No man should go to the Bible, or the God of the Bible, to teach him
what _man is_, or what he should be; but he should go to the Bible
to learn what _he is_, what _he ought to be_, and what he ultimately
_shall be_. He should not go to the Bible to show what it should teach,
but to learn what it does teach, for to this we shall all come in
the end, whether it is congenial with our desires or not. We intend,
therefore, to maintain it as it is, whether the number in favor of it
is small or great. We intend to maintain the old distinction between
_saint_ and _sinner_, vice and virtue, good and bad, with the same
meaning attached to them, regardless of all consequences. We shall
speak of men being saved and lost, happy and miserable, justified and
condemned, with the same ideas attached to the terms as heretofore,
and sustained by all sound rules of interpretation, whether it shall
be considered sense or foolishness. We shall continue to use the Bible
terms, rewards and punishments, life and death, heaven and hell, in the
same sense as we have been wont to do, knowing, as we do, that we are
supported by the whole canon of sound criticism, and we most solemnly
admonish all who fear God, against the glosses of that sickening and
supercilious affectation, that induces any man, for one moment, to
hesitate to declare to his fellow man, in the most faithful manner, the
terrible threatenings of the Almighty against the impenitent.
Let no preacher shrink, in this age of sinfulness and pride; let no
man of God be deterred by the ridicule of Universalists, by low wit of
sceptics, or the vulgar mocking of atheists, from declaring the terrors
of the Lord, for he says, “The Lord shall judge his people.” “It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” “With lies you
have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad,
and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return
from his wicked way, _by promising him life_.” “It is better to enter
into life having one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell,
into the fire that shall never be quenched.” “The rich man died, and in
hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.” Such is but a tithe of
what abounds of this description throughout the New Testament. Is he a
friend to his God or his fellow man, who knows such language to abound
in the word of God, and shuns to declare it to those who hear him?