ic enlightenment.
A minister of the gospel in this church, and another in that, announces
from the pulpit that it is no longer possible for him to accept the
doctrines of hell's fire and eternal damnation. Others follow their
example and preach sermons, accordingly, to justify this stand. Next the
question of heaven is brought into question by a conscientious divine,
who expounds the conviction that it should be accepted in an allegorical
meaning, not literally--that instead of being a paradise inhabited by
the souls of the elect, it should be considered rather a state of mind
of living mortals who behave rightly.

Heaven and hell, a jealous and all-mighty Being, seated on a majestic
throne, watching and judging each act of mortal man, punishing and
rewarding, through all eternity--these and many other biblical
teachings, which for centuries awed the imagination and possessed the
souls of humble men and women, have gradually been brought into
question.

Some people are inclined to lay blame for this on the churches and the
ministers. But that is superficial thinking. The causes for the change
were not within the churches, but outside, and the ministers of the
gospel, though human beings like the rest of us, were among the very
last to take cognizance of them.

The doubts and questions and misgivings evidently began, some time ago,
among practical, thoughtful minds of scientific training. Certain
statements in the Bible, in the light of modern investigation, were
found to be inaccurate. If parts of it were founded on the ignorance of
men of more or less primitive instruction, it is easy to see where this
line of reasoning was bound to lead. In addition to the statements of
fact, many of the ideas and assumptions set forth in the Bible seemed
crude, narrow, cruel--as primitive as the lives of those early peoples
among whom it came into existence.

The moral code contained in it--the essence of its religious
significance--was undoubtedly sound and eternally true and very possibly
inspired from on high, but the details, the images, the formal
conceptions were decidedly antiquated and unimpressive to the
enlightened spirit of our advanced civilization.

This growing point-of-view began to express itself quite noticeably in
the past generation, at least in America. Thoughtful men, when they
arrived at it, were inclined to keep it to themselves. They did not care
to disturb the simple, whole-souled faith of their wives a