“The material view of Heaven as a place, instead of a condition of the soul, that men can be thrown into it, by some force or power, outside of themselves, that some one else has the keys and can open the place for them, is a delusion that has done great hurt to humanity. With these ideas men deceive and excuse themselves. Instead of making and building up a heaven of their souls, they depend on others. They shift the responsibility. If they sin, some one will bear their sins for them. No matter how often they sin, or how long they continue in it, if they, at the dying hour, can say they are sorry, get a priest to vouch for them, and give them the pass-word, they will be made heirs of Heaven, and be straightway carried to Abraham’s bosom. All this is contrary to common sense and reason. “Is it fair and just, supposing heaven to be a place, to those who all their lives have striven to be good, to have these wretches who are steeped in sin and made up of vice and crime to become at a breath, inhabitants of heaven when they are not able to sin any more? This would not be human justice, nor can I believe that it is God’s plan to people heaven in that way, supposing it to be a place. O, yes, the thief on the cross! I think if Jesus could have foreseen what use would have been made of that expression he would never have uttered it. He had the Jewish notion of heaven being a city, a new Jerusalem, with many mansions, surrounded by a wall with gates. With all due respect to him as a great teacher and a pure man, I cannot but think that these words of his have kept many in sin, delayed their repentance and leading of a better life. Do I say this rashly? Have I not heard men say, ‘O, I will repent before I die;’ and when warned of their mistaken idea of repentance and the danger of delay, have answered, ‘The thief repented on the cross when he was dying and was promised paradise.’ And there is the parable of the laborers. This is a Jewish story and might be told of one of their rulers who could do as he pleased. It is utterly contrary to human justice for a man who works only an hour to receive as much as the man who labors ten hours. It is a libel on God to think he would pay his laborers in that way. “I have sometimes thought that some people are dead long before they are buried. All the spiritual life, that which makes manhood or saints, is dead, killed by their vices and transgressions against their spiritual nature, and the animal life alone remains that keeps their bodies in existence. What effect then would a prayer or a wafer or anything have upon such a thing that is only like the carcass of a dying brute? In proportion as a man sins he becomes dead to righteousness. I think no one can question this. Then we cannot help admitting that there may come a time when he, his soul, will be actually dead to all good influences. Then he will be a hell to himself, or in hell, just as you choose to have it.