EDITOR'S TABLE. 



557 



New Testament as authentic and true, 

 no further demonstration is needed." 

 And yet a little further on this impor- 

 tant position is very materially quali- 

 fied. The Bishop points out that the 

 Scriptural presentation of the doctrine 

 of immortality is neither made promi- 

 nent nor emphatic, and, notwithstand- 

 ing " its profound and solemn interest," 

 he gives reasons why it was best to 

 leave it meager and obscure. He uses 

 the following language : " The light that 

 is thrown upon the next stage of exist- 

 ence in the Scriptures is designedly 

 somewhat general and limited. All the 

 direct information on the subject which 

 they give could be condensed into a 

 very small space. The eschatology of 

 the Old Testament could all be written 

 on a single page, and very much in the 

 New Testament which has been sup- 

 posed to relate to the subject is now 

 referred to the setting up of the king- 

 dom of truth and righteousness here 

 on earth. ' The kingdom to come ' in 

 many cases means simply the kingdom 

 of Christ among men. Revelation was 

 not intended to gratify our curiosity, 

 and it would not be well to make the 

 veil which hangs between us and the 

 future too translucent. Our work is 

 here, and, if that work is properly 

 done, we can afford to wait until an 

 actual entrance into the next world re- 

 veals its mysteries. The time is not 

 most properly employed which is spent 

 in speculating about these mysteries." 



This is rational and encouraging, 

 and a wide departure from the tradi- 

 tions; for theology has always main- 

 tained that the universe is insufficient 

 for man, even during the short time that 

 he occupies it ; and that the knowledge 

 of his immortal future is a thousand- 

 fold more momentous to man than all 

 he can learn about the present world. 

 In liberal contrast to this, the Bishop 

 now assures us that the teachings of 

 revelation upon this subject are general 

 and limited ; that it was not intended 

 merely to gratify our curiosity ; that it 



would not be well to remove the veil 

 that hides the distant future ; that our 

 work is here; that wo can afford to 

 wait ; and that speculation about those 

 mysteries is not the most profitable. 



But, having indulged in this little 

 episode of common sense, the Bishop 

 seems to have remembered where he 

 was, and quickly tacked back into the 

 middle current of the Monday lecture- 

 ship. There is no more talk of unprof- 

 itable speculations, and veils not to be 

 rent. The secret of this transcendental 

 mystery of spiritual existence must be 

 plucked out, and it must agree with the 

 calculations about it, or life is a cheat 

 and all nature an empty mockery! 

 This view is enforced with rhetorical 

 emphasis in the following spirited pas- 

 sage : 



" A division as old as Aristotle separates 

 speculators into two great classes those who 

 study the How of the universe, and those 

 who study the Why. All men of science are 

 embraced in the former of these, all men of 

 religion in the latter." I would like to under 

 stand both, if this is possible ; but, if I must 

 choose between the two, I would rather 

 know the reason for which I exist than the 

 mode by which I exist. The one is an end, 

 the other only a means. If it is impossible 

 to discover the end, or if that end, when it is 

 supposed to be discovered, does not seem to 

 be such as justifies the elaborate process by 

 which it is reached; if all the magnificent 

 discoveries of science land us in the conclu- 

 sion that the imiverse is only a great clock 

 put together and weighted and wound up to 

 run for a certain period, and then when it 

 has struck the last hour to fall to pieces and 

 become resolved into the materials of which 

 it was originally made the clock having 

 marked the process of time faithfully and 

 truly as long as the flow of events continued, 

 but the time itself leaving behind no perma- 

 nent results which abide after the clock has 

 ceased to strike if the end of existence is ex- 

 hausted in the process by which that existence 

 is registered, and terminates with the pro- 

 cess ; or, asrain, if the universe is only a huge 

 electric wheel throwing out sparks of life 

 which glisten for an instant in the darkness 

 and vanish for ever ; or, again, if man is only 

 the effervescence of a physical compound that 

 buds and blossoms and then dies as soon as 

 the soil furnishes no further sustenance 



