Review and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 15. (3/23/1916)

Review and Herald

Mar 23, 1916

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 23, 1916

The “Review”—Reasons for Loving It

By A. S. Hutchins

A. S. HUTCHINS

1. BECAUSE it is free from light, chaffy reading.

2. Because it comes to us richly laded with the truth, Bible truth, present, sanctifying, soul-saving truth. It comes reflecting the rays of heavenly light, as the peaceful waters reflect the rays of the shining sun.

3. Because it has for its object the salvation of perishing souls.

4. Because it comforts, warns, exhorts, reproves, strengthens, and encourages the children of God.

5. Because the Lord smiles approvingly upon it in its noble, worthy mission, and upon its conductors, whose hearts burn with love to him, to his cause and service.

Let us then pray for the prosperity of this weekly visitor, that God’s sustaining hand may still rest upon it and its editor, till the holy warfare in which we are engaged shall wind up in glorious triumph, and everlasting victory to the saints of the Most High.

These are days of great excitement. National calamities are upon us. Let us beware lest the heart become so much absorbed in political matters, war news, etc., as to neglect the weightier matters. To see Sabbath keepers watch more anxiously for, and read more eagerly, publications containing these exciting topics, than the REVIEW, is a bad mark.

Soldiers of Christ, look out! Satan would rather have you spend your precious time in reading and talking upon such subjects than upon heavenly things. There is an awful battle coming. The battle of the great day of God Almighty rapidly hastens on.

“The slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth.” Jeremiah 25. “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand.” “And who shall be able to stand?”—Review and Herald, June 10, 1862.

Prohibition and Cardinal Gibbons

MANY large business firms and corporations throughout the country recognize that total abstinence from intoxicating drink is a prime requisite of business efficiency. Some of them have already reached the decision that they will not regularly employ any man who is not a total abstainer. Now comes the director of public safety in the city of Philadelphia, who, according to the United Presbyterian, has issued an order in which he expresses in decisive and definite terms this same conviction. He says: “I will dismiss with all possible haste from the city employ any one attached to this department who insists on using liquor while on duty, or who comes to work partially under its influence.” This affects about seven thousand employees, and follows the action of the chief of the bureau of water, requesting that the fifteen hundred employees in his department refrain from the use of intoxicants while on duty, under pain of dismissal.

Commenting upon these orders, the North American of Philadelphia says:— “As a sign of the times, the orders are epoch-making. Sentimentality, long the only ground on which serious opposition to rum was based, has been swept aside. In its place stands the irrefutable fact that rum is uneconomic, a demoralizer, a wrecker of efficiency. On this ground, backed by science, the city officials, in common with the heads of various industrial and business firms, are taking their stand.”

In contrast with these statements are the sentiments expressed by Cardinal Gibbons in an address to a delegation of Baltimore business men regarding the present movement to obtain State-wide prohibition in Maryland. According to report, he declared himself “strongly opposed to any State-wide prohibition law, because such a law is impossible of enforcement in a city the size of Baltimore.” He felt that “a law of this kind would interfere with personal liberty, and create hypocrisy in the people.” He also felt that “the people always have indulged and always will indulge in the use of intoxicating liquors.” And finally he opposed the passage of the measure on the ground that “it would deprive the State of large revenues without accomplishing results, and that, too, in a time when both the city and the State are very much in need of the revenue produced.”

Of course these are old-time arguments, put forth by the advocates of the saloon from time immemorial. We may expect that the human race will go on sinning as long as the world stands. But that is all the more reason why the gospel evangel should put forth every effort in his power to stem the tide of iniquity, and to save men from the dire consequences of following in the ways of sin.

So far as personal liberty is concerned, the State justly accords to every citizen the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It recognizes the right of every man to carry on a legitimate business. But when one undertakes systematically to debauch the bodies and souls of his fellows, and tempts them to form habits of life which make of them paupers and criminals, a charge to the State, and a menace to the community, it is then proper that the law should interpose. License must not be confounded with liberty.

It is true that the State needs revenues to carry forward its work, but the souls of men are worth more than dollars and cents. It is better to increase the tax rate to provide directly for necessary governmental expenses, than to allow the citizens of the State to become debauched through strong drink for the sake of securing a little revenue from a nefarious business, and then tax the State in the end to support jails and prisons, infirmaries and insane asylums, for the care of criminals and imbeciles which the liquor business has created. The saloon increases State expenditure a thousand-fold more than it pays in taxes. It is a vampire, feeding on the very life blood of the nation.

Cardinal Gibbons can hardly escape the classification of being an abettor of saloon interests by his statement that when he confirms a class of young men, he requires of them “a pledge of abstinence from use of intoxicants until they become of age.” If liquor is good for a young man after he reaches his majority it is good for him during the years of adolescence.

That strong drink is one of the greatest enemies of mankind, a menace to the church of God, an enemy of society and the State, the awakened conscience of millions of people in the United States is recognizing today. With this awakening, and with the wave of reform which is sweeping over the country, it is sad to see the head of a great professed Christian church take issue against the cause of prohibition.

Note and Comment

“The Order of the Poppy”

There are many different orders of various and varying names at the present time. “The Order of the Poppy” is the characterization by a recent writer of a large group of insensible, dreamy church members. He represents this order as giving expression to the following statement of principles:—

“We say we read the Bible, but we satisfy ourselves with a short psalm. We go to church, if it is not damp. We allow the rain to settle most of our problems. We deal with our religion as if it were a bit of byplay, instead of the main question of life.—solemn, profound, and blessed.”

Branches of this order may be found in nearly every community. We wonder if it has established itself in your church or neighborhood? Are you a member of it?

Enormous Sums Spent in Present War

The English House of Commons has again voted an enormous war credit, this time amounting to over two billion dollars. This is the largest vote of credit ever made in the history of the House of Commons. The Washington Post of Feb. 22, 1916, says concerning this credit:—

“This is expected to carry the war to the end of May, bringing the total sum appropriated by means of votes of credit since the outbreak of the war to £2,082,000,000 ($10,410,000,000) — a sum, according to Mr. Asquith, ‘not only beyond precedent, but actually beyond the imagination of any financier of this or any other country.’”

In speaking of the total expenditures in the war up to the present time, the same paper says:—

“According to unofficial estimates, all belligerents in the European war have spent since the beginning of hostilities about $40,000,000,000.”

Such figures are utterly incomprehensible; and still the dreadful waste goes on.

Help for Oneself in Helping Others

A WORLDLY business man recently remarked that his wife, who had been a chronic invalid for years, had greatly improved in health since she had taken a class to teach in Sunday school and had begun to take a personal and active interest in the welfare of the members of her class. This effect was more than psychological. It is a law of spiritual life that the one who seeks to help others is himself doubly blessed. The good we seek to do returns with blessings on our own heads. This is the promise:—

“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.” Isa. 58: 6-9.

There are thousands of men and women nursing mental and physical ills, who, if they could but once look outside of themselves and obtain a view of the needs of a suffering world and reach out to help some one less fortunate than themselves, would reap the fruit of such Christian service in rich spiritual and physical blessing, which heaven would pour upon them.

We are in constant danger of becoming too selfish and too self-centered. We voice our grief in the words of the sad lament over the destruction of Jerusalem, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.” Lam. 1: 12. But even this prophet of sorrow, as he turned his eyes away from the afflictions of himself and his people, could exclaim, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.” Lam. 3: 22-25.

When we reach that place in our experience where we shall serve God because it is right to serve him; when, regardless of our feeling, we shall praise him because he is worthy of our praise; when we consider it a sin to express doubts and talk unbelief even though the clouds of darkness may threaten to submerge our souls,—then we shall see the mighty working of God in our experience; then will the Lord make true his word concerning us, and we shall see fulfilled the desires of our hearts in all needed spiritual and physical blessings.

Present Victory

By G. B. T.

VICTORY! This is the battle cry of nations; for this they pour out costly treasure, and sacrifice the best of their sons. Victory is the longing of the human heart. For this the Christian seeks and prays.

Jesus desires that we have victory over sin; not over a few sins only, but over every known sin. Anything that is wrong the Lord expects us to forsake.

When Jesus met the man in the temple whom he had healed at the pool of Bethesda, he said to him, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more.” “Sin no more.” What did the Saviour mean by these words? What should you have understood him to mean if he had spoken them to you? Should you have understood him to admonish you to taper off some of your bad habits, or that you should quit them altogether? Should you have understood him to mean that you were to make some improvement, not lose your temper so often as you once did, nor be so cross and disagreeable as you had been? Or should you have understood him to mean that you were to stop getting impatient altogether, and be kind and gentle all the time?—Why, the latter, of course. He meant that that healed man was to stop committing known sin.

Jesus is a savior “to the uttermost.” He is able to save you and me from every sin. What sin is it that Jesus cannot save us from? There is no habit, no passion of the soul, that Jesus cannot conquer. Sin brings death, but Jesus has the keys to death and hell. He triumphed over all the kingdom of darkness. He conquered the author of all sin, and spoiled all the principalities of hell. We can never meet God in the judgment with the excuse that we could not gain the victory over some known sin, for there is no sin in all the catalogue of sins that Jesus is not able to subdue. He has promised to you and me power over all the power of the enemy. The Lord has not given us any privilege to sin. Nowhere in the Bible are we given permission to do wrong.

You say, “I am a Christian, but I do not have this victory.” Well, whose fault is it? Is it your fault or God’s? Do you mean to say that he is not able to subdue your evil propensities? What passion of your soul is it from which Jesus cannot give you deliverance? Do you know of any?—Certainly not. Then the trouble is with you. You can have victory if you want it. When you are willing to give up the sin, and actually do so, you will have the victory.

But you ask, “When can I have the victory?” When?—Why, now; now, at this time. While you are reading this, it is your privilege to lay hold by faith upon the promise of God, and claim the victory over every sin the Lord has ever revealed to you. Today is the day of salvation. Salvation is for us. It is for us now, at this very moment.

But you say, “I expect sometime to gain the victory over every sin.” But when? Why not take the victory now? Why not have it this year as well as next year? Why not have the victory today as well as tomorrow? Do you know of any reason why you should not have the victory over every known sin now as well as any other time? Why do you think you can gain the victory at some future time any better than now? The suggestion that you can have the victory sometime in the future better than now is from the devil. He wants you to postpone claiming victory. The Lord wants you to lay hold of the promise now, this very day, this very hour. Why not now? You will have no better chance later on than now. All the omnipotent power of God and the blessings of heaven are within your reach now. There is nothing more than this in the future for

tempted souls. Accept victory and deliverance now, this hour; you might die the next, but you can die a victor.

But you say, “I am improving. I do not lose my temper so often as I used to do, and am not so disagreeable and cantankerous as I once was.” Perhaps not, but read this:—

“There is no safety for one who has merely a legal religion, a form of godliness. The Christian’s life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit. . . . When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of heaven. No one sees the hand that lifts the burden, or beholds the light descend from the courts above. The blessing comes when by faith the soul surrenders itself to God. Then that power which no human eye can see, creates a new being in the image of God.”

—“The Desire of Ages,” pp. 172, 173.

Making improvement is not enough; there must be “a new life altogether.” We see a man repairing his house: he puts on a new roof, strengthens the foundation, repairs the porch, and gives the whole building a fresh coat of paint. It is improved in appearance, but it is the same old house. I fear that many are satisfied with an improved appearance of the old man of sin, instead of experiencing the new birth, having “a new life altogether.” It is not enough to cease becoming as impatient as you once did, or to speak more kindly and gently than was once your habit; to be more agreeable than you used to be, or to hold in subjection the passions of your soul more completely than you once did. It is victory, full and complete, you need, so that these wicked things will die out completely. This is the blessed experience that the Lord wants to bring into your life.

G. B. T.

The Falling Stars of 1833

By L. L. C.

Signs of Christ’s Coming — No. 3

The Falling Stars of 1833

AFTER the darkening of the sun and the moon, the next sign is given in the words, “The stars shall fall from heaven.” Matt. 24:49.

The comment on this text in a book written almost a century and a half before this sign actually occurred, is very striking:—

“The last sign we shall take notice of, is that of ‘falling stars.’ ‘And the stars shall fall from heaven,’ says our Saviour. Matt. 24:29. We are sure, from the nature of the thing, that this cannot be understood either of fixed stars or planets; for if either of these should tumble from the skies and reach the earth, they would break it all in pieces, or swallow it up, as the sea does a sinking ship; and at the same time would put all the inferior universe into confusion. It is necessary, therefore, by these stars to understand either fiery meteors falling from the middle region of the air, or comets and blazing stars. No doubt there will be all sorts of fiery meteors at that time; and amongst others those which are called falling stars; which, though they are not considerable singly, yet if they were multiplied in great numbers, falling, as the prophet says, as leaves from the vine, or leaves from the fig tree, they would make an astonishing sight.”—Dr. Thomas Burnet’s “Sacred Theory of the Earth,” book 3, p. 66, third edition, 1697.

Now let us turn to history for the record of the occurrence of this phenomenon which Christ himself gave as a sign of the approach of his second advent:—

“Probably the most remarkable of all the meteoric showers that have ever occurred was that of the Leonids, on [the night following] Nov. 12, 1833. The number at some stations was estimated as high as 200,000 an hour for five or six hours. ‘The sky was as full of them as it ever is of snowflakes in a storm,’ and, as an old lady described it, looked ‘like a gigantic umbrella.’ . . .

“In 1864 Professor Newton of New Haven showed by an examination of the old records that there had been a number of great meteoric showers in November, at intervals of thirty-three or thirty-four years, and he predicted confidently a repetition of the shower on Nov. 13 or 14, 1866. The shower occurred as predicted, and was observed in Europe; and it was followed by another in 1867, which was visible in America, the meteoric swarm being extended in so long a procession as to require more than two years to cross the earth’s orbit. Neither of these showers, however, was equal to the shower of 1833.”—“Manual of Astronomy,” a textbook by Charles A. Young, Ph.D., LL.D., professor of astronomy in Princeton University, author of “The Sun,” and of a series of astronomical textbooks. Boston, U. S. A., and London: Ginn & Co., publishers. The Athenaeum Press, 1902, pp. 469–472.

In the description of this event given in Revelation we read:—

“The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Rev. 6:13.

The prophetic description was so accurate that an eyewitness, being impressed with this fact, wrote:—

“And how did they fall? . . . Were I to hunt through nature for a simile, I could not find one so apt to illustrate the appearance of the heavens as that which St. John uses in the prophecy before quoted. ‘It rained fire,’ says one. Another, ‘It was like a shower of fire.’ Another, ‘It was like the large flakes of falling snow before a coming storm, or large drops of rain before a shower.’ I admit the fitness of these for common accuracy, but they come far short of the accuracy of the figure used by the prophet. ‘The stars of heaven fell unto the earth;’ they were not sheets, or flakes, or drops of fire; but they were what the world understands by the name of ‘falling stars;’ and one speaking to his fellow in the midst of the scene, would say, ‘See how the stars fall!’ and he who heard, would not pause to correct the astronomy of the speaker, any more than he would reply, ‘The sun does not move,’ to one who should tell him, ‘The sun is rising.’ The stars fell ‘even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.’ Here is the exactness of the prophet. The falling stars did not come as if from several trees shaken, but from one: those which appeared in the east fell toward the east, those which appeared in the north fell toward the north, those which appeared in the west, fell toward the west, and those which appeared in the south (for I went out of my residence into the park) fell toward the south; and they fell, not as the ripe fruit falls. Far from it! But they flew, they were cast, like the unripe fruit, which at first refuses to leave the branch, and when it does break its hold, flies swiftly, straight off, descending; and in the multitude falling some cross the track of others, as they are thrown with more or less force. Such was the appearance of the above phenomenon to the inmates of my house. I walked into the park with two gentlemen of Pearl Street, feeling and confessing that this scene had never been figured to our minds by any book or mortal, save only by the prophet.”

—The New York Journal of Commerce, Vol. VIII, No. 534, Saturday morning, Nov. 16, 1833.

Thus not only the time of the event, but the manner of its occurrence, shows it to be the sign of Christ’s advent spoken of in the Scriptures quoted.

L. L. C.

The End of the Wicked

By W. A. S.

So soon as ever Lucifer introduced sin into heaven, it was assured, in the righteousness and omnipotence of God, that the day would come when sin would be blotted out of his perfect creation. Inspiration tells us that a time of final reckoning with sin was assured when Satan and a host of the angels with him lifted up the standard of mysterious rebellion against the law and harmony of heaven:

“The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” Jude 6.

The visitation of sin is assured. By listening to Satan’s temptation, man became involved in sin. Then a divine Saviour was provided, through whom every soul might escape from the kingdom of darkness and find salvation and life. But it is inevitable that those who refuse the way of life, and reject the salvation of God, must finally be involved with Satan and sin in the day when sin is visited.

By Adam’s sin, all his posterity inherited a sinful, dying nature. “In Adam all die,” says the scripture. But not a soul in the last day can plead Adam’s sin and the inheritance of a fallen nature. By Christ’s gift of his life for us, the sinner with all his weaknesses, may become

a partaker of the divine nature, and escape the power of the fleshly nature. By Christ’s death for all, all recover from the death they die in Adam. All have a resurrection, the unjust as well as the just; and then every one gives account to God according to his own life, and the use he has made of the light given him of God.

The Two Resurrections

The Scriptures emphasize the two resurrections. Paul, before Felix, declared his belief the same as that of the prophets,—

“That there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” Acts 24:15.

Jesus declared it in these words:—

“The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:28, 29.

The first resurrection is that of the just, at Christ’s second coming. It is written of this:—

“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” Rev. 20:6.

At Christ’s coming, the righteous return with him to heaven, for the thousand years. The wicked living at the time of his coming, are slain by the consuming glory of his presence; and they, with all the unjust of all the ages, await in the grave the second resurrection, at the end of the thousand years:—

“The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Rev. 20:5.

At the end of the thousand years, the city of God, with the saved, comes down out of heaven upon the earth. The wicked are raised in the second resurrection. Under Satan’s leadership they march up to attack the city of God. How naturally, we infer, may Satan persuade the lost that after all he was right when he declared to Adam, “Ye shall not surely die.” Here are all the lost of all the ages—living. Why may they not be immortal, beyond the power of God to destroy? The old battle that began in heaven is on again. Satan, the archrebel, marshals his hosts of fallen angels, and the myriads of fallen men, his legions stretching wide over the earth.

“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.” Rev. 20:9.

“This is the second death,” says the scripture. Verse 14. The great day has come when sin is to be visited and destroyed.

The Punishment Everlasting

“The wages of sin is death.” And the second death is everlasting. There is no resurrection from this death. The Scriptures describe it in terms that affirm utter destruction, non-existence.

“Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” 2 Thess. 1:9.

“Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Mal. 4:1.

“They shall be ashes,” the third verse of this chapter says. Every expression that is possible to language is employed to denote utter destruction, everlasting death. That means nonexistence. Sin and sinners are blotted out. The prophet Obadiah, speaking at the visitation upon the heathen, the unbelieving, in “the day of the Lord,” says:—

“They shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.” Verse 16.

This is the utter end of sin and all sinners, and of the author of sin. Root and branch they are gone, “as though they had not been.” All this is in the description of the last judgment, so fully set forth in the twentieth of Revelation. “Death and hell [hades, the grave] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Rev. 20:14. Death and the prison house of death are gone forever. Sin is wiped out of a perfect universe, and not even a trace will remain of the place of the fiery judgment.

“Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.” Ps. 37:10.

The fires of the last day purify the earth, which is renewed in Eden-like beauty. In the whole universe of God, there is no sin, no sinner, but all is harmonious again, as before sin entered. The prophet was given a view of this glorious consummation, and the triumph of the Son of God over sin:—

“Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Rev. 5:13.

Some Questions Briefly Considered

The doctrine of the immortality, the indestructibility, of the soul, is responsible for the traditional view that the wicked are kept alive in unending misery through all eternity. How different this picture from that which Holy Scripture gives of the second death, terrible and awful, but resulting in the utter destruction of sin and sinners, leaving a clean universe. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul came in from pagan philosophy. Herodotus, “the father of history,” said:—

“The Egyptians . . . were also the first to broach the opinion that the soul of man is immortal.”—Book 2, par. 123. ( Everyman’s Library edition. )

Evidently, they passed on the doctrine to the Greeks. Its origin was in the words of Satan in Eden, “Ye shall not surely die.” The pagans had their teaching of purgatory, and of the ceaseless torture of condemned souls. From these sources, and not from the Word of God, the traditional view has come into Christendom—representing the Lord as unable or unwilling to end sin, but keeping the sinner alive throughout eternity to suffer torture that can bring no remedy. The Scripture teaching is far otherwise. However, granting that the soul is immortal, there are certain Scripture phrases that emphasize the severity of the punishment of sin, which are often taken as supporting the doctrine of never-ending conscious torment.

1. “Forever and Ever.”

In Rev. 20:10 it is said that the devil and his chief agencies “shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.” The phrase emphasizes the surety of their utter destruction. “Forever” means age-lasting, or life-lasting—so long as a thing exists by its nature. Thus, in Ex. 21:6 the servant who loved his master and did not wish to leave his service, was to have his ear pierced, “and he shall serve him forever,”—that is, without release as long as he lives. So the fiery judgment of that last day holds the wicked until life ends; there is no release until life is consumed.

2. “Everlasting Punishment.”

“These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” Matt. 25:46. It is everlasting punishment, not everlasting punishing. The punishment is everlasting death—“who shall be punished with everlasting destruction.” 2 Thess. 1:9. The truth of the utter destruction of sinners is awful enough, but it commends itself to every thought of justice and mercy; for sin must be cleansed from a perfect universe. But the unscriptural view of everlasting conscious torment that never reaches the point of full punishment is unthinkable. Yet it is urged as a doctrine, and contended for as vital. The following description is taken from a book written for children, entitled “The Sight of Hell.” It is printed in Dublin—for children:—

“Little child, if you go to hell, there will be a devil at your side to strike you. He will go on striking you every day, forever and ever, without ever stopping. The first stroke will make your body as bad as Job’s, covered from head to foot with sores and ulcers. The second stroke will make your body twice as bad as the bodyof Job. . . . How then will your body be after the devil has been striking it every moment for a hundred million of years without stopping?”—Quoted in the London “Present Truth,” April 30, 1914.

What a relief to turn from this to the Bible doctrine of the “everlasting destruction,” of the second death, terrible though it be!

3. “Everlasting Fire,” “Eternal Fire,” “Unquenchable Fire.”

All these expressions are used in describing the fiery judgment upon sin and sinners. The effect of the fire is everlasting and eternal, and by a common usage in language the adjective that describes the effect is applied to the agent by which the effect is wrought. A specific example of everlasting fire in the punishment of evil is given in Scripture. Sodom and Gomorrah, the wicked “cities of the plain,” were destroyed by a rain of fire from heaven. These cities, Inspiration says, “are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Jude 7. The fire was everlasting, eternal, in its effect. The cities of the plain were everlastingly consumed. But the fire went out when the destruction was complete. It is not smoking still. Unquenchable fire is fire that cannot be quenched. It consumes utterly, until nothing is left; then it goes out of its own accord.

4. “Where Their Worm Dieth Not.”

Jesus warned of the certain destruction of sin and sinners in the fire of Gehenna; for this is the word translated “hell” in Mark 9:43. Hades, often translated “hell,” is the grave, not the place of punishment. Gehenna, here used of the place of punishment, was the name of the valley where the refuse of Jerusalem was cast for burning. The map of Jerusalem, in any ordinary Bible with maps, shows just outside the southern wall a gorge marked “Valley of Hinnom” (Gehenna). Here the smoldering fires consumed the refuse, and the worms and the fire utterly destroyed the carcasses of beasts flung into the place of destruction. The use of this illustration, instead of arguing that the wicked are never destroyed but always live, would convey to the minds of the people of the time the exactly opposite idea. What went into Gehenna was utterly consumed, and nothing left. This was used by Christ as a figure illustrative of the utter destruction of the unrepentant sinner in the day of visitation.

This must suffice. The positive teaching of Holy Scripture is that sin and sinners will be blotted out of existence. There will be a clean universe again when the great controversy between Christ and Satan is ended. Death itself and the grave are cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 21:14), symbol of the removal of every mark of the curse. “And there shall be no more curse.” W. A. S.

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