If the passengers on some great ship were told that the ship was to be
wrecked, that a few would be saved and that nearly all would go to
the bottom, would they talk about "tidings of great joy"? It is to be
presumed that Christ knew what his mission was, and what he came for.
He says: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to
send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against
his father, and the daughter against her mother." In my judgment, these
are not "tidings of great joy."
Now, as to the message of eternal grief:
"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous
[meaning the Methodists] into life eternal."
"He that believeth not shall be damned."
"He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God
abideth on him."
"Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul;
but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in
hell."
"And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever."
Knowing, as we do, that but few people have been believers, that during
the last eighteen hundred years not one in a hundred has died in the
faith, and that consequently nearly all the dead are in hell, it can
truthfully be said that Christianity came with a message of eternal
grief.
Now, as to the second "gigantic falsehood," to the effect that
Christianity filled the future with fear and flame, and made God the
keeper of an eternal penitentiary, destined to be the home of nearly all
the sons of men.
In the Old Testament there is nothing about punishment in some other
world, nothing about the flames and torments of hell. When Jehovah
killed one of his enemies he was satisfied. His revenge was glutted
when the victim was dead. The Old Testament gave the future to sleep and
oblivion. But in the New Testament we are told that the punishment
in another world is everlasting, and that "the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up forever and ever."
This awful doctrine, these frightful texts, filled the future with
fear and flame. Building on these passages, the orthodox churches have
constructed a penitentiary, in which nearly all the sons of men are
to be imprisoned and tormented forever, and of this prison God is the
keeper. The doors are opened only to receive.
The doctrine of eternal punishment is the infamy of infamies. As I have
often said, the man who believes in eternal torment, in the justice of
endless pain, is suffering from at least two diseases--petrifaction of
the heart and putrefaction of the brain.
The next question is whether Christianity has deprived God of the
pardoning power.
The Methodist Church and every orthodox church teaches that this life
is a period of probation; that there is no chance given for reformation
after death; that God gives no opportunity to repent in another world.
This is the doctrine of the Christian world. If this dogma be true, then
God will never release a soul from hell--the pardoning power will never
be exercised.
How happy God will be and how happy all the saved will be, knowing
that billions and billions of his children, of their fathers, mothers,
brothers, sisters, wives, and children are convicts in the eternal
dungeons, and that the words of pardon will never be spoken!
Yet this is in accordance with the promise contained in the New
Testament, of happiness here and eternal joy hereafter, to those who
would desert brethren or sisters, or father or mother, or wife or
children.
It seems to me clear that Christianity did not bring "tidings of great
joy," but that it came with a "message of eternal grief"--that it did
"fill the future with fear and flame," that it did make God "the keeper
of an eternal penitentiary," that the penitentiary "was destined to be
the home of nearly all the sons of men," and that "it deprived God of
the pardoning power."
Of course you can find passages full of peace, in the Bible, others of
war--some filled with mercy, and others cruel as the fangs of a wild
beast.
According to the Methodists, God has an eternal prison--an everlasting
Siberia. There is to be an eternity of grief, of agony and shame.
What do I think of what the Doctor says about the _Telegram_ for having
published my Christmas sermon?
The editor of the _Christian Advocate_ has no idea of what intellectual
liberty means. He ought to know that a man should not be insulted
because another man disagrees with him.
What right has Dr. Buckley to disagree with Cardinal Gibbons, and what
right has Cardinal Gibbons to disagree with Dr. Buckley? The same right
that I have to disagree with them both.
I do not warn people against reading Catholic or Methodist papers or
books. But I do tell them to investigate for themselves--to stand by
what they believe to be true, to deny the false, and, above all things,
to preserve their mental manhood. The good Doctor wants the _Telegram_
destroyed--wants all religious people to unite for the purpose of
punishing the _Telegram_--because it published something with which the
reverend Doctor does not agree, or rather that does not agree with the
Doctor.
It is too late. That day has faded in the West of the past. The doctor
of theology has lost his power. Theological thunder has lost its
lightning--it is nothing now but noise, pleasing those who make it and
amusing those who hear.
The _Telegram_ has nothing to fear. It is, in the highest sense, a
newspaper--wide-awake, alive, always on time, good to its friends, fair
with its enemies, and true to the public.
What have I to say to the Doctor's personal abuse?
Nothing. A man may call me a devil, or the devil, or he may say that I
am incapable of telling the truth, or that I tell lies, and yet all this
proves nothing. My arguments remain unanswered.
I cannot afford to call Dr. Buckley names, I have good mental manners.
The cause I represent (in part) is too great, too sacred, to be stained
by an ignorant or a malicious personality.
I know that men do as they must with the light they have, and so I
say--More light!