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.