Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/48

 We see how well this agrees with the teaching of our Lord. For not only does He tell us that the sum of all which the Law and the Prophets teach, is comprehended in the two great commandments which require us to love the Lord supremely and our neighbor as ourselves, but He says also that "the kingdom of God is within you." And the kingdom of God is the same as the kingdom of heaven. Wherever love—pure, unselfish love—reigns, there the Lord reigns; there his kingdom is established and his laws obeyed.

And as the kingdom of heaven is within, so also (says the New doctrine) is the kingdom of hell. As heaven consists essentially in love to the Lord and the neighbor, which is the love of doing good and serving, so hell consists essentially in the opposite kind of love—in the love of one's own self; and this love is real hatred of the neighbor.

Hell, therefore, is a state of life the very opposite to that of heaven. It is a state in which the love of self has absolute dominion in the heart. This love is the fountain of all other evil loves. It is the primal source of all infernal deeds. When it reigns supreme in the heart, there is no evil thing which a man will not do unless restrained by force, or by fear of loss, suffering or damage of some sort. Hence the Lord says: "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemy"—all the