Page images
PDF
EPUB

many does this sweet psalmist of Israel say? "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside; they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." No, NOT ONE. All had gone out of the way: then all had forgotten God. This is the testimony of the same author. He says, "All the nations that forget God shall be turned into hell ;" and then says, that, "All the people below heaven had forgotten God;" or words to the same purport. Now I ask, does this not prove more than our opposers will allow? Are they willing to understand that themselves, and all mankind, from Adam to his last offspring, who have forgotten God,--all ministers, all deacons, all people, shall be turned into hell? Will they allow this? No. Then they would compromise the question in some way or other, or give up the text. This text says, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." The testimony of the same author says, that they, the children of men, are all gone aside. Then they are all wicked, and have forgotten God. Since, therefore, all nations have forgotten God, this is a good argument, directly to disprove the application of the text. David, the author of all that has been quoted on this subject, says, "All the nations, whom thou hast made, shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name." He that said, "All nations that forget God shall be turned into hell," now says, "All nations shall worship before the Lord." Now no nation, that he named, could be turned into an endless hell; because, all the nations of which he spake, shall come and worship; and if there were any nations that he did

not name, how shall we know what will become of them? I will ask my attentive audience this question; whether this does not stand a confused subject before you? Can you see any consistency in it-any meaning? Can you conceive that an inspired writer would first tell you God Almighty decreed, that all mankind were to be miserable to all eternity; and then tell you, all the nations of the earth shall worship before God? "All nations, all kindred, shall worship before thee." Is this the author of the text? Yes; and this is a man declared to be the prophet of God. He is represented to be moved by holy inspiration, in this testimony. Now I will ask one question nore: Does the gospel, which whispers peace, pardon, love, and salvation through the mediation of the Son of God, contemplate the salvation of one single individual, unless it be a sinner, or wicked person? Do you learn, from reading the gospel, that it was designed for the salvation of any but sinners? Did not Jesus say, "I come, not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentence?" Does not St. Paul, his faithful servant and follower, speak to the same effect? What says David? That they are to be saved? No; cast into hell! And yet the same David said, that all nations should come and worship before God. St. Paul says, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the world to save sinners." "" Put these together, and make sense of them. I know what you will say. You will say, the scriptures are broken, and are made to contradict each other. Why so? They are, my friends. if hell be a place of misery in another world. But if the hell, into which sinners are to be turned, be a state from which the wicked can be reclaimed, redeemed, and

restored, the scriptures may harmonize; but in on other way. Well, then, says the hearer, one thing is certainly wanted, in this place. We want to know whether this hell, in its proper sense, can be in this world, or is it in another world? Well, my friends, I expect to give you perfect satisfaction on this subject, if you are perfectly attentive and candid. The testimony of the same writer is what I shall adduce to prove, that the hell, of which he speaks, is in this world, and we do no violence to his language so to explain it. What does this writer say about hell? How did David know that the wicked would be turned into hell? He knew it by experience; because he had been a sinner. I need not undertake to prove, that he had been a sinner, for you are aware of that fact. He had been wicked, and had been turned into hell; and you have his own testimony for this. For in the eighty-sixth psalm, he says, "Great is thy mercy, O Lord, for thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell!" Is it possible David said this? Yes, it is. "Great is thy mercy, O Lord, for thou hast delivered soul from the lowest hell." Is it possible he had been in the lowest hell, and had been delivered from it? Was he in this world, or in another world, when he wrote thus? He was in this world. He was flesh and blood; but he had been in the lowest hell! God had been merciful towards him, and had delivered him from it. "But," says the objector, "I do not know that that is making a right use of the text. Perhaps, all he meant, was, that was prevented from going there. If the pains of that awful torment had seized upon him, he he could not have been delivered." In the one hundred and sixteenth psalm and the third verse, he says, "The pains of hell gat hold upon me."

my

Here is

Now there is no need of the first words. testimony direct. He says, first, that God had delivered him from the lowest hell; and then, he says, the pains of hell gat hold of him. He had not only been in the lowest hell, but the pains of hell had seized upon him, and yet he was delivered by the mercy of God. God did not accept of his going into hell, as an atonement, but by his repentance he was delivered from hell.

In addition to the testimory of David, I will give you that of Jonah; who, when speaking of his deliverance from the belly of the fish,* says, "Out of the belly of hell, cried I, unto the Lord, and thou heardest my voice." He must have been there, when he cried unto God, and when he cried, God heard him. Now here it is evident, that it was possible for Jonah to be in the belly of hell, and for God to hear him when he cried to him. The Bible contains a great many other things, with respect to hell, which prove, that it is in this world. Solomon, in his ninth chapter of Proverbs, says, "A foolish woman is clamorous; she is simple; and knoweth nothing: for she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat, in the high places of the city, to call passengers who go right on their ways: whoso is simple, let him turn in hither; and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell." O, my friendly hearers, most assuredly, according to this testimony, every individual who listens to the voice of folly, and deviates from the paths of wisdom and righteousness, finds himself in the lowest depths of hell.f

[blocks in formation]

Once more, I will give you an instance of the use of the word "hell," and then shall suppose, that I have given you enough. St. James says, of the tongue, that "little member," which boasteth great things"-"The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity-it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the whole course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell."* Did you never see men join together, and with their tongues kindle up a fire? Yes. St. James calls that, hell. They did it with their tongue, that unclean member, full of deadly poison. Oh! the tongue, ungoverned, will turn you into hell, and bring you into sorrow and trouble.

I cannot believe that my subject now remains obscure. You must now, I think, understand the true application of this subject, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." Every individual who walks in the paths of wickedness, goes into hell; for trouble, perplexity, and misery are the inseparable companions of sin and transgression. All the nations of the earth that practice wickedness, are involved in trouble and wretchedness. I ask now, whether hell is in this world, or in another? You must say, in answer, "In this world." Read the history of the Jewish nation. What exalted her? A wise and equal policy-a judicious line of conduct and administration of government, consistent with the laws of righteousness. What threw this nation down from her glory? What blotted her name from heaven? Her transgressions: it was because she sinned against God, and did not do justice towards his Son. What exalted the house of Israel? Their righteousness and piety. What degraded that peo

*See Note (d.)

« PreviousContinue »