within the probation of early life and cannot be reset. The opportunity for naturing a virtuous life, once gone, cuts off the prospect of a happy old age. And so when the Bible makes death the limit of probation, "which when lost is not to be recovered," we find in nature no objection to the credibility of the arrangement, but indeed an analagous course of things, which confirms it. If objection is made that multitudes do not use this life as though it were the only probation, and so it could not have been thus intended, we point to the many seeds of vegetables and of animal bodies that never come to a state of maturity, and to the fact that those which attain that perfection do answer the end for which they were designed. As Butler says: "The appearance of such an amazing waste in nature, with respect to these seeds and bodies, by foreign causes, is to us as unaccountable as, what is more terrible, the present and future ruin of so many moral agents by themselves." This author also advances another profound view which bears upon our question. It is that "this world, as a state of probation, is a theatre of action for the manifestation of persons' characters with respect to a future one." "Such a making manifest of what is in them may have respect to a future life as a means of their being disposed of suitably to their characters and of its being known to the creation, by way of example, that they are thus disposed of." And such a revelation of character during this probation may be a part of the process, by which, at the Judgment, God will justify every decision of his in the eye of the Universe.

In confirmation of this analogy of nature to the Scriptural doctrine that this life is a probation which ends at death, we have the conclusion to which human reason and conscienee have come, unenlightened by revelation. It is one of the most striking facts of human history that God, by the reason and conscience of man, has made a universal impression that there is a future life, that there are two conditions there, and two places for the two grades of character. This natural theology also teaches that that destiny is sealed at death. According to the idea of the Armenti of the Egyptians, the Hades of the Greeks, the Tartarus of the Latins, the future lot of all men is decided when they depart this life, and they are at once

assigned their final places in the future world. Hear also the philosophical Plato: "Well know, O Socrates, that when one supposes himself near the point of death, there enter into his soul fears and anxieties respecting things before unheeded For then the old traditions respecting hell, how those, who in this life have been guilty of wrong, must there suffer the penalty of their crimes, torment his soul. He looks back He looks back upon his past life, and if he finds in the record many sins, like one starting from a frightful dream, he is terrified and filled with foreboding fears." "The good man," Seneca says, “God accustoms to hardships and prepares him for himself. But the luxurious, whom he seems to spurn, and to indulge, he reserves for evil to come. The man, who has long been spared, will, at last, have his position of misery, and, though he seems to have escaped, it is only delayed for a time." All of this indicates, as a tenet of the religion of nature, that this life is the only probation, and with this doctrine God's Revelation is found in harmony.

Isaac Taylor's "Physical Theory of Another Life," in the chapter on "The Survivance of Individual Character," says:

"While, therefore, it consists perfectly with the abstract reason of things, and with what we see around us in nature, to expect that the future transition from the present mode of existence to another will be effected immediately by the divine power, it directly contradicts, not merely the reason of things abstractedly, but our actual knowledge and experience of the principles of the moral and intellectual system, to hope for any such sovereign renovation of our dispositions, as consequent upon an enlargement of our faculties, or upon a change of scene, circumstance, and society. That the Sovereign Benevolence may indeed, if it pleases, so touch the springs of our motives as to bring about a change of character, is by no means to be denied; and, indeed, such an act of grace lies at the foundation of that economy of mercy under which we are now placed; but then this exertion of spiritual influence always flows in the channel of moral means and inducements; nor are we entitled to look for it under any other con ditions than those explicitly laid down, and solemnly insisted upon by the inspired writers, who strictly confine our expectations of efficacious grace to the present economy, and who, in the tones of awful warning, announce this to be the day of salvation, and this the accepted season of mercy.

IV.-This Scriptural view, confirmed by the analogy of nature, is still further sustained by the fact that the Interme diate State lacks the essential elements of a probation, and so cannot stand in that relation.

Probation implies the suspension of retribution. There is no evidence that this condition is met beyond death, while the argument is overwhelming that punishment begins at the cessation of life. Even upon the theory of an intermediate place, those who die in their sins, go to the nether division of Hades to suffer. If Dives were only in that halfway place, he was already under the sweep of retribution, as Father Abraham bid him remember.

Probation implies the continued mediation of Christ. There is no evidence that this can be obtained after death. The only shadow of encouragement to this effect is that, if Christ went to Hades, if his preaching was anything more than the proclamation to the patriarchs of the accomplished redemption, if he appointed there any means of grace and made provision for the perpetuation of the same, it may be that His mediation can there be secured. Yet even this is to be believed without any knowledge that a single spirit did repent under the preaching of Christ, or ever will repent under that system of things, while the whole tenor of God's Word implies that Christ ends his work of grace with the closing of the life of each person.

Probation implies, as an element, the influence of the Holy Spirit. No man will ever repent without it. Even in this life the exhortation is needed: "Quench not the Spirit;" "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." To have "done despite to the Spirit of grace," was a part of the solemn iudictment against those who were worthy of the "sorer punishment" than that of the sinner against Moses' law, and to whom there is a "certain fearful looking for of judgment." God declared that his Spirit should not always strive with man. And there is no evidence that this gentle spirit, so easily to be grieved, will continue to strive with the souls of men after they have rejected a lifetime of his interposition. The sin against the Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven in the world to come; and who knows but that all who die in their sins, resisting the Holy Spirit to the very last, do thereby commit that remediless sin, and thus forever cut themselves off from forgiveness.

Probation implies, as an element, good social influence. We know not how much our virtue is indebted to the restraints and incitements of our surroundings. In the fellowship of a spiritual exaltation many a covenant with death is disannulled, which no ordinary agency would ever have shaken. But after death these social influences cease to operate. The departed spirit is removed from communion with friends on the earth; and, impenitent, it is separated from the righteous in the unseen world; all of its associations are with the wicked, while its own depravity is let loose only to reveal new horrors in its desperateness; and the devil, who had before allured it to vice, delights to torment the victim of his seductions.

Probation implies discipline. But in the world-to-come the helpful discipline of this life is turned to punishment, and penal infliction upon an obstinate sinner will never lead him to repentance and faith and love. It does not so work in this life. Criminals are rarely softened by imprisonment. While affliction is made a blessing to the righteous, suffering, unat tended by the grace of God, does not prove reformatory even in this life. Confine an immortal soul in the agonies of Hades, and it will find no discipline there. Conscience, with renewed power, will continue its work of retribution, itself a hell. The sinful character will reproduce itself and so necessitate perpetual infliction.

And so in that period just beyond this life we find none of the essential elements of probation. What then will a sinful soul do, stripped of all this probationary interposition, but plunge deeper and deeper into perdition?

ARTICLE III.- HENRY WARD BEECHER.

The Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. From verbatim reports. By T. J. ELLINWOOD. Plymouth Pulpit; First Series: September, 1868-March, 1869.

Plymouth Pulpit; A Weekly Publication of Sermons. 18691870. New York: J. B. Ford & Co., No. 39 Park Row.

ONE cannot help experiencing a twinge, call it of modesty or shame, when he attempts to forestall posterity and to write a critique of a living contemporary, of one whom he may call a friend. No one likes to praise or blame a man to his face. Mr. Beecher, perhaps, is an exception to other men. He has had praises that have exalted him till he has touched the stars with lofty head, and vilifications that have sunk him to the lowest abyss. He, probably by this time is so used to such words that he "cares for none of these things." We, however, must still confess to a certain shamefacedness in this matter, and for that reason declare that we are not talking of Mr. Beecher, but only of the popular preacher, the preacher to the people, although before we get through we may make some particular mention of him by way of forcible illustration.

Who are the people? When we speak of the people in connection with the monarchical and aristocratic countries of the Old World, we do indeed have a different idea in our minds from that which we have in speaking of the people of our own country. In the Old World the people form the lower classes, the subject and abject classes, with little or no cultivation, the rude, unwashed, unknown; but with us how different! Among what we call the people there are all grades of intelligence and education, as may be seen in any of our religious congregations or assemblages for political purposes. In fact, the true idea of the people is not that of the educated or the ignorant classes, but the great body of humanity, who have