The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-18
.STAGG BREACHES ON HEAVEN AND HELL Great Gulf That Separates the
 Good and the Bad HELL NOT MOLTEN FIRE Says Men Grow and Are Formed Un- der Operation of Law Just as
 Timely as Rocks and
 Trees.

The Rev. Dr. John W. Stagg preached yesterday morning at the First Presby- terian church from Luke 16, 24 and 26.
 And he cried and said. Father Abra- rus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water. and cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame.' *@ And be- side all this between us and you there is great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence"
 These words were spoken by Jesus in a parable and they make what men have described as his hard sayings" They probably were the best adapted for set ting out his idea to the generation to which He was speaking. while possibly they do not so well convey his idea to this generation. We will avoid great deal of confusion if We bear in mind that the drapery of a parable does not contain its doctrine The essential that Jesus was teaching is the same now as then, and that Is, that there is a separa- ton between the righteous and the wicked
 You have said nothing when you de- clare that the idea of a burning lake of fire has been dismissed forever from the minds of men as descriptive of eternal punishment Figures of speech amount to little. It is the substance of the teach ings that one must attend to. Therefore it Is necessary for us to get the proper setting of the teaching. so as to kec}' 1t distinct from the drapery. else We wall be inclined to do, as so many have done, denominate the teachings of the Master on this great subject, as barbarous. For while we can associate the just penalty of wrong doing being visited upon the wrong doer, 1t is no longer possible for us to give literal meaning to the de- scription of the forms in which that pen alty Is to be visited.
 May Give Explanation.
 This may give explanation of what has been in the public prints recently. from those assembled in ecclesiastical courts, about the horrors of the Bibles descrip- ton of the state of the wicked. To me, much of it is positive irreverence. be- cause much energy has been used in throwing the vindictive on the terms used In the scripture, and relief has been given to the consequences that all men feel must follow evil doing. It does no good to quarrel with words, so long as the things words stand for remain. To to attach to it the torture of a soul in consuming flames. praying to a benign influence for drop of water to cool a parched tongue, and represent the one ap- pealed to as declaring that great gulf separates between felicity and misery. there is anything expiatory in suffering. If you have the continued existence of a cause, you must also have the continued existence of the effect. and there Is noth- ing in suffering that can change charac- ter Character Is made under the opera ton of law. It is the character of the
 
 is but crudity also to represent the separation of goodness from badness by a great gulf of molten fire. Things may stand side by side and be separated. and men may stand face to face and yet be as far apart as the poles. which leads us to drop from our mind the primitive notion that great stretches of space, or great barriers of fire must lie between, before there can be such a thing as separ- ation By this process of reasoning you eliminate the teaching that hangs Tn the drapery of this parable, and come face to face with the operation of a great law, which is that things unalike in their na- lures are separated, and men unalike Tn their dispositions are divided and men who hate holiness and love unholiness are as distinct and separate from the Holy God as if all the space in the uni verse were between them
 Had Many Notions.
 Men have had many notions of why this is so. All that they have had to say may be grouped under four heads First, that the good inherit everlasting felicity, and the bad. everlasting hen. This Is known as the severe orthodox teaching, of which. for the life of me, l have never read in the books of men any reason to depart therefrom; the second Is that the good will inherit everlasting life and the bad will be annihilated. To me this would be the most horrible of all for the reason that the instinct to love life is so strong that I would rather live and suffer than not to live at all. Another is, that the wicked will be put on probation aftef death: which to me has neither justice nor sense in 1t. and another Is that the entire human family, regardless of what has been practised here in this life, will enter the reward of everlasting life which seems to be subversive of every moral principle with which we are now acquainted, and brings paralysis to every vrtuous endeavor.
 Ideas of the life of the soul must be in accord with the Bibles revelation of the nature of God God has so revealed Himself in the Bible as to make men feel that He is seeking always to do for them the very best possible. and to save them from. rather than to drive them into suffering.
 Bearing in mind that we are living in -.t1 of Iau, oud that men inst as truly