The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1910-08-29
Sermon BY
CHARLES t.
RUSSELL
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

These words from the lips Of our
Master, the Great Teacher. have been
Grieyously misunderstood. The teach
Ing Of orr Protestant childhood was to
the effect that only the sanity elect
would go to heaven and that others
would not only lose heaven, but gain
an eternal life in torment. Thus our
text was understood to portray what
practically the whole world of mankind
would be compelled to endure. This
hell was pictured to our childhood
minds from outside the Bible us heated
to white heat. five expressed won.
der or surprise that any human creature
could endure such conditions SO long
the answer was that God would excr.
else. his omnipotent power to make US
flre-proof and pain-sensitive. Some thco-
logians of the Thomas Kcmpls school
Of thought went so far as to picture
the poor creatures In their sufrerlngs
and to show that the heat would form
kind Of an asbestos covering which
would shield them from n measure Of
Its intensity. But those deludcdt theo-
losians proceeded to explain that these
outer coverings would crack and shell
OF every little while. leaving the poor
victim freshly tender that his suffering
might be the more intense.
OF course, these theologlans of the
past had their difficulty In dealing with
the worms. They could Imagine devils
who would oversee the torture us being
made immune to pain by the chief tor
turer, the Almighty God. But just how
to imagine the worm getting along In
so great heat and how they would in
any wise increase the torture Of the
poor sufferers was to many a pegplex.
ity. But patient thoughtfuncss along
these cruel and dcvilsh lines enabled
some to formulate the theory that the
worms would be fiery ones. living In
fire. delighting in fire-worms that
would bore through the incrustnHons
and add still further to the horrible
suferings Of the world of mankind.
Was This What Jesus Meant?
Did the Great Teacher intend that
such conclusions should be drawn from
his language? And did he stop short
Of the description from reasons of sym
pathy or modesty or shame? Is this
the general teaching of Gods Word
or has great and terrible mistake
been made? And have we mistaken
n figure Of speech and treated It as
literal? We erred. We ymisunder-
stood. The Great Teachcr who rcbuk-
ed his disciples, james and John, when
they desired to call fire from heaven
upon the City Of SamarIa, because the
people thereof refused to sell them
food for the Mastcr-the sympathetic
One who said to them, "Ye know not
what manner of spirit. yc are Of; the
Son Of man came not to destroy mems
lives, but to save them"-could that
Son of man In any,,wisc intend to tell
US that our great Heavenly Father had
less OF the spirit Of love and righteous
ness than the two impetuous disciples?
Did he mean to intimate that whltc the
disciples impetuously might have been
willing to destroy the earthly life of
the Samaritans. the Heavenly Father,
of still more demoniacal disposition.
would treat practically all mankind ten
million times worse, than that and use
Divine Power to all eternity to perpet-
uate the sufTcrlngs of his earthly crea-
lures which his own Word declares
were born in sin. shapcn In iniquity,
In sin did their mothers conceive them?
earthly creatures. too. whose environ
mcnt was unfavorablc and whose Ad.
versary, the devil, Cod neither destroy.
ed nor bound?
Such an Interpretation, my dear hear
ers, Is not supposable. We must look
for some explanation of the Masters
words more consistent with his own
character and With the Heavenly Fa.
Tiers character, and more consistent
With our conception of what lust,
Loving, Wise and Powerful Creator
would do. Ii does not answer the pur-
pose TO say, MS so many do, "Bosh. do
not discuss such matter. Nobody
now believes such things" This one
Scripture repudiated would shake our
confidence In the whole Bible. But
rightly explained and understood II
would settle and increase our faith In
the Scriptures as Divine message.
This, then, must be our object-not
merely to cast from us the devlish In
depreciation of the dark ages, but to as
certain the true interprctation-to get
the true lesson from the words of the
Great Teacher. Thousands arc drift
ing of into more or less open infidelity
simply because of the irrational Inter
probation given to this text and two or
three others. And these errors have
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