Talmage's Sermon on Christ's Descent into Hell
When shall we reach the end of the absurdities into which men are driven by the popular view of a present hell, and the everlasting torture of sinners therein? Among the many voices which have recently spoken upon the subject of endless suffering, Mr. T. DeWitt Talmage has had his say. In a sermon published in the Advance of Jan. 31, 1878, occurs this passage respecting Christ:— “He not only told us that there was a hell but he went into it. He walked down the fiery steeps. He stepped off the bottom rung of the long ladder of despair. He descended into hell. He explored the darkest den of eternal midnight, and then he came forth lacerated and scarified and bleeding and mauled by the hands of infernal execration, to cry out to all the ages: ‘I have paid the price for all those who would make me their substitute. By my piled up groans, by my omnipotent agony, I demand the rescue of all those who will give up sin, and trust in me.’” As Christ dies for the sinner, if the sinner’s death is eternal misery in hell, it follows logically enough that Christ must descend into hell, as Mr. Talmage has it. But even then he falls infinitely short of meeting the case in full; for he believes the sinner is to suffer to all eternity; hence Christ, to do for him what he has him do, must suffer also himself to all eternity.