Another embarrassment in gaining the true teachings of the Bible is the fact that the doctrines of churches and creeds have consisted extensively of philosophical theories to explain the how and the why of the facts made known by revelation; and men have been educated to believe that these theories should be accepted as authoritative, the same as the revealed facts, and thus feeling and prejudice interfere. For example, that the sacrifice and death of Jesus Christ was needful to secure redemption to our race from sin and its penalties, is the revealed fact. Why it was needed, and how it avails to save men, is a question which men have invented various theories to answer and explain, and belief in these theories has been deemed as sacred and obligatory as if they were matters of revelation.
Another, and the chief difficulty, is the fact that the great mass, even of educated minds, have never been trained to use the rules of language in the interpretation of the Bible as they do in common life. Although it is the great and distinctive principle of Protestantism that every man is to form his own creed, and to interpret the Bible for himself, responsible not to man but to God alone, the common people have not been trained properly to use this right and privilege. And this is not because it is not as easy and practical a matter as any other duty requiring intellectual culture, practical exercises, and an honest desire for the truth. In consequence of this, much that is only figurative in the Bible has been received as literal, and repellent doctrines thus established.
It is probable that no one thing could so effectually promote unity of opinion among churches, and consequent harmony of action, as the proper training of the common people in the nursery and school-room to use the laws of language with the Bible as they do in common life. Such training would also bring confidence and peace to minds so extensively perplexed by supposed contradictions as to its teachings. It was by this method that the writer overcame difficulties, and gained such confidence and peace as can be secured in no other way. Without stating the results of her own efforts in interpreting the Bible, a few examples will follow, to illustrate the position that any woman of ordinary capacity can find relief and comfort by the same method.
We will take, first, the great question of this life. What are our dangers in the future life, and what must we do to be saved from them?
The following is a brief statement of the views of mankind on this question. Among the heathen, especially among the wisest and best, it was held that the virtuous would fare better after death than the wicked. The seventy-third Psalm shows in most terrific language the misery of the wicked, and as clearly the blessedness of the righteous at death, as believed by the Jews in all ages.
Among Christian nations, a large class have no definite opinions on this question, but by their practice assume that there is no danger at all, and so give all their thoughts and aims to the things of this life.
A large class who profess to obtain their opinions from the Bible hold that, either at death or at some period after, all mankind will be forever good and happy in heaven.
Another large class hold that a portion of mankind will, at death, go to everlasting misery, to be tormented with literal fire and brimstone, and that all the rest will finally go to heaven; but previously the good must suffer temporary punishment for sins committed here—this period of suffering being more or less diminished by penances, and by the sacrifices and good works of Jesus Christ and the good on earth.
Another class believe that at death every human being passes directly to perfect happiness in heaven, or to dreadful sufferings in hell which are never to end. One part of this class hold that the punishment is literally existing forever in fire and brimstone, and the other part hold that the suffering will be the natural result of an endless character that insures misery, and that the language of the Bible expresses this figuratively.
Finally, another class hold that, in the life to come, happiness and misery depend on character; that a portion of our race in this life forms one that insures immediate and endless happiness at death; that another portion form a character that involves great suffering after death; and that in some cases this character is perpetuated forever, involving consequent endless suffering. But they claim that the Bible nowhere teaches that with all mankind character is fixed at death. Instead of this, what intervenes between death and the final day, when the righteous and wicked are to be reclothed in bodies and forever separated, is left in wise darkness.