The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1915-05-20
The PEOPLES FORUM.
Refuge of Lies.
NUMBER FIVE.

| SiNAAS AAAArNSo lIS lCAORC anu llluGS
Observation-Disclosures refugees that are like
a short bed and narrow covering. That
is the kind of a nest they are IN who
say, there is no God. He may try to
persuade himself that it is true but the
evidence Is so strong, so convincing that
few can doubt and fewer still can dis
believe. Only the fool hath said in his
heart, there is no God. His neighbor is
in short bed and under a narrow
covering who says, there is a God but
there is no fCture.
Death ends all. We go to sleep in
death never to waken. Annihiation!
No feeling, no consciousness beyond
the grave! Futile hope! We must
live, we will live, if for no other reason,
than to be punished for our sins. You
can't blot out the idea of Immortality
| from our natures.
There is future and we know it.
Another says we can't know anything
about our future. Well, we ought to
know. God means we shall. so he has
given opportunities and means. An
other claims we don't know the Bible
is true. You ought to. You know you
have soul to save and that there is
but one Saviour of sinners.
Ignorance is no excuse for we can in
form ourselves if we will. Another
/
! says, you are all wrong. l am right,
we will all be saved. His is the bed of
universal salvation. Men want to be
/ happy yet hold on to sin for they love
it. They hope for heaven that they
may be happy. But the hope of heaven
and the practice of sin are incompatible.
Sin produces uneasiness and yet men
love it and still desire to be happy.
So they persuade themselves that
/ they will be saved. Is it true that all
will be saved? No, it is unreasonable.
1t is against common sense which die
tates that the guilty be punished. But
do you claim they are punished in this
/ life according to their deserts? If so,
then the very guilty must suffer much
, and all according to their degree of
their guilt. The infant has spasms
when teething, or screams with pain,
or suffers intensely before dying. 1t is
suffering for its sins. When did 1t sin,
or what is its guilt? Here is a poor
honest man who has done right and
served God as best he could. But he is
sorely afflicted, may be deaf, blind, at
times his reason is obscured. Your
principle makes him a notorious sinner.
His neighbor has cheated, lied, defraud-
ed, neither feared God nor regarded
man, yet he is prosperous and seems TO
( be happy. Is his prosperity his punish
ment?
Yet you pity the poor man who you
! claim is suffering for his sins. That is
just and you ought to take Gods part.
Consistency with your doctrine destroys
all sympathy for suffering humanity.
Such principle is contrary to the con-
| stltutlon of our natures. If such
theory is true then Lots wife who was
cut off in the act of disobedlence, went
right to heaven. If she was punished
as much as she deserved she entered
heaven when those loathsome and vile
Sodomites had gone, or even then 60
ing. While poor Lot who vexed his
righteous soul at the filthy conversa
ton of the wicked was doomed to con-
tinue in this sinful world. And Judas
swung to heaven at the end of a rope,
and the Spanish pirates who were hung
at Boston swung from scaffoId the into
glory and were embraced by Peter.
If the universal salvation bed is long
enough for man to stretch himself IN
then heaven is full of thieves and muir
derers, yes, all the vile of the earth and
they enlisted too, irrespective of the
atOnement of Jesus. They can't sing
the song Of redeeming love; they can't
offer praise to the Lamb that was slain
for they suffered for their own sins,
satisfied the demands of justice and are
their own Saviour. The devil himself
would be happy in such a heaven.
We may hide behind the faults of
others as if this justified our wrong
doings or were any just ground for
neglect of duty. Some plead want of
time as if religion were not the first
concern and the most important of all
and as if they had not plenty of time
for this purpose.
am trying to do my best is another
delusion urged to by the ones who re-
fuse to do anything for Christ or let
Him do anything for them. Hide if you
will, in false refugees, God will make
Judgment the live and the hail shall
sweep away the refugees of lies. All
refugees into which men flee for safety
or peace shall be swept away in the
dying hour. When we face our last
enemy, the mental vision becomes clear,
the moral sense keen and honesty of
spirit throws off the mask which is
worse than useless. Self righteousness
is worthless defence. A great queen
who had Bishops at her bidding and
was defender of the faith felt this