ne longs to believe that
Universalism should be true, but to believe it we must ignore much of
the evidence of Scripture.

III

_The theory of Conditional Immortality, i. e._, that all souls who fail
of Eternal Life shall be punished not by Endless Torment, but by
Annihilation and the loss of God and Heaven for ever and ever.

This is another conjecture framed to escape the difficulties of the
former two. It would be consistent both with retribution for evil and
also with the final victory of good. That in the mysterious nature of
things when the malignity of sin becomes incurable, a soul rotted
through with sin might ultimately die out of existence; this opinion is
at least allowable as a conjecture to escape from the theory of Endless
Torment and Sin. It would in a real sense be an everlasting
punishment, being an everlasting loss of Heaven and God. But it too is
founded only on part of the evidence, on such texts as "The gift of God
is eternal life," "He that hath the Son hath life," implying that
immortality is a conditional thing granted only to those who are saved,
and such texts as "eternal _destruction_ from the presence of God," and
the idea of utter annihilation in such passages as "burn up the chaff
with unquenchable fire." There is much in favor of it but there is
much in Scripture which makes it difficult to accept it. And it
contradicts straight out the wide-spread Christian belief in the
essential immortality of the soul (though that belief also needs to be
examined). At any rate it cannot claim authority as a theory of future
punishment.

IV

These are the only conjectures offered us to solve the difficulties
connected with Final Retribution. We find them all unsatisfactory. We
have reached no definite doctrine of Hell. With the evidence at our
disposal it seems impossible to do so. The failure of all attempts at
reconciling the seeming contradictions of Scripture must suggest to us
that the solution of this problem is beyond the range of our present
powers. At any rate it is beyond the range of our present knowledge.
Surely it is wise and reverent to think that this points to _some
dealing of God beyond our human ken_ which will one day reconcile all
the difficulties.[5] Our little guesses do not exhaust God's
possibilities. Some day we shall find the answer in that land where we
shall know even as we are known. And when we find it we know it will
be consistent with our high