father, who has been the pastor of our flock for nearly sixty years, once said to me that that book had done more than any single book of his time to give character to the new phase of theology in New England, which began about 1820, and in which Dr. N. W. Taylor, Dr. L. Beecher, and Dr. Moses Stuart, and many others, were prominently concerned. This new theology pervaded the Presbyterian Church, and eventually led to its disruption into two bodies, the so-called Old and New School bodies, in 1836 or 1837. The volume is still esteemed very highly for its argument, and its just discrimination between the theology of the schools, and the theology of the Scriptures. Your later writings were not received with such general favor, but candid and friendly critics understood how you were led to adopt the views asserted in them, by the extreme and cast-iron rigidness of the Scotch theology."

In 1822, Mr. Erskine gave to the public a work called "An Essay on Faith." Five English editions of this were published, besides a French translation. Next followed the "Unconditional Freeness of the Gospel." Then the "Brazen Serpent, or Life Coming through Death," "The Doctrine of Election," "Spiritual Order," "The Purpose of God in Creation," "The Gifts of the Holy Spirit," and some smaller volumes and essays on subjects connected with religion. His style is chaste and graceful, and seems to flow in strains of beauty and eloquence from the heart rather than from the head. Yet his writings are often characterized by power of close reasoning, and exhibit sound logical methods and deductions. His originality of thought often takes the reader through untrodden paths in the investigation and application of spiritual truth, and surprises him with the new and delightful dress in which he clothes some old subject, or some common passage of Scripture. His clear vision shows on what lofty heights he stood when all was dark in the valley below, heights which caught and reflected the light of the coming day, while others were groping in the mists and shadows of night. Without any special training in the science of theology, or discipline in dialectics, he masters by simple methods problems over which the most learned have often stumbled. He melts those hard ques

tions in the crucible of his own warm and loving nature, and applying to them the touchstone of a childlike spirit, they stand forth images of truth fresh with new life and beauty.

Mr. Erskine's love of divine things, and the sincerity of his convictions, are seen in brighter light, when we take into account the fact that all his efforts, to promote with pen and voice, what he deemed to be pure Christianity, were labors of genuine love. His inherited fortune was ample for all his temporal wants in a style of generous hospitality and refinement. And other fields, such as law and literature, opened to him promising opportunities for the employment of his talents and the gratification of a scholarly ambition. But he could not resist the stronger impulses of his nature, his profound love of religious truth, his sublime reverence for God as a Father and Friend, and his earnest sympathy with human kind. These deep, natural forces of his soul gave shape to his life and labors. Completely absorbed in those subjects which lie at the basis of all moral life and all immortal hope, he gave his last days and his most vigorous thought to their advancement as he understood them, with no other hope of reward, than that which comes from the consciousness of serving a holy cause. His position was taken on the question of human destiny at a time when the entire theology of the church and the whole current of popular feeling were against him, and in direct opposition to the views of many of his best friends. The spirit which then prevailed is indicated by a remark made concerning one of his books (On Election), by a Scotch clergyman, himself a great friend of Mr. Erskine, (Sir Henry Moncrieff, who wrote the life of his uncle, Dr. Erskine,) "that it ought to be burned by the common hangman."

Mr. Erskine was born and educated in the Episcopalian Church. But his broad love of humanity and Christian charity led him to discard all ecclesiastical barriers. He could join any church where he received spiritual benefit. He attended for a season, with his sister and family, the ministrations of Rev. Mr. Russel, at Dundee, in the Independent Chapel. Near to Linlathen, at a place called Broughty-Ferry, there was

a chapel, built originally by the Haldanes, where for some time Dr. Dick, the philosopher, preached, but which being unused at this period, was bought by Mr. Erskine. The clergymen of the different churches were invited to conduct services in it. And, occasionally, Mr. Erskine himself would occupy the pulpit, and address the congregation on some religious theme. Such, indeed, was his interest in religion, and his desire to benefit others, that residing in a place for any time, where circumstances favored, he would either at his own home, or in a hall hired for the purpose, gather a few friends together, and instruct them in spiritual things. "The first time I saw him," writes Mrs. Machar, in a letter dated February 2, 1877, "was, I think, in the summer of 1822, when he was living for some time at Westhaven or Carnoustie Several friends from a distance were with him, to whom his instructions had been blessed. He held meetings in the hall of the hotel in which he was living, to which all were welcome. I remember hearing him several times there, and was much struck with the simplicity and earnestness with which he set forth the truth." He visited families also in the neighborhood where there was sickness or sorrow. And in cases when appeals were made to him for temporal aid, as often happened, they were never made in vain. Many interesting incidents are related which illustrate the spirit of the man, and his methods of dealing with the dying.

From about the year 1820 till 1845, Mr. Erskine spent many winters abroad, sometimes in Rome, Geneva, Lausanne, or Paris, but later in life in Edinburgh. On the continent he became acquainted with the most remarkable persons of their time, many of whom he numbered among his firm friends, such as Madame Vernet, the Duchess de Broglie, the younger Madame de Stael, and M. Vinet of Lausanne. Among his warm friends and intimate associates in Great Britain, were Edward Ewing, Frederick D. Maurice, Dean Stanley, Bishop Ewing, Dr. Chalmers, Dr. John Brown, Rev. Mcleod Campbell, and Thomas Carlyle. In 1852, Mr. Maurice published his well known volume, on "The Prophets and Kings of the

Old Testament." And such was his esteem for Mr. Erskine that he dedicated the work to him. In the letter of dedication he says:

"The pleasure of associating my name with yours, and the kind interest you have expressed in some of these sermons when you heard them preached, might not be a sufficient excuse for the liberty I take in dedicating them to you. But I have a much stronger reason. I am under obligations to you, which the subjects of this volume especially brings to my mind, and which other motives besides personal gratitude, urge me to acknowledge. Have we a Gospel for men, for all men? Is it a Gospel that God's will to all is good, a will to deliver them from all evil? Is it a Gospel that he has reconciled the world unto himself? Is it this absolutely, or this with a multitude of reservations, explanations and contradictions? It is more than twenty years since that a book of yours brought home to my mind the conviction that no Gospel but this can be of any use to the world, and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is such a one."

In a letter addressed to Mr. Erskine about the same time, Mr. Maurice wrote: "I have longed to do what I have done for many years when an occasion should offer. I wished to tell others how much I believe they, as well as I, owe to your books, how much they seem to me to mark a crisis in the theological movement of this time."

The doctrine which seemed most prominent in Mr. Erskine's mind, and which was to him the polar star in the religious heavens, around which all other doctrines revolved, and which, just now, is of foremost interest to us, was the idea of the final recovery of all intelligent beings, and their complete and holy union with God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. To him this view of the result of the divine government, was not only in perfect agreement with man's reasoning faculties. and noblest sympathies, but was also clearly revealed in the Scriptures, and the only view of a future life which furnished a solution to the dark mysteries of sin, sorrow and death. The contemptation of such a bright picture was to him a fountain of unfailing delight, a foregleam of the heavenly life it

self. He loved to talk and write about it, and invite others to the same feast of gladness. And few indeed have illustrated in character and life, in holy walk and divine charity, the beautiful spirit of this faith, so grandly and perfectly as did this saintly man. Clear and positive acknowledgments concerning his Universalism, are to be found in the writings of those who best knew him, and are also scattered through many of his published works and letters. These testimonies we prefer to give to the reader in the language of the writers themselves. The following interesting statements, concerning Mr. Erskine's theological belief, with some of the grounds on which it was based, is from the pen of Rev. Alexander Ewing, Bishop of Argyll, who was one of his intimate associates and warm admirers, and who was also in cordial sympathy with him in his views on the question of human destiny:

"Mr. Erskine started from the basis of a belief in a personal Providence, of which the fundamental characteristic is Holy Love. He recognized gradations in being: that matter is inferior to mind, and mind to morals. The fact of the existence of morals involved to him the necessity of a Personal and Living Source. It was here that he came upon a personal God, and the unanswerable proof of his existence and character. Finding here the nature and existence of the Most High, he believed that he was directing all things to good ends, worthy of, and satisfactory to himself and his creation. He did not believe that this was accomplished if any of his little ones perished, or his sheep, iflost' were not again found.' He could not imagine a creature in eternal punishment saying, Can or will you do no better for me than this?' The power of putting such a question as, Why hast thou made me thus?' involved he felt the possibility and the assurance of an answer satisfactory to one to whom the Creator had given the power of putting it; whom he had in this giving the power to put the query constituted judge; and to whom, if no proper answer could be given, no power of such sitting in judgment would have been given. But in the general feeling that righteousness demands the punishment of the guilty, Mr. Erskine fully concurred.

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"In fact, no one more strongly than he repudiated the idea of the abolition of penalty for transgression. He thought, in