The Green Forest tribune., 1914-09-04
WHERE IS HELL?
By Major F. w. Barber.

Dy MdJOT T w. DdTUGT. Since the advent of Christ we have been taught to believe that hell is the worst punishment that can be inflicted upon an erring people. It may be so, but the he'll of Europe casts shadow of doubt. 1 Men whose vocation in life is the redemption of souls are warning us against the terrors of hell. Yet our brothers across the seas are plunged into a maelstrom of destruct- ion which puts even hell itself to shame.
 The hell of biblical conception is pictured as place torment, inhabited by the souls of sinners to whom the gates of heaven are closed. The hell of Europe is furnace of destruction for the good and the bad, the innocent and the guilty, for women and children and babes of a day. As the devil weilds his fork over the denizens of the fiery pit, so do the kings and emperors of Europe weild the sword of compulsion oyer the heads of their subjects and force them into the jaws of an earthly hell.
 The patriotic spirit which permeates every human breast has taught us to respond to the call of our country, whether that call be just or not.
 And this national spirit has permitted the rulers of the old world to launch a contest of blood and iron and destruct- ion which is shaking the very world to its foundation, and which may even yet involve every civilized nation of the globe.
 Have we two hells? Or has the hell of tradition been transferred from the regions of Satan to the blood soaked battlefields of Europe?
 We are solemnly warned to repent of our sins or suffer the eternal tor ments of hell.
 Be it even so.
 But what of this hell on earth?
 What of the mighty engines of destruction which are devastating a fair land and sweeping once enlight- ened people into the presence of their Maker?
 What of the changing of an area of civilization into a congested mass of struggling, snarling, destroying human beings bent solely upon the annihilation of one another?
 What of the tremendous explosives hurled into cities and destroying soldiers and civilians alike?
 What of the terrible bombs dropped from the warhounds of the air into the midst of innocent and helpless women and children, taking the lives which God bade men to protect and cherish?
 What of the explosives lurking in the bosom of the seas and periling the ex- istance of ships loaded with non-com- batants?
 What of the broken hearted and grief stricken women and young girls who must toll in the fields that men may have bread while doing their ut most to obliterate the human race?
 What of the widows and orphans who must suffer through life because war has robbed them of protector?
 What of the helpless babes who are dying of starvation because armies in the field must have the milk which otherwise would mean life to the little ones?
 What of the maimed who must go through life warped and twisted with pain?
 What of the gaping holes in human breasts, Of limbs torn from their sockets, of mangled forms which even rnerciful death refuses to release from their agonies? sYhat of the Nlions If aged and -.....1sa ~ seadents x, mukt face star. vation before this hell has run its course?
 What is hell? WHERE IS HELL? Whatever it is-wherever it may be hell is hell, but this hell of Europe is one hell of hells.