"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10:28).

I. The Asking— "Is Hell a Myth?"

A myth? Like Aeolus imprisoning in a leather bag tied with a silver string such winds and tempests as might be hurtful to the further voyage of Ulysses?

Like the cranes of Ibycus? Like the Minotaur, the fierce animal with a bull's body and a man's head, which demanded a tribute of seven young men and seven young women — and the killing of this beast by Theseus with the aid of Ariadne?

A myth? As Hercules and the poison garment of Nessus? As Hercules strangling two serpents with his hands at birth? As Hercules and his "Twelve Labors"? As Midas and his golden touch? As Sisyphus who made a chair with automatic workings — so that when a creditor called upon him to collect a debt, Sisyphus invited him to sit down, and no sooner had the fellow taken a seat when one hundred ligaments of steel darted out and bound the fellow fast — and Sisyphus kept him there until he cancelled the debt?

Asking, "Is Hell a myth?" is but an interrogatory way — on the part of some — of stating that Hell IS a myth — ah, much as the wild mythologies of the Greeks. With playful raillery do many speak of the fact of Hell. With a blighting barrikin do many speak of the fact of Hell. With many Hell is the wild nightmare of a disordered brain — the fanciful fake of an erratic mind. A myth? Just as well say a lion has the mouth of a mouse. A myth? Just as well say an eagle has sparrow's wings, A myth? Just as well say you can cradle a furnace in a thimble.

All of which brings us to consider some

II. Asseverations

Asseverate means "to affirm, to aver positively or with solemnity." Many there are who, with ridicule of those who disagree, declare that there is no Hell. Atheists tell us that we die like dogs — that our souls perish with our bodies — that when the earth has swallowed us up, we become part and parcel with clay; and that is the end of the whole matter. We, believing not what atheists say, doubt if the atheists believe themselves.

But note what some say:

(1). "The Dantesque picture as a place of penal flames, smoke, and physical torture is an absurd picture."

(2). "Hell-fire is a riot of imaginative genius."

(3). "It is the feeblest form of sentimentality to believe in a Heaven, just as it is a terrible folly to believe in Hell."

(4). "The pulpit teaching about Hell is an unauthorized accretion to the true doctrine — and repugnant to reason."

(5). "The Hell of fire and brimstone was doomed under the revolt assisted by George MacDonald— and the doctrine of material Hell has gradually disappeared from the sermons of most preachers."

(6). "Milton's conception of Hell was inconsistent with the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ." "Indeed, it is to be doubted whether man ever believed fully in the existence of such a Hell, for if preachers believed in the Hell they taught thirty years ago, and had any humanity in them, they would have been unable to sleep in their beds. To talk of a Hell so horrible that no man with a heart in him would throw a dog into it, and yet to preach that the Almighty Father cast the bulk of the human family into it to burn for ever and ever, was to insult the very name of the Being whom we are taught to love."

(7). "Hell is a state — and not a place." "To live in harmony with what we understand to be God's law is the truest Heaven. To live out of harmony with that law is Hell."

(8). "Heaven and Hell may be the same place— and Heaven will be Hell to the man who loves evil things."

(9). "Many of the terms describing Hell are allegorical or metaphorical or poetical— and imply the spiritual state which is the antithesis of salvation. All such delineations as 'the blackness of darkness forever,' 'perdition,' 'the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone,' 'eternal destruction from the face of the Lord' are purely fantastical — and deserve no attention."

(10). "When it comes to Hell being a place of fire, Origen taught that it was not a material fire, but self-kindled, like an internal fever— a figurative representation of the moral process by which restoration shall be effected." And Clement of Alexandria taught that "Hell fire is a sort of spiritual fire which purifies the soul."

"It is a misconception of His words to import the idea of literal flames." "Fire cannot burn the physical body or vehicle with which the soul will array itself when it goes forth from this mortal to immortality, and from this corruptible to incorruption. Flesh and blood cannot enter the realm of the hereafter. Fire cannot feed upon the cosmic integument of the world of spirits; but what fire does to the body will be supplied by remorse, by the torturing consciousness of an absolutely wasted opportunity, by the perpetual facing of the ruined lives which have been irreparably blasted and corrupted during the earthly sojourn."

"If the Bible teaches 'everlasting punishment,' so much the worse for the Bible, because we cannot believe it; you may quote texts and have behind the texts the very finest scholarship to justify certain interpretations, but it is no good. We are no longer the slaves of a book, nor the blind devotees of a creed; we believe in love and in evolution."

(11). "If punishment is to win the verdict of our best consciousness, it must be remedial." "But I doubt very much whether any intelligent man or woman believes in a materialistic Hell— that is, in a real raging fire ' in which people are eternally burned." "It is surely not illegitimate to draw the conclusion that Christ intended to teach that even the fire of remorse in the future life may purify the spirit, and so prepare it for some higher and better state." "There never was, is, or will be, any right in the name of the Gospel of Christ to speak of 'eternal torments.' "

(12). "Endless foments are in flagrant contradictions to the goodness of God, as expressed in His holy Word."

But, let us ask, if there is no Hell, is not the Bible a bundle of blunders, a myth, a book of fairy tales? Are not the prophets, who spoke of God's mercy, liars? Did not the apostles cease to perambulate around the pole of veracity?

If there is no Hell, does not Jesus deserve to wear the label of the imposter?

Into the valley of Hinnom, outside the city of Jerusalem, the Jews threw the refuse of the city and the dead carcasses of animals where the worms would eat them and a fire was kept continually burning. Jesus used this great valley of offal to describe the awful reality of Hell.

"And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:43-44).

If there is no Hell, is not Calvary, with all its" suffering and sacrifice and finished atoning work, a blunder and all the voices thereof a babel of incoherency?

By every contemptuous mouthful of spit that befouled His face, by every hair of His beard which cruel fingers tore from His cheeks, by every bruise of His face, by every mark of the scourge upon His back, by every thorn that punctured His brow, by every nail that held Him to the tree, by every breath He drew which was a pang of pain, by every beat of His heart which was a throb of agony — by all the shadows that covered the earth when black midnight cam© at noonday, we say that if ^Calvary be not jthe way of escape from ETERNAL Hell— then Calvary is a mistake. It is not credible that the Son of God should have become man and died on the cross merely to save men from the short and temporal consequences of sin. The infinity of the sacrifice implies an infinity of punishment as that from which the sacrifice was intended to deliver those who would accept the sacrifice. If a man accepts the atonement of Christ — how can he doubt the dogma of Hell?

Now, let us ask, can there be a Heaven if there be no Hell? The Bible, book above and beyond all books as a river is beyond a rill ^in reach, speaks of Heaven, But #ie same Bible also speaks of Hell. The same Bible that speaks of the glories and bliss of Heaven speaks of the woes and pains and miseries of Hell — as the portion of those who reject Christ.

So let us consider the

III. Actuality

Though some today in the theological and educational world are "fond of a mist that rises from the ground" and rebel against the concrete, the definite, the actual — still there is a Hell. Though many vaporize every great fact and doctrine of the Christian faith and talk as though they believed that only when these great facts and weighty doctrines have been "sublimated into the mythical and poetic" are they worthy of the intellectual — still there is a Hell.

We need realities to meet realities — and we find them in the New Testament, which is not "a collection of photographed mirages" and does not "tantalize with vapors a world perishing of thirst."

Watkinson says: "Although the New Testament is renounced, sin, devils, judgments, Hell remain potential in the human conscience. To take away Hell is to reject the physician and leave the plague, to overthrow the lighthouse and leave the hidden rock, to wipe out the rainbow and leave the storm, to take away the fire light and leave the fire to rage, to take away the vaccine and leave the smallpox. To take away Hell is to meet the tragic blackness of sin with a candle gospel, to make a mild twilight out of eternal retribution, to take away the trumpet and open the gate to enemies, to take away roses and leave the thorns, to throw away gold and press bankruptcy upon human life."

I know some people call the preacher who stands squarely upon the teaching of Christ and His apostles "narrow" "harsh," "cruel" As to being narrow, I have no desire to be any broader than was Jesus. As to being cruel — is it cruel to tell men the truth? Is a man to be called cruel who declares the whole counsel of God and points out to men their danger? Is it cruel to warn people on an excursion ship that the ship has sprung a leak and they must get into lifeboats? Is it cruel to tell Miami that a hurricane is headed for the city? Is it cruel to arouse sleeping people to the fact that the house is on fire? Is it cruel to jerk a blind man away from the rattlesnake in the coal? Is it cruel to declare to people the deadliness of disease and tell them which medicine to take? Is it cruel to label poison with the crossbones and skull? I would rather be called cruel for being kind than be called kind for being cruel. "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41).

"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power" (II Thess. 1:7-9).

Hell is a terrible ACTUALITY. Yet some say: "Scholarly preachers have given up belief in an orthodox Hell." If so, they did not give up that belief for reasons of Greek or New Testament scholarship. If so, they gave it up for sentimental and speculative reasons. No man can go to the New Testament and not find Hell in the New Testament. But suppose "scholarly preachers" have given up belief in orthodox Hell. That would not prove anything. Many times scholars have given up belief in doctrines that after all, in the final outcome, proved to be true. No scholars, except Noah, believed flood would come. But it did. No scholars, except Lot and Abraham, believed fire would fall on Sodom and Gomorrah. But it did. No scholars, except Jeremiah and one friend, Baruch, believed Jerusalem would be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. But it was! Four leading schools of theological thought in Jesus' day scoffed at Jesus' prediction concerning the coming judgment of God on Jerusalem. But secular history tells us that in spite of the dissent of all the scholars, it came true just as Jesus predicted. No university in the world in the days of Luther and Huss believed in the doctrine of justification by faith. But it was so — and Luther was right — and every university of Germany, France, England, Scotland, was wrong. So if all the scholars, preachers, scientists, artists, statesmen, politicians, musicians, teachers on earth gave up belief in the doctrine of an orthodox Hell, it would not prove anything.

' Some say, "I hate Hell." So do I. But if a man is going to be a preacher of Christianity, he should preach the doctrines of Christianity. I hate to think of anybody going there. But nobody can hate Hell out of existence. I hate snakes, but my hatred does not exterminate them. I hate rats, but rats still live. If we are Christians, we hate sham, but sham is here. If we walk as wise people and not as fools, we hate the works of the flesh. But adultery, fornication, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like are with us. We all should hate dishonesty, but dishonesty is abroad. I hate infidelity, but infidelity is here. I hate liquor, but liquor is here. If hate were an exterminator, I could get rid of sin by midnight. Disbelief in Hell does not put out its fires. Disbelief in poison does not do away with the deadliness of poison. You might believe you could play with nitroglycerine without danger, but that belief won't keep men from picking up your fragments in a basket. Disbelief and unbelief do not alter facts. THERE IS A HELL!

Nobody can believe in the Bible and not believe in Hell as an actuality too terrible for words to describe. And if all the terrible language descriptive of Hell is figurative, how terrible must be the actuality to which the fingers of all figures point!

Now consider some

IV. Attestations

(1) The Bible

Of course, there is only one book in this world to which to go to learn about Hell and that is the Bible — the book which travels more highways knocks on more doors, and speaks to more people in their mother tongue than any other. The doctrine of Hell is essentially and fundamentally a Bible doctrine. I believe what the Bible says. I have never read the Bible and said, "As I partly believe."

"And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 25-30).

"As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the, end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 13:40-42).

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41).

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10:28).

"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:15).

"The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name" (Rev. 14:10-11).

But the attestations of many great preachers are in agreement with scriptural attestation.

(2) Dr. R. A. Torrey: "I have written between thirty and forty different books which have been translated, I am told, into more languages than the books of any other living man. I say this simply to show that I have a right to call myself a scholarly preacher. Yet I believe the old-fashioned Bible doctrine regarding Hell."

(3) D. L. Moody: "The same Christ that tells us of Heaven with all its glories, tells us of Hell with all its horrors; and no one will accuse Christ of drawing this picture to terrify people, or to alarm them, if it were not true.

(4) Henry Ward Beecher: "The thought of future punishment for sinners which the Bible reveals is enough to make an earthquake of terror in every man's soul. I do not accept the doctrine of eternal punishment because I believe in it. I would destroy all faith in it if I could; but it would do me no good. It would not destroy the thing itself.

(5) Dr. W. N. Clarke: "The principle of retribution is right — because good ought to work good and evil ought to work evil. This is a moral axiom. A man not only reaps what he sows in nature and in his own soul, but it is right that he should reap it. Nothing in the nature of sin offers any hope of its own punishing consequences ever ending."

(6) F. W. Faber: "It is a good thing, and wise, for our own sakes to think sometimes of the horrid fact and place of retribution. As truly as Europe lies across the ocean and as truly as thousands of men and women over there are living real lives and fulfill various destinies, so truly is there a place called Hell — all alive this hour with the multitudinous life of countless agonies and immeasurable graduation of despair."

(7) T. DeWitt Talmage: "Not having intellect enough to fashion an eternity of my own, I must take the word of the Bible. I believe there is a Hell. If I had not been afraid of Hell I do not think I would have started for Heaven."

(8) C. H. Spurgeon: "Our joy is that if any one of us are made, in God's hands, the means of converting a man from the error of his way, we shall have saved a soul from this eternal death. That dreadful Hell the saved one will not know, that wrath he will not feel, that being banished from the presence of God will never happen to him."

(9) Paul Stewarl: "The preaching that ignores the doctrine of Hell lowers the holiness of God and degrades the work of Christ."

(10) Shedd vs. Beecher: The North American Review engaged Dr. Shedd to write an article vindicating eternal punishment, and also engaged Henry Ward Beecher to answer it. The proof sheets of Dr. Shedd's article were sent to Dr. Beecher, whereupon he telegraphed from Denver to the Review: "Cancel engagement. Shedd is too much for me. I half believe in eternal punishment myself. Get somebody else." The article in reply was never written and Dr. Shedd remained unanswered.

(11) B. H. Lovelace: "There are foregleams of Hell all around us. (Rom. 8:22). Read the tragedies that besmear the front pages of our daily newspapers, behold the victim of drink writhing in the tortures of delirium tremor, see the human wrecks strewn all along life's highway, and hear the sobs and sighs of a sin-cursed world. These are but a few sparks from the Lake of Fire, the eternal abode of the lost. Hell is a logical necessity.

(12) William Elbert Munsey: "There is a Hell. All principles of quality, character, and state exist in correlative dualities. Good and evil are correlates. The very argument which gives merit its reward beyond the grave must, in virtue of a correlation, give demerit punishment beyond the grave." "Shut up in Hell to weep, unnoticed by mercy, forever."

(13) A. C. Dixon: "S-i-n spells 'Hell' in this world and the next. It is no nightmare of medieval darkness. It is not the hallucination of a disordered brain. It is a fact which anyone with open eyes must see. The smoke of torment ascends here from the house of shame, the public-house, the drunkard's home, the divorce court, the prison, the gallows, the madhouse, the gambling den, and the lives of men and women who are burning in the furnace of their own lusts."

(14) Billy Sunday: "You will not be in Hell five minutes until you believe that there is one."

(15) Sam Jones: "I believe in a bottomless Hell; and I believe that the wicked shall be turned into Hell. The legitimate end of a sinful life is Hell. Every sinner carries his own brimstone with him. How many men meet truth without a tremor in their muscles."

(16) Lee Scarborough: "When we preach on the wrath of God, on the burning doctrines of an eternal Hell, we must do it with heart compassion."

Now, along with these attestations, would I have you think of some

V. Adjectives

Here are some adjectives that describe the severe nature of Hell.

(1). "Everlasting fire."

I am not going to split hairs to prove the fire of Hell is literal fire any more than I would split hairs to prove the gold of Heaven is literal gold. I believe when God says "fire," He means fire. I believe when God says "gold," He means gold. If the gold in the streets of Heaven is figurative, Heaven will be no less beautiful. If the fire of Hell can be proven to be figurative, Hell will be no less unendurable. All who believe they prove the fire of Hell is not literal fire, have only removed physical pain, which is the least significant feature of its character. Hell is the madhouse of the universe where remorse and an accusing memory cause unspeakable torture.

All words are incapable of describing that awful place. The very thought of Hell ought to make one uncomfortable. An Oriental legend tells of a king who acceded to his throne late in life. "Too great glory crusheth too small strength," he murmured to his vizier as he sat in state for the first time. "Verily, though my crown shineth as all the stars of Heaven reflected in one small pool, yet its weight is like to that of the water jars that all the women of my kingdom carry upon their heads!" He bent beneath the burden, and died within the year. A thousand times more should the thought of spending eternity in Hell make one uncomfortable — yea, fill one with terror.

(2). "Everlasting fire in a real PLACE."

The rich man of Luke 16 is in Hell bodily. He wanted his brothers to know that where he was after death was a PLACE. Jesus taught that the body would be in Hell along with the soul.

"And fear not them which kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10:28).

(3). A place of TORMENT.

"The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath. of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name" (Rev. 14:10-11).

(4). A place of vile COMPANIONSHIPS.

"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8).

The devil will be there with all his demons. Read the list of the wicked persons in Romans 1:29-31.

"Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, malisciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful."

All of these will be in Hell for eternity if they die in their sins unrepentant and unforgiven.

(5). A place from which there is no EXIT.

In public halls we find in bold letters, "Exit." But "exit" is a word not in the vocabulary of Hell. In other places there are signs, "This way out." But there is no sign like that in Hell. Once there, you are always there. Once in, never out. I read in the paper the other day of some prisoners who worked a year to make their escape from prison. You could work one hundred thousand years in Hell to get out and never do so.

Jesus says: "There is a great gulf fixed." It is impassable to those who would come from there here. Open your eyes and look before you enter a place from which no man has ever returned — a place where those who enter come not out forever, but lift up wailing voices to warn those who are wise - enough to hear and heed.

(6). A Place ETERNAL.

"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" (Matt. 25:46). No one has any trouble believing the "everlasting life" part of the verse. By every known law of exegesis, it must mean the same thing in the other part of the verse. The expression: "Eis tous aionas tou aionon" occurs twelve times in Revelation and correctly translated means "unto the ages of the ages." Eight times it is used expressing the existence of God and the duration of His reign. One time it is used expressing the duration of the blessedness of the righteous. In every remaining instance it is used to express the duration of the punishment of the wicked. It is the strongest known expression for endlessness.

Eternal! There are ten thousand grains of wheat in one bushel, say. Multiply that by all the grains in the millions of bushels of wheat grown every year. Multiply that by the number of leaves on all the trees in the world. Multiply that product by the number of all the grains of sand on all seashores. Multiply that product by the number of all the stars in the heavens. Multiply that product by the number of inches from earth to sun. Now, if after that many years the joys of Heaven would cease, they would not be eternal. Now, if after that many years the fires of Hell would cease, they would not be eternal. Where will you spend ETERNITY? If Hell were nothing but a ten-year palace with no music; a fifty-year palace with no children; a one-year association with a man who killed his mother, it is too much Hell for me.

The Greek word, "Gehenna," means a place of everlasting punishment. Southeast of Jerusalem was a valley where, for a long time, the idol Molech was worshipped. Little children were thrown into his fiery arms and consumed in the flames. Because of their cries it came to be known as the Valley of Lamentation, or the Valley of Hinnom. Those horrible sacrifices were abolished by Josiah (II Kings 23:10). The Jews so abhorred the place that they cast into it all manner of refuse, dead bodies of animals, and of criminals who had been executed. Fires were constantly needed to consume the dead bodies, and so the place was called "Gehenna of fire." It is this word "Gehenna" that the New Testament used to describe the place of punishment appointed for the unsaved after death. "Many might go to Heaven with half the labor they go to Hell, if they would venture their industry the right way" (Ben Johnson).

A SUMMARY.

Hell is a lake of fire (Rev. 20:15).

A devouring fire (Isa. 33:14).

A bottomless pit (Rev. 20:1).

Everlasting burnings (Isa. 33: 14).

A furnace of fire (Matt. 13:41, 42).

A place of torments (Luke 16: 23).

Where they curse God (Rev. 16: 11).

A place of filthiness (Rev. 22:10, 11).

Where they can never repent (Matt. 12:32).

A place where they have no rest (Rev. 14:11).

A place of everlasting punishment (Matt. 25: 46).

A place of blackness, of darkness forever (Jude 13).

A place where they gnaw their tongues (Rev. 16:10).

A place where their breath will be a living flame (Isa. 33:11).

A place prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41).

A lake of fire into which people are cast alive (Rev. 19: 20).

A place from which the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and forever (Rev. 14:11).

A place where they drink the wine of the wrath of God (Rev. 14:10).

A place where they do not want their loved ones to come (Luke 16:28).

A place where there are murderers, liars, fearful and abominable (Rev. 218).

Dante's Hell is a perdition which a poet had dreamed; Christ's

Hell a pit He has seen — a black night of infinite darkness without one star to break its gloom.

Hell — a place of utter separation from God.

Hell — a place of sorrow upon sorrow.

Hell — a place divested of every good.

Hell — a place of hate upon hate.

Hell — a place of grief upon grief.

Hell — a place of despair upon despair, where people are eternally crying out for help that never comes, with no one to hear their cries but other damned souls.

The suffering in Hell is described by the rich man desiring one drop of water. "One, poor drop desired — though they were glittering on the flowers and plants of :: a thousand worlds, dancing over the r ticks of a thousand rills, and "sparkling in amber, ruby, blue, green, gold, listed in the arches of a thousand rainbows, and descending in myriads upon the beggars'' homes and the fields of the poor."

I would have you now; think of the

VI. Assistance

Now I speak of the assistance the doctrine of Hell? in preaching^ to win the lost. The preaching of this doctrine is ever an asset^-never a hindrance— to the success^of gospel preaching. The minister o£ the gospel is under obligation to preach the whole truth of God's word. If he does, God will take care of the results.

Concerning the doctrine of Hell, we should be able to say what Richard Baxter wrote: "I preached as never sure to preach again— and as a dying man to dying men" -holding the literal interpretation "of Hell and eternal damnation. If we preachers are to be messengers of God., we must tell the whole message. We must not keep back any part of the Word of God.

In a bad sense is the preacher of the gospel to be regarded who, for fear of offending polite ears or fastidious tastes, or for the sake of conforming to fashionable whims, should gloss over the danger of Hell-fire for all unsaved ones.

It was through faithful warnings that Mary Slessor, the White Queen Missionary of West Africa, was converted at Dundee And through her thousands of others in darkest Africa got blessing. The person who. set the unpalatable truth forth to Mary Slessor's mind performed a most merciful service. If this doctrine, which has been banished from so many pulpits, is not to be preached — why is it in the Bible at all — and why so often? Is not the whole Bible studded over with the idea of 'TEAR" as a motive to bring men to Christ?

"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it" (Heb. 4:1). ,: "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark . . . . . " (Heb. 11:7).

If we could awake-n peddle and concern them about "their salvation, they must be told the whole truth. Salvation implies danger. The appeal to fear had considerable place in Jesus' preaching. It cannot be safe or right for ministers to suppress it in theirs. The Lord Jesus was the most perfect gentleman who has ever appeared—and He was not afraid nor ashamed to speak of HELL.

Dr. A. C. Dixon said: "If we had more preaching of Hell in the pulpit, we might have less hell in the community."

General Booth said: "If I had my way I would not give any of my workers a three year's training in a college, but I would put each of you twenty-four hours in Hell — the best training for earnest preaching you could have."

We need to preach this doctrine along with the truth of the cross.

Preach it— not as a dainty tasters of intellectual subtleties.

Preach it — not as dealers in fine spun metaphysical disquisitions.

Preach it— not as administrators of laughing gas for the painless extraction of sin.

Preach it — not with stammering tongue but as a trumpet that gives no uncertain sound.

Preach it — with broken heart and yearning soul.

But think now of the

VII. AGONIZING

Not only of those who agonize in Hell, but of the agony of soul we should have in prayer and in preaching with concern to save the lost. If this city had a pestilence descending on it — what would we not do to stay its onslaught? If your children were in danger of smallpox — how concerned you would be! If a mad dog were loose in a school — how you would risk life to save children from the virus of hydrophobia from the dog's fangs! How much more when there are souls in danger of Hell — eternal Hell!

Who can arrange or describe fitting funeral obsequies of a lost soul? All the tears ever shed by all the graves and tombs of earth cannot; all the moans and sobs and sighs ever uttered cannot; if the inanimate world could break her silence — would that do it? If all the seas should utter their deep and dreadful wails — would that do it? If all the mountains should lift up rumbling voices — would that do it? If the sun should drape in darkness — would that do it? If the moon should refuse to give her light — would that do it? If all the stars turned to clay — would all these fitly show the dire catastrophe of a lost soul? No songs on earth, no prayers, no words can fitly show what it means to be lost!

Yet, I fear we agonize not as did Abraham over the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah; nor as Moses who pleaded for God to blot him out rather than the people; nor as Jacob over the disappearance of Joseph; nor as Samuel who wept all night over Saul; nor as David who cried in agony over Absalom; nor as Jeremiah who wept like a brokenhearted archangel; nor as Ezekiel who at filth to show the horrors of slavery; nor as Job who asked God questions through lips that festered with disease; nor as Jesus who wept over Jerusalem; nor as Paul who counted all things but loss.

"Rescue the perishing, care for the dying" — is short meter poetry that needs to be transposed into long meter activity. We need the passion that girded Francis Asbury as he traveled a distance equal to five circuits around the world every five years, on the average, for forty-five y ears — and that mainly on horseback. We need the passion that fired Livingstone and kept him aflame amid jungle dangers and twenty-seven attacks of African fever— the passion that was the power working in the heart of David Brainerd who said: "I care not what hardships I endure, if only I can see souls saved" the passion that drove General Booth, who, with a vision of the poor of London and what Christ could mean to their lives, said: "God shall have all there is in William Booth." And deacons must not be found guilty under the indictment set forth by Bishop Theodore S. Henderson's alarming assertion: "The average church officer has not the slightest spiritual concern for the salvation of other people."

God says: "He that winneth souls is wise." Let us be wise — daily wise.

Lastly think with me of the

VIII. Antithesis

But as we believe that and preach hell let us not forget to believe and preach the antithesis of that — HEAVEN!

Heaven — where no toil shall fatigue God's redeemed ones.

Heaven — where no hostility can overcome them.

Heaven — where no temptations can assail them.

Heaven — where no pain can pierce them.

Heaven — where no night can shadow them.

Heaven — the most beautiful place the wisdom of God could conceive and the power of God could prepare.

In heaven beauty has reached perfection. Dr. Biederwolf tells us of a little girl who was blind from birth and only knew the beauties of earth from her mother's lips. A noted surgeon worked on her eyes and at last his operations were successful, and as the last bandage dropped away she flew into her mother's arms and then to the window and the open door, and as the glories of earth rolled into her vision, she ran screaming back to her mother and said, "Oh, Mama, why didn't you tell me it was so beautiful?" And the mother wiped her tears of joy away and said, "My precious child, I tried to tell you but I couldn't do it." And one day when we go sweeping through those gates of pearl and catch our first vision of the enrapturing beauty all around us, I think we will hunt up John and say, "John, why didn't you tell us it was so beautiful?" And John will say, "I tried to tell you when I wrote the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of the last book in the Bible after I got my vision, but I couldn't do it."

Heaven — the land where they never have any heartaches, where no graves are ever dug.

Heaven — where no hearse rolls its dark way to the tomb.

Heaven — where David is triumphant, though once he bemoaned Absalom.

Heaven — where Abraham is enenthroned, who once wept for Sarah.

Heaven — where Paul is exultant, though once he sat with his feet in stocks.

Heaven — where John the Baptist is radiant with joy though his head was chopped off in the dungeon.

Heaven — where Savanorola wears a crown though once he burned at the stake.

Heaven — where Latimer sings praises though once he simmered in the fire

Heaven — where many martyrs sit in the presence of Jesus though their blood once reddened the mouths of lions.

Heaven — where many saints rest in peace who once were torn on torture racks.

Let Heaven come into your mind — where there are no tears, no partings, no strife, no agonizing misunderstandings, no wounds of heart, no storm to ruffle the crystal sea, no alarm to strike from the cathedral towers, no dirge throbbing from seraphic harps, no tremor in the everlasting song. Let us have and hold and preach the Bible conception of Hell.

Let us have and hold and preach the antithetical conception of that perfect vision of God which we, for lack of words to describe, call "the home of the soul" — Heaven.