traced through all Old Testament Scripture, and which Jesus Christ came to confirm, that there is a promised deliverance of all mankind from the pit of death into which their sins have cast them, through a resurrection from the dead. What we shall find in the New Testament plainly set before us, is the Person of the promised Deliverer, and the unchanging principles of righteousness by which His salvation proceeds, and the inflexibility of its first principle that, "without holiness no man shall see the Lord," and that every tree which does not bring forth such fruit must be cut down and cast again into the lake of fire.

The one point at which so many Christians have been misled as to the meaning of this judgment by fire, is in their mistaken view of its relation to the resurrection. They have placed it after that event, and regarded resurrection as only preparatory to it, and as a mere heaping up of untold anguish upon those who were already damned. They have failed to see that as death is the wages of sin, incurred by the whole race in Adam, so resurrection is the antidote of death, and hence a provision of redeeming grace, the fruit of Christ's triumph over death. The true Scriptural place of the "fire that cannot be quenched," the "eternal fire," the "fire of Gehenna" is before resurrection. These expressions all pertain to the realm of death and dissolution. They describe a punishment which even now gnaws in the bodies and souls of men like a consuming fire, and which issues in the destruction of both in hell. this side of resurrection and not beyond it. deed "a second death, which is the lake

But all this lies

There is inof fire" into

which those will finally be cast who despise and abuse the grace that intervened to raise them out of death. But our Lord's fearful words relate to the retribution which follows the sins of this life, not those of the life to come. It was the trees planted in the soil of this world, not those of the world to come, which He came to consign to the unquenchable fire. And as it would be absurd to think of a tree as burning forever in such a fire, or of chaff as endlessly preserved in a fire which is expressly declared to burn it up, so it is a monstrous nonsequitur to infer that, because the "fire cannot be quenched," it must be a fire of endless torment to all who are cast into it. These phrases imply the rejection and handing over of the old man to utter destruction, as unworthy of any place in life or inheritance in the kingdom of the Son of Man. Thus it was that He came to lay the axe at the root of the tree. And thus it is that He is daily hewing down these corrupt trees of humanity around us with which the world abounds, and casting them into the unquenchable fire.

CHAPTER II.

GEHENNA.

In conformity with John the Baptist's announcement of the Messiah's mission, we find Jesus beginning his ministry with the searching, sifting doctrine of the Sermon on the Mount.

Nothing that was false or corrupt or pretentious or unjust could find place in the new kingdom which He came to found. To enter into the life of that kingdom all that was evil in the old life must be given to the burning. "If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee." "And if thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell" (Gehenna) (Matt. v. 29, 30).

At various other times we find Jesus warning men against this great danger. In sending out His disciples to preach, He urged them not to fear them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: "but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (x. 28). In Matthew xviii. we have the warning repeated that it is far better to sacrifice hand or foot or eye, rather than having two hands or two feet or two eyes "to be cast into the eternal fire." This expression in verse 8 is only another form of stating that which in verse 9 is described as a being "cast into the hell of fire." A comparison of these two verses shows that these two Scripture phrases, "eternal fire" and "Ge

henna of fire," are equivalent. They denote one and the same punishment.

We find the same word again in the denunciation of the Pharisees (Matt. xxiii. 15, 33), who would compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and who, under their tutelage, would become two-fold more a child of hell than themselves. In still more bitter words he calls them the offspring of vipers, who could by no means escape the damnation of hell. In Mark ix. the words in Matthew xviii. are repeated, except that here we have the phrases "unquenchable fire," the "fire that is not quenched," used to describe the fire of hell. Another expression, "where their worm dieth not," is added here derived from Isa. lxvi. 24. The words in Isaiah, which furnish the Old Testament basis for the New Testament usage, relate to the utter destruction of the Lord's enemies. "And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." In this passage there can be no reference to an endless torment of these transgressors. It is their dead bodies which are in view, upon which the worms prey unceasingly and the fires feed with a consuming energy which nothing can avert. That this passage does not imply the eternal torment of those cast into the fire, is manifest from the words appended in verses 49 and 50 (R. V.,)" For every one shall be salted with fire. Salt is good but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace one with another." This whole discourse of Jesus

was designed to enjoin humility and self-sacrifice upon his disciples, who had been disputing one with another as to who should be greatest. By setting a little child in the midst of them, by shewing them that their honor and reward would be found in lowly service, He taught them that whatever in them caused them to offend against this principle of self-sacrifice they should lop off and cast away. In this way, by a loss of a part, they should save the whole. It was far better thus to enter into life" and "into the kingdom of God." For it is the law of life that it can be preserved only in this way. “Every one shall be salted with fire." Salt is itself enduring, and it preserves other substances from decay. The salt here is this spirit of self-sacrifice. This preserves the life from destruction. It gives over to the burning the evils of the life. If men possess it not, they must themselves be cast into the fire. For every one, saint and sinner, must be salted with this fire which burns up selfseeking and destroys the old man. If men lose this spirit, what shall take its place or do in them its saving work? "If the salt lose its true character, wherewith shall ye season it?" "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another." That is, admit this principle of self-surrender into the core of your being. This will silence all such disputes and make you at peace one with another. How men can derive a doctrine of the everlasting torment of sinful men in a hell of fire from these words, spoken not to men indiscriminately, but to disciples to teach them the law of self-preservation, is marvelous indeed. The most that could possibly be drawn from it would be the destruction in the fire of those who