Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1871-01-18

some IN all the attributes OF your spirit
ual nature that you will prefer the soci-
ETY. of devils to that of angels, and the
wickedness and corruption of hell to the
purity and holiness Of heaven?
THE REPORTER CAVES.
Reporter-Come to reflect upon it, I
do not think my peace of mind would
be reinforce by such a belief. But ]
wan you to explain how people go from
the spiritual world to heaven or to hell.
Hitchcoek-BefOre do that, tell me
what your idea Of heaven is.
Reporter-Heaven is the eternal home
of the redeemed, it is the home of new
er-ending rest it is place of eternal
happiness.
,Hitchcock-What makes heaven a
place of happiness?
Reporter-Why, God makes it SO, of
course. -.....- r..
Hitchcock-But how does He make it
so? In what does the happiness Of
heaven consist? -s-
THE REPORTERS IDEA OF HEAVEN.
Reporter-Why, in being happy, I
suppose. And the redeemed are made
happy by contemplating 1.-THE glOries
of their RedeemeT; by singing end
less praises to him; by wearing golden
crowns and robes of spOtIess white, and
roaming those sweet fields which, as
the old Methodist hymn says, beyond
the. swelling flood stand dressed in living
green.
Hitehcock-That is to say, the happi-
ness of heaven, according to your views
consists in having what might be term
ed anever-ending religious holiday, with
nothing to do except to sing praises to
God, and feast on what you call heay-
enly delights? ..-.
Reporter-Yes; that is about it.
HitchcOck-How would you like that
here on earth ? How would you like to
stand in a temple or a garden for years,
wearing a white robe, and with gold
harp in your hand, and with nothing to
do but to sing psalms? Or, to put it
briefly how would you like to live in
everlasting idleness here, if you could ?
RepOTter-It would be intOleTable, of
course. 1t would kill me, or
DRIVE NE CRAZY.
Hitchcock-Exactly; just as it has kill
ed or driven crazy many man who,
having having amassed wealth and fool
ishly imagined that it would be heaven
on earth to live in splendOr and idle
ness, has supplied himself with a luXu-
rious home and quit business to enjoy it.
Does not every such man find out his
mistake?
Reporter-Yes. I went up to Connec-
ticut last year and interviewed one of
those very men. He had an earthly
paradise, but the devil was in it, in the
shape of idleness; and the poor rich old
man told me ne was going to start an Or
phan asylum, and run it himself, Just
to have enough to do to keep him from
going crazy or committing suicide.
NEW IDEAS ABOUT GOING TO HEAVEN.
Hitchcock-You have hit it exactly.
Activity is a law of life. Idleness leads
| to stagnatiOn, and stagnation is death.
Every man must be active. A good man
wants to be all the time doing something
useful; an evil man wants to be all the
| time doing something harmful. The old
gentleman that you interviewed in Con.
necticut being a goOd-hearted men, his
\ irrepressibIe craving for activity burst
out in a charitable direction, and he
| found an orphan sayIum. If he had
been q bad-hearted man, his activity
would have taken on evil direction. In
the spiritual world, every one has the
same passions and desire that he haC
here. The good spirits seek to be useful
and the bad spirits seek to crafty theil
evil dispositions. The same laws gov
ern the coalescence of the inhabitant;
of the world of spirits into societies Of
communities which govern the same
thing here. In this world the vicious
seek out and consort with the vicious
and the good seek out and consOrt with
the good. Take the people who arrive
in this city, for example, on any giveI
Saturday night and Sunday morning
from all parts of the country. They are
here relieved from the conventional re
straints which keep them in order a
home, and every one is free to CRAFTY
his appetites at his will. You under
stand such things, and very well know
that many of those persons who, If al
home on that Sunday, would go tt
church and exhibit deal Of
HYPOCRITICAL PIETY,
will go to the haunts of vice in this city
and scoff at religion and wallow in wick
edness. Every one of them who love-
the company of the vicious will seeI
out vicious companions, and go where
he will enjoy himself most. On the 9th
er hand, those who really love the Lord
and in their very hearts want to do thC
right thing}wherever they are, will seel
out some church on that Sunday, or viii
in some way show out and act out thu
love for the Lord and his people which
dominates their lives. So, when people
arrive in the spiritual world, where al
conventional restraints are removed
every one, acts out his real nature. Tht
wicked gradually sort themselves Ou
fnfo nv o1,r
to the hells. A hell is simply a sOcietI
in which wickedness holds entire sway
and the worse the wickedness, the wOrs
the hell.
Reporter-But how about the punish
ment for sin ? Is not hell place of tor
ment? and if it is, why do even tn
wicked like to go there?
Hitchcock-Why do the wicked 6
from choice into the
HELIs OF THIS WORLD,
and voluntarily accept the loss, disgrace
ruin, disease, suffering, and death whic
8 come of going there? People are tn
! ! same in the world of spirits that the
. are here; that is to say, they are huma
beings. Suppose you and l should b
struck dead this moment and pass int
the spiritual world. You would be yOJ
wouldn't you, and / would be ]? w
should have the same spiritual nature
which we have now. You would lik
there what you like here; and it woul
be the same with me. If we really Low
God and our neighbOr here and now, W
should love God and our neighbOr ther
| and then. If we love what is pure an
holy here, we should love what is pun
= and holy there. But if we really in on
! hearts love self and the world and ev
Z and wickedness here, we shall love til
!. same there, no matter whatwe may pre-
: tend to love here. And loving wicked
l ness, we should go among the wickeC
= because we would prefer to do so, An
: being among the wicked, we should {
Q course have a wicked and happy time
it, and grow worse and worse, and bC
. come.
VERY DEVILS,
:, and be tormented by our own burnin
L passions and by our fellow devils, an
suffer unspeakable anguish; and yet W
:, would prefer that devilish state to heaN
! en-, lust as the human devils in tn
! world prefer their horrible life and SUI
roundings to the society of good Chri
J., tians.
= Reporter-I understand how it mus
~ naturally be as you say but do NJ
q % see where the punishment which &c
y inflicts on sinners for the sins they con
! mitted in this world comes in.
% HOW SINNERS GO TO HE'LL.
20 Hitchcock Lord does not punis
y people hereafter for deeds done in Il
body. Sufficient unto the day is Il
evil thereof In the Lords dealing
Y with his creatures, there is no such thiT
as punishment in the sense in whiC