CANOX FARRAR ON THE INTERMEDIATE STATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6213, 15 October 1881, Page 6

CANOX FARRAR ON THE INTERMEDIATE STATE.

[From " Mercy and ■Judgment." Bt F. W. Fkrrar D.D., F.R.S.] ' Dr. Pusey is absolutely at one with me in refusing to say a word as to the irreversible doom to endless torments, of those "who die in a state of sin," in such a sense of the words as I have here explained. In the Contemporary Review, in language as careful as I could make it, I stated the essence of my view as consisting in the doctrine "that, even if, in the short space of human life, the soul have not yet been weaned from sin, there may be a hope of recovery, a possibility of amendment, if not after the last judgment, yet at least in some disembodied condition beyond the grave." lean see no perceptible difference between this view and what Dr. Pusey says, that '• a change in the soul, which would be short of the change between rejecting God and accepting Him, might be believed by anyone who yet believes in the everlasting loss of those who finally rejected Him." Dr. Pusey here states his belief, which is, of course, mine also, for it is that of the Church Catholic, that there is an intermediate state; and that God's dealings with the soul do not end with this life, but continue during that intermediate state. He holds that many who die imperfect, unvictorious, undelivered ;is yet from the chain of even grievous sins, do not, at death, pass irreversibly to an endless state even of loss, much less of torment, but that they are prepared for admission hereafter into life and blessedness. But how does lie arrive at this conclusion? I -will confess that I read these pages of his book with surprise. He holds with Dr. Newman, and I am most willing to accept the view that "there are innumerable degrees of grace and sanctity among the saved," and that many who "die, and make no sign," may yet "die, one and all, with the presence of God's grace, and the earnest of eternal life, however invisible to man, already in their hearts." But to show why the Church has never sanctioned any dogma as to the doom of the vast majority of mankind, he dwells on the possibility that they may have faith and repentance, though we know it not. "How do we, or can we know," he asks, "what souls do not die in a state of gr»ce ?" Well, I should be deeply thankful to be permitted to believe, in thousands of eases, that a sinner died in a " state of grace," although no sign oE it was visible; but then it can only be said that "a state' of grace" must to human eyes look perilously I lise " a state of sin."