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clear, so convincing as to require no labor to show and maintain it against all objectors. But is this the case? No man at all acquainted with the subject, is ignorant of the fact that to prove this terrible dogma, is a task of no ordinary magnitude and difficulty. Few, very few are willing to undertake it. In the city of New York, with its two hundred ministers of this monstrous faith, there is not one to be found at the present time, nor has there been for the last seven years, who is willing to assume this task in a frank and manly mode, and, as Dr. Beecher once said, "in an open field and fair play." Valorous they sometimes are in their own pulpits, and insolent and abusive in their religious journals. They are bold in assuming and also in asserting their peculiar faith, but for proving it, and most of all, for proving it against the objections of Universalists they have little taste. True, many of them possess a wonderful facility in quoting half a dozen or a dozen passages of Scripture, which they seem to imagine Universalists have never seen, or heard of before. But it may be doubted whether this learned mode of argumentation is very conclusive. Certain it is that it does not reach the precise point in debate. We are all aware of the existence of such

rare passages as, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment," the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, the sin against the Holy Ghost,

etc. etc.

What we particularly require at the hands of our orthodox neighbors, is that they demonstrate, if they can, that these passages relate to the future state, and prove that punishment is absolutely endless. And this let me add is the great task, and one for which they have the least possible love.

But in the second place, the doctrine of endless punishment, to be entitled to our faith, must be shown to be reasonable as well as scriptural. It is not enough to find a passage in the Bible that seems to favor it, or if you please that, literally interpreted, teaches it distinctly. If this were so, the doctrine of transubstantiation is beyond all controversy true. On this subject the words of the Savior are express, and, in themselves, unambiguous; which can not be affirmed of any quoted to prove endless punishment. Yet no man can rationally believe in transubstantiation, express and determinate as the Scriptures may be in relation to it. They can not thus believe, because that doctrine clearly contradicts established facts in nature, as well as the testimony of our senses. But the doctrine of endless punishment is equally contradictious to all we know of the character and government of God, and is in itself a thousand times more improbable than transubstantiation. I could much sooner believe that a piece of bread has been miraculously made the body of Christ, than I could that a God of infinite

love and mercy will torment millions and millions of his own offspring world without end! One is merely unreasonable, the other is not only absurd but in the highest degree derogatory to God and revolting to every pure sentiment of the human heart.

I hold it to be self-evident, that a God of infinite justice and love, would not threaten any punishment, and least of all an endless punishment, without a sufficient reason; and also that he would not require us to believe a doctrine so horrible, and in itself so incredible, as that under examination, without either disclosing the reason, or furnishing us, in some way, with the means of discovering it. Revelation, we should remember, is but a gift of light and knowledge, communica ted by the God of reason to men as reasonable beings. He asks faith at our hands, it is true, but he does not shock it with absurdities. If endless punishment be a reality; if that inconceivable mass of wretchedness shadowed forth under that fearful term, is to be suffered, I can not avoid the conviction, that it must be founded on some great and terrible necessity; must have a reason so broad, and so cogent, that it could hardly fail to appear in the Scriptures, and be recognized in the very constitution of things. Strange beyond all parallel it must be, if there exists, or ever shall exist, in the universe of God, such a place as hell, and such torments as are ascribed

to it, and mortals yet left quite ignorant wherefore; left in darkness not only by reason, but even by revelation itself. But strange as it may seem, this is undeniably the fact. For although the advocates of endless punishment have put in exercise all their inventive faculties to bring forth something that would pass for a sufficient reason of the doctrine, a careful examination will show how unsuccessful all their efforts have hitherto been.

But still their efforts have not been altogether in vain. They have demonstrated the fact that, whether they acknowledge it or not, whether they know it or not, our orthodox neighhors deeply feel the burden that lies upon them and are anxious to shake it off. They are sensible that the doctrine of endless punishment is abominable, and needs support which they can not give it. They are conscious that reliance upon the Scriptures alone for the defence of such a doctrine is extremely hazardous, and hence their perpetual endeavors to find some substantial grounds on which to rest. They pay a tacit respect to reason while they affect to despise it.

To men resolved on finding a reason for a doctrine which they had before pledged themselves to maintain, there could of course be no obstacles which human ingenuity, stimulated by party spirit and selfishness, would not surmount.

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consequence has been that the grounds on which the advocates of endless punishment have predicated their beloved dogma have been numerous, if not valid. It has been a series of experiments, alike unsatisfactory and futile. But there has been only here and there one at very wide intervals, who has dared boldly to set reason at defiance, and say, "The Bible teaches this doctrine, and I believe it. I know no reason for it: the Scriptures reveal none, nor can I imagine what it may be. Nay, perhaps there is none, but the Bible says these shall go away into everlasting punishment, and this decides the point." This would be honest. It would exhibit the power of faith-implicit faith. And as I shall show in the sequel, the doctrine may claim a few such believers and advocates.

We have now seen something of the popular views of hell, and of the number of the damned; we have also seen how difficult it is to believe this doctrine, and how earnestly men have labored to obtain some rational ground, some principle of moral government, on which they might rest this tremendous doctrine, and in accordance with which they might interpret certain passages of Scripture in its favor. It only remains now to examine the fruits of all the anxious inquiry of the orthodox world on this momentous subject.

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