III.


THE CHURCH IN TRANSITION.

No Definite note of Warning--Preachers Afraid of Discipline--Divided
as to Restoration or Extinction--Plea of Liberty--Liberalism of
the Episcopal Church--Advance in Christian Unity--Dr. Edward
White--Conditional Immortality--Endless Torment--If True Ought to Be
Preached Morning, Noon and Night--Awful Penalty of Sin--Extinction--True
Religion is Reasonable--Enlarged Conceptions.


There can hardly be a doubt that the church in general is in a state of
transition on this question. The want of a definite note of warning, to
which I have referred elsewhere, is an indication of it. Some preachers
have not the conviction of eternal torment and do not speak of it.
Others know very well that many of their hearers would resent any such
declaration. But they do not preach Restoration. They are afraid, I
suppose, that they might expose themselves to the discipline of the
church. Some, I believe, would very quickly espouse the Restoration
theory, if they were sure that they would escape all pains and
penalities. Meantime they do not examine the doctrine, for I suspect
they fear they would be convinced that it is true. I believe that most
ministers of the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches occupy one or
other of the positions I have indicated.