Show EAM editorials I 1 T 0 R lai lal S DOUBT AND THE DEAD LETTER A SHORT time awo ago azo ago the con congregational rega tio tid na 1 churches of maine held a council to d decide acido upon the acceptance of rev geo A Lockwood who had been refused installation as pastor of achurch at kennebunk Kenne bunk by a formal council because of lil ill his 9 views or rather lack of views in regard to the doctrine of eternal punishment on examination it appeared that the gentleman was waa in the tile position occupied by a large number num berof of professed ministers of dreffin religion C ons oni the difference between them and him liim being that he is ready to confess his ignorance and they strive to coni conceal theirs perhaps it would be as well to give mr bock Lock lockwoode woods own express expression ion lon as reported in the christian mirror of which the moderator of the council is editor he stated that his belief wholly excluded the idea of an ultimate restoration of the lost to holiness and happiness and of any second probation beyond this life the scriptures give no warrant for the belief or expectation of either he accepted the phrase everlasting punishment punishment in matt xiv 46 but did id not feel able to state in what the punishment would consist he could not affirm that it would be an eternity of conscious suffering nor that it will not be he could not sa say y but bu t that through el ai the effect of sin and su frering suffering on the soul it may ultimately sink into an au extinction of its conscious being nor on the other hand could he say that it will on this question of the nature of future punishment lie he could neither affirm nor deny if any ally supposed that this left any ground of hope hopa for the finally 1 impenitent sinner it was in his view 11 no 0 warrant for any belief or affirmation fir to that effect 11 at the time when the prophet joseph smith received the everlasting gospel by revelation from heaven there were few preachers who had any scruples about preaching material hell fire as the eternal anh ana and unchanging fate of impenitent sinners the vengeance rather than the love of god formed the chief topic of sunday sermons and to doubt the punishment of the wicked in literal and everlasting flames was to be faithless in one of the f fundamentals dentals als ais ls but the preaching of a more rational creed has had a powerful effect although the principles made known from on high and proclaimed by tile the servants of god clothed with divine authority have been openly accepted but by a comparatively small number yet many of those principles have been secretly adopted by thousands upon thousands in ds among amon 11 the various sects of th the c age including hundreds of preachers and in addition to ghisi in cases where ministers have been slow to receive fully the truths revealed ve aled many of them have lost confidence in the old ideas on im important subjects and are today to day in the same condition of mind as the unknowing pastor of kennebunk Kenne bunk it is in consequence of this that there are so many calls for fop a modification of creeds and a general feeling t that a grand change of religious 0 fo forms and sentiments is necessary and at land hand and one of the results of this unsettling of faith in old dogmas and traditions is to open the eyes of the masses to the tile fact that those who wilo have been professing to be ministers of the most high called of him to expound the word of life are utterly destitute a of the authority they have claimed and many of them as ignorant gnon gnor aint in relation to the things of god as the multitude it is also made clear that among the multifarious and contend con tending sects there is no definite standard of rell reil religious rellious ious lous truth the bible is nominally accepted in that capacity but it is interpreted according to preconceived views of diffie different rent minds mindo and is therefore no real standard at all the mystery doubt and uncertainty which surround the conflicting tenets of modern theology are so perplexing that some preachers have adopted the tile heroic method of treatment and have gordian knot by ae declaring laring that doctrines do not signify but only lives that it matters not what a man believe believes but bub only what lie he does yet ye they still contend on points of fai fal faith falth and theyron against again 4 tile tiie book to which they all appeal in ill support of their no notions t ions lons and which declares plainly who whosoever oever trans gresseth and arideth not in the thel doctrine of ch christ rist hath not god he that arideth in the doctrine of wrist christ lie he hath both the tile r father tather and the son 11 II 11 J olin john i c 9 v it seems to us clear and evident that if god reveals a religion and ap eints men to expound it there will be no room left for speculation and disputation on the doctrines which he makes known but when the tho writings of dead men alone form the basis of belief there will always be lie room for strife and op opportunities r ll 11 uni it les ies for discord the bible ml which e h Is held up as the sole guide to salvation does not itself make any pretensions to such a position on the contrary it proclaims that the letter kelleth kil kii leth and speaks of the living 0 oracles as the true guides to god the christian world has delfied deified a book and fought over its worship and the book has all the time testified that prophets apostles etc called and inspired ot god are the appointed means by which the saints are to be brought to the unity of tile the faith and the knowledge of the truth as it is in christ the christian union commenting on the doubt of thoughtful members member of the ministry llon on important points of doctrine says light must come not from creeds or traditions but from the word of god this is verily true but in the sense intended by that paper the remark as is untrue and useless by the phrase the word of god is meant the bible but the bible cannot explain itself and remains a dead letter without a living exponent inspired by tho the same spirit which enlightened those who wrote it the word of god would make it clear but who would receive that word spoken by one having authority the word of god is not com eom comprehended pretended ended in a printed or written book but is a living voice uttered by present inspiration through an appointed oracle oracie the christian union says these questions require a solution C Is there any evidence that there will be any probation in another life for all men Is there any evidence that there will and can be no probation in another life for any men who are warned by the bible of eternal punishment who are promised by the bible eternal life do these two classes include all mankind or are there some in neither category what is life what is death questions more important than the question what is eternal these questions cannot be answered by decrees of councils ancient or modern and the questioning will not cease till a new and reverent study of the word of god has either brought to the questioners an author authoritative dative answer or a convincing demonstration that no satisfactory answer can be found that only the present is ours burs that the future is is gods alone those questions are simple and the tile answers can be easily casily given but study 0 of f the written word will wil not and cannot decide the tiie disputes upon them to the latter day mil ull saints n ts th they ey areas are as plain as the simplest lessons in arithmetic are to the advanced mathematician and they tiley have not obtained their knowledge by study alone of the tho ancient scriptures but by revelation direct from the tile source of true vile principle i p lethe le the who ins inspired M the ll 11 1 writers of the books in the bible and until the world isail is willing ing to receive living prophets and present revelation as well as to idolize dead apostles and ponder upon their translated writings they will continue to wander in the mists of uncertain uncertainty tj groping like blind men for the tile wall and will be tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine god has spoken from heaven in th the e nineteenth century and restored the tile authority held beld by those who e and wrote his word in former day days and all who choo choose to come to the light r may allay learn of him and reach a clear and dafin definite 1 to understanding undo der do on all the questions oRs ons which agitate the religious mind in these latter days of doubt and these times of mail man made theology ewan lean AGE OF THAT this tins is an age and a country of widespread wide spread no candid i observer can deny in his own mind however u unwilling nw illing he might be to express his convictions openly it is because of the licentious ip spirit irit that prevails that so many af pf people ople opie are indisposed to look at the marriage system of the mormons cormons Mor mons in in its true light with most of those persons matrimony is but a licensed license persons method of indulgence in animal desire and therefore them fore they can see nothing in plural marria marriage but increased opportunities for lustful gratification A pure minded man or woman 13 is 13 willing to look at the subject from another standpoint and to view it apart from such ross gross and unworthy considerations but ut to the impure all things are impure in and the manner in which plural marriage is usually assailed indicates I 1 the low and grovelling gro velling nature of its violent enemies that is an increasing characteristic of modem times may be plainly perceived by the tone of mens conversation the increase of prurient ent literature and the relish with which some tainted story or piece biece of scan mag is ree rec received elVed even in i a crowd of supposed gentlemen of more than average intelligence and standing in society and that they judge the mormon patriarch aye and the ancient scriptural patriarch too by so low a standard is evidence of the condition of their own morals they measure other peopled pied pled com corn by their own half bushel that we may not be considered singular in our strictures we clip a parag paragraph raph on this subject from the boston religious Helig ious herald which after declaring that the drift of modem modern life is is to unbridled says in society no effort is made to hide it sensuality is the subject of every conversation the sigh of every heart for this tins purpose are multiplied those temples where bums burns continually the incense of this unclean idol the theatres theartres the atres are erow crowded ded and these representations are now procurable at so cheap a rate that the masses and even the poor mail marl may be present at them night after night balls are no longer the boon of the rich class gambling houses dens of infamy taverns libraries filled with immoral and irreligious books are to be found in e every eveny v e city not only but every town a and village the world has only one thought to find means of removing removing g any ant all ali 1 restraint on the part of law and of giving full scope to its desires hatred of our holy and true religion comes from no other source arrell ion lon and unbridled sensuality are le the characteristics of the age in such an evil and adulterous generation there is no wonder that the latter day saints are judged from so sensual a standard and only to the few who are capable of appreciating our motives and can understand that principle and duty may guide men as well as women in the adoption of a strange ngo social system can we hope to appeal for a fair and investigation ti of Ir mormon plural marriage which is designed for the highest and hollest of purposes and for the very opposite of those alj objects oct which exist in the inflamed imaginations of the base and licentious electrical improvements tris THIS is emphatically the age of electricity tri city that is the powers and capabilities bili ties of the force known by that name are being developed in a maner unknown to the ages 1 of the past on this globe of ours in worlds further advanced than this planet it is no doubt utilized to a degree that would astonish us if we could see its workings 0 even more than the improvements of these latter days would surprise our remote ancestors were they to rise from their graves and gaze upon ships passing over the great deep without sails carriages running with the speed of the wind without horses and men talking to each other though se separated pam by thousands of miles of land and sea among the recent improvements in the use of electrical apparatus are the following telegraph signals were recently exchanged between melbourne and singapore a distance of miles and a reply was received in the space of one minute from the commencement men cement of the message although the telegram had to be repeated at port darwin this was merely an experimental test an electric railway brake which id is instantaneously applied and continuous iu in its action has been successfully cess fully tested in franco france the action of the apparatus is dependent upon the wll wil lesion of an electromagnet to the axle of the wheels by means of which two chains attached to tu levers carrying 0 friction blocks are wound upon a drum in some experiments peri ments upon apoua a train of thirteen carriages carriages 0 traveling C at the rate of forty five live miles per hour the train was brought to a standstill in awen tyone ty one seconds moving through a distance of two hundred and forty yards after the break was applied rhe the apparatus is worked bysie by six cells 0 f daniells battery the london times now uses the edison telephone for communication beaw between ee nt the he if house ouse of commo Common ns sand and tile the times me 8 office by this means d debates e are reported and printed from half to three quarters of an hour earlier than had previously been possible the notes made by the reporter call can be read directly into the telephone receiver either by the reporter or another person employed for the purpose and the compositor at his macii macli maccine ine in the office sets liis his ears in juxtaposition with the other othen terminal of the instrument the disc of the telephone being placed above and behind the compositor and two tubes arranged each vilh with wilh two trumpet shaped extremities in such a manner that these extremities are applied at one end to the two sides of 01 the telephone disc and at tile the other end to the two ears of the compositor the compositor hasa has a simple code of bell sig signals a speaking in 9 instrument with a key for ringing a bell beli and a bell which is rung from irom the house me he announces by the bell that he is ready tec tee receives elves i a sentence strikes the bell to indicate that lie he understands it sets up the type with his machine strikes the bell again for the tilo reader to continue his dictation and eo E o on until the work is carried as far as time will allow we 1 V 0 h have a va frequently expressed our ou opinion that electricity would not only furnish the coming light but also the coming force dispensing sin with the noise smoke dirt and da danger mer ger of steam locomotion but the objection is sometimes raised that it will take as much force to g generate e aerate the electric fluid as can be obtained from it after it is developed and therefore that no force will thus be gained the proof of the pudding however is not in discussing its possible deficiencies an electric railroad is now in operation on a small scale it is true but the principle is the same independent of the magnitude of its application edison dont laugh lameh mr skeptic edison has made some great successes if he has been a copyist in many things has an electric railway at menlo park which has been inspected and tried by many |