The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-04-10
HE'LL"
BY MISS E. H. MOON.
Amen.

In Tung Chow, China, is repre-
sentatiou of hell. 1t is connected
with Buddhist temple, and repre-
sents hell as Buddhists conceive it
to be. There are different compart-
ments in which various kinds of
punishment are being inflicted. In
one room a mans tongue is being cut,
because he told lies; in another, a
woman is carrying heavy stone on
her back, because she disobeyed her
mother in-law; in another, man is
put into a machine and converted
into donkey; in another, men are
being cast on mountain covered
with iron spikes.
Man is religious being, and every
race has some deity to worship; and
in mans heart there is a conscious
ness of sin, and realization that he
deserves punishment. No man, be
he Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian
or Universalist, need think to escape
deserved punishment; for the Bible
tells us she that knew his Lords will
and did commit things worthy of
stripes shall be beaten with many
stripes" 1t is in love that God affiicts
men; it is to bring them to the way
of holiness.
The hell that Christ spoke of was
Gehenna, place outside the walls of
Jerusalem where offal was carried to
be burned. Our compassionate Sa-
viour never once said that the sinner
should remain in hell through eter-
nifty. The very word punishment, in
the Greek, indicates pruning for i'm
provement. There is no idea of re-
venge, or unjust judgment or cruelty.
Could just God condemn heather
to everlasting hell for not accepting
Gospel of which they had never
heard7
This would beinjustice and cruelty
worthy demon. Some writer's of the
present day are very fond of expa-
tiating on hell. We would like for
them to tell us why, during the four
thousand years of the Jewish dispen-
sation, no mention was made of hell.
The word translated hell" in the Old
Testament is "sheol," which, as every
Hebrew scholar knows means grave"
1t is sometimes so translated in the
Old Testament, as in Psalms xxx. 3:
"Oh! Lord, thou hast brought up my
soul from the grave"
| There's a Wilderness in Gods mercy
| Like the Wilderness of the sea;
There's a kindness in his justice
| Which is more than liberty.
| But we make his love too narrow
| BY false limits of our own;
| And we magnify his strictness
With zeal he will not own
Alas! that after the first few CEN
turtles of the Christian era, false ideas
of Gods judgments crept into the
church, until finally some theologians
made God appear SO harsh that many
men were driven to say: ave cannot
believe Bible that teaches that God
is so cruel; we cannot love and rever-
ence the attributes that you impute
to God. We might fear such God;
we could not love him." The Bible
nowhere teaches that God is harsh;
it is false Interpretation of the Bible
that makes him appear so. The BIZ
BILE nowhere says the sinner must re-
main in hell always. God foreknows
all things. He knows what is to be
the fate of every one he creates, and
he has predestined that some shall
serve him as his chosen people
on this earth and he has pre-
destined that all shall finally come
to him. The Bible says it is
Gods will that all shall be saved.
Surely his will is supreme. Partial
lists should not limit Gods mercy; for
the Bible says "His mercy endureth
forever" and it also says thousand
years are as one day with the Lord.
God will have plenty of time to plead
with his rebellious children, and he
is not going to lock them up in fur
mace of fire to writhe in torture for