CHAPTER SEVEN
HELL

       We have seen that the Law is the custodian of social happiness, and that, where it is broken, happiness disappears and apprehension takes its place. We have also seen that God delays the punishment of sin in order to give an opportunity for repentance. But what is to be done with the finally unrepentant, with those who love evil and all the pleasures of sin, and care nothing for the happiness of others, but even enjoy the discomfiture of the innocent?

       In our own country the habitual criminal has forced the Law to invent a sentence called Preventive Detention. This is a sentence, not so much for any specific act, but upon a criminal mind which has convinced the judge the sinner intends to continue in his course of crime, so that there is no real hope of him changing his way of life. In other words the Free Will which comes to a fixation of criminal purpose brings the Law to a corresponding fixation of righteous purpose. Eternal sin is so utterly dangerous to the happiness of society that it cannot possibly be endured. It is in the power of the sinner to wreck, and to keep wrecked, the whole plan of the Creation, and to bring about upon the universe eternal misery instead of eternal happiness. It therefore becomes the duty of God to safeguard the success of His plan and the prosperity of the righteous, and leaves Him with no alternative but to prevent the sinful will from having any opportunity of putting its desires into action. This He will do by destroying the body of the sinner, and thus keeping his soul

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in solitary confinement. It is impossible to prevent him wanting to do evil: only the sinner himself could do that: but he can be prevented from doing what he wants. And this the Lord God will do out of Love for the righteous. When once our wills have finally chosen love or selfishness, the Lord will be brought to His final judgment of us, and we shall pass either into His Kingdom or into His prison. The happiness of God's people will depend upon the security of God's jail! We are shown in Scripture (Revelation 20:7-10) that when Satan, after spending a thousand years in God's prison, is again released for a short time, it is not long before he has undermined the peace of the Millennium, and brought about the last catastrophe which God will allow to plague the earth.

       People often speak of Hell as if it were too cruel to be true. The truth is the exact opposite, that it is our one hope of unbroken happiness. It is not Hell that is cruel, but its prisoners, who are determined to gain their own desires at the expense of others, unless they are prevented. Were the wicked to be allowed eternal liberty then we would have nothing to expect but an eternal continuation of the griefs and sorrows which this earth has known for so many thousands of years. What relief did the deaths of Mussolini and Hitler bring to millions of souls, and what apprehension is in the world today at the lives of those who still threaten us with modern war! So long as the wicked are at liberty the souls of men are in constant anxiety, such as now pervades the earth. The Lord has allowed sinners such apparent liberty to wreck this earth and satisfy their own evil desires in order that all may be fully satisfied that Hell is not only justified but is their only hope of security. There will never be any desire that Hell might be emptied of its prisoners, but only an eternal thankfulness that at last peace and

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happiness will reign undisturbed.

       It may be helpful here to point out that God is in no way responsible for Hell, any more than the earthly judge is to blame for the wretchedness of prison life. So far as He is concerned it would never have existed at all. It is not even sin that is to blame for it, but only defiant unrepentant sin which cannot give happiness even to its owners, but only hardness of heart and bitterness of mind! The sinner can bring himself to such a state of mind that even in heaven he would be miserable, so that God can do nothing to help him even if He would, but can only prevent him spoiling the happiness of others. It should also be understood that Hell is not a place where Satan and his angels and demons can torture people to their hearts' content. Satan is not the King of Hell but is its victim. The torture of Hell will arise from its inmates' eternal inability to satisfy their evil desires. The absence of opportunity to repeat the evil acts of their life will be their torment, and the eternal despair of wicked desires which will never again be gratified. Perhaps we may see in a paralytic stroke the best illustration of death and Hell. The victim is left conscious, and also realising that no one can help him, so that never again will he be able to do what he has done in the past. The future stretches before him as a ghastly inactivity filled with torturing memories and well-founded despair.

       There are those who speak as if the Lord God could send souls to Hell for eternity because of what Adam did, or because the minister failed to arrive in time, or because they were not in the number of the elect. The very simple truth is that God would be profoundly wicked if He sent anyone to eternal punishment except for one single crime, eternal sin. Eternal punishment, awful as it is, is the only answer to eternal refusal to repent. For the alternative, to give the

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sinner eternal liberty to go on wrecking the universe, is even more awful. God is Love and is not willing that any should perish, and finds no pleasure in the death of the sinner. Indeed He has at His own expense made such a provision that no one need ever perish. But he is bound by His Love for others to safeguard them eternally against the malignity of those who love evil and hate good.

       Finally in Matthew 11:20-24 Our Lord reveals that at that last and awful judgment day He will take into account not only what a man actually did, but what he would have done under better circumstances: and in John 15:22-25 He shows the nature of the final and unforgivable sin. It is only those who when they see God and His works hate Him, who are beyond hope of redemption. So long as repentance is possible hope is possible. It is only Eternal Sin which baffles even the Almighty, and seals the sinner's irrevocable sentence:—

Too Dangerous to Live!

       There remains but one question which always arises whenever the terrible fact of Hell is preached. It is this: if it be true that God cannot bring the wicked to repentance why does He not annihilate them? The answer to this inevitable question is two-fold. Firstly, if annihilation were the worst that the sinner had to fear then there would be many who would be tempted to pay this small price for their sinful pleasures: whereas the awfulness of Eternal Punishment has frightened many from their life of sin, and brought them to repentance and Eternal Life, as they considered whither their feet were leading them. In the second place we are told that the smoke of Hell will always be visible in the New Creation, and there are those who are "scarcely saved" (1 Peter 4:18) and only kept from slipping into sin again by the eternal reminder of its wages! So the sight of the prison walls has

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deterred many from a life of crime, as they are constantly reminded of the price to be paid by a law-breaker (Isaiah 34:10; Revelation 14:9-11; 21:8).

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