The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-01-16

HdStoI uOW mOIdily ROOu OI lubellect-
ually superior. 1t is comparatively
easy to enforce them upon the dis
tant savage in whom we have no per-
sonal interest, but the real test of
their worth comes when we apply
them to the members of our own
community and our own family. The
physician may try his medicines upon
rabbits, and it matters little to him
the suffering OF death of the animal,
but the real test comes when he ad-
ministers his treatment to his pa
tients.
"For many years the orthodox
world has held to the doctrine of an
eternal hell, once crude, material and
horrible, not hesitating to say that
the condemned were to be cast into
lake of burning birthstone, and that
their lives were to be preserved and
they were to suffer there forever.
Modern scholarship and the growth
of the Christ spirit have modified in
some measure the character of the
suffering, but still it is officially held
in the creeds of the churches that
those who do not conform to certain
conditions are to enter into condi-
ton of everlasting suffering, more re-
fined in quality, but no less intense in
its nature. The principal condition
is that unless men profess Christ
openly by word, or by openly identi
flying themselves with the church.
they will go to hell.
What Does This Involve?
in this city, by actual figures, not
more than one-third of the popula-
tion is identified with the Christian
Church by attendance, and among
those who attended church with
greater or less regularity, there are
very many who have not made any
profession of religion. IF, then, the
condition laid down by the church is
in fact, and in the sight of God, a
condition of escape from this place or
condition of suffering, then but a
small proportion of our citizens can
hope to escape. AS a matter of fact,
when this test is brought to bear there
are few ministers left who do not in
some way remove this condition. It
may be easy enough to theorize in
the pulpit about doctrine so far
reaching in its influence; easy enough
to say that Hindu in whom no one
present has any personal interest, is
going to suffer forever; it is easy
enough to send some wretched Grim
inal who has no friends to hell, but
how is it when the minister must
stand at the coffin of the unconverted
son of parents who are prominent in
his church? How is it when he stands
and looks through his tears at the
cold form of his own daughter who
was not a professed Christian? And
yet if the condition holds with the
heather and with the criminal, it
holds in our own families in this
city.
THE doctrines are either true or
false; they cannot be true in one
place and false in another; they can
not be true with some of Gods chill
dren and have exceptions made for
others. If the doctrine of an eternal
hell is true and the only way of es-
cape is the condition laid down by
the official statements of orthodoxy,
then there is reason for the greatest
alarm in this city, for the future
means the everlasting separation of
parents and children, the violation
of the holiest sentiments of the hui
man heart.
at means that those noble men and
women who have lived lives of good
ness, truth and honor, but who have
never openly professed Christ, are in
hell forever; it means that some of
the greatest scholars and most ex-
alted characters that have made this
city famous are in hell; it means that
from all of our families there have
gone loved ones, tender and gentle,
to suffer forever.
Application of the Test.
"Will the doctrine stand the test of
personal application And yet this
is what orthodoxy stands for. 1t is
true its ministers hide it aud avoid it,
and shirk its responsibility. 1t is
true that they practically deny it
while theoretically holding it. 1t is
true that they dare not stand by the
condition that they have laid down,
but there it stands on the official
creeds, and is either true or false, and
the Univerealist Church stands for
the falsity of the great orthodox doc
trines of an eternal hell and the alb
surd conditions that men have made.
The Universalist Church stands for
T.. r.