The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-11-06


ness is still in the world. Many
Christian sects are in sympathy with
Judaism. 1t is said that the God of
love is the Christian God, while the
God of fire and anger belong to the
non professor both in Christian and
heather lands. In all the realms
of heathendom there never was a
false God that has been so UPRIGHT
eous and cruel as the God whom the
popular theology has made for the
sinner.
As long as am able to preach the
Gospel | shall declare with the apos-
tie Paul that there is but one God,
and that ne is the God and Father of
all men. He loves the man in the
slums as much as he loves the man in
the pulpit or pew.
The fundamental truth of the
Christian religion is the Fatherhood
of God. In his 'reply" to DIR. At
woods criticism recently, Rev. G.
M. Mead, of Hartford, Conn.,, asks
for single passage of Scripture in
which Jesus explicitly calls all men
children of Coda single passage
in which, when he uses the phrase,
any sensible exegete can even inn
agine that his characterization is a
universal one." DR.. Atwood no
doubt will satisfy Mr.. Mead's thirst
for knowledge in due time. But if
he were directed to the Bible as a
whole. and learn the spirit of Jesus
teaching it ought to suffice. Isolated
chapters and verses are used too
freely to prove theories of theology.
This is the reason why there are so
many different sects in existence.
But every partialist theologian will
concede that Jesus considered re-
pentance as simple return of the
sinner to God; therefore he has the
Prodigal Son say, (who was sim
ner), Il will arise and go to my
Father"-to whose Father7-to the
sinners father of course. People with
dogmatic ends to serve, like Mr..
Mead, struggle to believe that Jesus
reserved Gather" for the use of his
disciples. But as DR.. John Watson
puts it, "An ingenious person could
hardly make this discovery in the
Gospels" "Jesus spoke to the null
titude, and his disciples saying,
one is your father which is in hea-
ven." If Jesus had employed alter
natively two views of God, speaking
now as an Old Testament prophet,
and again as the Son of God, we
should probably have discovered the
matter before now. 1t is laughable
to observe few of the fossilized the
ologiaus with their rails trying to
prop up the devil 30 that he will ap-
pear like respectable father of sim
ners. No one would take any ex
ception to the doctrine of Gods uni
versal Fatherhood, but for the fact
that it leads to Universalism. If
God is the Father of all men then
all will finally BE- saved.
| used to be among those who
wondered what is the use of being a
Christian if God loves all men and
will save them all: therefore / am in
position to sympathize with those
who are still marveling. 1t has ever
been a perplexing matter to some
minds why one should try to gain
heaven here when God intends that
a condition of happiness shall be the
lot of his children. l presume that
the world will never be saved with
out means; and we are simply CO.
laborers with God to bring this con-
Summation about. But does not the
righteous man get his reward every
day, and does not the sinner receive
his recompense in the earth' Strange
that men are so blind as not to see
that religion pays in this world.
Let us illustrate the advantage the
righteous man has over the UPRIGHT
eous: Two brothers have the same
physical disease. 1t is growing on
their constitution, and they do not
enjoy life. The father sees the con-
dition of his sons and sends a physi-
clan to heal them. The physician
tells them that he is able to restore
them to health, and offers them his
medicine. One of the sons accepts
the offer, follows the physicians adj
vice, and is restored to health. He
once more enjoys the blessings of
life. The other son refuses to take
the medicine. He does not enjoy
life, and often wishes that he could
die. You can all see that the son
who follows the directions of the
physician is better off than the one
who refused. The father does not
punish the son for refusing to take