Year: 1878

nal Retrlbut.on.
FROM THE ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE RIGHT


REV. J. P. b. WILMER, ID. D.. BEFORE THE


TH1RTY-FIFrH ANNUAL COUNCIL OF THE


DIOCESE OF LOUISIANA.


There can be little doubt that the asceu-
dency of evil and immortality in communities
is periodical. Modern nations have had their
epochs of prevailing wickedness. 1t was too
much to expect that our nation should escape
this danger. The evil has come upon Us at o
moment when the national pride requires
humiliation. 1t is confessed that this ami
versary year dawns upon u5 great and
wicked nation. Crime is no longer confined
to the depraved classes OF society. The 81
lent earth drinks the blood of the slain, sacri-
feed in the heat OF momentary passion; null
titudes are dying by their own hands, impa-
tient of adversely. Falsehood enters into all
the avenues OF life; falsehood in business
falsehood ls5,n hf IN the administration Df Of
life has lost its turpitude, and men
long trusted are trusted no more. The higher
you ascend the shame becomes more con-
sDicuous. On the shining crest Of the wave,
ties which the seethirg ocean iings from the
depths below. The Christian ministry is not
free from this reproach and the worlds
shame is emboldened by spiritual wickedness
in. high places. Nor has the morality of
science less cause to blush for its honor Was





and reputation in natural science accepted
bribes, that the suffering invalid was allured to
fountains of health, and the treasure Of wild
ows and orphans absorbed in mines-allured
by glittering testimonials from venal scien-
fists, who exchange honor for gold. Crime
has almost lost it's infamy in losing it's gross
ness and vulgarity.


What is almost incredible, Christian teach
ers are choosing this time to prophesy smooth
things to goddess world No one can fail to
Dflspryn the growing ItlupGi tjnp tn rapaJn
from the old doctrines of the Bible, to paili-
ate with soft words the inherent depravity Of
human nature, and to hide from view the
punitive elements of Christianity. Hell has
Always unwelcome, it has become abhorrent
to the educated mind Of the age. Evil spirits
are dismissed to the shades of superstition
Liberty of access to the sacraments Of re-
ligion is to be freely accorded to men who
avow their belief that satanic agency is 81
myth, and eternal punishment an exag
geration. This contagion, we lament to
say, has penetrated the Church of England.
Within a few months one of its Ecclesiastical
Courts decreed, that the act of excluding
from the Holy Communion, q person main
tanning these doctrines, was an act of intoler-
ance not sanctioned by the Church.


1t is not my province to impeach the JUS
tice of this decision. Judgment must begin
with the house Of God;" but what necessity
for final adjudication, If the visible Church
excludes every offense against truth and right
i'm this life, and the Church below is an exact
counterpart OF the Church in Heaven. Reve-
lation has given but two instances Of persons
condemned to hell One member of the
The one acknowledged Abraham to be his
father-the other acknowledged Christ to be
his master. A significant proof that the
Church does not cease to be pure, because it
is comprehensive excluding from it's prom
ises many who are not excluded from Its priv
ileges. Individual errors are always ex--
pelled from the Church. at the risk
Of ecclesiastical rigor and intolerance
have not the same allowance to make
for the PRONUNCIATION of this doctrine from
the pulpit, which has occurred without public
rebuke in a neighbOring diocese. The danger
is coming very near us, and is portentous Of
fearful consequences, when a sermon deliv-
cred in one OF our pulpits is adopted as q pop
Where are we drifting? Into what shoreless
sea of doubt and unbeiief shall we be carried,
unless this heresy is arrested if possible, with
words; if necessary, with peremptOry dis
cipline. Prudence suggested to DR.. Thomas
Burnet to write in Latin his book on the State
of the Dead, in which he assails the doctrine
of eternal punishment. He confesses that it
is not o doctrine to be revealed to
the multitude, who could only be
restrained from evil bv the fear
add In the margin Of his work, ''whosoever
shall translate these sentiments into the
mother tongue, shall think it was done with
an evil design and to bad purpose" His ten
derness OF conscience is to be approved, if not
his consistency.


A moments reflection will show that for
the same reason the Scripture ought to re-
main shut up in a dead language. Admitting
his doctrine to be biblical doctrine, the Bible
ought not to be translated. Its diffusion
among the people would be dangerous to
public morals. Few are strong enough to re-
ceive it's disclosures with impunity. But Of
what value is revelation which makes
known to mankind what they ought not to
know, or what, rightly understood by the I'M
learned, as 1t Is by the learned, would make
them rush headlong into vice and wick
edness. Evidently the word OF God teaches,
or affects to teach, that the wicked are pun
ished everlastingly and ii there is any lurk-
ing design to revoke this judgment, SO great
a secret would hardly be entrusted to those
who regard it with 50 little discretion


But men who hold this doctrine have not al
ways this simplicity and candor. The au-
dacity which has lately been assumed In
dealing with this subject, has armed itself
with objections to the ancient faith. The
strongest OF the objections will be noticed as
briefly as possible, that we may not be
charged with railing at errors which we are
at no pains to refute.


Against the universal Judgment of the
Church, it is objected that the eternal dura-
ton OF future punishment is a doctrine in
consistent with the infinite goodness of God.
What oracle have men consulted that justi-
fies them in this assertion? Where did they
gain this knowledge that enables them to de-
fine the limit Of Gods wrath and clemency?
In searching the Book of Nature without the
aid of Revelation there is quite as much to
make us fear hell as to hope for heaven. For
aught we know to the contrary the true mani
Of the Divine nature is in the tenn
pest which desolates our plains; in the
and volcano, which shake
great cities as the ravenous beast
shakes it's prey within its teeth );
in the thorn and bramble which pierces our
flesh in the winged insect which devours the
harvest; in the diseases without number
which hold US pale and trembling over the
grave. There is nothing in the stern reality
OF woe, which covers 80 much OF human ex-
istence, which warrants US to reject the idea
OF future scene of misery, co-extensive with
our future existence The ancients had none
of these notions of deity. Deities who repre-
sented power and wrath were known to them,
the dedication of every passion was familiar
to them, but none ever dreamed OF a. being
who clasped to his bosom those who hated