THE GEHENNA OF FIRE, THE NEW EARTH, AND THE SABBATH.
By John Nevins Andrews
TEXT.—“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. 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.” Isa. lxvi, 22–24. But the fact that God alone can cast men into the fire of gehenna, and that this is actually done at the end of the 1000 years, receives further elucidation from considering the condition of the wicked when cast therein. And here is the fact so terrible to the transgressor: the wicked are alive when they enter the fire of gehenna. 1. We have ascertained that this fire is that which comes down upon Satan and his army after the second resurrection. Rev. xx, 5–10. 2. We have identified the fire of gehenna with the lake of fire and brimstone. And we learn that before those whose names are not in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire, the sea gives them up, and hades gives them up, and DEATH GIVES THEM UP. However men may explain the action of the sea, and of hades, and contend that the wicked dead which they contained, are still dead when given up by them, they cannot evade the statement, that death gives up the dead. Those thus given up are alive, and because their names are not found written in the book of life, they are cast alive into this gehenna of fire, which is said to be the second death. Rev. xx, 13–15. 3. Our Lord asked the wicked of his time this most awful question: “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Greek, gehenna. Perhaps they might hope to hide in hades; but the “resurrection to damnation” shall bring them thence, to this terrible gehenna of fire. John v, 28, 29. 4. When the wicked are cast into the fire of gehenna, they are cast there with their “whole body,” according to Matt. v, 29. And verse 30 states the same thing. According to Matt. xviii, 8, 9, they are cast there having two hands, two feet and two eyes. And Mark ix, 43–48, makes the same statement. And though Luke xii, 4, 5, speaks of God’s being able to cast the wicked into gehenna after he had killed them, the parallel passage in Matt. x, 28, shows that the wicked are cast thither both soul and body, i. e., they are not mere dead bodies, but living beings; and hence the ability of the Lord to cast them into gehenna after they have died once, is found in the fact, that he is able to raise them from the dead. 5. That the fate of the wicked in the fire of gehenna is terrible, and that they are of necessity alive to experience it, is plainly implied in our Lord’s representation of the man with the millstone tied to his neck and sunk in the depths of the sea as having a more tolerable punishment than that man who by causing offenses shall fall into the fire of gehenna. Matt. xviii, 6–9; Mark ix, 42, 43. But this part of the subject will be further elucidated by referring particularly to those expressions in the texts already quoted, and in parallel texts, which present the punishment of the wicked as involving great suffering and anguish, and by no means of momentary duration. Those who represent the punishment of the wicked as only designed to put them out of the way because of their being unfit to live, but as involving no pain except incidentally, and therefore in many cases very little indeed, should, to be consistent, take the ground that they are never to be resurrected. For there can be no reason to call them forth from hades and cast them alive into the gehenna of fire, if it be merely the design of the Judge to put them out of the way, and not his design to inflict suffering and anguish in the second death. If there be no design to inflict suffering why call them forth from death and hades? But it is time to consider those expressions that speak of pain and anguish as the portion of the wicked. Our Lord gives us the strongest idea of this terrible punishment in gehenna when he advises men, if there be no other way, to cut off the right hand, or the foot, or to pluck out the eye, meaning, no doubt, the severance of the fondest ties, rather than to enter hell fire. He does not hold up merely the loss of the kingdom of God; he connects with this loss the fire of gehenna. Nay, he even represents it as preferable to be drowned in the ocean rather than cast into the fire of hell. So when he describes the fate of the transgressor he says: Matt. xiii, 41, 42: “The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Matt. xiii, 49, 50: “So shall it be at the end of the world; the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” And Paul covers the whole ground, when he says, Rom. ii, 5–9, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God: who will render to every man according to his deeds; to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile.” John represents this as torment in fire and brimstone. Rev. xiv, 11. And speaking of the beast and the false prophet, and by them representing those who sustain and uphold certain kinds of wickedness, he says, “These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” Rev. xix, 20. Let none202say that this is only the language of figures never to be realized in fact. If it be indeed a figure, will not the reality be equal to the figure? But Sodom was destroyed by fire and brimstone, and it is expressly declared to be an example of what shall be the fate of all the wicked. Gen. xix, 24, 28; Luke xvii, 29, 30; 2 Pet. ii, 6; Jude 7. These texts are sufficient to show that terrible anguish shall be the portion of the lost. They treasure it up to themselves against the day of wrath, when every soul of man that doeth evil shall experience this anguish and torment in the furnace of fire. Some, indeed, shall be beaten with many stripes, and some with few; some receive greater damnation, and some have in the Judgment a more tolerable measure of anguish than others; for God shall reward men according to their works. Luke xii, 47, 48; xx, 47; Matt. xii, 22, 24; x, 15; Job xxiv, 11; Ps. lxii, 12; Matt. xvi, 27. That there is a sufficient space of time for this is implied in the expressions that are used to indicate the means of its infliction, and the continued duration of the pain. No one can believe more firmly than myself that every wicked man shall die the second death in the lake of fire, and that God will cleanse the universe by making an utter end of sin in the person of all evil doers. But I am far from thinking that dying in the lake of fire will be a mere momentary matter. If the wicked are raised in the resurrection to damnation for the express purpose of being brought forth to the day of wrath (Job xxii, 29, 30), and if God purposes to make the pain of the second death greater for some than for others, it is at least a reasonable conjecture that that resurrection shall give to each man a capacity for suffering exactly proportioned to the measure of torment that is assigned to him in dying the second death. The everlasting fire into which the wicked are sent, which is represented as unquenchable, and from which the smoke of their torment ascends forever, and in which they are tormented forever and ever, is an expression indicative of something more than momentary suffering. Let us give due weight to every word of God. The expressions when taken in their connection and examined in the light of all the testimony of the Bible fall very far short of establishing the eternal existence of the wicked. But they do indicate duration to the anguish of their cup. The expression “everlasting fire” does not necessarily mean a fire that shall burn to all eternity; for the fire that destroyed Sodom is said to be eternal fire. Jude 7; 2 Pet. ii, 6. It may rather be spoken of its effect than of its duration; as the Judgment is said to be eternal, not that it shall last to all eternity, but that it shall be eternal in its results. Heb. vi, 2. And so of the unquenchable fire. It is not designed to preserve but to burn up that which is cast into it. Matt. iii, 12. And because it cannot be quenched, it shall burn till everything cast into it is consumed. For a plain illustration of an unquenchable fire burning up everything and then ceasing of itself, take the case of Jerusalem as burned by Nebuchadnezzar. See Jer. xvii, 27, compare with Jer. lii, 13. Even the smoke of their torment ascending up forever and ever, cannot be understood of duration without end; i. e., if it be construed as meaning that new smoke is constantly forming. For smoke is the certain proof that waste is taking place with whatever constitutes the fuel, because the fire is consuming it. And consequently the time must arrive when the fuel shall be all reduced to smoke and ashes. And this fact, David, inspired by the Spirit to speak on this very point, has clearly expressed. Ps. xxxvii, 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.” But if the ascent of the smoke be taken in some other sense besides that of the continued formation of smoke it does not at all argue the endless duration of the existence of the wicked. The torment of Satan forever and ever is not a certain proof that he shall never cease to exist. It doubtless does plainly imply not only long-continued torment, but that it shall continue as long as the being to whom it pertains is capable of existing. This is a generally-admitted rule in the interpretation of this phrase “forever and ever.” It is only limited by the existence of that to which it is applied. When applied to an immortal being it is absolutely unlimited. When applied to the first and greatest of all murderers we know with certainty that he has not eternal life abiding in him. 1 John iii, 15. Far be it from me to represent the anguish of the wicked as a light matter, or as of momentary duration. These expressions all have force, and point, and weight, and reality. But there is one grand fact that sheds a flood of light upon this subject, and that, indeed, is of itself perfectly decisive respecting the duration of the conscious existence of the wicked, in the lake of fire. It is this: The lake of fire is our earth itself when the elements melt with fervent heat. This is the time, and this the place, when the perdition of the ungodly shall be experienced. 2 Pet. iii, 7. This is the time when the wicked shall find themselves in the fire that shall burn as an oven, when all the proud, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and shall be burned up, root and branch. Mal. iv, 1; Ps. xxi, 8, 9. And what is of remarkable interest, these very expressions that are applied to the burning of the wicked as though it should never cease, are also applied to the burning of the earth. Thus the prophet Isaiah gives us a wonderful picture of that unquenchable fire that devours our earth: Isa. xxxiv, 9, 10: “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.” If any choose to apply this to ancient Edom they certainly must explain the expression used in the same manner that we do the like respecting the wicked. That is, they must admit that they do not imply eternal duration. But this is really, as I believe, a direct reference to the great burning day. And the desolation of the earth relates to the period of the 1000 years. Surely such a fire would be unquenchable. And when its smoke ascends, that of the wicked shall ascend with it. For this very scene, as we have already ascertained, is the great gehenna of fire. And the wicked experience the power of this devouring fire as they surround the city of God. And now, while we are viewing this terrible conflagration, let us introduce the words of Isaiah lxvi, 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 to all flesh.” When sin is put down it will be in such a manner that it shall never break out again. It has had an existence among the angelic host, and in the human family. When the evil angels and the vast throng of wicked men receive their retribution together in the lake of fire, the righteous angels, and all righteous men, shall witness the terrible infliction. The time is in the conclusion of the day of Judgment, after the resurrection of the unjust at the end of the 1000 years. The place is the lake of fire, i. e., the burning earth. The righteous are spectators because the New Jerusalem shall be in the midst of this awful conflagration. Not only shall they view the scene from the city itself, but “they shall go forth and look upon” this execution of the just judgment of God. Some of those texts which thus present the punishment of the wicked as in the immediate presence of the righteous, and under their inspection, are the following: Ps. xxxvii, 34: “Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. ” Ps. lviii, 9–11: “Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.” Isaiah lxvi, 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, neither203shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.” Matt. xiii, 41–43: “The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Luke xiii, 28: “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.” Rev. xiv, 10: “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” Rev. xx, 9: “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of Heaven, and devoured them.” The reader will pronounce this group of texts truly awful; yet, without note or comment, they present the punishment of the wicked as in the immediate presence of the holy angels and of the saints. How wonderful the contrast! The wicked in the furnace of fire, and the righteous shining forth as the sun within the city of God. The wicked shall see and recognize the righteous. The righteous shall even go forth and look upon the retribution of the ungodly. But this shall be, not from any delight which they shall feel in the anguish of the damned, but that they may see the just judgment of God in recompensing tribulation to those that have treasured it up to themselves. See Rom. ii, 1–16; 2 Thess. i, 6–10. What a relief to our minds that immortality is not inherent in evil doers! How precious the thought that the wickedness of the wicked shall come to an end, even though it be accomplished by the utter destruction of the transgressors! Ps. vii, 9; civ, 35. Righteousness is, and of right ought to be, alone immortal. Wisdom of Solomon i, 13–16. It is evident that the anguish of the wicked is not momentary. It fills a space of time. Because it is not of infinite duration let us not err in the opposite direction, and conclude that it is only for an instant, and then done with forever. “Their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched.” The fire is an element of torture and of destruction. The worm that shall not die must either be another agent of destruction, or else it must represent the sinner in the midst of the fire of gehenna. It is a living creature, for it is said that it shall not die. But a living worm in the lake of fire, unless itself immortal, could not endure that terrible heat. Instead of preying upon men, it would like them suffer destruction from the devouring fire. We cannot conceive of immortal worms placed in the fire for the purpose of inflicting torture upon the wicked. The unquenchable fire is quite sufficient to accomplish the needed retribution. It would be absurd to believe that living creatures can exist in the fire, without harm to themselves, for the purpose of adding to the pangs of the wicked, unless we attribute immortality to these reptiles. For without it, they would feel a sufficient measure of sharp anguish themselves to deprive them of all power as well as all disposition to gnaw upon other beings in the gehenna of fire. But to clothe these creatures with immortality, that they may dwell in the fire unharmed is to give that priceless boon to hideous reptiles. We cannot therefore understand this word “worm” as relating to creatures living in the fire for the purpose of adding to the tortures which that destructive element is itself capable of inflicting. If, therefore, this term cannot be understood of living creatures that shall prey upon the wicked in the furnace of fire, there is but one other class of living beings to whom it can apply. In fact, there is but one class of beings that shall have their portion in the lake of fire, and that is the wicked, who shall certainly enter it alive, and shall, for a certain space of time, dwell in that devouring element where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. Isa. xxxiii, 14; Matt. xiii, 41, 42. How awful is this language! Could men be204made to believe it, they surely would “flee from the wrath to come.” If the New Testament speaks often of the wicked as a “generation of vipers” (Matt. iii, 7; xii, 34; xxiii, 33; Luke iii, 7), there can be no impropriety in designating the wicked, in their torture, as “worms.” “Their worm shall not die.” This expression must be taken, either in an absolute sense, or in a limited sense. If taken in an absolute and unlimited sense, then the wicked will live eternally. If taken in a limited sense, it indicates that the wicked shall live in the devouring fire till each has experienced the full measure of anguish that pertains to his portion. But these words cannot be understood in an unlimited sense as affirming that the wicked shall never die, inasmuch as many texts expressly declare that they shall die in this gehenna of devouring fire. Matt. x, 28: “Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Greek, gehenna.) Rev. ii, 11: “He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” Rev. xx, 14, 15: “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire.” Rev. xxi, 8: “But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.” So it is certain that the fire which shall devour the wicked and utterly consume them till they are destroyed soul and body, shall bring their lives to a final end. They shall die the second death. There is a limit beyond which those who are cast into the lake of fire shall not live. They shall not die till they have experienced the full measure of indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. With the last pang of retribution, they cease to exist. The immortality of the wicked cannot be proved or reasonably inferred from the undying worm. If it be admitted that this represents the wicked, it can only be held that they shall live for a period in the fire; and that they shall not die at once, but only after a certain space of torment. If, however, we maintain that the worm represents a living creature that exists without injury to itself in the fire, and there preys upon the wicked, this will not argue the eternal existence of the sinner; for the devouring worm, if such creature shall be found in the lake of fire, would if itself, were there no action to the fire, put a period to the existence of the wicked. They would be eaten up alive. So the meaning of the phrase in this case, “Their worm shall not die,” would be, that this agent of torture and destruction shall not die till it has accomplished its work of destruction. Certain it is, that if the worm feeds upon the bodies of the wicked, it will at last eat them up. When that time has come then the work of the worm is done, and we may well conclude that it will not outlive its work. Yet this whole idea of living worms to feed upon the wicked in the lake of fire is manifestly absurd. For we cannot have such worms in the furnace of fire without allowing them to possess immortality, and when the fire and the worms together have devoured the sinner, so that he shall cease to exist, then these immortal worms shall have the whole infinite future to live with nothing to eat. But surely this is not more absurd, than the idea that these worms can feed upon the wicked while they are in the lake of fire and brimstone. That men are called worms in the Bible, see Job. xxv, 6; Ps. xxii, 6; Isa. xli, 14, where the same original word is used. “They shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die.” These carcasses do not of necessity signify that they were dead bodies. The word is used in the Hebrew Scriptures with reference both to the living and to the dead. God threatened the Hebrews for their murmuring and rebellion, that their carcasses should fall in the wilderness. Num. xiv, 32; Heb. iii, 17. That is, this threatening signified simply this, that their then living bodies should fall in death while they were in the wilderness. So when the wicked are cast into the fire in execution of the sentence of the just Judge, “Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels,” (Matt. xxv, 41,) the fire does not consume them at once, as naturally it would, but their worm does not die till each has received his proper portion of torment. Their carcasses consume slowly away, and while any portion remains unconsumed life remains, and with it anguish and utter despair. Perhaps to this very time and place refer the words of Zech. xiv, 12: “And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” “Neither shall their fire be quenched.” This expression is the counterpart of the other, “Their worm shall not die.” Both are quoted by our Lord, and solemnly endorsed with emphatic repetition. Thus in Mark ix, 43–48, he thrice uses the entire sentence, and twice speaks (verses 45, 47), besides that, of the fire that never shall be quenched. This unquenchable fire must devour every element that comes within its reach. We have already ascertained that this fire of gehenna in the lake of fire and brimstone, caused by the burning of our earth. So intense shall be the heat of the great burning day that the elements which compose our earth shall be melted by it. 2 Pet. iii, 10. Nay; our earth itself shall flee away from the presence of Him that sits upon the throne. Rev. xx, 11. This undoubtedly refers to the action of the devouring fire upon our globe. May it not indicate that such shall be the power of the heat that it shall at last dissolve our entire globe into a gaseous or vapory condition? “The first heaven [i. e., the atmosphere,] and the first earth [the solid material of our globe,] were passed away; and there was no more sea.” Or more exactly as Prof. Whiting renders it, “the sea was no more.” The whole earth is thus dissolved by the intense heat, and even the vast ocean for the time ceases to exist as a body of water; a very decisive proof that it is converted into vapor by the dreadful conflagration. The burning of our earth does not merely pertain to the action of fire upon its surface. The solid globe itself shall melt in the fire of the day of Judgment. The fire now burning in our earth shall not be extinguished till the fire from God out of Heaven shall unite with it, to dissolve our globe. Thus Moses speaks: Deut. xxxii, 22: “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” And John says of the fire of the last day, Rev. xx, 14: “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.” This may be understood perhaps as relating to the fact that those who had been under the power of death, and in the depths of hades, being resurrected therefrom, are to be cast into the lake of fire, unless their names are found in the book of life. Yet the statement is of the same character as that made by Moses, and there is no reason why we should not give it its exact force. Death is destroyed in the lake of fire when all that can die are “hurt of the second death.” Sheol or hades, the hell of Deut. xxxii, 22; Rev. xx, 14; is in the interior or nether parts of the earth. See Eze. xxxii, 18–32; Isa. xiv, 8–11, 15, 19, 20. The dissolution of the earth by the final conflagration shall make this interior or nether part of the earth the center of intense heat. The lowest sheol or hades shall feel the devouring fire. Why should this be a thing incredible to us? He who made, can unmake. He who created, can destroy. If men of science can by skillful use of chemical knowledge, cause many substances to burn, that are, under ordinary circumstances, incapable of combustion, cannot the great Creator, whose knowledge is without limit, cause every substance which he has created to burn with fervent heat? If men can burn water, cannot its Creator do this? The substances which compose our globe may be divided into three classes. 1. Those that will extinguish combustion. 2. Those that are incapable of combustion. 3. Those that will support combustion. Water may be taken as a representative of the first class; the dust of the earth of the second; and wood, or coal, of the third. This last class needs no remark as it presents no difficulty. But the first two, viz., that which will extinguish fire, and that which will not burn in the fire, are both expressly noticed in the words of inspiration. Thus the prophet Isaiah bears testimony: Isa. xxxiv, 8, 9: “For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And THE STREAMS thereof shall be turned into pitch, and THE DUST thereof into brimstone, and THE LAND thereof shall become burning pitch.” If the water is made to burn like pitch, and the dust becomes as brimstone, and the land itself consumes as burning pitch, then we may well understand that everything pertaining to our globe shall be “dissolved” in the devouring fire. When the dust is rendered capable of burning like brimstone, there will be little difficulty in having a lake of fire and brimstone out of our burning globe. And when the water shall no longer extinguish the fire, but shall support it as if it were burning pitch, we may well term this as an “unquenchable fire.” Indeed this is just what the prophet says in the next verse. “It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever.” Isa. xxxiv, 10. The remainder of Isaiah xxxiv, is a description of our earth in its state of desolation during the 1000 years. This is the unquenchable fire that John the Baptist said should burn up the chaff. Matt. iii, 12; Luke iii, 17. This is the fire that Isaiah spoke of when he says, “neither shall their fire be quenched.” And our Lord thrice quotes the expression, and twice adds the statement, that the fire never shall be quenched. Mark ix, 43–48. The prophet says, “It shall not be quenched night nor day: the smoke thereof shall go up forever.” This is extremely strong language. It relates however to a well-defined object. It is the burning of our earth in the day of Judgment, when ungodly men receive their perdition. 2 Pet. iii, 7–12. What does this language mean? For one thing it certainly means that the fire which burns the earth shall never be extinguished. It shall never be quenched. It shall burn till every particle of matter has been dissolved in the fervent heat. It shall burn to the lowest sheol in the nether parts of the earth. As it is said of the torment of the wicked in this very fire, so it is said of the earth itself which supports the fire, “the smoke thereof shall go up forever.” Isa. xxxiv, 10. Yet two things prove absolutely that there is a limit to the duration of this fire. 1. The fire lives by consuming the fuel. There is a limit to the amount, and though the quantity embrace the whole globe, it must after a time be all devoured by the fire, and turned into smoke or gaseous matter. 2. Another absolute proof that this lake of fire shall not eternally exist, is found in the fact that after our earth has been melted by fire till it is completely dissolved, it is to be created anew, and to become a new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness. 2 Pet. iii, 13. The lake of fire shall finally exhaust itself. When every particle of our globe has been dissolved in it, there will be no longer a furnace of fire burning as an oven. The wicked, when cast into it, have no immortality. Rom. ii, 7; 1 Cor. xv, 53–57. They are compared to tares, chaff, stubble, thorns, the fat of lambs, &c., not to indicate the length of time that they should burn, but the certainty of the fact that they should be devoured, consumed, and burned up root and branch in the unquenchable fire. Ps. xxxvii, 20; Isa. xxxiii, 11–14; Mal. iv, 1; Matt. iii, 12; xiii, 40–42; Rev. xx, 9. The burning of our earth we may well conceive to require a sufficient space of time for the adequate inflictions of anguish upon every sinful being. And it is certainly worthy of our notice, that though our earth is the place where the wicked shall meet their terrible retribution, and though there is a time when it shall burn no longer, yet the very expressions respecting the duration of its burning, “It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever,” are almost exactly those which are used respecting the punishment of the wicked themselves. Here is the final result of the fire, Isa. xlvii, 14: “Behold they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves [margin Heb. their souls; see Matt. x, 28.] from the power of the flame; there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.” When this is accomplished, the wicked have been destroyed soul and body in the fire of gehenna.205 (THE SERMON, CONCLUDED FROM PP. 203.) Henna. The universe of God is then clean, and the plague spot of sin is wiped out forever. Rev. v, 13; Ps. civ, 35; vii, 9. When this terrible fire has burned as an oven, consuming the wicked as stubble, then shall the saints have an abiding inheritance under the whole heaven. Prov. xi, 31: “Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner.” We have seen how the wicked receive their recompense in the earth, and what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, and to experience the fiery indignation that shall devour the adversaries. Heb. x, 27, 31. Now let us turn to a more welcome theme, the reward of the just. The fire having dissolved our earth, and caused it to flee from the presence of him that sits upon the throne, we next read: Rev. xxi, 5: “And he that sat upon the throne said, BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW.” In obedience to this mandate, new heavens and new earth spring into existence, to be the eternal abode of the righteous. The earth itself shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters fill the sea. Num. xiv, 21; Isa. xi, 9; Hab. ii, 14. And the New Jerusalem shall be the metropolis of this new earth, containing within itself the throne of God, and the river and tree of life; in a word, Paradise with all its glories. Rev. xxi; xxii. And the kingdom under the whole heaven, i. e., the whole face of the new earth, shall be given to the saints of the Most High, for an everlasting inheritance. And now come in the words of the text: Isa. lxvi, 22, 23: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” The next verse respecting their going forth to look upon the wicked in the unquenchable fire cannot be understood as following their assembling before God in the new-earth state. Here is the reason which can be appreciated by every one. The unquenchable fire that burns the wicked is that which melts the earth that now is, preparatory to the creation of the New Earth. 2 Pet. iii, 7–13. The New Earth does not exist till this fire has devoured the earth; and when the saints have their inheritance in the earth made new, the wicked are ashes in its dust beneath their feet. This is certainly conclusive on this point. Yet one word further relative to the difficulty. We have seen that the beloved city has a place prepared for it upon the earth, so that at the end of the 1000 years, when the wicked are resurrected, they come up and surround it, with Satan at their head. The devouring fire falls upon them as they thus surround the city of God, and in the very presence of Christ, and the angels, and the saints, the wicked receive their torment in the unquenchable fire. It is at this point of time that the righteous go forth and look upon the wicked in their dreadful punishment. When the fire has progressed so far that the second death has devoured its victims, then the very earth itself is dissolved in the intense heat, and flees from the presence of Him that sits upon the throne. After all this is accomplished, his word recalls the elements and combines them according to his good pleasure, and behold the earth once more exists, more lovely this time than even Eden itself, never more to be blighted by sin. Upon this fair earth the heavenly Jerusalem is located, never more to be removed. And to this city of God resort the immortal saints from the whole face of the New Earth on each successive Sabbath. “And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” The Septuagint reads, “And it shall come to pass from month to month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me in Jerusalem, saith the Lord.” It is worthy of notice that the immortal saints in the New Earth are designated as flesh. They are even termed “all flesh” as distinguished from the wicked who are consumed in the unquenchable fire. The place where they assemble before God for worship, is the New Jerusalem itself. And we are even instructed definitely respecting the times of these assemblies of the whole family of the redeemed. Each new moon, and each Sabbath, they thus assemble before God. There is a sufficient reason for this monthly gathering of the saints. Rev. xxi, 2: “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month.” The month is a natural division of time marked by each returning new moon. And the new fruit of the tree of life gives occasion for these monthly assemblies of the redeemed. But there is another meeting which occurs four times as often, and which is marked by no phenomena of nature, which is, nevertheless, observed by all the immortal saints. Every Sabbath the countless hosts of the redeemed assemble before God from the whole face of the New Earth to worship him in the New Jerusalem. The Sabbath is like the tree of life, in this thing at least, that it existed in Paradise lost, and is to exist in Paradise regained. It was made for man, and it is certain, that at last “all flesh shall keep it with one heart.” The Sabbath exists as a memorial of the creation of the heavens and the earth. As such it was hallowed in Eden, and as such it will be eternally observed by the immortal saints. The time never comes, when they can put away this memorial of the great creation. In the gospel dispensation, men may think it unnecessary to observe the memorial of the creation of the heavens and the earth. But it is not thus with the inhabitants of the New Earth. On each successive Sabbath, they assemble for grateful worship, before God their creator. Nor is this only the declaration of the Old Testament. The fact that the saints shall observe the Sabbath in their glorified state, is clearly taught by Paul. He speaks of God’s resting on the seventh day. Heb. iv. He speaks also of the entrance of the people of God into the glorious rest which awaits them. And here is his remarkable statement: Heb. iv, 9: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” The margin reads, “keeping of a Sabbath.” The Greek word is Sabbatismos, a noun which the lexicons define as “observance of the Sabbath.” What reason can be assigned why we should not give this word its literal meaning? We do know from the statement of Isaiah that the Sabbath shall be observed by the whole host of the redeemed. This text literally expresses the same fact. Why not give to these words their plain, literal and obvious meaning, when we do thereby only express what is elsewhere plainly stated in the Bible. And how great a mistake is made by those who declare that Paul regarded the Sabbath of the Lord as an abrogated institution. Far from it. He believed in its perpetuity in the future kingdom of God upon earth. This subject sets before us in a clear light the awful fate of the transgressor. Who of the readers of this discourse will dare to go on in their sins? Can thine heart endure or can thine hands be strong in the time when God shall enter into judgment with thee? We have here also seen something of the glory that shall be revealed when the kingdom of God shall fill the earth. Who of us can afford to come short of it? We must enter the kingdom of God, if at all, through much tribulation. Who of us shall shrink from any sacrifice that it is our privilege in the providence of God to make? The redeemed saints in the New Earth observe the Sabbath of the Lord. If the people of God are all to keep it then, does it become any of them to despise it now? If any of them are now trampling it in the dust, would it not be wisest for them to take off their feet from this hallowed memorial of the great Creator? Why should the Sabbath be deemed unworthy of a place in the gospel dispensation, if it was deemed worthy of a place in Paradise from which we are exiled, and shall have an eternal place in Paradise regained? Is not the great Creator worthy of our lasting remembrance and our heartfelt gratitude? And shall we not cherish his hallowed rest-day in grateful remembrance of the fact that he created the world and all things therein in six days and rested on the seventh?