Contemporary Literature [pp. 175-196]

1874.] CONTEMPOPrAPY LITERATURE. 179
Exposure of the Sophistical Arguments and other Means by which it is
Propagated; with a General and Scripture Index. By Rev. N. D. GEORGE,
Author of "Annihilation not of the Bible," etc.
Mr. George gives no aimless blows, nor does he fight as one that beateth
the air. He meets face to face, in turn, all the more popular and
plausible forms of, and pretexts for, Universalism-now thrusting to the very
heart of the heresy with a Damascus blade, and now crushing it under
sledge-hammer strokes. He writes with a certain pith and point possible to
no one whose thoughts do not well up from such a personal experience as
his, of the heresy against which he contends.
"I was a subscriber for, and a constant reader of, the " Universalist Trumpet"
more than two years before my conversion to God, and, as might be expected, imbibed its spirit and sentiments. Having known something of its blighting influence
upon my own heart, and witnessing it extensively upon others, and believing that
Universalism, as it exists among us, while it professes a regard for the Bible, contains within it all the elements of theoretical and practical infidelity, I have endeavored to tear off the mask and present its true features, how successfully the
reader will judge."
We are persuaded that it is impossible to yield to the plausible arguments
from the Divine Benevolence against this doctrine, without invading the ground
work of vicarious atonement, and all just sense of the sinfulness of sin, and of
God's wrath against it. Not necessarily in each and every individual, but on
the people at large, its effect must be, as it has been, to relax the bonds of
religion and the tone of morality. On a close analysis we are sure it will be
found that the arguments against eternal punishment are arguments against
the "severity of God" against sin, which we are as much charged to "behold"
as his "goodness" in forgiving the penitent. That is, they are arguments
which, if good against this doctrine, are good against the strongest teachings
of history and revelation; good, in short, against the Word and Providence,
shall we not add, the Being of God.
The same publishers also issue, Short Sermons on Consecration and Kindred Themesfor the Closet, the Fireside, and the Lecture-Room, by the
same author, which abounds in vigorous, pithy and stimulating discourses,
finely adapted to their purpose. Notwithstanding an occasional vein, after
the manner of our Methodist brethren, about the "experience of perfect
love," which is beyond our measure, the work, for one of its kind, possesses
sterling merit.
From the same source we have also received Outlines of Theology, by
L. T. TOWNSEND, D.D., issued as one of the "Normal Outline Series," of
the Methodist Sunday-School Department; a small volume, bound in paper,
and suited to circulation as a Tract. It contains much important doctrinal
truth, though we should judge in a form quite above profitable use by average teachers and scholars in Sunday-Schools. But while in the main orthodox and evangelical, it is certainly deformed by some serious errors and
crudities. Inter alia, p. 32, we are told: "Person is a conscious being." If