The Savannah morning news., 1900-06-10
..wHAr HAS BECOME OF HE'LL.


Under the title quoted above the Rev.
George W. Shlnn. u. D.. discusses in the
North American Review the doctrine OF
future punishment as It is being taught
from The pulpit and IN religious puolica-
lions at the present time. Not SO much
Is reard Of hell from preacher or press now
az formerly. Indeed. It Is seldom men
toned in some pupits, and when refer
cuce Is made 10 hell It IS simply by way
Of expressing an intermediate state OF the
soul after death. There is never any FIRE
and birthstone about it. No shrieking de-
mons WELD pitcnforks among the lost, or
roast them upon gridlrons. The supreme
spirit OF he'll Is no longer pictured with
hoof and horns and a spear-pointed tail.
chuckling in glee as he directs his lmps
to pour molten lead over the newly ar
rived sinner by way OF initiation into the
cougre cation Of the damned.
All Of the foregoing figures and many
others OF their kind were made very IA
nillar by preachers and exhorters forty or
atty years ago. No sermon was consid-
cred complete until a fearful word-picture
OF the horrors and torments OF hell mad
been drawn. and the sinner had been duiy
warned that such sufferings must newt
ably be his fate except he repent ana con-
form to the requirements of the church.
Human ingenuity was let loose upon the
invention of descriptions of the toTments
Of the damned which II was believed to be
impossible to exaggerate. When words
and SMILES had been exhausted, 1t was
believed that but a faint idea of the terri
Jleness Of the condition of the lost had
been given. Some preachers, among them
Jonathan dpsards. acquired such power
of description OF the place OF eternal IRE
and birthstone that men cried out IN nor
ror i'm the midst OF the sermons.
These were ideas of hell that obtained
from the earliest periods of the Protestant
churches up 10 within the memory of mid
dle-aged persons of the present NOW
says DR.. Shinn almost suddenly men
have wen nigh ceased to talk about H.
II has ceased TO be urged as a motive for
good living In this life, and men are not
told 10 prepare themselves here to AVOID
it there In the future. In other words
there has been, If not an actual denial
of hell, a very thorough change of en-
phaeis" And Or. Shinn believes that the
pulpit has lost some of it's power because
IT so seldom appeals to healthy fear.
The movement for the dissolution OF
he'll" DIR. Shnn says, actually began
about the year 177O with the planting In
this country OF the Universalists, who
antagonlzed the intense views held by the
Old Calvlnlste. When Henry Ward Beech
or came along he found conditions ripe
for a reyulsion from certain religious
theories, and he, 1t has been said, did moro
than any other man In the country to
change the style of thinking OF many
preachers and laymen who admired him.
They began to see that the fsurative Ian
guage Of the Scriptures had been taken
literally, translated into the grossest ma
terialsm and then added to until its very
extravaganza suggested revolt but
when the revolt came, those who would
get rid OF the msteriallstlc view OF hell
have so completely explained away all OF
the ngurative language in which reference
Is made to he'll IN the Scriptures that moth
ing Is left" In other words, because
| they objected to the views held, they have
| tried to deny the reality back of even the
nguralive terms in which that reality was
set forth" Thus, from their standpoint,
! hell has lost its terrors. What has be-
come of hell?
DR. Shinn defends the reality behind the
ngurative speech. Let us grant that the
descriptions of hell are flgurative Let as
! admit that men have Numbered in accept
ing as literal what was intended to be
| flpuratiVp Let us grant that there Is no
material lake OF torment Yet. after all,
Is there not something back of the inn
agery? Is there not something real--so
real that men may well strive to escape
1t? Can 1t be well with him who passes
hence in his slns?" The law of retribu-
ton. he says. is inevitable We see 1t
every day in this life. II is one of the first
Impressions received in infancy, and as we
grow older 1t becomes firmly and posi-
lively fixed in the mind. We know that
violations of the laws of nature or of the
statute laws are followed by punishment,
Likewise sin is followed by punishment.
No man can satisfactorily answer all of
the questions relative to the future state.
But I'VE do know that there is retributlon
for sn-for sin unrepented of and unfor-
given. II we pass hence with a load of
sin, judgment must surely follow us
wherever we GO