Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1881-06-19
ON HELL.
gPunishmentno Taught
in the Old Testament-Dying the
Easiest Thing In the world.

Easiest Thing in the world.
Henry Ward Beecher talked to a prayer
meeting at the Plymouth Church last week
about death and about the future life, par
ticularly in relation to the doctrine OF
eternal punishment. He called the atten-
ton of those who cling to the idea Of an
everlasting hell to the fact that it is not
taught at all in the Old Testament, assert
ing that in the administration of a nation
which was avowedly directly under the Di-
vine care, "there was a period of four or
five thousand years during which the doc
trine was not taught once" 1t was evil
| dent that among the Jews there was a GER
tain idea. of a hereafter Of pain, but the
the teaching Of a gross, sensual, material
torment belonged to the Roman mind.
1t was q creation OF the medieval
| age, and there had come down to us linger-
ing remnants of it. Mr.. Beecher touched
| lightly on the New Testament illusions to
death as an eternal sleep. He pointed to
| the distinction that exists between the
Western and the Oriental mind on this
subject. In the Western Hemisphere
| everybody seemed to dread death, whereas
| the Chinese and other Orientals had, as q
rule, no more fear of death than they had
of going without a meal. The Roman
Empire was built upon the Tuscan, and, al
though the latter was conquered, the
Tuscan's horrible conceptions of. fu-
ture torment had permeated the
| Roman Empire. When the Ho-
man Catholic Church organized itself
gradually, it selected as its most powerful
| instrument the keys. "No scepter in the
| Kings hand, no sword in the Generals
hand, no instrument OF torture in inquisi-
torial hand ever had the power in it that
was in the keys. They typifed the Church's
claim to lock and unlock the gates Of hea-
ven and hell for every human soul, and
while the Church magnified the joys of
| the redeemed in Paradise, their imagina-
ton was absolutely drunken with the suf-
ferings Of the damned souls that went out
unregenersted to DEATH" While the Pro-
! testant Reformation threw off a great deal
of this, vet it retained much of it, and ii
might be said that the popular notion Of
| hell now was gross, barbaric, devilish. II
believe" added Mr.. Beecher, "there is a
period Of penalty that follows transgres-
sion in this life, but it is mental, it is
moral, it is in the other life, and under
clearer circumstances a remorse, a self
condemnation. As a man who has squan-
dered his estate and is brought to poverty,
and then begins to think what he might
have had, so l can understand how a
mans mind may torture him with
constant reminders Of what he has lost.
Pain and pleasure are disciplinary, and are
designed in the divine economy to work
out afterward, if not here, a salvation OF
mind" In reply to the question, How
should a Christian look at death p Mr..
Beecher replied: "Well, in the first place,
he should not look at it at all-on pur-
pose. Or, if he looks at it, he should do
so only to stimulate himself to lead a bet
ter life here, and not to brood over the
horrors of an imaginary hereafter" Peo-
Pile wondered how they would feel when
dying. "I'll tell you how you'll feel
most Of you" said Mr.. Beecher. you'll
feel stupid; that's all you'll feel. You'll
want to go to sleep" Dying is as easy as
going to sleep in most instances. Once i n
a while there was a triumphant or a radi-
ant death, or a remorseful death, but moi
once in a million times was there such a
death as is described in books. That is all
"fummery." Mr.. Beecher attached no
significance to the name in which a man
expired, as it was principally the result OF
physical accidents, and afforded no test OF
his moral state.