National Republican., 1881-08-26
POOR CONSOLATION.
Endless Misery vs.. AnniblIatIon-Lugu-
brious Poetry and Hymns.

DR.. Watts lugubrious hymns depicting
state Of endless misery almost know by heart
having often sung, footed, and iddlod them in
church choirs. H. C. l." thinks they would be
appropriate for the followers of Colonel Ingersoll
or those who do not believe in life after death.
fail to see the logic find no evidence that Gods
chosen people, the Jews. believed in immortality.
On the. contrary, read in their ancient Scrip
lures such passages as these:
As the cloud Is consumed and vanisheth away,
so he that goeth down to the grave shall come upn
They are dead; they shall not live They are
deceased they shall not rlse,-Is rrpi, IA.
Behold tho righteous shall be recompensed in
the earth much more the wicked and the sinner.
Prov. ri., 81
The dead know not anything. neither have they
any more reward For there is no device, nor
knowledge nor wisdom In the grave whittier thou
goest-Ech a.. 8, 10.
falleth the beasts, even thing beialleh them !;
as the one dieh so dieth the other; yea they have
all one breath; so that man hath no pre- emf
nence above beast. All 90 to one place.
-Ecol. ~, 10, 20.
SO, then, according to III. c.I" tho ancient Jews
needed the consultations Of DR.. Watts as much if
not more than the followers of Colonel Ingersoll
who neither affirm nor deny t iuture state But be-
fore the time OF Dr. Watts the rious Calyinis used
to derive consolation from such poetry as the fol-
lowing, to be found in the Rev. Michael Wiggles-
worth's Day of Doom" first published in New
England in 1862, and immensely popular in both
Englands for l50 years Describing the awful ter
rors of the Judgment Day, the stern Puritan thus
poetisos;
One natural brother beholds another
In his astonished fit;
lY Yet sorrows not thereat lot,
M Nor pties him whit.
M The godiy wife conceivcs no grief
IN Nor can she shed a tear
For the sad state Of her dear mate
When she his doom doth hear.
He that was erst a husband, plerc'd
With sense of wiios distress
Whose tender heart did bear part
or all her grievance
snail mourn no more, as heretofore,
Although ne see her now to be
damned forsaken wight.
The tender mother will own no other
OF fall her numerous brood
But such as stand at Chrlsts right hand,
Acquitted through his blood.
The pious father had now much rather
His graceless son should lie
In hell with devils for all his evils,
Burning eternally
Than God most high should injury
by sparing him sustain;
And doth rejoice to hear chrlsts voice
Adjudging him 10 pain.
The Suherings of the damned aret thus portrayed
in the same Puritan poem;
But who can tell the plaques Of hell
M And torments eNquiste2
Who can relate their dismal state
And terrors inhnite2
Who fare the best and feel the least,
Yet feel that punishment
Whereby TO naught they would be brought
II God did not PREVENT
The last degree of misery
There felt Is incOmparable;
The highest pain they there sustain
Is more than intolerable;
But Gods own power from hour TO hour
Upholds them in the FIRE;
That they shall not consume a jot,
Nor by It's force expire"
When we consider that to thls eternity Of torture
are consigned Infants
Who from the womb unto the tomb
Were stIaightway carried
we may realize the profound consultations Of the
Christianity OF the past, But the doctrine OF end
less misery Is now practically abandoned by In
teligenee Christians who either hope for the final
restoration of all or maintain as Il Bible doctrine
that eternal life is the reward of the righteous
only. sENEX,