The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1877-12-27
ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.

THURSDAY. DECEMBER q, 1877.
ETERNAL PUNISHMENT: i
soxpsrlr1s FROM Dzzon.a 4sD PARRY. s.
Henry Ward Beecher has made an
other sensation by expressing doubts
As to eternal punishment. in recent
sermon he said:
He believed there were three persons
in the Godhead, but II any one should
ask him why lie believed, he would tell
him plainly that he did not know any
thing about It, only that It was easier
to believe that which conceded with
tho doctrine of the New Testament
than to- contradict. Orthodoxy says
that men must believe in the Trinity
or they cannot come into the church.
That is called orthodoxy, but he called
g., HEATHEN1sM.
ut is not an easy thing" said Mr..
Beecher, ''fOr an honest, conscientious
man to kaow just what to preach and
what not to preach" 1t was no easy
matter to remove the rotten timbers,
and replace them with sound ones, and
not stop the voyage of the ship. It WAS
said Adam was created perfect. It was
also said that Adam sinned, and that,
in consequence of that sin, the Who'll:
human race fell. The number of the
human race were actually beyond COM
putation, and for thousands, and thous-
ands, and thousands of years they had
struggled, and finally died, ard gone
where? IF you tell me that they have
all gone to heaven, my answer will be
that such q sweeping of mud into heav-
en- would defile its purity, and
ICANNoT ACCEPT THAT.
If you tell me that they have gone to
hell. then swear by the Lord Jesus
Christ, WhOme have sworn to worship
forever, that you will make ar infidel of
me. The doctrine that God has been
for thousands of years peopling this
earth with human beings, during a pc
riod three-fourths of which was not H.
Illuminated by an altar or 4 church, and
in places where q vast population of
those people are yet without that light,
is to
TRANSFORM THE ALMIGHTY INTO a
MONSTER
more hideous than satan himself, and
swear 10y all that is sacred that I will
never Worhip satan, though he should
appear dressed in royal robes and seat
Ell on the throne of Jehovah: Men may
say: you will not go 10 heaven A
heaven presided over by such a demon
as that, who has been peOpling this
world with millions of human beings
and then sweeping them off into hell,
not like dead flies, but without taking
the trouble even to kill them, and gloat-
ing aud laughing over their eternal
misery, is not such a heaven as want
to 60 to. go.
THE DOCTRINE IS TOO HORRIBLE.
I cannot believe it, and I won't.
They say the saints in heaven are so
happy that they do not mind the tor.
ments of the damned in hell. but what
sort of saints must they be, who could
be happy while looking down upon the
horrors Of the bottomless pit? Thy
don't mind-they're safe; they're hap.
ply. What would the mother think OF
the 16-year daughter who, when her i'll
FAINT was lying dead in the house, should
como dancing ond sin9ins into the par
lor and exclaim: oh! Pm so happy
mother, | don't care for the dead baby
in the coffin! Would she not he shock
ed? And so with this doctrine. And
ny Viz OAOVu VI NuAI l. utlOuIlCC IT,, ~
the wounds in His hands ard Ills side
1abhor it; by His groans AND agony,
abhOr and denounce it us the most hide
Gus mig htmare of theology
- AN EPISCOPAL OPINION.
The new canon of Westminster re
Gently preached a sermon at Westmin.
ster Abbey, in which he took up anG
considered the words ''hell, - "damna
tion,' "everlasting," etc.
He said:
say unhesitatingly, say with tin
fullest right to speak, and with TIN
necessary knowledge, 1 say with tn
calmest and most unflinching sense Of
responsibility, standing here in the sigh
OF God and our Savior, and it may b.
of the angels and spirits of the dead
that not one of these words ought t,
stand any longer in our English Bible
and that, being in our present accep
tation Of them simply mistranslations
they most unquestionably will no
stand in the revised version of the Bible
it the revisers have understood thei
duty. The verb to damn in the Greel
Testament is neither more nor les
than the verb to- condemn The wore
'alonis,' translated 'everlastingly,' i,
its first sense means 'age-long,' in it!
second sense something aboye and be
yond time.' The word rendered hell
is Tartarus, borrowed as the name fol
the prison Of evil spirits. In five verse
it IS Hades, the world beyond tn,
grave in twelve places it is Gehenna
the Valley of Hinnom, outside Jerusa
lem, which after being polluted by cor
rupt practices was purified by fire-th'
metaphor of purifying and correcting
punishment, which, rs we all believe
does await the impenitent sinner botl
here and beyond the grave.''
The Rock County Herald says:
twenty-five thousand bushels Of
WHEAT from brakes Stub, F" nearly al
of it loaded at tile elevator iii this
place, was received at St. Paul in 4<
hours ending Saturday night. OF this
about 5000 bushels was SHIPPED il
through cars to New York city, to FL
million demand for the best Mime