The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-03-16

across the universe, and hear it as it
comes rolling back before the throne of
the infinite God, and bursting in all it's
blackness on the inhabitants of the
world of the doomed.
How shall we escape il we neglect
this great salvation? IL lost we are
hopelessly lost. There is no back door,
no broad or narrow stairway, leading out
of perdition. When the iron gate has
closed upon them it shall never be un-
barred. When once inclosed within
those awful walls there is no escape. 1t
is the hell of hell that everything lasts
forever. Here time dulls our griefs and
wears away our sorrows; there time
never wipes away one tear, nor quiets
one pulse beat. Here we can die and
get away from our cares, but there they
can never die. There are no graves
where the weary rest. Death, the hid
eous guest here, would be there well
come guest. Above. beneath. round
about. is written Forever Oh, if it
were possible for me to even intimate
that there might come some time in
eternity when a back door would be
opened and back stairway built, SO the
lost would have a possible chance once
in million years to get out! Then this
very night all the inhabitants of that
lost world would have a jubilee, but it
cannot be. He'll is forever. forever"
In reviewing this sermon Mr.. Milburn
gave brief exegesis of those passages
in the Bible where hell" is mentioned,
and stated that no such doom as endless
mise y is pronounced in the Bible. He
then said
Suppose a Judge sentenced every
criminal brought before him to life i'm
prison nent, to admit of no pardon; what
would be thought? Yet this. according
to my brothers theology, would be jus
tice. If such an institution were in this
city, instead of declaring it just, it would
soon be RACED to the ground. We are
| told Gods sentence to every sinner re-
CARELESS of his degree in sin, is this eter
nal torture chamber. This traditional
creed has fostered cruelty. 1t gave ap-
parent divine sanction to torture. 1t
gave birth to that unjust law. the death
penalty. AS the divine plan and spirit is
perceived by man, such laws as capital
punishment will give place to the refor-
matories. Civil law should pattern the
divine law, and it is doing so more and
more.
THE popular theology represents God
as being unjust and not good. 1t rep.
resents him as creating a human being,
placing it in the world and leaving it to
decide a question of eternal Importance
1t is handicapped with ignorance and
environment, yet because it plumbers,
that God has prepared place of never
ending woe for it, where he might wreak
his vengeance, seems terrible. Call this
a God of love, God Of justice! If 80,
give me injustice, and hate. l would
prefer to believe in universe without
God. l do not make light of sin. Its
baleful effects are seen on every hand.
Punishment necessarily follows, for it is
inherent in the act; it is cause and effect.
1t leads to repentance. 1t is beneficent.
Whom the Lord Ioveth, he correcteth.'
THE remark of my brother. say that
God, to be God of love and God of
justice. must cast some people into hell
| leave to you. Could you, a father, you,
mother, abandon yourself to the bliss
of heaven knowing that your child is in
the woe of torments? Is the happiness
of the saved so great that they care not
for the doomed? If this is so, one of
two things is necessary. First, the saved
lose all memory in heaven or they must
suffer keenly at the thoughts of the tor
ments of the lost, or, secondly, they must
be on lower level, morally and spiritu-
ally, than any known type of humanity.
"In conclusion, must say that l do
not believe in endless misery because
human instinct and love rebels against
it; because it violates the spirit of par
enthood; because if true, God would be
a monster for permitting it; because, if
true it would rob God of his sovereignty
making the spirit of evil equal to the
spirit of good; because it is opposed to
the precepts of Christ; because no con-
ceivable good can come from it, to God
or man; because it bellies the assertion
that Gods mercy endureth forever
and because it proclaims life an ever
lasting discord, evil forever triumphant,
and good eternally dethroned."