The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-01-06

were they restrained from doing sacrifice to
them Why saeHrifice? Why else, but that
expiation without a moments delay. 1t was
TO prOpitiate the wrath which was inseparable
from the image Of Deity.
For our knowledge of the Infinite goodness
and mercy OF God we are indebted to Chris
tianity His sterner attributes were always
known to our race in the severity Of His Judg-
ments. His boundies5 love was not known
until it appeared in the face of Jesus Christ;
Unbelief shoots its scorn at the Bible for
what is said Of the torments Of the damned.
lights against it, as If when the Bible s extlu-
guished, hell will be extinguished. But the
DISMAL fcar Of future punishment was not
Scriptures. The existence OF 81 Tartar1is with
it's impacabIe tortures always liveds in the
apprehensions OF mankind. Call it lily what
name you will, there It was 81 dismal abode,
bewed out in the dark regions Of the dead,
into which the wicked descended when the
scenes Of life had closed. Christianity is no
more responsible for the existence Of hell than
medical science is responsible for the MORTAL
ity which it seeks to repair, or the fate
which it struggles to avert. You understand
my words. The dismal apprehension Of COM
ing wrath was not among. the effects OF
ChriBt's presence or the earth, but the cause
Of it. He came not to condemn the world, but
that the world though Him might
be saved. He came to q world already LOST,
that it might be saved; to q race sin-stricken,
dead in trespass and sins, that they which
| live might obtain salvation. Was it salvation
| from misfortune only or from misery? Was
| 1t from temporary or eternal punishnents
am content to press this one argument ON q
| Christian conscience. 1t makes OF the great
work Of redemption dismal show, q sense-
| less tragedy, and heaps dshonor upon the
Saviour of mankind when you dare to rnib1-
gate the awful penalty OF sin, and cut short
| the duration OF future punishment
| Christ has made His soul an offering for
sin. From the magnitude OF the expiation,
judge Of the magnitude Of the evil and It's con-
sequences. While lambs were being led to the
altar it was possible to measure the turpi-
tude of human guilt. But when justice had
to ascend 50 high up the scale Of being as to
choose for its victim the eternal Son OF God,
when He descended from the bosom OF His
Father to be made "a curse for us," when He
earth quaked, and the Temple vail was rent
in twain, as II torn asuuder by the loud wall
of that last agony MS He gave up the Ghost
80 awful mystery was not enacted s.re to re-
would exhaust itself in the lapse OF years:
Infinite redemption was not invoked to avert
a finite retribution. Men think to magnify
the Divine goodness gotines IN adopting "a
reference to future punishment, but they dc
preciate if they do not mock, the humiliations
and sufferngs of the Son of God. Salvation
wrought by Christ and proclaimed by the
apostles loses all its meaning, when belief
and ,nbelief, pety and impiety, shall ulti-
mately clasp hands, and he'll is only an OUT
| ward court Of entrance and vestibule OF
| Heaven.
| | approach with great caution and distrust
| the next objection which is urged against the
doctrine under review. Literally understood,
the description of future punishment in the
Bible is declared to be grotesque and wholly
| inconsistent with the laws of spiritual exist
ence. How little value ought to be attached
| to human speculation On our fl-
ture state Of existence Is man
fest from the vagaries which are allowed q
| r,Ia in acian tn,tehipp 0t,iniu of fy1r
species. The Bible is losing it's authority on
| this subject. That our first parents were
| tempted by q serpent to their fail is rejected
as an allegory; that our first parents were
| themselves serpeHts or some inferior crea-
lures, Is nothing contrary to the deductions
of modern science; nothing monstrous In the
evolution from lower to higher state
what then is to hinder an evolution back
wards from higher to an inferior condition
Should any one be foolish enough to maintain
that portion OF mankind, too weak to achieve
O higher destiny, shall by the stroke OF death
| be remanded to the doom which they endured
for ages, resolved into worms sand molecules
fighting one another, deyouring one
another science has no right to raise
the voice OF remonstrance. None can
tell what materials of anguish are
hidden away in the abysma depths of ma
ture that can change but never die. So little
do we gain by rejecting Holy Scripture In dis
peling the gloom which rests upon the fate
OF the wicked.
l
might trouble q skeptieal philosophy. Indi-
cations are not wanting to show that the lake
Of fire and other sensible torments are not so
abhorrent to reason as to make it safe to deal
| lightly with the language of Scripture ON
this subject The world Is now on firei and
has been for ages-fire raging around US and
beneath us uuquenched, and for aught we
know, unquenehable. There is no sensible
which keeps alive the flame, 80 appaI-
| ling, so irresistible, 50 universaI-if /
| should add, so everlasting; proof to the con-
trary there Is none, That unseen power which
| feeds these volcanic fires slumbering in the
depths below-Who shall stay His hand, IL it
should stretch forth into eternity or rebuke
Him in His wrath, saying, What doest
| thou2'
| We have fingered on these speculations only
| to show that the field has quite as much ma
| terial for faith as for skepticism. What agen-
| cies and methods OF punishment will be en-
ployed in this work Of retribution s more
mental anguish which no physical suffering
can surpass, and which the imagery Of hell is
none too strong and vivid to depict to the
NY ng hfG1 gt is - meyer rightly
body alone is not susceptible to pain, but the
sensation Of pain passes through the body to
it's seat in che soul. Proof Of this we have
when the soul is under strong excitement, as
in a BATTLE where deep wounds are received.
which are not felt at the moment On the
other hand while the body is slumbering I'm
harmless repose, as in dream, the soul is oft
tornented with pain and trepidation. Ii the
combination Of soul and body is 50 perfect In
this life that the soul shall endure pain cor
responding to bodily suffering, while the body
is wrapped in sleep, what is more likely than
that the lost soul shall feel the impressions Of
material fire when the body lies m0uIdering in
the earth; or in the resurrection when q spiri-
tual body shall rise to be the everlasting COM
panion Of its woe. Be that as it may,
worse than any pains which correspond with
bodily anguish, are the everlasting portion
OF the ungodly. The parched tongue was not
the chief distress OF the rich man in torment.
His soul was agitated with greater terror.
We read Of only one petition for the solace Of
his pain; he was refused and asked no more.
Not 80 when he asked relief from his mental
anguish. Time and again his self-accusing
spirit entreated with an importantly which
could brook no denial, to be Left alnne In his