Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1912-11-04
THE DOCTRINE OF
ETERNAL PUNISHMENT
Sermon Preached Yesterday by
Minister Of College Ave.
Baptist Church.
NO DIVINE vINDICTIvENESS.
Such an Idea Must be Eliminated. What
Brands a Man a Criminal is His
crime-Not Imprisonment.


last evening at College Avenue Bap-
tist Church when the minister, Rev.
7. c. Bird, preached an able and
forceiul sermon on The Doctrine of
Eternal Punishment. He took his
text from Matthews Gospel. 26th
chapter and 46th verse: "And these
shall go away into eternal punish
ment, but the righteous into etsrnal
life" The minister said, in part:
"These are startling and solemn
words, spoken by Him who came to
seek and to save the lost, to give his
life a ransom for many, of whom it
was said (who said il Himself) that
He came not to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him might
be saved. They may be made t. mean
too much, but they may also be
m ade to mean too little, treated as
rhetorical exaggerations, and so re-
jected with scorn.
"The doctrine of eternal punish
ment rests upon Biblical foundation.
There has been a tendency in for
mer periods to treat il too luridly,
making God find a savage delight
in damning men and making that
damnation inevitable by deliberately
withholding redeemiug and pardon
ing grace. Such represe ntations of
God have been haideous lie from be-
ginning to end. God is not, and never
has been, forquemada nor a Duke
of Alva. We need little wonder at
the present revulsion. The repudia-
tion of the doctrine in its old form is
in every way healthy and wholesome,
but there is danger of going to the
other extreme. We must not label
justice delusion and a snare, even
though we repudiate the forms under
which justics is made to appear. If
this is done, anarchy must ensue.
There must be eternal order, which is
simply another name for eternal JUS
tice.
1--WE must therefore, separate the
doctrine of eternal punishment from
certain notions which have neither
ScrIptural nor reasonable basis.
81. We must eliminate the idea of
Divine vindictiveness. God is long
suffering, finding no pleasure in the
death of any, holding cut His hands,
as it were, to a gain saying people
all the day long, and every day. God
does not need subjects of grace and
victims of wrath in order to reveal
His glory. Gods rule is one in which
all things are so ordered as to check
sin and save the sinner. He wills
every mans salvation. He loves all.
Christ died for all. Truth and the
Holy Spirit are for all. There is a
book of life, and there is joy in the
presence of the angels of God over
every sinner that repents, and his
name is written in chat book of life.
There is no book of death. We read
of names being blotted out of the
book of life, but we read of no eras-
ures in the book of death. because
there is no such book. God has but
one book, the book of life, in which
all names are written in lines of
blood, and when name is blotted out,
it is because the grace that saves has
been deliberately and wilfully re-
iecte6. God is not vindictive.
"II. We must eliminate frcm this
doctrine the idea that punishment is
an external infliction. The Bible
speaks to us in familiar language.
Strifes, prison, outer darkne IS, lake
of fire and bottomless pit are not
these things, literally. These terms
merely describe the inner conscious
ness. The soul holds all these, aud is
it's own and only chamber of torture.
It is what the soul contains that
brands a man. Imprisonment in itself
is no disgrace. What brands a man
criminal is his crime, not has i'm
prisonment. Hundreds of men and
women have been thrust into prison
undeservedly, but they were not
branded thereby. 1t was no shame
that Christ died on the cross unde-
served. Paul and Bunyan were thrown
into prison, but that became their
glory. Undeserved suffering can break
no mans spirit.
"III. We must also eliminate the
notion Of physical torture. 1t is an
utterly horrible notion to a sane
mind. No moral end can be secured
by such infiiction. Righteousness is
not cruel. The fire that cannot be
quenched and the worm which dieth
not, wailing and gnashing of teeth,
outer darkness, hell's fire, bottomless
Tit, and the lake that burneth with fire
and birthstone. do not suggest the idea
of torture. This terrible imagery
simply suggests the separation of the
unclean from the clean, of the unholy
from the holy. thus putting an end
to the corrupting power of such. One
cannot imagine the beloved John and
Judas Iscariot associated in the life
beyond the grave. Sheep and pigs
often browse together in the orchard,
but at the close of the day the sheep
are gathered irto the fold, while the
pigs are returned to their sty.
The first great reformn in the.iu-
dietary was the elimination Of torture
from the trial of the accused. Men
are still punished, but they are not
starved, nor are they fogged. It is
not upon che body that the sentence
is executed. So, torture is some
thing that does not enter into Gods
moral government. He destroys the
power of sin, but the sinner is. not
put upon the rack.
"lV. Again, We must eliminate
from this doctrine the idea of con-
scious mental agony. This is a more
refined theory than that of physical
suffering, but, to my N ind, as base
less. Men do net become more sensi-
tive as they become more wicked. It