The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-03-26


it has caused many people to reject Chris
tianity altogether. So he has been hunt
ing over high ecclesiastical authorities
for support to the ideas which he now sets
forth on this subject.
He explains that in consequence of
ignorance, the surroundings of nation
atty and heredity, and many other
Interior influences, hosts of people are
unprepared through faith for the glorious
presence and the heavenly sphere. The
Almighty will not condemn TO amending
torture, he says, any one who has never
had the opportunity of learning the true
way of salvation or of reaching the
sublime hight of saintship. Therefore,
while sinners must be condemned,
whether they sinned in ignorance or in
knowledge, ssbecause sinfulness is sin no
matter what caused it, yet hell may be
regarded as ga place which God has from
all eternity prepared for those who do not
accept the higher good, y and where they
are left to themselves in those inferior
conditions which they are heirs to by
their own choice"
The conclusion to this, the gentleman
states, is that ''hell in its widest sense,
namely as including all these blameless
souls who do not enjoy the vision, must
be considered as for them an abode of
happiness But that is not all. He
does not view the place of punishment as
providing merely negative happiness in
the absence of suffering, but he says it
will be happiness 'transcending all our
most vivid anticipation, so that man s
natural capacity for happiness is there
gratified to the very utmost.
That must be comforting TO those sin
ners who believe in future state, to say
the least. And other folks who think
themselves much better than their neigh
bors, will wonder what the difference is
between Mr.. MIyARTS' hell and their own
ideas of heaven. There is a vagueness
about all these speculatioDs OF course.
But how much more happiness tie most
religious persons expect than that which
'''gratifies every natural capacity, u
transcending all their most vivid antici-
pations is difficult to imagine.
The gentleman who announces this as
genuine Catholic doctrine is earnest and
sincere in his utterances, and that is a
reason why we make this reference to
them. The HERALD does not pretend to
dispute nor admit anything in relation to
the subject, not protesting to know much
about hell nor desiring special familiarity
with it. But if the common mind can be
imbued with these ideas of the place
which is very frequently mentioned both
religiousiy and irreverently, fear of the
future will not figure much as an incentive
to conversion, nor will the invitation
profanely extended to man to go to he'll
be so common as it has been, in certain
classes of society.
OeIlOu5ly3 Jlle Olu OrJHOQO4 nOIIOI
about the future, propounded in the pull
pits of Catholicism and Professionalism
with about equal yigor, in which the
very great majority of mankind are
doomed to everlasting torments by al
angry and revengeful Deity, is fast fad
ing from the human mind and more
rational conceptions of infinite wisdom
justice and mercy are taking its place.
One extreme generally follows another
as the pendulum of thought swings tt
and fro, and it must not be regarded a.
very surprising that the horrible ideas o
hell which are being cast aside, are il
some instances superseded by such oppo
site fancies as those which come from thu
kindly soul OF ST. GEORGE MIvART
The old idea and the new are placed be
lore the public and the reader can tax,
his choice, or after scanning them both
form other opinions OF his own.