The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1892-01-25
BOROUGH ITEMS
GLEANINGS BY THE LOCAL
CORPS OF REPORTERS.
WHAT THE SCRIBES SEE AND HEAR
An Interesting Sermon in the
Methodist Episcopal Church
Last Night on Everlasting
Punishment"

Everlasting Runlshment' was the
theme under consideration Sunday night
at the Methodist Episcopal church "These
shall go away into everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into life eseTnal;" M att.
rs As. These fearful words are a part of
the whole counsel of God which it is the
duty Of the gospel minister to declare.
Inc element of fear is divinely implanted
and the ministry that fails to address it is
shorn of part of its power. The tenn
pest and the earthquake are often neces-
sary to arrest attention to the still small
voice. The bible speaks to US of never
ending punishment which ia reserved for
the ulure. If some men do carry with
| them in their bosom a hell of remorse this
is not the hell to which the text refers.
Howbeit the worst OF men are often free
| from remorse altogether, so that if remorse
were the only hell which we have to fear,
some who most deserve it might escape it
altogether. Two false interpretations were
noticed, viz: that which quibbles at the
word punishment" and that which quib-
| bles at the word eternal" One of these
schools of thought holds that everlasting
punishment does not last forever. Uni
notion of purgatory, which was borrowed
| originally from heathenism and has been
pressed into the service of christian heresy.
| But as the same Greek word is used to ex-
press the duration of the happiness of the
good as is used to express the duration OF
the punishment of the bad it is a two
edged sword when thus interpreted, which
not only cuts a slice off the punishment OF
the bad but another one off the bliss of the
good. But as the notion has no warrant OF
unequivocal scripture truth, it need not re-
ceive further attention. Even if Christ
did once preach to lost souls in hell we
have no assurance that he will ever do 80
again. And even if he should it were
much better to embrace it here The
meaning of the word punishment is a suffi.
cient answer to the idle dreams of annihi-
lationisLs. The word connotes the twin
ideas of pain and penalty. When either
of these ideas is absent it ceases to be pun.
ishment. Christ suffered for our sins, but
strictly speaking he was not punished fol
them. When consciousness ceases pai
ceases and punishment with it. If ever
lasting nothingness was to be the penalty OF
sin it is strange that Christ did not say so.
1t il. a striking fact that extnction--the
everlast ng punishment of the eannihilationis,
was the supreme felicity of Buddhism.
Thus we see how human reason, when it
tampers with the plain teaching of divine
truth, ,contradcts itself. But the theory moi
only contradicts itself, but it proves too
! much. The annihiationist believes that
the souls of the good are unconscious be-
tween death and the resurrection, and what
is this but annihilation-of limited dura-
tion. Thus it would punish the good as
well as the bad. If the unconscious sleep
of the souls of the good between death and
the resurrection is not punishment, so,
neither, is the unconscious sleep of the
souls of the bad through all eternity. pun
ishment. Moreover it contradicts the plain
scriptural teaching concerning the degrees
of punishment of the lost and enjoyment
OF the good by placing all upon the same
plane and reducing the whole question to
one of mere existence or nonexistence.
Thus it also misinterprets eternal life which
is ito know'-to apprehend and enjoy
''fhee, the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou has sent" A picture was then
presented of the solemn scenes of that final
day when families will be broken and an
eternal farewell must be said; some being
consigned to everlasting punishment and
some being admitted to companionship
with the Infinite.