passages from "The Dial :" "Holding, as Pantheists do, but one essence of things, which essence is God, they must deny the existence of essential evil. All evil is negative; it is imperfection, non-growth. It is not essential, but modal. Sin is not a wilful transgression of a righteous law, but it is the difficulty, the obstruction, which the infinite meets in entering into the finite." This then is sin-" the obstruction which the infinite meets in entering into the finite." I hope the definition may be remembered. Another writer in "The Dial" says: "Pantheism annihilates man, so far as moral obligation is concerned. Man's desires, thoughts, and volitions are manifestations of God; and if so, they must be good, and are bad only in appearance, if at all."*

It follows from what has been said, that Pantheists must deny all proper punishment for sin. If there is no sin, there surely ought to be no punishment. The results of our actions, indeed, are not all alike. Some are painful; others are agreeable. But aside from natural, necessary results, there is no such thing as reward or punishment. There is no personal Sovereign in the universe to bestow the one or inflict the other.

And if sin incurs no penalty, then there can be no such thing as forgiveness, or the remission of a penalty. When persons cease from such actions as give them pain, the pain, of course, ceases; and this is all the forgiveness of which Pantheism has any knowledge.

I have said that Pantheists in Christian lands are not backward to speak of Christ. What then do they think of him? And where do they place him? Just where it best suits their own convenience. The Christ of Strauss is but an ideal personage—the hero of the Christian myths. The Christ of Parker is a man like ourselves; an extraordinary man; a gifted man; the greatest perhaps that has yet appeared, though not so great as may be anticipated in future years. The Christ of many of the German Pantheists is divine. These men have no scruple in ascribing Divinity to our Saviour. Every creature is divine. Christ was truly "God, manifest in the flesh." And so was Hegel; so is Feuerbach and Strauss; so is every other creature which has flesh and blood. It may interest you to know what views our American Pantheists take of the atonement. The conductors of the Dial speak of it on this wise: "Pantheists hold to the atonement, or the at-one-ment between the soul and God. This is strictly a unity or oneness of essence, brought about by the incarnation of the Spirit of God within us "-since each one of us is "God manifest in the flesh." As we grow wise, just, and pure, we grow to be one with God in mode, as we always were in essence. This "atonement"-in

* Dial, vol. i., pp. 106, 424.

mode" is effected by Christ, only as he taught the manner in which it is to be accomplished more fully than any other, and gave a better illustration of it in his own person."

As to the doctrine of immortality, which makes a part of almost all religions, Pantheists in one sense admit it, and in another sense deny it. The soul is immortal as to its substance or essence. Partaking of the very nature of God, of course, it cannot be annihilated. But as to its separate, conscious existence, the soul is not immortal. It will cease to exist. It will, at length, be swallowed up in the great ocean of being from which it came. Peradventure it may come forth again, in some other connection or form, but never as constituting the same individual person which now exists. This is what John Toland meant, in that heathenish epitaph which he wrote for himself: "My substance shall come forth again, at some period of eternity, but never again shall it be Toland."

As to the precise period of the soul's absorption, Pantheists are not agreed among themselves. Some think it may occur in the present life. Thus the Fakirs of India not unfrequently come into a state before they die, in which they say: "I am the unchangeable; I am the ever-living; I am the inconceivable, the simple life, the displayer of all things." Some hold, with Toland, that the absorption takes place at death; while others believe that this great event may be long delayed, especially in the case of those who are not prepared for it when they leave the world. They may be destined to pass into other bodies, and to undergo long probations and purgations, before they are sufficiently purified to be swallowed up of life.

I have said that the morality which Pantheism inculcates is often severe; as in the case of the ancient mystics and ascetics. But in other cases, and I fear in most cases in modern times, it is just the opposite of this. Having no fear of God before their eyes, and no dread of a future personal retribution, persons throw off all restraint, give a loose rein to appetite and lust, and practise every form of wickedness with greediness.

You will now be able to judge, my hearers, of the nature of pantheistic piety, or the religion of Pantheism. You will be able to see wherein it differs from the religion of the gospel; or rather, that it differs every where, in every thing except sounds and names. If the Bible is true, this religion is a shadow, and a great deal worse than a shadow; and if this be true, the Bible is a useless and pernicious fiction. Certain it is, that the two can never stand together. They have nothing in common, whether in doctrine or spirit; whether in object of worship, or motives to action, or rules of life.

And now, if the question be raised: How is it that this miser

able delusion has obtained so wide a currency in the world? how is it that it prevails, not only among Jews, Mohammedans, and Heathens, but in enlightened Christian lands, so that it may be said (I fear with truth) that "already all, or nearly all educated men, from end to end of continental Europe," are infected by it; so that, next to Popery, it may be regarded as the most appalling enemy of a pure Christianity? the answers to these inquiries may be given in few words. With all its absurdities this religion has much to recommend it to nearly all classes of carnal, unrenewed men. It has a bait, a sop, a lure for each, according as his taste and inclination may be.

"For the contemplative and devout, it has its mysticism, its vagueness, its pretended spirituality, and deadness to the world. For the poetical and imaginative, it has many enchantments; as it gives consciousness and life to every object, and makes all things but expressions of the Infinite One. For the vain and the proud, no Circe ever mingled so intoxicating a cup. 'Ye shall be as gods,' said the arch-tempter to our first parents, six thousand years ago. Ye are gods,' he now whispers into willing ears. For the shallow pretender to wisdom, this philosophy has peculiar charms. He has only to learn the sounding phraseology of the sect; to talk of the me and the not me, of the heights of the absolute, and the profundities of the human consciousness; and he is already a great character; he is beyond the depths of ordinary men." For the professed liberalist, the man of easy conscience, who thinks one religion just as good as another, Pantheism is the most convenient thing in the world; for it can assume any shape, appear in any form, adopt any creed, or all creeds, or no creed at all, as circumstances seem to require. "For the pleasure-loving and the sensual, this doctrine is a perfect heaven. It legitimates and dignifies all their enjoyments; it makes a religion of self-indulgence; it excites no fears, imposes no restraints, but permits every one to consult his own comforts, as best he may."

That a system so manifold as this, which has a chamber of imagery for every vain imagination, should have advocates and friends, is certainly no matter of surprise. We wonder not at all that it has spread widely in this wicked world; we wonder not that it begins to raise its demoniac front, and boast of numbers, and threaten to swallow up every thing which stands in its way.

And yet, with all its fascinations, what has it, in reality, to recommend it? No God, no Bible, no Saviour, no ground of consolation under present trials, no opening prospects of future glory; what has it, I ask again, to recommend it? And why should

any forsake the plain path of the gospel to chase its shadows, and sport themselves with its deceivings?

There is nothing more affecting in all history than the dying confession of John Theophilus Fichte, one of the great preachers and apostles of German Pantheism. "I know absolutely nothing," says he, "of any existence, not even my own. Images there are, and they constitute all that apparently exists. I am myself one of these images; nay, not so much, but only a confused image of an image. All reality is converted into a marvellous dream, without a life to dream of, or a mind to dream; into a dream, itself made up only of a dream. Perception is a dream; and thought, the source of all the existence, the reality, which I imagine to myself, is but the dream of that dream."

And is this the end of pantheistic piety? Is this the dying confession of a man who had studied it, professed it, and taught it, with high honor and success, through a long course of years? Let me, then, "die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." Let me rather accept and pursue the religion of Paul, that I may be able to say with him, in my last hour: "I know in whom I have believed, and am sure that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day."

That the Church of Christ is now seriously threatened from the inroads of that philosophy which I have attempted to describe, there can be no doubt. But that it will be overcome in the conflict, no one who has faith in the great Captain of our salvation can for a moment believe.

That we may be delivered in this day of our trial, and not only delivered, but come off victorious, only two things seem to me to be necessary. The first is, that we know our enemy; know his nature, his artifices, his resources, his strength, the forms of deception which he assumes, and the ways in which he leads captive to destroy.

And knowing with whom we have to contend, we are, in the second place, to go forth and meet him, not with arms of our own preparing, but in a skilful use of the old tried weapons of the gospel, and in a prayerful reliance on those aids and influences which are proffered us from heaven. It is true that, in ourselves, we have no strength. What are we, that we should engage the embattled hosts which the Prince of Darkness is now arraying against us? "In our own sight we are but as grasshoppers, and so we are in their sight." Yet it is our privilege to say, with our brothers of olden time: "We can do all things, through Christ strengthening us." "We are more than conquerors, through him that hath loved us and died for us." Relying prayerfully on his promised aid, and using faithfully the weapons which he hath given us, no power on earth can overcome us, or stand against

us.

One shall be able to chase a thousand, and two to put ten thousand to flight, until our enemies are all scattered, and the victory is won.

Courage then, my brethren, in the work of the Lord; courage to toil on, whether in early morn, or sunny noon, or evening shade, till the night of death comes over us, and we can no longer work. It is our privilege to follow a Master who never forgets or forsakes his faithful servants. We labor in a cause where not a stone is laid, or a stroke struck, or a prayer is offered up in vain. If we are faithful, we may behold the fruits of our labor even here. And this will be pleasant, amidst the turmoil and dust of the conflict, to see that our work is not in vain in the Lord. But whether this privilege is permitted us or not, we know that no work of faith, or labor of love, can be lost. Such works are sure to follow us to heaven; for it is a part of the blessing of the holy dead, not only that they shall rest from their labors, but that their works shall follow them. May this blessing, dear brethren, be ours, individually and collectively ours. Amen.

SERMON DLXXIV.

BY REV. A. C. PIERCE,

SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

THE GREAT LESSON OF MAN'S EARTHLY STATE.

"Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." COL. iii. 1,'2.

ADMITTING the truth that it is the same God who has ordered the circumstances of man's nature and condition in this earthly state of being, and inspired the pages of Revelation, it were natural to suppose that there would be religious correspondences between them; that the same teachings which the "lively oracles" urge upon our attention, would also, in unseen, yet to us intelligible characters, be written within and around us.

And so it is. Religion is not alone of Revelation, it is also of Nature. Deep in the desires, the impulses, the feelings which make up our inward experience, and are the circumstances which