of sin, if we would understand the Scripture terms which set forth its punishment. The meaning of death, in God's economy of nature and of moral government, has been strangely perverted by a satanic perpetuation in the minds of men of the original lie, "Ye shall not surely die." Men have believed themselves of an immortal nature, apart from God. And hence the real significance of the death-sentence has been missed, and also the real value of the gospel record that God hath given us eternal life in His Son. We need, therefore, to know that all these Scripture terms, "Gehenna," the "hell of fire," "eternal fire," the "fire that cannot be quenched," all pertain to this realm of death and dissolution, and describe to us the pit, which not only the law of God, but the law of Nature, has dug for the sin-blighted bodies and souls of men. It is not to a realm of endless torment, but to an abyss of inexorable dissolution, protracted indeed beyond the death of the body, for the soul, as a finer essence of man's being, is longer in its dying (see pg. 101), to which wicked men are consigned. And even the righteous, as to their flesh and blood nature, which is but carnal, and must see corruption, do not escape this pit. It is only as they are made partakers of the divine nature, and become in life and spirit identified with it, that they "go into life eternal." This is the profoundest teaching of the scene in Matt. xxv. 31-41. Their life in manhood has become incorporate with the life of the Divine Man. And so they go with Him into His kingdom of joy and into the life eternal. But here again, this doom of the wicked, and of this we cannot be reminded too often, is immediate and lies this side of resurrection. The eternal fire is a present fact. It pertains to this present economy of nature. This, indeed, is the real significance of the adjective which describes it. It is the aionion, the ageduring fire. It pertains specially to this order of nature and not to the ages to come. Its power then will be gone, for there shall be no more curse nor death (Rev. xxii. 3). It is therefore a present Son of Man, now exalted to Headship over all the forces of the Universe (Ephes. i. 20-23), seated on the throne of an ever-present judgment, and executing the law of this present system of Nature, whose voice we are to hear in the dread sentence, "Depart ye cursed into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." This is the consignment, not of a future host of resurrected dead, who are not here in view, but of the living generations of unrighteous men, to that present abyss of dissolution which yawns beneath us all as a gulf of consuming fire. It is from this now-impending peril that His gospel is sent out with its glad tidings of rescue. Its gift of eternal life is the divine antidote to this death. And so great is the power of life now deposited in the new Source of Life to men, that "power has been given unto Him over all flesh," to give not only eternal life to a chosen seed who are to be associated with Him in His life-giving work (John xvii. 2), but also to raise up out of the abyss of death to lower orders of life (each in his own time and order), the masses of mankind who have gone down into this pit (John v. 28, 29). Their resurrection, although it be to judgment and corrective discipline, is yet the result of His redeeming work and a manifestation of His triumphant power. And it violates the whole order of God's working in this plan of creation, and the whole spirit and meaning of His Word in its dealings with these great problems of life and death, to view this recovery of the unjust dead as anything but a blessing, even though it bring with it new risks with the new opportunities of life. Moreover this view of God's gracious purpose to recover men from the abyss of eternal fire into which they are cast by the law of Nature, as well as by the sentence of the Son of Man, is necessary to show how His goodness answers to His severity. The eternal fire is not master in this universe, only a servant. The devil wins no triumphs that are not turned into defeats by Him who was manifested to destroy him and his works. Not even death can hold his trophies. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." And death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. xx. 14). There is, indeed, before sinful men a fearful punishment. It is no light thing to die and to sink down, body and soul, into that abyss where burns the eternal dissolving fire. It is no small privation to be shut out from the light and life and blessedness of those of whom Jesus says, "They shall never taste of death." "I give unto them eternal life" (John viii. 52, x. 28). And wicked men, when raised, must still be adjudged unworthy of this life. And yet their recovery will prove the truth of what the book of Creation and the Book of God both teach, that the Eternal Life is master of the realm of Eternal Fire, that Love is stronger than wrath. To take away every element of hope from the resurrection of all but the small class who now receive Christ, is to limit His grace and power as the Prince of Life, and to deny that His gospel is glad tidings of great joy to all people. CHAPTER IV. THE JUDGMENT-SCENE OF MATT. XXV. 31–46. unto me. "But when the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all the nations and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on the right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison and ye came Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink? And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked and clothed thee? And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me. Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto me. And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life." This passage, which we have transcribed in full from the New Version, is the crucial passage in eschatology. It is the one passage in the New Testament which, above all others, has determined and fixed the prevalent doctrine of endless punishment. By all our previous studies in the Bible, especially of the Old Testament, we have been irresistibly led to this conclusion, namely, that no consistent view of its great plan of redemption, and no adequate fulfilment of its promises, is possible which makes death the limit of all God's gracious dealings toward the masses of mankind who have not known Him, and which takes away from their promised resurrection every element of hope. We have already found that all our Lord's previous teaching about the "unquenchable," the "eternal," fire is perfectly consistent with the thought that He is speaking of a present Hell, into which man's present embodied being must be cast for destruction; and that the interpretation which projects this punishment beyond the resurrection, and puts the stress of it there, is wholly arbitrary and unnatural. It is this present body and soul of man which is in danger of being destroyed in hell. We purpose now to examine this passage in Matt. xxv to ascertain whether its teaching harmonizes with this current thought of all Scripture. Does it shut out all the nations of unregenerate mankind from any hope in and beyond their resurrection from the dead, and shut them up to a final doom in an everlasting hell ? Before we proceed, however, to this main inquiry we remark briefly upon this passage. upon "the 1. It forms part of an address by our Lord last things," spoken, not to the multitude, nor even to |