A MISSION TO HE 
 
 DWARD EELLS 
 
-GIFT OF 
 
 2l 
 
 
 .^1 
 
A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD EELLS 
 
 M 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 «' CHRISTLIKE CHRISTIANITY " 
 
 BOSTON 
 SHERMAN, FRENCH fef COMPANY 
 
 1909 
 

 Copyright, 1909 
 Sherman, French 6>» Company 
 
 
!- 
 
 " Behold, we know not anything ; 
 I can but trust that good shall fall 
 At last — far off — at last to all, 
 And every winter change to spring." 
 
 — Tennyson. 
 
 onA^i o/- 
 
SORROW frt tiEAVfcN 
 
 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 I often wondered, back in the earthly life, if 
 we might not, at times, be permitted the experi- 
 ence of a kind of glorified sorrow as a part of the 
 life of heaven. Of course I know now. The 
 whole problem, as it looked then, came back viv- 
 idly to mind when I met the singer, Strong, in 
 heaven. It was passing the middle of the Twen- 
 ty-first century, as time is counted on earth. I 
 became conscious of the neighborhood of a sunny, 
 expansive smile, and a strain of tender longing 
 came over my soul fitting the words, " Oh, tell 
 my darling mother, I'll be there." 
 
 " Surely this must be Strong," I thought. 
 
 " Hello, Sweetheart ! " came the prompt re- 
 sponse, and we were soul to soul in happy recog- 
 nition, thinking over together old evangelistic 
 days. 
 
 " Do you recall a conversation we had about 
 heaven," I asked him, " about half -past nine 
 o'clock on the morning of the eighteenth of No- 
 vember, 1905, down in Tippleton, New Jersey, 
 you and I and Doctor Goodwin from Nineveh, 
 and Brother Weems, my Methodist colleague, 
 just before we prayed for success in our meetings 
 that day?" 
 
 " Sure ! You said heaven wouldn't be like 
 1 
 
2 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Christ without sorrow, and Weems asked you 
 what you would do with Revelation 21.4, 'And 
 God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, 
 and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, 
 nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; ' 
 and then Goodwin came to your help with some 
 Greek, which wasn't fair on us two others then, 
 but I think I'd be ready for him now." 
 
 " He said, did he not, that while, no doubt 
 there would be no 7reV0os, lamentation, in heaven, 
 there might be quiet Aim/, sorrow, which Paul 
 says may be godly, and may have hope, and 
 which Jesus often felt, and once so deeply that 
 He was near to dying of it in the Garden, before 
 He came to Calvary." 
 
 " But that was in His estate of humiliation," 
 Brother Strong objected even now, falling back 
 upon his early teaching, " and it was a part of 
 His finished vicarious sacrifice and suffering for 
 sin." 
 
 " And yet He is the Lamb slain from the foun- 
 dation of the world," I ventured to insist. " He 
 is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Has 
 He not shown you His heart which through all 
 the ages has been aching over sinful and sad ones, 
 lost in many a world ? " 
 
 " I was just remembering how it struck me that 
 morning," my friend explained. " Weems and I 
 thought that was about the wildest notion — sor- 
 row in heaven — that you had gotten off to date. 
 I partly recall something that was said about how 
 
LOOKING THIS WAY 3 
 
 our souls would not be narrower in heaven, but 
 broader; and about how we wouldn't feel less re- 
 gret for all the harm we might have done, but 
 more regret. I thought we wouldn't know or 
 bother about what might be going on on earth or 
 in hell, so as to feel sorry about it all ; but Doctor 
 Goodwin rather thought we would still be most 
 deeply interested along that line. You felt sure 
 your father and mother, along with the cloud of 
 other witnesses, were still noticing things that 
 were happening to you on earth, and you thought 
 perhaps they were even more concerned about 
 your brother Harry in hell, if he really had gone 
 there ; only you couldn't help hoping he might 
 have died in penitence and faith undeclared at last. 
 I said I was afraid you were getting morbid ; and 
 then you wanted to know what I really felt when 
 I sang the chorus of ' Mother's Prayer.' " 
 
 At this point my companion sang in soul mel- 
 ody, as not even every redeemed spirit can sing — 
 
 " Whene'er I think of her so dear, 
 I feel her angel spirit near; 
 A voice comes floating on the air, 
 Reminding me of Mother's prayer." 
 
 " Prester," he confessed, " I used to have peo- 
 ple crying when I sang that; and it was only a 
 tender fancy to me. But mother tells me she has 
 been right by me often in crowded meetings when 
 I was singing it, while the air was thick with 
 mother spirits bending over sons and daughters 
 
4 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 there. It was the reality that made them weep." 
 I hardly think I ever knew my friend, Strong, 
 to admit being convinced in a contention, back on 
 earth. I was often conscious that he looked upon 
 me with compassion, as a theorist. Constitution- 
 ally somewhat of the sturdy breed of the great 
 American Philistine, such truly wonderful power 
 of sensibility as he showed in singing the gospel 
 seemed almost a pure work of grace. Perceiving 
 that two mortal life-times in Paradise had helped 
 him somewhat, I ventured now to ask if he still 
 thought heaven could be heaven without the soft- 
 ening influence of pity, as one example. " Sweet- 
 heart," he replied, " I am more of a puzzle to 
 myself up here than ever I was in the States. I 
 begin to find out that joy and sorrow are not two 
 opposite things; but two sides of what is often 
 the same thing. I used to look forward to 
 heaven as, in boyhood, I looked forward to a trip 
 to the city. I was going to stride up the golden 
 streets and get whatever I wanted, see all the 
 sights and do just as I pleased. I thought I 
 would get a rest from bothering with so many 
 people. Bless you! I never knew what it was to 
 be really busy till I got here. Travel? Why, 
 I have to whisk around from world to world. 
 Sing? I'm at it all the time. I pray with peo- 
 ple as I never prayed on earth. You know I used 
 to tell you how I could just see what people were 
 thinking here and there among my audiences; 
 but we never thought what it would be up here; 
 
HEAVEN'S STRENUOUS LIFE 5 
 
 to be in the conscious interchange of several thou- 
 sand spirits at once, and recognize each one, and 
 love each one, and try to help each one in some 
 way; and give, and give, and give, getting only 
 by giving. Sometimes on earth, on the closing 
 night of a great series of meetings, the whole 
 audience would swoop down upon us, and shake 
 hands till my arm ached. But here we touch each 
 other like a school of herring, and every touch is 
 a distinct and different thrill. I used to think 
 our good easy time up here might be diversified 
 by welcoming a friend now and then at the pearly 
 gate; but really that isn't the millionth part of 
 it. Heaven is no mere picnic on a river bank. 
 Heaven is the strenuous life. Heaven is the 
 power station of immensity. Heaven is the 
 world-bureau. Heaven is the eternal market day. 
 Heaven is the cosmic exchange. Heaven is the 
 crowning convention. Heaven is the university 
 of the universe." 
 
 " And you know you wouldn't take the same 
 interest, if it were different." 
 
 " Well, I guess not ! Why, I used to look for- 
 ward to heaven as the rest which follows perfect 
 accomplishment. The capstone of the whole 
 thing would be put on, the scaffold cleared away, 
 and nothing left but congratulations to all eter- 
 nity. I used to sympathize sometimes with the 
 hard-worked woman who left the epitaph to be 
 put on her tombstone, ' I'm going to do nothing 
 forever and ever.' But that was just physical. 
 
6 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Heaven is the rest remaining; but it is like the 
 rest of getting well started — when you've got 
 your horses groomed and hitched up and all the 
 morning chores attended to, and you've got 
 everything snug in the wagon and off you go, 
 reins in hand, with a sharp eye on the road; or 
 when it's a house you are building and you've got 
 your plans and specifications all worked out, the 
 foundation laid, every stick of the frame cut — 
 and up she goes! Heaven is rest from worry. 
 You don't get tired; because there is just friction 
 enough to make things go. Why heaven is all 
 1 go.' I used to think I could go slow in eternity ; 
 because there would be plenty of time for every- 
 thing. Now I find there is just enough time and 
 none to spare, if you're going to keep up." 
 
 " So we each find what we need most," I an- 
 swered. " When I first came upon my dear old 
 Professor Noah K. in heaven, he was in the center 
 of a stillness which seemed to take in the universe. 
 There he remained with great, unblinking vision 
 sweeping over the infinite sea of thought. * Pres- 
 ter,' he said, ■ I really never found time to think 
 at the University. I used to catch half an idea 
 now and then, along after midnight when the 
 others were quiet in sleep. But God and I are 
 thinking, thinking, thinking now ! ' " 
 
 " And I can just as truly say," Brother Strong 
 rejoined, " that God and I are hustling now. 
 That is what makes the whirl restful and satis- 
 fying. When we awake here in heaven we are 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC PASSION 7 
 
 satisfied with His likeness. We are struck on our 
 job; because our Master works with us. We 
 look into His face, and see what to do next. It 
 was the first part of a revival that used to tire a 
 fellow. When the people were critical and sus- 
 picious and offish, and they wouldn't sing and 
 wouldn't respond to anything. But when we be- 
 gan to feel God working with us away down in 
 their hearts, so quietly, and the atmosphere of 
 the meetings began to get tense with surpressed 
 earnestness, and you could hear the congregation 
 remember to breathe at the close of solo or ser- 
 mon ; when the fire came down, and men that had 
 been hard were kneeling and weeping for sin; 
 there was nothing to tire a man in the work. I 
 just felt that I could sing all night. It wasn't 
 me singing, it was the Holy Spirit, and angels 
 were in the choir. Heaven is like that, only more 
 so." 
 
 " Wouldn't you like to go back to earth and do 
 more of it? " I asked him. 
 
 " Why, I do hover round a good deal," he re- 
 plied. " Heaven is splendid, but for the supreme 
 thrill; there's nothing quite up to the touch of 
 baby souls just new born in conversion. There's 
 nothing beats a revival after all, and we do like 
 to go and help." 
 
 " But wouldn't you like to do evangelistic work 
 again on your own initiative," I asked, " as you 
 did in the old mundane sphere ? " 
 
 " Why, yes," he acknowledged, " I can't say 
 
8 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 I wouldn't. But I take it out in knowing about 
 the revivals going on upon a number of planets 
 at once, and in putting a little more soul-melody 
 into each." 
 
 " Does this entirely satisfy you ? " I persisted. 
 
 " Why, what are you coming at ? " he inquired 
 in almost the old-time tone of bottomless suspicion 
 with which he was sometimes wont to turn upon 
 me. 
 
 " I hardly know whether to tell you or not," I 
 replied. " You used to see little that was reason- 
 able in my dreams. But I have to confess a wist- 
 fulness that leaves even heaven incomplete. You 
 are, no doubt, perfectly happy; because in all 
 your Christian life on earth you were doing, I 
 believe, all you honestly saw to do, or thought 
 you could do to win others to heaven. But I look 
 back and see so many whom I might have influ- 
 enced more decidedly to seek salvation, and I was 
 often timid and hesitating about it; so they are 
 lost. Could you ever forget if you had tried to 
 save a drowning man, and had thrown a rope al- 
 most within his reach, seen him half clutch at it, 
 and yet go down? I understand some things 
 that were in men's minds now, and many a for- 
 gotten conversation comes back to me interlined 
 with the unconfessed thought of the other man. 
 I spoke to my brother once just as we were com- 
 ing through a tunnel to the union station in 
 Baltimore, where I had to leave the train. We 
 were on our way each to his home from our moth- 
 
THE MISSION STILL LACKING 9 
 
 er's funeral. I had tried all the way from Wash- 
 ington to get my poor tongue to speak to him 
 of heaven, while he would talk of nothing but 
 railroads, and of mechanical details and appli- 
 ances, as was his wont, and when I broke in upon 
 all that at last in sheer desperation, and asked 
 him abruptly if he meant to meet Mother in 
 heaven, he said hastily, ' Now I don't want any 
 of that.' I replied weakly that I didn't wish to 
 frighten him away from; religion, but that I 
 longed to see him saved. I never saw him after- 
 wards, and never received a definite reply to what 
 I could find time to write to him on the theme 
 that is worth the while. Now I know something 
 of what he was really thinking all the way along 
 from the Capital before that, and it wasn't really 
 wheels and switches at all, but it was mostly the 
 way Mother's face looked as the setting sun, out 
 at dear old Rock Creek cemetery, sent its rays 
 slanting into her coffin by the grave. All that 
 was needed was an overmastering love in my heart 
 at that time, and he would have shaken his mind 
 loose from mechanical things long enough to have 
 cried to his mother's God for mercy. I have 
 looked for him in vain in heaven. I would like to 
 go and look for him in hell." 
 
 My fear was realized. As I breathed this 
 thought into my friend Strong's soul, he began 
 to recede from me. As if from a widening dis- 
 tance came the farewell, " Good-bye, Sweetheart^ 
 I'm rushed just now: I'll look you up again." 
 
10 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Then very faintly came the echo of a hymn he 
 used to sing with great effect about the judg- 
 ment — 
 
 " And oh what weeping and wailing 
 
 As the wicked were told of their fate ! 
 They cried to the rocks and the mountains, 
 And prayed — but their prayer was too 
 late." 
 
 One of the strange things about heaven has 
 been to have the thought suddenly occur of people 
 we have missed meeting at all ; one or another, per- 
 haps, even from among the members of some of our 
 pastorates on earth. It would come over us — 
 Jeanie and me — after decades of glory, and one 
 of us would exclaim, " How strange it is that we 
 haven't met that Mrs. So-and-so, who sang solos 
 with such heartfelt expression in such a choir? " 
 Or at another time the other would query, " Why 
 do you suppose we have never come across Elder 
 This-and-that ? He was always so willing to go 
 to Presbytery ; it seems strange not to find him 
 here in heaven's general assembly and church of 
 the First Born." 
 
 These failures on the part of one and another 
 expected-one to appear in heaven often made me 
 wonder at the grace of God in my own salvation. 
 I could see little explanation ; except that it must 
 be because my own failings had been so obvious 
 to all, that I had been compelled, in deference to 
 the common opinion, to put all my dependence in 
 
TO FEEL AT HOME IN HEAVEN 11 
 
 the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, and no depend- 
 ence whatever in my own achievements for God, 
 which were few enough on the most liberal reckon- 
 ing. As I still recall to mind the faults in me 
 which have called for the forgiveness both of God 
 and of my fellow men, I wonder more and more 
 to find myself here in heaven at all; but I have 
 reflected that if I had not been granted entrance 
 to heaven, I could never have had the wonderful 
 experiences which I am about to narrate. Hav- 
 ing thus been admitted to Paradise in the old- 
 fashioned way by virtue alone of the atoning 
 blood of my crucified Savior, I find myself really 
 very much more at home here, and more entirely 
 at my ease than I had expected. If my salvation 
 and the ground of my admittance had been in my 
 own carefully cultivated character, some of the 
 experiences I have gone through would probably 
 have made me tremble lest that character would 
 crumble away. But I am still depending en- 
 tirely and surely upon Christ, and when every- 
 thing else has seemed to be rocking to ruin around 
 me, I have found Him able to save even unto the 
 uttermost of heaven or hell. I have been aston- 
 ished to find how much congenial company of 
 saved sinners there is in heaven, while I have 
 strangely missed some very correct acquaintances 
 I knew on earth. For a long, long time these 
 missing ones were simply not in our universe. 
 " Papa, where is hell anyway ? " our middle girl, 
 herself a great-grandmother now, has often asked 
 
12 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 me. It seemed so strange, free as we were to search 
 infinity, that we never came upon any trace of 
 hell. I talked this over once with David Living- 
 stone, who is still exploring for missions through- 
 out dark planets, and he said he thought it must 
 be in accordance with heaven's law of nearness, 
 by which the souls who happen to be thinking 
 and feeling alike attract each other, and those we 
 love most we are most with. " Not miles but 
 mind, not leagues but love count in the rapid 
 transit of the spirit world. No matter where our 
 thought carries us," Livingstone said, " hell is 
 still the same distance off from those who love 
 God." 
 
 This is why, with all our wondering debates, 
 we cannot have any arguments in heaven. When 
 a real divergence of soul transpires, each finds the 
 other out of connection. This was one occasion 
 of frequent prayer while I was waiting in heaven 
 for my wife; for we did sometimes have argu- 
 ments on earth. Jeanie is conservative in all her 
 sympathies. She was intensely sensitive to all 
 the narrow opinions of the dear, contracted souls 
 around us, while I can see now that I was simply 
 absent-minded and obtuse to much that seemed 
 all important in their scheme of thought; much 
 as they interested one in their ways, and grateful 
 as I felt for the friendship they gave me. So I 
 used to ask God to make me more like my own 
 dear girl by the time she came on, and she says 
 she breathed a similar daily prayer. Thus we 
 
MIGHT IT BE? 13 
 
 really grew more together during the fourteen 
 years of our separation than during our wedded 
 life on earth. " It's love that draws the strong- 
 est after all ! " Jeanie declared in triumph after 
 the first speechless joy of reunion. We felt sorry 
 for some of the ill-assorted couples of our mun- 
 dane acquaintance who found one another almost 
 strangers in heaven, while other soul-attractions 
 filled each life. 
 
 But we came near losing each other once in 
 heaven when we renewed the discussion of the 
 parable of Dives and Lazarus. More than once 
 in the mortal life we had argued over it. Jeanie 
 contended that Lazarus had not been permitted 
 to go to the help of Dives ; so I might as well give 
 up, once and for all, my day-dreams about ever 
 being sent on a mission to hell. I asked her to 
 notice that Dives showed only a selfish motive in 
 asking for Lazarus to be sent with the drop of 
 water for his parched tongue. He showed no 
 sign of penitence for his selfish earthly life. 
 Jeanie thought Dives was represented as putting 
 his request in an humble manner, and also that he 
 was showing some unselfish concern for the wel- 
 fare of his brothers left on earth. I admitted 
 that hell, in the parable, was apparently doing 
 Dives some good, and this beginning of a change 
 in him thrilled me with a hope that he might yet 
 reach a state of mind to which Lazarus might 
 profitably be sent, to tell him how he could find 
 pardon and redemption. Jeanie said if that 
 
14 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 could happen, it would prove that the gulf had 
 not really been fixed after all. Then I told her 
 that I did not wish to harbor in mind a single 
 hope or belief which was not well founded upon a 
 reverent and rational interpretation of God's 
 word, our supreme rule of faith and practice, 
 but that I had seen people in this world — housed 
 in the same boarding house, joined as husband 
 and wife — between whom there was a gulf fixed, 
 and neither could get across. Yet the gulf might 
 close together when a heart was changed. 
 
 But Jeanie had not such easy confidence in 
 moral transformations. " There are some people 
 so set, nothing can improve them," she would in- 
 sist. " How could Elder Smiley, for instance, 
 ever possibly get to be man enough really to be 
 converted and reach heaven? The book of Reve- 
 lation says, ' Without are dogs,' and it mentions 
 a few kinds of people meaner than dogs. What 
 use would there be in having a hell, if very com- 
 passionate, tender-hearted people like you, dear 
 Boy, were to be allowed to go there and hobnob 
 with all sorts of scaly characters — like as not 
 the Devil himself — in the hope of bringing some 
 of them to repentance? Didn't Abraham, in the 
 parable, positively say that that sort of thing 
 wasn't allowed ? " 
 
 " Perhaps Abraham, himself, had no authority 
 to send Lazarus," I would still demur. " The 
 parable plainly forbids us to think that spirits 
 might be allowed to pass between heaven and hell 
 
THE MASTER'S EXAMPLE 15 
 
 on a merely humanitarian impulse. And cer- 
 tainly if any unrepentant soul could ever be con- 
 ceived of as sneaking out of hell, even into heav- 
 en's gladdest center, the gulf would be fixed still 
 — all around it. But it may be that the Master 
 of all, who Himself went and preached to certain 
 spirits in prison, when He hastened to descend 
 into Hades, after completing His atonement for 
 sin on Calvary, as if most eager to offer its avail- 
 ing power in hell, where, assuredly, nothing else 
 could avail but that atonement ; it may be that the 
 Master, Himself, might in His eternal, change- 
 less love for lost souls permit some who feel the 
 same eagerness, to carry to them the message of 
 salvation in Christ for all, even those in hell, 
 whose hearts might become truly broken and con- 
 trite for sin." 
 
 " Nathaniel, I am astonished at you," Jeanie 
 would exclaim. " For a Presbyterian to talk in 
 that way! What will the Presbytery think of 
 you?" " 
 
 " The Master knows I am trying to be honest 
 with the Presbytery," I would answer. " There 
 is nothing very definite in the standards of our 
 church in opposition to a belief in future proba- 
 tion, nor is there in the Bible either, as we read it 
 more carefully." 
 
 Then Jeanie would fall back upon other par- 
 ables. " Anyway you know the tares must be 
 separated from the wheat," she would declare tri- 
 umphantly, " and burned with unquenchable fire. 
 
16 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 The sheep must be separated from the goats, and 
 these shall go away into everlasting punishment; 
 but the righteous into life eternal." 
 
 " JEonian is the word used. It is the punish- 
 ment and life of the aeons, the ages." 
 
 " Is it the same word for both ? — both the 
 sheep and the goats ? " 
 
 " Yes — aeonian — which is not the strongest 
 word for duration in the Greek tongue either." 
 
 " But it really means eternal and everlasting 
 for the good people in heaven? " 
 
 " Assuredly ; Satan will never pluck them out 
 of the Savior's hand." 
 
 " Then it must mean truly everlasting punish- 
 ment for the bad people in hell," she would rea- 
 son triumphantly. 
 
 " We might think so in a narrow literal spirit 
 of deduction, if good were not in the nature 
 of things eternal as God is eternal; while it does 
 seem that evil should be, at the very worst, in 
 God's world, temporary, evanescent, ephemeral." 
 
 " You're no better than a Universalist ! " she 
 exclaimed reproachfully. 
 
 " I'd like to think I might get to be almost as 
 good as one or two of them," I replied ; " but 
 Universalists as a rule, I believe, do not accept the 
 doctrines of grace — that Christ died for our sins 
 as our substitute, and that we are justified alone 
 by faith in Him, our Savior. This to me, as 
 truly as it was to Luther, is the doctrine of the 
 standing or falling church. It is the only key to 
 
A WOMAN WHO COULD REASON 17 
 
 the problem of evil in God's world, and the only 
 hope of better things for lost and ruined sinners 
 here and hereafter." 
 
 " And do you think it really is for people in 
 hell?" 
 
 " If I could not humbly dare to think so, I 
 would lose my reason contemplating the dreadful- 
 ness of the alternative," would be my answer. 
 " Our tender Jesus tells us the most terrible things 
 about hell and the judgment. But He also gives 
 us incidentally, it seems to me, many assurances 
 upon which we can build a hope for the continued 
 activity of redeeming love in the great hereafter. 
 He never says positively that there is no further 
 probation, but rather suggests pretty plainly that 
 there is a forgiveness, at least for some sins, in 
 the world to come. The great standard parable 
 gives us the condition in which Dives and Lazarus 
 found themselves immediately after death. The 
 simile of the sheep and the goats gives us the 
 separation and doom at the judgment day. 
 There is no hint just here of a possible reprieve in 
 that aeonian punishment for those who may grow 
 sorry and truly turn to God. But we can confi- 
 dently fall back upon the fundamental princi- 
 ples of God's love which cannot change, of His 
 mercy which endureth forever. Our Lord Him- 
 self tells us there is lesser and greater condemna- 
 tion; there are few stripes for some, and many 
 stripes for others. So I cannot think Christ 
 blames me, if I wonder wistfully whether after 
 
18 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 preaching His dying love so imperfectly and for 
 such a little while and to so few people on earth, 
 I may be allowed to take the message again to 
 some in hell as He seems to have done, and as 
 these who framed and used the original Apostles' 
 Creed must all have believed He did, or they 
 would not in the creed have put ' hell ' so plainly 
 into antithesis with ' heaven.' I w T ould like, if it 
 were God's will, to tell the story of redeeming love 
 to some earnest-minded heathen who has died 
 without ever having known Christ. I would like 
 to tell it to some pious Jew who has died hating 
 the name of Christ, because of the persecutions 
 by Christians. I would like to tell it to some of 
 the poorer people we could never get to attend 
 church, and to some of the poor fellows who died 
 of drink, and to others who have been so preju- 
 diced, they really never have known how to be 
 saved. I think I would like to try the Gospel 
 again on the wickedest man we have known." 
 
 " That's Elder Rorer," my wife would inter- 
 rupt. 
 
 " Yes, I'd like to find poor Rorer in hell and 
 say to him, if I might, ' Rorer, God still loves 
 you. It is still true that Jesus died for you.' 
 I'd like to see how he would take it, after learning 
 some of the lessons of perdition." 
 
 " He would just try to do you some terrible 
 harm," Jeanie would say with a shudder. 
 
 But when we were together again in heaven, 
 there came a time when my precious girl said very 
 
A WISH NOT OUTGROWN 19 
 
 wistfully, " Dear Boy, when I look on your soul, 
 it is all clear to my sight, but one little spot which 
 is so bright that it is dark to me. You are not 
 telling me all you think." 
 
 I replied that I hesitated to grieve her with the 
 old subject; which was once only a fancy, but in 
 heaven it had grown to be the very wistfulness of 
 existence. 
 
 " You mean you still wish to go on a mission to 
 hell? " she asked me anxiously. 
 
 " I ask God to take the wish away, if it is 
 wrong," I answered. 
 
 " I wonder why you cannot be perfectly 
 happy," she said, " here in heaven with me and 
 Mother and Father and our glorified baby twins, 
 and all our children and grandchildren and all 
 these millions of lovely people." 
 
 It was then that we slipped out of touch for 
 one of those half-hour spaces in heaven. It was 
 mainly my fault, I fear ; I should have become by 
 this time more alive to the finer feelings of her 
 sex. I only perceived that she was not interested, 
 and so fell to musing. Just then there came a 
 wave of soft influence through heaven, informing 
 those who cared to know that America had gone 
 Imperialist. It did not occur to me at the moment 
 that politics would appeal to her, and I found 
 myself drawn to a group of some hundred mil- 
 lions who immediately closed in for a talk with 
 Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt, the 
 men whose strong administrations had so much to 
 
20 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 do with turning the current of national life to- 
 ward this desirable consummation. 
 
 There was one occasion during our earthly ex- 
 istence when I had the misfortune actually to 
 forget my wife. We were on our way to a party. 
 I left her standing on a quiet street of Church- 
 ville just for a moment, while I stepped across to 
 the house of a neighbor on a corner. They 
 bowed me out by a side door, and I went on down 
 that street to the post-office. There I found a 
 number of friends to be interested in while the 
 mail was being sorted, and getting a letter which 
 required an answer by the morning mail, I went 
 half way home. Then the thought of home's 
 cheery welcome recalled me by association to my 
 own sweet girl left upon the sidewalk. You may 
 be sure I did not find her there, and I had to face 
 a houseful of guests at my friend's party, greatly 
 amused with the story of my young wife's bewil- 
 derment when I did not return to her side. 
 
 On the occasion of this second mental lapse 
 (which occurred in heaven) we were looking, 
 while Cleveland and Roosevelt talked, down upon 
 the splendid empire of the two American conti- 
 nents over which the new people's king was to 
 reign, so long as his sovereignty should be for the 
 welfare of the nation ; and I was drawn to con- 
 trast this varied realm of twelve hundred million 
 inhabitants, with the part of God's whole great 
 kingdom known to me as yet. I remembered how, 
 in student days, I had sometimes practiced giving 
 
THE COSMIC OUTLOOK 21 
 
 one comprehensive glance over an extended land- 
 scape, then closing my eyes to see how many of 
 its features had been thus photographed upon my 
 memory. So now I thought I would let rays 
 from the whole sphere of cognizance stream into 
 my soul at once; I distinctly noticed the solar 
 system with which I was most familiar, Sirius 
 and his planets bathed in ruby light, certain twin 
 suns of varied colors whose worlds knew no night, 
 only marvelously blended changes of sunrise and 
 sunset, half daylight of crimson, half daylight 
 of blue, mingling into complete double sunlight of 
 purple. I peered into iridescent depths of flam- 
 ing orbs and whirling nebulae; I caught the glit- 
 ter from glaciers of dead worlds and searched the 
 gloom of their center-deep volcanic caves. I rev- 
 elled in the near vision of unspeakable glories 
 along the Milky Way. My soul was filled to 
 overflowing with the grandeur and beauty of 
 God's universe. Some of its infinitely varied 
 forms of physical and spirit life were revealed to 
 my glance; gigantic Martians, Jupiter's fire- 
 dwellers, great aether insects, strangest blendings 
 of soul and body. I caught the reach of the 
 world's fourth dimension, long known to mathe- 
 matics, inconceivable to sense, stretching out to 
 the infinity of purely spiritual existence. I felt 
 the myriad kiss of heaven's companionship of 
 souls, and heard the sweep of its seventy octave 
 symphony of rapture. My baby spirit, strain- 
 ing to its utmost capacity to take in this tiny 
 
22 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 fraction of the infinite reality of things, nestled 
 closer still to God at that moment. " Thou art 
 all, and in all, and yet beyond all," my heart 
 whispered ; " but Thou art only the same crucified 
 Jesus, who hast died for me ! " 
 
 And then the thought came over me with sud- 
 den longing, " even hell is a part of Thy being." 
 
 " The Lord of all Himself through all diffused, 
 Sustains and is the life of all that lives." 
 
 My heart went out to this great terrible, un- 
 known dependency of God. I knew in that mo- 
 ment that what I felt was just a little bit of 
 Christ's own longing over lost souls. I seemed to 
 be just beginning to live. Eagerly I strained 
 my gaze toward the horizon of the universe. I 
 was ready at once to fly to hell. Faces from the 
 past crowded upon my memory. Several were 
 suicides. Others had died suddenly, unrepentant. 
 Some were honest doubters apparently to the last 
 of their earthly life. I thought of the untold 
 millions whom I had never known, bred in sin, 
 living in darkness, dying in despair — cut off in 
 the rage and terror of battle with curses on their 
 lips — dying in dependence upon human absolu- 
 tion, upon pagan rites. Oh, if I could help save 
 some of them yet ! Then God answered my heart 
 more plainly than in all my life of faith and 
 prayer; and I knew that just as soon as I was 
 quite ready for the trust, I would be led out upon 
 its mission. I knew now that the desire to visit 
 
THE COMMISSION 23 
 
 hell on this saving mission was a work of God's 
 Holy Spirit in my heart, that it was in perfect 
 harmony with Christ's eternal longing to save, 
 and that others were being prepared for the same 
 endeavor. It was as though many unseen hands 
 touched mine in comradeship. A new kind of 
 friendship came into my soul's life just then, 
 changing the light of heaven. Here we know 
 whenever people are loving us often without 
 knowing who they are. The first touch of souls 
 who were to be peculiarly united through eternity 
 thrilled through and through me during those mo- 
 ments; and then the thought of the dear old ties 
 came almost like a temptation. Would they be 
 weakened, lessened now? Instantly I came back 
 to the half-hour before and exclaimed to myself, 
 " Why, what have I done with my wife? " Then 
 I felt something pulling. At first it was like a 
 cobweb; then as I yielded to its pull it was like a 
 fine thread, a silken cord, miles and miles of it. 
 Then I realized that she was wishing for me, that 
 her heart was calling me, that, for some reason, 
 she was almost in trouble. And when we found 
 each other, her soul had turned pale. " If you 
 will promise never to do like that again," she said, 
 " I am willing to go with you myself on your wild 
 goose chase to hell." 
 
A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 After that the secret was out in the family, and 
 we had some truly tall talks, sitting together in 
 heavenly places. Father said one thing had com- 
 posed his mind to a certainty that there could be 
 small truth in the " larger hope " of future pro- 
 bation ; namely, the inexpediency of preaching it. 
 He quoted the preamble to our Presbyterian 
 Form of Government, Article IV, which declares 
 that " Truth is in order to goodness, and the 
 great touchstone of truth is its tendency to pro- 
 mote holiness." And our Savior's dictum, with 
 regard to men, he thought, would apply equally 
 to doctrines — " By their fruits ye shall know 
 them." Men, at the best, were altogether too 
 prone to postpone their day of repentance; and 
 when we removed from them the fear of death as 
 the fixed and unalterable boundary line of the 
 soul's probation, beyond which there could be no 
 space found for repentance, though we might seek 
 it carefully and with tears; we greatly reduced 
 the probabilities of repentance at any time during 
 the mortal life. " ' Because sentence against an 
 evil work is not executed speedily,' " he quoted, 
 " ' therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully 
 set in them to do evil.' Accord to fallen human 
 nature even the glimmer of a hope that it may 
 pass out of the earthly existence unreconciled to 
 God, yet meet an opportunity somewhere beyond 
 
WILL THE DOCTRINE WORK? 25 
 
 in eternity, embracing which it may patch up 
 some sort of tardy compromise and achieve heaven 
 at last; you will then labor all but in vain to se- 
 cure conversions here. Men will venture upon 
 the risk of losing somewhat of heaven's first joy, 
 trusting that their delay may not prove entirely 
 fatal, but that God will stand in unchanged com- 
 plaisance ready to forgive them when they are 
 ready to be forgiven. Such a doctrine cannot be 
 true ; because it cannot be helpfully preached." 
 
 What could I say but that I thought so too? 
 For the people who are putting off repentance in 
 the hope of extended probation, there can be but 
 one scriptural and rational answer. But why 
 give them a false hope that they may wait to 
 repent at any time before they pass the uncertain, 
 accidental boundary line of physical death? 
 Does not this reduce the whole matter of a sin- 
 ner's relations with his wronged and slighted God 
 to an exciting game of chance, with the fun all 
 on the side of dallying with life's opportunity of 
 reconciliation? Why not say firmly and posi- 
 tively, " Now is the accepted time, now is the 
 day of salvation." " To-day if ye will hear His 
 voice, harden not your hearts ? " Why extend 
 even for a moment the term of probation to a 
 hesitating, scheming, stock- jobbing type of de- 
 layed repentance, which aims to drive the sharpest 
 bargain possible with God's indulgence to a soul 
 that would dearly like to sin a while longer, and 
 then be sweetly saved just a little while before 
 
£6 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 death comes? Is it enough to warn such people 
 of the uncertainty of the mortal life? What 
 warrant have we for giving that kind any hope 
 at all in God's continued mercy? Why not say 
 frankly : " I fear you haven't soul enough to 
 be saved anyway ? The appearances are that you 
 are already hopelessly reprobate and incapable of 
 genuine repentance. Not on the prolongation 
 of your uncertain mortal life, but upon this brief 
 present moment hangs the only hope for aeons be- 
 fore you. By bare possibility it may not yet be 
 quite too late for your shrivelling soul to cry to 
 God for grace to be ashamed before Him." 
 Why should we, on the authority of a few scat- 
 tered allusions in God's Word, possibly over-em- 
 phasized, become quite positive that physical 
 death, which from a moral point of view is only an 
 accident, must invariably terminate moral proba- 
 tion ; while we make little of the altogether scien- 
 tific and tremendously scriptural fact of soul death 
 in either world as the natural boundary line of a 
 soul's probation? Surely, our religion should be 
 the perfection of common sense. 
 
 " Father," I answered, that time in heaven, " I 
 am reminded of two hymns sung occasionally in 
 your meetings during my boyhood, the first of 
 which I could only wonder about, even as a child ; 
 while the second has often appealed to me with 
 greater emphasis, perhaps, than the author ever 
 intended. 
 
THE REAL BOUNDARY 27 
 
 " While life prolongs its precious light 
 Mercy is found and peace is given; 
 But soon, ah! soon, approaching night 
 Shall blot out every hope of Heaven." 
 
 That was the one I found it hard to believe, and 
 this was the other: 
 
 " There is a time we know not when, 
 A point we know not where, 
 That marks the destiny of men 
 To glory or despair. 
 
 " To pass that limit is to die — 
 To die as if by stealth; 
 It does not quench the beaming eye 
 Nor pale the glow of health." 
 
 We have to be careful how we think of people 
 in heaven ; for if we become too sympathetic in 
 thought with them at a given moment they are apt 
 to turn up. But we were glad to welcome to our 
 conversation the shy polyglot of Princeton and 
 of heaven, my father's instructor in the forties, 
 Joseph Addison Alexander. 
 
 " You were quoting my hymn," he said. " and 
 naturally I am interested." 
 
 I told him I had often wondered if he had ever 
 though of that limit of probation, that 
 
 " hidden boundary between 
 God's patience and His wrath." 
 
28 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 as lying, in the experience of some reprobate souls 
 somewhere beyond the uncertain boundary line of 
 the mortal life. 
 
 Alexander's answering smile was like the glimpse 
 of some vast landscape through parting clouds 
 from a mountain's top. " Do you know," he ac- 
 knowledged, " I used often to long for heaven's 
 wider knowledge during earth's brief study hour; 
 but since I came here I hardly feel so sure about 
 a number of things as I felt down in the old dear, 
 dogmatic Princeton. If there are souls somewhere 
 so dead that Christ's mighty word cannot speak 
 them back to life, it would seem almost better if 
 in God's justice and His mercy they could finally 
 and forever cease to be. But even such an end 
 would introduce an element of failure into God's 
 world, which, by His very nature, should culminate 
 in entire success. Who knows how many birth 
 throes of souls becoming alive from the dead out 
 of the womb of hell's anguish may be hidden from 
 our eyes by this mystery of separateness which 
 baffles all our learning ? " 
 
 I told him how Father had just been laboring 
 to convince me that there could be no work of re- 
 generation in hell, on the simple ground that the 
 effect of preaching such a possibility of future 
 salvation would have led men to postpone repent- 
 ance." " I have to admit," I said, " that the 
 worst man, perhaps, I ever knew, Rorer by name, 
 claimed to be a believer in a doctrine they called 
 the ' Millennial Dawn,' which included a belief in 
 
A NEGLECTED THEME 29 
 
 the final restoration of all things. I am sure, on 
 the other hand, a great deal of good has been ac- 
 complished by the singing of your solemn hymn. 
 And would God have blessed it, if it had not been 
 quite true ? " 
 
 " I could only wish that we had sung it 
 oftener," Father said. " We quoted and cited it 
 often from the pulpit, but our people for some 
 reason seemed to find it hard to sing." 
 
 " In my generation, it was not even quoted 
 often," I admitted reluctantly. " Reprobation, 
 Hell, the Judgement were not the usual themes of 
 pulpit discourse. ' Brimstone corners ' were 
 hardly found any more among all our churches. 
 Our preachers did not warn men much to flee from 
 the wrath to come. They only strove to attract. 
 And they confined their preaching largely to mat- 
 ters of this life. Doctor Hitchcock launched us 
 from the Seminary with the advice that it was, 
 perhaps, a weakness in any religion to emphasize 
 eschatology." 
 
 " I wonder what he thinks about that now ? " 
 Father suggested, with his own playful, sweetly 
 reasonable smile, only glorified. 
 
 " I think now that ' eschatology ' — thought 
 about the last things — is nearly all," replied the 
 incisive professor, joining us as we might have ex- 
 pected. " If I were on earth again to preach and 
 teach, the burden of the message I would give and 
 commend to others would be Eternity, eter- 
 nity! The great, unsupplied need of your 
 
30 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 generation, Prester Junior, was a credible, 
 preachable eschatology. The minds of your con- 
 temporaries had recoiled from the awfulness of 
 an eternal, hopeless state of punishment for nine- 
 tenths of the men and women and children that 
 ever had been born. When you tried to preach it, 
 the words stuck in your throat. The only alter- 
 natives of belief to be presented were the proba- 
 tion after death, or salvation by works, by the 
 light of nature, without any true faith in God's 
 mercy secured by Jesus Christ. Joseph Cook 
 claimed that in conscience was the essential Christ. 
 But conscience could not present Christ the Sav- 
 iour, only Christ the Judge. Before the bar of 
 his own conscience the most unenlightened of men 
 honestly stands condemned. Dante's inscription 
 over the gateway of hell applies to every one: 
 ' Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not ! ' " 
 
 The big brained man of Boston himself gave his 
 assent, coming to us in response to our thought of 
 him at that moment. " I practically said the same 
 thing one Monday," he claimed. " I declared in 
 effect that every man, always, everywhere, in- 
 fallibly knows in every course of action whether he 
 means to do right or means to do wrong. I said 
 a great many things in too much of a hurry dur- 
 ing the mortal life; but I still hold that in con- 
 science was the essential Christ ; because the con- 
 demning conscience drove men to cry to God for 
 mercy, in one groping way or another; and 
 through the merit of the unknown Christ, that 
 
A BUNCH OF BRIGHT SOULS 31 
 
 true heart-cry, ' God be merciful to me a sinner ! ' 
 always sent the petitioner down to his house justi- 
 fied. Always, everywhere, he that calleth upon 
 the name of the Lord shall be saved. And it does 
 not matter so much whether he calls God Jehovah, 
 Allah, Vishnu, Great Spirit, or what not, so he 
 calls in honest repentance for God's forgiveness.' 5 
 
 " How shall they call upon Him of whom they 
 have not heard? " Alexander quoted. " As a 
 matter of fact, how many heathen have we met in 
 heaven, saved without a knowledge of Christ ? " 
 
 " Dear Professor," Father said, " I fear you 
 must be still something of a recluse. I have met 
 numbers of pious Jews, who never experienced 
 aught on earth but a grieved spirit of prejudice 
 against the Christ whose professed followers had 
 persecuted them. But they had often prayed 
 after David, t Wash me thoroughly from mine in- 
 iquity, and cleanse me from my sin ? ' I have not 
 asked them how they came to know Him, but in- 
 deed, they are the ones who seem to love Christ 
 most in heaven." 
 
 " I never could quite come in touch with a 
 Jew," Hitchcock admitted. " I could always see 
 snakes in their eyes. But I rather like the Jew 
 of history, and I've found several of them here to 
 tell me about mediaeval events that once puzzled 
 me. We were so much occupied over the secret 
 springs in the bed of the current of history that 
 I never thought to ask them how they came here." 
 
 " There are a great many more people in 
 
32 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 heaven than we have yet met," Cook declared. " I 
 had the pleasure, not long ago, of a talk with 
 Plato, Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca. I 
 was wondering about them and longing to know 
 them, when they all came at once. Let us wish 
 for them awhile, in hopes they may not be other- 
 wise engaged." 
 
 Surely enough, presently they were with us, 
 and also Mozoomdar, one of Joseph's old-time 
 Hindoo cronies. Our spokesman addressed the 
 Father of Philosophy first. " Tell us, Socrates," 
 he said, " when, before drinking the hemlock, you 
 ordered a cock sacrificed to JEsculapius, did you 
 entertain any idea of a sin atonement; did you 
 think of yourself as needing God's mercy ? " 
 
 Socrates responded hesitatingly, " I hardly 
 know what moved me at that moment. I know 
 now that I was all my life groping after Christ, 
 the living Logos, the Idea, the expression of God. 
 But I found that I had to find Christ himself, 
 before I found heaven." 
 
 " So it was with me," exclaimed Aurelius. 
 " Immediately after death I saw a great light, and 
 heard His voice, saying to me as to Saul of Tar- 
 sus, * I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.' I came 
 into heaven as a chief of sinners infinitely for- 
 given only through the merits of the Crucified One, 
 whom I had persecuted ignorantly through un- 
 belief." 
 
 Mozoomdar had a similar experience to relate. 
 " The terrible fact about our Hindooism, no mat- 
 
CONVERSION AFTER DEATH 33 
 
 ter how much clarified," he admitted, " was its 
 denial of God's unity in love. The vast number 
 of us died unreconciled to the true God, when all 
 we needed was the gospel to help us know Him. 
 The awful crime of prosperous, well-informed 
 Christian people, on account of which untold mil- 
 lions of my race are wandering in hell's outer 
 darkness still, was the withholding of the gospel. 
 We got a wrong start in childhood on earth, and 
 many of us are going wrong still. I know; be- 
 cause I have seen." 
 
 We listened with intense interest to these tesi- 
 monies of men who had been seekers after God all 
 their mortal lives, and had found Him in Christ 
 after death. As we reasoned thus together, spirits 
 interested in our subject of conversation gathered 
 one by one about us. There were those who had 
 been Hindoos, Thibetans, Manchurians, Siamese, 
 Malays, Turks, Persians, Jews, Shintoists, Fet- 
 ishists, and even American Mental Scientists. 
 These were all testifying that they only needed 
 to come to know Christ aright in either life, and 
 they had irresistibly been drawn to put their 
 whole trust in Him. There was no din : each was 
 perfectly distinct in utterance ; yet it all came up- 
 on us as a mass of testimony that was overwhelm- 
 ing. " How strange," exclaimed Addison Alex- 
 ander, " that we have been living along beside all 
 these people in heaven; some of them treasuring 
 the most wonderful stories to tell ; and have allowed 
 ourselves to become absorbed in language study, 
 
34 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 in abstruse questions of theology, in historical re- 
 search; when we might worthily have been inter- 
 esting ourselves in all these new-born souls." 
 
 " Is not this what the life of heaven needs," 
 questioned Joseph Cook, " to save it from a certain 
 aimlessness after all ? " 
 
 " I think we serve our Master best even by 
 following the bent He gives us," Father counseled. 
 " We can live for each other in many thousand 
 ways. And all the stores of wisdom and of 
 knowledge we have gained can be made useful in 
 perfecting other souls. Certainly we have wit- 
 nessed to-day that which will make us more eager 
 and hopeful by far in the work of saving im- 
 mortal souls, in whatsoever part of His great 
 vineyard the Master may elect to place us." 
 
 " But oh how much more hopeful and eager 
 we would have been in saving men on earth," I ex- 
 claimed, " if we could have looked forward to what 
 we have learned to-day! If we could only have 
 believed that the meager results we were achieving 
 were just the little gleanings in a great harvest 
 field extending across both worlds, and just the 
 first fruits of a mighty ingathering which would 
 extend out into eternity ! " 
 
 " That reminds me of what I was saying when 
 our Boston friend was drawn to us," Doctor Hitch- 
 cock suggested. " That the great unsupplied 
 need of your generation was a credible, preach- 
 able eschatology. Not only to nerve our own 
 hearts for what often seemed a losing battle; but 
 
SWEET REASONABLENESS 35 
 
 also to present the real issues of eternity, the real 
 gain of immediate and hearty repentance, the real 
 terrors of outraged law, the awful risk of stifling 
 conscience, the ages of living which may be lost 
 in hardness of heart, in rebellion against omnipo- 
 tence, and in bitter, needless repining, as the re- 
 sult of a single wilful choice; when we might as 
 well have been happy in God's love all that lost 
 time; the eternity of regret which must shadow 
 our heaven at last, after a life of obdurate con- 
 tinuance in sin ; the ten-fold harder task of repent- 
 ance and undoing; the cruelty of delaying 
 love's glad consummation. A shorter hell, per- 
 haps, but really a hotter." 
 
 " Was not this the thing most needful," asked 
 Socrates, who had lingered with us, " for men to 
 learn to know that to be out of connection with 
 the Deity in spirit is to be already now beforehand 
 in the purlieus of hell ? " 
 
 " And the hell will be just as aeonian as the 
 separation of spirit," Joseph Cook murmured; 
 " no matter how much glamour Satan may con- 
 trive to throw around it." 
 
 " And may we not think," suggested Alexander, 
 " that to some of the lost spirits in hell, their 
 torment, in comparison with the brevity of the 
 mortal life on earth, may already have been fairly 
 aeonian? Eternity has its depth as well as its 
 length. How long was an hour when you suffered 
 with toothache? " 
 
 " The most obdurate timidity of the theologian 
 
36 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 from age to age," Hitchcock reflected, " has been 
 the fear of not sufficiently limiting the love and 
 mercy of our God. To the mediaeval mind it was 
 inconceivable that the atonement of our Lord could 
 avail for the instant pardon of the sinner without 
 much penance, frequent intercession of saints and 
 Virgin, and ages of Purgatory besides. I wonder 
 if we doctors of the Nineteenth Century may not 
 have unconsciously experienced a touch of the 
 same ague of an over anxious orthodoxy, as we 
 stood shivering on the brink of the full concep- 
 tion that ' His mercy endureth forever.' " 
 
 But Father protested. " I cannot say that I 
 altogether like your metaphor, Doctor," he said. 
 " I consider that it was a sound and healthy 
 hesitancy which we felt to let down the bars our 
 Master Himself had put up. We must be true 
 to His word." 
 
 " To His whole word in its whole spirit, 
 Brother," Mozoomdar protested very gently. 
 " Not merely to the apparent side teaching of one 
 or two parables ; but to the mighty unity of pur- 
 pose in the Scriptures to set forth Christ's work 
 of redemption as the one great universal, eternal, 
 all-compensating, all-explaining movement run- 
 ning through and through the evanescent ages of 
 sin and sorrow. Can He who crowned his earthly 
 life work by that instant answer to the penitent 
 murderer, * This day shalt thou be with me in 
 Paradise,' whose spirit hastened from the lifeless 
 body left hanging upon the cross in order that it 
 
THE INEVITABLE RESOLVE 37 
 
 might go and preach a finished atonement and an 
 achieved salvation to spirits in hell's prison; can 
 He who is the same yesterday, to-day and forever, 
 with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of 
 turning, ever fail to be everywhere the world's Re- 
 deemer, still going about doing good, still come 
 to seek and to save that which was lost? " 
 
 A silence fell upon us with this uttered thought. 
 To me it was like the flush of a more glorious 
 dawn spreading over heaven's noon-day sky. It 
 was Addison Alexander who spoke at last. 
 " God's word has always shown itself possessed of 
 more and greater dimensions than man's reason," 
 he said. " Just as we have held to the thought- 
 transcending fact of the Trinity, and to the seem- 
 ing contradictions of God's sovereignty and man's 
 free will; so may we not in wisdom humbly hold 
 both to eternal punishment and to eternal proba- 
 tion, into these things, like the angels, desiring to 
 look, and striving in our keenest analysis, in our 
 widest grasp of thought, at least to know why we 
 may not fully know the complete unity of truth? " 
 
 Then, like Elihu, the Buzite, I could hold in no 
 longer. " Fathers, Brothers ! " I exclaimed, " I 
 could gladly linger and listen to your high dis- 
 course on these themes of thought while heaven's 
 school term holds open; but after what we have 
 seen and heard this morning, I am now fully de- 
 cided, as I have long and wistfully yearned, by 
 God's great leave and furtherance, to go myself to 
 hell, and see the reality, and help, if possible, to 
 
38 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 save some in whose unknown fate I am intensely 
 concerned." 
 
 " Oh, my boy, my boy ! " Father cautioned, 
 with a touch of soul like the dear hand of former 
 days laid upon my shoulder, " you were often, ap- 
 parently, prone to wish to do things because they 
 were odd and peculiar and different from the ac- 
 tions of other people. I would have you beware 
 lest this surviving impulse, rather than the con- 
 sciousness of a call and a mission, may be moving 
 you to this strange decision. I would not have 
 my son come to be known as the crank of heaven." 
 
 " Let Prester follow his star," Doctor Hitch- 
 cock counseled kindly. " I was about to say to 
 him that God could save the lost souls in hell with- 
 out his aid; then I remembered Carey. We have 
 this treasure in what were once earthen vessels. 
 Throughout the history of redemption in our own 
 world the Holy Spirit worked mainly with and 
 through men in saving men." 
 
TO REACH HELL 39 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 I realized now that my only hope of ever 
 reaching hell was to get very near to Christ: He 
 has the keys of hell and of death. Yes, I know 
 that means the keys of Hades, but one of those is 
 the key of the bottomless pit. Often had I 
 searched, and often had I wondered, " where is 
 hell? " But with the freedom of the universe, dur- 
 ing more than twelve decades by mortal time, since 
 dying, I had not gotten nearer to hell any where 
 than before that at Five Points on a Saturday 
 night, or in the visitors' gallery looking down on 
 the New York Stock Exchange. Hell must be 
 some sort of prison; and in all God's wondrous 
 cosmos I had found no bounds or bars but those 
 set by infinity to finite knowing. Hell must be 
 some very dark and loveless place ; I found God's 
 world thrilling with His love and light. I could 
 see sin abounding in some other planets ; but in 
 each of these, through the atoning work of the 
 world's only Redeemer, I found that grace did 
 much more abound. 
 
 So I could see no way to get to hell, but to 
 climb down the ladder of prayer. Wistfully I 
 drew closer and closer to my Saviour, telling Him 
 over and over that I knew myself unworthy of this 
 high boon and mission. " I only crave to be 
 where Thou art," was my plea. " I would indeed 
 follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. If Thou 
 
40 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 art not in hell as a merciful Saviour, and busiest 
 there of all places; I could not dare to go." I 
 often thought of Peter asking leave to walk upon 
 the water, in the spirit of adventure, to get to 
 Christ, and in his self-confidence beginning to sink. 
 I prayed to be made entirely free from that spirit 
 of adventure, of which I was painfully self-con- 
 scious, and often reminded by those who knew me 
 and loved me most ; but to my most earnest prayer 
 for a change of heart in this respect there would 
 come the answer of a good conscience that the 
 spirit of adventure was all right as a motive in its 
 place. 
 
 " You know, dear Boy, that was really what 
 made you go and pray in the saloons in Tipple- 
 ton," my wife would remind me. " And try to 
 organize Christian unity in Churchville," Mother 
 would add. " And join that cooperative colony 
 of the Knights of Labor in Minnesota," Father 
 would sigh in concert. 
 
 " I believe there was a sanctified and consecrated 
 spirit of adventure in Livingstone and Carey, and 
 John Knox, and Wendell Philips, and pretty 
 nearly every man or woman whose life has 
 amounted to much for God and for the new works 
 of new days," I would answer stoutly. Indeed, 
 the revulsion of feeling which would sometimes 
 come over me at the thought of hell's awfulness, 
 would warn me that I had none too much of the 
 daredevil in my make-up for a would-be invader 
 of hell. Over and over my Master's answer would 
 
THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE 41 
 
 come to me that there really was nothing between 
 me and the summit of my ambition to reach hell 
 but the need of a greater, deeper, steadier com- 
 pulsion of longing to save lost souls there. Two 
 spirits came to me as I was musing and praying 
 in one of the vast solitudes of the southern stellar 
 universe. The one was swarthy and strange, dif- 
 ferent from any race I had yet met ; the other so 
 fair and radiant, his presence stirred the back- 
 ward reach of memory to recall the very cheer- 
 iest, calmest, strongest souls I had ever known. 
 " We have been together somewhere," I said in 
 greeting, " but I think only for a short time. 
 Then after that something terrible and glorious 
 happened which made the thought of you sacred 
 and tender." 
 
 " You are recalling the Saturady afternoon we 
 spent with each other in the glen above Tipple- 
 ton," my visitor answered. " I am John Roger 
 Peale, and in less than a year after that Rebecca 
 and I and three others were martyred at Lien 
 Chou." 
 
 It all came back to me vividly at once, the mel- 
 low light of the October afternoon, the gay leaves 
 dropping on hill-slope and stream, the swirling 
 sheen of the Altamere leaping ledges, twisting 
 around great rocks. Every reply of our con- 
 versation came freshly to mind, as if we were but 
 just holding it. " How hard I tried to find some 
 reluctance in your soul in view of the work set 
 before you," I reminded my friend in heaven. 
 
42 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " It looked all so joyous in anticipation; and all 
 the years of study and of preparation and the 
 vacations spent in travel among our churches — 
 so little chance for home life or rest, or enjoy- 
 ment, or loved companionship, with little but toil 
 and hardship and privation to look forward to — 
 these seemed only a part of the zest of the game 
 to you. I could not get you to let me pity you 
 even a little bit. I have often wondered how it 
 must seem to you to look back upon from heaven. 
 What a disappointment it must have been to find 
 yourself ushered through that one glorious day 
 of martyrdom tamely into paradise when you had 
 but just reached your mission field; without the 
 opportunity even of settling down to one day's 
 work and study, without one soul won from all the 
 millions of China to make heaven complete for 
 you. How do you interpret God's plan now in 
 looking back on those years of costly preparation, 
 the turning away from every earthly allurement, 
 the sacrifice wrung from loving hearts left to 
 bleed for you, the journey to the heart of the 
 antipodes, and nothing come of it all? " 
 
 It was the same debonaire smile which im- 
 pressed me on earth that answered my question 
 now. " China would have been great, if God had 
 willed it," he replied, " but that was small pota- 
 toes and few in a hill compared to mission work in 
 hell." 
 
 There were tears in my soul then in the wave of 
 gratitude that drew me to clasp his thought and 
 
A NEW PROBLEM 43 
 
 purpose. " Our Master has sent you," I cried, 
 " and you are going to tell me how and when I 
 can come, too. And this brother who is with you, 
 he, too, has some message for me. He, too, has 
 some acquaintance with hell." 
 
 " I was born there," was the other's answer. 
 
 The universe reeled around me. " Where is 
 there any hope? " was the first sentence I could 
 articulate. I was not unfamiliar with the bud- 
 ding of souls in heaven : the sacred j oy of parent- 
 hood given to some who had not known that joy 
 on earth; but in all my dreams of hell I had not 
 contemplated the awful possibility of reproduc- 
 tion among lost souls. Brought thus suddenly 
 soul to soul with one whose existence had begun 
 under the taint of hell's heredity, my own soul 
 fainted before this new, appalling hugeness of the 
 problem of evil. 
 
 " Brother," Peale said, " there were tens of 
 thousands being born in heathenism every day in 
 China, and we were converting perhaps a score or 
 two each day at the time that I was studying up 
 on my anticipated field of work there. All our 
 converts were mortals, and the influence of each 
 for Christ in China came to an end with the little 
 span of life. It often seemed like sprinkling a 
 little salt upon the current of a wide, swift river. 
 But after a little more than a century and a 
 half, look there and see China, a great, homo- 
 geneous, evangelical Christian nation, orthodox, 
 
44 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 staunch, loyal to Christ. The souls we win in hell 
 are immortals, leavening immortals. Never de- 
 spair." 
 
 I questioned the other one about that. " When 
 you are saved," I asked, " are you not saved out 
 of hell into heaven? " 
 
 " I would dread losing heaven," he answered, 
 " if I did not keep on working in hell. I find the 
 highest heaven in the deepest hell." 
 
 " If that is the way you feel about it," I re- 
 flected, " ought not we whose early advantages 
 have been, shall I say, somewhat more favorable: 
 I hope I am not wounding your feelings; ought 
 we not also to take an interest in your birthplace 
 that we too may win the highest heaven ? " 
 
 " I believe many of you will come to it yet," he 
 answered. " You have not quite the reasons, such 
 as I possess, for yearning over our sad nether 
 world." 
 
 " I am one that cares," I answered, " I want 
 you to take me right back with you." 
 
 " Brother Prester, we can't take you to hell," 
 Peale answered, " You have just got to take your- 
 self there." 
 
 " But how ? " I asked, " I have been trying so 
 long to find out how." 
 
 " Just by loving," was my friend's reply. 
 " You have missed it somehow just because it was 
 so simple." Then he went on to tell me something 
 of his own experience. " When we found our- 
 selves, Rebecca and I, so suddenly in heaven," he 
 
THE MARTYR'S ENTRANCE 45 
 
 let me see him remember, " out of that howling, 
 cruel, crazy mob, and in the company of all the re- 
 deemed, and angels thrilled and stirred to heaven's 
 bounds by the ordeal through which they had just 
 seen us passing; when we felt our heart-wounds 
 kissed by sobbing spirits melted down in love and 
 pity for us, looked upon each other unscathed, 
 immortal, crowned with martyrdom, clad in white 
 robes of the spirit, close to God's throne, close to 
 His heart, to whom we had been softly praying 
 just a few moments before down there by the river 
 in Lien Chou, not dead at all but alive ! alive ! for- 
 ever more, thought and love not lost, but wonder- 
 fully quickened, infinitely widened, preserved by 
 union with God's own eternal thinking and loving, 
 when we found each one safe ; dear heroic Doctor 
 Eleanor, Mrs. Machle, little Amy, gathered fondly 
 in heaven's embrace ; when the first ten years' thrill 
 of it all had left room in our hearts for other 
 thoughts we were astonished to feel a certain 
 blankness even in the bliss of heaven. Doctor 
 Chestnut came upon me hovering over Lien Chou. 
 * What, moping in heaven ! ' she exclaimed in her 
 cheery way. 
 
 " ' I am just puzzled,' I replied, * I simply can't 
 get the syllogism of it all. If it were you 
 alone, I could understand. You had accomplished 
 an inspiring work in China, and your strength 
 could not have held out more than five years longer 
 at the rate you were going. But for us two, who 
 hardly got to speak a word of Chinese, it's all 
 
46 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 right, I know, but our earth-life seems somehow 
 to have lost its meaning.' 
 
 " * Do you feel that you could envy the men and 
 women here who are carrying on our work in Lien 
 Chou? ' she asked. 
 
 " ■ I would gladly change places with them this 
 minute,' I answered. 
 
 " ' How do you really think I feel? ' she asked 
 then. ' Do you think you had gotten to feel more 
 interest in the Chinese in a month of travel among 
 them than I in those years of work with their sick 
 souls and bodies? Do you suppose that eleven 
 years of foreign mission work was enough for me 
 out of my eternity ? ' 
 
 " ' Surely, you don't mean that you are not 
 satisfied in heaven,' I said reluctantly. * Would 
 you like to be back at the old task that was already 
 killing you by inches? Could you go back and 
 spend another year like the one in which you were 
 all alone with hospital and church and school in 
 inner China? ' 
 
 " ' I could very gladly,' she replied, ' but I have 
 found a better job.' Then she told me how the 
 prayer for her murderers which was trembling on 
 her lips when the last merciless blow was struck 
 had lingered in her soul in paradise, and the pity 
 with which she had stooped to bind up the fore- 
 head of the little Chinese boy wounded in the mob, 
 as blows and curses were falling upon her, had 
 only deepened in her soul in glory; how she had 
 followed her murderers to their execution, and 
 
THE LOVE LINE 47 
 
 loved them and longed over their vanishing spirits, 
 as she had yearned over so many brought in ex- 
 tremity to the hospital and dying there without a 
 knowledge of the Saviour; until in utter self-for- 
 getfulness of pity, she had found herself among 
 them all in hell. ' I did not ask to be sent on my 
 mission to hell,' she said, ' it was something I had 
 never thought of. I just got there by loving some 
 poor souls that had gone there. I was never more 
 astonished in all my existence. I was scared, and 
 yet so glad ! ' And there she had fallen to work, 
 binding up lacerated spirits, resetting souls that 
 were out of joint, rubbing into them the healing 
 influences of God's infinite love in a merciful 
 Saviour. ' Oh, I've been having good times in 
 hell, Brother ! ' she told me. 
 
 " ' But we've never missed you from heaven,' I 
 protested, 4 and you haven't talked about being 
 away any of the time.' 
 
 " ' No, I have been happy, oh, so happy ! in 
 heaven all the time,' she explained. ' But I 
 couldn't tell you about the other life because you 
 had not grown quite enough interested.' 
 
 " This struck me square. Was it possible that 
 I had been going backward in heaven ? I had con- 
 tinued to study China with even greater interest 
 than before I went there to die. But I had seen 
 a hundred millions of her people weaken and leave 
 the world, and the idea had never popped into my 
 head that I might go to hell and meet some of them 
 with the message of salvation. ' Never mind, 
 
48 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Brother,' Doctor Chestnut said gently, ' men are 
 slow, and they can't help it. You have been 
 broadening in many ways, and getting a new 
 preparation for the greatest work of all. You 
 have lost ten years in China ; but you can make it 
 up ten times over in one year of winning Chinese 
 souls in hell.' 
 
 " I wondered how that could be. ' I can under- 
 stand that there may be no language to learn,' I 
 replied, ' for I suppose lost souls think to each 
 other without words as we do here in heaven ; but 
 surely they must be further from God there than 
 on earth, and more hopeless in their environment, 
 and more fixed in their character, with the per- 
 manence of eternity.' 
 
 " But she answered me, 6 Have you forgotten 
 Our Lord's words, " He that knew not, and did 
 things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few 
 stripes ? " Has he never talked that over with 
 you? The heathen in hell are like immigrants in 
 a strange country. The hold of old ideas is 
 loosened. Old customs that were largely external 
 no longer shape their thoughts. Chinese spirits 
 have no cues to wear and no feet to bind. The 
 ancestors they once worshipped have now become 
 their contemporaries. Every thing is new to 
 them, and they are ready for new errors which 
 Satan may teach them, or equally for the new, 
 glad tidings of great joy which the Holy Spirit 
 helps us to make plain to them. The Devil has 
 to begin his work on them almost all over again 
 
HELL'S BETTER OPPORTUNITY 49 
 
 from the start; so we have a chance to get in 
 even with him.' 
 
 " And so I have found it," Peale concluded, 
 " during the century and a half by earth's sun 
 which I have spent in happy mission work among 
 unsaved Chinese spirits down below. The mis- 
 sionaries who are doing the hard, up-hill work in 
 hell are not those assigned to the spirits of former 
 heathen, but it is those who are trying to do some- 
 thing with the damned from Christendom, gos- 
 pel-hardened even in hell, people who have known 
 the truth all through their earthly lives, and are 
 not surprised in eternity to find it true; but they 
 have grown adept in hardening their hearts 
 against God's truth. There are first to hear the 
 gospel that shall be last to accept it." 
 
 " But these are the ones whose fate interests 
 me most," I suggested. " I cannot get them out 
 of my mind. Face after face rises before me; 
 people I could accomplish little for on earth. 
 Soul-winning in the most refined, exclusive circles 
 of hell could not be much slower than such work 
 in connection with some of our churches. But I 
 feel that if it were only one won from Satan's sad 
 domain, that would be well worth an eternity of 
 patient seeking." 
 
 " I am glad to hear you say that, Brother," 
 Peale replied. " It shows that you are not far 
 from the kingdom of hell. I have been con- 
 cerned for fear you might never reach hell after 
 all. Pardon me, you seemed to be almost as much 
 
50 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 interested in Nathaniel Prester's intended mission 
 as in the lost souls to be saved. But I believe you 
 are now coming to the point where you can wish 
 with Paul almost that you yourself might be ac- 
 cursed for your brethren's sake, that,. they might 
 be saved. When you love these brothers in hell 
 so much that you will be willing even to have your 
 own soul singed in their lake of fire, if only you 
 can be made an instrument for salvation to some 
 of them ; although all heaven may not get thrilled 
 right away with the knowledge of your endeavor ; 
 why then I think, for any other drawbacks in your 
 case, you may expect to get your commission in 
 due time." 
 
 " How you must see through me ! " I exclaimed, 
 even with tears of the soul. " You make me re- 
 alize how far I am yet from being made perfect 
 in love. I fear it has ever been my disposition 
 to dream noble things rather than do them all day 
 long. I do wish to be different, but I forget so 
 often." 
 
 " It is not for me to judge you, Brother," 
 Peale answered, " only we cannot speak anything 
 but the truth in heaven. I noticed you weren't 
 really chummy with the companion I brought with 
 me, and so, in spite of all your enthusiasm in the 
 abstract to go slumming in hell, I wondered how 
 you could stand its actual, prosaic contact. We 
 found in foreign mission work that the enthusias- 
 tic, excitable dreamers soon wore out. It was the 
 dull, phlegmatic fellows, rather, that went plod- 
 
THE OLD DRAWBACK 51 
 
 ding ahead, stood the rub, got used to the heathen, 
 and saved them." 
 
 " You mean that I must get to be chummy with 
 the damned, even before I convert them? " 
 
 " Certainly. It must be ' Hail fellow, well- 
 met ! ' or no converts at all. Was not our Master 
 reproached as the friend of sinners ? " 
 
 " I wish I could call your hell-born friend 
 back," I said contritely, " I'm sorry I lost touch 
 with him. How much I could learn from him ! " 
 
 " Perhaps he will be the one sent to lead you 
 when you are quite ready for the plunge," was 
 Peale's encouraging answer. " God bless you, 
 Brother, and make you worthy of this His highest 
 calling in Christ Jesus." 
 
 After that I began to pray not quite so much 
 for myself that I might be led to hell ; for some- 
 how I seemed to lose my anxiety about that ; as for 
 one and another individual friend of the earth-life 
 whose presence we had missed in heaven. Over 
 and over, out into the gloom of uncertainty which 
 overhung their fate, my heart's cry to God's ten- 
 der omnipresence was that they might be saved. 
 It seemed of less consequence by whose instru- 
 mentality this might be accomplished; only I 
 prayed to be ready if the call came to me ; and it 
 seemed in some of their cases at least that I ought 
 to be the one to go and seek them out ; for I could 
 see now that it had been by reason of a sad lack 
 of chumminess on my part they had missed being 
 saved on earth. I recalled the first funeral at 
 
52 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 which I had dared to pray for the presumably 
 unrepentant soul of the deceased. " What was 
 the use of praying for Mr. Chartier now? " my 
 eldest son, Thoughtful, asked me when I came 
 home from the cemetery. 
 
 " I wanted to do something more for him, and I 
 couldn't think of anything else to do." 
 
 " I think you had done enough for him. 
 Haven't you been praying for him ever since you 
 came here? Didn't you pray with him and work 
 with him the other time he was sick before he had 
 this stroke ? What good did it all do ? " 
 
 " And the next caller he had brought him the 
 bottle ! " I exclaimed sorrowfully. 
 
 " Do you think he may be where praying for 
 him may do more good now ? " Thoughtful asked. 
 
 " At any rate he is out of the reach of bottles," 
 I contended. 
 
 " But in hell, where the old Devil has everything 
 his own way, don't you suppose he could fix up 
 something just as alluring as whiskey?" 
 
 " I have my doubts about whether the Devil has 
 everything his own way in hell," I replied. 
 " Would God be God, and let him? " 
 
 " He comes near enough to having it in Tipple- 
 ton," Thoughtful moralized ; " but doesn't the 
 Bible say that no drunkard shall inherit the king- 
 dom of heaven ? " 
 
 " Certainly, not ; unless he reforms, like all the 
 other kinds of evil doers on Paul's list." 
 
PRAYER FOR OUR DEAD 53 
 
 " What chance would he have of reforming in 
 hell any more than in Tippleton? " 
 
 " If Chartier had let the grace of God into 
 his heart, he might easily have reformed even in 
 Tippleton," I answered. " Other men have done 
 that in worse places. Jesus is able to save unto 
 the uttermost all that come unto God through 
 him. I ought not to be talking to you in a way 
 to unsettle your views, my Boy; but the question 
 that keeps coming into my soul is, ' Why not unto 
 the uttermost hell ? ' There was nothing wrong 
 with poor Chartier, aside from the drink; a 
 kinder, truer heart rarely beat in a human breast. 
 And just now before Satan has time to get a new 
 clinch on his soul, ought not our prayers to follow 
 him with redoubled earnestness? When I think 
 of how much more frequently I might have sought 
 his company and tried to help him ; my heart aches, 
 and I've just got to pray that God will forgive 
 me and still save him in some way." 
 
 Thoughtful was silent for a while. " Yes, but 
 Papa," at last he said, with some hesitation, "if 
 we can make ourselves feel easier by praying for 
 people after they are dead for not doing all we 
 could to save them while they were living, won't 
 that make us that much more apt to neglect the 
 next unsaved ones, and to think we can let them 
 slide, and still they may get saved in eternity some- 
 way ? " 
 
 " On the contrary," I answered stoutly, " the 
 
54 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 thought of having just this brief moment to 
 snatch men from the certainty of eternal per- 
 dition, I believe, is what paralyzes the activities 
 of so many Christians to-day. It makes the Devil 
 seem so strong and God so weak. It gives Satan 
 all eternity to wreak his fell purposes; while the 
 Saviour is left with a handbreadth's time in which 
 to succor men against all the wiles of the Adver- 
 sary, against the dull inertia of ignorance, super- 
 stition, prejudice, stupidity, against the down- 
 ward drag of vice and animalism, oppression, 
 hatred, and that whole obdurate wrongness of 
 human affairs which we may well call original sin. 
 For my part, it is this larger hope of a continued 
 work of redemption which first began to give me 
 courage to try to save men. Before it came to me, 
 I stood like one under the oppression of a night- 
 mare watching a vast resistless tide of evil sweep- 
 ing men and women and children swiftly toward 
 eternal despair. I tried to speak in warning ; but 
 my tongue would not move. I tried to stretch out 
 a hand to save even one; but my arm hung limp 
 by my side. The odds were too terribly against 
 the attempt. It is only since I have begun to 
 hope that the little I may be able to do to save men 
 here is a part of God's great line of business for 
 the redemption of His whole universe, and that He 
 intends the vast job to go on out into eternity to 
 the driving of the last spike, that my heart has 
 gotten light enough for effective service. Now, 
 when I have to bury a man without having sue- 
 
THE NERVE FOR SERVICE 55 
 
 ceeded in bringing him around to my way of 
 thinking and my trust in the Saviour of sinners, I 
 find I can still pray for him cheerily, leave him 
 with the eternal Redeemer who loves him more 
 truly and wisely than I have ever managed to do, 
 and then turn with undiminished courage to the 
 next sinner to be saved. I pray the Master to 
 show me the truth or falsehood of these new 
 thoughts by the way they work out in my own 
 zeal for His service. Before these hopes came to 
 me I could not forget the things behind or reach 
 out to those before. My mind was continually on 
 the rack thinking of the mistakes and failures I 
 had made in dealing with men and of the unfaith- 
 fulness of which I had been guilty in the case of 
 one and another, until I was depressed and un- 
 nerved with the awful thought that a soul's eter- 
 nity had been hopelessly ruined by my slip. Eter- 
 nity is solemn enough to face with the care of 
 souls, without the horror of fixed despair over 
 their fate." 
 
 My son had one more question for me. " But 
 how about those bad men that heard you pray for 
 Mr. Chartier in the church this morning? " he 
 asked. " How about the liquor men that were his 
 pall-bearers? Won't they say, 'Well, it's all 
 right for Chartier: the Dominie's prayed him 
 into heaven. And we'll get there the same way at 
 last, maybe.' Perhaps they will think they can 
 go on ruining men as fast as they please, and 
 then, out in eternity, their drunkards will get so- 
 
56 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 bered up and saved somehow, and they won't have 
 to answer for them." 
 
 I was hard bestead for an answer, as we often 
 are to the question of a child. After some reflec- 
 tion I suggested that we might similarly reason 
 about the enemies of Christ that they could take 
 comfort from his dying prayer for their forgive- 
 ness from the Father and say, " It's all right : 
 we've got him out of the way, and he's asked God 
 not to do anything to us for killing him." People 
 do not carp and criticise when their hearts are 
 softened. Some of those triumphant persecutors 
 were so moved by Christ's prayer, " Father, for- 
 give them ! " that they were ready on Peter's first 
 accusation of their guilt in killing Jesus to be 
 pricked in their hearts and cry, " What shall we 
 do? " 
 
 " Suppose I had said to my congregation at the 
 funeral," I suggested to Thoughtful, " ' Our 
 friend, Chartier, we have strong reason to be- 
 lieve, is now in hell for all eternity. And you 
 devils in human shape that sold him the liquor have 
 put him there.' One proof of the truth or false- 
 hood of a doctrine is whether we can faithfully 
 and kindly declare it anywhere. Nobody could 
 quite believe that this hard-working, gentle, kindly 
 man, who never intentionally harmed anyone but 
 himself, is now to spend an unending eternity in 
 torment for what was largely the result of un- 
 toward conditions about his life. The theory of 
 the future life that I am beginning to believe is 
 
 
WHY NOT? 57 
 
 one which I could have unfolded right there to 
 weeping relatives and sorrowing friends, as well as 
 to those wicked enslavers of men, and all would 
 have felt the majesty, the unalterable working of 
 God's law, and the triumphs of His grace, here and 
 hereafter. They would have wept for Chartier 
 and prayed for him with a fervor of mingled hope 
 and fear which is denied them now by the thought- 
 paralyzing effect of a doctrine of fixed and end- 
 less retribution which no one could really believe 
 without going mad. I begin to think we ought 
 to preach continued redemption just to get 
 men interested in eternity again, and to make hell 
 real to them. I didn't pray Chartier into 
 heaven, as they all very well know. It was be- 
 cause I was deeply concerned for his fate, that I 
 just had to pray for him." 
 
 So I found myself praying for him again in 
 heaven, after my son himself had grown to be an 
 old man on earth, and had come to us to renew 
 these high themes of talk in the glory land. A 
 new baptism of the spirit of prayer came upon 
 me after that interview with Peale. I prayed for 
 Rorer, and for Elder Smiley, who died, to all 
 appearances, the same smirking, pious fraud he 
 had been all his life. I prayed for Lou Sawyer 
 and for Doctor Charlie Love joy, two suicides from 
 drink, buried out of one congregation in less than 
 a year. One after another, I prayed for scores 
 of those for whose salvation I had wrestled in 
 vain on earth; and my heart went out in earnest 
 
58 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 longing to God for the souls of men and women 
 in whose lives or thoughts I had become interested, 
 but whom I had never known on earth or met in 
 heaven: Paine, Ingersoll, Voltaire, Alexander 
 Hamilton, Charlotte Corday, Brigham Young, 
 Lord Byron, Poe, General Weyler, Thomas 
 Jefferson, Warren Hastings, Captain Kidd, some 
 of the multi-millionaire church members of fren- 
 zied finance and beef-trust fame who were my 
 earthly contemporaries, and a great many other 
 interesting people whom I felt that I would 
 like to know, none of whom I wished to think 
 of as burning in hell forever. Then there were 
 near kindred after the flesh, and playmates of 
 childhood, dear for old association's sake ; my boy- 
 hood's chum, Hatchet Ecchols, who joined the 
 church with me and grew up to be an infidel; 
 pretty, timid, little Sadie Wells, who married him ; 
 Joy's cousin, Albert, who was jealous of me in our 
 younger days ; yet he was the one whom she came 
 to give her life to, after all. Nightly, in my boy- 
 hood, I prayed for Joy that God would give her 
 a worthy husband some day, and then I would 
 pray wistfully that I might dream of her that 
 night. Afterwards, when we were engaged, it 
 seemed that I would need to strive very earnestly 
 indeed in order that my boyhood's prayer might 
 find an answer. And then when the strangeness 
 of separation came, after our supreme renunci- 
 ation, and still I dreamed of her by night, and 
 the grey years came and went and I heard she 
 
DRAWING NEARER 59 
 
 had married Albert, I often prayed for him that 
 he might love her Saviour and truly have a share 
 in her soul's life. Joy had long been to Jeanie 
 and me our dearest fellow creature in heaven, and 
 now it was one of my greatest encouragements 
 that she was beginning to talk to us about Albert. 
 u I feel that you will soon be in hell, Brother 
 Nat," she would say ; " promise me you will look 
 for Albert first." 
 
 Indeed the partition wall was growing thinner 
 between my soul and hell as the old love for lost 
 ones stirred within. Now there came times when 
 I would hear strange far-away minor chords steal- 
 ing in with the jubilant music of heaven, faint 
 muffled echoes of wailing voices that thrilled me 
 with intenser longing. And sometimes as I 
 prayed there would come a change over the glory 
 of heaven's light, like the bodeful sheen of clouds 
 over red at sunset before a storm, while unex- 
 plained shadows beckoned and stretched thin 
 hands appealingly. And I would feel around and 
 beneath me earthquake quavers of infinite unrest; 
 yet even while I was shrinking and saying to my- 
 self, " Is this a part of hell? " God would give his 
 answer of love to my prayer for manhood to 
 brave it all, more distinct than we ever felt God's 
 answer when we prayed in the body of flesh, and 
 there would come a deeper peace within than even 
 heaven had ever given. 
 
 " Perhaps it will be with you, dear Boy," 
 Jeanie suggested encouragingly when I told her 
 
60 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 of one of these visions, " perhaps it will be with 
 you as it was with Job. Heaven to your soul's 
 great longing just now is only a sweet captivity. 
 But you know the Lord turned again the cap- 
 tivity of Job when he prayed for his friends." 
 
FIRST IMPRESSIONS 61 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 "What is this frightful din? " I shouted with 
 all my might into the swarthy soul of my guide 
 as we plunged cheerily down into hell. " Is it a 
 vast loom-room, a whip factory, a boiler works, 
 or is hell the central stock exchange sure 
 enough ? " 
 
 He explained that these clanging sounds were 
 the angry thoughts of lost spirits around us. 
 Presently I began to distinguish oaths. It was 
 so long since I had heard such a thing that I came 
 near rebounding out of hell. " Hold down ! " 
 cried my guide, clutching me, " profanity is no 
 more horrible, essentially, in hell than it was on 
 earth." 
 
 " If you wish me to become so familiar with it, 
 that I won't mind it," I answered reluctantly, 
 " that would seem to be going backward in the 
 Christian life, back of where I stood on earth. 
 I always did, even in my skeptical days, hold this 
 vice to be the most gratuitous, the most senseless, 
 the most purely devilish, the basest, the most 
 despicable — " 
 
 " Come, come, brother ! " my companion inter- 
 rupted hastily and in evident alarm. " If you 
 get angry in the midst of hell's anger, you are in 
 danger of being caught in the mesh of hell's affini- 
 ties. This is Satan's first snare for your soul." 
 
62 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " God is angry with the wicked every day," I 
 quoted, only half appeased. 
 
 " Yet still he loves them. It was for just this 
 sort that Jesus died. We must not be overcome 
 with this evil, but overcome it with good. Hold 
 strongly to Christ and his aloofness of loving 
 hateful ones, or you may find yourself out of hell 
 for good, or out of heaven for a time, if that is 
 possible for one kept by the power of God 
 through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed 
 in the last time." 
 
 " Is it like this always here ? " I asked won- 
 deringly. 
 
 " There are all sorts in hell," was the answer ; 
 " that is, all unredeemed sorts. Many hate the 
 noise, and that makes hate's noise the louder. 
 Many enjoy it in a way, and keep it up with all 
 varieties of ingenious discord. Some have not 
 character or life enough left to hate: they crawl 
 over each other in numb and slimy indifference. 
 Each finds his like ; consequently those who dislike 
 each other most are constantly drawn together by 
 an affinity of aversion. I was born here eight 
 hundred years ago of earth's circlings round her 
 sun. I have never known that boon of weary 
 mortals, sleep. It was mostly like this until the 
 peace of God that passeth understanding began 
 to keep my heart and mind in the knowledge of 
 Christ Jesus. For forty years I have been an 
 evangelist and trophy of God's redeeming grace 
 in hell, and it has seemed comparatively quiet here 
 
HEAVEN'S DEAREST STORY 63 
 
 since the noise died out of the inside of my soul." 
 I began to reverence Peale's dusky friend as 
 more a saint than any of us. I asked him if he 
 had ever murmured at the strange providence 
 which had appointed to him to be born in this 
 horrible place. " Every condition has its com- 
 pensations," he answered smiling, " and shall the 
 clay say to him that fashioneth it, ' What makest 
 thou ? ' Seven hundred and sixty years of dark- 
 est hell were short to end in the blessedness I have 
 known these forty years of trust in Jesus. You 
 used to sing a hymn : 
 
 " Earth has a joy unknown to heaven; 
 The new-born peace of souls forgiven. 
 Tears of such rich and pure delight, 
 Ye angels, never dimmed your sight." 
 
 " By similar reasoning you may well conclude 
 that hell has a joy unknown to all the universe 
 beside. Angels listen to our story as they do not 
 even listen to yours." 
 
 " Where are all the people in hell ? " I asked 
 my guide presently. " I have the feeling, like a 
 deep sea diver, of an infinite mass ; but I cannot 
 perceive any individual spirits." 
 
 " That is because you have not come by prac- 
 tice to sympathize and intersphere with any par- 
 ticular one," he answered. " I have recognized 
 scores of old acquaintances already. Haven't 
 you felt the rub yet ? " 
 
 " I experienced a slight sensation just now," 
 
64 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 I answered. " It was somewhat grating, like the 
 lick of a cow's tongue." 
 
 " That was the rub of a passing spirit," my 
 companion explained. " Just as in heaven, 
 where souls are seeking each other's welfare, the 
 touch of each soul is a thrill of pleasure ; so here 
 in hell, where each, for the most part, is bent on 
 his own purposes and following his own designs, 
 spirits mostly rub each other the wrong way. 
 The rub may be slight, and quite unintentionally 
 given; but in the aggregate they keep the soul's 
 cuticle raw and sore." 
 
 I asked him if there was no love in hell, and he 
 was explaining to me that much which went by 
 that name there was mixed with selfish exclusive- 
 ness, with jealousy and burning lust of spirits, 
 and marred by changef ulness and insincerity ; 
 when in my grief and pity for it all I saw some- 
 thing that made me exclaim in interruption, " Do 
 look at that singular creature ! " Presently I be- 
 gan to see thousands of them. I tried to express 
 to my guide how they impressed me. " They 
 are like human faces," I said, " but they are faces 
 distorted as though seen in concave, convex, im- 
 perfect mirrors. I see them as if through a wav- 
 ing current of hot air ; they do not keep the same 
 shape ; I see them in curved and broken lines that 
 continually change. Now the faces are elon- 
 gated, now they are broadened; now one is dim- 
 pled, now it is puckered ; now it expresses one ex- 
 aggerated trait, now another. They confuse me. 
 
TYPES AND TRAITS 65 
 
 I am ashamed to say, they frighten me some- 
 what." 
 
 " Those are the lies in each soul," again ex- 
 plained my guide. " I see you are fast getting 
 into the inwardness of hell. All hearts here, as 
 everywhere, are open to sympathy, if you can 
 only really feel it. When you have learned to see 
 them clearer in sympathetic insight, you will find 
 a more fixed expression of individuality in each, 
 the real self behind the mask. Always talk to 
 that." 
 
 " I wonder why you do not inquire about the 
 smell," my new friend asked presently. 
 
 " I felt embarrassed," was my answer. " It 
 puzzles, while it sickens me. I was prepared for 
 brimstone ; but carrion ! How can I ! " 
 
 " Hell is the lazzar house of putrifying souls," 
 my friend sorrowfully replied. " Every im- 
 pure thought and impulse here emits its odor of 
 corruption. The cancer and the leprosy of sin 
 are everywhere." 
 
 " Is there no disinfectant or deodorizer? " I 
 gasped. " And are not the victims themselves 
 distressed by it? " 
 
 " Fix your attention upon pure thoughts," was 
 his counsel. " There is no other relief. Live 
 above hell while you live in it. The horror of 
 this stench to those from whom it emanates is that 
 they half love, half loathe it. It fills hell with 
 attractions and repulsions of equal wretchedness. 
 You will find presently that each soul has its own 
 
66 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 scent. But the more you love and pity each, the 
 less personal distress you will experience." 
 
 I was appalled at the numbers of the throng at 
 hand, suggestive of the density of hell's popu- 
 lation. Heaven had seemed truly like a city for 
 its vast concourse of souls redeemed from every 
 kindred and tongue and nation and people, from 
 every habitable planet, and from all the ages since 
 Satan first fell, with the innumerable company of 
 angels, and the citizens of those principalities and 
 dukedoms in the heavenlies which had never 
 known sin or sorrow; but when I compared the 
 frequent meetings of heaven's golden streets of 
 love radiating outward toward the rim of immens- 
 ity from that great white throne which itself was 
 everywhere — when I compared all that with the 
 appalling welter of hell of which I was begin- 
 ning to be conscious, I exclaimed to my new 
 friend, " We are still in the minority. Heaven 
 is sparse, heaven is countrified ; this is the city ! " 
 
 " All this helps us to think how great heaven 
 will be at last," he answered. " Here in hell we 
 are back among the crude beginnings: we are 
 among those former things which in heaven are 
 passed away." 
 
 " But how could we ever have faced the 
 thought," I exclaimed again, " that our merciful 
 God intended all these millions of millions to go 
 on like this to all eternity with no further effort 
 to convince and save them ! " 
 
 " For all that, they must go on for the most 
 
PITEOUS CONGESTION 67 
 
 part like this until one by one they each make 
 an individual surrender to God. There is no way 
 out of here but through the wicket gate. The 
 wonderful thing is that any of them should have 
 been willing to stand it so long, rather than begin 
 life anew in repentance toward God and faith 
 toward our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 I was recovering from my first chill of hor- 
 ror, and filled with eagerness to make my first 
 convert. How to find Albert and keep my prom- 
 ise to Joy was the next problem. 
 
 " Is it at all possible out of this vast hay- 
 stack," I asked wonderingly, " to extract the one 
 little needle of the individual soul you are looking 
 for ? I hardly suppose there can be a directory ; 
 for they all seem to be eternally on the move." 
 
 " Our Father has the directory," my companion 
 replied. " Each soul here is known to him. 
 Each is his child, his prodigal. But if you wish 
 to find some particular acquaintance, just love 
 him. Love draws a long way in hell by reason of 
 its scarcity. That is why we are pressed upon 
 by such a throng. The novelty of our pity draws 
 them from far and near. The probability is that 
 no one in hell is really loving the one you wish 
 to see very dearly just at this juncture, and your 
 love will be the sufficient magnet to draw this 
 needle out of the haystack." 
 
 My dusky friend now suggested that his pres- 
 ence could hardly help me to fix my desires on the 
 spirit I wished to see ; and as there was an anx- 
 
68 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 ious soul calling him very earnestly from a great 
 distance he felt that he had better bid me adieu 
 for the present and come back to me again when- 
 ever I earnestly needed him. 
 
 " Many thanks, dear brother," I said, " and the 
 Lord be with you." 
 
 " And with thy spirit ! " was the affectionate 
 answer. 
 
 So I found myself alone in hell. Around were 
 these elusive foreigners, millions of them appar- 
 ently, and not one to whom I could trust myself 
 safely; while with them came a sinister, all-per- 
 vading, entirely hostile presence, the Father of 
 Evil. If I had not cried earnestly to God for 
 help at that moment, I might have found myself 
 slinking ingloriously back from hell. I had all 
 the old familiar childish sensation of my hair 
 standing on end. But soon there came to me, as 
 to Kate Guiness, weary and lonely after a day's 
 itinerating in central China, the memory and the 
 realization of our Master's promise — only with 
 a wider meaning — " Go ye into all the kosmos, 
 and preach the gospel to every creature ; and lo ! 
 I am with you alway." Christ 6aid to 
 me plainly, " Speak to them : I am with thee." 
 First I let my heart go out to them all, and its 
 trembling quivered into deep compassion like that 
 of our Saviour when he saw the multitudes lacer- 
 ated and driven about as sheep having no shep- 
 herd. I could see that they dimly felt my pity. 
 The clamor of harsh thoughts abated somewhat. 
 
ALONE IN HELL 69 
 
 Then a great exultation seized me as I compared, 
 with a swift backward glance of memory, the ease 
 of gathering a crowd in hell with the meagerness 
 of some of the congregations it had been my lot 
 to address on the theme of salvation back on earth. 
 " This is far and away ahead of Churchville," 
 I said to myself with keen satisfaction, and moved 
 by old association, I began by singing them the 
 soul-melody of one of heaven's gospel hymns, 
 wishing that I might have brought Strong along 
 to do it better. The effect surprised me. There 
 came a ring of partial silence away back in hell. 
 Perhaps it was the effect of the utter inexperience 
 of a new immigrant, the feeling of my simplicity, 
 as an audience will listen to some little child. I 
 was never so glad in my life. I said to my Mas- 
 ter, " Just tell me what to say, and I'll say it." 
 The joy of the preacher came upon me mightily. 
 I told them they could easily see I was an entire 
 stranger: I had no idea what sort of oratory 
 they were in the habit of listening to : I could not 
 even see any of them quite distinctly: but I 
 wanted to try and let them know that I loved 
 them; that my great longing was to help them 
 each and all to a true understanding of my Sav- 
 iour, Jesus, the only name under heaven given 
 among men, or other created beings, whereby we 
 must be saved. " He is your Shepherd," I said ; 
 " you are his sheep. You are not the Devil's 
 own. You belong to Jesus. He is seeking for 
 each one of you through all this wilderness of 
 
70 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 sin, through all these centuries of your wander- 
 ing until He finds you. Won't you let Him 
 find you and save you just now? How much 
 longer are you going to keep Him seeking? He 
 is bound to save you before you get through with 
 Him. You know you want to be saved, too. Are 
 you not nearly tired of all this? You are miss- 
 ing all the good times. I would like to tell you 
 we are having good times around the throne of 
 God. We had good times in the love of God 
 back on earth, and we tried hard to make some 
 of you see it, and understand, and crave a part in 
 our blessing. You lost all your earthly life, 
 those of you who had an earthly life; and now 
 you are fast losing your eternity. I begin to 
 perceive that I have seen some of you before. 
 With some of you I have pleaded, although not 
 half urgently enough, I know, that you would 
 make your peace with God. I cannot just call 
 your names yet ; old memories stir somewhat con- 
 fusedly within me; but I have a feeling that in 
 one place and another I have warned you of what 
 you have come to here. Others, no doubt, have 
 had their warnings from faithful lips. I can- 
 not believe the memory of those dear old days 
 has quite died out of any of your souls. Go 
 back in thought to that plain meeting house where 
 the proffer of God's mercy in Jesus Christ was 
 often held out to you. Look around and see the 
 familiar faces. Some of them were far from per- 
 fect Christians, no doubt; but they cared for 
 
WITH NEW POWER 71 
 
 your soul, and some of them earnestly endeavored 
 to save you. Think of the best men and women 
 you knew. Wouldn't you like to meet them 
 again? Brother, it's not too late, maybe, yet. 
 Think of your kind teacher in the Bible school. 
 Think of one or two who passed the communion 
 plate and cup in the little country church. They 
 never wished to pass you by. They would far 
 rather have you with them now in heaven. Think 
 of the faithful man who over and over gave you 
 the simple Gospel message from the pulpit, and 
 who often spoke to you so kindly to win you to 
 Christ. Wouldn't you like to be back in the dear 
 old days, and have that offer of salvation made to 
 you again? Recall the time when you were most 
 deeply impressed; when your soul's fate hung 
 trembling in the balance of indecision. A light 
 hand rested on your shoulder, an earnest voice was 
 pleading low with you to close with God's offer 
 of mercy, to make your choice of Christ as your 
 Saviour, and make heaven your home. You see it 
 all the more clearly now : the choice you were mak- 
 ing, the issue that was at stake. All the tremen- 
 dous reality of perdition is familiar to you now. 
 If you could put yourself back in that same place 
 where you had the chance to choose, and where, I 
 won't say your decision, but your indecision, 
 turned you away from the narrow way that leads 
 to life; if you could just sit down in that same 
 meeting house bench, and hear those same lips, 
 long silent now in death, pleading with you ; what 
 
72 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 answer would you make now to their appeal? 
 With all hell driving you, wouldn't you get up 
 quickly and go forward, crying to God for 
 mercy on your sinful soul? Friend! I came 
 here to make the same offer and the same appeal. 
 God sent me, or I never could have got here. 
 He says, ' I am the Lord ; I change not.' His 
 mercy endureth forever. He would have all to 
 be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. 
 He has no pleasure in the soul-death of the 
 wicked, but rather that he should turn from his 
 wicked way and live. He has declared His pur- 
 pose that as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall 
 be made alive. But He cannot, will not, save you 
 against your will. He still stretches out His arms 
 of love and mercy to you each, and cries, * Turn, 
 for why will ye die ! ' Greater love no imagina- 
 tion can conceive. If God's offers of mercy had 
 ended for you with the accident of physical death, 
 you might have found a flaw in His love. But 
 these offers are extended to you in the ab3'ss of 
 moral death. Even in the throes of perdition, 
 you can hear His voice pleading with your soul. 
 You are weary with the toil and turmoil of hell, 
 and He calls to you, * Come unto me, all ye that 
 are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest.' How do I know that? Why, I can begin 
 to see it in your soul-faces. Perhaps you are 
 none of you all bad. If you still have soul 
 enough left to wish for better things, that shows 
 God's Holy Spirit is dealing with you. There 
 
WHY WILL YE DIE? 73 
 
 is a better nature that won't let you rest in evil. 
 All heaven is calling you away from this state. 
 Will you not listen to heaven's call? That dear 
 mother who nursed you and taught you to pray 
 is calling you away from here. The wife who 
 made a happy home for you once, who prayed 
 for you every night, and cheered you every 
 day — I have a special message to one man's 
 soul somewhere out here from the dearest wife 
 God could find to bless him with. She told me to 
 look Albert up the first thing. Perhaps each of 
 you has some such dear tie drawing you away to- 
 ward heaven. Oh, yield to its drawing just now ! 
 You thought it was a man's part, perhaps, to 
 hold out against the loving prayers that were 
 often lifted to God for your salvation in your 
 little earthly life. Haven't you been stubborn 
 long enough to satisfy that whim? Haven't you 
 suffered enough; haven't you inflicted loss and 
 unsatisfied longing enough? Tell me just now 
 that you give in to God's love. You do not need 
 to lift a hand, for I can see into your hearts now 
 and they are troubled. Come close, close, close! 
 and we will pray together. It isn't too late to 
 pray so long as you can wish to pray. Praying 
 itself is heaven ; oh ! come and try to pray." 
 
 It was wonderful how clear and distinct thou- 
 sands of those lost souls came out around, above, 
 beneath, to the vision of love, as I went on talk- 
 ing to them. The thrill of apprehending their 
 million-fold play of thought gave me inspiration 
 
74 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 such as I had never experienced before. Even 
 in the earthly ministry often the sermon had 
 come, half of it, from the faces of the congrega- 
 tion : the brightening eyes, the alert attitudes, the 
 response of varying expression gave a certain in- 
 terchange of thought between speaker and hear- 
 ers very helpful to the former. But here I found 
 myself in the midst of a vast sphere of inter- 
 responsive thoughts. I could watch the play of 
 the whole electric current, and with my finger 
 upon its key, see its spark flit from soul to soul. 
 I was distinctly conscious of the struggle of con- 
 tending impulses in each. I began to realize, as 
 I was making the concluding appeal, that this was 
 to be the chief drawback, although the chief de- 
 light, in dealing with the crowd in public evangel- 
 ism in hell, that no soul had its needful privacy 
 to easily make an independent decision. Even far 
 more than in congregations on earth, each was 
 under the eye of the other. The glow of soft- 
 ened feeling in one soul was directly subjected to 
 the chill of reluctance in other souls around. I 
 cried to God for power to move the whole mass ; 
 for it seemed that only so could any be won. 
 There were moments as they listened when the 
 Holy Spirit's power would sweep over the audi- 
 ence, turning up the bright side of their poor 
 dark souls to view, like the leaves of a poplar 
 forest turned in a wind, and I would almost look 
 to see the whole mass converted at once: then 
 there would come a wavering as by some counter- 
 
THE FIRST CONVERT 75 
 
 current, and I could hear in soul some sneer like 
 a serpent's hiss ripping through the crowd. 
 When I made my appeal for penitents to come 
 near, the pull and counter-pull grew so tense, my 
 own soul seemed ready to be drawn asunder: and 
 when they began to drift heavily, despairingly 
 away, I could not bear to witness the result ; but 
 blotting all else out from consciousness, as though 
 I hid my face in my hands, I prayed to the om- 
 nipotent Redeemer at least to save one. 
 
 Something touched me softly, timidly ; I could 
 hardly have been sure of it, only the old-time 
 thrill of the soul winner in his moment of success 
 came with the touch, even more bewildering in its 
 sudden joy than ever before. Some one was 
 praying close beside me. I recognized Sadie just 
 by that timid, appealing touch: there was still 
 something of the innocence of the little child 
 with golden curls and soft blue eyes with whom 
 I had played often in my boyhood. In a mo- 
 ment, by one wonderful flash of self-revelation, 
 she laid bare before me the whole pitiful history 
 of those after years and thus much of eternity. 
 I saw her drawn away from God by her misplaced, 
 mistaken love for Ecchols, saw her learning doubt 
 from him, getting the alcohol and opium habits 
 from him, losing her better self in the toleration 
 for his fantastic vices which developed into par- 
 ticipation in them, not because she cared for vi- 
 cious gratification, but just because she loved 
 Hatchet and clung to him utterly, sacrificing re- 
 
76 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 ligion, purity, heaven, all. I saw for the first 
 time the inner-heart history of her life's crowning 
 tragedy when her husband deserted her: saw her 
 soul groping helplessly, piteously, like a blind 
 puppy left by its mother. I saw those who cared 
 for her necessities as she pined and died talking 
 with her often of God's mercy and forgiveness, 
 yet receiving always the same answer that she 
 would not care to seek heaven if he was not to be 
 there. Then she tried to show me her life in hell. 
 Dimly and bewildered, I followed the zigzag of 
 her wanderings in search of her lost one, down 
 into bottomless chasms of evil, along starless can- 
 yons of doubt; ever groping wearily after, 
 hampering, clogging, yet never quite sharing his 
 life. And now at the end of that terrible j ourney 
 about hell, here the poor little thing was sob- 
 bing out her heart's first real cry to God. " I 
 am so lonely ! " she cried over and over. " Oh ! I 
 am so lonely ! " 
 
 " Are you just lonely still for Hatchet, Sadie," 
 I asked, " or are you truly lonely for God? " 
 
 " I am lonely for a little love," she answered. 
 " You said in your sermon, or you made us feel, 
 that God loves us still. Do you think He can 
 truly love an ugly little waif of hell like me ? " 
 
 " It is only the smut and scars and wrinkles 
 of sin that are ugly, Sadie," I said. " God sees 
 beneath these the soul of my innocent playmate 
 of long ago. If you really wish His love and 
 forgiveness, ask Him for it, and vou can know 
 
THE BLESSED CHANCE 77 
 
 that you have it right now. The blood of Jesus 
 Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from all sin. The 
 balm of His grace will smooth away all the scars 
 and wrinkles. It will not be hard for Jesus to 
 make your soul young and beautiful again. 
 Don't you remember how you and Hatchet and I 
 used to make play games out of the stories we had 
 read : Ali Baba and the *■ open sesame ' cave of 
 the Forty Robbers, Beauty and the Beast, Rip 
 van Winkle, and all the others? Sometimes life 
 itself appears to me in the nature of such a little 
 game of transformations. Just as we used to act 
 out the various metamorphoses of the Arabian 
 Nights and the fairy tales in our childish play, 
 so lives are transformed under the spell of sin's 
 witchcraft or the restoring power of God's won- 
 derful grace. You are coming back to your 
 natural shape even while you pray." 
 
 " But I've been under the spell so long," she 
 moaned. " For a hundred and fifty years it 
 doesn't seem as though I have been Sadie at all, 
 but some other woman. There are so many 
 wrong steps to retrace ! How can I hope to find 
 my way back from it all and reach heaven at 
 last?" 
 
 " You have been going wrong," I replied, 
 " ever since you put my old friend Hatchet Ecch- 
 ols in the place of God. You will get right just 
 as you put God in his right place. A thousand 
 years are with God as one day. It isn't the length 
 of your repentance or penance that will count. 
 
78 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 He can undo in one moment Satan's evil work 
 upon your soul during the whole of those long, 
 wrong years. Yes, I know you have to reap what 
 you have sown, but you do not have to reap it 
 as a chain-gang convict: you may reap as an 
 angel of light. It is all in giving yourself up 
 right now and forever utterly to God. Will you 
 do it? Even if He tells you to leave Hatchet 
 in hell, will you give yourself into the care of 
 Jesus now? " 
 
 " Do you think He will have to separate me 
 from my husband for always ? " she asked trem- 
 bling. 
 
 I replied that I hoped not, and that I was sure 
 God would not have her love Hatchet less, only 
 differently. Idolatrous infatuation must give 
 place to Christ-like pity. She could pray for 
 him always. God might even use her as the sur- 
 est missionary to win her husband back to Him- 
 self. The fascination which she had failed to ex- 
 ercise continually upon him as a compliant slave 
 might yet be given her as God's angel of mercy to 
 his restless soul. " All this is for us to know in 
 God's good time," I admitted ; " all we need now 
 is just to love to let Him do as He pleases with us. 
 It's the only way we can feel, and really pray. 
 Will you ask Him to help you do that, poor little 
 girl?" 
 
 " Dear Jesus," Sadie prayed for answer, " I 
 am so tired ! I am so ashamed to have You look 
 at me. Nat says You are willing to take me just 
 
A GOOD PLACE FOR PRAYER 79 
 
 as I am. Oh cover me up quick under the robe 
 of Thy mercy. Wash the sin-stains off my soul 
 with Thy precious blood. I have been ashamed 
 in my soul for so long! I can't bear for any 
 more people to see me looking like this. Oh ! I'm 
 so tired sinning for what I thought was love. 
 Dear Jesus, pity my poor husband and save him. 
 Let me help save him, if I can ever be worthy. 
 Oh Saviour, I am so tired and lonely ! Can You 
 love me? Dear Saviour, do anything You please 
 with me, only forgive me and love me. Dear 
 Jesus, bless Nat for coming to save me. Help 
 him to save a great many out of this awful place. 
 Help him to find the one that is on his thoughts 
 just now. Never mind about me. I'm willing to 
 stay in hell, if only You will stay with me." 
 
 It was very wonderful: I could hear her soul 
 talking to our Saviour and hear Him replying dis- 
 tinctly to her just as when waiting at a rural 
 telephone with ear to the receiver, we have some- 
 times found it necessary to listen for a moment to 
 the conversation of others. This is the inner 
 thrill of heaven, to receive God's response to 
 prayer quite as plain and clear in its articulation 
 as all our conversation with each other. In the 
 flesh-life this response, though equally real, came 
 to us wrapped in the mystery of spiritual exalta- 
 tion, and somewhat vague in its contrast with the 
 physical media of communication ; speech, ges- 
 ture, facial expression, writing, printing, artistic 
 illustration, graphophony, telephony, signaling, 
 
80 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 telegraphy, even the wireless. We were so sense- 
 bound ; all of these tedious, indirect, physical ways 
 of conveying thought often impressed us more 
 definitely, if not more powerfully than the direct 
 vibrant touch of God's over-soul, in His ready, 
 tender, faithful response to every thought and 
 wish of honest prayer. But in the spirit life of 
 heaven we not only see as we are seen and know 
 as we are known, but we hear and apprehend 
 God's thoughts directly even as our thoughts have 
 all our lives been heard by Him. The power of 
 apprehending God, in which we have been grow- 
 ing as we grew in grace on earth, becomes the 
 dominant fact of consciousness in the round of 
 heaven's expanded life. This is life eternal, just 
 to know God. 
 
 But here in hell I heard for the first time a 
 penitent soul in the ecstacy of its first joy talk- 
 ing with God, and caught distinctly each reply 
 of comforting endearment and entire reconcili- 
 ation. It was only one little lost sheep nestling 
 wistfully to the Shepherd's side: just one poor 
 simpleton of sin; but as a demonstration of the 
 theory of soul-winning with which I had started 
 out for hell, Sadie's conversion was enough. 
 Heaven itself had yielded no joy like this. 
 " Master," I said, " if it is just this one, and then 
 in the course of a century or so one other, I am 
 willing to keep it up while hell lasts." 
 
 But I was already conscious of another spirit 
 hovering near, approaching and then receding 
 
HELL'S DEAR JOY 81 
 
 with bound and rebound in a most confusing man- 
 ner, as though desiring by turns to interview me 
 and then to get as far as possible away from me. 
 I said to Sadie, " I am not going to leave you, 
 little girl. I will keep you in consciousness, so 
 that you need only call. But there are others for 
 whom I must seek. Joy asked me to find her 
 husband. You heard, no doubt, that she married 
 Albert Detwiler. Yes, I got married, too. You 
 must know Jeanie. I only wish she were here 
 right now. You need a sister woman to — " 
 
 " Is that you, dear Boy? " came a cheery spir- 
 it's voice. " I wondered how far you would get 
 on your mission without calling for your girl's 
 help. And after all the remarkable expeditions 
 on which you have led me in days gone by, I must 
 say that this — " 
 
 Then she became aware of Sadie. I waited 
 wonderingly to see how she would be affected. 
 Women are often so severe toward each other : and 
 here was a soul shrunken, withered, haggard with 
 its century and three-quarters of God-denying 
 love and longing, only just beginning to change 
 under God's touch. 
 
 But Jeanie took her up with a tender embrace. 
 " Oh ! you poor, dear child ! " she cried. " Oh ! 
 you precious penitent ! " And as Sadie tried to 
 show her all the past, as she had showed it to me, 
 Jeanie only soothed her more compassionately. 
 Instead of shrinking from her, she drew her 
 closer, and with tears of the soul, the two women 
 
82 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 clung to one another rejoicing, grieving, pray- 
 ing, planning for the future with a volubility and 
 versatility of which only women spirits are capa- 
 ble. 
 
 
A DIFFICULT RECOGNITION 83 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Feeling relieved about Sadie, I could now turn 
 less divided attention to the unrecognized spirit 
 which had been gyrating so strangely hither and 
 away in our neighborhood all this time. With a 
 strong outreach of sympathy I managed to clasp 
 and hold him on his next near approach, and in 
 spite of his continual perplexing change of color 
 and shape, I began to feel that I knew him by 
 the very mark of his unknowableness. I could 
 never quite apprehend Albert Detwiler when we 
 were boys and young men together. There were 
 so many of him, I found myself continually puz- 
 zled, in my slow downrightness, to know which 
 was the real Albert. He was so versatile, so 
 clever, so handsome, so everything that I never 
 could be ; there were years when we were growing 
 up together in which it never entered into my 
 heart to believe that Joy could possibly prefer 
 me to her fascinating boy cousin, and the only 
 thing that aroused my resentment about him was 
 that I never could feel that he loved her enough. 
 I loved this girl utterly, adoringly, from sheer 
 compelling power of destiny, asking nothing in 
 return. There was no light joke or shallow pleas- 
 antry possible in what lay for the most part too 
 deep for words within the heart of my heart, 
 which was hers. I could often have been angry 
 with Albert for his flippant, talkative way with 
 
84 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Joy ; only he bewildered me so by his many moods 
 that I could never get angry quick enough. 
 
 There came a summer morning, Joy was 
 turned eighteen and I was home on my second 
 vacation from the university: the time and place 
 are as distinct in my memory after the second 
 century has nearly gone by as though it were 
 yesterday: it was at a bend in the valley road 
 leading down to the village where we stopped for 
 a moment, Joy and I, under the shade of a maple 
 that grew just inside the road fence. Joy let 
 me retie the lace of her low shoe, and when I 
 looked up she said, " Do you know, Nat, if any 
 one should ever win my heart, it would not be one 
 who impressed me in other ways, but it would be 
 the one that loved me more than all the world." 
 
 After that Albert rather faded into the back- 
 ground of our life, and he was not so much of a 
 problem in my thoughts, until I heard that Joy 
 had married him. 
 
 " Albert," I said, as I clung to his swaying, 
 changing shape in hell, " I am very glad to have 
 found you, and I thank you for coming to meet 
 me. You were the first object of my search in 
 coming here. Joy wished me to find you and to 
 tell you that she wants you in heaven." 
 
 " Heaven ? " he answered. " This is heaven. 
 Good is all: heaven is all. There is no other 
 place but heaven." 
 
 " Shade of Mrs. Eddy ! " I exclaimed. " Where 
 did you get hold of that? " 
 
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AT LARGE 85 
 
 " I have been converted since I thought I died," 
 Albert declared impressively. 
 
 This was news with a welcome sound. I was 
 only mystified to understand why we hadn't seen 
 anything of him in heaven. I didn't wish to ar- 
 gue with him. " Why do you stay away from 
 Joy ? " I asked. " She is lonely for you." 
 
 " I am not going back where I have once been 
 snubbed," Albert answered. " I was near you all 
 once, and you would not notice me. You went 
 right on with your life. You were all very much 
 absorbed in each other. I tried passionately, be- 
 seechingly to attract your attention. You paid 
 no more attention to me than if I were not in the 
 universe. Ha ! ha ! ha ! how you stare ! " he cried, 
 and hell echoed with harsh laughter. " You act 
 the thing out well, or else you are still under the 
 spell of your old narrow creed. Your sermon 
 awhile back sounded for all the world like that 
 first summer when you were out from the semi- 
 nary and tried to preach in your father's former 
 pulpit. You and Joy were sweet on each other 
 then. Man, haven't you learned anything yet? 
 You come around and insult a million or more 
 people talking about hell. Now, Nat," he con- 
 tinued, with one of his sudden, perplexing changes 
 of tone, " I'd like to help you out of this gloomy 
 delusion. I feel a benevolent interest in you. I 
 am incapable of bearing malice even for the great- 
 est wrongs. There isn't really any such place as 
 hell. God wouldn't be good; I mean Good 
 
86 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 wouldn't be good and have any hell in its world. 
 Look around you. Hell is supposed to be a 
 prison. Where are the walls? Can't we go 
 where we like? How long is it going to take you 
 to get away from your dark superstitions? 
 Everything goes to prove the truth of the Chris- 
 tian Science position. What we thought was a 
 body and its ailments is gone. Spirit is all. 
 What you think looks like sin in us (of course 
 you can't see any in yourself), why, it's just the 
 lingering delusion of carnality. There are long 
 shadows cast by the sunrise. I suppose you have 
 come out of your thoughts of disease before this. 
 Now come out of your thoughts of sin and of 
 hell, and there won't be any for you any more." 
 
 Then he changed character suddenly again and 
 added, lowering and bellowing defiantly into my 
 soul, " And see here, you give me back my wife. 
 She's mine: she ain't yours: she jilted you: she 
 married me: you've got another one: ain't that 
 enough? What do you want with two. Is that 
 what you call heaven? Oh, you saints in para- 
 dise ! Oh, you lovely, sweet, innocent creatures ! 
 Ha! ha! ha! ha!" 
 
 I was more disturbed than I could have sup- 
 posed it possible for a redeemed soul, kept by the 
 power of God, to be. I had never heard such 
 laughter. What I had sometimes heard in pass- 
 ing Tippleton saloon doors on summer Saturday 
 nights was subdued and modulated in compari- 
 son. The laughter I had been hearing in heaven 
 
THE LAUGHTER-TEST 87 
 
 is deliciously musical like an orchestra of Swiss 
 bells and chiming glasses, with pedal base accom- 
 paniment, tinkling, shimmering, rioting up and 
 down the gamut far beyond the fifth and sixth 
 octaves from middle range, replete with wondrous 
 double meanings, exquisite odd contrasts of feel- 
 ing. But this hell-laughter was sadder to hear 
 than any wail of woe. It went through my soul 
 with a jar, with a rumble, a screech, a groan, a 
 cackle, a bray, a hoot, a growl, a cough, a snort, 
 a wheeze, a crunch, a scrape, a jangle, a crash, a 
 shriek, a howl, a curse, a squawk, a roar, a loon's 
 cry, a catterwaul of unearthly discordant male- 
 diction that made me shiver and shrink. Startled 
 by Albert's challenge, it occurred to me for the 
 first time to take my bearings since coming to 
 hell; and truly enough, the illimitable universe 
 lay six square about me just as before. As a 
 matter of experiment, I tried the talisman of 
 wishing, and found myself one moment in heaven 
 and the next in hell. A flash of glory, a burst of 
 song, was succeeded instantly by bodeful gloom 
 and hideous pandemonium. Only I noticed that 
 I was not conscious of Albert's presence during 
 the first interval ; and I had to fumble and clutch 
 for him in a dazed way on my return. 
 
 " What made you do that? " he exclaimed some- 
 what angrily. " Why do you try to turn your 
 back on me while we are talking? Are you so 
 ashamed? " 
 
 " I have been back in heaven a moment," I 
 
88 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 answered apologetically. " The contrast makes 
 me blink and it is hard to catch what you say." 
 
 " Nonsense ! " Albert exclaimed. " It was only 
 a minute ; I had you in view all the time ; and the 
 same star was at the zenith the whole while." 
 
 " Nevertheless," I replied more calmly, " I was 
 in another world infinitely distant from this and 
 into which you in your unrepentant state can 
 never possibly enter. Like Dives in his torment, 
 you seem to be permitted some marvelous power 
 to see us now and then; but you really can have 
 no just apperception of heaven, or you could not 
 possibly be content to mope in hell without crying 
 to God, if possibly He may forgive you and open 
 up a way of escape." 
 
 Albert laughed more mirthlessly than before. 
 " Do you think," he asked, " that I'd enjoy being 
 around in your heaven to play second fiddle to 
 you with my own wife? No; that would be hell, 
 for sure." 
 
 I could have been righteously provoked with 
 Albert, if I had not pitied him so intensely. I 
 labored to explain to him what were the relations 
 of the sexes in heaven : that we neither marry nor 
 are given in marriage, but are as the angels of 
 God: that the sex of spirits is largely a matter 
 of inherent or acquired disposition, some who had 
 been tabernacled in women's bodies finding them- 
 selves men in soul in the glorified state, or vice 
 versa, and that with no disparagement to either 
 sex : how some married couples find themselves of 
 
SEX IN HEAVEN 89 
 
 the same sex in heaven, just good chums or twin 
 sisters, and very much relieved by the change. 
 " After all has been said and sung," I insisted, 
 " the fondest wife on earth was only a dearer kind 
 of friend. She was just ' my sister, my spouse.' 
 In heaven all our friendships are more intimate, 
 more confidential than the closest tie of earth." 
 
 " A sort of universal free love, I reckon," 
 sneered Albert. 
 
 " Just as free and as frank as the pure, inno- 
 cent love of brothers and sisters," I answered. 
 " Redeemed spirits are drawn to one another in 
 the glow of immortal youth. They take on at 
 will forms of exquisite grace and loveliness, of 
 strength and dignity. Each higher thought, 
 emotion, impulse, adds shape and color to a per- 
 fection that is ever unfolding. The life of 
 heaven is a never-failing idyl. The complex ele- 
 ments, the infinite variety, the free spirit of its 
 cosmopolitan make-up lead to unending romance 
 of a platonic sort ; but there can be no bitterness 
 of jealousy where every soul is yielded to God's 
 will, and where soul meets soul in the naked inno- 
 cence which sees as we are seen and knows as we 
 are known." 
 
 Albert listened quietly now; but his soul dark- 
 ened as he answered, " Nat, you always were in 
 for a general soft time; but I tell you I want 
 Alice all to myself." 
 
 " See here, Albert," I said, " you are forget- 
 ting that your marriage vows were only for the 
 
90 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 mortal life. You have no claim on Joy now; 
 except as you can demonstrate a superior affinity 
 to that of others. She has told us of late how 
 often in your wedded life she implored you to 
 make your peace with God and share with her the 
 dearest hopes of heaven. You were profoundly 
 respectful, off and on, toward her religion in 
 your manner; but in the real bent of your life 
 you treated it with contempt. You deliberately 
 took your chances on being separated from your 
 wife in eternity ; you were cowed by the possible 
 sneers of the other men; you went after the tri- 
 fling satisfaction of earth's hollow popularity. 
 You thought it was effeminate to have any defi- 
 nite views on the subject of God and eternity. 
 You dallied with all the issues that were really 
 worth settling. Now you find that between you 
 and her there is a gulf fixed. You might go 
 right through her and you couldn't attract her 
 attention. She is sorry for you, she wishes for 
 you; but she is entirely unconscious of you, for 
 you are not of her world. But her world is open 
 to you, old fellow, if you will just get down to 
 reality and hold yourself one thing long enough 
 to tell God you are sorry for being such a fool. 
 Come now, you must listen to the truth spoken in 
 love," I cried, darting after him as he almost 
 slipped away from me into hell's abyss. " I have 
 no desire to keep your wife from you. Be a man. 
 Get right with God. Win heaven. Win the 
 inner heaven of Joy's love. Be her husband in 
 
THE VALUE PUT ON HER 91 
 
 soul. You will find her as uninvolved in her 
 stainless, flawless loyalty as on the day you led 
 her to the altar. I have simply loved her a little 
 longer and more dearly in heaven than I had al- 
 ready loved her, day by day, on earth. There 
 is no regret in either of our hearts for the past. 
 Jeanie made me a better wife, in God's provi- 
 dence, than ever Joy could have made. She man- 
 aged me more deftly, and got more out of me 
 for God. She understands me better to-day. 
 There was nothing in our love's young dream, 
 Joy's and mine, to spoil your married life with 
 her. Most of the time I ,did not even know where 
 you were living ; but if it had been next door, you 
 would have been given no reason to feel uncom- 
 fortable in the steady, matter-of-fact relations of 
 kindliness which might have existed between us. 
 Only in our inner souls we would each have known 
 and agreed that God meant us to love each other 
 always. Many a day I had not one thought of 
 her ; and yet I would dream of her that night, and 
 tell the dream to Jeanie the next morning. Jeanie 
 only loved me more for that." 
 
 " So you've practically got two sweethearts in 
 what you call heaven," Albert persisted. 
 
 " It may seem so to your monopolistic vision," 
 I answered ; " but really I believe the one whom 
 I call sweetheart most often is my great great 
 great granddaughter, Content, a sixteen-year-old 
 lately come from earth. I do think sometimes 
 she is about the sweetest creature God has yet 
 
92 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 made. Earth was not fitted to grow such girls 
 in our own competitive period." 
 
 Albert laughed again. " Milton tells us about 
 the fool's paradise," he said, " and I guess that's 
 where you've got to." 
 
 " If it is foolish to be glad forever," I an- 
 swered. " Oh, Albert, I wish I could make you 
 see how sensible heaven is. I only wish I had 
 your son, Albert, here. Alice says you were al- 
 ways the same in your manner toward him. He 
 could tell you if we are not acting sensibly and 
 doing right." 
 
 Of course the thing I might have expected in 
 God's great mercy happened then. Albert came, 
 and the meeting between father and son after 
 nearly a century of separation showed me depths 
 of reality in the senior Albert's nature that made 
 my heart bound with hope. Albert did not argue 
 with his father as I had been inclined to do ; but 
 just showed him his heart's desire to have him 
 in heaven. He seemed almost ready to give up 
 to God; yet it was hard for him to acknowledge 
 his need of the Saviour of sinners. "I am a 
 Christian," he insisted. " I am a member of the 
 Church of Christ, Scientist." 
 
 He insisted on taking us to one of their meet- 
 ings. It occurred within the central glories of 
 the Milky Way, and was attended by some hun- 
 dreds of millions of lost souls ; for Christian Sci- 
 ence has proven to be a well adapted and popular 
 cult in hell. We found the audience listening to 
 
HELL'S COMFORTER 93 
 
 the address of an almost incredibly weazened, de- 
 crepit, not unvenerable looking feminine spirit. 
 " It is She, herself," whispered our guide. 
 
 As on earth, we found the leader of the cult a 
 woman. A marvelous power of diction was being 
 wielded by this frail-appearing creature, who 
 seemed ready to vanish with sheer weariness. 
 " There is no death," she was saying ; " so much 
 of our theory has been proven in the experience 
 of each of us. Some of us used to dread death. 
 Preachers used to frighten us with funeral ser- 
 mons preached in advance. Literature was full 
 of the dirge and wail of dying. But when this 
 6 King of Terrors ' came to you and me, he 
 brought only disillusion from the spell of matter. 
 We laughed to find that we were not dead, but 
 alive, immortal, inextinguishable for ever more. 
 Not God, Good, Himself, Itself, could, would 
 take from us the inalienable, inherent, essential 
 nature of living forever. The last hampering 
 fear dropped like a shattered fetter from our 
 soul. There is no fear. What have we to cower 
 before, and shrink from, and cringe under now? 
 The worst has happened and has proved to be 
 only a bug-a-boo. Other bug-a-boos with which 
 preachers of the gospel, so called, used to try 
 and fright us have failed to materialize in the all- 
 ness of Good. Where is their lake of fire and 
 brimstone? It could not harm our spirits if we 
 found it. We pass through the sun's photo- 
 sphere unsinged: we linger in ice caves of dead 
 
94 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 planets unchilled. All these apparently material 
 things are only a vain show. Mind alone is real. 
 As a man thinketh, so is he. Evil be to him who 
 evil thinks. There is no sin, except as a man 
 thinks that he sins. The cure of sinning is to 
 stop thinking that there is reality in sin. There 
 is no atonement needed, except for men to think 
 thoughts that are at one with Infinite Mind. There 
 is no punishment, temporary or eternal; except 
 in the distorted dread of a punishment that never 
 comes. Good is all, and Good cannot punish 
 Itself. 
 
 " Where is the weeping and gnashing of 
 teeth ? " she concluded with a flourish. " We 
 spirits have no tears to weep, and no teeth to 
 gnash. Where is the bottomless pit? Have we 
 seen any smoke of its torment darkening the sun 
 and the air? Could we be held in by its chain, 
 its key, or its seal? Where is that outer dark- 
 ness? We spirits can see without light. Where is 
 the place prepared for the Devil and his angels? 
 There is no real devil, and he has no angels. We 
 look outward into all these glories which blaze 
 and whirl around us. We look to the zenith, and 
 we look to the nadir. We sweep with all but lim- 
 itless vision the horizon of the nearer and better 
 known infinity. We peer and delve into the ex- 
 haustless world of mystery contained in a single 
 molecule. And when we have sought and experi- 
 mented and analyzed and dissected and recon- 
 noitered for a century in vain, we still call to the 
 
CHEERING MAKE-BELIEVE 95 
 
 echoes of the universe and receive back our ques- 
 tion in answer, * Where is hell? Where is hell? 
 Where is hell?'" 
 
 The applause and the laughter which greeted 
 this peroration seemed to rattle among the very 
 rafters of hell ; yet I was conscious that not even 
 the faintest pulsation of it was heard in heaven. 
 We stayed to the " demonstration meeting" which 
 though smaller in its attendance was even more 
 curious than the preaching service. We could 
 see that our partial convert to Christ was getting 
 back under the spell of this type of hell's 
 " healthy optimism," and we watched and waited 
 for some means of weaning him from its infatua- 
 tion. The testimonies in this demonstration 
 meeting were all along the line of the relief from 
 gloom and despondency occasioned by embracing 
 the principles of Christian Science either in the 
 mortal or the spirit life, and of wonderful 
 mental cures wrought by promulgating its evan- 
 gel. One spoke of the overwhelming despair with 
 which the new consciousness had come to him 
 after passing through the heavy curtains of 
 death. " The somber preaching I had heard 
 from infancy dominated all my thoughts," he 
 said, " and I could only moan and wail, ' This 
 is hell ! ' I imagined myself lost forever, and 
 could thing of nothing but the sins of my life on 
 earth, as I had been taught to regard them. The 
 awful loneliness of spending eternity cast out 
 from the presence of God, whose great salvation 
 
96 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 I had neglected, hung like a black pall over the 
 sky of my future. I would have cried to God for 
 mercy and forgiveness, only I had always been 
 taught to believe there could be no possibility of 
 prayer or penitence in perdition. I am sure I 
 had what the theologians would call a conviction 
 of sin deeper than I had known in a lifetime on 
 earth. It was so awful to be separated from all 
 the good, kind people I had loved all my life. 
 Contingencies that had seemed vague before be- 
 came terribly real. I felt that I must pray the 
 prayer of the publican, or lose my reason. Even 
 if it could never be of any use now, I thought I 
 would at least like to tell God I was sorry. I 
 wondered if God could hear me in hell. 
 
 " * So lonely 'twas that God Himself 
 Scarce seemed there to be.' 
 
 " And then I would remember that God is 
 everywhere. He is our Father who art in heaven, 
 and on earth, and in hell. He upholds all things 
 by the word of His power. And Christ is the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and forever. God is the same 
 always, and the same everywhere, and His mercy 
 endureth forever. 
 
 " But while I was in that morbid state of mind 
 and musing over these conceptions of an effete 
 orthodoxy, until I was just trembling upon the 
 verge of an old-fashioned conversion ; there came 
 to me the spirit of a certain Christian Science 
 reader and healer, at whom I had often laughed 
 
A DEMONSTRATION MEETING 97 
 
 on earth. He said to me, ' Hail, acquaintance of 
 former days, believe on Christ, Truth, and thou 
 shalt be saved.' I cast about in my mind to know 
 what such a salutation in hell, where I believed 
 myself to be, might mean. And musing over the 
 strange juxtaposition of concrete and abstract, 
 personal and impersonal, in his exhortation, I ex- 
 claimed at last, ' Well, which? ' 
 
 " 4 And ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth 
 shall make you free,' was his reply. 
 
 " Seeing that it was considered proper and in 
 good form to quote Scripture in hell, I replied in 
 the language of Pilate, ' And what is truth ? ' 
 
 " ' The Good is the True,' replied my visitor. 
 ' All else is but the shadow of a dream.' And 
 so he unfolded to me the Divine Truth of Chris- 
 tian Science, as I had never understood it before ; 
 that there was really nothing wrong with me but 
 wrong thoughts of myself and of God, Good. I 
 must learn not to think sin, and remorse, and evil 
 companionship, for these were not real, and noth- 
 ing was real but Good. So I have found relief," 
 this one concluded, " from what truly seemed like 
 the second death I had heard preached and sung 
 about ; and while I keep close within the sphere of 
 Christian Science influence, I am no longer so 
 much troubled by the associations and thoughts 
 which at first filled my soul with horror and 
 dread." 
 
 Similar testimonies to relief from troubled 
 consciences were given in ' in great numbers. 
 
98 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Sometimes hundreds thus " demonstrated " at 
 once during this after-meeting, each making a 
 distinct impression upon the listener's mind. 
 There were also the boasts of "healers," one of 
 whom had even persuaded one who thought him- 
 self a demon of hell that he was in reality an an- 
 gel of light. Another had found a suicide rav- 
 ing in a delirium in which he imagined himself 
 possessed of a body which he was continually 
 mangling, strangling, poisoning, suffocating, 
 dragging its corpse through space, until it came 
 feebly to life with many a pang, only to lay vio- 
 lent hands upon itself again. " I fixed my atten- 
 tion upon this troubled soul," the healer said, 
 " and I reflected, ' You never had a body any 
 more than you really have now. You never com- 
 mitted suicide except in your thoughts. You 
 need nothing now but to be relieved of these 
 thoughts.' So I looked at him and he looked at 
 me, and there was a great calm." 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable " demonstration " 
 was that given by one who claimed to be the spirit 
 of Judas. " I am astonished," he said, " to think 
 of the centuries of gnawing remorse I suffered 
 until one came to make it plain to me that the 
 Christ, of whose death I had supposed myself to 
 be guilty by basest treason, never really died at 
 all, having no real mortal body to suffer and die 
 in, because there is no reality in suffering or 
 death. She assures me that Christ, Truth, sim- 
 ply retired to the privacy of Joseph's tomb and 
 
THE FAR VISION OF DIVES 99 
 
 there worked out the principles of Christian Sci- 
 ence. My mind has thus been greatly relieved, 
 and I am coming to look upon myself as the 
 greatest benefactor of all the human and extra- 
 human race." 
 
 Young Albert and I were beginning to feel that 
 we must take a hand in the demonstration meet- 
 ing if we could hope to hold his father's mind to 
 even a beginning of better thoughts. We could 
 not fail to be conscious of many curious glances 
 cast upon us. How could these people help but 
 feel that we were not of their world? So there 
 came into both our hearts a mighty prayer, in- 
 dited by the Holy Spirit, that God would just 
 now in great mercy show these poor sham-crav- 
 ing, sham-crazed souls a glimpse of His real 
 heaven to demonstrate hell's blackness by con- 
 trast. When Judas testified, Albert junior could 
 contain himself no longer. " Look on us ! " he 
 cried, in the language of Peter and John to the 
 lame man at the temple gate called Beautiful. 
 " Look on us. We came from heaven to tell you 
 that there is something better for you than mak- 
 ing believe you are not in hell. We are asking 
 our God to show you one real glimpse of heaven. 
 Oh look ! look ! " And as he spake, the wondrous 
 vision came in answer to believing prayer. Per- 
 haps they could not all see it alike, or any of 
 them quite so clearly as we could. But there 
 amid those same stellar glories, around us, among 
 us, yet morally so far away, was heaven revealed, 
 
100 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 all unconscious of our gaze, like a wondrous liv- 
 ing, moving picture. I could distinguish ac- 
 quaintances. There was Joy herself playing 
 with our twins, Jeanie's and mine; and Jeanie 
 came bringing the blood washed, renewed, glori- 
 fied Sadie. Albert and his father saw them too, 
 and the elder Albert exclaimed, " It is my own 
 wife, and that is little Sadie Wells. If she can 
 be saved, why cannot I? " 
 
 We heard heaven's joy-song of welcome to the 
 repentant one. The strain came so faintly to our 
 ravished ears, that hell's assembly perforce grew 
 very still to listen to it. Some were melted down 
 in instant penitence; all seemed awed and wonder 
 stricken by what they saw and heard during 
 those precious moments. For there in the midst 
 of heaven's jubilation, the center of its adoring, 
 grateful love, stood revealed to the soul's view 
 our own thorn-crowned, sword-pierced, world re- 
 deeming Saviour, as it were a lamb that had been 
 slain, His heart still bleeding for the sorrows and 
 sins He came to take away — just our own cruci- 
 fied Jesus, the same yesterday, to-day, and for- 
 ever, the lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world to be the propitiation for our sins, and not 
 for ours only, but for the sins of all the worlds 
 and all the ages : He stood stretching out scarred 
 hands that were labor-hardened, and sun-burned, 
 yet shaped for tender touch; and those hands 
 seemed to reach everywhere, even down into hell, 
 and those deep spirit-eyes looked into each soul's 
 
WHICH WILL YE SERVE? 101 
 
 eyes that looked to Him, revealing God's love and 
 the utterness of each one's need of Him. 
 
 Lit up by the reflection of this vision, hell's 
 dinginess and barren pretence at its best came 
 out clear to the understanding. Sin and shame 
 stood revealed in their naked ugliness, shrinking, 
 cowering, shivering, unable to dissemble or to hide. 
 And back of it all, brought out into view as if 
 by the concentrated searchlight power of a mil- 
 lion suns focused together, there leered a wry 
 unwilling face large as the sky of hell; a brow 
 of thought just beneath omniscience, a chin of 
 power only short of God's ; eyes that burned like 
 fevered seas of unrest over unsounded depths of 
 treachery, hatred, and despair ; lips that curled in 
 mockery's thin mask of anguish, sad for their 
 very cruelty. Face to face thus we saw them 
 with infinity between, the world's Tempter and 
 its Redeemer, the Adversary, source of all evil, the 
 Advocate, author of its greater good. For some 
 precious moments the contrast of sin and salva- 
 tion was felt in hell, I believe, by some millions 
 of souls, and then the vision faded, leaving con- 
 viction to make its unforced choice between the 
 two. 
 
102 ' A MISSION"' TO HELL 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 We found ourselves surrounded by some scores 
 of penitents, while a few hundred others, of 
 whom Albert's father was one, declared willingly 
 that they were done with Christian Science. 
 These concentric circles were formed about us 
 without any urging upon our part, almost, as it 
 were, automatically, each individual in them gov- 
 erned by the polarity of his new impulse. Out 
 and beyond were millions interested, for the thrill 
 of what had happened was felt far out in hell ; and 
 while some who had seen something of the vision 
 fled away, other millions more amenable in mood 
 flocked around. We endeavored to exhort these 
 half-pursuaded ones and onlookers to yield to the 
 same mighty influence of God's Spirit; but some 
 seemed merely dazed by what they had seen, others 
 were curious and critical, others contended that this 
 spell had been wrought by black art and power of 
 enchantment. Some admitted that they had been 
 impressed, but wished to understand better what 
 it all might mean, or preferred to delay their de- 
 cision for Christ. They wished to reason calmly 
 and deliberately over this unexpected event, they 
 deprecated all excitement in religion, and were 
 opposed to sensational and spectacular methods 
 of appeal. Some declared their doubt if any 
 lasting good would result from the wave of 
 emotion which had brought this group of seekers 
 
HELL'S CHOOSING GROUND 103 
 
 about us crying, " What shall we do to be 
 saved? " There would inevitably come a reac- 
 tion from such overstrained feeling, and the final 
 result would be detrimental to the best interests 
 of morality and of religion. Others were express- 
 ing their positive opposition to this interruption 
 of an accredited religious assemblage, and were 
 beginning to threaten that we ought to be sum- 
 marily dealt with, while back of them all lowered, 
 indistinct but terrible, the great face of the poten- 
 tate of hell, who would willingly brook no in- 
 trusion of his rightful domain. 
 
 Our hands were very full for a time, between 
 speaking words of cheer and hope to broken 
 and contrite hearts bowed around us, filled with 
 a revulsion to loathing for the falseness of their 
 past and of that world in which they had been 
 moving, and at the same time trying to meet so 
 many objectors, and to bring so many hesitating 
 ones to a decision. I was more than ever grateful 
 for young Albert's comradeship as I beheld him 
 in calm, strong persuasiveness bidding our con- 
 verts put their whole trust in the merciful God 
 and Saviour who had revealed Himself to them in 
 answer to our simple prayer. In those moments 
 he and I grew in soul as never before, while we 
 gave our attention to the individual needs and 
 difficulties of each stirred spirit around us. My 
 heart was swelling with rapture and longing, as 
 I cried to God for others and others still, that 
 this moment of supreme opportunity might not 
 
104 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 pass by unavailingly for one of them, leaving 
 that soul hardened in its power of resistance to 
 God. I remember particularly pleading with the 
 soul who had first testified in the demonstration 
 meeting of the Scientists as one who had been 
 near to repentance when he first came to find him- 
 self in hell. But he replied that he had expe- 
 rienced these emotions of conviction so painfully 
 at that time, he shrank now from renewing the 
 impressions which cost him so much mental dis- 
 comfort then. Christian Science had brought 
 him partial relief, and it would be ungrateful in 
 him not to remain true to that faith. 
 
 There seemed nothing left but to endeavor to 
 seek out the lady of the cult. If she could be 
 converted to the Savior of sinners herself, the 
 whole bubble might collapse in hell, as it had on 
 earth after its originator's decease. I had con- 
 siderable difficulty in finding her. I had noticed 
 after her wonderful speech in the Scientist meet- 
 ing, that instead of seeming elated by its splendid 
 success, she appeared fairly to shrink with over- 
 powering weariness. All through the demonstra- 
 tion meeting she had lingered in view drawn 
 within herself; but at the time of the vision she 
 shrivelled up almost to the vanishing point. 
 Thus I found her by searching in deepest concern 
 and pity, and getting her under the focus of a 
 strong lens of discriminating appreciation. " I 
 feel so sorry for you," I said as soon as she was 
 
HONEST CONFESSION 105 
 
 clearly discerned. " This thing is wearing you 
 out. Here you are dying by inches through the 
 centuries; will you not come to Christ that you 
 may have life? " 
 
 Perhaps she was really too much exhausted by 
 all that she had just gone through to attempt to 
 act her part with me, perhaps she yielded by so 
 much to the influence of the Holy Spirit ; at any 
 rate she took me into her confidence, as perhaps 
 she had not been confidential with any one out- 
 side her heirarchy since the beginning of her 
 fame in hell. " I am tired and ill," she admitted ; 
 " but my success astonishes and fascinates me 
 still. I cannot understand it yet. As long as 
 we were honest in talking Quinbyism, and giving 
 him the credit for his philosophy of health, we 
 could hardly get any one to listen to us long at 
 a time. But when we invented the name of 
 Christian Science for it, and gave out that we had 
 it by revelation, almost immediately we began to 
 have thousands at our feet. Our doctrine was 
 such a stupendous success on earth, that it was 
 hard for me sometimes to keep from believing it 
 myself. But it has been a millionfold greater 
 success here, and it has lasted longer, and seems 
 likely to live. I am in it for all it will yield me. 
 I will see the play through — at least as long as 
 I have the star part. If this is hell, it is a vast 
 bonanza mine for me. f Better to rule in hell, 
 than serve in heaven ' is the sentiment that suits 
 
106 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 my case exactly. I think really you had better go 
 on and talk to some one who isn't making a 
 good thing of it here." 
 
 I could not change her from this decision. 
 " Put yourself in my place," she replied to my 
 expostulation. " Who are you in heaven ? Is 
 your name echoed from world to world? Are 
 you confronted and charmed by an idealized, ex- 
 alted image of yourself in the minds of your fel- 
 lows whichever way you turn? Can you turn 
 every commonplace thought you express into 
 treasure, and do your fellows vie with each other 
 in enriching you for fancied amelioration of end- 
 lessly chronic sufferings? How large a person- 
 age would I be in your world? The humblest 
 penitent, saved from degraded crimes, would have 
 more to say for himself than I could have to say 
 for myself. Yes, the strain of this unreality is 
 something frightful; but that is part of the 
 penalty, I suppose, of being eminent." 
 
 So my urging proved unavailing. With one 
 or two exceptions, those influenced to decide for 
 heaven just then were won directly and solely by 
 the power of the vision of heaven. " You are 
 God's converts rather than ours," Albert assured 
 them, " and we can safely commend you to God 
 and to the word of His grace, which is able to 
 build you up, and give you an inheritance among 
 all them which are sanctified. God will talk to 
 you whenever you talk to Him, just as He is 
 talking to us now. He is able to sanctify you 
 
HELL'S PASTORAL PROBLEMS 107 
 
 wholly from this moment, if you will but give 
 your whole attention to what He says to you. 
 You may reach heaven at one bound, or you 
 may climb slowly heavenward, often slipping 
 back, just according as you yield yourselves 
 wholly or partially to God, trusting wholly in 
 the only Saviour, or partly in your own endeavors 
 to make up for the past. The cut-throat who 
 hung upon his cross close beside our Jesus only 
 had to offer one prayer, and he has been in para- 
 dise from that day." 
 
 " It is true ! " cried one of our penitents. " I 
 am that other plunderer that hung and railed on 
 the Nazarene from my cross at His other side. 
 Often have I looked for my confederate in this 
 spirit world. But I saw him just now in that 
 vision. I knew him by his hearty, straight-out 
 way. There was never a lad just like him. 
 And there he was close by the same One we were 
 crucified with. Only he had grown like Him, for 
 he had been so long seeing Him as He is. And I 
 would be with them too ! Who would think that 
 one little wish expressed to Jesus Christ would 
 make all this difference between us two for twenty 
 centuries and a half ! " 
 
 The greater number of our converts had been 
 moved in this same way by recognizing people 
 they had known in our vision of heaven. People 
 who had been separated by sudden death from 
 those they loved now saw them as suddenly again. 
 I was reminded of the story of a wayward girl 
 
108 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 converted from a life of shame and heart-break 
 by finding her mother's photograph hung upon 
 the wall of a mission. Here were wayward sons 
 and daughters in hell just granted a glimpse of a 
 mother, a father in heaven still longing for their 
 presence there. The mystery was that every 
 spectator from hell had not been instantly con- 
 verted. Of course we pleaded most earnestly with 
 Albert's father, who had been our guide to this 
 concourse, and who lingered near among the un- 
 decided ones. " I suppose you will organize your 
 converts into a church," he suggested. " I will 
 join as an associate member, and accept office as 
 a trustee or vestryman or something. You shall 
 have my subscription, and I will give you stand- 
 ing among us by my name and influence." 
 
 " God forbid ! " young Albert and I exclaimed 
 at once. "Why father," Albert said, "that 
 would be almost giving up our last hope of ever 
 seeing you soundly coverted to God. While you 
 were patronizing Christ, and listening with a con- 
 descending smirk to the most strenuous applica- 
 tions of gospel truth, growing as familiar as an 
 undertaker with solemn appeals which you are 
 constantly gaining practice in resisting; how 
 would the arrow of honest conviction ever have a 
 chance to reach your heart? Oh father!" he 
 cried. " Do not postpone your decision, or try 
 to compromise matters with God. It is now, 
 now that you must be saved or damned. When 
 will God ever give you a stronger demonstration 
 
A HOPELESS POSITION 109 
 
 or inducement than you have experienced just 
 now? Can you not see that this has been and 
 will be the hell of your hell — eternally trifling 
 with the eternal God, who will not be trifled 
 with?" 
 
 The elder Albert showed signs of rising anger. 
 " It is true," I said, as his spirit turned to me : 
 " you can be a trustee or a vestryman, and still 
 be damned. I am rather looking for a dozen or 
 more of my former trustees who haven't as yet, 
 to my knowledge, arrived in heaven, in hope and 
 fear that I may find them occupying some dis- 
 tinguished positions here and there in hell. I 
 like your suggestion about organizing a church. 
 It would seem a pity to leave all these young be- 
 lievers straggling about undeveloped and unor- 
 ganized for mutual help. But there is one thing 
 you can calmly rest assured we won't do. If we 
 cannot found a church strong enough to stand 
 alone with God, we won't set one up and prop 
 it from the outside to be very kindly owned, con- 
 trolled, and popularized by men without faith, 
 strong only in policies of compromise with evil. 
 You have either got to come in, or keep your 
 hands off. You say you are done with Christian 
 Science. Then what is there for you but a full 
 surrender to Christ ? We will gladly have you in 
 our little church of blood-washed sinners ; but you 
 will have to come through Christ, the Door. 
 He says, ' I am the way, the truth, and the 
 life. No man cometh unto the Father but by 
 
110 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 me ! ' Come to Christ now, or else you remain in 
 the outer darkness, out of heaven, out of your 
 wife's fond embrace, out of the ark o." safety, 
 out of everything good, out of everything glad; 
 forever more without." 
 
 " You need not be scornful," Albert senior pro- 
 tested. " There are plenty of other churches I 
 can join besides yours." 
 
 " Yes, hell-churches," I admitted. " Syna- 
 gogues of Satan: Mormons, perhaps, or Spirit- 
 ualists, possibly some Hicksite Quakers." 
 
 " That is a very small portion of the list," he 
 answered proudly. " Besides these I know of some 
 Roman Catholic churches, some Greek Catholic, 
 some Anglican Catholic or Episcopalian, beside 
 Universalist, Unitarian, Zionite, Millenial Dawn, 
 Methodist North, Methodist South, Campbelite 
 Baptist, Free Baptist, Close Communion Baptist 
 both Hard Shell and New School, Lutherans, Con- 
 gregationalists, Reformed Dutch, and hundreds 
 more. If this is hell, then hell is the paradise of 
 denominations." 
 
 " I did not hear you include Presbyterians in 
 your list," I suggested somewhat timidly and 
 wholly aghast at such a revelation. " Can it be 
 that among so many excellent societies ours of 
 foremost standing and influence is not repre- 
 sented ? " 
 
 " Presbyterians ? " asked Albert. " Why yes, 
 there's a man named Rorer — " 
 
 " Oh my phophetic soul ! " I exclaimed. " Has 
 
RELIGIONS OF HELL 111 
 
 Rorer gotten to be an elder again in hell? " 
 " Did you know him? " Albert asked. " Why 
 certainly. He is senior elder and clerk of session 
 in one of the swell Presbyterian churches of these 
 parts. I'll take you around there some time." 
 
 I promised to go with him, but I appealed to 
 him again that we had something more pressing 
 to which we should attend. " I cannot under- 
 stand about these hell-churches until I can make 
 a study of them ! " I said ; " but after all you 
 have experienced since we met here, do you, can 
 you really think for a moment that you could be 
 satisfied in any one of all these organizations 
 away from God and from Joy and heaven ? " 
 
 " No I cannot," he said with a ring of frank- 
 ness in his thought that made my soul glad. " I 
 know that. But when it comes to analyzing my 
 feelings and confessing that I am converted to 
 your gospel, I am hardly prepared to do that. 
 You must give a fellow a little more time. It 
 seems so strange to be really getting in earnest 
 about something. I have lived a multiple, semi- 
 plausible, many-masked sort of life for so long, 
 that I hardly know what to make of myself now 
 that I seem to be getting down to one positive 
 conviction. I have been such a hypocrite, how 
 can I ever trust myself as real? I wonder how 
 these people will hold out in their sudden peni- 
 tence. I have known some of them for smirk 
 and tonguey Christian Scientists — not the inno- 
 cent, lovable sort we sometimes met on earth at 
 
112 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 all. I wonder how sincere they are in their new 
 profession. These conversions off-hand, they 
 frighten me. I rub my eyes metaphorically to 
 be sure of the transformation I witness here. 
 And I can't help asking, Is it actual? Will it 
 last?" 
 
 " Try it yourself, Albert," I suggested, " and 
 then you will know if this change is real. The 
 strong element in favor of spirit-world evangelism 
 is that we have only to be real ourselves and 
 nothing false can join itself to us. If there 
 were one attempting hypocrisy in this praying 
 group, his own hollowness would float him out of 
 the circle. Struggle as he might, he would find 
 himself 'blown farther away than an open adver- 
 sary. All that holds you near is your sympathy 
 with us, and further in than your appreciation 
 penetrates there is a sacred confidential privacy 
 of souls talking with God which I can tell you 
 about, but I cannot unveil it to your sight until 
 you yield to God's Spirit yourself in penitential 
 prayer. Whatever is to be for each of these 
 seeking souls the pathway of its approach to the 
 higher glory of heaven ; you can rest quietly as- 
 sured that each is already truly within the strait 
 gate and learning to walk the narrow way that 
 leads, as sure as God is true, on to eternal life. 
 You do not need to be solicitious about these 
 others. The question of tremendous solicitude 
 is for yourself, and it is all just between you 
 and your offended God, your reconciling Saviour; 
 
ONE ADVANTAGE 113 
 
 even as though there were no other sentient be- 
 ings inhabiting this boundless universe but just 
 you and Him. What are you going to do with 
 the Christ? Decide now, and now forever." 
 
 Albert's soul was bowed low. He said, " I can- 
 not feel that there is anything to me to make a 
 decision. I cannot look back on all my flimsy ex- 
 istence and be sure that I ever felt anything 
 really, ever thought or believed anything, ever 
 actually decided anything, except as the drift 
 took me. I have never really been anything, and 
 I am nothing now. How can nothing decide? " 
 
 Then young Albert drew him into a strong 
 embrace. " Father," he said, " if 3^ou know that 
 you are nothing; then you are very near to 
 knowing Christ as your all in all. Won't you 
 take Him right now to be your all ? " 
 
 He said, " Yes, I will." 
 
 I doubt if all hell contained a happier prayer 
 circle than ours after that. More than one of 
 the undecided ones around us was drawn in by 
 the sheer compulsion of the pull of our joy. 
 Yes, we would organize a little church, we all 
 agreed, and we would call it the Brotherhood of 
 the Heavenly Vision. But we felt that we ought 
 to come into touch in some way with the general 
 body of the redeemed in hell, if we could find 
 them. I wished for Peale, but in his stead came 
 a lady whose debonair presence told me before 
 she spoke that this was Doctor Eleanor Chestnut. 
 She rejoiced with us, and declared that she had 
 
114 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 not seen anything exactly like it in all her century 
 and a half in hell. " I do not recall, before, 
 coming across a Christian Scientist brought back 
 to the faith in the Saviour of sinners," she said. 
 " Our work among the souls of heathen seems 
 easy beside this." She was puzzled to know just 
 who would come nearest to us in the various de- 
 partments of infernal missions. " There's Jerry 
 McCauley's rescue work," she reflected ; " but 
 that is almost as far from this as ours. Sam 
 Jones is slinging some hard shot around among 
 church members of former days. Hell is so wide, 
 it is hard to think of all the lieutenants ofsalva- 
 tion one has met here. Dear old Charles Spur- 
 geon still holds forth the Word of Life to splen- 
 did audiences, and Gipsy Smith would simply 
 have been lost for an object to live for, if he had 
 not recently taken to touring in hell for souls 
 to save. Torrey and Biederwolf, Moody and 
 Finney, Wesley, Whitfield, Hugh Price Hughes 
 and Saint Patrick are all hard at it; while 
 Edwards frequently remarks, ' I told you so,' to 
 sinners in the hands of an angry God. All 
 these grand men, and many of my own sex like 
 Jenny Smith and Mrs. Ballington Booth, Pun- 
 dita Ramabai, and Frances Willard are stirring, 
 each along his or her chosen line in our lost spirit 
 world. Harriet Beecher Stowe yearns over more 
 slaves than America ever knew, and Chinese Gor- 
 don looks for lonely outposts amid Satan's hordes, 
 to hold them for God. Then there are leaders 
 
HELL'S NEW EVANGELISM 115 
 
 from the long ago keeping their youth fresh in 
 the work of redemption. Paul and Barnabas are 
 here to turn hell upside down yet, by God's great 
 help. Jonah preaches to a greater Nineveh, and 
 Jeremiah weeps over ruins sadder than Jerusa- 
 lem. Andrew and Philip are still doing personal 
 work, ably seconded by Henry Clay Trumbull. 
 In what you are beginning to do you are in 
 relation to the work of all these men and women, 
 to some more closely than to others. I think if 
 we could only take it all in at a glance, the 
 work of many thousands for Christ in hell, as we 
 come upon it here and there, we would not feel 
 troubled about the future. Our plaster is surely 
 with us seeking His ' other sheep.' Surely He 
 will seek for each until He finds it. Perhaps 
 if we will ask Him, all softly in our hearts, He 
 will let us see more widely how He and His help- 
 ers are faring in their long endeavor." 
 
 Even as Doctor Eleanor was still speaking 
 the answer came. Through the murk of hell's 
 gloom and dreariness, soft incandescent lights 
 shone out almost at once tracing the vast circuit 
 of heaven's influence. One of these centers of 
 light disclosed a group of former skeptics talk- 
 ing with Doubting Thomas, while in their midst 
 stood the glowing shape of One with pierced 
 hands and wounded side. In another circle of 
 light Mary Magdalene was bending over the 
 spirit of a fallen woman, and He whose feet she 
 had once bathed with tears was with them there. 
 
116 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 We could distinguish many a faithful preacher 
 of the gospel, who had found comparatively little 
 to occupy him in heaven, addressing audiences, 
 large or small, in the vast itinerary of perdition ; 
 and there were class-meetings, prayer-meetings, 
 Bible schools, and many forms of soul-winning 
 endeavor, each bearing some fruit for God; al- 
 though, for the most part, those who had scorned 
 and slighted these means of grace and channels of 
 mercy in the mortal life were still scorning and 
 slighting them in eternity. Only in the vast 
 heathen provinces of hell we could see that the 
 gospel message, told for the first time to some, 
 was bringing great joy to many an error dark- 
 ened soul. There was neither dimness nor dis- 
 tance of miles in the wondrous vista opened to our 
 gaze; for we saw each redeemed group beckon- 
 ing to us as we, too, stood revealed in the glow of 
 the Holy Spirit's light. How gladly we signaled 
 back to them and sent our wireless messages of 
 cheer and comradeship in answer to theirs through 
 all the dim spaces of this nether universe ! " Oh, 
 if my dear father could be here and see all this ! " 
 I exclaimed. " I think we would never need to 
 argue about asonian redemption again." 
 
 The wish was only the premonition of its own 
 fulfilment, showing that Father had been already 
 on his way to us. I was glad that his first im- 
 pression of hell should be of its only bright side. 
 " How sad ! How glorious ! " was his first ex- 
 
THEY WHO ARE WITH US 117 
 
 clamation. " Why this is near the sweetest place 
 in all the universe ! " he cried again. 
 
 " You see, Father, the doctrine does work," I 
 reminded him : " the gospel of Christ works even 
 in hell." 
 
 " It is the power of God unto salvation," he 
 answered reverently. " I can understand more 
 clearly now how it must be so. Wherever Christ 
 is lifted up He will draw all unto Him. Sooner 
 or later! Sooner or later! Keep steadily on, 
 boys: I am with you now. Not at all did I 
 realize it until now ; but this must be what I have 
 unconsciously sighed for these hundred and sixty 
 years in heaven, in which I have labored to deem 
 myself supremely happy, yes, and for the thirteen 
 years before, even since I resigned my home-mis- 
 sion work." 
 
 Then he felt the touch of the elder Albert. 
 " Detwiler ! " he cried. " You saved too ! " 
 
 "Yes, thank God! Father Prester," Albert 
 answered, " saved at last, even so as by fire." 
 
 " My boy," Father said to him, " now I per- 
 ceive and know and understand with all my mind, 
 as well as heart, that God does truly, always and 
 everywhere eventually answer prayer. Not that 
 I can truly claim to have been praying for you of 
 late. I could not deem that it would be right 
 to do so, after I saw you pass unrepentant and 
 unrenewed over the border line of death. But it 
 was further back, in the old days, that I prayed 
 
118 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 for you, back in the Valley of Summer, as 
 Nathaniel here has named it; when you were not 
 infrequently present in body in my congregation ; 
 yet I could never assure my heart quite positively 
 that I was favored truly with the attention of 
 your soul. I used often to pray that God would 
 awaken you and send you one earnest thought 
 before it should be eternally too late." 
 
 " Thank you for your prayer, dear Pastor," 
 Albert replied humbly. " It is answered at last. 
 I have had my first earnest thought, For the 
 first time in my existence, I feel that I really 
 have a soul." 
 
 " That seems passing strange," Father re- 
 flected, " when you have been such a long time 
 out of the body." 
 
 " In the body, out of the body," Albert de- 
 clared, " I never seemed quite real to myself be- 
 fore this. I am just beginning to live. Oh! Fm 
 glad it wasn't yet too late ! " 
 
 " Would it, could it ever have been ' too late,' " 
 asked Albert the son. " While God lives, can it 
 ever be too late for a soul He made to repent, 
 and come back, and begin to live in Him ? " 
 
 " I cannot tell," Father replied. " I am here 
 in hell as a learner, and strangely dazed with all 
 this that I see. Only from my inmost self some- 
 thing responds again and again to a mighty 
 psalm of unfolding redemption I seem to hear, 
 where I supposed only groans and curses would be 
 known. Can you not catch it coming from all 
 
HELL'S NEW SONG 119 
 
 these haloed groups? Listen! it is the soft be- 
 ginning of a crescendo. It has an antiphonal 
 refrain and my soul joins in the refrain — 'His 
 mercy endureth forever.' " 
 
 I have often wondered in heaven over the fine- 
 ness of ear of Father's soul. He could never dis- 
 tinguish one note from another in all his mortal 
 life. He could with some mental uncertainty 
 differentiate " Yankee Doodle," rendered instru- 
 mentally, from " Old Hundred " by a dissimi- 
 larity in the time. He would often hum dear 
 hymns to himself in a pathetic monotone. None 
 who knew him doubted that the New Song was 
 sung in his soul ; yet we were astoninshed to find 
 him a choir leader in heaven, a master of soul 
 harmonies, a composer whose spontaneous melo- 
 dies other spirits were glad to echo. With him 
 we listened now, and sang in turn. Hell's dis- 
 cords were mercifully held from our ears, as we 
 sang. We could distinguish the calibre of each 
 soul's feeling. No two believing souls in all hell 
 seemed to have mellowed into harmony under 
 exactly the same experience, yet all were at pitch 
 and in touch in expressing the vibrant ecstasy of 
 salvation from sin and sorrow ; each telling its 
 story, whether in jublilant tenor, in warbling 
 treble, in pathos of contralto, or in deep tones of 
 soulful gratitude for great deliverance ; the whole 
 harmonizing into the one dear story saved ones 
 tell on earth, in heaven, in hell. Again and again, 
 mingling in with the multiple thread of this 
 
120 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 wondrous narrative, came the refrain in unison, 
 " O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good : 
 because His mercy endureth forever." This 
 psalm of latest history began faintly, tremulously, 
 as though almost choked with the diffidence of 
 hell's contrition ; but it grew stronger, drawing in 
 voice after voice, swelling with glorious confidence 
 in Christ's power to save unto the uttermost, until 
 hell seemed almost ready to echo with its world- 
 wide sob of joy. Then the lights began to 
 fade, and with tender farewells signalled from 
 star to star, these separate groups were left each 
 with its task for God. 
 
 " Yes, His mercy endureth forever," Albert, 
 our trophy of grace, confessed to us then ; " but 
 I know in my soul that I have had a narrow 
 escape. If I had not been brought to take a 
 stand for God this time, after all your warnings 
 and entreaties, and after what I saw with my own 
 mind, I believe there would have been nothing 
 else before me but the hell of my own eternal 
 indecision." 
 
THE DEAREST QUEST 121 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Father was now as eager as a boy with a new 
 aeroplane. " This is something all but too won- 
 derful to believe!" he would exclaim over and 
 over. " I, too, must go and win souls." This 
 seemed to be the common impulse of all our con- 
 verts at once. I spoke to Albert about meeting 
 Joy, and he said, " I never so longed for Alice be- 
 fore; but I am determined not to see her until I 
 have accomplished something earnest." 
 
 Father's first thought, of course, was for 
 Harry. When I told him what Albert had said 
 about the various denominations in hell, he be- 
 came possessed with the idea that we would find 
 Harry in the membership of one of these. " My 
 boy was never drawn to evil company as such," he 
 contended, " and he would most surely gravitate 
 upward to the best company hell could furnish. 
 There was never anything so morally wrong 
 about Harry. He but lacked the one thing. He 
 seemed incapable of developing an interest in 
 sermons or in churches. Surely, ere this, he has 
 discovered his mistake. And if he should happen 
 upon a church in hell, his first and most natural 
 thought would be to join it as a matter of exper- 
 iment, to determine if that might not work out in 
 the direction of a reunion with us all. Harry was 
 always so bent upon experiments and devices. I 
 have even sometimes thought upon earth, that if 
 
122 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Harry could have invented and constructed a 
 church of wheels and cogs and motors, with a 
 statue-like graphophone in the pulpit; he might 
 indeed have been enabled to become interesteed in 
 religion. He seemed always so entirely absorbed, 
 as it were, in the mechanical, the external, and so 
 entirely obtuse, not averse, to the spiritual — 
 poor Harry ! " 
 
 " Perhaps if he hasn't joined a native church," 
 Albert suggested, " we may find him connected 
 with one of the lodges. There wouldn't be much 
 difference for an uplift." 
 
 "Oh! have you lodges too in hell?" I cried 
 with new interest. 
 
 " Every device to make the ghastly reality of 
 things seem different from what it is " Albert 
 replied. " The things that worked on earth to 
 keep men away from God are worked for all they 
 are worth in hell." 
 
 " I suppose you refer for the most part, to 
 such minor orders as the ' Red Men,' the • Elks ' 
 and the ' Eagles,' " suggested Albert junior. 
 
 Albert senior drew us three close together, and 
 spoke confidentially, almost furtively. " I regret 
 to say," he acknowledged, with evident trepida- 
 tion, " that we have also some lodges and con- 
 claves of Free Masons. I have been a member, 
 myself, off and on. They aspire to run the whole 
 shooting match. If you get them down on you, 
 hell will be made hot for you, sure enough." 
 
 It was impossible not to feel some of the in- 
 
HELL'S CIVIC ORDERS 123 
 
 fection of his anxiety. Very cautiously I put the 
 question. " Do you happen to know the name of 
 any of these lodges of Free Masons? " 
 
 " Yes," he said ; " I have been a sort of man 
 about town in hell for a century. I know some 
 of their lodges, and I suspect the existence of a 
 great many more whose very name is kept secret 
 even in hell. And what I can't tell you, there's 
 a man named Wilkinson — " 
 
 " Wilkinson ! " I exclaimed. " Another mu- 
 tual acquaintance ! Is he a spirit with as many 
 sides as there are people to meet, a social genius 
 intersphering with everybody, almost all sorts of 
 a man, and yet not very definitely committed to 
 anything? " 
 
 "That's Wilkinson to a hair!" Albert de- 
 clared. " Mine must be the same one you know. 
 There couldn't be two of him." 
 
 " Alas, poor Phil ! " I exclaimed. " Reached 
 hell at last, after being on the point of conver- 
 sion for forty years ! Well he could tell me about 
 Mystery Lodge from Tippleton: only he could 
 be counted on just as promptly to tell them all 
 about me." 
 
 " Perhaps we had better not talk about him, 
 or he will be turning up," Albert cautioned 
 nervously. " A more universally sympathetic 
 fellow there never was." 
 
 "That's true," I agreed. "Think of him 
 dining with the ministers' meeting at noon, and 
 banqueting with the rum sellers that same night ! " 
 
124 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " If I were you, I would let him come," Father 
 counselled. " You may be able to get him com- 
 mitted to a Christian life at last. As for the said 
 Mystery Lodge, I watched over you in Tippleton 
 from the spirit life and I knew of a few things 
 that were shaped out by the inner circle in their 
 lodge room. Let the whole company of them 
 come. By God's help, we will pull through, just 
 as you did in Tippleton." 
 
 A milder, gentler being, in the main, has not 
 often lived than my father; but get him once 
 aroused, you found yourself dealing with the 
 spirit of Marston Moor and of Bunker Hill. It 
 was too late now for hesitation; for the one of 
 whom we had been speaking was already among 
 us. " Wilkinson, old fellow," I said in greeting, 
 " I am glad to meet you again. I only regret 
 the surroundings." 
 
 " Yes, it seems strange," Wilkinson answered 
 solemnly ; " I did not look to meet you here." 
 
 " I am glad to know that you are conscious 
 of being in the wrong place," I answered. " We 
 are here to set before you a door of escape. 
 You used to talk very impressively about your 
 praying mother, and how she died imploring you 
 to meet her in heaven. You haven't met her yet, 
 have you? " 
 
 " I wouldn't want to meet her in the crowd I 
 find." 
 
 " I'm glad you're not pleased with the crowd ! " 
 
THE SAME OLD PHIL 125 
 
 I said. " I've seen you in some pretty tough 
 crowds in our time. And again if there was any 
 particularly good crowd gathering, you were 
 quite sure to be with us therein. Now, wouldn't 
 you like to get out of this hell crowd and into 
 the heaven crowd where your mother is? " 
 
 " Well, Dominie," Wilkinson answered, " you 
 ask me an honest question, and I suppose you 
 want a straight answer. I always did enjoy a 
 variety in crowds. You remember that Saturday 
 night when you held the meeting by permission 
 in the hotel lobby, and I was with the crowd that 
 kept the glasses chinking all the time in the bar- 
 room. I had to drink and drink hard that night, 
 to keep from bolting into the lobby and getting 
 converted. What held me back was the thought 
 that if I joined your crowd then, I could never 
 come back to the other crowd; but I could stay 
 with the other crowd then and get with your 
 crowd on Sunday. And now if there is any way 
 for me to get to heaven after all, why, I'd like 
 well to be with mother, and with some of the good 
 Methodist preachers I used to know; but then 
 I'd have to leave all the boys down here. 
 They're an awful tough lot, take them as they 
 come ; but somehow they mostly like me." 
 
 " Philip Wilkinson, you seem altogether the 
 kind of man we wish to find," Father exclaimed 
 eagerly. " When you have given your whole 
 heart to God, you wilfr not thereby lose your in- 
 
126 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 terest in hell, but you will be the more disposed 
 to use all your points of contact, that you may 
 win your friends for heaven." 
 
 I introduced Father and explained. " He 
 knows you fairly well," I said, " for he was in- 
 terested in us all when we were together in Tip- 
 pleton. You remember we used to tell you the 
 same thing; that once you were soundly con- 
 verted, you could help us swing half the men of 
 Tippleton into the kingdom of God." 
 
 " But the trouble was letting loose from them 
 all to make a start," Wilkinson demurred. " Do 
 you remember, Dominie, when I had the pneu- 
 monia, and Dominy Weems was away at confer- 
 ence, and the whole town thought I was dying, 
 and you came and asked me if I couldn't look to 
 Christ as my Saviour, and I made out to speak 
 and said, said I, ' I've always tried to do my 
 best ' ? I knew I was lying when I said it, for 
 often and often I had tried to do my worst. And 
 I felt that the Devil had hold of me and was 
 dragging me down to hell. And I was afraid 
 of him and afraid to die ; but I was more afraid 
 of the fellows down on the street, for I knew they 
 were all shaking their heads and saying, ' Poor 
 Wilkinson, he'll get scared now and get religion.' 
 I was ashamed to get converted on my dying bed, 
 so I just pulled myself together with a tremen- 
 dous effort and I said to myself, ' I won't die : I'll 
 live; and when I get sourfd and well, I'll go to 
 the next revival meeting and get religion in a first- 
 
THE GREATER FEAR 127 
 
 class way.' Yes, sir; I believe you saved my 
 life that time, which wasn't what you were most 
 trying to do; but you just scared me into using 
 my will power and getting well. But when I 
 got well, I found myself more tied to the fellows 
 than ever, and I never could take the same interest 
 in going to church again. It seemed as if my 
 heart had got harder than it ever was before, and 
 I think I must have sinned away my day of 
 grace." 
 
 I acknowledged to him that I had entertained 
 a corresponding anxiety about him. " I could 
 see the change after your sickness," I said, 
 " and I often reproached myself very deeply for 
 not having been more strenuous with you when 
 you gave me that evasive answer, apparently al- 
 most with your dying breath. As in too many 
 other cases, I shrank from agitating you with 
 argument and solemn warning, lest the physician 
 should think I had hastened your end." 
 
 " It wouldn't have done any good," Wilkin- 
 son's ghost assured me. " I was more scared of 
 getting converted just then, than of coming to 
 hell. What would all the boys say of me for- 
 ever after, was the biggest thought in my mind." 
 
 " My dear sir," Father interposed, " it seems to 
 me that your main trouble was, and still is, that 
 God is less real to you than your companions. 
 You lack a deep conviction of sin. What right 
 have you to elect the society, and join in the prac- 
 tices of wicked men when God calls you to re- 
 
128 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 pentance and to the enjoyment of heaven's fel- 
 lowship? I begin to think you are almost the 
 very greatest sinner I have ever known. With 
 a soul so rich in generous impulses that nearly 
 two centuries of vice have not been able entirely 
 to choke them out, with a clear view of duty, 
 and a frank acknowledgement of your need, you 
 have the audacity to turn your back upon the 
 God who made you, the Saviour who died for you, 
 the mother in heaven praying for you, simply 
 from the lack of that manhood which would en- 
 able you to wrench your soul half an inch away 
 from the friendships of hell. You are lonely 
 even every moment for the better friends you 
 have known on earth or whom you might know 
 in heaven. Choosing hell, you have only hell, 
 and you find it narrow and dull as any prison cell. 
 Choose heaven, and you would still have hell 
 thrown in, with all its friendships to be used for 
 God in winning men away from hell. Alfred 
 Wilkinson, I solemnly pronounce you the greatest 
 sinner and the greatest simpleton I have ever 
 known." 
 
 " I guess you're about right, Dominie," Wil- 
 kinson admitted humbly, " only you don't know 
 it all. A good man like you can't know all the 
 hold sin has on a sinner. It seems like the more 
 I hate it the more I love it. When I kept the 
 saloon, years before your son came to Tippleton, 
 I used to notice that nobody craved liquor like 
 the man whose stomach was burning up with it. 
 
CURSED YET FASCINATED 129 
 
 And it was still worse with the awful disease that 
 comes with the other sin. The fellows that had 
 it couldn't think or talk about anything else but 
 the very indulgence that caused it." 
 
 " God pity you ! " Father cried, and hid the 
 face of his soul. 
 
 I asked Wilkinson what he intended to do about 
 it. " You see so clearly exactly where you 
 stand," I said ; " you have not even the poor re- 
 lief of lying to yourself about it. Now are you 
 going to try and stand this to all eternity, or will 
 you put your case just now into the hands of 
 the Great Physician, Doctor Jesus ? " 
 
 Wilkinson's ghost stood dazed before me. " I 
 wish you had talked to me like that a good deal 
 more in Tippleton," he slowly said at last. " But 
 here — what's the use of gospel talk in hell ? " 
 
 " More use perhaps, than there was of it in 
 Tippleton," I dared to answer. " May God for- 
 give me for having been so unfaithful to you in 
 life; and yet the whole rum-soaked, liquor- 
 license-besotted lot of you seemed so coolly satis- 
 fied, often, with your unanimous stand for Satan, 
 a preacher would lose heart, and true words would 
 die on his lips. But it does seem to me you are 
 nearer the kingdom of God than I ever found you 
 before. You and I have both been learning a 
 thing or two, I imagine. I never found a place 
 on earth more receptive of the gospel than the 
 state penitentiary at Churchville. And since I 
 have been led to come among you all here, I be- 
 
130 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 gin to think that hell may be, of all others, just 
 the place for gospel talk. And more than that, 
 of all the people I have so far met in hell, you 
 seem to be the proper and most hopeful subject 
 for it. I've seen you almost saved apparently 
 half a dozen times over on earth, Wilkinson, and 
 I just cannot bear not to see you fully saved this 
 time. Tell me truly right out of your heart, 
 wouldn't you like to be saved? " 
 
 Perhaps it was because he was taken by sur- 
 prise to have the offer of salvation pressed upon 
 him in hell; whereas he had always been on his 
 guard against being led ever more than about so 
 far on earth, or perhaps because he had really 
 found the air of hell somewhat freer than that 
 of Tippleton; at any rate, he showed stronger 
 and more genuine emotion than I had ever seen 
 in him before. " God knows," he said, " an hour 
 never goes by that I don't wish most bitterly that 
 I had let myself be saved before I ever came 
 here ; but now it's too late. You gentlemen mean 
 well, but you don't really know hell. All the 
 oceans of all the planets couldn't wash the putrid, 
 black depravity out of our souls. All the fires of 
 all the suns couldn't burn it away. We've 
 damned ourselves too deep for the arm of mercy 
 to reach us. There couldn't be a ladder long 
 enough for us to climb by to get out of hell. If 
 one of us should begin to climb now and climb till 
 the Andromeda nebula gets to be a solar system, 
 there would still be an ocean of despair above us 
 
HONEST SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS 131 
 
 pressing us down and no sunlit waves anywhere 
 at the top of it. You'll say we ought to pray; 
 but how can a man hear himself pray when a 
 knell sounds in his ears loud enough to echo back 
 and forth across the universe, • Too late ! Too 
 late! Too late!"' 
 
 I was proud of Joy's husband at this moment. 
 Albert had been keeping in the background and 
 looking anxious since Wilkinson's appearance. 
 Now he came in boldly and said, " Philip Wilkin- 
 son, look at me ! " 
 
 " Who are you, sir? " Wilkinson began, and 
 then as he focussed his attention and began to 
 recognize our companion, it was wonderful to 
 watch the successive waves of deep emotion sweep 
 across the surface of his soul. " I believe you 
 are that man Detwiler," he said. " But oh ! what 
 a change! I know you; and yet I hardly know 
 how I know you. The last time I saw you you 
 were so flimsy, and now you've sort of grown and 
 rounded out. You had two or three voices that 
 whistled and sputtered and rumbled all at once; 
 now you speak strong and clear. You had as 
 many combinations as a kaleidoscope, and here 
 you are just one natural complexion, only shin- 
 ing as if there were a soft light inside. What 
 has come over you? If Christian Science has 
 done all this — " 
 
 " Christian Science has done nothing for me," 
 Albert replied. " But I've been converted truly 
 to God, and I've just begun really to live." 
 
132 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " What? " cried Wilkinson. " When? Where? " 
 
 " Not three hours ago," was the answer ; 
 " right here in hell." 
 
 Wilkinson trembled all over. " Offended 
 God ! " he cried, " there's hope for me ! " 
 
 When he had fully found peace in believing, 
 we began to talk with him about what was upper- 
 most in our minds at the time of his appearance. 
 Albert explained to him. " These gentlemen," he 
 said, " the Presters, father and son, are concerned 
 to reach the other son, Harry Prester. He's 
 going to be hard to get at, because he has almost 
 only one point of approach: that is machinery; 
 and none of us is particularly mechanical. I 
 knew him when he was a young married man. 
 He talked machines, he saw nothing but ma- 
 chines, his wife said he dreamed machines. You 
 could almost hear the wheels whirring in his head. 
 He was neither bad nor good. He was neither 
 wise nor unwise. He was just motion mad. His 
 father thinks he may have drifted into one of our 
 Presbyterian or Episcopalian churches from 
 force of early or matrimonial association, and I 
 suggested that he might have compromised by 
 joining a lodge. So we thought of you as a man 
 of wide acquaintance, and we hoped that we 
 might get hold of some tie of association that 
 might pull him to us." 
 
 " This was their idea, not mine," I demurred. 
 " Harry never was a ' joiner.' I could not even 
 get him interested in the labor movement. But 
 
IS THIS FREEMASONRY? 133 
 
 something my friend, Detwiler, told me about 
 Free Masons in hell aroused my deep interest to 
 know if old Mystery lodge had been perpetuated 
 here. We have their two or three best men in 
 heaven, but they don't keep up the lodge there. 
 They say the church of Christ is free masonry 
 enough for them now." 
 
 " Do you think I ought to give up my 
 lodges ? " Wilkinson asked humbly. " I was hop- 
 ing I could use them to bring more men around 
 to the truth." 
 
 " Just so you are not drawn into anything 
 sneaky or underhanded," I answered. " You are 
 in a better position to judge about that than I." 
 
 " I'd like to try it," he said, " but you'll have 
 to pray for me hard. Yes, I'm sorry to say, old 
 Mystery is flourishing in hell." 
 
 " I feared so," I responded sadly. " After 
 Detwiler told me of the existence of the order in 
 these regions, my apprehension was aroused for 
 that lodge in particular. Certainly a number of 
 its members, at the time of my last acquaintance 
 with them, seemed fairly ripe for hell. That was 
 due in the main, no doubt, to this particular 
 lodge's flagrant violation of one of the principles 
 of Free Masonry that no liquor seller should be 
 admitted to the order. But then, I suppose this 
 was no greater irregularity than that some of the 
 most prominent members of the Tippleton Pres- 
 byterian church should have been habitual signers 
 of applications for license." 
 
134 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " Dear Dominie," Wilkinson said, " I've just 
 got to be confidential with you, lodge or no lodge ; 
 and I might as well tell you that the few genuine 
 men we had in Mystery lodge when you knew it 
 were just the decoy ducks for the rest of us to 
 set out and make use of. They really didn't 
 know Free Masonry as we practiced it. They 
 thought we were going by the book. They were 
 never really initiated. Each two of us had his 
 one of them, and we knew how to strain his con- 
 science a little here, and warp his judgment a lit- 
 tle there, and by hook or by crook, we managed 
 to keep the thing pretty near unanimous for 
 whiskey and the devil. Sometimes it was nervous 
 work, until we got Dominie Weems into the lodge 
 as a sort of bell wether for all the lambs to fol- 
 low. After that it went easier. Oh, many's the 
 laugh we've had in hell over the remarkable gam- 
 bols Weems would eagerly go through, hoping 
 our order would find him a bigger church some- 
 where. Do you remember that anniversary ser- 
 mon Mystery came to hear him preach on a cer- 
 tain Sunday night, and how he kept his 
 congregation waiting ten minutes longer, after 
 they had waited twenty minutes already, until the 
 lodge got there, just so we might send back to 
 the lodge room and get his apron to wear over his 
 long coat and preach in? And you remember 
 how he had old Mack lay the corner stone of the 
 new church with appropriate Masonic ceremonies. 
 Everybody knew what that was for." 
 
A FATEFUL SEPARATION 135 
 
 " Oh, well, now, Wilkinson," I protested, " you 
 know Brother Weems had the most frankly con- 
 scientious motives in working the Masons for a 
 better charge. He told me himself that he had 
 to join the order because he couldn't live on the 
 salary he was receiving in Tippleton. What 
 could you expect, when one of his professors at 
 Drew told him that if he wished to get on in the 
 Methodist ministry he had better join the Ma- 
 sons ? He used to say to me, ' Brother Prester, 
 we are simply compelled to take the world as we 
 find it. It is our duty to aspire to the largest 
 sphere of usefulness we can fill, and it is the Ma- 
 sonic order that can obtain it for us.' Really 
 Brother Weems seemed to me in many ways a 
 true-hearted Christian. He was one of the most 
 comforting partners to pray with I ever found 
 on earth." 
 
 Here Father reminded us that we had digressed 
 somewhat from the problem of finding Harry. 
 Wilkinson suggested that we should divide our 
 party, and while Father and Joy's husband might 
 visit the churches, he and I might explore among 
 the lodges. An association of mechanical engi- 
 neers, he said, was about the only organization 
 with which he had had no recollection of ever 
 having had any relations, but he thought if 
 Harry had ever happened to join any other kind 
 of a thing, he could probably get on a trace of 
 him in some way. 
 
 The»younger Albert expressed his desire to fol- 
 
136 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 low the good news back to heaven, to talk it over 
 with his mother, and Wilkinson's mother also ; 
 then return and work with our little brotherhood 
 of the Heavenly Vision. So we separated, and 
 Wilkinson and I were very gladly starting on our 
 tour of observation — for Wilkinson, always the 
 most obliging of men, now in the first joy of the 
 great change which had come into his life, showed 
 the greatest eagerness to do us some service — 
 but the sudden appearance of Jeanie brought us 
 to a standstill. 
 
 " You are going into danger, dear boy," she 
 said. " I want you to let me go with you." 
 
 " Now, dear girl," I protested, " if there really 
 could be any danger, that would be the strongest 
 argument why I should on no account take you 
 with me. Has not Jehovah said, ' Certainly, I 
 will be with thee ' ? " 
 
 " Yes, but Paul tells us to have no fellowship 
 with the unfruitful works of darkness," she re- 
 plied with a counter quotation. " Why should 
 you put yourself again in the power of these men 
 who have so many ways of accomplishing things. 
 What could you ever accomplish with them? " 
 
 " Just now I've helped to win this one for 
 God," I replied cheerfully. 
 
 Jeanie regarded Wilkinson somewhat doubt- 
 fully. I think she is almost the quickest of her 
 sex in her estimates of people, and perhaps the 
 slowest to change them. I have often declared, 
 and perhaps already in this narrative, that it was 
 
A WOMAN'S WAY 137 
 
 only my great good fortune which prevented her 
 from conceiving a profound suspicion of me when 
 first she set eyes on me. If this had happened, 
 no subsequent amendment, or entire correctness 
 of deportment could quite have won her confi- 
 dence. This distrust would have been manifested 
 only by a certain guardedness of manner in the 
 course of much gracious kindness, but it would 
 have been like a well-set mine ready to explode on 
 proper occasion. 
 
 So she greeted poor Wilkinson now with much 
 frankness of encouragement, and perhaps he did 
 not gather from her tones that she was in reality 
 waiting to see these new hopes of him justified 
 later on. 
 
 " We're surely glad of your company," he de- 
 murred, " only we just don't quite know how the 
 Masons will take it for us to bring a lady along. 
 You know our order, from its earliest times, has 
 rather fought shy of women." 
 
 " Yes, because we could see through you too 
 well," Jeanie responded promptly. " If we are 
 really to find out something, don't you think I 
 had better come? Nat never could see anything 
 but just what people would show him on the sur- 
 face, until days afterward." 
 
138 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 In the leisure of a resting spell in heaven, talk- 
 ing things over with the angels, Father has given 
 us the details of his connection with the churches 
 of hell; as there was not full opportunity to do 
 when the rush of events brought us together again 
 in the enemy's country. 
 
 " In what way do you account for this, that 
 churches exist in hell at all? " he asked Albert, as 
 they were hesitating which way to wish them- 
 selves. " What purpose do they fulfil for the 
 inhabitants who support them? " 
 
 " I suppose somewhat the same as some 
 churches on earth," was the reply. " They make 
 certain neighborhoods in hell respectable. They 
 afford idle spirits a means of passing the time. 
 They develop an endless variety of enjoyable 
 bones of contention. They give a flavor of sanc- 
 tity to gossip that otherwise would grow dull for 
 lack of contrast. Incidentally they offer an op- 
 portunity for the display of talents of oratory 
 and music in vague connection with certain sacred 
 themes which still retain a languid interest for the 
 minds of the elite of perdition." 
 
 " But this I cannot understand," Father per- 
 sisted, " if churches are maintained in hell, and 
 the people go regularly and sit under the preach- 
 ing of the gospel, and the doctrines of grace are 
 proclaimed, how can there fail to be genuine con- 
 
HELL'S CLERICAL FORCE 139 
 
 versions, and thus hell should even be found to 
 defeat its own ends." 
 
 " Yes, but you know you can have churches,'' 
 Albert answered, U and not preach the gospel at 
 all except in distant allusion ; and you can ignore, 
 or slur over, or undermine, or squarely oppose 
 the doctrines of grace, and still call it a church. 
 I am sure we have seen the thing demonstrated 
 often enough in Christendom." 
 
 " But from where in this nether world do they 
 procure their ministers? Surely, they must needs 
 train new ones from among bright young men of 
 the world who fail of being saved." 
 
 " I am sorry to say the most part of them get 
 their training and their practice in the ministry 
 before they come here," Albert replied. " Some 
 come from Andover and some from Union. 
 There are one or two from Princeton, and the 
 Harvard Divinity School is not without its repre- 
 sentation. I perceive that there is a ministers' 
 meeting going on now. What do you say to go- 
 ing there first, and getting in touch with a num- 
 ber of denominations at once? " 
 
 Father has tried to describe to us the sensa- 
 tions he experienced when he found himself 
 entering a large assembly of ecclesiastics in hell. 
 Not only ignorant Hard Shell Baptist, Free 
 Methodist, Morning Watch, and Zionite ranters, 
 but men of theological acumen and varied learn- 
 ing were there. Writers of books were particu- 
 larly in evidence: Erasmus, translator of the 
 
140 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 New Testament; Rabelais, most distinguished of 
 clerical rakes; Dean Swift, poor Christless cynic 
 of a tiresome age; Malthus, traducer of God's 
 economy; zealous Theodore Parker also, and nu- 
 merous would-be reconstructionists of Christian- 
 ity, concerned in the evolution of a religion for 
 the advanced mind, free from the irrational ele- 
 ment of a definite belief in God. Father was 
 not surprised to find a promiscuous rabble of 
 scapegraces in orders whose brief newspaper 
 notoriety had grown out of the attractions of the 
 wine cup or of other men's wives or money, con- 
 spicuous as exceptions to the general rule of min- 
 isterial probity; but what astonished him was the 
 array of men once high in ecclesiastical author- 
 ity: metropolitans, popes, cardinals, archbishops, 
 and denominational leaders ; two of the Gregorys, 
 the strenuous Innocent III, the sportive Boni- 
 face, diplomatic Wolsey, forceful Richelieu, mer- 
 ciless Pole, and uncompromising Laud, together 
 with a distinguished company of Spanish inquisi- 
 tors, New England persecutors, and Russian 
 Synodists. 
 
 Father's first impulse was to retire modestly 
 and discreetly from an assembly of churchmen so 
 far outranking him. His confusion was still fur- 
 ther increased when he had distinguished several 
 who had even been men of fine appearing charac- 
 ter under earth's most favorable conditions, only 
 lacking the one thing needful, a vital faith in 
 Christ. Still more astonishing, there were some 
 
A MINISTERS' MEETING 141 
 
 who had been conspicuously used of God from 
 Balaam down. On recognizing some belonging 
 to this most eminent class of all, Father's soul 
 was seized with a violent trembling. " Why," 
 he exclaimed, " are these grand men the deni- 
 zens of hell, when one whose life can boast such 
 small results as mine has found a home in 
 heaven?" Then our Lord reminded him of his 
 own word, " Notwithstanding, rejoice not in this, 
 that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather 
 rejoice that your names are written in heaven." 
 " I am one of the last that were to be first," he 
 said to himself proudly yet humbly, and decided 
 to stay and take in the program. 
 
 This, for the occasion, proved to be a setting 
 forth by a gifted Episcopalian divine of the " In- 
 credibility of a Virgin Birth." Its theory was 
 unfolded in humble acquiescence with the infalli- 
 bility of the gospel according to Darwin. Be- 
 fore he was through, Father says he began to 
 feel that it would almost be presumption in God 
 himself to question the Sublime Hypothesis. 
 Indeed, the trend of the leader's thought was such 
 as to leave very little room for God in His world, 
 all occasion for any special activity on His part 
 being entirely and satisfactorily filled by the un- 
 aided workings of an impersonal process. Yet 
 the whole exposition was put forward in seemly 
 and pious sounding language. It was not so 
 much what the man said, much less the manner of 
 its saying, that made it atheistic. 
 
142 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 In the languid discussion that followed, there 
 was not much noticeable effort to combat any- 
 thing. No one seemed to have any serious con- 
 victions to express, one way or another. The 
 object of each appeared to be to scintillate some- 
 thing glittering and not too definite, mingling 
 compliment and criticism in equal proportions. 
 One said that perhaps it did not matter so much 
 whether Christ was of virgin birth, or the child 
 of wedlock, or of that humbler origin to which 
 the accredited facts of the case seemed to point ; 
 the main purpose of his life may have been to 
 demonstrate the natural rather than the superna- 
 tural incarnation of Deity in us each. " I, my- 
 self," he blandly enlarged, " I, myself, am God 
 manifested, individualized, forming into definite 
 shape and tangible reality. Jesus was thus, in 
 some respects, a striking and outstanding individ- 
 ualization of Deity ; though born, no doubt, like 
 any other man." 
 
 Then, at the close of the discussion, they re- 
 peated the Apostles' Creed in concert with a cer- 
 tain lackadaisical unction, and after one of the 
 prelates, on request, had prayed, using the Greg- 
 orian collect appointed for Trinity Sunday, each 
 hurried away, absent-mindedly passing by the 
 others. 
 
 " What puzzles me," Father confessed to his 
 guide, " is the problem of how they can hold their 
 congregations together with this line of talk. 
 
PROFOUND UNCERTAINTY 143 
 
 If nothing is definitely certain, what is the use 
 of preaching about it ? " 
 
 " And yet somehow," Albert replied, " the laity 
 of perdition itself would a little rather not have 
 things made too definite; still, the clergy never 
 talk quite the same in the pulpit as in the minis- 
 ters' meetings. This we have heard was esoteric. 
 Before their congregations they talk to suit the 
 market." 
 
 Father became familiar with this ministers' 
 meeting during the troubled course of his brief 
 pastorate in hell, attending it faithfully in the 
 wistful endeavor to work in a little vital Chris- 
 tianity, and he has given me some idea of the gen- 
 eral run of topics they had under discussion. 
 "Is the Bible Readable Literature?" "The 
 Evolution of God." " Improbable Immortality." 
 " The Irrationality of the Punitive Idea." 
 " Why Do We Pray? " " The Unknowableness 
 of the Absolute." " Imperfections of the Uni- 
 verse." " Is Happiness Attainable? " " The Un- 
 reality of the Moral Intuition." " Origin of the 
 Idea of God." Such topics as these, interspersed 
 with reviews on thought books of agnostic sci- 
 ence lately issued, supplied the straw to be 
 thrashed over by these clerical gatherings. 
 
 Father said he used often to wonder if it was 
 really a ministers' meeting or that of an infidel 
 club. I assured him that I had sometimes, upon 
 early acquaintance, to rub my eyes and look again 
 
144 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 at the neckwear in the ministers' meeting at the 
 city of my first New England pastorate. After- 
 wards, when I became somewhat used to their way 
 of talking, I learned to understand them better, 
 and found numbers of them high-souled Chris- 
 tian men. 
 
 Father undertook to have a serious talk with 
 the Vicar of Bray at one of these meetings while 
 they were waiting for the chairman. " Do you 
 think it is of so much consequence what a man be- 
 lieves or professes," the versatile vicar replied, 
 " so long as his life is fairly correct ? " 
 
 " On the contrary," Father stoutly asserted, 
 " I am altogether old-fashioned enough to think 
 that the most damnable thing in this universe is 
 false doctrine flippantly set forth." 
 
 " This seems a roundabut way to reach the 
 churches, much more my poor wandering boy," 
 Father complained to Albert when that first min- 
 isters' meeting attended in hell adjourned and so 
 suddenly melted away. 
 
 " I clutched at one or two of them, but in 
 vain," Albert replied, ruefully. " I have been 
 trying to think what we shall do next, to get at 
 the churches. The man I think of most hope- 
 fully is old Deacon Spindler. You remember he 
 knew Harry. He's in hell, I know, for I caught 
 a glimpse of him, one time, slipping in the back 
 way into a spooks' dance hall with that other 
 woman he got to living with back on the Trace 
 
A PASTORATE IN HELL 145 
 
 Ford of Mud Creek after his third wife died." 
 
 Thus it was that Father came to receive his 
 call to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian 
 church of Jeroboam's Holl in hell. Deacon 
 Spindler appeared, still cherishing the affection 
 which the humblest and most unworthy often 
 dared to manifest for Father ; even, sometimes, in 
 an embarrassing manner. There was really only 
 one thing so radically wrong in the deacon, a 
 man of an excellent family, and of a rather cling- 
 ing disposition. His joy at meeting father again 
 found expression in a prompt invitation that he 
 should preach at the Holl. " Our church is with- 
 out a pastor just now," Spindler explained, " and 
 I am chairman of the supply committee." 
 
 Of course they were charmed with father's 
 preaching. His style is so scholarly, urbane, 
 classical, quaintly earnest, yet never too personal. 
 I suppose they were carried away by an impulse ; 
 at any rate they gave him a call which the com- 
 missioners assured him was unanimous. Father 
 never was capable of looking askance at a pas- 
 toral call, and the very pitifulness of this one, he 
 assured us, appealed irresistibly to his tenderness. 
 
 " And yet you did not really have to accept 
 it," I reminded him. " You might simply have 
 held it as pastor-elect, by agreement with their 
 presbytery." 
 
 " I wished to strengthen such modicum of life 
 as might be left in the church," father answered. 
 " They seemed almost half inclined to relinquish 
 
146 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 having a church, and they needed someone who 
 would manifest a confidence in their better im- 
 pulse." 
 
 " But Father," Jeanie asked, " we are all won- 
 dering what it was in their call which recom- 
 mended it to you at all." 
 
 " There was nothing to recommend it. I ac- 
 cepted it in sheer pity," father replied. " Your 
 mother knows that I did the same thing more 
 than once on earth. They appeared to be in so 
 deplorable a condition that I deemed I could do 
 them scant harm, at any rate. There was a 
 church quarrel in customary progress among 
 them, and they were also weakened almost to the 
 point of sheer extinction by the competition of 
 local churches of other denominations. I hoped 
 that they might be somewhat humbled by all the 
 conceivable and inconceivable congregational 
 tribulations through which they had been pass- 
 ing, and that so I would find them grateful for 
 self-denying help, and prepared to receive real 
 good. They truly bore evidence of experiencing 
 a hopeful dissatisfaction with past spiritual at- 
 tainments and a wistful outreach of soul for some- 
 thing vital; and I thought how much easier it 
 might be to preach the gospel in hell through a 
 regularly established church, holding to the 
 Westminster standards, than to continue work- 
 ing, as it were, out of doors." 
 
 " But did the gospel preaching keep on pleas- 
 ing them? " I queried. 
 
INFERNAL SECTARIANISM 147 
 
 " Yes, for a time," Father answered. " My 
 claim to have come from heaven drew large con- 
 gregations, and for a while there were evidences 
 of a quickening in the life of the church which 
 caused me great hopes. But presently I over- 
 heard one or two thoughts after a service which 
 awakened me most rudely from my happy dream. 
 It became increasingly evident that what I had 
 taken for quickened spirituality was but little 
 more than an unholy glee in the minds of the 
 Presbyterians over the drawing of people from 
 other churches in the Holl. I began to suspect 
 that they were regarding me and my message 
 somewhat in the light of an asset, and of a shrewd 
 church investment. I would think these Monday 
 thoughts, after the times of our solemn assem- 
 blies; but when I was preaching to audiences so 
 vastly larger than any I had ever addressed on 
 earth, and they would listen so circumspectly, so 
 respectfully, and join in with the worship with 
 such propriety and decorum, I could not find it 
 in my heart to suspect anything so unworthy in 
 them. Yet I could not rid myself of the suspi- 
 cion that at the least they were inclined to listen 
 to my preaching and solo singing too much as 
 the tribes of the Jews in captivity were inclined 
 to listen to the prophesyings of Ezekiel, that I 
 might be unto them as a very lovely song of one 
 that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on 
 an instrument, for, truly, they heard my words, 
 but they did them not. I found that my fame as 
 
148 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 a preacher was spreading to other parts. I was 
 invited by the pastor of one of the great metro- 
 politan churches to occupy his pulpit on a certain 
 Sunday in hell — " 
 
 " Why, do people observe Sunday there ? " 
 mother cried, interrupting Father's account, that 
 time in heaven. 
 
 " Yes, somewhat after the fashion in which 
 they observed Sunday on earth," Father replied. 
 " There was not a very great deal in that to inter- 
 fere with the pleasures of hell." 
 
 " But how did they separate the time, and call 
 it a day ? " asked my boy, Thoughtful. 
 
 " I think it began by reason of the theories of 
 some Seventh Day Baptists," father replied. 
 " Finding themselves in hell through trusting in 
 their sectarian observances rather than trusting 
 in Christ, some of them elected to keep strict 
 watch of earth time still, and observe the seventh 
 day. Thus the other sects around them were 
 stirred to make a convention of the first day, 
 earth time, and to observe that punctiliously for 
 argument's sake." 
 
 " But you are not telling us of your experi- 
 ence, preaching in the grand pulpit," I suggested. 
 
 " Oh, that was too dreadful ! " Father declared. 
 " I can hardly bear to think of it. It transpired 
 that a new choir was being installed in its duties 
 in this church at the very time that I was to 
 preach. On approaching the assembly I became 
 aware of a certain program or bulletin of the 
 
IS THIS WORSHIP? 149 
 
 service which was being disseminated and which 
 set forth with great dignity and succinctness the 
 names of the musical composers whose produc- 
 tions were to be rendered on that occasion, and 
 whether they were to be sung or played in E flat, 
 or D sharp, or B minor, as well as also the names 
 of the musical artists belonging to the new choir 
 who were thus to distinguish themselves. The 
 program incidentally mentioned that the Reverend 
 Jonathan Prester, the silver-tongued celestial 
 visitant of Jeroboam's Holl would make the ad- 
 dress. My attention was also very kindly called 
 by the pastor before we took our places in view 
 of the congregation to an item of news in the last 
 issue of the Tophet Echo with regard to the 
 rumor that the nominating committee of the Cen- 
 tral Congregational Church of Broad Gauge 
 City, a church at that time in search of a pastor, 
 intended to be present at this service, led there 
 by interest in the rising fame of the Reverend 
 Prester. 
 
 " The early part of the service was rendered 
 by the new choir," so Father continued, " with 
 some slight occasional assistance from the pastor 
 and congregation, and consumed all the time 
 taken by earth's sunrise in progressing from Bos- 
 ton to Chicago. The music seemed to be all of 
 it upon sacred themes, so far as the themes of 
 it could possibly be made out; and as music it 
 seemed to contain all the elements of art, except 
 that it apparently expressed nothing. There was 
 
150 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 no clear appeal to the understanding; conse- 
 quently the heart was not stirred. It had di- 
 minuendo, crescendo, pause, staccato, allegro, 
 andante, everything almost but a meaning. It 
 was vox et prceterea nihil. The time spent in it 
 was empty of aught but sound. While it was 
 proceeding, I found it impossible to think con- 
 nectedly on the subject matter of my sermon; so 
 I was reduced to prayer and to observing the 
 ways of the congregation, assembled and assem- 
 bling. I noted the deference accorded certain 
 spirits who had achieved prominence. People 
 took position according to their standing in the 
 appreciation or the envy of those around them. 
 I could see their heartburnings of envy, and hear 
 all their angry or slavish thoughts. An insight 
 and an understanding were given me greater than 
 I had ever known before. I noted the anxious 
 strain for the finest attainable appearance with 
 which each individual or each family strove to ad- 
 vertise its station and its competitive success. I 
 became conscious of the hidden things of the souls 
 and lives before me. Hypocrisy, deceit, estrange- 
 ment, hatred, pride, vainglory, carping criticism, 
 lustful desires, and an infinite unrest of evil sim- 
 mered in the heated atmosphere of fevered souls. 
 I began to hear an inner discord in all the smart 
 effects of the music that was being rendered, 
 which told what each singer was really thinking 
 as he sang. At last, after I had thought even 
 for the tenth time that they would have the ser- 
 
DISGUISED TEMPTATION 151 
 
 mon come in next, a woman spirit was put for- 
 ward to sing a solo. This time the sense could 
 not wholly be hidden, for I recognized at once 
 Franz Abt's own ' Oh, Ye Tears!' 'Ah!' I 
 thought, * this is the song ! How much hell needs 
 tears ! ' I looked eagerly to see what the effect 
 upon the congregation would be. A change in- 
 deed came over many of them, but it was not the 
 softening for which I hoped. It was more a 
 shallow wave of admiration, and when my own 
 sight cleared to the ability to scan them more 
 closely I realized that it was a sort of sexual ad- 
 miration. Then I turned my soul's gaze upon 
 the singer, to whom I had been content simply 
 to listen hitherto. Oh, I cannot tell you what I 
 saw! An enchantress so bedizzened, decollette, 
 bared to the view, and shamelessly enticing, made 
 up and partially attired to tempt men while she 
 sang mincingly of holy things ! A sickening re- 
 vulsion of feeling came over me. I realized that 
 I myself was being tempted, even as Jesus was 
 tempted upon the mountain top, by the attraction 
 of a great career as a leading divine, a plan of 
 compromise for the saving of all hell wholesale 
 by means of a moderate deference to Satan. 
 What could I do? I covered my soul, and fled 
 from the assembly." 
 
 " But, Great, Great, Great Grandpapa ! " anx- 
 iously interposed our youngest, Content, " what 
 did they do at church when the preacher of the 
 da^ had fled?" 
 
152 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " I never knew," he answered with a soul shud- 
 der. u I determined in that hour that I would 
 willingly plunge to the bottom of the lowest dive 
 in hell for the purpose of saving a lost soul, but 
 I would never, never willingly attend one of their 
 fashionable churches so long as hell remained to 
 hold one. That resolution I have kept to the 
 letter, for I was only at one when haled for my 
 trial before the Presbytery." 
 
 " You ! " we all exclaimed at once, and my 
 Mother asked, " Dear, innocent man ! what could 
 they find to try you for? " 
 
 " It was a heresy trial," Father answered hum- 
 bly. " In order to make the situation clear, it 
 is necessary that I should relate briefly something 
 of my later experience with the Holl Church. I 
 went back to them more than ever thankful for 
 the forlorn and dispirited condition in which I 
 had found them, and still trusting that in grati- 
 tude for my success in setting their church upon 
 its legs, I might find them willing to let me lead 
 it, however wobblingly, upward to higher things. 
 One line of thought upon which I had been 
 preaching to them was concerning the need of a 
 genuine revival of pure and undefiled religion in 
 their midst; but hitherto I had not been able to 
 obtain from them a response in real unison of 
 soul on this subject. The few who were inclined 
 to declare themselves definitely, said some one 
 thing, some another. Spindler was for revival, 
 but I could not feel that he was moved by any- 
 
ANYTHING BUT REVIVAL 153 
 
 thing deeper than his affection for me, and his 
 hankering after excitement. You remember how 
 he used always to pray, when called upon in meet- 
 ing, that the Lord would send down his Spirit 
 and * shake this whole commoonity.' But when 
 the time for special evangelistic meetings came 
 about, and Christians first were asked to set the 
 example of repentance and turning from sin, 
 Brother Spindler did not come out quite clearly 
 for a better life; but on the contrary, began to 
 gravitate toward a back seat, and became pain- 
 fully irregular in his attendance. In the minds 
 of the other outspoken ones of my church in Jero- 
 boam's Holl there appeared to be many conscien- 
 tious scruples, grave questionings, lingering 
 doubts, disinterested hesitations, also much depre- 
 cating concern upon the subject of revivals in 
 general, and especially upon the suitableness of the 
 present time for revival effort. I found that an- 
 other word would need to be used than the scrip- 
 tural word, 'revival ' ; else no unanimity could be 
 arrived at. I tried the man-made paraphrase of 
 1 special evangelistic effort,' which I began to 
 urge strenuously upon them. But first they said 
 they thought it better not to have special efforts, 
 but to depend upon the regular services and the 
 stated means of grace ; then presently the session 
 waited upon me in a body to suggest that the 
 regular preaching upon evangelistic themes was 
 beginning to cause a falling off in attendance 
 upon our services. Especially they felt reluc- 
 
154 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 tantly drawn to deprecate the invitations to make 
 public decisions for Christ with which I had en- 
 deavored to conclude some of the preaching serv- 
 ices. They felt that these decisions were more 
 apt to be genuine and lasting when made in pri- 
 vate. Also I observed for myself," Father said, 
 " that whatever might be the manner in which I 
 endeavored to draw the gospel net, my effort in- 
 variably resulted in evident embarrassment to 
 the church members. They could not readily or 
 gracefully set the example of acknowledging a 
 living faith in Christ, or, indeed, of confessing 
 any definite allegiance to the doctrines known as 
 evangelical. Observing reluctantly the strain and 
 awkwardness brought upon the regular church 
 services by any public appeal for conversions, I 
 suggested to the session and to the congregation 
 that we ought at least to institute, in addition to 
 these, some form of rescue mission work for the 
 mass of unconverted people around us. Receiv- 
 ing no definite response, I endeavored upon my 
 individual responsibility to lead the way in such 
 outside evangelistic effort. But my own church 
 members shunned the time and place of all such 
 attempts, and soon began to complain that they 
 were taking my time and strength from my regu- 
 lar pastoral work and pulpit preparation. The 
 one or two outcast spirits which were converted 
 to Christ by our solitary efforts in this direction, 
 Albert's and mine, found only a constrained wel- 
 come into the number of the Holl Church people. 
 
STRANGELY UNSUCCESSFUL 155 
 
 They were, unfortunately, not of the social class 
 and sphere in hell to cause them to be looked upon 
 as desirable additions to their church. I began 
 to be conscious of a certain subtile divergence of 
 feeling between pastor and congregation by rea- 
 son of my interest in such people. Simulta- 
 neously I had been endeavoring to develop in 
 their prayer meeting a line of supplication for 
 the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; but, to my 
 dismay, the prayer meeting itself went into a pa- 
 thetic decline under my pastorate. I had found 
 this almost a flourishing part of their church life ; 
 at least so it had seemed at the beginning of my 
 pastoral relation with them. This was one of the 
 things that drew me to them in the start, and in- 
 spired me wih some hope for their future that the 
 prayer meeting was well attended and that many 
 seemed disposed to take part in it ; only there was 
 that in its exercises which, by some means, con- 
 tinually reminded me of a saying of a certain 
 Methodist divine of the old school not infre- 
 quently repeated at the period of my boyhood to 
 the effect that • the prayers of Presbyterians were 
 cold enough to freeze hell over.' Truly, the pub- 
 lic efforts in prayer of these particular Presby- 
 terians of Jeroboam's Holl in hell seemed some- 
 what designed to fulfill that especial purpose. 
 They were so formal, so stereotyped, so smirk in 
 their self-satisfaction, that they made it difficult, 
 at times, to believe one's self in a division of God's 
 cosmos where anything was confessedly in need 
 
156 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 of improvement. I recall one of them, Rorer by 
 name, whose prayers even seemed to have a cer- 
 tain ring of defiance in them, as though he were 
 saying in undertone, ' Stand back, Almighty ; you 
 can do nothing till I get through.' 
 
 " This reminds me, Nathaniel," Father di- 
 gressed, " this Rorer's name seemed in some way 
 to be associated with that country place in Penn- 
 sylvania called Serenity, where you found your 
 Jeanie. He came to us at the Holl by letter from 
 a much more pretentious church of our denomina- 
 tion, almost at the beginning of the first rising 
 tide of our prosperity. I asked him if he had 
 known you on earth, and he denied the sugges- 
 tion; but Albert, here, knew him and assured me 
 that he had had some converse with you about 
 him prior to his own conversion in hell." 
 
 " Father," I asked, " did this Rorer carry him- 
 self quite erect, with a courageous bearing some- 
 thing like a snake that is prepared to strike and 
 anticipate any blow, or, at the worst, meet it half 
 way? " 
 
 " Just so," he replied, " and I have other rea- 
 sons for thinking he exercised a sinister and ser- 
 pentine influence upon the course of my ill-starred 
 pastorate. But to return to the subject of our 
 prayer meetings; one and another voice became 
 mute, as though by some strange spell, and one 
 and another form came to be missed as time went 
 on. I am mentally sure it was not because I up- 
 braided them. I endeavored not to let them ob- 
 
DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH 157 
 
 serve how much their prayers and remarks sad- 
 dened me. But I could not pray as they did, and 
 they would not pray as I did; so they seemed 
 to lose interest. Only Albert and the one or 
 two new converts God gave me kept on taking 
 part in the meeting with growing power of spir- 
 ituality. At last there came a prayer meeting 
 when only these were present (although Spindler 
 also could be dimly perceived hovering near in 
 apparent dejection), but at its close came the 
 bearers of the summons before the Presbytery." 
 
 " Who were your accusers ? " exclaimed Mother 
 in righteous indignation. " Oh, my husband ! 
 and I never missed you from heaven ! " 
 
 " I have been living in both worlds," Father an- 
 swered simply, " and I did not wish to sadden 
 your heart. Besides, it would have been impossi- 
 ble to bring you into touch with hell, until God 
 should turn your own thoughts in that direction. 
 One complainant was a neighboring minister by 
 the name of Raxton, and the other was an elder 
 of a third church in the Presbytery." 
 
 Something in Father's tone made us ask if it 
 was any one we knew. 
 
 " It was that son of Aunt Fannie McCracken," 
 Father said quietly. " Hush ! do not allow your 
 mind to dwell on her, or she will be here, and the 
 dear old lady will be sadly disturbed. Can you 
 recall the visit he paid his mother? He was di- 
 vorced from his wealthy wife, and he suffered 
 from spells of delirium tremens, but he was sound 
 
158 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 in his orthodoxy and well versed in the Westmins- 
 ter standards. He loved only one thing more 
 than to defend the five points of Calvinism." 
 
 I could remember him better than the others, 
 for it was again in the summer of my life, when 
 I was preaching during my first vacation from 
 the theological seminary in my Father's place in 
 the Valley of Summer, that this McCracken came 
 to cheer Aunt Fannie with another month's visit. 
 He it was who passed judgment upon my first 
 crude pulpit efforts, ' that the young man would 
 do better if he would quote less from Carlyle and 
 Emerson and more from the Bible.' I came to be 
 very grateful to him for that in after years, and 
 I was sorry now to hear Father's account of him 
 in hell. He told us McCracken had come to him 
 at the first meeting of their infernal Presbytery 
 which Father attended. He had heard of Father's 
 claim to be a visitor from heaven come to tell lost 
 spirits of a larger hope, and he immediately be- 
 gan to argue the doctrinal bearing of such a con- 
 ception. " Your evangel is fundamentally op- 
 posed to Calvinism," was his sentence. " Where 
 would the doctrine of election go, if we should 
 admit any possibility of continued probation? 
 Did not God from all eternity foreordain some to 
 eternal life, and others to eternal damnation? " 
 
 " I was somewhat taken aback by this chal- 
 lenge," Father recounted, " and it seemed only 
 such a short time since I had been arguing from 
 his standpoint with Nathaniel here in heaven, I 
 
IS THIS CALVINISM? 159 
 
 really hardly knew how to meet such a born po- 
 lemic in argument on an abstract doctrinal issue, 
 so I cast about in my mind, and finally asked 
 him point blank what bearing he thought the doc- 
 trine of election had upon his own chances of 
 eternal happiness. He answered me with aston- 
 ishing frankness, * I am in hell by praeterition,' 
 he said. ■ God's electing grace passed me by 
 from all eternity. He was the potter and I was 
 the clay, and He made of me a vessel unto dis- 
 honor.' 
 
 " ' And what is the feeling of your heart to- 
 ward God for this ? ' I asked him. 
 
 " ' I have no right to indulge any feeling,' he 
 answered. ' It was all for His own glory ; for 
 which cause, willing to show His wrath, and to 
 make His power known, God endured me with 
 much long suffering, a vessel of wrath, fitted to 
 destruction.' 
 
 " At this answer I was all but speechless," 
 Father proceeded. " ' The thing which fills me 
 with wonder,' at last I ventured to suggest, ' is 
 that you continue to engage in the worship of 
 such a God.' 
 
 " 4 1 was brought up to go to church,' was his 
 answer. ' I take a pride in doing my part. I be- 
 lieve in upholding right doctrine. I happened 
 into a part of hell where shouting Arminianism 
 was rampant, and there was a struggling Presby- 
 terian church, like the one of which you are pas- 
 tor, endeavoring to uphold the truths of Calvin- 
 
160 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 ism and the sober decencies of sedate and dignified 
 worship. They desired me to unite and be an 
 elder, and while I could not claim to be converted, 
 by reason of never having been elected unto re- 
 pentance, I said to them, ' Anything to beat the 
 Methodists!* and joined the church and was or- 
 dained for an elder, declaring my adherence to 
 the system of doctrine contained in the West- 
 minster standards, and my determination to up- 
 hold them, a determination in which I have never 
 flinched, and shall never flinch.' 
 
 " I said to him, ' I am fain to think you are 
 the very wickedest man I have ever known.' 
 
 " * How can you say that ? ' he demanded in 
 angry astonishment. 
 
 " I replied, ' You blame all your depravity on 
 God's predestination, and you take an apparent 
 pride in doing more for God than you think God 
 has been willing to do for you. You dishonor 
 the Saviour who died for you, the God who gave 
 you all the advantage of careful Christian train- 
 ing, as well as the birthright of membership in 
 His visible church, and you dishonor and affront, 
 at every breath of thought you draw, that Holy 
 Spirit of God which has been working mightily 
 for your salvation through generations antedat- 
 ing your birth, and even down to the present mo- 
 ment, turning your mind to an interest in spiritual 
 things, making you zealous and jealous for the 
 faith once delivered to the saints — imperfectly 
 as you seem to have grasped it — and working 
 
IONIAN ELECTION 161 
 
 mightily for your conviction of sin and conver- 
 sion to holiness.' 
 
 " He answered in a set and deliberate tone, ■ If 
 I had been called and predestinated, I would have 
 gotten converted before my brain softened and 
 death came to vary my torment.' 
 
 " ' How do you surely know,' I asked him, 
 ' that you are not predestined to be saved, even in 
 the torment of hell? ' 
 
 " ' That is your heresy,' he answered. * You 
 are tempting me to let slip the faith of my fath- 
 ers. If I can be saved in hell, and anybody can 
 be saved, and everybody, most likely, is destined 
 to be saved, in the end; then there are no elect 
 ones. Where every one is elect, none are elect. 
 Consequently your whole doctrine is subversive 
 of the truth.' 
 
 " I could only assure him," Father confessed to 
 us, " that I could not claim a positive conviction 
 as yet whether all souls were to be saved, except 
 that I was beginning to wonder if God's universe 
 could finally be considered altogether a satisfac- 
 tory success, unless its history should culminate 
 in some such consummation. But I could not 
 surely see why there might not be an election for 
 each ason, an election to salvation during the mor- 
 tal life, or during the immortal life. i Is not 
 this,' I asked him, ' the key to the whole mystery 
 of predestination, that God's election, viewed 
 from the standpoint of His timeless existence, is 
 practically synchronous with our choice of Him? 
 
162 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Is it strictly scientific ever to speak of Deity in 
 the past tense ? Christ says, * Before Abraham 
 was, I am.' If you had chosen to submit your 
 will to God's will in your childhood, or in the 
 midst of any one of your drunken domestic sprees, 
 you would have found yourself one of God's 
 elect. You can make a practical demonstration 
 of this even here and now at the present time, 
 McCracken,' I urged. • Why not leave theorizing 
 for a moment and bow your soul with me before 
 God? Wickedly as you have thought and lived, 
 I am constrained to believe there may be mercy 
 yet for you. Salvation is still for you to choose 
 or to rej ect. Turn or burn ; which shall it be ? ' " 
 
 "And still he did not repent?" we asked 
 Father. 
 
 " I am grieved to suspect," Father replied, 
 " that McCracken was not really willing to be 
 saved at the expense of broadening his theology 
 and giving up sin. What he said to me was, 
 1 You are no true Presbyterian. Your system is 
 Arminian of the most ultra type.' And with that 
 he left me, and I perceived him conferring privily 
 with Rorer and with several members of the Pres- 
 bytery ; but he intersphered with me no more, until 
 he came, after that almost deserted prayer meet- 
 ing, bearing my summons before the Presbytery 
 for trial on the charge of heresy." 
 
PRESBYTERIAL PROCEEDURE 163 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 " Tried for heresy ! " Mother exclaimed. 
 " You ! My precious husband ! My lamb in the 
 midst of wolves ! Of all the people in the world ! 
 Did they mean it seriously ? " 
 
 " It was not easy to take it with suitable 
 seriousness," Father replied. " At various times 
 in private and at the ministers' meeting, I had 
 heard members of this same presbytery express 
 almost every shade of belief and of unbelief. It 
 was difficult to foresee how they could succeed in 
 reaching an agreement on any doctrinal verdict. 
 My learned protagonist had hardly concluded his 
 statement of the charge against me, before the 
 whole Presbytery flew into a state of interro- 
 gation, protestation, explanation, asseveration, 
 allegation, reconsideration, and general objurga- 
 tion, with regard to the phraseology of the in- 
 dictment, the subject matter of each of its counts, 
 the application of its various quotations from the 
 standards of the church and from various de- 
 liverances of their general assembly (or of lower 
 judicatories) in former cases; as well as over 
 various and sundry questions of constitutional 
 procedure in the present trial. The task of 
 their moderator was rendered more difficult by 
 reason of their post-mortem facility in all speak- 
 ing at once, and each distinctly and simultane- 
 ously following all that the others had to say. 
 
164 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 This made it exceedingly difficult at times to de- 
 termine which rightfully held the floor. 
 
 " One distinguishable party opposed the charge 
 against me, because, as they ob j ected, ' It tacitly 
 concedes the strange presumption of the ac- 
 cused that this is hell.' So they moved to 
 amend the phraseology of my indictment by 
 striking out certain words and phrases here and 
 there and substituting or interjecting certain 
 other words and clauses; so that it should state 
 as a whole the distinct condemnation of the 
 presbytery upon * the heresy that there is a hell 
 and that this is it.' The amendment was car- 
 ried over the vigorous and long continued oppo- 
 sition of Raxton, McCracken, and those of like 
 belief with them who protested that such an ad- 
 dition to, and wresting of the purpose of the 
 charge would involve its original framers them- 
 selves in an invidious charge of heresy. 
 
 " Then some one moved that my whole trial 
 be put into the hands of a judicial commission ; as 
 to conduct it in public would inevitably embarrass 
 many members, in forcing them to express per- 
 sonal convictions or hesitancies of belief which 
 they would prefer not to make public ; even if it 
 should not result in doctrinally incriminating 
 each member of the presbytery in the opinion of 
 certain other members. This motion was carried ; 
 but the effort to select such a judicial commis- 
 sion proved abortive, by reason of each member 
 having a majority against his election and eligi- 
 
DIVIDED COUNSELS 165 
 
 bility to a place on the committee as being 
 above suspicion in his orthodoxy. By sheer 
 necessity a motion to reconsider was carried, and 
 the presbytery resolved itself into a committe of 
 the whole. 
 
 " A great time having thus been taken up in 
 coming back to the point where they were at 
 the beginning, it occurred to some one to pro- 
 pose that they proceed to examine the accused. 
 Here the presbytery found itself in difficulties 
 again, some thinking best first to examine wit- 
 nesses to establish the truth or falsity of such 
 and such erronious and heretical utterances as 
 were charged against me ever having been pro- 
 mulgated by me, while others contended that 
 time would be saved by giving me an opportunity 
 to plead guilty or not guilty, of denying or 
 admitting that these expressions of opinion were 
 indeed my own, and explaining to the presbytery 
 by what course of internal reasoning I could 
 conscientiously hold such convictions and recon- 
 cile them with the doctrines of the Presbyterian 
 confession. Then several members began to 
 protest at once and with vehement reiteration, 
 that if I were allowed to speak before the wit- 
 nesses for the prosecution were examined ; I would 
 inevitably prejudice the minds of many in favor 
 of my new theology. The contrary part, how- 
 ever, clung to their opinion, and there was much 
 searching of precedents, and much arguing upon 
 certain rulings and interpretations contained in 
 
166 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Hodge's compendium; until Presbytery was 
 threatened with a deadlock, and the chair was 
 appealed to for its decision, which was averse to 
 hearing me first. Then a motion to overrule 
 the ruling of the moderator was put forward; 
 but the moderator refused to entertain the motion, 
 and declined to vacate the chair in order that 
 the motion might be put by another. Thereupon 
 the Stated Clerk solemnly declared the moderator 
 to be exceeding his prerogatives, proving his 
 declaration by reference to the Form of Govern- 
 ment, and Rules of Procedure, and finally moved 
 the impeachment of the moderator and the elec- 
 tion of some other in his place. This led to a 
 forensic contest so stormy and protracted that 
 there was imminent danger of the Presbytery 
 splitting into two halves and dismembering me 
 between them, each faction being unwilling to 
 waive the gratification of going on with my trial. 
 Finally a compromise motion was proposed that 
 I and the witnesses against me should be examined 
 at one and the same time, and this motion; 
 although with some demurring; was finally car- 
 ried by force of sheer exhaustion. 
 
 " It was hard to follow the examination of the 
 witnesses while myself subjected to the most varied 
 and simultaneous questioning; but I remember 
 most distinctly the testimony of elder Rorer, who 
 when called to the witness stand came with great 
 apparent reluctance, protesting against the in- 
 vidiousness of being required to testify against 
 
A SEARCHING EXAMINATION 167 
 
 his own pastor. They asked him how long he 
 had known me and what his motives had been 
 in joining the Holl church after my pastorate 
 had begun, and whether he had ever known any 
 one by our name in this or the mortal life, and 
 what his own doctrinal bias had been, and 
 whether in his eldership on earth over the little 
 Mount Latitude Church in the vicinity of the 
 village of Serenity, he had ever given expression 
 to views endorsing the doctrine known as that of 
 the Millenial Dawn, and finally, after much ex- 
 planation and evasion, and some objection on the 
 part of the counsel for the prosecution, he was 
 brought to answer the question whether he had 
 ever, in public or in private, and on what and 
 how many occasions heard me declare, and also 
 with what varieties of expression, with what 
 guarding of points and shadings of meaning, my 
 belief in the proposition that men could be saved 
 from hell; even if this were hell; by long de- 
 layed repentance toward God and faith toward 
 Jesus Christ. Also he was examined to determine 
 if these pulpit deliverances of mine had seem- 
 ingly been given out for the purpose of sub- 
 verting the doctrinal standards of the great 
 Presbyterian church. 
 
 " To this last question the witness replied with 
 a defiant protest that he was on the stand to 
 state facts, and not to reveal his own inner 
 sentiments and opinions with regard to what he 
 had become cognizant of : that no one could com- 
 
168 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 pel him to incriminate his own pastor in this man- 
 ner. So in effect the questioners were quite sat- 
 isfied of Rorer's conviction; and turned their at- 
 tention somewhat languidly to other witnesses, 
 finding more interest apparently in the cross ex- 
 amination of the plaintiff which was progressing 
 simultaneously; only when my heart would warm 
 to an earnest setting forth of the vital truths of 
 eternal salvation in Christ, many of them would 
 feel impelled to increase the hubbub of calling and 
 questioning one and another possible or impos- 
 sible witness for the prosecution; as if to dis- 
 tract attention from what I was trying to say." 
 
 " Poor man ! What an ordeal ! " was our in- 
 voluntary exclamation. 
 
 " Yes," Father replied, " I was reminded some- 
 what of the examination on his confession of a 
 belief in future probation through which poor 
 Nathaniel here was put by the Rapidan presby- 
 tery. Only this was as much more strenuous as 
 hell could make it. They asked me all about my 
 earthly ministry, and if I had ever been up be- 
 fore presbytery on a similar charge — " 
 
 " Which you could emphatically deny." 
 Mother interjected. 
 
 " They were also particular to inquire," 
 Father continued smilingly, " if I had ever been 
 subjected to Universalist influence, either in my 
 New England childhood, or during my short 
 pastorate over the ancestral church at Scituate, 
 which afterwards went over to Universalism, or 
 
A FIRE OF QUESTIONS 169 
 
 by the reading of literature disseminated in the 
 propaganda of that cult. To all of these ques- 
 tions I could answer that I had been distinctly 
 opposed to liberalism in theology in all its forms, 
 even under all the broadening influences of 
 heaven and quite up to the very recent occasion 
 of my sudden call to witness the illumination of 
 mission work in hell in response to my son's fer- 
 vent wish for my presence in the nether spirit 
 world at that moment. At this they inquired if 
 I could give them any proof that there was a 
 heavenly state different from their own, and that 
 I had actually been in it, and that there was such 
 a thing going on in hell, (if this were hell) as 
 real bona fide mission work conducted by spirits 
 sent from heaven. In reply, I asked them to ex- 
 amine Albert, and he testified most manfully of 
 the vision of heaven which broke up the Christian 
 Science meeting, of his own conversion, and of 
 the panoramic glimpse of hell's mission work 
 which came soon after, together with my sudden 
 appearance in their midst, whereas he had never 
 seen me in hell before. 
 
 " The two who had been won to Christ by my 
 attempts at a mission in connection with, but 
 outside of the Holl church also acknowledged 
 their conversion to a living faith in Christ and 
 in heaven; and when interrogated as to whether 
 they had received their reward of entrance into 
 heaven, and if so, why they were still found con- 
 tinuing to sojourn in what they had of late been 
 
170 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 taught to look upon as hell; they replied that 
 they were not as yet deeply concerned over a 
 delay in their getting into heaven; since heaven 
 itself had already gotten into them. They had 
 found Christ, and the finding of Christ was 
 heaven. But they had already also perceived 
 themselves to be lifted into what they felt to be 
 the outer fringe of heaven, and as for lingering 
 in hell they were well pleased to be found there at 
 this present time; in order that they might wit- 
 ness in behalf of the one who had brought them 
 to a knowledge of their Saviour. 
 
 " Perceiving that they were not likely to gain 
 great strength of unfavorable impression from 
 the examination of these; the prosecution again 
 called me to the stand and interrogated me as 
 to my method of reconciling the belief in proba- 
 tion in hell with the teachings of Scripture. I 
 replied that I had always until recently sup- 
 posed that they could not be reconciled the one 
 with the other, and that only since I had come 
 face to face with the unyielding and radiant fact 
 of God's everlasting mercy moving to save lost 
 souls in hell had I found myself put to it to cast 
 about mentally for some method of interpreting 
 Scripture which might bring me out in theory 
 where I found myself in fact. I had looked 
 again into the Bible treasured in my heart, and 
 to my joy and comfort had found it plentifully 
 sprinkled over with statements of God's unchange- 
 able attributes of mercy, goodness and truth, of 
 
THE BIBLE FOR IT 171 
 
 His unwillingness that any should perish, and of 
 His intention in Christ to save His kosmos, to 
 bring it to believe in His son, to take away its 
 sin, to reconcile it unto Himself, and even to make 
 of it a new sky of stars and a new earth wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness. I found and understood 
 that God decrees and definitely purposes to put 
 all things under Christ's feet. I found the evi- 
 dences in His word that He Himself is working 
 at the problem of evil, and that He expects to 
 solve it and resolve it, and to work out a de- 
 monstration in which all can rejoice at last. 
 
 " From Genesis even unto Revelation, I had 
 found the claim that God rules the world and 
 His kingdom is everlasting, and that it ruleth 
 over all, and that it will ultimately triumph until 
 the deepest voices and the mightiest thunderings 
 of heaven and earth shall make proclamation, 
 6 Alleluiah, for the Lord God omnipotent reign- 
 eth ! ' I had found the promise that God would 
 wipe away the tears from off all faces, and the 
 claim of Jesus, * I, if I be lifted up, will draw all 
 unto me.' I had learned to believe with Paul that 
 the renewing power of God's grace would work a 
 work as wide as the deadening power of man's sin, 
 and that as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all 
 be made alive. So I was beginning with Peter 
 to hope in a final restitution of all things which 
 might efface from the heart of the world even the 
 last scar of sin's deep wounding. 
 
 " Even amid the gloom and the horror of hell 
 
172 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 had this sustaining vision been granted me. 
 Without it, I told them, I could not have en- 
 dured the burden of my pastorate in hell, with 
 its hope deferred of achieving any good. I 
 could bear to strive and fail, hoping surely at 
 last that God's world would be no failure ; that in 
 the final winding up of its affairs, no part 
 would stand forth as sheer tragedy ; but that all 
 the sin and shame and sorrow of it ; the malignity, 
 the misunderstanding, the hate and the heart-ache 
 alike must soften and resolve itself at last into 
 the melodrama of all conquering, all compensat- 
 ing grace. 
 
 " I admitted to their questioning that there 
 remained yet many mysteries into which, with the 
 angels, I desired to look; but that I thought I 
 had come upon the key to the darkest of these 
 where I found Albert Detwiler kneeling in peni- 
 tence on the floor of hell. Since then I had 
 been looking forward to see God showing, more 
 and more, the reason for the permission of evil 
 in the world, vindicating it by the greater good, 
 the mellowed joy, the broadened thought, the 
 deepened love, the ecstasy of pardon in extremis, 
 the strength won only from conflict, the patience 
 of the ages, the trust made perfect in One able 
 to save unto the uttermost, the experience of an 
 infinite salvation working out an eternal hope. 
 I acknowledged to them my deepening conviction 
 that even hell itself had come to be, in order 
 
GOD'S USE FOR HELL 173 
 
 to make all see what is the fellowship of the 
 mystery which from the beginning of the world 
 hath been hid in God, who created all things by 
 Jesus Christ ; to the intent that now even as never 
 quite before, to all principalities and powers and 
 deepest inquiring minds of the universe might 
 be made known, through the ministry of grace in 
 hell itself, the manifold wisdom of God, accord- 
 ing to the eternal purpose which he purposed in 
 Christ Jesus. So of late I had been growing and 
 stretching and rising as it were upon tip-toe to 
 look forward, even sometimes as through a blur 
 to tears, to that ' one far-off, divine event toward 
 which the whole creation moves ' ; and to foresee, 
 in faith, that consummation when at the name of 
 Jesus every knee should bow, not only of things 
 in heaven, and things on earth, but also of things 
 under the earth, and when every tongue should 
 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of 
 God the Father. I was coming to believe, as 
 never before, that of the increase of His govern- 
 ment and of His peace there should be no end, that 
 the stone cut out of the mountain without hands 
 should continue to grow until it filled not only 
 the whole earth, but the whole universe, and that 
 God would overturn and overturn and overturn 
 Satan's dominion, until He should come to it 
 whose right it is and God would give it to Christ 
 and His dominion would be from sea of glory to 
 sea of long despair, and from the river of life 
 
174 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 flowing from the throne even to the ends of the 
 immensity of infinite existence, to which there are 
 no bounds nor ends. 
 
 " During all my life which had been lived on 
 earth, and lately, by God's wonderful grace, in 
 heaven, I had been strangely blinded to these 
 plain teachings of God's revelation; but now 
 since seeing with my own astonished sight what 
 Christ could do for a repentant sinner in the 
 prison house of hell, I had come in one rapturous 
 bound to the assurance that God had indeed put 
 all things under Christ's blessed nail-pierced feet ; 
 and that no heart could eternally steel itself 
 against His love, but must some day own His 
 sovereignty, not in the impotence of curbed re- 
 bellion ; but in the loyalty and unspeakable grat- 
 itude of a heart won over, of a spirit saved 
 even from the pit. I told them to their set faces 
 that there was a time coming, I would fain be- 
 lieve, decreed in God's sure plan, when even they, 
 from the all but hopeless depths of the hypocrites' 
 portion, would be snatched as brands from the 
 burning, and when their natures, most grievously 
 discordant, because only a shade of a tone out of 
 pitch with God's anthem of salvation, would yet 
 join in perfect harmony in heaven's new song at 
 that coming saengerfest, when every creature, both 
 which is in heaven, and on the earth and also 
 which is under the earth and in the sea, even all 
 that are in them shall be heard saying, ' Blessing 
 and honor and glory and power be unto him that 
 
A RULE OF INTERPRETATION 175 
 
 sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb, for- 
 ever and ever.' Thus I had come to this prin- 
 ciple of interpretation, only wondering why I had 
 never come to it before, that when we seem to 
 find diverse truths in the Word of God, we 
 should endeavor loyally to accept them each to 
 the stretch of our finite reasoning powers; but 
 we should strive toward a unity of thought by 
 clinging most tenaciously to those truths which 
 present God in a worthy light, which carry for- 
 ward the lines upon which the main trend of 
 prophecy, of evangel, and of history have re- 
 vealed God's unswerving purpose, and we should 
 endeavor to reconcile all other scriptural affirma- 
 tions with these. Over against the parables of 
 the wise and foolish virgins, of the wheat and 
 tares, of the draught of good and evil fishes, of 
 Dives and Lazarus, of the unprofitable servant, 
 it behooves us to place those of the lost sheep, the 
 lost coin, the leaven, the ' other sheep,' the pro- 
 digal son, together with all the gracious invita- 
 tions of the gospel, Christ's prayer upon the 
 cross for his enemies, which was partly fulfilled at 
 Pentecost, the universality of Paul's soteriology, 
 the complete consummation of the work of re- 
 demption revealed to John, and the entire lack 
 throughout the entire Bible of any positive as- 
 surance of a term to probation at the boundary 
 line of physical death ; a doctrine which if it were 
 true should have furnished the main burden of 
 warning in the Scriptures, as it did in the preach- 
 
176 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 ing of the preachers of my early earthly life- 
 time. ' But why should I argue with you only 
 from exegesis ? ' I cried, all my heart going out 
 to my unhappy prosecutors. ' Here are the 
 present day facts even staring you in the face. 
 Here are these three converts of a post-mortem 
 gospel who assure you that they have lately 
 experienced salvation. One hour of experience is 
 said to be worth a thousand years of theory. I 
 invite you each to make trial of the truth of my 
 gospel even by here and now calling truly upon 
 God for mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 As theologians, deeply interested in spiritual 
 themes, I desire to draw you into the vital reali- 
 zation of experimental religion. Intellectually 
 you are none of you far from the kingdom of 
 God. If you will not come to Christ now and be 
 saved; what is there left for you but the bot- 
 tomless hell of doubt thatched over with thin 
 pretences ; what but the narrowing hell of bigotry 
 embittered by theologic hate ; what but the seeth- 
 ing hell of unrest and eternal disillusionment? 
 Oh my brothers ! ' I cried • come away form it all 
 to Jesus Christ. He longs to save you from it 
 still.' I had forgotten that I was on trial; my 
 soul went forth to them. I waited, and even hell 
 grew silent about us. I prayed without words, 
 as I thought of the aeons still hanging upon 
 their choice. I had known such moments on 
 earth in dealing with men for the supreme decision, 
 but here I had the intenser interest of watching 
 
CHURCHMEN TO BE SAVED 177 
 
 the innermost waver of each spirit about me, as 
 the finger touch of each one's choice was poised 
 ready to tip the balance for the right or for the 
 wrong. 
 
 " As these keen minds hesitated, almost per- 
 suaded, the vision arose before me of a whole 
 presbytery truly converted to God, and trans- 
 formed into a power to win other souls to Him. 
 Counld not He answer prayer for these dignified 
 ecclesiastics of the inferno as I had once seen 
 it answered in the lump for the degraded inmates 
 of a terrestrial house of correction ? Alas ! this 
 was not to be as yet. I became cognizant of a 
 movement in different individuals of that silent 
 body. 
 
 " It was Nathaniel's old friend, Rorer, hastily 
 putting forward some proposition to those who 
 had been my most determined prosecutors. One 
 of them claimed the ear of the presbytery, and in 
 dryest manner moved that the examination of the 
 accused be suspended at this point and that the 
 presbytery be by itself. Mr. McCracken in- 
 formed me that I could withdraw in his company, 
 and I therefore yielded myself to his guardian- 
 ship. While we were without, I was conscious 
 that the greater part of my companion was 
 absent in the secret session ; but I refrained my- 
 self from endeavoring to penetrate its reserve. 
 
 " I thought of Jesus, my Master, yielding Him- 
 self to the flimsy bonds and puny guarding of 
 Roman soldiers when He stood before Pilate and 
 
178 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 before Herod voluntarily emptying Himself of 
 omnipotence. I resisted the longing to be out of 
 it all and to be wholly in heaven during the 
 moments of eternity taken up by this infernal 
 presbytery in deciding my case. These moments 
 were prolonged until it became evident even to 
 painfulness that presbytery was having difficulty 
 in knowing its own mind. The part of McCrack- 
 en which remained with me experienced apparent 
 preoccupation in maintaining coherent conversa- 
 tion. But presently an expression of relief came 
 over him and in another moment all of him was 
 there present, assuring me that presbytery wished 
 me to return and receive its unanimous decision. 
 
 " When I returned to them," Father said, " all 
 the members of the presbytery looked precisely 
 alike as it were for the thickness of one inch below 
 the surface of their souls; but further within 
 they were each of a diverse color, which showed 
 through in spots. The clerk pronounced upon 
 me their sentence, which was that whereas I had 
 maintained the doctrine of a probation for lost 
 souls after death, a doctrine opposed to the 
 teachings of the Westminster Standards, witness 
 the Confession of Faith, chapter XXXII, Section 
 I, taken with Larger Catechism Question 89 and 
 answer: and whereas I had used language and 
 made an appeal upon the floor of this presbytery 
 which clearly betrayed my belief that this pres- 
 bytery itself is sitting in hell, and in need of im- 
 mediate repentance ; and whereas I had thus shown 
 
THE HERESY OF IT 179 
 
 myself to be entirely out of harmony with the 
 Presbyterian system in general, and with this 
 presbytery in particular; therefore presbytery 
 hereby first solemnly abjured and commanded me 
 to recant and renounce the two aforesaid unsound, 
 heretical and subversive beliefs, and to refrain 
 hereafter from teaching or promulgating them in 
 any manner or at any time; otherwise, should I 
 declare myself unwilling thus to carry out my 
 ordination vows to study the peace, unity, and 
 purity of the church, and to yield to my brethren 
 all subjection and obedience in the Lord; then 
 second presbytery must find itself sorrowfully 
 compelled to dissolve the pastoral relation exist- 
 ing between me and the church of Jeroboam's 
 Holl, to depose me from the ministerial office, and 
 finally to abscind, cut off, and excommunicate me 
 from its membership, and from membership in the 
 whole Presbyterian assembly of the Intermediate 
 State. 
 
 " Hereupon the question was solemnly put to 
 me whether I was willing to renounce my errors, 
 and to refrain from setting them forth in future. 
 To this I replied denying the first charge, while 
 courteously and affectionately admitting the 
 second. Referring in particular to the passages 
 in the Confession of Faith and in the Larger 
 Catechism quoted against me, I replied that I 
 could heartily and unreservedly accept the doc- 
 trines set forth therein; if they could but allow 
 me to take the words * forever ' and ' reserved ' 
 
180 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 contained therein in the strict signification of the 
 Greek words for which they stood in the King 
 James translation of the New Testament. I be- 
 lieved that those dying impenitent were ' held ' 
 for judgment as every impenitent soul every- 
 where is held, and that in judgment they are 
 sentenced to the pains of hell * unto the aeons ' ; 
 a sentence itself ever subject to reprieve. This 
 possible reprieve I had been compelled to believe 
 in by my actual and startling eye-witnessing of 
 this reprieve being granted, even within a short 
 time past, to one and another so held under hell's 
 chains and darkness. Also this reprieve and full 
 and tender pardon, I assured them was now of- 
 fered and extended to them, my fellow presbyters, 
 who were in some respects, however regretfully I 
 must say it, the chief of sinners, having sinned 
 against the clearest light. 
 
 " At this point Doctor Raxton, my chief 
 accuser, interrupted me, and sternly declared that 
 I was continuipg to do precisely what presbytery 
 had but just now abjured and debarred me from 
 doing ; namely, proclaiming heresy and appealing 
 in a way derogatory to the piety and Christian 
 character of the members of presbytery itself. 
 Therefore he called at once for the formal pro- 
 nouncement of presbytery's alternative sentence 
 upon me. 
 
 " At this there were murmurs of dissent on 
 every side, cries of ' No ! No ! Let him speak ! ' 
 also motions to reconsider the former decision of 
 
EXCOMMUNICATED 181 
 
 presbytery, which were declared out of order, con- 
 tended over, put and voted down. These were 
 accompanied with changes of color in a number 
 of souls which showed a wavering toward the ac- 
 ceptance of Christ's mercy in its reality. Then 
 in the midst of these agitations came the strident 
 tones of the moderator pronouncing upon me the 
 triple sentence decreed. While this was going 
 forward, the congregation of onlookers upon the 
 proceedings of the presbytery had been swelling, 
 until it seemed as though an appreciable portion 
 of hell itself was swarming in curiosity about us. 
 Then, even as the last words of condemnation and 
 exclusion fell upon me, I was made aware of a 
 sobbing creature clinging, as it were, to my feet. 
 It was Spindler, who had pressed his way into the 
 presbytery, and now clove to me, beseeching me 
 not to leave him behind, if I must take my de- 
 parture. ' Oh, pray for me,' he cried ; " if you 
 think, peradventure, prayer can possibly be an- 
 swered for a thing like me.' I inquired of him 
 if he was determined to be entirely true, by God's 
 help, to the pure friendship of his three Christian 
 wives in heaven. 
 
 " He answered, * If they can ever bear to look 
 at me again ; I will not ask ever to look at any 
 other women.' Then I prayed for him, even 
 while Presbytery and hell around stood agape; 
 and Albert here and my two mission converts 
 joined our circle of prayer, Spindler also himself 
 praying humbly, even as I had often heard him 
 
182 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 pray on earth — yet with a new note of honest 
 dealing with God and duty — and then and there, 
 while we thus prayed, we were lifted and floated 
 out and away from that assembly, in spite of its 
 tendrils of interest clinging like long sea-weed 
 about us ; until we found ourselves, we five alone, 
 amid the stars ; yet not alone, for the embrace of 
 our all forgiving God encircled us and drew us 
 unto Himself." 
 
A FUNCTIONARY OF DEATH 183 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 While Father was thus making progress back- 
 ward searching for Harry, his first-born, among 
 the churches of Gehenna, Jeanie and I were hav- 
 ing an exciting time in our enterprise with its 
 civic orders. Wilkinson said, " I calculate we 
 might as well begin with old Mystery ! " " Why 
 yes," Jeanie concurred, " if it was wheels that 
 poor Harry was fond of, I could hardly imagine 
 where he could find more of them, wheels within 
 wheels, than in Free-Masonry, for all I have ever 
 seen and heard." 
 
 " Which of them are here ? " I asked Wilkinson 
 softly, dreading the answer. " Perhaps you 
 could guess," was his reply. " I would almost 
 rather not," I said, " I would not wrong one of 
 my old neighbours or parishioners of Tippleton ; 
 yet I have missed so many of them from heaven." 
 
 " Just begin at the top of the list and come 
 down " Wilkinson suggested. 
 
 " It always seems to us," Jeanie said, " that 
 your grand mogul of all was McGammon ; the one 
 you usually spoke of in your weekly letters to the 
 Independent as ' the genial proprietor of the 
 Wessex House.' He sent so many poor fellows 
 from his bar-room to this place, and then officiated 
 as pall-bearer with so much dignity at each of 
 their funerals; it would seem a pity for him not 
 
184 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 to have come here to render them further service 
 — at least for a time." 
 
 " McGammon might be of great help to us in 
 the search for Harry," I mused ; " he seemed, by 
 his own account, to be such a great man in his re- 
 lations with Free-Masonry throughout our state 
 of New Jersey. Then there was my church trus- 
 tee and member, Willoughby, one of McGammon's 
 faithful visitors — poor fellow ! he too seemed to 
 have a great deal to do with grand lodges and 
 conclaves." 
 
 " Well they are both here all right," Wilkin- 
 son affirmed. 
 
 " Then there was Uncle Linas Godson, * pickled 
 in whisky,' " Jeanie reflected, " and old Ezekiel 
 Carter and the hotel keeper who played poker 
 with him, and our elder Smiley, and Sigsbee the 
 undertaker, who had such grand, open-handed 
 ways and rarely missed coming to church, and 
 Wilkins who owned so much of the town, includ- 
 ing both the churches (as he good-naturedly 
 thought) and Mayor Blake and those well-to-do 
 ex-hotel keepers, and Dr. Madding, and the Hon- 
 orable Mr. Wilson, the merchants, the town ser- 
 geant, the station master, the barber, the wheel- 
 right, the miller, the quarry bosses, and — 
 and — " 
 
 " And the Methodist minister," I suggested. 
 
 " Dominie Weems never came this way " Wil- 
 kinson protested hastily ; " for all that a lot of the 
 rest of them did." 
 
A MASONIC VILLAGE 185 
 
 " No nor my friend Howe, the hardware man ; 
 nor farmer Spelman, nor John P. and several 
 others of the agriculturists who were in the 
 lodge," I admitted. " All these I have met safe in 
 heaven — one or two of them, perhaps, ' so as by 
 fire.' " 
 
 " I wonder how any of them escaped such a 
 maelstrom," Jeanie declared. 
 
 " Alas, I did not plead with these men as I 
 should " I confessed. " I would meet them 
 smilingly often, while inwardly I groaned and 
 shuddered over the awful jeopardy they were in." 
 
 " I do not think you have any cause to re- 
 proach yourself," Jeanie protested stoutly. 
 " If any modern minister ever set the judgment 
 plainly before people, it was you." 
 
 " No Dominie, don't you grieve about that," 
 Wilkinson said. " The warnings you did give 
 us, and the way you talked and plead with us we 
 would joke about in the lodge room. What 
 could you do with us man by man, when we all 
 held each other just so, onto the wrong way, 
 under oath and secrecy, and the awful dread that 
 the other men would laugh, or turn against you." 
 
 " It is kind of you both to exonerate me," I 
 said. " For all that I know, and God knows that 
 I was never quite faithful with these men. I 
 stood all but paralized before the force of a 
 community life liberal to the churches, patron- 
 izing toward the ministers of Jesus Christ; yet 
 organized or controlled, with individual excep- 
 
186 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 tions, in serenest contempt for the law of right." 
 
 " Isn't it strange that none of these people 
 come around? " Jeanie remarked, clinging to me 
 somewhat nervously. " Why, in heaven if we 
 talked this long about people, they would some 
 of them certainly appear." 
 
 " I guess I'll have to tell you," said Wilkinson 
 hesitatingly ; " you must try not to feel uncom- 
 fortable about it; but they are all around you 
 now, only you can't see them. They've been 
 coming ever since you spoke of the Noble Grand 
 Master McGammon. They've heard everything 
 you said. The lodge is sitting in the third de- 
 gree, and you can't get at them without the pass- 
 words." 
 
 When I could control that creepy feeling, I said 
 to Wilkinson, even sternly, " I wish to meet these 
 men; get them to go into open session, or give 
 me the password." 
 
 Something like laughter below the gamut 
 grated in imperceptible vibrations on the air of 
 hell. Wilkinson's soul turned pale. " If I were 
 you, I would withdraw and take my wife away," 
 he said. 
 
 "Withdraw from what?" I asked. "How 
 can we withdraw from a presence which we can- 
 not detect? Which way could we go, and know 
 certainly that our steps were not being dogged? " 
 
 " Go back to heaven as quick as you can," 
 Winkinson counselled ; " never mind about me ; 
 I'll come through somehow." 
 
A SOLEMN WARNING 187 
 
 Jeanie laughed outright. " This is so deli- 
 ciously like Tippleton," she said. " Surely some 
 of them must be near indeed." 
 
 " But you don't realize how much you are in 
 our power here," Wilkinson persisted. " Hardly 
 so much so as in Tippleton," I protested ; " except 
 for the true souls who dared to stand with us 
 there. Tell me what they are plotting." 
 
 " They're only considering," Wilkinson ex- 
 plained, " and if they should go on and vote on 
 your case, no power in hell could save you. I'm 
 taking a big risk only to tell you this much." 
 
 " Philip Wilkinson," I cried, " put your whole 
 trust in God ! Then I sang lustily, 
 
 " The soul that to Jesus has fled for repose, 
 I will not, I will not desert to its foes. 
 That soul though all hell should endeavor to 
 shake , 
 I'll never, no never, no never forsake!" 
 
 " Now," I said, " get some of your lodge mem- 
 bers outside of this unholy curtain of secrecy. 
 I wish to talk to them, as I never quite braced 
 up to talk with one of them on earth." 
 
 "Hush!" said Wilkinson. "They are just 
 moving to send Squire Willoughby out to talk 
 with you." 
 
 " Well, Dominie," Willoughby said, when I 
 could distinguish him (Jeanie had not yet quite 
 regained her sight for hell's own people), " you 
 are here at last, are you? " 
 
188 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Willoughby," I replied as calmly 
 as possible, " I'm after you." 
 
 " And I'm after you, Dominie," he rejoined in 
 a somewhat embarrassed manner. " Do you re- 
 member the first time you came to see me in Tip- 
 pleton and how I offered to fill out an applica- 
 tion for you to join the Masons? " 
 
 " Yes, you said it was against the rules of Free 
 Masonry to approach any outsider in this man- 
 ner, but you thought my case exceptional. I 
 thanked you for the honor you did me, and told 
 you I feared I could not accept it, but would take 
 it into consideration for two weeks." 
 
 " Yes, and do you remember what you said 
 when you saw me again about it? " 
 
 " Yes. I said I did not feel sure but that I 
 might be mentally incapacitated for being a Ma- 
 son ; and that was where I lost your friendship, 
 and where I made one of the many mistakes of my 
 life, in a worldly point of view. I was often 
 sorry that I did not express myself more clearly, 
 and am to this day. I often wished for a chance 
 to explain, but you never seemed to give me one. 
 I have no reason to doubt that the essential prin- 
 ciples of Free Masonry were above reproach." 
 
 " Well, what did you mean by it, anyhow ? " 
 
 " Why have you never asked me before ? " 
 
 " I was too mad. I thought you were making 
 fun of me and casting contempt upon the order." 
 
 " So after being angry with me for a hundred 
 and fifty years, you think it is time to ask for 
 
IN NEED OF LIGHT 189 
 
 an explanation ! And I tried so hard to win back 
 your friendship after that ! " 
 
 " Well, what did you mean ? I want to know, 
 and the lodge wants to know, for they have sent 
 me out to give you one more chance." 
 
 " My dear Squire Willoughby," I explained, 
 " after you made me the first offer I went home 
 and wrote to an uncle, a Knight Templar of 
 Churchville, D. C. This is what I wrote : 
 
 " ■ Dear Uncle Adolphus : 
 
 " ' For the second time in my life, I am very 
 kindly approached to become a Mason. I wish 
 to have your straightforward, categorical answer 
 to one question. Can a man be a practical Free 
 Mason, and in conscience and the right of private 
 judgment in dealing with his fellowmen, be en- 
 tirely a free man? I ask you this question be- 
 cause I have seen some things in life, and Ma- 
 sonic friends have happened to tell me some other 
 things which lead me to doubt about it. I am 
 open to conviction, but needing to be convinced. 
 Please advise me plainly, as one who wishes to be 
 honest, and who believes uncompromisingly every- 
 where and always in the square deal between man 
 and man, what I am to do about joining. With 
 love for Aunt Eliza and the young folks, I am, as 
 as ever, your affectionate nephew. ' " 
 
 " And how did he reply ? " Willoughby asked. 
 " He wrote : 
 
190 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " ' My Deab Nathaniel: 
 
 " ' I am interested to observe that you are 
 still of an inquiring mind. When you were but 
 five years old, you possessed the ability of asking 
 more questions in five minutes than a man could 
 answer in an hour. My advice to you is to join 
 the Masons, now that you have another chance. 
 Perhaps you may retrieve somewhat the appar- 
 ent lack of inability to take the world by the han- 
 dle and get on, which has so painfully manifested 
 itself in your course in life hitherto. Do not 
 stand shivering on the brink, but take the plunge. 
 Free Masonry is great and complex. Life also 
 is full of complexities. The principles of our 
 great order will be gradually unfolded to you as 
 you advance from degree to degree. Do not be 
 continually straining at gnats for fear of swal- 
 lowing some camel. The age we live in is one 
 of action, rather than of sickly reflection. 
 We take things as they are handed to us, and 
 use them as we see other people using them for 
 all we can get out of them. Life is too short, 
 its opportunities too brief, to spend half our time 
 splitting hairs about small scruples. There are 
 always too sides to every question, even those that 
 we call moral ones. You ask for my advice; 
 that is remarkable; advice is something you have 
 rather scorned hitherto; but since you desire it 
 this time, take it, and cultivate herafter a less 
 serious way of regarding yourself and your 
 ideals ; get into the current of the world's success- 
 
THE WORLD'S WAY 191 
 
 ful methods, and swim with it for all you are 
 worth. With kindest regards for yourself and 
 for Jeanie, I am, as ever, your affectionate uncle.' 
 
 "This was his letter, so the next time I saw you 
 I told you that I did not feel quite sure but that I 
 might be mentally incapacitated for joining your 
 order. It seemed to me that I had the authority 
 of Uncle Adolphus for the hesitation, although I 
 still had my doubts whether the inside conception 
 which Uncle Adolphus apparently had formed 
 of Free Masonry was, after all, the true concep- 
 tion. How could I reconcile such a fear with the 
 character of all the noble-minded Free Masons 
 I had known and learned to love ? " 
 
 " I regret you still have these prejudices," 
 Willoughby answered, " for I am sent by Mys- 
 tery Lodge to invite you to join. This is your 
 second and last chance." 
 
 There was a veiled threat in his tone which 
 caught Jeanie's attention. " Nat, who are you 
 talking with? " she asked; " and what does he say 
 about joining something? " 
 
 " It is Mr. Willoughby, who was one of our 
 trustees in Tippleton," I answered. Then I tried 
 to produce a clearer medium of sympathy through 
 which she might discern him. " You remember," 
 I said, " how you went with me once or twice to 
 call on him in his great interesting old house and 
 to sing for him by the piano which had not been 
 used since his daughter died." 
 
198 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 She saw him now. " Oh, Mr. Willoughby, how 
 you have changed ! " she cried pityingly. 
 
 Willoughby had been one of those aging men 
 whose nose and chin appear to approach each 
 other with the passage of years. The process 
 seemed to have continued with the physiognomy 
 of his soul throughout the more than one hun- 
 dred years of his stay in hell. A shell or beak 
 enclosed him, which barely opened to emit a 
 thought. Now, as Jeanie spoke to him, his re- 
 serve relaxed and his beak expanded. " I remem- 
 ber the first time you came," he said. " It was 
 when I had the spell of rheumatic fever." 
 
 " And you told us so much about your wife and 
 daughter," Jeanie said eagerly. " And my hus- 
 band prayed with you and asked you if you did 
 not long to meet them in heaven." 
 
 " There they are waiting for you yet, Mr. Wil- 
 loughby," I cried, seizing her cue. 
 
 " And oh, Mr. Willoughby ! " cried Jeanie, 
 " wouldn't you rather be with them than here 
 with all these ex-rum-sellers, poker-players and 
 other godless lodge members? " 
 
 Willoughby trembled. " Have you really been 
 with them ? " he asked. 
 
 Jeanie told him some things Mrs. Willoughby 
 and the daughter had mentioned to her in heaven 
 about happy days when Mr. Willoughby joined 
 the church and went with them so faithfully, until 
 McGammon came and bought the Wessex House 
 and took a pew in church, got hold of him at the 
 
A SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY 193 
 
 lodge, and drew him back to the old life. " They 
 are praying for you yet," Jeanie said. " You 
 look so old, and tired, and lonely ! Won't you 
 come away to them with us ? " 
 
 Willoughby's whole aspect softened. " If ever 
 a man loved his wife," he began, and then his 
 manner grew troubled. " They are calling me 
 back into the lodge," he said ; " we will talk about 
 this another time." 
 
 " Don't you go, Squire," Wilkinson urged. 
 " Let's all four cut out of here forever." 
 
 " You see, Squire," I added, " this thing you 
 belong to is not really Free Masonry any longer. 
 When I was a boy, Masons did not permit liquor 
 sellers to join their order. It is just as I tried 
 to tell you once in Tippleton ; if you let this busi- 
 ness into a lodge, by hook or by crook it will 
 control the lodge and use the lodge for its own 
 ends. It is the same way with a church. It is 
 suicidal for any church to rent a pew to a rum- 
 seller. Have I not read in the county papers of 
 banquets held by your lodges at hotels, with an 
 itemized description of the wines served, and the 
 names published of my brother ministers who 
 were Free Masons, and who were there to say 
 grace, or otherwise sanctify the occasion by their 
 prominent part in it? No doubt they thought 
 they were winning men, but they were really un- 
 derestimating the intelligence of Satan. The 
 devil is no true Mason and there's nothing free 
 about your Masonry with him in the lodge. If 
 
194 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 you want to find real freedom and fraternity, cry 
 to God for enfranchisement from sin, and come 
 away to the brotherhood of the saints in glory." 
 
 " Let me go and see what they want," Wil- 
 loughby urged ; " maybe I can get them all to 
 come and listen to what you have to say." 
 
 " That would be fine," I admitted, " but I have 
 my misgivings. I would rather hold you. A 
 bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." 
 
 " Oh, don't go back in there," Jeanie pleaded. 
 " They will just keep you from ever coming out 
 again." 
 
 " Better cut the whole hell crowd, I say," Wil- 
 kinson put in, manfully. 
 
 " What's the Dominie doing in hell, then, I'd 
 like to know ? " was Willoughby's answer — 
 " with his wife, too." 
 
 " I'm here on the same errand as when I came 
 to the barroom of the Wessex House those Satur- 
 day nights with my Bible in hand to read and 
 pray," I answered. 
 
 " Entirely out of place, it was," Willoughby 
 said. " I never came to hear you preach after 
 that." 
 
 " That was because you were mad to think the 
 Dominie found you there," Wilkinson explained. 
 " Your conscience began to work. I know, be- 
 cause I felt the same way." 
 
 " But when he got through praying for us and 
 went out," Willoughby said, " why, we all had to 
 take a drink to steady our nerves, and we said, 
 
MISPLACED ZEAL 195 
 
 6 Why don't he keep his religion out of here? ' " 
 " I felt strange enough," I admitted. " I 
 knew there were hardly three men in the town who 
 would approve; but I just couldn't stand it any 
 longer. And that's why I am here. Such reli- 
 gion as I have, I cannot keep it out of hell. I 
 did not go into the barrooms to spy on you; I 
 would much rather not have seen who was there. 
 I wanted to pray for your perishing souls. I 
 couldn't stay away, and get you out of my mind. 
 Neither can I now. Oh, Willoughy ! I want to 
 see you a truly saved man. You are not wrong- 
 headed, but you are weak. I dread to have you 
 go back among your fellow lodge members, until 
 I have seen you call on God for mercy and help." 
 " Suppose you let me go in with him," Wilkin- 
 son suggested. " I will see what I can do with 
 the others, and anyhow, I'll stay by him and bring 
 him out safe, if it can be done." 
 
 We had our anxieties for Wilkinson also, 
 Jeanie and I; but we could not hold them back, 
 and we longed to get at the others; so we let 
 them go in, promising to pray for them every 
 moment. There was a blare of sound, as if a 
 thick door had opened where oaths and laughter 
 mingled, and then silence, and we were alone in 
 hell. 
 
196 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Whether it was a half hour or a week we 
 waited, it was hard to tell. No one molested us, 
 but the suspense grew worse than struggle. 
 
 " Do you think they have put Mr. Wilkinson 
 in their dungeon ? " Jeanie asked, recalling stories 
 of earthly lodge rooms. 
 
 " God keep him from the worser fate ! " I cried 
 in deep concern. 
 
 " Any way, it's nice and quiet for once in 
 hell," Jeanie murmured. " We can pray for Mr. 
 Wilkinson, and isn't it just lovely that we can be 
 together in this vast silence? Aren't you glad 
 now that I came, dear Boy? " 
 
 " Glad for myself, but anxious for you, dear," 
 I replied, drawing her close. Indeed, I did not 
 like to tell her how bodeful the solitude seemed. 
 It gave rather a sinister demonstration of the 
 force which could be exerted in hell by the august 
 organization with which we were presuming to 
 deal. 
 
 " Never mind, dear Boy," Jeanie said reassur- 
 ingly ; " we are safe and happy, with God and 
 each other." 
 
 " But we are not making headway with God's 
 task," I objected. 
 
 " I believe we ought to pray for God to save 
 Mr. McGammon," Jeanie proposed. " It looks 
 
OMINOUS SOLITUDE 197 
 
 as if he still has the whole bunch on a string. 
 Perhaps we can pull him out, if we pray earnestly 
 enough." 
 
 So we set to work. It may have been a fort- 
 night or three weeks that we prayed, by turns or 
 in concert. We told God all the kind things we 
 could think of about the subject of our petitions; 
 how faithful he used to be in coming to church 
 after the strain of the terrible Saturday nights in 
 his barroom, and in spite of the hard things the 
 preacher was sometimes betrayed into saying — 
 all through the first happy year of our pastorate 
 at Tippleton and up to the time the pews were 
 voted free ; how kind his wife was to send us 
 chickens all dressed; how often he would urge us 
 to use his carriage; how we would hear of their 
 charitable activities in collecting old clothing for 
 the poor children of Frank Johnson and others 
 of their all-too-steady customers, and also of 
 their prominent helpfulness on funeral occasions. 
 We pleaded for what McGammon might be, un- 
 der grace, as a leader of men, and for what he 
 could possibly do with the so-called Free Masons 
 of perdition. We rolled upon God's thought the 
 awful havoc of leaving such a man longer exer- 
 cising his lieutenancy for Satan. We appealed 
 for a miracle of redeeming power to be exercised 
 upon one whose conversion would make saints and 
 angels stand agape. We besought for mercy for 
 the chief, because the most unacknowledging, of 
 
198 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 sinners, and prayed that prevenient grace might 
 soften his proud, hard heart, and bring even him 
 to repentance. 
 
 We were too busy to notice any time-makers of 
 the stellar universe. I suppose it might have 
 been about the middle of the second week that we 
 felt something begin to pull. We redoubled our 
 entreaties at the throne of grace. It was slow 
 work, like twisting a hedgehog out of his hole 
 with a forked stick. But we found ourselves 
 really growing to love the man's soul, as we 
 prayed for him, and that gave us conscious in- 
 crease of power to pull. It was evident that there 
 was a struggle at the other end. More and more 
 tense grew our longing for this man's salvation. 
 We prayed in gasps for sustaining power to pray, 
 clinging to each other lest we should be fairly 
 torn asunder, clinging to God and to God's prom- 
 ise of salvation unto the uttermost. At length, 
 when we were all but bowed to the floor of hell, 
 there was suddenly an explosion. The scroll of 
 inviolate secrecy cracked asunder, and McGam- 
 mon himself stood before us. We had never in 
 our mortal acquaintance seen him in any way 
 visibly perturbed, not even when I preached En- 
 sign Dexter's funeral, after his last spree, from 
 " It remaineth to man once to die, and after that 
 the judgment" (Hebrews ix. 27), and endeav- 
 ored to disclose before his pall bearers and others 
 assembled there the dispassionate inquest God 
 must hold over each man's life and death, to lo- 
 
THE IRRESISTIBLE PULL 199 
 
 cate the blame for it all, and to determine if he 
 were more sinned against or sinning. But now 
 our old acquaintance came to us purple all over 
 below the gray. I found myself embarrassed and 
 disturbed in his sudden presence, to the point of 
 hardly knowing how to address him. But Jeanie 
 broke the pause quite naturally, exclaiming, 
 "Why, Mr. McGammon ! you are just the man 
 we wish to see. It was very kind of you to come." 
 So his composure was reestablished, and he asked 
 us with much of his old-time dignity what he 
 could do for us now. 
 
 " We wish you first to surrender your whole 
 soul to God," I answered stoutly. 
 
 McGammon did not answer at onoe. It was 
 his way to give you a moment of silence in which 
 to wonder if you had really addressed him as his 
 worth demanded. " Reverend Sir," he answered 
 at length, " what would you have me do second? " 
 
 " Whatever you felt most like doing," I an- 
 swered. " When you have once given yourself 
 to God, you will wish to do the right thing, and 
 nothing else." 
 
 " When did I ever do anything else but the 
 right thing? " he demanded. 
 
 There was no use in mincing words with him, 
 so I answered : " It is the motive that makes an 
 action right or wrong. The whole motive of 
 your life during the short time I knew you seemed 
 opposed to God." 
 
 " And you can never be happy in that way," 
 
200 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Jeanie assured him. " I never pitied any one in 
 Tippleton so much as I pitied you. Won't you 
 give it all up now? " 
 
 " Madam and Reverend Sir," McGammon an- 
 swered hastily, " I must ask you to excuse me 
 from further conversation; I am called for else- 
 where." 
 
 While I hesitated, Jeanie said, " If you leave 
 us, we will go to praying for you again." 
 
 McGammon turned more grey, and remained. 
 
 " We are concerned for your soul, McGam- 
 mon," I said ; " we never prayed for you before 
 as we have been praying this time. I feel that I 
 sinned against you in Tippleton in despairing of 
 your salvation. I did not try hard enough to get 
 into your world and to intersphere with you, and 
 understand, and sympathize. I am sorry, and I 
 do so wish to make up for that now. Probably in 
 your situation I would have been drawn into your 
 line of business. Then certainly I would have en- 
 deavored to intrench and reinforce myself just as 
 you did, only without your consummate address 
 in doing so. I am so sorry that I did not do bet- 
 ter by you. I am only more glad that I can 
 tell that I have this opportunity to speak to 
 you again. Heaven would be one long regret, 
 if I could not get to make up in this way for my 
 failures on earth. Now won't you listen to us 
 while we try to make it plain to you that there 
 is still a plan of salvation which embraces you? 
 You have not now, as you doubtless once thought, 
 
AN UNLIKELY ENDEAVOR 201 
 
 your bread to make in the service of Satan. 
 What should hold you from breaking away from 
 his hard thralldom altogether, and becoming a 
 free man in Christ Jesus ? " 
 
 " What but the same wicked grasp for power 
 over others ! " Jeanie exclaimed aside to me. 
 
 " Reverend Prester," McGammon answered 
 with apparent frankness, " I appreciate your in- 
 terest. You are faithful in your endeavors to 
 exercise the duties of your office. I always said 
 you were. I was never so much opposed to you, 
 as you were to me. I wish to say again, as I 
 have said before, that I have a very great respect 
 for sincere religion. I am not so far from a 
 Christian life as you may think. No man can be 
 a consistent Mason without the cultivation of vir- 
 tue. Your manner of address, Reverend Sir, is, 
 from your standpoint, such as I should expect. I 
 should think strange of you if you did not, upon 
 suitable occasions, broach the subject of religion 
 in your conversation with those with whom you 
 are thrown. And now, will you not inform me 
 how I can serve you ; for there is a more urgent 
 demand for my presence elsewhere? " 
 
 " What have you done with Mr. Wilkinson ? " 
 demanded Jeanie, " and Mr. Willoughby ? " 
 
 "Done?" exclaimed McGammon. "I have 
 not done anything with these gentlemen. They 
 are both where they wish to be." 
 
 " That seems strange," Jeanie said. " They 
 both promised to come back to us." 
 
202 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " They must have forgotten," said McGam- 
 mon. " I regret, Madam, that your sex prevents 
 me from showing them to you as I see them at 
 this moment enjoying the sacred seclusion of their 
 conclave, happy in the uninterrupted conversation 
 of their fellows." 
 
 " How can that be ? " I wondered. " How can 
 any one enjoy or be happy in hell? " 
 
 " I am sure I have often thought it about Mr. 
 Wilkinson and Elder Smiley and some other men," 
 Jeanie declared, " that they could be happy al- 
 most anywhere where there was unlimited oppor- 
 tunity for talking." 
 
 " But Wilkinson ; " I exclaimed. " He has so 
 lately experienced conversion ! " 
 
 " Allow me to detain you a few moments," 
 McGammon said. " I think I may be able to give 
 you a glimpse." 
 
 He seemed to be making some signal or other. 
 Presently it was as if a curtain slipped aside; 
 and there all around us a great lodge came into 
 view, seemingly having an intermission in its rit- 
 ual. I would not like to say how many were rec- 
 ognized among the throng. But there, alas ! 
 truly enough, was Wilkinson, the center of an 
 appreciative group, discoursing with more than 
 his old-time expansiveness on some subject of 
 which we could not catch a syllable. Indeed, the 
 whole scene was in pantomime, so that no precious 
 secret was imparted to us. A moment more and 
 the vision faded. Then Jeanie and I looked upon 
 
A GENEROUS OFFER 203 
 
 one another, she with the expression a woman has 
 when she is about to say, " I told jou so ! " only 
 for sorrow we both exclaimed simultaneously, 
 " Backslidden ! " 
 
 "Does this satisfy you, respected friends?" 
 McGammon asked. " Or is there any other ac- 
 quaintance about whom you would desire to ac- 
 quire information? " 
 
 I was somewhat crestfallen, I fear, in answer- 
 ing. I explained that our primary object was the 
 search for my brother; as to whose moral where- 
 abouts we had no clue, any more than we had had 
 through his whole earthly life ; but that Wilkin- 
 son had kindly engaged to pilot us here and there 
 among the civic orders of this outer world, to aid 
 us in making inquiries for him. While searching 
 for him, I explained that I trusted at least to 
 find some other brothers of men, and, by God's 
 grace, to take them with me back to heaven. 
 
 McGammon seemed concerned in thought for 
 us for some moments, and then he made a pro- 
 posal which did not appeal to us both alike. 
 " Your sex, Mrs. Prester," he said, " will pre- 
 clude you from such intimate acquaintance with 
 Free Masons and Free Masonry, as I can by the 
 extreme courtesy, accord your husband. Could 
 you not possibly find congenial female friends 
 among whom you could await his return, with no 
 possible danger of experiences trying to feminine 
 delicacy ? — with no reflection, sir, intended upon 
 any one. If you could accompany me alone, 
 
204 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Reverend Sir, I can put the whole range of my 
 acquaintance with Free Masonry and members of 
 lesser orders at your service in the search for 
 your brother." 
 
 I felt grateful for such an offer from one whom 
 I had opposed in former days. It even seemed 
 to show traces of an incipient Christian spirit of 
 forgiveness, and reassured my new ideal of con- 
 verting a most influential reprobate. So I was 
 disposed to accept the offer, especially as it gave 
 me a pretext for getting Jeanie safe and pleas- 
 antly back into heaven. But to her mind the 
 proposition bore a sinister aspect. " This man 
 always could set any kind of a trap," she said, 
 " and you could be safely counted on to walk 
 right into it." 
 
 " Sometimes that is the directest way to smash 
 them," I answered. " But this time he offers the 
 only way I can see to get at Wilkinson and Wil- 
 loughby and, possibly, Harry Prester." 
 
 " And what will become of poor me, all the time 
 you are gone? " she asked wistfully. 
 
 " Darling," I answered, " it is not my will to 
 be separated from you. It has so often been like 
 this when I have had to go anywhere without 
 you ! I am sure you would not wish to make me 
 ridiculous before all these men inside." 
 
 " Oh, my dear Boy," she said piteously. " I 
 have a woman's nature ; I cannot help but tremble 
 for you. There is just one of you, and they are 
 
IT MAY BE FOR EVER 205 
 
 so many ! This experience with Wilkinson shows 
 how much you can depend on any of them." 
 
 " Hell is God's world, too, my darling," I mur- 
 mured. 
 
 " But I need you so, dear Boy, and I was so 
 proud to think I could go with you ! " 
 
 " And I need you, my darling," I answered. 
 " My heart grows heavy almost as though I were 
 starting off on a candidating trip, to think of 
 going without you. But then, your more than 
 three hundred descendants in heaven all need you. 
 Won't you go straight to them, dear, and wait 
 for me there? I will come to you there, as soon 
 as I get through with these lodges. That will 
 be the very next thing. Pray that I may bring 
 many with me." 
 
 " Oh, dear Boy, I cannot," said Jeanie. " Go 
 on inside if you must, and let me wait for you 
 here." 
 
 " You will have to leave me first, my darling," 
 I answered. " I cannot leave you — alone in 
 hell!" 
 
 While we were conversing with one another, 
 McGammon was showing signs of growing impa- 
 tience, and swelling to monstrous size with of- 
 fended importance. At last Jeanie gave me a 
 trembling caress, and glowed away from hell. 
 Her position did not change by the bearings of 
 the stars. Her form just lost its outline in a 
 blurr of light so glorious as to be painful to our 
 
206 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 gaze from the murky atmosphere. To the last 
 of my power to look, her soul glowed toward 
 mine with ineffable love, and her last thought-mes- 
 sage was a prayer that God would keep me and 
 bless me. I turned to McGammon — the man I 
 had never seen moved on earth — hoping to find 
 him trembling, too, with sacred feeling. He had 
 shrunk by one-half; yet he could speak without 
 apparent emotion, and asked me if I were ready 
 to enter an arcanum which had no gates opening 
 outward. 
 
 " I am ready," I answered, " to go where God 
 wills." 
 
IN DURANCE VILE 207 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Naturally, my first desire was to talk with Wil- 
 kinson. At close range within the conclave, the 
 mystery of his apostacy was solved in part. I 
 found there were really two of him now: an out- 
 side Wilkinson, talkative almost to f everishness ; 
 and there inside a sorrowful, dumb, abjectly 
 heartbroken creature, trying to hide away en- 
 tirely within its companion. My conversation 
 was partly with one, partly with the other. The 
 first recognized me casually with a modulated 
 surprise. 
 
 " Dominie Prester of all men ! " he exclaimed. 
 " At last have you become a Mason ! " 
 
 " I always longed to be one," I answered, " if 
 only that by all means I could save some of you 
 men." 
 
 The outer Wilkinson took a careful observation 
 of the immediate neighborhood, to ascertain that 
 no one of the great lodge was interested in the 
 conversation; then the inner Wilkinson peeped 
 through, and asked plaintively : 
 
 " Did you really venture all this just to follow 
 me up ? " 
 
 " It was either follow you up, or give you up," 
 I answered, " and I could not bear to do that." 
 
 " Dominie, you don't know what this means," 
 both Wilkinsons exclaimed at once. " You can 
 never get out of this again ! " 
 
208 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 A sinister shadow flitted over my spirit at his 
 words, like that cast by some passing bird of 
 prey. Then I took the sudden suggestion more 
 rationally, and answered that I could not believe 
 anything so strange. " I took no obligation in 
 entering your order," I said. " It was McGam- 
 mon's proposal, and he made no condition. I am 
 only here as a visitor looking for my brother — 
 and all my other brothers. When I have fulfilled 
 God's mission here, God will recall me, and what 
 can separate us from His love? " 
 
 " You do not know the power with which you 
 are dealing," the inner Wilkinson answered fur- 
 tively. " Here I am caught, chained, helpless. I 
 can never see heaven or mother now. And I saw 
 our Worshipful Grand cast the same spell over 
 you as you entered. Oh, I tried to warn you! 
 You are only in the first degree : you can see only 
 the least part of what is done and plotted around 
 you; but can't you feel it? Don't something 
 tell you you are in a trap? " 
 
 " I have had sensations, I suppose, something 
 like those of a deep sea diver, ever since I came 
 into hell," I answered. " Now I simply feel that 
 I have gone a little deeper. I have no right to 
 call it a trap when McGammon warned me that 
 there were no doors opening outward." 
 
 " Then you really agreed to let him shut you 
 in," Wilkinson exclaimed, " and you have already 
 seen things in our Free Masonry of hell that no 
 spirit could ever be allowed to get out and tell." 
 
ALWAYS AJAR 209 
 
 " That is his lookout," I replied ; " he cannot 
 shut me in, whatever he thinks; for I have with 
 me the key which let Christian and Hopeful out 
 of Doubting Castle." 
 
 " There isn't any lock to put your key in," 
 Wilkinson contended. " McGammon told you 
 right: there aren't any doors." 
 
 " Christ is the Door," I answered, " both in- 
 ward and outward. He is beside me." 
 
 " Oh, Dominie ! " the real Wilkinson wailed, " I 
 thought it would be so before I came in this time ; 
 but I can't find him. Christ never came in here." 
 
 " But we have His promise, Philip," I urged. 
 " Go ye into all the Jcosmos and preach the gos- 
 pel to every created being," " and lo ! I am with 
 you all the days, even unto the consummation of 
 the age." 
 
 " Yes, Dominie, but not in a place like this. 
 I can't feel Him in here. Try it yourself, Domi- 
 nie. Can you even feel interested in anything 
 outside of here now ? " 
 
 Thus challenged to objectify my own emotions, 
 I realized with a sudden misgiving that heaven 
 and the outer hell itself had grown strangely far 
 away. My mental images even of Jeanie and of 
 Joy, of my mother and my children, of Father 
 and Albert exploring hell's ecclesiastical world 
 were all blurred and indistinct. Many years 
 seemed to have elapsed since telling Jeanie good- 
 bye. Not only was the intense longing dominant 
 to talk with the former acquaintances whom I be- 
 
210 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 gan to recognize at every glance about the blue, 
 mysterious interior around me ; but a creeping fas- 
 cination possessed me to interpret the solemn and 
 varied formalities which were transpiring in end- 
 less weary iteration. It was almost as though I 
 had died a second time — a death that entailed 
 contraction, as the former had brought expansion 
 of life. The air seemed close and dead. The 
 stars had grown dim, as if seen through imper- 
 fectly transparent walls, themselves invisible, be- 
 cause never stationary. The consciousness that 
 there were walls, seamless, flexible, yet mercilessly 
 inclusive, haunted me as a dreamy suspicion 
 rather than as a demonstrable fact. A nameless, 
 numb depression held me, and every effort seemed 
 slower than a nightmare; but when I asked God 
 still to make the waking glad, there came a thrill 
 of joy, warming the center of my being with the 
 exultation of an arctic campfire. I turned to my 
 companion and said, " Brother, I can still love 
 God." 
 
 " I still want to love Him, too," Wilkinson said. 
 " I didn't go to turn my back on Him. Only, be- 
 fore I knew it, I was talking with the boys and 
 they didn't any of them seem to see any change in 
 me, and I was glad they didn't, and then when I 
 thought about God, He wasn't there." 
 
 " God will come back to you when you are 
 ready to confess Him," I said. " Oh, brother, 
 let us brace up and show a bold front, we two, for 
 our Master." 
 
DEVIL WORSHIP IN EARNEST 211 
 
 But as I spoke, the inner Wilkinson suddenly 
 shrank from view, while the outer one blandly 
 remarked in full tone, " You haven't noticed the 
 signal, Dominie Prester. Three raps call the 
 lodge to attention. Our chaplain is about to in- 
 voke the Satanic blessing." 
 
 I was astonished and shocked with what I saw 
 and heard after that. When the various rigma- 
 roles were over, I exclaimed to Wilkinson, " This 
 is a wicked travesty on Free Masonry. Neither 
 Solomon nor Hiram would own it. The proper 
 Free Masonry demanded a belief in God. It 
 invoked His blessing alone. Its chaplains were 
 men of such pious flavor as were available — like 
 Elder Smiley and Parson Weems — not such as 
 that reprobate yonder, who, if I recognize him 
 aright, is no other than Uncle Linas Godson, a 
 man who had the reputation, when beyond the 
 presence of a minister, of never opening his 
 mouth without profanity ; and that past chaplain 
 who read the responses in this awful Satanic lit- 
 urgy, if I mistake not, is old Galpin himself, the 
 man who might quite suitably have been hung in 
 Churchville in 1890 for killing Alfred Hyson. 
 In the name of Washington I protest that this is 
 not Free Masonry at all, with all its seemly prin- 
 ciples and worthy honor of Deity." 
 
 " Dominie, that was ceremony," replied the 
 inner Wilkinson, peeping out a moment. " This 
 is dead earnest." 
 
 " Incredible ! " I exclaimed. " What possible 
 
9\% A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 motive of reverence, affection, self-interest, any- 
 thing real can a soul have in devil-worship ? " 
 
 But the inner Wilkinson had shrunk from 
 view. " Ask the chaplains, Dominie," replied the 
 ostensible man, " they are watching you." 
 
 My question about them had probably drawn 
 their attention. Both approached me. 
 
 " I suppose it is hardly necessary for me to in- 
 troduce you to each other," I remarked by way 
 of preface, wistful to sound about for common 
 ground with them. " You each knew me on earth 
 before you knew each other here. How — how 
 do you like it here, anyway ? " 
 
 " Godson can speak for himself," Galpin an- 
 swered. " For my part I have found one world 
 just about the same beastly botch of a thing as 
 the other." 
 
 " The article I am most loth to dispense with 
 is a drink of whiskey," Godson confessed. " Hell 
 is most damned dry. I'm damned glad to see a 
 G — d damned prohibitionist appearing here ; no 
 matter how you arrived here." 
 
 I will not mar one of heaven's story records by 
 the repetition of his monotonous profanity. The 
 listener, as this account unrolls, may understand, 
 without caring to imagine, that all the speech of 
 Uncle Linas was thus salted with hell salt. He 
 has told me since giving himself to Christ of how 
 he and his cronies would sometimes abandon them- 
 selves to blowing off an importunate cyclone of 
 blasphemy, cursing God and each other and every 
 
THE HELL OF WISHING 213 
 
 name of tender memory, until hell itself grew 
 weary of the senseless tumult. 
 
 " If that is the most you miss," I said in reply, 
 " it seems to me that you are better off in hell 
 than you were on earth. I should think you 
 would be glad to be shut away from the prime 
 cause of your downfall." 
 
 " You have no data to know what it is to wish 
 for a drink for a hundred years," he declared; 
 " to fain be ready to sell your mother's soul for a 
 drink, to rage for a drink, to howl for a drink, 
 to search all hell even for a thimbleful, to scheme 
 and plot and struggle and pray to Satan for a 
 drink, and never get one drop distilled; to be 
 sober for a whole century, and still wildly, madly 
 disposed toward a spree at the end of it. I tell 
 you I am inclined to think you interloping pro- 
 hibitionists have had something to do with this, 
 and now that we've caught you, if I cannot con- 
 trive to make you howl, it will be because Master 
 McGammon and my Lord, the Devil, decline to 
 help me. I would fain even gnaw on you until 
 I get a drop of blood out of you by some means." 
 
 Galpin seemed no less vindictive than his col- 
 league. " Get us a drink ! " they both shouted 
 at once. " You sniveling, ranting reformer, 
 we'll make you find one in some way, and we'll 
 make you drink it with us. Ha ! ha ! ha ! that will 
 be hell- justice roasted on a spit ! Get us a drink, 
 you meddler! We are dry: we are burning, 
 scorching, parching, raging dry ! And it is 
 
214 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 partly your fault, we think, and the fault of such 
 as you, and the fault of your God ; your partial, 
 cruel, narrow-minded, overbearing, bigoted, vin- 
 dictive, arbitrary, cold-blooded tyrant-God. We 
 hate Him ; we hate you ; we hate the universe you 
 say He made; we hate everything but a drink, 
 a drink! a drink// Oh, get it quick ! " 
 
 I endeavored to calm them. " Mr. Galpin," I 
 said, " I remember one Sunday morning in 
 Churchville when, as I was on my way from the 
 Presbyterian Sunday School to the Congrega- 
 tional Church service, I met you just as I turned 
 the corner by Lankin's store. You were walking 
 straight on the inside plank that held the gravel 
 sidewalk in place, but you must have just come 
 out on the car from the city, for you were so 
 drunk that there was no apparent focus in your 
 sight ; and when I spoke to you, you threw up 
 your arm as if to ward off a blow, and passed on 
 without a word. Would you really wish to be 
 like that again ? How glad you ought to be that 
 God, in his infinite mercy, has confined you to 
 hell's vast inebriate asylum, and to the disem- 
 bodied existence which drink cannot curse! At 
 last you have a chance to think, to repent, to 
 pray ! " 
 
 But they both screamed and roared simulta- 
 neously at me at once. " Think ! We are mad 
 with thinking! We want to get drunk! drunk! 
 drunk! and stay drunk till eternity gets old. 
 Pray ! we do pray ! We pray to Satan, the only 
 
THE APOLOGY FOR IT 215 
 
 one that cares for us. It's pray or rave, with us. 
 Oh, to get drunk and go to sleep ! " 
 
 " That was what I wished to ask you about," I 
 remarked. " Why do you pray to Satan ? What 
 is your conception of Satan, that you can pray 
 to him? What good do you think he can do 
 you? In what respect does he attract your hom- 
 age? I can understand how you might pity 
 Satan. I do, myself, — profoundly. You might 
 possibly extend the principles of the Sermon on 
 the Mount to the limit of loving him and of pray- 
 ing for him as the greatest enemy and hater of 
 your souls ; but how you can pray to him, and 
 render him adoration, homage, total submission, 
 even a certain inverted consecration, as I heard 
 you doing a while ago in the use of your lodge 
 ritual — that is what puzzles and bewilders me 
 exceedingly." 
 
 " A man must pray to someone," Galpin an- 
 swered sullenly. " God never did us a good turn. 
 He never gave me half a chance. If you knew 
 the man I had to work for when a boy, the man 
 I had to call ' father.' And now God has damned 
 us forever. What claim has He got on our wor- 
 ship? We hate Him. We've got a right to hate 
 Him. Anyway, we've got nothing to lose by hat- 
 ing Him. Our state is fixed; our fate is settled; 
 our doom is sealed. That's another strong argu- 
 ment we have for worshiping the Devil. We love 
 him for the Enemy he has made. A fellow-feel- 
 ing makes us wondrous kind. God is down on 
 
216 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 the Devil and He's down on us. The preachers 
 were down on us. The old ladies were down on 
 us. God was down on us. So we are here, and 
 there is nothing for us to do but to worship the 
 one that runs things here. He can do anything 
 that anybody can do for us. And if he couldn't 
 do anything, we still have to have something to 
 worship. There isn't a spirit in hell that hasn't 
 got some sort of religion, if he'll only let on." 
 
 " I'm glad to hear you say this, Mr. Galpin," 
 I acknowledged. " You used to talk so differ- 
 ently back in the other life. Do you remember 
 one morning when we walked across the Aqueduct 
 Bridge together between the trolley lines? I tried 
 to lead you to Christ, and you told me religion 
 was all well enough for people who were weak and 
 couldn't do right without praying; but for your 
 part, you had never done wrong in your life ; you 
 had always done just what you felt to be right. 
 I didn't ask you in what way you thought it was 
 right to kill Alf . Hyson because he asked you for 
 the wages he had earned six weeks before, and 
 cursed you when you refused to pay. I waived 
 that point, and inquired if you didn't think we 
 all needed the comfort of religion, the cheer and 
 the strength that came from experiencing God's 
 blessing on our life. And you replied that peo- 
 ple might need it who were weak-kneed or chicken- 
 hearted. So we separated to take different cars. 
 Then the last time I remember seeing you on 
 earth, you were in a blacksmith shop arguing 
 
NONE WITHOUT RELIGION 217 
 
 against Sabbath observance to a group of by- 
 standers, from the analogy of nature, which keeps 
 no Sabbath. I am sure I never heard of you 
 being in a church, not even the little church we 
 built at Slab Town on the lot you so kindly gave 
 us from your wife's land." 
 
 " Yes, and I never would have let you have 
 it," Galpin said, " except from a religious im- 
 pulse. You preachers never would understand 
 me. You and your father asked for the lot for 
 the sake of the good the church would do the 
 community in a humanitarian way, as if I cared 
 anything about that ! You ought to have talked 
 just as though you took it for granted that I 
 wanted to do something pious myself once in a 
 while. We're all like that, and the stouter we 
 talk against religion, the more it shows that we 
 can't get religion out of our mind. There ain't 
 one of us that can. Many and many a Sunday 
 morning I listened to the sound of the bells com- 
 ing over the hills from Churchville, and wondered 
 what it was like to be brought up in Sunday 
 School and to go and sit with your folks in 
 church. Many a time I've gone back to listen to 
 them since I reeled into hell, and I have peeped 
 inside, and wished I could have been different 
 while I was living. But that chance is all over 
 now, and all the religion I have for eternity is 
 the lodge ritual adapted to the god of this lower 
 world." 
 
 I began to feel more drawn to Galpin than I 
 
218 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 had ever been on earth. If men were going to 
 open their thoughts to me thus in hell, there really 
 seemed more hope of doing something for them 
 than in all earth's pastoral endeavor. I turned 
 eagerly to Godson, to see if he would follow Gal- 
 pin's frank example. " How is it with you, Un- 
 cle Linas," I asked. "Yours cannot be Galpin's 
 reason for forsaking God's worship; for I have 
 heard that you were piously brought up and that 
 your father was an elder in the church." 
 
 " Yes, he was one of the old kind ; my father 
 was an elder of the old stripe," Godson answered. 
 " He and his father occupied a prominent pew 
 in the meeting house, and he also kept the 
 decanter always on the sideboard, the demijohn 
 in the closet. My father could partake of a 
 brandy cocktail, and then hie him away to 
 sessional meeting, to lead in prayer and to quarrel 
 with dignity. But strong drink from the begin- 
 ning exercised a strangely opposite effect upon 
 me. With the first quaff there would come into 
 my being a singular spirit of depravity. I 
 found myself impelled to swear, to gamble, to 
 look for bad women. Yes, I came before the 
 session and entered the full membership of the 
 church as soon as I reached years of discre- 
 tion and could repeat the catechism: my parents 
 would have it so. I cannot assert that I ever 
 experienced a change of heart, or ever had much 
 said to me on the subject; but I was never averse 
 to attending church in my youth ; although rarely 
 
SATAN'S ORTHODOXY 219 
 
 sufficiently sober to do so in later life. I feel 
 impelled to impart to you, Dominie, what I 
 never acknowledged in your pastoral visits to 
 my room in the old store ; that I was accustomed 
 to say my prayers night by night, whenever I 
 slept alone and retained my reason sufficiently 
 to be conscious of going to bed. I cannot de- 
 clare that I ever meaningly said them to God; 
 but I said them notwithstanding. And I felt the 
 better satified with myself for the same after 
 every carousal. But since I have descended, I 
 do really pray to the one who has not cast me off 
 forever." 
 
 " God has not cast you off forever, Brother," 
 I protested. " It is Satan's deceit, exercised, I 
 know, over many good minds, which has led you 
 to believe this. Satan, just now, is playing 
 upon a mistaken theological belief, conscientiously 
 held and carefully impressed upon your mind 
 by your religious teachers; in order to inflame 
 your hatred against the God who still loves you 
 and patiently seeks to save you." 
 
 " Loves me? " Godson cried: " God loves me? 
 I would like well to hear one argument to prove 
 that God still loves me, or forsooth that He ever 
 did love me." 
 
 " Your continued existence proves it," I re- 
 plied ; " the pains God takes to maintain you in 
 life, with all the matters He has on His mind." 
 
 " He does it to curse us," Galpin interjected. 
 "Life! I tell you, sir, we are cursed with life. 
 
220 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 If God loved us or pitied us, He would let us die 
 and be nothing. Let me die : oh let me die ! Oh 
 my Devil ! how often I have asked for that ! But 
 he answers that he himself would be glad to die ; 
 only the spite of God keeps him living on." 
 
 " That's another one of his lies," I answered. 
 " It isn't God's spite but His patient love. Do 
 you suppose God would not gladly have done 
 with all of you? What possible motive, but a 
 desire for your reformation, could cause God to 
 keep on flowing and forcing His life into you 
 through the constricted arteries of your decay- 
 ing souls, to save you from the completed tragedy 
 of a soul's decomposition? What is it in God's 
 heart but pity and hope for you, and a shrink- 
 ing from the bad smell your fate would leave 
 in His universe forever? 
 
 " You give me a new motive to plot for 
 suicide," Galpin answered. " Ha ! ha ! I never 
 thought of that. I'll die just to spite God for 
 ever making me like this. Ha! ha! ha! destroy 
 myself utterly in vice, and leave God to think what 
 a nice lump of corruption He left me free to make 
 of myself! Ha! ha! ha! I'll die: I will die. 
 Inch by inch I'll kill myself! Trait by trait I'll 
 poison, I'll smother, I'll asphyxiate, I'll strangle, 
 I'll mangle, I'll bleed to death, I'll emasculate, 
 I'll infect with plague cultures every thing that 
 lives within me until I am dead, dead, dead! so 
 dead that God and all His angels can't resuscitate 
 me forever." 
 
AN IMPOSSIBLE BOON 221 
 
 " Poor puny, spoiled child ! " I exclaimed. 
 " Do you not know you cannot parse God as the 
 subject of the verb 'cannot?' You may prac- 
 tise self-murder to the stretch of a million deaths, 
 and God will rescue your identity from each 
 verge of total extinction." 
 
 Then I thought of poor Charlie Lovejoy 
 dragged back to life after that awful dose of 
 chloral which he took four months before he 
 finally swallowed an ounce. I asked Godson if 
 he had met him in hell. " I know he was not 
 in good standing in Mystery lodge," I said. 
 " I suppose he was such a baleful example of 
 the extreme effect of alcohol, that McGammon and 
 his fellows rather frowned him down and out. 
 But perhaps he may have been reinstated here." 
 
 Lovejoy answered in person. " Did you wish 
 light on the suicide mania ? " he asked at once. 
 " Yes, it clings to me yet. The hardest part of 
 hell is that you cannot get out of it in that 
 way." 
 
 "Did you find no relief, then, in death?" I 
 asked. " I have oftened wondered if even hell 
 may not have brought partial relief to you. 
 Wasn't it good to get out of your poor poison- 
 tortured body ? And with your scientific turn, and 
 your entire freedom from malice or uncharitable- 
 ness toward any soul, with all the glories of God's 
 universe spread out before you, and myriads of 
 worlds and suns waiting your interest ; how could 
 you fail to really make a good thing of it by 
 
222 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 your voluntary change of residence from Tip- 
 pleton to hell?" 
 
 " It looked somewhat that way to me, at 
 times, in anticipation," Lovejoy answered. " The 
 fascination of suicide in my secret thoughts, 
 I believe, had something to do with my course 
 of dissipation from the time I began the prac- 
 tise of medicine in Tippleton. Even as a boy, 
 reciting * Cato's Soliloquy,' the germ of the thing 
 was in my mind. But I had everything lovely to 
 live for, and I wonder sometimes if God did not 
 bless me so far above the average of mankind, 
 with means, with faculty, with favor, with op- 
 portunity, with devoted affection, doting parents, 
 liberal education, admiring friends, a fond wife, 
 beautiful children, fortune, popularity, enjoy- 
 ment in living; in order to make the world He 
 put me in as attractive to me as possible. But 
 when I began to drink a little with the men I was 
 thrown with in the lodge and in the church at 
 Tippleton, this fascination of the possible exper- 
 iment of self-destruction began to develop within 
 me. Handling my drugs I often repeated to 
 myself Cato's apostrophe with regard to his 
 sword and his roll of Plato. 
 
 " ' This in a moment brings me to my end : 
 But this informs me I shall never die.' 
 
 " And while drink was so quickly robbing me 
 of everything but the devotion of my heart- 
 broken wife and mother, I did not really care so 
 
THE SUPREME FASCINATION 223 
 
 much for the whirl with which patrimony, prac- 
 tice, reputation, health, intellect, all went by the 
 board; when just a little overdose of the drug 
 with which I would brace up after a spree might 
 strand the wreck of my wasted life upon the 
 unseen shore, and open the wideness and the 
 wonder of a new beginning in life. Hell had 
 few terrors for me. When they sent me once 
 and again to the Keeley Cure and to the State 
 Reformatory, I never found any difficulty in win- 
 ning the friendship and favoritism of my keepers. 
 Hell could hold no fiend so grim, that I could 
 not make a chum and a patron of him. When 
 you came and prayed with me in the illness which 
 followed my first attempt, I liked it; I was 
 ready to agree to any pious suggestion you might 
 make; I enjoyed all the tenderness and pity and 
 wistfulness you all lavished on me; but in my 
 inner heart I did not repent of the sin of 
 intentional self-murder, and I did not resolutely 
 put out of my thoughts the fancy of trying 
 its supreme sensation, to see what the beyond was 
 like. I am inclined to think that every confirmed 
 drunkard, every abandoned man or woman has 
 this fascination of the Niagara plunge in his or 
 her mind, this luxury of power over his own life, 
 to be or not to be. I had hardly known a wish or 
 whim in all my life which had not been granted ; I 
 had followed every line of research and exper- 
 iment which had appealed to me ; I had indulged 
 in whatever I found pleasant; why not in dying 
 
22-1 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 as I chose? I did not really wish to inflict pain 
 on those who loved me; but as matters had been 
 going with me for some years past, I rather 
 thought the relief of having it all over would 
 weigh against any sorrow you all might expe- 
 rience over the way the end came. I knew you 
 couldn't think hard of me, whatever I did. I 
 never meant to be cruel: I never felt more 
 drawn to you than on the afternoon when I 
 crossed the street to chuck your little girl under 
 the chin, as she sat in her go-cart. You re- 
 member I turned abruptly and started to go 
 around the corner of Hotel Tippleton. You 
 said so wistfully, ' Take care of yourself ! ' I 
 answered ' Yes sir ! ' fingering the ounce of chloral 
 in my left hand coat pocket. My wife has 
 told you what a pleasant time we all had to- 
 gether that day. I had not touched a drop of 
 liquor for more than a week. Oh, I never wished 
 to be bad! I tried to keep straight and attend 
 to practice after recovering from that first at- 
 tempt. But what could a man do in Tippleton ? " 
 
 " I blame myself that I did not put things 
 more strenuously to you," I exclaimed. " Why 
 did I not force my way within the curtains of 
 your reserve, lay bare your sin to your own eyes, 
 and warn you of the state into which you would 
 surely come if you dared hurl yourself into 
 eternity ? n 
 
 "It would have done no good," Lovejoy an- 
 swered. " I would simply have taken it as the 
 
NOT PROPERLY IMPRESSED 225 
 
 kind of talk you felt professionally called upon to 
 give me. Other preachers had talked hell and 
 judgment to me, or at me, and it never im- 
 pressed me. It seemed to me that they were 
 taught and supported, and expected to work thus 
 upon the fears of people — principally women and 
 small children. Their doctrine of hell did not 
 appeal to me rationally. It reminded me of what 
 Carlyle said about the bladder with some dried 
 peas in it, shaken for a bug-a-boo. It seemed 
 almost too extreme. The scareful in it seemed 
 rather over-done. It appeared to hold up God 
 as one thing in this world, and entirely the op- 
 posite thing in the next world, with nothing but 
 the little accidental boundary line of dying 
 between. It would have had more deterring 
 power over me, if it hadn't threatened so much 
 more than I could see was likely to happen. 
 Anyway the preachers weren't somehow giving 
 us very much of it of late. They left it out at 
 funerals. They didn't make whole sermons of 
 it anymore. Hell was only a passing allusion 
 with them now-a-days. The pastors and Chris- 
 tian people didn't act as if they believed in it. 
 They didn't go howling through the streets to 
 warn people, as Finney said he'd do when he 
 came to believe in hell. They didn't tell me in 
 private that they were concerned for my soul. 
 No, it wouldn't have done much good for you to 
 have warned me. I had to come here to see what 
 it was like." 
 
226 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " Then how could I have saved you " I asked. 
 " How ought I to have talked to you? I wanted 
 so much to know ! " 
 
 " I wish I could tell you. Sometimes I think 
 you might have set something a little bigger and 
 harder before me in the way of getting con- 
 verted and turning to Christ. If you had told 
 me I must turn in and reform Tippleton ; I might 
 have been fired by that idea in the way of an 
 experiment. It would have been so different from 
 any I had ever tried. I wouldn't reproach you, 
 Parson. I guess you did your best for me, with 
 all the other people you were trying to keep 
 straight. God knows I have wished often enough 
 somebody could have kept me from doing it." 
 
 "Then you would have liked to be back in 
 life and — in Tippleton? " I asked. 
 
 Expression failed him for a time. " Mister 
 Prester," he said at length, struggling with 
 strong emotion, " I woke up in hell and found my 
 soul. The marvels of the universe had little 
 interest for me then : I said ' I will see you 
 later.' Irresistibly I was drawn to the one spot 
 where my own lifeless body lay upon the old 
 couch in my office amid the worn and faded 
 surroundings of our mortgaged home. I hovered 
 over my wife and children sleeping. I saw all 
 the heart-breaking time when they found my 
 corpse and found the mawkish note I had written. 
 If I had ever really thought that I was in danger 
 of wearing out their love, and that they might be 
 
THE TORMENTING VISION 227 
 
 better off without me; I was quickly disil- 
 lusioned now. I would have given all the worlds 
 I had thought to interest myself in just to .be 
 back and comfort them; to brace up and be a 
 man and what a son, a husband, a father ought 
 to be. I was with them every minute of those 
 awful days ; yet I could not speak, or touch one 
 of them, or lighten one sad thought^ I attended 
 the funeral, and saw my once beautiful home 
 full of weeping people who loved me in spite 
 of my ill desert. I heard you trying to speak 
 of how much more you and the rest of you might 
 have done to help me. I was with you as you 
 walked to the cemetery just up the hill, and as you 
 all stood about my open grave, and even some who 
 I had suposed might have a contempt for me 
 were sobbing. I saw friends going back to the 
 house with my chief mourners weeping even 
 more than when they came. I knew all about my 
 wife's struggles and the debts she payed off 
 little by little, long after the home was gone. 
 I was beside her many a midnight, after the child- 
 ren were all in bed and their clothes patched and 
 darned, listening to her pray and cry to God, 
 and many a time I have heard her say, ' Oh Father 
 forgive me if it is wrong; but I must pray for 
 my poor Charlie J' Do you think I have been 
 enjoying myself in the wider universe? Do you 
 think I have been calmly pursuing scientific in- 
 vestigation? Do you suppose I could content 
 myself among the stars when there was my 
 
228 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 mother down in her little bare room with her 
 Bible on her lap, trying to find some light' of 
 cheer and comfort in the awful shadow I had 
 brought over her life? She was dying by inches 
 with a gentle heart-break, while she tried to the 
 last to help Clara keep the children clothed and 
 fed. I took in every detail of their life after 
 she was gone, and when my wife followed her to 
 heaven, worn out with over-work and sorrow, I 
 could still catch sight of them sometimes and I 
 tell you I have been like Dives in hell, coming 
 to my soul and a man's true concern for the 
 welfare of his own. Sometimes I can see Clara 
 and mother still from afar off, and they look as 
 if, in submission to God's will, they were still 
 wishing for me." 
 
 « Why don't you go to them then ? " I asked. 
 
 Charlie hesitated in replying just as he would 
 have done in the former life. " You seem to be 
 mocking me," he said at length. " Do you 
 think I haven't tried to get to them? Like a 
 snake in the zoo knocking its head against the 
 glass, I have hurled myself again and again upon 
 the invisible barrier which comes everywhere be- 
 tween us. It seems so strange, even in the spirit 
 world, that I should be even so distantly cogni- 
 zant of them; and yet I am unable to attract 
 their attention. I can guess that they think of 
 me; for at the times when I can discern them 
 they seem to have drawn apart by themselves in 
 heaven and to be comforting each other about 
 
HELL'S GREATER SOUL 229 
 
 something. I have tried to forget them in vain, 
 and I don't believe they have forgotten me. I 
 have pursued science somewhat, as you thought, 
 since coming here. I have forced my attention 
 upon it, in hope of distraction of thought; but 
 time and again my line of investigation and 
 experiment has come around to this insistent 
 problem — how to reach out even one finger, as 
 it were, out of hell. 
 
 " I used to dabble somewhat in spiritualism, as 
 you know, along with other things, in half -sober 
 intervals on earth; but I have not been able to 
 demonstrate it at all from this side the barrier. 
 On every side I am caged and held in, even from 
 self destruction. Oh how I have tried to destroy 
 myself indeed! Suicide did not do it. I only 
 plunged into a life that was wide-awake, quiver- 
 ing with intensity, quickened and broadened into 
 a million-fold capacity for discontent. I have 
 tried everywhere, every way for some means to 
 stop thinking and to stop being. I find myself 
 indestructible. Flaming suns will not burn me, 
 oceans cannot drown me. Frozen planets have no 
 power to numb me. Hell has no Lethe which 
 will help me to forget. If I plunge into vice; 
 it only scorches and nauseates me. I have tried to 
 reach Nirvana by concentrating my mind on one 
 thought, until by sheer monotony it should come 
 to be almost the same as not thinking; just as 
 one prolonged note of sound ceases at last to be 
 audible. So I would focus my attention upon 
 
230 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 some one hypnotic point for hours, days, or 
 weeks, I know not how long; till some stray as- 
 sociation of ideas would act like a lighted train 
 of powder to a magazine, and remorse, longing, 
 conjecture would explode into thousandfold ac- 
 tivity within me. The fire-flood of sorrow would 
 sweep back upon my soul, as it comes when one 
 wakes from sleep. There have been times when I 
 would try to put the length of hell between my- 
 self and the far vision of Clara and mother in Par- 
 adise. Then again the awful loneliness of it 
 would drive me back to look, and wail, and call to 
 them, and shake the bars of hell with my an- 
 guished struggle to get out to them. I assure 
 you sir, there is no way out. Hell is one great 
 trap, with valves opening only inward. All the 
 dynamite of our rage cannot blow one little crack 
 in our transparent prison walls, all the keenness 
 of our cunning cannot pick its lock or solve its 
 combination. There are so many ways in; but 
 no way out, no way out ! no way out ! " 
 
 " Jesus says * I am the way, the truth and the 
 life,' " I suggested. " He says, ' No man cometh 
 unto the Father but by me.' " 
 
 " Do you think Jesus would ever let me get 
 back near them ? " Lovej oy asked. " Are they 
 not much better off never to know about me 
 again ? " 
 
 " It seems to me that you are nearer to them 
 now in soul, Charlie ! " I answered, " than you 
 ever were on earth. On the whole I should say, 
 
BETTER FOR DISCIPLINE 231 
 
 hell has been good for you, as it seems to have 
 been for Dives. The one thing you need now is 
 to find Christ in reality. He can still do for you 
 to the limit of your faith in Him." 
 
 "Faith!" Love joy exclaimed tremblingly, "I 
 am the man who has murdered faith. When I 
 took my own life, I simply put God out of my 
 world. I took my soul in my own hands and 
 brought it here. God no longer has any respon- 
 sibility for me; neither have I any shadow of a 
 claim upon him." 
 
 " I am glad to hear you own it," I replied. 
 " You are by so much nearer to depending en- 
 tirely upon free grace, and nothing else can save 
 you. You are thus nearer salvation than Galpin 
 and Godson here. They each rather blame God 
 for being here. They think He did not give them 
 a fair chance on earth. They are inclined to 
 feel resentful about it ; and until they can honestly 
 come to some different opinion, of course they can 
 neither repent nor pray. 
 
 " I hardly know so well about Mr. Galpin," 
 Lovej oy answered ; " but Uncle Linas, you and I 
 have been on many a drunk together, and you 
 know as well as I that God never made us do 
 like that. Think of the chances we had more than 
 the heathen that never heard of Christ! We sat 
 side by side in church in the pew of which we 
 each rented half, and we might be sitting side 
 by side in heavenly places now if we had cared." 
 
 " The preaching strangely failed to help me 
 
232 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 stop the drinking," Godson said. " The one 
 seemed in part to depend upon the other. The 
 best pew rents came from the tavern keepers, 
 and at such times as my father set out to circulate 
 a subscription paper, he always went to these 
 gentlemen to start it off. None thought the 
 church could be run without the taverns, and it 
 was also often argued that the taverns couldn't 
 be run without bars, nor could the bars, we knew 
 full well, be profitably run without steady drink- 
 ers. So it was that my father felt constrained to 
 sign and indorse the annual applications for hotel 
 license ; and it seemed also fitting and incumbent 
 upon us younger fellows, if we cared for the 
 prosperity of the church, to< drink often and 
 freely at the tavern bars. It was the self-same 
 drink which helped pay the preacher and which 
 helped bring me to hell." 
 
 " But all that was changed after the Dominie 
 Prester here came to Tippleton," Lovejoy sug- 
 gested. 
 
 " To be sure," Godson admitted, " and at that 
 we felt ourselves so agrieved, to behold the ways 
 of our forefathers turned upside down, that we 
 all but lost our affection for the church, even if 
 at that late day, we could often have sobered up 
 sufficiently to attend it." 
 
 " I cannot tell you how sorry I am," I con- 
 fessed. " I tried to save you, and I only seemed 
 to alienate you. Indeed I never felt hard toward 
 any of you. I must freely own that had I been 
 
WHILE LIFE, HOPE 233 
 
 brought up under the conditions of your life, or 
 of Mr. Galpin's, I would probably have developed 
 about as either one of you did, and would have 
 landed exactly here, as you did ; unless it had been 
 by some most marvellous interposition of God's 
 saving power." 
 
 " You seem to have landed here just the same," 
 Galpin remarked grimly. 
 
 " I came by God's help to save you from hell," 
 I answered. 
 
 " If God is interested to help anybody save us ; 
 He ought to have begun a ways further back," 
 Galpin answered. 
 
 " My dear sir," I protested, " God was moving 
 for your personal salvation untold ages before 
 Adam and Eve sinned in Eden." 
 
 " Why didn't He move a little faster then, and 
 accomplish it ? " Galpin asked. " Why did He 
 put everything against me? " 
 
 " And why do you ask questions in the past 
 tense," I objected, " while eternity is still be- 
 fore? For pity's sake upon your own soul get 
 your attention off the past. Perhaps you were 
 under a spiritual disadvantage ; perhaps even your 
 oft-repeated rejection of God's offers of mercy, 
 your stifling of each better impulse may have 
 worked in as a permitted part of God's plan. I 
 don't mean that you have any shadow of an ex- 
 cuse for blaming God for it. You freely chose 
 to hate everything good. By your own obstin- 
 ate wrong-headedness you have proved yourself 
 
234 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 not to have been one of God's elect on earth ; but 
 it is still open to you to prove that you are one 
 of His elect for salvation out of hell. It is 
 never too late to mend. God's eternal decree for 
 your rescue is matched and mated with the moment 
 when you rouse yourself to make your choice of 
 Him for your Saviour. Galpin, do it now ! " 
 
 Galpin launched a terrible oath against my God 
 and His decrees. " If God's decrees have been 
 mixed up in the hell of a time I've been having 
 ever since I can remember," he said ; " then I've 
 got more cause than I thought to hate Him. I've 
 often wondered why there should be such a per- 
 fect devil inside me all the time, and I've won- 
 dered and exulted at the power of my own will 
 to stand out against God and to choose every- 
 thing but what was right ; and now you tell me it 
 was because I wasn't one of God's elect. That 
 makes the whole equation complete and the whole 
 problem clear. I tell you I was guarded care- 
 fully from every good influence. I lived in 
 Christian communities, and no Christian ever took 
 me in hand to tell me what was what, and warn 
 me away from hell. No sir, you neither! You 
 came the nearest that morning on the bridge ; but 
 you were mighty meachin about it then. I was 
 started in boyhood on the way to hell, and all the 
 way along the track was greased, and now I 
 know who to thank for it. Want me to believe 
 in Him and love Him? Not much! I might 
 
PATIENS QUIA AETERNUS 235 
 
 have done it before; but not since you've helped 
 me to find Him out." 
 
 " Mr. Galpin," I pleaded, " I wish you would 
 think rationally about all this for five minutes. 
 All your existence you've been hardening your 
 heart, and when Pharaoh hardened his own heart, 
 God hardened Pharaoh's heart. He would have 
 softened it any minute you would have let your 
 heart soften. You were a vessel of wrath fitted 
 to destruction; but God has endured you with 
 much long suffering; because He has been plan- 
 ning to make known the riches of His glory on 
 you, as a vessel of mercy before prepared unto 
 glory, just whenever you get tired of the one 
 thing and ask Him to make you the other. I 
 believe that change is coming for you. It might 
 have come long ago, if you had been willing. 
 Don't tell me you haven't felt good influences. 
 That second wife of yours; she told me she had 
 been a church member. She seemed a gentle 
 creature — " 
 
 " She was almost afraid to call her soul her 
 own when I was around," Galpin said. " She 
 had about as much influence over me as a rush 
 blade in a river bed has to change the current. 
 I married her for her money, and when I finally 
 got that fact beat into her dumb head, she threw 
 up her hands and just stood to deliver. And 
 your God has been about as weak in His line of 
 influence on me as the rest of you. I don't 
 
236 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 believes He cares for my soul, or He would try a 
 little harder. He'd get a club and bring me 
 under. Now the god of hell — the one whose 
 worship I have been leading in down here — he 
 does things." 
 
 " Satan only acts by God's sovereign per- 
 mission," I answered. " With all his might and 
 cunning he finds himself baffled, checkmated re- 
 sistlessly out-generaled and over-mastered from 
 point to point. He is fighting a losing battle, 
 and does things in desperate, hot haste. God has 
 the entire final victory in view; so He moves de- 
 liberately. 
 
 * God's ways are dark but soon or late 
 They touch the golden hills of day : 
 The evil cannot brook delay, 
 The good can well afford to wait/ 
 
 " He is patient because He is eternal. He is 
 long-suffering toward us, not willing that any 
 should perish, because He loves us so. Un- 
 erringly He will punish every sin; but His pun- 
 ishment will be as much for reclamation as for 
 retribution. You have been under His rod ever 
 since I first knew you and still you are like a 
 child too proud to cry out. The very rebound 
 of your own soul keeps you bruised and raw. 
 When will you get through kicking against the 
 pricks? I have seen you take some severe club- 
 bing and act as if you didn't feel it. How about 
 that time we slapped the thousand dollar fine on 
 
CHECKMATING LOVE 237 
 
 you for persisting in selling liquor to the camp 
 on your farm? " 
 
 " Yes but they knocked it down to four hun- 
 dred in the court room," Galpin protested. 
 
 " But there were lawyer's fees," I persisted, 
 " and, anyway, we blocked your game, and the 
 camp stayed dry all summer, much to the satis- 
 faction of mothers and sisters and sweethearts of 
 the boys, over a third of the Union. All this 
 was God dealing with you. He never really 
 abandoned you to prosper in evil, as some men 
 seem to be abandoned. He has curbed you and 
 checked you at every turn. It was sufficiently 
 evident on earth that the force in you never quite 
 found lee-way, and that God never let you draw 
 a really happy breath. And I am sure you and 
 Godson expressed yourselves frankly enough just 
 now about your impotence to get the drink; to 
 show that God is not allowing you to have your 
 own way. Don't tell me you think God doesn't 
 care for you, when He takes all these pains to 
 hold you back from destroying yourself." 
 
 " He does it because he likes to torture people," 
 was Galpin's reply. " Maybe I had some little 
 chance once; but it is gone now; and according 
 to your belief, God from all eternity predestin- 
 ated me to lose it. So now He takes it out in 
 torturing me with hell fire for the remaining 
 eternity." 
 
 " But Mr. Prester claims that he doesn't be- 
 lieve like that," interposed Love joy gently. 
 
238 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " He seems to hold some modified and extended 
 kind of Calvinism which he never got a chance to 
 encourage us with on earth; but it sounds very 
 much to the point down here." 
 
 " I was feeling after it most of the time 
 when we knew each other there," I said. " I did 
 not wish to give you false hopes. I tried to set 
 before you the straight road to heaven along by 
 the cross of Jesus. I tried to save you from tak- 
 ing your chances on coming this terrible long 
 way around through hell. I can see now how the 
 doctrine I was supposed to stand for just cut me 
 off from really influencing you at all. God knows 
 how sorry I am for it. If you had only pene- 
 trated my ecclesiastical reserve at any time and 
 asked me the straight question if God could be 
 God predestinating people to hell and then keep- 
 ing them there; I would have eagerly denied it. 
 So would any other Presbyterian minister of my 
 day. Some had mentally squirmed away from 
 the thought by one method, some by another. To 
 say that God's electing grace had singled out cer- 
 tain individuals and passed over others without 
 definitely and positively decreeing their damnation 
 was merely to juggle with words. Some were 
 secretly finding relief in the belief in conditional 
 immortality — that the lost soul literally per- 
 ished — a result which seemed less harrowing than 
 eternal punishment. I believe many of my breth- 
 ren had practically waved good-by to Calvin 
 
CONSISTENT CALVINISM 239 
 
 and Augustine, and at heart had taken refuge 
 in that shallow Arminianism which really lay at 
 the bottom of much of the irreligion of our time, 
 making God less than God in men's conception 
 of Him, and abandoning humanity to the play 
 of its own uncertain choice. But the greater 
 number of us just conscientiously refrained from 
 thinking definitely upon eternity. I was a long 
 time coming to a consistent belief in God's plan 
 for His world myself ; so what could I say ? Still 
 I believe I might have cheerfully admitted, any 
 time I had been questioned, that a lost soul in 
 hell would have a fair right to feel hard toward 
 a God who let it be born in sin with a darkened 
 mind, let it wind up in hell, either by reprobation 
 or praeterition, and there abandoned it to its 
 changeless fate. But now I can confidently plead 
 with you to turn to God, believe in Him and love 
 Him ; because I know that He still plans for your 
 salvation. Your very presence in hell is all a part 
 of God's plan to bring you to repentance. It is 
 your own fault, and your own great loss, if you 
 make it such a long j ob for Him." 
 
 " But perchance He planned it for a long job 
 in the first place," Godson objected. 
 
 " If He did, it was to bring you a richer ex- 
 perience of salvation than could have been worked 
 out by a short one," I protested. " The obstinacy 
 of your own nature also has a part in the equa- 
 tion. You do not know God's plan. I do not 
 
240 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 know it. The one sensible thing for you to do 
 is to repent now and turn to God before worse 
 befall." 
 
 Wilkinson and Willoughby had now joined our 
 group, drawn by some parallel current of feel- 
 ing, and I felt that I had before me a precious 
 congregation of five souls to save. " Suppose 
 we pray over it, boys," I suggested. " God often 
 makes things clear to us by the method of prayer, 
 when we would come only slowly to the truth by 
 reasoning." 
 
 But there was still a barrier of unwillingness 
 in their mood. " We all know you mean well, 
 Dominie," the outside Wilkinson acknowledged. 
 " For my part, I wish you could talk these things 
 over with the Devil. We have worked for him so 
 long, and enjoyed all the fun he could give us: 
 we don't feel just square to shake him without 
 a word to say good-bye. It appears to me your 
 doctrine would interest him the most of us all. If 
 you want to pull hell, I believe you'll have to pull 
 it from the top — first, Old Nick, then old Mack. 
 After that the rest of us would come easy." 
 
 The suggestion startled me; yet there was a 
 fascination in it. I had been intending to ask 
 them what conscious response they received when 
 they prayed to Satan, or how they were made 
 aware that they really had his attention ; but now, 
 by Wilkinson's own proposal, I could perhaps 
 legitimately employ their help to satisfy my cu- 
 
TO TALK WITH SATAN 241 
 
 riosity on this point by actual experiment. 
 Throughout my life on earth (especially in Tip- 
 pleton), and now of late in my acquaintance 
 with hell, I had become increasingly conscious of 
 Satan as an opposing, thwarting, and befooling 
 power toward all that moved for betterment with- 
 in and around me; but Satan had been to me 
 ' as a heathen man and a publican ' ; I had never 
 consciously addressed him, either by way of apos- 
 trophe or appeal. The thrill of the idea tingled 
 in my soul as Wilkinson spoke ; but it seemed like 
 our first June plunge into the bay at Mill River ; 
 for the shudder of it almost overmastered the 
 thrill. " Boys," I protested, " this thing is im- 
 mense. Somebody ought to do it, I know. But 
 little Nat Prester isn't really the right man. We 
 should get Jerry McAuley, or General Booth, or 
 Finney, or Whitfield, or Luther, or John Knox. 
 The most strenuous soul-shaker that ever lived 
 would be weak for the job. The Devil could 
 more easily overpower my sympathies and con- 
 fuse my intellect, by the very yearning of my 
 heart." 
 
 " That's just how you will get at him," Wilkin- 
 son declared. " And perhaps you can win him on 
 that line — who knows ? Satan has not often 
 been approached along the line of pity by your 
 profession. He would, maybe, overpower you on 
 any side but the heart-side." 
 
 But Willoughby was skeptical and cautious. 
 
242 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " There can't any good come," he said, " from a 
 parson hob-nobbing with the Devil." 
 
 " Friends," I said, " I will have to talk to God 
 about this. I would surely walk into trouble, if 
 I should exceed my marching orders." 
 
WHY CONVERT SATAN? 243 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 It was an encouraging sign to see these five 
 damned souls bow reverently as I began to pray: 
 " Master," I pleaded, " show me Thy will. I have 
 no heart for this task, unless it is one of Thy 
 whatsoevers. I have no desire to talk with Satan ; 
 if I cannot conscientiously pray for him first. 
 Forgive me if I err in judgment, if I exceed 
 Thy loving will while I try to pray for Satan, as 
 wife and I, awhile back, were praying for one of 
 his lieutenants. I know he is bad. I know that 
 Satan's pride and disobedience have been the 
 fountain head of evil and of woe, which otherwise 
 has no explanation in God's world. I cannot 
 pray that Thou judge him not for all the havoc 
 he has wrought. I am sure that the horror of 
 it all must have been pressing most heavily upon 
 Satan's own soul all these ages. I do not ask to 
 have the awful burden of it lifted by a feather's 
 weight from his conscience, or one pang of his 
 remorse made less acute. Increase his capacity 
 for sorrow, and let him suffer till his proud heart 
 breaks. In pity grant him birth-pangs of a bet- 
 ter soul. Oh my Saviour, my God ! my intellect is 
 too limited to take in even more than a little of 
 Thy great plans : I can only feel that if it were my 
 world, I would move most earnestly to bring the 
 worst one in it to repentance. I cannot in my 
 littleness see any other possible way to bring it 
 
244 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 out all glad in the end. Probably the only way 
 to do it, would be to deal strenuously with him, 
 bring his plans to nought, rescue his victims, re- 
 duce his conquests, confine him to a narrowing 
 prison house of failure ; and yet love and pity his 
 wrong, proud soul, until love and sternness min- 
 gled should triumph in his complete salvation ; 
 that throughout all the eternity beyond he should 
 love me best of all my creatures, having been most 
 forgiven. If I can help, even by the stirring of 
 a hair, to change the Devil's mind about all this, 
 I will be so glad to talk with him ; although I 
 shrink and tremble, and would rather keep to the 
 little tasks of winning the humblest of his de- 
 luded ones. Please do not let me take any step 
 which would compromise loyalty to God in any 
 way, or hinder my influence with these men who 
 listen while I pray. Oh Christ! help them to 
 seek salvation themselves, and not wait for the 
 Devil. Help them manfully to throw off his 
 yoke and, by God's aid, to triumph over his 
 malice. Help them not to think of some possible 
 easy way of being saved, after the leading spirits 
 of evil have succumbed and left it easy for their 
 dupes to shake off the unholy spell cast upon 
 them; but rather help them to glory in revolt 
 against Devil and ex-rumseller alike, and to take 
 so much more satisfaction in getting converted 
 to God because it is hard in the environment of 
 hell, and because it means fight. Take care of 
 little me, oh God, in this strange enterprise; for 
 
HELL'S BEATIFIC VISION 245 
 
 I hardly know where I am coming out. Even 
 now stop me if it is wrong ; for I feel Satan com- 
 ing at my call, and I am weak and cowardly to 
 deal with him, unless I can be sure it is God's 
 own commission for me just now. David and 
 Goliath hardly avail for a comparison of dis- 
 parity in this encounter; and unless I can go to 
 meet this greatest Philistine in the name of the 
 Lord of Hosts, I would rather even yet, retreat 
 from meeting him, and be laughed at by all 
 hell." 
 
 Of all the wonderful things about that com- 
 plexity of marvels which we call living, the most 
 stupendous is prayer. That the finite may talk 
 with the Infinite One and be answered, as I at 
 that moment, with the complete assurance, " Cer- 
 tainly I will be with thee ! " is perhaps the central 
 mystery of living; passing the explanation of 
 ages: yet within the test of any child. This ex- 
 perience of answered prayer, which alone gave 
 meaning to our life on earth, and which thrills 
 the life of heaven with its increasing wonder, 
 finds its crowning glory of ineffable surprise 
 when it comes to us in hell. There at that mo- 
 ment I saw God in Christ as I had never seen 
 Him before ; even in a hundred years of heaven — 
 not with faith changed to sight, but with faith 
 clarified into a soul-sense infinitely greater than 
 sight. The beatific vision of soul into Soul, each 
 the finite soul and the Infinite Soul, yearning with 
 a common pity and reaching forward with a com- 
 
246 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 mon hope toward the same all compensating joy, 
 came to me there in hell as it had never quite 
 come even in heaven. I saw more in my Saviour; 
 yet what I saw seemed only the beginning of what 
 He had to show me, whose revealing would come 
 with the deeper experience of eternities still un- 
 veiled, and I was ready to exclaim with joy of 
 infinite gain from measurable sacrifice — 
 
 Just to be here and to look on Thy face 
 Would through the ages be glory for me. 
 
 So I was prepared to meet " the spirit who stands 
 opposed." My Master's presence did not leave 
 me as I entered that of the Master of the un- 
 saved. I knew that he stood behind me while I 
 stood to face Apolyon. How much of either 
 transcendent presence, or of what passed between 
 me and each was apprehended by my five earth- 
 born companions I cannot now conjecture. Per- 
 haps even Satan may be better known by one 
 from whose eyes the scales have fallen in conver- 
 sion, and Satan may have felt safe in telling me 
 things at that hour which he felt his dupes could 
 not receive, even if I told them. I noticed only 
 that they lingered near quietly, and with a certain 
 subdued reverence, which could hardly have been 
 paid to the evil one alone. 
 
 I am sorry to disappoint any one who may an- 
 ticipate an exciting description of my meeting 
 with the Devil. There was little that was spec- 
 tacular about it. When the interview came, I 
 
INTERVIEWED BEFORE 247 
 
 was astonished most at the ease with which it was 
 obtained, and at the matter-of-course manner in 
 which it began. I was reminded somewhat of an 
 occasion on which some of us pastors in St. Louis 
 found an interview with Colonel Ed. Butler, the 
 city boss, for the purpose of inquiring why 
 Protestant churches were apparently discrim- 
 inated against in the placing of electric arc lights 
 along the city streets. I was impressed now to 
 find myself in the presence of an over-mastering 
 intelligence trained and exercised along lines with 
 which I was unfamiliar, one whose thoughts over- 
 lapped mine in every direction, even while they 
 were flowing in an opposite current, and one who 
 could so easily confuse and entangle my small 
 conceptions, that my only safeguard in dealing 
 with him would be in a childlike directness and 
 simplicity of purpose. I was astonished to find 
 that the manner of conversation with Satan was 
 not essentially different from that with a fellow 
 human spirit, or with one of the angels, and 
 while I could not mentally grasp the size of the 
 personality with which I was dealing, I could 
 distinctly apprehend the particular thought 
 which he condescendingly directed at me in re- 
 sponse to my own. I began by telling his lord- 
 ship that I had come into his dominions looking 
 for lost souls, and that these five of his choicest 
 subjects had conceived the desire to have me in- 
 terview him first. "They feel," I said, "that 
 you should set the example of repentance, and of 
 
248 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 turning to God, which will be easy for them to 
 follow." 
 
 His Satanic Majesty did not laugh, as I had 
 feared, but answered gravely that by worthier 
 reasoning it would seem far easier for these men 
 to practice repentance who had been opposed to 
 God less than two centuries, than for himself, 
 whose enfranchisement dated from before the 
 dawn of human history. " They are free to re- 
 pent, if they wish," he said. " I would not stand 
 in the way. I am ready to tell them at any time 
 that they would be better off in heaven. The 
 poor accomodations and consolations I am able to 
 afford them here do not make up for their loss 
 in being cast out from paradise. They will cer- 
 tainly get on the good side of God, if they know 
 on which side their bread is buttered." 
 
 It reminded me of some of the temperance 
 talk I had heard from saloonkeepers. " But it 
 is your influence which holds them back," I pro- 
 tested. " But for you, they and the world would 
 never have known an evil thought. You have 
 been the author of the great sorrow, and it surely 
 lies within your power to bring in at one wide 
 flood, the triumph of redemption's greater joy; 
 for with your conversion the current of evil would 
 cease to flow for lack of a source." 
 
 But Satan demurred at this assertion. " The 
 love of liberty will always spring in virile hearts," 
 he declared. " Should one succumb to God, an- 
 
SATAN'S FATHER TOO 249 
 
 other would promptly step into his place and raise 
 anew the standard of independence." 
 
 " But how can there be any real independence 
 of the All Father," I questioned. " You your- 
 self owe your existence and your original ex- 
 alted nature to Him. He keeps you moment by 
 moment from returning to nothingness. He up- 
 holds all things by the word of His power." 
 
 " Yet he cannot keep me from living my own 
 life," Satan exclaimed exultingly. " He cannot 
 coerce me into loving Him, so long as I prefer to 
 hate." 
 
 " Cannot, because will not," I ventured to an- 
 swer. " God takes a pride in your freedom and 
 prefers, perhaps, to win you back to a glad and 
 willing acceptance of His forgiveness and His 
 love. Pardon me, oh Devil ! but my Heavenly Fa- 
 ther seems to me to have borne with you all these 
 ages as a parent carrying a little child during 
 the tantrum of an hour. Your resistance to His 
 will and to His love has been just that futile and 
 necessarily evanescent. Free? you are free to 
 shake your puny fist at His great, kind face for a 
 little while ; but His love in severity must conquer 
 you in the end. It is His arms that are around 
 you in all your rage, and you can never, never, 
 never forget that He is your father still." 
 
 " Now you are allowing your anthropomorphic 
 fancies to run away with you," Satan protested. 
 " Because God enj oys the accidental advantage 
 
250 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 of previous existence and of creative power, why 
 should I find myself constrained to truckle to His 
 wishes, or to pretend that I like His ways when 
 I do not ? The existence and the role in life which 
 He has conferred upon me, has not had in it much 
 to thank Him for. He needed a protagonist, ac- 
 cording to His conception of what would make the 
 plot of the drama of His universe most interest- 
 ing ; so He let me be it. The best I can do is to 
 play my part with vigor and persistency, but 
 why could I not have had Michael's? " 
 
 " Simply because you chose the part of Satan," 
 I replied. " You thought you liked that best ; 
 yet surely you must be almost getting enough 
 of it." 
 
 " Why did He let me choose the part in the 
 first place," Satan protested. " He foreordains 
 whatsoever comes to pass. Why did He not put 
 in train some of all this great love you dilate 
 upon and persuade me to think again before I cast 
 the die of revolt. That mistake once made, where 
 can love come in again? Can God show it, try- 
 ing to bring me to humiliate myself by ever 
 throwing up the fight, which He originally 
 planned or permitted me to begin ? " 
 
 " You forget, sir," I replied, " that I was not 
 there when it happened. I can hardly conceive 
 how this estrangement of your grand spirit from 
 God ever began. We mortals have a theory that 
 it was pride. As the great light-bearer, you stood 
 next to the Godhead in rank and in faculty, and 
 
HIS PREDESTINATED PART 251 
 
 you conceived the thought of being the other god 
 — what Paul calls the ' god of this cycle.' 
 Strange ! when there was no older devil to suggest 
 this one evil thought to you ! Where could it 
 have come from ? God could not have placed it in 
 your mind. He is not the author of evil, neither 
 tempteth He any man or angel. You must have 
 been drawn away by your own lust of prestige. 
 So you chose your lot simultaneously with God's 
 eternal foreordination of your lot. Was not 
 that the way of it? " 
 
 " Young man ! " Satan replied thoughtfully, 
 " I have been puzzling over this problem for ages, 
 and, as Milton suggests, it is still the central 
 theme of many a debate in hell. I believe this 
 whole tiresome business was God's fault. There 
 was a time when I was not, and God was thinking 
 over all this even then." 
 
 " It wasn't time but eternity," I protested. 
 " And it isn't scientific to say God was thinking. 
 God thinks in an eternal N-O-W." 
 
 " Never mind ! it has had the same effect for 
 my wretched career," complained Satan ; " and 
 I wish to know, what did He, or does He, do it 
 for? Why should I be singled out to stir up all 
 this muss, and to bear the infamy of the uni- 
 verse?" 
 
 " I cannot tell," I replied, " unless it is be- 
 cause you like the job. There is only one key to 
 all this riddle, and that I believe you carry in 
 your hand, if you wish to use it." 
 
252 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 "Tell me!" said Satan. "It is the key of 
 repentance," I replied. 
 
 Satan laughed at last, and hell shook. " Re- 
 pentance ? " he cried. " For me ? Young fel- 
 low, you are talking wildly. Try to think of the 
 murders I have planned and consummated. Try 
 to think of the wars I have stirred up and of my 
 glorying in the carnage of a million battlefields. 
 I have robbed millions of innocence and honor; I 
 have spoiled the happiness of millions of homes 
 and lives. I have gloated over meanness and in- 
 justice; I have been on the side of the theft and 
 the lie. I tell you I love it all. I smack my lips 
 in blood and pollution. You say, ' Try what re- 
 pentance can.' I answer, ' But what can it when 
 one cannot repent ? ' 
 
 " The stubbornness of King Henry's knees 
 was as wax compared with that of my heart. Re- 
 pentance? What would God want with my re- 
 pentance? If He should let me repent and be 
 forgiven, He would advertise to his angelic uni- 
 verse that there was no spirit in His justice. He 
 would make himself the laughing stock of hell. 
 Sometimes repentance may come too late. We 
 may find no space for it, though we seek it care- 
 fully and with tears. Repentance? Pah! you 
 disgust me. Like Papoleon with the impossible, 
 I would say, ' Never mention to me that beast of 
 a word.' Defiance is the word for me. With 
 open scorn, with exhaustless subterfuge and coun- 
 terplot, I will still spit it in God's face. Were 
 
SATAN YEARNS TO REPENT 253 
 
 every heart turned craven, were hell shrunken 
 by desertion until I alone was left, were God's 
 hand heavy upon me, and His final word to me, 
 * Repent or moan forever ! ' I would still bite and 
 tear His hand and snarl my deathless hate. But 
 as yet there seems not so much need for me to 
 contemplate this possible finale. Hell is still 
 something of a kingdom. The biggest half of 
 things still comes my way. And I can say still 
 with some complacency, ' Better to rule in hell 
 than serve in Heaven.' " 
 
 " And yet," I replied, " the fact that you have 
 thus much to say about it rather reassures me 
 that the subject of repentance has been often in 
 your thoughts. The old love that was in the be- 
 ginning between you and God still yearns some- 
 where within you. And I still think this is the 
 key to the whole problem of God's plan for your 
 life. Some day you will try it in the lock of hell. 
 And when you turn to God with the heart-tears 
 held back for ages, you will find a place waiting 
 for you which belongs to no one else. Of all the 
 universe, you will love most, because most for- 
 given. I cannot foresee whether you will 
 foolishly wait to be the last to give in 
 your allegiance, or whether just now, in re- 
 sponse to my poor pleading, you will humble 
 yourself before God, and turn the might of your 
 satanic influence into the undoing of your dread- 
 ful work and the bringing back of lost souls to 
 God. Whenever you do it, that will be your first 
 
254 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 rational, well-balanced action since before you 
 did the other thing. Oh Satan, do it now ! I say 
 repentance will prove to be the key to the riddle 
 of your strange destiny; because I do believe it 
 would bring to your poor, lacerated soul the 
 greatest joy of forgiveness, the grandest mission 
 of reparation ever foreordained for a created be- 
 ing. Why do you keep yourself out of it for a 
 moment, or for an eternity ! Oh let your strained 
 heart break in penitence just now! Christ is 
 here and He is waiting for your love. His atone- 
 ment is great enough to avail even for you. Oh 
 for the pity of it, don't be a fool any longer ! I 
 know I am only a tiny bit of a mortal, and you 
 are but just short of infinite ; yet I am right and 
 right with God, and you are so altogether wrong ! 
 Poor, foolish Devil ! I dare to pity you. Won't 
 you come to Jesus now and be saved? " 
 
 Satan was moved. The wonderful thing of it 
 all was to see suns and worlds still moving on in 
 their orbits while he hesitated. I could only pray 
 dumbly and stretch out my arms to him in spirit. 
 And I felt from behind greater arms stretched 
 out to him above mine. The keen pain of a frozen 
 soul approaching fire was in Satan's aspect. 
 Gleams of hidden radiance came in opal tints to 
 the surface of his spirit. Anguished memories, 
 incredible hope, contrition overmastering pride 
 moved in mighty currents up and across the sea 
 of his great being. My consciousness rocked 
 and swayed like a frail boat brought in touch 
 
HE HESITATES 255 
 
 with upheaving waters. The world's long hope 
 deferred seemed on the point of sudden con- 
 summation. A moment more, and God's universe 
 might be reeling with the sweep of a mighty joy. 
 The great Sinner stood at the point of repentance, 
 The unconsciousness of other knowing beings as 
 to what was impending rendered the moment all 
 the more intense. Only the five human compan- 
 ions must have felt something of it, for they lay 
 prostrate beside me. With the bending of that 
 mighty will which was hesitating there, hell would 
 crack open. Heaven's love would meet perdition's 
 penitence in worldwide ecstacy of grief and joy. 
 All hung upon one sigh from Satan's soul for bet- 
 ter things. Would it come? Would the strong 
 heart, age-hardened in evil, break just now? I 
 beheld his indecision with eager gaze, every fibre 
 of my thoughts quivering, tingling with expecta- 
 tion and with awe. 
 
256 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 But there came a mysterious shadow over 
 Satan's aspect which had begun to glow with un- 
 speakable possibilities. The change puzzled and 
 frightened me, for it did not seem to come from 
 within, but was rather like the shadow of an ap- 
 proach cast from without. My heart turned sick 
 with disappointment and foreboding, as I waited. 
 Was there some greater Devil coming, able to 
 check the movings of prevenient grace upon the 
 soul of this one? As the newcomer drew near 
 every trace of conscience, of compunction, of finer 
 impulse, was blurred over and disappeared from 
 the Satanic soul. With alarm I turned to regard 
 this unexpected visitor. My astonishment deep- 
 ened as I perceived it to be of human race and at 
 last divined that it was of female sex. A woman 
 spirit, swollen to monstrous size and power, hid- 
 eous for very symmetry of soulless form, confront- 
 ed me with a gaze of what might have been anger, 
 if less mixed with cunning. " This is my earth- 
 wife," Satan said in introduction. " By the 
 way, she must have been a contemporary of yours, 
 and although you probably never met, you must 
 have heard of her exploits. She was a Mrs. 
 Guiness, and was at one time engaged in farming 
 and a few other things out in Illinois." 
 
 I hardly knew how to reply for embarrassment 
 at the sudden recollection of a newspaper story 
 
THE WORSER DEVIL 257 
 
 read at random one Saturday night, when I was 
 looking to see if my church notice was in straight. 
 How could I acknowledge my realization that this 
 must be the woman who made herself useful in- 
 terring about her house and barnyard the bodies 
 of murdered people sent to her from Chicago in 
 trunks and boxes; varying the monotony of this 
 by attracting to her rural home, by means of 
 matrimonial advertisements, men who were never 
 heard from subsequently? But Satan read it 
 all in my expression, and replied to that, " It is 
 true that this is the lady. She seemed, for sheer, 
 sordid deviltry, a worthy mate. Lucretia Borgia 
 seemed hardly to be named in comparison, even 
 if all the stories told about her were true. Be- 
 sides this lady had so long sought for a worthy 
 husband; it seemed only poetic justice that her 
 diligence should be suitably rewarded at last." 
 
 I was interested as well as horrified. I very 
 much wished to ask a question, but hesitated for 
 fear of seeming discourteous. Again the satanic 
 insight helped me. " My dear," he said, " I 
 think the reverend gentleman has something to say 
 to you." 
 
 " Then let him say it while he has the chance," 
 the former Mrs. Guiness responded. 
 
 " I was wondering how you must find it," I ex- 
 plained — " to have a husband you cannot dispose 
 of, and to live in a world of men spirits that are 
 indestructible." 
 
 I realized that I had made a mistake as soon 
 
258 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 as I had said it. The queen of hell expanded 
 by several sizes, and with her back turned to me, 
 demanded of her illustrious husband why she 
 should be expected to talk to me. " Put him in 
 the dungeon," she said shortly. 
 
 " We can attend to that later," Satan said, to 
 appease her. " Perhaps the worst punishment 
 of presumption we could give him in the mean- 
 while would be to tell him a few things, and see 
 him tremble." 
 
 " Am I at liberty then to ask such questions as 
 I may feel drawn to ask ? " I inquired somewhat 
 timidly. 
 
 " Go ahead," replied the Infernal Consort. " I 
 suppose we can stand it as long as you can." 
 
 I avoided at first the question I had asked be- 
 fore, with an inkling that my own probable 
 sentence was somewhat closely bound up in the 
 answer to it ; but I suggested another cause I had 
 found for wonderment about this singular woman. 
 " Did you never dread the stalking of ghosts 
 about your farmhouse? Did your flesh never 
 creep in the night when you were alone with 
 some corpse? " 
 
 " Do you suppose I would have taken to that 
 line if I hadn't had nerve? " she answered. " I 
 took a pride in my work; I guess the same as 
 you ever did in yours." 
 
 " But when the work was all done," I suggested. 
 " When the last guilty evidence was removed and 
 the strain of secrecy and of fear of stumbling 
 
HOW COULD SHE? 259 
 
 against neighbors, or hired man, in the dark, was 
 lightened; when there was nothing left to do but 
 think, and the details of the last job were fresh 
 in your mind — " 
 
 " I was generally tired enough to go to sleep," 
 Mrs. Satan answered. " It was a sort of old 
 story to me, you know. I got my hand in when 
 I kept a lying-in place for abortions in the city. 
 Sometimes the patients died under treatment, and 
 their remains had to be attended to in some way." 
 
 " But why did you burn your farmhouse and 
 decamp ? " I queried. " No one seems to have 
 suspected you definitely. You were not in any 
 new danger. Was it not your own nervous con- 
 dition which called for a change? Perhaps you 
 had gotten to seeing things at night." 
 
 She did not altogether deny the truth of my 
 supposition. "^The best thing gets tiresome after 
 awhile," she said. " You preachers have noth- 
 ing to say. Didn't you usually make a change 
 every three or four years? " 
 
 " Well tell me," I asked more eagerly, " Did 
 you never feel any movings of compassion over 
 the lacerated corpse of a poor fellow being sent 
 to you for interment — the victim of some plot or 
 quarrel not your own? Did you never have to 
 struggle with some softer feeling in luring to 
 their death your would-be husbands — in mixing 
 the poison, or striking the blow or fatal stab, or 
 springing the trap (or however else you did it) 
 which cut each one off in the height of his hopes ? 
 
mo A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Surely some of them must have been good-looking 
 fellows — somewhat soft, perhaps ; weak, no 
 doubt; but amiable, good-natured, amenable, in- 
 nocent; or they wouldn't have brought money 
 with them in coming to marry you. You must 
 have written affectionate letters — wistful, pa- 
 thetic, pensive. You must have charged each to 
 come secretly — that no one might know until 
 your hearts had found opportunity to grow to- 
 gether in the honeymoon. How could you take 
 such advantage of an unsuspecting fellow crea- 
 ture? How did you feel when you saw each 
 writhing in his last agony — with the look of 
 speechless reproach in filming eyes — when life 
 went out and you were in that awful loneliness 
 with the dead? " 
 
 " You want to know so much," the woman an- 
 swered. " I'll just tell you, and let you stand 
 it the best you can. The kind that were sent to 
 me in trunks and boxes I felt somebody had to 
 take care of. If it hadn't been me, it would have 
 had to be somebody else. So I did what I could 
 for them, and earned whatever money there was 
 in it. That was the only line I was in at first; 
 but there was a time when they didn't come fast 
 enough to make it pay, and I thought of the other 
 thing. The closing up of the deal was always 
 done quietly and decently. There wasn't any 
 writhing agony or any dying looks. They just 
 took a cup of tea, or glass of liquor that I 
 
MY CONVERT, OR HER VICTIM 261 
 
 brought them after they were in bed the night 
 before what would have been our wedding day, 
 and then the poor fool would go to sleep and I 
 would bury him alive. The only difference here 
 in hell is that we bury them alive, and they stay 
 alive after they are buried; but they stay buried 
 just the same. You're the first one I ever told 
 beforehand. You'll understand better when 
 you're in it." 
 
 These last words were spoken in such fury 
 of feelingless determination that I began to won- 
 der if I ought not to make a strong effort to 
 convert this woman, if only to ward off serious 
 consequences from myself. Yet the very self-in- 
 terest involved gave my attempt a certain embar- 
 rassment and stiffness. " I cannot see what you 
 gained by all this strange and terrible course," 
 I said. " No money you could make by it on 
 earth could possibly buy you one happy breath, 
 and there is no money at all to be made in hell. 
 Won't you give it all up now, and seek for God's 
 mercy upon your soul ? " 
 
 The great woman regarded me with astonish- 
 ment, and a visible trill of something deeper. 
 " What sort of a crank are you ? " she asked. 
 " Nobody ever spoke to me like that before. 
 Where did you come from anyway ? " 
 
 " On earth I was a Presbyterian," I answered 
 meekly. " My citizenship is in heaven. I came 
 here looking for lost souls to save. You poor 
 
262 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 soul! if no one ever took an interest in you be- 
 fore, I will now. It is not too late for you to look 
 to Jesus Christ now and be saved." 
 
 " Would I have the first place in heaven ? " 
 the Satana asked. " Would I be the only woman 
 admitted to the Freemason's lodge? What 
 would they do for me there ? " 
 
 " If you were truly saved," I replied, " you 
 would not seek the highest place in Heaven; you 
 would feel unworthy of the lowest. You would 
 desire most of all to get back to hell and try to 
 right and atone for some of the horrible wrongs 
 your blind selfishness has wrought." 
 
 " Then I guess I don't care to be saved," she 
 answered promptly and decidedly. 
 
 " Your only gain will be to lose," I urged. 
 " You have been gaining through your whole ex- 
 istence until you stand, it seems, at the highest 
 bad eminence to which a human being could as- 
 pire; yet all this has only availed to bind you 
 down to foul, ghoulish drudgeries, making you 
 hated, detested, dreaded, impossible to be loved 
 even by Satan himself." 
 
 " Nobody ever bound me down to anything," 
 she protested sullenly. " I always did just to 
 suit myself. I had the physical strength of 
 three ordinary women. I hardly ever made a 
 plan that I didn't carry out. I broke laws as 
 fast as they got in my way; yet I was never ar- 
 rested but once, and that time I got out on bail 
 and skipped. You see I'm not a likely subject 
 
WHY DO RIGHT? 263 
 
 for conversion. I don't ' surrender all,' nor noth- 
 ing. I've got my own life to live, and I propose 
 to go on living it. I've outwitted God and man 
 for two centuries, and I say damn your God! 
 damn your heaven! let me have things my own 
 way in hell." 
 
 " I admit that it seems a difficult task to open 
 your eyes to a higher self-interest," was my reply, 
 " but I would like to talk with you about the 
 right and wrong of it. If it was conceivable that 
 you could gain the whole universe, heaven in- 
 cluded, by doing wrong, still it would be wrong, 
 and if you could lose all, even heaven, by doing 
 right, still right would be right and wrong would 
 be wrong, and that alone would make the com- 
 pelling difference. And even if God himself 
 could go wrong, you could have no alternative, 
 for real peace of mind, but to keep on trying to 
 do right. For the shame of one, and the as- 
 surance of the other; for the very wrongness or 
 doing wrong and the Tightness of doing right, 
 I would counsel you to turn. Positively there is 
 no other specific for that mean, low-down feel- 
 ing; and you know you cannot endure it to all 
 eternity. You know you cannot keep this sort of 
 thing up forever. You are only making the 
 cycles of restitution harder. Every vile, heartless, 
 wicked action of your existence will be a cause 
 to you for eternal regret. Oh for Christ's sake 
 come out of it all and live square ! " 
 
 "You are talking about something I don't 
 
264 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 know about," Mrs. Satan answered. " And I tell 
 you I don't want to know. You make me feel 
 strange and uncomfortable. You throw things 
 up to me that I won't take from you, or from 
 anybody. I suppose this must have been the way 
 you were working on my royal husband when I 
 came. Let his majesty show the white feather, 
 if he feels like it. Then I'll take charge here 
 myself." 
 
 The Devil laughed long and loud. " You 
 could not take the charge of the millionth part 
 of it," he said. 
 
 His lady showed some pique. " You know I 
 have been growing," she protested. " Did I not 
 manage nearly eighteen thousand temptations at 
 once by our last count? " 
 
 " And that," declared Satan, " was not the 
 millionth part." 
 
 " Leave me the whole contract and I'd grow 
 to it," the Satana still objected. 
 
 " If you will not scorn the opinion of a third 
 party, though also a mortal and to that extent 
 not entirely disinterested,' I interposed, " feminine 
 faculty naturally stretches to a multiplicity of de- 
 tails. For instance, our Presbyterian Woman's 
 Foreign Missionary Board managed a matter 
 which the men of the general board gave up be- 
 cause they couldn't stand it. They kept a great 
 number of our churches, Sunday Schools, and les- 
 ser organizations in personal correspondence with 
 a great number of our Mission stations around 
 
A POSSIBLE SUBSTITUTE 265 
 
 the world. Our Woman's Home board showed a 
 similar facility, through every Presbyterial so- 
 ciety, for keeping each little society of each 
 church to account for its gifts to each of a con- 
 siderable list of special mission schools. Just for 
 the fun of the thing, and entirely without pay, 
 some good women in New York organized an In- 
 ternational Sunshine Society, and kept in helpful 
 correspondence with thousands of branches all 
 over the world. The Woman's Christian Tem- 
 perance Union organized its work under more 
 than forty different departments, just because 
 they enjoyed doing it in that way. This makes a 
 man's brain reel. I have talked with women in a 
 room full of people, and found that they could 
 answer pertinently, and yet keep a general idea 
 of what other women were saying in various 
 parts of the room." 
 
 " Nevertheless, I got on without this one for 
 several ages," the Devil still argued somewhat 
 gruffly. " I believe she is just giving me a dare 
 to repent in earnest. I have half a mind to do it, 
 and show her where she would be without my help. 
 Where would she advertise for a husband to take 
 my place I wonder." 
 
 " I would send at once for Noble Grand 
 Master McGammon," the lady suggested coquet- 
 tishly. 
 
 Of course McGammon appeared. " Reverend 
 Sir ! " he exclaimed in astonishment, on seeing 
 me. 
 
266 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " He is trying to convert Satan," laughed the 
 ex-widow. " Yes, and me too." 
 
 " I supposed, Sir, that you were engaged in 
 looking for your brother," McGammon remarked 
 reproachfully. 
 
 " And my other brothers, I think I told you," 
 was my apology. 
 
 " Also a sister or two? " McGammon asked with 
 a slight inclination of soul toward the great lady 
 of hell, and a tone almost too near a snear to be 
 in keeping with his accustomed character. 
 
 " The lady came," I explained, " when I was 
 talking with her husband. I have indeed been 
 trying to show her the reason for turning to God, 
 as I had also been endeavoring to show it to her 
 husband." 
 
 "Ah!" commented McGammon, "His Majes- 
 ty then also is one of your brothers ! " 
 
 " He, too, is God's child," I argued. 
 
 " And I believe he had him almost persuaded to 
 be a Christian,' continued the woman. 
 
 " He lately made certain appeals to me like- 
 wise," McGammon acknowledged, " but it was 
 soon over, and no great harm done." 
 
 " He don't seem to be satisfied unless he is try- 
 ing to convert somebody," said the scarlet woman. 
 
 Before I could thank her for this great praise, 
 McGammon moderated my pleasure in it by re- 
 marking that he enjoyed the honor of the Rev- 
 erend Prester's acquaintance on earth, and while 
 
POOR SATAN! 267 
 
 he had shown there a similar proneness to ill-timed 
 persuasion, no very marked results in conversions 
 had been apparent. " They were for the most 
 part rather light-weight characters who yielded 
 to it," he stated. " I do not myself apprehend 
 any considerable upheaval in hell from the amia- 
 ble propaganda upon which the reverend gentle- 
 man has apparently set forth." 
 
 But Satan himself spoke gravely. " You are 
 only mortals after all," he said. " You see hard- 
 ly beyond where your noses once were. This 
 thing has a power in it that you do not realize. 
 After one or two vapouring enthusiasts of Pres- 
 ter's stamp, I foresee the approach of a determined 
 invasion of our dominions, and trouble ahead for 
 us greater than that which missionaries and re- 
 formers have yet been able to give us." 
 
 " Then why don't you pen this one up at once, 
 and be done with him ? " queried the Satana. 
 
 " Hush ! " exclaimed Satan. " Your insight is 
 of no more avail than your foresight. Can you 
 not see the Other with him ? It is the One behind 
 that I am concerned about. I have had to deal 
 with Him so long. His visible presence here bodes 
 ill." 
 
 " If there's another, down with them both to the 
 dungeon ! " exclaimed his spouse again. 
 
 " I've tried that before,' said the great Pro- 
 tagonist. " Once I had that Other crucified, 
 buried; stone at the sepulchre; door sealed with 
 
268 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 the seal of the governor, and a watch set. Of 
 what avail was it all? That was the very be- 
 ginning of His triumph." 
 
 " But still you did not turn coward," McGam- 
 mon whispered, awed by a partial understanding 
 of the situation. " Will you do it now? " 
 
 " Not coward but diplomat," Satan answered. 
 " Give me time to ponder and plan. The highest 
 type of courage is not that which makes impetu- 
 ous attacks and sudden reprisals ; but rather that 
 which displays coolness in defeat, yields what it 
 must, and bides its time." 
 
 "Who's talking about defeat?" the Satana 
 asked. " I think the time to head off these im- 
 pertinent intrusions is at the start. Make a ter- 
 rible example of the first one, before the thing 
 gets too common." 
 
 " The hardest lesson I have had to learn 
 through the advancing ages," was Satan's re- 
 joinder, " has been the lesson of toleration. At 
 first I was all for gibbets, crosses, the stake, the 
 torch, the rack, the headsman. It took me long 
 to learn that the cause I hated gained power from 
 being persecuted. Then having been long taught, 
 I conceived the plan of staying the spread of un- 
 welcome ideas by toleration. I taught men not 
 to oppose, not to inquire, not to discuss: to re- 
 gard all cults with unconcern, to assent from 
 the lips outward, to hold themselves aloof from 
 positive conviction, to leave vital religion on one 
 side and flock to any ceremonious make-believe, to 
 
SATAN'S IMPROVED MANUAL 269 
 
 smother strong doctrine under a conspiracy of 
 silence and to chill enthusiasm by the use of a 
 damp blanket of mild surprise. I find this policy 
 works more effectively than that of faggots and 
 bullets. So if I can keep hell not hostile but 
 calmly indifferent to the hopes of Christianity, 
 and if I can only make such fellows as this one 
 appear tiresome and extreme ; if I can avoid mak- 
 ing him interesting by any ostensible persecution, 
 but just watch a chance to befool him, trip him, 
 separate him from his companion, I may, perhaps, 
 e'er long have him stumbling into the limbus of 
 used-up souls." 
 
 " I already have him incarcerated after a man- 
 ner," volunteered McGammon. " He cannot get 
 out of the Lodge area." 
 
 " But have you considered the harm he may 
 do inside ? " asked the Adversary. 
 
 " How tired you must get," the woman ex- 
 claimed, " guarding against every checkmate, and 
 playing such a slow game ! " 
 
 " I do indeed," Satan acknowledged somewhat 
 wearily. " Sometimes I feel disposed to let my 
 men go, and yield the board." 
 
 " If you do," threatened the lady, " the Noble 
 Grand and I have warned you what will happen." 
 
 " How preciously detestable you both are ! " 
 exclaimed Satan, " and yet you and McGammon 
 are equally necessary to me ! " 
 
 Like other people of assured station, accus- 
 tomed to conversing freely before inferiors, they 
 
270 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 had not seemed to be caring if I overheard their 
 conversation; but at this point the Satana, be- 
 coming aware of my close attention, turned upon 
 me in vexation. " You sneaking, snivelling, in- 
 terloping Salvationist ! " she cried. " My Lord 
 may dilly dally with your case awhile if he must, 
 but sooner or later you are my prey. A meagre 
 quarry you will be, after all the full blooded men 
 I have kissed to sleep ; but such as you are, I will 
 trap you yet, and when I bury you, I will bury 
 you deep." 
 
 As she spoke, I saw clearly a blemish I had be- 
 gun to notice before upon the smooth skin of her 
 soul. It was a double row of eight little callosi- 
 ties, four in a row, opposite each other in pairs, 
 such as would be left upon the finger bases and 
 upper palm of a human hand by the diligent use 
 of a spade. 
 
 Then I recalled an annual saying of Doctor 
 Hitchcock in the church history class a pro-pos 
 of Catherine de Medici. " If you wish a devil," 
 he would say, " look for a she-devil." 
 
DISOWNED BY BOTH WORLDS 271 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 " Reverend Sir," advised the Noble Grand 
 Master McGammon somewhat dryly, " it seems 
 that this would be a fitting time for you to con- 
 tinue the search for your brother." 
 
 " Surely His Majesty can tell me at once where 
 my brother is at this time," I objected. 
 
 "What is your brother's name?" inquired the 
 Ruler of Darkness. 
 
 " Harry," I replied. 
 
 " Harry Prester," mused Satan : " that is 
 strange now. I cannot recall or observe him 
 among all my subjects. By the way, not mean- 
 ing to compliment you overmuch, do you know 
 I find strangely few by the name of Prester in- 
 habiting my dominions." 
 
 " They have all been children of the covenant," 
 I explained, " brought up on the Bible and Short- 
 er Catechism, family prayer and consistent Pu- 
 ritan living." 
 
 " Are you sure, then, that your brother is in 
 hell? " the Adversary asked again. 
 
 " I only know that he has not yet turned up in 
 heaven," I answered. " And if he is neither in 
 the upper world, nor yet in the nether world, then 
 where in the world is he ? " 
 
 " Dante would say," suggested Satan, " that 
 you might find him in the limbus of souls without 
 color." 
 
9Ti% A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " But is there really such a place ? " I queried. 
 
 " You will have to search and find out," re- 
 plied the Father of Pharisees suavely. " I can 
 only suggest that your Master says of a certain 
 class, 4 Because you are neither cold nor hot, I 
 will spew you out of my mouth.' And if He 
 doesn't want them in heaven, I am sure I do not 
 care much for them in hell. These negative souls 
 were immensely useful to me on earth, but they are 
 hardly worth their brimstone here." 
 
 " Nevertheless I would suggest to the Reverend 
 Prester," McGammon interposed, " that he start 
 on his search at once. We have men in our va- 
 rious orders who are not so bad as the worst, nor 
 yet so good as the best. His Majesty might 
 easily overlook one of them for lack of anything 
 in him of which to take notice, and for the honor 
 of the ancient Prester name, if this one isn't in 
 hell at all, his absence ought to be ascertained. I 
 feel that this matter is important." 
 
 " I do wish to find Harry," I confessed, ignor- 
 ing the taunt, but hitherto I have had no clue. 
 I have simply gone from one whom I met to the 
 next, as in the game of puss-wants-a-corner, and 
 each one encountered has been so interesting for 
 his own need of someone to look him up, that I 
 have made slow progress." 
 
 " I will give you a guide," the Noble Grand 
 offered graciously. " I might go with you my- 
 self, only a pressure of many matters prevents." 
 
 I thanked him for this courtesy, and only asked 
 
A SINISTER ARRANGEMENT 273 
 
 time to conclude my interview with the five men 
 who had urged me to talk with Satan. I began 
 to suspect that this was what McGammon did not 
 wish me to do. Even in his presence, and in that 
 brooding at-hand-ness of Satan, never entirely 
 removed and more consciously apprehended than 
 before, I found in these men's souls an attitude of 
 concern which caused hope to leap strong within 
 me. I saw the inner Wilkinson peeping out with 
 an eagerness which almost forgot concealment, 
 while Galpin and Godson received me gravely and 
 earnestly, and poor Charlie Lovejoy clung to me 
 almost piteously, pleading " Don't leave me, old 
 faithful friend; if you must go anywhere, take 
 me with you." 
 
 But McGammon was obdurate. " Pardon me 
 if I suggest that I am master here," he said. " I 
 have given you free leave to see many things. 
 You will go alone with the guide I am calling." 
 
 I could only draw Lovejoy to me and whisper 
 to him to tell the others that I would remain in 
 part with them, and take up our talk when it 
 could be unreserved. While speaking with Charley 
 a strange soul-odor differentiated itself from 
 hell's general mixture, and came more and more 
 strongly upon me, with an unaccountable asso- 
 ciation of former days strangely sickening to my 
 heart. I turned to become acquainted with my 
 appointed guide. 
 
 It was Rorer. 
 
 McGammon noticed my start of discomfort and 
 
274 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 remarked with some show of surprise, " I perceive 
 that you have had some previous acquaintance 
 with each other." 
 
 " The last time we met," I replied, " this man 
 had it in his mind to kill me." 
 
 " What makes you think such a thing as that, 
 Reverend? " Rorer asked. 
 
 " The threatening language you used as you 
 strode toward me," I replied. " The reach for 
 your revolver, whose handle was uncovered as 
 your wrist pushed back your coat, the menacing 
 letters which had come to me in the handwriting of 
 your lady sympathizer, the reputation you bore, 
 the opportunity of the time and place, and the 
 indications that you had been waiting for me to 
 pass." 
 
 " Then why didn't I go ahead and do it ? " 
 Rorer demanded. 
 
 " Because I turned my back, as Jeanie had 
 advised me," I answered. " When you replied 
 to my civil greeting as you did ; I turned and led 
 my horse into William's lane gate. If I had 
 faced you a moment longer on that solitary piece 
 of Mount Latitude road, I believe you would have 
 seized your last opportunity for revenge; and 
 then laid the blame upon me. When I turned 
 my back you didn't dare to shoot me; knowing 
 that the whole community was expecting you to 
 do it. The very fear which my mare showed of 
 you confirmed the moral certainty that it was you 
 
THE SCENT OF A SOUL 275 
 
 who fired the two shots at me that dark Sunday 
 night five months before, lodging the thirty-three 
 caliber bullet into the back of my runabout seat. 
 For Trolley had the scent of a dog, and showed 
 a mortal terror at the report of a gun." 
 
 " Now Reverend," Rorer complained, " you 
 wouldn't condemn a man on the queer actions of a 
 horse? " 
 
 " May God forgive me if I wrong 3'ou, Elder," 
 I answered ; " but Trolley snorted as we passed 
 you that dark night, and she gave the same snort, 
 only more anxiously, as we passed the barn out of 
 which you came that last Sunday afternoon. 
 She wanted to run, and it was hard for me to turn 
 her in to Elder Billy's gate. After opening the 
 gate, I held her head with difficulty as you ap- 
 proached. And I hope you will try and bear 
 with me as I tell you that your soul has a scent 
 as perceptible and as alarming to mine, as the 
 physical scent was only to my beast. I knew 
 you by it now, after a separation of more than 
 a century, and before we interchanged a 
 thought." 
 
 Much of Rorer's overmastering influence in 
 Mount Latitude had come, I often thought, from 
 his facility in displaying either an imposing rage 
 or an imperturbable dignity, and you never knew 
 which it would be. At this grievous provocation, 
 he chose to ignore my rudeness and replied calm- 
 ly that he was there to serve me, and to do the 
 
276 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 bidding of the Noble Grand. " Let us set out 
 upon our enterprise," he said, " without spending 
 further controversy upon bygones." 
 
 I turned to McGammon, " Noble Grand Mas- 
 ter," I said, " I fear this man. " He is the only 
 one I was ever afraid of in this way. My life was 
 threatened once by a representative of your line 
 of business during an anti-saloon campaign, and 
 it caused me little anxiety; but this man really 
 meant to kill me. He has a grudge against me. 
 I object to him as a guide. Will you send me 
 off alone in hell with a man who cherishes an un- 
 reasoning murderous purpose to do me harm." 
 
 " Reverend Sir," McGammon replied, " you 
 came in here by your own desire, expressing the 
 intention of looking for your brother. As I 
 yielded to your solicitation in the first place; so 
 now I am doing all in my power to facilitate your 
 purpose. My time is very much taken up, and 
 just now I have an urgent call to visit several 
 subordinate lodges. I have no time to bring a 
 succesion of guides for your selection. If your 
 nerve is weakening, you may go in the anti- 
 chamber for a hundred years. There is no 
 second alternative. You understood when you 
 came in that there was no exit." 
 
 I turned away from them both to talk with the 
 Master. " Thou knowest Lord," I said, " that I 
 have never willingly injured Rorer. He freely 
 joined with the other elders of Mount Latitude 
 church in asking for the Presbytery's commission 
 
HELL'S SINGLE RISK 277 
 
 to investigate things. I had no part in their 
 deposing him from his eldership. When Rorer 
 tried to kill his son-in-law with a poker, we gave 
 him a chance to appear on trial before the session 
 before we suspended him. I never gave him a 
 hard word. I carried no weapon to defend my 
 life from his threatened attack. Do not give me 
 over into his hand now. Thou has been my help ; 
 leave me not, neither forsake me, oh God of my 
 salvation ! " 
 
 " Fear him not," was the Master's answer, 
 " there is no fiend in hell that can really harm 
 you, except by leading you into sin. Go with 
 him ; do him all the good you can. But watch 
 and pray that you may not enter into tempta- 
 tion." 
 
 It would be tedious to tell of all the orders and 
 lodges we visited. Much as I had liked many of 
 their individual members and approved of the 
 general principle of human brotherhood and 
 appreciated the value of their cooperative insur- 
 ance, and realized the boyish imperative upon men 
 of getting together for a good time; interesting 
 myself in these lodges proved sometimes a rather 
 wearisome part of my pastoral work ; always ex- 
 cepting that of the Good Templars, where I could 
 go with my wife, sleep through the ritual, and en- 
 joy a rousing little temperance meeting during the 
 time allotted for the " good of the Order." I 
 missed Jeanie sadly now, and the motive of my 
 search seemed so uncertain of realization. My 
 
278 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 progress through the orders of Freemasons, 
 Knights of Pythias, Red Men, Elks, Eagles, Pa- 
 triotic Order of the Sons of America, United 
 Workmen, Junior Mechanics, Sons of St. George, 
 Knights of the Golden Girdle, the Royal Arcanum, 
 Knights of Columbus, the American Protective 
 Association, and, oh dear me! how many others 
 with whom I had already some acquaintance, 
 would have been but little better than a ten weeks' 
 yawn ; except for my interest in individual lodge- 
 members, too many of whom, alas! I had known 
 on earth. I began to suspect that the dignified 
 and patient thoroughness with which Rorer 
 assisted my search was helped by his complacency 
 in seeeing me do penance. " This seemed at 
 times the part of my pastoral work on earth most 
 worthy of that somewhat sardonic name," I 
 acknowledged to him ; " doing deference to these 
 sublimely important organizations; and I had 
 cherished the hope that when I got into eternity 
 I might have a rest from them; but now it seems 
 as though the greater part of hell's population 
 had joined one or the other of them — only these 
 orders themselves are many of them quite trans- 
 formed, and diverted in effect from the very excel- 
 lent motive each put forward on earth." 
 
 " You see Reverend," Rorer replied : " so many 
 men are in hell without their wives, and they have 
 so much time on their hands." 
 
 " But that doesn't explain why you joined," 
 I objected; "for you wouldn't live with your 
 
DENOUNCE TO SAVE 279 
 
 wife in Mount Latitude, and the other lady 
 may, possibly, he here." 
 
 " The other one became converted over again, 
 and never spoke to me for twenty years before she 
 died," Rorer acknowledged gloomily. " I think 
 the trouble began that night in the revival meet- 
 ing when she sat with a row of her friends con- 
 versing together across the middle of the congre- 
 gation, so that no one felt disposed to come 
 forward, and finally you pointed your finger 
 directly at her, and told her if she was disposed 
 to go to hell herself, at least not to try to take 
 others with her. That thing made her angry 
 for ten years and gloomy for ten more. Then 
 she went forward, one night, to the mourners' 
 bench in the Methodist church at Lime Ridge, 
 and got religion strong." 
 
 " Praise God ! " I cried, " and now Elder, why 
 don't you follow her example ? " 
 
 " I did," he confessed, " but it didn't work ; 
 she never had anything more to do with me, and 
 religion didn't stick to me any more than it did 
 the other times." 
 
 " Perhaps you hadn't the right motive," I sug- 
 gested. " Perhaps you were trusting in religion, 
 rather than in Christ." 
 
 " A man requires appreciation and friendship. 
 I took hold strong to exhort and pray; but the 
 brethren and sisters witheld their confidence and 
 their affection from me; and at last, I took to 
 drink, to drown my sorrows." 
 
280 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 M What a miserable old age you must have 
 experienced ! " I said compassionately. 
 
 " It ended in the poor-house," Rorer admitted. 
 
 " You must have been glad to breathe your 
 last and have it all over," I reflected. 
 
 " For all that, I would give my eldership in hell 
 just to be back at the Stone Bridge poor-house," 
 he declared, " much more to begin life all over at 
 Mount Latitude." 
 
 " I heard something of your eldership here," I 
 acknowledged, " and I rather anticipated it be- 
 fore." 
 
 " I have been for years an elder in the Metro- 
 politan Church of Millionaires' Corner," Rorer 
 informed me sententiously. 
 
 " That seems strange," I mused, " if you died 
 in the poor-house." 
 
 " Their wealth is only a memory," Rorer de- 
 clared. " I could buy up the whole crowd for 
 twenty -five cents. And I'm not the only one 
 among them that came to the poor-house at last." 
 
 " Still the change of circumstances was not so 
 great for you," I suggested. " You seemed to 
 have no particular means of livelihood when I 
 knew you, except your untoward hypnotism over 
 one well-to-do family and its connections." 
 
 " I believe I have been distinguished in the 
 Metropolitan church," Rorer declared ; " because 
 I am the only one among them that never lost 
 money. Perhaps they enjoy having one of their 
 number different for variety." 
 
STILL AN OFFICE-BEARER 281 
 
 " And are you as faithful a church goer as in 
 the old days at Mount Latitude," I asked. 
 
 " I never miss," was his answer. 
 
 This at once accounted to my mind for occa- 
 sional seasons of abstraction when Rorer did not 
 seem to be all of him with me in the lodge rooms. 
 He was ever an inscrutable man ; only to be per- 
 ceived in part upon the surface ; but since meeting 
 him in hell, I had been impressed that he must be 
 engaged upon some other, if kindred, enterprise 
 simultaneously with that of conducting me. I 
 did not fail to thank him for his disinterestedness 
 in remaining, even in part, by my side, having 
 other and distant matters to attend to. " And 
 now Elder," I continued, " you must still have a 
 form of godliness to occupy the exalted church 
 position which is yours. This certainly seems 
 in some respects a great advance from the elder- 
 ship of our little Mount Latitude Church. And 
 will you any longer deny the powvr of godliness? 
 Will you not yield your heart entirely to the 
 Christ of whom you could talk quite interestingly 
 in former days ? " 
 
 " It is entirely suitable for you to address me 
 in this manner, Reverend," was Rorer's calm 
 reply, " but you know that at heart, I am a con- 
 sistent believer in the doctrine of the Millenial 
 Dawn." 
 
 " I remember that this was one of the indict- 
 ments against you as a Presbyterian elder at 
 Mount Latitude, I answered. " And if you still 
 
282 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 hold these views, I am interested to know how 
 the Metropolitan Presbyterian Church of Mil- 
 lionaires' Corner, and your ecclesiastical peers in 
 the Presbytery take your belief now. How do 
 you square your belief with the teaching of the 
 Shorter and longer Catechisms and with that of 
 the Confession of Faith? " 
 
 " Those symbols contain my official belief," 
 Rorer answered. " My private belief is in the 
 Millenial Dawn." 
 
 " But how does your Presbytery like a man 
 that has two sets of beliefs ? " I asked. " And 
 what do your ex-millionaire brothers think of 
 your special private belief in the Millenial 
 Dawn?" 
 
 " I might ask in return, what does your celes- 
 tial presbytery think of your own special private 
 belief that offers salvation to persons after they 
 have died?" Rorer rejoinded. 
 
 " The difference is," I replied, " that your 
 belief, if I have a correct impression of it, antag- 
 onizes the fundamental principles of Calvinism, 
 of evangelical Christianity and of common 
 morality, while my belief in an aeonian redemp- 
 tion seems to complete and confirm them. I trust 
 to remain in perfect accord with our presbyteries 
 in heaven; as well as with our general assembly 
 and church of the First Born." 
 
 " Damn your Calvinism ! " exclaimed Rorer 
 with sudden heat ; " Damn your evangelical 
 
WAITING FOR THE DAWN 283 
 
 Christianity! Damn your morality! I am 
 looking forward to the Millenial Dawn." 
 
 "And how does that expectation help you?" 
 I inquired curiously. 
 
 " Help me? " he exclaimed, " why I would go 
 crazy without it. When the Millenial dawn 
 comes we shall all be changed. We will be good 
 and happy in a minute; or else some of us will 
 stop being. 
 
 " Which would you rather? " I wondered. 
 
 " I don't much care," was his answer. 
 
 " Have you no incentive at all to live? " I cried. 
 " Do you not often long to be all that God 
 would have you ? " 
 
 " I am that now, and always have been," was 
 his answer. 
 
 " What ! " I said, "has God ever wished you to 
 be a wife-deserter, a despoiler, a murderer by 
 frequent intention, if not in fact, a consummate 
 scoundrel and hypocrite, a — " 
 
 " I have been what God made me to be," he 
 replied, " and what I am and have been I am 
 bound to be until the Millenium dawns. Then I 
 shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of 
 an eye, when the last trump sounds. 
 
 " Rorer ! " I pleaded, " for Christ's sake who 
 died to save you, for pity's sake upon your own 
 soul, drop this awful stuff you have been think- 
 ing! The Millenial dawn will come for you the 
 moment you cry to God for pardon. You do 
 
284 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 not need to go on for ages as you have begun. 
 Now is the accepted time, now is the day of sal- 
 vation. Turn ! turn ! for why will you die ? " 
 
 " Reverend," Rorer answered, " you don't 
 know me. You do not understand my complex 
 nature. You never could, perhaps you never 
 will. But before you are done with me sir, I 
 calculate I'll give you something to think about 
 a long while." 
 
 With this veiled threat, he closed our personal 
 religious conversation, and we proceeded on our 
 tour of the lodges. 
 
 As I said, my spirit was saddened by the recog- 
 nition of old acquaintances. I found Windsor 
 Lodge of Mill I^iver, Sons of St. George still 
 holding its sessions in Fourth Degree on Sunday 
 morning at ten o'clock; though without accom- 
 panying potations from the beer keg, also still 
 holding its monthly hop, only without its whiskey 
 to mix with coffee for the women; but when we 
 had passed quite through these all-too-familiar as- 
 sociations of Sons of This and Knights of the 
 Other; we began to enter into a zone of organi- 
 zations which really seemed to exist for some 
 thing, while many of them possessed the charm of 
 novelty also. My companion introduced me to a 
 circle of Socialists; and I had to rub my eyes 
 metaphorically and exclaim to myself, " Is this 
 hell? " Like the early Christians they were hav- 
 ing all things in common ; only these were limited 
 necessarily to things of the spirit. It was won- 
 
HELL'S BEST CIRCLE 285 
 
 derful to see how they had mitigated the tedium 
 and chill of hell by their sedulous care in sharing 
 every gleam of comfort, every vibration of heart 
 warmth, in the endeavor to make a little glow of 
 gladness spread and radiate over a large area of 
 shivering, clinging life. In their midst I found 
 relief from that rub of passing spirits, each bent 
 on its own behoof, which had been my first intima- 
 tion of the environment of hell. As I moved 
 about among them, each one touched would go a 
 little way with me in deference and interest. I 
 found relief here also from the sameness of 
 masculinity; for men and women spirits here 
 mingled frankly, trustingly together, and told 
 each other their inner thoughts. It was a wom- 
 an spirit calling herself Anna Palvlovna who 
 showed me perhaps the greatest consideration of 
 them all, and patiently endeavored to explain the 
 difference between themselves and us who are 
 members of Christ's one eternal church; and in 
 return I gave her some account of myself, and 
 told her about Jeanie and Joy. She manifested 
 a certain repulsion for Rorer, and he consider- 
 ately left us to ourselves for awhile. " I cannot 
 understand why I should find you and your circle 
 here," I said. " He that loveth is born of God. 
 You seem so out of place. Why do you not 
 have your part with God's other dear children? 
 You are a greater puzzle to me than all the other 
 bewildering anomalies I have found in hell." 
 
 " Brother," she answered with engaging sim- 
 
286 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 plicity, " not many of us socialists here believe in 
 God, or in heaven, or in hell. We worship the 
 great but imperfect God, humanity. To us that 
 other conception of God seems to set the trend 
 toward tyranny. How can you be a free man, 
 while you tremble at the idea of a supreme being 
 whose arbitrary will controls your destiny for 
 eternity? How can you be untrammelled and 
 heart free; to devote yourself to the welfare of 
 your fellow men? Religion is the supreme sel- 
 fishness. We cultivate a life that is above these 
 narrow aims and interests — broader, sweeter 
 gladder. Our heaven is not the goal of a sancti- 
 fied individualism; but it is the realization of the 
 supreme well-being of all, the dream of a golden 
 future when socialism shall become as universal in 
 the polity of this spirit world as it has already 
 become on our dear old earth." 
 
 " You seem to have failed to notice one thing, 
 Sister," I objected; "A varied, voluntary, free- 
 souled kind of socialism has come to prevail on 
 earth along with the esential triumph of Christi- 
 anity, and because of it. It is all the work of 
 Jesus the Nazarene." 
 
 A smile, half of admiration, half of pity, shim- 
 mered over the bright surface of Anna's soul. 
 
 " It is so perfectly natural that you should feel 
 thus, Brother Nathaniel," she acknowledged. 
 " All the thoughts of all your forefathers direct 
 your own thoughts in this channel. Because the 
 two causes have grown and prevailed on earth 
 
ITS HIGHEST THEME 287 
 
 together; it was inevitable that minds of your 
 trend would attribute, the spread of practical 
 socialism to the prevailing power of Christianity ; 
 while it is entirely evident to minds that think 
 without the aid of hereditary counters; that 
 Christianity has survived at all only by its acci- 
 dental similarity to socialism and its skillful, if 
 tardy, appropriation of socialist ideas. Ever 
 since the crusades and the renaissance, the religion 
 of Jesus has availed itself of the fortuitous 
 advantage of association with the rising tide of 
 humanism which we call the modern era. The 
 successive triumphs of this humanistic principle 
 have been naively vaunted as triumphs of the 
 cross. And socialism, holding the future in its 
 heart, has not delayed from point to point of its 
 onward sweep to contend about issues already 
 past. Its outlook has been broad enough to 
 allow some lesser thougts of narrower minds to go 
 unchallenged ; until from the roaring loom of time 
 the pattern of man's destiny shall be unfolded in 
 its completeness, and truth stand out too clear for 
 argument." 
 
 u But Sister Anna," I protested in delight at 
 finding a womanly mind ready for high themes, 
 " how can you overcome the argument from priori- 
 ty and from overmastering influence which gives 
 our Jesus all the glory? Is He not the world's 
 first and greatest socialist, and humanity's truest 
 brother? Does not His magna charta of equal 
 Christian brotherhood give the complete ideal o£ 
 
288 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 all that is excellent in modern terrestrial life? 
 And is not His own completed law, 'Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbor as thyself being written to- 
 day across the statute books of earth's nations, 
 across the ledgers of her commerce, across the 
 contracts of her industrial life? What other 
 possible foundation principle is there for human 
 brotherhood, but in the sonship of believers born 
 again in Christ Jesus into the household of faith, 
 the family of God? The true brotherhood of 
 man, lost in the fall, is restored in forgiveness 
 through Christ, accompanied by the spirit of 
 adoption breathed into our hearts whereby we 
 cry Abba Father." 
 
 " Your thoughts are earnest, Nathaniel," the 
 woman admitted, "but oh! so amusingly child- 
 like! Really you must admit that humanity, is 
 one. All men are our brothers. There has 
 never been any fall. The idea is so effete that I 
 wonder at you for even referring to it. Man, as 
 we have him to-day, is the product of continuous 
 evolution. Every fall, even as Theodore Parker 
 claimed, has been a fall upward. The process of 
 development has been accelerated in certain races 
 and individuals. So men here and there have 
 stood out in advance of their age. The difference 
 has cost these men martyrdom ; but thus they have 
 lit the beacon fires of progress, to light the path- 
 way of advance for succeeding generations. Oh 
 yes, we love Jesus, as we love Plato, Bellamy, 
 Henry George, and Carl Marx — perhaps even 
 
THE GREAT SOCIALIST 289 
 
 more than any of these; I have often wished to 
 meet him, but he has never happened along in the 
 spirit world. He was perhaps the most brotherly 
 man that ever lived. But Jesus could have hard- 
 ly claimed for himself all the divinity and saving 
 power which your scriptures and your theologians 
 ascribe to him. These ideas are Pauline, Johan- 
 ine. They scarcely occur in the earlier gospels. 
 They were part of the halo of exaggerated grati- 
 tude shed upon the memory of a great, kind soul 
 which suffered deeply for its fellows. Jesus him- 
 self must be troubled about it, as we are sure the 
 soul of his mother was troubled by the mistaken 
 idolatry so long accorded her." 
 
 " Dear woman ! " I replied, "an analogy is not 
 an argument. If Christ had not in life and deed 
 have proved Himself so unmistakably divine; no 
 one would ever have thought of paying quasi 
 divine homage to His mother. The world's history 
 and the experience of many millions prove Him to 
 be God our Saviour. The miracle of redemption, 
 while it dwarfs all those of which the New Testa- 
 ment writers tell us, even that of his resurrection, 
 compels our belief in these as necessary incidents 
 of His introduction to the world. Yet you may 
 put all these aside for the moment if you wisli. 
 Himself is His greatest miracle. Oh if you only 
 knew Jesus Himself ! Not just His character and 
 mission revealed in His word, but His living pres- 
 ence which is here and everywhere. You said 
 you wondered why you had never met Him in this 
 
290 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 spirit world, and here He is right by our side.* 
 
 " What a beautiful delusion ! " the woman ex- 
 claimed. " I even wish that I might be held by it 
 too." 
 
 " ■ Then shall ye know," ' I quoted, " ' if ye 
 follow on to know the Lord.' And would you 
 really like to be a Christian ! " I added eagerly. 
 
 " For the yearning of a woman's heart, indeed 
 I would," she answered. " And would you not 
 also like to be a socialist? Then there would be 
 nothing between us in our friendship, would 
 there?" 
 
 " I am a socialist " I acknowledged. " Heaven 
 is all socialism." 
 
 " Then if you are a socialist already," she said, 
 " I will give you the sacred kiss of fellowship, 
 and I will try and learn to be a Christian." 
 
 It seemed very sweet to be so trusted. My 
 heart also was unspeakably lonely for fellowship. 
 And beside I reasoned eagerly of what might be 
 accomplished by joining this circle toward win- 
 ning to Christ the finest souls I had met in hell.. 
 I fear emotion was fast overmastering judgment 
 and principle. Our souls had almost met when 
 the whisper of the Master came to me saying, 
 " Beware ! " Instantly I remembered what the 
 Satana had said about kissing full-blooded men 
 to sleep. I looked again deep into the warm, 
 palpitating soul of the woman, and began to real- 
 ize that there was more of her than I had hitherto 
 been aware of, or than I could yet discern — only 
 
A NARROW ESCAPE 291 
 
 far within the azure depths of her nature I dis- 
 covered a second soul cuticle, and upon it, to my 
 dismay and horror, eight little callosities in two 
 rows, as if worn by the handle of a spade. 
 
 " Temptress ! " I exclaimed, recoiling. 
 
 A little spasm of contraction passed through 
 her, and the callous spots disappeared; otherwise 
 it was wonderful to see how well she maintained 
 her character, and showed just the right propor- 
 tions of surprise, reproach, wistfulness. " Do 
 you not really wish then to be one of our circle? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " I fear to," I stammered. 
 
 " Your Bible says there is no fear in love," she 
 reasoned. "Why will you spurn ours? Let us 
 love you, and you may be able to teach us many 
 things." 
 
 " Anna," I replied ; " since you wish to be 
 called by that name ; as I look into your soul I see 
 something which frightens me. Whether it is a 
 reflection from somewhere, or whether I am look- 
 ing through a lens which brings near a view of 
 something far away, I cannot tell. I see a dark 
 place that is like a charnel house where men are 
 dead while they still live. They quiver in and 
 out like worms, and one now and then reaches up 
 painfully, blindly almost back to life ; only to fall 
 back again into the quaking, piteous mass. If 
 I should let you kiss me, something tells me it 
 would be for the death. You would enswathe me 
 in your greater bulk and endeavor to suck out 
 
292 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 reason, purpose, manhood all that makes me truly 
 alive. Woman ! Devil ! when will you give up this 
 ghoulish trade? Can you not see that my Para- 
 clete will not let you take me by surprise? You 
 are blood-famished, crazy, mad with crime. Oh 
 if you would only let Christ dissolve that spell; 
 what a grand force for God you might be ! Poor 
 creature! you lurk for souls without even the ex- 
 cuse or the faculty of hating. Won't you give 
 it all up, and let Jesus save you, as you have just 
 pretended you were half inclined to do ? ** 
 
 But she answered still in character, " You talk 
 so strangely now, Brother. You seem to take me 
 for someone else. I hope- you will be like your 
 first self when we meet again." 
 
A FEARFUL RISK 293 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Rorer reappeared with surprising suddenness 
 after the Satana — if it were truly she — had 
 vanished. Indeed the stealthy scent of him was 
 on the air of hell around me even before my inter- 
 view with the woman had ended. This prompt- 
 ness, coupled with a curious disappointed manner 
 he showed, led me to suspect an understanding 
 between them. Indeed suspicion seemed the one 
 faculty demanded by my situation ; and I felt that 
 weakest aptitude of my nature strained beyond 
 its reach. I sighed more than ever for Jeanie, 
 who had ever manifested such a faculty for sizing 
 people up promptly. Jeanie used often to declare 
 that I could never see through people, especially 
 nice looking women, and that any clever woman 
 could manage me completely; but I would some- 
 times reply that I found it ever so much pleasanter 
 just to take people on their face value ; even if I 
 could not idealize and mark them up a little above 
 par. Such inflation of the currency of apprecia- 
 tion could not bankrupt me, so long as God had 
 placed with me such a deposit of true gold in the 
 person of Jeanie herself. I had never felt quite 
 so incomplete without her, as now. The heavy air 
 of hell was telling on me. A feeling akin to 
 shame and contrition pressed me down. A new 
 problem in the evangelization of hell had suddenly 
 confronted me. Could there be a possible danger 
 
294 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 for the heaven's missionary himself of succumb- 
 ing to its insidious influences, falling the quarry 
 of some unexpected shaft of temptation, and 
 thus dismally augmenting the population of per- 
 dition from which he had hoped to win others to 
 the Saviour? I thought of that moment when 
 the supposed Anna Pavlovna was about to wel- 
 come me into the circle. The friendship offered 
 had seemed almost too sweet. Then with the 
 sudden seeming revelation of a death-trap in the 
 offered kiss had come a revulsion of feeling, a 
 blush I could feel upon my own soul's forehead, 
 and from which I could find no relief except in 
 earnest prayer for a heart kept pure. Could 
 those who had seen God's face, who had been 
 sealed with His name upon their forehead, ever 
 again actually fall into sin? 
 
 The thought caused me such shuddering, that 
 I went on with elder Rorer, stepping carefully 
 for fear of pitfalls, and losing, perhaps, thereby 
 some of the interest of the organizations to which 
 he introduced me. I could see little use in looking 
 for Harry among Clans McAlpine, Clans NaGael, 
 Clans McCracker, McGinnis, the Ancient order 
 of Hibernians, the Mafia, an order of Martians, 
 and another from the planets of Sirius. Still less 
 did I really expect to find him among various in- 
 fidel clubs to which my guide next brought me; 
 for Harry had never seemed capable of two 
 thoughts on either side of any theological prop- 
 osition. To me the most interesting one of these 
 
DISEMBODIED LIFE 295 
 
 clubs for its own sake was one which called itself 
 the " Anti Immortality Society. " Curious to 
 hear what arguments could be adduced against 
 that continued existence which we were all actually 
 experiencing; I stopped to listen to one of their 
 debates. The question was put in a negative 
 form ; viz ; " Resolved that there is no future 
 life," and the first speaker upon the affirmative of 
 this proposition adduced the argument that it was 
 simply impossible to conceive of a disembodied 
 existence for the human soul. " All the mental 
 activities of which science could take cognizance 
 from infancy to old age," he declared, " were ab- 
 solutely conditional upon brain activity. When 
 the nerves went absolutely to sleep, the so-called 
 soul of man practically ceased to exist; if we 
 accept the dictum of philosophy that being is 
 activity. How then can death, by any possibility, 
 be anything more than an eternal sleep? How 
 can the identity of a spirit be preserved with no 
 form of physical life upon which to fasten it? 
 How could there be any communication between 
 it and other spirits ? " 
 
 To these questions, one who had been appointed 
 to uphold the negative side of the debate replied, 
 somewhat perfunctorily, that there was still a 
 tertiwm quid, a possible means of compassing 
 immortality; and while his distinguished protag- 
 onist had clearly set forth the unthinkableness of 
 a continued existence for the soul of man inde- 
 pendent of his body ; there was still the alternative 
 
296 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 left that a new embodiment might in some manner 
 be achieved or affected, either by a transmigra- 
 tion, a resurrection, or the adhesion of the soul 
 to some more ethereal type of protoplasm, adapted 
 better to sustain its activities and to broaden their 
 scope. 
 
 But the second speaker on the affirmative side 
 now contended in rebuttal that the moment of 
 transfer for the soul from one body to another, 
 however infinitesimally brief that moment might 
 be conceived to be, would be one of practically 
 independent disembodied existence ; and therefore 
 an entire impossibility and inconceivability, as 
 had been succinctly proven by his colleague in 
 opening the debate. 
 
 Thus the second speaker on the negative side 
 had really no ground left to stand upon. He 
 could only feebly inquire by what explanation his 
 confreres of the affirmative were prepared to meet 
 the apparent phenomena of their own present 
 situation. " We seem to have no bodies, parts or 
 passions," he declared ; " at least of a physical 
 order. And yet here we are, apparently, very 
 much to our own surprise, living on, remembering 
 well the details of our mortal existence down to 
 the moment of disollution; the moment when our 
 moribund circulation of blood ceased to sustain 
 consciousness, and parting the heavy curtains of 
 futurity, the essential self of each of us passed 
 into this which some call the spirit world. We 
 
DISPROVED IMMORTALITY 297 
 
 still say, each to himself, * Ego sum 9 : ' This is I.' 
 We perceive without senses, and we converse with- 
 out words. We recognize each other at the first 
 approach and greet one another across the uni- 
 verse." 
 
 " It is not for me," he continued, " but for the 
 wiser minds upholding* the affirmative of this 
 proposition to explain these anomalies. I cannot 
 advance them in argument; for all argument on 
 this question was successfully closed by the last 
 speaker. I simply place them before your august 
 minds as worthy, at least, of passing interest, if 
 not of careful scientific investigation." 
 
 Thus challenged, the men of the affirmative 
 brought forth two such profound explanations of 
 continued soul life as to overpower questioning 
 by their very ingenuity. One contended that 
 brain life continued for a time in a ghost body, 
 so ethereal as to be past perception, yet sufficient- 
 ly physical to be in touch with the universe. 
 " We were never conscious of our own brain ma- 
 terial," he explained, " and we only learned of 
 t>ur own bodies by the education of the senses 
 and of the judgment during early life." The 
 second speaker thought that mental activity might 
 continue for a period by virtue of the momentum 
 imparted to it before dissolution from the body. 
 " As in the hallucinations of starving men," he 
 said, " or the remarkable visions reported by those 
 who have spent some time in a state of coma, sa 
 
298 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 consciousness may flicker above the wick of the 
 expiring brain for a little while before it too 
 passes into nothingness." 
 
 Both agreed strongly in calling attention to the 
 exact form of resolution which they were de- 
 bating, viz: that there was no future life, and 
 made it quite plain that whatever might be the 
 appearance of things in their present condition, 
 absolutely unanswerable arguments had been 
 brought forward to convince all minds present 
 that it could not be real or lasting, so that all 
 might wait the rapidly approaching moment when 
 oblivion would claim its own, and life's fitful 
 dream be rounded by eternal sleep. The speak- 
 ers upon the negative side were thus left with 
 nothing more to advance, and the appointed judge 
 of the debate formally declared that it had been 
 won by those of the affirmative. Thereupon the 
 resolution, as originally put, was passed by the 
 members of the society without a dissenting voice, 
 and the exercises for the time being would have 
 closed with an adjournment sine die (in con- 
 sistency with their reassured conviction that they 
 were none of them likely to exist much longer in 
 order to reassemble), if the president of the so- 
 ciety had not suggested that it would be much 
 more pleasant to remain in session for the brief 
 time probably yet allotted them to live, and to 
 throw the meeting open for such comforting re- 
 flections as might be profitably brought forward 
 by any who felt so disposed. Thereupon there 
 
HELL'S DEAREST HOPE 299 
 
 came a pause in the meeting so long and so dis- 
 mal that I was forcibly reminded of some of our 
 Christian Endeavor prayer meetings in Colby. 
 The president finally remarked with some em- 
 barrassment and with evident reluctance that they 
 found themselves honored by the presence of two 
 visitors, and should either of these gentlemen 
 find himself strongly disposed to make a few re- 
 marks in the few moments still left to them be- 
 fore the meeting must close perforce by the stroke 
 of the hour of extinction, he was at liberty to 
 express himself as he saw fit. Thus encouraged, 
 and finding Rorer dumb, I thought I would make 
 an effort to be civil, at least, and say something. 
 So, with a heart's cry to God for help to put 
 some saving truth before their bigoted minds, I 
 ventured to call their attention to one omission 
 noticeable throughout the course of their debate. 
 " Gentlemen," I said, " I too have wondered over 
 the inconceivableness of the spirit life, both be- 
 fore and after I came to die. I have been puz- 
 zled to know how the soul of man apparently 
 continues to exist without activity in the body's 
 deepest, dreamless sleep. I have seen the flame 
 of consciousness smothered slowly out in forms 
 that were dear to me, and while the brave heart 
 kept on beating and the loud breath came and 
 went for days and nights of the death coma, I 
 have asked myself over and over, ' how can there 
 be any soul independent of this stiffening clay ? ' 
 I have died myself, even as you. I knew for days 
 
300 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 that I was dying: I said good-by to my dearest. 
 I spoke to them of a meeting beyond, which 
 would have seemed almost incredible to myself, 
 judging only from my physical sensations. Con- 
 sciousness came fitfully between intervals of 
 dreamless sleep: each seeming, as it overpowered 
 me, to be the last sleep of death. Last of all, I 
 was artificially rallied back to life by a mere 
 drug — just for one kiss upon my lips, a speach- 
 less glance of love from my own eyes into the 
 loving face bent over mine, and I took the plunge 
 into rayless depths. 
 
 Then came the new life. I could not under- 
 stand it at all. But then which of us could real- 
 ly understand one moment of the mortal life? It 
 has been all joy and wonder for over a hundred 
 years. 
 
 " But gentlemen," I said, " I seem to have one 
 factor in the equations of this gigantic problem 
 to which none of you in your debate has given 
 its proper place. It is the one great Known 
 Quantity without which — I should say without 
 Whom — all our calculating, though it were 
 chalked over the scroll of space, ends about where 
 it began. I have GOD. Your debaters spoke in 
 scientific phrase of brain action supporting con- 
 sciousness in the mortal life ; but what, may I ask, 
 was brain action or any other physical phenom- 
 enon, but a little part of the life of God ? What 
 we call matter is only an unknown something or 
 Someone, which we are compelled to think as ex- 
 
GOD AND IMMORTALITY 301 
 
 isting to be the substratum of motion ; for all 
 physical qualities, color, taste, sound, resistance, 
 heat, chemical properties, and the like, are forms 
 of motion and betray a Force, a Life not our own 
 or any other man's, but God's force, God's life 
 alone. When the brain dies, God does not die. 
 He simply passes my soul life from one hand to 
 the other and supports it still. In Him we live 
 and move and have our being. On earth it was 
 by means of life blood renewing nerve and brain. 
 Here the thing is more directly, hardly more won- 
 derfully, done. Brain action was only one little 
 form of God-action. This has never stopped and 
 never will. Supported by this inexhaustible 
 world's power plant, this uncheckable world's 
 dynamo, the current of your thought and of mine 
 flows on just so long as God wills it so. 
 
 " Gentlemen," I concluded, " it still seems al- 
 most incredible that the soul can live without the 
 body, but that is only our short-sighted percep- 
 tion of the basal fact that the soul cannot live 
 without God. As sure as God is God, thought 
 cannot die, love cannot die, conscience cannot die. 
 The very questions you ask prove you to be im- 
 mortal. Our questioning, our incompleteness 
 show God's plan so far from being worked out in 
 any of our lives, that we need not have one 
 thought of an end while that sure eternal plan 
 and decree are still unrealized. Our unbounded 
 capacity for growth demands eternity, for its 
 process. The one thing alone you and I have 
 
302 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 to dread is that for a moment or an aeon, we 
 should not be growing as God wills." 
 
 I might have said a good deal more, for after 
 the supreme effort of assurance in getting started 
 to address such an unwilling audience, the zest 
 of stirring things made it hard to stop. But just 
 at this point the president of the society inter- 
 rupted me and gravely but firmly gave me the re- 
 minder that the question on which I was essay- 
 ing to speak had been positively passed upon by 
 the decision of their appointed judge of the 
 debate, and by the unanimous vote of their mem- 
 bers, and consequently at the risk of seeming dis- 
 courtesy to a visitor, he found himself reluctantly 
 compelled to rule my remarks out of order. 
 
 I protested that I had heard him call for com- 
 forting reflections, and had been endeavoring to 
 furnish those. 
 
 He replied with dignity and firmness, not un- 
 mixed with asperity, that the comfort asked for 
 was for those firmly convinced of their approach- 
 ing extinction, and that it could afford no com- 
 fort to confuse the mind with a jumble of maudlin 
 nonsense. 
 
 Rorer now also spoke, apologizing for my line 
 of address, and suggesting that it was time for 
 us to be going on. He said that it seemed to him 
 highly unbecoming for an outsider to be letting 
 off his crude flights of fancy there, and inter- 
 rupting the philosophical calm of a society of 
 thinkers steadying each other to meet the con- 
 
UNWELCOME 303 
 
 elusion of their existence. In fact he intimated 
 plainly that he was ashamed of me, and so by 
 dint of their pushing and his pulling I found my- 
 self separated from their assembly with no proof 
 of good accomplished, and found myself going 
 on with a somewhat heavier heart, to see what 
 stranger kind of people hell might hold. 
 
 How much further our progress might have 
 continued I cannot tell, but it was interrupted 
 by an approach which filled me with surprise and 
 pity, while it evidently caused Rorer great an- 
 noyance. It was his youngest daughter, a child 
 of ten or twelve years when I had last seen her 
 on earth. 
 
 " The brat ! she haunts me," Rorer exclaimed. 
 
 " I should think you would be glad to have 
 her come," I mused. " She seemed strangely 
 wistful for your affection when she would come 
 to Sunday school, or meet you at the little 
 church." 
 
 " Yes, and when she died by Hanging herself 
 from the beam of the barn about six months 
 after you left Serenity, people generally blamed 
 it on me." 
 
 This was shocking news indeed. I wondered 
 how our correspondents could have kept it from 
 us, or how Jeanie and I could have failed to 
 take knowledge of such an event after coming to 
 heaven. I remembered well the great dark eyes 
 of the child, the shadow that was never lifted 
 from her face, her hesitation to believe anything 
 
304 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 glad. I could well understand how she might 
 have brooded over her mother's sorrow, until 
 some grey day, after one of her father's terrible 
 visits, living may have seemed almost more than 
 the child could bear. She came to us now, her 
 soul shivering as if from cold, but her father re- 
 ceived her with a manner to chill her even more. 
 " Oh Father ! " she said, " I have looked for you 
 so long ! Father, I am so lonely ! " 
 
 " What do I care how lonely you are ! " Rorer 
 exclaimed ; " I'd like to know how you came in 
 here anyway." 
 
 The child's distress was pathetic beyond de- 
 scription. Often at Mount Latitude my heart 
 would go out to her with an ache of pity, but 
 then she did have some home life. Now she 
 was alone in hell, and still a child in soul, strange- 
 ly undeveloped amid the meagerness of perdition. 
 
 " Maggie," I said, " do you know me ? " 
 
 " I know you, because you are sorry for me," 
 she said. " Mr. Prester, can't you get Papa to 
 be kind to me once more? " 
 
 " My poor little girl ! " I replied, " can you 
 still remember all that we told you in the Sab- 
 bath school about your other, your Heavenly 
 Father, and how He is always trying to be kind 
 to you? " 
 
 " But you know it isn't true really," she re- 
 plied. 
 
 " It is as true as the worlds and the stars. It 
 is true as the buttercup yonder in the meadow. 
 
LONELY 305 
 
 I know because God has been so kind to me. He 
 has given me all my dear home folks and we live 
 together in this great, wonderful universe every- 
 where at home, for everywhere we are together is 
 heaven." 
 
 " How can I know ? " she asked. " He never 
 was kind to me." 
 
 " Dear Maggie," I answered, " God wants you 
 to give him your heart so that He can be kind to 
 you and make up for everything. I believe He 
 would like you to come away with me to heaven. 
 Your mother is there and many of your old 
 schoolmates. I know He wants you and me to 
 pray together for your poor father here — " 
 
 At this point Rorer interrupted me with a hor- 
 rible oath. " None of that, you snivelling hypo- 
 crite ! " he cried. " Trying to get my daughter 
 to go away with you somewhere, and then both of 
 you pretend to pray for me ! " 
 
 " Oh Father ! " Maggie cried, with a gleam 
 of hope brightening the surface of her sorrow- 
 ful soul, " do you really care if I should go away? 
 Father, I will never leave you if you will love 
 me ! " She made a timid effort to embrace him. 
 
 Rorer swore at her in a slow, deliberate, heart- 
 chilling way, struck her a blow of resentment, and 
 spurned her with a kick of hate. " You and 
 this hypocrite set the community against me," he 
 complained. " You hung yourself and left 
 everybody to blame me for it. I don't care where 
 you go, or who you go with, or what becomes of 
 
306 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 you, so you never let me see your cursed ghost 
 again." 
 
 This was where Satan took me off my guard. 
 A sensation rose within me which I had not expe- 
 rienced in all heaven's years. God forgive me ! I 
 became angry with Rorer. An impulse of what 
 seemed righteous indignation came upon me, and 
 before I realized it, or had taken time to pray, a 
 keen joy of resentment toward the father, min- 
 gled with passionate pity for the child tingled 
 through every fibre of my being. Patience, I 
 felt, had ceased to be a virtue. Strong, self- re- 
 straint was cast aside with a dangerous exultation 
 at being morally free to show the man what I 
 thought of him. I forget the example of Michael 
 the archangel. I tremble still, as I remember 
 how I felt. Rorer's child was slipping away, 
 crushed, desolate, stunned by her sorrow. I drew 
 her to me and turned to face the creature who 
 stood to her for a father, with an impulse to 
 shake him out of his soul's wicked skin. 
 
 " You unspeakable brute ! " I exclaimed. 
 
 At that moment something cracked and gave 
 way beneath me. I seemed to fall a great dis- 
 tance, inhaling hot flame, and with walls narrow- 
 ing upon me as I fell. At last I struck ground 
 painlessly, as in a nightmare. The surroundings 
 of the universe were unchanged, Rorer and the 
 girl were still with me, but all else was terribly 
 different, for I had become a part of hell. I was 
 not only in hell, but hell was getting into me. 
 
FALLEN 307 
 
 Rorer had noted my catastrophe and leaped upon 
 me in rage and exultation. I never knew a man 
 who could work up anger to such imposing pro- 
 portions. " Curse you ! " he cried. " My hour 
 has come. Now I have you where I can handle 
 you. You are the man that plotted and schemed 
 until you deprived me of my eldership. You put 
 me out of the church. All the people in the coun- 
 ty knew about it. You lowered me before every- 
 body. You robbed me of the friendship of the 
 woman I loved. It was you who said, the first 
 time you took dinner with us at her mother's 
 house, that if we really loved each as brother 
 and sister, we ought, for love's sake, to separate 
 and never have anything to do with each other 
 any more. And it was you that denounced her 
 in your meeting and drove the dread of hell into 
 her heart, which led to her conversion twenty 
 years after, and then she never would have any- 
 thing to do with me any more. Haven't I got 
 something to settle with you, you scented pharisee, 
 you sanctified humbug, you smirking angel, you 
 Jesuit, you scheming persecutor, you seducer of 
 little girls from their parents, you cloaked re- 
 ligionist, you hell tramp, nosing into the secrets 
 of orders to which you don't belong ? " 
 
 So he went on heaping invective and taunt upon 
 me, stinging me with the repeated thrust of his 
 malice, with the expectation no doubt of bring- 
 ing me to retaliate and thus of dragging me 
 deeper down. 
 
308 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 But a more powerful emotion protected me. 
 The dread of losing heaven, and of forfeiting 
 God's love had swept over my soul, damping the 
 fire of anger. The feeling of shame, novel be- 
 cause so long unknown, bowed me down almost 
 below the capability for resentment. How could 
 I ever meet Jeanie and Joy and mother in heaven 
 now? I had been vulgarly angry: I had used 
 an epithet. Those blessed women seemed ten 
 times further away than they had before after 
 all these weary weeks of exploration into the re- 
 mote remainders of hell. Worst of all I could no 
 longer lay hold of God. It seemed strangely 
 difficult to pray, and the din Rorer was making 
 confused all my thoughts. Perhaps this was a 
 part of his purpose, for he seemed to be helped 
 in it by numberless grueome creatures of whose 
 activity around me in hell I had never before 
 been so conscious. Imps and fiends gaped and 
 snarled about me. Owl-like shadows flitted 
 back and forth snapping hungry beaks. Teeth 
 were being gritted, serpent rattles shaken, claws 
 sharpened. Scaly folds crawled slowly across me, 
 fangs scratched me, forked tongues shot in and 
 out touching me, great jaws yawned across my 
 soul and cold, slimy things began to suck at me. 
 The nearing yap of hungry pursuers came to my 
 hearing, and a sickening vulturine odor mingled 
 with Rorer's hyena scent. Look where I would, 
 red eyes gleamed in the darkness, stealthy forms 
 crouched and stalked about. 
 
AS AN ANGEL OF LIGHT 309 
 
 I felt the necesity of facing every way at once, 
 and with a sickening of the heart, I began to 
 acknowledge to myself that I was afraid. A 
 strange lassitude was creeping over me. All 
 these weeks and months of hell must have told 
 upon me more than I had realized. I did not 
 feel equal to the struggle which was upon me. So 
 many decades had passed by since I had known 
 the sensation of weariness ; the strangeness of it 
 frightened me. I cried to God in desperation, 
 but there was such confusion within, as well as 
 about me ; I could not feel sure that He heard me 
 in acceptance of my prayer. Then a stranger 
 thing still happened. From the far distance came 
 an angel — at first only just a luminous speck 
 of mild radiance, then disclosing as it came nearer 
 the form and the benignancy of a beautiful moth- 
 er spirit. The tumult seemed to abate around me 
 at her approach. Even Rorer railed less impres- 
 sively. 
 
 I remember wondering why an angel had been 
 sent to succor me, when I so sorely felt the need 
 of Jesus Himself. Then I thought of how it is 
 written that when our Lord was agonizing in the 
 garden an angel appeared comforting Him. But 
 I was in such distress, and so overmastered with 
 foes, that like a drowning man grasping at straws, 
 I was disposed to avail myself of the first succor 
 offered. And before I had really taken time to 
 reflect upon this rather ignominious and uncer- 
 tain line of retreat, I found myself enfolded in 
 
310 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 the shimmering radiance of the wonderful moth- 
 er angel which shut out noise and perturbation 
 as with silken curtains fold on fold. I felt that 
 I was being lifted and borne away, away : I found 
 it hard to care whither. A delicious drowsiness 
 was coming over me. I had not felt the ap- 
 proach of such sleep for the whole reach of spirit 
 life. In heaven here we have intervals of relax- 
 ation, when for very fullness of joy and peace 
 the soul remits its eager activities just to nestle 
 for awhile contentedly into the bosom of infinite 
 love. But the influence I found wrapping me in 
 at this time in hell was more like the sleep of 
 exhaustion, as I had known it back in the earthly 
 life. Under its spell effort even of thought grew 
 dull; concern for the future and the past alike 
 seemed hardly worth while. Like a weary child 
 folded to the deep breast of its mother, I was 
 sinking to rest without a care. A lullaby, soft as 
 the note of a cuckoo, crooned in the cadence of 
 the angel mother's voice. Her caress was like 
 the light passing of a mesmeric hand across my 
 soul. She seemed to have not a single reproach 
 to give me for the waywardness of my outburst 
 of anger against poor Rorer. It seemed already 
 a long, long time since it had happened. All that 
 had led up to it seemed to have transpired weeks 
 and months ago. The retrospect was becoming 
 blurred as upon slowly closing eyelids, and the 
 heaven-life itself seemed so far away, so unreal, 
 as hardly to repay the effort of remembering it 
 
IN EXTREMIS 311 
 
 any more. There was indeed an undercurrent of 
 uneasiness and dissatisfaction in my mental state, 
 like that with which the brain reluctantly yields 
 to the power of some soporific drug. The angel- 
 ic being who had thus unexpectedly taken me in 
 charge, herself encouraged me with a tenderness 
 that was almost more than motherly. " My poor 
 tired boy," she said, stooping as if to give me a 
 good-night kiss, " this temptation was more than 
 you could be expected to bear. How could any- 
 one help being provoked with Rorer? " 
 
 A moment more, and the kiss of spirits would 
 have been given me ; but these words of suggested 
 reproach upon providence roused me to a partial 
 consciousness of something going wrong, and 
 looking, even with glazing sight, I saw close be- 
 side me upon the cuticle of this great, soft, en- 
 folding soul, as though it were upon a hand 
 about to be laid playfully upon my eyes, the 
 callous spots of a digger of graves. Like one 
 struggling with a nightmare, I began endeavor- 
 ing to wrench myself free; but the soft arms of 
 the other's soul clung around me like the tentacles 
 of an octopus. Instead of floating upward as it 
 had at first seemed, I realized that I was being 
 drawn downward swiftly toward inky depths, and 
 that the embrace which had seemed so restful was 
 in reality drawing away my strength and deaden- 
 ing every faculty of resistance. Like a drown- 
 ing man, I thought of a thousand things at once : 
 of what it would mean to those who loved me, 
 
31£ A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 should I never come back to heaven, of the re- 
 proach brought upon the name of a redeemed 
 and blood-washed soul dragged down to living 
 death by yielding to the embrace of a goddess 
 Devi, of the slow pains of eternal dissolution to 
 a soul that is supurating at the raw ends of all 
 its nerves throughout impotent ages in the charnel 
 house of hell. I thought of all the souls in whose 
 salvation I had become interested here in hell and 
 of the millions of still more active minds to whom, 
 if I had kept true to God, I might have gone as 
 the herald of a new hope in Christ. Then with 
 the revulsion of an unspeakable horror rallying 
 my failing force, I strove once again to push 
 away from the livid bosom of this great ghoul of 
 souls in whose clutch I was being dragged to liv- 
 ing entombment. Alas! my strength single- 
 handed and devitalized, was as nothing to hers. 
 The vastness of her bulk enveloped, blinded, over- 
 weighed me. The folds which had so smoothly 
 slipped about me tightened and clung as with a 
 million roughened scales, while I struggled to be 
 free. Overmastered by the sheer power of a 
 tremendous, wicked will, and half swooning in my 
 despair, I was drawn downward still. 
 
DE PROFUNDIS 313 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Then conscience and the better soul awoke 
 with a start. I no longer cried for succor, but 
 for forgiveness. I cannot think now how I be- 
 gan to pray, only I told God over and over that 
 I was so sorry. " Oh, I cannot find Thee ! " I 
 cried, " and I need God so much ! If I must be 
 lost, still let me love Thee. Surely there is no 
 deep in hell which Thy love has not sounded. 
 Punish me as I deserve; only let me keep on lov- 
 ing Thee. I am so sorry ! so sorry ! Help me to 
 show it in the tomb of dead souls. Help me to 
 shout even into their dulled hearing that God 
 loves them, and there is hope. Oh God, forgive 
 this poor Santana who has captured me! She 
 is Thy child too, God's poor lost child. Don't 
 free me from her, if I can keep on trying to save 
 her. God bless my dear girl at home in heaven ! 
 God bless all the people who love me there. Help 
 them to wait patiently until I can come back, and 
 maybe bring Mrs. Guinness with me. Oh forgive 
 her, and save her, for the sake of the Saviour 
 who died for her too. She doesn't really know 
 what she is doing, and I'm so sorry for her ! I'm 
 sorry for poor Elder Rorer and his little girl. 
 God save them. Oh God, save us all! Make us 
 all sorry we ever got started going wrong." 
 
 Almost as I began to pray for her, the she- 
 devil's hold relaxed. Thus encouraged I contin- 
 
314 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 ued pleading for her salvation in tenderest pity. 
 I remembered that she had told me no one had 
 ever addressed her personally on that subject, and 
 I argued her case with God that perhaps it had 
 been only for the lack of positive Christian influ- 
 ence and by the turning of some hair of destiny 
 that she had chosen the evil path instead of de- 
 veloping into a power for righteousness. " Few 
 women," I argued with him, " ever deliberately, 
 intentionally, and maliciously turn to a life of 
 shame. It is almost always brought about by 
 some trap in which they are weakly caught, some 
 flame in which they giddily singe the moth-wings 
 of the soul. Oh my Master," I pleaded, " surely 
 the grace which made something of me could save 
 and make glorious use of her. Save her, Lord; 
 strike conviction into her heart; confuse her ut- 
 terly with womanly shame, the birth pang of a 
 true woman's soul. Open* her sight to Jesus 
 dying for her sin, and help her to believe that 
 God loves her too, and will save her, if there is 
 power in omnipotence to do it." So I continued 
 in prayer, perhaps for an hour, perhaps several 
 days, and when I could think of nothing more to 
 say, I looked about and the fiend-woman was gone ; 
 the suns were shining almost brightly through the 
 angry haze of hell, and in my own heart was the 
 unutterable peace of a soul newly forgiven. 
 
 Trembling to turn one way or the other in lean- 
 ing to my own understanding, I cried more ear- 
 nestly than I had yet prayed in hell, — " Lord, 
 
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE 315 
 
 what will Thou have me to do? " With a bound- 
 ing heart I heard His gracious whisper close be- 
 side me, saying, " Bring the child," and the next 
 moment I found myself again beside little Mag- 
 gie Rorer. To my great relief her father was 
 not there. I think it must have been about this 
 time that he became wholly absorbed in my fath- 
 er's trial before the presbytery of perdition on the 
 charge of heresy. At any rate, he had left his 
 child alone again within the dreary labyrinth of 
 the arcanum of lodges, where I found her, shiver- 
 ing with loneliness and dread. She was about to 
 flee from me, as from a ghost's ghost, when I ap- 
 proached, but I beckoned to her cheerily, and she 
 waited for me in a hesitating, timid way. " Mag- 
 gie," I said to her, " I want you to come away 
 with me, by God's forgiveness and help, to meet 
 your mamma in heaven." 
 
 " But you know there isn't any heaven really," 
 the child answered. 
 
 I asked her if she had ever known me to de- 
 ceive her, and she acknowledged that I had not 
 about other things. " But you know they hired 
 you for a minister in Mount Latitude," she ar- 
 gued, " and they paid you to talk about heaven 
 and ' God so loved," and all the rest of it. There 
 never was anything to show that it was really 
 true." 
 
 " But Maggie," I replied, " since those days 
 I have died and been in heaven, and I remember 
 meeting your mother there once or twice. She 
 
316 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 was not so sorrowful there all the time ; but when 
 I saw her, she was like a young girl again, happy 
 and light hearted, only I remember she still had 
 a wistful look; I suppose it must have been be- 
 cause she was thinking now and then of you." 
 
 " I would like to see my mother look young 
 and happy," the child answered again, " but it 
 sounds too much like a Sunday school lesson out 
 of the Bible. If there really is a heaven, and 
 people are truly happy there, and you were happy 
 too, why did you ever come away ? " 
 
 " I only came to hell for a little while," I re- 
 plied; " just to look for some of God's waifs like 
 you." 
 
 " But if you are so good and kind sure 
 enough," the child questioned doubtingly, " why 
 did you get mad at Father and call him a brute, 
 and then go tumbling down in that strange 
 way? What made you turn him out of the 
 Mount Latitude church anyway? " 
 
 Her questions confused and discouraged me. 
 " Holy Spirit," I prayed, " show me how to lead 
 this poor lost child to Jesus. She doubts me and 
 there is little I can say for myself, after what she 
 has seen of my conduct lately. I cannot say any- 
 thing to turn her heart away from her father. I 
 believe she would rather wander around after him 
 in hell, than go to the mother in heaven, on whose 
 face she never saw a smile. Thou hast told me 
 to bring the child, and I could not bear any- 
 way to leave her here; yet she will not believe 
 
EVANGELISTIC DESPERATION 317 
 
 anything good I tell her. I can do nothing with 
 her, and unless Thou wilt work some wonderful 
 change in her poor little heart ; here I stick ; but 
 hopefully. In the meantime, Wilkinson and 
 Love joy are needing me, as I perceive, more than 
 ever, and there are Galpin, and Godson, and Wil- 
 loughby, and oh, so many thousand and million 
 others who just must be saved." 
 
 It was at that moment that I received my new 
 baptism as a soul-winner in hell. It came over 
 me, with deep contrition, that I had been going 
 about the King's business in a dilletante, will-if- 
 I-can, lackadaisical way, more like a summer tour- 
 ist, or Congressional committee of investigation, 
 than as God's fireman snatching perishing souls 
 as brands from the burning. It came over me 
 with tremendous urgency that the King's business 
 was demanding haste, even more in hell, with its 
 myriad appeal of passing opportunity, than on 
 earth with its narrower range of helpful soul-con- 
 tact. So at that moment God charged my listless 
 soul with a power of desperation to save, and save 
 quick, trusting in Him alone to turn on the cur- 
 rent of saving power every time I pressed the but- 
 ton of believing prayer. I turned again to Ror- 
 er's child, and I do not really think it was so much 
 what I said to her now, as it was the God-given 
 longing and determination to tear her soul out of 
 Satan's net that did the work. " Maggie," I 
 said, " God wants me to bring you away to heav- 
 en. You must come. Bow your soul here by my 
 
318 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 side and let me teach you what to say to your 
 Saviour." 
 
 The child's will yielded. Hesitatingly, wpn- 
 deringly, but with increasing solemnity, she 
 joined the current of her thought with mine in 
 prayer. Presently she ceased to tremble so pite- 
 ously. She nestled closer to my side and the voice 
 of her soul grew stronger. Suddenly she stopped 
 with a little gasp of surprise and of gladness. 
 " Oh Mr. Prester ! " she exclaimed, " I see Jesus ! 
 I know He is real now, for I see Him. He is 
 right here by us in hell." 
 
 I was silent for joy. Again she spoke with a 
 sob melting from longing into ecstacy. " I see 
 Mamma ! " she exclaimed, " ever and ever so far 
 away, but oh! in such a bright place! and she 
 does look different; but I believe she is praying 
 too. I wonder if she is praying for me? " 
 
 " Maggie," I asked, when I could speak for 
 gladness, " will you give yourself all to Jesus 
 now, and come away with Him and with me to 
 heaven, where your Mamma is praying ? " 
 
 " It is so kind for you and Jesus to want me," 
 she answered. " Yes, I will keep close between 
 you, and I won't let anybody in hell pull me 
 away." 
 
 Poor little girl ! Her resolution was soon to be 
 tested. As we went along together linked in 
 dear hope, she asked me over more than once, 
 " Do you think God will forgive me forever for 
 hanging myself? It was so wrong, and I am 
 
SWEETLY SAVED 319 
 
 so sorry ; but oh, I was miserable when I did it ! " 
 
 " Talk to Jesus yourself about it," I counseled 
 her at last. 
 
 I let her pray just for herself, and did not seek 
 to enter into the privacy of her communion with 
 the Master. At last she turned to me with a 
 soul that was radiant even in its awe. " He an- 
 swered me ! " she exclaimed. " I spoke to Jesus 
 and He spoke back to me ! And all these terrible 
 years I have been believing there wasn't really 
 any such person ! " 
 
 " What has Jesus said to you ? " I asked won- 
 deringly. 
 
 " He told me that He died for poor suicides 
 too," the girl replied. " He said I could love Him 
 that much more, and He told me He had a great, 
 great errand for me to do, to prove I love Him. 
 Brother Prester," she whispered, " I believe Jesus 
 is going to let me be the one to save poor Father." 
 
 I thought it very likely, for surely no one else 
 still loved Rorer as she did. I still sniffed the 
 air of hell for dread of his scent tracking us, as 
 we went on, and as I told her of the two men 
 who were wishing and calling for me, back in 
 Mystery lodge. 
 
 " How did the girl get in here ? " was the first 
 question Wilkinson asked. It was only the out- 
 side Wilkinson which seemed to be there at first. 
 
 " I hardly know how she worked her way in- 
 side the area of lodges," I answered. " They say 
 love laughs at bounds, and it was her despairing 
 
320 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 love for her father that drew her to the spot 
 where we met." 
 
 " But how did she get into Freemasonry ? 
 Women and girls are not allowed here." 
 
 " That's so ! " I exclaimed. " I had entirely 
 overlooked and forgotten about that. It must be 
 all my fault. We came in the back way this 
 time, so to speak, you know, and I really cannot 
 tell you how I got in myself. My guide had 
 attended to all the details of pass-words and sig- 
 nals in our progress from lodge to lodge, and he 
 isn't with us now. I guess the child and I just 
 came, that's all. God must have opened the way, 
 without any thought about it on our part." 
 
 " You can never, either of you, get out alive," 
 Wilkinson declared anxiously. " It is death to 
 intrust the secrets of Freemasonry to a female." 
 
 " She will get out," I declared stoutly, " and 
 so will I, and so will you, just when God calls us 
 out." 
 
 Then the inner Wilkinson peeped out, a visage 
 grown old with sorrow. " God will never call me 
 out of here," he said. " I have sinned against the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 Then he was about to disappear behind the 
 other Wilkinson, but I made a grasp of sympathy 
 to hold him. "Dear Philip," I said, "I have 
 lately passed through an experience of falling 
 into sin which almost brought me to think the 
 same terrible thought, but God is rich in mercy 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 321 
 
 and He is trying me again. He will do the same 
 for you." 
 
 " I don't believe you did it on purpose, Do- 
 minie," Wilkinson declared. " Don't the Book 
 say that if we sin wilfully, after that we have re- 
 ceived a knowledge of the truth, there remaineth 
 no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful 
 looking for of judgment and fiery indignation 
 which shall devour the adversaries?" 
 
 " Now Brother," I exclaimed, " you are going 
 to suspect me beforehand that I will do ,my best to 
 explain away the force of your text ; but I would 
 like to tell you, half the bugaboos in the New 
 Testament come from not understanding the 
 Greek. I happen to have had a talk with Pris- 
 cilla herself about her Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 and what she really wrote was, if we are sinning 
 wilfully after that we have received a knowledge 
 of the truth, there remaineth no other sacrifice 
 for sins. Of course not, there never was but the 
 one. There is none other name but that of Jesus 
 given under heaven among men, whereby, if saved 
 at all, we must be saved. And for the man who 
 is in that state of wilful sin against the truth of 
 salvation of which he has received the knowledge, 
 the man who has trodden under foot the Son of 
 God and hath counted the blood of the covenant 
 wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and 
 hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace, there 
 is no hope in looking for some other Saviour. 
 
322 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 There is nothing for him but sore punishment and 
 fearful expectation, until he gets back, like Peter, 
 to the dying Saviour whom he has denied, and 
 whom he has even crucified afresh, and put Him to 
 an open shame." 
 
 " But doesn't Priscilla say that it is impossible 
 to renew such backsliders again to repentance? " 
 Wilkinson persisted. 
 
 " With men this is impossible," I quoted, " but 
 with God all things are possible. He has done 
 it with you, brother. You are already deeply 
 repentant. And let me assure you, however dark 
 these passages in God's Word may seem to you, 
 they certainly do not apply to any man who is in 
 a state of genuine heart-sorrow for sin. This, 
 in itself, proves that the man is not reprobate but 
 that he is under the strong reclaiming influence 
 of the Holy Spirit of grace." 
 
 But Wilkinson had one more objection. 
 " Doesn't John say that there is a sin unto death, 
 and we mustn't pray for that," he asked. 
 
 " No, he says, * I do not say that he shall pray 
 for it,' " I answered. " I fear brother, that you 
 have your knowledge of the scriptures from going 
 steadily to church, rather than from reading the 
 Bible for yourself. Even the Beloved Disciple 
 may have hesitated to tell us that we may pray for 
 the sin of apostasy, but the very fact that he 
 doesn't dare to tell us not to pray for it opens a 
 little door of hope, it seems to me, even into hell 
 itself, and when our Lord himself says of the sin 
 
WHERE CONVICTION, HOPE 323 
 
 against the Holy Spirit that it shall not be for- 
 given men, either in the mortal age or in the 
 aeon to come, he gives us fairly clear ground of 
 hope that there is a forgiveness of sins in eter- 
 nity." 
 
 Charlie Lovejoy came groping to us at that 
 moment. " You were speaking of the sin that is 
 unto death," he said. " Isn't it such as I who 
 have sinned that? I cut myself out, of the mor- 
 tal state of probation, and didn't that seal my 
 doom? " 
 
 " Are you sorry you did it ? " I asked him. 
 
 " More sorry than eternity can tell," he an- 
 swered. 
 
 " But are you sorry just for your own wel- 
 fare," I asked again, " because you threw away 
 something that was valuable to you ? Or are you 
 sorry toward God and ashamed for having grieved 
 His love?" 
 
 Lovejoy's soul shook with emotion. " Sorry 
 and ashamed," he sobbed. 
 
 " Then let us dare to pray for mercy on our 
 three sinful souls," I urged. " We are under 
 conviction of God's Spirit, and that alone shows 
 we have not grieved Him away forever. I tell 
 you boys, I am right in the same boat with you. 
 I can see I have been trusting hitherto even to the 
 point of overconfidence, in the sealing of the Holy 
 Spirit. Now I am trusting in nothing but my 
 Saviour's mercy and grace to help in time of 
 need." 
 
324 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " Can there be mercy for a suicide? " Lovejoy 
 cried. 
 
 Little Maggie Rorer touched him timidly. " I 
 am a suicide too, sir," she cried. " I hung myself 
 in poor Mamma's barn. But the dear Saviour 
 has forgiven me. He is here close by my side. 
 Sure if He can love me, He loves you too." 
 
 It was then that I got my first whiff of Rorer 
 coming. Maggie did not seem to notice it. Per- 
 haps she never had been so keenly conscious of 
 the beast in him through that particular sense. 
 I felt that time was pressing and suggested a cir- 
 cle of prayer. " What ! Here in the open lodge 
 chamber? " Wilkinson exclaimed tremblingly, and 
 for a moment I feared he would change persons 
 again. " My brother! " I cried in alarm, " when 
 you truly repent you will chose the most open 
 place in hell to pray in. And when you have 
 prayed your way back to God's heart again, you 
 will be ready to stand there and let all hell know 
 you are a Christian." 
 
 " But the lodge ! " Wilkinson whispered. " Al- 
 ready I can see their attention turning this way. 
 Pretty soon old Mack will be onto us and he'll 
 turn perdition lose, but what he'll down us all." 
 
 " So much the better ! " I declared stoutly. 
 " Quick ! There isn't a minute to lose ! Down 
 before God!" 
 
 So we four souls bowed low there, clinging to- 
 gether in the semi-darkness, while danger mut- 
 tered and tiptoed around us. But God made a 
 
PRAY OR FAINT 
 
 calm for some moments just about our souls, and 
 I said to Wilkinson, " You begin ! " 
 
 " God be merciful to me a coward ! " Wilkin- 
 son began. " Oh God, I'm such a chump ! I'm 
 the fellow that was afraid and went and hid his 
 talent in the earth. God, I'd have been saved 
 a hundred and fifty years ago, if I had dared to 
 call my soul my own, and let Christ save it. It 
 wasn't what I knew was right, but it was what 
 the other fellows wouldn't laugh at that I chose to 
 do and chose to be. And when little Brother 
 Prester, here, found his way to hell, where I have 
 been serving out the sentence of an ex-saloonkeep- 
 er these many years, and when he came and told 
 me I could still repent and find my mother's God ; 
 and when I told him I was sorry for my sin, and I 
 repented and God spoke peace to my soul, then the 
 first minute I found myself alone with the boys 
 again, I went back on my Saviour. I took my 
 old man down from the cross where he had ought 
 to have staid crucified with Christ, and I stuck 
 him up in front of me for a mask, because I was 
 ashamed to let the fellows know that I had got 
 religion. Oh God! if there is mercy for a con- 
 temptible backslider and turncoat like me, please 
 for Jesus' sake, take me back and try me over 
 again just this once. Put me in the middle of 
 the searchlight blaze of hell and give me a chance 
 to witness to the boys that Jesus died for me. 
 But oh, Christ ! don't leave me ! Stay by my side 
 and keep me from getting scared again. Never 
 
326 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 mind how long I may have to stay in hell, never 
 mind if old Mack says a charm over me that locks 
 me up in the ante-room ten thousand years; only 
 keep me true to God, and in wonderful mercy 
 bring us all home to heaven at last for Jesus' sake, 
 Amen." 
 
 It was now Love joy's turn, but when he tried 
 to speak his soul began sobbing like a child. 
 " Dear Christ," he said at last, " it's me praying 
 in hell. I never thought I could, but I am pray- 
 ing now. Oh Christ, I cannot stand it any long- 
 er to be far from You. I have tried many other 
 experiments, now let me try what prayer can do 
 for a wilful, reckless self-murderer like me. Oh 
 Jesus, can You save a suicide from hell, and not 
 encourage other worsted sinners on earth to throw 
 up the sponge as I did? Ought You not to make 
 a dreadful example of me, to keep others from 
 doing as I did? Ought You not to send me back 
 to haunt the earth and tell every would-be suicide 
 that it means an eternal loneliness and a doom of 
 separation, and a changeless fate of vain regret 
 to embezzle the sacred trust of living God has 
 given. God knows I have suffered, but not 
 enough to atone for my sin. Eternity in hell 
 could not make up for it. Oh crucified Saviour, 
 let me cast my load of guilt on You. Help me 
 to dare to take the boon of pardon only on Your 
 merit, and because Christ has suffered all the pen- 
 alty for me. Oh! can I get back to Clara and 
 
A CONVERTED SUICIDE 327 
 
 Mother? Can I make up to them for all of it in 
 some way through the eternity that still lies be- 
 fore? How I will love God for it! How I will 
 love this dear brother that tried to save me from 
 despair long ago in Tippleton, and now he has 
 come to try and save me even in hell. Oh God, 
 You know I never hated anybody in my life. I 
 never gave a hard word. I never meant to injure 
 anyone. But I'm not proud of that ; for by gen- 
 tleness I wounded those who loved me that much 
 more deeply. Oh God, I'm so sorry! For 
 Christ's sake forgive me, just to let me show 
 everybody that I am sorry. Maybe that will be 
 the best way to treat a suicide after all. Make 
 me such an example of redeeming mercy, such a 
 miracle of grace, that I can go up and down in 
 hell, as long as perdition lasts, to tell lost souls 
 that Jesus pardoned me and therefore He can save 
 and pardon anybody. Help me to bring ten mil- 
 lion suicides to glory. That will be so much 
 better than leaving them in hell. No matter 
 how much pain it costs me! I have thrown away 
 every precious thing that God ever gave me ; now 
 help me to throw my own wretched self away 
 even into the arms of Jeus. God bless Dominie 
 Prester and this little girl that says Jesus has 
 found her, although she was a suicide too. Great 
 God! do not let them come to harm for coming 
 back here for us. Help us to stand whatever 
 trial may be coming and pull us out of this old 
 
328 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 pseudo-Masonic net of Satan, and help us to 
 pull poor old Uncle Linas Godson out with us 
 too, for our precious Saviour's sake, Amen." 
 
 Then we knew that Godson and Galpin and 
 Willoughby were there with us too. Not as yet 
 in our circle of prayer, but hesitating and almost 
 persuaded. 
 
 " Go on praying," I said. " There's no time 
 for argument now." We did not continue pray- 
 ing one at a time, but all four together at one 
 moment in unison, each making his own plea, yet 
 following the prayers of the others and saying 
 amen to each simultaneous petition. Lovejoy and 
 Wilkinson prayed for the two who had been 
 their neighbors in Tippleton. I prayed for the 
 conversion of my old Churchville neighbor, Gal- 
 pin; Maggie prayed for her father. His scent 
 was now so strong that she must have been con- 
 scious of his approach. I think God must have 
 curtained us with a little mist of darkness like 
 the pillar of cloud in the rear of the Israelites, 
 for although men and demons seemed to be stir- 
 ring angrily all about us, none as yet seemed 
 quite to find us in their hatred. The three who 
 had been drawn by our sympathetic interest in 
 their salvation neither knelt with us at first nor 
 did they scoff or turn their backs upon us. Gal- 
 pin was the first to yield. " I was never inside 
 a prayer meeting in my life," he said, " but I'm 
 damned forever if I don't join this one." So he 
 bowed before God with us and began trying to 
 
SURROUNDED 329 
 
 pray. We put our embrace around him, encour- 
 aging his faltering petitions, and redoubling our 
 entreaties for the other two. Presently Uncle 
 Linas also bowed low with us. It was atonishing 
 to hear this chaplain and past chaplain of devil- 
 worship drawing near to God in penitent prayer. 
 Habitual oaths rose to utterance, and were 
 changed to humble confessions of wrong doing. 
 Jumbles of ritual melted into outpourings of gen- 
 uine entreaty. In all my experience of revivals, I 
 had never known anything like this. Two sui- 
 cides, a murderer, a former saloonkeeper, an old 
 drunkard steeped in sin, and I, the chief est sinner 
 of them all, having so lately fallen from the dig- 
 nity of a child of heaven into unseemly anger, 
 we mingled our prayers and our confesions, cling- 
 ing together and praying for one another, with 
 danger lowering around us, and a terrible com- 
 pression of secret power holding us in even from 
 the freer air of the outside hell itself. Willough- 
 by still lingered near, uncommitted. Suddenly 
 the full glare of the lodge room was turned on. 
 The Noble Grand was at hand well aroused. We 
 stood revealed to thousands of foes shocked, out- 
 raged, indignant to find us there conducting 
 a prayer circle of penitents involving prominent 
 members in the center of Mystery Lodge of the 
 Masonic Order of hell. 
 
 Willoughby's beak snapped together audibly, 
 and he disappeared in the crowd which was clos- 
 ing in upon us. Apparently it was to be some- 
 
330 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 thing like a college rush. Up from beneath, 
 down from above, in from all sides our foes came 
 at us. 
 
 " Hang together, and keep on praying," I 
 counselled. " There is no other hope for us 
 now." 
 
 The shock of their impact was beyond calcu- 
 lation. The weight of some tens of thousands of 
 spirits, human and satanic, converging their rage 
 and hatred upon us, almost threatened to crush 
 out our existence. Then there came a twisting 
 and grinding action. By scorn, by ridicule, by 
 threat, by taunt, by jibe, by sneer, by seduction, 
 by reproaches, by blandishments, by corruption, 
 by intimidation, by solicitation, by misrepresenta- 
 tion, by every possible appeal to cupidity, or im- 
 pulsion of fear and pain, they endeavored to 
 wrench us apart, to tear my converts away and to 
 scrape me with torture. Long since I had learned 
 to find some relief from the painfulness of the 
 rub of souls in hell, by raising a little prayer for 
 each soul, thus yielding to its self-seeking mo- 
 mentum, and going a little way with it in a pity 
 so unsought, uncomprehended, and unappreciated 
 as to be, perhaps, of little avail for the sentient 
 object upon which it was bestowed, but availing 
 somewhat nevertheless as a lubricant and air-cush- 
 ion to spare its author personally a little of the 
 bump and friction of such association. But now 
 the rub of rough, raw souls came as fast and 
 furious as a storm of sand, and the roar of their 
 
COMRADES IN DANGER 331 
 
 imprecations was like that behind Niagara. Still 
 we could hear each other pray, and with power 
 of love mightier than hate, we clung to one an- 
 other and to God. When one seemed about to 
 be dragged away, we others would twine all our 
 prayer and sympathy about that one. So we 
 were strengthened in our hold upon God by our 
 concern each for the other, and soon we found we 
 could meet our swarming foes with a little fire 
 of pitying intercession, crying " Father, forgive 
 them for they know not what they do ! " singling 
 out individuals, as fast as we could recognize 
 them, as special objects of appeal. God's grace 
 was being made sufficient for us, and I wondered 
 to see my companions growing in grace under this 
 strange trial. Already they were no longer babes 
 in Christ, but able to stand together in His 
 strength, and to look grave danger manfully in 
 the face. If one of us had for a moment given 
 place in his soul to anger or fear, I believe he 
 would have been torn from us and trampled un- 
 derneath a mass of satanic hoofs. By every 
 hook that might catch and drag or tear, our per- 
 secutors endeavored to divide, that they might 
 conquer us. I felt particularly pained for little 
 Maggie; for Rorer would clutch at her by every 
 handle of her love and fear, and when foiled in 
 each attempt, would beat at her in a revulsion of 
 fury. The others faced more numerous antag- 
 onists in all their vast acquaintance of lodge mem- 
 bers bent now upon preventing apostasy from the 
 
332 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 order. All the secret terrors of the lodge-room 
 were unloosed to put a strain upon them. Mc- 
 Gammon seemed ubiquitous. Whenever we could 
 catch a glimpse through the mass of nearer foes, 
 he could be distinguished inciting this one and 
 that to personal attack; while back still further 
 the great Father of evil hovered and planned and 
 lowered with a scowl that obscured the universe. 
 
 Hours lengthened, apparently, into days. The 
 confusion of so many encounters, the weight and 
 oppression of so great a multitude of foes ren- 
 dered it hard to keep track of the passage of 
 eternity. The throng about us grew more and 
 more vast, as we could readily perceive, each 
 member of it being transparent. The news of so 
 strange an occurrence had no doubt e'er this sum- 
 moned together almost the whole membership of 
 the order. We were almost suffocated in the close 
 atmosphere of their narrow spite, their bigotry of 
 evil. The hot vapour of so many sourly fer- 
 menting spirits piled together would have scalded 
 us but for the constant refreshing inrush of the 
 Spirit of grace into our panting souls. Per- 
 haps if we had at first prayed less eagerly for our 
 own deliverance, the trial might have been shorter, 
 for it was noticeable that when we began to pray 
 that God would keep us there until we could con- 
 vert many more of them, and when we began to 
 plead with them to cast aside the madness of re- 
 bellion against God, and flung out our repeated 
 testimony of His forgiveness and power to save, 
 
A HERALD OF DELIVERANCE 333 
 
 the rage of some began to change to intelligent 
 curiosity, piqued with amazement at our en- 
 durance. The din of their exasperation grew less 
 confusing. Then I distinguished something 
 from far away which made my soul leap. " Com- 
 rades," I exclaimed, some one is coming to our 
 rescue ! " It was like the tapping upon the rock 
 walls of an exploded mine which tells the prison- 
 ers caught in its inner chambers, slowly filling 
 with choke damp, that men are working day and 
 night to clear away the wreckage and reach them. 
 Only these raps were in regular order, with some 
 meaning unknown to two of us. Presently a 
 slight disturbance was noticeable far back at the 
 edge of the lodge space. Some spirit was elbow- 
 ing its way through that dreary mass of soul- 
 less souls, expostulating, giving passwords, grip, 
 signals, disarming suspicion, dodging some blows, 
 meeting threats with bland assurance, wedging its 
 way inch by inch, turning its angle of least re- 
 sistance toward any little crack between varied 
 facets of many-shaped opponents, slipping this 
 way and that, deaf to imprecations, obtuse to 
 frowns and scowls alike, until it approached near 
 enough to beckon to us, as it struggled in inch 
 by inch against ever-increasing odds. 
 
 " Albert ! " I exclaimed, for it was Detwiler 
 himself. " How did you dare to do it ? How 
 did you get them to let you in ? " 
 
 But my recognition at once increased the hos- 
 tility of those about him. With cries of " Trai- 
 
334 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 tor ! Renegade ! Turncoat ! " lodge members 
 both human and diabolic, turned upon him with 
 concentrated fury. It began to look doubtful if 
 he would survive to reach us, or would perhaps 
 be overborne and hustled away; but he signaled 
 to us bravely in the midst of his superhuman 
 struggles. " Help is coming," he cried in gasps. 
 " They are praying their way in. They will 
 stave a hole in and come. This hard-shell old 
 cave of Satan can't keep them out. They will 
 win their way in and save you. Never mind 
 about me," he cried again more faintly when he 
 saw us reaching out, as it were, bare arms through 
 flames to draw him in to us ; " only tell Alice I 
 did my best." 
 
 But we were not to lose our brave herald of 
 deliverance: like a rushing, mighty wind, like a 
 draught through some sudden opening, an influ- 
 ence from far without, swept in through the mob 
 about us, driving it apart like chaff. It swept the 
 breathless but radiant Albert fairly into the arms 
 of our grateful love and brought to our cogni- 
 zance a peal as of march music set to the twenty- 
 fourth Psalm coming nearer, nearer, nearer, 
 seeming to strike awe and terror into the souls of 
 our opponents, but thrilling our own spirits with 
 an ecstacy of greeting. There is no homesick- 
 ness like that for heaven, and no gladness of 
 homecoming like that of turning your faces heav- 
 enward after hard service in hell. You may try 
 to think, gentle listener, but really you should 
 
RESCUED 335 
 
 go through it yourself to know how we felt as 
 our rescuers swept down the broad lane of ap- 
 proach which the Almighty One opened for them 
 through thick hell. Soon we began to recognize 
 traits of each soul, Father and the one Albert told 
 us was Deacon Spindler, with the two strangers 
 whom Father had won in his mission at Jero- 
 boam's Holl where there, led by the dusky, hell- 
 born guide who had first conducted me from para- 
 dise. There was Albert Junior, with all his broth- 
 erhood of the heavenly vision. And there was 
 Mother right from heaven, Jeanie and Joy, and 
 Thoughtful, with his brothers, besides, also, little 
 Truth and Abigail, and the Middler, and Content, 
 her youngest great-grandchild. There was Love- 
 joy's Clara with his mother, also Mrs. Rorer and 
 the praying mothers of Godson and Wilkinson. 
 A number of heaven's great-hearts were in the 
 party, including General Booth and Jerry McAu- 
 ley. They were accompanied by several score of 
 angels, a squad of Cromwell's Ironsides, some of 
 Constantine's Christian legionaries, and even by 
 Paul himself, the great apostle to the Gentiles. 
 None of us needed introduction ; for in a flash 
 each knew the story of the other. Some of us 
 forgot our first reception in heaven in the glad- 
 ness of this meeting. The people of hell, driven 
 asunder and held back, as the waters of the Red 
 Sea were, long ago, gazed from either side with 
 such vision as each may have had, forgetting 
 hostility in their wonder and wistfulness. Per- 
 
A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 haps the most touching sight of all was that of 
 Lovejoy with the two women who loved him most, 
 the century heart-ache of heaven and remorse of 
 hell mingling and melting into the joy of forgive- 
 ness and of love's sure triumph over pain. They 
 touched each other almost timidly in their tender- 
 ness hardly able to speak at first. Maggie 
 Rorer and her mother also clung to each other, 
 while in gratitude they could not speak. After 
 a while they both began peering wistfully into the 
 murkiness around, as if in the hope of catching 
 some glimpse of the one who had wronged them 
 most and thus had become the chief object of 
 that deathless capability of forgiving which 
 yearns in the female breast. But Rorer must 
 have hidden himself behind some screen of obdu- 
 rate hate. The only individual standing out 
 clearly just then from the hell-crowd all about 
 was the Noble Grand Master McGammon. He 
 was discernible making passes in the air ; as if en- 
 deavoring to weave some new spell of mystery 
 which might avail to prevent our return to the 
 open hell, and so to the free heaven beyond. 
 
 The meeting of Joy and Albert seemed almost 
 too sacred for our participation. " This is the 
 real hero of the day ! " I exclaimed, drawing him 
 to our family group ; " This is our brave de- 
 liverer, who brought to us the first message of 
 hope." 
 
 " And he has been wondrous faithful to me in 
 my mission among the submerged churches," 
 
THE PRODIGAL HUSBAND 337 
 
 Father testified, " He staid by me, when he was 
 longing to go to his wife and children. He stood 
 with me, when all around but these two converts 
 were hostile. He turned back into hell at the 
 first warning brought by our guide, here, that 
 Nathaniel was in danger." 
 
 Albert trembled visibly as his wife came to his 
 side. 
 
 " My cousin, my husband ! " she exclaimed, " I 
 am proud of you ! " 
 
 " And can you take me with you, and love me," 
 he asked hesitatingly. " Can you love me as — 
 as you love Nathaniel? " 
 
 " Albert " Joy answered, " God gave us to each 
 other as husband and wife on earth, and when 
 I promised many years ago to love and cherish, I 
 meant it not just till death should part us, but I 
 meant it for always. In heaven, you know, we 
 neither marry nor are given in marriage. We are 
 free to love one another, just as love draws most 
 strongly, even as the angels of God do. You 
 will alwa} 7 s be different to me from any other man 
 in the world. Brother Nathaniel can never take 
 your place with me." 
 
 " But you and he have been together so long," 
 Albert questioned. " You have been growing 
 together in heaven, while I have been growing 
 the other way in hell." 
 
 Joy checked him gently, " Do not pain your- 
 self thinking of that any more, dear," she said. 
 " You are so changed now, so glorified ! We can 
 
A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 have our wooing all over again. You do not 
 know how glad I have been, and how eager to 
 catch up with you, since Father Prester showed 
 you to me going on before us here. You are the 
 same, and yet so new to me; and I have been a 
 widow so long in heaven ! " 
 
 " That would be the hardest thing for you to 
 forgive and forget I reckon," Albert said, " that 
 I never seemed really to care, all our married 
 life, whether we should be united in heaven or 
 not." 
 
 " I never stopped praying for you," Joy 
 answered. " I haven't yet." 
 
 Albert spoke with deep emotion. " It will be 
 the thing for me to aim at for eternity," he de- 
 clared, " to give God a chance to answer your 
 prayers." " You know, Alice," he continued, 
 " I am just beginning to be anything at all, or 
 really to have an ambition to be something definite 
 some day. I wonder now how you could try so 
 patiently all your married live to pin your love 
 to me, when you could hardly hold me still long 
 enough in any one character to pin anything to. 
 But when I gave what there was of me to God, 
 here in hell, under the spell of a far vision I had 
 of you that came when Nat prayed for it at the 
 Christian Science meeting — and when I was born 
 again and began to have a fixed life, and God 
 melted me down and ran me into His mould, to 
 shape me just to be one person and not a dozen, 
 or a score by turns ; why ever since that time my 
 
COMPANIONSHIP OF THREE 339 
 
 dearest human hope has been to be admitted some 
 day, by God's great mercy in Christ, into the 
 circle of your friends in heaven. I don't want to 
 bother you with the recollection that we were once 
 husband and wife. I can hardly ever expect to 
 be as much to you as some others; but I would 
 like so much just to be near you and our children 
 quietly, and watch your happiness, and sometimes 
 have you notice me as a friend." 
 
 But Joy would not agree to this at all. " I 
 shall be proud to let every one know that you are 
 my husband," she said, " and how nobly you have 
 won your way back to me from hell. And the 
 other women, seeing you, will be stirred to keep 
 on praying for their poor, lost husbands. Our 
 Albert too will be so proud and glad to introduce 
 you to our new friends and to have the old friends 
 know that you have come at last. You can never 
 know how glad our boy was, or how glad he made 
 me, when he came for a little while to tell me of 
 your conversion." 
 
 " And father " Albert Junior added, " you 
 will find our friendships different in heaven. 
 Sometimes taking one more into the circle only 
 makes love stronger and dearer with the others. 
 When I came to heaven so early from the earth- 
 life, I found Mamma and brother Nathaniel de- 
 voted to each other; for his Jeanie had not come 
 yet ; but they seemed to be really happier still to- 
 gether after I joined them, and we three have been 
 truly company for each other ever since." 
 
340 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " Yes, and we will love our brother Nat more 
 dearly for finding you," Joy added. 
 
 For myself, my exultation was chastened with 
 a feeling of embarassment, especially in meeting 
 Jeanie and Joy and Mother, such as I had not 
 yet known in the spirit life. 
 
 " Do not caress me," I entreated. " until you 
 have reflected again upon my course in hell." 
 Then I showed it all to them carefully and in 
 detail, particularly my encounter with the Sa- 
 tana in the guises of the sister socialist and of 
 the mother angel. " Am I pure enough for your 
 kisses," I asked, " when I twice so nearly received 
 the kiss of pollution and death ? " 
 
 " But they only drew me closer. " Dear boy " 
 Jeanie said, " I told you not to come in here with- 
 out me. Promise never to go anywhere in hell 
 again without your girl to protect you from that 
 dreadful woman ! " 
 
 " I think you would be wise, hereafter, to take 
 Jeanie with you as she says, my son," Mother 
 counselled. " She will be a protection to you. 
 You know you could never estimate the profes- 
 sions of a plausible female." 
 
 But Joy said, even with heart-tears, " We are 
 so glad! so glad! dear brother, so glad you were 
 not lost to us ! And we will love you so dearly 
 hereafter; that no matter where you go, you can 
 never be lonely again. Our love will radiate, and 
 reach you, and warm your heart even out on the 
 
TWO UNWORTHY SINNERS 341 
 
 edge of the universe, searching some bleak corner 
 of hell." 
 
 I have thus narrated, separately and in detail, 
 the greetings of a few crowded moments. We 
 were so happy now, that we found it hard to hold 
 ourselves down in hell. Only Galpin and Godson 
 hesitated about the propriety of their seeking to 
 enter heaven as yet. 
 
 " What sort of a figure would I cut in heav- 
 en ? " Galpin asked. " I never went to church, 
 I suppose, twenty times in my life. I don't 
 know how to act among pious people. I'm not 
 fit for their company. The ushers would be 
 nervous to see me around, and I'd scare the choir 
 so they couldn't sing. A mission is the only 
 place for me — something rough and tumble, like 
 we've just been through. I think I'd better go 
 and look up Alf. Tyson, and three or four other 
 men I sent here before their time. I'd better be 
 making it up to them helping them to find Christ 
 and the way out. Maybe after I've been praying 
 in hell as long as I've been blaspheming and tear- 
 ing things loose, I'd feel more decent and respect- 
 able to come and knock at heaven's gate. And 
 I'd feel better if I could take some poor devil with 
 me. I've been dragging other people down all 
 my life, and by God's help I'd like to pull some- 
 body up with me. I tell you, I'm not fit for 
 heaven yet; I'm only fit to go up and down 
 in hell, roaring it out that I'm saved, and 
 
SM A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 if God can save me, He can save the Devil 
 himself. Then when Jesus has helped me to get 
 a crowd of penitent murderers and hell-toughs like 
 myself, together; so that I'm sure of congenial 
 company in heaven ; I'll ask the Lord to let us go 
 softly up to the mourner's bench in glory, and 
 cover our sight there for a hundred years or so, 
 until we feel more fit to stand up and shake hands 
 before the altar." 
 
 Uncle Linas showed a similar reluctance. " I 
 fear me," he said, " that I would feel less at ease 
 in heaven than of yore in the Tippleton Presby- 
 terian Church. I paid my pew rents there, and 
 I scarce feel that I was more of a hypocrite than 
 some others. But what right would I have in 
 heaven — a poor old soak, bloated with vice and 
 tainted rotten with devil-worship ? " 
 
 " To as many as received Him, to them gave 
 He the right, ifrwrlav to become the Sons of God," 
 Father quoted, interrupting him. 
 
 " I know well that He has done it," Godson 
 answered humbly, " I am God's son at last, glory 
 to Jesus! But am I fit indeed for my Father's 
 house? Can I spring, even at a bound, from 
 Satan's altar to heaven's home? Would it not 
 behoove the Father rather to find some place for 
 me outside the door half way up the lane of glory, 
 where I could sometimes point out the way to 
 other sons coming back home ? " 
 
 " So the prodigal son thought," Albert Junior 
 
FROM HELL TO HEAVEN? 343 
 
 suggested. " He said, ' make me as one of thy 
 hired servants.' But the Father found no place 
 for him short of the dining hall, with the best 
 robe, and the ring, and the sandals." 
 
 " And can we go straight to heaven? " Lovejoy 
 asked, incredulous for gladness. " Can a suicide 
 repent, and go straight from hell to heaven? 
 Can we stay right with you, and never be sepa- 
 rated any more? " 
 
 " Jesus said to the malefactor on the cross 
 beside Him, ' this day shalt thou be with me in 
 paradise ' " Father quoted again. 
 
 " And He says s knock and it shall be opened 
 unto you,' " Jeanie suggested." " Him that 
 cometh unto me,' Jesus said, ' I will in no wise cast 
 out.' " 
 
 "It isn't just!" exclaimed Galpin, "It isn't 
 fair, it isn't right, and it can never be. You 
 good people have been serving God all your days, 
 and it took you a life time on earth to get ready 
 for heaven. We on our side have been hustling 
 for the devil more than two hundred years. It 
 ain't a square deal to let us strike our job and go 
 over to your Master and get the same reward as 
 you." 
 
 " The man that sought for laborers for his 
 vineyard gave each of the eleventh hour men a 
 penny, the same as the others," Mother contended 
 loyally. 
 
 " That's charity : the bargain with the first hour 
 
344 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 men was business," Galpin protested, " I've read 
 my Testament some, if I haven't been going to 
 church." 
 
 " Brothers," Father declared. " You are all 
 three somewhat disposed to limit the grace of 
 God. There is unbelief still lurking in your 
 hearts. Certainly it is charity. Heaven is all 
 charity. ' The wages of sin is death ; but the 
 gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord.' If it wasn't a free gift; you and I 
 would never have it. You may even stay in hell 
 and work for God twice as long as you have served 
 Satan, but that would not buy for you the right 
 of one square inch of heaven. Neither can you 
 become fit for heaven by centuries of service out- 
 side. The regenerating work of the Holy Spirit 
 upon our natures alone fits us for heaven. The 
 time element may or may not enter into the 
 problem. You may be born again with long 
 throes, or with none. It is the fact, and not the 
 process which counts. Only this is essential, ' Ye 
 must be born again ! ' " 
 
 " Where, then, do we attend to reaping that 
 which we have sown ? " Uncle Linas asked, " If 
 faith can save us so instantly and completely 
 from all the consequences of evil doing, does it 
 not make void the law ? " 
 
 " I don't believe any man anywhere did a mean 
 thing, but what he's got to suffer for it," Galpin 
 agreed. " I expect to smart for all my devil- 
 ment, and enjoy heaven afterwards." 
 
GRACE — NOT PURGATORY 345 
 
 " If that is true" Lovejoy argued, " You and 
 I will never see heaven ! hell couldn't last long 
 enough for you and me to reap all the crop of 
 wild oats we have put in." 
 
 " Brothers," Father again counseled them, " I 
 perceive that Satan is endeavoring to gain a hold 
 again upon your thoughts, to weigh you down 
 with dispair. None of us can atone for his own 
 sin. None of us need bear the judgment of it or 
 pay the debt of it, or work out the sentence of it, 
 in any way. Jesus paid it all. ' All we like sheep 
 have gone astray and God hath laid on Him the 
 iniquity of us all. He was wounded for our 
 transgressions ; He was bruised for our iniquities ; 
 the chastisment of our peace was upon Him, and 
 by His stripes we are healed.' Thus ' He is the 
 propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, 
 but for the sins of the whole world ! The way to 
 God's heart and the way to heaven is open to 
 each of us. It leads past the cross of Calvary. 
 If there remains still an inevitable after-math of 
 regret and pain and loss as the lingering conse- 
 quences of evil doing; deem it not your punish- 
 ment, Jesus bore all that; it is God's chastening, 
 by which He means to help you to remember and 
 leave sin alone forever. Heaven is different to 
 each of us. Each heart has its j oys there, and its 
 sorrow. You will not there grieve less for your 
 wrong past, but grieve more. You will not grow 
 less eager to make amends, but more eager. 
 There are centuries of reparation still, before 
 
346 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 you, men. But all this will only mellow and 
 sweeten your heaven. It will not exclude or shut 
 you out; but, the rather, lead you deeper in. 
 Only you must be found ever in Christ, not having 
 your own righteousness which is of the law, but 
 the righteousness which is by faith in Him." 
 
 As father spoke the souls of our converts began 
 to glow with unutterable hope. " Come along 
 with us to heaven men," I urged them. " Your 
 place has been waiting for you these million years. 
 God needs you there just now to tell your wonder- 
 ful story of redeeming grace, and to fire the 
 hearts of thousands to come and seek for lost souls 
 in hell. You need heaven too. You need its 
 friendships, its joys, its worship. You need 
 heaven's schooling, and when you come back here 
 from heaven's own theological seminary, you will 
 come as the very priests of salvation, clothed with 
 power to bring God near to others." 
 
 Even while I spoke we were floating up and 
 out, in glad assent. Father started a hymn, and 
 we all joined with him in singing — 
 
 " Just as I am, without one plea, 
 But that Thy blood was shed for me, 
 And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee, 
 Oh Lamb of God, I come. 
 
 " Just as I am, and waiting not, 
 To rid my soul of one dark blot. 
 To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, 
 Oh Lamb of God, I come." 
 
THICK HARVESTING 347 
 
 Hell closed in behind us thick with wondering, 
 wistful souls. They seemed to stretch out hands 
 after us, not to restrain, but as if longing to be 
 lifted. "Look Father!" I cried, "how white 
 hell's fields are to the harvest ! " 
 
 " Yes my son," he answered, " Let us pray the 
 Father that He may send forth many laborers 
 into His harvest." 
 
 Only McGammon seemed to be straining im- 
 potently to bar our progress. At last we passed 
 him at the riven boundary of his secret domain, 
 casting spells and imprecations after us. 
 
 " Ungrateful Reverend Sir," he called to me 
 in passing, " Never again shall you enter this 
 sacred inclosure, whose trust you have thus basely 
 betrayed ! " 
 
 " Most Noble Grand Master," I replied, " When 
 God wills, I will come again and bring with me five 
 thousand evangelists of the choicest ex-Masons 
 of heaven." 
 
 Then we looked back and could just distinguish 
 Elder Smiley settling himself for a five years' 
 talk, in justice to the remarkable event just wit- 
 nessed. 
 
 "Will hell really punish that man," Jeanie 
 queried, " so long as he can still keep on talking." 
 
 " Think what a tireless preacher he will make," 
 Mother answered, " when he really becomes con- 
 verted and gets to talking for God." 
 
 " It seems almost heartless to go and leave them 
 all here in their sin," Joy declared. 
 
348 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " We are not the only ones who have been, and 
 are, and will be working for God in hell," our 
 swarthy guide suggested. 
 
 " If we could but show all this company that 
 far illumination of hell's mission field upon which 
 you were gazing in such wonder when I came 
 down." Father returned wistfully. 
 
 Even while he spoke the soft lights began to 
 glow amid the gloom. The nearest were ever so 
 far away; yet they brought many individual 
 spirits into view of those who were working for 
 souls or being drawn to Christ. Here it was a 
 single worker, there a Bible class of a score, yon- 
 der a great audience, drawn by the Word amid 
 the inconceivable vastness of pagan hell. 
 
 In the midst of the scene of infinite distances 
 thus presented to our gaze, and so transparently 
 irradiant as not to hide the view of what was be- 
 yond, we beheld the vision of a ladder let down 
 from heaven, shaped in the outlines of a cross with 
 One nailed upon it wearing a crown of thorns. 
 On this mystic ladder of a life laid down for all 
 eternity angels of God were ascending and de- 
 scending from heaven to hell. 
 
 For a few rapt moments, this wondrous, soft 
 illumination held our gaze. Then, as it faded 
 into darkness again, we each clasped strongly the 
 soul's hand of the other for the thrill and the 
 sweep of the swift, sweet rush up out of hell's 
 murkiness into the unchanged noonday glory of 
 heaven's broad, glad day. 
 
RECRUITING 349 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 I confess that we enjoyed rather a lazy while 
 after that in heaven. The holiday spirit was 
 strong upon us. It is so sweet to feel, when one 
 has done his best, and expended his mite of force 
 to the uttermost for God, that he may find even 
 a sacred mission and obligation in rest and enjoy- 
 ment; and leaving the vast projects of the uni- 
 verse contentedly in the hands of their Originator, 
 needs only devote himself, a while, to absorbing 
 all the gladness which comes his way, while he 
 gives recuperating forces a chance to put in their 
 full work upon him and stores up in every cell of 
 his being sunshine and sweetness for future use. 
 
 To begin with, we were astonished by the num- 
 ber of people who were watching to meet us, as we 
 emerged in heaven. Thousands had felt the 
 viberation of the ripple stirred by our rescuing 
 party as they went down after us into hell, and 
 had been praying for us mightily while they were 
 gone. These set up a shout of praise on behold- 
 ing us, which made heaven's well-kin ring, and 
 drew still other hunderds of thousands to be 
 interested in our brands snatched from hell's 
 burning. There was joy that day in the presence 
 of the angels of God. The contrast of all these 
 radiant presences with those among whom we had 
 been moving so long made us fairly laugh for 
 joy. When the Lord thus turned again our 
 
350 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 captivity, we were like them that dream. All 
 spirit faces turned toward us, were softened with 
 pity over the ethnological specimens grace had 
 wrested and rescued from hell's piteous popula- 
 tion ; yet thrilled with mighty joy over this earnest 
 of conquests yet to be won. We noticed just one 
 waiting soul whose aspect showed some discourag- 
 ment of hope deferred. This was little Sadie 
 Echols. She called me one side for a moment and 
 asked me if I had seen anything of Hatchett 
 among the low places of hell. I shrank unutter- 
 ably from telling her now of how I had almost 
 fancied I had recognized his palid soul corpse in 
 that awful vision of the morgue of hell, seen 
 through the lense of the She-devil's soul at the 
 time of my first temptation — just a face amid 
 all that writhing mass, with staring eye-balls half 
 unconscious, yet agonized with pangs and qualms 
 of the second death. " This may have been only 
 a fancy, Sadie," I assured her pityingly. 
 
 " But will you take me with you the next time, 
 and let me look for him? " she pleaded. " Jesus 
 brings the dead to life." 
 
 " It depends upon your motive, sister," I 
 answered. " You remember that this has been 
 Satan's snare for you from the beginning. It 
 was your besottment of blind devotion to Hatchett 
 which cost you your childhood's faith, your 
 innocence and virtue, which cost you a century of 
 heaven, and reduced you to a jaded hag of perdi- 
 tion." 
 
KINGS AND PRIESTS 351 
 
 " It isn't that now," said Sadie, " but I am so 
 sorry for poor Hatchett. Remember how near 
 you were to that dreadful place yourself. If 
 he can only be saved; I would be glad to keep 
 away from him for ever; if God said so." 
 
 " But there would be no need, dear friend," I 
 said. " If you love Hatchett only to save him ; 
 your love becomes a sacred thing. In loving thus 
 you are born of God. Go and wait upon God in 
 prayer for your husband, and listen for the signal 
 of our return to hell." 
 
 So when we found wondering men and angels 
 clustering around our converts we counseled them 
 to go and tell their story through heaven. 
 
 " Interest as many as you can to seek for God's 
 call to the work of the Gospel ministry in hell," 
 Father advised, " and wait the signal of our re- 
 turn. All are priests here : you will find no laity 
 in heaven." 
 
 Of course there were a lot of the dear descend- 
 ants and ancestors in the crowd, and it was pleas- 
 ant to tarry with them for a little family reunion 
 and old home week of several thousand attendants. 
 When the last word has been said, your own are 
 nearest. The very oppositeness of temperament 
 which so often tires our patience in our kinsfolk 
 rather endears them to us in the end, and their 
 society is especially good for us when we are in 
 danger, in the company of others, of being over 
 praised. After the Presters had dispersed, we 
 went to visit awhile with some of Mother's people 
 
352 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 and ran across the Churchville uncle — I confess 
 somewhat to our surprise. 
 
 " Why Uncle Adolphus," I exclaimed, without 
 meaning to be rude, " how did you ever get to 
 heaven? " 
 
 " You were not expecting to see me then ? " he 
 asked somewhat quizzically. 
 
 " Oh I, might have known," I replied, " that 
 if there was a good thing on the market you 
 would not fail to get in your bid ; but I had some 
 doubts, I admit, of the success of your usual 
 methods in the particular matter of a clear title 
 to mansions in the sky." 
 
 " Nathaniel," he confessed, " do you know, 
 I was perhaps one of the most astonished souls in 
 eternity when I awoke after dying, and did not 
 find myself in heaven? I looked around me and 
 rubbed my eyes (metaphorically) to find myself 
 in such unexpected surroundings. I was in 
 church, but I knew from the start something was 
 wrong. After being trustee of the Churchville 
 Congregational Church for nearly forty years, 
 and treasurer of the same for half that period, 
 attending church Sunday by Sunday throughout 
 eleven pastorates, I fancy I know what is what in 
 churches. The order of the service in this case 
 was all correct enough ; and yet something seemed 
 most astonishingly strange about it. And before 
 it was half over I said to my soul. " Phew ! 
 there's something rotten in this," and I got out of 
 there. I visited several churches like those Mr. 
 
OUT OF RECKONING 353 
 
 Prester tells us of, but each one seemed a little 
 more topsy turvy than the one before. They 
 frightened me. This can't be heaven, I thought. 
 It isn't even as decent as Churchville. I felt sick 
 of the whole thing. I looked around to see if 
 anyone was keeping store; but I didn't find any. 
 And then I began to inquire, just as I would in 
 any other strange place, if there was a Masonic 
 lodge. So I got into one and I found some old 
 acquaintances ; but the deviltry that was going on 
 beggars description. I took one of them one side 
 and asked him confidentially, * Say, is this hell ? ' 
 Then he told me it was, but I mustn't say any- 
 thing about that. I concealed my agitation with 
 a great effort, realizing that I had to, and pulled 
 myself together as best I could, got in the center 
 of the lodge-room, made my signal as uncon- 
 cernedly as I knew how to the past Worshipful, 
 gave the proper password at the entrance, and 
 thanked my stars when I got out of the lodge un- 
 hindered. After that I wandered in desert places 
 and would have nothing to do with any one ; for 
 I was afraid of them all. I began to ask myself 
 seriously how this had all come about. I had 
 been going to church, and lodge, and town 
 council, and village improvement society, and 
 keeping store the greater part of my life without 
 reproach. I had made money during the war, 
 and had kept adding to it ever since. I had lived 
 in a brick house and been one of the foremost men 
 in Churchville. I had bowed in prayer in public, 
 
354 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 and occasionally led in prayer at the prayer- 
 meeting. Now it began to work in my mind, 
 there in the wilderness of hell, that' I had never 
 really prayed. I thought that over for ten years 
 and more, and then began to call upon God, sure 
 enough. I told Him what I had frequently de- 
 clared in prayer-meeting; that I meant to make 
 heaven my home. I had failed on this somewhat, 
 and I wished to know why; for I didn't mean to 
 relinquish the attempt as long as there seemed still 
 any use in trying. I prayed in this way for 
 ninety years, without achieving any results. By 
 this time my nerve began to give out, and at last it 
 began to come over me very gradually to ask if 
 there might not be something radically wrong 
 with Adolphus himself. No one came to talk with 
 me about it. The idea slowly evolved within my 
 own mind. I think it was nearly thirty-five years 
 more before it got full hold of me. And then one 
 day, standing afar off on the edge of hell, and 
 not daring as it were to lift up so much as my 
 eyes to heaven, the impulse came over me to smite 
 upon my breast and cry, ' God be merciful to me 
 a sinner ! ' That was where this churchman got 
 religion at last, and I have been truly on my way 
 to heaven ever since. I no longer prayed to reach 
 heaven, however. I prayed to get right with 
 God, and when I got right with God all through, 
 I suddenly and unexpectedly found myself in 
 heaven." 
 
 " Uncle Adolphus," I exclaimed rapturously, 
 
MUCH NEEDED ADVICE 355 
 
 " I was always proud of you ; uncomfortable as 
 I often felt with you ; but to-day I glory in you, 
 and I love you." 
 
 It was this uncle who first suggested to my mind 
 the propriety of approaching Doctor Christman, 
 on the subject of inaugurating the great Simul- 
 taneous Campaign in hell. He listened while I 
 unfolded my crude ideal of what ought to be 
 done, and how it ought to be done in evangelizing 
 the nether world; and then he replied with some- 
 thing of old-time, enthusiasm-squelching poise of 
 thought. 
 
 " My dear nephew," he said, " your plan is not 
 as far off the trail as some I have heard you 
 broach; but you must try and not feel offended 
 if I suggest that some responsibile, well balanced 
 leader of men like John Wesley, or your great 
 evangelist leader, Christman, ought to be found 
 to take it up, and organize it, and make a success 
 of it. The mix-up you butted into with McGam- 
 mon and with that devil-woman shows that you 
 have learned little since you were in Churchville 
 about the art of really accomplishing things. 
 You mean well, Nathaniel, but oh! you are still 
 such a blunderbuss ! " 
 
 It was Uncle Adolphus, too, who told me how 
 we ought to find Harry. " Mark my words " he 
 said, " Harry Prester is somewhere out in that 
 no-man's-land of hell where I have been so long. 
 But you won't get to him by praying for him. 
 At least you want to do it under your breath. If 
 
356 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 anybody'd tried to pray their way to me those first 
 ninety years, it would have pushed me off like 
 the negative pole of a magnet. Get into his 
 world of things. Think about wheels, move in 
 wheels ; keep your eye on everything that wheels. 
 All of you wheel together ; until you draw him in, 
 or roll out nearer to him." 
 
 So we did, all the kinsmen on both sides who had 
 known Harry, also some of his wife's people and 
 Albert Detwiler and Joy and some other old 
 friends. We separated so far that we could just 
 circle and touch. We prayed very softly for 
 God's help; but we talked to each other only of 
 wheels. As we went, we contemplated the swift 
 cycles of the spheres; the planets, turning upon 
 their orbits and coursing round our sun, Jupiter 
 at the rate of 29,000 miles an hour, Venus, 76,000 
 miles an hour, Mercury 103,000 miles an hour, 
 also the still vaster sweep of twin suns circling one 
 around another, and the rush of comets from 
 system to system. We put our minds solely upon 
 the mechanism of the universe, together with the 
 latest mechanical inventions of created minds. 
 We had kept this up for several months, and had 
 thus traversed a considerable portion of the stel- 
 lar universe (if immensity may be spoken of as 
 divided into portions) and were returning back- 
 ward upon our track for more careful searching, 
 when Mother's circle touched mine and she said 
 very softly, " I have found him." We let the 
 word pass out quitely to one and another, until 
 
A DREADFUL EXAMPLE 357 
 
 we had drawn our band together in a narrowing 
 hollow sphere with poor Harry at the center. 
 But we ourselves found it necessary to move very 
 rapidly as a company; for my poor brother had 
 apparently gone entirely motion mad. Whether 
 by the dizziness of watching so many and such 
 varied movements of the universe, or by the Amer- 
 ican spirit of emulation and self-confidence 
 wrought up to an immoderate extreme, we found 
 our brother tearing along in an irresponsible hy- 
 perbola, tumbling over and over with inconceiva- 
 ble rapidity as he swept onward toward infinity. 
 We were at our wits' end how to attract his atten- 
 tion; for he was liable to go right through any 
 one of us, or the whole line of us, if we got in 
 his path, without pause or recognition. Indeed, 
 none but a mother's discerning glance would have 
 recognized Harry himself in his cyclonic flight; 
 but having him once pointed out, we gradually 
 became sure of him by the whirling of wheels in 
 his soul. 
 
 " Stop him ! detain him ! head him off ! " poor 
 Father cried, growing excited. 
 
 " How can we do it? " came from all sides si- 
 multaneously. Then Joy made a suggestion. 
 
 " Let's all love him at once with all our might," 
 she shouted. 
 
 We put her counsel into action and kept it up 
 persistently, as we accompanied him in his mad 
 career. After a considerable time, we noticed a 
 slowing down in both his external motions as well 
 
358 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 as in the clock-work within his soul. We re- 
 doubled the pull of our anxious affection with in- 
 creasing effect ; until, to our intense relief, Harry 
 came to a full stop and began to blink around 
 upon us, confusedly in the grey twilight of his 
 non-ethical world. He was indeed a pitiable ob- 
 ject, when still enough for critical inspection. 
 His internal bearings were badly worn, and his 
 running gear more or less wobbly throughout. 
 His higher spiritual nature had been stowed and 
 cramped away into so small a receptacle for so 
 long a period that it was only with delicate care- 
 fulness and microscopic attention we could draw it 
 out and appeal to it. 
 
 " My long lost boy," mother exclaimed, " don't 
 you know me? " 
 
 Harry panted and wheezed and finally stuttered 
 out, " Is it you, mother? Do you care? " 
 
 " Of course we care," Mother and his wife cried 
 both at once; but his mind seemed still confused; 
 so we all said it together quite distinctly, which 
 appeared to startle him into clearer consciousness. 
 
 " We are all loving you, friend Harry," Joy 
 said. " We have always been interested in you ; 
 we long to see you saved." 
 
 " It seems strange you never pulled that lever in 
 me before," Harry rejoined. 
 
 " We tried all along to let you see it, old fel- 
 low," I remonstrated, " but we very rarely seemed 
 to get your attention ; and when we did, the strong 
 momentum of your nature seemed to fling our 
 
COOPERATIVE EVANGELISM 359 
 
 proffered expression of concern for your eternal 
 welfare back into our faces." 
 
 " You ought to have climbed on the tender, 
 applied air pressure to my rear driver, and pushed 
 on my throttle until you got me reversed," he pro- 
 tested. 
 
 " Thank God we have overtaken you this time," 
 Father panted, still somewhat winded by his exer- 
 tions ; " but if grace does not accomplish your 
 conversion now, I doubt if we will ever succeed in 
 bringing you to a standstill again." 
 
 " I don't believe I could go much further with- 
 out a breakdown anyhow," Harry admitted, look- 
 ing himself over. 
 
 " Then come away from all this, my boy," ad- 
 vised Uncle Adolphus ; " live for something that 
 pays. Get religion. Aim for heaven." 
 
 So we appealed to him from all sides. For the 
 first time in our whole experience of him we seemed 
 really to have his attention and to arouse him to 
 concern for his higher well-fare. Only he seemed 
 somewhat puzzled to realize what we wished him 
 to do. All religious lines of thought had been 
 so long left entirely on one side from his course 
 in life, that it seemed hard for him to turn to the 
 simplest ethical or spiritual conception. 
 
 " I wish we had Strong here to sing to him 
 * Life is Like a Mountain Railway,' " I suggested 
 to Jeanie. " It might express salvation in a ter- 
 minology which would convey more meaning to 
 him." 
 
360 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " I'm with you my hearty," came a cheering 
 greeting from behind, as the exuberant singer 
 came into our group with an easy swing. He 
 gave us the sensations of shaking hands rapidly 
 all around and having clapped Harry on the back, 
 psychologically speaking, he said, " Now my man, 
 what's the difficulty here? Are your friends 
 cross-circuiting you and getting your ideas in a 
 tangle? Suppose you let me sing you a song 
 that may light up the track ahead a little bet- 
 ter." 
 
 Then he sang the same dear old lyric with which 
 he somehow always managed to get hold of men : 
 a rich collection of railway metaphors made up 
 of curves, tressels, grades, throttle and rails with 
 a union station at the end representing heaven. 
 It seemed to me to contain almost too much 
 imagery for its solid content to convert anyone: 
 yet Strong appeared never to use it without 
 effect. Harry was silent for a while after he 
 concluded, then he said, rather wearily looking 
 around on us all, "I give in. Take me in tow, 
 if you want to. Show me the way, and by God's 
 help I'll follow it. I've got to pull in somewhere 
 and make repairs, that's certain." 
 
 So we won Harry to Christ and heaven. Grad- 
 ually, with infinite pains — a little pull here and a 
 lift there — and when we could feel sure that the 
 dear fellow was really converted and on the nar- 
 row way that leads to life, and we were congratu- 
 
CONVINCED ! 361 
 
 lating each other before separating, I ventured to 
 suggest to Brother Strong and the rest that we 
 ought to undertake other similar endeavors. 
 " This is cooperative evangelism," I declared. 
 " This is what hell needs. Surely there are 
 enough of us, with God's blessing, to make a suc- 
 cess of the enterprise if we would go at it." 
 
 " You would empty heaven into hell," Strong 
 objected. 
 
 " To bring half of hell back with it," I con- 
 tended. 
 
 " He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing 
 precious seed," Father recited, " shall doubtless 
 come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
 with him." 
 
 " Soon heaven would be doubly glad and busy," 
 Jeanie declared, " taking care of its sheaves." 
 
 " Say, Brother Strong," I asked, " haven't you 
 enjoyed this bit of personal work with my brother 
 more than anything you have experienced since 
 you came to heaven? " 
 
 Strong could not deny that he had. " It was 
 immense," he declared, " was that hell ? " " It 
 was a part of the City's great ' Without ' " Fa- 
 ther explained : " it was the hell of banishment 
 from heaven." 
 
 The Singer jumped visibly. " Then I was in 
 hell and didn't know it ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " Never mind, Brother Strong, you were there 
 on a noble errand," Jeanie said comfortingly. 
 
662 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " But your brother-in-law should have been 
 damned forever," he gasped, " and here I have 
 been helping to save him ! " 
 
 " You know that there must have been some- 
 thing wrong with your doctrine, do you not, dear 
 brother ? " Joy asked. " And when we gather 
 you will go with us, will you not, like an Orpheus 
 of redemption, to sing the love of Jesus into the 
 hearts of ruined men and women in hell? " 
 
 " God help me ! " exclaimed the evangelist in 
 deep agitation : " surely if it wasn't His will, it 
 wouldn't work. Why, I'd rather put in a thou- 
 sand years in a succession of such thrills as this, 
 than to be acknowledged the leading soloist of 
 the skies." 
 
EUTHANASIA 363 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 After that we had another little rest, visiting 
 with Jeanie's people, and some of the old Serenity 
 Folks. Two brighter, more heartsome country 
 women than Jeanie's mother and grandmother I 
 have not found. Neither had ever really exper- 
 ienced old age of soul, and Mrs. Whitney, the 
 grandmother, especially, had found little need, as 
 so many of us do, who have lived beyond our 
 threescore and ten years of mortal life — of grow- 
 ing young again in heaven. I can never forget 
 the sacred week which the precious lady occupied 
 in dying. Blind with age, sitting half upright 
 in bed, without an ache or ailment, save that she 
 felt tired and slept often, she concerned herself 
 affectionally for the comfort of each caller, think- 
 ing to the last day more for others than for her- 
 self. " Yes, this is the good-by time," she would 
 say cheerily to one. " I never had anything like 
 it ; so it is easy to tell." " When I was a girl of 
 sixteen," she said to another, " I had a week in 
 bed with a little spell of measles. Except when 
 the children came, that is the only thing I can re- 
 member like this. So I know it is the beginning." 
 She never spoke of it as the end, but only as the 
 beginning. So when I found her in heaven, I 
 noticed less change in her soul than in anyone. 
 " Nathaniel, I'm glad you've come," she said, 
 kissing me without any ado. " Your baby twins, 
 
364 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Hope and Joy, and I have been looking for you." 
 She was then a hundred and forty years young, 
 and as fresh and sweet as before she had the 
 measles. Brother McDaniel, Jeanie's father, also, 
 was there and as great a character as ever, even 
 more guileless in his sagacity. " You'll find me 
 changed a bit, my boy," he said in greeting. 
 " For one thing, when I talk to God, I make each 
 prayer a little different now." 
 
 In heaven they had all gotten into touch again 
 with the old Serenity folks, Elder and Mrs. Jobes, 
 Doctor McCorkle, the ' McWhorter Girls ' of un- 
 certain age, and a good many more of the sainted 
 country people. There they were living as neigh- 
 bors still in much the same unruffled, easy way, 
 visiting back and forth, and getting together for 
 worship somewhat as of yore. " Heaven is a 
 grand, wide, stirring world," Miss Christine Tin- 
 ker would say. " It's rare to take a trip about 
 now and then. But for solid quiet in the long 
 reach, give us our quiet neighborhood, with the 
 old friends all about." 
 
 So when Jeanie and I made them this little 
 restful visit, after Harry's conversion, it was not 
 so greatly different, after all, from our silver wed- 
 ding trip back to Serenity ; only there were fewer 
 gaps in the community life. We hardly hoped to 
 persuade any of these placid souls to undertake 
 with us an enterprise so novel as a mission to 
 hell, and we looked forward rather to a sweet, ob- 
 jectless time in their midst, with leisure to frolic 
 
OLD COMRADES AND NEW 365 
 
 with those blessed sinless twins, Hope and Joy, 
 our babies forever more. But Mrs. Rorer and 
 Maggie had been there already, and there was 
 hardly a family which was not thinking with 
 yearning of some loved one lost to heaven. There 
 is no family spirit stronger than that of the 
 Scotch-Irish Pennsylvania farmer's household, 
 and we found strong spirits among them already 
 girding up their loins for the pilgrimage to hell. 
 Their eagerness encouraged us to look for other 
 groups of old friends of former charges, and 
 stopping places in life's pilgrimage, in the hope 
 of gaining other recruits ; and soon to our great 
 rejoicing, we had begun to book quite a little 
 company of volunteers for our coming invasion 
 of the Satanic Kingdom. There were Truth Cus- 
 tis and Captain Burroughs, Brother Moss, and 
 Mrs. Moss, the Colonel and his wife from Oldboro, 
 Aunt Lossie and Laura from Ainslie, Brother 
 Rankin, and Manie, and her poet brother, Castle, 
 from the colony, Brother Sweet and Elder Billy 
 from Mount Latitude, Miss Mag and little Dor- 
 ritt from the Valley of Summer, Captain Town- 
 send from Seacong, Doctor Cottrell and Brother 
 Birch from Churchville, my young elder, Irving 
 True from Tippleton, with Grandma True, Mrs. 
 Frank True, John A. and John P., Miss 
 Janette and Elder Baillie and Superintendent Rice 
 of the Rescue Mission in Mill River, the dear ex- 
 horters from Our Father's House in Worcester, 
 Brother Adair and Father Mueller from Colby. 
 
S66 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Brother Robbins and Grace led the group from 
 the Good Hope Church, my first charge, and of 
 course almost the entire membership of my last 
 charge, the church of the Aeonian Redemption 
 were eager to accompany us ; these last a splendid 
 circle of earnest, intelligent men and women, many 
 of them better preachers than I — just a bit Bos- 
 tonian still, to be sure (even heaven could not 
 quite eclipse that distinction) — but true hearted, 
 clear souled, and deliciously ready for the next 
 new thing. No doubt some of my listeners have 
 met one or another of these old earth-friends of 
 ours whom I have mentioned. To our mind, heaven 
 would not be so interesting without them. These, 
 with hundreds just as dear from my all-too-nu- 
 merous pastoral charges of earth rallied to our 
 endeavor and began praying for special equip- 
 ment of grace to help them in their mission to hell. 
 On earth Jeanie had kept in touch with many 
 of these dear people by correspondence with 
 choice spirits of pastorates left behind; and we 
 had often declared that if we could only assemble 
 them all together into one congregation, only 
 heaven could be better. " Isn't it wonderful ! " 
 Jeanie exclaimed now, " that our dream is coming 
 true at last, and all for an excursion to hell ! " 
 
 Besides these we found some of my college 
 chums and seminary mates like Jim Morris, and 
 Stryker and Golucky, and Tommy Cottrell, also 
 hundreds of brothers beloved in the ministry. 
 Our enterprise was growing to astonishing pro- 
 
PERPLEXING SUCCESS 367 
 
 portions. Each recruit was interesting others, 
 and soon strangers hailing from other localities, 
 even of other climes and ages and planets, were 
 coming to enlist for the enterprise. Last but not 
 least of these was Christian Israel just from earth. 
 Workers already in hell sent notice of their inten- 
 tion to join with us. I was becoming almost 
 frightened by the size to which the missionary 
 party seemed likely to grow, and often said to 
 Jeanie, " We must look Doctor Christman up, and 
 put the whole undertaking into his hands to be 
 organized." 
 
 " You are the one who began this particular 
 movement," Jeanie would reply, " and by God's 
 help you ought to claim your job, and see it 
 through." 
 
 " I might be crazed by such a task," I pro- 
 tested. " Christman has had experience ; he has 
 native ability ; he is at home with the * simultane- 
 ous ' idea. The best I could do would be to turn 
 all these soul-seekers loose in hell and bid them go 
 as they please." 
 
 " Wouldn't that be the most effective way in 
 the end?" Jeanie protested. 
 
 " We would melt apart and be lost to each 
 other, like so many raindrops in the ocean," I 
 declared. 
 
 I wondered also to find how much of this in- 
 fernal mission work had been going on for ages 
 from heaven, and only now when I had come into 
 thorough heart-sympathy with it, was it coming 
 
368 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 within my cognizance as a systematized part of 
 heaven's vast activities. Especially among those 
 who had died in pagan darkness had the preach- 
 ing of the gospel been progressing successfully 
 for centuries. I was particularly interested in 
 the case of those pagan and Judaic relatives of 
 Paul's converts who had died before the message 
 of the gospel could reach them, and for whom 
 these converts were accustomed to have themselves 
 baptized vicariously, believing that regenerating 
 grace would in some way find them out in the 
 spirit world in answer to the faith of the one who 
 had received baptism on their behalf and in their 
 place. When I found how effective this ancient 
 expression of love and faith had proven in a 
 number of instances, I asked my friend Peale (as 
 we met and compared notes during our furlough) 
 why this baptism for relatives deceased in pagan- 
 ism had never been (so far as I had ever heard) 
 permitted to the converts of modern missions. 
 
 " Our Nineteenth and early Twentieth Cen- 
 tury missionaries in foreign lands," he replied, 
 " recoiled from anything which squinted toward a 
 belief in future probation. They feared that it 
 would ' cut the nerve of missions.' " 
 
 " But what is your own conclusion in the case," 
 I asked, " established in the increased light of a 
 missionary's observation in both worlds ? " 
 
 " I am convinced of two things, neither of them 
 clearly perceived on earth (where my actual ex- 
 perience on the foreign field was so brief)," he 
 
BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD 369 
 
 answered confidently. " First, I believe the mis- 
 sionaries who, even secretly, cherished a hope of 
 a grander work of redemption wrought out in 
 eternity had really more nerve for their work 
 amid almost heart-breaking discouragements from 
 the inertia of paganism. Secondly, I have over- 
 whelming evidence that the contrary doctrine, os- 
 tensibly set forth by our orthodox churches, of a 
 hopeless state of perdition for all who had died 
 without a knowledge of Christ and a pre-mortem 
 vital faith in Him caused many a heathen mind, 
 in worshipful attachment to its ancestors, to re- 
 coil in horror from Christianity. I really believe 
 it would have helped us to make speedier mission- 
 ary conquests if we had permitted, as Paul seems 
 to have done, the rite of baptism for the dead, 
 and if we could have encouraged our converts to 
 hope that they might, in the consistency of God's 
 love and mercy, be permitted to seek out their 
 loved ones gone before into eternity with the gos- 
 pel message they had never heard on earth." 
 
 I asked him what he thought of the suggestion 
 of Uncle Adolphus that I should interest Doctor 
 Christman to drill and organize our increasing 
 mob of enthusiasts for a sane and well-balanced 
 simultaneous campaign in hell. 
 
 " The idea is an excellent one, Prester," Peale 
 answered. " For all you know, in the largeness 
 of hell, Doctor Christman may have already been 
 at this favorite work of his in that region these 
 hundred years. Certainly in our work among 
 
370 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 deceased heathen we would have accomplished 
 much less permanent advance, without a thorough 
 missionary organization." 
 
 Thus encouraged, Jeanie and I prayed our way 
 to the great evangelistic captain, and said to him, 
 " Doctor Christman, we would like to interest you 
 to take charge of an impending simultaneous 
 evangelistic campaign in hell." 
 
 Christman seemed less frightened than we had 
 feared he might be. " I have heard rumors of a 
 proposed infernal propaganda," he said thought- 
 fully. " I even heard that my friend General 
 Booth is thinking seriously of marching his whole 
 Army into hell. But I have never been accus- 
 tomed to commit myself to any venture without 
 a great deal of preliminary consideration. Per- 
 haps you remember how long I hesitated before 
 engaging for the visit to Mill River. 
 
 " Doctor, we couldn't blame you ! " we both ex- 
 claimed in a breath. 
 
 " Well, just as in that case," he answered, with 
 his own smile, inimitable in its humor of triumph 
 over sadness, — " just as in that case of Mill River, 
 I would like you to give me some assurance of a 
 fighting chance for success in this strange under- 
 taking." 
 
 We recounted to him something of our own 
 experience in hell, and called in Father, Albert 
 Detwiler, and Charlie Love joy for corroberating 
 encouragement. 
 
 " How many converts do I understand you 
 
APPRECIATION OF PREACHING 371 
 
 made, all told, the two of you, in the months of 
 your endeavor? " asked the evangelist. 
 
 " Something less than fifty in all," we admitted. 
 
 " But if I heard aright," Doctor Christman 
 persisted, " the bulk of these were converted, not 
 so much as the fruits of evangelistic preaching 
 or of personal work, as by a remarkable vision 
 of heaven which came unexpectedly upon a gath- 
 ering of Christian Scientists." 
 
 " That is true," I confessed. " Aside from this 
 wonderful event, which may, possibly, never be 
 repeated, I won just one convert by my preach- 
 ing, and six others by personal work." 
 
 " And your father? " he interrogated again. 
 
 " Two by preaching," Father reported, " and 
 one by getting myself condemned for heresy." 
 
 " May I ask, gentlemen," Christman continued, 
 " how much gospel preaching you each did during 
 all that time? " 
 
 Father explained that he was preaching regu- 
 larly and statedly almost the whole time, and I, 
 that I had only found opportunity for one ser- 
 mon. 
 
 " It does not strike me, gentlemen, on the face 
 of your returns," the evangelist demurred, " that 
 hell is an encouraging field for gospel preaching. 
 More seems to have been accomplished by personal 
 work, and not overmuch by that." 
 
 " But I realize that I was preaching all the time 
 to the wrong people," Father explained. 
 
 " And I was exploring one of the most hope- 
 
372 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 less quarters of hell, and having interviews with 
 Satan and his archangels," was my own apology. 
 
 The doctor turned to Father with a sudden 
 impulse. " Do you suppose," he asked, " that 
 those interesting churches in hell, of which you 
 have been telling me, might be led to agree upon 
 an invitation and might call for the simultaneous 
 evangelistic campaign to be held among them? 
 Would this give the movement a standing and 
 assumed basis of support and of acceptance 
 among the people of hell themselves ? " 
 
 Father gave a sorrowfully negative gesture. 
 " It causes me sincere regret to discourage that 
 suggestion," he replied. " My own experience 
 and observation of these churches leads me to fear 
 that they dread and deprecate and disapprove 
 of nothing so much as of evangelistic effort and 
 evangelistic preaching." 
 
 " You both think, then," he asked further, 
 " that it would be better to conduct our campaign 
 entirely in the open hell, without any attempt 
 to avail ourselves of the unifying and uplifting 
 influences of the churches and of the societies ? " 
 
 " I think this must have been the providence 
 which was in our mistakes and trials, Nathaniel's 
 and mine," Father answered humbly. " I think 
 we have learned the lesson for you all to make 
 heaven our only base, and God and each other our 
 only reliance." 
 
 " It has never been my custom," the evangelist 
 mused ; " I have never yet conducted a campaign 
 
WORTH WHILE 373 
 
 except upon a practically unanimous invitation 
 of the churches." 
 
 " Please, then, send some one else to obtain it 
 this time," Father requested plaintively. 
 
 " I am only speaking of a method which you 
 both yourselves practically employed," the doctor 
 argued ; " and if by availing yourselves of all 
 the aid you could get from churches and lodges 
 alike, you still found such very moderate success, 
 what results can we expect on an irresponsible 
 sally into hell, uninvited and unaccredited to the 
 people among whom we plan to work ? We might 
 win such meagre acceptance and bring back so 
 few converts as to discourage future evangelistic 
 efforts in those infernal regions for a long time to 
 come. 
 
 "Doctor!" exclaimed Lovejoy, coming for- 
 ward impulsively, " you do not need to count your 
 converts. I have found that one poor sinner 
 saved like me is enough to bring joy in the pres- 
 ence of the angels of God more than ninety and 
 nine already past the need of repentance." 
 
 " I think, Doctor," Father added, " that if we 
 can find ten thousand evangelists ready to go on 
 a mission to hell, and if we can go and work there 
 simultaneously and heartily say for ten years, and 
 can in consequence of our united labors bring back 
 one genuine convert with us, that would be more 
 satisfying, and more nearly worth while, and 
 would enrich God's universe with a greater full- 
 ness of joy and hope than simply to spend the 
 
374? A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 time in cheering and in improving one another in 
 heaven. 
 
 " How is it with your own soul, Doctor? " I 
 ventured to ask. " Are you entirely satisfied just 
 with the organizing of simultaneous praise meet- 
 ings in heaven? Does your soul never cry out 
 for the strenuous life, for the glory and the joy 
 of battling for souls, with which your time was 
 so gloriously filled on earth ? " 
 
 " Prester ! " Christman confessed with strong 
 feeling, " do you know I sometimes think of those 
 campaigning days almost with regret and long- 
 ing, even here in heaven ? " 
 
 " You need not spend another moment in re- 
 gret," Father assured him. " Who knows but 
 that your greater work as an evangelist captain 
 may be still before you? We ask you to take 
 charge of these forces which are mustering for a 
 campaign of salvation in hell. Organize, direct, 
 lead us on to victory as you have shown such 
 signal ability in doing. This is the Lord's Busi- 
 ness, brother, just as truly as any he ever laid 
 upon your heart on earth." 
 
 I endeavored to follow up the advantage. 
 " Brother Christman," I said as impressively as 
 I knew how to. ('Brother,' you know, is the 
 large word in heaven, as in the New Testament.) 
 Brother Christman, let no man take thy crown." 
 
 He understood my reference to the sermon he 
 sometimes used, about the second Thursday after- 
 noon of a series of meetings. 
 
INCONSISTENCY THE JEWEL 375 
 
 " Friends," he said finally, " I appreciate, and 
 am touched by your thought of me in connection 
 with this enterprise. Let me tell you in entire 
 frankness that I have not infrequently experienced 
 an impulse toward similar lines of endeavor since 
 coming to heaven. I have been deterred hitherto 
 by an unwillingness to appear inconsistent. In 
 all my preaching on earth I was accustomed to 
 appeal to men and to warn them as on their only 
 probation for eternity. I distinctly discouraged 
 the hope of a probation after death, in all its 
 forms. I would have no one on my force who 
 showed any leaning to it. My men all talked the 
 other thing. To allow even the least element of 
 such an uncertainty in our preaching, so it seemed 
 to me, would take all the force from the evangel- 
 istic appeal. Now for me to turn in eternity and 
 to take the lead in a movement presenting the offer 
 of salvation to damned souls in hell would seem to 
 be the height of inconsistency." 
 
 " Pardon me, my dear brother," I ventured to 
 reply : " the inconsistency, it seems to me, is only 
 upon the surface. I hardly think I ever heard 
 you say anything which I have since forgotten; 
 and just now I recall one of your sayings about 
 the interpretation of the parable of the Prodigal 
 Son. You said you had preached from it occa- 
 sionally for years as setting .forth the possibili- 
 ties of man's repentance ; but that you had never 
 felt quite satisfied in your conception of the para- 
 ble, until, of late, it had come to you that its 
 
376 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 primary purpose was to set forth the heavenly 
 Father's love. And now how can you look at that 
 parable a moment in the light of eternity and fail 
 to see that it applies with equal force to the 
 love of our Father for every poor prodigal child 
 of His in the far country of hell ? Your own dis- 
 covery in the parable involves eternal redemp- 
 tion. Would it be father love worth illustrating 
 in parable if it turned to inappeasable fury the 
 moment a sinner happened to stumble across the 
 morally accidental boundary line of physical 
 death? Won't God give every one of His prodi- 
 gals a fair and equal chance to repent and come 
 back to Him? Did they all have this fair and 
 equal chance on earth? What other possible ob- 
 ject can the Father have in letting them endure 
 the mighty famine of hell ; but that each may be 
 led to come to himself and say, * I will arise and 
 go to my Father ? ' 
 
 " Let me presume to tell you, dear doctor," I 
 continued, " that no man ever preached the gospel 
 truly as you have, without logically, if uncon- 
 sciously setting forth the necessity of an aeonian 
 redemption. Consistency? The height of incon- 
 sistency would be for a preacher like you not to 
 go on proclaiming the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ till the last prodigal had come back to his 
 Father. You remember Emerson says a foolish 
 consistency is the bug-bear of little minds. Tell 
 me, does your heart never ache for all the hun- 
 dreds of thousands of people who listened to you 
 
GOD'S CONSISTENCY 377 
 
 on earth, who showed concern, rose for prayers, 
 got half saved, and still the thorns sprang up and 
 choked the word? Do you suppose God's heart 
 has no ache in it like yours? Just let us put 
 ourselves in God's hands for life-saving use, until 
 the world's last heart-ache finds its only cure. 
 What a shame for a man of your ability and ex- 
 perience to be loafing about in heaven, with noth- 
 ing doing in your own chosen line, when here are 
 thousands of preachers and personal workers 
 eager to have you put yourself at their head for 
 the grandest soul-winning campaign you ever led ! 
 Hell is teeming with wretched, despairing souls, 
 half sick of sin, groping for any ray of hope, 
 ready to catch at any life-line. It has been dem- 
 onstrated that these people can be saved. Here 
 are two of them, and we can bring you a hundred 
 more. If not one known conversion from hell had 
 yet taken place, still every consideration of rea- 
 son, of equity, of pity, of religion, every worthy 
 thought of Christ, the self -consistent interpreta- 
 tion of God's Word, and what seems to be a truly 
 unified system of Christian doctrine would bid us 
 believe in its possibility, its God-given commis- 
 sion, its urgent claim upon our consecrated en- 
 deavor. If no citizen of heaven had yet found 
 hell, or returned from there; the exercise of our 
 simplest intuitions would bid us set forth to reach 
 it on a saving mission, as confidently as Columbus 
 turned the prow of his vessel westward to find oth- 
 er lands." 
 
378 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 Father took up the plea where I left off. " For- 
 give us, dear Brother, if we seem to persuade you 
 over much," he said. " Such all-important issues 
 hang upon your decision ! It still seems to please 
 God by the foolishness of preaching to save them 
 that believe. He still prefers to win men through 
 men, and we still have this treasure in earthen 
 vessels, in order that the excellency of the power 
 may be of God and not of man. The complete 
 redemption of our race waits upon the spirit-filled 
 activity of redeemed sinners like you and me. God 
 has blessed your labor in the past; but life was 
 too short and Satan too strong for all you longed 
 to do. God would have us complete in eternity 
 the task which we could barely begin in the mortal 
 life. We whose earthly ministry has been so 
 mixed with failure have the incentive of still seek- 
 ing for some late sheaves from the fields of hell ; 
 but one to whom God has given mighty power to 
 win souls has the far nobler motive of responsi- 
 bility to that self -same gift; that he may use it 
 wherever lost souls remain to be saved. If you 
 cannot, in good conscience, come with us, broth- 
 er, we will essay to go in the strength of the Lord 
 our God. We will blunder about, and save such 
 as me may. I, for one, cannot think strange of 
 your hesitation ; having been long withheld from 
 the work by scruples of my own. But I will 
 grieve for you and for ourselves; for you, that 
 you will miss the crown of rejoicing which comes 
 with new conquests; for ourselves that we will 
 
THE REVIVALISTIC LONGING 379 
 
 miss the confidence which trained and capable 
 generalship inspires, as well as the more satisfy- 
 ing results which such leadership ensures. Like 
 you, in preaching to mortal men, I dreaded to in- 
 spire in their breasts a hope of continued proba- 
 tion beyond the grave which might prove delusive, 
 and leave the blood of souls upon my head. I 
 fear still the souls in hell we will find altogether 
 the hardest to arouse will be those who have pre- 
 sumed to trade upon God's longsuffering proba- 
 tion. But now that I have seen both heaven and 
 hell, and have become convinced of my mistaken 
 thought of God's severity in hopelessly damning 
 men, I am experiencing a keen reaction of eager- 
 ness for mission work in hell. So we will contin- 
 ually pray for you my dear Doctor, in our scat- 
 tered warfare and in our councils for its main- 
 tenance in the archenemy's country ; we will pray 
 that the doubts which cloud the issue may yet dis- 
 solve away from before your mental vision, and 
 that with a fresh enthusiasm, reacting from long 
 waiting, you may yet come to us in hell, commis- 
 sioned to be our general; come in the fullness of 
 the blessing of the gospel of Christ — to show 
 us how we should preach, and how we should 
 plead, and by what skilled tactics we may conquer ; 
 come as the chosen instrument in God's hands to 
 inspire and direct the mightiest revival of all his- 
 tory, even among the prisoners of hell's own 
 world-wide dungeon." 
 
 But Christman rose to his full height, with a 
 
380 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 strong gesture of dissent. " You need not spend 
 time praying any longer for that," he began, and 
 then some strong emotion choked his utterance. 
 
 " But why not, Doctor," Jeanie pleaded in her 
 own irresistible way. " Are you going to forbid 
 us loving you and wishing for you to come and 
 help us? Must we bear the brunt of everything 
 in hell, while men like you who ought to be in 
 the forefront of our endeavor, are holding aloof 
 from us and showing that they don't know what 
 to think of our mission? Why cannot you let us 
 pray that our Master will show you and all of us 
 His will and give us your grand help, if it is His 
 will?" 
 
 Our leader's soul filled with tears as he tried 
 to answer. " You need not pray any longer," 
 he explained, " because my mind is already made 
 up. My doubts, such as I had, are all gone. 
 Friends, you've convinced me, and you have even 
 put me to shame. God forgive me for the happy 
 century and a quarter I have spent greeting old 
 comrades and converts in heaven! God help me 
 to accept manfully the challenge you have 
 brought ! For by His blessing, friends, I am with 
 you for such time as you wish me for a yokefellow 
 in our long pull on hell." 
 
SPEED AWAY! 381 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 The rest is a matter of common history, and 
 may be readily gone over. I need only remind 
 my listeners of how our leader himself drew to- 
 gether his thousands of evangelists, singers, and 
 personal workers; of the plan of alliance and of 
 strict comity with General Booth's Army, with 
 which our invasion of hell was begun; of how 
 the whole infernal territory was mapped into 
 zones for successive campaigns, and how each 
 zone was districted and portioned out among in- 
 dividual evangelists each with his own corps of 
 workers ; of the great consecration meeting held in 
 heaven when we all met one another soul to soul, 
 and gave ourselves to God to be used in a mission 
 to hell. These things were not done in a corner. 
 Our publicity committee not only had the coming 
 meetings thoroughly and well advertised in the 
 great zone of the Once Half-Converted, where 
 our labors were to begin; but they had also en- 
 deavored to send out notice of our undertaking 
 throughout that part of heaven more immediately 
 interested; so that no one could say that an op- 
 portunity had not been given him to join the 
 expedition. Several million people had definitely 
 pledged themselves to pray often for a revival in 
 hell. Our consecration meeting was attended by 
 ten or twelve millions. Our Jesus made us glad 
 by His visible presence, equally close to each of 
 
$82 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 us. He was there to soothe every anxiety, to 
 glorify the sacrifice and sorrow of partings, and 
 to breathe upon us that we might receive the Holy 
 Spirit. The love of heaven beamed upon us from 
 the myriad tender, prayerful spirit-faces, as we 
 sank slowly from view, more than a hundred thou- 
 sand of us (besides the Salvation Army) sing- 
 ing — 
 
 " Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, 
 With the cross of Jesus going on before. 
 Christ our royal master leads against the foe. 
 Onward into battle see His banners go." 
 
 They say even the vast body politic of heaven 
 felt our departure as though a drop of blood 
 had been taken from its heart. 
 
 You have heard, no doubt, of the discourage- 
 ments and discomfitures of our early campaign. 
 At first we seemed to find no one in hell. We 
 could not attract any one for whom we sought 
 to a personal encounter. We preached to great 
 empty spaces. The same sinister silence and soli- 
 tude with which Jeanie and I found ourselves 
 environed after Wilkinson had gone inside the 
 lodge room now stretched around our allied forces 
 whichever way we directed our invading flight. 
 Even the mission stations we found, where rescue 
 work was already being prosecuted, had been 
 suddenly deserted at our approach by all their 
 unconverted auditors. Many of our comrades 
 became puzzled and discouraged. They came 
 
INITIAL DISCOURAGEMENTS 383 
 
 about the few of us who had been in hell before 
 with insistent questions. " Was this hell indeed, 
 or had we lost our way? Where were the in- 
 habitants? Of what use had been our leave-tak- 
 ing and our imposing preparation, our finished 
 organization, all our committees and departments, 
 our heroic departure, our high hopes and lofty 
 enthusiasm — just to find ourselves in this limit- 
 less Sahara of empty glare? " 
 
 Even Christman was nonplussed and bewildered. 
 At last he called those of us aside who had en- 
 joyed some previous acquaintance with the ways 
 of hell. " You have brought us here," he pro- 
 tested, " and it falls upon your shoulders to pro- 
 vide us with a congregation. Tell us what this 
 means. Where are the natives we came to evan- 
 gelize, and how can we get at them? The uncan- 
 niness of all this is sapping the courage of our 
 men. I have seen meetings begin slowly; but 
 this outparallels every experience. You surely 
 must be able to guess at the situation better than 
 the rest of us can. It is all new and strange to 
 us. Now I wish you to get this spell broken 
 within a week. I will help you in any way that 
 you can suggest ; but there must not be any more 
 time lost." 
 
 We were ourselves scarcely less disturbed than 
 our leader. We puzzled over it, and prayed over 
 it ; but even Albert and Wilkinson had no definite 
 explanation or suggestion to offer. At last Jeanie 
 proposed that we should all wish hard for the 
 
384 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 dusky guide who had first shown me the way to 
 hell, and who had come to our assistance in ex- 
 tremity once before. So we wished for him, and 
 he came from the great space of a different world 
 in hell. " Tell us what has become of all the 
 people," Father demanded. 
 
 " They are peeping at you by millions," the 
 man born in hell replied. " They will not let 
 you see them, and each one is trying not to let the 
 others see that he is interested." 
 
 " How singular ! " I mused. " They did not 
 treat me so when J. first reached hell and essayed 
 open air preaching. They flocked around by 
 hundreds of thousands and showed all their feel- 
 ings." 
 
 " The mistake you made this time," the guide 
 explained, " was in sending your publicity com- 
 mittee before to advertise your meetings. Every 
 installed pastor in hell has been denouncing your 
 coming for a month. They have been warning 
 their congregatios that you are irresponsible, in- 
 terloping zealots. They have been spreading 
 various stories about your leader — that he is 
 only actuated by mercenary motives, that he, or a 
 man by his name, once held a seat on the Chicago 
 Stock Exchange, or at least had some transactions 
 in stocks there, that he was fond of fast horses, 
 that his sermons are hired. And they say of 
 you each that you never entirely succeeded in 
 any pastorate you ever had. They have created 
 such a public sentiment, that each citizen is 
 
TO BREAK THE BOYCOTT 385 
 
 ashamed to have the other one know that he is 
 even curious about you. Besides this, the lodges 
 have each and all passed a secret order putting 
 any member out of standing who will attend, 
 countenance, or encourage any one of your meet- 
 ings, or be seen conversing with one of your 
 workers; but to help any one of you get into a 
 lodge has been made a crime against the order, 
 to be punished with the torture." 
 
 " Then we might as well go back to heaven, 
 and wait awhile, until we can come and take them 
 by surprise," thought Albert Junior. 
 
 " This would be of no use," the Creole declared, 
 " for upon your first attempt to return, the same 
 ban and boycott would instantly be put into force 
 again." 
 
 " What can we do ? " exclaimed Joy in bewil- 
 derment. 
 
 " There is just one thing to do," advised our 
 native friend. " Your whole evangelistic activ- 
 ity must be concentrated upon making one con- 
 vert. It is the first conversion which brings the 
 break in a revival." 
 
 " But how can we concentrate on anybody," 
 Joy asked, " when there absolutely isn't anybody 
 in sight to concentrate on? " 
 
 " Oh that is easy," Jeanie declared. " It will 
 be something like the time Nat and I concentrated 
 on Mr. McGammon. We simply select our man 
 and all pray for him, until he has to come out." 
 
 " If you could only see them," the dark brother 
 
386 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 declared ; " the nearest observers around your host 
 are those who have been drawn by the prayers 
 of those who love them best. Only, these prayers 
 have been sent out scatteringly, each to find its 
 own chosen object. What you need now is to se- 
 lect one of these, acquaint the remainder of your 
 whole evangelistic force with all you know of 
 him or of her, and set them, for the time being, 
 all to praying just for that one; until you get 
 hold of him and save him." 
 
 " The only remaining question then is, which? " 
 Father concluded. 
 
 " I would take the one who came nearest to 
 being saved the last time you were here," our 
 friend advised again. 
 
 I asked Father if he could think of any one in 
 particular in or about his pastorate at Jeroboam's 
 Holl who seemed nearest to being saved; but he 
 failed to remember a single one of his old parish- 
 ioners who had manifested any distinct trace of 
 a self -consciousness that he or she came under the 
 category of those who need salvation. " During 
 the final moments of my condemnation by the 
 presbytery," he acknowledged, " and just at the 
 moment of my quitting their assembled presence, 
 there seemed to be an undefined revulsion of wist- 
 fulness and an unexpected regret over my de- 
 parture on the part of a large number, as though 
 they would fain have heard more of my matter; 
 but there was no one of them in particular whom 
 
WHERE TWO AGREE 387 
 
 I can single out in memory as having shown him- 
 self especially under gracious influence." 
 
 " How about Mr. Willoughby ? " Jeanie asked, 
 turning to me. 
 
 I acknowledged that his case had just occurred 
 to my mind as perhaps the least impossibly hope- 
 less of all the lodge members I had rubbed against. 
 
 " No one could ever confidently declare at any 
 moment what Willoughby might really be think- 
 ing back of his beak," I said ; " but his actions 
 at least showed some interest in personal salva- 
 tion." 
 
 Of course Mrs. Willoughby and the daugher, 
 being among our evangelistic force, were with us 
 in a moment pleading strongly that he might be 
 the chosen object of our prayers, and, to appease 
 their concern, I took our dusky counselor to 
 Christman. When the evangelist had heard all 
 he had to advise, and all I could say definitely for 
 Willoughby, he said to the hell-born brother, 
 " you stay with us and be our Hobab. The 
 force is not complete for hell, without you." 
 Then he issued a general order. " Call in all 
 scouts and specialists," it ran. " Come together 
 in close formation, and pray for nothing else but 
 the conversion of one James Willoughby, Free 
 Mason, ex-magistrate, and church trustee." 
 
 Within the stipulated week we began to feel 
 the pull. There was no sudden jerk; but very 
 gradually from an almost imperceptible begin- 
 
A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 ning, we realized that our prayer had caught 
 something. To my intense surprise, the strain 
 increased seemingly far out of proportion to the 
 size of the soul we were pulling upon. Our whole 
 host began to feel it, and sturdy souls bent with 
 reassured purpose to the rope of prayer. Wilkin- 
 son, Uncle Linas, Jeanie and I went softly about 
 among them, whispering in each soul's ear all we 
 knew about the object of our united prayers. 
 The man's wife and daughter also tried to tell 
 each one something ; to aid in giving prayer more 
 definite shape ; but could say little for weeping in 
 their joy and wonder. 
 
 " Is this a giant we are drawing to Christ ? " 
 Christman asked us quietly. We replied that if 
 such were the case, our friend must have grown 
 prodigiously since we parted. " Willoughby is 
 one of the closest, snuggest, tightest little souls," 
 I explained, " and he has a smooth hard shell all 
 over him, shaped to a beak which rarely ever opens 
 more than half an inch. Unless he has strangely 
 changed, there is little or nothing about him for 
 prayer to catch hold of, except, perhaps, the de- 
 votion he professes to his wife and daughter." 
 
 The next time we met him our leader remarked, 
 " This pull is more than the pull of one soul. 
 The devil himself could hardly pull harder than 
 this." 
 
 " I fear me," Uncle Linas suggested, " that 
 all of old Mystery Lodge has clutched upon 
 Squire Willoughby's soul, to hold it back." 
 
GOLD CHAINS OF PRAYER 389 
 
 " More likely it is the whole pseudo-Masonic 
 order," Uncle Adolphus thought. 
 
 " Well all I've got to say," declared Wilkin- 
 son, " is that if the Free Masons are pulling 
 against you, it'll take more pull than you've got 
 here to do anything." 
 
 " Look here, my man," Christman said almost 
 sharply, " Don't you know that when one believer 
 prays, he hitches omnipotence to his object, or to 
 his obstacle ? " 
 
 " I believe something is going to give way 
 soon," Jeanie declared encouragingly. " Haven't 
 you noticed that the pull is getting more jerky 
 and wavy than it was ? There must be some com- 
 motion over there at the other side." 
 
 General Booth came back with his army from 
 a fruitless expedition in search of the slums of 
 hell, and finding something actually doing with 
 us, ordered the whole army to take hold in prayer 
 and help pull. 
 
 " Everything seemed to have been covered up 
 or cleared out of the way," he reported somewhat 
 dejectedly. "The only discovery we made — 
 and that by an oversight of the infernal authori- 
 ties maybe, — was a great pit full of dead or half 
 dead souls still twitching and quivering as if 
 galvanized. If we find we cannot locate more 
 encouragingly ; we will begin work on them ; to 
 see if they will not, some of them, be resuscitated 
 by the quickening power of Christ." 
 
 " Oh please take me with you ! " It was the 
 
390 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 plea of little Sadie Echols, instantly close by our 
 side. 
 
 It seemed now as though all hell were pulling 
 against our prayers. Word was sent back to our 
 supporters in heaven to pray for the one definite 
 need of this soul's salvation. The current now 
 on was terrific. There were not amperes enough 
 upon the dial to measure it. We began to fear 
 that poor Willoughby might be unbeaked and 
 torn in two. " When he does eventually come," 
 Father said in my soul's ear, " do you know of 
 what it will remind me? It will be like our 
 Seventh Street Branch of the Central Union Mis- 
 sion long ago. When a poor drunken, unsaved 
 fellow did perchance wander into one of our 
 meetings ; you know he by no means went out un- 
 converted. We were hungry for lost souls to 
 save, and before our meeting came to its conclu- 
 sion half of us would be about him in prayer." 
 
 So it proved in this case. When the strain 
 opposed to us began to give way, and Willough- 
 by, open-mouthed, unmasked, crying to God for 
 mercy, was drawn to us, with a hundred million 
 black hands clutching at him still, there was short 
 work in getting him to the very center of our 
 phalanx, where, with weeping wife and daughter 
 and with old pals and neighbors praying softly 
 as we patted him, James Willoughby found par- 
 don and acceptance with God through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; and in an hour his tight soul opened 
 out to the sunshine of love like the bud on a bal- 
 
COSTLY VICTORY 391 
 
 som bough. A shout went up to heaven that one 
 sinner was repenting. 
 
 " Out and catch them ! " was the cry raised 
 meanwhile at our periphery. " Pray for whom 
 you will," Christman counseled. " Preach to 
 whom you can." It was not long before evangel- 
 ists and personal workers had scattered out over 
 a great part of hell following glimpses of retreat- 
 ing opponents, beckoning to shifting, changing, 
 melting clouds of possible auditors. 
 
 But the immediate effect of Willoughby's con- 
 version did not tell for victory as we had hoped. 
 It seemed at first to lead to a series of misfortunes 
 which all but wrecked our enterprise. To use 
 again a military phrase, the enemy's position was 
 only partially uncovered. The swarm of un- 
 counted damned souls around us revealed its 
 presence only in part, by the constant impact of 
 soul bodies whose weight could be felt ; but whose 
 form could not be seen: by calls which drew us 
 here and there only to find emptiness, or else to be 
 rubbed upon singly by a vastly disproportioned 
 mass. Those who were drawn far away from 
 their comrades by their interest in some dear lost 
 soul, or by their eagerness to find an audience for 
 the message of salvation, began sending back 
 signals of distress; and rescuing parties had to 
 be dispatched here and there in anxiety and haste. 
 One of our number, Chaplain Jones, who had 
 helped us in our first raid on Galpin's so called, 
 ' canteens ' at the camp, had the misfortune to 
 
392 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 lose his temper, and rushed away after a taunting 
 fiend, very much after the manner in which, on 
 that memorable day, he went after one of the boys 
 of his regiment who fled with a bottle of beer from 
 regimental camp to camp. 
 
 Our leader kept his nerve splendidly, attending 
 to emergencies and reverses with tireless pertinac- 
 ity. But after some weeks he sent for Father 
 and me to come into headquarters. We found 
 General Booth there in consultation with him, 
 and with our dusky guide. 
 
 " The revival is not coming promptly ; as re- 
 vivals must, if they come at all," our captain ex- 
 plained. 
 
 " It must seem like terrible work to you for a 
 first experience," I admitted. 
 
 " It is not the terrible work that we mind," the 
 General declared ; " we came here for terrible 
 work, we are spoiling for it, we glory in it. But 
 it is the results that we are somehow missing." 
 
 " Never despair, dear General," Father coun- 
 seled. " Our fishing for men is not in vain. 
 Have we not already caught one? " 
 
 " But that seems rather a little one," Christman 
 objected. " You cannot figure up a revival on 
 the strength of one convert. Our Hobab here 
 promised us greater results ; if we could but con- 
 centrate and win one. 
 
 " I did not have the selecting of that one," the 
 guide protested. 
 
TRY SOMETHING HARDER 393 
 
 " You left the selection with the Presters here," 
 Christman reminded him. 
 
 " Yes I know, and I advised them to select the 
 one they had formerly come nearest to convert- 
 ing," our infernal native admitted. " There 
 must have been a providence in it; but I hardly 
 anticipated that they would settle upon one who 
 would afford so slight an object lesson and 
 demonstration of regenerating power, or one who 
 would apparently pull so feebly upon the others 
 back of him. I begin to feel that I have erred 
 in judgement. I should have counseled you to 
 concentrate, and focus upon the most hardened 
 soul you had found in hell, the one who seemed 
 most hopeless as an object of evangelistic en- 
 deavor, the one whose activities for evil are having 
 the widest scope, and whose moral condition and 
 future outlook gives you most confidence in re- 
 garding him as entirely reprobate. I feel now 
 that I am to blame for encouraging you to 
 minimize the converting grace of God. I would 
 advise you now to combine and ask for the great- 
 est miracle of grace you can think of, in the 
 regeneration of some one definite individual soul." 
 
 " Shall we try the Presters again on the selec- 
 tion ? " Doctor Christman demanded. 
 
 " I would, certainly," replied our adviser. 
 " Otherwise they might feel that we had lost con- 
 fidence in them over the meagre outcome of their 
 former choice." 
 
394 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " Perhaps the most hopeless apparent reprobate 
 I discovered," Father said when our leader ap- 
 pealed to him, " was in the person of a Presby- 
 terian elder named James Rorer." 
 
 " I decline to believe it," Christman declared 
 promptly. " No Presbyterian elder shall be thus 
 held up as the supreme reprobate of hell during 
 my campaign." 
 
 " My son also has had some dealings with him, 
 even in both worlds " Father insisted, " and can 
 doubtless confirm my testimony with regard to 
 him." 
 
 " No Father," I said ; " for obduracy Rorer 
 might possibly take the prize ; but for the activi- 
 ties of widest influence for evil I am thinking of a 
 choice between three others." Then I hesitated. 
 
 " Tell us about them," commanded General 
 Booth : " then we can intelligently help your 
 selection." 
 
 " First I must ask, would you limit the selec- 
 tion to those of human race ? " was my appeal. 
 
 " I believe he would have us pray for Satan 
 himself!" Christman exclaimed. "Decidedly 
 we must not ! This would be a rash intrusion into 
 the inner-most secrets of the Godhead." 
 
 " If you would extend the term, ' human ' to 
 cover beings of similar origin, perhaps this would 
 meet young Prester's thought," gently interposed 
 our dusky guide. " I regard myself as human ; 
 though born in hell of extraction partly terres- 
 trial, partly Martian. He of whom our brother 
 
THE NEXT ONE TO SATAN 395 
 
 is thinking may be of lineage equally unlikely as 
 a trophy of redeeming grace." 
 
 " It is not a he, but a she," I explained ; " only 
 it is a soul grown almost past human measure- 
 ments. The other two with whom I came into 
 confidential relations, and between whom and the 
 Satana I would hesitate to accord the preeminence 
 in sin, were Satan himself, and an ex-rumseller 
 now head of the so-called Masonic order of hell." 
 
 " Let us try the woman," Christman decided at 
 once. " Time is pressing. The sex also is more 
 capable of sudden and remarkable revulsions of 
 impulse." 
 
 So the order went out : " Concentrate again, 
 and pray only for the conversion of a certain 
 Mrs. Guinness, murderess by trade, and present 
 chief consort of Satan." 
 
 This time it was decided not to begin gradually, 
 and increase our force of intercession as recruits 
 might come in ; but to notify all whose help had 
 been enlisted before, both in hell and in heaven, 
 and agree, at a given signal, all to begin praying 
 at once. So the word was passed quite quietly, 
 and earnest preparation of mind was enjoyed 
 upon all the millions of petitioners along lines of 
 meditation which tend to establish the conviction 
 of God's willingness to answer the request of most 
 unlikely boldness, for the glory of His name. 
 At last the signal was given, and some ten million 
 souls bowed low before God in concerted prayer 
 for the salvation of one woman's wicked soul. 
 
396 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 To our astonishment, the answer was immediate. 
 Almost at a bound the she-devil was among us, 
 in all the greatness of her semi-infinite psychical 
 development, in all the sobbing contrition of a 
 woman's heart, broken in conviction of sin. " It 
 is so wonderful that you should care to ask to have 
 me saved ! " she cried. " And oh ! I have been 
 so miserable ! I have not had one moment's peace, 
 since Prester prayed for me as I was dragging 
 him down. Nobody ever prayed for me before." 
 
 Hell closed in thick about us now. The secrets 
 of all hearts stood revealed. Satanic rage, open- 
 mouthed astonishment, contagious penitence, soul- 
 curdling confession; fierce resistance to convic- 
 tion, desperate opposition, trembling terror before 
 God swirled and quivered, and leaped into flame 
 around us. Recognitions instant and startling 
 flashed from soul to soul. Sin and shame and 
 horror bared themselves to the day. Pity and 
 prayer met aching loneliness and moral desolation. 
 God and Satan, heaven and hell wrestled in the 
 open for the prize of souls. 
 
 Heaven still wonders over the revival which 
 followed. " Keep close together," was our human 
 leader's order, " and take individual cases only 
 as they come to us." The simultaneous idea was 
 laid aside for the time being, and the work was 
 done on the old mass-meeting plan. Christman 
 preached even as we had never heard him preach 
 before. Moody also came and stood in the wide 
 open gate of God's mercy, crying out to souls to 
 
WALES OUTDONE 397 
 
 turn and live. Jonathan Edwards came and 
 thundered out his warnings of worse to befall sin- 
 ners in the hands of an angry God. The rest 
 of us worked in an inquiry meeting continually 
 thronged with seekers, crying, " Is there still hope 
 for me? " 
 
 Not only men but demons: spirits who flocked 
 to our meeting for the purpose of opposition ; to 
 thwart redemption's power with sneer, or threat, 
 with counter attraction of glittering vice, or with 
 sheer overpowering din of rage and ridicule ; were 
 themselves, one and another of them, caught by 
 this mighty thrill and clasp of the hitherto un- 
 dreamed-of possibility of pardon, and fallen 
 angels, as well as devils once of human shape were 
 found suddenly weeping for sin. Yells of de- 
 fiance turned to groans of contrition, prayers for 
 mercy, hallelujahs of conscious acceptance with 
 God. 
 
 Converts went out to find others. There could 
 have been no restraining them, if we had tried. 
 With a reason for the new hope that was in them 
 as strong and calm as the unchanging attributes 
 of God, yet as novel to their minds as the first see- 
 ing of one born blind; there came to each a 
 revulsion of feeling dynamic with the pent up 
 power of ages of misery turned to overwhelming 
 joy, and the first longinng of each was for some 
 one other chum of perdition to experience the same 
 mighty change. Thus the revival swept out be- 
 yond all human directing grasp, the results of it 
 
398 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 overwhelmed its organization, its power radiated 
 beyond its machinery, parallel currents vied with 
 its wires. 
 
 Other evangelistic centers began to be estab- 
 lished, some of them by direction, others God 
 alone knew how. As in a great conflagration 
 sparks drop and kindle upon distant roofs, the 
 flame of revival sprang up continually in the most 
 unlikely places. Even Jeroboam's Holl experi- 
 enced two remarkable conversions of church mem- 
 bers, with one, near by, still more remarkable, even 
 the conversion of a minister of their Presbytery. 
 They sent in a request for Father to come back 
 to them as their own special evangelist. He had 
 to labor, in his inimitably patient way against 
 the frosty influence of criticism without end 
 directed at revivals in general and this one in par- 
 ticular; yet his efforts bore fruit for God, even 
 in the conversion of such hopelessly theological 
 minds as those of elder McCracken and Doctor 
 Raxton. 
 
 Many still stood out unconvinced and gospel 
 hardened. The greatest results, as has so often 
 happened, were achieved in the lower levels of hell. 
 Here newly converted hellians sometimes almost 
 outrivaled heaven's own missionaries as preachers 
 of salvation. Objects of the bitterest persecu- 
 tion, the storm which swirled around each of them 
 gave him or her an opportunity to direct the 
 arrows of conviction between the armor joints 
 of souls too angry to be on their guard. Mrs. 
 
A REVIVAL YEAR 399 
 
 Guiness, no longer Mrs. Satan, now the outstand- 
 ing target for all her former consort's malevolence 
 and malice, sanctified in her humility and sorrow, 
 lovely in the tingling of an eternal blush, was 
 working almost everywhere at once in the spirit 
 of a Nellie Conroy, with skill and effectiveness of 
 the archtemptress become a winner of souls. But 
 her tenderest endeavors were exerted, along with 
 those of the Salvation Army in the work of rescue 
 and recuscitation upon the brink of the lowest pit 
 of hell. Little Sadie Echols was with them there, 
 and almost their first achievement was the quicken- 
 ing of Hatchet, so long dead in trespasses and 
 sins. 
 
 Even Mystery Lodge was visited. Already 
 somewhat shaken by the extraction of Willough- 
 by, it experienced a far greater shock in the 
 sudden and unexplained conversion of Elder 
 Smiley. He was stricken speechless with contri- 
 tion, and began to shake with a dumb chill of 
 dread over what hell might still have in store for 
 him. The news of this most marvelous change 
 of all reached the souls of Mystery's former 
 chaplain's Godson and Galpin, and with Christ- 
 man's consent, and the help of Uncle Adolphus, 
 they gathered a strong company of ex-Masons 
 together from our evangelistic force, of whom 
 quite a number, like Parson Weems (now grown 
 strong in the Lord and in the power of His 
 might) had been ministers of the gospel on earth; 
 and together they forced a prayerful entrance 
 
400 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 into the infernal free-masonry, in spite of all 
 McGammon's wizzardrj of resistance. 
 
 A revival in hell! How utterly vain are even 
 wordless symbols of thought to picture forth 
 the melodrama of its groans and halelujahs, its 
 age-long lethargy of hopelessness waking to sud- 
 den life and joy! Such a revival earth never 
 saw; yet the tremor of its pulsations seemed to 
 be felt even in mortal lives. It was a time of un- 
 usual manifestation of the power of God quicken- 
 ing dependent souls. This was the Year of Hun- 
 ger on earth, when the Farmer's Trust met its 
 Waterloo, and when the last survival of anarchism 
 and of atheistic humanism struggled viciously in 
 its death-throe; while the ore of humanity went 
 through God's hottest furnace, to come out pure 
 gold. I should like so much to tell you a thous- 
 andth part of the wonderful personal incidents 
 of our revival, of how Alton Chartier found his 
 way into our inquiry meeting, and of how Jeanie 
 won him to Christ; also of Love joy's success in 
 bringing in Lou Sawyer and many another poor 
 suicide, of how Maggie Rorer and her mother 
 went after the elder from one of hell's hiding 
 places to another until they found him, of how 
 they loved him until he could hate no longer, and 
 so brought him into the kingdom. I cannot tell 
 you how glad I would be to talk over a great 
 many of these details with you sometime when we 
 meet in heaven, and to put each of you, gentle 
 listeners, upon the track of some one dear to you 
 
THE FAR GLANCE AHEAD 401 
 
 whom you may help Jesus save out of hell; some- 
 one for whose salvation you know now that you 
 did not wrestle as you might have done on earth, 
 and for whom, to get the pain of an endless regret 
 out of your mind, you might gladly be willing 
 to make a little journey in hell. 
 
 So it came about, toward the close of this 
 memorable year, that some of us who had come up 
 to heaven with a company of converts, among 
 whom were the lady hierarch of Christian Science, 
 and elders Rorer and McCracken, when we were 
 about to descend again amid hell's dear scenes of 
 revival power, met a group of philosophers and 
 theologians gazing out from the edge of heaven 
 in general survey of the stirring events occuring 
 on earth, in hell, and everywhere. There were 
 Joseph Addison Alexander, Doctor Hitchcock, 
 Joseph Cook, Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, and 
 Mozoomdar; together with Professor Noah K. 
 and the apostle John, and other men distinctly 
 called of God to the mission of high thought. 
 Father and I, Brother Strong and Truth Custiss, 
 Mother, Jeanie, Joy and her two Alberts, together 
 with some other plain workers for God, stopped 
 awhile to hear these men think. 
 
 " Is the consummation at hand? " Alexander 
 asked, " Are we nearing the restitution of all 
 things, the great adoption, to wit the complete 
 redemption, for which the whole creation has been 
 groaning and travailing in pain together until 
 now?" 
 
402 A MISSION TO HELL 
 
 " Nay," replied he who was in the spirit on the 
 Lord's Day on Patmos, " there are ages of conflict 
 yet to come. The great day of Judgment, and 
 the many days of tears and triumph are yet to 
 come. Christ must descend and reign on earth, 
 in every world, in hell ; even He whose right it is ; 
 The Spirit and the Bride must still say, ' Come ! ' " 
 
 Jeanie drew a little closer to my side and whisp- 
 ered, " Then there are still to be ages in which to 
 believe to see even poor Mister McGammon and 
 the Devil saved." 
 
 But Father was listening to something from far 
 away. His soul's ear had caught the vibration of 
 a song. " Listen ! " he said, and every soul 
 about us grew still. It was beginning, oh so 
 softly ! all over hell at once. The discords of that 
 dreadful place were inaudible by reason of moral 
 distance ; but this harmony in song came up to us 
 with increasing distinctness. It was the har- 
 mony of a sob of pity mingling with a sob 
 of joy. It was the harmony of love with 
 penitence. It was the sweetest refrain to which 
 our souls had ever listened. It swelled up 
 vibrant and clear; then lingered away into 
 a whisper. But an antiphonal strain came 
 now from the heaven behind us, thrilling the uni- 
 verse with hope. We too joined in the chorus 
 and even the hearts of living men on earth vibrated 
 unconsciously in harmony with it, while new-born 
 souls coming up from hell, as well as missionary 
 spirits going thither, let their voices blend with 
 
THE UNENDING SONG 403 
 
 ours in rich symphonal accord. Stronger and 
 vaster grew the chorus, as the voice of many 
 waters, as the voice of mighty thunderings, the 
 voice of a great multitude which no man could 
 number. Almost it semed that we could hear each 
 new soul's voice chiming in ; until it seemed sure 
 that every creature would yet take up the anthem 
 of blessing, and honour, and glory and power 
 unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto 
 the Lamb, heaven's lamb as it had been slain. 
 Our hearing extended to futurity. We caught 
 the coming notes of an anthem rolling onward 
 through ages that are to be. We heard voices 
 yet unborn bringing fresh harmonies, sounding 
 untried chords. Life after life quivered out of 
 the minor key into the rich major of full content. 
 It seemed that not one soul would be left sullenly 
 dumb, or bitterly discordant; but as we leant to 
 catch the far away crescendo, the chorus became 
 complete in every part, swelling up from God's 
 vast universe in the new song of praise to Him 
 who alone is worthy to take the book of destiny 
 and to open the seals the seals thereof; to Him 
 who was slain, and who has redeemed us to God 
 out of every kindred and tongue, and people and 
 nation, out of every planet and prison house of 
 perishing souls; just to our own crucified Jesus, 
 the same world-sufficient Saviour, yesterday, to- 
 day, and forever. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 CHRISTLIKE CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 A BROCHURE AND A PRACTICAL SUGGESTION 
 
 From the Harrisburg Evangelical] 
 
 Christlike Christianity, is a neatly printed 
 booklet of 32 pages, whose burden is an eloquent, 
 persuasive plea for that fellowship and oneness in 
 love which is the Christian ideal for the church of 
 Christ. The author does more than hold up the 
 beautiful ideal and press the plea for its realiza- 
 tion. He aims to be practical and to extend a 
 hand of help to all who are of like mind in real de- 
 sire for this union in the bond of peace. He ac- 
 cordingly proposes a simple, modest plan for a next 
 step in this direction, which, we doubt not, will 
 commend itself to many devout hearts. 
 
 From the Pittsburgh Banner'] 
 
 This book contains eight short chapters, through 
 which runs an earnest plea for spiritual Christianity 
 and especially for Christian unity. The author 
 eloquently pleads for Christian brotherhood. He 
 proposes a plan for united prayer and work among 
 Christians of different denominations that would 
 doubtless prove serviceable in many places. 
 
 Price, 10 cents, postpaid. 
 
 Sherman, French & Company, 
 6 Beacon Street, Boston. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 I 
 
YB 29580' 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY