Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-18

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ocean, the sleeping SHOWS upon tn,
aummits of the Himalayas, are botl
eternal.
There are conditions of our lives tha
are "eternal" too, but as we can 90 ava,
from one part of earth's surface to an
other, SO we can select the moral condi
tions.
If we sin, we go to hell. When we dt
right, we have the sense OF heaven.
The doctrine that sin against an eter
nal being requires an eternal punish
ment, has been derived, not from tn,
Bible, but from the ethics of Aristotle
Both Thomas Aquinas and Calvin tool
it from the Grecian philosopher. 1t is {
pagan doctrine, and was not taught By
Jesus. The purpose of prevention is al
ways defeated when great punishmentl
are attached to small offences, and nc
man can commit sin worthy of eternal
punishment. Christ never says that q
man will come to eternal misery on &C
count of his belief. He says in the text
that they will suffer because OF their
acts. He taught that heaven depended
upon virtue and that hell depended upon
vice. He said they would go with the
devil and his angels, and that
seems to give a wonderful
amount of comfort to some
people who want to bolster up this doc.
| trine. God has made us with grand
memories, and no theological scheme
can make man forget. The recollec-
tion of bad things alone is the devil.
You will pass men and women on the
streets tomorrow whose hearts are burn
ing hells that it will take agea, perhaps,
to purify. They are near you, but there
is gulf between you as wide as the
diameter of the universe.
A man tells one that hell is eternal !;
he makes vivid picture of its fiery
torments; he takes me to the brink and
tells me to look into its depths, and that
| the people are there because they did
not believe something. Then he shows
me heaven, with its tier of seats like a
great amphitheater, and outside, the
block and the man ready to be whipped
for the wrong the "believer" has done,
and the cowardly creature accepts the
insult end goes into heaven with hell
in his soul. The man with Christ
in his heart disdains such sacrifice.
You must repudiate it from the judg-
ment seat of your own consciences.
The hell of Christ is not escapahle; it
ia the natural result of your actions.
For every sin you commit you must
suffer; it will be an adequate punish
ment, but no one can bear it for you,
and it will do you good. He'll is useful.
We never tire of telling of the good re-
suits of certain historical events, but it
has been the sense of pain, wrong and
injustice that has caused revolutions,
made people brave and marched them
on to conquest.
In the lower orders of animal creation
we End no conscience and no hell. We
feel misery that the savage never
dreamed of. The revivalists in low
part of the world will preach hell,
straight. In a little higher portion OF
the community they mix little reason
and love; in yet higher plane there is
only hint of the lost soul, and in the
highest it is only necessary to tell the
man whether the thing is right or
wrong. Those living. in the highest
strata OF reason, conscience and love,
don't need the whip.
Religion was never designed to make
our pleasures less. 1t is designed to
bring us good news. Is it good news to
know that millions of Gods children
are in eternal misery? Men and women
in our century have to live in the lib
eral gospel; they could not eat and
walk and talk and sleep if they believed
in this monstrous doctrine, this phan-
tasm of speculation. Why is belief in
the doctrine waning today? Because
the human heart, the love of the human
soul, the weman's heart, is excommuni-
eating and condemning it. All hail to
the churches everywhere that are
preaching against it. If it were true,
then Abraham Lincoln, Lowell, Emer-
son, are there, and other great souls
soon to pass away will Join them.
Is there no hell? Yes, there is, and
it is an awful hell. Why are we here
To prepare ourselves for the mightier
activities of the world unseen, to pre-
pare for a life that stretches out in
the regions beyond, and not merely
to care for the meagre things of today.
Think, then, of the hell that lies in a
sense of failure in the human soul, that
finds it has missed the aim of its earthly
existence, that bewails its lost oppor-
tunities. Some day you will ask, "Have
done my best to prepare, mo matter
what your belief-"am / making the
best investment of my human life."
Christ breaches a hell that is rational,
moral, useful, sure. y Gods economies
may be seen in his universe. He will
not waste souls in eternal misery, but
all will be brought together face to face
when they can be seen as it is impossi-
BILE to see them now.
TIE FREE BREAKFAST.
The manner in which the usual Sun
day morning free breakfast given by the
Pacific Gospel union at their head
quarters 431 and 433 South Spring street,
was conducted yesterday morning, and
its successful results were the source of
great qualification to Mrs. Pommerine,
the chairman, and also the other ladies'
of. the committee. About one hundred
and forty persons, inclusive of the mem
bers of the committee, partook of the
bountiful supply, and then did the Rev.
d. Read, pastor of the First Baptist
church, bountifully filed their souls
with cheering words of hope. The
speaker took as his lesson the fifth chap
ter of Mark, which he defined so earn
estly that the inquiry room was literally
filed with unsaved ones after he had
finished.
In the afternoon the Rev. O. B. Read
resumed charge of the three usual gos-
pei services from the wagon, which were
blessed with large number of requests
for prayer, and Mr.. and Mrs. Theodore
Judd conducted the prayer meeting at
headquarters.
In the evening the spacious hall was
filed to the doors, and standing room
even was almost at q discount. Prof.