ABSTRACT
The idea of our present existence being a state of probation, is an inevitable corollary from the notion of a future world being a state of retribution. The idea of a state of probation implies the passing in review the actions by which the history of a man has been characterised during his course through this mortal stage of existence. Marmontel has entitled one of his Moral Tales, Heureusement, in which he undertakes to exhibit a lady, who is again and again upon the point of forfeiting her character for chastity, but by the merest accident in the world preserving it in the most imminent crisis of her danger. But, according to the Christian doctrine, we are subject to an inspection still more fearful than this. When/Solomon said, ‘Curse not the king; no, not in thy thought,’ he was conscious that he was guilty of exaggeration.
