PREFACE THIS work is made up of original essays, prepared expressly in response to my appeal, by eminent theologians in England. and the United States, for the purpose I had in view, namely, to show the status of great questions at this period and how far religion and theology have been influenced by the progress of scientific research. President Faunce of Brown University had promised an original essay on Christian Science, but he subsequently felt compelled to substitute the one which he wrote for the Chicago Standard, and which is one of the series of studies published by the Fleming H. Revell Company, under the title "Search Lights on Christian Science." My task has been a laborious one, covering a period of two years. There are sad memories connected with those years, and I wish to express my great obligation to my friend, the Rev. H. O. Rowlands, D. D., Lincoln, Nebraska, for the benefit of his varied and ample experience. I thank that noble-hearted man, Dean Hart of Denver, for his unfailing encouragement, and also the various contributors for their sympathetic cooperation. No eloquence of words can do justice to their confidence and affection. The questions discussed represent almost all aspects of theology and of the ministry, and they possess an urgency to-day which they have never hitherto possessed. Care has been taken in arranging the subjects so as to give the discussion a systematic completeness. The discussion goes down to the roots of things and has high and permanent value. It shows the scientific drift of the century now closing, together with its bearing upon the intellectual and ethical movements which are now going on around us-movements that have changed not only our theories but the very spirit of our thinking. I wish to say that while I have been honored in presenting these authors to the public, it cannot be expected that I should endorse all their views. I have endeavored to be impartial, and to give an honest analysis of the trend of current thought upon these fundamental questions, as shown in this book. I have given special attention to two or three themes that seem to be absorbing public thinking at the moment. Want of space forbids me to call attention to every topic in full. December, 1900. J. VYRNWY Morgan. CONTENTS The Reverend J. Vyrnwy Morgan, D.D. . CHRISTIANITY AT THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. I. Sovereignty the Fundamental Conception in Christianity. 3 21 IS CHRISTIANITY FOUNDED UPON A BOOK OR UPON A PERSON? The Reverend Harry Jones, M. A., Prebendary of St. 159 The Reverend Charles A. Dickinson, D.D., Pastor of II. Is Punishment Everlasting? The Reverend James De Normandie, D.D., Pastor First Religious Society, Roxbury, Massachusetts III. The Bearing of the Teaching of Jesus Christ on Man's Fu- The Reverend Caleb Scott, B.A., LL.B. (London), D.D. UNIVERSALISM. I. The Reverend I. M. Atwood, D.D., General Superintendent 177 191 II. The Reverend David N. Beach, D.D., Pastor First Congre- I. The Reverend Frederick Wilkins Aveling, M.A., B.Sc. (London), Principal Christ's College, Blackheath, London 239 II. The Reverend Charles F. Dole, Pastor First Congregational II. The Reverend James Muscutt Hodgson, M.A., D.D. (Glas- I. The Reverend W. T. Jordan, Pastor Calvary Baptist Church, The Reverend Robert Collyer, D.D., Church of the Mes- I. The Reverend O. P. Gifford, D.D., Pastor Delaware Avenue Baptist Church, Buffalo, New York. II. Edward A. Kimball, C.S.D., First Reader, Christian Science III. The Reverend W. H. P. Faunce, D.D., LL.D., President of |