The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-03-26
ENDLESS


Rev. Marion Crosley, pastor or Central
Universalist Church. had for his subject
yesterday "The Dogma of Endless Suffer-
ing-Pagan and Not Christian" The text
was selected from Jeremiah xxi, IA: Il will
punish you according to the fruit of your
doings, saith the Lord" The pastor said,
In part: ~
1.-The word punish. as here used, means
to visit upon to inflict penalties according
to the wrong that is done. 1t suggests the
idea that God heaps upon us no more nor
less than what we deserve. Punishment is
an infection in proportion to the amount
of evil we do. Every deed. whether good
or bad. has its corresponding reward. Ev-
cry car-e has it's sure effect. All laws.
whethe.. physical or spiritual, have at
tached to them their inevitable penalties.
The idea of securing by a few small deeds
here an Immortality Of bliss is out of all
due proportion. So II must be with endless
suffering. 1t Is out OF Ill proportion. No
one can sin enough to deserve endless pain.
1t is beyond the bounds of reason, pro-
priety and justice. The idea of endless
suffering was brought into use in the midst
of darkness and ignorance with which to
terrify the unruly.. They first kindled fires
on earth around the stake and produced
any number of martyrs. and then, under
the influence of passion, they kindled imag-
mary fires beyond death, with which to
brighten people out of their wits in order
to control them with some selfish end in
view. -t
Heather writers of distinction admit
that the doctrines of hell fire were in
vented TO be used as a ScareCrOW To
brighten ignorant people into certain ways
of thinking and doing. They worked on the
sin. For instance, Cicero. the greatest Of
Roman orators, born log B.. c., says, In one
of his far-famed orations: 1T was on this
account that the ancientS invented those
Internal punishments of the dead, to keep
the wicked under some awe in this life.
who, without them, would have no dread
of death ITSELF Po1ybius, a celebrated
Greek historian. born 2Os b.. c.. writing on
this subject, says: Since the multitude is
tickle and capricious, full of lawless pas
sions and irrational and violent resent
ments, there is no way left to keep them
in order, but by the terrors Of future pun
ishment, and all the pompous circum-
stances that attend such kind of fiction!
On which account the ancients acted, in
my opinion. with great Judgment and pene-
notions of the gods and a future state into
popular belief
"Strobo. a Greek geographer and emf
nent philosopher, born 60 b. c., said: 1T
was impossible to govern women and the
gross body of the people. and to keep
them pious and virtuous by the precepts
Of philosophy. This can only be done by
the fear of the gods, which is raised and
supported by ancient actions and modern
prodigies. And further on he writes that
THE apparatus of the ancient mythologies
was an engine which the legislatures en-
ployed as bugbears to strike terror into the
ohildlike imaginations of the multitude
Here we are told that the doctrine of fu-
tUre misery was worked up as a bug
bear as an engine of torture to terror
ize the multitude. Seneca, born in Spain
five years before Christ, was taken to
and was educated q Roman. He became
famous in rhetoric, moral philosophy and
law. He distinguished himself as a pleader
at the bar. On an occasion in referring
to the doctrine of endless misery. he says:
Those things which make the Internal re-
gions terrible, the darkness, the prison,
the river of flaming fire, the judgment. ETC.,
are all a fable, with which poets amuse
themselves and by them agitate us with
vain terrors.'
These famous writer's, with many others
that we could produce as witnesses, testify
that the idea of endless misery originated
enish fiction, contrfved to deter people
from sin under the impression that MOTH
ing but fear would restrain. Working on
the fears may restrain. but 1t Is a fact,
established by history, that fear never
reforms or improves the conditions Of
r.en. Perfect love casts out fear. Love wins
tar more than terrors can reclaim. The gos-
pei speaks of love as the proper incentive
God and love our fellow-man because these
are the highest and beset things of life.
But in conclusion let me say, do not for
get that ali rewards for the good or bad
We do are certain and sufficient. We shall
receive just what We deserve for our &C
tons. whether good or bad"