Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-08-01

- sseoaeS( Judgment Ol lue
RASI0R RUSSELDJ Great white
Throne" We re-
port the former. Each address lasted
for nearly two hours, but so deeply in
terested were the audiences that they
seemed not to note the fight of time.
He said
No other question could be of deeper
interest to thinking people than the one
now before us-"Where Are the Dead?"
Our ancestors. our neighbors, our
friends, are dead or dying, and our
selves with them. What will be our
condition when the spark of life flick
ers out? 1 have no new revelation on
this subject. l have merely for my
guide what is recognized by all Chris
tians as the Divine revelation on this
Subject-the Bible. I hold that there
is no other source of information COM
parable to it.
Before presenting his own findings
on the subject, in the Bible, Pastor
Russell reviewed the findings of 9th
ers-Christian in general. The agnos
tic view, that there is no life beyond
the tomb, he could not entertain. He
believed that mans organism, so much
higher than that of the brute, implies
not only an all-wise Creator, but His
benevolent intention for mans future
He examined the Catholic view, and,
while according full liberty to every
Catholic to believe what to him seems
reasonable respecting the dead, Pastor
Russell could not agree with Roman
Catholic teachings. He summarized
their view to be that q very sanity
few were fit for heaven and that they
went thither. He complimented the
justice of their intentions, that a COM
paratively small number of humanity
were worthy Of eternal torture.
For his own part, he could not mag
inc any human being, on account of
any human weakness or depravity, as
meriting endless torture. The Catho-
lie view, that all heather and prac-
tically all Protestants and Catholics
go in death to purgatory. he could not
agree with for two reasons. First, he
finds no Scriptural authority for such
a view, and secondly, his mind cannot
accept the thought that an all-wise,
ADJUST, ALLOWING and powerful Gre
ator will torture His creatures for cen
turtles in any such manner as Catholics
generally believe, and as Dante's great
poem, Inferno" so graphically de-
picts.
Our Protestant View Is Worse.
Pastor Russell declared that he was
a Protestant, in large measure be-
cause his parents were such. But he
declared that while he sees many
truths both in Protestant and in Cath
Ole teachings he considers that the
Protestant view respecting the here
after of the dead the most diabolical
conception to be found on the face
of the earth, the grossest blasphemy
against the Divine character and pro-
vision for humanity. Had he nothing
better to offer he would not be address,
ing his audience on the subject.
Perplexed and disconnected by his
early teachings, he had, when a youth,
discarded all human creeds, and the
Bible as well-believing that the latter
was the basis for the former. 1t was
a happy day for him when he learned
that this was a miStake-when he
learned that the creeds of the Dark
Ages are Numerically opposed to the
teachings Of Gods Word. Now his
Bible has become TO him a new book
the most wonderful book in the
world. Its teachings he now sees to
be, beyond all comparison, the most
logical-the only rational presentation,
and a most glorious one respecting
mar-explaining his past. present and
future as prearranged by a wise, gra-
cious and all-powerful Creator.
Two Protestant Views.
Protestant views respecting the here
after are various, but two in particular
represent Protestant thought in gen.
eral: ~ The Calvinistic theory; ~
the Arminian theory.
Five centuries ago there were no
PROFESSIONALISM were Catholics and be
lieved in three places for the dead
heaven for the sanity few; Purgatory
for the general mass of mankind; and
hell, everlasting torture, for the incor-
rigible. Luther and coadjutors got to
studying the Bible, and. finding moth
ing there respecting purgatory ant
mass for the dead, they threw these
out. Figuratively, they smashed com
pletely the idea of Purgatory. A little
later they were perplexed and said to
each other. We have smashed Purga-
tory, but now what shall we 90 with
all these thousands of millions who
have been there in our imagination