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diff --git a/old/40207.txt b/old/40207.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 1429859..0000000 --- a/old/40207.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,925 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Christian Doctrine of Hell, by Joseph M. Wheeler - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Christian Doctrine of Hell - -Author: Joseph M. Wheeler - -Release Date: July 11, 2012 [EBook #40207] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF HELL *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger - - - - - - -THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF HELL - -By J. M. Wheeler - -1890. - - - -THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF HELL - -I WOULD not willingly quit this world without having said my say upon -the most terrible of all its superstitions, the doctrine of eternal -torments--which Archdeacon Farrar describes as the "hideous incubus of -atrocious conceptions"--and which, in my own experience, is the cause of -appalling apprehensions and even insanity in the minds of the sensitive -and weak-minded. - -If there is a hell, that is the most important fact in the universe. -Compared with an eternity of torment, all that this little life has to -offer is but as nothing. If there is no hell, then, it seems to me, -the faith in Jesus is vain, for no such salvation as that offered by -orthodox Christianity is necessary. Not only is the doctrine of eternal -torments clearly taught in Scripture, but it is, as I shall show, -historically bound up with the creed of Christendom. - -It may be said, why attack a superstition confessedly falling into -decay? Satan, that once excellent scapegoat for all misdeeds, is -superannuated. Hell is never mentioned to ears polite. Since Freethought -came into the world its temperature has considerably decreased. The -brimstone business threatens to become obsolete. It is none the less the -corner-stone of the whole system, and when it finally collapses it will -bring down other doctrines with it. The Salvationist, no less than the -Jesuit, knows its power. As the old beadle said, "A kirk without a hell -is'na worth a damn." - -Upon the healthy-minded the doctrine of eternal torments will soon have -no more effect than water upon a duck's back. But mental health and -strength are not the inheritance of all. If the dogma was not taught -until minds were mature enough to examine it, it might safely be left; -but while it is continually taught to infancy, to seek to eradicate -it is the duty of those who regard it as a pernicious error. To me it -appears that the best way to do this is to show what the doctrine has -actually been in the days when Christianity was unquestioned. Christians -are becoming ashamed of their hell--which they rarely realise as -possibly the fate of themselves or their friends; that way madness lies. -They cannot get rid of the definite statements in the New Testament, but -they avoid dwelling on them, or attempt to construe them figuratively. -Hell was hot enough when religion was powerful. As it declines it is -discovered that hell is not so terrible after all. - -Modern exegesis, striving to explain hell away, only steps in when -conscience and freethought have declared against it. It is taught in -the plainest terms. Take but the passage, Matt. xxv. 46, "These shall -go away into _everlasting_ punishment, but the righteous into life -_eternal_." It is said everlasting does not mean lasting for ever, and -in some cases this might be granted, but surely it is a different matter -when eternal punishment is, without any limitation, directly compared -with eternal life, and the same word is applied to both. Again, exactly -the same expression which is used to signify the eternity of God, that -of his being _for ever and ever_, as in Rev. iv. 9, v. 14, x. 6, and xv. -7, is used of the torments of those in hell in Rev. xiv. 11. - -In the explanation of the parable of the tares, Jesus tells his prosaic -disciples: "The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the -end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares -are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of -this world" (Matt. xiii. 39-40). There we see the simile is used to -illustrate hell; not hell used as a simile to illustrate something else. -The early Christians undoubtedly believed in a literal Devil, angels, -and end of the world, and with equal certainty in a literal hell and -material fire. Yet we are now asked to believe that when Jesus spoke of -hell, "where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched" (Mark ix. -46), since there is _no_ fire it cannot require quenching. - -Jesus relates, in the most matter-of-fact way (Luke xvi.), that a -certain rich man died, and "in hell," "being in torments," he lifted up -his eyes and beheld Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. He cried for a drop of -water to cool his tongue, "for I am tormented in this flame." The man -had committed no other recorded offence than faring sumptuously, yet he -was met with the stern response, "between us and you there is a great -gulf fixed." He then asks that his brethren may be warned of his fate, -and this, too, is denied. The voice of humanity cried from hell, and -heaven answered with inhumanity. If this picture of heaven and hell is -true, God and his saints are monsters of infamy. If false, what other -"revealed" doctrine can be credited, since this is so devised for the -benefit of those who trade in terrorism? If hell is a metaphor, of which -there is no indication in the narrative, so also is heaven. Give up -material fire and brimstone, you must resign the bodily resurrection, -the visible coming of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. Allegorise hell, -you make heaven unreal. A figurative Devil suggests a figment God. - -The Revelation of St. John expressly speaks of the worshippers of the -beast, or enemies of God, being "tormented with fire and brimstone in -the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And -the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever" (xiv. 10-11). -Nice enjoyment, this, for the elect. Fancy parents regarding the eternal -anguish of their children! Converted wives looking on while their -unbelieving husbands are tormented and "have no rest day nor night" in -"the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone"! Picture it, think of -it, Christian, and then offer praises to your God for having provided -this place of eternal torture for some other than yourself. - -Who go to hell? According to the Bible and the creeds the immense -majority of mankind. "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which -leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matt. vii. 14). Many -are called but few chosen; and there is no other name under heaven, save -that of Jesus, whereby men can be saved. The proportion of those -who lived before Christ must be, even according to Bible chronology, -immensely larger than all who have lived since, and of these now, after -eighteen centuries of the divine religion, not more than a third of the -world's inhabitants are even nominal Christians. When we consider -how few Christians are really believers, and how scarcely any of them -attempt to carry out the precepts of their Master, it must be allowed -that the population of hell is out of all proportion to that of heaven. - -The doctrine of the church has been "He that believeth and is baptised -shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." The idea of -this text has probably done more harm to humanity than it has benefited -from the rest of the gospel, for it has countenanced all the -ill-will and persecution that has everywhere followed in the train of -Christianity. I know it will be said that this passage, indeed the whole -of the sixteenth of Mark from the ninth verse to the end, is wanting -in some of the ancient manuscripts; but while the Authorised version is -circulated as the word of God, it is properly cited. And indeed if this -doctrine is discarded there is much else that must go with it. - -Freethought having discredited the doctrine of eternal torments -as absurd and dishonoring to God, stress is now laid upon passages -indicating a more hopeful doctrine. To one who looks at the general -tenor of Scripture, these are of no weight in opposition to the clear -and emphatic declarations I have cited. There is no express statement -that punishment hereafter will be terminable. On the contrary, the -evident teaching is that as the tree falls so it must lie. No hope is -extended to the rich man in hell. - -That the current belief in the time of Jesus was in the eternity of -punishments, we have the testimony of Josephus, who declares this both -of the Pharisees and the Essenes.* We have also the testimony of the -Fathers. Clement, the apostolic father, said to be the "fellow laborer" -of Paul, mentioned in Philip iv. 3, says in his Second Epistle, chap. -viii., "Once cast into the furnace of fire there is no longer any help -for it. For after we have gone out of the world no further power of -confessing or repenting will belong to us." Polycarp, when threatened -with martyrdom, is said to have made answer (Ep. to Philippians, xi.), -"Thou threatenest me with fire which burneth for an hour, and after -a little is extinguished, but art ignorant of the fire of the coming -judgment and of eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly." Ignatius -too speaks of "the unquenchable fire" (Ep. to Ephesians, 16). - - *Antiq. xviii. 1-3; Wars ii, 8, 11-14. - -All the early Fathers considered the fire of hell as a real material -fire. Justin Martyr, who wrote before the collection of the Gospels, -said in his first Apology, chap. xxi., "We believe that those who -live wickedly and do not repent are punished in everlasting fire." In -numerous other passages he refers to punishment in eternal fire; and -says (First Apol., chap. hi), "then shall they repent, when it profits -them not." Athenagoras, too (chap. xxxvi.), declares that "the body -which has ministered to the irrational impulses of the soul, and to its -desires, will be punished along with it." - -St. Irenaeus, the first of the Fathers who definitely alludes to the four -Gospels, says, in his work against heresies (bk. ii., chap. 28, Sec. 7), -"That eternal fire is prepared for sinners, both the Lord has plainly -declared, and the rest of the Scriptures demonstrate. And that God -foreknew that this would happen, the Scriptures do in like manner -demonstrate, since He prepared eternal fire from the beginning for those -who were afterwards to transgress His commandments." What a blessed -thing is Christianity to reveal such a nice loving Father as this! - -So Bishop Hippolytus, in his _Refutation of all Heresies_, bk. x. chap. -30, speaks of "the boiling flood of hell's eternal lake of fire, and the -eye ever fixed in menacing glare of [wicked] angels chained in Tartarus -as punishment for their sins." - -Tertullian, in his treatise on the Resurrection of the Flesh, chap. -xxxv., declares "The fire of hell is eternal--expressly announced as an -everlasting penalty," and he asks, "whence shall come the weeping and -gnashing of teeth if not from _eyes and teeth?_" In his treatise, _De -Anima_, chap. vii., he thus alludes to the story of Dives. "Do you -suppose that this end of the blessed poor man and the miserable rich man -is only imaginary? Then why the name of Lazarus in this narrative, if -the circumstance is not in [the category of] a real occurrence?" This -Christian Father absolutely gloats over the prospect of witnessing these -torments:--"Which sight gives me Joy? which rouses me to exultation?--as -I see so many illustrious monarchs, whose reception into the heavens was -publicly announced, groaning now in the lowest darkness with great Jove -himself, and those, too, who bore witness of their exaltation; governors -of provinces, too, who persecuted the Christian name, in fires more -fierce than those which in the days of their pride they raged against -the followers of Christ!" He exultingly continues: "I shall have a -better opportunity then of hearing the tragedians, louder-voiced in -their own calamity; of viewing the play-actors much more 'dissolute' in -the dissolving flame; of looking upon the charioteer, all glowing in his -chariot of fire; of witnessing the wrestlers, not in their gymnasia, but -tossing in the fiery billows."* An echo of this famous passage may -be traced in Cardinal Newman's sermon "On Neglect of Divine Calls and -Warnings." - -St. Cyprian, in his address to Demetrianus, says: "We are rendered -patient by our security of a vindication to come. The innocent give -place to the guilty; the guileless acquiesce in their punishments and -tortures, certain and assured that anything we suffer will not remain -unavenged.... What joy for the believers, what sorrow for the faithless; -to have refused to believe here, and now be unable to return in order -that they may believe! Hell ever burning will consume the accursed, and -a devouring punishment of lively flames; nor will there be that from -whence their torments can ever receive either repose or end. Souls with -their bodies will be saved unto suffering in tortures infinite. There -that man will be seen by us for ever, who made us his spectacle here -for a season; what brief enjoyment those cruel eyes received from -the persecutions wrought upon us will be balanced against a spectacle -eternal." And the savage saint backs up his pleasant prospect with "Holy -Scripture." - - * De Spectaculis, c. 30. I have quoted the rendering in the - orthodox Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. xi., pp. 34-35. - Gibbon's version is more forcible. - -Lactantius, in his Divine Institutes, bk. vi., chap. 3, contrasts the -immortality promised to the righteous with "everlasting punishment -threatened to the unrighteous." In bk. vii. chap. 21, he says, "because -they have committed sins in their bodies, they will again be clothed -with flesh that they may make atonement in their bodies; and yet it -will not be that flesh with which God clothed man, like this our earthly -body, but indestructible and abiding for ever, that it may be able to -hold out against tortures and everlasting fire." - -St. Chrysostom represents the torments of the damned in a variety of -horrid pictures. He says: "But if you are speaking against luxury, and -introduce discourse by the way concerning hell, the thing will cheer -you and beget much pleasure. Let us not then avoid discourses concerning -hell, that we may avoid hell. Let us not banish the remembrance of -punishment, that we may escape punishment. If the rich man had reflected -upon that fire, he would not have sinned; but because he never was -mindful of it, therefore he fell into it."* - - * Homily on 2 Thess. i., 1-2. - -In Homily on 2 Thess. i., 9-10, "It is not only not milder, but much -more terrible than is threatened." Hear the golden-mouthed Father -(Homily on Heb. i., 1-2): "Let us then consider how great a misery it -must be to be for ever burning, and to be in darkness, and to utter -unnumbered groanings, and to gnash the teeth and not even to be -heard.... Think what it is when we are burning with all the murderers of -the whole world neither seeing, nor being seen.... Wherefore I entreat -you," continues the saint, "to be _ever_ revolving these things with -yourselves, and to submit to the pain of the words, that we may not have -the things to undergo as our punishment." Again he says (Hom. Heb. xi. -37-38), "Why, what are ten thousand years to ages boundless and without -end? Not so much as one drop to the boundless ocean.... Were it not well -to be cut [by scourging] times out of number, to be slain, to be burned, -to undergo ten thousand deaths, to endure everything whatsoever that is -dreadful both in word and deed?"* - -Origen, for considering that the punishment of the wicked consisted -in separation from God, was condemned as heretical by the Council of -Carthage, A.D. 398, and afterwards by other Councils. - -St. Augustine (_City of God_, bk, xxi. chap. 17) censures Origen for his -merciful view, and says "the Church, not without reason, condemned -him for this and other errors." In the same book (chap. 23) this great -father declares that everlasting is used by Jesus (Matt. xxv. 41) as -meaning "for ever" and nothing else than "endless duration." He argues, -with ingenious varieties of reasoning, to show how the material bodies -of the damned may withstand annihilation in everlasting fire. He held -that hell was in the centre of the earth, and that God supplied the -central fire with earth by a miracle. Jerome and the other orthodox -Fathers no less held to a material hell. - -In the middle ages Christian literature was mainly composed of the -legendary visions of saints, in which views across the gulf had a large -share. - -The Devil was represented bound by red-hot chains, on a burning gridiron -in the centre of hell. The screams of his never-ending agony made its -rafters to resound; but his hands were free, and with these he seized -the lost souls, crushed them like grapes against his teeth, and then -drew them by his breath down the fiery cavern of his throat. Demons with -hooks of red-hot iron plunged souls alternately into fire and sea. Some -of the lost were hung up by their tongues, others were sawn asunder, -others gnawed by serpents, others beaten together on an anvil and welded -into a single mass, others boiled and then strained through a cloth, -others twined in the embrace of demons whose limbs were of flame.** - - * Library of the Fathers, pp. 15-16. - - * Lecky, History of European Morals, vol. ii., p. 222. - -Is it strange that the ages when Christian barbarism overcame Pagan -civilisation were known as the Dark Ages? "George Eliot" well says that -"where the tremendous alternative of everlasting torments is believed -in--believed in so that it becomes a motive determining the life--not -only persecution, but every other form of severity and gloom are the -legitimate consequences." - -Grandly horrible is the reflection in Dante's _Inferno_ of the doctrine -of hell, held in the palmiest days of Christianity. The gloom of that -poem is relieved by a few touches of compunction at the doom of noble -heathen and of tenderness for those who sinned through love; proving -the poet superior to his creed. Yet consider the punishment of heretics, -buried in burning sepulchres while from their furnace tombs rise endless -wails. Think of the terrible inscription, _Lasciate ogni speranza voi -ch'entrate_. Remember that Dante placed in this hell his political -opponents, and how he depicts himself as striking the faces and pulling -the hair of the tormented; then answer, is not this great poem a lasting -monument of Christian barbarity? - -St. Thomas Aquinas, the angelic doctor, treats of the punishment of hell -under the title _Poena Damnatorum_,* and teaches (1) that the damned -will suffer other punishments besides that of fire; (2) that the -"undying worm" is remorse of conscience; (3) that the darkness of hell -is physical darkness, only so much light being admitted as will allow -the lost to see and apprehend the punishments of the place; (4) that -as both body and soul are punished, the fire of hell will be a material -fire, of the same nature as ordinary fire but with different properties; -and the place of punishment, though not certainly known, is probably -under the earth. - -Hagenbach, in his _History of Doctrines_, 209, note cliv., says of the -blessed, "They witness the suffering of the damned without being seen by -the latter," and refers to Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas. - -Even the mystic Suso expressed himself as follows:-- - -'Give us a millstone,' say the damned, 'as large as the whole earth, and -so wide in circumference as to touch the sky all around and let a little -bird come once in a hundred thousand years and pick off a small particle -of the stone, not larger than the tenth part of a grain of millet, and -after another hundred thousand years let him come again, so that in ten -hundred thousand years he would pick off as much as a grain of millet, -we wretched sinners would desire nothing but that the stone might have -an end, and thus our pains also; yet even that cannot be.'** - - * Summae Suppl. qu 97. - - ** Quoted in Hagenbach's History of Doctrines, 210, vol. - ii., p. 152 - -The work of Father Pinamonti, entitled _Hell Opened to Christians_, has -been for over two hundred years one of the most popular among Catholic -Christians. It has also circulated among Protestants. An English -version, with horrible pictures of the torments of the damned, has gone -through many editions. We recommend its purchase to those who complain -of the illustrations in the _Freethinker_, or who desire to see how -savage the Christian religion is at bottom. The Christian Father of -course accepts the literal meaning of hell fire. He says (p. 28): "Every -one that is damned will be like a lighted furnace, which has its own -flames in itself; all the filthy blood will boil in the veins, the -brains in the skull, the heart in the breast, the bowels within the -unfortunate body, surrounded with an abyss of' fire out of which it -cannot escape." - -_The Sight of Hell_, by the Rev. J. Fumiss, C.S.S.R., is another popular -work issued "permissu superiorum" among "Books for Children and Young -Persons." A more atrocious composition it is difficult to conceive. The -agony is piled on as though the imagination of the writer revelled in -the description of torture. One specimen, a mild one, will suffice:-- - -Perhaps at this moment, seven o'clock in the evening, a child is just -going into Hell. To-morrow evening at seven o'clock, go and knock at the -gates of Hell and ask what the child is doing. The devils will go and -look. Then they will come back again and say, _the child is burning!_ -Go in a week and ask what the child is doing; you will get the -same answer--_it is burning!_ Go in a year and ask, the same answer -comes--_it is burning!_ Go in a million of years and ask the same -question; the answer is just the same--_it is burning!_ So if you go for -ever and ever, you will always get the same answer--_it is burning in -the fire!_ - -I declare I would rather put into the hands of any young child -Boccaccio's _Decameron_, or any of the works put on the Roman _Index -Librorum Prohibitorum_, with which I am acquainted, than this pious work -by a Christian Father. - -Protestantism did nothing to lighten the realm of outer darkness. -Rather, by its repudiation of the priest-serving doctrine of purgatory, -it rendered more glaring the contrast between the condition of the saved -and that of the non-elect. Calvin asks: "How is it that the fall of Adam -involves so many nations, _with their infant children_, to eternal death -without remedy, unless that it so seemed meet to God?" The same holy -Christian says of the damned: "For ever harassed with a dreadful -tempest, they shall feel themselves torn asunder by an angry God, -and transfixed and penetrated by mortal stings, terrified by the -thunderbolts of God, and broken by the weight of his hand, so that to -sink into any gulf would be more tolerable than to stand for a moment in -these terrors." - -According to the _Westminster Confession_, ch. xxxiii.: "The wicked who -know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into -eternal torments." And the _Larger Catechism_, A. 29, declares: "The -punishments of sin in the world to come are everlasting separation from -the comfortable presence of God, and most grievous torments in soul and -body, without intermission, in hell fire forever." "They that have done -good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into -everlasting _fire_," is the doctrine of the _Book of Common Prayer_. - -Bishop Jeremy Taylor, the prose poet of the Church of England, says in -his discourse on the Pains of Hell*: "We are amazed at the inhumanity of -Phalaris, who roasted men in his brazen bull: this was joy in respect of -that fire of hell which penetrates the very entrails without consuming -them." "Husbands shall see their wives, parents shall see their -children, tormented before their eyes." Picture it, think of it, -Christian, and then give praises to your demon God. The good, really -good, bishop tells us the bodies of the damned shall be crowded together -in hell like grapes in a wine press, which press one another till they -burst. "Every distinct sense and organ shall be assailed with its own -appropriate and most exquisite sufferings." Surely the creed is -accursed which led so worthy a man as Taylor to paint with unction this -description of the Pains of Hell. - - * Contemplation of the State of Man, ch. 68. - -Our own Milton, liberal in theology though he was, adheres to the -Biblical idea of - - Regions of Sorrow! doleful - Shades! where - Peace And Rest can never dwell; - Hope never comes, - That comes to all: but - Torture without End - Still urges, and a fiery - Deluge fed - With ever-burning sulphur unconsum'd. - -Bishop Hall says: "What, oh, what is it to conceive of lying in a _fire -more intense than nature can kindle_, for hundreds, thousands, millions, -yea millions of millions of years, which, after all, are only a minute -of time compared with eternity." - -Dr. Barrow asserts that "our bodies will be afflicted continually by a -sulphurous flame piercing the inmost smews." Wesley says: - - Eternity and deep despair - On every flame is written there. - -Again he says: "From the moment wherein they are plunged into the lake -of fire, _burning with brimstone_, their torments are not only without -intermission, but likewise without end." - -The sight of the torments of the damned in hell will increase the -ecstacy of the saints in heaven. This is the doctrine of St. John, -and it has been repeated by orthodox Christian preachers times without -number. And though orthodox Christian preachers dare not preach it now, -it is the legitimate outcome of their belief. In heaven the angels see -all, and must therefore witness the torments of the damned; and these do -not diminish their happiness, though the damned be their own parents or -their own children. - -Jonathan Edwards, one of the most consistent Christians that ever -breathed, devoted a work to the subject. The Thirteenth Sermon of -his _Works_ is entitled "The End of the Wicked contemplated by the -Righteous," and is particularly devoted to the illustration of the -doctrine that "the sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of -the saints forever." "It will," he continues, "not only make them more -sensible of the greatness and freeness of the grace of God in their -happiness, but it really makes their happiness the greater, as it will -make them more _sensible_ of their own happiness. It will give them a -more lively relish of it; it will make them prize it more. When they -see others who were of the same nature, and born under the same -circumstances, plunged in such misery, and they so distinguished, it -will make them the more sensible how happy they are."* In his direful -poem on the Last Day, the once popular Dr. Young makes one of God's -victims vainly ask: - - This one, this slender, almost no request: - When I have wept a thousand lives away, - When torment is grown weary of its prey, - When I have ran of anguish'd years in fire - Ten thousand thousands, let me then expire. - -The pious Dr. Samuel Hopkins thus displays the Divine character and -illustrates the loving kindness of the blessed Scripture promises: "The -smoke of their torment shall ascend up in the sight of the blessed for -ever and ever, and serve, as a most clear glass before their eyes, to -give them a bright and most effective view. This display of the Divine -character will be most entertaining to all who love God, will give them -the highest and most ineffable pleasure. Should the fire of this eternal -punishment cease, it would in a great measure obscure the light of -heaven and put an end to a great part of the happiness and glory of the -blessed." - -Contrast with this holy utterance of the pious Christian, the burning -words of the Atheist poet, James Thomson: - - If any human soul at all - Must die the second death, must fall - Into that gulph of quenchless flame - Which keeps its victims still the same, - Unpurified as unconsumed, - To everlasting torments doomed; - Then I give God my scorn and hate, - And turning back from Heaven's gate - (Suppose me got there!) bow, Adieu! - Almighty Devil, damn me too.** - -Baxter, in his _Saint's Everlasting Best_, declares: "The principal -author of hell torments is God himself. As it was no less than God whom -the sinner had offended, so it is no less than God who will punish them -for their offences. He has prepared those torments for his enemies.... -The everlasting flames of hell will not be thought too hot for the -rebellious; and when they have burnt there for millions of ages, he will -not repent him of the evil which is befallen them." - - * The Eternity of Hell Torments, p. 25 (London. 1789). - - ** Vane's Story. - -Was not Shelley right when he described the Christian God:-- - - A vengeful, pitiless and almighty fiend, - Whose mercy is a nick-name for the rage - Of tameless tigers hungering for blood. - -It would be easy to multiply citations. Spurgeon, among living divines, -has preached hell as hot as anybody. But the doctrine is decaying -together with real faith in Christianity. - -Walter Savage Landor well says: "The priesthood in all religions sings -the same anthem. First, the abuses are stoutly defended, but when the -ground is no longer tenable, then these abuses are to be distinguished -and separated from the true faith." But what are we to think of the -sudden conversion of a church that has taught falsity so long? If it did -not know the truth on this important point, how can it be credited with -knowing it upon any other matter? The rejection of hell cuts the ground -from under the gospel. Salvation supposes a prior damnation. If there -is no hell no Savior is needed. Christianity is all of a piece, and, its -main prop gone it must fall like a house of cards. - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christian Doctrine of Hell, by -Joseph M. 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