St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-16
THE REAL HELL.
1t is Defined as the Suffering OF al
Aroused Moral Sense.

Rev. CLAY MacCauley's subject yesterda!
was The Real He'll. He said that although
Aweek ago he had denied the possibility o.
harmonizing in human reasoning the idea o.
IN infinitely powerful and good COD witt
belief in the existence of unconquerable sill
and endless punishment, he did not intenC
to seem even to shut his eyes to the world
old facts of sin and of suffering. Man:
relation to these is yet to be considered
The problem arising out of these admits OF
rational investigation. There are ways OF
looking at evil and suffering which tend tt
show that both have legitimate place
under an All-wise Providence. But, SAID
the speaker, do not intend now to discuss
the question of how an infinitely wise and
good Being can have ordained sin and its
consequences to be a part of His perfect
purpose. | shall take the sad facts of life
Just as they show themselves to uS-so TAI
as man can see them.
WHAT ARE SIN AND PUNISHMENT?
Characteristic of man is sense of duty.
Obedience to duty is followed by pleasure.
Voluntary disobedience by pain. Now man
is complex being, subjected to myriad i'm
pulses arising out of his manifold nature.
Each of these strives for precedence. Often
for the sake of some lower he denies some
higher impulse. This is sin. But no act is
without its inevitable consequence. Yield
ing to low impulse when higher is recog-
niZed. the violated soul must feel the pro-
tests of conscience; it may be remorse, and
if the transgreSsiOn is continued, must suf-
fer increasing personal degradation, and at
length even moral death. This is punish
ment. So far as we may reasonably speak
of Il hell at al, we must limit it to expert
ence of these facts. Weare now, therefore,
under divine Judgment as truly as we shall
ever be; now, in heaven or hell, as truly as
we shall be when this life shall have closed.
Death is not the grand act which seals the
souls everlasting doom or blessed
tinuOus existence, whose chief importance
lies in the change it makes in our outward
rather than in our inner natures. 1t can
not change the real man. He'll is a part of
inner personal experience. 1t cannot ex-
list beyond this life, except as one shall
produce it for himself there as well as here.
1t depends upon each individuals will.
But some one may say: IF only the nat
ural consequence of
SHINING IS HE'LL
there Is nothing one need really be afraid
Of" But, first. we are seeking the truth,
not lash, for the soul. Yet if there are
those who must be forced to obey the higher
law through fear, let them have care how
they despise the hell this passionless logic
describes. Every cause has its own effect,
and no force perishes Every force has its
own tendency, and if unhindered will per-
sist in one direction always. Every ones
life is at any moment but the sum and
effect of past experiences Consider the
physical life. In this we know whatever
fbot bo xuiI T,,,f !,
extent of ones sowings, to that extent he
will reap. If to the use of alcohol a man
sows intemperance, if to appetite gluttony,
if to the use of vital power RIGHTEOUSNESS,
if to brain labor nervous exhaustion, if to
muscular effort overstrain, there is but
one course through which the abuse can
run-weaknesS disease, death. The same
law is only the more strikingly true
of the moral life. The body Is but
the changing material form which
soul, under divine impulse, makes for itself.
What the body apparently sows and reaps
is really more the sowing and reaping of
the soul which acts through the body. And
for the soul. as not for the body, every one
of its acts is followed by consequences
which it must bear with it after it's outward
form dies. So, we are brought to face the
portentious fact, that every one is now lay
X,
affect him for happiness or misery in an in
definite future. Moral abuse can only re-
suit in laying up within ones self those |
forces, which, in their opportunity, will be |
sure to produce their legitimate results. 1t |
is physical instinct to enjoy vigor and |
pleasant sensations. One of the worst tor
lures of disease is the instructive longing |
for health. 1t is as much the moral in |
stinct to secure its own vigOr and happi- |
ness. Could there be worse torture to the |
soul than to become somehow aroused to a |
sense of degradation, to long for freedom
from it. and yet be enslaved by the vice in
wrought into the character by a life of sin? |
The eyes, made to enjoy light, when dis
eased by abuse, are only. tortured by the |
light for which they were made. The |
moral life, made to enjoy truth, right, and |
what is good, when made conscious of de-
basement. can only suffer in the presence |
of that for which it was made. In the suf-
fering of an
AROUSED MORAL SENSE IS HELL,
whether in this life or in any other. Will |
such an awaking come? 1t must come, if |
our faith in God is at least better than the
best of his creations, is true. Evil and suf-
fering are great mystery, but, certainly,
they do not mean eternal ruin for any one.
somehow tney must nave Den6hclent pur
pose, for the individual, as for the whole
creation. In the infinite Providence doubt
less way will be found for each evil out
of its depreciation and misery. But if we
reason from what we know of what we do
not know, the way of deliverance cannot
be any easier or quicker than the way of
transgreSsion. AS the body of the drunk
ard or gluttOn is not easily cured of the eff
fects which the vice of each has brought
upon it. and, as the process of cure is
never one of pleasure, SO we may conclude
it will not be easy for the corrupt soul to
become pure or its healing be other than
painful. In material things every cause
has its equal effect, so is it in things moral.
But we may leave the subject
IN VIEW OF A GREAT HOPE.
Over sin and suffering there is divine power
and wisdom, and through these there acts
what we dare name infinite love. Believ-
ing, in the presence of all the mystery of
experience, in the sovereignty of divine
love we may rest in hope. With beautiful
confidence, some one has named the Son of
God 1.-The missionary of eternity" who
'Must still find work. in worlds beyond the
grave,
So ong as there's a single soul to save.''
ST. PAUE,S TRADE.