PREFACE.
There are few subjects within the compass of revealed or speculative Theology, upon which inquiring minds have been more exercised within the last hundred years, than the subject of Hell. And there are few, perhaps, which have been the occasion of more strifes and divisions in the churches, which have caused more trouble to Christian believers, or upon which there are at this moment more anxiety, doubt and disagreement among religious teachers themselves.
There is no doubt that the popular mind of Christendom has undergone a considerable change on this, as on many other subjects, since the commencement of the present century. The old representations of the Divine justice, and of the condition of the wicked in the great Hereafter, would hardly be listened to with patience—certainly not with satisfaction—by any intelligent Christian congregation of to-day.
"The idea which men once had of hell and of divine justice," says the distinguished occupant of Plymouth Pulpit, "was a nightmare as hideous as was ever begotten by the hellish brood itself. And it was an atrocious slander on God. I do not wonder that men have reacted from these horrors—I honor them for it."
