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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



vanced opinion, and tarn out everybody 

 who blinks at the literalness of the ver- 

 bal creed, they will have plenty of busi- 

 ness, and can find a good many more 

 cases quite as bad as that of Mr. New- 

 ton. We are told that the case is sim- 

 ply one of breach of contract. Enter- 

 prising editors, to whom an ecclesias- 

 tical trial would be as much of a god- 

 send as the Saratoga horse-races, are 

 especially solicitous about Heber New- 

 ton's contract to preach certain things 

 which he is bound and sworn to preach 

 while he remains in the Church. 



Now, suppose these heresy-hunters 

 institute an inquiry as to the extent 

 of clerical dereliction in maintaining 

 acknowledged Christian foundations. 

 There can not be the slightest doubt 

 as to the fundamental importance of 

 a belief in hell, in our system of or- 

 thodox theology. It is the basal, and 

 topmost, and all-impelling idea. The 

 conception of hell is the corner-stone 

 of the orthodox edifice, the key-stone 

 of the orthodox arch ; and, what the 

 fires under the boiler are to the steam- 

 engine, that are the fires of hell to the 

 orthodox " scheme of salvation." The 

 idea pervades the Christian theology 

 and hymnology, and has been preached, 

 sung, and prayed now for some eight- 

 een hundred years, the proclaimed ob- 

 ject of the whole theological system 

 being to save men from hell ! Such 

 being the theological import and his- 

 toric prominence of the doctrine, which 

 is explicitly conserved in the creeds, and 

 solemnly avowed by all orthodox cler- 

 gymen, would it not be well to look a 

 little into the growth of modern heresy 

 regarding it in the very bosom of the 

 Church ? How is it about the enforce- 

 ment of the hell-fire contracts? It 

 would be interesting to know how 

 many times the fundamental hell-doc- 

 trine is referred to in the course of or- 

 dinary pulpit ministration, and how it 

 is slurred over and put aside and ig- 

 nored as if the preachers were ashamed 

 to allude to it. We think an inquest 



of this sort would reveal the fact that 

 there is a good deal more reservation, 

 and private interpretation, and playing 

 fast and loose with creed and Scripture, 

 than our heresy-hunters are aware of; 

 and, if they pushed their inquisitorial 

 work very far in this direction, they 

 would be pretty sure to vacate half the 

 pulpits in the land. 



THE BANQUET TO DR. HOLMES. 



All who had the good fortune to 

 be present at the complimentary din- 

 ner to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, giv- 

 en by the Medical Faculty of New York 

 at Delmonico's, April 12th, will long 

 remember it as a rare occasion. It was 

 a most appropriate tribute of honor to 

 the distinguished guest, and the taste 

 and elegance displayed in the banquet 

 and the excellence of the judiciously 

 chosen speakers did abundant credit to 

 the managers of the affair. But their 

 task was not difficult, for hardly ever 

 before were such favorable elements 

 combined to give success to such an oc- 

 casion. In the first place, if the com- 

 mittee had gone around the world with 

 lanterns, over all the lines of latitude and 

 longitude, they could not have found 

 another so eligible a man to exploit in 

 the festive and honorary way as Dr. 

 Holmes. Known, admired, and loved 

 wherever the English language is spok- 

 en, illustrious as a poet, humorist, nov- 

 elist, essayist, conversationalist, and lec- 

 turer, and, finally, so specially distin- 

 guished as an anatomist and physician 

 as to command the high regard of the 

 medical profession in the metropolis of 

 the country, nothing was wanting to 

 give inevitable success to any compli- 

 mentary expression of unaffected admi- 

 ration and profound respect. Delmon- 

 ico is, of course, a constant quantity, 

 and can be counted on for the perfec- 

 tion of a feast, but the intellectual fur- 

 nishings in this case were spontaneous, 

 varied, and also of the highest quality. 

 When prose was exhausted, poetry came 



