The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-09-12

tell us that the all holy and almighty
God will actually work an eternal
miracle to keep in existence an eternal
hell for millions, and will in no wise
suffer even one to escape from it, even
though escape be sought with tears
of repentance, and the cries that come
from anguished hearts. To tell me
that, and yet to tell me that God is a
holy God who must desire to see all
sin come to an end is like telling me
that the filth of city lane is as pure
and white as the snow that has new
fallen on Ben Lomond, or that there
is no difference between an angel
and fiend. So far, then, from be-
lieving that God will devote himself
to devising punishments and tortures
for his lost children, I maintain that
he will seek them, and save them from
misery and sin; and, so far from re-
jecting their prayers and preventing
their return, he will, as the All Holy
and the Almighty, come to the rescue
of every poor soul that seeks him.
If this is not true, then he is imper
feet: and, if imperfect, he is not God.
The third conception of God is that
he is all just. And, by all just, I
mean simply that he does, and will
for ever do, what is equitable and
right: and, in ascertaining what is
equitable and right, we shall only
honor God and do our duty by using
the faculties he has given us. And 1
would say here that we must give up
language altogether if we are to have
two sets of ideas when we use such
word as Justice" Justice must be
justice everywhere and for all: and
what is just for God to do is not and
cannot be unjust for man to do. 1t
is, moreover, not an act of faith; it is
frightful prostitution of moral fac
ulties if we call that just in God
which we feel to be radically wrong.
1t was John Stuart Mill who said:
If am to be sent to hell for refusing
to call that just which | see to be un-
just, to hell l will go. There was real
reverence and true piety in that. 1t
is necessarily and plainly unjust that
any man should be punished and
tortured forever for the sins or mis-
beliefs of earth. When we plead for
the mercy of God, we are often told
that we must remember God is just as
well as merciful. AS though justice
and mercy were opposedl But JUS
tice is simply equity, and is not at all
necessarily connected with the harsh
exaction of penalty. What "ortho-
doxy' calls justice is really revenge;
for the justice that is said to reign in
hell could only be the unending fury
of an implacable and undiscrimating
vengeance. We ask for justice then.
We take our stand on justice; and, in
doing so, protest that no wretch
who ever stumbled from earth to hell
ever deserved eternal torment there.
But what shall we say to the needless
youth, half-blinded with newborn
passions, and badly educated
damned for what was scarcely any
fault of his owni What shall we say
of the hereto, sent to hell after an
agony of search for truth on earth?
What shall we say of the poor child
born amid dirt and destitution, and
misery, who grew up ignorant, toll
worn, and debasedi Why, heaven
itself would rise in mutiny, and cry
out against its King if these things
were true.
But God hates sin, it is said, and
therefore will punish it for ever. No,
l reply, he hates sin, and so he will
put an end to it forever. But, it is
said again, he is just in Furnishing
sin with infinite punishment, because
the sin, being committed against an
infinite Being, becomes infinite sin.
Well, then, if fifty years of SHINING
against an infinite Being becomes in
finite sin, perhaps fifty years of pun
ishment from an infinite Being will be
an infinite punishment, and so, even
in that sense, justice may be done.
But we are sometimes told that
evil and misery exist here, and that,
therefore, its may exist hereafter, and
yet God be just. But there is all the
difference in the world between mis-
cry permitted and torture inflicted;
and again there is all the difference
in the world between misery existing
for time and torment enduring for
ever. The one may be just and even
useful, but the other could only be
evil and malignant. The doctrine is
therefore inconsistent with the JUS
tice of God.
And now we may pass on to con-
slider the question in the light of the