The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-07-17

| Oioo' ne5e Two charges Hatty
deny. To my mind they show two
misconceptions; LIST, concerning the
nature of punishment; 2ud, concern
ing mans state after death. As a
stumbling block to the former of
these steps, this illustration was
given: Two men are walking along
the street in the darkness of night,
when one man is stabbed to the heart
by man in ambush, but before he
can leave, the other strikes him dead.
Now it is urged that this man had no
time for his conscience to act and
infiict punishment upon him. 1t
might have been added that if he had
time to repent and have preacher
come, he would have sprouted wings
and gone right in.
My friends. if there is one sect
under the sun that believes that pun
ishment is inevitable it is the Univer-
salist. If a man does not receive pun
ishment in this world he receives it
in the next. A man will be punished
as surely as he violates Gods laws.
And when a man sins he does not
receive punishment by having
house fall on him or by being run
over by train.
A cause is followed by an effect of
the same kind; the harvest is of the
same kind as the sowing. If you
place your hand in the fire it will be
burned, it matters not if you are a
saint. If you sin, that is, commit a
moral evil, you will be punished. it
matters not if you are millionaire,
and mere repentance does not free
from punishment. See that person
on the bed of sickness! How often
has he repented of the folly that laid
him there That does not make him
well. He must strive to regain his
health. So sin induces moral sick
ness, sickness OF character, which
will last until the person repents and
strives to regain moral health,
whether that time be an hour or
million years. Do we believe that
the gates of heaven will be open to
everybody7
Heaven is condition, and not a
place. Does not Christ declare that
the kingdom OF heaven is within the
heart of mans 1t Is state of blessed
ness within us. And the gates of
this heaven will be open to the
thieves and murderers to go in as far
as their condition will permit them.
The judgments of Gods law work
themselves out naturally. And the
fanciful heaven to which the imagi-
nation points in the future would not
alter the happiness of man one jot or
little, for you ali know that outward
conditions of this life do not effect
the condition of the man within.
The other misconception of which
spoke is the idea that the character
will be changed at death. Do not
deceive yourselves with an idea like
this. Do not think that by dying
your little dried up soul will be made
equal to that of saint or that your
little crusted over intellect will be-
come that of great scholar. To my
mind more irrational doctrine never
was preached. In the first place, it
contradicts all our experience of the
nature and laws of mind. There is
nothing more striking to the mind
than the connection of its successive
states. Our present knowledge
thoughts, feeling, characters, are the
results of former impressions, pas
sions and pursuits.
We are this moment what the past
has made us; and to suppose that at
death the influence of our whole past
course are to cease on our minds, and
that the character is to spring up al
together at war with what has pre-
coded it, is to suppose that the most
important law or principal of law of
the mind to be violated, is to destroy
all analogy between the present and
future and 80 substitute for expert
ence the widest dreams of fancy.
Such a transformation as is supposed
would destroy mans identity. To
destroy mans identity is equi-
valent to humiliation.
No one desires this; each wants to
be himself, each desires to grow.
When l hear man say he is per-
fectly saved, is perfectly holy, l con-
clude he is either william or a fool.
A man in the spirit world will have
the character he forms here, and al
though he must suffer for the sin he
has committed, yet led by Gods will
and inspiration he will grow from
weakness into strength, will elevate
his soul from the debasement of