WHAT HELPED ME OUT OF DEPRESSION

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BODY AND MIND – George Moore

“Every soul that is out of keeping with divine order must remain, in the license of a perverse will, forever vile, until restored to the dominion of truth by the attractiveness of light, and the miseries of darkness.”

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CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE – J.S. Taylor

I cannot believe that any being will exist in any part of the universe, so steeped in guilt and anguish (no, not Satan himself), as to be beyond the redeeming love and healing power of the Creator.

Oh, no; on the contrary, I believe that in this mysterious, but divinely ordained conflict of good and evil, the powers of light are everywhere slowly but surely gaining the ascendancy over the powers of darkness, and that it will continue to be so, even unto the perfect day; yes, that perfect day, wherein all these blessed victories over sin and ignorance shall have been consummated, these transformations completed, and no solitary stain of folly, guilt, or grief, be left to mar the luster of the universe.”

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CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD – Edward Clodd

“You would think your father very hard and cruel if he loaded you with good things, and sent your brothers and sisters to some homeless spot to live uncared for and unloved. And yet that is exactly what some people say that God does. They have spoken of Him Who has given life to every man, woman and child as staying near only a few of His creatures, and leaving the rest to care for themselves.

Believe that He who is called our Father is better, more just, more loving, than the best fathers can be.”

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A BIBLE DICTIONARY – John R. Beard

“The word translated ‘everlasting’ or ‘eternal’ expresses time, and not eternity.

Punishment that does not end in reformation is vindictiveness, which cannot be ascribed to our Merciful Father.

How then has it come to pass that belief in eternal punishment took root in the Christian church?

Ancient doctors of the church, mislead by theoretical conclusions, declared that sin was an infinite transgression, to be atoned for only by an infinite expiation. The doctrine is the child of human reasoning.”

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IN MEMORIUM – Alfred Tennyson

“Oh, yes, we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood.

That nothing walks with aimless feet,
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete:

Behold! We know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last – far off – at last to all,
And every Winter change to Spring.”

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ONE RELIGION; MANY CREEDS – Ross Winans

“Our belief is that man, being governed and trained through time, a good and happy result must ensue to each individual. The idea of hell fire and eternal torment, when properly considered, is an idea that is alike blasphemous and illogical.

God has ordained that every man shall sooner or later, recognize and appreciate His blessings. Nothing else is consistent with His determinate will. God is a God of infinite goodness, not of vengeance; to be loved; to be worshiped for love’s sake, not through fear of everlasting punishment. We believe that every man will eventually love Him, and strive more and more to serve Him.”

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THE STRANGER IN LOWELL – John Greenleaf Whittier

“Through discords of sin and sorrow, pain and wrong, truth rises, a deathless melody whose notes of wailing are hereafter to be changed to those of triumph as they blend with the great harmony of a reconciled universe.”

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THE UNITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT – John A.D. Mauricq

“In Romans 5, the justification is co-extensive with the condemnation. Since all share in one, all share in the other. If only a certain portion of the human race had partaken of the sin of Adam, only a certain portion would partake of the justification of Christ. But St. Paul affirms all to have been involved in one, and all to be included in the other.”

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DISSERTATIONS ON THE FINAL STATE OF MANKIND – Thomas Newton

“Nothing can be more contrary to the divine nature and attributes, than for a God all wise, all-good, all-powerful, and all-perfect, to bestow existence on any being Who He foreknows must terminate in wretchedness and misery without respite of end. His goodness could never give birth to any one being, and much less to numberless beings whose end He foresaw would be irretrievable misery; nor could even His justice inflict everlasting punishment.

God made all His creatures finally to be happy; He could never make any whose end He foreknew would be misery everlasting. God is love; infinite benevolence alone prompted Him to action, and infinite benevolence combined with unerring wisdom, and supported by irresistible power, will infallibly accomplish its purpose in the best possible manner.”

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THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE – Hans Christian Andersen

“I received gladly, both with feeling and understanding, the doctrine that God is love. Everything which opposes this –- a burning hell, therefore, whose fire endures forever –- I could not recognize.”

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LIFE – Thomas Guthrie

“St. John uses a very broad expression. ‘Jesus Christ,’ he says, ‘is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our only, but also for the sins of the whole world.’ ‘The whole world. Ah,’ some would say, ‘that is dangerous language.’ It is God’s language – John speaking as he was moved by the Holy Spirit. It throws a zone of mercy around the world. Perish the thought that would narrow it by a hand’s breadth.”

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY – LEIGH HUNT

“Are God and His ways to be represented as something so different from the best attributes of humanity? If an angel were to tell me to believe in eternal punishment I would not do it; for it would better become me to believe the angel a delusion, than God monstrous; and we make Him monstrous when we make Him the author of eternal punishment, though we may not have the courage to think so. For God’s sake, let us have piety enough to believe Him better.”

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THE PEOPLE’S OWN BOOK – F. De La Mennais (1782-1854)

“If suffering was eternal, we should be compelled to conceive of it as independent, as subsisting by itself, or to admit something still more monstrous, for if it was not self-existent, if it was dependant on the divine will, God would be the direct author of eternal suffering.

But what Christ said is now and ever will be true:- ‘Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ And one day all will come unto Him. The world, deluged with light, and feeling within itself, with the revival of hope, the revival also of faith and love, shall salute that day with songs of joy.”

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THE EPICURIAN – Thomas Moore

“The God of benevolence, in Whose hands sin and death are but instruments of everlasting good, and Who, bringing all things ‘out of darkness into His marvelous light,’ proceeds watchfully, and unchangingly to the great, final object of His providence, the restoration of the whole human race to purity and happiness.”

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POEM BY HOSEA BALLOU (1771-1852)

“In God’s eternity
There shall a day arise,
When all the race of man shall be
With Jesus in the skies.

As night before the rays
Of morning flees away,
Sin shall retire before the blaze
Of God’s eternal day.

As music fills the grove
When stormy clouds are past,
Sweet anthems of redeeming love
Shall all employ at last.

Redeemed from death and sin
Shall Adam’s numerous race,
A ceaseless song of praise begin,
And shout redeeming grace.”

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