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THE KING’ S BUSINESS be ‘shed’ by our theologians now, and the Hebrew word is said not to mean fire and brimstone, but only nothingness. They still promise a reward for righteousness, but we have got rid of positive punishment for evil. “ The man who, whatever his vulgarities, seems to get th§ converts these times, preaches old-fashioned hell. He is BILLY SUNDAY. He follows the example of JOHN WESLEY ^and by preaching heaven and hell converts sin ners. Are any new theologians, who leave hell out, converting sinners ? Are the latitudinarian churches regenerating wicked men ? “Anybody can answer those questions. And the answers suggest that there may reside a force in hell with which society cannot afford to dispense. Hell, in other words, possesses pragmatic social value. “ ROBERT BROWNING wrote, as finale to one of his dramas in minia ture : i ‘There may be a heaven, There must be a hell,’ signifying as result of his study of a phase of human passion, the greater indis- perisability, so to,speak, of hell. Do we realize, we optimists and sentimentalists of an irreligious or a non-religious time, that, when hell is discarded, society parts with an immense incentive to virtue? Can society afford to do so? “ If righteousness is worth anything much, its violation is certainly a grave offense. If virtue is really an important matter, vice or contradiction of virtue is surely worth punishment. If good is positive, bad is something more than zero, must be negative. Sheol is merely zero; but hell is a thing in itself. “We apprehend everything by contrast, in opposing pa’irs, as ARISTOTLE taught. Righteousness and unrighteousness, like cold and hot, are appreciated by reason of their opposition. So that we would amend BROWNING’S fines to read: ‘If there be a heaven, there must naturally be a hell.’ , “We see considerable need for a restored belief in hell.” DREACHERS PLAYING TO THE GALLERIES. _ One of the sad developments of the present time in connection with the War is the way in which a certain type of preachers, instead of preaching the Gospel, or even Christian Ethics, are playing to the galleries and seeking applause by utterances which are riot really patriotic, but which tickle thè prejudices of the thoughtless.1 Many.of these, utterances are re,ally open or veiled assaults upon others who are not so ostentatious in their display of patriotism, but who are showing their patriotisnr'by sacrificing their comfort and their money for the welfare of the nation and of our soldiers, while these self-advertized “ patriots” are simply indulging in grand-stand plays to get the vociferous applause o f the undiscriminating mob.
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