St. Landry democrat., 1878-04-06
A LOST SOUL.
What the ate Or Munsey Thought Of the
Reality OF He'll.

} for several weeks past by the press Of tn
country as to whether there be hell, i
answered by the late DR.. W. E. Munsey
as delivered to one of his congregation
in east Tennessee many years ago, ant
reported from memory by young lady
1t is as follows: "a lost soul, los
soul two words of the most momentou
meaning, and when taken in connection
with those other two, eternal hell, how ex
pressive of the utmost agony anc
profoundest. depths of utter misery
| have tried to believe there was no hell
and sought those passages of the bible
where the idea of hell is expressed, tc
eliminate their meaning from the words
but there it stands, still burning in the
word of God-eternal hell! | do not
know where hell is, whether place OF
state of misery; either is bad enough,
Whether it be deep dark cavern, filled
with gloom, were serpents hiss, and creep
from crack and Granny; of hollows deep,
ank gloomy rills and rocks deep-riven,
where devils peep and creep, and goblins
dance On dingy hills, and fiery flames
ooze out from issures deep, while dark
tiends ride on dragons; or whether it be
a sphere whirllng through uncreated
space, volcanic world whirling On its
course erratic through etheral nothing, a
rocky sphere filled with gorges black
and caverns squalid, covered with burn
ing lava and blackened scoria, abtrusely
cleaning through light, half dark
ness, half hszy light; or suppose there
is no hell, a lost soul, what is it?
Bringing the word lost down to natural
things, lost ship in the midst of the
ocean, the compass overheard, the end
rudder gone, sails in shreds, sailors un-
able to make their reckoning, the time
expired at port for their return-lost
lost at last sinking to oceans caves,
where mermaids stretch the sailor boys
limbs in his watery bed. Or take lost
child in the woods. A child goes out
to gather berries, goes on and on, round
that hill and up that hollow--crossing
and re-crossing his path, until he is
lost, and now he wanders on, sobbing,
lost! lost weeping for his mother
there, the mother at home weeping for
her darling; until at last the weary
child, 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, spark formed for social COM
panionship, cast out from God COM
panionless while as star shines to star,
and even the comet, cratic in its course,
as it crosses and re-crosses orbits and
ecliptics, whirling about in fiery circles
round the sun acknowledge one COM
mon center as in the company of 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 paeans to Almighty God
this soul, lost eternally, is cast forth
alone to wheel its dismal flight forever
through uncreated space, whetting it's
pinions on the tombstone of buried
hope, and screaming, lost! lost
lost!!! There it goes, there, and
there, s.there it goes that way, and
screams, lost! it comes this way
and screams, lost Anon, it discovers
a city with battlemented towers, and
gates with bolts and bars, and with all
the spirit-energy of its being seeks to
reach what looks to be heaven but it
recedes and is gone. Fly on, thou
squealing spirit, until thou became
speck of terror in illimitable space! My
friends, there is beautiful country
separated from ours by a river, the
river Of death, whose tetid fountains
spring from the blackened gorges of the
mountains of sin. This bank is swept
by the dark wing of the spirit of sin !;
the other is covered with beautiful
flowers, while magnificent trees bend
above through the waving branches of
which glimpses may be caught of the
beautiful city of God. We know that
it is a beautiful country, for two men
have given the testimony; the one said
he saw F'things not lawful to be ut
tered" the other beheld "great white
throne, and him that sat upon it." So
we suppose it to be country ruled by
king. just below the city the wa
tors of the river dash over a precipice
into a terrible chasm, while above those
falls, and just opposite the city, is the
crossing-place between our country and
| that. It has been reported by tradition
| that there was boatman there once,
| whose heathen name was Charon
but if SO be and his boat have long
since gone over the falls, or he has
grown old and fastened his boat on the
other side, and no longer. .obeys the calls
from our shore. Two men only are now
known to have crossed in his boat-two
old men who rendered themselves noto.
rious in This werld by being better than
their fellows. All who pass from oul
country to that, must now pass through
the water. Our Lord Jesus Christ him'
self crossed over, and with his own feet
measured the depth of the water, and