Evening journal., 1911-11-27
BEATTIE FATE
A SERMON TEXT
New Church Pastor Has No
Faith in ''Deoth Chair"
Repentance
SAYS SCRIPTURE GIVES
NO HOPE FOR BELIEF

That Make Criminals" the Rev.
George Henry Dole, pastor of the New A.,
Church, yesterday drew lessons from
the life and death of Henry Clay
Beattie, Jr, who was electrocuted |
Friday for the murder of his young |
wife. Mr.. Dole said:
Henry Clay Beattie, wealthy |
young man, was found guilty of MUIR
der and suffered the penalty of the |
law last Friday Consequently the
newspapers have made their readers
familiar with the details Those who |
have read the account of the dissl-
pated young man, how he revelled in
grossest debauchery, and finally muir
dered his young wife that he might
be free to continue in dissipation,
have been Mortified with the thought
that such cruelty and utter abandon
ment are possible to any human heart.
"Of this l would not speak, were
there not another element connected
with the execution that to every sane
man and woman of any genuine relig-
Jon is equally shocking. We are told
that this young man. having lived III
unrestrained wickedness until all
conscience seems to have become
obliterated, having stoutly maintained
the last hour, in the last moment con-
fesses, repents, and the clergymen
present assure us that he made his
peace with Cod To teach that one
can live the life that Beattie did,
commit the crimes that he is accused
of. and then be received into Heaven
through confession made the last mo-
ment, is as shocking, revolving and
criminal as the deeds done by Beattie
himself. So to teach is as shocking,
because it is contrary to reason, JUS
tice, and all possibility. II is as re-
voting and criminal, because while
Beattie took the natural life from one,
such teachings destroy the spiritual
lives of thousands forever in hell, by
giving hope that one can put off true
repentance to the last, and yet get to
Heaven.
when young Beattie opens his eyes
in the spiritual world, he will find,
es in all cases of death-bed repent
ance, that being frightened into re-
pentance the last moment has done no
good, because there was not time to
establish goodness. truth, and pur-
ity by endurance in temptation. In
Scripture language The worm dieth
not' that Is, his old internal desires
will continue to gnaw; and the fire is
not quenched, which means that the
old lusts will continue to burn. When
the rich young man asked the Lord
what he should do to inherit eternal
life. the Lord said, Keep the com
mandments, and throughout the Word
the only condition upon which Heaven
can be entered is to keep the COM
mandmenst. And the rich man who
Jared sumptuously every day looked
up to Heaven. and seeing Lazarus on
Abraham's bosom, asked that SOME
one might be sent with drop of wa
Ter to quench the burning flames OF
lust. But he was told that between
him and Heaven a great chasm was
fixed so that those who would cross
couId not. That chasm is the col
lapsed internal of the mind. The COM
mandments are the laws that man
must keep that he may so cooperate
with the Lord as to enable the Lord
10 build a dwelling-place for Him
self within the soul The great gulf
fixed is tho collapsed dwelling-place
for the Lord.
"There is not a passage in the Bible
that gives the remotest suggestion
that death-bed repentance ayails any
thin. The entire Bible teaches stern
" to the contrary. The case OF the
thief on the cross is cited to confirm
the doctrine of death bed repentance,
but that doctrine is not there taught.
The Lord said To-day thou shalt be
with me i'm paradise The Greek
word is paradeiso, which is not
Heaven. but the place Of judgment 1t
is as if the Lord had said: Today
thou shalt be with me in judgement,
that is, he should have just judgment.
Furthermore, the way that the thief
reasoned with the other one crucihed,
shows that he was not thief in the
generally accepted sense of thief,
and that he differed vastly from the
other thief.
Every one with any genuine relig-
ion OF knowledge Of the laws accord
ing TO which salvation is effected,
should protest loudly against the
y teachings of the efficacy of death-bed
or death-chair repentance, which, like
palliative medicines and soothing
opiates that deaden the pains of pro-
crossing diseases, but make people
nnmindful of the destructiyeness of
sin until they awake in the realm OF
the lost, and It is too late