Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-06-02
LIFE'S RESULTS.
FUTURE REAPING DEPENDS on
PRESENT SOWING.
The Struggle Against Evil, or Its
Permitted Domination the Key
note of Final Adjustment.
TBy Rev. John F. Won 5errlich. !

The Apostle Paul represents our lif,
upon earth as seeding time for eternity
) He compares the day of judgment to day
of harvest, and he says that they who have
sown sparingly on earth shall also REAP
sparingly in heaven, but that they who SOW
bountifully Tor, as it is literally, benedic-
tions) will also reap bountifully, that is,
with abundant blessings from God here
after. As Gods word allows considerable
latitude on the subject of the nature and
duration of " future punishment" my con-
eeption OF God-our infinite Father-God
is love" when thy father and thy mother
forsake thee the Lord will take the up
My conception of God, his Justice, his
mercy, his love, forbids me to believe that
future punishmentwill be corporal, brutal
or savage. The hell of Milton, Dante
Calvin and others may have given tone to
| the theology OF one or two centuries ago,
but all common sense and analogy, yes, and
hundred texts OF scripture, go against it,
The whole loving tone and attitude of God
toward His weak and struggling creatures
declares against the dogma of God as an
Omnipo ent fiend, delighting in sorrow,
suffering and anguish.
But, you ask, do any still hold the doc
trine Of an everlasting and national hell ?
Yes. The Bishop of Toronto only few
years ago published an authoritative decla-
ration that "every child of humanity, ex-
cept the Virgin Mary, is child of wrath,
hated by the Blessed Trinity, belonging to
Satan, and doomed to hell" DR.. Spur
geon, who is a fair representative of Cal
vinism, speaks in his remarkable sermon
on the resurrection of the dead, of a literal
hell with material fire, 1t is from this
horrible, and, believe, unscriptural style
of teaching, that men have revolted and
many swung to the opposite extreme, and
ceived in this life; but both these ex-
IRENE theories leave out analogy and COM
mon sense. Gods love must not be
allowed to dethrone His justice. God has
wisely yelled the future from us, and hid
den the details. Few Of us suppose that
the glowing Oriental descriptions of the
Bible in regard to heaven, its gates of
pearl, its streets of gold, its sea of glass,
its walls of jasper, are to be taken as liter
ally delineating the
ETERNAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS.
! They are simply attempts to convey to
our minds, by means of figures of speech.
some conception of the glory and beauty
OF that eternal home prepared for Gods
children beyond this. And so, on the
other hand, the descriptions of hell
are the figures of speech used 10
convey some idea of the wretchedness of
those who are banished from the presence
of God to dwell with the lost ones. Fire
is the most usual form under which penal
retribution is described in the Scriptures.
The fires in the valley of Hinnom were to
the Jews the symbol-the Gehenna-of
J the future God, neglectors and outcasts.
| Think for a moment how unscientific the
theory. The soul Is a spiritual thing,
not an element of materially: leaves
this physical body to accompany the
soul into the Great Beyond this And
spirit cannot be affected by material
things; it cannot be cognizant of suffering
from material fire or earthly physical af-
iiictions. God makes laws for US to obey.
We are free to obey and make ourselves
| blessed, or to disobey and make ourselves
sinners and finally wretched
God does not condemn us by any arbi
! himself by transgreSsing Gods laws. God
does not burn my hand when | thrust if
| into the fire, although He established the
| physical conditions which bring pain when
/ 1 transgress them. | need not thrust nv
hand into the fire, and $50 far as we can
understand) these laws and penalties are
absolutely necessary to establish and MAIN
tain such a world as we find this. With
out laws there would be chaos. Evil is.
and evil brings its punishment; avoid
the evil anu the punishment is averted.
and do not confuse a1iliction and suffering
with punishment. The relation between
sin and retribution is not simply temp
oral matter; it inheres in the divine con-
stltutlon and is matter for all eternity.
IT Is NOT TRUE,
And scripture does not teach it, and
human justice revolts at it, that for all
who have been swept out of this life with
out the light and knowledge of divine love
| there is reserved an eternity of suffering.
| There is 4 solution somewhere There is
an adjustment, the allowance for circum-
stances and conditions which will over
throw this injustice to God, and chase
away that nightmare of a medieval
theology. Well, then, some persons ask,
how do you reconcile the love and good
ness of God with all the sorrow, sickness.
misery and death we see about us when
God could remove it? First, | reply, there
is not nearly so much suffering and sorrow
as many suppose. There is infinitely more
! health and happiness in life than unhap-
piness and misery, and most unhappiness is
selfmade. The inhdel says either God is
! xrOol o,,I lo,n,OIo,,. Il. I
not the power to do as He pleases, or He
would eradicate misery.
| But may not God have a larger and
wider scope in his purpose than we are ac-
customed TO imagine? If we look at suf-
fering merely from our little temporal
standpoint, with our limited faculties, it
may seem strange to us, but if it is true
that we are made for something beyond
| this, and if we cannot now understand
much of the moral use and ways of Gods
dealing with us, should we judge of the
quality Of Gods final methods? We may
be in the school of Gods discipline, being
| treated according to our various needs and
| conditions with the glorious doctrine of
| something beyond, an end and purpose to
be accomplished by all these strange things
of life, then all this little suffering of life
. is not worthy to be compared with that
eternal weight of glory which may be
wrought out by it." Christ said, as he bent
to wash his disciples feet, "What l do
thou knowest no: now, but thou shalt
know hereafter"
So, when His angel stoops and lifts out
of its little crib beloved child, can thou
not hear that whisper in the air-"WhatI
do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt
know hereafter" We are told that all
things work together for good to them
that love God, and that no afilction for
the present seemeth joyous, but grievous;
nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the
peaceful fruits of Righteousness unto them
that are exercised thereby, Tor rather take
it as God means it). The mystery-the
purposes of God, who has more than these
three score years and ten in view
takes away the mystery of life. The
unknowable purpose beyond could throw
light and meaning on Gods dealings in
the present time. We will know more by
and by. We have only a few years Of
natural, temporal life in view God is
looking at human life as thing of eternity.
We are thinking of our present bodies and
| orr treasures here God Is THINKING of our