This book is a philosopher's venture at the truth. Its author, it is true, finds himself unable "to reason as if Christianity had never been," or to enter the field of discussion in any other relation than that of a religious teacher. Yet he aims to conduct his inquiry "purely upon rational grounds," and therefore considers it "inadmissible to introduce into the argument the ultimate basis of Christian belief in the future life, the resurrection of Christ." The term "theodicy " he regards as a pivotal word in the attempt which he makes "to carry the question of the immortality of man to the moral conception of the universe for determination." Some of his earlier chapters, upon which we may not linger, are entitled, "The Evidence for the Denial," "Value of the Evidence for Denial," "Postulates of Immortality," and "Illogical Limitations," such limitations being the "theories of the remnant, election, or probation." Dr. Gordon, having discussed these topics as preliminary to his positive argument, then finds his central proof for immortality in the doctrine of evolution. One sentence will show his logic: "When man's ethical nature is reached, and where so much room and material for development exist, it would seem to be not a violent inference from evolution to suppose that this world is but the first stage in the moral discipline of the race." His argument, in other words, from this point through the concluding chapters turns on the truth of evolution. Many, however, will feel that he makes too much of this experimental theory, and, in a vigorous protest yet cherished against evolution, will contend that the philosopher puts to sea in an untried boat. Yet Dr. Gordon's book is able and thought-provoking.
—The Methodist Review, Volume 79 [1897]
