The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1883-08-07
BAZOO.
CONCERNING HE'LL.

In tn general range Ct orthodox
preaching fifty years ago, or even thir
ty, one Will find the doom of the Inn
penitept sinner portrayed with start
ling clearness. His ending was made
out to be as bad as the most vivid
Imagination could paint it, or rather
as bad as the accumulated and vigor-
Gus imagination Of the whole orthodox
world could paint it, for every preach
er represented it as bad as he could
find it represented by his predecessors,
and touched it up with any little
items of discomfort which he could sup
ply from his own experience. For the
rude the torments were physical, ever
lasting burnings which never con-
sumed, modern version of the fable
of Prometheus, whose liver was torn
BY vultures. but grew again every
night. For the mere retired these
physical tortures were made more ter
rible by pever-ending remorse and ex-
quisite anguish. From the time of
ST. Augustine until the beginning of
this century. it was plainly taught by
the stricter sects, that the pains of
hell forever were the doom
of the overwhelming majority of The
human race, including the heather
world entire. At the present day the
creeds contain the same old state
ments, but We hear but little of them
from the pulpits. There are but few
orthodox puipirs in which the
subject of he'll is plainly discussed more
often than ence year. There is an
evident disposition to let the matter
drop. and even tracts upon the subject
are becoming scarce.
1t is certain that the religious world
has undergone a most remarkable
change with regard to tbs frighttul
doctrine. To say nothing Of Universal
lists and Unitarian preachers, most of
whom we're educated in the orthodox
school, We have in the very b"som OF
the Congregational church and even
in its theological seminaries. professors
who teach the extra-scriptural doc
trine of probation in the next life
for those who have not heard the
gospel in this. This would seem to
render missionary work unnecessary,
for in the higher life. one would natu-
rallv conclude, missionaries would be
selected in a less happy-go-lucky
STYLE than they are at present. But
with this We have nothing to do. We
merely note it in passing. There are
q number of prominent Methodists
who hold that even hell must be bet
ter than nothing, or it would be in
consistent with Gods goodness to to-
crate it. And the Rev. DIR. McKim,
of New York, recently. actually missed
a bishopric because be refuses ''to al
low that scripture binds him to be-
lieve in the absolute eternity of sin
and hell. and the devils lost in hell.
MANY shake their heads, asking
what all these things mean. We be-
lieve they mean that the idea of
Gods goodness has reached a point
where Inconsistency of the old repre-
sensations of him so press upon the
thoughtful that they must find some
way out. Yet the tbeologians have
not found stopping place. The
scriptures, iflanguage has any meaning;
do most certainly teach doctrine of
hell, which it behooves every intelligent
man to explain away or else to give
it most careful heed. If we deny the
force of language on this point, and
interpret and limit it by the aid |
Of reason, and of the thoroughly New
Testament doctrine of the universal
of God. we undermine |
the orthodox theory Of the sacrifice Of
Calvary at . most fatal point. 1t ap-
pears to us that theologians are slip |