THE DEPARTED MORE AMENABLE.

Explain it as we may, we have always to remember that there are myriads
of human beings living now, and other myriads who have departed, who had
no chance to know the way of life. Will not the God of all mercy and of
all resource provide them with a chance on the other side of death? The
mere accident of death makes no change in them. And who knows if the
departed may not be more amenable to good influence then, than now? I
have heard of heathens who heard the Gospel but once, and they received
it, and were saved. It may be so with poor lost souls who had no
opportunity on this side of time.

One thing I cannot understand; and that is, the liberal terms in which
men at times express themselves, who yet profess the narrow orthodox
view. I do not say they are insincere; but it does seem as if they
deliberately ignored their own creed, and that they spoke for the time
out of the conviction and sincerity of their hearts. Just now, glancing
through a certain magazine, I have come on an instance of this kind. The
writer is a professor in a so-called orthodox Seminary. I leave any
fair-minded reader to say if his utterances are at all in harmony with
his professed orthodoxy. Here are a few of his sentences, selected
almost at random from a long article:

"In this swift day of unmatched opportunity, the Church is laboring,
perplexed and heavy, over its message." That is true enough. And I think
the secret of the Church being "perplexed and heavy" is, that preachers
must have an inward, unspoken conviction that their message of a limited
salvation is unworthy of God, and unsuited to the needs of the world. No