The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-05-02
Tssh Il an not sshsmed Of the Gospel Of chsis'
Romansi i6).

oOOs-e-s-s-s-e-s-e-s-s-.-e -s-.-e-e-.-s-s-s-,-,-.-s-s-6
lection, BECAUSE It's assumed tfat tine
Bible, having been studied by the
formulators of these creeds, must be
In accord with these, and hence, must
be responsible for the unreasonable
teachings, and must be rejected when
these are rejected
Some Of us ran away with the doc.
trine of election thinking 1t the
whole Gospel Of Christ; whereas, our
fragment was incomplete, unsatisfac.
tory. and misrepresented the Gospel
when taken alone. Others grasped the
doctrine Of free grace" and ran away
with that, claiming that 1t was the en-
tire Gospel - ignoring the Scriptures
which referred to election" etc.
These made a similar mistake, and
similarly misrepresented the Gospel Of
Christ in its Wilderness, its solidarity
Others grasped those Scriptures which
assure us of a universal opportunity
for salvation, and interpreted them to
eternal salvation, regardless OF their
Wills and cooperation. Others found
difficulty In harmonizing the relation
ship between the heavenly Father, the
heavenly Son. and the holy Spirit, and
this contention led TO Unitarianism on
the one hand, and to Trinitarianism on
the other. Others of us caught the
doctrine Of baptism" and made of it
the entire Gospel, and thus did violence
to the lengths. and breadths, and
heights, and depths Of the true mes
sage, the true Gospel of which St.
Paul in our text declares that he was
not ashamed
Noting the logical mind of St. Paul,
who can doubt that he would be
ashamed, as we ourselves are, of the
fragmentary presentations of the vari-
Gus creeds which more or less oppose
and contradict each other? We may
be sure that what the Apostle would
endorse, as the Gospel of Christ" we
need not be ashamed of. Hence our
determination should be to search the
Scriptures. and to find that one reason
able message of the Divine Plan which
Things at Which We Gagged.
Men and women do not find 1t diff.
cult to believe In a wise. just, loving
and powerful Creator; just such God
our hearts and heads tell us we should
expect; just such God rational peo,
Pile find no difficulty in worshiping
Indeed, while some of us in the past
may have believed in the total de
pravity" Of the race. may we not real
lze that Notwithstanding the fall, there
is still in the human mind and heart
something which has "longings inf
nite," something which cries out fol-
the living God, and which commands
our reverence and worship, In proper
tion as he Is recognized?
Spiritually we'gagged at the sugges
ton that a God of all wisdom, love
justice and power ever created oui
race with the foreknowedge and fore
ordination that practically all of these
thousands Of millions must suffer ell
ther purgatorial torture for severa
centuries. as our Catholic friends pre-
sent the matter, or at the still more
irrational theory of us Protestants thai
eternal torture Is to be the fate Of al
| except the elect few, the saints, who
now follow In the footsteps Of Jesus
course contrary to the world and al
the tendencies of life around us. Wei
| may we gag, and the sooner we rejec
and eject this entire mass Of un-Scrip
tural dogmas, the better. AS whok
1t comes to us from our honest, but un
enlightened forefathers, who veril,
thought they did God service In tortur
ing one another. even to the extent o.
burning one another at the stake. be
cause. of little differences along tn,
lines of these doctrines of devils"
| Timothy iv, u.
| The rich spiritual food and the strong
faith, which we, dear friends, as Bi
bic students, should desire and seel
| for, are to be found only In the Bible 1t
self. We should not spurn suggestion,
from one another, but we should re
ceive such suggestions tentatively, ant
the Word of God should be searched
| 30 tuut our Iultu SuOulu not Stduu III
the teachings of men. but in the powel
| of God, as set forth In the Word o.
God. From this quarter only can WI
expect information respecting
| Tho Gospel Of Christ"
of which st. Paul was not ashamed
That Gospel has two distinct features
Primarily 1t relates to the world o
mankind and instead of telling III
that either centuries of purgatoriAd SUI
fering. or an eternity of torture await
the world. Its message is that, in God
due time, a great blessing awaits tn
world through the glorified Christ, ant
as result of the sacrifice which h
finished at Calvary.
This great blessing will not be uni
versal salvation, but It will be uni
versal opportunity for salvation.
will not be salvation In ignoranc
and heather superstition, but saliva
tlon from such conditions. with full OF
portunity TO return to the image an
likeness OF God, lost In Adam. and re
deemed by our Savior, This Is tn