Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary: Collated from his Diary by Benjamin FunkKline, John
Religion
Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary: Collated from his Diary by Benjamin Funk
Kline, John
Kline, John, 1797-1864
"The Apostle John says that 'God is light.' By this I understand him
to mean that God is infinitely wise, knowing all truth. The same
apostle says that 'God is love.' By this I understand that the Lord
God has a will for good to every creature that he has made. That he
has no other feeling than that of love for the human race and for
every individual of the human family. Now, it was in the image and
likeness of God that man was made at his first creation. Is it not
plain from this, then, that he must have been wise in regard to the
things of his understanding, and filled with love in his heart for all
that is truly good? In this state he could love the Lord his God with
all his heart, and with all his strength, and love his neighbor as he
loved himself. But what does the Bible, and what does the history of
the world tell us about man ever since he fell from this heavenly
state in which he was first created? The Bible declares that the
'heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.'
The Lord said to the Pharisees, a class of people who even claimed to
be religious: 'Ye are of your father the devil; and the works of your
father ye do.' From the Bible we turn to the history of man's career
through all the ages down to the present time, and we find its lines
all written in characters of blood. Revenge, murder, cruelty, deceit,
malice and ill-will of one toward another are manifest on almost every
page of history.
"But in the very face of all this evil God still loved the world; and
he so loved it that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And I
declare him to you to-day as my Savior and your Savior; able to save
to the uttermost all who come unto God through him. And what does he
save us from? He saves us from hell. And what is hell? I say to you
that it is the place where the devil, and all his angels and evil
spirits of men live after they leave this world. It is the fire
prepared for the devil and his angels. It is the everlasting fire into
which the accursed depart. It is the place from which the rich man
lifted up his eyes, tormented, as he himself confessed, sorely
tormented in this flame. But, dear friends, God does not will that any
of us should go to hell; for he says: 'As I live, I have no pleasure
in the death of a sinner, but would that all should turn and live.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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