The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-04-29
WHAT Is GOD7

In He q Cruel Fiend and Despossc
Monster. Or b HIS . Being OF Kind
mess, Eove and Aesey:
The following communication,
written by Alexander Beck, which
appeared In the Atlanta Evening
News, Of April 2lst, Is 30 In accord
with my ideas on this subject that /
have asked Editor Wilson as q favour
TO me and also to the hundreds OF
ers who read his paper and hold to
the same views, that he reprint II, which
he kindly consents to do. w. II. N.
"All men who love God and hu-
manity are frequently shocked and
psined at the cruel things preachers
say God is going to do or permit .
devil to do to sinners. They charge
God with doing things that would out
rage every sense Of Justice and right
II done by man, and yet they say
God Ii better than man.
Recently I heard preacher in his
pulpit say that he had visited q large
apartment store by invitation OF the
proprietor, and that a. he walked
through the various apartments and
saw the mauy clerks selling goods, he
thought Of the immense apartment
business carried on by the devil. In
his minds eye he saw this great deal
er in human merchandise sleeplesly
directing his business through his
vast army of clerks and agents. Ac"
cordiug TO this preacher, . majority
of men and women In oil walks OF life
are clerking for the devil In some one
Of his apartments. He did not speak
one word Of love or sympathy for these
poor clerks. His sermon was lurfd,
and you could see the venom fash
from hin eyes as he declared these
clerks Of the devil (poor, weak human
beings) deserved and would receive
endless punishment.
"How any man with love 10 his
heart could get such gloomy and black
thoughts from walking through an
apartment store with many clerks,
men and women, making an honest
living selling their wares 10 those who
need them, is past my understanding.
To put It charitably, such thoughts
must have come from an uusound
mind.
"If snch preachers had the spirit OF
the great Master, who ate and drank
with sinners, and went about doing
good. they would tell their church
members that these so-called clerks Of
the devil were their brothers and
sisters, and children Of God, made In
His own image, and that they should
go among them and loveingly put
their arms about them, and lead and
help them to o better way. II God
OF love and the brotherhood Of man
was the burden of their sermons, they
would have men fiockipg to hear
them and to join their churches. But
alas! they preach woe and black de-
spair for most men.
"If what they preach be true, then
I charge them with neglect Of duty. {;
yea, endless murder. They preach
s,ereotyped sermons twice q week and
then 70 10 their comfortable homes, eat
good dinners, smoke good cigars, and
sometimes tell jokes while their fellow
men are daily dying, and, according
to them, going TO an endless bell. II
what they say is the destiny Of most
men, then they rhould never close
their churches, day or night, but
should preach continuously until they
dropped exhausted, then they should
have other preachers ready to take
their places. They should 60 out into
the highways and hedges and compel
men to be saved.
IF what they preach be true, II
would be O merciful act to strangle
every babe ut birth and let Il wing Its
flight to heaven. and thus cut short
the supply of fuel for the fires Of bell.
II am persuaded that the preachers
don't believe their own story, for II
they did, they could never smile
again with love and sympathy for
human sufferings. I am thankful
that the destiny Of man Ia not In the
hands Of preachers, but In the hands
God who made them and who was
pleased to make them weak and to
sur round them with difficulties, for
wise and beneficient reasons.
"Oh, our Father! Thou who art
love, breathe into the hearts Of preach
ers Thy love that they may proclaim
1t unto men who are hunRering and
thirsting for love and brOtherly kind