The New York herald., 1874-11-09
CHURCH OF oUR SAVIOUR,
Tho Question OF Hell.

The Church OF Our Saviour Universalist). in
Fifty.seventn street, near Eighth avenue, was
well nlled yesterday evening with q most atten.
tive congregation. The pastor, Rev. James N.
Pullman, preached from Exodus xxxiv, 8 and 7,
on "Tne Question OF HelLn What have we to lear
In the iuture lile9 ! answer. just what we would
have to fear anywhere under moral govern
ment
We Universalists believe that the moral gov
ernment under which we are born will be pursued
to perfection. 1t was 10 that end we were born,
and whatever pain or penalty we may be COM
PEELED to suffer will be applied until that end is
accomplished. What we have TO fear then from
the Divine Ruler, Is not His wrath but HIS love.
Examine the next man you meet who is In
anger or wrath and you will nnd
that his emotions are excited by
his failure III some respect Anger and wrath be-
long to people Of impotcnt power, but they posi-.
lively do not belong TO Almighty God. Indignation
1T wrongdoing He does possess, because that be-
longs TO every moral being Anger and wrath ex-
hausC themselves, put divine love Is exhaus.less
Our Heavenly Father corrects his children just as
q wise parent corrects his earthly child.
OF retrlDntion in all lis horrors. Take
Tor instance, the case OF any man VINO, after the
use OF Intoxicating liquors ior years, has become
the moral scale, and when, at last, lie is told by
hts physician that ne must give up what has been
soul Is plunged INTO an agony OF uarkness. An
opium eater in Baltimore was on his DEATH
bed, and before expiring he SAID, "My soul
has no iear OF an angry God, my only horror Is
that an going to world where can get NO
more Opuln.o Sin ls a stimuant, and the cares of
the opium eater and the druDkard are out faint
types OF the horror OF darkness sinful soul Is
plunged into when In the providence OF God
they are awakened TO the fact that they
must do without 1t. He meets the terror
OF the Lord, and the ancliut picture OF a
burnlng hell nothing to the agony Re experiences.
Et4 n snft te In
sin. not only now, but forever, and that there Is
such tnlng as souls being saved as ~ fire. Our
hopes rest, therefore, on TINS moral government.
object, therefore, to the doctrine Of endless tor
ture and utter humiliation as admitting Gods
mo- al deieal, or by creating an endless hell He
perpetuates evil forever. Ihe moral sense re.
volts against such O doctrine. Besides.
ENDLESS TORTURE is EXCESSIVE PUNISHMENT,
most apparently SO; II Is unjust and consequently
not consistant with the character ol God. All the
forces OF the universe are most assurediy at WORK
TO save, and rot TO destroy. II you accept the
theory OF total humiliation you deny the dearest
hope OF our existence, the hope OF im-
mortality Think 1ara Of it, brethren. How
oil any child born amid evil surroundings and
reared amid inquity. We almost wonder that be-
fore reaching maturity they are not perfect devils.
moral excellence. is Immortality TO be snatcned
from them Inc divine mercy is impugned by
such dOctrlne DO you tell me that alter the
power OF Almighty God has been eXerted for the
he'll are to pe filled with the cinders
oil what were once the children of God
The doctrine or total annhlation Is worse, infnl-
tey worse, tnan that OF endless torture. Do you
think tue Divine nature would be satisfied with
exertlng all His omnipotcnt power simply to
chain soul in endless he'll aud then to say, '.rve
Thing worth anything would prove GOO to be no
God.