Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-10
JOYS OF CHILDHOOD
No Longer Banished by False Ideas
of Religion and Discipline.
AN ERA OF TIE RULE OF LOVE.
Barbaric Practices That Have Gone with
the Change Of Crseds.
DANGER FROM the OTHER EXTREME
WRITTEN FOR THE pIsrArcH.i


fathers and mothers before them. At Sum-
/ day school and at church they now hear
very much more about love and heaven
than of the devil and eternal flames which
were served up to their elders so constantly
and persistently. Even if they only stole q
pin, or told the littlest bit of lie, they
were instructed that they were doomed to
live forever with Satan and his angels, and
spend the hereafter In endless fire AID chains
unless they secured new heart.
How puzzling and mysterious the new
heart" business used to be to the poor
children whose blood was almost frozen in
their veins in contemplation of the horrors
to come If they committed the most tridlng
sins. Happiness in large measure was
really stolen from the children not many
years ago by their religious teachers, who
believed they were doing them good, when
they frightened them half to death with
their stories of "the bad place." The evil
one going aboH like roaring lion, ever
ready to devour them. was terror that
made dark many hours of children's lives
that otherwise might have been happy.
That there was
I Real Personal Satan
ever prowIing around to make mischief and
offer temptations to sin was fact most pro-
foundly impressed upon the minds OF the
small folks They did not understand 1t,
but it made their teeth chatter and their
hair rise when they had to 90 upstairs in the
dark. In their fancy they could see the
rife being who was always ready with plans
save them. Only by being "born again"
could they escape eternal torments. Only
by plunge into fountain filled with blood
could they lose all their guilty stains. Only
by being baptized and believing could they
avoid the wrath to come. Only BY faith
and prayer could they hope TO be let of
from this dire penalty of sin.
The wonder is that parents and teachers
did not realize what cruelty was inflicted
upon young children by teachings to them
so incomprehensible and so horrible. 1t
was bad enough TO be "plunged into a gulf
oil dark despair" after they grew old enough
to know what the words meant, but to sad
den and darken the Lives Of little children
by DINING into their ears such horrors Is
surely nothing less than the murder of the
joys of childhood. It is good for those of
to-day that the belief in m aterial place of
torment is going out of fashion. 1t is true
that Thomas a-Kempis, Of sanity men,
ory, asserts that ''the luxurious and lovers
of pleasure shall eternally be bathed in
burning pitch and sinking birthstone; that
the slothful shall be pricked forward with
burning goads; that the envious shall howl
like mad dogs for grief. and that one hour
of pain there shall bs more bitter than
thousand years of the sharpest penance
here" but his dogmatic statements are now
taken with
Many Grains Of Allowance.
The church is growing very shaky on this
doctrine. There is but little preaching upon
it now as compared with past times. The
under. The people repudiate the old CAL
whistle doctrine, held 80 strongly and firmly
by the Puritans, of predestination to damnn-
tion, and that the church Is coming round"
is made evident by the demand for re-
vision OF the Westminster Confession. How
the world 10 moving in these matters is shown
by the fact that when ministers nowadays
fall into heresy and express their disbelief
on certain points, the congregation generally,
instead OF being desperately shocked, are
rather more Inclined to stand BY them than
to let them 60.
DIR. Bridgeman announces himself an un-
believer in the idea Of eternal torment and
resigns his position, whereupon the people
show themselves to be more ready to sur
render the doctrine than to accept his resig-
nation. Said q Congregational minister
lately: SIT the idea of eternal torment 10
true, there Is better wavto win the hearts
of men TO Christ than to preach it. I do not
preach it any more, because have no conf
dence in 1T as means OF repentance. It is
likely that many more than he are ofthe same
mind, as it seems very plain that this
doctrine of everlasting fire and endless tor
ment is decidedly out of style at present.
There is much more of disposition to ac-
cept the teaching of Or;gen to the effect
that hell was merely purgatory, that sim
ners were there purified and fitted for
heaven, and that object being attained,
punishment would cease even for the devils
themselves, and that its duration would be
broportioned tn the sins each individual had
committed.
The World Growing In Humanity.
Although this view was formally con-
demned BY the Council of Constantinople,
and is decidedly out Of line and consonance
with orthodoxy, it would seem as If it were
more strongly entertained at present than
ever. The world is growing in humanity.
Its people prefer to let doctrine so mani
testify inconsistent and cruel go by the board,
although pious old lady says she does not
see how in justice there should not be place
of eternal torment Tor some people.
However. it must be comfort to all to
know that the children of to-day are in
large measure escaping the unhappiness of
the past when the catechism was "boly
terror" and when they were condemned to
sit up in church and hear how God was
angry with sinners every dav, and how they
would try forever iu the & ames below be-
cause Eve ate the apple in Paradise, and
Through Adams iall We sinned ALL" One
little girl know OF was heartbroken almost
eyery Sunday when she heard about ''the
wrath to come" Of the "worm that never
dies" of the flames that are never
quenched, and where is endless wailing and
gnashing Of teeth. Her father was good
man, whom she loved beyond anything on
earth, but he was not specially godly. man
and she was impressed by her teachings in
the Sunday school that he was doomed to
burn for all eternity because be did not GO
to church nnd "get religion"
What the child suffered who can tell?
Allowing Fathers Punishment.
The doctrine that the vast majority Of men
and women and children are predestined for
the pit is shocking to contemplate, and
could not be entertained save for the thought
and hope encouraged by each individually
that he belongs to the company elected"
unto salvation. Nothing ls sweeter than
love, nothing more courageous, nothing
higher, nothing wider, nothing more pleas
ant, nothing luller nor better in heaven or
earth, because love is born of Goo" says our
good friend A. Kempis, and yet he breaches
that loving Father will infict eternal
upon His children for faults
they commit BY reason, of the "fallen
nature" due to Adams sin. To know why
the manv should be born into the world only
to sin and suffer eternally, while the few