Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-10-27
THE DOCTRINE OF HE'LL.

I'VE have right say that God is sorry
for those who are hopelessly lost" said Mr..
Beecher in the course of his sermon on
Christ's sorrow over Jerusalem on last Sun
day. "There have been men who have so
forgotten the sympathy and compassion of
God that they have represented him as
stern, vengeful, looking upon the destruc-
tion of the wicked with composure. 1t has
been taught even that there will come a
time in the other life when parents will be
so lifted up into admiration and glorifca-
ton of the Divine Nature that they shall be
able to look down into hell and see their
children damned there and rejoice and
glorify God! So brutalized may men be-
come-for if any man, standing in heaven,
can find anything in the character Of God
that shall enable him to look upon wife
damned and children damned in hell he
ought to go to hell himself and be damned.
But where in the whole economy of Divine
government, as made manifest in Scripture,
is there anything that justifies such u
thought of God?" Continuing, Mr.. Beecher
said:
"Whatever may be the future-whether
men may drop into annihilation, and there
are large numbers of learned men of the
Church of Christ in our day who believe that
Immortality is the gift of God through faith
in Jesus Christ, and not the natural economy
of the world, and that men unsustained by
this power of grace in them die as the ami
mails die-or if you regard the other life as
one in which men enter upon o probation.
ary period again, and through spiritual evo-
luton work their way up by and by TO q
higher standard and to admission to oglory-
in whichever way you look upon the condi-
tion of the future, one thing is certain, there
is no revenge there, no wrath, no smoke Of
indignation and no heartless hating rejoic-
ing over the sufferings of any creature. A
being that can look upon intense suffering,
which has no remediable power in it, suffer
ing without any other end than that they
shall sutfsr-a being that could look upon
that and snuff it up as a sweet incense ought
never to be called Gods. It is cruelty, it is
the embodiment of the very hatred and Bit
terness which is forbidden by the whole
teaching of the Bible; and calling such
character and such conduct by the Divine
Name does not make it divine. It is alb
horrent to every element and every con.
ception of the Divine Nature. For, rs Christ
wept over Jerusalem when there was no
chance for it, you may very well understand
that God looks upon men too, and sorrows
for them when there is no remedy.
"The question is often put by men: IF the
world has been left to work out its own de-.
struction, why does He not compel things
to he right?" This is simply insoluble, be-
cause no man can tell what machine is by
seeing the scattered wheels lying around.
No man can tell what a picture is going to
be by seeing the canvas and the mere ground
ribbed in No man can tell of this world,
which is part Of Gods universe, what re-
lation it holds to other worlds; and it is the
completed administration of God over the
whole universe, when all the various be-.
ginnings, the genesis in this world and
in that world and in the other world,
when all these various colors and develop
ments of the power of the soul shall
have been marshaled and come together and
you see the totality of the administration
of God, then perhaps man may be in such
a position that he can form such judgment,
why God did or did not. But one thing is
certain, that so far as this world is concern
ed there are certain great laws that lead to
righteousness, to safety and to happiness !;
and certain great laws that lead through
transgression to dishonor, disgrace and suf-
fering immeasurable. Why does not God
interfere? That you cannot tell, nor l..
When it is said that God can do anything,
that is an extravagant phrase. If you take
it literally, God cannot do everything.
my brother Charles and were professed
theologians when we were about ten years
old, and we used to discuss that very ques-
ton, God can do anything | held high
grounds until Charles said one day God
can't make a sheet of paper with only one
side to it, 1t seems very foolish, but it is
no more foolish than the discussions that
have been held in books and sermons. In
the very nature of things impossibilities can
not be DONE"