Strange as it may seem, they are the two great and fundamental doctrines of Grace, Retribution

and Blood Redemption. The one, repudiated

because "blood" is a word which should never be mentioned before a cultured assemblage; the other, repudiated because inconsistent with a human conception of a loving God. Thus, some ministers embark each Lord's Day, with but one oar with which to paddle the hearer to land, and others indeed put to sea with no oars at all, hoping for fair winds of popularity with which to make the passage. And so it has come about, that the preacher is proclaiming, either a blindly amiable God, or a purely ethical redemption. Is it any wonder then, that a spiritual famine stares us in the face? These fundamental elements must be restored to the soil, or the best seed will continue unfruitful.

A redemption without blood is bread without gluten. A law that has no penalty is no law at all. Rationalism may reject parts of Divine truth, but the parts rejected are the nutriment of the soul. A starving soul needs the pure word of God; nothing short of that will suffice. The pulpit is not here to reconcile, apologize for or minify the great doctrines of grace. When the prophet of God turns his back on duty and embarks for Tarshish, because the message is too harsh, he will ever find the storm at sea and a

fish's belly in which to repent his folly. If the patient is in danger, he should know it; it is not the sign of kindness when the physician blinds him to his condition. The more so when there is provided a way of escape.

The serious aspect of the conditions which we have noticed, is all the more pronounced, when it becomes necessary for a purely secular magazine of such standing as The North American Review, to undertake the considertion of this doctrine, under the title,-"What has become of hell?" The question is so ably treated by Dr. Shinn, that we cannot refrain from doing ourselves the honor of an extended quotation from the logic of his pen. In this article, the author first reviews conditions in the pulpit and the world. He speaks of the doctrine of retribution, as being tabooed by the pulpit, and consequently repudiated by the pew. He points out how important a doctrine this always has been; how faithfully it was formerly preached and how greatly it has affected the lives of men. This belief in retribution, says Dr. Shinn, "Has been the belief of Christian people from the beginning of Christianity to our own day. Now, almost suddenly, certainly with remarkable unanimity, men have well-nigh ceased to talk about it. It has ceased to be used as a motive for good living in this life, and men are

not told to prepare themselves here to avoid it there in the future."

With such a statement of the facts as introduction, Dr. Shinn enters upon an exhaustive consideration of the causes that have led up to these conditions. He ascribes the repudiation of the doctrine to a spirit of revolt against the imagery, with which the imagination of ingenious men surrounded the fact of retribution. "Figurative language came to be taken literally; translated into the grossest materialism and then added to, until its very extravagance suggested revolt. But when the revolt came, those who would get rid of the materialistic views of hell, have so completely explained away all the figurative language in which reference is made to hell in Scriptures, that nothing is left."

"These various theories-denials, explanations, etc., indicate a most unsettled condition of Christian Eschatology at the close of the nineteenth century. It is most seen from the uncertain sounds which proceed from the pulpit, and in the almost entire cessation of the appeal to fear. The appeals to fear have well-nigh ceased, and yet there is no fact which is so much in evidence as the fact of retribution. The law of retribution works in our present life. There is a

sense of righteousness in all men, and all men

1 North American Review, June, 1900.

know that unrighteousness brings punishment. However obnoxious it is to men, since there is such a thing as retribution, it must be set forth."

"The pulpit is losing some of its power, because it so seldom appeals to healthy fear. It has taken for granted that men could be always reached by appeals to their better nature. The fact has been overlooked that the better nature is often hidden from sight by the encrustation of worldliness and sin. It is this failure to appeal to fear that accounts in part for the decline of interest in personal religion, by so many."

Here we pass to the concluding remark: "What, then, has become of hell? It is not obliterated. It cannot be obliterated. Retribution exists as an awful fact, back of all figurative language. The time has come to recall the awful fact of retribution. But it must be done discreetly." These elements must be restored to the soil.

At first thought, such a résumé and such deductions may appear strangely incongruous in a treatise bearing the title "The Heart Side of God." To many, it may seem utterly out of place. But quite the contrary is true. The doctrine of retribution must be recognized before the doctrine of grace can appear. How is God to commend His love toward us, if not by setting forth this very doctrine, which, to many, has

become repugnant. Note the exact wording of John 3: 16. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish." It will be seen that God's great love is revealed by the very fact that He has provided a way of escape from the inevitable retribution. Eliminate the latter doctrine, and the former is impaired. The foundation walls may not be very sightly, but certainly we must not overlook them, or cease to mention them in the specification for our building. How is the physician to demonstrate his skill, save through the illness of his patient; and how is one to reveal friendship, unless it be when another is in dire need of a friend; or how is the philanthropist to reveal his philanthropy, except in times of great exigency? So God reveals His love in saving men from the consequence of sin. Thus "man's extremity proves God's opportunity."

Or, to view the fact from a purely humanitarian side, how is man to be made to feel his need of God's loving solicitude, if we gloss over the fact of retribution? It is just as essential to arouse one to a sense of danger, as it is to apply the remedy. What man will seek a physician before he shall have become aware of physical disorder. His very knowledge of danger impels him to seek a way of escape. No man is going to appropriate

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