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■HP

Pt/jO/tJLi

■J<^^U^

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THE FINAL OUTCOME OF SIN.:

»>

A HO.AIILETICAL MONOGRAPH.

liY THK

REV. A. SUTHERLAND, D.D.

:il:3M!:f<

'^X>itJ^^^::?;i^

Toronto :

Pkintki) kok thk Authoh at thk Metuoi>ist Book and PuuLisniNfi House,

78 & 80 Kixo Stbkbt Ka8T.

ISSfi.

^''/kr:**'!^

"T*

f/v

*'-''tZ'""'

THE FINAL OUTCOME OF SIN.

A HOMILETICAL MONOGRAPH.

BY THE

REV. A. SUTHERLAND, D.D.

^jcrr0tttjo :

Printed for the Author at the Methodist Book and Publishing House,

78 & 80 Kino Street East.

1886.

^'i|IPBPi^?py"«m«i»^^5rTO^^^'W*PV'^TP

PliEFATOKY.

Tins is a plain paper, designed for plain people. It is by
no means an exhaustive discussion of the subject — that would
require a large volume ; but it contains a brief statement of
some of the main arguments bearing upon the Scripture doctrine
of the future condition of the wicked. Technical terms and
affectation of learning have been avoided, and the arguments
have been presented in such a form as may be easily understood
by any person of average intelligence, even supposing his
opportunities for theological reading have been of the most
limited kind. It is hoped that if no other good results from
the publication of this tract, it may at best stimulate someone
to a wider course of reading and investigation on the all-
important subject of which it treats. The author makes no
special claim to originality of treatment. He has simply
utilized material that has accumulated in the course of his
reading, moulding it into such form as might best suit the
object he had in view. If the arguments fail to convince,
they may at least induce some gifted pen to write something
better.

A. S.

Toronto, February, 1886.

\c3 rr)

The Final Outcome of Sin.

f '

The gospel is the good news of salvation through Jesus
Christ. It reveals God's method of saving men ; and there is
no other method, that we know anything about, whereby they
can be saved. What, then, is to become of those who obey not
the gospel, — who live and die rejecting it ?

To this question various answers haye been given. Some
say — " They v/ill have another chance — another probation ;"
others say — " They will be punished for a lengthened period
and then annihilated;" others say — "They will be punished
for an indefinite time (how long we do not know), and then be
restored to Divine favour and admitted to heaven ;" while
others again hold that the wicked will be punished forever:
that neither by restoration nor annihilation will their punish-
ment cease.

This awful question cannot be settled by reason alone, for
we have not sufficient data on which to base conclusions ;
neither can it be decided by experience, for as yet the rewards
and punishments of the future are but truths in man's intellect,
not facts in his history. Still less can we decide it by our
instincts or desires. We are not at liberty to reject a truth
because we do not like it. All we know, or can know in this
life, about this doctrine must come from revelation ; for only
one who has been behind the veil, and knows the end from the
beginning, can speak with authority. If, then, we would avoid
mistakes which all eternity cannot rectify, we must listen
reverently to what God hath spoken.

Within the past few years the doctrine of future — especially
eternal — punishment has been widely discussed. A good deal of
vehement rhetoric has been expended in denouncing the doctrine
as derogatory to the Divine character, — thus presenting the awful
spectacle of sinful, short-sighted men sitting in judgment on

tluiir Maker, and presuming to scittle what is and what is not
beconiini^ in the achninistration of Hi.s government. So, in for-
mer times, men vehemently denied that the earth revolved
around the sun ; but in spite of all their clamour the earth
still swept onward in its orbit with majestic pace, and so, in
spite of reckless denunciations, God's mighty truths will march
onward to the accomplishment of His vast designs.

It is worthy of note that those who denounce the doctrine
of eternal punishment tight very shy of Scripture. But what
else could be expected, since the texts which, to say the least,
seetn to teach the doctrine, an; so numerous and plain that
nothing short of utter distortion can make them mean any-
thing else ; while the few that are pressed into the service to
buttress up the notions of annihilation or restoration give an
unwilling testimony and atiord a feeble support.

And yet, in all fairness, I must admit that the objections of
the more thoughtful opponents of this solemn truth do not lie
so much against the doctrine as taught in the Scriptures, as
against that monstrous perversion of it which at one period
was almost universal throughout Christendom ; — another count
in the indictment of the cast-iron theology of Augustine and
Calvin, which made God a merciless tyrant to a majority of His
creatures, and man the helpless victim of His vindictive rage.

In the present paper we limit the discussion to the case of
those who have heard the gospel. If the unenlightened heathen
are to be punished hereafter, it will not be for disobeying a
goppel they never heard. But with the heathen we have, at
present, nothing to do. We only desire to ascertain, if possible,
what is the linal outlook for those who from the sound of a
preached gospel, and the presence of a crucitied Christ, go
unsaved to death and the judgment.

There are certain truths in reference to which all believers
in revelation hold common ground. All believe in Divine
government and law ; in the probationary character of man's
present state ; in a final judgment when the good shall be
rewarded and the wicked shall be punished. But just here, in
regard to the nature and duration of the punishment, there is
wide divergence of opinion. This is the point on which we
desire light. Is the punishment of the wicked to last forever ?
or shall it cease at length in restoration to Divine favour,

Vsi"Avrid";<ii.iti's-ai.W",'_i"«ii'i'i*--.^*^*i.L^.i,.-^y*

or in utter extinction of being ? To put it in the incisive words
of inspiration, "What shall the end be {lit., 'the ultimate
destiny') of them that obey not the gospel of God ?"

I. It Shall Not be a Second Probation.

1. A second probation imjMes that men may be saved
through some other medium than the death and intercession of
Jesus Chnst. The Scriptures clearly teach that now the gov-
ernment of the world is in the hands of a Mediator ; but at
the end of man's probation as a race, Jesus ascends the throne
of judgment, bestows rewards and assigns to punishment, and
having put down all antagonistic authority and power, delivers
up the kingdom to God the Father (1 Cor. xv. 24-28). Then
the mediation of Christ will cease, and the name of Jesus will
no longer be available as a sinner's plea. If, therefore, a sinner
can be forgiven and saved during a second probation, it must
be on other conditions and by other means than in the present
life ; and if by other means and on other grounds than the
death and intercession of the Son of God, then the death of
Jesus was a terrible mistake ; for if God can forgive and save a
sinner in a future state without a Saviour, He can in this. If
He cannot in this life, He cannot at wW.

But possibly some advocate of a second probation may say,
" You mistake our meaning. We have no expectation of suc-
cessive probations beyond the judgment ; we only claim that in
the interval between death and the judgment those who had no
chance in this life, — who never heard of a Saviour's love, who
were surrounded from infancy by the darkness of heathenism, —
will have an opportunity of hearing and accepting the gospel."

If this be what is meant by a second probation, it does not
touch the class whose case we are now considering, namely,
those who heard the gospel but did not obey it. For them no
second probation can be claimed on the ground that they had
no light. The ground of their condenmation will be that they
"loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds" were
" evil." And even in regard to the heathen the claim is irrele-
vant, for they will not be judged by the law of a gospel revela-
tion, but only by the law written in their hearts.

2. To claim a second probation "' s to charge God with want

of faii'nesH in His de<dm(j», since it implie.s that a .sufficient
chance luvs not been givtm to .some in a first probation. Suffi-
cient chance of what ? Why, of knowinj^f tlie ^o.spol and the
way to heavwn. But ob.serve, tlie condemnation i.s not that they
did not know the go.spel, but that knowing it they did not obey.
Tliat which God recjuires of every man i.s that he follow
promptly and faithfully the light he has ; and .surel}*, upon the
very face of it, all men have an ecjual chance; of that. If the
heathen are condemned it i.s not because they lid not believe on
Jesu.s, of whom they had never heard, but because " when they
knew trod, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thank-
ful ; but became vain in their imaginations, and their fooli.sh
heart was darkened." And if the heathen, who have only the
light of nature and the natural con.science, are without excuse,
much moi'e they who have the light of Divine revelation in the
person and teachings of Jesus Christ. On no grounds of equit}'
can they claim a .second probation.

3. A second probation coidd not brivf/ within our reach
Divine agencies more potent than those noiv employed. — God
does not l)i'ing men to Himself by a force which compels the
will, but by an appeal to motives the most powerful that can
influence human conduct. Is belief of the gospel necessary to
salvation ? There will be no new gospel preached " unto the
spirits in pri.son" whose truths can outweigh those of the
" go.spel of the grace of God." Is a Divine Saviour the only
object of .saving faith ? There is no other Christ who, in the
other world, can bid the sinner " look and live." Is a Divine
Spirit the only power that can awaken the con.science and renew
the heart ? That Spirit operates among men here and now, but
we have no hint in Scripture that He carries on His regenerating
work in the world to couie. And if these mighty agencies fail,
in any in.stance, to bring men to repentt.iice here, is there rea.son
to believe the same agencies, — or others, if such are conceivable,
— will be more successful there ? On the contrary, the proba-
bilities of salvation during a second probation, if .such were
afforded, would be vastly less than during a first, for a man
would enter that second probation with hardened sen.sibilities,
with the sins of a first probation already in his way, and with
the increased difficulties arising from matured bad character,
and fixed habits of resisting the Spirit of God.

* .

' mwFwofw w'" w ■ .^^j^jH^w^ti^

But, it is contended, the advantage of a second probation
would l)e this : — In the spirit world the supreme importance of
.salvation would be so clearly seen and so deeply felt, that men
would then yield to the Spirit of Uod and be saved. The idea
seems plausil)le, but in reality is \itterly fallacious. It assumes
there are other means of convincing men more powerful
than the tmth and Spirit of God. But this point lias been
.settled by one from whose decision there is no appeal : — " If
they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither would they be
persuaded though one rose from the dead." It is not more light
and pressure from without that nien need, but simply willing-
ness witliin.

4. 2Vie doctrine of a second jn'obation, without express
Divine warrant, implies a hundred or a thousand; for no
better reasons could be assigned for punishing an impenitent
.sinner at the end of a second probatio'" than at the end of a
first. But at the close of each succeeding probation the proba-
bilities of the salvation of the impenitent would be incon-
ceivably lessened ; and so for such we are driven to the alter-
native of eternal probation or eternal punishment. There is a
universal tendency among men to " neglect " the " great
.salvation," and one of the most powerful motives to dissuade
them from this is furnished by the near approach of the day
when, as they believe, life and opportunity shall cease together.
Hold out to such the prospect of a second probation, and the
force of this motive is entirely neutralized ; for the great
majority of unconverted men would de.sire nothing better than
to continue as they are through an unending probation. There-
fore, as the tendency of this doctrine is to lead men to neglect
salvation, it cannot be from God.

5. Above all, there is no hint in Scripture that men will have
a second probation. — All that is said there on the subject of
man's destiny points in an opposite direction. He is exhorted
to " flee from the wrath to come," and " lay hold on eternal
life;" he is warned that the barren ground "is rejected, and is
nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned ;" he is assured
that " now is the accepted time, behold even now is the day of
salvation ;" he is summoned, as it were in advance, to the
judgment, and hears the voice of Christ saying, " Depart, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his

angels : for I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat : I was
thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink. I was a stranger, and yc
took Me not in: naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick and in
prison, and ye visited Me not ;" — as ti)ough to remind him that
the opportunity for these " works meet for repentance " (feed-
ing the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and the
prisoner) would cease the moment he left this world. And
from all these words of solenm warning is not this the appeal
that comes to our hearts to-day : — " See that ye refuse not Him
that speaketh." " To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not
your hearts."

II. It Shall Not be Annihilation.

This view of mai.'^ final destiny has been much pressed ot
late ; but it seems to me to be only a blind attempt to escape
from a perverted notion of the doctrine of everlasting punish-
ment. The vindictive theology of a by-gone day has conjured
up a horrid demon, before which many have recoiled in terror,
and have sought refuge in the theory of the utter extinction
of being. The theory is based upon materialism — the denial
of man ^ natural immortality. It is contended that whatever
may have been man's primitive endowments, he, in consequence
of sin, became mortal in roul as well as in body ; that eternal
life, in the sense of immortality, belongs only to those who
believe in Jesus Christ, afid all others are doomed to ultimate
annihilation. Some appear to hold that this extinction of being
takes place pi death ; whi'e others hold that it occurs only after
a long period of suifering subsequent to the final judgment.
But it matters little which view is presented, since both ai'e
repugnant to reason and Scripture. It is seen that the passages
which teach a resuirection of both good and bad are too numer-
ous and plain to be set aside ; but a theory has been propounded
to the effect that though the sinner dies, soul and body, like the
brutes, and there is an end o^ him, yet God, in some miraculous
way, keeps some part of him alive till the judgnient-day, when
the body is raised and re-united with the soul, and then he is
to be tormented in such a manner and for such a time as may
seem good to Divine justice, after which he is to be abolished
out of the universe. To this view tli^re are strong and, I think,
unanswerable objections : —

i^S^^^^.J&.i^ca'i^^ i-t- ■-■''*-

1. Belief in hnmortality has been almost univeroal from
the earliest ages. — The Egyptians believed it, and taught the
doctrine of future rewards and punishments. So in Assyria,
in Greece, and in India, the idea of immortality prevailed, " and
was a tremendous factor in the" religious "life of the world."
In India this thought of immortality, apart from any knowledge
of a Saviour, was so terrible, that they sought refuge in the
doctrine of a anal painless absorption of the human spirit into
the Supreme. Here, then, we have, long before gospel times, a
belief in immortality well-nigh universal, and this universality
of the idea proves it to be one of those primal truths, inwoven
in the very fibres of being by the God who made us, — an
inward and unanswerable conviction that while the body is
subject to death and decay, there is that within us which sur-
vives alike the flight of time and the ravages of sickness, and
which shall still endure when all earthly things have passed
away. It is nowhere said that the gospel originated the doc-
trine, but that it was brought to light by the gospel, —
brought out of the dim region of guesses, and hopes, and
inferences, into the clear light of plain revelation. And yet we
are sometimes told that this is a new doctrine, and that the
almost universal belief in it that preceded Christianity was but
a delusion and a dream ; which is tantamount to saying that
the heathen had dreamed out a grander idea of man's nature
iind destiny than the Scriptures have revealed ; that the Bible
which proclaims that the Incarnate God died for man, also
declares that the race for whom He died are but a race of
superior brutes !

But, we are told, the Hel)rew term for " soul " covers alike
the soul of man and of animals, and therefore they must belong
to the same order. Now, if this were so it would prove
nothing ; for I find in the Scriptures other statements concern-
ing man's nature and destiny which mark him oft' as something
entirely distinct and different from the brutes. In the first
chapter of Genesis M'e read : " And God said, Let the earth bring
forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping-
thing, and beast of the earth after his kind ;" but a little
farther on we read : " And God said. Let us make man in
our image, a^'tcr our likeness ; and let them have dominion," so
" the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and

"JiVi'.-j^i-.\%j-.'^-rf.-:*-ii\f''.5t';'sf?*kv-i;;'i:iJ''i.''j^

breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives ; and man became
a livincr soul." The Psalmist declares that God made man " a
little lower than the angels," and " crowned him with glory and
honour," but no such statement is made in the Scriptures con-
cerning the brutes.

2. The Scriptures constantly assume ike immoi tality of the
soul as a doctriae that needs no proof . — Materialists and anni-
hilationists often tell us that the immortality of the soul is no-
where expressly asserted in Scripture. Neither, for that
matter, is the existence of God. Moses, in the first verse of
Genesis, does not assert or prove the existence of God, but
assuming it as an indisputable truth, he begins with the
announcement that " God created the heavens and the earth."
The same is true in regard to the doctrine of immortality : it is
everywhere assumed as a truth having the force of an axiom,
and requiring no proof. When the record of Enoch's transla -
tion was penned, did the Holy Spirit intend us to believe that
he died like a beast ? Can we for a moment conceive that the
Twenty-third Psalm was uttered by one who believed not in
immortality ? When Elijah soared into heaven in his chariot
of fire, did Elisha, gazing upward, suppose that he had ceased to
be ? It is utterly incredible. The whole of Jewish thought was
saturated with the idea of immortal life. It was a truth uni-
versally regarded as beyond dispute. And if any one shall say
these were the utterances, and these the experiences, of
believers, all of whom have immortal life in Christ, our answer is
ready. He who knew all the secrets of the invisible world, for
He had been there, has lifted the veil and let in a flash of light:
" The rich man also died and was buried ; and in hell he lifted
up his eyes, being in torments." This was not a believer, and
yet he lives on in conscious existence beyond death and burial.
I know how this awful passage is by some twisted and distorted
to get it out of the way of the annihilation theory ; but there it
stands, and will be a swift witness against such in the great
day.

3. The terr.is 'cised in Scripture to describe the future doom
of the wicked do not convey the idea of annihilation. — The con-
trary, I know, is often asserted with a conceited confidence that
is supposed to end all dispute ; but a little reflection will show
on what slender grounds the assertion ir made. Suppose it to

-1

be true that in Scripture a term is sometimes used to describe
the doom of the wicked, the ordinary meaning of which is
destruction, this is just what might be expected. When " holy
men of old " were " moved by the Holy Ghost " to speak con-
cerning the future of the wicked, they were not supplied with a
new vocabulary in which to utter their conceptions ; they used
terms with which they were already familiar, " enlarging their
meanings to the measure of that larger world." The Christian
revelation has given a new meaning to such words as " life "
and "death," "salvation" and "destruction." "But," say the
advocates of the annihilation theory, " these words are always
used in Scripture in their exact, literal meaning." Are they,
indeed ? Let us try. Take, for example, these sayings of
Christ : " If a man keep My sayings he shall never see death."
" He that liveth and Vjelieveth in Me shall never die." This
was spoken after the death of Lazarus, who had suffered disso-
lution, and would suffer it again. Is the word " death " used
here in its literal meaning ? Not so. Evidently Cnrist intended
to call attention to a new meaning of the word.

Again, it is contended by some that men have immortality
only in Christ, and that all who are not in Him shall perish, in
the sense of ceasing to be. This is a fundamental error, and
arises from confusion in the use of terms. It confounds " life "
with mere " existence." We know that " the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ," and if life meant mere
existence, the natural inference would be that th'^se who had
not accepted Christ would, at death, cease to be. But the "gift"
which the believer retei"^es is not immortality ; all men have
that in the very nature with which God has endowed them ;
but he receives that gift which lifts existence into LIFE, — that
which make immortality a source of endless and unspeakable
joy. Then it musi be remembered that most annihilationists
hold that man does not utterly cease to be at death ; but that
some part of him — enough, perhaps, to identify him at the
resurrection — is kept in existence by God, through the long,
terrible ages preceding the judgment ; that then the soul and
body, being re-united, shall suffer horrible torments through a
period whose duration no man can tell ; and when they have
suffered long enough to satisfy Divine justice, they shall sink
into utter annihilation. BiU what is this something that lives

on 'I According to the theory the amn is dead, body and soul ;
hence this something is not the body — that has turned to dust ;
neither is it the soul — that has ceased to be. Is it, then, some-
thing called into existence to take the place of that which has
ceased to be ? If so, it is no part of the man, hence can have
no connection with him at the judgment. This something is
either part of the man or it is not ; but if it is, then there is
some part of him which survives the shock of death, and may
survive forever.

This word " death " is, by annihilationists, sadly misinter-
preted and misapplied. It is assumed that the law, " In the
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," refers to
physical dissolution ; but that although man did eat the pro-
hibited fruit, the law was suspended by the introduction of a
redemptive scheme. This is a mere assumption. There was no
suspension of the law. In the very day that man transgressed,
he died in the sense in which God had used the term. He lost
his true life, 'the life of God in the soul. Death, in the sense of
physical dissolution, is a universal law of nature, and therefore
is not the penalty of sin. The Scriptures nowhere assert that
the cause of death is sin, though they declare that the sting of
death is. But perhaps some reader is saying, " Surely you for-
get the passage which declares, " by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin," and that other awful declaration,
" the wages of sin is death." No ; I do not forget these Scrip-
tures ; I only remember what so many seem to have forgotten,
or never knew, that the leading reference in these passages is
not to physical dissolution at all, but tO that infinitely more
terrible thing, the loss of Divine life, — death forever in tres-
passes and sins.

I know it is very generally supposed that but for the inter-
position of a redemptive scheme, a sentence of literal death
would have been executed upon the first tran.sgressors, and
thus the human race would have become extinct. This also is
a mere assumption, growing out of a false interpretation of the
term " death." If the interposition of a Saviour could alone
prevent the extinction of a sinful race, how comes it that the
devil and his angels have not been annihilated ? At any rate
we may rest assured that had no Saviour been provided, the
extinction of the human race would have been an act of mercy

V-

rather than judgment ; since the perpetuation of a sinful race
without a Saviour would have been only an unmitigated curse.
4, This doctHne becomes increasingly repugnant when
vietved in the light of redeeming love. — The promise of Divine
Incarnation for human redemption date-s back to the time of
man's first sin ; but the theory to which we refer presents
the awful spectacle of the mighty God becoming incarnate to
confer immortality upon a race, or part of a race, of brutes ;
while the marvellous expenditure of Calvary was for the
redemption of one " whom a brick-bat might extinguish in an
instant ! " Oh, if immortality were not man's natural and
inalienable birthright, would not it have been infinitely more
merciful to have suffered the race to become extinct at the
fountain-head, than to suspend a law and bestow upon them a
fresh lease of an existence that to multitudes would prove
only a corroding curse ? But if immortality be man's native
endowment, then we begin to see why such mighty agencies
were put in operation to save him from self-wrought and
eternal ruin, and we get another ray of light upon the wondrous
story that "God so loved the world." I know it is common
enough to hear the statement that there was nothing in man to
attract God's love. I make bold — not in the spirit of pride or
boasting, but of reverent thankfulness to God — to assert the
contrary. They were His children, and though wayward and
rebellious. He loved them still. His image had been in them,
though now marred and defaced ; and to restore that image,
and bring back the wandering children, the Lord of glory
stooped from heaven to earth, and the Son of God became the
Son of man. But in the light of this monstrous doctrine of
annihilation, what means the expression " Son of man ? " It
can mean only " Son of an animal ! " for inasmuch as " the
children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself like-
wise took part of the same." .

III. It shall not be Restoration after a limited period

OF Punishment.

1. This theory is based on the assumption tJiat suffering can
do for man that which Christ failed to accomplish, forgetting
that punishment is the result of neglecting the only way of
salvation, and is not itself a means of salvation. Let us suppose

'SM^iki

for a moment that the theory is true — that suffering can save
men, — and we are at once confronted by the awful spectacle of
rival Saviours, and our ears catch the echo of rival songs of
praise : " A great multitude that no man can number," singing,
" Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His
blood, .... to Him be glory both now and forever ;" and
another multitude, perhaps ecjually great, singing, " Unto the
penal fires that burned the sin out of us, be glory both now
and forever." The supposition is too horrible even to be talked
about, so we pass on.

2. Those who teach the theory of Restoration entirely niisaj)-
prehend the design and effect of punishment. — They suppose it
to be always and everywhere corrective, and designed for
reformation, never retributive. This is a great mistake. The
idea of retribution enters into almost every form of punish-
ment inflicted by either God or man.

There are three aspects of punishment which cover the whole
ground. It is either (1) Corrective, the object of which is the
reformation of the offender ; or, (2) Preventive, the object being
to deter others from sinning ; or, (3) Retributive, the object
of which is to inflict deserved penalty upon the impenitent. To
these three aspects of punishment there are, in the universe,
three corresponding Powers : — 1. The Family, where punish-
ment, as to its design, is chiefly corrective ; 2. The State,
whose punishments are chiefly deterrent or preventive ; 3. The
Supreme Being, whose punishments are often retributive. In
God's dealings with men all three aspects appear ; but in
this life the first two are the more prominent. He " chastises "
His children, " not for His pleasure but for their profit, that
they might be partakers of His holiness." Such, however, are
not retributive punishments, but fatherly corrections, which in
the end yield "the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that
are exercised thereby." But in His dealings with the ungodly
we perceive a marked difference. There the retributive ele-
ment appears, and not uncommonly it is "judgment without
mercy." When God punished the antediluvian world with a
universal deluge, there was no subsequent restoration to His
favour when the punishment was over. When He overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah, the baptism of penal fire had \:\ it no
corrective element. It was "judgment without mercy," and

• ( .

.»*!'''-. *? ■iS'^^' 'Ky Af J

affords a significant indication of the principles upon whicli the
Divine government proceeds. " He that despised Moses' law
died virithout mercy, under one or two witnesses ; of how much
sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who
hath trodden under foot the blood of the covenant wherewith
he was sanctified, and counted it an \mholy thing ; and hath
done despite to the Spirit of His grace." But observe, it is only
upon the impenitent that God inflicts the " sorer punishment. "^
He who jaelds to God's mercy finds forgiveness, present, full,
and free ; but he who passes unsaved beyond the boundary
of this life's probation, shall find " no place of repentance
though he seek it carefully with tears." When a sinner
has suffered for ages he is no more worthy of Divine favour
than before, because the evil nature remains unchanged. " The
Lord knoweth how to ... . reserve the unjust unto the day
of judgment to be punished ;" but no hint is given that he
reserves them to be restored to favour when the punishment is
over.

3. Punishment has not the power which some claim for it, of
even deterring men from sin in the future. — Wicked men are
often punished in this life, and yet run greedily after sin again.
Behold the libertine, who has already received in himself the
recompense that is meet ! His substance wasted ; his body
rotting in the foul disease engendered of his lust; does he forsake
his beastly wickedness because of the punishment ? No ! he only
curses the law that entails the misery. Behold the drunkard !
How often he has been stricken and punished. Wealth squan-
dered — health impaired — home destroyed — friends all gone.
Does he stop ? Does he even pause ? Very seldom. Down he
goes to lower and still lower deeps, till the untold horrors of
delirium tremens seize upon him, and he suffers, before the
time, all the agonies of the lost. How all the forms and forces
of the infernal regions seem to gather around him ! Loathsome
insects "weave their soft webs about his face ;" slimy serpents
with forked tongues and burning eyes crawl upon his couch,
and hiss with foetid breath in his maddened ears ; horrible
demons sit upon his labouring chest, and choke back his stifled
cry for help. With piercing shriek he turns to fly, but suddenly,
at his very feet, yawns a terrific chasm, through the blackness
of whose darkness surge waves of tempestuous fire ; and as he

sinks, and dnh, and sinks, through fathomless voids of space, on
every jutting crag sits a horrid fiend who with devilish leer
mocks his despairing terror and cries, " Art thou become as one
of us 1" Oh, is there anything more dreadful foreshadowed in
Scripture ? And yet does it deter him ? No ! when the awful
visitation is past he cries, " I will seek it yet again !"

4. The theory dnnames ^h<tt man can exhaust the curse and
'penalty of sin, and hence that the death of Jesus Christ was
wholly unnecessary. Of this, however, there is no hint in the
Scriptures. They teach that when the sinner is cast into prison
" he shall in no wise come out thence till he has paid the utter-
most farthing ;" while as to his ability it is declared he has
" nothing " wherewith " to pay." In this theory it is foi-gotten
that sin is a self -perpetuating evil, and man cannot exhaust its
curse by enduring it unless sin itself is destroyed. But punish-
ment cannot destroy sin : onh* Divine grace can do that ; and
the sinner who passes unsaved into the spirit world goes where
grace cannot reach him. If the penalty of sin could be
exhausted by suffering, punishment would cease to be punish-
ment, and would become a means of grace. But of this no hint
is given in the teachings of the Word of God. The punish-
ments of the future are " the waffes of sin," not moral forces by
which a lapsed soul can be restored to holiness and the favour
of God.

5. Assuming, for a moment, the 'possibility of Rt^i-toration,
hotu, in the nature of things, is it to be }>rought about ? — Shall
it be by the mere fiat of Omnipotence ? That cannot be. " The
Divine government," says the Rev. Marshall Randies, " is not a
series of isolated arbitrary acts ; but a vast network of rela-
tions, wide and lasting as the universe, in which sin and punish-
ment stand to each other as cause and effect. It is in the nature
of sin to tend to perpetuate itself, and to produce misery. This
process is a matter of natural and moral law. To cut off the
proper effect of sin, and cause it to be followed by eternal joy,
by the sheer force of Omnipotence, would not only be an abrupt
break in the course of natural law, but a violent wrench of
moral relations, forcibly making sin the precursor of happiness,
which would not be less violent than to make piety the pre-
cursor of wretchedness. If a simple fiat of God's authority
might empty the bottomless pit, why not a similar fiat have

obviated the necessity for the humiliation of the Divine Son in
the redemption of mankind ? and why not in the same way
have prevented all the agonies and inconveniences ever incurred
by Jn?"*

Still more difficult is it to conceive that anything in the cir-*
cumstances or surroundings of a fallen spirit can effect its
restoration. Suffering and misery are the residt of sin, an^l
while the sin continues the suffering must endure. If sin were
to cease the moment the soul entered the spirit world, the idea
of exhausting sin's penalty might not appear so hopeless ; but
if sin perpetuates itself in this life, despite all remedial
influences, much more will it do so when all those influences
are withdrawn ; and thus unending sin carries with it unend-
ing suffering as its inevitable corollary. The impenitent sinner
goes into " outer darkness," to the " worm " that " dieth not,"
and to the " tire " that " shall not be quenched ;" and even
supposing these to be but figures of speech, they are not sug-
gestive of anything that could produce in the sufferers " repent-
ance unto salvation," or create one solitary aspiration after a
better life. It may be accepted as an axiom that a thing
cannot communicate what it does not possess ; and in the
surroundings of a lost soul there is nothing that can purify the
conscience, or deliver from the guilt of sin.

Nor yet — taking the New Testament for our guide — are we
permitted to suppose that a lost soul can, in the other world, be
restored through the mediation of Jesus Christ. The inestimable
value of that mediation here and now is pressed upon our atten-
tion in a thousand ways ; but no hint is given that it will
avail anything in the world to come. The very urgency of the
Gospel message indicates that this life is the crisis-hour of human
existence, into the brief compass of which are crowded oppor-
tunities that can never return again. If this were not so, — if
beyond this life there were even remote possibilities of salva-
tion, — the intensely earnest invitations, warnings and entreaties
of the gospel would sound like solemn mockeries. When the
one talent was taken from the unprofitable servant, it was.
never restored ; when the hopeless debtor who owed " ten
thousand talents " (more than $8,000,000), " was delivered to the
tormentors," it was a sentence of perpetual imprisonment ;,

*Frr Ever, p. 315,

when tlie foolisli virgin.s came witli the dcHpairing cry, " Lord,
Lord, open to us!" the door stu>)l)ornly refused to open, while
from within came the death-knell of departing liope — " Verily
I say unto you, I know you not."

IV. It Shall be Punishment.

The Scriptures teach " that there shall be a resurrection of
the dead, both of the just and of the unjust," (Acts xxiv. 15);
that following the resurrection there shall be a general judg-
ment, when " every one " shall " receive the things done in his
body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or
bad." This teaching commends itself to every enlightened con-
science. That goodness should be rewarded and wickedness
punished, is a proposition that has the force of an axiom. It
harmonizes with the eternal oughtneas of things. In every man
good or evil predominates ; but as all men are free agents, good
or evil must be voluntary. Voluntary goodness deserves reward ;
voluntary badness deserves punishment. Hence the argument
which gives goodness a reward beyond the grave, gives wicked-
ness puni.shment beyond the grave. There is a future state of
reward for the righteous : therefore, there is a future state of
punishment for the wicked.

1. The punishrtient shall he exceedingly terrible. — I do not in-
fer this, OS it is often .said the Churches do, from the dramatic pic-
tures of Pollock or Milton ; I infer it from the clear and solemn
.statements of the Word of God. And I would remind the
thoughtful reader that the most terrible utterances in the New
Testament concerning the punishment of the lost, came from the
lips of Him who.se pitying tenderness brought Him from heaven
to earth to die for the sins of mankind. Such words from His
lips are not mere rhetorical flourishes, but sober statements of
solemn realities. It is sometimes said that Christ's words are
figurative, and should not be interpreted literally. That may
be true in many instances, but a figure implies a reality behind
it, and in this case a reality far more dreadful than the figure
by which it is set forth. It is idle to speculate as to whether
the puni,shment shall be corporeal, or whether the instruments
of that punishment shall be material substances : enough to
know that something unspeakably dreadful must be intended

when it can be best represented by the gnawing of a worm
tliat never dies, and tlie burning of a tire that shall not be
<juenched.

2. The punishment shall be forever. — This is the aspect of
the doctrine most freijuently and strongly objected to. It
seems to some a terrible thing that for the sins of the present
life men should suffer through all the ages of the undying
future. This, however, is hardly a fair statement of the (jues-
tion. It must be remendiered that the sufferings of the lost are a
remit as well as a 2)enaltu, and that these sufferings largely
grow out of the character which the sinner forms in this life.
This is in perfect accord with the principle — " Whatsoever a
man soweth that shall he also reap ;" he shall reap that — not
something else instead of that. There is a terrible inexorable-
ness in what are called the " laws of nature," which is but
another name for the laws of God. Those laws are beneficent,
and work for beneficent ends ; but when resisted, disobeyed,
defied, they show no mercy, but remorselessly punish whatso-
ever or whosoever stands in the way. If a man puts himself
in deliberate antagonism to God and His laws, he must suffer
the consequences, and if in this life he forms a character which
puts him in eternal antagonism, he must suffer eternal conse-
quences.

The words of Christ on this awful theme are distinct and
unequivocal : " These shall go away into everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into life eternal." Some have tried, by reckless
verbal criticism, to neutralize the force of the declaration, and
assert that the words translated " eternal " and " everlasting "
do not signify duration without end. I a.ssert, on the con-
trary, that these words, in the Scriptures, aliuaya have that
meaning, unless limited by other words, or by the circumstances
of the case. " The Hebrew word is OLAM, the Greek, AIONION,
(Matt. XXV. 46), and these are the words used to express the
eternity of God, and the duration of the blessedness of the
righteous. If, therefore, the punishment of the wicked is
not eternal, then God is not eternal, and the reward of the
righteous is not eternal." Furthermore, if these words do not
mean duration without end, I know of no word in either
language which does.

By others the doctrine is opposed by arguments drawn, or

.supposed to 1)0 (Iravvn, from ilic natuiT and attrihuti's of God.
It M Haid " God is love," and it is incivdil*!*' that H»( will eon-
.si^m niilHon.s of bi-in^rs to cndli'ss torment for the sins of the
pn'sent life ; that .such punishment would imply vindictivene.s.s,
which i.s utterly foreign to Hi.s nature. Let u.s look at thi.s a
little more clo.sely. A man i.s tried for a capital offence ; he i,s
convicted, condemned and executed. You are greatly shocked.
You go to the executioner and .say, " Why were you so vindic-
tive aL'ainst this man ? " " Vindictive ! " he an.swers ; " on the
contrary, I })itied him from my heart, and would gladly have
avoided the terrible task of being his executioner ; but the
judge had sentenced him to die by my hand, and I only carried
out that .sentence." You go to the judge, and .say, "How could
you be .:') cruel as to sentence that man to a violent death ? I
had .supposed that .such vindictivene.s.s would be utterly foreign
to your nature." But the judge re])lies, " My friend, you are
utterly mistaken in supposing that I was moved by vindictive-
ness. I but discharged a most painful duty — a duty that
wrung my heart with pain anil filled my eyes with tears. But
the jury had found him guilty of a capital offence, and I had
no choice." You next go to the jury ; but they tell you they
were under .solemn oath to render a verdict according to the
evidence, and the evidence in this case wa.s direct and clear as
to the prisoners guilt. You question the witnesses, and they
say they were sworn to tell the " truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth," and as they had personal knowledge of
the man's guilt, they had no choice but to testify accordingly.
You question the officer who made the arrest, but he tells you
a warrant for the prisoner's apprehension was placed in his
hands by the magistrate before whom information had been
laid, and he was compelled to execute the commis,sion. You
go to the magistrate, but there is no vindictiveness there ; he
has but obeyed the law in ordering the arrest of the prisoner.
One step fai-ther backward, and you question the law-makers,
" How could you be so vindictive as to pass so terrible a law ? "
But with one voice they answer, " We were not vindictive ; we
only discharged a public duty ; we only voiced a great public
sentiment that, for the protection of human life, murder should
be made punishable with death." Here, then, ycu have gone
back, step by step, from the executioner to the judge, from the

judges to the jury, from tin' jury to the witnr.sHcs, fiom the wit-
nosHOH to the officer, from the officer to the mii^'istnite, from the
maj^istrate to the law-mnktirs, from the Uiw-makers to puhlic
opinion, hut you find no vindictiveness anywhen-. Who, tlu'U,
is to hhime hecause tius man has \h'v\\ put to «h'ath ^ No oNE
BUT HIMSELF ! And yet, ho far a.s .society is ahh^ it lias inHicted
on this man etcnutl punwhiiieat. *

Yes, the punislniient shall he eternal. But what is Eternity ?
" Its significance is as higli and wide and deep and grand as
God i.s." He alone fills it, and Hi; alone comprehends it. Time
can he mea.sured, not .so Eternity. Let imagination attempt
its loftiest and mo.st darin*; fiiuht throuixh the <lim and
.shadowy past ; let it pa,ss swiftly up the line of the ci'iiturit^s,
pa.st the I'ise of nations, past tlie hirth of man, past tlu; dawn
of time ; hackward still till .suns and .systems .shrink and fade,
till angels disappear, till it reaches the awful solitude where
nothing is save God, and yet it will he no nearer Eternity's
beginning than when first its flight began. Then let it turn on
mighty pinions, and dart swifter than the lightning, swift as
thought, into the awful gulf of Eternity to come ; onward while
nations rise and droop and die ; onward while dynasties change
and pass ; onward while time grows hoary Mdth the lapse of
centuries ; onward still, pa.st the solemnities of death and the
terrors of judgment, and into that awful solitude beyond where
time is not ; onward through cycles that no arithmetic can
compute, till reason reels and staggers in her effort to grasp the
thought, — and still, when myriads of ages, as men count time,
have passed, it will be no nearer Eternity's dread clo.se than
when first its adventurous pinion dared the infinite abyss.
" What shall the end be ? " Great God ! there is no end I — there
is no end !

3. The punishment shall he banishment from God. — Scripture
testimony is very plain on this matter, and very solemn. We
are di.stinctly told thot a day is coming, " when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels, in
flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
obey not the go.spel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who .shall be
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord and the glory of His power," (2 Thess. i. 8, 9). The term

1: '

" everlaHting destruction," as it occurs in these verses, has been
pressed into service to teach the annihilation of the wicked ;
but that this is not its meaning is plain from the words of
C'hrist elsewhere, (Matt. xxv. 46), where an entirely different
word Is used, which does not mean destruction, in this sense, at
all. This idea of banishment from God is one of the most awful
in connection with the punishment of the lost. They are to be
" cast into outer darkness," and this must be beyond the circle
of order and light. Where this is we can but dimly guess ; for
beyond the limits of law and order we can scarcely conceive of
either " place " or " time." To human investigation God's uni-
verse appears well-nigh limitless. Unaided vision touches
only the hither side of the starry universe ; but by telescopic
power we pierce to depths so inconceivably vast that even the
flashing light, trn veiling 12,000,000 of miles in every minute of
time, could not cross the interval in less than a thousand years.
Throughout all these regions of inconceivable magnitude, law
and order reign. " God, and the glory of His power " are
there.

But imagination, overleaping these almost illimitable barriers,
finds herself in a region still beyond, — a region of darkness,
and of the shadow of death. And — who can tell ? — perhaps in
this " outer" darkness," on some wandering star that has
broken away from its orbit, — that has dashed over the frontiers
of a law-abiding creation, the finally impenitent may find their
everlasting abode. And as that world has broken away from
all law and order, so it has fled beyond light, and goes wander-
ing in darkness that may be felt, sinking evermore in fathom-
less voids of space, where only chaos reigns ; rr^'ing beyond the
confines of life, with no sun or star to light its horrid gloom, or
chase away its foul and foetid vapours • its only light, if light it
may be called, the murky flames that hiss out from a thousand
fissures ; a world that shudders in the throes of perpetual earth-
quakes ; where in a,ll the range of its vast circumference there is
no trace of life or beauty ; no budding plant or blooming flower ;
no purling brook or flowing river ; no virgin beauty of morning,
or golden splendour of evening, or mystic pomp of starrj- night;
a world stripped of the lost remn-^nt of its primeval loveliness,
abhorred of angels and accursed of God !

" Splintered and blasted, and thunder-smitten,

Not a smile above nor a hope below ;
Withered, and scorched, and hunger-bitten,

No earthly lightning has seamed its brow ;
On each stone the avenger's pen hath written

Horror, and ruin, and death, and woe I "

Behold " the ei.d of them that obey not the gospel." The
Judge " shall send forth His angels, and they shall sever the
wicked from among the just ;" " they shall gather out of His
kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity ;"
they shall " bind them hand and foot " and carry them to the
utmost verge, and there, as on the battlements of a living, law-
abiding universe, the multitude of terror-stricken men and
women, who obeyed not thi gospel of God, for a short space
shall stand. One last backward look at the light and beauty they
shall never more behold ; one last agonizing thought of friends'
and home from which they are exiled forever ; one last despair-
ing effort to shut their" eyes against the unutterable horrors of
the " outer darkness " that awaits them ; and then flung by
archangel power beyond the outer verge, they sink through
awful voids till they reach the place accursed where henceforth
they must dwell. And then that world, freighted with its
unutterable burden of misery and sin, speeds away, away, into
the darkness of unfathomable space : lost in a darkness from
which there is no return ! lost where no ray of hope can ever
come ! lost where they shall not even know in what direction
heaven lies ! LOST where mightiest angel, sweeping on fearless
wing beyond the limits of God's creation, shall never iind so
much as its bones !

But is this the end ? Alas, no ! this is only the beginning of
the end ! What the end shall be only God can te^l.

Copies of this Tract may he had from the Author, or the
Methodist Book Room, Toronto, at the following rates,
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