Untitled article by M. B. Duffie

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 24, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 46.

THE BIBLE READINGS AT BREWER'S. NO. 2.

By M. B. Duffie

DURING the week Mabel had made good use of the time, and when the different members of the family, with some of the neighbors who had been invited to attend, had assembled around the little reading table in the cozy sitting room, she had her notes all ready to begin the study of the subject decided upon for that evening, namely, "The Fate of the Wicked."

"Those of you who have your Bibles," said Mabel, "will kindly turn to the fourth chapter of First Peter, and read the seventeenth verse. You see that the end of those who obey not the gospel of God is there spoken of, and that the punishment of the sinner is not to be forever and ever in conscious misery, as Mr. Bronson has always maintained in his sermons."

"So far so good," said Mr. Brewer; "but go on, Mabel, and let's have the benefit of your researches. I have noticed that you have been quite diligent in the study of the question the past week."

"Well, pa," said Mabel, "if we turn to the twenty-third verse of the sixth chapter of Romans, we will learn there that the wages of sin is death, not life in eternal misery. Webster defines the word 'death' 'to cease to live; to expire; to decease; to perish.'"

"That is no doubt the case," said Aunt Amie, as Mrs. Westmore was familiarly called, "but I have always feared, from the construction which has been placed upon the language, that the wicked would be eternally tormented, although it does almost seem an insult to the Lord to accuse him of taking delight in the never-ending anguish and misery of any of the subjects of his creation. If there is any Bible proof to the contrary, I shall be glad indeed to know it. So let us hear further upon that subject, Mabel."

Thus encouraged Mabel continued:—

"The Saviour says if we do not repent we shall perish. Let someone read Luke 13:3,5."

Mrs. Brewer read the passage in a clear voice, and, as she reverently closed the lids of the sacred volume, she was heard to soliloquize:—

"Surely the word 'perish' does not mean to continually exist."

"Now, pa," said Mabel, "it is your turn. Let us see where the wicked go after they have received their deserved measure of suffering. If you will read the twenty-fifth, twenty-eighth, and thirtieth verses of the tenth chapter of Proverbs, I think you will find that it says the wicked are to be no more, anywhere."

"That is the way it reads in my Bible, daughter," said Mr. Brewer. "There is no question in my mind as to its meaning, either, and I believe, though I have never made any pretensions to Christianity, that the Bible is true, and that it means just what it says."

"Here is another text upon the same point," said Mabel. "You will find it in the first verse of the fourth chapter of Malachi. You will see that it declares that a day is coming which shall burn up the wicked, 'root and branch.'"

"It surely does not seem as though there would be much left for the fires to feed upon, if they are to be as fully consumed as that passage would seem to indicate," said Mr. Brewer; "and how much more sensible such a view is."

"Yes, David," said Mrs. Brewer; "but does it not seem a little bit gloomy to think that our children whom we have laid away must stay all these years in the grave?"

"Perhaps it does, at first sight, Maria, but the Bible proves them to be unconscious all this time, so the passage of time to them is nothing; a thousand years to them is but as a day, a second, of time. Let us look at it in another light. Suppose, for instance, that Tom here had committed a murder, and had paid the human penalty of his crime upon the scaffold, would it not be more comforting to us to take this view of the case, that he is unconscious, awaiting the punishment of his crime till the last day, than to think he is even now being stifled, smothered, and tortured in the smoke and flames of an orthodox hell, which Brother Bronson has been using so long to scare folks into his fold."

"I never thought of that feature of it before, David, and must say that I like the Bible view the best; but does it not seem too bad that men like Brother Bronson, men who have spent so many years in the study of theology, should prove themselves so terribly ignorant as to what the Bible really does teach?"

"For my part," said Tom, "when I find that a man is inclined to take the bits in his teeth, if I may be allowed the expression, and go off on a tangent that way, so entirely at variance with the book he attempts to teach, I can never have very much confidence in him. Why isn't he just as liable to be mistaken in other points which he is teaching as truth?"

"You are right, Tom," said Willie. "That is just what I was thinking of. But we are interrupting Mabel's reading."

"It is a good thing to consider these points, boys, and we will now turn to further testimony on this point. We will find in the sixteenth of Obadiah that it says that the wicked shall be as though they had not been."

"To hunt for them, then," said Will, "would be like looking for the hole in a doughnut, after the said doughnut had been eaten up."

"Quite an apt illustration, William, my son," said Mr. Brewer.

"Now, Aunt Amie, it is your turn," said Mabel. "Please turn to the tenth verse of the thirty-seventh psalm, where it says that after a little while the wicked shall not be."

Mrs. Westmore read the text, and said:— "There can be no mistake about that, Mabel, for thus it reads, but I would like to know at what time the wicked are to be destroyed, and when."

"I think," said Mabel, "you will find an answer to that question in the ninth verse of Revelation 20, where it says that when the wicked all get together and come up around the holy city to take it, the very city which John saw coming down from heaven to this earth, God rains fire down upon them and devours them, the devil and all."

"Do you see that," said Tom, "devours them? If I devoured this apple, there wouldn't be much of it left to divide, would there, Mabel?"

"No, brother, and the wicked, as you see, do not go to their reward at death, any more than do the righteous, but are reserved unto the day of judgment, the day of the Lord, to be punished for their unrighteous acts. It is so stated in 2 Peter 2:9, and also in Job 21:30. Then, with all unrighteousness burned out of it, and everything that would offend cast out, will come to pass the glorious prophecy predicted in Rev. 5:13, when every creature in heaven and earth, as well as those under the earth and in the sea, shall proclaim blessings, honor, glory, and power to Him who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever."

"That," said Mrs. Brewer, "seems to take in the whole universe, and proves to us that the only creatures then in existence therein will be engaged in breathing blessings and praises to God, rather than reproaches and curses. Surely then must be the time referred to in Matt. 5:5, where it says that the meek shall inherit the earth. That this may be the happy lot of all present, is my prayer."

"As these texts, I think, quite fully show what becomes of all unrepentant rebels against the government of God," said Tom, "let us adjourn until next Sunday evening, with the request that Mabel prepare a reading on some other interesting theme."

"I will amend that," said Willie, "by a vote of thanks to Mabel for what we have already heard."

"All in favor say, Yes, and all opposed say, No. Carried unanimously." (To be continued.)