p. 133 | WAR IN ITALY by S. N. Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 25, 1878

WAR IN ITALY.

By S. N. Haskell

We have just learned that war has broken out in Italy in good earnest. It has burst, with all its thunderbolts, on the head of our Bro. Ribton. But as it is of a theological character, and our brother has the word of God for his defense, the weapons of his assailants fall harmlessly at his feet. From a private letter, not intended for publication, we take the liberty of extracting the following, hoping he will excuse us for so doing:—

“As long as I limited myself to speaking on the Sabbath and the Second Advent, my Protestant brethren remained comparatively quiet, but when I ventured to trespass upon their pet doctrines, the immortality of the soul and eternal torment in hell, the storm broke. Three weeks ago I announced that the subject of my lecture would be hell. A Baptist minister exclaimed that I was going beyond the limits of tolerance, and that he would come and put me down. He came with a roll of pencil notes. I knew what his weapons would be,—“eternal punishment,” “for ever and ever,” and “unquenchable fire;” and so I dismounted these three Krupp guns. As I did so the notes were put down one after another, and when I invited him to speak at the close of my lecture, he excused himself on account of the lateness of the hour. This made some noise, and a Methodist minister came to the rescue, announcing a discourse the next Sunday to prove the immortality of the soul. Such arguments! Four-fifths based on reason, philosophy, and the poets! The soul is immortal because all mankind believe so, with the exception of some flighty preachers of new doctrines, of which the devil is the author; and because nothing that exists can cease to exist; because it is a portion of God himself. (Then God condemns a portion of himself to suffer to all eternity, and Nero and Herod were a portion of God!) Death is not death but life; as examples he mentioned the chrysalis and butterfly. He used many other hackneyed arguments, which he had read up for the occasion. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, and the second death is a figurative expression. (Origen’s style.)”

“The next Tuesday I took all his arguments to pieces with the Bible, and several of those who were most prejudiced against me seemed to be quite convinced. This made him quite forget himself as a Christian. The next Sunday he descended to personalities and low insult. Texts, he said, must not always be taken in their literal sense. For example, Jacob said, ‘My soul will descend into the grave to my son,’ but he did not mean this, for he thought his son was eaten by a wild beast, and not in the grave. People should limit themselves each to his own art or profession. The printer cannot be a musician, nor the musician a printer. Theology cannot be included in any encyclopedia. Even in medicine there must be a division into special branches. These subjects required an accurate knowledge of history and of the original languages, and were not to be treated by one who, perhaps because he could get no patients, and perhaps because he had no money, set himself up for a teacher of new doctrines!”

“He was not aware that he had to deal with an old University professor, who was a teacher of Hebrew, when he himself was an ignorant monk; and had he not had a Christian to deal with he might have found he had caught a Tartar. So on the next Tuesday I brought the Hebrew Bible to bear upon him, together with the whole history of Platonism, tracing the false doctrine down from the devil in the garden through the Egyptians, Socrates, Plato, Ammonious, Augustine, Origen, down to Calvin. The victory was complete, and was enhanced by the ungentlemanly course he adopted, which roused my friends to observe that cooks ought to remain cooks, and monks, monks, instead of making themselves preachers as they do here; and that, according to my opponent’s arguments, we should take St. Luke’s Gospel and the Acts, out of the Bible.”

Those interested in the Italian mission will be pleased at this triumph of the truth near the seat of the beast. We are not engaged in an uncertain warfare; but there is a power in the truth, however unpopular it may be. The Lord will magnify his word above all his name, and give success to his truth. The devil is angry at the progress of God’s work; and when his anger is stirred, it is an indication that his kingdom is in danger. May prayers from ten thousand hearts ascend for God’s blessing to rest on the work in Europe. S. N. Haskell.