St. Paul daily globe., 1889-01-07
DEATH-BED REPENTANCE.
Pastor Mitchell Opposed to Such
Doctrine.

Doctrine.
An eloquent sermon was delivered
last evening by Rev. Edward c. Mitchell,
of the New Jerusalem church. corner
Virginia and Selby avenues, and known
as ''rhe Swedenborgian church"
There was large attendance at the
church last evening, but it was consid-
erably below what the sermon merited.
''Can An Evil Man Go from the Seat
fold to Heaven?" was the theme of Pas
tor Mitchell'S discourse, and which he
treated in a bold manner. 'tWe often
read in the newspapers" he remarked,
accounts of foul and malignant MUIR
ders, followed by the conviction of
the murderer, his sentence and
execution, with his last words on the
scaffod when he invites the audience
before him tc meet him in heaven 1t
thus becomes vital question whether
the scatfold was gOodStanding ground
for man to step into heaven. Is there
any proof that a man ought to expect
to 60 from an evil life-a life thoroughly
and totally evil-from the scaffold-to
heaven? According to our church ave
say there is no reason to believe SO;
that the man is not fit for heaven and
cannot live there. 1t is not question
as to whether he can be adj
mitted into heaven, but whether
he could live in heaven
1t is not a question of what the Lord is
willing to do, but what we are willing
to do. The future is determined by
our character here; by the character
that man builds up himself. There is
no place in the universe where you can
put an evil man and make a heaven for
him. He has made hell of himself,
and he will carry that hell wherever he
goes. To go to heaven is simply phrase
representing to our external thought
going to another place. If man never
stops to think of heaven Until he is
being plunged into hell he is not fit for
heaven. A man must repent, reform
and be regenerated, and he must do
this while at liberty to choose
between good and evil. Imagine
some brutal man numbering another
in most malignant manner,
carrying the very breath of hell with
him. He is caught in the act, tried,
sentenced and brought to the galloWS.
Religious enthusiasts have worked upon
him in the frenzy of excitement, and
under the fear of hell he believes he
has accepted Christ, and he asks us TO
meet him in heaven. But why should
we hang that man? If he has
become regenerated, if he is ripe
for heaven. he is precisely such
man as we need here on
earth. We have not enough to
take any from earth; we ought to keep
them here. But let that man loose
upon the community again and will he
follow up the life of Christ in his life?
Put the question to any clergyman of
this or any country, whether in their
experience men who have accepted re-
lia1on in the face of death and
had got well, remained in that
state of goodness, there would be
an overwhelming vote against it. If
man has practiced the darkest and most
deviliSh deeds you can think of to the
last moment. and then turns to make
speaking acquaintance with heaven be-
cause he must leave this earth, that
man is not in a TIT condition to go to
heaven. He will find himself more at
home among others in hell. Death-bed
repentance is matter of policy, not of
principle. No man can go to heaven
from policy. and much of the frenzy of
religious revivals is precisely on the
same lines. 1t is excitement.
Surprised Their Teacher.
The young ladies Of Mrs. S. Sherin's