Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-02-15
The Host ROui,

The following sublime and thrill
ing description of the "I4Ost Soul"
is taken from the late DIR. w. +.
Munsey's sermon on External pun
ishment."
"Now suppose there is no hell.
Suppose the soul is no special or par
ticular place Of misery, but simply
lQst-fung by the power of God be-
yond creations boundaries into i'm
measurable wastes of night, where
no world ever rolled in sight, no ray
OF Night ever pencilled an image, no
word or sound ever wandered, and
over whose eXpanse no angel ever
flew. See II traversing the dark
ness, and threading the inky
abysms in search of words, in search
of heaven, in search of something
where there is nothing visible,
tangible or pOnderable-in search
of something besides itself.
World smiles TO world, and star
shines to star, as they speed with
tightening wing along their ethereal
tracks and the erratic comet itself
must needs shine for company, as
it hlazes in its eccentric flight
through the illumitable ether, ply
ing like the weaver's shuttle from
apsis to apsis-frOm point to point
crossing and devastating orbits,
ecliptics and lines, and weaving its
fiery haiT into the pleXus of uniyer-
sal being.
Saints commune with saints,
angels with angels, and they all
commune with God; but this soul,
sympathetic and social in the very
construction of its Deing, It's state
changed and not its constitutional
nature, is eternally isolated from
everything like itself, and plunged
into an ocean of darkness INTERIM
Unable to its tagging wing, where
no sight or sound will ever greet its
aching sense, and doomed to wander
in the painless void while cycles
roll and ages go grinding on. See
it careering in its bewildcred flight.
1t has crossed its track a thousand
times, and recrossed it.-It is lost
lost beyond the power of finding.
1t knows it is. 1t feels it, but still
it flies, now advancing now regres-
sing. 1t turns, and turns again, and
10 a blush of dusky light "a stu
pendous arch of massive bend, and
a temple grand in its darkness, with
dusky gates and dingy towers,
gFeets IFS vision. 1t fain would
scale the lOftiest turrent-it scars,
it hoVers, but oh, horror of horrors
temple, gates and towers melt
away into darker gloom, and it is
left in awful loneliness hanging i'm
agony, bat a speck of quivering ter
ror in untenanted and unillumin-
ated space. Shall it ascend, descend,
or move off on a level There arc
no ups or downs, or recumbent
planes where there is nothing. If
ups and downs, and planes there are,
it may J)--up--forever, or
dip Observation-Disclosures,
or rush on-Oil---on-forever-it is
still, and through all eternity a lost
soul!
See it-yOnder---yOnder---yOaleF
It goes that way; lost lost! lost
lost! 1t comes this way, shrieling
lost! lost lost ! till our hearts stand
still with horror. Scream on, and
ly on, cursed and ruined spirit; no
DattlenlentGti Wills Ol lowering ltlS-
per will ever meet thy gaze, or furn-
ish resting-place for thy weary
piniOn. Fly on, lost soul forever,
no angel of mercy will ever cross
thy solitary way, or Uvertake thee
in thy wanderings. Lost spirit
with the curse ofthy God,
fly on, and repent in despairing cry
the chorus Of thine own horrible
'lost, lost, where no
echoes will ever mock thy misery.
soul lost iii bouDdlcss,
bottomless, infinite darkness, fly on,
thou shalt never find company till
the ghost of eternity will greet you
over the grave Of God, and thou
shalt never find rest till thou art
able to fold thy wings on the grave
stone of thy maker.
And the Judge will say to the
Bind him hand and foot
and take him away and cast him
into outer darknes there shall he
weeping and gnashlng Of teeth"
Matthew xxi, 49,