The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1900-05-17
Written for The Prison Mirror


The old Hebraic doctrine that is
expounded from many pulpits today,
is utterly repugnant to a reasoning
mind. This doctrine describes God as
a great Moloch-cruel, capricious and
vengeful, who, without any discrimi-
nation as to the form or amount of
sin, condemns all who die in sin to an
everlasting hell, and all who do not
die in sin to an immortal life of bliss.
t?) which consists of living in a city
with gates of pearl and wearing little
golden crown and singing "holy, holy,
holy, foreverp
OF course any reasoning thinker can
see that this attempt at describing the
future life is only imaginary, and was
the highest ideal of happiness that the
crude writer's of those times could con-
ceive of.
In Nature everything is regulated
by unchanging law. Nature never
makes any mistakes, and always collects
her debts. The processes of natural
law are fixed with such nicely and
regulated so carefully in regard to the
laws of supply and demand, that there
is absolutely no waste; and as matter
is indestructable, the same materials
are used over and over again, ad infini-
tum.
Every time you smoke a cigar, or
worry, or get angry, it shortens your
life; only an infnitesimal amount to
be sure, but it shortens it and Nature
sets it down in her account book to be
deducted from the sum of your ex-
istence. Every individual when he is
born has certain allotted time to live.
1t may be only few moments, or it
may be hundred years. 1t all de-
pends on environment, hereditary
weaknesses, mental and physical ca
pacity, etc.
Every time we indulge in any dissi-
patton contrary to natural law, we
shorten our allotted period. There is
no getting around this. There is no
way of swindling nature. We 60 on
from day to day, gratifying our base
sensual appetites, elbowing death and
shaking dice with Fate for the sake
of present happiness, little dreaming
or little caring what we are laying up
in the future. "That which ye sow,
that ye shall reap" If you sow the
wind you will reap the whirlwind.
But you will not reap more than you
have sown. If you SOW ten acres of
wheat, and do your part towards it,
excepting some accident, God will
give you just ten acres of wheat. Not
eleven acres nor nine.
Just so it is with sin. If you SOW
cruelty in this world l believe you
shall reap cruelty in the next. If you
sow corruption you will get corruption.
If you sow hatred and vengeance, you
will get it-with a vengeance. What
ever our mode of living is here, that is
what God will appear to us there. He
is like the sunlight-unchanging. If
wv Wv" UA1O oil OTUl-
nary pane OF glass it appears white. If
through red glass, it appears red. If
through blue, it appears blue. If we
view it through prism it appears
many colored, each a beautiful one in
itself. Yet it is the same old sun.
Just as I believe it will be in the
next world. If we are loving God will
appear loving to us. If we are kind
God will appear as the essence of kind
ness itself. To the just He will be
just. To the cruel He will be cruel.
To the liar and the perjurer, and
slayer, and adulterer, He will mete out
just exactly what they deserve. And
His indignation and scorn will be as
consuming fire to them. That is the
hell fire meant in the Scriptures; not a
literal fire of birthstone and flames.
Just what form He will cause them