say, by which we become as the angels, and “are children of God, being (or, because we are) children of the resurrection.” It must, therefore, be something more than clothing the soul in a spiritual body. It is, besides this, growth in spiritual strength and power, in knowledge, in holiness, in all the elements and forces of the divine life, until we reach a point of perfectness and blessedness described by the term heaven. This resurrection, or lifting up of the soul into the glorified life of the angels, is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The end of his mediatorial reign, the completion of his saving work, and the final surrender of his kingdom back to God, does not take place till after this anastasis, or till this uplifting of all the dead and living into “the image of the heavenly” is completed. VII. Of Rewards and Punishments. On the subject of rewards and punishments, the Universalist belief is substantially, that holiness, piety, love of God and man, are their own reward, make their own heaven here and hereafter; and that in the nature of things no other reward is possible. If men love God with all their hearts, and trust in him, they find, and are satisfied with, the present heaven which love and faith bring with them. They hold the same doctrine respecting punishment: that it is consequential, not arbitrary—the natural fruit of sin; that it is for restraint, correction, and discipline; and that God loves as truly when he punishes as when he blesses, never inflicting pain in anger, but only because he sees that it is needed to prevent a greater evil. They affirm that the law is made for the good of man, and that of course the penalty cannot be such as to defeat the object of the law. Transgression brings misery or punishment, which is designed to correct and restore to obedience, because obedience is happiness. They maintain that pain ordained for its own sake, and perpetuated to all eternity, is proof of infinite malignity; but God, they say, is infinitely beneficent, and therefore all suffering must have a beneficent element in it, all punishment must be temporary and end in good.—The Universalists believe that traces of their main doctrine may be found in the earliest Christian writings. Some of the Gnostic sects held to the final purification of those who died in sin, as the Basilidians, Valentinians, &c. The famous Christian collection known as “Sibylline Oracles” teaches explicitly the doctrine of the final restoration of the lost. As this work was written expressly to convert the pagans to Christianity, Universalists affirm that this is conclusive as to what was regarded as Christian doctrine on this point in the earliest period of Christianity. They profess to find the same belief taught in the writings of Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Marcellus of Ancyra, Titus of Bostra, Gregory of Nyssa, Didymns the Blind of Alexandria, Diodorus of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Fabius Marius Victorinus (A. D. 200-400). Notwithstanding that Universalism, as such, was specially and formally condemned by a council, that of Mennas, held in Constantinople, A. D. 544, the doctrine survived, and occasionally appeared in strength; as among the Albigenses and Waldenses in the 12th century, the Lollards of Germany in the 14th, the “Men of Understanding” in the 15th, and some of the Anabaptist sects in the 16th. When the reformation began in England, this doctrine rose with it, and was defended with such zeal and success that, in preparing the “Articles of Faith” for the national church, it was thought necessary to introduce a special condemnation in an article which afterward, when the forty-two articles were revised and reduced to thirty-nine, was omitted. Some of the most eminent members of this church have sanctioned the doctrine: Archbishop Tillotson, Dr. Burnet in his De Statu Mortuorum, Bishop Newton, Dr. Henry Moore, William Whiston, David Hartley in his “Observations on Man,” and others. Among others who believed and defended it were Soame Jenyns, Jeremy White, chaplain to Oliver Cromwell and author of “The Restoration of All Things,” and William Law, author of the “Serious Call” and “Christian Perfection.” The English Unitarians generally believe the doctrine; and it is held by numbers in the established church, and positively taught in their writings, as in those of Charles Kingsley, Stopford Brooke, and George Macdonald. The doctrine prevails extensively in Germany. It is freely accepted also in the liberal branch of the French Protestant church. Universalism began to attract attention in America about the middle of the 18th century, and since the arrival of the Rev. John Murray in 1770 it has spread with great rapidity. The denominational “Register” for 1876 gives a United States convention, composed of 22 state conventions, in their turn composed of 73 associations, representing 689 ministers, 867 parishes owning 623 church edifices, and having 628 Sunday schools with a membership of 58,000. The church property is estimated at over $7,500,000 above all liabilities. They have established and supported 5 colleges, 2 theological schools, 7 academies, and 13 periodicals. There are also various state missionary, Sunday school, and tract societies. The woman's centenary association alone distributed nearly a quarter of a million tracts in 1875. The Universalist publishing house at Boston, denominational property, owns the title, copyright, and plates of 125 volumes, and issues five periodicals. The Murray centenary fund, established in 1869 as a memorial of the first century of Universalism in America, devoted to the education of young men for the ministry, the circulation of denominational literature, and church extension, amounted in 1875 to $120,700. Tufts college, at Medford, Mass., opened in 1854, has now a property of over $1,000,000; St. Lawrence university, Canton, N. Y., $255,000; Buchtel college, Akron, Ohio, $300,000; and
