, 1870-10-13

- hi. Beechet's last sermon does not Ap-
pesr to us to be the announcement of my
doctrine that ia either nav to that gentle
man, or at variance with the ordinary state
Of orthodox belief. His theological state
ments may be SUMMED up thus:
I. Tho Old Testament contains no clear,
emphatic, or generally-acceptcd avernlent
Of the existence of ths soul after death,
still less of lis condition. It was left in
doubt among the Jewa until Christ IN
uounced His doctrine of Immortality.
.. Our views Of the nature and employ.
tpcnts Of beaven are evolved from our own
imaciHations, for the double reason that
40 nttenpt is made in tho Jewish OF Chrv
tian Scriptures to describe them, and t1At,
were such an attempt nade. the ln1ta-
tons upon cur own capacity would prevent
our conceiving truly Of anything which We
had never experienced. We sro not only
untaught, but We are unteachablc (as
man born blind is in reference to the ma
tu1e OF eolors), concerning the natare and
employmenls of future texistencs. The
APOSTLE Paul saya this much more
plainly, "Eye hath not seen. nor earhestd,
neither hath it entered into the heart Of
man to conceive the things that God hath
prepared for them that love him." &c.
Christ frequently referred to these things
as matters which were, in their nature, un-
revealab1e. In the absence of . capacity
on our part to experienced thing, we can
neither remember 1t, recall it, nor conceive
it. 1t belongs 10 tho 'unknowable." 1t
is no part Of orthodoxy to believe that any
mans impression Of hell or heaven is coz
rect; that it is material, or spiritual, or ma
terio-spird ual, il there be any mean be-
tween the e'two. In saying that our ideas OF
those states are conceptions OF our own
imaginations, Mr. Boeeher does not
imply that the reasons which in
duce one to believe in thu exist
ence OF such states arc imaginary.
They may depend on historic truth But
imagination is the faculty whereby . man
conccivos Of something or anything not
present to the senses. It is the only fac
ulty through which the mind conceives Of
anything which ia not tho subject Of de-
moDstration, recollection, or sensation. II
is employed as largely in concsiving Of the
true as Of the false We do not think Mr.
Dcecher is at issue with either his orthodox
or heterodo1 brethren in saying that it il
throug b the imagination only that VIZ con.
ceive Of heavon, and hence that no mans
conception of it can correspond to the
| reality Each man necessarily creates hi.
own objective, cut OF his own subjective.
But his own subjective in turn is made fol
him by the aggregate Of all his intuitious
Perceptions, and experiences Of that which
seems to him most good, most beautiful
and most true, including, primarily, all hi:
religious inculcations. Alr. Deccher says
/ ''But when We want 10 make for ourselves
| heaven, We hare got 10 psctute al! that We valu
= noh!est IND best. msi.!en may tmagtne {"
every one may fashion for himself his own heav
msn nans sor him. n iou nsy
shocked at this language when tell you that 70
ahtiess-"
Mr. Beecher would have made con
pletez statement OF. his own idea, it, in al
dition to showing TINT our conception {
hearen is pspjected from the Imagination
| he had also stated that all its compone1
| clements are first injected into the imaein;
tion from the various sources {
our faith and knowledge. Imagin
lion is tho camera in which Il
rays Of Light are converged upo
', the object, and transmitted aud infase
into the picture, But after all, it is b
The instrument. The efficient agens
. which uses the instrument for its pnrpos
is tho Light. Mr.. Beecher would doubtle
,, have stated his own thought more compr
!. bensi@ely and rc1igiously if he had sa
lint tho picture formed in the iuaaginatit
must be produced there by influences mo
or less truthful, and vonld vary in va,
accordingly. But wo do not suppose tn
his proposition that no such conceptio
= | arc absolutely true, though they relate
;, truth, will be disputed by any except I
few who helieve in the verify of the Y
>. ions OF heaven protessed by Emant
= Swedenborg and other like sears.