The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-09-15

tortured, but hoping for heaven. They
looked at one another I'm CONSERVATION.
They had hearts and sympathjes and
felt that as 1t had devolved upon them
TO smash Purgatory, It must also de-
volve upon them TO relocate all those
thousands of millions whom they had
on their hands. They felt the weight
of the responsibility. Could they de-
mand Of God that they should be put
into heavenp Surely not! Surely only
the sanity few are ut for beavenl
They, as well as all, recognized that
fact. Then, with blank CONSERVATION.
they determined that they must crowd
the entire mass into hell Of eternal
torture and shut the gates upon them
forever and write upon the gates,
who enters here abaDdons hope''
Brother Calvin to the Rescue.
Taking from practically all human.
ity all future hope made the Reformers
for the time heartsick It would be
awful to do that for one person. but
TO thus do" all humanity seemed ter
rlble. And then TO be obliged to label
that gospel Good Tidings" must GER
tainly have been trying experience
for the Reformers.
! But Brother John Calvin helped
them amazingly and took from them
their burden. He told them that they
should not worry, because 1t was all
| Gods fault and not theirs. God had
predestinated them TO that awful fu-
| Inn hof I.e ta1
they should merely try to think Of
| themselves as the "elect' and try to
forget everybody else. OF course, 1t
seemed horrible to charge all these
things against the God Of all Justice,
| Wisdom, Love and Power, But it was
the only solution which occurred to
them. John Calvin's theories we're
afterwards embodied in the west
minister Confession OF Faith" And
that confession of faith became the
foundation of nearly all Protestant
creeds. Brother John Wesley after
ward objected, but admitted that only
the sanity went to heaven and every
body else went to eternal torment
| His protest was that, instead Of this
being by Divine generalization and in
| tention, it was. ON the contrary, be-
cause of Divine unwisdom and 'incom-
potency.
"Good Tidines of Great JOY"
Surely no sane person can any longer
defend any Of the above Gospels as
the true one, Of which st. Paul was
not ashamed! Surely st. Paul never
preached any of those Gospels, nor did
any of the Apostles does the Bible
support such theories, except by the
turning and twisting of language, mis-
transations Of the original and misin-
terpretations of some parallels. The
plain statements of the Scriptures are
all directly to the opposite.
The Bible teaches that "the wages
Of sin Is DEATH" not Purgatory nor
eternal torment. "The soul that sin
meth, it shall die" Adam, the perfect,
was placed on trial for life eternal or
death eternal. He sinned and the SEN
tence against him vas Cursed is the
earth for thy sake; Worms and thistles
shall it bring forth unto thee In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
until thou return unto the ground from
whence thou vast taken Genesis iii,
1910. st. Paul declares the same:
by one mans disobedience sin enter
ed into the world; and thus death
passed upon all men. because all are
sinners" Romans V, 12).
Looking about us we find this true.
Everybody who is not dead is dying.
AS the Bible says, we are living I'M
der reign of Sin and Death. Nothing
that man can do can either eradicate
sin or lift us out of our dead and dy-
ing condition. God alone can help us!
he proposes to help us and the mes
sage respecting that help is, in the
Scriptures, called the Gospel. Its an
nouncement by the angels ON the night
of Jesus birth is full, complete. sat
isfactory. viz: Behold, we bring you
good tidings of great joy which shall
be unto all people; for unto you is
born this day in the City of David
Savior Qife-giver) which Is Christ the
Lord duke il, 10).
All, now we have the Truth, The
penalty of sin is death And the good
tidinSs" is that God has provided for
our recovery from sin and death The
Savior gave his life for the cancella-
ton of our sin. for the satisfaction of
Justice. that in due time Adam and all
his condemned and imperfect race
might be released from the condemna-
ton and be lifted out of the sin and
death conditions which now prevail.
That uplifting is Scripturally called
the resurrection of the dead. Hence
the preaching of the early Church was,
Jesus and the Resurrection" Re
deemer and his work.
Still More Good Tidinas.
The good tidings for the race i'm gen.
eral is that the Redeemer in Gods due
time toiH become King OF kings and
Lord of lords-the Messiah of glory.
Gods glorious Representative. For
thousand years the regenerating
work for Adams race will progress
Matthew xix, 2S; Acts iii, 1929.
Gods Chosen People, Israel. will be
the earthly agents of the heavenly and
invisible King of glory, BY the close
of his reign the whole earth will have
been transformed into the Paradise Of
God. "He will make the place OF his
feet glorious" And mankind will all
be perfect again, in Gods image