be
'endless,' presents a very great difficulty. We are not at liberty in
such cases to accept some parts of Scripture and reject others in order
to get rid of the difficulty, but must believe that the truth, if it
should be reached, will establish the consistency of all, and that
seeming contradictions are only due to our ignorance. I propose for
consideration the following solution of the above-stated difficulty:--

"Jesus Christ in his ministration on earth said, in the course of
giving instruction to his _disciples_ (Matt. xxiv. 3), 'These [on the
left hand] shall go into eternal punishment, and the righteous into
eternal life' (Matt. xxv. 46). Considering that in all he said and did
he had in view his Father's purpose of making the spirits of men meet
for immortality, it may be asked, In what way was such teaching
contributory to this end? May we not conclude from our Lord's words,
apart from all other inferences, that eternal life is necessarily
preceded by righteousness, and eternal punishment is as necessarily
consequent upon sin, and that the knowledge of these divine decrees
contributes to the formation of spirits for the life to come? This
inference might be accepted as abstractedly true; but then the question
arises, What is meant by _duration_ as signified by the word 'eternal'?
It should be remarked that in the statement of the doctrine I have
employed the word 'necessarily' in a sense that is not unusual, and is
generally thought to be intelligible. But it is to be taken into
account that no such use of the term occurs in Scripture, where, in
fact, it would be wholly {127} incongruous. The reason of this is that
the Scriptures contain no abstract truths which are not expressed, or
expressible, in terms understood from the facts and conditions of human
experience. This may especially be said of the discourses of our Lord,
in consequence of which they are much misunderstood by the many who are
incapable of discerning the spiritual through the literal, who, as he
said, 'have eyes and see not, and ears and hear not.' Assuming,
therefore, that there is truth in speaking of righteousness and life as
being _necessarily_ connected, as also of sin and punishment as being
in like manner connected, we have to inquire in what way these abstract
truths are expressed in the language of Scripture. I venture to make
answer that this is done by its recognition of a special faculty we are
all conscious of possess