Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-01-25

fices of doctrine in the interest Of federation
as the same They both accept the Westminster
confession of faith with. Its Calvinistic founda-
tiOn-that God. before the foundation of the
world. foreOrdained whatsoever comes TO pass
that he predestinated an elect sanity few to
heavenly glory, and equally foreordained that
the remainder of thousands Of millions of non
elect should be maintained in eternal life to Oil
eternity in order that they might suffer excru-
chatting pains both mental and physical, never
ending. a part of the supposed penalty OF the
original sin committed by our first parents In
Eden.
Evidently there will be few people in these
highly intelligent Christian bodies ready to in
sist. forefathers did. that this element
OF faith is essential to salvation. Few of us
would agree with BROTHER John Calvin. the great
architect of this creed, that fellow CHRISTIANS
rejecting this doctrine shoud he burned at the
stake. as brother Calvin decided In respect TO
Brother Servitus No. thank God, we have out
grown some OF the narrownes which so terribly
scattered some Of our brethren during the cSTA
ages. 6
Few any longer believe that there are Gin
fants in hell not span long" because non
elect Even where the doctrine of election Is
still blindy held few have the temerity to
state their belief that any innocent infant was
prcdestinated to everlasting torture But Brotn h
er Calvins contention expressed In the West
minister confession is that there are no inno-
cent infants-that the condemnation of origin
children "born in sin and shapen in iniquity.''
were therefore not innocent. but guilty--born
under the sentence Of eternal torment and salv-
able from II only through membership in the
church Of Christ. indeed we may say that this
theory was still older than Calvin. for did mol
st. Augustine first declare the danger of In
fonts to eternal torture and the necessity of
their being brought into the church of Christ by
baptism in order TO escape eternal torture? And
is ne the force Of this teaching still manifest
amongst both Professionals and Catholics. as ev'
idenced by their fear to have an infant die
unbaptized-so that some, in extreme cases even
practice baptism in utero'?
However,. some logical minds will still reason
that the salvation damnation of man
Of 60 was foreordaned before the foundation
81 ia. dfao4 vnOA had
must have been equally foreOrdained when an
infant 60 seconds old. Such will also have in
na tb tnat ac many s eect God
II will DO difficult for these to wholly ignore
the doctrine of election and to concede the
correctness of the Methodist doctrine TO the
but that divine grace is free and alike 20
everybody. We will. however. have some
suggestions to offer before conclude, which
will we trust be helpful to these brethren
an election along different lines,
nOctrinslly MethOdism is indirectly opposed to
Calvinism in every sense of the word Posi-
bly, Methodists will have less 10 concede than
Calvansts. because. although in WeSley's day
the doctrine of free grace was cnmbatted IN
every hand. ii is now the tacit faith of the
vast majority of Christendom. The doctrine
that God had premeditatef and irrevocaby
foreOrdained the eternal torture Of our race ex-
eept handful of the elect was too horrible
one to stand So the Methodist doctrine cf
Divine Love for all and free grace as respects
salvation has appealed more and more to the
growing intelligence of mankind Neverthe-
less. cannot do otherwise than cOncede that
il Will matter little TO the thousands OF mil.
eternal torture whether they shall suffer eter-
nal agOnes as result of divine lovelessness
in foreOrdaning their sufferings or to divine
I inability TO outwork for their benefit the sup
posed advantages of free grace and arrange
for them by divine love
THE MORE EXCELLENT WAY.
Our suggestion is that now I'm the tapping
time of this gospel age with the oneoming NIL
lennial age, as the arc electric light casts the
q tha fntn no Sha 50
clearer light now shining from the pages on
Gods Word casts into the shadow all the
the horrible nightmare which once becloude1
our hearts and lives aud made us fearful OF
Creator of an allpowerful, but mercl-
less sovereign In this blessed light now shin
ing from Gods Book have we not basis for
Christian union? Let MS see! III we can fmd
| in Gods Word that the doctrine Of election
and the doctrine of free grace are both true
both Biblical, but that one belongs to the
church in this gospel age and the other to
| mankind in general In the coming Millennlnl
| age. win not this solve the problem and give
us doctrinal union, instead Of mere fedora
ton based uron the ignoring of doctrine? we
can all assent to this, therefore let us examine
! The Bible assuredly declares divine elec-
tion according to divine purpose foreordain-
cd-but not such election as Brother Calvin
outlined God foreordained the selection of a
church. predestinating the number who would
constitute its membership ana me cnaraete ,
OF each one who would be acceptable as MEM
her lie fOreordained tests of the worthlness
of thes members and the glorious reward that
| should he theirs and a great work which they
shall be privileged to do for malkind-limiteh-
~ now, fully during the Millennium. Accus-
toned to the election of fellow-citizens TO the
presidency to congress, ETC., where they Will
have the opportunity for blessing the non elect
Ne shonld have carried this same thought 10
the divine election of the church. We should
have discerned that the elect church, the seed
of Abraham" (Gal. 1920. is specially intended
to be the channel of divine blessing to "all
the families OF the earth" Gen. 3:l4.)
How strange that we overlooked this ami
the assurance that with the completion of the
church Messiah would exalt her In the First
Resurrection to be His Bride and joint-heir in
his MiIennial Kingdom, to be established for
the blessing Of all mankind. How strange
that we did not notice that every text OF scrip
ture used by our Methodist brethren TO SUD-
stsntiate their doctrine of free grace belongs
| to the AIillennIal kingdom As for instance, the