Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

of pain, sball not be eternal, in the highest sense of the word. But whether their release be by any change wrought in the disposition of their spirits, but without death; or whether by an escape, as it were, by dying to the body so tortured, there is no doubt to be made, but that both ways they may come into play again, and try their fortunes once more, in such regions of the world, as Providence judges fit for them!"

DR. EDWARD YOUNG

represents the lost soul, as saying:

"Why burst the barriers of my peaceful grave?
Ah, cruel Death, that would no longer save,
But grudg'd me e'en that narrow, dark abode,
And cast me out into the wrath of God!
Where shrieks the roaring flame, the rattling chain,
And all the dreadful eloquence of pain,

Our only song; black fires malignant light,
The sole refreshment of the blasted sight.

Must all those powers heaven gave me to supply
My soul with pleasure, and bring in my joy,
Rise up in arms against me, join the foe,
Sense, reason, memory, increase my woe?
And shall my voice, ordained on hymns to dwell,
Corrupt to groans, and blow the fires of Hell?
Oh, must I look with terror on my gain,
And with existence only measure pain ?
What! no reprieve, no least indulgence given,
No beam of hope from any point of heaven?
Ah! Mercy! Mercy! art thou dead above?
Is Love extinguished, in the source of Love?"

Why did not the Doctor answer his question? He must have stated it as an objection to the

very thing he described. In his Night Thoughts

he says:

"Pain is to save from pain; all punishment

To make for peace, and death to save from death:
And second death to guard immortal life!
By the same tenderness divine ordained,
That planted Eden, and high bloomed for man,
A fairer Eden endless in the skies.

Great Source of Good alone, how kind in all!
In vengeance KIND! Pain, Death, Gehenna, SAVE!"

Though Young believed in a future state of punishment, it must be that he did not regard it as endless. The fact recorded in Whittemore's History of Universalism, that Young recommended Hartley's and Clarke's Universalist publications, corroborates this.

"Father of Mercies! why from silent earth
Didst thou awake, and curse me into birth?
Tear me from quiet, banish me from night!
And make a thankless present of thy light?
Push into being a reverse of thee,
And animate a clod with misery?

The damned soul may well ask this question. But it proceeds to call God "My Help, My God," and to say:

"And canst thou, then, look down from perfect bliss, And see me plunging in the dark abyss?

Calling thee Father in a sea of fire,

Or pouring blasphemy at thy desire ?"

Does it not seem that these lines were written

that the reader might say, "No! No!"

HARRIET MARTINEAU.

The Martineaus, in common with English Unitarians, occupy substantially the same ground as American Universalists. Here are a few extracts from one of the most gifted women of modern times:

"Here, where I once doubted whether I had a Maker, and whether, if there were such an one, men did anything but mock themselves in calling him FATHER, are the best witnesses of my avowal, that I have found these doubts to be the result of human creeds, as far as they are impious, and that I have reached, through the very severity of the discipline, a refuge whence I can never again be driven forth, into the chaos of the elements, out of which my new life has been framed."

"Had Doddridge known God only as a tender Father, Christ only as his holy and approved Messenger, sin and sorrow as finite and limited influences, HOLINESS AND PEACE AS THE NATURAL how serene, how exalted might have been his mortal life!"

AND ULTIMATE ELEMENTS OF BEING,

"Here may we best reconcile our minds to the approach of the night of death, and exalt our conceptions of the Eternal Morning, which shall unclose every eye, and restore the long suspended energies of every soul."

ROBERT BURNS.

This Poet of Nature in many places on his undying pages has recorded his horror and detestation of popular Error, and his ardent aspirations for that Higher Faith then almost unknown in the world. Rev. Mr. GROSH quotes ALLAN CUNNINGHAM as saying:-" To a love of human nature he (BURNS) added an affection for the flowers of the valley, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field; he acknowledged the tie of social sympathy which bound his heart to all created things, and carried his universal good will so far as to ENTERTAIN HOPES OF UNIVER

SAL REDEMPTION, AND THE RESTORATION OF
THE DOOMED SPIRITS TO POWER AND LUS-
TRE."

In harmony with the above sentiment he says:
'To give my counsels all in one,
Thy tuneful flame still careful fan;
Preserve the Dignity of Man,

With soul erect;

And trust the UNIVERSAL PLAN
WILL ALL PROTECT!'

So again he says :—

"Sure Thou, Almighty, canst not act
From cruelty or wrath!"

Again :

"Where with intention I have erred,

No other plea I have,

But, Thou art good; and goodness still
Delighteth to forgive!

None of his readers can be ignorant of his horror of what was and is so falsely styled Evangelical Religion. For illustration :

"Ye'll get the best o' moral works,
'Mang black Gentoos and Pagan Turks,
Or hunters wild of Ponotaxi,
Wha never heard of Orthodoxy.
That he's the poor man's friend in need,
The gentleman in word and deed,
It's through no terror o' damnation;
It's just a carnal inclination.
Morality! thou deadly bane,
Thy tens o' thousands thou hast slain;
Vain is his hope whose stay and truth is
In moral mercy, truth, and justice.
No; stretch a point to catch a plack,
Abuse a brother to his back,

Be to the poor like onie whunstane,
And haud their noses to the grunstane;
Ply every art o' legal thieving;

No matter; stick to sound believing.
Learn three-mile prayers, and half-mile graces,
Wi' weel-spread looves, and lang, wry faces,
Grunt up a solemn, lengthened groan,
And damn a' parties but your own;
I'll warrant, then, ye're nae deceiver,
A steady, sturdy, staunch believer!"

In the same strain are Holy Willie's Prayer, and the Kirk's Alarm. Elsewhere referring to popular Error, he says :—

"Auld Orthodoxy lang did grapple,
But now she's got an unco rapple,
Haste, gie her name up i' the chapel,
Nigh unto death;

See how she fetches at the thrapple,
And gasps for breath.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »