IV.
THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT—SHEŌL, HADES, GEHENNA, AND THE LAKE OF FIRE.
I HAVE said that while the Old doctrine of hell is sensuous, and in agreement with a sensuous philosophy and a sensuous interpretation of Scripture, the New is eminently spiritual, and in harmony with the higher spiritual philosophy and with the spiritual interpretation of the Word.
For the essential difference between the Old and the New doctrine, lies in this: That the Old represents hell as a place, created by the Lord at the time of man's creation, previous to his lapse into sin, and for the express purpose of tormenting sinners; while the New declares it to be a certain internal state, wrought out in freedom through the voluntary infraction of the soul's own laws, or the laws of our higher life. Your child may reside in the same place with yourself—beneath the shelter of the same roof, and surrounded by the same beautiful objects. But by a course of willful disobedience or unreasonable self-indulgence, that child may have destroyed its health, impaired its senses, and rendered itself miserable and wretched generally. And until its habits are changed
