Where Is Hades?

The ancient philosophers were of the opinión tfaat the infernal regions were located at au equal distance from all parts of the enrth's surface, which muy be the foundation for the modern idea' which locates heil at the center of our planet. This belief in a centrally located place of torment or utter annihilation appears to have existed among the Jews at a vefy carly date also. According to their belief, there were three passages leading to it - the wilderness, by which route Dathun, Korahand Abirarn descended ; the sea, because it is written that Jonah cried to God out of the belly of heil, and a third passage, which last was at Jerusalern. This third and last idea of the rnouth of heil being located in the capital of Palestine is founded upon the Biblical passage which says, "The fire of the Lord is in Zion, and his furnace is in Jerusalem. ' ' The Mohammedaus, who are noted for their superstitious regard for tho number seven, declare that heil is provided with seveu gates, each intended for the followers of the different religions. The first is for recreant Mnsstilmans ; the second, very wide and with shutter always standing invitingly ajar, is for Christians only ; the third, located near the second and alinost as wide and roomy, is reserved for Jews ; the f ourth gate is the one through which the spirits of the Sabeans will enter the land of torment. Like the last two, it is wide enough to do a wholesale business without crowding. The fifth is a sniall loophole of a gate intended for the sect of the Maji, a sect so insignificant that the JVIohammedans' heil idea apparently grudgingly allowed a separate opening for their spirits when on the way to eternal punishment. The sixthgate, the only circular opening in the walls of heil, is the gate by which the pagans will enter. Why the pagan gate is believed to be circular I have never seen explained. The seventh gate in the walls of the Mohammedan heil is reserved for the hypocrites of all religions. Strange to say, it is one of the sniallest of the gates. Whiston, the English astronomer, believed heil to be located on a cornet, and that one moment the damned were suffering in the blistering rays of the sun and the next in cold hundreds of degrees below zero. The Christian idea of heil, old as it is, gives but a very dim outline of the probable location of the "lake which burneth f ore ver and ever;" also there is a controversy as to whether it really burns "forever and ever" or only bas effects which are everlastins in theii nature. -