The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-08-19
The Day of Judgment.

In a recent sermon the Rev. +. NJ. Ben
nett, of Lawrence. Kan, said: Il am not
sure that fear of punishment for our sins
and evil has large enough part in our re-
ligious life and our religious institutions.
| think little more fear of such things
would be quite wholesome for us morally
and religiously-not necessarily the old fear
Of the future punishment and the future
hell, but the fear of present punishment
and the present hell into which our sins at
once plunge us. | think the fear OF this
present hell is, in fact, much more po.
tent influence to cause us to live righteous.
ly and religiously than was the old fear of
future retribution.
"For all souls truly wise, strong and
pure the old fear has vanished, and the
more potent fear of the present judgment
of evil has come to take its place. BY no
means is it yet strong and fearful enough
for our good. We are not enough afraid
of the present judgment day because we
have not yet awakened to its full signifi.
cahce. Our perception of its meaning is
dulled by the evil which we persistently
harbor in our lives. When we are truly
,wake we shall heed it, and more thorough.
~ amend our ways, to escape the direfu
judgments which it brings.
People sometimes speak with a kind of
| rejecting horror, n far-off, disdainfu pity
| III their tones, OF the pictures of physical
which were drawn by such men as the
| great Jonathan Edwards and the noted re.
sivalists of the past. People sometimes
| speak as if they were glad TO be released
from the old fear of these threats, never
realizing that the present hells into which
| they plunge themselves by their sns aud
| evils are, in fact, thousand times more
| 10 be dreaded.
THAT oid-time future hell was not com.
| parable to the punishment which il actu.
| ally given to the evil life now and here. As
we sow, so do we reap, evil fruit for evil
seed, and the crop is not long in growing.
This is the fact which modern science is
is more sure and fearful than the old hell
of theology. The old theology said you
will be damned for your sins. Modern
| science says, Your sins not only have
damned you, but they kill you. body and
soul. SO that YOU may drag through this
world little better than a corpse, with not
even enough life to realize that you are
practically dead
Not only is this physical punishment
tor human evil a sure and established fact
but the blight of mental and moral capac
| lty, the perversion of desire and motive
the bunting of the will to live and to worl
righteousiy which surely follow in the
train OF all physical sin or sloth, is the
most fearful punishment. The destruction
alive faculty of the human soul, the loss o
power to enjoy the good, the true and tn,
beautiful, the henumbing of the energy t,
enter into and be blessed by sprtua
things-these are the hells into which al
our evils Immediately plunge us. so that w
90 through the motions of this life so veal;
sned that we do not know that we ar
spiritually blind and halt.
with heaven all around us to tempt IL
20 fuller life, our haruened and gross soul
o!indly refuse it for the sake of the meane
temptation and the coarser enjoymen
which our too keenly whetted sensual an
petites demand. Not only science, bu
our common daily experience and observa
lion proclaim these truths. Indeed, ou
,onsciences accuse us. Who is there anon!
rs who has not injured the spirit througl
'ome, form of sensuaiism? Who is there o
Is who does not know. at least dimlv. thai
we dwell in hell therefor? Who will den,
that he has fallen and thereby weakened
his capacity for the fullest, richest life
He who has escaped such sin, let hin
hank God for the heaven in which h,
iwells. ."-Christian Register