Review and Herald, Vol. 33, No. 25.
THE GEHENNA OF FIRE, THE NEW EARTH, AND THE SABBATHPage 1
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 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. These are the last words of Isaiah. He brings to our view the everlasting inheritance of the saints in the new earth. He also sets before us the terrible punishment of the wicked in the lake of fire. Our Lord makes use of this very passage in his most awful description of the final wrath upon the wicked. He thrice utters these dreadful words in the space of six verses. “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: for it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Mark ix, 43–48. The word hell as here used by our Lord, is in the Greek, gehenna. We therefore understand that the words of Isaiah respecting the punishment of the wicked, are to be fulfilled in what our Lord calls gehenna. The place where “their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,” is the gehenna of fire so many times spoken of by Christ. We are therefore interested to read his testimony respecting this place of retribution. Besides the passage from Mark just quoted, we read of it as follows: (the word hell in these texts is from gehenna.) Matt. v, 22: “And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” Matt. v, 29: “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” Matt. v, 30: “And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” Matt. x, 28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matt. xviii, 8, 9: “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee; it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands, or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” Matt. xxiii, 15: “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” Matt. xxiii, 33: “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell.” Luke xii, 4, 5: “And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him.” James iii, 6: “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” The word gehenna is therefore used twelve times in the New Testament; eleven times by Christ, and once by the apostle James. It is a place of fire in the most emphatic sense of that word. Matt. xviii, 8, 9, clearly identifies the fire of gehenna with the everlasting or eternal fire several times named in the Bible. What verse 8 calls everlasting fire, verse 9 calls the fire of gehenna. And this same fact may be seen by comparing the words of Jesus in Mark ix, 43–48 with Matt. xviii, 8, 9, both of which texts are quoted above. We therefore ascertain that the fire of gehenna is identical with the everlasting fire of the following texts: Isa. xxxiii, 14: “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” Matt. xviii, 8, 9: “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee; it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” Matt. xxv, 41: “Then shall he say also unto them on his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels.” Jude 7: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” How instructive is this comparison of one passage with another! The fire of Isa. lxvi, 24, is the fire of gehenna so vividly set forth in the discourses of the Son of God. And he identifies this fire of gehenna with the “everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.” The Bible speaks more than once or twice of that fire which shall be the portion of the first enemies of God; yea, the portion of THE KING of all evildoers, the covering cherub, once called Lucifer or “the bright star,” now known as Satan, or the adversary. When it is said of the wicked that “the fire of thine enemies shall devour them,” it seems to be an express reference to the fact that they shall be punished in the fire originally prepared for the Devil and his angels. And when we read of a place “ordained of old,” “deep and large,” which shall be kindled by “the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,” and that the original design of this is for THE KING, we cannot doubt that this KING is the angel of the bottomless pit. Certainly Ezekiel’s reference to the covering cherub that should be devoured in the fire, must be understood of Satan, who with his angels shall share with the wicked in the everlasting fire. And John expressly names him as having his punishment in the lake of fire. But here are these most remarkable passages: Isa. xxvi, 10, 11: “Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see; but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, THE FIRE OF THINE ENEMIES SHALL DEVOUR THEM.” Isa. xxx, 33: “For tophet is ordained of old; yea, FOR THE KING IT IS PREPARED; he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.” Eze. xxviii, 11–19: “Moreover the word of the194Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering: the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold; the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness; I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore WILL I BRING FORTH A FIRE FROM THE MIDST OF THEE, IT SHALL DEVOUR THEE, AND I WILL BRING THEE TO ASHES UPON THE EARTH in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee; thou shalt be a terror, AND NEVER SHALT THOU BE ANY MORE.” Matt. xxv, 41. “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, PREPARED FOR THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS.” Rev. xx, 7–10. “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 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. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Thus we ascertain that the fire of gehenna which our Lord makes to be the portion of all evil doers, is identical with the lake of fire. For this fire of gehenna is the everlasting fire in which Satan shall be punished, and the place of his punishment is here expressly named as the lake of fire. Here are the other texts which use this term, “lake of fire,” or “lake of fire and brimstone,” or the “lake of fire burning with brimstone.” Rev. xix, 20. “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” 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 this terrible gehenna of fire is the place where the second death is inflicted. It is said to be a fire burning with brimstone. The following are the remaining scriptures in which this terrible element is mentioned as entering into the punishment of the wicked: Job. xviii, 14, 15: “His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors. It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his; brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.” Ps. xi, 5, 6: “The Lord trieth the righteous; but the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup.” 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.” Eze. xxxviii, 22: “And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his lands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” Luke xvii, 29, 30: “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” Rev. xiv, 9–11: “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 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; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” We learn several important facts from these scriptures. The punishment of the wicked with fire and brimstone shall be in the great day of God, and shall be after the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, and is to be inflicted in the presence of Christ and the holy angels. The texts already quoted sufficiently establish the fact that the punishment of the wicked is to be after the example of Sodom and Gomorrah. Luke xvii, 29, 30; Jude 7. But the following is still more to the point: 2 Peter ii, 6: “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.” That they are to be tormented with fire and brimstone in the great day of retribution, and that this shall be rained upon them, and that they shall suffer this torment in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb, is sufficiently explained by the testimony of the following passage: Rev. xx, 7: “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.” So, then, it is certain that in the closing events of the great day of Judgment, the city of God having descended upon our earth, and the 1000 years being ended, and Satan being loosed for his last work, and the resurrection of the unjust to damnation, having taken place (John v, 28, 29; Acts xxiv, 14; Rev. xx, 6, 6), the great Adversary gathers all his forces for a final assault upon Christ, the angels, and the saints. Isa. liv, 15–17. The whole human family are now, for the first time, gathered in one vast assembly. All the righteous are within the city with Christ and the holy angels. All the wicked surround the city on the outside of its walls, and with them is the Devil and his angels. They will recognize Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God, and realize that they themselves are forever excluded therefrom. Luke xiii, 28; Matt. viii, 11. They will doubtless also recognize generation by generation, the righteous that they have known and persecuted, or at least refused to regard and obey as the messengers of truth and salvation. Wisdom of Solomon v, 1–5. “Then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him, and made no account of his labors. When they see it, they shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation, so far beyond all that they looked for. And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit shall say within themselves: This was he, whom we had sometimes in derision, and a proverb of reproach; we fools accounted his life madness, and his end to be without honor; how is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints?” The moment has at last arrived for the fire from God out of Heaven to fall upon the wicked after the example of Sodom and Gomorrah. The fire of gehenna is a fire that is rained upon the vast host of evil-doers. The elements themselves melt; the earth is dissolved by the devouring fire, and Satan and his innumerable company of transgressors find themselves in the midst of a lake of devouring fire. How terrible the place! This, as we have traced the subject through the Bible, is the gehenna of fire, where Isaiah’s awful words shall have their accomplishment. The punishment of the wicked shall be in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And here we find it inflicted in the full view of all who are within or upon the walls of the city of God. Indeed that city seems to be located upon a place prepared for it upon the earth, for the very purpose that when the wicked are cast off the righteous may see it. Ps. xxxvii, 20, 34; See Zech. xiv, 4, 5. This terrible gehenna of fire claims our particular attention. We have found it to be the great lake of fire which shall be constituted by the burning of our earth, when the fire from God out of Heaven shall unite with the fire in the interior of the earth, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Compare Deut. xxxii, 22; Isa. xxxiv, 9, 10; Mal. iv, 1; 2 Peter iii, 7–13. But especially do we find the locality of the punishment of the wicked. It is in the presence of those within the city. Here shall be their torment. Here the fire shall devour them. Rev. xiv, 10; xx, 9. The derivation of the term gehenna will be found peculiarly instructive. Thus the New American Cyclopedia says: “Gehenna (Heb. Ghe-Hinnom, the vale of Hinnom), a valley adjacent to Jerusalem, on the south and south west, also called tophet, and often mentioned in Scripture in connection with the idolatrous rites of Moloch, which were there celebrated. From the abhorrence with which the Jews after the captivity regarded this worship, the valley was made the common sewer of the city, and a receptacle for all its refuse, which was there consumed by fire. In the New Testament the name is transferred by an easy metaphor to hell.” The Lexicon of Schrevelius speaks thus: “Gehenna, the place of future punishment, hell. Heb., Eng., valley of Hinnom.” The Lexicon of Liddell and Scott says of this word: “Gehenna, prop. the valley of Hinnom, from Hebrew: a beautiful valley near Jerusalem, where children had been sacrificed to Moloch; afterwards held in abomination, and used as a place to cast carcasses of animals and malefactors, which were consumed by fire constantly kept up.” Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible says thus: “Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom or of the son [of Hinnom] or children of Hinnom, a deep narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem where after the introduction of the worship of the fire-gods of Ahaz, the idolatrous Jews offered their children to Moloch.” 2 Chron. xxviii, 3; xxxiii, 6; Jer. vii, 31; xix, 2–6. The Lexicon of Greenfield gives the same origin to the word. Thus it says: “Gehenna, properly the valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem, once celebrated for the horrid worship of Moloch, and afterwards polluted with every species of filth, as well as the carcasses of animals, and dead bodies of malefactors; to consume which, in order to avert the pestilence which such a mass of corruption would occasion, constant fires were kept burning.” Dr. George Campbell in his Preliminary Dissertations to the Gospels, Dissertation vi, Part ii, says thus: “That gehenna is employed in the New Testament to denote the place of future punishment prepared for the Devil and his angels, is indisputable. . . . It is originally a compound of the two Hebrew words Ge Hinnom, the valley of Hinnom, a place near Jerusalem, of which we hear first in the book of Joshua. It was there that cruel sacrifices of children were made by fire to Moloch the Ammonitish idol.” A further proof that this is the proper derivation of the word is found in the manner that the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament in common use in apostolic times, renders Ge Hinnom in Josh. xviii, 16. In that195version it is translated Gai-Ennom in some copies, in others, Gaienna; hence, says Dr. Campbell, its name gehenna in the New Testament. Dr. Bloomfield in his notes to the Greek Testament, speaks as follows: “Gehenna is formed from the Hebrew Ge Hinnom (the valley of Hinnom) a place south of Jerusalem, called Gaienna at Josh. xviii, 16, [in the Septuagint,] and probably a deep dell; pharax as it is rendered at Josh. xv, 8, where formerly children had been sacrificed by fire to Moloch; and which long afterwards was held in such abomination, that the carcasses of animals, and dead bodies of malefactors, were thrown into it; which in so hot a climate, needing to be consumed by fire which was kept constantly up, it obtained the name gehenna to purous [i. e., gehenna of fire]. Both from its former and its present use, it was no unfit emblem of the place of torment reserved for the wicked, and might well supply the term to denote it.” In speaking of the punishment of Satan, Isa. xxx, 33, was quoted, which speaks of tophet as “ORDAINED OF OLD;” and which is “PREPARED” for “THE KING,” and which concludes with the remarkable statement that the fire therein is to be kindled by the breath of the Lord as “a stream of brimstone.” Now it is a remarkable fact that tophet and gehenna are but two names for the same place; or, perhaps, tophet should be considered as included in gehenna, and forming only a part of that valley of crime and awful wickedness. That tophet was situated in this valley of Hinnom the Scriptures plainly testify. Thus Jeremiah in speaking of the sins of Judah says: Jer. vii, 31: “And they have built the high places of tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.” Of Josiah, the good king, we read, 2 Kings xxiii, 10: “And he defiled tophet, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Moloch.” These texts are sufficient as to the location of tophet in the valley of Hinnom. The other passages which speak of this place of dreadful crime, and terrible retribution, are the following: Isa. xxx, 33; Jer. vii, 32; xix; xxxii, 35. Gesenius in his Hebrew Lexicon says of tophet that it is the “proper name of a place in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, noted for the human sacrifices there offered to Moloch. . . . The high places of tophet [were] the artificial mounds, tumuli, on which those sacrifices were offered.” Of the image of this god, and of the worship offered to him in gehenna or tophet he says: “According to the Rabbins, its statue was of brass, with the members of the human body, but the head of an ox; it was hollow within, was heated from below, and the children to be immolated were placed in its arms, while drums were beaten to drown their cries.” See also Cruden, unabridged, on tophet. These testimonies relative to the derivation of the term gehenna, and to its identity with tophet are of interest to us. They show that this was a place of cruelty, of wickedness, and of idolatry, such as the world has hardly seen elsewhere at all. And finally they teach us that it became a place of filth, and of the dead bodies of animals, and of malefactors, and that to devour this, fires were kept constantly burning. Our Lord makes use of this term gehenna as a proper designation of that place where the wicked shall meet their dreadful retribution. We have found that the last verse of Isaiah is to be fulfilled in what our Lord calls the gehenna of fire. We have ascertained that this fire of gehenna is the everlasting fire in which Satan and his angels are to be punished. We have ascertained that this fire shall be rained upon the wicked, with Satan at their head, at the end of the 1000 years; that it will descend as a shower of fire and brimstone after the example of Sodom, and thus form a great lake of fire and brimstone. God did this very thing to Sodom, and has threatened to do it to all wicked men. Thus we are able to ascertain with certainty that the terrible threatening of Isa. lxvi, 24, is to have its fulfillment in the great lake of fire at the end of the 1000 years. And now observe the significance of this term gehenna. It stands identified as the place of future punishment with the lake of fire and brimstone that shall devour the ungodly. The name is derived from a place, wicked beyond all comparison; a place for horrid cruelty that must have given immense satisfaction to the great murderer (John viii, 44) and for the revolting worship of Moloch (or Molech) especially grateful to Satan, as men would place their helpless infants in the arms of this brazen statue heated with intense fire, and there consume them in sacrifice to this god of malignity. Such was the inherent love of wickedness and wrong, that men would forsake the temple of that God whose very name and nature is love, and repair to this place of abominable idolatry and crime, so monstrous as to be almost without a parallel. That they might pollute the house of God, the very same day that they thus burned their children to Moloch they presented themselves in the temple of God. And it would seem that they chose the Sabbath for this. Eze. xxiii, 38, 39. How Satan triumphed in tophet or gehenna in his warfare upon the cause of Christ, and against the government of God. But let him not exult too confidently. Tophet is “ordained of old” as the very place of his final overthrow and of his awful retribution. He and his vast host of sinful men and angels shall meet their retribution, not indeed on the outside of old Jerusalem, but without the walls of the new. And thus gehenna, or tophet, may be literally the very spot where Satan and the leaders of that immense throng of ungodly beings shall stand when the fire comes down from God out of Heaven upon them. And thus though tophet or gehenna of old may not be large enough to receive the vast body of the wicked, it may be the grand central point outside the city of God, where Satan’s punishment shall be inflicted, and indeed with him an immense number of others; and from this the whole lake of fire containing the countless host of the wicked shall fitly bear the name of the fire of gehenna. At all events the gehenna of our Lord is identified with John’s lake of fire and brimstone, and who can say that it is not identified in these particular features also? None but God can cast into this gehenna of fire. This important fact is clearly set forth by Christ. “But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear; Fear him which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.” Luke xii, 5. The casting into gehenna then, is something which is in the power of God only. And this is rendered still more emphatic by the previous verse. “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.” It is certain that the burning of a dead body in the valley of Hinnom was entirely possible to wicked men. They might even kill Christ’s disciples, and afterward burn their dead bodies in that receptacle of matter, that was to be consumed in the ever-burning fire. But the casting into gehenna of which our Lord gives us warning, is an act which is in the power of God alone. That God alone can cast men into the fire of gehenna, is further indicated by the fact, that this fire has been shown to be identical with that which shall come down from God out of Heaven, to devour the wicked. Rev. xx, 9. This devouring fire, the God of Heaven will rain upon every wicked man. Ps. xi, 6. It is his prerogative to say who shall experience its terrible effects. But the fact that God alone can cast men into gehenna, is shown still further, in what the Bible says relative to the time of this event, and the condition of the wicked when cast therein. The time of this event is very plainly marked. Our Lord’s language plainly implies that it is not during the present life. “After he hath killed, hath power to cast into gehenna.” We have learned from Matt. xviii, 8, 9, that the fire of gehenna, is the everlasting fire which the wicked shall be cast into. And from Matt. xxv, 41, that the wicked enter this fire of gehenna, or everlasting fire, after the sentence of the Judge at the last day. And from Rev. xx, 9, 10, which is identified with Matt. xxv, 41, by the fact that the Devil is to have his portion in the fire which these texts threaten, we learn not only that the fire of gehenna is prepared for the Devil, but, that it shall not be inflicted till the closing events of the day of Judgment, i. e., till the end of the 1000 years, when Satan and all the wicked shall be cast into it. Surely none but God can cast into gehenna. And here one further remark may be offered, concerning this as the place of Satan’s punishment. We have seen that tophet in Isa. xxx, 33, is identical with that gehenna of fire which our Lord so solemnly threatens. We have further seen, that this fire of gehenna, is that everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. Tophet and gehenna are the same. One of them is the lake of fire and brimstone prepared for the Devil and his angels. The other “is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.” Surely there can be no reasonable doubt that what is set forth in the one text as prepared for the Devil, and in the other as ordained of old and prepared for THE KING, relate to one place, one personage, and one fire. Some have thought this to be fulfilled in the destruction of the army of the king of Assyria. But there is first, no evidence that his army perished in that valley, and second, there is direct evidence that the king himself returned to his own land and died there. 2 Kings xix, 7, 36, 37. Nor does it appear from the careful study of 2 Kings xviii; xix; 2 Chron. xxxii; Isa. xxxvii, that the Assyrian army was near Jerusalem at the time that the angel slew 185,000 men, but rather with the king of Assyria at Libnah. So this cannot be the fulfillment of Isa. xxx, 33. The tophet or gehenna near old Jerusalem, may be considered as bearing the same relation to the gehenna of fire, or the tophet ordained of old and prepared for the king, that old Jerusalem itself, with its mount Zion, sustains to the new Jerusalem, and to the Zion connected therewith. Heb. xii, 22. “PRAY WITHOUT CEASING.”
By The Pupil
Pray when morning light is breaking,—
Pray when shines the mid-day sun;
When of God's rich gifts partaking,
And when labor's task is done.
Pray,—pray,—
The livelong day.
Keep thy heart in frame to pray. 'Tis not gloomy,—'twill not sadden
Either heart,—or face,—or eyes;
But 'twill every station gladden
With a light brought from the skies.
Pray,—pray,—
The livelong day,
Keep thy heart in frame to pray. Then no anger,—then no malice,
E'er shall in thy heart abide;
Let thy home be cot, or palace,—
Fertile plain, or mountain side.
Pray,—pray,—
The livelong day,
Keep thy heart in frame to pray. Will ye do it? Will ye render
To the High and Mighty One,
All the gifts that ye can tender,—
Hearts redeemed by his dear Son?
Pray,—pray,—
The livelong day,
Keep thy heart in frame to pray. “THEY HAVE THEIR REWARD.”
By Dudley Marvin Canright
Of certain men who prayed to be seen of men, and who gave alms to be seen of men, Christ said, “They have their reward,” “ye have no reward of your Father which is in Heaven.” Their object was to have men think them very pious, and very benevolent. This was what they prayed for, what they gave alms for, and they gained their object. They received just what they sought—the praise of men. Now, says Christ, they will have no other reward. They may have given thousands of dollars to the poor, yet in the Judgment no reward will be allowed for it, for they received their reward for it at the time they gave it. They have no treasure in Heaven. For some time these words have made a strong impression on my mind. They teach us that we may do good things, and make great sacrifices, and yet, if they are not made with the right motive, we shall receive no reward for them in Heaven. All that we do, should be done with a spirit of sacrifice, and to please God. I greatly fear that many of us who preach the gospel, will never receive any reward in the kingdom of God, for all our toil and sacrifices. If we preach, and pray, and write, to be thought well of by our fellow-men, or if we do it for the pay we get, verily we have our reward—we receive just what we work for. The farmer works long and hard for his crop of grain. When he gets it he receives what he labored for. He expects no other reward for his toil. So the lawyer and the doctor toil hard, early and late, with wearisome work to help others. But what is it all for? For the pay. This they get. This is their reward. They never dream of being rewarded for their work in Heaven. They have their reward now. Why not the same with the ministers, if they labor for the same object—the pay? If they get this, if they live as well, if they make money as fast, and lay up as much as other men, of other callings, why should they expect any reward in heaven for their labor? May God help us so to live, and so to labor, that we may not lose our reward in the kingdom of God.