p. 6 | OUR GOD IS MERCIFUL

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 6, 1898

“OUR GOD IS MERCIFUL.”

“Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” we could but repeat after the psalmist as we read the following, credited to Cardinal Vaughn in the “Catholic Truth” department of the Catholic Mirror of November 20:—

Consider what purgatory is, a realm of pain created by infinite Justice for the punishment of souls. No doubt there are degrees of punishment, but the least degree of purgatorial pain is keener and intenser than all the pains of this life put together.

You ought to get as many masses as you can said for your deceased friends and benefactors. They not only expect this service from you, but they will at once repay you by becoming your most grateful friends and intercessors with God.

Of course, it is the same teaching relative to purgatory which the Catholic Church has taught for centuries; but as it is presented anew as “Catholic Truth” it suggested anew some questions. Will God, who is infinitely just, punish a soul one moment longer or one degree harder than that soul deserves? If He will not, what is the need of appeal to fallen man? Is not God “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy”? Ps. 103: 8. “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful,”—full of mercy. Ps. 116: 5. Is it not true that “with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption”? Ps. 130: 7. Is not God “rich in mercy” (Eph. 2: 4), “very pitiful, and of tender mercy”? (James 5: 11). Is it not true that “He delighteth in mercy” (Micah 7: 18), and that He “taketh pleasure in them” “that hope in His mercy” (Ps. 147: 11)? If God will not hear, why appeal to man? Is mortal man more just than God? Is he more merciful?

Why do men, how can men, thus put God so far away? How can they give Him such a character that He will cast men into such intense punishment, and allow them to stay there unheard, unheeded, only as their way is paid out by “masses”?

Hear, O ye sinners everywhere! “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.” All the mercy that men possess they get from Him. All the compassion they exercise is from God. Go to God for mercy. Point every soul to Him. Hear His Word often repeated: “Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.” O, He has “abundant mercy”! not filtered down through the filthy sands of tradition or the perverted ideas of church, or priest, or parson, or any person, but direct from the Lord Jesus Christ to you. “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb. 4: 14-16.