Question of Authenticity.
By Editor
IN Review No. 12, Vol. xxvi, appeared the following lines appended to an article entitled "The Glories of Hell:" "There is a never-ending hell,
And never dying pains,
Where children must with demons dwell
In darkness, fire and chains."
"Have faith the same with endless shame
To all the human race,
For hell is crammed with infants damned,
Without a day of grace."
These lines were credited, in the paper above referred to, to Dr. Watts; but we learned a few weeks since from a correspondent in Vermont, that the orthodox in his place, deny that Dr. Watts ever expressed such sentiments. We immediately wrote to Bro. J. B. Frisbie on the subject, who responds: "I hardly think the lines are Watts', unless they are in the oldest editions of his Hymns; for he believed in the annihilation of the infants of wicked parents. For proof of this latter assertion, I quote from the Religious Encyclopedia. Under the head of Destructionists, it says, 'The great Dr. Watts may be considered in some measure a destructionist; since it was his opinion that the children of ungodly parents who die in infancy, are annihilated.'" Will the writer who sent in the extracts given under the above heading authenticate his quotations? Or can any of our readers give us light on the subject? We do not wish to attribute to any one sentiments which he never uttered.