The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-05-12

ana all or his children. The arrange
ment Is that. 'since by man came
death, by man came also the resurrec-
ton Of the dead. For as all in Adam
die, even so all in Christ shall be
made alive. But every man in his
own order" Il Corinthians XIV, 21-23).
Doctrines of Demons"
The truth about this matter is severe
enough; 1t shows forth Divine Justice,
intertwined with Divine Mercy and
Love. We admit our present I'M
worthiness of life eternal and feel
grateful for proposed assistance
through Christ, but our great Adver-
sary, operating through ignorance, and
superstition and fear, seized the OPP
portunity to deceive us and misrepre-
sent our Creator by bringing in what
st. Paul designated. doctrines Of
demons" q Timothy iv, ~. These have
been promulgated. not merely in heath
en- lands, but amongst the civilized.
These false doctrines have tended to
ALLEVIATE the hearts and minds of hui
mainly from God and his revelation;
they have put a barrier between God
and his creatures.
These doctrines Of demons" are pre-
scented from various standpoints, but
they are alike in one respect; namely,
they all teach that God deceived our
first parents when he told them that
the wages Of sin is DEATH" These
doctrines of demons" assert the con-
trary, that man cannot die, but must
live somewhere to all eternity. Thus
on the basis Of mans fears, this doc
trlne that God thrust immortality upon
his creatures. the demons built up for
us theory so horrible as to be nau-
seating and terrifying to every sane
and healthy mind. These doctrines
Of demons" have been promulgated far
and near, and with various colorings,
but in essence they are all the same.
They have come down from the dark
ages" represented in all our creeds,
Catholic and Protestant.
Our Catholic friends have developed
this thought to a nicely. They tell us
that of those who die, only a mere
handful are fit for heaven and go
there Immediately. They tell us that
the most reprehensible class, heretical
rejectors of Divine Truth. will be sent
to a hell Of eternal torture where they
will never die. They assure us, how
ever, that the number who will re-
ceive this extreme punishment is small
in comparison with the race as a
whole They tell us that the majority.
Catholics and Protestants, civilized
and heather, are unfit for heaven at
death, and likewise not deserving of
eternal torture. and that thus the great
mass of mankind. nine out of every
ten, go at death TO Purgatory, there to
suffer for centuries or for thousands
of years in expiation Of sins. and for
publication of their souls. that they
may be eventually fit for Heaven and
its blessings. Our hearts rebel at such
a view Of the hereafter" While CIV
ing our Catholic friends, and our own
forefathers who were Catholics, credit
for being as sincere as ourselves, we
conclude that the light of our day, and
the light of our intelligence. will not
permit us to believe and rejoice in
such n view.of the thereafter" as this.
w Z say W ouiSClNCcJ Tic SICaI
God has something nobler than this in
reservation for his creatures.
Protestant Views Worse.
What shall we say of the Here
after" from the standpoint of our
Protestant creeds? How do these COM
pare with the Catholic views fore
going-how much worse? When our
forefathers thought they had found
something erroneous in the teachings
OF Papacy, when they concluded that
Purgatory was not TO be found in the
Bible, they heroically determined to
cast 1t out of their creeds. But alas!
When discarding it, they did not re-
alize that they were making bad
matter worse. They held on to the
doctrine of demons" that God had
! created man so that he could not die,
and could not be destroyed. and so
they proceeded to interpret matters
along that line. Realizing the Scrip
turalness Of the proposition that only
the sanity were fit for heaven. and re-
jecting the theory of Purgatory. they
logically consigned all except the saint
ly thereafter to eternal torture. Alas.
How inconsistent it is; how strange
that we ever thought Divine Fore
knowledge, Wisdom. Justice. Mercy,
! Love and Power should have created
man to the number of thousands of
millions. with the foreknowledge and
fore-intention and desire that they
should suffer an eternity of torture.
Dar4;po IS Al. WaNs
Thus. my dear bearers. you with my
self and others OF the intelligent peo-
pie of the world. find ourselves today
in most trying position. Our hearts
have repudiated the doctrine OF eter-
nal torture as being un-Christ-like. I'M
worthy even of a devil. We can be-
lieve neither In Purgatory of centu-
ries. nor in eternal torture as a conse-
quence or penalty for Adams disobedi-
ence in eating OF the forbidden fruit,
nor as penalty upon his children for
not living perfect lives when they
were born in sin and shapen in iniqui-
ty" and prone to sin as the sparks TO
fly upward" Our hearts cry out for
the living God and the true light upon
his dealings.
HIH11n6