h Century_ of May, 1893--"The
great truth is that death ends our probation, and _settles our state
for ever_, that there is no passing over the great gulf". Amidst much
that is uncertain, for instance, as to whether real devils are in hell,
a real fire, and whether it be bright or dark, whether the appalling
torments are ever mitigated, say on certain feasts of the Christian
Church, such as Christmas Day and Easter, or whether eventually the
pains ultimately die completely away and thus usher in that "happiness
in hell" in which Mr. Mivart is, or was, so deeply interested five
years ago--amidst all these highly debatable points, Newman pronounces
one thing certain, that "death ends our probation," that "there is no
passing over the great gulf".

Now, whence did he learn this strange teaching? How is he dogmatically
certain of that one thing, while all the rest is in a haze? From stray
texts, such as, "Whether the tree falleth to the north or the south, in
whatsoever place it shall fall, there shall it lie"; or, from the
parable of wise and foolish virgins, some of whom happened to be
asleep, and awoke at the critical hour to find that during the long
night-watch for the bridegroom their store of oil had become exhausted?
Surely tropes and parables are a highly insecure foundation whereon to
build such a momentous teaching. Certainly, it is gravely questionable
whether any direct statement in the Hebrew or Christian writings can be
adduced to support the common notion that bodily dissolution is a
spiritual reagent, and _ipso facto_ seals the destiny of a spiritual
essence. Vast numbers of even Anglicans repudiate the notion in the
name of theology and religion. We repudiate it in the name of reason,
which was put into us for no other purpose, we know well, than to judge
not only the statements Churches put forth, but the sacred documents on
which they build them. We repudiate the notion in the name of that
reason which shows us that the Infinite Mind, whose light and life we
share, was millions of years preparing this earth for man's habitation,
aeons of time so fashioning the course of things that a body might be
prepared in which that mind which we call soul might energise; aeons of
time so ordering the course of events that man should emerge one day
from the savagedom and animalism of the past to enter upon the path of
a progress which we believe to be endless. I say the reason which
demonstrates this to us wi