Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1883-03-08
Bentattatit8 t8ottlluest
w The following matter
was crowded ont of our last is
Views on A Future state.

Mr. EDIroR:-In alluding TO the above subject,
viii pr:mise Few things in order to show the neg
atve side Of the question. shall endesvor to show
them In clear and rational light.
It is the prevailing opinion at the present day and
has been for many centuries past, in every church,
that the Lord, when Il comes 10 the last Judgment
will appear in the clouds Of heaven with angels and
the sound Of trumpsts; that he will gather all who
are then dwelling the earth, a. well sll who are
deceased and win separate the evil from the good
sheppard separates the goats from the sheep; that
then he will cast the evil the goats into hell and
raise up the good or sheep into hsaven and that all
the elect are TO be gathered together inso the
Jerusalem city, beth those that are then alive and
those that have died since the beginning Of the
world and that the latter will then return into their
material bodies and enjoy everlasting bliss. But
again in regard to human aouls II is the common
belief at this day that altar desth they arc mere
aerial beings Of which Il Is impossible 10 form any
des but as of vapor sxhAlation and that such
being their state and nature they reserved 10 the
day Of the last judgment. Some suppose them 70 be
stheral or aerial forms and thus that they sre like
ghosts and speotses. Agaia some suppose that Af-
ter thousands Of years they return into their mater.
iai bodies. My iien d. how does the above sscosd
with the principle Of God giving rstlonalitys But
the general supposition Is that they are reserved
till the time when the whole armament together with
the teraqusous globe will be destroyed and that this
IL to be effected by re sthsr bursting from the
ter of the earth or cast down from heaven In uni
versalblaze Of lightning, that then the graves viii bs
opened and the seals that were reserved Will be olsh
cd again with their material bodies and be trasat
ed into the holy city, there 10 dwell together on
ether earth In purified bodies. Mr. friends does the
above conform to the principle OF God-giving rs-
tonslity7 When . clergyman or lsyman is asked
whether he believes that the antsdeluvians along
with Adam and Eve, also Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
with all the prophets and apostles are In like manner
as the souls of all other still reserved in the
middle Of the earth or flying about In the sir, and
also whether he believes that their souls will be
again clothed with their bodies and again enter into
connection with carcases eaten up by worms, BY
mice, by FISH, or as in the case Of Egyptian mym-
mics by men and with skeletons parchsd in the sun
and reduced to POWDER and further, whether he be-
eves that the stars will fall from heaven upon the
earth which is yet smaller than any Of them. II
clergyman or layman be asked these things, or
whether they not mersparadoxes which, like all
other contradictory notions, dispclled and dissi
pated by right reason some of them will make no
reply; aome will insist that such points are matters
Of faith to which the understanding must be kept in
obedience; some again will argue that not only that
these things but also many others which are above
the comprehension Of reason are works Of Divine
and when they mention faith and ON
Impotence, sound reason is banished and either dis
appears like thing annihilated or becomes like
spector, and is called insanity. Some again will say
there is nothing impossible with God. And must
say that these are the most inconsistent stupid and
Irrational people that we have among us. 1t does
not seem possible that intelligent being can be
10 absurd as to suppose that God could convert an
owl into dove or Bengal tiger into sheep or .
wolf into a tamb.
In my next shall endeavor to speak Of the spir-
tual world, how 1t is, whence 1t is and the nature
u lts INHABITANTS. J.W.H.