The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-02-20
DISCUSSING HE'LL.

!
OF the subject, especially on Monday
mornings. We suppose if there is
any one question upon which the hu-
man mind would be interested, it
would be the one question of what
is to become sf them, after death.
The belief in immortality seems TO
be an instinct of the human soul!
Considering the vastness or eterni-
ty, and it's immeasurable duration.
it is no matter of surprise that it is
the one subject which probably is
more often the subject of speculation
than any other. And yet if we are
to judge by the utterances of those
who are supposed to make .he spir
ual condition and destiny Of the
human race their especial study,
there is scarcely subject of even
the most trifiing Importance to the
race upon which mankind are not
more fully agree,l. 1t appears
strange that question Of such vital
magnitude in its relation to the in-
terets of the race should be the
most uncertain and dlfffcult deter
mination of all others. But such ap-
pears to be the case, and as an il
lustration of the fact. we present
herewith tile ''pith,' $50 far as we
can, in single sentence or para
graph Of The ideas of various cler-
gymen of New York and vicinity, On
Sunday last, as We fad them re-
ported. The Rev. George IL. Hep
worth. in the Congregational Church
of the Disciples, in New York said:
''That he could not define his idea of
hell, but he believed it to be burning
of some sort. Whether hell would be a
place of everlasting punishment, or
whether God would eventually blot out
the wicked, he could not say"
The Rev. James NJ. Pullman, in
the Universalist Church of Our Saw
ior in New York, said:
eve have Just as much reason to be-
lieve in a future life as VIC had to believe
in sny definite term of the present life.
What he expected to find in the eternity
was the same God, and the same con-
nectiOn between well doing and happi
ness, and between i'll doing and suffer
ing. He should go into it, not as from
an ended probation, but as into com
mencing probation"
The Rev. j. j. White in the
Fourth street Methodist Church,
Williamburgh, said ...- ..-
"That those who harden their hearts
toward God will reap in the end of the
treasury or wrath they have laid up for
disobedience and sin. They will be pun
ished forever"
The Rev. Ezra Tinlxor in the Cen
trat Methodist Church, Yonkers,
said s.e -s -la-l r..- -.es
II do not advance doctrine of eter-
nal and material fire." he continued.
''There is a bottomless pit already in
memory and an accusing conscience.
The thought of what you might have
done, but failed through wilfuluess to
do, is enough to turn heaven into hell"
The Rev. Isaac Sehwab of the
Jewish Congregation Beth Elohim,
Williamsbnrgh, said:
"That the terms from which Chris
tians derive their paradise and hell,
arose during the fierce controversies be-
tween Sadduces and Pharisees before
the Christian era.
But what strikes us with surprise is
that at the present time some divines up
hold the antiquated doctrine of materi-
al Paradise and hell of fire-a doctrine
that was only an offshoot of the fatal
controversies between the Sadducees
and the Pharisees of old, and can derive
no authority whatever from any of the
twenty-four books of the Bible"
The Rev. Mr.. Knapp, in the STAN
ton Street Baptist Church, New
York, said: aust
"Too many of our aristSeretic church
es have but one tongue-a tongue of
velvet, ease and flattery, but none of
hell. The olden Christians were stead
fast in the faith. They did not go to
church shaking their heads and saying,
Let Peter and John preach as they
like, / believe in love and God, but not
in hell and damnation.' They went to
be taught and Believed what was told
them. They were as chary of their pull
pits as they were of their beds. and just
as careful who got into them" 7.-y
The Rev. J. Hyatt Smith. in the
Lee Avenue Baptist Church, Will
liamsburgh, said sr
that the
Bible breaches broader gospel than the
creeds that men cling to. For fifteen
years his heaven had been broadening,
while his hell had been contracting.
Creeds damn each other Protestants
damn Catholics and Catholics damn
Protestants, while both unite to damn
the heather. Between universal dam
nation and=local@ @damnation, pretty
nearly everybody is damned by creeds.
Man is made to praise God, but can man
look up with love to Being who is
sending thirteen millions of people eve
ry thirty years into an everlasting hellP
No man could love Him, but would |
lock up to such an awful Being and |
then hide his face in terror, Nos if /
Christ bought the souls. of men with his |
precious blood, and only received one
million, while the devil gathered in |
thirteen millions, could he, as the BIZ
bla says he does, look down from Heav- !
en- and see. of the travail of His soul |
and be satisiedg"
- x~'1T - X -
Ministers change their views and say
SO in private life, but go on preaching |
the same old creed from their pulpits.
Bishop Snow who preached in the
Medical College, New York. held |
as a
logical and unavoidable conclusion
that the penalty of sin is death, with |
the suffering that precedes and attends I
it, and not torment after death. The |
doctrine of endless torment is utterly |
false, and that of universal salvation is