The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1878-01-24
acknowledgement
An Interview with Henry Ward
Icecher. ON the subject Matter
of his Recent Sermon.

q. Do not scholars still insist that the
N.STr.tament teaches the doctrine Of the
endless suffering OF the finally impen-
itent?
Mr.. Beecher-No; a very great change
bas taken place in that respect. II has
Lten shown that during the first four hun
.l,eJ years the three theories Of restora-
lion, Of humiliation Of the wicked, and
ID Tie eternal punishment Of the wicked,
were held i%ndinerently in the primitive
Church, and that no mans orthodoxy was
called in question on that ground. OF
The Grstsix schools of theology, il has been
shown that four OF them taught the final
restoration OF mankind, and it has also
been shown that these very schools coul-
pri.ed the missionary and revival men OF
that age; 40 that the energetic portion oil
the primitive Church, that spread divine
truth, were restorationists. That the men
who wrote and thought in the Greek Ian.
ruape, and who lived nearest to the times
81 the apostles, did not consider the New
Testament as teaching the final, conscious
suffering Of the wicked forms a strong
presumption against the accuracy oil the
modern Interpretation Of the New Tesla
ment. The exegesls also, OF the test pas.
saves is very much changed, and though
the battle still RACES around many Greek
phrases, il is hardly possible that one
should not sec the direction in which the
conflict is going.
.|dgSERAL DRIFT OF NEW TEsrAMENT
TEACHING.
O. But men say il ia not no much any
single passage us il is the DRIFT and general
spirit Of the New Testament.
Mr.. Beecher-That the general DRIFT oil
the New Testament is that n sinful life
aud character bring men into terrible
erils in the future no one denies, or should
wish to deny. But that those perils are
precisely what men have taught, and that
they are endless in respect to each indiy-
idnal who passes unrepentant out OF lie,
can notbe deduceI from the general spir-
IL Of the New Testament. | teach that
sin ia both a shame and n disgrace in this
life and an exceeding peril in the life 10
come, aud that there are elements enough
Of fear 10 rouse up the condolences OF men
who need the coarse stimnlant Of fear 10
induce any moral reelection or reforms
ton.
MATERIAL Va. SPIRITUAL HEAVEN AMI
HE'LL.
o. Do YOU not think n plain man, I'M
letlered and reading the Scripture, would
derive from il the idea OF future, eternal,
conscious misery?
Mr.. Beecher-Yes; just as the old jews
naturally inferred from the Old Testa-
ment, that the Messiah was TO be n tenn
poraI prince rather than aspiritual force
anil yet they were wrong; just NJ the dis
ciples believed that Jesus would come
again in their lifetime, and that they
should not see death until the kingdom
Of God had come in n physical and litera
sense, and yet they were wrong; just ~
many good men still believe in the second
advent into this world Of Christ, and o
the transformation OF all society relations
by the coercive power Of Ills omnipOtence
Ia short, the universal tendency has beer
to materialize the Scripture; to create I
material hell and n material heaven; Il
bring 10 hear upon the inefIable theme
Of spiritual existence the attributes ant
laws Of time and matter and space. 9Th,
kingdom Of heaven, " Christ said, ri
within hs;" it is not n physical state; ii il
condition OF the soul. The kingdom o
darkness ia a spiritual condition, ant
heaven and he'll are words which cove
the Psychologist condition Of the universe
Plain men naturally tend to literalize ant
materialize the figures OF the New Tesla
ment; all the worse for them, for the Mas
ter declared, " The words that ] speal
unto you, they are spirit, they are life"
A DOCTRINE SHOCKING TO THE MORAL
SENSE.
q. DO you think there are n great many
ministers who hold to the doctrines o
UnivcrsaIism, or restoration, or annihila
ton, who dare not express them
Mr.. Beecher-Not exactly so. l holt
that u great number o fmost useful minis
ters are occupying themselves with tn
practical education Of their people, ant
10 not bestow a great deal Of though
upon technical theology. OF those wh'
can profoundly concern themselves ther'
are Two claSses-namely, those who ar'
building \ system, the d~ynastic thinkers
and those who are studying simply tn,
clucNtivc influences that human nature
requires. Those who hold to n rigorouI
view Of endless punishment, and declar,
that ii ia a fundamental doctrine, meal
that il il fundamental TO their system
that around It ceuters the doctrine OF sin
Of its desert, Of the necessity OF atone
ment. think their minds dwell upon II
therefore, in its relations TO n logical avs
ten, aud not in ia relation TO the palpi'
latlng human soul. l do not believe tina
many men could calmly measure the na
tnre Of a single soul, and ia SUSCEPTIBLE
lies to suffering, and the power oil Al
mighty God 10 create suffering in tina
soul, and Of n continued existence onll
for the purposes OF suffering through
illimitable ages, forever and forever
and then multiply that soul until Their
are no materials left on which 4
inscrihe the figures, until the SwarmtnI
myrlads defy all measurement or con
ception Of the imagination; then, over
hanging the mighty abyss, contemplate
the wriIhing anguish, the screaming ago
ny, the hideous and loathsome suffering
the brutal indignities Of sulphnrous de
mons, the carnival Of animAlism, an
yet he able TO turn and utter the frs
words Of the Lords Prayer, sou
Father !" Neither is the trouble ale
yiated by saying that the penalties ar
not material anguish, but they are III
torments Of conscience, Of anguish an
despair. While we revolt at physica
torment, the refined and cultivated natur
leArns TO estimate mental suffering a
even more exquisite and more horribl
than mere bodily torment; and TO teac
an eternity OF conscious mental suffering
alter all chance or hope Of reformation
gone, shocks that true moral sense whic
hu been created and educated by th
example and the spirit OF the Lord Jesu
Christ. In short, the very nature Of III
atonement, M an evolution Of the int
Flor love Of God condemns and destroy
such a vision Of future, useless, eterna
punishment as a nightmare vision c
barbarism.
ANONYMOUS THEORY.
| can conceive, therefore, how a ma
may believe II simply as an Idea, In par
;