Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1903-10-09
DAMNATION.
Our Bright Contributor Sermonzes Upon an
Orthodox Subject.

OrthooOx SUBJECT.
BYLuE VERNON
The Presbyterians are not going to
change their doctrine as to damnation.
Perhaps its just as we'll. We may
need little, just little, Of the Pres
byterian idea to prevent the world be.
coming soggily satisfied in a COM
placent acceptance OF a state OF affairs
aptly summarized by the late DR..
McPheeters' definition of the differ
ence between the Universalists and
the Unitarians. The Universalists
DR.. McPheeters said, believed that
God was too God to damn any man,
while the Unitarians believed that any
man was too good for God to damn.
The Presbyterians seem TO be a good
deal better than the things they be.
lieve, and, really, its none of your busi-
ness or mine what anybody believes,
go long as the person acts all right.
Ones neighbors are all pretty nice
folks, though they belong to forty
sects-and even Pommery Sec. The
great trouble with all this damnation
business is that we don't leave it to
Him whose business it is-c'est SON
msetier. as Heine said. We get to deal
ing it out according to our thinking of
what we'd do if we were God. So far
as any mortal is aware, God has not
yet been shown conclusively to have
damned anybody. A lot of men have
said that God has damned some other
men whom the first set OF men didn't
like, but tten the friends of the Sec
ond set of men say that God damned
the first set for similar reason. Ac-
cording 10 men of one view or another,
in the long run everybody would be
damned. He'll would be bursting
with occupants, and you could fire
Gatling gun for a week down the
golden streets of the New Jerusalem
without even winging a Saint. I'll
bet four dollars that God never will
damn as many people as some of His
creatures wish-and not all the wish
ers are Presbyterians either. There
may be q personal God and there may
not-let the fools dispute that as they
will-but it is pretty safe to assert
that, taking q Supreme Being for
granted, He must be unutterably
wearied Of being told his business by .
whole lot of creatures whose main
prayer is to give their fellow creatures
everlastingly the worst of it. There's
only one kind of people that ought to
be damned good and deep. and that's
the kind that makes q business OF
parceling out damnation to others.
The beauty OF the doctrine of our
frieuds, the Presbyterisns, is, that
they leave the matter TO God - en-
tirely. They don't even claim that
they have any inside track on pardon.
They just get a spiritual hustle on
themselves, and if they don't win, why
its not their fault. They leave the
responsibility where it belongs, seeing
that the issue was fixed and determined
before they entered the game. So
Presbyterianism isn't such an un.
cheerful doctrine after all. In fact, it
has some advantages. We always
think of the fellow who hustles, and
Immortality loses out, despite his ef-
forts. We don't think OF the fellow
who never turns q hair in spirital
struggle, and gets harp and q halo
anyhow, because he was 90 predes-
tined. Why, it makes the whole busi-
ness as cheerfully lively as carrying q
little block of stocks in . furry, or
guessing if James Hamilton Lewis
will ever become President OF the
United States. And when the Presby-
terians determine they won't change
their doctrine, it's folly for those who
don't believe the doctrine to throw theo-
logical fits over it. If you don't be-
lieve doctrine, it doesn't do you any
harm. and it doesn't do you any good.
No matter what you believe, you've
got to die to find out if you were
right or wrong. And our living
friends, the Presbyterians, know as
little about it as the Unitarians or the
Universalists or the Roman Catholics,
or Rube" does of the printing bust.
ness. They're all taking some other
persons word for it, who knows as
little as they. So let us let people
believe what they believe, and, for
ourselves, let us not fall into the habit
of believing i'll OF the belief of other
people, and when q man comes
around talking damnation or anti
damnation, let US feel that it isn't
really 80 important 10 us to know
what God is. or is not, going to do to
somebody, as it is to know what We
can do for somebody in q way Of
cheerful neighborliness. God may be
trusted to attend to His business, and
we cannot do better than attend to
our own, which, whatever it may be,
is not the damnation business.
Very suggestive.
Little Ethel: "YOur sister is en-.