Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 6, 1859
MORTAL OR IMMORTAL? WHICH?
By Editor
OR, AN INQUIRY INTO THE PRESENT CONSTITUTION
AND FUTURE CONDITION OF MAN.
BY THE EDITOR.
(Concluded.)
But we must hasten to notice some of those scriptures which speak to us unmistakably of the sinner's doom. In entering upon this department it is not our object to multiply testimony. One plain declaration of the Lord of hosts is sufficient for implicit faith: it would not be materially strengthened though an hundred times repeated.
"The wicked shall be destroyed." "The Lord preserveth all them that love him; but all the wicked will be destroy." Here preservation is promised only to those who love God, and in opposition to this, destruction is threatened to the wicked. But human wisdom teaches us that God will preserve the wicked in hell—preserve them for the mere sake of torturing them. Mr. Benson, an English divine, says, "God is therefore present in hell to see the punishment of these rebels. His fiery indignation kindles and his incensed fury feeds the flame of their torment, while his powerful presence and operation maintain their being, and render all their powers most acutely sensible, thus setting the keenest edge upon their pain, and making it cut most intolerably deep."
The wicked shall perish. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii, 16. A double enunciation of the truth is couched in this short text. It is that eternal life is to be obtained only through Christ, and that all who do not thus obtain it, will eventually perish. John testifies further on the same point in his 1st epistle v, 11: "And this is the record: that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." From which it follows as a most natural consequence, that "he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." Verse 12.
The wicked shall go to perdition. "We are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul." Heb. x, 39. We either gain the salvation of our souls by a perseverance in faith, and obtain eternal life by a patient continuance in well-doing [Rom. ii, 7], or we sink back into perdition, which is defined to be utter ruin or destruction.
The wicked shall come to an end and be as though they had not been. "For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be." Ps. xxxvii, 10. No; there will be neither a sinner nor any place for a sinner, after God has executed upon them his just judgments. "They shall be as though they had not been." Obad. 16.
The wicked shall go down into death. "The wages of sin is death." Rom. vi, 23. "Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." Jas. i, 15. In Rom. ii, Paul tells us of certain characters which are certainly worthy, if any can be, of eternal torture; but in passing sentence upon them, does he draw out before us a picture of unending conscious misery, a course for which he has the most appropriate occasion, if it be true? Not at all: he only tells us in accordance with reason as well as revelation, that they are worthy of death. But death is a state which can be reached only on a complete extinction of life. As long as there is any life about a man, he is not dead. "The death that never dies," is a contradiction of terms. Nor can a person properly be said to be dying, unless he is tending to a state of death which he will by and by reach. And yet the popular view of this subject is well expressed in the following language of Thomas Vincent: "The torments of hell will not be in one part only, but in every part, not in a weaker degree, but in the greatest extremity; not for a day, or a month, or a year, but forever; the wicked will be always dying, never dead; the pangs of death will be ever upon them, and yet they shall never give up the ghost; if they could die they would think themselves happy; they will always be roaring and never breathe out their last; always sinking and never come to the bottom; always burning in those flames, and never consumed; the eternity of hell will be the hell of hell."
But again the Lord says, speaking of a certain class of his enemies, "For yet a little while and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction" [Isa. x, 25]: showing us conclusively that all those with whom the Lord has occasion to be angry, as he is with all the wicked [Ps. vii, 11], will be finally destroyed, and in that destruction his anger towards them will cease. Yet the majority of divines tell us that God's "fiery indignation and incensed fury" towards them will never cease; that he will never literally destroy them, but will forever torment them, and keep them alive expressly that he may torment them. Says Benson again, "He will exert all his divine attributes to make them as wretched as the capacity of their nature will admit." And he continues, "They must be perpetually swelling their enormous sums of guilt, and still running deeper, immensely deeper in debt to divine and infinite justice. Hence after the longest imaginable period, they will be so far from having discharged their debt, that they will find more due than when they first began to suffer." Thus the sinner is represented as being able to distance in sin the power of omnipotence to punish. They go on accumulating loads of guilt in their rebellion against the divine government, while God, exerting all his divine attributes, follows tardily after, in fruitless efforts to make the terrors of his punishment adequate to the infinitude of their guilt. O horrid picture of perverted imagination! Did we not believe its authors labored under the sincere conviction that they were doing God service, and did we not know that many good and estimable persons still defend the doctrine under an earnest though mistaken zeal for God, we should pronounce it the most errant blasphemy.
The wicked are compared to the most inflammable and perishable substances. Had the wicked been compared to the most durable substances with which we are acquainted in nature; had they been likened to the "everlasting hills," the during rock, or the precious metals, especially gold, the most incorruptible of all substances; such comparisons would not have been without their weight in giving us an idea of an eternity of existence; nor can we think they would have been overlooked by the other side. We therefore claim an equal significance on our side of the question for the fact that they are everywhere compared to just the opposite of the above named substances—substances the most perishable and corruptible of any that exist. For no idea can be drawn from such comparisons at all compatible with the idea of eternal preservation in the midst of glowing and devouring fire. Thus they are likened to chaff [Matt. iii, 12], stubble [Mal. iv, 1], tares [Matt. xiii, 40], withered branches, to be burned [John xv, 6], bad fish [Matt. xiii, 47, 48], and thistle-down [Isa. xvii, 3, margin].
The wicked shall be consumed and devoured by fire. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, &c. Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust! Isa. v, 20-24. Reader, have you ever seen fire devour stubble, or flame154consume chaff? Then you have seen a figure of the destruction of the wicked. And let the advocate of eternal misery tell us, if such language does not denote the utter consumption of the wicked, what language would do it, if the doctrine were true. Let us know what language Inspiration should have used, had it wished to convey such an idea. Is it such as this? "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." Ps. xxxvii, 20. "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." Rev. xx, 9. The word here rendered devour, katēphagen, says Stuart, is "intensive, to eat up, devour, so that it denotes utter excision." In the light of this scripture we can readily understand how it is that the wicked are to be recompensed in the earth. Prov. xi, 31. Coming up in the second resurrection at the end of the 1000 years of Rev. xx, 5, they come up around the New Jerusalem the beloved city, the abode of the saints, then descended from heaven to earth [chap. xxi, 5], and then their fearful retribution overtakes them. It is then that they have their portion in those purifying fires that sweep over the earth, in which, according to Peter's testimony, the elements and this great globe itself shall melt with fervent heat. 2 Pet. iii, 10, 12. For it is at the day of Judgment [by which of course we must understand the execution of the Judgment] and perdition of ungodly men, that this takes place. See verse 7. So, too, the righteous as they go forth upon the new earth [verse 12], destined to be their eternal and glorious abode, will receive their recompense in the earth. Then will be fulfilled the word of the Lord by the prophet Malachi, which says, "For 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. But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." Mark the distinctness of this language. It does not say that the wicked shall be as ashes, nor does it introduce any comparison whatever, but plainly states a plain fact, that they shall be ashes, literally, under the soles of the saints' feet.
Then will the universe be clean and pure. Then the stain of sin will all be wiped away forever; sinners, and the great enemy that deceived them (for he, too, shall be destroyed, Heb. ii, 14) being rooted out of the land of the living. Its every scar now impressed upon the handiwork of God shall be effaced; and this unfortunate earth shall be re-adorned, as only God, omnipotent in power and omniscient in wisdom, is able to adorn it. And then will arise that glad anthem of universal Jubilee, in which shall join every creature, which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, ascribing blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. Rev. v, 13. There is no room here for a great receptacle of fiery torment, where an innumerable company of human beings shall burn and blaspheme and sin and suffer forever and ever. There is no room in this great song of joy for the discordant and hopeless wailing of the damned. There is no provision made for an eternal rebellion against the government of God, and eternal blasphemy against his name. No! only the loyal subjects of the great Captain of our salvation, only such as love life, and seek for it, and prepare themselves for its inestimable blessings, shall ever enjoy the glorious boon; while those who put from themselves the word of God, and "judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life" [Acts xiii, 46] will be remanded back to the original elements from which they sprung; and strict Justice will write upon their unhonored and unlamented graves that they themselves were the arbiters of their own fate.
SUFFERING.
FROM THE GERMAN OF HARTTMAN.
TRIAL when it weighs severely
Stamps the Saviour's image clearly
On the heart of all his friends;
In the frame his hands have molded
Is a future life unfolded
Through the suffering which he sends.
Suffering curbs our wayward passions,
Childlike tempers in us fashions,
And our will to his subdues;
Thus his hand, so soft and healing,
Each disordered power and feeling
By a blessed change renews.
Suffering keeps the thoughts compacted,
That the soul be not distracted
By the world's beguiling art.
'Tis like some angelic warder
Ever keeping sacred order
In the chambers of the heart.
Suffering tunes the heart's emotion
To eternity's devotion,
And awakes a fond desire
For the land where psalms are ringing,
And with palms the martyrs singing
Sweetly to the harpers' choir.
Suffering gives our faith assurance,
Makes us patient in endurance.
Suffering! who is worth thy pains?
Here they call thee only torment—
There they call thee a preferment,
Which not every one attains.
Though in health, with powers unwasted,
And with willing hearts we hasted
To take up our Saviour's cross;
If through trial our good Master
Should refine these powers the faster,
What good Christian counts it loss?
In the depth of its distresses,
Each true heart the closer presses
To His heart with ardent love;
Ever longing, ever crying,
O, conform me to thy dying,
That I live with thee above!
RECAPITULATION.
Let us collect and note the conclusions to which the foregoing investigation has led us. We have found
1. That man was not endowed in his creation with any inherent immortal principle; that immortality and eternal existence are never predica155ted of either the soul or spirit irrespective of character.
2. That there is no inspired description of man in death, which represents him as a compound being surviving the dissolution of the body; but that the whole man is reduced to unconsciousness, and thus sleeps till the voice of Omnipotence shall bring him up again from the grave.
3. That a resurrection is affirmed of the whole race.
4. That the expressions used to describe the punishment of the wicked which then takes place; viz., the smoke of their torment ascending up forever and ever, everlasting and unquenchable fire, and a never-dying worm, were not such terms as would convey the idea of an eternity of existence to those who heard them; but on the contrary, according to the usus loquendi of the age in which they were spoken, they would denote the most utter and complete destruction of all objects to which they were applied.
5. That eternal life is suspended upon conditions, and can never be obtained except through compliance with those conditions; that incorruption and immortality are yet to be put on, but not till the resurrection [1 Cor. xv, 53, 54]; that they are to be obtained alone through Christ, and consequently that all who are out of him will never receive them, but must on the other hand "reap corruption" [Gal. vi, 8], die, be slain, be consumed, be destroyed, perish, be rooted out of the land of the living, be burnt up as withered branches, dried thorns, chaff and stubble, be ashes under the saints' feet, and reach a state which so far as their existence is concerned, will be absolutely as though they had never been.
And we hesitate not to affirm with the utmost assurance, that, in all these conclusions both reason and revelation stand fully with us.
Are you then ready to inquire how it is that the doctrine of the soul's immortality has come to be so generally received? We will tell you: It has been taken for granted! Says Bishop Tillotson, "The immortality of the soul is rather supposed or taken for granted, than expressly revealed in the Bible." "It is taken for granted" that immortality is an essential attribute of the soul, and that therefore for the Bible to affirm it would be mere tautology. But we reply, Is not immortality an essential attribute also of Jehovah? Yet the Bible has been tautological enough to plainly state this fact. And it would seem that it might have carried its "tautology" a little further, and told us as much, at least once, about the soul, if that too was immortal; for surely its immortality cannot be more essential than that of Jehovah.
FALSE IMPRESSIONS CORRECTED.
But nature everywhere revolts, we are told, against our doctrine of annihilation, and everywhere proves it false; for nothing has ever been, nor ever can be, annihilated. To which we reply, Very true; and here we would correct the impression which some seem to entertain, that we believe in any such annihilation of the wicked; or the annihilation of anything as matter. In reference to the wicked we simply affirm that they will be annihilated as living beings, the matter of which they are composed passing into other forms. The second definition of annihilate, according to Webster, is, "To destroy the form or the peculiar distinctive properties, so that the specific thing no longer exists; as, to annihilate a forest by cutting and carrying away the trees, though the timber may still exist; to annihilate a house, by demolishing the structure." Just so of the wicked: as conscious intelligent beings they are annihilated, being resolved into their original elements.
But many are ready to ask with apparent solicitude, Why preach this doctrine even if it be true? What good can result? and will not the tendency be evil? Or rather, to put it in the strong language of some, its tendency will be evil; "it will make more infidels than Tom Paine's Age of Reason; and no conversions to God will ever follow in the track of its blighting and soul-destroying influence."
We are acquainted with individuals who take this position, and who have expressed it in almost these words. But we are happy to know that such a view of the subject is an entire misapprehension; and we are still more happy to be able to correct it both from the testimony of our opponents and from our own observation. They entirely mistake the doctrine to which such charges belong. Would they but apply them to their own views, and we say it with all due deference, we apprehend they would be far nearer the truth. Concerning the tendency of the popular doctrine, the eminent Saurin at the close of one of his sermons, thus speaks:
"I sink, I sink, under the awful weight of my subject; and I declare, when I see my friends, my relations, the people of my charge,—this whole congregation, when I think that I, that you, that we all are exposed to these torments; when I see in the lukewarmness of my devotions, in the languor of my love, in the levity of my resolutions and designs, the least evidence, though it be only possible or presumptive, of my future misery, I find in the thought a mortal poison, that diffuseth itself through every period of my existence, rendering society tiresome, nourishment insipid, pleasure disgustful, and life itself a cruel bitter. I cease to wonder, that the fear of hell hath made some melancholy, others mad; that it hath disposed some to expose themselves to a living martyrdom, by fleeing from all commerce with the rest of mankind, and others to suffer the most terrible, violent torments."
Such is the effect of the doctrine of eternal misery with some, according to the confession of its own advocates. No one can say that such effects are either good or desirable. And why does it not have this effect on more? We answer, It is because the lips only mechanically assent to what the heart and reason either will not try to realize, or else do not seriously believe.
But the majority are affected by it far differently. Every better emotion of their nature revolts at the idea, and they will not accept it. They cannot believe that God is thus cruel, tyrannical, revengeful, implacable; the personification, in short, of every trait of character, which when seen in men here, we consider unmistakable marks of debasement and degradation. And believing the Bible and christianity to be identified with such teaching as this, with equal promptness they too are rejected and cast away. But here we need not enlarge. Probably no one will read these pages under whose observation some case has not come, of persons driven into skepticism, yes, driven and held there, by the popular doctrine of eternal misery.
But how with the view we have tried to present? Quite the reverse as our own observation proves. Instances have come under our immediate knowledge of persons who, when they saw the divine harmony of God's system of government, as brought to view in his word, when they saw the just and reasonable disposition which the Bible declares that he will make of all those who will persist in rebellion against him,—a disposition in which justice and mercy so beautifully blend, have been able to take that Bible and say that for the first time in their life they could believe it to be the book of God. And believing this, they have been led to turn their feet into its testimonies, and strive by obedience to its plain requirements to escape a doom which they could see to be just, and therefore knew to be certain. This has been the experience of many. Let then the impression no longer exist, and the assertion no more be made, that these views tend to irreligion and infidelity. Their fruits everywhere show just the reverse.
Can it then be wondered at that we should be solicitous to disabuse the minds of the people in this respect? Shall we not have a zeal for the Lord, and be untiring in our efforts to wipe off from the book and the character of God, the assertions which are by this doctrine cast upon it? God represents himself to his creatures by his own sweet name of Love; he declares that he is very pitiful and of tender mercy, long-suffering and slow to anger, not hasty to execute sentence against an evil work, not gratified in any manner by the death of the wicked, and not willing that any should perish; he declares that he delighteth in mercy, that he will not contend forever, neither be always wroth. And can it be that while thus representing himself to the inhabitants of earth, he was kindling fiery torture on multitudes of wretched beings in the dreary regions of hell, feeding their flame with his incensed fury, preserving and tormenting them in infinite indignation, exerting all his divine attributes to make them as wretched as the capacity of their nature would admit, and maintaining a fixed purpose to do this, through the endless ages of eternity! If not, "what a portentous error must it be!" How fearfully is his character misrepresented! What a bold and audacious libel is uttered against his holy name!
The root and trunk of all this, is the "taken-for-granted" position that the soul is immortal. But search through your Bible and see if you find it so. See if you can find the death that never dies, never-dying soul, and endless torture. If not, we ask you to reject it at once as most dangerous and destructive error. Men are thus rejecting it. The leaven is working in the public mind. Men are growing suspicious of the truth of a declaration, first uttered by a doubtful character in Eden, perpetuated thence through heathenism, and at last through the medium of the Mother of harlots, disseminated through all the veins and channels of Orthodoxy. But truth will work its way up, however deeply the rubbish may have been heaped upon it; and before the bright rising of its light, all antiquated superstitions and traditionary dogmas will be exposed in their native deformity.
CONCLUSION.
Before we take the parting hand, dear reader, if you are one whose peace is not yet made with God, allow us to second the tender entreaty which he extends to you, "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?" "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he turn from his way and live." Life and death are set before you. The Saviour bids you look unto him and live. Mercy entreats you to destroy not yourself. The Spirit and the Bride bid you come and partake of the water of life freely. You can no longer take refuge from an awakened conscience under the idea that the threatenings of the Lord are not understood, and may not therefore be so terrific as supposed. The sinner's doom is unmistakably declared; and in the justness of that sentence, however slightly you may now realize the heinousness and just desert of sin, your own reason can but heartily concur. Will you then plunge headlong to ruin? or will you turn and accept the immense gratuity of eternal life? Of course you do not mean to perish. We accuse you not of this. The shining form of Hope is dancing on before you in the path of life—hope that ere it is too late, ere the silver cord be loosed or ever the golden bowl be broken, you will make sure a treasure and inheritance in heaven. We would impress upon your mind that this hope may deceive you. Ere you reach the delusive phantom, the earth may suddenly open beneath your feet, and Hades receive you to its fixed embrace. Ere you overtake the beckoning form, ere the good intention be carried out, ere you grasp the prize, now held only by the uncertain tenure of good resolve, the glory of the coming Judge descending through the parting and dissolving heavens, may suddenly burst upon your unprepared soul. Yes! the great voice from the temple of heaven crying, "It is finished!" may suddenly arrest you in the midst of your delaying and dallying career! The heavenly court of mercy may cease its sitting, ere you have made a friend of the great Advocate who alone can plead your cause! "Procrastination is the thief of time." It may be the thief of your eternal bliss. Its every moment is high-handed and insane presumption. Its path is a path of unseen and innumerable dangers. You have no lease of your life. The present state is one of exposure and peril. The shafts of death are flying thickly about you. Time is short and its sands are swiftly falling. The bliss of heaven or the blackness of darkness forever shall soon be yours. With the saved or lost you must soon take your position. There is no intermediate ground. Choose then, we beseech you, the enduring portion. Choose for eternity, choose wisely, choose now. And may it be ours to join the great song of salvation at last, ascribing blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, unto Him who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb who hath redeemed us by his blood.
TWO ALLEGED AND FINAL DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED.
As in the ages before our existence we suffered no punishment, so it is claimed it will be no punishment to be reduced to that state again. To this we reply, that those who never had an existence cannot, of course, be conceived of in relation to rewards and punishments at all. But when a person has once seen the light of life, when he has lived long enough to taste its sweets and appreciate its blessings, is it then no punishment to be deprived of it? Is it no evil? is it no loss? Says Luther Lee, "We maintain that the simple loss of existence cannot be a penalty or punishment in the circumstances of the sinner after the general resurrection." And what are these circumstances? He comes up to the beloved city, and sees the people of God in the everlasting kingdom. Then, says the Saviour, addressing a class of sinners, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God. What is the cause of this wailing? It is not that they have to choose between annihilation or eternal torture. Had they this privilege, some might perhaps choose the former; others would not. But with eternal misery the sinner has nothing to do. That is but a thing of the imagination, and cannot enter in any wise into his account. The only conditions between which he can draw his cheerless comparisons are, the blessed and happy state of the righteous within the city of God, and his own hapless lot outside its walls. And we may well infer from the nature of the case, as well as the Saviour's language, that it is because he finds himself thus thrust out, that he lifts up his voice in lamentation and woe. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and ye yourselves thrust out! The sinner then begins to see what he has lost; the sense of it, like a barbed arrow, pierces his soul; and the thought that it might have been his but for his own self-willed and perverse career, sets the keenest edge upon every fang of remorse. And as he looks far away into eternity, to the utmost limit which the mind's eye can reach, and gets a glimpse of the inconceivable blessedness and glory which he might have enjoyed, but for his idol sin, the hopeless thought that all is lost will be sufficient to rend the hardest and most obdurate heart with unutlerable [sic] agony. Say not then that loss of existence under such circumstances is no penalty or punishment. Those who thus speak now, should it be their lot at last to try, in person, the truth of their statements, we venture to affirm would find their ideas of the subject intensely modified. At any rate, may it never be our lot, dear reader, to be brought to so fearful a test.
while some may perish in a short space of time, the weary sufferings of others may be long drawn out. But yet, we apprehend, that the bodily suffering will be but an unnoticed trifle compared with that mental agony, that keen anguish which will rack their souls as they get a view of their incomparable loss, each according to his capacity of appreciation. The youth who had but little more than reached the years of accountability and that perhaps with just enough guilt upon him to debar him from heaven, being less able to comprehend his situation and his loss, will of course feel it less. To him of older years, more capacity, and consequently a deeper experience in sin, the burden of his fate, will be proportionately greater. While the man of giant intellect, and almost boundless comprehension, who thereby possessed greater influence for evil, and hence was the more guilty for devoting those powers to that evil, being able to understand his situation fully, comprehend his fate and realize his loss, will feel it most keenly of all. Into his soul indeed the iron will enter most intolerably deep. And thus, by an established law of mind, the sufferings of each may be most accurately adjusted to the magnitude of their guilt.
But if death is the wages of sin, it is asked, when a man is once dead, why not let him remain so? Why should God raise him just to put him to death again? Does not this view make him as unjust and cruel as that which represents him as keeping sinners alive in hell for the express purpose of tormenting them? We answer, No; and for this reason: God has told us that we shall be brought to account for our own sins; but in order to this, we must have a resurrection to a future life; for the death we die here, we die in Adam and not on account of our personal transgressions. No one thinks, when death comes upon him here, that he is dying for his own sins, and that but for them he would live on. But the Bible tells us here in our lifetime that the soul that sinneth, it shall die, in addition to the death we die in Adam. We must therefore be raised from this first death to give account of ourselves to God. And he has told us that this time shall be to the sinner a time of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, a time of tribulation, distress and anguish of spirit, ending finally in death, from which no resurrection ever again will call him. We can only say therefore to this suggestion, that God will be faithful to his word.
Then, says one, the sinner will long for death as a release from his evils, and experience a sense of relief when all is over. No, friend, not even this pitiful semblance of consolation is granted you; for no such sense of relief will ever come. The words of another will best illustrate this point:
"‘But the sense of relief when death comes at last.’ We hardly need to reply: there can be no sense of relief. The light of life gone out, the expired soul can never know that it has escaped from pain. The bold transgressor may fix his thoughts upon it now, heedless of all that intervenes; but he will forget to think of it then. To waken from a troubled dream and to know that it was only a dream, is an exceeding joy; and with transport do the friends of one dying in delirium, note a gleam of returning reason, ere he breathes his last. But the soul's death knows no waking; its maddening fever ends in no sweet moment of rest. It can never feel that its woe is ended. The agony ends, not in a happy consciousness that all is past, but in eternal night,—in the blackness of darkness forever!"
Fearful scene! from a participation in which we would that all who read these pages might haste to make a timely and eternal escape.
But again: The Bible plainly teaches degrees of punishment; and how is this compatible, it is asked, with the idea of a mere state of death to which all alike will be reduced? Let us ask the believers in eternal misery how they will maintain degrees in their system. They tell us the intensity of the pain endured will be in each case proportioned to the guilt of the sufferer. But how can this be? Are not the flames of hell equally severe in all parts? and will they not equally affect all the immaterial souls cast therein? But God can interpose, it is answered, to produce the effect desired. Very well, then, we reply, cannot he also interpose, if necessary, according to our view, and graduate the pain attendant upon the sinner's being reduced to a state of death as the climax of his penalty? So then our view is equal with the common one in this respect, while it possesses a great advantage over it in another; for while that has to find its degrees of punishment in intensity of pain alone, the duration in all cases being equal, ours may have not only degrees in pain, but in duration also; for