The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-01-26
Rev. Sunday TALKS Birthstone
to Rochester People.
NO "SISSY-WISSY" SPEECH.
Paints a Picture Of Hades That Causes
: Strong Men to Shudder; The
Drunkard's Finish.

q Rochester, Jan. l9.-'lf hell could be
fixed up like club room. with side
board and an ice chest, with Red and
White, Schlitz and Anhauser Busch
some of these old devils could be happy
there"
tongues of fire by Evangelist Sunday, in
speaking of the SISSY wissy talk about
hades," made by people who are afraid
to preach hell, and who try to elimin-
ate all that is not pleasant to the mod
ern audience.
1t was one of the lighter strokes in
a sermon in which hell was wildly pic
turned as place of torment and ply
steal torture, of remorse and hopeless
ness.
"My text is question" announced
Evangelist Sunday.
"a physician might tell me all about
anatomy and materia medica. but he
could not answer this question"
- "a lawyer could interpret law both
organic and court tribunal, but he could
not answer my question"
'An angel from heaven might turn
and wing its flight back to heaven with
tear stained cheek, but he cos.d not an
swer this question"
"a fiend from the depths of hell
might turn a leer of hopelessness up
on me, but he could not answer this
question"
The question was the text, Heb. %,
'.How shall we escape if we neglect so
great salvation?"
whether or not there is hell is a
question that the church, by virtue of
its very existence, can answer in only
one way" he said.
"If there's no hell, then there"-point-
ing to the preachers, "the preachers are
the biggest swindlers that ever came to
Rochester. They are taking money I'M
der false pretenses. Better turn the
churches into storehouses and disband
the theological Summaries"
"Wherever and whatever hell is, I'll
never test its reality" This was one of
Mr.. Sundays paranthetical stories.
"a man told me to go there today.
told him he could go there himself if he
wished, but / never would"
The preacher enunciated some of his
reasons for believing in hell.
"The word of God declares it," he
said, and he quoted passages of scrip
ture.
"Christ, the disciples, the apostles,
say so, and I'll believe them rather than
any preacher, poet or philosopher on
earth.
81 can absolutely say there is a hell,
because God says so.
again, observation proves that there
is hell" he argued, because there is
sin, and so there must be a hell.'
The proofs, he said, were not ethical,
not scientific, for science was "a matter
of speculation, but a matter of revela
ton, and hence statement of absolute
fact.
Such pictures of hell as were painted
by this tongue of fire were worthy of a
Dante of Dore. His audience was
forced to see the drunkard watching
with remorse the pale face of his suffer
ing wife and children; the murderer,
aghast at the bloody wound of his vie
tim, and the death gurgle in his throat;
the Christie Halter, hearing still the voice
of the preacher with the message to
which he should have responded.
"There will be some great men and
women in hell" he said, and he enumer-
ated some of them: Pilot, Sac
sar, Cleopatra, Ivan the Terri
BILE, Katherine de Madici, Charles
the Ninth, Lauis the Fourteenth,
the Fifteenth, the Sixteenth, with all
their miserable harlots, Voltaire, Schil-
ling, Mill, Spencer, Gibbons, Huxley, Bob
Ingersoll, Tom Paine, Theodore Parker.
.sHell is full of men and women who
never expected tc be there. But they
kept putting off, and putting off. And
I tell you it's Jesus Christ or hell for
every man or woman on Gods dirt"
This was but one of a hundred ringing
statements that struck home in the
hearts of his hearers.
"Death will make or produce no
change in your character" he argued,
and then rang out in tones of warning
that would make any preacher famous,
you'll remember! You'll remember!
You'll remcmber!"
Mr.. Sundays few sentences of en-
enlargement and advice to those who
came forward were wonders of practical
wisdom.