Article September 1, 1906 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

Robert E.

At the Rocky Mountain Missionary Convention of the Methodist Church at Denver, Col., Bishop W. F. Oldham, a famous organizer of missions in India, said, "Just prove to me that there is a sane man who honestly believes he will be burned alive forever in a place filled with brimstone and fire. It is possible that some men believe that others will be punished in that way, but it is not human to believe it will happen to one's self. If we threaten the natives whose souls we are sent to save with the terrors of eternal torture in a pit presided over by Satan and a horde of assistant devils, we place the Christian religion on almost as low a plane as the devil-worshipping systems of the heathen. People are punished for their sins in their own souls. The beginning of punishment lies in inheriting ourselves when we die. Sins are registered in personality, and if the personality is strong enough to survive what you call the 'here,' the punishment is not entirely in this life but in the hereafter as well, but I do not believe that any man will be punished forever."

Dr. A. B. Leonard of New York said, "To be sure there is no hell. It is unconceivable that God should create human beings for the purpose of torturing them eternally."

Rev. Dr. Thompson, of Grace Church, Chicago, said: "No man I know believes in a hell of literal fire and brimstone. It is a mediæval conception of things. Man will have to be responsible for the fruit of his doing in this life or hereafter. The better hell to warn men of is the hell of their own wrong-doing—the hell that is the consequence of their own voluntary acts. Man knows the effect of violation of the laws of health. Warn him of the effect of the breach of moral laws."—Universalist Leader.

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