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AN UNCANDID EVASION

It is a very common thing to hear the defenders of the old dogmas about human destiny upbraiding those who dare to call them in question, as if they were not satisfied to leave the future of the heathen, and all such questions, where the Bible leaves them, when it asks, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Such critics ought to know that this question is a very different one from the inquiry. Are our standards right in their precise definitions of what the Judge of the earth intends to do? If the standards left this whole question on this ground of absolute faith in God, no one would have the right to say a word against them. But they do not. They define in precise terms that he will raise up the wicked, whose souls are in hell, and send them back to hell to be punished with unspeakable torments of soul and body, without intermission, in hell fire with the devil and his angels forever. It is a dishonest evasion of the issue to charge one who raises the question, whether these words perfectly represent the whole teaching of Scripture upon this subject, with an unwillingness to submit to its teaching, or, still worse, to impugn his motives, as if he were distrustful of the righteousness of God. And the men who bring this accusation may well inquire whether this show of zeal for a principle which no one questions may not be a pretence behind which they hide from themselves and others the inconsistency of standing by doctrinal formulas which they no longer preach.—Words of Reconciliation.

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— May, 1887 —