Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-01-25

tried to serve God and mammon.
His name means the mighty One
is my helper" Gods grace had pro
vided for him his place and his
peace. What the law could not do,
grace did. In his utter helplessness
he had cast himself on the mercy
of God, and God had wonderfully
provided for him. He had shown
foresight and farsightedness. But
remember that his poverty was no
more an evidence of his piety than
the prosperity of Dives was an evil
dence of his. Jesus was trying to
show the Pharisees. in His story,
that prosperity was not an evidence
of piety, and that a man might have
a good deal now and yet not have
the best, for the law couldn't give 1t
to him.
The trouble with Dives was that
he was a poor rich man because he
was spending all that he had on
himself without any thought OF
others. Lazarus was a rich poor
man, for while he lived in abject
poverty as far as this worlds goods
were concerned, he was rich in
grace-God the Mighty One was his
helper.
There are lots of people who need
this lesson today. There are more
neople with large fortunes TO-DAY
man ever in the history OF the
world Mammon is the god who is
It,orshinped. 1t has been SAID OIL
q certain race that they pride them
selves on being monothelsts out tnaC
thew are really "moneytheists." 10
whatever extent that may be true,
This also must be said: they are not
the onlv ones. Those who nave
money and those who have not are
worshipping mammon as their god'
RI1t no man can serve two masters
We can not serve God and mammon.
LET us remember the mistake that
Dives made and it's outcome, ana
let us serve God with mammon'
A Live Question About the Deao
This lifting of the veil ana the
glimpse that it gives us OF the oedu
suggests other questions about the
dead that are very much alive To-Day
Did Won ever wonder where are the
dead? or what their condition Is! OF
if there is a second chance? or II
there is a hell? or where hell is anu
what the punishment of hell is!
You will not have to wait long
or to go very far to find people VINO
will tell you that there is no nell
that the only hell is within you
that God is too good to punish any
one, since God is love; that death
ends all, that your loved one VINO
died is dead like a dog, annbnl-
lated. There are others VINO VIII
tell you that there is a purgatory
| out of which those who have slnneu
in this life will eventually come; that
punishment will not be eternal, Dut
| that the business of eternity Will De
| to empty hell of it's inhabitants un-
| til all are saved. Two things can
be said of such statements-the hrst
| is that they are unScriptural, ana
| the second is that they grow out OF
a desire that is universal, desire
that no one be lost. The man who
| is a confirmed sinner today hopes
| in his heart of hearts that there is
some way he can be saved, that is,
escape punishment for that is his
whole idea of salvation-a miserably
meager one, though it bel. Let us
see what the scriptures have to say
He'll
Well, with regard to hell. There is
one word translated "h9ll' in the
ebrcw of the Old Testament, sh9ol
Ind three words in the Greek Of the
New Testament, hades, gehenna ano
tartarus. Sheol and hades convey
the same idea-a place of the un
/ seen and do not necessarily carry
with the~1 the idea of punishmE :
! Gehenna is the Greek form of 'thC
valley of Hinnom," the valley just
back of Jerusalem, where all the ref
use was dumped and burned; the
fires were kept burning constantly
bv IL. addition of the cIty's garbage
! from time to time. 1t always carries
with it. therefore, the idea of a place
! of punishment, of destruction of that
which has shown itself worthless.
Tartarus was the lowest abyss, II
the Greek idea of a place of punish
ment. 1t is used only once in the
Scripture, in 2 Peter, "a, as the
place to which the fallen angels have
been cast when they sinned.
The words sheol and hades are
therefore, Interchangeable and refcl
only to the place of departed spirits
| Into hades went Lazarus and Dives
into hades went the spirit of Jesus
yvhile His body lay in Joseph's tomb
An idea grew up in the Jewish minC
of two different compartments ir
hades, one for thu spirits of the
g. IL and one for the spirits Of the
ungodly. The story of Dives ant
Lazarus seems to confirm this opin
ion, though not necessarily so, for
while there was a great impossible
chasm between them, it was not
| necessarily a physical chasm.
The Scriptural teaching, therefore
about hell is that it is a place, g