The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-22

Special TO The Tribune
UTICA, y. Y. Aug. 2i.-Pastor Rus
sell Of Brooklyn tabernacle preached here
twice today TO large audiences. We re-
port one OF his dlscourses from the above
text He said In part;
One Of the wonderful things about the
Bible and the Christianity founded up
on the Bibles teachings is the fact that
II contains so much sympathy-comfort
Tor the bereaved, the sorrowing. the trou-
bled. This is not true OF any other book
or any other religion In the world. And
who is there that does not at some time
In life need sympathy. need encourage
ment, need powerful and loving friend
such as our Bible assures Us our God Is
10 all who Will accept his favor?
But our great adversary. Satan, seeks
10 make the light appear dark and the
darkness appear light. He seeks TO mega
tive tho testimonies of Gods word and
have been successful. as is Witnessed by
the creeds OF Christendom. Practically
all of our creeds. even though they assert
that God is gracious, mcrciful. kind and
loving. contradict this description OF Him
and His plan for humanity In monstrous
terms fiendish in the extreme. The ma
iorlty of creeds tell us OF His foreordina-
ZION and Drearrangcment of whatsoever
comes 10 pass and that this signifies that
D saintly handful viii gain eternal life In
JOY in heaven and that the insanity
thousands of millions OF hedthendom and
Christeudom are equally foreordaincd to
spend an eternity OF torture forcknowp,
foreintended and provided for before their
creation. is there comfort i'm this? Is
such plan God-lilSc or Satanic? Could
any intelligent and good being rejoice in
such n plan Of damnaton or sincerely
worship an Almighty God who would so
misuse His unlimited power TO distress
His creatures. born In sin. shapen in
iniquity: In sin did their mothers con-
ceiVc thcm?'
The minority Of Christian creeds de-
clare the same results. but that they were
not designed of God. not foreknown by
him. not predestiuated, They tell us In
other words that we have an incompetent
God. we'll meaning but deficient in wis
dom and in power, Is there any comfort
in thisI Would II asSuage the grief and
pain Of those suffering in eternal torment
II they could be assured that their lot
was such not because Of Divine pre-
meditation and design. but because OF Di-
vine Incompetence Surely there rs no
comfort To bc had from such a view.
After all VIC Protestants did not make
much of an improvement upon tho theory
held by our forciathers against which we
protested in the sixteenth century. Sure
ly purcatorial torturcs of "a few centuries
arc no worse no less comforting than our
Protestant conceptions OF an eternity OF
torture for all the non-elect. our Cath
Ollie forefathers manufactured PurSatory
without "A shred OF Scripture upon which
To base the theory. They built II In their
imaginations; they invented Ills Tires ana
tortures. Our Protestant forcfnthers. MS
ing their imaZinutions. gave us an cter-
nal torment hcll-not more tangible, not
more Scriptural than Pursatory. They
did indeed use a Scriptural term-Shcol.
hades. hcll--bui. overlooking the fact that
these words all signify the state OF death. |
the condition OF the dead, they wrested |
the language and warped II in an un-
scriptlral manner to signify torture. The |
penalty or wage of sin is death" They |
made of II torture everlasting. without |
the slightest authority Of Scripture eN-
cept n misunderstanding and mlsappled
parable. which. rightly understood, teach |
es . totally different lesson. The false
gospel has surely lost Its power. People
are becoming the intelligent to endure IL,
AS consequence attendance at churches
is decreasing and reverence for God is
diminishing. Inhdelity. called higher crit
icism. etc. is increasing.
The need of the hour is the gospel Of
comfort. St Paul declares what We all
know, namely that 1.-The whole creation
Rroaueth and trnvaileth in pain together |
until now waiting for the manifestation
of the sons OF God" Here we see the ne
cessIty for this gospel OF comfort. We
see also that God has provided 1t and