The Worthington advance., 1881-10-13
THE DIX. THOMAS CASE.

when the Rev. DR.. Thomas, driven to
it by persistent persecution, confronted
some Of his prosecutors and made
charges against one of them, the Rev.
D. Parkhurst. Friends of the latter
gentleman tried to prevent DIR. Thom-
as from formally presenting the charges
but Bishop Wiley decided, notwith.
standing the technical objections raised,
that DR.. Thomas could prefer charges,
which are that DR.. Parkhurst, in an
interview with a Chicago reporter,
made statements against DR.. Thomas
which were wilfnlly and maliciOusly
false. The court before which the her.
esy charges against DR.. Thomas are
being tried, seems to be rather hostile
to the accused-at least they have so
far decided against him III nearly every
instance.
The good Doctor will find before he
is through with his fellow preachers
and their committees that ''wilful and
malicious falsehood'' is only one of
their methods. He will find them bit
ter, unre]enting, hypocritical, tricky,
deceitful, merciless and altogether as
wise as serpents and just as venomous.
We believe we have said before some
where that we would sooner fall into
the hands of a court of Modoc Indians
than into the hands of Il church COM
mittee, if we desired a fair trial or hear
ing. Has Doctor Thomas forgotten
the Beecher scandal, which was brought
out by jealousy and the persistent ef-
forts of other preachers? That willy
old hypocrit, DR.. Bacon, kept writing
letters saying that ''our dear brother
Deecher was charged so and So" and
he ought to..be defended, and the thing
ought to be set at rest, and the pious
and hypocritical soul OF the sanity Ba-
con was troubled to see his ''dear
brother Beecher" so scandaliZed. All
the while he was bringing the scandal
before the public and exulting secretly,
like church Mephist opheles as he is,
at the prospect of running Beec''er.
DR.. Thomas is too innocent yet 70 have
found out his brother preachers, but he
will know them better by the time they
are done with him.
The above was written on Saturday
last and in Tuesdays dispatches, sure
enough, comes the report that the Jury
returned Il verdict of guilty on all the
charges" against DR.. Thomas and on
the charges against DR.. Parkhurst Of
maliciously and willfully lying about
Thomas, the jury were out only 20
minutes and returned u verdict that
"Parkhurst's explanation was satisfac-
tory.''
Just 80. Did anybody of any exper-
ience with such people expect anything
else? Now let DR.. Thomas take the ad
vice given in the ADVANCE recently
and get out Of the rotton old ecclesias-
tical ship altogether. The old hulk
can't carry weighty brains.
ELDER RSAVAGE AND SALVATION.
Rev. Il. Savage writes a letter to the
Window Reporter replying to his news
paper critics in general, Ill which lie
says:
10 the opinion of the ADVANCE that
"Guiteau will have to bile,' &c., will
not here take exceptions, but let me
suggest to Bro. Miller that If he expects
to grind out his own salvation by the
patent roller process which he pre-
scribes for Guiteau he will find that the
biggest part of his grist Will be the flat
tened germ of original sin, and ii he
should succeed III getting Il little pat
ent flour dust of human righteousness,
he must beware of examining it with A
light Psalm 119. 1861 lest the combus-
tible stuff ignites and blows him up
and when he comes down to the fact of
moral arithmetic he finds himself Sit
ting alongside of Guiteau in 4 condi-
tion that even the figGrative genius of
Dante, Milton, and Swedenborg has
never adequately portrayed.
Any number or quantity, be it posi-
tive or negative, multiplied by zero will
fail to give a positive result. Such is
all human righteousness.
Again, any number or quantity null
tiplied by infnity cannot but produce
intinity as result. Such is the right
eOusness of Christ; suc!, is the gospel
plan of salvation-GOd's arithmetic for
sinners.
With the infinite merits Of Christ, as
a saving factor the vilest sinner out of
perditiOn may be transferred into 4
righteous and holy being meet for the
kingdom of Heaven.
AS we said in former item alluding
to this matter, we think that the doc
trine that any man can be ''saved' by
an artificial or theological process. or
by any other method than the
natural one, is absurd and
wicked in its effects. Never was the
absurdity of church theology and of
Bro. Savage's ideas better illustrated
than in the case Of Il murderer who was
executed some time ago in California.
He had murdered an innocent girl,
"cut her off suddenly in her SINS" to
use the church phrase. On Tie gallows
he professed to have relented and said
he twas going to Jesus'' and that his
greatest regret was that he would not
meet the poor girl there whom lie had
murdered, as she had been cut off in
her sins.
This was 4 fair way Of stating the
usual church idea Of 'salvation." The
poor murdered girl Was ''lost'' while
the william who murdered her was given
time to ''repent" and get to heaven by
the artificial process.
If there were any such God as that
at the head of the universe, we should
certainly not blame the whole universe
for turning on him and hating him for
ever. But Ill reason and Nature de-
clare that there is no such God. It is
only theologians, abounding in igno-
rance and Il stupid adherence to a
church, or book, or u system, which
they call ''infallable," who create such
a God. The real God is not u theologi-
cal idea, while Elder Savage's plan of
salvation is merely All idea, and a most
absurd and pernicious one at that.
But if Elder Savage and his class will
teach that the Christ whom thpv 1vor-