The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-11

Reiterstes His View ina tho Hard. Cold,
Severe Cod" Pictured by M Conf essle0
ID mot Our God'-He VIM Continue
10 Oppose the Idea of Endless Torment.
The Rev. DR.. Samuel T. Carter, q retired
clergyman of the Presbyterian Church,
who has been a year in Europe reouperattng
with his family, returned last night aboard
the Cunarder Carmania. He vigorously
attacked the " estminster Confession while
in active service. but the ~Presbytery OF
Nassau, with which he was then connected,
took no action against him. He said last
night;
Il spoke my conviction that the God Of
the Confession is an idol like any other, and
that the Assembly is false to its highest
duty of being a true witness for God TO
men so long as she retains the Confession
The Assembly dropped the letter into the
pocket Of a committee and there 1t still re-
mains. l leave it to the judgment OF the
public whether that was honest and manly.
IF the Church 10 enamored Of her creed
! n help IL, but q high duty remains TO
make clear and very clear to q vast COM
pany OF people who fear that religion Is the
sad thing the Confession makes 1t to be,
and that God is the hard and severe Being
the Confession sets Him forth to be-to
make clear, II possible. to these that God
is a great deal better than we ave ever
conceived, that religion is much more
beautiful and delightful than We have ever
known.
1T seems TO me there q hardly be too
radical a change from the view Of the char
acter Of God given In the Westminster Con-
fession. ! believe mothers love In It's
most exquisite touch Is ooldness compared
with the love of God; lovers love IN its
fullest abandon and rapture is distance
and alienation compared with the love
The Westminster Confession God and
the New Testament God are b whole
heavens apart. The old theology would
be news. indeed, TO the Lord Jesus, ana the
Westminster Confession Is to Him an altar
with this inscription: To the
God
Il believe the love OF God, rightly re-
ceived, would make a final end OF the sad
pessimism that we see in life and literature.
II such q sun shines above US, every cloud
must go at last. A proper sense OF the
love OF God would make life most sweet
and desirable; would make every common
relation OF life, ~parentage and childhood.
birth, marriage and death, youth, man.
hood and old age, a great gift OF God fuIl
OF all brightness and blessing.
We have been long engaged in modify
ing and diminishing our punis hments with
only the most happy results; the t~heologians
might credit the good Lord with fully under
standing this. He would. greatly appreciate
il. II would be in~tolersbly grievous to
spend eternity praising and blessing q God
who was torturing forever millions OF our
brothers and sisters.
The doctrine is to me automatically
impossible. / could more easily believe
that the whole is not equal TO. the sum Of
its parts, that things that are equal to the
same thing are not equal to each other
that a straight line is the greatest dis
lance between two points, h that the
God who il love will torment forever His
erring children. It is a moral impossibility
most absolute.
"a world of intelligent men has utterly
rejected the idea of endless torment. Why
should not the Church free itself from he
shame Of perpetuating this remorseless
oruelty2 The dogma Of endless torment Is
an old rotten derelict hat has rolled on the
ocean OF time far too long, leaving a track
Of disaster and death behind IL. The Church
owe il to itself TO dynamite this miserable
hulk and sink it out OF sight forever
These views have been OF slow growth
with me. but have become as my very life,
Let no man object to my proclaiming them.
Believing them as / do, l should be the
most contemplate coward II ] did not pro-
claim them, and as long as life lasts and
my reason remains, my voice, however
feeble, shall be lifted against the horrors
OF the old theology and for the infinite love
of God