traditions. It is not to be expected that any creed they could frame
would be good for all time. Besides, we should not be afraid to go back
on anything or anybody that is not true. Truth is too sacred for that.
And our responsibility is too serious. 'Carlyle has a most scathing
warning for all who strive to believe that which in their inmost soul
they repudiate.

If it is thought that I am in any degree uncharitable towards ministers
of so-called orthodoxy, let me here transcribe a few words from a highly
honored preacher of the opposite trend of thought. I have just met with
these brave and candid words. They were spoken some time after I had
expressed my own views regarding the want of courage and honesty on the
part of so-called orthodox preachers. If anyone is disposed to think my
own words too strong, let him listen to this from an old and honored
minister, but one who repudiates the doctrine of eternal torment.

He says: "It matters not that all the educated ministry to-day well
know, and would not for a moment deny, their disbelief in the doctrine
of eternal torment, if cross-questioned. Nevertheless, many of them hate
us and oppose us, because we show the people the true interpretations of
God's Word, and lift before the eyes of their understanding a God of
Love, Just, Merciful, Righteous altogether, and fully capable both in
wisdom and power to work out all the glorious designs which He 'purposed
in Himself before the foundation of the world.'

"(1) They perceive that the doctrines of Purgatory and eternal torment
have not had a sanctifying influence upon mankind in all the sixteen
centuries in which they have been preached. They fear that to deny these
doctrines now would make bad matter worse. They fear that if the Gospel
of the Love of God and of the Bible--that it does not teach eternal