Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-03-03


The conceptions and teachings of the
Greek, touching the Elysium for which
his ancestors had hoped to enjoy ..when
the weary wheels of mortal life stood
stilln were all beautiful in prospect,
and the Tartarus of which their poets
treated, with the pains and penalties
thereof, should be sufficient for the
most exacting to infiict upon the way
ward, and most unfortunate of the hui
man race.
The ancient Romans, in their turn,
borrowed much on these themes from
their Grecian neighbors; but the OBJ
tuseness of the latin mind, of those
times, prevented their scholars and
poets from ever attaining the felicity
and beauty on these celestial and SUBJ
teranean mysteries in religion, that has
given such superiority and ineffable
sweetness to the mythical dreamings of
the Greeks.
The Jewish people also possessed
religious system at a very early period
of their history. 1t, however, was after
a dual pattern, being partly ecclesias-
tical and partly civil; Moses being the
chief compiler, if not the sole author
of their code. This system in its en-
tirety is now embodied in the Old Tes-
lament, and is still esteemed and read
as no other book has been by a large
portion of the human race. In this
compendium of their religion and laws
the orthodox Hebrew supposed he had
a full definition of the Deity as to his
nature and attributes, and of man as to
origin, nature, duties and all his posi-
bilities in this life. Now, as Of all the
rest, but little is found in this throwing
light upon the destiny of man in his
future life beyond the grave. 1t was
not until the Hebrew sacred writings
began to find their way into other Ian
guages that the future life of man be-
gan to be outlined in some tangible
form. We find the first glimmering of
this new development of religious
thought in the early ages of the Christ
ian church, when the fathers, as they
were called, began to express Hebrew
thoughts and ideas in the Greek and
other cognate languages.
But far more impressive develop
ment of eschatology and a future life
beyond the grave awaited the period
when the ancient language of the Bible
was translated into the Anglo-Saxon
That event not only resulted
in q change of terms and phraseology,
but also in the ideas and conceptions of
what was then esteemed new truths,
but which subsequently proved to be,
in many instances, only new false
hoods. That this statement is true
can be sustained by the facts that
many later years some one
man, or. perhaps, committee of men
have been endeaving to amend or COR
rect the readings and errors of every |
former translation.
1t cannot but appear strange to a |
minded person in this day, |
that, of all the errors and mistransla- |
tions none have appeared to hold their
own so stoutly against change as those |
descriptive of the condition of the |
dead. No innovation here. Heaven |
is heaven, and hell is hell. and both |
are made to maintain their imaginary |
Or real antithesis, come what will. |
This, to our mind, is great misfortune;
for evil and only evil has resulted from |
such determined persistence.
No two Biblical words are more |
used, than these two now
under consideration; and both derived |
from saxon origin. As used most |
by us, they do not repre-
sent correctly the Hebrew idea, and
are certainly, not scientifically correct.
Hence, true religion and religious SEN
.iment have been, at times, made to
bear the obloquy; or it may be the
,neers and scoffings of unbelieving per-
sons on account of these blunders.
What scholarly man now, or for
many years past, would be willing to
assert that the hell of the common
version is the proper equivalent of the
Hebrew term sheoE? But there is no
other term in the Hebrew scriptures
If this class, or bearing on the future
ife of man, that will admit the Saxon
lell as their equivalent or proper rep
if possibly .sBor" should
,e excepted. A few of these may be
named, such as Bor, Goomatz,
,hachath, Kivbor, or even tachtith or
ophet: but not single one of this
whole class ever produced an idea in
he mind of an ancient Hebrew CORES
bonding to our modern notions of a
axe of fire as the final crucible for the
Melting down of lost souls.
The term hell is Objectionable in
either Bible, Greed, or Pulpit in the
present age, as tending to the forma-
of tbourb+s apd axT.arS;anS of |