The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1910-09-06

grievously misunderstood. The teach
ing of our Protestant childhood was to
the effect that only the sanity elect
would go to heaven and that others
would not only lose heaven, but gain
an eternal life In torment. Thus our
practically the whole world OF mankind
would be compelled to endure. This
hell was pictured to our childhood
minds from outside the Bible as heated
to white heat If we expressed won
der or surprise that any human creature
could endure such conditions so long
the answer was that God would exer-
else his omnipotent power to make us
fire-proof and pain-sensitive. Some theo-
logians of the Thomas a Kempis school
of thought went so far as to picture
the poor creatures In their sufferings
and to show that the heat would form
kind of an asbestos covering which
would shield them from a measure of
its intensity. But those deluded theo-
logians proceeded to explain that these
outer coverings would crack and shell
of every little while. leaving the poor
victim freshly tender that his suffering
might be the more intense
OF course. these theologians Of the
past had their difficulty In dealing with
the worms. They could Imagine devils
who would oversee the torture as being
made immune TO pain by the chief tor
turer, the Almighty God But just how
to imagine the worm getting along in
so great heat and how they would in
any wise increase the torture of the
poor sufferers was TO many a perplex-
ity. But patient thoughtfulness along
these cruel and devillsh lines enabled
some to formulate the theory that the
worms would be fiery ones. living In
fire. delighting in fire-worms that
would bore through the incrustations
and add still further to the horrible
sufferings of the world of mankind
Was This What Jesus Meant?
Did the Great Teacher intend that
such conclusions should be drawn from
his language? And did he stop short
Of the description from reasons of sym
pathy or modesty or shame? Is this
the general teaching of Gods Word
or has a great and terrible mistake
been made? And have we mistaken
a figure Of speech and treated 1t as
literal? We erred. We misunder-
stood. The Great Teacher who rebuk-
ed his disciples, James and John, when
they desired to call fire from heaven
upon the City of Samaria, because the
people thereof refused to sell them
food for the Master-the sympathetic
One who said to them, .Ye know not
what manner Of spirit We are of; the
Son of man came not to destroy mems
lives, but to save them"-could that
Son of man in any wise intend to tell
US that our great Heavenly Father had
less of the spirit of love and righteous
ness than the two impetuous disciples?
Did he mean to intimate that while the
disciples impetuously might have been
willing to destroy the earthly life of
the Samaritans. the Heavenly Father.
Of still more demoniacai disposition.
would treat practically all mankind ten
million times worse than that and use
Divine Power to all eternity to perpet
uate the sufferings of his earthly crea-
lures which his own Word declares
were born in sin. shapen In iniquity,
In sin did their mothers conceive them?
earthly creatures. too, whose environ
ment was unfavorable and whose Ad-
versary, the devil. God neither destroy
ed nor bound?
Such an Interpretation. my dear hear
ers, is not supposable. We must look
for some explanation of the Masters
words more consistent with his own
character and with the Heavenly Fa-
theirs character, and more consistent
with our conception of what Just
Loving. Wise and Powerful Creator
would do. 1t does not answer the pur-
pose to say. as SO many do, ''Bosh. do
not discuss such a matter. Nobody
now believes such thingsy' This one
Scripture repudiated would shake our
confidence in the whole Bible. But
rightly explained and understood 1t
would settle and Increase our faith In
the Scriptures as Divine message
merely to cast from US the deyilish In
depreciation of the dark ages. but to as
certain the true interpretation-to get
the true lesson from the words of the
Great Teacher. Thousands are drift
ing off into more or less open infidelity
simply because of the Irrational inter-
probation given to this text and two or
lo
become so fastened In our minds from
childhood days that they have become
part and parcel of our very lives, SO
that many of US would have been in
clined at one time to dispute the very
existence of a God as much as to dis
pute such slanderous misrepresenta-
tons of his glorious character.
Entering Into Life.
Let us go back to Jesus day and in
mind place ourselves with those who
heard him utter the words of our text
and context. The Teacher had just
said, IF thy hand offend thee, cut 1t
off-it Is better for thee to enter into
life MANNED, than. having two hands.
to go into hell, into the fire that never
shall be quenched. where their worm
dieth not and their fire is not quench-
eu." He SAID the same IN the follow
ing verses respecting the foot and the
eye. Was he speaking literally or fig
uratively? Does any sane person sup
pose today that Jesus advised literal
cutting off of hand or a foot or the
plucking out of an eye? Assuredly
not And the person who would fol-
low his counsel in that way would be
considered unbalanced in mind. We
all recognize what he did mean, name
ly, that If any who desired to have
eternal life found that they had him
ORANGES of appetite or pleasure or
what not, as dear to them as an eye,
foot, hand, these precious. but disqual-
flying sins or wrong-doings, should be
put away-no matter how precious
they were-no matter how highly es-
teemed. BY way of contrast, the Mas
ter suggested that If the retaining Of
these things would hinder them from
entering into life they could not af-
ford to retain them-that even II they
were to carry the figure further and
suppose that In the future life they
would be deprived to the extent of be-
ing MANNED to all eternity 1t still
would be preferable to them to prac-
tice the self-denial now and to enter
into life.
Be it noted that the reward here in
dictated is in the entering into life. and
the intimation is that those who fail
will not have life at all-that they will
fail to attain life; that they will have