HKB
whom Christ came to save, "will awake to shame and everlasting contempt, and with devils be plunged into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for ever and ever."
How are these theological contradictions to be explained? Infidels are sneering at this double-dealing; honest Christians are asking, "What is to be the issue of this conflict? Why do not these religious leaders state plainly where they stand, and what they would have the churches accept and affirm as the truth of God?" The question has been aptly asked, "Is the moral sense at Andover Institution paralyzed? The situation is perfectly clear to every honest barber, shop-keeper, or shoemaker, and it makes a hundred infidels where the 'Age of Reason' makes one."[62] It is a matter for congratulation that the Christian world has been moved, that its thought has been so largely modified, and that it is our great honor "to stand at the centre, however men may hesitate to acknowledge it, towards which these lines of influence are tending."[63] But why, we must ask, are not these professed friends of Christian truth in all the churches more in readiness to acknowledge this indication, and plainly state what they think of it? Why hesitate and stand in the shadow of their old errors, when it is so clearly evident that they can be no longer successfully maintained, and which do not represent their real opinions? Why not say outright, "We were mistaken in accepting and teaching these doctrines of total depravity, election, and reprobation, infant and endless damnation, and have come to see that God is the Father of all men, and that in all his dealings with his children he will act in strict conformity with his paternal justice and love?" Are we to conclude that there is with them the plague of a confused moral sense, which hinders the honest and prompt avowal, on their part, of the truth of that Gospel of Divine grace "that bringeth salvation to all men?"
To avoid the admission of the truth of Universalism, there are not a few who seem disposed to tarry at the half-way ground of the doctrine of the annihilation of the wicked, as though in these desperate cases of sinfulness the saving resources of the Infinite love were exhausted, and God could make no better disposition than this utter destruction of those created in his own image, and capable of knowing, serving, and enjoying him forever. Strange that God's children can so limit his saving love and power! Is there any instance of sinfulness that cannot be reached by that grace which so much more abounds than any transgression of men?