“My idea of Heaven is this—that it is a condition of the soul, and is made by ourselves, with God’s help always—by conquest, the conquest of self, the subjugation of all thoughts, feelings and acts, everything that is unheavenly, and by building up the soul with pure thoughts and deeds of rightness. We make a heaven for ourselves by subduing and improving. The farmer clears the ground and destroys the weeds to give place to the seed, and then by cultivation, produces a harvest. He does not expect a crop without labor; by some chance, or prayer, or miracle. Why should we expect a spiritual crop of good without working for it? Our diseases, are in no sense, accidents or mysteries, but the necessary and legitimate results of the violations of laws. A man who violates the laws of his physical being to his own injury is a criminal in regard to himself, just as he would be a criminal in breaking the laws of the state.
“Government does not accept the plea of ignorance of the laws, for to be ignorant is a part of the crime, so no one should be excused for not knowing or obeying the laws of his own being.
“The material view of Heaven as a place, instead of a condition of the soul, that men can be thrown into it, by some force or power, outside of themselves, that some one else has the keys and can open the place for them, is a delusion that has done great hurt to humanity. With these ideas men deceive and excuse themselves. Instead of making and building up a heaven of their souls, they depend on others. They shift the responsibility. If they sin, some one will bear their sins for them. No matter how often they sin, or how long they continue in it, if they, at the dying hour, can say they are sorry, get a priest to vouch for them, and give them the pass-word, they will be made heirs of Heaven, and be straightway carried to Abraham’s bosom. All this is contrary to common sense and reason.
“Is it fair and just, supposing heaven to be a place, to those who all their lives have striven to be good, to have these wretches who are steeped in sin and made up of vice and crime to become at a breath, inhabitants of heaven when they are not able to sin any more? This would not be human justice, nor can I believe that it is God’s plan to people heaven in that way, supposing it to be a place. O, yes, the thief on the cross! I think if Jesus could have foreseen what use would have been made of that expression he would never have uttered it. He had the Jewish notion of heaven being a city, a new Jerusalem, with many mansions, surrounded by a wall with gates. With all due respect to him as a great teacher and a pure man, I cannot but think that these words of his have kept many in sin, delayed their repentance and leading of a better life. Do I say this rashly? Have I not heard men say, ‘O, I will repent before I die;’ and when warned of their mistaken idea of repentance and the danger of delay, have answered, ‘The thief repented on the cross when he was dying and was promised paradise.’ And there is the parable of the laborers. This is a Jewish story and might be told of one of their rulers who could do as he pleased. It is utterly contrary to human justice for a man who works only an hour to receive as much as the man who labors ten hours. It is a libel on God to think he would pay his laborers in that way.
“I have sometimes thought that some people are dead long before they are buried. All the spiritual life, that which makes manhood or saints, is dead, killed by their vices and transgressions against their spiritual nature, and the animal life alone remains that keeps their bodies in existence. What effect then would a prayer or a wafer or anything have upon such a thing that is only like the carcass of a dying brute? In proportion as a man sins he becomes dead to righteousness. I think no one can question this. Then we cannot help admitting that there may come a time when he, his soul, will be actually dead to all good influences. Then he will be a hell to himself, or in hell, just as you choose to have it.
“It is a horrible thought, I know, yet there are many horrible things in life that we cannot escape. The hell or the punishment is of man’s own making, not of God’s.
“If a farmer who has good soil, rain and sunshine, wastes his time in idleness, how can he blame God for not giving him a harvest? When a man wastes his life in vice and crime and becomes a hell to himself, how can he accuse God of being unjust or unmerciful? The moral laws are as exact and reasonable as those of nature.
“The mistake is, I think, in leading people to believe that the church by some supernatural power given to it, or by a sudden belief, hope or regret of the man himself, can change this inexorable, inevitable law of God so as to make the vilest sinner become a saint. The soul that sinneth shall die, and my belief is that God will not frustrate the execution of His own laws. There are no miracles in nature or anywhere else. It is inconsistent to suppose that the Creator of the universe would permit or give power to a few poor mortals anywhere to interfere with or change the working of His laws. In the revolution of the spheres there has not been for ages the slightest variation or shadow of a change. It is impossible to suppose that there could be such a variation in the orbit of a planet so slight as to be beyond the power of man to detect it with his most delicate instruments, without believing that chaos would be the result sooner or later. There is as much harmony and equilibrium in a globule of water as in the largest planet. The dazzling glory in a dew-drop is but the exact reflection of some greater and higher glory. Everything in nature is according to the strictest kind of inerrant, unchangeable law. Why then should we expect or believe that in the spiritual or moral life its laws are errant or changeable? Why should cause and effect be different in the one than in the other? When water can be produced by any power of God or man without the exact proportions of oxygen and hydrogen, then I will attempt to believe that a vile man, dead in trespasses and sins can suddenly be changed into an angel and be fit to enjoy the society of the pure and the good.
“The mercy of God! It is blasphemy to make such a plea to ward off and escape the consequences that are the result of the deliberate violations of God’s moral laws. Earthquakes and cyclones are in harmony with nature’s laws that God has made. Why not demand that the mercy of God shall suddenly interfere and prevent these from engulfing cities and destroying thousands of innocent women and children, as to believe that the mercy of God will interfere with His spiritual laws and save a soul that is dead in sin or has never wished for salvation.”
“But,” I inquired, “do you not believe in the forgiveness of God?”