Blue-grass blade., 1899-12-10
SIMPLE QUERIES
GROW FAMOUS.
Popular Discussions Which Have
Sprung From Insignificant
Questions Asked At
Random.

NuuuO"s
II Is surprising how soon simple
question may in a short time become
a public question, and one which may
eventually concern the whole nation.
"Why don't men go to church,"
is one OF the national questions
which originated In this way. It
was asked In the correspondent col
umn OF a daily paper, and hundreds
of answers poured In with such
promptitude that 1t was found i'm
possible to print a quarter of them,
and the interesting discussion had to
close.
The following was one of the fav-
ored ones which was printed in the
Chicago Times Herald.
BECAUSE THERE Is NO HELL.
Rochelle, Ill.-Editor of the Her.
add do not go to church because
there is no hell. If l thought bel.
was a terrible reality l would go
thereto church, not to hell-to
keep out of hell. If there is a hell
the church is paramountly the
greatest necessity to keep us out
OF hell, not out of church. If /
thought any church could prove that
there is hell and all the CHASTITY ter
rors it implies / could never smile
again; life for me would change
from rather an interesting romance
to deepest tragedy: would curse
myself for having given.life to sol
itary human being; Joblike l
would humiliate myself in sackcloth
Gf indeed l could keep out OF the
madhouse): sacrifice all worldly
pleasures; attend such church as
often as it opens its doors and ab-
jectly crouch at the feet of priest or
preacher, limp slave to obey his
commands. Pecause If this hellish
doctrine is true its portentous pos
sibilities are so horrible, so appall-
ing, that to avert such impending
calamity would tower as far above
all other motives of life as the Him
alayas are above an authill. But
thank Dame Nature (who is more
merciful than the mythical God of
an orthodox church), l have fearless
ly searched to obtain evidence in the
broad domain of nature and science
and have found it not. There is no
hell Let the world rejoice.
OF late the best minds within the
church have renounced the ''mon
strous doctrine, as Beecher called
it. aud the testimony of the intellec-
tually superiors of course outweighs
and annuls the vague notions of the
ignorant, There is no hell" must
stand. And il there is no hell
there is no use for the church, no
use for Christianity. which is found
ed upon hell. In "Adam's fall" hu-
manity in general was condemned to
death and hell. But, after 1000
years, "God repented" of peopling
the world with countless beings
then, without light or fault of theirs,
consigning them to eternal torment.
So he ''sent his only begotten SOU
and decreed that those who believe
and otherwise conform to his DEGREES
should be saved. but those who be-
lieve not "shall be damned" This
unceremoniou ly consigns every hu
man being having lived before the
advent of Christ and all those who
have not conformed to these imper-
ative requirements to hell. This Is
original Christianity pure and simple
and to discard he'll Is to discard
Christ whose sole mission was to
'save sinners from hell.
Christians classed by sta
| tistics-comprise now at most about
one fifth OF the human race or about
300, 900, 900 persons. From this
number must be deducted at least
one-half who are not true or select
Christians; this leaves at most 150,
900, 900 out OF 800, 900, 900 who are
saved, or 1880, 900, 900 of the per-
sons now living (not mentioning the
countless millions who have died
without Christ" since the dawn of
human life) who, If Christianity is
true, are numerically consigned to
conditions OF eternal and most ex-
cruciating torment after death.
Beecher, better than his religion,
insisted that consonant with "divine
Justice" the heather, not having
the light Of Christianity, must be
saved. But II Christianity is true
this is impossible. The heather
must be damned or Christianity is a
farce. II the heathen is saved with
out Christ, IL were infinitely better
we had all been born heathens-Hot-
tentots, South Sea islanders; any
thing except Christians, because in
that case DON you see? by virtue OF
such barbarian heredity, we would
all have been saved: whereas now,
as nominal Christians, SO per cent OF
all of US wretched creatures are
peremptorily consigned to Calvin
istic hell. Furthermore, II the hea-