"INSTALLED—WITH REGRETS."
By Editor
SUCH is the heading of an article in the Christian at Work on the installation of George A. Lockwood as pastor over the Congregational church of Kennebunk, Maine. A former council had refused to install him. The following is a part of the report of Mr. Lockwood's declaration of views:— "He stated that his belief wholly excluded the idea of an ultimate restoration of the lost to holiness and happiness, and of any second probation beyond this life. The Scriptures give no warrant for the belief or expectation of either. He accepted the phrase, "everlasting punishment," in Matt. 25:46, but did not feel able to state in what the punishment would consist. He could not affirm that it will be an eternity of conscious suffering, nor that it will not be. He could not say but that through the effect of sin and suffering on the soul it may ultimately sink into an extinction of its conscious being, nor, on the other hand, could he say that it will. On this question of the nature of future punishment he could neither affirm nor deny. If any supposed that this left any ground of hope for the finally impenitent sinner, it was in his view no warrant for any belief or affirmation to that effect." On this statement he was installed, though the council expressed its "regret that Bro. Lockwood is not clear as could be wished on the nature of everlasting punishment." On which the Christian at Work assumes that he denies everlasting punishment because he denies the eternal consciousness in torment of the wicked. How slow are some people to realize that "everlasting destruction," 2 Thess. 1:9, is truly everlasting punishment. That is the Scriptural definition—"Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction."