Great Crowd Hears Sermon on Retribution

California, 1907

Powerful Discourse in Mammoth Tent

Probably 2000 people attended the meeting at the big tent at Twelfth and Harrison streets last evening. Dr. Bulgin has demonstrated since coming to Oakland that he is glad to take up and discuss frankly the questions that are puzzling thinking men. His topic last evening was "Hell." The speaker based his argument on the authority of the Bible, and on that authority declared that there is a hell, which is as real as is heaven, and that it is just as essential to the great plan of God as is heaven.

The text of the sermon was "Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place."

"The Bible teaches that there is a hell as much as there is a heaven. If there is no hell, there is no heaven. If there is no eternal punishment, there is no eternal happiness.

"The God we worship is not a man-created being. He is the great law. What is God? A spirit, infinite, eternal and unchanging, a being of wisdom, power, holiness, justice, truth. Rob Him of these attributes and you have no God.

"The holiness of God demands a hell. We are not holy. If we refuse to become so, then we must take our place with those who are not holy.

"I believe in hell because I believe in God's word. The background of God's love is His justice. God doesn't damn you to hell; you damn yourself. He has chosen that you go to heaven.

Sinners Prefer Hell

"Hell is the sinner's own place by preference. No man deliberately chooses hell, but he shows his preference for it by not choosing the alternative. Every man in Oakland has Jesus Christ on his hands, and the question is 'What will you do with Him?' Not to choose Jesus is to choose hell.

"Hell is the sinner's own place by the eternal fitness of things; men enter the places they are fitted for. The pure and the impure cannot live together in harmony. How can holiness and unholiness live together in heaven? What kind of a place is heaven if there is no hell?

"Hell is the sinner's own place by wages. It is the wages of a sinful life, and he ought to have it. To get hell you must earn it in the slavery of sin." Here Dr. Bulgin pointed out to the young people the awful cost of a sinful life.

When Dr Bulgin has argued that hell is the sinner's place by birthright, he pointed out that God's word says explicitly that a man may be born again and thus stay out of hell.

Tomorrow afternoon Dr. Bulgin will address men only and in the evening will preach on "Sociology."

—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, June 1, 1907, p. 13.

Something Concerning Mr. Lincoln's Religious Views

The Rev. Mr. Willets, of Brooklyn, gives an account of a conversation with Mr. Lincoln, on the part of a lady of his acquaintance, connected with the "Christian Commission," who in the prosecution of her duties had several interviews with him.

The President, it seemed, had been much impressed with the devotion and earnestness of purpose manifested by the lady, and on one occasion, after she had discharged the object of her visit, he said to her:

"Mrs. ——, I have formed a high opinion of your Christian character, and now, as we are alone, I have a mind to ask you to give me, in brief, your idea of what constitutes a true religious experience."

The lady replied at some length, stating that, in her judgment, it consisted of a conviction of one's own sinfulness and weakness, and personal need of the Saviour for strength and support; that views of mere doctrine might and would differ, but when one was really brought to feel his need of Divine help, and to seek the aid of the Holy Spirit for strength and guidance, it was satisfactory evidence of his having been born again. This was the substance of her reply.

When she had concluded, Mr. Lincoln was very thoughtful for a few moments. He at length said, very earnestly, "If what you have told me is really a correct view of this great subject, I think I can say with sincerity, that I hope I am a Christian. I had lived," he confirmed, "until my boy Willie died, without realizing fully these things. That blow overwhelmed me. It showed me my weakness as I had never felt it before, and if I can take what you have stated as a test, I think I can safely say that I know something of that change of which you speak; and I will further add, that it has been my intention for some time, at a suitable opportunity, to make a public religious profession."

—Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln's Stories, James Baird McClure, 1879, p. 166.