Difference of Opinion by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 6, 1868

Difference of Opinion.

By Editor

SOMETIMES an error is placed by a single sentence in a brilliant light which shows its absurdity more effectually than could be done by a long and labored argument. Such we consider the following remark by a correspondent of the Scientific American, which, as with a single flash, reveals all the absurdity of condemning our fellowmen to the lake of fire, for a mere difference of opinion. Speaking of the furnace rooms of the Collinsville, Ct., manufacturing company, he says:—

“Within these inner shops are sweating laborers, a whole regiment, forging the weapons wherewith the farmer and pioneer are to subdue Nature from her rebellious moods. Here they swing tons of crude metal into place; here they dodge to and fro in the blaze of an awful furnace, grimly suggestive of the quarters which I trust have been prepared in the nether worlds to swallow up hereafter all who don't believe as I do.”

The italics are ours. But just imagine a person's gazing into those glowing furnaces, and entertaining seriously the thoughts here expressed with such keen irony, and if we have not a vivid picture of the bigotry and intolerance so prevalent in reference to some theological questions, we know not where it could be found.