The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1910-07-29

What statement cOuh De mOTe SIIh-
pie? The wicked will not be granted
life at all, either IN pleasure or in pain.
They are under sentence Of death-de-
struction- Eternal life is q gift And
it win be given only 10 those to whom
1t viii be blessing-to those who viii
accept It through Jesus Christ our
Lord
Let us turn to Genesis and note the
statements made to our first parents
respecting sin and its penalty. Let us
note that, without the twistfngs of
theology, we should have no difficulty
In understanding the Divine sentence,
as our first parents evidently had no
difficulty. The sentence upon Father
Adam for disobedience was, Dying
thou shalt die; "Dust thou art, and
unto dust shalt thou return; Cursed
is the ground for thy sake; 'Thorns
and thistles shall it bring forth unto
thee until thou return unto the ground
from which thou vast taken Genesis
Iii, 2, 8, 1919, ~
Thus we see that the penalty for sin
upon Adam and his race was that they
should return to the dust. AS we read
again, Thou turnest man to destruc-
tom psalm &c, 81. And this penalty
is sufficiently awful when we think Of
what 1t means to die, to lose mental,
moral and physical perfection and
gradually go into the tomb-nto the
Bible hell (sAeot throughout the Old
TESTAMENT. And this sheol the grace,
the tomb, to which the Bible says all
go, good and bad, rtch and poor, holy
and unholy, was the only he'll known
amongst any of the people of God for
the more than four thousand years,
represented by the teachings Of the
Old Testament Then came the New
Testament times and the teachings OF
Jesus and the Apostles to the same
effect. In the New Testament the
Greek word hddes, representing the
tomb, the death state, takes the place
of the Old Testament sheo| IN every
passage translated from the Old Tes-
lament into the New Testament
1t was nearly three hundred years
after Jesus and the Apostles, after the
writing of the New Testament, before
the doctrine of Purgatory was invent
ed. And for this reason neither the
word Purgatory nor the Purgatory
thought is expressed In the Scriptures.
But Bibles were few, and the people
could not have read them even If they
had possessed them; hence for long
centuries the teachings of the clergy
were accepted without Bible proofs,
and the doctrine Of Purgatory spread
all over Christendom- All Of our fore
fathers believed In It 1t became the
teaching of Christians everywhere that
the mere handful Of saints, instead of
dying when they seemed to die, went
to heaven and that the great mass Of
humanity, instead of dying when they
seemed to die, went In some mysteri
GUS manner to a mysterious place
called Purgatory, of which nobody
knew anything except what they were
taught The teaching is that pract-
cally all Of humanity go to Purgatory
there TO be roasted and otherwise tor
tured for centuries to gain
release from the torture, when fitted
for heaven Upon this doctrine In turn
sprung the doctrine Of saying masses
for the dead who were believed not
to be dead but intensely alive The
fear Of Purgatory drew the people very |
close to the priests as the supposed |
counsellors Of the Almighty and the
mass money drew the priests very |
close 10 the people. They were all
honestly intentioDed, but al deceived
by the great deceiver-Satan
A Bad Matter Msde worse>
By and by a priest a Catholic theo
Iogian and teacher In one of their cor
leges, by name Martin Luther, acct
dentaIly ran across a copy Of the New
IN the Latin language Be
Ing an educated man be was able 10
read It; for there was not one copy in
the German language anywhere Lo-
Their tells US Of his perpiexity IN not
finding Purgatory In the New Tesla
ment He tried 10 interest the Pope
in Bible study. but failed. and instead
was branded q hereto. He protested
md Others protested, hence came the
name Protestants.
These Protestants were undoubtedly
Is sincere before their protest as they
we're afterward: hence their protest
was against the very doctrines which
1nce they bad proclaimed as the
Truth Their minds were fun OF the
.hought that a dead person Is not dead
Jut more alive than before be died
Ind that some Of these at death went
% beaver while the great majority
vent 10 Purgatory. They did not see
he teaching Of the Bible. that THE
wages Of sin IS death--that an 90 into
leath. good and bad and that this
ieath state Is the sheoI and hddcs Of
be Bfbla Instead Of getting this true
ight upon Gods Word they went
rom darkness into greater darkness
n this point. Here we wish 70 empha-
i7e the thought that all these noble
nen. Catholics and PrUtestants. IN
heir day. Ike all true people today.
ield a measure Of Truth IN combina-
Ion with errors. II is the measure of
ruth Possessed and enjoyed that has
1ven any power and force TO our va ,
- r~N~f-sr.- - j !