Nevada County picayune. (Prescott, Nev. County, Ark.) 1885-1???, 1892-05-05
RELIGIOUS COLUMN
THoS H WARE, EDITOR.
ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.
NUMBER ONS.

Mr.. Ingersoll, with a good deal
more fippancy than argument, says;
1T gives Christians a great deal OF
pleasure to worship a God OF such \
malignant spirit that he has con-
structed large furnace in which to
roast more than half Of the human
family throughout eternity. Nor
will this demon-lkc God, nor his
uorshppers, allow the poor wrr'c'lrs
to die, and thus escape the fortunes
of hell. q" We might retort, and far
more truthfully, too, by saying: 1t
gives Mr.. Ingersoll and his satellites
great pleasure in robbing the entire
human family Of all hope, demoish-
ing a heaven OF happiness, doing
away the rewards Of virtue and Woe,
as an incentive to virtue, and thus
booming the poor hopeless Great
ures, regardless OF their earnest, he
roic efforts to walk in virtues path,
to annihilatien, the thought OF which
to the natural mind is far more OBJ
iectionable and torturous than the
hottest hell ever constructed by the
God Of the Bible or the faith Of the
Christian. He stands by that pure,
virtusus mother, whom death has
recently visited and marched away
from her embrace the sweet, angelic
form OF the little innocent darling,
the light and JOY Of her happy home,
while the heart throbs with the deep
est grief and the soul longs for the
eesian fields OF Paradise, when
hope, which is an anchor to the
soul" promises a reunion, and, like
an incarnate demon, gleefully steps
upon the quivering, breaking heart,
now filled to overlooking with an
agony indescribable, and proceeds
to crush and trample out the rising
hope that promised solace in this
dark day.
This is the man who breaks down
all distinction between virtue and
vice, by teaching that no soul shall
be rewarded for virtuous deeds and
vlrtuous life, and NO one punished
for vicious and base acts. In fact,
there is no lava rule OF right, :
by which we may determine virtue
Or vice. All laws are executed by
sanctions, i. E., rewards and penal
ties And if there are no rewards
and no penalties, according to Mr..
Ingersoll's doctrine there are none)
then there is no such thing ms viz
tue and vice-these are meaningless
terms, just the silly bsbblings Of the
simple. That is this modern apostle
of his Satanic Majesty, who stands
upoa the tomb stone OF buried hope,
and laughs at vice and ridicules VIZ
tue, would have us understand. That
the above is a legitimate deduction
from his doctrine will be clear y seen
BY the following syllogism:
Virtue is a conformity to q rule
OF right" i. e., is right conduct.
Vice, its opposite, is wrong conduct.
Right and wrong are determined On
ly by law, but all laws arc cxecut-
ed by rewards and penalties. There
fore, il there be NO rewards for right
acts, and no punishment fer wrong
acts, then there is no law, rule Of
right" by which We determine virtue
or vice. And hence no virtue, no
vice.
Thu, man laughs At religion, and
ridieules sacred things. But, be it
remembered, there is no argument
in a laugh, and the shaft Of ridicule
is not likely to prevent men from
thinking. He passes before the pub
lie as the friend Of free thought,
and the champion Of liberty OF con-
science, and intellectual expansion
and development. There is differ
ence, however, between freedom and
license, and conscience without any
well defined and understood rule Of
setion"-law may, and does lead in
to the most dismal depths OF fanst-
icism. And history fails to record
people whose intellectual expansion
and development, without the lit
ter. Of religion" as he calls it, has
kept pace with those Of chri,tendom,
whose intellects have been so Grip
Piled, as he would have us believe, by
the "gasling chains and cruel letters
Of the Bible" The friend OF man
kind In what sense, pray?
He robs us OF hope, abolishes law,
levels all distinction between virtue
and vice, rewards and penalties, the