Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/158

 improvement—in their condition? If so, of what nature?—and how is the improvement to be effected? The answer to these questions has been already anticipated in a measure; but I will endeavor to make it clearer and more definite.

"The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." He, therefore, has regard for, and continually endeavors to promote the best good even of the devils. He governs the hells as well as the heavens; and his love and wisdom are as conspicuous and as active in the one realm as in the other. But the devils cannot be governed in the same way, or by the same methods, as the angels. The latter, because they love the Lord above all things, and their neighbor even better than themselves, can be led and governed by love—by the love of what is just and true and good. But the former, since they have no love of the Lord or their neighbor, but love themselves supremely, can be governed only by fear. Self-love is perpetually encroaching upon the rights of others perpetually grasping at unlimited power; perpetually seeking, not to serve and bless others, but to subjugate them to its own control. It is, therefore, from its very nature, forever threatening the peace and welfare of the moral universe. And the only way this love can be restrained in its insane endeavors, is through fear—the fear of punishment.

The only way, therefore, that the Lord can reach the hells, and exert upon them a controlling influence, is