Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/49

 things which defile a man, or render him spiritually unclean.

We, then, where hell is and what it is, according to the New doctrine. It is in the soul, and consists essentially in the supreme love of self which prompts to all infernal deeds. To have hell in the soul, or to be in a state of supreme self-love, is to be in hell; just as having heaven within, or loving the Lord supremely and the neighbor as one's self, is to be in heaven.

Now all men are by natural inheritance more or less selfish. Naturally, therefore, we are all in the low state denoted by hell; for we are dominated more or less absolutely by the love of self. This is a low—a merely animal love; and as our corporeal or animal life unfolds and matures, this love also unfolds and strengthens; so that when we have attained to full maturity, it is usually the strongest—the ruling love. But this is not our true state. It is not the properly human state. It is not the orderly or blissful state for which we were created. It is not the state in which the Lord desires that we should remain, because He desires that all should be happy. Therefore He is in the constant effort to lift us out of our carnal selfish state, and to make us unselfish and loving like Himself. For this end He assumed our natural humanity. For this end He has revealed the laws of our higher or heavenly life. For this end He has shown us very clearly the way to rise out of our natural state of self-love, which is hell, into that higher and