The Portland daily press., 1878-01-28
SUNDAY SERVICES.

swEDENBoRGIAN VIEWS OF HELL.
The intermittent interest which the public
takes in regard to its future destined home hav-
ing been lately awakened by the position taken
by Mr.. Beecher and others that there is no end
less punishment, large audience assembled
yesterday to hear the previously announced
sermon of the Rev. j. K. Smythe on the sub
ject: SIS there Hell?" at the New Jerusalem
Church on New. High street. His text was
from Matthew XIV. 46, "Aud these shsll go
away into everlasting punishment but the
righteous into life eternal.' His argument was
that under the parable of the sheep and the
goats the Lord teaches final judgment for all !;
not general assembling of the dead who have
been in their graves for countless ages, but a
Judgment within ourselves effected by divine
truth which separates our evil from our good.
Hypocrisy cannot exist in the spiritual world.
If evil rules supreme in our nature, even
though cloaked with graces, we soon put the
latter off and go with the goats; butif good is
predominant the smaller evil gradually disap-
pears and we are called into the society of the
virtuous.
To the question Does everlasting punish
ment exist % he replied that not long ago peo-
pie believed in infant damnation and the saints
being blessed in witnessing the tortures of the
damned. The light of the New Church is roll
ing back those clouds and revealing the dark
ness of the theology Of the past, and the de-
nial of the existence of hell is natural result
of a movement which is swaying to the oppo-
site extreme. The greater part of the Christian
world is wavering. To deny hell is dangerous
lest in rejecting the teaching that our future lot
depends upon our present conduct, we may
lose an incentive to the leading of better lives.
The usual reasoniug against hell is that God is
merciful. that the sinner is an equal recipient
of his tender solicitude, and that he cannot
therefore destine any to endless torment, but
the fallacy is in supposing that all could be
made happy in heaven. If a wretch were
taken from the slums and carried among the
pure and good, would he not long for his drink,
his sinful companions and his debauchery
Would it be heaven to the virtuous to have
wicked revelry all about them? Would they
not divide into companies, the good together
and the bad by themselves We have the an
swer in every city, the vicious herding together,
the pure holding themselves apart; only here
vice can sometimes mask itself, which there is
impossible. The opposition to the idea of hell
supposes either that all depends on ourselves,
or else that God created evil. This is false
idea of God for he is the foundation of life, and
evil proceeds not from him. The testimony of
scripture shows that wickedness proceeds from
evil spirits. Man is spiritual being; his BODY
lives in this world, but his soul, invisible to
material eyes, lives in the spiritual world and
is affected by the good and evil spirits Of that
world. No scales were ever balanced with
greater nicely. He can turn either to the evil
spirits VINO tempt him, or to the good who con-
tend for him and try to lead him into the paths
of virtue. As the Lord says, "rhe Kingdom
of God is within you" SO also is the kingdom
of evil within all who turn to evil. There is
indeed lake of burning fire, but it is one with
which we are familiar here, the burning of
evil desires, and its tortures those which result
from guilty consciences and wicked longings.
1t is the same in the other world, save that the
wicked there continue forever in their wicked
ness, each seeking what he loves. The Lord
strives TO draw all toward him, but forces
none.
Will it be eternal? We sometimes see peo-
pie sink low here and rise again, will it be SO
there No. Our journey to hell is leisurely,
AID we have plenty of time to decide. If we
do go it is because we have no desire to go any
where else. There can be neither progression
up or down. The laws of true progression are
that each progresses in the chosen path, as the
professional man advances in his own employ
ment, but does not change into another. There
is great gulf fixed, self-love, over which de-
mons cannot pass, and which angels must
avoid
The existence of hell instead of being mark
of the anger of God Is an evidence of divine
mercy. It preserves angels from the torment
inSs of evil spirits, but also preserves the evil
spirits from the tortures which the presence of
the good would infict upon them. When we
cross the line which separates US from the spr.
itual world may we be met with that salutation
Come, ye blessed Of my Father, inherit the
Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world.'
Mr.. Smythe is young man, bat his sermon
was markedly clear, concise, and forcible, and
calculated to make most favorable impression
upon the many strangers who filed the church.