The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-04-20

accepting Christ on THIS size Oh Tue
grave, or that there is opportunity to
accept him on the other side also, for
all, young or old, who have not ac-
cepted him here.
Universalists are logical. They re-
ject the idea that the grave limits
the opportunity of salvation for any
one. They believe that not only little
children, but older people as well,
may begin new life in the other
world and go on unto perfection, and
that none will be shut out from Gods
mercy forever.
If asked why they believe it, and
what evidence there is that men may
repent and be saved in the other
world, their answer, in the first place,
is that men may repent in the other
world for the reason that they will
still be men.
For what is man, and what is re-
pentance? If a man were merely
physical being, or if repentance were
a physical act, then physical death,
it must be granted, would destroy
the possibility of future repent
ance. But inasmuch as man is
a spiritual being, and repentance
is purely spiritual action, how can
the death of his body prevent his
repentance? Men repent with their
spiritual, not with their physical,
faculties; and when they enter the
other world they take all their spirit
ual faculties along with them. The
bodies which they leave behind them
have no more to do with their power
of repentance than the houses which
they live in or the clothes which they
wear-excepting, indeed, that their
bodily appetites are a source OF temp
tation, and often hinder them from
repenting when they otherwise would.
The moment after person has died
that is to say, after his body has
died-he is precisely the same per-
son as just before that event. He has
simply laid aside his material vest
ment; and, instead of finding it more
difficult to repent of his sins, he
ought to find it less difficult, since he
is no more tempted by feshly lusts
and no longer has to strive against
them.
Why should it be impossible to re-
pent in the other world any more
than in this one? Why any more
difficult? If men can perform other
spiritual actions in that world-if
they can think, if they can remember,
if they can love, or hate, or grieve, or
sin-why can they not repent and
turn away from their sins' What is
to hinder them? If they continue to
be men, why can they not act as men?
To say that they cannot repent is to
say that they lose their moral Free
dom, which is to say that they cease
to be human beings and become mere
automatons; for human being with
out such freedom is an impossibility.
Take away mans moral freedom, and
you take away that which is essential
to his humanity. You make him diff
ferent from a man, and less than a
man. He is a human being no
longer.
Moreover, to say that men lose their
moral freedom when they enter the
other world is to say in effect that
they cease to be sinners; for where
there is no moral freedom there can
not be sin, in the very nature of
things. Sin is an act of moral free
dom. 1t is the choice of evil instead
of good. Take away the power of
choice and you take away the power
to sin. Without power to choose be-
tween good and evil one would be no
more responsible than an idiot; and
to punish him for not doing what he
was powerless to do would most as
suredly not be justice. If men in the
other world are under any obligation
to conform to Gods law, there must
b. opportunity for them to do so. If
there is no opportunity, there is no
obligation; and if there is no obliga-
ton, there, of course, is no sin.
If men who die in sin cannot repent
after death, it must be because the
God who made them takes away their
moral freedom and transforms them
into nondescript order of beings,
neither men nor angels, saints nor
sinners. If they can repent after
death, they can surely be saved, UNI
less God refuses to accept their re-
pentance, and drives them away in
Independence into endless perdition.
That he will neither prevent them
from repenting by taking away their
moral freedom, nor refuse to accept
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