IS IRENE A HELL?

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXVII, Issue 4514, 11 April 1913, Page 4 (Supplement)

IS IRENE A HELL?

BY THE REV SILVESTER HORNE, M.A., M.P. HABERE may bo Heaven, thoro must X bo Hell,” wrote Robert Browning. What ho probably meant is that virtue is its own reward, and needs no further reward, but that a place qf retribution is demanded by tho unpunished sins and evils of tho present lifeOno dooa not seo, however, why it is not equally possible to maintain that vino is its own punishment, and that thero is no need to suggest external forms of torment; for impenitent wickedness carries in its own breast tho sting and scourgo that up the essence of what wo call “Hell.’' Thero arc passages in Scripture that might easily be pressed into our service to prove that Hell dees not moan anything different from certain conditions which sometimes hold in this life. “He that is filthy let him be filthy still; and ho that is unjust let him ba unjust still.” In other words, let him carrv beyond this life tho character that distinguished him here, and ho will lie in Hell. Nothing more is needed. Such., as I need hardly point out, was Aiilton’s view. Ho makes Satan say: “Where’er I go is Hell; Myself am Hell.”

THE GULF BETWEEN. , . There, in ono lurid epigram, the truth is expressed. My Hell is in myself. Even it I were to present_myself among tho sons of God, and. inhabit an outward Heaven, I should he in reality living in Hell. "This is tho doctrine that is most generally believed at tbo present time. Are wo justified in saying that it was tbo teaching of Christ, and it so, did Ho moan to teach that there will bo no intluonees in the next world that could possibly modify or regenerate the personality that‘is its own retribution? These aro the two questions on which, perhaps, most depends in this controversy. First cf all, what are we .instmcd in saying, was the teaching of 'Christ? By far the most vivid piece of leaching is the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus". I do not want to be guilty of exaggeration in any interpretation of that luminous allegory, but it docs help us to answer tho two questions I have suggested. The prayer of Dives in Hell is that Lazarus may be sent to him on an errand of ‘mercy. That prayer is not answered, because it cannot be. Ho is compelled to realise that between Lazarus and himself there is a great gulf fixed, a gulf which can never be crossed. Who fixed that gulf? _ The answer is plain. Tho rich man himself fixed the gulf in this life, and in the life to come its existence cuts him off from hope and consolation. In this life he cut himself off from tho brotherhood of man, and he finds that this loveless spirit has accompanied him beyond the gates of death, and constitutes bis retribution iu tho world to come, NOT EXTERNAL. This is the fulfilment of Milton’s saying, “Myself am Hell.” Unless there is something in tho “self” which constitutes its own punishment, there is no Hell; and unless the very capacity for repentance has died out from disuse, there is no eternal state that can bo called Hell.

But, granted these two conditions, eternal punishment is not the fablo which it has appeared to many. Before we can affirm that Jesus taught the existence of such an eternity of loss, however, wo must ask whether there is; not another inference to ho drawn from the groat parable. Tho last scene in the tragedy of Dives in of a soul awakening to a care for others, and a desire to save them from the misery itself has deserved. Dives beseeches that a messenger ho sent to those ho has left behind to warn them. Ho has forgotten his ora suffering now m the realisation of the impending fato of some whom lie has loved on earth. Surely this touch is not inserted in the parable to suggest that there is no repentance possible, oven in Hell. THE CERTAINTY OF PUNISHMENT On tbo other hand, wc see that a soul is regaining there some disinterested-nc-fis of ambition and desire. It is surely not illegitimate to draw tho conclusion that Christ intended to teach that even the fire of remorse in the future life may purify the spirit, and eo prepare it for some higher and better state.

Nothing is more remarkable than the deliberateness avith which our Lord leaves tho future in obscurity—an obscurity so impressive that it is more solemn than the clearest revelation could have been. The one certainty is tho certainty of punishment appropriate to the sins of earth, and inseparable from the self which wo take with us into the Beyond. Surely that is enough for ua to know. It lends solemnity to the life wo are living here. It sets an infinite value on that self which we are cultivating to bo either our bliss cr bane on the other side of the veil.—Cassell’s Saturday Journal.