Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-12-18

take him I'D to heaven and let him have
a front seat? Not on your life. But II
we will get down ana express to God
his sorrow for his sins, God will for
give that mans sins and he will be born
again. God has the right to state the
conditions of the terms upon which
they can cross the threshold of heaven.
YES that's true. you are saved from
he'll but you are made At for heaven.
Nobody lives until they are Christian.
Christianity was extended to produce
and prompt the highest degree of human
happiness and il is only when l am IN
harmony and sympathy with God | am
receiving the best care there is in the
world.
People Who Discard
Unpleasant Things
Therefore. whenever I make any ref
erence to future punishment ! am al
ways confronted with this difficulty. ]
find a class of people that want to elimi-
nate from the Bible that which isn't
pleasant for them 40 receive. They inn
agine il they say they don't believe
thing. of course that settles 1t and that
makes them immune from any punish
ment for their unbelief.
well. it doesn't make any difference
whether you believe there is a hell or
not. you will go to hell anyway, and
that don't shut the gate nor put the
fire out If hell is not everlasting, nei-
Their is heaven. God said. Eternal dam
nation" and he said, Eternal joy and
the word of God is the only source OF
information which we have regarding
the future. All L know about heaven IS
what the Bible says, the Bible says it is
eternal All 1 know about hell is what
the Bible says, and it says it is eter-
nal. I have no information about heav-
en- or hell only as it is in the Bible.
Upon what grounds do you say that
hell isn't eternal but heaven is? You
are a fool You can't determine scrip
tural truth or ethical lines, or the opin-
ions of people. You can't determine 1t
on scientific lines.
~ friend of mine went to seminary
to study. I said, THAT isn't what l be-
lieve''
HE says, That's what we believe
now We don't know that we will be-
lieve that a month from now He says,
That is our scientific conclusion now
"By jinks, when I jump in I want to
Know where 1 am coming out I'll tell
you that None of that for your Uncle
Fuller
"Old Voltaire propounded 50 scien-
tific principles, every one of which he
said proved the Bible full of sophistries,
contradictions, errors and falsehoods,
and today the French institute, which
is infidel. has discarded every one of
Voltaire's original 50 scientific princl-
Piles as being unscientific.
That's the way with lot of stuff
today which they say proves the Bible
full of falsehoods, in two or three years
from now they will be proved to be old
liars. But the Bible will stand trium-
phant over all they say or do.
THE man who steals-he doesn't be-
lieve in policemen or prison. Bad people
disbelieve in hell, so you can't settle
spiritual truth on any scientific theory
at all Whether or not there is hell
is a question which the church by vir-
tue of its existence can answer in but
one way, HE that believeth shall be
saved. and he that believeth not shall
be damned
Never mind how he will be damned,
the Bible says he will be damned.
"a man said to me one time: Then
YOU believe in an eternal, literal hell?
eyes. 1 have never gotten so damn
able and low-down and vile as 10 nave
the audacity 10 put my intinteslmal,
nigmy. intellect up to the defiance OF
the Omnipotent and tell Him the spirit
of damnation didn't meet with my stu
nendous, gigantic conception. He is a
big idiot.
But. wait a minute. There may be
other methods of punishment which
would be as excruciating to us as burn
ing there may bel don't knowi Why,
suppose could look from where 1 stand
out to where my children are. suppose
I could see an assassin place his ladder
TO the window and creep in, bend over
the he'd where the boys are with a long,
razor-like knife in his hand ready 10
sheathe that into their heart. can
look upon that scene but cannot avert
the impending calamity.
''You show me the man that loves his
children that would not suffer mental
agony and distress of mind thousand
fold more excruciattng than the mere
physical suffering of walking on Goals.
ITO have a mental condition like
that, to have it prolonged through an
eternity with no cessation, great COO!
To be turned into shades like Dante's
shadows. TO want to go and can't go,
to want TO do and be unable to do, to
want to say and to be unable to have
ii. I beg of you, in the name of God,
don't be a fool and live the life of
rebellion to God"
There is always a chance to repent
and be saved, said Billy, and the peni-
tent is always welcome.
"If there is any man or woman this
side of hell" he continued, "or in my
opinion that ought TO be IN nell, IL Is
the man or the woman that throws
into the face of some man or woman,
things he or she used to do when that
man or woman is not doing those things
now, and is living good, upright, hon
est lives.
God doesn't care what you have
done God never throws il into your
teeth. God never reminds you of your
past that is blotted out. God says,
i will remember your transsressions
against you no more, forever Halle
luiah! | will be shouting, and when
you get a Presbyterian shouting there
is something doing. If you get a Pres
byterian and an Episcopalian shouting.
look out.
And so. now, when criminal is
sentenced to the penitentiary and. the
Governor pardons that criminal, that
justifies that criminal and the law
can never demand that he be punish
ed for that crime again. The pardon
justifies him before the law, he is no
longer guilty, he has paid the penalty,
he is free.
Suppose you'd committed a crime.
Suppose you were lying yonder IN prison