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SUGGESTIVE

A Presbyterian minister writes:—

“In all defences I have seen, of the old dogma of eternal, endless torment, I think there is not one, even of those that claim to prove the doctrine from the Scriptures, in which there is not at least ten times as much of argument to show that the inspired Word must be so understood, as there is of solid quotation from the Word itself. Where so much pounding with the hammer of human reason is required to shape God’s Word into conformity to a traditional or preconceived theory, or to weld something upon that Word to supply a supposed deficiency, are we not justified in challenging the right of such a doctrine to demand our acceptance?

Let the explicit declaration of the Westminster Confession and Catechism be written on one side; on the other side place all the Scripture references or proof texts, with any other passages, that bear on this subject. Now is there any one in his right mind who will look carefully at the language on both sides, and then affirm that these form an equation? or that they can be made equal without adding, subtracting or transposing? And dare any Christian claim authority thus to tamper with God’s Word?”

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Another says:—”Until the Church realizes that there is something worse even than being ‘agitated;’ until it is forced into a position where crying ‘peace, peace,’ when there is no peace, will be impossible, the real questions at issue will be held in the background, and as at Andover, the decision will be not upon the merits of the truth at stake, but upon the conformity of one’s teaching to the artificial standards, conventionally interpreted.”

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— October, 1887 —