The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-13
HEATHEN DISCUSSING THE NEW THE
OLOGY.

Is it not now fitting time and occa-
sion for our hearing from some thought
full and intelligent heather Il say a
native of India, China or Japan-how
he is impressed by the ardent contro-
versy now in progress between the pro-
fessors of the old and new theology
AS the current discussion SO nearly
concerns himself, his destiny, and that
of his ancestry and kindred, he may be
supposed naturally to be deeply inter-
ested in it. He is offered by the mis-
sionary as a substitute for his own a
religion which is called a Gospel, "a
message Of glad tidings of great joy for
all people," The title is captivating
one, and if he is an earnest man he will
give it a serious hearing. When he
takes in the purport of it, he comes to
apprehend something like this I'm
counted ages ago the Creator called into
existence single human pair, to rep
resent the race to which they should be
the progenitors, and staked the fortune
and destiny of all their descendants upon
their own behavior, as obedient or dis
obedient to him. They disobeyed him.
The heather reads in the Bible that
lit repented the Lord that he had made
man on the earth, and it grieved him at
his heart'' (Gen. vi, g.. The heather
thinks that under the circumstances, it
well might. But he is told that on the
failure of this divine experiment, in
stead Of starting again and trying a
new one, the Creator has allowed this
vitiated and ruined human race to be
perpetuated by uncounted millions, all
doomed, as they come into being, to end
less suffering, Their impaired ability
to do his will does not in one whit re-
lieve their responsibility to do SO. A
way of escape is prepared for some in
dividuals, available in their endless
generations only by those who happen
to hear of it and to accept it, while it is
admitted that the vast majority of the
race through all ages never hear of this
way of rescue.
The intelligent heather, on hearing
this message, and being asked to accept
1t in place of his own religion, will very
naturally compare the two, and also
other religions, SO far as the range of
his mental powers and his knowledge
will allow. In the current literature of
the time he finds the subject of hered-
ity under earnest discussion. The doc
trine is advanced that those who inherit
a physical faint of disease should nat
urally, if not religiously, resolve not to
perpetrate it by offspring. The "Gos-
pel'' offered to him, as interpreted by
the missionary, tells him that the Su-
preme Creator perpetuates for the hui
man race penalty inconceivably more
dreadful than physical faint, with
endless consequences of woe to the suf-
ferers by it. May he not reply, 81 will
not exchange my religion for yours, for
neither my religion nor any other relig-
ion which 1 have ever heard of offers
me such horrid and hateful doctrine
concerning the Being whom you call
the Father of the human race. By your
teaching, all my ancestors are now kept
in existence merely that they may be
tormented. They never heard of the
Gospel, the Glad Tidings which you
preach. And will have none of it,"
What shall be said in reply to this
heather man? The most hideous con-
ceptions of the gods of paganism-the
Molochs, the Baals, and the destroyers,
were satisfied with the immolation
of living victims. That was the end of
them. 1t was reserved for an orthodoxy
to invent the eternal abysse5 of vast
prison houses for endlessly burning suf-
ferers.-Boston Transcript.