The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-19
THE DOCTRINE OF HE'LL.


At the Grand Opera House yesterday aft
ernoon E. A Cantrell, of the Peoples
Church, discussed 1.-The Doctrine of He'll
and Modern Thought" He said:
81 am glad that the General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church has decided that
all, dying in infancy, will be saved by the
spirit L congratulate the infants on this
decision. l congratulate the Presbyterian
Church. This is a step in the right direc-
ton. One more step and they will declare,
with some of the best minds of the age,
that all people, of all ages and in all
countries will be saved; else there is
heaven and no salvation for anyone. l do
not want heaven that cannot be shared by
all my brother-men. A heaven unshared
by those we love ceases TO be heaven. 1t
becomes a hell
worst he makes a devil. Sometimes the best
and the worst get mixed and he makes a
god that is devilish and a devil that is al
most divine.
Every man thinks that God is going to
do what he would do If he were God. When
| meet a man who really thinks in his
heart that any soul will be eternally tor
tured in fire and birthstone 1 know he is a
savage. / know that he himself is capable,
liz his hate, of inflicting such torture. Bio
logically, | know that he Is but few steps
removed from the wolf and the bear. There
is something in him yet of the hyena and
the rattlesnake. But when / meet a man
who holds to the larger hope-who says
with Tennyson. That not one life shall be
destroyed or cast as rubbish to- the void l
know that there is a man who has con-
uuered hate. There is life with a love and
philanthropy as broad and deep as human
need. There is your Christian gentleman.
But what about the Bible? What about
the teachings of Jesus? some anxious peo-
pie will ask Well, are you right sure that
you understand the teaching of Jesus about
this matter? Do you remember what Emer-
son once told some young preachers? The
idioms of Jesus language said Emerson,
and the figures of His rhetoric have
Usurped the place of his truth; and
churches are not built or His truth, but on
His tropes. The English word hell comes
from the Greek word gehenna, which in
turn came from the older Hebrew word
hnnom and hinnOm was originally a mans
name. This man Hinnom owned the valley
south OF Jerusalem. which came to be called
after his name. or strictly, The valley of
the son of Hinnom.' This valley was the
dumping ground of the city. The garbage
the bodies of animals and some times the
bodies of criminals were brought here and
burned. The smoke of the fires assembled
day after day. Here the worms died not and
the FIRE was not quenched. By the Hinnom
fires the city was kept clean-an important
matter with the Hebrew people. Now this
is the meaning. Our lives are cities. When
into the city of the soul anything enters
that IS unclean-any sewage. any garbage.
the Hinnom fires begin TO burn. Ii was
simply a statement of the great law of COM
pensation from which no one can escape
Life has two great teachers. One is joy
and the other Is pain. Joy stands at the
summit OF being and every good thing we
do she beckons and says. That Is good.
Come and receive my crown. Pain stands
at the base and every wrong we perpetrate
pain frowns and lays on the scourge and
the scourging OF pain we call hell. Between
JOY and pain we VIII some time learn the
right. ] don't know when II will be. Paul
didn't know. Jesus didn't know. We are
stupid and IL takes a long time TO learn a
few things. Death has nothing to do with