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NEW VIEWS IN PLYMOUTH CHURCH

January 16, Lyman Abbott, D.D., was installed pastor of the Plymouth church, Brooklyn, N.Y., as the successor of Henry Ward Beecher. In the presence of the Council of Installation he made a lengthy statement of his religious belief, which was published in full in the Independent of January 23. On the subjects of the immortality of the soul, and the final disposal of the wicked, his views were not only quite pronounced, but of such a nature as to render his installation something of a surprise from the standpoint of the popular theology. On the subject of the immortality of the soul, he said:—

“On this and on every other spiritual theme, I more and more distrust the vaunted ‘scientific method,’ and more and more rest upon personal faith in the Christ of God, bearing a witness confirmed by the experience of God in my own soul. And I more and more incline to believe that immortality is not the universal attribute of humanity—that God alone hath immortality; and that we have it only as here or hereafter we are made partakers of the divine nature.

“And when that glad day comes, the song of rejoicing will rise from every creature in heaven, and on earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea. If there are then any voices not joining in that choral of redeeming love, I believe it will be because they are silent in that second death from which there is no resurrection.”

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“IF a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere.”

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“PERFECT freedom is perfect obedience to perfect law.”

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— April, 1890 —