the grosser infidelity. We refer to the materialistic explanation of consciousness and thought. It may be granted that thought and feeling are accompanied with molecular action in the brain, but we cannot write the two things over against each other as equivalents. The highest scientific authorities are quite clear and emphatic that the two things are utterly incommensurable, and that there is no conceivable translation from the one into the other. In other words, the purely materialistic explanation of thought is as utterly unthinkable as ever. "The passage," says Professor Tyndall, "from the physics of the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness is inconceivable as a result of mechanics." Even were our minds and senses vastly "expanded, strengthened, and illuminated, the chasm between the two classes of phenomena would still remain intellectually impassable." "In reality [the molecular groupings and motions] explain nothing. The utmost [the materialist] can affirm is the association of two classes of phenomena, of whose real bond of union he is in absolute ignorance. The problem of the connection of body and soul is as insoluble, in its modern form, as it was in the pre-scientific ages."*

Du Bois-Reymond is equally plain. We might refer to the quotation given in the preceding paragraph; but we may be allowed to add the following:

What conceivable connection subsists between definite movements of definite atoms in my brain on the one hand, and on the other hand such primordial, indefinable, undeniable facts as these: "I feel pain or pleasure; I experience a sweet taste, or smell a rose, or hear an organ, or see something red?”

It is absolutely and forever inconceivable that a number of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms should be otherwise than indifferent as to their own position and motion, past, present, or future. It is utterly inconceivable how consciousness should result from their joint action.†

Elsewhere he says, most emphatically, "that not only in the present state of our knowledge is thought not explicable by means of its material conditions, but from the nature of things it will never be." +

*" Fragments of Science," vol. ii, pp. 87, f.

Quoted in Tyndall's "Fragments of Science," vol. ii, pp. 228, f. + "La Revue scientifique," 10 Octobre, 1874, p. 341.

ART. VI. THE DANGER OF APOSTASY.

Αδύνατον γὰρ τοὺς ἅπαξ φωτισθέντας γευσαμένους τε τῆς δωρεᾶς τῆς ἐπουρανίου καὶ μετόχους γενηθέντας πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ καλὸν γευσαμένους θεοῦ ῥῆμα δυνάμεις τε μέλλοντος αἰῶνος, καὶ παραπεσόντας, πάλιν ἀνακαινίζειν εἰς μετάνοιαν, ἀνασταυροῦντας ἑαυτοῖς τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ παραδειγματίζοντας. Γῇ γὰρ ἡ πιοῦσα τὸν ἐπ' αὐτῆς ἐρχόμενον πολλάκις ὑετόν, καὶ τίκτουσα βοτάνην εὔθετον ἐκείνοις δι' οὓς καὶ γεωργεῖται, μεταλαμβάνει εὐλογίας ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ· ἐκφέρουσα δὲ ἀκάνθας καὶ τριβόλους ἀδόκιμος καὶ κατάρακ ἐγγύς, ἧς τὸ τέλος εἰς καῦσιν.—Hebrews vi, 4-8.

For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God: but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.-Revised Version.

Εκουσίως γὰρ ἁμαρτανόντων ἡμῶν μετὰ τὸ λαβεῖν τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τῆς ἀληθείας, οὐκέτι περὶ ἁμαρτιῶν ἀπολείπεται θυσία, φοβερὰ δέ τις ἐκδοχὴ κρίσεως καὶ πυρὸς ζῆλος ἐσθίειν μέλλοντος τοὺς ὑπεναντίους. ἀθετήσας τις νόμον Μωυσέως χωρὶς οἰκτιρμῶν ἐπὶ δυσὶν ἢ τρισὶν μάρτυσιν ἀποθνήσκει· πόσῳ δοκεῖτε χείρονος ἀξιωθήσεται τιμωρίας ὁ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ καταπατήσας, καὶ τὸ αἷμα τῆς διαθήκης κοινὸν ἡγησάμενος ἐν ᾧ ἡγιάσθη, καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς χάριτος ἐνυβρίσας. οἴδαμεν γὰρ τὸν εἰπόντα. Ἐμοὶ ἐκδίκησις, ἐγὼ ἀνταποδώσω· καὶ πάλιν Κρινεῖ Κύριος τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ. Φοβερὸν τὸ ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς χεῖρας θεοῦ ζῶντος. Hebrews x, 26-31.

For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. A man that hath set at naught Moses's law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.-Revised Version.

THE two passages given above, the latter being simply a duplicate of the former, with only slight variations, are at once important and difficult. They have been the subject of an untold amount of learned discussion, criticism, and word-twisting, and about them have been fought some of the severest battles recorded in the annals of theological and biblical polemics; and the end is not yet. Our limits forbid us to attempt even an outline of the history of these conflicts, and we must be content with only brief references, and concise presentations of some of the many interpretations that have been offered of the

words and forms of expression found in the above quoted passages, and with the statement of the conclusions to which they seem to lead.

To the unsophisticated reader these passages, at their first reading, would suggest the thought that their author saw a very great danger, against which he desired to warn those whom he addressed; that this danger was real, and not simply apparent, and that its visitation would be of the most fearful character; and also, that the realization of these deprecated evils was contingent and capable of being avoided. As a lesson of Christian instruction and admonition, it seems, at first sight, to assume that those to whom the warnings were addressed had attained to the conditions and relations first indicated, which they are earnestly exhorted to maintain; and in all this there is a natural implication that there is a fearful possibility of failure, and that the consequences of coming short would be a complete and final loss of the contemplated blessings, assured to them that continue to the end.

Probably the difficulties that have appeared to some minds in these passages would not have seemed especially formidable but for their bearing upon certain points of dogmatic theology; and were those dogmas entirely out of the way, the interpretation of the language of the epistle would be quite obvious. It is no doubt allowable to concede something to the "analogy of the faith" in the interpretation of Scripture; not, however, to conform the obvious sense of the word to creeds and doctrines of men's invention, but simply to harmonize the teachings of the various portions of the word of God with themselves. Every true critic or exegete, seeking only to know what is the real sense of the written word, is aware of the blinding and perverting influence of dogmatic prepossessions, and these are especially troublesome when any favorite dogma, which is also an essential element of a theological system, becomes an effective factor in some problem of interpretation. Among the valuable results of the rational (not rationalistic) methods of modern criticism is the assertion and acceptance of the maxim that dogma is always subordinate to Scripture, and therefore the plainest and most obvious sense of the language of the Bible should always be preferred, and, indeed, never given up except as required by the still clearer teachings of

other portions of the inspired word. Scripture may be interpreted by Scripture, but never by dogmas.

The application of this rule to the case in hand would no doubt very greatly mitigate its difficulties, and possibly it would make plain and easily intelligible all of its seeming obscurities and contradictions. But this can be done only at the expense of the symmetry of some of the famous creeds of Christendom.

The doctrine known and designated as "the perseverance of the saints" declares that a person who has been truly regenerated cannot, by any possibility, fail of eternal salvation; that "they whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved."- Westminster Confession. The man in whom that dogma has become intrenched, coming to the interpretation of the passages at the head of this paper, finds himself at once confronted with statements and implications that he cannot accept. He is therefore forced into a process of "hedging," and of exegetical maneuverings, if possible, to make the words and sentences here used mean something different from their first and most obvious sense. Probably no other portion of Scripture has ever given so much occasion to this kind of learned legerdemain. Evidently this doctrine of "perseverance" is a very great favorite, and is earnestly cherished by some who hold, rather loosely, some of the sterner doctrines of the more comprehensive system of which it is an integral part. It is very comfortable, when one has long been living without any recent assurance of the divine favor, to remember former experiences, and because of them to conclude that all will be well at last. It is said that Cromwell, when he saw that he was nearing his end, asked his chaplain, Dr. Thomas Goodwin, whether if a man had once been truly converted he could be finally lost, and having been assured that he certainly could not, he replied, "Then I am safe, for I know that I was once a child of God." Probably not many persons meet this case with such honest bluntness; but quite certainly not a few reason in the same way.

The doctrine of "perseverance "-that it is impossible for a converted person to fall away from Christ and be lost-is an 46-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. I.

integral and inseparable part of the more extended system of absolute and unconditional predestination, which embodies the doctrine of the "divine decrees," the election of some to eternal life, and the absolutely certain dooming of all others to eternal death, and all because of God's good pleasure. The salvation of the elect being decreed, their effectual calling, regeneration, sanctification, and eternal glorification follow of course and necessarily, as the unfoldings of an eternal purpose. This system has the advantages of complete unity and of logical consistency of its parts, which are so closely compacted that the whole and all its parts must stand or fall together; but its first principles are not derived from the divine word, and its final outcome is too horrible to be accepted for a moment. The result reached by the sternest predestinarians is no doubt the only logical one after accepting the dogma of unconditional grace, and consequently of the indefectibility of the divine life in the soul. They are monergists, asserting that God alone performs in man the work of salvation, and that human agency is not admitted as a condition either to assure or defeat the purposes of almighty goodness; and that having begun the good work, he will never cease till it shall be completed in eternal salvation. Accordingly, it will not do to understand the strong expressions found in the passages before us as indicating any thing conditional in respect to personal salvation in Christ. And so in order to get rid of the plain meanings of these words and phrases has seemed to be the great business of many who have undertaken their exposition.

The manifest design of the Epistle to the Hebrews is to dissuade those to whom it is addressed from abandoning the profession of the Gospel, and going back again to Judaism. In doing this the writer examines the claims set forth by Christ, and by others for him, to be the promised and expected Messiah, the divinely ordained Priest of the better covenant, of which things the Levitical priesthood and the Sinaitic covenant were only shadows and prophetic symbols. And mingled with these arguments, and also coming after them, are the most earnest warnings and cogent entreaties, enforced by considerations of the fearful dangers that would be risked in the deprecated apostasy. Respecting the nature of the evils that must result from so doing, it is agreed by all that they would involve