Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1914 — WHERE IS HELL? [ARTICLE]

WHERE IS HELL?

By Major F. W. Barber. Since the advent of Christ we have been taught to believe that hell is the worst punishment'that can bp inflicted upon an erring people. It may be so, but the hell of Europe casts a shadow of doubt. Men whose vocation in life is the redemption of souls are warning us against the terrors of hell. Yet our brothers across the .seas are plunged into a maelstrom of destruction which puts even hell itself to shame. The hell of biblical conception is pictured as a place of torment, inhabited by the souls of sinners to

whom the gates of heaven are closed The hell of Europe is a furnace of destruction for the good and the bad, the innocent and the guilty, for women and children and babes of a day. As the devil wields his fork over the denizens of the fiery pit, so do the kings and emperors of Europe wield the sword of compulsion over the heads of their subjects and force them into the jaws of an earthly hell. The patriotic spirit which permeates every human breast has taught us to respond to the call of country, whether that call be just or not. And this national spirit has permitted the rulers of the old world to launch a contest of blood and iron and destruction which is shaking the very world to its foundations, and which may even yet involve every civilized nation of the globe. Have we two hells? Or has the hell of tradition been transferred from the regions of Satan to the blood soaked battlefields of Europe? We are solemnly warned to repent of our sins or suffer the eternal torments of hell, x Be it even so. But what of this hell on earth? What of the mighty engines of destruction which are devastating a fair land and sweeping a once enlightened people into the presence of their Maker? What of the changing of an erea of civilization into a congested mass or struggling, snarling, destroying human beings bent solely upon the annihilation of one another? What of the tremendous explosives hurled into cities and destroying soldiers and civilians alike? What of the terrible bombs dropped from the warhounds of the air into the midst of innocent and helpless women and children, taking the lives which God hade men to protect and cherish ? W hat of the explosives lurking in the bosom of the seas and perilii.g the existence of ships loaded with non-combatants? What of the broken and grief stricken women and young girls who inust toil jn the fields that men may have bread while doing their utmost to obliterate the human race? What of the widows and orphans who must suffer through life because war has robbed them of a protector? M hat of the helpless ,babes who are dying of starvation because armies in the fieldmust have the milk which otherwise would mean life to the little ones? What of the maimed who must gc through life warped and twisted with pain? What of the gaping holes in n.tn.aii breasts, of limbs torn from their sockets, of mangled forms which even a merciful death refuses to release from their agonies? What of the millions of aged and infirm dependents who must lace starvation before this hell has run its course? What is hell? WHERE IS HELL? \\ hatever it is—whereev-r it ma.' fee —hell is hell, but this hell of Europe is one hell of a hell.