If any human soul at all Must die the second death, must fall Into that gulph of quenchless flame Which keeps its victims still the same, Unpurified as unconsumed, To everlasting torments doomed; Then I give God my scorn and hate, And turning back from Heaven's gate (Suppose me got there!) bow, Adieu! Almighty Devil, damn me too.** Baxter, in his _Saint's Everlasting Best_, declares: "The principal author of hell torments is God himself. As it was no less than God whom the sinner had offended, so it is no less than God who will punish them for their offences. He has prepared those torments for his enemies.... The everlasting flames of hell will not be thought too hot for the rebellious; and when they have burnt there for millions of ages, he will not repent him of the evil which is befallen them." * The Eternity of Hell Torments, p. 25 (London. 1789). ** Vane's Story. Was not Shelley right when he described the Christian God:-- A vengeful, pitiless and almighty fiend, Whose mercy is a nick-name for the rage Of tameless tigers hungering for blood. It would be easy to multiply citations. Spurgeon, among living divines, has preached hell as hot as anybody. But the doctrine is decaying together with real faith in Christianity. Walter Savage Landor well says: "The priesthood in all religions sings the same anthem. First, the abuses are stoutly defended, but when the ground is no longer tenable, then these abuses are to be distinguished and separated from the true faith." But what are we to think of the sudden conversion of a church that has taught falsity so long? If it did not know the truth on this important point, how can it be credited with knowing it upon any other matter? The rejection of hell cuts the ground from under the gospel. Salvation supposes a prior damnation. If there is no hell no Savior is needed. Christianity is all of a piece, and, its main prop gone it must fall like a house of cards. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christian Doctrine of Hell, by Joseph M. Wheeler