By virtue of God's benevolence, man's suffering has
a beneficent element, and must therefore be temporary and result in
good.[268] When Christ comes to raise the dead, he will relieve from
misery all the sons of men, give them a new life, and take them to
himself.[269]
The adherents of Universalism insist upon philanthropy and the
brotherhood of man. They hold that orthodox theology fosters harsh
notions of God's character, fills the mind with superstition, and is the
source of some of the most flagrant evils of the present age. "We
regret," says one of their writers, "that the acknowledged faith and
opinions have done no more to elevate the affections, and improve the
condition of man. They have utterly failed to correct the heart or the
life. They have disturbed his present peace, and darkened his prospects
for the future. Thousands of the young and innocent have been induced to
relinquish whatever is most beautiful in life--to give up all that
renders religion attractive and divine, for a miserable superstition,
which, like the Upas, fills the very atmosphere with death.
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