The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1908-04-09

with their ascend
ing smoke, could be seen in this val
ley Jesus makes it a symbol of hell,
where the worm dieth not and the
fire is not quenched.
Now. ought a city to have valley
Of Hinnom into which the REFUSE shall
be cast? Or should the city leave its
refuse to decay in it's streets, filling
the air with cOntagion and death
There are no two opinions on this
subject among civilized people. Every
garbage barrel, therefore, is an ar
gument for hell. Those who refuse
life in Christ become refuse in
character sooner or later, and in the
nature of things must be removed to
place apart.
A cemetery is a necessity. The
bodies of the dead must not be left
in the homes of the living. Every
cemetery is, therefore, an argument
for hell The spiritually dead soul
is like a dead body, in that it is in
state of moral putrefaction and car
ries with it the deadly contagion of
sin. If it refuses to receive life it
must of necessity be placed apart
with its spiritually dead companions.
Last Sunday afternoon | visited Chi
cagos Gehenna known as Cook coun-
ty Jail, where men whose liberty is
menace to the community are kept.
The existence of that Jail can be de-
Tended only on the ground that it is
right to separate the bad from the
good.
Sin Ought to Be Punished.
Even savages believe that what
they regard as sin should be punished,
and civilized nations have no differ
cnce of sentiment in that regard. 1t
needs to be restated that there is
something in God for sinners to fear.
He is no moral weakling who, prompt
ed by soft sentimentalism, permits
criminals to destroy his righteous gov
ernment. The preaching of this god
of putty has been long enough filling
hell, here and hereafter, with vic
tins.
Sin left to itself makes hell.
"Wickedness," says Isaiah, "burneth
like a fire"
In the parable of the rich man and
Lazarus the fires of torment have
flames Of memory, reason, imagina-
tion and conscience. Son, reme1n-
ber," Memory is immortal and will
int f,,t ipb ;+o
burden of neglected duties and priv
ileges. The rich man uses the word
therefore, which shows that reason
is immortal. He requests Abraham to
startle his five brethren by the re-
turn of Lazarus from the dead, and
this shows that imagination is also
immortal to fan the flames of memory
and reason. And every line of the
parable bears witness to the fact that
conscience is immortal, with it's sting
Of remorse.
The fires which burn the soul are
hotter than the fires which consume
the body. Pollock's description oi
hell in his Course of Time" makes
one shudder, and yet if you will give
his words the symbolic meaning he
intended you are compelled to ac-
knowledge their truth
Through all that dungeon of unfading
fire
saw most miserable beings walk,
Burning continually, yet unconsumed;
Forever wasting, yet enduring still;
Dying perpetually, yet never dead"
know that such hell exists, for
have been there, and have seen men
and women on this earth burning
continually, yet unconsumed; forever
wasting, yet enduring still; dying per-
petually, yet never dead" 1t is but
| another way of expressing what the
Bible means by the "bottomless pit"
forever falling without striking bot.
tom, forever sinking in the moral
scale, forever growing worse, and yet
not becoming so bad that you cannot
grow worse still Everlasting degen-
Grafton! The soul with infinite ca
pacity for good or evil chooses the
evil and develops downward through
eternity Death will not retard, but
in the worse environment of a place
apart will accelerate the downward
course.
A coarse wit asked an old preacher
where he would get all the birthstone
for making an orthodox hell, and his
wise reply was: Every man will fur
nish his own birthstone"
Degrees of Punishment.
This principle is admitted by every
court of justice. Jesus said of the
wicked: "These shall go away into
everlasting punishment" and the
same word, Everlasting" applies to
heaven. 1t does not mean equal" or
indefinite" Everlasting punishment
will certainly follow everlasting sin.
ming, the degree of punishment being
In proportion to the sin. It is reason
able to conclude that if man will
not repent in this world with an en-.
vironment of good and evil, he will
not repent in the world apart, where
there is environment of only evil.
He who has accepted Jesus Christ
as sin-bearer and Lord need have no
fear of hell. In getting rid of sin
he has put out the fires that make hell
here and hereafter.