The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1878-07-20
FUTURE PUNISHMENT.
BY REV. II. W. THOMAS.

awful work of the future state. He sends
all the unnumbered millions of heather to
an endless hell. lie sends all the non-elect
and unredeemed there. He saves such, and
only such, as from all eternity it foreordain-
ed-and without any knowledge or foresight
of faith or good works on their part-should
be saved. The assumption that God is
Father renders that belief to me impossible.
The UniversaliSt says that God is Father,
that punishment is correction, that proba-
tion continues after death, and that all will
finally come into holiness and happiness.
The doctrine Of after-death probation, of
course, supposes that the freedom with
which we began this life is carried over into
the life beyond. And this readily admit;
but in this very assumption of continued
liberty lies the uncertainty and, as l look at
it, the logical impossibility in affirming that
all will ever choose the right. In this world
"evil men and seducers wax worse and
worse" And herein, as all confess, is the
great danger-the infinite peril Of sin-that
it tends to strengthen in habit, and finally
to crystalize in an unchanging character of
evil. And if any soul this become fact, the
assumed law of moral sequence makes the
result as lasting as the character in which
it inheres, and such result cannot be less
than an enduring separation from goodness.
Nor, admitting the continued freedom of the
soul, do see how any one can certainly af-
firm that all souls will not, at some time,
turn from the wrong. Universalsm is in
deed humane doctrine and worthy of gen.
erous minds, and all could wish it might be
true, but the evidence of its truth is not suf.
ficient to command the assent of all. do
not see how it can be certainly affirmed On
any other basis than absolute sovereignty
of God.
The Annihilationists affirm that immor-
tality is not necessary attribute of the
soul, but is conferred on the righteous-is
gift to those who seek it--and that the wick
ed, not having attained to this undying state,
pass into non-existence, are punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord" 1t may be admitted that this
doctrine is not without apparent support in
the scriptures, and that it seems less objec-
tionable to reason than everlasting punish
ment 1t is not easy to see why soul should
be held in existence simply to suffer, when
there is no possible hope of its ever being
brought back to righteousness. Should an
Inhalation be true, it is of course, eternal
punishment-at least eternal death. DR..
Bushnell - and before him Augustine
maintains that there will be descending
scale of consciousness, in which the wicked
will ever sink lower and lower, even
to the lowest point of conscious existence,a and
will remain as monuments of ruin over
which the curse of sin has swept.
The New Church hold that the love of
a soul, whether it be good or evil, becomes
its life, its existence, and that it so continues
forever; but that this existence in evil is
better than non-eXistence, and is, in sense,
the heaven of the wicked-that is, the best
that God can do for them. This doctrine,
you perceive, is that hell is a condition of
the spirit, and, as such, final separation
between the good and the bad and, we
may admit, has much in it that does not
seem unreasonable. You will perceive also,
that all these theories, save one, are in some
form unending punishment.
This much seems evident to me, and this
much believe, and, believing, preach.
have no possible doubt of future punishment,
of the separation of the good and bad, of loss
and suffering for those who die in sin. 1t
is undoubtedly taught in the Bible, and sup
ported by analogy. | have no doubt of the |
Righteousness Of Gods government, and that |
wrong-doing will be punished. The law of |
God, with its rewards and punishments, |
meets us at our entrance into this world |
follows us all the way through life with |
warnings Of danger and punishment for sin;
and from all along the shores of the unseen
world the voice of God cries out aionion
punishment, assuring all that come to that
world that the consequences of sin follow
them, and that there, as well as here, sin is
punished. And this, il seems to me on this
subject, is the essential feature Of belief in a
ministry ofrighteousness; this gives strength
10 law, and motive or restraint TO character
What future punishment VIII be, or how
long, or with what result know not.
must hold to the Fatherhood of God-to the
eternal goodness as revealed in Jesus Christ.
And, holding to this, cannot believe that
an All-wise Father would create a world,
and continue it through long thousands of
years under an express command to man
kind 10 multiply and increase their off
spring till they have reached numbers be-
yond all computation, if He foresaw that to
the great mass of these beings was nothing
but unending misery. l cannot think that
any unending existence that God will per-
NIT can be worse than non-eXistence. And
yet cannot put away the fact that sin is
terrible thing, and that its consequences
may be awful, almost beyond our power to
If there be eternal SHINING there will be
eternal suffering. There can be no perfect
happiness without holiness. Heaven or hell
are states or conditions of mind and spirit
that we carry over from this world. What
the purposes and possibilities of the love of
God in Jesus Christ may be in the long fu-
ture know not. 1t seems to me that of His
love the "half hath never yet been told"
Hope for the millions of our earth springs
up in my soul as years increase aud asI
q -. Il