| Show THE DEBATE OVER PROBATION AFTER TER DEATH Is Ame american board of foreign missions which represents the sect called congregationalists has hag again been wrestling with the problem of probation alter after death last year that body met at addes des moines iowa this year it assembled at springfield field massachusetts the controversy that has been going on fur for some time over the possibility of a future opportunity port unity to learn the plan of salvation to those who have died in ignorance of its ita provisions has troubled many of the most able ministers of that religious body several candidates for the mission field abroad recognized by their co religionists as pious ta anted earnest and zealous ze aloas have been rejected b by y the board because they could not avow their disbelief in the doctrine that there is a chance for the heathen dybo have died without hearing of christ to learn of him and thus be able to gain ain salvation in the world to come they ey expressed their willi willingness to best be silent ent on the question but this was not considered sufficient they must endorse the damnation theory with all its horrors or be barred from missionary service und r congregational auspices the debate on this important que question lasted from wednesday the oth to friday the ath dinst and the majority report deciding against future probation was adopted A resolution for an investigation ot of the acts of the committee in rejecting the candidates was waa defeated thus the board stands committed firmly to the old doctrine of the eter eternal n at da damnation amna of all ur converted unconverted souls whether they ever had an opportunity of becoming converts to chiist or not it is ii a grave and awful error to that death ends all to the sinner aud and closes all the s of light mercy and redemption a to the unconverted ture is nothing in toe tae pure gospel of jesus christ which teaches leaches auy any such finality it is ia most moat awful to think that a liebing being d as a god of justice will cinde condemn mn mil lions upon millious millions of his children to everlasting misery lor for not believing in a creed they never learned and in a savior ot of whom they never heard headd and that lie he who proclaims himself hie due lord slow to anger plenteous i is 4 mercyll mercy and full ot of long suffering will act in the monstrous described by many men who profess to be his servants cannot be reconciled with consitt consistency ency nor made compatible with common sense purgatory and probation sometimes confounded as the same came are w widely different the first signifies purifica tion the second means proving pio pro virg the doctrine teaches that sin may be purged away after deaths by which may be shortened by the prayers of the living therefore masses ire are celebrated for i lie dead and money to pay lor them is a power reaching men u en the grave it ii is very strange and strongly indicative dica tive of the darkness ot minu mind in orthodox Christ christendom endow is groping that the spit and letter of christs gospel should be so thoroughly uti his misunderstood by those pro les sing authority to preach it not only does common sense revolt at the of the sects and aad justice proclaim its infamy but the very scriptures appealed to in its support are emphatically against it christ canet we are tild went after hi his suffering tor for sin ain the just for the unjust and preached to the spirits in prison who were disobedient in the days oil of noah while the ark was preparing it is also declare that tile the gos goguel vel was preached also to them that are dead thai tha they might be judged accor according to men in the alib flesh but live accord according 9 to god in the spirit the gospel apel is to be preached to every creature there is no other name given auder heaven whereby man can be saved but the name of jesus christ therefore all must mast hear of him or they cannot be saved and none can catt reject him until he is preached to them either in this lite life or in the lite beyond god is one so the way of redemption is one it roust must fee shown to all or none can be justly condemned for not walking in it shall not the judge J of all the earth do right itis it is foolish dogmatic men who have declared that no ercy can be exten extended deJ beyond the limits of this little world not godi nor jesus nor the scriptures neither the old testament nor the new denies the op Oties of gospel teaching and salvation to those wo have di died ed in ignorance nor j justifies us tilles the fri frightful ul and ab horent doctrine that death alixes the eternal fate of all and that only omy believers in christ while in this world can be saved from endle endliss s doom an intelligent heathen when invited to accept the so called christian creed would naturally ask what had become ot of his ancestors who died un ua der another faith and af if told they had all gone to irretrievable perdition he would be very likely to decide witti with a shudder that he did not want to worship a being who appeared to ab be so unjust and unmerciful up unmerciful merciful nor unite with a religious body entertain entertaining in such horrible notions of deity and religion sincere Since converts reconverts in heathendom must be very few or very dense or very deficient in veneration for or thur r progenitors A celebrated and popular eastern preacher when interrogated recently on this subject replied to a reporter as published the bible says so very little I 1 in regard to the destiny of the heathen that it is not safe to speculate we know nothing about the future world save what we learn f from rom the B bible i ble and i it L is a very weak thing to be guessing outside that which the bible teaches leaches five hundred people may go on guessing and not come near the truth this illustrates the condition of the religious religions world tg 19 day they have no living oracles no reliable and certa n standard the bible cannot explain its own meaning besides it 1 is silent on many points and indefinite on others guesswork guess work is the ground ot a great deal of modern theology the greatest guessers guessels gu essers are the professional theologians the right to guess the meaning of scripture is the basis of protestant rell rellious religious ious liberty the preachers are paid to do 0 and the peo ahe e follow litif wit very little thinking he dogma which bars out modern revelation and closes the lips of deit deity v keeps its adherents in the condition 01 uncertainty and ignorance of lauy divine things which is exhibited in ia the above remarks of a well known idi divine while the bible is silent or indefinite dennite in and there is no belief that god will speak to man again darkness and doubt must be widely prevalent the latter day saints have a more sure word ot of prophecy in the direct revelations of god on this as well as other vital questions through them we arzow that death does not fix the final condition of mankind jesus christ is the savior of the world and only through faith in him and obedience to the gospel re he taught can any son or daughter of adam oe redeemed and ex exalted acted alted to the af pf the fattier and tile the son bon there is but one way of eternal lite 0 one U e divine plan of salvation therefore therefore all people must be made acquainted with anh it if they do not hear it in this life they must near hear it in the next nest A spirit out of the body does not lose the intelli I 1 gence possessed while in the body it can learn deliece oe De lieve repent repeat and become obedient justice will have its own and mercy en dureth forever atter after preace hiag to the living and ordaining others to continue trie work christ while his budy body was in the tomb went and preached the same gospel to tue deau dead ab aa his hib servants bollow his steps in the budy body so they will wile when out of the body thus the gospels will be preached to every creature and all will be j judged u d ged by it lu in tue toe fathers house or kingdom there are inacy mansions all will be judged according to fileie their works aoa ana their I 1 1 tummies tum tuni ties and receive their portion in the various vanous spheres and glories in gods boundless boundless universe T ahe one heaven and one hell theory is a fiction of apostate christendom the notion that death ends all ail that the unregenerate genei ate and the ignorant cannot become regenerate nad aad enlightened euli after leaving the is another figment ol of immar human perverted imai imagination nation there are none who are aie capable of salvation who iho at atsosie some period present or remote be saved through the atonement of me ine mediator and by bowing the knee to him and the be fattier father tile the sons of perdition who sin against the holy liol ghost who prostitute to evil wilfully mud and viciously powers conferred conf ened upon them by which they could have attained to the highest exaltation are not salvable therefore they will not be saved punishment alou though ti ever endur ing ing in itself will wi ll 11 be suffered 0 til 1 y in degree and according to the demands of unswerving justice A lew few stripes to the venial sinner ainner amany many stripes to tile the greater culprit culpi it gods punishment eternal is because lie is eternal and must always have punishment prepared tor for transgressors of divine law but only of that puni punishment ashment to vindicate the law and effect its objects 0 beets is administered to the creature the glory of god and the improvement and progress of his sons and daughters f forever or are the grand purpose burpoe of the plan pian of salvation and that works ir in but one of its phases in the sphere ot of mortal existence and probation contrast the wide and splendid field opened up for human contemplation by the revelations which convey these truths with the narrow contracted conti acted and incorrect notions ol of sectarian eschatology and see which bears the evidence of divinity the Scriptures viewed in the liht light of these ideas contain no warrant for the dogma masted insisted on by the american board and chuu clung to by the majority of so bo called christian ministers mim but are lull of intimations tf to the very opposite of such heresy and are witness to the saving power of too the pell pel while there is is anything lost loss that is capable of salvation they proclaim pro caim the grand truth that jesus vv was as given as a ransom for all to be tesi ined of in due time and t that hat his redemption reaches to every place where a is soul lives ready to repent and obey the laws of the eternal father |
