Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-02-05

juElSb Is pOpuldT 6N0Ty WneIos I1cIo |
) what he recently said, in West
Abbey, of the words he'll,
lanandtion and everlasting: 81
ay, unhesitatingly; l say, with the
ullest right to speak, and with the
necessary knowledge; 1 say, with
he calmest and most untlinching
ense of responsibility, standing
,ere in the sight of God and our
saviour, and it may be of the an
gels and spirits OF the dead, that
lot one of these words ought to
stand any longer in our English
Bible; and that being, in our pres
emit acceptations of them, simply
mistranslations, they most UNI
questionably will not stand In the
revised translation of the Bible, II
the revisers have understood their
duty" TO which 1 will only add
by way of explanation, that the
words eternal and everlasting are
translations of the same Greek
word, which means, not everlast-
ing, not never-ending, but simply
eternal, not having reference to
duration of time, at all. Eternal
happiness, then, is future or special
happiness. Eternal punishment is
future or special punishment. The
duration of the punishment de-
ponds, not upon an arbitrary de-
cree of Deity, but upon another
condition, which we shall come to
consider afterwards.
Similarly, it might be shown
that the word hell is simply q word
taken by the Jews from the name
of one of their own valleys where
the refuse of the great city was
thrown, and used by them to de-
note the place of future mot ever
lasting) suffering; and that the
dananatiOn, which, curiously
enough, has come by us to be class
ed with the terms which we call
profane, is neither more nor less
than condemnation. A man is
damned or condemned by God and
his own conscience whenever he
does anything wrong. The right
eous law condemns you whenever
you are guilty Of the least unkind
word or deed. But to say that 1t
condemns or damns you forever is
quite another matter. No such
idea as forever Is included or inn
piled in the word.
But let me ask you what sort OF a
God it is which the New Testament
reveals to us? What sort of God
does Jesus tell us about? What
sort of God does he show us the
image of in his own person? Is 1t
stern and implacable Deity, who
takes offence as men take
offence; who gets angry
as men get angry who
is vexed and annoyed when his
children are not obedlent to his
commandments? Is this the Christ
ian God? Nay, is it the God of our
own hearts? Does not Christ tell
US. and does not our own heart tell
US of a righteous and loving Father
Creator, King, Father, all in one
one who loves, but cannot really
hate; one who pities, and can never
turn away in scorn; one who is pa
tient and long-suffering, and cal
never turn away in WEAKNESS oil
disgust If nothing else stand:
out bold and clear from the Gospel
pages, have we not at least, in lines
Of bright relief, this benignant fig.
ure of Gracious Parent, who Gre
ated men for their own happiness
and who plans their happiness.
The leading idea of God in the gos
pels, as any one can see for himsel
by turning over the pages of his
New Tesla ment, is the idea which
the Lords Prayer starts with ant
carries through; and any idea thal
seems elsewhere to conflict will
this only seems to do SO, nothing
more.
And now / ask you whether 6
just God, q righteous God, a fail
Judge. a tender Father, would in
your opinion, for any cause what
soever, condemn His children-His
own children observe, for if God il
our Father we are all His children
whether he would condemn His
own children, from any cause what
scever, to everlasting hell, to mis-
cry which, when ten million million
years should have passed away
would only have begun to be; in
short, to such fearful future as
that which / just now attempted (
portray to you? Could He do thil
and still be loving Father? Coull
He do this and still be fair ant
just? Divest your minds of any
thing which may have been told o.
taught you on the subject and come
to it anew, with fresh minds ant
hearts, with minds and hearts un-
biased by pre-conceived theorie!
and rigid interpretations, and say
what you would think of Father
who, for the grossest cause imagin-
able, should doom his child to never.
ending torment. Would you moi
unhesitatingly declare Him cruel
despot? Would you not, if you
spoke the truth, pronounce Him a
Eend9 God made the heart; Hi
implanted its idea of love and just.
ice; and when by my heart He tells
me what He is, L cannot but be-
lieve Him. Men do not listen tc
their hearts; they do not listen tC
the voices of their better ma.
ture; they follow rather the leading
of a warped and distorted intellect
when they set up the Moloch figure
of an avenging tyrant for our wor.
ship. They set up something which
they call Law and Justice on O
throne, and bid US bow before it.
But it is little batter than trav.
esty of Justice. 1t is an illegal
Law
They give us one whom even
they, indeed, call a Father; and then
they tell us that if, in this little
span of life-these few years-be
they ten, or twenty, or sixty, or sew
enty years, we fail to set ourselves
square and right with Him, He
will hurl us into the depths of ever
lasting darkness. The time of trial,
they tell US, is just these days of our
life in the flesh. No chance after
that. After that no hope of change.
How do they know? How dares
ANYBODY so fix the limit Of our pro-