Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-12-30
SUNDAY READING.

ing his unbeief in the theory of future state
of torment for the wicked The declaration
itself is By no means novel one; for there is
great sect in the New England and Middle
States, the Universalists, who have long main
tanned an avowed incredulity regarding He'll !;
and as to the Devil, he has been laughed out
of all serious consideration, long ago. But
Mr.. Beecher is Congregations of Congre-
gationists. His father before him was noted
preacher of the old birthstone creed, his broth
ers are preachers of no less rigorous sort of
Calvinism, and his brother-in law, Rev. Henry
Stowe, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stoves hus-
band, is of the strictest of orthodox" sectari-
ans So that when Mr.. Beecher says he can
no longer believe in He'll, and is sustained in
his heterodoxy by Plymouth Church (as he is),
a decided breach in the old walls of bitter
and unlovely faith is observable. 1t begins
to look as if the teachings of Jonathan Ed
wards had had their day. The Beechers owe
an hereditary allegiance to the school of which
that vigorous expounder was the chief. Ly-
man Beecher followed close upon the foot
steps of Edward Payson and partook of his
faith. Time was when Congregationism ruled
New England with rod Of iron. In Massa-
chusetts and its provinces and plantations it
was the established church. Ihe taxpayer
must pay his tithes to support the Congrega-
tional establishment whether he believed in
it or not. Such was the memorable law. When
Beecher and his compeers, Burton, Merriam,
ba poCt +boi, C1J foi+
a violent if not a decisive revolution is at
hand. One Of our most interesting and intel |
ligent Eastern exchanges reminds US that the |
Rev DR.. Porter, President of Yale College, |
and the Rev. DR. Hopkins, ex-President of
Williams College, have just given it to be I'M
derstood that they do not consider hell an es-
sental feature OF their faith, for they have
Just sustained the installation of the Rev Mr.
Munger, who is heterodox on the subject
tile investigations recently made by a religious
paper show that notions heretofore considered
keretical respecting eternal torment are toler-
ated among the clergy of the Congregational
while over in London, that
Episcopal divine, Canon Farrar,
has just preached couple of extraordinary
sermons III Westminster Abbey, taking the
ground that even the words hell and damna
ton should be stricken from the Scriptures
The same paper, remarking upon the state of
affairs indicated in the foregoing, comments
rs follows: THE fact that so many learned
livines have begun to throw doubt upon the
doctrine, is sure to lead multitudes Of people
70, II |
few men and women who are anxious to find
'easons for discarding hell, and who like to
ind them. The prospect OF damnation for the
wicked and unrighteous is an alarming one,
md they clutch at any straw that gives them :
prospect or promises them an assurance of
scape from it. In this view OF the case, and {
inder existing circumstances, is it not the i'm v
,erative and immediate duty of the clergy of 2
he orthodox Protestant denominations of "
his city to take up the doctrine in question
nd deliver their views upon it with all the
Mercy and reason that they possess? They are t.
ot relieved from this duty by the fact that e
ONE of them have discarded that part of the a
ncient creed in which it appears, 1t is proper il
hat those who have discarded it should boldly P
nnounce that they have done so; it is proper C
hat those who doubt it should give the ground
their doubts; and it is proper that those L
no still adhere to it should enforce it upon %
leir audiences. Next Sunday would be m
BOD day for them to take it up. We call d.
pom those of them who consider the doctrine OF
, be one of supreme Importance in the Chris
an system to meet the attacks upon it at A
ice" 1t seems to us safe to predict that the W
NE is not far distant when the clergy will be d.
aging relentless war upon Hell as they a,
5ed to wage against the Devil himself We A,
nnot but regard the promised change as for W.
lie better all round
In one of his recent lectures, Rev. Joseph L.
oek, from whose writings we have quoted -,
UGH at length of late) discoursing upon the =,
eird subject of ''The Laughter of the Soul -
ITSELF" makes a quotation from Shaks- 10,
ares Richard the Third-Clarences Dream, .
hich begins with the well known lines ~
'AIy dream was heightened after life.
Oh! then began the tempest to soul,
Who passed. methOught, the melancholy food n,
With that grim ferryman the poets yFite of, 4"
Unto the kingdom OF perpetual night. to-
Following the lines to their climax he ce
ings us to the following tia
With that methought legion of foul fiends fol-
Envroned nae about, and howed in mine ears ~
Such hideous cries that with the very noise, M