2. Everlasting Fire

Matthew 25:41: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels." What is said to be everlasting? Wicked men? -- No. The Devil? -- No. His angels? -- No. But only the fire. And how can the application of this term to the fire prove the indestructibility and eternal life of those who are cast therein? It may be answered, What propriety could there be in keeping the fire everlastingly, if its victims were not to be eternally the objects of its power? And we reply, This word is sometimes used to denote simply the results and not the continuance of the process. Everlasting fire may not be fire which is everlastingly burning, but fire which produces results which are everlasting in their nature. The victims cast therein will be consumed; and if from that destruction they are never to be released, if that fiery work is never to be undone, it is to them an "everlasting fire." This will appear more fully when we come to speak of the "eternal fire" through which God's vengeance was visited on the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

There are several passages of scripture in which the same word, aionios, is unquestionably used in this sense of results, not of continuous action. In Hebrews 5:9 read of "eternal salvation;" that is, a salvation which is eternal or everlasting in its results, not one which is for- ever going on, but never accomplished. In Hebrews 6:2 Paul speaks of "eternal judgment;" not judgment which is eternally going forward, but one which, having once passed upon all men (Acts 17: 31), is irreversible in its decisions and eternal in its effects. In Hebrews 9:12 the apostle speaks in the same way of "eternal redemption," not a redemption through which we are eternally approaching a redeemed state which we never reach, but a redemption which releases us for all eternity from the power of sin and death. It would be just as proper to speak of the saints as always redeeming, but never redeemed, as to speak of the sinner as always consuming, but never consumed, or always dying, but never dead. This fire is prepared for the Devil and his angels, and will be shared by all of the human race who choose to follow the Devil in his rebellion against the government of Heaven. It will be to them an everlasting fire; for once having plunged into its fiery vortex, there is no life for them beyond.

3. Everlasting Punishment

Matthew 25: 46: "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." This text is one which has great apparent force in favor of the doctrine of eternal conscious misery. But the secret of this apparent strength lies in the fact that the term "punishment" is almost invariably supposed to be confined to conscious suffering, and that when any affliction is no longer realized by the senses, it ceases to be a punishment at all. Now if it can be shown from sound reason, and from the analogy of human penalties, that punishment is estimated by the loss involved, and not merely by the amount of pain inflicted, the objection vanishes at once, and will cease to hold back many devout and reverent minds from adopting the view here advocated.

On the duration of the punishment brought to view in the text, no issue is taken. It is to be eternal; but what is to be its nature? The text says, "Everlasting punishment;" popular orthodoxy says, "Unending misery, the Bible, in other places, says, "Eternal death."

Is death punishment? If so, when a death is inflicted from which there is to be no release, is not that punishment eternal, or everlasting? Then the application of this scripture to the view here advocated is very apparent. The heathen, to reconcile themselves to what they supposed to be their inevitable fate, used to argue that death was no evil. But when they looked forward into the endless future of which that death deprived them, they were obliged to reverse their former decision, and acknowledge that death was an endless injury.

Why is the sentence of death in our courts of justice reckoned as the greatest and most severe punishment? It is not because the pain involved is greater; for the scourge, the rack, the pillory, and many kinds of minor punishment, inflict more pain upon the petty offender than decapitation or hanging inflicts upon the murderer. But it is reckoned the greatest because it is the most comprehensive and lasting. It deprives its victim at once of all the relations and blessings of life, and its length is estimated by the life the person would have enjoyed if it had not been inflicted. It has deprived him of every hour of that life he would have had but for this punishment; and hence the punishment is considered as co-existent with the period of his natural life.

Augustine says:

The laws do not estimate the punishment of a criminal by the brief period during which he is being put to death, but by their removing him forever from the company of living men.

The same reasoning applies to the future life as readily as to the present. By the terrible infliction of the second death, the sinner is deprived of all the bright and ceaseless years of everlasting life. The loss of every moment, hour, and year of this life is a punishment; and as the life is eternal, the loss, or the punishment, is eternal also. "There is here no straining of argument to make out a case. The argument is one which man's judgment has in every age approved as just."

The original sustains the same idea. The word for punishment is kolasis; and this is defined, "a curtailing, a pruning." The idea of "cutting off" is here prominent. The righteous go into everlasting life, but the wicked, into an everlasting state in which they are curtailed, or cut off. Cut off from what?-- Not from happiness; for that is not the subject of discourse, but from life, as expressly stated in reference to the righteous. "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." And since the life given to man through Christ is eternal life, it follows that the loss of it, inflicted as a punishment, is eternal or "everlasting punishment."

The same objection is again stated in a little different form. As in the ages before our existence we suffered no punishment, so, it is claimed, it will be no punishment to be reduced to that state again. To this we reply, that those who never had an existence cannot, of course, be conceived of in relation to rewards and punishments at all. But when a person has once seen the light of life, when he has lived long enough to taste its sweets and appreciate its blessings, is it then no punishment to be deprived of it? Says Luther Lee, "We maintain that the simple loss of existence cannot be a penalty or punishment in the circumstances of the sinner after the general resurrection." And what are these circumstances? -- He comes up to the beloved city, and sees the people of God in the everlasting kingdom. He sees before them an eternity, not of life only, but of bliss and glory indescribable, while before himself is only the blackness of darkness forever. Then, says the Saviour, addressing a class of sinners, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God. What is the cause of this wailing? It is not that they have to choose between annihilation or eternal torture. Had they this privilege, some might perhaps choose the former; others would not. But the cause of their woe is not that they are to receive a certain kind of punishment when they would prefer another, but because they have lost the life and blessedness which they now behold in possession of the righteous. The only conditions between which they can draw their cheerless comparisons are the blessed and happy state of the righteous within the city of God, and their own hapless lot outside of its walls. And we may well infer from the nature of the case, as well as the Saviour's language, that it is because they find themselves thus thrust out, that they lift up their voices in lamentation and woe. "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out"! Luke 15:28.

The sinner then begins to see what he has lost; and the sense of it, like a barbed arrow, pierces his soul; while the thought that the glorious inheritance before him might have been his, but for his own self-willed and perverse career, sets the keenest edge upon every pang of remorse. And as he looks far away into eternity, to the utmost limit which the mind's eye can reach, and gets a glimpse of the inconceivable blessedness and glory which he might have enjoyed but for his idol sin, the hopeless thought that all is lost will be sufficient to rend the hardest and most obdurate heart with unutterable agony. Say not, then, that loss of existence under such circumstances is no penalty or punishment.

But again: the Bible plainly teaches degrees of punishment; and how is this compatible, it is asked, with the idea of a mere state of death to which all alike will be reduced? Let us ask believers in eternal misery how they will maintain degrees in their system? They tell us the intensity of the pain endured will be in each case proportioned to the guilt of the sufferer. But how can this be? Are not the flames of hell equally severe in all parts? And will they not equally affect all the immaterial souls cast therein? But God can interpose, it is answered, to produce the effect desired. Very well, then, we reply, cannot he also interpose, if necessary, according to our view, and graduate the pain attendant upon the sinner's being reduced to a state of death as the climax of his penalty? So, then, our view is equal with the common one in this respect, while it possesses a great advantage over it in another; for, while that has to find its degrees of punishment in intensity of pain alone, time duration in all cases being equal, ours may have not only degrees in pain, but in duration also; for, while some may perish in a short space of time, the weary sufferings of others may be long drawn out. But yet we apprehend that the bodily suffering will be but an unnoticed trifle compared with the mental agony, that keen anguish which will rack their souls as they get a view of their incomparable loss, each according to his capacity of appreciation. The youth who had but little more than reached the years of account- ability and died, perhaps with just enough guilt upon him to debar him from heaven, being less able to comprehend his situation and his loss, will of course feel it less. To him of older years, more capacity, and consequently a deeper experience in sin, the burden of his fate will be proportionately greater. While the man of giant intellect, and almost boundless comprehension, who thereby possessed greater influence, for evil, and hence was the more guilty for devoting those powers to that evil, being able to understand his situation fully, comprehend his fate, and realize his loss, will feel it most keenly of all. Into his soul, indeed, the iron will enter most intolerably deep. And thus, by an established law of mind, the sufferings of each may be most accurately adjusted to the magnitude of his guilt.

Then, says one, the sinner will long for death as a release from his pains, and experience a sense of relief when all is over. No, friend, not even this pitiful semblance of consolation is granted; for no such sense of relief will ever come. The words of another will best illustrate this point:

"But the sense of relief when death comes at last." We hardly need to reply: There can be no sense of relief. The light of life gone out, the expired soul can never know that it has escaped from pain. The bold transgressor may fix his thoughts upon it now, heedless of all that intervenes; but he will forget to think of it then. To waken from a troubled dream, and to know that it was only a dream, is an exceeding joy: And with transport do the friends of one dying in delirium, note a gleam of returning reason, ere he breathes his last. But the soul's death knows no waking; its maddening fever ends in no sweet moment of rest. It can never feel that its woe is ended. The agony ends, not in a happy consciousness that all is past, but in eternal night--in the blackness of darkness forever!

4. The Undying Worm and Quenchless Fire

Mark 9:43, 44: "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

Twice our Lord repeats this solemn sentence against. the wicked, "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Verses 46, 48. These passages are relied on with as much assurance, perhaps, as any, to prove the eternal conscious misery of the reprobate. If this language had never been used by any of the inspired writers of the Scriptures, till it was thus used in the New Testament, it might be urged with some degree of plausibility, as an expressive imagery of eternal torment. But, even in this case, it might be replied, that fire, so far as we have any experience with it, or knowledge of its nature, invariably consumes, instead of preserving, that upon which it preys, and hence must be a symbol of complete destruction; and that the expression, as it occurs in Mark 9:44, can denote nothing less than the utter consumption of those who are cast into that fire.

But this expression was well known and understood by those whom Christ was addressing. Isaiah and Jeremiah frequently use the figure of the undying worm and quenchless fire. In their familiar Scriptures the people daily read these expressions. Let us see what idea they would derive from them. We turn to Jeremiah 17:27, and read:

But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath-day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

From this text we certainly can learn the meaning that was attached to the expression, "unquenchable fire," by the Hebrew people. This fire was not to be "quenched;" therefore it was "unquenchable." But it was to be kindled in the gates of Jerusalem, and devour the palaces thereof. It was therefore literal, natural fire. But how could a fire of this kind, thus kindled, be supposed to be a fire that would burn eternally. They certainly would not so understand it. No more should we. Moreover, this threatening of the Lord by Jeremiah was fulfilled. 2 Chron. 36:19: "And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof." Verse 21 "To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah." Thus Jerusalem was burned according to Jeremiah's prediction that it should be consumed in "unquenchable" fire. But how long did that fire burn? -- Only till it had reduced to ashes the gates amid palaces on which it preyed. Unquenchable fire is therefore simply a fire that is not quenched -- that is, is not arrested and subdued by any external force -- and does not cease, till it has entirely consumed that which causes or supports it. Then it dies out of itself because there is nothing more to burn. The expression does not mean a fire that must absolutely eternally burn, and that consequently all that is cast therein to feed the flame must forever be preserved by having the portion consumed immediately renewed.

To the wicked, the threatened fire is unquenchable, because it will not be quenched, or caused to cease, till it has entirely devoured them.

Psalm 37:20: "But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." Malachi 4 3: "And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this; saith the Lord of Hosts."

Ezekiel speaks of unquenchable fire in a similar manner. Ezekiel 20:47, 48: "Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it: It shall not be quenched."

Though this is doubtless figurative language, denoting sore calamities upon a certain land called "the forest of the south field," it nevertheless furnishes an instance of how the expression, "unquenchable fire," was then used and understood; for that generation many ages ago perished, and those judgments long since ceased to exist.

Isaiah not only speaks of the unquenchable fire, but he couples with it the undying worm, the same as the language in Mark: Isaiah 66:24: "And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses 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."

This is undoubtedly the language from which the expression in Mark is borrowed; but a moment's examination of it will show that the worm is not the remorse of a guilty conscience, but that, like the fire, it is something external to, and distinct from, the objects upon which it preys; and moreover, that those upon whom it feeds are not the living, but the dead: It is the "carcasses" of the men that have transgressed against the Lord. In Isaiah 14:11 and 51:8 the prophet again speaks of the worm as an agent of destruction, but it is always in connection with death. It is thus evident that the terms employed by our Lord in describing the doom of the wicked would convey to the minds of his hearers the very opposite of the idea of eternal life in misery.

There is other evidence, though no other is necessary, to show that the idea which would be conveyed, and which the language was designed to convey, to their minds, was that of complete extinction of being, an utter consumption by external elements of destruction. The word translated "hell" in the passage under consideration is gehenna. It is better to enter into life maimed than to go, in full possession of all our members and faculties, into gehenna. Did those to whom Christ spoke know anything about this place, and what kind of fate awaited those who were cast therein? A vivid picture of the place of torment to which our Lord refers was in constant operation before their eyes, just outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Greenfield (New Testament Lexicon) defines the word thus: "Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, once celebrated for the horrid worship of Moloch, and afterward polluted with every species of filth, as well as the carcasses of animals and dead bodies of malefactors; to consume which, in order to avert the pestilence which such a mass of corruption would occasion, constant fires were kept burning."

Such was the fire of Gehenna; not a fire into which people were cast to be kept alive and tortured, but one into which they were cast to be consumed; not one which was designed to prey upon living beings, but upon the carcasses of animals and the dead bodies of malefactors. Hence we can see the consistency of associating the "fire" and the "worm" together. Whatever portion of the dead body the fire failed to consume, the worm would soon seize upon and devour. If a person had been condemned to be cast alive into this place, as the wicked will be cast into their Gehenna, what would have been his hope of escape? If the fire could have been speedily quenched before it had taken his life, and the worms which consumed what the fire left, could have been destroyed, he might have had some hope of coming out alive; but if this could not be done, he would know of a surety that his life would soon become extinct, and then even his lifeless remains would be utterly consumed by these agents of destruction.

This was the scene to which Christ pointed his hearers to represent the doom that awaits the wicked; in order that, as they gazed upon the work of complete destruction going on in the valley of Hinnom--the worms devouring what the flames spared--they might learn that in the future Gehenna which awaited them, no part of their being would be exempt from utter and complete destruction, one agent of death completing what another failed to accomplish.

As the definition of the word gehenna throws great light on the meaning of this text, so the definition of another term used is equally to the point. The words for "unquenchable fire" are pur asbeston; and this word, asbeston, primarily means simply "unquenched," that is, not caused to cease by any external means: The idea of eternal is an outside theological definition which has been brought in and attached to it. Ancient writers used it in this sense. Homer, in the Iliad (xvi, 123, 294), speaks of the Trojans' hurling "unquenchable fire" upon the Grecian ships, though but one of them was burned by it. And Eusebius, who was a learned Greek, employs the same expression in two instances in recounting the martyrdom of Christians. Cronion and Julian, after being tortured in various ways, were consumed in an "unquenchable fire" (puri asbesto). The same is also said of Epimachus and Alexander. "The pur asbeston," says Wetstein, "denotes such a fire as cannot be extinguished before it has consumed and destroyed all."

Such is the evident meaning of this passage, and the sense in which it must have been understood at that time. It is a most powerful testimony to prove the utter extinction of being. Yet commentators, eighteen hundred years this side of that time, presume to turn this whole representation upside down, and give to the terms a meaning exactly opposite to that which they were intended to convey. That sense alone can be the correct one in which they were first spoken; and concerning that there can be no question.

There is another text often urged to prove the eternal conscious misery of the wicked. It is one in which fire is mentioned as the instrument used for the punishment of the wicked; and this fire, being called eternal, is understood in the same sense as the unquenchable fire of Mark 9:43. It may therefore properly be examined in this connection.

Jude 7: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

This text, when rightly understood, will, we think, like that in Mark 9, be found to convey a meaning exactly the opposite of that popularly given to it. The sense of the passage appears very evidently to be this: The Sodomites giving themselves up to their wicked practises, and, as a consequence, suffering an eternal overthrow by fire rained down upon them from heaven, are thus set forth as an example to the ungodly of all coming ages, of the overthrow they will also experience if they follow the same course. Peter speaks of the same event as an example to the wicked, and tells what effect that fire had upon the cities of the plain. It did not preserve them in the midst of the flame in unceasing torture, but turned them into ashes. He says (2 Peter 2:6): "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly." This language is too plain to need comment. How are the Sodomites made an example? -- By being overthrown and turned "into ashes" for their open and presumptuous sins. It is God saying to the wicked of all coming time, Behold, how your sins shall be visited upon you, unless you repent.

But those fires are not now burning. Seek out the site of those ancient and abandoned cities, and the brackish waters of the Dead Sea will be found rolling their sluggish waves over the spot where they once stood. Those fires are therefore called "eternal," because their effects are eternal, or age-lasting. They never have recovered, nor will they ever recover while the world stands from that terrible overthrow.

And thus this text is very much to the purpose on the question before us; for it declares that the punishment of Sodom is an exact pattern of the future punishment of the wicked; hence that punishment will not be eternal life in the fiery flame, in some invisible dungeon or place of torment, but an utter and open consumption, even as Sodom was consumed, by its resistless vengeance.

5. Tormented Forever and Ever

The only remaining texts to be urged in favor of the eternal torment of the wicked, are two passages which are found in the book of the Revelation. The first is Revelation 14:11: "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: And they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."

This is passage speaks not of all the wicked, but only of limited class -- the worshipers of the beast and his image. The beast, according to evidence which no Protestant will be disposed to question, means the papal power (Revelation 13:1-10); and the image is composed of those who are in sympathy and collusion with that power. Revelation 13:14-18; 14:1-5. The text, therefore, embraces only comparatively a small portion of the wicked of the human race. The ancient world, with its teeming millions, and the present heathen world, knowing nothing of this power, are not involved in the threatening of punishment here brought to view. This text might, therefore, be set aside as inconclusive, since even if it should be admitted to prove eternal torture for some, it does not for all.

But as it is claimed that no text affirms eternal torment for a single conscious intelligence in all the universe, an effort will be made to show that this passage does not prove it in reference to even the limited class which it brings to view. The expression, "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever," is the one upon which the doctrine of eternity of suffering is in this case suspended. But the same may be said of this expression that was said in the last division in reference to the undying worm and the quenchless fire. It was not new in John's day, but was borrowed from the Old Testament, and was well understood at that time.

In Isaiah 34:9, 10, the prophet, speaking of the land of Idumea, says: "And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever: From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.'' But two applications can be made of this language. Either it refers to the literal land of Edom east and south of Judea, or it is a figure to represent the whole world in the day of final conflagration. In either case it is equally to the point. If the literal land of Idumea is meant, and this language has reference to the desolations which have fallen upon it, then certainly no eternity of duration is implied in the declaration that the smoke thereof shall go up forever. For all the predictions against the land of Idumea have long since been fulfilled, and the judgments have ceased. If it refers to the fires of the last day, when the elements melt with fervent heat, no eternity of duration is even then implied in the expression; for the earth is not to be forever destroyed by the purifying fires of the last day. It is to rise from its ashes, and a new earth come forth purified from all the stains of sin, and free from all the deformity of the curse, to be the everlasting abode of the righteous.

Here is an instance in which the word "forever," apply it in either of the only two ways possible, must denote a limited period. And here the Hebrew has oläm, and the Septuagint, the corresponding Greek word aion, the same as is used in Revelation 14:11; and from this passage in Isaiah, the language in Revelation was probably borrowed. That the words aion and aionios sometimes denote a limited period, and not invariably one of eternal duration, will appear in the examination of the only remaining text that calls for consideration; namely, Revelation 20: 10: "And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever."

The same limitation is apparent in this text that was observed in the preceding. It does not refer to all the wicked, but speaks only of the Devil, the beast, and the false prophet. The lake of fire, the place and means of their torment, is again mentioned in verse 14; but there it is the symbol of complete and utter destruction. Death and Hades, it says, were cast into the lake of fire, and after this it is said, ``There shall be no more death." Revelation 21:4. Whatever, then, is cast into the lake of fire, after it has wrought its work of destruction upon them, no longer exists. This is the plain inference from what is here asserted respecting death. Then follows the testimony of verse 15, that "whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." And this makes a final disposition of all who are not saved in the kingdom of heaven.

There is nothing in the way of this application, unless the words "forever and ever" denote absolutely an eternity of duration. These words are translated in the New Testament, from aion and aionios, respecting which the following facts may be stated:

Aion is defined by different lexicographers as follows:

Greenfield: "Duration, finite or infinite, unlimited duration, eternity, a period of duration past or future, time, age, lifetime; the world, universe."

Schrevelius: "An age, a long period of time; indefinite duration; time, whether longer or shorter."

Liddell and Scott: "A space or period of time, especially a lifetime, life, oevum; an age, a generation; long space of time, eternity; in plural, eis tous aionas ton aionon, unto ages of ages, forever and ever, New Testament, Galatians 1:5. 3. Later, a space of time clearly defined and marked out, an era, age, period of a dispensation: ho aion houtos, this present life, this world.''

Parkhurst: "Always being. It denotes duration or continuance of time, but with great variety. I. Both in the singular and the plural it signifies eternity, whether past or to come. II. The duration of this world. III. The ages of the world. IV. This present life. V. The world to come. VI. An age, period, or periodical dispensation of divine providence. VII. Aiones seems, in Hebrews 11:3, to denote the various revolutions and grand occurrences which have happened in this created system, including also the world itself. Compare Hebrews 1:2, and Macknight, on both texts. Aion in the LXX generally answers to the Hebrew holam, which denotes time hidden from man, whether indefinite or definite, whether past or future."

Robinson: "Duration, the course or flow of time in various relations as determined by the context; viz., (A) For human life, existence. (B) For time indefinite, a period of the world, the world, in Greek writers, and also in Septuagint and New Testament. (C) For endless duration, perpetuity, eternity. . . . Septuagint mostly for Hebrew holam, `hidden time,' duration, eternity. Hence, in New Testament, of long-continued time, indefinite duration , in accordance with Greek usage, but modified as to construction and extent by the example of the LXX, and the Rabbinic views."

Schleusner gives as the first meaning of aion, "a definite and long-continued time;" i.e., a long-continued but still a definite period of time.

Wahl has arranged the definitions of aion thus: "(1) Time, unlimited duration, oevum. (2) The universe, mundus. (3) An age, period of the world," as the Jewish age, Christian age, etc. This reference to Schleusner and Wahl we find in Stuart on Future Punishment, pp. 91, 93.

Holam, the Hebrew word which corresponds to the Greek aion, is applied, according to Gesenius, to things which endure for a long time, for an indefinite period. It is applied to the Jewish priesthood, to the Mosaic ordinances, to the possession of the land of Canaan, to the hills and mountains, to the earth, to the time of service to be rendered by a slave, and to some other things of a like nature.

Cruden, in his Unabridged Concordance, under the word "eternal," says:

The words, "eternal, everlasting, and forever," are sometimes taken for a long time, and are not always to be understood strictly. Thus, "Thou shalt be our guide from this time forth even forever," that is, during our whole life. And in many other places of Scripture, and in particular when the word "forever" is applied to the Jewish rites and privileges, it commonly signifies no more than during the standing of that commonwealth, until the coming of the Messiah.

Dr. Clarke places in our hands a key to the interpretation of the words "forever" and "forever and ever," which is adapted to every instance of their use. According to his rule, they are to be taken to mean as long as a thing, considering the surrounding circumstances, can exist. And he illustrates this in his closing remarks on 2 Kings 5, where, speaking of the curse of the leprosy pronounced upon Gehazi forever, he says:

Some have thought, because of the prophet's curse, "The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and to thy seed forever," that there are persons still alive who are this man's descendants, and afflicted with this horrible disease. Mr. Maundrell, when he was in Judea, made diligent inquiry concerning this, but could not ascertain the truth of the supposition. To me it appears absurd; the denunciation took place in the posterity of Gehazi till it should become extinct; and under the influence of this disorder, this must soon have taken place. The forever implies as long as any of his posterity should remain. This is the import of the word, leolam. It takes in the whole extent of duration of the thing to which it is applied. The forever of Gehazi was till his posterity became extinct.

The word aionios is derived from aion, and its general meaning may be determined from the definitions given above to the latter word.

That these words are frequently applied to the existence of divine beings and the future happiness of the saints, is true; and that in these cases they denote eternal duration is equally evident; yet, according to the definition of the words and the rule laid down by Dr. Clarke, that eternal duration could not be made out by the use of these words alone. They denote duration or continuation of time, the length of that duration being determined by the nature of the objects to which they are applied. When applied to things, which we know from other declarations of the Scriptures are to have no end, they signify an eternity of being; but when applied to things which are to end, they are correspondingly limited in their meaning. That the existence of God and the future happiness of the righteous are to be absolutely eternal, we are abundantly assured by scriptures which make no use of the words in question. When applied to these, they therefore signify a period of duration which is never to end. Just as plainly are we assured that the existence of the wicked is at last to cease in the second death; and when applied to this, the words aion and aionios, must be limited according to their signification. Overlooking this plain principle of interpretation, Professor Stuart (p. 89) comes to this erroneous conclusion respecting these words, because they are applied alike to the sufferings of the lost and the happiness of the saved, that "we must either admit the endless misery of hell, or give up the endless happiness of heaven." We are under no such necessity. The words aion and aionios, according to Dr. Clarke, cover the whole of the existence" of the two classes in their respective spheres, and that only. The one is, after a season of suffering and anguish, to come to an end; the other is to go on in bliss to all eternity.

According to this rule, when it is said (Revelation 20:10) that the Devil, and, by implication, the beast and false prophet, are to be cast into a lake of fire, and tormented day and night forever and ever, we must understand this expression to cover only the duration of their future existence beyond the grave. If we are anywhere given to understand by other scriptures and by other terms which are more rigid in their meaning, that this is to be eternal, the terms must here be so understood; if not, we have no warrant for so defining them here.

That the forever and ever, eis tous aionas ton aionon, of the suffering of the wicked, denotes a period of long duration, there is no question; and it may be much longer than any have been disposed to conceive who deny its eternity; yet it is to come to an end, not by their restora- tion to God's favor, but by the extinction of that life which has in it no immortality, and because they have refused to accept of the (zoe) life freely offered to them, which is to continue through ages without end.

We have now examined all the more prominent passages which are urged in favor of the eternal suffering of the lost. Though others may by some be brought forward to prove this doctrine, we may safely take the position that, if it is not proved by those we have examined, it cannot be proved by any in all the Bible; for these use the strongest terms, and are most explicit in their nature. And of these how many are there? --Five in all. Those who have never before examined this subject, will perhaps be surprised to learn how small is the number of such texts. And should they take into the account every text which is thought to have even the slightest semblance of proving the immortality of the lost, it would not be calculated to abate that surprise to any great degree.