EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



lightened portions of Christendom. Even those 

 who maintain a belief in some kind of endless 

 punishment, no longer insist literally upon the 

 lake of brimstone and the fire that is never 

 quenched. Now, the doctrine of hell-fire has 

 become thus universally discredited, not because 

 it has been scientifically disproved, for science 

 has neither data nor methods whereby to dis- 

 prove such a doctrine ; nor because it has been 

 exegetically shown to be unsupported by Scrip- 

 ture, for the ingenuity of orthodox exegesis has 

 always been equal to the task of making Scripture 

 mean whatever is required ; it has been discred- 

 ited simply because people have become milder 

 in their manners and less used to enduring and 

 inflicting physical pain. The doctrine shocks 

 people's feelings, and so they refuse to believe 

 it, no matter how the logic of the case may stand. 

 The sermons of Theodore Parker on the popu- 

 lar theology well illustrate the change of mood 

 that has come over men's minds with reference 

 to the justice of God : the whole burden of these 

 discourses is the argument that the infliction of 

 endless suffering on the creature is incompatible 

 with infinite justice on the part of the Creator. 

 That such an argument appears sound to-day, 

 whereas it would have seemed absurd to the 

 contemporaries of Luther, is due to the self- 

 same widening and deepening of human sympa- 

 thies that have put an end to slavery and to 

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