The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-07-28

, Christ our Lord" Romans vi, 23).
What statement could be more sim
pie? The wicked will not be granted
life at all, either in pleasure or in pain.
They are under sentence Of death-de-
structlon. Eternal life is a gift: And
it will be given only to those to whom
1t will be blessing-to those who will
accept it through Jesus Christ our
Lord.
Let us tnrn TO Genesis and note the
statements made to our first parents
respecting sin and its penalty. Let us
note that, without the twistings 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
ill., 2, 3, 1919, 24).
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-
ton" psalm xc, 81. And this penalty
is sufficiently awful when we think of
what it means to die, to lose mental,
moral and physical perfection and
gradually go into Me tomb-into the
Bible hell (sheol throughout the Old
TESTAMENT. And this sheol, the craze,
the tomb, to which the Bible says all
go, good and bad. rich and poor, holy
and unholy, was the only hell 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 sheol 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 1t. 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 mystert-
Gus manner TO mysterious place
} called Purgatory. of which nobody
| knew anything except what they were
taught The teaching is that practi'
! cally all of humanity go to Purgatory
5 there to be roasted and otherwise tor
tured for centuries-ultimately 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
mass money drew the priests very
: close to the people. They were all
: honestly intentioned, but all deceived
: by the great deceiver-Satan.
A Bad Matter Made Worse.
By and by priest, Catholic theo-
logan and teacher in one of their col
leges, by name Martin Luther, acct.
T dentally ran across a copy of the New
, Testament in the Latin language. Be
ing an educated man he was able tC
read it, for there was not one copy in
the German language anywhere. Lu'
, ther tells us of his perplexity in not
finding Purgatory in the New Tesla
, ment. He tried to interest the Pope
in Bible study, but failed. and instead
: was branded a hereto. He protested
and others protested; hence came the
name Professionals!
These Protestants were undoubtedly
D as sincere before their protest as they
: were afterward; hence their protes!
: was against the very doctrines which
: once they had proclaimed as the
I Truth. Their minds were full of the
= thought that dead person is not dead
e but more alive than before he died
= and that some of these at death went
D to heaven while the great majority
S went to Purgatory. They did not see
the teaching of the Bible, that ''the
| wages of sin is death"-that all go into
Q death, good and bad, and that this
; death state is the Sheol and hades OF
+ She Bible. Instead of getting this true
b light upon Gods Word, they went
= from darkness into greater darkness
= on this point Here we wish to empha-
0 size the thought that all these noble
: men. Catholics and Protestants, in
D their day. like all true people today
2 held measure of Truth in combina.
:: ton with errors. 1t Is the measure of
e Truth possessed and enjoyed that has
I given any power and force to our va
rious Christian systems and that. to