of eternal fire" in the sense that their condemnation at the judgment will be a continuation of that begun in the time of Lot (see Mat. 10:15-"It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city").

(c) If, when used to describe the future punishment of the wicked, they do not declare the endlessness of that punishment, there are no words in the Greek language which could express that meaning.

C. F. Wright, Relation of Death to Probation: "The Bible writers speak of eternity in terms of time, and make the impression more vivid by reduplicating the longest time-words they had [e. g., eis toùs aiŵras tor alúrov➡ unto the ages of the ages']. Plato contrasts xpóvos and alwr, as we do time and eternity, and Aristotle says that eternity [air] belongs to God. . . . . The Scriptures have taught the doctrine of eternal punishment as clearly as their general style allows." The destiny of lost men is bound up with the destiny of evil angels in Mat, 25:41 -"Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels." If the latter are hopelessly lost, then the former are hopelessly lost also.

....

(d) In the great majority of Scripture passages where they occur, they have unmistakably the signification "everlasting." They are used to express the eternal duration of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Rom. 16:26; 1 Tim. 1:17; Heb. 9:14; Rev. 1:18); the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit with all true believers (John 14:17); and the endlessness of the future happiness of the saints (Mat. 19:29; John 6:54, 58; 2 Cor. 9:9).

Rom. 16:26—" the commandment of the eternal God"; 1 Tim. 1:17- -"Now unto the King eternal, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever "; Heb. 9:14-"the eternal Spirit"; Rev. 1:17, 18-"I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore"; John 14:16, 17" And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth"; Mat. 19: 29-"every one that hath left houses, or brethren, or sisters . . . . for my name's sake, shall receive

a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life"; John 6:54, 58" He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. ... he that eateth this bread shall live for ever "; 2 Cor. 9:9" His righteousness abideth for ever"; cf. Dan. 7: 18-"But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever."

Everlasting punishment is sometimes said to be the punishment which takes place in, and belongs to, an alov, with no reference to duration. But President Woolsey declares, on the other hand, that" alórios cannot denote pertaining to an air, or world period.'" The punishment of the wicked cannot cease, any more than Christ can cease to live, or the Holy Spirit to abide with believers; for all these are described in the same terms; "alúrios is used in the N. T. 66 times,- 51 times of the happiness of the righteous, 2 times of the duration of God and his glory, 6 times where there is no doubt as to its meaning 'eternal,' 7 times of the punishment of the wicked; aior is used 95 times,- 55 times of unlimited duration, 31 times of duration that has limits, 9 times to denote the duration of future punishment." See Joseph Angus, in Expositor, Oct. 1887:274–286.

(e) The fact that the same word is used in Mat. 25:46 to describe both the sufferings of the wicked and the happiness of the righteous shows that the misery of the lost is eternal, in the same sense as the life of God or the blessedness of the saved.

Mat. 25: 46-"And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life." On this passage see Meyer: "The absolute idea of eternity, in respect to the punishments of hell, is not to be set aside, either by an appeal to the popular use of aiários, or by an appeal to the figurative term 'fire'; to the incompatibility of the idea of the eternal with that of moral evil and its punishment, or to the warning design of the representation; but it stands fast exegetically, by means of the contrasted Sony alúvior, which signifies the endiess Messianic life."

(f) Other descriptions of the condemnation and suffering of the lost, excluding, as they do, all hope of repentance or forgiveness, render it cer

tain that aiúv and aióvoc, in the passages referred to, describe a punishment that is without end.

Mat. 12: 31, 32-"Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shal! not be forgiven. it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come "; 25: 10-"and the door was shut"; Mark 3: 29-"whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"; 9: 43, 48-"to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.... where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched "—not the dying worm but the undying worm; not the fire that is quenched, but the fire that is unquenchable; Luke 3:17-"the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire"; 16: 26-"between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us "; John 3: 36-" he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."

Review of Farrar's Eternal Hope, in Bib. Sac., Oct. 1878:782-The original meaning of the English word 'hell' and 'damn' was precisely that of the Greek words for which they stand. Their present meaning is widely different, but from what did it arise? It arose from the connotation imposed upon these words by the impression the Scriptures made on the popular mind. The present meaning of these words is involved in the Scripture, and cannot be removed by any mechanical process. Change the words, and in a few years 'judge' will have in the Bible the same force that damn' bas at present. In fact, the words were not mistranslated, but the connotation of which Dr. Farrar complains has come upon them since, and that through the Scriptures. This proves what the general impression of Scripture upon the mind is, and shows how far Dr. Farrar has gone astray."

(g) While, therefore, we grant that we do not know the nature of eternity, or its relation to time, we maintain that the Scripture representations of future punishment forbid both the hypothesis of annihilation, and the hypothesis that suffering will end in restoration. Whatever eternity may be, Scripture renders it certain that after death there is no forgive

ness.

We regard the argument against endless punishment drawn from air and aiúries as a purely verbal one which does not touch the heart of the question at issue. We append several utterances of its advocates. The Christian Union: "Eternal punishment is punishment in eternity, not throughout eternity; as temporal punishment is punishment in time, not throughout time." Westcott: "Eternal life is not an endless duration of being in time, but being of which time is not a measure. We have indeed no powers to grasp the idea except through forms and images of sense. These must be used, but we must not transfer them to realities of another order."

Farrar holds that aidos, 'everlasting', which occurs but twice in the N. T. (Rom. 1:20 and Jude 6), is not a synonym of airios, 'eternal', but the direct antithesis of it; the former being the unrealizable conception of endless time, and the latter referring to a state from which our imperfect human conception of time is absolutely excluded. Whiton, Gloria Patri, 145, claims that the perpetual immanence of God in conscience makes recovery possible after death; yet he speaks of the possibility that in the incorrigible sinner conscience may become extinct. To all these views we may reply with Schaff, Ch. History, 2:66-"After the general judgment we have nothing revealed but the boundless prospect of æonian life and æonian death. . . . . Everlasting punishment of the wicked always was and always will be the orthodox theory."

For the view that alov and airios are used in a limited sense, see De Quincey, Theological Essays, 1:126-146; Maurice, Essays, 436; Stanley, Life and Letters, 1 : 485–488; Farrar, Eternal Hope, 200; Smyth, Orthodox Theology of To-day, 118-123; Chambers, Life after Death; Whiton, Is Eternal Punishment Endless? For the common orthodox view, see Fisher and Tyler, in New Englander, March, 1878; Gould, in Bib. Sac., 1880: 212-248; Princeton Review, 1873:620; Shedd, Doctrine of Endless Punishment, 12-117; Broadus, Com. on Mat. 25:45.

D. This everlasting punishment of the wicked is not inconsistent with God's justice, but is rather a revelation of that justice.

(a) We have seen in our discussion of Penalty (pages 652-656) that its object is neither reformatory nor deterrent, but simply vindicatory; in

other words, that it primarily aims, not at the good of the offender, nor at the welfare of society, but at the vindication of law. We have also seen (pages 269, 291) that justice is not a form of benevolence, but is the expression and manifestation of God's holiness. Punishment, therefore, as the inevitable and constant reaction of that holiness against its moral opposite, cannot come to an end until guilt and sin come to an end.

The fundamental error of Universalism is its denial that penalty is vindicatory, and that justice is distinct from benevolence. See article on Universalism, in Johnson's Cyclopædia: "The punishment of the wicked, however severe or terrible it may be, is but a means to a beneficent end; not revengeful, but remedial; not for its own sake, but for the good of those who suffer its infliction." With this agrees Rev. H. W. Beecher: "I believe that punishment exists, both here and hereafter; but it will not continue after it ceases to do good. With a God who could give pain for pain's sake, this world would go out like a candle." But we reply that the doctrine of eternal punishment is not a doctrine of "pain for pain's sake," but of pain for holiness' sake. Punishment could have no beneficial effect upon the universe, or even upon the offender, unless it were just and right in itself. And if just and right in itself, then the reason for its continuance lies, not in any benefit to the universe, or to the sufferer, to accrue therefrom.

F. L. Patton, in Brit. and For. Ev. Rev., Jan. 1878: 126-139, on the Philosophy of Punishment-"If the Universalist's position were true, we should expect to find some manifestations of love and pity and sympathy in the infliction of the dreadful punishments of the future. We look in vain for this, however. We read of God's anger, of his judgments, of his fury, of his taking vengeance; but we get no hint, in any passage which describes the sufferings of the next world, that they are designed to work the redemption and recovery of the soul. If the punishments of the wicked were chastisements, we should expect to see some bright outlook in the Bible-picture of the place of doom. A gleam of light, one might suppose, might make its way from the celestial city to this dark abode. The sufferers would catch some sweet refrain of heavenly music which would be a promise and prophecy of a far-off but coming glory. But there is a finality about the Scripture statements as to the condition of the lost, which is simply terrible." The reason for punishment lies not in the benevolence, but in the holiness, of God. That holiness reveals itself in the moral constitution of the universe. It makes itself felt in conscience-imperfectly here, fully hereafter. The wrong merits punishment. The right binds, not because it is the expedient, but because it is the very nature of God." But the great ethical significance of this word right will not be known," (we quote again from Dr. Patton,) “its imperative claims, its sovereign behests, its holy and imperious sway over the moral creation will not be understood, until we witness, during the lapse of the judgment hours, the terrible rétribution which measures the illdesert of wrong." When Dr. Johnson seemed overfearful as to his future, Boswell said to him: Think of the mercy of your Savior." "Sir," replied Johnson, "my Savior has said that he will place some on his right hand, and some on his left."

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A Universalist during our Civil War announced his conversion to Calvinism, upon the ground that hell was a military necessity. "In Rom. 12:19, vengeance,' èkdixnois, means primarily 'vindication.' God will show to the sinner and to the universe that the apparent prosperity of evil was a delusion and a snare" (Crane, Religion of To-morrow, 319 note). That strange book, Letters from Hell, shows how memory may increase our knowledge of past evil deeds, but may lose the knowledge of God's promises. Since we retain most perfectly that which has been the subject of most constant thought, retribution may come to us through the operation of the laws of our own nature.

Jackson, James Martineau, 193-195-" Plato holds that the wise transgressor will seek, not shun, his punishment. James Martineau painted a fearful picture of the possible lashing of conscience. He regarded suffering for sin, though dreadful, yet as altogether desirable, not to be asked reprieve from, but to be prayed for: 'Smite, Lord; for thy mercy's sake, spare not!' The soul denied such suffering is not favored, but defrauded. It learns the truth of its condition, and the truth and the right of the universe are vindicated." The Connecticut preacher said: "My friends, some believe that all will be saved; but we hope for better things. Chaff and wheat are not to be together always. One goes to the garner, and the other to the furnace."

Shedd, Dogm. Theology, 2: 755-“Luxurious ages and luxurious men recalcitrate at hell, and ‘kick against the goad' (Acts 26:14). No theological doctrine is more important than eternal retribution to those modern nations which, like England, Germany and the United States, are growing rapidly in riches, luxury and earthly power. Without it, they will infallibly go down in that vortex of sensuality and wickedness that swallowed up Babylon and Rome. The bestial and shameless vice of the dissolute rich that has recently been uncovered in the commercial metropolis of the world is a powerful argument for the necessity and reality of the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone (Rev. 21:8)." The conviction that after death there must be punishment for sin has greatly modified the older Universalism. There is little modern talk of all men, righteous and wicked alike, entering heaven the moment this life is ended. A purgatorial state must intervene. E. G. Robinson: "Universalism results from an exaggerated idea of the atonement, There is no genuine Universalism in our day. Restorationism has taken its place."

(b) But guilt, or ill-desert, is endless. However long the sinner may be punished, he never ceases to be ill-deserving. Justice, therefore, which gives to all according to their deserts, cannot cease to punish. Since the reason for punishment is endless, the punishment itself must be endless. Even past sins involve an endless guilt, to which endless punishment is simply the inevitable correlate.

For full statement of this argument that guilt, as never coming to an end, demands endless punishment, see Shedd, Doctrine of Endless Punishment, 118-163-"Suffering that is penal can never come to an end, because guilt is the reason for its infliction, and guilt once incurred, never ceases to be..... One sin makes guilt, and guilt makes hell." Man does not punish endlessly, because he does not take account of God. "Human punishment is only approximate and imperfect, not absolute and perfect like the divine. It is not adjusted exactly and precisely to the whole guilt of the offence, but is more or less modified, first, by not considering its relation to God's honor and majesty; secondly, by human ignorance of inward motives; and thirdly, by social expediency." But "hell is not a penitentiary..... The Lamb of God is also Lion of the tribe of Judah.. . . . . The human penalty that approaches nearest to the divine is capital punishment. This punishment has a kind of endlessness. Death is a finality. It forever separates the murderer from earthly society, even as future punishment separates forever from the society of God and heaven." See Martineau, Types, 2: 65-69.

The lapse of time does not convert guilt into innocence. The verdict "Guilty for ten days" was Hibernian. Guilt is indivisible and untransferable. The whole of it rests upon the criminal at every moment. Richelieu : " All places are temples, and all seasons summer, for justice." George Eliot : "Conscience is harder than our enemies, knows more, accuses with more nicety." Shedd: "Sin is the only perpetual motion that has ever been discovered. A slip in youth, committed in a moment, entails lifelong suffering. The punishment nature inflicts is infinitely longer than the time consumed in the violation of law, yet the punishment is the legitimate outgrowth of the offence."

(c) Not only eternal guilt, but eternal sin, demands eternal punishment. So long as moral creatures are opposed to God, they deserve punishment. Since we cannot measure the power of the depraved will to resist God, we cannot deny the possibility of endless sinning. Sin tends evermore to reproduce itself. The Scriptures speak of an "eternal sin " (Mark 3:29). But it is just in God to visit endless sinning with endless punishment. Sin, moreover, is not only an act, but also a condition or state, of the soul; this state is impure and abnormal, involves misery; this misery, as appointed by God to vindicate law and holiness, is punishment; this punishment is the necessary manifestation of God's justice. Not the punishing, but the not-punishing, would impugn his justice; for if it is just to punish sin at all, it is just to punish it as long as it exists.

Mark 3:29" whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"; Rev. 22:11 "He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still; and he that is filthy, let him be made fithy vill." Calvin: "God has the best reason for punishing everlasting sin everlastingly."

President Dwight: "Every sinner is condemned for his first sin, and for every sin that follows, though they continue forever." What Martineau (Study, 2:106 ) says of this life, we may apply to the next: "Sin being there, it would be simply monstrous that there should be no suffering."

But we must remember that men are finally condemned, not merely for sins, but for sin; they are punished, not simply for acts of disobodience, but for evil character. The judgment is essentially a remanding of men to their "own place" (Acts 1: 25). The soul that is permanently unlike God cannot dwell with God. The consciences of the wicked will justify their doom, and they will themselves prefer hell to heaven. He who does not love God is at war with himself, as well as with God, and cannot be at peace. Even though there were no positive inflictions from God's hand, the impure soul that has banished itself from the presence of God and from the society of the holy has in its own evil conscience a source of torment.

And conscience gives us a pledge of the eternity of this suffering. Remorse has no tendency to exhaust itself. The memory of an evil deed grows not less but more keen with time, and self-reproach grows not less but more bitter. Ever renewed affirmation of its evil decision presents to the soul forever new occasion for conviction and shame. F. W. Robertson speaks of “the infinite maddening of remorse." And Dr. Shedd, in the book above quoted, remarks: "Though the will to resist sin may die out of a man, the conscience to condemn it never can. This remains eternally. And when the process is complete; when the responsible creature, in the abuse of free agency, has perfected his ruin; when his will to good is all gone; there remain these two in his immortal spirit - sin and conscience, 'brimstone and fire' (Rev. 21:8)."

E. G. Robinson: "The fundamental argument for eternal punishment is the reproductive power of evil. In the divine law penalty enforces itself. Rom. 6:19-'ye presented your members as servants. . . . to iniquity unto iniquity. Wherever sin occurs, penalty is inevitable. No man of sense would now hold to eternal punishment as an objective judicial infliction, and the sooner we give this up the better. It can be defended only on the ground of the reactionary power of elective preference, the reduplicating power of moral evil. We have no right to say that there are no other consequences of sin but natural ones; but, were this so, every word of threatening in Scripture would still stand. We shall never be as complete as if we never had sinned. We shall bear the scars of our sins forever. The eternal law of wrong-doing is that the wrong-doer is cursed thereby, and harpies and furies follow him into eternity. God does not need to send a policeman after the sinner; the sinner carries the policeman inside. God does not need to set up a whipping post to punish the sinner; the sinner finds a whipping post wherever he goes, and his own conscience applies the lash."

(d) The actual facts of human life and the tendencies of modern science show that this principle of retributive justice is inwrought into the elements and forces of the physical and moral universe. On the one hand, habit begets fixity of character, and in the spiritual world sinful acts, often repeated, produce a permanent state of sin, which the soul, unaided, cannot change. On the other hand, organism and environment are correlated to each other; and in the spiritual world, the selfish and impure find surroundings corresponding to their nature, while the surroundings react upon them and confirm their evil character. These principles, if they act in the next life as they do in this, will ensure increasing and unending punishment.

Gal. 6:7,8-"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption "; Rev. 21 : 11-"He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still: and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still." Dr. Heman Lincoln, in an article on Future Retribution (Examiner, April 2, 1885)-speaks of two great laws of nature which confirm the Scripture doctrine of retribution. The first is that "the tendency of habit is towards a permanent state. The occasional drinker becomes a confirmed drunkard. One who indulges in oaths passes into a reckless blasphemer. The gambler who has wasted a fortune, and ruined his family, is a slave to the card-table. The Scripture doctrine of retribution is only an extension of this well-known law to the future life."