MAKING
PEOPLE AWARE OF HELL

It is no argument that a work is not from the Spirit of God, that it seems to be promoted by ministers insisting very much on the terrors of God’s holy law, and that with a great deal of pathos and earnestness.

If there really is a hell of such dreadful and never-ending torments as is generally supposed, of which multitudes are in great danger – and into which the greater part of men in Christian countries do actually from generation to generation fall, for lack of a sense of its terribleness, and so for lack of taking due care to avoid it – then why is it not proper for those who have the care of souls to take great pains to make men aware of it? Why should they not be told as much of the truth as can be? If I am in danger of going to hell, I should be glad to know as much as I possibly can of the dreadfulness of it. If I am very prone to neglect due care to avoid it, the person who does me the best kindness is he who does most to represent to me the truth of the case, setting forth my misery and danger in the liveliest manner.

I ask everyone whether this is not the very course they would take in case of exposure to any great temporal calamity. If any of you who are heads of families saw your children in a house all on fire, and in imminent danger of soon being consumed in the flames, yet seemed to be very unaware of its danger, and neglected to escape after you had often called them – would you go on to speak only in a cold and indifferent manner? Would you not cry aloud, and call earnestly, and tell them the danger they were in, and their folly in delaying, in the most lively manner of which you were capable? Would not nature itself teach this, and oblige you to do so? If you continued to speak only in a cold manner, as you usually do in ordinary conversation about indifferent matters, would not those about you begin to think that you were bereft of reason yourself? This is not the way of mankind in temporal affairs of great moment, that require earnest heed and great haste, and about which they are greatly concerned. They do not usually speak to others of their danger, and warn them just a little, or in a cold and indifferent manner. Nature teaches men otherwise. If we who have the care of souls knew what hell was, had seen the state of the damned or by any other means had become aware how dreadful their case was – and at the same time knew that most people went there, and saw our hearers not aware of their danger – it would be morally impossible for us to avoid most earnestly setting before them the dreadfulness of that misery, and their great exposedness to it, and even to cry aloud to them.

Preaching about hell in a cold manner

When ministers preach about hell, and warn sinners to avoid it, in a cold manner – though they may say in words that it is infinitely terrible – they contradict themselves. For actions, as I observed before, have a language as well as words. If a preacher’s words represent the sinner’s state as infinitely dreadful, while his behavior and manner of speaking contradict it – showing that the preacher does not think so – he defeats his own purpose; for the language of his actions in such a case is much more effectual than the bare meaning of his words. Not that I think that the law only should be preached: ministers may preach other things too little. The gospel is to be preached as well as the law, and the law is to be preached only to make way for the gospel, and in order that it may be preached more effectually. The main work of ministers is to preach the gospel: “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness”. So a minister would miss it very much if he should insist so much on the terrors of the law as to forget his Lord, and neglect to preach the gospel; but the law is still very much to be insisted on, and the preaching of the gospel will probably be in vain without it.

And certainly such earnestness and affection in speaking is beautiful, as becomes the nature and importance of the subject. Not but that there may be such a thing as an indecent boisterousness in a preacher, something besides which the matter and manner do not well agree together. Some people talk of it as an unreasonable thing to frighten people to heaven; but I think it is a reasonable thing to endeavor to frighten people away from hell. They stand upon its brink, and are just ready to fall into it, and are unaware of their danger. Is it not a reasonable thing to frighten a person out of a house on fire? The word “fright” is commonly used for sudden, causeless fear, or groundless surprise; but surely a fear for which there is good reason is not to be criticized by any such name.