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Annihilation Dreadful

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Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 16, 1857

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 10, No. 11.

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Annihilation Dreadful.

By Editor

A FEW weeks since the following sentiment was uttered, in his pulpit, by HENRY WARD BEECHER—"I had rather go to hell—I was a going to say—than go to annihilation."
He was speaking of the consequences that would follow from one's being disconnected from God, and said, if such disconnection could be entire, "they would go to annihilation." Such a result, to his mind, was awful, as well it might be; and we were glad to find that Mr. Beecher was not of the opinion of some, who say, "To be annihilated is nothing." Persons of this last named sentiment must be persons of very small intellectual development; and seem so near a mere animal being as to be incapable of understanding the magnitude of the glory and enjoyment of an endless life; to such sensualists it may be fortunate that God has suffered their minds, hitherto, to be blinded as to what is the real "wages of sin:" they may need the dread of sensual sufferings, with the idea that such sufferings are to be eternal, to restrain them from sin. Such a doctrine might have been "winked at" in the "times of ignorance" which are passed, when men have been shut up in heathenish darkness, and enveloped by Popish superstition. But now that the system of keeping men in ignorance is passing away, and men will read and think for themselves, the true Bible doctrine of death as "the wages of sin," needs to be brought out and enforced, if we would save men from real infidelity: for thinking men cannot much longer be made to believe in endless misery; hence, if it is still insisted that the Bible teaches such doctrine, they must and will reject that book. If such is not the result with them, it will be strange indeed.
We hope Mr. Beecher may yet see, that such an "entire disconnection from God," as he seemed to think impossible, may take place; and then the awful annihilation may be, and will be, the fate of the sinner. Such a result commends itself, to the mind of an intelligent man, as just and right, if the sinner persists in forsaking God "the fountain of living waters," &c. Jer. ii, 13.—Bible Examiner.