of this word, and we must say it is our present opinion that it is not once used either in the Old or New Testament to express a place of endless misery for the wicked.

We conclude this section with two brief quotations from Mr. Stuart, in his letters to Mr. (now Dr.) Channing, which we wish were engraven on every man's heart, never to be effaced. In page 14, he says, "The claims of the Bible to be authoritative being once admitted, the simple question, in respect to it, is, what does it teach in regard to any particular passage; what idea did the original writer mean to convey? When this is ascertained by the legitimate rules of interpretation, it is authoritative. This is orthodoxy in the highest and best sense of the word; and everything which is opposed to it, which modifies it, which fritters its meaning away, is heterodoxy, is heresy; to whatever name or party it is attached." He adds, p. 109, "After all, it is a principle, by which, if I have any knowledge of my own heart, I desire forever to be guided, to call no man master, on earth.' I would place the decision of Scripture, fairly made out, IMMEASURABLY ABOVE all human opinions. I regard the one as the decision of an unerring God; the other as the opinions of fallible men."

SECTION IV.

ADDITIONAL FACTS STATED, PROVING THAT GEHENNA WAS NOT USED BY THE SACRED WRITERS TO EXPRESS A PLACE OF ENDLESS MISERY.

THE facts which have been stated in Section 2d, are certainly very singular, if Gehenna in the New Testament signifies a place of endless misery for the wicked. Those I am now to adduce are to me also strange, upon

such a view of this subject. Some of them have been slightly hinted at in the course of our remarks, but deserve a more distinct statement.

say,

1st. If Gehenna means a place of endless misery for the wicked, it is a fact that the apostles never preached it, either to Jews or Gentiles. The history of the Acts of the Apostles contains an account of their preaching for thirty years, but not once is the subject of Gehenna torments mentioned by them. They were commanded to preach the gospel to every creature, and they did so ; but to no creature under heaven did they preach this doctrine, or threaten its punishment? They addressed the worst of characters, but to none of them did they "How can ye escape the damnation of Gehenna, hell?" They threatened men sometimes with punishment, but never with eternal punishment in hell. Paul said to Elymas, the sorcerer, "O! full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ?" But he does not threaten him with the damnation of hell. He says, 66 And now, behold. the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season." Acts 13 10, 11. In the same chapter, verses 40, 41, he says, "Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish. In this last text the word perish occurs, and perhaps some may think it means eternal punishment. But it should be observed that Paul was here addressing himself to Jews, concerning whom our Lord had said, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," referring to the temporal destruction of the Jewish nation. Now, how can we account for this silence, if the apostles believed hell to be a place of endless misery? Their ministry continued thirty years, and yet they do not once use Gehenna! What would we say of a man in these days who should preach thirty years, yet never say a word about hell to those whom he addressed? Should

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we not say he was a Universalist? He would be an outlaw from orthodoxy. If my veracity in this statement is doubted by any, let them read the book of Acts. It is silent on the subject of hell torments. If preachers should take the apostles for their models, we should hear no more about hell. We respectfully ask, then, from what source ministers learn that they should preach Gehenna or hell torments to us Gentiles? To what chapter or verse, in any book of the New Testament, can they refer us where an inspired apostle ever did so? Let every one, who preaches this doctrine, consider if he did not learn it from his catechism when a child, from books he has read, and from the preaching he has heard, since he became a man, and not from his Bible. Let him also ask whether he has ever given this subject a thorough and impartial examination. We are all too prone to condemn opinions contrary to our own, before we have duly considered the evidence brought in support of them.

To the above it may be objected, "Gehenna was a Jewish figurative mode of speaking of future eternal punishment, and had it been used by the apostles in preaching to the Gentiles, they could not have been understood; for the Gentiles knew nothing about Gehenna as a place of future punishment." To this I reply,

1st. This objection would have some force if it was found that the apostles ever said to the wicked Gentiles, "How can ye escape the damnation of Hades, or Tartarus?" Had they done thus, the objection would have force; but they did not, and it is fair, therefore, to infer their silence concerning Gehenna, in preaching to Gentiles, was not because it was a Jewish figure which they could not understand. But,

2d. Admitting the term Gehenna was one which the Gentiles did not understand, the apostles could have explained it to them, as they have done other things less important. Let any one read John's gospel, and he will see that he explains Jewish names and customs; some examples of which we have given in another place. But,

3d. The above objection assumes that the Gentiles were unacquainted with the term Gehenna. But is there not as good reason to think that the heathen, in their intercourse with the Jews, should imbibe their notions of Gehenna, as that the Jews should imbibe the heathen notions concerning Hades or Tartarus? Their mutual intercourse would produce a mutual interchange of opinions. This being the case, if the Spirit of God recognized either the Jewish notions of Gehenna, or the Pagan notions of Hades, as truth, we might expect that the apostles would have preached the doctrine to both Jews and Gentiles. Had both been recognized, we might expect Hades and Gehenna to be used indiscriminately by the apostles in speaking of future eternal misery. But this was not done, if we may judge of their preaching from what is contained in the New Testament. If they believed both to be true, they would have spoken at least of Gehenna to Jews, and of Hades to Gentiles, as a place of eternal punishment in a future state.

4th. But this objection assumes that the Jews in our Lord's day used Gehenna to signify a place of endless misery, and that this was its exclusive sense. That this could not be its exclusive sense we have proved; for in reading the Old Testament they could not understand it so; or, if they did, they must have perverted it to an extent I am unwilling to believe, even of the Jews. The objector must then prove that the Jews in our Lord's day used the term Gehenna exclusively to express a place of endless misery. The apostles preached to the Jews as well as the Gentiles, but they did not even name it to them. Will any man affirm, then, that the apostles of our Lord ' understood him to mean by Gehenna a place of endless misery, and yet never preached it, to either Jews or Gentiles, in the whole course of their ministry? Whatever excuse we may make for them, in regard to the Gentiles not understanding the term, none can be made for them respecting the Jews.

2d. The salvation revealed by the gospel, is never

spoken of as a salvation from hell or endless misery. No such was ever promised or predicted in the Old Testament, and no such salvation was ever preached by Christ or his apostles. Our Lord received the name Jesus, because he should save his people from their sins, not because he should save them from hell. Our Lord and his apostles, in preaching, proposed by it to turn men from darkness to light; from the power of satan unto God; from idols to serve the living God; from the course of this world, and from all sin, to holiness; but where do we ever read of their saving them from hell? No such salvation was preached by our Lord. In all the texts where he speaks of hell, he was not preaching the gospel, but addressing the Jews about the temporal calamities coming on them as a people. In no instance did he ever exhort men to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, because they were exposed to hell torments in a future state. So far from this, in nine instances out of eleven, where Gehenna is used by him, he was addressing his disciples. Nothing is said in our Lord's commission to his apostles about hell, and as little by them in their execution of it. James is the only exception, though he uses it figuratively. To Jew and Gentile, bond and free, all the rest are silent about it. This silence of the apostles could not be because the people in those days were so good that they did not need pungent preaching. No; the whole world lay in wickedness, yet they did not declaim upon the torments of hell to alarm their fears, and turn them from sin to God. No calculations were made, as in our day, of the number daily and hourly going to eternal misery. Nor were any schemes adopted by the apostles to raise funds to save men from such a fate. As they expressed no alarms about the vast crowds going to hell, so we do not find them expressing their joy because any were saved from it. They were deeply grieved to see men living in sin, and their spirit was stirred within them to see whole cities given to idolatry; but they never assert that all such were on the road to eternal woe. They had great