p. 136 | How the Wicked Shall Perish

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 19, 1869

How the Wicked Shall Perish.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

Ps. xxxvii, 20, is a very plain, simple statement with regard to what shall become of the wicked, and how they will end. “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.” First, here is a positive declaration that the wicked shall perish. Every one knows the commonly accepted meaning of that simple word perish. A man perished in the storm or in the sea—a sheep perished in the snow—a man perished in the desert. When a thing has perished it is no more. So says David, “the wicked shall perish.” But lest some should mistake his meaning, he next proceeds to illustrate how they shall perish. “The enemies of the Lord,” says he, “shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume: into smoke shall they consume away.” As, means like unto. The fat of lambs is tallow. We make candles of tallow. Here stands a candle; I light it; it begins to consume, and it continues to consume away into smoke till the candle is entirely gone, and not a particle of the fat is left,—it is consumed away into smoke. Like this the enemies of God are to perish. If this illustration be true, then the wicked will finally be burned up and consume away into smoke, like the candle made of the fat of lambs.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

Sigourney, Sep. 23.