CHAPTER I. 



NON-CHRISTIAN BELIEFS. 



jfl HE consideration of a theme so great as eter- 

 ^T nal doom must, of necessity, liave in it an 

 interest second to no other question pertaining 

 to human destiny. If there be the fact of hell, 

 it cannot be incidental and secondary. It must 

 be fundamentally important. Neither can it 

 reasonably be a fact hidden beneath the surface, 

 only obtainable by abstruse metaphysics and 

 syllogistic reasonings. 



We might, therefore, expect to find the con- 

 ception of it woven into the woof and fibre of 

 the universe, and also a possession of the native 

 mind, safely intrenched in the fastnesses of axio- 

 matic truths. To know that a belief in some 

 sort of future retribution has been the rule of the 

 world, is significant. It seems to say that 

 human intelligences are so constructed as to de- 

 mand it, and, also that such a general tendency 

 to this belief is presumptive proof of its neces- 

 sity, truthfulness and legitimacy. 



A thought so repulsiye to the sinner, as eternal 

 misery, would meet with immediate denial, if 



