The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-22
"HELL, AS A NECESSITY"
REV. BAsCOM ANTHONY PREACHED
on ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.

Force From the Teachings of
scripture. hut Was Based on the
Doctrine of Necessity in Thought,
,IoraIs and GOvernment-The Sub
icct Treated From IA New Point of
Nie,y-If There Is to Be Eternal
Heaven for the Good, There Must
Re Eternal He'll for the wicked.
rhe Time for Repentance Is the
Present.; the Future Holds No
Hope.
Rev. Bascom Anthony has contributed
n the pending clerical discussion of the
existence and nature of eternal punish
,nfnt for sins committed in this world an
interesting sermon on Hell as a Neces-
s,tv" The sermon was preached to
large congregation at Trinity Methodist
Church last night
The basis of Mr.. Anthony's argument
was outside the pages of Scripture, deriv-
inc It's force from the irresistible and con-
,olline doctrine of necessity, rather than
from he dogmas of revealed religion. This
argument was urged with all the eloquence
Of the speaker and in its last and logical
ANALYSIS led him TO the assertion that hell
was q necessity in thought, in morals and
IN every right conception of the govern
mont of the universe. The time for re-
uentauce and self-improvement in Mr.
AntAony's opinion, is the present, the state
after death holding no light nor hope for
The wicked who depart this life in their
sirs.
The sermon was different in its char
ac,er and the sources of it's arguments
and Illustrations from those that have
been preached by other Savannah minis
tiers on approximately the same subject.
These other sermons have discussed the
question in the light of Scripture; Mr..
Anthony carried the discussion outside of
Scripture altogether.
MI Anthony's first argument was that
he'll is a necessity of thought. All things
exist in pars-all principles exist in twos,
each opposed TO the other. That they must
exist in the abstract if not in the con-
crete. is necessary to exact thought There
is no up, if there be no down. Beauty is,
because ugly is. Light, because of dark
ness. a picture all white is no picture at
all. The thought of anything involves the
thought of its negative. Hence so long as
heaven is thought of hell remains ne
oessity of thought. Good is eternal in
both the abstract and the concrete; evil
is eternal in the abstract, but finite in
the concrete. So long as evil exists in
the concrete he'll must exist.
Hell is a necessity in morals. All men
are moral agents, and all men are good
or bad, This being true, they are good
or bad from choice. If a man be good
he deserves reward; if evil then punish
ment The same justice that rewards the
one will punish the other. The same ar
gument that carries reward beyond the
grave must carry punishment there; and
The argument that makes one eternal
makes the other eternal If a heaven for
The good be predicated upon the INSULT
cheney of rewards in this life-so little dis
tincuon being made between them and the
eyil-then the same insufficiency digs the
nethermOst pit for the wicked.
10 is no sufficient objection to this to
say that an act of an hour does not de-
serve an eternity of punishment, for it
bears with equal weight against eternal
bliss Besides an act of a moment may
be freighted with eternal consequences.
Witness the blowing up of the Maine. 1t
was the work of a moment, and yet in its
tar-reaching consequences it has already
made many thousand widows and orphans,
whose lives will forever differ from what
they would have been. Children will grow
up In ignorance, that otherwise would
have been educated and fitted to play well
their part in life. They and theirs will
always differ. Thousands will be wrecked.
Already army life has ruined the morals
oil many The entire plan of our govern
ment seems to be overturning and form
ing on new lines, thus affecting the des-
TIMES of not only our people but the des-
times of peoples beyond the seas. The
eject Of that one act only God can es-
innate. It's effect will be eternal. Its
merit or demerit must be eternal.
''All government" declared Mr.. Antho-
ny lis based upon the principle of re-
ward and punishment The idea of hell
uhderles every family, every municipal
n.y. every state-the principle of punish
nent heing recognition of hell. No man
can frame laws for the government of
FAMILY or an empire that does not pro-
woe punishment for wrong. Law with
out penalty is advice. If there is no hell
mere is no heaven; and if there is Meth
ef there are no such qualities as good
anu evil; and if there are no such quail
u,s there is not an intelligent free moral
agent IN the universe-in fact universal
oelns is universal falsehood"
u All things tend to a state of fixedness.
liH bones that were soft in childhood
ne. ONE hard and brittle in the run of the
yea. Opinions that were tentative be-
tone convictions. Habit becomes charac-
yer. 1t seems that thus would nature
.eaen us to look for probation at the be-
sInhlng-afterward things become fixed.
II ability in goodness be the aim of pro-
ua'loh then must stability in evil be the
result Of probation misused. From this
lOIiil OF view hell is neither punitive nor
.iIeetlve but moral necessity, for there
nothing else possible for fixed evil"
III there were no such fixedness, the
Avs or growth give no hope for the flu
aaIe. For all things grow either from
Tlhout or from within-involution or evo-
tt-uoh II from without there is small
o FOR Improvement by feeding upon the
ssI'nss IN the region of the damned. They
~ hoi tend to piety. If from within, the
nope is still less. For a life that is passed
va. OF touch with the best things and 10
with the worst side of its own char
IT,. can never evolve out of itself that
"M.n 1t has not within it, A weed can
"o evolve a violet
90 lar as nature speaks to us she gives
ao nope for the future of the wicked I
"'u'1 he glad if she did; but she is stern
aI uurelenting in all her lessons. Hear