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        Some of the readers of the paper are very much exercised over the doctrine of endless torment, and Probation after death. One person writes thus:  "Why do you oppose endless punishment? if that goes, endless salvation of necessity goes with it. Why rob Christians of their hope for the sake of comforting and hardening sinners in their sins. The age is drifting away from all restraint and you will help it along. If endless punishment is not true, then 99-100ths of all God's people have been mislead by Christ's own words."
        I do not believe that there is another reader of this paper who would endorse the above sentiments. The writer evidently is not at all familiar with the controversy waging over this doctrine of future retribution at the present time, and has considered the subject very superficially. My answer to these sentiments I have already published in the pamphlet, "Endless Torments not Scriptural." I insert the above not for the sake of arguing against it, but that our readers may see how utterly in the dark many sincere Christians are. It is indeed sad that this hideous and false dogma of an endless hell has so blinded the eyes and hardened the hearts of God's dear children, that many of them have come to think that if there is no endless hell there can be no endless heaven, and in a spirit of utter selfishness as unlike Christ as it possibly could be; they stoutly contend for the former doctrine for fear of weakening the evidences of the latter; they are sure to go to heaven, they think, and rather than have their pious complacency disturbed they are perfectly willing that, side by side with their heaven of eternal joy, there should be a hell of everlasting woe. May the time speedily come when this awful slander against God shall be obliterated from the hearts of all his "offspring!" (Acts XVII. 29).  For my own part, I confess that I feel that even heaven purchased at such an appalling cost as the existence of an endless hell would be too dear; and I hesitate not to declare that it seems to me it would be better that there should be no future life at all, than that any soul should suffer eternally. I thank God that the Bible teaches no such doctrine.  So far as "hardening sinners in their sins" and releasing them from "restraint" is concerned, I would ask what effect does the preaching of the doctrine of endless torment have? Does it soften the heart and restrain from sin? Does not everyone know that the preaching of this dogma hardens the heart, and makes the sinner reckless and defiant? Infidelity and godlessness would not be so rampant in these days as they are if it had not been for the preaching of this false doctrine; it is not too much to say that there would be no Col. Ingersoll to-day going about the country undermining the people's faith in the Bible, if this doctrine had never been promulgated; and I for one, feeling sure as I do that the dogma is false, contrary to scripture, and an outrage upon reason and common sense, am resolved to do all I can to disabuse the minds of the people of this awful misrepresentation of God and his Word. In regard to the statement that 99-100ths of God's people have been misled by Christ's own words, I would say that there is nothing new in that, for God's nominal people as a whole, in every age, have invariably erred from the truth. Those who have had the most advanced light, and the purest truth, have always been in the minority. So it was in Elijah's day (1 Ki. XIX. 14, 18), so it was in Jeremiah's (Jer. I. & II.), so it was in the days of the first advent,-- "He came to his own and his own received him not." So it was in the days of Martin Luther; and so also in this final, Laodicean phase of the gospel church (Rev. III. 17, 18). If  you follow the majority of the church in any age (except it be, perhaps, during the lives of the apostles) you will be led into many and serious errors; whereas if you would find the truth you must seek it, not among the most popular and numerous branches of the Christian Church, but among the little companies, the faithful few who have "gone forth unto Him without the camp bearing his reproach," (Heb. XIII. 13, compare Ex. XXXIII. 7)-- the "Comeouters" as they have been called, and well called too, for though the name has been used as a term of reproach, yet those who have thus applied it have thereby unwittingly borne testimony to the scriptural character of these "little flocks," for even so hath the Lord commanded, "Come out from among them and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing." The fact that the majority of the nominal church have accepted any particular doctrine would, according to ecclesiastical history, be a stronger argument against that particular doctrine than for it. However this tremendous doctrine of everlasting woe is not one to be decided by a majority. Our appeal must be to the teachings of the Bible, and we must be content to abide by that, whatever others, either few or many, may think. I am perfectly satisfied with its teachings. I thank God that the Scripture is not burdened with any such monstrous doctrine, but that from beginning to end it is in perfect accord with that golden declaration of holy writ that "God is love."
        Another brother writes a lengthy and very decided letter against the doctrine of Probation after death. I will give a few extracts from his communication to show how carelessly and thoughtlessly men read the Bible, and what flimsy, shallow talk is advanced and accepted by many as sound reasoning. The brother seems to be quite satisfied that he has presented a very formidable argument against the "foolish doctrine" (as he calls it) of posthumous probation; he says, "the texts I have given you will find very   troublesome for you to deal with; and I deny that you can make them agree with your theory without quibble." Now, although the brother seems to think that I shall be almost overwhelmed by the might of his logic, yet the fact is (and it is almost laughable) that many of the texts he quotes as against the truth he opposes, are the very ones that I have used again and again in my writings and preaching to prove that doctrine, and the brother misses the point because he has not studied close enough. Now for a few specimens of his reasoning.
        At the beginning of his letter he says that although the word probation is not in the Bible yet its equivalent is there, viz.: trial. I accept this, and was intending that the next Supplement should be on this very subject; let the reader bear this statement in mind, that the word trial is equivalent to probation, as I shall have occasion to refer to it again.
        The writer quotes from my article where I say that the sinner is already dead and lost, and then asks, "How dead and lost? Not literally surely, for Christ in addressing the same dead class says, "Ye shall seek me and shall die in your sins, and where I go ye cannot come." To tell dead men that they should die is strange logic.  From this sentence it is very clear that the brother does not understand the Bible teachings on the great subject of life and death (1-3-54).  I would ask him, what did Jesus mean when he said to a certain one, "Let the dead bury their dead," to tell dead men to bury dead men "is strange logic," is it not? But I will not stop to notice this point further now.
        The writer continues thus, "You make the bold assertion that the entire teaching of the Bible, both in its general scope and in its special precepts and declarations is in full harmony with the doctrine of posthumous probation. I deny it."  Yes, I do make this bold assertion (if it is bold) and I reiterate it, and thank God!  No amount of denial can change the truth. But assertions do not amount to much one way or the other.  Let us notice some of this brother's proof against this doctrine.  He says, "The doctrine that teaches that God will destroy people and then raise them from the dead and give them another chance to practice the same wickedness again, to my mind, is a very foolish doctrine; to punish men first and then raise them from the dead and make then holy and happy in his own image and likeness is to my mind monstrous in the extreme." Strange language this! To raise people from the dead simply that they may practice the same wickedness again would be foolish.  I know of no one who entertains any such foolish idea; if the brother does I hope he will do all he can to enlighten them. But would it be foolish to raise people from the dead to deliver them from their wickedness, and to bring them to a knowledge of the truth, would that be foolish? Whether such an idea were true or not, there certainly is nothing foolish about it. But the last part of the quotation is the most remarkable; to punish men first and then raise them from the dead and make them holy and happy in God's own image and likeness seems to this brother "monstrous in the extreme; now to me it seems blessed in the extreme. I hardly think the brother read this sentence over after he wrote it or he would not have allowed it to have gone so. Why, does not the brother claim to be a Christian? And has not the Lord punished him some time? (if he has not then is he a bastard and not a son; Heb. XII. 8) and if he dies before the Lord comes, does he not expect to be raised from the dead and made holy and happy in God's image and likeness? And is this monstrous? The brother says it is; "monstrous in the extreme." But see again, he quotes, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to, have Probation? no, no. My Bible does not read that way, it puts in the word punished and thereby spoils your theory." Nay, it thereby sustains my theory, and makes it fact. This text is one of the strong ones in favor of Probation after death. Who does the Lord punish? And what does he punish them for? He punishes those he loves, (Heb. XII. 6; compare Amos III. 2) and he does it for their good;-- that they may be "partakers of his holiness." (Heb. XII. 10). I do not suppose that this brother knows that the word here rendered "punished" really means corrected, but such is the fact; the passage then would read, "to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be corrected;" compare Jude 14, 15. This passage properly understood is a positive proof of probation after death. The brother goes on to quote some passages that he thinks teaches that death fixes our eternal destiny. The first one he quotes thus, "Heb. IX. 27; and as it is appointed unto man once to die and after this, Probation? no indeed." I say yes indeed, that is just what it says; "after this probation." The original word means trial, as well as judgment; trial would be a perfectly correct rendering of the word. But according to this brother, as we have seen, trial is equivalent to probation, hence the correct rendering is as above. This passage is one of the strongest passages in the Bible for a probation after death, because it expresses that doctrine in the plainest language possible. "It is appointed unto man once to die and after this PROBATION." Here is the doctrine in just so many words; without any "inferences," or "twisting," or "quibble," or anything of the kind, but the exact words the apostle used. I shall try to consider this subject fully in the next supplement.
        Again to prove that death fixes our eternal destiny, the brother quotes Heb. X. 27; but this passage says nothing about death what ever; not a word. The question is this, is our eternal destiny irrevocably fixed at the moment of death? A passage that makes no reference to death at all, like the last one mentioned, surely can have no bearing upon this question, and to present such an utterly irrelevant passage shows the carelessness and superficiality of the writer. The next passage urged to prove the same point is Matt. XII. 31, 32; of this we say the same as of the one just considered, it says nothing about death at all; whatever it proves, or however it is understood, it does not touch the question under consideration, and hence proves nothing one way or the other concerning it. It was to guard against such carelessness as this that I wrote the paragraph in the last paper on page 77, beginning, "I would call attention," etc. In that paragraph I say, "if you examine carefully, and adhere closely to the one point under consideration, you will see," etc., and yet this brother quotes texts that do not make any reference at all to the point under consideration.  After quoting this last passage he adds, "If death does not fix the eternal destiny or the blasphemer, then words fail to convey ideas." But there are no words at all in this passage to convey any such idea; death is not referred to in the passage; again I say, the question is, does death fix our eternal destiny? How can a passage that does not say anything about death at all have any bearing on this question? O how blind and befogged men must be thus to talk round and round a point and never come any where near it! The brother goes on to quote again, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of  temptation and to reserve the unjust to be punished," and then he asks, "Does punishment mean probation?"  I reply, punishment is a very important part of probation, as I have already noticed, and can this brother deny it? Does not God always punish to benefit the one punished? Just as a good parent punishes his child. Is it possible that the brother is so ignorant of the Bible that he does not know that punishment is one of the most essential parts of our trial? "The Lord scourgeth Every son whom he receiveth." (Heb. XII. 7). The statement that certain ones were to be punished would be a proof that their period of probation had not expired, rather than the contrary (see also Psa. CXIX. 65-72).
        The brother goes on to refer to many other passages, every one of them as wide of the mark as those we have noticed; and then he undertakes to explain away the force of Ezek. XVI. 44-63. This part of his letter I will consider in the next number.

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