The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-04-07
CAN ORTHODOX MINISTERS PREACH
THE G0SPEL7
BY REV. MRS. G. A. soULE.
Part of sermon preached in the Univer-
salist Kirk, Glasgow, Scotland, February 10. ]

AT first thought you may think this
is a very senseless question, as all
ordained Christian ministers are ex-
pected to preach the gospel that is
their business for tlat they were edu-
Gated and ordained; for that they are
paid. Bot if you will consider the ques-
tion awhile, my Fl ends, 1 do believe
you will say just as do, that no Or
thodox minister can preach the Gospel,
unless he shakes off the trammels of |
his creed, and stands before the public, |
preaching one thing, while having |
pledged himself to preach another, ex-
actly opposite.
To prove my assertion, which make
in great sadness of spirit, let us see
what the orthodox minister agrees to
bring before his people as the belief of
his church. We will take first one ex-
treme, the Calvinistic Presbyterian.
This is the terrible thing he must pre-
sent to his hearers, that God elected
part of his children to endless happi-
ness and part to endless misery; elect
ed them before they had existence. ex-
cept in his own mind; elected them
simply because he chose to do so. Now
you know l do not invent this horrible
dogma. You know it is in black and
white in the Westminster Confession,
the dogma Of the eternal DEGREES. The
minister, having signed this Confession,
if he be true to his sacred honor, must
preach this. And 1 ask you if this
preaching is Gospel preaching? Does
it harmonize with any of the ideas ad-
vanced by Jesus during his ministry =?
Gospel Think Of it I! Gospel is good
news, good tidings But is this good
news, good tidings? That in spite of
all they may do to live blameless lives,
an immense portion of Gods children
are to be burnt up forever For the
minister, to be faithful to his ordina-
tion vows, must not only preach the
dogma of election, but the dogma of
an endless hell Of fire and brimsto ne.
Dare any one, in their senses, call such
preaching good news? That the little
child, whose beautiful body you laid
away last week in its quiet grave
that the beautiful body of that little
child is to be burnt up forever, and you
looking down from the battlements of
heaven on to its horrid prison house
and listening to its cries, are helpless
to help it,-aye, worse and worse, that
you are changed to such fend, you do
not want to helpitl But you will say
mot many orthodox ministers preach
in this way nowadays; the people
won't hear it." Then I say if they
don't preachit that way, they are guilty
of perjury, for they have sworn to
preach so, and to be faithful orthodox
ministers they must preach SO till they
get rid of th6llereed, or get it's damna-
tion clauses erased. Thus I honor Prof
Candlish, of the Free church, who, in
spite of so much opposition, yet per-
sists in worrying the Presbytery with
his efforts to get the creed SO modified
that man can sign it without having
''to pocket his conscience" as you re-
member that young man was lately
advised to do by a D. D.. But 1 say
so long as that creed, internal as it is,
i must speak here as your emphatic
countryman, Carlyle, would, for it is
infernal,-so long as that is the creed
of the church, so long as young men
must sign it ere they can fill Presby-
terrain pulpit, so long must Presbyter-
ian ministers preach election and dam
nation, and while they preach these
they cannot preach the Gospel, for the
gospel, according to Gods angels, is
good news to all. Jesus in his Sermon
on the Mount says: ''Be ye perfect,
even as your Father in heaven is per-
| feet. Now what must Calvinistic
minister say to his people if he would
make them perfect as their heavenly
Father is perfect? Heavenly Father
The Father of the Calvinistic churches
is hellish Father, not heavenly one
But what must the Calvinistic minister
say? Well, this. If one Of your chill
dren sin, it is an infinite sin, because
committed against an infinite Being
Every infinite sin deserves infinite pun
ishment so you must whip your child
to death as soon as it sins, because that
is as near as you can come to endless
punishment in this world; or, to be
like your hellish Father, you must de-
cree that you will abuse half of your
children so long as they live, and treat |
kindly the other half. Now, my friends, |
these are the ultimates of Calvinism,
and you cannot get away from them |
without destroying cause and effect
But you will say no man would dare
to preach that. Well, it was preached,
or something very like it, in the olden
times, and the results of such preach
ing were seen in the cruelties and brut.
alities exercised upon nom believers,
even here, in Great Britain. The bat
tie dungeon of st. Andrews" is terri
BILE witness of this. And we have not
gotten through with the results vet. /