The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-09-09
The Day of Judgment.

In recent sermon the Rev. F. M. Ben.
nett, of Lawrence, Kan, said: II am not
sure that fear of punishment for our sins
and evil has large enough, part in our re-
igious life and our religious institutions.
I think little more fear :of such things
would be quite wholesome for us morally
and religiously-notn necessarily the old fear
hell, but the fear of present punishment
and the present hell into which our sins at
once plunge US. I 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
of the present judgment day because we
have not yet awakened to. its full signifi.
canoe. Our perception of its meaning is
dulled by the evil which we persistently
harbor in our lives When we are truly
awake we shall heed it, and more thorough.
ly amend our ways. to escape the direful
judgments which it brings.
"People sometimes speak with kind of
rejecting horror, far-of, disdainful pity
in their tones, of the pictures of physical
and spiritual torture of the future hell
which were drawn by, such men as the
great Jonathan Edwards and the noted re-
vivalists 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 sins and
evils are, in fact, thousand times more
to be dreaded.
"That old-time future hell was not COM
parable to the punishment which is 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 nod mCdern I'm 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
nclence- 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 corpse, with not
even enough life to realize that you are
practically dead.
"Not only is this physical punishment
for human evil sure and established fact,
but the blight of mental and moral capac.
ity, the perversion of desire and motive,
the bunting of the will to live and to work
TlSHtecuSly Wnlcn surely 1olloW IN Cne
train of all physical sin or sloth, is the
most fearful punishment. The destruction
of imaginative power, the death of the Gre
ative faculty of the human soul, the loss of
power to enjoy the good, the true and the
beautiful, the benumbing of the energy to
enter into and be blessed by spiritual
things-these are the hells. into which all
our evils Immediately plunge us, so that we
go through the motions of this life SO weak
ened that We do not know that we are
spiritually blind and halt.
with heaven all around ps,to tempt us
to fuller life, our haruened and gross souls
blindly refuse it for the sake of the meaner
temptation and the coarser enjoyment
which our too keenly whetted sensual ap-
petites demand. Not only science, but
our common daily experience and observa.
tion proclaim these truths. Indeed, our
consciences accuse us. Who is there among
us who has not injured the spirit through
some form of sensualism? Who is there of
us who does not know. at least dim1y, that
we dwell in hell therefor? Who will deny
that he has fallen and thereby weakened
his capacity for the fullest, richest life?
He who has escaped such sin, let him
thank God for the heaven in which he
dwells. ."-Christian Register.