p. 45 | Very Consistent by S. B. Whitney

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 4, 1875

Very Consistent.

By S. B. Whitney

TO-DAY I heard a minister in a social meeting, while speaking of unconsciousness in death, and referring to the cases of some young persons who had died, make the remark that if he believed they are not, or that their souls are in a dormant state, it would be a perfect hell of misery to him.

Now we blame no one for mourning the loss of dear ones; for Rachel refused to be comforted because her children were not, and the Lord does not reprove her; but all the comfort he has for her is the assurance that “they shall come again from the land of the enemy, to their own border.” Jer. 31:15–17.

It is to be supposed the Lord gives the best consolation that could be given; hence it follows that the person above referred to either has found a source of consolation better than the word of the Lord, or his comfort is of a deceptive character, based upon a notion contrary to that word.

I leave the reader to decide this point while I query respecting those, equally dear to some one, who have died without the hope of salvation. Is it less dreadful to think of them wailing in the torments of hell than quietly sleeping in their graves awaiting the resurrection, to receive the just sentence of a righteous Judge? How far is a “hell of misery” on earth alleviated by the consciousness that others are enduring a worse hell somewhere else?

How blind are the votaries of error, but how clear and beautiful is truth to those who will open their minds and hearts to receive it.

S. B. WHITNEY.

Benson, N. Y. Jan. 24, 1875.