The Struggle for Eternal Life: Or the Immortality of the Just, and the Gradual Extinction of the Wicked (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Struggle for Eternal Life: Or the Immortality of the Just, and the Gradual Extinction of the Wicked

The result is that, even among those who have ao cepted neither the theory of universal redemption, nor the theory advocated in this volume, there is a general avoidance of the appalling revelations of the New Testament concerning the wrath to come. Men may listen to Evangelical preaching for years, and never be made to feel that their refusal to acknowledge the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ is likely to be followed by any awful consequences beyond death. The appeal to fear is being silently dropped. Augustine said that it very seldom or never happens that a man comes to believe in Christ except under the influence of terror. This sweeping statement, to whatever extent it may have been verified by his own expe rience, is flagrantly inconsistent with all that we know of the 'rise of Christian faith and hope in the souls of men in our own times. But the menaces of Christ mean something. The appeal to fear had a considerable place in His preaching;that should briefly introduce to the English translation of his Essay.

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