Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-12-27
Beecher in a New Sensation.

Mr.. Beecher has taken a new de-
partdre which will astonish the relig-
ious world, at least the orthodox part
of it. On Sunday, the 10th of this
month, he addressed his congregation
in these words:
"Orthodoxy says that men must believe in
the Trinity or they cannot come into the
church. This is called orthodoxy / call it
heathenism. 1t was said Adam was created
perfect. 1t was also said that Adam sinned,
and that, in consequence of that sin, the whole
human race fell The numbers of the human
race were actually beyond computation, and
for thousands, aud thousands, and thousands
of years they had been born into the world,
had lived and struggled, and finally died. and
gone-where? If you tell me that they have
all gone to Heaven, my answer will be that
such sweeping of mud into Heaven would
defle its purity, and cannot accept that. II
you tell me that they have gone TO He'll, then
swear by the Lord Jesus Christ, whom /
have sworn to worship forever, that you will
make an infdel of me. The doctrine that
God has been for thousands of years peoping
this earth with human beings during period
three fourths of which was not Illuminated By
an altar or church, and in places where
vast population of those people who are yet
without that light, is to transform the Al
mighty into a monster more hideous than
Satan himself, and swear by all that is sa-
cred that will never worship Satan though
he should appear dressed in Royal robes and
seated on the throne of Jehovah. Men may
say: FYou will not go to Heaven A Heaven
presided over by such demon as that, who
has been peopling this world with millions OF
human beings and then sweeping them of
into He'll, not like dead flies, but without TAX
ing the trouble even to kill them, and gloating
and laughing over their eternal misery, Is not
such Heaven as want TO go to-"
To many of our readers, and we
will not except ourselves, Mr.. Beech
er's language would seem to SAVIOR of
he rankest blasphemy, but it has
reached the public largely in the Sec
ular press and contains an argument
from which orthodoxy has more to
dread than any other source. 1t is
what puzzled and embittered John
Stewart Mill, Horace Mann, Professor
Swing and Col. Ingersoll. Ortho-
doxy has exposed itself to these
scathing anathemas, because in send
ing the gospel to tho heather it pro.
claims that men will 90 to that place
which Beecher prefers to the ortho-
dox Heaven, unless they are taught
its truth. 1t is hard question about
which Mr.. Beecher raves. Perhaps
if light had been kept away from
mankind they could not have been
condemned at all, not one of them,
but we have got it here and must
make the best of it. Mr.. Beecher
sees there is great deal of mud
among the heather and even in Brook
lyn. He has not told US what is to
be done with that mud. Men in this
world appear to DE forming their
characters for good or evil after mod
els so different that it would seem
that if there be hereafter, there will
be great gulf between them.
Let Mr.. Beecher go, he is cratic
anyway, but the late Doctor Joseph
Cook! We thought orthodoxy had a
champion in him that would carry it
triumphantly through the trials of the
present century. The learned Doc
tor addressed Boston audiences; he
was talented, earnest, positive, dog
matte and infallible. He certainly
hewed Hubert, Spencer and Darwin
and Huxley into pieces as old Samuel
cut up King Agag; but when he
came to constructing instead of de-
stroying systems, perhaps such hair
Drained dreamer never palmed Oft
such vagueries and vaporings upon an
astonlshed audience. He has dis
covered the panacea which is to re-
store the human race to that high
moral and physical condition it would
have enjoyed had Adam never fell.
He intends to do this by Hereditary
Descent" He says that Blood
means God" He gave various In
stances to prove that great men and
families have come from blooded an
cestors. The remedy is, to kill all
the debased and degenerate multi
tude and repeople the world from
some selected specimens, free from all
physical blemish or faint of original
sin, and new day shall dawn on the
redeemed and happy generations of
men. Hereditary Descent is yet be-
low the horizon, but the rays OF the
coming star streak the East. 1t is the
hope of the world. There will be no
more mud engendered here on earth
" to defile Heaven"