame and repentance, and that the knowledge thus acquired shall not be used in the further development of that illimitable existence which will then be but commencing. And to refer to the divine side of the doctrine, is it too much to hope that the Son of God whom we have seen in the Gospel will have no harsher sentence than the one which He Himself made familiar to all sinners, Go, and sin no more'!

6

The essence of all judgment is Light-the

absolute truth about a thing, a man or his conduct. In our imperfect administration of justice this is what is aimed at, but very seldom secured; and because, though the judgment may be questionable, the punishment is fixed and certain, we have come to regard punishment as of more importance than judgment. But on a large scale and in the moral world punishment is a very insignificant thing; the one important thing is truth, judgment, right verdict; the clear and universal exposition of the right and wrong of actions, the authoritative denunciation of the wrong and the vindication of the right. This being secured, what follows is not so much of importance, but if anything is important, it is reformation and not punishment.

If this interpretation of the Judgment is right, it will be seen that it has no terror for the man who judges himself, who sits in judgment on his own conduct now, who consults his own conscience, and does no deed but which that awful inward monitor approves. To such a man the day of judgment is every day, and death will introduce him to no strange experience. For the rest, as there is no ground for supposing that judgment is necessarily followed by punishment, it is more reasonable and pious to believe that it will be the

starting-point for a new career under clearer light and with increased advantages. It is therefore with hope and not with dread that we look forward to the Last Judgment, the clearing up of the old mysteries and wrongs of earth, and the advent of a purer and happier world.

XV.

UNIVERSALISM.

THE arguments in favour of the belief in ultimate universal holiness, for I advocate nothing short of that, are very many; but my present purpose is rather to remove some objections than to plead for the positive side of the doctrine. I submit that the frequent discussion of the question is an argument in favour of the doctrine, as it is a consequence of the dissatisfaction of men with other creeds. The belief in eternal torment is unsatisfactory, and the belief in destruction is unsatisfactory; what remains for us then but to take refuge in the more satisfactory doctrine of universal salvation. For only in this belief can faith, hope, and love find full and free expansion. In either of the other creeds we are forced to contemplate a time and scene when our pity will be in vain and our hope extinguished.

We cannot believe in the annihilation of some