The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1878-03-29
4 Lo5T SOUL.
What the Late Dr.. &unsey Thought Of
the Reality Of He'll.

What the Late Dr.. Munsey Thought Of
the Reality Of He'll.
The question which has been dis
cussed for several weeks by the press
of the country as to whether there be
a hell, is answered by the late DIR. w.
h. Munsey, as delivered to one of his
congregations in Fast Tennessee many
years ago, and reported from memory
by ayoung lady. tits as follows: "a lost
soul, a lost soul. two words of the most
momentOuS meaning, and hen taken
in connection with those other two,
eternal hell, how expressive of the ut
most agony and prOfoundest depths of
utter misery, / have tried To believe
there was no hell, and sought i'm those
pages of the bible where the idea of
hell is expressed, to eliminate their
meaning from the words; hut there if
stands, still burning in the word of
God-eternal hell! ] do not know
where hell is whether place or state
of misery; either j. bad enough.
Whether it be deep. dark cavern,
filled with gloom, where serpents hiss,
and creep from crack and Granny; of
ha.Iows deep, and gloomy and rocks
deep-riven, where devils peep and
creep, and goblins dance on dingy hills,
and fiery flames OOZe out from fis-
sures deep, where dark tiendS ride on
dragons; or whether ii bC u sphere
wbirling through uncreate,l space, Il
volcanic world whirling on it course
erratic through ethereal nothing, a
rocky sphere, filled with gOrges black
and caVernS squalid, covered with
burning lava and blacBened scoria-
abstrusely cleaning through a light
| half darkness, half haZy light; or sup
pose there is no hell, a lost sOul--what
Is IL? Bring the word lost down to
natural things-a shipin the midst Of
the ocean, the compass overheard, the
end ruddcr gene, sails in shrets, sail
Ors unable to make their reckoning,
the time expired at port for their re-
turn-lost! lost! at last sinking to
oceans caves, where mermaids stretch
the sailer boys limbs in his watery
bed Or take a lost child in the woods.
4 child goes out to gather berries, goes
on and on, round that hill and up this
hOllow-erossing and Pe-crossing his
path, until he is lost, and now he wan
ders on, sobbing, lost! lost! weeping
for his mother there, the mother at
home weeping for her darling. until
at last the weary chisyi, despairing
and tired, lies down and dies, while
birds chirp and sing above his sylvan
death-bed. But lost soul! eternally
lost, thrust out from God, a spark
formed for social companionship, cast
out from God cCRlpan!Opless, while
as star shines to star, and even the
/ comet, erratic in its course, as it cross
es and re-crosse5 orbits and eclipSeS,
whlrIipg about i'll fiery circles round
1 the sun, acknowledge one common
centre; as In the company qf the
| white-robed saints together with the
| tall Sons of the morning, soul answers
! to soul in the rapturous language of
heaven, while they swell their peans
! To almighty God-this soul, lost eter-
nally, Is cast forth aiOi,e 70 wheel its
dismal flight forever through uncEea-
| ted space, whetting its piniOns on the
! tombstone of buried hope, and scream
! ing lost! LOST! lost!!! There it goes,
/ there and there; and there it goes that
/ way, and S0Feams, lost Anon it dis
covers a city with battiemegteI tow
ers. and gates with bolts and bars, and
with all the spiPit-eueFge of its being,
seeks to reach what looks tnbea heav-
en-, but it recedeS and is gone. Fly on,
thou squealing spirit, until thou be-
come "a speck of terror in illimitable
space! My friends, there is beauti-
full country separated from ours by a
river, the river Of death, whose fetid
fountains spring from thp klaGkened
goFges Of the mountains of sill. FhlS
bank is swept by the dark wing of tht
spirit of sin; the other l. c"~eicd witt
beautiful flowers, while magnificent
trees bend above through the waving
branches of which glimpses may bt
caught Of the beautiful city of God
We know that il ~ q beautiful colIll
trv. for two men have giSeii lll: teRti
mouv: the one said he saw filings not
lawful to be uttered" the other behelC
a "great white throne, and him tina
sat upon it, SO we suppose it to be ;
country ruled by king. Just below
the rity the waters of the river dasl
over Ere.ipice into terrible chasn
while above those tajiS, at.q jqSI qillHi
site the city, is the crQssiug-place' be
tween our country aud that. t Ina
been reported by tradition that then
was a boatman there once, whose neit
then name was Charon: but if so, IN
| and his boat have long since gone owe
the falls, OF hs has grown old and fast
Pned his boat up the oIher sige, ailt
no longer obeys the calls from oii
shore, Two men are only now known
Ito have crossed IN his boat-two ol,
men who rendered themselves noto
rious in this world by being bette
than their fellows. IN who pass frop
our country to-that, latlst now pas
through the water. Our Lord Iesu
S6,hrist himself crossed over, aud wit
his owl feet measured the depth O
The water, and now for some he cause
the water to bc still, and they pas
calmly over: for others he rolls bacl
: the floods, and ihay l,ass oyer dry
0 shod; while for QtbeFs, again, j
. causes the waters tS deepen, and III
> billows roar and lenpnnd dash apgril
> aIong-but these he takes in his arms
and clasping them closely TO his hosnT
o bears them safely over. Thus tn
= GO1sl pass over. but the wicked, whe
. they, ,goele TO the crossing, having n
9 guide, are swept downward by til
current and dashed iiaeS bubbles Owe
the falls into the depths Of perdi.io
below, their cye-balls rolling an
strained to catch the last faint gliu
mering ray of light that SHALL eve
bless their sight.